Stronger, Fitter, Faster

Stronger

Twelve years behind a desk does things to your body. For the first time in ten years I've started hitting a gym 3x a week but that doesn't mean I can muster too many pushups just yet.

Fitter

Lose a serious amount of weight. This is definitely key to making everything else work, so I'll be focusing on dropping pounds to get not only into a healthy range of BMI, but to also increase my endurance and fitness.

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Ultimate Winter Training Shoe: Sidi Diablo GTX

Last winter, when I took a rainy ride I opted to keep my summer road shoes on and simply try some neoprene boot covers over the tops of them. That approach added warmth and some water resistance, but eventually on a rainy day I would end up with wet booties surrounding soaking wet socks and shoes. It certainly stalled the progress of water, but it never prevented it and any ride in the rain over 20 minutes would end with wet feet.

For a long time I eyeballed a set of Sidi's winter training specific shoe, the Hydro (road) and Diablo (mtb), mostly so I didn't have to wrestle with tight boot covers from last winter that would take a good 5 minutes of stretching and straining per shoe to get them on. This winter I finally broke down and got a set, opting for the mountain bike versions (SPD cleated) for a couple reasons: one, it's easier to walk in them compared with road shoes, and two, I could use them during the tail end of a cyclocross season. My rain bike has SPD pedals on it so they work great and if it gets dry enough to ride my road bike this winter, I can always swap the Look pedals for some SPDs.

After two months and about 300 miles through snow, slush, hail, rain, standing water, mud, and dry cold days, I have to say the hefty price tag (a new pair is about $300-400) is worth every penny. Over the last few weeks I've dunked my shoes into knee-deep snow during descents gone wrong, I've ridden in wind-driven rain that soaked me to the bone, and I've taken these into mud so deep I had to hose them off afterwards.

The thing that amazes me after any ride with them is that they feel great through the end, but I always assume I'll have wet socks when I pull them off but so far my wool socks have been dry every single time I've worn these. It's really something amazing, especially after racing in Sidi's top of the line Dragon 2 mtb shoes in muddy cyclocross races. The Dragons have a few mesh panels to keep your feet cool during races but they let water in like a sieve. The Diablo winter boots swap the mesh for gore-tex sealed panels and so far even going into snow deeper than the tops of the shoes, I haven't gotten a hint of moisture or mud inside these things. Plus, you can just throw them on with three quick velcro straps, and no muss or fuss with toe covers or shoe covers.

I can't recommend these highly enough when the weather turns bad, these things are fantastic.

Posted on December 29, 2008 in product reviews

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