Month: May 2014

Honeymoon Hijinx! (Amgen Tour of California)

Stuart and I were unable to take a traditional honeymoon after our wedding because when you have four kids, two dogs, a house, and one of you is starting a new job there isn’t much opportunity to get away. So what did we do instead you ask??? We volunteered at two stages and watched the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California. I had never seen a real professional bicycle race before and this year there were a few big names that came out for the 8 day stage race. It was an amazing experience. We got to volunteer at the finish in Santa Barbara where we saw Taylor Phinney win stage 5; we saw them roll out to start stage 6 from Santa Clarita, and then we bought VIP passes to have prime seats (and food and beer) at the finish in Thousand Oaks. We even scored a couple of very cool autographs! Check out the pictures below!

: Happy Honeymoon Couple!

: Taylor Phinney racing to a stage victory in Santa Barbara

: Mark Cavendish in a pack after the climb into Santa Barbara

: Stuart had a whistle for Santa Barbara. You could even see (and hear) him on the live coverage!

: Taylor Phinney, the Santa Barbara stage winner signed my shirt!

: Bradley Wiggins (the eventual overall winner) leading the Peloton into Santa Barbara

: Peter Sagan was looking at stem a la Chris Froome

: Niki Terpstra rolling through after the first circuit in Thousand Oaks

: Jens Voigt, Shut Up Legs!

: VIP and beer! SO much fun!

: Top three overall winners!

: The bubbly!

: Selfie with the Podium Girls!

: Stuart got Sir Bradley Wiggins to sign his book.

April 2014 Training Summary

Overall things went really well during April. I had my first bike ride of the year when I did the L’Etape du California (I still need to right my race report) on April 6. It was the an event where we got to ride the Final Stage of the upcoming Tour of California stage race. It was 4 loops of a challenging ride up a locally famous ride called the Rockstore. The loop was 20 miles with 2000+ feet of elevation gain. The goal was to do all 4 loops but Stuart had a couple mechanical issues which ended up keeping us from doing the final loop. But overall I did well and was pleased with how the day went. Click here to see my ride details.

Stuart said I was being too smiley for the start… 🙂

My mileage was a little low but that was due to a pretty exciting event…we got married (again)!!! We did get married back in January for administrative purposes so we finally had a ceremony for our family and a party for our friends. It was an amazing day that I will never ever forget! I am so lucky to have found THE person I am meant to be with for the rest of my life. Stuart brings me so much joy and happiness. Below are a few pictures form the wedding. We had the most amazing photographer, Mackenzie Dore. Check her out if you are in our area and need any pictures.

I got a sneak peak at the next 4 weeks of my training and it is ramping up for sure! I am getting excited to see what I can do at Vineman this year. I am feeling kind of confident that it will go well this year for sure!

TYR Wild Crosscutfit Workout Bikini Review

I have been very happily swimming for about 2 years in a two piece swim suit made by Waterpro. I have had no problems with the suit and it was very affordable. I wanted to try a new suit that was a little bit lower cut in the front (yes, I wanted better tan lines on my chest…You should see my wedding pics!). The problem with getting a suit that is lower cut in the front is that it can catch the water when you kick off the wall and gap open. I have had that problem with a Nike suit in the past.

Forgive my bad bathroom selfie and photobombing dogs!

So I searched SuitOutlet.com for what I thought would work and wasn’t crazy expensive. I found the TYR Wild Crosscutfit Workout Bikini. It was $34.99 which seemed very resonable to me since it will get worn 2-3 times a week until it falls off of me… I took it to the pool today for my swim. I am VERY happy to say it passed my swim test! It stayed put on top and did not gap at all when I kicked off from the wall. I did need to tie the drawstring in the bottoms but I think that is because they sit lower on my hips as opposed to higher at my waist. I got a size medium (I am 5’5″, 132lbs, with a 34 bust and a bit of a belly from having kids…) Over all the suit is extremely comfortable and I had ZERO issues with it. Usually I wait a little while to do a review on a product but I have found you know right away with swimming suits. The next test is how long it lasts. The material is little bit different bu I really like it. Not as shiny as a normal suit.