Category: Uncategorized

 

I did something awesome last Tuesday night!

A bill was introduced by a Wyoming House of Representatives member, House Bill 0206 (HB0206 for short), or “Bicycles on Roadways.”  It quickly caught on among the Wyoming cycling groups and we were instantly alarmed.

Long story short, HB0206 was compromised of three parts:

• All cyclists must wear 200 square inches of high visibility green, orange, or pink while operating a bicycle on any roadway within the state of Wyoming
  • Say what?
• All bicycles must be equipped with a rear flashing light
  • Even in the day…
• All cyclists must carry a government issued ID at all times
  • Dang, that sucks for the elementary-aged child…

I’m not sure I really have to go into detail on why this was just BAD NEWS for bicycling in Wyoming.

I wrote a decently long email to my house district representative, urging her to not support this piece of legislation.  Later that day on Tuesday I just happened to stop by the Bicycle Station and Patrick (the owner) was in a flurry to get to the State Capitol Building to testify before the House Transportation Committee against this bill.  So I ran home, grabbed my team’s jacket, and joined Patrick, George from Rock on Wheels, Shareen, Mike, Amber Travsky, and another cyclist named Patrick.

I was kinda amazed… I had no idea that the general people could go and speak at such things!  It’s been a long time since 9th grade civics class, and my knowledge of the legislative process is lacking.  Patrick briefed me on how to address the committee (“Mr. Chairman, members of the committee..”).  After waiting about 3.5 hours HB0206 was called to be discussed by the committee.

I was nervous.  Representative Northrup, the bill’s author and main sponsor presented the bill and I had to control my face as he tried to justify his actions.  After he spoke the committee questioned him, and the Wyoming Highway Patrol didn’t have any comments, which meant the floor was open to public comments.  Patrick went first with a well prepared speech in opposition (which included using Shareen and I as models of cycling kits, ha!), followed by Amber who shared what she wears, her experience getting hit by cars, and experiences on the Tour de Wyoming.  Then I jumped up.

I could feel my heart beating in my jugular veins and wanted to puke.  Downright one of the scariest things I have ever done!  I started out by telling the committee how my Colorado teammates and friends are always asking why I don’t just move to Colorado and I talked about growing up in Wyoming and how I’ve established my life here and like it here.  I segwayed that into why I disagreed with 200 square inches of neon being the solution to cyclist safety, bringing up distracted drivers and hostile drivers and how neon does not change those situations.  I talked about my RoadID, which offers more than my driver’s license does in terms of emergency info (though I will say the ID requirement was not my major beef with this bill – it was the forced regulation of the cycling clothing I choose to wear).  The committee asked me about my experiences riding and racing in other states since I had mentioned that, and if other states had laws like this.  I talked about how Colorado has the 3 foot law, but otherwise I have NEVER been told what to wear while on a bicycle in any other state.

It was such a relief to sit down, but I’m happy I spoke!  The rest soon followed.  When the committee went to vote I crossed my fingers and counted off all the nays – and it was voted down unanimously!  I could’ve screamed in joy!

High fives and hugs were shared.  Several committee members came up and shook my hand and thanked me for speaking.  Overall, it was an awesome experience.  Like I said, I had no idea that the general people could play a role in whether a bill passes or dies.  I’m so happy I went and spoke in opposition to something that would’ve had a stupidly stupid impact on a very big part of my life.

There’s two more cycling related bills in the legislative session right now: House Bill 85, or the “3 foot passing law” and a Senate file about studying the impact of bicycling (I can’t remember the exact number).  HB85 has been passed by the House of Representatives and has been introduced to the Senate.  I am hoping I will be able to go and speak in favor of both HB85 and the Senate file.  I think this won’t be the last time I’m in the State Capitol building with a jacket on that says “Naked” right across my chest!  😀

I do believe South Dakota has introduced a bill similar to HB0206, trying to regulate cyclists’ clothing colors, so it’s just not Wyoming drinking the crazy Kool-aid.  This has definitely opened my eyes to how people who aren’t cyclists are trying to regulate cyclists all across the country. I know some of their intentions may be good (as who doesn’t want people to be safe?), but on the other hand you cannot regulate and enforce common sense.  I know the serious cyclists already do what they can to be seen, ID’d, and safe.  The college kids, drunks coming from the bar, and random hooligans on bicycles already don’t follow the laws and wouldn’t follow any new laws.  So who does bills like this really hurt?  Yeah, us that are already playing safe 😦

Whoa, January was a big month for me!

