There was something terribly intriguing about Stephanie's essay titled, "I stole my first bike" that captured our attention. Although it was her description of her transformation from utilitarian riding to a true love affair with her bike that sealed the deal. Stephanie's story is familiar to many of us at Trek, from saving money for six months for a new set of wheels that cost more than her first car, to the Zen feeling she gets from truing a wheel. And only after two years of riding she says, "I know what cadence means, how many watts is a lot. I can fix a flat in my sleep and tell the difference between a pinch flat and goat head at 50 yards." Clearly she fell in love with cycling hard and fast. But her husband fully supports her cycling affair.
With her recent move from Idaho to Minnesota, she is expanding her horizons quickly to city riding and cruising the river bottom trails. Without a doubt you too will be intrigued by Stephanie's cycling journey from utilitarian riding in College to a true love affair on and off the road only two years later.
I just flew back in to Minneapolis a couple of hours ago. I have so many fun stories to tell about the weekend. The stories involve Gary Fisher, my bike race, the Trek VW Racing Team, sunburns and windburns, the new Women Who Ride Club, and so much more. I am exhausted though. I will get to the blogging this week. Keep an eye out for them!
And Carrie, I haven't forgotten about the blog I promised you. It is coming.
I rode a spin bike for an hour and a half on valentines day. My true love is riding outdoors, preferably where you can get good and muddy - of course, with the temperatures reading in the low single digits above and below zero, there was no mud to be found. I still felt a little unfaithful though.
The rest of the day I spent talking with my clients about their fitness goals, how cold it was, and what valentines day meant to them. we agreed on their fitness goals (they needed to lose some weight) we agreed on how cold it was (way, way, way too cold) but we did not agree on what valentines day meant.
Here were some of the answers that I got:
"Love is dead; valentines day is just another way that malls get money. True love is taking out the trash and turning the music down - not diamonds."
"I love valentines day. All the guys go out and buy flowers and all the girls can be flirty and fun."
"It is valentines day today?"
"Romance is gone..." (she was wearing a red bra when she said it... interesting.)
"I'm sorry Steph"
That last one was my husband Bill, who claimed to have forgotten completely about Valentines day. He said that to make up we could go buy an outfit for me and then go out to dinner. the outfit shopping was not successful. I was tired from work and not feeling very pretty... We walked around the mall until we saw the movie theaters. I wanted to see a movie but Bill said that there was nothing he really wanted to watch. so we did not see a movie. The night was starting to feel like love really was dead.
But then we went home and Bill had cleaned the house and lit candles all over everywhere. he told me that he loved me and we danced to a slow song in our living room. Bill had gotten me a great gift and the night turned out wonderful.
I hope you all had a wonderful day as well.
Maybe if I just close my eyes and count to three, I will wake up and this will all be just a dream. The negative degree weather will be gone. My job will not be so time consuming. I will wake up and life will be the way I want it to be, right?
I can hope, but when I open my eyes, it is very likely that nothing has changed a bit. The winter will still be hanging on and the snow will still cover the ground for another month or so. My job as a Personal Trainer is not going to get any easier. Let's face it, I am just going to have to open my eyes and face the facts. Buck up a little bit and push through it.
This has been the hardest winter I have ever had to get through. When I am on the other side of it...maybe I'll be a better person for it? Not likely...I might just move.
The picture by the way is my little niece, Robyn. She is a doll.
This is where I want to be...and this is what I want to be doing.
Plain and simple.
Did you know that by just sitting down on a ledge, you could get the same effect as
riding a roller coaster? It doesn't look scary from the picture, but my feet were dangling a good 50-60 feet from the ground. It was my idea to do it...so naturally I was the first to try. Jen, Michelle, and Christine gladly took part of the thrill after I showed them how fun it was. I have never had that big of an adrenaline rush from just sitting before.
