Week In Review

Alisha says: Here is a recap of last week....

Last Sunday we were getting the patio ready for Ivan's birthday BBQ when Dave spotted this snake slithering across the patio. Here is the complete list of critters we have seen in our backyard: javelina, bobcat, coyote, gopher snake, rattlesnake, mouse, quail, dove, road runner, cactus wren, other various birds, squirrels, lizards, etc.

Christine and Parker and their girls came over along with Lindsay to celebrate Ivan's birthday.

This is before I got a much needed haircut.

After the haircut. We took off a bunch of length and added some layers. This is also the first time in my life that my mom has not cut my hair, crazy huh.

I got to visit one of my awesome friends, Stephanie, from high school and college that I have not seen for several years. We went to lunch and I got to hang out with her and her cute family for the afternoon. It was fun to catch up with her and reminisce about the running days at Cedar High and SUU. Good times, fun memories.

I wish I had a picture of Dave sitting at his computer because that would sum up his week. He has been super busy finishing up school work for the semester (1 year of his PhD program completed) and prepping lesson plans for his first class that he gets to teach (Integrating Business Fundamentals with Ethics and Law).

Tour of the Gila

Tayler - 3rd Place on Stage 2

Birthday Cake from the Team

Birthday Cupcakes waiting for me when I got home from Dave

Dave's Birthday Card for me - He's so creative!

Alisha says: The Tour of the Gila has historically been one of my favorite races. This year's race was a bit rough for me as an individual and for our team. Kstrong came down with a nasty stomach bug on the first day of racing which our manager also came down with a few days later. Luckily none of the other girls got it but I did manage to pick up a sore throat and headache for most of the race. The racing was also different this year as most of the races took us considerably longer to complete than past years. Silver City is known for it's wind and although at times it was incredibly windy we got very lucky and the only stage that it really was a factor in was the time trial. Our team had some great finishes, Tayler got her first NRC podium finish with 3rd on the Inner Loop Road Race, the team raced great in the crit and Lauren finished 2nd and Ali and Kmac finished 5th & 6th in the time trial.

I celebrated my birthday while at the Gila. We had a great dinner prepared by director/coach extraordinaire Giana complete with chocolate birthday cake and singing from the team. Giana also got gifts for everyone on the team which was super cool. Lauren got a crown cause she's the queen "B", Ali got a bike horn to let people know she's coming, Coryn got some bacon bits to make peanut butter and bacon sandwiches and I got a heart necklace for racing with my heart. Dave made me a funny javelina card about the race in honor of all the hype the javelina's have been getting.

SRAM footage from each day:

http://www.theroaddiaries.com/?page_id=17

Time Trial Footage by Peyton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqaTsrG4Eo&feature=share

Holy Javelina!

Alisha says: A couple of nights ago I was sitting on my couch watching tv when I was startled by some rustling and growling outside on the patio. I sneaked over to see what it was and realized that a herd (eight to be exact) of javelina had wandered onto my patio and somehow gotten into the canister of bird food. At first I tried not to startle them but after a minute realized that they weren't planning on going anywhere until they had finished their meal. I turned on the porch light and took some pictures. They wandered around the yard for more than thirty minutes! I was sad that Dave wasn't around to see them.

SIOP In Chicago

Dave says: It's been awhile since I've posted so here's a quick update on everything. School has been intense but enjoyable. While Alisha has been traveling, I have been grinding away at my classes and research.

Most recently I traveled with some of the other PhD students to Chicago for SIOP. There was a lot of interesting research presented at the conference and I met some great people. The weather was awful despite some pictures from the one day that we saw the sun. Don't be fooled. The day before it was windy with sideways rain and snow. Big cities are always fun for a visit but it's good to be back in Arizona with some wide open spaces and sunshine.

Sea Otter

Alisha says: Last week I went and did four days of racing in Monterey, CA at Sea Otter with Peanut Butter & Co./Twenty12 teammates Kristin, Coryn, and Olivia. It was a cool event and we stayed with another great host family, The Eppersons. We had some great teamwork and Kristin dominated the event by winning three of the four events. Coryn had a 3rd in the crit and I got 4th in the road race. Sea Otter also has a big expo that is going on so we spent a bit of time hanging out in the Felt booth and also visited some of our other awesome sponsors, Cliff, SRAM, Peanut Butter & Co.

Redlands

Alisha says: Redlands is quite the epic race. The 75 mile Beaumont road race saw temps in the 90's. The temperature made this race hard as I felt like heat was radiating from my face. The race got interesting when my Peanut Butter teammates started launching attacks. Tayler went off solo for a little bit and then Alison threw down a sweet attack. There was a chance that she was going to stay off the front until HTC's Evelyn Steven's went crazy up the last climb shattering the field and bringing her back.

Going into the crit I was nervous to say the least. This was a technical 9 corner course that I knew was going to be fast and hard. I had a couple of goals that I wanted to accomplish during the race. One was to work on positioning. I even did a mini attack and was on the front for just a little bit. It was really fun though. Weird, I never though I would say that about a crit.

Luckily the temps were a little cooler for the final Sunset stage. This was a 6 or 7 mile loop that we did 9 times. It had this climb that by about the 4th time you start thinking how am I ever going to get up this 5 more times. Then it also had a bombing fast downhill section with some brake grabber turns. The race went crazy from the start with a small group getting away the first time up the hill. Kristin and Kmac made the first group and the rest of the team was in the second group. It came back together after a couple of laps. It really was a race of attrition. It was a hard race but now that I am not in the pain cave it was also fun. I would like to borrow Tiff P. saying and call it Type 2 Fun. Redlands was a good experience. I learned a lot.

While at this race we also got to meet some of our awesome sponsors. Felt was there as well as Peanut Butter and Co. We went to dinner with PB owner Lee Zalben. He is a really friendly cool guy. Thanks Lee for sponsoring our women's cycling team!!!!

Grey's Anatomy

The set of Grey's Anatomy

Olivia, Tayler and I meeting Patrick Dempsey

There's some new doctors in the emergency room

Alisha says: In between San Dimas and Redlands we got the coolest opportunity to visit the set of Grey's Anatomy in L.A. Vincent, Olivia, Tayler and I toured the set, which was cool and weird to see in real life. It is cool how they put all the shots together so that everything looks complete and like a full huge hospital. We got to watch them film a scene. The highlight of the trip was definitely getting to meet Patrick Dempsey, aka McDreamy. He was so cool and nice, in between takes he kept on coming over to visit with us and then when we left he even walked us to our car. Really cool guy! He is a fan of cycling and even rides himself. Thanks for giving us such an awesome tour Peyton!