Mountain Biking Mania

Lake Lopez

And the mountain biking mania continues....this time for almost 3 1/2 hours at Lake Lopez. I was sure I was going to have a heat stroke. I went with Martin and a couple of people from the Singletrax mountain biking group I joined. I just spent a bunch of our tax refund $$ on mountain biking gear: fatter tires, crash pads, gloves, etc. It was nice to ride a trail I was so familiar with so I could see if all the gear really did make a difference. The tires were WAY worth the $$, I could see a definate improvement in my downhill skills although there is still a lot more mental work to do.

I used my crash gear (elbow pads and knee/shin pads) on the Montana de Oro ride last week and that is going to take some getting use to. The leg gaurds make me look like I walked off the set of Star Wars, they are very similar to the storm trooper's gear. The tough part is that the people who normally wear crash gear are "bombers" (bikers who really fly downhill) so it's really embarrassing to strap this stuff on and have people think I'm hardcore only to go down the hill at a snail's pace with my brakes squealing the whole way down. Plus, I start thinking..."Crap, now that I have all this crash gear on I'm definately going to fall now. I'm too well prepared not to!"

Mother's Day 2008

Mother's Day is usually a day for pampering, breakfast in bed, flowers, maybe even some jewelry (Ha! I just had to spell check that, I don't even know how to spell jewelry). Luckily, my hubby knew just what to get me for Mother's Day... 2 hours of mountain biking madness in Montano De Oro.


We rode up the fireroad to East Boundary & Ridge trails. I always want to take a camera because the rides or so beautiful but there is no way with my crash record that a camera would survive. I snagged these pics from other mountain bikers who can actually bring their camera with them (and still have it come back in one piece). This is one of the most beautiful places to ride. I love it!

The peak of Ridge Trail


The descent. Yes, we do start at sea level. You know, when I look at the pics of these trails I don't feel so bad about the times I do crash. It's not the easiest thing in the world to ride.

March Monkies

Top Row: Cory, Phil, Maeve, Nolan, Michelle, Martin, Riley, Elaine and Ed
Bottom Row: Jenny, Brody, Megan, Josh, Montse and Urban

Today our Mom's Group did the Miracle Miles For Kids 10K walk/run from Morro Bay to the Cayucous Pier. Our team leader, Megan, organized us all and dubbed us the "March Monkies". (This may seem like a spelling error but it's not..... Monkey + Babies = Monkies. That's our story and we are sticking to it!) She even got us all the cutest matching T-shirts. We really got into the spirit of the whole thing with great big monkey balloons attached to our strollers and Nolan donned his monkey costume for the full effect. I think there were 1,500 people registered and at one point we estimated that there were probably only 30 people behind us. We were really having a good time!

Nolan - The Team Mascot


Our Monkey Family


Megan, Phil and Maeve. They just look like they are jet setting to wildly extravagant places no matter where they're at! You really could photo shop just about any background into this picture and it would work. New York...London..hey, how about Italy?!


Cory, Jenny & Brody. They could have ran this event in a quarter of the time it took us to walk it. We're glad they stuck around for us.

Riley & Elaine. How did Ed manage to dodge the camera so much?


Montse caring Urban rickshaw style.


Josh got a little lonely so he walked another monkey.

....And We All Fall Down

For those of you that have known me since I was a kid, you all know that "graceful" is not a word that anyone would have used to describe me. On any given day you could hear me crying and my mom asking, "Did that wall jump out and hit you again?" Well, now I'm raising a toddler and let me tell you, the combo of my genes and Nolan's oblivion to Newton's Law is just bad, bad, bad!

Saturday: Wildflower Race Bike Crash (after 1 week of healing)




Tuesday:

Nolan went to get his haircut at the new Cut Hut that is the Mecca for children's haircuts. Tons of toys, distractions and very patient hairdressers. Nolan was happily playing in the bounce house when he decided he was all done and walked straight out (crawling out would have been the prefered method at his size) and fell straight on his mouth.


With blood pooling in his mouth, he cried and proceeded to smear it all over his face. Off to the dentist we went! I don't know if it was all the blood, the swollen gums, the swollen lip or something much worse but it seemed as though his teeth were bigger...or at least more teeth showing.... before the fall than after. I kept wondering, "Is it possible that he fell so hard that he pushed some of his teeth back up into his gums?"


