Slice of Life

Backcountry Awesomeness

2009-02-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

Skip School Ski Day

2009-02-17T21:28:00.001-08:00

Resolution

2008-12-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

I am jumping the gun on my New Years resolution, which is to not be a loser of a blogger. Here's my first post to breathe some life back into my blog.

While traveling to Utah for Christmas we stopped in Southern Idaho for some backwoods skiing. The snow was great, Lander had fun, and I am pretty certain we were the ONLY tele skiers in the resort. Fun times!

Future Trackie?

2008-09-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

The title is true. I took Lander down to the velodrome with me yesterday for my track workout. We took his bike since he had been bugging me for weeks to take him down there to ride. Once I let him ride around the apron and get up on the track on the straight aways, I couldn't get him off. I had to threaten to take away Lego's to get him off his bike.

First Day of School

2008-09-02T16:29:00.001-07:00

It's the most wonderful day of the year!

Complaint

2008-08-12T21:41:00.001-07:00

Dear God,

I am writing in regards to a particular issue I am having with my right knee and would like to see if we can resolve it and get it fixed. I feel that the knee, as wonderful as it might be, has some flaws. I mean honestly, I am relatively young and have had numerous knee issues and surgeries. It just seems that with a newer version some improvements could be made that would prevent a) the cartilage spur that showed up while I was playing volleyball in high school, b) the evulsion fracture that happened while tele skiing 3 years ago (it wasn't THAT bad of a crash) and c) recently, whatever I managed to do to my knee last Saturday at the track. Seriously, I was just riding along and now it hurts and is swollen and can't ride my bike. Please take these things into consideration for any future developments you are creating. If you find that I would be a candidate for a "new and improved" version I will be here patiently waiting for a miracle to occur. Thank you for your time, or eternity, or whatever.

Yours Truly,
Jeanie

Dear Jeanie,

Thank you for your letter. I am truly sorry about the issues that you are having with your knee. I regret to inform you that at this time I cannot fulfill your request for a new knee for the following reasons:

1. Bike Racing-I know it's "low impact" but...
2. Telemark skiing-Your knees were not made to do that.
3. Adventure Racing-NEXT!
4. Running-You are lucky you can still walk.
5. You are clumsy-Self-explanatory/you should never have played volleyball, basketball, or anything that requires coordination.

Under NORMAL conditions (meaning normal people) these types of requests can usually be met. Due to the destructive nature of your activities it has been determined that all warranties are deemed null and void. We sincerely hope that by a combination of better judgement, miracle surgeries that will hopefully be developed and ibuprofen you can continue to do the not so normal things you do. Thank you for your inquiry. I hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
God

CRAP!!!!

Let the games begin...

2008-08-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Evidently now if an athlete wears a face mask in Beijing you are offending the Olympic organizers and assumed to be making some sort of ridiculous political/environmental statement. I am sorry, your last ditch effort in environmental countermeasures are probably not going to keep most of the athletes from coming home with some serious respiratory illness. Kudos to the athletes for trying to protect themselves.

My Hubby ROCKS!

2008-07-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, three posts in one day. That is a record for me. I just got back from the track and had to post this. I finally got Bryan to take the track class and he had a great time. I hope to have him racing out there soon. Here's the proof:

Lander wanting another podium shot (with his mom's bike). Could this be a sign of things to come?

I suck at taking videos, but this one of Bryan riding high on the track doesn't suck too bad.

Seriously, So Funny!

2008-07-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

If you are not LDS and have never lived in Utah or more specifically Utah County (aka Happy Valley) then you probably won't get this, or even think it is funny. This has got to be the greatest blog known to man, mainly because it makes fun of all the girls that used to make me gag on a daily basis when I was at BYU. To make it worse, my friend Ryun would bring girls that would eventually turn into this on our bike trips to Moab. You can probably guess what I was thinking when we would stop on the edge of a 1,000 foot cliff to enjoy the view. I am a terrible, horrible person. On with the humor, check it. To really enjoy it, you need to go back and start with the first post. I laughed so hard I cried.

Ricco Suave

2008-07-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

What a dork! Yeah, that was a huge suprise. NEXT!

Utah-A Photoessay

2008-07-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah the day after Six Day ended to spend time with the fam-damily on July 4th. Yes, I realize it's the end of July and I am just now posting this, but I have had some major issues since we got back which is what my next post is about. Until I bore you with my problems, enjoy some photos from our trip.

Stormy bugging Taffy

Stormy worn out after bugging Taffy

Stormy discovers the pool

Taffy wishing Stormy would GO AWAY!

On a ride in my old training grounds

Lander swimming with Bailey

View from the Squaw Peak climb

Still climbing, more views

Still climbing, view of Provo from the canyon

Lander blowing bubbles for Lucy

A very pooped puppy!

Stormy's odd sleeping position in his crate

Me on the MTB in American Fork canyon

Bryan on the MTB

Me wondering why I am doing a ride with a 12 mile climb

This is why, the scenery

The top of the Alpine Loop

Die, bubbles die. Stormy having fun with bubbles

Stormy figures out how to swim

Six Day: Day Six-Hotness and the Laziest Bike Racer EVER!

2008-06-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

So today was hot, hot. My warm-up consisted of airing up my tires, which immediately fatigued my upper body and left me drenched with sweat, and I was in the shade. Good enough for the last day of Six Day. I did ride a couple of circles on the track. I was curious to find out if the heat actually decreased the traction speed required to stay upright through the turns. In my brain baked state it made sense that heat makes tires stickier. I just needed something lame and stupid to obsess over to avoid thinking about how hot it was. I never did test the theory for fear I would be wrong. I was rocking my Paola Pezzo shiny silver Castelli shorts today and I didn't want to do them in.

Today I was probably the laziest bike racer ever. Our first race was my super favorite, the Point a Lap, where you get to work really hard to probably NOT win a point if a really good sprinter is behind you. Basically, I just followed wheels with some girls and ended up off the front in a small group. The one time I actually ended up in the lead of our group I thought I might actually get a point, Jen F. came up next to me and was obviously going to make me work for it. I think I actually started to pedal slower, I really didn't care. Seriously, was this even a race for me? I think not, kind of pathetic. I just wanted to get it over with. Next!

My second super favorite race, the Progressive Points. Lap 1=1 point, Lap 2=2 points and so on until the race is over at 10 laps and 10 points. My only strategy against good sprinters in this race is to get off the front and stay there. Well, that was not going to happen. I went with Fiona when she attacked on lap 1 and I got 2 meager points without having to work too hard. The field seemed to split and I just kind of zoned out for about 4 laps until Jen F. took off and won laps 7,8 and 9. We then worked to get he back and on the last lap my super teammate Andrea launched a huge flyer and caught Jen before turn 4. She won the lap and 10 points for us. I love Andrea, thanks for making my life easy.

The Madison. Wow it was hot and the thought of doing a 20 minute Madison was excruciating. We had a good start and good exchanges. I somehow lucked out and ended up being in for all the sprints, when we get better we can plan on rotating the sprints between us. The first sprint I came in 3rd, won the second sprint and got 2nd in the third sprint. It was a good race, I really did think I was going to die about half way through. Kudos to Darien who rode her teams Madison ironwoman style (by herself). You are my hero. Here's a cool video David Hart took of our Madison.

Results? The big suprise for us was that we won the daily points placing. During the Six Day you can place according to your daily points and laps (kind of like a stage win in a stage race) those points and laps all go into the tally for the overall win (kind of like the GC). Up until today Miranda and Jen had creamed us in points on a daily basis, so we were always in 2nd or 3rd for the daily points. We were so elated when we found out we had won for the day. We also kept our 2nd place overall. Here's our podium shots courtesy of David.

On the podium in 1st for the day

Congrats to everyone. If you look closely you can see the big loopy bows we wore in our hair. For the past three days we kept adding ribbons, so they were pretty obnoxious by today.

Final podium shot. Thanks to all the ladies who came out to make it a great week of racing. See you next year!

Six Day: Day Five-Are we done yet?

2008-06-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

As I was warming up tonight (it was more being near the bike in the heat than an actual warm up) I was trying to relate Six Day to other types of racing I have done. It's kind of like stage racing only it's more violent. Yes, violent is a good word. There is no easy pace in any of the Six Day races that you do. Once you start racing, you are on the gas all the time. It hurts. Tonight it hurt really bad. 20 lap points race, nothing great. We tried to get as many points as possible. Nothing stayed off the front so that made it hard. Next was a Miss and Out. I had a sweet spot at the front setting pace with Jen T.. With 5 girls left, I was tired and literally just sat up to get pulled. I was tired, the legs hurt and I wanted to save something for the Madison since doing poorly could hurt us right now if the right teams were able to gain laps on us.

The 20 minute Madison was a suffer fest. We had good exchanges and good positioning. I was in for back to back sprints and let Jen. T get away from me. I just could not close a gap that I know I could close yesterday. I am getting tired. We finished 2nd in the Madison but were bummed because they counted us as a lap down from Jen and Miranda even though they never lapped us. I guess they had lapped everyone else in the field when the race ended so we were counted in that group as well. Oh well, still in 2nd overall and only ONE MORE DAY!

Six Day: Day Four-Ouch

2008-06-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight hurt. All the races were short because they had some regular Thursday night racing fields. The racing was fast and it gave the good sprinters in our group a chance to put the hurt on. Andrea had her A game on so I was super happy. First up was a 9 lap Scratch race. Andrea and I attacked and countered and I set some pace at the front coming into the final few laps. Andrea launched a huge attack from the back that no one could catch. Jen F. got close, but in the end my awesome teammate took the win. We also had a 15 lap points race, does that even count? Andrea and I did well, just taking points in every sprint and not worrying about it too much. Yeah, it would be nice to go out there and win every sprint, but at some point you have to realize what is important and what is not. At this point in the race it's all going to come down to the Madison. We could really hurt ourselves if we blow up in the mass start races and then start losing laps in the Madison. We are not going to gain laps on Jen and Miranda so we need to keep the cushion we have for 2nd place. All part of the Six Day strategy I guess.

The Madison went okay, it was only 10 minutes of sheer torture. I wanted to die. We came in 3rd and stayed on lap so we still have our 2nd place overall. Yeah, off to bed.

Six Day: Day Three-The Big Comeback

2008-06-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

Still feeling strong and like my legs have some kick. Tonight suited Andrea and I very well. We had a 25 lap points race and 20 lap Tempo race. As tired as we were, the longer races are better for us. We were nervous knowing that we had laps to make up and not entirely sure how to execute in order to make that happen. In the end, we had nothing to worry about.

In the points race there was a group that got off the front at the first sprint: Andrea, Jen F., Jen T. and Miranda. We needed laps and Andrea was in a prime location to gain a lap which would put us on even laps with 2nd place and in the lead since we had more points. I was in a chase group with Anita and Darien. I didn't chase to allow the leaders to hopefully gain a lap. Anita and Darien worked hard and brought us within 1/2 lap of the leaders that were now lapping the field. At this point I realized, in my hypoxic and tired state, that if I lapped the field also we would gain two laps and then be one lap ahead of 3rd place, which would pretty much secure our podium spot. So after my major "Ah-Ha" moment I attacked Darien and Anita and lapped the field and caught the leaders. We duked it out for the rest of the sprints but I wasn't too concerned knowing that we had gained 2nd place overall. It's amazing what kind of math you learn to do in your head while you are racing at balls-to-the-wall speed.

The Point a Lap (Tempo) race went okay. I hate that race, you have to work so hard for one friggin' point. I was in a good spot after the neutral lap and got off the front with Jen F. and Darien and we paced and shared the points as we pulled through. That changed when Miranda and Jen T. caught us and it was every woman for herself. My legs felt like absolute crap at this point so with a few laps to go I quit contesting sprints and just sat in to save some for the Madison.

The Madison went well, we were able to stay on lap with Jen and Miranda and had some solid exchanges. We were 2nd in the Madison so that made us super happy. We are getting smoother and our timing is better. Whew, only 3 more days.

Six Day: Day Two-The Comeback

2008-06-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

Racing smart was the game plan for tonight. We were ahead of the 2nd and 3rd place teams in points, just two laps down. Main goal, try to get back some laps and some points and creep our way back into the top 3.

Andrea and I raced like rockstars tonight. We worked together so well and ended up leading in points in the omnium races giving us the lead going into the Madison. The 20 minute Madison went really well for us. We ended up lapping the 3rd place team and everyone was lapped by Jen and Miranda (they are so stinking strong). We got 2nd in the Madison and are now sitting in 3rd place overall. This was a huge boost for us after such a bad night on Monday. We were stoked at the end of the night. We are still a lap down from the 2nd place team, but we have big plans for tomorrow.

Six Day:Day One-The Rough Start

2008-06-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

Six Day is here. This year we have a separate women's field with 7 teams, totally awesome. The first all-women's Six Day was held January 6, 1896 in Madison Square Garden (where Madison racing was born) and there was only one race in 1909 that had a separate field for women. I am hoping that we are starting something here.

So yes, tonight was a rough start for Andrea and I. We hadn't practiced exchanges a whole lot because Andrea had pulled a intercostal muscle between her ribs and trying to do exchanges put her in a lot of pain. Tonight we did the 3k Madison pursuit. We did not have good exchanges at all, but managed to come in 2nd which was good since we got points for placings in the pursuit. Next we did a 15 minute Madison and that went really bad. We missed our first exchange which resulted in us getting gapped off of the Jen/Miranda and Emily/Anita teams. We finally got in some sort of a rhythm, but we ended up two laps down and in 4th place overall. We both feel kind of demoralized but know that it's a long week of racing and with some smart racing we can turn things around.

San Jose AVC

2008-06-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

The next 9 days of my life will include 8 days of track racing. I am pretty certain that by the time I am done I will be sick of the track bike and tired of going around in circles to the left.

AVC was a good race for me. It was the first big track race I have been too and I was really nervous when we got there. It didn't help that San Jose was having a fluke heat wave and when we got to the track on Friday night the thermometer in Heather's car registered 108, just peachy. The Hellyer Park Velodrome is like a freeway compared to Alpenrose. You can move around easily and there is no minimum traction speed in the turns. This is the track I will race on at Master's Nationals so it was a good reconnaissance trip for me.

Friday night we raced a Keirin and a Points Race. I knew I would need a bigger gear on my bike, but I didn't anticipate how big. I was way undergeared in the Keirin. I was riding an 88" gear and I should have been on a 92". Hmm, lesson #1 learned. The best part of the Keirin was watching Jen Featheringill win and Andrea Fisk, my Six Day partner, take 8th. Needing a 50 tooth chainring to get a 90" gear, I lucked out and found Darryl from the Guiness team that had a brand new one to sell me. Awesome. The 90" gear for the Points Race was a great idea, that race was fast. The best part was that we raced after the sun went down and the lights came on. I totally loved that, it took me back to the days when I used to adventure race and do 24 hour mountain bike races. I love racing at night. Plus, the temperature outside was perfect at that point. The Points Race was fast and I stayed with the group the entire race. I was happy with that.

Saturday morning was another scorcher. I went to the Saturday morning session to race the Match Sprints. Nothing exciting there for me as I suck at those. Jen F. won and Andrea got 4th. That was fun to watch. The Saturday evening session was fun. We did a Miss and Out, which I really hate, but I actually got in the results. Check it out:

Miss n out

1 Jennifer Triplett
2 Jen Featheringill
3 Larssyn Rueegg
4 Megan Guarnier
5 Amanda Seigle
6 Kelly Bartholomew
7 Annette Williams
8 Jeanie Bihlmaier
9 Shelley Olds
10 Amara Boursaw

What is awesome is that the girls in 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10 place are all from the Portland or Seattle area. We had a pretty impressive showing.

Later we did a Scratch Race, basically a crit with primes and a sprint for the win at the finish. I went with some breaks to hopefully get away, but it didn't happen. Unfortunately I missed the winning break that did get away and lapped the field. I was cooked at that point so I just stayed with the group for the finish. It was a hard race.

Now I get to look forward to Six Day, which starts tomorrow. Should be super fun!

