The last few days have kept me busy both on the bike and off.

On the bike, I put together a few different Pugsley rides.  Gotta say, that bike is pretty much fun to ride.  There isn’t much that stops it.  Unless you are talking about some ice with just a hair of snow over it.  Then, I don’t care how wide the tires are.  Without any studs, its easy to go down.

On New Years Day, the task was simple.  Get on the rollers for 2 hours and spin at around 90-100 RPM.  Easy enough.  Check that one off the list.

On the 2nd, coach had me going for an aerobic ride, keeping the heart rate down and just enjoying myself.  Pugsley and snow mobile tracks to the rescue.  It was the first time I have been outside on a bike in a while and it was enjoyable, plus it was a night ride and they are always fun.

Saturday had be doing a little cross training in the form of 3 hours of hiking.  So that is just what I did.

I grabbed my snowshoes (Tubbs Moutaineer) and strapped them on the back pack:

Dug out the Tubbs poles for some serious conditions:

My training buddy, the iPod Shuffle:

But due to the cold and wind, Campy didn’t come along.  Doesn’t she look sad?

Cranmore Ski Area from the start of my hike.

Its getting dark, so needed to strap on the headlamp, my Marwi Nightpro Elite.  I’m such a dope.

Doesn’t it look like I suprised myself with this photo?

This one is from the top of Peaked Mountain of the shopping area of downtown North Conway with all the outlets.  Those bright lights in the middle.  Those are EMS and LL Bean.  I thought those companies wanted to be “green” and “environmentally friendly”?  If that is the case, how much money you think they spend to throw off the most light pollution in the valley??  One would think that with them just buiolding these stores a few months ago and making the inside of the store so “green” that they would have done something for the outside.  I guess not.  Yet another reason I won’t buy anything from them.

Last but not least was another Pugsley ride on Sunday.  More of the snow mobile trails but this time there was more ice out there.  I went down  going about 20mph on ice and there was nothing I could do about it.  Thankfully, I only whacked my knee on the stem (and pretty hard I must say) and everything else is fine and dandy.

Today is a rest day before I do some testing for coach tomorrow.

So I can tell tomorrow and the next day are going to be bad ones. Here is how I know.

Last night, I did my core workouts as instructed by coach. No big deal there. This morning, the alarm goes off at 5:30am and I am on the bike by around 6. I did the prescribed workout (rolling hills, 3 minutes at 60rpm, 3 minutes at 100 rpm, repeat) and the workout went well. As I got back up stairs to take a shower, I peeled my shorts off of me. At that exact point, I felt the beginning of a wicked saddle sore. That, is how I know the next 2 days won’t be much fun. Because I ride rollers instead of a trainer, I tend to sit more. Because I am riding my “trainer” bike that has many uses, it isn’t 100% fit to me, plus I use some older parts (ie my saddle). With the lack of standing on rollers (I can go for about 3 minutes, but takes a bit of concentration) plus the older saddle, poor fit, you get yourself a nice little saddle sore.

I can’t wait.

On the other hand, I was out on the a bunch of the XC trails and noticed how nicely things are groomed. You know what that means. Time to dig out the Pugsley and hit the trails. My goal is to do that tomorrow AM or PM so wish me luck as I am getting tired of being on the rollers.

The file from the Sigma Sport Rox 9.0:

Its been quite some time since I have last made a post.  It seems like I have been quite busy….or something like that.

Since I last posted, a bunch of things have happened.  I have signed on with a Coach, got myself a sweet frame sponsor and a bunch of other things, but more on that later.

Training has officially started last week with structured workouts and some strength sessions so that is always a good time.  Other than riding the rollers down in the basement and lifting some weights, things are pretty status quo.  We have about 2 feet of snow on the ground, so that is keeping me off the bike outside.  I am waiting for the snow mobiles to groom and pack down all of their trails so I can get outside on the Pugsley, so just playing the waiting game on that front.

Been working on an update for the site for a little bit now and have some things in mind.  It has been almost a year with this current “theme” up there, so seems like it is time for a change, plus I need to add some sections and do a few other things.  I am shooting for the first of the year, but only time will tell.  Sometimes I get a bit lazy and frustrated with the whole updating the site process, but I am trying my best to make this one happen by then…

What can I say, another night out on the Pugsley in the snow.  Yesterday, we got about an inch or so of fresh snow, but that wasn’t enough to hold me back, so off I went.  Did the same loop as the night before, but I must say, I need to work on a different pedal/cleat set up.  Every time I put my foot down, everything god completely clogged up and I had a hard time getting back in.  There were more than a couple times that I was yelling the f-word quite loud because of this little problem.

