Those 180s are so floaty

Spatial awareness is a very important trait in general, especially when you're carving super fast down a course or jumping around on boxes or bouncing around during hip hop dance class. This is something that has required significant effort throughout my life (in part due to the poor logistics my body employed while growing, where the arms and legs grew three times as fast as my torso and I looked ridiculous until, well...the arms and legs are still really freakin' long). Coach Jb planned some spatial awareness training into my recent plyo workouts, including jumping around doing frontside and backside 180s off of boxes. Whenever I hit the jump just right, time and everything suspended while in the air. Although not quite at the level of awesome as demonstrated in The Art of Flight, those 180s just felt so floaty.

The drive to 7 Springs...and dancing for snow

Eight inches of snow fell at Seven Springs during the weekend before Halloween, while big, fat, wet flakes dropped in Pittsburgh. Even though we're moving back and forth between warm and cold this November, whenever the cold sticks around the air smells perfect right before sunrise and I can imagine the sound of boots crunching on packed white goodness during the walk over to the lifts. Soon I'll be making a regular drive between Pittsburgh and Seven Springs, and even though my my mind will be focused on getting on to the snow as quickly as possible, it's always fun to entertain myself during the drive by listening to some awesome playlists and gawking at the visible sedimentary layers in highway roadcuts.

Nutella dreamin'

Ale enjoying Nutella, March 2011

After the late-October snowfall in Pittsburgh, my body's internal regulator switched to wintertime Nutella mode. This craze isn't anything new; ask my Ohio State friends, Nutella has been there all along, ever since our first introduction during grad school. Last winter I figured out how to incorporate Nutella into everything: peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches; Greek yogurt with berries and Nutella; eating the hazelnut goodness straight out of the jar (and consuming significant portions of a jar in one sitting, see photo to right). Unfortunately, my Nutella consumption is currently under strict regulation. No funny stuff here. I'm tracking types and quantities of calories this winter as part of my training plan and, unless it's a special day, I have to put the Nutella aside and focus on other foods that will let me reach my training goals and ride hard this winter.