Been a while since my last blog here, not too much to report on over the winter months.  I've been in Tucson, AZ for the past two weeks crawling out of my detraining hole that I got into from 3 weeks "OFF" with the family for Christmas holidays in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Mexico.  While I was home and then in Winnipeg visiting my Dad's side of the family, it was definitely the warmest winter it's been in my lifetime.  No snow whatsoever in the North East and even Winnipeg was a balmy -10 (compared to the -30 that it has been every other time we've visited).  Mexico, well, yeah, the only road was a big highway next to the ocean with no shoulder, so didn't bring my bike.  Managed to spend about 5 hours total on the trainer over those 3 weeks, which at a mere 200W induced my heart rate to be about 160, so I'm not a big fan of that...

Detraining is an interesting phenomenon.  I read an article about it at Peak Performance Online (a good archive of study archives basically) - check it out showing how badly and quickly it can happen.  I must be the fastest detrainer ever, I lose years of fitness in a mere 3 weeks!  I wonder if that malleability works the other way too - one might think so?  Opposites have always been of interest to me with respect to sport - in order to really know the right way to train or the best technique, it really helps to understand the wrong way.  If you're only exposed to the "best" way to do something then you lose a lot of perspective I think, hence my detraining adventures!

Over the past two weeks in Tucson, I've been exposed to the reverse weather patterns, it's been FREEZING here!  Just two days ago, I went out for a pretty long ride, thinking it would be alright, it was chilly at about 48F, but not bad.  I head out for 3 hours and after turning around, I see this huge black cloud over the city...  Thinking "this doesn't look good", I continue on towards the black cloud of doom.  The temperature starts gradually dropping and the wind is picking up and I can see rain up ahead so stop paying attention to my "slow down O'meter" (i.e. Powertap) and hammer into the now massive headwind and teeming rain.  The mercury keeps falling until my Polar tells me it's 35F!  The snow and sleet starts hitting me hard in the face with the wind backing it up as I head towards the comfort of home, still over an hour away.  Finally back in the city now, I have to stop at a traffic light and unclip my speedplay pedal and guess what?!  The cleat stayed on the pedal!  Crap!  I've been meaning to replace these sometime soon, but great timing!  The right leg now unable to clip into the pedal and use the Powercranks, I angrily use only my left leg, leveraged by my body weight for about 30 minutes before realizing I can no longer feel my hands or feet and hypothermia is starting to set in.

This is just stupid, I'm going to get sick - still 10 miles from home, at least I'm on a major road and just wait for a bus to get back - they all have bike racks in Tucson...  I get to the bus and while sitting there shivering uncontrollably, some incessantly talking crazy guy sits next to me.  Through his extensive observational skills, seeing me in my full bike kit with my helmet still on, he asks, "So, riding your bike today?"  I had to laugh...  Interesting stories he had though...

Anyways, that was the most hardcore day I've had in a while, it not for the cleat breaking I'd have been able to generate enough heat to not freeze to death and get home - thank you Tucson cheap transit, only a $1 fare too!

First race is a small TT & RR in a couple weeks, it'll be an interesting test.  I got on my TT bike for the first time in 3 months this past week and it was rough.  Comfort has come back pretty quickly, but bending over like that hasn't been something I really do otherwise...

Snow in Tucson, right...  This messed up weather is all Al Gore's fault for inventing Global Warming.