Early Races Hurt

The first road race of the year for us was last Saturday, and I'm not sure my legs were quite ready for it. I'm not really disappointed or surprised because it's so early, and almost everyone else has more racing already in their legs. I know I just need to get some race efforts under my belt and then I'll start to come around pretty fast. Ted fared slightly better than I did, but he still feels the same way. Good thing we have back-to-back road races this weekend!

The Cougars did so well against Notre Dame Saturday. After not having a great race, at least I got to listen to them win! I was working in a lab on campus today and overheard someone saying that people were lining the street outside. Sure enough, a crowd of people had formed, many with Cougar signs. Word had spread that the Cougar bus would be driving by shortly to take the team to the Lewiston airport. So, of course I had to go out and join the crowd, despite Ted's comments that I was a "dork." It's cool to see how excited Pullman is for this team.

Mom and Dad have become quite the fans too, and they headed to the Lewiston airport to see the team off today. Even Dad asked Kyle Weaver for an autograph! The next game is Thursday afternoon against North Carolina, which is arguably the "best" team in the country. It will be fun, but stressful, to watch.

One race down

The 2008 racing season is officially underway for Ted and me, having done our first race in Boise last Sunday. It was a long trip to make for a 10 mile time trial, but it was also an opportunity to get to meet all of my teammates and the great sponsors at Bob's Bicycles.

Sure enough, Kristin Armstrong, the former world time trial champion, was slotted to start just behind me, raising the questions of just how quickly she would catch me, and how much total time she would put into me. Pretty quickly, I could tell I wasn't having my best time trial, so I was a bit confused when I reached the turnaround and Kristin had not caught me. No, I had not put down a world championship-worthy first half; Kristin had decided to sit up because she did not want to risk crashing in the horrible cross winds.

Ted and I both ended up winning our categories, so it was a pretty cheery drive home. With any luck, these first results were just foreshadowing of what is to come in the season ahead. It was awesome to have the Bob's women's team capture the top 4 slots in the results, and I'm excited to have this great group to race with.

For those who haven't heard about Rusty's proposal, he flew over to Japan to surprise his girlfriend, who was flying back from New Guinea. She had been out of the country for a few weeks and they had barely had any communication, so he totally shocked her when he showed up at her hotel room with flowers and a ring.

Hitcher's super antsy and my tummy's growling, so that's it for now. Time to walk him up to campus to meet Ted, so we can come home and have some homemade Pozole. My Cougars play their first game in the NCAA Tournament tomorrow afternoon, so send good karma their way.

Congratulations to my big brother who is officially an engaged man.

Ready to Race

My new Bob's team kit.


A typical beautiful view we see on our Palouse training rides.

It took a while for me to get adjusted after my return from Paris. I immediately hopped back on the bike after taking quite a few days off, and it has felt great to be back in the swing of things. Most people have already begun their racing seasons, but Ted and I have yet to race. I think we're both getting antsy now, which is good since we'll be racing the next 8 or 9 weekends in a row.

Our season will begin this Sunday with a time trial in Boise. A five hour drive is a long way to go for a time trial, but it'll be good to visit with the team, especially since I missed the team training camp to get ready for France.

Ted told me last night that there is "no way" I'll win Sunday's time trial. I was slightly offended until I realized why he had made such a comment... none other than Kristin Armstrong (the former world time trial champion) is registered. At least I'll get to see how I compare against the best!

Half time is almost over in the Cougar vs. Ducks game, so I'm off to root on my boys. All of the home games are now over and I already miss them! I think we'll have to get season tickets again next year.

Paris Recap

Rusty and I flew home Monday from Paris. From the time we left the hotel in Paris to the time I walked in my front door in Pullman, I traveled for 24 straight hours, so I was pretty much useless yesterday. We saw a lot, including the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Musee D'Orsay. We also had some fabulous eats...crepes, onion soup, foie gras, sandwiches, pastries, etc. Here are some photos...


My first crepe (of several) with Nutella and bananas. Good stuff.


We went to the Louvre our first day in Paris, which was perfect since it was rainy and grey. Here's Rusty with our lovely morning coffee.


Rusty and me with the famous Mona Lisa.


Louis XIV's coronation crown. Crazy to think that this sat on his head!


This is a photo of the Pyramid from inside the Louvre.


Having a couple drinks at a sidewalk cafe just off the Champs Elysees.


Rusty by the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees.


