Monday, October 21, 2013

Start of Winter....

            At the time of writing this (which was over a week ago) I’m about to do a podcast, and I thought I would get some writing done in the spare time beforehand. This week was by far the best week I’ve had in ages. I got to do a cardio workout every day since Monday. I’m probably gonna go for a run later today as well, racking up the volume. Honestly each day that I do something consecutively makes a huge difference. I’m sort of in a base training stage at the moment, but my fitness is such that I’m pushing higher HR zones than most people would for base. I’m not really worried about that though. The heart rates for a given effort are bound to go down if I am hitting those efforts consistently. The thing that people always warn about for is getting burned out. At the current level I’m nowhere near that. We’ll see in a few weeks for sure of course, but right now I’m happy keeping myself in a daily routine.
           
            It’s recently got quite cold out, so I need to figure out my winter gear situation. I was hopeful that I would have at least through the end of October without having to worry about any sort of winter clothing. That’s not happening. I forgot just how quickly it got cold here in Colorado. Anyway, I’m looking at my options right now. I was planning on getting a groupset sometime in the next month, but I think that may end up being delayed until December or so. I’ll ask for some stuff for my birthday and Christmas, as clothing isn’t insanely expensive (at least as far as bike stuff is concerned.) I’ll lay out a list of my top items. This whole wishlist thing is kind of new to me. For the first time in several years I don’t feel as if I’m really being a financial burden on my family. Having a job and going to community college have brought down my cost substantially. Adding to the fact that my parents have been employed for a while, and it just doesn’t seem like I’m a problem anymore. I’m sure my parents won’t be happy with my expense plans, but I’m being much more conservative with it than I would like. I’ve only made one big purchase with a couple small ones.

Cost is relative though. If I deny myself 800 dollars of flippant spending over the course of a few months, usually in the form of food, then I would have enough for a new mountain bike. That’s on the more distant horizon though. I do miss riding mountain trails though. I’ve learned that I am a really good rider technically, so doing those sorts of rides will be challenging in a different way.

My winter gear is pretty lacking. I have one pair of winter tights and one good winter top. My gloves aren’t made for riding, but ski gloves will do in a pinch on really cold days. I have one pair of arm warmers. I’m planning on buying winter gloves, leg warmers, arm warmers, and shoe covers from OU this year. After all if I have another kit I will be less likely to wear the ones that are torn. I don’t like putting those through the wash, as I’m afraid the rips are going to get bigger. Another option is spending a lot of time on my trainer. I’m not excited about the concept, but it sounds like a good option twice a week or something. Two days a week running, two on the trainer, and two swimming indoors will give me one day a week to brave the elements on the bike. That is doable with minimal winter clothing. My issue is going to be adjusting my schedule when it snows, which it is certain to do. There is already some snow on the mountains, which tells me we’ll likely get some snow by the end of the month (we ended up getting some in mid-October.) I suppose this is what I get for not busting my ass since the beginning of the summer. Oh well, I feel good about the outlook on things. I actually have the money coming in to be able to afford these things. It’s kind of stupid to think that I waited until I was out of high school to get a job. I’ve made like 3,000 dollars in the last couple of months, and would be stoked if that rate continued. 12,000 in a year would cover an immense amount of things on my ‘to buy’ list. I might just wait until next summer on any major purchases. I do want to go for the groupset though. I need to understand the deconstruction and construction of a bike better.


I’m sad that I’ve not been more consistent with this blog, but I haven’t had much to write. Things are looking up for me with cycling, despite the fact that my beloved canyon roads are closed thanks to an insane flood. I have some training data to work with thanks to my GPS. I should be putting in some analysis here. I’m definitely a data geek, so working with this sort of thing is my strong suit. Hopefully I’ll be able to write something that people like. As for now I need to get back to my long project of the Born to Run/Run and You’ll Only Die Tired write-up that I’m doing. I know quite a few internet people who would be very interested in that, but are too lazy to read both.  

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