Tribute to Spring, a season later.

I made this short video one April morning after the season’s worst blizzard began to melt. Drops fell from the roof down to the patio and into strategically placed vase of sunflowers. Camera placed on the ground, the perspective is oddly still and if the video plays back like intended, some of the drops splash and explode on the ground in time to the background music.

Ice Cream & Whiskey

That’s been my life lately – a little sweet but a lot of bitter.

The haps of my life, lately: I got a car. CRAZY! First one of my own in 6 years and I gotta say it feels real weird but maybe not as much as the location where I park it: mom’s house. That’s where I’m living as of two weeks ago when Clare and I officially checked out of 1111 Maxwell Ave, Boulder, CO. Hello to not-quite-Bermuda, Remuda Lane, Lafayette, CO! I actually like being at my mom’s far more now that I’ve spent some time there.

When we’d go to visit before it felt like a cross country trudge to the middle of nowhere. With lots of open space and farms and cattle and foxes…and cottontail bunnies EVERYWHERE…East Lafayette is a really neat, pretty place. And quieter than Maxwell as you can imagine. But back to the car – it’s a 1974 BMW “2002″, the same ilk of which I test drove numerous times back in my high school days. This one is by far the nicest I’d ever driven (that’s not saying much but still…), the body and interior is in pretty great shape and it runs, like kinda good, enough so to be a full fledged “daily driver,” according to the mechanic from whom I bought it. I refer the car as “her” and “she” like any good old-car owner. For example, “she needs a few minutes to warm up before you take off in the morning” and “don’t slam her trunk too hard, she’s a little ‘long in the tooth’!” I’ve literally said these things in the past couple days to my family’s amusement.

I went to Rocky Mounts the other day and had the new Pitchfork trays installed – awesome deal thanks to Bobby and our team discount. It’s amazing writing about all of this – cars, bike racks, the idea of me owning a car…for the last 6 years I’ve been car less but it’s amazing how quickly you get right back into the habit. I’m not making any declaration that I’ll keep commuting by bike a certain amount/week but I know that my general lifestyle has been affected by those 6 years and of course you can’t easily erase it.

What else…I’m going to San Luis Obispo, CA this Thursday for a couple of races and to check out the town. I’ve been intrigued by this place for a while and will definitely be scrutinizing it as a potential place to relocate. I’ve pretty much had it with winter – I don’t really ski or snowboard anymore, I didn’t have a car (and my new one is OLD and not going to be very fun on slick roads and with a weak heater), my hands numb with even the slightest exposure to chill (my ciruclation suuuucks), I love to train on my bike which is far less fun in cold weather, and finally, I’m just straight up sick of it. All of this leads to thoughts of year long temperate weather where I can ride and maybe resurect my old dreams of being a surfer. We’ll see, I’ll take tons of photos in any case, and post to this blog. I’m really excited about this trip, I plan on watching fireworks from the beach on the quatro de Julio, or whatever.

Won a preme lap and 6th place in Scott Kornfield crit

Some new sunnies and a VERY serious face

We get cute during the Boulder Creek Fest

Some of the Muddy Buds

View from the bridge and a sunset in Austin

View down South Congress – “SoCo” – in Austin. Capital building is straight ahead.

The rain from my riding buddy’s place in Austin

Hiked the entire Mesa Trail one rainy Sunday, Mother’s Day, afternoon

Which one of these isn’t like the others? My 1974 BMW “2002″

New “Pitchfork” racks courtesy of Rocky Mounts – thanks Bobby.

I’ve been doing long rides every weekend since the first of June (the 80 mile Hugo road race). 3.5 hrs, 4 hrs, 3 hrs is how it’s gone since. Very enjoyable and learning how to better fuel myself on rides that long. Usually leave with two bottle of water on the bike and one bottle of Gatorade in the pocket, a couple gels or a bar, and then a stop for some gnarly junk food to make it back home (last week it was a smores flavored Pop Tart ).

