Monday, March 19, 2007

Phabulous Phoenix!


Here I am barely alive, right after the 90 min Beekrum Yoga..

And don't mind my death grip on the wall, I'm a natural Yogamaster...And notice Ab needs no assistance, nor does she look quite as whipped!

Our new home, the Grace Inn it's AWESOME, it has a Spa w/in...and the hotel gym is a Gold's Gym across the street...we walked to an excellent dinner spot...Cafe Boa...and internet, and pool...

Here we are, after pool time, going into facials and massages!!

And dinner at Cafe Boa!!

This is MY kind of vacation!!! Highly recommened!!
Oh yea, today was nice!!

Sister Time!!


Yea, I'm in Phoneix, vacationing w/ my sister Abby! We are taking a few days to enjoy the warmth, and unwind together!

After a marathon of flights (I flew back from Greenville, S.C ALL the way to Seattle, then re-checked in immediately to fly back to Phoenix...so my day started w/ a 2:30am pick up in S.C, and I arrived in Phoneix at 8:45pm the next day...but hey I saved $300 on flights!! And I get 3 days w/ my Sis, and that's priceless)

So, on Sunday we found a great breakfast place after getting a new swimsuit at Target, seeing as I forgot mine. Then we shopped for shoes (don't worry Mike, I didn't buy any..but I was SO tempted to buy these leapord print open toe high heels...something I'm sure I'd wear TONS, NOT!)...

Next we laid by the pool, enjoyed a grapefruit juice/mineral water cocktail and pretzels...then enjoyed a nice relaxed Sushi dinner as pictured above!!

Today, it's Beecrum (Beakrum, B-crumb) yoga, facials, and eyebrow waxing....I LOVE these kind of vacations!!

Have fun at work ya'll!!! Tee Hee Hee!!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Camp Day to Day!

Ultra Link’s Mother of a Camp:
Where? Devils Fork State Park, Salem SlC. 3/11-3/18

Day 1 (Sunday): Met Shotell Gauthier (‘Texas’) at the Greenville airport at 10pm. Arrived at 12:30am, the driver of the shuttle had no more clue than we did on how to get to Devil’s Fork, but we made it.

Day 2 (Monday): Morning exercise 8am (well, some people made it..me, Shontell, and Denise ‘Junior’, all overslept! Ooops, not a good first impression). First team ride 10am did an easy 2.5hr ride. Then in PM did 1.5 hr lead out drills. It was great day!!

Nice spot for morning exercises, ey??

Although we had to WALK there (I log it as an extra workout!!, I mean come on, it took like five whole minutes EACH WAY).


From the left it's: Denise 'Junior', Jen, behind Junior is Anita (the team 'assistant'), and to her right is Genevieve 'Gege', in the black in the back is Julia, and hangin' on the back is 'Texas' Shontell!




Day 3 (Tuesday): Morning exercises, which were great once I woke up (warm up, Yoga, and stretching as a group). Team ride on the Rossman Hwy starting at Rocky Bottom. We did 2-3x LT up a 20min climb. It was awesome, hard, great weather! We ended with over 5 hrs of ride time. I was fried by the end!


I don't know if you can read this, but the plywood sign says, "Marie's Flea Market" which was a huge pile of trash on a porch, but I thought it was so nicely accentuated w/ the Confederate flags! God Bless America!!!

Post long ride relaxation, and Pot luck!


Cheers all around for team bonding!!!

Day 4 (Wednesday) : Morning exercises, breakfast then one short ride at 9:30 to allow time to go to Greenville, and meet the local Cervelo dealer, and get internet/cell phone connection. Then a pot luck when we got home.

And we took time for the ever famous team shots!! Note: these are the ones that DIDN'T make the final cut...so PERFECT for the 'Ol blogareenie...

Look at Shontell's tounge....she's the little one in the middle! How cute is that!

This one almost made the cut, except for grouchy Shontell on the end!

"I was spoken to on the rock!"

