Huge huck

sunday was a complete wash, just didn't feel up to riding. this head and chest cold is sucking the life out of me. but, after 3 decent wks in a row, was probably good to take it easy last wk. jan hours are at about 40, which is 10 lower than i would have liked, but there's plenty of time to get the saddle time in... ended-up taking 3 out of 4 january Sundays off vs doing a 2-3hr ride, thus the "missing" 10hrs of saddle time for the month...

this wk started with 60mins indoor instead of 20-40, try to ease the indoor time up a bit and get more sat/sun rides in vs taking sundays off, build that endurance base back-up...

in snow news, check-out this photo sent by allison m. not just pretty crazy, but full-out lunacy:

dayquil

Chugged-down a couple quarts of Dayquil yesterday morning in preparation for what we were hoping would be a snow epic... servers crashed at work due to power failure, had to divert and head into office, this delay launched me into a frenzy of f-bombs like no other. if my F-bombs were A-bombs there wouldn't even be coackroaches left. i showed crazy-late for the ride, andy and ken had already done recon, no dice on the snow. ken suggested i leave my heaviest tires on as we'd be riding on some crap. my Dayquil induced mind didn't notice they were changing-off their studs for semi-slicks. let the road rip begin! it was a good one. ken hadn't ridden in forever, but showed some serious mental and physical presence to hang on this one. andy and i were on fire from a couple easy days due to snow/sickness and whatnot. legs and back are feeling it today and the cold has seeped back in, but haven't had the Dayquil crack yet today. wait a sec, that reminds me ... just took a couple good pulls from the bottle. hopefully by the time i get my gear-on for an easy couple hr road ride it'll have kicked-in as i feel like complete dogshit right now. probably shouldn't be riding... might need to take a nap to think it over.

oh yeah, you got to check-out the video link from andy's blog, saw the craziest thing yesterda...

Alito

the news has been pretty reviting this week, too much to get into really. we all have google news... but Alito's nomination is too imminent to ignore. here's a scary bit:

"Sam Alito then went on to Princeton University, where his yearbook entry predicted that one day he would warm a seat on the Supreme Court." read short bio here.

that means his entire career has been focused on this one goal, ambition guiding every decision. i don't think anyone has an f'ing clue what this man will do once on the Court, he will finally be free to be his true self. ambition of this sort i find frightening, too political, not in my opinion what a Supreme Court justice should be. too tired and sick to get into it any further. time to get rockin' to work. servers are down for some reason, that's kinda my job, so i should probably get my ass in gear and down to the office. probably wouldn't have gone to work today otherwise. too sick to ride = too sick to work. slept like poo last night, forgot to take the most important aspect of the cure-all before bed last night - the 2 fingers of scotch (nyquil isn't bad either).

big snow epic planned for tomorrow with andy and brad. haven't seen brad in a while, will be good to ride with that lunatic. just need this cold to break-out of my head otherwise it'll be a long, hard day tomorrow, or worse yet - a day on the couch.

Nice Guy Eddie Cabot - is dead

i liked chris penn, thought he was a decent actor, a bit one-dimensional, but who cares, you knew what you were getting when he was on screen. he'd been directing some indy films and from what i understand they haven't sucked... now that he's dead, i bet they do twice as well. cynical, but true.

Since we're talking about news, it looks like Alito will squeak through Congress now that he made it through a completely partisan Senate committee (how can we let him warm a seat on the supreme court w/o knowing his stance on r vs w?). Talking about warm, 2005 was hottest on record, which may in part account for the whale in the Thames (whales aren't supposed to swim in rivers, right?). Theo's back with the Sox, we all (Red Sox Nation, that is) freaked-out when he left, but now are cranky as hell that he's back. Iran wants nukes, but who doesn't!?, i think i'll grab a couple myself. Military analysts warn that our military is stretched to breaking, but Rumsfeld says it's fine - hmmm, Iran wants nukes after sending endless dollars to Iraq to fund the insurgents, then they make their move to acquire nukes. Anyone else see this f'ing shit coming 2 yrs ago!?!?! And finally, the new Pope warns us of "loveless sex" - wow, thanks Pope, w/o your new guidance, i may have banged that wicked-hot waitress last night (umm, if i wasn't married that is).