The picture on the right is my brother in law, Dave, who
got to the cliff first. I included it so you could see where we were sitting from the ground. This place is up by Table Rock in Boise, Id. There are great trails for hiking, running and biking all over the place. We even saw some tire tracks...someone had been winter riding on the trails! You rock...whoever you are.
Yesterday, one of my new clients was in the middle of doing modified Russian twists, when he said "Do they call you the Queen of Pain around here?" It was near the end of his workout and he was tired, so I took it as a compliment.
I am a Personal Trainer, and I usually don't think about how much pain I have the ability to put someone through. (Not real pain...just the pain you get when your muscles are on fire from lactic acid build up, or the pain that comes the next day when you discover muscles you never knew existed).
Queen of Pain...I like that. I wonder if Life Time Fitness will let me embroider it on my uniform?
Over the holidays I was able to go snow tubing with my husband's family. It was a ton of fun. We were out there for about an hour and a half before our fingers and toes became frozen solid. The best run we had was the time we all went down together in a line of eight tubes. Half way down, our line swung around and we connected to make a circle. We were going so fast! There was no speedometer, but I am pretty sure we were traveling at warp speeds.
Always live life to the fullest. And do things that make great memories with the one's you love.
After three games of bowling, I decided that I might want to keep my day job. I came in second to last, and last place every game. I don't know why it took me three games to realize my talent was lacking.
I have always considered myself athletic, but I think bowling is one of those sports that you have to practice at to be considered good. ;-) I had fun anyways, and it was great to meet some of the people at Trek.
Homer, Snuddy, Asif, Penny- all of you are awesome!
My house is a wreck. The kitchen is piled high with dishes that have not been washed in a week. The living room has a board game spilled halfway across the table, books in a stack on the floor and papers for my clients fanned out across the rug. The bedroom has cycling tights and winter gloves of all sizes draped on the dresser, shoes for running, cycling, and work are thrown in the corners and trying to hide under the bed, which is not made, and has not been for a while.
I am busy. Tomorrow is a twelve-hour day at work. I have two clients in the morning and four in the afternoon, plus some fitness assessments and a lunch break. After I finish writing this I will sit down to the chaos across the living room floor and figure out what exercises we are going to do. Tomorrow I will leave by nine o’clock in the morning and I will get home by ten o’clock that night. It is dark and freezing when I go into work and it is dark and freezing when I get home. Whew!
Is this what life is like? Is everyone this busy? Is this normal and I just have a crazy dream that sometime life will slow down and I will have time to breathe? Or do I even want life to slow down? Just yesterday I was running with Bill and I looked over at him running beside me and realized that what we were doing then was a perfect metaphor for my life so far. Run (or ride) as fast and as far as possible. Enjoy the view when you catch your breath.
Have fun out there girls, and keep that heart rate up!
I have always wanted to have a dog in my house. I looked forward to the day when Bill and I would have our own house and we could get a little dog to keep us company. When I imagined the whole experience of having a dog, it was fun, entertaining and just perfect. Basically nothing like having a dog.
This past week I dog-sat two dogs of some friends of ours. They were wonderful dogs, full of energy and excitement, hair and poo. They would follow me around the house looking at me, just waiting to see if I did something exciting like go near the refrigerator. They would sleep in the same room that I did, and they snored. There was a big dog and a little dog; the big dog, Jenga, ate a entire bad of bagels that I had just bought from the store. I am sure the little dog, Pete, ate some too.
The whole experience made me think twice about getting a dog. It is a good realization. Dogs are a lot of work and I needed to see that.
We will probably still get a dog, but just one at a time. And I'll make sure it is a non-shedding, non-pooing, snore-free dog that dislikes bagels.
I rode home Tuesday night. The main roads home are of three sorts;
freeways, which I can’t ride on, Main Roads, which are generally so
patched and worn that I get full use out of my exorbitantly plushy suspension,
and Side Roads that are generally poorly lit but much smoother.
