the best laid plans of kathryn garner...

2009-10-04T18:03:00.002-06:00

Today I played basketball with Tom Cruise, shortly after he'd finished filming Top Gun.

Golden Aspens and Runaway Dogs

2009-09-27T21:01:00.003-06:00

The changing aspens and the need to so something other than ride on two wheels inspired today's adventure...a hike to Hell's Hole outside of Idaho Springs. Horrible name for a great 7-mile round-trip hike that traversed through beautiful aspen groves and ended at a beautiful meadow situated underneath a mountain peak and complete with high-altitude wetlands. To top it off, we learned a lesson in patience and good timing when the dog ran off for 10 minutes without any trace, only to re-appear at the same instance that we ran across my former teammate Megan, her husband Matt, and their cute new little puppy. They were the perfect bate to bring the dog back to the trail and from then on she stayed on-leash. It's easy to get excited when you're a dog on your first hike and just want to chase all the squirrels and chipmunks back into their homes. I think our next training lesson will be how to respond to "Laya...come!"

Getting in my upper-body workout for the year.

Me and Laya, the albino Rhodesian Ridgeback.

We hit the aspens at the perfect time when they were all golden.

Chris "the Dog Wrangler" Winn.

The final destination below Gray's Peak.

Gila Day 1

2009-04-30T10:48:00.002-06:00

Word coming in from a little Aussie birdie down in Silver City, NM on Day 1 of Tour of the Gila shows that Chris has some good form at the moment. After lots of attacks, break formed around mile 50, with Chris one of the only amateurs (maybe the only amateur) in a group of 14. He got some nice support from buddy and training partner Ben Raby who was driving the SRAM support vehicle. Sounds like SRAM is out in force at the event, and everyone is pretty excited that they stepped in to save the race this year. The leaders suffered for around 40 miles, but it was not to be with Lance telling Levi he should go win the stage. And that he did. The stage was super-fast, being 30 minutes faster than last year's.

Major congrats to CW for mixing it up with the pro teams, getting in the break, and showing that he can ride with the big boys! Sometimes the results don't always show the whole story.

On the women's front, gotta give a shout-out to my girls Shaz Allpower and neighbor Gwen Inglis who kicked some butt today and showed the rest of the girls that even though it's been raining and/or snowing every weekend in Colorado for the last 6 weeks, we'll still give you a run for your money. Oh, and to top it off, Sharon is riding Lance-style this week with a brand new plate and 8 pins in her collarbone, just like Lance (minus 4 pins). See, he's not that super-human.

Hoping for more Twitter updates today than yesterday's stage which was out in the boonies where cell service has yet to be invented.

1,000 Words

2009-04-27T21:27:00.002-06:00

Words couldn't do justice to the size of this truck. Is there a word that describes a level beyong gi-normous? I am on the short(er) side, but this truck would make Shaq look small. I wonder if it comes equipped with a ladder for easy entry?

Belmar on a Wednesday Evening

2009-04-15T20:50:00.002-06:00

It is quite interesting what you observe when you don't go straight from work to bike to dinner to bed, and actually venture out into the community. What do people do when they don't exercise after work?

3 things I learned while visiting our local upscale shopping neighborhood, Belmar tonight....

1) Shoelace bracelets (in bright colors) are cool. At least the punk who works at Aeropostale thinks so...

2) Village Inn is a happening place on a Wednesday night. I'm baffled why you wouldn't jut walk across the street to Ted's and enjoya kick-ass buffalo burger. Maybe I'm weird...

3) A ton of people wait until literally the last possible 4 hour to mail their taxes. The line of cars turning into the post office was R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. You would have thought they were giving away free stamps.

Was definitely an intereting cultural experience. Tomorrow after work I think I'll ride my bi-cycle.

2009-04-14T21:31:00.001-06:00

In true love the smallest distance is too great, and the greatest distance can be bridged.

- Hans Nouwens

Green Thumb

2009-04-07T22:00:00.003-06:00

Off to a good start on the veggie garden (thanks in part to Chris talking to the sprouts and encouraging them to grow). One month into the growing and they are looking good.

Now if only that white stuff on the ground would go away so we can plant the little fellows outside. Come on spring...why don't you stay awhile?

Denver to Hillsboro, Il and Back Again..

2009-04-05T20:23:00.012-06:00

Big congrats out to this guy for his performance this weekend. 28 hour of driving for 3:45 minutes of racing. But well worth it. 5th place in the Hillsboro Roubaix and first qualifying amateur earned him a place on the Nature Valley Grand Prix composite team.

Felt a bit odd to be at a race and not have the kit on and the bike between my legs. Especially as I watched the two women's races go by during my stint in the feed zone, the racing bug was biting me pretty hard. But main goal for the weekend was the get CW an invite to Nature Valley. And mission accomplished. Two thumbs up to promotor Todd Harris for putting on one of the better-run races I've been to, complete with neutral wheel cars for all the categories (including the little guys and the beginner women), well-marked signs, real bathrooms (stocked with toilet paper) and shower for a post-race cleanse.

After the race and the awards ceremony (which included a lot of me screaming and yelling and jumping up and down with excitement), me, CW, and Tucker O hit the road for the 14-hour drive home (complete with a stop at the Motel 6 in who-knows-where Missouri for some shut-eye).

Highlights of the 14-hour drive home included:

"Land submarines...the concept never really took off."

Starbuck's oatmeal with dried fruit, nuts, and brown sugar. Pretty damn good for breakfast on the road.

Pizza in Booneville, Missouri. Good call Tuck-Tuck. Not only did Tucker win the Best-Improved-Stick-Shift-Driver, Chris made him an honorary Australian for picking up on the rhyming slang so quickly. And he impressed us all with his ability to eat a 14-inch meat lover's pizza on his Pat Malone. All that food seems to have made someone a bit sleepy.

Wish I could say the 1st road trip of the year officially kicked off summer, but with snow greeting us as we pulled into the driveway, summer may still be a few weeks (or even months) away. Sure would like the snow to stop, though...

Soda Pop Road Trip

2009-04-03T07:46:00.003-06:00

Getting ready for the first road trip of the race season. Destination: St. Louis, birthplace of Yogi Bera, home of the arches, gateway to the west, and where a soda becomes "pop".

Leaving the bike at home this time and putting on my soigneur hat to support CW and his teammate, Tucker, at the Hillsboro Roubaix. 1st place gets you an all-expenses-paid-trip Nature Valley. Managed to fit everything in just a backpack...nice change the usual packing for me and my bike. Also looking forward to avoiding the 6-12" of snow predicted for tomorrow. Hopefully it won't catch us on Sunday crossing Kansas.

Reboot

2009-03-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

New year.
New blog.
New look.
Same me.

Idioms

2009-01-29T22:14:00.003-07:00

I taught Chris a new phrase today...

Get all your ducks in a row.

I wonder if the Aussie equivalent is: "Get all your kangaroos in a row."

Wacky Neighbor Sightings

2009-01-18T16:10:00.003-07:00

When it's 20 degrees out with 8" of snow on the ground, the first thing I think of is walking outside with shorts and a t-shirt. But don't worry, because I'll have my cigarette to keep me warm. Yep, I have some wacky neighbors. I'm sure they will provide many hours of entertainment for us.

O-8 in Review...

2009-01-01T08:03:00.014-07:00

Inspired by Chris' last post of 2-0-0-8, I thought I'd take my own trip down memory lane that was Two-Double O-Eight.

Highs:
1. Picking Chris up at the Denver airport in March.

2. Moving into the new house
3. Dinner in a yurt in Leadville.

4. MTBing in Durango with Chris.
5. Playing Guitar Hero at our host house in Wisconsin for hours and losing track of time. Thanks Daryl and Kristine for the hospitality (and Spencer, too, for having Guitar Hero)!!! We're looking forward to another visit next summer.

6. Starting a new job and working for a fantastic group of people. Guess I really did want to be a lawyer after all!
7. Visiting Australia over Thanksgiving.
8. Reconnecting with my college buddies over Facebook.
9. Road-tripping to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Surprisingly a pretty cool town. And a great race, too.
10. Chris' 1st ever pumpkin carving

11. After living in Colorado for 5 years, spending Christmas here for the first time and celebrating with my parents.
12. Being part of a great new cycling team!
13. Bowling with my parents on my birthday for the first time ever and learning my dad is a closet bowler (and pretty darn good, too).
14. Learning how to be a top notch feed-zone girl.

15. MOB cyclery moved and become Westside...and riding in the new and awesome computrainer center. Sure beats riding in front of the TV 3 nights a week.
16. Pie nights. Yummy!
17. Camping in the backyard in our $25 Sam's Club tent in the pouring rain (and not getting wet).

Lows:
1. Dropping Chris off at the Denver airport in September.
2. Spraining my ankle at Tulsa in the first 10 minutes of the race. Rain, mud and skinny tires do not mix well. Lesson learned.
3. Walking with crutches through the entire Tulsa airport and crying because I was so tired and sore.
3. Hand-feeding Chris his free hamburger dinner after he sprained his wrists at Nez.
4. Getting sick when my mom visited over the summer.
5. Being sick for most of January '08. Yuck.

Things to look forward to in 2-0-0-9:
1. Picking Chris up from the airport. Hopefully in the next few weeks. And hopefully this time, for good.
2. Fostering the rolly polly dog starting this weekend:

3. Visiting my parents. Didn't make it home at all in '08. They've been hard at work remodeling the house, so I may not even recognize it!
4. Unknown surprises and adventures and trips.

2008-12-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas Australia!!

Wintery Wonderland

2008-12-14T17:15:00.004-07:00

"Frigid Arctic Temparatures" - that is what the Denver Post called today's weather. Don't think the high ever went above 4 degrees. And that's Farenheit for all you internatinoal readers. In Celcius, it's roughly -15. Brrr!!!

I wonder if it ever gets that cold in Australia. Can kookaburras and kangaroos survive frigid arctic temperatures?

On the up side, it does make for a beautiful Christmas scene with the snow and Christmas lights.

Oh, and while living on the corner house and having a circular driveway seemed like a cool thing at the time we bought the house, it's not so cool when you have to shovel snow and your driveway is twice as big as all your neighbors! They're back inside sipping on hot cocoa while you're still outside in the frigid arctic temps shoveling.

Winston Words

2008-12-09T21:08:00.004-07:00

Caught Chris on Skype last night. Amazing invention. For once I actually had my video camera connected, so he got a special treat - a video call. Well, my normally chatty boyfriend turned uncharacteristically quiet. And when I asked him why he was just smiling and not talking, I got this great one-line:

I can't multi-task. I can't look and talk at the same time.

Boys....

Google - Stalking

2008-11-14T21:19:00.002-07:00

Heard this term on some wacky women's talk show on the radio tonight. Thought it was pretty funny and started to wonder whether the term had become so mainstream that anyone had bothered to define it. Well, here's what urban dictionary had to stay about "google stalking":

"To determine everything you could possibly ever want to know about someone (and then some) using the website www.google.com."

or

"obsessively doing a search on google for info on a person, especially an ex, and finding out any info on the internet about them."

For example: I google stalked my ex, learned that he lives in ca with his wife whom is an attorney and has 4 kids

Wait...isn't that what Facebook is for?

Boulder Boulder!

2008-11-02T08:13:00.004-07:00

This weekend was Boulder-licious beginning with the notorious Seehafer Halloween party. With both our men out of town, Gwen and I coordinate costumes to appear as a pair of fuzzy dice, complete with rear view mirror.

Gwen and her clone both made an appearance Friday night..

The weekend culminated with the Boulder Cup, two cross races put on by Denver-Boulder Couriers courtesy of Colorado's great race promotors, Chris Grealish. With the women's races requiring a UCI license, I traded in the skinsuit for an orange volunteer vest. I found myself assigned to be The Enforcer in the pit. If you're not wrenching for a rides...get out! "Sorry sir, no spectators allowed in this area... Running!!!!" Not a low-stress area, but great for viewing being placed at the top of the gravel hill and just before one of the multiple sandpits. Not a course for the faint of heart. Maybe that's why Tommy D spent the elite race hanging out in his street clothes in the pit holding someone else's bike rather than riding one. Trebon manned up and clipped in despite a cold that left him "hacking like an old lady" according to the Mavic mechanic he was staying with for the weekend.

