Shifting

A little shift in the ol' plan today. Normally, Monday provides me with a good day for a nice longish spin. Class is done at 1, so I have the afternoon to ride. Today, between the "weather" (bad for riding in, good for the roads in the coming days) and with all the stuff on my plate, I made the executive decision to swap my rest day to today. Sorry Wednesday.. it's not you, it's me. Class, then time in the library attempting to at least start some damn term paper, bring the car to the shop for some summer tyres, groceries and bam, suddenly its nearing 4pm. Figured I don't have a lot of school work coming, with the exception of 2 projects; the aformentioned nearly started term paper, and some drafting thing. Today is to be my day to try to get a bunch done so I can ride all the rest of the week. It is now just after 6, I have somehow actually gotten some stuff done, and am bored out of my skull. My mind keeps wandering to the light rain outside and the possibility of a ride. My legs feel sluggish and lethargic, but urge me as well. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is rest. I will solve this problem with a big production of a dinner. I have some excellent salmon and mucho veggies. Little bottle of vino to get me rolling through the eve as well. School is starting to finish up. Not gonna lie, this is exciting. A few more good training weeks before the race season kicks its self unto gear.

Lesson of the day: town sign sprint means you sprint for a town sign. Apparently unless your last name is Orange. We'll work on that. Who's gonna make the leader's jersey's though?

weekend news.

Friday: ride... 5 hours.... eat.... bed. I'm really just this cool.
Saturday: early morning tt ride on the rollers... work.... out for dinner... bed.
Sunday: Ride. Time yet to be determined, but should be another 5 ish hour day in the saddle. Sun is out, moral is good and races are approaching.

Aside: Mosport is postponed a week due to snow. Pansies. Thats all I gotta say. As some one who has gone out for an inordinate amount of rides in snowstorms this year, I was very excited with my chances of crushing some souls riding through some deep snow. My dreams have now been dashed, alas, by some sissy Torontonians. Maybe you should call in the army to move the snow for you eh girls? Sorry to but women on the same level as general Torontonians, you don't deserve that. It is now looking more and more likely that my first race of the year will be Tour of Battenkill. Time to get to work. I am also very glad bike season is pretty much coming into full swing because my hockey team (the Ottawa Senators) could not beat a group of 6 year old ringette players at the moment. It is embarrassing.

Weekend

Super ride yesterday. According to the ol' SRM, we hit a high of 8 degrees in the sun, but settled around 6 for most of the day. I got a nice solid 4 hours in. Plus a real quickie of a nap. The watched Breaking Away in the evening. I'll chalk that into the "winning day" column. Legs felt surprisingly good after the previous day's leg breakers. Took a bit of spinning for them to come around, but they started feeling stronger and stronger as the miles piled up. Thinking about just riding into Ottawa today. The weather is nice again, and looks to be holding that way for the duration of the weekend (aka I also would have to ride back here on Sunday). I think this seems like a pretty good idea. Unlike last time in January when I got rained on, hailed on and had to pilot the ol' fixie through wayyyy too much slush. I don't regret it though. My bread came out awesome. Ended up being cinnamon, vanilla raisin bread. And it is scrumptious. Makes an excellent ride sammy. I gotta get to class, enjoy your weekend.

