Arrived on Thursday afternoon after a fairly uneventful flight. Went to get my rental car, and of course they didn't have the car I had requested, so after much discussion, I got upgraded to a full size SUV. So I was driving around a brand new (seriously the car had 50 miles on it when I got it!) Ford Explorer. The thing was huge! Even had a 3rd row seat. So from there I drove up to the Domain to get my hair cut. I haven't found anyone I like here in Chicago yet, so I went to see Heather. Of course she did a great job.
Sporting my new look, I headed over to the LLS office to say hi to a few people. Even got put to work stuffing some race bags. From there I stopped by Carrie's house to drop off my stuff and get changed, then it was up to Bicycle Sport Shop to pick up The Spook (Kristi's bike) and get it ready for me to ride it. Kristi and I then had a nice ride on Parmer (that unfortunately included me having to change a flat on her crazy carbon wheels!) and then some beer-ritas and yummy food at Waterloo.
Friday I took advantage of the opportunity and slept in, it felt really nice to not wake up to an alarm! I then headed downtown for lunch with Colleen, hooray for Homeslice! Mmmm eggplant pizza. :) Colleen still amazes me with her strength and her ability to handle everything that is thrown at her, even when it seems that everything is thrown at once. Congrats Colleen, you are super strong and I'm so excited for you and starting the new job today! Knock their yellow socks off! After lunch, Colleen and I ventured over to Mellow Johnny's (Lance's new bike shop)
The store was amazing of course. Lance knows how to do it right. It's a huge warehouse, so it has a much more open feel than most bike shops. The bikes looked like they were on display rather than just put into any open space that could be found. Of course they had plenty of Treks, but also some Pinarellos. Wow those are good looking bikes! Checked out the Eddy Merckx line as well. I'm a little jealous that Colleen will soon be getting a discount there. She informed that at some point I must buy myself a pair of Dude Girl cycling shorts (which are being carried at Mellow Johnny's) .
Saturday was the day of the big Blanco ride! Carrie and I loaded up the Explorer and headed out there. Unfortunately I had incorrect information on the roll-out time, so we were late. Instead of taking the option of being SAGed forward we decided we were there to ride, and we would catch up with everyone eventually. (did I mentioned we rolled out 35 minutes after everyone else) We had a few mechanical issues in the beginning of the ride, since we were both riding bikes that had just been put back together after being shipped back from CA. But we still managed to catch everyone. Felt great to have a nice fast ride. The last 15 miles of the ride really flatten out, so we were flying! Final ride stats, 68 miles (with tons of hills!) in 5 hours, and that included stopping time for mechanical issues and the 2 rest stops.Saturday evening ended up being low-key, and then I took a very early flight home Sunday morning. Once I got home I went and had some sushi with my sister and her friend, and then settled in for a quick nap before heading over to the bike shop for a fit clinic. Well unfortunately my alarm didn't work so what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour nap turned into a 4 hour nap and I missed the fit clinic. Hopefully they will be able to go over the info with me sometime this week.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that post, which ended up being way too long. Nothing big on the schedule this week, but I will try to come up with something to post about to keep you entertained. :)
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