TGIF! Last March weekend of 08'

This week has been hard on me (riding). Tuesday night we did the CBC "shop ride". I was doing fine in the rotation until it was my turn to take a pull at the near top of a hill on Hardin Valley Road. I hit a wall of head wind. It sucked. I sucked. My heart rate jumped up too high and my legs started screaming from all the abuse I had put them through the previous weekend. I made it up the long false flat of Hickory Creek Road, which is no easy feat due to the pace these guys keep. Once again we rode up and over Everitt Road this week due to lack of daylight still. I was already in the back when the climb started. Unfortunately I had a small asthma/acid reflux attack. I have had this happen a few times before, but this time I seriously thought I was going to fall off the bike. I didn't have my inhaler (I usually just take a few hits off of it prior to activity), so I took it easy going over the hill. I strolled back until I finally felt like breathing hard again. I met up with Mary and Gene, who dropped off the pace line also on Everitt. It was a decent ride, but I am really looking forward to the regular 42 mile loop that doesn't have that dang hill.

Wednesday is always Haw Ridge night (if it is dry and not raining). I rode with my Menstral Cycle 12 hour team (Kimberly Pemberton, Jimi Flynt, and Karent Clemments). We had a good ride except I bruised my arse pretty good when I fell over on a climb. Smap put some new candies on my single speed, so I am still adjusting to getting in and out of them. We rode my least favorite trail that I need to put some time in on (Roller Coaster). It kicked my butt.

Thursday, I planned on doing a solo road ride after school, but last minute changed my mind and decided to go out to the ridge again. Bad mistake. My legs were seriously tired as well as my lower back. I did not realize this until I got up the first hill. I rode for a pretty good amount of time and finally decided I would do one last climb up Low Gap, so I could do the super fun decent over to my favorite trail, Soccer. I took a wrong turn and upon coming back down to the correct trail, I crashed hard. A sticked popped out of the ground as I rolled over it with my front wheel and it caught me. I landed so hard on my left thigh muscle. I just had to lay there in a fetal position for a minute or so to catch my breath. So much for going down Low Gap. I made my way back to my car and called it a night. I am glad I went though. I need as much trail time as I can get because Cohotta is creeping in pretty quickly.

This weekend hopefully will be fun if it doesn't rain too much. Smap and I are doing a lot of volunteering on Saturday and Sunday. Smap is building trails over at Hastie Park in South Knox on Saturday and I will be helping out with the bike marshalling at the Knoxville Marathon on Sunday. My twin sis will be in town to run the half. It will be fun hanging with her some this weekend too!

That is about it. Hopefully I will remember to take some shots this weekend.

Chaio!

My St.Patty's day photos....a week late...

My dad LOVES collecting different things. This is one of two barns which display his ever growing collection of license plates. If you have some and don't want to throw them away, my dad will take them. At night, you can point your head lights towards the barn, and it lights up. It is really cool!

The llamas are just so different. I love watching them!

Here I am on the "Four Corners" of Laughalot (my dad's farm is called this). We need another corner to fit the horses in. Ippon and Sam are wondering what the heck I am doing up there. I just thought it would be cool to see if I could get all the animals over there together. They all came when I called. The llamas and pigs all somewhat know their names. My dad is letting my uncle keep some cattle in the one pasture. I think it would be cool to see how the llamas and the horses interact...the cows are just kind of dumb.

Ippon with a ball in his mouth.

Dad and myself doing the self-portrait thing.

He is so cute. He doesn't look like he is over 11 years old (77 in doggy years).

Dorky girl on the John Deere.

My little brother has a pit bull named Sam. He is such a sweet sweet dog. He is very smart too. We were saying hi to the a few of the pigs.

I grew up LOVING horses and always wanting to ride them. I think Smap and I are going to have to get over to the farm to ride this spring. It is so much fun. I guess the last time I actually rode one of my dad's horses was about 7-8 years ago. So sad.

Well, that was our day. Just hanging on the farm walking around. Afterwards, Dad took Joyce and me for a delicious lunch and some beers (you have to have some beer on St.Pat's Day!).

Over and out!

Back in school and getting ready to ride.

Yep, bored again and waiting for 6 pm to come.  The bad thing about teaching is that I get off work way before everyone else.  So, on Tuesday's I have to wait two hours before I can ride.  It is going to be chilly out there today.  

