Tuesday, January 17, 2012

baby steps ...


i've been kicking something around for awhile now, but fear was paralyzing me. everytime i tried to finalize the process and hit that button to seal the deal, i chickened out. i think it had something to do with losing everything i've built up over the last 2 years. i'm talking about migrating from blogger to wordpress. something about losing all of my posts, comments and followers really scared me. this was, until a good blog buddy/IT expert came along and helped me see the light. basically, he has emailed me the process of migrating, bit by bit, and so far, it has been a smooth process. i'm still clinging to blogger by my fingernails and told him that before i really hit that button to migrate everything over, i wanted to finish this one last post on blogger.

so, this shall be my last post here on this site. once i have figured out my way around wordpress and how to actually do a blog post on it, you can come visit me. i will post my new blog address on this "old" blog as soon as it's ready.

yay, success! only 1 scratch from mountain biking all weekend!
guess what i've been doing a lot of lately? mountain biking! well, not really, because we don't have any mountains to speak of here, but we sure have some gnarly, technical single track, with tree roots bigger than my head. as the J-man and i were riding this weekend, i realized that we have been mountain biking since 1992 ...20 years! it feels like just yesterday sort of. we started off on $200 Schwinn hardtails, which totally cracks me up. i couldn't imagine riding a hardtail on those trails ever, but we did. we graduated a long time ago (read: came to our senses) to full suspension and once you've gone to full, you never go back, for real.

the coolest part of Saturday's 21 mile ride was that we did it 5 minutes faster than the week before. i can feel my bike handling skills coming back more and more after each ride. Sunday's weather was rather crappy (too windy and cold) for a decent road bike ride so we decided to ride the mountain bikes again but this time, we decided to do 30 miles. OMG, can you say, ouch? if you have ever mountain biked, you will totally agree with the statement i am about to make ...30 miles on the trails is like 60-75 miles on a road or tri bike. no joke! i've always said that but i really confirmed it again on Sunday. so far, i have been biking on the trails, 3 times this year and that is already 3 times more than i did last year. i would seriously consider doing some kind of Xterra or similar race if the timing is right. of course, the dangerousness of it all constantly plays thru my mind and the sensible, overly cautious side of me says, you are crazy, don't you know you could bust your ass, break something and not be able to do any races for awhile? then there is the daredevil side of me that says, RIDE ON SISTER!

here are some older pictures of the trails we ride on. i can't say enough about how peaceful it is to ride without kling ons, leeches, wheel suckers, or whatever you call them, constantly butting in on our rides. thankfully, they don't (and probably can't) ride a mountain bike.

a great escape from the hustle and bustle

ain't it pretty?
i was lucky to have yesterday off, so i did my long run (23 miles) and it felt pretty dang good. even with tired mountain biking legs, i wrapped it up in 3:05:13. i did half of the run on hard packed trails and then the other half on the paved trail at the local park. i made sure to keep moving, moving, moving throughout the day so i wouldn't lock up. as my good friend Matty O would say, "motion is lotion." that was my motto for the day. in sticking to that motto, i then did a 25 mile road bike ride with the J-man and everything was working like a well oiled machine. i woke up this morning, hit the foam roller for a few minutes and i was good as gold.

that's all i got for ya! much love and peace out!

17 comments:

  1. I've been thinking again about WordPress and think I'm about to the point where I'm ready to start playing around with it. But like you, it scares me.

    Your hardtail comment cracked me up. That's what I'm riding. I just need to stay off a FS bike until I can afford one...don't want to go drumming up any new bike cravings! :)

    I love that you're out there on the mtb trails. And you're 100% right about the difference between trail and road distances.

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  2. ummm can you email me that process PLEASE? I'm trying to do the same...but i'm scared!

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  3. Moving to Wordpress? I'm sure you'll really love it! I've worked with it quite a bit, and I don't really have a good reason why I'm not on there yet... You can be assured that I'll find you over there and still follow along.

    I'm glad you're enjoying the mountain biking. Those are some good lookin' trails to be rippin on.

    I am seriously impressed with the 23 miles and then staying active the rest of the day too. You rock, KC! Way to go!!

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  4. I look forward to seeing everything at wordpress and hope all goes well for you in completing the transition.

    I got into mountain biking a year ago and after renting and trying 5 different bikes got a full suspension 29er. I plan on doing XTERRA Dairyland in June. I look forward to hearing more on your mountain biking exploits, as it is not a space many triathletes occupy.

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  5. I'm too lazy to switch...
    I guess I'll just have to come ride with you to get updates....
    Plus it is kind of cool to GOOGLE your name and have your blog come up...

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  6. was just about to stalk you down on FB. love the photos! wish i could do that, but as you say baby steps. lol

    and kudos on the move. blogger was acting stoopid all day today. i'll still come see you though cause i love me some 140.6 miles of awesome!!!

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  7. It's always so hard to explain mountain biking in Florida to people that think you really need mountains to do it!

    I started MTB on a Gary Fisher hard tail & after a year off I finally graduated to a full suspension in December - what a difference! I think Boyette is my favorite place to ride around here, but the Main Loop at Trout Creek/Flatwoods/etc is good for getting in lots of miles!

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  8. Been debating the switch myself for a while now. Blogger seems to invent new ways to suck each and everyday so it will eventually happen.

    Hey, you are standing a little close to that big puddle - a freaking gator could get ya!

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  9. I look forward to reading about your adventures whether it be on blogger or WordPress; you are very inspiring and it keeps me sane reading about your adventures.

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  10. Wow, different coast but I've doing the migration baby steps and mountain biking more too! Ha! This one really resonated w/me! My designer used a widget to grab all my old posts and comments. Think there's a fairly easy way to preserve your followers, then it's just forwarding the blog (I hope)! Whatever you do, don't delete your blogger blog. Sounds like you have a handle on it :-)

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  11. I am too lazy to switch . . . to Mountain bikes! Hey - if you "only" got one scratch, that means there was a lot more potential! I will have to stick to the open road!

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  12. Congrats on all the great mountain biking that you are doing. You will have to come visit and do some of the trails here in Colorado. I have a place where you can stay and friends who can ride with ya!!!

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  13. Is there anything you CAN'T do? seriously ... :) Mountain bike does look fun, never have tried it, nice that you have trails so close to you!

    And... um, can you share the email secrets of migrating to WP? I got nervous about converting too!

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  14. Holy freaking fast 23 miles.... uhhhh someone has been kicking some ass lately and her name is KC!

    Great job girl!

    Alright, tweet the wordpress link thing so that I can sign up to it. Switching seems like A LOT of work haha.

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  15. Maybe when you are all done, you'll inspire me to do the same! Keep telling me how easy it is!!! :)

    Yay for Mountain Biking! I was thinking the same thing as Jeff... are there gators in those waters? That would freak me out more than the biking! :)

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  16. wow! You're awesome! Can't wait to follow you on your new site!

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  17. Give me a plane to jump out of or a bungee cord attached to a bridge before I get on a mountain bike on a trail with rocks and roots.

    I guess my thinking is that if the parachute fails or the bungee cord breaks death is imminent. Falling off a bike and cracking my head or breaking my arm would be more frustrating.

    This doesn't even make sense and yet it is my thinking when it comes to mountain biking.

    OK, I will stop rambling and just listen to Radio KC.

    Wait, is Radio KC going on the new blog?

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