1) Highest mileage and duration month on a bike EVER.  Um, it’s winter… what is up with that?!

2) The weather allowed for a ton of outdoor riding.

3) I’m down just about 9 pounds.

Woohoo!

OK, so I have a new obsession with making charts and tables.  I can’t tell you why, maybe it’s because after decades of using a computer I finally can efficiently make a table in Word.  Either way, here’s a nice comparison of my Januarys past.  Definitely a jump in everything!  I average over 8 hours weekly, and thanks to crazy weather (and the fat bike) I was able to get outside a whole lot more!  I’ll also venture to say that I’ve gotten a bit hardier and adventurous when it comes to riding outside and dressing the part.

The weather wasn’t the best for this weekend… we did 53 miles yesterday with an average temperature of 34 degrees.  My toes were frozen the whole time, and I got a bit whiney about 40 miles in about them but trudged on back to the car.  Normally I’d call someone crazy for riding 53 miles in 34 degree weather, but it sure beat the trainer!  I seriously, utterly, totally cannot do long endurance rides on a trainer, so I don’t have much choice!  Today it’s really cold, I’m not sure it has gotten above 20 here in Cheyenne, so I do plan on spinning on the trainer while watching the Super Bowl.  I was going to do a mountain bike group ride in Fort Collins, but I woke up with a decently bad sore throat and figured it would be smart to play it safe and stay inside, ride the trainer, and get caught up on household chores that I’ve been slacking on since I spend my weekends playing on the bike.

This past week wasn’t the best for my nutrition, I was feeling like I fell off the bus a bit and got a bit sloppy with my portions.  Still no daily cheesecake, but I did have two trips to Chipotle in there, and on Wednesday I do believe I consumed 3 dinners.  Yes, 3.  Luckily I think my whoopsies weren’t too bad, and I’ve continued to drop the weight!  I was down to 146.6 this morning.  I was 155.8 on December 28th, so I’d say January has gone quite well in the weight loss department!  I’m feeling really good, and probably most important to me is that I like how I look again.  I know, HUGE TABOO to say in today’s society, especially as a person who wasn’t definition overweight to begin with.  I’ve always had great self esteem when it came to my body, until about this fall when I felt like a lumpy oomphaloompa in my skinsuit during cyclocross season.  I’d sit around and just eat to deal with it.  I’m happy I made the change to reel in my eating habits.  And naturally it has really been helping on the bike.  The fact I can go out and do 50 miles rides and not be utterly destroyed by them in a sign (of both consistent training and getting on track with nutrition).  Cyclists love to chase the newest and lightest bike components, but look, I just lost 9 pounds off my bike/rider combo, and it didn’t cost me thousands of dollars!  In fact, it’s saved me money as I’m not buying tons of food every day at lunch!  😀  The goal was 145 pounds originally, and at the time I thought it would be pretty unachievable and that I would settle for 150 pounds.  Now that I’m almost there, I want to readjust my goal to 140 pounds.  I weighed 130-140 pounds most of my adult life, so I know it’s not something crazy or dangerous to set a goal for.  So here’s for one month down of eating better, and many more to go!

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo continues to creep closer!  Today I cleaned up the Fate and degreased the drivetrain.  On Friday I swapped out to a Fast Track Control tire (my SWorks Fast Track had been fine, but I decided to try a slightly thicker tire) and refreshed the Stans.  Most likely I’ll be shipping out the bike on Tuesday afternoon to Tucson.  Eek!

