Cascade Chainbreaker 2012

well - all my best plans went to hooey this week - so I have to resort to blitz posting the rest of Mays pics via email. I'll bullet the highlights of each post.

-we love this race!
-Bend is beautiful and usually warm!
- Thor and I both got 4th in our races!
- Thor wore his new socks I bought him for good luck. what a good sport he is!
- I had an epic bonk in my race because I forgot to put calories on my water bottle. was suuuper lucky not to lose any places. lesson learned!
- we rode both days, and probably much farther than we should have Saturday pre-race (35 miles) but it was too fun to stop!

Memorial Day Weekend on the Mckenzie

A big crew of us rolled down to camp on the Mckenzie river. some of us biked - and some hiked! We found a perfect group campsite, rode Castle Rock on Saturday, an extended version of the Mckenzie River trail on Sunday - and then topped the weekend off with a fun family dinner (+ friends!) of delicious pizza. it was a fantastic weekend, and a great way to wrap up May before a crazy week!

Stottlemeyer 60

next up: Stottlemeyer! this is one of my favorite races - its put on by NW Epic and it is super well run, and the course is a blast! I drove up with Beth and Rachel on Friday after work. I was so excited to go I look a little crazed in my pic with Beth! camping was lovely, the weather was perfect, and the course was MUCH drier than last year (so faster). I ended up catching up with 3rd place in the middle of my 4th lap (race was 4 laps of 15 miles), and we had a great time racing together the last 7-8 miles! neither of us had seen another female racer since the beginning of lap 2. we decided to cross the line together - so we tied for third and finished in about 5:53- close to 40 minutes faster than last year!

I hope to go back next year for sure!

May Salmon-fly Hatch on the Deschutes

Last weekend Thor and our friend Josh headed out east to fish for trout on the Deschutes. They took the pack-rafts and had a great time - best spring fishing EVER according to both of them! I headed north to a bike race - more on that later once I get my act together and organize my pictures!

5/14 note: I thought I posted this last week, but I just realized that due to a computer glitch it never went up - so this is really two weekends ago now!

Last weekend Thor and I weren't feeling great, but I had the brilliant idea that we should round up some biking buddies and head out on a ride to 'blast our colds out.'  It kind of worked. I felt slightly better afterwards, Thor felt a million times worse, Sarah was on a cleanse and ran out of energy mid-ride, Emily started to get a migraine and couldn't see the trail very well, and Adele was fed up with climbing in the mud. We were a real sight on the trail!

That being said I had a great time - I love the Browns Camp/Storeyburn trails, and it's great when you can start to get out on the coastal trails in the spring and ride in all the greenery!

Thor pedaling up the trail - doesn't he look excited to be out on his bike? 

Emily and I - pre onset of Emily's migraine

Thor - continuing to look like he's having a great time. :)

Model shot!

Lush, green, Pacific NW trail. I love this kind of riding!

the garden gets going!

after doing a little plant shopping yesterday after work with mom, Thor and I scooted home after work today to do a little planting! we decided it's more fun to plant the garden together, because you can be a bit more relaxed in your pace which makes it more fun, and less like a hurried after work chore!

here's what we got in the ground today:

raised bed:
-Italian bush beans
-roquette arugula
-rainbow Swiss chard
-new Zealand spinach (apparently not a true spinach, but we're going to give it a try anyways!)

flower bed:
-"tango" dark red geraniums
-Alaska scarlet variegated nasturtiums (mounding as opposed to the horrible trailing ones that I accidentally planted last year and almost took over my back yard!!)