Teach them well

Upon leaving the store on Saturday with his new bike, I stopped Jack to take a picture. Upon reviewing it this morning, a couple of things struck me:

• The upturned bill on his Harvest hat is all him — I don't like wearing cycling caps that way. But, as he says, "Now you can see it says 'Harvest.'"
• Note his positioning with the bike. Logos forward, giving a good profile shot. And I had I been back a bit farther, you'd see more of it.
• Finally, the Trek Store van behind him. Nice.

The next step, of course, is when he finishes a kids race and says, "My Trek Jet 16 handled really well in the corners. It's a great bike and I'm fortunate to be able to ride it."

He's already declared that he'll be winning a bunch of races on this bike. "More than you, Daddy." Yeah, he's probably right ... .

Piling on

It was really windy on Saturday. Those who were out on the road, gravel or otherwise, were aware of that pretty quickly.

But at 45ish degrees, it was still pretty nice outside. For late January, at least. And Sunday, though it started off colder, was another great day to be out. Almost no wind until noon or so, and even then it was pretty mild.

I'm curious as to how the mild weather will affect the first month of racing. It seemed like lots more people raced cyclocross this time around and, combined with the warm weather, never really lost fitness.

If you look at the calendar historically, we're about three weeks away from the end of long-term snow accumulation. As in, if it snows, it won't be here long. The lowest high in the 10-day forecast is 39.

When the season opens at the end of March (which seems super-early), will we be riding at mid-May tempo? Or will it still be a traditional hot-and-cold early season slog? Or will we have a few people who killed themselves all winter to peak in April, and then we won't hear from them again? Or, perhaps more importantly, will we all get to enjoy another chilly, blustery day at Branched Oak Lake?

Hard to say, really. (Except for the Branched Oak part. It's always cold and windy there.) I'm guessing we won't really know until the first time we roll out for Wednesday Night Worlds. By my count, that will be March 14 — just 10 days before the first race.

In the meantime, there's still work to be done.

Unnecessary indulgence

How many toys does a kid need?

Surprisingly, not that many. Though it's super-fun to see Jack's eyes light up at the sight of a new toy, he can only really play with two or three at once. And, like most kids, he goes in cycles with his toys — a week filled with Lego, followed by a stretch of Cars 2, followed by Batman and Superman.

Because of that, we don't really buy him many toys. Christmas and his birthday are a few months apart, and that usually sets him up. I'm sure he'd like more toys, but he's content with what he has and doesn't know what he's missing. Our parents approached things much the same way. Though I lusted after Optimus Prime, I had plenty of toys to keep me entertained.

One thing I did usually have, however, was a nice bike. Not a top-of-the-line model, but something solid — something durable. My first real bike was a Ross, which had chrome fenders. It was not cool, but it survived both me and my brother. I think it's still at my parents' house.

I had a Diamondback Viper dirt bike next. Before Diamondback got bad, it had some cool bikes. The Viper was a fun bike. It got stolen out of our shed one summer, though, and was gone for about a year and a half. My dad saw it at the next homecoming parade, of all places, and yanked it out from under whichever town hooligan was riding it at the time.

I got a road bike after that — a Centurion. It was red and white and pretty cool. I rode the hell out of that thing. It had 10 speeds, or maybe 12, and I had no idea what to do with any of them. But it was a nice bike. Not the best, but better than what almost everybody else had.

When we bought Jack's first bike — even at shop-guy pricing — we wondered why on earth we spent so much on a bike for a 2-year-old. It was, of course, completely worth it. And now he's outgrown that one and ready to move on to the next size.

We have no problem with getting him a new bike. He loves to ride — it makes him happy. But because I'm a bike guy, sometimes I just can't resist going one step farther. We need to do this thing up.

Yep. Top-tube stickers for a 4-year-old. One hundred percent unnecessary, but 100% awesome. He's going to love it. He's been obsessed with Cars 2, in which the cars hail from different countries. Most of the race cars have their numbers and homeland flags on their side panels. He took note and recites them faithfully every time they race.

He'll get his new bike tomorrow, assuming he doesn't burn down daycare today. I may be just as excited as he is.

I don't miss this

This winter has been delightfully free of snow ... so far (mostly). And while there are some who seem to be offended by this lack of snow, I embrace it. For one, it means I don't have to run the snowblower. It seemed like I had to use that thing every other day last year.

Also, I don't have to walk the dogs and tromp through the unshoveled snow that one block of neighborhood residents NEVER shovels. And if the dogs have to go right there ... eh, maybe I'll pick it up. Or maybe not.

