What a Concept!

I have actually been riding quite a bit lately.. and it seems to make a difference. Who would have thought ;o). And..it's been fun and not stressful and doesn't feel like *work*. Like I said in my title.. What a Concept.

Had a blast racing CX this past weekend at Irvine Lake (with a decent result on Sunday..ahhh like the olden days). Best part was the post-race beers on Sunday (in a PINT GLASS... that I got to keep.. for $2!) 3 beers and no food later it was a good thing Matt was driving us home. I also had to make sure Dot rewarded herself for all of her hard work organizing and had a few beers too :o) Almost all of the peeps except for Joy and Cpop were around for at least some part of the weekend. Even Trevor was there!

You can check out my photography skillz from the weekend (my best pix from both days) at the SoCalCyclocross Photo Pool

In other news... in 2 days me and the Mister are off to:

Kauai

From what I hear, it's a nice place to go on holiday... I will have to be the judge of that... ;o) Maybe I will get a tan (or a burn?) Yes I seems I am probably one of the only people (other than Greg) who has never visitited any part of the Hawaiian Islands before.

Sunday Sunday

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Originally uploaded by bigburler

Sunday I was originally going to race Urban CX #3 in Irvine.. however, the latest round of fires here made my decision for me. The 91 was closed, and so where parts of the 241 toll road I was going to take. Just didn't feel like making a 1 hour drive into a 3 hour drive.. So i took teh advice of the folks on NPR and just stayed put! also we had a busy weekend of landscaping, our friends Chris, Nicole and little Evelyn visiting from St Louis, hosting 12 friends for dinner Sat night and Fri night into Saturday I thought i was coming down with a cold! The cold subsided (woo hoo!), but i would have had trouble keeping my eyes open during the race.

in any event.. next stop is Irvine Lake on Sat and Sunday for Cross Religion and Velocity Cross!

Then..next Thursday. Aloha Kaua'i for 9 days (with a mini trip over to Hilo, Hawaii and Volcanoes NP)

Brrrrrr!! Cross Nats KC, baby!

DSC_3310
Originally uploaded by bigburler

Today I booked my trip to CX Nats. Why not! Well for one, it will probably be another muddy/icy/cold/painful race.. but oh it was so fun! Lower performance expectations for me means more fun.. and perhaps a pleasant surprise! :)

Oh and did I mention that my work trip to St Louis perfectly coincides with Nats again! Making the trip even easier! Just hop over to KC from STL, and then back fo Cali from KC!

I will miss the Masters 30-34 race this year (bummer!) because I need to be in meetings, but Sunday Elite race will be plenty fun I am sure...

Dam Cross

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Originally uploaded by CPleiss

Brought Greg's camera to yesterday's CX race. Put the fisheye lens on for some fun! James came to watch the excitement and snapped this great picture of some of us girls after the race. It was a fun day and fun weekend (racing Sat CICLE cross also). The whole Redlands gang was out on Sat too (Joy, Matt, Steve, etc). Sat brought hot temps, Sunday brought colder temps with wind and dust .. everyone bundled up ASAP!

Rocked the Vote!

i lifted this fantastic icon from JW's blog:


Yup, I did! If you watched debate #2 or any SNL parodies lately, you know what it means!

The Big Day is Here!

I have been too lazy to post much lately, but today there is really just one thing on our minds (or should be!)

Cross Season... here again!

Sunday was Psycho Cross down in Costa Mesa. The entire gang was there and I mean everyone! It was like a SoCal MTB reunion. I dusted off my ole racing legs which ultimately uncovered some kinks. Was great to see the boys from Bear Valley Bikes (Derek, Steve, Jason, Dan, etc) who are officially part of our CICLE cross team this fall. Thanks to Derek for dialing in my Redline.

Look at this whole gang of girls (see below)! From left to right: Heidi K, Tonya, Cpop, Kendall, Alexis, Joy, Sarah, Dot and somewhere in the back there.. me, Lisa and others!


What a terrible shot of me (see below)... I am cringing probably because I had a sciatic nerve spasm earlier during the race on the run up.. was laid out in a fetal position hopeing no one would run over me. Shout out to Amy & Dave who asked if i was ok! At least someone thought it didn't look normal for someone to be laid up on the side of the trail! hahaha... I managed to get up a few minutes later and tried to just do what I could.. As seen in this pic, running over the barriers and getting back on the bike was a major undertaking...

