The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

Our snow had stopped by morning. It moved more westerly I think..so while we got a pretty good storm out of it, it was not as bad as they thought it might be. I slept horribly last night… and had just fallen back asleep when Laurie woke me to clear the driveway.

We received some sleet or freezing rain toward the end of the storm.. for there was a crusty coating to everything. The snow was fairly dense also. It wasn't wet.. but still dense and heavy.

[toypusher]

Yesterday was really windy, so I had about a foot of drift in a quarter of my driveway. Took about and hour to clear most with the ATV and then another half hour with a shovel. At least it is sunny and about 32 now. Driveway is melting nicely. Still windy, but not as bad today.

[Fenlason]

Another nice sunny day today. I did end up with a bit of sleep last night. I woke at 4:00 .. and had a hard time falling back asleep. I did finally fall back asleep by 5:00.. and ended up sleeping until after 7:00

I ran into town to get Laurie a card. [our anniversary tomorrow] We decided no gifts this year. I did some other shopping while in town. I just did a little warm up ride on the velodrome. There was a 6 mile ride getting ready to start. It started just after I got logged into it. So I had no warm up.. without trying I went to the front.. I did have some guy chasing me. I did end up catching back up to him [lapping him] each time I did that.. he would try to surge and get on my wheel. I got so I could see him up ahead.. almost half a lap.. and he can't really see me coming.. until I am pretty close to him.. so then I started to really surge to catch and pass him quickly. Our race tonight will be on the track.. It will be a miss and out.. so a LOT of sprinting.. and while I used to be pretty good at it. I am not now. So we will have to see how it goes. I didn't know we were doing this particular race until Tuesday.. so it's not like I could train for it

As I have recruited more riders.. I have recruited faster riders.. so I haven't been on the podium in a few weeks.

[Fenlason]

More sun today. Laurie is taking the afternoon off.. and we are going out to eat. I am not sure what else. We will be going way Sunday and Monday.

Last nights race was brutal… of course it ended up seriously messed up. Most of us joined the wrong race. It was a miss and out… but it was one someone else had started. I saw it.. and saw bkoolUS several of those… as well as Jonathon… Bill and others joined in. It was a little early.. so others that wanted to join in couldn't. [This race you can't come in late on]

We are supposed to race 3 laps.. sprinting hard on the last. The program then puts us back together to rest a minute.. before doing it again.. and again and again. Well at the end of the sprint.. the program didn't do anything.. so that if you had a nice lead at the start of the next race.. then you won the next sprint without sprinting.. The last place person in each sprint would get pulled. Bill got pulled when I don't think he should have.. and Laurie wasn't getting pulled even though she was last… and then the race didn't end…. 16= miles later.. it was just Laurie and I left… our last sprint where she was last.. I suggested she just stop. It somehow thought I was starting a new race and since you can't race alone.. it stopped… but it didn't give me the option to save my other race… Fortunately it did somehow save it. I just wanted to see some of the numbers.. distance.. pulse and power.

It was probably my hardest race of the season… but of course it doesn't count for our series. [because it was messed so messed up]

[toypusher]

Right about freezing this morning. Snowed about an inch last night. Did not stick to the roads though. It is still overcast, but they say the sun should come out later and be about 44 degrees today. Have a bunch of errands to run with the wife and then going to inlaws this afternoon.

[Fenlason]

We were in the teens and cloudy. We have a storm off the coast.. but we are not expected to get much if anything out of it.

We had a gorgeous day yesterday.. the sun is getting nice and strong. We didn't do much yesterday. I made up a strap for the cover on my SnowDog. The cover kept blowing off. [it at one strap through the middle so it didn't blow away] I did some looking and figuring for handlebar options. We did stop by to see friends.. he had been writing me about bikes.

We did get a couple of BKool rides in. I started with a 12+ mile downhill.. they are harder than they sound. This one had a great video.. good scenery and well shot.. but it was scary as #$@% It was on a fairly narrow road.. and had some really hard turns.. the guy filming it.. was cranking fairly well.. and was leaning hard in the turns. Of course on the Bkool we can travel faster then the one filming.. so the video.. is runner faster than it was shot. The start of it made me a little queazy.

I came upstair.. and sat for a bit.. looking at numbers… and debating what next [if anything] I decided to re-challenge my friend Bill on a race where we had been retaking 2nd place from each other [vs first.. there was someone else out there ahead of us a bit] I had given up the challenge for a while.. It was really hurting.. and I didn't think I had it in me to go for it.

Well I wasn't sure.. but I felt compelled to try. Bill will often draft my ghost and the the last Mile or so.. go for it. I try to just time trial it when I can. I set Bill and myself up as ghost.. so I could use them to help with my pace.. or to know how I am doing. For the heck of it, I put the guy [Steve] that was ahead of us.

I tried to pace myself at the start.. and still went out too hard. I spent several minutes trying to get my pulse and breathing back under control.. while still trying to stay ahead of the ghosts. This was very hard.. and quite painful to do. I did finally recover.. and was able to slowing increase my lead over Bill. I knew I needed a decent cushion for he had a real strong finish. At one pushed the pulse more and more.. one's awareness.. narrows pretty dramatically. My attention would end up somewhere else… and then I would glance at my lead over second.. then I realized.. it's not Bill… but Steve!! I was 20 or so seconds ahead of Steve. I still had a bit to go for the finish.. and Steve had also finished hard.. so I really had to dig deep… but I held them off. Bill and I had been decreasing our times, like 2 seconds at a time. This time I took 58 seconds off my time.

