Greetings from da U.P!

Well we made it to Marquette. And as of now Ben is passing the test of being away from us. We dropped him off on Friday and he didn't even glance up as we left because he was too busy playing with another dog.

However an hour into our drive I got a phone call from the trainer. Apparently Ben puked 3-4 times and then had major puppy poo outside on their walk. Poor little guy. At least by now we know that it's just nerves/excitement.

Since then Leah (his doggie sitter/trainer) has been texting pictures and giving him A-plus reports. Apparently Ben is in love with a 100lb golden retriever that is also staying for the weekend :-)


The rest of our drive flew by. We had great weather to travel in and it was super pretty out. Before I knew it we were crossing the bridge....

The water below DID NOT look warm...


Once we got to the Upper Peninsula we had to stop for a Fig Newman break and check out the bridge from the other side. Yup, that's where we came from...


It was dark out by the time we arrived in Marquette and we had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat. The Noquemanon ski race was happening on Saturday with about 1500 skiers racing. The town was packed!

Today (Saturday) was super low-key. We slept in, went to my favorite bagel place for breakfast sandwiches and then went hat shopping. Scott wanted to buy a new Kromer and naturally I had to try some on too. It was very tempting to buy one but right now I'm on a self-imposed hat buying freeze. Too bad, because Kromer's rule! Plus they are made in Ironwood, Michigan. Dang it, now I want to go back and buy one after all :-)

We also checked out some of the ski race that was going on. When we left Grand Rapids on Friday there was very little snow. Not the case up here!

There were lots of spectators cheering the skiers on as they went through the woods. I was really happy that I was not doing the ski race. For one, I haven't skied once this year. And secondly the littlest thing will make me crash. And once I crash with ski's on I can't get up. I could only imagine myself on the ground in front of the spectators trying to get up.

Finally we hopped on our snow bikes and spun around town. It was cold riding next to the lake, but also really beautiful.

Tomorrow is the 25k snow bike world championships and we will be going off at 10:40. Temps are going to be in the low teens and it's going to be windy. I would never come up here and expect it to be easy, but I have REALLY TOUGH competition tomorrow. And the shorter distance is not going to play to my favor. It's basically going to be all out from the get go. Right now I'm really nervous and really excited. It should be a blast in a very painful way :-)

I won't be able to do another post until we get home, but I should be able to do an update on Twitter!

Chubby with a few bald spots...but I still love him!

You guys, I'm talking about BEN!!!

We're taking off for the weekend and this is going to be a BIG test for "sensitive" Ben. Our vet said it's a big myth that the "bully" breed of dogs are tougher then other breeds. In fact, she has found the opposite to be true-that they often are the most sensitive. That's definitely the case with Ben.

At first I thought she was exaggerating a bit when she said that Ben was getting an upset stomach because we were leaving for a race but so far he's gotten sick every single time. Naomi on the other hand...sheesh! She could care less. In fact, she'll take off with my parents without a glance back at us :-)

Hopefully this weekend will be the turning point. Ben is going to stay at his trainer's house and have lots of dogs to play with. And then he's going to my parents. There's still a chance that I'm going to have to deal with puppy poo (and lots of it) when we get back but that's OK. I'm a poo-pro now!

Well time to finish packing and hit the road. We have a long drive (7-8 hours) ahead of us. This weekend is going to be a blast. The snowbike 25k world championships aren't until Sunday, but tomorrow is the noquemanon ski race. This is a HUGE race that has been going on for years and I'm excited to finally see it. The upper peninsula has been getting a lot more snow then us too, so we will actually be able to ride our bikes on groomed snow trails!

My next post will be from the U.P!

Eating pad thai at 11:30 p.m.

These last couple of days have been very, very busy. Scott has been in Dallas and I've been working, dog walking, working out, more dog walking and definitely NOT getting enough sleep.

Today was especially busy because I also had a dentist appointment thrown into the mix. I swear, I put off going for a really long time and now I might as well have my own parking spot. While they were cleaning my teeth I started to think about getting another custom mouth guard to solve my grinding issues. The only problem is that a custom mouth guard costs just as much as a new bike fork. So while my teeth were getting cleaned I was making a list of pro's and con's for both a new fork for my bike versus a mouth guard. I think the fork won :-)

Once I got home I had just enough time to grab my bike, trainer, and the dogs (Naomi and Ben were going to my parents while I was at spin class). I was in such a hurry I grabbed the spare keys, which do not have a house key attached. Of course I didn't realize this until I locked the house. D'oh!

