Visions of Ice

Nobody on the road,

nobody on the beach.

I feel it in the air,

the summer's out of reach

Empty lake, empty streets,

the sun goes down alone.

I'm [riding] by your house

though i know that you're not home...

These are the words that run through my head on every winter training ride across South Shore Drive, which I passed over twice during my three day weekend. I actually prefer riding across the causeway when the lake in frozen and empty. It feel likes the epitome of winter training.

Nothing about the the song is depressing. The summer's out of reach? That just means I have tons of time to get ready and it reminds me how early I'm starting. It's actually more true than normal this year, because after about five (so far) schedule revisions, I've elected to miss the first DINO race of the season to check Syllamo's Revenge off of my bike race bucket list. As a result, I will not be doing any XC races until DINO Brown County on June 6. That's 5.5 months away I'll be approaching fully peaked out condition for the June-July bulk of the DINO season. I'm not a huge fan of Winona Lake anyway.

As for my January condition, it's better than I was expecting. I've done two tempo workouts so far and I'm well ahead of where I started last year. I'm still a bit behind where I ended last year, but I think I will come back around fast.

Here's my other favorite winter training scenery - the frozen waterfalls in Cascades Park.