Cycling Ninja

Our abnormal winter continues and we keep choosing to ride instead of ski.  The conditions aren't up to our spoiled standards and we don't have season passes this year, but we still feel guilty not going.  Before we moved to Utah, we spent lots of money and time making sure we were skiing every weekend.  I even flew the red-eye from Florida to snowboard no matter the conditions.  Now that we live within 30min of 7 resorts, we shouldn't take them for granted, but cycling has had a strong pull this winter.  I've proven I can ride in the cold and we've been doing long training sessions at night, so when the weekend rolls around, we both look forward to getting out on the road to work on technique and power.

Last Saturday, Christian joined us for a low 20s Park City ride but we all had to pedal our own pace to keep warm so it wasn't too social.  I wore my 4 top layers, plus a new pair of super warm gloves and had to add a skull cap under my balaclava - it was my coldest ride yet.  I made it 90min before heading back to the truck to warm up.  I might have made it longer, but my sports bra and socks were wet from sweating and I was starting to shiver.

We had a dusting of snow on Sunday, so we went back to the trainers for our workout and got several errands done in anticipation of Monday's new schedule.  I haven't blogged much about work, unless traveling, but last week I transitioned to a new job and am very excited about the change.  The only negative is having to commute into SLC again but all the positives, including reducing my business travel are so worth it.  I miss my gorgeous home office view, the flexibility of doing laundry or going for a neighborhood walk at lunch, and the other work-at-home neighbors. 

3am Wake-Up Scare - Ray is ok
Speaking of neighbors, we woke up at 3am this morning to flashing lights and realized that fire trucks were lining our street!  Unfortunately, our neighbor Ray had a car fire in his garage.  He is fine and the cleaning crews were there all day removing soot, but there were some tense moments as we all looked across at the billowing smoke and were concerned for his safety and hoped the house didn't burst into flames.  There were several fire trucks, marshall trucks, and police cruisers parked up and down our street monitoring the situation which was reassuring.  After some texts and phone calls that confirmed Ray's safety, we tried to get some sleep but weren't too successful.  A good reminder to be prepared for an emergency.

We rose less than 2hrs later to watch the first men's cycling classics race in Belgium, which was streaming live on the internet.  With 20km to go, we headed to another grueling cycling class and had to follow a Twitter feed for the final result.  We are so hooked this year and even created men's and women's fantasy cycling teams for an internet competition.  We love our cycling workouts and have been extra fortunate to have Max teach the last 3 classes.  The amount of information he shares during our workout is priceless and entertaining.  Whether it's stories about working as a cycling team doctor or explaining how each interval workout is triggering our muscles and making us better, the time flies and the pain is a bit more bearable.

After catching up on some sleep, Terry surprised me with a trip to the bike shop to remedy the 4 layer issue. I picked out an ultimate winter cycling jacket for my upcoming birthday, which also happened to be on sale!  I should only need a thin layer under the Inferno and the attached balaclava is killer.  Keep an eye out for the ninja cyclist out on the roads tomorrow. We finished off our shopping trip with an Epic Beer run and enjoyed a cold one during the NBA All-Star hoopla.  How about a Jazz player winning the Slam Dunk?!
Inferno Cycling Ninja - complete with red eyes

Epic Beer Supply - prepared for future emergencies







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