the great arctic monsoon of 2006

What is with the weather lately? It has consistently been in the mid to high 40’s in the mornings and rainy/wet. It has rained everyday since Monday, and the ten day has rain forecasted every day except Wed. Temps are supposed to be rising, but slowly and still not up to ‘normal.’ Brian Wilkes on Fox 59 said "remember that mild Jan we had? This is the balancing out of mother nature." WELL, HURRY IT UP LADY!
I did get out for a short Friday jaunt yesterday, but in leg warmers, a jacket, gloves and shoe covers. I’m not too far off track for the week and that’s good, considering. I’m about 1 hour down at this point, and Sunday isn’t looking great, so we’ll see. I may end up a little short this week, whatever. This is always hard for me because I don’t know how/if everyone else is training. I always assume they are training per normal and if I don’t I will pay. Someone once told me that the real difference between Sport and Expert MTB is how much you train. IE: you can’t "call it" on crappy days, or if you do, you have to ride inside. I think that’s partially true, but at the top of Sport class, like the top, say, 3-7 guys, they train no matter what. Or I always did. So it’s nothing new to me, forcing yourself to train through bad weather even if it means riding inside in May.
I’m thinking of going to Monrovia for the 40k TT tomorrow w/ Ryan. I’ve never done a 40k and want to do a couple this year. For you non-cyclist, 40k is 24.8 miles. That means to go under 1hour you have to average 24.8 mph. BUT, there’s a 180* turn around on the course, at which point your speed will drop to around 3mph (or so) you have to make that up by going over 25mph. Basically, you have to go slightly over 25mph for 1 hour to break the hour. That’s tough for a 130lb chicken legged dude like me, but I want to try to break an hour eventually. For reference, I think Ryan Shan’s best time is a high 53min! That’s going something like 28mph for 1 hour alone, no draft! (I just guessed at that 28mph, you’ll have to do the math, which I’m no good at figuring).
Anywho, I’m thinking of going tomorrow. If the rain holds off I probably will. It will be hella cold, but whatever, times will be slow. I would like to get in a long ride Nashville, which has been eluding me for months now.
I also need to rebuild my rear training wheel, as I noticed several of the eyelets connecting to the drive side (which runs at a higher tension than the non drive) have tiny cracks on each side of them. I’ve had these wheels for probably 5 years, so no complaints. I have a rim on order from Sun, but haven’t gotten it yet. I don’t want it to blow up on my while 30 miles from home, but the cracks are tiny and at my weight/riding style I probably don’t have a serious problem for a couple months, but I want to get it fixed and not worry about it.