Tentative TAD Schedule

Hey all-- here is our schedule as of last week-- It is true that some of our plans can possibly change mid summer, depending on any sort of circumstance that may arise!

Tonight we had dinner with Cari's cousins and her grandmother-- Apparently, it was Clare's birthday!!! It wasn't really, but she totally enjoyed the flan AND the mariachi band!

Tomorrow is my last AZ day-- looking forward to a nice easy 2hr spin and an Arizona Wildcat B-ball game! Cari's Grandma has excellent season tickets (for the past 25 years...). Also, we'll probably have Mexican food for the 4th night in a row! I guess I just can't get sick of it! Too good! :)

Until later...Kate


scroll down for the schedule!

MARCH
15-16 Sequoia Classic Cali
28-30 Tucson Bicycle Classic Tucson, AZ

APRIL
4 Photo Shoot Madison, WI


MAY
April 30-May 4 Gila Silver City, NM
13-18 Mt. Hood Hood River, OR
24 Tour de Leelanau Traverse City, MI
30-1 Tulsa Tough Tulsa, OK

JUNE
11-15 Nature Valley Twin Cities--MN

JULY
21-27 Toona Pensylvania
11-27 Superweek WI, IL
9-13 Cascade Bend, OR

AUGUST
6-11 Road Nats
16-17 Elk Grove/Downers Grove Chicgo area
22-24 Colorado Stage International Cycling Classic Vail, CO
29-31 Green Mtn Stage Race Burlington, VT

Week Wrap-Up

Here are some photos from last week!

Our up Oracle Hwy-- to the Biosphere 2! Rebecca-Bunny-Missy-Cari-Kate!

Remember Mt. Lemmon? This is only one tiny section of road... but you can imagine the descent--- and the climb. 7,000'+ or climbing for that day. My legs are still burning. Being a flatlander, a 23 mile climb was incomprehensible to me. I was in for a surprise!

We made it to the top and came upon this ski hill. As much as I love skiing, I just couldn't fathom the thought of putting on a pair of sticks to shred the ice sheet that blanketed the top of this mountain! Someday maybe! Interestingly enough, the ski hill at the top of Mt. Lemmon has 425 vertical feet MORE than Chestnut. Weird. Anyhow, I think that Chestnut does have more skiable acres, though...

Here we are! We went for a ride and found that we could get an excellent view of the 17th green at Dove Mountain. Click here to see the final results.
In the photo: Me, Clare, and Cari. and TIGER Woods and Aaron Baddeley.
Here's Tiger...

The last day of the tournament-- We rode over to the course and waited only 8 mins for Tiger to come through! Missy and I watching the action. We had a great view!

Week 3 of our Tucson Excursion.

I'm hanging out here, Cari just took one load of stuff to her Grandma's house-- which will be our home until Friday! Clare is still sleeping.

Everyone went home, and the 'Boulder Crew' is all that is left in Tucson... Rebecca, Bunny, and Missy-- we miss you already! We had a great week-- 18 hours on the bike, 14,442' of climbing. I think the highlight ride of the week was defiantly climbing Mt. Lemmon (a 24 mile CLIMB, with a rockin descent!). Another more interesting happening was seeing Tiger Woods at the 17th green, twice. We took some photos both time and I will post them soon!

If you're interested in reading another guys version click here.... I found it entertaining.

Until later.

k

Javalena sighting!

And you think is is bad to have Coyotes running around your house?? What about these things roaming around your condo?!? This makes me think twice about going outside at night to chat on the phone! :)

Yesterday we rode to Biosphere2 It was a perfect ride-- climbing the entire way to the DOME, and descending back into OroValley, working on our pace lining skills. It was excellent!

Our group was at it's maximum size last night: Cari (CO), Missy (CO), Bunny (WV), Rebecca (WI), Clare (AUS/CO), and me! We had an entertaining evening watching Clare talk with her sister through Skype. Clare is going to fit right in. She is great!

You'll probably guess, but there will be more photos put up later today.

All I can say is HOTTT!!

Here it is. My new ride!!!!!

They are defiantly excellent. Yesterday, Cari, Missy and I bonded with our new bikes by going on a 3 hour ride that lasted 5 hrs... that's right we were bonkin'. The maiden voyage was nothing short of EPIC and EXCELLENT. We even saw Tinker Juarez out on Silverbell Road.

Training Camp Commences!

Ahhh!!! First of all-- the internet connections have been patchy and THAT is why I haven't been able to keep up with diligent postings.

The weekend wrapped up nicely-- Cari won the crit on Sunday with the help from Betsy G. Perfect lead out gave Cari the chance to take the win! Very cool to see. Hanging out at Valley of the Sun is definately getting me excited to race!


