Tonight is finally a bit of relaxation time...well, I have some things that do need to be done, but there is time to sit here for a little while and spend quality time updating the blog. There is so much I want to write, but there are also a lot of emails that I owe people so I should put some effort into those.
With the lovely Colorado weather recently and some schedule modifications, I've finally gotten back on the bike in a way that is reminiscent of how I used to ride and train. And it really feels good. I feel more alive every day that I spend time on the bike. The last time I did the Sunday morning ride (MOB), it was when I was seriously racing. Being back there took me back, though there were many new faces. And yesterday's Twin Peaks ride also took me back to the time when I was on Twin Peaks. This has been a tour of previous years and a very welcome one.
Today we celebrated Amy's birthday (very belated) by having lunch at an Indian place--no one ate except for me (for their own reasons) but I scarfed down the buffet...now let me refrain that. My stomach doesn't hold as much after a solid almost 4-hr ride as it does any other day of the week. I know I ingest too many calories when I don't train.
Yesterday I went to mass at the Italian church in town. It was neat to be in a place with so many Italians. It was a very friendly place and I was happy that I went, even though I could count on one hand the number of people anywhere near my age.
How can it almost be Thanksgiving? I am happy that it is becoming vacation time, so many things to do and I am not going to have much more time off between now and mid-spring.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Catch Up Blogging
It's not fun to get behind on blogging, as it typically means that life has fully gotten out of control. I'm taking a break from working two weeks straight (it's been more like three).
And this week all I did was work. And stress about working. The beginning of the week I was so happy from traveling last week that I had tons of energy and was knocking out the work. By yesterday, I had a hard time getting through it. Stress takes its toll.
This weekend it snowed a lot in a very short period of time, I love lots of snow! Fortunately, I got lots of riding in on the trainer and am getting close to being done with work until tomorrow which is a huge, major deadline that I'm freaking out about...
Last night I went to a friend's housewarming party, 70s theme. I have no 70s clothes nor did I have time to buy any, so I went in all black, which fit my mood pretty well after this week. Below are some of my friends who were at the party.
Last weekend my very cool uncle was in town from NJ so we got a chance to visit and even ride a little together (he borrowed a mountain bike, I met him after finishing up a very nice long-ish road ride to Morrison).
And here are pictures we each took of each other from where we were standing/lying in downtown Denver:
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Two weeks ago I spent the week in Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota. For a place like Minnesota that is so freezing cold in the winter, the week I was there was very pleasant. It was a warm 40-50 degrees and I got to workout every day I was there. I find work travel to be very relaxing and a great time to catch up on sleep and workouts. One of the things I truly dislike about my current situation is that I have to drive to work every day. When traveling to another city for work, driving is typically not necessary. I wish I could travel more often!
Notice the walkway above the street--it's part of the 5-10 mile indoor skyway system in the city that allows people to go all over downtown without going outside...yes, it gets THAT cold in the winter in MN.
And the weekend prior to leaving MN was the grand prix cyclocross race in Boulder. Below is a picture of a random racer, but I was trying to capture the beauty of the scene--Boulder mountains in the background and a huge crowd making deafening noise cheering on the cross racers. It was so much fun being out there and it was a perfectly beautiful day (like upper 60s) for a long ride prior to cheering at the race.
And this week all I did was work. And stress about working. The beginning of the week I was so happy from traveling last week that I had tons of energy and was knocking out the work. By yesterday, I had a hard time getting through it. Stress takes its toll.
This weekend it snowed a lot in a very short period of time, I love lots of snow! Fortunately, I got lots of riding in on the trainer and am getting close to being done with work until tomorrow which is a huge, major deadline that I'm freaking out about...
Last night I went to a friend's housewarming party, 70s theme. I have no 70s clothes nor did I have time to buy any, so I went in all black, which fit my mood pretty well after this week. Below are some of my friends who were at the party.
Last weekend my very cool uncle was in town from NJ so we got a chance to visit and even ride a little together (he borrowed a mountain bike, I met him after finishing up a very nice long-ish road ride to Morrison). And here are pictures we each took of each other from where we were standing/lying in downtown Denver:
.jpg)
Two weeks ago I spent the week in Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota. For a place like Minnesota that is so freezing cold in the winter, the week I was there was very pleasant. It was a warm 40-50 degrees and I got to workout every day I was there. I find work travel to be very relaxing and a great time to catch up on sleep and workouts. One of the things I truly dislike about my current situation is that I have to drive to work every day. When traveling to another city for work, driving is typically not necessary. I wish I could travel more often!
And the weekend prior to leaving MN was the grand prix cyclocross race in Boulder. Below is a picture of a random racer, but I was trying to capture the beauty of the scene--Boulder mountains in the background and a huge crowd making deafening noise cheering on the cross racers. It was so much fun being out there and it was a perfectly beautiful day (like upper 60s) for a long ride prior to cheering at the race.
