In the meantime though, here’s some Pictures of this past weekend.  Saturday was a gorgeous day, so I headed down to Bristol/Naples area to put some time on some technical trails and do some climbing.  Haven’t had too much time on the mountain bike nor tons of time climbing.  Figured I’d knock out both with one swoop.

Rode Still Hill over to the tower drop, then climbed up to OCP, did some loops there.  Over to Cutler for a loop and then some road to the backside of Bristol mt.  Climbed up that and headed down Radar’s top secret trail (where I preceded to have my second flat and had to ride the final 2 miles home on the road with a flat…)

Pictures, cause we all know mtbers can’t read!

So I opted to head out the door last night and get in a crusher. I was actually feeling really good and fresh off the bat so, I nailed out one of my intervals right away, and it happened to be my best one. Very odd as it was done on the flats, and I usually have a hard time putting out power on the flats, but I think the strong winds really helped. After that I rocked out a few more. I tend to just do my intervals fartlek style and let them occur naturally in my riding route. This means, I’ll go hard where it warrants, and not worry about slamming it on a downhill or through a corner. I just focus on getting total time in the area I’m woking at. It was a good day for that as I managed 55 minutes at or above my threshold.

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So I’m all signed up for the CAT Classic this coming Saturday in PA. Going to keep heading south and over to the Michaux Maximus 50 miler on Sunday. Hopefully the weather pans out and stays dry. A bonus of the race being in Gettysburg, is that work has a customer a few towns over, so I’m going to stay thru Monday and write off the whole trip, SWEET!

Currently playing in iTunes: We Carry On by Portishead

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Yesterday headed over to the Geneva Bicycle Center and headed out with a few new riders to hit the old Wheelman route. It’s about a 38 mile ride with a few rolling hills, nothing major though. I added a few miles by riding there and back.

I was on the paragon, while everyone else was on the roadies. I suffered like a dog, it was a lot harder work than I thought it would be. But it was a great workout, with lots of time at threshold. Considering I don’t think I ever made the ride once last year, I think they were teaching me a lesson for not showing up in a while I tried my hand at a few attacks, and was able to bridge a few others, but the bike doesn’t have the top end speed to bust out a killer move on the road or in a sprint. If I was on the trails it might’ve been a different story….

Time to rest up and clean up the road bike so I can ride that for the next time I make it out.

Coming up this Sunday is the Ramble around Prattsburgh, hope to see you there.

Currently playing in iTunes: Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

This weekend was fun, and now it’s time to start the packing and prepping for Sea Otter.

I’ll have tons of pics and videos and post as often as I can. Stay Tuned

I think the quote from the movie Cars, “I am speed!” is befitting now that I’ve got my Superfly in hand!! At least that’s what comes to mind when I look at it.

I spent the better part of yesterday at the Geneva Bicycle Center playing hookie from work and installing my ergomo pro into the paragon, and doing some swapping on the Superfly.

I’m totally jacked to be rocking such a bike for this season. I haven’t yet ridden it, but I can just tell it’s gonna be fast, and we are gonna have some good times together. I can’t wait to ride er’. My guess is it’ll be out in Cali for Sea Otter when she gets broken in.

Naturally, I had to go with the Pink Bonty Cage. I didn’t want to be kicked out of the CPBC (Coalition of Pink Bottle Cages). Fellow CPBCers and 29er crew members;Mark and Suzanne Hartman will be out there sporting the pink this season also. Suzanne’s HiFi is even pimped out with some super-sweet pink brakes! I’m sure you will be reading some similar posts from us as we ride and train together often.

It was also nice to get my ergomo back. It’s been a while since I’ve had some power data to work with. I used the ergomo on my supercaliber all of last season and found the data invaluable for training and racing. I did run power on my roadie, but now that I’m using the paragon for paved and un-paved adventures; the power numbers will be nice to look at. Below is my ride from yesterday, short and moderate paced. I gave it some gas on a few hills to check some numbers, and things are looking good for this season

Yellow is power, orange is elevation (30 second smoothing)

Back to work, looks like this will be a good weekend for riding. More posts and pics to come….

Currently playing in iTunes: All In It by British Sea Power

Back to the main event…

This has been a tough week. 18.5 hours and a TSS score of 964! Whoa. Needless to say, monday, I’m sitting here wiped out. I pretty much want to do nothing but sleep and eat food. I’m famished. I spent the middle days of the week doing some hill work and intervals and managed to get out for some big time riding this weekend.

Saturday, I had to get the car fixed in Victor again. I headed south into Naples, for some good hill climbing. Hit up West Gannett, Griesa, Egypt and the climb out of Bristol. It was a good day, 5+ hours in the saddle and I felt great.

the paragon takes a rest at the top of W. Gannett

As far as sunday goes; the post from the 29er crew and write-up is available here , But I’ll throw in some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Rolling along the lakefront

Quiet Sunshine day

Suzanne enjoys the lakeshore

Stayin warm in the early am (20 degrees)

Mark attacks the rollers

The Champ tells it like it is

Climbing up Winding Stairs

Still climbing

Mark Flats

Sunday afternoon traffic

I do ask for work, believe me I’d rather be doing something. Yesterday managed to be a nice day, so I decided to leave a little bit early and head out for a ride in the wind and warmer temps.

