From here on out I am going to try for a post once a week, whether it's about biking, training, racing, or weddings, we will find out! I'm not sure if it will happen, but we shall see.
I am so behind on my blogging since the last post!!! I have been BUSY with life and playing around on my new Garmin500. I love it. I haven't had a computer on my bike for over 2 years, I forgot how fun it is! And this computer especiallly, it does SO much!
Want to see how far I have come in my wedding planning?
I have vases galore. These are the two types of vases I will have on my tables
Boxes of linens (those are the boxes on the right). The rest of the stuff are my vases!
Flowers and Flower balls up the ying yang...these are for the ceremony
Stands for my dessert bar. Cupcakes anyone?
And about 55 extra Save the Dates. Anyone need extra magnets?
Oh was I talking about biking? I raced my first crit of the season a couple weeks ago. It was at Volunteer Park, and I had fun. Yes, I just used the word fun to describe a crit. I wont get into crazy details, but first off, this season, I'm not here to win. I don't have anywhere to go from here in my road racing. It's not my super strong suit, I just do it because I love the people, and it's mentally and physically challenging. So with that being said I'm here for fun and for my teammates, and if something good, great, or awesome comes from that, then ROCK ON!
The night before the crit I put my too small skin suit on for Chris to show him how tight it is. The first words out of his mouth were "wow you look like a super hero". THAT my friends, is how tight my skin suit is, so don't my fat rolls in the picture below, hopefully those will be gone by the time the wedding comes around.
Tara, Alicia, and myself posing with the camel.
Back to bike racing and not the insecurity I feel in my itty bitty super hero outfit. Crits scare me. When I turn corners with my bike for many laps, I like it to be in the mud, where if I fall, it's soft. Thank goodness this crit doesn't have too many "true" corners. It's safe, and pretty dang fast. At the start of the crit, Alicia (one of my teammies) said something to me about primes (I don't remember her exact words but it went something on the lines of lets get them). So when the first prime was called I decided I wanted it. I got it...heck yea! Then...I got the 2nd one too. I figured that I wasn't out to win the race, but any cash won along the way is a total bonus. AND why sit in the pack and be bored? When the third prime was called Jess tried to lead me out for it and I just couldn't quite get to her wheel, and Jocelyn (an incredible sprinter and rider from another team) took the prime. I even tried a bike throw!!! HAHA I wanted the cash. Like I said, I'm not out here to win, I'm here for the ride, and enjoy it while I'm there.
Directly after the 3rd prime the 4th and final prime was called, and Jess ended up winning that one and then got away and stayed away for the rest of the race. She won! Another Peterson Racing/Jess win! When it came down for the pack sprint I.....had...nothing....left. I sprinted a lot during that 45 minute race! I worked hard, and in 2 weeks I will be stronger because of it. I am extremely proud of myself for not being a scared little kitty cat in the pack and so excited for the future of our 1/2 team. We seriously do such a good job working together and being active in the race, I am SO excited and privlaged to race with such awesome ladies. I can't say it enough how much I adore my team.
THANK YOU LADIES! And not just the 1/2 ladies, but everyone, for the support, the smiles, and the joy you bring to every race day.
Sarah, Alicia, and Tara. Out for Alicia at The Little Red Hen.
Yes it has! It has really been that long and I have seriously put off blogging. It's easy to forget about blogging when I am not racing. So for the time being how about I inform my readers of a few life updates:
I'm engaged these days (what's new? It's been four months!)
I'm planning a wedding, that will hopefully all fall into place on September 15th, and I am learning a whole lot about wedding planning. Perhaps a career change? Hehehe. JK. My posts for the next 6 months will probably consist of wedding planning extravaganzas, and maybe some race reports here and there.
Who knew that wedding planning could be such an adventure (okay so I'm sure most people who have planned weddings know this), but all the dirty details of planning a wedding are not quite explained to you. How the heck am I supposed to decide what I want for my centerpeices? I don't know a single ounce of info about flowers, or vases, or anything for that matter. It's just a game of guessing and choosing what might actually fall into place together. I am also learning...you can't have everything. Sacrifices have to be made, and you have to choose what you truly REALLY want! What is going to be the most important thing for you on that particular day. With that being said, we will later find out what is most important to me.
Now, onto the really fun stuff! Training!!!
