MTB Video for Work

A little while back, my office filmed me mountain biking and I was paid to do it! I was going to miss the department retreat since I was going to be in Colorado, so we thought the video was a good idea to bring me into our office presentation. The idea of the video is to have the retreat attendees think I'm in the middle of my race and calling in to give my little presentation on what I do. I think everyone at the retreat had to describe their jobs so everyone else could understand all the working parts of our well-oiled-machine department. So the video is kind of cool - of me biking - and then kind of cheesy when I'm describing my job. But maybe interesting too!

Playing Hooky in Park City

Kendra's birthday was today and she invited me to take the day off to go mountain biking with her in Park City - so I did! We filled up on calories with Kneader's French Toast for breakfast. Yum yum. Then we hit Round Valley in the morning which was a good thing since it was all sage-brush and no shade, but quite fun with its twisty downhills.

By the time we finished Round Valley, it was nearly lunch time so we grabbed some Subway sandwiches and stuck them in our jersey pockets to eat on our next ride. The next ride was the highlight of the day for sure! We rode up Spiro and Mid-Mountain trails at the Park City Resort. It was a lot of climbing at the beginning, but it was in the trees!! So I took quite a few pictures. We rode out to a rocky point, took some pictures, and headed back the way we came. That's when Kendra took a jump then a tumble and ended our riding for the day even though she wanted to hit one more trail. But she was pretty scraped up and hurting. Thankfully she made it back to the car on her own.

Other than Kendra's little tumble, it was a fabulous day of biking. We logged 20 miles and over 1800 feet of climbing. Not too bad!

My Deserved Weekend O' Fun

Eight hours dedicated to my final exam paper plus ridiculous 5 miles per hour commutes to and from Salt Lake for a conference equals a much deserved weekend of fun. I got a lot of practice holding that sweet spot in first gear to go 5 miles per hour so I didn't have to put the clutch in as much.

So I took a weekend o' fun. It started with the fireman's breakfast for my little town's Art City Days with my friend, Michele.

My hearty fireman's breakfast of eggs, ham and pancakes.

Michele and I in front of our fire truck!

Then Ashlee and I took our mini vacay to Park City and stayed in a 4-star hotel - the Hotel Park City. We drove up there Friday afternoon,  hung out by the pool for an hour or so, went to dinner, rented some movies and watched them in the hotel room wearing the "plush" but not really so plush bathrobes, and munched on double chocolate gelato. Then the cherry on top was our shopping trip to the Park City factory outlet stores where I scored some really cute clothes. It was lovely.

In the Silver Star Cafe in Park City

The Silver Star Cafe - check out the outdoor seating!

Lounging with my gelato in the plush bathrobe. 

The Union Jack Quilt

I finished my Union Jack quilt! Isn't it darling? I'm really digging these smaller quilts. They don't take nearly as long!

Little Red Riding Hood 2012

Four years in a row now. Four times! I've ridden the full 100-mile century ride at Cache Valley's Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride event. Three of them have been with Teri! The past two years, she and I have ended up on our own most of the time and finishing somewhere around 7 hours of ride time. This time, we finished just a little over 6 hours of ride time. The difference? We drafted off my teammate, Kendra, and a few of my other friends. Drafting is really quite crazy because those in the back of the pack don't have to pedal all that much to keep up with everyone. The slipstream of the riders ahead of you suck you in and pull you! So our full pack of friends consisted of me, Kendra, Teri, Kari, Jenn, and Emma. Jenn and Emma decided to do the ride just the day before. Kendra and I know Jenn from mountain biking, and Emma lives by Jenn but is the daughter of Teri's neighbor, Jean. It was quite comical when we were loading up our bikes Saturday morning with the intention of meeting Jenn and her friend (who I didn't realize was Emma - who I did know was Jean's daughter) at the start. Jenn and Emma started to leave before us, but drove by Teri's house and noticed us. We had a great laugh when we realized they had been next door the whole night before when we were coordinating the meet-up.

At mile 25

Jenn and Kendra were the entertainment of the ride for sure. Them and their booby/booty shots for the cameras were driving me nuts! If you were to look at Jenn's Facebook photos, you would see that most of her photos are of her doing her booby pose. Good grief. The girl has no propriety! Ha ha! In fact, she tried to do the pose for our lunch photo, but I put one hand on her stomach and one on the back of her neck/head and pulled and pushed my hands to prevent it. Ha ha! The pose wouldn't have been quite so embarrassing if we didn't have men taking all of our pictures for us.

At the lunch stop

Me in the process of preventing Jenn's infamous "booby" pose.

Overall the ride went really well. Kendra pulled our draft for the entire 100 miles. Before lunch, which was at mile 50, we averaged 17.5 miles per hour. After lunch we weren't quite as fast since Kari bonked pretty bad, but she was a trooper and rode through her bonk. We had a little stretch of head-wind that didn't help her bonk, so Kendra, Teri and I created a geese-V around her to keep her riding but she could still only hold 10 miles per hour. Once she had a chance to the use the potty and eat some food, she looked a lot better for the last 15 miles but she was still very tired. Even with the slower riding after lunch, we averaged 16 miles per hour for the entire ride. Teri and I were quite delighted that neither of us bonked this year. Although, Teri did have some mechanical issues for the first 25 miles until a mechanic at the first stop we stopped at fixed it.

