Hell week

So, getting up earlyier isn't all that bad. It is the going to bed at the same time without a choice that really gets to me. I have been waking up at 1/4 to 5 everyday, which was incredibly rough the first day, a bit more mild the second, and now I just feel like a walking zombie. However, class allows me to get home just in time to not get enough sleep.

Speaking of class, I had something new happen to me last night. I slept through plenty of my freshman classes, however, I do not think I can say that my body has ever completely shut off. I was trying to write down my notes last night, and insted of the usual "dragging the pencil" down the page when you nod off, my hand just completely quit working. That's right, I would be writting, then all of a sudden I would find myself in some state of tranquilly; I looked down, and nothing was shadowing my lead point. Crazy huh?

The past few days I have been riding with Prozenberger. We took picutures yesterday commemerating our first ride in ever together (I know, slightly homo erriotic) but Jason got a new phone and I have stupid ideas. We cruised passed the gigantic tree, and then headed down the crappiest road I think I have ever had my road bike on (aside from the gravel roads that pop up here and there).

The day before, I split some time up between the trainer and the road, and Monday I could be found on the rollers and working on Butthead's favorite part of me...my six pack.

The weekend was capped off with rides inside, the one on Saturday easy, and the one on Sunday was a kick in the junk. My body feels good after the easy week last week, but I am definetly bogged down right now (did you know that in Rolla, I once got pulled over for "bogging on private property"?)

Froze toes is this weekend. The weather looks somewhat decent, but this race by nature always has some extraneous factor that makes it difficult. It will probably be Ethan and Butthead attacking the crap out of each other, meanwhile creating a tornado through the rest of the peleton.

Morning Commute Weather on Your Drive
8am
Partly Cloudy
5°F
-11°F 20% -10°F 42% From NNE 12 mph
9am
Partly Cloudy
5°F
-10°F 20% -10°F 42% From NNE 11 mph
10am
Partly Cloudy
6°F
-9°F 10% -10°F 40% From NNE 11 mph
11am
Partly Cloudy
8°F
-6°F 10% -10°F 36% From N 10 mph
12pm
Partly Cloudy
10°F
-4°F 0% -10°F 32% From N 10 mph
1pm
Partly Cloudy
12°F
-1°F 0% -10°F 29% From N 10 mph
2pm
Mostly Sunny
13°F
0°F 10% -11°F 26% From N 10 mph
3pm
Mostly Sunny
14°F
1°F 10% -11°F 24% From N 10 mph
Evening Commute See Pollen Hot Spots
4pm
Mostly Sunny
14°F
3°F 10% -11°F 24% From N 8 mph
5pm
Sunny
14°F
4°F 0% -10°F 26% From N 7 mph
Sunset 5:50 pm Check Local Pollen Forecast
6pm
Sunny
13°F
5°F 0% -10°F 27% From NNE 5 mph
7pm
Clear
12°F
4°F 0% -10°F 29% From NNE 5 mph

I actually just had the chance to watch the weather raise 1 degree...If the weather was also able to raise 1ml of water, 1 degree celcius, then our little weather world would have just expended one Joule.

It is freakin' cold outside. I am thinking of starting my car (which lives in a garge) before I go to work...yeah, it is that cold. I talked to Matt Ankney, and Mark Teruki yesterday out of Tulsa; they were bummed it was 25 degrees. If I remember right, we went and rode for a hair over 5 hours with 25 degree weahter. There is not much you should do with 3 degrees, aside from sitting inside w/caffinated beverages, and cuddling next to the heat register.

I am going to go downstairs and ride the rollers...it better be at least 6 degrees before I leave for work. If you are attempting the local noon ride today, wear something over your face.

Camp Wrap up

No, I did not just get back from Fayetteville, however, I did manage to just now catch up with my life. I was waiting for some pictures from camp to post this up, but it may be a few days yet, so here it goes.

I rolled down to Rolla Thursday night to hang out with my folks. Friday morning, I met with a local chiropractor who is an alumnus of Logan and consequently a cyclist. Dr. Peterson seems to be a great practitioner, and I would highly recomend him to all the peeps of R-town. I got on the road a bit later than expected to Ar-kansas, but I managed to get there in one piece.

The first night, we just hung around the house, waiting for everyone to arrive; over dinner, we discussed the purpose of the camp, and the expectations of the season. Our director, Andres Angulo , is a great guy. He has a great passion for the sport, and generally cares about people. I think it will be a good relationship for the team. After dinner, a bunch of relaxing and talk of the upcomming year filled the house with excitement.

Saturday brought some pretty challenging weather, as Fayetteville is usually pretty mild throughout the winter. They experienced season lows (14-22 degrees) wind and snow to boot. The snow was not heavy enough to stick, well at least for the first few hours. Our morning ride (which began at 7:30am) was pretty chill. Andres had us do a few drills, then drill it up the Hell's Kitchen climb, which we will be seeing again in less than a month. Good thing too, because I blew my entire wad on the not-so steep section of the climb, which left me red-lined for the part that hits the fan. Towards the end of the ride, we began to ride very smoothly together.

Our afternoon ride was posponed due to heavy snow dumping from the clouds above. We finally got out on the bike around 2:30 and began spinning through the white fog. At one point, I looked up the road, then at Fiddler, and asked if he could see any further than 10 feet in front of him...his reply, "you can see 10 ft?". Yeah, it was snowy. We cut the ride just a bit short, and rolled back to the Irwin's house (another team mate, who's family was gracious enough to let us take over their castle). More chatting about the season and team building commenced in the evening, as we all sat around exhausted from the day.

