happenings...

Well life hasn't been very blogable lately but I'll make an effort to generally catch up with the goings on of the Racing Hickeys. Here's what we've been doing... in pictures:There's been a lot of hiking. Not always in matching shirts mind you. Months of doing nothing but riding bikes have turned us into strangely soft-bodies athletes so we look pretty gimp when we're expected to support our own weight.

There's been a lot of skating. For me, it's been topless skating for obvious reasons. I seriously didn't realize how white I am until I saw this picture. Anyway the situation has improved somewhat since then. And my skating skills are coming back too :-)

Lila is also learning to skate which is awesome. Here she executes a text book beginner emergency stop: run franticly off into the grass; windmill arms for balance and visual appeal. In all seriousness though, she's getting pretty good on the skates. Which is cool because despite the fact that Rollerblades haven't been cool for about a decade now, they are a really good way for cyclists to work their core, especially the obliques.

In other news I leave early Wednesday morning (5:30 flight) for Cancun! I'm going to do a half ironman with Robby's sister which is exciting. I haven't ridden in 3 weeks and the last time I ran more than 13 miles was May 2005 so it should be a nice exercise in pain and humility :-) But mostly I'm excited to see Robby's sister.

post season happenings

There's been lots going on in the way of regaining some semblance of sanity. Last weekend Lila and I climbed Longs... Lila's first 14er. Here we are on the top (14,255')
At this point we were both pretty tired and the Keyhole Route seemed long and tedious so we decided to descend the north face directly. In retrospect this may not have been the smartest thing we've ever done but we made it. It's hard to get perspective but here's a shot of what we came down


There aren't any difficult pitches, but the whole slope is pretty steep so if you slip you're gonna tumble a few hundred feet before you stop. Also there's snow melt running down the rocks so they get slippery and your hands freeze. From here it was a 7 mile hike back to the car, and then an hour drive home, trying not to fall asleep at the wheel. Good off season fun :-)