My Three Step Program to Coping with the Weather

2008-06-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

So, after freezing my butt off racing PIR last night I woke up to what was it? Oh yeah, 45 degrees and rain. Last week PIR was a dumpfest as it poured during our entire race (it was actually kind of fun in a weird, demented sort of way). Seriously, it's June, or should I call it Junuary. The motivation to ride, yet again, the rain bike and wear all the necessary cold weather accouterments is starting to wane. As I rode to work, getting soaked I started to think about the stages of DENIAL I have been going through the last few months. I always think it's going to get better, and it doesn't. This pretty much sums it up:

April-Stage 1: The optimist/denial. I am not known for being an optimist so I can't figure out why I ever thought that things would improve. At this point I am in a perpetual state of thinking that tomorrow will be better. It's not.

May-Stage 2: Rage/Anger/Hatred. WTF? Yeah, I pretty much have a coronary when I see the weather report each day. I begin to consider moving to Arizona.

June-Stage 3: Submission/Abandonement of all Hope. Racing PIR in the rain pretty much pushed me into this phase, finally. I felt like I was going to be stuck in Stage 2 forever. I embrace the crappyness and learn to love it, or at least trick myself into thinking that. I long for nice days but do the training and work I need to even when the weather sucks.

Please sun, come back to play!

New Family Member

2008-05-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

We picked up a new family member this weekend. He is 7 weeks old and is a black little ball of fuzz, energy and cuteness. Check him out:

Checking out dad and the new digs

He eats a lot

And sleeps a lot

And chews a lot

And sleeps some more

Lander is in love with him. We first saw the puppies about 4 weeks ago and decided then and there that we wanted one. We were so impressed with the mom and his litter mates, they are great dogs and we were really impressed with the breeders Kirk and Laura Lillebo. We have hardly been able to contain ourselves in anticipation of the arrival of our new family member. He is an absolute doll and we love him tons.

We had been undecided on a name for quite a while. We knew we were getting a boy, but we couldn't reach an agreement as to what his name should be. With a few names in mind we decided to take him home and see what name fit him best (kind of what we did with Lander). Last night on the way home (it was a 1.5 hour drive from picking him up) we hit a huge thunderstorm that created a lot of havoc around the Portland/Vancouver area. He slept through all of it. One of the names that we liked was Stormy and we figured that the thunderstorm was a pretty interesting coincidence. So, Stormy it is. Plus, we live in the Northwest where it's always "Stormy".

Here's a cute video of him when we got him home and perked up. He likes to stalk his toys before he fetches them. Good boy!

De-Motivation

2008-05-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how or why it happened, but it has been an absolute struggle to motivate myself to blog. Usually I look forward to posting, but it has seemed like more of a job than something fun I enjoy doing. It probably has something to do with a) the weather that totally sucks, b) bike racing season is in full force, c) Lander has begun another round of swim lessons for the summer and d) landscaping the yard.

Today was the first day that I seriously considered selling my house and moving someplace that isn't 50 degrees and rainy right now. Last weekend was so completely awesome. It was nice to wake up and only have to concern myself with what SPF of suncreen I am going to wear when I ride. Now it's back to the rainy, drizzly crap that I am so, so tired of!

The racing season has been slow to start for me. Since we can't race at the velodrome when it rains (the track has 43.5 degree banking and is like a sheet of ice when wet) it makes it really difficult to get any training races in. The annual Eric Kautzky Memorial track race got rained out after only one race of three. I did manage to make it onto the podium even though we only did one race so it was a good day. We raced a Miss and Out which is a fun race, but not a race that I do very well in because it is so short. Basically you ride a few laps and then they start pulling the last rider across the start/finish on every lap until the last two are left to duke it out for the win. There is a lot of jockeying for position at the front as people try not to get pulled. I lucked out and ended up third from the front when Andrea attacked. A lap or so later there was a crash behind me and Heather attacked, then I attacked and Jen and I got off. I knew I was hosed as Jen is one of the best sprinters I know and she and I were left to duke it out for the win. Yeah, that didn't go so well for me. So, I got 2nd, which is the 1st loser right?

L to R: Me, Jen, Heather
Moments before this picture was taken Heather showed us the proper podium posing technique to make our quads look super-sized (yeah, like I need help doing that)

So, here are some other random pictures of the last few weeks that I took when it wasn't raining (miracle, I know):

Mother's Day gift: Bike tools and Gerber Daisies. I couldn't be happier!

Mid-morning visitors, a rare sight during the day. They ate all the dandelions.

Boulders arriving for landscaping

Lander playing king of the hill on the dirt piles

Post rain fun

Sunset with moon

Lucky Number Seven

2008-05-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lander turned 7 this week and we had a lot of fun celebrating with him.

Decisions, decisions. Which one do I open first?

Landers party with his friends was held at Big Al's. They went bowling, ate pizza, drank way too much pop, had cake and opened presents. Honestly, watching kids bowl is so hilarious. Check out the great technique Lander has:

Lander in his pirates mask (upside down) at his pirate party with his friends

Chowing down after bowling

Ready to make a wish

Opening gifts with friends (complete with Miles picking his butt for the camera)

Day Long Gone

2008-04-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Remember that day? It was two weeks ago, it was a Saturday and it was, what? 70 degrees! Yes, 70 degrees, and sunny. It seems so far away now, but I still have fond memories of it. I remember it well and I get all misty eyed just thinking about it. I was at the Kings Valley race and this was all I had to wear:
Thanks to my awesome teammate Eryn (who is the most core pregnant person I know) for the pre-race photo. So, two pieces of information can be gleaned from this photo. First, it was warm and therefore I only had to wear standard warm weather cycling clothes (no hat, long finger gloves, tights, booties, jacket and all the other stuff that makes you feel slow and sloppy when you ride). Second, it was dry, hence the white shorts and their miraculous appearance at such an early season race. Not a chance of puddles, road grime or wet roads that would taint the color of my brand new white shorts. I actually got a sunburn, which has now turned into a tan but no one would know since I have been wearing jackets, ski hats and all the bulky winter crap I am sick of for the last two weeks. My white shorts and I miss the sun, please come back and bring some hotness with you.

So I never did post about this race. Kudos to all 70 women who showed up to race, it was awesome to have such a great showing. Please come back! Okay, race report. Don't worry, I am going to fashion this race report after a radio commercial I heard for Blockbuster where they would re-cap a movie plot in 30 seconds or less. Here it goes:

First lap: Squirlley human pinball machine on wheels, stayed in back and out of trouble. Second lap: pack thins out, nothing exciting, Cat 4/5 men's group catches us and passes us, wow I am still with the group on a course that has HILLS, miracle. Third and final lap: Wow, the fun begins. Some straggler Cat 4/5 men that have no chance of catching their group berate us for being in their way when they try to pass. We are racing, you are not, get over it. We are nice and let them through. Less than a mile later we catch up to one. Jan tells him "Hey, your not so fast now" and he fires back with a derogatory explicative towards her, I fire back with explicative (yes I am supposed to be a good Mormon but I do occasionally profane in races and in all honesty it wasn't that bad. I know, I need to stop justifying what I did.). We drop him and continue on with our race. There is a crash a few miles from the finish, I stay out of it. I make it up part of the finish climb with the skinny climber girls but when the those 110 lb. ladies start attacking on the climb I go backwards. I finish, happy with my training race. Yeah, yeah go eat a bunch of food, rest and so on.

Okay that was way better than my last drawn out post and much more fun to write. I think I just set a new precedent for myself. But seriously, I miss the you sun, please come back soon!

Seriously, It's April!

2008-04-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, enough is enough

Piece o' Cake

2008-04-02T20:13:00.001-07:00

***WARNING: BORING RACE REPORT!!! IF YOU DON'T LIKE BIKE RACING, FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO READ! (Your car insurance policy would certainly do)***

Mmm, yeah that title is a total misnomer. Last Sunday was my first race of the season, you know the one where everything hurts, your race bike feels weird (i.e. it doesn't have fenders or weigh 25 pounds!) and you really have no clue what your fitness level is. Usually I have at least a couple of hard team rides in my legs before I start racing so I can at least know at what HR the tunnel vision and dizziness (what I call race brain) is going to start. This year I had zilch, nothing, totally foreign territory for me. The fitness quandry was compounded by the fact that Bryan had just installed the new SRAM shifters on my bike, and I had only ridden it once, and that was three weeks ago. So now I have the fitness issue and I can't remember how to shift my bike proficiently. Luckily I was smart enough (or dumb enough to just honk on the thing until it did something) to figure out the shifting on the first lap, plus it was a flat course so not too much thinking involved which was definitely a plus once the race brain sets in.

Lets just say that winter conditions were in abundance during the race even though it was the end of March. We had sun, rain, hail and a skiff of snow. Every lap had something different to offer, oh joy! I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason the weather was so crappy was because I skipped my last meeting of church to go race. Had I stayed in church and not raced, it would have been sunny and 70 degrees (yes, you can all kill me later).

My goal for this race was to a) not get dropped, b) race as hard as I could to get into some sort of racing form, and c) do a lot of work to help out my friend Mel (since she is the most awesome sprinter I know) so that she would be fresh for the final sprint. The race went really well. There were quite a few women from Seattle that came down and several teams present so that made the race really interesting, attacking, countering, tactics, etc.. Nothing was successful in staying off the front so we stayed together until the final lap. I had a lot of fun chasing down attacks, it was the best training for the pursuits I will do on the track. During our lovely hail/snow/rain storm on the final lap I thought to myself, man this would be a great time to attack. I know I was preoccupied with keeping the hail from stinging my face (which it managed to scratch my new Oakley Radars, but if you look at Oakley's wrong they will scratch) and wondering if I was ever going to have feeling in my fingers and toes again. Right after I had that thought Rebecka H. launched a hard attack off the front. For some reason I was in the front and decided to try to reel her in, except at this point my legs were so cold that whatever snap they had, was gone. We were in a nasty cross wind section (so windy that it actually caused a crash in the Master Men's 1/2/3 race I found out). I caught up to Rebecka and looked behind me expecting to see our small peloton trailing behind me and there was no one there! What? I had managed to drop the girls behind me when I went after Rebecka and created a gap. At this point my legs felt like absolute crap and the last thing I wanted was to be in a 2 person break-away working twice as hard with no rest. I could barely stay on Rebecka's wheel, and when I could finally start helping her by taking pulls, I would watch our speed drop. It was pathetic. We were by ourselves for a while, but a couple of miles from the finish we saw a group of 5 coming up behind us. At this point Becka dropped me and I was content to rest until the girls behind caught up and then try not to get dropped by them (at this point I had nothing left). Mel was in that group and I was able to get behind her at the back. It was good for me at this point because we still had to catch Becka and she had two teammates in this group so they wouldn't chase, Mel and I had no reason to chase, so the chasing was left to two girls which kept the pace where I could keep up. I managed to recover a bit, we caught Becka, and about the 1K mark everyone started slowing to play the cat and mouse game of not wanting to be on the front in the wind going into the final sprint. I had nothing to lose so I sat on the front with Mel behind me. There was an acceleration right before the final turn to the finish. I tried to stand up to go with and the legs screamed "stick a fork in me, I'm done", so I sat down and rolled in across the finish in 7th place.

I don't think that the best races are always the ones that you win. This race was great for me because I surprised myself with how good I felt and the race was interesting. I can't wait until the next one :)

ZooLander

2008-03-31T20:50:00.001-07:00

Finally a sunny spring break day. Lander was really excited to go skiing again so I couldn't resist. Zoolander was the nickname his instructors gave him. Eventually, they shortened it to "Zoo". Kind of cute I think. I skied with his group in the afternoon and it was a total blast! Watching kids learn to ski is fun. Lander learned a ton of new tricks: skiing switch, catching air and he was introduced to the terrain park. I am sure that by the time he is 9 he will be on twintip (hopefully tele) skis. Here are some pics and video of the day.

Lander listening intently. Notice the carrot from lunch in his goggle strap? All the kids had them, he eventually ate his on the lift when he got hungry.

Lander coming down a short black diamond run. He is the 2nd coming down.

Lander venturing off the trail, again.

Lander gets his first "big air"

Lander learns to ski switch

March Madness

2008-03-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today was day 1 of Landers Spring Break and this was what we woke up to:

Yeah, it's snow, at our house. We immediately packed up the ski gear and headed to the mountain where it looked like this:

Does this look like spring to you? I think not, but I won't complain.

One word will sum it up: Epic. Lander took a ski lesson in the morning which left me free to wander the resort in search of untracked powder. Well, it wasn't hard to find. On my first 3 runs I was making freshies in knee deep pow pow. I then decided to check out Private Reserve and again, was in thigh deep powder that no one had skied. I ventured back up to the Star lift to see if there was any chance that Heather Canyon was going to open and ding, ding, I was a winner. I got there right as ski patrol was taking down the ropes. I have never had such luck, freshies all the way down Heather. Being that there were no lift lines, I made laps in Heather until Landers lesson was over and I was pooped.

Lander and I had a ridiculously expensive lunch at the lodge, but hey, it's spring break and we can splurge. It took some coaxing, but I was able talk Lander into taking a couple runs with me. Of course I had left the camera in the car, but the wind and snow was so bad that it would have been impossible to get any good pictures or video. His instructor had taken him in the trees a little and said that he was doing well controlling his speed and turning. We did some easy blue runs and an easy tree run. Lander kept saying he wanted to ski something steep, he is his mother's son. There was an easier black diamond right by the lift so I took him down it and did awesome. He picked his way down and even passed a girl learning to snowboard. He was so excited that he wanted to go again.

On the next run I decided to take him into Two Bowl, another black diamond. This is one of my favorite places to ski. The snow is always good as its East facing aspect allows it to wind-load so every run has good snow. I didn't know how Lander would do in such steep and deep terrain. He had a blast. It was so fun to watch him. The snow was up to his little thighs and he would lean so far back on his skis that he would drag his butt in the snow. He did really well on his first excursion into powder. When the slope mellowed out Lander found some untracked snow that no one had skied in. He floated through it and started to giggle as he felt his skis floating in the snow. That to me is what it is all about. Watching Lander discover the sensation of floating through powder and sharing it with him was by far the most awesome thing I have ever done. It pretty much beats any day of great skiing I have ever had. Now all Lander talks about is skiing in the black diamonds in the "shaggy, powdery snow". Sounds good to me, when can we go next? Oh yeah, Monday!

Afternoon Fun

2008-03-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

We had an afternoon treat today, a nice sunny day appeared after a foggy morning. Lander wanted to test out his new fishing pole that he made in an outdoor class at school last week. We headed down to Canyon Creek by our house to see if we could catch anything. He had so much fun with his pretend fishing pole that now he wants a real one. Maybe Lander can start bringing home dinner.

Showing off his cool fishing pole

Fishing spot #1

Fishing spot #2

Evidently Hosta grows here in the wild. Hmmm, a nice start of that would go great in my yard.

Jack-o-Lander

2008-03-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

We are going to be busy here, it looks like the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are making back-to-back visits to our house. Today Lander lost one of his top teeth. It's a good thing, it's been dangling there for several weeks now. It took Bryan and I a lot of composure not to just grab it and yank it out.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Lander checking out his find, of course, in his underwear

Goofin' in his Sunday clothes

Lander's Question of the Day

2008-03-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Six year olds ask lots of question, Lander is no exception. Tonight he asked me "Are hot dogs considered meat?" Hmm, good question. I told him that was debatable depending on who you talk to. They definitely are if you think lips, eyelashes and hooves part of the meat group.

Cutie Pie

2008-02-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

I know that Valentine's Day was over a week ago, but I had to post this picture that my sister-in-law posted of her daughter Lucy. She is adorable and has this long tuft of hair on the top of her head that can evidently be molded into anything. Doesn't she look like Cindy Lou Who?

Turns Earned

2008-02-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Utah we decided to go explore some of the backcountry outside of Alta ski resort. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the views were awesome. The snow was, well, variable. We skied in everything from powder, to corn snow, to corn snow with a breakable crust on top. Yeah, the wicked breakable crust on tele, we both had some great wrecks. We did manage to ski pretty decently considering the variable snow conditions. It was a great day to earn turns.

Bryan on the way up

The view into Brighton ski resort

The view into Little Cottonwood

The final climb up the ridge

Devil's Castle in the distance

You can see the tracks where someone skied this, crazy

Our route down: interesting corn snow with or without a breakable crust

Bryan headed down, like a pro on tele. He took off so fast I had a hard time getting a decent video of him.

Me on the descent. Unfortunately, right after Bryan stopped filming, I had a good wipe-out.

