Cold Front's Coming...

another cold front's moving in today. so what i'm faced with are headwinds with gusts high as 20 mph, a nice frigid north wind, and sand on the road from cdot's (colorado department of transportation) ice melting campaigns. saw a dude biff it on a particularly sandy switchback last year. his compatriots had to call the state po-po where they immediately contacted an ambulance. either way he still got a ride down the mountain. i'll ride my training bike today instead of my race bike just in case the rubber side ain't down (know what i mean?).

oh yeah. off-season, winter riding in colorado. don't think it'll be a long ride.

but what's bad is that i got up early this morning--0630--to think about it (after 10hours of sleep!). what that does is that it plants seeds of doubt of suiting up in my kit including all the winter gear that i own. we're talking about a guy-me!-who can be completely dressed to go ride then, at the last minute, concoct some mental obstacle (be it real or perceived) and get undressed, back in boxers with remote control firmly ensconced in dominant hand, riding the couch instead.

some people call it laziness, i call it a gift.

depending on the following text you will either see (read about) a road weary boy on the road to racing this season; or, a road weary boy on the road to entering his first sumo wrestling event (i mean really, how cool would it be to run around town in man-diapers throwing rice over your shoulder every now and again?). currently, i'm dancing with my son in the living room--me dressed in my beater leather jacket and boxers, and he in his lightning mcqueen fleece jammy-jams because it's 55° f inside, time to start a fire y'all--because he's an early riser like me. we're dancing hand-in-hand to ryan adam's cd demolition. a fine cd it is...

ite den. so these were the conditions i was dealing with per noaa's forecast:
This Afternoon: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 22 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.

the ride was fine because i knew i only had to tolerate an hour and change of this foolishness (as well as the north facing sides of the roadway-yikes!). i make it back in time before the temps dip and i feel good. the last two miles back to my truck the temperature probably dropped a good 10°. i feel good enough to change the oil in my truck right now because i can see the clouds rolling over the mountains next to us. wore four layers up top. a short-sleeve base, a heavy-weight jersey, a summer-weight jersey to fly my sponsor's colors, and a wind vest. no helmet but a windproof beanie and my widest sunglasses (to even make bono proud!). the windchill on the descent was not nice; but here's the crazy part, there were others out too. colorado man.

remember my boy and teammate chris? well he finally graduated with his masters in mechanical engineering and we're (as well as a whole boat load of people he e-vited) celebrating his monumental achievement this evening (including my friend kenny and his wife tracey). i'm sparing no expense for his gift which is an ultra-lightweight, 700c, presta valve inner-tube. didn't say i was going to get it today neither. yup. what're friends for y'all.

here's a non sequitur for y'all to enjoy (regardless of gender): the wunder boner

