Guess What I had for Thanksgiving?

It was a traditional Riveras/San Marchi Thanksgiving for Rosa and I. We rounded up the cutest dog we could find and cooked it.

Not really, of course- but that's what Rosa's sister gets for naming her Chihuahua puppy "Porkchop". When Rick DeMoan heard of such a name, his immediate reaction was "It needs a brother named Meatball".
Countless jokes can be made about a 6 pound dog named after a meat product, but the title goes to our family friend Emilio. Amongst a room full of Dog lovers, on Thanksgiving night Emilio maintained a steady stream of perfectly timed yet subtle references to kidnapping, sedating, seasoning, and cooking said animal. They were so subtle that it often took 10 of 15 seconds for someone to ask, "did you really just say that?"... It was priceless.

The blog will get back to bike racing soon, I promise. Most of my time over the last month has been dedicated to what ABD has in store for next year, and I finally get to start talking about it!

Two Rides in Two Months

Mark it down, it's a streak...

Rode for a whopping 75 minutes yesterday, but managed to sneak in 1,000 feet of climbing at 300+ watts. Since I've been running 30 to 60 minutes a shot my fitness is coming around pretty quickly...

"Don't call it a comeback/ I been here for years" -LL Cool J

Travel, travel, travel

The view to the right? That's Glendale, about a mile up the mountain from our house. I've started running to maximize the amount of time I have to workout and get my body back in shape. If I leave the house and start running I'll make it to this view in about 10 minutes- pretty sweet. The cluster of buildings to the left-of-middle is downtown Glendale, the skyline in the center is downtown LA, and the mountain pouring into the right side of the frame is Griffith Park.

I actually got lost running up this mountain yesterday-which was pretty funny. I came up the back side of the mountain, took one wrong turn, and ended up descending another couple miles away from the apartment. It's always fun seeing parts of your own neighborhood you've never seen... but not when it involves 500 feet of elevation gain and doubles your run time!

My time has been limited by a lot of things lately- primarily just playing catch up after a two-month leave of absence, but also due to the travel. Although I was back in Glendale for a whopping three weeks it was a complete, fun whirlwind that included a guaranteed, good-time trip to the Santa Ynez wine country. Then last Thursday I jumped on a plane to Chicago, had a handful of ABD meetings, caught up with family and friends Friday night at the "Team Betty" dinner party for everyone that helped take care of Grandma, drove to Wisconsin on Saturday for a delicious, home-raised Turkey dinner with the Ebert/Vriezens, drove back to Chicago on Sunday (I love that drive), and jumped a plane back to Burbank Sunday night in time to throw the bags in the car Tuesday morning to drive to Phoenix... where I'm writing from now. Did I unpack? Heck, no! I just packed my Chicago bag inside a bigger bag with some dirty clothes to boot. Were staying with Cathy, Rosa's mom, and she'd prefer we get to town a few hours earlier to hang out then staying home to finish laundry. Works for us, and way better than $1.75 a load and the chance to get yelled at in Armenian for something. (Another story- Rosa was accused of stealing laundry money... she thinks).

And through all that rush? It's been super easy to just throw the running shoes in the bag. I better get out there.

O'Neill...

One question:

Why the hell is a professional cyclist prescribed appetite suppressants?

Nevermind, two questions...

And why do the UCI and WADA ok Phentermine as long as the athletes aren't in competition?