Training

I was going through my notes and since November 1st I have 113 hours either on the trainer or doing the spinning classes. Multiplied by a 15 mile average that's almost 1700 miles. That's a lot of indoor hours doing intervals, tempo rides and hills.
Tonight I rode for 1:58 and got caught in the rain. Parked at Ridge and the Parkway and rode past Bagley and back. Caught up with my friend Rick and rode together for a while. One thing for sure, I need a better or a more powerful light. The light I have is good but I need more light when I'm riding the bike path. It gets really dark out there when it's cloudy and raining. Tomorrow it'll be another 4:06 am day hitting the trainer and plyometrics. I've been going to the gym only twice a week trying to put in more hours on the trainer.
I'm going to have to go to the doctor again soon. My back just doesn't want to get better and I'm always in pain. Still, I'm happy that it doesn't hurt when I ride. Do I really want to find out what I have, of course. Do I want to go back to the doctor so they can send me to a specialist, not really. Because I know they'll probably tell me I need to slow down and that's a problem. My fitness it's better than last year at this time and I don't want to loose it. I still have a ways to go to where I want to be for my first mountain bike race and I don't want to stop now.
next month I'll be going down to Mid-Ohio race track for a bike race. This is a really neat race, you get to race around the race track without having to worry about anything. It was re-paved a couple of years ago and it's always a fast race. That's all for now, I'll post my race schedule as soon as I decide what I'm doing.

The bike was found

The police recovered Lance Time Trial bike on Thursday. No charges were filed against the person that brought it in. He did use it in Fridays time trial at the Tour of California and said it felt the same. He finished in the top 15 over a minute behind Levi. Team Astana has 4 riders in the top 10. Meanwhile Contador may have won Portugal's Volta ao Algarve with his Time Trial

victory in Portugal yesterday. I'll say he looks happy.

With one more stage coming tomorrow and over a minute lead against his closest rival, I think Levi has it in the bag. Although tomorrow's stage is not easy and hopefully no crashes he'll be on the podium for the third time.

I just love my coffee cup

Ready to battle the elements

I managed to use half of my broken fender.

Have you seen this bike?

4 bikes were stolen from the Astana team truck and one of them was Lance time trial bike.
One of a kind no chance to sell it or pawn it for drugs or money. Your best chance is to put it some where and call the cops to come pick it up.

Saturday ride

It was agreat day for a ride. A few snow flakes in the air 32 degrees and no wind. Was having a good ride until my front fender just snapped in two. I have no idea what happened. I felt something hit the trail under me but with all the strong wind we've been having lately there's a lot of small broken branches on the trail and I thought I hit one. That is until the water started hitting my face chest and legs. I turned around and there it was on the middle of the trail.
Pick it up and then it was time to really start paying attention to the trail. Why, because there's a lot of inconsiderate ignorants out there that walk their dogs and don't clean the dog crap off the trail. Please carry a bag and clean up after your dog. I don't blame the dog, he's just a reflection of his/her owner. On the way back I found Paul and Brenda coming the other way, stopped talk for a couple of minutes and they turned around and we rode together for a while. Brenda rode home and Paul rode with me to the parking lot. Paul kept going to Ridge road hill, said he was going to do some hill repeats. Paul doing hill repeats on Ridge road hill? Hmm whatever you say Paul, I believe you.

The path had snow on some parts today but it was mostly clean.

This short video will give an idea how the trail was today when we hit the snow patches.

I nice view of the Rocky river from the Berea lookout.

