"Staff meeting at 8:30 am."

A staff meeting called first thing on a Tuesday morning isn't usually a good sign at the home office, that is unless your staff meeting is a 3.5 hour bike ride in the nice sunshiny weather. I guess one of the benefits of working for a coaching company.

So I'm almost embarrased to admit that today was my longest ride of the year. Well not quite in time, but certainly in distance. I went out with big CC and a few other coaches from the office to do the Hanover loop today. 72 miles in 3.5 hours which is definitely the fastest I've ever done that loop. Of course the lack of wind helped, but we definitely had a good ride today.

In an odd experiment when I got home I decided to make my recovery drink with fizzy water. Well, I needed a recovery drink and I like fizzy water, so why not try combining the two. I'll just save you the trouble of trying this one on your own. First of all, all it does is get really, really foamy and second, it kind of tastes like crap.

So I spent the night at Beth's house who despite being 7 month's pregnant is still out there training and still able to rock the Colorado State Hill Climb Champion jersey.

Not only that, but she bakes a mean Elmo cake too.

Before today's race we went out with Mallen and Jenna for a true coffee ride where we stopped and ate more than the actual time we spent riding our bikes.
The boys chilaxin' before the race.
Then there was a race. We rode around in circles for about an hour and then someone won. Well, somone who wasn't me. Somewhat similar to yesterday, I ended up in a 3 person split but finished 3rd of 3 each time for 3rd today and 4th yesterday. I think I should maybe work on my sprint a little. The team rode great today though, so I gotta give them props for a great day of racing.

Went out to race Deer Trail today, and guess what it was windy. Big surprise racing out in the middle of eastern Colorado. This picture, however, was taken while the weather was still "good" and there were only 60mph wind because about an hour after this it started snowing and sleeting along with the 60mph winds. Fortunately the snow stopped by the time we started racing.

After the race we went out for Jon's birthday. As you can tell by everyone's expression, we all had a great time.

Track time. Since Clay is gone for a few weeks I had the opportunity to work with the kids this afternoon out at the track. Watching them ride around and around in circles made me jealous. I think it's just about time to bust out the track bike, especially since I'm pretty slow on every other bike I'm riding these days. Maybe the track bike will be better.

The prettiest 1 mile drive in Colorado Springs... the free view that you don't have to pay $9 per person to drive, instead only about a 20 min hike.

Accompanied with the free view of Seven Falls.

Beautiful day in Colorado Springs.

At some point in time, I think most of us realize that we (meaning me) were perhaps not as cool as we thought back in high school. As I was reliving my past with some new friends last weekend, I realized that I might have not been as cool as I thought 20 years ago.

I was in high school orchestra band. I thought I was somewhat cool because I played the drums, but I wasn't even any good because all they let me ever play were the cymbals.

(p.s. To note, I did sell my drum set to buy my first bike. Perhaps that's when I really started being cool...or not so cool. I'm not sure.)

I was in AV club. Seriously, it was where all the cool kids hung out. Cool kids, that is, if your best friend's name was Pedro. I mean we got to go hang out and watch the Princess Bride instead of going to study hall, that's pretty cool.

I ran for class president every year.... Never won, not even close. I don't see how I could have lost with a slogan like "Don't be gay, vote for Renee."

p.s. Note: in high school "gay" just meant "lame". Of course I would never use that slogan now. How they let me leave that one up on the high school walls, I'll never know.

In high school my boyfriend's name was Ernie and he drove a blue Pinto....and it was a wagon.

I had a rat tail. Yes, you read it right. On my head, dangling from the back of my hair, a psuedo-mullet rat tail.

I only wonder now how uncool I will think I was 20 years from now.

I spent a lot of time with the Twins this weekend and it was a lot of fun. We raced the Haystack TTT yesterday and it went really well, right up until when Carol flatted. Unfortunately, unlike the Slipstream team, we did not have team support out there to change the flat.

After the race we had dinner at Jenna's house, which was great.

Here Jenna sits on her throne which she prefers at the dinner table.

We even had a fashion show. ("Fashion show at lunch!" Quick, where's that quote from?)

Carol even amazed us with her unique hick-up remedy technique.

My transformation to fattie masters racer is almost complete now that I finally have a real TT bike. I've been working on the fattie part all winter and that's been going good, but the TT bike isn't quite high zoot enough for status as full fattie master. I need more carbon on it and I'll be closer. Although my new road bike is carbon... does that count?

I'm so glad I didn't procrastinate doing my taxes this year. I mean, I got them done today with a whole 6 days to spare. The good news is that through some creative deductions I'm getting a refund. The bad news is the refund doesn't quite cover the amount I owe to the State plus how much it cost to do my taxes. So I'm still $200 in the hole.

Went to my first race of the season today. I hung out with Beth while she was helping out at the ACA booth. Since she was parked out all morning by the registration, everyone kept asking her to pin their numbers so she decided to try to make a little extra baby money while she was out there.

Strangely, once she put up the sign, people stopped asking her. I think $2 is a fair price for pinning, although you should note that it costs $3 for the pro pin job with 7 pins. I can only assume the 12 pin Meggan Hottman pin job costs about $5.

She however, did not want to pin my number. What a lucky number for the first race of the year. It's the same upside down and right side up, and it's got a dirty double meaning. It's hard to get a better number than that.

Of course since I had a good race number I had a good race. I got second today.... and on the dirt too! Here's the photographic evidence to prove it of me attacking the break on the Koppenburg. Strange but true.
(for those of you who don't know, I hate riding on the dirt. I'm bad at it and usually get dropped riding in it)

I stand corrected. My sister sent me this picture today. She was rummaging around the basement when she saw some graffiti we left under the stairs. Remember the other week when I blogged about my first unofficial date movie as Red Dawn. Well, apparently it was the 7th grade, not 6th grade as you can clearly see by the Renee-n-Jon June 1984, which was 7th grade, not 6th. Just wanted to clear that up.

TLNP.

So we took one last look around town before Mom left yesterday.

Yup, that's a pretty big water fall.

There's actually 7 falls (hence, Seven Falls). However, I think it's a big rip off to charge $9 just to get in and look at it. I mean it's not like some Oscar winner or something's fall.

So Mom's gone now and it's just me and the cats enjoying our quiet time.