Sunday, January 23, 2011

Clinics and Trips for Kids

Here are a few non-ride/race events I have been doing while in AZ this winter.
 
Dec 12th Phoenix full-day women's only clinic. Skills, lunch, raffle followed by nutrition and fueling discussions. I had a great time. Thank you to FRS and NoTubes for supporting my clinics this year.

 Phoenix Dec 12th Clinic Cave Creek

Trips for Kids is a National organization where each chapter is an independently operated non-profit organization based on the Trips For Kids Marin program. I first volunteered with Trips for Kids while living in Georgia. Tucson also has a chapter: TripsForKidsAZ.org.  Last week I rode with a great group, only one child actually has a bike and the frame is broken. The only chance these kids get to ride is when their teacher (an avid MTB'r) sets up a Trips for Kids event and has them bused across town to use donated bikes.




 


What a great day, I had a blast with the kids, they asked a million questions and hung on every word. They wanted to know about racing, clipless pedals, tubeless tires, CO2, GPS, tire selection, nutrition(!), and pretty much everything on my bike.

Jan 16th Tucson Clinic: Thanks to Scott Morris for the pictures!

Bike Setup
a little DH

Cone Drills

Raffle Time
Picking from a pile of additional goodies to add to their bags: Ergon grips, FRS Concentrate, Genuine Innovations tools, Chamois Butt'r, Primal Socks, Osprey nalgene bottle and more.

Snack Time
PowerBar's new Brownie Protein Bites

Wheel Lifts (Paula, ~3.5 month past hip surgery)

Drinking
Beer and FRS, true Tucson style
 

Saturday, January 1, 2011

December in Phoenix, AZ

 
 Picture taken by Scott Morris, see his blog for more great pictures.

November was all about getting caught up from the year of traveling, taking care of all RV repairs and working on 2011 sponsorship. I was supposed to be in Tucson and ready to train beginning Dec 1st, but the RV repairs took seven weeks instead of the originally scheduled three... It turns out Phoenix is not a bad place to train! I mixed in fun rides with get-the-mind-back-to-training type rides.

 McDowell 50  an Arizona Endurance Series event


McDowell 50 article here

 Another McDowell 50 picture by Scott Morris


Kentucky Camp, another Arizona Endurance Series event

Some Kentucky Camp finishers. The coolest thing about these events is that everyone hangs out waiting for all the riders/racers to come in. There is usually a campfire to grill on and people camp out.

Tucson Examiner Article about the Kentucky Camp event here

Fun night ride with the Phoenix Meet Up group.  Thanks Amy!

 Removing the fridge and it's coils.

 New cooling system.

 
Yes, a fridge that works! Thanks to Andy and Allison (Durango) and Todd's mom Barbara (New Mexico) for storing (and saving) my frozen green chile along the way, and to Todd's step-Dad Chris for bringing it down to Phoenix when I had a working fridge.  Only people from NM will understand the chile obsession.


 Finding road routes east of Phoenix

 
My RV repair guys became fans of Power Bar Trail Mix bars. It seems like no one knows about these; they are my favorite.

Thanksgiving

Casey, Mikah, me, Dana post 5k race.

Thanksgiving was spent in TN visiting my family.  I hadn't seen Todd since Interbike in September, he missed out on all things Durango because of work.  We were supposed to meet up in New Mexico in November but he had to postpone his trip a few days and I left for Phoenix before he got back.  After Thanksgiving he flew east and I went west... It was a few fun days though! We flew in late on the 24th and had to be up and ready to run first thing Thanksgiving morning.

I didn't take a bike so the idea was to find other things to do, I started doing a few jogs in Durango so thought why not a 5k? Not the brightest idea since I had never actually ran. But I was able to talk some of my brothers and sisters into it. Todd didn't fall for the "c'mon, it'll be fun" argument but was there with the camera.

 Warm up. Aubrey, Dana, Casey.

My brothers Dana and Mikah

 Wow, this is a lot of people. 1400 5k and 10k runners, mass start.

Todd said I didn't look like a runner. But it was good enough for 1st place in the women's 5k. Results. After crossing the finish line a reporter came up to interview me and I said I wasn't first, two other had women crossed in front of me, but it turns out they were 10k racers (and faster than me).

Aubrey and Baby!

Casey, Aubrey, Jer, me, Dana, Dad

Day 2.  Dana took me to Knoxville Fleet Feet to get sized and pick up a pair of running shoes (1st place prize).  They took their time; measuring, having me walk, stand and try on different shoes as well as asking me running related questions, which I didn't really have any answers for since I am not a runner.


Super light shoes, almost feels like I don't have shoes on.  They sold me a bigger size than I would have normally purchased, but they feel great.
Day 2 con't: We were all sore from the run so went to the gym. The guys decided we should do 5 pull-ups, 10 pushups and 15 squats every minute on the minute for 30 minutes.  The faster you go the more rest you get between sets. I was down to 3 pull-ups pretty quickly but kept up on everything else, but we all voted to quit at 20min. After showing that I could do a pyramid headstand, Dana walked on his hands. I couldn't do it.

Then he showed us how to go from seated to standing on your hands without moving your hands from this position.
 
 Dana in Dental school clothes
 
Pranks: This raw egg was in with the harboiled eggs, still not sure who did it... Egg whites all over your hands when you think you are cracking a hardboiled egg first thing in the morning is just wrong.


Cars:
My Nissan Pathfinder!  
My car since I was 16, it almost has 300,000 miles on it and now my Dad takes care of it for me. LOTS of road trips in that pathfinder.

 Mom and Dad

 
Dad's first Hot Rod is done!  He is now starting a 2nd one.


Dana's Mustang

 Luckily Josh left his Firebird in VA and was driving a family car for all night-shopping on Black Friday...

Day 3: We were even more sore. That gym workout didn't seem like much, but I could hardly walk. So we played frisbee golf.

My brother Ira

Todd, Josh, and Mikah looking for Mikah's frisbee.

 Todd with my brothers Josh, Ira and Mikah

Day 4: We went bowling.