The night before the big test....Oh, and Christmas too!

Alas, it is the night before the GRE and I'm feeling pretty ok about it. I've done some prep work and I think I can make my way through it now that I know a lot of the strategy and what to look for. Having not taken a standardized test in 5 years, I was a little disappointed in my practice tests but I think I'll do much better the second go-around. We finally made it home for good this afternoon after a busy time travelling for Christmas. We went to Wimberly, TX which is about 1.5 hours southwest of Austin. Stayed at little ranch/resort with Lorena's dad's family. It was lots of fun and a bit of torture with the nice weather. We took running clothes and shoes so we could stay active while consuming more food than normal and also not having our bikes. I was out running on Christmas Eve and saw some people riding. Oh, the jealousy. The temps were in the 60's and 70's during the day and got into the 30's and 40's at night. One day we played football in shorts and t-shirts! Keep in mind, it IS DECEMBER..... We flew back to Ohio the 26th, drove to our house, checked on the cats and then headed to Marietta to visit Chris's family. Lori was in from Hawaii and Kim from D.C. so we got a chance to hang out before they had to head back today. Also got to eat good food at grandma Huck's and play with Chris's cousin Abby at grandma Stephens'. Dad got a new acoustic guitar that friggin' rocks. It is so much louder than all of the others we have between us. Handmade by a guy in West Virginia and it's beautiful. After not riding for a week (thank God for running!), we got to ride our bikes tonight, albeit inside because of rain. It felt soooooo good to get those legs churning again. We're hoping for nice weather so we can ride OUTSIDE tomorrow and then have good weather for the New Year's Ride in Circleville. Can't wait for that one because it's always great to ride with the Jerktown-crew. I'm hoping to make some posts about training progress as our "off-season" comes to an end and we begin the ascent toward the beginning of another racing season. I also have a new mountain bike frame that I will probably build up over the weekend and hope to have some pictures of the complete bike next week! It's great but I'm not letting the cat out of the bag just yet. Riding in airplanes makes me finish books so I'll make a recommendation: "Lake Wobegon Days" by Garrison Keillor If you're a Prairie Home Companion nut like us, it's a must-read. Off to dreamland with visions of high test scores dancing in my head.... Keep it rubber-side-down. cahlsb

Now what do we do???

Howdy. It's a week after the end of racing season and I'm already having trouble avoiding my bike.... even as much as riding indoors sucks. On the plus side, maybe I can count all of these easy indoor rides as "base miles" and it will make the really long, actual base miles easier in January. In the Bike Authority Cyclocross Series, I ended up finishing 5th overall in the B field and Lorena finished 2nd overall for the Women's B field. The championship race at Boughton Farm was pretty tough. The temperature wasn't bad but the packed snow made things a bit slippery and Lorena and I both had our share of spills. I remember barely keeping it upright in a 2-wheel skid through a turn. The Tufo tires may not have been the best choice for the day but they worked reasonably well. On the first lap I dropped my chain and about 4 people came by me while I fixed it. That turned out to be the difference between my usual 5th or 6th place and the actual 10th place that I got. Lorena had a tough race and finished 3rd. Team Lake Effect did an absolutely fabulous job once again with the series and they fed us cake after the race. I'm pretty happy with my cross season and it really sent the year out on a high note. I'm totally looking forward to next season because we keep getting better and better. Our team should be strong once again and it will be the first start to a season in our new kits since we just got them in August. So what do we do with our time until January?? Well, we helped CAMBA build some new trail yesterday at West Branch and we've been doing some things around the house that we didn't have time for with all of the training throughout the rest of the year. That, and the Wednesday night roller rides at the bike shop, and still riding in the basement. You don't think we'd actually take that much of a break do you?? WE EAT, BREATH, SLEEP, TALK, LOVE, AND RIDE BICYCLES!!! We'll still post at least once a week so stay tuned..... C&L