For The Ladies

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Scoots

Scoots where are you?

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Zipp...Beautiful Dark Red Color

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I Heart De Rosa

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NEO Pro...Get It?

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Money Well Spent

Bill contains $1.125 million for Ice Age Trail

One of those perks tucked into the budget bill passed by the House this week provides $1.125 million for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin.
All but $125,000 will be spent to buy land in Dane, Waukesha and Columbia counties, in areas where the trail now passes over paved roads. The $125,000 would be used to build hiking trail segments on the purchased land, according to Andrew Hanson III, the trailway director.
It would be another small step in the long journey to complete the 1,200-mile off-road footpath that marks the furthest southern reach of glaciers in the last ice age. Currently, about half of the trail requires hikers to trek on roads.
Hanson said the federal dollars would help generate allocations from the state stewardship fund and county coffers, and private donations. The federal allocation from the Land & Water Conservation Fund typically requires a local match of 50%.
Since 2000, the Ice Age Trail has received about $12.5 million in federal money for land acquisition and trail work and generated about $20.5 million from state and local sources.
State Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) took credit for the federal windfall in a news release her office issued on Thursday.
"The Ice Age Trail is one of the great environmental treasures of our state and our nation," she said. "Preserving this trail and opening it up to the public is a gift and a duty to future generations."
The new infusion of cash follows two other recent gains for the Ice Age Trail: Wisconsin's Natural Resources Board voted 7-0 earlier this month to approve the purchase of 78.62 acres of land for the trail in Waushara County. The land will be purchased from the Ronald Motola estate for $220,200, of which 50 percent will come from federal Land & Water Conservation funds and 50 percent from Wisconsin's Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
In Washington County, the state and the Cedar Lakes Land Conservation Foundation combined to buy a 108.5-acre farm northeast of Hwy. 41. That land also will provide a route for a portion of the Ice Age Trail.

Credit: www.jsonline.com

My Weekend

No riding this coming Saturday and Sunday, this is where I'll be. Good times!

Short and Sweet

Well, I haven't posted much lately, just been busy, but I'll give a short update. I've been doing the best I can to ride as often as possible, but I've had a cold that has kept me limited to shorter rides and I've been sticking to my weight lifting program as well but had to miss a few days last week because of work related stuff. I'm on the uptick though with this cold and should be full strength again by this weekend. I don't want to go thrashing myself again though right away and the weather doesn't look all that suitable to road riding so we'll see what happens as the weekend progresses. I'm guessing some hiking on my snowshoe trails may be in order but since there really isn't any snow to speak of I will just use the hiking boots, no snowshoes. I'll hit the trainer as well and maybe I'll finally start my diet this weekend. I've lost a few pounds just by working out more, but I haven't changed my eating quite enough yet so that is the next phase of getting down to my goal weight. I'm gradually dropping it, but now March is coming up and it's time to get serious about eating well.
Other than that, I've finally sent out my USAC Coaching certification test so hopefully within a few weeks I'll get back my coaching license. Once that is good to go I'm starting on my ACSM Personal Trainer certification, that will take a bit longer though, lots of reading for that and quite a bit more studying involved, so I'm hoping by June I'll be taking that test. That is one thing I've wanted to do for a while and this year I'm going to finally get off my butt and get it done.
Well, it's time for bed, until next time........

Waiting?

Last year didn't quite turn out to be the year I had hoped for on the bike. I started by training probably a little too hard in anticipation of racing with the Master 1/2/3 racers and ultimately my first few races turned out to be duds. I did 4 races before I got stuck with a project at work that consumed all of my time in the evening and I had no time to train, much less even be at home or sleep. It turned out to be about a 12 week project that physically and mentally drained me, I had no energy for cycling. It turned out to be one of the most depressing summers, maybe even years, that I've ever had. On the bike, but personally as well, it was a bad year for me. I thought that once I got back in the groove of riding in the fall that I could transition in to riding the trainer in the offseason and hit the trails on the snowshoes as much as possible. Well, once the winter came and we got all the snow that we did I hit the trails a few times but never really got the motivation up to ride the trainer as much as I had hoped. I took it easy this winter, did some weight training, gained some weight, and rode a few times here and there. I kept telling myself that I had plenty of time, "it's only November", or " it's only December". There was a lot of waiting for the winter days to pass, '08 became '09 and I said, "it's only January, I've got plenty of time". I'm not sure what I was waiting for, I didn't really have the ambition to be a top racer this year, maybe not pack filler, but I wasn't ready to commit the time it took to be a top 10 finisher on a regular basis either. I just wanted to race, be there, and be happy doing it. All throughout January I kept telling myself that I didn't need to be super, this year was going to be my build up year for 2010, the year I was going to give it all I got, really get back in to racing. My "A" race isn't going to be Wheels on Willy, or the State Road Race, but it is going to be the Masters National Road Race championship. I want to get back to some type of national level racing, be somebody on the bike again, and it was going to start with training this year in preparing myself for next year. This is where the title comes in to play now, "Waiting?", what do I mean by that? Well, I still haven't hit the bike like I wanted to, I'm still riding here and there, not really committing, I keep telling myself I have plenty of time, I'm waiting for something to hit me, to say now is the time. I haven't had that happen yet, and I just think maybe I'm being lazy, maybe I don't need something to hit me, maybe I need to just slap myself and say, "now is the time". I anticipate that 2010 will be a good year for me, lots of training this year, and a then I'll kick some butt, but what if I get hit with a heavy duty work project again? What if I can't compete like I want to in 2010, what if it's a wasted year like 2008? So I asked myself today, why am I wasting 2009, sacrificing it for next year, what am I waiting for? I decided that I just need to get back on the bike, really rock it as much as I can this year, there may not be a next year to do that. So I'm not waiting, I'll enjoy 2009 as much as I can, ride as much as I can, and although I won't be doing the Masters' Nationals, I will do the State Road Race, my "A" race this year. What are you waiting for? Let's rock 2009 together, see you on the road.

