Christmas

Christmas was fun. And--thanks to some of my presents, it's going to have lingering fun.

First up was Operation Ride Bike to Christmas (or 1/2 way at least). With presents loaded in a backpack, I was "Santa by CX bike". 3 hours later over snowpacked, icy, dirt, paved, and wet roads, I met my parents with the car. We finished the trip by car, to my sister's house.

Next was a family ice skate (I bonked badly and ended up eating most of my 9 year old niece's popcorn).

 Christmas day brought the most bestest gift ever. After coffee school, I have been pretty sad to not be able to practice my espresso and latte art skills. He Who Must Not Be Named fixed that. He got me everything I need to practice my skills-including milk! He is wonderful and I love him.

After eating too much we had a family Nordic ski. Turns out, the Powers/Trueblood family is competitive even on Christmas. The family relay race proved to be fun, funny, and dang hard--I don't think I have ever breathed that hard on Christmas- ever. Mike and Oma beat G, J (my nieces), and me by a hair and a wrong turn.  Great job!

The gifts keep giving. 

Thanks to my sister and to JH, I have a bike rack! Finally, I can car pool with people and no more dirty bikes in the car. 

Thanks to JH (again), I am working on my latte art--it needs help as I got rusty after 2+ weeks off. I've already gone through a gallon of organic milk-right down the drain. I need drinkers!!

Happy Holiday's!!

Winter Solstice

I've never celebrated the shortest day of the year and I've never celebrated the first day of winter.
This year was different.
We celebrated! Not only are the days going to start to get longer, but it gave us an excuse to get out and play in the snow on bikes.

It was fun. Very fun. I'll admit, I sucked at riding in the snow on the snowshoe track, but I can blame it on a weak light and the fact that JH and Meriwether were going too slow. :)

 

Thanks Meriwether for the photos!

Graduation

It's official. I have graduated Coffee School. I have to say, coffee school was the most fun school I've ever been to. Learning about what you're already into is pretty fun.

My #1 goal of coffee school was learn to make latte art. Goal accomplished.

For lunch, on the last day, we went to a restaurant that had a lot of wood inside. We need this wood at home!

The food was very good, and like the rest of the week, I ate way too much for lunch. I'm happy to be home now and ride that food off.

 The culmination of the day was a friendly competition. 10 min to prep, and serve 3 espresso drinks. Mocha, cappuccino, and espresso drink of your own choice. My espresso choice was espresso con panna. Mostly, I just wanted to use the whip cream dispenser.

 Graduation

  We left school with lots of fun goodies. I can't wait to start to use them at home to "dial in" my new knowledge.

ABC 2-4

I've been asked, probably a gazillion times, "what do you do at coffee school for 5 days"?
 The answer- A lot.
In no particular order-

Eat Lunch a various lunch locations-Montage is famous for Mac n' Cheese-my gluten free diet has gone so far out the door that I can't even see it anymore.

 Learn how to make espresso, steam milk, and eventually put them together to make something pretty.

Steamer anyone?

 The latte art is in it's beginning stages.

Eat lunch at more random locations that share space with this. I'm bringing 3 home for JH.

The entire goal of this trip, for me, was to learn how to make latte art. I'm getting there. I made this on my Birthday and that was a dang nice present.

 Eat birthday dinner at one of the various yummy restaurants in Portland.

 Learn how to cup coffee.
Learn how to properly brew coffee using several other-than-espresso methods.

 Visit coffee shops to see what they do and how they do it.

 Drink coffee.

One day left at Coffee School. I've had a really great time and have learned a ton. I leave school everyday smelling like coffee. I leave happy and I leave excited to come back.

ABC Day #1

Wow. Today was a cool day.
I'm in Portland taking a 5 day "coffee class" at the American Coffee and Barista School.

Woke up early, walked to Whole Foods for some breaky food, walked until I found a good looking coffee bar. Drank espresso then walked to school (all in the dark) where the breaky food was consumed along with more coffee.

