Happy Birthday Grandma!

My Grandma is turning 79! You'd never know it. She is healthy and still as sassy as hell. My parents gave her a cute statue for her birthday last night to put in her immaculate yard. She said "hell no, I'm not putting it outside. The birds will shit on it!"

My Grandma has always been ahead of her time. She taught herself to drive long before women were supposed to. (She did drive with the emergency brake on the entire time but she did it!) She also worked when she wanted to and because she wanted to. I think the most important thing my Grandma taught me was the difference between wanting a man and needing a man.

My Grandma was loved and cherished by my Grandpa and he always allowed her as much independence as she needed. After he died she remarried a long time family friend and neighbor that had lost his wife. Although he is a great guy he had different ideas about what a wife should do. (He wanted her to be at home during the day and cooking him a big lunch and she always has a very full social calendar.) In her late 60's she packed up and left him. She rented a cute little condo with her savings and was ready to reenter the workforce if she had to. It was the bravest thing I'd ever seen anyone do. Even in her 60's she didn't have to have a man to support her. Wanting a companion to enrich your life is one thing having your life and identity dependent on a man is another.

She's back with him now. She's laid down the rules and they spend time traveling and bowling together. She asked me the other day how to lose the little bit of a belly she's gained. Like at 79 you would worry about such things! Gram is my idol! Thanks Grandma for being the strong independent woman you are and for being a great example to me! Happy Birthday!!!

Powertap dreams down the drain? Or put your money where your daughter's mouth is?

One of my employees calls me Scarlet. Not because I have any ability to sew myself a dress out of curtains but because I like to worry about things tomorrow. Eventually though tomorrow usually catches up to me in some kind of crisis that must be dealt with. Then I am forced to "give a damn!"

As you know I've had my heart set on a power tap. Really I am just looking for some kind of hard data that my cycling is continually improving in some fashion. But I may have to face reality and wait until next tax return for such a luxury. Last week at my daughter's orthodonist appointment I found out that my ex husband has likely stopped the orthodontic insurance that he was carrying on my 13 year old. I should have known he forgot about her metal mouth when he gave her a giant bag of bubble gum for Easter! This will leave me with $1800 of metal and rubber bands to pay for. (If you are thinking that my ex should help pay for this you are so right! And you have obvioulsy never tried getting blood from a turnip either!)

Yesterday afternoon while I was taking a shower my daughter ran upstairs to report that water was dripping into the family room again. Fortunately, the $200 I paid the last plumber to cut a hole in the ceiling of my family room and tell me that every thing was fine has not gone to waste since the hole allows the water to drip directly into the family room and not add further damage to the ceiling.

Instead of dealing with the dripping I reacted in true Scarlet fashion and packed up the kids and we went to dinner and a movie. Well tomorrow is finally here and I really need another shower. I guess I'll put a bucket downstairs and this week I'll call another plumber. Maybe I can find a plumber that is a cyclist and he can use the money to by himself a Powertap.

On a side note- I have already set aside the money for my new Felt (see previous Isn't she lovely post) and no amount of dripping is going to keep us apart!

Secret powers!

I just went to Rio's page and found these pictures of me at today's crit. Notice how much bigger and more powerful the guys I'm riding with are. I would like to thank my BF for teaching me the secret powers of apexing and aerodynamics so that I can hang with the big boys.

Windy RMR

I woke this morning to my eye much better and the sun shining. So I had no excuse to not race. I headed out early to watch the A and B fields. Several of my teammates flatted. I guess there was a lot of gutter riding going on due to the nasty cross wind. As usual the BF flourished in the harsh conditions and got in a 3 man break that had half a lap on the field. He made it look easy as he crossed the finish line in first! That's my man.

