This place has some of the “hottest” bikes in town (but you won’t see the nice bikes out front.)

It’s such a helpless feeling: you know there is a crime going on and you are powerless to stop it. That’s exactly how I felt when I overheard two unkempt young men talking on the pay phone as I was getting money out of an ATM at our city’s downtown library square. The men were negotiating the sale of “a really nice Specialized bike” for the low, low price of $50, and pleading with the guy on the other end to “get down here now” to pick up the bike. I quickly called security who watched the guys leave the building, had me fill out a report, and then told me there was nothing they could do about it. Why? Simply because there would be no proof the bike was not theirs to sell. Are you kidding, me?! 

Stealing bikes is sadly so easy to do that many petty criminals do it and get away with it. As reported in the San Francisco Guardian, thieves steal nearly $50 million worth of bikes each year in the United States, far outstripping the take of bank robbers, according to the FBI. 

Once the bike is stolen, where does it go? Well, there is one business that is used to taking used property and making a profit on it. If you guessed “pawn shops,” you are correct! Pawn shops even have their little jokes: “It’s only been stolen once.” 

When a person (substitute the word thief here, if desired) takes a bike into the pawn shop, he has to state that he is the rightful owner of the bike and wishes to sell it. He shows his ID (real or not) and gives a fingerprint and then walks off with his cash. Honest pawnbrokers will enter the data on the bike with a good description and the serial number of the bike where it will be checked out through the criminal database NCIC (National Crime Information Computer) which police across the country use. The bike should according to many state laws, be held 30 days before it can be sold. If it is reported stolen and matches the description and serial number, it will be flagged. Presumably the thief will then be tracked down and charged with “possession of stolen property” and also “theft by deception.” And the stolen bike will be returned to the rightful owner. Ah, the happy ending! 

Don't we all wish this guy would come to the rescue?

The Pawn Brokers from the Dark Side

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of shady places. If they can fudge things a bit without being discovered, they will.” says Detective Doug Lambert of Salt Lake County Sheriff’s office. 

Here’s a sampling from the naughty pawn broker’s bag of tricks. As the brokers enter the data into the NCIC database, they might give a very vague description of the bike and hope the owner never knew his serial number. If the bike is clear, it is then theirs to legally sell. When really valuable bikes are brought in by thieves and sold for a mere pittance of their worth to the pawn shop, they are put into a back room where only select buyers may see them, not the poor girl looking for her stolen bike at every pawnbroker in town. Such a bike will probably make its way quickly out of the area. 

Okay, how should I have caught those thieves? As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 vision. Instead of calling security, I should have got on the library’s PA system and announced, “Will the real owner of a nice Specialized bike get down here quick before 2 guys sell it on the street for a mere 50 bucks!” 

Do You Want to Keep Your Bike Out of the Hands of Petty Criminals?

Eight Tips To Keep Your Bike Safe **

1. Get a good, strong lock—expect to spend about 10% of the bike’s value. Some suggest a U-Lock and a strong cable lock used together. 

2. Choose a safe location to lock up your bike in the first place (If someone is taking cable cutters or hacksaws to bike locks, they are more likely to do it out of the public eye.) 

3. Don’t leave your bike (or your children’s bikes) out unprotected in the yard 

4. Don’t leave your garage open for long periods of time to give a thief a quick opportunity to grab a bike and go. 

5. Register your bike’s serial number and description with the National Bike Registry (at the very least, keep good records with serial number & photo of bike.) 

6. License your bike in the city/county you live in. 

7. If you commute into town regularly and have to lock your bike outside in a public place, don’t spend a lot on it. Many commuters keep a “beater bike” for this purpose. 

8. Lock and booby-trap your bike (Loosen seat and turn it around backwards and re-tighten, put in lowest gear, etc. See more ideas here.) 

**Sorry, nothing is 100% guaranteed, but these tips will increase your odds of keeping your bike safe!

Would love to hear more tips from our readers–or share your sad story of your beloved bike forever lost with us in the comments section!

Thanks to Detective Doug Lambert of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Jonathan Morrison of the Bicycle Collective, who I interviewed for this article.

