May flowers 🌼

Hello! I meant to write this weekend, but I’ve been sick. I guess I have a summer cold or something – so annoying! I don’t seem to kick them quite as fast as I used to, which is even more frustrating. 😛 I’m feeling a little more functional today, but the body is achy and the mind is groggy. Just been trying to take it easy, drink lots of water, and sleep. Hard to do when the weather is sunny and a beautiful 70 degrees outside…I just want to be outside, ugh!

The last few weeks I’ve been deep in the trenches of trip planning. I have something like 100 tabs open on my computer right now of different routes and hütte and Airbnbs in Austria. Oops. I feel a little like this meme right now, trying to plan my trip. 

Normally, I don’t consider myself a trip planner. I usually just arrive and send it because I get overwhelmed with all of the decisions involved. But I know that if I don’t have a semblance of a ~ plan ~ with this trip, I’ll get stuck in decision purgatory and not do anything. There are a couple of places I definitely want to see, and bike routes I want to ride, and hütte I want to stay in. I’ve thought it would be cool to bike a loop of Vorarlberg. And I keep daydreaming of my favorite gelato place in Bregenz – Isola Bella! And, I want to go back to Montafon. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle trying to figure out how much I can fit in without being too busy and stretched thin. 

In many ways, it feels like there is a lot of pressure (self-imposed) to make the most of this trip. One thing that’s given me some peace of mind is telling myself that there will be the “next trip,” and anything I don’t get to on this one can be saved for that one. I continue to dream of creating a lifestyle where I get to go back to Austria for 1-3 months every year. That would be the dream. 

Suffice to say, I’m not quite sure how everything will come together, but it always does. (Like, I have no idea how I am going to haul my bike bag AND luggage by myself from the airport to train & to the place I’m staying by myself, lol!) I keep reminding myself that trip planning should be FUN and not stressful. Looking at photos and video of the region has me feeling excited again. It’s just SO beautiful…my heart can’t handle it.   

May – wildflowers!

A highlight of May was going back to Wenatchee and riding amongst the wildflowers. Truly magical. We took the GoPro, so I made a little video of our trip! 

My goal continues to be making 1 video a month. I’d really like to make some videos while in Austria! 🙂

Training for STP 

My training plan this month had me ramping up from 6 hour training rides to 8 hours. Eek! It’s a lot of time on the bike. I hope I’ll be ready for STP. If I complete it at my goal of 18mph (assuming I can hang on a group draft), that’s about 12 hours of ride time.

I know I can finish this distance, but I’m not feeling as confident about my speed goal. For one, none of my training rides have been nearly that fast. For two, the heat is a big problem for me. In July, it’s often 95+ F. And I melt. Especially, if I’m pushing yourself to new limits…in the past my body has not handled the heat well.

For thirds…my training was going really well this month, until I got sick this week. That has me feeling discouraged, as it feels like after every 3-4 weeks of consistent training, I inevitably get slammed with something. So, maybe I just need to ramp up more slowly. Womp, womp.

Creative practice

This weekend I attended an online creativity workshop that was about creating your own newsletter and/or creative channel. It got me thinking about how I can show up to create, even when I’m not feeling my best–at a level 5 capacity, or less. (Like right now!)

I’m considering writing an email newsletter to document my time in Austria. One of my biggest “regrets” from before is that I didn’t blog more when I lived there. I’d really like to challenge myself to write and/or video document my trip this time. I think it would be a fun project.

Anyways, that’s all for now!