Foster's Holly

In our backyard we have four holly plants that look like the plants pictured here. The other day I left Joseph outside playing alone for a minute to come in and do something. When I came back out I was rather horrified to see a crushed red berry in his hand and a big grin on his face. Snatching his face in my hand I swept my finger through his mouth and found nothing. This did not reassure me as the berries are small enough he could have swallowed them already. Much to his displeasure I carried him inside and called poison control from my cell phone which has an 801 number. I was connected to poison control. In Utah. They happily informed me that there are no poisonous red berries that grow. In Utah. So I went back to searching the internet and discovered what kind of bushes I have and that the berries cause barfing and diarrhea. Small child showed no signs of either and I presume from that that he never swallowed any or enough to cause a problem.

So last night I dreamed that I left him outside playing and when I went out he had a mouth full of black berries (the red ones from the bush had turned black later in the year in my dream. On the real plant they don't do that I am pretty sure). Not a reassuring dream to have. So today I will be purchasing plant clippers and trimming all the pretty, enticing berries within child's reach from the bushes. While I intend to keep my eyes on the wily child, I know that I will not keep my eyes on him every second that we am out there. Furthermore, he is still too young to understand from discipline that he should not do something. So I think the safest solution, like outlet covers and keeping sharp things out of his reach, is to keep the berries out of his reach. My bushes may look funny for awhile, but better that than an evening in the ER. If anyone has ideas on how to keep small fingers from exploring forbidden berries, I would love to hear them!

Success

I am in charge of activities at the church I attend. This position is not necessarily complicated. In fact, among positions to have, it is a reasonably easy one. That does not mean that I did not spend half the night awake last night worrying about what might go wrong tonight during the first activity for which I was in charge. My main worry was that no one would show up. Then I had to worry about whether anyone would be there to help set up. Then I worried about having to clean up all by myself. Of course, with a congregation as awesome as the one I attend, none of these worries were even remotely possible.

Within one minute of my arrival at the building another car pulled in. And then another. Mind you, I was more than 30 minutes early. Less than ten minutes later we were inside setting up. The activities committee had charged each organization with assignments for presenting information about being prepared for emergencies and long-term unemployment or other difficulties. While I was bringing in bread rolls and plastic-ware, each group had already chosen the room in which they would present their information. Whew! One worry off my mind. Before I had finished brining in my crockpot, someone was inquiring as to how many tables and what kind I wanted set up. Wow! A second worry crossed right off my list in less than five minutes.

Then more people showed up! And they brought food to the potluck. Woohoo! People and food to feed them with! Everything was going so well! And I did not have to do a thing! But then I had to worry about if the Red Cross speaker would show up while we were still all eating. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to say the opening prayer, the rotations through the information booths did not descend into mass chaos, and, just as everyone finished their last rotation, lo and behold, the Red Cross speaker arrived! She gave an excellent presentation to which everyone listened quietly, even the children were well behaved and quiet. There was enough food for everyone and even a few rolls left over for me to take home. Oh, and did I mention that we had homemade root beer? It was excellent! I particularly enjoyed the floods of "smoke" that issued forth when the dry ice was added.

Fortunately, I had the forethought to save a plate of food for our speaker because by the time she finished, there was hardly a morsel left, except the bread rolls. While she ate I chatted with her and kept her company. She is a very nice lady and very well educated. We were fortunate to have her come speak to us. By the time I wished our guest good night everything was cleaned up and put away. All I had to do was dry a handful of dishes, collect my things (and the used table clothes) and wander into the night. What a great success! And I owe it entirely to all those who participated and helped and attended. Thank you!

Shopping list for yesterday's menu

This shopping list includes ingredients for everything on yesterday's menu. The recipes provide at least enough food for two adults and a 14 month old child. Most of the recipes are actually enough for four adults, ensuring plenty of leftovers. While I usually plan12 meals (lunch and dinner) each week we usually only need 8-10 of those meals. This means that we will be stocking up for food storage or for when there is more than two weeks between paychecks, etc. This menu is all vegetarian.

Menu for a week

I will add links to the recipes that are already on the web and a shopping list tomorrow. I hope.

New Car!