that good ol' blood in the mouth feel

Ok, so as previously reported, I am making an attempt towards getting faster. On a bike. Now from what I understand from previous attempts, this involves some amount of pain and suffering. So keeping with that in mind I set myself up on the trainer this morning for some suffering. Keep in mind, I actually kinda prefer to do long rides versus intervals on the trainer. At least outside you can look down the road and pretend you are chasing something and GO SOMEWHERE. Inside, I find myself staring (in this case at a tough as nails Phillipe Gilbert) at a bike race on my computer screen. By the way, 2008 Het Volk - wicked. Due to a few conflicting issues, I found myself testing my resolve and hoping on the trainer. I would also like to add that I'm pretty sure I look like a sweaty, mentally challenged kid in spandex while doing intervals inside. Luckily I have the house to myself. Had my workout layed out so "no excuses", I told myself at this somewhat unpleasant hour of the morning, "its time for a DJS/N workout. I named my interval workouts this in honour of a certain pair of wacked out cyclists I know. After a recent convo with one regarding intervals and hurt, he proceeded to explain how his goal is pretty much to bleed out his ears and want to puke. I figure, as he seems quick enough, that this sounds like a sound idea. Keep in mind the mentally challenged bit and ability to turn off my brain. So I set out with this workout and quickly reached aformentioned tasting of blood/bile/unpleasant feelings. I was dripping. After the first set, I decided that a "electrolyte replacement" beverage was just what would keep me going. There also happened to be an old tub of GU2O just out of reach. Perfect for my lactate hazed eyes to focus on. Though after, getting up to fast to refill my bottle did result in an increase of dizziness and nauseousness It was quite spectacular and very worth it. I cracked myself a little earlier then hoped, though not much (see gummy legs) and spun for a while before getting mad at myself for stopping 2 intervals before prescribed so decided to do 2 beyond full out efforts as a punishment. This is where my brain gets me in trouble. On the plus side, the numbers I was staring at cross eyed are much bigger numbers than I remembered staring at last season. On the other hand though, I was cross eyed and therefor may have been looking at the completely wrong set of numbers. Oh, and I drank about 24 1/2 liters of water in my class this afternoon to try to replace the fluids I lost to the floor. Now, I nearly went of for a ride as the weather is glorious, but held myself back. Longer ride tomorrow and I need to recover. So I'm going to bake bread. I've been meaning too for the last little bit, and this happens to seem like a better time burner than the internet. If I sit here too long I will for sure end up riding. Oh, and I bought some tortilla chips as a treat and to try and convince myself to eat them instead of ride. And salsa. Hopefully some baking pictures to come. No Sandy on trainer ones though, I don't want those getting on the net. And its hard to focus the camera while sweating so profusely.

Wicked and wild.

Wind anyone? Did my morning spin on the trainer due to some fairly below zero morning temperatures. But spent a good portion of the ride time (2 hours) staring out at the sunshine planning how incredibly, wickedly awesome my afternoon "real" workout would be. Went to class, hit some nails, cut some lumber, and arrived home to find the dark clouds, hurricane force winds and threats of snow/slash rain. No matter, I am pumped to ride right now (after the last week or 2 of questionable training) so loaded up on wind proof layers and hit the road. Luckily (?) I was heading out into a pretty much straight on headwind, which when gusts hit allowed me to hold the nice easy 400+ watt pace I was looking to hold. Needless to say, after being blown off the road 3-4 times, I opted to do my workout on a 20 minute long (yet slightly sheltered) stretch of road. I basically went back and forth on it for about 2 hours. Exciting eh? On the plus side, did not need to kiss the ditch. I have also decided I will need to add some weight to my 142 lbs frame if I intend to do anymore of these ridiculous rides. Wrote myself out a general plan-line for my training last night, as I figure this should help me keep to a better riding schedule. Also got the word from above that I am cleared and set for Tour of Battenkill. 80 some miles of the worst roads in NY state. Big crowds from what I hear, and some pretty gnarly back country roads. Needless to say, this (along with last nights planning) has kicked 'top-sporter' Sandy into gear. 3 more weeks of school and I can get myself fully focused again. Time to enter the hurt box.

Waste

What a terrible weekend. Cold, windy and generally un-riding friendly weather. Weekend was mostly good, some decent roller riding (side note, I have not learned to ride my tt bike on the rollers. I'm impressed with myself.) and generally seeing some friends back in town. Went out last night to see the Sens game at a local watering hole, and woke up this morning feeling like death. Not like I even drank that much. I have this feeling the food wasn't quite kosher.... unfortunately this lead to me puking all morning. Pretty much every 30 minutes on the money, I would have to roll out of bed and make a dash for the ceramic. I then promptly fell asleep and woke up at 6pm. What a waste of a day. I now find myself back in bed watching the final of Milan-San Remo in Italian. What a beaut of a race. I again went with my gut and Gilbert, but my boy could not close in the flying Swiss giant pulling out a respectable 3rd anyways. Hopefully the body will be back on track again tomorrow.

