I finished the TOE!!!

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Warning for the boys ... there's a tiny bit of girl talk ahead.
But if I can live it, I'm confident you'll live through reading it :)
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I slept a little better than I had Friday night, but I still tossed and turned all night. Mostly nerves I'm sure, but I wasn't as rested as I was hoping to be on the morning of the race. My knee is aching, and I'm already getting cramps (mm hmmm ... perfect timing ... I couldn't have planned this better). All of this just makes me a little more nervous about tackling the challenge ahead.

But this is my one big goal for the year, and I'm ready to suck up the aches and tiredness and "kill it, kill it, kill it" as advised by my hero Heidi.

Gregg made us some very tasty whole grain french toast, with strawberries from mary's garden. Tasty, and a perfect breakfast for today's ride. We pack up the car, and drive out to Blodgett. And as I get out of the car I hit my head on the roof rack hard enough to give myself a lump on the head. Awesome. I'm so smooth. And apparently determined to add a concusion to the situation.

I pop some ibuprofen and sport legs before we unpack the car. We're early enough that there aren't many people there yet, but we see a few familiar faces and spend a little time socializing before I head off for an easy warm-up ride.

The TOE has a rolling start from the school. Similar to the Mudslinger, except that in the Mudslinger we stop to re-group at the bottom, and then get sent off according to our racing category. This time we're really racing from the beginning, so the pace is a bit quicker. But it's a 50 mile race, so nobody's sprinting either. Still some jokes and conversation along the way, which makes it feel more friendly and social than the shorter races.

But as soon as we hit the singletrack, I can't seem to pace myself. I'm looking at my Garmin, and I can see I'm working too hard. I just can't seem to make myself slow down! Melissa is right there with me, and we chat the whole way. The pace feels manageable for a 2 - 3 hour race, but I know even in the moment that I can't maintain this for the duration. And yet I just ... can't ... slow ... down. I do this for about an hour and a half before I'm finally able to get control over that adrenalin and start managing my efforts again. I manage to do pretty well for about the next three hours, and after that my legs were lead (like they each weighed 100 pounds!) and I don't think I could have done much to increase my heart rate if I'd wanted to.

I wreck a couple of times too in the first couple of hours. Nothing significant ... a new bruise where I fell into a tree going about a mile per hour, and another scrape and bruise where I toppled over at about two mph. And while it's fun to push myself when I'm riding recreationally, I decide I'd better start riding a bit more cautiously for the race.

So finally, about two hours into the race, I'm pacing myself to last for the duration. And I'm also trying to ride within my technical limits and avoid injury.

In the first half hour of the race my knee starts screaming. I'm getting shooting pains whenever the elevation takes a steep climb. I've figured out pretty early that will-power alone may not take me through to the finish, so I take the Rx provided by doc for the swelling knee. I take more ibuprofen at the mid-point too, and try to stay about as doped up as I can without causing myself to vomit. I still end up getting shooting pain in my knee on every climb (and there was a lot of climbing), and on the bumpier descents. And for about the last 15 - 20 miles I wasn't able to keep my left leg bent while supporting body weight. It kept shuddering and collapsing. I had to totally over-compensate by making my right leg do a lion's share of the work. Now a smarter person might have been convinced to give up ... "know when to say when", as they say. But I'm not a smarter person. This is the ONE THING I'm absolutely going to accomplish this year, and if I can move I'm going to accomplish this. So instead of being a smarter person, I'm being a goal oriented, focused, committed person. "It's a blessing ... and a curse".

The cramps also kick in within about the first half hour, and continue to pop up every hour or two throughout the race. It's aggravating, uncomfortable, a little painful ... but nothing compared to the knee pain, and surprisingly also nothing compared to my body's usual behavior. I'm halfway to being a believer in the crazy new diet I've undertaken to manage my "girl" issues. In past rides, this alone would have had me on the ground unable to move. So despite the little extra aches and tummy issues, I'm feeling pretty lucky! Seriously, you should see me on a bad day!

And this really was a great day. The weather couldn't have been better. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the wild irises were in bloom all over the place, the forest smelled wonderfully "forest-ey", and there were beautiful meadow and mountain views all around. There were so many times I wished I could just snap my fingers and get a photo of what I was seeing. I wish I could share with you all just how amazing it was. And it had been dry for days, so the trail conditions were the best I've ridden out there. There was some fantastic new singletrack, and since I was riding near the back, all the new singletrack had been "established" by the first 145 or so riders before me. Some of it was brand new and pretty rough before they came through, so they really did me a huge favor.

The guys at the Peak Sports aid station did a great job of cheering me on. It felt really great to see some friendly faces out there cheering for me during the race. And after Gregg finished his race (at about 6 hours) and changed clothes, he got back on his bike and rode back to the aid station to cheer for me and take photos, at about mile 40 for me. What a guy, huh?! He also showed up later on the course, and then rode in with me to the finish. My biggest fan :)

By the end of this race I had been so exhausted for so long, and in pretty much constant pain in those last couple of hours, that i just about broke down crying a couple of times. Not the shedding tears kind of crying. More like the "I'm having a breakdown" hyperventilating crazy laughing/crying thing. First trying to talk to Gregg on the way to the finish (Oh no ... no pictures of this please), and then trying to respond to the woman pulling my number at the finish. I'm a girl, and I'm also old enough to not care so much what other people think, so I guess it's probably okay to admit that I just about lost it! And and I managed to mostly hold back the sobbing and hysterical laughing when there were people around, so I think I might have pulled off acting like a normal person ... and I don't believe there's any photographic evidence that I was being a freak.

I was one of the last riders to roll in to the finish line, and most of the rest of the riders were seated on the grass waiting for the awards to start ... and facing the finish line. So I got a bunch of cheers when I came in. I felt like a bit of a dork, but loved the comeraderie, and gave a big wave to the crowd.

Everyone was amazingly supportive. Gregg knows "everybody" (a very small exageration) in the local mountain biking community, and I've met and spoken with a number of them. So several guys came up to me to shake my hand, congratulate me, and talk for a few minutes. It felt awesome to hang in there, do my best, and finish! And even though I was really just doing it for myself, it felt really great that they recognized and respected the effort they knew I put in to get there.

