There was something terribly intriguing about Stephanie's essay titled, "I stole my first bike" that captured our attention. Although it was her description of her transformation from utilitarian riding to a true love affair with her bike that sealed the deal. Stephanie's story is familiar to many of us at Trek, from saving money for six months for a new set of wheels that cost more than her first car, to the Zen feeling she gets from truing a wheel. And only after two years of riding she says, "I know what cadence means, how many watts is a lot. I can fix a flat in my sleep and tell the difference between a pinch flat and goat head at 50 yards." Clearly she fell in love with cycling hard and fast. But her husband fully supports her cycling affair.
With her recent move from Idaho to Minnesota, she is expanding her horizons quickly to city riding and cruising the river bottom trails. Without a doubt you too will be intrigued by Stephanie's cycling journey from utilitarian riding in College to a true love affair on and off the road only two years later.
I have decided to train for the Boston Marathon (April 20th, 2009). It became official yesterday as I was running 7 miles on the treadmill. I felt great through the entire run.
Some of you may know that I have been battling a tight IT Band for about 6 months now. It started when I took my Epic Bike Trip to Madison, WI and back. I haven't been able to run consistently since that long bike trip.
In the last month I have been running about 4 days a week with no problems. Six months of patience seems to have done the trick. I have stretched, rested, rolled, massaged, iced, heated, and stretched again. My only hope is that it holds out to April 20th.
I am a little behind schedule for my training, but I am so excited to be running again that it doesn't matter.
Running the Boston Marathon is one of my dreams that I have had my heart set on for many years. It's official, and now all I can do it hope for the best!
Don't get confused by the picture...I will actually be running the 113th Boston Marathon in 2009.
It has been a cold week for just about everyone in the United States this week. Up here in Minnesota has been especially cold. With windchill, it has been hitting the -20s and -30s just about everyday.
Call me crazy, but I braved the cold this week and road my bike to work. I put on snow pants, snow boots, wool socks, 2 hats, a scarf, 2 layers of mittens, 4 layers of jackets, and thermal underwear. The picture is pretty accurate of what I look like while riding. Only in Minnesota.
As I was riding to work yesterday, I pulled up to a stop light. A car to my left was also stopped at the light. I glanced over at the passengers in the car and low and behold...I saw something that you would only see in Minnesota!
They were all eating ice-cream cones! Here I was bundled up as much as you can, and still be able to ride a bike, and they are sitting in their car eating ice-cream!
Only in Minnesota do people enjoy ice-cream when it is -20 degrees outside. Only in Minnesota!
Here are a few things we did this weekend that involved snow:
1) Cross country skiing
2) Sledding
3) Boot Hockey
4) Snow shoeing
5) Built an igloo
6) Spun our car off the road and got it stuck in the snow
There are the things we did this weekend that did not involve snow:
1) Exploded a pie in the oven
2) Bathed in a Sauna (technically it involved snow too since we had to go outside to get to the sauna)
As you can see we had a weekend full of snow. Thanks to our friends Randy and Chrissy (and Randy's Parents) for inviting us up to their cabin. We had so much fun!
