Christmas cycling stuff

So it's the time of year where most people in North America obsess over gift giving, etc. and thus I have a few goodies worth mentioning, care of my family.

Before I get to that, I'll provide the training update. 72km of salty wet roads this morning, 2 coffees, 1 baked good. Fenders are really necessary in this stuff. My chain sounds like a sandbox, but otherwise the bike takes it pretty well. So far I'm 1 week into the 2010 training plan and actually on schedule... that may be a record. Hoping to get out for a ride tomorrow, off road if things are frozen enough.

Now, on to the Christmas stuff:

- MSR Denali snowshoes. Humourously enough, we have no snow now, but last winter I did some winter hiking and would have done more if I had snowshoes for the day after fresh snowfall. These should be great for stomping around in the powder.

- Embrocation Team Issue non-warming embrocation by Mad Alchemy as well as the Embrocation Team socks by Swiftwick. I needn't say more. I haven't even done a ride in these socks and I want to get our team on board with some Swiftwick Four Ole socks (or maybe the Merino version?)

- not cycling specific, but I got a large Stanley socket driver/wrench kit, which is excellent. About 5 of the 211 tools can be used on bikes, and Stanley is a key sponsor of the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross so this makes the blog.

- a pair of Smartwool medium weight hiking socks. I love these, and they are my go-to sock for winter activity.

All in all, lots of good stuff.