I decided to register for the 100km long course of the Old Man Winter Bike Rally next weekend in Lyons, CO.  I debated this event for a long time, originally thinking of doing the short course.  Now that I have some longer rides under my belt already this year, I decided to see what 100km on a cross bike could feel like!  Seems like it’ll be a fun event!  I know I won’t be vying for the top 3 podium, but still looking forward to seeing how I do, and of course my socks in the swag bag.  I love socks!

So yeah… January.  What a big month for me!  I feeling good, riding strong and I’m assuming it only gets better from here!

 

This January has just been bizarre… a week ago I was fat biking in 10 degree weather and today I was in shorts and a short sleeve jersey and Cheyenne set a record at 70 degrees!

This past weekend was in the 50s and 60s down in Fort Collins so I got some good miles in.  Saturday Jim and I rode about 29 miles/2 hours, looping down Taft Hill to Loveland, and back up through Masonville and Horsetooth.  It was a nice chill ride complete with tons of alpacas and llamas.  Any ride with alpacas and llamas is awesome!  Saturday was actually an amazing day… I had a huge grin on my face and was just so happy.  Sometimes I just need a good, fun, low key day on the bike with great company (and llamas)!  We were also on a mission to get every cyclist that passed us to wave… only had one guy refuse to wave, woohoo!

Sunday I headed back down solo to get in at least 50 miles.  I repeated the loop from Saturday, except at the end I turned off to go up over the Horsetooth dams.  This part of the ride I had a stiff headwind, so being up on the dams was slightly sketchy.  After the dams (I actually obeyed the speed limit off the north dam, thank you very much… but only due to the wind!) I climbed up the Bingham hills and headed north on the “cement plant loop” and then finally headed back to the car.  Did 50.2 miles in just a smidge over 3 hours, which surprised me!  I was super hammering, but felt good!  I rarely ride over 25-30 miles, but the 50 felt good, even with all the steep climbing.  I knocked minutes off some segment PR’s, which is always nice to see.  Definitely enjoyed the long hours in the sun, and look forward to longer rides in nice weather!

The warm weather has continued into the week.  Monday I ran out of work and jumped on my bike.  It was 65 degrees and I was shocked I was wearing summer gear on my ride… no long fingered gloves, no long sleeve base layer, no knee or leg warms, no shoe covers, and even no wool socks!  It was suppose to be a recovery ride, but for the first half I was so damn excited to be outside dressed like it was June instead of January that I was going super hard and pounding some climbs.  I eventually came to my senses, but my 30 minute scheduled recovery ride became an hour and almost 17 miles.

Today was I antsy again to get out of work and on the bike for my scheduled 1 hour 15 minute endurance ride.  Lately these have had to be done on a trainer, so I was just soooooooo eager to get outside!  There was a stiff west wind, and I (somewhat stupidly) rode east for whatever reason, meaning a headwind on the way home.  It was slightly chillier feeling due to some clouds, but once again I was dressed for summer!  I was only miserable on Hwy 30 from Sapp Brothers truck stop to Reese Road, otherwise riding back west felt OK.  By the time I hit the Greenway to head home the sun was out and I was smiling!

So spoiled we have been lately… unfortunately we must say goodbye to the 70 degree weather.  50s is predicted for the rest of the week, with 30s and snow on Saturday, and maybe touching 40 on Sunday.  BIG SAD FACE.  I’ve gotten so use to getting my endurance rides done outside that I am scared of not getting in the miles/hours I want as I have a low tolerance for being on a trainer over an hour (and it gets super uncomfortable).  Sunday is a group mountain bike ride in Fort Collins for us that don’t follow football and that thing called a “Super Bowl” going on, so I will try to make it to that.  Saturday I’ll just have to figure out…

This January is on track to being my highest amount of time ridden on a bike EVER!  And close to be my second highest mileage month EVER!  Whoa!  At first I was worried what the increase in weekly time would be like, but I’ve fallen into a good routine.  I’m averaging a bit over 8 hours a week so far.  My biggest issues are now alternating angry bunionettes (was just my left foot originally, but now the right is in on the game too) and just realizing I need to use Chamois Butt’r (ahem, TMI, I know!).  The biggest thing that is going to keep my grounded and on track will be keeping things fun.  Could I have rode harder and more miles last Saturday?  Yes, I suppose so.  But would I have been missing out on riding with someone I love spending time with and missing out at yelling at llamas?  Yes.  It’s a balance… I’m not paid to do this, and it’s not my full time job.  It’s something I’m suppose to do for fun, therefore some fun has to stay in the balance.  So far I’ve been good at keeping fun in the mix!