We’ve had some good rides with the Flatiron Flyers lately at our Monday practices, love the kids like crazy and people are getting nicknamed (Jacque is now known as “Chuck,” pretty funny to transform a proper French name into something clearly less French and more southern, haha).

I’ve been pretty entertained with these two ladies’ blogs: YessPlease and Elbee by Burton and their “30 Days of Awesome” quest. I don’t know either of them but somehow I’m friends with one of them on FB so like any good interent vampire I clicked through and began to read her blog, then finding her friend’s. Obviously I don’t want to bite their concept completely but I am looking to challenge myself to experience some more consistently awesome days in this life. There is just so much more shit out there than work + bike ride + Facebook + internet-in-general + John Coltrane on my iPod + whatever other routines I maintain on the constant. I’m thinking July 1, 2009 will be the beginning of what I’m coining the first “man up & get right” month of my life. It’ll be hard, I’m sure.

This will hopefully entail my bucking the safety in routine habits I’ve developed, my balking at what scares me, my refraining from doing interesting things b/c I want to go on yet another, bike ride. It’ll involve sticking my thumb out and seeing what sticks, being more social, being a bit more like my brother and sister (without the homelessness and jam bands…ok, maybe the jam bands). My having the most “get right” summer month of my life. Amen.

Louisville criterium – first one of the season.

Chatting about the race and the lack of lap counting by our ref

First crit of ‘09 is in the books. Went smoothly all around considering I was a cyclops with only one contact. The one for my right eye made its way to back of my eyeball on my ride out to Louisville, resulting in me furiously trying to get it out and ripping it in the process. I had some time to spare before the race so I went over to Louisville Cyclery to find a mirror to remove said contact and buy some hand protection. I feel like I’m finally a real cyclist because I bought my first pair of “split-finger” gloves. I grew up thinking these things were like the wackest thing, ever. Before I was ever into cycling, I’d see riders wearing them and think all kinds of heinous thoughts about how ridiculous they looked. I like them now on cyclists but to this day when I see people trying to be retro/80’s and wear them as fashion, I completely cringe inside. Moving on…

I rolled up to this crit with some serious bravado. I don’t usually think I have a chance to win races but this year, due to some different training, I’m trying to adopt a new mental confidence. Having several weeks of Bus Stop group rides under my belt, and more than holding my own on them, I feel better equipped to race to win in cat. 3 events this year. Without doing any fast group rides or intervals last season I was still able to finish top-15 in most races. So with a few of these under my belt plus a lot more training in the last few weeks, I felt ready to put the hesistation and lack of confidence behind me.

The race itself was a lot easier for me than last year’s. I don’t know if I can fully attribute it to this newfound sense of confidence but a few aspects, namely the climb, were much less taxing. I bumped elbows with a few different guys during the race. Early on two guys squeezed me off my line but I didn’t back down and ended up having the guy to my right literally leaning on me sideways. He was freaking out as most riders do when there is ANY contact (I really hate this because people get so scared any time you brush against them or get too close and it goes without saying that as soon as you think crappy thoughts (re: crashing) it’s going to happen), but I just told him to relax and he kept it upright. I was mixing it up quite a bit with one of the 5280 riders as well. There were two of them, one ended up winning, but this other dude would stick out his elbows anytime I overlapped his wheel even slighlty to try and grab the wheel in front of us. The little guy was so nervous and so I started laughing at him. He just looked irritated.

We didn’t race until 4:40 so during the day I volunteered to course marshall and ended up talking with a guy who was spectating during the pro race. Turns out he was an ex racer and had a lot of advice to bounce off my questions. He just emphasized how much you really don’t want to work during races. This goes without saying but I always tend to defy logic when it comes race time, whether because I don’t want to miss a break or just to stay out of trouble on the front, I always end up working too much.