Quick

Quick little update from Ottawa. Made it home, no issues. Mostly due to the lack of a snowstorm this weekend, feels little odd to be able to make it through the alps (aka the snow banks along my lane way) without getting stuck. Found this hilarious and very un-politically correct diary on velonews about the basic differences in racing styles around the world. I would like to add one thing, when the racing get hot in Belgium (I swear this happens on occasion) the Belgies as well pile on the cologne to beat the heat. Side note, it works. My body is still adjusting to the fact that today is not Friday and I don't have to work tomorrow. The possibilities are nearly endless. As long as they include a decent ride. And some quality food. Happy birthday mom, hope you enjoy the soon to be dinner. Enjoy your long weekend, don't eat too much chocolate. I for one will be seeing how little of the processed stuff I can eat, I'm thinking of creating some kind of easter chocolate-fruit thingy to eat instead with the family easter dinner. Ciao.

Rain. Good?

Rain is here. This is good and bad on several fronts, we'll focus on the good first as I am in my usual good mood. First, rain means one thing: the arrival of spring. And with spring comes that distinctive lack of snow I am craving so very much. With rain comes warmer temperatures, and most importantly - it washes away all the thousands of kilos of road salt. And by association allows me to spend more time on good bikes without spending in turn thousands of unavailable dollars on repairs to my beautiful machine. For the negative, I am somewhat more limited to the trainer currently. The fixie has another flat (damn spring road debris) and the only other bike available to me here is my Stevens. Which I love too much to ride outside in the salt water. I have ridden it a bunch outside when the roads are dry. As much as it is really not that bad (you whiners) to ride in the rain, this can lead to several bad things this time of the year: salt & slush roads, sickness from several hours in the cold rain, and more copious and expensive bike repairs from the aforementioned salt. Needless to say, I am sweating it up like a pig indoors again. Not completely a bad thing as I have started some intensity work and don't have to watch for rogue drunk pickup truck drivers while indoors. I don't think. It also leaves me free to stare at the SRM numbers while sweating all over myself without worrying about what lane I have entered and why traffic is suddenly coming towards me. I don't even like staring at the numbers, it just seems to create a value to associate with the pain. And this time of year in those first intense workouts, the pain seems much higher than it will in the coming weeks. I have also just checked the weather out (and yes, I only trust it as far as I can throw it - not very far) and it appears to be sunny and zero-ish all weekend. I will therefor be riding outside all weekend. If you would like to come along for some quality miles, let me know. I will depart at various times (not Saturday due to work engagements) for various (but probably somewhat long-ish) rides. Departure time will vary with coffee finishing time. I'm feeling a bakery ride at least one day, some probably through Richmond at some point.
In other news, I have a new teammate. None other than Dominique Perras. See the announcement here. This season is looking good.

Spring? Is that you?

I don' want to get ahead of myself here (so everyone knock on some wood), but the weather yesterday seemed very spring-eske. Instead of my 3 hours of super secret training, I did the 3 hours of super secret training and then tacked on another hour of spinning to make the most of the day. Above zero, plenty of sun.... How could I not in the right mind? Now, as for super secret training, I will not discuss exactly what I am doing - perhaps suffice to say, moving from super slow easy miles to attempting to be not so slow, but in a orderly fashion. The main reason for not bringing up the details is twofold:
a) I can refer to my super secret training as super secret training. This also has the benefits of intriguing people (you lot) and making it seem like my training regime is very complicated and cool. b) In an attempt to inspire fear and become fast, I am actually no longer just putting in the base miles.
Oh, and I really don't care. This is my blog and I'll write what I please. On another note, I ate copious pannakoken this morning. Mostly with fruit, but also one with nutella. Hence the good mood I figure. I am also attempting to return to my stretching regiment I left behind with the sun in South Carolina, my have really not felt as good since I started coming up with excuses for why I would "skip today's stretching". With stories abound of people starting their racing season, I am really beginning to crave that start of the season. More importantly the end of school.
Perhaps the best way to end this post is quite simply with some pics. Some pics of me hacking up roller racing.

