I am pretty tired today. After working a bunch of hours this week, I also had to move yesterday. We all know how fun moving is. I got off work around 3 and my roommates and I used brute force to get all our stuff into the new place. I saw my bed at 2 AM and was up early for work today. yaaah. I’m heading to Fort Collins tonight, working a little tomorrow and then I finally get to ride. I haven’t ridden since Monday…it feels like forever. Jeff, Carney, and I have plans to hit ‘em high in the mountains. It’s amazing how much your body freaks out when you do something it’s not used to… like carrying heavy objects up 3 flights of stairs. I gotta stop trying to be so macho because I end up hurting myself (hence my knee and back pain today). But at least the guns are sore from carrying stuff. Even my legs are bit sore from running up and down stairs loaded down. Gotta cross train!!

Also, stay posted… I’ll be posting about the other 2 rides we did in Moab tonight or tomorrow. Jeff also has been playing with his helmet cam. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is a cool video he took.
Sovereign Trail from Jeff Kerkove on Vimeo.

The NY Times did an exclusive story on Topeak Ergon’s very own Dave Wiens. It’s the top sports story at the moment. check it out!

Post this on your blogs too! I think this is a HUGE HUGE step for mountain biking and cycling altogether and if we get the word out and people see how cool mountain biking is, maybe we can get this sport into a raging upswing. Step aside, NFL!

I haven’t, but there are many (like Andrew Carnizzle and some of my Sobe peeps (Nina and Becca)) who are currently admitting a thick coating of dust into their lungs at a rate of a play on Broadway full of people in NYC. The folks racing the 24 Hours of Moab right now have front row seats to some epic, unforgiving wind. With a constant wind of 30-40 mph and gusts up to about 70 mph, conditions are less than ideal. Couple that with blowing dirt so dominant that it covers everything in a matter of seconds and you have a “fun” day.

You know you’re in a bike friendly town when hotels advertise a “bike wash.”

How windy was it?  Ask the five dudes who had to lift up this blown over motorcycling.

My peeps!

Jeff and I were working for part of the day until we were literally hanging from the top of the Ergon tent to keep it from blowing away. Several 10 x 20 tents had been lifted off the ground and blown away, so we were very nervous. Lots of cool kats were excited to check out the Ergon product. In fact, we were installing grips on the spot. “Do you want to take your old grips with you?” They would reply, “nah! I won’t be needing them anymore.” That’s right! We are going to head back in the morning when our eyes and the rest of our crevices won’t be caked with dirt.

“Organic” display

Wahh. I don’t wike the wind!

Yesterday after the drive, Jeff and I tackled Amasa-Back trail. It’s definitely a different style of riding from Colorado singletrack.

Man-tastic!

Taking it all in.

Dude… it’s like, the desert.

Red…

I have devised a quick, cheap, yet super fun costume to wear at the Ergon booth at 24 Hours of Moab. Stop by to check out the brilliant product and scintillating personalities at the green tent. hee hee. Yes, there will be photos. It’s going to be odd NOT to race. I rarely have gone to a race and not been a contestant in the world of masochistic fun, but it’ll be cool to cheer on all my friends. Plus, my costume wig wouldn’t survive under my helmet for 24 hours. I’m sure I’ll wish I was racing, but at this point, it’ll be fun to sit back and watch it all unfold. (uhhh…ok, truth time… I’m already wishing I was racing!!)

I have been in the process of thrashing my legs over the last 5 days without really noticing until I tried to go for a quick jaunt up 4 mile on the road bike yesterday, and was groveling and grunting up what is usually a pretty easy climb. The soreness from my Monday trail run did not set in until yesterday; couple that with the fatigue from my ridiculous effort on Tuesday will make today a rest day. That’s what I love about the off-season… I can go as hard as I want!! I am definitely one of those sick and twisted brutes who would craves and takes delight in going at max effort up the biggest climbs I can find. DH too, please! Just give me pine trees and two wheels… and I am in my happy place. Funny anecodote: when I would come in from a work-out when I lived in ABQ, I’d be all dirty, trail dust sticking to my skin, ripe from effort, top-tube decorated from dried up droplets of salty bodily excretion… my brother would take one look at me, laugh to himself and say, “Sonya. You’re just a beast.” It makes me smile.

