The Cycle Eggspress! Breakfast on Wheels!

Breakfast is Cece’s favorite meal of the day,….and she loves eggs!  She considers them the ultimate in comfort food.  So, when she came across an article on Bill Wurtzel in the NY Times, she was thrilled to see his creative take on breakfasts!  Oh!  How much fun!

He has written a children’s book called , “Breakfast for Claire.” Claire is his daughter and he seems to get up and cook breakfast for Claire and his wife every weekend!  What a man!  Cece is lusting!

The goal of this book is to encourage children and adults to eat more healthy meals  and to decrease childhood obesity.  Check out his web site for more delicious breakfasts!  His site is not fully running yet, but you will be able to see several of his breakfast creations!

Meanwhile, Cece is still spending time with Troy Jacobson indoors on her trainer and dealing with the "hell"  of rehabbing her knee and shoulder.  She is getting though it,.....and the eggs help!

Cooking Up a PhD Dissertation: 50 Plates at a Time!

Well, you might wonder what cooking and writing a dissertation have in common. Well, we are about to find out from the Two Whos’  friend ” The Prairie Girl ” who is a cyclist, chef ,  scholar and friend.  She  just started her own blog. It is called the Prairie Dissertator .   Her goal is to defend her dissertation by May 6th 2011 and in the meanwhile cook up 50 plates of food that are new to her that she has never cooked up before!    The Whos know that cooking soothes the soul and we think our friend knows this too.  With all the stressors involved in teaching in a large university, doing field work, creating research designs and dealing with 20 somethings who know it all, the Prairie Girl  decided that she would quiet down on the prairie,  hunker down to concentrate on her dissertation  and cook and write!  What could be better?
Here is a photo of her Balkan Pie.  The Whos cannot wait to try this.  It is made with Filo dough.
Go to the Prairie Dissertator for the recipe and to learn about her fieldwork and her research.

Dream Vacation #2 : Cycling in the Yucatan!

Over the winter, Cece has been fortunate to have taken 2 different dream vacations.  You can read about the first vacation on The Two Whos and the second one will be detailed here!  She did all this without getting too hot or too cold. 

On a Friday night in February when it should have been freezing cold, but was not, Cece ventured forth to her cycling Club "Women Riding Well" to pick up her new club jersey!  No one will ever miss the club as they ride into the sunsets here in Albuquerque.  The colors are so bright and feature the Sandia (watermelon) Mountains in the background.....and if you ask Cece, the club riding uphill on Tramway from 313!  This is Cece's absolutely favorite ride (should be read with great sarcasm).....but none the less, perhaps the jersey will give her more good mojo for the 6+ mile climb!
But she digresses.  Hills always distract her!

She arrived at the Simpatico Studio to pick up her jersey and  was happy to see Margie and Pat all ready to give their slide presentation  about their cycling trip to the Yucatan.  Everyone settled in and the show began.  Pat enjoyed telling some funny stories about Margie and the entire audience was laughing and giggling.  They described their adventures during their 600+ mile- 12 days of riding.  They had guides who directed them as they rode  in 110 degree weather with their small group of cyclists.  They showed photos of fabrics and shops, Mayan ruins  and buildings that were very colorful.  The people and children were very friendly and welcoming.  The cycling was flat and hot but they had a wonderful time.

After Cece returned home, she was thinking about this trip.  She had never thought too much about the Yucatan.  But it looked like a great trip.

Later Cece went to sleep.  In her dreams, Cece took the same vacation that Margie and Pat took.  She was on her bicycle cycling on the flat land, meeting all the people, children, going into shops,. buying pretty dresses with ornate embroidery, buying a hammock, going into open markets that sold everything under the sun and swimming naked in the fresh water underground caves that were one of the highlights on Pat and Margie's  trip!   In her dream she climbed up the steep steps of the Mayan ruins!    Cece dreamed all night!

When she woke up after a full nights rest and a full night of dreaming about her trip to the Yucatan , she had to laugh!  She needed to take many other vacations like this!    They are inexpensive and she has many memories to lean back on....and she does not even have sore legs from cycling all those miles!

