Can’t quite fall asleep so I thought I’d banter on here about the start of the season.  Last season was a handful.  I felt alot of responsibility to help the ValueAct team expand for 2008 and, alot of pressure to perform, and hectic schedule - it was alot to recover from. 

In preparation for a very full NRC schedule this year, I have taken my time getting ramped up for this season.  Have only raced once so far (Santa Rosa) and I am just recently getting going with some hot intervals.  Next big team race is Sequoia.  Today I started my workout with enthusiasm to crush it on the bike.  It made me feel happy, weather was good, 2 cups of coffee, no leg warmers - I was living large.  By the end of my workout I had inflicted enough suffering on myself that my mood changed (or maybe my caffeine high was wearing thin?) and I was feeling a little negative. 

Some people like Hernando have such sickening and endless enthusiasm for suffering on the bike - I envy him. 

I am, however, not one of those people.  Love the ride, but easy like Sunday morning is more my style than a lunch time hammer fest.  Intervals are a love-hate relationship for me, I love the feeling of accomplishment I get but I don’t actually like to do them.  Still, they always get done. 

So finally I feel the need to pay my dues in the Central Valley (another love-hate relationship, more emphasis on the love than the hate) and race at CVC this weekend.  Cool course downtown in the Tower District of Fresno and it looks like the women’s field is super star with High Roads, Colavita, and then all the West Coast teams. 

I was also terribly entertained today that cyclingnews.com used “Nobody puts baby in the corner” as a subheading in their news report for women’s cycling in North America.  80’s movies are a constant source of inspiration.

And now I gotta go to bed.

Just wanted to take a quick break from adjusting my new cleats (more on that later) to do a little cut n paste stuff here. . .   

Ken Says:
January 17th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

As a surgeon who’s job it’s been to scrape extruded grey matter from the sculls of retards who have turned themselves into vegetables or corpses- please wear a helmet even if you are sure it’s not necessary for you. Glad this blog shows picture of a well know Europro wearing his. There is young local pro back who flaunts his helmet-less kit. As cruel as it sounds I’m glad he got dropped from his top tier team so that maybe his adoring fans might think not wearing his helmet has something to do with it.

HELL YEAH WEAR YOUR HELMET YO.

I’m not sure what when wrong with the colors here.? I call it 80’s night tropical sunrise mango fiesta.

According to me. Just finished a long ride in weather that was raining puppies. Just kidding, I wish it was raining puppies but it’s actually raining cats and dogs. So on to the important stuff. Now these aren’t the usual cold weather tips, these are some very tricky tips that I have brainstormed while riding in rain and snow with a smile. Ok, so listen up yo. 

1. Wrap your feet in a layer of plastic wrap.  Apply this over your socks and under your shoes, then put a shoe cover over your shoe.  This will mostly help to keep your feet warm, even when your shoes are soaking wet and it does not affect the fit of your shoe at all.  This also helps to lengthen the time it takes for the water to go from outside your shoe to the point your toes get wet.  If you can make it an hour or two before your toes actually get wet, then you are off to a good start.  Don’t do anything silly and wrap your entire body in plastic wrap or nothing, that’s for crazy people ok. 

2.  Bring two pairs of gloves.  Put one pair on your hands and another pair in your pocket.  Save the second pair for the last hour of riding in the day, when the weather is getting really cold and you’ve already soaked through your first pair of gloves.

3.  Always wear a hat.  For girls out there, I know this can be tricky with the pony-tail n helmet situation.  I take scissors and cut a pony-tail hole in the back of the had so that it all fits together nicely.  Although it may be tempting, I recommend pig tails as a designated on the bike hair style for Espoirs only.  That applies to both boys and girls please.

4. Riding in the rain and cold weather in general can be trying on all skin areas.  I think that the face is often an area neglected by cyclists in the winter, however the cold weather and road gunk is not good for your skin.  You gotta apply lotion and lots of it to your face, and I think it’s even a real good idea to wear one of those neck warmer things, especially on descents towards the end of theday. 

5.  And now I just got an important email from Beth regarding this topic.  Let’s face it, sometimes the weather is going to get so bad that it’s just not worth it to go outside.  In that case you should stay inside and watch Footloose n the yellow bug while you ride the trainer or rollers.  But here’s the thing, trainers are noisy.  So here’s my last tip: captions.  Put the volume up enough so you can hear the music n stuff, but put the captions on so you can read the words while you ride and not make your neighbors hate you.  Not only is this more interactive than watching with volume alone, it may also increase your vocabulary. 

Kevin Bacon knows what’s up.