Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Training Continues

Puppy Training
The word "training" means a couple of things around the Cook home right now. With a new puppy in the family, we are training him to let us know when nature calls. That's going "ok" but we have to remember he's still a pup and accidents will happen. He's also training us that he wants to play at 2 am (and yes, I'm a good daddy and get up and take him out).

In all seriousness, Ryder has been doing great he's bonded very well with Ally. Alicia and I can tell he's going to be quite the spunky pooch though. This past weekend we walked the trails behind our home and he did the entire two mile loop without having to be picked up... at nine weeks no less. What a champ, and he loved romping in the weeds with Ally.

Bike Training
The other side of "training" is the ongoing preparation for my big event in June. I took out the LeMond this weekend for a couple of rides and did a Spinerval tape on Sunday. Also took Ally for a trail run and we did the "long" 2.5 mile loop (she loved it). Good news is my body fat % is going down (yes, that's the right direction) and I hope to be in the 15% range or lower by June. In April I head down to Tsali in North Carolina for three days of mountain biking with the "Alma crew", which will also help the training process and my new RUSH is supposed to be in sometime this week or early next. I'm pretty excited.

Another cool thing worth noting here would have to be Friday's End of Winter party at Team Active. In addition to having all three floors open, they had a huge tent out back, lots of good grub and I got to meet Keith Bontrager, this year's special guest. As you can see from the link, he's one of the "founding fathers" of mountain biking and my LeMond has his cranks, stem, handlebars, wheels/hubs, seatpost and I'm sure something else that I'm forgetting. It was pretty cool being in the presence of someone that has been so instrumental to the sport I love.

Anyway, back to my Team Active "plug". The guys allowed me some "microphone time" to announce my Pedaling With A Purpose event and set out some flyers to help spread the word. Their support of my effort has been great and I've already had three donations qualify for a $25 gift card by contributing $100. Hopefully some of those that heard me will stop by my site and send some money my way...

1 comment:

The Binary Biker said...

Thanks for the comments Pat & Jim. I got out today and did 40 miles with some friends on my new cyclocross bike and had a blast. I was glad to get home and Alicia had a nice pot of Kraft Mac & Cheese waiting for me. Funny, I was actually thinking about making some of that when I got home. Amazing what you think of at the tail end of a 40 mile ride, especially early in the season (FOOD).

As for the book "Marley & Me", I've picked that up in Barnes & Noble a couple of times and it looks pretty good. Seems like a good "dog read" and I'll have to snag that one of these days.