In a nutshell it was far from my best performance (for various reasons), but i still had fun seeing everyone and getting out there and racing. Big props to first timers Joy (rocking the white Coach G skinsuit) and Sarah (both kicked butt!). Also huge congrats for Cpop on her 2nd place finish in a large field coming off a tough season of illness.

Biggest thanks goes to Steve who helped me get through a subsequent sciatica spasm after cooling down. Between Steve, Sarah and Cpop it took a team to get me from unable to move at all, to seated and stretched.

Next stop might be Urban CX #1 in Palos Verdes this Sunday. I had a great time at this one last year. Very cool course, nice venue, ocean views.

Guess I better get out there and train a little bit.. :)

I had better give a shout out to Matt too! I was too busy laid up with my back to really get over and watch his race!

Guess my mind was made up for me....

Got this email from The Warrior's Society today:

The Vision Quest and Counting Coup Events sold out in record time!

We opened registration this morning (Monday) at 12:00 a.m. on Active.com.

The Vision Quest sold out in 10 1/2 hours and the Counting Coup sold out in 12 hours.

We do not plan on keeping a waiting list. Since we do not offer refunds to those that drop out before the event we do allow them to sell their spot to someone else.

We will be suggesting to them that if they can't participate in the event that they post their spot for sale on the SoCal Trailriders message board:

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/

We may open up registration for "The Traverse" and Toad Festival early and we suggest you sign up as soon as we release the dates that registration opens up.

We expect these events to sell out in record time too.

Too bad I completely forgot about the Reg date. Been too busy with work and not riding enough...

Guess that makes my decision for me. Wasn't sure if I would ride VQ in 09, but kind of wanted to register just for the a spot. Then decide later... :)

Olympic MTB Coverage

UPDATE (Thurs 21 Aug): Due to heavy rain the women's MTB race has been postponed until 10AM Local Beijing time on Sat: http://www.velonews.com/article/82157/rain-delays-olympic-bmx-and-mtb-events

So this means that it will still be late night but you can just stay up late Friday night and catch it (depends if they keep the same TV schedule or not)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK! Everyone is trying to figure out when and how to catch Olympic MTB coverage this week/weekend. I searched around NBCOlympics.com and found some scoop! The races are Womens: Friday 3pm (LOCAL BEIJING time) and Mens: Sat 3pm (LOCAL BEIJING time).

I think I have it figured out for those of us who want to see coverage... please let me know if you have additional information!

Looks like you can stream live broadband feeds on NBCOlympics.com but also can catch some coverage during the wee hours of the morning here in the states (it's 15 hours ahead of Pacific Std Time in Beijing).

For Women's MTB Coverage on TV: Looks like MSNBC will have coverage from 2AM-7:30AM PST (good luck figureing out what part of those 5.5 hours will be the actual MTB coverage)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/zone=PT/day=14/network=2/tv.html

For Men's MTB Coverage on TV: NBC will have coverage from 12:30 AM - 5AM PST (again you will have to record ~5 hours and then sift through to find the MTB coverage).

http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/zone=PT/day=16/network=1/tv.html

Hope this helps! Get your DVRs and Tivo ready! or just stay up all night!

Go Mary, Georgia, Todd and Adam!

I've Been Busy

Yup, that's right!

Redlands Cross Practice

Hey! Steve Berg is starting up a Cross Practice in Redlands at Ford Park. It starts this week. Cross season will be here before we know it. First race is Sept 21 in Fullerson (Art of Cross at Muckenthaler Museum). See SoCalCross for more info on schedule.

For more info on cross practice see Steve's Blog

Cutting it Close!

Well today was another interesting morning to get to work! I slept late (7:30) and had an 8 AM conference call (at work). Greg took the Honda and I was going to ride the cross bike, but then ended up running late and was going to drive the Subaru. SO I get ready to leave at 7:50! CUTTING IT CLOSE once again! And I realize Greg has BOTH SETS OF KEYS! So………. I have to take the bike. So I leave the backdoor unlocked, lock the front (I had no key to lock). HUSTLE IT to get the cross bike out and high tail it to work! THANKFULLY I got to breeze through the stop signs since school is out and there is no traffic. I didn’t have a backpack or coffee today, just my purse. I got to work and literally RAN up the stairs with the bike! Made it to the conference call at 8:02 according to my wall clock in my office! HAHAH

A co-worker of mine, Jason, IM’d me and said he saw me running up the stairs with my bike and now he has to go work out at lunch so he doesn’t feel like a lump! HAHAHAHAHAHA. I need to tell him that this bike is NOT heavy and I run with it all winter.. hhahaha!

