Cascade- the Epilogue

Saturday's crit was one of the fastest crits I've done all year. How is that possible when it was day 5 of Cascade? It make-uh no sense to me. I just wanted to raise my hand and say "Excuse me, is anyone else tired?"

Tibco f'ing drove that badboy like it was nobody's biz. Webcor was totally on it though and all the teams contributed to the speediness.

With a crappy start, I slowly clawed my way up. The laps and timing were kind of confusing and suddenly I heard Tom Jow on the radio saying "One lap to go ladies." What? So that ended up being a junk show. Totally my fault. I should've been scrupulously paying attention---I thought there were maybe be a heads up with 3 to go. Anyway, I just moved up as much as I could and ended up 28th.

It was an AWESOME race. I really loved it. Our awesome hosts Chic and Ellen were out there along with Nils and Karen. Nils is a secret pro photog I think (all the good photos in this post are his, or Ambre's). Thankfully he avoided the angle of this shot though. If Velonews is going to post a pic of my badonkadonk, at least they did it next to one of the littlest people in the peloton.

I have to laugh.

Heard some cheers along the course which was awesome--it seemed like a good chunk of the Bend populace was in attendance. 17 year old Koryn Rivera won--beating some of the top sprinters. It was super amazing. It also makes me feel less bad about how she schooled us all at Manhattan Beach Grand Prix. Oh and did I mention she won on her junior gears? And it was a looooong flat straightaway. Impressive with a capital holy sh@#.

Afterward Lins and I met up with Chic and Ellen for some trendy eats in downtown Bend.




Ambre and Jason joined us too.





Then we hung out back at the rad Chicpad.

Ellen and Chic: a pair that beats a full house.

They were extremely good value. They are hilarious. It is non-stop comedy and ball busting with these 2. One of the best parts of Sunday's circuit was having them in the feed zone. They rocked.


Which brings me to Sunday's circuit. Day 6 was 3 laps on a 17 mile loops with some steep climbs and techie descents.



While this looks like it could be a serious duck-duck-goose game (look who's in the pickle jar!) it was our big strategy meeting before the race. (Erin- the use of the radios will never rise to what it was at CU).

Sunday's race was tough. Yeah I feel like a broken record. Come up with a better descriptor for the races Tiff. I'm sorry I can't. Marisa totally rocked and was in the front group coming into the finish. An unfortunate incident kept her from going for it in the finish but she got the same time and finished 13th in the G.C.! AWESOME!

Anna finished a few minutes back from Marisa. She had a good ride and was a fantastic teammate.

Ambre and I got popped on the 1st climb after the feedzone, chased back on, then got dropped on a little owie up on the 2nd lap. It was very H-O-T again....and it was so dern hard from the gun there just wasn't much time to drink at the beginning. We hit the climb and it was like I dropped an anchor. Lins had the best descriptor for hitting the climbs in the heat "If you tried to go hard your head would explode." I felt like I would just incinerate. Whatever, everyone had to deal with the conditions so I doubt much would've changed. And quite frankly, it was almost a relief to get dropped so I could actually pound my bottles. Then I bided my time to the feed zone where I picked up 4 bottles. That's right, 4. And they were finished pretty instantly. After that I felt much better, and it was at that point that Ambre and a group of 5 other girls rolled up. Yippee! Company. It was super cool. All the girls in that group (Touchstone, Kahala-LaGrange, Proman and Specialized) all worked to keep it going and NOBODY dropped out. It was really cool to ride with these girls. I'm sure we were all bummed with how we did a little, but everyone just kept on riding. A ton of people dropped out. I definitely considered it but was super stoked I finished. In fact, all the girls on our team finished---which was pretty sweet.

The whole experience was incredible. I feel super fortunate to have such inspiring teammates. And they are pretty damn fun too. Like Richie says, we're not curing cancer---so we should be having FUN doing this whole racing thing. DFT p/b Treads is so great---because of director MH without whom none of this ever would've happened. My awesome friends and family--with the phone calls an check-ins have been so huge too. Thanks for supporting me through all this! I feel like I've got some solid backing out there! Think of Arrested Development and sing it with me "Solid as a Rock!"