This is Cari being interviewed by team ROCK's own videographer-- He says "so, tell us about how the crit went" Cari says jokingly "Yeah. I won. Sorry TEAM ROCK." She was very joking, but I don't think that he understood her humor!!
Monday, Monday. I went for a nice 2hr ride on a river walk/bike trail that was pretty flat, with relatively no wind... my dad's dream ride! We went to pick up Missy T- our team road manager from the airport. She is a very experienced cyclist and a good coach. She defiantly will be an excellent addition to our team. (and she is hilarious). Our bikes didn't arrive from the UPS guy until 6:30-- after eating we went straight to Cari's uncle's house to pick up a few bikes. We sucessfully put 2 bike boxes and one bike in the back of her wagon... with no room for the 3rd person. It was a long ride back to the condo sitting on Missy's lap, but we did manage to wear our seat belt.



Tuesday is for Totally Epic.

We pieced the bikes together, ate breakfast, and hit the road. The ride itself WAS beautiful-- we set out to ride for 3+ hours-ish... but because of MAP DECEPTION we were foiled. Our ride turned into a 5 hour epic adventure that included 75 miles and not enough food. Bonk we did and we couldn't get back to the condo fast enough. Now we are patiently waiting for Rebecca to show up. She has had a delayed arrival due to the EXTREME weather in Wisco.

enjoy the pics.

Tuesday Morning AFTER "happy new bike day." We enjoyed a nice breakfast. Meet Missy. Our very own Team America's dairyland Road Manager. She really LOVES snow, so that makes me like her aLoT.

The morning deal. This is what I wake up for in the mornin'. And usually it takes me a long time to get it all down!

These three photos are from our 5:30 am excursion! No one could sleep, so we woke up early and dug into our new digs. New sweet kits, hats, stickers... and oh yeah!!! BIKES BIKES BIKES!!! the new WSD 5.1 madones. Check in about an hour for another update with more photos.

Yeah!!

My poor Wisconsin Friends!

Here it is... the Doppler Radar! All I can say is "bummer." Rebecca was supposed to join us here in Phoenix, however due to the sheet of ice over the entire state; her travel plans have been delayed. Apparently she schlepped all of her stuff to the airport to find that SHE HAD TO GO HOME. Too bad they don't have little airport lockers so she didn't have to haul all of her stuff BACK to her car. Argh. Hopefully she'll be here tomorrow.

Gabe is in a parking lot somewhere waiting for his friend Dusty to pick him up-- they are heading up to Devil's Head to shred the freshies... The snow is super heavy and will probably be like skiing mashed potatoes! Either way they are destined to have a blast in the snow... WET snow.

Cari rocked it yesterday! She ended up 3rd in the road race that she called a "tea party" of a race-- at least for the first lap. My teammate who is a self-proclaimed non-timetrialist AND non-climber-- proved to do well in both the tt AND ended up winning the Queen of the Mountain! She obviously isn't a climber... (yeah right!). Get used to it Cari!! She's a rockstar.

During her 3hr race, I rode for an hour and a half on the hwy near the race (don't worry mom... there was a HUGE shoulder). Although the scenery is pretty-- the road ditches are full of broken bottles, chairs... old nasty blankets, etc. Pretty creepy. I turned on to a road for about a half mile-- the blacktop worsened-- I did a quick u-turn and sprinted back to the hwy!!

More exciting news- I am getting a little more caught up with all of my podcasts-- I converted Cari- so now we can listen to things like Tom Ashbrook, Grammar Girl, This American Life, Fresh Air, etc. I can tell that Cari's favorite show is "It's All Politics"

Talladega Nights...

Cari and I made it to Phoenix-- it has RAINED most of the day. She is racing Valley of the Sun-- and I'm helping her out. Of course the past couple days have been AWESOME. Riding a lot and enjoying our times. Read the Captions for a better idea of how things have been going.

We rode around 'Star Pass' a resort-esque community near Tucson-- At the end of the ride, we rolled up to an intersection and had to wait for the train to pass-- notice this guy-- no helmet & a nice snot collection happening on the back of his shorts...

Cari's uncle Jeff and aunt Sydney's house decided they needed to get rid of some furniture-- we were all taking bets on how long it would actually sit on the curb. They were right, it didn't sit long and here is the documentation of the last sighting of the love seat... I was found out and the woman who was taking the couch gave me huge smile and waved-- I was mortified... This covert photo operation was obviously not that discrete. bummer. I'll work on that.

We rode in Saguaro National Park East on Thursday-- They have a most excellent 8 mile, one-way loop that is windy and hilly. Riding here felt like a video game-- we didn't really have to worry about car and the foliage (super cacti) came right up to the side of the road. BEAUTIFUL. Because Cari was preparing for the race this weekend, she did one lap and left me to do one more lap and then to ride home.