I really enjoy the 50 mile race distance, and if there were more of them around I might specialize in that kind of race. There's a unique feeling of comeraderie. Racers have the time to talk to you for a minute or two, because most of them are in a position where they know they need to pace themselves for a long day. It's not like the little two hour races where it's every man for himself. For the most part, I prefer to ride for the love of it. And I don't see myself every really "being" a racer. But I do enjoy the mountain bike race scene too, and committing to racing is also committing to improving my fitness and technical skills. The Test of Endurance combines a little of both ... a long ride out in the woods, just (wo)man and machine, but with the adrenalin and motivation that helps you to push yourself a little harder and stretch your limits.

I LOVED IT! It's a great event, and if I can't race it, I'd love to at least help to put it on. I'd love to race the TOE every year. But next year is already setting up to be unlikely, as I'll be back to studying for an actuarial exam and unable to put in the training time necessary to prepare to race the distance. But I want to try to stay at least fit enough to volunteer to ride the sweep.

'twas the night before the TOE ...

... and I'm freaking out!

My knee (the "good" one) has started bothering me recently. It started getting achey a couple of weeks, but it wasn't really bad. Before one of my training rides I was concerned about it, so I tried to tape it the way my PT had shown me. I'm pretty sure I made it worse. So I started icing, elevating, and taking Ibuprofen.

And yet, despite all that TLC, it persists in being a problem. Now I'm getting shooting pains when cycling or clutching the car. Bad news. So, three days before the race, I show up on the doctor's doorstep in an urgent state, and say "I need a miracle!" Well, there are no miracles. I got a prescription, and some worried looks, and he tells me to come back if it continues to be a problem. I'm pretty sure he knows I'm going to be getting myself into trouble with this knee.

But I take it easy. I skip the Thursday training ride.

On Friday morning I take the Rx, which makes me jittery, messes with my stomach, and seems to contribute to a sleepless night Friday night. Just what I need, to be sleep-deprived, jittery, and unable to eat before my biggest ever endurance event. But it does seem to be helping with the swelling in the knee, so I'm giving it a serious shot.

But because of the side-effects, on Saturday I decide to skip the meds and just stick with icing and elevating. I also pick up the neoprene knee brace recommended by the doc. I take it easy in the morning; going down to the Farmer's Market, picking up coffee and a home-made danish at the local coffee shop, stopping in at the bike shop for some quick conversation. And then I get ready to head out for a nice easy spin on the road.

I slap on the knee brace, get geared up, and head out the door. Within 12 minutes of riding my HR monitor completely quits! Damn. I've been relying on that thing for training, so this kind of sucks. But I've got all my other data (mileage and time), and I need to finish my ride, so I keep going.

I'm still a little twitchy, now just from a sleep deficit rather than the meds. So when the little creeps in the station wagon lean out the window and yell (or rather, bark) in my face as they pass by I just about end up going off the road. Nasty little buggers.

About halfway through my ride the knee brace starts sliding down, and the "doughnut" starts pushing my kneecap down and out of position. That's the opposite of better!

And shortly after that I start getting cramps. Yeah, that's right. Looks like I'm going to be starting some unpleasantness tomorrow. Perfect timing.

Okay, this all sounds like a bad "start" to the race, and it certainly isn't the stress-releasing easy pre-race spin I was looking for. But I'm determined to do my best with this race ... so we're all about silver linings here:

• I replaced the battery in my chest strap which, if it hadn't died today, might have failed during the race tomorrow.
• I'm going to bed early, and without the side-effects of the Rx hoping to get some good my sleep tonight!!
• I know the brace is out of the question for the race, and better to find that out now than during the race.
• The cramps? Well I'm having a harder time spinning that, but with my normal weight fluctuations, this is my "lightest" point ... so I'm carrying a pound or two less up the hill. That's good news, right?

Now, I'm off to brush myself off and get busy looking forward to the task ahead of me. Time to start packing for tomorrow morning!

Two last TOE "pre-rides"

It must be old news by now that the Test of Endurance 50 was my only personal goal for this year. My one, giant, monumental achievement for 2008. So I've been doing a ton of training to get ready. And since this is also a local race I wanted to take advantage of having the home-court advantage. I'm a terribly slow climber, so I need to try to make up a little time on the descents. And since I'm not a super fast descender either, I need to get to know the trails ... as well as I can, anyway.

Naturally though, the course is dynamic until the last minute ... always in a state of change. Winds blow down trees. The logging company comes through some areas. New trails appear (with a lot of hard work by the promoter and some friends). So really, the only way to do an honest pre-ride of the course is to be involved in trail work up to the last minute. But Gregg was able guide us on a route that had similar distance, elevation gains, and some of the singletrack I'd be riding in the race. So it was enough to give me a good sense of where I stood, and gain some level of "comfort" with the challenge ahead.

In mid-may we invited a couple of friends from Portland to come down and ride with us. Heidi and Sal grabbed a Portland Velo teammate of theirs, Javad, and we grabbed another friend, Melissa, and the six of us went out for a pre-ride.

And after all that training I've been doing, this is how the ride started out ...
(Heidi) "Hey, where'd Stephanie and Melissa go?"

(Gregg's voice, echoing down to us from the top of the mountain) "There they are."


Naturally, all that work and I'm still getting dropped in the first mile. And poor Melissa had just done a race the day before, and was really feeling the fatigue from that. Bummer for her, but good for me ... I had myself a riding buddy :)

The conditions were about perfect; mostly dry with a few muddy spots, and a little overcast and cool but not raining.

The ride had a little of everything. Several of the trails are now well established and hard-packed. Some of them are barely recognizeable as trails, and a little tougher for us less-skilled riders to navigate. There was some hiking over down trees, Heidi's favorite part. And lots and lots of climbing. (Heidi's second-favorite part, I think).

We had some getting separated in the woods shenanigans, preceded by a little trailside bike maintenance.

So the day had practically everything you'd expect from a day of mountain biking. Including a well-earned post-ride feast at the local McMenamins. Yumm! Cajun-ized tater tots!

I really wanted to get out one more time though, without all the stops, so that I could get a better idea of what it would feel to ride constantly for the 25 miles. Can't really be taking so many breaks on race day. So I invited Carrie to come out with me again in June.

Originally Gregg was going to come along as well, and possibly bring another guy from work. But Gregg ended up having to work. so it was up to me and the Garmin to navigate. That was challenge number one.

Challenge number two was the spring weather. It had also been raining since may, so things were a little wet. It's surprising how much more work it is to ride in the mud, even when it's just a little bit of mud. It's like running in sand ... it just absorbs your energy. Not so noticeable if you're doing a ride that's well within your limits, but if you're riding at the edge of your physical limits it can make a significant difference. And even now, a week before my 50 mile race, a 25 mile mountain bike ride with about 3,700 feet of climbing is a challenging ride. So there were some fairly muddy spots, which should have slowed us down.

