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What’s up Thursday!?!?

How did the week get so far away from me? Must be this European heat and drought that has caught up to me! Or the never ending live stream of the TdF. So let’s delay no more and get on with the show!

As always, if you’re new to the Newsletter then you might want to back it up a bit and get up to speed with all the Newsletter archives.

So, first up is Ray’s In Depth Review of the Wahoo KICKR 2018. I know that I’m not the tech guru that everyone wants the opinion from, I’m just “The Girl”, BUT… why do we have another Kicker? It’s like the never ending saga of the Garmin “Edge” units. Plus, someone promised me he'd review a Peloton bike (so I can ride it of course), and I haven't seen that manifest itself yet.

That said, personally I like a good bargain, and while the KICKR 2018 is now silent, so is the KICKR CORE just minus $300. Like I said, I’m just The Girl, but it’s a no brainer for me. Plus, I opened the door for the UPS man yesterday and signed for the final production unit of the KICKR CORE… Ray took it to the office yesterday, and I’m willing to bet there is a In-Depth Review coming before long. You decide.

Next up, while Ray and Shane (GPLama) were off on their bro-mance trip to Eurobike, they managed to conquer a ton of riding along the way as well. One of the routes they cycled was the real world equivalent to Zwift’s Innsbruck Course in Austria. I believe it’s going live in August for Zwift users?

Also, as a lack of a better place to mention this, here goes. There was almost a “Sad” moment while the boys were out on one of their many Euro Trip rides, specifically when  riding in Stelvio. As the tale is told by Ray, while Shane took a moment for a glamourous selfie shot, unknowingly there was a SAD Bus barreling down the switchback towards him. If you haven’t yet experienced driving/riding on these mountian roads, you just may not be able to fully envision just how tight the driver cut this space. For the European audience I know they are cringing at the thought of sharing those turns with a local tour bus driver.

Then Ray has posted the famed Eurobike RV Tour. Over the last few years of Ray deciding to rent the RV rather than deal with the chaos (and expense) of renting a hotel for the convention, the RV Tour videos have historically gained crazy popularity. Being so close to the showroom floor, the RV has also gained status with the different bike companies who will swing by the RV for meetings, tech support, and sometimes just to shoot the breeze. Personally I’m a fan of the video, because Ray totally busted himself by posting at the 4:02 and 6:25 minute mark, his nutrition plan for the week. Haribo I’m looking at you. As a side note, Ray and I have created a little challenge between ourselves for the next 13 weeks to eat “better”, get back into strength training, and obviously run more! After that video, I think I’m currently in the lead on the nutrition side!

Finally, you know Ray had a good week when he can knock out BOTH the Week in Review and the 5 Random things posts. I’m always a sucker for reading the 5 Random Things post, yes even if I spent the whole weekend with the guy, it’s still fun to see what he found interesting! We had a great weekend, a great mix of family and athletic time, go see for yourself.

In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl

Hey there. Thanks for sticking with me and scrolling down to find out what’s new in the Maker Family world.

For the last few months I have dropped a hint here and there about being Ray’s newest employee at DC Rainmaker, and joking about being COO of the Maker fam. While this has always been the case, it’s now official-official. For the first time in the 10 years that I’ve known the guy, he caved, and I’m now on the books as an employee (and apparently co-owner) at DC Rainmaker.

I know I often joke on Ray about being a work-a-holic and bike geek, and all the other things, but I hope it also comes across how proud I am of this guy. Seriously, he has built this side project of a blog into a well know reference website for the endurance industry that keeps our family afloat. But it hasn’t been easy, and it’s not always as glamourous as it appears on the blog. I think Ray’s biggest fear for getting me officially more involved in his work was will it be too much for us to be coworkers at DCR together while also maintaining parenting and “marriage-ing” together. We have talked about it for years, and I think we have a good plan going forward.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CAKES & CUPCAKES?!?!?!?

I can’t tell you the number of emails I have received asking what’s up. I think most of you reading this know that in Paris I owned my own business. I absolutely loved my life in Paris, especially the business that I built. Catering big events for Chanel and the American Embassy. Getting to be a part of so many family’s special events like weddings, christenings, birthdays, even surprise proposals. I have so many insanely happy and proud memories from all of that. But, for this moment in our family life, its very difficult for both Ray and I to maintain such time intensive businesses AND spend the time that we want together as a family. Especially given that most big events I was catering are on the weekends. So for the moment, I have hung up my whisks, rolling pins, and spatulas (on a professional level), and am joining forces with the Boss in efforts to create the best family- work life balance that we can. If that changes, you’ll be the first to know where you can line up for your fresh baked goodness!

Thanks for reading,

 ~The Girl.

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