Friends who inspire

Well, as you can see I have gotten back in the saddle. I realize that I need to take it slowly though - I'm still recovering. Guess it will take a while. Seems when you crack your helmet you've kind of hit your head pretty damn hard and well - I think I didn't really realize most of last week just how injured I was. I'm good now though. :)

The main reason for the post though, is to celebrate my friend Sandra's first marathon! It was National Capital Race weekend and I went out to cheer her on. They started this new cool thing for the first time where if the registrant gave them cell phone numbers, the system would send an automated text message to those numbers when your chip is read at certain markers: 10K, 20K, 30K, and the finish. So I received my first text at 8 AM-ish when she reached the 10K mark and it told me her start time, her time at the 10K mark, her pace, and the split. That was so totally cool. I live off the route so I got to go out twice: around the 25K mark, and then at the 40.5-41K mark. She looked great at the end and even said my name as I yelled at her. It was fun and I got some good shots of her. I'll just post one where there are many other people in it though. :) Way to go Sandra!!!! I know I could never run 1K, let alone 42! I personally think that riding 100 km is easier than running a marathon, so my hat is off to her!

Rubber Side Down

First ride in a whole week this afternoon. I'm glad I waited. I could feel all the vibrations of the road in my road rash - it hurt for a bit, then I got used to it, other than going over bumps. The bumps still hurt no matter what. I hadn't thought about the road vibration. At any rate, this afternoon was the earliest I felt ready to cover the wound up in order to ride. That 2nd skin is fantastic, btw!! It has made a world of difference to the healing - and the pain!

I had originally thought I might get out on the group ride this morning, but I also told myself and a couple of my friends that I would be taking it one day at a time. If I didn't feel up to it when I woke up I wouldn't be there. When I woke up I realized how much effort it was going to take to get ready to make it out to the remote start and I also didn't want to cover up the rash this morning so I went back to sleep (that was at 7 AM - I'm allowed!). This afternoon though, I made myself go out. I was starting to stiffen up significantly. My body isn't used to 7 days with absolutely no physical activity. When I spoke with my parents on the phone this morning even they expressed their surprise to hear that I hadn't gone out on the bike at all this week. I also taught my dad the 'rubber side down' expression when he said of my going out today: "keep your wheels on the ground". I geared up, prepped the bike, and as I was leaving I felt a little self conscious of how I was going to look to the outside world with a bandaged arm and some pretty nasty looking bruises. So I took a picture for posterity.

Road Rash

I've been having a rough week trying to recover from Friday. I haven't done anything physical all week. The main reason though is this road rash on my arm. It's so weird - concussion, whiplash, large bumps & bruises on my legs (can't see them all in the photo) - they don't seem to be getting me down. I've pretty much gotten over that. But I have this patch of road rash (and frankly I'm lucky it's the only patch I have), which could have actually been worse had I not been wearing arm warmers that day, and it is just so painful that I cannot describe it to you. So today I stayed home from work (yes, it's so painful that I don't want to do anything - particularly put clothing on top of it and it's been cold here this week, so sleeves are a must) and I got to looking up how to treat road rash on-line. Man, Google is just the best for everything, isn't it?!! :)

I am surprised at what I learned, considering this is not my first case of road rash. Seems, though, that last year's rash was either minor, or in spots that were more tolerable pain-wise, and the spots were smaller. So, this is what I learned... The road rash I have on my arm is fairly significant in size, and is a 2nd degree rash (1st being the mildest, 3rd being emergency room material).

Old school way of treating RR is to let it dry out, scab over, potentially crack and hurt a lot, and scar. After putting polysporin on it for a few days over the weekend, primarily because it took the pain away, it wasn't closing up/healing over, so Tuesday I decided to clean it and let it dry out. The past two days I've been in excruciating pain. Every movement hurts. And the dried out, painful spot felt like it was cracking every time I moved my arm. That's what got me to researching this. So I refreshed my memory on something: your skin is filled with nerve fibres (duh! why do you think you can feel so much on it??), and road rash is so painful because now those nerve endings are exposed.