Oh and let us not forget the Cascade Epilogue i.e. the drive back to the 801 THROUGH THE NIGHT. Luckily, I had company--Ignacio (a Cat 3 who had come up to race for the weekend) needed a ride home so we manned the Jowegawa's truck back from Bend (as Cyndi Lauper would say) alllll through the night. Brutal. So brutal. We did some trade-offs with driving so I closed my eyes a little bit here and there. And then I'd get to get a break from driving. (ha ha did anyone get that?)

Departed Bend at 6:30 pm, arrived SLC 7:30 am. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Thank god for RUMBA and Trader Joe's snacks. It should be about t minus 20 to full meltdowns.

Fun times in Bend

After the TT on Thursday, we headed over to Marisa and Anna's AWESOME host family for dinner.

We made sure to maximize our recovery wearing our new recovery crocs and OF COURSE, our SKINS.

One of the best parts of racing is getting to meet such awesome people. We had a lot of fun getting to know the folks Marisa and Anna were staying with. They have been living in Bend since the 80s and they are big cyclists. They gave me some helpful beta for the hubs when he embarks on the Cycle Oregon trip in a month (bring earplugs).

CUTIES (and our top GC rider Marisa on the right--currently sitting top 15)

The time trial was good. I finished in 48th, in 42:43 on a 16 mile course. It was a rolling up and a fast descent. Ambre's awesome boyfriend Jason let me borrow his TT helmet which was sick. It totally made a difference.

Yesterday was an AWESOME stage. 71 miles, finishing at the base of Mt. Bachelor, ouch. Wish I had some photos because it was gorgeous. There were a few breaks but Webcor worked super hard to protect their yellow jersey and they KEPT it--which was impressive. I heeded the Sleaze's advice and dumped lots of water on my feet which totally helped. Afterwards we had a super fun dinner at Chic's. Ellen and Chic totally kept us entertained.

Chic totally dug Linsey's aero helmet. She's going to wear it to watch the crit tonight. There may have been some alcohol consumption, I'm not sure.

Crit tonight--and its boiling out there. Should be a good time.

James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party

Like James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party, Cascade has so far been pretty Hot-dah.

If you like Where's Waldo, see if you can locate my Shoulder pic from stage 2.

Stage 2 was an 80 mile road race with a climb the last 10 miles. It was another HOT ("make it cold") day and the 70 miles leading up to the climb was decently fast. Unlike the day before, there were lots of attacks and the race was pretty active. After the Queen of the Mountains sprint, a break of 7 got away (though it eventually got pulled back on the climb). I was drinking the sh$# out of myself thanks to the feeds I got from teammates and our most excellent-est staff Tom, Julian and Jason. Despite the maxi-dration, when we hit the climb, it was like the oven beeped to say it was pre-heated. Time to throw the roast in. Now everyone had to deal with the same conditions so I'm not saying I would've done a whole lot different if it were oh, say 20 degrees cooler. I'm just sayin I was in the hurt locker (with said locker being inside a sauna).

(photo of the climb that made me its bitch, it is pretty though)

The race basically shattered to smithereens on the climb (as the officials stated on the race radio according to Tom and Jason). Nonetheless, I found myself in one of the many groupettos with teammate Ambre and a few other girls--all just trying to survive. The heat on the climb was just oppressive. The worst part was that my feet were completely en FUEGO. The sides of my feet still feel raw. But I just tried to keep my sh&^ together and not freak out, cry, or curl into the fetal position. Riding up, we reeled in a lot of riders--people just cracked.

Teammate Marisa had an awesome race finishing 15th (about 1.5 minutes down from the leaders). Super guestrider Anna was in a decent sized group about 5 minutes off the leaders (with Lins right behind that group). Ambre and I were in the smithereens behind that group, about 8 minutes down. Webcor's guest rider, Evelyn Stevens won (her 2nd win so far) with Cath Cheatley from Colavita in 2nd and Kristin McGrath (VAC and cool Durango girl) in 3rd.

So for GC, that means Marisa sits in 15th, Anna is 49th, Me 64th, Ambre 70th and Lins 72nd.

After the brutality was over, we drove back down the hill.

Yeah camera phone! It makes all photos picasso-esque.

Like the Tour, we also have a time trial today (ok sleaze, I know you'll give me shit for making that comparison). Tomorrow is a hard stage in the mountains. Then, the CRIT is on saturday (which I'm looking forward to!)

2 down, 4 to go.

For now its just eat, ride, sleep, talk about riding, eat, sleep. All in a super super cool location, with rad teammates, stellar staff and stupenous hosts. Yeah Bend!