Rode With The Team Today

finally rode out to boulder today to ride with the natural grocers cat III/IV team who used to be called vitamin cottage (kinda still is, but the icon is alot smaller on the jerseys). met at my future teammate's apartment with kenny. my boy's thinking he's going to bust a move on the race scene. i hope so, but he needs to straighten up and fly right. he used to be a stud back in the 90s but it's a hard climb to be a pack finisher here in the category IIIs. he was supposed to ride today but his nutty dog got loose and he couldn't make the start time. since i'm advancing in years, i think this is the year i'm going to race 35+. met another teammate today rob, he's another 35+ too. so, if you count up all the old-timers, we could have numbers in the pack: me, kenny, chris (although he still thinks he's a 20-something), rob, and chip. basically, the 35+ races are all the bad ass pros from the 90s that i have to race against. strong and agile bike handlers; unlike the regular cat IIIs who are strong but can't round a corner at speed to save their lives. okay, the ride, so we meet at amante's-a boutique coffee joint-at 10 and we head out towards a hill town called lyons. boulder's kind of a mecca for world-class athletes, especially cyclists. as we're rolling towards lyons, tyler hamilton and bunch of pros from the newly defunct toyota-united team pass us and we all exchange pleasantries as they turn off to do some hills.
as we're climbing up past lyons towards estes park, we're going tempo. it's my turn up front and nobody's passing except 'til the turn around and the three hammeroids on my team fly past me. i didn't want to apply any more watts because i need to save my energy -and my legs-for the remainder of the ride. then a former teammate cruises past me and for a split second i thought of gluing up to his wheel; but then thought better...
at the turn around we blast it downhill and meet up with another former teammate at another coffee shop. he's with some hammeroids of his own and we take a circuitous route back to bolder and they're going pretty hard. we have dual, rolling paceline and i'm pedaling like madman to take my pull on the rotation. finally i have to echelon off the rear where the draft is but there's also people behind me doing the same thing. i see kenny up there pulling during his rotations and i'm impressed by his strength. this is about 3.5 hours into the ride and i blow like a zit on a teenage boy's face. i see the pack ahead in the distance and i see where they turn and i follow them. kenny being the good friend that he is, waits for me at an intersection and lets me draft of off him to avoid the sidewinds that's ripping my legs off (as if the torrid pace didn't already do so). i popped with another teammate by the way, but i couldn't match his pace after my medial collateral ligaments felt like it was getting the mother of all pinches whenever my legs upstroked.
kenny and i eat at one of Kenny's fave burrito joints: big city burrito. tasty is how i describe this place. one of the cool things too is that they have a whole slew of hot sauces to choose from. one of these hot sauces is called great white shark predator hot sauce. kenny drops two drops onto this burrito; i only drop one on my plate, dip my pinky in it, and tap the tip of my tongue. oh my god, it felt like someone took box cutter and sliced the tip of my tongue. i was in pain; but thank god it was only temporary-and kenny dropped two! long live big city burrito!
today was four hours of riding. it seems like my core training with the exercise ball is helping (along with riding in the hills near my house). no cramps (although it came close) and my legs were fine afterwards (albeit they felt like lead). i've been doing these exercises (along with crunches) where you really blast the glutes and hamstrings. i have to get up to boulder more often to get this type of intensity more frequently.

Winter's here

shot this with the dusk/dawn preset. it's as cold as it looks

oh well. it was inevitable. the snow's finally come down and might stick around for a while. a warming trend's coming monday. we'll see how much of this stuff sticks around.

Riding and Papa'ing

preparing for the col de la croix de fer
went for a pre-thanksgiving ride with my kids (with the moose in tow) today. probably went only for an hour and change but boy was it fun.
here they are smilin' and downhillin'

ridin', talkin', and being proud of my kids; that's pretty much it. the weather was in the 60s for late november. twas a great day for riding and being a dad...
here's the moose preparing after preparing for the col de la croix de fer

Score!

got paid today kids so on rare occasions i peruse the goods at a used cd joint named angelo's near the high school where i teach. it started as a looky-lou session. purchased two, used cds. purchased a steely dan cd called two against nature-nothing really to write home about; but, the score-o-matic was hank mobley's no room for squares. oh shnap kids! not only is it arguably his best work (with a supporting cast of lee morgan, philly joe jones, and herbie hancock-to name some heavy hitters), but it's a rudy van gelder edition (blue note kids...c'mon). yeah. tell me you purchased your edition for the low, low price of $6.99. didn't think so. long live bop and long live angelo's cds. for those of y'all who can empathize with this aural sublimity (i don't think that's a real word y'all), aren't you happy that jazz like this exists? for those who cannot, i can start you on your way with a few recommendations. leave a comment if you'd like some suggestions for your foray into the world of bop. i might be looking too much into the cover art but don't you think the circle surrounding ole hank looks like the symbol for the roman god of war-mars (albeit the arrow's at the 12:00 position rather than the conventional 1:00)? what a great way to start the thanksgiving break. speaking of which, hope all of y'alls giving of tanks is truly exquisite in such a way you have to unbutton the top button of your pantaloons because y'all have no self-control in turkey feasting-o-rama (aka experiencing personal growth-especially near your tum-tum). if you're smart, you'll have a special pair of eating pantaloons (or sweats).