I'm sure he doesn't say that's my girl when he watches me race. But he is nice enough to stay and watch and always tells me what a good job I did. Actually I don't feel too bad about today since I have been sick all week. I had a bit of trouble clipping in at the start so I immediately started drifting back. By the narrow part on the back stretch I was already losing the main field. I hooked up with 6 other guys and we formed our own second group. It was really good wind practice as I moved around continually trying to find the sweet spot out of the wind where I could catch my breath. I hung with those guys to the finish and got in a good workout and had lots of fun. I'm looking forward to giving it another go on Tuesday. The season is still early and hurt as it may I'm going to hang with those ridiculous Porcupine guys someday soon. I heard one say today, "so even though I'm a 4 now I can stay in C flight! Cool I'll stay here another year or so." Milk it!

Off kilter

Everything is a little off this week. I've been sick with the usual cold symptoms. I wake up everyday with a new one. Today I woke up with my right eye swollen shut with goop. I would have called in sick to work but work is where the drugs are so here I am. I wonder what tomorrow will bring- boils?

So I don't know if I'll be able to ride tomorrow. I'm not supposed to wear my contacts but my glasses are missing a lens and the prescription is about 5 years old anyway. Also it is supposed to snow again and the LeMond continues to make the mysterious noise. Of course, she never makes the noise when Sam is around (fickle- this is how I know she's a girl!)

I'm also getting really behind on my schoolwork. For some reason my computer at work wont allow me to post to school. I can't really call hardware support and say "hey, I can't go to school anymore on work hours, help!" So maybe tomorrow I'll just stay in bed with my laptop and finish my paper on what I'd do if I were the drug czar. Since I did bring my leftover Lortab to my BF last night maybe I'm not the person to ask!

Isn't she lovely?

I'm hoping this beautiful cyclocross bike will be mine soon. I know I can provide a good home for it. I'll take it out every weekend in the fall and we'll race through mud and snow and together we'll fly over barriers. It is a match made in heaven!

RMR and Triple Valley

Today at RMR we were on the outside track. I finally got to meet my nemesis. Well sort of. They have changed the course (thanks to me) and we no longer go over the upraised cement. So peice of cake, right? Wrong! I started off right in the front and as we went around the first turn I hit a rock. It jumped up and bounced noisly off my frame. My mental crash video flipped on and I peed just a little in my pants. And just like that I was off the back.

I knew I couldn't chase back on so I sat up. That gave me a while to have a nice little arguement with myself. There was a voice that said, "come on B! pull off and call it a day." Fortunatley, the other voice that said, "quit being a pansy, get in your drops and ride like you know how to" won out. I caught back onto the first pack but didn't stay long. (Okay guys, how long are you going to stay in C flight? Is it really still fun to beat the pants off beginners and women?) I then caught onto the second pack.

As I'm merging in with them I look over to see Diane with blood running down her face onto her jersey. Just like the pro she is she is working hard and racing well despite the gushing nose. I hung onto that pack for the rest of the race. The tempo was hard but doable. Thankfully, my subconsious took over and I no longer had to remind myself how to ride the course.

After the crit I headed West with Diane and James. We rode the Triple Valley Road Race stage. Going out my HR was 135 and we were flying over the hills at 20 mph without breaking a sweat. That kind of easy riding can only mean one thing- we're F'ed when we turn around. We went to the B turn around at the Sinclair. The gas station was barred up and the gas pump had been burned (I've felt like doing that!). So without a refill on water and with no more sugar, we headed back to the car. The headwind was brutal! Diane and I tucked in behind James for most of the ride. We were only able to manage 13 mph on the hills and were happy to make 18 on the downhill. Diane used all of her paper towels and rode the entire 50 miles bleeding with peices of paper towel shoved up her nose. That girl is one tough chick. Watch out ladies!

Thank you Mistress Julie for letting me sleep in a bit longer tomorrow. Brandi has nicely offered to let me off easy with only a climb up Emigration.

Aaaah. The commute

When else are you going to see a Shetland Pony, llamas, a bowling ball, crime scene tape, a motorcycle display panel, 2 shoes and a big, fat white man wearing a shirt that says "I'm Black" all on your way home from work?

Cool Dude!

