Blather on Bicycling

Lately I’ve been like the super pro racers who ditch their Blackberries, turn off their cell phones, and unplug their computers so they can concentrate on hard training. The only difference between them and myself is that I don’t have a Blackberry, I don’t have a cell phone, and I’ve been on my computer constantly. I just haven’t gotten the urge to write any entries lately.

It’s been a wild and fun couple weeks of training though. It started with a Thanksgiving backache that wouldn’t go away. I don’t know if it was from running twice or the bed I was on, but I was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t even bend over to tie my shoes. My first day back I got on my bike hoping it would solve the problem and, sure enough, the medicinal power of the bike came through once again. From there, it was on. Let me summarize in a way that doesn’t do it justice: ice, studs, group slide, horizontal snow, snow shoes, pavement, road bike past 11 cyclists, buy a bike, PJ, slush, single speed, ice, studs, group drifting, pavement, snow on road bike, ice, and studs. Winter training is such a challenge here, I love it!

Just because I haven’t been writing doesn’t mean my site here is static. There are some links on the right I keep actively adding to on a continuing basis:

• Training Plan: I revisit my plan regularly and note completed rides.
• Live Ride Calendar: This reflects my planned rides in the next week or two, and it is the actual schedule I go by when ride. I usually update this after the ride to reflect what I have done.
• Some Recent Rides: A link to my MotionBased account where I upload select rides from my GPS watch.
• Pictures: “My album” is a collection of shots I’ve taken out riding.
• Clips I’ve Selected (under “Good Reading”): When I read an interesting feed, I share it on this link.
• Docs: I just added this section to share some documents that may have some interesting data for cycling enthusiasts. For example, the first document I put up is a list of actual weights on bike parts I have had a one time or another. This is the live file that I update when I get new parts and throw them up on the scale.
• Glossary: Look for this to be added soon as a tab on the right-top, next to “About.”