Beware of the Hummo!

Yesterday Pattie and I did a bike-run brick. That means we biked for a while, then upon returning to our makeshift transition area, we promptly put on our running stuff and went running. It's to practice the transition for the triathlon as well as to practice getting your muscles to change gears.

Anyway, we went up Old La Honda Rd in Woodside. It's a steep 5 mile climb. It took about 45min just to go up 5 miles! Ugh. Rough time man. And so curvy, you kept thinking you were almost to the summit and then, another turn! The way down was much more scary. Curvy turns, blind corners. We were clamping down on our breaks so hard that we both had numb hands by the time we got to the bottom. I was trying to hug the corners to avoid any oncoming cars, but I wasn't able to avoid the HUMMO! Darn hummo drives! What the heck are they doing going on a road that their vehicle wont fit up! A hummo ran me off the road. I was hugging the corner really tight as it came around going up, and it was too long to make the corner, so I had to stop and hold on to the moutain hoping it wouldn't smash me as it went by. I was fine, didn't fall or anything, but the driver didn't even stop! Poop on them. I could have been the filling of a hummo-mountain sandwich. Anyway, enough venting...but if you are biking on a curvy road...BEWARE of the HUMMO!

Family Photos

It is always good to be with family, even when the circumstances are unfortunate. I'm sure my Grandpa was happy that we were all together. As promised, here the pictures we took. For those of you who want a copy, just click on the image and the picture will appear larger. Then you can right click to download your own copy.

The cousins.

My parent's and I.

Wes and I.

The whole gang after dinner.

And last, but certainly not least...

Wes and his prized crime fighting monkey.

Mountain Biking Monday

Well she did it. Elizabeth is one heck of a convince-er...(and a beautiful Velo Bella). Well, I have to admit, how can you not want to go mountain biking when you can see such beautiful sights! So Monday morning, before heading to Reno, Elizabeth and I went for a little ride. She even let me ride her fancy smanchy bike...the Juliana. It's so crazy to be on a bike that bounces! Esp after all the road riding I have done.

So she took me to Alum Rock park. We rode through some grassy trails to get me used to the off road. Then over some rocks. It's amazing how a different kind of bike opens up the world! No more sticking to pavement. I found myself wanting to ride over any rock I could find because nothing happened when I did...just a little bounce! Probably thanks to Juliana.

Once at the park, we hit the hills pretty quick. The hill she chose looked good. Didn't look steeper than anything I've ridden up lately in my Wildflower training...but as soon as we got started I realized this was a WHOLE nother ball park. It wasn't just about leg strength or pedaling. It was about balance and strategy. And the rule 'Chin up'. I found that very useful. I have a new respect for mountain bikers. But after some VERY hard work, we got the gift of a beautiful view! It would have taken much longer to hike up there. Next time I think we should bring a picnic.

But alas, what goes up, must come down. Not that Elizabeth took me on any crazy down hill paths, but I must say, I do not think I want to ride quickly over rocks going DOWN! And apparently the mountain biking rule of thumb on downhill is...NO BRAKES!! I don't know about that one yet. But we'll see...

Anyway, the jury is still out on whether Elaine will be a mountain biking chick, but it was a beautiful ride. Being out in nature is very therapeutic...road biking can be beautiful as well, but being smack dab in the middle of it certainly speaks for itself.

Saturday with friends

It's been a rough past few days, as is probably apparent, but I had the wonderful blessing of a visit from Sarah and Matthew this weekend! They arrived around noon, I got to show them my humble abode, and then we went to go dress shopping for the wedding! So much fun! Well...the girls did...the boys went off to look at motorcycles and had beer! Can you believe the roles we have...but they wouldn't go to the sports store ;). Anyway, it was tons of fun to be girly and look at dresses. Sarah has some great ideas and is going to look BEAUTIFUL!

We had some lunch at Hobees, which has food that is somewhat like the Glenwood, so I though some of my old Eugene buddies would appreciate it. Then we headed out to Santa Cruz to get some good ocean time in. We wandered around the shore, saw some surfers, some seals, some sea otters, a fish get caught, and even made it down to the boardwalk. It's such a nice Saturday thing to do to just wander by the coast with friends. And since we were at the boardwalk, Wes and I had to do our ritual there. Photos in the booth! It started when we first moved down to CA just before my birthday. It was too soon to have friends, so we went to the beach to celebrate. We took some of these fun photos, and since then, on birthdays, anniversaries, etc we go there and take our pictures. I've got a fun collection on the fridge. But this time we got Sarah and Matthew in there :). They did one too, I hope Sarah will post it as well. Then after a long afternoon of wandering we went to the Pink Godzilla sushi bar for dinner. There we had a good time laughing about coke smacking and I had some don buri. I recommend the Korean kind better. ;)

All in all it was a wonderful Saturday. It is wonderful to have old friends that even though it's been years since you've seen them, it feels like almost no time has passed. Ok, maybe I'm getting sappy, but I have great friends! Thanks for coming Sarah and Matthew!

Easter Eggs

Well, today was not the happiest of days. My Grandpa passed away yesterday. Sadness surrounds.

