Cramming several weeks of joy into <1,000 words

Posted on by Lindsay
Hello friends. Sorry to be light on posting lately, but things have been busy. I just had a delicious and healthy dinner of vegetables and lean meat and it was SO satisfying that I'm basking in a smugly nutritious glow while trying to figure out whether I'm going to eat chocolate, cheese, bacon, or all three. I've also thought about making another batch of scones, but the last thing I need is that gastric ballast before tomorrow's intervals. Although my body seems to have developed a method for coping with food mid-ride: Breakfast is my favorite meal, so having it several times isn't so bad. Riding is going well. Team Colavita training camp begins on March 2 in Borrego Springs, CA and I can't wait to meet my teammates and kick off the season. We've paired off to handle cooking meals for the team and staff on assigned nights and ...continue reading.

That time I opened (and promptly closed) my own business

Posted on by Lindsay
Ally Stacher, pro cyclist for Team Specialized-lululemon, recently launched her own line of bars, Ally's Bars. I too have been doing a bit of cooking lately; after averaging 3-4 trips a week to the same Vietnamese place over the course of a month,1 I tried replicating the dish at home and thus kicked off a series of cooking experiments.2 That plus the news about Ally's Bars led me to decide I needed to make my own bike-friendly food in the form of miniature scones.3 I baked them tonight. They were a success! Pocket-sized, moist but durable enough to hold up in a pocket, and absolutely delicious. However, there will be no Lindsay's Scones coming to Internets near you. I have been in the house with these scones for less than four hours and have already eaten seven of them. Seven. That's over a third of the batch. My order fulfillment would fail ...continue reading.

Chicken or Pig

Posted on by Lindsay
While reading the blog of a fellow racer recently, I came across something interesting. She talked about the book “Base Building for Cyclists” by Thomas Chapple and included the following excerpts: “Commitment to being the best possible athlete must go beyond following a schedule and completing workouts. Commitment is the details of how you live your daily life, how you track your training, how you listen to and take care of your body, and how you act to change whatever is holding you back from reaching your goals.” (p. 243-244) “The athlete who attempts to train through an injury rather than adjust his goals always believes he is committed, but he is not. He is acting obsessively rather than remaining committed to his objectives. Remaining injured is not the way to progress, and by not resting he creates long-term setbacks. This is when obsession is mistaken as passion or commitment.” (p. ...continue reading.

Self-Inflicted Wound

Posted on by lindsay
It's one of those days where I need to tell complete strangers about how badly my butt hurts. Because it does, along with my back and my legs and my eyeballs and my soul. Yesterday I staggered out the door of my office with one hand fully grabbing the right side of my butt and made it twenty feet down the hallway before it even registered that, hey, awesome, a coworker was walking behind me. There's no subtle way to play that off. There is a story behind this level of woe. Once upon a time, last Friday was a field test to determine my new power zones for training. I'm supposed to do this test annually, but missed it last year after injuring my knee while literally skipping around on Valentine's Day in a moronic haze of post-adorable-rom-com bliss. Since I hadn't done the test in two years, I ...continue reading.

In which I commit my first murder

Posted on by lindsay
Something terrible happened last night. I am going to tell you this story and, although it is tragic, there will be humor involved. Because while it was terrible and sad, it was also kind of insane. Once I stopped crying and came to grips with everything, I had to acknowledge that the situation was batshit crazy. When I went out to do intervals on the W&OD Trail last night, it was cold, dark, and raining. I started the intervals and, halfway through the second one, a rabbit darted out of nowhere into the middle of the trail. He appeared so suddenly that I never had a chance to brake. There was just enough time to think HOLYSHITRABBIT! and then he thumped hard under my wheels. I have never killed an animal. Not with my car, not with my bike, not ever. I've had close calls, but never any fatalities. I love animals and ...continue reading.

A Musing

Posted on by lindsay
I am eating a bowl of melted cheese held together by pasta. This is two days after I decided to focus on getting more lean and one day after I decided to eliminate starch from my diet. Clearly, both are going well. My phone just alerted me that I am due in another meeting in 15 minutes, the third one of the day. Two meetings ago, I left abruptly at the beginning to get a cup of coffee from the kitchen. I don't drink straight coffee (devout latte addict here), but I needed something to cut through the fog in my head. This coffee was so strong I think somebody forgot to use a filter. I could have used it to burn through sheet metal. That was less than two hours ago and now I'm thinking of going back for more. Today in a nutshell. Things are strange right now. ...continue reading.