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.
How far did I go? Exactly 26.2 Miles! That's right a marathon. I ran the Fargo Marathon on Saturday and it was a blast. It was my second, and fastest marathon yet.
About four years ago, I made it one of my goals to run the Boston Marathon one day. I had never been to Boston, and to tell you the truth, I didn't know anything about running marathons either. I just decided that it was something I wanted to do. So I took the first step toward my goal and signed up for my very first marathon. It was the Salt Lake City Marathon in 2005. I ran, and ran, and ran. I had a goal to qualify for Boston, so I ran some more. I probably did not train very smartly. I went for long runs with hardly any food or water. And I hardly even went running the last month before the race because of school and finals. I was nineteen, and I was determined to run.
Despite my will, and goal setting, I did not qualify for Boston. Even worse, I missed the time cut off by by less than 2 minutes! It must have really traumatized me because I didn't attempt another marathon till 3 years later.
I didn't even plan on doing this marathon. I met a wonderful lady (Robin Barden) who was training for the Boston marathon. I became her Personal Trainer, and she became my hero. She came to see me during the week for strength training and stretching, and I went with her on long runs on the weekends. At first I was just doing 8 mile runs, but they quickly turned into 16 milers. Pretty soon, Boston was right around the corner, and I was in shape to do a marathon.
I decided to sign up for a marathon close by, and just run it. I spent the last month and a half working on my pace and did some speed work. It really helped. This time I did qualify for Boston! I had more than ten minutes to spare. I am so happy, and I can't wait for Boston next April.
If you set a goal for yourself, don't ever give up. It might take a lot of hard work, some time, and you might even have to wait for the right person to come around.
Now that I got that marathon out of the way...it is time to RIDE!
I stopped riding my bike to work a couple weeks ago. I rode on a day where the temperature was negative, and by the time I got about 5 miles out, my feet and hands were so cold I felt like turning back. The problem was- I was already halfway there. When I arrived at work, I had a hard time walking on my frozen feet. I made up my mind that commuting to work was over until spring.
After a week and a half of driving to and from work, I decided to brave the elements again. What changed my mind? The temperature was in the 20's! I was nervous to go out in the cold again, but once I was out there, it was great. I overdressed quite a bit and ended up a little sweaty when I arrived. My toes didn't freeze at all!
So, my winter riding may not be over quite yet. I am going on vacation for a couple of weeks, but when I get back I hope there are more days of 20 degree temperatures.
Such a lovely phrase; one that cant be said too often I think. This past weekend I went to a spinning class at the gym where I work. “Spinning,” for the uninitiated is riding on a stationary bike with an instructor leading you. You go up “Hills” and down “Descents”, you ride on “Flat road” and have “Sprints”. So basically it is exactly like riding a bike except for the “riding a bike” part. It is huge amounts of fun.
Kimberly was my instructor for the Saturday morning ride. It was supposed to be a 2-hour endurance ride, but because of time commitments it turned into a 90 minute endurance ride. Frankly, I can say that the Lord answered my prayers; I think that if I had to do the whole two hours I would have died.
Kim did a great job of keeping the excitement level up, and because I have an awesome new heart rate monitor (Thanks TIMEX!) I was able to make sure that I stayed at the right level of exertion. Or about the right level of exertion – after the first “Hill” I was about ready to pass out. The only thing that kept me conscious was Kim shouting “YEAH BABY!” every few minutes telling us to pick up the pace. (Seriously, how can she breathe?!)
I am a sucker for hard workouts, and this one was as good a workout as I have got in a while. THANKS KIM!
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.
It gets dark real fast in the winter time. Here in Minnesota it is pretty well dusk at six o
clock at night, and by the time I get out of work (9 PM) it is completely pitch
black. This is problematic because I do not have a great track record for
riding at night.
When I got my first bike I was real excited. The bike was in pretty
poor shape and it took me all afternoon to clean it up and get it ready to
ride. Bill helped, and when it was done Bill suggested that we go for a ride.
It was dark outside, but Bill had helped with the bike and we had just started
dating, so I wanted to impress him. I said ok – and began the scariest
ride of my life.
Bill took me out on a winding back road with hardly any street lights
at all – and where there were street lights, they just made all the
cracks in the road jump out and look like snakes or alligators or man-eating
potholes. I think we averaged about 5 mph max, which turned our ten mile ride
into a two hour marathon of death. When I got home I laughed and told Bill I
had a great time... and promised myself I would never ride in the dark ever again.
So last night when I got off work I hopped on my bike and rode home.
Apparently there is a new thing that has been developed, called “electric
lights” that you can attach to your bicycle and they will illuminate the
road in front of you so that you do not have to ride on faith. I’ll tell
you, the miracles of modern technology. They never cease to amaze.
Anyway, dear readers, I am well equipped now. I have a stunning Trek
Bike, a warm pair of gloves and a bike light so bright you can see it from
orbit. Bill has said that he will commute through the winter. I think that is
crazy, but I do not tell him that because we only have one car, and as long as
he rides a bike I can drive… but last night was kind of fun.
What do you think? Should I be a nut and ride through the cold dark
nights or should I get my riding done in the mornings and on the weekends and
drive to work? Is it insane to brave the cold and dark when a car is available
or does it matter?
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".
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.
This weekend I rode in the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival held in Hayward and Cable WI. Don't worry about the pronunciation...if you are not from Wisconsin, you won't say it right.
The race was through off road trails that went through the beautiful forests of Northern Wisconsin. The weather turned out to be perfect, despite the cold frost the night before. There were thousands of cyclists who showed up to race, including the pros. I got to meet and chat withLea Davison, who is on the Trek VW Pro Team. She was way cool! I also got to see guys like Travis Brown and Gary Fisher! The whole scene was just amazing.
Now, for the race... I did better than expected, considering it was only my second race ever. It was 40 miles long, but it flew by. The trails were fast and fun. Rolling hills the whole way. The best part was being surrounded by other riders the entire race. There were 1700 riders in the race, and unless you were at either end, you were surrounded. It was great! I even passed about 20 people in the last 3 miles. I ended up getting third in my age group (18-24 yrs). Lea Davison got first in my age group...and she's a pro rider! (There was a 45 minute gap between our times, but that is beside the point). I went to the awards ceremony and they gave me a nice plaque for my third place finish. It was a nice touch for the end of a great day.
I am really starting to like this whole mountain bike racing thing.
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!
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.
I am so glad that there are women out there like me: Really into biking, but nervous to take the next step. I am nervous to take the plunge into the racing world, but you may be nervous to just get back on a bike again, or to try clipless pedals, or whatever it is. We all have our doubts and concerns, but I know it is usually the scary things in life that come with the
most satisfying rewards. No matter where you are on the course, it will be
rewarding to take that next step. If you don't like it at least you
can say you tried.
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.