Okay, training for my current racing season has been TERRIBLE! I had a very bad feeling of what this season is going to hold for me this year. Winter seems to have dragged on forever and ever. It rains every day and the high doesn't get above 45 degrees. Did I the mention the wind? It seems every year is the same. January through March I am tucked away in this dark cave and all I want to do is sleep and not communicate with anyone. I want to eat cookies up the ying yang and I DON'T want to go outside and ride my bike. Even though it seems I have logged a lot of trainer hours this winter I have been able to get outside on the weekends and put in some "quality" training long rides. When I say quality, I am not quite sure what I mean by that. I just know I need to ride my bike for an extended period of time.
I also haven't been the most motivated person these days when it comes to racing. A couple weeks ago racing sounded like prison to me. I wasn't excited at all. About a week ago I got sick and thought "wow thats really going to put a damper on my racing". It didn't, and some how I pulled out something from inside that said "go race". I think it was my birthday present from Chris. He bought me a Garmin500! So I wanted to play with it and I knew I should get a race in before Walla Walla. I needed to size myself up against my fellow competitors. So yesterday I piled my stuff and myself into the car and drove south to race IVRR. Please refer back to this blog post from last year: ouch!
As I was driving I kept visualizing the race course in my head. I kept bringing back those painful feelings I had from last year, and thought how the heck was I going to pull through for this race? I sure knew I hadn't been riding enough, especially outside! I think there were weeks where I only rode outside...once, twice if I was lucky. Thinking about the first hill made me cringe, the hill that never ends. Thinking about the second hill made me wince, it's so steep! Needless to say, I psyched myself up for something scary.
To put a 2 hour and 47 minute race in a couple of sentences it went like this: my team rocks. I love the women I race with and I am one lucky gal to be a part of something this great. Jess wanted to win the race, and that's just what she did, with an incredibly large margin. She rocks. So as a team our goal was to protect Jess and make sure she didn't work too hard in the pack! I, I wanted to finish the race and try to support our team as much as I could. As it all turns out, those hills were not something to be scared of, I dominated them, and ended up finishing 4th (in the 1/2 field). I was pleased all around.
So onto the next race. I think the next race is the Volunteer Park Crit. I have never done this race before, and it will be my first crit of the season. I guess we will see how that one goes!
And because we all love pictures, here are a few engagement photos at Birch Bay.
Have you ever watched this video? It's so funny. This blog post is just a day in the life of...me.
It's been awhile since we last spoke. In the past three weeks I have: been in a wedding, cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast, raced my bike, went to a wedding, attempted to race my bike again, worked, drove to Bend, OR and raced some more, then drove back to Bellingham.
My very good friend went and got hitched on Nov. 20th and it was an awesome beautiful wedding and I was so pleased to be a part of the bridal party. The weekend was quite an extravagent 2 days, for me at least. On Saturday we had the rehearsal, and then we were treated to a yummy brunch (thanks Beth and Brian). Later that day the girls went to get their nails done. I think I have had my nails done...twice in my life, and a pedicure? One time, and now two. It was, needless to say, an experience. The lady had a heck of a time shaving and scrubbing off my calus filled feet. I even told her she was getting a work out (I don't think she found it as funny as I did). Instead of me explaining to you my experience with the language barriers how about I let you watch this video and look at the pictures.
After my feet and hands were rubbed, scrubbed, and painted we had a girls night and watched Bridesmaids. The next day the real fun "pampering" began. As you know me...I had to go for a run, so I woke up a little early and went for a nice crisp morning jog before the mayhem began. Our first trip was to the hair salon to get our hair done. I searched high and low for a picture of what I wanted for my hair, and found something I wanted. So when it was my time I told the girl:
1) I didn't want to look bald with my hair up
2) I wanted something curly
The first thing she did to me was pull my hair directly back and slicked it up with some hair spray, and curls? What curls? The end result? Sarah Palin. $52 later I looked like Sarah Palin. I had no time to tell the lady I didn't like my hair, we had to get to the make up place, so I...let it be, I was ready for a day at the office. Next was my face's turn to be pampered. I thought the lady would take her time when doing my make up, she didn't. 2 of the bridesmaids had their make up start at least 20 minutes before me, and the girl finished my make up at least 10 minutes before theirs was done. One look in the mirror, and I looked like a China Doll. No time to tell her I don't like it.
So we raced to the venue looking like a Sarah Palin China Doll. I just told myself, it wasn't my day and who cares what I look like, as long as the Bride was happy and looked beautiful then I don't care about me.
Isn't she beautiful?!!!!!
AND, I caught the bouqet!
Thanksgiving was fantastic! I cooked for 20 and had 9 guests. We had so much left over it was awesome. Chris and I ate well for quite a few days.
