Chilly Hilly

Seattle had two sunny days Friday and Saturday and we were planning our first, YES, first outdoor ride of the 2009 year at an event called the Chilly Hilly (over 3,000 participants) on Sunday. The name says it all! Chilly- they serve Chili at miles 23 and the finish and Hilly it is 33 miles with a lot of climbing. This event is fun because it is the first ride of the year for many...unless you are "a hard core cyclist" and well, I have yet to fit that stereotype. This event is also a challenge because it brings out EVERY kind of cyclist (cyclist in jeans, shorts, tandems, mountain bikes, squeaky brakes, etc.) . You ride the ferry boat from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and it is a MASS of people. Three to four ferry loads full of cyclists.

Original plan was to do the 33 loop twice, a solid 66 miles. Until 4am when we awoke to the sounds of HEAVY rain drops outside, it does rain alot, but rarely are we woken up by the sound of rain pounding the cement. Initial response...NO riding, then after waking up we decided we could do one loop, no matter what!. Here is the before shot:

(Mark and I, hair straight, clean, and smiles)

Mid-ride...

(Still bundled, straight hair now curly, and half smiles!)

Post ride:

(Dirty and WET and smirks on the face)

Layers of dirt covered us, but it was well worth the ride. I got to bring the new road bike out and had a great time. The hills were exactly what I needed. Next weekend.....we will be outside again!!!

Other Chilly Hilly highlights:

Mark's cousins did the event and it was their longest ride ever! They drank water the whole way (I had over 400 calories!) and Eric (far right) had his pedal crank fall off around mile 25 so he somehow found the screw on the ground and put it back on, while continuing to stop every 5-10 minutes to tighten it! Imagine pedaling and all of a sudden just having a crank attached to your cleat!Way to get it done!


Mom made the newspaper! The leopard umbrella and the blackberry in ear!

Ride on!

Handbags...PUH LEEZ!!!

All you girls can relate (and I hope admit too) that one can never have enough pair of shoes or handbags. "Why" I ask do men not get this. Mark can bring me home running shoes daily, but when I bring home a new pair of heels it is questioned...Did your really need those, how often will you really wear them...blah, blah.... The only thing I can say is he should feel lucky to have a two-for (a two for one), an athlete and a girly girl. An athlete has a lot of shoes and gym bags and a girly girl has a lot of heels and handbags...there fore, I have a lot of both or four !

Yes, it sounds material, but seriously I try to keep the habit under control. For example, I had a gift card almost a year old (got it last birthday) at a fun handbag boutique in downtown Seattle. I waited and waited and waited until the handbag I really wanted went on sale...that just happened to be yesterday...so purchase #1. I had not replaced my "designer" handbag in over 4 years.

Another reason why I waited for so long is that one of my greatest girlfriends has started her own handbag company. Pera is the name of the company and Lindy Taylor is the designer. She was my first friend when I moved back to Seattle from college. I am so proud of her for going and doing what she loves. I got one of the demo bags when she first started and it has been the absolute best travel bag, gym bag, bike bag, it goes with me EVERYWHERE! I had been wanting to connect with her since forever to get one of her new clutches. So last night we met for dinner, before you know it I had the clutch and the newest smaller version of the "big" bag I have carried for a couple years now. I have been stopped everywhere with people asking me about "the bag". Ironman CDA someone stopped me because they believe that we were long lost twins because she had never seen anyone with a bigger pack on their back than mine. My co worker is in love with the color and reminds me of it daily. Lets just stay it stands out, probably because I can carry so much stuff in it that it is bigger than my backside.

(the deep purple SUPER bag, the torqoise teal bag, and the clutch, Brenna the kitty)

Some fine points about Pera's line is that 1. the bags are waterproof (my demo bag was soaked overnight and you would never know) 2. Lindy is an athlete too and understand that you need your water bottles to stand straight up. You will find water bottle pockets/holders at the ends of each bag 3. The inside lining comes out so you can wash it...genius when we throw sweating clothes, blocks and powders in there. 4. Amazing colors (just happens to have my team color in stock now!) 5. Pockets every where and she has designed them to be big enough for your blackberry and lipstick and wallets. GENIUS- again! 6. The leather is THICK and it hangs so well on your shoulder (my photography above does NO justice to these handbags) However, if you are at the races, I am sure you will see the bag in action. 7. It fits EVERYTHING!!! No joke.

Now I was a little nervous bringing home so many bags because I had only pre-warned Mark about the first one, but I had been talking about getting the clutch forever so that wouldn't be too much of a surprise...but a third handbag...hmmm..how would I pull that off??? Especially because every time I lose something his response is:

Mark: "Did you check all your bags?"
Me: "of course"

Mark: "All of them"

Me: "yes"

Mark: "well what about the one in the bathroom, and the one in your car and the one under the computer desk."

Me: "Agghhh...forgot about those ones!"

I have downsized and am now down to only four lululemon bags. I figure that is good because most of them I got through sponsorship...so it is fully justified. Right?

Now, if I could only get a walk in closet like Sarah Jessica Parker for all this storage!

*Pera handbags is new and a fantastic up and coming company-if you are interested in the line let me know and I will get you in contact with Lindy :)*

*tnmultisports athletes recieve sponsorship discount and the info will be up on our site soon*

I'm Alive....

It's been a bit of a whirlwind since my last post. I can say so much and I could say so little. I will try not to tell you my whole life story in one sitting!