Night Ridin' with the Coyotes

here's me in the night, with no lights.
hey kids. nothing happening that was worth mentioning for the past couple of weeks. global warming's keeping our property snow-free whereas in years past it would've been insulating the ground at least a foot thick by now. crazy. one good thing from the melting of the polar icecaps is i can get an occasional night ride in. i went for a night ride about a week ago with my boy alec after not riding for months. the volume of traffic that evening was unusually high. all manner of people were out there either hiking or biking. on the second lap at green mountain we had to cut it short due to a cold front coming in and getting the temperature near freezing. it's always a deal breaker when the feet get numb. i ditched the helmet in favor of an ear covering beanie. man it got cold...
anyhoo, i did it again. parked at a different trailhead parking lot than last. as i got there and started putting all the cold-weather gear on i hear a bunch of coyotes hootin' and hollerin' pretty close by in the nearby field. it's pitch black out here in the foothills by this time. it always inspires confidence when you see a posted sign near the trailhead saying there has been an unusually high number of break-ins. please keep valuables out of sight.
the trail has less intense climbing if you go a certain way. tonight i wanted to do some intensity so i climb a super steep fire road (when back in the day when i used to own a dual suspension rig, i hit 50 miles/hour on the descent). it's that steep and long. nocturnal activity hits the sensory organs in not quite the same way it would if it were diurnal. your senses are heightened just a smidge and the lack of sunlight and crisp, night air make it seem like a novelty. i like the way it works on my brain and legs. it's almost a distraction from the lactic acid creeping in when i'm attempting to climb with some intensity.
the mind also has a tendency to wander to the morbid. my mind for some reason or another has the knack of squirreling away nutty factoids like mountain lion attacks. so, whenever i'm climbing in shoulder high brush i'm always thinking is there a mountain lion waiting to sink his/her canines in the most vulnerable of human structures (i.e. the neck)?? needless to say the adrenaline kicks in and i'm doing my impersonation of il pirato (r.i.p.). i'm getting tired so i roll back on the road, trying to tap out a tt-like pace on my hardtail. i can't maintain the pace so i ease up and ride at tempo back to the car.
i'm the only car in the lot and as i get nearer the coyotes sense me coming and they start to hoot and holler again. again, it freaks me out because they are soooo close. if you've never heard a pack of coyotes hootin' and hollerin' they sound like teenage boys on acid trying to imitate a five-year old imitating a siren on a police car. very surreal. i throw the yeti in the back of the truck and hop in the cab to change. once i turn on the truck lights they quiet down and so does my mind. i change in relative quietness and strip in the parking lot. it's amazingly liberating being in your birthday suit and leisurely changing back into your civies. on the way back i hit the cheapest gas station in town and fill 'er up at $1.59/gallon. yeah good night too the weather was in the mid-40s so rather comfy except when it wasn't.

Couple'a Things

Obama will now be our 44th president-elect as of last tuesday. ah yeauh! people are going nutty now here, especially gun owners. gun owners are thinking a democratic majority for the powers-that-be'll start cracking down on gun owner's rights and their snarfing up guns. awesome y'all, because you know more guns is always the answer...
AND, amendments 3A and 3B are pretty close to my heart because it allows individual school districts to do their thing and to keep their teachers happy at least technologically and financially...and they both passed!!! We're asking for $215 for remodels, for some new schools, funding a full-day kindergarten program, and a summer school program. this was 3A, a mll-levy so if you owned a $200k house it'd run you $10/month. not bad if you value education. it would also give teachers a much needed raise retroactive this january. yeah! the fuc*ed up thing about this, is that since it's by individual districts across this glorious state, some homeowners oppose any raising of new property taxes. consequently they didn't pass their 3As and 3Bs like my district, which is pretty diverse and urban. i guess these lame districts don't value their children's education. that's boosheet y'all.
one of these lame districts is jefferson county (another is douglas county), where i reside but don't teach. oh well, thought about switching districts; but for now, i think i'll stay put. getting paid is a great incentive in staying professional. people i know are getting effected by this, in addition to our economic recession we're currently in...