Lander the Powderhound

2008-02-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

The first thing that Lander said when we got off the ski lift was "I need to go make some fresh tracks" and off he went to make some "freshies" off the groomed run. Bryan and I stared at each other in confusion and then shrugged and figured it was normal behavior for our off-spring. Somehow Lander has gleaned information from our conversations that the only snow worth seeking out is powder. He is a total powderhound. Hey, it's never too early to learn that important truth. We all had a great day at Alta. Lander would try to go off the main trail as much as possible and Bryan and I took turns sneaking off to Devil's Castle. The family that skis together, stays together.

Lander hitting the "freshies"

Yuppie Skiing

2008-02-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

"I don't think we fit in here." That was exactly what I told Bryan as we rode the gondola at Deer Valley resort this morning. I have never skied at a resort that has a gondola. I have never skied at Deer Valley, mainly because the tickets are horrendously expensive and it's what I call a "destination resort". This translates to tons of people in $2000 ski suits that will only ski when it is sunny and the runs are groomed. I knew this since Deer Valley was rated the "#1 ski resort in North America" by various ski magazines and their criteria on what makes a resort "good" are the number of salons, clothing stores, restaurants and stores that sell $2000 ski suits a resort has and not important things like expert terrain and annual snowfall. After three hours of riding numerous lifts and gawking at multi-million dollar homes we finally found a pocket of good snow that of course, you had to work to get to. But, it was sooo worth it. Oh yeah, and the only other tele skiers we saw, were on ski patrol. Figures.

Riding the gondola, wow I feel like a rock star!
Dropping into Daley Bowl from the corniced ridge

Me coming down Daley Bowl

Happy Single Awareness Day

2008-02-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school and college I thought that Valentine's Day was the lamest holiday ever. I pretty much still feel the same way now. I did in fact call it Single Awareness Day, or S.A.D., I mean that is what it really is right? I will admit that it's really fun to buy stuff for Lander and make it fun for him and that is so much fun, but Bryan and I don't buy into the whole flowers, dinner, blah, blah, blah. Call me unromantic, whatever. Bryan asked me what I wanted for S.A.D., I told him I wanted to go to Utah. When we arrived in Utah on Thursday our friend Phil asked me if Bryan had a romantic date planned for us. I told him that if his idea of romance was going to Alta to shred the gnar, then yes, we did indeed have a romantic date planned. And that is exactly what we did. There had just been a recent dump of snow and while most of the good runs had been tracked out, we managed to find some awesome powder stashes, but we had to work really hard to get to them. They were totally worth it and hey, tele skiers are supposed to work for their turns. Bryan skied his 7th day on tele skis and was skiing way better than I did on my 7th day on tele, jerk :).

Here is Bryan coming down East Greeley Bowl

We started doing the traverse into Devil's Castle. It was an awesome area to ski, but it took about 20 minutes of traversing and climbing on your skis to get to the good snow. The most amusing part of the traverse was watching two out of shape college girls who had drunk too much beer at lunch hurling chunks on the side of the trail. They were way worse off than we were having just come from sea level.

On the traverse in Devil's Castle, the most awesome feature at Alta

We realized after several exhausting traverses from the west side into Devil's Castle that there was a traverse in from the east side that was a lot less tiring. And the snow? It was deep and barely tracked. This was where we spent the rest of the afternoon. This is me coming down the stash we found, so much fun.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate S.A.D.. Thanks honey for the good times, I love you!

Panorama

2008-02-08T15:18:00.001-08:00

We took this panorama picture a few weeks ago on our hike to Cape Horn. It was a rare sunny January day in the northwest. Hmm, haven't seen one of those days in a long time.

Snowed In

2008-02-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

So all the fun snow we received on Saturday turned into a mess on Sunday and made it impossible to get out. Yes, we skipped church (incidentally a lot of church meetings were canceled in Utah as well due to snow so we weren't too far off). Evidently, so did everyone else that lives out here in the sticks with us. It's strange because most of our ward lives in town and doesn't get snow, just rain. I am sure that they think we are all complete wusses. Our road is almost impossible to drive on with the foot of snow we got. The thought of a one mile trudge up the road to our house on my skis in a skirt after church didn't sound too appealing. We actually spent the day trying to dig ourselves out and thanks to my neighbors Reuben and Dave and their tractors, the road was drive-able by Sunday afternoon. There was still quite a bit of snow on the road and I had to use some of my long lost 4wd skills to get back up it on Monday, but it was oh so much fun :)

Bryan and the kids building a snow cave

Sunset

Alpenglow

My Monday project: dig out a tire track in our driveway so we could get up it. It was an awesome 2 hour upper body workout.

Winter Wonderland

2008-02-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Today Bryan and I lucked out. Lander had a 2.5 hour birthday party which left us with a bunch of free time to ourselves. Since it was pouring rain in the valley we decided that going for a bike ride was not on the "A" list of things to do. Slogging around in the rain on the bike is something that I personally am getting quite tired of. However, it was dumping snow at our house. After a more than precarious drive over to Landers friends house we headed up to a a dirt road by our house that is now covered in about 3 feet of snow. Donning our skis and snowshoes we headed out. It was perfect. The road is closed to motorized traffic during the winter (i.e. no stinky, noisy snowmobiles) and it was quiet and serene. I could have stayed out there for hours. Unfortunately, we only and about 90 minutes since we had to stop and help a bunch of people out who a) never learned how to drive in the snow, or b) think that mini-vans will go up the steepest, snowiest road in Washougal. It was a good time, and a really good work-out. If anyone ever wants to come up snowshoeing or XC skiing, give us a call.

Bryan ready to go

Me at our turnaround point

I love the winter, but the flowered skis give me warm thoughts

Our track in, it was pretty deep

When we picked up Lander this FJ Cruiser got stuck on the hill we had just come up and had to be towed by a 4 wheeler. No comment.

Sunset

2008-01-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

Land Cruiser

2008-01-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, the seemingly out-of-control child is mine. I honestly think he has the widest skiing stance I have ever seen outside of international downhill ski competition. If you can't understand what he's saying, he's yelling "on the left" as he careens down the hill. Notice, he's really not on anyones left, he's on their right. We'll have to have a little chat about that. Don't worry, if you are ever in his way he will let you know.

Since I let Lander play hooky from school, he thought I was cool enough to ride the lift with him

Knackered

The Perfect Weekend

2008-01-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend did not disappoint. Saturday I got to bike and ski, two of my favorite things in one day. We headed to Meadow's for some night skiing and the conditions were great. It was lightly snowing and kind of windy, but the wind was blowing snow into Two Bowl perfectly so that each run had fresh snow. This day also marked Bryan's sixth day on telemark skis. He is getting good. He likes to go fast, which makes for some spectacular wipe-outs. Lander had a great time in his lesson despite the wind and snow. I took this short video before it got dark (he's the kid with the mondo blue helmet).

Sunday proved to be beautiful (as always it's nice here on Sunday's when we have to go to church!). After church, and a nap (soooo tired from the day before), we took a family hike up to the Cape Horn lookout which is across the canyon from our house. It was windy and cold, but we all had a great time.

Lander and I under the blown over tree

View of Multnomah Falls

View of our house from the trail, you can barely see it through the trees.

Mmmmm, Creamy

2008-01-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

That pretty much describes my day. I headed up to Meadow's to go skiing this morning and was greeted my sunshine in Hood River that created the most spectacular rainbow across the Columbia River (of course I forgot the camera so I have no pictures of this). There was no traffic on Hwy 35 up to the resort and the drive was great except for the minor fishtailing incident that almost made me spin out (mental note: don't be so stubborn next time and put it in 4WD before you need it!). It was snowing at the resort, what could be better. I did manage to slip on some ice and yard sale all my ski gear in the parking lot. I landed on my hip pretty hard and I am certain I will be able to feel it tomorrow. Yes, I can walk in ski boots and somehow miraculously one day a week I can garner all my coordination into making a FEW marginal tele turns. These kind of things just always happen to me, and of course it was right in front of a bunch of teenage boys. It was like a high school nightmare all over again.

I thought I would be skiing solo, but ran into my fellow PMR buddy Jason Mitchell in the lift line so I spent the morning chasing three very fast skiers! It was awesome and exhausting. I tend to ski better when I am forced to push my limits. I, of course, had a few good wrecks, but there were some runs where I actually didn't crash, or have to stop because my legs were tired. The snow was, well, creamy is a good way to describe it. It was good for carving and not terribly bumpy and super fun to ski in and there was some good powder in the bowls. I skied for a few hours and then headed home in time to get Lander off the school bus.

Tomorrow Bryan and I are taking Lander up for a ski lesson in the afternoon. He is really excited about it and has been asking me about it all afternoon. We even watched a Warren Miller movie together. That probably wasn't a good idea since Lander is already prone to being the extreme daredevil, he doesn't need anymore ideas. He threw a fit in one of his lessons last year because the instructor wouldn't let him go into the terrain park. I am excited that he is excited to ski and I love to see the smile on his face as he cruises down the hill. More than anything I am glad that skiing is an activity that our whole family can enjoy.

The New Never Budge Hill

2008-01-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Some of my fondest memories as a child are of Never Budge Hill. The hill was on the back acre of my parents property and was aptly named after us, the Budge's. This was where I learned to ski and had many hours of snowplowing and sledding fun. My brothers would carry my skis up for me, help me get locked in and then give me a "gentle" shove to get going. When we wanted some more speed and a change of scenery, we headed to the icy driveway with our Flexible Flyer and had competitions to see who could make it all the way to the bottom, without going into traffic.

This morning we were greeted by 6" of new snow and a phone call at 8:00 a.m. indicating that school was canceled, SNOW DAY! Normally, I would have packed Lander and our ski stuff into my truck and headed to the resort, but I thought it would be fun to stay here and have some good old fashioned winter fun right outside our front door. Our driveway is pretty long and steep at the top so it is great for sledding, just like Budge Hill. In honor of my new last name, I promptly named our hill Budge-maier Hill, kind of fusion of the old and the new. The neighbor kids came over and we had a fantastic time racing each other down the driveway. We went off the road a lot, got flipped off our sleds and ended up with snow in our faces, jackets and boots. What an awesome way to spend a day off from school. Sadly, this is the northwest and now it is raining on our beautiful snow. I am sure it will be gone in a day or two. Bummer.

Yeah, it's windy here. It packed the snow up against our garage door.

Lander and Cameron getting ready for some fun

Budge-maier Hill. It's a lot steeper than it looks.

4 kids +2 sleds=Likely they won't all make it down
See the following video

Christmas Highlights

2008-01-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post some of the highlights of our trip to Utah for Christmas. To sum it up in three words: skiing, eating, family. We all had a great time.

Lander opening one of his many presents

Yes, this went on for a while

Christmas morning. A huge dump of snow came on Christmas Eve. When Lander is older we will start the new tradition of skiing on Christmas Day.

Lander making sure that Lucy gets her gift open okay

Lander and my nephew Scott playing Lincoln Logs

The beautiful stellar crystals commonly seen in Utah. Sitting on the ski lift you feel like you are in the center of a snow globe.

The moon rising over Provo Canyon after an evening run

Lander doing his best to eliminate all the ice puddles in Idaho, such a boy thing

Learning that my dad keeps track of all the vermin he exterminates, priceless.

One Year Older and Wiser Too (Okay, probably not wiser)

2008-01-02T16:21:00.001-08:00

So, today is my birthday and yes, I am once again 29 :) I usually go skiing on my birthday, in Utah, but this year was weird since we had to be back for Lander to go back to school today. So, today I got to go to work, in freezing rain. But, I did get to wear my new hat that I knit while in Utah, it was my little birthday treat to myself.

My awesome neighbor Cynthia also made me a plate of yummy brownies, complete with candles. You see the three candles laying on the plate? Yes, I already ate the brownies that were holding them up.
We may have to postpone any celebrations tonight as our driveway is a skating rink and the garage door won't open due to then 1/4" of ice that has covered it. Hmm, might be a good night for a DVD and popcorn! Lander is totally excited and has been wishing me Happy Birthday all afternoon, he is such a cool kid!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

We are in Utah so we missed the 12"+ dump of snow at our house (darn, I could have made fresh tracks off the porch!) but I thought this was a great picture courtesy of my neighbor.

179

2007-12-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

You may think that because it's the off season from bike racing that 179 signifies what my weight has escalated to since the race season ended. Ha, you are wrong. The competition shall cry when they find out that is not the truth. Actually 179 is the heart rate that I had to hit yesterday on my training ride when I was visciously chased by two dogs while riding on Washougal River Road. I pride myself in my ability to control my heart rate under any circumstance in my off season training but yesterday that became an impossibility when two barking dogs came tearing out of a driveway. The road I was on was flat to maybe slightly uphill, so I had a disadvantage. I had to sprint as hard as I could to get away from them, which is hard when you actually haven't sprinted in a few months. They were gaining on me and I could see a hill up ahead, I thought I was doomed. I can honestly say that sprinting when something is chasing you is a lot more interesting that sprinting for the finish line. I think it was one of my best sprints ever, even with the yelling and screaming at the dogs to try to scare them away (which didn't work). Needless too say, I think I have a good mental vision of what I need to sprint like to win a race. Maybe this was a good thing for me.

Golden Compass Chaos

2007-12-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

I was really trying to keep my mouth shut about this, but there has been so much media hype over these books and movie that I just can't stand it anymore. I am sure that a lot of people are going to think I am a heathen, or at least crazy, but I don't really care (I know I'm crazy).

I have read all three of the books in the series and I plan on seeing the movie. No, I won't let Lander see it because it's rated PG-13 and he is 6. Yes, the author is a proclaimed atheist (so are most scientists, but I don't see anyone boycotting science). I guess he must certainly have some hidden agenda in trying to brainwash the children of the world with anti-Christian ideals. I think not. I think the big problem here is people trying to twist and read way too much into the plot of this story. The book is fiction, it was written for kids. Not to mention the fact that you can pretty much extract any religious meaning you want from any fantasy book you read (The Lord of the Rings, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Dark is Rising). I read the email that is being circulated about why you and your family should not see this movie and it is riddled with misinformation about what actually occurs in the book. I am certain the person who wrote that email didn't even read the books and has absolutely no clue what they are talking about.

As far all the conjecture about what was the author's intent was with these books, it's exactly that, speculation. I don't know and I don't care. After reading the books I personally feel that the author was really trying to express his opinion that any religion or organization that promotes blind faith, oppression (think Crusades), unlawful power and fearful submission (again, The Crusades) is bad. Hmmm, I would have to agree with him on that one. Of course this is just MY interpretation.

I guess what it comes down to is this, people will always view things from the perspective of their value system. The author was recently interviewed by Al Roker on NBC. Al asked him directly what he thought about his books being viewed as anti-Christian. His reply was that he would "mistrust people that tell us how we should understand something" and that he supports "democracy of reading" where we are free to interpret things for ourselves. Sad as it is, I think there are some people and organizations that are worried about free-thinking and people forming their own opinions.

So, I am not saying that you have to read the books or see the movie. Please, just don't jump on the bandwagon of mindless misinformation, use the mind you have and form your own opinions.

Okay, off my soapbox now. Here are the first 5 minutes of the movie if you dare.

Jedi Master

2007-11-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

I know it's way after Halloween, but I had to wait to get the digital files for these photos that were taken at the HP Fall Festival. Lander had so much fun posing in different Jedi positions, he really got into it.

Honey, do you hear banjos?

2007-11-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

About a month ago Bryan and I, armed with our GPS, went and did a little exploring on our mountain bikes in our new neighborhood (Washougal). We could have ridden the trails that we normally ride out here, but where would be the adventure in that? So, we found some roads and trails in Topo USA that looked interesting, downloaded them, and headed out for some dirt time. I can honestly say we ended up on a trail that I am pretty certain has never been biked on. In fact, it was really overgrown. There were a bunch of rocks covered by wet grass and leaves and it made riding really interesting. There was more than one time that I just hoped I took the best line and ended up with my front wheel sideways struggling to stay on the trail. It was FUN! The cool thing is that we found some cool streams and some pretty terrain. Here's the proof:

Bryan posing by a pine tree

The wash out I almost rode into. You can't tell, but it's about a 20 foot drop if you go off.

Some river we had to cross, of course I managed to get wet

The upper Washougal River

We found this critter sunning on our driveway when we got home. Lander and I had fun playing with it.

My Niece, She ROCKS!

