I'm bored.

I just can't wait for it to start getting warmer and a little dryer.  I am so ready for some really long bike rides, and some Haw Ridge riding.  I am seriously having withdraws now.  I need some technical riding.  The Cohutta is coming up fast as well as the regular racing season.  I need to be on my single speed in order to have the training I feel I need for racing both road and mountain.  We'll see.  

My dog is feeling a lot better.  He didn't wake me up at all last night to go out.  I am so glad.  I hate seeing him sick.  He had the poops for two straight days.  

Well, I am hoping the sun will come out at some point today.  I have been invited to go on several different rides, but I am thinking a solo road ride sounds best.  I want to get a lot of miles in...50+....I just don't feel like 30 or 40 is long anymore.  I want to do a lot of really LONG rides.  I don't care if they are slow or fast.  I just want to be out there.

Maybe I will break out the camera today along the ride.  Perhaps another farm stop-in?  We'll see... I need to do something.

Snow days....I mean flu days!

Finally Knox County schools are OUT!!! For two days! Smap was kind of sad because he NEVER takes off work. He is probably the hardest working person I have ever met. He has the BEST work ethic too. I found out that Knox County called out schools last night when our friend Tim ran into us at our favorite Mexican eatery in Rocky Hill. Tim saw us pull in, so he pulled in behind us to say howdy. He told me he heard we have the next two days off!!! I tried to celebrate by drinking a margarita, but that just made me feel ill. Marg's are just too sweet for my taste. I can drink them on special occasions. I really like La Costa's Pomagranite Marg, but sweet server talked me into a passion fruit one (they didn't have Pom). It was extremely sweet. I drank it though. After that, I was done. I am so glad I am not a hard liquor drinker. I'm really not much of a beer drinker anymore either. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE some good tasting beer, but I can't remember the last time I got drunk off of it....uggggg.....the thought just kills me.

Anyway, to make Smap feel better about me having the next two days off, I told him I would clean out the pantry. It is sooo gross. I am actually taking a break from doing it right now because I am about to venture into the nasty cleaning part. Still a lot to go though.

Our poor sweet baby got some kind of intestinal flu last night. He had to go outside just about every hour last night. Poor thing. Between the two of us, we must have let poor Ippon out 10 times between midnight and 6 this morning. He is so tired now. Sleeping soundly. It is good that I am home with him today so I can take care of him. I can't stand seeing him sick.

I will probably take some sort of long nap today since I was up all night off and on with my pup. I hope to get things cleaned up around the house. I am a dust slacker. I hate dusting so I hardly ever do it. I may just save that for tomorrow.

Boring stuff today I know. Maybe I will get a swim in at some point. It is suppose to rain soon, so that is out. I did get a fun solo greenway ride in yesterday from our house. We have some great greenways in K-town now. I rode all the way down to Tyson Park to check out the skaters at the new skate park. It is so cool. I so wish they had that when I was a kid. My brother and I would have been there ALL the time. Josh was an awesome skater. I loved just hanging out with those types of guys. We had a quarter pipe in our driveway. It was HUGE. My mom would make anyone wanting to skate it bring a note from a parent. She was smart. I got injured on it a few times. I loved it though. It was a sad day when we had to take it down. Our stupid neighbors signed a petition saying we needed to get rid of it.

Anyway, rambling again, so it is time to get back to working on the pantry. LOVE THE FLU DAYS!!!!

Rach-L

My Mom and Sam

My Mom and Sam are very athletic. They ski somewhere every year. This year they were back in Telluride. It looks beautiful. Maybe next year!!!!

Check it!!!! New Apple laptop fun...

What the heck am I looking at?? Not sure.  I was just playing around.
This is one of my all time favorite shots.  My dad took this at my little brother's birthday dinner at Litton's in 01'.  I guess that would have made Nic 14 or 15....crazy...  This is actually one of our first "couple shots" ever.
Yeah, we don't have a scanner, so I am taking advantage of the little camera on the computer.  Here he is, Mr. Hottie.  I think he looks modelish here.  We were camping either at the Nanty or the Ocoee back when this was shot in 01'.  Pretty cool...
Of course I had to add one of the grotesque shots in with the others.  I love the distorted look!  I have never laughed so hard in my life than when I was at the first SORBA meeting last year with Jimi Flynt. She had just purchased this same computer we have, and we were getting bored, so she started taking some shots of us all standing around us.  We were pissing in our pants it was so funny.. He he he he.  I sent my brother and sister in law the shots and they quickly discovered the photo booth on their newly purchased apple laptop.  Fun times.....

Bla weekend...

Unfortunately for me, I had to work at the bike shop all day long yesterday.  The weather yesterday proved to make a great day for riding and I was stuck inside.  I had a good time though.  Smap made it out to Haw Ridge and said it was a bit too greasy.  That made me feel better.  If the trails were "perfect", then I would have been pissed to have missed such an opportunity to ride.  I was needed at the shop though, and I did have a good time working with "the kids", Mig, and Scooter.  The five of us work extremely well together, so it made for a fun day of work at CBC.  

I did get a great 30 mile ride in after school on Friday.  I wanted to see how fast I could ride 20 miles.  I have an exact 30 mile course out of our driveway, which has some decent climbs, but is mostly flat.  I did experience quite a bit of head wind as I traveled west, but I ended up keeping a solid 20 mph average.  I didn't think that was too bad considering it is just February, I had some steep hills, and I had to stop several times for traffic and red lights.  I can only get faster.  

