arrivederci

It's 1:07am, I haven't even began to pack, and I am leaving for Italy today (not for awhile).

I weighed myself for the first time in awhile today. In the last 8 weeks I have been on the bike 18 times (inluding not being on the bike the week before and during finals, and last week). So 18 rides in 5 weeks and 3 weeks off. Anyways, 8 weeks ago, I weighed a whopping 123.5 lbs. I know, I need to get on a diet or something (I'm roughly 5'8"-5'9"). So one would think with very little riding, lots of lounging/couching, a fair amount of festivities, and generally being lazy(other than finals of course, which did NOT go well, I got results today and hit a few things) that I would have maybe gained some weight going into winter training.

So what was my weight tonight? 118.0 lbs. I friggen lost 5.5 lbs in two months of being idle. What the heck is going on with my body? I need to gain some weight, preferably muscle (leg muscle). Being so light has some advantages, such as higher power/weight ratio numbers, and being able to climb, and being skinny, but it comes with disadvantages to; ordering S or XS or XXS bike clothing, getting blown around in strong winds on high profile rims (even mid-depth rims), and even the smallest bike clothing still being baggy/loose fitting.

Wow, enough of that. I need to pack, sleep, and leave the country. I am bringing my computer and believe I should have wifi, and im bringing my camera, so hopefully I'll be able to keep somewhat in touch w/ cool pictures for the next month. If something goes wrong, I'll be back jan. 29th (I think).

Things I am looking forward to in Italy:
Being able to drink (legally) not that I will really drink all that much, but it will be nice to be able to walk into a bar or a liquor store and not care, especially on the b-day
My 1st passport stamp - been to canada and the carribean, but never europe
Being in Verona, and hopefully trips to venice, cortina, florence, others?
My brother hooked me up with like 30 euro's (mostly coins) from his trip last summer, plus my parents gave me some money to "enjoy the trip with" which was very nice of them
Being in the hometown of Damiano Cunego for a while (and more pro's ?)
Possibly seeing a FIS Womens World Cup race at Cortina, is there snow?

Things I am not looking forward to in Italy:
The euro...exchange rates are not in our favor
Blowing money on things that aren't bike-related
Jet-lag
Flying home the day after cx-worlds, meaning I can't go (have to be at my last class)
Not having a bike (or even bringing bike stuff other than the hrm for "other" training) for 25 days

Ciao!