Dupont

Maria wanted to hit up Dupont for some birthday mtb riding followed by a birthday 32 ounce Gaelic Ale and supper yummy grubbin' at Papas and Beer. You can't beat a good southern fall day.



We had to take a detour around I40 due to a rock slide the night before. The views more than made up for the extra drive time.




You have to go under this waterfall to get to more trails.



We had to stop for a potty break, so I had some time to kill.



Wes's challenge that nobody took him up on. Ride to the end of the log without falling off.



I borrowed Abby's bike to pose for this picture. The bike justifies the outfit, right?


And now the time change is upon us and I'm sad. I sure do miss that extra hour of sun after I get home from work.

Introducing...

Stella

good trade

this...


for this...


Off to Interbike. My goal last year was to come back with a bottle opener - a cool one. A simple goal, unlike, say, gaining clients, but the goal was not reached, so I'm trying again. Also, if you need any testing of helmets, personal protective equipment, or the like, give me a shout. We're awesome at it. Really, we're the best in world - no b.s.

peek a boo

haha, get it?

closed side of the parkway

It's a tough ride but totally worth it.

pick your own

Blueberries! Last year I was introduced to the goodness of fresh picked blueberries, which in no way resemble those mushy, tasteless things you get in the store for about a million dollars a pint. This year, mom and I headed to Blueberry Hill Farm (right next to Norris, so take your bike) and picked until our fingers turned blue.

Green Thumb

guttertree, originally uploaded by girlysteiner.

I have to assume that it is a bad thing to have little baby trees growing in the gutter. Sorry, little baby trees; you're gettin' the boot!

view from the road

And now, a view OF the road...

Uhhh. Take that people driving in your cars, trying to get somewhere. Ain't happenin' today.
For the record, we walked right through and continued on our ride in the hilliest place on earth...Powell.

Lumberjack'd

4 laps of a 25 mile twisty, sandy, not so technical trail looked a little something like this:
lap 1 : 2hrs 22min - feelin' good
lap 2 : 2hrs 24min - feelin' good
lap 3 : 2hrs 36min - gettin' tired, starting to cramp a bit, where'd my water go?
lap 4 : 3hrs 9min - first 17 gettin' by, cramping at times. last 8 miles - DEATH

I'm pretty sure the death was caused by two things: 1) the decision to ride the single speed that hangs in the garage and never gets to see the light of day and 2) my profuse amount of sweating had caused me to turn into a salt-sicle by the end of the third lap.

If you don't consider that whole death thing, the weekend was actually pretty nice. The weather was good, the trails were good, the drive up wasn't bad, nobody had to go to the hospital, and we weren't eaten alive by skeeters. (To ensure the skeeters stayed at bay, we picked up the most potent bug spray we could find at the local K-mart.)

and just for fun, a list of all of the body parts that cramped during the race:
1) Calves
2) weird little muscle that runs along the outside of the lower leg near the ankle
3) both forearms
4) lower back
5) left shoulder
6) hands
7) right adductor (owww)

So that's the official end to big, long, painful races for the year. Will I do any of these next year? Hmmm. We'll see.

manistee, mi

One week until the Lumberjack 100 and we have not secured a place to stay. Problem? Yeah, probably. Maybe the mosquitoes have some extra room.

blooms

Hello pretty flowers in my yard

From mccalley.blogspot.com

sheeps and lambs

Last Friday night, Dave and I made the drive to White Pine(you have to read "White Pine" with your very best southern accent) because we had gotten a tip that there may be many, many super cute baby lambs at the farm. It turns out that Mr. Ram figured out how to sneak over to the ladies' side of the fence, and, well, you know how it goes.

Dave managed to snag one

not a sheep

happy memorial day

enjoy some chalkboard pantry art.

Dear DSG,

I hate you.

After lots of debating with myself, I decided to give dirt, sweat, and gears a go. That was a bad decision. The rain we've been having made the course unrideable and downright miserable. It took me three hours to go about 8 miles of a 10 mile loop, and I should have bailed earlier. Most of that time was spent scooping mud off the tires and out of the frame so the wheels would turn while I was pushing it. I figured my bike weighed about 50 lbs with all the mud. Well guess what, someone found a scale and weighed a bike after it had come off the course...92 pounds. 92 pounds!!! I believe it - I couldn't even lift my bike to carry it!

It wasn't all bad though. Free beer and good people can make any bad experience go away. Erin even came down from Nashvegas to hang with us in the mud.
If you want to see the mud for yourself. Check out www.cyclingdirt.com for some good videos. The site is done by the same people that do Flotrack, so you know it's good stuff!

