Dia de los Reyes Magos

In my primarily-catholic homeland, on January 6th, we put one of our shoes behind the front door in hopes that los Reyes Magos (the three wise men) will stop by and drop off a little something. I was never clear if they were on their way to -OR- from visiting baby Jesus, but it was always something to look forward to after Xmas, the arrival of Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar aboard their elephant, camel and horse. This tradition too is one that I have instilled in my family. So... we placed our shoes, and we all got a little something yesterday morning. Sweet.

This past weekend, on New Year's day, I was talked into going cyclocrossing on mtb trails, on frozen mud and snow. It was fun, and cold. I was surprised the tires tracked so well on the terrain, and managed to fall only a couple times, loosing grip on ridiculously steep grades my mtb buddy made me go up. I only managed a couple pictures, this one from a park we rode to take a quick break.

Puget Sound, Olympic Mountains in the background.

Surviving the holidays & on to twenty eleven

Christmas has come and gone at the Ramirez household, and it was a great one. Donovan got great loot from his uncles and aunts, and a little something from Santa as well. This year he was really counting down the days with anticipation. Despite sleeping very few hours, I have to admit I enjoyed waking up before 5AM on December 25th to share in the excitement and put Legos together with my son.


Over these last few days, I have managed to get some workouts in here and there, nothing fancy, just enough to keep the body moving and sweating out all the wine I've been partaking in.

Wishing you all a great 2011. Thanks for reading.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Despite some seriously intense rain over the last week, winter is here. And it is time to make awesome things in the kitchen. As well as relax by a warm fire, and count down the days until the 24th.

From Team Ramirez to all, Merry Christmas and have a fantastic 2011.

one last muddy race

The last local cx race took place this past Sunday, and it was a tough, fast and very cold one. I barely made it to the race on time, registered in record time and lined up at the end of the field with, literally, 1min to go, while race officials radio'd in to make sure I was legit. It was full-gas from the get go, with almost no places to recover. I only slid out once, on a corner I took too aggresively, which lost me a whole bunch of places. It was cool to see everyone throwing down hard for this last race, and then enjoying the cammaraderie at the finish line, swapping war stories. I had a lot of fun racing cx and will definitely be back next fall for more. There is something freaky cool about being borderline out-of-control while going as fast as possible. I hope to be able to learn some skills btwn now and next fall so I can race faster, or at least, fall less.

We workout....

... whether the sun is up and shinning, and it's warm...

or whether it's cold and windy, and there's snow on the ground.

Weather doesn't stop triathletes. :o)

Here, Papa, let me give you a little push so you can get going....

Have a great Thanksgiving, gobble, gobble!

Muddy Fun at Woodland Park

Awesome action photo by Andrew Malakoff

I participated in another cyclocross race yesterday, just ~15minutes from my house. I rather say 'participated' than 'raced' because I'm doing it for fun. Oh, I still race it as hard as I can, but I'm just lucky to avoid trees and stay upright. Yesterday was a lesson in some of the finer cx details, like "tire and air pressure selection." At least that's what I heard people talk about, it's not like I have tireS -plural- to choose from, or a good idea of what they were talking about... I guess that's why I drew some chuckles when in response to "Which tires did you run?" I said, "Uh, the only ones I got..."

Photo by Ann Marije-Rook, The Ballard Tribune

I slipped around a whole lot in the mud, and managed to stay upright more than I should have. I found I was able to ride through most of the really sticky parts. Then again, I likely would have been able to run faster through some of those sections, but what do I know? Maybe I'll try that next time. To make matters worse, er.. 'more fun,' it must have been like 120 guys or more in the Cat 4 race tearing up the ground. Woah.

Photo by Michael O'Leary, The Everett Herald

You want to really get going and stay strong next time you race in the mud? Mix a shot of Pre-Race with one scoop of EFS and let your legs do the talking. Oh yeah, the First Endurance line is not just limited for use in triathlon.

Not a whole lot else to report at this time. Stay healthy. Stay upright. Enjoy the fall.

jc

Cyclocross & Halloween

This past Saturday I partook in my first cyclocross race ever, on a borrowed, slightly-small, mountain bike. My cx mudster is sitting in my garage, awaiting tires to arrive in the mail. 'C'mon, go to the nearest shop and buy some,' is what I heard a lot, and I would have, but I've stretched out the budget I set for myself for this adventure. So, I opted to borrow a mtb and just give it a go. I hit the deck twice, managed to not finish last and had a good amount of fun. I should also add I've never been off-road nor pack riding in those conditions, so there was an added unknown element which made this first outing crazy. I chickened out in some sections and I struggled to engage my pedals efficiently. By the 4th lap, I was getting the hang of it.

Holly crap, I'm going to kill myself here...

.

The low-key, down-to-earth vibe of the race was awesome. Heck, I walked away with a 6-pack of beer, a bag of oatmeal and 50minutes of good hard work, all for $22. How cool is that? I got tires now and I'll have the cx ready for next weekend, see if I can do a little better.

Please don't hit the boulder, please don't hit the boulder...

Sunday was Halloween, and it was awesome. Donovan was Darth Vader (once again). I was Green Lantern. We had a cool get-together at our house, with yummy food, festive costumes and lots of trick-or-treaters. Donovan and I were out ringing doorbells until he could no longer carry his pumpkin full of candy and begged to be carried home. It was a lot of fun.

Feliz dia de las brujas!

cx

CX. As in 'cyclocross'. It's gotten me curious. So I plan on building up a rad mud machine to throw down during the coming weeks. Said bitchin' racin' rig needs to be built up for cheap, so it is going to be a project. I'll post some pictures as I progress.

In the meantime, we have just been relaxing, catching up with life. I'm s-b-r'ing whenever and however I feel like it, no structure (yet).

Enjoy the fall/winter!