Yes, yes, yes--the cat's out of the bag--I turned 41 today. And no, my birthday ride was not a new car, not even a new bike. What's with the blatant ignoring of my wish list? Just kidding, I got some great presents from the Moose: 5 clementines, a bottle of Poland Spring, a half-drunk, flat bottle of raspberry seltzer, a bag of walnuts, 4 small snack packs of Craisins and a tub of Moose Milk. Cora said he was too cute as he went around the kitchen looking for stuff that I would like.
The day didn't start off so hot. I did my best not to sleep all day after getting off work Wednesday morning. Let's just say that didn't go so well--that means I was wide awake at 1:50 am. I laid in bed for 2 or 3 hours, pondering life and thinking about how cool it is that I don't feel old. I finally got out of bed at 4:30 ish, came downstairs, had a protein shake, sifted through an assortment of infomercials until settling on the ever-so-soothing SportsCenter which runs over and over again. I made it back to bed just in time for Cora's daily snooze alarm game. I got a couple more hours of sleep before Max came in to give me my birthday presents.
I had a 4-hour ride on the training schedule for the day, so I was bummed when I looked out the window and it was overcast and in the low 20s. As I lay on the couch coming up with a million reasons why to take another day off, I decided to play the birthday card to enlist Cora into making oatmeal and coffee and rubbing my legs for 2 hours. By that time, it had turned into a beautiful, not-a-cloud in the skies, day in the low 30s. I had no choice, so I showered, embrocated and spent what always seems like an hour getting dressed for the cold weather.
You have to click on it to actually see where I went. I've had this new route in mind, so I figured no better time than the present. I headed south down River Road, which is usually a pretty nice spin, but today, there was a pretty stiff headwind--15 minutes in, I was already working a lot harder than I wanted to. The only real exciting part of the ride was a climb up Konchar Road, which is just plain not friendly with a 39-23. The road was covered with mud, so the back tire was spinning out all the way up the hill. I was totally maxed out for a good 10-12 minutes. Going down the backside was super sketchy--steep and covered with mud. I was absolutely covered. The remainder of the ride was relatively flat, with the exceptions of Hooker Mountain and Murphy Hill. That was enough, because as Max would say, my legs were essploded. 
You can't really tell, but the bike was absolutely covered in mud and salt. I was far too lazy to clean her up, so I parked her in the newly heated basement. I will clean her up tomorrow morning and change what little is left of the brake pads. 
The fruit of a hard day's labor.
The best present of the day--the kids were all outside waiting for me when I came home from my ride. Notice Max sporting the Rapha winter cap.
I was a bit cold as I sat on the porch to take my shoes off. Cora made me an awesome cup of coffee and brought me out a plate of my favorite cookies--oatmeal craisin with white chocolate chips. After polishing off about 5 or 6 of them, I noticed a package for me from Amazon. It was amusingly ironic to find the book Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance in the package. 
As I sat down on the couch to browse the book, the kids sat down to a birthday celebratory feast. Let's just say that I'll start reading the book seriously tomorrow.
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