After getting pretty retardedly drunk last night, all the plans fell through for tonight which sort of pissed me off at first but it's kind of nice to have the place to myself for a bit. Why drink last night you ask? No particular reason really, just that I had a coke-a-cola craving, with rum, I do love the Captain with coke... mmmm! Also, since I'm pretty much super human, no hangover today!

I was supposed to work at Echo from 3 till 930 tonight, but turns out they closed at 5 today, so since I bailed on my last shift I felt bad and went up for a couple hours this morning. PJ, his buddy and like 4 other patrollers were up there so we all went out straight lining. Ah the art of the Echo straight line. It's an exercise in balance, balls, stupidity and luck all centered around your ability to dodge obstacles like rocks, trees, stumps, wires, various mysterious metallic objects and so forth. Good times.

On our ride today, Nathan and I headed out on the bike path from Denver to Chattfield where I used to train everyday a couple years ago when I lived in Littleton. We almost got into a fight with this douche bag who rode by us going the other way when he yelled out "ride single file!" Mind you, this bike path is like 8 feet wide, with a clear center line which I, being on the outside of Nathan, was a good foot from so there's no way any part of me was anywhere NEAR that line. The ironic part was that this guy was riding with his lady friend ahead of her, but still next to her! So I promptly yelled back "same to you!" He yelled something back and it took all the restraint I could not to turn around and give chase to point out the finer details of Colorado cycling laws to him - that and maybe teach him how to ride in a straight line so he doesn't have to worry about close passes... F-ing Bike Path Barrons.

People like that give us (cyclists) all a bad name. It's bad enough that we have contend with motorists who don't know the law, then when you throw a-hole cyclists who think the transit world revolves around them, and them alone, it makes it impossible to compromise.

Ah well, Happy New Year I suppose.

Nathan and I went skiing with Jenny, Erin and some of their friends today at Winter Park. It was actually pretty nice in that it was a crystal clear day, warm (upper 20's) and no wind - NO WIND!! I think it might be the best weather I've had for skiing in a long time, over a year maybe. Sadly, other than the company, that was about all that was good.

Nathan and I had to go up to Echo Mountain to get passes to use at WP so we didn't have to pay $50-92 to ski, so that took about 2 hours of driving. Can you believe it costs more than $90 to ski?! Then since it was a holiday, everyone from out of town was out in force clogging up the roadways which had been relatively empty all weekend, so it took us another 45 min longer than it would have otherwise for us to actually get to WP, find parking, acquire our tickets from the window (which were free, the only way I ski these days) wait in the lift line... From the time we actually arrived at the base on the bus, it was close to an hour before we were actually on the lift. Then the skiing on the WP side consisted mostly of dodging near death experiences caused by other out of control gapers and very small children.

Once we finally met up with our group, it became a little more tolerable and fun - did I mention we didn't start skiing until noon - NOON! Winter Park is what I call a "play mountain" in that it's fun to to go every once in a while, maybe once a year, and play around. The terrain is mostly that of a mini-Vail; a couple turns on relatively good snow/terrain, then a mile of flats and people dodging to get back to the lift. It was fun overall I suppose, and it was free, save for gas, so I can't complain too much.

It certainly reaffirmed my no skiing on weekends or holidays rule though - I probably won't do that again anytime soon unless the circumstances are extremely extenuating.

Rest week is now over and it looks like the winds will die down enough for me to get in a few quality hours on the bike tomorrow and the rest of the week - fingers crossed for the wind gods!

Just got off the trainer, it's too cold an windy today to ride outside, even easy - it's like 30 with 40mph winds... It was a tough call to ride inside, but I do hate the wind, don't mind the cold much, but I also hate the trainer. I guess the trainer won, this time.

Just heard from Eric that January will be a ramp up sort of month with much of what I've been doing for the last few weeks being done again in the next few weeks, but then the real fun begins. Feb is supposed to be my biggest month of the year which should hopefully put me on target for Gila at the end of April. I'm sort of concerned that I may do what I did last year, and peak too early (when I won a pretty tough "prep race" 10 days before the big show) but Eric has assured me this won't be the case.

I love working hard. I also enjoy the long, steady, relatively mellow riding that happens this time of year, but it can get old tooling around on the same old flat roads. I think this month when i go fro 3-5 hours that I'll get in some more climbing, that is if mother nature cooperates and keeps things snow free on the pavement.

Just have to stay healthy and rested this month, then the real work begins.

Just sitting here on the crackberry waiting for Christmas dinner to be ready... I have failed miserably at keeping this thing updated, for that I apologize, but really, you're not missing out on much.

I like Christmas. I miss being little though and counting down the months before this day. This year I barely realized it was coming until it was already here and I found myself driving to my mom's house to see all the fam in town and open presents. Damn the time flies and damn I feel old. Speaking of old, my grandparents are getting up there and slowly declining in health. It's the kind of thing where you wonder If this could be their last Christmas, terrible I know but I've developed quite a "realistic" outlook on life. Just last night I took down a guy who will barely be alive today to see his last Christmas - heart attack while driving cross country to see family. Nice guy too.

Anyway, I'm just bitter because dinner is taking so long, and it looks to be a good one; pork loin, fresh veggies, potatos, and of course pumpkin pie waiting in the wings for the second act. Mmmmmm good!