Saturday, November 22, 2008

First Bite Boulder Review

This past week was First Bite Boulder. At each participating restaurant, you get a three course meal for 26 bucks. The menu you get to choose from is limited with two to four options for each course, but you still get a good sampling of what they do. Since A and I like to share, we each got to try up to 6 different things at each place.

A and I went to four different restaurants, Greenbriar on Saturday, Brasserie Ten Ten on Sunday, Tahona on Wednesday, and Colterra on Friday. My favorite first course was the Mixed Vegetable and Asadero Cheese Rellenos. I'm surprised A shared them with me. My least liked first course was the salad at Colterra as the pear was hard and flavorless and the pecans were soft. For the main course, the steak at Colterra and carne asada at Tahona were both wonderful. At Greenbriar the Pork Tenderloin was anything but tender and very tough. Very disappointing since their food is usually very excellent. The best desserts were the Apple Galette and Mocha Terriene at Colterra. The worst dessert by a mile were the apple enchiladas at Tahona. They were terrible.

A is already suffering from First Bite withdrawal. Only 51 weeks until next year.

-E

Friday, November 21, 2008

Hello, world!

Long time no write, for me at least. As E eluded to in his last post, we have been busy. And there has been a LOT of changes around here, especially for me. End of an old job. Start of a new job. Two weeks in between filled with lots and lots and lots of home projects.

One big change with the new job has been a change in internet policy: no more personal internet (read: blogging) while at work. I'd like you to all still think I'm a saint, but most of my previous blogging was done at work. There was a reason I was fervently looking for a new job: I was under utilized (bored) and therefore found myself blogging at work more than I'd like to admit. No more. In fact, if you need to reach me during the day for anything urgent, don't even count on email. I'm trying to check that once a day when at home, but... best to call if you need an immediate response.

Reading blogs has also fell off of my daily routine, completely. My Google Reader account currently has 391 unread blog posts waiting for me. I think it is time to say "I'm done! I quit! No more! Help!" In other words, Google Reader and I may be parting ways for awhile, I will once again have to go to each individual blog (when I get the time) and read posts as I am able. Life is full and beautiful and fabulous, and will be taking over all my free time for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of full and beautiful and fabulous...... lots of good stuff is coming our way. We are enjoying a lighter month of training. This is a much needed break after a 6-month racing season (for triathlon) that included 2.75 Ironmans and lots of quality training. I am now ready for snow (I know that IM AZ is this weekend, but so is the start of Thanksgiving (ski) Camps all over the country, and here we need snow to have camp). Snow. Now. PLEASE?! We are enjoying outside bike rides in mid-November, but it is time for winter.

This coming week is a big one too. Thanksgiving. Sunny visiting. E's dad possible visiting. My parent's anniversary. My sister's birthday. Soon (in a few weeks) a new baby, who will make us a brand new aunt and uncle. Santa Lucia party. Yeah, I look good in a speedo party. Christmas. New Years. Whew! Should be fun... but busy!

In a nutshell, that's what's up here in Boulder.
-A

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

From Hero to Zero

Oh bother,

We got a decent amount of stuff to post about, the kitchen project, First Bite Boulder, hiking with Lucas, ...

But, today's post is about pride and how it is a bad thing.

This morning, A and I went for a roller ski. We got an early start and heading over to some gradual inclines (too small to call it a hill) and did some 1 minute intervals. A was on her skating skis and I was on my classic skis (the only ones I have). Since her skis have less resistance we were doing the intervals separately. We did the three sets of 5 on the incline (V1, V2 and no pole for her, stride, double pole with kick and no pole for me).

For the last set of 5 (double pole) we went and found somewhere flatter. Before the last one, A waited for me and I started right behind her. With my shorter poles and more flexible boots, the resistance difference between her skis and mine was less of an issue and I started to catch her. She responded by going faster. I responded by going faster, caught up to her and started passing her.

Well folks, this is where the story takes a turn for the worse as with about 10 seconds left in our last interval, just as I was getting ahead of A, my lower back seized up. Seized up hard at that. I was reduced to a pile of pain on the pavement. It took a while to get up and going at a shuffle pace. A went ahead, got the car, and came back to pick me up. I'm sure that it would not have happened if we hadn't started racing the last interval.

So, the lesson of the day is either to only race the last interval close to home and have pain meds ready or to not race while training. I'll let you choose.

Later,
E

Friday, November 7, 2008

Back at "It"

After lasts week's post, training has become much more regular and my motiviation is back.

Last weekend though was filled with painting the kitchen and all of the prep that goes with it. Actually that was started by Amber during the week with her moving stuff out of the kitchen, but we didn't get started painting until Saturday evening. We did get out to see some the cyclocross races, which were fun. We spent a good portion of them catching up with friends, but did see some impressive performances by the best riders in the country. Part of me wants to get a cyclocross bike, but the wiser part of me knows we need some sort of offseason. Although I'm not sure a cyclocross race would be harder than this morning's workout (more on that later).

Since the weekend, we've had some good rides (in the dark), a roller ski, a run or two, and some swims. They've moved out 6 am swim until 6:30 so they can supposedly keep the pool covered longer, but the main reason that many people go to the 6 am swim is so they can get out at 7 means that the swims have been pretty empty by 7:45. There was one swim two weeks ago where only 3 of us showed up, so they can be pretty small workouts to begin with, but there may be days now that A and I will be the only ones.

This morning was the first hard workout since the Halfmax. It was a time trial up Mt Sanitas, so it was a very hard workout. Yesterday, I found a website with the course records for Mt Sanitas which hasn't been updated in four years. After this morning, I even more impressed with some of the times on the list. My lungs were hurting bad for most of the time, except for when it was too steep to run and my legs were hurting bad. Since we haven't been doing anything hard, our times from this morning will serve as a good base fitness number.

Tonight, A and I are going to the University of Colorado Ski Ball. A fancy affair to support the alpine and nordic ski teams at CU. Should be a good time like usual.

I really hoping that today's strong winds will blow all of the leaves from our yard away so we don't spend the whole weekend cleaning up the yard.

Peace Out,
E