Tuesday night I rode the side roads. In order to get home I have to cross over or under three freeways, snake through a curvy section of neighborhoods and take a long loop around a golf course. Past the golf course there are no streetlights at all – just one at the start of the road and one way down at the end of it, acting like an island in the middle of the Atlantic. No cars either; just a mile-long stretch of newly paved road for me to play on.
So, riding there in the darkness I did something crazy, something I would never suggest to anyone. I switched off my lights.
At first everything was completely black. Then slowly I started too see stuff – the white lines on the side of the road, the pale shadows of the trees beside me and above me clouds masking the stars.
The road was glass; aside from the hum of my tires on the pavement and the occasional ghost-shifting of a needs-tuned mountain bike (not Trek’s fault – cables stretch on a new bike) it was completely quiet.
I was starting to think how peaceful everything was, when I hit the mother of all potholes.
Ka-THUNK! No time for musing when you are trying to hold on to your handlebars for dear life.
I switched back on my lights and checked everything out. No harm done, but the lights stayed on for the rest of the trip.
Kind of funny though – when I first hopped on a bike I swore I would never ride again in the dark. Then I got lights and now I ride pretty regularly after the sun has set. On Tuesday I turned off the lights.
What is next? The more and more you ride a bike the more and more crazy stuff seems normal.
Bill calls it the “Slippery Slope of Biking”
I have promised myself to ride to work at least until the end of November. By then it will be much, much to cold for anyone to ride.
Maybe.
Talk to you later.
So, the last couple of months since I moved to Minnesota, I have been unemployed. It has been a three month vacation; Sleeping in, reading romance novels, and eating ice cream. YEAH RIGHT! It has not been glamorous at all, but instead a lot of hard work and very stressful. I have been busy finishing up my degree, moving into our house, buying furniture for our house, riding my bike like crazy, and trying to find a job. I also spent the last two weeks house sitting for a couple with four kids.
The dust is all settling now: I graduated with my BS in Exercise Science, for the most part our house is furnished and unpacked, and I got a Job! I am now a Personal Trainer for LifeTime Fitness in Eden Prairie, MN. I had to go through a grueling interviewing process, but I ended up with a really cool job. I am very excited for this new endeavor in my life.
I have training for the job this whole week, from sun up to sun down - (which is only about seven hours or so with all the cloudiness we have been having.) Still, it is a lot of information to take in. I feel like I am back in my organic chemistry class in college. My organic chemistry teacher scared me to death with the amount of information we needed in order to do well in the class. This job is scaring me too. Heaven forbid... there is a ton to remember.
In between all of that my bike finally came! I brought it home last night and sat it in the corner so it could watch the rain with me. (more on that later...) I cant wait to ride my bike on some trails, I cant wait to start work, I cant wait to just GET STARTED!!
In the mean time, light a candle for me, I am one busy girl.
This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month! So what does that mean to you? Well if you have them...and want to keep them...it is time to get "in the know" about breast health.
Diagnosing breast cancer early can be essential to your survival. If you have never been screened for breast cancer, talk to your doctor about the best method for you. He or she may recommend a mammogram, clinical exam, or self examination.
One more reason to get out and pedal my bike! Research shows that increased physical activity reduces the risk for breast cancer.
Thousands of women (and men) across the country will be pedaling for Breast Cancer Awareness this weekend. Trek is holding their 2nd Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Ride this Saturday, October 13th. I can't think of a better way to spend my Saturday morning. Come support a good cause, and get the exercise you need to reduce your risk for Breast Cancer. Just go to Trek's website to sign up for the ride closest to you.
I will be at the Penn Cycle Store in Woodbury, MN this Saturday. Hope to see you there!
The next time someone tells me she has four kids, and can't seem to find the time to ride her bike or exercise, I will completely understand. I have been house sitting for some friends for two weeks now. They have four awesome kids, but how do you mothers do it? I don't know how anyone has the time to take kids to school, football, tennis, and music lessons, make them meals, help them with homework, do the laundry, and errands, much less get a good bike ride in. I have not exercised in three days, and it is just about killing me!