How It All Began

As Lydia romped and played on the beach, her parents Gary and Kit watched over her and contemplated her future. It was 2001, the year Lance Armstrong would win the Tour for the third time, and Gary, who was an avid cyclist, wondered where the female athletic role models were for his young daughter. What if he could create an all-women cycling team and run it like the most professional men’s cycling teams of Europe? Men had an advantage in cycling for decades with well-funded teams, and he reasoned, if a female cycling team had the same resources, might they have the same success?

Gary Erickson was the founder of Clif Bar which had a lot of success with the launch of the Luna Bar, an energy bar for active women. Not long after his family’s trip to the beach, with encouragement from Kit, he started on his new project: the launch of a pro women’s mountain biking team, to be named the LUNA Chix. The team would have managers, coordinators, mechanics and a soigneur just like the men’s teams. (A “Soigneur” takes care of the racers; feeding and clothing them, escorting them on their rides and giving massages after hard workouts or races.) The LUNA Chix started their recruiting from mountain biking’s top women. One of the women they approached that year was Marla Streb, one of the best downhill racers in the world.

Marla in 2008

From Commuter to Pro Cyclist

Marla Streb once used her bicycle to get to her job as a research scientist. She enjoyed her rides to work so much that she started taking the long way home, and taking her bike out for a spin at lunch, riding through the woods when she could. She was getting so fit from her daily bike rides that she took the suggestion of a friend and entered a mountain bike race in Big Bear, CA. To her own surprise, she did well and she had a blast. After a year, she traded in the research science job for a new life as a pro mountain biker. There was still a learning curve though: “I quickly learned how to ride….not always very well because I crashed an awful lot but within a couple years, I was winning races, some pretty big races: national championships. I won the X-Games one year and the World Cup one year and a couple single-speed world championships.”

Marla’s specialty was racing the bike straight downhill. She claims that downhill racing isn’t just an adrenalin rush.  “After a while it’s like making a cake, you just follow the recipe. You’re following the lines that you planned out. I used to draw everything on a map and I would write what gear I was in and which line I was taking, and where I was actually looking. It was so calculated that adrenalin really wasn’t an issue.”

In 2001, when Marla met representatives from LUNA Chix, she knew this was a team she really wanted to be on. In those early years, the team was recruiting mostly cross-country mountain bike racers, but Marla “strong-armed” her way on the team as a downhiller and was one of the first racers signed. She continued her winning ways on the LUNA team, enjoying a long career: “It has been an incredible ride. I consider the pinnacle of my career to be on a team as successful and professional as the LUNA Chix.”

Beyond Winning

For its first few years, the pro team specialized in mountain biking, eventually branching out to include multi-sport team members who were triathletes and XTERRA specialists and they were all good at climbing to the top of the podiums. The team now has Ironman winners and XTERRA National Championships in addition to World Cup Mountain Bike Winners. In fact, the team is the number one women’s mountain biking team in the world.

Local LUNA Chix teams like this one in Salt Lake City train together and support each other.

LUNA Chix didn’t stop there; they expanded their program across the country with branches of amateur and recreational racers including both cyclists and runners: about 270 ambassadors of the LUNA program. The word “ambassador” is one Marla uses because these women not only train together and support each other but host clinics to teach and inspire other women in their communities. Most importantly both the pro team and the local teams raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund.

Marla retired from her pro career last year and has settled nicely into a job as pro team manager working for LUNA Chix, as well as publicist for the team and for the LUNA Sports Gear clothing line which was launched in 2009. Marla is very involved with the clothing line. “It’s a natural extension of the Pro Team which inspired the clothing line as well as the 270 amateurs. It made sense to make something from scratch because it seemed like… they were using either men’s cycling clothes or men’s clothes that were changed into women’s clothes. We found that our pros demanded the custom clothing. Then we thought, why don’t we create something that everyone can buy so all women can have access to it? So we started the line from scratch; I say ‘from the ground up and the breast back down.’ It is incredible clothing. It’s for moderate to serious riders, but also any rider that wants to look good when getting on their bike…who want the most flattering fit and the best materials.”

