Wednesday, November 11, 2009

You know it's offseason when...

...45 min. into a road ride you look down and see a spiderweb that spans your handlebars. True story, that happened to me yesterday. It was wasn't even my first road ride back...it was like the third or so.
You also know it's offseason when you travel for something other than bike racing. Rebecca and I took a little holiday to Peru last week. Peru is an incredibly cool country. It is so diverse in culture, ecosystems, and landscape. We spent time in Lima on the coast, Cuzco and Machu Picchu next to the Andes, and Puerto Maldonado in the rain forest. Machu Picchu definitely lives up to the hype. Yes, there are tons of stinkin tourists ;-) but it is well worth the hassle to see such a beautiful area and see for yourself how amazing the Incas were. And where we stayed in the jungle, it was about as untouched from development as I've seen. We saw a lot of monkeys (3 different species) and several big tarantulas among other wildlife. It was the first time I'd slept in mosquito nets and I was glad we had them after seeing the giant cockroaches roaming around our room after dark!
In other big-time news, I am now a proud (part) homeowner of a place in Boulder. Pretty sweet, not gonna lie. Moving always sucks, but the grunt work is over and the only thing left is unpacking boxes and finding a place for everything – no small task.
I've started riding my bicycle again. Splitting time between road riding, cx rides, and hiking/running. If I had to race in one of 3 tomorrow, I think I'd be faster hiking up a mountain, but that's okay. I may enter a cyclocross race this weekend or next. They really should let me enter the cat. IV race (and still get slaughtered but not by as much) but they won't. Oh well, it's good for me to get walloped from time to time. That's what I'll be telling myself next year too. :-)
Happy Autumn!