Tucson

Yup, I'm in Tucson again for an extended weekend. Its February 29th (leap day), 82 degrees and sunny. Dang it was a bit too hot on my spin around the national monument; glorious... especially after hearing that seattle was spitting rain and wind. Hah! So I climbed aboard my Merckx (one of my dear loves kept here in the desert), felt its carbon beneath me with its confident flex and the butter feel of my Campy record shift into place on each climb. ah... it was nearly orgasmic. I think I got a sun burn.

What a Shelf!

This past weekend I was in San Francisco. Having a few bikes I decided to take one down to SF and leave at my friend Mikey and Mel's place at the base of Potero Hill. So I had my wrench Mackenzie box up my bike in a small bike box.

All you traveling bike friends... TIP: box up bike only in a sturdy cardboard box. When you get to the airline counter...and when asked a if its a bike, say its a bike frame. For some reason when it only weighs 15lbs they think so too. NO CHARGE!


So this weekend started the Tour of California (TOC or ATOC to the sponsor Amgen); is it me or do you find that the maker of EPO (for cancer patients and doping cyclists) is the sponsor of this big American cycling event? I saw the prolog in Palo Alto and the first stage as it commenced in Sausilito. Both starts I rode my bike from the City to the location...so it made it more fun, but yes I looked like all the other bike geeks milling about watching the race.

Yes that is Tyler Hamilton and Oscar Sevilla in the Rock Racing (yes we feel like NASCAR) show near the start line.

What impressed me most was how accessible these BIG NAME riders are at the tour. Name any other professional sport (maybe golf) where you can get this close to the BIG GUYS. I did see a pro golf tourney... so this is definitely closer but for a shorter period of time (right?).

The other big impressive element, and I mean BIG was Fabian Cancellara's SHELF or shall I say BUTT! Holy Cow, no wonder he won the Prolog, I mean his caboose was twice the size of other riders. See what us Chick look at? Well for me its the bike and the shelf.

Working to Death

A friend of mine works a high powered job at Microsoft; which is an interesting description in the first place. It's interesting to watch her journey. MSFT is some what of a evil ego builder in that you think your identity is collective; you are nothing if you don't have an email address that ends in @microsoft.com. Interestingly her blog is titled "workingtodeath." She is on the verge of a break, which I recall having one similar just about 1.5 years ago. Having attended a advanced meditation course this past weekend, I paraphrase something Sri Sri said prior to one meditation and I post it here:

If you honestly got word that you had just 3 years to live, what would you do? Think about it. Would you change your work relationship? Would you change your relationships all together? How would you spend the time? What if it were 3 months? Would it change...the relationships? How about 3 weeks? Now what would you do? Is it different? What about 3 hours? Now what? What if this next deep breath was your last intake...AND your breath out was your last? Dead to the world. Would you be conscious of this last breath, or would you continue working some mindless drone position thinking you will make a difference. we all go to the grave. Spend time consciously knowing yourself and not spending endless hours chasing your tail. You, me, we all go to the grave. Until we realize this life is short, really, really short and that we are nothing to this world...we can be free."

Back Home

I just got back from a 10 day road trip to Tucson (6 days of cycling) and Houston (4 days of yoga meditation). I think it was really a vacation from gray cloudy skies. I arrived home to a ticked cat, gray skys and a sunny disposition.

I can't say that my fitness improved while being in Tucson, but I feel great and kept a swift pace on my business activities. I did see a woman that told me this year I should not be racing. Oddly, my intuition has told me the same thing...

It feels like if I race this year it could mean injuries and I need to gather myself in other areas. I'm running another race and I feel like I'm wining...