The logging company has also been in there, and it looks like they're getting ready to do some work. Some of the stuff that was part of the course is now torn up from a CAT, and there are more down branches on the trails. Navigating the now horribly muddy CAT tracks, and removing down branches should have slowed us down a bit too. Check out the wall-o-mud on the rear tire, and the remains of the pine tree in my chainring.


But the third, and most significant challenge for me, is pacing myself! I find it difficult enough when I'm staring at my heart rate monitor. And when I'm staring at the course on the GPS unit and can't see my HR, I really tend to let work too hard. So although this was a much more difficult ride, we finished in almost exactly the same time. Seriously, fractions of a second different than the much more casual May pre-ride. My average HR was 10 bpm higher today, and at the end of the first lap I was not feeling like I could have turned around and done it again. No way.

Good news ... Mike changed the course to avoid the newly torn up stuff, add some singletrack, and take out a couple of road out-and-back sections ... it sounds like a great course, and the weather report is looking promising. It should be fun!

I've just gotta remember to pace myself!

(pictures from both rides)

The Test of Endurance is just around the corner

... and I am COMPLETELY freaked out about it. I spent a couple of weeks beating the bushes for advice about training. In my case, my legs were super strong, but my heart worked so inefficiently that I couldn't use them. And I'm training for a 9 hour mountain bike race? What was I thinking.

So after getting a lot of advice to do V02 Max intervals, and conflicting advice from a couple of friends saying that I should do long steady distance rides, and Googling all over the place trying to find some troubleshooting advice ... I finally stumbled upon a coach who was able to give me some advice.

So now a shameless plug for Trek's Women Who Ride Club:

My first downhill mountain bike race?! WooHoo!

That Mudslinger about did me in! Well, let's be honest. It probably wasn't really the race. I was probably already coming down with 'sick' during the race, which would explain both why I could barely haul my sorry butt to the Mudslinger finish line, and how I managed to be totally sick by the time I woke up the next morning.

"But surely", I thought, "I'll be in fine shape for the Spring Thaw, a full two weeks after the Mudslinger". Even a week after the Mudslinger, when I was still sick, I was optomistic. Which explains why I pre-registered for a 20 mile XC race, while coughing up a lung, less than a week before the race.

I finally got out for a ride a couple of days before the Thaw, first ride since the Mudslinger, and suffered. Badly. I was feeling defeated and thinking about sitting out the whole event, when Gregg suggested that the race organizer might let me bump down to the 9 mile Beginner course. 9 miles? No problem. I could be throwing up the whole way and still make it 9 miles, and this is just a bunch of pesky congestion in the lungs. It was my lucky day ... they let me bump down to Beginner! Well it wasn't really a tough argument to make. I mean, let's face it, I am a beginner!

Race day was good. The weather was excellent! The climb at the beginning of the course was a little rough for me ... and I was very happy that I'd decided to do only half of the climb! I had legs to spare, but my heart blew up pretty quickly, and I watched a TON of people pass me up the hill. I was a little happier (practically giddy, actually) going downhill, when I was finally able to gain back a place or two. I missed a lot of the singletrack by deciding to do the shorter beginner route, but I had a couple of minutes of fast swoopy fun. I've got to get my heart into shape to be a lot more efficient. Hopefully that'll come with hours and miles on the saddle.

While I was suffering with the climb I noticed several Black Sheep jerseys passing me. I love them! And I want one. I normally hate jerseys. They're not made for people with hips. No, most of the "women's" jerseys don't account for hips either. So the jersey ends up popping up over my hips while I ride and bunching around my waist. Totally useless and uncomfortable. But I used to LOVE hanging out at the Black Sheep with friends when I was living down there. And I like the design of the logo. I may actually pay $$ to wear their jersey. Of course I'll still have to get it altered to fit the way I want, but I like this jersey well enough to make it work.

Gregg had to leave after the XC race so that he could be back at work in Corvallis the next morning. I really wanted to stay over in Ashland for another day. So I swapped places with another local. Gregg drove home with him, and I stayed over for another night to catch a ride back with Melissa.

Melissa has decided this year to do a race in every discipline. So, with very little offroad experience, and a borrowed bike, she was doing the XC on Saturday, and the downhill race on Sunday! Well if she's willing to do it, surely I can too.

I had no idea what to expect with the DH race. I've never seen one, so everything about the event was new to me. I absolutely loved everything about it. And since there were only two women in my category, I even placed on the podium! 2nd = last. Hey, I'll take it. I learned a few things, talked to a bunch of people (everyone there was exceedingly cool), won some cool stuff, and just had a blast. I'd super, duper love to have a full suspension bike. I don't honestly think it would have done much to make me faster, but it would have been fun.

Here are a few pictures of the event.

Gregg

Me warming up on the DH course

And for a couple more of Gregg, you might need to go here first, and then you'll be able to see: More Gregg, and Gregg Again

2008 Mudslinger … finally, a finish!

Not a great finish, but a finish, which is an improvement over my experience at Horning’s Hustle.
Well it’s certainly springtime. And spring weather means … anything goes. Last Sunday the weather was fantastic, and the trails were dry. This morning we woke up to snow; snow on the ground, snow covering the car, and snow continuing to fall. I thought it was very pretty. And since I’d already packed my heaviest tights, my Lake mountain bike boots, and foot warmers … I was down with the snow. I was a little excited about it, actually.


But as excited as I was about getting out and riding in the snow, my body was struggling with the idea of just getting out of bed. Naturally we’d choose today to be in disagreement. My back was completely locked up, and I could barely sit up straight enough to reach my shins. So I took a bunch of Ibuprofen, put an Icy-Hot patch on my back, and told my body that was all the baby-ing it was gonna get, and it had better straighten up. Naturally I plan to let Gregg do all the heavy lifting, but when I get on the bike I need my body to perform!

Quick breakfast, check; knee taped, check; anti-inflammatory and Icy-Hot patch, check; post-race PBJ, check; quick check of the bike cube I packed last night, and I’m ready to go. Grab a cup of coffee on the way out the door, and we’re on our way.

It’s always exciting to see other bike-laden vehicles going your way. We passed a few on the highway, and by the time we were parked at the race there were bikes all over the place. Naturally Gregg recognized about half the people there, but by now I’m recognizing a few of them too!