Taylor Phinney was also spotted spectating from the bleachers with a gaggle of teenage girls hanging around him. I wonder if it was the Olympic hat, 6'5" frame, or next-Lance predictions that attract them.

Breaker Baker the Candlestick-maker gave the local fans somehting to cheer about, hanging with the lead 4 for the first part of the race, only to have a rear flat and a not-so-smooth bike change. Losing a couple of seconds on a course like that to the likes of Trebon, Wells, and TJ can be fatal, and Baker never recovered. Props to his bleach-blod mohawk. If Chris posted a mo of the week, rather than a mullet, Braker Baker would definitely make the cut.

In the women's field, Georgia Gould schooled the field by riding off the front from the gun. Kelli Emmit got off to a rocky start but moved up quickly flirting with 3rd and just getting pipped at the line. Hope my pre-race recommendations for lines to take up the gravel hill and through the sand pit helped rather than hurt!

The race had a bit of a euro feel (despite the almost-record high 75 degrees) with the food vendors set up. No chips on the menu, but the breakfast burritos and grilled corn-on-the-cob smelled fantastic.

That's it for round 1. I'm beat, but round #2 is this afternoon. Stay tuned for more inside reports.

Gobble Gobble

2008-10-28T22:35:00.005-06:00

Even though I don't enjoy the cold weather or the shorter days when daylight savings ends, I have to admit that there are some pretty cool happenings in November. In chronological order, here's what us Northern Hemisphere dwellers can look forward to as the days turn colder and shorter:

Boulder Cup - a weekend full of cross racing with the best American cross riders (and even Braveheart's crew has been known to join in the fun).

These guys are returning to Boulder for their second annual team presentation...and my ticket is already purchased.

And of course turkey day rounds out the month by making us all so full and happy that we forget it is cold and yucky outside.

So there is my new positive attitude about November. I'm starting to think positive thoughts a week in advance so that when the calendar ticks over to month # 11, I will be mentally prepared. I'm not sure it's working yet....I'm cold and it's dark outside!

(Near) Perfection

2008-10-13T21:07:00.003-06:00

It only took me 3 imperfect attempts to come out with a near perfect batch of these....

Too bad I didn't master the Anzac biscuit recipe before Chris flew back to Australia. I bet he's been eating authentic Anzac biscuits every day for the last 3 weeks...

Thanks to Amazon.com for supplying the oh-so-important ingredient. It's amazing what you can find on the internet.

Hike-a-Bike

2008-10-04T14:47:00.004-06:00

No wonder they were named the "Rocky" Mountains

Tactics 101

2008-09-28T13:07:00.003-06:00

How to race a World Champsionship, by Steve Cozza:

“Once you see the big guys take their vests off, then you know it’s time to put on your seatbelt.”

Guest House

2008-09-21T20:07:00.004-06:00

We have added a guest house for anyone who wants to come visit. We even tested it by having a sleep over in the new guest house one night, and found the accommodations to be quite lovely. Well ventilated, spacious, and very private from the rest of the house. Visitors welcomed at any time.

Summer Wind-down

2008-09-20T09:15:00.008-06:00

Chris and I are holding on to the last few warm days of Summer and have had some pretty fun adventures:

Mountain bike racing:

Dinner in a yurt at 10,000 feet:

Secret post-season altitude training at 12,000 feet:

A few days in Durango, a few days of living it up western-style on a horse ranch. Here's our new buddies Larry, Curly, and Mo:

And you can't go to Durango without hitting some of the town's 2,000 miles of single track. Can't beat sweet trails that start 6 blocks from Main St. No pictures of the ride though, as the camera decided to take a tumble out of the camelback somewhere in Horsetooth Gulch. Slippery little fellow.

Road season ended. Cross season starting, and I'm jumping on board this year with my new buddy Oscar:

Tomorrow Chris heads back to kangaroo land for a few months. He hasn't seen winter in two years...not a bad life he's leading. Not bad at all. Safe travels Skinny Winny. See u soon.

Lemonade

2008-07-28T21:27:00.002-06:00

Racing has been a struggle for the last few weeks having been forced to take about 3.5 weeks off the bike with a sprained ankle. But as Chris wisely pointed out, I can either choose to be frustrated, or not. So after a few weeks of being frustrated, I decided to squish all the lemons and here's what came out....

Off the back, but having a little fun with Mark Woolcott, a local race photographer.

Things are looking up. The ankle is still a little grumpy sometimes, but I got back last night from 4 races at Superweek in Wisconsin in an attempt to shock my body and mind back in to shape.

On another note...how is it almost August? Someone should invent a time-slower-down...I'd pay a lot of money to use one of those.

Odd Discoveries

2008-07-19T16:50:00.002-06:00

Did you know that you can wikipedia Wikipedia? Yep, just in case you were on Wikipedia and wanted to now what it was about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

But googling Google gets you nowhere.

Punctuation

2008-07-15T21:45:00.002-06:00

I had an English teacher once who said we should each be given three exclamation points to use in our life...so use them wisely.

Today my boss sent me an email that said "Great job!". It was nice of him to choose to use one of his three exclamation points on me. I hope he uses the other two wisely.

Quote of the Day

2008-07-12T20:05:00.002-06:00

Air conditioning is good. I didn't wake up feeling like a hot dog.

- Christopher Winn

Who in France is reading my blog?

2008-07-11T20:22:00.002-06:00

I'm international. Sweet!

All American

2008-07-10T22:34:00.007-06:00

4th of July was an All-American weekend for the Aussie...

Enjoying all-American 4th of July fireworks...

Enjoying an all-American baseball game...

And learning how to pitch...

Enjoying all-American Sun Chips. Step aside Doritos, these things are on the up and up...

All American tuckered out.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

Sun & Sand @ Altitude

2008-06-30T20:05:00.002-06:00

With 10 days of in-between-jobs vacation time in the books, today was my last day of freedom. Tomorrow it's putting on the heels and business clothes for my 1st day as a real lawyer. So in my last day of freedom, Chris and I went to the beach, Colorado style...

Chris is getting into the Stars n Stripes spirit with these fabulous shorts. You gotta love thrift store finds. Very appropo with his first U.S. 4th of July just around the corner.

Incoming...Curveballs and Leg Spinner

2008-06-28T22:27:00.011-06:00

Chris arrived, a bit blurry-eyed, jet-lagged (and cold in the April snow) on March 31st...and ever since has been encouraging me to update the blog. I'm either a bit stubborn, or a bit lazy, or both, because it took me 3 months to get to writing this. Or maybe it's because blogger magically turns my uploaded pictures into crazy lines of text, and then somehow converts them back, which freaks me out a bit...The blog-less three months have been a bit full and adventurous with lots of hoops, loops, and unexpected turns.

We're slowly settling into the house in Lakewood. Perfect place to ride being just a 30 minute ride to the mountains. First room that was organized was the garage, with Chris taking charge. The bikes have finally moved from the living room/balcony and made a home for themselves in the garage. It may be a 1-car garage, but with 6 bikes there's no room for the 4-wheeled vehicle, which is relegated to the driveway.

Chris's bike doesn't spend much time in the garage as he has quickly assimilated to the low oxygen levels and is usually found somewhere in the mountains. If you see a guy in an Aussie team kit riding in the Colorado mountains, give him a wave..

The # of bikes shrunk from 7 to 6 when we sold the New Belgium cruiser. Great bike, but something had to give...unfortunately I opted for cash rather than one fellow's offer of a trade from this sweet Storm Trooper costume. Next Halloween could have been a ripper...

I've been learning a few new skills, including how to play (a few chords on) the guitar...

...and how to be a soigneur. Now listed on my resume are skills in: Feed zone, pre-race bottles, post-race recovery drinks, team manager meetings. We've been to some pretty sweet place this year including Fayetteville, Arkansas; Tulsa, OK; Reno, NV; and Lake Tahoe.

Tulsa Tough lived up to its name and threw a little curve-ball in my racing schedule. Rain + Mud on the course = crash. Injury count was one broken helmet, a little bit of lost skin, and a sprained ankle which put my on crutches for a week and 3 weeks later am just now getting back on the bike. But perhaps it was all worth it as Chris finally got to take a picture of this man's crazy curly mullet. The things I do for the man I love...

I finally figured out how to work this 2-wheeled machine, even though it has no cranks or pedals. Chris has been enjoying sucking on its fumes during motor pace sessions.

And the latest little curve ball thrown my way was a job offer from a firm up the street from the new house. Commute time on the scooter = 3.5 minutes. Looks like I'll be adding "Esquire" to my business cards, and some business clothes and heels to my wardrobe.

Dream Job

2008-03-18T15:26:00.000-06:00

I want her job...

Changes on the Horizon

2008-03-17T22:08:00.004-06:00

In 2 weeks...

This crazy cat flies into town....

And I'll be moving into this new crib.

After 3 weeks of offers & negotiations our offer was finally accepted this a.m. and in just a few weeks I'll be moving far far away from the college campus and officially becomining a suburbanite. I'm hoping it won't be anything like Desparate Housewives. For the first time it will be nice to store the bikes in the garage rather than next to the living room couch. I hope I can remember not to drive into the garage with the bikes still on top of the car.

Waking up to Summer

2008-03-01T20:52:00.004-07:00

80 degrees and clear sunny skies...a perfect way to begin the 1st day of March.

The end of March is guaranteed to be just as great with this guy coming back to town. Look out Colorado, it's an Aussie invasion!

Many Reasons to Smile

2008-02-15T18:35:00.005-07:00

(1) Receiving this unpected gift on Valentine's Day.

(2) Seeing the smile on everyone's faces as I walked to the bus stop carrying my roses.

(3) Recovering a stash of photos I thought was gone forever.

Ritz (now called "Zoe"). .

..hope you're living large and wagging your tail wherever you are Goober.

(4) March is just around the corner.

If you take the time to stop and take a deep breath, I bet you have many reasons to smile, too.

Insider Info

2008-02-14T16:27:00.001-07:00

Word on the (not so) underground cycling street is that an indoor velodrome is opening in the Denver/Boulder area this September. Sweet as!

I'll have to find a new excuse for not riding the one-geared, no-brakes bikes, because "there's no track nearby" won't fly anymore.

Bipolar Denver

2008-02-13T20:44:00.004-07:00

Today's High: a leave-your-coat-in-the-closet 65 degrees

Tomorrow's High: a wear-every-coat-in-your-closet 20 degrees

Colorado is a crazy state.

Colorado Winter Adventures

2008-02-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Some days it's good to live in Colorado where the winters are guaranteed to be cold and snowy..

...especially when you can play in the snow and it counts in the books as a day at the office.

Life is good.

Vegas Baby!

2008-01-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Spent the holiday weekend ringing in the official start of training '08 in Vegas at a team training camp. Having never been to Vegas before, all the lights, strippers, 'adult' shops, and video poker machines in odd places like the airport and the supermarket was a bit much for me to take in at once. Thank goodness we were there to tick away the miles and not our quarters. Although I did lose $1 at the Albertsons video poker and $5 at the aiport slot machines. No Vegas luck for me. There's really no words to describe Vegas, so at risk of violating the "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" theme, here some pics to tell the story.

Darwinian Thoughts

2008-01-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Me: How did our ancestors survive winter without down jackets and electric heating systems?

My boss: I don't know, but based on the theory of evolution and the fact that we can't tolerate cold weather, neither one of us should have been born.

Well, that or I should have been born on the Equator.

My sentiments exactly.

Last Moments of '07

2008-01-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

A little Ozzie birdie politely reminded me I haven't updated my blog since last year. So for my 1st post of 2008, here's a recap of my last weeks of 2007. There was a lot (by not nearly enough) quality family time with the parents for Christmas and a few days off of work (the last 2 spent lounging in my pj's well past noon).

