Silver City: Jan 20th

Team TIAA-CREF Training Camp
Silver City, NM
Jan 8th – Jan 22nd
Jan 20th

Sample: Today’s Breakfast at 7:38 AM
-Four packets of instant oatmeal
-Two egg whites
-Three glasses of orange juice
-One english muffin
-One orange
-One cup of coffee
-One multivitamin

We went out this morning for a three hour ride; we ended up “circumnavigating” the mine. There was one section that was unpaved, but that just breaks the monotony. This was one of the more interesting rides that we’ve done. The mine is huge; the land movers look trivial compared with the bulk of the quarry. It is an open mine, so they dig up and basically make a hill into a massive mound of hideous dirt. If they did it to a Seattle eastside area the price of your house would drop like a rock. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen- I see why it’s the source of money (literally) for silver city.
I ended up doing 3 hours and forty-five minutes, it was pretty good, and it felt good to get out and ride for a while after taking the easy day yesterday. My room mate, François (Canadian national pro road race champ ’05), rode for 6 hours, to make up for some earlier problems he was having with his knee at the start of camp. He walks in eating rice cakes, & exclaims, with his French-Canadian accent, “These are the things they put in the clear bags above you in hospitals, ssireusly…” Sure, whatever, eat your cakes in peace man. French-Canadians… it’s hard to take them seriously…
My departure is nearing swiftly; I leave on the 22nd for Albuquerque in the afternoon in the van. Then we fly out to Barcelona from there on the 23rd, with a few transfers- one in Chicago, & one in Frankfurt, Germany. I think it’s about an 8 hour flight.