Nevada Bikes

Chipping away at winter

2012-01-23T07:28:00.002-05:00

January 2012- so far so good! We got our first 'real' snow on Saturday. By 'real' I mean snow that actually stuck around after it stopped falling. Although today they're predicting Freezing Rain which will either melt what's left or turn it into ice.

I always consider March to be the unofficial start of spring. Dec-Feb = Winter. Sure, it's going to snow in March. Maybe a lot. But by March you can count on some decent days. You know, upper 40's. Clear trails. So to have made it mid-way through January with only one significant snow bodes well for having fitness going into road racing in the spring. (We're not like Tahoe out here - we don't depend on snow pack the way you do in the mountains.)

Since my last post I have:

Gone to see the Patriots crush the Buffalo Bills in Foxboro. (Thanks Cody!)
Run about 2x week.
Crosstrained at the gym 2x week.
Gotten in 3-4 hour rides on the weekends.
Drove solo to Montreal for SBCU Fit School.

Erm, that's it. We were visiting with some friends who'd been away for the last month and they asked, "so, what've you guys been up to?" And the honest answer was " . . . .uhhh?" But it's nice to have time to hunker down and focus on making the most of the "off season" with no stress, no pressure.

Yesterday we had a gluttonous breakfast of fried potatos, scrambled eggs from the chickens in our back yard, and toast (gluten free for me, with lots of strawberry jam). I threw on more layers than I care to recount, strapped a rear fender on my CX bike, and rode to Newburyport. It's usually about 1:15 to get out there, but with the snow, headwind, and thousands of layers restricting my movement it took closer to 2 (this the season to ride hella slow). I stopped in Newburyport for a soy mocha, and to restore feeling to my toes, and rode home. The return trip went much faster, and my ride was about 3.5 hours. Perfect. We had a little playoff party, with some friends stopping by to eat pizza, drink beer, and watch football. Cody ordered some "normal" pizzas, and I cooked some GF flatbread to make my pizzas with. I splurged with Daiya vegan mozzerella cheese, garlic and sundried tomatos. It was amazing. Yesterday was a splurge kind of day.

2011 in bad pictures

2011-12-31T15:29:00.013-05:00

I am not a good photographer. I also forget to bring my camara/take pictures when it would be cool to have pictures of things. So here's an incomplete recap of 2011 in bad photos.

The winter totally sucked. This was probably the only time I smiled while surrounded by snow. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but this was the first big snow so my soul hadn't totally been crushed by 2 months of unending ice.

When I went out west and it was hella warm.

We went down to Cape Cod in March to check out the trails around Otis AFB. It was so totally rad, and the first time we'd been on MTBs since early December.

Riley + Chickens. It's really just here for cute value. 2011 was a cute year. 9 friends of mine had babies in 2011. See? Cute. Just like my doggie.

Claymore f'in Challenge! The next day I "hit" the big practice drop up here at Highlands. I totally didn't crash (I totally almost did).

LadiesFirst racing!!!

Wedding in September. We're so good looking, you know, if viewed from a distance.

Kingdom Trails in Vermont! 5 days of singletrack magic.

Cross. This was in NoHo. I loved this race.

Thanksgiving Day polar bear swim. I just took pictures. The water was insanely cold. Screw that.

Obviously there are a lot of things here that I don't have pictures of. I couldn't find any pictures from my parents visit, or my visit to see my parents, or our trip to NY to see Eddie and the MTB world cup. Or the running I did. Or any of the awesome little rides we did every weekend we could. Or the sailing we did. But you get the picture. It was a pretty cool year, all in all.

Happy New Year! Here's to 2012 living up to it's promises of awesome.

Ice Weasels

2011-12-12T05:35:00.003-05:00

Wow, where'd the season go? Hard to belive that it's already mid-December. In past years nationals would have been this weekend. Weird. I'm having a hard time believing it's almost Christmas, too. I think that has to do with the amazingly warm and dry weather we've had this fall - it's been late-October-like for 2 months now.

Anyway, I met my end-of-season goal on Saturday to have two consecutive good races, although I went into the race intent on having fun and ending the season positively even if I was getting lapped by cat 4s. The course was super fun, twisting back on itself a lot so it was kind of hard to tell where people were. There were some fun tight turns, a blazing fast set of barrier surrounded by tons of rowdy spectators, a fun up-and-down section on the back of the course with a little run up, and a fly-over. The only other fly-over I've done was at Gloucester, and that one had a nice set of stairs leading up to it and a pretty long flat section on the top to remount. At Ice Weasels it was a ramp up, covered in that fake-grass-carpet stuff, with a boards nailed down every 16 inches or so - wicked slippery - and then a pretty short remount area and a quick drop into some rutted mud. Fun, but I was pretty cautious on the way up after I slipped and almost fell down it when I was preriding.

It wouldn't be 2011 without me having a lousy start, which in this case could best be described as "apathetic". So there was some traffic to wade through on the first lap. I passed a lot of people, then got in a group of 3. I was corner really well (wee!) so when I was sitting anywhere other than 1st wheel I would get frustrated in the corners by how slow I was forced to go. But my acceleration wasn't fantastic, so passing was a little tricky. I passed at one point before a technical section and had a little gap, but then I was going to slow up the fly-over and actually got passed back at the top. OK, that's all right, passed again before the technical up-and-down-run-up section, and the girl behind me bobbled something and I got a pretty good gap. At this point I had probably 3 to go, and I was feeling kind of tired. I was pretty stupid before my race about what I ate. Basically I didn't eat enough. I had my oats and coffee at breakfast, but for some unfathomable reason I didn't bother bringing much food with me. I had a yogurt, a container of raisins (???) and a Gu shot. Right? What was I thinking? So I had eaten my yogurt about 3 hours before my race, then snacked on raisins, then totally forgot to eat my Gu shot after my unimpressive warm-up. So I think I was running out of fuel at that point in the race. The good: I kept it together, rode within myself, rode well technically, and kept the gap I had on the 2 girls I'd been riding with. The bad: I didn't catch anyone else. But I finished pretty strong, despite getting hung up in some lapped cat 4s.

The rad: before the women's race my teammate raced with the 3/4 men and schooled every last one of them. Then she won our race.

It was, in fact, a terrific end to the season. That race pretty much embodied all the awesome things about 'cross - great course, great crowd, beer tokens, and a pedal-powered apple press, to name a few. I'm not particularly burned out on racing, but I am a little tired of being slow, so I'm excited to get back into it after great season of training under my belt. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long!

2011 Season Wrap-Up

2011-12-06T13:49:00.005-05:00

I don't know what's wrong with me in this picture. The photographer told us to look excited. I look like I'm dislocating my jaw to swallow a large rat whole. But I guess that's exciting.

I am again surprised at how quickly 'cross season has come and gone. I spend all year looking forward to it only to have it go so fast that it's hard to stop and really enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, it had a blast, but I wish I had a little more time with it. But that's what next year is for, right?

2011 Stats:

Races: 15

Podium finishes: 1

Last place finishes: 2

DNF's: 1

UCI points: 0

Ugh, that looks terrible when you write it out. It just goes to show that statistics can be misleading. Here's the good stuff:

1. Raced with a fantastic team.

2. Met a ton of great people.

3. Learned the ins and outs of New England cyclocross (some of them, anyway) and travelled a ton.

4. Spent all week every week being totally excited for the upcoming races.

5. Started my first race of the season at Quad Cross saying "jeez, I really need to learn to corner better." By the last race of the season I was dropping people in the corners.

6. Improved my starts (sorta).

7. Ended the season with two consecutive good race weekends!

8. Not remotely burned out, totally psyched on getting way faster for next year, and motivated enough to be excited to start training again January 1st.

So basically, a good season. I've got a couple weeks off the bike here and then I'm going to start training to do some road races this spring. Psyched to train. Psyched to race road. I'm already planning my 2012 'cross season, which is just crazy talk in December of 2011, but I'm an addict, it's hard to help.

Bell Lap

2011-12-05T05:52:00.006-05:00

I have a new season goal - two consecutive positive race weekends. And I only have one chance left here to get it right.

I had a great time racing the second-to-last NEPCX race down in Warwick on Saturday. Not the best legs, but an overall decent race that I'm feeling good about. The last race of my season is this Saturday and I am absolutely determined to make it a good one and to finish my 2011 cross season off strong.

The course in Warwick was super fun. We were right down by the water (it was COLD by the water!) on Narragansett Bay, which you can kind of see in the picture up there. The course started with a paved climb, had a bunch of woodsy rooty fast stuff, some fun sandy corners, a nice flat set of barriers, a steep little kicker climb, and a sadistic beach run, not in that order. I had a super slow first lap and couldn't hang on with the group that included most of the people I'm usually racing against, but when we got into the rooty stuff and loose corners my bike handling and the fact that I wasn't following wheels and getting bogged down helped me catch the group as it started to fragment. I caught a number of people, and was right on one girl's wheel going by the pit when someone from the LadiesFirst camp suggested that I "pass that girl now!" me: "OK". I powered around her, but then took a stupid line into a tight turn and had to scrub a ton of speed and was super over-geared coming out of it and she passed me back. I was totally gassed and the next section was pavement into a headwind so really no good way to recover and I couldn't hold her wheel. I never caught back up but I was able to rally enough to not get caught by anyone else, so I didn't feel too bad about it. In retrospect I shouldn't have passed her right before a big headwind stretch, and instead waited for some technical section that I felt strong on. That's racing.

The super rad news of the weekend is that my uber-teammate Andrea Smith won both days. On Saturday it was a fantastic team effort (of which my only contribution was the post-race high five) that culminated in her outsprinting Laura Van Gilder - no small feat. And from what I've read of Sunday's race she just outrode everyone else, including LVG.

Anyway, the only part of me that is happy that my season is ending after this Saturday is the one that cares about paying bills in a timely fashion. Otherwise I'm super psyched on racing, and would be happy to keep going for a couple more months. I'm holding off on post-season analysis and next seasons plans until we're actually in the post-season. I'm actually really excited for some 5 hour rides in the cold this winter, which I find slightly disturbing. But more on that after next weekend!

Anyway, while I didn't race on Sunday I did have a fantastic day helping Cody take down a tree for some friends up in Maine, followed by a MTB ride on some trails I'd never ridden up in Exeter, NH. It's kind of funny, but out west you'd never wake up in one state, do some work in another, and finish your day with a bike ride in a third unless you owned your own plane. Oh New England, you amuse me.

But I have all this gluten free beer left!

2011-11-30T05:11:00.006-05:00

I made it through my two weeks with no wheat or gluten. It wasn't so bad, but I didn't feel any better or worse or different than before. I feel compelled to add that I largely avoided grains during this time. I ate oatmeal almost every day, but cooked mostly with garbanzo bean flour and ate a lot of potatoes and yams. I think I ate brown rice one or two times. So last night I made lentil and seitan "meat" balls and spaghetti for dinner. Seriously gluten heavy meal. I figured that the real litmus test would be how I would feel after re-introducing wheat to my diet. And this morning I feel . . . the same. *

Conclusion?

The obvious:
Confirmation of my initial belief that when I eat crap I feel like crap, but when I eat good food I feel good. Weird. (okay, not really). Maybe (okay, definitely) I'm blessed with an incredibly hearty digestive system, but it doesn't seem to matter if I'm eating meat, soy, wheat, or dairy, as long as it's all in moderation and with proper macronutrient balance. I'll continue to enjoy wheat products in moderation, thank you very much. I'm especially excited to discover that I don't have to give up seitan to feel good. Of course I'm not saying that anyone who avoids gluten or grains is wrong, quite the opposite. If it works for you, rad. But what this experiment has taught me is that wheat is not something towards which I have a noticable sensitivity.

The good:
Every time I eliminate something from my diet, even experimentally, I learn something about my patterns and habits and my relationship with food. I know, that sounds totally stupid, but I spend a whole lot of time every day talking to people about their relationships with food and how to improve them. They come to me to lose weight, generally believing that introducing exercise will be the solution. While it's a fantastic start, everyone struggles with the truth that losing weight is 85% diet. In the same way I can't really tell someone to do more pushups unless I can do them myself, I can't expect to be effective in talking to people about their dietary patterns and habits without having a healthy grasp on my own.

The bad:
I still have 3 gluten free beers in my fridge. I don't know why I thought I'd drink a whole 6 pack in 2 weeks while deep in cyclocross season (or really at any point, if we're being honest here). It's not bad, but it's not nearly as good as the Alagash White Ale that I also have in there . . .

*UPDATE!
I fear I may have been premature in my conclusion! As the day progressed I started feeling all bloated and yucky. It wasn't seriously uncomfortable, but it was noticable. I didn't eat anything different than what I had been the last couple weeks, except the wheat.

Crap.

But I'm still going to drink normal beer.

Two to go . . .

2011-11-28T05:38:00.005-05:00

Day 2.

One of the best parts of racing and riding bikes is getting to travel to places that you normally wouldn't. I feel like in the last three months I've seen more of Massachusetts than a lot of people I've met around here who have lived in Gloucester their whole lives (although Gloucester is known as being a bit of a black hole - some people never really get off the island). It was the same way when I lived in Reno and travelled all over California, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah. And it's not the same old touristy places most people go on vacation - you can't put on a bike race at Disneyland, and rarely do you get a downtown crit in a big city (although it happens - SF, Boston, etc).

The weekend after Thanksgiving I went to Sterling, MA for a couple 'cross races. My races weren't super great by virtually any measure, but it was neat to see the new roads and get familiar with a new area. It seems like there are a lot of races out around there, both road, CX and MTB, so it's good to be able to say, "oh, I know where that is, it's only an hour away" rather than having to consult a map every time I want to go to a race.