With this fresh on my mind, I decided to put it in to practice and ended up not really ever pulling the group as I usually do. I wasted some energy on a couple “prime laps” as I wanted to go for broke and try to win something. The other 5280 kid (the eventual winner) has some serious sprinting speed, and came around me twice to take the primes. I kept to my goal of never really sitting more than 5-10 riders from the front and coming into the last turn before the hill finish (on the last lap) I was second behind Robbie Stout from the Horizon team. He was barreling up the hill and I had thoughts of taking this pre-race confidence straight to the podium, just as planned. I managed to hang on his wheel till about 2/3 up the hill when all of a sudden, guys, including the 5280 kid, started jumping around me and sprinting past.

I finished a disappointing 7th and in hindsight I wished I hadn’t gotten so antsy on the final turn before the hill. I should have marked the 5280 kid closer and sat back where I’m assuming he was; maybe 4th or 5th wheel. I was too gassed from Robbie’s acceleration up the hill and then had nothing left to come around him or maintain an advantage over the other 5 guys who beat us. The positive I’m taking away from this is that at no point in the race was I really on the rivet, except for the finishing sprint. This proves that I conserved energy and had the confidence and strength to sit at the front of the race and create/follow the moves. I need to practice my sprinting becuase I’m definitely not at the level where I can just attack and ride away from people but mark my words, this year, I will win some races! I’m really believing in myself for the first time in a while.

For those of you who stumble on my blog and were in the race, you might be in some of these.

2009 Louisville crit, presented by Boulder Racing.

Chatting about the race and the lack of lap counting by our ref

So far in Austin…

Just so I remember and because I didn’t have a notebook with me, the places I’ve “per diem’d”:
Amy’s ice cream – had the dirtpie
Opal Devine’s – shrimp fajitas…ate the whole damn thing plus most of a margarita and a Vienna lager from the Austin Brewing Co.
Zen bowls – veggie bowl w/ brown rice for like $4.85. What?! Super good deal
Shell gas station – toothpaste for my grill
Austin Java – coffee of the day #2
Juan Pelota’s – coffee of the day #1 served by uber-hipster, fixie-ridin’, bro-ista
Mellow Johnny’s – trek bike rental

Austin’s been cool despite the crap weather (like EPIC EPIC EPIC downpour) and urban sprawl. It’s obvious I’ve been in Boulder/Durango/other small towns-Colorado for too long. I need open spaces, green, landscapes, less stuff, less people.

Do-Done-Did

Before I begin let me give you some real-time background info–

currently listening to: alternating Wilco, Rush, and A Tribe Called Quest (hey, it’s Q-Tip’s bday today!) tracks

currently drinking: a Left Hand Brewing “Milk Stout”

inspired to: start my own coffee business…AGAIN

just came from: Barista competition at Caffe Sole

and, finally, thinking how:

I’m psyched about all of the events I’ve checked out lately in Boulder. This week was the annual Univ. of Colorado cultural bonanza called the Conference on World Affairs (#CWA for all you totally rad, techy “Tweeple”…geeez the Twitter thing is going too damn far!!).

This year I attended  several sessions over the week – some good, some boring – CWA can be kind of a mixed bag. The highlight of the week was  “Cinema Interruptus” – the Roger Ebert-derived director’s live commentary. Shown on a massive screen in Mackey Auditorium, the director of the featured film (in this case Chop Shop) sits in the crowd with a moderator and Ebert by his side (with microphones) and where the audience/director/Ebert/moderator are free at any time to yell “stop!” and discuss the scene being shown. It’s such a neat concept and it’s super enlightening to sit in a crowd of technically trained movie fans who can break down a scene from a million different perspectives. And it’s great to hear audience members’ wildly imaginative interpretations of the scenes and characters and symbolism, sorta like a deconstructionists’ nit-pick of literature.

The way it works is that on the first night of CWA the film is shown in its entirety and then from the second night on- it’s Cinema Interruptus from the beginning of the film. I missed both the first and second nights so I came into the film at minute ~35 or something, so without any background on the movie I sat thoroughly confused about what the flick was even about. On top of that, the audience or moderator or director stops the film quite literally every ~30 seconds or so. A little annoying but I knew what I was getting into and the experience was rad, stops and all.

