New Years' news and a Happy New Year

Prospects for 2009

It is 63 days until the next big endeavor, a transcontinental ride across the Southern Tier or shortest distance of the USA . I will be riding with 20 other women on a supported tour organized by Woman Tours. (http://www.womantours.com/) We will riding from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida over a period of 60 days, 52 riding and 8 off. This will be my third long distance endurance bike tour and I have to admit that I am addicted. I am hoping to find a sponsor so that I can ride for breast cancer, but so far it's slow going.

The 3,000 mile route (give or take a few miles) goes through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisinana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Since we will be starting in early March in California, here's hoping for an early and prolonged early spring with reasonably moderate weather as we pass through the elevations of Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas Hill Country, followed by an unseasonably cool and dry late spring as we go into the warmer climes of the Texas plains and the deep south. Multi -season packing is a new skill that I need to master although since we will be going through Texas, I'm sure I can get my sweetie to mail me a care package of warm weather gear.

I am almost where I hoped to be at this point with my training. I am still a bit behind in doing longer rides for time in the saddle, but I have upped the average training ride length from 30 to 45 miles. In terms strength and endurance though, I am pretty ok. Of course with the hills and mountains coming up and me being a flat country rider, I don't suppose any amount of preparation is going to be enough. I am encouraging myself by reminding myself that Anne Cowan, a rider on the Underground Railroad ride I did last year, and Southern Tier Veteran, told me repeatedly that if I could handle the hills in Kentucy and Tennessee, that the Souther Tier this year would be no problem. I keep reminding myself that I have yet to find a hill that I couldn't eventually walk, stagger or crawl over.

So training wise, weather cooperating and mental fortitude allowing, I will continue to push my endurance, and hopefully improve my speed a bit although I have managed to up my average long distance cruising speed from a 15 mph to 15.7 average, which is a bit of an improvement from last year when my 100 mile day averaged 14.5. This will all depend on the terrain of the long days. Personally, I am almost giddy with relief that the first couple of days of the tour are relatively shorter days of under 75 miles instead of the five days of an average of 85 miles per day that started last year's tour.

In the gym I am working on cardio, focusing on core and upper body and pylometric work for quicker reaction and response time and improved balance, as well as continuing on endurance and increasing the burn in general.

I am almost at my goal weight and the body fat percentage is dropping while I seem to be maintaining strength and energy, so I am managing to hit the calorie balance right, with the exception of holiday indulgences so....

Here's to hoping the usual spate of moderate winter January and February weather appear here in the Houston area. If not, it will be a good opportunity to check out the cold weather gear and layering I will need to have with me on the tour to get through the elevations and first part of the ride.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Chocolate Nirvana in downtown Houston

We went on a post Christmas excursion to a shop called the Chocolate Bar (Where every hour is happy hour) in downtown Houston. If you like chocolate in any way, shape or form, this shop would probably be your idea of Nirvana.

The Chocolate Bar (http://www.theoriginalchocolatebar.com/ )not only features chocolate bars in white, milk, dark, sugar free and animal friendly chocolate but novelties on any theme you can imagine. a dozen kinds of fresh and dried chocolate dipped fruit, half a dozen kinds of choclate coated childrens' ceral clusters, and equal number of chocolate covered cookies, chocolate greeting cards and bars, a workable choclate covered calculator, chocolate bricks, chocolate bites, letters, numbers, dessert spoons, chocolate champagne bottles holding real champagne, chocolate covered nuts and candies, bon bons and truffles that fill two full sized display cases several layers deep, hot chocolate mixes and a viewing window to watch the chocolate being tempered and created. Let us not forget the "world famous Texas Frito Brittle, a mix of Frito corn chips, pretzels and chocolate topped chopped Texas pecans, all covered in milk choclate, and that is just the first of two rooms.

The second room features 24 kinds of handmade ice cream, all of them original recipes and speciality flavors and all including chocolate. You can sample as much as you want. My particular favorite was a triple chocolate peppermint stick with cinnamon chocolate mint candy cane bits, and a a lemon flavored white chocolate concotion that was to die for. As well as ice cream, the second room features chocolate based baked goods including pastries, cookies, coffee and the most incredible choclate cakes I have ever seen. Each was a minimum of 5 layers of 10" high while several were even taller. Although we did not indulge, each slice looked like it must weigh a minimum of a half pound. I could feel the weight going onto the hips as I walked past feeling bloated from just two samples of ice cream and a small scoop to eat in the car on the way home.

The decor is funky, in silver and purple with glitter balls, the hours are liberal (open til midnight most nights) but the choclate feels like you have died and gone to heaven if you're a choclate lover.

The original Choclate Bar and it's second store in the Rice University Village are incidentally located next door to Candylicious, a candy boutique featuring over 250 old kinds of candy.

Laffy Taffy and cola sips chasers for that chocolate high, anyone?

A unique indication of how things could go in the Texas in 2009

The headline reads " Dealer Aims to Sell Cars"

The article reads: "with car sales struggling, salesmen at one dealership are trying something new. New car buyers get a $250 coupon good for either a handgun purchase or gasoline."

Apparently most buyers are opting for a gun. The manager of the particular dealership adds that he encourages them to "opt for a semiautomatic model because it holds more rounds."

The manager is also quoted as saying "down here, we all believe in God, guts and guns."

Although the dealer mentioned is actually located in Missouri, I'm sure he would fit right in here in Texas and would probably be voted "business man of the year for his innovative marketing techniques. Believe me when I say,Texas and Texas attittuds are not that far behind.

Happy New Year to one and all.