Grin

Grin
Originally uploaded by cbnystrom.

It's amazing how a little grin can absolutely make your day. Good times.

Melanie is out for a ride this morning with her friend Erin. They'll probably do about 4 hours riding the country roads north of town.

Thor and I are chilling on the couch for a bit. Then we'll head out to do the shopping for the week.

I'll get out for a short ride later today and then tomorrow morning me and the boys are doing a long, hilly one up close to PA and back. It should end up being around 5 hours round trip.

I've been doing a lot of 1-3 hour rides so I'm curious to see what my body does the last couple of hours.

I'm printing out some small Thor photos to tape to the handlebars of my various bikes. They should be good for inspiration when the going gets tough.

I've been listening to a lot of French language stuff on my iPod lately, trying to improve my linguistic skills, yo. I'll probably only use it on vacations, but I think I could go for working a year or two abroad...getting immersed in a different culture and doing a lot of road trips around Europe. Thor is already into travelling so I'm sure he would have a good time.

That's all for now...the countdown to 'cross season is in full effect...two months 'til the first race.

Pigeons

update

Long time no blog, so here's a quick update...

Fooooooooooood

We've been trying to try some new recipes. To that end we alternate weeks preparing a new dish. In the last month I've grilled fish a couple of times. First up was rockfish marinated with olive oil, lemon juice, and capers. Next up was salmon marinated with an orange soy teriyaki siz-auce. In each case, the marinade added flavor and moisture without taking away from the flavor of the fish. We'll be grilling more fish from here on out.

Since I've been doing mostly base training and zero racing I haven't been too freaked about my diet so I've been enjoying a regular belgian beer...Duvel, Chimay, Hoegaarden, Stella...as well as some ice cream from the neighborhood shop. I've been enjoying the added calories, but I couldn't go nuts on the beer and ice cream year round.

Continuing the food & beverage thought, every time we're in Paris there's a certain Latin Quarter cafe that we always hit for a Kir and some good people watching. Since we didn't make it to Le Tour this year we've been drinking Kir's here at home. They're easy to make....Sauvignon Blanc with a splash of Creme de Cassis. The only thing missing is the Parisian atmosphere and attendant cigarette smoke.

Riding the mountain bike

I've been riding the Fuel ex doing 2-3hr rides and covering the whole park (Patapsco Avalon). Disc brakes and 4in of travel with on the bar lockout make long rides over varied terrain a lot o'fun. This bike is perfectly suited for endurance racing and it's the bike I'll use for the Shenandoah 100 next year...too much going on to do the race this year.

I've also done some riding on my generic rigid singlespeed. This machine has no frills, but it's such a pure riding experience. The connection from trail to rider is organic and requires bike handling skills that are an afterthought on a full-squishy bike...good for improving one's skillz. When I get back to doing some XC racing I think I'll do it on a SingleSpeed.

Running...ugh

'Cross season is nigh, and since it's my only racing focus this year I started the running early. I'm still doing a couple of 20 minute jogging sessions per week. Next month I'll begin some running intervals to really start the suffering.


Thor

He's smiling, giggling, and growing! He's 13 weeks old and already too long for most of his 3 month old clothes. For the past couple of weeks he's been sleeping from roughly 9pm until after 6am, so we're all getting plenty of good sleep. wooohooo!
This is a really fun age, as he's learning new things every day. He really enjoyed listening to coverage of the Tour and seemed to recognize Phil and Paul's voices.
I'm hoping that he'll make it out to some 'cross races this Fall to cheer on his Dad.

That's all for now.

Thor's first day at the beach

07-05-05_1753.jpg
Originally uploaded by cbnystrom.

@ the beach

All Night Long

"All Night Long" by the late great Mississippi blues genius Junior Kimbrough is an appropriate song this morning.

Thor slept from 9:30 last night until almost 7:00 this morning. That's the first time that he has slept through the night.

Let's hope this turns into a habit. 8-)