Kinda Not Right and Really Pretty Gross

So I am in Pilates class doing my thing and I notice that my right rib cage (the one I knocked out of joint in June) looks like it is sitting higher than my left. So I poke and prod a bit and finally decide that the only thing that is going to really tell me the truth is putting a level over my rib cage.

Guess I was right because that is WAAYYYY off. That space is about a half inch. Yuck! Does that mean I have more lung capacity on the right? I am going to go with that thought for now.......

On this note, lately lots of people have been asking about my rib cage. And to answer, the ribby's are totally healed now with no real side effects except for the obvious in the picture here and the occasional zing from doing whatever. Other than that I have made a full recovery. I have been longing to use those words with total confidence!!

Every Condition

Today I got outside and found just about every variable out there. Powder, mud, crud, pavement, slush, ice and snow. I was on my cross bike poking around the valley and eventually headed up Snake Creek Canyon. The weather was nice when I started but once I got up the canyon a bit the bare roads eventually turned to powder and it started snowing. The rear wheel was spinning a ton so I got twice the distance in without actually going twice the distance. Kind of like an outdoor, in the elements, trainer you could say, which at times was super annoying. But my determination to get up the canyon may have been even MORE ANNOYING than that because I would NOT quit. I had it in my mind where I wanted to go when I started this venture, and by golly, I was going to get there!

At one point I had to stop for some snowmobilers who told me I was brave. Stupid is probably more like it since I had to turn around and descend on the same slick conditions I just road up! Actually my Challenge tires were PUURRRR-FECT on the way down and gave me no issues.

Need some cereal to go with those berries? Holy mackerel!

Good Timing

with leaving Seattle today. Rain! But I got the whole plane practically to myself, then once in UT off to the land of Costco, got my tires rotated, and then off to a party. Talk about jam packing a day.

Theresa has such great parties. It was good to see everyone again as it is the middle of winter and we are pretty much doing our own things at this point until the season begins. Some are alpine skiing for fun some are competing on skate skis, some are teaching skiing and some went to the Worlds Masters CX Championships in Belgium last week. A busy group I tell you!

Home

Some of you may know that I came up to Seattle to care for my dad. Mom needed an extended break after two years of caring for him and so we shot her off to Hawaii with a pal.

Super late last night after I went to bed, mom got home and I woke up this morning to "a mom under the Christmas tree." It was sweet - go to bed without her there and wake up to her there! Since she got home so late she made her bed in the living room for the night. She claims she likes it but I am still not convinced.

But while mom was gone I got to take dad for drives, prepare his food and just tried to take this opportunity to spend some good quality father daughter time with him. I even got him to play Tic Tac Toe with me!! And he beat me twice.....say what?! I am not to happy about that and am going to need revenge here soon. Ha ha! Oh and we also got a pedicure together. Not too many people in the family can get away with taking dad in for that let me tell you.

It has been a good trip home and I have been happy to help mom and the family out by flying up here to do my part. She needed the time and she got it!! I am happy for her. Caring for someone is very hard on the caregiver. She tries to meet her own daily needs and also his and that can and will take a great toll on a person. Good for her for getting the heck out of dodge and heading to Hawaii! That was big step for her but now she knows she can do it and that all will be well on the home front.

Oh yeah, and since the sky looked like this (I am still very upset that there IS a cloud in this pic- I mean really now)..........

.......I went for a ride and ran into this (some guy in a dry suit with an inner tube TRYING to break the ice by jumping on it). Hmmmm??

Oh yeah and I clocked that stupid corner at 18.8 today which is better. In addition I discovered some dude drafting me while I was doing a race effort along the waterfront. The only reason I saw him was because of his shadow! Scared the bah-Jesus out of me! Are people just supposed to do that willy nilly? I thought that was weird. Then we got to a light and he stayed behind me obviously not going to talk. So I turned around and said hows it going. After about 10 seconds of solid silence he finally responded. Maybe he didn't know I was chicky. Strange.

Yes. BLUE Again.

They say you create your own luck. Well, this IS luck at its finest in the Northwest! I had nothing to do with the weather.


And there is that mountain they call Rainier again looming in the distance. A bit covered by a haze today. It is so big it keeps popping up everywhere!


I obviously just can't get enough of this place when it is beautiful out like it has been. It is just amazing.

Tons of Trees....




Fishing boats.........




Islands...........


The Cascade Mountains...........