Today was Amber’s turn to race while dad watched the kids. And her daughter got to use the bike during the kid race while her brother sat this one out. They’re still fighting over who gets which races, but the whole family takes turns and it seems to work out pretty well for everybody.


For this race, Melissa traded in her ‘cross bike for her sisters FS mountain bike. She didn’t need a FS bike for this race, and the fatter tires probably didn’t give her a significant advantage, but the disc brakes were destined to be a distinct advantage! I love seeing my friends out there!

We didn’t arrive early enough, and I didn’t use my time well, so I didn’t get enough warm-up. So I knew I’d have a bit of a painful ‘warm-up’ during the first climb in the race. The race has a ‘rolling start’ … everybody leaves from the finish line and rides together a couple of miles down the road to the start line. Riders are then sent off in staggered starts from the start line. The rolling start was fun. Everybody’s excited, anxious for the start, but not racing yet. It’s a pretty relaxed pace, but very high energy and with a feeling of camaraderie. Just fun!

The sport women all started out together. There’s a teeny weeny climb right at the beginning, and I was already feeling the insufficient warm-up time. But I knew I’d need to ease into the big climb, so I tried to keep my HR low enough that I could finish the climb. The stair-step was still a nightmare. But I was able to keep spinning my legs. I passed quite a few people who were walking up the climb. Before I reached the top of that final climb my HR had peaked at 197 (I didn’t even know I could do that anymore!), and my whole body was feeling the pain. Somewhere out there, there’s a photo of me actually riding the last bit of climb. Evidence that I made it! A small victory in the scheme of things, but I’ll take it.

I’m glad I’d had a chance to pre-ride the course. It was totally painful anyway, and most of the singletrack was completely unrideable for me. In fact I could have saved myself a bit of time if I’d given up earlier and started running the singletrack. Sadly, the only advantage I might have over my peers would be a few more miles of technical riding under my belt. And since the singletrack descents were all too muddy to be rideable for me (especially that last section of newly cut trail), my limited experience didn’t give me any kind of advantage today.

And since I have the fitness base of a cubicle jockey, instead the base of a cyclist, or any other kind of athlete, I was lagging toward the back. A couple of years of fair weather, weekend warrior mountain biking hasn’t exactly whipped me into shape. Melissa just flies by me on the climbs! She’s amazing! If she can get a bit of singletrack experience under her belt she’ll be winning our category. Me, I’m totally outclassed by these women. But I like being surrounded by people who inspire me, so taking position at the bottom of that class of women is still a great place to be. And it certainly gives me something to work toward!

By the end of the single-track, my legs were DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. And I was just physically exhausted. I couldn't keep my HR down, and I was sure I was going to throw up. I was questioning whether or not I was even going to be able to make it up that last little road climb when I saw Gregg at the top of the hill. Gregg was still flying high from his win

... all that excitement sometimes causes his brain to shut off. So as we met up, and I was struggling to stay upright, Gregg started chattering like a poodle. I caught something along the lines of "where have you been? I was starting to get worried about you." Where do you think I was?! If I'd had any energy at all I'd have smacked him upside the back of his head. Smart ass! I actually finished quicker than I told him I would by about 10 minutes.

In my opinion, we both did great. He did great enough to win his category! I did great enough to finish in my category :)

2008 Horning's Hustle Mountain Bike Race ... nowhere to go but up!

Sunday I took another step toward finishing the Test of Endurance. I’ve been riding as much as I can, and I’ve made pretty significant advances in my bike fitness. But I was still pretty freaked out about racing. I kind of feel like I don’t belong amongst racers, and I’m just getting in their way. It’s ridiculous. And to get over that silliness and get comfortable riding with a couple hundred fellow mountain bikers, I decided to enter a race that wasn’t a priority for me this year.

I require a lot of warm-up time. Much more time than the average person, I’m sure, and especially when I’m having a bad day. So Gregg and I got up early, giving us time to drive to the race, register, and warm up for an hour.

I hadn’t pre-registered online, so we hiked up to the registration area. We ended up parking next to, and registering with, a couple of guys from Corvallis. Actually they were a couple of guys that Gregg plays bike polo with here in Corvallis. The girl who registered me first gave me a 40+ sticker, and then as we were leaving ran after me to replace it with a Beginner sticker because they didn’t have a Women’s Beginner 40+ category. Turns out they do have a Women’s Beginner 40+ category. This bugs me a little, since there were only 2 other women in that category. But it would have bugged me a lot more, and I’d have said something about it, if I hadn’t had further misadventures.

After registering we went back to the car to gear up and pre-ride the course. And Holy Tamale it was MUDDY! It hadn’t occurred to me I’d be doing so much hiking on my first mountain bike race in a decade. But mud isn’t a bad thing. It sure makes things tougher, but tough can still be a lot of fun.

I was still worried about being in other riders’ ways, so I started out toward the back of the beginner women group. Silly. I may not race, but I’ve been doing a fair bit of riding. I was immediately up with the first 5 or so riders in the group, and continued to pass a number of other beginner men and women. I was working my tail off, it was working for me, and I was loving every tough muddy minute of it. Of the two hours that I managed to log on my bike computer I spent an hour and a half with my heart rate at or above 90% of my max, and another 25 minutes between 80 and 90%. I’d love to say that made me fast. It didn’t. But I was seriously working as hard as I possibly could, I felt like it was paying off, and I was starting to have some serious fun with the mud.

At the end of the first lap I grabbed a Gu and rode past the three people who were stopped to eat. I know I don’t have super speed, so I wanted to keep the wheels moving. And then, about 50 feet into the second lap, my chain got sucked up into my frame. I got it out, and got it in gear, and … it did it again! And again! I pulled that chain out about 4 or 5 times in about 15 feet before I was able to start riding again, and about a dozen people passed me while I was messing around with my bike. I had a moment where I thought … “this doesn’t bode well … maybe I should just see the writing on the wall and call it quits now”. Naturally I didn’t. I was determined. If there was a way to get that bike around for another lap I was going to do it!

To make a long and very painful story short, I wasn’t able to get the bike all the way around another lap. I couldn’t count the number of times the chain either fell off the ring or sucked up into the frame, but it was easily a dozen times and probably more. Finally about three miles around the five mile lap, and reaching the point where I couldn’t even pedal the bike on level ground without the chain falling off, I called it quits when I got near the car.