One down, five to go

I am loving it in Bend.

The awesome view of the Deschutes River from our amazing host house.

Our supersweet host Chic.

Yesterday Lins, me, Ambre, Ambre's bf Jason, supermechanic Tom and superjunior Julian rode the time trial course here in Bend. Oh my beautiful. This town rocks. The view of the Middle Sister was a nice walk down the volcano trip memory lane (that was good times Lizzie!).

Afterward, we hit up Trader Joe's and then cheffed up some dinner for the whole team (including superguestrider Anna). Marisa had rolled in by this point and did a stopby. We dined outside with the afore-pictured view. It was good stuff.

And then, today the stage racing began.

Today's stage was a 70 mile point to point road race with a small hill at about the half way point. In addition to the serious heat brought by all the major teams racing here (a field of 114), the heat from the regular sol did a number on us today too. Whew. The course was fairly open and un-shaded and so we just started to cook out there. While the elevation isn't ridiculous (about 3500 ft), it is definitely the desert. Lins and Anna went back to the caravan to collect bottles for the rest of us which was totally huge, we needed them. At mile 50 I realized, hey, we basically have a crit now. And that didn't comfort me. By mile 60, my feet were on fire, I was simmering in my own juices--a slow cooked mediterranean delicacy if you will--and I was feelin pretty worked. The last 10 miles heading into the finish were pretty flat and windy. Awesome teammate Marisa totally moved me into some good position with about 5 miles to go but I just wasn't able to stay up there in the final sprint. I ended up finishing 25th with the same time as the very large main peloton. After the race, we rode back to our host house. So today is probably the longest ride I've done in over a month. Oh I had to pee the whole time too. Even though it seemed like I sweated it all out. While there were some girls that stopped to pee, I was too nervous to rely on my field catching abilities to risk it. The race was pretty crash-y too. I'm definitely against that. Luckily, I kept the rubber side down.

Lins and I dunked ourselves in the Deschutes River after we got back to our amazing host house. It felt so good. We were sitting in a little pool along the river bank watching the traffic (there were about a billion people in various watercraft floating and paddling down the river). Lins got attacked by a killer lobster (that was what she called it). Our host's friend said it was a cray fish (or crawdad if you are from the south) but I don't know-with its large TALONS it seemed very dangerous. I personally think it was a hydro-scorpion.

Tomorrow has mountains in it so the views should be great and the pain should be high. Its going to be a long week I think--but I'm still pretty psyched right now. Getting to race my bike with such an amazing field in such a cool place is pretty fantastic. Having great teammates and the best-est mechanic ever is also highly desirable. And now I finally get to go to bed so I stop eating.

From the beehive to the spud to the beaver state

The hubs and I had a really nice weekend in Boise. My feet stayed very psyched on the drive to Boise in their recovery Crocs.









And in a last second superbonus--the JemClems decided to rally to Boise to join in on the fun. We woke up on Saturday morning and met the JemClems at the base of the Bogus Basin climb. We met up with awesome Greg (another cycling junkie) who lives in Boise and his friend Vanessa. Greg took us on a real nice flat spin to get the hubs and the JemClems warmed up for the assault on Bogus. Then Greg continued tourguiding to the best part of the ride--the stop at Java for a Sunrise muffin and a latte in Hyde Park. With temps climbing to 100 degrees, I sought refuge in the pool at our hotel before retreating to the a/c pumped room. The hubs came back from his ride sunburned and psyched.

Saturday night was the Boise Twilight crit. The women's field was small but had some awesome riders including Kristin Armstrong, Liza Rachetto (both just came back from Giro d'Italia) and Jenn Halladay. The small field got even smaller ending up with only about 7 riders. With 2 laps to go Kristin attacked hard and I covered the move. Riding behind this world champion and Olympic gold medalist was like riding behind sly fox's vespa. Holy crap. On the last lap the field starting getting super close so I pulled through as hard as I could on the back straight away. Kristin came around me into the 2nd last corner and Liza also bridged up on the back straight. I couldn't come back around either of them in the final straight but I ended up 3rd.

The hubs has a better quality photo. But here's some evidence for now. It was a huge honor to stand on a podium with Kristin and Liza in front of the totally amazing Boise crowd. The Idaho Statesman also did a nice article.