And then there is this part of the sidewalk..........




That part of the sidewalk has been bugging me since Monday. That is quite the angle of a turn and it has been beating me every time. I roll through it and I end up throwing my brakes on and slowing down to about 5mph. I think the manhole cover was throwing me off on my skinnys. Well at least that is the excuse I will use for being such a dang wuss!

That bothered me because one should be able to go through that with no problem especially when one is a Pro racer. Grrrrrr!!!!!

So I have been working on it all week. Yes, all week. You do what you have to you know? :)

But the good news is that today I got my mind around it and the body followed. Oh ya.....that is what I am talking about! So then I got really confident and went back and tried it again taking note of my speed.

17mph, no brakes. Not even a feather.

Now please realize that this is something I am sure most can do no prob, and they can probably go A TON faster than that but it was just the whole concept of conquering that small barrier.

Tomorrow 17 + is the goal now that I have a measure. Gotta make life/training fun right!!

If This Weather Keeps Up, I May Stay

But it won't.......it's the Northwest for a reason and it has a job to do.

This time we have the Pacific ocean, ferry boats and the Cascade Mountains way off in the background. I need to learn how to zoom.

Holy cow that is GREEN.

I wasn't sad with the views on my training ride today. Sweetness!

It is about 40 here still as a high and it is working for me pretty darn well right now.

Another Blue Day?

Ok, 2 in a row is a lot to ask of the Seattle area during this time of the year and yet, holy moly, it has happened again. Blue Bird.

I didn't have to travel too far to find a whole bunch of different lakes today.

Lakes, Trees, Mountains are all of what make this place so incredible ESPECIALLY when it turns out to be a beautiful day. It somehow makes all the days of rain worth it.

UT to WA

I woke up this morning in Utah (Heber City above) to a foot of snow on the ground so I jumped on a plane to Seattle, WA.......well.....it didn't quite transpire like that but the skies are sunny blue here in WA! No....not joking around. Blue Bird. And even though it is in the 40's here it feels warm!!

I went for a training ride and was kind of bored with the views until I just happen to look over and see this:

That made it all worth while.

You Know It's Been SUPER Cold When......

it is now (a nice!) 14 degrees and you drive by your neighbors house who has decided it IS REALLY nice enough to break out the lawn chair to relax in the snowy driveway as it warms up to 24 degrees. Coldness is all relative that is for sure. That was funny to see.

The sunset last night from our deck:

Yummy in Chris's Tummy

ok.....I give in.

I had one or maybe it was two?? three? No...but it was four for sure. Gosh, maybe it WAS 5? Ah heck, forget about it......Chris never even saw the box. Ha ha!

Our buddies, Erwin and Connie who are native to Belgium and live in Ghent sent us this box of chocolate straight from heaven. We just got it even though it was sent for the holidays. The custom guys were probably drooling over it for a few weeks and finally decided they should send it onward. Although, I can't help but think that this box comes at a time when I mentioned that I may go over there again and race there later this year. Hmmm??? Kidding Erwin!!! :)

And, if I may gloat a bit for Erwin......... he is now the Belgian Champion in his series that he races MTB in!! This guy IS FAST as you can imagine that you NEED to be competing in Belgium all the time! He even has the Belgian jersey to prove it:



Congratulations Erwin!

I Haven't Forgotten You

I haven't been posting consistently lately because nothing has been going on really. Been sick, getting over that some, training when I am not sick, catching up with life a bit, getting chores done that have been neglected because I haven't been home in what seems like ages.

So, yeah, really.....the biggest excitement in this house right now is that I found Arugula (salad) at the Heber City grocery store. So psyched. I eat that stuff like chips. But now you may see why I haven't posted in a bit when Arugula is the highlight.

What Has He Done Now?

Chris came home looking like this tonight. He tried to core his head with a bamboo stick at work all in the name of the guest. The stick got right up and under his helmet in between that and his goggles somehow.

So, four stitches later we have this and yet another scar/wound to add to his list. Don't worry moms, he is quite alright.

Five Things eh??

Hmmmmm, I have been tagged. So.........five things you may not know about me are:

1. I met my husband in the singles line at the bottom of the Edelweiss Chairlift at Alpental Ski Resort in WA. We were both skiing alone that day until I heard some guy yell "single!" I had just skied into the line as he yelled that and I answered half-ass-ly "right here." I thought it may just be another ride up the lift with some dude but when he put his goggles up as we got on the double lift, I was like "Heck YA!!"

