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.

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..

Wow, what a weekend.  First, Friday night I took out the new Cygolite and did about 1.5 hours on the trail (the gps was a little off due to tree cover, fog and rain).  Gotta say, even though I have seen it on other people and have ridden while they used it, it was pretty impressive.  I used to use 2 Marwi Night Pro lights, one on my helmet, one on the handlebars and while those worked fine, this new one is much better.  It took me a bit of time to get the position correct and to get used to riding with just one light, but once that was all said and done, the light worked great.  I ran it on medium low and it was more than enough light to see in even the darkest of conditions.  I did however, see a skunk, with the business end pointed right at me from about 5 feet away, so that kept things interesting.

Saturday, I headed out for some trail maintenance.  I grabbed the dog and the rake and headed to some new trail.  After about an hour or so of raking, my cheapo rake handle broke, but I was ok with that.  An hour of cleaning trail is better than nothing.  Plus, I got to see a jeep stuck deep in some mud.

I normally would feel bad for him, but he is stuck right next to the trail I was working on.  So good for him.  As I walked by him, I heard the 3 people in the jeep yelling at each other.

Sunday was another fine day for weather, so Kelly and I went out for a little jaunt with the dog and I showed her some more trails that she would be able to ride, at least she will be able to when some leaves are moved as it was pretty hard to follow the trail.

Its official, this morning started off the 2009 biking season.  I started workouts this morning instead of “just going out and having fun”.  For now, it is some slower base miles on the road bike, designed to get my legs used to the regular pedaling of road biking and getting a specific workout in.  As I am still getting my timing down of riding before work, I only went out for an hour and did about 18 miles.  Not to bad for 6:30 in the morning, in 40 degree weather.  Since I just got a new Shimano Ultegra SL group set up on the bike, it is taking me getting a little used to it as I was always a Campy guy.  But some broken parts and some free ones always makes a person change.  I also was running some Hutchinson Fusion 2 Tubeless tires and so far, I like them.  I think with less pressure, they rode a bit nicer than the Michelin Pro3s I took off the bike.  The big advantage of the Hutchinson’s is that there is actually stock of the tires and they know how to meet the demands of the people.  I really can’t say much about the tires, as I only rode 20 miles on them, but I am guessing by the end of the week, I should have a solid opinion on them.

Tonight after work, going to take the single speed out for a little go around with some people from work to find more trails.  I plan on taking it east, to keep in line with this weeks plan.

Well, the rain made a liar out of me.  I got home last night, with my new light’s battery all charged up ready to go and the rain started to come down.  I figured there was no need to go out in the rain at this time of the year.  Rain + cold weather = Mike being sick for a while.  Again, no need for that.

Instead of riding last night, I woke up at around 6 this morning and took Campy out for a while.  There was a new piece of single track that I have been checking out for a while, so we went and checked it out.  Normally, I would just grab the bike and go, but the pup wanted to come along, so we hiked it.  Anytime she can be out running around in the woods is good stuff.  She was out splashing around in big puddles having a good time, so it was all worth it.

The skies are starting to look blue from my desk so I might get a chance to head out tonight with the new lights to see what they are all about.  Here is crossing my fingers to that.

On a side note, I dug out the old GPS and tracked some of the trails that we did yesterday morning and loaded it up on Map My Ride.  Check it out.  I think I am going to try and use the GPS a little more to see if I can track a bunch more tails out.

Today just started off on the right foot.  Came into work about an hour early and 4 of us went out in search of some quality riding.  Gotta say, we found it.  It is pretty sweet that there is so much ridable terrain and already built trails right from the parking lot.

I bought a new light today from work, the Cygolite Triden X so I am going to have to try it out tonight.  I will probably just take a little spin around, nothing major as I am letting the legs rest up for next week’s spring training.  I have seen this light in action many times as a few co-workers have them so I am super stoked to get one myself.  Let’s hope the rain slows down and stops so I can get out there tonight.

I have been playing around with my new Go Pro Helmet Cam and I tried mounting it on the handlebars of the mtb.  I must say, this is a no go.  Its pretty amazing how much the handle bars twitch from side to side during a normal ride.  I am the one that did the filming and even I got sick watching the video.  This morning I moved the mount up to my helmet so hopefully that will turn out some higher quality videos.  I think, in general, it is a much wiser move.  On the handlebars, you would see the bike come up to a pretty cool obstacle in the trail, then would see the sky, then the ground as I went up and over it.  I think with it on the helmet, you will be able to see exactly what I am seeing and hopefully have a better view of what it looks like to do a little mtbing.  At least, that is my thought and plan.

Yesterday and today, I have been doing a little product testing for some companies. Last year, I was sent a Seal Line Urban Backpack to try out while commuting to see what I thought and give them feedback on. While I rode the back for almost a year, it just never seemed to really rain on me while commuting. I am not sure why, as I rode just about every day, but it never really seemed to downpour on me so I couldn’t get a god feel for how it kept things dry. Today and yesterday were those days to see how it handled the water. No question about it. This sucker keeps things dry. It is nice and comfy on your back, lightweight, a decent size to fit all of my work clothes (including shoes and a Nalgene bottle), and if all that doesn’t tickle your fancy….It comes in orange… WOOHOO!!

The other little gem I have been trying out these last 2 days is the Go Pro Helmet Cam sent to me to give a whirl. This little camera takes some pretty decent videos, plus the waterproof case it comes with seems to keep out all moisture. I have a little movie in the works on my laptop and hopefully will get that posted up soon. The one major downfall of this thing is that it chewed its way through the fresh set of batteries that came with it. I would assume the camera works fine and that the batteries were close to DOA when they got there. Either way, the new batteries this morning helped me with the 25 minute commute to work.

Speaking of commuting, I have been using the MTB instead of the road bike. The trails are clean of snow but still are a little wet (especially with the flood warning we have been issued). For some reason, I find it easier to commute 25 minutes on the mountain bike than I do on the road bike, even in the down pour of rain. No idea why that is…