LUNA Chix's Georgia Gould shows off one of the newest offerings from LUNA Sport

LUNA continues to evolve. Their pro team signed Amy Dombroski, a young racer who does well in several disciplines: cyclo-cross, cross-country mountain biking and road biking. They also added to their multi-sport program by signing on Jane Kibii, a young Kenyan distance runner. The LUNA Sports Gear has expanded their clothing line for spring 2010 with more cycling clothing as well as several active wear pieces for running. LUNA Chix local teams are continuing to expand into other communities across the country. Both the pro team and the amateur teams have raised substantial money for Breast Cancer Fund and are truly becoming the athletic role models for young girls across the country as Gary Erickson once envisioned.

Need a Spring Break? You can find a great little get-away cycling adventure for you and your girlfriends in the beautiful red rock country of St. George, Utah. A new women’s-only century ride, Spokes for Hope, will debut on Saturday, April 10, 2010. Margaret Gibson was inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood Ride that was held 400 miles to the north and thought: Why not start one in her own town?

With a name like Spokes for Hope, you might expect that it is a charity ride and you would be right. All proceeds will go to the Dove Center which is a domestic violence shelter for women and children. Margaret has carefully planned scenic routes in quiet areas that will to appeal to cyclists of all types: for the novice rider, there is a 30-mile completely flat city-loop route as well as the century ride which offers some hills and two in-between routes of 50-miles and 70-miles. The aid stations are referred to as “spa” stops. St. George is barely over 100 miles from Las Vegas, and you can expect similar weather (70-degree temps). You can pack your sleeveless jerseys for the sunny afternoon and a bolero or arm warmers for the cool feel of a desert morning.

I asked Margaret why she started the Spokes for Hope Women’s Ride and her answer was simple: “I ride with guys all the time and I’m tired of it.”

It’s true there is an innate desire within many of us women to ride simply for pleasure and to connect with other women, make friends, and have that bond of sisterhood—even on a bike. I have seen rules posted for one particular macho co-ed ride in which a team captain wrote: If you break these rules, “I will  punch you in the forehead…hard!” Nice!

No, that can be very intimidating, even if it is an idle threat. If you are a new cyclist and a woman, you will find a warm and supportive environment for your first ride in a women’s only-event. Other women’s rides around the country are listed on Cycle and Style’s Women’s Rides page. I’d love to hear about more women’s rides from our readers and will soon post a page of women’s triathlons as well.

These shoes are also true to size, I am a solid 8 1/2 and they fit like a glove.  The shoe is made up of leather and canvas. The inner side of the shoe (the side facing your bicycle) is made from leather. This gives a nice supple feel that protects your foot. The outer side is made of canvas and is so breathable, which means, no sweaty feet.

The sole of the shoe is sturdy but is flexible enough to be able to have a good grip on the pedal. And gives your foot great support with just the right amount of cush.  The toe is covered in rubber that gives your tootsies all the protection you need. As I found out when I stubbed my toe on the sidewalk last week.

The shoe is so cute and has a fun spring and summer look to it.  I love just wearing them around even when not on a bike. My only suggestion is that they make more colors available – I would buy a few more pair.

Outlier listens to women. Since the New York-based clothing designer started making fashionable, livable trousers for men who bike in the city, Outlier has been inundated with requests from women wanting a female-specific version of their pant. Outlier’s response? The Daily Women Riding Pant. Founders and designers Tyler and Abe (interviewed by Cycle and Style last year) created a pant that makes you wish it took longer to arrive at your destination, but excited about how you’ll look and feel when you get there.

The Perfect Fit

Hands down, the Daily Riding Pant fits me better than most in my closet. I’m six feet tall and a size six by most designer’s measurements except in inseam and hip width. Outlier makes the Daily Riding Pant in a true size six (comes in 0-10) that completely covers my ankles and fastens around my hips without even trying hard. The pant’s Schoeller Dryskin Extreme + Nanosphere fabric (80 percent nylon, 10 percent polyester, 10 percent elastane) makes the legs fit snugly without giving everything away like spandex pants might. The fabric also keeps me comfortably warm in Utah’s sub-45 degree weather.

