Happy Holidays!

We are off to Albany, NY this morning for the holidays with my peeps, followed by a 5 day stop off in Indianapolis to see Greg's peeps. I wanted to wish everyone a great holiday (whichever you may celebrate). We return before New Year's so I will definatley be up for some weekend rides (get ready Joy!). Over the next week I will be seeking out local gyms and XC/snowshoe trails to substitute for my bike! Also we will see how many Christmas cookies and bottles of Vermont's own Long Trail Ale I consume ...

Murphy is happily vacationing in Palm Springs at Chris & Steve's house with his canine cousins Sydney and Sophie. We don't think Murphy will want to come back home with us after all the fun he will have out there!

This is the little guy I am most excited to see back at home... My 9 month old nephew, Noble:

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Unfortuantely I don't have any pix to share , but at least I am being timely about posting another blog!

I recruited Joy to do both training rides with me this weekend. She gets the benefit of doing longer weekend rides in preparation for the longer races at the expert level. I benefit from a great training partner who helps motivate me to stick to my schedule. it's a win-win situation!

I switched Sat and Sun's schedule around a bit so that my friend Marc from Ottawa could do some MTB'ing before heading back to the Great White North on Sunday. Marc borrowed Greg's hardtail (noticeably lighter than Marc's bike back home as he commented during the ride). We hit up Crafton (one of Marc's favorite local rides from his days at ESRI). The ride was fun, Joy and I got a good ride in (we did a couple repeats while Marc chilled and took pix of some mountain bluebirds, but we were FREEZING! My toes were offically numb! I am in big trouble over the holidays in upstate NY and Indianapolis if I get cold in Redlands!

Sat night included a rally over to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga for some rapid Christmas shopping. We did the majority of our shopping at REI, and tried our best not to just buy everything for ourselves. After REI we grubbed at Red Robin. Had a glass of cab sauv and a turkey burger! YUM. Good fuel for the next day's ride.... We rallied to Border's where I officially bonked after searching around for more gifts. We managed to make it over to the Gap to buy some adorable clothes for our niece and nephew. We also came to the conclusion that once we have kids of our own, we wont be providing Gap clothes for them until they stop growing (unless other people buy it for us of course!)

Sunday's ride was great and not as cold, but I was happy I had on my Smart Wool bike socks! Joy and I both chugged some Emerg'n C (Greg and Joy were both coming down with a cold again) before heading out on our 5 hour road ride. We headed out towards Riverside and happened to run into some folks Joy grew up with. Tito and Zack. They asked us to join along and we ended up picking up another rider (former road racer), Toni. The three of us ladies realized that we would be great training partners and have some upcoming plans for some local tough chix rides. During the final hour of the ride, all Joy and I could talk about is what was for lunch. I proceeded to Chipotle for a yummy lunch after the ride.

Greg and I capped off the weekend with some more shopping and officially experienced burnout, coming home with very few items. However we are mostly finished! We have a bunch of boxes to ship out at the post office today. Thankfully the post office is right across from work!

Transitioning ...

Last night I made my official announcement to Chris & Desi that I would be leaving Team Backbone to ride for Team K&N Performance. It was a decision a few months in the making, with many sleepless nights and stressful days. I never thought this would be so hard to do, but it showed me how important my four years riding for Chris' teams (CFR and Backbone) were.

I think back to the first phone call I got from Chris & Desi inviting me to join CFR. I had met them through Gabe (formerly of SuperGo Santa Monica). I listened to two super-charged and energetic people talk about CFR and where Chris wanted to take the team. I was excited just listening to them describe the people and the resources Chris was working on getting. I remember my first CFR meeting at a mexican place in Burbank. I was excited because only a few months earlier, I was thinking of ending my short MTB racing career (I had recently finished grad school at U of Wisconsin - Madison and had raced for Saris (bike racks). So I thank Chris, Desi and Greg who got me excited about racing again and taking it to the next level.