OH ya, and I did a singlespeed race on Sunday at Rim Nordic. My new favourite (Canadian spelling, since I am psuedo-Canadian).

Travel Coffee Mugs and other Fine Topics

Well first of all, too bad about the Lakers (not that I am a huge BB fan or anything). Was nice to see the big guns (Garnett, Allen, etc) on the Celt's take home the championship though!

I have been riding my cross bike to work at least a few days a week. It's not that far (2 miles or so), but it makes a difference in that it's one less car! I can store it in my office which is nice and yes, mom (and Greg), i wear my helmet.

On a side note: Last week I rode all four of my bikes (Singlespeed MTB, Road Bike, Geared MTB and Cross bike) ! Now Greg can't say that certain ones just sit around in the garage! :) Hmm maybe now I can get a fixed-gear commuter ;) mmwwwhahahahahaaaaaaaaaa! I have my eyes on a few.

Last Monday Joy was on a pre-work road ride and happened to ride down past my house right as I was getting on my bike to go to work. She *commuted* with me and gave me a few pointers to avoid an unfortunate mishap (i.e. put everything in my backpack, no loose items, etc). She commented that she ruined a jacket up at Big Bear the previous weekend riding with it tied around her waist (or holding in her hand? can't remember). So she didn't want to see me have a mishap with any of my gear.

So i figured out a way to put my travel coffee mug in the side pocket (still looking for a cool coffee cup holder for the handlebar or bottle cage). It worked great until Monday when i didn't roll up my right pant leg before putting on my backpack. So I bend over and then feel somethign hot on my back. YEP, my coffee started pooling up inside the backpack (way to close to my laptop!) and then all over ME.

I had about 10 minutes (less at that point) before a conference call, so I had to set up my laptop at home and do the call there. I decided that my shirt wasn't stained, so I just tried to rinse things off and then dry off before riding into work an hour later. I still had some coffee left in my travel mug, so I made sure to roll up my cuffs before putting on the backpack! I spent the rest of the day smelling like a coffee shop. Reminded me of my days working at Peaberry Coffee in Boulder/Denver.

The moral of the story is that even though a coffee travel mug may seem to be sealed up, capped off, don't trust it! The other moral is don't try to leave for work 10 minutes before a conference call. It takes 10 minutes alone to boot up a laptop! :)

Only issue with riding the bike to work right now is that it's 100+ degrees riding back up the hill (ooooffffff!). Not so fun in jeans. I have found wearing skirts is the best bet. Greg thinks it's not the best idea to ride a bike with a skirt on. WELL What do you think they did back in the late 1800s early 1900s? Everyone was dressed to the T in dresses, etc on the bikes ;)

This weekend: Trying my hand at racing Singlespeed at Rim Nordic

An Interesting 12 hours!

Well! What an interesting 12 hours I have had.. Fitting that 12 Hours of Temecula is tomorrow, even though I won't be there. I got to have my own 12 hour marathon of sorts.

9:30 PM: I am in bed and start to smell heavy skunk smell. I yell to Greg to check Murphy because I know he is outside!

9:33 PM: Murphy has officially been sprayed by a skunk. So much for going to bed early.

9:45 PM: We look online to find ideas to get skunk smell out. Greg goes to Gerrards and comes back with:
· Tomato Juice
· Peroxide
· Baking Soda
· Rubber Gloves

10:10 PM: We are in the backyard bathing Murphy three times
· Peroxide, Baking Soda, Dish Soap Mix
· Dog Shampoo
· Tomato Juice (which he liked the flavor of so was licking it off while we tried to let it set in)

10:30: Tried to decide where to leave Murphy for the night because his face still reeks of skunk. It was between the Garage and the front room with old sheets and blankets on the furniture. Garage Won. We put one of his beds out there and some water. He was OK, no sounds during the night.

11:00PM – 1:00AM: Various missed calls on my blackberry. No numbers I recognize but mostly from the 909 and 951

3:00 AM: I make Greg go check on Murphy in the garage because we haven’t heard any noise! He was ok and still breathing. being a good boy!

5:30AM – now: MORE phone calls on my Blackberry and a few messages. I come to realize that someone is trying to call someone named Rudy from San Bernardino Correction Facility. YES an inmate! A female. I kept refusing the charges.