We have bought a new car. Well, new to us. It is a 2008 Mazda5. An excellent minivan. On the small side of minivans, in fact, it is likely the smallest minivan out there. I believe it was built on the chassis of a Mazda6, so it has the car engine and gas mileage (25-28 mpg highway) and it has the handling of a car. However, it has dual sliding doors and seats that all fold down. It does not have as much cargo space as regular minivans, you almost have to have the back seats folded flat to carry anything, but that is working fine for us. Our particular car came with a 6-CD changer and a sunroof. Awesome. One of the other features that I have wanted and it has is that you set the temperature and the car automatically keeps it there, just like your thermostat at home. Lovely. It is a pretty red color and has a few scratches and bumps, but nothing noticeable from any distance. Joseph slept all the way home from Atlanta in it and enjoys when he is allowed free reign in the car.

New Books

So far I have not come across any new information about cholesterol, but I did finally receive my new books in the mail. One I mentioned in my last post is Cholesterol Protection for Life. I have not read much into it but my brother's synopsis was, "Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you like, have starch once a week and animal products once a month." I am not sure that I will go that far into this diet, but I will certainly be paying more attention to what I eat. I was surprised to hear that starch is one of the things I should not eat a lot of. I love starch, mashed potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, bring it on! Unfortunately starches cause a decrease in High Density Lipids which is the good cholesterol. Of course, endurance exercise uses mainly starches to fuel the body, so it is not surprising that endurance exercise increases HDL. Now I am not talking about hours and hours of exercise. I have read that 30 minutes of continuous exercise is sufficient to increase HDL, and for each 10 minutes longer per session there is a corresponding increase in HDL levels.

The other book I bought is Base Building for Cyclists. Since my HDL levels were not low and I tend to ride for at least 30 minutes at a time, I do not plan to cut back much on my starch intake.

Cholesterol

Earlier this week I received a call from the doctor's office informing me that my lipid count was too high. I was preoccupied at that moment so I really had no idea what the nurse was talking about until she said, "low cholesterol diet and vigorous exercise at least three times a week." Oh. Well, since all of my family has high cholesterol, I was not very surprised with the news. Fortunately my cholesterol is not so high that they immediately recommend drugs.

My brother is a doctor-to-be and so I mentioned my cholesterol to him and he recommended a book to learn about diet changes that will lower my cholesterol. While waiting for this book to arrive I have been looking up research related to cholesterol, diet, and exercise. Currently I have discovered that while it is certain that exercise improves one's cholesterol, there is some controversy as to how, how much it improves cholesterol, how much and what kind of exercise are necessary, and what type of cholesterol (HDL or LDL) is affected.

Recent studies, this one in particular, show that High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) increase with increasing exercise session duration (the longer you exercise the better). As I understood the article, the intensity of exercise correlates with Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) concentration, so the harder you exercise, the better.

Most of the studies I have come across so far are studies of obese or "at risk" populations. I have been searching for studies of "healthy" population. I will let you know what I find.

Playing in the snow

We had fun playing in the snow last week. Joseph enjoyed it very much and was quite irritated with me when I insisted that he come inside. I made a snow man, but I only had broken dog biscuits to use for the face and one button. I am sure that the dog biscuits that did not turn into soggy mess were enjoyed or hidden by the dog. The snowman fell over a few hours later and quietly melted away, although there is still a half-square-foot lump of snow left as a remnant.

By Sunday almost all of the snow had melted except in the shadows of trees and homes. By Monday the snow was all gone but we had a cold rain. M. took J. after his morning nap and that left me free for a lovely bike ride. I pedaled through the cold damp to the Mazda dealership where I am negotiating obtaining a Mazda5. No suitable vehicles were yet available, so I pedaled home into a stiff headwind.

My speed to the dealership must have been pretty fast because even with the headwind my average speed for the 26 mile round trip was still 14.5 mph. I know, for most guys that isthe speed you go when you aren't pedaling, but for me that is a reasonably fast average for the route I took. The last long (30 miles, I am working up!) ride I took I averaged about 16 mph, however there was no rain, hardly any traffic and the route was mostly flat. The ride was enjoyable and almost all of the drivers were quite nice.

Let it Snow!

Yesterday we had a winter storm. I did not expect such an occurrence. It was a lovely snow, perfect for snowmen. And when I have built a snowman I shall add a picture of him.






About an hour after the first photo I took this photo. You can see the snow is falling thick enough that the trees across the way are less distinct and the sky is darker even though it was not that close to sunset.





