big ass beer to go

first ride w/snow on the pavement today, temps in the high 20's. felt pretty good considering what i did to myself over the wknd. 2 days in memphis on beale st - good times. zoof, mike, chris and i basically drank beers all day, had many laughs and found salvation from completely debilitating hangovers in the "big ass beers to go" sold all about. after drinking guinness and such all day, the 24oz coors lites were refreshing, like drinking beer flavored seltzer water - put some fluids back in our guts. friday was kinda dead on beale, too cold to stand outside, but with a marathon finishing on beale saturday morning, then a stones concert at the fedex center that night, warmer temps, there was a really good fun-loving crowd roaming the streets - all with big ass beers. bumped into a dude from our hometown we hadn't seen in 12-13 years and talked to all sorts of folks. some of them had to be told to shove-off, but most were worth meeting.

didn't see any live music, but it kept finding us. anyone that knows zoof, knows that he has to be in control of the music while on a bender - it's how he finds spiritual happiness. we (he) quickly found a satellite jukebox to keep his chi harmonious - and camped-out at that bar for the next 36hrs with a break at a Denney's and 5-6hrs of sleep thrown-in for good measure. by 8am, zoof was calling for our "pussy asses" to get out of bed and down to beale. i wouldn't eat again until 2pm on sunday, just all beer. dragged my feet enough that the first wasn't poured till a little after 11 on sat... and the last at 1a. big ass beer to go please. not for a while for this guy. while it was fun to roll old-school for the wknd, see andy off berore he ships-out, it would have been awesome to have gotten these guys on the ski hill in vail, pushed ourselves pysically during the day, then gone out at night - or at least i wouldn't feel like such a piece today if i had gotten some efforts in!

had a good week of power work last wk, more of the same this week. adding-in plyometrics and stairs more consistently. still haven't committed to a gym. never have found joy in one - and there's something to be said for using only your body to strengthen your body. my old college xc coach was ex-CIA and helped create the training program for SEALS back in vietnam era. he was a bad-ass of unexplainable nature and his strength training regimen is what i use to this day. push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, dips, plyometrics - and a heavy dose of hard efforts. will it make me the best endurance rider? nope, but even if i took drugs and did everything "by the book" i still wouldn't be, so who cares. it's all about what works - and what you find joy in doing.

back is still not even close to 100%. was hoping this past wknd off the bike would help. if it doesn't improve to 85-90% by dec 15 i'm going to hit some massage, maybe chiro. don't want to get into a position of having it be jan 15-feb 1st and unable to do the 4-6hr rides that are necessary at that point in my training calendar, better to rest now/over holidays if necessary...