Learned all about opening a coffee bar (none of the teachers have said coffee "shop" so I'm guessing the proper term is bar instead of shop), ate soup and 1/2 sandwich for lunch, then learned about espresso and how to pull a perfect shot of espresso. Yay I pulled my first shot on a "real" coffee bar machine. Did some testing of espresso, and did a lot of throwing out bitter or salty tasting espresso. I can't wait to practice more!!





Finished day 1 at Bally's for a short workout before walking back home (again in the dark. What Portland looks like, I have no idea.) Trader Joe's for food, sleep, and do it all again tomorrow. Can't wait!


 Coolest tamper I've ever seen.

Bday Celebration

Thursday nights are our usual steel*wool celebration nights. In the summer, they are a bike ride followed by gluten fest at the local pizza/beer place. Then the time changes, it gets cold, and we skip the bike ride and head straight to the gluten feasting.








 We tired something new this past Thursday. Thanks to He Who Must Not Be Named, we had an early AP birthday celebration. First Nordic skis (under the almost full moon), then gluten fest, all while be dressed in drag. 

 It did not disappoint. It was dang fun and I am so lucky to have friends who like to have fun while exercising and laughing at the same time.

Hip Flexors

This time of year is one of my favorite times to ride my bike. Riding on snow packed roads is quiet, peaceful, enjoyable, and sometimes quite challenging. However, I have a healing elbow and the thought of falling down on the snowy road (it's happened several times) and breaking my healing arm makes me ill. Thus, I'll have to wait another couple weeks before I can do my outside snow riding.

In the meantime, I've been having to come up with other activities to do while my 'bow heals. I've been going to the gym and actually lifting weights (gasp!), I've been riding the trainer, and today I busted out the snowshoes (no Nordic skiing yet due to the chance of falling down and lack of arm strength--another favorite activity put on hold).

It was actually fun--and a dang good workout. Breaking trail works over the hip flexors (they're still worked over and I'm sitting on the couch).

I saw 5 deer- 2 bucks and 3 ladies. Of course the phone wasn't wanting to work as a camera when one of the bucks was in the middle of the trail starting at me.

Looks like one of the Bucks got the better of this poor little tree.

Soon I'll be back to my snow riding and Nordic skiing, but for now, I'll enjoy different winter activities.

Free Time

It's amazing how much time there is in the day when you aren't spending hours at a time on a bicycle.
When I'm riding and "training", it feels like I am rushing around all day long--from one thing to another to another. I feel lucky when I get a "time out" to chill and eat something.

Yes, my arm is getting better and better. I am able to ride 1 hr on the trainer (yay!) and get back into the gym to work on strength exercises, but I still have all this time in the day and that seems strange. It also seems strange to get other things done- like read a book, bake cookies, muffins, granola (and give them to people instead of eating them), and read up on hobbies (coffee and baking). All this free time has been pretty cool and I feel more "balanced". When you ride bikes and coach bikes for a living, there isn't much balance going on. All bikes all day, every day.

Soon it'll be all bikes all day, every day-- except when I go Nordic skiing and feel like a rebel--but for the time being it feels good to not think about bikes every waking hour of the day.

Arrrrr

Arrrrrrm update.
Went to the doc. All looks good. She did a darrrrrn good job. The scarrrrr looks better than it did before.

Tried to ride the trainer. It's farrrrr from feeling good. Guess I'll be hiking more.

Working on getting my range of motion back. Those exercises arrrrre a pain in the arrrrrse. They're farrrrrr from feeling good, but progress is being made.

Apparrrrrrrently I had wishful thinking that the arrrrrrm would feel 100% 2 weeks post surgery. Time to put the patience hat back on.

Surgery Day

Yesterday was surgery day. I got a "free" morning at home as I wasn't to be at the hospital until 11:30am. My "free" time was spent drinking small sips of water, in the form of espresso, till 8:30. Then I dealt with the Passport Curse- the last 2 times my passport expired, that very month, I got injured. I've been putting off renewing the passport due to fear of injury in November 2021, but thought if I renewed it the day I was having surgery, maybe that would end the curse.