And this one was taken the next morning (today). Shortly before it stopped snowing we measured the amount of snow on our picnic table out back and it was just at four inches. We also lost power for more than four hours last night. It was kind of fun doing everything by candlelight. We had to bundle up and put several blankets on the bed to sleep. J. had three layers of clothes on! Before the power went out J. was flipping through his book of animal sounds that I have read to him often; when he flipped to the duckling page he said, "Quaak." Then, rather amazed, I said "moo" when he flipped to the cow page and he replied, "mmmmm!" When I told my husband about this, he figured the quack was random chance, but then we heard J. behind us repeating, "quaa quaa quaa." It was quite amusing.

Cool things my son does

I know that all of you long time parents (anyone with more than one kid) out there probably won't find this amazing or cool because, well, all your kids did that too. Earlier. Better. Faster. It really does not faze you anymore. However, since I am still a newbie parent, I still find every progression very interesting. For instance, this week my son wandered off down the hall and after a few minutes my husband went to check on him. J. was sitting in his room by himself flipping through one of his picture books. A few minutes later he toddled into the dining room where we were, carrying his book and sat on the floor and flipped through the book. But the best part was a few minutes later when he stood up, brought the book to me and climbed into my lap so I could "read" it with him. Even better was when he got down, went away, and came back with a different book for us to look through.

We recently obtained a cat whom we have named Bedina, Arabic for "fat girl". She is fluffy. J. loves to play with her. Last night she was laying on a piece of tissue paper from an unwrapped present and J was tearing bits off, which B would bat at, setting J to giggling.

Biking has not received much attention lately; moving my bike into our sunroom has made biking on the fly easier. It is less of a hassle to stop in the middle of a ride on my rollers and pop in the back door than when I had my bike and rollers out in the shop.

I have posted a few new articles that have caught my eye. I have not managed to read either of these yet.

And finally I have started using Magikey to enter genealogy information with help from the makers of that fine product.

Spectacular Grand Canyon

Since it has been about a year since we were married, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the grand canyon. We spent one day each way driving and three days at the south rim of the canyon. The trip to the canyon was interesting. We use Microsoft Streets and Trips to plan our route. Southern Utah is really very beautiful and the route took us along some very pretty vistas. At one point the road we were driving on continued in a dirt road and the paved part took a sharp left. We, naively believing that MS Streets and Trips would not put us on a dirt road when we selected the option of 'quickest route,' turned left and promptly came to a toll booth at a state park entrance. Upon querying the personnel there we discovered that MS Streets and Trips had in fact put us on a dirt road. Not only that, but after giving our four-door Nissan a concerned look, the lady informed us that we had better not try the road our route suggested. However, there was another road, about five miles back that we could pass with our car.

That should have warned us. Furthermore, we should have known we were in for something interesting when we noted that every vehicle passing us in the other direction was a four-wheel-drive truck or jeep. The occupants of which gave our car a strange look as they passed. The first mile of the road wasn't too bad, just a normal dirt road with potholes big enough to eat tires and washboards that will shudder your car off the road. Then the road went straight down along the precipice of a cliff, while turning sharply to the right. Promptly at the bottom the road shot up out of sight, still along the same cliff edge but this time turning sharply to the left while apparently becoming a single lane. I was just glad no one came over the top. When we did reach the top (poor car) we were again plunged downward and around a corner, fortunately we were no longer along the edge of the cliff. This was because we were at the bottom of a wash, complete with a little (fortunately shallow) creek. After creeping up the other side of the wash a few more steep ups and downs, with the associated potholes and washboards and we were finally out of the worst of the road, meaning we could finally travel at the posted speed limit of 25 mph. It only took us an hour and a half to traverse the 34 miles of 'passable' dirt road. I would hate to have seen what the impassible road we were supposed to have taken was like.