It was also really cool having the hubs, the JemClems and my new bff Greg there doing some awesome supporting. It was totally huge to have my better half and my great friends there to share such a cool experience with me. Its not one I'll soon forget.

To make my smile even broader--this blast from the past ambled over to me after the podium presentation.
Freaking Scott Morgan. Scott lived with us a million years ago and is a true horizontal man in a vertical world. We hadn't seen him in a few years and he appears to have become a doctor in the interim. I always knew he was a smart guy--with his amazing memory for movie lines. He would rival even you Glennbro. Anyway, the Boise medical community will never be the same. And I mean that in a good way. Running into him was the extra scoop of jimmies on my already yummy sundae.

Another SJ Quins alum and cool Boise-ian, Annie, was also out for the spectating and post-race libating. The enlarged group of us headed to a fun locale in Boise and had a great time.

The next morning, the hubs, Jem and I met for another yummy breakfast at Java. Scott came and met us too and we actually went for a road ride with this one-of-a-kind human. The hour spin felt like 15 minutes as this kid can crack me up like no other. Scott and I went back to his house to watch the tour and eat while the hubs did another assault on the Bogus Basin hill. The hubs rolled up to Scott's just in time to see me off. Tom Jow (our team Director for Cascade) arrived to collect me for transport to Oregon where I'll be competing in the Cascade Cycling Classic. Getting the pick-up from Tom was huge. I didn't have to even think about anything. I have more to say about my time in Bend thus far--but need to finish with a major nod to the Boise love fest. Thank you hubs, JemClems and my new and old friends in Boise for a truly awesome time. I am so lucky to get do to what I do--and my good fortune is largely due to the excellency of peeps in which I get to circulate!

Boise Twilight

If you are within in 10 hours of Boise, you should do this awesome race. The race is really well run, its a twilight crit, and there are always great crowds. Please support a great event! The hubs and I are actually going to make a weekend of it, heading up on Friday and bringing our mountain bikes too. The hubs is planning to make an assault on the road up to Bogus Basin

We are looking forward to kicking it in cool trendy Boise!

I'm piecing myself back together since returning from Canadia. Finally put my bike together yesterday morning and headed to the DMV training crit last night. In melt-y temperatures, I jumped in with the men's B group. While somewhat frustrating (a group of about 6-8 basically rode away from the group), it was a good workout and (as always) a fun and interesting course.

The hubs attended his first kickball game too. While I unfortunately missed out on the chance to be a soccer mom, Team Damian's Gingerballs brought home a solid victory--I think they may actually be undefeated. I was impressed that the hubs *almost* scored a home run but more impressed hearing about a certain team member who had consumed so much "electrolyte replacement" he actually fell down in between 3rd and home base--thereby failing to score. Even more impressive was that said athlete thought he had moved with lightning speed--in direct contradition to ALL observers (even his teammates). Good stuff.

Justice!

In the saddest turned GREATEST news ever, the hubs' NEW bike was both stolen and recovered recently! The hubs called me in Vancouver to let me know that his new beloved Time bike was stolen FROM OUR HOUSE (gross). However, an AWESOME member of the SLCPD recovered said bicycle. Apparently, something looked weird about a dude in a wife beater carrying a 40 and wearing flip flops riding down Redwood. The awesome police officer went to stop the guy and he took off, dropping the bike in an alley. The hubs is reunited with his beloved steed. The only items missing from the bike were the tubes and cartridges in the saddlebag. Said perp filled the saddlebag with double A batteries (for use in his methlab?). In addition to the batteries, the hubs inherited a bike lock with his bike. Apparently this fine specimen recognized that he too could fall prey to the desires of other carbon obsessed francophiles and that securitizing the Time would be essential in the bike stealing warzone that is the 801. The world is right again.

And let me just say how much I *hearted* racing in maple leaf land and hanging out with Mel and Seth in Vancouver. I wasn't feeling like a million bucks (more like a million pesos), but was ok with how everything went. In Friday's 3 k prologue, I was 22nd, 27 seconds behind the leader, Laura Brown. No aero stuff for this kid. Friday night Mel, Seth and I went to dinner at the Nook, an awesome Eye-talian restaurant right in their neighb.

Saturday morning I went for a lovely spin along the water and then Mel and I brunched at an excellent diner in another trendy neighborhood. Everyone in Vancouver has a dog.

