While driving home from Denver last weekend I heard the tail-end of an essay written by a little girl on NPR's program, This I Believe. I just listened to the entire essay on NPR.org and posted a link to it for this blog entry. I love the Beatles. They speak to me too, and I love this little girl's essay.
A lot(sort of) has been happening since my last post. I am in school for Pre-Nursing still and am awaiting acceptance into Mesa's Nursing Program starting next fall. It is full on spring in Mesa County which offers great riding conditions. I'm not as obsessed about training this year as I have been in the past for a few reasons. One reason is that I am in school and working which only allows me so much time to play. Also,sometimes I just want to go on a nice long run or hike with my dog. Lastly I'm not sure if training harder really makes a difference in my personal performance. Many would argue otherwise but I really have learned a lot about my self and body this year. I'm happier if I'm not obsessed and being happy helps me use riding as a meditation and therapy rather than a competition. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be racing, just with a different attitude and different priority. I really can't afford to spend a bunch of money on expensive entry fees so I plan to do what I have been threatening for the last couple of seasons. I'm on the grassroots, self-support mission. I'll spend the money on a GPS instead and do some huge, self-support rides and bike-packing. It really is the way for me to go and I am free to do this since I am not a sponsored athlete having to fulfill expectations of my sponsors. Life will be lots of fun this spring and summer.
Anyone coming to the Grand Junction/Fruita area, please let me know and I would love to join you for some riding. I'm up for anything.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Winter in Grand Junction/Grand Mesa Marathon Ski
I have been too busy stalking people on facebook to even think about "bloging" lately. Until last week I had not been on my bike since the "incident" in Moab. I chose one of the coldest days to get back on the saddle though, it was a high of 15 degrees last Monday when I decided to go for a ride. There is an open space area not far from my house that is snow covered so the conditions for riding were nice and hard. It's a great place to take my pup too. Since then I've biked one other time and temps were almost too warm, softer snow makes riding a tad more challenging.
My prebike moment:
Yesterday I participated in my first skate ski marathon. I figured the two other times I skated this year for all of 2 hours combined, was enough training to guarantee a good spanking. This took place on the Grand Mesa, one of the best places for x-country skiing in the state. The elevation starts at above 10,000 feet and tops somewhere around 11,000. The day was crystal clear and the snow was sticky slow. Out of the handful of folks that started only a few completed the entire 42k. Some of us actually did 48k (not on purpose) and others stopped after one loop or half the course, due to super SLOW conditions. I was the only female to complete the marathon and one other super fast girl did 21k. One guy who did it last year said it took him about 3.5 hours and this year he did it in 5.5! Needless to say, 2 hours could have been shaved off our times if conditions were better. We started a little after 10:30 and I was out until dusk. What a gorgeous day! It was cold, forcing you to keep moving otherwise numbness would set in to the toes and fingers quick. By the end my feet were frozen, arches throbbing and lateral sides of my ankles in pain. Actually these things set in just before the halfway point.
After the first loop and halfway through the ski, I really questioned if I could finish. Lots of people had stopped or did a modified version because of the conditions which gave me an excuse to want to stop too. After giving it some thought I figured I should at least try and race the sun. There was little gliding to speak of so I felt like I was running in quick sand. I could only go as fast as the snow and my unwaxed skis (I'm so unprepared) would take me. I told Matt to meet me at County Line (the trailhead we passed twice that would be a good bailout in case I couldn't make it the whole way) and when I got there it was 4:05pm. I was worked by then and doubted my ability to get back before dark. Matt reminded me of the full moon and that was the excuse I needed to finish this huge day. I slowly made my way back to the Skyway trailhead and enjoyed the amazing sunset during my favorite time of day. As I approached the last turn I looked back to see the full moon rising. A little emotion came over me as I celebrated my achievement and felt happy for such a spectacular day.
Here's a couple of photos skiing on the Mesa the week before with Matt and Ringo.
Ringo the wonder dog.
There was a bomb fire and hot soup waiting in the parking lot with lots of good folks to celebrate with. Information on the Grand Mesa Nordic Center and their events can be found at gmnc.info, or click on my blog title above. There may be a write up about the marathon on the website within a week.
My prebike moment:
Yesterday I participated in my first skate ski marathon. I figured the two other times I skated this year for all of 2 hours combined, was enough training to guarantee a good spanking. This took place on the Grand Mesa, one of the best places for x-country skiing in the state. The elevation starts at above 10,000 feet and tops somewhere around 11,000. The day was crystal clear and the snow was sticky slow. Out of the handful of folks that started only a few completed the entire 42k. Some of us actually did 48k (not on purpose) and others stopped after one loop or half the course, due to super SLOW conditions. I was the only female to complete the marathon and one other super fast girl did 21k. One guy who did it last year said it took him about 3.5 hours and this year he did it in 5.5! Needless to say, 2 hours could have been shaved off our times if conditions were better. We started a little after 10:30 and I was out until dusk. What a gorgeous day! It was cold, forcing you to keep moving otherwise numbness would set in to the toes and fingers quick. By the end my feet were frozen, arches throbbing and lateral sides of my ankles in pain. Actually these things set in just before the halfway point.
