But what will I wear?

Today was warmish, mid 40's, which is pretty nice for January. I decided to take a short 50 mile spin in my new kit (which by the way, has seen use 3 of the 4 days I've had it). Knowing I'd be out for some time, I took it easy. 'Cross season killed me this year and has really taken a toll on my off season legs. Usually at this time of year I'm ready to really train. This year, I'm still doing LSD (that's long slow distance). Whether or not this turns out to be a good or bad thing, only time will tell.
Doing a LSD ride is nice for focusing on climbing so that is what I did. Easy on the flats, hit the hills. I did climbs on this ride that I usually split into two different days. It hurt but now that I've had a chance to recover, my legs really are in good shape. This is after a Friday that I just blasted as hard as I could (for fun). Saturday was a 2 plus hour mountain ride that covered about 24 miles at Fair Hill with Shawn, Joel, and Tom. We stopped a few times to chat with some Bike Line rides we passed along the way. Basically, a little over a 5 minute mile pace. That's pretty fast for a fun group ride. Then there was today. 50 miles in under 3 hours. I weaved back and forth over the same hill four times. Each time riding a different road up and down. There aren't any mountains in Lancaster but there are big hills. Some have an average grades of 10% and are about a mile long. Some are longer with a lower percentage of grade. The hills I was riding today were definitely the first kind. This was suppose to be an easy day. Oh well there is always tomorrow.

Gearing Up

So, I'm not a male model but I'm taking one for the team. Here is our team uniform. Paid for by the fine folks at Allied Milk, Isaac's Deli (also designed it), and The Arro Group. I have a bad habit of making stupid faces and standing in an awkward way when I have my picture taken.

I have to go for a ride now. See you later suckers.

Skellington and myself were out for a walk one day. Everything was normal. He lifted his leg to pee and when he put it down he was limping. I picked him up. Searched the bottom of his foot for a splinter, glass, whatever. Nothing. Not even a scratch so we kept on going. A week or so went by and he was still limping so we took him to the vet. The one doctor said that it was arthritis. I found this hard to believe and I told her the story about how he started limping. He never had shown signs of this before but she insisted that that is what it was. Well, who am I to argue. We bought the medications and went on our way. So a week later and the poor guy is still hobbling around on three legs. We took him in again to see a different doctor this time. This one did x-rays and lots of other motions with his leg. She determined that he tore his ACL. That's right, his ACL. He was just peeing! She said that we had two options. Let it heal on it's own or surgery. Surgery requires 12-16 weeks of recovery while letting it go meant 4 weeks of bedrest. If you know what Jack Russels are like this is nearly impossible but since he is 10 years old we went with this option. We went home feeling like we finally had the right answer to his limping. We did what we could over the next few weeks. We carried him up steps. After he would go #2 we would carry him home. Anything we could to take the stress off of his knee. It never would've been enough. The little guy went under the knife on Friday to repair what turned out to be a ruptured meniscus. Are you kidding me? He was peeing!!! Now you see the aftermath of all that ordeal. A green cast with Skellington from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" on it. I thought that that was pretty cool. The little guy is recovering but you can tell the painkillers are making him loopy and he sleeps with his eyes open a lot. I'm surprised at how well he gets around with his peg leg though. He can "jump" on and off the couch eventhough we are not encouraging that. He tries to run but often will just sit down because he can't the peg gets in the way. Oh well, at least he will be getting better soon.

Best Friends

So here we are, it's 2008. Looking back on the past year, this team went from a joke between two friends to actually existing. The team is 10 riders strong. They have varying degrees of skill, age, and gender. I feel we have a very well balanced team and our season starts in just two short months. Right now, everyone is preparing themselves to be in the best possible condition for our teams goal races. These key races are where we feel we can display our sponsors names the best. The ones we have the best chance at winning with the types of riders we have. Our uniforms are about 3 1/2 weeks from being complete. This is really getting exciting now.

The pictures are of Mayari (brown blob), Skellington (little white guy), and Staci in the left picture. Mayari and Skellington hate to be cold and even though they aren't really best friends, they pretend. In the right picture, is Mayari (left), and Serendipity (right). They were trying to make a heart like swans do. They failed and a fight ensued.

All Dressed Up and Ready to Go (almost)

After a minor miscommunication with our uniform maker, the uniforms are finally being made. I'm going to say they should be in our hands in mid-February. This is about 2 weeks later than I wanted but still enough time to get them out to everyone for the start of the season. When they get here, I'll be sure to post them but I'm sure you will see us riding around town/races with them too.

This is Chad. If you can't tell by looking at him, he is all roadie. He's chowin' down on some good old fashioned holiday cheer. He could stand to put on a few pounds anyway.

Ahh. The Off-Season

Capt. Space Invader Shawn (left), Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White Tom (right), and I decided to go for a ride Saturday at the frozen Fairhill. Being the off-season less attention was paid to pace than normal. It was an awesome day for a ride. Crisp cool air. It just fills your lungs and really feels great. Shawn was riding his new GF Superfly, a full carbon 29er. Complete with an XO drivetrain (upgraded XTR cranks to boot). It is certainly a wonderful looking machine. That was until I plowed right into it. Here's my side of it though. We were cruising on a downhill section and my eyes watered up. When I cleared my vision, those two were at a dead stop in the middle of the trail. BAM! Fortunately, no damage. This was about 5 minutes into his first ride with the bike. At least we broke it in right? The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful (which was fine with Shawn).

The top picture is post crash, so you can see, it's fine. I think I would've felt a little bad had I messed it up. Just a little.

If you haven't been to Fairhill lately (or ever), go. It really is beautiful there right now. Some really nice frozen trails. By weeks end they will probably be soft and muddy though with the temps getting up into the 40's again. Trailspinners gets a little upset if you are riding them when they are soft. It's understandable. They put tons of hours in building them, so yahoos like us can crash into each other. Check out www.trailspinners.org.

'Tis the Season

Due to my fatigue at the end of the season I decided it was time to actually train. Not that I didn't in the past but I mean the real way. I hate running and swore that I didn't need to do it ever. Yesterday, I ran. I did a 4+ mile trail run in a drizzle. It wasn't too bad. I'm not ready for a marathon or anything but I did ok. The muscle groups used for running are completely different than those for cycling and boy howdy can I feel it. When I do biking motions, I feel great. When I walk, it hurts. I may have over did it because the longest I ever ran before yesterday was one, that's right, one mile. As in uno. 1.6 kilometers. I did this 4+ in under 40 minutes. It was soggy trail so not too shabby. The downhills were scary. I'm working on getting a core routine together. I just feel as though my bike legs need a rest for a few weeks. Not that I won't be biking but not training.

With the weather getting closer to staying below freezing the trails should be firming up. This makes for some of the best riding all year in my opinion. It's not race season. Kick back and enjoy the scenery. A good long ride at a nice even pace. Cool, crisp air. Some joking with friends. Can it really get any better?