Sundance Spin - Mtn Bike Race #4

I have fallen in love with Sundance. I've always avoided it for skiing, but I now see its beauties for mountain biking in the summer. The course was spectacular! I was biking through trees (and over them!) and forests, over bridges, by ponds, and with views across the canyon that Sundance is in!! I am definitely going to go back there.

This last race that I am committed to went much better than Soldier Hollow did. I was a little more prepared for what it would be like to have all the Pros and Experts pass me on the single-track. And this single-track was a little more conducive to allow passing. I got 5th place again. I think that must be my lucky number. :) Oh! And I was sooooo official looking in my team jersey and shorts.

As soon as I finished the race we had to hurry out of there and get home so I could change my clothes, clean up what little I could, and then go perform in my second ever piano recital. Lindsey and I finished the race around 11:30, left Sundance around 11:45, got to my house by 12:10 and left for my piano recital by 12:30 - which is when it started... up in Orem. We were a bit late. But it sure was fun to have Lindsey there! I did okay. Had a few mess ups, but overall it went just fine.

Memorial Day Weekend of Biking

Memorial Day weekend was spent on my bikes!

Saturday some friends and I went mountain biking at Lambert Park. Camille got a sweet war wound, but was not deterred. Lambert park is so much fun! I've missed it. The last time I went there it was just a bit difficult ... since it was my first time on my new bike. But this time... with some more practice... was super fun.

I spent the morning getting my oil changed in my car and re-organizing my junk down in the basement and getting rid of some things.

Then that night we saw the newest installment of Night at the Museum.... it was fun. Pretty good.

Sunday I had some of the same friends over for dinner that went biking with me the day before and we had dessert and played some fun games.

And then Monday. Oh Monday. First, I begged and begged and then felt guilty for begging a couple of my friends to join me on a long road ride that I needed to do to train for the Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride I have coming up on June 6th. I ended up going by myself. 60 miles. SIXTY miles. By myself. The first 20 miles were rough, but I took a little rest at Lincoln Beach, laid down to flatten out my kinked back, ate some food. Got back on my bike.

After that it seemed to get easier - probably due to a combination of factors: I had a tail wind for the next 10 miles, it was all new terrain that I've never seen before in my life so it was fun to look around, and pedaling became a way of life - my lot in life that day... in stead of walking that day, I pedaled. Kind of interesting. At one point I was biking through free range land and there were cows on the side of the road! Chewing their cud and watching me as I rode by. The whole time I was pleading that they wouldn't chase me, ram me, or anything of the sort! I don't think I could out run a cow... even on my road bike! I can get up to 20 or 23 mph pretty easily on a flat road, but I was on a slight incline at the time. Kind of wild.

And then I started to see the orchards and the outskirts of Genola, Utah. It was a pretty little farming community! I got a little lost there, my Google maps on my phone were deceiving me... saying one road might go all the way through and then saying one road was called State St. when it was actually Center St. But I found my way and continued on my path around West Mountain. I didn't rest again for another 30 miles... and it just about killed me because I was fighting a head wind coming into the community that I know had a church in whose lawn I could lay down in. But! While I was laying there, the wind switched directions on me and so I had a tailwind for the rest of the way home. Yes!

That evening I rented The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, watched it and had a yummy dinner. That movie totally made me cry at the end! I enjoyed it. The story totally intrigued me. But after it was over, I was feeling like too much of a loner - having spent my whole holiday by myself. I needed some social interaction! So I called around and got a hold of Lindsey who had just put a group together to go miniature golfing. I haven't done that in so long! We had a great time.

The other momentous occasion for the weekend was that my car passed 150,000 miles on its odometer. Kinda crazy!

Soldier Hollow - Mtn Bike Race #3

You would think the mud and rain would have made 5-Mile Pass my worst race yet. Wrongo bongo. Soldier Hollow was my worst race yet. In my opinion. It was a lot of climbing (1,100 feet of climbing) but that wasn't even as bad as I thought it would be. There were a lot of switch-backs going up a hillside and then.... you had to come down from the hill.... and you guessed it - on switch-backs. I probably would have tried more of them, but Wednesday night when I was pre-riding it during the Weekly Race Series race, there was a downhill switch-back that I totally wiped out on. It was bad. And I have some pretty good bruises from it.

So I lost a little of my mojo and especially when I saw that there were 10 more of those downhill switch-back turns that I'd have to ride through on the actual ICUP course that we didn't have to do on Wednesday night. The fact that they were downhill and switch-back, hairpin turns alone doesn't do it justice to explain how paralyzed I was .... the dirt on those turns was so loose! Dusty, fine, powdery dirt - the kind where your back tire will come out from underneath you. And then to make matters worse... about the time when I finally got to those downhill switch-backs was the time when all the Professionals and Experts were passing me. Oh brother! So I had to get out of their way.... I would just stand paralyzed on the side of the course looking down it to see if there was another one of those switch-backs and then I'd look up and see that there were like 10 people needing to pass me...get back on the bike... try to navigate the turn... get scared.... get off the bike just before I wipe out.... and then realize there are more people to pass me. That was, what felt like, an eternally-long and freaky portion of the race.

But! The silver lining on the cloud of this race? There definitely was one. The number 5 was the lucky number for the race (I don't remember them doing this at other races...) and so whoever came in 5th place could get some swag!! And guess who came in 5th place? Yup. Me. Out of 5 racers in my category - so I was dead last, but I was in the lucky 5th place! They had some really nice swag for us to choose from... fleeces, coats, shirts... I was really tempted by a black soft shell coat, but I decided on a nice brown long sleeved shirt by Kuhl. I decided I have plenty of coats. :)

And the good news is that I have only 1 more race that I am committed to do. It's on May 30th at Sundance and can I tell you how busy that day will be? Yeah. Race starts at 9:30 am and my category will start at 9:48 am - and the race is suppose to last about an hour... and then I have to run home, shower, and drive up to Orem in order to perform in my piano recital at 12:30. Whoa. Gonna be a busy morning.

