New Year's Resolution

I've resolved myself to blog more for 2009. I'm sure the blogosphere is clogged with thousands of individuals with similar intent. But like I've seen at the gym year after year, I intend to keep going- long after the "resolutionists" have thrown in the towel. As I was telling Emily after a ride yesterday, it's good motivation to ride through the winter and conversely the riding is good for the blogging. I have no intentions of becoming a blogsation like bikesnobnyc; I enjoy writing and riding.


Cross season '08 was fairly uneventful. Highlights included racing both days at Gloucester (thanks Brian), both days at Northampton, and Sterling. Results were fair to middling though I definitely have gotten stronger and I will upgrade to Cat 3 cross for next year. At least then I will have the option of racing either Masters 3/4 or 1,2,3. Some things I've learned: start/start position is at least 30% of the race, bike handling is a plus, NOT getting mechanicals is a plus, and riding is WAY faster than running. DUH. The frustrating thing was that I was victimized by guys I know I'm stronger than. Oh well, I guess that's the nature of cross. I did have a blast and be sure that I will bottling up a bit of that frustration and unleashing it on the road. I know, I know. Let it go.

I got a mountain bike in the early part of fall '08. It's a Specialized Epic Comp FSR. I suppose it's a decent rig for what I want to do- tooling around in the woods and maybe, just maybe, a race in '09. The handful of night rides I got in were awesome though it was frustrating at times keeping the guys I ride with in sight. I had to keep reminding myself that they are Cat 1 mtbers and I've been out all of a half a dozen times. That's just me though; I expect to be good at something immediately. I picked up some Nokian Extremes and I've been hitting the roads after snowstorms- much to the surprise of area residents cleaning out their driveways. At least for the time being the trainer holds onto it's layer of dust.

I got back in the gym a few weeks ago and have commenced rowing to fill the cardio void of only riding 2-3 days/week. I have been tossing around the idea of doing the Crash B's and just yesterday my friend Andi asked if I was going to do it this year. She stirred the pot a bit and I may just sign up for the masters lightweight. Race length is 2K, not my strongest distance by any means but perhaps I'll start training in earnest to break the vaunted 7:00 barrier.

Looking forward to Spring, Black Betty is officially built. It'll be nice going from a nearly 30# mtb with the Nokians to a 14.4 lb road bike. At some point, I may upgrade to Sram Red shifters, derailleurs, cassette so that I can match up my k-force light compact to an 11-28 cassette. That way there I'll never have to modify my bike for the hillclimb events. A 34X28 minimum will be perfect and the 50X11 is close to a 53X12 so I won't lose anything on the high end. We'll see, but in the meantime I'm going to upgrade my shoes after nearly losing my toes on Tuesday. I'm thinking of going with the Louis Garneau's which were rated to 5 degrees in the most recent Bicycling magazine. I can probably get $70-80 for my used Sidi's.