Over the four seasons with CFR/Backbone, I recall so many fond memories. There are so many stories to tell, it's hard to figure out where to start. I have seen the roster change over the years to a great squad with some outstanding talent. I remember when Bert and I were the only expert racers, and over the last two years that list has grown substantially. One of the best examples is to see Ara move up to expert for 2006. I have seen him become such a strong racer and will never forget our kick butt performance at 12 Hours of Snow Summit last summer. We were the only sicko-s on the team who were down for the sheer pain of endurance racing. That day with Chris, Greg, Short Stack, Ara, among others, was such a special day! Probably one of my favorite race days of my career. I will never forget sharing a condo (1 room condo!) with all of those boys the night before. Due to bear-like snoring, Short Stack was quarantined to the porch.

Here is a short list of some key phrases, events, etc from my years racing!
- Schwanstucka!
- White Chocolate
- Solvang Century with the whole gang
- Camp 'N' Rizzle
- Big Bear Condo weekends with Chris/Jim/James dirty jokes in full force
- Mike Jones!
- "this sucks, I want to quit!" - common terminology used by me during races
- KENDA (need I say more!)
- meeting Mary!
- Sea Otter 2004 (3rd place!)
- Big Bear National 2004 (silver medal!)
- Beauford and Boone, some of my favorite puppies!
- Growing as a racer and meeting new people
- Sagebrush 2003, my first expert race. with Chris running along my side encouraging me to a strong finish.

I could go on forever about this stuff! I know you all know how much this team has meant to me over the years. I want to thank Chris (and anyone who has ever supported me .. and all of you who have contacted me with words of support) for EVERYTHING that you have ever provided for me, or done for me. Thanks to everyone for encouraging myself and Teri as we transition into the pro ranks. It will be a tough road up there, but we will give it our best shot! I am looking forward to Teri and I working together on our new team. We have been through alot this year in many ways, but we are ready for this new endeavour together.

I will still be out there supporting everyone (if you will let me) and I am excited to see EVERYONE continue to grow during 2006. I hope to see everyone out there at the races and hopefully we can still get together a ride once in a while! you are all my friends (and family!)

Chris & Desi, we go a long way back and I don't ever want that to change.

Skater Chick

I made my official debut on our skate ramp this past Saturday. Apparently Greg couldn't get any action shots of me because he was too busy coaching me or trying to keep the dog off the ramp while others skated. So the photo to the left is what I would call the poser shot, me trying to look like a skater. Yes, those are my own pads and helmet. Actually I needed the help! I took a couple bad spills and I was still hurting pretty bad today. Feels kind of like falling while snowboarding, except on the ramp you fall on masonite!

Greg and Corey (who have been skateboarding since age 8) had a great time breaking in the ramp and we got some great pix! It was a fun day and my legs definately suffered after having already been on a road ride that day. Skating on the ramp is like doing continuous squats (even more so than snowboarding! Good cross training except for the falling and getting hurt part!

David Kaiser stopped by to check out the skate action and play with the pup, Murphy enjoyed himself ... so much that he dozed off pretty hard for a while...

Greg did his first real skating since his July knee surgery. He didn't go too crazy with the tricks, but got a few grinds in... yes those are honking knee pads he is wearing. He ordered custom pads to fit over his stylish knee brace. Greg lived vicariously through Corey and made him do the more difficult tricks. I was happy with this choice and Greg's knee is still in tact.
In other news: We got our long-awaited copy of Off Road to Athens in the mail a few weeks ago. Finally got around to watching it over Turkey Day weekend. We were fortunate enough to attend a showing at the Sea Otter Classic in April. It was a very inspriational film and yes... it made me cry (surprise, surprise!)! I think seeing the riders get emotional (especially Alison Dunlap when she comes to the realization that she would not be going to the olympics) was especially tough to see. It was also interesting to see that the top pro riders are in fact "human" and have bad days too! Who would have thought!

I finally kicked my cold, but now Greg has it! I gotta be on immunity watch this week...

