It me, fam!
Wooowee!
SO I've been off the bike more or less since October 28th 2017 when I pre-rode 2 laps of HPCX then continued to pack up and Irish exit thus starting my semi-official retirement from UCI racing. I cancelled Strava premium, my coaching, Training Peaks and have seriously rode about 10 times since.
It was a weird fall.
This late fall/winter/early spring I got
super into a ton non-cycling related activities. I skied about 10 days, hiked 27 of my 39 Catskill 3500' peaks, snow shoed a bunch, bushwacked, hiked Marcy in a white out, had a separate snowy 5 peak weekend in the Adirondacks, started indoor rock climbing a month and a half ago and was extracted with my party off Friday Mountain in the Catskills after a friend took a 25' ledge fall, breaking his foot in the dark during a snow storm.
That last one actually was the start to this whole madness of a winter. A 5 peak hike, 4 of which off trail. What an adventure. AJ is fine now. He actually hiked himself out that night with help from the DEC. This is something probably worth it's own detailed post someday, maybe.
My priorities are shifted and I'm retired from racing bikes. That said, like everyone before me that has retired, I'm planning on racing this fall, maybe, locally. A short NJBACX season perhaps?
I started riding again last week.
@rsinger814 and Zach tore my legs off in PA on Saturday, I'm a long way from the speedy days of the past but I'm totally cool with that. Right now i'm just excited to drop some winter weight, get some cardio back and enjoy the (hopefully someday) sunny warm weather.
I'll be honest, I'm really just excited for next winter. The excitement of long winter hikes/adventures has me giddy. I'm hoping to figure out some ski touring next winter. Matt E and I bumped into a bunch of people on our long Marcy day skiing back there and it looks like
the cooooolest. I'd also like to maybe transition to climbing a little outdoors and would REALLY like to try some ice climbing.
Other maybe plans for another mini bike tour this summer, plans for Devil's Path and the Presidential Traverse up in the Whites.
Guess I'm diversifying my activity portfolio. LOL
Gonna go crank out a couple hours on the Emonda! YAY!!!