Tnmultisports had its grand opening celebration. It was amazing to have so many athletes there to celebrate and take part in the event, nearly 50+ people joined in for the night. We had some amazing sponsorship opportunities from Zoot and also did a triathlon kit try on/preorder. Over 100 pieces of the racing kit...so excited to have so many people supporting the team at the races. If it wasn't for these amazing athletes and their continued support I would not have had this opportunity, courage, and strength to make this business move. Thank you to all of you! You have each helped in your own special ways!

Getting ready for the event was almost as eventful as the actually celebration. I took up painting again. And have officially seen what happens to the "gym" type black floors when an entire CAN, yes, can- not paint tray gets knocked over. (I wont' even mention the paint splatter). I know the Inewmed boys are super excited to have us on board! We tried nearly every product that was "guaranteed" to work and nothing worked until someone came up with the great idea of black spray paint...the floors look brand new...now just wait until we soap them up for cleaning...that will be a whole different blog post in itself.

Natalie and I made a trip to Ikea and literally looked like the commercial with all the stuff in the car. We had to have the cool plant, who thought we had to somehow drive it over 20 miles to get it home! Oh, and we needed the rug to cover our fantastic paint job...on the floor. It was not as bad though as when I owned a Miata and on a hot summer day my friend Lindy and I ventured to Ikea to get a few things. We ended up with a rug longer than the car itself and the car was so full we had to hold a wicker chair above our heads while driving on the freeway. Good thing we could put the top down! To make matters even more fun we had a group of not 1 or 2 but 10 + motorcyclists pass us, laughing hysterically. We couldn't believe we pulled it off either.

(Jason, Rebecca and "The Plant")

Leading up to the event too, was super busy with finishing up logos, kits (thank you Betty Designs) , and ordering processes. What a relief to have it all complete. 9 weeks and waiting for the order to arrive!
Click here for a viewing.

With everything going on I had a cat come down with a sickness....back and forth to the vet was a balancing act...but she is all better now.

Did I mention I am training too??!! Somewhere in there I am balancing the fine act of trying to keep up with fellow bloggers who seem to just be training like crazy and resting and getting in the work...and gosh I wish I could say I was doing the same thing. But I have chosen to make this career move and am doing my best. 10-13 hours is all I can get in now and get a fair amount of rest to keep the wheels turning in all aspects of my life. The training I am getting in though is quality and I am happy with my progress. I have spent endless hours on the bike trainer, ran in the snow and have started up with the Wednesday night track runs again. Swimming is the best it has ever been getting in three days a week (typically I only do this with one month until the "A" race). The most recent movies have been Swing Vote with Kevin Costner- 4 stars, Rent (3 stars-sorry I couldn't get into it), The Secret Life of Bees (5 stars), ELF (3.5 stars- no brainer for riding intervals), and Austin Powers (ugh...yeah...stars???).

Mark sporadically asks every once in awhile if we can go to his friends cabin for skiing, I always have stuff to finish on the weekends and I don't ski much and because it is always last minute we never go. On Saturday night we were at our regular Mexican restaurant and Mark asked again....what?? Its 10pm...and then my excuses started again. After he rolled his eyes, I said "fine, if I can bring my bike and trainer and get my work done then we can go". Immediately the bill was paid and the bike and gear were in tow. We packed in 10 minutes and had a very fun weekend with Connie, Jeff, Katie, Bob and the kids. And yes, I got the three hour ride in while they skiied!(Mia and her crazy straw)

I am excited to see the tri team grow it has been a great experience meeting new people, helping others and giving people an opportunity to reach their true potential along with build friendships along the way....this is something I look forward to doing every day!

(I will leave you with Lieto's signed shoes....we are hoping for a race kit next :))

Kids Say the Darndest Things.

We committed to babysitting Mark's nephews a few weeks back to allow for his brother to have a nice evening out with his wife for his birthday. They graciously made us dinner, bought us desert, and opened their home to us. We learned a lot of new phrases during this 4 hour adventure:

1. Immediately upon walking in the door Weston says "I just stepped on a duck"! You can only imagine the odor filling the room.



2. The duck then became a way to blame younger brother..I think you need to check his pants. That was Mark's duty...I won't go there!

3. Wagner (the youngest) practically hyperventilated upon the site of a cupcake. Eating cupcakes for desert the boys had their little ones, I begin eating a chocolate one with purple frosting. Then, in a stuffed half eaten cupcake voice I hear "I want purple, I want purple"!

4. We watched the movie Cars with Lightning McQueen. I chose to be the cool red one, Mark the cool yellow one, but Weston he got to be "ALL" of them.



5. As we sit watching the movie with Weston lying nearly on me we hear again "I stepped on a duck"....aghhh!! But did you have to do it in my face?!

6. PJ time! Weston pulls his pants to his eyebrows and exclaims....I am a turbo. A turbo??? Turbo means "not cool" in four year old language.

7. We make air popped popcorn...of course, not fast enough because Wagner is once again going to turn blue in the face from the heavy panting. We make small bowls for them, of course, I get the big one, but before you knew it Wagner caught on....Eat as fast as you can and then you can get more from the big bowl....he searched through the couch to for all the dropped kernels.


8. Time to brush the teeth....we hear...waawaa??? waawaa??? "Weston...what is your brother saying?" Watermelon...oh yes, who knew...watermelon toothpaste??!!

9. "Chick Magnet" - They repeat everything you say, hence the lingo learned from their dad. So we taught them the words last night. I am sure we will hear if they used them today :)

10. They go to bed and we hear downstairs on the intercom Weston reciting every word he spoke for the night. "McQueen, Meat, purple, cars, ball, uncle mark".

We had a great time as they are such great kids....and we for sure learned a lot on the vocabulary front! Happy Birthday Paul!