What Have I Been Doing Since June?

Holy smokes. I've been neglecting my once beloved blog. What on earth have I been up to since June? Well, I did the holy terror ride known as "The Triple Bypass". Unfortunately for me I did it with the beginning of an injury and ended up with a complete injury which sidelined me for 6 weeks. "The Triple" as it's lovingly referred to, is 120 miles over 3 mountain passes. My riding buddy Arnie and I started so early that the first descent down Squaw Mountain felt like a polar ride. The sun was up but not high enough to hit the road. It was a little chilly and hard to keep a grip on the handlebars and brakes because even my full finger gloves weren't enough to keep my digits from freezing into a painful position. But I've done it, and don't ever have to do it again. The ride serves as a sort of Rite of Passage for the riders around here and now I've got the bragging rights. yeehaw

In August we had the 1st Annual Guthrie Ride to honor our friend Bob Guthrie and raise money for his pet project, the Swan Mountain Rec Path. We had over 400 riders register and almost everyone showed up despite the horrendous weather. So many people worked really hard to make this ride a reality and they should be really proud of a job well done. Hopefully next year we can get twice as many people and some warm sunshine.

In October we went on a bike trip to Japan. We spent the majority of our time in the northeast corner on the island of Hokaido, which is where this photo was taken. The riding was great most of the time. One or two of the roads were a little to trucky for my taste but all in all it was a great ride. After Hokaido we went to Nara and Kyoto. These locations were amazing. Lots of old temples, gardens, etc. I loved the food. Not just because it tastes so good but it's so low fat that no matter how much we ate, we didn't gain any weight. yeah. So bottom line is that biking in Japan, even on the island of Honshu which is heavily populated, is really a wonderful experience. There a lots of narrow back roads with very little traffic and some great climbs. One or two of which I couldn't get all the way up. Serious incline on some of their roads.

Since returning home I've made a evening gown, which I draped myself. I had two weeks to get it done as we were going to the Respite Care Ball in Fort Collins. This dress was a pretty big challenge for me as I was copying, as best I could, a dress designed by Diane Von Furstenberg. I had only seen the dress in an American Express commercial and on her website. The print she used is pretty graphic so it's hard to see where the seams are so it took me quite a while to come up with what I thought was the pattern. I think she may have used a knit of some kind, but I used silk and did the entire dress on the bias. Sewing on the bias takes a special kind of dedication and stubbornness. So here's the final product. I'm a better seamstress than I am a photographer. The red trim on the hem was my own artistic license. The necklace and matching earrings were made by galpal Penny. Thanks Pen. One niggly little issue with this dress was undergarments. As it's quite wide over the shoulders and dips down pretty good in the back, hiding bras and spanks was tricky. Things were patched together under there. One of these days I'll think to put the undergarments on the dress form before I start draping!

By the way, I'd like to nominate the inventor of Spanks for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, if Al Gore can win it for making a movie, the inventor of Spanks should be no brainer. I think I'll start a letter writing campaign to the folks who make these decisions.

So what am I doing now? Well, I'm a grammy in waiting so I'm knitting my first ever baby sweater. Knitting for babies is liking working on tiny models. Everything is miniaturized. The yarn, the needles, the size of the pieces. I'm not really loving this. As soon as I get this little number finished, I'm going to work on something life sized. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust a regular pattern to to a maternity pattern. I'm not really sure what I'm doing but I did find an article on www.knitty.com so hopefully that will help. And I'm also making a coat for the incubator otherwise known as Jill. She has barely managed to get a little bump going so there is no dire need for the coat yet. My goal is to have it under the tree. I'm also working on converting a pair of regular jeans to maternity jeans and I want to knock out a couple t-shirts based on the ones we saw at Gap Maternity. I'm busy busy busy.