We finally made it to Page, Arizona at about 1:30 pm. We were still 100 miles or so from the Grand Canyon, but we had not yet had lunch and we were quite hungry. Upon entering Page I saw a sign for a Pizza Hut and suggested that we eat pizza. Michael was amenable and we headed further into town. When we came to the Pizza Hut Michael saw a pizzeria off to the left and suggested we go there. That sounded better than Pizza Hut so there we went, disembarked from our car and chose a table to sit at. Soon a waiter came by and got our drink order. Returning a few minutes later with our drinks he took our order then disappeared. We waited hungrily, sipping on our drinks. Another group came in after about ten minutes and were seated by us. Shortly thereafter they had drinks and bread on their table. I eyed their bread but stayed seated. Not very many minutes later they also had appetizers. We had been seated for about 25 minutes by now. Another group came in and were seated, soon to have drinks and bread, and promptly thereafter, salads, too. Michael was becoming antsy and I was debating asking the next table over for a slice of their pizza. We had now been waiting with only drinks for 35 minutes. We finally flagged down a waitress and asked for our waiter. She said she would find him. Five minutes later she returned and said he was making our salads. We glared and mentioned that we had not ordered salads. She apologized and asked what we had ordered. We got up and as we walked out suggested that any food would have been acceptable, we had been waiting 45 minutes and not even gotten bread! So we left. Loudly.

And took our way over to Pizza Hut, where a large line of foreign speaking people were debating what kind of pizza they wanted. We just wanted anything, so we left. Fortunately we spied a Mexican food place not far away and were quickly seated and enjoying a large bowl of chips and salsa. Our food orders were also quickly delivered and we consumed them rapidly. My hunger had been slightly appeased from the chips and salsa, so I only wolfed down the first two or three bites of chicken fajitas. Then I started to eat more circumspectly, cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces before stuffing them into my mouth. This is how I came to notice that the chicken pieces were still raw in the middle. I discovered that I was not hungry at all any more.

After obtaining a replacement dinner (no they did not take it off our bill) we quickly made our escape out of Page hoping never to return.

Yet Another Energy Bar Recipe

1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp powdered cocoa
1 tbsp molasses
3 tbsp honey
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup chopped trail mix

If you have a gel flask, then just mix the first four ingredients. It makes a nice tasty gel. The nutritional content is as follows:

(first 4 ingredients only)
Carb: 72.5g (290 cal. = 75.5%)
Fat: 8g (72 cal. = 18.8%)
Protein: 5.5g (22 cal. = 5.7%)
Total cal.: 384

With oatmeal:
Carb: 98.5g (394 cal. = 74.3%)
Fat: 10.5g (94.5 cal. = 17.8%)
Protein: 10.5g (42 cal. = 7.9%)
Total cal.: 530.5

Disclaimer: I made this recipe up after looking on line at several other recipes. If this recipe happens to appear anywhere else on the internet, I don't know about it and don't mean to be thieving.

Music for the Masses (of riding I do)

I keep meaning to write more often, about all the interesting training and riding and other such stuff I do. But then I get busy or forget or want to sleep instead. Sleep is very important. If I get enough sleep then I can ride more, which I like! I try to get at least seven hours of sleep every night. This week that did not go so well since I had an all night experiment to attend one night. It was rather amusing though. I arrived home about seven AM Thursday morning. After eating and checking email I couldn't keep my eyes open any more so I went and laid down and fell asleep almost instantly. It was about eight AM at that point. Exactly at ten AM I sat upright in bed and proceeded to get up and wander aimlessly around the house. I later realized that I had not been really awake when I got up. After doing mostly nothing for an hour I went back to sleep for another two or so hours. I was still tired, but I managed to enjoy the rest of the day and get to bed early.

Saturday I needed to be at work all day again, so I took my long ride Friday morning. I went out to Uinta National Forest and climbed up to Tibble Reservoir. From the base of the climb to the reservoir is about six miles. This took me an entire hour to climb. It doesn't seem all that steep, but it is steep enough. I also didn't really want to go anaerobic during the climb so I kept to an easy pace.

I did not have my usual fuel to drink while I rode. This is not a problem for rides under two or so hours, but after two hours of just water I start to bonk even if I have eaten a large breakfast. I did not eat a large breakfast Friday but I did stop at the Bagelry to nab a bagel that fit nicely in my jersey pocket. Along with the bagel I took a baggie of trail mix and a plastic wrapped energy bar concoction I had made. The three of these enabled me to finish my ride although I was still fairly hungry by the end since I only finished off the bagel, and I didn't touch the trail mix. The energy bar was tasty but since I had to squeeze it from the plastic wrap it was not so easy to eat as quickly as I needed the calories. I ended up eating about half.

And my new MP3 player arrived today. It is great!

