Suck It Up Buttercup!

AcroYoga

2010-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

The best video EVER! My new Goal for 2011!

Hawaii 5'O

2010-06-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Palm Desert

2010-05-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Recovery time in Palm Desert with the family..... life is good!

Ironman St George

2010-05-06T17:05:00.001-07:00

IMSG was super fun and I hate to say it (with everyone saying its one of the hardest ironman races in North America) but I thought it was "easy". For me it was the first race that I have followed a training schedule and was super stoked how it unfolded the day of the race. I was cruising through the course just enjoying the sights, the crowds, volunteers, friends and others in the race. I never ever had the feeling that the bike was taking forever like i usually get towards the end of the race. I enjoy going long and was prepared for an all day excursion. I got my "Money's" worth is the easiest way to explain it : )

where's waldo?

Finishing time of 14:26

Swim 1:21:38
Bike 7:32:51
Run 5:16:50

My swim results surprised me and I thought my time would be about 1:40. Lesson learned: sight a little more often instead of watching others... I think I swam an extra mile LOL and struggled to get back to the bouys. I got super cold towards the end and couldn't move my fingers to get my transition bag open, watch on etc..

The bike was beautiful and I was enjoying the day.. I did have some stomach issues, and I think its being the the aero bar position after drinking, eating.. had about two bottles of vitargo about 280 calories each, two bottles of water with nuun, and two bars totaling 380calories.. ~940calories

My marathon was nothing more than a walking "Buffet" line. I was sooo hungry I couldn't stop eating at every aid station. I would think ahead of time what I felt like eating and i would walk through each aide station with the same plan. Sponges on the shoulders which I would use to squirt on my head, water, pretzels, orange slice, chicken soup and sometimes gatorade. Music was blasting and I was eating.... and running in between the hills and aide stations. Life was good. I did have to stop and tape up the bottom of my feet because of hot spots, and a blister popped two miles before the finish so I stopped and tape it and it made it worse so I then had to rip it off and just ignore the pain.

Awesome day and can't wait to do another race. Slate had an awesome race with finishing in 10:02hrs and won 3rd in his AG and qualified for Kona Ironman World Championship Race in his first Ironman.

Get ur May Issue

2010-05-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

Stoked i made the cover!! if you live in SD, pick one up for me!

Preparation H

2010-04-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

about sums up the last two days and maybe the next couple of days after racing 140.6 miles. There is sooo much to think about before an ironman race i can see why people would do only one a year. today we dropped off our swim to bike bags, bike to run bags, tomorrow we will drop off our bike and run special needs bags, and fill up our morning bag before the race. sooo many bags sooo little time... by race time tomorrow i hope i won't be "bagging it" . . .

"bag party"

"bike bags"

"run bags and me"

now just kill'in time about sixteen hours till race start. time for a shower, dinner and a little stretching/rolling and some good night sleep, with a wakeup call for 3:30am...

slater learning how to crush dreams tomorrow....

good thing i didn't have a four digit race number !

Team Duke "CHAP Support"

2010-04-15T21:15:00.001-07:00

Greg with the "Bling Bike" the children decorated

After John Wayne's own heroic battle with cancer, his family established the John Wayne Cancer Foundation (JWCF) to advance the fight against the illness. The John Wayne Cancer Foundation's mission is to bring courage, strength and grit to the fight against cancer.

Since its founding in 1985, the JWCF has supported awareness programs, education programs and support groups, and is aligned with like-minded groups and non-profits that advance the fight against cancer. JWCF has also been committed to groundbreaking cancer research and education at the John Wayne Cancer Institute (JWCI).

What is grit? Grit is bravery. A fighting spirit. Guts. Determination. It’s standing up for what you believe in and taking care of the people you love.

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway"
-john wayne

The Children's Healing Art Project (CHAP) is a program that we are excited to be a part of. CHAP brings the healing power of art to those children (and their parents and siblings) in crisis with cancer. The art projects are helping to fill the voids in life that cancer often results from, and also helps educate the public regarding what it is like for a child to go through cancer treatment. CHAP gives people a way to be heroes, by supporting their work.

Slater rides with Maya, and I ride with Carlos in our support for the fight against cancer by wearing their one-of-a- kind Children's Healing Art Project (CHAP) jersey that each child has painted. It is awesome to ride with our jerseys knowing how inspired we are by the children and their families and how much support and encouragement we all have through CHAP.

Jordan Romero is our friend that will be the youngest, age 13, to climb the 7 tallest summits of the world. Right now he is on his quest to summit Everest the last summit on his list with the support of Team Duke. Keep track of his climb to the summit of Everest on www.jordanromero.com.

Team Jordan with the prayer flags

Jordan's Everest Summit flag by CHAP

Help donate@www.teamduke.org

O'side 70.3

2010-03-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

Starting in January i have been training for Ironman St. George that is coming up quick on May 1st. I have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to training, so in preparation for the Ironman I decided to follow a training schedule (for my first time) that will get me to the finishline. Usually i can fart my way through training (doing what ever i feel like for that day) but I figured its not smart to do that with an ironman distance race, especially when I still haven't ridden my road bike AKA"CROSSrocket" over 85 miles... yet : )

Oceanside was perfect for a tuneup race to get things in check for the real deal May 1st. Its funny to look back to last year to see how little i really did compared to this year. Below are last years results:

2009 O'Side Results
swim 46:50
bike 3:39:21
run 2:17:56
6:52:01 overall
div 83 of 112

This year the swim was awesome, i was totally relaxed (maybe a bit too relaxed) but for the first time i didn't get pounded by all the waves that started after me. I was able to hold a steady pace and just watched the other swimmers around me instead of sighting every second for the buoys like i use to. I finished the swim without feeling totally wiped out and i was ready to jump on my bike.

I'm so proud of my crossbike! It has gotten me through so many miles but i'm glad to finally upgrade and i ordered my new sst 1.o road bike from fuji on friday. Last year after mile 35 i was DONE.. but this year i felt the miles fly past me and it was over before i knew it. Being sick in the two weeks leading up to the race my mind was kind of clouded. For my nutrition i spaced and totally didn't take enough calories on my ride. I had one bar, bottle of vitargo, 4 blocks and stoked to find a hidden gu at the bottom of my bento box. I kept on getting dizzy, lesson learned before st george.

Transitioning to the run i kind of had to regroup, catch my breath, then grabbed my stuff and i didn't know if my legs would be there but they were, only my feet had checked out. Usually the balls of my feet take awhile to loosen up but this was the first time that they just got worse. Every time i would try to stretch out my feet they would feel good for a second and then bam they would cramp up even more. Not sure if it was even cramping, but they tingled and killed i really didn't think i could finish the race. While i'm in pain slater and beth were both flying past me which made me "suck it up" and think about other things besides my feet... its all mental right? Finally after an hour of running my feet were bearable and i finished off the run with coach sean running next to me telling me to bring it home!

This year i was stoked to finish almost under six hours and i shaved off 50:61min off my time from last year.

2010 Results
swim 38:27
bike 3:09:30
run 2:07:55
6:01:40
div 43 of 109

SHAVED:
8:23 swim
29:91 bike
10:01 run

Sweet! Now if only i can get as fast as slater i will be stoked. He also dropped a bunch of time off of his race last year and he was able to make top ten in his AG with an overall standing of #45! wow!

Shoot Me

2010-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

On thursday my friend paul emailed me that ellsworth bikes were looking for some models for a San Diego lifestyle magazine. I guess the photographers models bailed out on him so it gave me the opportunity to use my modeling skills (which i have non of) to ride some awesome bikes with some cool folks in the beautiful town of Ramona. Tony invited us out early on saturday for a tour of ellsworth bikes before the photo soot. They have some pretty sweet rides that i hope to go back and demo real soon!!