It's a sign that you've left your childhood when the biggest presents under the tree are for your Mom and not you.

But I did make out pretty good when some stellar gifts that traveled to D.C. all the way from Australia.

2007 rounded out with me spending my 26th birthday trekking through some pretty spectacular scenery with a great group.

Cheers,
kg

Movie Trivia

2007-12-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

I love December. Not just because it's my birthday month, or because it's Christmas time and the streets are filled with holiday lights and people smiling. Nope, I also love December because the off season ends and training for next season begins, the team starts making plans for training camps and traveling, and the excitement about racing starts to build again. Unfortunately here in the Northern Hemisphere that excitement is accompanied by shorter days with less sunlight, colder weather, and more time on the trainer. Sort of ironic. Thank goodness for the advent of digital video recorder allowing me to watch any TV show I want at the touch of a button (worth every penny of that monthly bill) and the free one-month trial of Blockbuster movies delivered directly to my mailbox. Three weeks on the rollers and I'm still thoroughly entertained. Tonight I watched one of my all-time favorites, and got a little advice for the upcoming season...

It's a race! A race! You have to pace yourself. Carbohydrate is important. Pasta is good. Breathing is important.

Can anyone identify the movie? Here's a hint...It's the same movie that brought us the Barbie Klaus, and the term "prairie-dogging", and concludes with a live concert in the same N.M. city where one of the toughest US stage races is held every year.

Australian Christmas

2007-12-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Me: Do you put up a Christmas tree?
The Aussie: Yep.
Me: Does it have lights and ornaments on it?
The Aussie: No lights. We just have a lot of tinsel. It's real shiny.

The Good Life

2007-12-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

(A) Life of a Pro Cyclist:

6:00am wake up
6:30 ergo 30mins
7 - 8 stretching
8- 9:30 breakfast & check emails
9:30 - 2pm bike time
2 - 2:30 stretching
2:30- 3:30 lunch emails etc
3.30 - 4.30 nap
4.30 - 5.30 core
730- 8:30 stretching
9am: bedtime

(B) Life of a Nonprofit Lawyer:
7:00am Wake up, shower, breakfast, pack lunch
8:00am Happy Time: Check Velonews & Cyclingnews.com
8:30 Take lightrail downtown
9:00 Put on the lawyer hat
2pm Realize I haven't eaten lunch yet
5pm Still doing lawyerly stuff
6pm Free!
6pm-6:45 Core work at the gym
7pm Jump on the lightrail home
7:30pm Grab leftovers from last night
8pm-9:30pm Work on xmas cards
10pm Bedtime

How do I trade in B for A?!

Ride on.

A Call for Equality

2007-12-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

To: Union Cycliste Internationale (U.C.I.)

We, the undersigned, find it regrettable that there is still a considerable disparity between the UCI minimum prize money for men and women. We understand that because competition in the men’s field is deeper, more places receive prize money. We do not understand why the women who are receiving prize money receive less than their male counterparts. Therefore we propose that the UCI show leadership and mandate equal prize money for the top five men and women. Article 3 of the UCI Constitution states: “The UCI will carry out its activities in compliance with the principles of: a) equality between all the members and all the athletes, license-holders and officials, without racial, political, religious, or other discrimination.” We ask the UCI to honor its commitment to equality.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Changes

2007-12-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

1st week of December brought some big changes. Changes are inevitable as the clock ticks forward. Off-season is officially over and it was back on the bike for the first week of training. Unfortuantely with colder day and less sunshine, that meant a lot of time on the trainer. But the indoor pedaling was made less painful with a purchase of some rollers. After a few mishaps and a little less skin on my elbow, I'm actually learning how to balance. I'm sure all the ladies in the peloton next season and the boys on the MOB rides this year will be happy when I can actually ride in a straight line.

While I was pedaling away, Doug and Nermal grew big and health enough to go up for adoption. It's much too quiet at home without two little budles of energy boucing all over me, but I'm happy to report they were both adopted almost immediately. Best of luck boys, I know you'll bring lots of smiles and laughs to your new families.

I also put one more foot through the door of adulthood and bought my first complete bedset with matching sheets, bedspread, shams, and bedskirt. But I'm still refusing to grow up completey...and still sleep with a stuffed animal.

And finally the 1st weekend of snowfall here in Denver inspired the Christmas spirit in me so I decided to do a little decorating, complete with presents for the parents.

Blazing New Trails...sort of

2007-11-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend I saddled up the mtb and ventured out on Apex, one of the local trails right outside of Golden. While it was new to me, this trail has been around for over a hundred years and used to be a toll "road" to the mining towns up in the mountains. Pretty crazy to think that wagons and such used to go over that trail...it was hike-a-bike for me up the first couple miles with all the rocks on the trail. I wonder how many broken spokes those wagons had on this trail...

Every once in a while I like to wander down the aisles of the natural foods stores and find something new and interesting to try. This week I came home with two interesting concoctions.

First was this soybean pasta. It actually comes in green and black, but I picked up the green. Why? I have no idea...maybe it reminded me of the Grinch? I boiled some up this evening, tossed with some olive oil & fresh veggies, and we're good to go. It was surprisingly good - a little nutty flavor, and a little more protein than regular pasta, minus the gluten. So it's good for those gluten intolerant people & vegetarians. I'll definitely be serving this one up again.

And then there was this interesting little container staring at me from the coffee/hot chocolate aisle - Teechino Maya Mocha. It claims to be some sort of caffeine-free coffee substitute. "Brew and taste just liek coffee...but delivers nutritious health benefits and a natural energy boost." Well it definitely tastes like coffe, and contains potassium & inulin (no idea what that is, but it sounds important). Since I have never liked coffee, and this tastes just like coffee, I'm not the best judge of the taste. But if you like coffee...it's worth a shot. As for me, I'll stick to tea, thank you. Bring on those flavinoids.

Three's Company

2007-11-06T21:15:00.001-07:00

Nermal got a new friend today. Enter Doug into the household. Nermal got sick over the weekend, and with the introduction of Doug this afternoon he's already showing signs of getting better. The power of friendship is pretty amazing.

When I grow up...

2007-11-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

When I grow up I want to be a super star cross racer like the pros who swarmed down on Boulder this weekend for some super sweet UCI races. 1/2 road race, 1/2 mtb race, and 100% thrills. Getting to see the men's and women's national champ racing right here in Colorado was a special treat. Not to mention a bit daunting to see them beating up on the local talent who beat up on me on a regular basis during road season.

Todd Well's pre-race ritual includes a kiss from his lady. TW should have asked for an extra good luck kiss because he went backwards off the start line and ended up in 8th.

Before the start William Wallace treated the pro men to a "they shall never take our freedom" pep speech.

K-bomb checks out the competition before the start.

30 seconds 'til the gun goes off...This is about as close as the rest of the boys got to Trebon. He shot out of the starting gate, leading from the first lap, and rode like this for the rest of the race...
...solo.

These two boys spent the majority of the race looking at Trebon's backside...although mostly from a great distance.

RT is one tall man. I think he won simply because his 2x as long legs gave him an advantage hopping over the barriers and running up the hills. Props to TW for double bunny hopping 2 uphill barriers on every lap!!

Chris Horner, branching out after his great Tour ride, is riding too fast for the camera and looks like a blur.

The end result. Trebon was a full 1:20 up on 2nd place. Wow!

On the women's side, Katie Compton decimated the field for a 2nd day in a row beating Georgia Gould by over a minute.

Nermal??

2007-10-31T19:17:00.000-06:00

I picked up my latest foster cat this evening, a 2 month old orange and white little guy named...Nermal? What kind of a name is that? He's a friendly (and vocal) buggar who is already made himself at home. Who can blame him for voicing his opinion? I'd be vocal too if someone named me Nermal.

His favorite activities so far are running at full speed into my full-length mirrors, attempting to jump from the coffee table onto the swiss ball and promptly rolling off (this is good stuff, I should put it on You Tube), and climbing up my back and perching on my shoulder and purring loudly in my ear.

Please help Nermal, he needs a new name. Any suggestions?

The Little Things..

2007-10-16T07:28:00.001-06:00

I've been enjoying the little things as of late; finding beauty and joy in the everyday sights and sounds that may seem mundane until we learn to stop, breathe in deeply, sit back, and enjoy the moment.

Like sharing the site of a beautiful sunset with a friend...

---------------------------------------------------------------

And sharing smiles with the woman who inspires,
encourages, loves, and teaches me every day.
Thanks Mom.

Kat Garner Is..

2007-10-07T02:59:00.000-06:00

Incredible at riding horseback..

Even better on a surfboard!

Wanting to one day farm emus (maybe..)

Potentially the best native bird feeder i know...easily the cutest..

Always watching my every move..

A secret mtb fan over road riding

Always up to mischief..

On the lookout for bad haircuts...hey!

The rainbow that shines through the storm...

The girl i have completely fallen for....cw.

Realignment

2007-09-28T20:24:00.000-06:00

Australia minus 10 days and I'm beginning the re-adjustment to life back in the big C-O. I gotta say waking up every morning to beautiful sunrises that turn the mountains a beautiful hazy pink certainly helps. And it certainly helps having cool friends who, at the drop of a hat (or rather an early morning phone call) will join you for a 'let's enjoy the warm weather and beautiful Colorado scenery' hike.

Monday marks the beginning of October. Thinking back to this time last year and trying to remember how I filled the days when the race season ended led me to this picture. Ah yes, it was this time last year that a friend talked me into running a 1/2 marathon in Phoenix. With promise of sunny warm skies in the middle of the chilly Colorado winter, it sounded like a good idea. So Fall 2006 began with hours of feet pounding hard on the pavement (I'm not the most graceful runner), sore legs, blistered feet, and led into Winter 2006 with me wishing I hadn't already paid the entry feet and purchased the airline ticket. To top it off, the day of the marathon was one of Phoenix's coldest ever...a below-freezing 28 degrees at the start of the run...and that's how I ended up beanie-clad, shivering under a space blanket. This fall I think I'll stick to hiking and yoga. Sounds much warmer, and a lot easier on the IT bands.

'Til next time...
kg

Book Report

2007-09-21T19:57:00.000-06:00

After the best 3.5 weeks of my life, Wednesday it was back to the northern hemisphere, D-town, work, the off season, impending cold autumn weather and the accompanying shorter days. Oh yeah, and a diet to shed the few extra pounds of biscuits and pies that I seem to have acquired Down Under. This was my first real trip out of the country, and the first halfway across-the-globe, 24-hour flight. And it didn't disappoint. The customs and immigration check lines were a bit daunting...thank goodness they didn't find the boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea I forgot to declare and thus illegally smuggled into Australia. Or the Sassafrass Creek mud stuck to the botton of my shoes that I trapsed back onto U.S. soil. Oops!

The trip was a good mix of visiting tourist traps, chilling out, observing Aussie culture, meeting Chris' family and friends, and spending time with the b-f. Unfortunately holidays always come to an end and the trip to the airport and stepping onto the plane was always going to be difficult. The walk through the big grey immigration doors to my plane was a tough one to make with the legs feeling like lead stuck to the floor and not wanting to walk forward. It felt like I was leaving home behind. Much thanks to Chris for being the strong one and giving my legs a push-start. Otherwise I'd still be stuck to that same spot in the Melbourne airport and I think the customs officials would have started to be a bit worried about an American tourist standing in the same spot outside their doors for 3 straight days. Somehow I did manage to walk on that plane, and 24 hours later found myself back in the condo...and eerily uncomforting place at the moment.

So it's 6 more months until the lovebirds are reunited again...Some things are just worth the wait.

A few paragraphs on the blog really can't do justice to the trip, so I won't waste any more words on trying to explain all the happenings and happy memories. If pictures are worth a thousand words, well here are a few thousand for your reading pleasure. They might read a bit like a "Where's Waldo in Melbourne" book. Happy reading...

