Hooly Hill

Friday, I was delighted to see that the earlier week forecast was incorrect and the day was warmish and dry. I wasn't really planning on it, so I got done what I needed to and headed out for a nice long ride. I didn't get on the road until 1pm.

I needed some hill work yet this week so I went northwest on my ss cx bike towards Holy Hill. According to my high-priced cycling coach, which is really a low-priced used book, at this stage of the season I should be riding up to 8% grade while in the saddle. Who am I to argue with my coach-book-thingy? Every incline I met over my 80 mile ride I stayed in the saddle and I am pretty sure some where just a tad over 8%. Yet, even though my book-coach-interwebs training thinks I am using gears, I was able to do the workout.

Good news, my snow riding has payed off with a good power base this year. Bad news, between the longest bumpiest country road ride on my cx saddle I have ever done and the energy spent yesterday, I am left with little motivation today to hop on my rollers. So I am writing this instead.

The temperature and weather were weird yesterday. At the lake it was foggy and 40, when I got about 15 miles north and 5 miles west it got into the 50's and sunny, but that isn't the weird part. As I approached the Holy Hill area the temps dropped, big time, and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. It was like I was climbing into the mountains. Which isn't true. It's called Holy Hill, not Holy Mountain. I think that is someplace else.

The way back was filled with drizzle and fog so thick the trees were dripping. All in all a good interesting ride.

Come on SPRING!

In my office at home, when I look to the left, this is what I see. I have ridden it 4 times, 6 months ago. I can't wait to get out and ride some trails. I am ready to ween off the base miles and start hitting it. It's going to be at least another month until the trails are ridable. Must...keep...motivated [dying super hero]

It's going to be a fun and interesting year. I'm already psyched for cx even though it's 6 months off. I'm still not sure who, if anybody, I will be racing for this year. Team Seagal MKE has burned down, and like a phoenix, the Haymakers have grown from the ashes. The revamped club is great, but not necessarily a race team. I also don't know of any of them that are doing the same events as me.

Not that if someone is wearing a different kit it makes much difference to me, I'll ride, race, and talk with whoever is having fun, but it would be nice to have that extra camaraderie during the xc races and the strategic help in cx races. Something that being on the same race team gives.

On another note, we got Eric's sweet 2010 Kona Big Unit pretty much built up yesterday. So now he can stare at a bike and yearn for dry trails too!

Well, that's enough rambling.

Crazy Week

It has been a crazy week. Lauren and I have been staying in Jackson to take care of my mom after she got out of the hospital, my sister broke her ankle while her husband was in Florida on business, Lauren and I have been taking turns with a nasty head cold. Needless to say, it would be best to call it a "rest" week for riding.

Always thankful.

Sloth love Chunk

As I sit here and once again slide my hat brim to the left to center it, I have come to the realization that while my head isn't quite like this:

My head is lopsided. This winter I have done a lot of cold weather riding with a balaclava. I have to constantly pull the opening to the left because it slowly works its way over to the right. If I let it go, the opening would be over my right ear after a 3 hour ride.

I have noticed that I do the same thing with all my hats. In fact, since I started writing this article, my hat brim has turned 45 degrees to the right. What the heck!?!

Has everyone else noticed this about my head from the side or back and just not told me?

River Trails not quite ridable

This was the scene on Tuesday. The snow was flying and it was in the low 20's. A perfect time to ride. The River Trails have been unusable because of January's weather, leaving them a mixture of shear off-camber ice and mud. I thought that with the 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow they would be ridable.

Andy, Ian, Brandon, Layla(the pup) and I headed out for a snowy adventure. Brandon had just gotten back from visiting his home country, Oregon, for 2 months. This was his first real snow ride ever. I wish the trails had been in better shape for that reason alone.

We rode about a mile of trail and decided it was too frustrating to pursue any further, so we hopped onto the Oak Leaf trail. Andy and Layla turned back after a while and the rest of us tooled around the city for another hour or so. It was a lot of fun, at least for me, seeing how this was my first non-solo ride since I went to STL almost a month ago. Hopefully, I can match up my schedule better with the guys around here in the coming months.

Living in the House

A person who believes in the influence of the unseen, or spiritual forces is considered by science to be superstitious. And to be sure, some beliefs are superstitious. But to lump all such beliefs together is to shut one's eyes to a large part of life. There are a range of reactions to the spiritual world. And perhaps what we are commonly told to be the most logical may not be true.

So here is my proposal. There are different ways to react to the exact same occurrence. But we don't often stop and think about what that actually means. Here is an illustration to show what I am talking about of which I will be writing a whole series upon:

Four people are in the upstairs of a 2 story house. They all hear a noise coming from the 1st floor. The 1st person stays upstairs. She isn't sure what happened or why it did, but just in case she walks in a circle three times. Then smashes a glass with a loud yelp. She does this hoping to appease the noise maker.

The 2nd person says that he can figure out what made the noise. He has never been on the 1st floor. And the guy walking in circles is frankly freaking him out. The first guy can't be right. The second person figures that the source of the noise is actually somewhere upstairs. He knows the upstairs. So he looks around the upstairs for clues. He creates some theories with what he finds upstairs, and some sound reasonable. But there are always holes in the theories, so he can't actually prove them. But he keeps looking.

The 3rd person isn't sure what made the noise, but it sure sounded like it came from the 1st floor. So she goes to the 1st floor to see if the noise might explain itself. She finds clues that clearly came from the noisemaker. So she pursues it further. She notices that she can hear the other people move around upstairs. The longer she stays, it becomes more and more obvious that a fight is taking place on the 1st floor and it affects the upstairs too. She can't wait to tell the others.

The 4th person doesn't really care what the others do as long as they are quiet. After all, his favorite T.V. show is on.

Which person are you closest to? I will be writing this as a series of quick blurbs about what happens in the house.

30 degrees? Let me take off my coat.

Friday I got out for about 4 hours. I rode an out and back and got just about to Port Washington. The wind from the North was harsh, so the ride back was spinnerific. It was also a warm ride back. The temps were in the 30's. I was sweating like crazy without the wind to evaporate it. This is the time of the year wear clothing starts to get tricky. I know one thing, when I am sweating like that I don't stop moving for longer than a stop light, otherwise I'll never get my body temp back up.

This morning I went to the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum. It was really cool. Just think, we have copies of Scripture from over 2,000 years ago. Someone wrote this stuff down, not just to keep a history of it, but so that we would learn knowledge they had preserved. In a way, the Dead Sea scrolls were actually written for us, nuts!

Well, I have to hit it, the Soup Challenge cook off is tonight.