el stinko sicko

i wash my hands 10times/day, never touch doornobs, press elevator buttons with knuckles, rarely ride public transit, you know, all the stupid things cyclists do to keep those pesky germs at bay. got some good riding in last week (considering it's january!), but just didn't get enough sleep - and that was all it took for the bad ju-ju to settle-into the chest and sinuses for a little germ holiday. i've sent-in the home team to battle the germs (sleep, vit c, pineapple, and a couple fingers of scotch) and have taken the riding down a notch this week to recouperate. don't want this thing to linger-on or strengthen, just want it to take its course and get the heck out of my chest and head! first cold in over a year... with all this winter riding, the weight and body fat is lower than normal (for winter), wonder if that made me more susceptible? crapper. at least i'm not shitting myself like i did last time i was sick. it's like going back in time to when you were 2. makes me think of the post by jason yesterday. yucko.

that being said, is 6" of crunchy snow too much to trail ride on? we've managed to night ride once a wk all winter long, it's been fantastic! and don't want to cancel this wk's ride due to a little snow... i should go home and ride the indoor instead of stressing-out the system with the cold air... but what fun would that be? as usual, i'm conflicted - and will probably make the worst choice possible given the situation - long night ride, then stand by the car in wet clothes while we talk shit and have a couple beers. who knows, maybe by 6pm common sense will kick-in or this cold will have me so run-down that the 4 cups of coffee and 2 espresso shots won't be enough to get me going and i'll simply fall over.

lunch time's ovah, time to get some work done. the boss kicked me some loot yesterday, so i guess i better earn it, pay-off that giant-ass tv. time for another double espresso!

guilty consumerism

i'd been thinking about buying this lcd tv for a year or so - 32 inches of flat-screen heaven. then, on black friday ,they dropped the price to $699. i asked jenn if it could be xmas gift, she sighed deeply then agreed to give into almost a year of me mentioning (aka, nagging) how awesome a tv like this would be. it will surely enrich our lives and make us better people. ha!

a few hours later at microcenter, as i eyed 32" of flat-screen wonder with my bro-in-law chris riding shotgun, i realized this was it - pure unadulturated consumerism at it's very best. in the spirit of the moment (and being told the 32" lcd had sold-out at 10am), i reached for the stars and asked about the 37 inch'er. 5 extra inches in the right hands holds a lot of potential. chris was all about the extra 5 inches - and it included a built-in hd tuner, which the smaller one did not. with $500 of black friday rebates on the table, i nabbed the 37" and waited for it to arrive in the warehouse. and waited and waited and waited.

when i finally brought the sucker home, i'd had plenty of time to thinkabout all the benjamins we'd sacrificed for this not-so-small pleasure. when we took the sleak black screen out of the box, i was floored. it was huge! in the showroom, they put 32" tv's next to 50" tv's and the 32" looks tiny... at home the 37" of flat-screen nirvana seemed way too much.

jenn and i slowly got accustomed to this massive new screen, even looked forward to watching some shows, but it wasn't as clear as expected. cable is plugged-in, but nothing is in hd? what gives? i was pretty bummed and disappointed in myself for dropping some many duckets on such a silly item, especially with the picture quality only so-so. but wait, the story has redemption! kinda. jenn finally sniffed-out the dealeo when we were at a favorite pub for dinner watching some college hoops on espn hd. she realized we're simply not getting the hd channels and to call the cable company... brilliant!

wham! 10 channels of hd perfection now grace our hallowed halls. watching the Steelers pound the piss out of the broncos was incredible. you can see the grass and dirt flying-off their cleats. the guilt for being such a rapid consumer is still there, but it doesn't feel so bad at all now. not bad at all.

another great wk of january riding

this has to be the best riding weather for january new england has ever seen. the 10-day forecast looks to be more of the same, no more 55 degree days, but we've had so many, can't complain about temps in the 30's. that's just downright balmy for this time of year. global warming is killin' the ski hill, but the bike legs are pretty damn happy.

re-cap on last week's sessions:

Monday, rest

Tuesday, 30mins indoor, 90 min commute (hard day)

Wednesday, 45mins indoor, 90min commute (medium day)

Thursday, 20mins indoor, 140min mtbike night rip with andy & barry (hard day) - lost front brake 40-50mins into ride, was really riding well until then, after that took some real nice falls, but also had some real fun, "slip-n'-slide" action as i threw the bike around to compensate for lack of brakes...

Friday, 20mins indoor, 80min commute (easy day)

Saturday, 180min road ride with rob - hill work, rob put together a great hill loop. temps near 60! but wind out of nw at 20+mph, tough first 90mins, had to pull-over to stretch, but ride home was a blast - 20+mph tailwind is incredible experience. can't believe i've ridden 2-3 times this weeks in shorts only. last year it was single digits... and this ride would have been inside, watching one of the many movies my folks bought me for xmas, trying to simulate hills by doing tempo pieces. heck of a lot more fun to ride hills outside!

