Tour de Heber

But first it started with a Park City breakfast with the buds from Santa Barbara. How cool is it that they got 12 people to come out to Park City to celebrate a birthday? Now that is dedication!

Part of the group here (some girl, Tamera, Kristin, Jessica, Brooke)

Then it was off on the Tour de Heber on my bike:

Don't have to travel too far to find..........

Horsies

Bulls (check out them horns!)

Wool

Mmmmm. Hamburger.

Donkey (Why do I always think of Shrek saying "Donk - eh, SHUT UP!!!")

Too Strange

My really good friends, Jack and Jen, just got back from Kenya and Tanzania. They climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and summitted too! And while traveling over there they had a layover in London where they discovered my twin that I never new I had. They snuck in some pix to send to me after doing several double takes:



I guess with all the people in the world some have got to look like you eh? Eeerie.

If You Wait Long Enough

(only a few months) the sun may actually come out and the temperature may actually rise to 30! Ahhhhh. I got outside today in Heber! I was so excited to ride in my backyard for the first time in forever that I took a ton of pics as if I was just visiting or something. A good day.

These snow packed roads are good stuff because underneath that nice looking layer of what you would think is pretty solid, are random pits of soft goosh. So the second you get all comfy the next thing you know is you are fish tailing trying to keep yourself upright. And the corners!! Oh the corners. My oh my. How do they get so mangled with ice, snow, foot high crud, water holes......I wasn't bored today that is for sure.

Happy 55th Anniversary

If you can believe it, my mom and dad our celebrating their 55th Wedding Anniversary today. Holy cow. 55 years. That is a lot. I am so proud of them! I am sure they did something wild and crazy today to celebrate too....like went to Starbucks or something. :)

These pictures are of two very hardworking, trustworthy and honest people who built everything they have today from nothing. NOTHING. They lived through the depression which set their morals, standards and way of life real early on and it turned out to be a good thing.

I am lucky to call them my parents and can only hope that I can achieve all they have done with integrity still intact as they have. They are amazing people and I love them!

Think Positive

I think that this kind of stuff (Sports Psychology) is so interesting. Here is a bit that I just read. I find it so incredible what the mind will allow your body to do sometimes.

By Frank Claps, M.Ed., C.S.C.S.
Her Sports + Fitness

Your mind can improve your exercise results, says two recent studies. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that women who believed they had a high tolerance for muscle pain reported less discomfort during cycling tests than women who claimed a low threshold.

In a Harvard University study, when hotel maids were told their work met the Surgeon General's recommendations for an active lifestyle, the women experienced decreases in blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index a month later. But the control group, who didn't receive the information, saw no such health improvements.


On a personal side note, I have found that yoga helps with this process. In addition to getting a great power and endurance workout yoga has definitely helped me put my mind into practice turning the "I can’t’s" into the "I just did its!!” I have found that this practice in the studio has translated onto the bike in a very positive way too which I really never expected quite honestly. After many years of yoga, I now am able now to not give up right away on say a sketchy downhill section that I thought was not ridable and instead I will push through (weather it's clean or not is debatable at times but at least I am doing it!).

On that note, the power of the mind has also helped me overcome near crashes because I didn't let up and was able to pull out of it somehow (even though I was hearing glimpses of "it's over, you are going to crash!" in my head but didn't let it get to me). This blog entry from November comes to mind on that one for sure.

This all of course, is not to say that I don't crash because I certainly do (sorry to let you know that mom-don't worry now), but I have cut the incidences down because I don't give up as it is happening anymore and instead I try to pull out of it.

All of this practice (of the mind) for me began in the studio with poses that I thought I could not do or achieve or even hold at first. Try some yoga if you can because I think you will be pleasantly surprised as I was. It is just another tool you can you to help you achieve your goals. Everything takes practice!

Is This a Record Year??

I am thinking.....

...ya, it probably is.

The driveway (take note of how high the snow is by the garage door and fence):




The chairlift in the backyard that we use as a bench in the summer:


The backyard:

Snow halfway up the fence:

The side of the house:


Wow. This is a lot of snow for Heber but I am not letting it get the best of me. That is why they made cross bikes and of course, southern Utah too! :)

It Didn't Work

We wished and wished the buckets of rain away but woke up to it pouring outside anyway. Oh well, we tried. Bob's face says it all:

So we hopped in the car and drove back to Provo where my car was parked only to find out that Provo Canyon was closed cuz of major snow fall throughout the day (20 inches plus or somethinhg like that??).

But the sign said the canyon was opening in five minutes so I waited with a bunch of other sorry folks for an hour or so.

I finally called it quits when I saw a guy who talked to the patrol (who were diverting people at the mouth of the canyon), speed away at 70 mph to go around the other way. That was my sign that the canyon was just simply NOT going to open......which it didn't until this morning at 7:45am.

I ended up going around and up through SLC. 1.5 hours vs 30 minutes home. Snowy drive up through Parley's Canyon too but I made it finally by 7:30pm.

And then poor Chris who had an epic ski day was greeted by a very grumpy girl. All I could muster up as a response was GRRRRRRRRR. :)

Tour de St. George

Today Bob (right) and I hooked up with about 10 other riders (some local, some not) who were willing to tote some newbies around on the St. George trails. I have to say that I have done very little riding in the actual St. George area (we usually head out towards Bloomington or Hurricane) and it is awesome!

We started at the Red Rock bike shop and made our way around all of the St. George and Ivans area via singletrack (some roads here and there but not a lot) heading from the Pioneer Park Trail, to Paradise Canyon, to the Zen Trail then to the race course and finally back to the shop. I had no idea that was even possible to do either! I have never had (just shy of) 4 hours fly by in the blink of an eye like that.....ever. I usually bored out of my mind at that point but not today. I could do that whole loop again tomorrow and be a real happy camper.

But snow and not so super weather is supposed to make its way here overnight so we will have to see what happens. I guess the chances are so high of bad weather that another group of SLC riders that we ran into tonight are leaving for home now instead of tomorrow. Oh boy, we are certainly taking our chances by sticking around!!! Time will tell if we made the right decision. It is well worth the risk though since we are already here and were planning on staying anyway.

Paradise Canyon area:





























The view from the top of the Zen trail overlooking St. George:

Getting out of Dodge

While some people were enjoying some very sweet skiing, I was hastily making my way down Provo Canyon to meet Bob.

We were outta there heading down South for the weekend. We need to get some hours in on the velos and we were after weather that is above freezing (please please PLEASE!!).











Jackpot!!! We made it and are taking note of how 45 degrees feels like swimsuit weather now after such a cold winter. We will take it! Heard the skiing is fab though!

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!!