After an incredible bachelors trip down to Walker’s family place NE of Cabo I’m back in the cold of Colorado and the real world hit quickly with a $1000 furnace repair bill. No more surfing, WD40 fire sprayers, poison ink spraying snails, margs, near-death crab hunting accidents or lighting the ocean on fire for another year… Now it’s back to painting (1 day to go), stone work in the yards, wedding planning and TRAINING! How 2 weeks go by that fast is incredible. It’s already time to start up in the gym, do some running with the dogs and get going again on the bike with some power work and steadily increasing hours. Good times.

When we finished renovating this spring the one interior project left incomplete was painting all of the trim and doors.  I’m now 2 days in with another solid 3 to go.  Gets kind of tedious…

Also, like every year, I went out for a first run far more ambitious than I should have and can barely walk.  With end of season fitness running is no problem and until you stop you don’t notice how much damage is done.  The second you stop however…bad.
Next year I’ll ease into it a bit more.  Maybe.

Done. Kaput. Over. Complete. History. My 2006 season is now officially over and the off season has begun. Cheynna and I celebrated last night with a great dinner at Frasca (and a killer ‘98 Giuseppe Rinaldi Brunate-La Coste Barolo), slept in this morning and then took Char for a hike up Sanitas. Now the transition into house projects and wedding planning.

The track wrapped up well but not as we’d hoped. We won the team pursuit easily but missed the time standard we were targeting by a good chunk of time. Sounds like this will probably end the team pursuit experiment… As a whole however the Nationals were a success: Meatball won the pursuit, he and Huff teamed up for a win in the Madison and Creed crushed the Points Race. The only endurance event we missed out on was the scratch. The most impressive performances of the Nationals had to go to Sarah Hammer in the endurance womens events. She made the entire field look like a play toy and set a new national record in the pursuit in the process. Olympic Champ in the making there…

On a side note I have my 2006 Javelin Torgiano race bike for sale if anybody is looking for a new ride. Hand built carbon, all D-A, Oval, Fizik… no wheels however. Give a shout with inquries.

Thanks to everybody for all of the e-mails of support this season, especially during the time I spent gimped out mid-year. As the off season progresses the topics here may shift towards the “chow” side. I’m always up for trying favorite recipes - any suggestions? A cold fall day here in Boulder and with NOAA predicting our first snow of the year shortly soups, stews and hearty dishes are at the front of my mind. As I tap away here at the computer bread dough is rising and a pot of sweet carrot soup (a house staple - recipe going up on the chow page shortly) is on the stove. Not a bad first day off.

First, a link to Ryan’s Croc Shirts. Support the man, it’s a good cause.

Track. LA, err, Carson. Hmm. Good times. Not sure if I’m made for this crap. After being away for a while you get all worked up, think it is a good idea and get excited for the change of pace ahead. The first day on the boards is a blast. The second day is kind of cool. After that you feel like sh*t and want to go home. Not sure what to say other than that.

I bailed on the events yesterday because I felt like hell and thought it better to get some time in on the roads. I ended up having a really nice four hour ride along the coast and exploring PV, the one nice place around here that is filled with houses you can only describe as stupid. Not sure what people do with all the space but I guess it isn’t that hard to fill… A few pretty cool pieces of architecture however and some nice roads. Too bad it only takes an hour and a half to loop.

This morning we raced the qualifiers for tonight’s points race, qualifying 6 of us to race the 24 person final. Fingers crossed we don’t do anything too stupid and manage to pull out a win. Friedman is living up to his Meatball monkier and should probably take a few laps solo…

Tomorrow is the Team Pursuit, the event we’re “focusing” on here, and my last race of the year. Off season here I come.

NY Times Link 

Some seriuos stuff here…at least for the caseophiles among us:) Wonder where France and Spain fit in?