Donald (who works for ellsworth) and me
on one of our many ride-by's on the bikes

slate wishing he was doing hill
repeats with us instead of driving the van

Ramona is such a cool little area, it reminded of bakersfield and the keysville classic race course where there is lots of green grass, rolling hills and small rounded rocks everywhere. The only downside of the photoshoot was that it was FREEZING, and super bummed that i have caught a cold, and fighting it with lots o'tea, vitamins etc. After the shoot we headed out to temecula to visit some friends.

The next morning we were off to ride with "Team Walsh" where we met in o'side and then road up to laguna beach and back! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for riding! We ended doing about 70 miles which i didn't expect and then did a run on the oceanside half ironman run course that's coming up in two weeks.

Awesome weekend and ready for the next!

the "SUPER" schd

2010-01-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

2010 started off good! Now that i'm working as "SUPER" Nanny for my nephew Kadin I am starting to figure out when my ironman training will/can happen through the week! It is hard to work long hours and fit everything in... i average about 10hr days watching the "Meatball" and this last week I was able to get 12 hours of training in... stoked. oh ya i have fridays off too.. plus i'm learning valuable "mommy" stuff so by the time we have kids i'll have everything figured out! Hopefully ; )

My Survival Training Guide with an 8 month old:

*be flexible and adjust your schd to his
*eat when the baby eats (every two hours)
*walk with Kadin in the morning (i have to wait until he poops first so he's not sitting in a
dirty diaper for my hour walk) and he usually will take his first nap in the bob
*sleep when he takes his second nap
*stretch/yoga/foam roll while he plays
*if its raining I take him to their exercise room, turn the TV to cartoons and I run my brains
out on the treadmill and lift some weights.
*bring a bottle/binky/blankie/bear on every outing
*my bike trainer will be my new friend

** Now i only just need to convince my sister to buy a backpack and bike trailer so I can hike and
bike with him now!

With slater doing 30runs in 30days it has made it super easy to bump up my running by joining him on some of his adventures. Signing up for Masters swimming in Sept. has also helped me get out to the pool! I love swimming and can't wait to move up a couple of lanes with the fast ladies that fly by slater! Below compares this December 12 - January 12 from last year...

In the 32 days ending 2010-01-12:

	activity	#	time	miles		km		+ft
	Swimming	15	14:55:00	15.11		24.32
	MTB	6	10:51:53	90.79	(7:10)	146.11	(4:27)	14967
	Running	10	7:15:06	41.83	(10:24)	67.32	(6:27)	1061
	Trail Run	6	5:49:39	32.62	(10:43)	52.5	(6:39)	3061
	Road Bike	4	5:41:36	52.72		84.84		2469
	Walking	3	2:44:18	9.92	(16:33)	15.96	(10:17)	1181
	Hiking	2	2:20:00	5.0		8.05
	Yoga	3	2:00:00
	Weights	3	1:40:00
	Snowshoeing	1	40:00	1.19	(33:36)	1.91	(20:53)	895
	Total	27	53:57:32	249.18		401.02		23635
averages - sleep:8.7

In the 32 days ending 2009-01-12:

activity	#	time	miles		km		+ft
MTB	9	21:55:00	143.0	(9:11)	230.14	(5:42)	2500
Road Bike	7	11:20:27	124.3	(5:28)	200.04	(3:24)	530
Snowshoeing	3	11:18:15	19.8	(34:15)	31.87	(21:17)	3000
Running	7	6:03:00	29.0	(12:31)	46.67	(7:46)
Paddle	1	1:30:00	4.0	(22:30)	6.44	(13:58)
Yoga	1	35:00
Weights	1	30:00
Total	24	53:11:42	320.1		515.15		6030

Super stoked to have been able to add swim/run miles and now i'm ready to add more biking!

Drop a Gear and "HOPE" to Disappear

2009-11-15T21:36:00.001-08:00

This weekend I did my first 12 hour mountain bike race in temecula and loved every minute of it! I want to say thanks for the awesome support from my friends from Team Sole and Intense. Thanks also to Luke for helping me with my lights and to my cheerleaders the mann clan.

We couldn't have asked for better weather with the fall colors on some of the trees down by the lake.. it was beautiful. Slater was out of town for a training camp and I had a bunch of friends going out to race the 12 hours and I wanted to get a long bike ride in so I decided to race also. My goal was to ride the full 12 hours! I didn't even bring a chair to tempt me to want to sit down. Just a day of fun on my bike with 600 other of friends who also love to ride. My first 4 laps were awesome I couldn't stop smiling, I was having a blast and I guess others noticed because people kept telling me that it looked like I was having fun? weren't they?

On my 5th lap I crashed up on the rock garden and busted my back break by the lever, and scraped my arm... shoot...

I was kinda shocked and just started walking, your mind does funny things for some reason I kept thinking how am I going to get back? My friend chuck came up from behind and made sure i was ok and said that I can still get back! That kinda snapped me out of it and I hopped back on my bike and rode the rest of the course with only a front brake... it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and when I finished everyone was stoked to see that I was ok. I guess chuck spread the word through friends on the course like the "telephone game" and they thought i would be bleeding to death and barley walking and maybe lost a leg j/k but word spreads like fire whether its true or not.. funny ..

While everyone was surveying my bike and I went and washed my face, added more sunscreen and loaded my pockets and bottle for the next lap. The pit crew from intense were going to try to switch out my brake but they only had shimano on their demo bikes but I had all SRAM gear. So there was an Intense Medium Tracer 29er that was itching to be ridden.. it may have been a couple sizes too big but the pedals were switched, seat was moved forward, and I was ready to roll on my green moto machine : )

That bike was a beast. The hardest part about riding this bike was the super steep sandy uphill sections. When I would have to get off to push I would lose my footing and find myself laying down with the bike on top of me sliding backwards on the hill. Pretty funny! Super heavy bike! I was able to ride my last 3 laps on the green moto machine. I was stoked that I was able to finish with a ride time of 11 hrs 42mins and ended up with a third place finish in the Expert/Pro class with a total of 8 laps.

My nutrition consisted of 4 vitargo, 2 perpetum, 1bottle 1/2 vitargo and nuun, 1bottle water, 1/2 chocolate power bar, a couple bites of a turkey sandwich, 1 bag of GU chews, one Hammer GU w/caffine in the evening, DK last lap, apples, bananas, blueberries and grapes.

My kind of Maui!!

2009-10-29T21:46:00.001-07:00

I loved the Xterra World Championship Course. During the race I kept thinking to myself how much I love this crazy, loose and scary dirty volcanic rock roads. It was like Vision Quest an Adventure Race and an Xterra all smashed into one. It even went through a dozen of ecosystems from super dry cactus sections to beautiful sandy beaches. The day was beautiful and kept it's cool with the layer of clouds above.

The swim was the most awesome ever with its clear waters and coral below. I was swimming and I looked down and totally jumped when I saw something black below, it was a scuba diver camera man. On my second lap there was this black stuff the was twirling beneath me which I finally figured out was a school of little black fish. It was beautiful : ) Also super stoked that I was able to draft some guy on the the first lap and was able to find him again on the second lap. The three months of master swimming is working because before i was just struggling to make it out of the water let alone having the ability to draft someone!