The kids came back today.  I had fun with them today doing a creative writing assignment.  It is amazing to hear about the trips my kids get to go on nowadays.  I actually had kids tell me they were SO bored on their cruises last week.  I do have quite a few spoiled kids.  My kids are equivalent to Farragut kids, but fortunately they aren't as pretentious yet.  I have a lot of funny sweet kids this year.  I had quite a few last year too.  It is too bad I don't get to see them much after they leave the 6th grade. 

After school I had to go get my passport renewed AGAIN.  I got it renewed in 04' to go to France. I got my first one in 94' and I think it cost me $60 back then.  Then, in 04' I also paid I think $60 to renew it.  When I got married in 05' I think I could have got it changed for FREE to my new married name, but I didn't need it then, so I never thought out it.  Today it cost me a total of $95.  This included the $75 name change/renew fee, the $15 passport photo, and the $5 postage to send it where ever it needs to go.  I think they need to pay teachers more if they are going to have this inflation thing.

I am getting ready for my Tuesday night beating.  I really hope we don't go over Everett Road again tonight.  We'll see how I do after doing all the climbing this weekend.

Cheers!

A most EXCELLENT LONG weekend!

This whole weekend has been great! It all pretty much started on Thursday. Smap took off work early and came home so we could go on a decently hilly 40 mile road ride. We got back right before dusk and my toes were feeling the lack of sunshine.

Friday was a rare occasion for me. I got to spend the whole day with Smap and Ippon. Smap took off work and we headed to one of our favorite places, Asheville. Our friend Skinny D (Dennis) met us at Bent Creek just down the road from Asheville, and the three of us had a great time riding a bunch of the trails there. Lots of climbing is involved and lots of fun downhill stuff.

I took the guys and Ippon to lunch in downtown Asheville. We had to walk a while before we could find a place where we could eat outside with Ippon. It was shocking for us to not be served at one place (Jack In The Woods). We are probably going to have to strike them off our list since they were pretty rude to us. Anyway, we ended up at Johnny's Uptown Grill (JUGS). We lucked out with a terrific server and delicious food. The owner/head chef even came out and said hello to us. He even gave us all three free cookies! We added a new place to our list for sure. And, there was a doggie bakery across the street so all the guys got treats (Smap and Skinny got lunch and beer).

Smap and I drove home while Skinny continued on to Raleigh to be with his family. Smap and I decided to do Monte Jones's planned "Heinous Loop" on Saturday morning. The "Heinous" has been around for a long time. I think I have done the ride once a year since I have been with Smap and his group of friends (at least 7-8 times). I missed last year's epic night time trip (they started at some stupid late hour 8-9pm) and Smap got home at like 4 in the morning. Not for me.

(Here is Smap, Wally, Jen and Kevin up on Look Rock.)

Anyway, there were 7 of us total. Three "Heinous Virgins" were with us....Jen Smelser, Kevin Trent, and Wally Judy. Smap, myself, Monte and Ben Smith were the veterans on the loop. The Heinous starts on 321 in Townsend across from the Back Porch Restaurant in the little parking lot by the Little River. We ride down Old Walland Hwy, up to the Foothills Pkwy, up and over to 129. We turn left onto 129 and proceed to ride the DRAGON. I LOVE riding the Dragon, but I would rather be on my road bike to fully enjoy the speed you can get there. Did I mention the Heinous loop is to be done on your mountain bike? Here is why......we get off 129 where Parson's Branch Road spills into the road. Parson's Branch is a steep gravel road that is one way and it leads out from Cade's Cove. So, yes we are going the wrong way up a super steep gravel road. We go up and over that and down an equally steep and long gravel road down into Cades Cove. If we ride the entire loop we can make the whole ride 63 miles, but yesterday we did the 58 version by taking Hyatt Lane through to Rich Mtn. Road (which is also a gravel road that leads out of Cades Cove). Rich Mtn. is luckily not so steep, but it is a 3.5 or so mile road up to the top, then down back towards 321.

The above shot is Monte pulling out the Jelly Belly's. He said water and Jelly Belly's were his "chemicals for the day". Monte kicked some serious ass on the ride! I got in on the jelly beans, but my lungs and legs just weren't with me yesterday. Three days of climbing is quite a bit.

The next shot is all of us riding down Hyatt Lane. Ben is in the tights, Kevin, then Jen, Wally, me, and Mr. Jones in the lead. He was up front all day long. He was also on a one-by-nine is memory serves.

WE had a good group yesterday that stayed together well. It was fun. Smap and I had THREE great days of climbing and riding.

