Another Exciting Week

Dave says: This sweet 'cross pic is courtesy of Kurt "Team Fast" Wolfgang who threw it down with the "W" in the B category and finished his first race this year without flatting [side note: he flatted at tonight's Wednesday night race]. Saturday at Ogden's Fort Buenaventura was my turn for a mechanical as one of my pedals lost its' end cap, siezed, and wound itsself off my crank with two laps to go. Not a big deal since I was off the podium and in seventh against some pretty talented A riders (like Bart Gillespie who lapped many of the other racers).

In other exciting news, my article on virtual visitation is getting published by the Journal of Law and Family Studies. Thanks to laws in Utah and a handful of other states, non-custodial parents seperated by thousands of miles are now connecting with their children using video conferencing and other internet technologies. Pretty cool stuff.

Alisha says: It feels like summer right now and that has been nice. I have been returning to my roots and doing some running for some cross training lately. Saturday I did a long ride with some girls from my cycling team which was cool. Sunday was the primary program and getting a bunch of 3 year olds to sit still for a whole hour is quite the challenge. It was a nice program and the tots were cute.

Cx

Dave says: This is my first year trying cyclocross and I'm excited to report that it is quite a fun sport. Cx is now huge in Utah as both the roadies and the mountain bikers are into it. Since it was my first real race, I raced (sandbagged?) the B category. I'm glad I got to the start line early since there were over 50 B racers competing. The race started fast with a crash that almost took me out (some guy's leg flew up and hit me in the arm as I swerved to avoid running over him). It quickly narrowed down to a group of five which then became three. For the last couple laps it was just me and one other racer. He was running the barriers faster than I was so I had to go for it to get a gap before the finish. It worked and I came away with the W. I traveled to the race with Kurt and Zoe who were selling some delicious pancakes there and also ran into a bunch of the Kuhl Team. Next week, I'm looking forward to getting schooled by the A's.

Alisha says: This past week the weather was awesome. It felt like we were able to hang on to summer for a little longer. Saturday night we went and watched some World Cup Short Track speed skating action at the Olympic Oval with Kelsey and her husband Mike. We were able to watch Apolo Ohno race a couple of times, unfortunately he was taken out in the finals of the 1000m. The relays were really fun to watch, if you have never seen a speed skating relay check it out sometime and you will see what I mean. Dave and I also recently checked out the new Legacy Parkway path. It was pretty sweet, it is 14 miles one way with no cars or stop lights, just the occasional family with their kids and dogs all over the path, but still fun!!

Collegiate Racing

Dave says: Kurt and I spent the weekend at Conference Championships in Grand Junction, CO. Originally, we had a bigger group but due to illness and concerns about the weather, it turned out to just be the two of us. Saturday morning's short track was windy with some black clouds and a few sprinkles, but the weather held out long enough for Kurt to grab 3rd of 30 in B's while I got 8th of 35 in A's. The course had some steep sections and was pretty tough in the wind. After chasing the lead group for the first two minutes, I was already in the red. Afterwards, we headed over to pre-ride the XC course with some guys from Air Force and managed to get lost since it wasn't marked well yet.

The temperature dropped on Saturday night and was in the 30s when we arrived at the race site on Sunday morning. However, once the sun came out it was a great day for racing. The XC course is one of the most technical out there with several hike-a-bike sections and slickrock obstacles. Kurt destroyed the B's after taking off on the first lap and never seeing them again. After starting in the back, I slowly moved up through the A's until I ripped the sidewall of my front tire on the second lap. Thanks to some sealant, it went down to about 5 psi but not completely flat and I filled up between laps. Unfortunately, on the final lap it lost all it's pressure when I rolled it on a steep downhill switchback with about 1/2 mile to go and I rode it in flat for sixth place. (Note to self: bikes don't steer well on steep switchbacks with flat front tires). It was a fun trip that was made more entertaining by the fact that we stayed with none other than the legendary Alan Sprung.

Last night I tried out a cyclocross "race" for the first time. It was a free event with about 20 guys up in Park City on a course with some dirt, grass, pavement, and barriers (of course). For those who are not familiar with cyclocross (CX), it's basically racing road bikes with knobby tires on all types of terrain (frequently in the snow or mud) and there is a whole race series here in Utah that has become quite large in recent years. It was a fun time as I started out in the middle of the group but gradually built up my confidence and caught everyone but the front two guys by the end. I'm excited to have found a new way to spend part of my off season this year.

Fall is Here

Dave says: The leaves are turning, its getting dark before I'm home from biking, and the temperature doesn't feel like summertime anymore. The road up City Creek Canyon is covered with leaves. Last weekend I pulled the plug on a collegiate mountain bike race in Durango and stayed home to finish some schoolwork as well as to avoid fourteen hours of driving for two hours of racing in the rain. Alisha and I rode indoors for the first time in months and were bored after less than an hour. We enjoyed watching General Conference and took a break between sessions on Sunday for a ride since the rain had stopped.

On Sunday afternoon, my family came up to visit and Alisha made some outstanding lasagna for everyone. After my Monday morning class, I went with them to the Bodyworlds exhibit at the downtown library. This exhibit features real people who have donated their bodies to science and have been "plastified". I don't really even know how to explain it so I decided to include a picture. It's like looking at drawings in a medical book, only they are real. For my mom, it was like an exciting trip back to medical school, while for me it was confirmation that I definitely don't have what it takes to be a doctor.

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.