C 5 0

look what the mailman delivered. 50mm of carbon goodness. no tires for them yet, and they probably won't be ridden for nearly a month, but they are cool to look at. I sort of like the black rim, silver nipple, black spoke, silver hub (and silver skewer) look vs. the all black look, my bike is starting to get very very black/grey/silver, so this will hopefully keep it from going to stealth. no scale, but in hand weighing them with my r28's, id guess they weight close to the 1500g claimed weight. I can get them on a scale later on maybe. I don't know why, but to me it looks like they have more than 20/24 spokes (but they don't, i counted)

Also, check out the new r28aero3 (byron's, although if he doesnt pick them up in a week they could be yours). Front feels very light, but look cool w/ black hubs, black spokes, black nipples (except silver rear drive side) and black/silver skewer (not pictured). the aero spokes are pretty sweet as well. If it weren't for the low spoke count (16/20) I prbly would have gotten these for 'cross/crit wheels.

2 in 1 day

Thats right, 2 posts, 1 day.

Normally I wouldn't do that, but today is a special day. It broke 40 degrees for the first time since like, decemeber. Cause to go out for a ride and try to remember what proper "cold" gear to wear (in prep for this weekend, when temps are supposed to be 45ish). It didn't take 3 hours to dress, instead, bibs, jersey, arm/leg warmers, 1 ss craft windbloc shirt, booties, cold weather gloves, a headsweat, and I was set. I bunched up a ls jersey just in case, but never needed it. It was awesome riding in the heat.

Not even that, but the german (soren) came out for a ride, his first of 07. Normally, he is a giant $%&*# and doesn't ride in the cold, in fact, he hasn't even gotten on a trainer. Granted he nordic ski's for fun, and he is a total diesel (I think of him as our teams version of jens voigt, he just goes and goes). So the fact he rode with me was huge. We get off campus do the little down then up, He pulls through, I look at my computer, and were doing 26mph......his first ride of the year, his first pull. No biggie, as i'm supposed to do some power intervals today, and I figure he can't sustain it for the 1.5 hours we have on tap. We start riding, he keeps the pace up, im pulling through hard figuring maybe I'll tire him out a bit. We hit the townline sprint, and as per usual he wins (I actaully got a good jump on him, but mis-shifted and almost ate it). We hit the first big hill, I pull off halfway up, get onto his wheel, and he picks up the pace. I actually have to get out of the saddle to hold his wheel, and my legs are burning. Granted he says, hmm....haven't felt the leg burn since like, october.....At this point I am starting to question my winter training, seeing as he spent most of the winter on the couch drinking. About 45 minutes into the ride he cracks, and is pulling at like 17mph......Thankfully, but still, thats longer than a short early season crit.....kid is an animal, last season we both got held up at 2 to go in a crit by a wreck, and he pulled me back to the pack by taking a beastly pull the entire .75 mile lap, and then got me up front about halfway through the last lap, before saying, sry, I can't give you a leadout, I'm cooked......he's the sprinter mind you.

On the negative, I finally lost my cyclocomputer. It shot off over some rough road, I turned back to look for it, but it was gone. Had my stem mount been here, it wouldn't have happened. Then again, it only worked about 1/3 the time anways, so I bit the bullet and stopped at mathieu's on the way home to get a new one. 20 bucks wasted (well not really). At least I will have a spare mount when the stemmount comes so if I mess up another one like I did, it won't happen again, and I'll try to take better care of this one.

ToC

I resisted commentating on the tour of california as it went down, but now that its over I'd like to make a few statements.

1. Awesome so many big names and big teams showed up (even if they werent taking it seriously). Good to get some big level racing in the US. (Lets hope they bring a WC 'cross race this fall).

2. Levi won, on a wierd ruling. If they hadn't made the stage 2 ruling, would jens have won? I'm to lazy to look it up, but had Levi not been yellow all race, things would have been different.