New age treatment for RR is to keep it moist (so what I'd been doing on the weekend wasn't such a bad idea after all). Apparently by keeping it moist and covered the skin grows back (I know - ugh!) without scabbing and it hurts far, far less. Apparently there is less chance of infection this way too - who'd-a-thunk-it? So, I went to the drug store this afternoon and bought this stuff called 'second skin'. There are all kinds of brands, but I think we're a bit limited to what we get here in Canada. So I phoned around before I headed out and found my local, neighbourhood (i.e. independent) pharmacy around the corner had it. Came home, cleaned up the wound again, more polysporin, second skin, and some gauze holding it all together. I'll let you know how it goes. It's supposed to take around 7 days before your skin starts growing back. I'm hoping I've already jump-started that in the past few days, but if the pain just goes away I'll be happy.

And finally: treating the mind. I started to realize today that I need to accept this for what it is. I've been going around trying to pretend that I'm all ok and not in pain but that's not helping anything. I'm not going to (or at least I'll try not to) complain about it, but today I started reminding myself that I do have to accept it, stop resisting it - it is what it is. It's not going to change just because I've decided to ignore it. Not today anyway. And then: this too shall pass. I'll be good as new in no time. Today though: self care. I think I'm doing a good job. I'll be in the big ring again soon enough. :)

Always wear your helmet!

So far my weekend has not turned out as planned. I am, however, rolling with it. Not much else to do. I've been relaxing a lot - living up to the new nickname. ;) And learned from my massage therapist how to make homemade ice packs because I needed a few of them... I've been icing myself for almost 2 days straight now. Various sore spots. Namely: the outside of my left knee where the handlebars hit me; the inside of my right calf where the crossbar hit me; my neck from the whiplash; and my left hip.

So, what happened? Well, a double set of train tracks swallowed me up and spat me back out on my ride on Friday. :( Not exactly what we had in mind when we decided to do an 'epic' ride that day. So we only managed 107 km instead of the 130-ish we had planned. Oh well. Like Andrew said, "McGregor Lake isn't going anywhere." We'll just have to make plans to do it again. Except next time I have a feeling I'm going to be dismounting and walking across those tracks because I'm spooked by them now. I was too sore to ride today, so I really hope to do a medium-length ride with the group tomorrow. Fingers crossed that my aching body feels up to it.

And now, to give you a reason for the title of the post... my poor helmet went to helmet heaven on Friday. Just to show you the importance of always wearing one!!! You never know what might happen, so don't let vanity sway you (and you know who you are). Besides, today helmets are totally hot! Believe me, when those of us who ride a lot see those of you who don't wear helmets out there we cringe, we talk about it when we pass you, and we judge you. And on this count I will not apologize for judging someone about something. So what I'm saying is: you look stupid not wearing one.

-The Queen of Relax, aka Big Ring Bex ;)

Victoria

... Day that is. Yes, this coming Monday - a national holiday that celebrates the birthday of the cool chick who named our capital city and I guess, from what I skim-read on that link, is supposed to help us celebrate the birthdays all of our past and current monarchy.

At any rate, what it means for us here is an extra day off. And while we're at it, maybe some of us might decide to an extra-extra day off and make it a 4-day weekend! Ah, yes. My vacation patterns of last summer begin again. Woo-hoo! Have some super sweet riding plans... The bike is calling me. Gotta run.

Hope you are enjoying the JM songs I've added there to the playlist. I seem to be obsessed with him lately. It's all jag's fault! ;)

More of the Gats

Yesterday I did hill intervals in the Gats for the first time ever. Typically I go up to the gats and just do the loop. Plain and simple. Counter-clockwise loop. In fact, the counter-clockwise is the 'easiest' in some respects: you don't climb Black's hill (which I do believe is the longest/steepest) - you get to descend it; and apparently there may in fact be less climbs - I guess you get to do a few extra sweet descents (my favourite!), rather than climb them all. You see, the gats loop is a steady uphill climb, but it rolls. So it's up and down, up and down, at the same time, it's steadily up and up and up.

What I did this weekend was to go to this one climb that we call Fortune - because it's on Fortune Lake Pkwy and it's the main climb on that road. It's approximately 2.5 km according to rough estimates with my Garmin. And most of it is around 6-7% grade, although there is one point where you get a bit of a break before it tips up for some more climbing (only 3% grade according to my data read here from the ride). Right near the top of the climb it tips up slightly for a few seconds at 9 and 10% - which can be killer when you are wanting it to end. Since climbing real hills is still hard for me (one reason to train on them), my goal was just to climb it as many times as I could. I did it 4 times. I could have done five, but when I got to the top on the fourth climb I had a choice: descend and climb one last time before packing it in, or continue on climbing a few more hills beyond the top of Fortune to the Champlain Lookout - the top of the loop. This is kind of the reward for all the hard work because it looks out over the whole of the valley and it's so beautiful. The park was really busy that day with motorcyclists and road cyclists like myself (and cars too) and I just knew they'd all gone up there and enjoyed the view. So my decision was to head up to the lookout because I knew I'd be done and wouldn't have the energy to get up there if I did one more interval. My tired legs got me up there and I stopped for a couple of minutes to take it in. Then I headed back feeling pretty good about the ride as a whole.

