We Didn't!!

Oh yes, we did!! We rode in shorts and a jersey today in St. George while checking out the race course! Ah heck ya! First time in shorts since.......don't know when.




Heading down Provo Canyon......

......to southern Utah

You will see the difference in weather which is why we head south when we can....and this time it was a need to head down because of a race which is fine by us!

Alright, it's time to rest up finally although sometimes I am not sure we know the meaning of rest.

Dopey Deer

The bunch of deer above couldn't figure out what I was doing out there today. Heck, neither could I since it was 37 in Heber where I was and about 50 in Salt Lake City today. I was jealous of those guys down there riding in the balmy weather but I had no time spare today and had to ride from my house. Got up to 40 here though which was nice.

Right after the deer got done checking me out, I ran into a coyote that was grubbing on a dead cow. Yuck. No pictures of the coyote though cuz I get scared easy and thought it was going to eat me next. I high tailed it out of there!!!

You Know a Race is Around the Corner When

you are hanging out with your wheels on the couch at night trying to get them sealed and ready to rumble.

First Intermountain Cup race is on Saturday in St. George, UT. Supposed to be about 70 down there this weekend too but I will believe it when I see it. Utah has had quite the year of snow along with some crazy weather!

LT Test

Went in for an Lactate Test with Dr. Max Testa and crew. For those that don't know what in the sam dang heck I am talking about. Check it here.

The result?

I need to hang the bike up.

Kidding....I am right on target.

Max thinks I should get into more road racing.

Guess I have the make up of something good there so he says. Hmmmm?? I will have to think about that one. Actually not really because I love all two wheeled things so there is not much to think about.

Oh yeah and I learned some Italian while I was there which isn't that cool because I was there for almost 4 hours and if I hadn't learned some, it would have been an eyebrow raiser for sure.

I would almost have to say that the hardest part of the test was saying what your level of effort is at each wattage point. You are given a sheet with the #'s 1-10 on it to describe the degree of pain you are feeling....oh I mean the degree of fatigue and difficulty you are feeling with the various increases in the wattages.

That was hard to do because you make it a habit of telling yourself you feel great, you are light as a feather, etc all the time - all that mind game stuff. So to actually lay it on the line and tell them what you are feeling is hard! You kind of have to wipe away that first layer and really feel it and THEN let em' know you feel like dieing. :)

Happy 78th Mom!

Thanks for always sheltering us when it was cold.....


For always guiding me in the right direction.....


For making the best Halloween costumes ever....


For buying me the best shirts too!


And for always loving me unconditionally!


Happy Birthday Mom. I LOVE YOU!

Ride and Rumble

We met up with DJ and Eddie her dog at Church Rocks.

And horsed around doing several out and back loops checking the whole area out.

Chris wasn't liking our adventurous attitude in the creek bed.

So I made him take a picture of me.

Thought that would brighten his day.

Not sure it worked.

Then we jumped in the car because this was coming.


Only to be stopped a block from the trail head for a swat team that was in action. There were about 20 plus cop cars, armored men with guns sneaking around a house getting ready to pounce. No pics of that cuz we got the heck OUT. Still surprised they let us through the street they had "closed" off. Utah.

Some cool scenery on the way home although the weather got ugly as we got to the Provo area.

To Vegas or Not to Vegas

Talk about being on the fence about things.

We left the hotel room packed for Boulder City, NV thinking that the St. George trails were all drenched.

Then get to a coffee shop in St G and run into, Newby, a local extraordinaire and ripper of a racer. It was destiny cuz he was headed out for a road ride but we talked him into showing us around the St. George trails for the low price of free after convincing us things wouldn't be bad here. And they weren't!





Our leader, Newby.

As luck would have it Oh-"I definitely know how to ride a bike"-Ran was in town too and was willing to join the madness.

So Brad took us around the parameter of St. George heading from the Red Rock bike shop to the Pioneer Park Trail, Paradise Canyon, the Zen Trail and back. But it wasn't without incident of course - it is a group ride after all and we all took our turns with problems.

Ohran was first with his SWEET out of the box 09 Cannondale Rize and working out the normal kinks.