And to make time management (never my strong suit to begin with) more challenging, it hasn't stopped snowing for more than 24 hrs at a stretch since the day after Thanksgiving and so I'm trying to get in some skiing, skate skiing, skinning and hopefully snowboarding. AND I still have to get in 3 days of volunteering for the Nordic Center to earn my free pass. Of course, it may take until closing day as they seem a tad disorganized with the right hand keeping secrets from the left hand. I may just have to break down and pay for the dang pass.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER DENIS. I hope the day is wonderful. Yikes, it's son-in-law Dillon's birthday in two days. I wonder if any of the gifts I ordered online will be here by then. Doubt it, as I did it all yesterday. I'm having a cyber Christmas this year. If I can't order it online you probably aren't going to get it. And it better be on sale or have free shipping. Damned economy!

So, that's what I'm doing and I better get back to doing it.

A Brazilian? And Other Memories of Ride The Rockies.

On Saturday 2,350 riders rolled into Breckenridge after a week of riding our bikes around the Colorado Rockies. As Mary Ellen and I pedaled side by side through the throngs of spectators (okay,maybe it was only 200 or so) lining Adams Street into the finish line, my mind inevitably travelled back to the high and low lights of the preceding week.

HIGHLIGHTS

You can eat and drink pretty much anything and it's all in the name of fueling your ride.

You can ride places you normally wouldn't for fear of being killed by traffic because most of the locals know there's a big ride going on, so they stay away. And the State Troopers do such a great job of keeping motorists under control.

Jim. He is the greatest person to ride with. He just knows when you really really need him to drag you in. I wonder if it was the sobbing.

You rarely go more than 15-20 miles without an aid station so you don't have to carry as much and you don't panic when you enter an area with no trees or shrubs. You cyclists and runners out there will understand the significance of that last bit.

There's always someone new to talk to so you meet a lot of interesting people. Well, some of them are perhaps not so much interesting as they are unusual. It helps to hang out with Kay and Deb as they are people magnets. That's how I met Jay the Brit. Jay has been an Olympic athlete, a commerical airline pilot, a race car driver (I don't know if that ties into the Olmpics in any way), a charter pilot and an amateur writer. It was the writing angle that was intriguing and why we posed butts forward for him. Who knows what Jay is planning to do with this photo but you saw it here first!

The discovery of Butt Butter. But I didn't use it on my butt exactly. A shout out to Mary the Calgarian for making the suggestion. She's a doctor so she knows what she's talking about right? The rest of the story on the Lady Tool Box is under Lowlights.

Cottonwood Pass. This pass is so achingly beautiful that you didn't even care it wasn't paved or that the local mosquito population was having dinner on your butt. This is a sad testament of how slowly I climb. The mosquitos were having no difficulty keeping up and many were passing me.

Summits. It's always a party at the summit.

And last but not least, it feels so damned good when you stop!

LOWLIGHTS

Wind. Oh my gawd, the wind between Montrose and Crested Butte. Who was the brainiac who decided to add 28 miles into a brick wall of wind at the end of a 92 mile day that started with 15 miles into a brick wall of wind. The wind was so strong in that first 15 miles that at one point I was in my granny gear, pedaling with all my might and going between 10 -12 miles per hour. The bad news is that I WAS GOING DOWNHILL!!!

On that very same day I wore the shine right off the Lady Toolbox. The Lady Toolbox has seen some long days in the saddle but this one left a mark. Mary the Calgarian was on my wheel and noticed that I was standing more and more frequently in that tell tale "oh my aching Lady Toolbox" pose. This is when she suggested butt butter to which I replied I had tried it on a previous occassion to no avail. (Stupid me had taken the name literally) After a few more knees locked, butt up, head down, groan, groan, stretches, she tried again. "Maybe you should get a Brazilian"? Being a couple IQ points smarter than the current leader of the free world, I knew we weren't talking numbers but I didn't immediately grasp her theory. My mind wandered to a long stretch of deserted beach lined with coconut palms waving gently in the warm ocean breeze. My Brazilian (bought and paid for from the proceeds of selling my once beloved Trek) emerged from the quaint beach hut clad scantily in an orange speedo carrying a small tray laden with a gigantic umbrella drink and a plate of freshly cut assorted local fruits. My hammock swayed slightly as I leaned forward to take my drink from his tray as he knelt on one knee, smiling and drinking in my flashing blue eyes. screeecccchhhhhh Oh shit, I nearly ran into Jim's wheel. Not that kind of Brazilian you idiot!!! Focus. Warm ocean breeze, my ass. This is a hurrican force wind we battling here. And as far as getting a Brazilian, well, that's not going to happen any time soon. A Lady Toolbox with no shine is no place for wax let me tell you.

