Merry Christmas!

This week was full of good things. Got in some great riding in Tuscon then headed up to Flagstaff to visit my family and get in a shred in Sedona.

I started up the week by changing the training a little bit. I transitioned from doing long moderate intensity rides with strength training to some more structured efforts. It felt good to really push it hard again and I even had some descent power. These intervals also doubled as a kind of test. I did a couple of back to back interval days, the second day as part of a longer ride. This was to see how responsive my body was to hard work after a pretty extended period of moderate intensity. The first day went well, didn't quite maintain my cadence requirements but got the power up. The second day went even better, hit my intervals really well, maintaining the power and cadence, and then followed that up by heading over to Lemon where I ran into Chloe Forsman and cruised with her for a while. As soon as I got home from my ride I drank some Hammer Recoverite and hopped in my car. It was already getting pretty late and I wanted to get to Flagstaff at a reasonable time.

After driving for four hours up to Flag I arrived home to some pretty stoked parents. We hung out for a little while before I headed to bed with some really sore legs that were not helped by going from bike to car in 15 minutes back in Tuscon. I awoke after 11 hours of well needed sleep to snow in Flag. It just wouldn't have felt right spending Christmas in the desert, needed some snow. Was pretty lazy overall while in Flag, but did fit in a longer ride on Christmas Eve in Sedona. Went on a road ride with Chuck, Ken, and my neighbor Jay down Page Springs road, up to Jerome, and then back up the highway into Sedona. Had to burn off some serious calories to justify the eating which was going to take place the next day.

After opening up some great presents and hanging out with parents all day we got ready for Christmas Dinner. Our buddy Dave and his daughters joined us for the feast. My mom prepared some beautiful prime rib, potatoes, asparagus, and rolls. After chowing down the amazing food we followed it up with a game of Taboo. Had a great time, tons of laughs and some good competition.

The trip seemed to have flown by as I packed up the car Monday morning with my Dad. We said our goodbyes and then I headed for my grandparents' houses in Phoenix. I visited my Grandma that I hadn't seen in a while and then headed for my other grandparents house. After hanging out there for a while I fit in a ride on Beeline Highway and through Fountain Hills before another great dinner that my Grandma prepared. With a full stomach I finally finished off the trip and drove the remaining distance back to Tuscon.

Had a great week, looking forward to next. A South African mountain biker is moving in with Justin and I and I am going to hit up some of the local group rides! Stay tuned!