Today I wanted to do an easy ride and the original plan was to head out for the group ride this morning and get in 100K. However I got some good advice yesterday about not setting my alarm this morning because I was so bagged yesterday I cannot describe it. In the end I did not wake up in time to eat and get ready for the morning group ride, but I wasn't overly heartbroken about it. Would have been nice to do it, but hey - it's still May, I'll have plenty of 100K group rides to do this summer. The new bike is about ready to get it's first tune-up. Things are getting looser and making little noises here and there. I figured I'd ride up to the shop and then go wherever I felt like from there. Only problem is: the shop is near the Gats and I have to go through part of them to get to it. Hmm. OK. I figured I could do a few climbs to get there. No worries. I climbed up the small hill to the main entrance into the park and my legs were complaining. I stood there for a minute or two and thought about the hills I'd have to climb to get to the shop. Mmmm. I don't think so. Decided to forego the shop visit today and see them another time. Besides, some of the noises went away when I lubed my chain this morning. So I went on a little adventure ride to places I've never been before over there on the other side of the river. Got a little lost. Had to carry my bike into the brush around some flooded areas near the river. But all in all, a decent outing and kept it easy today.

Next week/weekend I hope to accomplish a couple of my cycling season goals. Will keep you posted.

(I had originally titled the post "The Gats" and then thought that I remembered calling one of last summer's posts that. I looked back and sure enough I did, so had to change it. Haha!)

Violet Hill

Happy Friday! I just got back from a great ride! :) It was a gorgeous afternoon and I kicked off for a nice spin on my bike. Also pre-ordered the new Coldplay album. Couldn't resist. I've always been a sucker for them. I've seen them in concert twice. First time I actually got to be in general admission and they limited the number of people on the floor so it wasn't crowded at all and I could make my way right up to the front. Second time, on the floor, but in chairs. Good seats though. I don't spend much money (or time) on concerts these days. Seems cycling eats up most of my budget. I do, however, seem to find the 10 bucks every time I want an album on iTunes. I know what my bro-in-law means when he says he doesn't like how it just charges it to your credit card. You seem to lose track of how much money you are spending on music. Yep. However, the new Coldplay I figured is worth it.

So, if you've been reading long enough you may have noticed that you've been listening to the new song that they released as a free download last week. Yeah, I downloaded it. Pretty good eh?

Anyway - hope to get some good km's in this weekend. Will check in l8r...

Numbskull

It's a combination of multi-tasking gone wrong, and brain not working... I addressed my mother's day card to none other than my mother, but at my address. Huh????? Yes, it arrived in my mailbox today. OMG. Good thing it's raining tonight - time for some rest.
numbskull, def: n. A stupid person; a nitwit.

Après work activities

Guess what I smelled (and saw - but smelled first) on my ride tonight? Lilacs. They are just starting to bloom out on Ridge Rd. Check the old post for the ref...

Ahhh.
Cycling.
'nuff said.

Oh, and thanks to Diane, the cycling machine, who got me out in the wind tonight.

Truly Resting

Yesterday I was called "the queen of relax". That made me laugh out loud. That's certainly a good thing to be. I don't think you could have said that a decade ago when I thrived on a constant buzz of energy. In the past few years I've definitely been learning the art of zen.

As I'd mentioned before I decided to take today off work, and I seem to have managed to pretty much take the day off of everything. I've barely done anything today. Even the ride I wanted to do ended up falling to the wayside. Ah well. I think I will be far better off for it in the end. I needed a break.

