Ouch...

I had a ball this morning! I attended a Beginner Cyclocross Clinic this morning in Conyers. It was fun, hard, and painful! First we learned how to mount while moving, then dismount while moving, then how to pick up the bike a couple of ways to carry over the hurdles, then how to put the bike on your shoulder to run up the hill. All of these new skills have left various parts of my body sore and or bruised, but it was well worth it!

I learned some great skills that I'm sure will help me with my cycling in general, but I realized that I don't have the time or money to take on an additional sport at this time. I thought I might be able to get by with my mountain bike stuff for a while, but it's really a whole different sport, so I would need a lot of new gear (including a bike).

It was great to meet other people that think cyclocross would be fun (women in particular - 4 were from Sorella Cycling - 2 were teaching the clinic and the other 2 were beginners). I really don't understand, everyone I mention it to thinks I'm crazy for even thinking that it looks like fun. What doesn't sound fun about riding in the mud then jumping off your bike and carrying it over hurdles and up hills??? ;D

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes...

Allie and I got new bikes last weekend! Allie has been too big for her old mountain bike for a while, but she hadn't ridden since we moved to GA (about 3.5 years), so it wasn't a big deal. But now that we're (Jeff, Allie and I) gearing up for a 10 mile mountain bike race that we're going to do on November 2nd @ Callaway Gardens she had to get a new one. She loves it! We went for a ride around the neighborhood today and she did great practicing changing her gears on the hills.

I got a new road bike! Mostly for the sprint triathlon next year, but now that I have a road bike I might participate in more long road races or maybe even cyclocross ~ who knows...


Allie's new Giant Mtn Bike





My new Fuji road bike - it's pretty girly, but I really like it! I just need to put on the clipless pedals and I'll be set!





My old hand-me-down (from Jeff) Trek Mtn bike - it wasn't bought for me, but I really do like it!

Mountain Biking @ Central Park

We spent some time this morning exploring the mountain bike trails at Central Park (Cumming, GA). It's only about 20 minutes from the house and it was a great trail ~ we'll definitely go back! There were some tricky down hills, but a lot of fun. Allie really struggled on some of the hills ~ mostly because she had troubles shifting gears on her new bike (the one in the middle below). This will be a good trail for us to train on for our 10 mile race in November.

Sprint Triathlon @ Callaway Gardens

I had a great day! I participated in my first Super Sprint Triathlon @ Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA with my girlfriends, Lou and Patty. We had to swim a 1/4 mile, bike 10 miles, then run 2 miles. I started swim lessons in January to start training for this and they didn't really help me at all (no fault of the instructors ;D )! I guess they did help me not panic when I was in water that was too deep for me to touch, but that's about it! The swim was really hard. The biking wasn't bad, there were just more rolling hills then we trained for. The run wasn't bad either, because it was pretty flat. I ended up finishing in 1 hour and 17 minutes, which was a lot faster than I planned. It wasn't easy, but I'm so glad I did it and I'll do it again next year!

Jeff, Allie and I had never been to Callaway Gardens, so we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty the whole area was! Jeff did a great job being our Tri Photographer!

In case anyone is wondering about the pictures below, I used Creative Memories StoryBook Creator to make the pages, then I took screen shots of them and posted the screen shots. My consultant is Pam and she is wonderful!