Some random photos of me in reflection (haha, right), a barista in action, flags of the world on CU’s campus for the CWA, my two pairs of rockin’ new sunnies, and Stevo and Sara return to Boulder!

I also went to two of the social media themed sessions because of my love-some/loathsome obsession with the stuff. As much as I like to hate on Twitter/Facebook/new social media du jour, I really do get into it all. In hindsight I wished I would’ve skipped them and gone to some conferences that actually made me think or expose me to new ideas. The one session I did go to that wasn’t media or entertainment related was on the recession and the new, less prosperous/materialistic world we’re entering. I generally liked all of the panelists and their commentary, except for one guy who is the developer of such television disasters as “Extreme Makeover”, “Extreme Home Makeover”, and Mtv’s “Next”. The guy was obviously super rich, super…superficial, and just flat out contradictory. He kept claiming that his shows (the very things  that made him rich and somewhat famous) were simply reflections of our culture and yet we all need to become less concerned with image, materialism, perfection, et al. Ok, so you make money off of our culture’s idiocy and then tell us it’s the wrong way to live? Plus he’s not only doing his best to make America stupider, he’s taking this junk abroad…to places like Japan and Mumbai! By the end of the session I thoroughly wanted to throw a tomato at him.

What else? I, along with probably a 100+ other people, got denied from the other annual tradition at CWA – the jazz concert (also at Mackey Auditorium). Jazz legends’ Dave and Don Grusin star in this free show every year along with improvisational musicians from all over the world. I read a review of the show that said people were dancing in the aisles…like, even old people were cutting a rug. Bummed I missed it.

Like I mentioned above, tonight I checked out a barista competition at Caffe Sole. People slingin’ lattes with rosettas and other stuff. The local barista celebrity from Ozo was there and his cream definitely rose to the top . Haha.

Steve and Sara came up on Sunday and hung out from like 1:00 to 10:00 pm. Safe to say we made up for a lost time after not having seen them since Halloween. Way too much time apart – Clare and I have missed those dudes! BTW, who knew Stevo was such a tax wiz? He sorta schooled my mom on some things in Turbo Tax – isn’t she an accountant? WTF mom? I later remarked that Stevo “just saved me hundreds on my taxes, like a fiscal version of Geico.” Good on ya, Burnsy!

Yeah, so I’ve been pretty active lately in terms of being out and about. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or how well Clare and I have been doing, or what, but my desire to really be living life has been sky high lately. Here’s to more good times and memorable moments. Oh yeah, Clare and I just rendezvoused for some late-night Pasta Jays. 1/2 carafe of Chianti and lotsa-pasta later, I’m off to bed. Goodnight sweet world.

Spring Breakin’, Poppin’, and Lockin’ at the end of March

For the last…man it seems like a long time…I’ve been on Spring Break from school. It was soooo much-needed after quite possibly the hardest semester of school of my life. I had originally intended to go to Portland to visit my sister but because of Southwest Airline’s two week in advance ticket purchase stipulation (to get the really low fares) and my reluctance to miss the Koppenberg road race on March 26, I decided to skip going out there. As much as I would like to check Portland out, this damn cycling disease overpowers my good brotherly senses, sometimes. And lo and behold the race ended up being canceled due to extreme mud – like the kind of mud where at the very thought of  riding through it, your bike just goes  “uh-uh. this ain’t happening.” Here’s a photo someone took of the dirt (when it’s dry) climb that is the race maker/breaker, on the day before the race was scheduled.

Evidence as to why the race was canceled.

The climb is a 17% grade and really rutted out plus the entry onto it is kind of small, so you really have to be in the first 10 or so riders to get a clean trip up. Otherwise you risk some schmoe losing it and falling off or getting off the bike and running up. Both scenarios, if you’re behind said schmoe = loss of speed, and possibly race. I’m really working with visualization these days. When I’m training or just thinking about something that I want to have happen, I picture what it would feel like to get the outcome I want. In this case, it’s winning this race on an attack with half-a-lap left. I’ve even been working my victory salute! Oh, I forgot to mention, the race is rescheduled for this Sunday, barring any more moisture. It’s part of the new Tour of Colorado, which includes the Salida omnium, North Boulder Park crit, Sunshine Canyon hillclimb, Ironhorse, and one other that I can’t think of. I’d love to try to race all of these and get the jersey. We’ll see though. All that racing adds up to lots of money and driving, probably the only two banes of my existence.

