I'm on a little vacation this weekend. I flew up to Portland to visit my BFF Gretchan, Rory, and Kurt.

Today we went to the farmer's market, and Rory got to ring the bell to open up business. You get to do cool stuff like that when your mom is in charge of the farmer's market.


Then we snacked on vegetables, nature's candy. Rory, at least for the time being, is still convinced of this fact. He's 4 and has not yet discovered the wonderful world of soda, snickers bars, and twinkies.

Then we unpacked all the Halloween decorations and old costumes.

Even Ginny got in to it.

Aaargh. I think the pirate costume wins.

I guess I won't be doing the Incline tomorrow. Uhm, because it is on fire.

Drawn by my 4 year old niece.

Yup, still sore.

Things I did today:
1. Lifted weights
2. The Incline(stock photo of the Incline)

Things I will be tomorrow:
1. Sore

So I've decided to get more organized so I can accomplish a bit more every day. I started yesterday with making a task list for every day this week. So on today, day 1 of my new regime, I have already accomplished everything on the list, finished my work for the day (save but one client appointment), and am ready to get ahead on tomorrow's list and it's only 2pm. I think I'm on to something... Organization, who would have thought?

Broncos, booo!

Today there was a cross race down here in the Springs. And guess what? Katie 'straight outta' Compton won. She actually raced the women's race. She had a 100 m gap about 10 seconds from the start, and never looked back.

Steph was there.
Charlotte was there.
And even Missy 'the missile' Thompson came out of retirement to make a rare race appearance.

Muscles was also there with her buddy Jack. This little guy is pretty dang cute.

So tonight was "officially" the last race of the season for me. Although I haven't touched my bike since Saturday night, I had to break the track bike out for one last night of racing.

Tonight was the last night of track racing, and I had to show up to defend the hotly contested rider of the year (aka ROY) season points. Also, when you're treated to sunsets like this, how could you not go to the track?
Melissa also showed because luckily her surgery was postponed. She says this was the last one because she's retiring.... but we all know she'll be out there again next year!

So the night went very well. I won 2 out of 3 races, including my official last race of the season which was the 5-mile. As a bonus, the win in the 5 mile came with this cool Mike Freedman trophy and x-ray glasses. I was also to have won a date with Mike Freedman.... I'm still waiting, as he did not come out to Old C's with us tonight.

As a super special bonus, I got the best prize any one has ever given me in bike race. Michelle "Mini-me" Sneath bequeathed to me her very special #1 track number. See, on the track we race with the same number all year long. This year I had #7, which has been very lucky, but Mini-me gave me the #1 she had been wearing all year. She finished 2nd in the points and I ended up winning Rider of the Year which is something I've never done before at the track and quite proud of. Thanks Michelle!

Brad Huff, you're my hero!

So now that it's officially the off-season, I have had the chance to do some things I haven't done in a while.

Like go to the gym. It's been so long since I've been there that it doesn't even exist anymore.

Or go to the library. Who would have thought you could find Death Cab for Cutie CDs for checkout at the Penrose Library.

Then I did something I haven't done in about 18 months... I put on some new shoes and did what could be best described as running. Those that have seen me run certainly know that I do not excel in the art of human locomotion, hence why I ride a bicycle all the time.

Another crit in the dark. This time I did NOT win.

But Kori did win and is now the official state champ of Colorado. I am sure she'll be breaking out this jersey for the "champions" jersey ride we'll be organizing later this year.

Catherine Powers, though, did join the clean plate club.

So that's it. The last race of the season (I think).

I've been trying to follow the Tour of Missouri this week, but it seems like it's turning it to a bit of a snoozer race. Unfortunately, I think the most exciting thing that might come out of the TOM is that an armadillo leapt in to the peloton today and crashed out poor Dan Schmatz.

