Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

I was really hoping to return to an early spring like we had last year, but deep down knew that it wasn't realistic.  I did decide that upon my return home that, no matter what, I wouldn't ride on the trainer for the rest of the winter.  After a crazy week following my return and a weekend of Toronto bike show insanity things are returning to normal (well, as normal as things get with me).  I have bundled up and had a few decent rides outside since the bike show, it's not too cold and the roads have been pretty dry.  Drivers on the other hand are pretty confused about me being on the road. 

Usually the drivers in this area are pretty used to seeing cyclists on the road and are generally pretty courteous.  These drivers have a pretty short term memory when it comes to human powered vehicles on the road.  Over the winter they forget that cyclists exist.  I can hear their thoughts now when they see their first few riders in the spring "What is that thing that guy is sitting on?  What do I do now?   Do I honk at him?  Do I pretend he's not there?  Do I stay in my lane even if it means almost hitting him with my mirror?   Do I slow down or speed up?"  Then there are the drivers that just don't see you, because they don't expect anyone to be there.  I managed to meet a few of both of those drivers this morning, but survived to ride another day.  You've gotta have eyes in the back of your head as a cyclist!

Epson sucks.

Trek Store Epson timeline:

June 2008 - Epson Fax/Scanner/Printer purchased.

Aug. 2008 - through Jan 2010 - colour cartridges replaced every 3 months despite never having used colour ink.  The machine won't work unless there are new colour cartridges installed.

Jan. 2010 - fed up with the fax machine it was replaced (in anger) with a far superior HP black and white laser unit.  It works perfectly.

Feb. 26th 2011 -
Don - "Check this out, I just got a new colour printer for the store!" 
Jeremy - "You bought an Epson?  What were you thinking?  Do you remember the problems we had with our old fax machine?" 
Don - Yeah, but it was only $40" 
Jeremy - "OK, we'll see".

Feb. 28th 2011- New printer will not work until we replace the yellow cartridge, less than 24 hours after it was hooked up to our computer.  Awesome.

Lesson learned?

Climbing a mountain

Wow, the last few days have been a blur of information to absorb!  The fit workshop went very well and I have dozens of pages of notes and information as well as dozens of photos to go through to remember it all.  Along with the FIST fit we did a short section with the Retul fit guys, including Todd Carver the guy who just came back from working with team Sky and Geox.  Very cool stuff!
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/02/gallery/retul-fits-sky-and-geox_158706
Then on Sunday we did a day with aero guru John Cobb, the same guy who has worked with a guy who won a bunch of Tours (and as far as I know he wasn't supplying drugs).  He is a weird and wacky guy who knows a lot about aerodynamics.  He also gave us a bunch of wacky fitting info to go with the info we already got.  Minds were blown!  The weather was pretty poor that day (really windy and raining - one of 5 days it rains there a year) So Austen (one of the other guys taking the course) and I decided to take a drive up the mountain.  It turned from rain to snow about 2/3 of the way up and by the top we were in a full on blizzard. 

Sketchy drive down, but we survived and it inspired me to plan to ride up the mountain the next day.  Ride was pretty uneventful, weather was nice and sunny (about 12 degrees at the bottom) and ended in cold and icy roads about 4/5 of the way up and 2 degrees.  I had to pull the plug about 500 feet from the top because I was worried about the ice on the road on the descent.  All in all a great ride (about 3200 feet of climbing). 

Drove straight to Oxnard, and here I am sipping coffee and looking at the impending storm off the coast.  Going to try to get a ride in this morning to a coffee shop with Matt P, Peter and Watson.


"Kinda hurts is really fast" - John Cobb on 40km TT fit.

Californication

Made it to Cali(fornia) safe and sound.  Had a really smooth (compared to last year's disaster) trip down.  Got mistaken for one of the cast of Star Trek (not sure if it was the movie or tv show, didn't ask), said hi to Ted Danson on Abbot Kinney while having a wicked Macchiato, saw the Goodyear blimp, and my rental car has paddle shifters.  All in all a good day.  The place I'm staying is really nice, desert landscape bordering on 10000 foot mountains.  Very cool, I hope I have a chance to explore. 

Chasing Elephants

Took advantage of the nice weather and went for a snowshoe today.  Andrew and I chased Tammy around Copeland for an hour and a half as she did her PGPD tempo snowshoe workout.  Was keeping my eye out for wildlife, no sign of the mythical Oro cougar or the Copeland elephant.  I was a little disappointed because I brought my camera and was ready to prove their existence.  Starting the countdown to my California ("Don't call it Cali, it's not in Columbia" - according to Watson) trip.  Leaving next Sunday for a Triathlon bike fitting workshop, and then heading up the coast from LA to Oxnard to do some riding.  Peter and Matt P make great hosts and I'm really looking forward to catching up with those guys.

Tammy and Andrew deciding on direction

Chasing Legends

As the title would suggest, a bunch of cyclists converged on the Barrie Grande for the premier of the Tour documentary "Chasing Legends".  It was great seeing so many familiar faces at the show, the theater was pretty packed (Especially compared to the 6 people who showed up for the "Race Across the Sky" Leadville 100 movie!)  Very well done film, it was nice to see the tour from a couple of different angles. Some great interviews with the cyclists, Jens Voigt was fun to watch.  I can't believe he is still racing (at what, 40?)   I will be picking this DVD up when it comes out and watching it whenever I need an extra dose of motivation to ride.

I'll leave you with a couple of quotes (neither from the actual movie)

"Jens Voigt will never have a heart attack. Jens Voigt's heart isn't stupid enough to attack him."
"I forgot my purse, I was too distracted by the guacamole in my hat"

Couch Surfin'

Welcome to my blog!  I'm new to all this so cut me some slack as I find my "legs" with this whole blogging thing.  I have been brainstorming as to what the theme of my blog should be, still haven't figured it out but I'm sure it will evolve as I go.  Of course there will be a lot of cycling content! Cycling is a huge part of my life, both in work and in play.  (I guess you can call that work/life balance?!)  Though it never happened I was thinking of starting a blog last season as a way of documenting my return from injury.  In 2009 I injured my knee mountain biking - 1 month before my wife and I were to head out west to race TransRockies.  (making a long story short) I had 3 surgeries in the span of 6 months to put my knee back together, and with a lot of rehab was able to race in the 2010 TransRockies.  I would say that being able to come back from that type of injury (I was house bound for over 2  months)  and still be able to compete in a 7 day stage race a year later is my biggest accomplishment as a cyclist - And hopefully the last time I have to spend that much time on the couch!

First extended trip out of the house, September 09 (Photo courtesy AWI)

TransRockies finish line 2010