Exploring Seattle, Rubber Side Down

It's too bad I had to get here on the tail end of summer.  I helped myself to a mountain biking guide for the Puget Sound area, and I'm definitely set on seeing it through.

The first week, I went to St. Edward's State Park--just me and my bike, Gemini.  Fear of new terrain, no company, and unfamiliar trail conditions made me weary to go exploring too far...but I still enjoyed the scenery.

The second time around, I recruited Chewie and Andrew to tag along with!  We had a lot of fun at Redmond Watershed Preserve.  Fast and flowy, this trail was cake and clear of obstacles.  I'd like to try something more challenging next time, but this was a great one!

First Stitches

It was certainly a summer of "First"s.  First triathlon, solo in a plane, road ride > 50 mi, season a MTB, trip to Hawaii...

...and my first time getting stitches.  This story is a bit long...

I was doing a Thursday Night Women's Ride with the Boulder MTB Alliance in Nederland at the West Magnolia Trails.  It's a shame I didn't have my camera with me, because the trails were beaaaaauuutiful!!!  Flowy and bits of challenging trail, I had a blast riding with the beginner group with Beth.  Near the end of the ride, we came across a clearing by a camping site and stopped to collect the group.  I was about second or third to last, so I unclipped out of my right side, and leaned.  You can probably guess what happened next: the bike leaned, I leaned with it...and next thing I know, I'm on the ground with my bike, and strangers are staring.  I was laughing pretty hard, but noticed some nasty road rash on my right knee.  I rinsed it out with what I had left in my water bladder, and we pedaled the remaining twenty minutes or so back to the parking lot.

Upon returning to the parking lot, some of the nice ride leads of BMA handed me some disinfecting wipes, and I was able to get my right knee cleaned up pretty well.  I hopped on my step ladder to get my bike on the top of my car, and I hear Beth gasp, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ANKLE?"  I look down at my left leg, and sure enough, a small, semi-congealed waterfall of blood was making its way down my ankle.  Gross.  I have no idea where this came from, but my guess is the chainring.  

Just my luck, my phone was out of battery, and Beth's was left at home.  We were also trying to meet up with Angie, and were running about an hour late...oh, I also had to pick up Ryan from an undecided location in Boulder.  I finally figured out that Ryan was staying at Sam's, so we went there, and the kind residents of the Mariposa House hooked me up with paper towels and more disinfecting products.  I love the Mariposa House and its residents, but their cleanliness standards may have not been the best for cleaning wounds.  Jeff Harvey put it best: "let me get this straight.  You have a deep wound, cleaned it out properly, and then thought it would be a good idea to put a paper towel FROM THE MARIPOSA HOUSE on it?!"  

The next half hour consisted of taking high-res photos of the wound with Sam's shiny new iPhone 4, sending them to my brother, and asking him his doctor-ly opinion.  Finally, around 10pm, Ryan and I got back to my parents' house, where he aided me in very thoroughly washing out the cut, and wrapping it up for the night.   The next morning, it looked no better....so I got myself to urgent care, where I was promptly reprimanded for not being in the previous night.  Oh yeah...the kind medic who cleaned out my cuts happened to be Kash, a high school classmate whom I haven't seen since graduation in 2005.  Small Boulder!

After the scolding, they stitched me up (while Ryan watched) and sent me home.  

...and there I was.  With the first five stitches ever in my life.  

Dirt Series MTB Camp

I just discovered this in my drafts, waiting for photos...but then I found out that photos of this event are forever lost.  Sad day.  Oh well, the blog entry lives on.

I was lucky enough to win a scholarship to attend the Dirt Series Mountain Biking Camp for women during a weekend in June.  Much thanks to Race Face for sponsoring my fees!

Dirt Series is a two-day camp that tours western North America.  They are based in Whistler, BC, and this was their first year coming to Colorado.  They did a stint in Fruita, and also added Boulder to their list.  The camp in Boulder was immediately following my trip to Maui, and I couldn't have been more stoked.  Unfortunately, a deluge came through, and soaked us to the bone for both days.  We still had a lot of fun and I learned a ton, though!