Studies are now showing that mothers really do get too little exercise. Its really not that surprising when you think how every kid in a mother's life comes before anything she does for herself. So the phrase "you kids are going to kill me one of these days" has some scary truths to it.
It is recommended that "in addition to eating right and minimizing risk factors such as smoking, exercise is the key to a healthier lifestyle". 
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise on five or more days a week. This may be a very difficult thing to do for most mothers out there, but it is your life that is at stake! Exercise has so many health benefits. It also has the ability to combat disease.
I have only had to endure two weeks of motherhood, but there will come a day when I will have kids of my own. I thought I should start right now to find ways to get exercise in with such a busy schedule. I came up with three tips:
1) Play with your kids. What better way to get exercise in than jumping on the trampoline or playing tag in the yard. If your schedule is packed, just squeeze in 10 minutes.
2) Ride a bike when ever possible. To the post office, bank, farmers market, or even to the store to pick up a few things. It takes a little longer, but you are getting two things done at once.
3) Do something you enjoy. Whether it is the new yoga class at your gym, or jogging with your friends early in the morning, make exercising something you look forward to. When it is something you want to do, you are more likely to do it, no matter how crunched your time is.
I give my "congratulations" and "keep it ups" to all you mothers out their who are already living a healthy way of life. Good luck to the rest of us!
Remember that your health is something you will only appreciate when it is gone. Don't wait. Get out there today and do something that will benefit your health.
Keep Riding!
Well, I just said goodbye to one of the most special things in my life...my road bike. Remember that blue, fast bike that I purchased after I gave back the stolen one? (read "I stole my first bike" blog) Well, that blue beauty is gone now. Out of my life forever. I put him in a box and mailed him away to some guy in Oklahoma. It was really hard to let him go. I apparently had a big attachment issue. Some people can go through bikes like pairs of socks, but I develop relationships.
That bike meant a lot to me because it was such a big part of my life. We went on endless rides together. It took me up into the mountains and through the city traffic. I rode it to work, to class, to soccer practice and even to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July. My very last ride with it was yesterday to the Minneapolis Public Library. Man, I am going to miss that bike.
Today, I wanted to go mountain biking, but I didn't have time to load my bike up and drive to the trails. I had to do some form of biking today...I have the Single Track Escape bike race tomorrow, and I don't want stiff legs. I ended up going to extreme measures...I took my mountain bike for a road ride! Just picture me on my Trek Fuel Ex (yeah, it's full suspension) going around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. Well some of you don't have to imagine, because you saw me. Yeah, I know what you were thinking when you gave me that strange look.
Just because my road bike is gone, doesn't mean you won't see me out on the roads. I will just have to have to make a few compromises and adjustments till I get my new road bike. (won't be till December or January) More discussion about the new road bike possibilities later.
It is kind of silly, but I hope to see my blue road bike again someday. A reuniting of some sort. Who knows, it could happen. But until that day, farewell.
Keep Riding!
Note to new owner in Oklahoma: Treat him nice!
I came across this video clip on the internet. Check out the crazy things this lady does on her bike! It is amazing. You go girl!
There are not very many velodromes out there (only about 23 in the US), and there are very few people who have actually seen races held on these tracks. Thanks to my new friend Michele, I saw my first one on Thursday night at the National Sports Center in Minneapolis, MN. They have races there every Thursday night during the summer months. Michele's husband races there every Thursday and invited me to come watch the fun.
Talk about exciting! The riders were going so fast around the velodrome and I got to watch every second of it. The fans got to choose winners in some of the races and prizes were handed out if your racer won. I even witnessed one of the riders crash on the last lap of his race. He wasn't hurt too bad, but seemed pretty angry that he crashed.