I think if I had taken off a little easier.. I could have been stronger in other places.. and maybe have done it faster.. although I am not sure. Right now I am the fastest on this course.. so… I will end up looking at others. It would mentally be quite tough.. to try and beat my own time. [right now anyways]

There is another track event.. where I have performed pretty well.. there are still quite a few ahead of me… as well as a million or so other rides [no exaggeration]

We did go to over to Dave and Angela's for dinner last night.

[toypusher]

Sunny land 29 this morning. Should hit 50 today. Have some shopping to do and then want to work on a project. knee has been bothering me a bit the last few days. I believe it was the shoveling of snow that has it flared up. Will call doctor's office in a bit and see what they suggest or if I need to go in.

[Fenlason]

We are back [have been a couple of hours]. We had a great "weekend" away. We drove out of the clouds into a gorgeous sunny day in NH. We took our time heading to the Bed and Breakfast. While some of the area was pretty familiar to us.. other parts I haven't been to in a while.. man it is beautiful over there. {in and around the White Mountains} Once checked in.. I actually sat on the porch.. in the sun and read for a couple hours. Laurie went for a walk.. then came and sat and read also.

We got ready and then headed to Littleton for dinner. While looking for restaurants I saw the sign for the hospital. I had done a race there and we finished at the hospital.. so I just kind of wanted to see part of the finish again.. I get closer to the hospital.. and though man this does not look familiar?? Maybe there is another entrance over there.. and ahh no that's not either. Then I remember the race was 30+ Years ago!!!! They might have built a new hospital in that time…

I gave up looking.. and ooh this looks familiar.. so I went to look.. I found the old hospital.. I would liked to have seen some of the other parts of the course.. but we were running late.

Oh.. when we were leaving to go out to dinner.. the B+B people gave us the keys.. and said they don't live there.. there were no other guests.. so we had the whole place to ourselves.. "have fun" It felt rather weird.

[toypusher]

We had a beautiful day today. Sunny with a high of 62!

I went back to the doctor for my knee today. Got an injection and got my brace adjusted properly and am wearing it again. So far it seems to be working pretty good. Just have to see how it goes day to day now for a while at least. I go back in six weeks.

[Fenlason]

We were very cloudy with temps up into the lower 30's . We are still there this morning.. but it's going to get cold and windy. We had purchased more cast iron decorative pieces for the porch.. and yesterday I put them up. I did other puttering. I also did a bit of riding. I got in 56+ miles in yesterday.

We have an open house at the shop tonight.

[toypusher]

Low to mid 30s today and sunny with lots of wind - again! Setting up my bike on the trainer. I hate riding indoors, but my doctor wants me to ride or use flat treadmill, but we currently do not have a treadmill. So, yes went to doctor yesterday and got an injection. Will continue to take prescription and back to wearing my knee brace. Seems to be working fairly well so far. True test comes when I try to go back to work. Have to go back to the doctor in 6 weeks.

Got new batteries installed in my welding helmet and need to get going on my welding project soon. Going to drop by the Golf course and let them know that I will not be coming back there this year - at least for now. Also, have a large piece of rubber belting that I am dropping off at my boss (lawn care) to use in the place of the roller on the back of the deck. This is used to create "stripping". Will then go pickup my prescription renewal and return a couple Red Box rentals.

[Fenlason]

We had our open house at the shop tonight. We will do something again more in season.. but this was just to get people in.. to see the changes etc. We had quite a few people come in. The Bkool national rep was in. So Laurie and I got to meet him.. even though he was well aware of our friend Bill, it was the first time they have met also.

Just standing there a few hours my knee swelled up again.

Kerry.. I know you would never want to pay for it.. but I wish you had a BKool… it fully takes the tedium out of riding inside.

Our manager hasn't really been into the BKool thing.. but talking with the rep.. and such.. he seems prepared to promote it. Of course the typical big selling season is the fall into winter. We are setting up / building a bike fit station.. which could also easily double as a Bkool station.

[toypusher]

Yeah, Glenn I hate riding indoors, but this will be short sessions and not very intense at all. I am setting up in the basement where my PC is and also a TV with Netflix and a DVD player. So, will try watching something while on the bike.

If I could win a few bucks in the lottery, i would definitely be looking at the Bkool though.

Heading off to the dentist this morning at 9 to get my bridge work going. Should be fun - not!

[Fenlason]

We are at 5 degrees with 30 mph winds… brrr We do at least have sun today. Some of my brrrr at the moment is it's a little cool in here. 60.. and I just had a smoothies that had ice in it.

The upper sun room just got warm enough to start heating the house so I won't bother with a fire.

hmm I am not sure what's up for today. I will do a warm up ride today.. for tonight's race. I have been doing some spring cleaning [getting rid of clutter] maybe some more of that.

Kerry.. while the Bkool is probably still more than you want to spend.. they have come down a bit. Don't quote me on this … buy maybe $599 vs $750.. and the subscription is down to $99 from $150.

[toypusher]

Yeah, $599 is a bit much for me as of now. However, my wife just redid our contract with Dish to reduce the bill by $30 a month.

Took 1.5 hours at dentist, but I have my temp bridge and will go back in a couple weeks for the permanent one. Also went and got our library cards renewed for 3 years. Watched a movie, did some housecleaning and now might go work on my 'shooting bench' project a bit. Need to layout the top design and cut it out of some 3/4 chip board that I have and later will make it out of plywood (or something more weather resistant if I can find something). Should get a couple pieces of steel tubing, but have not finalized the design so I better wait on that.

Went with my boss to estimate a prospective job last night and if we get it, it will be a whole day all by itself. Should help the business a lot. Hope it comes trough.