Feeling Better

Many thanks to The Mop and Sleevie for the kind words on my first post.

The weather today was fantastic: Mid 50's and sunny with a slight wind out of the south. I woke up still feeling a bit down so when I left the house at 10 am I decided to limit myself to a mellow hour. I wore my bib tights with a sleeveless base layer and long sleeve winter jersey topped with a wind vest. That turned out to be a little too much and after 10 minutes I was opening zippers to allow for a bit of circulation. I did a quick loop out by the prison which, for those not familiar with the south end of the valley, looked like this: North on 1300 W to 10400 S then south on the frontage road until 14600 S where you hang a right. Continue west on 14600 S and 14400 S then return on 2700 W. Ended up being just under 19 miles and 70 minutes. I was tired when I got home so I'm glad I didn't go any longer. Average heart rate was 141 so the pace was about right.

Normally my wife stays off the bike during the colder months but she couldn't resist the mild weather and went out for an hour herself. This was her second season riding and I'm still unsure if introducing her to the bike was a good or bad idea. For those of you with kids and a spouse who rides you know what I'm talking about. It takes a fair bit of compromise to satisfy two riding schedules when somebody needs to stay home with the kids. Once the oldest is able to watch his sister things will be much easier. Only 6 more years to go... It is cool, however, to ride the ULCER with your spouse on (or near) your wedding anniversary. We've done that for 2 years now and consider it a tradition. Plus, it makes our dinner date later that evening much more enjoyable since after riding for 5-6 hours the last thing we need to worry about is counting calories!

Next week the weather is forecast to be even warmer so I'm looking forward to getting in some good lunch miles on Monday and Tuesday. Working at a small software company certainly has its benefits with flexible hours and an extremely casual office at the top of the list. Once a week I may need to give the Specialized Lunch Ride a try after Thanksgiving to get in some high intensity work (at least for the 5-10 minutes I manage to hang onto the back of the group!). One of my goals for the 07 season is to ride with stronger guys on a regular basis. There's a good group in South Jordan that I hooked up with off and on over the summer. Last winter I did a couple of hours with the group out of Racer's in Provo each Saturday (we moved to Riverton from Payson in May) and need to find something similar in the area. Either that or start driving to Provo on Saturdays. I also need to get over my fear of racing and figure the best way to do it will be to become a regular at one of the weekly training crits. When I was a kid all of my speed (what little there was) came from the weekly Tuesday Nighter so I need to swallow my pride and start getting worked. Any other suggestions are welcome.

The more I ride with my SRAM stuff the more I like it. There's something about the Rival shifters and my new Easton EC70 bars that just works for my hands. Where before I needed to constantly change hand positions to keep my fingers from going numb now I can ride with no discomfort at all. The 11-26 is pretty cool too but I think it would be even better with a compact crankset. I'm thinking of picking up a Campy Chorus CT in the next few months to give it a try. I did ok climbing this year with a 39x27 but I still felt like I was grinding up the steeper climbs in the valley: LC, Suncrest (north side) and sections of Butterfield (but really, who doesn't grind up those switchbacks?) and the Nebo Loop. My right knee gave me grief after those efforts so I'm hoping a 34x26 helps. I just need to make a rule that the 26 is only an option for the aforementioned climbs so I don't get lazy!

Speaking of sweet upgrades, check this out: http://www.sweetskinz.com/

My son wants a pair of the blue camo BMX tires for Christmas!