Alrighty, I wanted to give you all a heads up that I have added a Photos page to the blog. I have only posted a few photos so far but in the next week or so I will be putting some more attention to adding more and more pictures in my spare time.
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Oh weekend here I come…
Well, today the body is dragging. Two nights ago Kate was up 5 or 6 times fussing. We are so spoiled having her sleep all the way through the night. Just in case you don’t know that by all the way though the night I mean from 10pm to 6:15am when we wake her up. So I can’t complain too much but when you get into a rhythm of actually getting great sleep I think it hurts even worse than consistently inconsistent sleep.
I did work from home on Wednesday though and Kate stayed home with me and that did one thing. I told Janelle it simply reaffirmed that I could not be a stay at home father. She had a super fussy day and wouldn’t sleep for more than 5-10min at a time so I was not able to get everything done that I wanted to and if you don’t know it frustrates me when I am not able to get everything accomplished that I may be hoping for. Not her fault by any means I guess I am just goal oriented, even if I don’t make a list and cross things off like my very organized wife. She’s the list queen! I do have to admit though when she makes a weekend list of things we have to do and she goes and crosses something off that I’ve done I do feel cheated… 🙂
This week has been a pretty slow week at work with a lot of the staff out of the office though. Between our La Ruta recon camp in Costa Rica, IM Arizona camp going on and the performance testing camp going on this weekend the office has been a bit baron and the people who are here are trying to get prepped for the camp this weekend. I will be working this weekend though so I need to get a good night sleep tonight and get prepped and excited for the camp tomorrow. It looks like I will be doing 7 bike fits between Saturday and Sunday so let’s rock and roll! In preparation for this camp though I did go out for a bit of a stress reliever ride to get in the right mind set. Basically it was as hard as I could go on the climbs and then use the descents as some recovery. It is a good way to almost make yourself puke and I always feel good after crushing it like that.
Thanks SidiAmerica!
Alright, I can’t go without thanking Sidi for replacing my old Sidi Ergo 2 cycling shoes. about 2 months ago I noticed that my Sidi riding shoes had some yellowing on one of the plastic parts on them. I sent them into Sidi and they were so gracious as to even send me a pair of demo shoes to wear in the mean time while they waited for my size in the 2011 shoes to arrive. Check out the new kicks!
On an even brighter side, I have ridden the past two days. That is not the exciting part (even though it is great) but the fact that I finally feel like my fitness is back to where it was before Katelyn was born. I have felt rather sluggish since taking nearly a month away from the bike after her birth and I feel like my old self again. Now, only more to come in that realm I hope! That’s it for the night Katelyn is squirming out of her blanket and needs to be fed.
Father Daughter time
Today Janelle had to work which meant that it was just me and Kate. Which I am pretty sure Janelle was at least a little worried about. “Why?” you ask? because at about 2:00pm she called me to make sure that everything was going well. I think it was to make sure Katelyn wasn’t balling, the house wasn’t on fire and if it wasn’t on fire that I got the honey do list completed that she gave me this morning (not 100% done…SORRY!). 🙂
Since Janelle did work today though I decided it was a GREAT time for some father daughter bonding time. So we headed to the mountains to enjoy the beautiful weather (low 70’s) and some amazing scenery. The choice trail of the day was 7 bridges trail near the top of Cheyenne Canyon, just off of Gold Camp road. Kiya went with us and since Katelyn has been around she
has seemed to become a bit more mature and by that I mean manageable. Today, as you can see she was the leader of the pack on our hike. She lead the whole way up and down the trail.
has seemed to become a bit more mature and by that I mean manageable. Today, as you can see she was the leader of the pack on our hike. She lead the whole way up and down the trail. Kate is officially a hiking champ. Today was her 3rd hike in her 10 weeks of life and she lasted nearly 1.5hrs on the trail with me. She slept all but the last 5 minutes of our hike. The sun shone directly in her eyes and woke her up (had to improvise with the hat so she didn’t fuss too much). All in all today was A LOT of fun and it even ended in some smiles from Katelyn before I put her in the car seat for the trip home. Hopefully there will be much more hiking to come even though the winter months. She is getting close to being able to support her head and that is what I am waiting for to get her in the hiking pack that Grandpa Les and Bobbi gave her for a baby shower gift.
By the way, the reason for the picture of the trees is because the aspens are turning yellow and that makes me VERY happy to know that fall is here. Fall drive into the mountains here we come!
‘Cross is upon us!
Alright, so as many of you already know I LOVE ‘cross season! It is my favorite time of the year and always gets invigorated to get back on the bike after a long summer. I like the cold, the rain, the snow, swampy muddy conditions and even the warmer weather when it has to be that way. There is nothing like finishing a race with mud caked in your hair, your face covered like you are getting one of those funny facial things that ladies get to soften their skin and your legs smoking from just turning yourself inside out for 45minutes.
This weekend is the official start of cyclocross season in the Colorado region as well as the U.S. UCI scene in Nittany. Unfortunately though I will not be able to start racing this weekend. The main reason is I don’t currently have a new ‘cross bike yet. I’m working with the guys at Colorado Cyclist to get that part straightened out though and like always they are taking GREAT care of me. On the 18th we’ve got a local race here in COS but I will be working our Performance Testing camp at CTS that weekend so there is no racing then… “So, when are you racing?” you ask. That is a good question. I guess the excitement will continue to build until I am actually able to race. In the meantime I will stalk cxmagazine, crosstube and all of the other cycling related sites until the opportunity to race presents itself.
