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....
