The Power of Silence

Four below felt peaceful this morning as I pedaled through the serene, silent world before sunrise above 10K'. As the miles ticked away, the sunlight crept in and lit the peaks where my heart resides and my mind never fully departs.

The daily noise of life sometimes clutters the thoughts. An undulating snowy road is my choice method of decluttering.

Then the road ends and return becomes mandatory, but not without long glances over my shoulder at this...

As I returned to the gravel and back to the noise, I paid gratitude to the early morning silence that regenerates, refreshes and reawakens...

Mayonnaise and Pork Rinds

HUH???

Check it out here

Echo Lake and 12 Hrs of WHY??

As I sit and look at the Denver sunshine, I continue to ruminate my memories, thoughts and lessons learned from the past year. I started writing the familiar and highly overdone best/worst tribute post, but it doesn't really work for me. I then shifted my focus and tried to pick several memorable moments. After a bit of work, I soon realized that the whole thing was going to end up being a list of links to previous entries. The more I thought about it, the more I saw that writing a year-end recap before the year was over was too soon. Why? Because everyday, good or bad, of 2012 is part of this adventure dubbed my life. Thus, I am still trying to harness my year into some form of an organized and meaningful menagerie of words. I often wish I could blog from the seat of my bike or in final savasana on the yoga mat. The words dance gracefully in my head, the sentences are harmonious and the world is a stream of clarity. If I could get these thoughts, inspirations and words onto paper in the same way, my Pulitzer prize worthy book would be in publishing right now. Why is it when I open my laptop, the words trip and stumble out instead of dancing gracefully, the sentences seem out of tune and the stream now seems like a watering hole for a herd of cattle?

Maybe that I will learn in 2013.

So, until I get the cowshit out of my stream of writing, I give you the adventures of the final two days of 2012:

Freeze training in the form of 3K' of climbing on the loaded Pugs followed by a windy, cold descent. My gear kept me warm and my legs somehow got the heavy two-wheeled beast to the top.

New Year's Eve found me as a participant in the 11th (!!!!) Annual 12 Hrs of Handy, which I renamed 12 Hrs of WHY?

This is a mental sufferfest of 12 hours on the spin trainer. Yeah. From noon to midnight yesterday, we rode the spin trainers. We watched movies, ran a live feed from the living room, but predominantly, pedaled out of 2012 and into 2013. We had a couple friends join us for about 4 hours. They came at the halfway point and brought a ton of energy and laughs. Thanks, Matt, Lance and Debbie!!

Ha! Until the New Year crept closer and closer and the bean bag beckoned....

I wish I had a tally of all the "You are nuts!" "No thank you!" "Are you crazy?" texts, messages and comments. Who does this? Who intentionally sits for 12 excruciating hours and pedals? Not many. I never dreamed I would do this to myself, but going in, I used it as a challenge--a challenge to see if I could mentally handle this amount of suck.

When 2013 came, I was definitely ready to NOT be sitting on that seat, but all in all, it wasn't that difficult physically. My legs, knees and hips were kind of tired and as mentioned, my seat wanted no part of that bike seat anymore, but mostly I gained confidence in my ability to maintain and assert mental fortitude with the ultimate goal of overcoming the inherent obstacles in 135 miles of cold Minnesota trail in a month.

Yep, always an adventure in my corner of the planet....clear up to the final seconds of the year.

Short and Sweet

Just throwing down a quick post while I am gathering my thoughts for a year end wrap up:

2012 was a phenomenal year. I grew in many positive ways and cannot believe my second season of racing my bike is complete. Wrapping my head around the miles I have pedaled and the places I have seen in the past two years is next to impossible. I live a life far different from the average woman and I would not trade it for anything. I sometimes feel like an alien trying to fit into a mundane society, thus, my eyes are fixed on living my dreams, my spirit is wild and free and my heart is filled to the brim with gratitude. It composes the very fiber of my soul in ways that are too precious for language to covey. But I will try in my next post anyway...

