Title-less

So, I (Eric) can't even come up with a title for this post, which i think is indicative of how the weekend went. I don't remember Friday, so we'll skip to Saturday.

Saturday
The Ride
Early start to our ride as we didn't want to deal with too much traffic and we wanted to get back to see Sunny before she flew back to Oregon, so we left the house at 5:45. Ride down to Golden via some pretty crappy roads and then head up Golden Gate Canyon. Not much traffic heading up, some nice views, not shifting out of my 25 ever during the climb, a few downhills that you actually dread since you know they just mean more climbing later, etc, etc.

Our coach instructed us to turn at the second entrance to GGC State Park and take the steep road (Mountain Base Rd) to the dirt road (Gap Rd). Now, the road we were on was plenty steep so i was curious about how steep Mtn Base Rd would be. We found out right away as we turned on to it as RV's are prohibitted from it due to 19% grades. Most of the way wasn't too bad, we managed to get up and over the steep stuff and it was a really nice road. We then made our way to Peak to Peak and over to Nederland.

At this point, we had the option of heading down to Boulder via Boulder Canyon or taking the Peak to Peak over to Ward via Lefthand Canyon. We were still feeling pretty decent and our memories of the road between Ward and Nederland were that it mostly rolling hills. The problem was all of those memories were based on riding from Ward to Nederland, not the otherway around. Our memories will be much improved now, knowing that Ned to Ward is hard, Ward to Ned isn't too bad. So, we truged up to Ward as I counted down each mile on my computer. There were some downhills, but the net elevation gain was about 1000 ft i think. Anyways, we make it to Ward and head down and hit headwinds (lovely). Well at least it was all downhill, until we got to Olde Stage which we took because it was shorter. Not as short at taking Lee Hill, but that was too intimidating. As you can easily hit 50 mph going down the back side of Olde Stage, going up pretty slow on our legs that had already been climbing for the good part of our 6 hr ride. Once we got over the top, we were able to cruise pretty easy the rest of the way home.

The Scooter
We stopped and got another helmet, jacket, etc to be able to ride 2 up on the motorcycle. I'm sure that will make a good post when we first try.

The Sunny
Sunny was briefly in B-town for a wedding, so we went to lunch with her at Illegal Pete's. Both Amber and I were able to finish off a Big Fish burrito. After lunch, Sunny wanted some Glacier ice cream before she left, but the kiosk on Pearl St didn't have a good enough selection, so we drove to another location. A cone of cinimon cookie dough and death by chocolate really hit the spot. Sadly we had to get Sunny to the airport bus and send her on her way. Fortunately, she'll be back in town in a few weeks for a whole week.

The Rest
Nap time.

The Neighbors
When it got time for dinner, we were struggling to come up with ideas and our leftovers weren't sounding good, so it took a while to come up with something. When we finally did, I was about to start the grill when one our neighbors (Amy) called over the fence that they were having a last minute party and we should come over. So we loaded up our salad, bratwust, etc and headed over there. We hadn't been over to our neighbors in the nearly 4 years we've been at our house, so it was about time. Pretty low key as we sat around eating and talking as Eric (neighbor, not me) burned the wood of a couch in his chimama. I did learn a new game (Frisbee cup) which involves drinking, throwing a frisbee and running, but i was too tired to participate.

Sunday
The Run
Up early again as we wanted to run before swimming and Amber wanted to go to church. Out the door again around 5:45. I was right about how long our run should be (2 hrs), but not about how hard, so we ended up going a bit harder than intended. Quick dip in the creek/ditch at the end was nice.

The Swim
An hour and half of going fast. My swim went okay as I tempered my expectations of what i could do. Not suprising that i was kicking even slower than normal, but pulling fine. Amber had a rough swim as she was tired. Really, really tired.

The Shopping
Headed into town to use our Tokyo Joes coupons (from races last year). They have some good food. We then walked to Target to return a headlight (picked up a 9004, not a 9003), went to McGuckin's for some yard stuff, went to Sunflower market for food, and finally headed home. On the way, we saw the sign again for Celestial Seasonings tent sale. Not sure what a tea company sells under a tent, but we went to have a look. What we found was pallets full of teas and such that they were trying to clear out. Boxes of tea for 50 cents. A case of boxes for 5 bucks or something. We also found coffee for 10 bucks a case. We have no idea if the coffee will be any good, but we now have 9 lbs of coffee that cost us 20 dollars. Just a little cheaper than the Peet's, I like to get. If you get a present from us in the future and it contains tea, you can guess where it came from.

The Home
Although we should have taken a nap, we ended up working on stuff outside, making dinner (Grilled pork tenderloin, grilled apricot salad, and a risotto with broccoli and zuccini), drinking a bottle of wine, and making Eric sized (2.35 oz) cookies.

Monday
The Run
An easy run this morning, but I misremembered (aka Roger Clemons) our workout for the second time in two days and went 10 minutes longer than scheduled.

The Ride
Easy ride to work on the new cassettes (12x27, 9spd for Amber 11x28, 8spd for me) that we got in the mail after our ride on the steeps on Saturday.