2007-11-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

I have often wondered why I have not been blessed with any sort of culinary talent. I was never good at cooking, I still suck. I actually took sewing in high school to avoid having to take a foods class. I think sewing was almost as big a disaster for me as foods would have been. I really don't know how I ended up getting married, I really have no marketable skills for the household, unless you happen to get lost in the wilderness, then I can help. Okay, way off my intended subject. So, naturally I am extremely proud, and a little envious of my niece Cassidy. This was her high school foods class competition:

Pretty impressive huh? Yeah, she won! I would have cried if I were her competition.

She also designed and made this cake for a Utah bridal magazine:

And then helped with this one:

She is truly amazing. I wish I had an ounce of her talent.

The Lazy Person, Yeah That's ME!

2007-11-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

Some people are so lazy they don't post on their blog for over a month. Oh wait, that is myself I am talking about. I really don't have any real good excuse, just lazy. I promise, promise to post something new (not that anyone really cares), but I do have a bunch of cool pictures so maybe a photoessay is in store.

It's Coming....

2007-09-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

As in that wonderful, white fluffy stuff that falls from the sky this time of year. Time to wax the skis and hope that we have epic snow conditions this winter and are skiing by Thanksgiving!

Point Forecast: 2 Miles SE Mount Hood OR
45.34N -121.69W (Elev. 6084 ft)

Wednesday

Snow
Likely
Hi 38°F

Wednesday
Night

Snow
Likely
Lo 26°F

Thursday

Snow
Likely
Hi 37°F

Thursday
Night

Snow
Likely
Lo 26°F

Lander, Lander, Lander

2007-09-29T19:53:00.001-07:00

He is such a boy! Zip-off pants and moon boots. Okay, Napoleon.

Rodents of Unusual Size

2007-09-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

This is just a classic example of how things in my life go, nothing is ever easy. Ordeals seem to follow me everywhere I go.

Our first night in the house we put Lander to bed. He comes running downstairs a few minutes later to tell us that there was a mouse in his room and that it ran out and went into our bedroom. Wonderful. I thought Lander was seeing things and we told him it was no big deal (because we didn't believe him) and sent him back to bed. About 30 minutes later I am downstairs in the living room and I look over in the kitchen and see a mouse cruising across the floor. Okay, Lander is telling the truth and it's the middle of the night and I have no mouse extermination devices. I am not squeamish, I can deal with this. My next thought is, is this the same mouse as upstairs or are there actually two mice in our house? Second thought, if I have seen two mice tonight already, how many more are there? So, I try to corner the thing in the dining room and it manages to find a hole up behind my kitchen cabinets. Great. My solution, and this sounded good at the time, pretend to be a stealth mouse killer armed with a broom and wait quietly for the mouse to come out again. I really didn't want to squash the mouse all over my new hardwood, I just thought that I could block the hole it went into under my cupboard and then I really didn't know what I would do after that, yell for Bryan while I block the hole? I quickly learned that the mouse is faster than me. I noticed that the mouse was trying to go around the edge of the dining room by a sliding window. This is where the story gets good and in my defense I was really tired, so my thinking wasn't all that great. Being the genius I am I think I can probably chase the mouse out if I open the slider and wait for him to come out again. Better yet, I have this ingenious Hansel and Gretel-esque idea that I can make a trail of bread crumbs from the cupboard to the sliding door and that the mouse will follow it and eat the bread crumbs and go outside. I wait patiently, it comes back out, takes a bread crumb and GOES BACK UNDER THE CUPBOARD!! At this point I am pissed and the idea of squashing it with the broom is becoming more appealing. I decide to get rid of the bread crumbs so I don't reward the mouse for obviously being smarter than me, open the sliding door to the patio and wait patiently, again. Sure enough it comes out again, follows the wall to the slider and goes outside on the patio. I wait a bit to make sure I don't scare it so that it runs back inside and shut the door. I then wish I had gone after it with the broom outside to squash it just to make myself feel better, but it's gone and I am fine with that.

Things go good for a couple of days and I naively think that the mouse in the house was just an isolated incident until I come home one day, go upstairs into our room, drop something on the bed and see a mouse dart out from underneath the bed and go into the vent on our fireplace. Okay, it's in my bedroom, this is war. I realize we live in the country and there are mice. I also come to the sad realization that in the weeks before our house was finished every time we came up here every window, door, sliding door was open, all the time. So, most likely, we have a whole bunch of mice in our house somewhere. I vow to kill every last one of them. At first I set out some traditional mouse traps with peanut butter, like this:

And I have some early success (I am sure I will get and angry email from PETA for this. I guess I shouldn't tell them that for work I genetically engineer mutant mice for research):

Then, they get smart and figure out how to eat the PB without setting the trap off, thieves:

So, $70 later and a trip to Home Depot I have every mouse extermination device possible(with the exception of poison, like I want it to die under my cabinet or fireplace where I can't get to it, ewwww!):

The full spectrum includes a trap that electocutes them (my personal favorite), glue traps (very efficient but you actually have to kill them after they are caught, yuck!), a transmitter that you plug in your outlet that is supposed to repel them all together (totally awesome), and a new version of the traditional trap that is kid-friendly (this one sucks).

In the last 3 weeks I can happily say that we have seen no mice or no evidence of mice in our house. We ended up buying two transmitters for the house because let's face, we live in the sticks and mice are going to be here no matter what. We even caught some that were living in the garage and we think we found the hole where they were getting into the crawl-space and into the house and immediately patched that up. So far, so good.

Bryan hasn't faired so well with the mice. In the process of taking some of our moving boxes to a friend Bryan managed to get one in his 4-Runner. He got in it one morning and it had shredded a bunch of tissues to make a nest on the floorboard under the gas pedal, so most likely it was pregnant. When he told me this, I was roaring with laughter. It's really unfortunate, but funny considering all the problems we have had with mice. He put the electronic trap in his truck and failed to catch it. He found a hole in the firewall that he thinks it has been using to move between the frame and the inside and so he covered it with duct tape. I think he may have gotten rid of it, but who knows, those things are sneaky.

Movin to the country gonna eat a lot of peaches...

2007-09-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

We made it, we are finally in our house, in the country. Yes, we have been here a month, but let's admit it, I am lazy, too lazy to post anything for a month. Yes, there was a lot of unpacking to do, but my demise came when we got the Dish hooked up and I had DVR and all of a sudden I became a self-imposed couch potato. So I don't really have a great excuse, just that I am lzay. We are pretty much all settled in and unpacked and we can actually park in the garage now. We are doing well!

Here are my favorite things about being out in the sticks of Washougal:

1. It's quiet at night (except when the coyotes get riled up)
2. It's dark at night (unless there is a full moon which is even more intense when the darkness is not marred by street lights)
3. I woke up one morning to deer and my neighbors cow (mmmm, dinner) in my yard
4. I can shoot a gun on my property if I want to (yes, I will fit in well)
5. The crack that spans the width of my windshield in my truck makes me look like a local (I am too lazy to fix this, besides, it will just crack again)
6. Lander has an endless supply of sticks and rocks to throw
7. The dirt road up to our house is so bumpy right now it's like a mini off-road trip every time I go home
8. I am closer to the ski resort, Hood River, epic mountain bike trails and awesome road riding
9. At Lander's school open house I saw several families that were completely decked out in hunter camo. Not just the dad, EVERYONE. That is so Washougal, I love it.
10. The huge spiders that have taken up residence on our porch. Lander loves to feed them by throwing bugs into their webs, he is such a boy!

We have had a few kinks to work out in the house, but we are happy with the way it turned out. I finally got some new couches after living with the same furniture my parents gave us when we got married (which I had already lived with since I was 14). I was glad to have something new. That will be the extent of my interior decorating. I don't paint rooms, decorate or spend time trying to color coordinate anything. Ask Bryan, I didn't even hang anything on the walls in our old house. Seriously I could probably find the time to do that I really just don't care that much, I just like being here. I might buy something cool that I can just bring home a plop on the coffee table, but that's about it.

Here's a picture I took from our porch yesterday after one of the thunderstorms came through the Gorge. The hills you see are actually the Oregon side of the Gorge.

Indian Summer

2007-08-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

In order to escape the insanity of the cramped hotel we took a day trip to the beach this weekend. It feels like we really quite never got into summer in the Northwest, it was never really hot. The fall looks promising, if this weekend was any indication. We took Lander to the Seaside Aquarium where he got to feed seals and touch sea urchins and starfish. We then went down to Indian Beach in Ecola State Park and went hiking on the Clatsop trail. This trail has some awsome views of the ocean and Haystack rock. Indian Beach is also one the hotspots for surfing and I vowed after this trip that next summer I am going to take up surfing and ride the bike a little less.

Lander taking it easy on our hike

Lander checking out the camping shelter

The big stump

Waiting for the waves

Checking out starfish

And just because I am a nerd, I took this video of a fern that was releasing spores. It was really cool (I truly am a geek!).

Slummin' It in the 'Couve

2007-08-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

We are still homeless and have been living in the same small, cramped room at the hotel for almost 2 weeks now. Needless to say it is getting old and this week I was almost in tears at the thought of being here for another week. Okay, I wasn't really that close to crying, but it is getting really old.

Because I am cheap and refuse to throw even more money down the drain on a nicer hotel (um, that money would be better spent on new bikes) I decided to find the cheapest extended stay hotel I could. My sacrifice for the sake of finances resulted in the Bihlmaier family slummin' it for a few weeks. The best part about the whole situation is being in this lovely part of Vancouver (I-205 and Mill Plain, sob). It is noisy, smelly and congested. Everyday that I ride out of here on my bike to commute to work I wonder if I will actually make it across Mill Plain without getting creamed, or if I will actually make to Mill Plain without getting hit by some crazy person that is intoxicated from eating at Muchas Gracias all night. What is crazy is that if you go two blocks North or South of Mill Plain, it's a completely different town, as in one that is not noisy, smelly and congested! My second most favorite thing about the area are the people. I got home from the track late one night and decided to grab some dinner at a fast-food place close to here. I was not in there 5 minutes before some drunk guy from the bar across the street wandered in and started harassing customers. Wonderful. I sat in the corner and inhaled my food faster than usual and secretly hoped that he didn't come anywhere near me. A few days later I was leaving the hotel and there were some guys hanging out in the hallway that happened to be guests here. As I walked out one of them said "Hey, what's going on sweetie?". What the? Seriously, I object. That was definitely the low point for me.

As far as our actual room goes, our dilemma has been space. We have two adults, Lander, all of Lander's Legos, two bikes, gear to accompany two bikes, a computer, and a bunch of food crammed into a 30x20 room. The hardest part is trying to get Lander to go to bed at night. We want to stay up and read or watch TV (free Showtime), but Lander won't go to sleep if we do that. This has resulted in Bryan and I fighting over the bathroom. The toilet has become prime real estate at 9:00 at night for reading or working on my laptop. I tried to convince Bryan that sitting in the bathtub would be a good idea so we could both be in there, he didn't go for it. So, we trade off. My life is pathetic and I seriously need a vacation from my family after this. So, this is home sweet home for another week. Here's some memorable pics of our humble abode.

Lander reading my book in his underwear, what a life!

All of our crap crammed into one corner

House Fiasco

2007-08-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

We are officially homeless. We moved out of our old house last weekend and are now living in a hotel until we can move into our new house on Sept. 1st. Moving was super-fun, can we do it again? NOT! I am glad that is over with. A huge thanks to Bryan's dad for coming up to help us. The weekend was crazy with me getting sick for 5 days, Lander almost needing stitches (thanks to our new neighbor in Washougal who is a paramedic and patched him up), having to give talks in church and Bryan having food poisoning on Monday. Nothing feels normal to me right now since we are in the hotel and I haven't ridden my bike in a week since I have been sick. As soon as I can ride, I will feel so much better. Here are some pictures of the house so far:

Exterior Color

Staircase

Master bedroom

Shower in master bath

Kitchen cabinets

What Not to Do....

2007-08-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

I am a total newbie to track racing and last Thursday I learned a very important lesson about gearing. My rental bike (yeah, I don't have a real bike yet, but this is what I am getting for next year) had on an 88 inch gear instead of the 82 inch gear that I was used to riding. For those of you that are not remotely interested in bikes that basically means that an 88 inch gear is harder and an 82 inch gear is easier. So, I thought to myself, I should try an 88 and see what it's like, I might be able to go faster. WRONG. First of all, I totally wore myself out in the 15 minute Madison trying to stay on top of the 88. During the omnium races I couldn't stay on top of it either. The women's field would slow down before the sprints and then it would take all the leg power I had to get on top of my gear when someone attacked. By the time I got going, the attack was gone and I was feeling like I was pedaling through sand. It was a painful, demoralizing night for me. I will definitely be going back to the 82 next week.

I will say that the Madison was a lot of fun. I taught (with my limited knowledge) Ryan Weaver how to Madison race before the racing started and we did the Madison race together. He did awesome for his first time, I was impressed. It's so cool to race with someone that is taller than me (hard for an amazon girl like myself), I had great acceleration when he would throw me in. I look forward to next week.

Love Me, Love Me Not

2007-08-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

My bike loves me, my bike loves me not. That was pretty much my racing story last week. In all fairness, is wasn't my bikes fault, just me having my usual problems and feeling icky. I did 4 races and they went good, bad, good, bad, exactly in that order.

Monday night I raced the short track MTB at PIR (good race #1) and had my best short track races this season (no flats) and the course was awesome. Okay, I actually only did 3 of the short track races, and I flatted on one and felt terrible on the other so I was really excited that everything came together for the final race. I did manage to crash on the first lap coming off the gravel pile and had to make up places, it was good motivation.

Wednesday night I raced the CMG crit (bad, bad race #1). My tactic the week before was to go hard from the start to string things out. Well, I did this again and it backfired on me. I actually wore myself out so much that when an attack went off 1/2 way through the race I got dropped from our lead group. I managed to come in off the back of the lead group, by myself, and totally disappointed in the fact that I totally sucked!

Thursday was velodrome night (good race #2) and I was excited to again try my hand at the Madison and then we were going to do a points race. I got paired with a more experienced rider for the Madison and after botching the first two exchanges managed to not completely suck for the rest of the 15 minute race. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired that I really didn't know how I was going to do a points race. Luckily the points race was only 20 laps. At the first sprint I took some points and kept going and got a good gap on the field. I was really excited when Andrea (my fearless 6 Day diva) bridged up to me and we proceeded to work together and LAPPED THE FIELD. Lapping the field was a goal of mine at some point this season, so it was great to do it with Andrea. She beat me in the sprint, she is sprinting really well. We finished 1st and 2nd, it was great.

My bad, bad race #2 just happened to be the State Championship Time Trial. The thing that really sucked was that physically my body was toast, which meant that mentally I couldn't push myself. I tried. I pretty much realized in the first 10k of 40k that I was not going to have a good race, or even be able to race, and decided to roll it and just finish. The problem is that a) I still had 30k to ride and b) the last 20k is into a nasty headwind. I really wanted to cry and stop, but that was not an option since there was no where to go but back to the start/finish where the car was parked. I felt terrible, my time was 4 minutes slower than last year, and I was DFL.

I think I am going to go back to knitting as a past-time. Of course, I would probably find some way to screw that up as well.

Lazy!!!

2007-07-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

As the summer wears on bike racing is becoming less and less appealing to me. This usually happens to me each season, but this season it has been worse, probably because I started racing earlier in the season and did a lot more racing. At this point I am feeling less than enthusiastic to ride my bike and my thoughts are starting to turn to Lander starting school, getting ready to move, tele skiing and starting my winter training.

This weekend our friend Phil from Utah was here to do the annual Pedal the Pinchot ride. This ride is awesome and somehow we forgot to take our camera, so no proof that we actually did it. I will say, that there are some spectacular views of the blast zone on the Southeast side of St. Helens on this ride. If you ever have the chance to do this ride, I highly recommend it. Lots of climbing, but you know what that means, lots of fun descending!

I was digging through iPhoto the other day and found some pictures from Utah that I missed. These are from our favorite ride, the Alpine Loop. Fun ride, 12 mile climb, nasty technical descent on the other side, oh so much fun!

Climbing

Still climbing

Seriously, enough with the climbing already!

Are we there yet?

Phil, Bryan and I at the top of the Loop, finally! We are smiling because we
get to go downhill for a very, very long time.

Me on the descent

A large avalanche debris field, I was the only one that thought this was cool

Here are some more picture of Lander, I think he spent more time in the pond than anywhere else.

