Time for Fall

Today was one of the first days in Houston where it did not go over 80. It was rainy and dreary and reminded me of the summer Anchorage when the weather is bad.

I haven't ridden my bike in over 2 weeks because it is currently being repaired for the 2011 season. Phil Shama is hooking me up with some great new gear to go on my bike. I decide to go for a power meter to try and take the training to a new level. Because I am so time limited lately, it is important that I use whatever time I have to train to the fullest. Training with power is sure to help with this. I am also getting new bars and replacing all the cabling and housing. It should be pretty sweet and ready to go for training this winter. Training will start next week, starting with long easy miles in the base period, as described by Joe Friel's Blog.

One thing I still have to figure out is how to keep my bike clean! Living in an apartment is not optimal for this: I don't really have access to a water hose. The one time that I have cleaned my bike since JULY is at a car wash! It did a pretty good job, but it took a lot of time and money. Hopefully I will figure out a better way....

Another travesty of the winter is now I definitely ride to and from work in the complete dark. As my co-workers pointed out, the ride home is more dangerous than the ride to work because of teenagers being on the road. The only people on the road at 6am are coffeed-out 9-5'ers driving to work.

A GREAT part of the winter is skiing. Hopefully I already have the first ski trip planned the weekend of Dec 10-13! I'm planing to go with my buddies Brian and Paul, flying in and out of Denver. I'm trying to decided whether it is more economical to buy or rent skis.