Sunrise - Big Island Style

Pic Of The Day

Volcanos National Park....wow

View From The Shack

Here's the view from the hot tub at the beach shack in the previous
post.

Tour de Beach Shacks

First, it was the Chappy Shack. For the past 5 nights it's been Secret
Beach Cottage (or as Bryce calls it The Love Shack). Located 200 feet
on a cliff above the Pacific on private grounds, it's been pretty
spectacular. Sitting in the hot tub watching the sunrise overlooking
the beach with a mug of Kona coffee (or alternatively the sunset with
a glass of champagne) has been pretty sweet. ~sigh.... Today we leave
for the Big Island and the next shack....in the middle of the rain
forest. Have I mentioned how much I hate bugs?

Sunset Kauai Style

View from the deck over looking Secret Beach.....

Off To Cross Train

Time for some cross training (as in not riding bikes, not 'cross). Off to paddle the Na Pali coast, mtb some Kauai trails, hike a volcano or two, snorkle with some turtles, catch a few waves and have a few drinkies with little umbrellas in them.

See you all at Amesbury. I'll be the slow, but tan one. ;-) Aloha!

Blowing Up At Landmine

Wah! This was my last mtb race of the season (~sniff ~sniff) and the last one I'd be doing in the beginner division. My goals: 1) finish so I received enough points to win the series 2) don't get hurt and screw up my cross season 3) ride more of the technical stuff

The course was fairly flat, 4 wooden bridges, numerous logs and a few killer rock gardens which reminded me of Mt. Snow except they weren't muddy or on a 20% incline/decline. ;-) Unlike all the previous races, this course would be one 11 mile loop which meant no pre-ride on the day of the race so I decided to pre-ride on Saturday to check it out, see what Wompy State Park was like and just get back on my mt bike. Saturday was HOT and humid, I rode around noon, didn't eat lunch and pretty much set myself up for a bonk-fest. The course was super dry and dusty and on the first small downhill section with left turn I skidded out and went down hard on my left side. Hmmmmm....wrong tires? Have my skills really degraded in 3 weeks off? Was I simply spacing out? Similarly, on a small downhill section with tight left turn that went onto the bridge, I went in a little hot, couldn't hold the line I wanted and yes, flew off the bridge (3-4 ft drop into branches, brambles, weeds). As I went off the bridge I thought, "This is going to hurt." but oddly enough it wasn't so bad. One gi-normous bruise on my thigh, a few scratches, a 4" diameter stick through my rear wheel (no broken spokes!) and fortunately, no witnesses. ;-) The last 3 miles or so, I was entering the bonk zone - wasn't sure where I was in the woods, couldn't wait to be done, and pretty much walked through the rocky sections since I didn't think being so tired and handling technical stuff was wise. Was so happy to get back to the car and probably at least 5 lbs lighter given how much I had sweat out there. :(

Race day I was still feeling pretty tired but kept telling myself all I had to do was ride conservatively, finish, get enough points and win the '07 season series. Funny how all that flies out the window when the whistle blows. One thing I have learned is that it's really important for me to be out front. I don't ride as well in back of others (something I need to work on next year). The first mile was flat, fast and not technical. I wanted to be out front after that section. Three younger women flew out off the front and I let them go. Then one woman from my age group who was also super fast flew by and I let her go. At the end of that first mile section, I started running into the 55+ men and juniors. The juniors were really good about yielding on the trail where there was space but I think the older guys really weren't happy about getting "girled". Really super frustrating as I was going way slower than I knew I was capable was and felt my lead just melting away.

For about 1/2 the course, I fought for second place with another woman. We were pretty well matched and traded back and forth between 2nd and 3rd perhaps 3 or 4 times. The last time she passed me I was pretty wiped but thought I still had a chance if I didn't make any mistakes and so that's what I drilled in my head. No mistakes, ride EVERYTHING and if you need to get off, use your 'cross skills to get back on fast. Amazing what you can ride when you tell yourself that. That helped me catch up to her, had to jump off in a uphill rock garden but at the top of the hill did perhaps my best 'cross mount ever and took the lead back. Now I knew I just needed to push it and not wipe out. The pre-ride helped here as I remembered there was one large log, then flat and fast twisties to the grass and then finish. I thought that if could ride the log (way bigger than any I'd done before) and then sprint, I had second. If I endo'ed on the log, race over. Push...push...push...where's the log? where's the log? holy $^%$# it's bigger than I remember....hope that dirt's tasty in case I bite it big time... popped the front wheel...chainring hits the log...pedal...over! And still upright! Such a rush of adrenaline that I was still riding that I had a good sprint for the 1/4 mile to the finish. Took 2nd by 6-8 seconds or so. :) Won the race series for the season. More importantly, really improved my bike skills this season. Stuff that scared me silly in the spring is totally doable now (with a little guts and much trepidation). Looking forward to taking it to the next level next season.

I'm off for two weeks now - but when I return, it's full throttle on 'cross (Amesbury should be my first 'cross race of the season. So psyched!)

Family Time

This weekend I went to visit my family. August is always a month of family celebrations and this time it was a month of milestones - M turned 12 (almost a teenager!), my dad and my mom turned 70 and my folks celebrated their 49th anniversary.

I find it hard to believe my parents are 70. I can remember being asked how old my parents were and answering 35 (10 years younger than I am now! Yikes!) They don't seem 70 to me. They're still active, still doing stuff, and usually stay up later than I do. Scary.

A while ago, I wrote a post for Father's Day where I tried to describe my earliest memories of my dad. I never did the same for Mother's Day so given it's the day after Mom's birthday, I'll try now.

And it's SO hard. My dad worked super hard when I was growing up - came home late, in the office on weekends, so when I actually spent time with him, it was usually pretty memorable. With my mom, it's totally different. I don't seem to have any discreet memories - my mom was (and is) simply ALWAYS there. I can see her at the stove in our NY apartment (I'm sure making another pot of pasta) when I was about 4 or 5, I can see her at the stove at our CT house while I did my homework at the kitchen table. I remember her dropping me off for school in the parking lot of my grammar school, watching our old Ford Fairlane pull away and me trying not to cry. She froze her butt off sitting in the bleachers during my ice skating lessons (ok, I really wanted hockey skates but I still had fun). She sat threw numerous softball games and I can still hear her voice echoing in my high school gym, "Shoot! Shoot!" She had way more confidence in my basketball abilities than I did.

I love shopping with my Mom. I have her to thank for my love of shoes and jackets. She has this great gift for picking out clothes - she'll find something on the sale rack, "This would look cute on you!" I'd look at it horrified, NFW I'd ever put it on but she'd make me try it in the dressing room and damn, she was usually right. And if she wasn't, we'd get a good laugh at how ridiculous I looked.

She sent me numerous care packages when I was away at college, taught me how to make ravioli, apple pie, and how NOT to cook veggies (I like mine lightly steamed, she boils hers so they no longer resemble their original likeness.) She even took the blame (and wrath of my dad) for a fender bender where I was actually the driver. During my most recent move, she was surrounded by boxes in my kitchen, wiped out all the cabinets, unpacked the boxes and organized every drawer. Of course, 3 years later, I'm still finding stuff I forgot I had in some obscure back corner of a cabinet but that just makes life more interesting.

Now, if I could just get her to go bike riding with me.....