DA SNOW!

My FIRST snow!!!!! I'm so excited! AND COLD! But it really is cool and Doug, Chad Wells and myself rode the cross course here in Dolores yesterday in the afternoon snow storm and had a blast. Heading out again today too. Here is a quick video of my dress attire and a shot of the road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXDAibkp64

This morning Chad and I did a radio interview on KSJD about the local race on Nov. 8th and just talked about CX in general, it was a lot of fun. I don't know if they do a podcast or what but check out the website: www.ksjd.org.

USWCDP items for sale

I'm still having problem uploading these videos for some reason. So I just have to add the link, sorry about that....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Uazx3PsLM

I also want to give a huge congratulations to Andrea Wilson for doing so well in cyclocross. She is a tough competitor and has upgraded to elite status so watch out girls! Check out her blog: http://blog.brickhouseracing.com/

I'm headed to KSJD radio station on Thursday morning for an interview along with another pro racer Chad Wells, to promote the local race here in town coming up on Nov. 8th. Then I'm headed to Boulder this weekend for my first cross races:)!! Yahooo!!! I will update later in the week to tell y'all how the interview went:)

HudzSubaru Video

OK, I was trying to upload my next video and it is taking WAY too long, so here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi1a66YRMck

And here is the website for that race, it should be fun, my official FIRST race:) Nothing like jumping into a new sport with such a major race!!! Oh boy!

http://www.dbcevents.com/

I'm gonna keep on trying with the videos so come on back in a couple of days and check it out!

Race Across the Sky

So tonight I had the opportunity to go to the premier of the movie, Race Across the Sky, a.k.a, Leadville Trail 100. If you get a chance check out the website or if it is showing in your area, just check it out. It will give you a bit more appreciation to us cyclists and even more to those that dare to ride 100 miles of trails at altitude!

Another cool part of the premier, Lance Armstrong was there as well as some of the other pro racers: Matt Shriver, Dave Weins and Travis Brown, as well as the director of the Leadville race and race anouncer, Dave Towl. What a great show these guys put on, great stories and some good laughs.

So keep checking out the blog, I'm gonna try another video tomorrow, hopefully with some people at Fort Lewis College:) Should be entertaining!

Video throw down:)

Videos

Ok, I'm going to try and upload videos on the blog sometime soon:) So give me some feedback, I will mostly be doing videos regarding cycling and the likes.

I have stage freight so it may take me a couple to get adjusted, so be patient:)

Hope everyone is doing well!!!!!

October

If anyone knows me, they know I LOVE fall(football, hunting, chilly weather) and I LOVE Halloween!!! I usually have my annual Adult Pumpkin Carvin Party but I think this year I'm opting instead to just carve pumpkins on my own, my goal is one a week and I'm on week two:) hehe

It is just fun for me! I remember carving a pumpkin as a kid. Mom would send my brothers and myself outside to the porch with dad. We would have our pumpkins, knives(yes kids with knives!!) and markers to make the face! Yes we were supervised, for the most part, I still have all fingers and toes, so I must've been ok with the ole knife. We would do the typical triangle eyes, nose and the smiling mouth, pretty basic.

Now that I'm "all grown up", I've gotten more detailed with my carvin and I've moved to the "kits". I think they are the best! They have the great tools, awesome designs and they even tell you how to carve the design in the easiest way possible.

So I grab a beer or glass of wine, remember the "all grown up" part?? And turn on a football or baseball game and get after it! And of course my trusty steed, Miller, is right beside me just beggin for a piece of pumpkin and I usually give in:)

When I'm not carving, I'm riding my bike(s). The cross bike is all together and I've been on it a couple of times. I got a bit big for my britches today though, I haven't had any training yet and I decided I would just teach myself how to dismount. I was actually doing ok the first couple of easy tries, I would dismount "ok" but WAY too early. So, of course, on my last try I overcooked it and bit it hard on the ground. There were a bunch of sticks and the ground was so hard and I went down in a heap, it hurt, but I got up, mad at myself for not being more patient and waiting for proper training before giving it a go and decided ride back to the truck and call it a day.

