I'll take it!

Got blasted with snow all night last night. Over a foot in the end. Seems like this winter is never going to end. We've already had 50 something inches of snow thusfar, and there's more on the way this week. If I'm not wrong we've had a mid-week storm every week of the winter this season. Hopefully this will be my last one here!

Getting to the point, Anne is on the way! As I write this, her plane is somewhere over the Atlatic, headed to JFK! Super happy we're FINALLY going to see each other after a few months apart. The distance sucks, but I think we've both handled it well.

I'm in the middle of doing some very much needed last minute cleaning before hiking out to the airport in a little bit. The snow and bad roads is going to pose some problems, but I don't care how difficult it is to get there because I'm so psyched to see her! FINALLY!!!!!

ReDONKulous!

This time I've really, really had it! This snow is getting to be just plain f*ckin' stupid! We're in the midst of getting hit with about another foot, and to make matters worse, Anne is spending the night in a hotel in England rather than in my apartment tonight! She was scheduled to be here tonight at 8, but because of the SFW (STUPID F*CKING WEATHER), her flight was cancelled.

This makes twice that we haven't been able to see each other so far because of snow in the past month. The good thing, though, is that she was able to book a flight for tomorrow that should arrive well after the storm is over. "Should" being the most important word. With what we've been through in the last 30 days, nothing would suprise me.

I'm all about going with the flow and dealing with the cards you've been dealt, but in all honesty, 2011 has sucked so far.

So what do you do when you're girlfriend is stuck overseas? You get on the trainer and kill your legs! After finding Anne's flight would canceled, I got a haircut, ate some lunch, and got to work trying to forget about how mad I was that she wouldn't be her tonight. I'm beginning to be a huge fan of these indoor workouts and the control you have over them. Having a power meter makes all the difference. It's amazing how much more precise power is over heart rate. Not that heart rate is bad, but it's just cool to see instant feedback instead of the lag you get when using only heart rate. Of course this isn't anything profound or new, but cool none the less.

So tomorrow is going to be a rest day as I'll HOPEFULLY be on my way midday to get Anne at the airport. If I find myself training tomorrow, I'll be EXTREMELY disappointed.

Blue Collar

Back when I was a football and lacrosse player, we used the term "blue collar" all the time to define our defense. Coach would say "Bring your lunch pail and hardhat to practice or don't come at all." I always had a great sense of pride those days becuase I might not have been the most skilled player, but I was going to outwork everyone out there if it killed me. No one worked harder than me.

I think that's what's drawn me to endurance sports. MMA as well, but not enough to have kept getting smashed in the head all day. Working hard is ingrained in all of us I think, it just needs an opportunity to show itself. Even the laziest of the lazy would work hard if they wanted something bad enough.

So today on the trainer I remembered what it's all about. I've been down lately, and for all intents and purposes a pussy. Yeah, I said it. It's vulgar, it's nasty, but that's what I've been. Complaining about the weather, complaining about being sore, etc. I got back to work today (and this week thusfar) and it's felt good. Nothing flashy, just getting in the work. Showin' up with the lunch pail and the hardhat and getting done what needs to be done. No complaints, just work that at the end of the day I can be proud of.

Ok, enough celebration, tomorrow is another day. And in blue collar terms, it doesn't matter what I did yesterday, only what I make of today.

In the words of the wise one, Big Black from "Rob and Big": "Do work son."

Back on the good foot!

Ok, enough is enough. Got through my little week long episode with a strong convo with my coach yesterday. He gave me a little Harden the f*ck up talk and I'm good to go. Being frustrated with weather and other "out of my control" circumstances is no reason to go all postal and what not, making my training suffer. You get done what you have to get done regardless of the situation. People don't care what you had to deal with, only how you finish. No one is going to ask the guy who DNF'd how his day went because they're too busy dealing with the people who did their job on race day. It might be harsh, but this is how you have to approach things if you're gonna "get stuck in and put some down!"

So with this attitude adjustment, I'm all set to go. Get some!

Excited to have my Power Tap back up and running again as well. This will make my workouts a bit better, without as much guesswork. As much as I hated it at the end of last season, I'm glad I've got it. Can't wait 'till the next bike test to see the results of all my strengthwork in the gym.

Got a new bike that I'm very excited about as well. Sette bikes have a frame, the Sette Serum that I just built up and look to have as my race bike this upcoming season. It's a carbon xc hardtail with some sweet looks and what seems to be even sweeter ride. I'm excited about riding this rocket this year. I have a gopro cam on the way (www.gopro.com) and will have some video footage of it, as well as a full review on the blog in the near future. Good things on the horizon for sure!

