Red vs. Blue

Dave says: It has been a busy two weeks of homework, paper writing (my virtual visitation note for JLFS) and a couple of job interviews. However, the main reason I delayed posting was that I wanted to get my hands on some photos from the U's triumphant victory over BYU at the Red vs. Blue bike race. Now, it's been over a week so I'll have to settle for the story from Cyclingnews:

"To raise funds for Bikes for Kids, close to 80 cycling club and team members, alumni and fans of Brigham Young University (BYU) and the University of Utah (Utah) gathered at Traverse Ridge for a three-mile hill climb time trial with an elevation gain of more than 1,300 feet and 10 percent to 12 percent grades in some locations.
According to Millisecond Sports Timing, which averaged the top 10 speeds of each university's official cyclists, Utah cycling team won the team race with an average time of 18 minutes, 39 seconds. BYU's club followed with an average time of 20 minutes, 13 seconds."

Now here's my version of the story: BYU's team lost by 18 minutes, ouch. We had a super strong team with 4 riders (myself included) ahead of BYU's first. Alisha also won the overall women's category with a time that beat six of the ten riders on BYU's men's team (double ouch!).

This weekend we didn't have a race and it was weird to sleep in on Saturday morning lounge around the house for a bit. We rode with the U team out to the marina on the Great Salt Lake at a leisurely pace and in the afternoon met up with some of Alisha's family for some food. On Sunday, Alisha taught the three year olds a cute lesson in church about being kind to animals. They made pictures where they glued cotton balls on a sheep (wool), felt on a monkey (fur), and scales on a snake. In the afternoon, we had too much energy to sit inside on such a beautiful day so we rode out to big cottonwood canyon to check out the leaves for a pleasant three hours in the saddle.

Mt. Olympus

Dave says: Our "Sunday stroll" turned into about the steepest six miles I've ever hiked. Mt. Olympus has some killer views but is like hiking up a giant flight of stairs. The easy part is the first mile where it's just switchbacks. After that, it's just straight up over the rocks.

In other exciting news, I got to be a cheerleader at East Canyon which is perhaps more fun than actually riding up Big Mountain. Alisha was looking fast and had a solid time. The rest of the weekend we spent chilling on our new sofa set and recovering from all our adventures.

The Curse of East Canyon

Alisha says: Just kidding, it really isn't a curse it is just that the last two years I have taken second at the East Canyon Hill Climb. I actually felt that I had a great race 35:39 for 8 miles (almost 2 minutes faster than last year), just somebody else had a better race. Jenn Ward threw down a killer time so props to her! Dave didn't race because he did LOTJA last weekend and then has had a cold all week so he was there cheering me on. He was funny, he would drive a little bit and then stop and cheer/take pictures. With the cycling season winding down I wanted to say that I have had so much fun racing with and getting to know a bunch of other cyclists, especially those that I raced closely with in cat 4's and then have since upgraded.

Lotoja

Dave says: Riding the 206 miles from Logan to Jackson is practically a rite of passage in the Utah cycling community. Since moving to SLC, it seems like everyone who finds out I ride bikes asks me if I had done Lotoja (mispronounced by non-cyclists as "Law-tow-jaw"). When I said "no", they figured I wasn't a serious rider.

Well, this year I got a call a week and a half before the race from my friend Marty. His tandem partner bailed on him and he wanted me to ride with him. I told him I'd have to think about it, but when he insisted that everything was taken care of and paid for and that I just needed to show up and ride, I agreed.

The first hundred miles was actually quite pleasant. We were turning the screws on the other tandems on the climbs. However, about 120 miles in, Marty was having some heart problems (he has a pacemaker) but we managed to pull through and finish as the second tandem. He finished, and basically fainted by the finish line and the EMTs hooked him up to all the machines. Props to him for making it all the way and giving 110% for over 10 hours on the bike. Overall, I was happy to ride a strong race and not cramp or crack on my first 200. Marty's nutrition company, Jama, hooked us up with some good fuel that kept us going.

In other news, Alisha went down to Cedar for Brody's baby blessing and had a nice weekend with family. Then, last night we had the U of U cycling team over for a BBQ and discussed the plans for the upcoming mountain bike season. It was a good turnout and it looks like the team will be strong this year.

Labor Day Racing

Alisha says: Labor Day weekend was a busy one. We traveled to Southern Utah to visit family and do some bike racing. Saturday morning my mother and I traveled to Las Vegas so that I could race the Mount Charleston Hill Climb. It was a 17.5 mile course with 5,351 feet of elevation. They lined us up in categories (all the women were about 2/3 the way back) and then it was a mass start. I had lots of fun working my way from one group to the next. I rode a lot of the race with number 999, he let me ride his wheel for a long time and then we worked together until the last couple of mile. I got some double takes and interesting comments from some of the riders as I passed them, my favorite was "Oh hell, your a girl!" I was super excited to be the overall female winner making it to the top in 1:36.09!

