Carlos Eduardo Alzate Escobar

Oh my, what a life I lead. My current house-mates are Carlos Eduardo Alzate Escobar and Ben Chaddock, both of whom you've met on my blog. Carlos doesn't speak much English, and Ben doesn't speak much Spanish. I speak a little of both. The language we all share is that of bicycles, and in that regard we've been communicating beautifully. The weather has been tolerable (even by Colombian standards), and we've been logging miles by the hundreds. Our training philosophies differ slightly: Carlos prefers long steady rides that include thousands of feet of climbing, while Ben's intervals are as disciplined as they come. Regardless, the three of us, as well as the other Boise-based members of Team Exergy (Erik Slack, Kai Applequist, and Remi McManus), have been training together beautifully. Our lives are wonderfully simple: eat, sleep, ride...and try not to go crazy. I enjoy the muted clarity of these in-between times every bit as much as I savor the bustle of racing and travel. My job for now is to become faster -- something which, in cycling at least, is more difficult to quantify (let alone achieve) than it would seem. It isn't solely about the numbers, the watts/kilogram at LT -- although those matter too. Usually the way to do my job is obvious: I simply need to get on my bike and pedal my brains out. Other times my job requires the help of people who know more than I do, like two days ago when I perfected my bike fit with Tom Coleman of WN Precision. However, they tricky part (for most of us at least), is the whole "not going crazy" component. Oddly enough, sometimes my job is to go have beers with my buddies at the Hyde Park Pub, to watch five straight hours of Star Trek the Next Generation, or to go play racket-ball with my dad -- all of which I did this week. These activities undoubtedly do little to boost my numbers, but are invaluable when it comes to keeping me sane and happy. Thankfully, my teammates are good at doing their jobs too. Here are a few pictures of Carlos doing his job:

Carlos y Sam estan jugando racketbol. 

Carlos gets his own pair of Magic Shoes, thanks to Foot Dynamics

Carlos as is cool as he is fast....haha -- not! (I tried to explain "not jokes" to Carlos, but to no avail.)
Note: we were watching Star Trek when I took this photo. Carlos may not be able to order food in a restaurant, but thanks to the 3+ hours of STNG he's been exposed to per day, he now knows the difference between a Klingon and a Ferengi, and totally has a crush on Ensign Ro.