3. Sucks to be hincapie, that guy has terrible luck. Let's hope his clothing company doesn't bring that luck, as colby and a bunch of other eccc teams are getting kits made by them (when are they showing up?)

4. Congrats to adam hansen, t-mob for an awesome 1st race w/ t-mob. 6th in the prologue, in a few breakaways including the big one yesterday. Awesomely nice guy (he is zakeen on WW), check out his website http://www.adamhansen.com/ Also shout outs to Anthony Colby and Alejandro Acton of Colavita, who I both met and sort of know from them being with Targetraining last year (actually I rode with both of them and nearly died, but thats another story). Alejandro was in a huge break one stage and wore the most agressive rider jersey the next day, you probably know him as the guy who rode 100 miles solo at tour de georgia last year.

week 4

Week four of training has come to a close. Biggest week to date (by far) with 10hours, 39 minutes and 6 seconds on the bike, coming to 170.06 miles, with a pretty low avg hr (141) for the week at a slightly higher avg. speed and over far windier and hillier terrain than I have ridden previously this year. Maybe im getting into a minimal level of fitness/shape? It'd be nice, seeing as at this point next week I should (hopefully) be writing up a summary of my first race weekend. I have put in 500.78 miles this month, and am 2 seconds shy of 32hours on the bike for the month. Not terrible for february. Oh yea, I'm in the weight room too. Made the first higher weight lower reps jump, where I am at for two weeks. Felt fine, oddly, hard, but the right level of hard.

I am still a tad sick, have developed a good cough like there is fluid in my chest, but it happens about twice a day. Sore throat/head cleared up and I feel fine otherwise. Got some cough drops and hopefully that will go away.

I finally cleaned my room (no picture, sorry). It is about 3X bigger, doesn't smell, and is even partially decorated. Maybe at some point I will get it to the bachelor pad I have always dreamed of, disco light, water bed, hot tub, palm trees, naked women fanning me while feeding me grapes....ok, maybe not.

It should be mentioned a certain someone (becky) gave me an awesome back massage last night (sat night) while we were watching back to the future I, II, and III (marathon on abs family channel) and I felt awesome today.

my stupid half

Today I pretty much ignored all the signs, so if I wake up dead tmrw, it won't come as a surprise. First off, I've been sick, and while I felt fine after getting a ton of sleep, I had an occasional cough. Then its 28 degrees outside, with 20mph of wind with gusts around 40. Then I ate a bagel and some tea for b-fast, lifted, decided to go for an easy 2 hr ride outside, brough a gel and a bottle of water figuring it would freeze before I finished it (it did) and headed out. 5 minutes in I got a flat over some glass and rode 2.3 miles on the rim, into a 20mph headwind to the shop since I didn't have a tube and didn't wanna walk. My training wheels are already pretty messed up, so I couldn't have hurt it anymore. Put in a boot (not about to throw away a tire that has 2 rides on it) and headed back out, after 5 or so guys in the shop were like, your crazy. Did 2hrs fine, ran into delia heading out on my way back and decided to turn around and ride with her. She was only doing an hour, had peanut m&m's, so I figured what the heck. At our turn around spot, the sun was already down, I was numb, tired and sore. We rode back, I froze, I ditched her 3 miles from campus and just tt'ed/hammered it back because I though I was going to get frostbite, and avg'd just over 22mph on those last 3 miles, going into a headwind. Talk about motivation to get up and ride. Total mileage of 50.43 in just over 3 hours. On a bagel, a cup of tea, 3/4 a bottle of water, a gel, and some m&m's. And im sick, and its cold, and there was 20mph of wind. Time to EAT, and SLEEP, and hope I'm alive tmrw.

well, i did it - update - erm?

edit - read the below stuff first (starting with I got myself sick). I fell asleep right after posting, slept for 3 hours, woke up and felt ok, after conferring with the health center and my "coach" I decided to get on the trainer for 30 min to try to sweat it out, ended up doing 1hr, 30min feeling pretty ok, nothing hard, ate a great wholesome dinner at foss (our healthy dining hall on campus) and now feel pretty ok. Going to get some sleep tonight, which means cancelling a first date I had (with a girl from my trip to Italy). Luckily, she said it was fine, and invited me over to watch a movie. So we will be sitting on opposite sides of a couch, her sipping some sort of adult beverage while I drink tea (although I would have been drinking water) and try not to get her sick. It's like we have already been dating for a few months.

