I'm dedicating this blog to Muller since he is the one that got me to write it.
A few weeks ago when we were back in Durango at East by Southwest Sushi we finally got the cotton candy dessert. They use to have a basket of jelly beans at the hostess stand but now they give you cotton candy. Well, this is the first time they gave it to us since they switched the desserts, about a year ago. They probably knew Snoodle would do something like this.
When we were back in Durango a month ago I also got to attend the Trails 2000 Auction. This is something like the 20th year it has been going on and it's a who's who of Durango, not quite sure how I snuck in. It is always held at Old Tymers on Main St., there is an auctioneer and it's the biggest fundraiser of the year for Trails 2000. If you've ever been to Durango you know how awesome Trails 2000 is because all the trails in the Durango area are either built or maintained by them. And that is an original 1990 MTB World Championships banner hanging up at the far end of the restaurant.
On the way back to Tucson we had to make a quick detour to Phoenix where I sold my CRF 450R that I have been using as a glorified tire rack for the last 3 years. The bike was amazing but I rode it about once a year so I was happy to have it find a new home. Hopefully it will be happy there. Also had a bunch of equipment to bring down to Tucson to donate to the El Gruppo development crew.
Back to the training, I just finished up my big block of base training. A lot of MTBers have been in and out of town this year. I am mostly a lone wolf when it comes to training but on this particular ride it was awesome to have the company of fellow MTBs Finsty, Ettinger, Decker, Spencer Paxson and roadie Morgan Schmitt. The weather has been perfect this year for training and I haven't ridden in a drop of rain since Jingle Cross over Thanksgiving. Now that I said that it will probably piss rain all year but I'd rather race in it then train in it any day.
I'm about 4 weeks ahead of schedule this year compared with years past since I have to be ready to go in the middle of March instead of the middle of April. It's funny because I've done the same thing for so long, I'm not use to doing intensity in early Feb, usually it comes in March. I also feel like it should be warming up in Durango now but instead they're just starting to get snow. I'm done with my big training in time for the World Match Play Championships in Tucson so hopefully I'll get to be a golf spectator for a day in a few weeks.
Meg and I have only made it to In and Out Burger once so far this year but it was sooooooo good.
Speaking of eating beef, the Contador case is finally done after almost 2 years. As an athelte that gets drug tested what more can you do then read the label of ingreedients for food, water, medicine, supplents and believe that it contains what is says it contains? If he was cheating then he should get suspended but if he did unknowingly ingest it and it had no affect on his performance every athlete that gets drug tested should be very concerned. CAS said they felt he got it from a "tainted supplement" not "tainted beef" but either way they felt he didn't do it knowingly, it was too little to affect his performance but he still deserved a 2 year ban.
I don't know if you can see it from this picture but the other day I was riding the AZ trail south of Tucson and saw this real life Disney World style castle. It is visible for miles on this trail, it's white and looks just the castle in the Disney World pictures. The trail by the way is awesome! It's pretty smooth by Tucson standards, offers some cool scenery and I think this is the only castle you will see on it. There are great canyons, cool washes and enough technical stuff to keep it fun.
Finally, what everyone wants to know is how is Winston doing. He's doing great, although he did have an altercation with a Cholla the other day that started on his paw and ended up stuck to his nose. He hasn't been doing too much training either lately but seems happy to just play ball on the golf course at night.
That's it for me, time to hit the gym, play a little tennis with Meg and go for a spin, few more days left of my break and I have to stay busy so I don't eat everything in the house.
I wonder what the Darts' doing right now......
