This winter ...

A Great Northern teammate told me he's been on the trainer at least an hour a night for the last two weeks. He then follows it up with a long Nordic ski at the golf course. He says he's got to get ready for the June and July mountain biking push now -- in January.

Last winter all I was psyched about was that spring was coming -- spring meant bike racing and bike racing was it. I spent countless hours on the trainer, sweating, watching movies I'd already watched a hundred times before. I was doing 50-mile tempo rides the first week of February. I counted calories and tried to only drink MGD 64. The Clinton training race was only 50 days away ... 49 ... 48 ...

I hoped that by doing these things all winter they'd lead to positive results in April, and May, and June ...

They didn't.

Looking back, I wasted last winter freezing my fingers tips riding out-and-back roads in February and watching The Graduate while pedaling, pedaling, pedaling ... but never moving. I skied a couple hundred miles, but I never hiked and I avoided the mountain like every tourist up there had the plague.

If I suck at the Tour of Walla Walla (a three-day, four stage event) in April, it'll suck, but I won't blame it on the long, relatively lazy loops I skied around Round Meadow, the weekend snow-shoe hikes in the Bob, or peaking Big Mountain and boarding down.

Last year, if it wasn't cycling-related, it wasn't worthwhile. I'm never doing that again.

"Less bike, more discovery."

I've spent less than two hours on the trainer this winter. I reset my odometer for 2011 on January 15 -- two weeks later, 51 miles.

I'm not quitting racing -- I see it on the calendar: Rocky Mountain Roubaix, April 10; Walla Walla begins April 15; Clinton is only 42 days away. And I'm psyched. I'm just not going to act like it really matters this year.

I plan to hike all weekend, no matter how nice it might be. There will be time for bikes later. It's never going to be "Miller Time" ever again.