Cece's next dream vacation?  To South Africa.  Her niece is there for the semester studying on a semester abroad.  Cece has always wanted to go to South Africa so this particular Dream Vacation should be even more thrilling !  She is waiting for the slide show!

My Valentine Gift to Myself

Being single, you have to get creative on Valentines day. There are no boyfriends, lovers , chocolates or roses although there were some cards and phone calls with wishes for a happy day.  So, a single girl needs to think outside the box...what to do on Valentines Day?  

Cece decided to be creative and  gift herself with a day off and a ride outdoors on her bike with her friend Ellie the Shark. Cece had been watching the Weather Underground and chose a picture perfect day and time to take the ride.

At  10am she looked up at the cloud cover and shivered and wondered if the Weather Underground's forecast would be correct or not...but  by about noon, as they had  predicted, the sky was crystal clear with  not a cloud in the sky, warming temps and about a 5 mph wind!  Ideal cycling weather as far as Cece was concerned!
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It is amazing when you get back into the rhythms that you are used to...the packing of your gear, the carrying it all in one trip with your bike down  20 steep steps...then loading the bike on the car....then unloading everything and outfitting your bike..pumping up your tires...all the familiar preparations.....that seems to effortlessly play  themselves out once again....

Ellie was waiting and off they went!  This was Cece's first ride outdoors since November so they decided to take an easy 18 mile ride with only one not so terribly bad hill. She remembered from last year, that being on the road and on a trainer were two different animals.  She was prepared for her shoulders to be tired from maneuvering and balancing and they certainly were!

It was so wonderful to be riding the road...smelling the earth and having the wind in your face, the sun beating down its warmth on your body.....she and Ellie greeted many cyclists out and about on this beautiful,  dare  she say,  SPRING day in February! 

What a wonderful ride on a beautiful day. The perfect gift to the self.

Suffer Fest: Year 3.....more from The Cement Factory Spin

Cement store?  Factory?  Well, it really is  a cement store.  A factory makes cement.  This place sells it! None the less, Cece is thrilled to be be back to a grueling spin class that gathers cyclists in its doors…numbering around  100 for a  13 week odyssey of pain and sweat and family, fun  and friendships that endure!   There is no fee for this class. It is a gift that is given and at the end we have a wonderful pot luck and shower Tom and Bill with treats that they  love!  more......

It's 28 degrees in Albuquerque. What does that Mean?

It means that Cece is riding indoors with her winter boyfriend Troy Jacobson!  Yes, she said it...winter boyfriend!  When you spend this much time with a man....he might as well be the boyfriend from afar!  For those of you that do not know Coach Troy, he is the one who told Cece that if she had to throw up, she should do it while she was soft pedaling.  He also told her that he "hopes that she  now has  a new appreciation of her ability to endure discomfort" She just has too many of this type of person in her life right now.  URGH! 

Here is Little Red all set to go on her trainer.

Now all Cece has to do is pick a Troy favorite like "Suffer O Rama, Mental Toughness, The Uphill Grind or Have Mercy the Sequel....

If you want to follow Coach Troy, who has been rehabbing a serious collar bone injury (at the Leadville 100)  and then had to have surgery.... in  his first post-accident Iron Man  race, you can go here to do so.
Cece told him to try to have fun, but that will not be easy...especially at Iron Man Distances....

PS.  Cece's friend Ellie the Shark is planning on riding the century (actually 109 miles)  in El Tour de Tucson on Nov. 20th. We are hoping that she will give us a ride report.  

PPS:  Ellie confirmed that she is already thinking about her blog post and  Cece did make it through a grueling 90 minute mental toughness DVD..she forgot about the squatting part off the bike... and all the high gearing and  dripping sweat!  She hopes that  Troy heard the curses from afar...

Yes, Ma'am -o-gram! One Last Reminder...from Philly Jen on the Fat Cyclist

This is a blogger friend who just discovered a lump as a result of her annual mammogram.  She writes about it at the link below.  Please go and read this!  Then if you have not done so already,  either get your mammo or prompt a loved one to do so.  She speaks about the mammo machine in a very funny yogic way...  Jenn is running her first marathon on 10/31, then will have her lumpectomy when she returns home and then she will have  some ice cream! 


Philly Jenn: Yes Ma'am-O Gram on the Fat Cyclist.com