Well, if I had a different perspective from my office I might have noticed that it was not nearly as warm outside as it looked from my window. There was a gusty cold wind coming over Mt. Mansfield that was probably dropping in temperature as it slid over all that snow. My gear wasn’t quite appropriate but there was no time for turning around and re-suiting-up.

I rode up to the Trout Club, snapped a photo, and then proceeded to freeze on the way down. Lots of snow yet in the mountains, lots of snow. Behind that snowbank is the dam of the trout pond,  I like riding up there. If you go back in the archive you’ll see photos of my bikes there in all seasons.

Stopped at the shop later to pick up the dog, and checked out my new hubs which had arrived.I knew I was getting pewter, but I didn’t know I was getting I9’s. They’re pretty sexy. Perfect for ceramic hybrid bearings.

Anywho. On top of this when my bike showed up in AZ, the front brake line was munched. So I borrowed a Magura from Deejay, which performed admirably and was returned at the end of the trip.

So after we got back from AZ, George arranged for me to get a pair of the Strokers. And then he wanted to swap out my headset for a cane creek, which i wanted in turquoise. Once all this stuff arrived, he IMed me to let me know that my bike was finally coming back together, but would not be allowed out of the shop until he was able to do some cosmetic upgrades to it. Check it.

click to enlarge

All the stuff that came over from the Jabberwocky was coordinated red. Now throw in my new brakes that are blinding white with purple bits, a turquoise headset, all the red, plus the blue on the fork upgrades - and even i had to admit that the look is, how should i put it, unappealing.

The good news is that I guess he’s building me some new wheels. The other good news is that the red stuff is going back on the Jabberwocky which will be an option again, and rigid too. The not as good news is that my bike will be hanging in the shop all lonely until he can get around to it. But more good news is that this bike will be it’s own thing and include more of my choices.

Hoping it’s ready for some trail time in PA at the end of this month.

Normally hills are my favorite, I don’t know why but my legs felt like logs. So after I completed the minimum it was home for a quick change and off to the mountain to take K snowboarding for the first time this year. It was an exercise in patience and despite the tears he did pretty well. But I really needed a good stiff beer after a crappy kind of ride and the time on the mountain.

Sunday George and K went off for a day trip all the way to ME, so I had the entire day to myself. After a little indecision and some serious issues with the Boa lacing system on my winter cycling shoes, I took the Vassago Fisticuff out for a singlespeed dirt road ride.

Thankfully mud season is just beginning, so only the top inch or two of the road was liquid and the going was pretty good. I spun for 3:30 on a mix of pavement and dirt. My choice of route was good, cause the legs were feeling even more pathetic and I was glad I had the Fisti, that drivetrain is the smoothest thing out there and I love riding it even when I feel like crap.

Then I owed the dog some outside time, so I caught up with my friend Tab while we walked for 4.25 miles. That’s a good serious day of exercise and a whole lot of sunshine.

So once again I’m going to focus on being able to get out and ride and have a good time doing it. Goals always keep me focused, so I’ve got to plan a series of fun things that will test my faster-ness as the summer goes on. There’s all sorts of fun things going on this spring and summer, and here’s what I’m currently planning:

• Singlespeed-a-palooza April 25
• PMBAR May 1 - on a team with Emily!
• Flower Power and VT Singlespeed Supreme Championships at Catamount May 16(? not sure on the date)
• East Burke Weekend May 29
• Vermont Mountain Bike Festival July 17 & 18, I’m really looking forward to an epic Hinesburg ride on the 17th
• Darkhorse 40 August 1 - maybe, not quite sure yet
• Fool’s Gold 50 August 21
• East Burke Weekend September 11
• VT50 September 26

And in between all of that I’ll be leading the Tuesday night ladies rides in Waterbury and Stowe, riding in the Wednesday Night Worlds at Catamount, and joining the Thursday night shop rides whenever I can. As well as spending 10 days in Orlando in June for work and 3-4 days in August at Lake Tahoe for work and usually a whirlwind site-inspection trip as well. Oh and trying desperately to find consistent child care for my kiddo through the entire summer.

What’s not on there is SSWC10 - just don’t think that the cost and the timing is in the cards for me this year. If I’m going to go all the way to NZ I want to be able to really do it right. And the race is the weekend prior to my BIGGEST work event of the year, so if I was to go it would have to be a really short trip.

