January 2011 begins and ends with warm days

and of course all of the cyclists I know got outside and rode (those that were able). We just had 2 days of 45F and sunshine. Such a wonderful blessing from mother nature.

I wanted to ride and ride as long as I could. Unfortunately, that's not as long as I wanted. But no sour grapes. Saturday was a fun ride with a girl friend. She's a triathlete and ironman, but right now is wanting to race bikes, cyclocross especially. I took her to So. In. and we rode the one route that still has visible Dan Henry's marked. We got in 30 miles. I felt all kinds of aches and pressure points. But it was fun.

Today I'd thought about catching a ride with some guys. They were gonna do a "moderate" 40 miles. My left shoulder and right hand decided to wake me throughout the night, so I decided not to embarrass myself trying to hang with them. Besides, I just wanted to ride and hope the shoulder behaved. I got another girlfriend to join me. We did an easy flat ride to Utica and back. I stayed in my small chain ring. Heading east there was a good headwind, but it made the trip back very easy.

Yesterday and today I set the alarm for 5am to watch the Cyclocross World Cup. The Junior boys raced Saturday and I pulled for local youth Drew Dillman along with the others on team USA. This morning I watched the women race. (Though I found myself wondering why there wasn't a Junior girls race, hmmm.) What an exciting event! And it will be in Louisville in 2013, not very far away at all.

So, it's supposed to be an easy week for training. I need to pull a calendar together and send it off. I wish I could find a group of experienced cyclists that I can ride with at times. I want to learn, but how do I do that if I can't keep up? Some day or maybe not. One thing is for sure. I love to ride my bikes! Just gotta figure out this shoulder thing soon. So I can HTFU.

Spent this evening with daughter #2. She came by and I worked on her pc again. We downloaded tax forms and got to visit and catch up a bit. I got a real good hug before she left for home. She has a busy week ahead at work. I'm so proud of her and her sister.

peace