I useda' read word up magazine

I think I got called out when I found this in my in box:

Things have been good. The usual. Training, eating, sleeping, netflix with the lady, walking my dog.
The snow dumping we got this weekend was fun. I left my mtb at the shop and came in on Monday to find this:

It takes a shop to rear a racer.
All the guys really believe in me, its really great support. I've been taking things a bit differently this year. Not as strict with my diet as the season started, but slowly bringing it together as the season has gone on. I haven't really been thinking about racing or beating other people or even racing other people. It's all been about me and how hard I can push myself. We'll see how it works out.
I think this weekend will usher in some racing. Time to take a sip of the jungle juice and see just exactly where everything is. The thing about racing in New England or Boston for that matter, on any given weekend you can toe the line with some decent pros. I've gotten myself into breaks with dudes only to think "Shit, I'm on XY's wheel, how cool is that?!" I think the plan this weekend will be to get into a break and go for a prime, then sit in and watch everyone take each other out going into the finish. I got the keys to the car, might as well take a peek to see whats under the hood.

Real bike racing will arrive in early April. It can't be soon enough. I'm ready to ride my mountain bike all the time. Too bad the trails have been absolute sludge.

I've gotten one decent ride in on the new bike and its pretty sick. I've got a lot to dial in and figure out how to use the dulie to my advantage but in due time. This bike is a natural at all of my weaknesses. Wise man once said: Race your strengths and train your weaknesses. Word up.

Spotted the newest industry trend the other day too. Integrate the seat clamp into the seat. Saving weight, thats how we do.

Rollin on Dubs

I've been going back and forth on if I should blog about my new ride now or wait until the parts flow in (tomorrow) and write about it in it's bling bling state.

You'll read about both I'm sure.

I have yet to break the bottle of bubbly over the bow and give it a good first ride. My training this week doesn't really allow for it. Saturday and Sunday will be here soon enough.
My first impressions are very positive. Once I get the multitude of things to dial in, dialed in, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my favorite bike yet. I've never had a dualy, and I can see already that I'm going to feel much better at the end of a long race.

I've been lusting over Fox's new white forks since they came out. Fox already made the best forks out there, but the upgrades that they made make the fork even nicer.
Mavic also impressed me with their newest incarnation of the Cross Max SL wheels. The hubs have a new design that looks to shave more weight and the yellow spoke adds a bit of flare. The down side is the decals are etched into the side of the rim, so there is no removal of the decals for the sleeper look that I love.

The Maestro linkage system is top notch. I've mainly been riding on the road to and from work the last two days, and the rear acts like a hardtail. But when I nail the every pothole between work and home (there are a lot, and I hit them all) the rear end just sucks it up. The rear shock has a lot of different options of adjustment that I'm starting to wrap my head around and understand more and more.

The "gusset" on the underside is super sweet looking and makes for a lighter frame.

I could go on and on about all the cool things about my new bike, but I'll spare you. A few good rides this weekend will really help me dial everything in and help me get a better view of the overall picture.

More to come for sure.

Mainly because I was made fun of tonight

getting acquainted:

More later.

To be Fre-eeee!

"Who's your heroine honey!?"
"HUH! WHA WHA? HUH, I don't do heroin!......right?"
"You didn't hear all of that?"
"uhmmgggrrrrgle hear what?"
"Downstairs is practicing again...you slept through that?"
"It's 3 a.m....."

The Mrs. and I live above some fellas who fancy themselves rock stars. They aren't very good and the copious amounts of adult beverages they consume don't make them any better (Although they do play a mean rendition of New Kids on the Block and Tom Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance).

3 a.m. seems to be their hour of bewitchment. Its their favorite time of the day to keep the beat with their feet, play the beer pong, yell and scream and play their music amped up and with full percussion.

What does any of this have to do with cycling?
I put in such a good week of training I was able to sleep directly above the sounds of a real life rocking roll band. There are times I'm sure that they have the "11" on their amps.

Double shammy gits'er done.

The eagle is airborne. Somewhere between here and the Giant warehouse.

The Baba received the Giant T-Mobile Team bike this week.

The same bike the T-Mobile team rides in the Tour, before the tour. Only 16 in the country spread out amongst 2000+ retailers and ATA got it. As I like to say when something is really really cool: It's the shit.

It's lookin' like another weekend of the Belgian knee warmers.

Should be fun. Next week it's all about my favorite four letter word.

Dirt.

What do I want to eat?

Long time eh?

The lack of posts have primarily been due to a lack of anything happening.

The snow/ice/sleet that old man winter hooked us up with last week made things interesting. Seemed like all the cars got stuck and I pitched in in pushing 7 of them out of 3 inches of ice in my hood. This includes the 2 times I had to free the Mrs. It was fantastic upper body work.

I went riding with a bunch of guys last weekend. Big rings were out, and bash guards were in and rightly so. The stunts some of the guys were riding was truly amazing. Overall it was a really great time and I look forward to riding with them in the (hopefully) near feature.

I haven't shaved the guns since CX Nationals and I got around to doing that this past week as well. It was an interesting experience. I had to stop about halfway through and grab some sun glasses because them things was white! The hair did a good job of making it look like I had a tan. Also, I was able to discover some new lines on the WMD's. Huston, we've got some more power.

The most popular word of the last two weeks has been "Lost". As in "where the hell am I? I think I'm lost again." Making already long days even longer, but with better stories for those that live in my world. When I got lost yesterday I put the iPod on video and listened to some 'Cross World Cup action in Flemish instead of tunes. It was like when you talk to Rice Krispies and you think they are talking to you, those Flemish speaking announcers were commenting on how I bunny hopped the pothole to China and made me feel super strong during the twilight of the ride.

Don't even act like the Rice Krispies don't talk to you.

Race bike!

My new race bike came in last night. The first thing I did when I came into work this morning was build it.

Giant really hooked a brother up this time. Its a Giant Animator and it's got everything an aspiring pro like myself needs in a race bike.
For whatever reason the industry is beating the 29 inch wheel drum saying bigger is better. I've been told that it's not the size, but how you use it. But I wouldn't know anything about that.

12 inch wheels are going to accelerate way faster than anything else out there. Hands down. Plus the low spoke count wheels will keep the weight to a minimum.

The over sized Bottom Bracket will ensure that the insane watts that I produce all go to the rear wheel. The checkered flag sticker gives a strong nod to the racing capabilities of this rig.

The stem/bar padding will keep more than one person happy and future generations a valuable option down the road should the eject button ever get hit while riding technical single track.

Platform pedals and a Chain guard are the only option for keeping my Tim's clean.

Having a bell will help me save the oxygen when trying to scream "on your left" to slower opponents. The fact that this option comes standard is simply insane.

Yea, I'd say I've hit the jackpot with this little number. Can't wait to take it down the chutes of Mount Snow.

This is the moment to save it

There really isn't anything to report. But I can only go so long without getting my blog on.
Things are humming along at a nice clip. Sometimes there is a cold snap and the temps drop into the digits, but for the most part, I'm excepting that my rides are going to be in the teens and 20s. Its kinda insane that I'll look at 25 degrees and think its a warm day. Makes me wonder if 40 is tropic. Its good to note that I am not the only one who is loosing my marbles:

Most nights I've been in bed around 9, a few times I've been lights out 8:30. Its not my fault really, its all a result of my training. Train hard, sleep harder.

That sweet look took me 10 hard hours in the sack to complete. Its a tough life being a cyclist.

Mainly, I am just waiting right now. Waiting for my bike to arrive. Could be hours, could be days, one never knows.


Hang in there folks, we've got some good things coming down the pipeline.