Still no snow.

Rain in the forecast. At least the ice was okay yesterday, even though it is all going to melt tomorrow and Tuesday. I guess on the bright side the salt will be washed off the roads. Maybe time to ride outside!

Winter. I miss it. It is warm-ish and sunny out. I haven't been able to ski for a while, and I miss it. I feel like I am having an affair on my favorite winter sport. Too much ice climbing, not nearly enough skiing. The current weather trends have me longing to hop on my bike and ride off into the sunset. Is it over? Will skiing ever take me back? I guess I haven't been totally unfaithful, i have been skate skiing quite a bit. It just isn't the same, though. No face shots, not as much solitude. I shouldn't be so hard on myself. It isn't my fault, the snow should be better. It forced me away. I can't help myself, I am just a man after all.

I need snow. Bad.

roller derby-licious

Training has begun in earnest. I don't know why, but I feel rather motivated as of late. Holiday break was full of skinning and ice climbing, my new distraction. It is fun to go out in the freezing cold, put pointy things on your feet and in your hands, and try to scale frozen waterfalls. But, I digress. Training has begun with skate skiing. Lots of it. 6 hours last week, 5 hours this week and more tomorrow. The rollers have also made their way from the basement to the bedroom, in front of the tv. Only 4 hours so far, but it feels good to be back on the bike. The only thing better would be if the bike were new.........

Delinquency

Yes, I am thoroughly delinquent in my posting. Lacking internet connection at my house makes it rather difficult. I am on the verge of some changes in my bike riding life, and I think they will make for more interesting (and much, much more plentiful posts) Hopefully the 3 people who have actually read this in the past will stumble onto the wonderful adventures of "Laps" again. Maybe someone new will read (ya, right) but I may just have enough motivation to get the interweb flowing into my house so I can post some pictures (with my writing skills, pictures are vital to the entertainment content of this blog)
At any rate, training has begun for this summer, skiing is good, and I am VERY excited to ride. New sponsor for the summer and, hopefully, a shiny new bike to suffer on.

now winter is here........sort of

my last post was about the advent of winter. I guess I was a bit off. I didn't actually get to ski until the Saturday after turkey day (and the Sunday, too) both of which were pretty good. Then the snow went away, so I started biking more. After biking in a bit of snow last Tuesday night, we finally got winter our first winter storm. That brought some good night skiing (via skins and headlamp to make it more exciting). It also brought some cold weather and ICE! I got a chance to use my pointy new ice Axes and shoe fangs. They were sweet, I was not. I felt like a turtle on its back flailing my way up. Oh well, I had fun. Hopefully winter is here to stay and I will be able write more.

Summer is done, bring on the snow!

This summer went well overall. I rode my bike more than ever before, raced consistently and had a lot of fun. The 24 races were good, although I am not sure they are worth it. I might try more shorter races next year, but we will see. The millstone grind went well. I hope the rumors about the date change next year aren't true so I can do that race again. The 50 started off okay, but went downhill quickly at the end. Three flat tires and only two tubes. He last flat being only five miles from the finish. I could have finished but I didn't see the point in ruining my wheel and I really wanted to be done at that point. Oh well. There is always next year. Some recent good news is I get to wear Outdoor Research clothing for the winter as one of their lab rat type people. I am excited to beat on clothing for this ski season. I promise I am going to ski every chance I get!
That is all for now.

wired

This is scary. I can now type stuff on my phone and post it. Pat's peak went well and the summer has been full of riding and working and more riding. Hopefully I can get my new wheels soon and get ready in time for great glen. Lot's of fun and hopefully more and more riding.