Bike VS Bed

I had a free day this weekend from my coach and it ended up being a battle between my bed and bike. I used to LOVE sleeping in, but lately I've been waking up pretty early (for me). Such was the case on Saturday morning. I was up and staring at fresh snow outside by 6:15 a.m.

My plan was to meet up with the Jim Allan ride at 9, but after seeing snow outside I decided to NOT do it. It was back to bed for me. I climbed in, thought about my bike for about 10 minutes, and got back out. Went outside to check the temperature (15 degrees) and climbed back into my warm bed for the second time of the morning. It was warm, cozy and comfy and I did a pretty good job of convincing myself why it would be better to sleep in then go ride in the snow. Then I started thinking about my bike again.

The bike ended up winning and I was out the door before 8 a.m. and riding on snow covered roads. I can't ride trails right now, so trying to stay upright on ice is my version of working on bike skills.

I ended up getting a little over 4 hours in and was so happy that I woke up early. The only downside was that I had taken my topeak fender off for a photo, and forgot to put it back on. Ugh!!! The last half hour of my ride was completely unpleasant as I felt like I had a ten pound, frozen wet diaper on. Needless to say, I had the best hot shower of my life when I got home.

My bike is getting sick of all the snow, sludge and salt I've been riding through...

I think I speak for everyone in Michigan when I say thank goodness today is the last day in February. I know we often have bad weather (and lots of it) in March, but at least we are getting closer to warmer days, right???

In the meantime, I'm going to start adding sponsors and my race schedule for 2011. I'm wiping the links clean for a day or two, but will start updating them soon!!! I had a really, really hard time figuring out what races I wanted to do this year, as there are way too many good ones to choose from. However, I'm locked them down until June and my coach sent me a training plan to follow suit. Unfortunately my first week of the plan is my least favorite type of training. I can basically do whatever I want. I've found that I do much, much better with detailed structure then with free time. Case in point. I have today off from work and no training plan. What have I done so far? Eaten breakfast. A good thing to do for sure, but it's almost noon and I'm still in my PJ's. Ha ha. Plus there's a movie playing on TV that may just involve a vampire, werewolf, and high school. Clearly I need to get motivated :-)

HOT spin class

Tuesday night is by far my favorite night of the weekday. No matter how tired I am after work, it's nice having a group to go spin with.

Before class I was able to bond with my bike a little bit. To tell you the truth I still can't believe that it's mine. As you can see, it still needs a part or two before I can ride it. In the meantime, it's hanging out at the Ada Bike Shop. Feel free to visit it.

Or you can visit some Spearfish bikes that are ready to be ridden. Have I mentioned how excited I am to ride this bike???

Anyways, back to our spin class. It's HOT. I mean that literally. You know how hot yoga is really (for lack of a better word) hot right now? Well, I'm pretty sure our spin class is hotter. I don't think I've ever sweat as much as I do on Tuesday nights. It's kind of nice since the rest of the time I'm freezing cold due to the never ending snow.

I think I need to start putting a sweat resistant covering over our workout sheet. Luckily I had it memorized as I wouldn't want to short the class an interval :-)

The only not fun part is going back out into the cold afterwards. I prolonged the trip to the car by hanging out with Bonnie and Ted for a while.

A certain spin class member who I won't name (thanks Marnie!) was nice enough to bring me some cadbury eggs. She remembered that they are one of my favorite emergency snacks to buy from a gas station when bonking in the winter. The rest of my rides this week are going to be pretty easy, so these Cadbury eggs are going straight into my hydrapak. I'm hoping that I can get some more long rides in outside, and I'm sure they will come in handy!

Ok winter, you can go away now!!!

I've been trying really hard to NOT complain about being cold/the snow this winter, but I think I've reached my limit. It's getting really old.

The problem with February is that we get teaser days. All week temps were warming up, the sun started making an appearance and I even saw a blade of grass poking through a snow drift. And by the weekend a lot of the snow had melted. I started exchanging high-fives with my friends and even started to talk about how long it would be before we could ride on trails again.

In other words, I totally jinxed us.

Sunday night we were slammed with another storm. Blech.

Oh well, the good news is that I totally took advantage of the sun this weekend while it was still around. On Saturday I woke up early so that I could ride over to the Jim Allan group ride that starts at 9 a.m. While checking the forecast I noticed that it was supposed to be 35 degrees and was worried about being overdressed. Yeah, not so much at 8 a.m. It was only 20 degrees when I left my house and I felt like I was being slapped in the face while riding down the first hill. By the time I reached the bottom I was WIDE AWAKE!!!

I had about 2.5 hours in by the time the group ride was over. Normally I don't like to stop, but once I saw coffee and warm muffins I was slamming on the brakes. YUM!!!

I ended up getting 5.5 hours of riding in and it was amazing. Although it was never warm, the sun was out and the roads were clear. And I felt good which was an added bonus. I'm really liking group rides because they force me out of my comfort zone. It's good practice for races!!!

