re-evaluating my 2012 goals and some beer

So I think I may have a change of plans in my New Year resolutions, originally I stated that my goal was to achieve 1500 miles on my mountain bike with a hopeful goal of 2000. Well, I've had some time to think this over and I realized that by trying to achieve this goal, it might leave little time for other types of workouts that I really need to focus on like core and weight lifting. Two of definitely my most weaker points in my over all fitness and it shows. I'm constantly plagued with lower back fatigue and strain because of my lack of upper body & core strength. I know this does not make for a very interesting read so I'll try to keep this short but I felt like I needed to address this so that maybe I'll do a better job at other workouts than just riding my bike. While my mileage goal might suffer my overall fitness should be better making me a stronger and better rider. So far I've gotten off to a great start, partly due to the really nasty wet weather we've had. I've been mainly focusing on strength training and core workouts the past two weeks.

I'm really jonesing for a good hard ride.

One of my weaknesses with the changing seasons is the ever changing selection of seasonal beers on display at my local grocer. With 3 different grocery stores within a 5 min. drive from my house, all with different selections, I've been bringing home waaay too many six packs of high calorie beers to try out.

It all started with this little jewel I found in Asheville a couple of weeks ago, New Belgium's Belgo. We can't get it in TN so I had to buy it before we crossed back into hillbilly land. It's hoppy, like a punch to the mounth on the first sip.

Then if that wasn't bad enough I was walking past the beer isle last week on my way to get a gallon of milk when this tasty selection jumped into my buggy. How could I put it back? Thunderstruck Coffee Porter? With a name like that I had to make it mine. It was delicious!

And then it happened again earlier this week, I've seen this jewel before but I'd always passed it by for some odd reason. After sampling a couple of these that will prove to be very difficult in the future.

When it comes to my mountain bike shoes I tend to wear a pair long past their intended life span, why I do this I'm not sure. I guess since I don't wear them anywhere but while I'm riding I feel like they should last longer. The last pair I bought were the Shimano M-182's, a bit more racier and stiff than I probably needed but a definite upgrade to my previous pair. In the past few months I've been dealing with more foot numbness and fatigue that normal. I tried numerous cleat positions to try and remedy this but nothing seemed to help. Then a week or so ago I wore my winter shoes for the first time this year. They are less worn and not as stiff and surprisingly I experienced less numbness and fatigue which lead me to believe it might have just been a need to buy new shoes.

This time around I opted for more in the way of comfort and less racey. I scored a pair of 2012 Shimano M-162's, yeah they're a bit flashy and WHITE but it seems like everything is going with this trend. After a bit of research everything I read about these shoes was great including the durability of the white. I've been running a white WTB saddle for over a year and its had all kinds of mud and clay ground into it and with the help of a little simple green it still shines almost a brightly as the first day I mounted it up.

There was one big difference in my new kicks, the lack of toe spikes. I've always ran them and while they're great for muddy hike a bikes they suck at just about everything else. There are pre-drilled holes for them if I decide to add them later but for now I've decided to see if I like them better without. I'm all about trying new things lately so why not.

Speaking of new things, a while back I mentioned that had had downloaded the Blogger app for my "smarter than me" phone in an effort to increase my blogging. Well that hasn't exactly happened BUT I did realize it makes for adding photos taken by my phone super easy to add to my blog posts, hence all the fancy pics. I haven't figured it out just yet so if things look screwy it's my lack of tech savy. Please be patient.