2. Never smoked pot or done any of that stuff.

3. I had an obsession with Barbie when I was young. Had a whole room full of them and all the goodies like her dog, house, bus, car, and even a couple Ken dolls. One Ken had black (not plastic) hair too. Never seen that around again though. But despite the Barbie thing, I was a huge Tom boy too swinging on trees, biking, trying to do table tops, getting messy all the time, building forts in the woods, making BMX jumps and was just plain outdoorsy.

4. Okay. You ready for this one? I can sense laughter abounding already............I was a debutante and went to cotillion. Don't ask. :)

5. I was in a huge car crash when I was in high school that totaled the car. It was a speeding car vs. 50 foot plus fir tree that doesn't budge. With no seat belt on I found myself untouched except for a small cut on my left arm, I was fully intact with moving parts and was somehow still sitting in the passenger seat even though my head had broken windshield. The driver on the other hand broke his face and suffered trauma to the chest. I was able to run home to get help (no cell phones back then for us!). I am still not sure how either of us escaped with our lives.

Now it is my turn to tag: Adam, Thomas, Amy, Jenny, Shannon - if you are up to the challenge it is all yours to run with!

Nice Gesture

Now how nice is this for Edward (our host housing in Portland, OR) to write about Shannon's G's and my stay at his home for the USPGCX race? Thanks for taking the time to write that Ed! You were a wonderful host as well and we athletes couldn't do it without your support like that!!!

Did I Mention Health?

So much for that!! My body woke up with a little surprise for me this morning. A nice bit of a sore throat. Where did that come from? Usually I can tell well in advance something is wrong but this one blind sided me! So much for the Last Call Cross race today in Salt Lake as well as the 80's Awards Party that I had my outfit all planned out for. Such a bummer to be missing all that but staying home is best.

So instead I stayed on my couch all day and kept myself busy setting up my new phone and figured out how to use the TV again since I got Tevo for X-Mas which whacked up everything. If it weren't for a sick day I would never have time to figure this stuff out either. Thank god for a sick day! Oh wait, that doesn't sound right does it?

Am I Supposed to

do a year in review? It is probably not a bad idea as it makes you reflect on the good, bad and the sometimes uncontrollable. I will put my year into categories that matter to me -why not?

Family - it was good year all the way around. Everyone remained healthy for the most part (you know who you are!!) which I will take a big sigh of relief on. And I saw more family members this year and more often too! That was really good especially when I am on the road as much as I am already.

Friends - Holy cow friends!! Love em and made more of them this year thanks to cycling. All my buds are so good to me but I do wish I could spend more time with them when asked. So many "I can't.....I have to train"or "I can't......I am not in town" coming out of my mouth.

Cycling - Still in love with it! Best season yet to date. Got on the podium at Nationals twice on the MTB circuit in Short Track and Cross Country. As for cyclocross I can say too - best season yet to date coming in 8th at a National race. Yes!

Health - I had tough year with this one only really because of dislocating all my ribs on the right in June then getting a Staph infection in September. At least the infection was in my off season I guess. Overall though, this wasn't too huge of a deal and really my health was excellent!

Some favorite moments/highlights from 2007.

Finally doing it:

Watching Chris kill it in Super D this year:


Hanging with the fam when I could:


Having a blast doing cross this Fall/Winter:


As for 2008? More racing, more laughs, more fun! At least that is MY plan.......

The Ice Roads Cometh

To Heber(ith). Wow. What a day training on that stuff! That was fun!

My only goal was to see how fast I could take the corners without wiping out which was fun although there were a few close calls I must admit.

Honestly, ice skates would have been the best choice on this stuff today but, hey, a cross bike will do the trick more times that not!

Pix

Here are some sweet pics by photographer, Dave McElwaine for his "Best of 2007" page. I somehow made the cut with this picture.

Every single time I see this pic that was taken right after I crossed the line sealing my first NMBS Cross Country podium, I know why I do what I do. You can pretty much see it all in my face.

More Beers Eve

We did the old foe-gie thing and went to dinner with our buddies from Santa Barbara. 3 Hour dinner sitting/eating/laughing waiting for midnight was perfectly fine by me!

The crew (Eric, Kristin, some girl, Jaclyn, Geoffrey, Chris)


Give this guy another drink will ya!


We even made it until midnight and beyond!