Anyway, the races. I don't want to get into course description but suffice to say that they were Tom Stevens designed courses and super fun. On Saturday I got a second row call up which I utterly squandered by missing my pedal and generally sucking. Second row!!! I'd like to trade that second row call up for a race that I have great legs for, OK? Can I do that? Anyway. Like I said, kind of crappy start, kind of mediocre legs. And then I flatted. It was really, really stupid. I pinched it on something, and I thought I felt my tire going flat. There was a little set of stairs right before the pit, so at the top I stopped to feel my rear tire, which felt firm to me. So I hopped back on and just on the other side of the pit I realized that I most definitely had a flat tire. So I had to run half a lap. Half a lap is probably just over a mile. Not far by running terms, but pretty damn far when you're carrying a bike and in the middle of a race. Anyway, by the time I got straightened out I was about to be lapped, so I just rode pretty easy for the rest of the race hoping I'd have something left in the tank for Sunday.

On Saturday night I stayed with the lovely family who owns Milton CAT - our biggest sponsor. It was fantastic to stay with my teammates and get to just relax after the race, rather than driving home or staying in a hotel.

I woke up on Sunday feeling kind of crappy. Mostly just tired, I think, as I didn't sleep too well on Saturday night. The house was comfortable and great, I was just awake. Sometimes it happens, you know? Anyway, the course on Sunday was a little more technical, and super fun. I felt lousy until I really started warming up on my trainer, and then started feeling a little more lively. I had ANOTHER second row start! What the hell? I guess it was a small field and I pulled a low number in the call-up lottery for those of us who don't hold UCI points. But still! I started right next to Rebecca Wellons. That's so cool! Anyway, I didn't have great legs and made some kind of critical technical errors in the first lap, so I didn't have a particularly spectacular race. But I managed to have fun anyway, which, when it comes down to it, is the most important part.

Anyway, my does-not-meet-expectations result for the weekend was fully in keeping with my rather unfortunate patter of good weekend/bad weekend/good weekend/bad weekend. Which means! That I should have a good race this Saturday in Warwick. Right? Right?! I sure hope so. I was really hoping to have two consecutive good weekends this year, and I'll have a chance when racing my last race of the season in two weeks, Ice Weasels.

I'll be sad to have the season end - cross season feels so short when you're not carrying it into January! But I decided that since I didn't manage a UCI point this year, and I'd undoubtedly be starting near the back at nationals, to just skip it this time around. I'm heading out west in two weeks to visit family and I doubt the prospect of coming in "top 70!" at nationals is enough to keep me motivated to train through travels and the holidays.

I did have a good talk with my coach/team director about road season and the lead up to NEXT cross season, though, and I'm excited to start the 2012 planning! I've learned so much in the last couple months, and I can't wait to combine it with a whole year of good preparation.

Oh yes, and I guess I should say something about Thanksgiving. It was nice. Is that enough? No? Okay, I made two vegan gluten free pies. One was a traditional pumpkin, the other was a pumpkin cheesecake (didn't have any cream cheese, of course) with a homemade, GF graham cracker crust. I made my own gluten free graham crackers. They were amazing. Anyway, both pies were fantastic and well received by even the staunchest meat eaters in attendance. Yay!

Sh(r)edd Park

2011-11-21T13:36:00.003-05:00

Climbing. Maybe I should try breathing while racing. The oxygen might help my judgement.

Yesterday I went to a race the Boston Road Club Cyclocross @ Shedd Park, in Lowell. It was rad. Well, mostly.

The course was pretty fun. I like courses where we can get the climbing out of the way fast. Whether it's a run up or a steep little kicker, I like getting the climb over and done with and then having a lot of twisty descending stuff. Or at least, that's how I feel this week. Ask me about it next Monday and I may have a different outlook.

Anyway, the course in Lowell started with a big parade lap around a field, then went into this little up-and-down u-turn around a tree, followed by some muddy-ish rough stuff. Then you had a fast descent into the barriers, another turn, and a super steep little climb. Twisty kind of loose stuff, then a cool series of switchbacks to get down the hill. Then you went back up it. The second climb was a little looser (originally I wrote "loser", which is funny) but it got a little less steep halfway through so you could really power up the last part, unlike the first climb that wasn't as loose but stayed steep the whole way up. Anyway, then you had another fast descent, followed by a little berm that you could kind of air-out if you caught it just right, before entering the woodsy section, then a little pavement, then more woods, finally onto the finishing stretch that was long and windy. As for the climbs, I rode them both in my pre-ride, but some people were running them and I was a little worried that when I got tired I was going to have to run.

I was feeling kind of yucky and super unmotivated as I got ready and "warmed up". Mostly I just rode the trainer for a few minutes, did some dynamic stretching, then decided riding the trainer sucks and went out and did some super half-assed openers on the road. I had a third row start, which isn't really that bad, but the start was super fast and I got sketched out by all the sketchy people. Or maybe it was just me. So I wasn't super aggressive. The result being that when we hit the u-turn around the tree I was pretty far back. I had this really bright idea that if I stayed on my bike a little longer and took the inside line that I could get around people. Um, that was kind of dumb. I ended up getting knocked over and trampled as I was getting off my bike. Seriously, I have a MTB shoe-shaped bruise on the inside of my elbow where I got stepped on. (AND I ripped my nice Fox gloves - but I'd almost not worn any gloves so in retrospect I'll take the ripped gloves over the missing pinky finger.) Anyway, I was Dead. Last. By a long shot. And my chain was off. Again. I was still feeling yucky and crashing and hurting my elbow and my pinky were a really good excuse to quit, right? Even after I got rolling again and passing people I was thinking that I had a good reason to quit, and I should probably just call it a day. But I didn't!

So I guess it can only get better from there, right? It was a 1/2/3 field, and there were 37 of us. So after my mishap I was in 37th. In the end I passed enough girls to end up 14th. That's pretty cool, right? I rode both of those steep climbs every time, except on the last lap when a lapped rider got off right in front of me. It's cool, it happens. Anyway, I was actually riding pretty strong, catching group after group, and feeling like when I went around people I had really good power and could distance myself from them pretty easily.

My coach/team director was standing around the start/finish area yelling at me, which actually was really helpful. It was windy through there and a couple of times when I was a few seconds back from a group or a rider, feeling ouchy and unwilling to dig too deep lest I not be able to claw my way out of the dark pit of pain, he yelled at me "GET UP THERE, NOW! GO NOW!" And I did and it worked out for me every time. Which just goes to show you that our biggest limitations are our heads, not our legs. I really would appreciate it if someone wants to just follow me around at races and tell me to go harder and quit whining. Although, Cody's tried this to no effect in the past, so maybe the difference is I had the fitness to back it up yesterday, for what really felt like the first time this season. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

Anyway, Lowell, Shedd Park, and BRC - kudos, rad race.

1 Week GF

2011-11-21T06:32:00.004-05:00

Today will make it 1 week wheat and gluten free. It's not an experiment I entered into to treat any particular complaint, just to satisfy my curiosity, so I don't really have anything too specific to comment on.

Some observations from the week:

Going gluten free is pretty easy. I mean, the wide variety of GF products out there these days makes it pretty simple. I picked up some Bob's Red Mill GF AP flour (which for the uninitiated is a mix of garbanzo bean flour, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, fava bean flour, and, uh, I think that's it) and have been pretty happy with it. I've made pancakes with it yesterday and fed them to Cody with no complaints, which is a pretty good measure. I also picked up some GF beer - Bard's, made with sorghum and hops - which was pretty decent. Not a porter or a strong ale, but not Budweiser either. Basically, I don't feel like I'm really giving anything up. And I'm used to reading labels all the time as it is, so checking for one more ingredient isn't a problem.

I had a good race yesterday. It could be unrelated, or be a combination of factors, but it's worth bearing in mind. I felt like my power was better than it's been all season.

I didn't challenge myself to do this with any hope or expectation of weight loss, and my body composition has remained consistent. Non-expectation met.

For Thanksgiving I'm in charge of Pumpkin Pie. I'm going to make two - a standard pie and this: http://www.theppk.com/2011/11/pumpkin-cheesecake-with-pecan-crunch-topping/. I'm going to make my own GF graham crackers for the crust. Both pies will be vegan and GF. And awesome. We'll be dining with some of Cody's somewhat . . . conservative . . . relatives from New Hampshire (please read the heavy sarcasm in my tone when I say, "and I'm really excited about it" - fortunately, there will be alcohol, and I plan on spending the majority of the day on my bike), and I have no plans of telling them that it's vegan and GF, so I'm excited about feeding them something that they would probably sneer at.

And I guess that's it. The experiment wouldn't be complete if I didn't reintroduce gluten to my diet after the two weeks are up and make observations as to its effects.

Wheat

2011-11-15T16:25:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I decided to challenge myself to go 2 weeks wheat-free. I am most definitely not the kind of person who jumps on the bandwagon of nutrition fads, and I've spent the last several years listening to the gluten-free crowd extol the virtues of their dietary choices. Then there's the Paleo diet, which is no grain/lots of meat. I have a lot of thoughts on that, but as someone trying to avoid meat as much as possible that's simply not a practical choice. My complete protein is largely made up of legumes and grains, so eliminating all grains is out of the question.

I read this the other day:

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Doctor+advice+wheat+products/5704519/story.html

And I thought, well, maybe I'll try cutting out wheat for a couple weeks, just to see what happens. Understand that I noticed no difference in how I felt eating meat vs. not eating meat, so I don't think I'm particularly sensitive to dietary shifts, as long as I'm getting adequate nutrition and calories. So I'm curious to see what happens. I don't really foresee avoiding wheat as a huge issue in my diet, there's lots of food out there, and I'm used to reading ingredient labels in depth.

On my ride today I brought a Kashi protein bar, then realized it had wheat in it and I was going to feel like a loser falling off the wagon on day 1 of my challenge, so rode for 2.5 hours with no food at all, and then stopped at a grocery store and ate some Sweedish fish and an Odwalla juice thing. Not too sure that it was the best thing to reach for, but I was hungry and still had some riding to do.

Anyway, I'm not doing it to go "low carb" or anything (carbohydrates make up a consistent 60-65% of my daily caloric intake, right now I'm eating a big bowl of oatmeal. And no, it's not certified GF. Chill) and I'm not doing it to lose weight or anything like that. I think experimenting with my diet in a healthy way is a great way to learn stuff about myself and my dietary habits. Just like experimenting with my training by spending more time at the gym or running.

At any rate, I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, Vermont.

2011-11-15T07:51:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I went to Vermont for a couple of regional races. I was staying with Cody's sister-in-law and his wee little nephew, as he and his brother were up in Northern New Hampshire doing a man-retreat (ed. note: how manly is it to bring your iPhone backpacking? Yeah, that's what I thought too). Anyway, I'd decided to go to these races rather than down to those in Plymouth because they had almost $1000 women's prize purse between the two of them. I like to support events that support women's racing.

The course on Saturday was in Windsor, VT, and went all around the Harpoon Brewery (it's kind of like Sierra Nevada Brewery, but in Massachusetts, and not as big). The course wasn't overly technical, but it had some fun sections. There was what felt like a lot of climbing, which hurt. Anyway, I had a great start (for once! yay!) then got passed by a couple ladies. Basically I was in a group racing for 4th for a majority of the race, but I was sucking on the run-up and eventually got dropped there. Hella uncool. So I wound up 7th. The picture at the top is from that race. I also almost wrecked myself on the barriers, but held it together somehow. Oh yeah, and my teammate won!

On Sunday I went to Putney, VT, which is a neat little town on the Connecticut River that has one of the most fun co-op groceries I've been to in a long time. Loved that place. They also have a shop that puts on weekly Wednesday night 'cross races. How rad is that? Yeah, hella rad. Anyway, the course had a lot of fun stuff, including a super steep descent into a big rutted mud section that was kind of sketchy. Unfortunately it also had a big flat section virtually free from turns that went around this field. Boring. And really painful. And as it turned out, the course was super short, so they could definitely have added some turns in there to make it more fun and so that we didn't have to do 8 laps. 8 laps, you ask? Yes. 8. And there was a really hard run-up. That we had to do. 8 times. Anyway, I didn't have as good of a start, but I got with a good group and I was doing pretty well. Then I dropped my chain. It was so stupid, it was on this little stairs run up part, and as I was running my knee pushed my pedal backward and as it backpedaled the chain came off my inner ring. Ok, no biggie, chain back on, get with some other riders, keep moving. Then, on the next lap, it did the Same Thing. Put it back on, but then apparently I hadn't done a very good job and it came off again immediately. This was pretty much where my race ended. I got my chain back on and kept going, but I was so far back from everyone that, well, my motivator broke. I rode around for a few more laps (and dropped my chain AGAIN!) but I was about to get lapped by the leaders and the officials weren't pulling me, so I pulled myself. AKA DNF. But whatever. At some point that whole "stick it out, quitting is for losers" stuff just doesn't apply. There was nothing to be proved. So, yeah. But my teammate won again!

Anyway, I rode way too long and hard today for a tuesday following a race weekend, but it was 60+ degrees out and you gotta get it in while you can. Carpe diem, or something like that.

NoHo

2011-11-07T06:23:00.004-05:00

I have a little confession to make. The last couple weeks, since I skipped Downeast, I've been struggling to stay motivated. It might be the colder weather, it might be a little bit of fatigue, it might be all the warm fuzzy fall fun going on around me the last couple weeks - with harvest parties, halloween parties, fires, pumpkin EVERYTHING. Seriously, fall in New England is pretty special.