Phillip Island beach

Melbourne cityscape over the Yarra River

Me trying to blend in with the roos

Was Capt. James Cook really this tall in real life?

The views around Melbourne were pretty spectacular. Here we take in a beautiful view of the harbor.

100% tourist.

Over & out,
kg

Live From Oz...

2007-09-04T18:51:00.001-06:00

After landing safely in Melbourne, an endless number of queues to get through customs and a few days of adjusting to the 16-hour time difference (okay so I'm still falling asleep at 9 p.m. every night), I've been treated to a great tour of Victoria's mountains, countryside, history, and fantastic bakeries...If I were Australian I would live off of a diet of pasties and fruit scones, tea, and jam tarts.

The last week has been full of so many 1sts....1st koala sighting, 1st kangaroo sighting, 1st (and definitely not the last) pastie...there are so many new words to learn, and driving on the left side of the road is a bit wacky. For now, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

There have been a lot of smiles for both of us..

Big 'ol lizard with a funky tongue.

1850's mining town...learning a bit of Aussie history

Real live koala....Australia has some goofy animals for sure.

Hitting up the Bendigo mtb trails.

Echidna...a porcupine-like creature.

Yummy Aussie lolly (i.e. candy)

My 1st Kangaroo sighting!!!

Gum trees...

Trolley??? Sometimes I think we speak different languages

I'm loving life right now...

3..2...1...Liftoff

2007-08-23T21:26:00.000-06:00

So this is it, the last night in the great U.S. of A. The bikes are packed and the clothes are all folded neatly to the brim in my suitcase using the dad's "roll, don't fold" method. The big bird in the sky leaves Friday night at 7:39 p.m. Then the next 4 weeks I'll be in kangaroo land without a care in the world, other than Spring weather which may be a bit of a shock to the system after 2 solid months of 90 degree days, not to mention recovering from the 24-hour, 3-leg flight to Melbourne and adjusting to the 16-hour time difference. But I have the last 2 Harry Potter books packed in my carry-on to keep me entertained on the flight and plenty of time to recover from the jet lag. So in fewer than 48 hours it's happy days when I see Chris for the first time since June. To be young and in love is a pretty damn good feeling.

And I'm not coming back until I've seen a kangaroo and a wallaby, and yes Mom, a real live platypus, too.

Catch y'all from Down Under. kg

Ride Therapy

2007-08-16T20:00:00.001-06:00

When I'm frustrated or upset, there's no remedy better than turning over the pedals to release whatever's eating at me from inside. The smell of fresh air, the burning in your lungs and legs...perfect remdy to cure any bad mood. The 3 Muskateers were all having a bad day yesterday, but a ride out to Morrison to burn off a few calories and our frustration by attacking each other on every hill, and voila, frustration cured...at least for the evening.

The sky looked pretty angry too, but we outsmarted it and turned around to enjoy a sweet tailwind home (or was that the draft from Brent?).

Well, mark this one off as a bad day turned good by the turn of a few pedal strokes. I love my bike.

Euro Style

2007-08-15T08:18:00.000-06:00

Four stages down, 4 more to go and Chris is sitting pretty at 11th place overall in the VTT. Hey Winnie, your fans want a top 10 finish! The team is looking stellar with Lachlan winning today's stage, D-Mac holding the young rider's jersey since day 1, and the team sitting 2nd overall in the team competition. Looking good boys!

"I love the mud, I love the mud!"

Up, up, and away!!!

New Frontiers

2007-08-10T22:22:00.000-06:00

As summer winds down and the end of the season slump start to kick in, I have tried to battle the blues by mixing things up and spending a bit of time riding the fat tires. The last few months my mountain bike has taken me to some pretty sweet places - Angel Fire, Snowmass, and the Air Force Academy top the list. Well last Thursday time I didn't have to travel quite as far as two of my teammates introduced me to a fat tire playground in Denver's backyard. We hit up Green Mountain, a quick 15 minute drive west of Denver and literally right outside my teammate front door. It was nice to traverse the trails with some friends and leave behind the worries of the outside world.

12 more days and then I'm off to another new frontier - Australia...and Chris, who is currently ripping it up in Europe at the "Offroad Tour de France".

'Til next time, keep the pedals turnin'.

Really? Say it ain't so...

2007-07-25T08:49:00.001-06:00

Really Vinokourov...was it really necessary??

In light of recent events, I'm officially jumping on this bandwagon...

I think the mayhem in the Tour de France calls for a visit from our very own 'dopers suck' superhero/spokesman...Camm, the people need you...

(Photo stolen without permission from Chris...thanks Chris!)

The Box..

2007-07-21T21:07:00.000-06:00

Cyclists are all too familiar with boxes. There is "The Box" (the podium), which is the ultimate goal and the reason we jump on the start line week after week searching for those few moments of glory....there is the "hurtbox" which is a common meeting ground for anyone who pins on a race number....and lastly there is the "harden the f#@* up box", a step above the hurtbox on the pain meter. Every once in a blue moon the three boxes converge and visit you on the same day. And those are usually very good days. I'm starting to realize that more time spent in the latter two boxes equates to more time spent on The Box. Perhaps I should be riding the short bus because it took me 2 full years of racing to figure out that little secret. Better late than never I suppose...So as the summer '07 race season winds down (last 4 weeks of racing for me before this American heads Down Under), reflecting back this year, it has been less about results and more a lesson in how to spend time in those two pesky H-boxes. Hopefully a lesson that will see me spending more time on top of boxes in years to come...

Well enough philosophizing and time to get down and dirty with some updates on the last few weeks 'o racing. With Colorado taking an oddly-timed hiatus from road racing for a few weeks in the height of the summer race season, this roadie spent the last few weeks trying out her legs on the off-road circuit...yep, mountain biking. I made the trek to Boulder the last 3 Wednesday evenings mixing it up with the Boulder crowd at the local short track races, and last week finally feeling comfortable enough with that whole riding-on-dirt phenomenon to jump in with the "big girls" after getting on The Box in the beginner's race. Happy to report I did not end up last! Last weekend I tried my hand at my 2nd ever XC race in Snowmass. Having come off a win at my 1st XC race in Angel Fire, the pressure was on and I led the race from the gun and for the next 58 minutes and 10 seconds. Unfortunately that was 50 seconds too short as I watched another girl fly by me on the last mile of the downhill and ride to the finish line and into the Colorado State Championship jersey that was waiting for the first girl to cross the line. Not enough hurtbox that day, I suppose.

Fast forward to this weekend and the venue becomes Winter Park, another high-elevation ski resort town in the Colorado mountains. Considering the longest mtb race I'd done was 9 miles, I was a bit nervous about this 19-mile point-to-point race and also knew that the competition would be steeper with Winter Park's proximity to Denver drawing larger crowds to the start line. Well, bring on the hurtbox, time for this roadie to harden the F up! I found myself bounding back and forth between 1st and 2nd place from the start line, and the effort paid off by getting me onto the singletrack in a good position, but definitely put my legs in the hurtbox and I wasn't sure whether they would recover and cooperate with me for the next 18.2 miles. A group of 4, including myself established a comfortable lead through the singletrack and played cat and mouse for a while trading places and testing each other's legs and lungs. I fell uncomfortably into 4th position and watched as the other girls rode away from me. Hello hurtbox. With roughly 5 miles to go, a screaming downhill on a wide-open fireroad dumped us into a relatively flat section of singletrack. Here I caught glimpses of the 3rd place rider whenever the trees broke and could tell she was dangling a little over a minute ahead of me. First and 2nd place were out of sight but not out of mind. So I put my roadie legs to the test and TT'd through that singletrack, finally catching 3rd place with 2.5 miles to go. Moving into 3rd place, I could see 2nd place sitting 30 seconds in front of me and caught her and blazed by her with 2 miles remaining. I hadn't seen first place since she dropped me 45 minutes earlier, and she was still nowhere in sight but the race was not over and I pinned it through the last 2 miles of singletrack chasing down this invisible rabbit only to see her on the last turn into the finish coming across the line 8 seconds before me. Damn. Well, not a bad day in the end finishing up 2nd place overall and 1st in my age category. Hello Box!

Well, that concludes this long post recapping the last couple of weeks. Now it's back to the road bike for the next few weeks to see if I can transfer my new found love of suffering to some skinny tires. 'Til next time. Cheers!

Pro 4 a Day..

2007-07-08T15:23:00.001-06:00

After 4 years living in Denver, the last 2 years spent riding a bike all over the Denver metro area, there are still towns and roads I've never explored. Check another place off my list of places traveled to with the epic Denver to Deckers to Buffalo Creek ride through the mountains on Saturday. Best of all I rode this one in style going pro 4 a day complete with coach, sag vehicle support, and a cooler of ice to keep me cool in the 98 degree heat. My coach appropriately dubbed this ride "Heidemann's Death March" - 78 miles (125k), 5.5 hours, and 12,000 feet (3657.6 m) of climbing. Even the descents were hard on this course, going Paris Roubaix-style with 10 percent grades on dirt roads filled with hand-numbing washboards. Thankfully there was plenty of company, chatting, and water to keep us pedaling. I finished the ride exhausted, but with a smile on my face and hungrier for more days like this one.

I jumped on the Bagel Boy train for part of the day, keeping up with the Team Einstein elite squad (aka sitting in their draft) . Thanks for the ride boys.

Um...should I have brought a bullet-proof vest on this ride? Technically humans are mammals, therefore the sign suggests it's legal to shoot humans in the mountains outside of Denver. Just a bit of attorney logic for you to ponder..

'Til next time. Cheers. Kat

Bathroom Break

2007-07-03T19:01:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I woke up to an unexpected adventure of a different kind. We're not talking about your typical bathroom break here, folks. No, this pit stop led to a prison-break style attempt to free myself after the door jammed, trapping me inside the bathroom. I have to give a big shout out to Superhero Mo for keeping me calm, unscrewing the door handle, and helping to free me (after she got her fair share of photos, of course).

Mo was having too much fun taking pictures when she should have been focusing on the task at hand. A girl could starve waiting for Mo to take enough photos!

The view from the other side wasn't as funny, trust me.

The moral of the story....never close the bathroom door when there is no one on the other side to free you. That, or always take a screwdriver and cell phone into the bathroom with you. Safety first, people. Safety first.

Life Outside of Racing...

2007-07-03T18:22:00.001-06:00

It's easy, especially during the heat of race season, to get caught up in the pattern of sleep-eat-race-sleep-eat-race. It's good to have some friends who will pull you away from the race scene insanity for a weekend of a different kind of craziness. So this weekend was full crazy-time with a friend's bachlorette party complete with camping and white water rafting through the Royal Gorge, two hours south of Denver.

Billie started off her party in appropriate bachlorette style, showing off her new lingerie.

Southern Belle Rae-Rae brought the party to life with a couple of cowgirl hats to officially kick off the festivities.

And what party isn't complete without an attempt to steal a go-cart from the campground?

The morning after: catching a quick nap before rallying for a 3-hour rafting adventure. I'm happy to announce that the lack of sleep & copious amounts of alcohol did not impair our coordination or balance, and none of the bachlorette party girls fell overboard.

"Skippy"...Australian for Kangaroo

2007-07-01T18:45:00.000-06:00

I got a special visitor from Down Under on Friday...

A can of "Canned Kangaroo" came in the mail.

Kangaroo meat is a delicacy, and I was excited to try it...

Umm...is Kangaroo meat supposed to be fuzzy?

This little skippy was too cute to eat...

Meet the new Aussie in my life.
Welcome to the family Skippy!

Pedal'n Power

2007-06-26T21:42:00.001-06:00

Wednesday is Bike to Work Day, people. Put down the car keys, break out the old cruiser, 10 speed, tricycle...whatever you have with a pair of wheels and 2 pedals, and pedal yourself to work today.

The world's best parents enjoying a cruiser bike ride.
Pedal on Mom and Dad, pedal on!

