Huevos and Snow biking

We joined the masses and hit up W Cafe for Sunday Breakfast today. It was so busy there that Brian and I got the last booth a half booth that was crammed in along the edge, it was ok as we had street side view of snowy Sunday on Mainstreet.

I ordered the Huevos - a Mexican breakfast -2 eggs over beans and a tortilla smothered with vegetarian chili and a side of Guacamole.

It reminded me of a favorite Kiwi Sunday dinner. AKA. Darron Burn's style. This is the best (or maybe all this winter is making me homesick?) A toasted Bagel with marmite, loaded with watties baked beans, a poached egg and Watties tomato sauce (ketchup).

I'm a ketchup fiend and create meals where its the star ingredient. (these days I buy organic ketchup, which is really only to make myself feel that my habit is somehow better!).

Afterwards as it was 'warmer' (20 degrees) we bought out the bikes and went snowbiking. I've not been riding at all lately as have been saving the joys of the trainer for the happy New Year (its not secret that I detest the trainer).

Check it out. Brians Snow bike. It was FUN. The tires absolutely rocked. (2.35 Bontrager Jones - with 16 lbs of pressure, they where awesome). Brian is running larger profile Bontrager rythm wheels. It was so much fun that I have signed on to race a winter Tri in Durango on the 26th Jan.

.

Taking a Nana picture with the dog

We are dorks! This is funny as we didn't know our camera took movie clips untill I uploaded these pictures. The button must have been frozen and stuck on.

This could be fun....Next time... Tune in for nordic skiing 101 w/ J Smith.... ha ha ....we all might learn something there.

Gunnison Nordic, Night skiing and Stepping out at Colorado Fitness

The Skiing is so good I'm almost loathe to advertise it.

A huge thank you goes out to the Gunnison Nordic club http://www.gunnisonnordic.net/ especially Mike Cole, Dave MO and Jesse Crandall who are doing the majority of the Grooming out there, bringing free skiing to the people and loads of it.

The other day skate skiing at Hartman's Rocks we stumbled on oh .... another 3 miles or so of new groomed track off to the right by Hogs back rocks. Unreal.... I wish I could express the joy of a new corduroy surprise in your favorite place. It nearly negated the fact that the skate skiing at the time was ridiculously hard, being mostly uphill . I first ran into Holly Rickett who with the biggest grin exclaimed... This is the best skiing in Colorado -right here. Then a little later saw my friends Gale and Greg who said... didn't know it was you Jenny, herringbone- ing along Hogsback. (Yeah yeah Gale just loves that she can Ski).

Brian's schedule has been 7-3 lately which doesn't leave him too much daylight to train in but has introduced me into one of his favorite Worlds - Night skiing. Its opened a whole new World to me and I'm getting hooked. Along with the obvious advantage of having a training partner, its also meaning a more relaxed approach to the time as its usually too cold to get out in the am and the evening is warm enough. Then there is the silent beauty of the trails and its amazing. So that's what we did last night on Xmas. Skied till 7.30, came home and ate leftovers with Brian's parents while watching Rocky 4 and 5 on Versus. (low stress in the Smith household).

I am offering a 4 week 'Step into the New Year' Program at Colorado Fitness. This program includes a personal training session each week throughout Janurary to develop and implement an individualised health and fitness plan for you. If this sounds like something you would like to do Call Colorado Fitness 970 641 3375 for more information or to sign up.

Enjoy

Jen

Making it all work

We worked out a system over the weekend where Brian and I can ski together. All we have to do is pick a trail that needs breaking in and I'll follow along behind. In that vein we (well Brian broke trail up to Swampy pass on Saturday) and I followed along. it was really fun. It was also really cold and my sandwich, water and banana all froze, which made Brian a bit cross as I then had to steal his supplies. At the end on the way home we got so cold we drove through Sonic (our only time to eat there in 9 years of living in Gunnison... I ate my burger in the bath... and it was so good ... after 5 hours and -7 degrees I easily justified it all).).

Now we have our family visiting for Xmas which is proving to be lots of fun adventures. Here's Brian his mum and sister at Hartman's. Its warmed up a bit too which is good as Kari and Patrick live in North Carolina and Sunny Gunny was a bit of an initial shock temperature wise. Wherever you are Happy Holidays!
Enjoy.

