What a bunch of hotties! ;)

We had our super cute/silly/slightly inappropriate (words that ironically describe our team shenanigans as a whole!) team pics taken about a month ago and we had a blast doing it (if you can't tell just by looking!;) Here it is, PCIM photoshoot...our craziness caught on film!

This one is actually my favorite...even though it looks like I'm totally checking out Kelsey...okay okay I was!;)

Not sure whose hand that is up in the middle...or what it was planning on doing!

There is just something painfully awkward about posing for pictures is spandex...

The awkward spandex pose gets even better when helmets and glasses are added!

"One of these things is not like the other...one of these things just doesn't belong!" (I'll give you a hint it starts with a T - ends in a ayler and slightly resembles a GIANT!! )

Thats a little better...Ruby made the shot!:)

Yay Northwave...allll for the sponsors!

Yes, we were in fact told to "flex" our calf muscles...Nisie and PB couldn't help but checkout the definish'...afterall PB was the sexy calf contest runner up!! I on the other hand lost in the first round! ;)

Ummmm...me and Kelsey are quite close! ;) "Salmon!!"

Awwweee PB! :)

I freakin love this girl!! Kooreman makes me laugh so hard I about pee my pants every time I see her!

Alisha the rockstar!! I'm hoping a little bit of her awesomeness will rub off on me!

Jillian our little junior rockstar!

Jillians little sister Jenna...future champ!

Ummmm...

Unfortunately KK didn't send us her individual pic or Nisie's!!:( However I saved the very best for last!!

THE FLYING V FORMATION!!

Yes that did actually happen!!!! What are team pics without the flying V!! Haha this was Kooreman's idea (couldn't have guessed that!!), as you could see we were supposed to have our serious "hard core" faces on...hah I obviously found that impossible!! I'm not sure how they all kept straight faces while posing, hair done, in spandex, in a V formation for goodness sake!! All things hilarious! I heard rumors that team Skullcandy is picking up the fly V formation at their next team photoshoot! I think the Tease might have to fight off "Sir falls a lot" for the top spot at the point of the V...

Like I said, we are silly and inappropriate (tee hehe) at times...but I wouldn't want it any other way!! I love my team, they have all become my very best friends!:)

14 days is a long long time...

14 days is a long time no matter how I look at it, seeing as I tend to be a here and now kind of person! So 14 days off of the bike is just pure torture! In August I decided to get a cycling coach because I have some rather large dreams that go along with my bike and I was pretty sure that following them could no longer involve the statement, "meh I'll just ride another hour easy today...recovery!" So I went through September with an actual day to day training plan, I was loving it...like my good friend/teammate/pro triathlete Kelsey Kooreman would say..."Hooray for super-fitness!!" However the party ended late September when my coach dropped two HUGE bombs!! Bomb #1: (and I quote) "I would prefer that you NOT do cyclocross this year because of risk of injury (this may have been good advice since one of matt's friends went down over a barrier this weekend at a cross race and broke his collar bone in 3 places...ouch!!) and more importantly so you can build a larger aerobic base." What....no cross...no more 45 minute pain cave, dirty, bloody, barrier hoping, lung exploding, muddy hill running, endo after endo, adrenaline driven races!! Sad Sad Sadness!! The first race was this weekend, I went out to cheer for Matty Matt and the Tease! It happened to be on my favorite course...I was a bit bummed I wasn't racing but it was still a blast to watch!

Matt gettin paid by Sly Fox!

The Tease gettin paid...or just showing some leg!;)

Barrier action!

Matt's winning pose!! :)

Bomb #2: Not long after I was informed that cross was no longer a winter option, good ole coach Corey informed me that after the Harvest Moon crit I had to take a two week break. TWO WEEKS...with NO cycling! In an attempt to maintain sanity I emailed him to ask if I could run...the thought of going back to my trail running roots made me a little excited. The dream was crushed when I was told that the first week had to be complete rest, no running, no weights, NOTHING!! Sheesh! I realize I probably sound nuts, I admit I am a little bit on the crazy side but cycling makes me happy, it is what I look forward to the very most in a day...14 days without it was going to be a long road.


I lasted 5 whole days before I broke the "first week do nothing" rule and went trail running up Millcreek Canyon. I couldn't stand it anymore...mainly because I tend to eat a lot (and I mean A LOT) of food and I was doing absolutely nothing to burn any of it besides sit on my butt in class and at work! So the day after the first mountain snow of the year I headed up Millcreek Canyon to one of my old favorite trail running routes: Desolation trail!


I started slow just a lite jog, however after the first 500 meters I was already huffing, puffing, and coming to a very obvious realization...Just because you can ride a bike for hours, does not mean you can run well...or even a little bit well...or really at all...Haha! Last summer all I did was trail run and I loved it!! I used to run up that trail, back down, and then back up again!! I am a bit stubborn and at first I was determined to run the trail without stopping...however five minutes in when I thought my lungs were gonna explode I decided to just slow down...ten minutes after that when I realized I could probably walk faster than I was "jogging" (you know the "jog" where you are basically going at the pace of a slow walk but moving your arms like you are jogging...not quite sure who I was trying to fool with that!) I decided that stopping every so often would be the only way I'd make it...I'll admit the ego was a little bruised! However all of that stop and go made for some great photos!








Of course during my off weeks, Matt and his family had to make the most ridiculously good food!! Last night at Matt's parents we ate green chile burgers, chile relleno, and the best enchiladas you can imagine. Then Matt and I went home to make Z bread for friends/family and of course ended up eating an entire loaf ourselves!! Sheesh do we have any will-power at all...the easy answer is Heck NO we don't! Working out or not, I will never complain about getting to eat delicious food like that!! (Unfortunately I only have one stolen pic of the green chile burger!;) I honestly can't describe in words how GOOD this burger is...and I mean G-O-O-D!!!!! The recipe must be shared and tried so click here! And make it, you wont regret it, you'll prob eat two, or three...I'd eat 4 it's really that good!!