For a better ride fit and, I think, added style the pant’s waist hits right above my hip. In most of my shirts, I can confidently lean forward, dismount the bike or tie my shoe knowing that my pants will keep me modest. The pant seat is clearly designed to make time in the saddle more comfortable. Its functional seams adds to the pant’s clean lines.

Unforgotten Details

The pockets detail is a nice touch- their cut wide and loose enough that they lay properly when you’re pedaling and don’t cut into your side. Still, leave your cargo carrying to baskets and messenger bags. 

The Daily Riding Pant makes me avoid shortcuts- it makes riding just that fun! Once I get to my pedestrian or professional setting I feel attractive and fashionable, even if I am out of breath. The black and blue styles are both classic and versatile pieces that can be easily dressed up or down for any occasion.

The Outlier women’s pant is a completely worthwhile investment for ladies who find themselves frequently biking around town. They’ll become a wardrobe staple if you’re the type of shopper that goes for quality over quantity. And they’re more resilient than your average dress pant and are certainly much easier to launder.

What I love most about the Daily Riding Pant is that I don’t notice them as I ride. It doesn’t scrunch up or constrict. It gives me the sense of freedom Tyler and Abe were going for, making daily biking more feasible and fun. I can focus on the ride and the destination without worrying if I look good, because I know I do.

Elizabeth helps advance the cycling industry through her work at SOAR Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Photos taken by Philip Hurst.

If you are a cyclist you don’t want to be invisible, day or night. We want to be seen by the motorists we share the road with. Simply put, being seen is being safe. Smart cyclists put high quality lights on their bikes to be seen from the front and from the rear in darkening light conditions. Cyclists often wear bright reflective vests or jackets to increase their visibility.

Reflective clothing and style haven’t always gone together. Over a decade ago, I had a vest that resembled one worn by the school safety patrol to help me be seen in the early morning hours or evenings. Yes, it made me visible, but deep down I disliked wearing it and sometimes left it behind. I also had a couple jackets with some thin piping of reflectivity and they were at the other end of the spectrum: nice looking but they weren’t as visible as the vests. There were other jackets on the racks that were the color of traffic safety cones. I never bought any. I have to admit it, looking nice won out over looking like a school safety patrol or a traffic cone.

Technology has caught up with style, thank goodness. A woman’s cycling or running apparel can look good, have the best weather protection for wind, water or cold, active performance features AND you will be seen day OR night. Illuminite is a company that is designing and making stylish active clothing with beautifully patterned reflective clothing. In the light of a car’s headlamp the Illuminite clothing will beautifully light up your silhouette and you will be seen. In the light of day, the clothing looks stylish without going the neon route.

Laurel (L) rides in style with Illuminite's Java vest. Tara (R) wears the Nocturnal Jacket

The bright colors of the Nocturnal jacket and Java vest look great in the daylight.The Perennial Jacket will keep cyclists and runners warm and dry and make them visible in low-light conditions. The Halo knit cap has a reflective strip that looks great in any kind of light.

Close-up of the Java Vest's Reflective pattern

Check out the detail of the reflective pattern on the Nocturnal jacket.

The Perennial Jacket will keep cyclists and runners warm and dry and make them visible in low-light conditions. The Halo knit cap has a reflective strip that looks great in any kind of light.

The Illumnite Perennial jacket really captures the light (Shown w/ Halo Toque hat in white)

Illuminite clothing is available at many stores that sell cycling and running clothing, including REI.

“You’re not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have.”

Oscar Pistorius

If you had seen nine-year old Sarah Reinertsen on her pretty blue Schwinn with a banana seat, you wouldn’t have guessed you were looking at a future Ironman record breaker. She was just learning how to keep the bike balanced while riding down the street as her father let go of the back of her bike. Two years earlier, she had her left leg amputated above the knee and now she wore a prosthetic leg that she nicknamed her “Barbie leg.” It was bad enough trying to keep her left foot on the pedal with the toe strap, but keeping the momentum going with just her right leg was frustrating. It was especially humiliating for her when she couldn’t keep up with the younger kids on a slightly sloped road and she decided she couldn’t live with that disgrace. It would be a long time before she got back on another bike.