P.S. In the picture, I am the 3rd person from the left - you can see the side of my head because I'm talking to the other racers.

Chicago and a Wedding

My mom and I had a great time in Chicago. She absolutely spoiled me. I'm too old, too independent, and too long out of the house to be spoiled like she spoiled me this week.

We walked up and down the Magnificent Mile and window-shopped and most places ... like Saks Fifth Avenue. Did you know that is where you can find all the extravagant brands? Like Dolce & Gabbana? Valentino? Huh. Yeah. We saw a $3,200 suit-coat there. Good grief. But I did do some real shopping at H&M! And Lush! I was so excited to see those stores there. They just bring back so many good memories from my study abroad in London. Loooove it. I bought a darling sun dress, and two tops at H&M and then some lip balm and a muscles-relaxing-massaging bar at Lush. The Magnificent Mile can even support three Banana Republics! Can you believe that? There is that many shoppers on that street. Oh and Crate and Barrel. Day dreamed in that store for a while. :)

We had to try the famous stuffed pizza at Giordano's! It truly was huge and stuffed. I swear it was 3 inches thick! We only ordered a 10" pizza but either of us could only eat 1 and 3/4 pieces. It was that big. We had to throw away a third of it because we couldn't finish it.

We also went on an architecture river cruise on the Chicago River. That was fascinating!! At one point on the river we could smell chocolate. It smelled so good. Never did find the source of it, but we did find a nice little Ghiradelli store and ice cream shop. Yeah. We enjoyed some ice cream there. Mmmm. We wandered through the Field Museum and awed at Sue, the largest and most complete T. Rex in the world. And then we saw the Mary Poppins broadway. We loved it. It was so fun and so light-hearted.

Of course, the real reason why we went to Chicago was because I had a business conference there. That was good too. :)

We had to hurry back on Friday because we had another wedding in the family! My nephew, Jeremy, married a sweet girl on Saturday in Salt Lake City. My two sisters in Boise, Robyn and Jill, brought their families down and we enjoyed some nice family time at the brunch and wedding. My dad and his wife also came from Blackfoot. We had a great family turnout!

I spent a little time coaching my two oldest nephews from Jill's family how to hug properly. Ha! They are hilarious.

I Did It! I Finished Jane Eyre!

I just have to announce that I finally finished reading Jane Eyre!! I can't believe it took me so long to do it - over a year. But .... I did it. I just have a hard time reading these old books. I suffered through Pride and Prejudice for 8 months.... How can that be??!! It seems so wrong because Pride and Prejudice is my favorite story of all time... in movie form. I own 3 versions of it. I so looooove Jane Eyre too. I finished it more on principle... just to say I've read it. The last little bit really picked up for me so I think that's why I was able to finish reading it. :)

5-Mile Pass - Mtn Bike Race #2

We did it and we survived it. We woke up to a down-pour and drove out to 5-Mile Pass in the down-pour. We thought for sure they were going to cancel the race and especially since we saw some cars with bikes on the roof driving in the opposite direction. When we got there, we discovered that it had been delayed an hour and we'd see if the weather would cut us any slack. But they did change the course... they cut it down to 4 miles in stead of the original 11 miles and everyone was only going to do 1 lap. Crazy!

The weather cooperated some and let up on the rain just in time for the race. Lindsey and I figured out there were only 4 total beginner women (our race category) - counting us. So one of us was going to at least get 3rd place! The race started out with a long uphill and Lindsey pulled out ahead of me, but then the course had some short ups and downs and that's when I was able to catch up to Lindsey and passed her. The other two women were ahead of us, but one of them was not that far ahead of us. I'm pretty good on the downhills and apparently better than I thought because by this time the Pros and the Experts and everyone was really beginning to lap and pass me, so I'd hear all these, "on your left" and "on your right" and then it just became a survival game for me to stay out of their way but not die. (Since the weather turned better, everyone was back to their normal number of laps to complete (pros - 4, experts - 3, beginners - 1, etc).) In order to stay out of their way, I'd go off the beaten path some and I'd fly over some HUGE rocks! I survived even though I was pleading I wouldn't die. At one point there were like 7 riders all lined up with flat tires... sure glad that wasn't me.

And then the mud fields. Oh man. The first one was kind of in a downhill so I tried to ride it as long as I could. I'm talking the kind of mud you go mud-wrestling in! Soupy mud. I was sliding all over the place and then I started to tip over, but I unclipped fast enough to catch myself. That's when I noticed nearly everyone else walking their bikes. I liked that idea especially since it would be faster than trying to spin in it. The second mud field was worse. It had to be like 100 yards long. I did actually fall over in it when I tried to ride it, but at least mud is kind of soft. :)

Once through with the mud and onto harder ground, I jumped back on my bike and pedaled like the dickens to finish the race! It was a super crazy, sprint of a race - it even felt short to me - let alone the pros and other people that normally have to do 3 or 4 laps that end up being like a total of 30 or so miles.

Unfortunately, Lindsey had bad mechanical luck for this race. Her chain came off the cassette entirely and since it was so full of mud, she couldn't tell so she had to walk the rest of the race. Bummer, huh?

So.... that means.... I got 3rd place! I figure that will be my only time on the podium so I had to live it up and enjoy it. I got a ribbon and a gift card to Racer's Cycle Shop! Woo hoo!

That mud was like cement. It took me forever to clean off my bike when I got home. Look how full of mud it was!