Monday Madness

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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!