Dishwashing Gloves...w/o finger brushes

Last winter season i learned a couple very important lessons.

1.Fenders rule (see image)
2.Riding in the rain longer than 45mins in temps below 50 is brutally painful, but fenders help.

I learned both of these from a friend's brother and telling him i know better despite his riding a bike as long i've probably been alive. or at least close to it.
I also told my wife last winter season, "remind me to ride outdoors even in the brutally cold rain, rather than on the rollers."

So last week, as you may know, was a very wet week. Beyond the stinging pain of very cold wetness on the body, i love the conditions...messy, wet, cold. Really, its just how cold my hands get when they are sopping wet and directly in the wind. I've seen the specialized Scuba gloves (not really scuba gloves, but its what they look like), but they are ridiculously expensive and i dont have an amazing discount anymore. So while shopping around the IKEA discount area for craft projects (yes crafts...or art if that sounds better), and i saw a basket full of black rubber dishwashing gloves for 79 cents a pair. They reminded me of the super expensive Specialized pair, but for a 150th of the price (or something like that). They are super thin but big enough to allow to fit a pair of winter gloves underneathe, keeping my hands both dry and warm. I got to try them out a few times last week, making the cold wet rides much more enjoyable, even at 6 or 7 am. light or dark.

79 cents. yes!

I ended up 4th in the MABRA BAR. I only had a small portion of my season as a CAT 4 so i think that's pretty good. I found out by email this morning that i missed out on a plaque. Bummer. A season of more near misses than Vee's, but i still (by my count) have 2 in the bank.

Ankle Problems

Today has started off great. i dropped my car off at the auto shop across town, pulled my bike out of the back and left for work. On my way my ankle was giving me a ton of problems. About 3 weeks ago i slipped on my stairs and jammed my foot into the floor sideways in order to prevent myself from falling down the stairs. At this point i think i would have rather fallen down a flight of stairs, mostly because i think the resulting injuries wouldnt be as bad, but its hard to prevent a natural reaction (not that sideways was a natural response).

It actually was giving problems last night post-ride. I took ibuprofen and put an ice pack on as i went to bed. it may have helped a bit, but who knows.

On top of all that i woke up with sinus problems, which isnt uncommon but usually the ride clears that up, except for this instance. ugh

Oh, not to mention i missed another registration opening for another race. So i'm probably not racing till the 29th when i attempt my first road race. This is probably a good thing due to my current ankle issue. Now only if i could convince myself to take it easy for a little.

Any chance it could be caused by a poor cleat placement on my road shoe? idk.

i had a great 40 mile ride last night. new route.

Ice Day

Didn't ride in this morning. I'm wishing i had, but hindsight is always 20/20. I knew i would regret it as soon as my boss and i left my house in his car, one because i had a feeling but mostly because i saw that the main roads were just fine.
Ben made it in just fine and as a matter of fact, turned over a decent time going in. He said it was a bit scary but no problems.

The farmers almanac looks something like:
So its been close to being correct. But i bet i could have been "close to being correct" too. I'm just hoping for no more big precipitation days anytime soon which according to Accuweather isn't too far off from "close to being correct":
With all that said about commuting and the weather, i have to think about training and what i should be doing. From reading everyone else's blogs, i gather that i should be logging miles and lots of them and thats about it.
There is an upcoming race i am planning on doing called the Snowball Crit #1. Its in VA Beach and its on Feb 22nd. Thats the goal for the start of my first real racing season.

Red Tacks

All signs pointed back towards bed this morning...or at the very least taking the short route to work. It was just one of those mornings. I was tired, my legs were sore, its was an enjoyable 13 degrees outside, i was dragging and procrastinating. But despite all that, in my quest to be a family of 1 motor vehicle, i hopped on my bike. Shortly there after i was cruising along just dandy or as dandy as you can be in 13 degree weather on a bike, and i hear *clunk* *clunk* *clunk*. So i decided to figure out what the hell is making that noise. I stop and spin my back wheel to discover a nice little red tack. a few thought went through my mind at that moment, "maybe i can still ride...no probably not", "maybe i can take it out and nothing will"...pppsssssss....yeah. that didn't work, nice thought though. This was my first test of changing a tube on the road....ever. Its my 3rd flat ever too. I think i have a bit of luck on my side. But, regardless of all that, i did it. I changed the flat and pressed on. I was proud of myself.

More doping comes through the headlines...
I hope they make some progress with Operation Puerto.

The Oscar nods are posted. a few things that have to happen or i won't watch the Oscars again...

• Slumdog wins both best picture and director
• Rourke wins best actor
• Ledger wins support actor
• Wall-E animated feature
• Wall-E or Slumdog win original score

a few predictions and great expectations.

Go Cardinals!

Bike Project II

Last night i stopped by my parent's house just to visit. I needed to go by there regardless of being able to stay and visit or not because i had some stuff to pick up, but i had a bunch of time to kill so my wife and i stayed for a while.

The stuff i had to pick up were two bike frames and a stockpile of wheels and a few other parts like cranks and bottom brackets and such.
(That is my first road bike, which was too small for me and i still rode the crap out of it.)
(This is my dad's racing bike from his HS/College bike. He actually rode it up until about 10 years ago and he bought a new one.)
The first one will be for who ever. But my dad's old frame I'm making for him. It need a bunch of work but i think i can get it put together well and looking great.

With these projects hopefully i can get more people riding. I've also been working on encouraging my wife to start riding a bike to work. Its just barely over 5 miles for her. and it has almost all bike paths the whole way there. and the parts that it doesn't, its a giant *clean* shoulder. So I'll teach her to change a flat and get her hooked up. She probably won't start till there is more sunlight and a bit warmer, but regardless i think this will be great. She's got a little MTB that should work perfectly and if she keeps it up, we can get her something a bit more efficient.

• Myself (check)
• Darryl (check)
• Wife (pending)
• Zach (pending)
• Sabrina (?)
• James (?) (do you own a vehicle? i know you got that VW bus...but a working vehicle?)
  
• Alan (do you ride your bike around, like to class?)
• Anyone else?

Good music sounds so much better on headphones. I am listening to Arcade Fire's Neon Bible and i don't believe I've ever listened to this album through headphone. Its quite good, and in fact I'm enjoying it on a completely different level.
(this is not me in the photo, nor anyone i know)

The weather the past two days has been very frigid. Yesterday i got to work and it was 21 degrees and today it was 29 degrees. When i leave the sun hasn't even risen yet so it definitely a bit warmer by the time i reach work. I've been wearing every article of clothing i could find to try and keep myself warm riding in. But despite the extreme cold, I've been performing at a much better level than the past few months.