Welcome to fight club. First rule of fight club, smile like an idiot and wear brightly coloured lycra... at all times. Rule 2: always try to trackstand on rollers. You look cool, unless you fall. (note: I did not)

Yup, still smiling like a fool. At least I'm having fun.

Check it.

This video is awesome. For anyone who has yet to see it....

The epic scale (patent pending)

Solid weekend on several fronts. Afternoon of visiting and errands on Friday, then out for a "few" drinks with some good people. A few nutritionally challenged decisions (as will happen after th bar) and then a good day at work. Roller races in the evening, as good a time as always. Hopefully some more pictures soon after someone else gets on that. I brought no camera. Good to see so many friendly faces out and meet a few more. Cheers to John, Chris and the rest of the Wheelers for putting on a good show. Even though I must say, I was treated quite unfairly in a certain 500m race "incident". Moral of the story, never trust a wily old racer who spent some quality time hardening up on the roads of Belgium. Needless to say, after John "suggested" a 50m head start and I agreed with said racer "make a show for the folks" and only race the last 250m... I was plensantly surprised when I both started much slower and 50m behind from the first pedal stroke. Oh, the good times. This is why I train. So that I may learn from these rookie mistakes and hopefully some day soon put some choice individuals in the hurt box. But enough on that, Sunday consisted on a nice 4 hour ride in the sun with some excellent Belgian-eske wind sections with Andrew. Good show. It was during this ride, we decided that there should be some kind of "epic scale" to grade your tough rides (today being probably a 1 of 10). So far, here is what I have... feel free to post comments to improve it.

Time/distance: Can be ranked either on being wayyyy further than you have even riden, or simply by heading out for a planned double century. Hint, if you are out for less than 100km (exception if you climb the entire 100km) it is probably not really epic. Unless you longest previous ride was the 4km to work. out of 2 points. Bonus point if you plan on 100km, but get home after 200km instead. (see also #3).
Intensity: If you go out and hammer yourself into a cross-eyed stupour, you are probably off to a good start. Not the most important, but can likely lead to a bonk or at very least prayers of ending soon. Out of 1. Either hard or not.
Lost/exploration quotient: Back to the, plan a 100km day, but ride for 200km accidentally. Out of 2 points. If you go out with no known loop planned and just fly along by what road looks good (follow the sun) you get a point. If you bring a map, subtract 1 point. If you have a GPS for any reason other than wanting to look back later to confirm how lost you were, subtract 2 points. Remember, you are never lost... only perhaps temporarily misplaced.
Incident occurrence: dog sprints, drunk hillbilly attempting to run you off the road... The kind of thing you later tell you friends about proudly, ideally with no need to even exaggerate. Bear fights will get you bonus points. Or chasing down a transport. Out of 2 points.
Adverse weather: What is a true epic without some period of wicked nuts weather. Crazy head with for 100km.... torrential rain.... frozen to the core... freak snowstorm... Give yourself a point. Riding in the sun is nice, riding in the rain makes you hard.
Bonus points:
-bonk (or ridiculous salt stains in the case of Viper).
-untimely mechanical. ideally having to MacGuyver something. Stuffing your tyre with hay because you only brought one spare tube.... epic.
-if for any reason you have to get off your bike and hike for a period, you get an extra point. Unless you are simply a wuss and start crying about "this climb is sooo hard." Harden the &^#$ up Timmy.

