After La Ruta, my off season started after a very long, amazing year of racing! I took 3 weeks completely off the bike and then 2 weeks of very occasional riding. The great thing about racing, traveling, and traveling a lot for work is that I get to see lots of cool places. The downside is that I don’t go on many non bike or work related trips. I decided that with my weekends of no riding, I’d spend it with friends and family having little weekend vacations.
So first, I went to Las Vegas with my boyfriend the weekend after I got back from Costa Rica. I always go to Vegas for Interbike to work, but not for just plain fun. It was so nice to have the freedom to sleep in, walk around, have no obligation or agenda! Vacation, rrright?
We ate at some great restaurants. My favorite was Chef Ramsay’s Steakhouse in the Paris. It was amazing!!
Example… but we had some great steaks, and tempura haricot vertes, truffle mac n cheese… and this was caviar hamachi with a dill sauce. SO good! Yes, I love food!
I went to my first Vegas show – Blue Man Group. It was really entertaining. They asked Matt to be in the show, so we got our seats upgraded!
It’s fun to clean up from dirty mountain biker to all done up!
That was great! Another weekend, we went to my favorite winery in California. I am a huge fan of bold, full bodied reds. Michael David Winery ! My favorites right now are the Earthquake Zin, 6th Sense Syrah, and Inkblot Petit Verdot. They are all amazingly good though!
We all ran a 10K. I hadn’t run a 10K in 10 years! It was really fun to get back out there. I was a runner before I was a cyclist so it was fun to get back to the roots! The best part was I somehow won the women’s overall! I was not expecting that! The grand prize was a pie!! The pie was from the MD Winery farmhouse which is actually famous for pies. They make tons of them. This one was pumpkin pie. The other time I got pie at a race was the Julian Death March! Of course, I walked funny for a couple of days post 10K. 😉
Vines
That night, I did a Yak Attack presentation at Lodi Beer Company. There was a great turn-out. Thanks to everyone who came! It was fun to talk about it again because the bulk of my presentations were in the spring and summer.
The day after the 10K was a CX race at LangeTwins Winery. There are soooo many great wineries in Lodi, CA! I stuck to my guns regarding forced time off the bike. It’s necessary for staying healthy racing so hard year after year. However, David Phillips- owner of Michael David Winery did the race! It was his very first CX race. He did great and it was fun to watch!
The next week was Thanksgiving! I actually got really sick the day before Thanksgiving, but got on antibiotics and was able to make it home in time for dinner! It was so nice to see my family and some friends. I also finally got back on my bike and did a couple of short mountain bike rides in the ABQ foothills. It was so nice to be riding again!
I’m in Texas visiting my family this weekend for some fun, holiday stuff and then it’s back to training next week! It’s been a very busy off-season so far!!
