Nanna O'B and a nailed training day

It has been four years today since we lost Nanna O'B.
I try to mark the occasion in some small way, my ideal gesture is to sit under the flight path somewhere, thinking of her place in Airport West, and eating a whole bunch of scorched almonds until I feel sick and the planes landing over me make my head spin. This year I didn't like my chances of this happening, so I planned ahead and arranged for some scorched almonds to make their way into the US, courtesy of my long hours slaving away at The Nut Bloke's Christmas market bonanza.
Nanna would be scoffing at me sitting here on the computer, but she wouldn't hold back on scoffing down a few scorched almonds herself. Memories of riding out to her place on a Friday night where she cooked me my special 'vegetarian meal' that she had spent all week complaining to my other relo's about; sharing a light beer with her - unless she couldn't have bothered waiting for me and had cracked one open herself and had already finished it (and hidden the evidence) before I arrived; washing the dishes while she fretted about me not needing to bother; her playing down just how swollen and sore her foot was; and finally settling down to watch Friday night AFL with her big tub of scorched almonds.

And now I have finished my feast and I feel rightly sick. Just like how my Friday nights used to end. Good times.

Onto today:
Pre-breakfast, five of us braved the absolute chill of the pre-sunned valley to ride up to the plateau above Solvang, where I squeezed in some efforts before a breakfast at Paula's Pancake House in Solvang. We sat at the bar and I ate (some of) the biggest pancake I have ever seen, dubbed the Paula Special:

Following the pre-ride ride, the team re-grouped to go for our first official full team training ride. We hiked up a hill called Drum Canyon and as my lungs screamed at me, I tried to think of the last time I had ridden a hill this long. But my mind had gone blank. It seems to do that with hills. The descent was tight, bumpy, rough, and a lot of fun.

We headed back to Buellton via Los Olivios (after the Olive groves that were once established in the area). This is not too far from Neverland Valley Ranch and which is also on a famous local training ride called 'the Fig'. Hopefully we might get a squiz at it this week, but it does mean I'll have to suck up a few more hill climbs.

In total, the two rides today equated to pretty much my set program. Its a good feeling to nail training when there is a lot of other stuff going on.

We had a team meeting in the afternoon to talk about bikes and racing - the first meeting of its kind so far. Am surprised at some of the racing naiveties; the team will be on a steep learning curve in the coming months.

Andy displayed just how much of a killer a continuous low can be. During the meeting (above) he went super low and broke out into a massive sweat. Two hours later it hit him again, this time en route to our dinner stop. See below for the second round of sweat drenching. Mind you this was taken in the parking lot where it was freezing outside:

We ate at one of the places featured in the movie Sideways, which is based in this area. It was called AJ Spurs and it was all about the beef and other animals suited to stuffing:

Root beer floats - a name that could potentially have so many meanings in Australia and yet just has the one in the US: a kick-arse spider drink. How many carbs in that? And does the icecream lower the GI of the drink and by how much? Bob displays the wonder drink:

Team showing off some of the bison consumed:

Tomorrow is our first day with stills photographer Poby. We are to leave the hotel at 6.30am, 1.30am Melbourne time, and are not expected back until 5.45pm. I am bringing my rollers out to the set, along with almost all my warm clothes I have brought with me. If I can nail training tomorrow I will declare myself unreal. I will certainly try.

My long extended interview that seems to have had a massive build up - including pre-interviews in Australia, clothing/wardrobe requests, inviting parents for the 'other perspective' (although mum and dad didn't get a call up - perhaps as was diagnosed at 19, perhaps it was too far, who knows), pre-interview briefings, and many updates on scheduling - has now been postponed until after tomorrow's all day shoot. The more the build-up, the more I am dreading it.

Best to go pack the 'fanny pack'. Won't ever get used to that term, even when attempting to be use it properly.