Whatever the reason, my motivation to go out and suffer on the bike by myself has been low. Generally when I'm feeling unmovitated I enter this cycle of low motivation > feel bad about being unmotivated > don't do anything at all to keep motivated > feel bad and eat ice cream > low motivation. But these last two weeks, even though I skipped a couple days on the bike, I got out and ran and did some strength training at the gym instead. Staying active and fit and strong > not eating ice cream > increased chances of return to motivated state. And what better way to increase motivation than to have a surprisingly good result at a UCI race? And maybe, the next day, spend 3 hours riding MTBs in short sleeves?

So, on Saturday Cody drove me out to Northampton for the Cycle-Smart International. It was COLD. I broke out my fleece lined long sleeved skin suit for the first time. I probably didn't need to, but it was awfully cozy.

The course was super fun. Started on grass, did a little S turn after the starting stretch then went into this "run" up. It was pretty short, but super gnar. Steep with loose dirt, rocks, and roots. I wasn't running. And the bottleneck it created stopped traffic so entirely that you could pretty much have soft pedalled at the start and still had to wait in line. Even though I wasn't running, my legs are pretty long and I have a lot of practice scrambling up stuff I can't ride when MTBing out here, so I actually passed a few people the first time up. Plus I was swinging my leg over the bike in the rooty descent that led into the run up and coasting in on one foot so I could hop off and get moving as soon as I started to decelerate. Some people were getting off before the little descent and some were waiting until they hit the hill, but my way was totally faster. Anyway, then the course twisted through some trees on some rooty uneven terrain, then there was a fast descent, then the big sand pit. I was really digging the sand pit. From there you twisted around through some grassy turns and some power straightaways, then hit the second "run" up. This one is in quotes because really, you could ride it if you didn't suck. I didn't manage to make it up a single time. Either because there was someone in front of me who screwed me up or because I just couldn't. At any rate, then you had more twisty rooty stuff through the woods, another little descent, barriers, and power grassy stuff before going through the finish. Fun fun fun.

Anyway, I had a pretty good start, made some passes, got passed and ended up with a varying group of 2-3 girls for the majority of the race. I felt really dialed and was railing corners and hammering over the roots with no regard for flat tires, and my fitness was better than I deserved. Overall I felt like my power output was pretty steady, although I lacked the high end to match big accelerations. I felt like someone would accelerate around me and I couldn't match them, but then they'd just kind of hover in front of me, or I could close the gaps by being fast through the corners, which has pretty much never happened to me before. Anyway, I was with two girls in the last lap with a pretty decent gap on anyone behind us when I bobbled the run/ride up and almost fell down the hill. I scrambled up it without too much damage but then I realized I'd dropped my chain and had to stop and put it back on. Rats! The gap that grew between myself and the two I'd been racing against grew too big for me to close in the last half lap, and the girl behind us caught me through the barriers. I dug nice and deep to stick on her wheel, then jumped around her on the finishing straight. Sprinting for 30th. Rad. Or kind of sad, depending on how you look at it. I'm going to go with rad.

We decided to come home afterward rather than stay and race another day. I've been feeling a little throaty and want to stay healthy, and Cody really wanted to ride on Sunday, which turned out to be a great idea. It was 60 degrees and sunny on Sunday and we got in a great 3 hour ride on our favorite trails with some good friends. Killer way to end the weekend.

I think I'll be driving down to Plymouth for a race or two this weekend (Cody's going to Man Weekend with his brothers/friends. They're doing a weekend backpacking trip in Northern New Hampshire. In mid-November. With whiskey. I am, obviously, not invited.) My motivation has returned full force for the second part of the season, and I've got plans to increase that acceleration so I can keep up with those surges that hurt so much in NoHo. But I'm also feeling good about the result I had after mixing up my training a little bit the last couple weeks, and am planning on keeping up the running and strength training in the coming weeks too. It makes me feel more strong and balanced, and we could all use more strenght and balance, right?

There's a pretty OK picture of me racing here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.269774206400337.70560.132987496745676&type=1#!/photo.php?fbid=270248683019556&set=a.270247473019677.70709.132987496745676&type=3&theater

Non-Racing

2011-10-24T05:11:00.003-04:00

So after much anticipation and preparation I didn't race Downeast this weekend. On Friday, after a very long work week I decided to skip Saturday to get caught up on those things that I really like to have done when work hits on Monday morning. And I didn't really end up doing too much, because as it turned out I felt kind of crappy all day, and felt really unenthusiastic about racing on Sunday. It took many years of having bad races to realize that when I don't feel like racing, I'm probably too tired/sick/overtrained to have a good race anyway. You know what I mean? Physical fatigue manifests itself emotionally. Then woke up on Sunday with a headache and a sore throat and decided to listen to my body and stay home. Which was good, because I pretty much felt lousy all day. No race next weekend, but the weekend after that is Northampton, which should be fun. Hoping to stay healthy and get in some good training between now and then!

Casco Bay

2011-10-17T05:25:00.005-04:00

After three consecutive weekends of UCI races I went to a regional race up in Portland, ME on Saturday. It was nice to feel that regional race vibe, and ride a course that didn't have to adhere to UCI guidelines. This means - Singletrack! Especially refreshing after the big wide dusty thing that was Providence.

It had rained all week pretty much but ended up being super nice for the weekend. Breezy and cool but sunny, with mud leftover from all the rain. Perfect 'cross, in my opinion. I got in a lap on the course and had a really good warmup. Now, as you know, I've really been focusing on having better starts to my races (I love starts!) so I was determined to get it right. Erm . . . didn't happen. I think I'm thrown off by how I've been starting in too hard a gear, so when I started in a gear I could really accelerate in (for me it was like a 36x19) my upper body was still ready to muscle a big gear, so on the whistle I immediately lifted my front wheel off the ground and almost hit the girl next to me. Crap! There goes the race! Then, I missed my pedal. Now, at UCI race, my day would be done. I mean, I might be able to pass a couple girls here and there, but I would never come close to a podium, or even a top 20. Fortunately this was a 1/2/3/4 race, and it started with a long paved section, followed by a 180 degree turn, more pavement, then some wide stuff before dropping onto singletrack. Big ring, accelerate, pass. I passed all but two girls in the first section of pavement, then one other before the singletrack. That left one girl ahead of me (little 15 year old Ellen Noble), and she was zippy and had a great start. Clawed my way up to her and decided to sit on her wheel a little bit, even though the pace felt a little easy to me (not super easy, it was just a bit of recovery).

Now, there was a big run up on this course. Not super steep, but long, and slippery after the rain. It was followed by some twisty turns, another off camber running section, a few more turns and a fun little singletrack section, then a shorter but equally slippery run up. Right after that you came into the barriers, which were in a super spongy grassy section and directly into a strong headwind. Slooooow. What I'm saying is that it would help to bring your running legs. It would seem that mine forgot to get packed, because even though I was riding strong I was struggling in the runs, and 1st place trotted away from me. I would close the gap down to about 5 seconds during the running-free portion of the course, but it would open back up on that big ol' run up. So I got 2nd.

The lesson is (other than "don't start like an idiot") to not sit in when the pace feels to easy. That's not to say if I'd made a move I would have been able to hold it to the finish, but it would be better than sitting around waiting for her to run away from me. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I drove down to York, ME after the race (after spending about 45 minutes wandering around the Portland Whole Foods with race-brain - not a good idea) whereI met up with Cody for a big camping cookout/potluck/party thing. There were probably 40 people and 20 dogs. Seriously - they all ran around the woods in this big, uncontrolled pack. I only made it until about 9 PM, but fun nonetheless. Then yesterday (sunday) we got out on mountain bikes and took advantage of the wind with a gorgeous sail under sunny skies. Lovely.

Well, duh.

2011-10-11T12:35:00.003-04:00

I just had a revelation - how will I ever get good at CX race starts if I don't like them? Love the start. Love. The. Start. It begins today.

Seriously, I only ever started getting better in crits when I stopped saying, "yeah, I don't like crits." So yeah, I love CX starts. The chaos. The pain. Oh yeah.

And I found out on Sunday that I'm a lot faster off the blocks when I'm in a gear I can actually turn over. No more big ring. Why has it taken me 4 years of racing cross to figure that out? I think everyone just watched me muscling a big gear and chuckled to themselves, "haha, we're not going to tell her the secret of not starting in a huge gear." Thanks guys.

I LOVE STARTS!

Providence

2011-10-10T05:16:00.004-04:00

I'm writing an immediate race report from the races in Providence this weekend so I can move on. Yeah, it was that bad.

Basically, I really, really sucked. I mean, a lot. Which was kind of disappointing after having such great races in Gloucester. I think that was the kicker - such good races the weekend before, and then to find myself off the back again. Blech. But, as my coach reminded me, it's coming at the end of a hard block of training and racing, and I got a bit of late start on my high intensity training for CX. So, I should be going pretty good by December! . . . Anyway, it was hot and dry and a very roadie friendly course. So while I'm glad I went, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was fun.

But, as whenever we have this lousy races, I've spent a good deal of time thinking about what I could have done different in the leadup to the race (I mean, going back a week or so, not 3 months), and while I think my prep was pretty good, it's easy to pick out things I can do to make it better. You know, rest, nutrition, just little ways to improve. And, while it's too early in the season to start saying "next season . . ." sometimes it's these lousy races that sharpen my determination in the long run. Must. Get. Redemption. Next year. Providence.

Anyway, Cody skipped about a thousand awesome things to come down to Providence with me and work the pits and put up with my whiny "why do I suck so much?" conversation on the way home. You know, the endless rehashing and justifying. Poor guy. So pretty much he's awesome, and I wish I could have had a decent race to justify it.

Okay, subject closed.

Gloucester - keepin' it classy.*

2011-10-04T09:50:00.006-04:00

Nearly the first thing I did when we arrived in Gloucester last year was race the Gran Prix of Gloucester, and now we've come back to that point. Full circle, or something . . .

If I were to look exclusively at my placing - 35th and 33rd - I'd think that I was slower than last year. But when I look at the talent of the field I think I'm actually doing better. Certainly there are things that need improvement (like 20 more watts) but by and large I'd say I'm getting faster.

Day 1

I love my team. I've yet to belong to a team that I didn't love, and this group of ladies is no exception. While I was back in the field duking it out for 35th my teammate Andrea Smith was battling with Helen Wyman, the British national champ. That's pretty darn cool. But anyway.

I have this tendency to think I'm doing really well at the start only to find I'm in last place. Day 1 at Gloucester was one of these. Rats. Must. Improve. Starts. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the start is definitely my least favorite part. Not a sprinter. Intensely dislike the feeling of digging myself into such a deep, dark hole in the first 30 seconds of racing. But either I figure it out and get it done, or resign myself to never breaking the top 10. Starts. Will practice. Anyway, Saturday's course was FUN! They built this sweet flyover, and there was some weird sketchy mud leading into it, and those tight off camber turns they put in every year. It was a little hot, in my opinion, and I was pretty parched by the end. Anyway, the big news for my CX racing this year is that I'm totally killing the run ups! I know, right?!?! I've always kind of floundered during the running parts, but this weekend I was PASSING PEOPLE on the gnar Gloucester run up. On the last lap I passed Vicki Thomas, only to have her get back on her bike faster on top of the flyover (d'oh!) and beat me by 10 seconds or so. I ran more this year than I've ever run before. And I trained it, doing track workouts, and plyometrics. And it worked!!! In an effort to not let people think I'd gone over to the dark side and become a "runner" I kept saying that I was just training my run for CX, and as it turned out, I was! Okay, I'll shut up about it, but the truth is I'm really psyched.

Day 2

The course on Sunday was a little less technical, no flyover and it was dry, but super fun, lots of turns, and a beach run/ride that lead to a big ol' set of stairs. Now, I was kind of dreading the stairs, but since it turns out I'm like the Usain Bolt of cyclocross, it actually worked to my advantage.

Anyway, determined as I was to have a good start, I didn't. I lined up on Lyne Bessette's wheel - bad idea? I dunno, but right after the whistle the girl to my right promptly ran into me and then moved into my line. Bitch. But then I popped out of my pedal. Uh, yeah. I'd sprayed some lube on my cleats to keep them from mudding up and then I kept popping out of my pedals. And I think they still mudded up. I just. Can't. Win.

I passed a bunch of girls on the first lap, then gave up a couple places. My legs weren't as snappy as on Saturday (well, no duh), but I had a good race. I kept it together and stayed upright as people fell over all around me in the corners and the sand. One girl passed me at the beginning of the last lap, then fell over on the beach and I darted around her and totally dropped her going up the stairs. I know, I know, I'm awesome (kidding!). Of course then someone else passed me and out-cornered me to such a degree that she opened up 15 seconds in in the last half lap. So starts and cornering. Yes, I will work on these things.

Anyway, big big thanks to all the friends who came out to cheer and tell me I'm awesome! And to Cody for pitting for me and telling me to "go faster", "dig", and "get on that wheel" so many times that I wanted to throw my bike at him.

Oh, and if you missed it on facebook, I made Cyclingnews:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/nepcx-gran-prix-of-gloucester-2-2011/elite-women/photos/192802

Or at least, part of me did.

*Note on the title:

On day 2 the course had to be re-routed due to a backed up septic system and pools of veryverybad water on course. Then later I heard that some bikes were stolen out of the parking lot? And it just left me with the feeling that Gloucester is like Reno - everyone who visits it thinks that is kind of quaint, somewhat delinquent, a decent place to visit but why the hell would you want to live there anyway? It gave me that warm feeling that I felt towards Reno - that which you'd feel for your slightly unstable second-cousin with a police record on unemployment. Sure, you wouldn't want to lend them your car, or money, but they're family so, like, you've gotta love them a little bit, right?

