A Weekend For Everyone

Soulmate is off to a hermitage for the weekend, and you'll see why in this video:

She is a gentle and quiet soul who craves only silence and asks only for enough time to contemplate life a little. What she gets is a noisy and demanding toddler and a noisy and demanding husband too. I thrive on noise and chaos, and Katie seems to be following in my footsteps, not Soulmate's. She loves music (hooray!) and is really into singing and dancing (or at least dancing while mommy or daddy sings). She has started to find all sorts of things screamingly funny, such as "Row Your Boat" at variable speed:


Actually, the weekend is shaping up well for all 3 of us. Soulmate gets all weekend to sleep in, sit quietly and read, think, and pray to her heart's content. Katie gets most of the weekend with me, running errands, going to "Run and Read" at the ECFE school Saturday am, church Sunday, and lots of time poking around the backyard looking at stuff (her new passion is going up and down the 4 stone steps from the patio to the goldfish pond).

I get to entertain Katie and do all the other fun Daddy stuff, AND ride with Big Jim and the young punks on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Katie's favorite babysitter will be over both days to spot me while Big Jim puts the hurt on. Plan is for the same 4 hour 5 climb marathon we've done the past 2 Saturdays. I haven't ridden since Sunday, so we'll see how the climbing goes.

We need to get some decent riding in soon, since training camp is next Thursday through Sunday, and I doubt my younger Cat 1,2 teammates will want to wait around for an old geezer like me to catch up after a hard climb or tempo effort. This is usually when I make big gains in my fitness, since I'm running at a very high intensity level just to keep up with my teammates' moderate ones. Oh well, that's what happens in races too, so I might as well get used to it in training.

I'm psyched for training camp for another reason: the reigning state TT champ is on our team, and he's going to dish on a bunch of training secrets, as well as help us dial in our TT bike fits. I hope a whole bunch of talent rubs off on me in a hurry. I'd love to make some big gains in my TT speed before the age curve catches up to me fully. TT bike and equipement: check. Training secrets and bike fit: check. Winning my age group category at the state TT: jury's still out.

Biking AND Katie

This blog started out as a biking blog, trumpeting my bike racing success. That didn't last long, since I haven't had that much success. Last year before we adopted Katie, I added her to my blog subtitle, and have actually attracted a fair number of viewers. I guess a cute little girl trumps athletic (non)prowess anyday.

Fortunately the two topics sometimes converge, like yesterday when Katie tried on my racing cap and took her first ride of the year on the trike.

We haven't hooked up the Chariot yet, but that's soon to come.

Thrashed

Big Jim took me out for a good 'ol fashioned 4.5 hour 5 hill thrashin'. I pounded the alp, almost conquered farming hill, and begged for mercy on old shep, tower, and some horrific unnamed final punishment. I don't remember ever bonking that badly. Jim flew over all of them like he was coasting downhill.

For those of you in the 35+ who are hoping that Big Jim has gone to seed with all his home remodeling over the winter, forget it. He's gonna spank you at Durand. And every other race this year. My condolences.

At least you don't have to train with him...

2.5 @ 40

The fixie patrol prowled the roads of Stearns county today. Big Jim and I rode 2 1/2 hours and had a blast. It's so good to feel the road under my wheels instead of a little metal cylinder attached to my trainer.

Oh, and it was above freezing for the first time in close to a year. OK, maybe for the first time this year. 40 today, 50 tomorrow. Nice start to my real bike season.

Itsy Bitsy Song

Katie has learned a new song. Betcha remember this one. C'mon, sing along with Katie!

Ride 'em cowgirl!

Here's Katie riding her rocking horse. No offense Andy, but I hope she never trades the stuffed one in for the real thing. Baby poop is one thing, but horse poop is something else. I know, I'm a doctor, but even when the dogs have an accident, Soulmate usually has cleanup duty. Sorry.

A Useful Waste of Time

My big training weekend to southern Missouri got cancelled on account of a 6" snowfall and high winds in MN. So I bagged biking and engaged in idle chatter and other time wasters with Katie and Soulmate. In the past, I would have been in trouble for slothfulness, but now, it's OK: it's called fatherhood.