So today I thought...I should do something uplifting. What is uplifting? I thought of the upcoming Easter holiday which has seemed to spring up this year...no pun intended. Usually I look forward to it, but this year it has come out of the blue. Easter is a time to remember new life. Jesus came, lived, taught, died, and now has RISEN, and with Him, He brings us new life. There are flowers everywhere, and today was the first sunny day in weeks. The air smelled of spring. New life is everywhere right now, despite the recent loss of life. So I wanted to do something carefree that embraced it.

Some friends talked about an Easter egg hunt, which reminded me of the good old fun of dying eggs I used to have as a kid. After work, I was pooped, my heart was down, so I went to the store and got some eggs and some 99 cent dye. After dinner with Wes I set to work. I boiled my eggs...and I don't do this often so I admit, I did look in a book to make sure not to mess it up. And little did I know...you don't actually BOIL them. Good thing I checked...here they are fresh and ready to be colorful!I set up my rainbow of colors...

And I made art. :)


A little bit of color and life to brighten my evening. I hope it brightens yours too. May you enjoy the new life around you! Happy Easter!

On a lighter note...

Finally...a picture to go with our Easter thoughts...

Wildflower Training Weekend

Whew...what a weekend. I thought about titling this post 'pooped' or 'ughhhhhh', but that wouldn't be very understandable because I think we all make different sounds when we are pooped. Anyway here goes.

This weekend was a training weekend for the Wildflower Triathlon on 5/7. It was organized ( or disorganized ) by my tri club (which I've never really done anything with before). Pattie and I were going to go down and camp Friday night, do the training on the course on Sat, and come back on Sunday. Unfortunately Pattie was feeling kinda sick, so we opted to get a hotel instead of camping. It was a GOOD choice cause it POURED our whole drive down and most of the night. We were very glad to be in a warm dry place.

We got up in the morning and drove into the park to meet for an 8:30am bike ride. Little did we know the camping group was slow rising and wanted to wait for the fog to burn off...which it had...anyway, the scheduled ride didn't start til almost 10. But we were lucky enough to meet a very nice guy who had done the course before...he was SUCH a nice guy. Very friendly and patient with my slowness...so he lead us on the ride. It was great...well the company was great, the scenery was great...but I would have to say the hills were NOT great. Well maybe great in size, but not in the amount of fun I had riding up them. THEY WERE HUGE!! I left my camera in the hotel room so unfortunately those of you who have not been there will have to trust me on this one. They were HUGE. Probably about 4-5 big hills on a 25 mile ride. My legs were burning after that was over. But it was beautiful. Green hills which are usually brown, deer, wild turkeys, wildflowers of course. Very pretty.

So Pattie and I had the very smart idea to do the run course in our break before the swim. So we could just come straight home on Sunday instead of getting up to run. So we had some fruit and a short rest, then onto another beautiful course. But again...HILLS. My shins have been killing me lately so I talked Pattie and our new Wildflower guide into doing a walk/run with me. 5 min off, 5 min on...and we did the whole 10k. It didn't take as long as I thought so I know if I need to walk during the run, I should still finish in a decent amount of time.

Ok, by then we were pooped. We had some lunch...boy did that sandwich taste GOOD! Then we sat around for a while til swim time came around. The organized bike ride took a lot longer to start so we were a bit skeptical about this whole organized swim. But it was supposed to be coached by a professional triathlete, so we decided to wait for it. But right on time people were gathering by the dock. So we wrenched on our wetsuits and went down. It was supposed to be a coached swim, but no one of the coaching variety showed up, so we all joked about how all they would have said was "Ok...start here, and come back here, and go as fast as you can." I guess we didn't need that kind of coaching, so slowly we all went in.

I thought a nice swim in the lake would feel good after all that hard work. But now I know why the swim is first in a triathlon. My advice: NEVER swim in 52 degree water after you are tired. I think that's pretty sound advice. I was excited to test my swimming skills in the lake because I have really improved lately, but again I think the timing was bad. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the swim both of my calves cramped up. I really wanted to see how the whole course would feel so I kept going. The right calf really cramped up and by the time I was almost to the turn around I was swimming one legged. It hurt BAD. I couldn't see anyone and I was getting a little freaked, so I decided to turn back. I had to lay on my back for a bit to stretch my legs, and finally got swimming again, but very awkwardly. But I made it. I wanted to curl up in a ball afterwards and just cry, but I held it together in front of the other triathletes. But as Pattie watched everyone come out of the water apparently everyone was pretty darn cold and disoriented...some also cramped as well. So I didn't feel too bad.

After that we changed, tried to warm up, and went up to go to the again supposedly organized BBQ. This time there was some organization, but it was a bit late. But that tri tip and salad, and pasta, never tasted so good. We ate up, met some nice people, and then were glad to head back to our warm hotel room to collapse. Normally it’s hard for me to get to bed the night before Spring Forward, but this time, I did not have that problem.

Sunday, we got up, drove back, had a little stint at the outlets, and were home for lunch. Now it’s Monday, and I still feel it. Again I say...whew...what a weekend.