At Saturday night's crit, I ended up 9th. The 2 highlights of the race were having Mel, Seth and London lawyer Patrick at the race; along with getting a callup from bestest announcer Dave Towle.




(Seth digs bike racing)



The hubs and Newberry sort of convinced me to try just racing for the finish--and not try to go for primes and cover all the attacks. Jazz Apple had 6 riders and they were VERY active. There were 2 other decently strong teams and a bunch of strong individuals. I was patient and let the teams do the work of chasing down all the Jazz Apple attacks.

I was vigilant about covering all moves with the right people. But I was never the aggressor.







OK I did go for one prime.







After winning a prime, I was joined by 2 Jazz Apple riders. The started attacking me and then there were 2 of us. She wasn't going to work with me so I towed her around for a bit then sat up and let the field catch us. We eventually caught the other rider. As the race wound down, another Jazz Apple rider ended up getting a little gap, in the last half lap they started a little train which I attached myself to. As we rounded the last turn, I just got a little bit sandwiched (sort of like being a little pregnant) and the hesitation totally cost me. I was disappointed with my finish but pleased with how I raced. Lauren Ellis won with Jazz Apple sweeping the podium. They raced a great race.

After the race, we went to a bar in the super chi chi part of town. Though Mel brought me clothes and product for after the race (so we could go straight out)--it was really just lipstick on a pig. It was pretty funny because I felt like I was in a Sex in the City episode. All the girls wore stilettos and super trendy fancy outfits. It was good people watching and a great time. Maybe a little too great. We didn't get back home till about 1am. Oops. I might be remorseful about staying out except I'm really not because I got to witness Mel moonwalk the shit out of the hallway in the bar. Backwards AND frontwards moonwalking. Some guy tried to challenge her but he sucked and the only thing he got out of trying to out-moonwalk Mel was washroom paper on his shoe. It was classic and I think it really helped in my struggle to come to terms with Michael Jackson's tragic death. No I'm serious.

Sunday morning was an 88 k road race. Kilometers are the new miles bitches so convert that. And its all about celsius too. We raced 11 laps on an 8 k loop with a gnarly hill that made me want to cry every time up it. I was literally dropped EVERY time up the hill. I was pretty sure I was going to be dropped but I managed to chase back on every time. I went through all the bike racing grief stages: Anger, self-loathing, pure despair, disillusionment and ....(what am I forgetting?). I felt like complete pooh and to top it off I totally had my head up my ass. I showed up with one water bottle, no idea what the course was like, and no gels. Hello, have you ever raced your bike before? Luckily, Suzy Pryde and her coolest hub (and head honchos of the Jazz Apple team) totally hooked me up with a bottle and some gels. Another Canadian rider and former pro now med student, Lisa Howard, made sure I had someone to feed me. SO COOL! It was so super awesome of these people to be so nice. I kind of knew there was some sort of sprint points but on that general head up my ass theme--I didn't know the details. Nothing was said about it at the start line (read the race bible dumbass). Yeah, I was basically a beater. Though in my corpse-like state--I don't know that I could've really done anything---but it would've been nice to make an informed decision.

Despite thinking I wouldn't finish, I ended up 7th in the road race. Jazz Apple swept the podium AGAIN (they totally controlled the race). Also, despite the heinousity of how I felt, it was a super fantastic experience to do the race. The riders were all really cool and classy and the race was very well run. I wish I could've stayed for Tour de White Rock the following weekend!

And this is where the fun and coolness really began....

I returned to Mel, Seth and the dogs (Stella and Lu Lu the weiner dog). Mel and Seth were working off the previous night. I recapped my race and then we recapped the moonwalking competition. Why god why weren't there pictures of that? After a good couch session, we motivated to go the Granville market. We even took a water taxi to get there. That was cool.





Oh my assault on the senses.











Recovery food.







Home sweet home.








Live music.








We took to wrong water taxi on the way back and had to walk 1000000 kilometers. And Mel is a really fast walker. Luckily we got to take some breaks. We stopped to observe these rock sculptures. I fail to comprehend. They are standing on their own! What?

(p.s. Mel is an AMAZING photog!)

After a DELISH dinner cheffed up by Mel and Seth, the real event got underway.

Let's call it the Epilogue of the Tour de Delta. In this event, there were 5 competitors. Mel, Seth, me and the dogs. It was really more of a team event though.

