The first race of the season!!!

Friday night was a party in Ray's garage doing lots of bike maintenance. We fixed my leaky fork seal and helped Clint un-seize his rear brake caliper.

Saturday morning consisted of Bryce trying to figure out his new hydration system while Ray's crazy dog Maggie kept pulling on his jacket.

The race itself was a 50 mile dirt bike race that was incredibly high speed and SUPER dusty. I didn't go very fast but I finished and felt great. Everyone else did awesome and it was so much fun being back out on the race scene.

As always, big thanks to Ray and Clint for putting up with us and waiting for Bryce to get ready :)

Round 2

After a rockin' day on the dirt bikes, we made a quick stop to see Ryan at Th'ink Tank to have a some work done on the new tattoo. Although he was telling everyone he was going to be working on the Statue of Liberty all day, I luckily came home with what I was hoping for...a gorgeous Eiffel Tower, another soaring bird and a killer accenting poppy! Sorry Ryan, I had to post this, it was too funny :) It's coming together absolutely perfectly. Thanks Dude!

Some GREAT news!

Last week's blood tests came back very favorable for the first time in almost 7 months! As of today, I am no longer testing positive for the Epstein Barr Virus. Although this is a sign of progress, it does NOT mean that I am clear to start training and getting back to normal again. I'm only 4 months into this crazy medication that I'm supposed to take for 6-12 months and I'm in the stage where I can easily set myself back if I'm not smart about the exercise and stress I put on my body. Luckily, I still don't feel well enough to get back into the full swing of things, but I will admit that I feel the best I have since July :) Hooray...I'm FINALLY be getting better!!!!!!!

Another great weekend

This past weekend began with a much needed walk to Whole Foods for a healthy dinner, then to Target to purchase a heated blanket for our bed. I've been begging Bryce to get a heated mattress pad like I had back in MI, but he usually just laughed and said "really?". After he spent the night at Ray's house last weekend, he used a heated blanket for the first time and came home asking if we could get one for our place. Ha! What better way to keep warm when the house is 60 degrees!

Saturday was the 2010 Rocky Mountain Enduro Circuit banquet in Denver. There was a product show beforehand and it was the perfect opportunity to set up the Powerbar and Timex displays and promote my Nutrition and Fitness Clinic for endurance moto riders later this season.

Bryce and I both received awards and as always, it was great to see the usual crowd. After a long night at the banquet we all met up at a private moto track to rip it up this afternoon. Everyone kept commenting on how well Bryce was riding his new bike and I finally learned how to double some little jumps!

Things that are new and exciting

First of all I have to mention Bryce's 2011 KTM 250 SXF! After a long couple months of waiting, the bike is built, the suspension has been tuned to perfection and he has been able to go train on his new race machine. It's scary to think but the 2011 race season is only 2 weeks away...crazy how time flies!

On the non-motorized side of the world, I did completed my first walk/jog since July 4th, 2010 this past week! It wasn't anything special, but I did include a few 1min and 2min jogs with lots of walking rest in a casual stroll on Tuesday morning. It's funny that jogging as easy as I can for 1 or 2 minutes at a time makes my HR jump to 170! At least my body isn't falling over while I do it which is a huge improvement from the past 6 months. I have another round of bloodwork on Thursday and as the doctor keeps telling me, patience is the name of the game this year. The more I listen to my body, the faster I'll be back training and racing like the good old days. I seriously fantasize about being as fit and healthy as I was in fall of 2008 (pic above)! PATIENCE ERIN, PATIENCE!!!

Spreading the Powerbar Love

Saturday morning, I joined Tim Hola at the Frosty's Frozen 5 Mile and 10 Mile running race in Littleton, Colorado.

As the two of us worked the table and gave out samples to the racers and spectators, his wonderful wife, Nikki, was out kicking butt and taking names during the 10M race!

Tim is one of my favorite people in the world so I immediately jumped at the opportunity to work an event together and catch up after the last couple of months.

As with all endurance events in the Denver area, there is always a huge turnout. I had a blast getting people amped up about the Gel Blasts and the newly branded Restore recovery beverage.

