Here We Go Again

So, like I said, I got my prelim paper turned in, but now I have to defend it which is not a trivial task. I don't mind making presentations, but I'm having a hard really getting going with it. Oh well, I'm sure it will start to come together soon.

Went to Nathrop to give my brain a rest this weekend and raced the second Yeti Spring Series. It was a lot of fun. We raced with the expert 19-29 boys on Saturday for slalom, and I got 4th, so I was pretty happy about that. On Sunday we raced with all of the 19+ Expert boys and I had the worse gate start I've had in a really long time. Hopefully I got it out of my system for the whole season!

A friend of mine is moving so I went over and helped with some of the packing. It was actually a lot of fun. It's funny how you think you know someone pretty well, and then you spend a few hours listening to stories of remembered times and memories that things you find when you're packing bring back and you realize that people are very complex with so much that makes them who they are. I guess we learn new things about friends all of the time. Spending time packing with them must just concentrate some of that learning time into a steeper curve! Packing and moving sucks, but I had a lot of fun getting to know my friend better, listening and laughing. I think having someone to pack with must make it better, hopefully! :)

Gotta get back to my presentation. I have to give a practice run of it tomorrow with my research group!

Half Way There

Well, I just turned in my prelim paper, and with 20 minutes to spare! haha Now I just have to "defend" it to my committee next Thursday. For now, though, I'm taking a break and going to ride my bike! :)

Good Day

Hannah, Molly, me and Jess after our all girls round at the track

Yesterday was one of the better Sunday's I have had in a long time. It started out with a surprise birthday breakfast party for our friend Hannah Hannah. About 20 people showed up for breakfast at this awesome restaurant in downtown Denver. After we all were stuffed on awesome breakfast food and birthday cake a bunch of us headed over to the Track at Centennial to do a little go-karting. I have never been before, so I was pretty excited to get to try it out. It's awesome! It was so much fun to drive the karts, but I think the best part about it was the amazing people that I got to spend the day with. Laughter and smiles all around! For better or worse, it's really expensive, so it will have to be a special occasion only adventure. :)

When Hannahs's done mastering shape comps, she might have to become a professional go-kart driver!!

Jeremy putting his game face on

After that some of us headed back to Boulder for an evening dirt jump session at the Fix. Even though I crashed and scraped up my elbow and arm in the wood chips, it was a great dirt jumping session that ended with an awesome tiny rain drop drizzle. TJ, Cole, Jess, Steve, and Kevin and I ended up making a huge pot of Pad Thai for dinner and watching a few hours of Planet Earth.

Everyone that I spent the day with yesterday has come into my life because of cycling. I am so lucky to not only be able to ride my bike as much as I do, but to have met such wonderful friends in the process!!

BTW, Hannah (super amazing dirt jump/park/trickster diva) is doing her first figure comp this weekend. She looks amazing, so I am sure that she will kill the 5'4"-5'6" class!

Logic?

So, I try not to get too upset about too many things, but when people do stupid shit, and I can't understand their "logic" or lack thereof, I get really frustrated! People's lack of thought has affected me 2x in the last week. Today, for example, I came into work intending to get my cDNA out of the machine that it was being made in, and someone had turned it off. Why? I still don't know why, but she messed up what I had spent all day on Wednesday and and Thursday working on, and no I can't do what I was planning on doing today. My favorite thing, though, is when people do stuff like this and don't even bother to say they're sorry. They act like somehow it's my fault or I should say I'm sorry or something. I don't get it. I try not to negatively affect other people's lives, and it would be nice if other people could just do the same for me!

Sorry, way frustrated this morning!

Head is Reeling

I'll try to get an update on Sea Otter and the events of the weekend up sometime pretty soon. I am pretty much running around like a chicken with my head cut off at school right now. My prelim paper is due next Thursday, and I still have to get 90% of the data to put into it. Nice!

Quick Sea Otter run down: Caroline did awesome, 10th in Slalom and 11th in DH in her first Pro race, Phil killed Semi-pro Slalom: 3rd, and I pretty much sucked it up. No, I guess it was just Slalom that I really sucked at, DH was okay considering I never felt super comfy DHing on the XC bike. It felt a little squirrley and awkward to jump. The squirrelly bit might have been helped out by the fact that my shock bolts all but fell out during my DH run. They were still in there but just barely. :) To my credit...I did check all of the bolts, pieces, and parts that I put on and put together, as I don't trust myself to do it right. I guess I shouldn't trust other people to do it right, either. One of these days I'll learn, I swear!!

Once I don't feel like I'm drowning in school work, I'll give a proper update on the Otter, including and explanation on why Caroline is now spelled F-H-I-L.

Team Site

Cody and I are working on keeping a blog up to date for our sponsors. There will probably be some duplicate content with my site, but here's our team site in case you want another link to check while you're procrastinating from getting real work done. :)

teamtotallywired.blogspot.com

Getting the Racing Cobwebs Out

Me and Caroline

Two of My Favorite Boys

Super Focused

I headed down to Nathrop this weekend for the Yeti Spring Series race. It was a little chilly on Saturday, but Sunday ended up being one of the nicer days I have ever raced down there. There wasn't any wind, it was crazy!

