tasty Eurotrash eye candy!

My beloved Mondonico is back. She looks like a new woman! The black, rattle-can paint job is gone, and she now has proper decals and a lovely, new copper outfit. This bike has never had a propper name. We were thinking Penny or Ginger. What do you think?

Nothing to post yet...but stay tuned!

OK, so I just got my Mondonico back from the painter. It is sweeeeet! I'll get a picture up soon.

The other big adventure is our forray into the wonderful world of the Tempurpedic mattress. We're hoping for all the $$$ that it results in magical recovery sleep where we can work out for 10 hours and sleep for 4 and wake up feeling like we took a little walk and then slept for 10 hours. Miraculous properties still TBD....I guess just getting rid of the horrbile pinched nerve in my shoulder after sleeping on my side on a hard mattress would suffice.

Friggin' scofflaw sport bikes on Skyline

I had to ride for 4 hours today with 'solid climbing'. So, the honey and I headed out for some serious solid climbing. We rode up Page Mill, turned left on Skyline, descended Hwy 9 to Pierce. We turned left and headed up toward Mtn Winery. Then, left on Mt. Eden Rd. Over Mt. Eden and home. It was 46 miles and probably 5,000+ feet of climbing.

We were in a slight downhill section on Skyline riding a bit in the lane due to sanding of the road. A Porsche, followed by a Corvette, followed by a mass of sport bikes was coming the other direction. Well, the guy leading the sport bike group decides to pass the 'vette and Porsche, which were already going like 70. They crossed over the double yellow, and he passed us within 1 foot head-on. I don't mind if those guys want to make organ donors out of themselves, but please keep us out of it! We had a similar encounter descending 9, but at least they passed with more than a few feet separating us (illegal though it was).

aaack! I've been tagged!

So, velogirl just tagged me and then had to explain what it meant. So, I guess that makes me a newbie at this whole blogging thing - pretty sad considering I'm a webmistress and all. OK, so here goes, five random things some of you know and others don't.....

1) I'm a PK. Also known as a "Pastors' Kid". While growing up, my dad was primarily an administrative and adult education pastor for several flavors of Baptist churches. Now he is minister to senior adults at a non-denominational church in central CA. My mother also was children's minister at a couple churches over the years. I actually come from a whole family of professional ministers, but never had any interest in ministry myself. While I'd like to consider myself a follower of Christ (definitely not a very good one), I am still struggling to ferret out what that means and what that looks like. So far that's meant figuring out how to love and encourage the people around me - even the ones I find difficult or unlovable. So, basically, I'm trying to learn to minister without being 'in ministry'. Does that make sense? Probably not.

2) I still have a small piece of my 'security blanket' - the one I got brought home from the hospital in. It's pretty tattered and torn up. I keep it in my pillow and occasionally lapse into full blankie-lovin' mode when I'm particularly stressed out. I guess I'll have to take up deep breathing or something when it finally disintegrates.

3)My husband is the sweetest guy in the world. After my first try at marraige went horribly wrong and felt like a huge failure, I feel very blessed to have a second chance. We are best friends, and our life together feels almost effortless. I'm always afraid to say this, though, because I worry that I'm going to jinx it and some giant trial or problem or loss will come. I guess I just have to be thankful and cherish each day to the fullest.

4) I'm that nerdy, awkward girl no one wanted to be friends with in junior high. At one time I had coke-bottle glasses and was short and chubby and had no boobs. I was a straight-A student and didn't like shopping or make-up or boys (well, as friends they were cool, but not romantically). Fortunately, the ugly duckling had a bit of a physical and confidence transformation in high school. However, I was still a book worm. Some things never change. Every once in a while, I still think I am that nerdy, awkward girl and that people think I'm weird. Maybe they do. That's OK. I just have to pretend otherwise :)

5) When I first studied advertising/art direction in college, I hated computers. Go figure.

2 hour meetings suck!

I've just emerged from a two hour meeting...I feel numb. The moderator was speaking in a soothing Canadian accent, which was lulling me into a state of near sleep. Maybe I'll walk to Peets....

Squirrelsicles

OK, it was really cold this morning. Temps on my morning ride ranged from 23-32 farenheight. I was miserable, and couldn't get any intensity going. Then, as I was making the decision to just head home, I nearly crashed in some mud at the bottom of a hill that was smeared all around in front of a stop sign. I wasn't thinking much of it (it is California, afterall), but as soon as I hit it, my bike started sliding out from under me....it was frozen solid! Fortunately, I was going really slow, and was able to unclip my foot and do a nice dab to keep it upright.