There were women racing too! They were going really fast. That's a good thing too, because your speed is what keeps you upright on the very slanted track surface. Anyone who is interested in fixed gear velodrome racing should check your area for some races. For those who plan to stay purely spectator, like me, check for a velodrome in your area. Admission is usually free, or relatively cheap, and it is a fun outing to take your friends or family.
Becoming an official Trek Woman Who Rides was a dream come true. It started with my husband and I browsing the internet for information on bikes. He was in need of a new road bike - after riding his into the pavement for eight years. We were researching all the options and went to the Trek website once again to look at the 2007 Madones. We were oohing and aahing, and discussing whether to get the Madone 5.0 or the 5.2 when we clicked on the Women Specific Design link. We read about this contest to become a Trek Women Who Rides...
I thought it would be really cool to win, but I am a realist when it comes to contests, and didn't think my chances were great. I told Bill (my husband) that I would write an essay later. He had big plans for me though - "You better start today! You only have a couple weeks, and it says here that they (Trek) want three pictures!"
I wrote, Bill read and critiqued. He took me out on my bike and we spent the better part of the evening taking pictures of me winding down the trails of Boise. 
The final draft of the essay had to do with an experience I had in college. (Go to the blog entitled "I stole my first bike" to read the essay) It was short, to the point, and definitely different than any other entry that Trek would be receiving. Bill and I picked out the best three pictures, read the essay one last time, and sent it away to Trek.
We then sat back and had one of those moments where you dream about having something amazing happen in your life. "Wouldn't that be awesome if you won?" Bill said to me. "Yeah", I said. But inside I knew that I wouldn't win.
A month went by and the winners were already supposed to be notified. I had heard nothing, but was not too disappointed. (I didn't think I would win anyways) A couple weeks later I got a generic email stating that thousands of women entered the contest, and the winners had still not been chosen. This gave me hope that I could still win, but with so many contestants, I was back to a realistic point of view. I didn't even give my contact information with my essay- They had no idea who I was!
I am so glad I have such a go lucky and supportive husband. When I got an email from Trek saying they wanted my phone number so they could call me, my husband almost had dropped dead from excitement. He started jumping around the house yelling, "Are you serious? Are you joking me?", over and over again. I, on the other hand just sat in front of the computer and came up with reasons why Trek would want to call me; they had nothing to do with me actually winning the contest. Maybe they are calling all the runner ups to give them a free t-shirt. Or maybe the have a survey they want me to take. I told Bill to calm down, "I don't want to get my hopes up yet."
The stars must have aligned just right, because the next day Lindsay from Trek told me that I was a winner. One of the five winners in fact. Not a runner up. An actual and official Trek Woman Who Rides. I was so happy that I couldn't stop smiling the whole day long.
Bill came to see me at work and gave me the biggest hug possible. He was just as thrilled as I was. When we got home that night, Bill said "Remember when I said 'wouldn't that be awesome if you won?'" I said "Yeah", and we both just laughed. Life is full of great moments like those!
I made a last minute trip to Washington DC on Friday. Bill was there on business so we decided that I would meet him there and we would see the sights. We had tons of fun being tourists and hiking around the city. We barely got to touch the surface of all the good things there are to do there. We are determined to go back, and we put DC on the top five "places we would like to live".
The best part of the vacation was our bike ride on Saturday morning with Laura and Russ. Laura lives in DC and offered to show us around while getting a good bike ride in. I had never been to DC before so she pointed out all the memorials and historic buildings as we went. The scenery was awesome and the weather was perfect. We went along a bike trail that was right on the Potomac River. We had a lot of fun. Thanks Laura and Russ for the ride and the bikes!
I hope you enjoy the pictures of our little trip to DC!
I thought I would give everyone a quick background of my life. I grew up in a wonderful family in Moreno Valley, California. During high school I played soccer, ran track, and cross-country. I went to college and earned a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science. I have always been into sports and athletics, so it should come as no surprise that I played every intramural sport I could while in college. Soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, dodge ball, and even inner tube water polo. It was during college that I also fell in love with my now husband, Bill.
