UT Training Camp + Houston Marathon

Ah yes, I'm down to the last day of Christmas break and, boy, it's been a busy one. Dallas to Austin to Dallas to Fort Collins to Dallas to Grapevine to Oklahoma to Grapevine again to Austin to Leakey to Houston and finally back in Austin.

So last week was the UT training camp in Leakey, TX. It's the best climbing in Texas from what I understand, but after Talihena (and maybe getting stronger) the climbs seemed much easier than I remembered. I pretty much ended up organizing most of training camp and being the head boss lady while there. I actually enjoyed organizing and running the event and was pretty happy with how 95% of the things went. I tend to like to take care of people/things/events and am pretty much a perfectionist about most things, so I ended up cooking every meal for 30+ people while still riding more than everyone there (except Peter). I rode most of my ride everyday with the "A" riders and then tacked on whatever remaining time I had at the end going wherever the wind would take me (not literally). It was a lot of fun and all the new folks are great. It was a bummer when Peter and I had to leave a night early to head to Austin so we could leave for Houston in the morning with the Clif Crew. Peter had the great idea of almost stranding us in the middle of freaking nowhere in West Texas by refusing to get gas before we left. Apparently I can drive 75 miles once the gas light turns on and still have 0.17 gallons left.

On the way there my car was packed to the brim. The backseat was full of my and Peter's stuff while the trunk was full of 8 gallons of milk, 12 bunches of bananas, 2 pounds of cheese, 5 pounds of meat, 30 burgers, 30 veggie burgers, 30 pounds of apples, 20 pounds of pears, 4 pounds of broccoli, 4 pounds of mixed vegetables, and 12 pounds of lettuce...needless to say all that combined with my new, shiny hitch rack, my car's rear was sagging a bit.

Everyone just hanging around outside.

Michael posing next to Sean while singing to Katy Perry.

The Houston Marathon was pretty freaking busy. Much busier than the Dallas White Rock Marathon. There were 7 of us working and we were working pretty hard just to keep enough samples out and still have a conversation with people trying our stuff. We pretty much sold many vendors out of their Shot Bloks as usual...pretty easy though when the products sell themselves. Friday evening we all went to Niko Niko's, an awesome Greek/American restaurant in the area of Montrose in Houston. They have the best pita ever. Saturday was the longest day I've ever worked- 7:30am to 11:30pm. Granted, some of that was drivetime back to Austin after the Expo closed, but it was exhausting nevertheless and my feet are still sore and have a blisters on my thumbs from opening Clif wrappers.

This is us only mildly busy, probably on Friday.
The BodyWorld's dude. Yup, that's all paint! Good advertising for sure!
I'm glad I work for a company that makes people happy!

I'm glad we came back last night though, because I had the whole day today to try to get settled back home. I had an awesome ride today totaling 4 hours and 40 minutes and my intervals went really well. I try to set mini-goals for myself so it was great seeing me accomplish them today. High-five to me. Unfortunately, besides unpacking and riding, I haven't gotten much else done today and tomorrow will be busy with a 3-hour ride, 4 hours of Clif stuff, venturing to the grocery store, and cooking for the week.