So, I was just checking out the Church of the Big Ring http://thechurchofthebigring.com/. (Good to be an "active member" of something) and they have a really cool interview with Burke Swindlehurst of the Bissel Pro Cycling team. I got to meet Burke at the 2006 Tour of Utah where I was a traveling course marshal. He was a really cool guy. Every day he'd thank us for the work we were doing and thanked us for cheering him on. He was always willing to let us drool over their team bikes too! This is a picture of me with my son Austin and Burke. Very cool!

I'm in a Magazine!

I'm in Ultra Cycling Magazine. Okay, so it's not VeloNews but it is still really cool. The above picture is of me with Susan Notorangelo, Lynn Anne Vesper and Lon Handleman. Last year I won the McSweeney Scholarship to attend a PAC tour training camp. (See full article at http://www.ultracycling.com/about/mcsweeney.html).

This picture was taken on the last day of camp. Every day we rode 60 to 120 miles for 6 days in a row. On the last day I did a 5 and half hour century. I was thrilled with my time after having ridden over 450 miles in the previous days. The century also included a big mountain pass and lots of rolling hills.

Susan and Lon put on the camp and they did a great job. They are both RAAM record holders and probably still hold the tandem record. We were also lucky enough to have two other Women Solo RAAM finishers at camp. It was great to learn from them and get to know them. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of their camps I highly recommend it.

The Baby Project

Ashley asked if her friend could sleep over tonight. What we didn't bargain for was the Baby doll that came along with her. For a school project Ashley's friend Ashleigh (2 of them is 2 too many) has this electronic doll that she must take care of for the next 6 days. How well she takes care of the baby- feeding, changing, consoling- is all being recorded for her grade. Things were going well until we got in the car to head to the gym. The loud singing of songs from RENT made the baby start crying. Both girls went into an immediate panic of rocking, cooing and trying to find the bottle. I thought it was hilarious!

Now that we're home they've mostly forgotten about the poor baby. They are busy singing along with Zac Effron and texting boys. Occasionally one of them will ask the other to check to see if the baby is still breathing. Then they will suddenly revert to playing dolls and they'll love it and goo over it for a minute. Then Zac will be back on and the baby is forgotten about.

It is cute. I wonder how the boys do with it. I also hope it works and that by day 6 the girls will think hard before they get intimate with boys. I wonder if it would have worked for me. I doubt it. I grew up taking care of my little brother and sisters and babysitting a ton, but in the heat of the moment you forget all about consequenses. I'm thinking birth control.

A few numbers

Gas is $3.19 a gallon. By riding my bike to work just 2x a week I will save about $70 a month in gas. Even if I can only commute for 6 months out of the year that is $420 in savings.

Today I burned about 1000 calories. At 2x a week that is 8000 calories a month and 48,000 calories in 6 months. That is almost 14 pounds of body fat! Woo hoo!

Today's commute:
Miles- 30
Calories burned -1000
Time spent at the gym -0
Gas stations passed with no fuel purchased- 4
Pollutants pumped into the air by my car -0

Happy Birthday Mack!

Happy Birthday Mack. 9 years old today! My favorite memories of Mack are when he'd come over so Austin could babysit him. He'd be talking up a storm to Austin but as soon as I was around he'd clam up. This kid is all boy. He loves video games, the trampoline and playing with his friends in his neighborhood. I love how he so despises anything girlie that he wouldn't even eat off of the princess plates at Morgan's birthday party. Mack is quiet but there is lots of mischief and a wicked sense of humor bubbling just below the surface. I love you nephew! I hope you had a great day today!

Oh and Happy Anniversary to your parents!

Mesquite!!

This is the view from our condo in Mesquite! Look at that blue sky!

Friday Liesa and I found the Jensens at Lee's Discount Liquor in Mesquite. Doug was like a kid in a candy store. We carbo loaded with a nice dinner at the gold club and turned in early to be ready for a killer ride up Utah hill the next day.

