Busy past few days, but some great riding

My last post was a bit ago. Ever since moving out here to CO, things have been a bit of a whirlwind. It's been a super busy last 5 days, that's for sure. But it doesn't mean I haven't ridden my bike at all. How can one not when the weather is 75 and sunshine (meanwhile it's snowing back in NY!!)

I managed to get myself in gear and do a cross race this past sunday. Nothing like lining up against the pro/1/2 guys having very little time on the bike, at altitude and a lack of fitness. Somehow, I mistimed the start and was spit out the back immediately. I swear I never heard a countdown or anything similar. Chase hard, run up the sand, ride in the sand, run up the sand. It was a tough course, I ended up flatting at the start of my 4th lap and called it quits. At least I wasn't in last place though. So as if that wasn't enough, I went and signed up for the Boulder Super Cup Weekend, 2 UCI races in Boulder this weekend, Running with the big dog's again! Hopefully I'll do a bit better.

Speaking of dog's I managed to get Lizzy out on her first trail ride since she broke her pelvis. I took her over to Green mt. on the singlespeed on Monday. I'm guessing the loop was about 12-14k, but some good climbing. This isn't east coast trails, as she's stuck running the whole time and no place for short cuts. But, she did great! Even when she saw a herd of mule deer, she managed to heed my command and not chase!! Maybe that truck she hit, knocked some sense into her!

Today was a bit of an epic day. I was in Boulder at 8am for the group cross practice ride. There was around 100 people or so! We rolled over to the Elks club in town and did a nice 25 minute or so effort. Mine, was cut short as my tire was soft and I had to steal a pump and get some air in it as I was banging my rim all over the place and didn't have a spare tire. After some air in the tire, I managed to get some good quality work in. Shortly after we re-grouped and headed over to North Boulder Park and did a quick loop on the grass. I felt much better at that then at the Elks course, but I'm still getting used to the high intensity efforts.

The ringer for the day was the road ride with Jeff Kerkove. We met up after the cx ride, and he dragged me up Sunshine Canyon to Gold hill. Head over to his site for a nice video of me suffering in my 39x25. I need a compact.

How Badly? Here's my cadence from the ride



The little town on the top was pretty cool, and had a nice little store with some awesome homemade goodies and a kick-ass cast-iron stove!

Little Village of Gold hill

At least when I was grinding up the hill slowly, I was able to take in some epic scenery

Wasn't the only one suffering though!

Tomorrow night should be interesting, gonna meet a group for a night ride at Green Mt!

Colorado Springs

So I'm in Colorado Springs at the US Olympic Training Center, learning how to make people go fast. What else to do though when the seminars are over by 3pm other than go out for a group ride? I HAD to get on my bike as there is free food here and I am probably going to weigh 5lbs more when I leave this place

Enjoy the pics! I enjoyed the scenery that's for sure!



PS I have no idea why I'm getting a blue line across my pics, guess it might be time for a new one.

Getting Cold!

So with the nights coming much earlier than usual, I've got the flasher and a simple bar mount light on the roadie for safety (I also had my Ay-Up headlight in my jersey just in case), I still am able to venture out after work for a bit of training.

Yesterday evening, it was a decent 65-70 and sunny at 5:45 when I departed, comfy with my armwarmers on and vest in jacket. 6:30ish as the sun was below the tree line I was freezing my ass off. Wishing I had my knee warmers or even full leg-warmers. Luckily I had my vest in my pocket and was able to keep my chest warm, but jeeze I forgot how friggin cold it gets in the late summer/early fall time. By the time I got back home, my legs were a little numb and I think it dropped to 45-50 degrees or so (and it was dark).

Meanwhile the ride itself, not so great. I had plans to do a few sets of 5 min threshold intervals. Got through the first one feeling great, got 3/4 way through the 2nd and I started getting side stitches, WTF? I haven't had them since I ran xc in high school! I've never gotten them on the bike. I grunted away for a little bit more, then decided to just shut it down. It took a few minutes for the cramp to go away, after that I rolled along doing a bit of recovery then just ramped it up to some steady state. It was tough to do any effort as all the blood was holed up in the inside of my legs trying to stay warm! I've got no idea where the cramps came from, but hopefully they won't show up this weekend!

Here's a few more pics from this weekend at Burning Bike out on the trail!!