And goodness, my first race of 2015 is coming up so fast!  In just about two weeks I’ll be headed to Tucson for 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo!  Early next week I have to pack up the Fate, lights, other things that I might not be able to fly with, and get it sent off to our sherpa for the weekend.  It’s crazy how close it is coming up!  Just one more thing to tease me with the warm weather and dry trails of summer while still in the dead of winter!

 

Last week was awesome, and this is why!

1) Lake Pueblo!  Dry trails, sunny skies, and 60 degree temperatures beckoned us south to Pueblo, CO to ride the trail system at Lake Pueblo State Park.  We ended up with quite the group consisting of people from Laramie, Cheyenne, Fort Collins, and the Denver/Boulder area.  Though the map and signage were sketchy at best, I had an awesome time and it was great to hammer on the trails in just a normal kit and soak up that sunshine!  Elizabeth, Jim, and I cranked out about 28.5 miles, which was a great test of winter fitness.  I felt strong and was shocked to realize that I felt good after all those miles!  We celebrated with some Mexican food at the Cactus Flower before the long drive home.  Elizabeth and I are already talking about going down for a whole weekend for two days of mountain biking!

2) The new “eating plan” (note – I don’t call it a diet… I’m not dieting.  I’m merely changing my eating habits!) has stayed on track!  No cheesecake, no candy!  I discovered that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich has a lot of calories in it… but it’s all about moderation and I enjoyed several throughout the week (and during my ride… nothing like a PB&J on the trail!).

3) Along with eating… I’m down to 150.0 pounds as of this morning! Woohoo!  I’m feeling lighter already 🙂  Amazing what happens when you critically look at food choices and portions.

4) Training is going alright.  I did a good job with my first billat workout last week, though I must admit the 30 on/30 off isn’t the hardest for me… the hardest ones are the 1 minute ones (which is this week’s).  I did a FitStar workout for my core workout, and it included some exercises that made my quads and hamstrings incredibly sore all week.  I fought through it for the billat workout, but the next day for my threshold workout my legs just felt spent.  I hate finding new muscles I forgot I had 😦  Luckily I’m over the soreness hump and the same FitStar workout on Friday didn’t cause any more soreness.  The past three weeks I’ve averaged a smidge over 8 hours a week, which is definitely a step up from last year!

5) My new Sidi Spider mountain bike shoes are awesome now that I’ve gotten out on a proper trail with them… but I’m struggling with keeping them snug enough on my feet.  Apparently my feet get skinnier, way skinnier, over the course of a ride… something to ponder.

6) Thanks to my Lake Pueblo ride, I have a new Camelbak L.U.X.E. NV hydration pack coming.  My Camelbak Aurora has been quite faithful… but it’s small.  It’s great for those loops at Gowdy where my car is close by and I can loop back.  But trying to stuff 4 hours worth of nutrition + arm warmers/jacket/gloves + a full bladder + my car keys leads to a pack ready to explode at the seams!  So I decided to get a bit larger of a bike-specific pack for my longer rides (and races coming up) to fill in the spot between my Aurora and my Camelbak Adventura (which is a huge backpacking/hiking hydration pack that I use for… hiking, and the fat bike).

Not going so well… my bunionette on my left foot is angry again after a few weeks of relief from the pain I struggled with throughout December.  I’ve named “him” Benny the Bunionette.  And he needs to knock it off!  Back on the ibuprofen regimen…

 

I got back from a meeting at work and was clearing out my “promotions” folder on my gmail… since I had about 10 junky emails I just quickly deleted them all and then went, “wait a minute, did I see Leadville?” as I knew lottery results were today and was oh so hoping I wouldn’t get in. So to my trash folder I went, where I was greeted with this…

I almost puked.