Saturday we met the rest of the group at the Oasis. I warmed up by visiting with Don and MM on their tandem. Once we turned onto the frontage road it was time for my interval workout to begin. 4 of us pulled off the front. I practiced my attacks on the rollers until we hit the longest hill and I got dumped by the guys. I had almost caught them by the time we hit the store in Beaver Dam. I stopped since I knew this would be my last chance for a real tiolet for about 40 miles.

After my stop I started the 17 mile climb alone. I worried only about keeping my cadence up and keeping my HR at lactate. I climbed well, got in a good rythym and was thrilled to feel the sun on my skin. At the top I turned around to head back for more intervals on the rollers. Most of the group headed down the hill into St. George to make a century out of it. I wanted more intensity and fewer miles and I got them!

The descent was long and cold. I hit the rollers again heading into a fierce headwind. I was still feeling great and I stood up on every roller pushing my HR up as high as it would go and then recovering only to do it again. I made it back into Mesquite and I spun up the big hill to the condo. It was nice to be done before the big winds picked up. Jerry and I had a nice lunch on the deck while we waited for the others to return.

Ryan cooked a lamb and Shelly fixed the rest of the delicious spread. Our other friends all came by and we had a great time talking, drinking and laughing until 2 am! Today as we were leaving we could see the road we had climbed off in the distance disappearing into a cloud. We were quickly welcomed back to winter by terrible roads covered in snow. So sad to be back to winter but at least I got out of it for a little while. Back to the gym tomorrow.

Off to Mesquite

I'm headed South again. My son jokes that I have it backwards. Most people get 2 weeks of vacation and I go on vacation every two weeks. It is nice to be at a point in my life where I have both the time and the money to have some fun. Mostly I'm just chasing the sunshine. More cold and rain and possibly snow predicted for SLC. I'm am sad that I'll miss watching the BF kick some more butt at the crits.

I'm headed down with my good friend Liesa. She is one of those women that can do any sport and is naturally good at it. As a former competetive body builder she always looks great! A couple of summers ago we went downhilling at Deer Valley. She was complaining that her front shock was making some kind of noise on the first two runs. When we got on the lift for our 3rd run the guy putting our bikes on noticed that she had no front skewer! That explained the banging noise- scary!

Learn to watch for cyclists

Imagine...
A passer-by asks you for directions. As you talk to him, two workmen walk between you carrying a door. In a flash the passer-by switches places with one of the workmen, and you are left giving directions to a different person. Do you think you would notice?

Researchers at Harvard University played this trick on some unsuspecting people and over 50 per cent failed to spot the change.

This phenomenon is known as "change blindness" - only a tiny fraction of all the information going into your brain enters your consciousness. People often fail to see a change in their surroundings because their attention is elsewhere. (Like on a cell phone!)

Even stranger, if you are concentrating on something, you can become blind to other events that you would normally notice. This "inattention blindness" is possibly the reason why motorists collide with cyclists.

Just as it is important for road users to keep an eye out for cyclists, cyclists must also take steps to ensure they are seen by motorists.

(Taken from Transport for London)

Click the link below to test your attentiveness.
http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

What is up with Wednesdays?

I can't sleep because I have that nagging feeling that I've left something important unfinished at work. I left my office a mess so I could get to spin class. My day was spent averting one crisis after another. Something went down which left my sweet Nurse Care Manager near tears and forced me to pull two employees away from their jobs to deal with the mess.

In the meantime I had the maintenance man following me around. While generally I enjoy having a man around asking me what he can fix and what he can do for me, today I just wasn't up for it. His helpfulness seems to have increased since he found out that Bob Roll is not my boyfriend. (Time to get some pictures on my desk of me and my real BF!) He did manage to fix the locks that weren't working for one person in my clinic. Now they work for her and no one else. I hope my docs aren't seeing patients in the parking lot tomorrow while I'm in my meeting. He also "fixed" all of my exit signs. Now they make some horrible migraine inducing noise.