Feeling good

Yesterday, despite not wanting to truly get back on the bike, I managed to get in a decent road ride. Running late for the group ride as usual required the no warmup straight to tt mode for the 8 miles to the shop. Managed to get there only to find no one was there. So Jim and I headed out the door together and put in a good hour + into the wind heading south and chatting about the current political situation. It was a nice late summer/early fall day (not like today as it's raining).

The legs felt pretty good for the most part. I was able to put in a nice test on them for the ride home as it was hitting dusk (I did have lights though). I slammed it home and kept having to double check my numbers that I was putting out. I was feeling good and looking at the watts going, is that right? I managed my 2nd best 10 min power of the season for the ride home and it was dead flat! My best power was only 10w higher and that was while climbing! 2 100 milers back to back, I guess does a body good!

I've got one of these on order as the new Fisher Presidio is not going to be here in time for the cross season. I'll be looking forward to testing this bad boy out asap.

Also, going to be putting a Origin8 Black Ops Carbon fork on the Singlespeed. Will be looking forward to testing her out this weekend at the Burning Bike festival at OCP. Might be riding it all weekend!

Back in the swing with the Singlespeed

So it's been 2 days of sleeping and eating loads of comfort food after the Humbler. Seriously think I could have easily consumed 20,000 calories a day if I didn't stop myself.

Yesterday I pulled out the Singlespeed and headed over to glenwood in Geneva to stretch the legs a bit. Temps were cool and comfortable and the trail was in great shape. I had the 32x20 on and was a little bit overgeared for the place. I like the 32x19 a little bit better there. But it was good as I just needed to spin and keep it easy. It was a fun ride to just sling around the trails solo and whip out some laps. I felt really good physically, but didn't feel like going hard at any point.

I did however realize upon inspection that the front fork is bent and the wheel is mis-aligned. Tomorrow I'm going to swap it out with a Origin8 Black Ops Carbon Fork!

Tonight I'm going to pull out the roadie, hit up the group ride, and then get some xtra ride time in with the lights on the roadie.

Reflashing my System

I'm ready to move onto the final bits of training this month. It's going to be a tough month, and I have only a few races left. I'm pretty much going to bust my ass as I want to leave this season with some top finishes.

Yesterday, with some tired legs, I went out and hammered down some Steady State Intervals. Hanging around 85% of FTP for well over an hour, was sure to put a hurt on me, especially with some heavily fatigued legs.

But I needed to just kill this workout, if not for some personal justification. I felt like I drilled it. A few times I had to back off as I was going a little harder than I should be, but in the end it'll pay off dearly.

Up this weekend, I think I'm going to head to the Laurel Classic mt. bike race in Wellsboro, PA. Then it's finally time for The Humbler BABY!!!

Poor Lizzy

I was all prepped up Friday afternoon and ready to head to the God's Country Marathon at Ski Denton in PA. I was dialing in the Superfly, ready to put the pedal back on and all would be good. Then disaster struck, literally. My dog, Lizzy, who was sitting next to me took off suddenly. Darting for the end of the driveway at full speed. Mind you, she's a hound mix and in that short distance she'll top out at 30mph. As soon as Lizzy took off, my spidey sense went crazy and I took off after her. I was a bit late as she entered the road she plowed into the side of a vehicle. Yelping and barking, I managed to get her to calm down. An overnight stay at the vet with some major painkillers and she was back home on saturday am, limping and sore. She's still yet to put weight on her right hind leg, but all seems ok from what could have been a major disaster. Guess she is gonna be laid up for a bit and that means no more riding for her for the rest of the summer :(

On a good note though, I did manage to get out saturday after I made sure she was home and settled ok. I headed down to Honeoye Lake where this weekends NYSERS finale, the Suicide Six will be held and put some laps in the newly modified course.




The course is completely changed for the 2008 race. I'm not in agreement with the changes as I thought the course was one of the best ever the original way it was run. The infamous "rattler" 800ft super technical descent has been completely removed and the course is run backwards. This essentially makes it an entirely new course as the trail is hardly ever ridden backwards as the 8 mile loop is almost always run in the original course direction.



I can't complain though, it's going to be an awesome event and after putting in a few laps I was able to get the flow of the course.





Naturally though as I was onsite, I had to take a run down the "rattler" for old times sake.

Sunday, I pulled out the road bike and headed for the hills. I don't think I've pulled of a road century this season? So it was a good time to put in a nice hard one with ginormous amounts of climbing. Having saturdays efforts in my legs left me a little tired and weary, but I managed to drill it for the majority of the day. I headed south to some of my favorite hills into Penn Yan then over Naples for even more climbing.