People who let a tired old lady with the aforementioned affliction pull them up passes and serve as a wind break without taking their turn. Or even offering for that matter.

Rumble Strips and narrow or non existent shoulders. Death to CDOT!

OVERVIEW

All in all it was a great ride. This is our group. Front Row: Mary Ellen, Jim, Kay. Back Row: Brian, me, Joan, Deb. Unfortunately, Martha wasn't with us that night and missed the photo. Actually, she missed all the group photos.

In review, I learned the following.

Butt Butter is not necessarily for your butt.

Daydreaming on a bike can be dangerous.

The early rider gets the clean portapotty.

12 miles is a long way without breakfast.

A couple glasses of wine and a good dinner make you forget how miserable you were two hours ago.

Happy Belated Birthday Penny

So, in an effort to make up to Penny for missing her big Six Oh birthday, I made her an apron. It's a bit on the bright side but I hope she likes it. Can you see the tulle? Here's a hint, hemline and neckline. The question I was asked, was will I make one for each of the gal pals. Quick answer is NO. Way too much work.

I forgot Bob's birthday too. This is becoming a bit of a trend. Jill's birthday is June 28th and hopefully it won't slip my mind between now and then. I've got a little something planned for her that I'm thinking she'll really enjoy.

I've been doing some bike riding lately which is good because Ride the Rockies starts next week. Today we went to the Front Range and rode from Bear Creek Park to the Genesse exit using Lookout Mountain and Hwy 40. I'm not sure where we were most of the time but it was a nice ride with a steady climb. On the way back we rode up to Red Rocks. That was actually the toughest part of the ride. There was one point where you'd swear the road was flat and yet I was barely moving in granny gear. Very discouraging but thankfully didn't last long. The descent from there was beautiful but the road isn't in very good condition so you really had to stay focused and not get distracted by the fantastic scenery.

Tommorow we're going to do Ute Pass and on Wednesday we may do Loveland Pass and Montezuma. Bob and rode up to Montezuma on Sunday, then went over Swan Mountain Road. It was a tad chilly and crazy windy but the wind was behind us going up to Montezuma and we took ourselves out of it by taking Swan Mtn instead of going around the lake. Shortly after we got home it started to snow again. It was snowing earlier in the morning. The weather has just been nuts. Snow in June for crying out loud!

Well, back to the sewing room.

We Survived!

Here we are, approaching the finish line of the Steamboat Half Marathon in 2:28 and change. Our goal was just to finish, and anything under 2:30 was gravy. Well, bring on the potatoes folks, cuz we've got gravy. I have to say that is the best I've ever felt coming over the finish line of a half marathon. Jill is a good influence on me! Thanks to Diana Dettmering for the photo. Hey, we sort of look synchronized don't we?

The day before the race we drove the course to get a feel for the lay of the land. Jill was pretty nervous after doing this but I thought it gave me a much better idea of what was coming and eliminated worrying about hills that weren't there or weren't as big as I would have imagined them. All in all the race was a lot easier than I expected. They could certainly have used more porta potties but that seems to be a personal problem rather than a group problem. Suffice it to say that there are several areas along Hwy 129 where the vegetation will thrive!

So now that this is out of the way I need to start riding my bike more. I've been able to get a few rides in this week but the hardest thing I've done is Vail Pass. I'm going to suffer on Ride the Rockies as my saddle butt is not ready for a week of 70+ mileage day after day. And I certainly didn't need this bad weather break I'm taking today. The forecast is for snow over 9000 feet. So far all we're seeing is sporadic rain but it's cool and not ideal riding weather. It's always something.

With all this running and riding my sewing and draping projects have fallen by the wayside. I'm in the process of trying to create, or more accurately, recreate, an apron I saw in San Diego this spring. The thing that was unique about it was the use of tulle. I'm a big fan of tulle in any application so of course I fell hard for these aprons. However, the $100 price tag was a big buzzkill. I tried to take a photo of it without getting caught by the store owner and fell quite short of successful. You can't see a dang thing. So, now I've been reduced to creating/recreating my own masterpiece. I've got it draped so the next step is to transfer it to a paper pattern and then I can start working in the fabric and .....tulle. I love love love tulle.