Bill introduced me to the cycling world. I started out by borrowing his friend’s road bike, to test the water. When I decided I liked it, I got one of my own (see the “I Stole My First Bike” entry). I rode that bike around till I saved up enough to buy a new one. The new one was a shiny blue road bike.
After we both graduated, Bill and I moved to Boise, Idaho. We were there for about 6 months, which brings us to our latest move. On July 7th we moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Bill’s job.
It has been about two years since I bought that blue road bike. Just recently (about 5 months ago) I discovered I also had a keen interest in Mountain biking. I jumped on the opportunity to buy a Trek Fuel Ex 9. It is a 2006 model and also one of Trek’s WSD bikes. I have loved that bike from the day I got it.
For me, biking has opened up so many opportunities in my life. I have found something that is not only a hobby and a form of exercise, it is my passion. I am so excited to be a Woman Who Rides.
This is the essay that I sent to Trek for the "Women Who Ride" contest:
I stole my first bike. It was sitting in the bottom of a parking garage completely unchained, with a years worth of dust on the frame, and two flat tires. I left a post-it note with my phone number on the bike rack and took it upstairs to my apartment. I washed the dust off the old steel frame, tightened the brakes, bought new tubes, lubed the chain and rode it to school. And to work. And to soccer practice and pickup games and drive-in movie theaters. And then things started getting interesting. I started riding for riding's sake – on solo rides and group rides and up the sides of incredibly steep mountains. The relationship moved from pure transportation to something like a love affair. I learned that when a bike chain starts to sound like a cricket every time you pedal it is time to wash it. Actually, it is past time to wash it. Now it is time to soak it in a solution and re-lube it so that it hums softly like the wind. I learned that when your wheel rubs the brakes at the same point every revolution it is time to true it. You should only turn the spoke wrench a quarter of a turn at a time max – or a half a turn if the spoke is loose – otherwise you will taco your wheel, make it oblong like an egg, or dish it out so that it always rubs the brake. Truing a wheel is Zen. It is almost mystical; it is like Mr. Magoo and Yoda. It is also the reason why I am the woman you are looking for. I saved up for six months to buy a wheel set that cost more than my first car. I ate ramen and ninety-nine cent loaves of bread and survived the weekends by joining clubs on campus to eat their pizza. I was a member of the Future Dentists club, and the Medieval club and part of the college Republicans and Democrats. My inbox was loaded with junk mail, but that was fine by me – my wheel set is lighter than my gym bag. I know what cadence means, and how many watts is a lot. I can fix a flat tire in my sleep and can tell the difference between a pinch flat and a goat head at fifty yards. When I watch the Tour de France I stand up on the couch and yell at the TV. When I graduated from college I brought the bike back down to the parking garage and picked up my post-it note. Then I loaded a new bike into the back of my car and drove away. I kind of felt like I was abandoning an old friend – the only consolation was that my new bike is light and fast and hums like the wind. And that is something I can fall in love with.
Today is race day! My very first race in fact. Buck Hill. I went out for a little ride this morning to get my legs stretched out for the race. On the trail I saw another girl riding, so I tried to catch up to her. I wasn't able to catch her, but I met her at the end of the trail and tried hard to recruit her to race with me tonight. As it turns out, like me, she is new to the Twin Cities area, and has never raced before. I must admit, she didn't seem all that enthusiastic about racing. Perhaps her lack of enthusiasm isn't due to her fear of racing as much as it is her fear of the crazy lady who chased her down the trail so excited about the prospect of meeting a fellow racer that I forgot to introduce myself! I sure hope she comes tonight and gives it a try with me. Racing is something that is intimidating for lots of women... including me! But tonight... I take the next step and conquer a fear.
My race is only a few hours away, and right now my hands are shaking as I type this blog. It's okay to be nervous. Just don't talk yourself out of taking that next step. I am going to show up to that race today and try to have as much fun as possible.
Wish me luck!