home for a rest

Actually, probably not much rest. Riding is back on track and is going well. Super secret training has commenced. Now if only I had slept better and my roommate had not decided to pass out while cooking some unidentified meat.... Side note, meat burns when you leave the frying pan on high while asleep, this causes the fire alarm to go off which in turn enrages Sandy when the perpetrator (apparently too drunk to notice) continues to sleep. My house now smells like smoke and my mentally handicapped roommate is still sticking to his story that "it wasn't him". Ya, and the meat fairy snuck in while you were asleep, turned the burner on high, put you meat on it and then stealthily left the scene. I would let loose with some choice words, but I already did that, and this environment is supposed to be PG. None the less, excellent training day yesterday, cruised out a solid 4.5 hours, including some super secret training. Time to head back into Ottawa soon, run a few errands and then hit the rollers for a few. I gotta get out of this house, the smell of smoke is really getting to me. Roller races again this Saturday at the Elmdale, I suggest you all come out. I know I'm signed up for the 500 and 1000 again. Should be some good times. I also have the itch to strap on the 80s one piece and hit the slopes again. We'll see where that urge gets me. I'll try for a roller report over the weekend, otherwise Monday will be a nice big ol' writeup. Heres hoping for some decent riding weather over the weekend. Anymore snow might push me over the edge.

itch

I have an itch. And that itch is to ride long. Ride long and hard. Unfortunately (for reasons other than the snow conditions) I am currently again cooped up in the house working. Yesterday ended up being spent working on some school stuff and in class. Today appears to be an even longer school day as I must make my way to school for 10 instead of 12 to write a test before class. And a math test at that. Then I will be in class until near 6. This is probably the longest I will have been in a class setting in many years. I think I'm packing for it somewhat like a camping trip or maybe a bike race. I'm bringing several layers, as I feel the temperatures may fluctuate (one class room is frigid), I am bringing a decent meal (leftover pasta) as well as a small army of fruit to snack on, and will of course also have a bag of books and random crap (ipod) to entertain me. I may even have to enter the "library" to finish off some work between classes. I may have to squeeze out a ride after class just to bring myself back to normal Sandy. At very least, I will be riding again tomorrow morning. I don't care how much I have to slack, I will be on the trainer or outside. I have to. My body is not happy with this lack of riding. Back to math. Damn. I hate even saying that.

Back in action

Slight delay, with the 60cm of snow that pummeled us. So, we'll call it a cross training weekend to get back into the flow of serious training. I did of course sneak in a ride out in the powder directly on Sunday after all the snow fall of Sunday. I had some errands to run and some 23mm slicks crying out to play in the snow. Good times. Preceded by several hours of tunneling our family cars out and capped off with an afternoon of telemark skiing at Edelwise. Good times. Actually felt kinda good to get in the first days on the hill of the year. Even snuck off after the lifts closed for a little "back country" hike-a-ski action to finish the day off on the right note and get a decent sweat rolling. Missed on Monday's classes with the cars being blocked in and all, but hey; I'm not complaining. Got one more ski in. Could be a bit of a busier week now, but I think not many from my class would have made it in for yesterday. We'll see what this week brings, all I know is it should be some quality on the bike time. Oh, that stupid time change is definitely giving me some hassles. Damn those clocks.

quick

ASO vs. UCI. Seriously? Again not much can be written as I think most aspects have been covered by the inter-web in general. All I know is this shit has gone too far (as usual) and those who will suffer: the riders. Whose fault? Not theirs. As I wrote before, they and the teams need to form a union/coalition of kinds and make a stand. All together now. They are the glue. But enough on that, I myself will be racing again in a month. It makes me a mix of nervous and giddy. Nervous, mostly as I am so giddy to get going (and be done with snow) that I am shaking with the excitement of a new season. On the other hand, this excitement died a little yesterday as I cracked and... rode the trainer. I'm sure you heard the cursing in Ottawa. The roads were just not safe, or fun. Shoulders full of snow banks... slushy roads... no good around here. My will to be smoked by a pick up truck was just not high enough. So I gritted my teeth and sweated away 2 hours on the turbo. Next week should at least lead to the starting of some intensity work, which could help with the hours spent riding my bike indoors. If I'm suddenly not around next week, I'm probably fine. Just back in South Carolina, where you only occasionally find patches of snow in higher elevations and that snow causes people to not leave their homes in fear. Posting may be somewhat nonexistent this weekend, but I will report more next week. Hopefully ready to rock out and start kicking it up a notch for the coming season. I may even try for a 7th ski of the season. Record snowfalls, and I have been riding outside at probably 5-10 times as much this winter as skiing.