Lander hiding behind the waterfall

Lander floating

Lander and his new swim goggles

Lander playing in the waterfall

Le Tour=Le Disappointment

2007-07-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

This is ridiculous! I think I will just stick to reading Harry Potter at this point, it's much more interesting than all the blah, blah about so and so getting kicked out. What a bunch of LOSERS!

Six Day-Day Six

2007-07-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of the Six Day. Andrea and I have had so much fun and learned a ton about Madison racing. The best part was we were given "style" points for our matching hair ribbons each day. They made us race so much better. Andrea was so fun to race with. I look forward to many more Madison races with her. Our "B" group was so supportive of us coming out there and learning the Madison as we went. Thanks to everyone for your help and for your encouragement as we fumbled through the week.

The racing today began at 3:00, with some one day racing taking place between our races. The extra break was nice, but with some rain delays we ended up being at the track until 7:00 p.m.. Our first lap was an unknown distance. The roll the dice to determine laps and you don't know how many laps you are doing until they ring the bell for the final lap. Meg rolled off the front on the first lap and we got the bell on that lap. Everyone tried as hard as they could to catch her, but she came a cross the line first. It was a short race, for me it was over before I even figured out what was going on.

Our second race was a Keirin. The only experience I have with a Keirin is this video I found on YouTube:

Okay, these guys have padding on. I knew our race wouldn't be like that, but I still had no idea what to do. I was in 4th position out of 5 while we were being paced by the motorbike. I knew that with Mike, Brian and Heather in front of me I really didn't have a chance so I just decided that rolling across in 4th was good enough for me. Andrea on the other hand had an awesome race and attacked on the final lap to take the win by several bike lengths. She is my hero.

Our Madison went awesome. We had some really solid exchanges and got our timing down pretty well. We did have a couple of botched exchanges and sometimes our timing got a little messed up when we had a sprint lap, but I was totally happy with how we finished. I think that Madison hurt the worst of all of them. My legs were definitely toast when we were done. Here are some pictures that Bryan took while we were racing:

Lander wishing me good luck before the unknown distance race

The Keirin

Me throwing Andrea in

Andrea giving me a super sling

Our B podium

Lander practicing for his future racing career

Six Day-Day Five

2007-07-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

No sore legs today, thank goodness.

The weather has been threatening all week and today it finally caught up with us. The A's and B's got to do one mass start race each before it started to mist and Candi called the race. It's ironic how this week is historically the driest week of the year unless you schedule a track event that week.

We got to do a progressive points race, again, with a twist. It was 15 laps and Candi called it a "race for the mathematically challenged". And it was. Lap 1 was worth one point, 2 was two points, etc. etc.. When you got to 5 laps, the lap board went back to one and started counting up again for points. We did this 3 times, so you had to try to remember how many laps you had done. I tried to stay near the front and managed to get through the line first on one lap and then screwed myself over in the finish by going too high on the track in one corner and a bunch of people passed me. I tried to move up and wasn't sure if I should bother since I once again didn't know if the finish mattered or not (see, I really am clueless). Somehow I got 4th, what a miracle. I really need to figure out what I am doing.

B Race for the Mathmatically Challenged
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 9
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 8
4 Bihlmaier, Jeanie Specialized/River City Bicycles 7
5 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 6
6 Charboneau, Emily 5
7 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 4
8 Fisk, Andrea 3
9 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1

We are still 4th overall and totally happy with that. Most importantly, we are having fun and can't wait to do this next year.

Overall
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 196 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 167 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 102 -2 Charboneau
4 Fisk, Andrea 94 -6 Bihlmaier, Jeanie Specialized/RCB
5Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 62 -14 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central

Six Day-Day Four

2007-07-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight was pretty blah for me in the mass start races, but my awesome teammate kept the points rolling in. Andrea had a great 3rd place finish in the scratch race.

Scratch
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 9
3 Fisk, Andrea 8
4 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 7
5 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Cental 6
6 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Cental 5
7 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 4
8 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Specialized/RCB 3
9 Charboneau, Emily 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1

The progressive points race didn't go so well, but we were saving ourselves for the Madison.

Progressive Pts
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 9
3 Curl, Darien, Team Rubicon 8
4 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 7
5 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 6
6 Bjesse-Puffin, Amecial Bike Central 5
7 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Specialized/RCB 4
8 Charboneau, Emily 3
9 Fisk, Andrea
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club -1

Our Madison started off great with some interesting exchanges, but they were powerful enough to keep us with the 3 teams in front of us. It was awesome to be riding in a paceline than by yourself. There were some small gaps that opened during our exchanges, but nothing that we had a hard time closing. We were also going to listen for the bell laps and try to get some points. Our strategy was to keep the person that was on the track on for the spring instead of trying to exchange before the 200 meter line. We can't wing it good enough to do that yet. At one point we got in front of Heather and Emily and I was up with the Abers and Murray who were duking it out pretty hard. I knew I would stay there very long since we can't exchange as fast as they can. Then we had one really botched exchange and we are not quite sure how it happened. Heather and Emily passed us and we were in 4th, again. I will say we had some awesome exchanges and we can't hardly wait to race tomorrow to get to try it again. Once you have felt how it is to have everything go perfect you just can't wait to do it again.

Madison
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 20 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central
2 Murray, mike Team Oregon 11 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 7 Charboneau, Emily
4 Bihlmaier, Jeannie Specialized/RCB 4 -2 Fisk, Andrea
5 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 2 -3 Mautner, Meg NoMad Spots Club

Overall
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 182 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 153 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 93 -2 Charboneau
4 Fisk, Andrea 83 -6 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Specialized/RCB
5 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 55 -14 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central

Six Day-Day Three

2007-07-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Today my legs are doubly sore. It hurts to push on my quads with my fingers so a massage is out of the question. It also hurts to go up and down stairs so I relinquished myself to using the elevator at work a few times today. I feel so lazy.

Tonight went great for us. Andrea and I both survived through the Miss and Out and then we had a great race in the Tempo. We both got off the front with Emily and a on a few laps either one of us was taking points and on some laps both of us were taking points and we both had a strong finish. Going into the Madison we were leading in points, we were so excited.

B's Miss & out Pts Laps
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 9
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 8
4 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 7
5 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 6
6 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Specialized/River City Bicycles 5
7 Fisk, Andrea 4
8 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central 3
9 Charboneau, Emily 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1

Tempo
1 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Specialized/River City Bicycles 10
2 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 9
3 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 8
4 Fisk, Andrea 7
5 Charboneau, Emily 6
6 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 5
7 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central 4
8 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 3
9 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1 -1

The Madison went well, we kind of still were doing our own thing and not trying to stay with anyone in particular and stay out of the way. We had more successful exchanges so that equated to a good race to me. We are still sitting in 4th, but lost a couple more laps tonight. I thought that a good improvement over Monday because our Madison tonight was 30 minutes instead of 20 and we lost the same number of laps both nights. We must be slowly getting faster. Maybe tomorrow we will work on getting more points duing the sprints that occur every 5 minutes.

Madison 1 Abers, Brian Charboneau, Emily 30
2 Murray, Mike Curl, Darien 21
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Charboneau, Emily 7 -1
4 Bihlmaier, Jeanne Fisk, Andrea 4 -2
5 Mautner, Meg Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn 6 -4

Overall
1 Abers, Brian Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia 132
2 Murray, Mike Curl, Darien 114
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Charboneau, Emily 65 -2
4 Fisk, Andrea Bihlmaier, Jeanne 64 -4
5 Mautner, Meg Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn 40 -10

We are really close to Heather and Emily in points, if we could just get back a couple of laps in the mass start races we could duke it out with them for 3rd. That will never happen with Mike and Brian in our field, they are soooo strong. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Six Day-Day Two

2007-07-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

My legs are so sore today. It must be the combination of a weird bike I have never ridden and using my muscles differently.

I had this great idea for Andrea and I to wear matching hair ribbons when we raced so I ran to the craft store to buy a different kind for each day. Steven said it was "so high school volleyball" but Andrea and I both agree that it makes a huge difference in our racing.

When I got to the track I was told that I have the Alpenrose record for getting the fastest warning in a race for my infraction 1.5 laps into the Madison last night. What can I say, I am an over-achiever.

Tonight we did a points race and point a lap race. I have no clue what to do, I don't even know how I got 3rd in the point a lap race. I am still learning about how some finish orders are important and when you need to get points during the race. At this point I just go hard when I feel good, that is my strategy.

B's Points Race Pts Laps
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 9
3 Charboneau, Emily 8
4 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 7
5 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 6
6 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 5
7 Bihlmaier, Jeanie Specialized/River City Bicycles 4
8 Fisk, Andrea 3
9 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1 -1

Point a Lap
1 Abers, Brian Team Rubicon 10
2 Murray, Mike Team Oregon 9
3 Bihlmaier, Jeanie Specialized/River City Bicycles 8
4 Charboneau, Emily 7
5 Curl, Darien Team Rubicon 6
6 VanValkenburg, Heather Team Rubicon 5
7 Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn Bike Central 4
8 Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Bike Central 3
9 Fisk, Andrea 2
10 Mautner, Meg NoMad Sports Club 1 -1

The Madison was better, we did some exchanges, missed some exchanges and I really started to get a feel for how you do this race. The biggest breakthrough for me was when I realized that I could sit on Heather's wheel until she exchanged with Emily and then jump on Emily's wheel and benefit from the acceleration. This lasted until we botched an exchange but were riding strong when our race was cut short due to rain. We are still in 4th overall and 2 laps down.

Madison
1 Abers, Brian Charboneau, Emily 14
2 Murray, Mike Curl, Darien 11
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Charboneau, Emily 6
4 Bihlmaier, Jeanie Fisk, Andrea 2
5 Mautner, Meg Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn -2

Six Day-Day One

2007-07-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight I got to the track and spent a good 30 minutes re-aquainting myself with a fixed gear and riding on the track itself. I have done one pursuit this year on the track, but you only have one other person on the track and you are not sprinting, so it's really no comparison for what I have gotten myself into. Tonights races included a Madison pursuit to seed the teams into the "A" group (really fast) and "B" group (everyone else and us). This would be our competition for the rest of the week. After that we would do a 20 minute Madison.

For the pursuit Andrea and I decided to just practice riding up to each other and maybe touching hands as a form of an exchange to get used to the idea of the timing needed for an exchange. We had to do 4 exchanges in the 3k race so to make it easy we decided to exchange every 2 laps of so. We also wanted to time our exchanges so that we could do them on the flatter sections of the track and not on the banking. I could already tell that this kind of race was going to require a lot of thought on my part and that was before all the rules I had to remember for the mass start Madison. The pursuit went well and when the A and B groups were sorted out we were third. I am sure we looked really pathetic, but we are learning.

B
1 Abers, Brian Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia 4:37.02
2 Murray, Mike Curl, Darien 4:40.30
3 Fisk, Andrea Bihlmaier, Jeanie 4:54.55
4 VanValkenburg, Heather Charboneau, Emily 4:55.14
5 Mautner, Meg Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn 5:08.56

The mass start Madison was worrying me. I had read the Madison rules on the OBRA site and looked over Madison diagrams that Mike Murray had posted, but none of it really made a lot of sense until I actually did the race. I did break one rule, about 1.5 laps into the race when I went under and exchange (big, big no no) and I was lucky that I didn't cause a wreck. I will never do that again. Andrea and I did great and rode within our comfort level coming in two laps down from the leaders.

Madison B
1 Abers, Brian Bjesse-Puffin, Amelia Even 21
2 Murray, Mike Curl, Darien Even 9
3 VanValkenburg, Heather Charboneau, Emily -1 3
4 Fisk, Andrea Bihlmaier, Jeanie -2 7
5 Mautner, Meg Hughes-Godfrey, Lynn -2 4

After the races Steven and Jimmy stayed and worked with us on exchanges and we practiced for a while with exchanges, timing, riding in a paceline and exchanging. I felt 100 times more comfortable when I left the track and was really excited for the Madison on Tuesday.

Alpenrose Six Day

2007-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to race with Andrea Fisk at the Woodland crit yesterday and we started throwing around the idea of racing the Six Day at the velodrome. I didn't know much about the race, but it's pretty simple. You race as a team of two each night for six days. Each night you do two mass start races and a Madison. Each night you get points for each race and the points carry over so that the team with the most points at the end of the week wins. I have maybe done 4 mass start races on the track in my life. Kind of intimidating, but I figured I could just hang out and not get in any trouble and not do anything stupid, like cause a wreck. The Madison is a beautiful race. It's pretty simple. One teammate races for a lap and then you switch. The switch is the tricky part, you have to hand sling your teammate that is coming in up to speed to keep up with the rest of the racers. Here's an example:

Neither Andrea or I had ever attempted this. There is no rule that you have to throw your teammate, you can just ride up to them, match speed, and then have them take off. The problem is, the throw really gives them an advantage to keep up with the other teams. So, I have until tomorrow to figure out our game plan. I guess this could be called my induction into track racing, sounds more like a trial by fire.

Highlights of Utah

2007-07-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Utah was a lot of fun. We did some mtn. biking, road biking and the highlight of the trip was our 4x4 escapade on the Hell's Revenge trail in Moab (more to come on that trip). We also got to hang out with the family a lot play with Lander at the ranch in Idaho and had a great July 4th BBQ courtesy of my awesome parents. Here's the proof:

Lander feeding a cow a hamburger bun, how ironic

Lander's favorite ranch find, a skunk tail

Baby birds at the ranch

Lander playing in the pond at my parents' house

Lander warming himself on a rock

Elkhorn

2007-06-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is that it was a fun race, but I am glad it is over. Due to waning interest and health issues my endurance is shot, so just getting through all the stages of Elkhorn was good enough for me.

24 Hours of Crazy

2007-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

24 Hours of Crazy

I have come to the conclusion that sometimes I make decisions that look really good on paper, but in reality turn-out to be absolute chaos. Here is what the last 24 hours have been like for me. This is what it takes for me to actually make it to a bike race, and why I usually show-up to them exhausted.

Wednesday June 20

5:00 a.m.-Wake-up, go to work

10:00 a.m.-Come home from work, stop at River City for the requisite “last minute” things for the Elkhorn stage race

10:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.-Frantically pack for Elkhorn, pack Lander for a 2 week stay in Utah and pack myself for an overnight trip to Utah.

3:00-4:15 p.m.-Drive to the airport, take shuttle from parking to the terminal, I am on schedule to get there just in time to board and get a good seat in the mayhem of flying Southwest when Lander throws a hitch in my plans.

4:15-4:30-Lander’s bathroom break. Despite my best efforts to avoid this at the airport, Lander foiled my plans. We still made it to the plane in time for our 4:40 p.m. departure and miraculously found two seats together and Lander was able to sit by the window. Of course, Lander still had to use the bathroom, again, on the airplane.

7:30 p.m.-Arrive in SLC, UT and immediately go to Olive Garden for dinner, Lander and I are two very hungry travelers.

10:00 p.m.-Go to Ryun’s house so I can use his wireless to check emails. End up eating more food and drinking some awesome non-alcoholic wine with Ryun and Phil. Ryun shows off his new Hummer, Phil his decked out D90 Defender and we try to see how far across the valley we can make Ryun’s new 8 bizillion candle power HID spotlight shine. It’s like I never left, those boys are still the same.

Thursday June 21

12:00 a.m.-Go to bed. It feels good to be at my parent’s house, if only for one night.

7:00 a.m.-Wake up, shower, eat breakfast and leave for the airport

9:20 a.m.- Get to the airport, realize I am not going to make my 10 am flight if I stand in the security line that is now about to go out the door. I manage to weave myself into the line where there is a disturbance by a TSA Nazi screaming at the top of her lungs about bagging up your liquids. I manage to inconspicuously cut in line, pretty impressive for a 6’ tall girl with a bright orange messenger bag. I have never, in my adult life cut in line before. I felt bad, but no one said anything, I think they could see the panic on my face.

9:21 a.m.- Go back to screaming TSA lady to get bag so security doesn’t confiscate my lip-gloss and inhaler.

9:24 a.m.- Cut in line, again. I am really pushing it this time.

9:35 a.m.- I am standing in line and realize that I don’t know what gate I need to go to since I printed my boarding pass yesterday and I didn’t check-in since I am not checking bags. Hmm, panic.

9:40 a.m.- Do the usual “what will make the alarm go off” mental check at security. I only have to partially disrobe this time.