After dinner and possibly some drinks we took beach cruisers and one skateboard onto the seawall that goes around false creek. Mel and Seth alternated on the skateboard--which was pulled by Stella the wonderdog. The weiner dog donned a green neon band and ran its head off silly. Stella kicked ass and those on bikes could NOT keep up with her as she whipped her passengers along the seawall! I must say this kind of getting dropped is waaaaaay better than the kind I'd been doing a lot of in the road race.

Mel saw a skunk family and some raccoons. She has eagle eyes when it comes to spotting wildlife. She says its from driving and always being on the lookout for cops. We also saw MANY large birds and some more trippy rock sculptures. It was amazing.

Monday morning I did one final spin on the bike path. My final awesome Vancouver experience was experiencing Artigiano's masterful lattes and treats. It was a long walk but I fortified myself with an additional latte for the walk back and Mel was forced to go Italian pace.

It was an INCREDIBLE weekend and so awesome to hang with Mel and Seth. Raise your hands if you want these guys to move back to Utah!!

Bonjour, its a nice to day to be OOTside

Through every possible form of transportation, I finally made it across international borders to Vancouver on Thursday night. I flew into Seattle and met up with old school great bud Anders for a little hippie veggie cafe action. It was f-word GREAT to see you. She is an old friend from the boulderland with whom I enjoyed much snow and laughingtimes with back in the day. We hadn't seen each other in almost 10 years. She's a mom now and is totally into it. Kind of crazy because I never pegged her for that. But what do I know about that sort of thing. She is one of my faves and is a one-of-a-kind goofball. She kept telling me that I looked so much older but somehow she tried to explain it was a compliment. I suppose a person does do a lot of growing up from age 24-34. I think in my case I've probably just spent too much time in the sun.

After a kitchen sink cookie and a doppio espresso, I hit the road to drive up to Vancouver. After making 50 million wrong turns in the trendy but confusing Seattle neighborhood, I finally found the highway. I started fading fast with about 100 miles to go. Not good. Found a DMD (diet mountain dew--the nuke-ular option if you will) and was able to make it to Mel and Seth's place in Vancouver. I passed out in one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in--thanks easter bunny! Thursday morning, Seth made us coffee and then Mel and I got to hang out for a while. It was super super great to catch up with her in her SICK pad. Mel is one of my closest gf's and it sucks that she lives far away now. We walked to a local market where I had a succession of heart attacks at how expensive everything was. Did it in any way shape my purchase choices? Hell no.

I finally got my bike put together in the afternoon and headed out for a spin. I'm TOTALLY inspired by how awesome it is to non-vehicularly ambulate around Vancouver. It is a FULL ON city but there are bike lanes, bike paths and custom bike light-changer-buttons everywhere. It is so awesome.

Everyone rides bikes here--even the homeless. I saw a dude riding a bike and pushing his grocery cart full of stuff all at the same time. There are funny dynamics happening too. On today's spin, a girl sprinted by me at an intersection I had slowed down for. She jack-hammered ahead of me till I rolled up to her at a light. Just as I rolled up to her, another (presumably homeless guy) got the hole shot as the light changed and he was really able to hold onto his position with the 2 large trash bags of glass bottles he was carrying in both hands. There was an island to cross in the middle of the street so he was really able to gutter this girl in between his large bag of bottles and the curb. She had to slam on her breaks and as we all made it across the intersection, she really had to give'er (b/c that's what they do here) to chase this guy down. It was awesome. I had to give the guy some props as I passed him. He didn't hear me though because he was wearing a walkman.

The Tour de Delta prologue is tonight. I have no idea to what expect this weekend. I have not been feeling too great lately for some reason--so I'm not having amazing expectations for myself. And I know negativity breeds bad outcomes--I'm just sayin. I've been feeling pretty good lately so if I may be entering into a little slump--well, we'll just have to deal with that. You're never as good as your best day or as bad as your worst day after all. I'm actually most nervous about being able to get my car out of the maximum security prison that is Mel's parking garage. My second most nervous thing is not getting lost and being stuck in heinous traffic. Oh and how the hell do I race a 5k prologue? It should be interesting.

My new Yeti and the hokey pokey....

They are both what its all about (or aboot--in honor of my forays into Maple Leaf land this weekend!)

