I mapped out the Trevor Ride, which is where I go to have my ass kicked every Sunday morning.

Snow!

I felt like I was back in SD this week. Big fluffy snow flakes falling from the sky.




Is that guy holding an umbrella in the snow?


No biking in the snow, thats for sure. Spent some good quality time on the trainer.



In other news, my insulin usage has been way down. I figured I would need more insulin as carbed it up during training, but its actually been down. I've gone from 55-60 units a day down to the mid 40's. I'm not sure exactly why it is, but its just one of the many cool things about the new pump.

Today there was a wicked wind coming out of the west. Every time I was going east, I'd throw it in the 11t and crank things up to 30 or 35, then just ride the wind as long as my legs would hold out, like a sailboat out on the water. It was tons of fun, but now my legs are tired.

Competition

Every year, theres someone I'm competing against who sticks out in my mind. Three years ago, it was Some Guy on an old Schwinn Homegrown. He obviously couldn't ride single track well, but he would pull away from me on every climb and, because of it, Guy beat me every time we raced together.

Two year ago, it was Eppen, putting it in a higher gear and motoring past everyone in the race like it was no big deal. To a lesser extent it was ED who would, at the drop of a hat, gap us all on any training ride.

Last year it was Woell, who pulled away from the peleton with ease in just about any race. Every time he would go, it would be all I could do just to hang onto a wheel in the chase group and I was just amazed by his speed.

I wonder who it will be this year?




In other news, I don't get VS from my cable provider, so I won't be watching any of the Tour of California. Are you?

Mountain biking

Flying through the trails with Tboughts.....


Trails are fun!

I'm getting a new phone pretty soon with a kick ass camera, so hopefully there will be some better pictures soon.

Today wraps up an impromptu rest weekend. I'd been riding pretty heavily the last couples weeks and a few things combined to give me a few days off.

1) My dang shifter broke! I ebayed a new one and its on its way, but its hard to ride when you can't shift gears.

2) It got cold for the first time. Not negative-40-international-falls cold, but cold enough that it was too cold to ride at the beginning of this week.

3) I just got a little tired of riding, so few days off didn't hurt.

So I took off friday and saturday, had a nice easy ride with Tboughts on sunday, monday off again and on tuesday I'll cut the ride back a little.

Riding the bonk

For the second Sunday in a row.

Dave Zabriskie

Craziest. Interview. Ever.

A few weeks ago, I was complaining about the winter gloves I got this year. Now, I've been doing a lot of riding in cooler temperatures lately (and since I don't want to seem like a big whiner), so I thought I'd write about some of the clothes I've really enjoyed having.

My go to article this year has been my windbreaker from Bellwether (in a toned down blue, not yellow).
Its a lightweight, tightly woven nylon thats just about completly windproof, but it packs down to about the size of a softball. I take it on just about every ride, in case it gets a little cooler than I thought. Its cut perfect too, so it doesn't ride up my arms or flap in the wind.

My Pearl hat is warm and (pretty much) windproof, but still thin enough to bring on every ride. It also comes on every ride.

This is my new favorite:
Its Louis Garneau's cycling version of a track jacket. Nice and warm with fleece on the inside and its totally awesome. Does it do much that a jersey over a shirt wouldn't do? No. But I still wear it every chance I get.

Trevor Ride

I went on my first group ride of the season today, the Sunday morning 'Trevor' ride. Its where all the local strong guys show up and turn the screws extra tight. It was a 65 mile out and back affair, hilly at first and flatter the second half. I got dropped,
around mile 30. Its better to get dropped in January than June.