Oh, woe is me!

I've always thought of myself as a well rounded person. I enjoy a whole host of interesting things: geology, birds, family history, animals, law, gardening, design, drag racing. You name it, I probably find it fascinating.

So it has been with great dismay that I have recently discovered that I am not as well rounded as I have always pictured myself to be.

Apparently, when it comes to exercise, my body only knows how to ride a bike.

I tried to keep myself active by walking. I managed to give myself a good case of shin splints. Now I can't walk at all, or at least not without great pain.

So, I tried the elliptical machine. Boy, did I feel stoooopid! I learned that you can't pull up on the elliptical's "pedals". I nearly feel off the machine. Several times. My legs are so used to pulling up, I couldn't help it. All the time, I'm trying to keep my cool because I happen to be a fitness instructor at that facility. Can't have the professionals falling off the equipment like dofusses.

Next, I tried lifting weights. I hate lifting weights. Especially when you have to fight over the machines with a bunch of other people. My perfectly-timed circuit was all screwed up when some guy sat down on one of MY pieces of equipment and proceeded to JUST SIT THERE. Wouldn't move. He wasn't working a circuit, see, he was resting in between sets and didn't want to have to give up his space while he waited.

Now my whole body is sore. I thought I was in such great shape. Shows you what I know.

Next up is swimming I suppose. I'll probably ingest a bunch of parasites and have to live out the rest of my grounding in the bathroom.

I can't wait to get back on my bike.

Time Out

I'm bored. Three weeks off my bike, or any bike for that matter is going to kill me.

I still have to teach three to four Spinning classes each week. And I have to teach off the bike. Rio still hangs on my bedroom wall like artwork. So I am allowed to see bikes, wrench bikes, and admire bikes. I'm just not allowed to saddle up.

It's like telling a couple of teenagers that they can kiss each other, touch each other, and admire each other, but they aren't allowed to go all the way.

I'm sure by the end of my grounding, er, I mean time off, I'll be so excited to get back on...and then what? Race season is over and the weather is turning cold.

I know. There's always cross. Believe me, I'm tempted. It's the bad boy Mom always warned me to stay away from. The problem is that I sucked so bad at road racing, I don't wanna go mess up cross too. So I'll try to stay away from it, at least for this year.

So, I'm really trying to come up with stuff to do (exercise-wise, anyway) until I can ride again. Probably end up walking the dog a lot. She's gonna wonder what's up with all the extra attention.

Time for a Break

You know it's time to quit riding for a while when you do an 8-mile race and you're totally wiped out for the rest of the day.

Today's race was a time trial hillclimb, the Climber's Cup.



The scenery was beautiful. The race was held in East Canyon, just east of Salt Lake, but not quite to Park City.



I didn't do so well. I haven't recovered from LOTOJA yet. Coach says I need a break. He's grounded me from my bike for THREE WEEKS!

I'm actually pretty excited about it.

I'm Baaack!

LOTOJA was so much fun!

I'm still pretty spaced out from the whole event, so hopefully something here will make sense. We drove all night to get home, so I've only had about 4 hours of sleep.

My relay partner, Ragla, started us out bright and early in Logan. She rode for 34 miles to Preston, Idaho. Sling and I had driven up to Preston, and thinking we had plenty of time, went to the grocery store so I could change into my bike clothes. I chose this store because I remember from last year that it had a massage chair. After a miserable night's sleep on some stranger's front room floor, I figured a massage was in order. So after changing, I proceeded to sit in the chair and talk to people who were wondering what I was up to. I stood out a bit, I guess. Next thing I knew, my phone was ringing. It was Ragla! Freaked me out! I was sure she had made it to the feed zone already and was wondering where I was. But, luckily, she was only calling to tell me she was seven miles out. So we hurried over to the park and waited for her to come in.



Then it was my turn to ride. I was a bit nervous about climbing Strawberry Summit because my friend had told me how hard it was. I discovered that she lied. I hit the climb and started dropping everyone. I don't think a single person passed me on that climb. It was great! And it gave me a mental boost. The first 16 or so miles had dragged on, but after Strawberry, time passed really quickly. I was in Montpelier, Idaho before I knew it.