It ended up being a great day (no pics as rain was forecasted) and by the end of the ride the legs finally loosened up. I was quite a bit tired post-ride, but damn excited as my newborn nephew was in town and I got to hold him for the first time!

Here's hoping the legs are good and the rain holds off for tomorrow nights Farmall XC!!

Head for the hills

Yesterday after work I packed up the road bike and headed to Canandaigua. I loathe having to drive to ride the road bike, and would much rather just ride alot longer, but I needed to get into the hills. Particularly wanted to test my self on my favorite climb; Gannett Hill. It climbs up out of Naples and shoots up 1200ft or so over 6 miles. Average gradient is around 6% or so. The beginning of the climb is a nice consistent 10-11% grade that suits me well. It's the latter part of the climb with the flats and steep undulations that usually zap my energy.

Rolling South, heading for the hills

Heading to the hill behind the barn

Rolling into Naples just before the climb starts

I was feeling great, and really put out an awesome personal best normalized power of 4.85w/kg up the entire climb. I really wish it was more consistent, because I lost a bunch of wattage on the flats and the little descents. It's the best I have though. I put out a 2nd personal best time of 24:15 with no wind whatsoever. My best is 23:30, but that was with a major tailwind that def helped on the flats!

Afterwards I just drilled it home, enjoying the lake and the scenery.

Late evening Sky

That's a Boat House, not someplace someone lives! Oh the money on CDGA Lake

My only disappointment is that the sun wasn't out/little warmer. Every now and then on a good summer day you can catch one of the hot rich wives out sunbathing in a skimpy bikini! I would've taken pics of some of the mansions, but I would've never finished my ride.

Tonight is Farmall Summer Series #1, and I'm going to run the rigid singlespeed. We'll see if I have any legs left after lastnight.

Unexplained Phenomenon

Just some random thoughts that I clearly have no explanation for:

• Why I wake up at 4am and am totally awake for an hour or so, go back to sleep, and I don't ever want to get up


• I rode down a road that was closed yesterday due to paving one side of it. The opposite direction I was traveling was freshly paved so no cars could use that side. A car was heading towards me in my lane due to the paving, clearly aware I was there. The lady barely slowed down, and almost ran me off the road, WTF!?! At least slow down a little bit


• Spending most of my road ride dodging piles of horse dung


• The Hay-bale that was randomly sitting in the middle of the road


• Drafting the trailer of the missing hay-bale, and subsequently passing him at 40kph because he was far too slow


• Why my legs felt like crap for 90 of the 105k I did yesterday? I mean couldn't have come around just a bit earlier? Maybe on some of the hills I was climbing?


• The dog on Wabash road, that ran past me so fast I had no idea. I sprinted, it sprinted, I chased and chased. Side by side at 45+ kph. I think I may have found a new training partner.

The winner of them all. Closing all the windows and doors in the house, only to come home and find that my dog, Lizzy, had yet escaped. Pawed through the screen door, pushed aside the baby-gate that was double insurance, slid the kitchen sliding door open, then jumped the 4ft high pool fence. She then spent the next few hours while I was out riding, apparently looking for me. Never venturing too far from home though, as the neighbor said she kept checking back. It took all of 5 minutes for me to arrive home and she showed up.

Seriously, I should've signed up for America's top dog. I think I might leave the laptop open and record some video of her sometime just so I can figure out how the hell she escapes every time.

Currently playing in iTunes: This Is How I Disappear by My Chemical Romance

Missed out on the 6HOP

So I missed out on this year's 6 Hours of Power. Dang, love that race and that course. Wasn't much I could do about it though.

It appears I did some major damage to the Superfly! Ouch. I'm not sure when I did it. Most likely during the Super D at Mount Snow, but very well could have happened sometime prior.

I've got the Supercaliber up and running, but I'm looking to sell it, so I don't really want to put wear and tear on the parts. Guess I'll be piecing the Paragon back together for a short bit or spending time on the Singlespeed when I hit the dirt.

I've been putting time in on the road bike and probably will look to keep continuing that for a short bit. It's nice to just jump on and go for a ride. No loading up the bike and/or driving and doing all the prep work that's behind it. Funny thing is, I pretty much didn't spend all that much time on the road yet this season, so It's all kinda fresh for me right now. Although the terrain around here sucks, I may have to figure out how to scoot out and get some good climbing rides in asap.

