Why did they say that????

Like some of you my husband and I have been watching the Olympic games. As we have watched the games we've noticed reports in the paper and reporters saying and some less than thoughtful questions. Below are a few we have seen or read. Most of them my husband noticed, because unfortunately I am not as astute as he is.

Comments on Michael Phelps close win the in the 100m fly.

• "He didn't have to be fastest. Just first" (Daily Herald Paul Newberry) Of course he had to be fastest, only the fastest is first!!!
• "They examined the video and I think the case is closed. The video says (Phelps) finished first. "In my opinion, it's not right but we must follow the rules. Everybody saw what happened." The video showed he won, how is that not right????
• "I'm stoked with what happened," Cavic said. "I don't want to fight this. People will be bringing this up for years and saying you won that race.... Why would anyone say you won a race you didn't, especially when there was proof you didn't.
• "It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time..." (Associated press from Detroit) How can you be the greatest athlete if you only are the greatest at swimming. Should you be great at other sports (this is from my husband, I don't have an opinion on this statement)

Tyson Gray right after he loses in the semi-finals and does not go on to compete for the gold.

• What a reporter asked Tyson Gay right after he did not make it into the finals for the 100m sprint. "How frustrating is it to not be running in the final?" Oh I don't know, he must be thrilled he can't run for the gold medal, he's only trained at least 4 years for this moment....duh.

NBC reporter talking to the winning USA 4x100medley swim team.

• "What did you need to do win the race" (NBC reporter to the USA 4x100 medley swim team) Swim fast seems to be the obvious answer. I don't know if there is a lot of strategy when racing in swimming other than pace yourself and go fast.

After Youngs & Branagh lost their beach volleyball game this reporter for NBC asked some of the following questions.

• "Elaine is your 5th place finish viewed as a accomplishment or disappointment?" They were trying for the gold medal, last Olympics Youngs got the Bronze. Of course they're not happy with 5th.
• "Nicole, given a chance to do it over again what would you do differently?" I am sure she is going to go over and over what she would do differently for the next year, but why would she want to share all her mistakes on television, when everyone just saw them.
• This is the best. Right after Elaine states she will not be going to anymore Olympic games the reporters turns to Nicole and goes "Nicole beach volleyball is a sport of constant partner changes. What is the future of this partnership?" Wow, I can't believe she asked this.
  

I am sure there are many I have missed and I am sure there are more to come. What funny comments have you heard while watching the games?

Tour of Utah Stage 4

I went to AF Canyon to see the riders racing in the Tour of Utah today. I was going to take Mandy since I thought she would like to see how fast the pros ride, but I was wrong. A soon as I told her about the race there was a sarcastic remark of "that sounds like fun". I decided I would not make her go and instead I drove up to Timpanooke Campground and then road my bike up to Summit Loop. As much as I wanted to do the loop I knew if I did I would miss the riders, so I took the more direct route up to the Summit. When I got the Summit there was a nice little group waiting for the riders. I missed the 300 Warriors, but lucky for me I was there in time to see the pros ride. It is amazing to see them on the road. They ride the hill like it was nothing. The first picture is of the 2 riders that were right after the lead rider, I wasn't quick enough to get him. I am guessing they were about one minute back.

No Parking????

Went with Sally on the a couple of Park City trails yesterday. The weather was perfect, and surprisingly we saw hardly anyone on the trail. We passed 6 riders going up and 2 coming back. For a beautiful day I couldn't believe there were not more riders or hikers out, but nothing. Maybe everyone was down in SLC watching the crit. The trails here are really nice, although I did see something funny on the trail while riding, a No Parking sign! Hmmm....I wonder if this applies to bikes. It was a funny thing to see on the trail.

I think Sally enjoyed these trails as much as I did. Check her out bombing down the hill.

We also got a shot of me going down hill. I think I am always smiling on the bike...it comes from riding with your mouth open and completely loving riding a bike.

Flowers in AF Canyon

Rode AF Canyon today. There are still flowers on the trail--hard to believe it is August.

