Here I am talking to my friend Bill......

.....and anyone who has read this silly blog for any length of time knows how much I admire Bill's vascular legs. I mean, geesh, the dude's legs look like he rides for a Tour team!

Here, in the pic above, he's trying to give me some post-race advice:

"Now Rodney, it's a good idea to stay off the road when a friggin' truck is coming. Also, you might wanna ride more before your next race - those legs certainly don't look tan enough or vascular enough to be bike racer legs. And finally, what's up with those red clown shoes??? Dude, you gotta get some other cycling shoes - for dorkiness sakes, get rid of those ugly things! And what's up with the Christmas ribbon for handlebar tape??"

Ah, the fun of it all. What a great time and a great weekend. Wish they could all be that fun.

As for Bill, man, let me tell you - that guy is trainin'. I mean, he's puttin' some miles down......look out this spring and summer.......it's gonna be fun ridin' with him.

And then there's Annemarie - decides to race the Zamora Road Race on....get this.....zero training....zilch, nada, nothing - no training - just showed up and raced it in the Womens 1/2/3/4 Road Race at Zamora. And she did good......and guess what? She did it on an all-steel road bike! Old school, man.....that's just mental hardcore.

This whole cycling thing has just become such a rad experience again. When I quit riding way back when, I was completely burned out on the sport. Anyone who knows true burnout knows how bad it can be - you hear the stories about guys needing months off of the bicycle to recuperate and get mentally back in the game. I needed a bit longer. I was just tired of it at the time.

And here's where things get sort of different for me - I spent my teenage years riding, racing and doing training analysis. Talk to me about training, and chances are, not only do I know about it, I've Guinea Pigged it and found interesting outcomes......not all good. At the time, I became so obsessed with training and regimentation in riding/racing, I felt like things & life were just becoming way too structured. When I first started riding, I had a completely open mind to it all - I rode anywhere, any time, any weather - I just rode my bike. There was no "training"......we were just having fun. All speedwork in training came together through completely random fartlek work(through whatnow???)

But now, I am having fun all over again. This is such an awesome sport we're all involved in. And I look forward to riding with you all this year. You guys rock!!!!! Thank you!