Here in the upper Midwest, this time of year is always touch and go. Rock Cut State Park, here in Rockford, IL opens to mountain bikes in a few weeks. But daylight lasts a little longer and the temps get a little warmer day by day. The taunting is painful. I want to get out and ride.

My bike club, the Rock Cut Trail Crew, is preparing for the annual race. “Do the Rock” is April 30th. I’m on the board this year, helping with the web site and other communications. We’ve had a couple of race committee meetings. I’m not totally out of the loop.

I visited Ray’s MTB in January. Did you see the bit on CNN last Wednesday? Road-tripped to Madison, WI, last weekend for Bike-O-Rama bike sale and interviewed Jeff Lenosky, pro trials rider for Giant. Working on that for the next episode of TrailTapes, Mountain Bike TV. And the TV show has been fun this winter, hovering around 200 subscribers so far.

But by March last year I already had almost 300 miles on the bike, nearly all roller miles. This year? Just over 30. uuuggghhh.

The trails open on April fools day. I need to start working out or I’m going to be seriously dragging.

Dennis lives in Traverse City, MI. He’s been taking spin classes all winter. Said it’s the hardest thing he’s ever done. But the snow melted enough for him to get out on the road bike and he said he tackled some hills with no problem.

This will be the fourth season for me getting back on the bike. Looking back, the seasons seem to have overriding themes. Season one was just getting my crank legs back. Season 2 was learning good MTB technique…log piles, jumps, that kind of thing. Season 3 was about putting on miles. My goal was 1200 miles last year. I ended the year with almost 1500 trail miles. This year, I think, should be about endurance. I’d like to really push myself and get in shape.