Anyway, on my way back, there was a new variation on the usual road kill - the squirrelsicle. It didn't look like it had been hit (no guts smeared about), but it was just laying on the side of the road, frozen solid, upside-down with one leg sticking out. It looked like you could just pick it up by the leg and start licking it like a popsicle (if you're into squirrel meat). I wonder what happened to the little guy....

Size 8, here I come!

Despite riding my bike 150 miles per week, weight training and generally watching what I eat, I've never been able to achieve the svelte road racing body I've desired. So, at the end of last season, I hired a dietician. We've been fine tuning, and I've been losing weight really slow, which is good. I seem to have maintained most, if not all, my power output. Well, last week I discovered that I could remove my jeans without undoing the button and zipper, so I decided the time had come to buy smaller pants. I've just ordered up a whole set of size 10s after losing 16 pounds. Yeah, I'm really tall, so that fat is well-distributed and it takes a lot to lose a full size. Once I reach my goal (12 more pounds), I should be able to squeeze into a few size 8s...wooo hooo!

So, here's three things I've learned that I didn't know previously:

1. No juice (yeah, I had to even give up my 'light' Ocean Spray...bummer)
2. Never eat more than 30% of the day's calories in one sitting
3. Never eat more than 33% of the day's calories after 5:00 pm
4. Eating 'bad' foods in very small quantities is OK, as long as you follow the percentage rules above and get the majority of your calories from whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and veggies.

The toes, they are froze

I went out at first light this morning for my training ride. It was cold...I don't know how cold, but cold by my reptilian California standards. For the last 30 minutes, my lower legs and feet felt like heavy stumps - completely numb. I kept telling myself I was getting closer to my soak in the old clawfoot, which helped improve my average speed. However, when I finally got to the bath, the hot water made my feet ache really bad. Saturday when we group ride, I will be sure to wear the chemical toe warmers!

Velo Girls kit goes retro...

Here I am modeling the new 'retro' Velo Girls kit for 2007. OK, not really. This was taken on a cool day while riding around Lake Tahoe. We'll all have to wait a few more weeks for the unveiling of the kit. Until then, I am Tri-Flow girl or Sea-Otter girl or whatever eclectic, retro-grouch jersey I pull out of the closet. Even when the kit comes, I will be making it look extra-frumpy with wool base layers while riding around my fully-fendered bike with mudflaps and handlebars so high they get altitude sickness. Oh, yes, I will be my phredly best until spring comes and I can get all hopped up on full-carbon dodads while zipping around in my spandex skin-suit down in the drops.

At least I've continued leg-shaving into the winter months, so if there's a warm day, I can morph into racer-chick for the day. :)

Missing my Eurotrash bike....

As soon as daylight savings time went away, I started commuting on my touring bike with lights and fenders. So, I decided it was finally time to take my beloved Mondonico with rattle-can paint job in for proper paint and decals. My bike mechanic (husband) lovingly dismantled each part. We put some aside to be sold, and others to go back on later and dropped it off at D+D in San Lorenzo. It was mid-November.

I decided to modernize the rear triangle spacing to 130mm. So, I 'had' to buy new shifters and wheels. The Ultegra headset is being swapped for Chorus, and the new shifters are Daytona 10 speed. I got Ultegra wheels so I can stay Shimano across the board on that (good to have spares for racing). I'm planning on running a 9 speed so I can get some more gearing. I will probably get an 11-32 or 11-34, since the crankset is a classic Chorus double (39x53). I'm going to lock out the 10th speed on the shifters, and I got a Jtek shiftmate to handle the cable pull differential. I have an old Campy Athena mountain bike rear deurailleur, so the wide cluster will not be a problem. Or, maybe I'll suck it up and run the 12-25 10 speed cluster. I am improving my power-to-weight ratio, afterall :)

Supposedly, the bike will be ready this week. I can't wait!!! It is going to be metallic copper in color with black decals. I have a black Brooks saddle and it will have black bar tape. I think it's going to look pretty sweet. I miss its wonderful, buttery ride. Soon we will be reunited for some weekend fun!

Apparently I need a blog...

Normally I post my musings to my own web site, but velogirl (my coach) says I need to have my own blog. So, here I am. Not really sure what I'll write about. We shall see....

The photo is from my 2004 trip to Italy. The hubby and I rode from just north of Venice through the Dolomites, Alps and Lake country. The picture is at the top of Passo Stelvio, which was quite an accomplishment for me at the time - especially with the semi-loaded touring bike. We're hoping to get back to the Dolomiti this summer - maybe for a whole week this time. Also, maybe a week in Umbria. We're still hunting for airfare. Cheapest right now is $1266 for the time we want to go. :( Also, no frequent flyer tix available. It might be a really expensive trip!