Ride to Spanish Fork

Map my ride is not entirely accurate. Today I decided I would ride my bike to Spanish Fork to meet with a client. I got on map my ride to pick the route from my house to my office in Spanish Fork. After mapping out my ride it said the entire route would be 20 miles. This is no problem, so I decided to ride to my office and back home. Great way to commute and save on gas. I took off at a good time to get to my office and change before my client arrived. The ride was nice, not too strenuous perfect for a commute ride. There was a small part on the road where there was no shoulder. This kept me on my toes as cars were going by at 50 mph and I hoped they would go around me. The worst part of the ride was in Springville. Springville was great because they have a bike lane, but there was a driver turning and talking on his cell phone at the same time, and didn't pay attention that he had a red light! I had to yell at him and he didn't stop, he only slowed up and made me come to a complete stop (along with the other traffic). After that the ride was uneventful as far as cars were concerned. When I got on to Route 6 I was excited for the upcoming decent. However, there was a head wind, so I ended up pedaling a lot. The ride ended up being 25 miles not 20 which put off my time a little bit for arriving to my office. What I discovered on the ride that riding 6 miles with a computer on your back versus 25 miles is very different. By the end of the ride my back was very sore. I had a difficult time changing riding positions because of the pack. If I could figure a way to take my computer that far I would ride every time I had to go to my Spanish Fork office. I guess I'll have to do some research to see what I can figure out.

Concert Date is Set

For any of you that have not seen the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert I highly recommend it. We went last year and thought we got more than our money's worth. The concert started at 7:30 pm and ended somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. There was no opening band, there was no intermission. We watched and listened for over 3 hours straight and never felt it was too long. The music was phenomenal as well as the fireworks and light show. If you can when tickets go on sale I would recommend taking the family. We paid $50 a ticket last year and it was worth every penny.

Wolverine Ridge - Final Icup Race

We left for Wolverine Ridge Friday afternoon. Our first stop was to set up the tent right by the race course. We had the perfect spot right under some trees. After setting up we headed to Karl and Dot's cabin for a spaghetti dinner. We had fun vi sting with them and other Mad Dog Team Members. One of the best parts was when Mandy took on the climbing wall over their fire place. The first time she got discouraged and could not figure out how to get up the wall. After watching Johnny and Joey and a reward of a dollar for anyone who rang the bell on the ceiling, she made it! Johnny and Joey also made it to the bell on the ceiling and were rewarded with a dollar. This was Joey's first time to the top. He is only 5 and made it up their!

After dinner and climbing it was time to go down to our tent to sleep. This ended up not being the experience I had hoped. The goal of sleeping by the race course was to avoid having to get up early, early to get to the kids race. This was a great thought that did not come to fruition. I struggled most of the night sleeping. I would hear sounds and wonder what animals were out there and get worried there was a bear close by. About half way though the night Mandy was cold and ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag with me. It is very difficult to sleep with your arms in the air so there is enough room in the sleeping bag. Eventually about 5:30 I got up, stretched and then tried to lay down to get a couple of more hours of sleep to no avail. Oh well, at least Mandy was warm.

After a fitful night of sleep I went and picked up our packets for the race. It didn't take long to get Mandy ready for her race. This is the first race I think she was determined she wanted to do well. I didn't see the start of Mandy's race because I was in the middle of the course taking pictures. As the group came by Mandy was doing great. She had quit the look of determination on her face. I saw her for all 3 laps, and she did a great job holding her place for the entire race. Mandy was the 1st girl for the 9 and under and she took 6th overall for this race. After the awards for the race. They did the awards for the season. Mandy did really well. She took 4th overall and she took 1st out of all the girls.

Can't get any of the kids to look at the camera at the same time.

