Next weekend can't come soon enough

photo credit Jeny Meinerz

While Dan is off playing with some boys in Fruita...I'm sitting here at work just imaging how it feels to be riding in the warm desert sun :(

photo credit Tracy Phelps Emmanuel

Luckily, next weekend we're both headed out to Moab for a looooong weekend with some friends for some dirt bike riding and mtb riding.

photo credit Tracy Phelps Emmanuel

me in the sand

Dan showing off

I will NOT be getting my bike stuck like this...I absolutely LOVE this shot of Jason!

It just can't get here soon enough!

Tomorrow night is the BMA Gurlz Ride @ Hall Ranch! Woot! I can face THE rock again...gawd I HATE this rock!!!

I am getting better at hitting it and cleaning it my first time around, I've actually cleaned it every attempt lately but it still makes me sweat. I of course just jinxed myself :(

-Kim

I kicked my own butt

We had another amazing week last week followed by yet another crappy weekend. We had 70 degree days all week long, I got to ride my fixie at lunch everyday and then Saturday hits and the weather turns rainy, crappy and cold. Totally sucks, I should have went to Fruita with Cynthia but opted to stay home instead and avoid the crowds of the FFTF. Bad decision on my part.

Saturday, I decided to go on a run in the misting rain. My iPod was picking up some great old songs that I haven't heard in a loooong time and it put me in such a good mood, 2 hrs later I was finishing up my run, which for me is a long time! Nothing too hilly or taxing, just a nice long run in the crappy Seattle like weather. I got home and after warming up and doing some chores, I was DEAD tired for some reason and decided to screw everything that needed to be done around the house. All I wanted to do was lie in bed with a book and eventually take a nap...4 hrs later I woke up! So not like me! I had plans to go out with a few girlfriends, but getting up and getting ready and putting on clothes other than my comfy yoga stuff was just not going to happen. I settled down to a nice relaxing evening at home.

Sunday came and the weather was nicer out but the temps were still a little chilly. I had planned on getting some errands done and then go for a quickie ride. Unfortunately, my errands took a little longer and I got home a little late for a ride so I decided to go for another long run. This time I detoured from what I had planned on running and ran up the super steep part of Mt. Sanitas. Man, that was HARD! I always forget how steep and how tall the ledges are, too tall for someone with short legs to really run up. I had to stop about 4 times just to stretch my calves out because they were cramping from the constant uphill rocks and ledges. I made it a loop by taking the East Ridge??? trail back down to the Sanitas Valley trail and then over to the Dakota Ridge trail where I thought my legs were going to give out on the ledges going down. YIKES! I packed a super hard run in about 45 minutes...and I'm still super sore today.

Here's some pics of a few of the tough, steep ledgey sections I found online of Mt Sanitas. OUCH!!!




Then Dan and I were off to a BBQ at Tracy & Jason's house with a bunch of other people. Which was a really really nice way to end a weekend...wish it was a weekend full of riding but eventually the weather will cooperate and let us have or trails back!

Unfortunately, Dan had to once again work the entire weekend. Which is quite frankly getting a little annoying and tiresome. I don't mind him working a weekend here and there or one weekend day but both days for 3 or 4 weeks in a row is just not acceptable. And he's got to do it again this weekend...this weekend I can understand because he gets to go to Fruita Tues/Fri with some people from work, which by the way I'm totally jealous about :( But dammit, he needs a weekend off here and there to ride with me!!!

-Kim

Girls Rides Have Started

The Thursday night girls rides have started! Last night the weather was absolutely perfect! A handful of us rode up the connector from Canyon and got 2 laps in and still made it down into Boulder before the sun set! It was nice to see some familiar faces from last year too.

So glad summer is coming!

Here's the write up on the ride blog.

-kim

3 days of rain and 2" of slush later

The snow and slush are all gone :) Yep! It was crappy for 3 days straight and I used up every single piece of waterproof clothing. It dumped so much in summit county that they closed I-70 from about Morrison to Vail pass...which meant no one could get up to the mountains to enjoy all the fresh snow :( Bummer!

Sunday, after brunch with the crew, Tracy and I decided to head up to Ned for some snowshoeing with the dogs. Ned got 4' of wet, heavy snow and it was absolutely beautiful up there! Patch had a little trouble staying above the snow in our tracks but he was a trooper.




Down in Boulder, temps got up into the 60's and most of the snow was gone....almost 100% of it was gone by Monday. Now with temps predicted to be in the 70's the rest of the week, getting a trail ride in this weekend looks pretty promising :)

Come on summer!!!

-Kim

WTF!!!!!!

It's just not fair!!! Enough ALREADY!!!