Although the extra lap was almost as excellent as the first, Cari wasn't there to pull me off of this huge saguaro... some old lady was kind enough to help pull the spines out of my rear. My ride home was good urban riding training! Cari was able to get her bike fixed and I got in a great ride! Mission accomplished! (and no worries, the picture was a staged self-photo and no injuries were incurred while taking it).

That night we went to an Arizona vs. Cal basketball game! 14,200 people packed the arena! it was quite the game. Arizona won.

Bio-lesson #1. Meet the Ocotillo. A desert plant with some sweet modifications. Of course it has a photosynthetic stem (my favorite plant evolutionary feat), but also you'll see that this specific one has leaves that have grown under the spines. With rainfall the plant becomes lush growing small ovate leaves that appear within 24 hrs! CRAZY!!!! Who knew.

Destination Phoenix. The beautiful Desert sky. Just awesome!!!
You can see, Cari is really excited about the time trial. It was cold ~40 degrees and WET. Valley of the Sun Stage race is this weekend and I'll update tomorrow!

Arizona! Finally... a post!

After a couple EPIC days in beautiful CO, I made it to Arizona for 3 weeks of training. Before I start talking too much about AZ- I just want to give a huge shout out to Rachel, Andrew and Cecilia Couch-- THANK YOU so much for making my first full day in CO amazing. When I pulled in to their house on Saturday night, they had a nice meal prepared-- followed up with great conversations-- and a comfortable bed! On Sunday Rachel and I went Mtn biking just outside of Lyons at Hall Ranch-- REAL mountain biking-- in the MOUNTAINS!! It was pretty cold in the parking lot- but once we got climbing, I was defiantly sweating by the top! We concluded our evening with a nice night out at a Mexican restaurant with our Team Mom: Greg (Cari's husband). It was a delight to meet him too!

Cari picked me up from the Tucson airport at 4 on Monday and we headed to her Uncle and Aunt's house (right in Tucson). It is a great location and a most excellent residence! (more photos to be posted soon...).

Yesterday, Cari and I got out for a nice 65 miler- Vail to Sonoita AZ. Beautiful. This ride included the longest climb AND the longest decent I have ever experienced. The Sonoran desert is beautiful, and the weather is even better. We have been working on our biker tan that I have been patiently waiting for all winter. I have a great line established right across my arm, and I have a feeling it is only going to get better...

Photos from our ride yesterday:

A fiberglass horse at the Denver airport-- I'm sure it is unwrapped by now...

Cari and I FINALLY made it to Sonoita-- Both of were unsure if we would actually make it there!!!
The start of the longest descent I have ever experienced. Santa Rita Mountains!!!

WET Stones.

When we finished our ride on Monday-- this is the first thing we saw--

a few girls rollin' big up to the DQ.

Crazy few days!

To catch up... will be posting some photos VERY soon.

Wednesday:
Huge snowstorm-- blizzard-like conditions, great day to take a drive to Galena. While I was slogging around in Galena taking care of some business before leaving town and Gabe totally surprised me!! He called and told me to hang tight in Galena- he was on his way WITH my skis/boots/parka/pants/helmet etc. Everything I needed to go skiing! Awesome. We met up and headed to Chestnut. Although it was a treterous voyage, we made it and proceeded to experience the best day skiing in pristine, pure mid-west powder. My favorite memory of the day is totally crashing on one of our first powder runs... I hit the soft powder and slid down the hill a bit. I looked up at the sky while wiping the snow off of my face and glanced over my little snow divot to see Gabe only about 20 ft away doing the exact same thing. Our powder riding skills improved dramatically throughout the day and by the end, I was definitely wiped out!

We made it back to Platteville with hopes to catch the Wundo's Wednesday with Russ and Bethany-- We went to the venue, but ended up taking toooooo long with our dinner! The entire day was excellent! NICE!!!

Thursday: (4th projected moving date)
Due to the check engine light that appeared and also a weird issue with my shifting, I couldn't depart to CO on Thursday-- I took it into the shop and found that it was a sensor that helps my car recognize when to shift. NEXT moving date: Saturday. My part wouldn't be in until the early afternoon.

Friday: found out that the auto guys had an "unfortunate situation." Guy at VW in Madison sent the wrong sensor. My only choice was to go get the part from Madison OR wait until Monday... BUT my AZ flight is on Monday. Bethany was kind enough to take me to Madison-- we did do a teeny bit of shopping too! Car fixed. done. next: Friday night fish fry at St. Mary's church in Platteville. NICE!! (Friday=defiantly my last night). I packed into the late night and ALMOST fit everything into my car. Gabe was kind enough to let me leave a bin in his garage AND he took a trip to the thrift drop off area for me!

