Meet the newest member of my family

Ok ignore the trash in the back, we're attempting some around the house cleaning and that's where some of the junk ended up temporarily and if I'd ever quit buying bicycles we're going to have a privacy fence put in. With the economy the way it is I think this baby is worth more than

our pickup is--ouch!

The pictures do not do it justice. It's flat black with shadow striping on some sections and shadow diamond tread pattern on others with gorgeous pink accents. It's just the right mix of tough and girly to suit me. And it rides like a dream!!!!!!! I will have to change out the stock seat, it wasn't too comfortable for the girly bits yesterday and I'm still trying to adjust to the new clipless pedals. I have been using SPD-SLs and made the switch to Speed Play Lightactions--James loves his and supposedly they're easier to use. Just not for me, I'm having trouble trying not to toe in like I did with my spd-sls. Did my first stop and flop on this bike sitting still at a stop sign Saturday evening while practicing clipping and unclipping.

Another new thing for me with the Xenith is a compact double chain ring. I was VERY nervous about this because I've been using a triple and still have to use the granny ring quite a bit but I had absolutely no trouble at all yesterday with the compact double. As a matter of fact I didn't have to use the little ring up front on Foster's Chapel yesterday, YAY! I did going up Sawmill and a couple of other places but not on the endless hill of F.C. Couldn't get up out of the saddle very much to power up because I had ran 10 miles that morning and my quads were burning. Not used to the double workouts yet.

Last week's workouts

Monday--8 miles cycling to run errands, 1.8 mile walk with Elsie, and 4 x 15 pushups

Tuesday--5.12 miles around Lebanon outlet mall, 5k of it with James and Elsie

Wednesday--5.26 miles at Prescott, AR frontage road loop, very foggy.

Thursday--5 miles at the mall in Laredo, 4 x 15 pushups at Pearsall

Saturday--6.25 miles, combined a tempo run with 2 monster hills (Hitler Hill)

Sunday--10 mile long run in the morning, 4.5 miles of it with Elsie, 23.47 miles cycling in the afternoon

Totals for the week--31.63 miles run and 31.47 miles cycle

There was also some yard work this weekend, our whiskey barrel of flowers around the mailbox fell apart so we replaced it with pavestone. Lots of shoveling and hauling 50 chunks of concrete around.

The run with Elsie was a lot of fun yesterday, there was nobody else on the bike path so I took her off the leash so she could bounce around. Startled up a beautiful blue crane at one point and we had to stop and watch it fly away. Another time she ran down to a spot along the creek where she stops to drink and had up so much momentum that she went 3-4 bounds into the water before she realized what she was doing. The expression on her face was hilarious, it was like "What just happened?". Yes, I'm turning into one of those people that attribute's human characteristics to their pets.

I love, love, love my new road bike!!!!!!! I'm still impressed with how tough my Marin Portofina is but it's an entry-level, natural-fit bicycle and they don't make a more aggressive female fit road bike. If they did I would've gone with another Marin but I am very happy with the Jamis Xenith. And the color scheme is perfect!!!!!!!!!!

James and Jason were laughing at me Friday when I told them I named my bikes, guess it's a female thing. Anyway I have a Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme going. My Marin is Cordelia because of it's girly appearance but is steely on the inside, the Jamis mountain bike is Willow, and my new Jamis is Buffy because it's tough with girly accents.