After the first loop and halfway through the ski, I really questioned if I could finish. Lots of people had stopped or did a modified version because of the conditions which gave me an excuse to want to stop too. After giving it some thought I figured I should at least try and race the sun. There was little gliding to speak of so I felt like I was running in quick sand. I could only go as fast as the snow and my unwaxed skis (I'm so unprepared) would take me. I told Matt to meet me at County Line (the trailhead we passed twice that would be a good bailout in case I couldn't make it the whole way) and when I got there it was 4:05pm. I was worked by then and doubted my ability to get back before dark. Matt reminded me of the full moon and that was the excuse I needed to finish this huge day. I slowly made my way back to the Skyway trailhead and enjoyed the amazing sunset during my favorite time of day. As I approached the last turn I looked back to see the full moon rising. A little emotion came over me as I celebrated my achievement and felt happy for such a spectacular day.
Here's a couple of photos skiing on the Mesa the week before with Matt and Ringo.
Ringo the wonder dog.
There was a bomb fire and hot soup waiting in the parking lot with lots of good folks to celebrate with. Information on the Grand Mesa Nordic Center and their events can be found at gmnc.info, or click on my blog title above. There may be a write up about the marathon on the website within a week.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Rest, recovery, work and school.
This is what I've been up to. Now more than two weeks have gone by since Moab and I still have numbness and loss of sensation in my fingers and I'm still healing. I've been to the Doctor more days in the past 2 weeks than I have in 10 years and I'm still going. I am getting better but still not completely better, still can't ride, still can't run and can barely hike. I can't believe that this happened. It's crazy how sick I got and how fast it happened and how long the recovery road is.
Biking is my therapy, so not being able to do it lately has been tough. I know that rest now means health later. This has been quite the experience, the worst pain of my life. The pain still comes and goes and when going through treatments with my new best friend, my P.A., the pain can get out of hand to the point of tears. It has been a lesson for me though, as I try to see the good in every situation.
Not getting to podium in Moab has been hard to swallow but my health was/is more important and who knows what would have happened if I didn't stop when I did. I realize that maybe it wasn't my time and that my new friend, Kris Cannon needed to get 2nd that day instead of me. She rode strong and hard and was rewarded for her mighty efforts and she got to celebrate that. Of course there was that part of me that felt envy and sadness but once I could let that go and realize the selfishness behind it, I felt better, happier.
I want to thank all my friends who have supported me especially these past couple of weeks. Most understand how difficult it is for someone like me not to be able to do what I love most. My great friend Julie from Big Sky, Montana told me to "embrace the pain" as her pre-race advise. I shared this with Kris Cannon before Moab and we both copied the mantra onto a piece of duck tape and put it on our handlebars. I spoke with Julie about this the other day and she laughed as she most always does. Today I think about that and wonder if her advise can't be used for my post-race blues? Can I embrace the pain I'm feeling now? Not just the physical but the emotional. Maybe she spoke those words knowing that they were important for something else, maybe she didn't. I suppose embracing is accepting and just being, not changing, not judging. So, here I am 2 weeks after Moab, crying less, suffering less, stressing more. As I write I decide not to stress it anymore, worrying is wasteful. I trained this summer with Moab in mind, thinking that it would be my race, the one I was ready for. Well, I was ready, but someone or something had other plans so I have to just be. Sometimes life is out of our control and when we fight it we feel those unwanted feelings. The moral of the story? Simple, don't have expectations, just try your best and see what happens. Lynda Wallenfels quoted someone last year when she got sick right before Worlds (I think that was it). The quote went something like this "God takes things away from us that we care about sometimes to humble us." Perhaps I needed to be humbled. Don't we all?
Biking is my therapy, so not being able to do it lately has been tough. I know that rest now means health later. This has been quite the experience, the worst pain of my life. The pain still comes and goes and when going through treatments with my new best friend, my P.A., the pain can get out of hand to the point of tears. It has been a lesson for me though, as I try to see the good in every situation.
Not getting to podium in Moab has been hard to swallow but my health was/is more important and who knows what would have happened if I didn't stop when I did. I realize that maybe it wasn't my time and that my new friend, Kris Cannon needed to get 2nd that day instead of me. She rode strong and hard and was rewarded for her mighty efforts and she got to celebrate that. Of course there was that part of me that felt envy and sadness but once I could let that go and realize the selfishness behind it, I felt better, happier.
I want to thank all my friends who have supported me especially these past couple of weeks. Most understand how difficult it is for someone like me not to be able to do what I love most. My great friend Julie from Big Sky, Montana told me to "embrace the pain" as her pre-race advise. I shared this with Kris Cannon before Moab and we both copied the mantra onto a piece of duck tape and put it on our handlebars. I spoke with Julie about this the other day and she laughed as she most always does. Today I think about that and wonder if her advise can't be used for my post-race blues? Can I embrace the pain I'm feeling now? Not just the physical but the emotional. Maybe she spoke those words knowing that they were important for something else, maybe she didn't. I suppose embracing is accepting and just being, not changing, not judging. So, here I am 2 weeks after Moab, crying less, suffering less, stressing more. As I write I decide not to stress it anymore, worrying is wasteful. I trained this summer with Moab in mind, thinking that it would be my race, the one I was ready for. Well, I was ready, but someone or something had other plans so I have to just be. Sometimes life is out of our control and when we fight it we feel those unwanted feelings. The moral of the story? Simple, don't have expectations, just try your best and see what happens. Lynda Wallenfels quoted someone last year when she got sick right before Worlds (I think that was it). The quote went something like this "God takes things away from us that we care about sometimes to humble us." Perhaps I needed to be humbled. Don't we all?
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