Tuesday Doesn't Have a Feel

Sighted- The first snow flakes of the year. Grrrrr! Felt- diamond cutting man nips as the wind blew said snow flakes in my face when I was out and about on my lunch hour today. Oh well, not much I can do to stay warm tonight except roll for an hour on the trainer and turn the heat up to 75mg as winter looks to be on it's way.

I linked up a new nutrition site (to the right of your screen). It's for folks like me who like to track their calorie intake in attempts to make sure their "winter layer" is referring only to an extra sweater, instead of an extra 10 el-beez around the gut. Check it out- It' called The Daily Plate.

The free account (what I'm using) allows you to search, log and track thousands of foods and keep track of your daily calories, fat, carbs, protein etc., You can enter your daily calorie goals, weight loss goals (if you have one) calories burned via exercise, etc. It's super easy. The paid account allows for a little more info and it would be nice to have, but I'm not THAT obsessive (yet). For me this is the time of year to get a handle on portion sizes and total calories and the easiest way for me to do it is with something like this.

I used to use the meal log on my TrainingPeaks.com account, but they have now put the best features of the meal log in the paid account section. And since I'm not ready to pay for it right now, so The Daily Plate seems to be the one for me. I think TDP's data base is easier to access foods too. Just my 2¢

I'll pretty much only use this 4 to 5 days a week and on the weekends just try to make sure I keep in control. I gotta give myself some rewards for all the work I do, or it's just not worth it. As long as I make sure I don't get intimate with an XXL Pizza I can usually break even one a weekend do to longer rides/work outs.

Checks this- A few weeks ago I was talking about CX bikes and how I was sort of lusting one. Well I had it in my mind that the Mamasita could make a great CX bike, in lieu of blowing cash on a CX rig. I thought If I just put a rigid fork on, and some CX tires it would be pretty fast and sweet. Well, low and behold my Bikeman.com teammate Troy went one further and turned his Mamasita into a full on kick ass cross machine. Take a look....

Troy went all out in turning the Mamasita into a 21.5 CX machine including tubeless tires! For the complete run down of the parts he swapped out and how it's been running for him check out his write up here. Thanks for sending me the pict Troy and good luck. It's looks freaking boss!

Lastly tonight. I have found myself contemplating the move to a compact crank for my road bike. Ever since I saw JK half jokingly mention getting a compact road crank now that he is riding the big ass climbs in Colorado, I've been thinking about it.

Can I muscle up and over the climbs here in PA with my 53/39 crank? Yep, but most often it's in 39/25, pushing so hard I get a turtle head poking, and I'm way into my "might need to call an ambulance" HR zone. I'm not out for speed, racing or doing any competitive group riding.

I mostly use my road bike for base miles, maintaining fitness and recovery. BUT with all the steep climbing around here, EVERY ride turns into a Zone 3+ ride. A compact 50/34 won't make things "easy", but if it can keep my legs from getting too over trained too quickly and avoid "no man's land", it might be worth it. Thoughts?

Oh, well that's it. Time for some sleep.

Later.