It's summertime!

The kids are out of school. We've done some racing. We took one trip up to the North Shore. I did a triathlon! And in between, we went to work, kept the house from falling down, etc., etc.

Our latest race was Fluidride Cup 3 in Mt. Hood. Last year we were only able to ride the bottom half of the course. This year, the run was much longer...and rocky...and fast! The official results aren't up yet. But Adrianna took second in Women's under 18 beginners. If I'm not mistaken, she is leading the points. What's even more exciting is the fact that there have been at least three girls in this class for each race. Go girls! Travis had a hard weekend at first, breaking his derailler hanger and didn't have a spare. We finally found someone with one to sell. Single speeding down the sport course (with it's short uphill section) would have been no fun. I had a rough time with the rock garden that starts out the sport course. I've been told several times that going faster makes it easier, but haven't been able to convince my fingers to let go of the brakes quite enough to test that out. Jerry did awesome, placing about at the midpoint, despite tweaking his hand in practice on Friday.

Not mountain bike related, but the weekend prior to Fluidride Cup, I participated in the Women's Five-Mile Lake Triathlon and placed third in the Athena division. Not bad for a first timer! I did okay with the swim, but was super strong on the bike, even though I don't own a proper road bike. We have no fewer than a dozen built up bikes in our garage, but the closest thing to a road bike is an old Specialized Hardrock. We put some road slicks on there and pumped them up nice and hard. In the bike, I placed 28th overall out of 216. And then my run was my fastest 5K time ever in a race! Then we topped it off with some jumps and berm track fun at a little place by home.

The week before that, we did some shuttling in Leavenworth on a trail called Tres Hombres. Super fun! I will put up some pics. A couple weeks before that, Travis, Jerry, and I went up to Vancouver. The guys rode the shore and went up to Whistler for a day. I did a Dirt Series camp, which was also very fun and very informative.

Next race is Fluidride Cup 4, also in Mt. Hood. Also coming up is Black Diamond Xterra triathlon.

Wow...is it really almost summer???

Jerry and I and the the older kids did the Fluidride Cup races in Port Angeles in April and May.  Jerry did great.  Adrianna was amazing!  Even the beginner course at PA has some intimidating spots, but she conquered it!  The sport 15-18 class is proving to have some tight competition for Travis.  And I'm struggling with the transition from beginner to sport....I feel like my endurance/conditioning is up to par....just gotta go faster!

Adrianna and I participated in the Speedy Beaver Downhill clinic in March, which was a blast!  Our next adventure is to the North Shore.  Keeping up with my goal of going faster, I'll be hitting a Dirt Series camp out there.  Jerry and Travis will just ride, ride, ride.  Adrianna will be at her annual Girl Scout camping trip.  And our little one again due to the nature of our blended family/stepfamily and visitation schedules will be back at home.  She's getting so big...just a few more inches and she can ride the shiny red Big Hit Grom waiting for her in the garage.

Next race tentatively on the agenda is the Whidbey Island Mudder and Luna Chix clinic/preride on the day before, May 16-17.

January's been a quiet month on the bikes....well, kind of.  It takes more than nasty weather to keep us totally away from the trails!   Our family adopted a German shorthair pointer who is an enthusiastic trail companion.   We've been doing some skiing here and there.  Adrianna and Libby have really progressed on the skis.  Jerry's done some flattrack moto racing.  flattrack was one of his first two-wheel loves!  Travis and I ran the Resolution Run 5K at Magnuson Park in Seattle, complete with polar bear dip in Lake Washington.   I've also been putting in some time in the pool in hopes of completing some triathlons this summer without drowning, especially looking forward to the Black Diamond Xterra in August

Jerry and Travis rode in Go Huck Yourself's Olympia Cup at South Seatac.  We barely made it out there after a slight mishap with the van keys.  And then there was the misunderstanding about dates with the babysitter for the little one.  But all five of us made it to the race course.  I had been on the fence about participating.  These guys can make some tricky mini dh courses!  I decided to be a spectator / kid wrangler and made sure my girls were behaving and helped the Mutolis keep their little one from being run over on the course.

There were no prizes brought home by any of our crew this time, but we all had fun on a sunny late fall day with our bikes!