The best chef in town

Close friend of mine, Mary Nguyen, is an unstoppable woman.



Opening a French-Vietnamese Bistro here in Denver called 'Parallel 17' in 2005, she showed her culinary creativity and astute knowledge of being both a business owner and chef. It didn't start there, however. My history with Mary goes back to when I met her while working at Starbucks. She had 3 or 4 full time jobs (it seemed anyway!) including head chef at Hapa Sushi in Cherry Creek and owning a catering business. She had an undying drive to succeed. Her successes didn't just take her to P17 either, as tonight I was invited to the grand opening of her new restaurant, Street Kitchen Asian Bistro. It's inspiring, humbling, and pride inducing to see a good friend in a moment of great success. As the woman of the hour, she was bombarded by hundreds of people, but I managed to sneak in and give her a congratulatory hug and well wishing.

To me, she's one of the best chefs in Denver - and Denver is becoming quite the food town. Am I biased? Sure, but taste for yourself the incredible cuisine found on her menu. I do suggest any of the sushi, the Roti, curries, and whatever dish that was served in the martini glass. (tuna, rice, veggies) That may have been my favorite...

Cheers Mary! Good luck with the new restaurant.

Elbow Grease

As I cruise around the mountains on my newly built road bike, I realize that before we know it, Spring will be here - and that means mountain bike racing. I know that I can set some lofty goals each season, but I also realize that it's the foundation you build in the winter that an athlete stands on when it comes time to 'toe the line' during the summer. I've been fortunate enough to have a full-on network of support that helps me keep focused - including Kevin at the Athletic Improvement Center. I've been adding quite a few new routines to my off-season cross training and I think it's already paying off. These new workouts have been so hard and as my friend Jason puts it, 'People in the gym look at us weird because we just thrash ourselves!'

True.

As the new year begins and starts fresh - so do most teams. I'll have a new look to my jersey this season due to an incredible partnership with a team that I've always looked at as being solid. I still have the relationship with Trek, Bontrager and Ay-Up, but this new team will be a huge step in my hopes to have the strongest and funnest season yet... Although it's a few days away from being official, my motivation has already started.

km

Introducing...

Alexia Lanore Paul



My brand new niece, born on 1.7.11

Hello 2011

2010 has been a great year. I feel fortunate to be able to say that and I will work hard to be able to say the same thing about 2011 in a year.

I just got home from a trip to North Dakota where I spent some quality time with friends and family, including my parents, grandparents, and my 100-year old great grandmother. For me, it was a nice way to unwind after a month of traveling in sensory-overloading countries, (which was a crazy amount of fun!) Driving through the plains was exactly what I needed...



The next few months look to be filled with a lot of work and training. I just built up my new Trek Madone road bike and I'm excited to hit my favorite, yet steep and painful, rides around here.


(mine is a test model, which is completely white)

Speaking of painful, my winter training program has been going well and I'm seeing some pretty significant gains. It's crazy to say this, but I love how humbled I am by this program. Some of these workouts leave me sore for days, and some leave me nauseous for a few minutes! My good friend Jason Donald said it best; 'People look at you funny in the gym because you are absolutely thrashing yourself!'

As the new year begins, the racing schedules will be announced and I'll be able to plan out my 2011. I'm looking forward to making this the best year yet - and hopefully putting on a certain jersey I've been working toward for a while.

Happy New Year!

A little catching up

I recently was interviewed by a gent named Ben Welnak for the magazine, 303 Cycling - as well as XXC Magazine. Ben is a stellar fellow who is possionate about riding, racing, and spreading the word on what goes through the minds of us crazy endurance racers. I feel humbled by the kind words and I look forward to reading some more of his features. I meant to post this before I left the country.

Here is one that I was really looking forward to reading as he and I have had some epic battles...
Josh Tostado

Home. Sweet. Home.

I absolutely love traveling, but coming home after an epic journey - and knowing that you're home for a while - is a great feeling. I'm in my own bed, I can use a washing machine instead of my hands to clean my clothes, I get to mountain bike, and eating healthy is easy again.
(however, with all that said I still miss being on the road!)

Jacob, our host for Music Voyager, took a ton of photos and posted them on the show's facebook page. He and Farook did a great job of posting updates and looking at them now is pretty fun.






I'm happy to be home again. I literally felt my world align as soon as I sat on my bike today. I rode my favorite trails today with Josh and the experience was much needed after being away for a couple weeks.

A little pick-me-up

We are nearing the end. After 16 days, a few sicknesses, and 90 hours of footage later, we will be heading to Bogotá and then back to the States. I'm really hoping our overnight stop in Bogotá includes some quality time with our new friends from 10 Music - Laura, Felipe, Carlos, and Maria. A well-deserved celebration is in order...

A shout-out of sorts is in order for everyone on the crew, including the producers, ground team, Dave and Dax. Each of us had to hold one another up through some rough moments on this trip. Whether it was lack of sleep or being sick, all of us had our turn, but we were held up by one another.



I can safely say this trip was a success and I'm looking forward to getting home for the holidays before post-production begins on these Colombian episodes. The funny thing is that I'm sitting in another hotel lobby beside the Old City part of Cartegena (google image this place - 'Cartegana Old City' - truly unbelievable) and I'm hearing Christmas music and seeing a full-on celebration as the holiday approaches... but I'm in tropic weather and sweating through the days!

Colombia is beautiful - and so are its people. I'm lucky to have experienced this trip and I believe the episodes will show that.