Tomorrow, Jeff and I will roll out early in true Ergon style (the FJ), set up everything for the race, and then head out to ride Amasa-back. I know that the fact I have only been to Moab one time (and it was 4 years ago) is total sacrilege to mtb world, so I will spend some quality time in the Moab sanctuary. I rode the White Rim when I went, so my rubber (hey! get your mind out of the gutter) has never touched slick-rock. It’s a cool place from what I remember, and I grew up in high desert, but I’m more partial to high alpine riding, somewhere deep within the bowels of the Rockies, with epic views and lots of steep singletrack. You know, the kind of singletrack that is dark, soft, and fragrant.

See you in Moab!

I am going to do the best I can to post in the next week, but things are getting increasingly busier. I’m moving a week from tomorrow, trying to revive my social life with my friends that always seems to get swept under the rug during the race season, working a lot, going to Moab as a vendor from Friday-Monday, and somehow packing my life into boxes to shuttle to another place to call my new rented place…for a little while anyway.

The only thing keeping me sane right now is riding and running. I got a good 6 mile trail run in yesterday along with 20 miles of bike commuting. Today was a better day. Aside from the commuting, I got to hit up Betasso and blow off some steam. I haven’t been able to ride up there in quite some time, so it was nice. My legs also felt really good – I guess they are coming back…so I pegged it on the ride, getting my HR up to 204 and holding it around 200 for about 20 min and then settling into what would be an XC pace. All I know is it felt good. Call me crazy, but I love to go hard and when I have a structured workout, I can’t go hard for as long as I want for obvious reasons. Must rest for races. Now I can thrash myself all I want… (within reason!)

It’s that time of year where I am racing the sunset and will soon be finishing my rides in the dark. The mountains and sun were posing just so for me today. I got some good photos. and yes, I am seemingly back to 100% although I am still having some minor sinuses…just like everyone else.

They are forecasting rain in Moab this weekend. I hope for all of our sakes, the skies keep it real.

While I would have loved to be camping up in the golden aspens this weekend, it’s still been good so far…  I felt well enough to try and ride yesterday.  It was the last day of antibiotics for me so I thought, “Hey, why not ride to Gold Hill?”  I did that ride a lot last winter, so I figured it would be no biggie (although it’s 4000′ of climbing ).  After having to stop multiple times from feeling nauseated and light-headed(from the anti’s), I decided that I needed to turn around.  We still got to ride for over 2 hours, so that was happy.  My sinus infection is GONE!  Now I’m trying to get back to 100% again, which won’t be long!

EEEE!  Should I be riding yet?

Then we went to indulge in the Hapa Sushi happy hour.  It’s 6 days a week, and you can get select rolls 2 for 6 bucks.  Salmon Avocado?  You got it.

Kerkove says:  nom nom nom!

Mr. Todd (from Ergon) got some free shirts from Ellsworth at Interbike.  I know it doesn’t say Cannondale, but it’s a really funny shirt.   It’s worth it.  If I was trying to get something for free, I would probably wear this shirt.  Yaaay for humor and breast cancer awareness.

Then we enjoyed some Mochas at Laughing Goat.

The th-sun will rise in my mocha.

Now it’s off to Ned to try and ride some singletrack.  I feel like I can make it today.   WEEE HEEE HEEE HEEE!  My tires have not contacted singletrack in THREE weeks (Winter Park was dirt roads…)  The last time I touched singletrack was 12 Hrs of Snowmass.

I have been impressed multiple times by Apple’s customer service, so I figure I’d spread the love. There are two types of people in this world. Apple users, and future Apple users. I made the transition 3 years ago and once I went Apple, I will never go back. Let me tell you why I am impressed with Apple’s customer service.

Case 1
Sonya did a not so smart thing one day and put one of the tiny DVDs in the DVD drive. It got stuck so she put a bigger DVD in to shove the smaller one in further…hoping that it would shove the smaller one all the way in so that it could be ejected. ERROR. Both got stuck in the drive. Blonde moment! Sonya took her computer to Apple, knowing that it was far out of warranty. The nice guys working there decided that instead of charging her for a new DVD drive (it came to that), they would send her computer in and get her one for free and just disregard that the computer was no longer under warranty.