And the before the race, I was hiking here, in this winter wonderland near Golden.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Bridesmaid Bowling...
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Whirlwind
Getting back into life has been insane. There have been so many things going on, I can't keep it all straight. Last weekend started with dinner at Anne's place (she had a lot of organic veggies from a local farm that needed to be eaten...my fav was the spaghetti squash, which was as useful as spaghetti in the meal). It was oooohhhh so good, it sort of took me back to the way I had been accustomed to eating in Italy.
It took me a full week and a day to get to a grocery store after getting home...so I didn't eat much of anything fresh for a little while. Fortunately, I had lots of frozen fruit and veggies, but that's not a good substitute when my taste buds knew the difference.
After the meal, it was time to hang out with new friends (a group that a friend of mine had pulled together, many of them from Washington DC, they came in for Beer Fest). Yes, beer fest is THAT good, it's worth coming all this way for it. And here I am, living in town and I missed it for the second year in a row. Phooey! Anyway, we went to a jazz show at Dazzle. Interesting, I just love jazz, but I realized that think more and am able to go to a happy place when I am listening to jazz. Really need to go more often than once a year.
Saturday night was the Inaugural Party of the Century...and it truly was a party of the century! We had a crowd of probably close to 200 young Catholics (mainly, but wasn't limited to Catholics, of course), the dance floor was full all night and the band had so much fun, they told me how impressed and pleasantly surprised they were at how good everyone was at dancing and how much everyone dance. Trust me, I was shocked. And the dance made up for years and years of disappointing dances, where I would go and not dance all night since the guys wouldn't ask the girls and I was too shy to do anything about it. Everyone had so much fun, in fact, that when the dance was over at midnight, many people were still there not interested in going home yet. And there was a party after the party (the guys felt compelled to empty the kegs!) Seriously sweet.
Sunday my tired legs allowed me to do a little bike path riding and then I had to get cracking on work. No way to start the week! Anyway, there's the update. No need for anyone but me to read this far down this post, I am using this as a journal at this point! This is a weekend I don't want to forget. Tonight I just got back from salsa lessons, I'm really motivated to learn how to dance now that I know how much fun it can be!!!
It took me a full week and a day to get to a grocery store after getting home...so I didn't eat much of anything fresh for a little while. Fortunately, I had lots of frozen fruit and veggies, but that's not a good substitute when my taste buds knew the difference.
After the meal, it was time to hang out with new friends (a group that a friend of mine had pulled together, many of them from Washington DC, they came in for Beer Fest). Yes, beer fest is THAT good, it's worth coming all this way for it. And here I am, living in town and I missed it for the second year in a row. Phooey! Anyway, we went to a jazz show at Dazzle. Interesting, I just love jazz, but I realized that think more and am able to go to a happy place when I am listening to jazz. Really need to go more often than once a year.
Saturday night was the Inaugural Party of the Century...and it truly was a party of the century! We had a crowd of probably close to 200 young Catholics (mainly, but wasn't limited to Catholics, of course), the dance floor was full all night and the band had so much fun, they told me how impressed and pleasantly surprised they were at how good everyone was at dancing and how much everyone dance. Trust me, I was shocked. And the dance made up for years and years of disappointing dances, where I would go and not dance all night since the guys wouldn't ask the girls and I was too shy to do anything about it. Everyone had so much fun, in fact, that when the dance was over at midnight, many people were still there not interested in going home yet. And there was a party after the party (the guys felt compelled to empty the kegs!) Seriously sweet.
Sunday my tired legs allowed me to do a little bike path riding and then I had to get cracking on work. No way to start the week! Anyway, there's the update. No need for anyone but me to read this far down this post, I am using this as a journal at this point! This is a weekend I don't want to forget. Tonight I just got back from salsa lessons, I'm really motivated to learn how to dance now that I know how much fun it can be!!!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
1 Week Since Returning
I really like blogging as a means of journaling. This is just not as private as a journal should be, but at least it captures the every day stuff that's interesting to remember. Here's a random, cool pic of the Trevi Fountain in Roma. It's huge, it takes more pics to show the whole thing.
Just when I thought the jet lag was over, it seemed to get worse. Every morning I've been waking up really early without the alarm clock (good), but every night at 8 pm, I have turned into a pumpkin. Today that seemed to change, but I was also being very active at 8 pm (at the gym) so maybe I would have gotten super tired had I not been out.
I'm still uploading pictures, but at least enough are up to share the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/lifeonskinnytires/Italia# (this only goes 1/2 way through the bike trip so lots of cool pics are still coming). Every day I get a few more up. I've been trying to caption them, but that's taking quite awhile.
Here's a picture of people at hot springs (on a hot day) on the last day of the bike trip. I'm including the picture just because I REALLY want hot springs right now. I leave Denver for ~20 days and it goes from summer to winter. It was raining a good portion of the day today and tonight it smelled like snow (and was quite chilly).