I wish I could say my race went as well as Mandy's come, but it was over before it started. About an hour before the race started I go dizzy and light headed and two almost pass out moments where I had to sit down. I went to the ambulance to see how the blood pressure was and make sure everything was okay, and of course blood pressure was borderline 90/60 and my pulse was jumping all over the place it would go from 80 to 100 and anywhere in between. I attribute the pulse jumping to the caffeine pill I had taken an hour earlier. After seeing the paramedics I decide to go a bit of a ride to see how I felt. I noticed as long as my legs were going I did not fell dizzy. I also noticed I couldn't push it or I would get dizzy. I kept hoping I would feel better, but I ended up sitting on the ground waiting for our turn to the start line and the whole time I felt crummy. I decided I would ride at a good pace, but there would be no racing today. This was hard right up to the start. The competitive side of my brain was going you'll be fine you can do this, and the logical side was telling me don't risk it just ride and secure your points for the race. It wasn't until we actually started racing that the logical side won, or at least my body made the logical side win.

At the start line Sally and I got to get a small lead over the other races since we had top points for the season. Dot was not there because she moved over to race Women's Sport. It was definitely weird not having Dot at the start line. At Ed's go Sally took off. She was doing great. She got off to a fast start and I was thinking what a great job she was doing. It was great to see Sally in the lead. Unfortunately it did not last and Theresa (Theresa)passed her right before the downhill to the bridge, and then Jen and I passed her on the downhill to the bridge. The first part of the course is uphill, and I kept a good pace as I rode. Not too hard, but not slow as I did not want this to become a casual ride. Eventually I heard someone come by and I asked who it was and sure enough it was Jolene. If I couldn't win this race I wanted her to win and I knew she could. She is a phenomenally strong rider. Eventually I passed Theresa as well as Jen (Mad Dog). Jen and I visited off and on throughout the next portion of the race. Then we hit the downhill and right at the end of the downhill not surprisingly Theresa passed us. Jen and I kept going at our pace as the next part of the course is a gradual uphill with a smile technical climb into the service road. I joked with Jen about taking turns pulling on the service road. Shortly before the final climb to the service road I shifted to my granny and dropped my chain. And of course watched as Jen rode off. This was the pits. I eventually got my chain on and rode off, but since I couldn't push myself there was no way I would ever pass Jen or Theresa after this. I did see them on the service road and was tempted to push it, but I was more fearful of ending up not finishing the race due to health issues, so I kept my steady pace. After the service road I came to the technical climb and ended up meeting 2 team members going up this hill. I was doing well until I had to pass the second team member who was off his bike and for some unknown reason as he gave me kudos he did not move out of the way and I had to take the yucky line and end up off my bike shortly after that. I have thought about this and even if it is a team member I need to kindly speak up and ask him to move. After getting off I ended up walking to the next flat. As I got to the flat sure enough I look back and see Heather (revolution) behind me. I think Heather forgot I was sick, because she said "I know I am not the person you want to see" Since I wasn't feeling good I told her I was sick and not racing. Of course for the next mile or so as we went on the boardwalk and after you wouldn't know it, because we traded places a couple of times. However eventually she was able to get pass my steady pace. During the downhill portion I was having a blast, but was concentrating very hard on my lines, when all of the sudden a rider came up, announced himself, scared the living daylights out of me because I was so engrossed in my riding and then passed. It was the first set of pros to start to pass. A while later the next pro came by and drew what I thought was the perfect line through a place that is hard to find your line. I decided to follow him....oops this was a mistake. It seems I cannot maneuver my bike as well as a pro and ended up crashing in the big rocks...ouch. I ended up getting bruised and had a bent derailleur, but thank goodness nothing serious. I got up and continued on my way. I ended up finishing the race in 5th place with a pretty good time of 1:56 and no passing out. I had to stay seated after the race. Anytime for the rest of the evening I stood for very long I would get dizzy and ooosy. I had fun at the race, but I keep going back and forth about whether I should have pushed it or not. Since I am still not doing well today I think I made the right choice, but when you are competitive (and I am pretty sure I am) it's hard not to give it your all....it leaves you wondering. I guess I will have to wait until next year.

