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!

Vegas

So I'm about to head out the door to go to Las Vegas and cheer on my Hudz-Subaru teammates and attend Interbike and I'm so excited! It looks like the weather will be absolutely perfect, high 90's and low 70's which is a bit different than the weather here today! It is COLD(48)! I've got a lot of adjusting to do:)

Interbike should be really cool, I feel like it is Christmas, except there are no gifts for me to take home:( WAIT yes there is!!! Hudz-Subaru gear:) YES! And all my cycling buddies from around the country will be there too, I'm such a social butterfly! haha!

So I will take a bunch of pics and maybe roll some dice and bring home the big bucks and some cycling stuff too! I will post pictures when I get back!

The end of season

Well the end of the season has finally arrived!! Bittersweet for sure.

It finished with criteriums in St. Louis, MO(Gateway Cup) over the Labor Day weekend. The first crit was on Friday night(8:30), which was bit late for me but it was a blast to race at night and I ended up getting 7th, my best finish from the whole season! I was pretty excited and I felt great! Saturday was another crit in a different part of town and I did ~ok....I got 21st, again another personal best for me.

Sunday, the criterium was on a decent road, there were a couple of bad spots that weren't marked and it was sprinkling too....BAD combo....sure enough about 10 laps in a girl caught one of those holes and created the domino effect and I went down with the group.

The plus about it all? The rain actually had the road slick enough to not create too much road rash at all but I'm bruised on my entire right leg. Someone fell on top of me....When I "came" to, I did a quick self check and tried to stand up, the leg was KILLING me but I was willing to give it another go, so the mechanic replaced my rear wheel, straightened out my shifter and gave the bike a look over.

While he was doing that, I took off my helmet to give it a look and everything was all good. So I tried another two laps and my leg was fried, so I pulled out and went to the medical tent and got a couple of bandages and an ice pack and headed back to the car.....be a pro not a hero:)

Monday morning the race was right in front of the Cardinals stadium and close to the arch, it was beautiful!! I warmed up with the ValueAct girls and decided not to race, I have a full season of cyclocross ahead of me:)

All in all the season turned out to be pretty successful:

1. I met the best of the best in cycling and got to ride/race right beside em.

2. I had a chance to get noticed a bit to make a difference, hopefully enough to join a team.

3. Visited places I've never been before

4. Got in the best training I've done thus far! And plan on plenty more!

My next adventure includes racing cyclocross for the pro team Hudz-Subaru and we will be racing from now until December, so lots of snow, cold, wet weather and I'm so excited!