This was my question to Alicia on the way to Balmorhea today. The Strokes, as in the band. Alicia’s response: “You mean swimming strokes? What, breaststroke? What stroke?” Obviously Alicia had some swimming on the brain. Oh my GOD I thought I was going to fall off my bike. I was like, “NO THE BAND, Alicia…”

So you know you like The Strokes, how could you not? My stroke? Freestyle… for sure. Cuz I’m so Free. And you know you like my style, I know that you like my style… everybody in the place get wild… (and for the slow ones out there… that is a Black Eyed Peas reference). But really, you know you like my Style.

I ran 40 min this morning and then rode 100+ with some great climbs. And that’s my Style.

Song for the day, “SexyBack, Justin Timberlake.” Cuz it’s the last day of the year, and you should get your sexy on… VIP… DRINKS ON ME!

Pictures from today, wee!

Tomorrow will be another long training day. SURPRISE.

Okay, so I ran 45 minutes this morning and rode 90 miles to Presidio. Song to describe my run: “Feel so Free, Ivy.” Song to describe my ride: “My Band, Eminem.” Because I’m like, the lead singer of the band dude… and Eminem’s salsa makes me want to dance… and…

On to more interesting things. Which Super Hero are you?? >>take this quiz to find out<<

Here’s my results:

You are The Flash

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

So I’d say it’s totally accurate. I’m the freakin FLASH. Just try and catch me. I dare you.

Oh yeah, here’s pictures from today’s ride to Presidio if you care to look. Yay! MMMMmm… cowgirls love gluten-free brownies.

Kay- so I didn’t forget my Oregon Trail stats from yesterday, I honestly couldn’t put that day into stats. It was just so much to process. ANYWAYS.

Woke up this morning to a beautiful white wonderland.

What did I do? I put on my running shoes and headed out for a nice run with Alicia. Here are pictures from the run this morning. Song to describe my morning run: “Wild Horses, Natasha Bedingfield.”

So the good ideas just keep coming to me. During our run, I decided we should have a full on Winter Triathlon. What’s a winter triathlon? Well, you make a snow angel, transition to the bike, bike around the ranch, and then run into the heated house (we wanted to run and jump into the hot tub, but weren’t sure that it was actually on or not, so we opted for the warm house).

Well, before we actually had the triathlon, we had to goof off in the snow. Go figure. Me, goof off?? NEVER.

Here is me about to nail Alicia with a snowball:

Here we are running. Yes, this is what we wore running today.

And now, the official start of the Winter Triathlon. Snow Angel phase:

Of course, there is still debate over which Snow Angel is better. Mine or Alicia’s. I say mine. I make the best Snow Angels around. How couldn’t I?? I mean, come on. You be the judge.

Well, Alicia smoked me in the transition (story of my life) since I decided to change into my cycling shoes. This ultimately was the race winning move, however, because of the proper power transfer that I achieved from my cycling shoes. YAY! >>more pictures from our Winter Tri< <

Song to describe my Winter Triathlon: “We Are the Champions, Queen.”

After recovering from our triathlon, we went for a long run. I ran up this mountain here:

It was amazing. Here’s more pictures from the long run. Song to describe my long run: “All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun, Sheryl Crow.” B/c it was so much fun climbing to the top of that mountain. YAY!

So that is my day. 22 miles of running in the snow. Plus a full Winter Tri. WEE!

Oregon Trail Stats for Today:

Date: December 29, 2006
Weather: Snowy
Health: Still can’t talk, ARGH!
Food: 40 pounds. *I ate about 10 pounds of it after my 106 mile ride and 1hr run yesterday*
Next Landmark: Sproule Ranch, the cabin… namely the kitchen for dinner.
Miles Traveled: 22 miles, on foot.

This has been one of the craziest days EVER. I can’t type it all, I’m still processing it. So I’ll give you the short of it.

Woke up. Ran 1 hour. Very Pleasant. Song to describe my morning run: “Here Comes The Sun, The Beetles.” Because the sun was really pretty coming up over the mountains.

Hopped on the bike after breakfast for a long haul South on hwy 118. 3 hours of headwind. 1 hour of motorpacing. Lots of smiles, good music, and 105 miles DONE. Song to describe my ride: first half of the ride “Reclaim my Place, Korn.” Because all I was thinking about what “What tha F*$K?!!” during that headwind. Second half of the ride: “Strong Enough, Sheryl Crow.” Because who else is strong enough to put up with a 5.5 hr ride in the desert besides me? And it came on during my cool down and put me in the right frame of mind.