And so this is winter.....

Sandi and Gale on Ohio Pass - one of the areas best kept secrets....
Psyched! and this was b4 our latest snowstorm!
Ski's to get out of the driveway.
wonder why the heater had trouble with the snow on the roof??
Gunnison- from Hartmans rocks area.
As soon as it hits Zero today, we are there. Only 2.4 more degrees to go.

Equal prize money for women

Please follow this link to sign for equality in prize money in UCI races.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/equalpay/petition.html

To: Union Cycliste Internationale (U.C.I.)
We, the undersigned, find it regrettable that there is still a considerable disparity between the UCI minimum prize money for men and women. We understand that because competition in the men’s field is deeper, more places receive prize money. We do not understand why the women who are receiving prize money receive less than their male counterparts. Therefore we propose that the UCI show leadership and mandate equal prize money for the top five men and women. Article 3 of the UCI Constitution states: “The UCI will carry out its activities in compliance with the principles of: a) equality between all the members and all the athletes, license-holders and officials, without racial, political, religious, or other discrimination.” We ask the UCI to honor its commitment to equality.
Sincerely.....

XTERRA USA Champs on TV

The 2007 US XTERRA championships are being aired this Sunday (16th) Denver ABC (ch 7) from 2 -3 pm

for other TV scheduling information http://www.xterraplanet.com/

Keeping a sense of humor

A good day being when you learn something new.....
On Monday I learned what happens when you release the pressure valve on the hot water heater. Actually I also learned that the pressure valve is not the same thing as the water switch (the one I was meant to turn off ). Plus I learned that once released it doesn't go back. As a bathtub of hot water started spraying all over the room. OOPS.

Yesterday as I was skate skiing (rather badly) I skied by a woman on adaptive ski's. She called out to me and then gave me a lesson on using my poles forward of my body. She told me what to do explaining that she couldn't do it as she was paralysed from the ribs down but I needed to use my core and throw my body forward. It was really humbling and encouraging... I thought well I better bloody try... right!

Taking that stop making excuses when you are able attitude. I decided today was the day I would learn to tumble turn in the pool. ( yeah yeah... Brian and I are probably the only 2 professional triathletes on earth who still can't/don't do this) I have to admit I'm motivated to learn on the sly ( my one immature opportunity to be better than Brian at something). It made the swim fun as without much rhyme or reason I tumbled turned sometimes facing the right direction, sometimes not, and mostly missing the wall... but It got easier. I think in a week or so I may get it.

Enjoy.

Jen

skis, skating, snowshoes, snow sub zero and all things white

Our run of sub par snow pack ended in a bang last week as we where treated to the perfect storm. According to the weather guy, a warm front from the south met cooler air from the North and created conditions not seen in his 14 years of weather reporting. We where hammered on....
On Friday after one look at our driveway I pulled out the ski's and skied over to the gym to work. This was a super blast... was 10 minutes late but didn't really feel too worried as I was having way too much fun. As it turned out 3 clients cancelled anyway, so I proceeded to ski my way home, run into Brian- go to his work and ski home some more.
Sadly the snow plows ruined our fun once they got to work on clearing up the roads.
Since then we've mostly been holding on to our sense of humor while the roof had to be shovelled as the heat stopped for lack of recycling air, the hot water heater sprung a leak, we've twice been pushed out of the driveway getting stuck, one car got a flat tire, the other's doors froze while snowshoeing yesterday, our computer is still in the shop after 12 days as they too are overwhelmed with business, but its an adventure for sure, today we have another winter weather advisory for the next 24 hours.... wonder what this will bring.
The good thing... the snow is amazing! and the skiing incredible. Hartman's has been groomed into Nordic skiers paradise and its only 3 miles from the house. Yesterday I proudly snowshoe ran the big 16 k loop - Was neither fast nor pretty but as 2 years ago I had issues snowshoe running 10 minutes. I was so psyched. not to be outdone by me, Brian went out after work and ran the big loop plus a couple of others half an hour faster in the dark. he's a freak!
Yahoo!