Problems with Pacing

I had one last night. Hit the Caster's Indoor trainer session Fred ran the workout, and it was a good general all around work everything kind of trainer session.

First intensity I've had since the last CX race. No, not Wretham, I did a good handful of laps there but didn't race.

It hurt, it was hot inside (body is still cold acclimated) and like I said I messed up the pacing on a few of the intervals. The first screw up was the leg speed drill, no feed back (aka cadence/speed) meant that I probably started higher than 95 rpm and upping the cadence every 30 seconds left me a bit higher than I could sustain there at the end and it hurt. Which isn't a bad thing but it got to the point where the front of the calves started a slight spasm and made it hard to maintain the spin. But that was okay. Other than i noticed my recovery was taking longer than I had gotten used to it a month or so ago. Great, I've let myself slip.

I think we did a low cadence drill next, biggest gear seated for 30 then standing for 30... 4 min of that. Followed by the biggest gear from a dead stop to as fast as you can go for 30 seconds.

That's where i screwed up big time and over-reached. Basically did a final sprint effort instead of something i had to repeat 3 more times. Couldn't do another one... tried to catch the 3rd but it wasn't happening... after the interval I had to head outside to cool down. The good thing is, you cool down wicked fast when it is 20degrees outside and you have a wet jersey on, and the jersey stayed cool enough. I haven't been that close to puking in a while. The pizza I had two hours earlier probably wasn't the best idea either.

But I managed to recover in time for the final effort, an increasing simulated hill (i think that's what Freddy called it). Get a moderate effort up, then every 30 sec shift and keep the same cadence. 5 min of that.

Oh i forgot the around the "world" drill, aka simulated Paceline. Everyone started at a threshold pace and we went around the group one at a time holding a max effort for 30 seconds and then coming back to threshold until the last person went. That's how the workout started. I got on the trainer a bit early as everyone was setting up, got an extra 15-20 min off variable cadence warm up in.

All in all it felt good to just about puke and get that work in.

Now it is raining. or sleeting. On top of the snow we got overnight. Only about an inch and a half of snow. it was 22 degrees this morning so that stuff is light and fluffy. I'm thinking about just waiting till the rains come this afternoon before starting to clear anything. The snow left on the cars now will be better than letting ice build up (temps are still below freezing and it is rain falling, not sleet).

Dinner when we got home from that was good, hit the spot... i'll keep the food stuff in another post so as not to confuse those who are too manly to want to read about cooking and food and what not.

heddwch
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Time to move on...

New England. The trash talking Jets came and took out the trash. They dismantled two of the arguably best quarterbacks of all time in back to back weeks...

Of course, if Brady had let his hair flow, and not exhibited his U of Michigan wussiness (nothing good has come out of that wanna be Ivy League big ten school) wearing that Balaclava, well I'm certain they would have won.

Heck Rex Ryan wore a sweater vest. Bill Belliwritesthechecks[NOT] just wore his thread bear cut off hoodie... but Brady had to wear a balaclava? Really?

Wow.

Anyway... check this link out. Very funny. Should take your mind off the loss for a few minutes.

Oh and Pizza tonight. Holy crap. It was wonderfully tasty.

Chilling

At the bike shop. I'm not riding right now because i don't feel like it. I suppose I could but really don't feel like it. So what's better than riding the bike? Hanging out around them.

The space here at the new Caster's location in PVD is pretty cool. Definitely an urban kind of space. it is a converted garage/auto detailing shop, but Reed and Mindy did a great job putting the space together, nice layout to the place.

The weekend is actually turning out to be pretty nice. Chill morning, made a couple cups of coffee in that ancient inexpensive espresso machine that still actually makes pretty good coffee, esp if i don't over-draw it.

Not sure what's on the menu for tonight, but after dinner I popped some corn, the old fashioned way, in a pot on the stove. Dancer was impressed. And actually so was I. Great corn flavor and nothing fake about it.

Being surrounded by bikes here brings me to my own dilemma, what to ride this season? Race the Blue on the road/crits? New chainrings/drivetrain? Would make sense, thinking about putting the Giant as wet weather duty and keep riding the Blue when it is nice, but i have a ton of work to do to get the giant to fit the way the Blue does and man I'm not even sure how the Klein fits into the equation. Riding the trainer right now isn't going to happen in the bike room, too many bikes piled up, literally right now. Monday looks like a good project day, we'll see how it shakes out though.

