christmas dinner-amazing

its called heaven on a fork. Beef tenderloin, combine with a bottle of santa lucia highland pinot noir and it will have atheists believing in heaven.

my riding paradise

40 miles, 2.5 hrs, 5 cattle guards, 5 grey squirrels, 10 turkeys, 1 lost calf. 2 cars. I'll take shitty pavement and rednecks any day.

I'm a wimp

I'll say it, i'm a total pansy. After talking to people stuck in the apocalypse of the Midwest I feel obligated publicly annonce this fact. I've been waking up in the morning to 34 degree weather and wait until noon to ride. The three years in santa barbara have totally softened me. full warmers, base layer and thermal vest are necessary for my 40-50 degree training rides which occupy my days at home. Even with all this clothing i'm still miserable, waiting for santa barbara's warmer weather.

fall wrap up

Ive only been done with school for a week but yet the last ten weeks seem so far away. ive been sleeping on the floor of my friends' house, chasing the good weather and sunshine on my bike. I arrived in San Diego a week ago, sleep deprived and coming off of the most intense finals i have ever had. I had a rude awakening after chasing eric bennett and clark rachfal for a good three hours for my first good ride in a week. Friday dawned foggy and threatening rain. always a good forecast for a time trial. I rode my butt off but finished with a time that reflected my lack of fitness. I left the OTC with a few new friends and a solid two days of riding under my belt. The next two days were spent hanging out in northern san diego, a place i have come to love in my occasional visits. Our wicked base camp started with a cruise up to Oceanside on monday with small group. Camp started on earnest on tuesday, with a 4.5 hr jaunt up into the interior, the group split when i got a flat and eric, mari and christian, one of our celebrity guests, took off for a slightly difficult ride back home. Worked, the most difficult thing i did the rest of the day was going out to dinner at Bestawan. Wednesay equals the wednesday ride out of carlsbad village. The most memorable event fom wednesday was Thurlow Rogers, or "Turbo", coming up to me and telling me that my seat was too low. While Bigos usually gets, your seat is too high, people are usually concerned with my mini calf and oversized right leg. This was unusual in that Turbo hardly ever talks to anyone. As Matt said, I've been on that ride for a few years now and I've never gotten more that two words from him. and he talked to you!? Thursday turned into a shorter ride as my left calf felt as if it was going to explode as i climbed with the group. Friday was a recovery ride and my last day pretending i had no life and no responsibilities. It was a successful ten days of riding and recovery after finals and it was hard leaving that night to go home.