Super stir fry

Every foodie book, magazine or article I read always says, when shopping, stay on the perimeter of the grocery store. No problem here! That is my favorite place to be:)

I think it is fun when I go to check out and I have little individual baggies of EVERY(well almost)fruit and vegetable offered:) hehehe....

So in honor of all that fun shopping...here are a couple of pictures of my super stir fry, WAY more veggies than meat:) Let's see if I can remember everything in it:

Onion

Garlic

Cabbage

Snow Peas

Broccoli

Water Chestnuts

Mushrooms

Bell peppers

Of course I used brown rice, lean beef and low sodium soy sauce...

YUM a TUM:)

Have a good night.

Tucson Days

These last 2 days of riding have been amazing! Nothing too major about the rides, actually they were both easy, 2hr rides but there was just something about them. Maybe it was the combination of the beautiful weather, great roads and rested legs or maybe I'm getting excited about team camp and the upcoming season, I don't know....

Things are coming together quite nicely. I have a couple of races coming up in March and I know I'm not in the best form but that is the main idea.....I want to peak and last throughout the summer not just be in the best shape for March, so things will be coming together for a while I hope:) Racing will be extra hard at the beginning but I'm ok with that, just as long as I can race my bike:)

I look forward to representing the team in the best way I can, which means being in the best shape and being prepared for racing.

Other than that, I'm watching the awesome Olympics at night and LOVING it!!!! How inspiring!

Question: Why wouldn't a brewery work in Vicksburg? Downtown? I'm loving the one in here in Tucson(Barrios) plus the one back home(Dolores River Brewery) and the one in Durango(Steamworks). I'm just curious why there aren't more back home? Jackson?

My cuz has Yazoo Brewery in Nashville, Andrea enjoys the Flying Saucer(Memphis)....maybe I'm on to something?

Beautiful morning

Good morning Tucson! Thank you for the warm weather! Today, Old Spanish trail ride, tomorrow, Mt. Lemon. It is time to start turning the dial from fun to serious, just a notch though because I don't want any mental burn out and September is a LONG ways away!

The thing about being on a team and traveling all the time is knowing how to let most things just roll off the ole back, lost luggage, missed flights, rude people, flat tires, getting lost, dropped chains, bad days on the bike. ALL of this WILL happen, so like I said on Facebook, my motto is:

ONE DAY AT A TIME

And even though I take it one day at a time, I can still focus and work towards something 2 months from now but I make that a short term goal and stay in the here and now. :) So here and now, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this cup of coffee, eat some grub, get in some yoga, ride, eat, core, stretch, grocery, eat, Olympics, sleep.

Have a great Saturday!

The road to Tucson....

My sweet nephew
Mt. Lemon at mile 15
....is getting burned up! I've been back and forth a couple of times and I'm headed back south tomorrow after a week of appointments here in Colorado for more training before camp. Camp is going to be in Santa Cruz, CA, March 1-8th and it is going to be busy, busy! But I'm really looking forward to getting things rolling.

The training up until now has been really, really great! Lots and lots of miles and fine tuning the bike to what I will be needing it to be. Here are a couple of pictures from mile 15 on Mt. Lemon, that is where we stopped. That was a 4 1/2hr day in the saddle = wonderful! Mt. Lemon is actually 26miles but with the other riding prior to starting the Lemon climb, that was my limit and time to turn around. So maybe next time I will go all the way???

You guys send some well wishes Michelle's way, she has a BUMMED knee and I'm sure she would love the positive, enlightening, encouraging words. I couldn't imagine having to be laid up like she has been, you go girl!!!

Family news:) My 3 year old nephew was accepted to Lausanne!! Yayyaay!!! You go boy:)

Tucson ridin

I think one of my favorite rides here in Tucson is Gates Pass. I think mostly because it was the first ride I did when I got down here the first time and it is associated with the new year with a new team. It has a small climb in it and the roads are nice with minimal traffic.

There are a LOT of cyclist here and it is so fun to do all these rides and usually see someone you know! On the way to Madera Canyon, we passed Todd Wells. He is a pro mountain biker and cross racer and a super nice guy. He helped set up the cyclocross course in Dolores for a small fee of pizza and beer:) I'm also trying to catch up with Rebecca Much again, we rode together on Mt. Lemon my first time here in January. Rebecca is a wonderful person and an outstanding rider. We were on the Hudz-Subaru team together this past year and she is racing for the TIBCO team next year and I look forward to the challenge:) Off the bike she is super sweet and easy going, which is rare in the road racing world:)

I really enjoy being down here in Tucson, it kind of feels like home away from home. I've gotten to know my way around the city(for the most part), I know exactly where the grocery store is, I know where some good shopping is, a couple of staple food places that I've gotten to know the menu:) and just all around I have a good feeling about being here. Usually in riding, training or racing you only stay a week or so and just stay in your bubble and then leave but here it has been more than that and I hope I can continue to make this trip in the future.

