Flee

I am fleeing to St. George this weekend. It's going to be nice, Nice, NICE down there. I'm planning to hook up with the local bike club and get some sunny miles under my belt. Gotta start working on the beautiful biker tan lines!

So, I went to the first half of the Jazz game last night. They weren't doing so well, and I had to get up at dark-early in the morning to teach a Spinning class, so I left at halftime. Then the Jazz came back to beat the Pistons, 103-95 . What does that tell you? I'm a bad luck charm. The Jazz are lucky I got out of there. But, I still feel bad that I missed out on the best part of the game for an extra hour of beauty sleep.

Do I dare put these on my bike?

With how badly Rio has been behaving lately, I'm not sure she deserves these.

Yippeee!!!

My wheels are here, my wheels are here, MY WHEELS ARE HERE!!!

Leaving for SLC right NOW to go get them.

Over and out.

This may be my last chance to play in the snow

This morning I went snowshoeing up Squaw Peak road with Lifesgreat. It was a beautiful day - jacket weather really. No more bulky snowboarding coat for me. The sky was blue. The sun was shining. It's beginning to look like spring might actually come this year!

The downside of it being so nice out was that the snow was a bit slushy at lower elevation and kind of iced-over and crunchy up higher. Not that that took away from the beauty of it all. Just that it tells me that my snow fun will come to an end soon.

I've really had a lot of fun playing in the snow this winter. I don't think I've played in the snow so much in my whole life -- not even as a kid. Really, I hope every winter can be so snow filled as this one has been. And coming from this former Southern Utah, warm weather girl, that's saying a lot!

The Happy Post

Thanks, JE, for pointing out that I've been pretty grumpy and whiny in my last couple of posts. So, I'm posting something positive today.

Things to be thankful for:

1) I have one job that I throughly enjoy. More than throughly...I LOVE MY JOB! And, it pays for my bike addiction. Enough said.

2) While I don't enjoy my second job as much, I am able to work out of my home for this company. No dealing with ornery co-workers, no office politics, and I can work whatever hours I want. Once again, this job pays the bike bills.

3) Remember that little rear-end accident I mentioned on Saturday? The kid's insurance, American Family Insurance, is going to fix my car with no problem, no questions. I was highly impressed with the way they handled things when I called them this morning. If I ever decide to change insurance companies, I would probably go with American Family just based off of how nice they were today.

4) I'm looking forward to a Spinning continuing education class at the Murray Park Center on March 7. I love the good feelings and inspiration I am always left with after taking a class from Marci. Besides, Coach Girl and Ragla are coming, so it will be a PARTY!

5) I'm also anticipating the arrival of my new wheel set: Reynolds MV32s. It's been FOREVER since I ordered them, but that's okay, I love giddy anticipation. (However, if you happen to have some authority to hurry this order along, that would be fine with me.)

6) My teammates rock! I'm really excited about this coming race season. It will be really cool to be part of an actual TEAM. Go Ski Utah!

7) I have many friends. Life without out them would be truly sad. My friends bring me happiness and entertainment. I think I'll take each of them a treat soon to let them know how much I appreciate them and how much they mean to me.

8) My grandpa is out of the hospital. What a relief. He's had more lives than a housecat. I think he's on his 12th life. I think I'll plan to go visit him in St. George one of these days soon. It'll be a good excuse to get to St. George and ride my bike. Anyone wanna go with me?

9) I'm thankful that my coach puts up with me. He rocks! Last week I bombed the plan, and he was okay with it. I'm constantly screwing things up, and he just rolls with it. I know I am stronger because of him.

10) I love good music! It inspires me to no end. If you ever see someone warming up at a race, ear buds plugged in, dancing and mouthing lyrics on the bike, you'll know it's me. Sometimes I have a hard time controlling myself while teaching a Spinning class. That's when I just ride harder.

Okay, well this turned into more of a ten-things-you-didn't-know-about-me session. Sorry. But, at least I feel better about myself because of it.

From here on out: It's my blog, and I'll whine if I want to.

AaaaaaaaaAaAaAAAA!

I'm not having a good day.

1) I sat at the salon waiting to get my hair done for 20 minutes before the receptionist informed me that my stylist wasn't coming in today. I had to come home and work instead of getting pampered.

2) Rio had her post-crash check-up at the bike shop today. When I was driving home, a teenager rear-ended me. Minor damage to the car. Rio's okay. The kid who hit me didn't have his insurance info on him, so I still have to call and get that from him. More dumb things I've gotta do.