Stress (in very large doses) Can Kill

Did you know that too much stress can kill you? Of course, too much of anything can kill you. Mind you, it has to be a lot of stress for a very long time. And stress is cumulative. So, if you are stressed about your job and whatever relationship you are in and finances and then you physically stress you body, your body can react badly. This falls into the category of overtraining.

Overtraining is when you do not give your stressed body time to return to its normal baseline between sessions of stress. This is why when you are training hard you should check your heart rate and your weight every morning. An increase in heart rate of 10% above normal means your body has not recovered from the previous day's workout. Furthermore, a decrease in body weight of 10% or more means you failed to adequately hydrate yourself the previous day. Another thing to check for during heavy training is how long and how well you slept. If you slept 10% less than normal, that is also a bad sign, but not in and of itself indicative of overtraining.

I mention all of this merely because this last week I worked out at the gym hard Thursday night then I rode hard on Friday and Saturday my HR was up by more than 10% and my weight was down from the previous day a few pounds. So I skipped riding, but I did go do an outdoor labor service project and helped clean a camp ground. I was quite tired and very, very thirsty for the rest of the day. Abnormally thirsty, I would get up in the middle of the night to chug 20 oz of water. That night, I woke up around 3 AM and was just awake. For an hour or so. Insomnia is another sign of overtraining. Sunday morning my HR was still extra high and I was still very tired and thirsty. So I spent most of the day laying down and reading or sleeping. By that evening my HR was back to normal, for which I was very glad.

This morning I spent some time adjusting my training schedule to give me more days off but longer rides on the days I do ride. I believe this will help my body better be able to accommodate the stresses I will be inflicting upon it.

New Tires Good, Flats Bad

So I was pelting down a hill yesterday when I hit a hard bump and noticed that my bike was riding unusually stiff all of a sudden. I looked down and sure enough, going 35 mph I had blown a flat. I carefully slowed down and hauled my bike onto the side of the road. A quick inspection of the tube showed the malefactor - the valve was almost ripped out. I am not sure how such a thing could happen, but I suppose that a weak spot had developed there and so when the pressure peaked by hitting a bump, it just blew out. Fortunately I always care and extra tube and a bike pump. Unfortunately, the pump no longer will get my tire pressure above 60psi. But that is usually enough to limp to the nearest bike shop.

I hope I don't get a flat today since now I have used up all my tubes and have no extra to carry with me. Riding off!

Getting a tune up

The weekend of my bike brake-nut hunt my husband convinced me ("Here is money, get a tune up!") to get my bike in for a very long over due tune up. I decided that I would also obtain a professional bike fit that same day. I had heard in the past that just a generic bike fitting would be good enough for all but the most elite cyclists. Recently, however, it dawned on me that my knees and feet would thank me for obtaining a proper bike fitting before riding 10s of 1000s of miles. So I went over to the nice folks of J.R. Smith Coaching and had them pull out their fancy biometric tools while I sat serenely pedaling on my bike. The end result was raising my saddle 0.5 cm, changing my cleat position just a tiny bit on my right shoe, and pulling my aerobar uprights back towards the handle bars by several cm. The new position seems good so far, but I haven't ridden much since the fitting.

The tune-up was completed by Revolution Mountain Sports. They did a good job, the bike shifts better and the brakes are set better. Furthermore, they replaced my ratty bar tape. The new wrap job is excellent, for which I am very pleased.

I also bought new tires, since the ones on my bike had spots where the underlying threading was no longer under-lying. The new tires are very nice, and yellow! Now I have a pretty black bike with yellow tires and it looks sweet. I wanted yellow bar tape, too, but I failed to mention that to the shop. My bike also received a bath the night before the tune up. Surgical-prep scrub brushes are really great for bike cleaning.

Why getting a regular tune up is a good thing

Two weeks ago I was walking towards the elevator to leave work, wheeling my bike along when I noticed a strange squeaky noise emanating from my bike. As anyone with a bike knows, strange squeaky noises should be looked into immediately lest something break and you die. So I stopped and looked down to examine my bike. The cause was immediately evident. My front tire was flat. Very flat. Flatter than I can get it by letting all the air out through the valve. I always carry an extra tube and my bike pump so the flat did not worry me. However, when I went to pop the front wheel off, I discovered that one of the nuts holding my front brakes together was broken in half. Half was missing and half (okay a little more than half) was still clinging to the bolt. This concerned me. So I took TRAX (the local train system) home. Saturday I spent an hour hunting various bike shops and hardware stores for a nut that would fit. Unfortunately, as many bike manufactures do, the nut was proprietary and had a non-standard thread pitch. However I was able to find a nut that would screw on a little bit, and with a few washers to make the connection tight and a bit of duct tape to ensure the whole assemblage does not come loose from road vibration I was up and running (or riding) again.

