Let the Countdown Begin - Again

That's right - I'm leaving town again for some training because the weather here in Chicago just plain, well SUCKS. We're caught in this cycle of snow/rain/melt/freeze/snow again/rain again/melt again/freeze again which alternately inititates a cycle of ride, fix punctures, get nearly run over by buses, cabs and other assorted a**hole drivers, clean the bike, etc. It's just wrong to remark on a long ride that it's a "nice day" when the temp barely reaches 20 degrees. I am just horribly sick of it and maybe even moderately depressed because of it. I knew things were getting bad when just getting stuck at traffic signals on the bike was beginning to seriously annoy me, along with other things that I normally just ignore. This morning's commute to and from the loop (about 8mi each way, depending on the route I take) was the final nail in the coffin - I've freakin' had it!! I have to get out of town so I'll be heading down to North Carolina for a long stretch with some teammates for some fair-weather training and hill work - some of my 'favorite' stuff.

Today's training session was completed yet again on the rollers and the soundtrack was a little bit more, um, aggressive in some ways... Pre and post ride doppio - that goes without saying. Good thing my upstairs neighbor wasn't home - the music was very loud and so were my rollers. I didn't have any fierce melon Gatorade so I had to make do with some lemon lime. To me, lemon lime to Gatorade is sort of like what vanilla is to ice cream - not amazing, but always does the job just the same.

Closer - Nine Inch Nails

How Many More Times - Led Zeppelin

Deep - PJ

I'm Shipping Up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys

Temptation - The Tea Party

3 Libras - A Perfect Circle

Cochise - Audioslave

Story of My Life - Social Distortion

I Will Follow - U2

Drift and Die - Puddle of Mudd

The Perfect Drug - Trent Reznor

Smack My Bitch Up - The Prodigy

Firestarter - The Prodigy

The Pretender - Foo Fighters

Serenity - Godsmack

American Idiot - Green Day

Flagpole Sitter - Harvey Danger

Hate to Say I Told You So - The Hives

In the End - Linkin Park

Blow Up the Outside World - Soundgarden

Battleflag - Lo Fidelity Allstars

Jesus Built My Hot Rod - Ministry

Aneurysm - Nirvana (the live version is best)

Thin Air - PJ (again, the live version is best)

I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones

Armageddon Days are Here Again - The The

Shudder/King of Snake - Underworld

Ca plane pour moi - Plastic Bertrand

I finished things off with Trouble by Coldplay - I love it for reasons I can't explain. I think there were a few more "uplifting" tracks but I don't recall them at the moment. Anyway, thanks for reading. Can't wait to get out of here, even if it means having to climb hills - 17 days and counting....

(Enter) The Rain Bike

The Rain Bike - Sans Fenders, at the moment

Yep, you read that right - the rain bike. Actually, it's more like the rain/slush/snow/hail bike but you get the idea. I was feeling guilty about always riding my nice bikes in the sloppy weather so I looked through my graveyard of parts and basically saw that I had enough stuff to build a pretty darn good Frankenbike - all I needed was a frameset. Lou at the Pony Shop hooked me up with a super sweet Cannondale CAAD9 frameset and then built (on the cheap) the beast I call the rain bike.

Per the latest weather forecast, there's no forseeable change in this pattern of lousy weather we've been stuck in so I'm pretty sure I'll be spending a fair amount of time on this bike in the coming weeks. I imagine the fenders will need to be installed after this weekend as it appears that we're going to get hit with some more snow starting on Monday. At the moment it's decent out there albeit cloudy - upper 20s for a temp with a fair amount of wind, but at least it's dry - so I'm heading out to ride soon.

Oh yeah - I changed the blog template because I was getting tired of the same old blue/green color scheme. I liked the black right away on the preview so I went with it. I think you'll agree with me when I say it's more "me" than the old scheme was. Anyway, as always, thanks for reading - hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say next time I post!