Out on the bike course i'm always checking the sidelines to see who is off stranded for a tire repair or etc... it looked like a war scene with people everywhere, from far away a couple of the guys looked like slater but as I got close I was wrong. As I was coming down one of the worst sections of the race I saw this guy limping up the steep hill that I was flying down.. "is that slater" it couldn't be, but it was... i yelled "are you ok" and he yelled back "just finish the race!" I kept on going thinking did he break a leg, an ankle???? what happened??? well i figured if he could answer me then he was going to live : ) so i kept on going.

Running on Mckenna beach was beautiful and I love the maui sand, eventhough at that point of the race I wish I was laying on the beach in my bikini soaking in the scenery instead of running my sandy death march! I made it to the finish line and was stoked to see slater hobbling towards me! I was bummed that he wasn't able to finish the race but thanked God he had no broken bones!

After the race we had a couple of days to relax and sight see. We ended up biking up Haleakala from sea level to over 10,000 feet of climbing... I could not have made it without slater towing me up the mountain. We had a fun trip but I always wish we had a couple more days to just lay on the beach and do nothing : )

Xterra Nationals Ogden, Utah

2009-09-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

Santa Barbara Bash

2009-08-24T00:11:00.001-07:00

I love Santa Barbara!! We had such a wonderful weekend with an awesome group of friends. Chuck was our host and he did a great job of showing us around town. It was nice to have a whole weekend of no driving. Chuck lives a couple of blocks from state street and about a mile from the race start so we had no need to jump in our automated wheels. Life is good. Racing, Eating, Cruz'in the beach cruiser, Eating again and Cheering on friends!

cruz'in around town

Saturday we woke up around 4:30am for the Santa Barbara Triathlon. Our group doing the race this year was chuck, tiffany, wes, slater, sean, lisa, paul and me. Everyone did awesome and it was super cool to see friends out there on the course!

cutie pie

I was able to use slates power tap so I can start gathering info, i guess... : ) I still don't get all that confusing graphs and crap, oh well at least he does... my results were:

1st hour - 138norm watts / 335max / 131avg
2nd hour - 130norm watts / 330max / 119avg

i also shaved about 30min off my time from last year.

More eating sat. night : )

Paul's girlfriend Lisa and her roomie Doreen did the women's only race on sunday, it was both their very first tri and we were all super stoked to be their fan club. We headed out early on the bikes and got coffee then headed over to watch them kill it! Lisa ended up having the 10th fastest bike split overall and it was doreen's first time on a road bike and loved it! They did awesome and are ready for their next race!

Lisa getting yelled at by Ellen because she forgot to put on her lip gloss before the run : )

The Santa Barbara Bash is definitely on the agenda every year!
See ya next time!

The Lovely Luge

2009-08-16T21:30:00.001-07:00

It was sooo nice to stay in town this weekend! Slater was off to Palomar for the sufferfest and I was off to my friend Jamie's house for her baby shower on Saturday. It was nice to meet some of her friends and get dressed up for the day! "Tis the season" for boys also, I know about five ladies that are all having boys within the next couple of months.. crazy how it "cycles"!

On sunday we did some exciting errands including our favorite coffee break, barnes visit and lunch. Later that day we headed out to the "LUGE" for a nice little singletrack dose! I was excited to wear my new "Team Duke" kit and was laughing when slate came downstairs in his same kit! He enjoys being twins, and when we get dressed separately somehow we always end up wearing something alike.. I guess the longer your married the more you start to dress alike! I can't wait till were eighty and we can go walking in the morning with our same track suits on! HA ! It was super hot but so nice to be out on the trail! Afterwards slate went for a transition run and i walked down to the corner of cooks to check out all the bikes with motors! There were tons of bikes out with fun & interesting people watching to pass the time until slate got back! Dinner and home!

San Juan Trail

2009-08-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Surf Monkey was on the list this weekend where slater and sean did the 1 mile ocean swim down in oceanside. It was so nice to be home for the weekend so we could attend a local event, ok, local to us is anything less than 2 hours away. Slate did awesome and he said there were tons of rip tides and swells, good thing i decided to watch : )

On sunday we met up with sean, lisa and luke for a ride up san juan! The last time I did san juan was about a year ago and it took about 6 hours. This time it took 4, so i was stoked! Also I didn't roll off the side of the mountain riding up like i did last time, who falls off riding up hill anyways? except me! HA... it was super hot, but luke was loving the cool weather.

View of the switchbacks and the lovely smog! I can't wait to go back and ride it again.

Mammoth Madness

2009-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

We were off to our yearly mammoth trip and i was super excited to be spending the next four days up in the mountains. I love being up in mammoth and i was happy to be spending some time with some old "funny" friends. On the way up slater said he would shuttle luke and me on rock creek because his foot was still bothering him, so we pulled off the hwy and loaded on our gear... i have never done rock creek and i have heard lots of rocks, swooping trails, creek crossings etc. I was excited but a little worried when i looked over and saw that luke had turned into a storm trooper and i had my usual riding gear on! HA "Oh well" i thought "this should be interesting"..

luke took off as i was getting my stuff together and we were all going to meet at the bottom. I was off on the trail and it was a little weird riding by myself... it was so beautiful and i loved rock creek... anything techy "BRING IT ON"! love it! Its tempting to ride downhill'in, but i'm afraid I would never go back!

On friday we rode with the gang and had a blast on the mammoth trails! The weather was perfect with clouds, thunderstorms and rain! It was awesome to go back and ride those trails and too see how much i have progressed, i have had many "over the bars" on that loose dirt and sharp turns and i was stoked i didn't fall once.... we will have to do another trip before the winter comes.

tiffie and me

the gang

the gang bang

We had such a blast hanging out with everyone, I can't wait till next year when we all get together again! fun stuff : )

Peters Canyon Trail Run

2009-07-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

since big bear was a solid chuck of training.. 15 hours in three days.. consisting of paddling, swimming, mt biking and bad ass billy's core workout - wow.. am i beat! this week i have been sleeping at least 8 -12 hours a night and i had a nice nap yesterday with my nephew... he looks like a little doll when he is sleeping.. my total hours this week have been 45 minutes total of which consisted of two runs, one 3omin and the other 15.. i just couldn't get motivated to do anything... drained!

Last night was the peters canyon 2nd event of their trail run series. i did the last one but decided to be a spectator this time around, still beat down. stoked, my sister and her hubby came out for the festivities and it was such a nice evening. slate did awesome coming in sixth overall, damn i can't believe how fast that boy is getting... and my bro in law came in 26th overall with a 7:15 pace for his first running race ever! how did he get so fast also? while the boys were hitting the trails my sister and i hung out with her new little boy kadin and we had a blast watching him laugh and we couldn't resist having a photo shoot :)

today i decided to get my lazy, unmotivated butt out the door. i put my bike clothes on and stashed a bunch of food in my jersey and headed out for a ride... not sure where or how far i was going to go? oh, where will the day take me? : ) i headed for the beach and ended up cruis'in south to the back bay and back home...

some friends came out from santa cruz and santa barbara around lunch time and were all dressed up for a spin... so i got my bike clothes back on and headed back out the door for my second ride of the day... my legs were turning into jello, and we had a major head wind! man, what was i thinking... i tucked behind keevin and held his wheel for the 33 miles... with some struggle.. : ) what a good time! stoked to have put in 63 miles for the day!

Big Bear Shootout!

2009-06-06T10:12:00.001-07:00

Big Bear Shootout was my second mt bike race that i have competed in. It was a fun day with lots of hills : ) It was part of the conquer the bear series which also includes the big bear multisport race, paddle race and marathon. The course had super fun singletrack with lots of sand. These races have some super strong ladies competing and it was fun seeing them attack the mountain. I raced in cat. 2 and came out in 4th place. I really need to work on my sprinting legs... fun day and perfect weather!