Fortunately, Sarah found running. With a great supportive launch from veteran marathoner and amputee runner Paddy Rossbach, Sarah found her athletic calling at a young age. She received the support and coaching she needed and a special new prosthetic leg called a “Flex Foot” which stores kinetic energy like a spring and allowed Sarah to run and jump. She trained hard as a young teen. At age 13, she set a world record time in the 100m run for amputee athletes and continued to compete throughout her teen years, competing in national and international meets as well as qualifying and going to the Paralympic Games in Spain at age 16.

During her senior year of college, she transformed herself into a distance runner, taking on a 5K, then a 10K and finally, the NYC marathon. She learned that as an amputee runner, she had to train differently than the typical Runner’s World training plans might dictate. Instead of miles, she had to focus on time and get used to the hours she would spend on her prosthetic. As the years went by she did more marathons and half marathons and becoming faster as she became more experienced. But in the back of her mind Sarah had a plan: she wanted to take on the Hawaii Ironman. She still remembers the day she first saw the 1992 Ironman World Championships on TV when Jim MacLaren, a below-the-knee amputee, broke the new world record for a triathletes with a prosthetic. No female athlete with a prosthetic had ever completed the Ironman. Sarah wanted to be the first.

Becoming an Ironman

Ten years later, she got more serious about doing just that. The marathon part of the Ironman she had down. (She holds the world record in the half marathon (2:12) and the marathon (5:27) for above-knee amputee women.) But she hadn’t been on a bike for 17 years and as far as swimming was concerned, she could tread water and swam a little, but that was it.

There was a pool not far from her Brooklyn apartment where she bought a membership. Yet it was one thing to take off her prosthetic leg and jump in the pool in front of her friends or family and it was still another to do it in front of complete strangers. It took six months to get the courage to move past her self-consciousness before she finally jumped into the pool and swim a few laps.
To do a triathlon, you gotta have a bike. She bought a used mountain bike for $75 and went to the local bike shop for help. How was she going to ride the darn thing? She ended up buying a CycleOps bike trainer and set the bike up in her apartment. It was actually the perfect way to acclimate her body to spending more and more time cycling. She wouldn’t even start riding outside until she moved to Southern California and bought her first road bike, a nice women’s specific bike.

Sarah did her first triathlon in 2003 and then qualified for the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona HI at a ½ Ironman in 2004. The swim portion of her first Ironman wasn’t too bad and she started out on the cycling leg feeling good. Then the brutal and capricious winds of Kona pushed against Sarah the majority of her 112 mile ride, but it was the nausea and vomiting that dealt her the final blow and she failed to make the time cut-off for her cycling leg. The big fat D.N.F. was demoralizing, but she made a MacArthur-like promise to return.

Finishing  Business

She knew 2005 was going to be a different year. She trained with her super-focused determination. Cannondale made her a custom-made tri bike that was dubbed “Unfinished Business” because that is what the Ironman would be until she completed it.  Although her job meant that she traveled a lot, she brought her bicycle with her to keep up the training wherever she was. She also spent time in Kona riding, swimming and running the course. Her goal was an ultimate dream finish time of 16:05 for the Kona Ironman. She was well-prepared and actually enjoyed herself. She had a great 2.4 mile swim, then a good ride with affectionate breezes instead of aggressive winds and capped off her Ironman with a good marathon run. Her time was better than she dreamed: 15:05!

Her Cannondale bike “Unfinished Business” was re-dubbed “Finished Business” and she keeps it as her own memento/museum piece for she will go down in the record books as the first woman amputee to finish the Ford Ironman World Championship. Then Sarah became better known to television audiences in 2006 for taking part in The Amazing Race which included her scaling the Great Wall of China. In the end, it wasn’t the physical challenges that knocked Sarah and her partner out of the race, but a navigational challenge in Kuwait.

Sarah continues to do triathlons and races and gives motivational speeches. She continues to give back to the sport and reaches out to mentor others with physical challenges. As an advocate for other disabled children and adults, she is concerned that they will not be able to get the prosthetics for running nor sports wheelchairs for basketball or tennis. She has worked in the past for the non-profit Challenged Athletes Foundation and she continues to be an advocate and spokesperson for it. Most of all, Sarah continues to be an inspiration and mentor for athletes of all abilities.

