Volunteers Needed

I am in need of some volunteers to help out at the VIP Tent for this year's Sea Otter Classic Bicycle weekend in Laguna Seca, Monterey. It's a fun event to help out with as we have the BEST volunteering station. I am this year's volunteer coordinator and we are looking for people to help set up and tear down (Tuesday April 14th & Sunday April 18th) as well as people to do bridge patrol, bussing and front door duties. We are the ones that will let VIP onto the island for breakfast and lunch in our tent and outside catered food area! Volunteers will receive complimentary entry into SOC, yummy catered food and time to wander around the venue.

If you are able to help for a few hours, please let me know. Again, the dates are April 14-April 18th.

Thanks!

Team Sport Beans/NTTC

I recently went up to Fairfield for our Team Sport Beans/NTTC camp. This will be my
3rd year on the team and I'm looking forward to another great season. There are four returining athletes, including myself, and four newbies. It was a great weekend of getting to know the new team mates, connecting with those we haven't seen in a while and of course hangin' with our peeps at the Jelly Belly Factory!! If you have never been to the factory, I highly recommend it; even if you don't have kids! My aunt went up there last year for a tour and LOVED it!!



She raves about it all the time.



Our team camp began thursday evening with a team dinner. After dinner, however, the plans started with what workouts we'd have time for tomorrow morning!! It's always a tight fit working in training while taking care of other business at the factory, but we always manage. I knew that there would be no cycling for 3 days, so I put in a rather large week prior to going up to Fairfield. Swimming, running and lifting were on the schedule for this weekend.



Friday was an early morning and we headed off to the YMCA pool where we swam last year. We arrived at 6:15am and to our dismay, the YMCA was dark...where was everyone??? No signs posted, no lights, no people, no cars in the parking lot, hmmm. What was going on. Apparently, the Y was closed...for good, we found out when we got back to our hotel. So, we were flexibe with our schedule. A quick change into running clothes and I met Brad S., Ben H. & Daniel B. in the lobby for an hour run! It was a rather hilly run (the most hills I've run since, ummm, last year??? Yep, that sounds about right! Beautiful rolling hills on a golf course as the moon was still in the sky and the fog that had yet to burn off! I wish I had my camera with me.



The rest of friday was spent in a conference room listening to the marketing director speak about Jelly Belly & Sport Beans, going over "how to interview" protocols, lunch (Mmmmm) at the factory and photo shoot!



Friday evening we went out to dinner with our team, casual and within walking distance of our hotel.




Saturday was another early morning run, this time with the girls, Lauren J., Jessica J. & Leah D. We ran an hour and a half (my longest run) around the same hilly golf course...needless to say I was happy when we were finished as I was getting pretty sore the last bit of that run! It was nice to run with a group of girls and thanks to Lauren for hangin' in the back with me. Still just trying to get my running legs back in endurance shape!









After our run, we headed over to 24 Hour Fitness, where by the graciousness of the manager there, we paid our way in Sport Beans and Jelly Belly's!!! What a sight to see, the three of us, Jessica with her amazingly muscular arms, me with my pink, plumb, turquoise, orange and red hair and Leah, your girl next door, walking in together! I wish I had a head cam to show you how many stares we got! It was hilarious!! We proceeded to lift weights, all of us pretty much on our own routine; only sometimes working in with each other or one of us showing the others a "new move." After lifting, we had just enough time to squeeze in about a 1000yds. swimming. It was nice to float a little in the water and then it was back to our hotel and then off to 2 wineries and dinner in Napa!





Sunday morning found us back at 24 Hour Fitness for another easy swim.



It was a great weekend and thanks to Mark W. our team director and Tammie G., Stephanie S. & Rob S. from Jelly Belly!!

Back at It

Me & some of my new Sport Beans/NTTC team mates at our Team Camp in Fairfield, CA
Jelly Belly Factory

After 2 months of no cycling or running, I'm back at! What a sense of renewed energy and excitement. I've been feeling very good lately and although I don't quite have my speed back, I'm at least able to go the distance. I'm sure the speed will come along shortly as I have implemented a once weekly track workout into my run schedule. It's funny, however, as my mind knows it can and wants to run faster, but my body says otherwise! Each week I feel stronger and a wee bit faster! I'm still lifting weights twice a week and since my friend Claudia and I have started working on pull-ups, I'm not up to 8 of them in the first set and 6 or 7 in the second set!! I started doing 3. It's nice adding some new things to my same 'ol repertoire; the body likes change!

My first race will be Wildflower on May 2nd. I'm going in to it with no expectations except to feel good the entire way.

I'm really working my cycling as I feel that is my limiter during these longer events and it's nice to see I'm improving. I look forward to a few more intense weeks of training (it's all relative!) before WF.