Motivation is low.

My impetus for blogging has seem to hit a low for some reason. I guess there just isn't that much different going on. Different being the key word.

I've been training about 5 days a week, and find myself grumpy on the days I'm not able to pound the pedals with vigor. Not sure what that's all about. Even though I enjoy trainers (believe it or not) there is no replacement for riding outside. Even when the weather is marginal, as it often is this time of year. There's no way I'd get on a trainer for 2-3 hours, but that's no problem outside. And after said ride, my legs are tired, but I feel great. I feel like I actually did something. 70 minutes of zone 2 on the trainer doesn't really lend itself to that feeling.

This month I've tried to stay away from media sites. I did really good until today. There's a lot of stuff going on. But hardly any of it directly impacts me. I found my mood immediately crash and my blood pressure go down upon opening up the Huffington Post. Why I go to that site, I have no idea. All it does is piss me off about corporations, the government, and the Elite. I read an article discussing about what GARBAGE that McDonald's is passing off as oatmeal. Seriously, read the article. It's no wonder that America is one of the fattest nations in the world. It is one of the atrocities of this modern society that we live in that healthy food is a boutique item and economically out of reach for so many families. I'd love to shop at Whole Foods, but I don't know if I can comfortably fork over $150-$200 a week in groceries. Maybe we should try it for a month and see how it goes. The household would probably lose 10 pounds.

At least AB would poop more often.

CRAP.

I was going to title this blog "horse shit", but I felt that was a little too PG13 so I put it in the first sentence.

Goodbye NEET Moto Series?

In sum, the event series I was planning on getting the majority of my races in this year has been canceled. Hopefully someone can step up and keep it close. I'm not driving up to farkin' Smithville for this stuff. The reason this series was going to be my redeeming grace was that it was Tuesday night, every week, for like 5 months. No weekend conflicts with the myriad of activities the boys do, or our honey-dos and all the other stuff that happens on the weekends. Not that I was opposed to the occasional weekend race, but races on Tuesday night was a sweet setup for me and my family.

If I were a seasoned road racer, I'd be up for promoting it myself. But I'm not. I have 0 road race experience, let alone any promoting experience.

My goal for this season was to get my 10 races in and move up to Cat4. Learn as much as I can, race effectively, and improve my fitness so I can be a solid Cat3 in cyclocross next season. It might be a little tougher to get all that done now. Totally possible, but just a little tougher.

Busy!

My mind is going quick, so I'm just going to blurt things out as they come to me, kind of like free association, so here we go!

Massive work project going on this weekend, and I have to be in at 5:30am. That'll suck. It's almost like working at DST again. Thank God it's only for one day. Ug.

Kieran got his big boy bed last weekend. Well, most of it. We're waiting on the support rails still, so it's just a head board and a full size box spring/mattress. He loves it. Unfortunately our sleep patterns still aren't very good since he's cutting molars like they were hundred dollar bills. This kid looks like a Great White Shark when he opens his mouth. I'm glad he's out of the biting phase.

I've borrowed a set of rollers from both my teammate Jake and Britton. The ones Britton gave me are pretty nice, they are parabolic to keep you from going off the edge, and it works well. If you go/fall to the edge too hard though, you're going off. It's pretty fun as I've never used rollers before, and I can see their benefit. Maybe I'll pick up a pair before next winter.

Training has been going ok. I've been good about training for 3-4 days, then taking a day off. Sometimes that day off turns into 2 or 3 days, which I REALLY need to get away from doing that. Gotta keep that Chronic Training Load on the upward slope. Only a few bike/endurance nerds will know what that means.

I think that's all I got for now. There's lots more buried in my brain, but it'll have to wait. Enjoy the pending weather warmup!

World Bicycle Relief

As you may or may have not noticed, there is an clickable icon on the upper right hand corner of this page for World Bicycle Relief. This charity empowers individuals and communities in Africa by donating bicycles that enable people to make long school commutes, service medical emergencies, deliver goods from village to village, and a host of other great things. I have made a goal of raising $250 before October 2011. I have also enlisted the support of my race team, Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee to help in this endeavor as a team. We have a team goal of $4,020, which is roughly 30 bikes (1 for each race team member).

If you can help me out in this endeavor, I'd really appreciate it. This charity is near and dear to my heart, and Barron's ranked it as one of the top 25 most efficient charities.

Thanks in advance for your support!