Dog Days

2007-06-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

This last weekend was full-on with the Dead Dog Classic, a 3-stage road race over 2 days in Laramie, Wyoming. I got a precursor of the windy weather Wyoming is notorious for on the two-hour drive from Denver, with gusty side winds that nearly pushed my car off the road into the adjacent farmlands. I could have used a nice gust of wind to help push me up the 11-mile climb in Saturday's road race. I rolled in a disappointing second to last, and started focusing on the best way to recover for Sunday's races...yes, that was a plural "races". First on the road to recover was a shower, putting to the test Chris's suggestion of flipping between hot, cold, and then hot water again to help flush out the legs. Then moving only lots of lots of food and water, and a good night's sleep, and it was up and at it again Sunday for the 40-minute crit in the morning, and a 10-mile TT 2 hours later.

No Chipotle in Laramie, but Fat Burrito was a decent substitute complete with lounge chairs to kick back in on the patio.

After Saturday's frustrating and disappoint race, I was ready to redeem myself in the crit , and redeem I did, putting up a ferocious attack on the last lap only one other girl could follow, and got me rolling across the line sitting pretty in 2nd place. The pavement-melting heat continued to rise during the 2-hour break between the crit and TT, topping off around 95 degrees (that's 35 degrees for my international followers). Knowing I couldn't move anywhere in the GC regardless of what I did in the TT, I was happy to finish without getting passed. Although, after rolling through the finish line I was left wondering how many seconds I lost due to all the tar stuck on my tires.

Despite being exhausted, I decided to take the scenic route home and enjoy a part of Colorado that I rarely get to see. I'm off to put up the legs and get some much-needed rest. Take care.

And the definition of high maintenance is....

2007-06-22T18:44:00.001-06:00

2 day, 3-stage road race
5 wheels
2 bikes
2 bags
2 helmets
1 backpack
1 cooler
1 laptop....

and only one person in the car.

I need to learn to consolidate.

Everything's More Fun With a Roommate

2007-06-19T21:23:00.000-06:00

Riding with Mo, somehow turned into this....

Somtimes you just have to stop and ride the pig.

And pose next to the Statute of Liberty...

Shopping with Mo turned into this:

It's very important to get in the proper cycling position when trying on a pair of shorts.

Supersize my beans, please.

And Then There Were 3

2007-06-16T19:35:00.000-06:00

Holy s#@%, I live here!

-- Monique "Mo" Hein

It's been great these last few days to step back and look at Colorado through the eyes of my new roommate, Mo, who moved into town Thursday with her 3 bikes and dog, Benson Rastis Jr. Her enthusiasm experiencing this place for the first time has me seeing my surroundings with a whole new level of appreciation. Colorado is a uniquely beautiful place with its mountain backdrop, rolling landscape, bright sunlight and breathtaking sunsets. We wake up every morning and yell: "Hello sun!"..."Hello world!"... "Holy s#$@, I live here!" Thanks Mo for reminding me how much I love this place.

With my new roommate I have also inherited a resident training partner and this weekend she jumped right into the racing scene with the Rocky Mountain Omnium.

Recap of today's road race:

-- Hugo, Colorado...2 hours east of Denver, aka Kansas, through flat farmland... A trip made a bit less painful by sharing the drive with Mo and Rebekah.

-- 63 miles of chipseal pavement = 3 hours of agony, 2 numb hands, and one very sore rear. Tomorrow I'm buying a new pair of shorts with a decent chammy.

-- 85 degree heat...3 water bottles down my belly + one water bottle dumped over my head.

-- 1 dropped chain at the most crucial moment of the race = not so hot result for Kat

-- 7th place = Mo's result after sticking like glue to the ferocious VC & Excel girls

Mo already has a new man in her life...meet Stanley, the world's best massage stick. Benson is a bit jealous he's moved down to #2 on her list.

When you get dropped...get angry

2007-06-09T15:13:00.000-06:00

...that's the less for today, kids. Rolled up to the start line at 7:35 this morning to take on a 54.91 mile road race and 60 of some of the toughtest girls in Colorado. Road races always start off at a pace so easy you'll able to chat with the girl next to you for a few miles, and today was no exception. Before hitting the monster climb of the day - 2700 feet of climbing over roughly 10 miles - we hit a few little bloopers that opened up the legs nicely, or so I thought. If we'd have stopped the race there, I would have called it a solid day, having stayed with the lead group. Oh yeah, but there was still that hill up ahead. We hit the hill and it was game on, and game over for Kat...or so I thought. About 2 miles up the climb I was promptly spit off the back of the peloton which was just being shredded apart by the pace of the Category P/1/2 girls. I dangled by myself for the rest of the climb which hit 20% grades at the top, which I crawled up at a pathetic 4 mph. Ouch! At points I thought it might have been faster to walk, but there is no honor in scraping up your beautiful carbon road shoes. Hitting the top of the monster I got some relief on the screaming descent. Spinning out in my 50-12, I tucked in for the ride...55 mph...winding my way down the valley roads...no brakes needed, thank you. Dreading having to ride the next 35 miles solo, I was happy when a group of 5 of us formed together. 5 girls means 5 times as fast as me riding solo, right? In theory, but not when 2 girls decide to spoil the fun and sit on for the ride. This is where my lesson begins. I'm already pissed about getting dropped, and now I'm pissed that I'm towing around 2 bumps on a log. We're not here to wear tread out of our tires ladies, let's get moving. Charged with some all-natural testosterone (which works wonders for getting the legs moving fast...just ask Mr. Landis) I decided that I was going to make these girls hurt...and hurt they did, popping off my wheel one by one. The last 20 miles were littered with short steep climbs out of the valley and back into Ft. Collins...and this is where I smashed it and put the hurt on. Riding every climb to the brink of leg-exploding pain, one by one the girls fell back, until there was only one left. I looked back at her on one of the climbs, and she managed to say through gasps for air "It's just me". "Allright" I replied, then shifted down into a bigger gear and dropped her too. I may have gotten dropped, and I may have been riding for 29th place, but damnit I was going to gain back some self-respect, and this was turning into the best race of my life (at least this 2nd half of the race). And I was having a helluva lot of fun. Over the next 15 miles, I picked off girls one-by-one, until I came upon a CSU girl who looked over at me and said "Where did you come from"? (Hmm...I've heard that question before). I couldn't shake this girl, but made her suffer on last 2 climbs of the day before smashing it in the big dawg 1/2 mile before the finish and leaving her shaking her head asking "where did she come from"?

On a more peaceful note, take a look at what I've been up to at work...Peep Wars. It's things like this that make me glad I don't work at a big stuffy firm ...we don't know how to take ourselves seriously at my office, thank goodness! The Peep Wars began back in March when someone brought in a package of Peeps into the office which sat unopened and uneaten for a few weeks. Taking matters into my own hands, I decided that I should hide a Peep in my supervisor's office, which he then found and re-hid in my office. We've had many hiding place - inside folders, taped to the back of the phone, placed on top of the door, and then latest... inside my pencil holder. I'm ashamed to say this one took me a few hours to find.
Once I found the little Peep, I decided he should be taped to the window so he can enjoy the view while I come up with a plan for where hide him next in my boss' office. Don't jump little Peep!

Unexpected Adventures

2007-06-06T20:38:00.001-06:00

Wow, where to begin? I promised a recap of May, so that would be a good place to start I suppose. The last three week have been, well, amazing...a complete whirlwind. The race season had gotten off to a good start. Had some decent results in the early season, the legs had been feeling pretty good, and was settling in with my new team learning how to race with and work for teammates for the first time after spending my first 1.5 seasons racing solo. Much fun was being had...at least I thought I was having fun until a friend named Monique drove into town and I had the most amazing 2 weeks and 'fun' got a whole new definition.

Sometimes a random turn of events leads to an even greater experience. When Mo called a month ago and asked to come visit for a few days on her way cross-country, destination Oregon coast, I thought sure, this will be fun to have another cyclist around for a couple of days. I had no idea her visit would lead to meeting 3 crazy Aussies, living out of an RV with 4 other people (and a large dog) for a few days, and racing (oh yeah and winning) my first MTB race.

Here's the Aussie trio in all their glory enjoying the mountains of Colorado.

It took a few days to get used to the Aussie accent and lingo. Here's a snippit of what the Australians taught me:

Bangs = fringe;
Bell peppers = capsicum
Oatmeal = porridge (and should always be eaten topped with brown sugar)
Things aren't "sketchy", they're "dodgy"
You don't "talk to" someone, you "have a chat to" someone.
There are no SuperTargets in Australia...aren't Americans lucky?
SunChips don't exist in Australia.

And wasabi should never been eaten straight up because you'll end up looking like this....

Crazy things happen that we can't always plan, and really who would want to? Here's the latest unplanned amazing thing to happen to me. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

No Chipotle in Australia...gotta stock up while you're in the States. How many "burritos the size of your head" can Chris eat in one trip to the US? Too many to count.

Sometimes the best moments in life are unplanned.

In the words of my new Australian friends...Cheers!

You be the Judge

2007-06-04T18:59:00.000-06:00

Who beat who? Deer Trail RR. April 28th. I got 4th...no 5th...no 4th...well okay officially I came in 5th. Either way it was the first time I got in a good sprint finish and the best placing of the season...so far.

Back on Track...Almost

2007-06-03T22:28:00.000-06:00

My blog took a bit of a hiatus...okay, I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging. But this week I'll be back up and running full speed....stay tuned for updates on pictures and stories. In the meantime, let me give a brief rundown of the last 7 months. 7 months, really? Wow, didn't realize it had been that long. Well, here are some highlights from those 7 months:

December - blizzard + blizzard + 6 weeks with snowfall = one very unhappy Kathryn. Denver got way too much snow this winter for my liking. Almost ruined the Christmas plans with the folks and put a real damper on the winter training...I settled for many hours of yoga, lifting, and riding the trainer.

January - traveled to Phoenix with Gwen to run my first ever 1/2 marathon. Gwen is a former collegiate uber-runner who sucked me into her "run a marathon a year" plan...well, I wussed out and opted for the 1/2 marathon. I won't say pounding my knees on pavement for 13 miles for 'fun', but Gwen's always fun to travel with and we had a great time despite the fact that neither one of us could walk properly for 3 days afterwards.

February - race season begins with the unofficial first race of the season....Valley of the Sun in Phoenix. My last race as a USCF Cat 4 ended pretty well with a 4th place finish in the RR. I love those hills, although the TT and I still need some time to get to love each other properly.

March - road camp with a new team in Moab. Great training. Great teammates. Exhausted after 4 days of hard riding. Could tell it was going to be a good season. Enough said.

April - more racing, working, training. Start of the weekly Cherry Creek Time Trial series. Got a good whipping from my teammates! But made some progress and nearly passed out in the last TT...

May....got a taste of The Dream....living with pro cyclists for a few days and traveling to races. Best part of all...Chris.

That's all you get for now. More about May's adventures later this week...complete with pictures!

Kathryn Garner, Esquire

2006-10-07T08:34:00.000-06:00

Thursday the official results came out...I PASSED the Colorado Bar!!!

Strange Encounters

2006-10-03T20:04:00.000-06:00

Strange things I saw today while walking on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver:
#1 - a man carrying a boa (as in the snake, not the fashion accessory)
#2 - Abe Lincoln on a bike (no joke...he had the top hat and beard and extra long legs)

Fun things I did today on my bike: rode through the drive-thru pharmacy at Walgreens and startled the pharmacist.

New (Temporary) Addition to the Family

2006-09-30T19:44:00.000-06:00

It's been 5 weeks since the Bar exam, and I finally feel like I am putting the pieces of my life back together. There were 4 weeks in there when I was sleeping 8-10 hours a night. Now I'm back down to a respectable 7-8 hours. Race season finally ended. And I'm getting into the 'groove' of working. With my life seemingly 'normal' for the first time in 3 years, I decided it was time to foster again. Friday I picked up my newest foster pet from the Dumb Friends' Leage. The last 3 fosters I had were dogs, but his time it's a cat. I said my life was getting back to normal...it's not completely put together yet, and cats are a bit easier to take care of!

