Aha. Sunday night and little energy left to tick the ‘must post block’ on the weekend to-do as the orchestra of frogs outside sound like they share my bedroom here at the Snover home in Tahoe Donner, a neighbourhood above Truckee where I’ve been welcomed for my first few days. Days that have reminded me why I love travel, why I love what I do, who I’ve become. Its as if the eye flaps drop away and the world of senses open to me in a way home could never do.
I feel like an artist handed a huge blank canvas with more bright pastel paints that he could mix. I feel like an emerging band set in a recording studio for their first recording. I feel like a kid discovering new flavours in all sorts of forms that had been on a shelf in the store out of sight, till now. How is it that ones ability to perceive becomes so numbed at home? I love this privilege of exploration, the challenge of it, the uncertainty and the thrill of discovery. I guess all this was here, on my last 7weeks in Truckee back in Sep/Oct, but I was infertile soil back then…
( Myself, coach Gary and Emma at the Book and Bean Cafe)
It takes a while settling in, for the body clock to adjust, for the travel sleep deprivation to wear off, and then for the altitude effect to normalize. I’ve heard the rule of thumb is a day per hour of time difference, which would be 10. I’ve been handling alright though trying to avoid naps and pushing to get settled into nights here as soon as possible.
My bag missed the final connection from Phoenix to Reno and arrived a day later, but all without any excess baggage cost which was a small miracle for roughly 60kg from Cape Town. Another bit of ‘luggage’ arrived on Thursday – a Specialized Roubaix, direct from Head Quarters in Morgan Hill thanks to Bobby Behan – the Global Marketing Manager for Mountain Biking and Triathlon at Specialized. I figured I would be on the road too much to justify bringing my Tarmac over, but coach Gary was stunned at my lack of logic, mailed Bobby, and now I have a training bike I can leave in the USA. Big up Bobby, much appreciated.
It was a real treat joining the masters squad on Thursday morning. Everyone seemed pleased enough at my return. Otherwise joined Gary on two rides, and Emma and Gary for the long run along the Truckee River this morning. The long ride was a reminder of just how good the mountain biking is around here. Very little is rideable yet, but the one trail we could do, is such a long way better than anything we have back home which is simply ridiculous. I cant wait for June here…
Its really great catching up with Gary. Reckon my shaky base has been a frustration for him as much as for myself. Doing some training together and discussing face to face is plenty more effective than my uploading and reporting on trainingpeaks.com – the online coaching platform we use.
I got such stunning 2XU apparel – should blog them in detail. Maybe I’ll leave it at that till I do but riding in the cold was a different experience with the right gear…
Will head down to Vegas on Wednesday afternoon – 7 hour drive – do the course on Thursday and Friday, and open the racing season here on Saturday morning… Got the rear shock replaced this week, still unsure what the cause of the collapse was, but the engineer at Specialized head office would like to see it, so I should be in the know soon enough.
So: Dare to dream. Plot some travel plans, maybe even around an international event, and start working towards it…
