December 29, 2008

Countdown to January.

Had another less-than-stellar weekend of snacky food and crap at mom's house. I even made several haphazard efforts to warn myself not to over-do things, but alas - it's the holidays.
I think I have this notion of things truly beginning after the new year begins, but I'v ebeen doing well behaving during the week. I dropped two pounds last week... but, a little more than half of that came back over the weekend. Not too bad, but typical. Me and food - we love each other. Then I snap and kick food out. Then we make up, and I invite food back into the house again. It's a bad relationship.

Speaking of counting down to January, I tell ya... only two more days of 2008, and that means the beginning of a 31 day countdown to get my LAST, FINAL, ULTIMATE battle against distance in the pursuit of the R-12 Award. At least, my first R-12.... Still torn on whether or not I'll go for #2 immediately beginning in February, seeing that March, April and May are gimmes with the approach of Bob Burns' Brevet series. Still, I don't know if it's the right goal to pursue -- I kinda like the sound of my home-before-noon, play the field, chase some racers plan of fitness and speed for 2009. There's something appealing about "going for two", but there are other challenges for me to face, and there aren't any points for going for consecutive R-12s.
I think the accomplishment will be enough to carry me thru 2009, and then we'll see if it's an appropriate training ramp-up for some big, yet-to-be-announced ultra-distance goal for 2010.
Tejas may still be around, but there is also Fireweed, Balltown, Iowa 24-Hour, and Furnace Creek.
Money and time will tell.... actually, for the more expensive ones, it'd have to be 2012.
Course, we'll all be dead by then if the Mayan's get their way. Ugh.

Training continues, and I'm pleased to announce that my heart-rate coach already thinks I've under-rated myself. I started at a level....well, it doesn't really matter since it's all relative, so we'll say that I rated myself a level-1, and the coach popped up after this last workout and recommended I be bumped up to level-2. I declined...I want to give the current level a little more time to work. It'll probably bug me again in a couple days, but I was boosted up a little by that news from my wrist. Pretty neat fitness toy. Just got finished with a 60 minute cardio session today, where I worked on hill-climbing. Yikes... that felt good, though. Reminds me of those long Saturday mornings in the gym back in '03. Part of the success of that year is starting to come back into focus. It wasn't a fluke: it was long sessions in the gym on top of normal riding. I'm coming back, one piece at a time. I'm already starting to fancy putting STI shifters on the Trek 450... he,he,he...muahhahahahaaahhh!!!!!!

Tour De Shawnee 2009, anyone??? Get it ON.

More to come this week, as I continue to plod through winter's grip. A good commute yesterday on the Crudwell, but I founf the front chainring bolts had backed themselves off a LOT... scary, and glad I caught it in time. Loctite Blue to the rescue, and a lot more torque. Plus, a nice new chain to replace the who-knows-how-old chain that came from the old Steamroller running gear parts box. Thousands of miles on it, easily, but it worked. Now, a nice fresh one takes it's place, and the chain tension is much better! Still loving this bike - the easy spins home are fun, and stress burning. Today, upper-50's for the high? Weird.... weird..... weird weather continues.

stay tuned...

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