I wonder if Jonathan Weaver is freezing his arse off this week up in Boulder!

Getting Back on Track!

Well, I have officially been slacking on this blog! After comments from several regular readers of this blog, I had to step up to the plate and update this thing! Since the last time I posted, alot of great rides have occured, Turkey Day has passed, a not-so-fun COLD has taken over my body, and I spent a week in Calgary for work.

Highlights of the last month:

1. Camp-n-Rizzle: Team Backbone's annual Camp-n-Ride was a blast (Nov 5-6). It was Murphy's first camping trip (and visit to the ocean) and he did very well. 10 friends from ESRI joined the festivities and exhibited some fine MTB skills! It was a regular tent city! One of the the highlights of the weekend... seeing my non-racer friends (especially the gals) ride some technical singletrack and overcoming challenges. It was like a mini Women's Only Weekend for me. It got me excited to be an instructor again next year. Hopefully it wont conflict with a NORBA race! Other highlights of the weekend include Jose's Crash and an awesome schwag raffle thanks to Chris, Bob and the sponsors include (everyone took prizes home!) . Jose Larios wins the prize for best crash of the weekend as he managed to taco Greg's Bontrager Race Disc wheel by falling into a 12 ft ravine after falling off a g-out section of trail.

Murphy enjoys his first visit to the ocean!

The trusty Kenda E-Z up among Tent City...

2. ESRI Hell Ride: For the past 15 (?) years a group of MTB enthusiasts from ESRI and friends have embarked on a annual group ride in our local mountains. Typically this group consists of people who ride regularly and even some like myself who race, but this group also includes those who only get on their bikes once a year for this event. After a 2 year hiatus from the event due to fires, Steve Kopp passed the organizational reins over to me. I decided that I wanted to make sure that a wide variety of people could do the ride, so I selected something with multiple routes. We ended up selecting SART from South Fork to Redlands as the long course (45 miles), SART to Redlands via Old 38 for the middle course, and for beginners a loop that consisted of riding from the Middle Control/HWY 38 parking lot to Glass Road, down SART, and up Middle Control. We had a smaller group this year, around 20 riders, but it was a great time! No major injuries, no one got lost and no major mechanicals (other than Chris Sharp's truck in the AM). On the way through the Mentone Wash, 4 or so of us suffered double flats due to an infiltration of goat heads!!! Luckly, Joy's boyfriend Jason, drove us the rest of the way to Uncle Howie's for oost-ride pizza and beer.

The Medium/Long course group at South Fork

The easier of the two unrideable water crossings

3. Calgary: I was in the Great White North for another week (3rd trip to Canada this year) and got to enjoy some real winter weather. It was a very busy week work-wise and I had to do some makeshift workouts. Had it been summertime, I would have rented a bike like I did in Ottawa. Might be heading to Ottawa in January, prob will bring the hockey skates!! It was fun being in a real hockey city, as the Flames were undefeated as of my last day in town.

4. Night Ridin': Finally got out to one of the night rides with Matt Freeman and the guys. Joy and I ventured out Weds night and had a great time. It was a fun ride for sure, and for my first REAL night ride, I think it went pretty well. I have some healthy bruises on my legs, but that is par for the course! I have to get my own helmet light as I have been borrowing Bev's. My new handlebar light (NiteRider Trail Rat) arrived 3 hours before ride time on Weds, but only ended up giving me 1 hour of light. As my night vision is pretty poor, I could have used a second light! However Joy a.k.a "Helen Keller" was using my LED camp light and my Trek commuter handlebar light! If I can get over this bad cold , I will try to ride Weds night again.

5. Cross Racing: Well , I registered for Turkey Trizzle Cross in Glendale (tomorow is the race). However, I am feeling pretty junky. Nose is still totally plugged up and the congestion is moving south! Never a good sign and as it's the offseason, missing tomorrow's race is not the end of the world. I was however, looking forward to racing with Teri Strayer for her first (my 2nd) cross race. She will do great I am sure! I will shoot for Santa Cross on Dec 18 as long as I can stay healthy. I go for Lactate Threshold testing in Santa Monica on Thurs. Guess that means I can't do Weds night ride. Legs have to be fresh for the test.