Today, we decided to have a rest day for our legs. It has been windy and cold anyways. My two worst enemies when it comes to riding. We took Ippon out for a game of Frisbee golf at one of Smap's favorite places (Victor Ashe Park). Smap is a great Frisbee golf player. I play a lot more in the summer when all of our friends are out together. Today was my first day playing in a while. I have not played here before, so it was a lot of fun seeing the place Smap is always talking about. Ippon enjoyed just being outside sniffing.

It was a great weekend. I am looking forward to the cold to move out permanantly so I can ride consecutively! More fun times are definitely ahead! I can't wait!

2 posts in one day

Another shot because I am bored as crap.  I need a good book, but I can't find one.  My brother in law has literally given me a stack of about 10 books, but I just can't break into one of them.  I seriously need a new one fast.  

Yep, I am on Spring Break and I am on a computer.  All day I worked at the bike shop AGAIN.  It is fine though because being a Knox County teacher means I only get paid once a month.  It is so nice to have the extra moola to look forward to to helping out during the month.  Especially when I have time off from teaching.  Time off = more time to spend money.  Exactly why I have been anxious to work all I can during spring break. 

 I did the same exact thing last year too.  I need to be in there anyways so I can learn about all the new stuff going on with Trek and Fisher.  Plus, it is FUN working with adults instead of being around the very hormonal 6th graders all day long.  At this point of the school year, they have all pretty much clued me out.  The boys that used to not know girls existed are not showing signs of "AH-HAAAAA...girlssssss"....and a lot of the girls who looked like innocent little girls at the beginning of the school year are now wearing more make-up than I wore to my own wedding or prom (I probably should wear more, but it kind of conflicts with my time).  

The rain just kept on coming today.  It got sunny at one point, but then there were very nice ominous clouds approaching from the west again.  The south needs it so badly, but I need so badly to get out to Haw Ridge again.  I got to last week, but having the flat and the stupid crash resulted in fewer time riding than I had planned.  I need more time out there!!! SOON!!!!

My 1st Tuesday night shop ride of the year!

Spring Break is going excellent! I worked at the bike shop all day yesterday and then did the Tuesday night shop ride!


Last night was my first Tuesday night shop ride of the season. Luckily my friend Rebecca Falls was on the ride and a new gal to town Missy. Unfortunately due to available light, we had to go up and over Everett Road. Yuck. Huge hill at around mile 15 that totally broke up the group. Rebecca and I were just a bit behind Missy going up the hill and got over and almost caught up with her and another guy when Rebecca flatted. It was fine though, we had a good time riding in together. It was fun riding with the "A" group up until Everett too. They go so fast and it is always such a smooth ride. It is my favorite road ride to do. I always like getting back to the parking lot to hear all the smack talk afterwards. It is usually always SUPER HARD and FAST. I am looking forward to more daylight so we don't have to shorten our normal 42 mile course and go up Everett.


Anywho, my dad is cleaning out his house as he remodels a bit and while I was over there Monday just happened upon a very nice antique bench. My dad and Joyce (my stepmom) soon realized that they really did not need the bench to collect crap on at the bottom of their stairs, so they gave it to us. It is a beauty. There is a stamp on it that may date it to 1893. I am going to have to see what my dad says. It came from an old train station I think. Anyway, he matches all the other antiques in our pool room (the pool table @ 1920 and the France poster @ 1910). THANKS DAD! WE LOVE YOU!!!!! It fits perfectly!!!

08' SPRING BREAK has begun...

I mentioned earlier that I would upload my shots from my camera at some point. Now that I have a week off and it is too cold to be outside this morning, I am finally in the "cold room" to upload. My hands, feet, and nose are cold now, but the shots are in the system. I also finally uploaded my disc of France 05' photos onto this computer as well. Yeah, we are a bit behind sometimes.

Here is one shot for now. For some reason blogger is going extremely slow this morning and I just don't have the patience to wait. I am the queen of taking self portraits, so here you go. I tried to upload a new shot of Smap and my bloody elbow, but they wouldn't go. I will try again later.

It is turning out to be a BEAUTIFUL day in K-town!

TTFN!

A very nice Sunday with Smap

Noah's birthday party was a blast last night.  I can't believe how big he is now.  He is just so cute wondering around the house following his dog and just hanging out.  Fun times.  It was fun seeing Hanna and Josh Reed too. Hanna is like 5-6 months preggo with a little boy.  There is surely something in the water.  Smap's brother Jay and his wife are also expecting in June.  They are not finding out the sex of their baby, so it will be an exciting day when Leslie goes into labor.  I will be an auntie!  I can't wait.  

Smap and I got up this morning and were entirely domestic until like 3 p.m.  Smap worked outside and affixed his solar panels to our roof ("Klampet style" Smap says) and he mowed the yard all the while I folded mountains of clothes and put them all away.  I also made a good trip to the recycle place.  

