Indoor Exercise - It was minus 8F this morning

Hey and Howdy,

It's frigid outside today and even though I want to ride, I'm not going to.
Since the basement was cleaned ceiling to floor and the walls were wiped down, we now have a clean place to workout.

And thanks to one of my many awesome cousins, Michaelene, we now have a nice elliptical to play on. Thank you so much, you are great.

This is the Proform Stride Select 825 that was handed down.



and the console



I was able to download a copy of the manual with details on maintenance and working the console. We are set. So now we have an elliptical right next to the bike on a magnetic resistance trainer.

The trainer was also a gift from a co-worker from my last job. E.J. is a great guy who helped me out a few times. I really felt bad for him when he was delegated to 'let me go' from the company. We both sat in that office with lawyer Bob and had tears building up in our eyes. It really sucked to be let go that way.

E.J., if you read this, thank you again, for everything.


And thanks to everyone else that has been so thoughtful and helpful to us.

Mr Mom

While I'm out of work I try to pick up the slack around the house while my wife works.

So today I got to drive her to work with the 2 year old in tow.
We said our good byes and she cried for about 10 seconds about wanting to go with Mommy.

Off we were to do the running around. We stopped at the village hall to sign up the 10 year old for volleyball, today was the last day. Well actually, the last day to sign up is Monday Jan 17. Otherwise known as Martin Luther King Jr Day. A day in which their office is closed.

After village hall we went to the post office and that's when I noticed she was wet. The carseat was wet too. Diaper must have slipped off the side. Damn.

So we went home and she needed a tubby anyway. So into the tub she went, where she played for 10 minutes before pooping in the tub. Ahhh, the joys of having a 2 year old.





So after that mess was cleaned up and she was cleaned and the tub was cleaned I dressed her up again and was able to put up that mop of hair. I put 2 pony tails on the sides of her hair near the top. Of course they are uneven, but I don't care. She looks cute no matter what.

I have domesticated stuff all day today.

Tomorrow morning I'm picking up an elliptical machine from one of my many awesome cousins.
Maybe a snow ride after I get it set up in the basement.

My cousin started http://adoptagi.org/ and is collecting donations and spearheading a great project to send packages to our troops serving overseas. The donations help offset the shipping costs. Local schools contribute with extra supplies and letters to the servicemen. Local business contribute with supplies and donations.



If you would like to support the cause, please navigate to
http://adoptagi.org/ and dontate.

sNOWride

Snow rides are lots of fun for me. This winter 2010/11 is showing us some variation. We had plenty of snow before Christmas and I got in a ride or 2 with friends. Then it rained and the snow was gone for about 3 weeks. It was bitter cold most of the time to boot. I didn't ride.


Then we got a dusting and I got fired up to ride again.

Went on a couple of rides with friends. I've been taking the Monocog 26er while my friends all have geared bikes. Even though we ride mostly bike paths and streets, I still tend to ride faster than them.

I'm going to try some techniques with different clothing set ups and different riding speeds and such to keep my sweat down. Getting this dialed in will keep me warm during an emergency stop. Fixing a flat while drenched in sweat in 15 F temps with the wind blowing is not my idea of a fun ride.

I drove down to St Charles instead of riding so the full ride would be with Trotta. Some times I ride to pick him up, we ride together back towards my place and then he rides home solo. It turned out perfect as neither one of us has our rear blinkies on our chosen bikes. Riding together at night is safer too because the rear rider's headlamp will reflect off the rider ahead.

Trotta has these monster tires on his bike and I comment on them as we ride towards the trail. He tells me to be careful after we descend because there is ice.

Not 5 minutes later as I'm riding next to him over the icy section he wobbles, says an expletive and goes down hard. Owch. I don't even know how it happened as we were riding a flat straight section with known ice. Luckily he was OK to ride and we continued at a moderately slow pace and kept chatting.

The big hills were fun downhill and challenging uphill. The road sections were (thankfully) uneventful.

All in all - a great ride.

Ferst Poast

When I ride, why do I feel the need to "kick your ass"?

I mean no harm. I don't really want to kick anyone, but the term sticks.
And when we are grinding up the big hill, I will say with my best Asian accent that, "I'm a big ring krimer".
And proceed to kick your ass.

Why do I feel the need to "kick your ass"?

Because I want to make sure that you feel what it is like to get your ass handed to you. The same way my ass was handed to me, oh so many times, by riders much stronger than me. Yes, they completely kicked my ass. And I learned to love the feeling. I learned to savor every painful pedal stroke while getting my ass kicked. I learned better body position, better breathing, better strategy and I vowed that I would hand out just as much punishment when I was able to. Which brings me back to "kicking your ass".

You see, when I'm kicking someone's ass, I can only do it by kicking my own ass. Because if I'm not kicking my own ass, someone else will be kicking it for me, you see?. And it all comes down to, would you rather kick some ass or be kicked in the ass?

I vote for ass kicking.