As I mentioned, a huge spring blizzard hit us last Thursday dropping about 16.5 inches of snow in town. Although I prefer the sun at nearly all costs, actually having some accumulation down here after the driest winter I can remember, was really cool. I even got to skate ski at North Boulder Park three days in a row. First time skiing the park since I bought my skis back in December. I did a great ride with my team on Sunday, the day the race was canceled, out to Carter Lake with a post-ride coffee at Amante with a few of the guys. I always try to be the first one up the climb to Carter Lake because it’s long enough that it’s pretty taxing, but it’s not so steep that my weight inhibits me. Typically when I ride with the team, it’s a battle between me, Boups, and Bobby Noyes and the last couple times I’ve taken it. This time though, Bobby accelerated on the second-to-last pitch and went by me to finish on top. Still happy with my ride though, Bobby’s super strong!

Yesterday I was feeling the inevitable boredom that comes with, dare I say, too many days off and I got the itch to do something different. I ended up riding up to EspressoRoma on the hill for a coffee and then over to Chautauqua for a hike. Although the trails were pretty muddy/snowy, I wasn’t going to let that deter me. I decided on the Royal Arch trail which turned out to be a skating rink. It was like a river had run down the trail and just froze. Really beautiful, actually, to see something snaking down the mountain but slick as a devil. Nice change of pace though and I felt great getting out into the mountains without a bike between my legs or skis on my feet. On the way home I meandered around the hill’s neighborhoods and was for the 8 millionth time, taken aback by the beauty of the homes. I even saw a frat house I’d never seen before that didn’t look like architectural defecation, like some of the others you see up there.

I go back to class on Friday for the start of 2nd quarter. Feeling the inevitable dread that has accompanied first day/returns-after-break I have felt my whole life, but I know it’ll be fine and I’ll get right back into the manic-panic-stress-relax cycle I love and loathe.

Leave a comment if you read this – I’m sort of curious if anyone actually reads this thing.

How I did in 2008 at the racing thing…

Promontory Park – Greeley – 4th
CU Bikes n Bunnies – Boulder – 12th?
Koppenberg circuit race – Superior – 11th
Tokyo Joes crit – Golden – 9th
Deer Trail road race – Deer Trail – 16th
Primus Mootry crit – Niwot – 10th
Coal Miner’s Classic – Louisville – 29th (continuing my streak of sucking in front of hometown crowds)
Bolder Boulder – 41:32
CU Cycling short track race #1 – Boulder – ugh.
CU Cycling short track race #2 – Boulder – double ugh.
Rocky Mounts-Izze crit – Louisville – 15th
Longmont Classic crit – Longmont – 20th
CU Cycling short track race #3 – Boulder – a little better!
Salida Omnium time trial – Salida – 15th
Salida Omnium road race – Salida – 30th
Boulder Roubaix – Boulder – 4th

Some things I like.

Crossword puzzles. Rockin’ tunes. The Fader magazine. East Village Radio. CLARE. Clothes. Old Euro cars like my former MG. Handclaps. Turntables, mixers, LPs. Hippie Kombucha. Hiking in the snow. Skateboard and surfing vids. Decorating the apartment. Woody Allen, but not his choices in partners. Carmelo Anthony – trade him. Tom Boonen in Flanders, not in France. Chevy Chase on drugs, not without. Rhapsody internet radio, not it’s cousin Pandora. Writing freelance. Manhattan skyline. Buying flowers for the ones I love. Chamois on the butt, not the crotch. Porsche 912, not 911. Basque Country, not Spain. Tail wind, not head wind. Chiropractic and massage. Efrains. Customer appreciation days. Bianchi Milano, not a fixie. Boulder short track series. VeloNews, not Bicycling. The Highland Building where I work. Supertucks. The Gondo. Drinking and having long, way-too-serious talks. Scotch on the rocks. Coke Zero, not Diet Coke. 8:50 am Peanut Butter ‘n Jelly sammies. Oatmeal with raisens at 1:30 pm. My lowrider remote control car. Updating this when I’m drunk. Fretting about dedicating myself to something I REALLY want.