Nor'easter - from High to Low

2011-09-27T07:50:00.005-04:00

I showed Cody this picture and all he could do was make fun of my Alfalfa hair . . .

Ahhh, Nor'easter Cross. What can I possibly have to say about my first DFL at a UCI race? I know, I'm as surprised as the next person to realize that I've never come in last at a UCI race before! But that streak is, alas, over.

I think the cosmos were trying to warn me not to go - I'd felt wiped out the whole week, not really training at all, then, at 10 the night before the girl I was going to carpool with texted me that she was bailing. Not to be deterred, I got up nice and early on race day (did I mention it's a 4 hour drive to Burlington, VT?) to take a shower, and when I was toweling off my hair I heard a crunch and my neck got all out of whack. Again, I persevered, loading up the car, eating breakfast, etc. The drive up wasn't too bad, all in all. Got out for a couple laps on course and, erm, it was really muddy. I mean, look at the pictures on Cyclingnews or wherever, it was muddy. And it was the kind of mud that is really, really hard to ride through. You keep turning the pedals but you're pretty much not moving. And there were two long sandpits. Of the running variety. I mean, it was a fun course and all, but at this point my perspective has been distorted by what a dreadful race I had. Anyway, got on my trainer for a little warm up, and when I climbed down to get ready to race my head started throbbing. Like, instant onset headache. At this point I'm thinking, "God damnit, I drove 4 hours to get up here and I'm going to race and finish in the money!" Which, props to Adam Myerson, the Verge series, and the race promotor, was equal for the men and women for the 15 places it ran in the women's race.

Last row call up, of course. Did I mention that Helen Wyman was there? Yeah, the British national champion. Yeah. She won. But I digress. The whistle blows and I'm not in a big enough gear but I figured it was going to all bog down in the first turn so I didn't need to panic. Then I find myself in last place going into the first turn. OK, I can move up, look at all those people right there? I passed one girl, got on my teammate's wheel, and hoped for opportunities to move up. Then . . . it just kind of fell apart. I was going as hard as I could but it just wasn't happening. My head felt like it was going to explode, my stomach was exceedingly unhappy with me, and I just wasn't having much fun. With one lap to go the sole person I'd passed at the beginning passed me back, and that was that. During that last lap my train of thinking was along the lines of, "I should really just downgrade, I'd have more fun racing with the amateurs, I suck at this." I know, bad thoughts, but the mental game can be the hardest part when you're rolling in DFL. I suppose the good news is that I actually finished, and didn't get lapped by Helen. In retrospect, perhaps it would have been better if I'd pulled out on lap one, given the 4 hours of misery that were to follow.

I felt like I was about to pass out after I finished, so I immediately rode over to the bike wash to get cleaned up and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. I didn't cool down (I told myself that my entire last lap had been a cool down. ha. haha. yeah.), but I hung out with my teammates for a few minutes while they did. I had some recovery drink. Then I hit the road. I talked to my dad on the phone whilst meandering my way through Burlington and probably running over someone's cat/child/foot in my somewhat distracted and unhappy state. Once rolling I started feeling really, really lousy. Head throbbing, stomach seriously unhappy with the state of affairs. And I had 4. Hours. To. Go. I'm not really sure how I made it home. It involved occasional stops for light napping and puking out the car door. It involved a whole lot of silence because every little sound hurt oh, so much. Somehow I made it home by 10, crawled into bed, covered in mud, and failure, and probably vomit. But oh! The joy of stillness and quiet.

Anyway, needless to say I should have listened to the signs and stayed home, and most of my Sunday and Monday involved continued recovery from whatever it is I did to myself on Saturday. I even called in sick yesterday, the first time I've done that since I started my job in January. I'll get out on my bike today and hopefully be able to salvage a little something for the Grand Prix of Gloucester this weekend. I love this race, let's hope it loves me back more than the Nor'easter did.

Northern Kingdom

2011-09-21T05:21:00.008-04:00

I wanna go back!!!

One week ago today I was camping outside of East Burke, VT. I'd wake up that day, drink good coffee and eat oatmeal, and go ride brand new (to me) singletrack for 3 hours with Cody and Riley. We'd get back to camp and eat whole wheat pasta with our homemade pesto, about a pound of bacon, and good romano cheese. And drink beer.

(Today I woke up at 4, came to work, and am currently drinking bad coffee - there's something about the Turbo Shots that Dunkin' Donuts put in their coffee that make me feel all hella cracked out. I mean, more than normal espresso. 'S weird. I currently find myself grooving to a La Bouche song at 5:30 AM, inspite of my better judgement.)

Anyway, needless to say it was a totally fantastic vacation - complete with sitting around a fire drinking beer and making s'mores. I think we spent about 12 hours riding ripping trails while we were there. My legs still hurt. A couple friends from Gloucester came up to camp and ride with us. One of them compiled some pretty fun videos from her helmet cam. Mostly there's just some shots of my butt, but you can see Cody getting rad over a couple jumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuFW3AFk8-A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6E0MkmkH4U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlIhj2ulyjE

On Thursday me and Cody spent almost 4 hours riding in a downpour. It actually was one of the funnest days, trail-wise. It was slippery with all the wet roots, but god those trails are fun.

New Christmas card photo???

After that picture was taken we went out and split a medium pepperoni pizza, an order of mozzerella sticks, and an order of french fries. Yeah. It was a lot of cheese. But it takes a lot of cheese to stay warm whilst camping in Northern Vermont in September. And with 3+ hours of hard riding each day I think Iate like, 10K calories a day and came back a pound or two down from when we'd left. Hey, it's race season, I gotta keep tabs on these things.

Anyway, the downside of taking a few days off work to go play is that I'm super busy and utterly vacation-hungover this week. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to heading BACK up to Burlington, VT this weekend for the Nor'Easter UCI cyclocross race. Two words for you: Euro Pros. Yeah, Crossresults has my ranked LAST on race predictor. Sad face. But I guess I can only do bettter than that, right???

Dude, Reno, what the hell? Why can't you get in the news for something not terrible? Seriously, the economy? Suicide rates? Mass involuntary aeronautical vehicular manslaughter? (Not that Gloucester is much better.) I tell this story a lot, but back in 2002 a dude crashed his plane out at the Air Races, and, well, died. I saw his picture in the paper and he was this guy who I'd waited on at The Diner out in Golden Valley (that's in Reno, for you non-Reno-ites). Anyway, he had been a jerk and had tipped me like, 51 cents, so I remembered his face. Then, well, you know the story. Life's weird, huh?

On a lighter note - did anyone watch the Pats game on Sunday? Did you see Wilfork's interception? Look it up on Youtube. It's priceless.

This digression brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts Turbo Shots.

Finally!

2011-09-12T17:37:00.008-04:00

I think . . . yes, I do believe it is - a race report!

QUAD CROSS!

Yesterday I did my first cyclocross race of 2011 (it was, in fact, only my 6th race of the year. period.). Cody earned Awesome Boyfriend points by getting up super early after an extremely late night (more on that later) to drive me out to the Rod 'n' Gun Club in Maynard, MA.
Yada yada yada - driving, arriving, registration.

I got to meet a few more of my awesome and exceedingly speedy teammates, then I headed out to check out the course. It was super fun, with a couple little ups, a long decent, a longish but not overly difficult run-up, a bit of sand, one set of barriers, and some fun loopty turns on a grassy slope. And some fun singletrack through the woods! After a couple tire pressure adjustments and a good warm-up I was ready to go!

There were 76 women racing (compare that to the 30 women I counted in the results from CCCX - hells yeah New England!) - 20 or so in the Elites, a bunch of 3/4s and masters. And we were all on this little 2 km course at the same time, with 20 or so juniors. Cluster. I don't have a better suggestion, and I've put on enough races to know that if you want it different then put on a race and see how hard it is, then you'll quit the bitching. But by lap 3 (for me) there was some serious traffic. Not a big deal as far as my race went (realistically) but I feel bad for the little guys and girls who had to move over for people 3x their size going by at mach 10.

But onto my race . . .

I had an OK start, but made some good passes and ended up sitting in about 9th about halfway through the first lap!!! I could see my teammate, the uber-fast and nice Christina Tamilio up a little ways from me, and I was sitting on Allison Snooks' wheel. Feeling good and maybe, a little cocky, I passed her on the big-ring descent. That may have been a mistake, which I realized as she passed me back before too long and when I came through the finish and saw 4 to go. 4? 4?!?! I was not riding at a 4 laps to go pace. More a last lap kind of kill-myself pace. So I cracked a little, lost Allison's wheel (we'd long since lost sight of Christina) and fell off the pace. Before too long teammate Nancy came by. I tried to stick with her but it was not to be, apparently. Did battle with some NEBC girls, and had kind of found a good rhythm. Then. I dropped my chain. I had gotten a little sloppy with my shifting and didn't downshift before entering the single track. Mistake. Anyway, I got it kind of jammed up and had to get off my bike and pull it out. Got passed by another NEBC girl and caught by Anna Milkowski. At that point I think we had 2 to go, and while I didn't catch anyone, I didn't get caught by anyone else. I rolled in for 14th, with teammates in 3rd, 5th, and 10th.

Weeeeee! Cyclocross is sooooo fun! And I had a REALLY GOOD RACE for 2 laps. Then it fell apart, but if I can just hold things together and not go all in on the first lap I think I can scrape together a couple top 10's this year! And my bike handling felt really good, same with my CX skills. Yay! Come on, UCI point! And my team is awesome, and our director/coach said I can use his bike as a pit bike all season long! It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there how one can be totally psyched by 10 minutes of feeling like a fast, competant bike racer, even if your result is only mediocre. For the mere mortal among us, incremental improvement is still improvement, and still reason to feel excited and encouraged.

Moving on, because really, anything that's not cyclocross is pretty much an afterthought at this point. On Saturday we went to a lovely beach wedding and wore fancy dress and danced with lovely friends and family. The wedding was early and I was in bed by 9:30, but Cody went out with his bro's and didn't get back until 2 AM, then got up at 6:30 to drive me to my race and play bike mechanic/cheerleader/chauffeur duty. Here's my "See? Sometimes I wear something other than workout clothes" picture.

Now getting ready for 5 days of camping and 168 miles of singletrack up at Kingdom Trails in Northern VT. And no, it didn't get washed away.

News!

2011-08-24T08:02:00.004-04:00

And the (kind of) big news that I've been too busy and/or lazy and/or distracted to announce to the internet world is . . . ! I managed to weasel my way onto a sweet new team! I'll be racing for LadiesFirst Racing. They're (we're?) a women's (duh) Massachusetts based team that focuses on cyclocross, although a number of the ladies also do a fair amount of road as well. Having support and teammates and coaching is going to be rad. I'm pretty much stoked.

I can never really figure what people are thinking when they decide to support me in some way or another. I feel like the things I put on resumes always sound cooler than they really are, and so I must be misleading people. I'm not making stuff up, it just sounds more impressive on paper than the event actually was. So when I was talking to the team director, who's also my new coach, he asked me about my power zones. I haven't actually done a power test in a year or so, so I just kind of guessed. I mean, it was an educated guess, but a fairly optimistic one. After I got off the phone I was a little worried that I might have oversold myself. Oh well, I guess if I'm not that fit then we'll find out soon enough, right? So yesterday on my ride I was gratified find that if anything I'd underestimated. I know, right? I am worthy.

Anyway, I should be racing this sunday, right when whatever's left of Hurricane Irena hits us. Epic.

The Call of the Road

2011-08-10T06:18:00.005-04:00

Ever since last January when the dark days of winter enveloped New England in more ice and snow and clouds than I care to remember I struggled with the decision of what to do with myself, bike racing-wise.

"Do I want to race road bikes?" Hells yes, but it either meant lots of trainer time (not a chance) or a late start to the season. Coming from the NCNCA and lots of fabulous early spring racing that was a hard concept for me to grasp. Additionally, I was a little spoiled coming from the NCNCA. I wanted a Copperopolis, a Wente road race, not some silly circuit race. Ignorant to the ins and outs of racing in New England, I didn't know what I wanted to commit to, to peak for, and how to train for it. Plus, I didn't have a team - I didn't even know who the teams around here were (still don't, I guess). So that inevitably lead to the question,

"Do I want to race mountain bikes?" This seemed like a fun option, given my lack of team and my obsession with east coast mountain biking. The biggest detractor here was cost. I'd have to buy my UCI license (which I'll have to get before CX anyway, but that's beside the point) and the entry fees are more than most road events I've done. My bike, as much as I love it, also needed some help - I'm currently running a 3 year old chain and cassette, and really, really need new tires. Like, really. It adds up.

Of course, one thing was not in question - Cyclocross. I knew whatever else I did I wanted to race 'cross. We have something like 15 UCI races in New England this year, and it's about $200 bucks to fly to Wisconsin in January (brrrrrr!).

Tonight I'll go race my first criterium if 2011. It also happens to be my second road race of the year, 3rd bike race, and probably my 5th competitive event of 2011. Whoa. I did more racing in my 1st year of racing, when I wasn't even sure I was a racer.

So what do I want to do next year??? The same questions/excuses/problems present themselves in answer.

Instead of doing 5 hour rides and spending more than I can afford racing my bike this year, I did lots of fun rides in the woods, went snowboarding, learned to go off a 4 foot drop, went downhilling, read a lot, ran a lot, raced a 5k and a duathlon, hung out with friends and family, worked on my core and upper body strength, watched a World Cup MTB race, watched a slopestyle competition (wow, spectating!!! When's the last time that happened?), played capture the flag, didn't stress about standing on my feet for prologned periods, didn't stress out about what I was eating (I still eat super duper healthy, but don't worry so much about what goes in the day before a race), established myself as a personal trainer through a highly regarded organization, went swimming as much as I could and went sailing. Probably some other things, too. It was rad. I've had a great summer and spring (pretty much everything since the snow melted). I've had time to do the things I never get to do in the summers, and spend time with people who are important to me.

