Riding

I've been out in Cali for a bit now... and I know where the grocery store is, where the closest 173 Starbucks are, and where not to take a #2 on campus. Pretty productive first few weeks. I've also been riding quite a bit. Since I don't really have anything to do in the lab, sometimes I just don't go. Now I'm all physched for when I do have work.... I like getting stuff done (not gettin' 'er done), but when my adviser applauds my simply writing a 4 page fluffer of a thesis proposal, and says its a great start.... its time to slow it down and decrease those expectations.

So yeah... not so much work means a lot of riding. And a lot of riding I did. The first week back on the bike I logged 17 hours. Granted about 9 of those were just real easy spinning around, but still... 17 hours is a good chunk for me. I've done some sweet riding in Santiago Canyon nearby (which sucks when its really hot) and also along the coast (which never sucks). Also been finding some really cool hills to do repeats on later in the year... I'm really pumped for trimming down a bit, and hitting the hills hard in attempts to not be dropped on every climb in every race this year.

Also pumped at the prospect of finally doing a cross season. Despite having two cross bikes in the past, I've never gotten a good ride and a healthy Erik in the same season.... so hopefully this will be it. Got my eyes on a few gems (and a few rustbuckets) on eBay, and also a Major Jake w/ Alpha Q carbon fork locally that I'm checking out tomorrow..... wouldn't that be sweeeeet.