Monday Madness

2009-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

It was memorial monday and we were now off to ride some more with a group of friends. We decided on the 3 park ride from aliso to laguna woods to el moro and back! We couldn't have asked for a better day with such beautiful weather.

Slate just flew home from alabama the day before and his bike must have enjoyed being out of california so it took a trip up to washington, phoenix and then back home in time for our early morning ride. We picked it up on the way and were off to meet up with the crew.... below is a pic of slate putting his moots back together from its trip right before our ride : )

Above is the crew headed back up to top of the world. After the ride it was back to the pad for some Food and Fun!

group rides

2009-05-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

It was early sunday morning and with Slate in "ala'bama" for the Xterra Cup Race, I decided to venture out on my own group ride. It was hard getting out the door, I was tired from my girls mountain bike ride yesterday with the sexy lady "my singlespeed" sarah and tiffany out in aliso woods.

From my house to Main St. where I hit PCH is about 5 miles which is a great warmup. Once I hit PCH I was scanning the roads for a group to test my limits... There was no one so I peddled through the lonely wind tunnel. Sunday morning was a ghost town, I kept looking around for other bikers and they were all heading west on pch. I hit newport and finally a group of guys cruised by, stoked group ride #1, keeping up with man in white, man in red and two old dudes. Group #1 - man in red kept trying to stay up ahead and didn't want anyone to grab his wheel, man in white nice enough to give hand signs once he realized i was hanging on. old dudes on my wheel. 20mph. Hit Back Bay and was alone again for my bb loop.

Group #2 - slow dude and old lady on tri bikes heading back home. wasn't having much fun in that group. A couple lights down the road we caught up to group #3. So I ditched boring #2 and hammered with my next group. It was a group of 5 guys and 1 girl. Not that friendly of a group, they were probably wondering who this chick was changing positions within the mix of their cool group ride, all in their fancy kits.

I needed more of a challenge so i peered ahead and caught sight of my #4 group the one man band... It consisted of one guy on a tri bike right up ahead of #3. So we hit a hill and I hammered past group #3 and caught up to my #4 one man band. His pace was 25mph so I got up on him and hammered.. anther guy pulled up behind me and we were now the three stooges - a guy on a yellow tri bike, me on my cross bike w/mt bike shoes, and an old dude with a sweat shirt on. HAha pretty funny.. we all stayed together for a couple of miles and then I just couldn't hold on much longer... so i drifted off and cruised the rest of my ride down to sunset beach and back home. What a great day! I love group rides!

Life is good, and I had such a fun day riding along the ocean! I'm addicted and ready to be a regular weekend groupie, as long as I don't have to chose one group : )

So if you feel some random person riding on your butt... it's prob another groupie like me!

"INTENSE"

2009-05-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

So this week after the Del Valle Xterra, was my first time doing intense work in my training schedule. Even though my schedule is "do whatever i feel like for the day" as long as I get some hours in : ) My workouts consisted of an el moro ride with slater & ryan, hill repeats in aliso, an off road track workout, a 40mile ride where i was able to grab the wheel of some guys and hold on down pch till i hit my back bay turn off "thanks guys" and an ocean swim pushing my pace.

For my first time i'm planning on trying to stick to a training schedule for the Xterra Tahoe City which is in June. Im super excited to train "specific" for a race and see the results. I am "finally" at the point where I can go the distance and now its time to drop the Hammer! Slate is going to help me put together a little som'tin som'tin and i'm counting down five weeks until the race!

Xterra Del Valle

2009-05-10T23:11:00.001-07:00

Well if I were a mother this would have been how I would want to spend my Mothers Day! Racing hard with my husband and enjoying mother nature! Lake Del Valle up in Livermore is a awesome place to be. I couldn't believe all the different birds up there, and all the deer that we saw. The single track along the waters edge was a nice change, compared to the dirt that surrounds our single track in the OC. The water was crystal green and I just wanted to jump i and view the mountains from below...

The Xterra Del Valle was the 2009 inaugural race that was put on by the Big Blue Adventure Series. The race consisted of two 600yrd loops with a run in the middle... I was not able to warm up before the race because I was running late so my swim started off good and then went bad... before I race I need at least a 30 min wu and so without it I choked on the swim. I'm also super slow at swimming and I just enjoyed my time out in the water and tried to breath bilateral with every other stroke (usually i stick to one side for a while and then switch). I think I was one of the last 10 people to finish : ) I need to spend a lot more time doing swim workouts instead of floating in the pool! HA

I was ready to get on the bike but I was worried because my legs have been super heavy the last couple of rides before my race, and I knew the 17 mile bike course had tons of steep climbs. I hit the first long climb on the bike and I saw a couple of people up ahead pushing their bikes so I just kept telling myself to stay on my bike. I was gaining on the pushers and noticed one was in my age group, so I peddled even harder to the top of the climb, 1 down. On the single track down hill I was able to pass another AG, 2 down. I was stoked to have been passing people this race, because I'm usually the one being passed. Next was a long downhill fire road, 3 down. I couldn't believe all the hills on the course and I was glad that I was able to pre-ride some of it.

The run was a super fun 6 mile run, trek and swim. It started off on a dirt road and then down into the creek. I felt like I was in an adventure race, I loved it. The water felt so good and in one part I was up to my waist so I laid back and floated for a second. It was just what I needed and it took my breath away. It was a refresher and ice bath all at once. I was ready to continue on and finish strong.

Below are the race stats for my AG:

I need lots of work on my swim : )

30 - 34              =======

1  Monique Fletcher #1030           :32:24  02:16:34  01:15:42    4:04:40

2  Dana Katz #1033                  :25:36  02:40:02  01:08:19    4:13:57

3  Elaine Seasly #1032              :28:22  02:34:40  01:21:57    4:24:59

4  Melissa Popkin #1031             :27:55  02:53:11  01:35:57    4:57:03

In the end I finished first in my AG. Super Stoked! Slate finished 2nd in his AG and 9th place OV, he did awesome. We had a great time and can't wait till the race in Tahoe!

Kadin Daniel B Hardy

2009-04-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

On April 11, 2009 at 6:09 we welcomed my nephew Kadin Daniel B Hardy to the world! He was 8.2 lbs and 20 inches long. We all couldn't believe that my 80 lb sister could have such a big baby... I think without the weight of the baby Dez only gained 10lbs ... crazy.. I hope I am as lucky as her when I have kids : ) My sister went in on thursday at midnight and had her precious baby boy yesterday morning. I felt like I was in the twilight zone, not sleeping for two nights waiting for the arrival of Kadin. It was also strange not to do any training at all for a couple of days but today I was able to get outside into the world for a mountain bike ride with M & M at El Moro. What a beautiful day it was on this Easter Sunday. It was nice to get out but I was already missing the little easter bunny that was back at the hospital.

proud uncle

We are counting down the days till we can get this little guy on a bike!

California 70.3 Ironman

2009-04-04T18:04:00.001-07:00

The 70.3 Ironman California was super fun!!! Two days before the race we realized that we didn't want to drive back and forth to Oceanside to pickup our race packets before the big event, so we decided that to find somewhere to sleep in our trucks friday night before the race! Yes, we are last minute kinda pep's. I was worried about the race because i've been fighting a cold a couple days before but race day i felt pretty good, so stoked!