I got myself sick. After spending most of last weekend and this past week sort of battling on again off again mild symtoms, I bit the bullet and got really sick. I had been trying to ride through (inside, easy rides) little things like headaches, runny nose, not feeling right, etc. Then today I woke up and realized I wasn't going to class and went to the health center, where they found out I don't have mono (yay) or strepp, or anything for that matter. My head is spinning like I just got punched, I can barely talk, my throat is raw, I have a death cough, the list goes on and on. I spent most of the day sleeping and hopefully will be better tmrw as I had a big weekend planned and am already missing my ride today. I wish I wasn't so tired, as sitting here in the health center getting tended to by gorgeous (read 65 year old not hot) nurses would be condusive to playing around on the interwebs, but all I do is sleep, check my emails, and fall back asleep. I wouldn't mind watching ToC or something but I can't seem to stay awake. This sucks. And I know what caused it was well, staying up till 2am when I was tired/semi sick trying to adjust the postitioning of the shift levers on my bars....I just couldn't get it, sort of weird. Ok, maybe that didnt get me sick but it didnt help.

I red the school paper today and normally I read three columns and skim others to see if there is some title that strikes me. I normally read beer review, since its funny, a column by a retired english professor that is usually a satire of something about college life and funny, and the opinions editor's column, since she is a good writer and brings up interesting things. Sometimes i'll read sports if there is an article on cycling or a friend of mine. Today (our paper is weekly, comes out on fridays) I found an article one person wrote that struck me. Basically, she was a self proclaimed "dirty hippy" who at the start of spring semester started dressing super preppy to see what would happen. She found ppl talked to her more, took her more seriously, stuff you would expect but wouldn't want to think would happen. It make me think about how I come off and whatnot. Time to go back to sleep

rubber and food

I traded my p2r service course limited edition (the light blue tires previously seen) to a teammate for a pair of ultremo's and 75 bucks. Not a bad deal considering I got the p2r's for free (won them as a preem in a crit, which was awesome). Seeing as schwalbe is sponsoring colby, its not as great a deal as it sounds, since I could have gotten the ultremo's for super cheap, but whatever. Basically I traded 1 slightly used pair of tires for 1 new one and enough money to buy another set of them, and then have enough left over for a race entry fee (or a twelve pack, depending on how you look at things).

This time next week i'll be gearing up for rutgers. Im sooo stoked, you have no idea. Big weekend and week of training to get there, and the race is going to be tough, since im nowhere near form, but it'll be fun to mix things up and get back into some races.

Clif bars also showed up. Seeing as I do all the sponsor stuff for the team here, it all gets shipped to me. Not a big deal, except I live pretty far from the package center. I had to stop and take a break carrying 2 boxes of bars and stuff back, who would guess they weigh like 20lbs each? On the bright side, I have tons of clif bars, clif shots, energy bloks, nectar bars, and recovery powder. And I have even more from people that haven't picked up their own orders yet, anyone want some?

i need to clean my room + week 3 + sundy ride

I think that pretty clearly shows I race bikes, live in a single, and need to clean up a bit. Odd, because normally I keep a pretty clean room (for a guy at least, my lady friends make fun of it).

