Tree-day weekend!

Sweet Melissa took our oldest daughter and her BFF skiing this morning at WinterPark. So as the remaining members of Team M got up, we eventually all settled near the fireplace: the Chooch getting in reading log time, the Moose playing quietly and yours truly, feet up on the ottoman, reading the NYTimes drinking coffee and listening to my classical piano channel from Pandora drinking black, unadulterated, arabica bean-based coffee baby! Even though this is polar opposite to screaming down single track or descending a mountain pass with a bunch of spandex clad road-weenie-euro-race-dork-wannabees, I find it deeply satisfying, utterly enjoyable, dee-luxe chilly-chill, with equal amounts of happiness as compared to the aforementioned. Long live newspapers and the paper it's printed on! No Kindles for me please just super thin paper where the ink rubs off on your fingers if you handle/read it for a while (that'll be starter paper for kindling--no pun intended--up here in the mountains). I'll wait until the kids become starvin' Marvins and eventually, over time, they verbally remind me that they are indeed becoming "Starvin' Marvins" (in which case, I'll relent and break their fasts). Which, for today will be broken with breakfast burritos. I've already instilled a love for salsa in my younger two and what's more finer (I know, it's grammatically incorrect) than salsa flooded burritos? That's right! Nothing. Except maybe for exotic carbon fiber bike components (including deep-dish wheels) or vacation time or the smell of your brand new car (I don't have a new car currently but I've always savored those noxious chemicals leaching onto your olfactories from the dealer) or drinking boutique hand-crafted beers or swimming in the ocean or watching live Tour de France coverage or finishing top 10 in a bike race or hanging out with your honey or conquering a mogul field with fat skis or chillin' with well-behaved kids or...

Saturday was the hour of power. Since we started at 9 it was freezing. The highlights from that is I popped again at the second stair step leading into our turnaround but managed to hang with the leaders despite a very strong side wind during the wee-climb. On the downhill run to the park I attacked with Byron, took a pull and was quickly in my red-zone. In fact, I could barely stay with the group on the first, big ring roller. I unintentionally gapped Alex (going backwards) and he said some words like, "C'mon Mike!" meaning pedal that damn thing and quit going backwards. I finally sat on being lanternerouge to take a motorpace while my heart migrated back into my thoracic cavity. The finish was uneventful and my patch job on my flat of last week's still holding (yea!).

Today is MLK day. R.I.P. Mr. King and as for you James Earl Ray I hope the Hepatitis C you died of in prison was excruciatingly painful. Was going to ride but I see the mist has rolled in bringing with it a 50 percent chance of snow. I'll hop on the treadmill and attempt 5 miles instead. That's what one would call BOAAAAA-RING! The running though, is not a hindrance to my cycling; instead, running maintains my baseline (which is looowww) and improves my cycling.

Hope y'alls MLK day is restful and recreational.