Well that's about all I got this morning.....holla back ya'll!

Rain

It's raining in Tucson again:( But that is ok because the 7 days are supposed to be NICE! 70 degree nice, bring it! Since we knew it was going to rain and be kind of nasty these 2 days we did a long 5hr ride, Madera Canyon and back.

When I was here in January, we did this ride but it was the end of a long week and instead of going all the way to the top, we just turned around at mile 10 instead of going the full 13 1/2. So this time around I wanted to go all the way to the top.

Madera Canyon is very deceiving.....the first time we did the ride, I felt like crap, my legs were super tired, I felt like I was going 2mph and the road seemed flat. I NEVER thought that we were climbing the entire 10miles, it just looked flat! But as soon as we turned around it was a sweet decent back down and I thought.....all you had to do was turn around and look back to see that we were climbing. But sometimes you just get so focused on what is in front of you, you don't even realize what you've accomplished by what is behind you.....

So back to the latest ride up......I knew what to expect and I had fresh legs:) So the first 10miles weren't too bad AT ALL. Then comes the next 3 1/2. They were a LOT steeper but the scenery made up for it by far, it was SO BEAUTIFUL! And my poor Iphone picture just doesn't do it justice......

It was steep enough that on the descent, instead of a normal 'road' descent were you can relax the legs, this was more of a mountain bike descent(feet parallel, sitting WAY back on the saddle). BUT SO MUCH FUN! I LOVE going FAST!

So anyway, 5hrs later we make it home and it is time for lupper(lunch/supper). That is when you know you have had a good day in the saddle, you leave at brunch and come home at lupper:)

Get this, I only get like 4 stations here so I've been watching a lot of PBS specials. They are AWESOME because they don't have a whole lot of commercials!!!

Time for food......

SAINTS!

WOW, how exciting that must be for them huh????! That is amazing and it was an awesome feeling to watch it play out! I'm so happy for New Orleans, the team and the city...good job guys.

So training is going great, I had a couple of changes on the bike and I'm dialing it all in for the first couple of races. I'm keeping my goals short term right now, just so I can feel out the team, the riders, the races and how I play into the equation. I will probably reassess the goals in a month or so to see how everything is going and keep moving in that pattern probably for this year. So many variables can change month to month.

So yesterday was a good 2/3 hr ride and I met 2 girls that are here to race the Valley of the Sun and we rode together for about an hour. I think we are gonna catch up again today, I've got a long one to do today so the more the merrier for however long :)

Other than that, life is gooooooood, I'm settling into training and looking forward to the next couple of months to see how things go!

Time to finish the coffee:)

Superbowl Sunday!

Woah! Time flies, I didn't realized I haven't posted in a bit! Sorry guys.....

Over the last two weeks of being home, I was enjoying all things Colorado: snow, my friends, my dog, my bday, my favorite places to eat:) Also on the list of things to do were doctor visits before season started. I wanted to hit all the major ones before I would be gone for most of the summer. I will be back and forth but you know how doctor appointments are:)

I also celebrated my birthday on the 2nd with some good food and great company! I was in Durango for most of the day, playing, it was VERY nice!

Also, these last couple of weeks I've been cooking a LOT!

Baking whole wheat, low fat muffins in all kinds of ways trying to get a good combo....the verdict is still out on that one:) But they were good! I did some w/ dried fruit(not really my thing but I tried it), some w/ just nuts(I put in too many nuts) and I also tried a whole wheat low fat bar, for snacking, they were good! Really dense but had great flavor, I'm sure I will tweak that recipe too:)

I also bought myself a hand held mixer, seeing that my bad boy Kitchen aid is back home and too heavy to ship:) and I bought a big food processor! Yahoo!

So I made a couple of soups that were yum a tum.....creamy corn and vegetable soup , that was great! And without the heavy whipping cream, which makes things so much better in life but we cyclists have figured to maintain;) And I also made a roasted tomato soup. I was trying to think about what Bon Ami's(Jackson, MS) tomato tomato soup tastes like, if you have ever had it you KNOW what I'm talking about, it is AMAZING! Hmmm, wonder if they will share their recipe???? Probably not!

Along with one of the soups was an awesome arugula salad with a shallot vinaigrette. Again, amazing!

Here are a couple of the recipes for you guys if you are bored with the same ol same ol....

Tomato Soup I left out the optional stuff:) I should've used the basil...and I only used 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter.

Creamy corn and vegetable soup

Vinaigrette: 1 shallot diced, 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, 1/3cup red wine vinegar, 2/3 cup oil, pinch of salt.

Bon Ami

As for the rest of the month of February, I'm training, training, training!!!

Training camp for Team VBF(Vera Bradley Foundation) is the first part of March, then racing starts after that:) Follow the team on twitter and facebook!!!!

In my final words....GO SAINTS!!!!!