stevebradley's Mentor Group FULL (Page 253)

Merry Christmas all!  I'm here in spirit if nothing else.  Hope everyone had an excellent holiday.  We're in the N. Ga mountains where we had a white Christmas (8 inches of snow!)  It's beautiful! 

Jess!!!!!  Aggghhhhhhh!!!!!  Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  boy did i pick a great time to pop back in here !!!!!!

i'm so happy for you both!

I do, however, think you're crazy about a wedding the week before loo.  BUT, if that's what needs to happen to have everything you want come together, you'll make it happen. 

It is helpful that you will be doing it near your NY home and that it will be low key, but you'll still be stressed leading up to it about small things.  Who knows?  training may actually HELP deal with all that.

I'm also thinking of all the cool signs that mark could make to cheer for you at LOO a week after he's your husband

...and i think the idea of taking a relaxing honeymoon after a wedding and an IM sounds amazing.  keep in mind, though, that you're asking mark to spend 11+ hours in the heat, sweating and lugging your crap around in the midst of HIS honeymoon.  that's one way to test a new marriage

yay yay yay.  all fun problems to contemplate.

thanks for starting my morning with a smile

please tell mark your BT family says CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

steve and all!  while i've been missing lately, you are all still constantly on my mind.  i think about you guys daily, honestly.  it's funny the relationships you can build over this type of thing.

i have updates and responses to get back to steve.  ...and i promise i will.  ryan and i are planning a low key, reflective new years eve and day so i'll have all kinds of time. 

this morning at 10am i have my first "testing" of the new season.  we're going to our coaches house to do a FTP test on the bike to get a baseline for our current power.  we did this test on new years eve last year.  i'm scared that my power will actually be worse considering i have done little to no training in almost 2 months.  Eek.  i also woke up with what feels like a chest cold, so that will help make things better, i'm sure

i'm already starting to feel anxiety about 2011.  i had wanted to do a lot more with the offseason and before i know it, it's gone.  egads.  i feel like i started earlier training last year and IM loo was later.  aggghhhhh!!!!!

anyway, i'll get back to you possible today, but definitely by tomorrow.

steve, did you get our christmas card?!  i've never mailed anything to canada and wasn't exactly sure how the postage worked.  i hope you got it.  the dog on the left was Belle and the one on the right it Roo. 

more soon!

so, thus begins my attempt to catch up here.....

on this topic:  Roo has been great.  she is coming along really really well.  i think your assessment of ryan's reaction is spot on.  he was devastated when we lost belle.  i was shocked (and touched) at how terribly he took her passing.  I think, for sure, there was guilt when we got Roo, like somehow having another dog was betraying her.  i think for the most part he's over it now.  he really likes roo.  i kept asking him early on if he loved her yet, and he said no.  i think he does, but it's just too scary to think about putting your heart in the position where you know you're going to be devastated eventually again.  it's been a work in progess.

we both agreed, though, as we were sitting at home on christmas eve that we were really happy we found her.  I would have been a blubbering mess if it had been just ryan and i.  having roo has helped us heal from belle. 

first of all, i think i saw in the new mentor group that your 35th anniversary was yesterday?!  happy anniversary Lynn and Steve!!!!!!  35 years?  wowza.  that's impressive.

usat rankings: yeh, when i first saw this i was pretty excited.  i never expected to be ranked an all american, but i was reallky happy with it.  ryan is currently sitting at honorable mention.  look at the albrechts are here

the ranking was even cooler, because fexy just changed sponsors to a different tri/bike store and as a part of their agreement, they've unveiled a fexy elite team.  there are a few ways you can qualify, but one of them is to be ranked an all american.  when it's all said and done, i will probably still not join the team because it requires you get a new bike to ride a specialized.  we get pro discounts ~55%, but it would still end up being a decent cost that we don't need right now.  especially since i just got my bike last year.  it's still been an honor to make the cut....hey, maybe i can sell my bike to jess and then join the elite team and get a specialized

schedule:

jan 1 the savageman races open.  we'll probably register for the 1/2.  we are also probably going to register for the diabolical double that the same outfit does.  http://www.winthefight.org/granfondo/index.htm  we'll probably go to deep creek for 4-6 days and treat it as a training camp for LP.

jan 5th the set up events races open.  we'll register for the rumpass double and the kinetic half.  i know you were thinking about kinetic.  any decisions?

Happy New Year All!  I hope 2011 brings back some motivation for me in the exercise department, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy following everyone's progress.

Congrats Jess on your wedding news.  That's exciting news.  Hope it all comes together like you want.  Just don't sweat the small stuff.

Neil - very nice bike.

Lisa, hope you are feeling better.

Yes Steve, that's our cabin on xmas.  When it finally stopped snowing we had nearly 10 inches.  A record even for here.  It was lots of fun being in it, since we had no where we had to be.  I know it  threw a huge wrench in a lot of people's travel plans, but we were content to sit tight and enjoy the view.  I think Atlanta only had about 1 inch, so we were lucky to have been up here before the snow started.

We've been eating non-stop now for almost 10 days.  Tomorrow we head back home, and back to more sensible eating and exercising.  But one last night of apple pie before we go...

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!