Chili Willy.

This would have been a perfect day to have studded tires. Fresh 1/4 to 1/2"snow of snow overnight left lightly traveled side roads glazed up with ice. Had to ride extra gingerly in quite a few spots. This was a fun ride mainly because I had no route set and just started turning down roads I'd never been on before. I will have to do more of that, it was fun. The General is operating in top form now, I think all kinks have been worked out. For the last few miles I got on a main road into town that had been salted. Got more wet than I was hoping and splashed with brown mud/slush a few times, but not too bad. Bike is in the garage thawing out right now. Gotta hang it up and start preparing the garage for a fun day filled with friends & kids, bad food and alcohol.

Discovery.

So, I realized yesterday that all throughout this winter, I've had a very positive attitude towards most things and not lacking energy or drive like I have in past winters. Could it be that "seasonal affective disorder" is a complete farce and just some BS way to say "Mainly Fat Lazy People are Depressed"? I think so. Gee, yeah, lets coddle these people and give them an excuse to not be healthy, because they obviously can't face the fact that they are out of control and are too lazy to do anything about it. Thus ends the preaching from atop a soap box by Tony Maravolo. Thank you.

Road Bike Dusting

After a solid week of warm temps almost all the snow is gone from here. Roads being wide open, thought it would make for the perfect chance to get the road bike out. It was fun...and cold! I missed out on a group ride possibility yesterday afternoon in the 40ish degree weather, so I guess 23 with a windchill of 18 was my punishment. What a blast. You know it must be cold, when the cows stand and stare at you riding past, like WTF!? Can't wait for spring.

Run update.

Quick update on my running progress. Most of you may not know, but Remus talked me into running a race this spring. It's a 10K at the Bayshore (Traverse City). I have never done a race before and absolutely hate running. So, if it turns out to be the worst day of my life, I have one Matt Remus to thank. HA HA Just kidding. Anyways, I'm up to running 3 miles now. Almost half way there. My goal would be to be able to run 8 miles, so I can be assured that my 10K day will go w/o a hitch. I don't think I've ever run this far before. For me, it's ridiculous that I'm trying to pull this off. Retard.

Man Weekend Ride

What a perfect morning for a ride...except for the wind...except that I was hungover. But boy, was it beautiful out. Along most of the route I was the first tracks in the overnight snow (maybe 1" fresh). It was slippery and I run across some scary ruts along the way. Between the sun being out and getting hit in the face with snow falling out of the limbs of trees, I'm not sure which one helped wake me from my drunken hangover the most. Glad I made myself go for the ride. Felt pretty good, still some adjustments to make on the gears, but no failures this time. Should have gone longer, but once I turned around at the half way point, glad I did, because it was head-on straight into the wind the whole way back - and it was tough. Cold, but worth it. Definitely need those studded tires next year!

Garbage.

Today did not go well to say the least. Good thing I went to church before posting this. It all started upon departing when I  lost my balance d!cking around with the Garmin...in the garage. Foot slipped and BOOM, man down. Wow, this is going to be great. I went right out to the rail trail to ride it like last time, however the snow was slushier and there was more of it. Almost wiped out right at the start and I was weaving all over the place. No traction, no balance, slow speed. It was terrible. Gave up .1 into that, got off the bike and walked through knee-high snow to get to a nearby parking lot. Continued my trek. About 2 miles in, I realized...HEY, idiot, you have nothing to drink. Forgot the water bottle. Great. I could eat some snow if worse came to worse, but there is not exactly ANY clean snow within reach anywhere. So I just kept riding knowing that now I was going to have to cut the trip short. Was hoping for 10-12 miles today. About 4 miles from home the chain and gears start bouncing all over the place. About every 10th pedal stroke is dead, chain skipping gears, then later changing gears up and down whenever they wanted. Thought it was just cable stretch, since they're all new, but only 10 miles on new cables seems a bit premature for that. Either way, just kept riding, tinkering with barrel adjusters hoping to get something out of it anyways. I just started expecting each heavy stroke to just mash down to the bottom with no meat to it. The higher the cadence, the worse the problem, so I had to pedal hard and slow to keep it from hopping all over the place. Finally near home, fly through a main intersection, gazzing it now, 'cause I'm pissed. Get to the last turn and I stroke it hard to turn in front of an oncoming vehicle...CHAIN FAIL. I heard (and felt) the break, then nothing. Gone. Stop at the gaz station, I want to throw the bike into a snow bank, but decide that I guess I could have been farther from home. Good thing it was Sunday morning, no traffic so I could stroll out into the intersection to get the blowed out chain. So I walked home the last .3 miles, bike in one hand, limp chain in the other. Hey, at least my feet warmed up a bit. Sunofab!tch.