JH took me to the hospital, The Mom met me there, and check-in and pre-op began.

Surgery went well. Except for one screw, that the bone had grown around, all hardware was removed.

 The Mom was there to take care of me and ask the doctor all my questions. Seems that post surgery I don't remember much, hence the need to have a person there to listen to and ask the doc questions.

Post surgery, it have been 19 or so hours since I last ate (that must be some sort of record), so they gave me some applesauce and crackers to eat.

 Which I promptly threw up, in the driveway, once I got home.

I took my spot on the little couch, and stayed there for the rest of the evening. Lucy Dog made sure to take good care of me and keep me warm.

Along with the no eating record I set a new "haven't gone pee" record. Something like 9 hours for that record.

What's next? I get to wear my brace (that I had before) for the next 9 days. I'm not allowed to take it off. Then I'll have to work on range of motion (again) and, eventually strength.  No bike riding for the next 2 weeks, and no outside riding for the next 6 weeks, due to chance of falling down--seems I can fall down doing most anything, so not sure why biking riding was singled out.  For now, I'm chillen at home, and enjoying breakfast.

Still Dropped

I continue to be off the back with Blog updates. Life has been a little crazy recently. What did I post about last time? Oh ya, riding road bikes and CX racing. Well, as of Monday, all of that has come to an end.  There's snow outside and I am having surgery on my elbow tomorrow. I'm SO excited to get the hardware outta there. After I recover and heal, I'll be DONE with this elbow injury. Yay!

The last 5 days has been filled with family time (Mom staying while JH is gone), CX racing (9th place 2 days in a row), and doggie watching (letting Lucy Dog break all the rules while JH is gone).

My Halloween Costume pre CX race

 Post race with The Mom. She was The Best Cheerer, period.
Check out this Link to see the Mom in action. It's awesome.

 Lucy Dog looking innocent

Tomorrow, before surgery, I'm not allowed to eat or really drink anything after midnight. Since surgery is at 1:30pm, I'll probably die before I get to the hospital.

Pavement

I'm off the back with the blog updates. Between riding, coaching, and hanging out with The Mom and Dad, I've been a little busy.

I've got less than two weeks 'till 'bow surgery, so I have been cramming in the riding. The road riding. After the FoCo shit show two weeks ago, all I wanted to do was ride my road bike- on the pavement.  I've ridden in Boulder, I've ridden in Nederland, in Colorado Springs and in Littleton. I've explored, I've gotten lost, I rode an entire 40 mile loop with my Dad-on bike paths. I've had a great two weeks of road riding.

Me and 2 other "FasCats" went to Colorado Springs for a 4 day coaching clinic. It was pretty fun--mostly because we got to ride our bikes (road bikes) and learn at the same time- then ride some more. One full day in the class room was less than ideal, but it could have been far worse. Now I have to take the test and I'll be an official "Level 2" coach--which really means I get to pay USAC more $$.

I spent three days in Littleton hanging out with the Mom and Dad. The Mom had surgery on her broken collar bone and is healing well. The Dad entertained me with 2 bike rides and one gym visit. I needed a rest day when I got home.

The good news? I am going to play bike racer again next year! The bad news? I had to send my Specialized Tarmac (road bike) back to TIBCO on Friday as I am not going to race for TIBCO next year. Without a sweet road bike, I thought I would give CX another chance. The weather was awesome and the course was extremely roadie friendly. As seems to be the case with me and CX, there was drama. This time--after attacking on lap 3, I rolled my rear tubular (slightly annoying). After "snapping" it back on, I was able to limp my way to the wheel pit and put on a new wheel.

I'm extremely motivated by money. I was now in 4th place. There is no prize money for 4th and if I got 4th, I could lose the overall in the series (there's prize money for the 5 race overall)--especially since I'm not racing the last 2 races because of the 'bow. So, I rode harder than I have ridden in a long time. Deep in the pain cave, I felt ill and kept pushing it. I made up all but 12 seconds and got 2nd place. That makes me proud. I had fun, I challenged myself, and I got rewarded. I'm SO glad Amanda Carey was there to challenge me. Competition makes you better, and keeps things fun as you are challenged to better your game.