In Montpelier, I pulled into my stop, hoping to grab my feed bag and go. But Sling was missing. Ragla ran to find him, and when he showed up, he insisted that I sit and have a quad massage. I did a quick rub down with The Stick, grabbed my stuff, and took off again.

East of Montpelier there was some major road work going on. Luckily the road was totally closed to traffic. There was a place where you had to climb a steep grade, in gravel, come back down another steep grade (I'd guess 10 or more percent), sliding on the dirt and rocks, then ended up crossing a metal bridge made out of railroad cars. It was kind of nerve wracking.

The next climb was Geneva Summit. It was a little more difficult than Strawberry Summit, but not as long. It's almost 1000 feet of elevation gain in nine miles.

The last big climb was Salt River Pass. I had ridden this part last year, but I had forgotten how long of a climb it was. On this climb you gain 1300 feet of elevation in 11 miles. I was so relieved when I got to the top, knowing it was mostly downhill from here.




Coming down from Salt River Pass I felt really weird. Blurry eyes and dizzy. I don't know if it was from the work of climbing, from the sudden change of speed (from about 8 mph to 40 mph), or because of the strong cross winds. I wasn't sure I should go on. But by the time I got to the bottom of the descent, I was feeling back to normal again.

The winds were really bad coming into Afton, Wyoming. It would whip around and smack you in the face every once in a while. I was glad when I was done with my part.

Ragla took the rest of the race, from Afton to Teton Village (11 miles beyond Jackson Hole). She needed me there for her at the end of the race. She felt like she was done at about 20 miles left to go. Said she wanted to throw her bike in the road and watch it get ran over. So, we would drive ahead, wait for her, and encourage her as she went by. I got back on my bike for the last seven miles of the race and rode to the finish line with her. We came into Teton Village about an hour earlier than we expected. Yeah!

Here's a cheesy picture of us at the end of the race:



97 miles
6 hours
6722 feet of ascent

LOTOJA or bust

I'm off to LOTOJA.

Wish me luck -- I'm gonna need it!

Lonely Birthday Ride

It's official. I'm older today. Boo! Hiss!

Went for a ride out to Saratoga Springs to celebrate. Nobody wanted to ride with me. Could it be because I tend to be pretty grumpy on my birthdays? Or maybe everyone wanted to celebrate Labor Day in their own special way. And I thought having my birthday fall on a major holiday would be so fun. I tried to cheer myself up by stopping by my favorite bike shop, but it was closed for the day.

This is the second ride this week where I've tried out a new route only to get stuck waiting for a train for 15 minutes. What is up with that?

Rode really easy today because I feel like I'm getting sick. I can't afford to be sick for LOTOJA, so I didn't push it.

44.5 miles
2 hours 55 minutes

HAPPY LABOR DAY, EVERYBODY!

Hobble Creek

My legs are tired. They didn't want to cooperate this morning. It took over 20 miles before they finally accepted that we were going on a bike ride.

Pretty uneventful ride today. Hobble Creek wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined it was going to be. It's rollery (is that a word?). Usually, I prefer to just climb, but today I appreciated the descents that were interspersed in the climbs.

Took a new route on the way home and got stuck waiting for a train to move out of the road. Once the engineer realized there was a group of bikes waiting to cross the tracks, he backed the train up for us. How courteous!


54.78 miles
3 hours 37 min
2578 feet of ascent
195 miles for the week

Is This What You Mean By Recovery Ride?

The Coach had assigned a one-hour recovery ride for me today. I thought that after the ride yesterday, a recovery ride sounded wonderful.

So how I found myself surrounded by six buff cyclist and triathlete men, all of us hooked up to a computrainer at Elevate Fitness, I don't know.

I raced my heart out against those men. They said they were impressed I could hold my own. Do I not look like I could hold my own, I may ask? Anyway, I came in fourth. Pretty good considering that the guy who won was 2.5 miles ahead of the next guy. It was a hard course, with grades up to 10.4 percent. It was a strange sensation when all of a sudden your bike becomes nearly impossible to pedal, and you're sitting in a perfectly flat room, watching a computer screen.

I was pretty tired and sweaty when I was done. Everyone agreed we'd like to come back and do it again. Only next time, we'd leave the guy who won home.