This is the cat. She is recovering from a respitory infection and just needs a bit of tlc before she goes up for adoption.

The Dumb Friends' League, is great, but they really need to work on their naming skills. They named this one "Wilma". We've talked it over and neither one of us thinks 'Wilma' suits her. We just haven't figured out what her new name is going to be. 'Wilma' and I open to suggestions.

She has taken a liking to this particular spot on the couch.

She seems really sweet so far. Although I didn't like it very much when she jumped up on my bed last night at 2am and decided it was time for me to play with her. We need to work on her timing! But for the most party she's very chill and quiet. I've only heard 2 quiet meows out of her so far

What happened to Fall?

2006-09-24T20:53:00.000-06:00

Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring....right? This year in Colorado it seems to have gone straight from Summer to Winter, skipping right over Fall. This was the scene in Frisco, Colorado on Friday night.

Frisco is only 70 miles from Denver, and they got 2 feet of snow over the weekend! I had signed up for an adventure race in Frisco scheduled for Saturday morning. (I signed up and paid long before I knew it was going to be 20-30 degrees with 2 feet of snow on the ground!). Having already paid, I reluctantly trudged up to Frisco on Friday night to get ready for the 8am start on Sunday. The race was scheduled to consist of 3 legs: canoeing, mountain biking, and trail running. At check-in, I learned the promotor had axed the mountain bike leg due to the snow and ice covering the trails. Fair enough, but that meant the race consisted of canoeing (definitely not my forte) and a 7-mile trail run (much of it through a foot of snow). The race was pretty cold, but amazingly all the teams showed up with smiles on their faces and laughing about the weather. All I have to say is running in snow is hard! My legs are not happy with me today, and they tell me so every time I try to use my quad muscles! You'd be amazed at how many times during the day you use your quads....standing up, sitting down, walking, going up and down stairs. I need a wheelchair. Or a really good massage.

End of the Season

2006-09-19T19:07:00.000-06:00

This weekend marked the end of the road racing season in Colorado. The end of the season is always bittersweet. On the one hand, I love racing my bike. I can't think of a better way to spend my weekends. But on the other side, starting in February and ending in September makes for a long season and I'm definitely ready for a break. Although I can't claim to have raced for 7 months straight. There were those 2 months in the summer when I stopped racing to take some sort of exam...I vaguely remember it being called the "Bar Exam." Anyway, here's recap of the last 2 weekends of racing:

September 9th: Swanky's
This was my first race in Colorado since June 16th. And I was a bit nervous. The race was held on a 1.5 mile loop in an office park south of the Denver Tech Center. In order to get in a good warm-up, I decided to ride my bike to the race. It took about 50 minutes, which was perfect to get my legs warmed up. Well, before I took that 2-month hiatus from racing, I had upgraded to the next highest level of cycling. I went from a Category 4 to a Cat 3 back in June. Then I raced twice as a Cat 3, didn't finish either race, and quit racing for two months. The worst part about racing as a Cat 3 in Colorado is that you have to race with the Cat 1 and 2's. And they're fast! And to top it off, the Swanky's course is known as being a very hard course. It consists of 100 feet of climbing in just 1.5 miles. And I would have to climb that hill a number of times in 45 minute race. OUCH! But the great news was that I managed to survive the race. Not only that, for the first time in my career as a Cat 3, I finished with the pack! Whoohoo!! I finished 2nd to last, but if I had a decent sprint at all, I could have finished as high up as 5th place! I'll be working on that sprint in the off season. I just need to remember that sprinting = ferociously attacking your handlebars and pedals (according to Bobby V.).

September 15-17th: The Parker Omnium
After having my 1st successful race as a Cat 3, I raced this last weekend as a Cat 4. Confusing, I know. But the Parker Omnium was a USCF race, and I'm still a Cat 4 for USCF purposes (having failed to ask for an upgrade yet). So I had the option of racing as a Cat 3 or 4 in this race. I decided just to have some fun in the last race of the season, and entered as a Cat 4.
Friday was the time trial. I got beat out by a bunch of uber-triathletes and came in 6th. Hmm...I really need to work on this aspect of racing.
Saturday was the road race...21 miles over the rolling roads around Parker, Colorado. For some odd reason, the promotors raced the Cat 4 women with the Cat 5 men. Very sketchy! There were a lot of men who didn't know how to ride their bikes. Well, I missed the break, and two girls got off the front with the lead group of men. But I was able to work well with 2 others girls and we chased for about 10 miles and were in sight of cathing the break when....I couldn't get into my big chain ring! Not good when you're flying down rollers and spinning out on your compact cranks. One of the girls I was working with ended up taking off and dropping the 2 of us. I can't blame her. After about 20 minutes of struggling with my front derailleur, I finally got the bike to go into the big chain ring. And I refused to get out of it for the rest of the race. My cadence going up those rollers was really slow, but at least I could keep up on the descents. I ended up finishing 4th. Not too bad for having mechanical errors.
After my race, I helped out Team Einstein's in the Pro/1/2 race. I started off handing out water bottles in the feed zone ( and I didnt' drop any!). For the last half of the race I jumped in the sag vehicle with my coach, Jon Heidemann. What a great way to watch a road race. Einstein's had 2 men in a chase group of 5, so we got to follow right behind those guys for the rest of the race. Jon had a radio and was talking to the guys throughout the race. I definitely learned a lot about racing that afternoon.
Back to my race...the final race on Sunday was the criterium in downtown Parker. It was a pretty boring race, with noone wanting to do any work (myself included...hey, it was 9am and all of 40 degrees). But I raced smart, sat in the draft, and finally sprinted decently at the end of the race for a 2nd place finish. I ended up 4th overall for the weekend. Next year, no more Cat 4 racing for me. I'll have to learn how to suffer with the "big girls."

So that was the end of the road racing season. I learned a lot this year, traveled to some good races, made it to Collegiate Nationals, made a ton of new friends, found some great new rides, and learned a lot about myself. But there's a long way to go to be where I want to in cycling. So now I get to enjoy a few weeks of the off-season and then start to prepare for next season.

Oh, but first I have one more race next weekend to worry...it'll be my first real adventure race up in Breckenridge. More about that in the next post. If anyone knows anything about adventure racing....help!! I have no idea what I'm doing and need advice! In the meantime, I'll try to find some pictures of the races to post.

An Update...Finally!

2006-09-18T20:07:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally have internet access in my condo. I had been mooching off of someone else's wireless internet, but "Actiontec" and "linksys" must have moved because the wireless stopped working this summer. After 2 months of sporadic internet access, I broke down and got internet access (oh and while I was on the phone with Comcast I had a moment of weakness and ordered digital cable). Reliable internet access means it's time to update this blog for the first time in 3 months!

Here's quick rundown of what I've been up to:

Thursday night have become Grey's Anatomy-waching night. A group of us ladies who got hooked on Grey's over the summer have been getting together everything Thursday night to eat dinner and watch the show. Here's Rachel cooking up some yummy guacomole. I love it when Rachel cooks. She's a Southern Belle from Tennessee and always come up with great meals! Can you name that wine label in the picture? Yup, it's 2-buck Chuck, brought back from my trip to California.

Labor Day Weekend:

Labor Day weekend was spent up in Estes Park at Kathleen and Lukas' wedding. They are 2 friends from law school who met and started dating during their first year of law school. Not only did they manage to survive 3 years of law school, they survived 3 years of dating a law student! Props to them!!

They had a beautiful outdoors wedding in the mountains.
Lukas made all the women cry with his personally-written vows.

Besides the beautiful setting, the best part of the wedding is that wearing flipflops was encouraged! Billie Baysore did not participate in wearing flip flops, but I did! It was pretty chilly at the reception. Billie and I wore our jackets over our dresses most of the evening. However, every time we took a photo we took off the jackets so that we would at least look presentable for the photos.

Anne Phillips, me, and Rachel Allen. Anne now has her own blog: http://annephillips.blogspot.com/
She and her husband, Ryan, and heading to China on Friday. I'm looking forward to their stories from the Far East.

This is Mary's Lake, south of Estes Park. The wedding reception was held at a lodge overlooking the lake. We all spent the night at the lodge. Kathleen and Lukas had set up a brunch for all the wedding guests the next morning. Being a morning person, I of course woke up before everyone else the next morning and went for a walk around the lake, where I took this picture.

My Teammate is a Celebrity!

2006-08-23T14:59:00.000-06:00

For this post, you have to travel back a few weeks in time with me.
Date: Sunday, July 30, 2006, the weekend after the Bar exam (ugh, I shudder just writing those two words).
Location: Denver, Colorado (before I departed on the most fun road trip ever).
What: The Surbaru Urban Assault Race
Who: Emily Gloeckner and me.

I had talked Emily into doing this urban adventure race with me. The whole point in doing the race was to win a pair of New Belgium Cruiser bikes - the prize for the overall first place team. It was my first race in 6 weeks (that whole studying for the Bar exam got in the way of racing), and Emily's first race in 3 years, since she retired from racing road bikes professionally. Well, she is still a total stud and can kick my butt on most days. We're in the parking lot before the race and Emily looks around at the other racers. She's used to being in races with pros, where everyone has the latest, most expensive, and lightest gear available on the open market. She says to me with shock and awe: "There are kickstands on some of these bikes." We both keel over from laughing so hard, and that was the beginning of 1 hour and 47 minutes of continuous laughter.
We had to do some pretty crazy things to win those cruiser bikes - a 3-legged potato sack race, riding adult-sized big wheel bikes, Emily had to carry me piggyback while she was blindfolded through an obstacle course (see, I told you she was a stud). Oh, that's right, we won the cruise bikes. First female team to ever come in first overall in this race! You can read our race report here.

Now to the part where Emily becomes a celebrity. The director of the race fell in love with us (how could you not we're two fit, fast, and super cute chicks who are the proud owners of some cool New Belgium cruiser bikes). He set up an interview between Emily and the Boulder newspaper the Daily Camera. Here's the resulting story:

Taking it downtown:Urban Assault Race bringing its twist on cycling to Boulder
By Joshua Lindenstein, Camera Staff Writer
August 16, 2006
Emily Gloeckner raced bicycles professionally for 15 years before settling full-time into a career as a civil engineer.
So when she calls last month's Subaru Urban Assault Race in Denver "probably the most fun I've had on my bike," there's some heft behind her claim.
Such praise has to make race director Josh Kravetz smile, since that's exactly the angle the race Web site uses to tout the event, which features teams of two riding to various checkpoints around the city, where they must then complete wacky obstacle courses before moving to the next stop.
Kravetz, who moved to Longmont from Austin, Texas, about a year ago, started the event in Austin in 2003 as a way to cater to the "urban athlete" who might otherwise have to travel for a bike race or who doesn't necessarily want to become a serious racer.
He has since expanded the race to Dallas, Los Angeles and San Diego. This is the first year that Kravetz has staged the races in Colorado. After holding races in Fort Collins in June and in Denver in July, Boulder will be the final race of the 2006 series on Aug. 27.
"It's purely focused on being just fun and quirky and crazy and getting a good workout in the process," Kravetz says.
The race features four divisions: male, female, co-ed and a shorter family race in which a parent can ride with his or her 7- to 12-year-old child.
Gloeckner and her teammate Kathryn Garner, who races bikes as an amateur, became the first female duo ever to win the overall title — which earns the top team a pair of New Belgium cruisers — at one of the races.
"At most of the checkpoints, we laughed hysterically because it was such a good time," says Gloeckner, 36, of Denver.
But the race is far from being a weekend release for elite cyclists. The scavenger-hunt aspect — along with obstacles such as mazes, foam pits, inflatable slides, bike jousting and kayaking — serves as a great equalizer.
Plus, the adult divisions cover only about 25 miles on their bikes, depending on which routes they choose. There is no set course for the race. Competitors decide in what order they'll hit each checkpoint and how to get there.
"The people who are going to do well in the race might not be the most fit people," says Gloeckner, who can't make the Boulder race because of another obligation. "It will be who knows the city the best and plans out a route. You definitely don't have to be a bike racer to go do this race. You just need a bike."
Elite racers or not, teams have to be responsible and obey traffic laws. Duos ticketed by police are disqualified. Kravetz says Sunday morning is the logical choice for the races since traffic is generally lighter. Teams are also required to carry a cell phone for emergencies.
The Fort Collins and Denver races each had about 150 people but Kravetz is shooting for 300 in Boulder.
The Boulder race will include checkpoints at Flatirons Subaru, Chipotle, Amante Coffee on north Broadway, Cutting Edge and Boulder Running Co. There are also other landmarks teams must find with the help of clues and a support person with an Internet connection, whom they can call from their cell phones for help. The race finishes at Maverick American at 30th and Bluff streets with one final obstacle course.
In addition, there will be a race after-party at the finish, complete with food, beer and music.
Because of the Boulder race's proximity to the headquarters in Longmont, Kravetz says he should be able to bring out all of the best obstacles.
"We'll be able to make it a really great race," Kravetz says.
Copyright 2006, DailyCamera. All Rights Reserved.

