The Mystery

The strangest thing just happened to me. But before I get to that, let me give you a little background. Yesterday, JE blogged about his cheescake indulgence. The picture of the cheesecake was about driving me insane -- I love cheesecake! And I love key lime pie. So the thought of the two flavors together was torturing me. So I asked JE to please blog something new so the picture would move down and I wouldn't have to see it anymore.

Well, I came home tonight and opened the fridge. To my great surprise I found: a half a Costco Key Lime Cheesecake with a note attached, "THANK ME."



I started shouting and running around the house wondering how and when this magical cheesecake came to be in my fridge. Slingshot looked at me and asked, "Does he know where you live?" I don't think so.

I'm still unsure who to thank.

But I am eating it for breakfast tomorrow...if there's any left.

Edit: Mystery solved! Apparently some Chinese neighbors didn't like the cheesecake they had bought, so they gave it to me. Lucky me!

The "Ultra" Experience

Whimper!

Yesterday I went into the tanning salon to see about pricing and what not. The lady behind the desk told me I could try a free Ultra tan.

"What's that?"

"It's like three regular tans put into one"

That should have been the first red flag. But it was going to be free after all, and I wanted to even out the biker tan lines before they really had a chance to take hold. So I took it.

The lady then proceeded to explain that this bed didn't block the "bad" rays, the ones that burn you.

"Pshaw! I don't burn!"

Then she asked if I wanted the full time of 10 minutes. That should have been the next red flag. A tan bed that can burn you in under ten minutes. "Only ten minutes? Oh sure, I'll be fine."

Then she told me to be careful about the parts that might not have seen the sun. Well, I didn't listen. When you have a room to yourself, you think you don't burn, and you don't want any tan lines, what are you going to do? Yep, that's what I did.

I do burn. And it hurts. Especially on those places that usually don't see the sun.

Be careful of freebies. They're not really free.

Whimper.

Experimenting

I had a good ride today. Put in about 20 miles down by Utah Lake. It sure was a beautiful day.

Anyone who's ridden with me knows that I watch birds while I ride. There were a lot of birds out to watch today: tons of pelicans,
lots of ibis,plenty of ducks, what had to have been a golden eagle (I was trying to watch the road), and another smaller hawk (once again, it's hard to bird watch and ride at the same time), plus the usual sparrows, finches, killdeer, starlings, and quail. This bird watching habit drives several of my riding buddies crazy, but it's what you get when you ride with the daughter of a wildlife officer. One of these days, I'm going to plan a ride where I tuck a copy of a birding field guide in my jersey pocket and take the time to stop and really watch the birds. I'd like that.

I took along the same foods that I had raced with on Saturday in an attempt to figure out what made me so sick after the race. So far what I've figured out is that it wasn't the stuff I ate while I raced, so it was either food poisoning or the flu. I'm just starting to feel back to normal today...an occasional, quick stomach cramp is all. At least I know that I can continue to use the foods I want to use during races without worrying about catching the evil gaumboo.

Tax Day Circuit Race

Something went horribly wrong today.

But, before I get into that, here I am at the start line with BG. I was feeling really good, calm, and ready to race at this point.




The race started with BG and I leading out. The first mile and a half-ish of the race was neutral roll out. We were following Sam Kreig's car at 13 mph to the end of the neutral roll out. Sam had his music turned up loud, and I was quite enjoying myself. Once Sam pulled off the course BG and I picked the speed up to 22.5 mph. I decided I was done pulling and tried to pull off, but nobody would take the pull. Finally, Jamie and Jillian came around, but only for a little while. I was up front again. I tried to pull off again, but once again, nobody would come up. Next thing I knew, Jillian was off the front, driving the pace, Jamie was chasing her down, and everyone was passing me. I thought, "finally, I'm going to get a draft!" But for some reason, I couldn't hang on to the group, and I was dropped. I soloed it to the top of the climb, but I could feel that something was terribly wrong. I did not have any strength. I never use my granny gear, but I did today, and it felt especially difficult. As I got to the top of the climb, Clint was in the road taking my picture. He looked really surprised when I stopped my bike. Everyone starred at me.

This is BG, who made it to the top of the climb ahead of me.


Here I am ready to quit.


I told Sling I was done. I took off all my gear and threw it in the trunk. Then I started getting mad at myself and pitched a little tantrum. I wasted about 5+ minutes fighting with myself. I finally decided I would rather finish last than not finish at all. I remembered that BG once told me what one of the guys (sorry, I don't remember which) says, "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever." I put my stuff back on and finished the race.



The climb was horrible, all three times. I'd forgotten how bad it was. I wanted so bad to get off and walk. But, I didn't. And I wanted to puke. I didn't do that either. But, I've felt sick, weak, and shaky all day since. Weird.

I am glad I finished the race. I hope I can figure out what's up with my body. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and, no, I am not pregnant! (Although, I do look rather fat in these pictures.)

