nooo

Another reason I hate the smell of cow poo is because I smell it around in the air at night. That smell, that pungent smell, means one thing. It's gonna snow. I know that sounds crazy. When my roommmate said that's what the smell means, I looked at her like she belonged in a looney bin(oh wait, she already lives in one). The pressure system apparently pushes air from greeley(yeehaw cow town) and circulates it to the Front Range when it's going to snow. Hasn't been wrong yet. BOOOO.

A few ride photos

I haven't been posting ride photos because when I'm doing pretty flat, base miles, it all looks the same. It was really nice for several days, and I managed to get in 15 hours of training since Tuesday before the snow today. I only have to ride the trainer tomorrow. yaaaay!


It'll be nice to be IN the mountains instead of them in the background. The photo of the hoofed animals is so I can complain. They really STINK right now. I'm trying to ride my bike, my breathing is faster than normal, and it just is unbearable. It is like driving through Texas. PPPeeeww cows and horses, you stink, you stink, you stink.



As you can see, still lots of snow... and more every week.





aaa

Reminder

If you ride bikes, be sure to check your bolts periodically. I'm the queen of stuff coming loose on my bike. I just checked my crank bolts and they were completely loose.

Let the sun SHINE!

It topped 50 today. That meant a wonderful day to ride. The roads in this area were back to their normal character, full of cyclists wearing every color of the rainbow. I blew off my afternoon class so i could go big this afternoon, and that I did! :) It was much more appealing to do a 4 hour ride in the sun, rather than sit in a classroom and learn about action potentials for the bijillionth time!!!

So I have 2 stories for you today.

The first. I was sitting in class this morning, and I like the class. We are talking about design of an artificial heart. The prof was discussing the A&P of the heart, and drew a diagram of the left and right heart on the board. The left heart has a lot of different arteries coming out the top, particularly in the aortic arch. An engineer(or enginerd) said ecstaticly, "OH! IT LOOKS LIKE A CHARACTER FROM STAR WARS!" I'll pause to let that sink in.......... I leaned over to my friend and said, "You know we are definitely in an engineering class with THAT comment." The only thing I can think of that is worse is saying it looks like something from Star Trek. Man am I in the wrong field...or maybe I'm in the right field b/c I can make fun of people.

Next. Not as good. In the small town of Hygeine today I saw a strange site. A rasta-man on the side of the road (in the bike lane). That's not so strange in these parts...however, he was not only in the bike lane. He was RIDING A HORSE in the bike lane. Nice.

The deep freeze is over.... till Saturday!

Just a quick update...having a busy week, but I don't want to leave my friends in the dark!! :) The weather has finally decided to throw me a bone. It's been in the mid forties all week, and they are forecasting 55 tomorrow! I know the weatherman is just a big tease and will probably leave me with blue..... lips.... but, here's to hoping breaking 50 tomorrow. Unfortunately, (insert sound of doom), it is suppose to snow Saturday and various days next week. Fortunately, next week is my rest week(and consequently an epic work week) so I don't really care if it snows. Do your worst! (okay, I take it back...)

Training is going really well, I'm coming into my base fitness quite nicely. Some of the rides are painful since I'm weight training and riding on the same day at times. Sore legs + going uphill = baaad news and me hoping I don't see anyone I know. :) I'm hoping to finish up this week with 18 hours under my belt, one of the biggest weeks of the year. I have one more month of base, and then I get to crank it up a notch and start doing intervals and climbing. I can't wait!! That's my favorite. Nothing like getting agro up a canyon.

OH yeah, I almost forgot. I'm going to Hawaii in August. booooyaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! :)

I miss playing in a wind ensemble.

Yes, for those of you who met me in my college days, you may not know that I used to be pretty serious about playing the flute in high school. (and I will be embarassed to admit that I played piccolo in marching band, if someone has anything to say about band camp, it IS like in the movies. muwahaha) Believe it or not, I still manage to play every now and then. I get on kicks and will practice (although I get embarassed if my roommate hears considering she is a professional viola-ist). Then I find myself whistling songs from high school wind ensemble in the shower and the nostalgia begins.