They set up obstacle courses for us, and we did clinics on straight-line riding (I successfully rode a teeter-totter!), cornering, drop-offs, wheel-lifts, descending, braking, and climbing.  The first day was 12 hours (there were breaks and food and socializing/downtime), and the second day was about 7.  Since it was still raining and we couldn't get out on the trails, we decided to hit up the indoor mountain biking park in Boulder.  The second day was not as successful in terms of performance, but I blame this on exhaustion and the closed-quarters of the indoor park.  I still had fun, and picked up a lot of good tips and tried my best to break bad habits.

I'm glad that I'll be moving to a state that will be conducive to improving upon my new hobby...

Gemini, my mountain bike when I first purchased it

My First Triathlon!

Part of my bucket list for this summer was to do my first triathlon.  I decided on the 5430 Sprint distance at the Boulder Reservoir.   Distances:

750m swim
17.2 mile bike (it cracks me up that this is the only event not measured in metric)
5K run

I convinced Ryan Kramer to do the event with me.  It was his first tri, too, and he did really well!  I ended up losing the most time in the transition area...I can't believe how difficult it is to take off a wetsuit, dry your feet, and put on your bike shoes and socks.  Didn't get a chance to nab too many pictures, but here are a few.

The transition area:

My "station":

Some of the ones from the pro photographers:

A Rite of Passage

I took my first real spill on my mountain bike today doing the Betasso Loop with the BMA Women's Rides. Turned a corner in a puddle, gears weren't low enough for me to keep pedaling uphill...and I ate it. Down a hill. Into some trees. The damage was limited to my lower back, my shins, and left forearm...at least the bike is ok!!

I guess now I know how to plan ahead a little better. :)


So much for having pretty legs for Hawaii...

Spring has Sprung

Weather in Boulder has been gorgeous. That can only mean one thing...

It's March, and snowstorms are creeping around the corner of every 60-degree weekend. I love the yo-yo between seasons, because it means I get the best out of all of them. Cool-but-sunny days lend themselves well to cycling and running, but the spring storms bring enough snow for a nice Eldora ski day.

I took advantage of the most recent sunny day by going mountain biking for the first time. My friend Sam was kind enough to take me on a trail in North Boulder that started at Wonderland Lake and wrapped around to the Boulder Reservoir. I got a free rental from Full Cycle Bikes because I'm part of their women's road cycling club, Venus de Miles! Well, not really the reason why I got the free rental...I contacted the owner of the shop and the lady who heads up the club, and asked if they gave out discounts to VdM members. She was super nice and decided to give me a bike for free for the day since it is still early season!

It was beautiful and the trail was dry. MTBing is sooo different from road. I practically had to retrain myself on how I sit on a bike and balance. The terrain was a bit technical at some points, and I definitely wasn't without my stops and starts. It was really fun, though! Too bad I can't afford a MTB right now...I'll have to save up. Thank goodness I have a job. :)


This is a view I'll never get sick of.

Buffalo Bicycle Classic

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic Road Ride was today! Like the other ride I did, this one sponsors scholarship money for college students. I was able to recruit Matt to do this ride with me, and it was a lot of fun!

Stats (I love my bike computer):

Time: 3 hours 21 min

Trip: 53.6 mi

Avg. Speed: 15.9 mph

Max. Speed: 37.9 mph

Matt was much faster, finishing the race about 20-25 min before me. It was a good ride full of lots of hills (was NOT expecting those), and the sun peeked out for the end of the ride.

Elevation map:

Route map:
The starting/finish line:

Foggy mountains greeted us at the starting line.
The ride took us past Larimer County.
First aid station, and Matt is visibly tired...
The ride was very pretty the entire time.
Victorious!
The after "party," buffalo and all!

This was my first long ride with my clipless pedals. It was mostly successful, except for my two accidents at traffic lights. :) With one foot clipped in and another out, I waited at red lights...but something tipped my bike towards my clipped in foot, and caused my bike to take me down with it. Both times, I couldn't stop laughing, considering how slooowwwlllyyy I fell, and how many people were watching. No damage done, and I think now I am officially initiated into the world of clipless.