Sunday, who knows what today will bring... 2hr mtbike ride easy? sounds good to me, better get my honey-do list done so i can get my ass outside. andy and barry hooked-up for a "jump off shit" ride this a.m., but andy claims he's willing to ride again at 2p - at least both our legs will be shot.

Home Depot here i come...

big wind

was about to ride home, phone rang, it was jenn. 40-50mph gusts, sleet and some imbedded thunder. i am officially not allowed to ride the bike home. ridden in almost all conditions, but this storm crosses the line i guess. got some good work in this morning, good rides on-tap for tomorrow... the wind tonight would have been brutal, legs will be nice and "fresh" now.

our plans for moving to VT are solidifying, not in a "we have jobs" way, but in resolve. there's always a possibility the owner of my firm will be comfortable with me working from home most of the time, with a weekly or bi-weekly visit to the office for management meetings, collaboration, etc... won't know till i talk to him about it - and he's traveling for next couple-few weeks or i'll just commute once a wk and stay in boston for a while, make a transition... who knows, but now there's resolve.

Where to live in VT? we're thinking Burlington. biggest city there, pretty hip scene...

need a new snow dance

It rained and rained and rained. then it got cold. insanely cold. penquins were hanging-out in front the house smoking cigs.

sunday morning came with grim news, little snow fell and 60mph winds were pummeling Sugarbush, most lifts were offline. what are a couple hard-core idiots to do? hike. hike-up the f'ing mtn 'cause we ain't getting a ride. luckily for us, though, the kid working the one operating lift (to mtn mid-point) let us jump-on w/o a ticket... well, we kinda just slid past, it was so f'ing nasty no one in their right mind was out anyway... sheet ice covered the slopes with 2-4" of blown powder pooling-up here and there. we then hiked for about a mile off the Inverness lift before slapping the gear-on for an interesting ride down - just tried to stay between the moguls were the snow lay the thickest, had a pretty awesome run! was smiling the whole way, can't beat that. mike jordan, sean linskey, and steve were on-hand to brave the elements. 0 degrees, 20-40mph winds lower down. not so bad. for one run that is.

3 days. no bike. pretty weird, but it's early in the yr, a little extra rest is good anyway. right?... but i don't feel good about it.

after another great wknd in VT (weather aside), Jenn and I have officially decided we need to live there. and that's that. now we just need to find jobs. and a house. but shit, w/the equity we have in this 1957 boston saltbox, that'll be the easy part. finding work in northern VT. that's a bitch.

time to do a snow dance

wknd weather is totally sketchy. looking at 1-2" of rain followed by modest snows. all depends on how fast the cold air moves in, how slowly the low pressure moves-out, blah, blah, blah... right now the forecast is for 7-12" of snow in northern VT, will it be enough for some epic pow-pow after all this rain? you know it's a complex system when the weather dudes don't even try to guess. i'm getting-out the voodoo sticks, some chicken blood, all that good stuff, time for some witch-doctor ju-ju, get these snows to come-down!

another fine week in the saddle. getting-in a couple hours per day, enjoying the warm weather, way ahead of where i was in the training cycle last year...

i'm sure folks have seen that bud lite commerical where the guy puts a helmet and googles on to handle the stress of staying 2mins past 5pm on a friday. well, it's 5pm, been working my butt off this wk, time to get the bike clothes on and hammer home. nothing beats riding to/from work to clear the mind. here comes a co-worker with that look, the "i know you're about to leave, but..."

time to roll. have a good one.

yeah, yeah!

temps last night were near 50! caught miracle traffic out of the city, made it to trailhead right on time. then spent 20-30mins changing the wrong wheelset over to maxxis hansventures from the nokian hakka's. barry was patient, but let me know i'd just wasted 20mins of his life. i'm a shithead sometimes, no doubt.

95% of the snow was gone, conditions were amazing for january! a thick mist made things kinda "spooky", but not in a bad sense. at times i felt like my balance/equilibrium were way off, would lean too far to right/left on tight technical lines, but was able to rip some others i'd have trouble cleaning during a sunny afternoon. weird. it was also Bronte-dog's first night ride, no problems there, looks like she'll be rollin' with at night us more often... Early in the ride Barry put aside any doubt that conditions were spectacular with an enormous 10' drop onto a pretty flat and tight landing pad. opposite ride for andy who left the studded tires on and was really slipping-out - being new to studded tires, we now know they're a real liability when temps are above freezing and ice is minimal. hard to know what to expect out there, though, conditions change so fast in new england - lots of guessing at the trailhead as to how much snow would be laying around out there...

rode last night and today in shorts, no jacket, just one layer of capliene w/a jersey on top to break the wind. it's january!?