8:45 AM: MORE calls, finally get a persons voice when I answer. TURNS OUT Rudy’s Bail Bonds accidentally forwarded all their calls to my # so I have been getting countless calls from peeps in the slammer and other folks looking for RUDY!

WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone have advice for getting the skunk smell out of Murphy’s face? He is basically quarantined to the garage and the yard.

9:06 AM just got another call asking for Rudy. I had to politely say i have nothing to do with Bail Bonds! I wonder how much longer this will go on.

In other news: Matt interviewed me for a blog post about our Technical Support Island for our Conference blog! It may be award winning!

This post has nothing to do with bikes or racing!

I have seen Rush in concert 6 times on 4 tours in 5 states. I have been listening to them for close to 20 of their 35 years as a band. Maybe not as impressive as the average Rush fan; but for a 31 year old female from suburban upstate NY, who also loves hip hop, that isn't half bad!

Rush Concerts attended:
1993 Counterparts Tour - Worchester, Mass & Albany, NY
1997 Test For Echo Tour - Denver, CO
2004 30th Anniversary Tour - Hollywood, CA & Las Vegas, NV
2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour - Las Vegas, NV

They only had an opening band for the two shows I saw in '93, and both times.. it was CANDLEBOX (ummm......). I come to find out that the other band touring with them on that tour was Primus! Darn, would have been way better.

In any event, the best show by far out of the 6 was 2004 at Hollywood Bowl. It has been a long time since I had seen them in concert but man there is someting about that venue. The sound was fantastic and any seat is a good seat! I looked out over the crowd and nearly EVERYONE was air guitarting, drumming and singing. It was pretty much a crowd of die-hard fans, and then we had Greg, who after that show gained more appreciation for the band and their music.

Last weekend, Greg and I headed to Vegas to see Rush perform at Mandalay Bay, in a slightly smaller venue than the last time we saw them in Vegas (MGM Grand Arena). Still it was nearly sold out and the fan-base/crowd had aged even more (surprise surprise!!) The average concert-goer was a 45 year old male, balding with a belly. Walking from Luxor to Mandalay Bay, I counted the Rush t-shirts. It reminded me of our last time seeing Rush in Vegas. We went to Excalibur to play some cheap blackjack and discovered this is where all the Rush fans were hanging out! Makes sense with Excalibur's sci-fi/fantasy theme... :)

Greg and I tried to figure out another band that would pull in roughly the same audience. We looked around at the T-shirts in the crowd and decuded that SLAYER would probably be the winner. Although we did see several shirts for a British Hard Rock band called UFO.

Band t-shirts we picked out from the crowd (Metallica being the only band I technically like):
- UFO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(band))
- Grand Funk Railroad
- Metallica
- Slayer

Highlights of the concert include, but are not limited to:

• $7.00 huge cups of cheap wine
• Watching the people in line to buy $40 RUSH t-shirts (nothing smaller than size mens M! I miss my bootleg cheapo t-shirt from the 1993 tour!)
• South Park characters pretending to be Rush playing Tom Sawyer!
• Non-stop air drumming and guitaring and singing along! (i can hear you all laughing at me)
• Fav songs including: Dreamline, Freewill, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, and any Neil Peart drum solo!

Yes i had Neil Peart signature Vic Firth drum sticks back in my percussion days. Of COURSE! And I have all of the sheet music to one of the Rush complilations: Chronicles. Spirit of the Radio was my all time fav on the piano/keyboard. Fortunately my piano teacher let me play contemporary, pop, rock, jazz and only minimal classical! Ahh those were the days!

Ok now you can laugh at me.... You may only understand if you, too, are a Rush fan!

Matt and Joy Show Goes Global

Ok the real news is that Wendy Simms has read Joy's blog and has since posted the most fantastic comments and answers on her own blog. You must read it! Since Joy, Matt and I all work within 1/4 mile of eachother there has been alot of buzz in the vicinity.

In other news, Idyllwild Spring Challenge was this past weekend. I was very excited to ride the course again after the pre-ride (loved the real technical riding!) I learned alot about race tactics to say the least and had to get creative at times. In the end, after somewhat of a slow start, I found my legs, and took 2nd place, which provided a nice cash purse I must say. Unfortunately Joy double flatted while she was holding a steady 3rd place (I was in 4th at that time). But after getting the flats sorted out (including some running and stop and go which never helps the legs), she hammered and held a solid 5th and some cash-money. Carolyn "Cpop/Undercover Carolyn" Popovic took the W and blew all of us out of the water! :)

It was nice to race on a Saturday and just do a recovery ride on Sunday! I also proceeded to do some clothes shopping at Victoria Gardens.

