What a lunch

Today we had our Christmas party at work and lots of good food makes one a glutton. I ate until I could eat no more. Everybody at work was surprised at the stuff I was eating and how I was eating since I'm always holding back on the cakes and stuff that people bring to work. I went back for more 4 times including pastries and fruit plus a peanut butter pie that was to die for. And the worst part of it, I don't feel guilty at all, I needed a day like this. I probably had more sushi today that I've had in all my life, and it was goooood.

And here's proof I had healthy food too here's a couple more pics.This might be my last post for a couple of days, we take off tomorrow at 6:30am after our house sitter drops us off at the airport. I'm going to try to figure out how to post from my phone. Check in later to see how Zen liked his first airplane ride. I wonder what he's doing now...

Early Christmas gathering

Since we (as in wife and me) are going to PR on Thursday we decided to have our gift exchange early this year. we went to a Christmas musical play at Grace church that was great, very well done to honor the KING, Jesus.
Anyway, we came back to the house for coffee and cheese cake which by the way I had none of it, I'm down one pound and I'm not gaining it back, (well, after tonight I probably gained it back, had a couple of Honey Browns and 39 cent wings at Cleats did me in) and tomorrow is the office Christmas party with lots of good food. I bought two sushi platters and I'll probably eat half of one. I'll be getting up early tomorrow to run and by early I mean early, 4:15am.

The Zen man got into the act too. He drank a whole bottle of Sprite and got up twice as many times as I got up to pee. Stuffed his face with cheesecake too, the little pig. He's going with us to PR so I'm sure he's going to have some stories to tell you.

I'll let you know tomorrow how the office party went.

Findley, again

With the temps in the teens for a few days we decided to go and give Findley a try and see if the ground was hard enough to ride. A trace of snow on the ground and a few muddy spots was all we found, the trail was perfect and a 100% rideable. Wow, is December and we are still riding off road up here in the Cleveland area. Of course the ride is not complete if I don't fall. Coming around a corner the sun was in my eyes and didn't see a small tree, hit it with my handlebar and went down, it's just part of my ritual as a mountain biker.
put in almost 3 laps with Ken, Ray and Chuck all of us riding single speeds.

I wonder what Zen is doing now...









The bike did get mud on it and it turned into cement because the temps were in the low 30's. On the way home dropped some stuff at Kevins house and took 71 back home. As soon as I hit the exit I could see the line of cars going to the mall. It took me 15 minutes to drive 1/4 of a mile. Then I started thinking, the bike is muddy, my water hose is probably frozen since I left it outside the car needs a wash from all the salt hmmm...
took a quick right at the Lazer car wash and both bike and car were nicely washed and waxed,all I need is to oil the chain and a little more cleanup in a couple of spots the water didn't wash off the mud.
Below is a short vid of the ride.

PUSHING THE LIMIT

Click on the link and take a look at Man Pushing the Limits.

http://www.gamaniak.com/video/3625




 

Have you ever...

Have you ever set the alarm to get up at a certain time and re-set it midway into the night?
I've done this a few times in the last few weeks, too many times if you ask me. I set the alarm for 4:15am last night thinking I was going to hit the gym in the morning but I stayed up to watch the Browns beat up on that team east of here and didn't go to bed until close to midnight. I got up for my usual trip to tthe bathrom around 2am and convinced myself to get another hour and a half of sleep so I reset the alarm again I thought for 5:30am. Wrong again, it went off at 4:30am and I didn't even bother to check the time. Took a shower got dress  made coffee, had my usual Brueggers bagel with pbj and sat on the table to read the PD. Then again took my usual trip to the throne and while still reading the PD glanced at the clock on the wall (I don't know why but the other half has a clock in every room of the house) and it was 5:15am I reset the darn alarm to 4:30am. So, I made more coffee and sat back on the breakfast table to finish the PD.
As I sit here and type this I can feel I'm going to need lots of coffee today, I'm on my 4th cup and wired. And I can already hear over the cuby hole the abuse the Pitt fans are taking here at work. Got to go get another cup.
Later

It has started

The weather has really started to take a nose dive and making many of us to start hitting the trainers regularly.
The wind has been howling today and it's going to stay that way for the next few days. Wind gusts of up to 55 mph. I'm glad the willow I had in the back came down a year ago during another wind storm and blew it away from the house. With the way the wind is blowing today it probably would have hit the house.

Anyway, I hit the trainer tonight for an hour and did some core work and upper body weights. Tomorrow morning is the spin class and leg weights. Packed up the bike and took it to work to ship via FEDEX or UPS from work and it turns out I'll spend less money taking it with me in the airplane than shipping it to my parents. FEDEX and UPS wanted $187.00 and that's with the company discount, one way. The airline charges $100.00 one way. $200.00 round trip but I think it's worth it. I'll ride almost everyday and try to put in at least 250-300 miles in 9-10 days mostly off road and wearing short sleeves and shorts, yeah, it's worth it and I'll think of all of you here freezing your buns and toes while I sweat.