Yesterday was my second ride since being back, but the first long ride. It was 40 miles all uphill, then 40 miles down with a tailwind. Started at 6:30 am since the Italian Festival was going on and I didn't want to miss it! I haven't ridden that far without a break for espresso, melone, figs or a full garden-fresh lunch in a very long time. I missed the food stops.
Had a scary blowout with my front tire, but fortunately the tire stayed on the rim and I was able to get the bike stopped before the rim touched the pavement. This is the second time I've had a ride-stopping mechanical really close to The Bike Station. Funny, because I was thinking that I should drop in to say hi to Pete and tell him all about the trip.
The Italian Festival was enjoyable since it was fairly authentic--all of the signs were in Italian and there were quite a few true Italians there (like those who speak the language). I kept myself away from the gelato and other food so as to not mess up my memory of what I had eaten in Italy, but I did have a very pleasing cannoli. The live music was fun and definitely the best part, well, and enjoying the time with my parents who have become much more interested in all things Italian lately. I wonder why!
Saturday I spent at a Theology of the Body conference. If you're Catholic (or even if you aren't), I highly recommend learning all about it. I think it holds the answers to so much of what is confusing in life, especially when it comes to relationships and the fundamental meaning of life. Theology of the Body is straight from the teachings of Pope John Paul II, he spent most of his life developing it but it doesn't sound like anything you'd ever hear a priest or a pope say. Seriously, check it out.
Just when I thought the jet lag was over, it seemed to get worse. Every morning I've been waking up really early without the alarm clock (good), but every night at 8 pm, I have turned into a pumpkin. Today that seemed to change, but I was also being very active at 8 pm (at the gym) so maybe I would have gotten super tired had I not been out.
I'm still uploading pictures, but at least enough are up to share the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/lifeonskinnytires/Italia# (this only goes 1/2 way through the bike trip so lots of cool pics are still coming). Every day I get a few more up. I've been trying to caption them, but that's taking quite awhile.
Here's a picture of people at hot springs (on a hot day) on the last day of the bike trip. I'm including the picture just because I REALLY want hot springs right now. I leave Denver for ~20 days and it goes from summer to winter. It was raining a good portion of the day today and tonight it smelled like snow (and was quite chilly).
Yesterday was my second ride since being back, but the first long ride. It was 40 miles all uphill, then 40 miles down with a tailwind. Started at 6:30 am since the Italian Festival was going on and I didn't want to miss it! I haven't ridden that far without a break for espresso, melone, figs or a full garden-fresh lunch in a very long time. I missed the food stops.
Had a scary blowout with my front tire, but fortunately the tire stayed on the rim and I was able to get the bike stopped before the rim touched the pavement. This is the second time I've had a ride-stopping mechanical really close to The Bike Station. Funny, because I was thinking that I should drop in to say hi to Pete and tell him all about the trip.
The Italian Festival was enjoyable since it was fairly authentic--all of the signs were in Italian and there were quite a few true Italians there (like those who speak the language). I kept myself away from the gelato and other food so as to not mess up my memory of what I had eaten in Italy, but I did have a very pleasing cannoli. The live music was fun and definitely the best part, well, and enjoying the time with my parents who have become much more interested in all things Italian lately. I wonder why!
Saturday I spent at a Theology of the Body conference. If you're Catholic (or even if you aren't), I highly recommend learning all about it. I think it holds the answers to so much of what is confusing in life, especially when it comes to relationships and the fundamental meaning of life. Theology of the Body is straight from the teachings of Pope John Paul II, he spent most of his life developing it but it doesn't sound like anything you'd ever hear a priest or a pope say. Seriously, check it out.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Trying to get back into normal life
It just occurred to me today that I don't remember seeing anyone walking around the streets talking on their cell phones or texting anywhere in Italy. I'm sure people do it somewhere, but not to the extent we do it here. And I saw quite a few young people all over the streets and on the beach (in Fano).
Another thing that took some getting used to is all of the big cars here. Even the small ones are huge compared with Italian Fiats and zippy matchbox-sized cars. And I had to get used to driving again (not that I wanted to, I could be very happy never driving).
It has been really tricky to sit and work yesterday and today. After being so active for so long, I got into that mode of moving constantly (unless I was sitting down at a meal). Tonight I ran and lifted, that helped rid me of some pent up energy. The time on the bike really kindled my desire to be race-fit again. And the trip helped me get close to race weight. After all of the huge meals and gelati (that's plural for gelato), I came home lighter. Maybe I should write a book entitled "The Gelato Diet."
Italian Fair coming up this weekend in Denver! I'm so excited to go, but am concerned the food won't be as good as it is in Italy, I don't want to eat anything that might possibly erase the memory of those flavors, textures, aromas...