So I lingered around the car, talked to another rider who’d dropped out due to technical problems, waited around for Gregg, changed clothes, ate … and finally Gregg said I should go turn in my number so that the race organizers wouldn’t worry about me. Another woman from Corvallis had to drop out after 1 lap, and was able to get credit for that, so a friend suggested that I could get credit for the 1 lap that I completed. I was soooo late by then turning in my number that there’s no way I could argue for any placement. But I object to the DNF (didn’t finish) so strongly that I asked if they could put me in DFL (“dead f’ing last”) instead. There’s something about DNF that sounds like “quit” to me. I hate “quit” more than tried, no matter what the final placement.

But you see why I wasn’t going to quibble about the age category. Turns out quite a number of people had technical problems due to the mud. There were 25 DNF’s out of the 200 riders. It was a muddy day!

FIRST LESSON LEARNED: Don’t over-do the warm-up. It probably wasn’t necessary for me to pre-ride nearly the entire 5 miles of the muddy, hilly course, just to warm up. By the end of warm-up my legs were already feeling the effort. And sadly, so was the bike.

SECOND LESSON LEARNED: Wherever I end, if it isn’t at the finish line, get to the finish line and check in as quickly as I’m reasonably able.

THIRD LESSON (still being) LEARNED: Get over it. Everybody has an off day. It’s par for the course, and nothing to get all hung up over. Of course that’s easier said than done, and being a non-finisher is still bugging me. But even if I’m not feelin’ it I believe it’s a good philosophy, so I’m working on getting over it.

FOURTH LESSON LEARNED: A Rohloff SPEEDHUB would be dreamy for riding the muddy stuff!!

Yay, I'm back on my bike!

I know that two weeks off the bike doesn't seem significant to most. But I'm really giving everything I can to reach my goal, and I just can't afford to be laid out by my back. So today was a pretty decent ride for me. Not great, and not as good as I've done previously, but pretty decent anyway. And more than that, it was a celebration of being back on my bike!

Good company today. Beautiful snow (really, really gorgeous, and kind of fun to ride in). And I'm finally learning how to fuel myself for longer rides (a lesson learned the hard way). I did have a freaky little muscle spasming episode on the last climb, and even after quite a bit of stretching I'm pretty tight right now. But I think this is all manageable, and that I'm just an inch away from being back to my (personal best) peak form.

So yay for me!! I'm a happy girl again :)

Finally, my best MTB ride in quite a while!

I've been trying to keep up with my training, but the weather's been pretty crappy. I've tried to keep up with the mountain biking, but many of my rides have been during the rain or snow, and at night. So I've done a bunch of road rides, a few sessions of "Cycling" class at the gym, and other general exercise (mostly lifting and swimming). But what I really love, and really miss during the gray, rainy, dark days is the mountain biking.

Finally, we had a long break in the rain, giving the dirt plenty of time to dry out. And Gregg and I managed to get one beautiful sunny day off ... at the same time! So we went out for a ride.

The dirt was perfect. A little hiking through 1 - 2 ' deep snow, a tiny bit of mud, but mostly perfect, dry, dirt. Later in the summer the dirt will get too dry and traction won't be as great, but on Sunday, it was ideal.

The weather couldn't have been better. It was still cool, but easy to dress for. And it was beautiful and sunny all day. We had amazing views of the mountains from the top of McCulloch.

And I'm stronger now than I was at the end of last summer. Yay! The training is paying off! I'm still such a very long way from being able to finish the TOE, but I've got more time to train ... best make use of it!

Here's a post, with the GoogleEarth image and elevation profile of the ride.

Sadly, it's going to start raining again this week. Messing up the trails and making my night rides wet, cold, and a bit less fun.

Can't wait for the sun to come out again!

My new impossible goal

After a few very unpleasant mystery injuries at the end of 2007, I decided to take a break from sitting for actuarial exams. They're pretty heinous, and consume your life. And while my life was being consumed by studying for exams, my body has been falling apart.

So this year I resolved to improve my physical life ... to improve my nutrition, and to become "someone who exercises".

But I'm *not* a "resolution" person. Resolutions don't last for me. So if I want to make permanent changes I have to start with long-term temporary changes. And I'm only going to stick with those temporary changes if I'm working toward a specific goal. This is my elaborate method to trick myself into changing my life.

So this year it's the Test of Endurance (TOE), a local 50 mile mountain bike race. There isn't a ton of information online, but one guy's posted his personal data on last year's race. Check out the elevation profile ... 9,800 feet of climbing! Crap! All I want out of this is to be a finisher, but that's a hell of a carrot. Or stick.

And if the TOE's not enough to keep me on task, then nothing is. So --
I've been swimming and lifting a couple of days a week, and riding (of some sort) 4 days a week.
I've made more small tweaks to my diet.
I'm seeing a physical therapist regularly, and I've been following her advice and doing my exercises.

I also did a bunch of testing ... Thyroid is good, Cholesterol is good ... and my only allergies, as it turns out, are to Cane Sugar, and to a lesser degree baker's yeast.

I have more tweaks to make to my nutrition. Lots of tweaks really, but I'm trying to make permanent changes ... so one thing at a time.
I need to stay on track with my training, and probably get some expert advice from a coach or training program some time in the next few weeks.
I've also learned to tape my knee, but I need to get more consistent about doing that before my rides.
I also need to get more consistent about taking Ibuprofen (or some anti-inflammatory) before and after I ride.

The thought of that TOE looming in my future has already inspired me to stick with a few changes this past month, and I'm confident I'll stick with those changes, and make other improvements. I'm loving having a whole new kind of goal. Getting out of my head and into my body.

More later ... all this working out doesn't leave me much time to post, but I'll get around to it. Meantime, check out my exercise blog to see what I've been up to.

Spring Break 2007 (catching up)

I can't believe I didn't write anything about this at the time. This is one of the bigger things that Gregg and I did in 2007, and I didn't realize I hadn't written about it until I started writing up the "Holiday Letter". Of course I was studying for an exam at the time, so I guess it's not entirely surprising that blogging was low on my list of priorities. Anyway, so that this doesn't take over the holiday letter, here's a quick "catch-up" post just about Moab ...

Gregg and I traveled to Moab, Utah during Spring Break this year, for the wedding of some friends of ours. Gregg has fond memories of Moab, but I'd never really been. It was a great opportunity to go out with a group of friends, and share the cost of a vacation rental. By pooling our resources we were able to get a big house with lots of room, and a good sized garage. Which was a good thing. Everybody in the house went with the intention of getting out and enjoying the area as much as possible, either on mountain bikes (our mode), dirt bikes, or 4x4. So the garage was packed!