Just bruises and scrapes, which makes shaving and the massage I'm getting tomorrow interesting but I'm sure I will get a ride in. Gotta get back on and try, try, try again:)

P.S. The first picture is my cross kit and swag.....Rudy Helmet and glasses. I got the Rydon II glasses and LOVE them, I recommend them:) They sit perfectly on your nose and has plenty of lens to look through and it sits comfortably behind the ears.

Just for you

These are for the photo gods and for Michelle:)

This was my "walking attire" for the Cancer Awareness walk. I think the first picture, Miller is looking at me like I'm crazy, which I am...:) haha!

Oh, the first picture is the view from one of the mountain bike rides, CRAZY huh?! How pretty!

Questions, did I put up pictures from Single Speed Worlds? Those were VERY interesting to say the least. I can't remember what I put on FB or e-mail to people or post on my blog, anyway. If not let me know!

Sunday Ride

So today, three of us headed out for a 3hr road ride, dressed quite warm because the forecast was windy and rain and it was already getting cloudy. I'm still trying to get used to the climate, the wind is cold but when it stops, it is WARM and when it is cloudy it is cold and when the sun shines it is WARM. So it's a bit different from the south in that, when it's cold, it's COLD and usually wet but this high elevation(~7000ft) it is just a totally different feeling.

So my dress for the ride was: of course bibs, jersey, then arm warmers, leg warmers, light shoe covers, light, long finger gloves. I also brought my rain jacket, and warmer headwear, just in case we ran into a lot of rain-that's when it gets REALLY COLD.

Thank goodness the rain gods held off for the majority of the ride but I guess they were making room for the WIND gods b/c it was like riding in a tornado! Sometimes the wind would be blowing so hard, I would be afraid to look up from the road to see how hard the trees were blowing!! JEEZ!

All this to say that it was a really cool ride b/c I can see now where all that base and racing comes into play for the years to come. It was like my legs thought the ride was semi easy but my lungs were hurting a bit! I can't wait to see what happens next year in racing, after today, I'm really excited.

3hrs after not road riding for about 2/3 weeks and I still felt good, says a lot to me. Anyway, I was just excited and thought I would let y'all know:)

Brrrr

Well I think it official......time for the weather to turn! We had a hard freeze last night, which isn't quite the same as being in MS huh?

I got back from Interbike the end of last week and boy was I ready to get back. Vegas is really cool for like 2 days, tops! Then all your clothes start to smell like cigarette smoke because "the man" makes you walk through the casinos to get to everything, food, outside, check-in, sidewalk...anywhere!! But it is still cool to walk to the Bellagio and check out the fountains shooting up high in the sky to some sort of upbeat song and it does this every 15min or so, a totally impressive use of engineering. And the lights, music in EVERY casino is so festive and party-like, they just are begging you to come in and play! But like I said, it was so NICE to get back to Colorado-silence, fresh air, calmness, no one to run into once you start a walk and a bit of a chill in the air!

I did get to watch my teammates in the Cross Vegas cyclocross race and it was my first cross race to see and it was AWESOME! The fans are so much fun and interesting, the racers(at least my team anyway) are super cool and laid back and the venues are so much fun! I can't wait to get out there and give it a try. My bike is almost pieced together thanks to the USWCDP director Michael Engleman and my sponsors(Blue, TRP, RoL, Hudz, Subaru). A few of us also cleaned up a practice course right here in town and we plan on having some "pros" over (Ruthie Matthes and Chad Wells) to teach us a thing or two about mounting and dismounting and then hopefully I can start racing!

The other thing that is on my agenda in the next couple of weeks, is to fly to New Orleans to spend a weekend with the family, while my brother races his Porsche around town with the others in the Porsche Club. It will be a quick weekend, fly there on Thursday night and fly back on Sunday but at least I will get to see everyone! It has been since April and I'm a family gal, so I miss em! I'm still planning on going home for a couple of weeks sometime around Christmas.

Thanks for reading!