Another thing that took some getting used to is all of the big cars here. Even the small ones are huge compared with Italian Fiats and zippy matchbox-sized cars. And I had to get used to driving again (not that I wanted to, I could be very happy never driving).
It has been really tricky to sit and work yesterday and today. After being so active for so long, I got into that mode of moving constantly (unless I was sitting down at a meal). Tonight I ran and lifted, that helped rid me of some pent up energy. The time on the bike really kindled my desire to be race-fit again. And the trip helped me get close to race weight. After all of the huge meals and gelati (that's plural for gelato), I came home lighter. Maybe I should write a book entitled "The Gelato Diet."
Italian Fair coming up this weekend in Denver! I'm so excited to go, but am concerned the food won't be as good as it is in Italy, I don't want to eat anything that might possibly erase the memory of those flavors, textures, aromas...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Jet Lag & Getting Back to Reality
Today was my first day back at work. I needed yesterday to rest and unpack. Strangely, I awoke at 5:30 am this morning without an alarm and felt great. (HUH?) However, right around lunch time, I felt so super tired and that lasted for most of the rest of the day.
There are a couple of dances coming up this weekend and next (this is highly unusual) and I've been wanting to learn how to dance so somehow I gathered the energy to go out to salsa dance lessons. That was almost as aerobic as a good training ride and incredibly fun. (Does it count as cross training?) The salsa fusion dancing after the lesson was really sweet and there were live drummers.
All my pictures still need to be uploaded, when they're up, I'll post a link here to them. And yes, final thoughts and more Italy stuff coming this weekend.
There are a couple of dances coming up this weekend and next (this is highly unusual) and I've been wanting to learn how to dance so somehow I gathered the energy to go out to salsa dance lessons. That was almost as aerobic as a good training ride and incredibly fun. (Does it count as cross training?) The salsa fusion dancing after the lesson was really sweet and there were live drummers.
All my pictures still need to be uploaded, when they're up, I'll post a link here to them. And yes, final thoughts and more Italy stuff coming this weekend.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
La Dolce Vita
After 12 hours in airplanes today and an 8 hour difference in time, I have not slept since I awoke in Roma at 6 am. I don't want to do the math--that's being awake waaay too many hours. All of the travel time gave me time to think about the trip and bellisima Italia. A piece of my heart didn't make the trip home with me--I think I left it in one of the Umbrian hill towns. I am happy to see my family (and Mom made this super good arugula salad tonight and ravioli, go Mom!) I'm quite content to have more Italian food.
Arrivederci!
Arrivederci!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Today in Roma and the Vatican
I know this is jumping around a lot, but now it is officially past my bedtime and I am officially tired of blogging. I visited the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel today. St. Peter's bascillica was closed, I understand the Pope was making new bishops there. Tomorrow we will go to mass there, not sure which one. Spent a lot of time walking all over Rome tonight to see the sights and do a fair amount of people watching.
We got some rain tonight. The first clap of thunder was so appropriate for Rome: it was incredibly loud and it rolled through the sky for a few long seconds. Then rain poured and the thousands of people in the streets next to the Spanish Steps fled under awnings. Made for a peaceful scene during the rain. It is still really warm here so I didn't mind walking in the rain.
View of St. Peter's from the top of the Spanish Steps.
Bottom of the Spanish Steps looking up.
View from 1/2 way up the Spanish steps at the huge crowd below. There are so many more people in these streets well into the night than what I typically see in NYC.
Bronze statue of Hercules. Very few bronze statues from way back still exist. This was in the Vatican museum. I took so many pics, I won't post them, it was such a vast collection. Was really good to have a guided tour and being able to skip the line was a MUST.
In St. Peter's Square after the tour early this afternoon.Tomorrow I'll be meeting up with cousins who just happen to be vacationing in Roma, too and I should see the Colosseum, Pantheon, etc. The trip is almost over. I will be very happy to see everyone back home, but I can't say I'm homesick yet.
I'll blog more about my thoughts on Italy, etc. later. All I can say right now is that I am definitely not coming home the same person who came here 2 1/2 weeks ago. I wish I had taken this trip years ago, but I also think the timing on this trip couldn't have been any better for a few reasons.
Thanks again to everyone out there in blog land, it has been fun traveling with you!
Ciao ciao!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Fast Forward to Porto Ercole
This is most of the group after we finished our coast-to-coast ride (Gina isn't here, she was visiting the x-ray machine thanks to a crash 2 miles from the end of the whole ride, fortunately, she was fine, just has horrible looking bruises). Jim and Roe had to go home early thanks to Jim's bad crash that caused him to have a bad concussion. His crash was caused by bad pavement (solo crash).
It was so beautiful in Porto Ercole, it was a nice time to have some beer, but I didn't end up getting in the water. The dinner that night was, again, scrumptious.
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