Maybe it is pizza night... hmmm

or pizza tomorrow (not sure i have any Mozz in the house)

well - i'm just staring at a blinking cursor

i feel like taking a nap

major focus on recharging batteries this weekend

bike? ride? haven't pedaled circles since Tuesday last week.

heddwch
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Maine Shrimp Risotto

Risotto tonight.

Put two of my girls on the plane to head down to VA for the 4 day weekend, my dancer is here with me today, Modern tomorrow, an audition for Summer intensive on Sunday, Ballet on Monday and Character on Tuesday.

So we swung through Wholefoods on the way home, picked up some Maine Shrimp (on sale right now), a crazy wild rice blend and some fresh rosemary.

I was going to do the salmon but lord love a duck $15 a pound for something is a lot of cash... shrimp was less and in season and only a few states away vs a continent (Alaska for the wild stuff and i forget where the pale Atlantic stuff is from).

So we were looking at the rice and i was ready to scoop up some Arborio rice (you know classic risotto stuff)... time to stick the stock in the rice...

Okay so we've got the rice simmering in some shrimp stock right now, dancer is watching some 70s Electric Company.

Dancer and I got home and immediately started peeling shrimp. Shrimp shells, a carrot, celery stick and a rosemary sprig into water and brought to a boil makes a brilliant and very fast stock for making risotto. And that was the first plan of action.

While the stock was working I diced some sweet onion and melted 4 tablespoons of butter in a wide pan -was going to find a link to it but i'm coming up a bit empty.

So 1.5 cups of this rice mix (can't find a link to that stuff either - a bulk item at WF). in with the onions, get it nice and hot - then straing some stock in until it is covered.

Then stirr for a bit and cover the pan, then stirr, and cover.

Added another sprig of rosemary and some Pinot Grigio wine to it.

And just now added some mushrooms (Crimini).

It smells wonderful and yes, dinner is going to be late. This wild rice stuff TAKES FOREVER to cook.

But that's okay - it's worth the wait. Sauce already tastes amazing.
Oh I added on pressed clove of garlic and some salt to the butter and 1/4 of a large sweet onion.

4 large crimini sliced just went in there.

The 3/4 pound of peeled Maine wild shrimp will get plunked in just barely before we're ready to eat. They cook in about 30 seconds. Literally.

Thanks storm

So yeah, no one will have to read about me riding to work tomorrow, because well they have preemptively closed. Awesome. NOT. So looking forward to the ride in on those super light 920 gram tires of mine with studs in them. Oh well, i guess no talking about how awesome and heavy they are. What the hell will the peanut gallery use to make fun of me tomorrow... my lack of polish in the writing? Maybe, that's pretty good, esp since this stuff is so well constructed and edited and man the money those copy writers and editors are costing me is outrageous, I would be better off hiring a Cycle-smart coach so i'd have nothing to write about anymore.

Oh wait - i write about food all the time now. Susie-home-maker. Yeah, right forgot, dare i be something I'm not. The f'n storm has me on edge but whatever.

I'll still try and get out and pedal around in this "storm" but then I know it is pretty much going to kill any change of having a race to help get Jerome ready for worlds. He'll be fine, there's always a trainer... should be kind of okay, right?

Is there a better

mid-ride snack than Little Debbie Oatmeal pies? No, not really... until now:

Home-made Oatmeal Pies

Good lord those look good. No transfats, no fake stuff, no preservatives (beyond sugar and the acid from the lemon and what not).

I know, some people are bored silly since i've been writing more about food. Oh well. I haven't checked the counter stats in over a month. Mostly because I am not writing for the counter. Although with the Bandit Cross promo it may seem different.

Speaking of that...

Bandit cross is in danger again from a winter storm. Snow removal would be possible, but the problem is, as we found Saturday, once you get a handful of laps on a snow course when it is cold enough for the snow to stay snow, well it just gets really fast. But it is either really fast or REALLY slow. Well to be specific it is really really slow, then suddenly really fast.

We'll see what happens.

Had my first slip on the tires, but it was a quick slip then grip and I never lost it. Snow on lumpy glare ice while turning across it downhill. Must have dropped from a peak into a valley of ice for a second. Caught me off guard but was also very cool to have enough grip to not eatshit on the ice.

You can't be stupid with them, and lordy are they wicked slow and heavy. But that measure of confidence is pretty nice.

Oh and Doug's well thought out and articulate comments are on the money too, that movie is about preaching to the choir it would seem, but that is what they said about Food Inc, and that reached a big audience beyond the expected target demographic.

