CX Nationals

Good job to everyone at 'cross nationals. The conditions looked like they were changing by the minute so I'm sure it was a stressful race. I didn't miss being there as much as I thought I would, until one o'clock on Sunday when the Elite race was about to start. Then I was thinking, "Man I bet those guys are going to have fun!" I'm most impressed with Bjorn's big win in the U23 race. I'm not surprised, just impressed. I had Page picked to win the Elites, but Johnson is a worthy winner as well. I'd like to see him take it to worlds but I bet he has to prepare for the road season. Fun to follow either way. Good job to Tristan on the top 10 as well.

Cycling has been on and off my mind lately. More off than on this year since I hung it up a bit early and the snow is on the ground. Skiing has been fun for me actually. I've gone out a few times a week and it feels pretty good. The other day I had really fast skis and that made all the difference.

Too Many Cookies

Back in 1993 my favorite song was "Too many Puppies" These days I think this is more appropriate:

Too many cookies are being ate by me
Too many cookies are around you see

At the sight of the sugar that must be spilled so that
I can get my cookie fill

Too many cookies
Too many cookies taste so nice
Too many cookies that I ate thrice
On the command of my arm my hand it moves
into the cookie jar looking for food
Too many co-co-co-cookies

Too many cookies like gingerbread man
Too many cookies on the cookie pan
Are dressed up sharp in frosting green and
placed upon the counters sheen
Too many cookies are in my house
Too many cookies are in my mouth
The visions of sugerplums dance in my head
Too many cookies, too many I said

XC Skiing

I know I wrote earlier about how I don't want to go nordic skiing because it's too hard. I still believe that to be true after 2 days of getting back on the skinny boards, but I feel like I'm a little better than I thought I was. Plus it was fun to be out there in the freezing cold. I love that stuff. What gets me is that you have to pay to ski at the Three Rivers parks. It's not about the money, it's the principle of the matter. I drive up to Elm Creek on their new roads with the fancy Euro roundabout entrance, I see the GIGANTIC new building, complete with the huge stone fireplace. And then they charge me 4 bucks to ski. Are they serious? Maybe if you hadn't spent all of your budget on such a huge building you wouldn't have to charge?

After skiing I was kind of cold so I went and sat in front of that fireplace for a while. Man was that nice!

Bored of cycling?

I took last week off the bike. I am planning on taking all of December off the bike. The problem is, I really miss the bike. It's been a week and I've tried not to think about it. The arrival of the snow and "epic" conditions have left me wanting to get out on the gravel roads. I know from experience that taking a good chunk of time off is key to staying fresh during the season though, so I'll tough it out.

Like I said earlier, my off season projects are Snowkiting and woodworking. So far, I've started both, but haven't come close to mastering either. It has only been a couple weeks I suppose. I've figured out how to fly the trainer kite pretty well. The other day I went out to the Wayzata fields in the snow and got towed around a little on my nordic skis. I pretty much suck and probably looked like a total dork in my Carhart bibs and Fischer Revolution short skis. One guy was skiing around and looked at me like I was totally pissing him off. Lucky for him I was in a good mood of I'd have grabbed my poles and tried to drop him. Yeah, right.

The chair project is coming along slowly. I have made two prototype seat frames, and webbed up one with some canvas, but I have not yet perfected the shape and it's going to take a little more tweaking before I build one out of anything more than plywood.

I guess even though I miss riding, I'm enjoying the off season. This week I'm going to start building my winter bike back up. I know meandawg has had his ready for like 2 months already so I'd better get caught up. Now only if I had a bag of 3 musketeers.