Case 2
Sonya rides her bike a lot and hence sweats like a fiend…the sweat gets into her beloved Ipod headphones. This causes the headphones to eventually stop working. What did she do? Took her headphones to Apple to inquire. They asked no questions and gave her a new pair of headphones for free.

Case 3
1 year ago, Sonya dropped her 20G Ipod (her best ride buddy) which somehow made the touch-wheel no longer work. Instead of getting it repaired (a repair shop quoted 50 bucks), she decided to buy the brand new Nano that came out. She was salivating anyway, and decided it would be her new best ride friend. 1 year later, Sonya went to Interbike, and was going to have to drive to Las Vegas. She thought, “Hmm… I wish my 20G ipod worked. I *think* it’s still in that drawer I put it in about a year ago.” She rode her bike over to the Apple store to inquire what could be done. The Genius Bar employee told her that they could get her the same model (the 20G model from 3 years ago), brand new, for a price of 60 bucks. She thought that was pretty cool. 1.5 weeks went by, Interbike came and went, and she still had not heard from Apple. Then, on a Friday(today), for no particular reason, she got a call from Apple. The man on the phone said, “We know you have been waiting for awhile for the 20G replacement, and it’s still not here. Why don’t you come in and we’ll give you a brand new one.” So Sonya went back to Apple, expecting to get a 30G Ipod (last time she checked, that was the equivalent, but that was years ago) and was also expecting to pay the 60 dollar replacement fee. The smiley guy named Josh came out of the back with a new ipod. Sonya was straining her eyes to see what the size was… he gave it to her for FREE and it was 120G. Awesome. Thanks Apple!!!!

My next venture will be an Iphone…but that is going to be a LONG way out.

Well…my buddy who works at Green Guru took pictures of me and some other people and voila, I’m suddenly on their website Luby brought it to my attention.

Check out Green Guru

Feeling a little better today… maybe I’ll dare to ride tomorrow!!!

That would be the number of days I have been sick. I have been riding my bike back and forth to work, but it just shows me how I probably won’t be riding this weekend… after I get off my bike, I’m all lightheaded and feverish. I HATE NOT BEING ABLE TO RIDE!!!! I can handle having a cold b/c I can still hit the road on two wheels…but this kind of stuff sucks!

If I were to suddenly improve so much that I could ride, I’d love to head up high and ride amongst the fall aspens. Fortunately, my season is over so this illness isn’t really setting me back from anything too important other than my general desire to ride.

I had a question in one of my comments asking what type of racing I plan to do next year. Welllll…. I am going to mix it up a bit. I plan on doing half endurance, half XC. Now don’t get too excited, I’m still an XC girl. I love to go as hard as I can and suffer to the max for 2 hours, but there is also something really fun about 50 mile races. I am going to focus mostly on mountain states cup and 50 mile events, and I might attend one national. I feel like it’s not worth my time to attend nationals anymore… plus I like MSC venues much more, and they are in Colorado. I will do National Championships in Sol Vista and am thinking about doing the Breck Epic stage race. Needless to say, I am VERY VERY excited for 2009!!!!!

Once I’m well, I will ride my mtb as much as I can, do some running, hiking, and hopefully some DH and skate skiing when it gets uber kalt here.

Other news, I thought it was just my fever at first but I saw not one, but TWO HUGE rats on the bike path yesterday. I had no idea we had big old rats in Colorado, but haha, I guess we do….

but at least I got some antibiotics to help me get better faster. I really would love to ride my bike this weekend. It’s still 3 days away, so I’m feeling confident that maybe I’ll feel good.

My broken car has been more than a pain in my broken butt because when my car is not working, I get around by bike(normally not a problem)…and when I’m sick, getting around by bike is really difficult. I’ve been riding my bike the sort of downhill bike path for 5 miles to work as slow as I can so I don’t pass out (ok, exaggerating maybe a tad, but it’s not a fun experience), and then taking the bus back or getting a ride from my roommate. I finally got a new starter for it (a Dresco, brand new $$$), but NOT from Autozone…so I guess when I’m feeling up to it, I will do the repair. My arms feel weak when washing my hair, I don’t think they would want to be wrenching on some engine bolts.

I think tomorrow will be a better day, especially because the big green sinus chunks are starting to leave my head (hehe…)

I miss my bike………