Friday we pickuped up our packets, ate an awesome pasta dinner and headed to WALMART (keevin and i heard you can camp out in any WALMART parking lot) well its not true. I decided to ask the security guy so he wouldn't wake us up mid dreaming and have us move... so we headed to starbucks so i could brush my teeth and wash my face! We found a nice neighborhood and passed out.

My swim:

My first time swimming up to a starting buoy. i loved the carpet in the water and being pulled out of the water and tossed up to the ramp... awesome!

I swam... slow but steady... and survived : )

My Bike:

It was such a beautiful bike course it got prettier around each corner! i made a couple of friends and enjoyed the company.. at mile 30 i just wanted to BRUSH my TEETH soooo bad!

next time i might put one of those mini camping tooth brushes in my bento box : ) HA... oh, and it was fun passing girls on tri bikes with my cross bike, dang i need to get myself one of those fancy rides.... i was on a rolling bike show with all the tricked out rides today... The last 10 miles on the bike felt FOREVER, plus i was going through a wind tunnel... i was ready to get off the bike and run.

My Run:

Was super fun, I didn't know if i was going to be able to move my legs, but they were there! yippy... the group of girls at mile 1.5 aide station were super funny.. there was one girl with a cup of water on her head, hands out, dancing... I wonder what went through their minds during the race?? funny kids!

I was stoked with my time... i forecasted a 7hour race and i finished at 6:52:01!

We all had such a fun day!

The REAL Deal

2009-03-30T17:41:00.001-07:00

Folsom Xterra REAL :

was my first "REAL" triathlon race of the season for me. I was super excited to jump back in and have a refresher for my half ironman next weekend (i'm sooo not ready for, oh well good training right?) We have been going up to folsom the last three years and i can't tell you how beautiful it is there this time of the year! It was such a nice weekend to head out of town and enjoy some time with my hubby. Between racing, training, work, etc.. life gets busy and its nice to step away from the norm every once in awhile (eventhough it was for a race : ) I was also super excited to ride my new 29 on some fast singletrack...

Swim time:

Ok, so 58 degrees was pretty cold, i got in the water about 20 minutes before the race to really warm up .... the gun went off and the mass of people went flopping in the water.... i tried to swim along someone about the same speed, so i could watch them instead of spotting the buoy in the sun... people were either too fast or too slow... so i picked out a tree in the water and aimed for that... i found myself in a mist of really tall guys, i got kicked in the stomach by a zig zagging man and then another guy came across and slapped me in the face and hit my goggles off... i guess you have to expect that when there is one mass start of 200+ racers...

After swimming i was ready to get on my new rocket... having a new bike with the 29 wheels was awesome... floating through the singletrack and enjoying the beautiful scenery was my type of race : ) my thumbs were still frozen so i had to shift with the palm of my hand, i had some practice from last years folsom xterra so i was expecting it to happen again..... on the first lap i was behind a couple of racers that were not comfortable with the technical sections so it slowed me down a little.. also my back skewer opened so i had to stop and fix it... i jumped back on my bike and was instantly enjoying the speed again.

When transitioning to the run i heard slater yelling "good job monique" and all i was thinking was dang he is already done, and i was curious to see how he did! i grabbed my race belt, gu and visor and took off on the run... i enjoyed the awesome run, i was hopping back and forth with the same guy as on the bike, it always nice to have someone to suffer with... i just kept thinking fast turnover... i made it up the hills i walked last year so i was super stoked! Towards the end of the run slater was stretching in the grass waiting to catch some snaps of me...

Results:

The race was over and i was almost sad how fast it went by... i finished 5th in my AG and was stoked to collect some series points!

I was super excited to see Jamie Whitmore passing out the awards, she is a fighter and i pray that she can race again soon! slater had an awesome race and finished 7th overall! i'm so proud...we had a wonderful weekend and i can't wait till next year to experience folsom all over again!

My Quest for the Vision

2009-03-08T08:43:00.002-07:00

Ok, so I was all excited to have this vision but all i saw was some red dots on the way up west horse thief ! HA

I decided not to use my music the first half of the race so i had to entertain myself, to keep me moving forward..

song's/moto's that stuck from blackstar to motorway:

"keep on keep on keep on moving and dancing all through the night"

to the rock, to the rock, to the rock

to the bush, to the bush, to the bush, anything that i could pick out ....

remembered slaters encouraging words while pushing the climbs:

i have done key training sessions for this

i know how to keep up on my nutrition

i knew how hard he was pushing, so i could push hard also

Falls:

fell a couple of times in the snow, more like ice

rolled down a boulder on a sharp left turn on lower holy jim...

fell in the stream also at the bottom of holy jim, left glove and shorts drenched!

15 bruises mostly on right calf (mainly from the hike o'bike section)

5 bruises on left leg/hip

Started music beginning of Maple Springs, had new GOOD music from "bro in' law"!

Nutrition:

2 amino vitals

Apple (20 minutes from race start)

4 Gu's

1 bottle virtargo

2 bottles virtargo & perpetum mixed

3 bottles water

1 bottle creamy chicken broth HIT the SPOT

1 bag on honey stinger fruit punch chews

1 bag powerbar lemon chews

1 very large homemade rice krispie treat YUM

2 banana halves

Half a bag of ritz crackers with cheese

2 bites of orange

6 electrolite pills

9 advils

Pocket Placement:

Left - virtargo/perpetum mix (enough for two water bottles), sun glasses

Middle - water bottle

Right - rice krispie treat, ipod

Bento Box for the rest of my fuel!

made cutoff by 15 minutes, super stoked, smiled the whole way down upper/lower holy jim!

right knee killed the whole day, hopefully i didn't do any permanent damage

the walker family and jeff smith cheering section on maple was instant energy boost...

mandy near the top of maple (thanks for the broth, yummy)

marius and mandy waiting for me at bottom of trabucco and we all rode together to the finish!

saw dave ruby at top of west horse thief with arm in a sling

took heather's advice and did NOT eat a cheeseburger : )

gave out advice.... lots of "good jobs" and "keep on moving" super stoked to motivate others along the way!

ended up with poison oak: neck, wrist, and both legs

I had such a fun time at the VQ, can't wait to get on my bike again.. well maybe i can wait a little while (not sure if i can sit on my seat)

6 hr Dirty Duathlon, bootleg

2009-03-08T08:43:00.001-07:00

6 Hours of Bootleg was my first attempt at a solo race! The course consisted of trail running and mountain biking on two different run courses, and two different bike courses. There was a total of 4 loops, all were super fun! This was a test to see if i can last for six hours and a good build for time in VQ!

The first bike loop i ate it really hard on the worst spot of the course.. my bar ends hit the side of the rock and i flipped so fast head over heels that i didn't realize what happened till a couple seconds after slamming on the rock.... i new i had to just keep moving so the pain wouldn't set in... the other loops were very uneventful.. except i got a group of us off course on part of the run loop, don't follow me : )

slater was spectating and i think this was the second race ever that i did and he did not.. so he was good company on some of the bike loops!

mandy and tiffany did a team and they rocked it doing more laps then anybody which totaled out to be 17 loops... right arm girls!!

marius also joined in on the fun and had a great time!

the weather was perfect and afterwards we were all pumped to ride Blue Diamond the next day!

it was a great weekend and i can't wait to venture out there again soon!

Training Totals

2009-02-04T11:31:00.001-08:00

Below is my training log for the last 32 days... Getting ready for VQ and looking to do a couple more rides along the course the next two weeks... Also going to try to get a lot more swimming in for my Half Ironman April 4th.... ocean swims are key for me when training for a triathlon...

Goals ....

