winter blues

Is it racing season yet? Seriously sick of this winter training {and lack of training} stuff. I'm officially admitting that I'm a Californian. My thick Minnesotan {Kyle's pronunciation: min-eh-so-shun} blood has thinned to the lowest viscosity. In fact, I can't really remember having thick blood. My body has always used clothing and water to regulate temperature. With the slightest change I'm either freezing or frying and requiring a complete wardrobe change. There is just no hope for temperature regulation - so that's why I moved to California. Because it's not supposed to get cold or hot here. And us Californian's sure do know how to complain about the weather. One of those "storm of the centuries" supposedly hit Tues/Wed {of course my days off}. I went for a bike ride. I ran. Yeah it's not that bad. End rant.

The blues of winter also mean that my cute Navy husband got to wear his handsome dress blues for his re-enlistment ceremony. Not shown is my down jacket hidden for the photo-op. Thanks again to Maj. Dave for going 2 for 2 in performing {free} legal ceremonies for the Wills family!

On a random note, K-edge sent me a surprise custom made blue Garmin mount for Super Grover! Kid in a candy store excitement erupted when opening the box. Kyle has the red mounts for his Garmin and Go-Pro and I was slightly jealous that they don't make blue like their chain catcher. I casually mentioned this to the guys at K-edge when placing an order for a customer, I was truly shocked to see one in the box with the order!! Yeah, it's the little things.

Blue boots of recovery at UCPT. it's been a fun journey learning how to run {continued process for me} and learning how my "pretty ballerina feet" aren't so pretty inside.

Blue fit bike! Yeah we got the new Guru Experience fit bike. It's {almost} exactly the same as the old one...just with fancy blue lights. I'm still doing bike fits daily - making people faster and more comfortable is pretty rad. Taking the bike out of the equation and just focusing on the rider is what we do, and is what we've ALWAYS done at Moment. It's not about the fancy machine either - the fitter must have the experience and knowledge.

Sadly, today the color of the week shifted to red; Kyle had an unfortunate car incident {accident} in LA and required me to save him. Poor Baby Girl {Red Xterra}. Brought him to his race where he had another unfortunate incident. Poor Kyle's palm {bloody}. And poor me - having to miss work {and my workout} and drive 6 hours in LA. I'm ready for the blues to come back.

Soon enough my toes will be blue at the start line of the Desert Tri next weekend.

knock. drop. get up.

knock knock. what have i been up to?

Blogging falls on the back burner as training increases or injuries occur. No, not overuse, for that hasn't been possible this go-around; it's these silly swimmer limbs of mine and the lack of lateral movements.

I sprained my ankle. Big deal. moving on...

Since the holidays, I've been a sherpa at one of Kyle's cross races:

I swear this is So Cal. 

Tough life. Got new rain boots for the impending rain. It didn't rain but I did get  to run around in some mud playing camera girl.

okay, this is more So Cal-esk

And his latest crit [I had to work during what would have been the time for my race] where he went off the front with too many laps to go and eventually got caught. But it gave him some good TT'ing experience for 5ish laps. Hey, you gotta go when the feeling is right. I did miss his moment in shining glory where he won an off season crit up in LA. Huge props to the husband who took a chance and motivated the others in the break and they made it stick!

I've also dove into some action myself, riding the stagecoach century with Erin for her first 100. We were troopers out there in the 45 degree weather. It was fun to suffer through together, a little over a week after that darn ankle injury.

yeah! finished!

Kyle and I headed out to Julian for the Moment Cycle Sport team training camp. We had two solid days of riding and I'm pretty sure I experienced my hardest day on the bike, ever. It wasn't the longest, nor the coldest, and not even the most elevation gain. It was just a hard day on the bike with fast dudes. I really learned how to push myself past the comfort level to see how far I could handle it before cracking. We started downhill [for 30 miles in below 40 temps, omg frozen popsicle] and entered Borrego Springs. The Montezuma climb approached. I managed to keep my HR between 183-193 for the entire climb, as I was chasing down JT. After the first 30 miles, the next 43 had 6500ft of elevation gain. Fun times getting blown around with a pretty substantial headwind back [UP] to the cabin. Did my first brick run post ankle sprain and had my fill of "recovery drink" i.e. 3 glasses of milk with a heavy pour of chocolate syrup.

pretty much sums up the aftermath

Running was put on the backburner more than the blog, but Carlsbad half marathon was still left on the "race" calendar. [as if i have such a thing.] It probably wasn't the smartest idea, as I know when I put a bib on, "training day" goes out the window and competitor mode turns on. Ouches. Legs did not like that wakeup call, nor did the remaining attached and non bruised ligaments in my ankle. Powered through and was only 9 min slower than last year. Stoked for the husband who managed a huge PR with a 1:43 off the couch. Darn skinny boys with tree trunk cycling legs. Grrr....

staying warm + dry before the race

Six days later we both raced Boulevard road race. It was more of a "hang on for as long as possible and then find some stragglers to work with so I'm not alone" race. Good times and my HR was high where I wanted it to be. I'm not in the shape I should be to tackle such an elevation filled race, but who cares? More experience and a solid training day on Super Grover. I did feel MUCH better than I remember from two years ago, so maybe my legs are getting used to this cycling thing.

lining up. dread ensues. (cool new kits, hey?)

Super Grover shimmering in his usual amazingness

Love Ocean Beach

where's the beach?  

I've been seeing Gino at UCPT for the ankle. I'm hoping we can get me running regularly with proper form soon. Oceanside is approaching quickly and I really really don't want to experience the pain of another unprepared half marathon.

After some major drama and worrying, Kyle's PTS was approved! He got capped in December and promoted to 1st Class! So proud of him. He'll be re-enlisting on Thursday for 6 more years. We'll be in San Diego for [at least] half of those. He's switching commands and will be over in Coronado starting on Friday.

Happy February!