The next day it was a little harder to get out of bed, but I knew that I would have to get out early if I wanted to beat the storm. My legs were definitely more tired, so I ended up riding the rail trail for 2.5 hours with Juli and her husband Chucky.

See the grass in the background? I still thought that it was almost Spring when this picture was taken....

We took a slight detour on the way home to stop at my favorite bakery....

All of my winter rides seem to end with cookies...but that's not a bad thing! Or maybe it is a bad thing...I guess I'll find out when I'm trying to climb during my first race of the season :-)

Juli fueling up with a chocolate chip cookie for the ride home....

It started to storm on our way home, and we got back just in time. A few hours later and all of the grass was replaced with about 8 inches of new snow and ice. Have I said "blech" yet??

I'm not sure what the rest of this week is going to look like. I think we might get more snow, which means I'll be spending some quality time on the trainer this week. I'm crossing my fingers that the roads will be more clear by next weekend but I'm going to keep my mouth shut. No need to jinx us again!!!

Blogcation

I had to take a few days off from blogging (and reading blogs) because this last week was insanely busy. Yesterday was a good day to have as a recovery day, as I finally feel caught up. Yesterday was also a good day because it involved a lot of chocolate :-)

Don't forget spin class tonight. Ada bike shop. 6:30. It's going to be a good one. But first, I have to get through work.

TGI-recovery day!

Yesterday was tough. I managed to wake up at 4 a.m. to get a killer Lynda workout in before work. And then after work I went straight to the Tuesday night spin class at the Ada Bike Shop. Both workouts were hard, but I was much happier with how my legs felt in the evening then in the morning. More proof that I'm not supposed to wake up THAT early :-)

Today I did nothing but work and then booked a flight to San Antonio. That's right...I'm outta here! I'm flying down to Texas in March with my mom to cheer for my little sister Toni at her swim nationals. My middle sister Mikey is going to fly in from L.A., which is an added bonus.

I am so, so excited to be in warmer weather. The only bummer is that we won't be there long enough to bring my bike. Aggggghh!!!!

Well, time for bed. I have to wake up really early again tomorrow for work....blech. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to post reports of more riding outside. Right now temps are in the single digits, but it's supposed to reach 30 by the weekend.

In the meantime, here is a link to a new blog. The blog belongs to Jen Hanks, an ultra-endurance racer fighting breast cancer. I met Jen last year at the Lumberjack 100, which was her first hundred miler. I want to say that she's originally from Michigan, but I could also totally be making that up!!??? I was really nervous before the race, so I only remember snippets from our conversation.

What I do remember is that she is incredibly nice. She's also very fast as she ended up 2nd overall in a really stacked field. Right now she is fighting breast cancer and started her blog to raise awareness and share her story. I added her blog link to my sidebar, and I hope that everyone else does as well. I think that sharing what she is going through is incredibly brave.

I look forward to seeing Jen come back to Michigan and racing Lumberjack in 2012!!!!

Weekend Recap

As I type this I'm also kind of watching the super bowl, so every once in a while I might have to interject a Go Packers!!!

Like right now...Go Packers!

To tell you the truth, I'm not a huge football fan. It took some logical reasoning about what team to root for. Picking the Green Bay Packers was a no-brainer because Wisconsin is a neighbor (sometimes I wave at them from across the lake) and they have a killer mountain bike series.

This first week in February flew by and I owe most of that to a lot of my friends. I have met some great training partners over the last couple of months, and this weekend is proof of that.

Here's the low-down!

Friday: I had big plans for Friday and set my alarm for 4 a.m so that I could get my cycling workout in before work. Let me just say, it was a big FAIL. I am the queen of the snooze button. Bummer. I usually try to get my cycling workouts in first but knew I would have to do it last. Oh well, it worked out.

After work I met my friend Kim for an awesome hour of XC skiing at Egypt Valley. My legs were pretty sore from working out with Jason the day before, but the good news is that I only face planted once! Woo hoo for progress!

Then it was time to meet my friend Roxane for our weekly run. Roxane is an Xterra queen, and has been coaching me once a week in running, so that victory against Jason and Gareth is imminent. They have no clue what they are in for....

This is Roxane trying to free my car before our run....

To make a very long story short I managed to back my little Ford Focus into a snowbank. Don't ask. You can't see the snow because it's all underneath my car. It took us shoveling and 3 big guys from the coca-cola plant across the street to free my car, but eventually I was able to drive again. I somehow managed to make it through the blizzard only to get stuck two days later when the roads were clear. As you can imagine I felt really awesome.

Moving on....

We had a great run and then it was time for a killer 1.5 hour Lynda workout on the trainer. By the end I was a sweaty, incoherent mess and slept a looooong time.

Go Packers!!!!

Saturday: My morning was pretty awesome as it included all of my favorite things. Breakfast and coffee with Scott.

As you can see I spent a lot of time on my hair...egads! (mental note: at least attempt to use a brush before going out in public)

Afterwards it was back to Egypt Valley with my BFF for more skiing.

