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!