Where

has December gone. It seems it was a couple of days ago we were setting up the village and hanging lights outside. Every year we say the same thing.
Christmas weekend was excellent with Christmas eve dinner at our house. We didn't have the typical puertorican dinner, we opted instead to have a mix of foods that resemble nothing of a PR Christmas dinner. Ham, brocoli and cheese casserole, baked potatoes...and everything was excellent. We had 3 different Christmas ales on hand, wine and I made "store bought" eggnog and mixed cocunt rum in it and tasted...I'm not going there. All in all a great night with tthe family.

Did a lot of riding and put in 9 hrs of riding outside with the nice weather we had with the big one a 4hr 13 minute ride on Monday. Winter seems to be getting ready to hammer us with our first measurable snow of the year yesterday. The drive home wasn't fun yesterday, but made it in one pc.
Here's a few pics from my rides this weekend.

Checked it twice...

Making a list and checking it twice, trice...
Races will be added, substracted, missed, forgotten...

With the "good" riding temps and weather we are having I've been able to ride outside a lot more than last year when it seemed we had snow on the ground from November to March.
My first big training block in preparation for TSE is 7 days of riding in Florida in February including the Croom ride, after that is a 4 day weekend in Ashevile in early March.
I'm still debating what races to do before TSE but here's and early list:
The Lowell 50 gravel road 
The Cohutta Big frog 65
Stoney Creek 6hrs
Maybe Race at the lakes and the Covered bridge series.
After TSE I don't know how many more races  I'll enter. Money is going to be tight with all the expenses involving TSE but I'm sure I'll do a few more to take advantage of my form and training after. Many spin classes to do.
Hope you are having a great Christmas with your new toys.

Small gestures

This Christmas season fight the urge to be rude, to be the first at the gas pump or the cashier line, to yell at somebody who cut you off, to yell at your kids or family, to run the red light almost causing an accident, to text and drive, to use the phone while driving for that matter, don't speed up so the car next to you can't get in front of you. A small gesture doesn't matter how small will make somebody do the same, open a door for somebody, let somebody in on the road from the gas station, have fun with the family, turn the cell phone off for a while and forget about facebook, be happy, smile more, IT IS the Season.
Why I'm writing this, why not? We are always in a hurry thinking only about what we want and don't give a darn about anybody or anything else. Take a deep breath and do it, it doesn't cost you anything and you'll feel better.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

I had to post this

Don't let this happen to you

The "HO" goes to a wedding.

Aussies do like their muscle cars.

Pic provided my my friend Darren in the "Land Down Under"

Beautiful car.

Is it a pattern

I just realized that over the last few weeks most of my posts have been on Mondays. It is a pattern that I aim to break. I don't want to dissapoint all my readers...all 1 of them.
It was a good weekend for riding, decent temps a nd not too wet. Took the "Ho" out on his first ever reide with falling snow and he was like a little kid, "Oh look, snow on my tires". Where have you've been all your life? He had one of those rides where his legs didn't want to go  anywhere for the entire ride. After I left him by his car about to collapse I put in another hour and fiished with 3.5 for the day. Sunday it was some of the same but a shorter 1.5hr ride. All 5 hrs on the 29er single speed which is all I ride all winter long. Easy to clean after a ride and no gears to mess with.
spent almost 4 hrs on Friday chaging tires and I'm not done, I'm yet to put the roller tires on my road bike. Installed 2 Schwalbes Rocket Rons on the Jamis getting it ready for the Florida trip in February and 2 Kenda Karmas 1.95's on the SS for better rolling resistance.

I can't wait to hit the road and head to FL. and ride offroad in preparation for TSE. Croom, Santos, Alafia, Boyete and more are the trails we are going to hit during our stay there. Saturday Feb 4th we are doing the Croom Ride  which is only 3 miles from where we are staying. Hopefully we'll have good weather on our drive down. For now, we are happy with the weather we are having which is good enough to ride without getting frostbite in your...

Company/department party

lots of good food.
last night the wife and I baked a couple of Flans for my company or department Christmas party. The receipe we followed had a typo and we double on the ingredients when we didn't hsve to. The wife did say that it looked like we had too much. After an hr in the oven we are exited to see how is going to look...and taste; I stuck the knife in it and it had not harden at all. She's starting to get frantic, is 9pm, she calls every latin bakery in town and a restaurant, nobody answers and the restaurant doesn't have one to sell. Last recourse, I'll buy a pumkin and apple pies at the 24hr supermarket in the morning. I go out and buy some of the ingredients again and we start from scratch again. It was 1am when I went to bed and she went to bed a lot later and got up at 5:30am to flip the darn things.

I'm glad to say both flans turned out really good. They were half gone before I was able to take a pic,

Saddle sores are painful

And that's all I have to say about that.

GB answers and more

First one: False. Christopher Columbus took the name from his own patron saint, and it was later shortened from St. Christopher to St. Kitts
Two: C. Lawrence Rockefeller who first visited in 1952, bought up much of the island, created a resort on part of it, and donated the rest as a U.S.national park.

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Back on the rollers last night and didn't ride off them like I did on Monday.
Watching more of the Iceman videos.
the workout went like this:
10min warm-up on the 23
starting on the 23 and then shifting up every 3 minutes for 24
2 min fast steady tempo
1 minute slow (er) but steady
that was 24 mins.
Then started the same but shifting down every min. for 16 mins
1 minute fast steady tempo
1 minute slow(er) but steady
10 minute cool down
1 good hr on the rollers with no accidents.

Global Intelligence

Before I post Global intelligence I'll tell you what happened on Monday night during my workout.
A lot of us ride bikes a lot of us have crashed on the road and off road. How about crashing while riding the rollers. I was watching streaming videos of this years Iceman race in Michigan where my team mate Ross is one of the main characters and rolled right off the rollers. Its a series of 4 25 minute videos great for doing intervals. Well as I was ramping up the speed on one of my 1 minute intervals the rider with the helmet mounted cam and Ross where on a turn and guess what, I turned with them, rolled right off the rollers and landed on the rollers. I just laid there and laughed, what else could I do. Hopefully I'll remember not to turn tonight.

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Q: True or False?
St Kitts, a cloud-crowned volcanic island in the Lesser Antilles, is named for Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess who married Engalnd's Henry VIII


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Q: St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, is associated with what well-known American family?
a) The Bushes  b) The Kennedys  c)The Rockefellers  d) The Roosevelts

Saturday Trail Day

Saturday was a trail work day at the new trail in the Mill Stream reservation at "H" hill which is not going to be called that anymore once the trail is open.
Rode the long way from home (8miles, normally 4) with 25lbs strapped to my back with work clothes boots etc. and rode back the same way to put in a few miles on the bike.
It was around 32-35 degrees when we started and high 40's when I went home after the lunch which was provided by the Metroparks.
About 50 people showed up and a lot got done. The trail is going to be about 8-9 miles long of smooth swoopy lines. The park wants the trail to be begginer friendly and that is fine with me, the park is opening up to MTB'ers and that's a step forward. The trail is going to be open to hikers which may bring some complaints but we need to get along and work together towards the building of more trails in the Metropark system. I went home and sat on a chair for a 1/2 hr before I could do anything, I was beat and I only worked for about 3hrs a lot of people stayed until 3:30. I forgot how hard trail work is, but I was happy I was able to make it. Another trail work day is scheduled for next Saturday and I'm planning on making it later in the morning after my spinning classes.
Is going to be cold on Saturday, 31 for the high, but looking forward to the ground getting hard and no snow so I can do some off road soon.