Venus de Miles

Today I participated in the Venus de Miles Road Ride--a cycling event created for women that benefits the Greenhouse Scholarship program. There was a 35 mi, 50 mi, and 65 mi option. The 65 mi option took you on an intense hill-climb to Jamestown, so I opted for the less-challenging 50 mi route.

The starting line:

...and we're off! Towards the mountains! The sun didn't make an appearance, which kept the ride nice and cool for its entirety. Super nice. :)

Right after Mile 20 when I was just approaching Lyons, I had a bit of misfortune. A bee flew in between my face and my sunglasses, got stuck, and stung my eyelid...don't know the chances of that happening, but I'm willing to bet it didn't happen to any of the 1499 other riders! It was not a pleasant sensation, especially since I've never been stung before...luckily, the aid station was less than a mile away, so I back-tracked to the first aid van. They didn't have any ice, but they were friendly and sat with me while I got over my shock and initial pain. :) They took a picture of my swollen eyelid, but I forgot to give them my email address for a copy...I'll have to track it down from the event coordinator.

Once we got to Lyons, the ride was very pretty...lots of trees and mountains.

One of the great rules of Venus de Miles is the "dressed in drag" rule...only 20 men are allowed to ride in Venus as a support crew, and they are required to dress in drag. Most don pink tutus and wigs, and others just wear grass skirts or pink shirts...but this fantastic rider went all out (I didn't even notice he was a man until I saw the moustache)! He was kind enough to take a picture of me at the final rest stop:

There was a glitch in routing the course, and as a result, the 50 mi route turned into a 43.5 mi route. A combination of this route reduction, my speedy downhills, and some bad misfortune on Ryan/Erica/Sam/Mom/Dad's part led to them all missing my ride until I was done. However, I did finish way under time (3 hours, avg. 14.5 mph, max. 31 mph), which makes me very happy. :)

My lovely support crew...thank you for waking up before 5:30am to drive me to the starting line, Ryan!

The family...including Porter. :) Thank you, Sam, for all of your help (leftover Gu, teaching me how to fix a flat...)!

Next ride: The Buffalo Bicycle Classic 50 mi with Matt Lenda in 2 weeks!

Amazing Weekend! Biking and Flying...

The weather here in Kent was absolutely fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky, 80-degree weather!

Saturday, I went to the Kent Farmer's Market. Not as big as the Boulder Farmer's Market, but still plentiful enough for me to buy some fruit, veg, and herbs. After a small lunch, Spencer and I headed out on an epic bike ride. We headed north, through Renton, hugged Lake Washington up to Bellevue, crossed the I-90 bridge and through the northern part of Mercer Island, went across downtown Seattle, and headed back south around Pike's Place Farmer's Market. A rough map:

The entire ride ate up the afternoon, totaling 4 hours and just shy of 52 miles. I felt exhausted afterwards, but the ride gave me reason to believe that I can stay on a bike for much longer than I thought I could!

I spent the rest of the evening eating and sitting...went to Graham's with some of the other interns, and we watched Planet Earth and Snatch on his brand new TV and Blue-Ray player.

Sunday morning, I got up to go on a flight with Kevin to Renton Airport. The weather was absolutely perfect: METARs literally read 0 knot winds and clear skies! My instructor was nice, and the flight school was friendly. No maneuvers; just an extra landing at Bremerton Airport. We flew around Puget Sound. It was beautiful. Kevin rode along in the back, and was able to snag some pictures. We saw Rainier (it was a bit hazy to see it properly), the Olympic Mountains, downtown Seattle, Bainbridge Island...

On our way back to Renton Airport, we took a shortcut through SeaTac airport. There's a passageway where you have to maintain a certain altitude, and Air Traffic Control will let you fly directly across the busy airport! Got some views of the jets that I dont' think i'll ever get again...

After my flight, Kevin did his 90-day currency flight in the same plane with the same instructor. There he is, getting ready for a touch-and-go on the Boeing-lined strip.