This oddly painted building near the Champs Elysees made for a neat black and white photo.


Pastries like these could be found on almost every street.


Your standard grocery store bakery in Paris.


A variety of pates in the Grande Epicerie, a huge French grocery store.


We went all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which has 3 floors to visit. I have to admit that it was a little too high above the ground for my taste, but it did have amazing views of the city.


Rusty in front of Notre Dame, which is the most amazing cathedral I have ever been in. It was packed with people, but well worth the trip.


We took a boat tour on the Seine, which took us past the Eiffel Tower, among many other major Paris landmarks.


We could not resist taking a picture of this French bum. It just seemed so French for a bum to be passed out with a bottle of wine, rather than some unnamed alcohol in a paper bag.


Street food in Paris is amazing. We often got sandwiches from carts along the streets, and they were fantastic. Here I am with my salami sandwich and Rusty's pizza.


We visited the Musee D'Orsay on the final day of our trip. The museum used to be a train depot and this is a view of the inside. It houses mostly impressionist works, including Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, and others.


The Eiffel Tower is fabulous at night.


Me with the famous Paris landmark.

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Black and white shot of the Eiffel Tower. At 10 pm each evening, strobe lights flash along the tower, from top to bottom, for 10 minutes. We had no idea this would occur and just happened to be there our final night.


A night view of the Seine near Notre Dame cathedral - our final night in Paris.


An alley shot close to our hotel.

Rusty and I head to Paris tomorrow. I fly out of Spokane first thing in the morning, meeting him in Detroit tomorrow evening. We'll then take an overnight flight from Detroit to Paris, putting us in Paris around mid-day Wednesday. We'll head back March 3rd, which should give us a decent amount of time to explore. It will be very interesting to hear how Ted's solo week with Hitcher goes! I plan to take lots of pictures, so I'll post thme when I get home.

Riding Outdoors and France-bound

The weather has finally turned up, allowing us to get outside for some good rides. Saturday saw 6 of us doing an 80 mile loop from Pullman, down Wawawai grade, and back up the Lewiston grade to Pullman. See photos from that ride below.

Today we got out for 3 hours. It was sunny with blue skies, and I was actually warm on the bike. What a novelty!


Me in my new Bob's Bicycles team kit.


Left to right, front to back: Kris Stanton, Ben Rhodes, Adam Southerland, and Stephen Howard.


A self-portrait of Ted.


Here we have Ben Rhodes, Kris Stanton, Stephen Howard, Adam Southerland, and me.


The river was completely flat.

In other news, Rusty and I are heading to Paris next week. He'll get his official schedule for March in two days, so then we'll know exactly when we're going, and for how long. Most likely, we'll be leaving on the 25th or 26th and coming back in the first couple days of March. It won't be a long trip, but we plan to cram as much in as possible. I have emails out to two of my former French professors, so I'm sure I'll get some good feedback from them. All I know is that I plan to have some wine, cheese, bread, gelato, onion soup, crepes, pastries, chocolate, and on, and on...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day gave me a good excuse to make tea cakes with buttercream frosting. A four hour ride is also in the plans, so I figure I can eat quite a few of these babies.


Shredding cardboard boxes is so much fun.

Then and now

Then...


and now...






We were able to ride outside in Pullman today! The thaw has finally started, and the up-coming 10 day forecast has temperatures above 40. Spring is finally on the way. Four of us rode today, getting four hours in the saddle. It was windy, but we were all so happy to be outside that we didn't really care. Tired legs are all around now.

Homemade bagels and smelling the flowers

I received flowers last week from Mom and Dad. Ever since, Pazza will not leave them alone.


Homemade bagels are really the way to go. They're so much better than store-bought bagels, they're easy to make, and you can make any flavors you want. Today we have salt bagels, bagels with Italian seasonings and salt, and...


...cheddar bagels, and bagels topped with freshly shaved parmesan.

Fainting Goats

Riding, goodies, and Paris

We capped off our long weekend (thanks to the closure of WSU) with a long outdoor ride. The road to Lewiston has been closed off and on all week, but we were able to drive to Moscow and then cut down. Can you tell that we're desperate to ride outside? Today's ride was far easier than that of last weekend, but we all said we could feel our legs more at the end of today... I guess that big week of training is starting to hit me.

We have several goodies in the house right now and, thanks to today's hours in the saddle, we can enjoy them guilt-free! Fresh cornbread with crumbled bacon, homemade English muffins, and chocolate creme brulee will all be munched on in the coming hours. I love days when you ride enough that you don't even have to worry about what you eat.

