Been fighting a little cold most of this week.

The motivation is high right now! I am super pumped to be training and working on bikes. The weather in Portland is pretty bad, loads of rain and flooding. I decided to stay off the bike and take care of my body instead of sticking to the program. Take a few rainy days off the bike and then feel better when the weather passes.

Mark Matson stopped by the Veloshop today and taught me about bleeding and setting up my XTR disc brakes. What a swell kid. He works at Sellwood cycle and is also the Kona bicycles XC team race mechanic+demo bike monkey. The few times we have hung out or ridden together he has been super fun and uber nice. Well, he got my bike dialed though I had to take it up to the Gallery later and have Andrew face my disc tabs. I don't have the tool!

My long lost aunt gave me a phone call yesterday! It has been like 8 years. Feels good to re-connect with family. She lives in Michigan and I am planning a Michigan cyclocross trip this fall, I'll be paying her a visit.

I'm sitting in the Veloshop kinda burned out and tired from a long week. Pete is on her way over, I'm going to treat her to a fun date tonight. She does not know it yet. hehheh.

I've been having the usual conversations with myself about the bicycle business. I don't have the energy to get into it but, I will soon. Count on it.

By now, we all know about Shannon's spot in cyclingnews.com! Amazing. It is so cool that he is one of the few people to get a pro-bike spot from cross natz. Vanilla bicycles are worth it, Shannon is worth it.

Also very exciting is Erik Tonkin and Rhonda Mazza's appointment to the USA Cyclocross World championship team. This is recycled news, I know. It is still damn exciting.

I've got my XC training bike together now. I'm destroying my Vanilla 29er riding it so much. My cross bikes are hanging up till next fall and my road bike is getting lots of use.

Damn, I'm running late. More later. I promise.

This time of year is a bit of a slowing down period. Kinda reset the clock and start again. I'm building on last years success (racing and veloshop) and feel so much more stable on the bike and in the shop.

The Veloshop is just getting busier. We are back to our usual workload. Loads of bikework. Quality bikework.

Still having a hard time making time to get everything done though, I did put in 15 hours of riding this week. Went to the gym once too. I may go again once I get my XC training bike together tonight. Gonna teach myself how to bleed XTR disc brakes. (thanks Chris Disteffano, I'm finally putting some more of those parts to good use.)

Bingen Fernandez taught me some excellent weight training routines and on the bike strength workouts a couple years ago. I'm feeling super motivated this spring to build up and really improve on my weaknesses and develop my strengths. Get faster, get faster. Still casually trying to look for a coach. If I could build up to do track nationals and then jump right into cross season flying it would be amazing. It is ambitious but, do able.

It gets silly writing about training, it does not feel too exciting.

I'm waiting to hear back from Ritchey about XC racing bikes this summer. I'm pretty loyal to the folks that are taking care of me and I'd like to ride a bike that is OEM spec with Ritchey components, giving them more exposure in the NW. Think full suspension. Scott or Lapierre.

I started paying myself this week. Yep, I don't think I even make minimum wage but, I'll be setting money aside for my rent and food.

We are expecting over 4 inches of rain this week in Portland. yay.