Then there was the front shifting problem.  The problem with riding in snow, then going through some little water crossings, then back in fluffy snow is that it tends to build up at spots, especially with those big Endomorph tires and the way they throw things.  I took a quick picture of the bike when I got home.

Good thing it was a relatively flat section of trail that I was riding and didn’t need to shift.  I never even tried.  I’m glad for that because I’m not sure if it would have dropped down into the granny gear and if it would have, who knows if it would have been able to get back up to the middle ring.

Today, it was 50 degrees and raining and tomorrow is supposed to start the first “big storm” of the winter laying down multiple inches of snow.  Gotta love New England.  9 degrees, then 25, then 50, back to the 20s all in 4 days….

I am still working on thawing out a bit from the ride last night.  Some folks in town, snowshoed a nice little path through the crusty snow pack and it was perfect to use the Pugsley.

I got out for almost 1.5 hours and did a killer 6 miles.  Sure, doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you leave your house and it is 12 degrees, 1.5 hours is long enough.  By the end of the ride, both sets of eye lashes were just about frozen shut.  Every time I needed to blink, I almost had  to pry my eye lids open.  It wasn’t all that bad, but my feet did get et a bit cold by the end of the ride.  Tonight, it won’t be as cold so hopefully I can get out for a bit longer of a ride.

If you ever listen to the radio, and they play some spoof Christmas songs, you are bound to hear this one. I now present it to you with video:

There has been a whole lot of training and such going on since I last checked in.  I got my road bike all rigged up for some night time rides using 4 different red lights and my head light, so that has kept me busy for a couple nights.  Along with that, I hit the trails both Sat and Sunday of last weekend, which was a good time with all the ice, although there wasn’t enough yet for the studded tires to come out.  I also got the trainer bike all ready to go and hit the trainer a couple times.  I have to say that there is nothing good about riding the trainer.  This year, I opted to put the trainer down in the basement so I am not bothering Kelly too much and also because it is a bit cooler.  The cooler thing only helps for the first 30 seconds, because anything after that, I am sweating too much anyway.  But now, I don’t feel so bad about the puddle that forms, as its on concrete and not my carpet.  Also, with the snow that we have received (yes,I said snow), about  inches here and there as some melt, I have been doing a little “cross training” and taking campy out for some runs/hikes in the snow.  All together, it has been a pretty good week for training as I have managed to keep the weight down during the holidays…..which is always a plus in my book.

This morning when I woke up to go for the morning’s ride, I looked at the thermometer, which said 22 degrees, and decided that it was just too damn cold to get up at 6 in the morning and ride for an hour or so.  So my revelation is this.  I either need to get my bike and trainer up and running (I really don’t want to have to do that, but at some point it will need to happen), or I need to get me some lights to enjoy some night road riding.  So that is exactly what I will be doing.  I have a headlamp, the Cygolite Triden X, and I do have a little tail light, Planet Bike Blinky 1, but I will need some other stuff.  I am going to be picking up some Planet Bike Blinky Superflashes and some handlebar end plugs.  I figure with all of those lights, I should be pretty safe.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to test them all out tonight as I am already signed up for a mountain ride.  Either way, pedeling any bike is still a better time than sitting at home.

With all of this wet winter riding road riding that I have in front of me, I can honestly say that I am not at all stoked about what it will be doing to my bike and its drive train. For many of those who aren’t aware, here in New Hampshire, the state decided that salting the roads is bad for the roads and everything around them, so here, we sand the heck out of the roads. I wish I could see the size of the pile of sand that North Conway goes through in an average year. Anyway, once the sand is down and it gets wet, it turns the bike and its drive train to an awful mess. However, with a little bit of degreaser, some citrus cleaner, and a little know how, you can take the drive train from this:

To this:

It’s pretty bad when all of that dirt and grime came from one ride.  Nothing like having to do a complete tune up on the bike after ever ride.  Stupid sand..

Nothing too exciting today.  Some morning rain storms and some evening rain/snow storms will most likely keep me off the bike for this evening.  Depending on what time I get home from work and get some things done, I might get out for some running or hit up the nordic track for some indoor cross country sking (trust me, worse than riding a trainer).

Since there is nothing too exiciting going on, I figured I would pass along a video of some girls dancing to Daft Punk’s Harder, better, faster, stronger..  Enjoy.