Speaking of patients I had the pleasure of speaking with one particular pain in the rear repeatedly. He is unhappy with his dosage of medication. He refuses to see the doctor so they can have a discussion. So now he is getting a lawyer. I would love to hear what the lawyer has to say when he tells him that I offered him a free visit at anytime for tomorrow to get his meds straightened around. Speaking of doctors, I have 2 with the flu. Lovely.

In the middle of all of this fun my new therapist dropped by again. (You'll remember last time she stopped by while I was snoozing on my desk.) So I just talked to her while she followed me, the maintenance man and the locksmith around the clinic. What a parade we made! My new employee arrived just in time for the main circus act. Gosh, I hope she comes back tomorrow.

As for spin class I am going to start some new rules. #1 if you are new please don't come late and bring 10 of your closest friends. #2 if you are larger than a B cup please wear a bra!

Okay, I will survive. I will make it to sunny Mesquite and I will be riding my bike up a big A hill! It will be great. I will be suffering on my bike and my good friend Doug will tell me a dirty joke or comment on how nice my carbon fiber looks and all will be well. Then we'll get back and he'll sob (pretend) uncontrollably. It is quite a sight to see a 6'4, 220 lb man in lycra weeping loudly. Then his wife will make us some spectacular food and feed us until we can barely manage to get our alcohol to our lips. His daughter Leni will tell me all about her glamourous life in Vegas and I will sleep like a baby.

The Civil War at Hale Theater

Last night I got to go see the Civil War at Hale Theater starring Merrill Osmond. My boss invited the leadership committee and the physician's advisory committee to a nice night at the theater. We arrived early to a yummy dessert bar complete with chocolate fountain. A gentleman came in dressed in authentic Civil War attire and talked to us about his outfit. Then we got to take a tour of the theater and see where they make costumes and design sets. We also got to see how the massive stage works to move actors up and down and all around. We finished with our tour just in time for the play to begin.

As with all plays at Hale, the show was superb. This was one of the more somber plays I've seen there and Ashley asked me if I was going to cry throughout the whole thing. I pretty much did. The acting was great and Merrill's deep rich voice has been touched with a bit of roughness thanks to age. Ashley sat enraptured as she has for every performance we've ever seen there. Since watching her first play there at the age of 7 Ashley has starred in several plays of her own including Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, High School Musical and now she is rehearsing for Lil' Abner at Westlake. We are going to sign her up for some summer camps and hopefully she can get into some acting there at Hale.

It was a great night! Thanks Boss!

Too bad you don't have to have a license to be a mother!

Recovery? Ride

I had dropped an email to the team earlier in the week asking if anyone wanted to do an easy Sunday ride. Josh responded saying he wanted a 2 to 3 hour slow, flat ride. This sounded perfect for me since this the crit was my last push in my 3 week periodization training schedule. Sunday would be the beginning of my rest week. A few more teammates also responded. I showed up Sunday at 9th and 9th at 11:00 expecting 5 or 6 other teammates. We ended up with about 20 Ski Utah and another 10 Porcupine riders. (Now I know where my old team was on Sunday's last year- pirating other team's rides- Just kidding.)

Of course, with all those people and two teams represented, the ride was only kept slow because of all of the traffic lights splitting up the group getting out of the city. We ended up splitting up and heading North. My group headed up around City Creek, through the Aves and up to Wasatch. My legs were so blown from going all out on Saturday that all I could do is spin up each hill. My teammates were great about waiting for me. But with my max HR for yesterday at 188 it was hardly a recovery ride!

By the way my sister saw us flying by Liberty Park and said we looked awesome!

So this week I only have 3 spin classes and a kickbox class. All of which will be at recovery pace. My work and extracurricular activities schedule is slammed with a play Tuesday night, dinner with an old friend on Thursday, a massage and meetings at work every day. Somewhere in all of that I need to find time to pack for Mesquite. Utah hill is going to hurt but it will be my last big tear myself up before the real racing begins. I'm looking forward to a weekend with my old clubbie/ultra distance bike friends.