3) My plan was to ride to Saratoga Springs with Phil and Ruth today. But, when I called Phil to ask where he was, he told me that he had heard a RUMOR that I was racing BMX tonight instead of riding with him, so he made other plans and couldn't go after all. Ruth had waited around for Phil and me for long enough, and she had gone off to do other stuff too. I really didn't want to ride by myself today, and nobody else wanted to go on such short notice.

4) I did manage to enjoy my solo bike ride. All 2.8 miles of it. Just as I was gearing up for a fast descent, I hit a monster staple. It put three holes in my tire and did some carnage to my brakes. Since I needed a whole new tire, and I wasn't carrying one, that was the end of my fabulous ride.

5) I came home to put a new tire on and thought that I would take a picture of the damage the staple caused before I got started. It was then that I realized that Sling had taken the camera to the BMX track. So, sorry, no picture.

6) When I went to take the tire off the wheel I found that my tire lever had broken.

7) To make matters worse, my Garmin is staging a boycott and won't download my ride information onto the computer.


My bike hates me. I think she's jealous that I've been lusting after another bike.

I think I'll go soak in the hot tub.

Good Times

Went to lunch with my bestest-buddy-from-my-growing-up-years today. We went to a new Indian restaurant on Center in Provo. Good food...but I wouldn't suggest eating the little seeds up for grabs at the checkout desk. Even if some of them are candy coated. Unless you love licorice. Still...

Had a good time chatting with Shale about the olden days of growing up in Parowan, and generally sharing toooooo much information about myself that she probably didn't need to know.

It's good to get together with friends. We'll have to go again soon.



PS -- You know you don't get together with your friends enough when you look directly at them and then turn to the waiter and say, "I'm waiting for my friend, but I don't see her here yet."

You've gotta check this out!

This is pretty cool! It's kinda like spying.

Go to Google maps and type in your (or someone else's) address, city, and state. Maybe you've already seen it, but this was new to me: pictures of your (or someone else's) house. Once you've clicked on the photo, you can even navigate down the road and look at your neighbors houses, and in some cases your neighbors, themselves.

I've found some interesting stuff on there. Check it out. You might be surprised at what you find. (Hint, hint: I might have even seen YOU!)

Reminder

The UDOT meeting is tonight. (Click here for more info.)

It's an open house, so you can show up at any time from 5-7:30, get some info, add your input, and you're out of there. Let your voice be heard.

Remember, even though this meeting is specific to a Utah County road, UDOT does build roads all over Utah. Please, even if you can't make it to the meeting, let them know how you feel about planning for cyclists when building our roads. Here's an example of what I might tell them:
"There are many cyclists currently using Utah roads, and our numbers are growing every year. For many cyclists, biking is their only method of transportation. Please consider the bicyclists when planning future roadways. Thank you."

One final incentive to get you to come out to the meeting: I'll likely be there around 6:30.
Hope to see you there.

The Day From Hell

First off, I want to apologize to my teammates. I headed back to Salt Lake without letting you know. I hope I didn't worry you too much.

This morning started out good enough. I taught an interval Spinning class, and several people came up and told me how much fun they'd had. So far, so good. Okay, it was great. I love it when people tell me the love my class.

After class, I hurried and changed into some cold weather riding gear and drove to Salt Lake to ride with my new team, Ski Utah. I found the meeting spot early, but by the time I was done getting ready, I was about late. Which apparently is no big deal with this group. We pulled out almost 25 minutes after the meeting time. That's good news for me since I have to drive for an hour to ride with them and since I seem to always run late.

We left from 9th South and 9th East in downtown Salt Lake and headed out west to Saltair. The pace was great on the way out and the company was good. Everyone on the team is so friendly! I was having a good time. Somewhere in between Salt Lake and Saltair we stopped and broke into groups of 5-6. Each group was going to let everyone have a turn taking five minute pulls. Brandi started out pulling, and pulled a good pace (thanks!). Then someone else took the pull. She cranked up the pace. I couldn't hold on anymore. I dropped to the back and begin falling off. I began to wonder if I shouldn't just go home. But then Brandi came back and rode the rest of the way to Saltair with me. It was good to ride along and chat with her. Her plan was to turn around when the first group was heading back our way. When we saw them, she turned around and I followed. This is when I realized that there was a bit of wind. I kept slowing. I decided that I would just keep riding easy until the second group caught up to me. They never did. Brandi's group got to the TT turn around point, and they turned back around again. How many times were they going to keep going around? Anyway, I didn't turn around. I kept riding figuring that they had to come back this way, and eventually they would catch me. After heading back toward Salt Lake for about 5 miles, I changed my mind again. I started having thoughts of them all gathered around asking where I'd gone. And nobody would know. So I turned around and went back toward Salt Air. I could see a group heading toward me. What? They're turning around AGAIN! I could see a second group in the distance and decided to keep riding toward them. I was hoping that this group would have someone I knew in it. No such luck. They also turned around. All except one person, Brad. I could see he was not turning, so I turned around so I could ride back with him. I didn't know my way, so I needed someone to help me. Brad was such a sweetheart! He not only rode with me the whole way back (even when I told him to just tell me how to get back since I was too tired to keep up), he slowed and waited for me if I dropped off, and gave me something to eat (I think he thought I was heading for a bonk). And he was there to help me when I wreaked.