It is true, lifestyle has to change first. For me it was moving out of michigan and exchanging a 75 mile drive each way with a 2-10 mile bike commute and swapping out lower quality for higher quality foods. I'm sure if I had had a physical and blood work when I moved here wearing size 38" jeans it would have been different than now. My weight is way back up compared to my low of 185 but it's a healthy weight and i'm essentially back to where i was when I started the driving... after 5 years of riding every day and racing and what not...

Video Goodness

Check these vids out.

5ème Manche de CDM cyclo cross - Zolder from Web Petitesreines on Vimeo.

(okay there's one, click over to the Vimeo page and check out the rest of the CX vids).

The difficulty of the course is really on display in these. Twitter (okay Chabot) mentioned that you can see how hard these courses really are. Stuff that the live feeds just don't convey as well.

Russ is going to be out of town but if anyone wants to bring some vid equipment to Wrentham on Saturday it would be a great chance to put some great footage together! Now I'm not saying it will be easy to put a masterpiece together like his, but hey he has set the bar incredibly high.

Yes I know there's a winter storm coming mid-week. After Saturday morning's adventures in setting up a snow course I feel much more confident about making a course through whatever mother nature can hurl.

Photography

That's incredible, really amazing.

great commute

thanks to the tires. yes i probably could have ridden in w/o them, been all proud of myself for negotiating all that ice, but wow how nice is it to just ride through w/o thinking about it. Picking a smooth line. TONS more ice out there this morning, good bit of snow too, mostly just coverage, not depth.

Great way to start the week.

This is what racing in the snow is like

Bandit Cross - Wrentham, MA 01.08.2011 from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.

Russ had some driveline issues and parked the bike and picked up the camera. This was racing in the snow. First couple times through the deep sections were tough but it gets easier. Temps were cold enough that the snow stayed snow and the rare wipeout meant just brushing the snow off.

Next week, come on out. We'll set up a new course, and make it happen. Adam pushed to have two twenty minute races so we did. I timed/ran my mouth, and then we reversed the direction and sent everyone off for one pre-ride lap after a quick break and then did 20 min again. The first lap of the first race was 4.5 minutes. But JT started in the back and eventually went on to turn 6 laps in 20 minutes. Second race was much the same, although resultsboy did an admirable job of holding the holeshot/lead for a lap. Brant Hornberger was turning some impressive laps.

Most impressive was Donny's ride up from PVD, in that weather. That was pretty intense seeing him riding up. Also the two kids from Rutgers, Molly and Eric? They got there early and helped Russ chip up the glare ice where we crossed the road (dog walker's vehicles packed it down and it froze solid and sheer). Yes, they drove up from NJ that morning to do the race.

We're doing it next week. Saturday. Same time, same place. Do it to give Jerome some traffic to race through, make it a race to help our local U23 kid heading Worlds.

Thanks to those who came out!
G

It is ON tomorrow CX 11am & Noon t

Gonna be there tomorrow, where? Wrentham MRC/Training race course.

First race is at 11am. Come early and help bed in the course/set up. Or show up and do the 11am as a warm up/B-race/seeding race before the Noon main event.

11am is a loose start time. We'll send yall off and if you are late, no big deal. Once the Noon race starts it is for real though.

Although when i use the word "race" i mean getting together and riding around, no numbers, no officials, no lap cards. But i do have a stopwatch and will try and make the noon "race" as real as possible (time first two laps adjust based on fastest dudes and tell you how many to go and all that).

Course? We'll see what it looks like. Show up between 9:30 and 10am if you are feeling generous with your time and want to help get it ready to race (which may mean nothing more than riding laps for a bit re-learning how to ride your CX bike after a couple weeks off).

This will be good. There are people coming. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone that shows up.

Hard Core but so true

I would contend that meat and those products aren't completely the problem, in so much as nearly all the animal products consumed are fed worse than people are eating and are about as healthy as the average obese western diet eating human.

Plants are just way more picky about growing. They need certain things. But then, many plants like corn and soybeans grow with lots of chemical help, so even eating plants you need to find ones that grow in a positive way too. They don't have feelings but they sure can have a measure of health.

How many drugs are you on? How many should you be on (zero). As always there are genetic conditions that do warrant maintenance meds (Type 1 for example), but that clean program guy (watch the video but try and tune out the BUY MY SHIT parts of it) says it pretty well too, fucking spot on if you will.

The food you eat is either killing you or sustaining you.

You have the power to choose.