Went for a really nice 3hr, 45 mile solo ride today. Light winds, 28F, it was nice to clear the head and get in some good base miles. Headed out to bigalow (again) and did some easy repeats and got lost in the hills around there, found my way back for literally a 3:01:31, 45.2 mile ride. No frozen waterbottles or body parts, just a good ride that reminded me why I do this and how much I love it. And I ate an entire 1/2 box of fig newtons during the ride (clif stuff supposedly comes in this week)

That ride and the gym this morning capped week 3. 134.02 miles in 8:35:15. It would have been 9-10 hours and more miles, but I was sick yesterday and did a really short easy ride, which worked out, as I feel way better today. I'm at 330 miles in 21:20 for the month, not bad by any means for a cold feb at this point. Next week is supposed to be somewhat warm, like 35-40 maybe, but with snow early in the week. I should easily get to 9-10 hours. Gym has been going well still, although the rep's start to drop and weight starts to pick up now. Maybe I'll finally get out to try nordic on my recovery day as well. (I have an off day and a non-bike recovery day at this point in the season, its awesome)

17.23

17.23lbs - 7.8kg. Not that light weight was my goal, but its cool to have a decently light bike. Seeing as I weight next to nothing (about 120), the only weight I can really afford to loose comes off the bike. With the new tubulars, maybe some light cages or something, I could probably get it under 17 just to say its under 17, but that isn't happening yet.

Thanks to Dave at mathieu's for spending all morning helping me build it (we ran into hiccups last night when I tried to build it, but it resolved itself w/out a bb face). For the small details, went with crossed cables (you run the housings into the far side of the bike, then cross the cables under the downtube and slide a donut down there), figure 8 style bar tape job. Set up was easy, the bike looks great right now, and I can't wait for the roads to get better so I can take it out. Will get it on the rollers later just to play around with the shifting some more.

strip tease

not quite. if you look really hard its sram rival + ultegra crank/bb, wipperman 10s0 chain

epic

well maybe. hard core, heck yea.

5am alarm, 515 start shovelling out the car (took 45 minutes). 6am depart w/ sarah (not 'cross sarah, different sarah) and find out roads are fine. 7am arrive kingfield woodsman for breakfast. 705,710,715,720 (roughly) other cars of colby kids arrive. 730 leave for sugarloaf. 745 arrive. 3 degrees F. Lots of wind. Find out lifts are going to be delayed due to wind. Dress, alot of clothing. 845am, first lift load goes. 9am.....Knee deep powder. Freezing cold, windy, but amazing. A good day on west coast terms, but "season salvaging" on east coast standards. Best snow in my two years of living in maine. picture one of adam (ski buddy) and some fresh tracks. Picture two of a car in the sugarloaf parking lot.

I was planning on going to the gym when we got back, but something to do with 3 hours of sleep made me decide to bump it back 1 day (I had the choice, so its fine). Fedex says "stuff" arrives tomorrow, we will see.

call in dead

seriously. It snowed 17 inches today at sugarloaf, with suppossedly 30+ inches falling by the time it stops around 6am tmrw. Call in sick, dead, whatever....this is the most snow we have got since I came to maine, so all of last winter and this winter so far.

The colby "elite" skiers, I guess you could call them, are all scrambling to go up tonight or early tmrw morning for some steep and deep. I have gotten calls from every half decent skier I know asking what my plans are. Even funnier is that nearly all of them (say about 25-30 kids) are in the library right now trying to get all there work down so they can peace out. We may be the only kids in the library.

My own plans are to work pretty much all night, head up around 530am, grab b-fast at the woodsman (small cheap awesome place that gives you alot of food, near the mtn) and get to the mtn around 8am.....

Its somewhat funny how much people are scrambling for this storm. Sure, its not the 10ft upstate ny got, but the post office on campus was closed, some classes (none of mine) cancelled, all sorts of lectures/events cancelled. This is maine, we should handle a snowstorm better than D.C.

