Road Trip and Rain

Widflower is a camping race. Which means that we get to go on a road trip. Steven and I once spent 8 weeks driving across the continent in our Honda Element, camping and seeing almost every National Park in the US and some in Canada. It was the ultimate road trip and served a purpose - as we had to get from CT to CA!

This is the forecast for the race this weekend:

The run is going to be one awesome muddy mess. I can't wait!!

Road vs. Tri

My road bike is getting some love and care this week, so I've been commuting on my tri bike. All I can say is that it is not nearly as fun to bike commute on a tri bike. Here are a few of my observations.

• Aero bars do not mix with bike commuting. I tried using them the other day just for fun and got whacked in the head by my messenger bag.
• My coffee spills all over my tri bike. I'm going to show up to race this weekend with coffee all over the Kestrel (this would however be cleaner than the image above) SWEET!
• Shifting is a pain (bar-end shifters) when climbing the hill by the pool. So this week I just did not shift. This is probably good for me.
• Attaching the front light to the aero bar proves awkward. The rear light doesn't have a chance because of the bottle holders that carry fluid for a small army on the back.
• I have gotten quite a bit of practice mounting the tri bike with my shoes attached to it this week. Nothing like running and jumping onto your bike barefoot, pedaling down the street a ways, then trying to weasel feet into shoes while the messenger bag threatens to unbalance the entire ecosystem that is my carefully balanced commuting vehicle.
  
• And despite all of this, I am grateful I have two bikes so I can still ride to work this week!

Peter is causing Problems

I may have mentioned that we have a small rabbit (Peter) in our yard that is eating his way daily through our garden. Steven has decided he must go. As much as I think he is "cute", I agree. He must find a new home, because our garden vegetables and Peter are not co-existing.

Steven spent the better part of his free time last week trying to chase Peter from beneath the porch. He then took Tiptoe out in the yard for rabbit-chasing-practice. I wish I had actual photos of this. He said he walked around the yard holding Tiptoe and then would set her down and try to get her to see Peter and chase him out the hole in the fence. As you can imagine, this worked amazingly well. Except Peter is still in our yard.

This small horse might be able to help us,
but I am doubtful at this point.

I thought about enlisting Lisa's help, but am afraid of what might become of Peter should she succeed in catching him.

Steven's other idea was to gather the "moving crew" and perhaps in large numbers we could out-wit Peter and move him to a new home.

Recharge

Saturday I spent the morning falling off a bike train. I finally gave up and decided an easier ride would be so much more fun. Thankfully Mike had the same idea so I had some good company on the ride back home. On my run where I was supposed to pick up the pace at the end my heart rate wouldn't budge above 130. This is when I decided my body was trying to tell me it was tired.

Therefore the rest of my weekend consisted of a nap, painting, watching track on TV and lounging around while Steven went riding with the hairy leg boys club. (They are getting strong!)

Thankfully this week is pretty easy training-wise. My legs will hopefully be recharged to climb a few hills (quickly?!) next weekend at Wildlfower.

7th Grade Was Good To Me

I have always loved the tea cups at Disneyland. What could be better than flying around in circles and laughing?! A good friend came to visit me this past week. He brought pictures with him from back in the days when our biggest concern was how to entertain ourselves before and after school. This was my favorite one.

My best friend and I are on the saucer together trying not to fly off. Check out my bangs! I wonder how long it took me to get them feathered just perfectly like that? And WHY am I wearing a collared shirt in the 7th grade? But I love how I'm laughing and trying so hard not to fly off the saucer.

Bike Handling Skills

This is good - the music and the biking!

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day I thought I would list ten things I love about our planet.

1. Color - trees, flowers, fish, you name it, there's a ton of color
2. The sound of rocks tumbling in the surf of the ocean
3. Animals - I am partial to furry ones
   
4. Hearing the crunch of snow under feet while looking up at a massive mountain
5. Crystal blue water with sun shining through it
   
6. Birds chirping in the morning when I ride my bike
7. Sunset in the desert leading the way for a million stars to come out
   
8. A blanket of fog that makes everything it touches seem slightly mysterious
   
9. A massive moon sinking into the horizon when I head out for an early run
10. Untouched trails to run on that take me away from cars, civilization, etc.
    

Happy Earth Day!