HUGE snows on tap for this wknd. got an invite to stay with some cool cats up at the Bush - could be an epic powdah wknd if the weather model in place holds true!

mid-winter thaw

night ride t-nite up north shore way. taking advantage of the warmer temps (about 45), supposed to start raining as the ride begins. nice. there's enough ice to warrent the studded tires, but the terrain is so rocky and rough, bound to loose about 100 studs on t-nite's stealth mission. i guess it's worth it as nothing is worse than an ice crash - one of those totally unprepared crashes where the wheels slide-out and you're on the ground wondering what the f happened...

been a good 2nd wk of official training, getting closer to mapping-out the season's races. thinking about going after the local series this year, mix-in 3-4 solid endurance events, maybe a super-epic, probably a two-four... it's all coming together now, but still don't have the "A" race settled... what to do, what to do...

first ride on studded tires

i love waiting on the cable guy. they say between 9-11a, which means 1130. but, this wait is worth it. high-def tv. we don't watch a lot of tv here in casa de la whit, but it'll be nice to have it pimpin' when we do (pats + playoffs + hd = yeah, yeah!).

the first wk of solid training went well, until saturday. now that andy is keeping a blog i don't have to re-tell the tale... but man, i was smoked! woke-up, cruised to tom's in nh, snagged a new set of nokian studded tires (thanks tom, awesome riding with ya!), raced home, mounted them, rode for 80' on the road to begin breaking 'em in, legs felt heavy then but just thought it was the studs... about 15mins into the trail ride i knew the legs were in trouble. pedal. pedal. pedal. had to keep reminding myself to keep 'em turning over, Andy's back constantly getting smaller and smaller. we were out for about 3 1/2 hours in the snow and ice of the north shore, but andy's gps only registered 142' of wheel spin time. thing is, tom and i never really stopped for more than a moment. andy may have had 80+' of stop time, but we didn't - he was on fire! in hiking boots and flat pedals no less - and after running 10miles that morning. i slept from 9p till 9a on sunday, totally wasted from the first wk of hard efforts. missed the Pats game (who cares, though, it wasn't in HD!). was also good to ride w/tom merril on sat. that dude is tough. not too many folks ride the lines as well as he did first time out on the north shore.

oil heat. it's so arcane. shouldn't complain becuase there are many places in the world w/o enough of the black gold, but here it's hurting my wallet. the oil company claims they never received my form locking-in $2.19/gallon and now i'm paying $2.53. that's really rotten. prices went-up, so they claim to lose my form locking-in the price... don't know what's worse, heating our homes with oil, spitting junk into the atmosphere, or getting dinked in the process. guess it's a double-dink.

the ride

earlier in the week, i mentioned in the blog that i'd requested new projects at work. bam! now i'm buried. careful what you wish for? anyway, it's all good.

time to ramble with da' finga's. as i try to plan 2006, the desire to do a solo 24 as the major "A" race of the season isn't jumping out at me. need a different challenge, or at least a different focus on the same challenges. am also thinking about how to take the love of the ride to the next level... while competing is the shizzle, it can also make one forget why they're out doing a century in 32 degree rain pushed by 20mph swirling winds. is it for the race? or for the soul? probably both, but sometimes when one is only thinking of the race, it drags you down into a "i have to do this" attitude vs a "i want to do this" mindset... pedal. pedal. pedal... but that being said, i'm already getting fired-up to race my bike in '06...

talking about taking the love of the ride to the next level: while checking-out the Grand Loop and Great Divide races on mtbr, bumped into Kent Peterson's blog - and his full accounting of the Great Divide race. have only had time to begin reading it, but real interesting stuff. also "stole" a link to a funny Jeff Guerrero article about bike commuting,Bikakure—The Book of the Commuter. Commuting is where it all started for me and the longer i ride, the more aware "of the Way" i become (still can't help breaking traffic laws left and right, but figure it's ok in boston 'cause everyone drives like the devil is in the backseat). JG's mind-farts on bike commuting made me think about what kind of rider i am in the first place and if i've pigeon-holed myself into a idea being a racer. makes me wonder if i got caught-up in the moment, that moment of absolute and complete fullfillment one feels when completing a mtbike race (especially a solo 24 or long epic) and forgot about all the other moments that come with a season of riding - a "season" that never really has an end for the bike commuter. that's why the blog is no longer "an endurance mtb blog" but more simply, "a guy that rides his bike a lot" blog. that makes more sense to me. remove as many layers of description as possible from riding... there's enough layers of complexity in the rest of life.