Another dose of yummy/fattening foods came this week in my culinary chemistry class! We made 4 different kinds of bread: French, Focaccia, banana, and soda bread! I love bread!! Especially Focaccia...who wouldn't like bread that is made with massive amount of olive oil!! Lets just say I ate half the pan in class, along with half my french bread, two pieces of banana bread, and a small sliver of soda bread (Only a small sliver because I didn't like it! Which is rare!) Yep Oink and Oink are the only two words that could describe me that day!!



I'm on day 9 now...just 5 more to go! The good news is I am actually allowed to cross train this week (minus today which is still supposed to be an OFF day. What I am taking a day off from I'm not quite sure!) The rest of the week I get to do stability exercises and cross training of some kind, then it is back on the bike! Pheeewwww!

Hurt Locker #2 (Lotoja 09!)

Obviously my blog has been getting a bit neglected since school started...priorities are no fun at all! However, I also realized that my blogs usually end up being ridiculously long with me rambling on and on...sometimes my OCD and attention to detail gets the best of me! So from here on out I'm testing out my new method of short & sweet blogs (Most likely I will still tend to be overly picture happy), which I am pledging here and now to keep updated!:) So here is the first of my short and sweet attempts:

Lotoja 2009!

After the previous hurt locker (followed by the 1000 suckers/tramatize me for life race) my excitement about riding 206 miles had decreased slightly. However I was really excited about the trip in general because of the super awesome support crew I had coming along with me! I wish I could even begin to explain how much thought and effort my Mom had put into getting me, as well as the support crew, prepared for this 206 miles of fun...she had done everything, including months and months of blog stalking, in order to find out what I should eat, wear, medication I should take...not to mention discovering a few dozen lotoja horror stories of blacking out or getting hypothermia (the year of the infamous snotoja!) All that is just to say that my Mom is amazing! The rest of my support crew consisted of my incredible aunt Susan who lives in Idaho, and my super cute sister Lindsey who was the official driver/lotoja photographer! They even went so far as to make matching "Team Tayler" shirts, I loved it! Unfortunately they wouldn't let me take a picture of the three of them wearing them so here is what I've got:

My Mom practiced the mussette hand off technique for weeks...just kidding but that is just how good she is! ;)

Packing up the pockets!

This picture was taken to prove that my Mom does in fact have a "crafty" gene in here...even if it is a small one!:)

Screenin Up!:)

My aunt totally free-handed the lotoja trademark biker...thats talent!

Thanks for pushin my bike along aunt Sue!

The race started early (as all ridiculously long ones do) but I was thankful that it was not nearly as cold as it was at the start of Tour de Park City. It went along like all long races do...pace line pace line pace line...stop to pee...pace line pace line. That is until we reached the Montpelier feed zone. I stopped for 30 seconds at most, I had to stop because it was a left handed feed zone and my bike handling skills are equivilent to that of a small child! Cute little #3 from the Tease family has skills far superior to mine with tricks like one handed riding and no feet, that is just pure craziness!;) Sometime in that 30 seconds a group of 5 or 6 girls took off and were nowhere to be found, until the QOM climb where I caught all but 1...the girl who ended up winning.

The scene of the crime...30 seconds is a long time in a bike race...I guess

Matty Matt riding through the feed zone!

The race from the top of the climb on was a little bit of everything...me TT'ing on my own doing everything I could to try and catch the girl ahead (but never even coming close to seeing her), working with a group of 3, then a group of 5, then a group of 6...randomly girls kept getting back on, usually admitting they had been working with guys or paced back on by a relative (I thought it was really admirable of them to tell the group how they got back on, rather than hide it, I was really impressed). Something happened to my knee around mile 80 or 90 and I had shooting pain for miles until tears took over and I asked Jamie for Ibuprofin (Did I mention how much I cried during this race...hah I'm ridiculous!) This was honestly a life saver, I was thinking of stopping so I wouldn't do anymore damage but the meds kicked in and I felt ten time better...Thank you SO much Jamie!! 206 miles was more mentally draining for me than physically and I have never been so happy to see a 5K marker! We sprinted out the finish, most of us with the pure motivation just to get it over with and get off the bloody bike! I was so happy to see my support crew at the end. They had a few mishaps along the road, by no fault of there own, and I had missed seeing there happy smiling faces, but having them there at the finish meant the world to me!

SO happy to be done!:)

Thanks Mom!:)

We got to stay at a really nice hotel in Jackson (a beautiful town!) with nice soft beds, which I fell into as quickly as possible after the race and dinner...only to be woken up the pleasent sound of BANG BANG BANG..."get out of the building!!" (at 12:30 AM I might add) The parking lot in front of the hotel was quickly packed with a large number of exhausted cyclists and two bus loads of older folks on some kind of tour. For being such a small and extremely popular town it sure took the fireman a good long time to arrive...all to find that some awesome individual had decided to build a campfire in their room! It made for an interesting adventure but I sure was happy to get back in bed!

Don't mind the deer in the headlights look!

Thanks Tease for taking the podium pics, and thanks to the Sepulveda family for getting some good shots of the finish!:) And a big thanks to the Parry family for setting up all of the reservations!:)

One last thing (I promise:), Support Crew: I really want you to know how happy I was to have you all there with me! I know it may not have gone exactly as you planned, and that there was a lot of stress and running here and there along the way, but having you there to support me meant the world to me! Thank you for all that you guys put into this!! I love you! :)

Okay, so maybe I'm not so good at the short and sweet blog method....I'll work on it!;)