When Regular Carb Loading Just Isn't Enough...

So tonight was groundhog's night and since it is a holiday we party (or so I have been informed). After a fairly decent workout, I showered, grooved to 100.3's Flashback weekend and scooted over to Libby's. I hadn't had time yet for dinner and neither did some of the people at the party, so we ordered food ONLINE from NYPD (I was not aware you could order food from there online but I am SO in in the future) and since I am racing tomorrow, I though that some good pasta was in order. They group also ordered some pizzas and garlic knots and what not. So after I had eaten some pasta, I decided a little half slice of pizza was in order and at the same time someone opened up one of the packages of garlic knots. So I had a slice in one hand and a garlic knot in the other and I had a delemma - how can I keep eating pasta and drinking beer if my hands were full. First I requested a straw, but there was none to be found. Luckily one of the people at the party was able to help me out by both feeding me pasta and beer while I also had my pizza and garlic. I am so glad that friends are so supportive of my racing that they would be so caring as to make sure I got as much carbs as one person could handle. I'm just lucky that way.

Water Bottles - An Adult Sippy Cup

As I was coughing up a lung last night I had an epiphany about a few things. 1) Excedrin might be great for getting rid of my headaches, but the caffeine is not good late at night 2) a nap in the middle of the day will keep me up at night 3) these two things together are dangerous and cause me to sleep weird and 4) all a bike water bottle is is an adult sippy cup - whenever I want a glass of water, but I fear my clumsiness, I just use a bike bottle. Great for when those cold meds make you a bit loopy. I couldn't fall asleep until 2 am and I was WIDE awake by 7:30 am. Which was good because I learned how to caramelize onions (which takes forever) and made quite a decent scramble. After spending all day cleaning my room (I banish you dust bunnies to the vacuum!) I decided I should be a good minion and get my training done for the day - some arm cycling to loosen up, the whole evil workout and then home for some quality time on the trainer. After trainer time (during which I IMed - bet you didn't know you could balance your lap top on your aero bars.... well sorta) I got to my favorite part, stretching. My trainer gave me this great new stretch, which really helps with my hamstring, but it takes 6 minutes on each side. Since I was so engrossed with my IMing, I decided some multi-tasking was in order. And that I should share that with all of you. What you can't quite see is that my other leg is stretched out along the floor, for that extra deep super hami stretch. I couldn't reach a pillow without getting up, but the shoe box worked perfectly - bet you didn't know they were also usefuly for super pillows!

Urban Skiing - or - Enjoying Myself on the Backs of Other People's Lazyness

So it snowed today - in such a potentially dangerous way that we all decided to give ourselves a 3 day weekend :) That being said, it didn't really snow much - not the snowpocalypse that we were all promised, but it was snowy enough for one of my favorite winter training - cross country skiing! And since the city of Ann Arbor decides to be really lazy snow plowing on days that the kiddies don't have school, the roads were delightfully snow covered. Additionally, since most sane people also stayed home, and by home I mean IN the home, the sidewalks were also snow covered. What did this all mean - it meant instead of running to the mail box and getting some miles in for the USAT challenge, I instead skied there. It doesn't count for miles, but it was a LOT more fun. I encourage most people to shovel in the middle of snow storms so there is just that dusting on the sidewalks - makes for great urban skiing!

I made it

Well it took a LOT of sweat and a little tears, but I finally made it to my 2007 goal! I worked my butt off during break (30+ miles a day) and watched a LOT of tv, pared down my podcasts, but I made it! Now for this year's goal - 3660 miles on the bike (darn leap years) and 365 miles run. Up to this point I have 9 miles run (but given my foot's condition that is pretty darn good) and 187.5 miles on the bike. And since January is biking month for the Triathlon challenge, I am hoping to get up to 500 miles for the month of January - Not only would that put a HUGE dent into my mileage for the year, but hopefully put me up in the top 100 again for miles in this year's challenge. MUST BIKE MORE

The New Aunt Ester....

So every once of a while at Christmas with my mom's family, we get some euchre games going... and apparently I am the next generation of my great aunt Ester. I don't know what it is about cards, but I totally loose every inhibition of swearing in front of my grandparents, small cousins, and whoever else is around.... it starts out slow and quiet.... a damn it here, a darn.... and by the end I was cursing the air blue... and my grandparents were cracking up.... but I was informed that if I wanted to be REALLY like Ester, I would have to be about 3 times as loud.... maybe next year :) MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Santa brought my bike groove back!

So the day before Christmas, I had 212 miles to go as of this morning, and my goal was to do 30 miles this morning.....and let me tell you it was an up and down morning. First off I set my alarm f0r 7:30 am just in case I didn't get up in time... but in perfect vacation tradition, it also set the time ahead so I still got up at 5:30 am... which was good... because I downloaded some new podcasts cause I'm almost out, and hit the gym - I was on a bike by 7:30 am and it SUCKED... I was just dying ( maybe it was the half of a chocolate chip muffin I had had for breakfast....) So after 20 min, I my new goal was an hour..... gotta do an hour.. you can do just about anything for an hour...... and suddenly around 40 min Santa apparently dropped off my A game cause I was GONE, I had great cadence, great resistance, and my ass wasn't even sore - No idea where it came from, but I so rode that high for the next 20 miles and if I didn't have so much shit to do today, I would SO still be there busting out more of my miles.... cause no gym is open tomorrow which means instead of having 7 days left, I have 6, so instead of about 26 miles a day I have 30+.... whoopie!!!! But I am SO gonna make it!

Bike Goal - Am I going to make it?!?!

Well for those of you, which really is no one, who keeps track of my life, I have a crazy bike goal for 2007. 2007 miles in 2007 doesn't sound so crazy in January, when it breaks down to about 5.5 miles a day.... but after a summer of kidney stone love, you get down to the last 12 days of December and you are up to 26 miles a day, which on a gym bike, is pretty darn daunting.... now, mind you, I am lucky enough to have the next 11 days off, which means I have plenty of biking time, but the real question will be, do I have enough energy. Yesterday, after recovering from a cold for the past week and doing 52 miles in 2 days, I wasn't feeling so well so I decided to take a quick nap after Physical Therapy and go in a bit late.... that nap turned out to be nearly 5 hours long... not something I usually do... at all... unless I'm about to get really sick.... so the real question is... do I have enough nap time / workout time to get to my goal - I still think I will make it... and if I do I think I will be getting myself an indoor trainer... cause biking at home in front of a good DVD seems much nicer than those stupid bikes at the gym that really aren't made for short people like me :P