I was also planning to make myself a new dress for the 180th Birthday Bash but I'm running out of time on that one. It's a week from Saturday. I don't work that fast. I'll be lucky to have one apron done by then and it's a birthday present for Penny. A small token of my regret for forgetting her 60th birthday. I'm a bad bad friend.

Time Just Keeps on Slippin, Slippin

Wow. I'm not very good at writing about my life. So, what's new since March? I've been to California on a bike ride. It was great, as was the weather. Gotta love San Diego. I'd live there if I could afford a house bigger than a pop up camper. The riding was just what the doctor ordered for early season but with perhaps slightly more traffic than one would desire. All in all though, it was pretty great. Their hills may not be as long as we're used to in Summit, but they make up for it with steepness. Wasn't sure I would make it once or twice.

I did a fair amount of running while we were there. Running at sea level when it's 60 degrees is just about perfect. I actually enjoy it. And in fact have been continuing to run since I'm back in Colorado. Being in Denver makes it a little more pleasant than in the mountains. Not just weather but altitude! Jill and I ran as a "Mother/Adult" team in the Title 9K Mother's Day Run out at the Boulder Rez. We finished 2nd in the category. Wow. Who'da thunk it? We didn't even hang around for awards so don't know if our feat was acknowledged or not. We were so hyped about the experience (even though we were unaware of our finish) that after we left the Rez we went to Bolder Boulder HQ and signed up for that.

So, the BB was yesterday. The weather was a little iffy but it held out and was pretty close to ideal the whole time we were running. Here's our results:

Jill Benbow bib number: G144
overall place: 20783
division: F26
division place: 347 out of 775
gender place: 8378 out of 26287
mile 1: 0:10:32.98
mile 2: 0:10:33.03
mile 3: 0:10:33.16
mile 4: 0:10:26.18
mile 5: 0:10:17.36
mile 6: 0:10:14.38
net time: 1:04:48.32
pace: 10:27 (based on net time)

Monique Mustard bib number: G145
overall place: 23547
division: F54
division place: 67 out of 301
gender place: 10020 out of 26287
mile 1: 0:10:33.33
mile 2: 0:10:33.40
mile 3: 0:10:32.55
mile 4: 0:10:26.42
mile 5: 0:14:43.02
mile 6: 0:08:46.75
net time: 1:07:35.60
pace: 10:54 (based on net time)

As you can see I had a little problem at mile 5. We were right near the mile marker and I had a bout of bad butt. I was hoping to hop in and out of the nearby porta potty but unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way. I tried to catch up to Jill so we could enter the stadium together but couldn't do it. Hopefully next year we can finish together as running into Folsom Field is such a rush and it would be nice to have someone to share it with.

Next weekend we run the Steamboat Half Marathon. I'm hoping it goes as well as our first two races. I did 1.5 hrs on Friday with Mary Ellen so I'm feeling pretty good about it, but Jill hasn't gone more than 10K yet. I sure wish she had gotten in a longer run.

All this running has gotten in the way of my riding and I have some biggies coming up. I sure hope cross training pays off. June 15 is the start of Ride the Rockies. If I make it through that, I can do anything. As I said, Time just keeps on slippin, slippin.

Gotta Get Back on that Wagon

I sort of cut myself off on my last post and what I didn't get to mention was that after I got confirmation I could indeed join the ride, and had filled out all the necessary paperwork, written a cheque, got all in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, I had a revelation. I'll be in Canada for almost the entire ride. Hard to be riding in Calafornia when your body is in Vancouver and Calgary! I'm still ticked off about that.

Another derailment of my training was a trip to Vancouver last week for my MIL's 80th birthday. It was a sort of surprise. She knew Bob & Don (sons) were coming due to a slip up, but didn't know me and our kids were coming. The parties were fun but the weather stunk. Unless you like rain and overcast skies. I've been whining about getting out of the snow, and I did. I went to rain. But now that I'm back in Frisco it's snowing again. I have to admit it was sunny and warmish this morning. I did a drive around town to see if my running route was all dry roads and it was. Of course, that was then and this is now and now they're covered in snow again.