Easter Weekend 2009

We had planned to go to Grand Junction/Fruita Friday and Saturday but the weather looked really crappy in Fruita on Saturday so we decided to stay home and enjoy the nicer weather on the front Range. Friday we decided to hit up Dakota Ridge/Red Rocks/Matthews Winter and give Dan's new Trek Fuel EX9 a good dose of ledgy rocks. It passed with flying colors.


All purdy with XTR!


Friday night we met Cynthia & Dave for dinner at The Med, we ended up waiting over an hour for a table :( Cynthia decided to check Facebook during our wait and saw that Jesper posted up asking where Happy Hour was, Cyn told him it was at The Med. Then our friend Ryan (Megan's hubby) wanted in on the fun so they both met us up there for some food and drinks. Funny thing is once we upped our party up to 6 people instead of 4, we got seated in about 5 minutes.....go figure!

Saturday, we invited ourselves on Cynthia's ride out at Buffalo Creek. The weather forecast didn't look too promising with a 40% chance of rain/snow and wind gusts up to 28mph. Hardy as we are, we decided to chance it.


And to our surprise, the storm clouds chased us from all around but never ever caught us! We were in our riding bubble of blish and nothing could penetrate it!


Our ride was 25+ miles, 3200' of climbing and 3+ hours of riding on super tacky amazingly flowy trails.

Only action picture I took was Dan playing on a tricky step up section towards the end of our ride...legs cashed but we still gave it a go.


Sorry for the lack of pictures but sometimes stopping and taking pictures takes you out of the "moment" and I'm really feeling the flow these days!

Thanks Cyn, Jeny, Ann and of course my honey for a most awesome day playing in the dirt, chasing the singletrack!

Dan and I pigged out on jalapeno burgers and red velvet cake afterwards and I settled into the couch with a nice strong drinky in my hand, an utterly satisfied girl :)

-Kim

House exploring and snowshoeing

Luckily we didn't get all the snow that was called for, we did however get a couple inches...preceded by lots of rain on Friday night which made the trails a mess on Saturday :( The rain was delightful!!! I haven't heard rain in so long and I thought how I missed it....Dan quickly pointed out how much rain we used to get in Michigan to snap me out of my wave of nostalgia.

Sunday, we drove past a super cute house about 20 min up 4 mile canyon that sat right on a stream. The deck of the house was right off the stream which would make for some fantastically awesome summer nights. The house itself was cute with 2 wood burning stoves, one in the living room and one in the master, hardwood floors and vaulted ceilings....all seen by us peering in through the windows. Unfortunately, we've got until the end of August on our lease so starting the house search is a little premature....regardless, I'd love to live there....don't know if Dan could.....

After that we headed up to Ned for our first snowshoe session of the year.


Made our own singletrack


And made the dog happy


I think we'd be happy up high....


One thing is for sure, I'm happier when I'm on my bike! Enough with the snow already!!! Bring on the dry weather so I can pedal my bike on some dirt!!!

-Kim

Yay for spring :(

Tonight
Slight chance of thunderstorms early in the evening. Chance of rain and snow showers in the evening...then snow after midnight. Areas of blowing snow towards morning. Snow accumulation of 3 to 6 inches. Lows around 30. North winds 10 to 15 mph after midnight.

Saturday
Snow in the morning...then snow likely in the afternoon. Areas of blowing snow through the day. Snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Total snow accumulation of 5 to 10 inches. Highs in the lower 30s. North winds 15 to 25 mph.


Saturday Night
Cloudy. Chance of snow and areas of blowing snow in the evening...then a slight chance of snow after midnight. Lows around 16. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph in the evening. Chance of snow 40 percent.

Good thing some impromptu plans are in the works for a quickie trip to GJ/Fruita next Fri/Sat with Carey & Craig :) Let's just hope the weather is good!

Until then...I'll be shoveling :(

-Kim

Bah Humbug!

I haven't been on my bike since we got back from Fruita 2 weeks ago :( Spring snows have been hitting us and hitting us hard! We got about 18" of snow last Thursday, we just about got to the point where it was all melted and it snowed again last night, but melted away today with the warm temps but now we're supposed to get another storm on Saturday. Luckily and unfortunately, we were pretty spoiled over the winter with mild temps and practically no snow and we were able to ride pretty much whenever, but that's why dealing with the spring weather is a major bummer right now.

It's pretty much put me in the mood to not ride my bike. I've been spending a lot of time in my running shoes....which in turn has made me kinda not want to run anymore. I'm planning on doing a couple long hikes this weekend, Saturday being pretty much a bust since it's supposed to snow ALL DAY LONG :( But maybe I'll be able to bust out the snowshoes and do some snowshoeing.

In the meantime, I'm praying for warmer temps and dry trails.

Next year we'll be prepared with the winter because we're getting ski passes! Hopefully that will make the winter easier to deal with and we'll be more than happy when we get snow...especially spring snow!

-Kim