Early Morning Sun Post-Blizzard

Finally got most of the driveway shovelled. The sun was blaring when I walked the dog this morning.

Snowed In Stupidity

We're seeing the beginnings of a blizzard here in CT. This was my driveway an hour after shovelling. With no where to go and no chance of riding outdoors I chose to workout indoors today.

For the first time in a long while I used the trainer with my road bike. Korey and I watched the Giants game in the music studio while I got in about 40 minutes of spinning. I also did some basic strength exercises. Thats when the "stupidity" kicked in. I was doing standing rows with a large exercise band attached to a door knob. I never imagined this would have happened. In my third set, fifth rep the door handle ripped off the door and came flying at me like a slingshot. It hit me square in the sternum and took me right down to the floor gasping for breath. I felt like such an idiot. Took me a good minute to recover and tell Korey I was OK. At least I thought I was OK.

And here is the proof. Look at the scroll of the handle clearly imprinted in my belly.

So now I am exhausted from a good workout, shovelling 6 inches of snow, and another disgusting Giant's loss. And to make matters worse, my belly is sore and bruised.

Taco Eve

Mark and I set out for a late afternoon ride before Christmas Eve but disaster struck when Mark hit some hidden rocks below the leaves. He endo'd and wound up tacoing his front tire. He tried bending it back to no avail. He had to walk home. I tried to race back to my car in time to catch up with him on the road but he was just a few feet from his driveway when I met up with him.

So it ended up being a shortened ride on this 33 degree day in Connecticut on the Upper Gussy Trail. Just 3 miles in 40 minutes. I finally got my riding clothes right where I need them to be. I just got new gloves from EMS for winter riding and a new Specialized helmet. Felt very comfortable and warm today.

Here is my new GPS on the stem. I have great stats now and just loaded it up to TrainingPeaks.

Cool Winter Riding

It was 34 degrees at the start and 30 degrees at the finish. Very, very icy in several spots. Otherwise it was pretty clear and crunchy. It was the fourth ride of the week for me and I was feeling strong. The other rides were indoors so they may not count but I've been pushing hard even with the indoor workouts.

With the cold temps I was pretty bundled up. I probably had one too many layers on top. My hands were cold at first with my new Gore gloves and Smartwool liners but after a while with all the climbing I was pretty toasty. Shoe covers and balaclava were key.

Here is my friend and CT Chapter New England Mountain Biking Association President Mark Lurie. We were in all orange to avoid the hunters and we had our headlights because it was the end of the day and you never know what might happen.

And now a trip down memory lane. Gigging with Andy about 12 years ago in the Village.

Winter is Really Here!!

It was 18 degrees this morning when I left for work. This is the coldest December I can remember in a while. I was hoping to ride this morning but I worked too late last night and didn't get enough sleep. Instead, I think I will do the stationary bike during lunch.

Another reason I couldn't ride was my bike was frozen in ice.

I am thinking about doing a mountain bike race in April. I'm looking at doing a training program from Training Peaks to prepare. Now that I have the Garmin 705 I can upload data to keep track of my training on the Training Peaks website. I want to be careful to not overdo the whole data thing however. This has been a good riding year for me because I've been more focused on "doing" as opposed to "thinking" and I don't want to lose that.

GPS

Got a good deal on one of these off craigslist. Can't wait to make use of it. Mapping, training etc...

I was out the door at 5:15AM for a 45 minute ride. It was 27 degrees. Good thing I was indoors on the stationary bike LOL....got a really good interval workout in.

680 FT Elevation in 25 minutes

Climbed to the top of Blue Mountain today. This is the other side of the mountain from where I work at Blue Mountain Middle School. I am very lucky to have one of the Northeast's best mountain bike trail systems right here at work. It was 38 degrees when I started and dropping. But I was dressed warm, almost too warm.

We had a huge storm last night and there were trees like this down on the trail every so often. And the trails were wet so I mostly stuck to the wider fire roads.

Here I am near the top.

And even closer to the top. Another 40 minutes and the sun will be down.

Finally made it to the top. A grueling 25 minute climb with a total elevation of 680 feet. I was sucking wind on a few very steep sections. I haven't had enough climbing in the last couple of weeks. That's the Hudson River in the background.

And on the way back down. Rock formations everywhere here. Just like Florida, not.

So long from not so warm and sunny NY. Send some warmth and sunshine.