We have started up our weekly cross practice. 

Where:  South of McCormick Place

When:  Wed. Nights

Time:  6:30 (earlier if you email me, as I can do as early as 4:30) We will adjust the time as daylight gets shorter.

~holly

I came down to Chicago Mon. night.  Kevin greeted me home with my favorite Thai takeout.  I had to go to school on Tues and interview teachers for some positions that we have open.  Wed. I am going to hit the doctors and dentist and then I will travel back up to the lake house.  Kitchen should be just about done with the exception of the granite counters.  That will hopefully be a few weeks only.  Time up there is running out.  We are doing more interviews next week and then the week after that I am back getting the classroom ready.  Wow, summer just flew by.  I am trying to spend all my time on the trails and less traveled roads. 

I caught up on some blog reading, as reading blogs on a blackberry isn't ideal.  I registered for Palos mtb. race and the Madison UCI cross races.  Fall Colors is on the Sat. of the Madison UCI race.  I wonder if I could do that in the morning and still make my 1:45 start time? Seriously joking, but I really am sad that I will miss Fall Colors. My Lobster is getting a check up and tires are being reglued.  We need to get the barriers dusted off so we can start some practice during the week.  I wonder if I can count my cross dismounts at kettle for the trees and horse gates as practice?

Kevin and I will be riding at Kettle all weekend.  If anyone is interested in joining us just shoot either one of us an email.

~holly

It has been a long time since the last blog but since I don't have an internet connection at the house in WI and don't feel like spending my time at Panera, this will have to do.

Kevin and I headed up to Wausau on Friday to meet up with our teams and to preride the course.  Kevin was riding with Team Polska in the masters team championships and I was riding for Extremely Muddy Killer Martians (Megan, MurphyKate, and Rachael) in the womens team championships.  We found our team tents(they were on opposite sides of 9 mile) and got a lap in.  The course was great;  13.5 miles of single track and fire roads with lots of loose gravel, roots,  rocks, rock gardens, and tons of dust.

Saturday morning came fast and at 10:07 I was running the crazy start to get my bike and be on my way for the first lap.  The first lap was fun but there was a lot of back up in the single track.  My second lap felt great and fast.  I decided to run some of the bigger rock gardens as it seemed faster and safer.  My third lap started at 8:40ish and it was a fun night lap that would have been faster if I didn't crash so much and have to stop and reconnect my helmet light.  My lighting system was awesome!(thanks to Kevin Wilson for the Lupine Betty Xpro with 1400 lumens) I pretty much lit up the entire course with that thing. 

(Here I am waiting to do my second night lap) Pictures by Amy D.

 My second night lap was at 2:30am and sucked.  I rode like it was my first time on a mountain bike.  It was definitely a confidience crusher. I figured out that at the pace we were going I would be the only one to do a 5th lap so since MurphyKate was the captain I told her she would have to do the 5th one.  Thankfully after some name calling(j/k) she agreed.

I got some rest and then went with Rachael to Red Bud Road to watch the finishing laps.  There were some close races going on and it was really exciting.  I was able to see and cheer on Kevin as he gave us the perfect  pirate arggg expression.  We then went back to the tents and got everything packed up.  Kevin and I hit the road and got back to the WI house and crashed.  We woke up to eat and then slept until Mon. 

It was so much fun and I had a blast with my teammates.  If I still wasn't so tired I would write more but I think I will go take a nap now. 

So after many glasses of wine I let Amy, Christine, and Lindsay convince me to go to Eau Claire and do the WORS race. Amy picked me up Sat. afternoon and we arrived at the course around 5. I went out with Rachael and Amelia for the pre ride. This was my first time on this course so I really needed to make sure I got the feel for the course. After the first lap Rachael did the rock drop and then headed back to the lot while Amelia and I went around again. The course was fun with lots and lots of single track. This as we know isn't my strong suit so I needed to make sure I got a good start and used the faster areas as best I could.

Sun. came and during the citizens race we go a little thunderstorm that had me on the phone with Kevin freaking out a bit. Luckily the rain stopped as quickly as it started and actually made the course less dusty. Once again I didn't get a call up since I skipped some races and lined up in the second row behind Christine. Don yelled go and I worked my way up towards the front group. In the pines I noticed we had a big gap on the second group and then as we hit the section where the rock drop was we came to a dead stop before even entering that part of the trail. After some dabbing and trying to get back in the pedal I was headed for a tree and decided to run the rock drop. While we were standing in line the rest of the girls had caught up to us so now we were in a big line. I managed to ride the first lap well and went into the second lap with Murphy Kate. Decided to pass on the rock drop and run it and this became a very bad move on my part. A ton of comp guys were coming through at the same time and since I was the one off my bike I had to wait until there was an opening to get going and unfortunately this was a long time. By then Murphy Kate was up ahead a ways and Amelia ended up closing the gap on me. Amelia passed me and worked her magic through the single track as I tried to keep it smooth and keep her close. Murphy Kate had a mechanical on the right handed uphill switch back, so we passed her. The smooth part was more like lumpy but I was able to get on Amelia's wheel at the big root towards the end of lap. I then just sat there and let her take me around. Before the rock drop I told her I was going to run it and she said she was going to ride it. Good call on her part, bad on mine again but I had lost my nerve and figured safer was better. Amelia used this opportunity to gap me and I rode the rest of the race on my own coming in 11th overall, 3rd in age group. I am pretty happy with that since this was such a technical course and had a great time racing it. (sorry no links or pictures, not on regular computer)~holly

I got tagged by Amy. Here are 6 things about me.

1. I am terribly afraid of sharks, so much that if people get out of a pool and I am there by myself I will have a full on anxiety attack while trying to get out as fast as I can. This all comes from my brother tormenting me when we were little and the movies Jaws and James Bond were out. 

2. I have no patience for kids outside of school walls and worse patience for parents that constantly give warnings but do nothing. I don't have a problem using my teacher voice at a kid that is misbehaving in public or telling a parent to follow through with the consequence already.

3.  I was blessed with the unbelievable athletic ability for playing badminton. The real kind played indoors with a feathered shuttle cock. In high school I actually went to the State finals.

4.  Vince Vaughn teased me so much when I was in elementary school that as an adult I started a rumor that he is gay. Which by the way, he is.

5.  I have a tattoo that I got in 1993, my senior year in college, and I have no idea why I picked what I did but was glad that I had the common sense to put in on my ass where it would be unseen, even by me.

6.  When I can't sleep I dream about winning the lottery. I buy tickets hoping that I will be the big winner. I even have my whole lottery dream planned out.

Now I will tag Russell, Joe, Ken, Jim, Ron ,and Nathan. 

Here are the rules:

link to the person who tagged you.
post the rules on your blog.
write six random things about yourself.
tag six people at the end of your post.
let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
let the tagger know when your entry is up.

~holly