Shiatsu session review

As you can tell from the last 4-5 posts on this blog, massage school has been dominating my life of late…it is giving me a lot of blogging material though! Anyhow, here is my journal from my second professional receiving session from local Shiatsu practitioner Beck Stephens from BCMT and Heart Fire Healing Center.

“

I scheduled my second receiving journal for Wednesday March 11 with Beck Stephens. My first session was with Christa Forsythe and I was happily surprised to find out that Beck and Christa share an office…especially because it’s only one street over from my apartment! Before the session I was feeling a little on the fence about going. It was scheduled for a couple hours after getting out of class and to be perfectly honest, I was mostly hoping to just kick back and relax at home. That day in class we traded blindfold Shiatsu sessions with a partner.

The session was great and very beneficial in terms of touch and sensitivity but it was my first time doing an hour and a half session and I was a little drained. The tiredness and trepidation was all for naught though because as soon as I got to Beck’s office I was reenergized by her enthusiasm and personality. It wasn’t a surprise then that Beck’s Shiatsu style really reflects her personality and got me thinking about if my style will some day reflect my personality…actually I think it might already.

My physical and inner focuses were largely the same as my first session with Christa – on a physical level I wanted to focus on my knees to alleviate the misalignment, popping, and cracking that has been going on for about a year. Secondly I wanted to focus on the soreness in my legs from riding. For inner focuses I wanted to work on reducing anxiety and over-thinking. In hindsight I wished I had chosen to work on decision making and fostering new interests and activities (it shocked me then that after the session I looked at what Beck wrote on the sheet – she wrote ST/LV…so she did sense I needed help with decision making! Wow, talk about intuition!). I’ve also been feeling a little lack for new experiences and interests but only after the session I did I realize I would have wanted to work on those aspects.

During the session, I think because of Beck’s very “quantum” style, I was in less of a meditative state than I was during Christa’s session. Beck is very direct and rapid and I actually found my mind doing the same; I kept jumping around from thought to thought and my brain never really shut off. I really enjoyed though how Beck kept reminding me to feel the work throughout my whole body even when she was working just one specific point. It made me become aware of my whole body and not just the single point. All of the scattered feelings mostly disappeared by about two-thirds in to the session. By then I was completely still and relaxed and almost came to the extremely meditative state I was in during Christa’s session.

I was so struck during that session about how my brain activity seemed to completely flat line. I wasn’t asleep though. I was completely conscious yet I wasn’t thinking. It is something I think about all the time, over a month later because I had never experienced anything like it before.

Following the session, I felt very different than when I came in although I felt a bit scattered (in a good way). I tend to like to control my environment and be aware of everything that is going to happen or is happening so this was a really different feeling but one that I wasn’t fighting to make sense of. I did notice though that I went home and started cleaning the house. I wondered if this was my attempt at focusing this scattered energy and trying to make sense of it.

I loved Beck’s intake before the start of the session. She’s very direct and she offered a bit more counseling than Christa did. Our intake also went for 15-20 minutes while my intake with Christa went for less than 10. I was glad Beck worked my ST and LV meridians because as I mentioned, I can always use help with grounding and lately, making decisions/decisive action.

