Tuesday December 21st
So
Bill wants me to encode
strange messages, but I’m not going to get to it today because I’m
busy as hell again. I think every day from now until
next Wednesday is going to be frantic. So
Ovaltine jokes will be left to Bill, who did indeed
take you all to the wood shed by at least 12 hours on that one.
I had every intention of
watching the eclipse last night, but I was going to do it
organically, which basically means I would
tell myself that I wanted to wake up around 3:00 to pee, and check it out. It’s not a stretch, since I
wake up several times every night to pee. Well
lo and behold last night I closed my eyes and only woke up just after 5:00 am. Oh well, I guess I can wait
another 450 years for the next winter solstice full lunar eclipse.
My FIL proved
much more competent than my BIL thus far. Aside from finding a 56 road bike, he has found a race team’s group ride that gets together
every Sunday at 1:30 pm. The team leader
speaks English as he studied in Australia. It’s an 80k “race” that they do every week, which may really just be a group ride.
My hunch is that I will show up and either
obliterate them or be
completely obliterated myself. Either way
it’s something.
The thermometer
said 37 today but when I got out there it felt like about 10. The
wind was brutal and piercing. I headed
to the shop to drop off some pulleys and old 105 brake sets. I also took a look at
Pearl’s cross bike which I need to pick up soon. I took a look at
Can O’ Beans and I have to say, Jim is making it
pretty reliable. After coming down the hill to the shop on the cross bike, I
grabbed the brakes on that and was
pleasantly surprised about how solid they felt.
After that I
embarked on my first actual “training” ride of the 2011 season. Yeah,
it’s that time already. I’m going to wind out this week with
mountain bike rides and
Christmas ham but the next 3 days
should find me
on dirt, all Allamuchy dirt to be precise.
Tomorrow is a strict SSP ride with MattyB, Kirt, and young Rob. I think old Rob expressed interest but I have no idea
where he stands.
So anyway, today was 75 minutes in tempo, and I did it using
RPE and HR, which wasn’t so bad or anything. Looking at some of the old files, I may have been
running a little hot on that set, which would explain why I was a
little tired at the end. Ah, the pitfalls of training
without power. The
ride link is here. Nothing really
of note.
Oh, to answer
Bill’s question I just type the BB code needed for bold, italics, urls, and images as I go. I find it
easier that way.
On
Matty’s comment about finding a bike there.
I’m sure I can but you have to understand when a
whitey shows up in any shop their eyes roll back with
dollar signs. Everything would cost me more, and I don’t want to spend anything as it is. The Trek will probably cost $150 or so to get there. It’s
much cheaper that way.
Back to Bill, I would suggest turning the GPS on, holding the lap button to start a new ride, then turning it off and trying again. If you
turn it off without stopping it sometimes that happens. Or maybe
you just suck.
Jim
sent me a picture of Can O’ Beans, which is now ready for action. He took it out around the block and didn’t die, so I think
I’m all set. I want to try and ride it a bit before I go just to make sure
nothing obvious doesn’t work. But in all, it appears to be
good enough for the task at hand. I have to admit that now I’m
flip-flopping on bringing power at all. Not real thrilled about bringing the
blingy wheel when it holds water and it always rains over there.
Ilya says my OCD will consume me if I leave it here. He may be right, but in a country of
Buddhism maybe I should try to do some serious
bike meditation while I’m there.
Registered for my 3rd race of 2011 today, Battenkill. I’m in on the 2
Darkhorse events plus this. Add in
The Freedom Tour and those will be 4 of my bigger targets of 2011. We have myself, Freddie, Ilya, and Bill in the cat 4 class, as well as JimV and Eric O. Fred says the promoters will group the 4 of us together. Jim and Eric will need to
email them if they get put in another group want in on
our nonsense.
That was
going to be all but I now see there are no pictures. So I give you this
from the start of last year's Battenkill race:
:getsome: 