Bad snow. bad, bad snow.

Seriously? On the plus side it was a very peaceful morning. Made more peaceful by the fact that I ended up not having class. Aka, go back home for some fruit and another cup of coffee. But don't worry mom, I did spend a good portion of my afternoon actually doing school work. And yes, this surprised me too. But enough about that, school work is no fun to write about, no fun to even do. On the other hand, my ride today was pretty bloody sweet. In following my plan of getting even with nature and not riding the trainer this week, I maned up, grew a pair and did my ride outside. A nice 1.5 hours on the fixie in 10-15cm of fresh powder. I had a few errands to run anyways, so simply rode all around town, powersliding through corners, passing stuck cars... Wicked. Probably the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time. Pretty hard to keep it easy intensity wise, but hey. Its a snow day. Nothing like letting a little air out of your 22mm slick tyres and hitting some fresh powder. So the moral of today is: do something outside. I have even acquired a exercise ball to get to work on the core and hopefully completely incapacitate me after attempting to use some of these neglected muscle groups. That and I figure I'll need a beach body soon to actuate the emaciated tan line look. Real weights are wayyy to much for me, I get enough of a gun work out swinging my framing hammer around. Nearly through the first of my books (In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan) which is ridiculously good, but means that soon enough I'll be able to head down to the Perth used book store and make use of this gift certificate I won a while back. I really do home there is a good movie on tonight. Tonight will for sure be an evening for relaxing with some good food and doing nothing productive. Plus, I probably wont be able to move after simply inflating the stupid exercise ball. I'll have to do that near the couch so I can simply collapse onto the couch.

Winter?

Seriously now? Another winter storm warning? What gives. According to the CBC, we have already have over 3m of snow this year (10 ft) and this dump could put us clear into the 2 place of top yearly snowfall for the region. Sure glad I wasn't around and trying to ride during number 1.... Got another "pleasant" (aka not snowing out or frigid) ride in today. Two good hours before class. Good way to start the day for sure and get this recovery week rolling. My legs were definitely crying out for some sun and hills though. According to the damn weatherman, it would appear I will indeed be riding inside tomorrow. Not super happy or excited about that prospect. I feel I will have to calm my rage with some good food tonight. Scored some good cheese on the grocery run yesterday (fresh parmesan reggiano and some brie on sale) so am currently picturing some pad thai with a nice side spinach salad with some grilled veggies... Hopefully get back to work on my homework stuff soonish. Though I have gotten a decent amount completed, so I think I deserve a break.

Back in Action

Back to Perth, back to school and back to the 'old' routine. The rest of the drive home went by quite uneventfully, other than the ridiculous amounts of State Troopers on the roads and nearly being hit by a couple as they burned rubber getting onto the road to pull over another poor sap. On, and the high speed road rage incident. Don't worry, I merely watched from a distance as a dude in a Jeep (with a gun rack and some seriously racist bumper stickers) attempted to run 2 skinny white wannabe gangsters in their "pimped" Jetta off the road. To be fair, they were attempting to turn the I81 into a F1 for retards circuit and cut off the angry, gun toting clan member. I as well came to the conclusion that I now supported the right to bear arms after they cut me off going 160 and then promptly slowing down to 80 (I can only assume they got their west side and east side gang signs confused so needed to regroup). The dude in the Jeep on the other hand decided he would much rather vehicular manslaughter, so attempted the same maneuver back to them only with attempting to actually cause damage (I'm pretty sure the two losers in the car were just normally handicapped citizens who happened to forget they were driving from time to time). After they got back on the road (he pushed them into the shoulder, they proceeded to floor it and zag erratically across the road like a injured fawn attempting to lose the hunter with a rocket launcher. Luckily for them, after a brief high speed chase (also involving the angry man waving his hand angrily out his windows) the crazy dude was promptly pulled over by a State Trooper.
In other news, I had a surprise mid term exam today. By surprise I mean, I walked in the class and was asked if I wanted to write it today. The extra funny part (other than me saying yes) was that directly after this question, he proceeded to hand back the rest of the classes exams and then TAKE UP THE WHOLE EXAM with us. If this is not funny to you, keep in mind that I was only to write the exam AFTER class. Needless to say, I ripped through that exam, even answering all the questions. Sunny and warm this afternoon, so I of course jumped on the fixie and headed out for a solid 2.5 hour spin. A little windy, but seriously nice out. Nature has been warned, it has one week (my rest week) to shape up and stop snowing. Today is a good start. Otherwise I will find the angry dude in the jeep and set him on nature.