Saturday: Drive to COLORADO... Awesome drive, except for the first 45 mins. My car didn't seem fixed at all. Same issues. I stopped for a short while and turned off the car-- restarted that Jetta up... and the issue seemed to resolve itself. THANK GOODNESS!!!
In the 13-14 hr ish drive went by fast and the car seemed to be fine. I arrived at Rachel and Andrew's house in Longmont CO-- just north of Boulder. I walked in the door to see my very own plate with a fillet mignon. YUM. We all chatted for a bit and decided to hit the hay.

Super Tuesday!!!

Super Tuesday!!! I’ve been watching MSNBC for the past 7 hours and will probably continue to watch for the next few. Interesting things going down- Hillary, Barack, Huckabee, McCain. It is interesting to see everything unfold. My favorite (or actually… least favorite) quote has got to be “TOOOOO close to call.” I guess if they didn’t say that I wouldn’t be hanging on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next bit of ‘breaking news’ to scroll across the bottom of the screen! Another quotable quote has got to be from Bill Richardson, who donned the screen with a full neck beard—saying “The democratic party is gaining more votes from different races, genders, ages, and other ethnic groups.” I know what you were trying to say Bill, but I think it just came out a little awkward!

Tom Brokaw has also made this evening’s political adventure a bit more amusing as well. He can’t seem to get it straight… to put it bluntly, he just seems out of it. I think he just needs some more rest, maybe a vacation or even retirement.

Here is McCain and his ‘lady in red’ addressing the crowd—how do all of these old politicians end up with hot babes? Remember Fred Thompson??? Weird.

Back to me. I packed up quite a bit today, went through a bunch of old bike gear and donated it to my bud Tim at www.MomentumBikes.com . He is fixing up junker bikes to send down to New Orleans- That is awesome Tim—hard work, but will be well worth it to people who need it.

Tomorrow will be filled with running around getting things done! I need to get a new drivers license before I head to CO- The one I have was issued in April of 2000, and 8 years later will expire this coming April. I remember a distinct thought when I received my ‘regular’ license in 2000… “Wow, I’ll be pretty old when I have to renew my license in 2008.” Looking back at my thought, I disagree! Now I think I’ll be pretty old the NEXT time I have to renew my license in 2016 (I’ll be 35). Yikes… time flies and I know it will only fly faster.

Until next time…

Monday-Funday!

New Blog! Here goes. I couldn't think of a better way to keep in contact with all of my friends and family while I uproot, move out west, and live the life I've always dreamed about! Only a few days until the grand departure-- and I'm trying to get organized enough for my trip-- Driving out on Thursday, flying down to Tucson AZ on the next Monday... packing for this while packing everything I own into my little Jetta wagon. My car will probably look ridiculous crusing down the road-- 3 bikes on top, packed inside to the BRIM, miscellanous ski gear strapped in between the bikes... You get the picture. I'll be sure to post one. Today will be a day to get myself collected. First it will start with coffee. a good day can not be good with out coffee. After that-- roller ride/yoga then I'll start trimming the fat... really getting rid of things I don't need.

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. Seriously. We all got up a bit early-- Gabe, Ryan and I and piled into Ryan's '94 Saturn-- along with our ski gear-- and headed down to Chestnut Mountain. The light was flat, but it was early enough to have all of the snow still on the mtn, so ice wasn't too much of an issue. Usually after 1pm-ish, skiers and boarders push so much stinking snow DOWN the hill that all that is left to ski on are these huge glacial-like ice sheets that make me all too nervous to shread on. The skiing was amazing, I made some sweet turns and am glad we went.

Ryan had to work, so we put in a solid 3.5 hours of skiing pretty hard. We left c-nut and headed back into Galena... the guys dreaming of Culvers. At one point only a few miles from Galena, Ryan told Gabe to pull over-- he heard something abnormal... and true that was. We had a flat tire. Ryan would be late for work! All things said and done, the floppy tire was swapped with a mini-doughnut and we ventured back to Platteville. Nice! Ryan wasn't even 15 mins late for work AND the boys were able to get their 'butterburgers' afterall!

The day proceeded with the left-over chicken carcus that Ryan cooked up last Wednesday. I made him save it because I would make my mom's kickin' chicken' soup. Ryan worked, Gabe and I lounged, made soup, used the breadmaker for the first time, and watched a movie. The bread didn't rise so we ended up with yet another dense brick of bread. It still tasted good, however it was just way too dense. My synopsis... old yeast. Who knows. The evening ended with a game of chess!

That is it for now. I imagine I'll get more precise while posting, but for now you are going to get my ramblings. Deal with it!! :)