Sunday, February 28, 2010

Forgettable February

Spring can't arrive any sooner. After spending a normal amount of days on the bike for me as far as January is concerned, the same can not be said about February. The snow storm (s), cold temps and wind were enough ingredients to keep him indoors for most of the months. Only last weekend was I able to do some riding, and it hurt so much that this past Monday, while at work, the top of my body was heading in one direction, while my legs were going the opposite way.

Inconsistent riding is the trend so far and it seems like it will continue that way until probably late March because a family vacation is fast approaching. This can only mean that instead of shutting things down in early August as it's customary, maybe this could be a blessing in disguise, that's what I'm telling myself.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The end is near

January 28th was the last time I touched the bike until this past Friday. All the freaking snow we got halted the slow progress I was making into finding some sort of form and rhythm into my riding routine. But as the sun peaked through the clouds and the calls from Jose to "get on the bike", I finally made it to Hains Point, driving of course, since the trail is not rideable and will remain that way for the forseable future. Short story is that the legs and lungs took a vacation and weren't to happy about getting forced to work extra.

Wanting to continue the trend, I ventured out to the 10AM clock ride on Saturday, which turned out to be fun despite the melting snow, but it hurt towards the end. And today was the 8:30am on the pain menu. Mentally I tend to throw in the towl quicker than I should, but there's no reason to dig deep right now, when the tank is on empty and hurting myself will not do much good (at the moment). So I settled into a comfortable pace after not helping (not that I didn't want to help, the legs were just not responding) Dani close the gap on the group even though there were within reach. After regrouping, I was feeling a little better, but the only thoughts then were about lunch and again, the Meaurio's were kind enough to feed me, which is always great because of the food and the company.

Over on the pro scene, things are finally going with the "desert race" over and done and some of the old hands are at it again (McEwen, Petacchi). And some young whippersnappers are getting into the grove of things. Team SKY had a bit of a "fight" in their hands in Oman and the season gets under way proper this Sunday in Belgium. Wind, snow, and cold-miserable temperatures. The peloton will have to deal it with mother nature's fury for a while, but winter will soon be over.