Anyway, winter is OK, but it's never been a favorite around here. But you can remember the good times with this video. It starts out slow, but it gets pretty good after a minute or two. Oh, and take a note: when it's snowy, slow down.

Physics lessons

For those more well-versed in physics, I apologize. But here's what popped into my head this morning:

An object at rest will stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.
An object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force.

Whether that's 100 percent correct or not, I'm not sure (and I'm ignoring the Google search window up in the corner). I'm going with it, anyway — it suits my needs right now.

That little corollary (that's a science word, right?) describes Mondays for me. On the "training plan" — in quotes because it's so half-assed right now it barely qualifies as a plan — Mondays are rest days. But I usually plan on an easy spin or core work. Yes, both of them are so easy on the legs they still count as easy.

That's the plan, at least. The last couple of weeks I've had problems pushing myself away from my desk in order to actually do a workout. That's where the sciencing up above comes in. Once I'm in the groove of doing what we do, it's tough to unplug despite progress being made. I'd rather keep going and check off one more item on the project list.

So yesterday, despite telling myself I really needed to get that core work done, it did not get done. And though I had another opportunity to get it done at home later, after cooking supper and tending to the kids, it did not get done.

I can see how people become sedentary. It was easier for me to keep sitting there, plugging away, than for me to get up and get moving. And this from a guy who's actually motivated to be up and moving (most of the time).

If there's any good to it, I really did rest yesterday. My legs did as close to nothing as possible. Today will be ripping around for an hour or so, followed by that neglected core work.

I just need to push myself away from the desk, get moving and remain moving. It's science, see?

A full slate

Somehow, the past few days have been one of those weekends where a lot of stuff gets done, but you don't feel stressed or rushed while doing it. One might even call it relaxing. Crazy.

We got off to a lazy start on Saturday. It was super-cold in the morning, so nobody was in a hurry to do anything. Chris walked the dogs around 11. She came back inside and informed me I was stupid (or maybe only crazy) for wanting to ride.

Ha! I ended up riding around noon with EOB for just a bit more than 90 minutes. I basically put all of my warmest clothes on, put a bunch of lotion on my cheeks so they didn't get all windburned and chapped, and then hoped it was enough. With the exception of my fingertips and toes, it was fine. And I warmed up quickly when we were done, anyway.

After that, we did our grocery run, which saw Jack snagging another Lego set at Target. The kid loves Legos.

He built his new police helicopter pretty much all by himself. At some point I should probably stop being surprised by what he can do, but for now I'm always amazed at how quickly he figures things out.

After that, it was bath time for both kids. I drew Madelyn, who spent her day dressed as a pink leopard. And I tried to get her to smile, but every time she does, it's a whole-body smile that gets her arms flapping and legs kicking.

We finished the night with a bottle of Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad. Very good stuff, though it'll help you spend some time in a haze if you drink too much or too quickly. It's 11.8% ABV. Ooof.

On Sunday, with warmer temperatures and lighter wind, the weekly traveling circus headed to Glenwood on a mixture of pavement and gravel. More new roads for me, which I generally won't complain about.


After an easier week on the bike last week, I felt pretty solid over the last couple of days. It seems as though the offseason "get stronger" plan is starting to prove itself. Still plenty of work to do, but I can feel it paying off.

On to a new week. One week closer to spring.

This is still better than normal

I got an email from my dad the other day asking if I had necessary supplies in my car for the upcoming snow. Wait, there's snow coming?

Up there, in north-central Iowa, yes — many inches of snow. Down here? It'll be in the low 40s on Sunday. And though it's cold right now, it's easier than many inches of snow.

I'll take it.

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Madelyn is just a little bit more than two months old now. In those two-plus months, Jack has done really well in terms of being a helper and following directions and generally not being a little shit. He does has moments, but he's 4. Kids are little shits sometimes.

The one place he's struggled, though, is at daycare. It's maddening. It's as if his ability to be a generally decent child flies out the window. Yelling, arguing, ignoring directions, teasing. What the hell, son?

His punishment for such activities is losing playtime at home, and an early bedtime. It doesn't work. We've dangled rewards — there's a much-sought-after toy that's actually in the house and waiting for him to not hit at daycare.

On Wednesday I told him he had a surprise waiting for him — a new bike — if he did a good job following directions and not fighting. We're still waiting for that to happen.

He's a good boy. He has nice manners (mostly) and is thoughtful and kind to his sister and to animals and all of that. We're not super worried that he's turning into a little anti-social twerp, but he could do a better job of convincing us he won't grow up to be a snarky little shit.

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Who's riding this weekend? Lots of miles to be had. Keep an eye on the blogs and Twitter and so forth. If it's dry, it's time to ride.