Was really great to see everyone as always! Next stop: Firestone Nationals (5/17-18). We will all be staying at the new usual spot: Days Inn Windmill -Buellton!

Also tomorrow is Bike to Work day at ESRI. I better represent! And next week I will be helping Team CICLE out for Pasadena Bike to Work Week.

Some pix from Idyllwild:

ummmmm how can my legs still be so pale?
the socal ladies with their marble slabs (as joy likes to call them) and loot

The Matt and Joy Show

Well, clearly Matt and Joy's blogs are way more entertaining than mine! That is to say the least. However, I think I may have inspired them to put pictures on their blog headers.

I need to come up with something more interesting than just talking about racing in this blog, or just delete the whole darn blog altogether.

Saturday is Idyllwild Spring Challenge. Naturally, I feel a bit run down with some coughing and some sinus issues. Lovely! Hopefully a combination of my massage today, herbal suppliment blasts, lots of water, good food (maybe not the soyjoy bar i just ate... very suspect) sleep and no hard efforts on the bike until the race should help.

Uff da!

Pass/Fail Racing

This article says it all: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/sitting-in-and-bowing-out-art-of.html

my new MO for racing I think... Pass or Fail, I think I can handle that.

I won't go into much detail about Sea Otter Classic (i am so over it!), but I basically Failed both XC and STXC if you go by what the article linked above says. Ya I got dropped! BUT I didn't quit. SO maybe I did Pass? Oh and did I mention I literally crashed and burned 20 min into the 40 mile XC? (the kind of road rash that really burns! could fry an egg on it perhaps?) BUT in order to earn my post-race In-N-Out Burger, I HAD to finish the race. Lap 1 even after I crashsed, I figured I would power through. By lap 2, i was in "no man's land" and basically was out on a "bike ride". Oh well it's "1 weekend closer to fitness" as Joy calls it!

Next stop Idyllwild Spring Challenge. 30 miles of some good ole technical MTB'ing! Hopefully I will Pass.

Back in the Mix

Well, yes i was in fact very sick for 2 weeks again. Missed Fontana and NOVA Nationals. Yes I cried, but tried so hard to convince myself that there are worse problems in life than missing some races. However it's hard when you put so much work into something and then it doesn't go according to plan. And guess what, the world kept turning and nothing really changed other than that I missed out on two weekends of racing (but i was kept VERY well up to speed by my pals!). Ya my fitness suffered, well mainly from having bronchitis/pneumonia!!!!! There was nothing I could really do about it except focus on getting healthy. Things got so bad I lost my voice and literally laid on the couch for multiple days. For someone like me who needs to be doing something at all times, this was VERY difficult! But I tried to put things into perspective and enjoy the down time while it lasted. I also calculated that I have been sick for almost 20% of 2008 (if you count other colds or issues I ended up dealing with this year). However, apart from that I still have a couple good races before I got sick this most recent time (VQ and Bonelli)

Things that i did while sick and recovering:

• Read numerous text messages from Joy and Cpop and Matt and others!
• Talk on the phone with Joy and Cpop among other people during the race weekends ( I felt like I was there)
• Watch all sorts of TV and movies
• Wear pajamas alot
• Watch the Redlands Bicycle Classic downtown
• Visit the dr 4 times
• Eat popsicles
• Drink lots of ginger ale, seltzer and tea
• Use MANY boxes of kleenex (thank goodness for Puffs Plus with Lotion!)
• Lose any sort of color/tan that I had

So I have been back on track with training the last few weeks, and will be heading up to Sea Otter tomorrow in the VW with Cpop and Romolo. Nothing like a good solid weekend of racing to kick my top level back into gear!

Sick AGAIN

I am sick again (worse today than I was yesterday) and Fontana Nationals is 48 hours away. Not good. NOT good at all.... Allergy season is here and it is going to be a long spring and possibly summer.

Cal State Kickoff & B-day Weekend

The Cal State XC Series kicked off this past weekend with Bonelli Park. I have been racing Bonelli since 2002 and it's a special place for me. Many a fond (first podium in sport, expert and pro) and not-so-fond memories (heat stroke, poison sumac, smelly water)!