Visited a Ghost Town. Ghost Town Cafe… hmm, must be a rough business. ya know, Ghost Town and all. hehe.

Drive North now on hwy 118. Take a nap in the car. Nice.

Wake up, Gary almost hits a deer. HOLY COW. It has horns and everything. Alicia’s worried about the deer. I say forget the deer, if we hit that thing it’s going to mess up the rental car!
Eat at Alicia’s. The restaurant, no less. Spelled the wrong way but that’s okay, it was SO good. Oh my gosh.

Full tummy and happy. Fall back asleep in the car. Wake up to Alicia asking, “Is that SNOW?” Sit up. It’s completely WHITE outside.

WOW. What a day. I didn’t stop laughing the whole way back to the ranch.

Got back safely with Gary’s awesome Blowing Rock snow driving skills.

Sat around and talked with the Hunter Boyz at the Lodge while it snowed like crazy outside. They’re ’sleeping in’ tomorrow until 7am. They’re usually up at like 4am. CRAZY.

Game plan tomorrow- probably long run in the snow, then snow angel contest. Which I’m totally going to win because I make the best snow angels EVER. Ride… we’ll make the call in the morning once I see how much snow there is.

Again. WOW. That is why I can’t think of a name for this post. See pictures from today’s events >>HERE< <.

So ended up riding only 60 miles today or so down to Alpine to the bike shop there. Great Service by the way. If you are ever in Texas and need some work done on your bike you better go to Bikeman. I even got some cough drops outta the deal b/c I was so pitiful with my scratchy voice. YAY!

Of course we had the classic Southwest wind today. On the way out, head/cross wind from the right. On the way home, tail/cross wind from the left. SWEET when you have a tail wind home. So this is my thoughts of the ride today:

The best part of the ride, however, was the 2 mile dirt road that we have to bike on leaving the ranch and then we get the pleasure of coming home on it too. As if being in the saddle for 3+ hrs isn’t enough… you have to shake, rattle, and roll up the 2 mile climb to the ranch. I loved every minute of it. Alicia may not quite agree on how fun the dirt road is. I think it’s the essence of the ride. Here is me giving my impression of myself flying down the dirt road on the way to Alpine:

And my favorite. Here we are giving the Texas ‘hook em’ horns.

The ride wouldn’t be without eventfulness. Alicia suffered a flat on the way home. She didn’t get the pleasure of climbing the dirt road with me. DARN. I helped her change the flat (YES, I know how. It’s amazing!). But for some reason her stoneage CO2 cartrige cracker didn’t work and so a nice policeman had to take her home.

How’s that for Southern hospitality? Or dude ranch hospitality? Whichever one you like. We had not one, but TWO cops stop to help us. How you like them apples?

Here is our Rockstar SAG service man, Gary Crumpler. He followed us in the car along the way, except for he was already home when Alicia flatted. BUMMER. I had to pick up the slack, but that’s okay. I’m a cowgirl. I can handle it.

So Oregon Trail Stats from the Alpine Ride:

Date: December 27, 2006
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Health: Plagued by the Black Lung *but nice Bikeman gave me cough drops*
Food: 50 pounds, all the veggies a girl could want. *Gary went to the store, yay!*
Next Landmark: The Cabin, my Fort. *aren’t you sad you can’t come too?*
Miles Traveled: 60+

And I can’t leave without a sunset picture of the mountains where we’re staying. Love the mountains at sunset. Even better at sunrise when I’m running.

Wow, just when I thought the Southwest couldn’t get any better, I arrive in Fort Davis, TX and immediately I’m reminded why I love it here so much.

We’re staying on a dude ranch, no less (seriously, look at my pictures here and you’ll see what I mean), out in the middle of no where surrounded by beautiful Southwestern Mountains. As soon as we walk out our door we have access to thousands of miles of trails and dirt roads for running, and there is great riding to be done too. Just call me cowgirl Alisha… except for I ride all day and sleep all night (unlike the Kid Rock version).

So instead of boring you with how much I love the Southwest and I could live in these mountains forever…

This place is so cool. Gary really did a great job finding it. Check it out. I couldn’t believe how cool it is. Hands down. I have my OWN fort in Fort Davis… see my sleeping accomodations below:

And no, this is MY fort. Gary and Alicia have to sleep in a boring bed on the other side of the room with no fortress at all.