9:44 a.m.- Make it through security, unscathed. Thank goodness I wasn’t “randomly” selected to be searched. I have 6 minutes to get to the plane before my seat becomes available for standby. I find the departure screen and find my terminal. Of course, my terminal is literally the farthest point away from where I am standing. I run through the concourse trying to tighten the straps on my Chacos so they don’t go flying off with my belt in my hand that I have not had time to put back on yet. I must have looked like an absolute freak!

9:48 a.m.- Get to the gate, find a seat and try to relax. Fly back home and have a nice chat with an Australian couple.

11:30 a.m.- Arrive back in Portland, take shuttle back to my truck.

12:30 p.m.- Eat lunch with Bryan, try not to be stressed about the million things I have to do before we can leave.

1:00-3:00 p.m.- Frantically clean house to get it ready for an open house while we are at Elkhorn. I really hope that someone will buy it soon, keeping it spotless clean is killing me!

3:00 p.m.- Pack final items for Elkhorn and go over my packing list to make sure I don’t forget anything, like my helmet or shoes.

3:30-4:30 p.m.- Remember that I need to do a 1 hour pre-race ride. I actually feel pretty good when I ride, gives me hope for Elkhorn. We abandon the hope of leaving Vancouver at 4:00.

4:30-6:00 p.m.- Shower, pack, one more trip to the store for last minute things.
6:00 p.m.- Finally out the door

11:00 p.m.- Arrive in Baker City, unpack and crash into bed at midnight.

Whew! I hope I have the energy to race tomorrow.

Slip 'n' Slide

2007-06-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

Saturday I decided that it would be totally awesome if I went mountain biking in the pouring rain and the track races had been canceled. I don't know what made me think that riding in the rain here would be fun. It was fun, and painful.

Most of my mtn. biking experience has been in Utah, where it's dry and it doesn't rain a whole lot during the riding season. Things are really dry in Utah, so when they get wet, the water gets absorbed quickly and it's usually not too terrible to ride in. Here in the PacNW it's totally different. It is so wet here most of the time that a slimy biofilm covers pretty much everything that can't move on its own volition and the soil has a lot of clay in it. Rain makes things go from moderately slippery to "What the, how did I end up on the ground so fast" slippery. This is exactly how my ride went. Multiple crashes on a not too technical trail close to my house, I usually tear through it when it's dry. That was not the case. Of course, every time I crashed, it was in front of some other random trail user. There weren't that many people out there, why was my timing so bad? It's me, my timing is always bad. My favorite crash occurred when I was riding over a root that I happened to hit one degree less from perpendicular. This caused my front wheel and entire bike to literally fly out from underneath me and all of a sudden I was on the ground sliding on my butt across wet, packed clay. It kind of reminded me of one of the finishes of the Giro. I was fine, my bike was fine, but I was totally embarrassed when I heard some guys ask me if I was ok. At least someone got a good laugh. I collected myself and and hopped back on my bike and decided that I had done enough ego damage for one day and headed home. I was also pretty certain that I had toasted my team kit. I was completely covered in pine needles and mud. Why go to a spa for a mud treatment? Just go ride your bike in the mud for a couple of hours. Here's the damage:

The bike caked with pine needles

The shorts and jersey plastered with dirt

Me caked with dirt, notice I am smiling

It was a great ride. There really is something fun about riding in the rain and coming home completely covered in mud. After I cleaned off my bike I turned the hose on myself so that I had some chance of removing most of the mud and pine needles before I went inside to shower. Miraculously, my kit came completely clean and looks brand new. I love these kits!

Mt. Hood Re-cap

2007-06-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

This is a compilation of all my posts for Team Bike Hugger. Heather, this is for you :)

Stage 1 Pre-ride

On Monday Suz, Leah, Dana and I met up in the afternoon to pre-ride the TT course for stage 1. It was great to meet Dana and Leah since we had not met before and they are AWESOME. I can't wait to race with them. After pre-riding the course on our TT bikes we jumped on the road bikes to practice taking bottle feeds from our support car that would be in the race caravan. We practiced dropping back to the car, getting rid of empty bottles and taking new bottles. When you get new bottles you get to hang on for a few seconds before Eric lets go and take a "pull" so you can get a tiny break before you have to move back up to the peleton. It was lot's of fun. Here's some pictures that Eric took on our pre-ride

Dana

Lea

Suz, Dana, Jeanie (I am the tall amazon girl) and Lea at Panorama Point

Heading out on the TT course

Stage 1

Since I am behind schedule on blogging (today was Stage 3 and I have yet to post on Stage 1), I will do a short synopsis with some great pictures that Eric took. Suz made us all proud and took 2nd in the stage.

Trish, Lise, Lea and Jeanie warming-up

Trish warming up with Hood in the background

Suz getting ready to kick some bootay!

Suz on the podium in 2nd place, great job!

Stage 2-Rattlesnakes, Illness and Hottness

Today was HOT! At the start of stage 2 I was excited, the finish was slightly downhill and was geared for sprinters. I am a sprinter. What I wasn't excited for was the 1 mile hill in the middle of the course that we did 3 times. That hill had queen of the mountains points on every lap so the pace was going to pick-up very quickly. Oh yeah, did I mention it was hot? I had a feeling that I might be playing catch-up on the downhill sections to get back to the main group when they ramped up the pace on the hill. After the first of 3 laps I was able to catch back on, but I never felt quite right on the 2nd lap. On the second lap, everything fell apart for me. I ended up running over a dead rattlesnake, running over road kill is something I really try to avoid. After that I got sick and had to pull over to the side of the road and, well you don't want all the details. In short, the great attention I had been paying to staying hydrated and eating all went out the window, or should I say, onto the side of the road. After this lovely event my legs decided to leave the building and I was left to suffer through the last lap with legs that had no intention of co-operating with me.. The good thing is I was able to chase back onto the main group and stay with them to the bottom of the climb, again. I also got shot of the back, again because my legs were no where to be found. I caught some girls and we worked to the finish line.

Our team did great yesterday, despite me having nothing in me to help. Suz did great on the climbs despite the fact that she had 4 mechanicals during the race. The story is really a great one and I will let her tell it. You could not believe what happened in one race. Lea had a great sprint at the end and came in 7th. Trish had a small fall in some gravel and had some great road rash (pictures to be posted soon). It was a great day for the team and I only hope that tomorrow I don't get sick and run over dead snakes!

Stage 3-More Hotness

My dream for slightly cooler weather did not come true. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then today pretty much went like this:

Need I say more? This is pretty much how Dana and I felt after today. There were some attacks on the climb on lap 2 of 3 and the pace ramped up hard and I went out the back, then Dana and Trish. I really wish I could have caught up with them, it would have made my ride so much more enjoyable. Lea and Lisa did a great job of chasing the attacks for Suz, I could hear all of this over my race radio, I just wish I could have been there to help. I ended up finishing the race with some girls from other teams and had fun on the long descent each lap so it was a hard day, but a good one.

Tomorrow is the long time trial and I will be rolling it (not riding hard) to recover and save myself for the crit on Sunday. I am looking forward to a small break from pain of racing. Tomorrow will be a nice ride to spin the legs out and take in some food while I ride. Only 3 more days of racing.

Rolling in the Hotness

More hotness today, I am actually starting to get a really good tan and I don't look like the pale Northwest person that I am.

I really like time trials, even when they are painful. I like time trials even more when I get to "roll" them. Today was the least stressful race I have had in a long time. Rolling the TT means I get to ride the TT at a decent pace and not blow myself up in the hopes that I will have some legs left over for the massive stage on Saturday and the crit on Sunday. So basically I got to take the scenic tour of the course, which is really beautiful. It was nice to not have to stress out before the race, worry about warming up and wondering if my one inch long ponytail was "aero". I did choose to ride my TT bike because I generally believe that any time spent on the TT bike is good training and I will feel less guilty about not riding my TT bike next week considering I have been on it 3 times this week already. I had fun thanking the volunteers at the corners and telling the girls who passed me "good job" as they went by.

Later this evening Eric was looking at my road bike and discovered that my brakes were so close to my rims that the brakes were actually rubbing when I would stand up to pedal. Hmm, maybe the last two days wouldn't have been so painful if I hadn't been expending so much energy on the climbs. Maybe there is a good excuse for why I have been sucking the last two days. I can only hope that tomorrow I will be climbing like a rock star now that Eric has fixed my bike up nicely. Well, I am off to bed so I can be well rested for the 90 miles and 9200 feet of climbing that will be the hell I am in tomorrow. There will be some interesting tactics going on with the teams that are defending the leaders jersey and the teams that want control of the leaders jersey. It will be an interesting stage.

Stage 5-The Real 89 Mile Time Trial in the Hotness

It was hot, again. The absolute best part about stage 5 was the first 5 kilometers. It was a screaming fast descent down to where the first climb started. I was actually in the front on the descent, which was probably the most time I have spent on the front of the pack the whole race. One of the Aaron's girls commented to me at the bottom that we didn't need to push it on the descent since it was a long race. I don't think she could figure out that as an amazon woman I weigh 30 pounds more than she does and that I tend to go downhill really fast without any effort.

Once we started climbing I moved up to the front of the pack and was actually feeling pretty good and able to keep my position. Climbing up to the first QOM Aaron's got on the front and started to slowly ramp up the pace. I new that my time with the main group was numbered at this point and that I would eventually fall off and have to catch back on after the descent. I soon found myself out the back of the group with some girls behind me and some girls ahead of me. This is where my 80 mile individual time trial started. I caught up to two girls that were in front of me and we climbed well together. I felt great climbing, my wheel issues were worked out and I could tell that I had more power now that my wheels weren't rubbing. I can climb at a steady pace, I just can't accelerate on climbs, so I just paced myself. Jill from Bend Bike and Sport and I dropped the Velo Bella girl that was with us on the climb, I felt bad, but what can you do? I then ended up dropping Jill on the descent on the other side. I was hoping that she could stay on my wheel, but it didn't happen. I passed Nicole Evans (Lipton) towards the bottom of the hill and chatted with her a bit, she was having mechanical problems. I was hoping to have found the race caravan by now, so I was still by myself chasing the back of the caravan. Soon I could see the caravan in the distance. I pushed as hard as I could to catch on and managed to get into the caravan right after the first feed zone. As I went past Eric I grabbed a second bottle and a short rest and made my way into the field. The unfortunate thing for me was that I managed to catch on right before this short, steep climb that can be best described as a wall. I was able to move up in the field, hand my extra bottle off to a teammate and then immediately got shot off the back on the wall when Aaron's launched a monster attack. Thus began the second part of my time trial. I caught a couple more girls and rode with them to the second QOM, down the descent, but lost them when we started climbing again. I was actually feeling pretty good and they wanted to ride a bit slower and chat so I was on my own again. This lasted for a while until I ran into Sal Collura from OBRA and Laura Brown from my group. Sal eventually had to drop back because of a mechanical. So Laura and I rode together for a while. We passed some more girls that couldn't stay with us and rode with Heather Clark from Bend Bike and Sport. I stayed with them until the last push up to the ski resort. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cry, but I managed to finish. I hope that the crit goes good tomorrow. It's only 50 minutes, but it is going to hurt.

Why Do Animals Love Me?

2007-05-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

When I am on my bike I seem to be a magnet for dogs and other traumatic experiences with animals, I am not sure why. Maybe I should stop wearing fruity smelling lotion, or carrying half eaten Clif Bars in my jersey. Whatever the reason I have had my fair share of quite humorous encounters with dogs and other animals while biking.

I remember when I lived in Utah I was biking home from work one day. I lived in some hills and there was a really decent climb up to my house. As I was enjoying the pain of slowly going uphill a small and fluffy dog decided that he needed to make my life more miserable by trying to bite my ankles as I rode up the hill. The thing that really sucked was the fact that I couldn't pedal any faster than the dogs 3 inch legs could run. I was pretty much stuck with this "If I could punt you like a football I would" dog trying to take a piece of my achilles tendon home for dinner. I am not sure how I accomplished the feat of unclipping and taking a shot at the dog with my shoe, but I managed to make some contact, although minimal, with the dogs face and he promptly left me alone.

My second great encounter with animals came on fine summer day when my husband and I were mountain biking on Sheep Creek trail in Utah. For some reason, I never imagined that I might actually encounter an animal such as a sheep on such named trail. I mean they name trails after weird things all the time. Well, I was wrong. This was actually a trail that was guarded by a herd on unruly sheep. My problem was I was on the wrong end of an angry herd of sheep that my husband had stirred into hysteria. Bryan had ridden up past the herd of sheep that were taking up most of the fire road we were on. As soon as he got past they got all stirred up and mob mentality took over and they turned and started stampeding in my direction. I was mortified. I had heard of mtn. bikers injured by cougar attacks or falls from great heights, I was not going to be the 6:00 news story of "biker trampled by 50 angry sheep"! Luckily I had an escape route up a sidehill to my right. I managed to get off my bike and drag it up the hill with me and avoid the stampede. Once the dust cleared I found my husband practically rolling on the ground laughing. I was secretly hoping that he would fall on the ground laughing, and roll right through some sheep crap! That would have made my day.

Last Saturday I had my latest urban adventure with a quadraped. It's a nice afternoon and I am headed to my friend Joe's house to hook up for a ride. As I round a corner see a huge labradore come out from behind a bush and nail my front wheel, behind him is a little pug following obediently. As I am laying on the ground trying to figure out if I broke anything a) on my body, or b) on my bike, I can't seem to get the pug out of my lap. He seems to think that this is a great place to sit, or maybe he wants me to pet him, who knows. Meanwhile the lab is starting to sniff the road rash on my right arm that is now starting to bleed. I eye him suspiciously, he looks like he is about to start licking it. I landed on my tail bone really hard and can't figure out if I can stand up yet. The owner comes out and mumbles something about how he's seen worse road rash and I think "So your dogs have taken someone else out? Maybe you should think twice about letting them run around your neighborhood." He was nice enough to get me a paper towel so I didn't drip blood the rest of the way to Joe's. After some spiffy bandaging, courtesy of Joe, and 4 Ibuprophen (aka Trail Candy) I was good to go and managed to ride 3.5 hours before the drugs wore off and I had to go home to get more. The next morning hurt worse: sore neck, sore left quad, sore tail bone and aching arm.

Post-clean-up road rash

My brand new Fizik saddle :(

It's almost been a week and I am feeling pretty good. I did go mountain biking today and I realized that mountain biking with bruised tail bone is probably not the best idea as I had quite a bit of pain when I hit the bumpy sections. At least I feel okay on my road bike and I won't have to ride with an inflatable doughnut duct taped to my seat.

Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Preview

2007-05-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have pre-ridden a couple of the stages for the upcoming Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. The race is going to be brutal, so I am glad to have had the chance to enjoy the scenery on two of the stages. I am sure that I won't even know that it's there come race day (which is next Tuesday by the way). Here are some photos I took along the way.

Stage 5 (87 Miles/9200 feet of climbing)

Bryan climbing to KOM #1

Going up to KOM #3

Mt. Hood getting socked in

Me knackered in the Mt. Hood Meadows parking lot
I only thought I felt this way after skiing, apparently not!

Time Trial Course (18.5 miles/1950 feet of climbing)

Nice view of the Gorge

The path the TT course finishes on

Part of the Mosier Tunnels

The other part of the Mosier Tunnels

Nice view of the Gorge and Mt. Adams in the distance

As you can see, the race is going to have some beautiful scenery. I can't wait!

Lander Loves Dozer Day

2007-05-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Lander was in hog heaven last weekend when his dad took him to Dozer Day where he gets to sit on bulldozers and dig holes and fill them in. He is just like his Grandpa Don. Anything involving dirt and big machines makes Lander one happy boy.

House Progress

2007-05-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures last Friday when I was up at the house, it's starting to look like a house with the siding and cedar shingles up.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2007-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

I have been consumed with adult responsibilities the last two weeks. Our new house will be done in August so it was time to get the current house on the market. Our house is only 3 years old, but it was still a huge undertaking to get it ready to sell. This is due mostly in part to my obsessive-compulsive need to have everything near perfect. It is finally on the market and now all I have to do is keep it clean, which is easier said than done when you have a 6 year old boy.

I have been so bad about posting photos of the home building process, actually I am just lazy. Here are some progress shots leading up to the most recent pictures we took this week.