Also, big props to my roommate from last year, silas, for hooking me up with a sweet colby nordic hat. (although it just says colby on it). I lost my favorite winter hat a few weeks ago, and Silas gave me the hookup. If you see a colby kid warming up on a trainer early spring or during late 'cross season, in a mostly grey hat w/ some blue lettering and some black on the bottom, and a SWEET pompom type thing on top, thats probably me. Or one of the nordy's coming to a bike race. Most likely me though. Thanks silas.

That means I need to go and write a paper and do a problem set, both due friday. So yea, I should do that.

week 2 wrap-up

My training week is sort of messed up in that my riding is on a monday start of the week, and my weight lifting is on a wednesday start of the week. It works fine, its just that my riding week is done, yet I have 1 more day in the gym for "week 1" of the lifting program. I have blog posts on 4 days in a row now, this may be a record for me.

Anyways. Week 2. 5 days riding, 1 full off day, and 1 day in the gym testing my max's for the weight program. 2 other days in the gym (with the third day of my "week" coming on tuesday). According to the training journal - 8 hours and 6 minutes and 56 seconds on the bike, for a total of 131.58 miles, avg. hr of 148.

1 real ride, yesterdays. 1 day on a trainer, 3 on rollers. 196.7 miles in 12:45:37 w/ avg. hr 152 for the month thusfar.

Weather is looking somewhat warm (high 20's, low 30's) but lots of wind next week, hopefully will be able to get out on the road, and hopefully more new parts will come (fedex says friday). Re: argentius's q on the comments, how do you go downhill in the cold? You man up, thats how. Actually, hands on the bars right near the stem, legs clamped on the top tube, face tucked down when possible, and just suffer it out. Think of it as a refreshing blast of cold air after getting all warm on the climb up the hill. It isn't as bad as during the fall when I did 3 repeats up a 1000 verticle foot, 3-4 mile climb. It would be fine on the bottom, but then I would get to the top, stop, get some water, etc, and get cold. I was shivering soo much on the way down, I couldn't really control the bike. It got to the point after the last time up, I hitched a ride down in a car because I got soooo cold (I was wearing ss top and bottom, no extra layers, and it was maybe 45 degrees on top).

define not smart

Perhaps - 2.5 hour ride in 14F temp (pre-windchill) w/ 10mph winds and light flurries? Going with Delia, for who it was her third ride of 07 (on a side note, she is going to be an animal on the bike this spring, new rider)? Going to do the biggest hills in a 50 mile radius? Having our waterbottles freeze after 34 minutes and 12 seconds and trying to eat a frozen, squished muffin about halfway through the ride? Trying out some snow biking and almost falling, not once, but like 9 or 10 times?

I wish I had taken a camera, because it was really cool riding into the flurries. We had planned on aiming for a bit more, but with no water, frozen feet/ears and foreheads despite 4 layers on top, 3 on bottom, 2 hats, booties, etc. it was still friggen cold out. After being in the gym and a long roller session tmrw, my legs are starting to feel it. I had some feelings of power however, easily cruising up the climbs and occasionally feeling like I could "go" a bit. Lets hope it just keeps on building and building.

Guess, what, we are gonna go do it again tmrw (well maybe hit the rollers, and then out again monday) We were 5 minutes late to foss brunch, but they let us in anyway. My waffle w/ stawberry's and whipped cream has never tasted better, and I tried my hardest to replace the 1200 calories my hrm told be I had burned (really, that much?) And the shower, it felt sooo good. That ride (given the temps, ice/snow on the road, etc) was labled hard-er core. Time to nap and do it again tmrw.

bling

Actually, I don't think any of this counts as bling. And the fact that only the post is new (had the stem/bar, but never mounted the bar, so maybe its still new) but the first new part showed up today. Will give the frame a good cleaning (again) this weekend, hope the rest of the stuff shows up next week so I can build it up next weekend. Still unsure which wheels I am going to go with, but I have some time on that.