Click here to check out some cool race photos.

Always follow the rules...

2006-08-19T17:36:00.000-06:00

There is an unofficial rule in bike racing that one should never discuss crashing. It's bad karma. Breaking the rule and talking about crashing inevitably leads to crashing. Point in case, yesterday I wrote about a crash I witnessed at the MBGP and my luck in not having crashed...yet. Today was the Denver Oyster Urban Assault Race, a race I'd been looking forward to since participating in the race last August. I'd talked Emily into racing with me and she'd recruited another friend to round out the 3-woman team. We even had a team training session in preparation!

We were doing great on the 1st 2 legs of the race. We ran to Civic Center Park, the Web Building and Union Station at a good clip. On the bike ride out to the Colorado Athletic Club from REI, we passed a number of teams, and we were sitting pretty in 1st place in the women's division.

This is when karma caught up with me and decided to play dirty. Lousy timing in my opinion. I'd switched the pedals on my road bike that morning from the road to MTB pedals so I could wear my MTB shoes which are easier to walk in. In the process of tightening the pedals, I guess I got a bit distracted, because the pedal just came right off while I was hammering. Or maybe I was just putting out too many watts for the pedal to withstand! Well, either way, down I went. 1st crash of my career (although I probably shouldn't be talking about it...that karma thing again). Luckily I landed on top of my bike, so there's no road rash. Oh, and my elbow and shoulder broke my fall as well.

My teammates scraped me off, put my pedal back on, and off we went again, ignoring the blood trickling down my leg and elbow. But as we made our way to Chipotle, the next checkpoint, I soon realized I couldn't put weight on my right arm, which is not so condusive for riding a bike. Emily saved the day and called her husband Chris to come pick me up and drive me back to the race headquarters as Emily and MJ made the lonely wet trip back on their bikes. So our race was over much sooner than we'd have liked. The worst consequence is that MJ and Emily didn't get to experience the Oyster in full.

Oh, and the unofficial diagnosis is a separated shoulder. But I think the bike is unharmed!

Can't start a race without first having your Starbucks caffeine fix.

Team Dope Divas was all smiles before the race.

We weren't smiling so much after this.

But I did win something...the prize for the most stupid crash of the day. I beat out another guy who crashed and had his teammate roll his bike over top of him. Guess that's something.

Lesson(s) learned today = always follow the rules, even the unspoken ones; and always tighten (and double-check) your pedals

Back in Denver, but not home yet...

2006-08-18T16:42:00.000-06:00

I made it back to Denver late Wednesday night after a very long (13 hour) drive from Phoenix. I was exhausted, but couldn't sleep due to an overdose of gas-station cappuccinos. They tasted sooo good and helped me stay away, but they gave me some really weird dreams Wednesday night.

After one restless night of sleeping in my own bed, the adventure continued Thursday morning when I packed my bag again and headed to the Carpenters' house to petsit for 3 nights. They foster dogs for the Dumb Friends' League, and have one lab, one cat, and one frog of their own. I'm getting my puppy fix this weekend with these two little guys:

Gatsby and Penny are some sort of coonhound mix. Our best guess is coonhound and boxer. They are 2 of a litter of 9. The other 7 puppies went up for adoption on Wednesday. But poor little Gatsby has the kennel cough, so he had to stay behind and get well. Penny wanted to stay with him to keep him company.

Gatsby finds it very amusing to chew on my shoe. I didn't think it was that funny.

Then Gatsby decided to chew on Penny.

But he's so cute that Penny and I both forgave him for chewing on us.

More random photos from San Diego:

2006-08-17T14:04:00.000-06:00

I spent a lot of time the last 2 weeks doing just this...napping on people's couches.

Greg kayaking. Trina and I were feeling lazy (and sunburnt) and decided just to hang out on the beach.

Trina and Greg. Greg made a really good point this week. He said: "This is your vacation, but this is my life every day."

Trina was feeling artistic when she took this photo.

Greg kayaking.

Greg and Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe's) before the P/1 race at the MBGP.

One of Greg's teammates crashed in the final sprint right in front of Trina and me. He slid at least 10 feet and lost a lot of skin. Ouch.

I suppose one advantage of not being in contention in the final sprint is that I haven't ended up in this situation yet.

Greg and Neil again. We went for a chill ride on Tuesday morning before I left. Although it wasn't through the most beautiful part of San Diego - we rode through some trailor parks, and industrial park, and around Fiesta Island while Greg called "poop island" because he says that is how the island was made.
They introduced me to a whole new concept in cycling - the coffee shop ride. It's a novel idea, really. You ride for a little while, stop and relax and have a cup 'o joe at coffee shop, then ride home. It seems the coffee shop stop is a common theme on rides in San Diego. Brilliant, I say!

My Last Night at the Beach:

2006-08-14T22:28:00.000-06:00

Monday was my last full day in sunny SoCal. So what were we going to do? Go to the beach...again!!! I'd already been surfing in the morning, but when Trina got home from work, we decided to head to LaJolla Cove for some fun in the sun. Greg took the kayak out while Trina and I played horseshoes on the beach (another first for me!).

Look at my beautiful form!

Trina hustled me. She let me get ahead by 7 points, then pulled off the biggest comeback in horseshoe history.

Look at our skills: we each got 2 horseshoes around the ring.

The triathlete club come out in force for an evening training swim. Practicing your open water swim makes perfectly good sense, but I still think it's a novel idea...I though people only trained in swimming pools. I'm learning all kinds of new things on this trip!

When we were worn out from throwing horseshoes, we wrote messages in the sand.

One for the Mom.

And one for the Pops.

I wish I could take credit for this very skillfully carved Sponge Bob sand drawing, but I am not that artistic. About the only thing I can draw is a tree, which I learned how to do in 3rd grade. We just happened upon this work of art when we were playing on the beach, and the artist was nowhere in sight.

Two cool (and a bit sunburnt!) surfer chicks hanging out at the beach. I need to work on my camera-angeling skills.

Surfing 102: Sometimes the ocean just beats you up.

2006-08-14T15:03:00.000-06:00

This morning, after Trina went off to work, Greg and I headed back to the beach. We still had the surfboard we had rented on Saturday, and two hours before we had to return it. So I decided to give surfing a 2nd go-around. Surfing isn't so easy the day after a hard bike race when your legs are tired. Today the waves just pummelled me. And I didn't have the strenth to fight back. I made a few valiant efforts and stood up once or twice. But after 20 minutes, when my knees were bruised, the board had hit my in the butt a few times, and I had swallowed about a gallon of salt water, I dragged the board back on shore and called it quits...but only for now. I'll be back this way to try surfing again.

After surfing we headed over to Trader Joe's (by far the best grocery store in the country...too bad we don't have then in Colorado). I loaded up on cheap groceries to bring back with me to Denver. Oh, and we rode Greg's Vespa to the store. That was another new experience...is that new experience #7 or #8 for this trip? I'll have to tally them up when the adventure is all over.

Where's Waldo:

2006-08-14T08:32:00.000-06:00

Check out these pics on cyclingnews.com of the MBGP and see if you can find me!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/aug06/manhattan_beachgp06/IMG_4087a

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/aug06/manhattan_beachgp06/JI6V4072

Manhattan Beach Grand Prix:

2006-08-13T20:46:00.000-06:00

Trina and Greg are amazing. They woke up with me at 5:45 this morning to drive 2 hours up to Manhattan Beach for a race. My race started at 9:40 am, while Greg's race wasn't scheduled to start until 1pm. And the best part was that Greg drove so I quietly fell back asleep in the back seat of the car.

The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix has been around for 45 years. And it's a HUGE event. Hundreds of spectators come out to watch. Sponsors set up tents along the race course and gave out free samples and schwag. They even set up bleachers at each end of the course so spectators could watch the 180 degree turns. This is how bike racing should be!

The stands at turn # 2.

Greg and Trina helped me get set up before the race...pumping my tires...putting my wheels in the pit...pinning on my numbers...directing me towards registration. Having him around was really handy, especially since I haven't raced in 2 months and I had forgotten much of the pre-race process. Registering and warming-up used to be second nature to me. But today I was thankful for their direction!

Well, the 9:40 race didn't go so well. It was a Cat 3 only race (what a great idea not to lump the 3's in with the P/1/2's). Things were looking good on the first lap as I was sitting 4th or 5th wheel. The promotors decided to give out a prime on EVERY lap. So the 2nd lap, the girls sat up on the back side of the course. I decided to have some fun and attacked. I ended up pulling the entire field around for half a lap (the laps were 1.5 miles long, so this was a pretty decent effort). Well, the good news is I came in 2nd on the prime and won a case of Clif Shots. The bad news is that on the next lap, I hit another girl's wheel, unclipped (but managed not to crash), and lost the group. So after 15 minutes my race was over.

So what's a girl to do? Sign up for the P/1/2/3 race that starts 40 minutes later. This race went much better for me as I decided to learn from my previous mistake and just sit in the field. I also quickly figured out that taking the 180 degree turns on the outside would allow me to move up 5 or 6 spots in each corner. I also learned how to ride in the gutter and sneak up a few spots. I lasted about 40 minutes when I suddenly found myself at the back of the pack when we hit the first climb. My mind said "go" but my legs said "no way". I lost the group and struggled at about 100 yards back for a few minutes. The follow motorcycle tried to pass me. I knew if it passed me my race would be mentally over. So I swerved in front of him and cut off the motorcycle. He backed off for a while. But on the next climb the motorcycle came up next to me. I looked over, gave him a smile and shook my head "no". I wasn't going to let him pass me. He gave me a laugh and backed off for a 2nd time. The crowd was great. Hundreds of strangers were yelling and encouraging me to catch the group. Unfortutely my legs were done and I couldn't deliver for my new fans. But I had a great time. And there was some steep competition in the group - a few national champions, a rider from Team Lipton which is the strongest women's team in the country, and some other Coloradans who race for Colorado Premiere Training. It was the most fun I've had at a race in a long time.

After my race Trina and I stayed and watched Greg's race. It was an NRC race with a $10,000 purse, so some strong teams showed up and Greg had some touch competition. Toyota United, Health Net, and Successful Living all sent strong teams. It was a fun race to watch. Toyota United and Health Net both sent guys into a break of 7 that formed within the first few laps. Then both teams spent the next 60 minutes blocking and slowing down the field. They Toyota sent their entire team to the front of the race and chased down their own teammates. I guess there was some team strategy involved in getting their best sprinters at the front for the finish. I wasn't quite sure what was going on...I still have a lot to learn about bike racing. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Lesson of the day: It's good to be on Health Net. They had their own fancy tent set up. They had a whole spread of food and drinks for the team and their possee. It's something to strive for. :)

2006-08-13T20:40:00.000-06:00

Surfing 101:

Trina and I took surf lessons Saturday night. We both stood up on our boards after only a couple of tries. We are now officially "surfer chicks"!