Sunday we woke up early to get our ride on, however a bunch of ice was keeping us off the road. We waited a few hours, let the ice melt, and got out on the road. Originally, we were planning on riding Friday's stage of Joe Martin so we could take a peek at Mt. Gaylor: instead of riding the entire loop, we rolled up the back side of Gaylor, decended the race side, then climbed back up out of Mountainburg to check it out. I have never felt as good going up that climb, (which, in the three times I have done it, I was pretty satisfied) so hopefully I won't lose 45 minutes to the leaders this year. More drills and paceline work took us back into town. After a short team lunch at Flying Burrito, a quick triple americano for the road, I was back in the car and back to Columbia.

I have been taking it easy this week, and riding when I can. Monday was a day completely off, then yesterday, I rode with TJ and K for about an hour.5. Wednesday was, you guessed it, a core workout, and today will be a short ride at tempo.

For V-day, K and I had Wes and Anne over for Thai food, and then went out to The Forge and Vine for some drinks. We stayed out a bit later than normal, but time just slipped away with the good times. K was trashed, and spilled water all over the place. She provided much of the entertainment for the evening. I also had an interview with Progerssive Spine and Rehab ; I found out yesterday I got the job, and will be starting on Monday. I will still work at Walt's, in a slightly more abbreviated fashion, and keep on turning pedals.

School is almost finished, and that will be a huge weight off my shoulders. On another note, K may go to STL this weekend to become a USCF official. It would be nice to have the option to pick up some extra sctatch each weekend, but the fact that she will be learning more about he sport really excites me. We will see. Pictures soon:

Storm of the century

It's snowing...all the better reason to head 6 hrs south to ride over the weekend. My hell week is nearly over, as I will take an exam this evening to put the icing on the cake. It has been trying, but things will be fine in 3 weeks.

Froze toes is just around the corner, and I can't tell you how excited I am to get the ball rolling with race season again. After the weekend, I should have a pretty good idea of what my schedule will look like: check back soon for details.

On a side note, check out my buddy Brocks Blog on Fly fishing...found just to your right under "good people"

I got my core work on this morning, and a bit of studying to boot. Tomorrow, I will probally hit up the rollers again, and get on the road that evening to Rolla to pay my parents a visit. I hate leaving K for 4 days, not to mention Parker and Paola. I still may wait until Friday morning to leave, but I would like to see the fam too.

Stupid Bowl

The Anti Super Bowl-Super Bowl Party. I really don't care much for professional sports, aside from a select few: cycling, wrestling (not wwf, but olympic), the X-games, and the Olympics. I could do without all the others. However, the Stupid Bowl offers K and I a great chance to have some peeps over and have a good time.

The day began with a little church action, followed by a slightly colder than cold ride. Java, a new guy named Hans, and I rolled out at 11 to make sure I got back in time to help clean house. We rolled up to Old # 7, into Harrisburg, then cruised by Tracy's mom's house, and back in. The first 20 minutes of the ride were the coldest, I believe a mere 18 degrees. As the sun rose higher overhead, the day warmed up (to a blistering 29) and my face became pliable enough to begin talking again.

The party was fun: Keven and Seth from the shop rolled over, as well as the Podium, Wes and Anne, T and Lesley, and a special guest appearnce by Java. I think the Steelers won...good for them.

This week is going to be a bit rough: I have school and work everyday, until Friday that is, when I drive down to Ft. Smith for our final team camp before the season. I also have an exam on Wednesday, which throws a curve ball into the week. However, I will only have 3 more weeks of this crap after I make it through this one.

Holy wind storms batman

Yeah, it is freakin' windy...That was me before I turned into the headwind; damn, I should have taken an after photo. I trudged through however, and managed about 4.5 hrs today. I spent the first hour .5 with Thomas and TJ. We saw this gigantic tree. It was huge! Yeah, so we did a Big tree, then Teej turned off, and T and I rolled up to New Haven...I kissed him goodbye and rolled on down to Ashland. This was the least painful part of the day, because the wind was out of the North West. As soon as I turned into Ashland, it was on like Donkey Kong.

I battled back and fourth with the wind through the turns, and it finally beat me. I had to slow my roll on, in order to make it home. I found out when I got back that it was blowing at 15mph, and gusting to 30.

None the less, the ride was good. A bit chilly, but it seems as though us Midwesterners better get used to 30 degrees once again.

I'll tell you who did it

Twas that damn ground hog. He is brining the cold weather over the weekend and next week. Actually, I had a customer inform me that if you look at the calendar, that winter was another six weeks regardless. You see, it is just another way our society tries to fool us (he used more explicit language). "spring is just around the corner!", yeah, no crap, because 6 weeks is nothing. Catch 22.

I rode bikes yesterday. It was fun. I am going to ride bikes longer today. Hopefully someone like the Teej will join me. Wednesday I lived up to my nickname: Court. Thanks Micah. I will probably do all of my work inside on Saturday, and then get out for something longish before noon on Sunday (so I can participate in our Anti-superbowl party) I originally wanted to have a bunch of people over, and watch movies or cycling flicks in lieu of the bowl game...problem is most of the people coming over, would at least like to have the game on. I may be downstairs watching the trainer-vision, with the 04 Paris-Nice kickin'.