I immediately messaged my coach, who responded with a bunch of symbols that I can only assumed symbolized a swear word.

I said plenty of swear words.

It’s going to be an interesting summer!  There’s people who try year after year to get into the Leadville Trail 100 and never do.  I randomly enter the lottery on badly thought out decision, and get in.  Just like that!  I’m coming to terms with it, and accepting the reality.  It has been a bucket list item of mine, and I almost entered in 2013 – which I’m so happy I didn’t as I wasn’t in a good of position as I am now back then, both physically and mentally.  So it’ll be a tick off the bucket list to say the least!  I’m beginning to look forward to the challenge… there’s no turning back, so might as well embrace it!  🙂

 

 

GRYB = go ride your bike.

This winter has been unusual for me in the sheer amount of outdoor riding that I have done so far… and I’m loving it!  Getting my Specialized Fatboy definitely has gotten me out a lot more than I normally would be.  Aside from being a blast, I’m enjoying how I’m keeping my mountain biking skills sharp and also learning new bike handling skills (like extreme body English maneuvers to stay upright on soft snow at 2mph!).  By fat biking I’ve also refined dressing for cold weather, which has carried over to the other bikes.  Last weekend I got out for a 16 mile ride on the Cheyenne Greenway on my Fate.  I put my Dogwood Designs pogies on and sped along.  The Fate was great as I had ok traction for the snowy parts but could move along with decently high speed on the pavement.

 

Today I got out on the cross bike for my Sunday endurance ride.  The streets still have a fair amount of ice and slush, despite the weather temps.  I’m happy I chose the Crux as I feel more secure with knobby tires… and I could get off the pavement!  I found some random dirt roads to explore, including one called Astronaut Road, which amuses me for some reason.  I also rode over to North Park to see how the trails were, and discovered in twenty feet that they are incredibly muddy and soft, so I had to turn around.  Overall it was a lovely 21 miles in the outdoors, despite the ominous clouds and cold north wind.  I realized that my cross bikes are great winter training tools… wider tires, grippier tires, and I won’t be mucking up my road bike with slush and mud.  I look forward to more outdoor endurance rides over the next coming weekends!

 

The newest addition to my winter weather riding gear has been a pair of Sidi Ghibli boots.  I tried them out yesterday during a 3.5 hour long fat bike ride with the flat pedal cleat cover in place (it has treads, and just screws into the mounts with a phillips head screwdriver – nice!).  I had my doubts on how warm my feet would stay, but after all those hours and more than enough time in deep snow, my toes stayed nice and toasty!  Today I added SPD cleats so I could ride my cross bike.  Once again my feet stayed warm, and didn’t feel any chill from the wind.  The only issue is I ordered a size up, thinking I would need to in order to fit thicker socks, and the shoes are noticeably big.  So my feet move around a lot, especially clipped in, but that’s my own fault!  I’ll just have to wear my thickest wool hiking socks, no biggie.

I never thought I’d be “ok” with getting out in 30 degree (or colder) weather and riding.  But now that I’ve gotten some simple items, like long johns and pogies, I find that I can still pretty warm for a decent amount of time.  My worse enemy is the fact I often overdress, then get really sweaty, which means I get super cold anytime I have to stop for an extended amount of time.  With the fat bike I’ve learned the importance of extra gloves, in case a pair get wet or aren’t warm enough, and carrying my larger Camelback with extra layers.

I’m still on the trainer about 5 days a week as it’s the easiest way to get intervals accomplished for numerous reasons.  But there’s no way I can push myself to do hours and hours of endurance riding on a trainer.  So here here to riding outside!

 

 

Last weekend I decided to make the commitment to clean up my eating, control my potions, and to knock it off with the cheesecake every day at work.

Monday and Tuesday were rough… I was HUNGRY.  My stomach constantly growled, even after eating properly portioned meals.  I went to the grocery store on Tuesday afternoon for some more lettuce, and it was pure torture, I was ready to start eating all the food in my sight.  My body felt in complete shock to go from 2500-3000 calories on a typical day to 1500-1800 calories.  I had a super bad night on the bike on Tuesday which resulted in some tears and all I wanted to do was eat to make it better… but I didn’t.  +1 on my scorecard!