After the race Jolene and I got to go up to Karl and Dot's to take a a shower. I cannot say this enough, but there is nothing better than taking a shower after a dusty, long race like that. I actually felt refreshed and was happy I did not have to spend the rest of the day stinky and dirty. After cleaning up and hanging out for a bit we took off for the awards for the race and season. Dot took first for the season and a well deserved first. She took 1st place at every race but one. I took 2nd place and Jolene took 3rd place overall.

The cool part of the season was our team took first for the Icup Race and First for trail work points. Anyone on my team knows how bad I wanted us to win as a team. That's why there was always lots of encouragement to get team members out to the race. And it worked. Our team worked hard and we placed first. I don't think you could end the Icup race season on a better note.

A Beautiful Day for a Ride

Went for a group ride today in Park City with Stephanie, Paige, Dawn and Jolene. This is the first time I have ridden in Park City, and we couldn't have picked a better day for a ride. The temperature was great and there was nice cloud coverage. Our route for the day was Spiro and then parts of Mid Mountain both ways. The first part of the ride starts out with a gradual climb. The cool part about this climb is there are switchbacks which make the climb much less intense. Although some of my riding companions did not feel the same way and at different points in the ride they were wondering how much further we had and how far we had gone. I thought it was funny and it reminded me of times when we take the kids on trips and they ask when will we get there.

By the look of some of these faces I don't think they thought the climb was gradual.

The entire ride up is very beautiful. And there is one part of the trail that is very patriotic having red berries and white and blue(ish) flowers.
At one point on Spiro we come to Mid-Mountain and have the choice to go right or left. We chose to go right first and saved the left for later. This was a nice trail that climbs up to a summit that over looks Park City (it does go further, but we stopped here). What a beautiful view.
After pausing to enjoy the view we took off back down the trail to explore a small part of the other side of Mid-Mountain. Jolene and I ended up doing this part as our riding companions took off back to the parking lot. We went about one mile and it was a blast great trail which seemed like you were going down hill both directions.

After Mid-Mountain it was back downhill to the parking lot. What a blast! You could not ask for better trail conditions. Smooth trail and great switchbacks for the downhill--this is saying a lot since downhill switchbacks tend to really slow me down. I caught air so much coming down that I lost count. This was a great ride, I can't wait to go back and explore some of the other trails.

BST & Breathing

I rode the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) in Orem today for the first time. Jolene took me and gave me the tour. The trail is a simple straight forward trail that goes up, flattens just long enough to fool you and then goes up some more. Of course after going up you get to go down. Jolene is amazing as we were riding this trail she is talking and telling me what I can expect such as "we go up this hill and it turns and then we will keep going up" Jolene is talking and I am behind her going "huff, puff "okay" huff, puff, huff, puff." My new goal is to ride the BST and be able to talk while riding it.

I noticed something interesting on my ride today. When I ride without taking a caffeine pill I will start to have an asthma attack when my heart rate gets between 170-174. This means my max. heart rate never goes above 174, because I can't push further because eventually I would pass out from not being able to breath. Today I took a caffeine pill a couple of hours before riding. My max heart rate was 181, I had heavy breathing after getting up into the 170 area (very heavy), and only a mild breathing problem at one point. I have known the caffeine pill helped me breath easier, but now I have the numbers to show me. Pretty cool.

Picture from the top of Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Orem.

I Don't Know if I Can Drink Gatorade Again...

Yesterday I did a pre-ride with team mates from Utahmountainbiking Jay, Justin, Ryan and Todd. I decided to try an experiment for this ride and fill my camelback with Gatorade. The experiment did not go well at all. Not even half way through the ride I had cotton mouth and did not feel my thrist was quenched. I also started to have trouble breathing anytime I exerted myself. (I later learnd this was from the heavy sucrose in the throat). As I rode I started to get a side ache, then I started to get a tummy ache and by the end of the ride I was so bloated and hurting I was more than happy when we were done. When I got home the pain did not end. I ended up in the bathroom several times before complete relief was found. This was an experiment and I have learned I will never put gatorade in my camel back. As of right I am not sure I can stomach gatorade.

As for the ride the trail was fun, beautiful and in pretty good condition. I thought it was much cleaner than when I rode a few weeks ago.