Benny Lava

Check out this crazy video.

It's about that time again

Ok – back to it. Been away from the blog for quite some time now; thought it would be good to keep it going. It’s Friday & sunny & hot in Seattle today. Luv it. I don’t enjoy the smog since it inflames the tissues in my lungs & gives me squeezy breathing, but I just throw my mask on & call it good.

This weekend, taking Hailee Rae shopping for flower girl dress. Should be fun. Racing on Sunday at North Shore circuit race. Been riding hills in prep for that. Legs are feeling a bit toasty after last night’s workout & tough last 12 days of training, but have 2 days to recover before the race. Feeling much stronger since July. Finally came around after being really sick/overtrained & then recovering from all of that. Can finally go hard in workouts & lay the power down without totally blowing up & having to recover. Good stuff. Track has given me a little bit of a kick too.

J Next weekend, is birthday/wedding shower/bach’lette partay/10 year high school reunion. Not sure what else could possibly be happening that day. Well, going to try to get in a good ride so I don’t go crazy.

5 Top 5's

Top 5 Things I Miss:

1. My Family
2. The Bus
3. Any and All Social Cues
4. Hot Summer Days
5. My So Called Life

Top 5 Things Sky Loves:
1. Sleep
2. Pets
3. Food
4. Laser Light
5. Her Mama

Top 5 Suggested Phrases to Avoid at Work:
1. You're not stupid, just dump.
2. A Monkey could lead a better meeting.
3. Revenue, Schmevenue.
4. What hole of yours did that idea come out of?
5. Fucking hell.

Top 5 Things about Racing:
1. Matching Booties.
2. Winning.
3. Speed.
4. Smiling through the pain.
5. Rubbing handlebars.

Top 5 Advice:
1. Get over it.
2. Think of people being naked.
3. Spend as much $ on a wedding as it will cost.
4. Ride a bike.
5. Ride a bike more.

Coming Back

Valley of the Sun was not the best experience. When I got back the Monday after traveling, I found out I had bronchitis, which I had expected given my lack of lung capacity & incessant cough. Anyway, I was stubborn enough to go down there & met some great teammates in the Phoenix area. We stayed with Jacqui & Jeff Lockwood who have the best bike spread ever! 29 bikes in their garage, massage tables & foam rollers inside, great food all the time - it was awesome.

While we were there, the weather was not great & Jacqui kept apologizing for the weather & calling the race Valley of the Cloud. On Saturday, it was drizzling & chilly for the 20K TT (perfect for bronchitis). I managed to have a decent first 20 min of my TT, but then my lungs caught up with me. The next day I did not fare so well in 60 mile RR. It was pretty miserable. I was coughing on the bike & loosing my mind from fatigue since I was not sleeping at night due to incessant coughing. I finished the race, but they missed me in the results. I really did not care & did not start the stage the next day. I did get an earlier flight back to Seattle. Southwest airlines decided they did not like my new bike, so they broke the fork while in transit. I've been waiting for my new fork to come in to replace it & fix so I can ride the BLUE sponsor bike again.

Back in Seattle, I got some antibiotics from a Dr. & started on the healing process. I was able to ride both days last week & get away with doing some 12 min sub-threshold intervals yesterday. I have to remind myself to take it easy, but I really want to follow my plan to get back on track for Redlands. I am planning on doing the Ice Breaker TT this weekend. Hopefully, that will be a good test.

Last weekend, Erica visited from SF. It was so nice to spend time with her! She brought some sample paper for ideas of invitations she is going to make for Josh & I for the wedding. We went dress shopping on Saturday with Liz & Josh's mom, Sue. They were a terrific crowd to take dress shopping. I was a little uncomfortable at first, but we got the ball rolling & ripped through so many dresses in 1 hour narrowing it down as we went. By the end, I had my dress.

Cough, Cough, Hack, Hack

I'm leaving for Phoenix tomorrow. ITB is feeling much better after following good advice from R miller to spend quality time with foam roller & alternate heat & ice to loosen things up. I have turned a corner & starting to get over my sickness, but still coughing. Probably not a great idea to travel & race, but it's all set up, I feel I must. Here I go.

New Bike, New Bling

The team bike for Team Kenda Tire - Blue NX7 with SRAM force, Thomson Masterpiece seatpost & stem, Zipp 404 wheels & Terry Saddle. :) Only 2 rides so far & already this is my little pocket rocket. And yes, I will get the steerer tube cleaned up.


Custom made white gold ring with diamond & fire diamond accents by Lezlie Jane in Seattle, WA. Already, I had to go 4.5 days without it to get it resized & my little finger felt naked. But we're good to go now. Ain't she purrr-ty?

SKY BABY!!!!

Biker Down

This past week, I have been injured & sick - not a good combination for me, but I know I'll get through it. At least, I've had wedding planning & spending time with Josh before he left to go to Boston for work (he left this AM) to keep my mind off of it. But being sick just kind of wrecks everything. You run out of energy so quick & when you think you're doing better & try to push it, you get knocked right down again. Sometimes I can "train through it", but not this time.

Luckily, after 3 days of straight taking it easy & lots of soup, water, tea, and emergen-C, I think I am starting to turn the corner. Now, if I can take it easy for another 48 hours, I should be golden...right before I leave for Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix.

I've had plenty of time to get the TT bike set up & my new Blue bike (but I still need to have the right seat post overnighted to me - oops). It's better than freaking out the night before while trying to pack & not having things set up the way I want. It's just that after I've mounted a cradle for my power tap on the TT bike, then I have to go lie down for 20 minutes before I can do anything else. Oh man...doing a stage race in 4 days should be interesting - at least it's early in the season - just a little warm up race, right?

The good thing about being sick is that it forced me to lighten up on the training which has allowed my ITB to loosen up. It got pretty tight at training camp from having saddle adjusted a little off. Totally my fault for not checking the measurements exactly.

Anyways...my mom helped Josh & I find a location for our wedding. We are all set at CenterPlace in the Spokane Valley on September 28th. It's kind of fun checking out caterers & cakes & florists - I've been doing it online and over the phone, but it's still fun. I am kind of dreading going dress shopping. It just kind of seems like a big deal for a dress. My mom & dad are bringing my Grandma Helen's wedding dress over in a couple weeks. I really want it to fit. Then I would not have to go dress shopping! :) More importantly, it has a lot of sentimental value. It was worn by Grandma & my Aunt Suzie. I was the flower girl in Aunt Suzie's wedding, so I think it would just be a cool thing to wear the dress.

It just dawned on me a few days ago that Sept. 28th will be the 18th anniversary of my Grandpa Tom's death. Since he cannot be there in living person, I hope our wedding will be a way of honoring him. It's really hard to think that it has been so long since the night he left to coach another man on flight search & rescue & he did not come home. I guess some wounds never heal. At least, I know we will both be very thankful to be surrounded by our family & friends on that day.

Anyway - whew - all this typing has really taken it out of me...nap time.