Again, Shontell w/ that tounge!

It's contageous!

After all the monkey buisnaz on the rocks. We spent some time getting to know the Greenville Cervelo dealer!! It was an awesome shop, the whipped us up our favorite coffee beverage, and chatted about the local ride/race scene. Some of the girls will attend the Sat moring ride, where there is a group for EVERYONE...an A group, B group, C+ group, and C group...man all those options, it would be hard to decide!!

Here's a nice shot of Jen and Erin! How nice to have you husband here to share this great time!!



Day 5 (Thursday): The ‘Mutha’ of a ride. Ended w/ almost 105mi, I think that’s 4bazillion kilometers, and 16miles of climbing, and tons of long rollers everywhere. Ride time was like 6hrs 15min. It was epic! Great terrain here, we rode up to the Blue Ridge. Long day, but great training!

So here we are climbing, and climbing.



Funny story: Julia made a small error in distance of the climb. We all thought it was 15k climb from this one turn....so over intense Kele here, hits the corner and IMMEDIATELY goes into her LT effort she had planned for the climb...unfortunately 15k later, I slowly realize I'm NOT on the climb...and then we hit the real climb!! Sweet, just like a race, I hit the climb tired. It was so funny, when the rest of the girls caught me after what I thought was the end of my effort, I threw a tantrum, "We've done 15k, we're done, what are you guys doing?"...I was so mentally ready to turn around...little did I know I was at the BASE of the climb!


I had to work hard for that smile!!

And finally, we're done! Awesome, now that it's over...

Then had a second Potluck, and just hung out getting to know eachother. Then we watched this awesome documentary called ‘The Long way Round’ w/ Ewen McGregor and Charlie Boorman, about these 2 guys who travel around the world on their motorcycles.

Here are our very professional head shots!!


Day 6 (Friday): Julia gave us the day off from morning exercises, so I slept till 9:30! We rode at 2:30. A nice lesiurely pace, w/ more lead out practice!! It was perfect weather again! Nice final ride!

What a great week, I'm so excited about this group! Great diversity, and depth, and commitment! Thanks to Julia, Ultralink, and Cervelo for making it happen for us!!

Team Ultralink's Mutha of a Camp!!


Yea!! I am sitting in the Grenville's, S.C. airport it's 5:40am...finally I am back in civilization. I have been enjoying a week of awesome riding, getting to know my new teammates, having multiple pot lucks, laughing as much as possible, and all in all gearing up for what looks to be a great season!

I must start by thanking Ultralink (specifically Alan and Lily) for all their support, that is enabling all of us to continue our love of cycling! And, of course, Cervelo for these awesome machine's (Carbon Soloist), I am in love!! If you haven't tried a Cervelo, you REALLY don't know what you are missing!! And it brings me one step closer to my idol, Jens Voight (I hope I spelled my idols name right...huge fan I am)...cause that's what HE rides!! I've decided I'm now going to be called, 'Jenssica'...let's see if I can fit that on my drivers license!!

So who are these famed Ultra Link riders you may ask? Well...
The girls are as follow:
Genevieve Gagnon 'GeGe’ (from Quebec city, French is her primary language, has a sweet hair cut and color, solid National Canadian team rider), Denise Ramson ‘Junior’ (from Kingston Canada, she’s been a speed skater for 13years, and she’s 16), Julia Farrell ‘Mutha’ (the Manager, the one who put this all together for us, a high school Physics teacher, in Toronto, experienced all around rider), Jen Stevenson ‘Serious’ is a Civil Engineer from Ottawa Canada, rode w/ Biovail last year, and tends to be serious on the bike, but great girl(she brought her husband Erin, who put my Power Tap back together for me, and all around nice guy), Shontell Gauthier ‘Texas’ a Louisiana girl, who now lives in Austin, a rockin’ sprinter and hard core Enduro Mtn biker background, and Me. That’s the 2007 Team Ultra Link roster, remember those names!!!!