Where did summer go?

July 27, 2009

Well its almost August...yikes where did the summer go?

The kids start school in 3 weeks.

Annika will be in Kindergarten....whoa, its official... she really is growing up. Cameron, he's a 2nd grader. Wow I am getting old...at least I don't feel that old!!

This year is flying! After Boggs 24 we have been doing a lot of playing rather than the usual regiment of "ride everyday for a reason." Marja proclaimed this the summer of "Skillz" so we have ridden Northstar at Tahoe twice...yes on the lifts!! She has been tearing up the technical decents! It has made a huge difference in her confidence when it comes to losing elevation!

We also threw in a great ride on the Rim with Scott. We rode Mt. Rose to Marlett Lake, down the Flume Trail and back along the Rim to Mt. Rose. That night we met Joel and Jenni at the Tahoe SRA in Tahoe City to camp so we could ride Northstar the next day. Beautiful location, right on the lake. However HWY 28 was on the other side of us. Talk about high density camping, wow. And the party goers returning to the site after the bars, lets just say no one slept much after about 11:45/12:00. Ouch. We woke up, then headed out on a 5 minute HIKE to get coffee at the coffee shop! After that, breakfast at McD's...nothing like camping!!!

We rode Northstar, this time on Jenni and Joel's free-ride bikes so it was a bit more enjoyable on the bumps. The one major issue however, we were riding on platform pedals....i.e. NOT clipped in. Hey, I rode my old schwinn bmx everywhere as a kid. I used to huck table tops and other combinations of nutty jumps in what used to be a drainage canal in Pleasanton, now its a strip mall off Hopyard. So off I go on Joel's wheel, we take a few sweeping banked turns and hit the first double jump. I thought I'd take it easy and just get a little air and land on top of the double....even with what little air I got, my feet were floating about 3 inches above the pedals....YIKES!

It took me the better part of the day to get my feet to stick to the pedals...amazing how 15 years of riding clipped into pedals can totally screw you up... I do have to say, for the most part I enjoyed all 6" of travel on that bike...believe me, I was using all 140mm up front throwing that bike through some crazy lines....good practice for the technical skills!!

More recently I have been trying to get back into a regiment preparing for the Tahoe Sierra 100 in September and the Knickerbocker 8hr in October. I took the week off entirely to take the kids camping up in Highlands, south of Ebits Pass. At that point my entire left side of my body from the lower back down was completely trashed. Seems my "i.t. band," my butt, hamstring, and my quads on my left are totally "freaking out" to quote Veloyce. Since that rest, Veloyce up at Monsters of Massage has got my sciatic nerve cooperating with me. For a while now I have had serious sciatic nerve issues: pain in my upper left butt, down my Hamstring, in my quad and most ridiculous in my left groin and hip flexer. Its been miserable, just ask Marja as hard as I try I have been a whiney a$$ and rather annoying I am sure.

So anyway, going 2x per week to see Veloyce, and let me tell you I cry while he is working on me and I feel like I was hit by a bus the next morning....but things are getting under control!! THANK YOU VELOYCE!!! I am heading there today actually!

Where was I....after highlands, which was awesome camping with Marja and the kids...they had an absolute blast! It was fun watching Marja squirm after the first half-day...she always has to be doing something so she was crawling out of her skin! Cute!!

Since then I have been trying to get consistent, but between work/kids schedules/etc its been tough. Road a few CX rides with Scott and Marja (her new CX bike will hopefully be here on Wednesday), I also was able to ride Diablo a while back. Once up from the N. gate, then to the S. gate and back to the summit. Its a nice ride, 50+ miles with about 7k in vertical. The second trip is always better than the first for me.

Last Saturday Scott, Marja, Linda and I headed out on a little climbing-spree. The usual route (well almost) with the N. Fork canyon thrown in: down Ponderosa to the river and back up to Weimar along 80, then down Yankee Jim's to the N. Fork and up Yankee Jim's back to Foresthill and then after 7+ hours and two "Monkey-butts" later we road the road back to the confluence - 57 miles with 7850 of vertical.

Surprisingly my legs felt amazing. Now the trip up Ponderosa toward Weimar hurt...mostly due to the heat: funny thing was the heat on your back was less than the heat radiating up off the fire road... My biggest issue, the Monkey! And it wasn't on my back! Seems Champion Systems shorts do not agree with me anatomically...nor Marja...Get out the Desitin!!!!! I will leave it at that!

Today I am running, short on time, but the reality is my diaper rash still hurts!!!! So now I start prepping for Tahoe Sierra....looking forward to it this year. Life starts to get hectic again with Annika's Gymnastics getting into full swing the next few weeks, Cameron's soccer I will be helping to coach and School too! Time to invest in Monsters again!!

Once Marja's DeSalvo actually arrives, I will post pictures.....it is going to be sweet!!!! I am jealous. She is pulling her hair out, for the real story ask her....or Chris (thats Burrito Mom :)

Cheers!!