Monumentally Afflicted

The view when I walk out of my door at Oceano Cabinas My ride while in Costa Rica. Functional! Cargo bike, San Jose style This guy was selling bags of something out of that cooler... Been in Zancudo for a couple days. Beautiful black sand beach. Pretty much deserted. Got out for a couple bike rides yesterday. On the local dirt/rock road and also on the beach. Much easier to ride on the beach during low tide. Nice firm smooth ground. Took the munchkins for a ride in the golf cart today and found a troupe of monkeys in the trees. Forgot the camera, arrgh! Will try again tomorrow...

Got out for some road riding in the flurries today. A little bummed that my top speed was only 40mph. Could have sworn I was going at least 55 ;-) Legs feeling a bit tired, but not too bad. Knees seem good. Forecast is looking poor for the immediate future. Cold, but above freezng, so trails are sloppy.

Got out for a nice road ride today. About 17 miles in just over an hour. Felt pretty good. Took yesterday off. Partway through the day, I had some really sharp pain in my knee (just below knee cap). Iced this morning and made sure to stretch before and after today's ride. Feeling fine right now, but will have to keep and eye on it. Let's see...did 2 rides with Tirpak over the weekend. Saturday, we planned to ride up the Sante Fe Trail, around the Greenland loop and back. No dice. Terrible trail conditions. Super slow going. Got to Greenland and decided to wind our way back to Monument through the Glen. Sunday, we rode up Mt Herman Rd to the top entrance to Limbaugh and back to the house. Good training! The Maverick SC32 on my snow bike blew chunks from one leg. Not sure what's up with that. With very little snow, I'm not inclined to figure it out right now.

Got busy...as I should have. Hit the gym and did some leg weights yesterday, plus put in some time on the trainer. Today, I got out and put out a pretty serious effort up Mt Herman in slushy/muddy conditions. I'm thinking I may take a different tact to training this year. My good health might actually allow me to push the quality quotient up and do less garbarge mileage. We shall see. In addition to focusing on core strength, endurance, and flexibility, I'd like to build my power and also my neck strength/health.

9 weeks until Fruita. Looks like I'm going to have to put them to good use to be in shape by May 7th. A week and a half of the time will be spent lazing around in Costa Rica. Yay, but uh oh. So, what's different than last year at this time? Well, I'm probably a bit more out of shape, but less injured. Knees are doing great and elbows are pretty good. They were actually the best they had been in years until I played around at my kid's gymnastics place...idiot. I expect that having been through the race before will really help from a confidence and planning perspective. There is no fear of the unknown, like last time around. I also know that my fueling strategy worked fairly well last year. And, I have a better light setup than last year. Did a short ride on the SFT today at lunch. Good ride w/ some coworkers. Time to get busy!

Got out for another good snow ride today. Felt like skiing at times, but was fun anyway. Nordby (above) and Joe joined me for the 14 degree ride. It actually felt pretty nice. The combo of waterproof/breathable socks and shoe covers worked well, keeping my feet nice and toasty. Nordby and I both wore ski helmets, which were also nice and toasty. I actually took my helmet off for the climb up Mt Herman Road, as I was sweating like crazy. Hunter, leading the way on Stoopid Joe, managing to stay upright Joe, on Stoopid Middle Stoopid Entrance Trailhead shot

Got out for a great snow ride this morning in the Preserve. 20 degrees when I left and 21 degrees when I finished. About 1 or 2 inches of fresh snow made for nice quiet riding. Low clouds, very still air and lots of... Fresh tracks! I didn't have the trails entirely to myself, but pretty close. I saw a few hikers, a search and rescue dog (hopefully just in training), and some bike tracks (probably Nordby's).