Cross training (and other false claims)

If I've learned anything in my 5 years of mountain bike racing its that you need time off of the bike sometimes to concentrate on other athletic pursuits in order to become a more well-rounded bike racer. There will be times in certain races when off-the-bike training becomes the difference between finishing 34th and 35th. The difference between just barely finishing and just barely quitting. The difference between simple embarrassment and complete humiliation.

One of the hardest and most challenging off-bike activities that a cyclist will ever undertake doesn't present it self often. In fact, until this weekend I hadn't even thought about it for 5 years. Yes folks, I'm taking about MOVING!


Pack up your whole life, unpack your whole life. Pookie, my wonderful bride of almost 13 years and I are just starting our moving process. (I have to go heavy on the niceness to Pookie b/c there are a few time today that I wasn't too nice) We were able to take possession of our new place, but haven't really moved anything yet but some boxes of "stuff". Not a stick of furniture. The real moving begins tomorrow and will continue through Friday when we have to be out of our old house. Today we cleaned, and cleaned, then cleaned some more. The home we're moving into has been empty for eight months, so the dust and dirt from the traffic of folks looking at the house while it was on the market needed to be cleaned up. It's also quite a bit bigger than our current home, so it took alot longer to clean. And, we went over everything with a fine toothed comb to ensure maximum cleanliness. (We're kinda neat freaks - it's the whole OCD thing)

Lucky me! The cross training continues! Pookie and I both agree that we must make time to get a good ride in on Tuesday evening before we end up killing each other.