But . . . every time I log onto Cyclingnews, or NorCal Cycling News (yes, I still check out, somewhat obsessively, what's going on in the NCNCA), and any number of blogs I read on a regular basis, I get this pang of longing. It's the same way I feel when I think about the mountains to the west of Reno, or my friends and family who aren't on the east coast, or Cody when one of us is away for a few days. I miss road racing the way I'd miss a person, or a significant and dear geological feature (haha).

So I'm not making any promises or commitments. I'm not saying I'm going to race a full season of road. (I AM going to race a full season of cyclocross, which may or may not include nationals.) I'm not positive I'm ready to give up having another summer of frivolity. I just want to put this out there as a reminder to myself, come January, what it will feel like to spend another season off the road. Maybe the commitments will come then, or maybe sooner, but it's good to get it down, sort through the pros and cons and how I feel about it.

Almost Time!

2011-08-04T07:53:00.008-04:00

Ah yes, the nights are getting cooler, the days shorter (which sucks, but whatever), summer seems to be winding down. I love summertime - the heat, the long days, swimming in some body of water every day I can. But as summer ends it's time for cyclocross, and that makes up for losing those long days and all the fun stuff that comes with it. Plus, fall in New England is pretty rad. Last year was my first fall here and between the colors on the trees and the lovely (bug-free) cool-but-not-cold weather it makes for a really nice season. I guess it was the same way out in Reno - fall Tahoe riding is pretty much the best. It's also football season, which I'm mildly ashamed to say makes me pretty happy. (My 16 year old self would be mortified by this admission, but she's too busy putting on more black eyeliner and dying her hair so I don't think she'll notice.)

Well, I registered for a crit next Wednesday - the Witch's Cup, in Salem. It'll be the first crit I've done in over a year. Ouch. But it's a women's cat 1-4 field, so I'm sure I won't be either the sketchiest or the slowest person out there. Goals for this event include not riding like a ninny and keeping the rubber side down. But it's good speed work for CX. Other than the fact that Salem is 20 minutes from home, I decided to do it because some business stepped up to sponsor the women's race, which was notable absent from last night's Grand Prix of Beverly. The other crit I'll be participating in this year is the TD Bank Mayor's Cup because last year they offered equal prize money for men and women and hardly anyone showed up and I want to support an event that does that even though I'll probably get shelled on the first lap when Laura Van Gilder attacks. Damnit. But it'll be sweet to race in downtown Boston, and it's part of this big Boston Cycling festival thing, so it sounds like fun. Even skipping a UCI2 CX race to be there and support it. Rubber side down, don't ride like a ninny, rubber side down, don't ride like a ninny (my crit racing mantra). I know, it has some logistical flaws, but whatever.

In other exciting news I seem to be generating some good power on the bike, which is nice. I say "seem to be" because I haven't been riding with my powertap, because, uh, I just haven't. With nationals in January this year I'm trying not to stress about numbers in August, or I'll probably be wicked burned out by the time it counts.

Oh yes, have you met my lovely new bike? I usually refrain from naming inanimate objects, because I have a hard enough time coming up with names for furry ones with eyes, but this one is Cap'n America, since it's red white and blue. It's kind of supposed to be ironic. At any rate, it's a hella sick bike and I can't freaking wait to go race it.

2 months, listed.

2011-06-20T19:43:00.005-04:00

So, it's been, what? Two months since I last blogged? I am sooo on top of my shit.

In the last two months I have done the following, in no particular order:

Run a 5K, and won my category.

Raced a MTB race, and came in DFL in the pro women.

Ordered a new cyclocross bike (thanks, Dad!). It should be here this week. In exchange I had to tell Cody that he could get a dirt bike. Okay, he probably would have done it without me being "ok" with it, but I gave him my blessing. And told him he has to motopace me. It'll be a dualsport - street legal, you know.

Ridden my XC bike on the DH trails at Highlands MTB park in New Hampshire (it was hella sick).

De-gooked a blocked composting toilet - it's actually much, much, much worse than it sounds.

Missed the Nevada City Classic. I didn't really do anything but sit around and feel sad about not being there with all my friends and family and racing buddies. It sucked.

Done lots and lots of MTBing, and learned to drop some little 2 footers, plus I've been rocking all the stuff around here that used to scare me enough to hike it.

Trained, actually. And my fitness is actually coming along surprisingly well.

Looked into plane tickets to Vegas in September for a little cyclocross race they have out there. Followed by a party that I rarely enjoy but always look forward to, for some reason.

Been hired as personal trainer to a number of new clients.

Watched a lot of hockey, for some reason (go Bruins!). <<<< Bandwagon-jumping.

Picked about 1000 ticks off of poor Riley.

Picked 0 ticks off of Big Kitty and Little Bit, as they still refuse to go outside. I think they're afraid of the chickens.

Almost broke my leg playing Capture the Flag. I had the flag (in this case a ski pole, for maximum unsafety) and I was running through a rutted field. My foot went in a rut and I landed with my shin on a big rock. Currently my left lower leg is like, twice as big as my right, and blue. Fan-tastic.

Put together a rousing Keg Hunt for a bunch of drunk people. Like a treasure hunt, but in this case the treasure was a keg of Bud. Uhh, right. That was the same day, but before Capture the Flag. To be clear, I was perfectly sober at the time of the leg-wrecking. In fact, I was perfectly sober all night long. Being a bike racer (even one who doen't race) is so exciting.

Been awoken at obscene hours of the morning by the goddamn Guinea Hen. Have you ever heard a Guinea Hen? Ours is flipping retarded, and makes horrible, horrible noises all the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMUQckEa_ME But they eat ticks. Lately I think they've been distracted because the girl Guinea is sitting on eggs and the male thinks that if he makes stupid noises all the time that we'll go after him and leave the girl in peace. We don't harrass the girl Guinea, we just sometimes go within like, 20 feet of her and he flips out. Anyway, they've been slacking on the tick eating lately. I'll be speaking to their supervisor, you can count on it.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that my longest bullet point was about Guinea Hens. I'm inclined to think that it's kind of awesome, actually.

This weekend we're headed back up to Highlands to watch the Claymore Slopestyle Contest - it's going to be sick. Hella, wicked, sick. Then we'll come back to Gloucester and watch some Greasy-Pole action. You know you want to click on the link . . .

I am not a Multisport Athlete

2011-04-28T07:04:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I went to Ashland! Uh, Ashland, MA. Oregon would have been way radder. Although it was raining! . . . .

Anyway.

I went to race a duathlon. I'd been practicing at the shooting range, but then I remembered that it's only in a biathlon that you get to pack heat.

That's a joke, by the way.

So this race was pretty short - 2 mile trail run, 6.5 mile MTB, 2 mile trail run. Let's just get this out of the way and say that while I enjoy running very much, I'm not very fast. For the first two miles I did about 7:45 minute miles. For the second two miles, after the bike, I think I did 10 minute miles. It was a pretty cool event, and I won some Hammer Heed and got a pretty cool shirt. I remember thinking, during the second run, that, "oh, okay, now I've got all this running out of my system and I can just ride my bike until it starts snowing again."

Anyway, I've finally made a friend outside of Cody's circle of childhood friends and their girlfriends/wives. She's a runner and triathlete (I know, I know, and she's SUCH a triathlete, too, but whaddya gonna do?). Anyway, I'm helping her with her bike and she's helping me run faster. I think it'll help a lot in cyclocross, since I always ~~look like a small retarded child during the runs~~ struggle with the runs.

I know, that was extremely offensive to small retarded children who probably run much faster than me. (not politically correct)

Moving on. I don't really want to end my post with such an insensitive comment, but to be honest I don't really have anything to add.

Okay, I thought of something.

We took The Boat out night before last. Cody's brother has a little boat with a filthy smoking two stroke on it that I always feel really bad about participating in the running of (not gramatically correct). But being able to go out on the ocean is one of the few things that make not living in the mountains acceptable. We need a sailboat. I can't wait to go sailing this summer. Did I mention how warm it was yesterday? It was warm enough to get muggy. Ah, the humidity. Oh East Coast, you're so messed up.

In other news . . .

2011-04-19T16:13:00.000-04:00

I'm taking down my road race schedule.

I'll be doing some road racing, but I don't really have a plan. I still want to do Green Mt. Stage Race, definitely still planning for a killer CX season, so my season goals remain unchanged. I guess I'm just having fun riding and running and having a life. I'm still figuring this place, and my life here, out. It's hard to be single minded when there's so much new stuff to learn every day. I'll get back to it, I'm just having fun right now. And - I firmly believe that as long as I keep riding and running and being generally active, my cycling-specific fitness will never be far away. Call me naive, but I'm feeling pretty good about my choices, even if it makes me sound a little flaky.

Springtime in Massachusetts

2011-04-19T15:12:00.001-04:00

I know, it hasn't been quite a month since I last posted something. But I feel like I've been collecting these little kernels of interest and haven't had a chance to share them yet.

It's finally spring. Like, really, truly, spring. Last Wednesday it poured rain all day. When I looked out the window the next morning everything had turned green. Later that day on my ride I saw tulips just starting to blossom. When I rode home from work that evening they were in full bloom. It's amazing what can happen in the space of a day.

I know I've mentioned this before, but the way a place smells is more evocative to me than the sights or sounds. Reno smelled like sage and rabbit brush (which, as a result of my 9 years there, smells like home), riding in the SF bay area smells like eucalyptus trees, Chico smells like oaks, driving down the central valley for a bike race smells like, erm, kind of gross, but evokes so many memories of traveling to Madera and Kern, and all those other central valley events. When there are forest fires and the air is smokey it always brings me back to growing up in Quincy - one particular fall where there were lots of fires and the valley filled with smoke, and I hung out with friends on a railroad bridge out Hwy 70.

I haven't yet determined what Massachusetts smells like. I guess I'm not familiar enough yet with the plant species, and there are probably too many different ones to pick out just one that screams at me. In the fall it smelled like decomposing leaves. Mostly it smells like wet dirt and growing things. It's always wet here. You know, classic east coast humidity. Even when it's dry it's wet. In the summer it smells like mosquitos and midges - there's so many bugs that when you go to take a deep breath you suck them up your nose. I know, pleasant. There's the smell of the marsh, which is pretty quintessentially New England - it smells like ocean, and marsh grass, and mud. It's full of life, though, and not just biting insects.

But winter was devoid of anything but the smell of cold. That smell where everything is frozen, and the air hurts your nose because it's so cold, and everything smells like diesel exhaust from the plows, and the exhaust mingles with the sand and salt in the snow piles on the sides of the road. When you're riding your bike and cars drive by you taste the salt they lay on the roads, and you taste it on your water bottle from the spray of your tires. The snow and ice take so long to melt that you can't remember the last time you saw dirt. Just dirt. Something other than pavement or ice. And then that first patch thaws, and there's this moment of incredible disbelief that you've survived winter. There had been days when you had ceased to believe spring would ever come. Day by day you see more brown earth until you can finally smell it. Wet dirt and decomposing leaves smell so good after a long winter of darkness and cold. And then you wake up one morning and it is really, truly springtime after all. You smell grass and growing things again, and it's amazing.

And now we've made it. Sure it's a little chilly and rainy, but I don't have to disconnect my water every night so it won't freeze, and there isn't a single patch of snow left. The trails are open for business, the roads are, well, still sandy and full of pot holes. But the trails are perfect, and we've been taking full advantage.

Yesterday was the Boston Marathon. Every time I watch a marathon (on TV - the Athens Olympics and now this one) I want to run one. I'm sure it would take me 5 hours. How can anyone not be inspired by that kind of athleticism and determination? How on earth can a human being run 26 miles in 2 hours? It's beautiful. And while they didn't throw down any 4 minute miles, my friends that went out there and put in blazing times totally inspire me, too. Anyway, next year I'm taking work of and going in to watch - something like that just has to be seen.

Is a Blogpost

2011-04-02T07:54:00.001-04:00

Ahh, Saturday. Ever since I rearranged my work schedule and don't have to work on Saturday mornings, the day has gotten a lot lazier. Two weeks ago I worked from 6 AM to 10 AM, then came home and did an 80 mile solo bike ride. It was rad. I felt good about life. Today I'm sitting around writing a blog post that no one will read and drinking coffee. Later I will ride for 3-4 hours. Tomorrow I have a 95 mile ride planned, but it snowed here yesterday so I'm giving the northern roads that I plan on venturing to a day to melt and dry off. It should be lovely today, as well as tomorrow - high of 45º! I know, heat wave in California right now, 80 in Reno, 45 feels pretty good to me after wading through 4" of slush yesterday. Blech.

Cody's away for work for another week in Philadelphia - doesn't even get to come home for the weekend! Bunk. So I'm left to my socially reclusive self. Sweet. Me and the dog, cats, and my bikes of course. Bikes are good company.

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in 10.5 years. Yes, 10 and a half years. The last time I went was December of 2000. Before I graduated high school. Yes, I said 10.5 years. Sorry, everyone always does a double take when I say that, but I want you to know that it's no typo. In spite of my relaxed approach to oral hygiene and my infrequent (haha, understatement) dental check ups, my mouth is in pretty rad shape. I went in because I lost a filling in August 2009 and it has hurt ever since. Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot to have waited so long to check it out, but my state of employment has been spotty in the interim. Anyway, that one needs a root canal (I know, I'm totally terrified, too) but otherwise I must be doing something right. I know, no one gives a shit about my visit to the dentist, but I'm pretty psyched that I don't need 10K worth of work so I'm sharing it with the world. yay me!