RMR

Yesterday was the first in the RMR criterium series. It was decently warm and even though it threatened rain it never did. Ski Utah looked awesome with good representation in every field. It was especially awesome that we had 6 women total, 4 in the C flight.

They held the race on the oval instead of the drag strip. This is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that it takes out any technical skills that the usual course requires making it a little safer. However, the speeds can get pretty high and once you get dropped it is difficult to get back on. Men with bigger hearts and quads will always dump us gals on the oval. When we race on the drag strip I know the pack will slow down at each corner so I can usually get back on then. I was also looking forward to finally making peace with the end of the drag strip that crashed me.

I feel like I did well. I started off near the front and held on for as long as I could. Adrenaline got the pack moving fast early on and I started losing places quickly. I stayed ahead of the other women until about 10 minutes in Brandi hit her full stride and passed me. I caught onto packs and wheels wherever I could but the main field ended up lapping most of us at least a few times. I'm not sure if the ladies were scored separately or not. Hopefully, because that would mean I was top 3. Regardless of results it was great anaerobic training and those crits at RMR will make me a better cyclist!

It was fun to watch Sam in his new kit on his hot new bike. He so deserves to be on a good team with teammates that actually work together. He also was long overdue for a new bike since he's been racing the old white Raliegh that was never intended for him. He looked comfortable on his full carbon and Durace Specialized Tarmac. He got in a break early on and although they were eventually caught, he pulled away again and won the B flight! Way to go baby!

Well, time to go change my tire and get ready to head out for some more badly needed mileage.

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me? It is supposed to snow tomorrow. I just want to go out and have a great day at RMR, but instead it is going to be freezing and wet and miserable.

Are you kidding me? Remember in ET (the Extra Terrestrial) when then erect that huge quarantine tent in the front yard? Well my neighbors have one of those. It has been up for 2 days now. The only thing I can figure is that they've outgrown the garage as a family room/party place and have had to add on to their house West Valley style. This and the permanent yard sale across the street add to the charm of this neighborHOOD.

Are you Freaking kidding me? They closed the liquor store closest to my house. This meant that I had a choice of driving downtown, to Magna, or to Kearns to get a bottle of wine or going home and drinking the BF's crappy Natural Light. Do you realize that in other states people can stop at the grocery store on their way home from work to buy a bottle of wine to have with dinner? Did you ever notice that on the door of the liquor store they have a warning about drinking and driving? I did not know that I could actually start drinking in the liquor store. Today was the first day I actually considered it. I always thought it was a take home kind of place.

I do feel better since I found some Castle Creek Outlaw Red! They had it in the California Wines section. Sad when even the liquor store refuses to admit that alcoholic beverages can be made here in our very own Moab.

The Ladies

I have to start by saying that my camera is a peice of crap. I think it is really a 3D camera because every time I use the flash I get this weird effect. (This was the best picture-the rest hurt your eyes or I'd post them too.) I'll have to find some 3D glasses and see if it helps when viewing these photos.

Anyway, last night was a nice little get together with the other women on my team. It was great to meet all of them. They are all amazing women juggling careers, school, BFs, husbands, kids and a love of the bike and racing. We have a lot of women with a lot of strengths and we are going to kick some butt this year!

We had some great food, wine and even a fashion show (trying on the kits). Laura H. our women's leader came out to welcome all of us. It was really cool. Tomorrow we officially kick off our season with the first crit at RMR. We'll have at least 4 Women racing C flight and at least 1 in B and A flight. Go Ski Utah!!!

Too Funny

I had to order one. I'm sure I'll offend someone but cycling and racing in this extremely religious state you see some pretty low stuff all done by people that are headed to church the next day. More than once I've been cut off by a minivan headed into a church parking lot on Sunday.

Bacon Coma!