Swim at least three times a week

Keep up on my running for Half Ironman ~ at least 13 miles per week

At least one bike ride a week over 50miles

Half Marathon

2009-02-02T10:00:00.001-08:00

Results:

Half Marathon

Runner Details

Race Results

Split Times

Bib:	1117
Name:	Monique Fletcher
Gender:	F
Age:	30
Hometown:	Huntington Beach, CA

Overall:	3949 out of 10788
Women:	1684 out of 6532
F 30-34:	293 out of 1006
Age/Grade:	51.99% Place: 4085
Finish:	2:06:40 Pace: 9:40
Tag Time:	2:06:04

3 Mile:	29:32 Pace: 9:51
:	Pace:
8.2 Mile:	1:19:31 Pace: 9:42

12 Hours of Temecula

2009-01-26T18:59:00.002-08:00

The 12 Hour race course could not have been any better!!!

Racing: The Good!

It consisted of lots of single track that swooped, twisted and turned for the pleasure of every racer! I was on a team that consisted of four girls... Melissa, Bernice, Tiffany and Me. What a fun and tough group of gals!

Racing: The Bad!

Our teammate Melissa had a bad crash on her first lap : (

She was about thirty minutes into her lap and she flew over her handle bars on a technical decent with her bike fly off the side of the hill.... We were all worried when we heard from a friend that they were bringing in Melissa on the quad.

RACING: The Results!

We were all very glad to find out that Melissa was Ok... after complaining of arm/shoulder/back pain she was let out of the hospital with nothing more than some scrapes and bruises! And our team received a medal for third place! Good job ladies!

Looking forward to the next race with this awesome group of girls.

Rio Bravo

2009-01-26T18:59:00.001-08:00

Rio Bravo Rumble consists of a 10k trail run and a 16 mile mountain bike ride..... the course is always super fun and i was ready to race...

(loading up on goods before the race)

Usually i feel like crap during the run, but this year i felt strong the whole way! Super stoked!

But i did walk some of the killer hills. i was proud to finish my run with a time of 56:34...

next was the bike and i was ready to roll... being able to actually pass people on the bike was super exciting for me this year... usually i'm being passed like i'm standing still... but this year was different... my music was pumping and i just kept saying to myself "suck it up buttercup" (my motto for this year) and i was just trying my hardest to push through the super steep quick hills and not get off my bike... before i knew it i was done pushing through the last hill, and i was super stoked that i did not walk any..... : ) bike lap time 1:40... total time 2:36 with a second place finish in the 21 to 34 womens age group...

(2nd lap on the bike)

during the race slate got lost on the course and ended finishing in 2nd overall... (time penalty because he was the only that confessed that he got lost) sucks to be honest : ) hehehe

but he did receive a letter from the race director stating that 20 other people also got lost so hopefully next year the course will be marked better... damn cows (reason for not being able to post stakes in the ground)....

after the ride we headed out to our local hills where we use to ride.... super fun day in bako...!

First snow on Mr. Baldy

2008-12-20T21:44:00.001-08:00

(on the way down the mountain)

Today was the day after our first big storm here in southern cali. We decided to head up to mount baldy and use our new snowshoes in the three feet of snow that our first storm brought.

I have never been snowshoeing before and i was ready for the hike up to the saddle. Going up was super fun with the shoes. i was amazed how well they worked walking in the powder. someone had cut the trail so there was a nice little path for us to follow, we have been hiking here many times but with all the snow i don't think we would have be able to find the trail on our own.

(slater & me)

Hiking up we couldn't help but stop every second to snap some cool shots of the beautiful snow... i love the snow!!!! on the way down i could not stop laughing, i was falling all over the place. snowshoes are a little tricky when your trying to run downhill :) funny stuff! i can't wait till there is another snow storm so i can venture out again on my magic snow shoes again...

(slater walking in the winter wonderland)

FEAR Exposed Adventure Race ~ Santa Monica

2008-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Irvine Lake Cross Race

2008-11-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

never do a cross race with new clip-ins... i spent most of my time and energy trying to get my right foot clipped into my pedal :( oh well... valuable lessons learned... oh and also never do a cross race without gloves...

fun times...

Halloween Ride

2008-11-01T22:59:00.001-07:00

(thee wench in Rrrr'vine)

Today was our big costume bike ride from the Irvine train station to downtown san diego. . ..

total miles ~ 91!

It ended up being a beautiful day and the weather was perfect! we had a total of 26 friends and we had no flats all day which was amazing :) slater & me were pirates, as you can see i was the bearded wench.. HA! lots of laughs, horns honking and people taking pic's and we rode by...

i can't wait till next year i have tons of costume ideas!

(the lobster threw her tail away at mile 20)

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T07:14:00.001-07:00

1st Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

2008-10-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

rebecca and dave were the winners of the night!

Sister Slege

2008-10-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

52 miles.... cycling

took pch from my house in huntington beach to dana point....

north on golden lantern to aliso creek then up alicia pkwy to santa margarita pkwy down el toro

to my sista's house! it was a beautiful day! super clear, i couldn't have asked for anything more :) (if only every day could be as good as today, and if only slater had warned me of all the hills)

newps ride

2008-10-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

today i road from home in HB to warner and met up with the bike path on pch. the wind was so bad i almost gave up! but i kept on going and peddled my little legs to balboa pier and back home the way i came.

total miles of ride = 35

it was a beautiful day at the beach :)

SLO & Montana De Oro

2008-10-03T22:00:00.002-07:00

San Luis Obispo..........
we ventured up to slo for a multisport race that slater has been training for, the event finals!!
The race format was a 5.5 mile trail run, 5 mile paddle and a 10 mile mountain bike... he placed 3 overall! Great Job Slate!

"run forest run"

can you see me? (i was the roller upper)

Before heading home we decided to do some mt. bike ridding at montana de oro (mountains of gold)!

Wednesday ride to Oceanside

2008-10-03T22:00:00.001-07:00

Today i logged in 60 miles of cycling... mandy and me rode from dana point to oceanside. I was super excited to go that distance, even though my lower back was killing me the last five miles or so. I'm trying to get some miles in before the big Halloween ride of 88 miles from the irvine train station to downtown san deigo! It was a super fun day with mandy and hopefully we can do it again soon!

Santa Barbara Tri

2008-08-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

santa barbara was a fun triathlon...
i was a little worried about the distance because i really wasn't training specifically for it!
the swim:
distance = 1 mile
I felt really good on the swim, i was slow but i was able to swim the whole distance without stopping and having
to breast stoke for a break! very exciting! our wed. night ocean swims are paying off!l
i'm also getting use to swimming in a pile of people..... we were like a school of fish with no rhythm or rhyme just major chaos...
the bike:
distance =35 miles
the bike was fun.... half way through i saw slater riding in the other direction, if only i was as fast as him!
the run:
distance = 10 miles
i felt really good on the start of the run.. just as i was running about one mile out slate was running in for his big finish
i was jealous i was wishing i was done! i still had 9 miles to go.. the las two miles were the hardest for me and i was
ready to be finished! i pushed through the pain and was glad to be finished! my total time was 04:46:06.

