Travel and Tanlines

Some people would dream of being able to retire at the age of 21, but unless you're some type of bazillionaire, you can't. Now, by absolutely no stretch of the imagination am I saying I'm a bazillionaire, but I do get to live the life of a retiree. For example, my typical day consists of sleeping until I wake up, usually around 8am, followed by breakfast while reading the newspaper. After that I check a few emails, and get ready for a bike ride. I do my prescribed work out, eat lunch, then lounge about for a while. While lounging, I may read, watch a movie, nap, or do some school work. Some days I get ready for my second ride, some days I spend more time on school. Dinner is followed by socialization, another check of the email, and off to bed with a book. It's glorious. There really isn't any other way to describe it.

In fact, it may be better than actual retirement because I'm not old, and don't have to deal with old person issues. I do wake up with sore muscles, and sometimes achy bones, but those are just signs of vitality.

Another one of the perks of retirement is the travel. In 2009 I spent 13 weeks in the car traveling for training and races around the US. 2010 is off to a great start as well with 1300 miles logged in the car so far. Right now, I'm in San Diego (Discovered by the Germans….) with my travel buddy Matt for some training. We train together really well, and by that, I mean we just beat each other up every day. The past 4 days we've dragged ourselves back to the house after destroying each other's legs as much as possible. He's better on the climbs, I'm better on the flat stuff, so we always end up calling it a draw and trying again the next day. Friday is the start of Paralympic training camp, and Craig and I thought it'd be a good idea to get some real training in before camp. The rollers only do so much for the legs, and kill my mind (the little that's left anyway) so riding outside is ticket for me. It's so much better to ride out in the sun.

My pasty, porcelain white skin just looked sickly when I rolled in from the great white north, and after several days in the sun it's tanned to a normal shade of caucazoid flesh. Standing next to Matt, I feel like an egg shell compared to a chocolate bar. Like Ebony and Ivory. I have work to do.

While everyone else is surviving in the cold, I’ll hold down the fort here in San Diego until the rest of the team comes in, and we can all beat each other up. But more importantly, improve on our tans.