So until then:

Arrowhead 135 post #2 is up over on Ridefatbikes.com...Check it out! I am finally learning to stay warm on two (fat) wheels. The most recent article is about my clothes, hands, feet and layering. The upcoming #3 is about the gear (some required by the race itself) on the Pugs. I am pretty excited because I found the most bitchin pair of bar mitts ever for the whopping price of $14.99. Made for an ATV, these badboys are huge, roomy and WARM. I am soooo tempted to put a teaser pic here but on second thought, I want you to go read #3 when its up.

If you are kind of intrigued by this fat bike/cold riding thing, check out Eric Larsen. He is riding his bike to the South Pole, self-supported. I have been reading his updates and to put the difficulty of this in perspective---he is covering about 22 nautical miles per day and these are his accomodations:

This is why I laugh when any supported race/event promotes itself as the toughest in the world.

Ok, enough rambling.

One final look at our failed igloo attempt on Christmas Day:

Since snow is such a rare and precious commodity this year, we scrounged every last bit of quality snow (I was literally hauling loads in a wheelbarrow in from the street). After a while, demolition became more appealing than construction...

Then our Christmas Day festivities concluded with the Intergalactical Red Ryder BB gun championships:

After a formidable battle, I hereby, and ever-so-humbly relinquished my title to the master.

Then redeemed myself with the Scrabble title and my new mantra:

Oh, the Places I Go!

This weekend took me to two new places. The first was a mystifying ice palace hidden amongst the mountains:

And a mere ten miles away:

And the mode of transport responsible (hmmm, any guesses here?):

The notion of simplicity and the vast distance we put between it and our daily lives was predominant in my thoughts as I pedaled along exploring Colorado for the last few days. Comforting are the wise words of the good ol' doc Seuss:

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” 
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Today's Email

Pardon me as I dry the tears from my eyes, but I must share this.

I got in from a brisk ride home from the gym this morning and opened my email to find this:


Dear Jill,

I doubt you remember me, but I met you in the Grand Canyon this spring on your race. You gave me your email to send you a picture since you didn't have a camera and I wanted you to know that you have been a huge source of motivation to make some much needed changes in my life. Before, I never dreamed I could ride a bike three blocks but now I ride four miles to and from work everyday. I have regained my health and my smile and my life is on a whole new path.

Thank you again, Jill. And Merry Christmas to you.

Attached was this picture and caption:

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before." --Albert Einstein

Christmas came early for me this year. My present is knowing that another life was enriched, changed and saved by a bike.

Months later, my trip across the canyon just took on a whole new meaning....

Ride Fat Bikes Race Report Series

As I sit and gaze out the window on this warm, sunny, dry December day here in Colorado, I long for winter to arrive. I love huge snowflakes that fall out of the sky and massive storms that leave two feet of snow. I want to see snowy peaks and people shoveling their driveways. I like winter. I like the change that comes with each of the seasons.

I don't have to put my bike away when the ground in covered in ice and snow. Nope. I just bring out the Pugs, deflate the Nates a bit, add more layers and bigger gloves and continue pedaling until spring.

The Puglsey's next adventure is set for January 28, 2013 starting in International Falls, MN. The race is the Arrowhead 135, a goal I set for myself about a year ago. It is a beast of  a race. So what am I doing to prepare besides intricate snow dances to bring some of the beloved white stuff here?

Find out here: http://ridefatbikes.com/2012/12/arrowhead-135-an-insiders-look/

I will be doing a series of posts with pictures outlining my training, gear, bike, adventures and thoughts before, during and after the race. You will find them all on  ridefatbikes.com. I love this site. Check out the sweet photo gallery where readers are encouraged to send in their own pictures and share their stories. It is a fantastic resource for everything fat bike--racing, trails, information---you name it, this site has it covered.

So check out my first post and keep checking back for more as I will be adding new stories of what I am doing, what is working, what is not and most importantly what I am learning...

Oh, yeah, and THINK SNOW....lots of it!