The people at this ranch are in trouble. Check it out:

Great excuse to come back next year! Hot Tub! Will Farrell and Rachel Dratch may make an appearance as “love-ahs” and eat their “succulent meats whilst in the …hot tub.”

Here is a picture of my new training partner:

Now Alicia can’t get jealous because there are plenty more training partners to choose from. We have horses, donkeys, ox, cattle, buffalo, and your plain old cow varieties to train with. I honestly feel like I’ve been sucked into the Oregon Trail game that I used to play in elementary school for hours. And don’t you knock the Oregon Trail, it’s even been voted by ClassicGaming.com as game of the week. It’s official. Best game EVER. And I get to live it in real life. Aren’t you jealous?

So in honor of Oregon Trail, I am dedicating my entire week of training. I’ll be updating my training reports in, you guessed it… Oregon Trail Stats.

Here are my Oregon Trail Stats from my run this morning:

Date: December 27, 2006
Weather: mild
Health: fair *working on getting rid of a cold*
Food: 5 pounds, low supply *must find grocery store soon, or start hunting*
Next Landmark: South of the Border 107 miles *yes, long bike ride to be exact… South*
Miles Traveled: 4.2 miles

Okay, time to get on my bike… more from the road later.

My brother got a Wii for Christmas. WEEEEE!! “Wii”ve been having lots of fun messing around with all the options on the system. So far, the absolute most fun thing has been creating your own Mii for the game.

So when you play the Wii, you can make your own “Mii.” Yes, you can make a digital animation of yourself and ‘mingle’ with other Miis on the game. You go thru all these options to change your hair, eyes, add makeup, eyebrows, facial hair, everything to customize your little digimation of Mii. I told Joe to dress in drag for his Mii, but he didn’t find that too amusing. And of course, Greg was the only one who could pull off the full length Jesus beard. See below picture and you’ll agree.

What did I get for Christmas? Well, I sure didn’t get a Wii, but I have lots of “weeee” in me when I listen to my new little iPod Shuffle. Now I just have to think of all the places I can clip this bad boy. Yes CLIP. It has a little clip and apparently I’m not the only one who thinks the shuffle clip is cool. Here is an expert opinion on why the Shuffle kicks the Nano’s butt, and here is my opinion added to it. Alisha comments added in between the *asterisks*, YAY!

1. It has a clip on it. This is better than a lanyard, because you can clip it wherever you want: on your shirt sleeve, on your lapel, on a pocket, on your earlobe, and even on the zipper flap of a jacket. *oo, I really like this option… wherever you want. imagine that.*

2. Its controls are not touch-sensitive like the nano. If you’ve been out on a walk in the cold weather, you’ll know that the nano can’t be controlled with a gloved hand. Not so with the shuffle, which can be easily manipulated with even the thickest gloves on. Great for cold weather outdoor activities. *Especially good for when I’m out riding or running in freezing weather. Now my mind can be kept off the cold by the music.*

3. It’s tiny. It’s hard to imagine just how small the shuffle is until you’ve held one in your hand. It’s literally the size of a postage stamp. It’s 1 5/8″ wide and 1 1/16″ tall and it’s 3/8″ thick including the clip. Sure, there’s no screen, but if you have a playlist in a particular order, or a lineup of podcasts you want to hear on a long walk, who cares? *It’s tiny! Like me! WEE! And we all know good things come in small packages.*

4. It’s cheap. At $79, it lowers the barrier of entry to using the iPod complement of features, the best of which is the iTunes Music Store which has a tremendous selection of DRM music that’s easily cracked, and the whole system works well with all of Apple’s players. *Yes, cheap I like b/c I have no money.*

5. It’s not a Zune. If you’re thinking of giving a digital audio player as a gift, few people ever get pissed off because they received an iPod. Its graceful unboxing experience alone is enough to warm the cockles of even the coldest Apple hater’s heart. *That’s right, Apple is taking over the world… now everything is just as it should be.*

– Charlie White & *Alisha Lion, the new face of electronic gadget opinion*

Yay! Now I can listen to Justin all day long and no one will know… well, unless you actually read my blog.

I also got one of those GPS things. A Garmin Forerunner 305. Wow, so I have to figure out how to use that. Maybe it’ll be easier than my SRM, which I still have no idea how to use. I mean I can download stuff, but I forgot how to zero it out or whatever. Oh well, that’s what coaches are for.

Merry Christmas everyone!