Thought for the day: Do you have the same outlook on your races as one of my athletes?! I hope so! “I’m going to win that race in buffalo. You heard it here first. Its just how I feel.”
Cripple Creek Ride
Friday Morning we pushed off from CTS around 8:00am on our way to Cripple Creek. It was a great morning and started off a bit chilly. Jim Lehman, Adam Pulford, Daniel Matheny and myself were expecting the trip to be about 5-5.5hrs of total ride time and with fall rapidly approaching we knew that there was little chance of running into thunderstorms. With a few tough climbs on the way Jim put the hurt on all of us and left us hoping to be as strong as he is at 40 years old.
Coming back through Woodland Park we realized we were actually making much better time than what the ride typically takes. In fact we made it door to door in 4:37min. The ride clocked in at 89miles and just shy of 7,000ft of climbing. Not a bad day in the saddle and certainly a ride that needs to be done more often! Thanks a bunch fellas!
East bound and down
Well, we made the 11 hour drive to Oklahoma this weekend for Janelle’s grandmother’s funeral. It was a sad day in the McIlvain household and for the town of Hennessey, Oklahoma. Gran lived a long full life and from the full chapel it was apparent that the number of lives she touched was far greater than I am sure she probably would have ever imagined.
Today marked a new step in our family life as well. Janelle dropped Kate off at her sister’s house this morning on her way to work. The past few days have been pretty tough for Janelle in anticipation of dropping her off. I can’t imagine how difficult it was since she has spent all but 5 hours of her waking moments with Kate since she was born 2 months ago. As the days go by it will get easier and easier but I think at this point it is very difficult to see that in sight. Seriously though, it’s hard to miss this little face!
After 22 hours in the car over the last 2.5days it was great to get out and stretch my legs on the road bike. There is nothing like a jaunt up Orion to Gold Camp and then down Cheyenne canyon. The weather here is AMAZING and you can start to feel a bit of crispness in the air which is making me think that we are quickly losing are summer warmth. The fact that it hit 52deg last night doesn’t hurt that insight as well.
Why the legs?
So, the other day I was asked the question by my lovely wife, “why do you put pictures of your legs on your blog?” followed by laughter and mocking. So after the question I assumed I should follow up with the answer on here in case there are others were wondering the same thing. The leg pictures are there because of the name of the blog. I guess I assumed it was more like the adventures of the legs but apparently some think differently. Sorry if there has been any confusion…
On another note, Thanks a bunch to Brian Delong & the rest at Ideavise for the sweet new kit. I’ve never had a Champion System kit until now and they are REALLY comfortable!
Another Weim?!
So I was clearing out my inbox today in my gmail account which I don’t think I have done in, well ever, and I came across several old pictures of Kiya when she was a puppy. I completely forgot how big her feet were compared to her body but boy was she CUTE! So I got the idea of sending Janelle a quick e-mail and see what kind of response I got. I attached the photo and all the e-mail said was…”Wasn’t she cute?!?! You want another?! :)” I would love to have another dog but at this point Kiya is about all Janelle can handle and or stand with the added stress of Katelyn so I sent it more as a joke than anything. Little did I know that she would one up me.
About an hour later I get an e-mail in my in my inbox and this is what is says…”Isn’t She cute?!?! It’s all your getting for now…:)” I’ve gotta give her credit, she is right and she definitely surprised me with that answer. This little kid is adorable and has a receding hairline of a 60year old man… Who ever thought that would be cute on a girl! 🙂
I had a friend send me a text one night, about 4 or 5 days after Katelyn was born and I was super tired, stressed out and most of all cranky. All it said was “The nights are long, but the days go so fast.” Those are words that as each week has gone by I have realized more and more. Katelyn will be 7wks on Friday and the time has gone SO fast. She is growing so quickly and the little smiles at a 3am feeding may be a little frustrating (focus kid, a.d.d. like dad) but they sure do make things a lot better at the same time. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!
Great day!
Well, Katelyn is sleeping well (4hrs at a time) and growing like a weed, Janelle is in a routine and has 2 wks before she has to return to work (don’t remind her), and things have begun to return to a bit of normalcy (if that will be possible ever again), and today I got a great ride in with some BEAUTIFUL weather! The past several weeks it has been a very strange shift in how I have felt on the bike. The legs have either been hot or cold and it takes about 30-45min to figure out which it is going to be. Today thankfully was one of those hot days! I did 1hr 20 min and had almost 3200ft of vertical in the ride. I even did a climb that I have not done in 2 years. Old Stage road is a short local steep climb that ends up turning into gravel about a mile up. I have not done it in years because I am not much of a fan of it, but today’s goal was to do as much climbing in as short of an amount of time as possible, plus I needed a pretty picture! 🙂 So near the end of my ride I decided to give it a whirl. It was just as I remembered but it was well worth it and in the end was a great day in the saddle!
BRADY IrWIN 