Why do I ride

I ride because I want to, because I like it, no I love it. You know what I ride because all of these reasons and because I feel like it. Riding a bike whether is with your friends or alone makes you feel like a kid again. I remember the times I rode my bike to the beach with no water no food and only a dollar and a few coins and you know what, I want those times back. No worries, cut offs, tennis shoes and no helmets. That dollar would get you a huge piece of bread with butter or mayo plus and orange Fanta. If you are old enough you remember drinking Fanta or a Dr. Pepper for that matter. By the way I'm not saying I'm old, "just old enough to remember". Just thinking about those times brings a smile to my face, try it sometime, "it does the brain good". When I ride by myself I like to think back in time about life and about the years gone past. A lot of times I catch myself asking "what if". We all have a lot of ifs in our lives but what we've done we've done because God has allowed us to do it whether is good or bad. We have that choice, I'm glad I made the choice to marry my high school sweetheart, she has been a post, a pillar, a cement block you name it and I love you for it. Hey is Valentines week, give me a break OK, I can get romantic from time to time I have a tear in my eye. How did we get here? We were talking about why I ride. Riding never gets old it's like the old saying "you never forget to ride a bike". Ride fast ride slow ride a spinning bike, just ride. Talk about spinning, if you spin and you are reading this don't forget to turn the knob will ya. Watching my classes I can tell who works hard and who doesn't. Believe it or not I've seen people after 45 minutes of spinning leave the class the same way they came in, dry not a drop of sweat. I'll leave it at that don't want to get yelled at and loose my cycling budget.
Anyway, when I ride I try to say hello to anybody on the road whether you are riding a Kmart blue light special bike or a $5,000 bike, sometimes we loose sight of why we are really there and act like snobs. ride slow, ride fast, train easy, train hard just don't forget to have FUN.

Signs of Spring?

The cows on the pasture, the smiley face and the great thaw, sure looks like an early spring. But according to the Great Groundhog, P. Phil, (I'm not even going to try to spell his name) we have another six weeks of winter. Last year January was mild and February was cold. Hopefully the weather will stay mild until April, but I doubt it.

Mission Acomplished

The plan today was for at least 3 hours, mission acomplished. As you can see I did better that 3 hours, 3:45 to be exact. The temps were perfect but it was very windy, I had to hold on tight to my handlebar a couple of times. Started at the top of rideg and the parkway heading down to the valley. Coming down Boston road I had to pedal to keep the momentum going. That tells you how hard it was blowing. As I was taking the first picture the batteries died. With no extra ones in hand I rode down to Peninsula to buy more and the only place that would have them had none. I was left with two choices, 3 miles uphill on 303 to route 8 or 5 miles down Riverview to a small convenience store. I took neither, I rode up Truxell road to Appalachian Outfitters and got my batteries. Came back down and the wind was on my face and I could only push 12-15 miles an hr. Once I hit Riverview and went north I was doing 20 hardly pedaling. Just so you know I was on my mountain bike, it was too wet to take my road bike out and ruin it with the road salt.
Tomorrow is at least another 2 hours hopefully the winds will have calm down.

Horse shoe pond where I like to go x country skiing.

Not much happening lately. Took a few days off to let the steroids do their thing but they didn't. The pain is still there. So, I'm back training full speed ahead. Went x country skiing yesterday at Horse Shoe Pond and ate snow again. Darn turns at a little speed are killing me. I actually went back up the trail twice to do it again until I did the turn. It wasn't pretty but got it done. Arms flailing all over the place trying to keep my balance. I sometimes wonder how I did it back in the 80's when I used to x ski all the time and I could turn. I lead with the body but forget the skis. Oh well, it maybe until next year. I noticed yesterday that it puts to much pressure on my back so I'm not sure I'll be getting back on them for the time being.
I realized today at work that I'm not going to be able to go to Cohutta for the 100km off road race since I'm going Las Vegas to the NAB show, which is one of the biggest broadcast shows in the world. The perks of speaking 3 languages and since I'm the only one at work that speaks spanish and portuguese (not very good but good enough) I'm going. I've gone 9 out of the last ten years and to tell you the truth I spend most of my free time streching and doing calistenics in my room. I've visited every hotel and seen everything you need to see (well almost everything) and since I don't gamble or drink too much I just stay in my room. Gives me a chance to catch up on my reading. Anyway I guess I'll sign up for the Mohican 100k in May here in Ohio. That'll give my back a little more time to get better.
Today I just stayed home instead of going to the gym and hit the trainer at 4:20 am for an hour in zones 2-3 and did my plyometrics and core work right after. Plus another hour tonight and streching which helps my back a lot.
Tomorrow is going to hit 40 so I'm riding outside for at least 3 hours and the same on Sunday. Hopefully the temps will hold in the mid to upper 30's or higher and I'll take my bike to work and just ride for a couple hours after work on Monday and Thursday. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Time to go, It's bed time and I'm getting up early to take the cars to the car wash, is the only time I'm not going to waste my time waiting for my turn.