With any luck, Rusty and I will be taking a trip to Paris at the end of the month. He's still waiting for the final word on how many days he will have off, but it's looking like it should work. It'll be a relatively short trip (5 or 6 days at the most), but we should be able to pack a lot in. If you have any suggestions of things to do or see, let me know!

You think your winter is bad?

They predicted a big storm would hit Pullman today. We awoke to a TON of snow on the ground this morning. We have more than a foot and a half on the ground and it is still snowing. Hitcher was able to escape from the yard for the first time today because there is so much snow along our fenceline that he was able to easily bound out; Ted has spent the morning shoveling a line along the fence, with hopes that the hound will stay in the yard. WSU is closed for a snow day today... for the first time since 1985! It will be very interesting to go to the Cal/WSU game tonight (they say it's still on schedule) because I imagine the crowd will be much smaller.

Just as I finished typing that last sentence, I looked out the window to see Hitcher jumping over the corner of the fence. Thankfully, he just ran across the street to the park where his girlfriend from across the street was playing with her owner. Now I just really hope that this behavior does not continue. If it weren't for all this snow, he would not have figured out he could escape.

Snow Ride

Rather than riding on our trainers today, we decided to brave the cold and snow on our mountain bikes. We got more snow last night and today, giving us a thick coating all around, and an even larger storm is coming Thursday. When we began our ride, the snow had ceased falling and parts of the sky were a bit blue. The roads were slushy with snow, but overall not too bad since the temperature was above freezing when we left the house. We were riding during the sunset, and with the drifting snow, it was really pretty; I'd still trade it in an instant for warm sunshine, though!

We turned around after about 40 minutes of riding, with a headwind in our faces and falling temperatures. Sure enough, the roads began to grow icy, and I suddenly found my front wheel yanked from underneath me. Down I went. I've got some bruises, but nothing too bad at all. Not more than a couple minutes later, Ted suffered the same fate, tumbling and rolling across the ice. Thankfully, he didn't fare any worse than I did.

Although we both crashed, I think we're both glad we got out. It was just nice to do something outdoors, rather than sitting on our trainers in front of the TV. Winter, winter, winter!

Another good weekend ride

Busted!


I made these cinnamon raisin bagels last week.


I bought a couple of these marzipan penguins from Huckleberries in Spokane a couple weeks ago. Marzipan is just one of the best things ever.


Hitcher and Shamus are getting along better and better all the time. This was the first time they had ever curled up together.

My car is finally home, after about 7 weeks in the body shop. Ted and I drove to Spokane Wednesday to pick it up, trading in the loaner for the RAV 4. Everyone told me my car would look brand new, but it's really amazing when you see it in person after seeing what it looked like after the deer. You would never know anything happened to it. It seems to drive fine, which is all that really matters.

We got another long ride in yesterday, doing the same route Ted and I did last Saturday. This time, however, we had seven starters, with five of us doing the whole ride. And, we rode all the way to the top of the Lewiston Grade, our final grade, giving us six more miles and 1200 more feet of climbing over last week. The grand total was over 8800 feet of climbing over 77 miles. We were all pretty blown by the end of it, but it was a really good group ride... one of the best group rides I've been on in a while. There were no hammerheads or super slowpokes, making for a nice, evenly-paced ride. With three grades and two other significant climbs, people had plenty of opportunities to go faster or harder if they felt so inclined.

Yet again, we have more snow today in Pullman. It's been snowing since early this morning. Enough is enough! Where is Spring?

Long Ride

We may still be unable to ride here in Pullman, but at least we have the Lewiston/Clarkston valley nearby. It really is amazing to see the climate differences between here and there, even though there are only 35 miles in between. We headed down to ride this morning, inviting others to join, but having no takers. I guess no one was "up to" our planned ride.

We managed to get five hours of riding, 70 miles, and almost 7600 feet of climbing... and we stayed dry! The forecast called for rain or snow, but the skies were kind and held off until 5 minutes after we returned to the car. Thank goodness we opted to only go halfway up the Lewiston Grade or we would have been very cold and wet. It never went above 39.

We rewarded ourselves by sharing a Fazzari's Shotsy pizza with my parents (excellent pizza!), and now get to take tomorrow off. It was so fun to get outside to ride today, but I am tired from my first long ride of 2008.