Yes, I had my first wreak today. As we were coming up to these sharply angled train tracks Brad says to me, "Careful, these are bad tracks." I could see they were, and I thought I knew how to handle them. However, I wasn't figuring the car behind me into the equation. Because the car was there I didn't swing it as wide as I should have. I landed on my right hip, and knee (ripped my tights >:-< ), and right elbow. I must have tried to catch myself because my left hand is bruised and swollen. The good news is that Rio is fine. If she's damaged it's only her junk wheels. Luckily, I chose not to put on my race wheels for today's ride.

To top off today's crappy day, some old man yelled at me in the REI parking lot. I had gone there to pick up my new snowshoes. To get to REI I had to flip a u-turn around a cement barrier in the road. I had signaled my intentions, but Old Man wasn't paying attention and almost hit me. He followed me into the parking lot and proceeded to cuss me out.

I drove home fighting back tears, and still pretty shook up. It took me forever to get home because I felt so brain dead I could hardly function. I couldn't even find I-15. I just kept driving south looking to find 9000 South because that was the only way I could think of to get there.

I'm ready for this day to be over. I'm going to bed.

Music Experiment

I'm trying out this new (to me) music site to see if I like it.

A Post Dedicated to "Turbo"

I don't usually post about someone I've only met once and really only know as an online presence. I don't normally dream about them either. But last night's dream was so real, and yet a bit bizarre.

In the dream I had gone down to Provo to what must have been a pawn shop. Turbo worked there. Surprisingly, he recognized me when I walked in, and we sat and chatted for a while. Then I noticed a beautiful yellow 80s model road bike. I had to have it, so Turbo rang up the purchase. While I was at it, I decided to also buy a kiddie trailer to tow behind it. Then Turbo said to me, "Hey, I know where we can buy two matching minivans. One for you and one for me." Apparently he felt that since we're such good friends we should have a matched set. I told him that under no circumstance was I going to drive a minivan, even if it matched his. He continued to tease me about the minivan idea for a while before I said goodbye. As I was leaving, I told him I was going to name my new bike Lemondrop (imagine me known as Lemondrop's Rider --haha). I then used my super-dream strength to hoist the hitch of the bike trailer over my shoulder (the bike and the trailer were now hooked together). I proceeded to walk home (like 10 miles away) CARRYING the bike and trailer over my shoulder like a purse. I began to have self doubts about the trailer purchase. What was I going to do with a bike trailer?

What does it all mean? Who knows.

And since this is a post about Turbo, I'll include the following thought as well: I recently realized my flat iron has a turbo button. I don't know why I've never noticed it before. I tried it out. The effects of the turbo button were amazing:

It was
-hotter
-faster
-got the job done in half the time

However, when using the turbo button
-if you aren't careful you'll get burned
-for some reason it smells funny when turboed

Why can't I have my own turbo button?

Skiing with Sling

Man, we are getting a major snow dump today! The driveway is on it's third snowshoveling of the day. Snowshoeing with Lifesgreat on Tuesday is going to be sweet!

Sling went xc skiing with me yesterday. I think I've got him figured out. We'd be skiing along, side by side, chatting, when the terrain would change a little and I'd pull ahead a bit. Instantly he would kick it into high gear. Can't let a woman pass. Sheesh! After the first couple of times, I started doing it just to watch the show. I'd push hard and get a couple of lengths ahead, his testosterone would kick in, and soon I'd be watching his rear-end. Not that that's a bad thing.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SLING!!!

XC Ski Pics

There was another picture that had really pretty scenery, but I looked like I was about to cry, and really it wasn't that painful, so I didn't post it. I wouldn't want to scare anyone away from Nordic skiing.