Back In The Groove

The weather cooperated nicely this weekend and although a bit windy yesterday I'm not going to complain a bit. Today was cooler but less windy and that helped increase my average speed 2mph over yesterday's ride. Going 10 mph in to a headwind for 75 minutes sure does knock down the average. I took out the Pinarello yesterday because the roads were so wet and covered with salt, gravel, etc., that I didn't want to have to clean the good bike, plus the Pinarello has some nice cross tires on it that made me more confident that I wouldn't puncture or wipe out on any ice or snow. Well, that wasn't what I had to worry about, as about 2 hours in to my ride I felt my left leg moving around and looked down and my crankarm was about to fall off. I couldn't believe it, I had done maintenance on this bike in the Spring and rode it sometime in the fall and I'm not sure how the bolt got loose, but that definitely put a damper on the ride. I only had a 6mm Allen wrench with me and it needed a 7mm, so I tilted the wrench the best I could to grab the side of the bolt and got it tight enough to ride again. I had to stop every mile to tighten it, but eventually made it back home without it falling off. Of course I can't find my 7mm Allen wrench at the moment so the Pinarello got hung up in the basement until I do find it and then I'll take care of it.
Today's ride was not affected by any equipment malfunction and went off without a hitch, well, except for my lack of fitness which caused a malfunction in my legs but I'm definitely back in the groove and gaining fitness back quickly. I've lost about 5 pounds in the last week and a half just from the increase in riding and healthy eating. I should be down to 190 by the end of February which would be a 16 pound weight loss in a month, by the end of March I'd like to be down to 185 and then by the end of April I should be 180 which is pretty much my goal weight. Anyway, today's ride was a nice 3 hour jaunt through New Berlin, Waukesha, and Mukwonago and the sun and 38 degree temps were just fine by me. My cabin fever has been abated for another week at least and I'm hoping the trend will continue to where I can get outside again next weekend.
Tonight I will be relaxing by watching a few movies and having a pint of beer from the Riverside Brewery from one of my 3 growlers. Tomorrow is a vacation day from work so I'll probably do a little spin on the rollers amid getting things done around the house and heading out to get my oil changed on the Xterra. It's supposed to get cloudy and possibly rain during the afternoon and I have to be at the car dealer at 10:00 for the oil change so the chance of riding outside is pretty slim, I'll be fine with riding indoors after getting the 6 hours outside this weekend.
Well, that's it for now, time to run to Blockbuster and then back to help my wife cook some chicken wraps for dinner, until next time............

Jelly Legs

My legs are tired today, a little sore but I'm sure by the end of the day I'll be feeling a lot better. I did more this weekend than I have in a while, and I finally got to ride outside again! Saturday I was out in West Bend for my friend Dave's trainer party and it was a great time. There were 8 riders there sweating it out for differing time periods over the 4 hours that we were there. I did 2 hours and 20 minutes, basically I had to stop because my ass started to hurt and I think everyone else was fizzling out as well and we were ready to be done. After a quick trip to check out the LBS, Pedal Moraine, we headed to Dave's to clean up before our trip to Riverside Brewery. Dave and I had a really good time at Riverside, they have really good beer and great food, probably not the kind of food I should've been eating but if you ever want a great Reuben sandwich, Riverside is the place to go. I took my 3 growlers up to get re-filled and came home with their Lager, Amber Ale, and Stout, I polished off half of the Lager already last night while watching the Super Bowl, it was perfect for watching the game and eating some taco dip. Before I consumed the taco dip and beer Sunday evening I got out for a nice ride outside for just under 3 hours in the afternoon. It was about 35 and sunny when I hit the roads, but the wind was between 15-20 mph which made it rough going heading out, but I had a decent tailwind heading home, of course the wind died down when I had it at my back. I am definitely out of shape, I need to get a lot of riding in between now and the time that some events start to hit my calendar. I'm obviously overweight so that's my key goal right now, lose about 15 pounds and also just to get in a lot of miles. I'm not so worried about intensity right now, I just need to ride and get my legs used to all this pedaling again. They didn't know what the hell happened after the riding I did this weekend, I haven't ridden that much in a while so they were sore but if I can just stick to my program I'll be good by the end of April most likely. By "good" I mean that I'll actually be able to go up a hill without puking in my mouth. I won't be racing though, I don't think I'll be anywhere near that "good". So anyways, the plan is to ride tonight, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and Sunday. Tuesday I have to go to a Boy Scout thing for Xavier, and Friday is my normal day off. Hopefully the forecast will call for some good temps so that I can get outside again this weekend, I'm not even going to check though until Thursday, I don't want to get my hopes up until then. Well, that's it for now, until next time.