SERC #5 AKA Kenda Cup East Opener

First XC mountain bike race - first win. I think I'm going to go ahead and retire before they make me upgrade to expert class and I start getting my butt kicked. Press release on the way. Stay tuned....

This race was a much more manageable and totally more enjoyable (and not because I won) 16 miles rather than the 100 that I suffered through the previous weekend. For all you runners, this is more like the 3k-5k of the mtb world. Yay!

Oh yeah, you know how it's been raining every day since umm, forever? My drivetrain was none too happy.

Here's the short and sweet report
Lap 1
Neutral start behind a motorcycle, sat in third for a few minutes as we started to to climb. I figured that if I had any chance, I should try to gap some people here, so I went by the two people in front of me and pulled away. I was really surprised no one went with me, but I kept going until the downhill, sloppy, wet, slippery singletrack section of the race was hit. Since I didn't think risking life and limb was worth a Sport category win, I pretty much farted around and was really careful until we got back to the road section to start the second lap. Apparently, I was too careful because two big guys surprised me on the road with the second place girl in tow. Tried to latch on, but they gapped me too quickly.
Lap 2
Quickly caught the girl that passed me on the climb, put some distance between us, and decided that I should probably work a little harder on the scary sections if I actually wanted to win. So, that's what I did - I scared myself a little and it worked. Go me.

the lady to my right threatened me about spraying my bottle of bubbly malty type alcoholic beverage
(ok, not really, it was more a request to not open it)

I wish I had a picture of me post race because I have never been so muddy in my life! I asked if there was a place to clean up, and I was directed to the river. I had no choice, I was going in.

Knoxville had a nice representation in the single speed category - Dave 3rd, Caleb 4th, and Doug Parker 5th.


You're doing it wrong! A. why does everybody put their arms in the air? and B. why are you going to hand me all this stuff if you want me to put my arms in the air?

Cohutta "race" Report

Well here it is - the down and dirty

5am - wake up call via G's phone in the next tent. It was dark and a little cold, but we managed to get everything packed up and ready without leaving anything.

7am - race start. I wasn't really sure what to eat, but I figured something similar to what I used to eat before cross country races would do pretty well. Unfortunately, I didn't bring oatmeal or pop-tarts, so I ate a banana and part of a bagel and hoped for the best.

the rest of the day:
Uphill on the road, downhill on the road, single track stuff, more downhill on the road, then a flat sometimes rooty section with a big nasty looking rocky section at the end. Said rocky section really isn't that bad, but some dude with a megaphone scared the bejesus out of me when i was almost through it and freaked me out, so I screwed up and had to stop before I killed myself. Stopping resulted in me pissing off some lady behind me and she yelled at me. Oh well, she'll get over it.

The next few miles were uneventful. Rolled through the 18 mile aid station, hit the fire road and started to do some climbing. Next was the paved road section that had some massive rollers that were really tough on the big ole' mountain bike. Finally, I came to a really crowded highway. Wait. Highway? F@#*.

Yep, any doubts that I am, in fact, my father's daughter were removed when I missed an obvious turn somewhere around here:

(would you like extra miles with that?)

After I turned around, I somehow ended up back on course and started picking off the stragglers at the back of the race. I passed some guy who encouraged me by saying "well, you're not going to podium...". Well, buddy, I got some news for ya...neither are you.

Anyways, after climbing for what seemed like days, I got to the 34 mile aid station at noon. After climbing for what seemed like many, many more days, I got to the 50 mile aid station. Here I downed some boiled red potatoes doused in salt, some chips, and a cookie. I decided it would be smart to avoid the offered hotdogs, although, they did look tasty. Thank you, thank you volunteers for refilling my camelback and lubing my chain while I was stuffing my face.

On to the 64 mile aid station where more face stuffing was done, although, by this time, I was starting to really feel the heat. More climbing was followed by a nice flat section, and then more climbing up to the 80 mile aid station.

At mile 80, I sat down, had a banana and something else that I can't remember. By this point I was pretty much dead and was dreading the last 10 miles of the race which were all single track. I was quickly revived when Bruce came up behind me and dumped a bunch of cold water on my head. WOW, that was amazing. Thank you sir, may I have another??

Quick recap
time to mile 34 - 5 hours
34 mile station to 80 mile station - 4 hours

The last 20 miles were a lot harder than I had anticipated. I figured most of the climbing was behind me, but I was WAY wrong. So, I put my head down, got in a rhythm and up I went.