can you tell i've had an extra helping of caffeine-crack this morning?

yucko

Woke-up to clouds and mist so thick couldn't tell if it was 4am or 7am... Today's run was definitely a run, not a jog. everything feels fine when i keep the pace down, but when i push, it all goes to hell. Wanted to see if i could really run - and it went bad. legs and cardio are mint, it's the 80yr-old back strapped to my 30yr-old legs that's the problem. had to stop at 15mins to stretch the back/legs, then again at 30mins. the cross-training phase is definitely nearing an end with the only exception being some hard days on the snow and the daily 6 story stair run with the bike.

the ride to work was interesting. the mist turned to hard blinding sleet about halfway to the office. had taken-off riding glasses due to the mist, then got poked in the eyes by the little balls of ice later. as this was going-down the rear derailuer cable decided it had had enough and came apart from the housing. managed to get it to stay in one gear in the rear (the 13), so stayed in 38-13 rest of way to work. was fun to push a good sized gear off the line at lights and up a couple decent climbs, turned into a good effort. need to remember to hit-up community bicyle near my office at lunch for new cable/housing. i'll probably forget, go to leave at 530-6p, realize it's still broken, bike shop is closed, and end-up riding home on the 38-13 which could get pretty burly - like fall-over burly.

george sent this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=515642196227308929
some wild stuff.

it's on!

that's right. time to get busy. had to take some serious time away from the indoor trainer after last season - as i don't ride on the indoor just when it's crappy outside, but to squeeze extra hours in whenever possible. 20mins here, 60mins there, all season long. it is by far the best method of giving your legs exactly what they need, but also a great way to burn-out. last year i was nearing 200hrs on the indoor trainer (aka, the pain machine). considering i rode for 550 total hrs, the ratio of time spent indoors is quite frightening. but it's back. like jack. hits your legs like a mack. mack-daddy that is. gears, fears and tears. hey, "beers" rhymes with that too. coincidence? i think not.

week 1 of 2006, nothing crazy, just a nice 12-14hr wk to kick things off:
mon: bike commute (85mins). hard effort. skipped indoor ride, was tired.
tues: 44min technical trail run. 30min indoor easy.
wed: 30min indoor. commute (85mins). strength work.
thurs: 45min technical trail run. commute (85mins) hard effort. 30mins indoor easy.
fri: 30min indoor. commute (85mins).
sat: 10mile run, 2-4hr technical mtbike ride w/studded tires in snow. strength work.
sun: 30-60mins indoor real easy.

of course, thurs-sun could change depending on how legs feel. no matter what is planned, i'm never afraid to roll with extra time if legs are feeling good and take it down a notch if they aren't. pretty excited that the long ride of the week (on sat) will be outside and not on the trainer!

wet snow

2-3" of wet heavy snow in the Fells this morning, temp slightly over 32. Stuck to the same running route, was pretty burly on the steep climbs/descents, zero traction on the wet snow. rolled from my house, across Roosevelt circle, up the Stone Tower, down the white trail for a couple miles before turning down the green to link back-up on the white/blue trail back towards Bellvue Pond and another scurry up the Stone Tower before heading home. 44mins of slip-sliding all over the damn place, but the pace was high today anyway. Back still isn't digging the running thing, but it's been good to mix it up. Really feel ready for cyclocross season. What's that? It's ovah? Oh well. Saves me from buying another bike!

Work has picked-up considerably. Didn't feel like the career moved fwd in any way last year. Asked my employer to toss me some new challenges, something he is glad to do - and i'm glad for the renewed focus. 2006 will not be a year of waiting, but a year of head-on action. 2005 was fantastic, made strides on the bike, but not so in the career. Time to handle that.

Will wrap this up in a moment, but have to mention how great the ride home was last night! It was a holiday for 99% of Boston, the streets were deserted, temps in the mid 30's, downright balmy. the bike felt like a child's toy as i mashed-up the hills, didn't sit down for the first 30mins, then took it a little easier to cool-off. It was a rip! A nice addition to my 2006 commute is a new blinky light for the helmet and a bright yellow reflective coat, never felt safer on the commute. Now have 4 lights blinking off my geeky ass while riding home at night. if someone hits me, well, that'd suck, but the chances just got even slimmer.

