Tough or Just Dumb?

As this past weekend drew near it was obvious the nice weather was not going to continue for the miles I had planned. But as usual, I am stubborn and decided to ride anyway. Saturday was the worst, with the temp sitting at 17 and an icy 15 mph N wind; it was time to break out the snowboard helmet and goggles like the old days, along with a big pile of assorted lycra, hand/foot warmers, DZ Nuts Hot Embro for the knees, and a roll of duct tape for selective windproofing.



The helmet, connected to an iphone full of metal



Taking a pit stop to get some feeling back into the hands, even with the Bar Mits, lobster gloves and 2 hand warmers in each glove they were going numb! Think they use a little salt here??



Hanging out by the soda stack in the gas station will get you some funny looks. All illusions of looking stylish go out the window when the temps drop.



Before the ride was over I double flatted and had to walk to bike shop for a tube (the one time I didn't bring two), and later on managed to crash sliding out in a salty corner. Still, got 80mi in even if it took me five hrs with all that nonsense!

Sundays ride was less eventful, warmer, 5 mi shorter and ended with these little guys waiting for me at home courtesy of my awesome wife.



Now time for a rest week, starting with a nice Monday morning commute along the lake path:



Thats all for now...

Misc.

I should post this quick before it's the weekend again already. Chris, Michelle, Sarah and Phistopher made it down last weekend. Chris and I went for a nice spin then headed out to un-do all the hard work with massive amounts of tacos and beer. It was a great time, just wish I had a pic of the dualing pianos. Then we could continue to make fun of them.



Sunday was a nice long one to burn the previous evenings excess. Wound my way up the N shore on the Judson route, taking a few detours to look at cool houses. There are a ton of mid-century Keck & Keck homes, and I also stumbled upon the house used in Ferris Bueller where the Ferrari goes crashing through the window (it's for sale if you have around 2 million). The structure on the left was the one they filmed in, the car fell into the river ravine on the left. You can see it way better in the winter when the leaves are down.



Keck home in the Forest Crest subdivision, Glencoe IL. 26 originally, some of which have been demolished and replaced with McMansions.



Can't beat 45 degrees in Feb!




One more big weekend and then a rest week. It feels good to be doing the winter training thing after not for a few years. Time flies and spring will be here before we know it. That's all for now..

Rest

Moderate 3-day block in the books. Commute, lunch ride, commute, weights. Starting to feel the next gear building; the holiday blubber is coming off with more activity and less gluttony. Dirigible on the back burner but guitar learnin' is coming along. That's it for now, enjoy the warm weather!

So I finally got most of the germs out of my carcass after a weekend of no riding. I think it was all the tequila I poured on them Saturday night but I can't be sure. I did get into the gym so I am still on my way to 14in biceps, I usually do about 2hrs of curls because those babies are really gonna help me fly up the climbs. Seriously though more riding this week planned, more gyming, and the Peariso's are going to make an appearance in the windy city Friday night so I am thinking of taking Chris for a ride Saturday to see if I can't pull the old "hole-in-the-concrete" trick on him again! He is getting older so he has probably erased those memories in favor of ones about frozen snot boogers and stacks of S-Works mtb's. On the guitar front I am making small steps, Jingle Bells etc, yep coming right along. My buddy is also learning, we're gonna start a band next week once we've got enough practice to go ahead and start Wyld Stallyns Too.



Unfortunately with all the bike and guitar practice the dirigible is sitting 1/20th built on the table, I am going to have to get that sucker sewn up or I'll have nothing to get to the races in this year. I still need finish the hangar anyway though so it's no rush. I have till May and all...

Guess I'm Old

I managed to put a kink in my neck through a really intelligent series of events, so it's been a week since I've been pumping iron at the gym because this is "bad pain" vs. the "good, enjoyable pain" that we cyclists normally crave. Luckily I feel fine on the bike and have been splitting hours between lunch rides on the trainer here at work and slogging it out on the cold slushy roads north of Chi-town. It feels like the old days with my bike one big icicle and all appendages soaked and numb (well most of them anyway) by the end of the ride. This translates into a fast spring in my experience though so it's well worth the minor discomfort.

I have also taken up a couple new hobbies, we'll see if they last. Guitar being one, and Dirigible construction being the other. Guitar I won't get into until I feel it's going to stick...When in Germany for Eurobike we visited the Zeppelin museum in Fredrichshafen, where this incredibly inefficient mode of transpo was invented. 600 feet long and carries a whopping 20 passengers plus crew. For some reason I wanted to have my very own, if only slightly smaller, airship so I picked up this neat little paper model and just got into it last night while watching a movie




Ironically Chimene picked a movie in Spanish w/subtitles which was funny because A. she never watches subtitled movies and B. I was looking at the model and not the TV so I missed half of what was going on, but it was amusing anyway. Well that's about it, I'll keep you updated on the progress of the mini-Graf over the coming weeks, and maybe even a YouTube video of my acoustic rendition of Stairway to Heaven once I get all the bugs worked out..

Huge

That's right I'm a monster after 1 day of lifting iron. Really, no. Just feels good to build some strength again after a year w/out lifting. Plus it gets me out of the house at night instead of doing 12oz curls at home. The gym is the real deal, tons of pictures of muscle bound freaks on the walls making you feel like a wuss for squatting only 135lbs, everything is very well used and the entire place has a great 70's feel to it. And did I mention only 1 block from my house?

Found It

My motivation that is. Starting small with a pair of painless spins, no powermeter and no HR with the goal of finding the spark to get the fire going again. Checked out a gym 1 block from my house, it's Rocky style in the basement, pretty serious, no frills, perfect. Even w/out Joe C to motivate me I'll be there 2-3 days a week getting huge and easing back into some kind of form, 2 months earlier than last year in hopes of a strong spring. I'm thinking it will be faster than usual with the mild winter more people are out training, but that's just my guess. New kits and new bikes on the way should help complete the shift of focus back to cycling. Looking forward to another season of fun and danger with the 212 crew...