Mount Snow Pics and some Road Riding

Here's the pics of the men's pro XC Race. Enjoy the slideshow



I actually have some pretty cool pics of my road ride that I did while I was there, but they decided to save to my camera memory and not the SD card so I can't get them off.

This really cool chicka I know, just hooked me up with a nice pair of DOT Orange Oakley's. I'll for sure be sporting them at the 6HOP this weekend!

I got my powertap wheel back on the whopper. I really haven't been doing much training on the road bike this season. I really need to. It's just so much more fun to go for a long mt. bike ride. But the Superfly can only handle so much and the parts are starting to show their racing and training age. I replaced a bunch of stuff on the whopper and she actually shifts to a gear when I do. I can actually see the teeth on the cassette rather than just a solid block of grime! To celebrate the tour and all that is road worthy, I'm gonna join up for the Thursday night road ride!

Hopefully a few show up!

Currently playing in iTunes: Kids by MGMT

Picture captures deadly bike crash in Matamoros, Mexico | The Daily Telegraph

Picture captures deadly bike crash in Matamoros, Mexico | The Daily Telegraph: "THIS horrifying picture shows the moment a US man apparently drunk and asleep ploughed into cyclists on a bike race - killing one and injuring at least 10 others."

Wow, this is just insane!

(Via Daily Telegraph.)

Back to power

So very happy to have the ergomo back! Here's a quick post of Saturday's and Yesterday's power files (click for a larger version)

Saturday's Ride in the Hills

Yesterday's brutality into the headwind

I did pull out the Superfly and put her in the dirt before I boxed her up and shipped her off to California.

You can read all about Saturday's ride and Sunday's breaking in the Superfly here

Weekly Wrap-up

I'd like to drive some traffic over to the 29er Crew website so you can read all about my riding and training for the most part over there. For the list of my entries go here ,I'll most likely double up my posts for a while. I'll keep adding little tidbits here on this site and maybe start blogging about other things besides just bikes and racing.

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

Warm(er) and Windy...It's all relative

Work has been incredibly boring these past few days. When you are a software tester; waiting around for the developer to deliver you an application can take some time. I've filled my days by continually hitting refresh on various blog websites and trying not to drool on my keyboard while I sleep.

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 44x12 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

Back to the dirt; Finally

Finally hit the dirt this past weekend. Been quite a while. Yesterday, headed over to MPH. Casey, Val, Mark, Suzanne, Jim, c-dog and lizzy along with myself put in a few miles before the trails thawed. Since the paragon has been pulling double duties, a quick wheel swap was required in the am and I was out the door.

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.....

Spinning in the Rain

I'm Spinning in the rain, just spinning in the rain...Well, the weather here in Upstate NY is at it's usual finest. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the snow is gone. But, ma nature isn't being extremely kind.

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!!!

Nice little block

Well, I got the powertap back on Thursday, only to break a tab on the battery holder. Essentially it's useless now. I got 5 years almost out of that bad boy so I'll take it, considering it lasted so long. Guess I'm stuck with training on the paragon (which isn't so bad).

Thursday was a pretty crappy day on the bike, I felt horrible. The legs were crushed and had no snap. It didn't help I was fighting a brutal cross/head wind the whole ride. Friday was a nice day so I rolled out for a few hours, the legs actually felt quite a bit snappy, but I reigned them in as Saturday was going to be a big day.

Saturday, I headed over to my old stomping grounds. I had to get the car fixed in Victor, so I decided to put in a big day from there and head south to Naples. It was a beautiful day, and I even wore gloves that were quite a bit too warm (as my shriveled fingers from sweat showed). I headed south as usual into Bristol. Its nice rolling farm country heading south, then slowly climbs till you get to the top of the Egypt hill (main climb in the Bristol Road Race). I descended that like a banshee (I was on the paragon after all!) and headed around to climb Mosher hill. Usually the thing is a bear of a climb on a road bike, but I had little lower gearing and actually felt really good climbing it. My legs were feeling nice now and I headed into Naples to refuel. After a few minutes in the bathroom (drying my clothing out from sweat), I topped off the water bottles and headed out. I immediately hit the Gannet hill climb (6 miles to the top). I was feeling good and keeping it tempo the whole ride. I flickered a bit here and there with threshold, but I knew that I had put a lot of energy out so far on the ride and continued climbing at a strong but quick pace.