Sunday's race was good, much better than last year for me. Started out strong, felt the burn, held the lead for the first bit, then Carolyn took off ahead. Given that it was a short race I figured I would just leave it all out there, kind of like a cross race (or back to back cross race). My legs held up OK, but my asthma was not good on the first lap, burning lungs from all the allergens in the air! I was able to keep it together pretty well and tried to hammer as much as possible. In the end I finished 2nd overall which was a nice way to kick off the regular season. I really enjoyed the new section that coincided with the Super D. A nice way to spice up the same old Bonelli XC course!

Greg's folks were in town and it was also the day after my birthday. So was not a bad weekend! We had a picnic after the race (thanks Greg, Mom, Dad and Carolyn!). Even Dorothy stopped by on her way back from racing Tour of Murrieta. The whole venue sang happy b-day to me on the podium! not bad! Greg's mom made me my favorite b-day cake (strawberry!) in the shape of a bunny (a throw back to childhood). Pix to come!

It was great to see everyone from Backbone, and all sorts of new faces and old faces I hadn't seen since the fall. Carolyn and I chatted with Krista Park after the race, she had done the Saturday Southridge race. It was also nice to see such a large showing in our Pro/Expert field (and sport and beginner!). Lots of people have moved up this year to either pro or expert and it's an exciting time!

More pix to come! Need to get them off the home computer!

Next stop Fontana Nationals!

Vision Quest 2008 - Report

Saturday morning wake up call was 3:45 AM. Made some oatmeal and waited until the last minute to get suited up. Greg, Murphy and I left the hotel at 4:45 AM and drove 15 minutes to Black Star Canyon for the race start. We passed Pua doing a *warm up ride* from O'Neill Park to the start which was prob an extra 15 miles (and she would still smoke all of us). The weather was feeling quite warm (compared to last year), but with a heavy layer of fog/mist almost like rain. Greg and Murphy saw me off at the start line at 5:30, but didn't get the chance to snap any pictures. 300 people starting in the dark for Vision Quest or Counting Coup (more people had lights this year thankfully!) riding up Black Star Canyon with mystery rain ruts. I had a drive train issue at one point, but got things fixed up quick. That would be the last mechanical issue I would have all day. :) . While it was still dark I would occasionally look down below at the traverse I had just climbed and still see a long train of lights in the dark behind me. a very cool scene and also very quiet as everyone is working hard and prob partially still waking up! The sun came up around 6:15, and I realized just how wet things were as drops of water fell off my helmet into my face. It was still too misty to put on the sunglasses, so I had to squint my eyes a bit longer.

I could barely see the super doppler radar ball (means you are done with the first long climb), but all I know is that I got there at least 15 minutes faster than last year. :) I felt leagues better than last year, maybe because I didn't have a cold this time, or that I had a better winter of training? or that my 29'er just fits well? I made it to the first aid station in 2 hour 22 min or so and stopped for maybe 2-3 minutes to fill my bottle. I already knew things were leagues better than last year!

Made it from the first aid station (Maple Springs) to the top of Santiago Peak in less than 2 hours. I felt waaaaaay better than last year and kept a good attitude. I reeled in a guy along that climb with a jersey that said Italia on it. I saw him later at the end of the day and he said "good job out there today!* and I said "Ahh.. Italia! I was reeling you in!"

After Santiago Peak I headed down the fire road to drop into Upper Holy Jim. Jason Siegel was there cheering people on! Was nice to see a familiar face and I was excited to tell him how much better this year was going! Dropped in on Holy Jim and felt great. Rode it with much more confidence than last time. Even passed a few GUYS ;). mwwwwahahahahaaaaaaaa!! After upper, it was Lower Holy Jim which I had just trained on a few weeks prior. So it was good to recall all of the timing. Felt great on the switchbacks and thankfully only encountered a few hikers and uphill bikers. That makes the ride a bit nicer! Handled the water crossings at the bottom as well as I could, both feet were totally soaked by the end. Hustled it to Aid Station 2, could NOT believe that it was less than 5 hours total time when I checked in (2/3 of the race behind me!). Manny Prado flew by on his way to the finish which made me happy because last year when I came to Aid Station 2, Pua was finishing and she was 1 hour behind him last year. So i took that as a good sign!Heather Mootheart and a very nice guy ran up to me to help me get through Aid Station 2 quickly. they downshifted my bike (getting me ready for the final leg of the race, the big climb up Horsetheif!). And one of them cleaned off the top of my water bottle which REALLY was nice to see when I went for a sip after I headed up the road. :) THANKS Heather! Was nice to see a familiar face.

