Rollin, Drivin, Jetsettin

Doing a whole lot of all three!!

...Just got back from a little getaway weekend in Austin, and yep it got hot hot hot again! I like that place every time I visit though...it's just such a relaxing break from the movin and shakin that goes on over here in SoCal. And as for moving and shaking...dang!...I didn't even feel the earthquake! oh well....I got enough excitement in my life right now that it would be really nice if we could keep ground shaking to a minimum. lol.

Leaving for Philly tomorrow. Stay tuned....

ps) still haven't found my camera battery! (i feel like Chrissy..hahaha)

Yo People.......

FUJI BIKES....on a roll.

Cheers to "the ride"

Spent the entire day in the saddle on Saturday. That was a first for me in a long, long time. We rode from Santa Monica to Simi Valley ...and back. Like my friend said when we decided to change our route, "this ride just went from good to epic!"

He was not kidding!
What a day.

...and we still had the legs to sprint the Santa Monica City Limit sign at the end of the day. It was a photo finish ;)

On another note....my good friend Meredith Miller came over to Huntington Beach for a few days and we were fortunate enough to get to spend some time together both on and off the bike!! That was great.
I love it when the special people in my life come here to visit :) :)

Needless to say, the last few day have been good, or shall I say... darn right epic!

Rock On.

Well now...

I like the elements and all, and I have come to appreciate the forces of nature living along the coast here, but when the wind makes you work just as hard on the downhill as the up, it's just a little bit of a bummer.

..especially since I am the type of rider who pretty much suffers through climbing for two reasons:

1.)simply so that i can enjoy the views from the top.

and

2.) so that i can experience the thrill of the descending!

i'm simple. :)

Metal Flower

....tough and delicate all at the same time. thats me. lol.

For real.

I sleep on an air mattress. Hang on though....before you make assumptions about my air matress sleeping set-up, let me say something....this airbed is one deluxe suite of pumped up plastic! I'm pretty certain that if all of our race trip host-housing folks had these kind of air mattresses when we came to stay....we might never leave!

chek it out:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/review-aerobed-.html

It's a double decker queen bed thing, that in reality could easily double as a raft if ever there were a flood. Or..has anyone done that afternoon raft ride in Tempe Arizona? This bed could be the highlight of the river! I am sure we could fit a couple coolers, a boom box and half a dozen peeps on it.

The only problem is that this airbed now has a slow leak. My son and his friends decided to see if they could double bounce me off the bed one day and that was that. The next morning I woke up in a marshmallow for a bed. I wake up that way every morning now. lol.

This is when it would be nice to have an assistant go and get me another one of these super deluxe, every home should have one for guests kind of thing...cuz man, lately I'm way to busy for these minor details!

Ok ok ok though enough is enough... I'll get one ordered this weekend.
No more marshmallow mornings....

Quote of the Day

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
– Aristotle

More from Austin. Next time I go there, I'm getting a pair of cowgirl boots!

Here is a nice selection of pics from our off-the-bike time in Austin. Thanks to Rick Kent for taking so many pics through the weekend.

I wish all race trips were like this one!! ;)

The folks in Austin really made a big, big deal about bringing the race to their town and thanks to Michael Ball of Rock Racing....the event received some great sponsorship and the name of the event became "Austin Rocks"....and let me tell ya, it sure did! My teammate Jen McRae, and my good friend and former teammate Kate Sherwin both live in Austin, so I have a darn good reason to go back real real soon.

People talk about Austin being this and that with music scene being so great, and with Lancy Pants opening a store etc etc...but for me, it will always be a special place just because that weekend was so wonderful. True that. It will be hard to repeat that kind of good time anytime soon, that's for sure.

Anyway, other than that.....we had Manhattan Beach, not the best weekend for me on many levels. The race was actually a bit of a buzz kill because it just never seemed to get aggressive enough, thus leaving everyone and their mum to feel like a sprinter come the end of the race (so typical hey). We pulled off third with Jen, which is great (never complain about podiums!)....but we know we can be on that top step. That is the goal. The best thing to come out of that race was the awesome host housing and support we received from my good friend and client Jim Manton of Sand Canyon Cyclery. He and his family and friends took really great care of my team, and to top it all off, we did a women's ride out of his shop that turned out to be a highlight for us all! Very cool stuff :)

So...post the Manhattan Beach race, I went right into a week long visit with my special, main man, Myles (sorry no pics yet cuz i lost the silly cord to upload!). Myles came here with two friends for a week. Ahem. Thats' right, three teenage boys for a week of Summer break! Talk about tiring a little mama out...lol. It was all about driving, and riding bikes, and sightseeing, and beaches and movies and girls hahaha! Jeez I could hardly keep up with these guys! Myles is just such a sweetheart though, even with the challenges of him being a teen!

I love him bunches and miss him every single day that he is not with me.....

So thats that. There's the update. Actually been training my arse off too (like I said in my other post!). I've been logging a bunch of miles on the bike in new places, with new people, and finally feeling like I am able to explore this new territory of mine on the bike ---and not just in the car!

Okay....just keepin' it fresh and keepin' it real (and throwing in a cold one here and there too!)


Peace

Training!...

...notice the time of this post. i am turning over a new leaf here and am actually going to do an early (really early!!) ride today. i have NO idea what has gotten into me ;)

cheers, ciao, and word to the bike.

Slacker Alert!

ok....i'll be be back this weekend! been in a bit of a frenzy with all the life stuff....but trust me i got good reports coming --and pics too!!

Hope you all have a happy day off people.
(thats pretty much my term for the 4th!)

btw--- my favorite memories from the 4th of July Holiday are the times that we decorated our bikes (we all did...me and my brothers) and rode them in the parade in our home town. it was "cool" to show off that we rode bikes!! hahaha...who would have ever known what was to come. I tell ya, I think I was just as proud as the mayor in that parade....riding along on my bike.

I knew I had something special beneath me...something very special.