Heading to the hills

After I the climb, I had a blast descending West Gannet. A car attempting to make a turn into the driveway scared the shit out of me. Nothing like descending like a madman at 40+ mph and a car unsure of how fast you are going and contemplating turning in front of you. Luckily, we made eye contact and me waving my hands like, WTF!?! he stopped quickly. A few miles of flats to stretch the legs, up the final climb out of Bristol and slammed it home.

To the top of that is where I'm heading



5 and a half hours of some good tempo in the hills and I was feeling great. I'm super amazed at Sustained Energy. It rocks! 4 bottles of that, 1 flask of gel and some clif blocks was all I needed for the ride. In comparison when I rode around Seneca lake, I was using a different drink and just fizzled out halfway into the ride. I felt like I could have ridden 10 hours on Saturday.

Looking down Gannet, what I just came up



Today looks nice and I might head to the trails in a few or hit the roads if they thaw. Short day for work as I have to drive to PA tonight for an early AM session tomorrow.

Wednesday, I'll be back on track....

Power-less

I went out for a ride on Monday to enjoy the weather, and well the power-tap wasn't agreeing. Possibly cause it's 4 1/2 years old? Literally the rear hub froze solid on me. I'm dropping it off and the GBC and let them rebuild the hub or it may need whole new axle. If it's anything excessive, buh-bye. My road bike is essentially used for training and it's showing it's wear. The durace (yah i know it's dura-ace, but its fun to say dur-rachi) is 5 + years old and the thousands of miles on the salty roads of upstate NY winters have me basically working with a front brake, and a "kick-shift" front der. I'll ride her till she dies.

In the meantime the paragon is fully set-up to handle all the necessary duties for road and off-road riding. I may never go back to the road bike if the ergomo returns. I may even end up with one of these. All depends, but most likely will. So in the meantime it's down to some Perceived exertion and manual TSS.

This weekend kicks off the Rochester Giros Spring Training Series. Guess who won't be showing up as you need a GVCC membership? $20 to race, plus another $60 for GVCC membership, plus $150 UCI license????? And it's now on the west side of Rochester, ya F that. I'll get better training on my own time rather than the 2.5 hours spent in the car.

Looks like a nice day out there, better get back to work so I can take a long lunch and sneak a few hours in today....

Oh Almost Forgot!! NYSERS site is now live and running!!

Currently playing in iTunes: Star Of Bethlehem by Angels & Airwaves

Solo Weekend

Spent the past weekend on some solo adventures. All in all a great weekend of training. Would've liked a bit more time on Saturday, but the Ol' man winter had made up his mind.

Saturday, I put in just over 2 hours of brutality. It was 30 degrees with 30mph winds. Pretty much every backroad that ran North-South was insane. With the winds blowing so fierce they were creating massive snow drifts across the roads in unprotected sections. I'd say I crossed about 50 snow drift, some up to 100 meters long or so. I was forced to walk one, as the wind pushed me around so much I couldn't stay upright in the snow. The good news is I didn't crash in any of the others and after negotiating a few difficult ones, they became fairly easy as you just found a good line and cruised. If there was no line, I just hit the gravel off the shoulder and it provided decent enough grip to stay upright. The last few mile, though the snow picked up pretty heavily and became difficult to see more than a few hundred meters. Naturally, after I get home and clean up the sun comes out and all is good.

Sunday, was a great day 35 and sunshine all day. Light winds, but nothing major. I decided I would just give it a good day on the bike. I headed south into the rolling hills of Seneca Lake Wine Country and put in 142k circumnavigating the lake. I felt pretty good for the 1st 3 hours or so, but by the time I climbed out of Watkins Glen, I could tell that my meal from the night before didn't prepare me well enough for the ride. I'd eaten well on the bike, and prior; but not enough for dinner. I can pretty much tell how much an effect a meal or even certain foods now has on my training. I didn't expect I'd put in such a big day, but then who can argue when the sun is shining and its a nice day. If there wasn't snow on the ground I'd have thought it was June. The last 20k of the ride I suffered a bit, but suffer now and feel good come race day!

I was suppose to ride this morning with Mark and Suzanne, but I bailed for more sleep after yesterday. However right now, its 47 and the sun is shining. Yah, I have a "appointment" around 3pm ;) ..... gotta take advantage while I can!!