A few hours after the session I still felt relaxed but a little scattered. There were things I knew I had to do but I for the most part blew them off. I did write/journal for about an hour (not necessarily about the session) but about other things I wanted to explore. The next day I was the most proactive and enthused about working than I had been in weeks. I was really productive and able to concentrate and work really efficiently. Two days later I had my hands-on final and my exam 2 retake. I was able to study and feel prepared for both tests and the usual worry and anxiety that generally accompany tests was more in control than usual. I plan to continue scheduling Shiatsu sessions during next quarter. I’m still so amazed at how a “massage” modality can be so therapeutic on an emotion/mental level. I used to have this misconception (that I’m still fighting) that massage is just about feeling better on a physical level – Shiatsu has definitely shown me otherwise.

“

the hardest part about blogging is naming the post

There is so much pro cycling going on right now it’s sick but totally distracting me from everything that I need to do in life. It was rad to see that Christian Van de Velde won the stage of Paris-Nice today. And best of all he did it with a sick solo attack from about 20k’s out. That is how you win! To this day, despite my vocal and unabashed adoration for Tom Boonen, my favorite moment of any pro race in my relatively short time as a fan of professional bikin’ was when Boonen counter-attacked his breakaway group in the 2005 Ronde (Tour of Flanders). It still gives me goose bumps every time I watch it…weekly, haha. So anyways, big up VdV! I hope Chavenel can hold out the yellow jersey to the end because, come on Contador, you can’t win it all…and I don’t really like you that much. Chavenel is another rider who has pure grit and I was super pumped for him when he won a stage of the Tour de France last year. He was in the breakaways on a ridiculous number of stages and he really deserved his win. What else…oh, Tirreno Adriatico is going on, too. Pretty much all of the sprinters who matter are there including Mr. Boonen, Daniele Bennati, Pettachi, and, I think, Cavendish. Should make for some fun stages and some good sprinters’ trash talk.

I had my second professional Shiatsu massage this afternoon with Beck Stephens. Beck shares the office with Christa who I had my last session with and their office is one street away – I’m a King of Convenience. I wasn’t feeling particularly psyched about getting bodywork today but the session turned out great.

In class today we did blindfold Shiatsu which was actually not as hard as it sounds. The lack of sight makes for a lot more intuitive touch and a lot more bio feedback. Because we’ve only got 4 classes left and we’re done learning new material, we did these blindfolded sessions for almost the entire class. Besides the blindfold this session was unique in that it was definitely the longest I’ve had at an hour and a half. Like I wrote, without visual distraction you’re a lot more keyed into your body and so by about 40 minutes in I started noticing aches and soreness in my back that I don’t typically feel. This tells me I need to continue working on my posture and body mechanics; I’ll be the first to admit I’ve gotten a bit lazy about correct techniques.

As for my own riding, with so much going on at school and feeling uninspired about racing my dedication to training has gone a bit south over the past few weeks. I’m thinking there’s probably a correlation between the fact that I started riding to school everyday (for the past three weeks now) and the no-motivation. It’s a lot easier to jump on the trainer at night when I haven’t touched a bike all day and was driving to school. Even though the ride’s not far (about 25 mins each way) it’s just enough of a trip (plus the 15 lb backpack and sorta uncomfortable position on my Bianchi Milano) to make me want to forego any more training.

That's right, Oakley Black Panthers circa 1984 via Indonesia.

That’s about it for me really. Clare and I had a fun and random Sunday night a couple weeks ago where we did the trifecta of out-of-our-element restaurant/bar hopping. We started at Conor O’Neils with a couple pints, walked to Pizza Calore for a couple slices, and then last but not least, finally had a crepe at Crepes a la Carte! Almost a year after the head crepe chef launched himself on Clare’s birthday party table (at Conor’s coincidentally) and about 15 pint glasses *remarkably walking away unscathed* we finally got a taste of the crepe sensation. I ordered some $6 gelato which was complete bullshit-in-a-cup to go with Clare’s Nutella crepe. It pained me to eat the gelato it was that bad and overpriced, but I guess the crepes are why the place it called Crepes a la Carte and not “Gelato a la Carte,” and they were redeemed with the crepe offering. It was then on to home where I should have studied for the exam I later failed, but oh well, you get whatcha give, I suppose.