Excess

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I've been anticipating a good weather day on my day off for a long time and it finally happened.  I wanted to see if my indoor training had paid off as well as I'd hoped. Brittany, my niece and fellow bike lover, came into the shop and asked if I wanted to ride with her on Saturday. I knew the day would be great and so I agreed. They were doing west mountain. I was thinking, this is early in the season it must be about 50 miles. Brittany teaches yoga, is sort of a health nut, and a little over the top when it comes to exercise. Needless to say, she is in great shape. Turns out the ride is 75 miles round trip from my house. I figured this would be a great test of my fitness.
I had only anticipated a ride of 50 miles and came prepared for that. I had to stop on the way back for some much needed nutrition, six inch Subway.
I had good legs and felt unbelievably strong. Brittany and I were off the front together most of the day. I did start fading toward the end with the headwinds and lack of enough fuel. We had a 17 mph average over the 75 miles. Not bad for a first real ride of the season. Excess may be necessary but it sure hurts. I'm pretty sore today. I really prefer to ease into my long rides so as to avoid the painful aftermath.

So, the speed is there and the endurance is pretty good for this time of year. I'm a believer in intervals!
Thanks Max.

My Eyes Were Opened

  While listening to the rebroadcast of the February 14th BYU devotional today titled "Messages of Love" I was also contemplating all of what I had perceived as inconveniences, bad luck or just things going wrong lately when my eyes were opened. A scene from last summer came to my mind, our Road Respect group was riding from SLC to Park City via emigration canyon onto the I-80 freeway. We had to use the freeway as there is no other alternative to Park City from emigration canyon. Riding a bike on the freeway with cars whizzing past at 80mph just inches from you can be a little unsettling for some and cause for concern. This particular day a car had caught on fire and was in flames, emergency vehicles were present and all of the traffic had been move over into the far left lanes and was at a stand still or moving very slowly. The entire right lane was blocked to traffic. The cyclists were able to use the right freeway lane which meant we didn't have to deal with all of the debris on the shoulder of the road or the speeding traffic. We all had a safe ride down the freeway.
  The spirit testified to me that this instance was a tender mercy of my Father in Heaven and an answer to many prayers. While a terrible inconvenience for those sitting in traffic and the man whose car was a total loss, there were 25-30 people on bikes that were safe that day because of a little inconvenience to a few people. Sometimes Excess is Necessary.

My mind has been whirling wth thougths of times when I have been slowed down or inconvenienced by an event and been frustrated by it. I have come to realize that many times the Lord is answering the prayers of someone else knowing that I am in a situation to deal with a little inconvenience and will still be ok. Maybe there was someone I was to meet or come in contact with. Maybe I was to learn patience and understanding. When I pray for safety, how many people will be inconvenienced so my prayer can be answered. When I'm inconvenienced is someone elses prayer being answered.. I'm so grateful to my Father in Heaven for allowing me to have this experience. I hope I will remember these thoughts and feelings and be less annoyed when things don't go right.

I shall never look at this type of inconvience the same again.

Life

So everything that could go wrong lately has. It started with the roof leaking into the office light fixture. Need a new roof, $10,000 ought to cover it. Several places need new plywood, at $64 a piece, hey at that price let's just replace it all. Still sick after 4 weeks, go see doctor, sinus infection, pay hundreds of dollars to find out what I already knew. I think doctors should have to discover what's wrong without you telling them in order to get the big bucks they charge. Roofers finish the backside, I go out to admire my newly shingled roof. Wow two different shades of hickory. Looks like my roof has been patched on the southeast corner. Need to tear it all off and start over. Must pay dish TV company $50 to move the satellite dish 12 inches, even though they'll pay you to move it across the USA. Must have an adult present to move the dish. We'll be there between 12-4.  Four o'clock and still not here, installer calls, I can do it without anybody there. Hopefully it's in a good place on the new shingles that must now be removed. I received an email from my boss stating that I'm the only one in the company to have an incorrect W-2. They'll be mailing me another one. My W-2 shows up today, wait something isn't quite right. the end of the document is wide open with all of my personal information hanging out there. No wait, there is a 1/3 of my W-2 missing. Torn right along the perforation, leaving the part that tells the world, Hey this is important tax information rip here to steal vital personal info. No less the IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION ENCLOSED notice has been hightlighted with a bright bold yellow highlighter so the theives don't miss it. Not enough to worry about, let's throw in identity theft. Snowing today on unfinished roof. Did I mention my inexpensive Kodak printer drinks ink, but hey it only costs $40 to replace it every other week, instead of $80 a year. Smart move on that one.

It's times like this that I really wish I could just leave it all behind. Given the option I'd take it.

St. George Shop Trip

Just returned from a short, sweet trip to St. George to ride with the bike shop.  It was about 55 degrees and sunny. Road Snow Canyon with the shop manager and his wife. We had a tail wind going up and a rough headwind, cross wind coming back.  The last time I did this ride was 1998. We came down as a family at General Conference and stayed at my brother Richard's condo.
Jeff kept the kids busy and drove up the canyon to meet me as I rode.

January Riding

So this year has been really warm for January, in the 50s most days except Saturdays, my day off. I have ridden to work every day this year so far, that's 5 to be exact. I hope I can continue.
Hoping for good weather next week as the shop is going to St. George to ride on Monday.

Testa Training

I’m currently running Mad Dog Cycles indoor training studio and working with Max Testa who is the trainer for the BMC cycling team. He trained Cadel Evans who won the 2011 Tour de France. I’m also personally using his training program and hope to see improvement for the 2012 cycling season. LOTOJA number 9 may be in my future.

Renewing Abandoned Skills

Last week I took Jennifer to a framing shop to get one of her paintings framed for Christmas this year.
When I discovered the price to have it matted and framed was almost $400 I decided it was time to dig out my mat cutting and framing skills. I used to cut mats for my husbands art students to help bring in some extra cash. We have a bunch of frames in the basement that my father-in-law made that aren't being used. Yesterday Jennifer and I spent the better part of the day together rounding up supplies at art stores and doing a little Christmas shopping along the way. It was so strange to be in Provo Art and Framing. It was almost like I could call out for Jeff to come look at something or hear him say something about the mat board we were choosing. Jeff and I spent a lot of time together in that store and it brought back so many memories.

We than came home and I proceeded to pull out all of the mat cutting equipment and tools and showed Jennifer how to cut a mat. I had to practice a little but it came back so quickly that it was like I had Ed, my father-in-law and Jeff right there with me reminding me of all of the little necessary steps. After Jennifer went home, I finished putting the paintings together. As I was pushing the glasier points into the back of the frame to hold everything in the screw driver slipped and dug into my finger taking a chunk of skin out. OUCH! I knew it was going to happen, the wood on the smaller frame was a really hard wood and the glasier points didn't want to go in.

They look amazing.

This is a painting that Jennifer did with input from both her grandma and father before they died. It has special meaning and I'm really glad I was able to get it framed for her.



Lilies




Water


Jennifer has her father's talent but she has really worked at it this year. It is not something that just happens. I can see how much she has improved over the last few months. Amelia and Shaunie both have talent as well. I hope someday they will have the time to devote to developing their talent like Jennifer has. I'm sure Jeff and Eneyd are pleased.