Here's a cool video of the race- http://www.303cycling.com/2011-Boulder-Racing-CX-Xlinx

That's all for now.

Lemon-Aid?

After three great days in Fraser, 2 fun rides with The Dad, and 3 quality family days, it was time to head home and get ready to race CX in Ft. Collins.  I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to the racing before it even started.


1- The race venue is 1:45hr drive (3.5hrs round trip) from my house.
2- After being gone from home for three days, more time away seemed less than desirable
3- The weather forecast looked bad- rain. Rain means mud and for a roadie with absolutely no mud skills, that did not seem appealing.
4- Mud means having to clean my bike, my kit, my shoes, my ego, and get ready to do it all again the next day.

Stupid preregistration. I wish I never did it - or at least waited until the last moment to check the weather and my racing desire.

 Despite my lack of enthusiasm, I went to Ft. Collins. Reader's Digest Version-
-I crashed 4 times (in a different place each time).
-I sucked
-I couldn't get out of my own way to save my life.
-I had the worst time on bike that I have ever had.
-It was horrible
-Despite being muddy, sore, and cranky, I didn't even feel like I got a workout.

I tried to stay positive during the race. -this is making me better, -I can do it, -don't give up.  Bull Shit. It sucked and I am never racing CX in those conditions again. There was no way to make Lemonade from those lemons.

Stupid preregistration. I wish I never did it - or at least waited until the last moment to check the weather and my racing desire.

I did not race day #2 in Ft Collins.  I'm sure it was better conditions (for me) as the course dried out a bit, but my bike was still in the car, some rust had accumulated, my kit was muddy, and my CX racing desire was very negative. Not to mention, my body is pretty sore from falling down so much.

So, I stayed home and rode single speed CX bikes with JH and Meriwether, in the snow. JH and I had two great dog walks, and quality at home chill time. Lemonade.

Lemonade

The saying goes- "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade". Well, we got lemons yesterday. Unfortunately, The Mom caught almost all the lemons. She got tripped by a Honey Badger while running and broke her collar bone. She of all people, do not deserve this injury.

Luckily, I was able to drive home to the Mother Ship yesterday and stay a few days with The Mom and The Dad.  Mission-help out. Do what I can to take the burden off my Dad and help my Mom feel somewhat comfortable.

Turns out, I'm getting a lot out of this trip home too. It's pretty fun spending time with the 'rents--Lemonade.

Yesterday, instead of a home alone while JH did his NATO thing, I got a salmon dinner and ice cream sundae--Lemonade.

Today, I was supposed to motor pace around the flats north of Boulder. Instead, I got 3 hrs of single track with The Dad--Lemonade.

This afternoon, instead of farting around on the computer and commuting to and from Boulder, I got to run errands around Fraser with The Dad and see old stomping grounds--Lemonade.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I'm sure we'll do our best to make more lemonade.

Cramming it in

The count down to surgery continues.
1 month.
30 days.

Must ride and race bike as much as possible.  The goal is to burn myself out in the next 30 days. I want to be tired of racing CX, I want to be tired of training, and I want to be just plain tired and in need of rest.

This past weekend, I decided to race both days of the Frisco CX race.  Both days were pretty dang fun.

I brought the Mom and Dad to Frisco on Saturday (actually they drove me) as they had never seen a CX race. It was great to have them there cheering us on.  The Mom got some great pictures.

After Saturday's race, I told the Mom and Dad that I need some competition.  Better be careful what you ask for. KFC showed up Sunday and worked me over badly.  Luckily (for me), on the first lap she crashed, so we actually had a race for the first few laps. Me trying to get as big of a gap as possible while she rode through the girls that passed her when she fell down, and her trying to catch then pass me before the race was over.  She's strong like bull, made me suffer bad, then beat me, but it was worth it and made it pretty dang fun (again for me). 

I am totally cooked and tired today.  Need rest before doing it again next weekend.