Wow! Winter is still here

I am growing tired of the white persistence in my front window view. I can tolerate many things- people, places, things, etc. I cannot, however, tolerate LONG winters. I have not run in 4 days and not swum in 3 days, all because I did not want to venture outside my doors because of the innclimate weather. Call me what you want (cussing aside), but I would have been enjoying a long bike and run had the snow and ice not seized the roads and left them barely drivable by car, let alone velocipede. I digress. I have been in a bit of a slump for the past few days. I am in the middle-zone between indoor training and the soon-to-be paradise of southern California. Some would be motivated by the fact that they will soon be riding and running, and swimming outside in short sleeved weather. I, on the other hand, find this troubling in the middle of January with at least 4 more months of cold, snowy, miserable days spent on the indoor trainer and treadmill. But I have an opportunity to transcend my training environment mediocrity and brush elbows with the worlds best. So I am taking it and will revel in it. When I get back I will try to imagine it never happened and I have been on the Computrainer and treadmill the whole time. Only I will have a nice tan.

Training has been going fair to mediocre lately. I have hit a little lull since my great ascension of Mt Evans last Sunday. I figured out that I am WAY ahead of where I need to be in January and burning out in June is not a goal of mine. So I have taken a half-step back from training and will go into S.D. well rested and ready for some long/easy miles in the mild California weather.

Today was somewhat special in that the Madison Bike Swap was going on at the Alliant Energy Center. I should have been smart and steered clear of this event like the bubonic plague, but alas I could not and went into it with an open mind and, unfortunately an open wallet. Damn! It was like a young child's first visit to Toys R Us. I saw it and wanted it. My first purchase was small- I found an awesome woven 'Silver' bar tape- that I just had to have. After that it was a mere formality. I bought everything that caught my attention; bars, cranks, brakes- I even talked my friend into a few purchases he did not really intend to make. Vicarious living! All in all I left with more than I intended on and felt guilty/smitten by the whole experience.

Training today was limited to a nice trainer ride and movie viewing- X2 The Last Stand and a little pyramid ride starting at a medium wattage and going up to AeT, then back down to Z1. I felt pretty good today despite having been on my feet all day and starting so late in the day. Tomorrow is a nice 90 min snowshoe and swim. More to come...

New Year is HERE

The first week of the new year is now past and with that the first Monday is come. All the New Year's resolutions are probably starting tomorrow- because why start mid-week, right? I have never been a big NY-resolutioner. If you are going to do something why not just do it because you should, not because walls all over the world are sporting new calendars. Enough said about that.

I saw a good movie over the weekend. 'The Wrestler' starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Its one of those movies that you would never choose to watch without some serious selling from someone who has seen it, but its good. The storyline is pretty obvious from the title, its about professional wrestling. Mickey Rourke on his way down from a promising career as a B-class pro wrestler and Marisa Tomei (who would have thought) is a stripper in a club that Rourke frequents. Check it out when you can.

After a few days of easy swimming my body was ready for some serious punishment in the form of the Mt Evans hill climb. This is no ordinary Colorado mountain. It is a 27 mile Goliath with an average gradient of about 6%. The last four miles is a series of relentless switchbacks at over 14,000 ft elevation where each time around you are begging and pleading with the mountain gods to make the pain stop and the end come. The goal was to establish my current AeT (aerobic threshold) to base my next block of training on. I felt really good and rested and was able to put down a really good effort for the two hour climb.

I just finalized some plans to go out to San Diego for a few weeks of training with a friend of mine Will Smith. He arranged a place to stay and we found some really reasonable tickets so the whole dilly is going to be dirt cheap. We also have the opportunity to do some of our riding with Floyd Landis who will be prepping for the Tour of California. Floyd is said to be flying right now so we will only be able to do his easy days with him but it will still be pretty cool to ride with a former Tour winner. Thats all the news for now.