a quick hello from CO

i arrived in denver friday afternoon to sizzling temperatures of 100. luckily it feels better in the mtns of steamboat, but still pretty toasty.

the rock/creek race team successfully got their asses over the passes and finished the wild west relay : 195 miles of running from ft collins to steamboat. i met them en route,  then we crashed at aunt lorraine & uncle steve's casa for the rest of the weekend. recovery efforts included banana pancakes, icy soaks in fish creek (conveniently located in the backyard), soaks in the hot springs of strawberry park, and lots of local beer. more pics to come.

matt, natalie, lisa, chad, leigh, sam, kevin

today was catching up on some work and enjoying some great weather. i need to find a tripod for better sunset photos. squint and pretend it's all sharp. :)

murals + moab = inspiration

so i was talking to amanda last week, trying to nail down some plans for my summer trips to leadville. she was out in moab, doing some murals for a new diner some friends of hers recently opened. she's talking away, telling me about bc and danelle's latest venture. it finally occurs to me that she's talking about one of my "heroes", danelle ballengee: multisport endurance rockstar. she's a phenomenal athlete that i first was exposed to through adventure racing; she's dominated many other sports as well. more recently it was an accident while on a normal training run that put her in the news. she's made a remarkable recovery and has been racing again (although i don't know what she's been up to lately). anyways, it was just funny to hear amanda talking about danelle the friend when i hold her in legend status :)  maybe i'll get to meet her this summer ?!!

meanwhile, my cousin is incredibly talented and an inspiration as well. i'm hoping to commission her to paint me something special soon so i can "escape" out west whenever i want. 

adventures with the nephews

Holiday Adventures

So the holidays are officially coming to a close and while I had a great time with family and friends, training has been nil due to this lingering cold. (day 15?? honestly! might be time for the doc...) I've missed a lot of important trainings that would have kept me on track and primed for Mitchell, including today's annual Frosty Challenge. The silver lining is forced downtime which means added recovery for the groin pull. I got one short run in down in FL inbetween the sniffles that felt pretty good with no soreness the next day.

Here's a few pics from adventures with my nephews, who kept me on my toes all the time. More pics posted here.

me, erick, evan, ethan, liz, kevin

helping ethan clean his first doves!

evan on his new scooter

the boys monkeying around

ethan & evan testing their new cars

mini orlando vacation

I came down to Orlando for a few days to visit my sister, brother-in-law & nephews... for some fun and suffering in the Florida humidity.

Sunday, Liz and I woke up early to run the Track Shack's Celebration of Running 3.0 mile race. It was their 30th anniversary, so there was a 70s theme throughout the day (70s funk music, costume contest, and their . They always put on a great race and this really was no exception, with one of the best swag bags I've gotten (next to the Stumpjump!) It was a hot morning, but despite added humidity, wasn't worse than what we've been having up in Chatt. I haven't run any short races since starting speedwork with Joey and crew, so I was really interested to see just how fast I could go. I was hoping to average 7:30min/mile. I think I was around an 8:15 for the country music half marathon, so I thought this was a doable estimate.

The first mile was a great start - 7:11, even with the crowded start (over 1500 runners started!) The second mile was at 7:19... a little slower, but still ahead of pace. Just a bit after the 2nd mile marker, the funky thing with my heart beat happened. I got a bit lightheaded and slowed, but didn't stop (I really didn't want to!) I took about 30sec easy and seemed to shake it off, so I pumped it up for the last bit. My final chip time was 21:57, which translates to a 7:19min/mile pace. Yeah!! Since this was a bigger event, seems like all the speedy peeps came out. I got 13th in my age group (out of 116), 47th overall woman (out of 882).

After we had a chance to cool down, the kid's fun run started. Both Evan & Ethan got shy right before the start and got Liz & Erick to help them across the finish line. They both got bright yellow ribbons, which they thought were pretty cool.

That afternoon we headed to New Smyrna Beach to relax - although the boys kept me very busy! Here's a few shots of the fun...

playing hookie

amanda (my colorado cousin) got into town on tuesday morning for her whirlwind trip thru tennessee. after some coffee, we headed up to lookout mountain for some hiking. i'm not too familiar with the area and wasn't sure how to get us to sunset rock. finally we found the incline and parked there, depositing all the quarters we had (1hr, 45min). we walked down to point park, but not wanting to pay the entry fee (yeah, we're cheap), we walked 30min along west brow road (gorgeous homes!) and finally got to sunset rock.


from there, we hiked along the bluff trail and went in the back way to point park. by now we were running low on meter time and hightailed it... but alas, the evil meter maids had left me a nice lil present. (luckily only a $5 fine). then we hit the Y for a swim (first time i've been in the water since last summer's xterra!).

on wednesday we hit the road and headed east to asheville. we stopped at the ocoee to check out the whitewater center (site of the 96 olympics). the water was down on the upper section, but still cool to look around.


next, we headed up the nantahala gorge. after a late lunch at the River's End restaurant (using a gift cert I won at last year's tsali challenge), we hit the trails for some mountain biking. i got the old tre8k in working order for amanda to use. even though she usually rides a full suspension, she rode strong. we did both the left & right loops plus the overlook, for a total of about 20 miles.


after, we snuck a quick shower at the campgrounds and headed to asheville. we stopped in at my friends' house for a bit (chilton had just gotten a new rope swing in the tree and was having a ball!). then on to see amanda's old roommate sara, whom we stayed with.

thursday, after a lazy breakfast at the early girl eatery (my fav there), we headed to out for some more mtn biking at nearby bent creek. this was my first time here and sara led us on a great 2+hr ride. these gals love their downhill! (greens lick trail nearly licked me!) after a late lunch and shower, i headed back to chatty.

colorado... the final entry...

I've been back from vacation a week now and I'm totally missing it! I had a great time out west and highly recommend everywhere I went. Here a few links just in case you are lucky enough to indulge....

Vista Verde Ranch
Catamount Ranch & Club
Steamboat Springs
Ski Cooper
Tennessee Pass Nordic Center & Cookhouse
Melanzana - AWESOME clothes!

Day 2: snowshoeing up to the Catamount yurt for lunch
Day 3: Amanda and I up at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse
Day 6: Winter Carnival in Steamboat... the only marching band on skis!
Day 7: classic skiing at Vista Verde

more colorado pics

the rest of my trip was of course amazing! i found out that i am a nordic girl at heart - loved the skate skiing and classic, but was absolutely terrified when i put some tele skis on and hit the beginner slope. those little kids kicked my ass down that mole hill! in general, the weather was pretty warm - not that different from chattanooga actually. (the week before though, temps were in the negatives!) now that i'm back from vacation, i have the grass is greener syndrome... i'm just about all ready to pack up and move :) now, back to reality... sigh!

http://bebackonmonday.eyeprojector.com/gallery_trips/index.html

winter in colorado!

having a blast out here in steamboat & leadville! will write more later about my skiing debut... pics are posted here