Well hopefully that gets things fairly up to date for my readers (all three of them.. ok so maybe there would be more if I starting doing daily posts! I can't keep up with Joy!) . It has been a very busy month in many ways!

Greg's new companion while I race....

... and his name is Murphy The Dog.

We adopted a 3 month old shepherd/lab (and maybe boxer too) mix. We adopted him through a wonderful lady named Carol at BARC. He is your typical sausage dog (we have given him yet another name... "Link"). He has been very good so far, even Trestle seems to be adapting a bit better as time passes.

Murphy loves to run and play and chew on sticks. Yes, your typical puppy activities. Greg can't wait to bring him to the races! He can't wait to meet his new doggie cousins Dozer and Sophie and Sydney.

He also enjoys sleeping after all of the activity. I like this too because it allows ME to rest!

We are taking him camping this weekend to Camp-n-Rizzle. We'll see how he reacts to the coyotes howling in the night.

In other news:

• I got my latest training plan from Gareth. It looks good, but my break is OVER. I am back on the 6 day a week training schedule! I also will partake in lots of strength and conditioning exercises too.
• Jonathan and I had a great Oak Glen ride on Sat! Passed many riders participating in the Orange County Wheelman Metric Century.

Psycho-cross!

I did my first cyclocross (or psycho-cross as Meggan calls it) this past Sunday in Glendale. I was more nervous before the start of this race than I have been in a long time! The funny part is that I was just doing it for *fun*, so why the heck was I nervous!. I had a great time before my race hanging out with homegirls Teri, Dawn, Meggan, Jess and Carolyn Popovic. On top of that James and Julie, The Glendale Heavies, Short Stack and Ara were all in attendance. Bert raced Single Speed AND Men 40+ (back to back with no recovery!). Cap'n Schwanstucha (sp) came out of retirement and raced Men's C.

Cap'n Chris showing "roll-n-pop" style in the Men's C race

Bert riding strong in the Single Speed race (he took 2nd!)

Start of the Women's A race.There I am, third from the left.

I decided to go for Women's A (elite) and give myself the extra challenge. Plus USA Cycling says if you are expert or pro MTB you should do A rather than B. Makes sense. There were 10 starters in the A race and we started off fast as I expected.

I had a good start, broke out towards the front, but knew I wouldn't hold it up there for long. Monique Sawicki suffered a bad fall right after the pavement section. I believe she got back in the race, but was pulled before the end. I am sure she was shaken up pretty bad.

I tried hard to keep in 4th place, but was overtaken by Molly Hartsough (Warrior's Society) who has alot more cross experience than me. I tried hard to get past her again, but the gap was too large. I wasn't sure what position I was in, but going by Greg he kept telling me 5th! So I was pretty happy. I never expected to do that well on my first CX race, and given that October is Drink More Beer and Eat More Pizza month.

Trying to pick up some speed on the longer flat sections...

Roll... and pop!

I ended up doing around 6 gut-wrenching laps of the 2 mile course. Our race was scheduled for 45 min, but the official let me througrh on the last lap (I didn't get pulled out!) so I was out there even longer. It may seem like a short distance, but with all of the transitions, slippery spots, dismounting for obsticles, etc, it was tough! As Mandy Eakins (who took a strong 3rd place) indicated before we started that it's a puke-fest. Hmmm reminds me of short track!

In the end I took 5th place, and made it to the podium. Got my 15$ CASH-MONEY prize (and a schwag bag of other thangs). Enough $ to contribute towards my post-race lunch at Chevy's Mexican with the gang afterwards.