Well I finally snapped. I couldn't turn down the BLT at lunch. I justified it because I was getting tomatoes and it was on wheat bread and I was teaching 3 classes today- I'd burn it off. Of course, the bread was about an inch thick. I finished it all off with a nice big snickerdoodle cookie. Bad idea. 3:30 found me drooling on my desk. Fortunately, my employee woke me up just as the new psychologist that will be working in my clinic came in to meet me. I'm sure I looked great with glazed eyes, drool and a sleep hickie on my head. She'll probably start therapy on me right away.

My lethargy stayed with me through my drive home and a 15 minute power nap did nothing to help. The gym was just weird tonight. As I sat outside the classroom waiting for my class to begin people just kept coming up and talking to me. First a guy in a wheelchair came up and shared his joy of zipping around the track. "I couldn't go this fast with 2 good legs!" he said. I just smiled and continued my stupor.

Then my neighbor from Camaroon came over for a visit. He is the biggest blackest man I've ever met. It is fascinating when he hangs out in a traditional African dress in his front yard. It helps me to understand why men like skirts on women. As always my "big, strong legs" are a favorite subject with this man. Is he hitting on me?

Finally, some man I've never met in my life comes walking up to me. I'm seriously looking around trying to figure out why he's headed my way. "How are you? Don't you remember me?" He then did some weird pose with his head and body as if this would somehow trigger a memory for me. "I'm Kenny Olson". Again, more smiling, nodding and blank staring on my part. I felt so out of it from the freaking bacon. Maybe I looked like I needed a friend or something?

Unfortunately, no one showed for the step class I was subbing. So I spent some time working with the new instructor. She's never really done step let alone taught it. I tried to give her my 18 years of teaching knowlege in 45 minutes but she's going to need some work.

Spin class was the usual odd mix of people. I turned up the music and zoned out until my calves started cramping. Too much salt and sugar is obviously not good for you. As Isabelle says when she knows she is going to do something naughty "DON'T DO IT." Good advice from a 2 year old. However, she is like her aunt. Even while saying don't do it, she knows she will.

That's my Girl!

"Maaum. Why are you here? I don't want my friends to know I have a mother, I want them to think I crawled out from under a rock."

Like Whatever!!!

That is my beautiful baby girl! There she goes with that big old attitude of hers. Today was the last Westlake Jr. High Girls' Basketball game. Ashley played great defense and as usual had great hustle. Her JV team beat the Generals (not the same team the Harlem Globetrotters play) 24 to 8! I'm really proud of her for trying new things and always doing her best. Although, I am not going to miss those early morning practices. (Ashley is never a very happy camper at 5:30 in the morning.)

I love you kiddo! I'm very proud of you!!

Snow Canyon (no snow to be seen!)

Today we rode up Snow Canyon from our hotel. The day wasn't as nice as yesterday but the roads were dry and nice. There was a terrible head/crosswind going up so it was a great workout. The descent was a little scary with the tight turns and the wind pushing us all over. The legs are nice and trashed from 3 hard rides in a row. We're back home now to cold temperatures and I'm sure another impending storm.

This week I am looking forward to meeting with the other Cat 4 Women. I heard they did a great training ride yesterday and I'm sad I wasn't there. This Saturday also starts the crits. I'm looking forward to clearing out a few more cobwebs and getting rid of any crash videos that I have left in my head.

Desert Rampage!

Not a cloud in the sky! Yesterday was my first attempt at a mountain bike race (not counting Tour de Suds where I do more suds than racing). I Started off well into the six mile course sitting second and third. Once we got to the technical climbing section of a river bed wash, women started dismounting and walking up the 2 and 3 foot ledges. I was sitting 4th coming out of the wash and onto the long dirt climb. I hung onto that position but by the time I reached the top I was having some vertigo issues. I stopped and did a gu and then picked my way down a steep gravely descent. I felt better in time for the next climb but by then I had lost more positions. I ended up finishing 7th.

I enjoyed the rest of the day soaking in the rays and feeding Sam. Today we're off for a nice road ride up Snow Canyon.