I came home and recovered with a big bowl of ice cream.

Riding West Mountain

76 miles
4 hours & 20 min
Total ascent = 1782 feet
Two flats

Chocolate milk should NOT be consumed mid-ride.

Not the Ride I Had Planned

Today I rode the ride which has been haunting me to do for a couple of weeks now. Or, at least I did most of the ride. More on that later.
First we (Coach Girl, Ragla, Binlaw, and I) rode up Provo Canyon.
Here we are (except me, someone had to take the picture) by Bridal Veil Falls. In case you're wondering, they're holding their bikes because I made them stand in the weeds, and they were worried about sticker weeds puncturing their tires. Rio is looking lonely on the right.

We turned off at the Sundance turn, and climbed the Alpine Loop. It felt better than usual. I didn't HAVE to stop, but stopped anyway at Sundance to get new bottles out of Sling's truck. He just got hired on at Sundance, so it was really convenient to have a cooler with fresh bottles waiting there.

Here I am with Ragla in front of Sundance. The rock we're standing by actually says "Sundance" on it, you just can't see it in the picture.


Ragla wasn't feeling good, so I rode the rest of the way to the top with her. I stopped several times to take photos, and let her get ahead of me so I could catch back up. It rained on us on the way up, and an ambulance passed us (which worried us thinking it could be Coach Girl or Binlaw, who had ridden ahead). Pretty exciting stuff. We found out later that the ambulances were there for a biker who had gone down on the slick, wet road and gave himself a concussion and some road rash on his face.

View of the back of Mount Timpanogos on the way up the Alpine Loop -- so beautiful!


The view looking down at Sundance:



A little higher up. You can see in this picture that it had started to rain:



The way down was wet, but the brakes worked good. It's scary enough riding down the Alpine Loop without the rain...very narrow windy roads, with barely enough room for one car. The wet roads did not help the anxiety factor.

Here's the view on the other side of the Alpine Loop (the American Fork side). Judging by this picture, you probably no longer believe me that it had been raining. You can see the road at the bottom of the photo, the road where I was headed. Yes, it's as steep as it looks:



Ragla and I had considered skipping Traverse, but since we both felt good coming out of American Fork Canyon, we continued. It was a hot climb, but not miserable. Binlaw rode ahead, I rode alone in the middle, and Coach Girl and Ragla rode at the back.

Here's the view of the Utah Valley side:



By the time we got to the top of Traverse Ridge, Ragla was really sick. I stayed with her while she threw up and called her DH to come rescue us. Coach Girl and Binlaw decided they couldn't wait and went on ahead, down the Suncrest (Salt Lake) side. I was kinda glad I didn't have to go down that side today. It's scary fast with a cross wind that tries to blow you into traffic. Plus, in order to get back to my side of the valley, you have to go on the freeway frontage road which is way too narrow with way too many huge cement and dump trucks thundering along.

Anyway, here's a picture of the Salt Lake Valley from the top of Suncrest.


Also, I don't know why this tickled me so, but at the time, I thought it was really funny. I found it in the restroom at the top the Traverse Ridge.


Like I didn't know how to wash my hands and maybe I might think the toilet was where I should clean up.

I'm not giving my numbers today because they're laughable.

Another One Bites the Dust

Sanpete Road Race--Spring City, Moroni, Fountain Green, and Wales, Utah
I thought this race was gonna be so easy...I thought wrong!
You can see by the bad position I'm in at the finish line that I was hurting:


I hung on to the lead group for about the first half of the race before dropping off the back. I don't know why I did. Maybe the false flat had me fooled, or maybe I thought I'd catch back on to the group again, but I didn't hang on. So I suffered in the headwind and false flats alone for the last half the race. I hate that!

Then the worst happened. Ok, I know there are worse things, but it was bad. The people who were helping on the course directed me left when I should have gone right. Luckily, Sling was there waiting to take a picture and he realized I had gone the wrong way. He chased me down in the car and got me back on the right course. I lost several minutes and gained a couple of miles because of that mistake. Back into the headwind and inclined road.

