Countdown to vacation:

Awesome. Only 2 days and counting until vacation in Vermont. It'll be a much needed rest and some very necessary downtime.

Planning to get away for a vacation is the hardest part of going on vacation. Trying to figure out what to bring, what to leave at home, what spare parts to throw in the toolbox and what to leave home, and all the nagging little things. Add to the mix having to take bikes with you, worry about maintenance while you're there and away from your comfy workstand and workbench. Ah well, such is vacation, which is supposed to be relaxing.

Riding wise, things are going good. I'm inching closer to a 25 minute 10 mile TT pace and my average power is going up slowly but surely.

I think I've decided that instead of replacing that $240 Dura Ace front shifter, I'll treat myself to a drivetrain makeover, move to 10 speed and move to SRAM. Good stuff. Now to price it all out...

Anyway, with the long rest of the week ahead, I may not be posting until home from vacation, but that will be fun and photo filled. I hope.

Ugh...

So in the past two weeks, I've been an expensive annihilator of all things, bike related or not.

Broken tooth - $280 (including gas to drive to have it fixed)
Destroyed front Dura Ace Shifter - $240 (Forget it, not for 9 speed. SRAM anyone?)
Sticking piston on my Formula K24 front disc brake on my trail bike ($46 for parts, plus about 4 hours of sheer agony of trying to rebuild it. Or pay a shop to do it for about $150)

Good. Now that that's out of the way...

Riding has been good lately. My endurance at this point in the season is very good, which I'm extremely happy about. I feel like I can hack pretty much anything out on my radar at this point in the season, so that's good.

Now if I could only get rid of the awful tan lines...

Next weekend I'm off to Vermont for a couple days to do some riding. Nothing beats a vacation I don't think. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Another good weekend...

So it was an excellent weekend.

Lots of riding, a good amount of climbing. Power figures aren't as good as they should be, but then again, I wasn't pegging it the entire ride either. Oh well.

Currently, it is so bloody humid that it even sucks to wear clothing. That's a horrifying thought, I know, but it's really not too conducive to riding. Maybe tomorrow when it cools off a little bit. Here's hoping.