And if you've made it this far then you deserve to be rewarded by my mediocre photography. Enjoy.

This is my back yard. Literally. Pretty freaking gorgeous, no? Now maybe some understanding of why the HELL I live in this tick-infested, ice covered, 3rd-world-country-quality-roads region of New England.

Since Cody is gone for another week we downloaded Skype and got to have a video conversation. It's weird being able to see a little picture of myself while I talk, and I honestly found it so distracting looking at my doofy facial expressions that I spent more time looking at myself than him. I know, I know . . .

And finally! The first photo I've ever taken of my food that looks even remotely appetizing, even though I set my food on the floor amongst the varmints to do so (yes, my floor consists of mostly-painted plywood - I live in a barn, what do you want from me?). Or, so I think, but maybe that's because I got to eat it and it was AWESOME! It was my first attempt at Vietnamese food - brown rice vermicelli over farm-fresh New England lettuce (grown in a green house - it's nice having a not-brother-in-law who is running a CSA this year) with cucumbers that are probably from Mexico. Anyway, that one has baked tofu and a dressing with rice wine vinegar, carrots, and some other stuff. And then topped with copious amounts of Sriracha, of course.

Continuing my attempt to cook food that isn't Italian/Mexican/American I purchased some Bob's Red Mill teff flour at the store yesterday and tried to make some Ethiopian food. Erm, I don't think I did the injera right (you know, the pancake that you scoop everything up with) because it didn't ever really set and just turned into a gross teff flour pudding. Uck. No. But I cooked some lentils and made a salad with the most bomb-tastic (wasn't life better when we could say that things were 'da bomb' without ridicule? Yes, yes it was) dressing that was just as good as the stuff that I got at the Ethiopian place in Reno (which is GREAT and you should go there and try it - Zagol, on 4th St.). Anyway, I must figure out how to make proper injera, and then I'll try to take another appetizing floor-photo.

Not a Blogpost

2011-03-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm slacking. But I figured I'd go race last weekend and have some great report about that. Sadly, no. Might I suggest that if you want to go to your first race of the season with only 3 weeks of base training in your legs, you might want to start with something easier than jumping in with P1/2 men (unless you are a p1/2 man, of course). Dude, they were attacking off the line. What the hell? I didn't make it too far, but I'm totally OK with that. You can't be bummed with your fitness when you haven't been doing your homework.

Anyway, I have some pictures and stuff to post, but I'm more interested in getting out on my bike ride this afternoon than attending to my blog. I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that I posted my 2011 Season Goals on the sidebar. Please ridicule me extensively should I fail to achieve these goals, especially if the failure is due to my own misconduct (i.e. eating an entire bowl of cookie dough, not training, not stretching, not foam rolling, etc.). However, if I flat in the time trial at the Green Mountain Stage Race and have to walk the whole thing, please don't ridicule me. It will probably make me cry, and then we'll both feel awkward.

Wednesday, Blogday - and FOOD!

2011-03-16T07:27:00.001-04:00

I've been waiting to update the ol' blog. Waiting for what, I dunno. Inspiration? Some rad photos? Perhaps to grow up enough to no longer say "rad" every other sentence? (Pshaw, right, like that's going to happen.)

Anyway, devoid of inspiration and the ability to take rad photos, uninteresting and random updates will have to do.

I'm finally getting in some solid training. It feels so good to have tired legs. First race is in a week and a half! I was very sweetly assured by a local former Jittery Joe's pro and Seaside Cycle fit guru that I won't get dropped in the men's 1/2/3 race and if I stick with he and his teammate I'll be safe. I'm not sure where he gets that level of confidence in my fitness, but I'd hate to disappoint.

I'm working too much, but there's no help for that. This is the first day I've had off since last Wednesday, and the next day I have off is NEXT wednesday. But some of them are short days and there is always time for a good ride.

I keep meaning to write a blog post about food. A cyclist talking about food? Erm, not original. We all love to eat, and many of us love to cook. I just made some yummy baked cinnamon oatmeal cakes to have with my coffee. I keep thinking about taking pictures of the food I cook because I tend to make up recipes as I go along and 9 times out of 10 they turn out fantastic. Really, they do. Ask Cody. And if he tells you otherwise let me know and I'll straighten him out.

The problem is, I'm beginning to realize, that I am an abysmal photographer. I cook some great meal and take a picture of it and it's, uh, kind of gross looking. Now, before anyone starts giving me tips on how to take artfully constructed culinary photos, just stop. I appreciate the thought, but I don't think we all have to be good at everything, and if I'm a lousy photographer then whatever. I'll leave the picture taking up to someone else. Or I'll just post pictures of really unappetizing looking food and insist time and time again that it was actually really good. And you'll believe me, right? Because why would I lie?

Here is a superb example. Spaghetti and meat-less balls, with shredded parmesan cheese. They were way yummy, and the meatballs I made for Cody reportedly turned out great too, despite the fact that I didn't taste them at any point during the cooking process. But they just look . . . well, use your imagination. I think the lighting must just really suck in my house, because it looks equally bad whether I use the flash or not. Whatever, moving on.

On the subject of food and meat-less balls, I'm a mostly-vegetarian. I've been eating some fish (I live in a fishing town, it's too good to say no) and think that dining with friends is too valuable to turn down food that was cooked for me even if it contains the odd furry friend. But honestly I think I've only had non-fish meat twice in the last 8 months. But I won't eat lobster because boiling any animal alive is just abhorrent.

Moving on.

I had thoughts to share on the subject of cycling and living the dream, but they'll have to wait for next time, because the longer I wait to ride the more likely I'm going to get poured on. I've heard reports of a "hill" worthy of "repeating" over in Georgetown, so I'm on reconnaissance today. Fingers crossed for a steep grade!

The Amazing Changing Calendar

2011-03-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

2011 racing calendar has changed, again. So many races, so little time. I'd really like to find a public forum to openly criticize the Tour of Connecticut organizers for not having a single women's field. WTF?

Cape Cod

2011-03-09T07:17:00.000-05:00

Oh bikes. I love bikes. Love love love.

Last weekend we went down to Cape Cod to find some snow-free trails. I'd never been, so it was a pretty cool little road trip. The first day we rode something called Trail of Tears, because the trial descriptor said it was the more technical trail in the area. It ended up being pretty fast and flowy, really fun, and not particularly technical. And there was hardly anyone out there, which seemed a little surprising on a Saturday. Weee! Singletrack and sunshine.

We spent the night in Hyannis at an Econolodge. There's a weird feel to these tourist-driven-economy places in the off season, but it was nice that it wasn't totally jam packed. I mean, I guess Gloucester is pretty tourism-heavy, but there's also a ton of commercial fishing, so it has a little more life in the winter.

Anyway, on Sunday we rode Otis, which is what they call the trails that border Otis Air Force Base. That solved the riddle of why there wasn't anyone on Trail of Tears the day before. The trails on Otis were soooooo much fun! More technical than ToT, by far, but super fast, too. Fun little rock drops off to the side of the trail, and steep, long-ish (by east coast standards) climbs and descents. And it was sunny and gorgeous and I was way overdressed in my long sleeved jersey and knickers. I didn't even BRING a short sleeved jersey with me, that's how long we've been stuck here in the cold. It didn't even occur to me. But I'm happy overheating a bit if it means the sun is shining. Rad. So rad.

This weekend we might to up to York, ME to visit some friends. I think I'll ride up there. It sounds pretty cool to say I rode in 3 states on one ride (MA, NH, ME), even if it's only 62 miles. But I have no endurance at this point so 62 miles will be a good grunt.

Wednesday is Saturday

2011-03-02T12:35:00.000-05:00

Wednesday is the only day I have allll to myself. I sleep in, drink coffee, lay about. Then a ride, thinking about cleaning the house, cooking, reading about the bike racing goings-on back in California. It's my day to get caught up on sleep and me-time from rough Monday and Tuesday work schedule (finish work at 9 PM on Monday, have to be back there at 4:45 AM on Tuesday).

We ended up with some yellow ~~tulips~~daffodils that smell amazing and I have sitting right next to the computer for optimal scent inundation.

It's kind of yucky out - windy and rainy - and I'll probably log a bit of trainer time today. I've become so wimpy about the cold this year, and I can't figure out why. Part of me thinks that I was all tough in past years because I already had good conditioning and I was motivated to maintain it. This year I'm still trying to log some base and there isn't really much to maintain. I'm putting it all down to experience and hoping that I'll know how to plan next year a little better. I've been thinking about mountain bike racing a lot lately. Maybe it's because the road riding around here is only so-so, and the mountain biking is wicked fun. Maybe I've just been looking at old mountain bike photos. Anyway, the plan is to go ride down in Cape Cod this weekend. I'm pretty stoked - never been down there, so it's all new to me!

Old photo, lousy resolution, but oh, the blue sky and singletrack. . .

Spring Preview

2011-02-20T10:03:00.000-05:00

So, we live on Cape Ann, about 40 miles north of Boston. You can google it if you want, I'm having image issues. You see Cape Cod jutting way out in the ocean, and then the little tiny nub of Cape Ann on the North Shore. It's hardly fair to classify it in the same category as Cape Cod, but there you have it. Technically Gloucester is an island, that it shares with the tiny, artsy, touristy town of Rockport. They are separated from the rest of Cape Ann by the Annisquam River, and you have to drive over one of two bridges to get to it. I'm only going into all of this because I got to ride outside this week because it was so nice and sunny and warm(ish) and I did one of my favorite road rides around here. This involves riding around the island. Here. I've illustrated my ride on a map for you.

Now, technically we live in West Gloucester, so we're not on the island. That's why my loop has a little tail. Anyway, it's a gorgeous ride with lots of ocean views, so I tried to take lots of pictures so when it gets nasty out again (tomorrow) I can remember what the sunshine was like.

See? When it's sunny out there are shadows. Much like the eponymous ground hog it can be rather startling to see it after two months of nothing.

I'm joking of course.

Fishing boat in Rockport.

Harbor in Rockport. Lobsta traps on the left there.

The ocean, cruising through East Gloucester.

Okay, I guess that's all I got. Today it's cold and windy out and I want to go ride outside because it's also sunny, but it's just so flipping cold. Maybe trainer, maybe I'll just suck it up and go freeze.

I found out the other day that there is some good mountain biking down on Cape Cod, and it's generally about 10 degrees warmer there than here and they don't get as much snow, so the trails are supposed to be open right now! So I'm planning a trip (it's only 1.5 hrs or so) down there to find some singletrack. Yes.

Just need to keep telling myself that it's almost March, and spring will get here soon enough.

Finally, a ride.

2011-02-17T07:51:00.000-05:00

Iceburgs, at low tide.

Sunshine! And horsies! There's a lot of horse-money around here.

And still, a lot of snow.

Yes, the weather was slightly less cold yesterday, and I didn't have to work. After a morning of being immensely lazy I finally kitted up and went for a long ride. I had on minimal layers, and only one pair of gloves. I stopped at the bike shop and ordered a new pump (not having a useable floor pump is exceedingly inconvenient) and drank a cappuccino. It was excellent. I got convinced to go do a road race in March ("you can just sit in!" "well, all right, if it's not raining"). Today's supposed to be even a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday, too. And Friday's supposed to be in the 50's, unfortunately I have to be inside pretty much all day. And then it's going to get all hella cold again. But it's nice to have this little taste of not-hella-cold, and get in a few solid days on the bike, outside.

Getting Started

2011-02-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Finally, those NEBRA/NEMBA people got the race calendars up! I guess there's no hurry when things don't get going until April, but I'm a compulsive planner, so I was chomping at the bit to start planning. There you have it! My 2011 Road/MTB season plan. It's only 15 races, between road and mountain, one stage race, and a two-day double century that I may or may not do. I'd have to raise $2500 to do it, which I don't think is too hard once you start asking around, but there's also a World Cup in Windham, NY that weekend that I'd really like to go watch. So we'll see. Maybe I'll just do the one day century for which I'd only have to raise $150. I dunno, gotta think it through. Plus, it's on my birthday, so maybe I'll just sit on the beach and drink margaritas. But I'd really like to do the double.

Anyway, having a light summer of racing will be good for doing a heavy fall of cyclocross. The team I raced for (in all 5 of the CX races I did this fall . . . ) might be getting some sponsorship to try to go to all the USGPs, plus I'd really like to go to Nats in Madison, since it's a lot closer than Bend. Probably really freaking cold, too.

What else? Oh yes. I woke up this morning to a house full of smoke because Cody had put some wet logs ON TOP of the wood stove to dry out, then went to work. The logs then caught on fire. Yeah. No worries, I tossed the logs into the wood stove before they could catch the walls on fire. Yay. Anyway, the house is now wicked smokey, despite shivering with the windows open for an hour.

And . . . Cody starts his job on Monday! Which everyone knows by now, but I'm super psyched so I thought it deserved another mention. And I'm applying for MassHealth today - that's right, a public option subsidized healthcare plan. I'm totally happy to pay taxes to help support that, even if I had health insurance through my work, which I don't, since I'm part time. Anywho.

I feel like all these posts sans pictures are pretty boring. I mean, words? Who's interested in that? But I've been remiss in taking photos lately, so I'll have to find something random and fun to put in for entertainment effect.

Okay, well, turns out I have nothing random and fun, so here's what you get.

This is the creek behind our ~~house~~ barn. It's tidal, so salt water, and sometimes it's just a big mud flat during low tide. People, mostly crusty old guys, dig clams out of it. Right now it's covered in big floating chunks of ice. This is a picture of one of Cody's brothers jumping into it in January of last year, when it was not covered in ice, but was still pretty freaking cold. Anyway, it's great in the summer. I really want it to be summer.

