Finally

It's been over a month, but I finally made it outside for a ride on Sunday. I attended a little get-together on Saturday night which caused me to get to bed late. That, in turn, caused me to get up late, which eliminated skate skiing for the day.

I couldn't handle the prospect of 3 hours on the trainer, so I busted out the cyclocross bike for a ride. I thought maybe the roads and paths would be clear enough for the road bike. They weren't, and I was glad I opted for the CX bike. The route I rode took me an hour longer than it normally would have due to all the hard pack ice. At times, it was sort of like mountain biking. Good times, but no pictures. I need to look into getting a new camera.



I picked up this jacket at EMS' online store for a total of $45. Pretty nice jacket for skiing, and if I were still running, it would be nice for that too. It's got an MP3 player pocket on the sleeve and a chest pocket where I put my Garmin and/or food. There are two downfalls to the jacket. It's made for skinny folk in the sleeves and shoulders but feels like it is made for less fit folk in the stomach area. It's also not windproof, but I didn't really notice that when I was skiing on Saturday. There were some decent gusts that day.

Here are the two motionbased.com files for the weekend.
Skate Ski
Ride

A Love/Hate Relationship

Actually it's more hate than love. Come to think of it, there is no love at all. All cyclists see it as a necessary evil. I guess I love to go fast when it is time, and if you want to do that, you gotta use one of these.

I spent 7 hours on mine last week, and have 3 on it so far this week. The heavy trainer season is just starting. It's time to suck it up and start working those squares into circles.

The one pictured above is a fancier looking model than mine. It's a Volare fluid trainer. This will be my 6th season deepening the rut in the resistance wheel. That's a bazillion hours. That rut is deep, but it still gives me the resistance I need.

Adult Sippy Cup

Picked up one of these today. I tend to spill water on myself with the Nalgene bottles. Especially when I'm driving. I thought I would give one of these a try. So far it's pretty cool. I've been drinking more water. Not sure if it's because it's something new or because of the straw effect. I wonder if my buck teeth will come back.