Spring: The Best Time of Year

I love the spring. Currently we are having beautiful weather. It is getting into the 80s everyday and by the time I get out the door in the morning, it is already nearly 70 degrees. I am very fond of warm weather. Today will make the fourth day of riding in a row. I haven't ridden that many days in a row for quite some time. I slept quite well last night and when I woke up my heart rate was quite normal, which is encouraging. I hope to be able to ride tomorrow, too. Tonight I will go to the gym and weight train.

I have been leaving for home and work at odd times, so traffic has not been a problem this week. For the most part, drivers here in Utah seem to be extra courteous, which I very much appreciate. I think I have been getting better, yesterday at a stop light my HR dropped to 100 within one minute of stopping after 40 minutes of riding.

Wasatch

Well today I tried a new route in to work. I climbed up to Wasatch Blvd and followed it along until it emptied out onto Foothill. Actually, I followed the bike path from Wasatch to Foothill. Foothill was not as bad to bike on as I had thought it would be. However, it does go from two lanes, one of which has a nice wide shoulder, to three lanes with no shoulder. Fortunately, it was past rush hour and all the traffic elected to stay in the two left lanes to pass me. This route has more climbing than my normal route, but it was not too hard. I did take it easy, dropping down into my very utmost lowest gear numerous times. Wasatch Blvd is a nice road to bike on, it has a bike lane almost the whole length. Getting to Wasatch isn't so much fun since I, currently, use a route that takes me past a freeway entrance/exit. Perhaps next time I take Wasatch I will pick it up further south to avoid that intersection.

It was nice to see that my HR stayed in normal ranges with a max of 175 today. In the past, it has told me that my max was 238 or 232 or some such horrendous number. I don't exactly trust my HRM since often I look down and notice it is reading my HR as 0. Since 0 would be dead, and I am clearly alive, I imagine that electrical interference is causing problems.

I only put sunscreen on my bare legs today and I seem to have obtained a minor sunburn on my arms and face. I guess I will have to go back to liberal application. I just don't like the sticky/slimy/residue-y feeling that cheap sunscreens leave and I am too cheap to splurge on expensive sunscreens. Perhaps a fancy sunscreen company will deign to sponsor me so I can use good sunscreen for my races and training. Anyone know of a good sunscreen company???

Bad at Blogging

Okay, well it has been a month since I last posted anything at all. I guess I am not very good at blogging. However, since I suspect that no one reads these anyway, it probably doesn't really matter much. On the other hand, if I want to impress potential sponsors who may just find their way to this blog, I had better have a descent training blog or they will think I am a loser. Which, I am not. I am just a little be too competitive to be a loser.

Since I last posted the weather has become increasingly beautiful and warm, enticing me to ride more days out of the week. This week I only rode three days. My husband and I decided to go with a Gold's Gym weight trainer and this week we completed two strenuous workouts. I am quite sore. But it is the good kind of sore.... I suspect that these workouts and staying up rather late last night were why my heart rate this morning was rather higher than it should have been. I probably could have gone riding anyway, but I have plenty of time to train for the TTT so I don't want to ruin my training by pushing too hard right now. Last week I took an easy week and I think that I took it too easy. This is why it would be good to have a coach. While I did not complete my 100 miles this week I expect that I shall be able to complete it next week.

I find that going to bed at the same time every night is beneficial to my training. My body seems to like having a routine and I tend to wake up at the same time every morning anyway. Another thing I discovered this week is that if I eat a breakfast that has some fat and protein in it (ie not just a bowl of cereal) I do not bonk on my ride in to work. Although this should be obvious to any serious athlete, sometimes these things just take a bit of time to percolate into my consciousness.

I have spoken with one coaching company and I have sent merely one sponsorship inquiry out as of now. I will send out at least one more tonight and I may write a letter or two to be posted on Monday.

As a random side note, My husband bought a sewing machine for me for my birthday and I have been sewing lots of great clothes ever since.