A Week in Fort Collins, Colorado

After the Dallas White Rock Marathon, Peter and I headed back to Austin for a whopping 36 hours to take finals and then head out to beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado. Now this trip wasn't just a little relaxing week long excursion at all. Peter and I were to go from Fort Collins to Dallas for Christmas Day and then to Grapevine for Metro VW training camp, so we were packing for a couple trips. Basically, by the end of our little travelings, we'll have been gone for the better part of a month. We so happened to be in Fort Collins during an unusually long stretch of cold/snowy/icy weather. The warmest day was in the 30s and the rest of the time was in the single digits to the teens. We chilled (or more like froze) there for the next seven days riding trainers every day for long periods of time, checked out the scene in downtown Fort Collins, spent far too much time at REI, among other things. It was so cold that the fountain downtown had semi-frozen over.

The second to last day Peter and I went snowboarding at Eldora while my parents checked out Boulder. I hadn't been on a snowboard since I was in 6th grade so I was in deep need of a lesson. Peter had the great idea of "just doing a quick run down the bunny slope before class." Yeah. That wasn't so quick for me. I think I fell every 5 feet...and got stuck in deep snow...twice. Luckily, I got the hang out of it with direction from the instructor and enjoyed the rest of the day much, much more, minus my whiplash from falling backward headfirst. It snowed while we were there, which was neat. Peter ditched me post-lesson for the big-boy mountain while I stayed on the green runs with my newfound friends from the class. I think I'll even consider going again, maybe even for more than one day, next year. Here we are before class, wearing at least 4 layers. It was so nice to spend time with my parents after not seeing them since early September when they made the big move from Houston to Fort Collins. The town is a great fit for them for sure and they seem much happier there. I wish we could have stayed longer- the trip seemed to end as soon as it started. I got some good quality time with the folks, including my favorite Christmas tradition of decorating the tree.

While seeing my parents is the best part of visiting them, waking up to this is a definite perk:

Yup, that is my dad's cappucino, made with espresso beans he roasts out in the garage. Perfecto. I'm definitely looking forward to spending a good chunk of time there between races this summer and riding in all those mountains. I was eyeing some good routes while I was there, even though they were snow-covered this time around. Despite the poor weather and icy roads, I was not without a good spot to ride the trainer. Luckily, my parents ride and have a sweet trainer set-up in the basement, complete with a dvd player, personal fans, and personal mats to catch the sweat. They have a whole workout area down there- I have typical parents, I know. Here is where we lived for the week (at least for a lot of our waking hours): Well, we headed back on Christmas Eve, leaving at 5am Colorado time and arriving in Dallas at 9pm. Long day in the car. Today we hung out with his family. Tomorrow is finally Metro VW training camp! I'm very much looking forward to finally meeting everyone and riding together. We'll be riding together the 26th to January 4th. It's going to be a great year and this will be a great start. Updates after that! Happy last few hours of Christmas!