We looked official in our surfing attire - board shorts and rash guards - with our surfing instrustor Ian.

No, we're not doing push ups...we had to practice our pop-ups on dry land before hitting the waves.

Step 2 of the pop-ups.

It took us a really long time to walk out to the waves because Ian made us shuffle our feet so that we wouldn't get stung by sting rays. Who knew that getting out to the waves to surf could be so dangerous?

2006-08-12T15:47:00.000-06:00

I don't feel guilty about driving a gas-guzzling SUV when, like last night, I make use of every cubic inch of cargo space. Now this is a car 'o fun: 2 bikes, extra set of wheels, rollerblades, running shoes, and a kayak to top it off.

Friday night I left the granny flat and made my way a few miles south to stay with friends Trina and Greg who live in University City (a few miles inland from La Jolla). Now the adventure really begins! Friday night we went sea kayaking (my first time!). Saturday night are surf lessons for me and Trina, and then Sunday we all head north to Manhattan Beach for a bike race.

2006-08-11T15:46:00.000-06:00

San Diego has more drive-thru coffee shops than it does Starbucks.

These are the oddest-looking houses I have ever seen. They take the term "boat house" to a new level.

2006-08-11T15:30:00.000-06:00

Thursday I rode north on the Pacific Coast Highway ("PCH" as the locals call it). I rode through Carlsbad, up to Oceanside. The ride north from Encinitas is much flatter than the ride south towards Torrey Pines & La Jolla. I was thankful for the relatively flat ride as my legs were pretty tired from yesterday's effort to keep up with Greg.

The 101 (Pacific Coast Highway) runs right along the beach, which can be pretty dangerous for someone like me who gets easily distracted watching the waves and surfers.

This was by far the house with the best view in Carlsbad. If I lived here I would have coctails on the patio every evening and watch the sunset over the ocean. I hope whomever lives here takes advantage of that incredible view.

I had dinner with Trina at Pizza Port in Solana Beach. Pizza Port brews their own beer. I tried a beer called the Carlsbad Cream Ale. After dinner, Trina and I walked down to the beach just in time to see the sunset.

2006-08-10T18:45:00.000-06:00

A trip of firsts and expensive replacements:

Wednesday night Erik treated me to a lesson in how to make pasta. It was the first time I had ever made pasta from scratch. Erik let me help with mixing the dough, rolling, and cutting the pasta. I picked basil from their garden and Erik made pesto from scratch. I never knew I liked pesto so much! I think it tasted so good because Erik added a special ingredient. I promised not to share his secret. But go visit him in Encinitas and he'll make some for you and tell you the secret.

Erik rolling out the pasta.

Check out the rack full of pasta. Some of the pasta turned out to be almost 2 feel long. We had a lot of leftovers!

This morning I made a latte for the first time. Erik let me use his 30-year-old espresso machine. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but it still tasted good and I got a caffeine buzz. Mission accomplished!

And now for the expensive repair list:
#1: A new Ipod: My Ipod decided to crash while I was in Durango. Apparently those things have harddrives which can crash, just like a computer. Who knew? Well, I lasted all of 2 days without an Ipod. While in Phoenix I broke down and bought a new one. Cost = $200. Ouch.

#2: Spark plugs for my car. Yesterday my "check engine" light turned on in my car, and the car started to shake. Not good. Luckily there was a Ford dealership nearby. The spark plugs that allow the cylinders to fire were toast. Literally. They were charred and black with soot. My V8 was down to being a V7. The dealership told me that is what happens when your car has 80k miles and you drive across the desert. I asked them if I really needed all 8 cylinders. Shouldn't 7 be enough? They answer was a resounding "no". Bummer. Cost to replace those spark plugs = $750. Double ouch. I am thankful that this didn't happen in the middle of the California desert. I think my guardian angel really likes me. Yay!

2006-08-09T16:53:00.000-06:00

My first day in San Diego is off to a great start. I am staying with Erik and Catherine Christenson, who are friends of Emily and Chris. Erik is responsible for getting Emily hooked on bike racing. And Emily is responsible for sucking me into bike racing. The Christensons live in a huge house in Encinitas, CA. I am staying in the "granny flat" which is attached to the house and has its own private entrance and a kitchen. Erik has an espresso maching that is 30 years old. While studying for the Bar, I had started drinking lattes on a consistent basis. In the last week I"ve been detoxing and avoiding any sort of coffee drink, despite having visions of mocha lattes dancing through my head. Well, that plan went out the window this morning when Erik made me a fantastic soy mocha cappuccino. Yum. I'll be having one of those again tomorrow, and the next day...I can detox next week.

My goals while in San Diego:
1) Ride my bike. A lot.
2) But have enough energy left on Sunday to race in the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix.
3) Spend as much time at the beach as possible (when I'm not riding my bike of course)
4) Learn how to surf.
5) Get ride of my horrible bike tan (or as Emily and Chris like to call it, my "dork tan").
6) Sleep!

Today I accomplished goals 1 and 3. This morning I was treated to a great bike ride by my friend Trina's boyfriend, Greg. Greg has lived in San Diego for 10 years, and raced professionally for a few years, so he knows his way around. We started on the Pacific Coast Highway in Encinitas, went south to Torrey Pines, then turned inland (and I can't tell you the rest of the route, because it got too confusing!). I decided it would be a good idea to make up the VO2 intervals I was supposed to do yesterday but skipped. The intervals went really well, especially considering I haven't ridden hard since the beginning of June. After my intervals, Greg and I headed back towards the coast at a nice leisurely pace. Until we hit what Greg called "a really fun road". Then I sucked Greg's wheel for a good 15 minutes and got in another good interval workout. At this rate I'm either going to really be back in shape come Sunday's race, or I'm going to be exhausted!

I made it back to the house after our 3-hour ride and put on the swim suit. Then I hit the beach for a couple hours and went boogie boarding. It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally caught my first wave and rode it all the way into shore! This has to be good practice for that surf lesson I'm going to take later on in the week.

The beach!

Here's proof: a self-portrait of me hanging out on the beach! I really need to get rid of those tan lines.

I love San Diego.

2006-08-09T16:44:00.000-06:00

San Diego!!

Miles driven so far: 1250

Most I have paid for gas: $3.55/gallon (somewhere in the California desert)

Books read: 1 ("Missing Mom" by Joyce Carol Oats)
Books listened to on CD: 1 (Bridget Jones' Diary)

Funny signs I saw driving from Arizona to San Diego:
1) "Elevation: Sea Level"
2) "To avoid overheating, turn off AC next 10 miles" (huh? Whomever wrote this sign must have been confused. When it's 110 degrees out, if I want to avoid overheating, I"m turning the AC on full blast.)

Border checkpoints passed through: 2
Number of times I actually crossed the border: None. (Does that seem odd to anyone else?)

Border checkpoint #2

Time I arrived in San Diego: 5 pm

Miles I am from the Beach at this very moment: 3!

Huge wind turbines (is that what they're called) that I passed somewhere in SE California. These things must have been at least 100 feet tall.

2006-08-09T16:31:00.000-06:00

Phoenix recap:
I spent Sunday and Monday night in Phoenix, and it was the most relaxing part of my trip yet. I pretty much did nothing for the day and a half I was there, and it was great! We went to the movies, ate some really good food, and swam in the pool. All other times I was lying on the couch watching TV.

I did manage to get off the couch Monday afternoon to have lunch with Claude Jackson. Then it was right back onto the couch for the rest of the day!

Tuesday Bobby and I went for a ride with his crew. They ride every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30. That's 5:30 AM. In the morning. In Phoenix, if you want to ride your bike in August you have to get up early and be back before 7:30, otherwise you'll roast. Bobby told me it was going to be a "social" ride, as in slow and easy. Well, that was definitely not the case. For some reason the guys decided to ride fast, and we completed their 1 hour 30 minute loop in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Bobby said it was the fastest they've ever ridden. He also said they were probably trying to make the girl suffer. Thanks guys!

.

2006-08-07T10:57:00.000-06:00

Stop # 2: Phoenix

I left Durango yesterday morning for Phoenix, Az. I was tempted to go for another MTB ride before leaving, but I was pretty bruised and sore from the 2 previous rides. Plus, my coach had me scheduled for a 30-minute "embarrassingly slow" run. Hmm...it is hard to run embarrassingly slow. I'd call it more a 'jog' than a run. One good thing about running really slowly is that you can take a lot of pictures! Durango has a great bike path that runs along the Animas River and next to the downtown area. I never did get in the river to go tubing. Both days when I headed out to go rent a tube, it started to rain. Guess this means I have to come back!

Another fun Durango fact: City Slickers was filmed here.

I stopped in 4 Corners and paid the $3 entrance fee to get into the park and stand in 4 states at one time. Why? Because it was there. And it was the most exciting thing I'd seen in the 2 hours I'd left Durango.
I definitely had the most creative pose. Everyone else was kneeling on the 4 corners. All the old people got really excited when I broke out this cool move.

But I had to wait in this long line. I swear there were no other cars on the road, but then I pulled into the 4 corners parking lot, and it was packed with people. How did they all get there?!

I landed in Phoenix around suppertime. I'm staying with my friend Bobby who just moved here from Denver. He has cactuses (or is it cacti?) in his front yard instead of trees. And a pool in the back!

Fun fact about Phoenix: it is HOT!

2006-08-05T19:40:00.000-06:00

MTB Ride # 2: I headed up Horse Gulch trail this morning. It was a perfect morning for a ride - 65 degrees and clear blue skies. Horse Gulch is located close to downtown Durango, at the base of Ft. Lewis College. I started up a rocky dirt road which opened up after about one mile to 30 miles of singletrack. Durango is supposed to be a "mountain bike mecca", but I only saw one other mountain biker in the 1.5 hours that I was exploring. But that may have been because it poured last night and the trails were super muddy. Maybe everyone else was just smarter than I was and knew not to ride in the mud. My bike and shoes were caked with mud by the time I got back to town. Anyone know how to get all that mud off?

After the ride, I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with some locals. From left to right - Sabra Davidson, Mary, Lea Davidson, and me. Lea is Elke's roommate and I met Lea and her sister Sabra last night while hanging out in downtown Durango celebrating Elke's birthday. "The Patio" is clearly the place to be on Friday nights in Durango. "The Patio" is just that - an open-air patio on the 2nd story of a building on College and Main St. downtown.

Sabra rides for Middlebury's MTB team, but she decided to branch out this morning and participate in a local triathlon. She won her age division, despite taking a wrong turn on the bike course and taking a long detour!

Lea rides for the Trek/VW MTB team. Check out her pink board shorts - board shorts are the unofficial apparel of Durango. I haven't seen an ocean or any waves around Durango, but I've seen a number of locals sporting the board shorts. I think it's a good look and fits right in with Durango's laid-back, adventurous attitude.

Fun Durango facts:
- Elevation 6,512 feet
- Population 15,000
- home of Ft. Lewis College (which has an incredible cycling program)
- home to a number of pro cyclists, including Tom Danielson who rides for Discovery (and who also has his own brand of coffee. For only $12 you can have your own package of Tom Danielson coffee beans...warning, they are not guaranteed to make your ride as fast as Tom), and Lea Davidison (with the sweet pink board shorts!).
- Durango has these cool red trolleys that run all over town. You can ride one for only 50 cents.
- Everyone rides their bikes to downtown. And I'm not talking about cheap commuter bikes. Nope, they ride their $2000+ mountain bikes with disc wheels downtown and lock them up with cheap cable locks. If that happened in Denver, the bike theives would be cleaning up!

I went to Trimble Hot Springs tonight. 7 miles north of Durango. Marilyn Monroe apparently came here at some point. It was a very relaxing evening of soaking in the mineral hot springs, then getting a massage. This is the life!

Tomorrow I head out of Durango for the next part of my adventure. Stay tuned!

2006-08-04T16:38:00.000-06:00

A photo from my mtb ride today. You can see the Colorado trail if you look closely.