2:15 "Long" Ride

*As a general disclaimer, I've been pretty negative latley, and this blog is probably gonna be a bit more of that. In reality, this is really where I'm letting off steam...so deal with it:).

Got in my "long" ride of the week at a whopping 2 hours and around 15 minutes. What the fuzz??? Oh, I remember, it's negative windchill temps that crushed my dreams of being on my bike longer this weekend.

I really dropped the ball this week. I went too hard with some workouts early in the week (in hindsight probably out of frustration that I couldn't get on the roads/trails) and basically ruined myself for any quality training later in the week. I haven't been so sore and immobile since, well, ever! And the saddest part is that I know exactly what did it. It was a dumb move to lift like a maniac on Tuesday, crush a hard trainer session on Wednesday, then follow that up with shoveling heavy, wet, snow, and then put the icing on the cake by drinking a bit too much that night. For sure not the way a serious athlete conducts themselves and a mistake that I won't be soon to repeat...hopefully.

As for the weather and this winter, I'm giving it a BIG MIDDLE FINGER right now. I'm done with trying to "embrace" the winter cold, and am now finding it to be much more of a bother than anything. The trails haven't been ridable since Christmas day, and the roads are generally impassable most days-the combination of slush and freezing temps make training outside unsafe to the point that there is no point in even attempting it. As for running, I think I forgot how to. Again, the trails and the bad conditions on the roads have made it impossible, and I'm not one to get on a treadmill easily, though I have a couple times...not happily though.

So the general lack of outside activity, or just activity itself, have me really down, and in a bad place most of the time. The ride today was fun, but after 2 hours spent with sub zero windchills rattling my bones, I had severe pain in my feet and hands, making it time to call it a day. I'm not being a wimp (the name of my blog is HTFU for God's sake!), but honestly, I gotta get out of here. I know the grass is always greener, but I just can't take the bad roads, worse drivers, and shit conditions. I've never felt more hopeless...

Ok, rant over. I'm going to make an honest effort to change my attitude for the better, but I really don't know if it's possible right now. Maybe when Anne gets here I'll finally be happy. Chances are I will!

Ah...

So just like every other day this week, with the exception of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (I guess things aren't that bad, actually), today's training, or lack there of, sucked. Since Wednesday, My legs have been absolutely fried. So much so that they're still almost tender to the touch, and I still have stiffness when I get up from a seated position. I went buckwild in the gym on Tuesday and followed that up with a kick-my-ass-to-the -ground trainer sesh on Wednesday that left me limping around like I was 90 ever since. DOMS is an understatement. This is more like how I felt after the 6 hour race, multiplied by 100!

Thursday I did an easy hour spin outside and Friday I snowshoed for another hour. Then today was zip, nada. Had the weather been better outside (still icy and freezing) I might have gotten out on the roads today, but in the end it was better to just do nothing. Instead of feeling guilty, I figure it's better to rest my still beaten legs. It's not good to have soreness this long, and instead of pushing for no reason at this point in the season, it's better to just shut it down for a day, heal, and get ready for next week. Tomorrow might bring about a few hour endurance ride, but if I'm still beat like I am I'll just take a pass.

On the positives, I'm feeling stronger than ever on the bike. My legs are sooooo strong right now. It was cool to put the power meter on and see watts that had previously been tough to achieve now almost availible to me at will. Also, I'm thinking that the shot in the arm my training has taken lately due to the shit weather isn't all that bad of a thing. Though it's screwing with my mind and getting me all frustrated, it's possibly one of the better things to happen to me right now. I never really took any solid time away from the bike after the 'cross season ended for me, and now certainly isn't the time to burn matches that I might need once the proper season starts again. There's still quite a long way before things get rolling again, and I've got plenty of time to train myself into form. I've just got to persevere mentally, eat right, and rest up. Yeah, I can do that.

Enough Already!!!!!

Kind of a goofy snow shoe pic from today's jaunt through the woods with my buddy Dan.

I've had it with the snow already. It wouldn't be so bad if it would melt, but we haven't seen the ground underneath the snow yet this year, and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. The snow's put a damper on just about EVERY outdoor activity, with the possible exceptions of snow showing and cross country skiing-and even those are hard to do once the local trails get "stomped" down. Then, you have the freeze effect that makes riding and running on the roads nearly impossible at times. Running can be done after a few days, but riding can be quite sketchy when there's black ice all around. I just can't deal with it anymore! I gotta get out of here!

I'm not a gym person anymore, and I can't fathom going indoors to exercise everyday. Though I've been able to do it this far, I'm missin' my vitamin D dearly!!!! When the hell is it all gonna end!?

That's really all I've got to say today. I'm just incredibly bummed about this stupid weather (and more snow is on the way aparently). Winter has definitely warn out it's welcome here with me. Go f*ck off snow!