Big Bikes

Go Shorty it's Your Rest Day...

and that's why I drove in to the shop. It wasn't because of the foot or so of snow which has now turned to slush and grossness all over the road. Ya, that's right, technically Monday is my day off and I'll be riding the rest of the week so I thought it was in the best interest of my INCREDIBLY STRICT TRAINING SCHEDULE to take the day off the bike.

I'm only kind of being heavily sarcastic here. A part of me really did want to brave the roads this morning. My commute becomes monotonous, sometimes a little adversity makes it more interesting and therefore more tolerable. I like it when road riding becomes more like mountain biking. Probably because I kind of hate road riding.

What is fast becoming a cliched shot of me exiting my house. Shoveling in form-fitting bike clothes with a helmet and helmet cam on, my neighbors and I don't see eye to eye on the subject of "normalcy". Snow too deep to ride. Navel gazing.

Gotta stay on track for Battenkill y'know. That's a big race for me BIG RACE. Not sure what's with the cappin' today. Sometimes I yell without realizing it when I talk. I claim that this is due to a lifetime of listening to the hippity hoppity music too loud and working around air compressors. Maybe it's because I grew up watching Seinfeld and equate loud with funny. Caps are like yelling in print.

It's never a good day to ride a road bike in the woods. Sometimes it's a good day to ride a mountain bike on the road.

It's true, I'm doing The Tour of The Battenkill which is a road race, which historically, I hate, but it involves dirt and is supposed to be wicked hard, um...guy. Did I mention I'm doing it as a Cat 4? Don't blame me when I make the the top 40 in my 50 person field. Hey, I asked for the Cat 3 upgrade after my two road races in 2007...they wouldn't give it to me. THEY WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO ME! (Pretend it's Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon yelling...it's funnier).

I have all sorts of other much more fascinating stuff to share, but fodder is in short supply so I will save it for later this week.

And I took so many photos during yesterday's ride that I will decorate this post with them although they are entirely unrelated to anything I'm talking about.

Slow and loose. Only time will tell how beneficial snow riding actually is. My feeling is that it can't help but improve all facets of your riding. It's a full body workout, more like doing core workouts on a Yoga ball than straight sit ups. You are constantly stabilizing the bike, using your arms and hips, while having to pedal powerfully and smoothly. Just staying upright is a challenge. Riding clear singletrack should seem like a cupcake walk after this crap.