Something has gone amiss with my ability to dress myself for athletics so far this year. Well, maybe not the whole year, because it seemed to go okay for the month of January, but recently (February) it has gone extremely bad. I’m not sure what happened.

It all started when I flew out to California and did the Boulevard Road Race. The temperature on the car when I got there said it was in the lower 40’s. The temperature on my Garmin said it was in the mid 40’s. So, I put an undershirt on under my thicker short sleeve jersey, with arm warmers, and it was wrong. Really wrong. I unzipped the jersey early on, but was hot the rest of the 90 miles.

The same thing happened for the Pre-Birkie ski race. 42 km. Below zero pulling up to the start. I had a thin defeat undershirt on under a long sleeve jersey. My mistake was wearing nylon wind pants. I was sweating like crazy. So much so that I took off my hat and unzipped my jersey 10 km in. (My right ear is still peeling from mild frostbite.)

I’ve not been dressed right once this week training. Either I’m too cold or too hot. I pride myself on dressing right. Something has either changed with me physiologically or I have just become stupid(er).

Adding to all this, none of my shorts seem to fit correctly anymore. I’m getting chaffed like crazy when that has never, ever been a problem for me. Plus, my left road shoe is rubbing on my inner ankle bone. I’ve had the same shoes for nearly a year and have never had an issue with that either. Strange.

I’m not sure how I’m going to address this problem. The picking the wrong clothing for temperatures is bugging me the most. Dressing correctly is super important in the sport of cycling. That is why we all have so much clothing. Clothing that is really close to being the same as the next piece, but just a fraction different. Enough different that it matches another piece of clothing that is really close to matching another piece. (We’re not even going to get into gloves here. I nearly need a whole dresser for gloves.) That is the key to dressing for the sport. At least that used to be the key. I think that I forgot which key fit the lock and have to have a locksmith come and make me a new one. I hope it doesn’t take all year.

How about this form guys? Pretty good, huh? Like I said, my ears are still peeling.

Yesterday was a nice day. But, I don’t know where it went, much like a lot of days for me. Since Monday was a bank holiday, yesterday really felt more like Monday than Tuesday, thus today really feels much more like Tuesday, not Wednesday. I’m 90% sure I’m heading down to Texas tomorrow to race this weekend. So, I only have today to do everything I need to do to be gone a couple weeks. I’m not sure how that is going to go. But, like I’ve written before, it is much easier getting ready to road race than most the other disciplines of the sport I participate in.

I went by the “rental” house that I got the 3 cars stolen from last year and picked up the trash laying around the bushes yesterday morning. It is amazing to me how much trash blows around in the winter in those neighborhoods. I rarely need to pick up any trash in my neighborhood. I wonder what the difference is? I don’t see a bunch of people walking around throwing their garbage on the ground. It just seems to blow in from the North and get lodged under the bushes. I can say for certain, from vast trash picking up experience, the number one piece of individual trash is plastic grocery bags. 2nd is anything with a McDonalds emblem on it. I guess people must go by McDonalds, get take out and then just throw the bag out their car windows. That is the only explanation for all the McDonalds bags, cups, etc. laying around for me to pick up. Because I’ve picked up a ton.

The back yard of this house is fenced. When the last people moved out, they left a car tire there. Now they seem to be multiplying. I have no way to explain this either. It’s like someone came by and said, “Hey, there’s a car tire. I should go get my extra tires and bring them over here to keep this one company.” I really don’t even understand the process of how the tires are here. But they are.

I’m kind of thinking of getting one of those infrared camera systems that has 6 cameras that can record up to 1000 hours, or some stupid number, and mount them all over the house, just to learn what goes on when I’m not around. I bet it would be super entertaining.

Last night, Keith Walberg came by and did an interview for a film he is making about Snake Alley. It took a long time for him to set up his lights and all the equipment, just for a few minutes of footage. He’s been filming there the last couple years, so I’m sure he has some good stuff. He is a professional.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling pretty good riding my bike. Good enough that I really don’t what to do anything else other than ride my bike. That makes accomplishing any of the 5000 jobs that I have to do around here nearly impossible to start. And most of my projects aren’t just hour projects, they are much bigger.

So, today, I’m going to get on my cross bike and ride to Lawrence and back on gravel. It is supposed to be in the upper 60’s, but really windy. Really windy by Kansas standards, which is super windy. The river road should be the easiest to try to stay out of that wind, but it is pretty impossible to hide from totally. Then I’m going to glue on another tire to race this weekend, pack up my stuff and by then it will be midnight and I have to leave in 6 hours. That is going to make for a short night, but that is normal.

Trudi is flying back to Europe for Pairs-Nice on Tuesday, so she is packing for two months. It might be a couple months before she knows what day of the week it is again. I have it easy compared to her.

One tire has turned into 5.

Catherine using pipe wrenches as weights while Keith is messing with his equipment.

Doing an interview in the back of my basement was a first for me.

Fran, one of the kittens, that is now nearly a cat, was enjoying the commotion from a geranium pot, wintering in the basement.

Fran also has taken a liking to waffles in the morning. I think it is because Bromont likes them so much and she likes Bromont.