Monday, June 24, 2013

Summer Break

It's officially "summer break". Summer break is a much needed break in the race season. It's a "time out" when I get to be at home, ride mtn bikes, drink margaritas, and do something other than travel around and race bikes.

Week #1 of summer break was spent-  walking dogs

Planting flowers and watching the wild flowers bloom.
 Riding and winning the Golden GranFondo with Sway (aka Teammie Maura).


Eating chips and banans during said GranFondo

Playing with Moe Dog.
Not shown is riding my mtn bike, hanging out with He Who Must Not Be Named, and chopping wood. A lot of chopping wood.

I've got three more weeks of summer break!!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The "between" Time

This is the first time, in several years, I have been hanging out between races. Instead of getting on a plane and going home, we have either driven to or gotten on a plane to the location of the next race.

This money saving tactic has it's pluses and minuses. For me, personally, I am a fan of being home, so I find it hard to come up with many "pluses". To avoid cracking totally, I'm trying as best as I can to find the pluses of each place we go and each activity I do.

Other than being at a ski area, in a super fancy hotel, a plus of staying in PA was this Bakery in Emmaus. Wow! My most favorite bakery ever. Gluten free goodies, vegan goodies, and goodies for normal people who eat normal stuff.

 The plus of it being so hot and sweaty in PA? When you sit down, you make a chamois sweat heart on the bench. Then you can send it to your fiance who you haven't seen in forever.
We did get Christmas in June. A shipment of Champion clothing made it's way to us in Philly. It was exciting.

Finally, after 5 days of hanging out in PA we got to race in Philly. It was fun and it was hard. I won the sprinter prize and got some cool swag. My little Liberty Bell trophy is a keeper for sure. Super cool!
 Then we flew to Tulsa and guess what--it's time to hang out again-- for 4 days. Yes, the countdown to home has begun, but we're on the home stretch. Tulsa Tough is coming this weekend and it's the best three days of crit racing the country has. Plus, dang good prize money.

I also happen to like Tulsa. I'd say it's my favorite city. I know my way around, we have some pretty sweet friends and friends of the team here, we're well taken care of, there's good coffee shops and restaurants, and the riding is pretty dang good. 

I saw this little guy on my bike ride yesterday. I've never seen a turtle in the "wild".
For now, I'll continue to make the best of my downtime. Ride bikes, chill out, find coffee shops, and have fun. 
Home in 4 days!