Cross My Heart & Hope to Hurdle

Meet my new Gary Fisher Presidio!  Holy smokes thats a sexy bike!  You like?  I love!

Just shy of ten long years I finally paid off my college loan (insert a serious and embarassingly long happy dance right NOW!) and have met my personal goal/rule of “no more bikes until I pay off that bill!”  (that I started to enforce about a year and a half ago)  I would of had no idea that I would have found myself in the bike shop the next day after the online payment went through placing my order for this beauty!   Do I “need” this bike? Well.. umm.. yeah!  Can I afford this bike?  Eh, sure.  A bill ends, a new one begins.  I pay this company, now I pay that company.  All I know is I evidentally dont hord my money and saving it is overrated.  Actually I do have intentions of selling two of my bikes..    I just dont need or use them anymore so after I put a little time and effort into cleaning and fixing them up I hope to put that money into paying this one off.  See, Mom!  I’m totally responsible!

I have been extremely curious about this crazy racing world of CYCLOCROSS!  I tried my first one a few weeks ago on my mountain bike and had a much better time than I expected.  I actually thought I might hate on it a little bit, but it was quite the opposite.  The craziness of it all had me craving it the littliest bit more.  uh oh

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a favorite holiday of mine, but I have a NERD REPORT: I have no plans to wear any costume anywhere this weekend.  What the heck is  up with that!?  I do not know.  However, I do plan to hang with my mom, bro and niece (for her 1st halloween! Awh!) and hand out candy, so that’ll work too.  Hey, check out my FIRST pumpkin carving ever!  Yeah, I used a stencil.  So what!  Its still bad ass.

Titled:  Ah, ah, ah, ah Stayin Undead!  Stayin Undead!

I’m going to attempt 1 or 2 cross races this weekend.  That should be interesting.  I recently learned that I truly, no doubt about it, kind of a lot, really suck as this cross scene, but its something fun to try and keep the pumper and legs moving until Iceman next week.  One more week and race then I’m getting lazy (and probably chubby people)!  Ahhh, the off season!  I love you so!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  Have fun and be safe!

Month of Mud @ Moraine

 I went.  I rode.  I finished. 

Fall riding, the Trek demo truck & a baby.

I am officially declaring fall mountain biking one of the wonders of my world.

Breasts & Bradys!

Last Saturday I headed to the Trek of Pittsburgh Robinson store for the annual Breast Cancer Awareness ride.  One of my favorite things to do is ride and one of my next favorite things to do is ride for a good cause!  An excellent combination of good stuff like skippy’s natural peanut butter & strawberry rhubarb jam (holy delicious!).. chilly weather & flannel (2 big thumbs up!).. D’s Mason Dixon & a Hefeweizen (you need or want something from me simply present these & my wall shall crumble).  

SAVE THE TATAS!

Join Trek of Pittsburgh for a fun 10 or 25 mile ride to raise funds for breast cancer research! Sign up today and receive a complimentary goodie bag.  See you there!

My 1st Cross (M.O.M. Grove City) race eva!

Yeah, my crazy friends talked.. guilted.. no, pressured me into trying my first cross race this past weekend.  Like every October I am teetering on the brink of end of season burn out and am so unbelieveabley jonesin’ to get lazy (and start making my jeans too tight cuz I ate like a pig that last eight months and cannot just shut that appetite off like a switch, ya know!?)  BUT the Iceman Cometh is in my near future (YES!) and I gotta stay on a riding / training schedule, so with all that said (whew).. sure people, I’ll try it. 

Highlights to my new adventures to the old cross scene

OMBC @ West Branch

Lee Ann & I headed to Ravenna, Ohio this past Sunday for the OMBC West Branch race.  I love these trails!  For such a flat park and trail system it is full of roots, twisty turns and a few impressive rock gardens.  Fellow Bella, Lauren Mika, met us there and it ended up being just the three of us competing for the day.  As we lined up to race we asked to head out with the Vet men which was a great motivator at the start.. for that whole 30 seconds they were in my view.   The course consisted of (3) 9 mile laps for us, which I was slightly surprised when Ryan told us. (maybe thats right when this photo was taken. ha!)  I just havent been riding as much the last few weeks so a 27 mile race was undoubtedly going to leave a mark.  

A Shout Out to Lindsey Prososki

Lindsey,  I am so impressed with your love and dedication to mountain biking.  It is a hard and time consuming sport at any age and and I would find it exceptionally difficult with so many activities and friends and sports to choose from at your age.  You have been doing a great job in the Sport catagory this year.  Moving up to Sport is a big step for any rider and I’m sure you are still constantly learning how to improve on obstacles and getting comfy with the longer distances and you will continue to do so as long as you ride (we all are).  This is not a sport for the weak or weary.   You should be proud of your accomplishments and dont ever (today or ever) let anyone try and take away from that.  Finish proud and with a smile.  A few good goals to have at every race (but I’m thinking you already know this).

Also, its hard to hear anyone say anything negative about you or loved ones.  Sometimes its even harder to truly wash it off and not let it bother you.  Everyone has an opinion and thats okay.  Just remember thats all it is and sometimes what someone has to say holds no value to a whole lot of people.  It is honestly that simple, but I will admit it took me a really, really (really) long time to learn how to do that.. many years beyond yours my young friend..  so I hope you can chew on todays scenerio, learn from it and become a better person and athlete because of it.   

Life is what we make of it and you are doing great so far.  Keep shining. 

I really should stick to biking.

I had intended to go to the WVMBA race at Coopers Rock today, but I managed to hurt my knee attempting to hit a golf ball this past Friday (it was my company’s annual golf outting).  My efforts to hit the ball consisted of several seriously hard wacks into the ground (it was a seriously long club) about 2-3 inches to the right of the teeny tiny look at the little baby ball.. awhhhh.. still sitting there on top of that stupid tee.  Grr!  Little jerk!  (And it was a right handed club and I’m a South Paw.. not my best idea ever.  I know this)  After I realized yesterday that something was definitely wrong with my knee (it took me almost two full days to figure out how I hurt myself)  I thought I could still go down and ride the course.  See some racing buds, ride some sweet, sweet trails and finish whenever I finish.  Who cares, ya know?  But I woke up today and it was actually still so sore I cant put full weight on it (I deserve a crack up side my head!!).  Yeah, I AM THAT BAD with a golf club, so I didnt even ride at all today and now just need to wait it out until it feels better.  Oh well.