Back in Roch

Jen, Tegan, and I headed back to Roch this past weekend to visit my parents. My brother and sister, Ben and Becca, came in from Milwaukee and Madtown for the weekend as well, so 4 out of 5 kids were home. Sweet....

After eating a ton on Friday night, Ben and I met Charly and Chris at Rochester Cycling and Fitness (aka "the shop") on Saturday morning. I had done a couple hard threshold workouts earlier in the week, so I was looking for some endurance riding. Somewhere between Rochester and nowhere, we found some sweet gravel roads. Charly did a good recap with pictures here: http://www.charlytri.blogspot.com/ . The motorpacing behind a huge John Deere was far to awesome.
After a brief refueling back at my parents, Ben and I headed back to the shop to talk bikes.... before the end of the day, Chris had ordered a CX bike (Trek XO2 ), and I ordered a road bike (Madone 5.5 with Ksyrium ES wheels)... Chris also had a bunch of other goodies like helmets, tires, trainers, etc. The shop is far to nice to us, and the longer I stay in there, the emptier my bank account gets.

Hard Weekend

This past week (Monday through Friday) of rest was really nice with some hockey and easier riding thrown in. The rest was definitely needed after 2+ of my longest weeks of the year. By friday, I had only put in about 6-7 hours.

On Saturday we had plans to head up to my in-laws, but Jen let me sneak out in the morning for a ride. It was only about 2 hours, but 1 of the hours was as hard as I could go... 100% on the climbs and then what ever I could take on everything else. OUCH! I have never been and never will be very disciplined about doing intervals out on the road, so when I need intensity, I just go out alone and race myself....I usually win.


Sunday, Fisher, Sam and I headed out on a longer ride in HOPE of getting some more base miles in. I rode my mountain bike with slicks, so Fisher was on his road bike. I didn't check the forecast and that is probably a good thing because we were doing an out-and-back with the first 2+ hours into a 20mph headwind. With wind like that, keeping the HR and intensity low is almost impossible. Sam turned around after about 1 hour because he had to be somewhere....Chris and I pulled each other to Northfield where the flags were pointed up (you know when a flag is straight, it is windy, but when it points up, you are screwed). Needless to say, Fisher and I were cooked, and we cruised home at a more comfortable pace....in talking on the way home, I said, "Many I was going like 90% on every pull and 100% on the climbs." Chris said he felt the same...sweet??


In other news:
I parted ways with one of my mountain bikes (the fuel ex that I bought last fall), as I came to the realization that 5 mountain bikes and no road bikes just doesn't make sense.

Soooooo, I don't want to upset anyone, but I may be purchasing a road bike soon...that is right R-O-A-D. Since selling my road bike last year, I have missed having one. They are fun, fast, and mountain bikes on the road aren't all that comfortable for more than 3 hours.

Now should I get this?

Or this? (OK so it's a 'cross bike, but close enough)

Spy Photo

Here is a look at the hardtail for the year.

Changes from last year:

F80X -> F100X

Crossmas SL -> Cmax SLR

Standard Rotors -> Stans Rotors

Kenda Karmas -> Kenda Small Block Eights

Egg Beater S -> Beater Twin Ti's

Flat Bar -> riser bar

Regular Thompson Seatpost -> Thompson Masterpiece

It is light, I promise...

Growth

This photo was not altered in any way=)

Not too much happenin'

The road were free of slush, the trails were dirt again, and then we got 2 feet of snow over 6 days. The weather made this past week of base training...well, different. The cool thing is that I actually got some use out of my snow shoes on a couple occasions....the not-cool thing is that I also got some use out of my trainer.

I took some crap for not having a link to my wife's blog on mine, so now I do. There is no need for me to post too many pictures of the baby because my wife is doing such a great job (http://www.jensrunninblog.blogspot.com/).

In other Tegan news, his 2 best skills right now are pooping and recovery naps.