Allez!

Last week I went to look at my blog, and it came as a real surprise to me that it had been two weeks plus since I had written an update. Now another week of craziness has passed, and I am finally finding a moment to compose a small update. Maybe it is ironic that this moment is coming after I traveled to Spain, instead of finding the moment while at home, but who knows! I have been quite busy this past month of November. It began with the trip to Solvang, then a week at home with some training in between trying to take care of all the important tasks of life: insurance, paying bills, etc. Notice the order there! It must really be my “off-season”. Honestly, I sure don’t feel like I have had an off season this year! Oh well, it is my job and life, and I love them both.

After feeling like I accomplished nothing the whole week at home, it was time for Lisa and my much anticipated trip to Col for Thanksgiving. We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time because it was basically our one week of vacation. Lisa had just proposed her dissertation, successfully I might add, and I was not in full training mode, so we were really hoping to enjoy ourselves doing some other things we love; mainly just being together!

We spent a couple days in Colorado Springs with Ally and Caleb Fairly. We hadn’t seen them since this summer/early fall in Girona, so it was really exciting to see them and check out Colorado Springs. After a really good time there, we moved on to Golden for a couple days where we crashed with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Peter. They were gracious hosts, too, and our time in Golden was also very enjoyable. Being the homeless bums Lisa and I currently are (part of the reason we went to CO was for house hunting), we had to figure out our plans for Thanksgiving. It has been the tradition for the last couple years to spend it in Mesa, AZ with the Savre grandparents, but this year we changed it up a bit because of the CO trip. We definitely missed the company and cooking in AZ, but it was closely replaced with some great cooking and company at the Trumbo household (Ally’s parents).

Fully satisfied from a great Thanksgiving Day run, ride, and feed, it was time for Lisa and me to take an impromptu trip to Estes Park. It had been a great week in CO, but we decided it was time to take some time for ourselves and get away. We made a stop in Fort Collins at Snooze for breakfast, and it was great, but we were excited to get up to Estes, so we jetted ASAP. Our time in Estes was probably the funnest (maybe not a word?) 24 hours I can remember in a long time. We did some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, checked out my “house” from the two summers I spent in Estes, had a great meal at the restaurant I worked at, and managed to get caught in a snow storm. It was crazy fun really.

Our drive home from CO was cut in half by a stay over in Taos. We pulled in late evening, had a decent “new Mexican” dinner, and headed to bed. One complaint about dinner though, what kind of Mexican restaurant doesn’t serve complimentary chips & salsa? I mean seriously, come on! After a good night’s sleep, we woke up and Lisa did a nice run, while I headed out on my bike for a nice ride. My ride was a little ridiculous actually. I took the “high road” from Taos toward Santa Fe and dropped off at Espanola, but it wasn’t until the last 20km or so when I descended from the mountains, that I was below 2100 meters elevation. I was completely floored by the time I finished even my “easy” ride. The terrain was difficult enough, but the elevation really kicked my butt. Lisa picked me up in Espanola, we enjoyed great, roadside Mexican burritos and headed back to Las Cruces.

Coming off our great week in CO, it was too few, short days in Las Cruces before I headed to an appearance in Boston at Craft’s USA headquarters. I had a great time in Boston though meeting people and learning about Craft clothing and Karhu footwear. These are two great companies with great products. The worst part of my trip to Boston was my baggage being delayed because of a switch in flights that I made. And to compound my baggage being delayed, a wheel was broken off my suitcase and my bike bag ripped when I finally did get them. I’m a little disappointed in the AA for that, especially because I paid $175 for my luggage. I don’t want to go into a rant on this subject, but I find the airlines baggage fees/policy ridiculous. The policy should be total weight, not number of pieces or what the piece is. It is incredibly unfair that I can have a suitcase, bike, carry on, and myself that in combined weight are less than the guy alone who is sitting next to (and partially on) me. I apologize if that offends anyone, but the policies are truly unfair.

My luggage and I did make it successfully to Spain, and I enjoyed a nice ride today with Jesse Sergent. We were here a day earlier than the rest of the riders, so it was just the two of us. I like the area around Calpe. It is where I had my first European training camp in 2010, and we started this year’s Vuelta close by in Benidorm. I am looking forward to a nice week with the team to get things rolling in a positive direction for 2012. I’ll try to post a couple pictures from our CO trip and make some posts as I progress through training camp, but don’t forget to check on the sidebar for my Twitter, too. Thanks!