Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Update on Commuting, training, life........

Last nite was the Tuesday Night Crit #4. I showed up on my single-ring cross bike and, wearing my old Nantucket Nectar's kit, actually went pretty good. Got into a move with 2 others for a few laps, tried a few moves later that went nowhere, then just sat in. Amazing, no one crashed or came close to crashing last nite, so Kudos to everybody. Shadd, Cameron, and a couple others got a good gap near the end, and with the main group not really working, we got lapped on the last lap. I still stayed near the front and out of trouble and got out of the way for the sprint.

I've been giving some serious thought about going with a 29'er hardtail, probably a Niner EMD frame. I'll finish this MTB season out on my Gary Fisher then see how it goes.

Here's the morning ride into work
View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Here's the afternoon ride home
View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com
I take an extended route home using the Mill Creek Streamway Path.

Training seems to be going perfectly right now. Once I get up to speed, it takes very little quality riding to maintain it. Once the ground dried out and I could get in some good MTB rides, I was back to my normal technically-proficient self. The commuting to work and back does add a bit of quality riding to the schedule, especially the ride into work. It's moderatly hard and steady the whole way (i'm a stickler about getting to work late). There are plenty of short little kickers to wake you up. I can take my time and just cruise a bit more on the way home ( that's an idea, "just cruise"). Notice the start and end location of the above rides, i'm back in the house on the golf course. This past weekend was the big move with Kristine, the brown dog(Athena), the giant-breed dog(Buster), and several truck loads of stuff. Her dogs are like "hey, when are we going back home?" They'll figure it out. My little white Westie dog, Louis, is back in her Queen of the Castle thone. She was like that at Kristine's house, just more-so now that she's back on home turf. She's not afraid to go for the throat of EITHER of Kristine's dogs. "Big dog in a small package" is under-statement here. Buster could hold her down with one leg, and Athena would make a squeaky toy out of her. Buster is deathly afraid of Louise and will avoid a confrontation if possible. Lou and Athena tend to get nose-to-nose a bit more, usually going for the same toy at the same time. They've got into it a few times, with both showing battle wounds after. I did track down Lou's papers (she is a pure-bred) and she's over 11 years old, but still pretty spunky!