Other than racing, I spent the weekend watching Dave ride a super mountain bike race and playing with my new 3 week old nephew Brody. He is so cute and cuddly. My SIL Christine had her baby girl Rachel on Sunday so on our way home we were able to stop and see her too.

Dave says: On Sunday afternoon at Brian Head it looked like rain might pour down at any moment and ruin the last national XC race of the season. As I warmed up in the wind with a jacket on, the announcer told the racers that the race would be cancelled if there was thunder and lightning. However, everything came together for me at this race as I rode comfortably with the group up a long road climb at the beginning. By the time the road turned to dirt, the semi-pro group was strung out and I was in second. Then, just before the singletrack started, first place started to fade a bit and I took off and never saw anyone again.

It was one of those crazy "pedal to the metal" type moments and I paid for it early on by flying off my bike on a loose corner and sliding down the trail with my arms out like Superman (except for the whole invincibility thing, ouch!) Fortunately, it was just a few scrapes and my bike was ok minus a little drag out of my now-bent front brake rotor. However, I'm glad I didn't go down on Dark Hollow which was a wicked downhill this year with some seriously huge boulders that I definitely would not have ridden if it wasn't race day. By the time I reached the final feed zone at the scout camp, I looked behind me for a long way, saw no one, and for the first time realized that maybe I could take the "W". I was so excited crossing the finish line because this is my best result on the mtb and I didn't want the season to end with my poor Evanston race. Something about that Brian Head course just works for me because it was at this race two years ago that I had my previous best result at a big race.

Saturday and Sunday seemed reversed this weekend as I spent the prior day at the funeral of some close friends. I feel like I'm too young to know what to do when people my age die. It's tragic, but maybe it helps me grow up a bit, remember the things I'm grateful for, and take life a bit more seriously. Along those same lines, Christine had her baby this weekend (Rachel), and we saw Brody for the first time as well. Unfortunately, now it's back to real life and the second week of law school. Today I spent another four hours correcting footnotes on a professor's paper that I spent at least six on last week because he doesn't know how to follow the citation manual or include page numbers for the 100+ articles that he cites. Now you know why I don't blog more about school :-)

Fragile

Dave says: It was a fun weekend, but as I'm sitting here, the only thing I can think of is the tragedy that happened to our friends, the Ellsworths. It makes you stop and think for a minute. You ponder and ponder but are at a loss. This is like 9/11 for southern Utah. Everyone has a connection to what happened. Yet like 9/11, I have no doubt that it will bring out the best in a community full of outstanding people. At the times that matter most, the thing that matters is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You find out what families really are like when things like this happen. Things like Marie writing a post titled "Families can be together forever" and I hear Lynn Ann is a pillar of strength pulling everyone together during this tragedy. This is an amazing family and I owe them a lot. If Dr. Ellsworth hadn't come to Cedar City to start his medical practice, my family never would have moved there as well and my life would be completely different today.

Our home teachers came over today. The lesson was President Monson's Ensign message: "May We So Live." They didn't really know anything about this tragedy, nor did President Monson when he wrote this article, yet his words about death and ressurection are powerful and real. "May we so live that when that final summons is heard, we may have no serious regrets, no unfinished business, but will be able to say with the Apostle Paul, 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.'"

Lagoon

Alisha says: We spent Saturday at Lagoon with Amber, Devin, Richard, and Brittany. We got there right when it opened and headed for the best ride in the park Wicked, which we rode twice before hitting any of the other rides. Our whole morning was very productive as we pretty much walked right onto all of the rides. We got totally soaked on the Cliffhanger and then headed to Rattlesnake Rapids while we were still wet (Devin didn't even have a dry spot on him to dry his glasses on). My least favorite ride was Wild Mouse. As the hours passed the lines grew and the temperature rose. By about 4:30 we were spent and decided to call it a day. It was so fun hanging out with family, even waiting in lines isn't so bad when you have family that you can chat with. My favorite part of the day was hearing my family members laugh and scream as we were riding the rides. It is always worth it to take time to hang out with family and I want them all to know that we love and appreciate them.

In other news: We finally got the flier in the mail that they are going to do spring clean up (ya, it's the end of August so not so much spring as almost fall). We were glad nonetheless because we have been wanting to do some clean up around the house. We have a bunch of trees that are a little out of control so Dave bought a pole saw and went to town with it. I think he might have had a little too much fun playing with the saw as you can see in the picture. It is funny how many people have came and took stuff out of the pile in front of our house (an old bathtub, an old washing machine) and then left other stuff. Dave starts his second year of law school on Tuesday.