Test Drive, Redux

I picked up another bike to test ride yesterday afternoon. A Trek Madone. Deb at RC&F called it "a little rocket". :-)

Took it for just a little spin around the neighborhood this morning before the rains moved in. It's very nice. Very, very nice.  I haven't had a new bike, or really, I haven't had my own bike, since I got a yellow Schwinn Continental sometime in high school. I haven't purchased a new vehicle since 1982 (I've purchased 4 used vehicles since then ... 2 Chrysler mini-vans, 2 Hondas). So I have a bad case of sticker shock. I guess that's why I never ended up buying one last fall. It's just really hard to spend the $. $$$$ actually. This is going to be "the" bike for me. I'm not going to upgrade. So ... do I need this much bike?? I don't know. But I have to make a decision. I really want a bike. When I see a cyclist out there putting in miles, I really want to be out there. Trying to chase them down, of course. :-)

Last night Team R.E.D. gathered at the Melby home in Byron. We had a good turnout. (Those are the Ryan kids.)

And a good hilly 6 mile run. It was touted as being "not too hilly".

 Looks like Andy has had enough of those hills. :-) Here's myself, Joe Ryan and Andy Hemenway in the last 1/2 mile of the route.

Afterwards, we gathered for some post-run yackin' 'n snackin' in the Melby garage.

I brought rhubarb crisp.

At some point in the evening, the jump rope came out.

I'm guessing it's been nigh on 40 years since I'd jumped rope. I was up for the challenge. When I first jumped in, I was a little off balance and only jumped twice before getting beaned by the rope. But the second time, I "done good". :-) It was pretty fun. Thanks for being my twirlers Tom O' and Paul.

Yesterday morning's workout was a very nice 7.09 mile run, partially on the Cascade Lake trail which I hadn't been on in quite a while. The pedestrian bridge across highway 14 is certainly taking shape. It'll be great when it's done.

This morning's workout was lifting and about an hour swim. I chatted for quite a while with Wendy Nevala in the pool. She's putting in her last long workouts before Ironman Coeur d'Alene in a couple of weeks. This afternoon was a very warm and toasty run on the Mayowood bike path. Tomorrow I want to take the "little rocket" for a spin in the country. I'm hoping the rains hold off for a while. Tomorrow morning I'll be at Off-Season Striders at Panera south at 7 bells. With cookies. Of course.

There's a lot more to the story, but Eric is back from Costa Rica. (BTW: My new passport arrived in today's mail.)

And he's still eating vegeterian. He'd bought a cookbook and yesterday asked if I'd help him make some recipes from it. So we sat down and paged through the whole thing making note of the ones we wanted to try. So tonight we made a vegetable/bean lasagna.

It was quite good. We both really liked it. The sauce was vegetable-based (no duh! it's vegeterian!). There's nothing like the beautiful colors of vegetables that Mother Nature provides. Don't you agree?

It also contained red lentils.

The veggies are cooked until soft and then pureed and navy beans are added.

The recipe uses the no-boil lasagna noodles (I used Barilla). Sliced artichoke hearts are added between the layers. It's topped with 2/3 c. (fat-free) ricotta cheese mixed with 2/3 c. milk and then some grated Parmesan and baked off. Delish.
 

 
I think that's all thats newsworthy for today. Enjoy your weekend. :-)
 
Toodles.