On monday, I had swung into the Geneva Bicycle Center and picked up a new Giro Atmos (full flash site). So yesterday was a nice day to put it to the test.

Testing out the atmos

It’s quite the helmet, very light and breathable. I could hardly tell it was on me noggin at all. A nice secondary aspect is my sunglasses fight quite nice when you put them up in the helmet.

The ride itself was great. Super windy day though, gusts in the 30-40 mph range, and constant around 20-25mph. Somehow I managed to ride mostly cross/headwind most of the ride and stay out of it directly. I felt really good and hit up a few hills for extra bike practice.

no need for shoe covers

It’s starting to get to the point where I’m feeling good and strong and almost ready to race (less than a month!). I pushed it hard for the 3 hours I was out on the roads and came home feeling strong. It helped that I had a massive tailwind the whole way home. Even though I am running road gearing (12-27) on the paragon, I was running out of gear at 44×12 with the wind whipping so hard. I barely had to give it gas to keep flying forward.

It’s looking nice out there again, better get back to work so I can squeeze in another one (I actually have work today!)

Currently playing in iTunes: Stars in Concert 10-22-2007 by NPR

It was nice to be on the dirt and the sugary snow that was left in a few hidden areas. I think the last time I was off-road was at the hollow a few weeks ago! Been that long, damn. Alas, my mind hadn’t forgotten how to handle the bike, but some subtle nuances were missing. I wasn’t out of my element, but definitely wasn’t on top of my A-game. I felt really good climbing the hills and making the transitions, that you get in mt. biking but miss out on on the road. It was nice to be in the woods and get the stillness and quietness of nature. It wasn’t very quiet though when you hit the crunchy snow; with a gaggle of riders, you could barely hear yourself think it was so ungodly loud.

The day ended a little bit early for myself and lizzy as she had taken off early for her usual exit. She returned, a little bloody, and tired. She hobbled on as long as she could, but I ended up having to walk her out of the woods as she could barely move. She hasn’t opened her eyes up since she’s been home.

Hopefully all the snow will be gone soon everywhere and the trails will open up.

Most likely not gonna happen, but one can wish right? Oh well, there’s always the California singletrack to look forward to in a few weeks right?

Friday and Saturday where the usual road excursions. Friday was almost cut short, but a quick pit stop in the GBC helped bring some bloodflow back to my fingers, and I managed to make it home for the nice 40 minute hot shower to continue the thawing process. Saturday was nice sun-shinny 4 hour day and dealing with the wind.

Feeling really good on the bike right now, but taking today off to do some cleaning and bike maintenance and get some stuff up on ebay.

I’ll edit this draft and post some pictures; I’ve got some, but have been slacking as the cable is at work and camera is always at home…..

Yesterday it was in the mid 40′s and wet, gusty and rainy. I had to head out of town the past 2 days for work related business, so I decided to loosen the legs up after work this evening. Having come off a nice epic ride this past weekend I definitely needed to get the blood flowing.

I hemmed and hawed at whether or not to go, why not just skip it? It’s just a short ride to loosen up the legs. Well it took one glance at my bracelet, and my mantra for the current season:

Harden the f@ck up!

That was enough to light a fire and keep me warm for the entire ride.

Hopefully the weather cooperates and can get out the next few days. I’ve refused to ride the trainer for this season and regardless, get all my miles in on the road/trails (and I’ve been pretty good at it too!).

Considering my days left till race season was just cut in half as I’m heading out to Sea Otter next month, every day get’s extremely important!

How does one know they are chomping at the bit? When the phone calls for Easter dinner come in, and you are running in your head how you can fit in a 6+ hour ride and still make it home in time for the food to be warm!

Woohoo Happy Spring!!!

Sunday was laid low, very very low. You see, Mr. Jagermeister and I became too good of friends back at Mark and Suzanne’s place. Talking to him a few times is alot of trouble. I paid for it all day and I mean all day. And just getting back from the bike shop, so did Mark!

I did manage to get out last night. Temps are starting to warm up and the sun is shining. The new daylight savings time is awesome!! It was another great day on the paragon. Put in some miles and a few good hard efforts for about 2 hours total time. With any luck here I may shift my work schedule a bit earlier so I can start putting in 3-4 hour days on a regular basis. Power-tap is back, time to bump things up a little bit.

Major Side Note!!: I’m going to Sea Otter. Woohoo! Never been to Cali, and nothing like the first race of the season being an xc race against a huge field of semi-pro’s. The legs are for sure going to hurt. Guess I better start putting in some more “xc” training hours for this one. Thanks to the folks at Crankskins, as I’ll be heading out there with EJ and the crew. Working the booth/tent and sneaking away for some rides as much as possible.

“Wrap Your Crank!!”