Next up was a quick 48hr hut trip with friends near Aspen, Colorado. This sounds relaxing, and while it was VERY fun, it was pretty intense given the long hours of work we had been putting in to get ready for the Colorado Garden and Home Show. If you don’t already know about it, Jeremy and his business partner are in year two of a very cool start up business: Studio Shed. In the beginning, it was just two guys cranking away at a fun hobby. Lately though, the business has really taken off and my involvement as the VP of finance and with the company as a whole has steadily increased. We had been prepping for this show since December, but just like anything, the week before was crunch time: phone calls, T-shirt orders, e-mails, photos, etc. We were working hard many hours a day, all while training and occassionally sleeping.
Amidst our intense week of preparation, Jeremy and I threw our gear into the car and drove the 3 hours to Glenwood Springs - our hut trip rendevous point. Six hours of sleep later we were skinning deep into the woods to drop off the face of the earth for 2 days - badly needed. Our hut trip was fun, still lacking in sleep, but a great couple of days of training with a very fit, fun crew of current pro or former pro athletes.
After 2 nights and 2 spectacular days of skiing, JHK and I woke up early on Friday morning, threw our gear together again and busted it out of the hut. Within 4 hours, we had skied out of the woods, driven back to Boulder, snagged some lunch, and headed to the show in downtown Denver to finish with the show set up - whew! After a late night wrap up, we hit the sack for a few hours and were back at it again the next morning for the opening of the TEN day long show. My lack of sleep was only beginning - for the next 10 days we balanced eat, sleep, train, eat, recover, sleep with stand, talk, stand, skip sleep. Somehow though, I had a great time - putting some time and energy into being an entrepreneur has been a blast!
The Garden and Home Show, in Denver, was our second show and a huge hit. We had a full shed on display at our booth and people LOVED it. We really wanted to show people that they can have a good looking place to store bikes, have an office, a spare guest room, etc. Prepping for the show was a lot of work and my stress levels often climbed very high, but I must say it was a welcome distraction from the often narrow-mindedness of training.
Some of my best seasons have come on the heels of very distracting and busy early season – back in the day, I was able to rise to the top of the sport by being both an athlete and a student or an employee. Sometimes, when you’re only an athlete, you can actually be overly focused on how a training ride went, how your legs feel, or become obsessed with thinking about the future. This past February was the closest I’ve come in a long time to filling many different roles: a model, a financial VP of a start-up company, a saleswoman, AND an athlete! Now it’s March and the race and travel season is approaching fast (first race is Bonelli in 9 days)! It feels great to be just a bike racer again, and the bonus of my February distractions....I’ve been training for 3 months and it feels like I’m just getting started!
