Where am I going with this?

Haven't posted in a while. Not too much to write about. I think this is going to be pretty random. Rode by bike a bit, did some good skiing, did a ski race, taking an easy week on the bike.

Weather was nice for a while, then we had a few days of low clouds and rain. Got in a couple rides in a few sprinkles, but nothing ever developed. Did a 19 mile XC ski at 11,000ft last weekend. It was better than riding in the rain all day. Good thing we have lots of choices around here. The following day I did a ski race. It was fun, but racing on waxless skis was a huge disadvantage. Just out to have fun. I repped a Wheaties skinsuit for the race as well. Good times!

After some good weeks on the bike, I backed it off this week to give my body some recovery. I can't stand only riding my bike easy for a couple hours. When it comes to weeks like this, it teaches me how much I like to ride my bike all day. Next week it all starts up again and I can't wait. The temps will be mid 40's and sunny. That means it feels mid-50's!!! Dang, just looking at the schedule, and I see we are almost in February. I need to calculate my miles for the 10,000 challenge. I feel like I am cheating by riding in better conditions than back home. This also means that in two weeks I will be hitting up the first races of the year. Should be interesting seeing how the fitness is a getting in the first intensity of the year. Its a 3-day stage race. Valley of the Sun down in Phoenix, AZ. Should be warm. I need to figure out this TT stuff. Aerobars and funky helmets? I am thinking of going to Moab the week after that to do some SSing on the red dirt. It's only 100 miles away, I can't believe I haven't gone yet.

Wow, that was a lot of words. Lets see some visual stimulus.

Fitness

I left Michigan luckily before the big cold front moved in. Just been relaxing and enjoying myself before the next semester which starts Tuesday. I've done some cross country skiing right outside of town at 10,500ft and also been riding my bike every once in a while. Weather here is great. People around here think it is cold, but coming from the mitten, I think it is awesome. I don't care about the temp as much as the sun. Having the sun out makes rides much more enjoyable.

Weird thing about the weather here lately is that it is warmer at higher elevations. There is supposedly an inversion that is stuck in the valley and keeping all the cold air in. All the warm air in turn moves up ontop of the mountains, so at higher elevations, it is much more comfortable. That means we can get some good climbing in and have some nice warm air up top.

Felt good today finishing a 24hr week, so I kept riding until I hit the magic 100 mark. Okay, enough words, lets do a photo dump.

2008 Breakdown

This past year I decided to reach out and push for 10,000 miles. Shawn came up with a great challenge and there was good competition involved. My mileage has dramatically increased over the past few years. Lets take a look.

2005- 3,541 miles
2006- 6,326 miles
2007- 8,481 miles

2008 I ramped it up and finished the year with 10,515 miles.

I took 5 weeks off during the year with no riding.

Total bike hours were 690.

That is about 1:53 of saddle time per day

And an average of 28.7 miles ridden per day

Here is the breakdown by bike

Scott CR1: 2877.5

Kona Jake the Snake: 2,734.5

Kona Hei Hei Supreme: 2,068.9

Cannondale R1000: 1,926.5

Yeti ARC SS: 728.4

Trainer (Using the 10,000 Challenge ratio of 2/3): 179.2

Here is the breakdown of races I did

MTB
XC: 7
STXC: 5
TT: 4

Cyclocross: 10 races

Road: 6

Here is to a good 2009!