a new whip

Thanks to a very generous discount from one of my sponsors, Full Cycle bike shop in Fort Collins, Colorado, I now have a road bike in my fleet for the first time. It's my first big expense for the 2014 training and racing season, $1978 dollars, but it's also a screaming deal on a high-end carbon road bike: Giant TCR Composite 1. The bike arrived to the shop just before closing on Monday and was assembled before breakfast. Much appreciate the shop guys at Full Cycle for taking such good care of their customers. Unfortunately, the weather has not been ideal for rides or photos, including today ... temperature was -4 F as I rode to the gym and back. In the meantime, I've been spinning on a trainer loaned to me by my generous coach, Alex Hagman. Just another example of what seems to be a rule, cyclists are good people. I'm looking forward to testing the new whip on the road as soon as possible, which realistically may be two weeks from now.

As of 1 February, I've been officially back in training mode. The first few days, due to snow and tweaked back, were not very productive! But I'm happy to report that I'm feeling healthy after a few days of recovery. On schedule, I've completed 1.5 hrs of spinning daily since Tuesday. Coach Alex and I had a great lunch time discussion at Snooze in Fort Collins Saturday afternoon. I came away feeling excited about 2014. For the next few weeks, I will be putting-in a minimum of 15 hours of training: bike, gym, running and playing soccer. I hope to be in the best shape of my life by the time I arrive in Cortez, Colorado for my first long distance mountain bike race for 2014, 12 hours of Mesa Verde.  

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