It was just one of those days...

Work was work... a normal day, I guess. But then before I headed home, I had to stop in on my mom's kittens because my parents were out of town. The kittens were less than a week old... very tiny!

They had all been nursing and looked fat and happy the day before when I stopped in. But today, one was dead. Just like that! Dead! I don't understand it! I was distraught, of course, and rushed the kittens and mama cat to the emergency vet to make sure there was nothing wrong with the others that might just lead to the same fate. Thankfully, the vet said they looked healthy aside from a minor umbilical infection in one of the kittens, for which she gave me antibiotics.

Erik called just as I was leaving the vet (around 8:30 pm) wondering why I wasn't home yet. Needless to say, I was all shaken up and hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime. I told him I had to take the kittens back to my parents' house and watch over them a little longer to make sure they were ok, so he would have to fend for himself for dinner. Well instead he surprised me by showing up at their house, dinner in hand. :) What a sweetheart!

Well when life gives you lemons, it's nice to know you have a husband who will make lemonade for you. :)

Night out with the "Valley Kids"

I went down to Denver last night to visit some friends from the Vail Valley that I haven't seen in years. It was so good to see them again! We had a nice time just catching up, then we went to a club downtown where we snacked on yummy sushi while listening to a DJ friend of theirs spin some records. I definitely have to get together with them more often.

CCTT Report

I'm racing in the Cherry Creek Time Trials (CCTT) again this year (a.k.a. KHMTT). The series is 7 weeks long with a race every Wednesday night. The course is 10.5 miles long and winds around the Cherry Creek Reservoir.

My start time this year is 6:28:20 and each week I race against the clock to see if I can beat my best time. My best time last year was 27:54 so I set a goal of 27:30 for this year. I think it's a long-shot because I haven't really done much training this year, but we'll see.

This year's results so far:

Race #1 (4/11/07) - 32:07 (13th out of 28) - I missed my start time due to a long line at the registration tent.
Race #2 (4/18/07) - 32:33 (16th out of 32) - CRAZY WINDY!
Race #3 (4/25/07) - 18:31 - WooHoo! I kicked butt in this one! Ok... not really. Due to flooding, the course was shortened from 10.5 miles to about 6 miles, which explains the super fast time. But I still moved up in my category (11th out of 24)

It looks like I have a big chunk of time to make up if I expect to make my goal... and only 4 races left to do it!

Click here for details about the race series.
Click here to see the official results.

Here are a couple of pics from CCTT#3 (Courtesy of Chris Plesko)


What? This isn't a team time trial?



I thought the race was supposed to be AROUND the reservoir...
not THROUGH it!

Real Dirt

I tried really hard to wuss out of this one, but Erik wouldn't have it. Sunday was my first "real" mountain biking experience... and it was a blast! There were a few moments when I wanted to cry, but overall it was much easier and less scary than I expected. I still maintain that me + techical_stuff != a_happy_camper ... I guess I'll just have to stay on the easy trails.

I think what we rode was the Bear Creek Trail at the Lair 'o the Bear park down near Morrison. It was a beautiful day for riding, but that also meant there were plenty of other people out on the trail as well. Aside from a few not-so-courteous riders, the crowds weren't too much of an issue.

Here are a couple of pictures, again, courtesy of Chris Pleko




And of course, the most anticipated part of the day (FOOD) was quite enjoyable... we loaded up on yummy pasta at Tony Rigatoni's! We missed Chris & Marni and Mike & Jeanie at the after-feast but Chris & Marni weren't feeling well and Mike & Jeanie had to get back home to the babysitter.

Huge props to Marni for not only finishing this trail for her first time ever but for doing it while feeling majorly crappy the whole time! She looked so not-happy and I wished there was something I could do to help. I was so impressed that she stuck it out!

Thanks again to Chris & Marni for loaning me the Cannondale and thanks to Erik for suffering on the single-speed with platform pedals so that I could use his clipless pedals and shoes!

Spring Break

Erik found this "spring break training plan" in Bicycling magazine and decided it would be a good way for us to whip ourselves into shape in a hurry. The basic concept was to do nothing but eat, sleep, ride and work for two weeks. Well we modified it a bit to fit our schedules, but here's how it turned out for me...

Friday - Carter Lake Loop ~35 miles
Saturday - Rode down to meet Chris Plesko at his race and then rode the Carter Lake Loop again with Chris, Dave Nice and Erik ~ 60 miles total
Sunday - Introduction to mountain biking with the girls (see details in another post) - I have no idea how many miles we rode but we were out there for about an hour and a half
Monday - Lunchtime ride from work ~ 1 hour
Tuesday - Day Off
Wednesday - Cherry Creek Time Trial #2 - CRAZY WINDY! Slow and miserable - 32:33 plus a short warmup (~10 min)
Thursday - Easy spin in the evening ~ 45 min
Friday - Rode down to visit Erik at work taking some scenic detours ~ 50 miles
Saturday - I was supposed to ride up to Ward with Erik but I wussed out and stayed home to do laundry instead... probably a good thing because he said it was snowing and freezing cold up there... I would have been miserable.
Sunday - My first "real" mountain biking trip... See the details in another post. ~12 miles, I think

So... I guess I didn't ride nearly as much as the training plan called for, but it was more than usual so I think it improved my fitness a little. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next time trial.

Here are a couple pictures from the ride to Carter Lake on Saturday...

Monkey Biking

Today Marni and Melissa took me out for a low-intimidation introduction to Mountain Biking. We rode on a trail that goes through the dog park near Chris & Marni's house and it was the perfect place for me to get used to the shifting and the feel of a mountain bike. And I didn't have to worry about making a fool of myself in front of the boys! Thanks Marni and Melissa! I had a blast and I think you sufficiently cured my silly fear of the dirt!

PS - Thanks to Chris & Marni for hooking me up with a bike to ride!

Here are some pictures...

The Three Bike-eteers!

Melissa

Marni

Opening Day

Welcome to my blog! This is the inaugural post to something that (hopefully) I'll update regularly so that I can share life's ups and downs with all of you, my loyal readers.

It seems you're not really up to speed in today's world of technology unless you have an iPod, a MySpace account, and a Blog. Well I guess now I've got #2 and #3 covered (although I'll warn you, my MySpace page is about as "default" as you can get... BORING). But I still haven't really felt any strong desire to get an iPod... or a flashy cell phone loaded with features I'll never use... or an HDTV... or a GPS in-dash navigation system... or an Elmo TMX... I guess I'm just behind the times. But hey, this blog is one step forward.