My Plan

Because of the crazy weather...I decided to hit the trainer instead of the trails. Man...was that rough, it was only about a gazillion degrees in my garage. But with race season getting close, any little bit of training helps!! Speaking of race season, this is my plan if everything goes OK. I picked 4 races out of the FSC Series that I would like to do. I will not be competing with the 6-11 year old girls this year...I have decided to enter as a one-timer (novice). This will help me prepare for next year when I am 10 and ready to enter with the beginner women. Some of the adult courses... I am definitely not ready for...like Gainesville and Alafia (if rabbit ears is included). I have never been to Markham either, so I don't know what to expect from that course. So...my plan is to race at Ft. Clinch, Alafia (kids course), San Felasco, and Santos.

This should be very interesting. I am curious to see how I will do. Can't wait for the challenge.

The End Is Here

Time's up...back to school on Monday!! I'm not complaining... I had a pretty awesome summer this year. I had just 2 more things I wanted to do before going back to school. The first one is skating at Astro and the second one is seeing a sunset from the beach. Saturday afternoon, we headed over to Astro for a couple hours of skating. Then, made our way down to the Dunedin Causeway to watch the sunset. None of us like to sit around, so we decided to bring the bikes and do a little beach riding before the sun sets.

Look what we found!! The sign didn't say no bikes allowed, so we continued on. After coming across a bird watcher, we thought it would best to turn around. Didn't want to bother him and we weren't even sure if we were allowed on the trails with our bikes.

The sunset was awesome!!

Ream Wilson Trail Ride

This weather is so crazy!! Just when I think OK... Time to start waking up earlier if I want to go for a ride...because the rains have been coming in the afternoon... What do you know...it decides to rain in the morning. Then, when I plan to ride on a certain day...it rains all day. So, here it is on a Sunday afternoon...just stopped raining and we decide to go for it. We are going riding no matter what, even if we end up getting a little wet! We head down to the Ream Wilson trail...one of my favorite paved trails. I love that the trail is not flat and boring. It's filled with lots of ups and downs and can actually be a bit of a butt kicker, especially on that 10% grade hill.

What do you do when the paved trail gets a little boring?...you make your own off-road trails!

We had a slow start on Saturday. The final stages of the tour were on...so, I was NOT moving from the couch!! My Dad calls me the "Tour Baby", he says I have been watching the tour with him pretty much since the day I was born. The only difference this year is... I actually paid attention, got really into it, and asked my Dad a lot of questions. Too Bad about Andy, I wanted him to win!! Maybe next year!!


After that, we decided to ride the Morris Bridge trails. When we got there, it looked like it had just rained. The trails were perfectly packed. Indian and Gator bait were closed, but we rode everything else, including Heart Break Ridge. It was my sister's first time on Heart Break Ridge. She made it all the way through except one little part. She wasn't too happy about all the roots though ...and said she's pretty sure she now has bruises on her butt. Then, on the way back, I had fun playing around in the pits. I'm glad we left when we did, because there were some crazy rains on the way home.

Carter

Meet my #1 enemy at Carter. This root has been driving me crazy for the past year. Look at it...it looks different today, doesn't it?? It looks bigger!! My plan today was to ride up the hill and over the root...but looking at it, I thought...NO WAY can I ride over that thing. But, I was not going to give up. So, I gave it a try.

and.. you know what? I actually made it up. I managed to go up and around the root without falling off the ridge. I was so excited, I had to ride the trail again. The next time, I made it up but my chain ring got stuck on the root, I was about an inch away from clearing it. I was a little disappointed, but you know what? I made it once and I know I can do it again...hopefully!

We went to Adventure Island last weekend, so I didn't have any biking stories to post. But...I thought I would share what I have been doing during the week. Lately, it seems like nobody in my neighborhood wants to do anything. Maybe, everyone is inside playing video games and eating potato chips, who knows?! Even though it's super hot, you still have to stay in shape. So, my Mom, sister, and I came up with a plan.


First, we start out with a 8 mile loop around the neighborhood. To make it a little harder, sometimes I ride on the grass instead of the sidewalk.

Then, we cool off by going swimming for a couple hours.
After dinner, we ride our long boards for 2 miles.

We swim some more until it's dark outside.

We end the night with Yoga.

Miami Trip

Let's go back a couple days to Thursday, July 1st. That's when we left for Miami. This was my fourth time riding at Oleta, but my first time there on a non-race day. Usually, during race season, it was all about business. We would drive for 5 hours, then practice my course, wake up the next morning, then race, pack up and drive home. So, this time we were super excited that we would be able to take our time to relax and have fun exploring.

This is what it looked like on the drive down there.
But...when we got down to Miami, no rain and the sun was shining.

These cabins are so much better than staying in a hotel.

After unloading our stuff, we were ready to hit the trails. We started on Half Pipe to Cabin Loop to Americorps to Boneyard to Twin Peaks then, finishing with Gold Stick. They were short trails, only totaling about 3 miles but it sure felt like 12. After that, we played around on the Dual Slalom course. And on the way back to the cabin, we rode Strangler Fig.

The trails down here are a lot of fun and also very different from what I am used to riding. I don't think the intermediate trails are super challenging, but they can be a little tricky. With the big rocks and roots, I had some difficulty with my tires sliding out. Need different tires for these trails!

It's Friday, July 2ND ...my birthday! I am finally 9 years old!! We started off the day by going to Sunny Isles Beach.

After the beach, we were ready to go riding again. My Dad checked out the trails earlier and came up with a loop. After riding all of them, he knew which trails would be good for the whole family and which ones we should stay away from. He said the expert trails were pretty crazy. The were filled with wooded bridges, quick turns, even steep stairs you had to ride down. So, anyway we started off riding most of the trails from the day before and added Robinson Ridge, Goldstick, Volunteer, Rocky Mile and ElDiablo. Goldstick and Volunteer were so much fun. Great flow..it was like riding on a pump track or a mini roller coaster.

Here's Rocky Mile and my race course from last year. My sister hated it. You really need to be going at a fast pace to get over some of those rocks and roots. It's actually a lot harder if your going slow.
It was a butt kicker and my sister complained the whole way!

I picked out this little cake from Publix and the candles were lit at exactly 4:10 (when I was born).Then of course, it started raining and it didn't stop until the next morning...........The End.