New Year

Happy new year everybody. We are still the same muppit show as we were yesterday. It doesn't take January 1st to make a change. It takes waking up every morning and smashing the day. The Rapha500 got me on my bike so my Redemption, thus Resolution, started on Dec 23. I woke up and decided to get on the saddle again. The week was great. I finished off with a nice 145KM ride on the 31st. It gave me 680 or so k's in 8 rides. The most I've ever done. My goal of 500 miles (800KM) was very attainable but a scratchy throat and not wanting to get sick forced me to take a day off and a day on the trainer. I completely agree that trainer rides shouldn't count so I didn't even think about it.

On New Years eve we rode from Natick, a group ride in the cold and rain. One gnarly day that was awesome. Myself, Ernie T, Aidan Charles, Skip Foley, Tyler Monroe joined Ciaran Mangan for his annual year end ride. We took it steady until the last 30km when Ernie, Skip, and I started a paceline that for me was close to race effort. Hard pulls followed by short recovery into a mild but very cold headwind was enough to leave the three of us feeling pretty wiped. Getting back to my car was a lovely feeling as was the chocolate milk (recovery drink of the year) and americano that waited for me at the corner coffee shop in Natick center.

Right after the ride I jumped in my car and headed north to Burlington to meet Frankie for the New Year. We had food and drink with friends at Flatbread in downtown and I lashed back some excellent IPA. Great conversation, music, and laughs made us forget it was actually New Years eve and when some random people started shouting we decided to join in for about 30 seconds before going back to good chats. Like I said, new years day is just another day but good times are embraced when ever they happen. It was good times that I was celebrating.

Back to Boston yesterday and back at it today. Last couple of days were running, not much, just a few miles and today was my first ride since the epic Saturday morning hammer fest. The bitter cold of this morning made my trainer look ever so special and since I had a workout to do I decided to jump on it and executed the reps. The trainer is actually better in many ways when it comes time to do specific work. I live in the city and dealing with traffic and lights, stop signs and merging lanes makes long reps difficult at the best of times. Add in ice and 18 degree temps and the workout suddenly becomes a torrid affair. I did 4 x 10 minutes at LT (or what I think is LT since I don't use power nor have I been tested on the bike) My running values must be the same so I used those. It was a great session and a few days off the bike has left me fresh.

After watching Liverpool getting thumped at Man City I needed to go for a run, so this afternoon I hit the pavement for 4 miles, stopping at Chipotle at the end. My burrito felt like a 10lb bar bell, which is why I love that place.

I am still working on some tunes of the year for 2011. There won't be a top 10 album list because like I said many times, it wasn't a great year for me as far as music goes. And now that I have a laid back week I can get through my iTunes library and start to pick my highlights.

Mojo magazine released a compilation of New Order covers from the seminal 1993 album Power, Corruption, & Lies. I listened to Destroyer take on 'Leave Me Alone', one of my favorite tracks on the album. I can't wait to hear the rest of it. Some people hate these kinds of cover albums but I love them. Listening to different artists takes on some of my favorite songs is always joyful.

Peace and Love
Kel