I talked to my friend Diana and got a list of some songs we played in HS although I'm looking to complete it and download all of them. These songs are just so great. :) It makes me really miss playing in a group. So if you any of you know of "fun" bands or symphonies that get together once a week or so to play, I'd definitely be looking into adding that to my repetoire (being school, 2 jobs, training, getting better at french, trying to have a social life.... but I can fit it in somewhere :)... ) It would force me to play more, which I really do enjoy. It is a little disheartening when I play now though. It's half decent, but I can do nowhere NEAR what I used to do. It makes me sad.

Here's a short list of some of the classical endeavors from high school if you are interested...and those of you who were there, help me remember if you know any more! Itunes has some of these, so if you're looking for some good classical, here you go.

-various Holst Suites(not sure which ones)
-Italian in Algiers by Rossini (a fav)
-Children's March by Grainger
-Lincolnshire Posy by Grainger
-American Guernica by Adolphus Hailstork
-Polka and Fuge from Schwanter the Bagpiper
-Elsa's Processional to the Cathedral by Wagner
-Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna by Franz Von Suppe
-Shepherd's Hey and County Derry by Grainger
-Procession of the Nobles by Rimsy Korsokov
-Pas Redouble(one of my fav) by Saint Saens
-Candide Overture by Bernstein (another fav)

Thanks Diana! :)

Still snowing..... :(

Fortunately for you, the snow means I have extra time to work on my blog. I'm still working on it, but this will satiate you for awhile. :) Well... it is STILL snowing here in Boulder, CO. This is pretty much the worst winter Boulder has seen in a very long time. Which means.... MORE trainer time. YES! It's better than freezing and being miserable outside. At least if I'm miserable inside, I don't have to be bundled up, my core temperature is actually warm, and I can take breaks if need be.

My friend Lara sent me this book to read- The Alchemist. I'm about halfway through. It's a great book if anyone is looking for a winter read.

Meanwhile, I'll be dreaming of the sun and summer, and riding on singletrack in the mountains. That's what I daydream about while on the trainer....that and trying to hammer some bitches at the races :)

Someone please...make it stop.

Sorry for my lack of posts. Blogger has been temperamental and hasn't been letting me upgrade my template or post pictures. Boooo. I'm still trying to customize the colors on the this blasted template but it still won't let me.

I started school this past week. Looks like another good semester ahead of me with 2 biomedical engineering courses (1 about implantable devices focusing on the cardiovascular system and the other is a neural systems/physiological control course--liquid state ionics). It'll be a good taste for my palate. I also started my new research assistantship in the Neurophysiology of Movement lab in the integrated physiology department. I'm really excited about this job. The lab has a great vibe about it and I've already learned a great deal. I think this is where I'm supposed to be! I'm starting to appreciate having my engineering degree because it's a great key to unluck doors to many awesome opportunities I didn't think I had access to.

I have had some Seasonal Affective Disorder. Yes... there is still tons of snow on the ground and it's STILL freezing here. It has snowed the past 5 weekends in a row. When I try to go outside and ride my bike, I freeze since it really isn't getting much warmer than the upper 20s(For you Euros, that's Farenheit...we're talking a high of -6C) . Hence, I've been riding the trainer for several hours on end. It's mid-late January and I want to have some fitness by Nova Norba National at the very end of March. As you'll see below, I've been trying to find other means to amusing myself besides the trainer. I went skiing last week as well, but you know... I'm a warm weather person. I like hiking, camping, running, and biking. Yes, you can do all these when it's cold, but it's just not as pleasant. I like cool rushing streams, green and lush forests, sunshine, churping birds, and clear blue skies. The time will come...I just wish it would hurry up.