The wedding was off-road, and accessible only by one of the above modes of transportation. There were a couple of 4x4's taking the parents and some family out to the site, the bride and groom and a couple of friends went out by dirt bike, and Gregg and I rode mountain bikes out with the groom's brother.

Without going into a lot of detail, we (just the group on mountain bikes) got lost on our way to the wedding. We made a wrong turn, and ended up riding through some really deep sand, and hiked up some pretty steep rocky stuff. Not really the ride we'd planned. The phones didn't work, and radios didn't work ... so we weren't able to contact the rest of the group to let them know we were off-course. We caused a bit of a delay for the rest of the wedding party, but the best man was finally able to reach us by motorcycle, and get back to the wedding to tell them to just go ahead without us. We completely missed the ceremony, but definitely had some adventures. And we were able to get back and cleaned up in plenty of time for the reception. What's a wedding without misadventure, right? I'm a little disappointed that we were the cause of the misadventure, but I think it was a fantastic trip even with our stumbling.
Here are wedding day photos we took.


My favorite event of the trip was the Porpucine Rim ride. We had a good group. We had the bride and her dad, the groom's brother (also a co-worker of Gregg's), and me and Gregg. I was still the slowest person, as I usually am in any group, but it was a good pace, and a TON of fun. I can't even describe how much fun I had. We've got to make the time to get back out to Moab and do that again. Here are some photos of the Porcupine Rim ride.


And here are a bunch of photos that Gregg took of his Slickrock ride, and another ride he went on while I was studying. Cool photos, but you'll have to ask Gregg about the details.

Cool Google Earth image of last night's MTB ride

I'm having fun playing with my new (Gregg's old) gps. Here's a cool image from Google Earth of the MTB portion of my ride last night.

Isn't that cool?! If you don't know the trails it might not seem as cool, but you can totally see my ride. Most of the ride was gravel road (all the smoother, straighter sections), and I went up Upper Horse (the squiggles to the right), and down Upper Dan's (the squiggles to the left).

I met up with Terry and his group on the road at the bottom of Upper Dan's, and rode with (or rather, behind) them to the top of Upper Horse. It was nice to see some familiar faces. Actually, it's always nice to see other lights moving around in the forest at night. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know there are other people who enjoy night riding.

My Day

I think everybody ought to celebrate their birthday like it's a Federal holiday. Seriously. I try to. It can be difficult to plan a November day in Oregon. The weather's so fickle. But I do my absolute best.

I took Monday off, and planned the perfect day. The plan ... a long (3 - 4 hour) mountain bike ride with a friend of mine, a pedicure at the local beauty school, a visit with my chiropractor (free birthday visit!), take-out from the Thai restaurant, and watching a movie (any mindless entertainment) with my man.

The reality ... I woke up to a stormy, windy day. Huge wind storms on parts of the coast and inland. Lots of rain and wind gusts here. Christine's a total trooper, and would have ridden with the weather, but had to cancel due to a heavy work-load (she couldn't take off for 3 hours in the middle of a work day). But there was NO WAY I was going to let a little bad weather get in my way of a good time, even without the motivation of a riding partner. I scoff at you, mother nature. Ha.

So I went for my ride. I had to modify my plans a little bit, since the original plan would have had me riding directly into a strong headwind for almost 10 miles. Instead I went due North, and popped into the forest as quickly as possible. The highlights: in at Chip Ross, lower Dan's, upper Horse, got passed by three gravel trucks trying to get from Upper Horse to Upper Dan's, rode lower Dan's (with one minor spill in a muddy switchback), middle Dan's, and back via 29th. I messed up the bike computer quite a bit, so no show-and-tell, but the total ride was roughly 12 miles, in roughly 2 hours. A pretty decent ride considering the foul weather.

I was soaked through, muddy head-to-toe, and a little loopy-tired by the time I got back home. So took a quick shower, and met Christine downtown at Evergreen for lunch. Lingered lovingly over my veggie Samosa. Mmmmm. Veggie Samosa.

After lunch I went to the local beauty school for a pedicure. My comment on that ... you get what you pay for. It wasn't as great as the really expensive pedicure I got in Denver. But it cost a fraction of the Denver pedi. I'm not sure I'll bother with the thrifty version in the future. We'll see.

I stopped by New Morning Bakery before leaving downtown, to pick up Petit Fours for dessert. I love their Petit Fours. Tiny little cakes, covered with chocolate. And then headed to Dr Bilby's office. I heart Dr Bilby. Seriously. He totally saved me after the Vegas injury/incident. And they sent me a nice birthday card with an offer for a free visit for my birthday. Awesome! Now that's something valuable.

After killing a little time I called Tarn-Tip Thai Cuisine to order take-out, and drove back downtown to pick up Gregg. I forced the poor guy to take the night off from his usual projects, and hang out with me for the evening. A movie and take-out. Gregg had also visited the Bakery earlier and brought home some much more decadent desserts, which we ate instead of the Petit Fours. (The Petit Fours were just as tasty the next day).

I tried to stretch my day into a week, but no luck. I still had to get up "early" and work on Tuesday. And since I've been aging myself by an extra year all year (math is hard), my birthday didn't even seem to represent a milestone. I did manage to get a couple of friends together for drinks at Cloud 9 (LOVE that place) Wednesday night, which was a lot of fun. But it shouldn't take a birthday to make something that simple happen.

Still, one nearly perfect day is a pretty awesome way to celebrate My Day.

I hurt. All over.

And I'm so tired. But I had a great ride today! I couldn't convince anybody to join me on my ride today, so I went alone. Since the ride was all mine I decided to stretch it out. I'm really trying to keep up my miles, or rather boost them back to summer riding levels, for the winter. So far the weather's been pretty good. It'll take a little more commitment when the weather turns ugly.

Gregg bought himself a Garmin Edge quite a while back. He didn't really like it though. It never quite measured up to his Polar for training functions and displays, and he decided he didn't really need the GPS functionality. So I've inherited it. :) (Yay me! A shiny new toy!)