More Coachella

Peter Bjorn and John

The speedo boys were not in attendance this year. And I seem to have failed to capture many exciting costume images as promised. I think the furry pink boots would be awesome if they were green and orange. The bloomers seemed to be in fashion this year as well. I hope this is not a sign of trends to come back mainstream. People watching is awesome at Coachella.

Waiting for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 100 degree heat after training all weekend is a perfect way to end up with kankles (Grandma - that means ankles the size of tree stumps). Compression socks did not make an appearance on my legs.

The wait was worth it. 

Nick rocked on the guitar and Karen O entertained.

Besides music, Coachella has a lot of art. 

This tree was made out of solar lights.

This piano man pedals around - his piano is on a bicycle. 

I have no idea how he steers.

Anything on fire is generally a big hit. 

It's a snake - check out his creepy green eyes!

Coachella and Desert Riding

Look how many people rode their bikes to Coachella!!

Franz Ferdinand

We made it through half of Paul McCartney before I was just DONE for the night. Pictures of Paul were not very becoming, so none included. (ie - blurry)

Saturday bike ride - two words: HOT & WINDY!

Salton Sea is pretty cool though!

Training in the desert is always exciting - new scenery. I managed to find a great golf course to run around - absolutely beautiful. And then somehow I got stuck inside a gated community. Twice.

Silver Sun Pickups

TV on the Radio

Music and Fun

Tomorrow we leave for the desert. Our annual Coachella trip is this weekend. Lots of fun, music and training in the heat. I suppose this is good Wildflower prep. (Not the partying, the heat training . . .)

Here is a snapshot from last year's event. Expect some type of similar photo later this weekend. I was going to try to come up with a great costume for this year, but have failed miserably. Thankfully other people at Coachella don't forget, and are willing to take photos with me.
And I got this email this week. Hey look, there's Mirinda. And HOLY SMOKES, there is me next to Mirinda! Well that is just fun!

In the past 24 hours

In the past 24 hours I have:

• Run around in circles in the rain
  
• Swam in circles too many times to count
  
• Rode my bike 38mph up a hill (Thank you wind!!)
  
• Cursed my coach
  
• Told my legs to stop hating me
  
• Taken an ice bath
  
• Drank coffee

It's a Bird . . . It's a Plane . . .

This morning while riding my bike to the pool I had just crested the climb and was zipping downhill when from out of the dark I was nailed in the left shoulder by a mysterious creature.

My first reaction was "Holy-bad-navigating-bird! I hope I did not kill it?!" and then, "I think my shoulder is going to be bruised!"

After further contemplation though it may have been the world's largest grasshopper. We do have bats around here, but I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind because running into a bat in the dark while riding my bike just seems completely freaky!!

Fancy grasshopper origami by Brian Chan.

The Runbearable Lightness of Being

One thing I love about sport is the fun aspect. And the fun(ny) people involved in the sport. I am competitive and love a good race, but I do not ever want to get so serious that I forget to keep it fun.

In my book Brooks has always done an awesome job of keeping the fun in running. Check out their new Running Superfans site. It completely cracks me up - and admit it - you know someone with a little running shrine like this! Be sure to click on the book so you can see the top 10 running books. #5 makes me laugh.

The real live running superfans (Randy and Jason Sklar) will be at the Boston Marathon to add some laughs. If you are one of the lucky runners this year (go Maggs go!!) you might want to check them out.

Immagini de Bicicletta

At some point on our ride it was sunny. My forehead looks amazing in this photo, as does the GU hanging out of Brian's mouth.

Blurry cow ride-by.

Those clouds off in the distance caught up with us later and we got to ride through rain. Overall a pretty great day to own a bike though!!

Sinking

This is what is happening lately in my battle with conquering work. I'm not really sure how to come up for air.

Thanks for the color votes! I decided #2 is similar to a site I built a couple of years ago, www.digital-microscope.org, so it is out. Since I have multiple sites to build I will probably use #3 for the first site and #1 for the other if I can make it work without looking like a West Elm living room.

I will share the finished product when I am done - at this rate it may be a year. . .

Happy Easter. I think Steven is planning to spend the weekend getting the bunny (who thinks he is at the all-you-can-eat buffet) OUT of our yard!

Color

I'm building a new website for work. And I have narrowed my color schemes down to three that I personally think are awesome. Which of these screams "Digital Microscopes are FUN!" and makes you want to purchase one (or twenty) online?