Spec's
Ritchey wcs alu handlebar (classic bend) - 400mm width, 26mm clamp
Ritchey wcs alu stem - 110mm legnth, 26mm clamp
Ritchey wcs alu steapost - 27.2 diameter, 300mm legnth

I ordered a 250mm post, but the 300 is actually better. For a few measly grams, if I ever need the extra legnth i'll take it. The 250mm would have been close to the min. insertion spot anyway. Plus, the 300mm is more re-sellable since it could fit more bikes.

With the cockpit (as on my 'crosser) I went with cheap, light, and sturdy. I know you can't normally get all three in one part, but wcs (esp the alu, 26mm stuff) is pretty cheap and still easy to find, light (not super light, but light) and sturdy. Solid parts that are definately crash-able.

plans plans plans

It seems like all I did today was pile stuff into my "to-do" list, not that I have a list. Summer internships/jobs, possibily writing a column in the school newspaper, oh wait, biking? Set down in paper (well, electronic paper) a concrete plan for the next 7 weeks. 7 week's of lifting (3 days a week) including core workouts and plenty of leg stuff to build some power (and maybe some yoga) and 7 weeks of pretty much "normal" riding. 2 long rides per week, 3 short rides per week, some short "medium intensity" intervals and some big ring efforts and some climbing. A few town-line sprints and the odd group ride (well, faster ride since maine doesn't have so many groups), 1 day a week of "other" activity which will likely be nordic skiing (skate skiing) or swimming or maybe broomball (though I doubt that counts) and I should be good to go. In no way will I be in "peak" shape for march 3rd, but I should be coming into some speed around the time of the big climbing races during the last 3-4 weeks of the collegiate season, and then peak during some ucsf stuff during june, hopefully some road races or maybe fitchburg if i'm feeling strong. Also set up a weekly day off (my week starts/ends on wed) which is also the day I will call my "coach" and review and tweak things as neccessary. A benefit (I guess) of not really being in top form for the start of the season is that I will be focused on helping out some of the bigger stronger sprinters on the team in the flatter races that make up the early collegiate season, and hopefully they will repay the favor and work for me later on, at least thats the plan.

Lots of stuff is in the works, lets just hope it all sort of plays out well. So far 07 is going wayyyy better than the start of 06, and knock on wood, I could really use a good year....06 was pretty much a bad year, or at best maybe on ok year.

In my super sweet night time discussion class "meaningful work in a meaningful life" tonight I was introduced to the concept of "flow", a pyschological idea stemming from work by mihaly csikszentmihalyi. Wikipedia or google it, seriously, its a pretty awesome idea and it apply's to sports. Check it out. Really.

I was hoping some of the stuff I ordered would be here so I could post some pretty pictures, but that will have to wait. Lots of shiny new toys are being ordered, have been ordered, or will be ordered in the next week. Pictures to come as things start showing up. As if I didn't have enough motivation from ordering nice stuff to ride fast/train hard, I made my desktop background an image (stolen from the ECCC site) that depicts the "numbers" area of a collegiate rider (happens to be an a-men princeton rider) that says "2007 Road Racing" and then below "the season begins march 3rd". It's a nice sight to see and it for some reason gets me excited to race.....alot.

awesome

enough said....(yes, I know, i'm a bit late)

week 1

First week of training is in the books. Taking tmrw off after 5 days in a row. Training log shows 7:09:41 in the saddle covering 100.04 miles. All but 1 day was inside so the mileage doesn't quite count, but who cares. I got outside one day between snow/ice storms, the roads were like 'cross sandpits but it was fun, and cold, although I was overdressed and sweating from the get-go. 33F, light wind, I wore: arm warmers, ls baselayer, ss windbloc baselayer, ss jersey, ls jersey, leg warmers, windblog baselayer pant, shorts, wool socks, neoprene shoe covers, headsweats cap over a normal cycling cap, shoes, helmet, glasses, glove liners, long windblog/waterproof gloves (non-lobster though).. It took me almost more time to dress/undress than it did to ride.