All packed and nowhere to go. I wonder what Zen is doing now...

Had a good day at work today and even had time to take a picture of all my friends.. my little friends that is.

Wanted to show the extraordinaire suspension on my little bike but the picture came out just a little blurry.

Nice weekend

The temps were in the 30's but overall it was a good weekend. Yesterday did my two spinning classes and the first one was a killer. I call it the L.A hill climb. All we do is climb for 30 minutes with lots of resistance and speed changes, which I call "pick ups" almost like hitting switchbacks on your road bike. I split it in 30secs, 1,2,3  minutes sitting and standing for that amount of time.
Today I went out around 1:45 and put in 3:05 and 45 miles on the mtb going down to the boat docks in Rocky River and back. Nice ride just one short steep hill everything else is flat with a little grade once in while. Coming back I was dying the last two miles, I had the wind in my face  all the way back. All I wanted to do was spin around 80-100 rpms and that's all I did. Didn't care how fast I was going as long as my legs were moving fast.

Did manage to do some more clean up and started to give the tools a place were I can find them without having to search all over the place. It's looking a lot better. After todays ride I had lots of food rested a bit and went back down to start boxing the bike to FEDEX it to PR on Tuesday. Put new tires on new stans and new stems and valves, I'm getting to be an expert with tubeless tires, gets easier every time.
Then I caught Mr. Zen using up my minutes, searching google for Barbie.

Week in review

Haven't had time or haven't made time to write anything, take your pick.
Have had a decent week in terms of training...done something everyday if you can call that training. I decided that the official training season will start in PR when we go down to visit my parents. Yeah yeah, I said that training was going to start in November, well it did, it just didn't officially start as organized with a purposse I want to do this kind of training. For November, I did hit the dirt quite a few times do to the nice weather and that's a plus since I hate muddy trails and getting mud all over. The summer of 198? (can't remember) still haunts me. That summer I raced almost every weekend going to WV, PA whatever races we had here in OH and all over and they all were wet and muddy. Many rear derraileurs and many other parts left me broke and with countless "discussions" with the wife on why I needed this or that. Didn't spend that much time with the kids either since I was always racing or fixing the *^%(^ bike which I regret...all of you racers out there that have little ones, spend all the time with them that you can now because they grow too fast and you are going to be left wondering " where did time go". Enough of Doctor Phil and Oprah time, back to bike realted training. Anyway, since that time I've had a couple of part time jobs where I make enough money to buy almost everything I need. I was a soccer ref and I still do a lot of spinning classes during the cold months thanks to the Rec Ctr where I live.
I started running again and have been running 2-3 times a week on the treadmill for 25 minutes each time and will be increasing to 30 minutes soon. I'm taking it real easy I don't want to get hurt again. Last year i was running hard, my times were starting to come down and hurt my back. Before I was a cyclist I was  runner and once ran a mile in 5:35. May not sound that fast these days but when you are a distance runner it makes you feel good. I once ran a 10k in under 39 minutes, but doing ruing races it's not for me anymore, I just run because I like and it gives me something else to do besides doing the trainer for an hour or longer every night,
it gets old, really old after a while.Anyway, back to vacation talk, I'm planning on putting in at least 200-300 miles during the two weeks we are going to be in PR. That's a good mid-winter goal, I think. I'm just going to try to do a few long distance rides to start building the endurance toward the first race next year (Cohutta)
plus a nice long weekend at the end of March in Asheville, NC. Hopefully we'll have a decent winter where I can do long rides on Saturday and Sunday starting in January without having to wear 20lbs of winter clothing and still freezing your *&#@ toes and fingers. I don't know if any of this crap makes sense, I just write what comes to my mind which isn't much these days. Anyways, My dad is 91 years old and that makes me wonder if I'll live that long and if there'll be a 90+ plus division at the NEO series, Kevin, I think you should start thinking about the 3 wheel division now. Talk about the NEO series click here and see what the gang has been doing at the Vultures Knob roost. The place is going to be awesome to race at with all the stuff they are doing there.
This just in, my cuby hole finally looks like a cuby hole, the boxes are gone. I don't know what I'm going to do with all the space I have now.

Enough rambling, blabering, nonsense whatever you want to call it, I've taken to much time from work writing this nonsense. I'll be working through brakes and lunch to make up for it. i'll come back for more nonsense later. And I don't have time to edit all my mistakes, so live with it until I have time to look them over.
Later.

Don't get sick with the flu...be prepared