A week of Personal Bests

Yup! the past 6 days were spent breaking every PB i have set on my bike ... at least in the last year ;-) Not quite up to my old Canada Cup watts but inching oh, so closer! And i nailed it!!! I beat my 1 min, 2 min, 5 min, 6 min, 10 min, 20 min, 30 min, and 60 min PBs! all by 20 or so Watts! I even beat my best climbing time up tiger - by 3.5 minutes!!! what a week!!!  and now for a day off ... ahhhhhhhhhhh

A 200 mile road ride from Seattle to Portland … for a cause

A 200 mile road ride from Seattle to Portland … for a cause
What a great event!!! We left around 5am and rolled into Portland 12 hrs and 45 min later … here are the details by the numbers:

Miles: 204 miles
Feet of climbing: ~5,000ft
Hours of riding: 11.5
Total hours: ~13
#Flats: 1 J

 Yay! We did it! It was a pretty easy ride … lots of support, riders, and fun on the road. But the best part … we were part of a team that has raised over $20,000 for pediatric cancer research!!

A few memories from the ride that stick in my head include:

• little me pulling a train of 6ft+ guys for about 15 or 20 miles (about 150 miles in)
• the amazing support - both official and non-official for the ride
• the variety in rider types - bikes ranged from 'basket on the front' to '$10,000'!
• the Norco 'train' .. they all had red mohaks! Super fun
• my bike. oh, how i love my bike :)
• Jonathan dropping a water bottle 2 miles in ... yikes! had to sprint out to get it and not get run over
• Starting with the moon, riding thru the rain, and then into the SUN for the finish

Rain, Rain go away ... little Monilee wants to play!

So yeah, it's been raining in Seattle. and when i say raining i don't mean a light sprinkle here and there. i mean full on torrential downpours that leave you soaked to the skin. I'm talking about Tiger becoming a river and learning to embrace the mud cause you have no choice. I'm talking about roots and rocks that are so wet you don't even try to steer ... you just point and slide.

It has it's upside: hey, i'm getting better at riding wet roots/rocks. but i have to say, i'm getting tired of it :) I am ready for the rain to stop and the sunshine to kick in. Any moment now, i'm sure! Instead of doing 'ice cream rides' where i find cool ice cream i've been doing 'coffee shop rides' and i don't even drink coffee :)

ah well, all good trainng to toughen up my mind and improve my mtb skills, i suppose. But if it's sunny at Worlds i may just spend the whole race dancing in a circle and not actually riding my bike :)

They say tomorrow is supposed to be sunny ... it's the 4th of July so we get the day off. As long as it is not raining, i am one happy camper! We're doing another epic ride and i'm stocked - this time it's a tour of Whitbey Island!

Speaking of Epic rides, i guess it's time to catch up a bit :) here is what i've been up to:
- Snoqualmie Falls Hills (100 miles, 6,000 ft of climbing)
- Tiger (of course)
- Tour of Eastren Seattle (100+ miles, 4,000 ft of climbing)

Soon it will be time to kit up for STP and we are stoked! Lots of fun and adventourous rides to train for the event - isn't it fun to have something to train for? :)