This is what it looks like today

Views

Lander's Sixth Birthday

2007-04-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

Lander turned six today. Here are some pictures of the load of gifts he got and from his party at school (called Star Day) and his party with his friends.

Lander's school party

Birthday breakfast

The haul (before)

The haul (after)

Cool gift from Aunt Shauna and Uncle Sterling

Landers low-budget cake courtesy of Mom

Landers' boy party

Relaxation

2007-04-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't say that this weekend was relaxing, but I decided not to do any racing. That left me free to do all the other stuff I needed to do like starting to get our current house ready to put on the market and spend 3 hours at the new house with the electrician trying to make decisions on wiring that I am sure I will regret as soon as it is too late to do anything about it.

Saturday myself and a couple of guys from our team (Stewart and Chris) did the Bridge of the Gods ride. This ride is an absolute must if you visit The 'Couve, it's 90 miles of awesome views and scenic waterfalls. You get to experience the Columbia River Gorge in full. We went pretty hard on the hills going out the Gorge and I seriously wondered if I was going to make it back in one piece, my legs already hurt. We ran into Melissa as we were headed up the climb to Crown Point. I of course was struggling to stay on her wheel and tried to ignore the fact that my legs were unwilling to do what I wanted them to do, which was climb. The descent from Crown was fun, as it usually is. We made it home without any incident and not even one flat tire. That is always a good time

Tour of Walla Walla

2007-04-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Ever since I moved to Washington I have wanted to visit Walla Walla, mainly because it has a goofy name. It also has a really awesome stage race.

Having never raced any Washington races I was really excited to do the Tour of Walla Walla and race against a new group of women. Here are the things that made me most nervous:
1. There were 57 women registered
2. Most of them were from WA or British Columbia (i.e. tough girls)
3. A small percentage of them were Pro’s (Um, Mara Abbott from Webcor and a bunch more)
4. Most of the girls were on teams, I was outnumbered

So, I decided to have no expectations about this race. Do the best I can and race smart.

TT
The TT was all up hill to the turnaround, my absolute favorite, NOT! It was only 7.5 miles, but it was going to hurt. The overall grade wasn’t very steep, but there were a few sections that kicked up a little just to make it extra painful. As usual, I spent more time warming up than I actually did racing the TT, that is how it goes.

I always try to not go too hard in the beginning and allow my heart rate to creep up slowly to my TT zone. Well, that didn’t happen because right off the start you start to climb. I skyrocketed to 180 in about a minute and spent the next 4 minutes trying to get the lactic acid out of my legs and telling myself that it was too early to quit the race. I finally managed to get into some rhythm, climbing in my aerobars in the big ring. That just sounds so backwards to me. I was slowly creeping up on my 30 second girl and no one had passed me so I figured I must be having a pretty decent ride. I passed my 30 second girl right before the turn around, it was good motivation to push hard up the final grade. The ride down was awesome. It wasn’t so steep that I was doing 50 mph or anything like that, but I was able to go pretty fast. When I crossed the finish line, I thought I was going to toss my cookies. That is a pretty good indication that you expended the right amount of effort. My left quad also felt like it was going to explode, that made me worry about what would happen to me later in the road race.

Suz won the time trial by a huge margin, of course. I managed to come in 12th place, which really surprised me. Of course, then I immediately started worrying about the road race and the 4,000 feet of climbing that went with it. Hmm, how many GC spots would I lose over that course?

Road Race
I must admit that sometimes race profiles make them look a lot worse than they really are. Yes, the race had almost 4,000 feet of climbing and yes there was a 3 km hill that we had to climb 3 times, but it really wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. I honestly stayed in the big ring the whole time except for the 3 km climb. I knew I could just sit in and not work

The first time up the hill was neutral and I comfortably sat in and pondered who I could pay off in the lead car to keep us going this speed the next two times up the climb. What was awesome was the descent on the other side. Yes, it was sketchy because our group had not thinned out at all, but I knew that if I did get dropped on the climb on the next lap that I would be able to catch on. There were multiple attacks on the first lap, but none of them stuck. Things were uneventful on the first lap until the climb, when things picked up for the QOM sprint. Much to my amazement, I managed to dangle on the back of the group until the 1k to go sign and then turned myself inside out to get up the rest of the climb without losing too much time. I went over the top with 3 other girls and we could see the group in front of us so it didn’t take too long to chase back on. It was fun to actually go down the descent without having to brake all the time.

Our second lap was longer than the first and mostly rolling. I basically sat in and watched the attacks go off and matched the accelerations. No big deal. I had already decided that when we came to the final climb to the finish, again, that I was just going to go my own pace and not blow myself up. Again, to my surprise, they didn’t drop me as quick as I thought they would. I was also passing girls that were falling off and was grateful that my legs had decided to show up and race today. I finished in 27th place about 1’10” behind the winner (Mara of course). My GC position only dropped to 15th shockingly.

Crit
I had heard from several people how nasty the roads were for the crit so of course the weather turned bad and not only did we have bad roads, we had nasty, wet roads and it rained the whole time. I knew Kele Murdin (Pro trackie) would kill everyone, and she did. She rolled off the start before the whistle, which none of the judges seemed to care about, and basically attacked before the first corner. The pack was strung out immediately and lucky for me I had a good start and was in 4th position. I think we lost about ¼ of the field on the first lap. I kept up in the front while Kele and some strong BC chicks tried to get a break going. I tried to get in with them, but realized that might not be the best idea. I sat in for a bit and then 5 minutes in I had my “Oh crap, my legs are going to die and I am going to get dropped” phase. This always happens to me and I went to that special place in my mind where I think that pain is enjoyable and suffered through it. I vowed at that point not to look at my clock, or the race timer or the lap counter, EVER!!!!!!! The corners weren’t too slippery and I was able to keep my speed and even pedal through some of them. There was a crash early on in the race, but I was able to get around it easily. I finally realized we had 4 laps to go so I started to move up for the finish. I got a little boxed in on the last lap, but I had a gap to get through coming out of the last corner and managed to come in 6th place.

My GC position actually got better after the crit, that usually never happens. I ended up in 12th overall, evidently some of the girls ahead of me in GC were dropped in the crit. Lucky me. I can’t wait to do this race again next year.

Kings Valley

2007-04-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am lazy. I did the wonderfully hilly King's Valley race last weekend. I was really excited about this race as it's one of only a few road races on Saturday, then I got sick two days before the race. I decided to drive down with Bryan and see how I felt. I felt dizzy and a little feverish and against my best judgement decided to race anyway. I felt suprizingly good and just designated myself as pack fodder for most the race. On the final 1k climb to the finish, I found myself with the front 4 girls wondering what on earth I was doing in the front on a climb. Me, climbing, well? Wow, that's wierd. Anyway, my congested head and tired legs gave out 1/2 way up the climb and a few more girls passed me. I managed to come in 9th out of 19 girls on a hilly course with a climb to the finish. Maybe there is hope for me in the hills.

Next weekend, Tour of Walla Walla. I get to go get beat up by the Washington and BC girlies.

Breaking Ice and Eating Cake

2007-04-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

So Redlands has come and gone. It was a great experience and I learned a lot, and I can't wait to do more NRC races this year. I am planning on racing Mt. Hood and Cascade and I hope to also make it to Nature Valley and maybe Green Mountain. We will see how things pan out.

Icebreaker Criterium
Since my Redlands race was cut short due to me being cut in the crit (I vow to have this never happen again, I am built for crits!) I decided to have a wicked racing weekend. My legs were feeling pretty good on Friday so I headed down to Eugene with the boys from our River City Bicycles/Specialized team for the Ice Breaker crit. My plan was to race the Cat 1/2/3 women's race and then race with the Cat 3 men for training. Here are the suspects:

Tom, Tim, Joe and Gary with Chris (needs a new team kit) and Austin in the back

Ironically, Joe's antics in front of the camera with his tongue hanging out of his mouth foreshadowed the act of Joe puking after the Master's 35+ race. Joe was in a break with 3 other guys and they held it until the finish. The sprint began at 200 meters and Joe took 2nd place, then tossed his cookies. Way to go Joe!!!!

I was worried that my race would wind up a repeat of last year where we had 4 Cat 1/2/3 women race and it sucked because the back section of the course is always really, really windy. Well, this year we had 8 registered, but only 7 showed up. So, for the most part, better than last year. Kay Bork and Kori Kunz were there from the Eugene based Poplollies team, Jan Moss from Group Health, Marth Walsh and a couple of newly upgraded 3's. I decided that I wanted to do well in this race and decided to play defensive and not waste any energy launching my own attacks, which obviously wouldn't stick. I knew Kay and Kori would work together and I would be out numbered by them, that is exactly what they did. Kay went off the front and I chased. Jan launched several attacks and I chased. That was pretty much the situation I was in. This was fine with me because not only did I want to do well, I wanted a good workout, I wanted to be in pain and have to dig deep to win the sprints. I did manage to win 2 primes ($20 total) which also put me way off the front a couple of times. I would take this opportunity to make them work to catch me but not work hard enough to make myself tired. Kori was riding strong and her strategy is to go early in the sprints. Well, I am not a pure sprinter so that is my strategy as well. I knew in the final sprint I had to go before her to win. We both happened to end up at the back of the pace line, she was behind me, coming into the final corner. Not really a good position for me, reminds me of match sprints at the track (by the way, I suck at those). I think we must have both gone at the same time, she on the outside and I was on the inside. I managed to accelerate fast enough around our group that I had enough time to set myself up for the last corner and swing wide on the finishing stretch. I cut back to the inside fast and saw that Kori was a bit behind me. I can honestly say that the sprint to the line felt like the first real sprint I have done. I wanted it so bad and I knew I had to dig deep to keep my lead. It paid off and I won the final sprint. I was most pleased.

Immediately after my race I jumped in with the Cat 3 men which all of my teammates (except puking Joe) were going to race as well. I figured this would be good NRC crit practice as the speed and accelerations would be fast. I felt good the first few laps and then on about the 5th lap we came in to the back stretch and there was a flat bed truck 3/4 across our lane. I can't figure out how that happened, this crit is in a business park around one building, there was no one else there but us. So basically the whole pack got strung out and I was towards the back so I ended up having to chase into the headwind to get back on. My legs were screaming with pain at this point. I managed to hang on a few more laps but eventually fell off with Gary and Tim. Gary and I rode together and caught another couple of guys and were basically going to ride until the group came around again and we could jump in or they pulled us from the course. We caught up to two more guys, one from Paul's and some guy with no team kit. This was good, more people to work with. It was great until this idiot who wasn't wearing a team kit managed to end up behind me and when I would pull off the front of the pace line he would stand up and sprint. I always managed to be pulling off after I had pulled in the headwind so I had to fight tooth and nail to get back on because Mr. I Just Upgraded From Cat 4 had to accelerate when it was his turn. Does he know anything about a paceline? Did he honestly think we were going to catch the main field? What a DORK!! So my legs could only handle this a couple of times before I couldn't get back in. I tried to position myself so he wasn't behind me, but that is hard when there are only 4 of you. I gave up eventually and then saw that this guy managed to shake Gary and the Paul's guy as well. I caught up to them and we jumped back in the main field as they came around. I lasted a lap or two and then decided that was enough racing for one day and went to do my cool down and recover.

Piece of Cake
I was really excited to to PoC as a training race. Amy and I decided to race with the Cat3 men to get a good training ride in with a pace more similar to what we might find at an NRC race. PoC is pancake flat and I did it last year with the women and it was so boring. Yes, we had a lot of women, but it was rotating pace line for 51 miles with a sprint at the end. Basically a time trial. I wanted something harder. So the Cat 3 men's race seemed like a good idea.

The Cat3 men's field is an interesting group. You have a bunch of weekend warriors with hairy legs and seasoned racers mixed into one group, there was even a dude riding his rain bike with fenders. See where I am going with this? I wanted something hard, what I got was something scary. It was a 51 mile squirrel fest. You couldn't move up because the roads were narrow and we only had one lane. I can't even count how many times I had to hit my brakes and I heard and smelled tires rubbing. Amy and I set-up shop in the way back, far enough back to get around any catastrophes. This also put us in prime surging area. Every corner we had to sprint back into the field. I was fine with this, I wanted a good work out and it got easier as the guys on front wore out. It was pretty uneventful until the last lap when there was a big crash in front. Amy and I got around it but as I rode by I saw an unconscious Half Fast Velo guy and a few others on the ground. Two were taken by ambulance to the hospital and ended up with broken collar bones and one had a broken wrist to top it off. I was glad when we made it to the finish and Amy and I took 42nd and 43rd place. Woo Hoo, we're kickin' butt!!! David Hart and I rode an extra lap before the afternoon races started so I got about 70 miles in that day.

There were only 4 Cat 1/2/3 women that showed up for the afternoon race and I was tempted stay and race knowing that I was guaranteed cash for finishing, but I had been gone too much that weekend and I wanted to hang out with Bryan and Lander. I heard it was another 51 mile TTT so I didn't miss out much. The good thing is that my friend Mechele took 2nd in the Master's race. I think she can with the Master's BAR this year.

It was a good weekend. My fitness is coming around, too bad it didn't show up for Redlands!!!!

Off to Redlands

2007-03-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my prior post I am off to my first endeavor with a professional women's cycling team at the Redlands Classic. Our name is Team Bike Hugger/TRIA. A few ladies on our team, including myself will be blogging while we are down there. If you would like to read about our experience you can find it at http://team.bikehugger.com/

Daily results, stage profiles and team rosters can be found at cyclingnews.com

Lander the Ski Bum

2007-03-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Here is some more video of Lander skiing on 3.2.2007. Things have been crazy lately with going to Disneyland, getting on a pro team going to Redland's Classic and breaking ground on the new house. More to come on all those, for now here's Lander doing the best skiing ever!!!

Lander Loses His First Tooth

2007-03-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

The toothfairy will be making a stop at our house tonight because Lander lost his first tooth tonight. He was eating dinner, or trying to at least, and I noticed that it was really lose and bleeding a little. He let me wiggle it a little and if fell out, he was so excited. The tooth next to it is lose as well, it will be coming out soon I am sure. I love the toothless grin!!! As Lander and I said prayers tonight he said "please bless that the toothfairy will bring me a coin that is enough like $10." I think that is a strong hint that any monetary amount that is less than the cost of a Lego set is unacceptable. Let's hope the toothfairy is wealthy.

Sceying

2007-02-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

You might wonder what sceying is. Sceying is actually Lander-speak for skiing. Lander is learning to write words, so he spells them according to how they sound. I love it, sometimes it takes Bryan and I a couple minutes to figure out what it says. Lander had spelled out sceying with some magnetic letters. It's awesome that he thinks about skiing when he's at home. I rewarded him by taking him skiing on Friday.

Friday was epic snow at Meadow's. We finally got slammed with tons of fresh powder and I can honestly say it is the best snow I have skied in since we moved here. It was almost as good as Utah snow. I actually saw stellar crystals falling, not the usual graupel. They looked like this:

It was incredible. I skied with my friend Adam (uber-good tele skier) and I skied the best I ever have, thanks to him. I also had the requisite face plants associated with trying to ski faster to keep up with Adam. The best one was in Yoda Bowl where I literally flew in the air about 15 feet downhill before landing on my head. Needless to say, I had some whiplash the next morning.

Lander did great in his lesson. When I caught up to him on the Buttercup lift he was tearing it up. Here is some good video of him. I was trying to ski while I shot this, so it's kind of hard to see him at first. He's the kid with the blue helmet and yellow bib using the adult skiers as slalom gates. Oh yeah, and you can see his arms flailing around a lot. He's so cute. After his episode where he did the splits, he immediately got up again and skied down into the lift line to go tear it up again. He is going to be better than his mom next year. Next year he starts on tele!!! Here is some good video of him:

Lander was knackered on the way home, as you can see by his sleeping position. It was a great day, Lander had a good time, I had a good time, what more can you ask for?