At the finish line. (Emma was MIA)

Me and Kari

Memorial Day Adventures

Friday night for Memorial Day weekend, I joined David's mondo-sized camping trip. I'm talking 60 people were there. Not all of them stayed the night though. I thought the weather was going to be terrible, but it ended up being beautiful! And the Jambalaya that David made for everyone turned out really well despite my doubts.

Yep. I'm Paul Bunyan's Lady.

Janie, Carrie, and Wendy chillin'.

David, the Jambalaya King

Our beautiful campground up AF canyon.

Me, Janie, and Chris - fireside goofballs.

On Saturday, Josh took Janie, David, and me 4-byin' in his Toyota FJ-40 rig, that he's named Clifford. We had such a blast! He took us up a very rocky road that ended at a forest lake - or more like a spring runoff collection point. When we got to the "lake" it started to snow and rain - it was that cold of a weekend! The bad weather just delayed itself. But it also made the roads muddier. One mud hole that we skirted earlier in the drive ended up eating us on our way back down the mountain. Clifford was tipped at a precarious angle in the mud hole - if you can tell by the angle of the trees through the windshield. But Josh has a winch so David climbed out the back of the rig and hooked up the winch. Once we were straightened out, Josh drove through the mud hole like it was no big deal. It was crazy awesome! Once we got out of the mountains, the four of us went to lunch at Cafe Rio as the cherry on top. It was super fun!

Clifford!

Josh, me, and David at the forest lake

Me, Janie, Josh, & David

Stuck in the mud hole! We were tipped 45 degrees.

Then Monday morning, I had my next mountain bike race in the Corner Canyon area of Draper. Janie joined me to support Jen, Tim, and I at the race. It was fun to have her and to hear her cheer me on at the beginning! There were seven ladies in my category, so it was kind of a big race! I passed two of the ladies on the two-mile shake-out loop: one was kind of slow, the other struggled at the first rocks and thankfully I was able to get past her. Then I passed another lady who was having trouble with her tire going flat. And then believe this!: I passed another beginner lady on the shake-out loop when we had to do it again at the end of the race. I saw her and noticed that I was closing the distance. I couldn't believe it! So I ended up taking 3rd place out of 7!! This was a long course too: 12.5 miles. Normally my races are only 7 miles. But with doing 34 miles at Mesa Verde and 12.5 at this one . . . I'm nervous all of the other ICUP mountain bike races will feel short now!

Looking strong on my 5-mile climb!

51 MTB Miles in 36 Hours

51 mountain biking miles in 36 hours. Yeah, I'd say that is my best accomplishment for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde race and weekend. Jason and Patty joined me on my 3-person co-ed team for the 12-hour relay race. We had a load of fun. We drove down Thursday night and stayed in our stinky smoking room since it was the last one available with two queen beds. Then Friday morning we dinked around on the 17-mile race course with Wendy, pre-riding it, practicing some of the technical spots, taking pictures, etc. Afterward, we ran over to Mesa Verde National Park with Wendy and Dorothy and checked out Cliff Palace and Balcony House. We had a great time! Patty scrambled up the 32-foot latter of Balcony House like a bat out of he** since she's a little scared of heights, I got in trouble for sitting on one of the walls, Wendy sat in the car for one of the sites, and I had to pull teeth to get Jason to smile in pictures. Yeah, it was a memorable day before the race. 

Wendy and Jason on the course

Pre-riding the course

The race began at 7:00 am with a foot-race around a barn to the bikes. Patty liked the idea of not having to deal with all the faster riders passing her so she did the first lap. Jason went second and I went third. All three of us were going to get two laps in so I figured I would be riding at the hottest times of the day, but I lucked out! My first lap ended with a little storm sprinkling on me and my second lap had a nice, cool breeze. Patty got the rain and mud on her second lap. Jason probably got the perfect packed trail conditions after Patty's muddy lap, while Patty and I got the dusty ones. During my first lap, Wendy rode out with Dorothy and then ended up waiting for me and was my little "carrot" and cheerleader for the course. In between laps, we'd hang out with some others from the team: Jen and Tim, Gayle and Paul, Tiffany and Shauna, We'd change out of our sweaty, first-lap biking clothes into dry clothes, eat, hang out for a minute, then change into our new biking clothes and go hang out at the transition point for the rider to come in. All of us felt like the second lap took it out of us, but we had fun. We ended up in 19th place out of 27! Then we topped the night off with some spaghetti and meatballs from Lotsa Pasta and a soak in the hotel hot tub. 

Pre-riding the course - on Tuffy Rim

And instead of bringing home sore muscles, I brought home a cold that has laid me up for these past two days. Boo. But I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I'm getting massage tomorrow. Sweet. 

Wendy, Dorothy, me, & Jason at Cliff Palace

Patty, Dorothy, me & Jason at Balcony House

Me and Patty climbing through the tunnel of Balcony House

Jason in the transition area after his first lap