This is what trainer time looks like chez moi. The boy sets up some sort of crazy battle station out of cardboard blocks and keeps me company by imagining epic sieges. Invariably, everything gets destroyed in a massive pretend firefight and blocks and star wars guys all go flying around the basement.

The trainer is not so bad. It’s worth it to get to AZ in February with a smidge of fitness, it fits into my schedule and it certainly beats getting frostbite on my poor feet. An hour or two on the thing is totally attainable without that much suffering. Having the road bike this year, instead of the cross bike, means that the gearing is better suited to the activity. Namrita has put together a schedule for me, and it feels good to be starting to build some sort of base for all the fun that will happen in 2012.

Also been thinking about my core strength. The groin injury also affected my core and I can’t just bang out a few minutes of planks and expect everything to be happy. More like a couple of 30 second planks and then expect the next day to feel like I got punched in the gut. Slowly it will come back, surely.

Looking forward to a weekend of doing nothing special at all. Sounds perfectly boring. Maybe I’ll clean up my house, get a little work done, ride the trainer or maybe even ride outside a little bit. Or not.