And now Blogger is finally letting me post some photographia:


Trainer set up #1. Ride with a friend. Brian has been riding the trainer as well. Gotta stay motivated. I'm being careful not to burn out, so don't worry! :) The blue bike is a Waltworks, custom made steel frame. Made by my friend and NM native, Walt Wehner. www.waltworks.com


This book is THE spawn of satan, the bane of my existence, and hopefully I will never have to open it again. I took 2/3 power electronics courses and am happy to say that I am bailing on the certificate. There is one class left offered this semester, but I want to enjoy my life, not curse it every morning I wake up. 20 hours of homework a week and 30-40 hour take home exams is NOT my bag... SO I am putting this book to good use.

The usual trainer set-up, me riding solo with my ipod, gazing out at the terrible weather....dreaming of feeling the warm sun on my face.



And at the epidomy of my desire to be outside having fun, I am rollerblading in the house. I am afraid to do it outside anyway since I can't stop, so this works juuuust fine, thank you.

I got a wireless mouse for my laptop....it's phenomenal. I'm trying to get psyched to ride the trainer all weekend, wish me luck.... or send some sweet techno my way.

Under construction

Hi folks. Bear with me for the next few weeks. I'm trying to make my blog look cooler. I'm also trying to get my commenting working since I have had many many complaints! ;) I definitely like my old template better, but if you can't interact with my blog, what's the fun in that? Maybe I need to learn HTML like a real engineer.

Yaaaay Press!

Big thanks to one of our new sponsors this year- Niterider. They specialize in lights for 24 hr racing, night riding, and also motorcycle lights. We look forward to rocking your lights at the 24 hour races and hopefully picking up another National Championship for 2007! Thank you, thank you!

http://niterider.com/toughgirl.shtml

My new year's resolution...

is to stop calling children and animals "it" and "thing." I am going to try to actually call them "him" and "her." I'm weening myself off this by calling kids, "the child."

A nice break (now with photos)

The site of these Sandia Mountains is the site of home. Sandia means watermelon, can you tell why?

It's been wonderful being home for the past 2 weeks. The first week at home, I was still frazzled from the end of my semester, so I spent a lot of quality time with my family and the rest of the time riding my bike. My goal was to do two 18 hour weeks of training while I was here, but that didn't work out! I got one solid week in and then the mother nature put her foot down and didn't want me to do any riding this week. There is still a ton of snow outside, the bike paths are a mess, and some residential streets are still super icy(like mine!). It's really amazing how quickly I forget how tired training makes a person! I was ready for bed by 9 PM the entire week I was putting in the miles. I haven't done too much serious riding since the summer. I didn't really train for cross, hence my embarassing results. :) I feel refreshed and really motivated to train. There was tons of snow in Boulder too, and I actually said to Brian, "you're so lucky you can ride the TRAINER!" It's times of desperation when I'm actually jealous someone is riding on a trainer inside. I even rode the stupid exercise bike for 2 hours at the gym Sunday. I don't want to do that for awhile! I can't wait to get back on the bike, get my NEW mountain bike that's coming, and tear up some singletrack!



Record breaking weather in in the querque.

Coming home means I get spoiled with all this gooood food. That's what I'm talking about! Nice break from tofu and pasta :)

This week, I've been trying to run and hike in the snow. I feel more like I'm doing the Riverdance when I go running. Oh well! It makes me laugh anyway.

This is before we got the second foot of snow.


This photo reminds me of candyland.


Xmas roses.

I made my biggest snowman ever...err..bunny?


errr...Jackalope?



errr...the scariest thing you've ever seen!

Snow ball fiiiiggghhht! I had to show my little brother how it's done.

SMACK!

What's up now?

I've gotten to see some of my friends this week. The weather made me housebound for a few days, so it's been good to get out! I really miss my friends from my past. Most of them moved away from here too, so it's always a wonderful reunion when I come back home. It was great to see you guys! I go back home on Sunday, so hopefully more fun is to be had! I miss my "other" family" in Boulder too-- my friends and boyfriend. See you guys soon!