What choice are you going to make. It isn't just about exercise. It isn't just about reducing your fat/sugar/calories/animal products.

And fucking "in moderation" is fucking bullshit. Moderate amounts of toxic shit is still toxic. See, my language is fucking going down hill, which tends to decrease the efficacy of a message, but demonstrates a bit of underlying frustration, and my passion for it.

*deep breath*

eat well

save this damn country some money

A Steerage Way commute

just moving the legs fast enough to keep the bike upright and moving towards my destination...

Steerage way is defined as: The minimum speed of a ship, below which it does not answer the helm and cannot be steered.

That's about what it was like today. Brain going way faster than my legs. Thinking about tomorrow, thinking about getting some large format images ready for a potential exhibt/show, thinking about all sorts of stuff. Even stuff about what happens at the end of august, sort of in the frame work of tomorrow. What happens if you throw a party and only a few show up? Plans that I had been making in my mind to have a party on the weekend of the 27/28 here in NE to celebrate me finally hitting the "okay it is alright to say you're old now" four decade mark, was told in simple and plain terms, "If you want a party for your birthday you have to plan it." Now I'll be in Seattle for that weekend it looks like. Oh well. Yeah, I seem to be unable to figure out how to spin the shit positively around my birthday. Inevitable. Finally thought that 2011 would be the year I would be able to take positive concrete steps to make it not my least favorite day of the year. Maybe I'll try again in 10 years. ANYWAY. Yeah like i said. brain running in overdrive. not really a good thing.

Oh and did I mentioned all this was while I was just not pedaling very fast?

When I would hit patches of ice I'd be thinking how nice it is to have the studs. In the day you can see where you're going far enough ahead to pick the right lane. At night in the dark you may start in one lane and suddenly you're on sheer ice. Now? it's nice, no panic and i can safely get over it or move off it w/o eating hard core shit.

Slow? yeah. Noisy? yeah. But this way the walkers and other folks on my commute can hear me coming. Not so bad.

Even just making steerage way this morning it didn't take too long to get in. And is sure is nice to see the sun.

okay now maybe i should go back and edit some of the too introspective shit out of the above but right now i'm going to say fuck it and leave it... read it in a bit, maybe delete it... maybe i should just start a new web log and put it over there... nah

Twitter Drives my Pandora

Yesterday GCD commented about it being a Black Keys day. So I dialed up a Black Keys station and made it two songs. Fortunately Resultsboy made a comment about dubstep that elicited a pretty funny comment from some old long in the tooth wicked hip bike racer, and revealed more about resultsboy than I'm sure he wanted anyone to realize.

Anyway. A dubstep station kept me going yesterday.

One thing I'm learning, what ever station/music GCD is listening too is one I don't generally want to hear at work. He listens to old man white bread stuff. Bob Seger, Rockabilly, The Black Keys are three stations I have [not yet deleted] created out of his tweets. Not bad music just not what I'm digging.

Myerson mentioned The Smiths Radio and I hit that and it's good. Works for the occasional change of pace from Daft Punk, Deadmau5, The Mighty Mighty Bostones, The Young Dubliners, The Dropkick Murphys, and KEEN Beats (mostly a Gorillaz station).

Now on my station list is another genera that I hit occasionally. Hound Dog Taylor. So when old man [anti-winter] Solobreak put up a link to a kick ass (totally kick ass) recording and song from John Lee Hooker I knew what the theme for today at the office was going to be. Start a new JLH station and then add some variety!

I was singing the blues at the top of my lungs in the house getting the recycling out this morning. And with luck I won't be alone tomorrow, cause if I am the birds are going to be hearing a couple good blues improve verses.

Dog came over when I paused for a second and either wanted a pet to keep me from singing anymore or to say thanks for the killer blues melodies.

Come race/ride on saturday

the same place i've been trying to convince people to show up at for a while now.

No, it won't be balmy, and no it probably won't be very dry.

But, I don't think of warm and dry when i picture ideal cyclocross. I picture wet and cold. Snow or rain wet. not soaked from sweat wet.

But i know plenty of people would rather figure out how to install some offenders and go for a long road ride and forget about cyclocross completely for 6 months.

I'm hoping a few people might take the middle of their day on Saturday and come see if we can't make a cyclocross race break out.

NOAA says there will be about 2" of snow or so falling over night up at Wrentham. Nothing like the storm that dumped 2' or so on the same field.

Going to give this a try because my feeling is that someone has to. I complain loudly about CX racing in August, grumble about racing in the heat of September, and well... time to put some action behind those words.