And this is the barn. This picture's a couple years old, and it's had some repairs done to it since then. The Cedar Rock Farm sign is new and is actually cedar, and the door to the right was torn down and a wall put up, because the door didn't open. We live above the lower part - you can kind of see the doors-to-nowhere in this picture. The doors were replaced when we moved in, too.

Anyway, I got to sit in on a training session with Lyne Bessette yesterday. She and her husband Tim Johnson live nearby, and they train with this guy who's the head trainer at MAC, where I work. It was super informative, because he told me stuff like, "now, with Lyne I can get away with this, because she's an athlete, but for most people you need to start a little slower." And he had to do some modifications because she has a bum shoulder, probably from something like this:

I got out for a ride outside the other day. Just one hour, but it really felt nice to ride outside. Otherwise, lots of running, lots of cross training. I've been training a lot with TRX, which is way fun and I totally recommend. My hamstrings and upper body are totally feeling the effects right now. Anyway, not sure it will make me a better bike racer, but it never hurts to be stronger.

Okay, must do something productive with my day . . .

Putting it together

2011-02-07T08:19:00.001-05:00

I always think of these things I want to write about but draw a total blank when I sit down to the computer. It's like going to the grocery store sans list - all you needed was a half gallon of milk but you come home with everything but. In the case of the blog it's more like I think of these great, meaningful (to me, anyway) things worth sharing and sit down and just bitch about the weather and talk about how maybe some day I'll get to race my bike again. It probably makes it sound like I regret moving here and I hate it, but that's not the case at all.

I'm actually . . . happy. It's impossible to overstate the effect having a job I love has on my state of mind, and is, if I were to draw a metaphor, the border of the puzzle. I can't start putting together the picture until I have the border in place to support my other endeavors, both financially and emotionally. And as almost anyone who would read this knows, it takes huge financial and emotional support to race bikes seriously.

On the employment front, too, it's looking like Cody has a great new job, too! Working as a field hydrogeologist for an environmental consulting firm in Boston. That's just what he wanted - field work, no report writing or desk time. The thought of us both having good jobs that we like at the same time is almost unfathomably radical.

The other pieces are falling into place, too. I have a partner who totally supports my endeavors, and a family who continues to support them from afar. We have a great network of friends here who, though none want to go ride road bikes with me when it's below 70 degrees out, make for some great company. We finally have our house set up to have some pretty basic amenities that it heretofore lacked, such as running water when it's freezing out (the hose that had formerly run from the main house to the barn freezes solid in the winter, as you can imagine) and a toilet. If you've ever had the chance to live without running water in your house or plumbing you'll understand what a relief it is to not have to run outside to pee in the middle of the cold dark night. It makes you appreciate how totally freaking awesome it is that we live in an era and a country where we have running water, and how precious it is. I tend to go off on people who I think are wasting water, and maybe you can understand why.

Anyway.

But what about the brutal winter weather, you ask? It is tough. I love riding my bike more than almost anything, and it's tough to be unable to do so. Sure I could ride the trainer, but I always thought of the trainer as only acceptable for maintaining fitness. I'm not going to try to build base on it. No freaking way. If that means I don't have good fitness until June, well, that's just fine. I'm also lucky because I like to do lots of things that don't involve 2 wheels. I'll always come back to the bike, but if I'm running a lot in the winter, maybe getting in a couple days XC skiing or snowboarding, lifting the weights that I didn't lift in the fall when I usually do, doing push-ups on a freezing beach on Superbowl Sunday while dog walkers give me a wide berth because I'm obviously insane, well, that's OK too. If I end up not racing as much road, which I love more than chocolate (for reals, and I love chocolate a lot), and racing a ton of cyclocross, maybe a MTB race here and there, maybe a 10 K run, maybe (oh dear god) a triathlon, I think that's a fine compromise for having everything else in life otherwise pretty well sorted. I get all antsy seeing how everyone's racing out west, but my time will come, I just need a bit of patience.

Today

2011-02-07T07:56:00.001-05:00

I haven't ridden outside since I got back from Reno. I know, that's way too long. I've been running lots, and lifting weights, and doing some spinning, but no riding outside. I've gone snowboarding twice, once in the backcountry up in New Hampshire, and once at a little tiny hill called Nashoba that makes Boreal look like Squaw. Yesterday I ran down to Wingaersheek beach, about 5 miles, and did a boot camp workout in the wet sand - it was just above freezing out. I waited until the tide had started to go out so I could find some beach free of snow. Yeah.

That was hard, and now my hamstrings and shoulders are cursing me for doing so many lunges and pushups. But at least I got outside!

But today! Today I am going to ride outside. Our 1/4 mile long driveway is an ice skating rink, so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get to the end of it. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, but TODAY I'm riding outside. About time.

Talk about the weather . . .

2011-02-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

Talking about the weather is so mundane for so many people, but when your whole life revolves around being outside it becomes a very real topic of conversation that is difficult to exhaust. Which is why I'm writing about the snow. Oh the snow. More snow. Check it out.

It just doesn't seem fair, you know? 20 more inches of snow? Really? As it is we can't ride outside because the snow berms scarcely allow two cars to pass side by side. I know, everyone is sick of me complaining about the weather, "just move back west!" and all that. But to be fair, this is a really unusual year for snow, and if it was like this in Reno I'd bitch about that too. Don't go! I'm done talking about the weather . . . for now.

Anyway, what with everyone racing out West I'm starting to really want to go race my bike. Too bad, I guess, since that's still a few months off. But I'll find a way to cope, and it'll be here before I know it. I hope.

Oh hey! I'm blogging from home! We got internet that works . . . kinda. We had to get a mobile hotspot dealy-oh, and it only works in one spot in the house, but hey, it works! 5 GB data stream limit, so no streaming video (except for the odd You Tube video of cats playing pattycake) but hey, I'll take it! I've already frittered away an hour of my morning here. Excellent.

Okay, I guess I should go shovel, or bring in firewood, or something. I had planned on writing about new goals and stuff but I wasted my blogging energy by complaining about the snow, so next time.

I hate thinking up titles to these things . . .

2011-01-25T13:04:00.000-05:00

The East . . .

. . . vs. the West.

I feel like I should always come up with this clever little title, but I always totally fail. Whatever.

The blog has been so very neglected, and I can't even blame it on Facebook, because that, too, has seen little of me lately. Unlike my previous "where have I been" blog-post-life-updates, I don't have much going on so this is going to be really boring.

Why, oh why, when the West coast is getting ramped up for such late winter epics as Snelling and Merco do I still have no base, to speak of? To fully understand you would have to spend a couple weeks mid-January in New England. We've scarcely had a day without precipitation (mostly in the form of snow) in two+ weeks, and on those rare clear days it's pretty much arctic. Yesterday when I woke up it was -10 F with the windchill. Rad-tastic.

I'm going to share with you my hard-learned lesson of the winter 2010-2011: When faced with such inhospitable conditions as the Nor'east offers from December-March (hopefully) one ought to find joy in pursuits that do not involve wearing spandex and moving at increased rates of speed. One can wear spandex, or one can move quickly, but they should be mutually exclusive. And honestly I haven't done much of the former.

Not sure what else to elaborate on. I could get into how our X-mas/New Year etc. went (it was good), but it's been like, a month and I don't really feel like it. I got to go home for a week to visit with my family. I happened to go home when they were having 65 degree weather and I got a nice dose of sunshine, and got in a lot of biking. That was pretty much rad. It was good to see my folks and Reno and California again. But, I'm glad I moved.

I know, what the hell, right? But it was time for a change, you know? And sure, I could have just moved to Santa Cruz (oh please oh please oh please some day) but that wouldn't be enough change for me to really feel like I made a change. Or so I postulate, while awaiting the dumping 0f 10 inches of snow that we're supposed to get tonight. Le sigh. Anyway, as much as I love Reno and the west coast, this is a good experience, and all in all I'm glad we made the move, regardless of my wishes to return west in a number of years.

Anyway, the whole winter thing kind of throws a wrench in my bike racing plans, or, I should say, road racing plans. I mean, I'm just going to come out and say it - I don't want to ride my bike when it's 15 degrees and snowing outside. Sorry, I think it's time to admit that I am simply not that dedicated. And if I'm not dedicated enough to do that then I'm certainly not going to spend a month on the trainer instead. Pshaw, right. I was beginning to worry that I just wasn't that into my bike anymore, then I went out west and got to ride in the sunshine and it was total Bikelove. Descending down to the Yuba River with sunshine on my skin was pure ecstasy, as was the climb out. So it's not the bike that's the problem, it's the weather. And as such, I think it best not to force it. Okay, so I won't be fast in March, or April, or maybe even May. But there's still lots of racing in June, July, and August, and then there's always CX season. And it really forces me to find enjoyment in other physical and intellectual pursuits, which I feel can only make me more balanced.

Oh, the only really news-worthy bit is that I got a new job! But anyone who reads this already knows that, so that's kind of a stupid bit of news. But I love my new job and it makes me happy to be here, plus, free gym membership! Because it's really cold out there.

Anyway, if the first part of this post doesn't quite jive with the second half, it's because I wrote half yesterday and the finished it today. Until next time . . .

Most awesomest person.

2010-11-30T10:52:00.001-05:00

My most favoritest person in the whole world and my dearest friend is also an amazing writer, and she just had a story published! Love it.

http://www.opiummagazine.com/

She also has a blog that makes me feel dumb.

http://litocracy.blogspot.com/

Where does the time go . . . ?

2010-11-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

And what the hell happened to my cyclocross season? I guess I grossly underestimated the tole that moving 3000 miles and trying to build a life takes, at least on myself. Trying to find a new level of normal ends up precluding the kind of focus required for racing and training, again, at least for me it did. Perhaps heartier types than myself can do both, but as October wound down I found myself without the energy (and the funding) to get out and race. Much to my dismay as you can imagine, given my enthusiasm for New England cyclocross prior to the move. But ultimately being balanced is more important than bike racing.

That said, I think I'm starting to find a new balance. I'm working (yay income!), and I'm starting to get adjusted to getting up at 4:30 AM 3 days a week. The upside of my rather extreme early morning work schedule (I start at 5:30) is that I'm done at two, and have time to ride before it gets dark at the disheartening hour of 4:30 PM. After spending 2-4 weeks not really riding much, a few rides here and there, and a bunch of running, I'm happy to feel ready to get back at it, even if that comes a little too late to recapture my cyclocross season, which I'm OK with.

I've started planning 2011 and looking at the NEBRA schedule (that's New England Bicycle Racing Association, yo). Maybe it's a dire warning as to the length and severity of the winters around here, but there aren't any road races until the end of April! Lots of crits, and a couple of wimpy little circuit races that are billed as road races, but nothing to get excited about. Okay, for real, this year I'll become a good crit racer. Gotta, 'cause I don't have a team to help make it happen. I've gotta admit, I really miss the NCNCA. Sigh . . . that's OK, too.

(Dude, what's up with the crazies in the coffee shop this morning? Between Pony-Tail wandering around smiling benevolently at everyone and Talking-To-Himself over there it's difficult to focus. Oh good, they just both left. It's a crazy exodus.)

In other, slightly more pleasant news, Cody's an uncle! He's a pretty cute little thing, at least at this age, when he can't walk or form opinions. I still like my dog more, though. But don't tell my mom. Haha! Okay, the subject matter seems to be deteriorating, so I'm going to go finish my business downtown and go for a ride!

'Cross and Turkeys

2010-10-27T12:56:00.000-04:00

Here are the promised turkeys. They live at our house. They're not mine, and I'm not going to have any part in the murder of consumption of them. They're the ugliest creatures I've ever seen, and they have large talons.

Yeah, this is what I look like when I'm doing really well.

And this is what I look like when I'm stuck in suck. "Why is that girl running around me? I'm hella fast. She'll be sorry when I go around her again." (She wasn't, because I didn't.)

I was doing so well getting caught up here, and then suddenly two weeks have gone by and I’m off the back again (in oh-so-many ways).

Truth is, nothing very interesting has been going on. I’ve been looking for work, and at this point can say that the search has been a success. I am now employed at Masconomet Health Center, which is an assisted living facility in Topsfield, MA, as a diet aide. It’s an OK job, pay’s not so great and I had to get stabbed with numerous needles to get hired on there, but if I ever make the leap back into higher education to finish my dietetics degree and do my internship it will be really helpful to have a little more work experience. If/when, whatever. I also have a few applications out to jobs that could be both more lucrative and more interesting (and not quite as long as a commute – it’s about ½ hr to Topsfield) but those positions don’t close for a little while yet, so it’s good to know that I’ll have a little income coming in one way or another.

Last weekend I raced the third and fourth races in the Verge New England series – Downeast Cyclocross at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, ME. It’s pretty cool having a regional series that’s UCI, really. Day one was probably the best race I’ve had at any UCI race I’ve done. My start was typically pathetic, even though I’ve been working on them pretty intensively lately. But once I got rolling I had a great race – slowly working myself up into the money. Both my fitness and the bike handling felt totally dialed, and it was a wicked fun course. I had one of those magical moments when I saw 4 laps to go and I thought, “I’ve totally got 4 laps left in my legs, and I need all four of them to pass more people.” Although I was still a few points away from that UCI point I need for a second row start, I finished feeling totally stoked. My goal for the next day was clear – have a good start, so I didn’t have to spend so much time and energy getting around people.

I got to crash at the lovely house of friends in Portland, ME, just 20 minutes away from the race. We cooked a lovely dinner with farm-fresh veggies and I got to sleep nice and early. There’s nothing better than staying with friends at a bike race.