Sunday Nov. 27th we raced at Monroe for the Seattle Series Finale race. The weather was....cross weather. Pouring rain all morning, all day, with big gusts of wind and cold temperatures. I don't want to bore you with any details of how my awful race went, but it did go something like this...
There was mud, and a lot of it, there was also a lot of moisture, some barriers, a run up, a decent, and some turns. Oh, and a falling leg warmer. If you where at the race and you saw my awesome look going on...I wasn't going for a new gansta' trend, my leg warmer wouldn't stop falling off my leg...so I eventually stopped racing, pulled over, and took my mudd covered leg warmer off and handed it over to a spectator...as I did this....3rd place passed me...putting me in, well, 3rd place. I pouted for awhile and then decided I should try to chase her. Time ran out and I finished 3rd. I wasn't too stoked on a 3rd place finish. That's my worst finish this year, but I was able to hold onto the series...so I WON THE SEATTLE SERIES! It was my goal going into the season, and to know I achieved my goal makes me feel DAMN good!
This last weekend Chris and I made the annual trip to Bend to race bikes! Ever since the first year Nationals was at Bend, we have gone every year (third year now). I have a large crush on Bend and have nothing but good things to say about that city! This year the USGP was moved from Portland to Bend, it would be my grand finale of my cyclocross season. There was only one thing missing from the course this year.
MUD!
The course was BONE dry, dusty, gravel, bumpy, FAST. There was NO slogging around this course this year. Apparently Bend has been sunny for a long time now, and they have not seen any precipitation recently! There was a race on Saturday and Sunday and I was racing with the Elite women. My goal going into the races was to NOT get lapped by the leaders.
Saturday I had the best call up a non-ranked rider could get! Number 25! I drew a lucky number I guess, so I knew luck had to have been on my side. I tried to remain as calm as I could at the start of the race and to not worry about anything just race my bike in a smooth fashion. Before I knew it, I was catching and passing ladies. On lap 4 I was talking to myself through a corner about being smooth and in control, then the next thing I knew I was on my ass! I washed out on some gravel I suppose. I jumped up, laughed it off tried to get back onto my bike, but my break had wedged onto the wheel! I yanked my brake out of my wheel and finally got it moving again, but I had lost 3 spots.
By the end of the race I was able to gain back 2 of the 3 spots I lost from the crash and I finished 19th/41 riders. I was stoked! That's not too bad for my first big UCI race. Katerina Nash won the race and was approx 3 minutes and 40 something seconds ahead of me. She's such a stud! At the end of the race I felt better once I heard how many women crashed...there where quite a few that went down.
Sunday was a whole new day! This time I pulled the LAST number! So I was the last call up. Oh well! Sunday didn't go quite as well as SAturday and I finished 21st, but I still had a great time, loved racing my bike, and I am very proud of my accomplishments! There is an awesome video someone took of me on my facebook page, but I couldn't figure out how to get it on here, so you if you want to watch it go to my page!
This year has been such a great year for me, that I can only hope next year goes just as well, or even better! I am SO motivated to train this next year, train hard on the road so I can become stronger and faster for next cross season!
Sorry for the lack of interesting photos. I really was trying to find some!
Remember last week how I said if you really want it, you can have it. It still remains true. I didn't really know I was going to have a part 2 from last weeks blog post. Oh well. As I lined up for the final MFG race in 9th place for the series, it didn't matter how the race went because I had no expectations for the series. Just another fun cross race. The series finale took place at Woodland Park in Seattle, close to Greenlake. This course was my 3rd cross race ever 3 years ago as a Cat 4 AND it was my first cross win ever! So I kind of have an attatchment to the course.
Having no expectations for the race I decided I wanted to do as well as I could to win some cash. So that meant I wanted 1st or 2nd. I wanted cash, and MFG pays well. As soon as we started Mel got the hole shot again with Kristy right on her wheel. To be honest, I don't ever want the hole shot because...who can hold that pace for the rest of the race? How many times does the hole shot winner actually win? I sat third wheel behind Kristy through the first few turns of the course and thats when I saw Mel was pulling away from Kristy, I needed to make my move...so I did. I jumped past Kristy and hopped right onto Mel's wheel and stayed there until we hit the barriers.
I completely hyjaked this photo from Mel's blog. Her significant other takes fabulous photos. Here is where I made my move...
