Last night's ride...

It was another cold one out at the "Arctic ellipse". There was a good showing with over ten cyclists who came out for some winter training. Though multiple layers were imperative, the usual banter carried us through two hours of riding without too much discomfort.

The speeds are beginning to increase as the upcoming season fast approaches. We worked in a few intervals last night which broke the group up a bit, but that's the beauty of riding in a circle, eventually everyone joins back up. I'm sure there will be a faster pace for the remaining rides...especially if Scott and Danny have anything to say about it.

It was great to see Joe Brew out last night. He's home from college for the winter break and we look forward to him torturing us until January 15th when he'll return to school. There was a report of another Joe Brew sighting early this morning on the North side of Gainesville. He was spotted at 7am running...what he was running from has yet to be revealed...stay tuned to 5count for more details as they become available.

I think I coined a new phrase last night. In light of the cold weather and the increase in speed on our rides, I referred to our intervals as "Wintervals". There may be the possibility that that term has already been discovered, but until it left my mouth last night, I'd never heard it before. I was quite impressed with my witty terminology, however, I don't think that my riding partners were as smitten with my new buzz-word. I'm sure that it'll grow on them as I plan to use it repeatedly over the coming weeks.

I also attempted to provide a little background training music last night. I recently received small, portable external speakers for my ipod and I brought them with me to the ride. Unfortunately, the volume of the speakers couldn't compete with the volume of the wind whipping past my ears. I was never able to hear a single song as the "sound system" was stored in my rear jersey pockets. Only the cyclist directly behind me was able to enjoy my musical selections although it was reported that the sound quality wasn't even at an acceptable level. Hey, I tried...

Jayson O'Mahoney claimed his PowerGel prize last night as he was the winner of the "Quote of the Day" trivia. Stay tuned to 5count for more such trivia in the future. Jayson has also informed us that his new "time-machine" is fully operational and ready for a crack at the cemetery TT in January. Unfortunately for him (and me) we'll be riding a different type of bike that day, one with fat tires and a triple-chainring...and instead of riding on smoothly paved roads, we'll be riding over rocks, roots, sand and dirt...instead of going as fast as you can for 15-20 minutes, we'll be slogging through the San Felasco State Preserve for 5-6 hours.
(*Editors note: Although Jayson wears a Health Net skin suit and has a Team Health Net TT bike, he has no actual affiliation with the Health Net organization)

And now for trivia...
The winner of this edition of Trivia will receive a recent issue of Bicycling Magazine, packed full of training, diet, mechanical and raceing tips!

Q: What is the title of this blog, 5count, derived from?


...and now I'll Leave you with...The Quote of the Post
"...take yesterday for example. We were out at the olive garden for dinner, which was lovely. I happened to look over, at a certain point during the meal, to see a waitress taking an order, and I found myself wondering what color her underpants might be, her panties. Odds are they were basic white cotton underpants, but I started thinking maybe they are silk panties, maybe it's a thong, maybe it's something really cool I don't even know about..."
-what movie is this from, anybody know???