End of summer round up- adventures on and off the bike

Fall's here and my morning commute has been crisp and cool.  Cyclocross is underway and I've been enjoying the pain and suffering each Sunday morning brings, even from my typical place in the middle of the Cat 4 women's pack. Before summer's too far in the rear view mirror, here's a roundup of summer highlights on the bike and off, many of which I didn't have a chance to write about.

Mountain biking with my nephew, Mason

To celebrate my mom's birthday, we spent a weekend on the Yakima river in a nice cabin.  My four year old  nephew, Mason, brought his bike and we had our first mountain bike ride together.  He absolutely MOBS!  I just loved watching him tackle the trails with no fear, and I'm amazed at his skills given his age! Apologies for the shaky video quality, I was holding the camera in one hand and trying to steer with the other:  

Capitol Forest 50... or, new ways to experience suffering.

The Capitol Forest 50 mile endurance race has been on my "to conquer" list since college.  Somehow, I've never gotten around to it.  This year, with a few long mountain bike rides under my belt, I signed up.

However, the day before the race, I came down with a nasty cold.  I'd been feeling it creeping up all week, but around 1pm on Friday afternoon, as I sat at my desk, my heart sank as my throat started to hurt.  As my nose grew stuffy and the lymph nodes in my neck got sore, I debated whether it would be smart to spend 6+ hours suffering on my bike the next day.  Actually, I knew it wouldn't be smart, but I didn't want to miss out again, and I sure didn't want the $100 + entry fee to go to waste. 

Pedaling and Paddling in Monterey

I spent the past week at Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey, CA attending the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) summer study session.  This conference had a number of amazing speakers and workshops.  My personal favorite was Amory Lovins, president of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who gave a fantastic talk (with amazing graphics) about his vision for a market-led transformation to a post-oil energy economy (if this sort of thing interests you, you can check out a nearly identical TED Talk he recently gave).

The conference included a rigorous morning schedule, but afternoons were less structured and created space for some serious recreational opportunities. In  anticipation, I shipped Sylvie down ahead of time. My good buddy and teammate Ric was also in town for the conference, and had a bike, so we escaped Monday afternoon for some coastal exploration.