Hectic Week

The last few days since I've been back from Arizona have been crazy. Workouts haven't slowed down obviously, and trying to jump back in to life at work and early morning workouts has been a great reminder as to just how much of a blessing my trip south was. On top of the usual stuff, I've been scrambling to get my uniform printed for ITU racing, which is surprisingly quite the chore. The rules for logo placement and sizing are about 10 pages long and a mistake could mean missing a race. There's been some other stuff going on in my life as well that took up some time, but anyway, all I'm trying to say is I'm sorry for those of you who check this at regular intervals and have had nothing new to read. But, I can assure you, training is going great, and I hope to post a blog about my races in Texas that involves the acquisition of some hardware :)

To make up for things, I give you the funniest video I have seen in quite a while. Louis C.K.

This really is worth your time, I promise.

Tornado!

Two days ago I went for a long ride around South Mountain park in Arizona. It's about a 50 mile ride, and it has a tendency to be pretty windy. This occasion was no exception.

As I turned off the highway onto Riggs Rd, which was to be the start of my tempo interval, a massive swirling cloud of dust kicked up in the distance and starting gaining height and speed, heading towards the road! I had seen a couple of smaller cyclones that morning, but they were a ways off, and while exciting, they didn't propose any danger. This was a bit different. I stopped about 100 meters from where the "twister?" (I'm not sure what the proper label is) had made it on to the road. I suppose "engulfed" is a better term for what was happening actually, as I saw a minivan disappear into the dust. There was nothing to do but stop and wait.

I really wish that I had a picture or even a video, but I was a little busy being amazed and wondering if I should look for cover. There wasn't any cover, I was in the middle of the Phoenix desert after all.

Luckily, the swirling cloud hit a large building and seemed to dissipate. At least it ran out of dust to suck up, so maybe it continued on to the other side of the building in stealth. At any rate, I wasn't going to wait around to find out, so I started my interval and put as much ground between me and the site as possible.

Everything has been going great at camp, I've had excellent bike workouts and some very fast runs that I'm excited about. This morning I did the South Mountain time trial, but my Garmin is being finicky and I can't upload the file to find out if I got any KOM's on Strava. Devastating :)

My Dream..

I feel as though so many athletes write blog after blog about their training and eating and latest recovery toys. Well today I decided to remind everyone that blogs should be interesting and spark your imagination.

BEHOLD: 

Ever since Athletes Lounge purchased their E350 Super Duty Sportsmobile from Chris Lieto and I got to see/sit in/touch it for the first time, I've been completely in love. Yesterday I saw for the first time ever, a red one. Just like this. Complete with headlamps and everything. The options on these are amazing and they represent all that is good about America. A huge vehicle that you can go anywhere and do anything in. The tops pop up offering elevated ceiling/ bunk space. They can be outfitted with full kitchens, solar panels, televisions, all the racks you can think of, and much more. If I had one, my home would be everywhere. The training possibilities are practically unlimited. The beach? check. The mountain? Check. The desert? Check. Driving THROUGH the river and THROUGH the woods to Grandmothers house for a mountain bike training ride? No problem.

If you or anyone you know has access to one of these amazing machines or something even remotely similar, let me know. I need a vehicle for training camps, semi regional races, and the like, for the price of semi-free. Unfortunately these things are priced for people who don't actually have time to use them because they are busy working to pay for them. I obviously don't fit into that category. Picture your logo on the side of this marketing slam dunk. Or if you are an independent investor, a huge self portrait? But in all seriousness, someday... I will have one. I've decided it's just something that needs to happen :)



That's all for today, time for dinner and daydreams about big, red, terrain-crushing, American monster vans.