The hubs and I had a super fun 4th of July in Sun Valley with the Woodies, DB's, JemClems, Rick and Lizzie and Mr. Jowegawa. We arrived on Friday afternoon to some sprinkles. The kids had just returned to camp and were shivering in their tents. I snuggled with Joanna for a good smack talk session before having an awesome evening around the campfire. Porno for Pyros.

Saturday we rode Greenhorn, Mahoney, Imperial or some such combination. It was my 1st ride on my new Yeti 575 and I loved it. To clarify, I enjoyed the ride on the uphill and LUFFED it on the downhill. There were a few sprinkles but nothing major. The hubs and Mr. J single speeded the ride b/c they both=badasses. We cheffed up another yummy dinner and when I say we I mean JEM and I decided to make Indian and the Woodies made it happen. I mixed up some VoDToMs (Vodka Diet Tonics--with fresh mint) because we all have our roles.

Sunday we rallied to ride Fisher Creek. More fun times and delish 1x. We have JEM a ride home through the storm to end all storms and ended up at the homestead in time to meet up with Randypants (in town for a bachelor running weekend).

We've had some good hang times with the pants this week. Miss that kid.

I had a premonition before RMR on Tuesday and decided to do Coach K's sprint workout on Wasatch (or Nonwaving Douche Boulevard as I've decided to re-name it pending UDOT approval). If one more person doesn't wave back, I'm going to lose it. That was one thing about the OC disorder--everyone waves! What's up Utahrds? He/She is just not that into you so give up the 'tude. I'm not saying EVERYONE has to wave back. You know what I mean. I get it that some people are just trying to keep their own world together and don't have the faculties to even doing a finger lift off the bars in acknowledgment of my salute. I'm talking about all those people on their respective missions of lameness who refuse to acknowledge my waving presence! How about just a nod?

Anyway, despite the Nonwaving Douche Boulevard Cold War, I arrived home to dins with the pants on his last night. Abby G and Neal joined us and Richie and Renee dropped by later for some Pants Props. I was up until ungodly hours in ungodly temperatures packing my bike (my least fave activity) and trying to do laundry. Oh and coordinate with MEL who I'm going to see tonight when I arrive in Vancouver!

I'll be competing in the Tour de Delta this weekend in Vancouver, BC. Flying to Seattle then driving to Vancouver. I'm stoked. Mel needs to move back here. She's starting to get werid accents. It has been and will continue to be a whirlwind---but a fun shamble-istic whirlwind nonetheless.

So this weekend, whether you employ wheels on the dirt, feet on the pavement or skin in the water--I hope your experiences are maximally enjoyable. And don't forget to send me speedy vibes--but send them international. Starting Friday.

My new favorite beverage is...

A shot of organic kosher vodka with diet tonic water and fresh mint. Dad--that one's for you!

I've bumped and grinded my way back into life in the 801. I did the RMR training race last night. It was super windy and painful but I hung with the main group and was totally stoked. There was a group of 3 that stayed away (gnarly) and then the main group got pretty shelled down. It was hot and I never thought Gary would say 3 to go. I tried to fight for position to stay near the front on the last lap and I think I ended up something like 15th or so in the field sprint. Like I said, I was really jazzed about it! Headed straight to the gas station after and chugged a large Vitamin Water. Pomegranate for anti-oxidants.

I tried racing the A flite at the DMV tonight. That didn't go so well. It was really windy tonight and the field was REALLY small! I lasted about 5 minutes (and that includes the neutral lap). I jumped back in and could only hang for a little bit. The DMV course is a lot more technical and "hardman" than the RMR--so that means way harder to hide! Its a great course and trying to hang with the fast guys is so good for me.

And I'm bach-ing it this week as the hubs is still in the OC. Its weird to be the one who's home while the spouse is out of town! Its been nice to be a sloppy bachelor---but I'm really looking forward to seeing the hubs tomorrow night!

And talking about things to look forward to, the hubs and I are headed to Sun Valley, Idaho this weekend. I'm REALLY excited for the trip as some of my favorite humans will be there and I'll get to ride my NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE. If I wasn't a lazy p.o.s. I would include a picture here. But I'll give you a thousand words instead. Its a Yeti 575 and it is sweet.

So it will be a mental rejuve weekend. Good peeps, good riding and good eats (Woody is involved after all!) I will also hopefully get to meet up with Coach K too!

Hope everyone has an excellent codependence day.