I got up at 5:25 to go to spin class this morning. You would think that by the middle of March the classes would be getting easier but such is not the case. I seem to be losing conditioning with each passing week. So, in an effort to get things going the right direction, I did a slow mile on the treadmill after class and then did hall lunges around the track. ONCE around the track. I thought I was going to keel over. I'm sure my butt will be singing tomorrow. I'm going to try and go to spin again tomorrow morning as it seems I'm not going to start running outside anytime soon. It's supposed to snow off and on until Sunday.

Bob is going to meet with the bike guy tomorrow to work on getting his new Ritchey Breakaway set up. I hope he likes it when it's all done. I personally am not fond of the paint job so I've been looking at custom paint jobs online. There's way more info for motorcycles but I did find something I like a lot through Trek's Project One site. I'd post a picture but I can't figure out how to pick it off their site. Guess what? It's got orange and yellow frames coming into black. Very very cool! Hot actually.

While we were in Vancouver, I decided I needed to get a pattern and yarn to make a Siwash or Cowichan sweater. Great idea but bad timing apparently. The company that makes the yarn stopped production in 1996. I thought, no problemo, I'll go online and find it. Hah! so I thought. I found one person on EBay selling off the remnants of some skeins but nothing else. And yet, there is a website from a tribe in BC who are selling sweaters that are made to order. Where the H E Double Hockey Sticks are they getting their yarn? The tricky thing about this yarn is that it is unspun so it isn't a simple matter of substitution. You have to find unspun yarn and that is turning out to be a challenge. Always a day (or a decade + in this case) and a dollar short! Oh well, when would I find the time anyway?

Dang, I'm In Another One

Well, I got into Ride the Rockies. And my training has fallen completely off the wagon. Never mind the details but getting the flu after returning from Mexico was not good. I haven't been on the spinner, skis or snowboard for a very long time. So, it's time to get going again. I did run in Mexico and it felt very good. Sea level is so great!

So tomorrow morning at 6:15AM it's back to spin class with a vengeance. Wednesday I'm going to see about getting my Trek behaving and ordering a breakaway Ritchie. Today, I signed up for another BAC ride in California. This one is in May and is the Russian River area north of San Francisco.

Dang, I'm In!

So, as luck would have it, I got into the Steamboat Half Marathon. In anticipation of this I've been trying to up my physical activity a.k.a. training. I got in an hour plus on the skate skis on Saturday and did a snowshoe today. I've killed my so called Ironman watch so don't know how long we were out there but it was at least two hours. There will be no shortage of "training" for the next week as I leave on a hut trip Wednesday. It's quite a ways into the hut and almost all uphill, particularly the last quarter mile. While we're up there we'll be burning the calories building our swissbob run etc. On the weekend I'm doing a ski or maybe ride clinic so will be out both those days. By Monday I'll be ready to have a sit and do nothing day. I think I'm in good shape as far as training goes.

Project - Run this Way

I have way too much stuff going on right now so I've decided to run the Steamboat Half Marathon with Jill. Makes sense right? Only there is some technical difficulty going on with Active's website so my registration keeps getting kicked out. Maybe this is technology's way of protecting me from myself. But I've been feeling like spinning isn't providing enough of a workout to keep me in shape or even improve, so half marathon it will be. maybe. At least I had the sense to say I wouldn't do a full marathon with her. Actually, I'll be out of the country for that so I couldn't anyway, but it sounds good.

One of the ways I plan to train for this is to skate ski. It's a much more enjoyable way to get the workout and isn't as impactful on the joints. Now all I need is for the sun to shine and the temps to go up a little and I'm off.....................

In the meantime, I'm trying to finish a few (haha) sewing projects. I'm in the hemming stage of two skirts. (I really hate getting hems ready to sew) and I'm taking a draping class. I got my homework for draping done this morning and I'm quite happy with it. Getting my dress form to look to me is an ongoing project as I realize I've put lumps where I don't need them.

Back to hemming.