instant winter- just add beer

Well, most of the things i was looking forward to in the last post didn't go as planned. a freaky winter magically appeared out of nowhere and ruined all our plans!
Last Thursday morning i was riding in arm warmers, knickers, and a wind vest in 55 deg weather; 12 hrs later, the temperature drops to the 30s and 4 inches of snow gets dumped the following day.

Grant's tomb? Canceled.

Gimbel's with Saul Raisin? Nope!

so, I did what any man would do when confronted with a situation such as this on st. Patrick's day weekend: I drank way too much Guinness!

I had a serious case of Guinness 'stache.



I did attempt to make it out for a ride on st. Patties- even though the city was nasty and full of snow, Central park was clear. I hopped on my greener-than-the-Irish 'cross bike and met up with my teammate rob. we went for a quick spin. I don't know why, but it was a rough ride. I felt totally out of it. Those Guinness's were definitely welcomed afterwards.

I spun indoors on Sunday and somehow ended up getting a chainring tattoo on the front of my leg (while i was mounting the bike on the trainer...)



I though i was done with the trainer for the season. Much like many things in my life, I was premature. (Zing!)

the interval workouts have been getting tougher. yesterday's trainer session was pure ugly. 3- 10 minute efforts over my threshold, with 5 min recovery in between. When doing an interval of that length and intensity, you're confronted with pain for an extended period of time. it's not a flash of pain like the one you find in a sprint- it's almost a meditative state- a painful, sweaty meditative state with heavy breathing and your heart rate in the 180's. It's an odd sensation to explore. It's interesting to see how your though process changes when you're body's under steady stress. does anyone know what I'm talking about? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

I'm supposed to TT a loop around central park tomorrow morning to gauge my fitness. I'm hoping I can do it in under 17 minutes. It's a rolling 6 mile loop.

it's supposed to get warm again starting tomorrow. I hope it sticks. The first race of the season (for real) is this Saturday. I'm pumped and ready to go. My heart start's a-beatin' every time i think of being in a race situation. It's time to see if this training has paid off. I think I've done a good job at sticking to the training. However, i think my weakness has been diet. I've lost around 7 lbs, but could lose more if i didn't eat like an ass. I think i may be a little hard on my self, but that's the only way to improve, right?


time for sleep. TT in the morn. hoo-rah.