Santa Monica - Day 1

So far I am pretty stoked on vacation Santa Monica Training Camp. Lots of play time with my best little buddy, and lots of play time with my best big buddy, too. This morning we rode along the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu to Latigo Canyon Road, where we both did a nice long climbing interval.

During this time I realized I am exactly like my mom. I made Greg stop for photos several times, even though he's all serious about his training (and so am I)(totally)(all the time), but here we are in this beautiful place and with a cool new camera and the minor unclip-and-squint-into-the-sun inconvenience is a tiny price to pay for the photographic memories we'll have later! Plus I wanted to memorialize the first time in AGES that we have successfully ridden together for more than 35 seconds ;)

We got back and did a tempo run, which was mostly great. I am without any instrumentation here because I sent my Timex back to get warrantied, so without a heartrate monitor or even a watch I went too hard, but I need to develop my feel independent of gadgetry so it was probably a good thing. Right now though I am propping my feet up and guzzling PowerBar Recovery like it's going out of style, because we are headed to the Santa Monica Swim Center to swim Long Course Meters tonight! For some reason it's only set up long course from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Mondays. Side note: I am so stoked to be sponsored by PowerBar, they have the most palatable recovery mix ever! I love it, which is a good thing because usually recovery drink works best if you actually drink it, instead of mixing a full bottle and forcing down only like 4 sips of it.

Arnold wolfs down some carrots, his favourite treat

Also, I forgot to mention that our hosts here in Santa Monica are pig-sitting! A friend's potbellied pig, Arnold, is staying here for a few weeks while the friend is out of town. Arnold is bristly and cutely talkative with his pig noises, and he loves veggies! Greg said something totally mean though. "I bet Arnold would taste delicious, he eats such a healthy diet." BOYS! Sheesh. I told Greg to shut his trap (not my exact words) and then gave Arnold another carrot. Bob the puppy likes Arnold because for some gross doggie reason he likes to eat pig poop. Gross. I still love Bob though, and thankfully there's a hose in the yard to rinse out his mouth in case he accidentally gets into Arnold's section of the yard.

Who's cuter, me or Arnold? (don't answer pls)

Poor Bob wants so badly to play with Arnold!