Whats new pussycat?

Hey all. Its been a rough 17 days off the bike. Not really because of not riding, but my back decided to take a crap on me and then add to that all I seemed to eat for two weeks was cookies and delicious, but unhealthy food. I threatened to thrwo away all the sweets in my house this morning and I am the guy who believes in trying to never throw any food away!!

The back is just annoying, not a real problem. I just got used to having no back problems for a few wonderful months of my life!! Todd Palmer and I are working on it and I now do a 40 minute exercise routine (every day-Yuck!!). But now that I am back to riding I am going to find it VERY hard to stay motivated and keep up the exercises AND riding.

As for Christmas I got a Nikon D40 camera and zoom lens. I so wish I had it for Cross season so I could have contributed to the photo sharing. Tonight I took it to my daughter's friends birthday party and shot a zillion pics and even a whole bunch on the ice as we skated. I was a bit scared of falling and breaking the camera, but I skate ok I guess. I loved photography in my youth so this is another flame reignited.

Thom Domonic and I finally got together and he went to town with his gauges and measuring devices and we came up with an extreme set-up to see what it was like, then we backed it down to what is a reasonable change. All in the name of science and I do mean that. I am a strong proponent of the Wobblenaught fit done for me by Mike Vannuci at Bike Authority. But we learned some great stuff that I can say that after just one ride will be a benefit. We made great strides in aligning my knee via the use of the BG footbeds in my Sidi's and the use of the Varus shims. Thom could see it and i could feel how much easier pedaling in a smooth vertical arc is with some changes. Whats of great interest to me is that at a certain height above my current saddle height (a few mm to compensate for the shims and footbeds) and a few extra and my knee alignment improves again.

Time will tell if there is any benefit or (eek) a loss in power at threshold with a slightly higher saddle height. But the changes in the shoes is very welcome.

I guess thats it. Looking forward to some LSD!! OK now you know what that is. Long Slow Distance!!