The resevoir was all frozen, I didn't see another cyclist out on the roads (come on CT, stop being lame) and a cop pulled up along next to me and asked me if I was ok, if I needed anything, and gave me the advice "its friggen cold out, make sure you don't stay out to long and call us if you have a flat tire or anything, we don't need you freezing to death out here"......while he was nice/funny (gave me my speed readout as well) it was 33 F.....its not like it was -33 F.....


Whatever. Heading back up to school tmrw where I have a package waiting for me....is it ??? a. new laptop battery to replace the one I lost in a drunken haze at paris airport trying not to miss my flight back from the states, or b. new seatpost (ritchey wcs aluminum), or c. something I didn't buy this week....someone sent me a package? Going back to school is good because it means I get to start ordering things to put back together my road bike......fun. I have the frame (lemond tourmalet) which fits me, is comfy, cheap to replace, rides well for a cheap alu roadbike, etc....all in all a good road race bike for broke kids like me. I have wcs stem/bar, and the post I just ordered. I have a set of brakes (cane creeks) that I may use, or may sell, depending on if I buy a full grouppo or piece together something used. Then its either used ultegra parts (or Dura-ace if its cheap enough) or.....making the leap to sram rival. Then another big one, neuvation c50's.....thats right, 50mm carbon tub's.....or perhaps not buying a crazy wheelset and just getting another r28 (prbly the aero to have both of them)....I have plenty of tires lying around as well, but would need tub's....time to decide just how much I want to spend on this thing, especially with a new custom 'cross frame in the works. Though my dad offered to split the c50's with me, which would be sweet. At 175 rim replacement, I could even partially afford to wreck them....knock on wood. Any idea's please post.

And lastly my mom went to look at a new bike today. Looks like she is going to end up with a custom serotta, like my dad. Not fair they get 6k ti/carbon bikes w/ campy, mavics, etc., and I have to scrape together parts for an 1k alu bike (though with all these new parts, it'd be worth around 3k, although i'd have spent about 2k on it) oh well, I guess that's life, you get the nice bike if you really are that good, or when your old and can afford it (but don't exactly need it). Then again, a tourmalet running sram rival, wcs cockpit, c50's, and my other stuff (slr, keo's) would be a pretty sick bike, prbly weighing 17lbs, if not below 17. Plus it'd be comfy (fit to me), aero, wreck-able, and just an all around sub 3k bike that gets the job done....i'd have no excuses, just the engine.

january wrap-up

Well with only 2 on-bike days (the last two days of the month) there isn't much to report other than I started training for 2007 3 months before I did for 2006. For that matter, I owned a bike 3 months before I did at this point last year (and now I have 2).

I put in a solid 2:31:04, and 34.89mi according to my log, although that was on the trainer, so the miles don't really count. That is a blistering 13.8mph avg....at that pace I could win the world TT championships come summer. In non-bike workouts done in italy though, I was in the gym 3 days a week for the entire month, ran 3 days a week the entire month for min-1hr, max-1.5hr, and did my daily stretch and did core strengthening routine 30/31 days (missing new years day, of all days). So I'm not as out of shape as I would have been, but im certainly not where others who did a month of base are. I really have noticed the core and upper body stregnth in my 2 rides thusfar. No sore back, no sore arms, no problems riding in the drops for extended periods, etc. Obviously its inside and who knows what it's like outdoors, but it feels nice.

Speaking of outdoors, I was going to go out today but the roads were in terrible shape. If they clean up a bit tmrw I'd like to head out, otherwise I'll go to targetraining for the thus-evening 1.5 ride, and then head out if it stays warm (about 35 F) on friday or saturday. I really want to get outside in the "warm" before I head back to maine.

So here's to knowing I will have way more than 34.89 miles each month for the rest of the year (hopefully) and that january wasn't really all that bad of a month. It was nice time off the bike after a long road and 'cross season, and I am really loving being back into a "normal" routine including rides into my day.