Ah, the holidays. It's that 'special' time of year when if you are blessed with children like we are, they bring home lots of things:

a) The spirit of the holidays taking you back to the time you were a kid waiting with baited breath for the sound of sleigh bells...

b) Ebola viruses that make you feel cheerful and joyous as you try and sing Oh Holy Night with swollen tonsils and lymph nodes

c) Food...mainly of the chocolate covered variety that you want to bury your face in, consume and wash it down with a couple of Chimay tall boys.

Must....stay...monk-like. Must...keep...training....

Got back from lovely Toronto and had to squeeze in za plan for the day at lunch time. One hour of openers before the Bataan Death March training this weekend that T has in store for me. I got out on the roadie as the roads are in good shape....but as I type this the snows are coming down again. Perfect timing. The Hour of Power was filled with just enough to get the juices flowing in the legs. Small ring efforts for bursts incremented over the hour dosed in just the right amounts. One saw a 1400w peak which was surprising as I wasn't trying to go too deep so I hope the signs are there that what's being baked in by T is going to give me some level of respetcable performance in the mother land.

Riding today, I hooked up with Von and Nick doing base. God that looks....relaxing. 175w...no more...just rolling and talking. OK, it's 5 hours worth of work, but the likelihood of getting cross eyed or vomitous while doing it is null. Even still, I coerced Von to come along on my voyage and do some efforts. Ha! Sucker. Pulling back in the garage, though, I see the cross bikes hanging there and I just feel in my gut I'm not done with 'cross this year. August, September, October, November, December.... I WANT to be cross eyed in my work outs and get to Belgium....finally. One year of thinking and dreaming.

Cross is crack.

Tenacity, Jason. That's what makes you unstoppable. Check out the gap you've closed on Radio Freddy since posting my initial 'lens' into the sites traffic sources via Google Analytics. Nice fortitude, homes.

Where am I? That's right, Maple Laughs fans. Couple-a-days of bidness at our labs here in the Great White North. All day travel....mostly trapped in the aluminum tube on the tarmac after a toddler ralphed like Linda Blaire in the Exorcist. Awesome. Literally nails the people in the row in front some how. Chaos erupts and it is decided we must turn the aluminum tube around and return to the gate to dump off Linda, her parents and wait for them to extract their luggage and have the cleaning crew in white chemical suits come in and sterilize.

I love my job.

Yesterday though was some nice sweet suffering on za bike. I finally got out on the roadie after way too much inside and on the 'cross bike. I had some badness with my PowerSnap as well:

If you see this on the PowerTap's CPU unit: APIdr ....you are humped. The PowerTap was flickering and needed a battery change like I've done like 10 times since getting this thing last year (that;s another story). I swapped out the CPU's 2032 battery and literally that APIdr message pops up. Uh, oh. Sphincter pucker. I call Saris and I've got to admit, the support was decent to get this specific issue resolved. The guys says nonchalantly: Oh, yeah. Um it looks like your CPU crapped out and you need to reinstall the firmware. I had to:

• Install the USB drivers on my lap top
• Download the new version of the CPU's firmware
• Connect the USB doc to the PC
• Configure the right port for the USB
  
• Load the firmware.

Now I get to use the thing again, but I can't connect it to CyclingPeaks or PowerAgent. Awesome. And I'm a software guy....

So I took to the roads with the fixed PowerSnap yesterday and it was fun. For those of you in the Boulder Denver area, you are intimate....maybe bored....with the "Fruit Loops." It is the perfect training ground in normal conditions for coaches to dose specific plans to have flatland/rolling power bench marks set and monitored. Doing this in good weather is fun and fast. But do this on snow and with skinny 23c tires. Crazy. SO I just buried myself and the watts were flying though and being able to sustain them was a good thing as I am still working hard to focus on January. It is MONUMENTALLY hard to stay monk-ish but I am trying. Calories in must not exceed calories used...or so I try to hold on to. Super hard.

But at least I am not vomiting....

Holy crap. This is an unbelievable youtube capturing the moment Ryan and Steve hit head on. It is NOT what I expected. In fact, pretty fricking horrific. Frankly, I can not for the life of me figure out which side is 'correct' as so many dudes are weaving through and over that tape.

...in two simple steps. Hmm, yes. I see.

Holy EPIC today at Nationals! Tim is unbelievable. I'm getting the reports from the boys in KC as they happen. Bummer for Trebon but I heard he was never in contention. Beyond TJ though, the ride of today I heard was Andy Jasques-Mayne. Sick. He essentially erases himself this summer breaking 16 bones and comes back this season to take his stars and bars yesterday in the 30-34's and an awesome ride today. Sweet.

I am PUMPED FOR MOL! Holy crap.

Za plans du Belgique are rounding out and I've not just got my hands on my UCI license and the authorization papers required to race in a foreign country. So, if'n you, my faithful M & C readers, are interested in doing this at some point, don't forget to contact USA Cycling for these! They came in like a day and officials at these races are known to ask you for them at random times apparently from when you register to while pre-riding I hear. The folks there in the 'Springs are super helpful.

The toes are de-numbing but one week on still not 100%. Crazy. It's exactly like the sensation you have when you get your teeth worked on and the Novocaine is starting to wear off. More depth today to bake in what's needed in the legs so suffer fest up/down/up/down Poorman's is prescribed. I will likely be cross-eyed when done. I hope my toes don't re-freeze.

Champion de Old Guys: B-money nailed the gold in the 35 Masters race at Nationals. Congrats bro! This trip will be even sweeter. Bring some of that mojo at Trebon tomorrow!

Thanks Stephen for sending me this! Dubba's been after this set of stars and bars for some time now. To bridge like I heard he did to Mark and be able to come out on top is huge. We're all proud of you man!

I'm out here in a balmy SF for the day. Gotta get my work on out here at the Mother Ship. My run this AM was pleasant given the gorgeous weather. Back home: More pow pow. And yes, my big toes are STILL numb. What the _ _ _ _?!?! They are a bit better each day but this is scary. I can not imagine what those Everest climber freaks experience.

I fire up the PC this AM and check out the KC results. NICE JOB MATTY! It's awesome to see how many CO folks are at Nats. Indeed the geography makes it a bit easier for CO folks to get to KC, but I want to run some data to see the demographics after Sunday. It is insane to see this type of growth in the sport. 1900 competitors last year, 2000+ this year.

Speaking of demographics and data, I've been using Google Analytics to provide me with some visibility into who reads my shitty blog. As a data guy, it's sick what you get for free. Some major enterprises I've worked with do not even have this level of data to get a lens into where and how interested people are coming to them from.

Radio Freddy, you will be happy to see that you are the No. 1 reference link into M & C. Rad. It's interesting to see how long people stay (about 2 minutes) which is not quite as long as the average length of time a porno is viewed before it is stopped (about 4.5 minutes) so maybe I need some further bike porn or something to keep people hooked. HA!

Not so shocking is the geographic info. CO is the region where people are from viewing M & C. Probably just due to word of mouth. I need me some advertising or something in those other regions! What up, Wyoming, Arkansas and Mississippi?? What? No cross there? C'mon!

Especially not out here in CO. Feast on this:
Three spring ACA-sanctioned races: March 15th, 16th and April 5th.

Visit Cult Cross for more info.