SCOUT ADVENTURE RACE

2008-07-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

scout adventure was an adventure in itself the pictures explain it all!

josiah was dehydrated and we had to walk the last three miles of the race with him throwing up and almost passing out on
us, super scary!
Remember friends to always eat and hydrate BEFORE and DURING races... you don't want to end up going to the hospital
like this guy! :)

Partay People...mammoth

2008-07-08T15:53:00.001-07:00

this year for the 4th we headed out to mammoth for a weekend of fun and lots of training.... we got there late thursday night and we were pumped for the long weekend ahead... we ended up waking up at 5am friday morning and took off to twin lakes for a little paddle in our kayak before everyone woke up.. the sunrise was amazing, but we were a little cold out on the lake. by the time we got back everyone was slowing waking up, getting ready for a long day of dirt trails... we were all super excited and it was a beautiful day! we did about 15 miles of riding and saved my favorite route down juniper springs as the grand finale...

saturday: we decided to head out for a short 3 mile hike which ended to be an all day 7 hour hike with about 14 miles distance wise.. the hike got better and better with every step and we couldn't turn around so we just kept on going... we were able to connect the trail and do a loop to where we first started! what an awesome day we had!

i think we were on the moon

sunday: we were all having the blues..we didn't want our fun weekend to end... so we went to convict lake and paddled the kayaks before leaving for home...

statements to remember from the trip:
"partay people"
"Happy Birthday Andrew"
"Poo Farts"
see ya all later.... love the "DayMaker"

The Baldy Man

2008-07-08T15:52:00.001-07:00

this weekend we ventured out to hike mt. baldy... we needed a good
butt kick'in workout!
we decided on the ice house saddle as our destination and ended up
going further to the whatever it was called peak, i can't remember the name...
it was a fun day and we took along a new friend we met off the internet... we posted the hike and had about five people that were going to join us and ended up with just one... it is fun meeting new people and we all had a blast.

we did a total of 11 miles with about 2,000 ft elevation gain.
hopefully we can make baldy a once a month event!

Rim Nordic

2008-06-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

So i haven't been on my bike for about three weeks... since i got a flat and haven't changed it yet... and rim nordic was comming soon.. i didn't think we were going to do the race because we were suppose to be moving that weekend... so i lagged...
well we decided to head up there and check it out because our roomie was doing the single speed division. then it all happened... I was convinced in doing the race....
ok so i will just cruise through it to see the course.

"too legit to quit"
Suffer Fest Begins...
on my first lap i went out fast and pooped out fast...
by the time i got to the first little climb i was dying...and i thought to myself, dang i need to train for races... :)
I was all over the place and i felt like i haven't been riding for years... i even ate it in flat sand on part of the trail... dang why did i race..
(start up line)
the elevation was killing me and it was hard to breath... i had to walk a few of the steep climbs and stop a couple of time to catch my breath..took a gu and was ready to get my first lap over with.
Finally i made it to the downhill and i was ready to be done... i kept telling myself "you don't have to do two laps"... the downhill always makes me forget about all the hard work that was done in order to rep the benefits.. so i pounded through the finish line and started my second lap... i felt ok in the beginning but i was pretty tired... my technical skills were finally caught up and i just kept telling myself to push through it.. this time i walked all the steep hills... i was totally bonking...
and i had no more gu and barely any water left... i just had to make it to the water station to load up on water and hopefully they would have a gu or food of some sort because i was starving...we'll no gu or food for me at the station .. then a thought came to mind... mandy once told me that she had to eat some used gu packets...
hmmmm should I or shouldn't i... i was in survival mode...give me some darn energy..
so i peddled up away from the water guy...so he wouldn't see me scrounge for gu.. and I found GOLD... millions of gu packets... i had so many flavors to choose from.. so i looked around to make sure no one saw me..and i picked one up that looked not that squeezed out kinda look.. meaning: gu left inside!

i was shaking from the heat and i picked up that gu, cleaned the top off and held it above my mouth and dripped the chocolate delight in! soooo good!
I was able now to get back on my bike.... i was pushing slow... i needed another gu... this one was the orange flavor that i always turn away from... but this time i welcomed it and it was delicious... :) so now i was satisfied that i at least had some calories and hopefully i was ready to push to the end... i reached the downhill thinking... this is my training...and finally i cruised through the finish! i was so stoked to be done.. i just pushed through a mental limit and physical demand that i have not experienced... meaning.. TRAIN...TRAIN..TRAIN..
Results..
i ended up with third place in my division... and fifth overall...
(don't tell anyone that there was only five girls total who did the race) ;)
anyways i survived. and remember to leave a little bit of gu left in your packet for someone who is stupid enough not to bring more then one gu!

Job Searching

2008-06-26T08:01:00.002-07:00

job searching sucks!
so i have applied for a handfull of positions ant irvine valley college and cal state long beach... they are super hard to obtain and the state's process takes
forever!
hopefully something will come up... or maybe i'll just train!

We Finally Moved!

2008-06-26T08:01:00.001-07:00

Yippy.... we are now living in Huntington Beach..
we are super excited.. the move was rough, but we
made it through with help of friends.. a big thanks
to joe W... and everyone else!
Thanks guys...

Hurkey Crack

2008-04-29T15:43:00.001-07:00

Hurkey creek is one of my favorite places to mt bike! so i was super excited for this race! Slate and me decided to be a team of two for the eight hour event! I started off the race with the mile run start and the I hopped on my bike for a peddle pushing 10 mile course. Our strategy was that i would do one lap and then slate would do two, with a run in between to practice some bricks... well let me tell you after my first lap there was no way i could continue on my other laps if i ran in between... so I just plopped down with my feet in the air and stuffed my face! way better then running :)
Exciting Events on my laps....
There was a snake on the trail so I had to stop and throw a rock at it to have it move out of my way..
I ate crap a couple of times...
Chain fell off...
i was stoked that nothing too serious happened and we were able to finish the race with success... i did 30 miles and slate did 40!
After we were finished we cheered on the other teams that were riding through the night!

Desert tri

2008-04-29T15:39:00.001-07:00

My first Olympic Distance Race.....Desert Tri in Palm Desert
When we arrived in Palm Desert and it was super windy and we were not looking forward to racing in such crazy wind...
The next morning the wind had died down and everyone was stoked and ready to race before the wind picked up again.

The Swim: was super fun! i was able to get out to the far right with one person next to me... i was sighting her instead of looking for the buoy which she did for me every couple of strokes, it was perfect.... I only had to look up a couple of times and before I knew it i was rounding the first buoy..I did have to backstroke a couple of times to catch my breath but other than that i was proud of conquering that swim distance.

The Bike: well, i have not been on my road bike since January 1st and the seat was sooo uncomfortable, but i made it around the first lap and was getting tired toward the end of my second lap..... i really need to start hammering on the road bike more...

The Run: was HOT! and i had a running buddy the last three miles so we kept eachother going on the run... i felt like a coach with this little boy running next to me.... heheheh later i found out he was 17, man i thought he was 12... either kids are looking younger or i'm getting old!!

Bonelli Renegade tri

2008-04-08T10:40:00.001-07:00

renegade off road tri:

The Swim: was awesome, even though we had to wait over 30 min's past our scheduled race time... i had clear water the whole swim and I was never close to anyone...so i was able to really focus on my stoke and sighting.

The Bike: was two laps of 7.5 miles...my first lap i was feeling pretty good and enjoying the course..... it was beautiful with the mustard flowers growing everywhere i felt like i was in a different country. my last lap i was flying down on one of the downhills and i slipped out on a fast turn and ate crap... it took me a second to realize I was laying on the ground... i grabbed my bike and started petaling...towards the last few miles my arm was burning and i saw slater coming around the corner with the camera ready for pic's... bike done...

The run:
the run was a killer... super steep hills that i had to walk... all i was thinking was walk the hills and run everything else... :)

The results: first place in age group

Folsom Fun

2008-04-08T10:39:00.001-07:00

Today was the "BIG" day... my first Xterra Triathlon, up in folsom!
Oh how I love folsom, i would love to live there: Auburn, Tahoe, San Fran, Reno (my cousins place) all a hop skip and a jump away! maybe someday :) Anyways the race was super fun.. fast and furious... lots of mud/dirt/sand i was loving it! any excuse to get dirty.. i was perposley hitting all the mud puddles!

