Cross training...

If you count slugging up the sled hill with sleds and munchkins cross training, then i am money!

Brrrrrrr

Westchester, Illinois

10:51 AM on Thursday 10 Dec 2009 (Local Time)

Few Clouds 5°F
Feels Like
-16° Station: KMDW
Humidity: 63%
Wind: 22mph
Dew Point: -5°
Visibility: 10mi

For some reason...

I dig this Bike.

And Tyler Wren rides Pactimo

Missing...

Getting your stuff stolen sucks. But this kid had a VERY funny sign to post!!

Cheers

Must be Friday

Its definitely better in the mornings with the time change. I guess thats the optimistic side of it being dark at 4:30pm. Now i have a good am mount of light for 90% of my ride in. That helps. I noticed on SEVERAL occasions today the wafting of some serious ganja smoking going on while I was pedaling in today. Must be a wake and bake Friday for the residents on my route. The legs were groggy and the SSE wind wasn't helping my motivation. I decided to let the legs dictate the pace and made it a leisurely ride in today. The cycle center was almost empty today, always a welcome event. Attendance has been dropping in relation to the falling temps, but there is a SERIOUS group of die hards that go all year round. I wimp out when the snow flies or it drops below 32.
It is supposed to be a warm evening, which i look forward to already today, and the weekend should be sublime.

Fat Kid - OUT

Off Day pedal

Wrapped up October and looking to ramp up November and get it going early.
I had a day off tuesday, and set out for a 3 hour cross ride. The prairie path was pretty dry and smooth, and the weather was nice for November - high 40's. There was a slight cross headwind going out, I added some extra time to the normal triangle loop, and got a nice tailwind back home down the Great Western Trail.

3 hrs, just over 1900kj, including the second hour where I pumped out 735kj in the hour, and about 75km in the books. Needless to say, the legs were sore tues night, as well as sluggish wednesday AM for the early morning pedal.

Cheers

DPR cross ride

I finally got a chance to get out and join the Alberto's crew for a great CX ride on the DPR trail. Francine said that I like the epic rides, and this one did not disappoint. It was brisk, low 40's with a stout wind; but the woods provided some good shelter. The rains had the path laden with puddles throughout, and several crossings that were impassable making for some fun hike-a-bike sections. The train tracks underpass juts before Adler park was a pretty deep and wide lake, but Brian decided to try it out, only to end up BB deep and with a pretty wet foot / leg!
I decided to try the high road and go up and over the tracks, so after getting our group of 12 riders up there, we scouted for an opening in the fence to get back thru.
Stathy and I had a great flashback from Stand By Me, and rode a ways down the tracks looking for an opening. Wendy finally found our winner, and we were back on the bikes. Brian and Francine led some great skill building for the crew to work on, and a few hot laps at Adler got the heart rate pumping. Brian was victim of a hazard under e leave pile, and got his wheel stuck in a curb, and catapulted himself onto the pavement. I sure hope B's boxer chin heals up quick!

The ride back was incident free and we did a nice combo of trail and road to avoid any more hike-a-bike sections. I took advantage of the bike wash area in the new Alberto's shop to get most of the gunk off the rig, before heading home for final cleaning.

The ride got me up to 32 hours for the month, so a solid recovery from having a week of being sick. Hopefully good things to come for November!

Cheers!

Is this London??

Seems like the rain spell we had back from late spring early summer has re-appeared!
I am usually pretty keen on reading a radar report, but in the last 2 weeks - I have rode in the rain 3 times in the last 7 days.

The good news is that it looked pretty bleak 2 weeks ago to get to 30 hours, and right now I am sitting at 28.5 with a group ride planned for tomorrow morning to end the month off right.

For those of you that have been enjoying the off season, its time to get serious in November. Start lifting ( if you haven't already) and starting logging the hours.

Cheers!

Character.

weather.com said only a 10% chance of rain. rich.com disagrees. full chicken and bluff loop. 3hrs. 80km.
solo. rain. character.

Fenders....

I had a super sweet ride into work today. Despite the rain overnight that left the roads wet and full of puddles, I stayed dry. It was warm, high 50's for the roll in.
If you have ever had a day like I had this am where I looked out the window and though: hmm, I dunno. BUY FENDERS!
There are several bloggers that some of my links have links to that rave about them more than me. I picked up my SKS race blade fenders a few years ago. They were about $50 bucks at the time, and i thought - Man, $50 bucks for once or twice a year?? Let me tell you - that $50 was worth way more than that to - 1 - allow me to ride in instead of HOPING i could get on the trainer later today and 2 - keep me dry and have a great ride despite the weather.

If you dont know where to find them -
Call Albertos - 847-432-0015 or
Call Joe at Columbus Cyclery - 812-372-7486

Cheers

It can't rain all the time...

It can't rain all the time... - Sarah, The Crow

In a fine twist of coincidence, it stopped raining in Chicago finally, and i finally got over being sick. After a week of semi feverish, achy, congested, blah blah blah; I am back in the game.
Rolled the cross bike in today, as its supposed to be a good sunny fall day. First time on the bike in over a week, so everything felt flat. Hopefully the roll home will go better!
Hoping to get back into eating lean, and back to dropping some pounds.
With only 10 hours for the month, its gonna be a tough second half, but trying to re-align and finish off with about 25 hrs of pedaling.

VDB - gone

Breaking news that Frank Vandenbroucke was found dead of a blood clot.
VDB - above winning the 1999 Leige-Bastogne-Liege, had a turbulent career and has most notably been recognized for his off the bike issues more than his performance recently.