I also had a great time chatting with the kids running around the venue! Since racing isn't quite in the near future, I plan on helping out at numerous Timex and Powerbar over the next couple of months! Stay tuned.

I finally did it!

After months of thinking and designing, I quietly made an appointment to get the ball rolling back in November 2010 for several sessions with Ryan Willard. Click on his logo above to access his full website.

Ryan is a fellow Detroit home boy with some serious artistic talent. Together we came up with some great ideas that we're both super jazzed about and really excited to see the final product. Below is the first of many rounds which will eventually equate to one ''beautiful'' piece of art. Check it out!

Mom and dad...please don't kill me :)

Re-living a little of the past!

After Bryce's parents had all of their old videos made into DVDs for Christmas, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought about doing that to our old videos as well. After my parents returned home from Boulder, they were able to gather all of the VHS tapes they had from my childhood and growing up in Europe and sent them out my way. I purchased a used VCR player from someone on Craigslist for $10 then bought the above product to begin making my own videos. I haven't actually made any DVDs yet, but Bryce and I have been watching one or two tapes a night and absolutely rolling at how hilarious they are. It's funny how just watching video footage from 20 years ago can instantly bring back some great memories :)

A silly, yet costly mistake!

For all of those out there that have a deductible on your health insurance - listen up!

As we all know, I've had some serious medical issues over the past couple of years leading to hitting my deductible within the first couple months of the year. This year, I planned on NOT doing that as I'm praying that the CFS is at the end of it's toll and hopefully with the final months of this medication, I'll be back up and running. At any rate, in December I made a mental check of all the medical things I thought I should do before the year ended as it would be for free since the deductible had been satisfied. I was all set on the doc appointment front but didn't think of re-filling the prescription I have been taking 4x/day because it was only costing me $10/bottle at the time. Well not thinking the medication was expensive, I went to the pharmacy yesterday to pick it up and was flabbergasted when the women told me it would be $783 for one month's supply!!!! Well guess what? Had I been smart and gotten the last 2 refills done in December, it would have cost me $10/bottle. Instead, it's now a new year and I now have to re-meet my $2500 deductible and it will probably happen with 3 bottles of this stupid medication. For those that know me really well, I'm sure you can only image the frustration and stupidity I felt when this happened. I'm a freaking accountant for goodness sake, how the crap could I not have thought of this?!?!? Oh well, live and learn. Just thought I'd let others benefit from my mistake! I'll just be saving some extra money instead of buying new toys now :)

How about a new sponsor!!!

It's been a while since I've had a tire sponsor and I'm super stoked to be running some of the best tires in world this year! Maxxis has an unbelievable line up of tires for road, mountain, cyclocross and even big mountain which I'm jazzed to start adding into the mix this spring. Click on the link above to check out the goods. I promise to post several reviews throughout the year!

I've got a new swim coach!

That's right, I'm attempting to get back in the water this year and would like to start by improving my wretched stroke. Grant Holicky has an extensive swimming background and has been part of the APEX squad for some time now. In trade for doing the accounting for Breeze Bars, he's offered to re-teach me how to swim since I've been out of the water for over 6 months now. I've frozen my FAC membership to join Rally Sport where Grant coaches. I am by no means back to training but I'm doing what I'm supposed to in order to get my body acclimated to getting off the coach. Stay tuned for updates throughout the next couple weeks, as I'm attempting to break through this Chronic Fatigue Syndrome nonsense and regain my life back :)

It's a NEW year!

And what better way to celebrate than to chill with your friends on the couch and have a super mellow celebration. It was 8* outside for goodness sakes!

After taking down the holiday decor, the next project was to make homemade ravioli. First Joe made regatta cheese out of milk and lemon juice.

Then Patrick made pasta dough from scratch and put it through this little machine to make it flat.

After that, Joe added some basil and spinach to the cheese and plopped it on the freshly made dough.

After applying the second piece of dough on top and cutting out each ravioli individually, it was time to boil for a couple of minutes.

Tada, a little pasta sauce, some parmesan cheese a little extra spinach (because I love spinach) and you have an unbelievably delicious homemade meal. What would we do without our incredible chef orientated roommates!?!?