Then… well… I stopped being hungry!  By Wednesday afternoon my extreme hunger subsided and I wasn’t a threat to anyone eating something in front of me.

My typical day, food-wise, this week has looked a bit like this:

Either multi-grain Cheerios or Carnation Breakfast Essentials with fat free milk

Mid-morning snacks of Oikos greek yogurt and a banana.  About a month ago I stopped getting vanilla lattes at work to reduce my caffeine intake and switched to drinking herbal tea so I always have that as well.

Lunch… instead of grabbing a tray and loading it up with $15 of food in my hospital’s cafeteria, I would get the entree (which they serve up in “proper” portion sizes) and that’s all.  No dessert, no sugary drinks.  Luckily the cafeteria provides nutritional information on our intranet so I could make informed choices.  So for example, one day I had farmer’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli, and surprisingly it didn’t have an extreme amount of calories (unlike the supreme nachos also offered).  One day I brought one of the Kashi microwavable pizzas from home and got veggies as a side.  Not only is this better for my health, it’s been far nicer on my wallet (actually paycheck, since it’s directly deducted) as now it’s $3-5 instead of $10-15.

Mid afternoon I’ll snack on carrots if I’m still at work.

At home I’ll whip up an early dinner usually between 4.30-5 since I like to get on the bike fairly early for my workout.  Sometimes I’ll have a Kashi pizza, or my new favorite, a salad of butter lettuce, blackberries, cauliflower, and grilled chicken with Panera Break vinaigrette (totally worth the calories in it!).  I also bought some whole wheat dinner rolls to go with the salad.  A few times I also heated up some Panera Bread broccoli cheese soup, about 1.5 cups of it.

After the bike I snack on raspberries (amazing sale at King Soopers this past week!  $1.25 a carton!), a banana, and either a yogurt or Carnation Breakfast Essentials for the protein for “recovery.”

and it’s been working!  Now that it’s Friday I’m not constantly hungry and I feel pretty good!  I’ve also been concentrating on drinking water, which is something I have always been bad at.

Today was a test as my department went out to lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant.  I chose a half portion of “Mexican Stir Fry,” which consists of onions, carrots, broccoli, peppers, zucchini, rice, and chicken grilled together with flour tortillas.  I didn’t lick my plate clean, but made sure to eat all the major veggies (and all the tortillas…).  I also had more than my share of chips and salsa because I love their salsa.  Afterwards I felt very heavy and sleepy.  I just didn’t feel like how I’ve felt after my other lunches.  Eek, so this is what eating out feels like after trying to eat healthy-ish in smaller portions…

I use the FitBit app to track what I eat… I ranged from 1300 to 1900 calories this week (though I don’t know about today since no information was available for my Mexican food).  It works out pretty good since you can scan some stuff in.

I know it’s only been a week… but I’m feeling good and accomplished.  I haven’t touched sweets or candy all week… I didn’t let the cheesecake win!  Now that I’ve figured out it’s quick and tasty to whip up a salad or other yummies at home, I’m kinda excited to eat salad!  (!!!)  The biggest thing I’ve always struggled with is portion sizes and I’ve become acutely more aware of portions.  I’m really bad about cooking a pizza at home and then eating the entire thing because, well, I live alone and it can’t go to waste (and I hate reheated pizza)!  So I might try cutting up the frozen pizzas before I cook them (I’ve done it in the past and it works!).  Pasta will always be my weakness so I’ll see how that goes when it presents itself.

Week 1 down… looking forward to see how things continue to go!  But I’m feeling good, and this is the longest I’ve ever gone with changes to my eating habits!  When I was 20 I tried being a vegetarian and it lasted 6 hours… so going a week making some changes is like WHOA!  😀

December 31st & January 1st I rode with some of Fort Collins’ awesome biking peeps to help send out 2014 and welcome in 2015.  They have as much snow as we do up in Wyoming, so I opted for the fat bike, which was fun!