I don't know if I have mentioned this in any earlier posts, but I am trying to get a lot of miles and ride time in not only for the upcoming road racing season, but also for the Cohutta 100.  I have a link to this event under my links.  This is a 100 mile mountain bike race down at one of my favorite places to ride in the world, the Ocoee (Tanasi trail system).  I believe Floyd Landis will be competing this year,  but also one of my good friends Carol Ann Lawhon.  She has raced the previous two years of the race.  Last year she raced the 100 on her single speed, but this year she will be riding gears again like her first year of the competition.  Her friend Leslie who comes in from California with her is a pro for Niner bikes and Leslie kicked serious butt last year completing the race in like 10 hours or something crazy like that.  I think she got 4th place overall for the women.  The three women who beat her were all on gears.  I originally wanted to race my single speed (I hate shifting and if I have a mechanical problem, I can probably fix it), but Smap talked me out of the single speed for my first year doing the race.  Looks like I will be riding gears...new gears though.  Hopefully my new Fisher hifi carbon will be here in decent time for me to get use to it.  I tried to go back to gears some last fall while training for the 12 hours of Haw Ridge, but my single speed just made a better and faster ride for me.  I am just really confident on that bike.  

So, we will see.  Cohutta is April 19th!  I hope it is DRY!!!!  

Cheers for now!  Rach

TGIF!

This is where I wish I was right now....Marin County mountain biking....this is me back in October over Fall Break. Smap's brother Alex lives out there and took me to a trail right across the Golden Gate. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I got a decent ride in at Cherokee Blvd last night. I did some intervals. I am getting back into racing this year (road racing). I have not raced road since 03'....I ended racing 2's. I don't think I am considered a 2 (the lady that catted me up didn't change me, but she did put a 2 sticker on my license...which got stolen), but that is okay. There is no big difference between a 2 and a 3 in the races I do in this state anyways. My first race weekend is March 8th and 9th. I can't recall the last time I did a 40K time trial. I think it will be alright considering all the single speeding and solo riding on the road I have done. We'll just have to see. The ninth is a crit. I LOVE crits, but again I haven't done one since 03' so it will be a renewing "learning experience" for me.

I did run into one of Smap and my good friends out there last night...Eric Bell. He rides with us out of our bike shop and CBC also somewhat sponsors him. I have his blog listed on my links. He is one hell of an athlete. It is always good to see him.

Last night was Valentine's night. Smap and I detest going out for dinner on Valentine's Day. It seems like all the rednecks who usually go to McDonald's and/or buffet restaurants splurge on this one night a year and infiltrate all the restaurants we enjoy. So, Smap and I always have a yummy dinner at home. Last night it consisted of salmon, brown rice and chocolate covered strawberries... SUPER YUMMO! It was better than anything I could have ordered in a restaurant AND we got to enjoy it while watching the new seasons of Survivor and Lost with our forever begging furry child.

I woke up this morning thinking I had the flu, but I am now sure it was the fact that we left the stupid space heater on in our room all night. I feel much better now and plan to hit the road again after school today. I just can't swim again this week after swimming three days straight. I don't mind swimming, but swimming inside sucks bad. It grosses me out. I look forward to the day Fort Sanders opens up their outdoor pool next month!

Later! Rach

More shots of our furry child....

For a little while my dad owned a landscape company which specialized in Koi and spectacular ponds with waterfalls. My dad has an incredible series of ponds in his "back yard". Smap and I got married down in front of the largest pond. Anyway, in the very top pond Dad and Joyce have a bunch of Koi. These koi LOVE people because we feed them. For some reason Ippon is just infatuated by these fish. If for some reason we lose him on the farm, I always know where to look for him. He is standing over the Koi with his nose in the water. Here is Peaches and Ippon talking. By the way, Dad and Joyce have all the koi named. I named one last summer. Hopefully he is still around. Sometimes the stupid herons sneak in and eat our beautiful fish.
Here is my baby talking to another sweetie. Smap is holding onto Eeps' collar. His tail was going crazy. Usually he really isn't interested in other dogs, but he really liked this gal.
Dad has a huge pond at the bottom of "back yard". There is a beautiful weeping willow down there. Here is the "Laughalot Monster" doing what he loves doing the most....swimming.
Here he is last summer chasing a tennis ball into the same pond. You can see the Willow a little better.

That is it for today on the pics of the Smelly. I am limited here at school on photos. It is funny because we have so many more shots of our dog than we do of ourselves.

The weather here in K-town is gorgeous today! Sunny and 50ish I think (I haven't been outside at all today because I have been trapped in my classroom). I am planning on doing a ride today in order to work off some of the Valentine's candy my kids have brought me. Also, I didn't get to workout yesterday because I was feeling ill, but I overcame it thanks to Smap. He got this stuff from Eddie over at the Health Shop. It is called Blockade...all natural chewies that are suppose to kill the virus....worked for me! Anyway, I need to burn off the calories from yesterday and today now.... I can't wait till it is a lot warmer and I have more day light! More day light = more fun time. Also, I can't wait till Haw Ridge has dried up. I am having HUGE cravings for those technical trails. I am tired of riding Norris (just up and down, not much technical stuff). I don't want to drive a few hours to ride somewhere that may be just as sketchy as it could be here, so we haven't been doing any road trips down to other trails. Fine by me because I am so cheap when it comes to buying gas. The Element goes for almost 2 weeks on a tank for me....that is how much I dislike driving. I either drive just a little bit or I don't drive at all....I ride to school, or walk to school if I can.

Okay I am starting to ramble, so it is time for me to stop.

Cheers,

Rach-L