So today I decided to do some "training" and I'll use that term loosely, since this time of year anything more strenuous than riding my bike down to Starbucks I classify as "training". (And some days I even call that training.) Anyway I was out doing the Colorado Springs hour of power, which for us is ride over to Gold Camp, ride the 23 minutes up, then ride back home. I think in Denver the "hour of power" actually involves climbing for an hour or some such nonsense up Deer Creek Canyon, but that's a debate for another day.

You'll always run in to lots of folks on Gold Camp though because it's really the only climb in Colorado Springs. Today I saw Sarah "Muscles" Musick.

Then I ran in to my old boss James and Alison "I'm fitter now than when I was still racing" Dunlap.

Then I ran in to this critical mass ride of a bunch of Freds descending the climb. Normally, I wouldn't harsh on dudes so much for being Freds but there were like 40 of them getting in my way and trying to take me out on the descent.

In case you were wondering, you can still buy banana clips at Walgreens.

Today was the annual end of the season picnic for the Front Rangers cycling team. It was a lot of fun and good to see all the kids before we head off for the fall and off-season.

I've got to say I was proud to work with this group of kids on the track this year. It was way more fun than I ever expected and look forward to a bigger, better program next year and beyond.

Is that too much Coke Blak?

The answer is no. I just read last week that Coca Cola is going to stop making Coke Blak. I saw it on sale at King Sooper's today and bought all they had. So if you see it in the stores, I suggest you buy it. Then you can charge folks like me $10 a bottle for it once our stock piles dwindle.

Just in case someone holds you down and paints your fingernails and then you don't have any fingernail polish remover to take off said fingernail polish, TriFlow degreaser will do the trick.

I raced track tonight. I was tired and not really motivated to race, but the competition was good and the racing was fun. Megan "big gear" Hottman was there cranking out the watts.

After the races, as tradition, we went to Old C's. Melissa and Mini-me have welcomed me this year in to the inner circle of the post track racing party.

Later, Mini-me entertained us with magic.

So Gateway finished off really well. Maegan initiated the final break, ended up 3rd on the day and 3rd in the overall. Beth and I both finished in the top 10 and got a couple of primes. So overall a fantastic weekend of racing. Good competition, fun teammates, fun races, good crowds, and even a fair bit of prize money.

You can read more about the weekend here and here.

After the race we had to book it out of St. Louis, so we opted for the horse bath shower so we didn't stink ourselves out for the 12 hour drive.

So, somewhere around 9pm we decide to drive straight through the night to Colorado. I am pretty sure that the person who came up with that idea is the same person who came up with the idea to drive the 12 hours to St. Louis in the first place. This picture is of dawn as I arrived at my house at 6 am this morning.

Driving until 6am was a bad decision and so was stopping for an hour to get Sushi in the middle of Kansas. The only good thing about driving through the night is that the girls got so bored they finally broke down to play a few rounds of "who would you do?" after several rounds of "desert island"

Gateway 2007 Final Exam -
Name all the Colorado riders in this picture.

Yesterday we went out for a little spin through Forest Park before the race. There's museums, a zoo, and lots of people jogging and biking in the park.



Then we raced. It wasn't our best of the weekend, I mean, we didn't win. I guess when you win two in a row anything else but winning is a disappointment.

You can read more about the weekend at Sharon's blog. Click here.

This morning Beth forced us to ride the Metro. Apparently Beth is really in to public transportation until today when she had to wait forever for the train to come.

Guess where we went?

We had all morning to play in St. Louis so we spent some time in the Gateway to the West Museum. Since Sharon is an illegal alien she was entranced by the various American history lessons.

Maegan fueled by the purple pants she had on soloed to the big win. We're really glad she's riding for Vitamin Cottage this weekend. That makes us 2 for 2 this week at Gateway so far. That's real good.

Unfortunately Maegan's win meant I lost the bet. Earlier in the day Sharon tried to get me to paint my nails because all the girls were doing it. Because I refused Sharon bet me that if any one else in the house won then I'd have to paint my nails. As you can tell, I'm really enjoying it.