Finished!

hi! quick post - I finished, my arm feels good, I had a great time, and I'll post more pics and a race report soon!

On Our Way!!!

Plains of Abraham - High Cascades here we come!!

On Sunday we went on our final ride before the High Cascade 100 - that's what these pictures are from (Plains of Abraham) - but they're a little out of order. My wrist is actually feeling the most 'normal' it has so far (which i guess is to be expected as it continually heals!) - so I'm feeling really good about starting the race.  I'm still going to need to take it a bit easy and really pay attention to how the rest of my body is feeling - i'm hyper aware that I could easily give myself a different over-use injury at this point since I wasn't able to put in as much ride time in the last 6-weeks as I would have liked - but I feel confident I can honestly self-assess throughout the race, and will pull out if anything feels wonky. I want to be in A+ shape for the Chilcotins!  So worst case scenario is that I have to stop part-way through the race, but I'll still have gotten a nice, long training ride in.   I'm prepared to have a good time no matter how it turns out. :)

Rachel - excited despite the fog

Rachel & Thor riding across the plains after breaking out of the fog at the top of our ride.

My attempt at a self-portrait mid-ride. Noooot so sure it was successful!

Me - on the switch backs at the top.

The wild flowers this time of year are amazing!

Becky - with Josh in the background.

Looking back up towards the lower slopes of St. Helens.

Thor - resting back down in the fog.

Me - hoarding the smokey almonds from Thor. Look at him scolding me! 

Thor's Saturday Ride

Thor headed out for a ride in the Tarbell area with his buddy Scott on Saturday. it was pretty foggy the whole ride, and they rode some neat, rocky, undefined trails.
I can't wait to join them next time!

Bend Camping/Riding Weekend

Last weekend we went to Bend to camp with friends, and ride some smooth single-track.  This was a big test on the bike for me so I could see how my arm would fare on the MTB, and it went pretty well.  It wasn't painful to ride, but I could definitely tell afterwards that my arm was a bit irritated and tight. More icing! :)

Our friends Brook, Emily, and Sarah - plus William and Adele  - came down to camp and it was a blast.  The weather was nice and hot, we swam both days in a lovely little swimming hole on the Deschutes, and aside from one incident with a spruce bark beetle (ask Thor about that next time you talk to him. He takes much pleasure in relating this story) the weekend was lovely. An added bonus was we got to have breakfast with our friends Morgan & Dave who are living in Bend for a few weeks this summer. It was fun catching up with them and seeing their daughter, Mira, giggle throughout breakfast.

I had a great talk with my PT on Friday and am feeling much better about the High Cascade 100 coming up this weekend.  He said my arm is right on track for healing, and he would expect it to be sore and irritated now post-riding. We talked about stretches I can do throughout the race, and what sort of feelings to pay attention to in my arm that might indicate I should drop out.  I know feel like I have a much better point-of-reference for gauging how my arm is doing next weekend.  I'm feeling optimistic and excited to go back to Bend to ride!

King of the Mountain!

Brooke & Thor - at the top of Mrazek.

Happy feet post mountain biking.

At the headwaters of the Metolius on our drive back to Portland.

This was from mid-week.  Picking up a load of veggies from Laurie and Dan before heading home to make a huge veggies stir-fry while we all watched SYTYCD!

Oh the things you see!

This guy has been flying back and forth along the river in front of Thor and I’s offices for the last few days.  Retail price only $99,500! Crazy. Just think of how many mountain bikes you could buy with that! J

 

 

Independence Day Adventure

This past Wednesday Thor and I both had the day off for Independence day -so we embarked on a mini-adventure that we've been talking about doing for a long time: biking from our house to float the Clackamas with packrafts, and then biking back home.

We rolled out from the house on our road bikes around 11am - so a niiiice, leisurely start! Our ride out to Estacada was about 20 miles. We carried the rafts, paddles, PFDs and snacks/water in large mesh backpacks that Sheri made (they're great!).

Once we got to our put-in we blew up the rafts, took the wheels off our bikes and tied them onto the fronts of the boats, and set off to float. We had a great time! it was hot, we took a nice lunch break to munch on burritos and do some fishing (we didn't catch anything), and about three hours later we got down to our take out where the the Clackamas flows into the Willamette River.

From there it was 20 miles back home on the bikes (with one stop at Burgerville to split a fresh strawberry smoothie. Yum!). Round trip was ~ 7 hrs, and we had just enough time once we got home to shower, grill a burger, and head downtown to catch the fireworks from the top of my office building (I won tickets in a raffle at work). Overall it was a great, very relaxing day!

Back on the Bike!

We had a pretty mellow weekend - but the for sure highlight was that I got back on my bike for the first time!  It was short, but it was biking.  My arm felt pretty good, but not 100%, and today I had the sinking realization that my 100-mile mtb race is in just 2 weeks.  Yikes.  Somehow I had convinced myself that the race was on the 28th, but I double checked the calendars this afternoon and it's the 21st.  I don't know if my arm is going to be ready for that ride - i REALLY want to do it, but I also don't want to be stupid and re-injure myself by going too long/hard right after I'm back riding.   I will be sad if I can't do the HC100, but what will severely bum me out is if I do it, re-injure myself, and then am still having trouble when we take our trip to BC to ride at the end of August....that is definitely my priority.  So. I will just have to play it by ear and see how things progress.  I'll try to go for a longer mtb ride this weekend and see if I have any pain/swelling afterwards.  Stupid getting old and not healing up from injuries as quickly!

Aside from the biking we hung out with our good friend Emily, spent Saturday night watching the Tour de France and watching the devastating women's XC world cup MTB race with friends on our bike team, and enjoying delicious burritos with William and Adele on Sunday night. It was a great weekend!

Thor - enjoying his very first shot of Pappy Van Winkle's 20-year bourbon.  If anyone knows how to get their hands on a bottle of this (release is every November-ish) contact me. 

Post my short (20-minute) MTB to test out my arm. I rode with tape and brace - definitely not perfect - but lightyears better than it was 3.5 weeks ago!

Aunt Susanna's White Trash Christmas Cake with a summer twist!  Made this holiday classic with strawberries and fresh whipped cream instead of cool whip and crushed candy canes. Yum!

Voila!  Instant Fourth of July BBQ dessert.  It was a hit!

Just your typical wild and crazy Saturday night with the bike team - geeking out and watching bike races.