Saturday was full of Dual Slalom action. I still haven't felt super smooth on the DS courses down there, and this weekend was no exception. Caroline had an awesome race and smoked me in the finals. Jess was 3rd and Nadia was 4th. The Pro men were killing the small berms and flat turns on the course. Chris Boice took the win on his new Yeti DJer and Steve Wentz ended up second (***Sorry, Steve won and Chris got second, my bad, thanks for setting me straight TJ). TJ was looking super comfortable (and FAST!) on his new Yeti 4x for 3d, and Rudy Unrau had a solid race for 4th.

On Saturday, we woke up to 3 inches of snow on the ground and a lot of grumbling from the 21st birthday boy, Nate. Nate didn't race DS on Saturday and was threatening not to race MX because he didn't want to get dirty or something like that...Mostly there was just a lot of whining. :) By the time that we got to the track the snow was all melted off and had evenly watered the track to make for some excellent traction. Qualies went well for everyone. Rudy killed the Pro class with Nate and Cody coming in 2nd and 3rd. Caroline and I decided to race with the boys because we were the only Pro girls that showed up. It was a lot of fun. I didn't qualify very well, so in the second round, I got stuck in the 4th gate. I killed the start and should have held my own in the first corner to get second, but I wussed out. I'll know better next time, and there aren't many girls as big as the guy I wussed out against. Oh well. I had a lot of fun and learned a thing or two, so that was good. Rudy ended up taking the W in the Pro class, Nate got 3rd, and bruised and battered Cody got 5th. Jordan handily walked away with the Expert men's class. It was a great weekend all around.

The "Original Course"

Nate getting Serenaded For his 21st Birthday

Nate Trying to Scare His Competition

Cody, will you please bring your whips back around???

Jordan thinking about how far ahead he'll be in the finals!

Well, I'm cramming as much school as I can into the next couple of days as I'm heading out to Sea Otter on Wednesday. That should be a lot of fun and maybe dry, a welcome relief after last year!

Mother Nature Can Suck It!

Luckily it looks better where our races are this weekend!

Big Day

Got to work at 7:00, left at 4:30. Not that many hours, I guess, but I was worked. I have so much to get done before my prelim exam on May 3rd!!

Got a call, well message (his phone took the plunge in the desert when they were sand buggying in AZ last week), from TJ that he was going to do plyos, so I joined him for that. Whewww! That's probably one of the best ways to get your heart rate going and work very specific muscle groups all in less than 30 minutes. It hurt!

Last night my SI joint (hip area in the back) really started hurting when I was DJing. It didn't feel too much better today, and now it really feels like CRAP! It hurts a lot because of the injury to my hip from the car/bike accident I was in several years ago, but this is the worse that it's ever been, I think. Ugghhh, we tried to stretch it and get it to "pop" back into place, but it just won't budge. Dumb. I really have grown to be really angry at the lady who hit me. Sorry for the complaning, but it's just not how I want to have my season starting out. :(

Anyway...it'll feel better after I go to the chiropractor. My chiropractor suggested I marry a chiropractor for the sake of my body's health in the future. Not sure if I think it's funny or not. :)

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

So, the weather forecast for Monterey, CA (where the Sea Otter Classic is) is looking pretty good. Last year it had already started raining by now and rained for two weeks straight before we got there for the race. It was SOOOOO muddy, it was crazy. It looks like it's going to be dry till the day before we get there this year. Hopefully it'll be perfect, dry then a little water to make things nice for us to ride on! Keep your fingers crossed!


Rode the new bike at the dirt jumps today. It's awesome! That's all I'll say. Can't wait to race it this weekend.

Smiles Smiles and More Smiles

I drove to Winter Park yesterday to meet up with Nate and Cody and build our new DJers! I showed up around noon and it was like Christmas part deux! Cody handed me a box with all of my "stuff" in it. It didn't even have any of my DJer parts, either. It was just cool stuff from sponsors like goggles, t-shirts, etc... All went well with building the bikes except for the fact that Nate's frame didn't have the derailleur hanger tapped. Nate's quick to use the drill and the grinder to fix stuff up, though, so we got it all sorted out in no time. We got our bikes all built up and they are beautiful! I'll get a picture up as soon as I borrow a camera! I got to spend the evening with them and Cody's family which is always entertaining!

This morning I drove down to Keith Darner's to help with the second day of the build/ride session. There are a lot of changes to the courses. Well the old course is the same, you can't mess with perfection. It might not be the best course to race on, but sure is fun to ride, all nice and flowy! The new MX course is getting a much needed face lift, or maybe tummy tuck would be a good term for it. Also, some changes to the DS course should make it flow really nicely! I was pretty psyched to get to ride my bike for the first time at one of my favorite places to ride!! It is so light and smooth. I'm still getting used to the 80mm fork, but once I do, it'll be awesome!

On a dumb note...So, I haven't ever really gotten anything free from sponsors before (except for Fortress), so I was pretty giddy when I got home with all my new stuff. I should know better than to want to share my enthusiasm for my new stuff with my roomie. I love him to death sometimes, but tonight I wanted to punch him. There was something "wrong" with everything I got this weekend and showed to him. I should have learned my lesson about it before, but I didn't and was lured in by wanting to share my complete excitement about getting my first free bike and whatnot. Uggghh, the only downer to an otherwise FABULOUS weekend!