So have a nice weekend everyone... Hope you find time to do nothing, sit in silence, reflect, take a nap, eat some chocolate, listen to some music, and just be.
-The Queen of Relax

The Joys of the Suit

Humph... no luck meeting the 500 km mark by April 30th - unless I leave the house right now to ride 40 km in the dark at something like 3 degrees. No thanks. Schedule and weather did not permit me to reach that target. Ah well. I'll find time tomorrow. I'm not sure what the weatherman is up to, but again, the weather is changing on a daily basis for the weekend. Humph again. I've decided to take Friday off and if it rains it'll be good anyway since my place is a total sty and it's bad enough that it's getting on my nerves - that means it's embarrassingly bad. I have spring-cleaning-type chores to get done.

I got home from work tonight earlier than expected and now I'm blogging because I still need some time to unwind. So, funny story for you...

Tonight one of my co-workers and I were sharing embarrassing suit-ripping stories. You see, in our job we are obliged to wear nice suits, and yet at the same time we often have to do physical labour, like lifting big boxes and what-not. My embarrassing suit-ripping story occurred a couple of years ago in the winter when I was carrying a very heavy box into an office and my arms were finally feeling like they would give out and I could not put that box down fast enough. Of course, arms full, I had no third hand available to pull up the fronts of my pant legs before crouching down to free myself of said cargo... R-I-I-I-I-I-I-P! Oh no! I ripped the seat of my pants open. Luckily, it being winter and all, I had a long wool coat on and nobody was the wiser. Even more fortunate, I was still in town and could go home to change. And just to make me feel extra stupid, the tailor laughed at me days later when I took my pants in to be mended. Yes, cycling and adding a few pounds to the skinny body of my youth has actually endowed me with a butt (something I didn't have before), but it's not that big! Proper and expensive suit pants require pulling up in the front of the leg before bending down. Unfortunately that's not possible when your arms are full. I also have several nice suit jackets in which the inner lining is ripped from reaching into my trunk for things. Oh the trials and tribulations. ;)

April Goal

I've been a little neglectful this week, so posting a quick one for your Monday morning coffee break in the cube farm.

It's time for epsom salts and stretching. OK. I admit it: I've already fallen off the wagon when it comes to the weekly Sunday afternoon yoga/tai chi/pilates class... doh! Didn't get in the door from riding til 2-something though. I'm bad at making new habits I guess.

This weekend was another treat. The weatherman predicted rain Saturday, then changed it twice back and forth between rain and shine... this lead me to reschedule my massage appointment for Saturday morning twice (luckily on-line), leaving my massage therapist a little confused as to my state of mind. In the end I went early Saturday morning and then rode my bike in the afternoon. I wouldn't necessarily suggest a massage in the morning before riding your bike, but I at least had time for a nap before I headed out on the road. Today was another great day on the bike. Only problem with the last two days: it was really windy. Although, I guess the good thing is that it's pushing me to get stronger faster. I gave my new baby its first bath today. :) It's all shiny and lubed up - ready for more riding this week. I need a name for it, btw. It's not yet the end of April and I'm already closing in on 500 km!! I'll have to achieve it before the 30th. For tomorrow: recovery.

Velo Love

Wow. OK. This weekend was epic. Skiing is but a distant memory - funny how that works. Started the odometer again... of the nearly 300 km I have on it, 180 km were spent on the new bike this weekend!!!!!!!!!!! What a sweet ride. OMG! May I say that again? What a sweet ride!!!! OMG!!! I'm in love.

I'm hoping to start a new habit too: yoga on Sunday evenings (well it's a class at the gym called bodyflow where you do yoga, tai chi, and pilates). Perfect for me to move and stretch and do a little bit of core strength to balance out the cycling. So this is the second weekend. Apparently it takes one month to form a habit. Wish me luck. I need to do this one.

I finally uploaded my garmin software to the computer as well as the data I've got in it now. Uh-oh. That thing is dangerous. You wouldn't believe the cool s#%t you can do with that thing. I'm screwed.

Tan lines already solidly in place (well, the ones on the legs never really go away) - the cycling season has started off really strong. Let's see where I go with it...

Sunday evening musings

Funny story from Chicago...

I was in a session at the congress. It was on severe acute hypertension. Yes, it was very interesting. He, he. When I was leaving the session my colleague, Bernard, text messaged me asking where I was. I texted him back saying I was heading to room S501a (or something like that) and that after that I was meeting a group of our colleagues at the front door to head out to the hotel for our debrief meeting at 4 PM. I figured he'd meet me at the front door at the pre-specified time.