Doper or not, they guy made racing interesting, and hats off to his all or none style.

called on an account of rain...

While I have been able to get a few solid days of commuting in recently, the last 3 have been called off due to rain. Now it IS certainly hardman weather, but come on, do I look like that kinda guy to you???
I do appreciate the moderately cool temps, and despite missing the shorts and short sleeve rides, i don't mind the long sleeves and knee warmers at all.

I have spent a few EARLY mornings on the trainer in a quest to stay on track for 30 hrs on the month. Looking to get out for a good CX, but I have been getting heavily punched in the WORK recently and Sundays being the only day off has resulted in family day taking over for CX day.

Hoping to be back in the groove next week and perhaps even meet up with King for a Wednesday pedal.

Cheers to all of you slugging it out with me.

Fat Kid - Out

Thats BRISK baby

its officially fall.. if not by calendar, by the number of layers needed to ride in. 48 degrees this am called for some long sleeves, leg warmers, hat and mitts. It was pleasantly tail-windy on the way in and it calmed down enough by sunset to have a decent ride home. Riding in the dark is always a unique experience, as everything seems to move at a different speed. In some strange way, i dig the commute at this time of year. Cross rig, lights, marching to my own beat. Looking to repeat tomorrow and wrap up September.

Out

Chequamegon Fat Tire and changing seasons.

Its the time of year that all of the racers look forward to. Its the end for the die hard roadies, and the Cross guys are licking their chops. For me its simply September, and a chance to shed a few pounds before Chequamegon.

The last few years I have headed up to the Northwoods with the SRAM crew for some fun. After all, Lenny always loved it. I have a very fond set of memories of being picked up at midnight Friday night, driving the 7 hours north in darkness into the middle of nowhere. Getting in just as the guys were waking up and making breakfast. We got about an hour of sleep, Scott handed me a few pancakes that i literally ate out of my hand, and we headed to the start of the 40 mile MTB race.
Later that weekend, after much underage drinking and a loss of undergarments at a local strip club, 3 of us packed into Lenny's Honda CRX. Yes, that's the one with ONLY 2 seats. Don't ask, but was not too bad stuffed in the back!

Now I head North to remember the fun, honor Lenny, and loose a few golf balls in the annual Lenny Parisi Memorial Northwoods Open. We are a bunch of hacks aside from Scott, but its fun to not keep score, goof off and tell stories. This year did not disappoint. The non golf crew was back at the 'Shangri-Lodge' after a short recon ride and got started making dinner. Kudos to JP and the crew for some super tasty steaks, pasta, vino and all the fixings.

Race day was pretty warm compared to past years. I was able to start in shorts and short sleeves for a change. I started my usual DFL, passed some people on the road and started my off road journey at Rosie's field. I had time splits in my head hoping to shave of another 10-15 minutes from last year. I took advantage of some really nice September weather and had a lot of commuting miles under my belt, a few fast rides as well. I was down 8 lbs from Fat Tire last year, so things were going well. I passed the time check at OO, even faster than I though, and after about another 10 miles at Fire Tower Climb, I was beginning to think i may have a shot of sub 3 hrs. I did start to fade with about 5 miles to go, but just then a Tandem came by and that was just the ride i needed. I snuggled up on their wheel for the next 4 miles, they left me on a section with about a mile to go, but i was home free from there. I crested the final climb, bombed down the ski slope of the Telemark and rolled in with a pretty impressive 2:58:37. Pretty sweet.

Chequamegon gave me 28 hours on the month, and I was hunting for around 40. I decided to honor the changing seasons and get the cross bike ready to take on the riding duties. Monday morning was some pretty wet roads, and Tuesday was worse. I did get to ride in and out on Wednesday, but today i am punched in the work excuse.

I am hoping to get it in tomorrow, even though i will need to have a rain cape ready for the roll home. SKS race blade fenders will do the job of keeping me dry if the skies open. I doubt i have a shot at 40 hrs now, but 35 seems reasonable.

I am down 7 lbs from where i started the 'off season' last year, and hoping to shed some more before i have to start the indoor regime!

Cheers!

Original Homeboy

The Chickenride had a surprise guest last nite. Christian Vande Velde was in town before he heads down for the Tour of Missouri and he made it out for a ride with us.

Ridin Durty

Got some good time logged on the MTB this weekend. Met Tawse and King from Western Springs to ride down to Palos for some good off road. Hit some trails over by Swallow Cliff and some of the oldies but goodies. Worked our way over toward Bullfrog to check out the action at the Palos Meltdown MTB race. Skirted the course and rode home to round out the day. It was good to get several hours in the saddle on the MTB heading into Chequamegon in just 3 weeks. Im down a few more pounds, with a goal of being down 10lbs total from last year's Chimmie Change weight.

Sprint work

So about the only recent glimmer has been the ability to commute into work on a consistent basis for August. Its good to keep the legs going and help keep the weight going down, especially with Chequamegon getting closer.

I hooked up with some SRAMmies on the roll home tuesday - Tawse, Ritzler, Paul, and Schupe. The Badger had angst in the veins and stated ripping of red light sprints from the get go. Once things settled down on Washington blvd, there was some serious sections of speed laid down. We finally broke Shupe's spirit on East ave, only to have him and Ritzler lay down a serious effort while yours truly was on point.
Very fun and very hard ride home, backpacks and all!

News Flash from the Onion!

if you have not seen this yet - its classic stuff!!

The Onion

aug 1 = cross bike??

given the weather and the mood.. I opted for the cross bike today. its 71 degrees, cloudy, and a mist in the air. I figure I made the right choice for the october weather.