Winter

I don't know who's bright idea it was to road ride today but there's five extra sets of burnt out lungs tonight, including Russell who may or may not make it through the night. Of course the Mormons are a prayin' for him so maybe he will make it after all. I saw Mikey in the grocery store tonight and we coughed up a greeting to each other. Bubba, Russell, Mikey G, Coooop, Big Jim and myself set out for a nice little two hour cruise from Bubba's hut at about 12:30. Within approximately twelve seconds we all realized that it was going to suck riding into the west wind on a sub-freezing day so we made strongman Russell pull all the way out BurlIves to Brookfield where Big Jim decided that last night's fun just wasn't agreeing with this afternoon's folly. He left part of his soul on BurlIves just west of Pilgrim road and promptly turned tail and headed for home mumbling something about Russell's relentless pace and it being only February for chrissakes.

After that bit-o-fun the rest of the ride was kind of boring in comparison. We pit stopped in Pew!-aukee and turned back east again. That was kind of fun boppin' along at 23+ mph without really trying. North ave hill was looming and Cooop wasn't all too happy about the idea of going up it. Turns out he had good reason for his sentiment as he was stuck in the big ring. Oops. What the f*ck was he doing in the big ring in the first place? It is February after all. Just ask Big Jim.

And so it goes. Ride number four for the year is in the books and I'm starting to feel the enthusiasm coming back. After last year's racing ending on December 4th I wanted to take some time off and start (training) a little later this year. I'm a good six weeks behind the last few years and I hope that that translates into a stronger cross season later in the year. I'll be racing with the old (read fast) guys this year in Masters 40 and I'd like to put up a good fight.