2 days to KONA!

Not much to report here other than....

GOING TO KONA ON SATURDAY!!!!

Actually I would be much more excited to go if I wasn't having such a great time here in Las Cruces. I just love this place. I did my one of my favorite climbs Tuesday and yesterday (yesterday I did it twice). It's a 1500 foot climb into a canyon. What makes it brutal is that most of the climb is a (VERY) false flat. This is the garmin readout from the last time I did it in March (for my repeat yesterday I went farther down before turning around)



And this is the view from the top (You can kind of appreciate it if you click it and make it bigger)



The second time up it yesterday I almost passed out and had to sit on the side of the road for bit. Had a nice conversation with a 60+ year old guy who climbs it on his MTB routinely. SUPASTAR!

After sitting around in a stupor for a couple hours we went out to Lorenzos Italian restaurant with the remaining crew. It's just me and the locals now, and all of us are going to headed to Hawaii. Some pics!

Misha and Danny are the cutest and nicest couple on the planet! Stop by Danny's blog to wish him a big good luck at Kona!:


Me and Paulo. I needed a pic to prove that I do, in fact, shower and brush my hair on occasion:


Danny and Jonny. Jonny has recently, on top of his Crohn's, developed a gluten allergy. If you have any great tips for gluten free foods to eat, stop by his blog to help him out!:


And finally, a group picture. I was given the assignment by MarkyV to take as many arm length self shots in Kona as possible, so this is one of my warm- ups. Speaking of MarkyV, he's racing at Longhorn this weekend, so stop by his blog to send some love!:




I'm hoping to get the bike box blog up tomorrow after I pack Mike Honcho away.

Oh, and to the person who commented asking what is the right way to rack your bike in transition: Your front wheel has to be on the side where your stuff is. Once you do it right you won't go back. It's much easier to exit T1 like that

:-)