As I headed up to Horsetheif I was surprised that I only saw a few riders coming through and they were the leaders. I was happy that I never saw many of the people I ran into last year. All of these things told me that this year was entirely different for me. I was forecasting how much time I thought it would take me to get to the top of the climb. As I started the hike a bike section, I was shooting for making it up to the top as close to 6 hr elapsed time as I could. I was trying to guess how long it would take me to get back down and to the finish line from that point. I did part of the hike with a guy John, a single-speeder, from Rock-N-Road Cyclery. I pulled ahead of him after a bit, sort of got into a zone on the hike (wanted it to be OVER!). I got to the very top of horsetheif, and last check point at 6 hr 10 min elapsed time. Not bad! ALSO i looked at the leaderboard and noticed one more spot open in the Top 5 women. They announced ... "That's you! 5th place". :) I was quite happy with that seeing names like Pua, Louise Kobin and Leslie Williams. Amazing women who are endurance specialists and very successful at what they do! Was happy to be in their company (even as much as they may have still kicked my butt!)

I stopped for a quick cup of water and to put my arm warmers back up. Bolted as quick as I could to fiinish the last bit of climbing (fire road) and then descent down Trabuco. 6 hour 20 elapsed time and I was DONE CLIMBING!!!!!!!!!! it was all down hill from there on Trabuco and Horsetheif, literally (well, with a 5 mile rather flat, bumpy fire road ride out). After Trabuco I had the section of trail where there were still some people going up.. I remembered how that felt last year to see lots of people finishing, but knowing I still had to ride and hike all the way up and then come back down. I tried not to ride TOO crazy so I didn't crash into anyone. one guy called me *Bro* which I took as a compliment because maybe it meant I was riding like a guy downhill. HAHA. anyways, I laughed and he laughed when he realized I was not a Bro!

Made it back to Aid Station 2 and the FINAL STRETCH with my elapsed time saying 6 hr 57 min. I rode that fire road out as fast as I could, trying to pick off the last few guys I could. I saw Greg and Murphy with a mile to go. Made it to the finish line at 7:09!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE HOUR FORTY MINUTES FASTER than last year! 56.6 miles and 11,500 feet of climbing. I was ready for my Chocodile... :)

Petition to add Bicycle Directions to Google Maps

what a great idea (for so many reasons!)!

http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

Vision Quest 2008 - 3 days away!

Been a while since i have blogged.... things have been busy. putting in the hours on the bike, working and trying to stay healthy all at the same time.

Vision Quest is this Sat , expect a FULL blog report like last year. I am hopefully going to be feeling healthy on Sat, as opposed to last year. Trying to shave off a bunch of time from last year. We will see.

The key factors in my favor (hopefully!!!) are:
1. Better bike (29'er baby! perfect for VQ, and tubeless tires)
2. More Training (more long MTB rides, including 40 miles 9,000 ft climbing)
3. Feeling healthy (fingers crossed, there are still a few days)

SO we shall see!

I have already decided on my post-race foods. Sticking with mostly what I had last year after the race.

1. immediately after: recovery drink (Recoverite -chocolate)
2. 1-2 Chocodiles (greg will need to find these for me, not sure why they are on my mind!)
3. In-N-Out: Choc shake, Double-Double or 3x3 and fries!

On a side note, Greg got me a sweet new Burton snowboard and bindings for an early b-day gift (b-day is March 8th). Also I finally got a helmet.. Hopefully I can get to Mammoth again before the season ends. The last time i had an actual Burton snowboard was 1993!

Moving forward....

It's been a while since an update. The good news is that I have been healthy for a while now and back on track with training. Trying to fend off other illnesses as the cycle of flu and colds is still heavy at work and just in the general public! Herbal tea, Zycam nasal swabs and herbal immunity support has been in my arsenal as of late.

Have been on some great training rides in the last few weeks, managing to avoid the rain somehow. The most recent highlight was an epic 6 hour MTB ride in the Hesperia/Cajon Pass area with Carolyn and Romolo. I will head up there again this Sunday for a slightly shorter version (and hopefully be home in time for the Super Bowl!)