Dr. Lacey (my dentist) was incredible. Even though it was the middle of lunch hour (and does not treat kids) he promptly had Nolan lie in his chair and checked his teeth. The simple answer to my previous question was, "Yes, he may have pushed his teeth back up into his gums". Dr. Lacey reassured me that they will come back out though. Although, depending on the amount of trauma they received we have three scenarios to be on the lookout for over the next 6 MONTHS!! :

1. The fall wasn't that bad and the teeth will be just fine.
2. The traumatized teeth may turn gray and my poor hillbilly son will have gray teeth until his permanent ones come in.
3. Sometimes the gray teeth will abcess and need to be pulled. In that case, he will just not have front teeth until he is 7

Keep your fingers crossed for scenario #1


Thursday:

I could just leave it at that and everyone would assume that his scraped up nose is associated with his bounce house fall. But alas, it's been 20+ years now that I have known that deception by ommission is still good old fashioned lying.

We went to the park and were having a great time. Nolan was swinging in the age appropriate bucket swing but was begging to swing in the big kid swing. Daddy does it with him all the time...hmmm....why not?! I plunk him on his tummy and keep my hand on his back while he swings. We come to a stop and I'm dying to get a look at the cute little face that has been squealing with glee and ... PLOP .... off the swing he goes, nose first into the sand.

Hard to see the scraped up nose in the picture but it's there. Lot's of people keep trying to wipe it and then they realize, it's a boo-boo.

It Doesn't Hurt To TRI HUH?! ?!@#

Wildflower 2008 I Did It ! WOO HOO!
Results of the Mountain Bike Triathlon:

• Overall Time: 1hr 19min 20sec.; Swim: 8:02 Bike: 47:38 Run: 16:43
• Overal Rank: 310th place
• Age Rank: 12th place

I was really happy with how the race went, it was my best time ever! I shaved 5 minutes off my 2006 pre-baby time even though I crashed on the bike. I don't know if my time was so good because I crashed & was really motivated to make it up or if I would have an amazing time if I hadn't crashed. In the back of my head I was thinking that it would have been really cool to make top ten in my age division and I missed it by 63 seconds! Oh well, just something to keep aiming for.



People always wonder... "Why do you like to do triathlons?" There are two very simple answers to that.
I TRI because ..... #1 I like to have my cake and eat it too #2 because I can.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to do a Triathlon, here's a glimpse of what runs through my brain:

Swim

(I'm probably just coming up on the big orange triangle at the turn around point in the water)

• "Swim like a shark, not like a guppy. Swim like shark, not like a guppy. Swim like a shark, not like a guppy."
• stroke, stroke, breathe; "I'm still at the dock?!" stroke, stroke, breathe; "Why is the dock still there?!" stroke, stroke breathe; "Dock..still..there! Go away already!"
• If I pee in my wetsuit will it warm me up? Damn cold water, too cold to even pee!

Bike

(There I am trying to squeeze in between the two bikers.)

Volunteers: "Slow down, sharp turn ahead. Loose dirt. Slow down!"

Michelle: Slow down? This is a race! This is where I'm going to take all ya'll down ....Auggghhh. CRASH!

Run:

(I'm in the blue hat; Martin was juggling Nolan & the camera so he got some really good shots of the girl in black, oh well.)

Must finish, must be done, MUST find BATHROOM!

Last 1/4 mile: I actually wanted to do this? What was I thinking?! I need help, serious therapy if I thought this was a good idea!

Finish Line

That wasn't so bad. I should have sprinted that end! I wonder if it's too late to sign up for the San Luis Triathlon?

Me, Jonna, Scott, Teresa, Kristen

Note the Medical Tent in background and the bandage around my arm.

Also note that Jonna is a super cool friend for not being angry with me for taking her down when I crashed AND superwoman pulled me and my bike off the course as a wave of mountain bikers were ready to run me over and my calves were cramping up! JONNA IS AWESOME!

Also note Bud Light can is Jonna's, Scott's, and Kristen's hand! Is Scott holding two!?

Feel Free To Nominate Me For Mother Of The Year

Exciting adventures in the world of Nolan:

*Yesterday Nolan dumped a big cup of coffee on his head and a bunch of it ended up in his mouth. Gulp! A one year old with caffine running through his veins, how fun! Upon confessing to Martin his only reply was..."Well, I wouldn't count on him taking a nap today."

*I promptly gave him a much needed bath. The poor kid had hair that stunk of spaghetti sauce (daddy was not so dillegent in cleaning him up after dinner the night before), coffee dripping off his eyelashes and soaking his shirt and remnants of blueberry yogurt on his cheeks. Hopped up on coffee, Nolan took off running as soon as his feet hit the floor. Wet feet and a hard tile floor is a bad bad combo when you're one.

*Nolan is fully embracing the latest stage of development...seperation anxiety. (You'd think after getting a shot of coffee and a whack on the head the kid would figure out he might fare better on his own.)

*If we all thought that Nolan's hair pulling days were over, little sweet Lucy at the gym would beg to differ. Nolan decided to rip...not pull...but rip...her hair right off her head. Yes, Nolan was THAT KID at the gym today.