Maybe we can generate some momentum. There have historically been a few winter cyclocross series... and what got me excited about the sport wasn't that we raced around in hot temps on dusty courses, no, it was cold, the conditions were adverse, it took a tangible something else that one time I had more of than I do now but I still have some, and it used to give me an advantage. good luck deciphering that cronoman.

Anyway, I hope to see a few like minded individuals out there, I can't hope for a huge number of people because plainly not many people read this, and most that do probably won't come race. (yeah, i know, i sound really positive and shit with that eh? totally sounds super self confident and positive and all the stuff that it isn't). Bottom line i have my expectations set pretty low. If anyone wants to come out a bit early and design the course with me (with the snow it could be a blank slate) that'd be cool. I'll probably just stick the the basic wrentham course with only one wrinkle that I think it needs. Those that show up will see what I mean.

Be safe out there. I'm very happy to be on studded tires this week. The ice hasn't gone anywhere and the day's melt just turns into sheet ice for my ride home. And with the long stretches of ice in the dark you wind up often in a situation where you don't have a choice but to ride over it. These tires really make a difference, even though they are loud and heavy, it is nice to have them, I feel very fortunate to have this pair. 240 carbide studs in each tire... loud and grippy.

Wrentham CX

Okay.

We're going to make it happen. Pack the cross bikes, the booties, and the beers. Lets meet at the MRC training course in Wrentham (same place for 1/1/11 that didn't happen).

Yes i know there is snow forecast. I'll still be there.

Lets make it happen. Come on out. See you there?

STUDded tires

Are pretty damn awesome. Yes they are. Today was the first commute with them and yes, about 90% of the commute was clear and dry, 10% was solid ice, either lump or sheets. And it was nice having the traction.

No coasting with these suckers on there. Nope. You gotta pedal the whole time or you ain't going no where. But on the plus side: I've ridden the bike twice since the 16th of December. The most recent venture was the 45 jaunt on New Year's (I'm not counting the attempt to ride at Wrentham on the 30th) and well the most recent was with the studded tires, so I didn't really feel the dramatic difference (weight/speed wise).

It was a bit more work getting there and back. And no these aren't tickets to ignoring the ice, esp the frozen ruts, but they are a huge measure of not sliding around. Pretty damn cool.

I like the fact that sunrise is staying constant this week but sunset is getting 1 minute later each day.

I don't like the fact that snow is forecast for Friday/Saturday. Damn it! Although I'm actually thinking it will be a good thing for the CX race at Wrentham. With snow you can make a racing line w/o flags and stakes and tape. SO....

Mark the time as busy - come out 11am. I'll be there early to work in a racing line. Two races. First race is a seeder for second race. You only do second? You start in the back. Will be most awesome. Trust me. Esp since G-ride won't be there with his incessant bitching and whining and complaining.

It will likely be cold and muddy, kind of how a cyclocross race is supposed to be. I hope to see ALL YOU YOU there. Because really, who reads this except my CX friends.

So as it is I've managed to pretty much completely book solid this week and the first two days of next week at work today. Starting the new year off with ultimate productivity. Oof. Good to be wanted/needed eh?

Oh and (yeah i'm taggin this with food for this reason only) IF you make that turkey soup i posted the other day, well... unless you want pasta with turkey and flavor (and no broth) cut the amount of (non egg) noodles down to less than 8oz. Putting that whole package in there worked great for last night but i have a couple partial quarts of the stuff that's just noodles now. Still tastes wicked good. Oh wow was it wicked good. Add some parsley on top (flat leave Italian stuff because is there anything bad that comes out of Italy? best bike race, amazing women, great food) and some Melinda's XXXtra HOT SAUCE on top and boom! so good.

Simple night tonight food wise.

My brother brought over some organic Vanilla beans and i added the guts of 1/2 of one to the single batch i make in the cuisinart ice cream maker (2 cups milk, 1 cup organic valley heavy cream, 2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract, 3/4 cup organic sugar, and 1/2 of a vanilla bean's guts). BOOM. Should be good. It is in the freezer setting up now.

Yes this was posted with my Cr-48, which i am solidly in love with. Google is awesome. Join the borg. So tempted to try putting the OS on a stick and running the other lappy on this OS. Lappy, I've so fallen out of sorts watching Strongbad and company. So a Michigan thing for me (even if Strongbad wasn't from michigan).