So I head to the room for the next session that I wanted to attend. I get to the room, find a spot, and settle in. Not 10 minutes later, who walks in, but Bernard, all smiles. I thought he knew what the session was about. I said to him, "I can't believe you came to this session". He looked kind of confused. At the front door of the room a woman was greeting those coming in and handing them a book - written by the speaker. Bernard had one in his hand. He looked down at the title of the book: Into the Labyrinth: How Women Become Leaders. I started to laugh. He had no idea. He ended up being one of 3 men in the room. The session was really interesting, an audience mostly consisting of female cardiologists and related specialties. Bernard was a trooper. He stayed to the end, and even kept the book to give to his wife. He's one of three of us who now cover the territory I used to do alone: it's now myself, Bernard, and Janette. Poor him, Janette and I really gave him a hard time the whole time we were at the conference. I think he kinda likes it in a way though. lol!

So... this week looks like it's going to be really gorgeous (weather-wise). I'm working my butt off Monday and Tuesday, but as the week comes to a close I hope to get out on the NEW bike for the first time!!! So maybe my next post will be about that!

Oh, and I spent a little time this weekend changing things up here. Those of you who know me well will laugh when you see the colour scheme. I think I've captured a lot of the places I've been thru the photos. And yes, they were all taken by yours truly. I think my fave is the Eiffel Tower shot at night. Man, that thing is huge!

Fried

Wow. I'm so fried. My brain is mushy tonight. I can't remember things and spelling is difficult. Don't know why I'm even writing here. Maybe you all need some Friday distraction and me writing about nothing will help. ;)

It's been a crazy week. I've been working like a dog. Tonight I have plans to go for "adventures in dining" courtesy of Stef. I am looking forward to seeing how big she's gotten. Hopefully the girlz will be able to keep this kind of outing going. Stef wanted to organize something where we could go out and at the same time, expose ourselves to a little 'culture'. So tonight it's Ethiopian. I've had Ethiopian food before in T.O and it was great. I just hope I can hold a conversation. At this point I'm not sure.

I'm not going to train tonight and Jess canceled - phew! Not a bad thing. I probably would, and could have fallen asleep during squats or lunges. Last weekend I got to ride outside both days! I was going to head out alone on Saturday - not thinking about inviting anyone along, and also wanting some down time. My experience is that after being in meetings and conferences for a week I need time alone. However, Ruth phoned and asked if I wanted to head out with her. And frankly, I love riding with Ruth. So out we went. By the end we were in such bliss we were making plans for another ride on Sunday. Funny... just writing that made me perk up a little. :) I was hoping to get out this weekend but the weather keeps changing. I guess I'll have to play it by ear. I LOVE cycling!!! Ok. I know you know that, but I just had to write it anyway. The new bike has not been out yet. I'm going to wait til they sweep the roads a lot more and I feel that I won't get any road salt on it. You probably can't help but notice all the snow still there in our photos. Well, it's melting - I'm starting to see grass on my front lawn!! Spring is here - woo-hoo!

Chi-Town Low Down

OK. I'm starting to recover from a week's worth of work and travel. I am not exaggerating when I say, I believe I actually got a half hour to myself one day - and even that half hour was rushed. The rest of the time I was working my butt off like you wouldn't believe. My average morning wake up time from Sat thru Thurs was around 6 AM - starting with a 4:45 AM wake-up time on Saturday to get off to my flight. I am not a morning person, so you can imagine what those mornings did to me. And I worked all day at the conference Sat to Mon evening, with dinners out every night, ending with a symposium dinner on Monday. Tuesday we started our meetings when the rest of our colleagues joined us in the windy city. The conference, while exhausting, was fun and educational for sure. I was able to take 2 hours to myself on Sunday afternoon between seminars and dinner meetings and met up with a friend and colleague who stayed with me there (although she never saw me apart from that afternoon). We took a quick boat trip up the river and out to Lake Michigan. It was raining a bit and foggy, so we didn't get the view of the city that you would normally, but it was nice to do it regardless.

I found Chicago to be friendly and clean. I was told that the downtown core, where we were staying, is the nicest part of the city, so it leaves a bit of a biased point of view for me - particularly when I wasn't able to see much of the city, save for cab rides between the hotel and convention centre. However, what I saw makes me want to go back some day and experience it more. The architecture is definitely cool. The way the city was developed is really neat. Apparently it burned down and they had to rebuild at one time. They had been dumping all their sewage and other waste into the river and it caught on fire. That's when they built a lock at the entrance to the lake and forced the river in the opposite direction so as to move waste out and treat it properly. So I guess that's where "second city" gets its name. Due to the fog on the day that I took that boat trip I wasn't able to see the top of the Sears Tower, but it's still the tallest building in the city. And they've done a lot of neat things to move traffic, like Wacker St, which has 'upper' and 'lower' parts so that trucks can unload downstairs and not impede the flow.