So the commentary on today's ride ...
Gorgeous day! I really couldn't have hoped for better weather. My feet did get pretty frozen, but that's not unusual. It didn't seem that cold out, but I should have worn my booties anyway.
The only other people I saw, for the first two hours or so, was a couple riding down Uproute with their dogs as I was riding up.
Gregg suggested this ride at the last minute, and gave me directions by phone since I'm not familiar with the area. Naturally I managed to take a couple of wrong turns. But I didn't get too far off.
The trails are still in near-perfect condition. It hasn't rained much, so aside from a few slick muddy spots here and there they're really ideal.
As I came down Horse trail I started seeing more signs of (human) life. A father/son duo riding up Upper Horse, and a couple walking a couple of dogs, a workman, and an equestrian all at the bottom of Lower Horse. After about three hours of riding by myself it was kind of weird to see so many people.

Enough commentary. Thanks to Gregg's Garmin, here's the ride:

Of course it's much cooler in Google Earth, but doesn't provide the ride data. (I can send you the file if you want to open it up in Google Earth). 2 1/2 hours of ride time, almost 3 1/2 hours real time; 20 1/2 miles, averaging a little over 8 mph; average heart rate of 166 bpm, with a max of 190 bpm.

When I got back I made myself a shake of water, frozen strawberries, a banana, and some Recoverite. Yummy! My new favorite post-ride treat. Then I drew a nice hot epsom salt bath, threw in the spa jet bath mat, and soaked and stretched. I'm still so tired I can barely move my typing fingers. Soooo tired. But it was an awesome ride!

A perfect night for a ride

I finally got in my first night ride for the fall/winter. Riding at night is really amazing. Everything seems a little more mysterious, and magic seems possible.

I sent out an invite to the group, but no takers. Gregg was going to ride with me, but seems to be coming down with something. It was really cold out, and he was pretty tired, so I tucked him in for a nap and went out on my own. I do enjoy the company of other riders. Welcome it with open arms. Actually beg for it sometimes. But riding trails alone at night is actually really nice too. Peaceful. Wonderful.

I could tell right away that I've been too long off the bike. I've ridden the cruiser around town a few times, but that's no preparation for riding up a mountain (or an over-sized "hill", in this case). I was BEAT by the time I got to the top of 29th St., and that's just where the off-road riding begins.

Soon after leaving the pavement I interrupted a small group of deer. They split when they saw me coming, leaving the road in opposite directions. I felt a little bad for interrupting their dinner.

My original plan had been to ride the gravel road to the intersection of upper and lower Horse, take upper Horse to get to the top of Dimple, take Dan's trail back down, and come back via the top of 29th. I ended up being so fried by the time I got to Horse that I cut off the upper loop and just came down lower Horse and back to 29th. Basically, I did half my ride. A tiny bit of a let-down, but better to be out there doing half my ride than to not get out there at all.

As I was nearing the road again I saw more glowing eyes in my headlamp. A lot of glowing eyes. A bigger group than the first time. I thought it was the same group of deer until I got closer to the road and spotted another group. I saw at least seven pairs of glowing deer eyes. They didn't seem to be bothered by me at all. Watchful, but not bothered. They were beautiful. And in a few cases very, very big. But mostly beautiful.

It was a nice night for a ride.

Vegas, baby! (part 4 of the working holiday)

Vegas is always a bit of a misadventure. Neither of us is well suited for Vegas, but this is where Interbike is, so here we go again.

I was super excited to see Gregg again, after a week and a half of roaming around. And I have to admit I was a little sad to touch down in rainy, dreary Portland only to fly out again without ever leaving the airport. A little sad to leave home I guess, even when the cold gray weather.

Anyway, we had a pretty comfortable and uneventful flight to Vegas, easily and quickly got our luggage and caught a shuttle to the hotel. Too good to be true, right?! Totally!!! They booked us into a room on the strip, directly over an incredibly loud, open door dance club. I got so desperate to sleep that I was trying to hide out on the bathroom floor with the door shut. Still no good, and I was about 30 seconds from sleeping in the hall outside my door before the noise finally went out around 4 am! Grrrrr.

I really wanted to come to Interbike again this year, so that I could get out to Bootleg Canyon for the outdoor demo. I want a new bike. I love my current bike. I really do. In fact I attribute my new-found love of mountain biking to my lovely Niner ... but I'm ready for some squish. I was completely exhausted for Tuesday's outdoor demo day, but totally looking forward to trying out some FS bikes.

The first booth we hit was Salsa. I checked out a Dos Niner, and Gregg picked out a scandium frame Mamasita. I can't speak for Gregg, but I really liked the Dos Niner. I felt totally comfortable on it instantly. It took a little bit to warm up my legs, but the trails out there are great! Clearly designed to make you fall in love with whatever bike you're riding. And I did love the Salsa. But I didn't think it much (if any) of a step up from what I've already got (again, really love my Niner) ... If you're in the market though, I'd highly recommend a ride on a Salsa.

We realized we were going to run out of time if we tried to hit up everybody, so we went 'directly' to the Niner booth. I've been dying to try out the R.I.P. 9 for quite a while now. The guys at the Niner booth were incredibly nice, and I got a lot of sympathy while I waited for HOURS (I do think I was waiting for at least an hour and a half) for a RIP 9 in my size to roll back in. Apparently the shorties who'd already checked out the small RIP 9's were out there having a great time! And I can see why. What a blast! I'm not used to FS bikes, so the travel on the Niner was a little plush for me ... it felt a little weird. But it practically pedaled itself, and the fit was instantly near-perfect. And on those rolly, banked trails, the plushness was juuuust right. Since leaving the demo I've thought more about it, and I'm not convinced that I actually want that much travel and plushness for the more slow and technical stuff that I'd normally ride. Now I'm thinking I'll wait another year, save my money for New Zealand, and check out the J.E.T. 9 at next year's outdoor demo :)

I barely had any juice left, and it was getting pretty hot, but we both wanted to get out on another bike before we left the demo day. So we hit up Lenz for a couple of FS bikes. I really hated the geometry. Felt like I was perched up over the handlebars. I think it's pretty typical for a DH/Freeride position, which I think is their typical audience. But it makes me feel totally unstable on the bike. I really like my seat to be further from my bars. I was totally impressed though with the feel of the rear suspension. And Gregg totally loved the bike.

I'm really hoping to get out on a Titus, and maybe the Specialized and Gary Fisher. And next year, fingers crossed, I'll ride the JET 9 at the Bootleg Canyon demo day. So, all that effort and I still don't know what I want. But it was an awesome day, and I can't wait to do it even better next year.