Here's Juli showing me how it's done....

Me (insert Tarzan yell here)....

We ended up skiing for 2.5 hours and it was tough. The snow was pretty slow and the trail was beat up. My arms/legs were pretty wrecked by the end.

Today (Sunday): It was pretty nasty outside but it was my favorite day because I got out on my bike. Cars were spraying me with water but I had a huge grin under my balaclava. Even in nasty conditions I love riding outside best. And in all actuality it wasn't that bad out. It was 32 degrees out, which felt warm. It's all relative here.

I met up with the weekly Jim Allen ride (he's the godfather of cycling in West Michigan) and we had a pretty good group of riders considering the weather. We started out with six and ended with nine. When all was said and done I got a little over four hours of outdoor riding in and finished up on my trainer for a total of five. No pictures today because my phone was packed away in plastic bags and tucked away under my jerseys.

Now it's time for bed. I am completely wiped out but in a good way. There is something completely great about the feeling you get after riding outside in the cold. That being said, there is something even greater about riding outside in heat :-)

And guess what? Green Bay just won!!! Hurray for the land of cheese!

Friday reading material...

Our friend Dan Jansen just compled the Arrowhead 135. I want to send a huge congrats to him, because it is a really tough race. Congrats also to his wife Tara who did his support and stood out in the cold waiting for him at checkpoints.

Scott has mentioned wanting to do this race, but I think it's mostly because he wants a Mukluk. Of course, I would do support for him, but from inside a warm building while drinking hot chocolate. ha ha.

Here is Dan's race report.

Walking in a winter wonderland

The only way that I could get out of the house yesterday was with my own two feet. The snow was so deep that any car trying to drive through just got stuck. You would think that my neighbors would have learned from each other, but nope...everyone had to try! Except me. My little focus wouldn't stand a chance.

Since yesterday was a rest day I woke Naomi up from her hibernation to go for a few short walks....

I think this was the first time ever where her legs weren't long enough....

It's safe to say that I will not be riding a bike this weekend unless it's downstairs on my trainer. I have a long day on tap for this weekend and I think it's going to have to be on skis. Maybe this will be the weekend that I don't fall on my butt...but I'm not counting on it :-)

New bike!

It's here!!! Yesterday I was able to rush over to the Ada bike shop to check it out before the "big snow." And btw...the weather people were right this time. I'm snowed in.

My manager Jon sent me a picture of his car this morning....it's there somewhere. He made it to work but might have to ski back home.

Anyways, back to my bike. Introducing the Spearfish!!!

I drooled over this bike a lot at Interbike. I wasn't at the outdoor demo, but heard a lot of great things about this bike. Basically it's a whole lot of awesomeness!

Naturally I wanted a lot of pictures taken with my bike, and my mechanic Ted told me to go stand in a snowbank with it. One thing led to another and we decided that we should take some "senior portrait" pictures with the bike. You know, the kind where you pose in a very serious matter.

I'm sure a few of you reading this are like, "really? You were pretending to take senior portraits with your bike?" but just keep in mind that it's winter time in Michigan. We have to find ways to entertain ourselves :-) Ha ha!

Here's Steve showing us how it's done....

My best shots....which isn't saying much. I had a really hard time keeping a straight face!

After this photo was taken I happened to look up and noticed that a customer was standing and watching us. I think he was confused as to why I was lying on the floor with my bike...ha ha! At least I admit (often) that I'm a total dork, right???

I absolutely can't wait to get this bike built up and ride it on singletrack. Right now I'm staring out the window at a blanket of white and it's hard to believe that dirt, rocks and roots exist. Trust me, I am counting down the days until it does. In the meantime, I'm going to work on getting this bike built up and then I'm going to hop on it and launch off of snowbanks!!

PS. I'm happy to report that there are enough female SS'ers to make a class this year at Lumberjack! Woo hoo! In fact, we have a really, really strong female field overall. That's pretty awesome. The race was capped at 350 riders and it was pretty surreal to watch it fill up as it sold out within 14 minutes!!!!

Winter time in Northern Michigan

Scott and I went up to Petoskey this weekend for his birthday. Initially we had planned on doing a lot of xc skiing, but Scott injured his knee the week before and had to take it easy. So we did the next best thing. Lots of coffee drinking, eating, and wine tasting. Since Scott turned the big 40 we also made sure to visit the Jolly Pumpkin brewery twice!

Happy Birthday Chambers....

Outside of Two Lads winery...

Yum!

Bowers Harbor vineyard

We had multiple coffee stops at Roast and Toast in Petoskey

All in all it was a really fun weekend. Granted, I wish that we could have gone skiing, but I think there will be more opportunities for that. Right now we are under a "weather advisory" and there is a lot of talking going on about snow coming our way....

Be sure to check back as I have more pictures to post. A certain new bike frame arrived for me while I was up North, and I absolutely can't wait to have it built up. First though, I have to try to salvage the pictures from my phone. There was a certain incident involving a snow bank.....