(it's the one in the middle there)

Spring had arrived in Chicago already - there was no snow left and I saw LOTS of cyclists! I actually forgot how much snow we had here, so was surprised when I looked out the airplane window before we landed. Eek! One day I noticed the view from my hotel room window and saw I had a great view! And it was beautiful outside.

One of the final things I did in Chi-Town was the original House of Blues. The company had rented the entire place out for us on Wednesday night. That was a lot of fun! They had a Blues Brothers cover band play for us, and some Canadian comedian (I can't remember who - but I think he was pretty big because everyone else knew who he was - I'm hopeless with those things).

On the way home I got to thinking that Chicago is a lot like NYC, but smaller, cleaner, friendlier... and maybe even better shopping! So, next time you are thinking of going to NY for a shopping weekend, I'd reconsider and think about the windy city. Which, by the way, wasn't very windy. ;)

On the road again - metaphorically speaking

Well folks... you finally get some of what this blog's about again - ramblings on traveling instead of my ramblings on skiing or riding my bike on the indoor trainer watching Tom. This picture has nothing to do with the main content of the post - it's purely gratuitous on my part! lol!! Although I realize now that my post title could have easily referred to getting back outside on the bike. Alas, not yet. So, travel...

This has been the longest stretch in quite a few years that I've gone without traveling - 3 whole months! And you know what? It's been a nice reprieve. I've been focusing on my health and fitness, and working on ramping up to this period at my job that commences this weekend with a conference in the Windy City.

So my travel season begins and you get to visit some interesting places with me over the next few months. I decided to look up some info on Chicago's epithet (a word I learned in my search) to give you an idea on its origin since I'd heard that, in fact, the city was not given that name because it's windy. So here you go... the windiest US city seems to be (according to this weather expert) Dodge City, Kansas at 22.5 km/h (yearly average). Chicago is around middle of the pack, coming in at 16.7 km/h - not overly windy. So in fact, the name "Windy City" does not refer to how windy the city is. That sounded utterly redundant. Keep reading that weather site, or this one to find out more about the possible origin of the nickname - which is actually somewhat controversial. If I get a chance I'll post more when I'm there. And I'll let you know how windy it is too. ;)

The Easter Bunny

Good long weekend. Too bad it's over. :( Training, babysitting my sister's pooch, training some more. Sigh.

Anyway, tonight I remembered a funny story from when we were kids. It goes something like this...

My sister and I entered an Easter colouring contest at the neighbourhood pharmacy in Edmonton. I helped her colour it. She's 3.5 years younger than me. We entered in her name. We won. I don't know if that qualifies as cheating, but if it does I guess we're guilty and it's one of the handful of times I could think that I've cheated at something. I take solace in the fact that I had an accomplice. It's also one of the handful of times I've actually won something! We won an enormous stuffed bunny. We had that thing for years and years. It just sat in the basement - even when we were teenagers. I don't know what you're supposed to do with a giant stuffed bunny, but the dog seemed to like dominating it. And I won't go into any more details. I don't know what my folks did with that thing when they moved. ??

I'm quickly going to mention chocolate so that I can tag it as a post label since it's Easter and all. Yum. Chocolate. I ate a bunch of it this weekend.

It's the weekend already!

For those of you not connected with me on facebook, check this out. It's fun.
Oh, and happy long weekend - YES! :)

Just Checkin' In

Life is pretty busy these days. Work, for one, is really ramping up. I can feel the momentum of the next month starting now. It's kinda fun, but at the same time I am a little apprehensive about work eating into personal time too much. So I'll have to stay cognisant of that to try not to let it happen.

I've been training lots on the bike and off the bike. I hope to take my cycling up a notch this year. The new bike will help. I rode it on the trainer tonight. Wow. It's so nice. :)

I'm learning a lot lately too. I'm reading some good books. I'm expanding my ideas on spirituality and how the mind works.

I'm also in the midst of trying to make life plans. Future plans, travel plans... all very exciting and interesting things.

Like I said, life is pretty darn busy. And that's a nice thing.