And on the subject of Michigan, what the hell is up with MSU and bowl games? Seriously! I didn't see the game but looking at the score, who f'n showed up to play? Come ON! Oh well. Just a damn game. I was far happier watching Page kill it on Sunday.

Oh this week is going to be insane and last night I was already dreaming promoter nightmares even though Saturday is just a get together and race each other, not a real "race" but doesn't change the fact that in my dream the whole NEBC women's elite squad showed up early and I was looking at a flat featureless field of grass, no course, no place to register, no one else to do anything. Not sure why it was the Red and White, but the only face I recognized was Wellons for some reason. Weird. Damn dreams. Okay - So tell me you'll be there and I'll stop stressing about Saturday. Seriously. Show up. We might even get the mighty Myerson to show up and race. Rooter is talking about going to NC the following weekend so shit he'd better show and get some cross racing redemption. Esp after his epic eating shit on that course after going for the first lap prime! Hard to forget that day.

Good Times.
Oof it is only monday. Media tuesday. Be prepared for the onslaught. Just hope that fucking snow is mellow and not like the last batch we got!!!!

heddwch
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Turkey Noodle Soup

So, soup day.

Picked up some bionature stelline pasta. Had some Turkey left over from a breast I used half of for some peanut sauce pasta in the freezer, and yesterday I made stock from the drumstick bones left over from the BBQ turkey I made over NBX weekend (yeah that wasn't my best offering, but the collards that day were good).

So I cooked that stuff down a long time, and the stock essentially solidified in the fridge, it was good. Stock was made with the drumstick bones and leftovers, carrots, celery tops (had bought a bunch of organic celery and just chopped the top 2" off for the stock), broccoli stems, maybe some onion, i think a bit of garlic but I don't remember. Some salt and that's about it.

Cooked for a while. Actually made the stock over two days. started it on new year's eve then plunked the pot in some ice overnight and then brought it up to a boil, strained it and then simmered and skimmed and then bagged and froze it once it cooled down.

Anyway.

Put a bit of olive oil in the stock pot. In three batches brown 1.5 pounds of diced turkey, not cooked all the way, just get them some color and pull them out into a bowl with a slotted spoon.

Once all the turkey has been browned stick 3-4 diced carrots, 1/2 an onion, 1 rib of celery diced in with the draining's from the cooked turkey, add a touch more olive oil and cook the veggies for a bit. Then I added between a teaspoon-tablespoon of dried Thyme (i'd use fresh but i don't have any).

Just before adding water I tossed a tsp of rice wine vinegar to deglaze a bit. Then 5 cups of the stock and about 5-6 cups of water. Brought it to a boil. Let it roll for a bit, then lowered the heat and added the browned but not cooked turkey and I pressed three cloves of garlic in there, a sprinkle of salt

Next up about 10 minutes before serving I'm adding about 1/2 of the pasta (8oz to be specific). It isn't egg pasta so it just keeps swelling. If I put the whole 16oz bag in the soup it would probably suck up most of the fluid. So it is simmering right now. I said screw it - there's enough volume that i put the whole bag in there. Could be a mistake, we'll see.

The tastes I've had are awesome. Good flavor, nice and rich but not overly complex. Pretty damn yummy.

The Hoppin' John and Collards last night were awesome. Even better for lunch today.

So good.

Food.

Mmm.

Best Ride of the Year! and Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

No question, best ride of the year so far.

Snow, wet and cold snow. Bare legs. LS jersey. The Blue Norcross bike with a set of Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tires.

45 minutes of awesomeness.

Powering through the snow and blasting through plow drifts where the path crosses the road. It took two hard intervals to get the snow riding groove back. But man when it came through - so much fun.

throwing snow all over my shoes and my bare calves. No, not even any embro. In the sun I was having fun. If they didn't get nearly 2x as much snow up in Wrentham as here, today's race would have been epic and fun, but good that it was canceled. Makes it more of a family day, brother coming over. Going to make Hoppin' John and Collard greens an homage to the tradition of our southern roots (my grandmother's family).

I was riding and realize, really this is the best ride of the year. First ride of the year but no question it was the best. Maybe there will be better ones. Who knows. Who cares.

It felt amazing to be out, riding in shorts, in the snow, on 1/1/11.

Happy New Year Everyone. Happy New Year

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
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CR-48

getting use it, to the point I'm having trouble adapting back to the Dell Laptop. Very different experience but one that I'm really liking.

This thing rocks and will completely and totally and utterly kick ass when they get the USB upload thing fixed (yes that is a major pain but i'm not uploading much at the moment and can live it it).