Sunny Blue Skies, Minus 20 Windchills and Fierce Melon Gatorade

Sure, it looks pretty out there but it's just too damn cold to go outside - for anything. Yesterday, after watching the forecast for today, I decided that I would not be leaving the house for the entire day. I'd be happy to accept visitors, but I'm staying home - no small task for a spaz like me. That means but one thing: the day's training ride would have to be completed on the rollers. That's a problem only because the set of rollers I have at home is tired - VERY tired. Like, many thousands of miles tired. One of the cylinders has a bad bearing so that means they are loud, which in turn means that if I want to watch tv while I ride, the tv will have to also be loud. I don't want to be labeled a bad neighbor so I listen to the ipod while I ride.

The real key to surviving a 2+ hour roller ride - aside from the obligatory pre- and post-ride doppio? First, the ride needs to have structure or else your brain turns to mush. I did lots of intervals today. That definitely makes the time pass. Second, drink copious amounts of fierce melon Gatorade to stave off dehydration (don't ask - it's just one of my many quirky proclivities). Third, and most importantly, the soundtrack has to kick ass. If you find yourself fast forwarding through the playlist at any point, it's not good. Because I teach Spinning I have a huge music library (tax deducted, thank you very much) so it's very easy for me to put together long playlists of all my favorite stuff and not really ever have to hear the same stuff terribly often.

A random smattering of today's lineup is below - and I do mean random. This is not the entire playlist, just the good stuff that lets me hurt but still love it. It's not all fast and hard - some of it is deliberate, slow, emotional, intense stuff (I know, so very unlike me, right?). No matter - it works for me, and that's the point.

The Hand that Feeds - Nine Inch Nails

Evermore - Foo Fighters

Whipping - Pearl Jam (from here on to be known simply as PJ)

Spin the Black Circle - PJ

There There - Radiohead

Set Me Free - Velvet Revolver

Rearview Mirror - PJ

Days Like These - R.E.M.

Fake It - Seether

In Control - Puddle of Mudd

Slow Hands - Interpol

Release - PJ

The Pretender - Foo Fighters

The Working Hour - Tears for Fears

Voodoo - Godsmack

Outside - Staind

Passive - A Perfect Circle

Only - Nine Inch Nails

Fire - Jimi Hendrix

Warning Sign - Coldplay

Everybody Wants Some - Van Halen

Emerge - Fischerspooner

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones

With or Without You - U2

Breed - Nirvana

Tick Tick Boom - The Hives

Thunderstruck - AC/DC

Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue

Gravitate to Me - The The

Shut Your Eyes - Snow Patrol

Once - PJ

You - Candlebox
No Quarter - Led Zeppelin
In Hiding - PJ

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea - a bunch of unrelated, unique and different stuff that when mixed together can keep your mind occupied while your body completes it's work. While my preference will always be to ride outdoors, music makes indoor sessions tolerable for me while each passing day gets us closer to spring and the start of race season - I'm getting excited! As always, thanks for reading and feel free to forward music recommendations, I need some more stuff to write off.

Fat Tuesday, Bike Building, Rain, Snow, Espresso

Paczki.

No, I did not actually eat this thing - it's a photo from last year. BUT - the source of this little crack bomb indeed asked me if I wanted one this year. I declined, then felt bad about it. Nothing like some fat and sugar to fuel the endurance engine.

Don't you envy me? The view - from my front door.

What a fine return to my life in Chi-town I've had. I think I'm ready to leave again for a while, until this snow thing clears up. Oh yeah, that would require that we have an open airport here - no such luck. Today is a good day to stay in, watch the snow fall, drink espresso in large quantities, do some work, build my bike that I've neglected for a week and a half and take a nap. Did I commute to work this morning on the bike? Well, no. But I did ride outside for 2.5hr yesterday in the wind, rain, sleet and slush. It was insane. I almost cried but then I thought that crying would make it hard to breathe so I told myself to HTFU and just get home.

The RC-7, I really like this bike

So Gandalf stopped in to check out the bike before I started to rebuild it (see him up in the right hand corner?). He's so nosy. Surprisingly it appears that the bike made it through TSA screeners in San Diego without being opened.

Time for another doppio, some R.E.M., Social Distortion, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and bike building...thanks for reading, join me in hoping that the snow melts by the weekend so I dodge the rollers yet another day.