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 I’m working with badass cycling legend Tina Pic, which is totally cool as long as nobody tells her that I just started cooking a few weeks ago.
Work is hectic and we have an awful lot of meetings, but the chaos is good. I was called a “totalitarian” the other day, which I took as a compliment, especially since it came from my boss. People keep inviting me to meetings, so I can’t be that bad…right?
In other news, I got a divorce last week (on Valentine’s Day, no less, because HA! IRONY!) and am currently married to nobody. This is a refreshing change of pace that I intend to explore for a while. Instead, I’m focusing on a different kind of love and commitment:
What else? Hmm. I sort of quit Facebook; while my account is still active and I will use it to send messages/share big news, I’ve stopped looking at the site. It was a timesuck and I was addicted; there is something tragic about letting asinine crap like somebody’s announcement that they’re going running in 20-degree weather take up brain space that could be used for something more valuable, like remembering the quadratic equation. Unless you’re planning to borrow my shoes or take my dogs with you, I don’t need to know. So I stopped looking. It’s amazing how much more peaceful life is when you’re not dedicating large chunks of it to watching other people live theirs.
This sounds preachy and self-righteous. It’s not meant to; if you dig Facebook, go for it. But I was in the habit of checking it constantly, like an unattractive tic. Long traffic light? Refresh. Finished sending out a work email? Refresh. I was absorbing a shit ton of useless information and spending far too much time thinking about what other people were doing and comparing it to my own life. In case it wasn’t already clear, I’m not good at handling that sort of thing, so why subject myself to a constant stream of it?
Now I’m using some of that free time to drag my blind, fat, elderly dog on long walks. Kobe loves these walks; Scout fatigues quickly and poops an average of 3-4 times. Sometimes I think he fakes it just so he can stop to rest. To be honest, I find walking tiring and boring, but I’m learning to enjoy the time with the boys and it feels good to watch the little guy crap out half his body weight in a quest for improved fitness.
I get a lot of questions now about the upcoming season, mostly regarding when I’ll start racing. I don’t know yet – my team’s schedule indicates that our first race is on March 23rd at the Delray Beach Criterium, but I don’t know if management will send me there or the Redlands stage race or somewhere else. For now I’m just focusing on being ready for camp and making sure I don’t burn down the team house while sautéing kale.
Thanks for reading! Come back in a few weeks when I get around to posting again.