Next up, 90 mile aid station and the beginning of the end. Decided to roll through the last aid station because I just wanted to finish. On my way by the guy there yelled "it's all down here from here!!" Liar. Into the single track I went. The first bit was down hill - rocky, bumpy, typical East Tennessee fare then it went uphill again. Seriously, more climbing? I was over it. The last 9 miles or so seemed like they lasted forever. It seemed like I hit every root and rock possible - even if I tried to avoid it, I still hit it. My right hand was no longer functioning which made shifting impossible, and mentally, I was toast. Finally, I got to the 2nd bridge on Thunder Rock and starting crying because I knew I was practically done. All I had to do was ride down the nice, smooth, paved road, hang a right, then a left and I was DONE.

last 20 miles - 2 hours 9 minutes
overall time - 11 hours 9 minutes

Fellow Knoxvillians
Dave - 7:51 8th in single speed category with a 30 min improvement from last year
G$ - 8:51 Cohutta first timer and crazy single speeder
TEAM ED - Dad busted out in 9:19, best time ever by a couple of hours! (Are we going to have to get you tested?)

Not bad for no training - next big, dumb race is the Lumberjack 100 in June. Busting out the single speed for that one!

Whew!

"off the couch" - cohutta 100 (plus)

I'm sure my blog slacking makes you think I'm super busy doing all kinds of fun things, and I just don't have time to share them with you. Well, uh, you'd be wrong. April was a completely uninteresting and lazy month, and I'm not really sure how it got away from me so quickly. Highlights include a visit from Callie, creating two raised beds for the veggie garden, and nicer weather. Lowlights include falling down(lots!), getting sunburned, and not so nice weather. There, now you're caught up.

Now, what would you do on a free weekend if your most intense workout of the last few weeks had been riding down a mountain on a snowboard? Wait, what's that you say? You would go torture yourself with a 100 mile mountain bike race in the Cohutta mountains?? Crazy! Yes, it sure is.

Saturday's weather forecast was hot, hot, hot, and the course looked a little something like this:

From blog

The Knoxville crowd consisted G$, TEAM ED, Dave, and yours truly. G and Dave were super studs and rocked single speeds, while I was incredibly fine with clicking down to the granny gear and pretty much staying there all day.

More to come later.

It took us 4 days to find this treasure. Now I know why the grocery store selection was so crappy. In fact, the grocery store selection was SO bad, we went back to the condo with a 12 pack of High Life and Michelob Ultra the first night. It was THAT bad.

This may actually be beer heaven - 7 varieties of New Belgium and 2 bucks cheaper than at home. Can't beat it.

i'm on vacation

Snowboarding for 8 days in Colorado is definitely my idea of a relaxing time. Forget the beach, gimme the mountains and snow.


The Elwins planned everything and have been super fun. Those Aussies are a fun bunch.

from left to right we have Mark, John, Jen, Christie, me, and John(Christie's bf)

How do you end the first day of snowboarding?


Oh did I mention we are having the BEST WEATHER EVER???

the latest in spring fashion...

hats are in.

work it, boo.

an uptick in productivity

this past weekend

Bad for riding, good for getting work done inside. So we painted and painted and painted and then painted some more. We even cleaned the baseboards and mopped and vacuumed. Whew!

Inspiration: the Pottery Barn catalog



weekend tally:

1. 3 gallons of paint
2. 3 rollers
3. $27 in new brushes
4. 14 beers (consumed by two of us...i know what you were thinking)
5. 2 kitchen towels
6. 20 hours of painting
7. a roll of paper towels

on a side note, since we're talking about numbers here, i got chased by something like 18 dogs yesterday on my ride after work. 12 came from 1 yard. 12! seriously!

I'll have to post a picture of the finished living room later

bracketology 2009

I'm looking to improve on my poor performance from last year. What I remember from last year was that Kansas finally decided not to choke, and Christie won with her high seeds strategy.

We'll see how it all shakes out this year.
$10 gets you in. I think it should be winner takes all, but I'm open to suggestions.

group page: Bit's tournament pool (creative, I know!)

password: knoxville

On a side note, did anybody watch the end of the SEC tournament championship game? Ridiculous.

straw poll

anybody interested in getting a pool going for the tournament?

i'm thinking $10 per entry, winner takes all.

let me know asap. out of towners can either put it in the mail, or we can use paypal which would probably be easier.

hello, my name is...

Dear Callie,

Please come back and visit us. We miss you.





No, really, we miss YOU...not your bed.

Love,
Boo and Eleanor

don't tease me.

70 degrees??? On the weekend??? O.M.G!

what's that round yellow thing?