Chris was second taking Ohran out in the process as he crossed a foot wide gap (Ohran following). Chris's front tire burped taking him out, leaving Ohran to fen for himself and make a choice of either running Chris over or casing it himself. Everyone was ok.

Brad was next, with shifting issues. Who needs the big ring anyway I say? Just 150 rpm it! :)

Then I decided to run over a nail.





Happy after a good 3 plus hour ride.

Not bad weather here today.

Gonna be a good year for Ohran. He's on fire!

Skiing by Morning. Riding by Night.

Lord it was a big day that started in Northern Utah and ended in Southern Utah.

Driving down South.......

Boy did we luck out today with the weather today. After Chris ripped some runs at DV early in the am and I pulled off my very first head stand in Yoga (yes!!!!.....took 2 years) we drove to St. George and encountered rain, snow and fog almost the whole way down. But when we got out to ride Church Rocks there was no rain and the soil had soaked up much of the storm.

We got our ride in and and afterwards called a local friend Quentin who is now a proud owner (along with his wife DJ) of a bike shop in Hurricane, UT called Over the Edge Sports.



We had dinn dinn with him and then he opened the shop so we could take a look around and get some of the finest after dinner coffee known to mankind. Check out the nice set up and the NICE coffee too (Caffe Ibis) that he has in the shop.



Open Wed - SUNDAY (yes, Sunday!), Over the Edge Sports sits conveniently at the base of the road that leads up to the Gem Trail and Gooseberry Mesa. Quentin knows what he is doing when it comes to everything about bikes too. You can trust him with his knowledge and all his experience. He has been racing since he was 5, starting with BMX and DJ has raced Pro MTB forever too along with being the mastermind behind trail building to include the wonderful Hurricane Rim trail that we know and LOVE.

Check out that fork Quentin used to ride as a kid. That has got to hurt! Anyone know what it is and who made it? That is the one thing Quentin does not know.

Oh and they even have free pecans because there are two massive pecan trees in front of the bike shop. We only took one with us since it was raining CATS AND DOGS and we had to head for cover!

As for the cool (what comes around goes around) thing that happened for the day.............

When I got out of the car I must have dropped my leg warmer because when I came back out to the car someone had hung it on the car. Had they not done that I may have never seen the thing. That was nice of someone to do. Now rewind about 10 hours when Chris was walking through the parking lot to work. Chris noticed that some guy had unfortunately left his sunroof open and it had started snowing BAD. Chris ran back to his car, got some towels and placed them over the sunroof. That was a nice thing to do to and it paid off I guess with me getting my leg warmer back later in the day. Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy now? Yeah, me neither. :)

The S's are Here

Sand + Snow + Spray + Slush + Salt + Stones + Slop + Super large holes + Snow Showers + Rain Showers + no Sun =


Getting Splashed
Getting Soaked
Slurping Shat
and
Having one Soiled bike after it is all said and done


I am just going to have to get used to all of this as we get into Spring because it is not going away anytime soon.

The runoff is huge, the potholes are immense, the rocks are coming down off the cut banks at me, the streets are laden with everything but pavement, the cars are kicking up more water than usual and drinking from my water bottle after 5 minutes out is downright nasty!

It is like an obstacle course out there and yet, it is still WAY better than my basement!! Life is going to seem so easy ONCE we are back to clean and clear streets again.

DV

Yeah, ok, I like to shop. I admit it. That is what makes working at Deer Valley in their Retail Stores so fun. I can work and shop at the same time. Can you see I am thrilled:


Plus I get to fold lots and lots and lots of tee shirts over and over and over and over and over and over again. The exact same ones too. Hmmmm??? Some of those piles below aren't so perfect.


And then I get to watch co-workers wade through a sea of ski boots to get to the light switch when it is all over.


Top er' off with the sun setting on the drive back home. Good stuff.

Jay Leno Show

I was cleaning out my files and found one full of stuff that I wanted to send to the Jay Leno Show at some point for his Monday headlines gig. So I finally sent them last week and one of my entries made it on to the show. Check it here.

Here were some of the other ones that I sent in that didn't make the cut.