The holidays

My little girl understood Christmas for the first time this year. She was looking forward to Santa Clause coming. She understood about the presents. Most importantly she understood that it was Jesus B-day. She sang the happy B-day song to Jesus almost everyday. Very sweet.

My son watched my daughter open a couple gifts & figured out exactly what to do. He got on a roll with the present opening to say the least. He squealed every time he opened a new gift & saw what it was. His favorite present was a Pooh teddy bear;)

2 days after Christmas I had annual leave from work so we could watch UFC 92. A guy training out of Albuquerque won the light heavy weight championship belt, first NM'er in MMA to win a championship.

My 2 best buds Jimmy & Brandy came over to watch it with my family & I. Jimmy brought his bike & indoor trainer over & we pumped out a Chris Carmichael sprinting DVD before the fight. Great workout, great company.

On Friday my son woke up from his nap & yelled Mommy for the first time. Then On Saturday he woke up from a nap & yelled Daddy. I was very touched. I must admit I got very teary eyed. This was the best Holiday season I've ever had, by far. God really has blessed me.

Last Sunday I rode my bike to church which is a 40 mile ride one way. The temp was 20 degrees when I started. My feet, hands, & torso were very cold by the time I got to church.

This Sunday it was even colder on my ride to church, 13 degrees, so I tried a couple things differently. I tried a new pair of gloves, a pair of Pearl Izumi Lobster claw gloves to see if it would help fight off the cold better. They did. So much for my $70 Gore-Tex cold weather cycling gloves. Those were no good. Which surprised me because the Pearl Izumi gloves were cheaper but much more affective. I wore 3 water wicking base layer shirts & a wind breaker on top that fellow Clydesdale Jason McClure gave me a couple weeks ago. It was the perfect combination. The 3 layers of clothing pulled all the sweat from my skin & pushed it up against my wind breaker like they was supposed to. It was so cold that once the sweat reached the windbreaker the sweat froze. Check out the pick I took when I took off the wind breaker. That's sweat, not snow.

So no problems fighting the cold on my hands or torso at all. My feet were still cold the last hour of my ride. I'm really hoping Performance bikes sends me my new cold weather cycling boots soon.

My water bottles froze 30 minutes into the ride so I was unable to drink any fluids on the ride. I think dehydration was the reason both of my hamstrings were cramping going up Heart Break Hill. I think if I start keeping my bottles in my cycling jersey underneath the wind breaker my body temperature will keep the fluid from freezing. I'll try it next Sunday & let you know how it works. All in all I am really enjoying my Sunday long rides. It's a great challenge & the conditions have broken up the monotony of the usual same old rides.

I am looking at my last couple weeks, heck, my whole life in general & have realized how lucky I really am. Everything is going better than I could ever hope for. Well, everything except my battle with my weight. I've been trying to lose weight. In the last 2 weeks instead of losing I've jumped up from 226 to 232. Pretty much no way to reach my goal weight of 195 by my next race on Feb 7th like I had hoped. At best I'll make my 195 goal weight by April sometime. Which means I've decided to race the entire season as a Clydesdale. No shame in that at all. It's one of the most competitive divisions in the South West. There are two people racing in the Clydesdale division that have beaten the heck out of me in races this year already. Jason McClure & George Ferland. Should be a fun & challenging season. I'll keep you informed on how the season progresses.

Thanks for tuning in & remember to give all glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.