Thanks to everyone for all the support! I was able to keep pushing because of all of the cheering, hip hop rhymin', "roll-n-pop"" comments, "go white girl" comments, etc etc. It was really a FUN day, even though I did have that nautious feeling while racing!

Next cross race I will do: Turkey Trot Cross in Glendale. Teri will be racing too!

In other news:

-Greg and I are thinking about getting a DOG. Will my allergies hold up? Hmmmmmm.......

-I actually watched most of that BASEBALL game last night (and I don't even like baseball!). At least I had Firestone Double Barrel Ale to keep me company. Oh yea, had Greg, Dr. Watkins, J-La and JW to keep me company too.

-Saturday OAK GLEN ride with my pal Jonathan Weaver! I decided to keep cross racing down to 1x per month.

New Bike!

Well I took the plunge and got a new road bike! 2005 Orbea Mitis Dama. I went for the women's specific design and I am very pleased. It's nice to have a bike that REALLY fits. PLUS it's pink and blue! What else could you want.

The new rig has carbon/alum mix, FSA carbon cranks, durace componentry, american classic wheelset. It's just over 17 lbs and I definately can't complain! I took the bike on it's first Sunset Loop the other night and man it rides nice!

Mammoth Report - Continued (Finally!)

Well, I had promised to write more about NORBA Nationals @ Mammoth, but next thing I know I am too busy with work, too busy flying to various weddings, etc etc. So, here is the rest of the weekend in a nutshell:

Saturday (XC race)
We lined up at 9:00AM to experience windy and pretty chilly weather. They split us up by age groups which meant it would take even LONGER for us to actually start. My body was getting very cold and I had lost the nice warmup I did before staging. The race started and I knew I would take things conservatively since it was going to be a long race. The first climb was PAINFUL, but I knew I had to hunker down. After the first climb, it was loop-de-loop in the singletrack. I felt like my legs just didn't want to ride FAST. Yea, the burnout factor. OR was it the high winds and all the DUST all over the place!!!!!!!! I kept a consistent pace, but knew the leaders were far far away at this time. Oh well, 3 weeks prior I didn't even want to do Mammoth at all.My luck ran out at Rim Nordic #3, followed by Brianhead (except for the short track), then basically every race after! The only good thing about Mammoth XC was that I DIDN'T have any mechanicals or flats.

Lap 2 I felt like I was gaining some more speed, but had to deal with pain in the rear end guys (experts and singlespeeders). The first men to pass me were the singlespeed race leaders (including World Champion Carl Decker). The #2 guy was on a pink bike. These guys are true rockstars, which is partially why I will do my first singlespeed race SOMETIME this fall or winter. The bike needs to be painted pink first. I managed to fall once due to another rider's error (YEA it was their fault!). Covered in dust at the start of lap 3 everyone figured I ate it pretty bad. Fortunately I wasn't hurt.

Lap 3 I was contemplating quitting racing all together. Why the heck couldn't I get enough power to PASS anyone. I think back to NORBA National @ Big Bear, 2004 where I took 2nd place and had one of the best races of my *career*. Finishing within the top 5 for all age groups. So, Lap 3 continues, being passed by yet another guy (I think I lost several minutes deal with impolite guys who needed to pass at the WRONG times). I had a shouting match with one guy, who proceeded to close his trap after I reminded him that I was trying to let him by, and not actually just going at turtle-like speed on the edge of the trail for the heck of it.

The funniest part of the race is when I move over to the right to let a nice guy pass..... I hear a riiiiiiiiiiiipppppp, feel my shorts being pulled by a branch and realize... I have a major hole all along the right leg of my shorts. Yes I got some comments from observers, but the best was when I was leading a few guys down the Super D course (feeling great, probably because it was the final lap!)... a spectator yells out "Hey, you are beating the guys.... NICE LEG!" Ahhh, that was pretty funny!

In the end I think I finished 8th in my class, but as Greg says, my time was still competitive. I like to think that things could have been better had I not been travelling alot (work, personal) , overtrained, etc etc. I have alot of things to evaluate here in the off season. As my coach Gareth Thomas has told me for my month off: drink more beer, and eat more pizza.

