Looking back...

2011 was a fantastic Footbiking year for us.

We participated in many events and added many new friends to our Footbiking circle.

Salt Lake City Marathon

We started out the racing year in April with our 2nd appearance in the Salt Lake City bike tour.

We had 5 Footbikers, one of which was a first time marathoner. Although we started out in the rain the weather cleared up and we had an enjoyable kick. All participants had fun and did well.

Brain Injury Association 5K

In May 5 Footbikers showed up at Liberty Park to support a friend and neighbor in the Brain Injury Association 5K. My 6 year old son raced his first race and had so much fun. He kicked hard and loved being a part of the event. The race atmosphere was exciting, getting a race shirt was awesome, but I think the best part for my six year old was wearing his own bib number.

Way to go Weston!!!

Utah Valley Marathon

Pictured: Lisa, Sarah, Chris, Andrew

June brought on our 3rd year participating in the Utah Valley Marathon.

What an event!

Up so early in the morning, standing for an hour freezing at the starting line. I loved the atmosphere and felt just like my six year old did at his first race, soaking in everything I could. 10 Footbikers raced, several were first time racers who did awesome. There was exciting competition among the experienced kickers with record setting times. This was the most incredible event we have taken part in yet.

The best part for me was taking Jeff at the finish line by one little second.

Jeff and Sarah coming in to the finish line.

Wow talk about some adrenaline!

Jeff, Mat, Chris

Sarah (not pictured Ruth 2nd and Lisa 3rd)

Pedal Away Parkinsons 10 mile ride

July we did the Parkinson's disease 10 mile bike tour in

honor of my father with many family members on Footbikes and on bikes.

Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon Running race (no footbike this time)

August was my 1/2 marathon running race. I had to prove that footbiking

is an excellent training tool for long distance runners. See my previous post.

I think I proved my point.

Viva Bike Vegas 60 mile Bike Tour


Sarah and Ruth at the starting line. Ready to ride the lights of the Las Vegas Strip

October at the Viva Bike Vegas was a perfect way to end our season with a

timed 60 mile race (30 miles of uphill) What a challenge,

but truely satisfying and it made all those training miles worth it in the end.

Chris, Jeff and Mat at the finish line!

Utah Kick Group Days

On top of all of the races we had several kick group days which gave us the opportunity to kick together with fellow footbikers and share our love for kicking with them.

2011 was a kick'n year. Here's to 2012!!!

Numb hands?

I used to have numb hands.

It started out that it would happen only every so often, but then as I increased my training time and distance it would happen every time I went out.

I sent out a facebook discussion on the matter and received so many comments and suggestions and I tried many of them and finally resolved the problem.

I biked 60 mile in October for the Viva Bike Vegas without my hands going numb at all.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this.

Here are some of the things that I tried.

I bought new gel padded bike gloves, mine were wearing thin.

I changed the angle of Ergon hand grips, flattening them out to hopefully relieve any nerve pressure. I also raised the height of my handlebars back up as I had previously lowered them completely. I made a conscious effort to hold lightly on the handlebars instead of gripping them tightly.I made a very conscious effort to put my weight into my legs instead of leaning or resting down on the handlebars while riding or coasting, one of the exercises that was suggested to me that i practiced regularly was to only ride with one or two fingers touching the handlebars therefor forcing my legs to bare my weight and my fingers were for balance only. Another trick that was suggested was to do quick switches. Only kick 3 times on each side before switching legs. All of these suggestions were great and helped to an extent,

but it wasn't until I got a new short stem which brought my handlebars so much closer to my body that my numb hands went away entirely.

If you suffer you may want to look into a new stem.

Where have I been?

I know it seems that I fell off the face of the earth, but I simply ran out of time. Not enough hours in the day to train and keep up with four kids and the house. I had to let something fall aside and so it was my blog. I kept swearing I would catch up to it after the older kids were in school, then after the Viva bike Vegas race in October was over and then after the holidays it certainly would slow down. It is now the end of January and I am finally catching up on life. I only have about 5 weeks until the training starts again so I'll give ya what I can.