I think that's about where I gave up. I figured that I was so far behind by now, I really didn't put much effort into the race anymore. Plus, I was really starting to hurt. I don't know why. I've done plenty of rides of this length, so I really shouldn't have been suffering so much. But, my back had locked down, I had gone into some weird position to help it feel better, and therefore caused a lot of sit-bone pain. My tushie was on fire for about the last 10 miles.

The last couple of miles were fun because it was a fast descent with a tailwind. The finish line just kind of snuck up on me, but I was glad to be done.

The race organizers served a really good dutch-oven meal after the race. Pulled pork, chicken breasts, potatoes, salad, and rolls, with peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Too bad I didn't feel like eating much.

45.21 miles in 2:20 with 1497 feet of climbing.

Housework in Cleats

I'm supposed to be out on a three hour bike ride --right NOW! Actually, I meant to leave an hour and a half ago.

So what's the problem?

First, I couldn't find my heart rate monitor strap. I found it in the most random place after looking everywhere I could think of.

Then, I went to turn on my bike computer to make sure it was reading the monitor. It wouldn't turn on, which is bizarre since I just charged it after my ride yesterday. The only thing I can figure is that I must have left it on after I charged it and it ran dead.

So, here I am waiting for the dumb thing to charge. I know from past experience that if I unplug it before it's done charging, it will go into "punish-user" mode, and won't turn on for a couple of days. So, here I sit watching my computer give me the message, "BATTERY CHARGING IN PROGRESS."

I've been dressed in my bike gear for a while now. Been finding things to do around the house. Cleaning the shower was kinda fun while wearing my bike shoes. I could stand on my toes even better because of the cleats. At least stuff's getting done for a change. Or at least it was before I sat down in front of the computer.

I'm going to be riding well into the afternoon today.

Later in the Day

I've made it back from my ride. I had to cut it a little short because I left so late, and I had other more important things to do.

Ride consisted of riding through construction zones (most memorable one was the total shut down of the southbound lanes coming out of Provo Canyon) and manuvuring around car accidents. Kept me on the edge of my seat.

38 miles in 2:24 with 1286 feet of climbing.

LOTOJA Worries

I woke up this morning to the sound of thunder in the sky and rain hitting the windows. I was supposed to be meeting a group for a bike ride around the Alpine Loop (which takes you past Sundance Ski Resort into some gorgeous foresty areas, to an elevation over 8000 feet), then into Lehi/Highland, and up Traverse, and over to Salt Lake. We were planning on about 75 miles, and over 4 hours of ride time.

Did I want to ride in the rain and the wind and the lightening? Not really, but I did need the miles.

The phone rang. The group ride was put off with an agreement that if the weather cleared up, we'd go.

I went back to bed and slept for almost three more glorious hours. I really needed that sleep.

At around 2 p.m., things were looking up in the weather department. The group convened, but we decided that because of the chance of a downpour we would skip the Alpine Loop. None of us wanted to risk having no brakes on a scary fast, twisty, windy descent. So we headed out to the other side of the lake. We wound our way around Saratoga Springs then hit the Jordan River Trail toward Lehi. Since we were in Lehi anyway, and since the weather had improved considerably, we decided to climb Traverse Ridge. By the time we got to the base of the mountain, it was getting hot. It was probably about 5 p.m. by this point. The clouds had moved out, and there was no more wind. This is where things got bad for me. About halfway up the climb, I think I was on the verge of heatstroke. I was getting delusional. Coach Girl finally started taking my begging for shade seriously when I asked her if the guy who passed us on a motorcycle had fangs. So we found a corner where there was a big sign to provide me some shade. Luckily, we'd climbed high enough by this point that there was a nice breeze to cool me off. After a couple of minutes of rest and cooling down, we started back up the climb again. I was totally energized by the rest, and the rest of the climb went by really fast. The descent was fast and fun, but the ride home was long because everybody was so tired.

So, I spent almost four hours on my bike, and I am exhausted. In three weeks I will be riding my bike for over six hours of mostly climbing at LOTOJA. I'm worried.

The good news is that my back is feeling better. Only a little bit of cramping during the climb. Or, maybe I was so focused on not dying of the heat that I didn't notice my back?

58.67 miles in 3:45 with 3114 feet of climbing.