The Swim:
Was Super cold, the day before i went out and bought a neoprene cap! saved my life.
My swim was very uneventful... swam some.. then it was shallow again.. ran some..very akward and super funny seeing a bunch of people running in waist deep water trying to get ahead of everyone... i was laughing... swam again... and finally made it to the shore! "SCORE" first leg down! :)

The Bike:
My Fingers were Frozen! I felt crippled, i was starting to freak myself out because i was not able to move my right thumb to change gears.... i ended up letting go of my handle bars and pushing my gear with the palm of my hand...i was thinking what if i getting hypothermia, i looked down and my legs were super red... and i couldn't feel my feet... after about 10 minutes my hand was defrosted. The bike was a blast and i was stoked to make it through without any bike trouble (my front brake was not working the day before.. i had to pump it to get it to work)but no problems at all during the race.. super stoked... oh ya and on my second lap a huge deer crossed the trail in front of me only about 10 feet away... very exciting..!

The Run:
The run was easier then i had expected it to be.. i couldn't feel my feet but my legs felt great! i was able to hold a steady pace the whole way and was enjoying the beautiful landscapes. did i mention i love folsom!!! I finished the race and was super stoked to have accomplished an off road tri~!! i don't think i can go back to racing road again.... :)

we had a great day and slate finished 4th in his age group and i finished 3rd... we both receive tropheys and we were ready to head home!

oootah

2008-02-22T21:18:00.001-08:00

Utah... one of my favorite places to be! a weekend getaway was much needed.... in "SNOW" my favorite... yippy! Utah was beautiful, there was lots of snow and I was ready for some snowplay...

we met up with Keith and Leslie and the boys for a relaxing weekend.

Saturday we went shopping downtown at Park City with the crew. It snowed all night Saturday and we woke up to another foot or more of snow.... slate and I were going to venture out and rent snow shoes but we were snowed in for a couple of hours.... so we decide to get our snowboard gear on and head to the lifts... by now the roads were at least clear by some means...we hopped in our jeep with our crap and took off..... there was so much snow we "wait, i think we just went past the on ramp" it was total whiteout... turning around we saw two flags and drove in between them "yes!" we found the freeway... kinda scary ......... but exciting... hehehe

at the lifts we ended up getting a good deal... the canyons had this deal, 20 bucks for the both of us, all we had to do was listen to some timeshare crap, eat hot dogs and cruise around this new complex for about an hour... not bad, and a great deal..

can't wait for our next trip out, i would love to go in the summer and ride all the mountain bike trails... we should definitely plan a trip with m&m..

trail to train

2008-02-12T13:56:00.001-08:00

this past weekend we ventured off with marius and mandy again, this time for a ride from dana point to encinitas. we woke up at 4:30 on sunday ready for a looooooooong ride. we now know what to expect when when we ride with the pro M and the mule M... lots of miles and lots of laughs. so looking at a map the distance is all downhill :-) and flat... not bad hehehe it was warm already when we left marius' house around 5am... heading down towards doheny state beach we were enjoying the beautiful sun rise, about 5 miles later we stopped for some coffee and hot chocolate....

after another 5 miles we took a potty break, took off some layers and applied the sunscreen! Its hard to watch all the surfers get ready at san onofre while were with our bikes instead of boards... i just wanted to be riding the waves in the warm sun! we were off again..

next stop in about 5 was the entry to camp pendleton, we were all thinking that if we go on stopping every 5 miles we will never get to san diego! so it was time to put in the miles.... camp pendleton was my favorite part of our ride.... no cars, just slow tanks, and green rolling hills, with a view of the ocean... after the base it was all ocean the rest of the way down...

it was a beautiful 75degree day... everyone and their momma was out and about... just trying to keep up with M&M was my main struggle towards the end of the ride... about mile 40 my legs were getting tired and my lower back was killing me, i guess its not smart to try a new seat on such a long ride....when we got to encinitas we stopped and ate lunch... i got a big fat cheeseburger.. yummy after we filled our bellies we were off to the train station to catch the next train back home...the amtrak ride was nice, i was able to catch some shut eye after a long ride totaling 53 miles....

can't wait for our next ride with M&M ;-)

Swimming in 40 more like 30 d-grees

2008-02-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

swimming in the winter is cold!!!!!!!!!!! i've been trying to get lots of strokes in for my big race in June... the Boise half ironman... call me crazy, well i am... hopefully i'll be ready for that 1.2 mile swim.... my weakest link.... my goal is too join a masters swim club this month, but I just can't get myself to wake up for the 5:30 swim session.... oh well, sat. I will be swimming long course at our aquatic center... i can't wait, the more i swim the more addicted i get even if i'm freezing through my whole swim workout... i'm ready for the warm weather....

Ready to Rumble in the Jungle...

2008-01-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I survived the 10k run followed by a 16 mile mountain bike race at the rio bravo rumble. Talk about tough... that was a mental challenge that I still can't believe I completed... my run was my basic 10 min/mile trying to keep my heart rate at 184 or lower...

up the huge mountain i had to walk, trying to stop my shoulder and side from cramping and hopefully saving some energy for my bike leg.

I finished the run and was now ready to stop pounding my body and pumping my legs.. i started off fast! I WAS RACING... :) about after a small fast down hill the climb started and i was ready to quit.. "damn i cant move my legs anymore"... just trying to keep my pistons moving my right calf (not that huge cow to the right of me that I thought was going to jump at me) was cramping.. bad.. i had to stop at every hill to stretch.. sucks... i had to just focus on keeping my legs moving and the intake of my gel and electro's... in the back of my mind I was thinking slates probably done by now!

(Below is a Picture of Mandy..... she started an hour and 1/2 after me, caught up to me and

flew past me like i was standing still!)

Finally I hit the must needed downhill and flew past three people.... i was so stoked that i actually past someone..." now I'm REALLY RACING" hehehe One more loop and I was finished... yippy ...

Slate ended up winning the race, just like last year.. i knew he would do it :) I ended up winning 1st also in my age group (shhh don't tell anyone i was the only one in my age group).. anyways i was stoked i won some cash to our local bike shop....

sufferfest it was!!

Train or not to Train

2008-01-24T19:48:00.000-08:00

"Thought of the day"???

well i'm debating on whether to swim with a master's group in the morning before work

and pack all my load of crap to get ready, or find one that I can join after work... i need to start logging in some miles if i'm going to be ready for my upcomming races this season... hmmm

round the mountain on New Year's day!

2008-01-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

Today we joined the local bike groups for a New Years ride on round mountain. There was a total of 150 people! We woke up late and threw all our crap in the car and took off for our ride... I was thinking a nice casual ride just a couple of miles... well about 2 and 1/2 hours later we've already done 34 miles.. damn... i wasn't ready for this :) i had the luxury of riding behind the limo (tandem bike) the last half of the ride, which i don't think i've could have done the ride without them with our steady fast cadence of 22! anyways i survived and i'm ready for our mtb group ride tomorrow night... hopefully i don't get lost in the dark again :)~

Mo`Peding Around

2007-12-28T23:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we were Mo'Peding around Dana Point with David and his woman...

i was in the side cart, scary........ because of the shaking the bike would do when we

would go a certain speed.... i was ready to jump out..we followed david and mackenzie

to dana point and chilled on the grass by the water... it was such a nice warm day....

we swapped bikes and headed back to davids for waffles and fruit~