At around 3 p.m. Smap and I finally went for a very nice hilly road ride out of our house.  We got 40 miles.  We stopped in to see my dad, stepmom, her mom, my little bro, and his girlfriend.  My dad has recently remodeled some of the house, so I wanted to check it out.  I also always enjoy riding to the farm to say hello to all the llamas, pigs, dogs, horses, koi, etc.  It is such a fun place to visit.  As we rode home, we ran into our buddy Craig Rogers out riding solo.  We rode w/him for a few miles and he was back to his place pretty much.  It was a fun day in all.  Here are a few apple shots I forced Smap into.  LOVELY.  You can see I also tried to get my pup into the shot, but he really didn't want to cooperate.  He has never been a dog that will pose.  EXCEPT, he did pose in a tie before our wedding.  It was a beautiful silk tie I bought from TJMAXX for him to wear in our wedding.  He lasted 10 minutes in the tie before heading into the pond.  We just had to laugh.  

Rainy Saturday

It was a good thing it rained today because I had to work at the bike shop all day long.  It wasn't too bad though because almost all my faves to work with were there.  It was a busy day in the CBC world of bikes.  Smap cleaned all day long, so I got to come home to a house smelling of vinegar.  We don't like to use chemicals any longer.  We try to be as green as we can.  

Anyway, we are heading over to Brian (1speedbrian) and Tara's for their son Noah's 1st birthday tonight.  Noah is actually a  Saint Patrick Day baby.  Perfect timing 

for a family who loves their beer!  I bought Noah some books.  I am sure he will be ready for a novel next year due to having such intellectual parents :) .    

Tomorrow it is suppose to be sunny and in the fifties.  I hope we get some sort of good ride in.  We will see!  

Here is a shot of me waiting tonight for Smap to get ready to go to the party.  He has been working on fixing the lighting situation in our den.  I am glad I married someone who is so talented in so many areas (electrical, mechanical, cook, cleaner, bike mechanic....etc...).  I have it made :) .

TGIF AND SPRING BREAK!

The day has finally come for another spring break! This school year has really flown by this year. I have no idea why, but I am glad. Last night Smap rode his greenway bike down to market square from the house and I met him to eat sushi at Nama (one of our top sushi places). Unfortunately, we had to wait quite a while for everything including a beer, but we didn't mind. It is just really nice getting downtown.

Wednesday night proved to be a spectacular first Wednesday Haw Ridge ride for the new year. Unfortunately I flatted and had to call Smap to change my flat (my wheel doesn't have quick release and I couldn't loosen up the bolt to get off my rear wheel). After he fixed my flat, we rode together for the rest of the night. It was good except I crashed and got the first taste of blood for the season. I have a good photo, but I forgot to upload my shots. I will do that soon....maybe. It was good getting to the ridge and seeing all of our friends who we see out at the ridge. I love it out there.

This weekend looks wet for Saturday. Maybe we'll get some paddling in soon? Hopefully!
Chaio!

Race shot!

Cool.  This race was hard and I think you can see it on my face.  The gal behind me, Mary Mayhew, was doing her first crit Sunday.  She did AWESOME too.  Her brother took this shot of us coming up the hill in front of the Blount County Court House.  There were a few corners in this race that were VERY sketchy.  I thought I was going down more than a few times due to me taking a wrong line, or someone else taking my same line.  It was an interesting race for me because I really did not know how good of race shape I would be in.  I definitely wasn't in the same shape as the Aaron's pro out there, or Kim Flynn (another pro from Chattanooga).  

I skipped out on the first Tuesday night ride tonight due to lack of energy.  I went out after school yesterday for an "easy" ride and ended up doing a moderate 30 miles on my own.  My students exhausted me as well today, so all I could do was to make it home and take a nap.  Smap and Ippon came home laughing at me for being on the couch.  The weather forecast for the next three days appears to be perfect for riding.  Tomorrow will be the first Wednesday night Haw Ridge ride!  I can't wait.  I have not been there in 3 months!  I haven't been on my single speed either for quite some time.  I do still have my new Fisher full-suspension waiting for me, but I HAVE GOT TO get on my favorite bike, the Rig.  

That is about it for today.  Three more days of school and I am off for a whole week.  After that, it is all down hill at school.  Nine weeks left till summer fun!  