The Weekend

2007-02-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

Part I-Playing Bike Racer

Things this weekend went from my normal amount of organized chaos to just plain crazy. I didn't really race this weekend, but did race training. In my opinion this is harder because there just isn't the same motivation to push yourself. It began Saturday with my race training ride. My hopes were that the rain would stop and the roads would dry up so that I wouldn't be trying to push my 25 lb rain bike up hills at race pace. Well, this is the Northwest, where everything is covered in green squishy stuff because it is always wet, even when it's not raining. It's like living on a sponge that never dries out. The rain did stop, but the dampness remained, mostly in part to fog that was covering most of the area Saturday morning. The roads were wet, but it was going to be 60 degrees later in the day. So, I decided to take the race bike out and secretly hoped I would only be riding on wet roads for an hour or so. Well that didn't happen either. We rode to Washougal (where we are building our house) where there are some good climbs and I think it rains the most. After that we headed up to Hockinson to hit the rollers. It was a great ride and in the end my bike looked like this:

It kind of looks like a post Paris-Roubaix bike. I know it's really no big deal, I just had to spend some quality outdoor time cleaning it when I got home. It was 60 degrees, I was happy to be outside. I actually enjoy cleaning my bike, more than I enjoy cleaning my house. Probably because I go have fun on my bike while getting it dirty, my house just gets dirty no matter what.
I really thought that my team kit was going to become my official mtn. biking only team kit. Who wears white in the Northwest in the winter? I know it's a fashion faux pas to wear white after Labor Day, maybe I should heed that rule.

Amazingly, it all came out. I really love the new kit, especially the all white shorts we have for summer. Maybe by July it will dry out enough that I can actually wear them.

The rain came back Saturday night and for some reason I decided to be a heathen and go ride Sunday (gasp) morning. I don't usually do this but our church is at 1:00 p.m., I had my lesson prepared to teach to the Young Women's group, it was a holiday weekend and I wanted to do a couple of hard training days back to back to see how my legs felt. Is that enough justification? I figured that I would for sure get hit by a car or ride into a ditch for breaking the Sabbath, but I got lucky. The weather was also pretty decent. It wasn't the usual drizzle for days on end rain we have, but smaller storms that moved through. It think we only rode in 20 minutes of rain during our 3 hour ride. My legs were pretty shot since I really did everything wrong when I got home from my hard ride on Saturday (not eating immediately, stretching and icing down my knee). I was still able to push it pretty hard. Tauscher and I rode up to Hockinson and pushed it on the rollers. When we hit Battle Ground we backed of and spun home allowing ourselves an hour of recovery riding from the past two days efforts.

Suprisingly my lesson at church went great and by the time I got home at 4:30 I was exhausted. Needless to say, I have this habit of not doing things that are logical to most people. You would think that after two hard training days I might actually go to bed early on Sunday night and get some much needed rest. Well, not me. I stayed up to watch Desparate Housewives at 9:00 and then my thought process went something like this. "I am getting up at 7:00 to meet Schauer and Tauscher for a nice long endurance ride. If I go to bed at midnight I can get 7 hours of sleep, good enough." So I proceeded to waste a couple of hours in front of the TV while I painted my fingernails and toenails bright pink. Don't ask why I did this, I never do this so I have no clue. I finally made my way to bed around 12:20, fine with me. I fell asleep quickly, until my rude awakening at 3:20 a.m..

Part II-Playing Rescue Hero(Lander's terminology)

At 3:20 a.m. my cell phone and home phone simultaneously started ringing. It can be only one thing, there is a rescue. I literally fall out of bed and crawl downstairs to call into the PMR voicemail to get more information, I had to listen to it twice because I spaced off the first time. I left my message saying I would be there and then wondered how I was going to get my gear together and be up to T-line lodge at 5:30 a.m.. It takes 1.5 hours to get to T-line from my house and my gear was strewn all over the house and the garage. It took me a good 10 minutes to wake up to the point that I felt competent that I could actually pack all the gear I needed and then some, thank goodness for checklists. I was out the door at 4:20, a little later than planned, but I did my best and luckily made it up there with all the pertinent gear.

I got to T-line at 6:00 just in time for the morning debrief and planning session. I tried to situate myself as far away from the TV cameras as possible, but that was unsuccessful and I ended up in some pictures that made their way to all the major news networks in the U.S.. GREAT!!! Luckily my bright green hat (I need a more incognito hat) was covering the mess my hair was in. Not that I cared, but I spend so much time looking like a dork it would be nice to limit these kind of situations as much as possible. Our team was responsible for hauling gear into the field. I like that job, I usually have a good time because there is a lot of waiting around so we get to chat with eachother and hang out.

We were out the door at 7:00 a.m. hauling our sled full of gear. There were six on our team Steve, Iain, Todd, Keith, Tom and myself. We didn't have very far to hike to get to the rim of White River Canyon so we were there in no time. We did a compression test to check the avy danger, it would be sketchy that day. We figured we would be stationed there for a while so we dug a huge snow cave. This accomplished two things, we had something to do that kept us warm and we had a place to get out of the snow and wind. It was alot of fun and I can honestly say that the longer we hung out in the snow cave, the goofier we got. There were many joking comments about how my pink fingernails didn't match my red jacket, it was ridiculous. Did we make sure to punch enough air holes? I don't know, maybe I have a few less brain cells than before. This mission had a happy ending, I was pleased. A full report will be posted here that is a little more detailed than what you saw on the news.

All I can say is that it was a great holiday weekend. We had some fun time with the family interspersed between all the adventure. What more could I ask for, I was totally beat when I went to work Tuesday morning.

Testing the Engine

2007-02-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I did my inaugural "testing the engine" race simulation ride. After months of slow endurance training I am now in the transition phase of my training and I am always apprehensive when it comes to the first hard ride of the season. I really look forward to pushing myself as hard as I can, but I really don't want to ride with other people because then they will see how bad I SUCK!!!!

I decided to leave my ego at home and go out with the group from North River Racing because they always ride hard and I knew I would probably be hanging on for dear life most of the ride. Luckily the weather was decent and I was able to take the race bike out, it felt great. We rode down to Estacada from The 'Couve so the route was unfamiliar (i.e. I was probably going to blow on the hills because I didn't know how long they were) so that made it a very interesting ride and it was beautiful. I have to say that the ride went better than I expected. For some reason, I didn't get dropped on the hills. I would watch my heart rate soar to places I had not seen it go for 6 months. At one point I hit 190 bpm and past experience tells me that when that happens on a hill, it's all over for me. To my astonishment I was able to recover from that and still climb up other hills after that. What is going on? Could it possibly be that I might actually be able to climb? What a novel idea!!! I don't want to get my hopes up after one ride, but I will see how this weekend goes. I don't ever care if I am the best climber in the group, I just want to be able to hang with the main group in all the races I do (especially Cascade, Elkhorn, etc.).

I was also able to do some flat speed work. At one point, Steve Long and I were pacing off of each other on a section with a nice tail wind and we were hovering at about the 28-30 mph mark. It was amazing. My legs were toast, but it was worth it.

I ended up with about 75 miles when I got home. I figure for the first hard ride of the season that was a reasonable distance. I am excited to see how this weekend goes, hopefully as well as last weekend.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

2007-02-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

I love that saying, not sure why. So yesterday Bryan and I went to the Oregon Bicycle Racing Organization's annual awards banquet so I could claim my "major award". Through some stroke of dumb luck or persistence or whatever you want to call it I ended up winning the Best All Around Rider competition for the Senior Women for 2006. It was a great evening with good food, fun people and the best roast of Candi Murray since she is retiring this year. Candi has kept OBRA running smoothly for the last 3 decades and has turned it into one of the most successful bike racing organizations in the country. The only two states that have more racers per capita and races per year are California and Colorado, I think that is pretty awesome. It is awesome to live in an area that promotes cycling and bike racing so much, kudos to OBRA. Here's a picture of my major award. I also received my new racing number for next year. Bryan says that it screams "Hey, get on my wheel!!!" I guess incognito is not going to be a tactic for me this year.

Kent Swanson Jr. Memorial Avalanche Training

2007-02-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had the opportunity of joining Portland Mountain Rescue and other professional rescuers for a three day avalanche course. This course went beyond what I learned in my level one course a few years ago and there was a ton of useful information that I hope I can absorb from my notes over the next few weeks. Our instructor was Ian Tomm, the operations manager for the Canadian Avalanche Association, he was awesome!!!! If you are reading this post and you do any sort of backcountry skiing you need to check out their web-site and the new Avaluator trip planning system that they are introducing this year. This is a great tool to assess risk when going into the backcountry while you are in the planning phases of your trip. I can only hope that something like this will catch on the the U.S. and that we can have a similar database of BC ski routes. In addition to learning about the Avaluator trip planner we practiced a new search method for finding multiple beacons, terrain evaluation and route finding, snowpack analysis and a rescue scenario. It was non-stop from start to finish and I had a great time. PMR is a great organization and I am proud to be a part of it. It was a beautiful day on Sunday and here are some pictures I took. I also included some pictures of Saturday the Reuben took of us girlies trying to get the Rutschblock to fail. No such luck, we have an enormously stable snowpack right now.

Trying to get the Rutschblock to fail, unsuccessful

At least we had fun trying

Chris and I having fun doing compression tests

Cool clouds

Dome cloud at about the 9000' level

Mt. Jefferson

Our trusty PMR truck

Lander, Knight of Winter

2007-01-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

So today was day three of no school for Lander. Despite sledding on Tuesday, skiing on Wednesday and hanging out at the house today, he is getting quite bored. While I was bored riding the trainer and watching 4 episodes of Lost, Lander was left to entertain himself. He scavenged upstairs for a while, I thought he was playing with Legos, until he came downstairs dressed like this. He announced he was a winter knight. This is the best outfit I have ever seen!!!! I especially like the ski socks, thermal underwear and the Little Richard wig, they complement each other nicely. I am sure he can slay dragons with his plastic screwdriver sword. He kind of reminds me of a character from The Princess Bride.

Snow Day

2007-01-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Utah I never understood the concept of a "Snow Day". It snows a lot in Utah, big deal. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, a "Snow Day" is marked by mass confusion and hysteria when 3-5 inches of snow fall and major cities and town shut down completely. It is really amusing. I drove to work yesterday (20 miles) and it took 3 HOURS!!! School was cancelled for two days and there were dozens of sledding related injuries to kids that think that sledding down a street is safe when cars are sliding down the same hill backwards/sideways and doing 360's. It has been chaos. The roads around our house are still snowpacked so I guess I won't be riding my bike outside anytime soon. It's a good thing I have intervals I can do on the trainer tomorrow. At least I can look forward to watching a few more episodes of Lost-Season 2.

The great thing about working part-time in a research lab is that I can pretty much make my own hours. Today Lander and I headed to the mountain to ski rather than battle the mayhem of traffic around town. At least most people that go to the mountain know how to drive in the snow because they do it everytime they go skiing. It was a perfect day. There were a few new inches of snow and it was mostly sunny with no wind. Here are some pics and some more video of Lander skiing. He had a great instructor today, she had him up on the chair lift the whole 2 hours, he did AWESOME!!! Lander had one melt-down when he wanted to go into the terrain park. He flailed on the ground and managed to kick both his skis off. He will probably be rippin' the rails by the time he is 6.

Clouds and inversion layer

Lander and me

Me goofin' around on the ski lift

More video of Lander (some of these aren't that great because I was in the wrong place trying to move around on my skis and film at the same time without falling over. So when you see the camera moving around spastically, that is me trying to stay upright.):

Lander does the splits

MLsKi Day

2007-01-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

No School + No Work=SKIING!!!! Today Bryan, Lander and I packed it up and headed to Meadows for a day of nice sunny Northwest skiing. It was a beautiful day, one of the few times I have actually been able to see where I was going. Here are some pics and video of Lander's ski lesson.

Lander's Ski Lesson Videos:

Lander excited to be skiing

Lander more interested in sampling snow than skiing

Mt. Jefferson

View from the top of Cascade

Why?

2007-01-05T23:26:00.000-08:00

Today Lisa T. and I went skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows. When we arrived there was a large section of the bottom part of the resort closed off and patrolers said there was an incident. I thought to myself, it must be really serious, and it was.

05:21 PM PST on Friday, January 5, 2007
By KGW Staff
GOVERNMENT CAMP -- A skier was killed Friday after a collision on a trail at Mt. Hood Meadows.

KGW
Mount Hood.
Hood River County deputies said 45-year-old Portlander Geoffrey Scott Bradeen died after a collision around 9:45 a.m.

Officials said it appeared he was skiing on the North Canyon run when someone else crashed into him. Deputies said it appeared Bradeen may have fallen and was hit in the head by a snowboarder while trying to get up. An assistant medical examiner on scene determined the head injuries to be the cause of Bradeen’s death. Police said that the victim was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

"I honestly have not seen a situation like this in 20 years," said Mt. Hood Meadows General Manager Dave Riley, "where there was a fatality and one of the people left the scene."
The area where the death happened was closed for investigation and deputies were trying to interview a snowboarder who may have more information.

No charges were expected, since it was not being investigated as a criminal matter, deputies said.

I am not going to even go into a diatribe about my personal opinions on this situation, those who know me know exactly how I feel (Long Live ALTA!!!). All I can say is that what happened is totally inexcusable, it was on a GREEN RUN which is really wide and mellow. What if that had been a child, what if it had been my child? I realize that there is an inherent risk in skiing. To me that means that I need to be careful of what I am doing and where I am doing it and attentive those around me. It's the same concept as driving a car too fast, I don't care how good you think you are at it, you don't have any control when you have to dodge an obstacle or stop suddenly. Is it that complicated to understand? My thoughts and prayers go out to the family. As for the snowboarder who caused all this, YOU SUCK!!!!

Ironically, I had an altercation earlier today with a snowboarder that almost hit me from behind and he had the nerve to shout obscenities at me when I told him to watch where he was going. Another skier told me on the lift he almost got hit as well by a snowboarder who had to cut across the entire width of a run so he could catch his 1/2 inch of air off his "sweet jump". All I can say is "I MISS ALTA, I LOVE YOU!!!"

Dropping a Knee at Alta-holics Anonymous

2007-01-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

I LOVE ALTA!!!! Tele skiing in Utah over Christmas was awesome. There wasn't a whole lot of new snow, but there was plenty of fun to be had at Alta. Bryan and I found some great spots off trail and even made a few fresh turns in the fluffy pow. The best part was that I got Bryan on tele skis for 2 whole days. The first day was a result of him taking a core sample out of the bottom of his alpine ski on the 2nd run of the day courtesy of a hidden rock. He opted to rent tele gear while his ski was being repaired. Day 2 Phil joined us and I had a lot of laughs watching Phil and Bryan waffle around on tele gear. I think they ultimately deserved this since they drug me through a ton of gated black diamond areas the day before. Phil's famous words were "Come on, it will be great.", only to find moguls the size of VW Beatles. We did find a lot of good snow even though I had to do some survival tele skiing in the huge moguls to get to it. It was anything but graceful. Here are some pics from our trip and a couple of videos of Bryan and I skiing. Bryan makes me jealous, this is only is 4th time on tele and he is linking turns and looking like a pro. He still has some good wrecks though, unfortunately, I didn't get any of them on film.

Awesome sunrise en route to Alta

Bryan tele skiing:

Jeanie tele skiing

Me dropping a knee

Catherine's Area-My personal favorite

The infamous Utah inversion layer

By the time we left Utah I had tele'd 4 days and went cross country skiing one day, with no rest in between. My legs were shot. I could barely walk by our last day skiing. One byproduct of my 5 consecutive days of skiing was one very swollen right knee. I guess the fact that I have a torn LCL and partial ACL tear really makes it difficult to recover from skiing.

As you can see, my right knee is puffy compared to my left. This picture doesn't do it justice. Also, you will notice a nice yellow/purple bruise above my left knee. This is from my first stint on cross country skis. Bryan and I both had one really great crash on or XC skis. Mental note, if there is any chance you might want to slow down on a downhill, do it before you get going too fast. Obviously, I had some issues. This picture also does not do my contusion justice, it is very bright and colorful and now it is more purple than yellow. I am pretty sure I broke a blood vessel.

Mach 1 Tubing

2007-01-02T18:15:00.000-08:00

While we were in Utah we got to go "Extreme Tubing" with my brother and his family at his company party. This was really cool since they had a rope tow up to the top of the hill and then the slope was divided into different lanes. Each person had to be in their own tube, but you could hold each others tubes and go down as a group. Some lanes were faster than others, and some had bumps that you could get airborn on. It was a lot of fun. Lander had a blast. We went so fast I thought he would be scared, but he just had the biggest grin on his face after each run. I am pretty convinced we hit 30 mph at least. He is such an adrenaline junkie. Here are some pics.

Lander with his huge cheesey grin.

Lander waiting for mom to tow him to the rope tow!