There was really nothing to do but continue on. I dropped the dogs off at my parents and went to the Ada Bike Shop for spin class. I figured that I could always sleep at my parents if I had to. After all I had the most important things. Dogs, bike, trainer and cycling shoes.

Spin class was a blast. Not only was it 80's night, but we had a great group of people. I was laughing so hard that I completely forgot how sore my mouth is and the fact that Ben, Naomi and I were locked out.

As luck would have it my mom located the spare key anyways. My little sister Toni had it out at school. So the dogs and I went on a mini road trip and I'm happy to say I'm back in the house and eating dinner really late at night. Talk about being famished!

I have the day off tomorrow and I could not be happier. I'm sleeping in and then heading back to the Ada Bike Shop to pick up my Mukluk. I've crashed on it a few times so Ted is looking it over before the race this weekend. AND he's putting some new tires that I just bought on the bike. Basically the tires have better tread on them then the tires on my car. Hopefully I will be able to climb snow covered hills without spinning out.

And I just realized something. I don't want to buy a mouth guard because I want to buy a new fork for my bike, and I just bought new snow tires for my bike when the tires on my car completely suck. I do have my priorities!

Time for bed. Not only was it a long day but I'm in a pad thai coma. Thank goodness I have two dogs who like to sleep in!

Powered by gummy bears and payday bars

The weather seems to be bipolar lately. First it snows, then it rains, and now temps are supposedly going to be in the 40's again by Monday.

40 degrees seems hard to believe right now, as the last couple of days have been on the POLAR side. Sadly most of my workouts had to be on the trainer this week, but I did get out for a good ride on Wednesday. Since I didn't want to deal with cars or ice, I decided to hop on the White Pine Trail and head North up to Cedar Springs. For the most part I had the trail to myself!

I have to say that I'm completely sold on riding with a frame bag in the winter. It's amazing how much I can cram in it-in fact at this point I don't even know everything that's stored in there. I usually bring extra gloves, hats etc. just in case I get cold. And let's not forget ride food. If we were ever to get a mouse in the house I'm sure it would head straight to my frame bag. Mental note: clean frame bag out.

It was colder then I expected and by the end of the ride my face was about the same color as my jacket. This picture does not do justice to how red it was. Even my eyeballs were frozen.Today I'm sticking to the trainer which makes me feel like a wimp. However I have a short workout day and I think putting all my gear on would take more time then the actual workout. Tomorrow though should be an awesome day of riding outside. If you look at the radar we have this big blue blob heading straight across the lake towards us. Right now they are calling for 1-3 inches of fresh snow. That's a good thing because I need as much practice riding in the snow as possible between now and my race next weekend.

Farmer's Fat Bike Race Report

I had no clue what I was in for when I signed up for the Farmer's Fat Bike race. At the time we had zero snow and zero snow in sight. As the race grew nearer, Scott started to get really nervous. The Farm Team was putting on the race and snow was kind of essential. So almost every night he would watch the weather forecast and report back. Secretly I was enjoying riding my bike in warmer weather but when I was around Scott I would always shake my fist at the sky and yell, "show us the snow!"

Like my previous blog post said, winter showed up JUST IN TIME!!! And it was beautiful!
The morning of the race I woke up feeling much better (phew!) The race didn't start until noon so I had a few hours to get my gear ready, walk the dogs, and check the time neurotically every couple of minutes. Both Salsa and the Ada Bike Shop had tents set up on the race course. I felt completely spoiled because my bike was waiting for me and ready to go when I arrived. Awesome!!!

It was great seeing so many friends in one place. Reports were circulating that the course was hard and slippery in spots. Even so, everyone was really, really excited. It kind of reminded me of when I was little and would spend every waking hour playing outside in the snow with my friends. All of a sudden I love winter again.

The race had a duo and solo option. I was racing solo and rolled up to the line after the duos went off. There was some serious Mukluk power in the front row. Tara Jansen was racing on a Mukluk 2, Dan Jansen was on the Mukluk Ti, and I was on the Mukluk 3.

Photo by Joshua Duggan

I don't even know who said "GO!" but someone did and it was time to hammer. The 2012 race season had begun.
Photo credit: Joshua Duggan

I had a great start and settled in right behind the lead guys but knew that Tara wouldn't be far behind. She is one of the strongest racers that I know and I had to push the pace the entire time. It was my first time riding in real snow and during my first lap I realized that I had my work cut out for me. The course was a complete hammer-fest. The flat sections required a lot of strength to pedal through the snow and there was virtually no place to recover.