A cold race weekend

Saturday was the coldest day of the year I think with snow and wind. Needless to say, I did not get out to do the time trial. It would have been really stupid of me. I am SO glad I blew it off and swam inside in a warm pool instead. I worked at the bike shop Saturday so I was able to hear about the conditions from Robbie Kidd first hand. He spoke of the time trial miserably and I am SO glad I listened to Smap, and did not race.

Sunday, it was beautiful. Smap was there with his CBC tents and Tim came to assist racers with any mechanical needs. It was a very nice day for racing. I was so nervous going up to the starting line. I haven't raced a crit in four years. There were a few pro's there as well as women who have been racing consistently for the past few years. I held my own though and stayed up with the leaders. I was not disappointed with my 5th place finish at all. I was just glad to see where my fitness level is at compared to other's. Also, I know what I need to work on....several things. It was a good time though. My lungs are killing me today having worked so hard in the cold to put out so much effort. Smap took a lot of shots, so I will try to get them up later this week.

FOUR DAYS TILL SPRING BREAK!!!! Yippeeeeeee!!!!

TGIF

I can't describe how happy I am that it is FRIDAY! Unfortunately though, it is raining and getting colder by the hour outside. I am suppose to race a time trial tomorrow. It is suppose to snow. Do they call off bike racing for snow? Seems like they should. I'm not complaining....well, yeah I am. Lucky me, I volunteered to chaparone a school dance today after school. I am really looking forward to that....I'm being facetious of course. These kids are driving me nuts. I just can't believe how lazy my group of kids are this year. Last year all my students seemed to work really hard, but they were on the snobby side. This year most of them are really sweet, but I have a lot of slackers. I just don't understand. It isn't like I give hard assignments.

Anyway, enough complaining about school and weather. Spring break is only 8 days away!!!! I hope it is WARM!!!!

I got to ride my road bike last night. Ran into a few friends. I usually can do 2-3 laps on the boulevard before I want to pound nails into my skull due to the boredom, but last night wasn't so bad. I think I got 7 laps in. It is nice when there are a lot of people out on the boulevard because I can people watch and try to lap/catch/or pass people. Also, it is always fun to see all the different dogs enjoying their walks.

That is about it. We'll see how the weekend goes. Maybe I will remember my camera!

My sis's bike...

Here is a shot of my sis and her best bud, Kat racing a friendly Wednesday night crit in Nashville last summer. Smap has since put some time trail bars on this bike (it is a Trek Madone, the bike Discovery raced in 06') for her and she and I will be using it for some time trials and triathlons this year. I am hoping to be fit on it today and race it Saturday. I don't know though, riding those TT bars after years of riding with drops is sketchy to me. I keep wanting to grab my drops. We'll see. If I don't feel comfortable riding that bike, then I will put the old school TT bars on my race bike. Anyway, I've renewed my racing license so there is NO going back now!

Another ride day! 3 in a row!

I'm smiling because I got another ride in today to make it 3 days in a row.  Yippee.  Unfortunately it will start raining tonight and be cold and dreary for the next 2-3 days. Big bummer.  But, we do need the rain.  I wish it would rain A LOT so the Little River would come up.  It is my FAVORITE river to paddle.  It isn't very technical like the Ocoee.  It is a lot smaller, but the rapids are one after another.  Pretty exciting.  I would like to do the Tellico at some point, but we need rain for that river as well.  

I drove down to Cherokee Blvd today and did 25 miles worth of laps. It wasn't too bad.  I saw several folks out there running and riding and got to catch up with an old friend for my last 10 miles, so it was pretty fun.  

Nine days left until Spring Break!!!  I can't wait.  After Spring Break, I think I have 9 weeks of school left!!! AWESOME!!!!!  

LATER!

Lots of ride time this weekend

I'm exhausted after my ride today.  Smap and I went down to one of our favorite places....the Ocoee.  We rode some of the Tanasi trails behind the whitewater center.  We were both on our single speeds.  I was not up to par on mine today.  I think maybe the 64 I did yesterday zapped my legs some.  I am looking forward to being able to do back-to-back hard rides this spring and summer.  Fun times coming up!!!  

We had a good time last hanging with our friends Tim and Lindsay.  We ate La Costa and Nama.  We also got to hang with our friend Danny Davis.  Downtown is becoming one of our favorite places to hang out nowadays.  We dislike eating at chain restaurants, so we have plenty of non-chain places to choose from there.  La Costa is a "green" restaurant which makes it all the more better.  They recycle everything and compost all their scraps.  One more reason to support that place.  They have some killer Margarita's too.  Yummy...

That is about it for this weekend.  We are totally exhausted.

Next weekend I try racing again after a 4 year lull...

Hasta la manana!