I am bowing out of the Boulevard Road Race this year and will just train through. Joy and Carolyn will be representing at the this weekend and hopefully bringing home the top 2 spots!

Bringing 2008 in with illness... and lots of herbal tea

Well, I have officially been sick for 11 days (which includes all of 2008 so far). Not good timing at all, but at least it's not the middle of the season and last weekend was extremly rainy, so I didn't miss much. I have more than caught up on TV shows including alot of brainless reality shows on MTV and VH1. I also watched nearly a whole season of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Tryouts on the E channel one day. It motivated me to keep up with my ab workouts. I can honestly say that I have done ALOT of resting. I can also say that getting sick this time had nothing to do with racing or training. I simply got the wintertime bug that many other people get when travelling around the holidays and I was on my week off the bike (which now has unfortunately become a longer break).

I am a big fan of herbal tea, but recently have been introduced to and have discovered several new additions to my collection. I have somewhat of an herbal tea pharmacy at home and in my office. Over the past 2 days I have sent people off with at least a couple samples to try. Lots of people have been sick recently or are still fighting things off. I have also talked to a few others who are in my boat: got a secondary illness.. yes ....... got sick from being sick! Apparently last week I had the flu and now I am recovering from a secondary respiratory infection. GREAT. Thankfully my dr is awesome and has got me feeling like a human again! Having asthma does not help at all, making my illness linger a big longer than normal. I think my frantic coughing fits might FINALLY be over.... Now I can have a real night's sleep!

As for the product review, these are the teas that I highly recommend! You can find most of these at your local grocery store, health foods store, Vitamin Cottage, etc. I even have seen some of these at Rite Aid. Even if you are not sick, most of these are really great for just everyday immune support and overall wellness.

Traditional Medicinals Gypsy Cold Care

Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat

Traditional Medicinals Breathe Easy

Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus

Traditional Medicinals Herba Tussin

Traditional Medicinals Everyday Detox

Yogi Tea Triple Echinacea

Yogi Tea Kava Stress Relief (** now popular with my coworkers!)

Cross Season Finale

One week after racing in 20 degree temps in mud and then frozen mud, I raced the So Cal Cross Prestige Series Finals in Woodland Hills. It was nearly 80 degrees. Quite a change! The course was fast and had some good climbs, and some good technical turns. I helped Dot with the kid's race and really enjoyed passing out children's books (Mike and the Bike) and CLIF z-bars afterwards (with my Santa Hat on).

The race started and I felt good. Hung with Coryn and Tonya who always have great starts. After a while I moved up into 2nd place and would remain their most of the race. I was happy I only rode 3.5 hours on Sat and not 5+ as I was originally planning. The high winds made my *easy* rode ride a bit tougher than I wanted.
2 laps into the race, I could not believe it when the announcer said "6 laps to go". I thought he was kidding. but he was NOT. I wasn't sure if I could hold my pace for 6 more laps (granted each lap was around 5 minutes, but had a super steep grinder climb that kept getting harder each lap). At one point I could see a train of girls forming to try to catch up to me, thankfully it dissolved, however Lana came up and was able to pass by me. I worked hard to catch back up, but in the end was 12 seconds behind her. I was also happy to only be 30 seconds behind Coryn who has been known to put MUCH larger gaps on us. Overall I was very pleased. It felt great to be in 2nd place most of the race, and to finish so close to the top 2. Would have preferred to stay in 2nd, but still enjoyed it while it lastest.
Thanks to Amy for feeding me, teammates from CICLE and friends from Backbone (Bert, Ryan, Vanessa, Vegas Bob) cheering for me! Thanks especially to Roger for being on the back 40 of the course where legs were burning! He took some great pix, some of which I posted here. Shout out to Bert for winning the singlespeed race, Vegas Bob for doing great in his first cross race ever and Brant for kicking butt once again this season!
Now it's time to focus on the soon approaching 2008 MTB season. It definatley feels nice to have a good level of fitness already at this point from doing base, lifting and also racing cross. I don't have to work back up from square one which I have had to do in past seasons. Somehow I managed NOT to burn out this year, so was able to keep on ridin'! I think we all learned alot in the 2006 season to help make 2007 a little less stressful! Hopefully 2008 will be even better... :)

The only issue at the moment is getting over the chest cold I brought back from NY (Greg has it too). Not a fun way to spend New Year's.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!