Interesting ride report (dec 31)

This was sent to me by Thom Parsons who's wintering out California way, pretty wild:

New year's eve day 2005. I saw things today that would have only seemed unimpressive to victims of Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami. The day started off with my host in Fairfax, Pete running around like a madman trying to stem the stream of water running through his hillside basement. I went down to the garage to get the bikes out, what I found was a veritable cascade coming through the far wall, gushing over the workbench which was littered with expensive snap-on tools, motorcycle parts, electronic equiptment, and all sorts of other stuff you wouldn't want to get wet. I grabbed a funnel and positioned it to divert the flow directly onto the floor although the damage was done, a thing can only get so wet. When Pete arrived it was full on freak out time, this delayed the ride for a bit and soured his mood for all of ten minutes. When a muddy, hair-raising, poach-filled ride is on the table in front of Pete, nothing is going to ruin his appetite.



There was some debate about the ride venue so we were surprised when our buddy Ron actually showed up to the trailhead. So the group was me, Pete, Mo (Pete's wife), and Ron. We began our ascent, after just a few pedal stokes we came upon a washed out section of road and a massive mudslide, after gawking for a moment we rolled upwards along a raging river which was likely a mere stream prior to the six inches of rain which had fallen in the past twenty-four hours. All along this impromptu river were luxury homes that seemed to be on the brink of destruction, then we came across the real carnage (see photos). What was a road suddenly became the river itself and the river...well that was still a river as well. We rode as far as possible until our wheels washed out from under us and we were forced to portage through the remainder of the brown-water rapids. A large pick up truck and a compact (compacted by the time we saw it) had apparently washed down from somewhwre up river, I won't bother describing what I saw because some of you might think me a touch hyperbolic, so look at the photos and while you do that imagine the four of us riding/portaging between the truck and the stump, also take note of the green car (or what's left of it) UNDER the truck.



Surprisingly the trail conditions were fine, not too muddy at all, definitely a few goat path stream crossings and a waterfall around every corner, oh with the exception of one section...a bridge had collapsed forcing us to utilize a semi-washed out singletrack along the hillside above a raging river. One part of the path was completely missing, forcing us to hold onto wet roots and hand the bikes along one at a time, this truly gave the ride an epic aura. The trails on the way up to Pan Toll (east side of Mt. Tam) are killer, fast rolling singletrack traverses, interspersed with technical root and rock sections, these may not be the most difficult maeuvers in the world but they seem so due to their proximity to the gorge just a few inches to the left. By the time we reached the top of Pantoll the sun had come out, an astonishing and pleasant development.

After some discussion as to the ideal route to the base of the mountain we came to the conclusion that, I should not pay attention to what was being said and agree to one plan yet blindly execute another, leaving Pete to descend the "Totally insane and sick" trail "Nora" all b his lonesome. It all worked out, Mo, Ron, and I basically rode down a gushing stream, over ice-slick roots, around a billion switchbacks to the area where the truck had wedged itself under the bridge.

Three hours or so after we had departed we arrived water-logged and wild eyed back at "Hedwig" the Toyota Prius, loaded her up, and proceeded at break neck speed to The Marin Brewing company where we imbibed two pitchers of their IPA (holy green hops, this stuff is good), and brow beat the server into creating a custom order of "garlic cheese fries" for us.

All this and the word on the trail is that the "real ride" happens tomorrow on New Year's day. I don't know if I can handle all this excitement.

-t

last ride of 2005

Yesterday's ride with Andy and Barry was the shit! Was on my full suspension rig for the first time in almost 6months, with a freshly serviced fork from Fox on the front. Super-plush. Rode lines i've never ridden before! The big moment was scaling the rock up to balancing boulder, that rock has rejected me so many times in the past couple years... you basically rage straight at it, pull up as hard as possible and try to get the cranks turned over once up. if you don't get the cranks turned over, you fall back and land hard on your back. yeehaw! one of many great lines for me yesterday... with everything frozen-up, traction was superb. SUPERB!

had a great new year's with some old friends at our place for steak and lobsters. have a lot more to write about, plans for 2006, etc, but right now i need to go run. i'm a running fool these days. the jay challenge may be in my future, but it's on the same wknd as 24hr nationals. big decisions. last week was my first 12hr wk since late october, brought me to 550 total hours for the year. feeling ready to get back into full swing...

got a real interesting ride report from Thom Parsons who's wintering out in california. i'll post the report and pics later, pretty wild stuff... now it's time to run!