Archive for December, 2009

Here’s a Panorama shot from Bryce National Park yesterday.  I merged it from 12 photos taken at the Bryce Point Overlook.

See the big version here – still only 25% of actual size.

If I were to print this thing out at 100%, it’d be something insane like 50 inches tall and 360 inches (30 feet) long.

Almost exactly a year ago I was behind the wheel of an 8 ton box truck driving on ice headed to Boulder, Colorado to officially wrap up 6 months of what was certainly one of the high points of my life to date.  I still can’t quite wrap my mind around just how amazing that trip was.

Time has flown since then, and these days I’m looking at slightly different roads from on top of a bike.  Not a bad trade.

I look back at what I learned during the tour last year (primarily having to do with my world view and people) and compare it with what I’ve learned this past year, and it’s definitely been a year of self-reflection and personal growth. I’ve somehow managed to be one of the lucky ones who has come out of this economic mess with a job, but that’s just an added bonus to finding myself in a wonderful city surrounded by great people and abundant cycling.  The transition from full-time traveler to unemployment to working the 8-5 daily grind hasn’t always been an easy one, but it helps a bit when the view out the office window looks like this:

So what else…?

If you can’t tell from the lack of blog updates, I’ve been busy.  Living life takes a lot of time.

Cycling is going great.  My December fitness has never been even close to what it is now.  If I can build into next race season from the point I’m at now, *unnecessary self-centered smack-talk deleted*.  Uh, It’ll be good.  I’ll let the legs do the talking in March.

This is the time of year where the weather begins to test your dedication to riding, but so far so good.  Recent rides have included freezing temperatures, wind and rain.  Luckily, there hasn’t been a ride yet that included the spirit-killing combination of all three of those elements.  This is also not the time of year you want to be stopping for flats.

It took 4-5 miles of near-threshold after that one to get my core warm again, and I’m not sure my toes ever fully recovered during the ride.  Other than the flat, we had a great ride to Multnomah Falls in the Gorge a week ago.  Strong winds made for a slow trip out and a very fast trip back.  It’s a great ride, and I look forward to doing it again (particularly when the weather is warmer).

It’s currently trying to snow and failing, resulting in some sort of misty/slush combination.  Right now the roads are wet, but tomorrow morning everything will be ice.  The new Minoura Rollers
are already coming in handy for training, and I found the perfect storage space for them.

I realize that picture doesn’t really give any context or anything and is for the most part pointless.  I just wanted to post a picture of my new rollers.

My cross bike also remains very broken. Not that this one would magically repair itself or anything, but it also doesn’t look like it’ll be getting replaced.  Anyone have a need for some lightweight aluminum tubing?

Thanksgiving was great, December is flying by, and before I know it I’ll find myself in St. George for the holidays to visit my parents.  2009 in general has disappeared quickly, but I’ve packed plenty of fun in: racing bikes, spending time with new and old friends, exploring a new city, job hunting (not quite so much fun), working (far better than job hunting)… and all the other little things that make day-to-day life interesting.

And there’s a girl.  Girlfriend, actually.  If you follow my life enough to have made it this far into this blog post without being completely bored I’d say there’s probably a decent chance you knew this already, but if not, now you do.  It’s all still very new, but pretty much every day I’m amazed by how awesome she is.  Her name is Jess.  She’s smart, pretty, has a great personality, and races bikes.  What more could I ask for?

So yeah – life is good, and as Justin would say, ILOT.