I met Sarah around March of 2006 in Kona where she was engaged to speak. I was absolutely inspired by her life story as well as her narrative of how she came back to Kona to complete the Ironman after having a very discouraging DNF the previous year. I enjoyed running with her in a 5K the next day and getting to know her better over the next couple days. It has been a few years since I first met Sarah but during our phone conversation I remembered why I was inspired by her story the first time and even more now.

Her next great adventure? Sarah is engaged to be married on 10/10/10. Sarah, congratulations & best wishes!

(To go to Sarah’s website click here)

I teasingly told Sarah that I thought she had a lot in common with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s a petite, very feminine blonde who might look misleadingly vulnerable. But Sarah is surprisingly strong, physically fit, mentally tough and has that undying willpower to do whatever it takes. Like Buffy Summers, she also has had a good team of people around her to give her the support she needed to accomplish her goals. She is the girl that no one might have expected to become so extraordinary.

If you’ve done so much as a 5K or sprint triathlon yourself, you’ll be fascinated with her descriptions of her training and her particular take on athletic endeavors coming at it with a disability. If you need inspiration to do your very first triathlon, century ride or road race, Sarah will be your muse. For those who have had a life-changing experience that has resulted in some type of disability, I think you’ll find some encouragement with Sarah’s book.

Catch Her if You Can

She’s petite, quick to smile, and full of energy. In spite of a knee replacement, some arthritis issues and a recent 86^th birthday, Alice keeps up a schedule that would make Jack LaLanne proud. She begins her mornings by carefully working on her knee, putting it through a little physical therapy to aid its recovery from the surgery, then she climbs stairs—a full sixteen flights before breakfast. Retirement wasn’t a state that suited Alice, so she is working full time, and saves her big workouts for the weekends. What does an octogenarian Weekend Warrior do? During the winter, she takes her mountain bike and rides it as she does laps in her apartment building’s two-story parking garage; she’s calculated it is a full ½ mile one way.

As the weather warms, she’ll join her cycling group for long rides on her Bike Friday, a folding bike with low clearance that she feels is “much easier” on her body than a road bike. The group calls themselves the Smell the Roses cycling group because whether the pace is fast or slower, they never fail to appreciate the sights along the way and are always eager to try a new route or ride the newest extensions of the bike paths. Her one concession to her knee replacement is keeping the daily mileage to no more than 70 miles.

Why Alice Started To Ride A Bike

Alice initially got a bicycle just to give her a quick and easy way to get around the housing development where she was working as a broker. She was then a member of Zonta, an international advocacy organization of business and professional women. It was through Zonta that she met several women who told her how much fun they had with their cycling club. Soon after she joined the Bonneville Bicycle Touring Club (now called Bonneville Cycling Club) and wholeheartedly embraced cycling. She was then 61. She brought her mountain bike with her on road trips and cycled every place she visited. She got out her passport and cycled through France, down to Mexico, two week cycling/camping trip across Siberia, and several trips through China and Canada. She cycled around the Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands and around Vancouver Island. At age 67, she and a friend also rode the epic mountain trails from Telluride, Colorado to Moab, Utah—a 217 mile trip that crosses up and over mountains.

Little Red Riding Hood Ride Begins

It was in those early years of  cycling when she and some friends visited California and rode the Cinderella Classic women’s ride. It was not only a lot of fun, but she thought it was a great way to promote women’s cycling. Always the advocate for women, she began thinking of how she could put together something similar in her home state of Utah. It was while she was on a ride with her friend Sue Shawle through pastoral Cache Valley with its small homey towns surrounded by lush farmlands that she knew she found the perfect spot for this new women’s ride. It took a year to plan the ride and she didn’t neglect the details. She and Sue planned a 100K route with rest stops, got all the proper approvals and permits and even lined up a support crew made up of her good friend Jon Smith and several other men who would be the sag vehicle and help with the occasional flats. Then she ordered a lunch for the two dozen women who would take part in that first ride and thus, the Little Red Riding Hood Ride was born.