Three cheers to my awesome teammates, Jamie and Breanne, for taking 1st and 2nd place! You ladies ROCK!

I danced with a phone because I'm NOT a nerd.

What's yours?

Pick the month you were born:

January------I kicked
February-----I loved
March---------I smoked
April------------I sat on
May-----------I choked on
June----------I raced
July-----------I did the Macarena with
August-------I had lunch with
September---I danced with
October------I sang to
November----I yelled at
December----I helped out

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a Mexican
6-------a gangster
7-------my cell phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19-------myself
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an iPod
29-------a permanent marker
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White--------because I'm cool like that.
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink----------because I'm NOT a nerd.
Red----------because the voices told me to.
Blue----------because I'm weird and I do what I want
green---------because I hate myself.
Purple--------because I'm cool.
Gray----------because I was drunk.
Yellow--------because someone offered me $1,000,000
Orange -------because I hate my family.
Brown--------because I was dizzy.
Other---------because I'm a ninja.

Spinning

A lot of times when I tell someone that I am a Spinning instructor, I get this response:

"Spinning? Does that have something to do with knitting and yarn?"

I should just start telling them that "Yes, yes, it does. My name is Rumpelstiltskin, and not only can I make yarn, but in my spare time I spin straw into gold."

For for those of you who don't know what Spinning really is, I have a photo for you.

Some guy in my Spinning class brought a camera to class on Wednesday. He said that he needed to prove to his son that he has been exercising and has lost a lot of weight because of it. I took his picture, and he took a whole bunch of pictures of everyone in the class, including me. So here I am, teaching Spinning. As you can see, it has nothing to do with yarn. It is a lot of fun! I love it!

Pictures of Hell

Here is my photographic proof that I went to Hell. Thanks to KanyonKris for inadvertently directing me to the Zazoosh site to find my photos.

Lap 1. Nancy, Shanna, Me , and another Cat4 woman.Lap 2.

Lap 3. I was getting tired and was beginning to wonder if I could hang on to the group for much longer. That's me way in the back. Don't worry. I caught up again.


Lap 4.
The photographer must have been taking a potty break when we came around for the last lap. He took shots of the girls ahead of us and the ones behind us, but not us.

So there you have it. Thanks to Zazoosh for spending their day in the cold taking pictures of all of us out there.

Hell was Heaven

Dude. Hell of the North was a fun race! It could have been a little warmer, and there could have been less wind, but who's complaining? I had a blast!

The reason I had such fun: AWESOME TEAMMATES! Ski Utah Cycling was well represented today.

There were nine Cat 4 women racing today. Of the nine, six (five? maybe I'm counting a Masters racer?) were from the Ski Utah team. Since there were only two Masters women and a handful of Juniors, we all started the race together. Most of the group went into the gravel section together, but pretty soon the group was split up. The Cat4 women were divided between a lead group, my group, and some stragglers. At first my group had me, Shanna (Ski Utah), Nancy (Ski Utah, racing Masters), and another girl. Pretty soon I noticed that it was just Shanna, Nancy and myself. Another lap or two and Kara (also from Ski Utah) caught on with us. The four of us decided that since we were all teammates we would work together and practice some essential racing skills. We worked on pulling/drafting and working a rotating echelon (since the wind was strong from the north/northwest). As we rounded the last corner and started toward the finish line the pace picked up. We started joking about how we were all going to start sprinting and how we would get to see who the sprinters of the group were. Kara decided to take off first. Shanna and Nancy soon followed. At this time I was thinking that they were going too soon and I wasn't going to go with them yet. Good choice. Kara soon lost momentum, and I was able to push hard and pass her just before the finish line. I finished in 5th place.

I'm really proud of myself for hanging with my little pack. It made the race so enjoyable for me. What a great group of ladies!

I wish I had pictures of the race to share, but my usual photographer, Sling, was racing at the same time. I'll have to find some online photos later, I guess. Does anyone know who the race photographer was?

Happy April Fool's Day!

I'm not feeling super creative with the April Fool's jokes this year. Usually, you'd better watch out!

The only joke I've played (so far) is that last night, after all the Spinning classes were done for the day, I went in and put a GIANT comfort saddle, complete with a gel seat cover, on the instructor's bike. I put it on so that the nose stuck up way too far. The first thing Coach Girl saw when she walked in to teach the 5:30 a.m class this morning was this huge saddle. Her first thoughts were that the new instructor (who taught last night and is pregnant) must have put it there. Well, Coach Girl was pissed! How dare this new instructor switch out saddles! Coach Girl proceeds to write a nasty note telling the other instructors not to mess with the equipment and then she goes to take off the gel cover. That's when she notices the note I left hiding under the saddle. Haha! Joke's on her. (The original plan had been to put some old broken stationary bike up on the instructor's stage, but that didn't work out.)

Well, I guess it's pay back time. I just walked out front and found this:



Apparently, I'm having a luau at my house at 7. You're welcome to come. I'm unsure as to who is providing the party.