It's been over a month

Well, it’s the 5th day of 2006 and training is well underway. December was a solid month of riding and training in a lot of ways; however, the miles were a little low between travel for work, Seamus getting sick, me getting sick, bitter (record) cold, and of course the holidays. Add in bike problems and the miles I did ride may have been as much as many other riders. The good news is the bike problems have led to a new road bike for me with a new mountain bike on the way.

The old road bike was showing its age and everything started when I decided to replace the rear derailleur since the old one was seven years old and didn’t really shift anymore. When I installed the new derailleur I couldn’t ever get it to shift correctly which led me to notice the frame was out of alignment. I did some searching and found a new frame on the internet to buy. Of course this led to the need to buy multiple new parts over the course of December including a new headset, bottom bracket and ultimately a new crank and shifters. So what had started as a cheap fix, a new derailleur, has turned into about $500 worth of frames and parts to get a bike going.

Ade would probably kill me for this, except for one unfortunate ordeal that happened on December 23, the old Fuji frame broke. I had left work early to try to sneak in a ride after a week off and something felt wrong. I looked over the bike and realized the rear chainstay had broken so the new frame that was sitting in the garage became a clear necessity.

The new rig is finally up and running and I’ve put in some solid miles on it now. Right around New Years I put in two four plus hour rides and a couple 2 ½ hour rides. I am finally starting to feel the fitness come around and am getting ready for the season. Since I started base (on some levels) in November I may now be in my last phase of base; however, since training has been somewhat sporadic at times I may add one more four week block of base, lasting through mid February. Given that the first mountain bike races of the year are in mid May the lack of intensity early shouldn’t really matter.