As an advocate for the sport of cycling, Alice is one of the best. She has the charm, the energy and the infectious enthusiasm for it all. Cycling for her is a way to see new places, enjoy old and new friends, and to feel young while adding on the miles. She doesn’t let things like arthritis or a knee replacement stop her from having an active and fit life. There are many heroes in cycling such as Lance Armstrong or Greg LeMond, but it is like Alice that I most want to be.

“The couple that exercises together stays together.” (The Schofield mantra)

For Jon and Leslie Schofield, their romance began on bicycles. “Our first date was a mountain bike ride,” Leslie remembers. It was on the mountain trails of Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort in Utah. The active life was part of who they were as individuals and as a couple. Mountain biking and running together was part of their courtship and something they continued to do together after they got married.

A marriage evolves and theirs was no different. Children came along and they juggled his full-time job, her part time job, and childcare responsibilities with their urge to continue a physically active life. So they divided things neatly to allow each to work out while the other watched the children. Leslie drew the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule and Jon had the other half of the week. Leslie’s bike spent more time in the garage as she put in her early morning time running. Jon ran and mountain biked and then he got a road bike and immersed himself in local competitive cycling with criteriums, long endurance races and triathlons.

It was during this era of their parallel training lives that Leslie began cycling with her neighbor Bev Ronnow, who was a very accomplished road cyclist and then Leslie competed in her first triathlon. Jon smiles as he remembers Leslie in the triathlon using her full-suspension mountain bike with slick tires: “She blew the competition away, passing people on their tri bikes with their aero bars.”

Soon after, she bought a road bike and she learned her road biking skills at the wheels of her friend Bev. When their oldest child was old enough to babysit, the couple would slip out of the house on the occasional weekend morning for a ride together. Jon was into competitive cycling at the time and he remembers those rides: “It was kind of good and bad for our cycling relationship. I would think ‘I’m not going fast enough. I’m not getting a good enough workout.’” He also realized that the training he was doing took a lot of time. Among the other responsibilities that divided their lives, these his-and-hers training schedules which included his hard core training for races meant they were spending a lot less time together.

Then they had an epiphany about their relationship: “About two years ago we realized we had a really good thing together and a passion for the bike,” Jon recalled.  “To one extent I like getting a workout with my buddies, but then realize I’m missing out on the best relationship I had, (the one) with my wife. I had to evaluate: what’s more important: my family and my wife and our relationship or upgrading to the next racing level?”

That summer they put the intensity they had for training into their relationship. They used cycling to bring them together again. They trained for the Spudman Triathlon together. Leslie: “We had our whole schedule. We trained every single day together. We did all of it together: biking, running and swimming.”

Leslie is fast and competitive, but Jon is even faster on the bike. It took an adjustment to cycle together. Leslie explains their method: “On a flat it’s great if I can draft off him. Yet going up a hill, he’s obviously stronger than me. If he needs to do training, he will loop up and around and do a couple intervals then come back with me.”

Working out together has many rewards, a stronger marital relationship and a few unexpected bonuses. They raced in LOTOJA (The 206 mile Logan to Jackson race) later that season as a two-person relay team and Jon still remembers it as “one of the most fun racing experiences I’ve had as a team.” Leslie adds, “We took ‘second place’ and the next year we took ‘third’ but improved by 21 minutes. It was intense…so fun. Maybe we should do it again, Jon!”

They have a new balance for working out now. Jon doesn’t care as much about being so competitive anymore yet he does get out occasionally for a hard ride on his own or with friends especially during the winter or in the dark when Leslie prefers running to cycling. “We have felt in our own minds that we don’t need to be quite so competitive, we can find a balance and just do it for fun and still enjoy it and ride together more recreationally.”

On Sunday mornings in the summer they have a new tradition. They leave the house just as it begins to get light and they ride up one of the mountain canyons to a ski resort for a breakfast of pancakes or French toast which they enjoy while sitting at an outdoor table in the fresh mountain air. Sometimes they are joined on the ride by other couples. Leslie’s face lights up as she talks about it: “We tell the kids we may be a little later. It’s just a date in the morning. I love that.”