I was able to get through the barries just a tiny bit faster than Mel, hopped on my bike, and then I heard her scream, and apparently from there she had some technical difficulties. Kristy was hot on my wheel after that and stuck there until the run up when I was able to form a gap. As I mounted back onto my bike I thought about what I wanted to do, I had a small gap between the group of 3 behind me and I wasn't sure if I wanted to hold back or go hard. So I thought about it going up the 2 climbs and decided once I went through the start/finish I was going to make my attack. That's what I did. I gained a larger gap and kept my eyes on the competition, making sure my gap was getting larger or maintaining with each lap, which it was, AND I didn't have to go full gas like last weekend! YAY! I don't like being THAT uncomfortable during a race. I just thought to myself, once I have a gap all I need to do is go as fast as the competition and they wont catch me! I wanted that cash and I wanted it bad! Oh yea the course is an absolute blast as well!!! One of my favorites.
I finished with a solid win and felt great at the end of the race. I had an awesome cheer crew there with my parents and my dads friends out cheering for me, Chris, Katie, and my team! It was just wonderful.
My friend Joey, from CX Magazine (or internet famous Joey's Ok), was reporting on the race that day and had a great write up! Thanks Joey for all the cheering and recording my gap each lap!
My friend and teammate Aaron informed me that I was ranked #37 in the country for women riders this week. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I did a little research and discovered this.
One of my most favorite things about riding my bike by myself is the alone time. How it's just me, myself, and I alone with everything that is going on around me. I don't have to worry about trying to keep up with anyone, or waiting on anyone. I can just pedal my bike at my speed for how ever long I want. I can stop to smell the roses, I can stop at a bakery and eat cookies galore. I can do anything I want when I ride my bike alone. It gives me a lot of time to think about my life, what I am doing, what can I change, how I can make it better? I can clear my head of anything that is bothering me, I can push myself to get stronger, faster. But it also means that if I'm not smart (ie. bringing a tube and pump with me) I could get stranded.
This week was...weird, to put it bluntly. I received the phone call on Monday that my job at the hospital is no longer. Peacehealth decided to close the LifeQuest department and I was officially "layed off" I suppose. Not too big of a deal for me because it wasn't my main job and I didn't work too many hours. Just here and there contract type hours. At the gym I had a lot of clients cancel or reschedule and at my new job, 2 clients where scheduled on Wednesday! So I was given the afternoon off and decided it was the perfect opportunity to ride my bike in the daylight and not go to cross practice that night.
Being the lazy person I am, I contemplated bringing a tube and pump with me on my cross ride out the Interurban. I decided not to, my pockets where full, and there isn't much you can flat on out there. As I am bombing down the hill into Arroyo park from Old Samish I hit a rock and hear the rock hit the rim of my front wheel and I knew instantly I had a flat. CRAP! 15 minutes into my ride and I flat. I did the best thing I could possibly do and turned around to walk home. How disappointing! Then I began to realize how long it was going to take for me to walk home, crap this sucks! What a waste of my day! 30 minutes into my walk home an angel drove past me (think awesome), picked me up and took me home!! YAY!
The following day I found it pertinent to complete my ride out the interurban (Thursday). After working in the morning I arrive home, got dressed and hopped back onto my cyclocross bike, this time with a pump and tube! I was not going to be unprepared. I made way towards the Interurban and down into Arroyo park and out towards Larabee singing in my head and smiling at the people. On the way back I see two men off to the side of trail looking helpless staring at their bikes, so I offer my help. They needed a pump, and I just happen to have one! To make a brief stop even more brief, I help these two men fix the flat, get the tire on the wheel and pump it up. I introduce myself, they say thank yous, I say you are welcome, and I hop back onto my bike feeling really good about myself. I couldn't help but smile thinking about my selfless act for these two men. I'm heading back towards Arroyo park singing to the tunes in my head, feeling confident in my bike handling skills down the trail, having a grand ole' time thinking "there is a switch back coming up soon, I should be prepared to stop". Well, I wasn't too prepared to stop, when all of the sudden I pick my head up and I see a flash of color, next thing I know I'm on the ground with my feet above my head. In my head I was thinking "oh please dear, oh please let this be someone I know. OH please, oh dear" and then I heard it "that was your fault!!!!" and I just busted out laughing. Thank goodness to the whole entire world I knew who it was. Yes people, I bull dozed into this innocent guy riding his bike up the trail and it was just my luck that I have met him...twice.
It was entirely my fault, I sent him off the trail into the abyss, tumbling. I couldn't stop laughing because I couldn't believe it happened. I was in total shock and I was absolutely humiliated, probably because I was feeling so confident on the way down...that shows me. So I learned my lesson..slow down in the park, don't sing songs in your head, and keep your head up when on the trails.