The other major highlight of our trip was Wednesday night's Cross Vegas! (Check out this cool YouTube video) It was a great race for Oregon. The Kona duo of Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks dominated the whole men's race, with Ryan taking first. And Molly Cameron was in great form. Not great cycling form, per se, but she put on a great show ... beer in one hand, bike in the other, hopping over barriers. We were ringing bells and shouting like crazy during the entire thing. We were also lucky to get a ride back to the strip with some friends of friends ... saving us about $25 in cab fare. It was a great night.

Other brief highlights of the Vegas trip

• Meeting up with Chip and Andrea (friends from Denver) before their Cirque show (Ka) Thursday night. They taught us how to gamble :)
• Seeing Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity at New York New York, Friday night
• Hanging out with Chip & Andrea in their fantastic room at the Bellagio, overlooking the water show in the lake ... and then winning some $$ in the penny slots downstairs before heading back to our hotel. I actually won $15! Can you believe it?!

As usual, Vegas was a mixed bag. Noisy, smelly, and too many people. Good shows, overpriced bad food, great bikes to ride, bike events, huge amounts of cool bike stuff ... I still wish it weren't in Vegas, but I can't wait to go to Interbike again (wherever it is).

Toby & Sarah, and Mary's Peak

We've hosted a number of couch surfers since we first started doing our own surfing in Australia. It's been a really cool experience. For the most part, they're travelers from within the US. We hosted a guy who was bicycling around the circumference of the US. A guy who was riding his scooter from Oklahoma (his Vesploration tour), and since moved to Eugene. Then there was the mountain unicyclist ... I need to get in touch with that guy. He was going to come back up this way this summer to do some riding. All very cool people, and we've done an absolutely terrible job of documenting their visits.

This last weekend we hosted Toby & Sarah, from Munich. They don't have much detail in their online profile, but we did see a tiny little "mtb" under interests. So naturally, we offered to take them on a ride. So where do you take a couple with a guy who mountain bikes, and a woman who's never ridden singletrack? Mary's Peak, of course.

It wasn't until we got to the top, and Gregg was describing the descent, that it started to occur to him that the descent he'd selected wasn't really appropriate for a beginner mountain biker. So Sarah and I went back down the up direction, and left the guys to take the steeper more challenging descent. Sarah was absolutely a champ. She did great going up and down. In fact she rode a lot of stuff that most of the beginner MTBers I know wouldn't have ridden. Good for you Sarah. You totally rock!

Some friends of ours were having a Tour de France party that night, so we dragged our exhausted guests out with us. We were watching tape (TiVo) of the stage that ended in the morning, so Toby had already the spoilers and new who the winner was. Still, they were pretty happy to celebrate Linus Gerdemann's win of Stage 7!

I'm sure they'd have loved to get back to the house and let their heads hit pillows, but they were too polite to suggets it. So instead we watched most of Dust To Glory. If you've never seen it, it's a really well done documentary of the Baja 1000 race.

We started the day shopping at the outdoor store and cruising the Saturday Market, climbed up to the top of Mary's Peak and back down again, and after cleaning up and relaxing for a bit, ended up with dinner and a party over at Erik & Christine's place. A VERY long day for our German guests. They were great company, and really cool to meet. And Sarah taught me to smile :) I hope they enjoyed their stay with us as much as we enjoyed meeting them.

Hansel and Gretel & Bombs Away

Last night's ride was totally awesome! For a couple of reasons.

We had a really good group; five of us in total, very similar fitness and technical skill levels. Melissa kept a quick pace in the front, but didn't leave us in the dust. Michelle was dragging a big after volunteering until 1:30 am with Extreme Makeover Home Edition and then working all day. Carrie was making a huge effort to not do anything stupit that would aggravate her already injured shoulder, so she was taking it a good bit easier than normal.

Mary came along with us, and showed us how to get around a couple of 'new' trails. I'd been on both before (Hansel & Gretel, and Bombs Away) but couldn't have managed to connect them up with the ride. It'll take me quite a long while to get familiar with the mass of available trails. Bombs was great! There were several bits I couldn't ride, which is a great learning opportunity for future rides.

And, my fitness has improved SO MUCH over the last couple of months. Finally I'm getting to the top of Dimple with energy to spare for real riding. My knees are still giving me grief. And my old shoulder injury. And I'm still running low on oxygen on the way up ... but it's remarkable how much better I'm feeling now than I was when I started riding again in late May/June.

So next week I start seeing the PT. Maybe she can help with the knee and shoulder issues. The heart and lung issues are all mine, but should continue to improve with consistent riding ... but it'll be great when the other stuff isn't slowing me down!

A new bike for Stephanie!

Well, Gregg's getting a new bike too. But he does that kind of thing a lot. It's a much bigger deal for me.

We tried out some 29ers quite a while back. And I really loved it. The 29" design feels more stable to me, and was therefore a LOT more fun to ride. I could ride quite a bit faster and still feel more in control. So Gregg's decided that a niner would be just the thing for me. The e.m.d. ("eat my dust" ... yeah, right) isn't out yet, but there were some early pic's posted in some MTB forum. So here's an early look. Pretty, huh? And the "pedal damn it" message is pretty inspiring. Not sure when I'll get it yet. It's on order, but Gregg will have to build it up for me when it arrives, because we're getting the frame only. Still, maybe about the time it quits raining for the season, I'll have something to ride!

Australia~ Mtn Biking & Melbourne

Sunday morning Gregg (Me) and Loren got up to go mountain biking. Of course it turns out to be the ONE day it rains...Loren had borrowed a Specialized Epic from his friend Marcus, who was also gracious enough to toss in some clipless shoes and helmet. We drove about 30 minutes to Lysterfield Park, the sight of the upcoming Commonwealth Games Mountainbike Race. There we met up with Loren's buddy Jason. Since they were both riding singlespeeds, I tried to be fair and match their gear size, (but still shifted occasionally). The trails were rolling, twisty, and lots of fun. Kangaroo hopped and lounged nearby, most were hardly bothered by our presence. And despite the drizzle, it was so warm I had to ditch the light jacket. Some say no ride is complete without a little blood...Loren complied with a quick fall on the loose dirt, resulting in a scraped-up elbow and calf. Didn't look too bad, but then I didn't have "Grid-Iron" (American Football) practice after the ride like he did.

Getting back home, Loren made the mistake of mentioning we saw Kangaroos. Stephanie was a little jealous that I saw 'roos in the wild, so while he went to Football practice, Yvette took Stephanie and I back to Lysterfield Park for a hike. The rain had stopped, but the 'roos were hiding. We walked some trails and on the return loop we finally found some hangng out in the woods. They were very casual, just laying around and not jumpy like deer.