Highlight of the whole weekend: Meeting Mary McConneloug and Michael Broderick. Their advice to me: "Turn pro as soon as you can........." Hmmmmmmmmm............ Part of me wants to apply TODAY for my pro license, but am I READY?!??!

Oh yeah, almost forgot about Sunday's short track race. I SHOULD HAVE SLEPT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was by far the worst race I have EVER had. I was not recovered from Sat (my own fault.. i was on my feet all day watching other races, and not dressed warm enough in the evening while watching Super D. My legs were in severe pain the whole race... then again I was pulled out after only 4 or 5 laps!! They only let 6 riders finish in the end, which pissed alot of people off. Personally, I always get stronger as the race goes on . I normally start picking people off, however this day was a terrible day. I should have gone with my instinct, OR maybe properly recovered on Sat!

Thanks to everyone who consoled me after that race. It means alot....

US MTB Championships - Mammoth Part I

Well I have returned from Mammoth NORBA Nationals in one piece (except for my favorite bike shorts). It was an interesting weekend to say the LEAST.

Greg and I drove up Friday morning to Mammoth. Arrived in time to watch the pro men and women's XC race. I met up with Joy Duerksen and Shelli Stevenson from Jose Ole to watch the women's staging. It was Alison Dunlap's final XC race of her career, so it was sad to see her line up for the last time. I always get excited/emotional to see my heros, including Mary McConneloug of KENDA/Seven Cycles, line up for their races. I hope that in the next few seasons I will be lining up with (um I mean way behind) them. The first few seasons at pro level mean you will be lining up in the BACK (unless you do well right away and move up in position).

The pro races were fun to watch on Friday. We watched Mary, Shonny, Willow, and the other usual suspects pull out in the lead. On lap #3 we watched from the feed zone where Shonny HAMMERED up that climb. The same climb I would race on Sat, also for three laps. We stationed ourselves near my teammate Ara "Fuzzy" Movessian and his posse the Glendale Heavies. Ara was in charge of feeding Mary and Michael. We watched JHK, Adam Craig(Brianna's honey bunny) and Walker Furgeson charge to the top three in the men's race. It was exciting to watch these guys. Michael Broderick of KENDA/Seven finished a strong 7th place which was fantastic! In the end, Mary took #1 in the XC after Shonny fell at the bottom of the Super D at the pavement transition. She had a flat and some nasty cuts on her arms. The top three ended up Mary, Alison and Willow.

After the race, I met up with Joy and Shelli and Ben from Jose Ole to do a pre-ride of the course. Naturally the elevation change hit me right away since we had just arrived in Mammoth. I would have liked to come up Thursday, but what can ya do. The course started off with a steep/medium length climb. Actually it felt like a pretty long climb. All fireroad, but pretty steep grade and loose in spots. Also very dusty and windy which doesn't help! The winds were probably gusting to over 20 MPH at that point. Provided me with a nice windburn through the evening. The 6 mile 1400 ft of climbing lap looked like it would be tough and I was glad to hear we would only be doing three laps instead of the original 4. I enjoyed the technical sections, although Brianhead is still my favorite course to date. Well... maybe not quite.

Here is my top 5 courses/locations to date (i still need to get back east to try out those courses!)
1. Sea Otter
2. Brianhead NORBA
3. Rim Nordic

4. Sagebrush Safari

5. Mammoth

More to come .... I have to do this in chunks because I write too much!

Cal State Am Cup MTB race July 2005 

Trestle cat 

My initial blog!

Well I decided it was time to start blogging! it's the cool thing to do now, right? Plus it's a way for me to write, rant, joke, etc etc about various things. I can also have my clever friends like Joy Duerksen add to this blog. I will also post stories from various weekend adventures, including bike races, house remodeling, etc. I may also put some pix of my adorable nephew, Noble shown here.