Mt Kato

Man, why do we have to wear sleeves in road cycling? Because I would look damn hot finishing off the season in this....

Yeah, Mt Kato was muddy but a ton of fun! Nothing like spending your cool down time in line for an hour just to wash off your bike. Yowza.

Kristy Kreme

I'm XXX, Bitch!

DISCLAIMER: the B-word appears a couple times in this entry. And, since I know my mother-in-law reads my blog... D, please don't be offended, it goes with the theme.

Now back to the nitty gritty...

This weekend kicked off my entry into my thirties perfectly! Friday, Hwood and I played hookie from work and slept in. By early afternoon, the gorgeous weather called to us and he took me to Lebanon Hills for my first Leb ride. It was a ton of fun! But man was it hot - it felt like a friggin' sauna in the woods as the moisture in the dirt from the preceding days' rainfalls attempted to evaporate in the heat. After a couple of laps, Jay had to get to the shop to take care of biz and I headed home to clean up and take a nap.

We spent the evening at home relaxing and prepping for a Saturday afternoon bbq. It was a perfectly chill night to forget about work and stuff, and to prepare myself for a weekend of fun.

Saturday morning the sun woke me up and I was surprised to find a card waiting for me on the bathroom sink. When I picked it up, I found a sweet tank top my hubby had made that said "I'm XXX, Bitch!" in big fun letters. I giggled and ran back to bed to thank my sweet hubby. Only weeks before, I had said it would be fun to have a shirt that said that for my bday.... see, guys DO listen!!! :O) And a special thanks to Teri for the design work - you rock, Gurl!

We lolligagged around the house all morning and had a late breakfast before starting our day. Hwood took me out in my new tank top to the Apple store to go pick out a new computer for myself for my bday. I'd been saving and researching for the big purchase for months, and it was finally time. It was one of the funnest shopping experiences ever! I think we gave out 20 high-fives in the hour we were there! I've never had such great customer service in a store like that before, and I'd recommend them to anyone. 'Nuff said.

After that, we ran home to get the yard and grill ready for the party, only to find out the old rickety grill finally bit the dust. Lucky for us, the condo assoc. needed a new grill and were happy when we offered to go pick one out and bring it home! SCORE! So here we stood with new grill in hand - one hour to go before the bbq - but still no food! We busted out to the grocery store and liquor store and shopped in a feverish frenzy.... but we made it home with 20 min. to spare.

As the afternoon heat filled the air, friends and family started to roll in with smiles on their faces and the fun began. The weather was perfect and Hwood had the grill kickin out food for all. The best of all the food though was definitely the CAKE! While he was "at the shop working" the other night, he was actually at KK & Jodie's house making me an extra large Wiener Dog Cake from scratch! It was so cute and tasted even better! Yep, he truly is Husband of the Year...for the 2nd year straight.

We chilled in the back yard for hours, everyone having a taste of my wiener (cake), playing frisbee, and simply hanging out. When the evening approached and the clouds rolled in to

sprinkle on us we stayed outside - the warm nite felt great with a little bit of rain. But once the thunder got closer, we loaded up our drinks and snacks and headed indoors for a

bitchin' time of Guitar Hero! It was awesome! We kept it going until midnite when the crowd thinned out and we retreated to the couch to let the day's events sink it.

It was the perfect birthday! I had everything I wanted - my husband, my puppy, some time in the sun... perfect. Thank you my sweet, you're the best!

And what kind of summer weekend would it be without a bike race? Sunday morning came a little earlier than I wished, but we loaded up the car and headed to Mankato for the Mt. Kato Mtn bike race. Mankato has been nailed by rain and storms a ton in the last week or so, causing the course to be SLOP-PY!!!! Even with the temps in the upper 80's, the course couldn't dry out and it made for a muddy race. I had a bitchin' time - I love the mud! I even finished third!!!

Jay rocked a killer race too, taking 2nd in his age group and 11th in the Pro/Expert race. Way to go Babe!! Chucker rounded out the top 20 experts and G-reg kept the black and white looking good with a strong finish in Comp, too. Awesome job, boys!

I got a ragin' sunburn while feeding the guys during the race, so it was nice to retreat home after the long hard effort and hang out on the couch again with my sweet Jay and Smokey. As the sky darkened and the starts began to twinkle, I sat gleefully with my boys, full satiated after a wonderful birthday weekend.

Thanks Jay for always making my world a better place! I love you. And thank you to all my friends and family who stopped by to celebrate with us - it was so nice to have you there. Love you guys!

Remember, I'm not 30.... I'm XXX, Bitch!

Kristy Kreme

Dirty Benjamin Bling

This week has been so crazy busy ... I've just been chompin at the bit to recap a dare-I-say EPIC race last weekend.

Hwood, the Chucker, and I headed out to Chaska last weekend to take on our first dirty century race with high hopes of simply finishing. Saturday was the Dirty Benjamin - a 107 mile gravel & dirt road race, looping from Chaska to Watertown and back. I'm not one who enjoys tossing the word 'epic' around, but this one may have definitely qualified. Nothing chaps my ass more than hearing someone say that some 20 minute weekday crit was "epic", but taking on a 15-25 mph headwind for the first 50 miles of a gravel century, self-supported, cue card guided.... now that was friggin' epic!!!

The start of the race rolled out more civilized than I imagined so Jay and I quickly moved ourselves to the lead riders to ensure a great position from the get-go. We entered a length of snowmobile trail and put the hammer down, trying to separate ourselves from as many riders as possible. Four miles in and we were with the top 10 and feelin fine.

Once we made it out to the gravel roads, the wide farmlands opened up and allowed the winds to step up to the plate and abuse the crap out of us. Jay was the best teammate I could have - never leaving my side and letting me find my pace in his draft. We made it to the 50 mile check point and stopped only long enough to refill our bottles and choke down half a PB&J each. With heart rates still high, we jumped back onto our bikes and onto the road.

We continued northwest and into the wind for a bit, bringing attention to my screaming left hip flexor. It was seizing up bad, making every pedal stroke a challenge. Jay slowed the pace up as I tried to massage it out. We hit the Luce Line Trail for miles 62-69 and I tried desperately to keep my wits about me and not break down. The trail offered a nice canopy of trees to hide from the wind in, and the flat trail was almost hypnotic as you quietly pedaled along. I stopped quickly to pee and stretch out my hip flexor, but realized quickly what a terrible idea that was as the mosquitos swarmed and feasted on my blood.

With thirty miles to go and no reduction in pain, I looked over at my sweet sherpa of a husband and said "This is AWESOME!!!". We were doing it! Our first gravel century race and we were hauling a$$ and sittin in the top 20! We just had to keep pedaling. 80 miles. 90 miles.

At 100 miles, euphoria kicked in and masked the pain and exhaustion. We pulled out onto a paved road that took us to our sweet downhill finish. Though we still had a couple miles to go, we were all smiles. Hwood and I even caught the Chucker, so the three of us got to ride in together as a team. When we pulled into the parking lot, Stukel raised up his arms - I WON THE WOMEN's OPEN!!!!

Our goal had been to get in under 7 hours and we rocked it in 6 hours 14 minutes! On top of it all, I finished 14th of 111 riders!!!! Bitch, please!I'm still floating from how awesome it was! I can't wait to do that again. Thanks to all the peeps who put it on - that was so RAD!!! And the biggest thanks in the world to my husband who never left my side. I couldn't have done it without you my love!!! You're the best part of my world and I love the daylights out of you.

Partyin' on,
Kristy Kreme