Musings

Yesterday while riding I heard a bark and alertly looked up to see a poodle with a fancy haircut presiding over an equally well-kept lawn. I love Connecticut! Last week turned out to be quite busy, given my vacation-maximizing approach of high-tailing it into town Sunday night. And remarkably, each week when on Tuesday I think I am just about a goner, I suffer total amnesia to the fact that 90% of each week's commitments fall on Tuesday. I continue to work off a long list! Some accomplishments: Bob helped me to dial in the position on the new bike, getting rid of some crazy stack height resulting from a stem with too much drop plus being on the large end of the height range when it comes to this frame size. The bike is now tip-top, and this guy is amazing to the point I forgive his lack of enthusiasm for sardines. Speaking of which, and along the lines of my fantastic crazy friends, check out this tribute to a sandwich hawked on the streets of Istanbul. School endeavors have been interesting, with potential for exciting on research of health impacts of urban parks. Considering too the scale of impact and action: Attended a talk on carbon markets based on "avoided deforestation credits," REDD, but think I have more faith in this X-tra cycle, brought to my attention by Laura Bowles and shown at work in this photo. Here is a link to an animated short I saw at Banff Film Fest, about noise pollution in a badger colony. Also pictured is the bro (with snowboard), maximizing life in Juneau! Lobster mits and thermal jacket yesterday, 25 degrees today but should warm for Bethel Worlds, but Wednesday I go to Redlands. Will spur the fitness to say the least!

New Beginnings: Wells Ave on Easter!

A conference brought me to Boston on Saturday and offered up the chance to see some friends and race the famous Wells Ave Training Crit for the first time ever on Sunday! It surpassed my expectations as a training resource where you can sit in and motorpace, attack / follow some attacks, or spend some time at the front. It was cold and windy, with moments of complete leg malfunction! Now I am back at school, tons to do and 1.5 weeks until Redlands.

Advil Camp and Road 2008

Asheville, NC - Soon I can point to the full blow-by-blow on the Fuji athlete blog, but for now a few highlights: tunnels on the Blue Ridge, no internet, 5hr ride starting in 20-something temperatures, super-sweet team bike, Quinoa Flakes, pretending it was warm for photo shoots, dogs bearing teeth, Tifosi and other treats, and my awesome teammates - Laura Bowles, Heather Labance, Elisa Gagnon, Sarah Tillotson, Jen McCrae, Natalie Klemko, Kirsten Robbins, Brenda Lyons, Reem Jishi, and Sue Palmer-Komar. We are an underdog team whose racers are balancing racing with working, going to school, and raising kids. We are somewhat lacking in the young and sassy department, so I might have to be the one to say "Whatever I'm bad I do what I wanna," in the words of one favorite cross teammate. We aim to pick our battles and win some big races. We have the potential - now to embark on the intriguing, exciting, and difficult quest to create a whole bigger than the sum of its parts. My earlier concern about finding freshness for a road season that will include many familiar races seems far away - there is so much to do and learn and accomplish this season. First among these would be Redlands, which starts April 3rd! Very specific training will hopefully prepare me to race with just one or two days of racing in the legs - unfortunately there is nothing to be done for the tell-tale winter pallor of a New Englander. Camera batteries died just three photos in; photo copyright Jeff Zimmerman so I am trying to pilfer from some teammates' blogs. Spectacular riding - I plan to return to Asheville sometime when it is WARM!

Pause

Last week's ghastly accident in which three cyclists were mowed down, two killed, by a county sheriff's deputy in California who crossed the yellow line and entered the wrong lane of traffic gives reason for pause. This was a good article on the legal response and media portrayal of the incident, by Bicycling and the Law author Bob Mionske. Check out this quick video too.

Asheville

New year, new team, new kit, new place to train! Team camp and would that I could send the Blue Ridge Parkway to New Haven as an email attachment. Cold but oh so nice. More later. Photo by Jeff Zimmerman.