Photo by Jack Kunnen

There was one slippery hill that I had to run almost every time because my rear wheel kept slipping out. I was so thankful I've been running a bit!
Photo by Joshua Duggan

The second thing that I noticed was that I made a total "rookie-snow-bike-racer" mistake. I was so busy walking around and talking with friends that I let my powerbar drink mix freeze in my hydrapak before the race started. Therefore I had absolutely zero water to drink during the race.

I was off the bike every time I had to run up the steep hill, and at one point I grabbed some snow and shoved it in my mouth. There was a crowd watching and they started laughing. I think they thought that I was doing it to be funny but in reality it was because I was really thirsty. Even though it was cold out (24 degrees) I was working my butt off. Not only was I breathing hard but I was sweating. Luckily there was a lot of snow around to "drink!"

The race had a surreal feeling to it that I can't describe. Racing in the snow was absolutely beautiful and a ton of cyclists came out to cheer us on. I crashed hard once and even that was fun. If only I could always land in a big pile of snow!

There was a "last lap" cut-off at the 2.5 hour mark and I made it thru with 5 seconds to spare. I ended up getting 12 laps in with a finish time of 2:42:42. I was the first place female and 5th out of the guys! I crossed the finish line really happy with how I felt throughout the race...and also really thirsty.

Here I am holding my trophy for first place. A Farm Team custom pooper scooper. This will be perfect when walking Ben and Naomi :-)
Special thanks to Salsa Bikes, the Ada Bike Shop and Grand Rapids Ophthalmology for sponsoring the race. And a huge congrats to the Farm Team for putting it on. I've been to a lot of races in a lot of cool places and I can honestly say that this was the MOST FUN I've ever had during a race.

I had lots of talented friends taking pictures out in the snow. Check them out!!!

You can find photos, report and a great video at XXCMAG.COM

Jack Kunnen has photos HERE!

Joshua Duggan has photos HERE!

Now it's time to recover and then get back to training. The snow bike 25K world championships are right around the corner...yikes!

Snow!!! (just in the nick of time)

For once the weather forecasters were right! We got close to 8 inches of snow last night-perfect timing for the Farm Team's snow bike race. The race starts at noon and ends at 3:00 p.m. I have no clue how many laps I'll get in. The course has been lengthened since I last rode it and I know that the snow will make some of the hills harder to get up. Regardless it's going to be fun.

I've definitely put a few (hundred) miles on my Mukluk since I've gotten it so I brought it into the Ada bike shop this morning to have Ted look it over. And then went back to the shop tonight to hang out with everyone picking up their registration packets.

The Farm Team working registration....
Here's a picture of just a few of the Mukluks that will be available to demo tomorrow. So sweet looking! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my Mukluk 3 but I have to say...the Mukluk ti makes me drool!

Now I'm back at home and trying to think healthy thoughts. Scott was sick all day yesterday with some nasty stomach thing and I slept out in the living room to try and hide from the germs. Even so, it's really hard to escape germs when you live in a house that only has about four rooms (our realtor described it as cozy).

For the most part of the day I've felt like absolute poo, but I'm hoping it's because I had a horrible night's sleep. Since I was camped out in the living room Naomi couldn't figure out who to sleep with, and spent the night splitting her time between the two of us. And then in the middle of the night Ben decided to start joining her so I kept hearing little dog feet running up and down the hallway all night.

Right now I have the heat cranked to 72 degrees and I'm sitting in the house wearing winter clothing...
Ha, I just posted a picture of myself blogging. That's a sign of two things.....

1.) How exciting of a Friday night I'm having and 2.) that I need to go to bed

Hopefully I wake up feeling great tomorrow because I can't wait to go race my bike in the snow with all of my friends!!!

Dear Michigan, Thanks! Love, Danielle

So yesterday was the best ride day I've ever had in January. 60 miles on my Mukluk in 50 degree weather. It made me want to go ride singletrack in just a jersey and shorts.

It's probably a good thing I emptied my hydrapak and ran out of food, or I would have kept going. That would have been bad for racing this weekend because my legs are TIRED. Between spin class on Tuesday night and riding outside yesterday, I feel the need to put my legs up and not move. Luckily I have a recovery day on Friday.

Speaking of Friday, be sure to stop by the Ada Bike Shop from 5-8 p.m. for a fat bike party. There will be chili and beer...and more beer! I hope to see you there.

Today it's back to reality for me. Back to work, and back to layering up for riding outside. Winter is coming...for real this time!