The Fatboy probably wasn’t the best choice for climbing Towers, but I survived, and only walked two steep pitches.  Made for some nice elevation gain to start the year, and the bike was awesome on the descent, so stable even at 31mph!

 

 

 

 

Final stats for 2014:

Mileage:
3,309.4 miles

Time:
287 hours 31 minutes (which is over 12 days!)

Elevation Gain:
131,329 feet (4.5 times up the elevation of Mt. Everest)

Total Rides:
277

Longest Ride:
55.5 miles (May 19th Summit to Cheyenne)

Biggest Climb:
2,879 feet (Rist Canyon on August 9th)

My goal for 2014 was 200 miles a month, or 2400 miles for the year.  I can’t believe I exceeded that by over 900 miles!  I definitely spent a lot more time in the saddle this year than my previous years…

I love data.  It’s why I’m such a Strava nerd, so here is a chart I threw together to compare over the years!

What’s on tap for 2015?  I’m not sure.  I don’t know what I want my mileage goal to be.  I far exceeded my expectations for 2014, but I don’t want to get too ambitious for 2015.  So maybe I’ll make it a nice, even 3,500 miles?

My last blog post was a drag… here’s what I’m super excited and happy about!

1: New Kit Day!!!

When I came home from visiting my parents for Christmas a big box from Panache was waiting for me – my kits for Naked Women’s Racing!  Sure, I might’ve gone a bit crazy, but I was so excited to be able to get lots of nifty gear prior teams didn’t offer, like a thermal long sleeve jersey!  I even got a vest, even though I’ve never used a vest for cycling before!  And hello, so nice to know I have 4 pairs of bibs so I’m not having to wear dirty ones on multi day stuff or when traveling!

 

 

2: I finally did something with all those race photos I’ve accumulated.

Over the past couple of years I’ve really accumulated a digital stack of race photos, and mostly just posted them up on Facebook and in this blog.  I decided I wanted something more tangible to look at, plus my mom is always telling me “I never get any photos!”  Enter Blurb!  I made two books, one for 2012 & 2013 and one for 2014, with ease with their Book Smart program.  I ended up getting them a week earlier than what was quoted.  It’s pretty neat to sit down and flip through a book of all my various racing memories!  A set will be going to my mom, of course!

 

 

 

3: Marie got me these awesome socks!

When I did the Four Seasons of Horsetooth Challenge a few weekends ago my friend and super awesome amazing stood-on-a-World-Championships-podium mountain biker Marie presented me with these socks to match our puking unicorn Halter’s Cycles jersey – unicorn pooping rainbows knee high!  Definitely a case of our socks > your socks.  Don’t mess with the Unicorn Mafia.  We’re hardcore!

 

 

 

 

4: Bro shorts and carbon shoes

I got a lot of awesome goodies from our Naked Women’s Racing team order night.  I finally “completed” my road bike with SRAM Force 22 WiFli rear derailleur and 11-32t cassette (bring it on, Rist Canyon!), Quarq Riken power meter, and a S-Works Specialized carbon seat post.  I also picked up the new Garmin speed and cadence sensors that work via accelerometers and no magnets!  I also loaded up on Specialized green footbeds and some new road gloves.  Then there’s my super awesome Sidi Spider mountain bike shoes… whoa carbon soles and insane adjustability, which means my skinny left foot is as secure as my fatty right foot!  And to top it off, there’s my neon green Specialized Andorra mountain bike shorts!  My “bro” shorts for when I want to shred the gnar in baggies 😉  I ordered a large, and whoa, they were HUGE in the waist, but great on my thighs (my current “baggies” are actually pretty tight in my thighs).  Luckily my mom is a whiz with a sewing machine and took in the waist and they fit perfectly now.

5: Training wheels

Over the holidays I had my mom dig out the scrapbooks she had of photos of me (I was after a photo of my Backstreet Boys decorated room when I was 15… ahem).  I found this gem.  I was 4 or 5, on my purple bike that would be the first bike I would ride without training wheels.  I also remember riding it off the deck and down the porch stairs (by accident).  Just training for what was coming 25 years in the future 😀