Maryland update

Did end up getting off about 9ish as stated. Before 9:30 even. Hit the road for a while, cursing the fact that today was obviously going to be a pretty smoking great day to be riding. Wasted now on driving. Stopped in for the planned Waffle House stop along the way. Which was pretty much a made up as I drove route. Basically continued north, along any highways that sounded familiar. I remembered going through Greenville. So far so good. Waffle house was pretty much as expected: truck stop style, greasy heart stopping food. I of course ordered the All-Star, aka the cardiac incident, for good measure. I entertained myself by "accidentally" overhearing the celebratory meal next to me. From what I can gather, the large trucker man had just asked his woman (leather face) to marry him. He was now (11am ish) taking her out for a celebratory meal at the waffle house. He even ordered her a Cherry Coke... Just in case this wasn't enough romance for one morning, he popped a quarter in the juke box (yes, I had to take an extra big bite of waffle to avoid laughing) and put on her favorite Aerosmith song. I had to get out. Pretty much then drove straight here to Maryland where I am now residing in a Quality Inn. Went out exploring for dinner (somewhat tough walking with the distinct lack of sidewalks). First found a Sushi place, but decided against it on two fronts: the Liquor Depot next door and the fact that it also had "buffet" in the name. Wasn't feeling another 800km in the car with some explosive diarrhea from food poisoning. So instead settled on a slightly less sketchy Mexican place. Which was actually quite good, and not nearly as salty as I was worried it may be. Lots of good authentic food and a Carona for $15. Well done. Plus, I also got to sit next to the world's fattest family. More free entertainment. Mom was for sure the biggest, and spent a good portion of time after inhaling her meal attempting to steal food from her 6 year old son. Who I'm pretty sure definitely also out weighed me. I think mom's rear even tried to eat her chair she was so hungry. I would finally like to remind all my readers that I indeed picked Gilbert. And Keir, I will be waiting for your return and my free coffee.

The time is nigh

Today is important (at least in my books) on 2 fronts: the start of the spring Classics season in Europe, and I return to the great white north. Or, judging from the weather reports I am reading for the next few days, the shoddy iced up north. Freezing rain? Bring it on. At least some rain means its not -30 anymore and could help with the road salt situation. On the more exciting front, Het-Volk and Kurnne-Brussels-Kurnne start this weekend off with a bang on the glorious cobbles of Belgium. Screw Cali (though that was for sure some hard man weather they got smoked with), this is where the real hard men shine. I've gone out on a limb and called Gilbert for a win this weekend. Even with the new flat sprinters finish in Volk, I'm sticking to my guns. In more relavant news Sandy-wise, I begin my drive home today. And yes, as per my usual style, I intend to leave at 9am-ish (its currently 8:29) and I have "packed" (aka arranged my crap into several piles located in the vicinity of several duffel bags) and am still on the internet with some coffee. I have even got some bread out to make drive sammies. I'd say I'm still ahead of the game. I will be breaking the drive up into 2 days this time, with my driving solo and my freaked out mother and all. Apparently I WILL be staying at a 5 star resort somewhere around the Pennsylvania area, and sipping on some Dom Perrignon.. all on the tab of Mom & Dad. Or at very least attempting to find a motel that appears to have not had any recent deaths or drug deals go down in the last 2-3 weeks. Most exciting part of the trip, planned lunch stop at a Waffle House. I'm not sure why this place excites me or intrigues me, but I have wanted to sample their breakfast menu for some time now. A full report to come later. For now t minus 26 minutes to "departure". I better get crackin.