Summer is a totally nutty time for us with something going on almost every night, the bike shop is busy all of the time and work tends to be crazy. So I’m trying my best to enjoy the unscheduled time that is early spring.

they put up the pro photos today, so i’ll share with you the highlights. I don’t seem to be able to ‘borrow’ them for my site so here are some links for you:

Going around the turn, calm is my name, control is my game.

1K from the finish, eye of the tiger.

coming into the finish area, looking pretty beat up.

My quads are still screaming, particularly the upper inside quads. I must have had a death grip on my snowplow during the descent. Time to take the skis out of the car and enjoy some of our lovely 40* weather. Much of the snow is melted and they’re even threatening some sunshine for this weekend.

at the start

My expectations going into this 16K ‘downhill’ race were low, so frankly it was fairly easy to exceed them. I descended the mountain without any crashes in about 15 minutes and felt good as we went into the uphill/cross country portion. I was climbing well, compared to the people around me, but most had better skills and could pass me on the downhills.

There was no water on the course, which I think is a problem for a race that was advertising itself with the slogan targeted toward the non-professional skier, “What do you mean you haven’t done it?” By the time I was 5 miles in, I was dying of thirst. Luckily when I got to the rec path portion a co-worker was spectating and she gave me a bottle of water. The last four miles were mainly flat along the river/rec path. I decided to try to leave everything I had out there, no small feat for someone who has the tendency to always hold back in order to go on ‘infinitely’. I set my eye on folks in front of me and reeled them in. Those last few miles flew by as I kept up my pace.

finishing

In the end my time was 2:10, not sure what place that will put me - last year that would have been good for 10 ahead of DFL  17/20 in my age group and and 181/197 overall. I put a strong effort out, I kept my heart rate really high (for me) as long as I was working, and I was fairly destroyed afterwards. But then it was only two hours. Happy to say that it’s done, don’t think I need to do it again unless I get really into skiing at some point in the future.

The cool thing is that my belt for my SSUSA belt buckle showed up. I had it custom done up with mountains and cactus in honor of Tucson, sunset dye job. Really it’s quite nice. And yes, it does has my name on the back. According to Deejay it’s supposed to say SS BADASS (that’s SS for singlespeed) - but i’m a little too humble to make myself a belt that says that. And i would have had it say my cool trail name, but i don’t have a cool nickname.

On Tuesday I took my skis out and across the street into Town Loops. These are the trails that I bike (and run when I’m running) all the time. I know them better than the back of my hand.

My ski started well enough, everything is fine on the flats. It’s the downhills that get sketchy. I was doing my second small loop when I crashed my kneecaps, both of them, into a rock. And then I was pissed.

And then I skied over my 40th pile of deer poo, and I cursed to myself, “doesn’t anyone clean up after their damn deer!”

2-3 more practice skis, and then I will do this race and then I’ll collect my t-shirt, have a beer and only ski flat terrain. This just isn’t working for me.

Between Friday’s downhill cross country ski, 1.5 hours on the skis on Saturday, and 2.25 hours on the singlespeed on Sunday - I had completely and utterly obliterated my quads. Hard to fathom that the week prior those same legs did over 46 miles with less complaints.

Sunday’s ride was snowy, but not too cold. My One9 is in transit so I happily rode my Fisticuff. At first I had planned to do a bit of climbing to start the ride, but 1/4 of the way up Loomis hill my legs were yelling. So I exercised my right to re-route and headed toward River Road for something a little more flat.

The photo is from my foray onto the Waterbury Rec path. It’s a short path connecting (sorta) the Center with the Village. They don’t maintain it in the winter but with our scant snow pack I decided to give it a try. Not too bad on the way down, but definitely challenged my balance skills and I did not attempt to ride up it on the way back.

First I needed to focus on the bike and getting ready for SSUSA/SSAZ, but now that it’s passed it’s time to get ready to ski on the 28th of February. In fact, I hadn’t been on my skis yet this year prior to yesterday. But yesterday they were offering the opportunity ride the lift and pre-ski the Toll Road downhill. I went up with two women from work, one is a good skier and the other had never actually skied before. I didn’t realize this before we went up or I probably would have discouraged her. Skiing downhill on cross country skis is not easy, and she suffered many crashes but kept a great attitude.

My snowplow is terrible and I have a great fear of not being able to stop. So my descent was stressful. However I do feel a bit more confident than I did before yesterday. Planning to go out and ski this afternoon, but there’s not a lot of snow out there and I’m not quite sure where to go.