The sky was looking threatening at the start of my race on Sunday, and one girl told me that, “the cows are all laying down, so it’s going to rain.” Luckily for us, it held off for our race. As for the race itself, I had a great start! I got into my pedal nice and quick and made some passes on the pavement, then kamikazi-ed my way around a couple girls as we funneled into the dirt. And then . . . it all kind of fell apart. People started passing me and I thought, “Why are they doing that? I’m going fast, aren’t I? Oh, I’m not? Crap…” Anyway, it was a rough day, but I congratulated myself on my awesome start and for actually finishing the race, even though I was getting a lot of pity-cheering as I limped along MINUTES behind girls I’d smoked the day before. You know, they two people clapping half-heartedly, saying in a tone of voice normally reserved for the terminally ill, “Good effort, keep going.” I mean, I know they mean well, but I still feel like throwing rocks at them because we both know that it is NOT a good effort, and the only reason I’m still keeping going is that I paid my stupid $40 to be there and it would be even stupider to quit.

So, the goal for next time is to combine Sunday’s start with Saturday’s awesome riding. Totally do-able, right? Totally.

Long Overdue, no doubt.

2010-10-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

I was just working on a really fun post about what I've been up to the last couple weeks - travel, friends, bike racing, mystery, intrigue . . . well, maybe not the last two. But someone brought it to my attention that my blog has thus far neglected to give notice to a very important supporter of the life of this unemployed bike racer, my mom.

Just so you know, Mom, you brought this upon yourself.

This is the email I received:

Dear Marian Jamison,

I was surprised on reading a bunch of entries in your blog tonight to find no mention of your mother ANYwhere, whereas there are dozens of stories of your wonderful father encouraging you, buying you bikes, riding with you, etc. You are lucky to have him, as the man is obviously a saint. It is apparent your mother must've died giving birth to you. How very sad! My sincere condolences.

Yours truly,

A Fan

Clearly, this is an oversight on my part of criminal proportions, and I seek to remedy it immediately with this, an Ode to my Mother.

Ode to my Mother

Oh mother, with your hair of ever changing hue

How I miss your daily entreaties to pick up the dog poo

Tho I am sure his absence causes you great remorse

even as you assure me with forked tongue that mine is worse

Through discount clothing stores in solitude I wander

wishing you were here to join me in my frugal quest

(You above all should forgive my abandonment of rhyme

as clearly you did not bestow upon me your poetic gift)

Perhaps the hitherto lack of biography of you

is because our moments transcend retelling, too

Surely no one can appreciate the laughter that brings tears

when I tell you to "put on your big girl pants" and abandon fears

If even he closest to me cannot understand our delight

in the ridiculous nature of our furry friend's plight

The stories would surely be wasted on the world at large

be it no reflection on the times that we spend.

And that's all I've got. Yeah, I should stick to non-poetic forms of writing.

Where'd I go? Part 3

2010-10-11T14:32:00.000-04:00

More boring bike race photos . . . there are no pictures of you on cycling news when you come in 30th.

East Coast Cyclocross, yo.

On our first day back, first thing I did was swing by the shop, and title sponsor of my new cyclocross team, Seaside Cycle! We’re also sponsored by Antero Resources, which is an oil drilling company, so I’m told, and a very generous sponsor. The new kits are pretty cool looking.

Anyway, I tried to get the 5 day car ride out of my legs over the course of the week, because just 5 days after arriving here I got to race the New England Nationals – Gloucester Grand Prix. Racing in my hometown is awesome. Seriously, there’s nothing better than sleeping in my own bed the night before a bike race. Plus, there’s a lot more people in the crowd cheering for me! Which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how the race goes.

Over the course of the week I went on a couple of rides with the guys on the team. One was a relaxed spin, with a little technical skills riding, and checking out of the weekends course in Stage Fort Park. The second day they were heading out for some “threshold intervals”. I figured, oh, I’ll probably get dropped, but whatever. Right before we started I was informed, “340-350 watts for 15 minutes.” Hahahahahahahaha! Even sucking wheel, that was too much for my yet-unrecovered legs. I did my own thing, and spent the rest of the week trying to get my legs reattached.

Anyway, the race ended up being super fun. I had done only one ‘cross race prior to this one, at Folsom Cyclebration, which was several weeks ago. Day 1 of Gloucester was, as a result, incredibly rough. In addition to being LAST after the start and crawling my way through the tight turns, I totally died about halfway through and lost 5-6 places. The good news was that I seemed to work the rest of the yuckiness out of my legs in that solid 45 minutes of pain, and I didn’t get lapped or pulled. Sunday’s race was much, much better. I was solid throughout, and beat one girl who’d tried to ride me into some park benches when I passed her the day before (bitch). Seriously, she did. And then when I cracked she passed me again, so I was pretty determined to not let her beat me again. Hooray! The bad news is I sucked on all things running, despite actually training the run this fall. The good news? Um, I sucked less than the day before at everything else! Hallelujah.

This weekend was the Providence, RI UCI race, which I bailed on at the last minute because I’m unemployed, still, and broke. And really tired, which makes me thing I might be fighting a cold or something. Next weekend I’m heading to a regional race up in Maine, and the following weekend is the second in the Verge series. I’m having a bit of a slow start to the season, but I think things will improve a bit by December.

And now . . . I’m going to go ride my mountain bike.

Where'd I go? Part 2

2010-10-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

Riley was pretty excited that we didn't leave him behind.

Oh, the humanity.

The orange flames made us faster . . .

The Drive

In the space of 10 days I spent about 60 hours staring through a windshield. Sure, that’s nothing by long-distance trucker standards, but I ain’t no trucker.

First was the drive to Grass Valley to meet up with my dad, then I got to ride shotgun while he did all the driving to and from Ferndale, then I had to get myself home. That was about 12 hours total. Then I got home to a flurry of packing and cleaning. Monday we packed, Tuesday we cleaned. Wednesday we left Reno. Mapquest says it’s about 48 hours to drive from Reno, NV to Gloucester, MA, and about 2900 miles. It’s not quite all the way across the country, but pretty damn close. We have two cars, 2 cats, 1 dog, and 5 bikes (which is well down from what it was just a month ago). As such, we each drove solo, accompanied only by our furry friends and the sound of eachother’s wisecracks through the walkie-talkies we brought. And, in my case anyway, several audiobooks. It probably took us a little longer than Mapquest predicted because we were towing a trailer with the Jetta and we put all the heavy stuff in the back of my ol’ Hombre. What I mean is, we rarely could go faster than 60, except for those stretches of Nebraska where we had a killer tailwind and we could kick it up to 65.

We started with the kitties in a crate in the Jetta and Riley with me. This was my idea, as I thought the kitties would overheat if they were crammed in a crate in my non-air-conditioned truck. Unfortunately, Cody and the cats have a relationship of mutual dislike but forced tolerance (forced by yours truly, of course). What can I say – Cody is not a cat person and they’re perceptive little buggers. After a day and a half of listening to the cats yelling at him, and repeated attempts to drown it out with music and ear plugs, Cody couldn’t take anymore and we swapped furry friends. Riley thought it was great that he was finally allowed to ride shotgun in the Jetta, and the cats were so thrilled to either get out of the crate or get away from Cody that they stopped hollering and found cozy places to sleep.

Anyway, most of the trip is kind of a blur of staring at the back of the trailer (I just followed Cody the whole time). We stayed in Motel 6s, which, along with the food, got progressively worse as we entered the Midwest and improved again as we approached the East Coast. When we finally crossed out of Ohio and into Pennsylvania I privately to never, ever, ever live in the Midwest. As a matter of fact, the Pennsylvania Motel 6 on our last night was the nicest of the trip (although the Wyoming one wasn’t half bad either).

Saturday was our shortest day and when we got to our nice Motel 6 we had time to go for a walk and go out to dinner. We walked to a little diner really close to our hotel and were thrilled to be eating non-fast food. We even got ice cream (because there’s nothing you need more after spending 10 hours a day in a car than a bunch of empty calories!). I got a Frownie, which I found hilarious and also worthy of mention. The other funny thing was our waiter, who, whenever I would say thank you, which was quite frequent because I’m so fucking polite, would respond with . . . wanna guess? No, it wasn’t “you’re welcome”, or “no problem” or anything like that. He would say “Yes.” Just like that. Totally deadpan and serious. I loved it, and kept saying thank you to elicit more Yes’s. It was awesome. I think I love Pennsylvania. Or, I loved it until the next day, when we got a flat tire on the trailer. This was actually kind of scary, since we were going 60+ on the freeway and one of the tires totally blew out, and started smoking as it ground down. I expected the trailer to flip over off of the road and drag Cody to a horrible firey death, but it maintained its vertical integrity and we were able to safely stop to fix the flat. But I’m getting to the part about not liking PA anymore. As we were stopped we noticed that there were HUGE MILLIPEDES EVERYWHERE! Yes, HUGE FUCKING MILLIPEDES! Okay, I only saw a couple, but come on, ONE is too many. Anyway, we had a spare tire and got the trailer up and rolling again and proceeded on our way. That day was the day of crazy drivers too, further affirming my suspicion that east coast drivers suck. No offense or anything, crazy East coast people, but you’re crazy.

We left on Wednesday and arrived in Gloucester on Sunday evening, just in time for dinner. It was a surreal feeling to finally be here, with my cats and dog and all my earthly belongings. To tell myself, “We’re home.” Still getting used to it – well, duh, we’ve only been here a week and a half. But we’re mostly unpacked now and I think I have a job, which I’ll tell you all about if I actually get it. Now I should probably go do something productive with my day, like ride my bike or find some internet access so I can actually publish this post.

Where'd I go? Part 1

2010-10-08T14:07:00.000-04:00

Yeah, long time, I know. Lots of changes, as you undoubtedly know. Let me back way up.

Tour of the Unknown Coast

The problem with waiting 3 weeks to write about something is I forget all the neat little details I’d wanted to include. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this ride is up in Humboldt County, a 2 day 100 miler, with about 10K feet of climbing. The first day is the longer of the two, about 70 miles. You ride down Avenue of the Giants, through the Rockefeller Grove (which is amazing) and finally climb up Panther Gap, which is probably 6 miles with 2500 feet of elevation gain (just a wild guess on that one). You then descend to Honeydew, which sounds sweet but in actuality bears a striking resemblance to scenes from Deliverance. Both the scenery and the people. But they’re used to the spandex crowd, since this ride takes place twice a year and the little shop there sells lots of cokes and snickers to the participants. So it’s not as sketchy as one might imagine. Anyway, you then proceed about 10 miles, following the Mattole River down to a little campground. They feed you dinner, and the next morning the Grange Hall down the road hosts a pancake breakfast with lots of Bisquick, ham, and Folgers. That begins the second day, which starts with a nasty little climb that isn’t really that little. There follow a number of these things until you descend to Cape Mendocino, and ride along the coast for 10 miles or so. This section is notorious for having a soul-crushing headwind. You round a bend and you see it – The Wall. I’m pretty sure every ride in Norcal has something called “The Wall”, and each probably deserve the name. This one is probably 24% for about ¼ mile, then drops to probably 20% for another ¼ mile. It’s not all that bad, but it’s definitely an epic ¼ mile, and if one were to go all crazy at the beginning and try to hammer up it they would soon find themselves walking. It’s long enough that you need to measure your effort a bit. Anyway, you then have a nice fast little descent and then hit “The Shadow of the Wall” which is probably 5-6 miles, starts out quite steep, and then levels out to a nice tempo climb. I like this one. It starts to seem interminable, but then you’re at the top and you have a fast descent back into the town of Ferndale, where you started the day before. An epic two days.

Anyway, I love this ride, me and my dad try to do it every year, although I haven’t made it up there the last two. This year the weather was a bit . . . wet. The first day ended up being pretty nice, cloudy but dry. Dry, that is, until we got to the top of Panther Gap. Then it decided to get really cold and wet for the descent. It’s not a very fast descent, and has a number of 10 mph hairpin turns. So it takes a long time to get down and by then I was pretty much freezing. Rather than loading up on cold cokes at Honeydew I contemplated the rather murky looking coffee and decided I’d rather just get on with it and get to camp and get dry and warm. As anyone who’s done much camping will tell you, setting up a tent in the rain sucks ass. But then I was dry and warm, although it seriously limited the afternoon activities. Usually we go for a swim in the Mattole River and relax in the sun with books and, in my dad’s case, his guitar. This time around we were confined to our tents with books. C’est la vie. We walked through the rain to dinner. I think I must have walked through some Poison Oak, as my ankles exploded in it four days later as we were driving across Wyoming (I’ll get to that part, maybe not today). Anyway, after stuffing myself with cheese ravioli and listening to my dad try to explain to a group of people why reality TV isn’t real, we walked back to our tents in the rain and called it an early night.

You know the sound of rain on a tent fly? I think it’s a great sound, you know, when I’m in the desert or something. When you’re in the desert and it’s raining at night you know you’ll be greeted the next day by clear skies and dust-free trails. Now, Humboldt County is not the desert. If I had to classify it I’d probably call it rain forest, but that’s a gross exaggeration of course. Anyway, all night long I heard the rain falling steadily on my tent. I slept surprisingly well, and woke up to . . . rain still falling on my tent. I’d talked myself up about riding in the rain before falling asleep, and I was determined to have a good day riding, regardless of rain or wind. It seemed to be letting up as we walked over to the Grange for our pancakes and bad coffee. We packed up wet tents, put on wet shoes, and jumped on wet bikes. The clouds must have dumped all their rain during the night, because it was surprisingly dry! A pleasant surprise, indeed. Not only that, but the stretch along the ocean was calm and gorgeous. The Wall felt easier than in years past (although my 58 year old father dropped me on the way up – curses!). We kept a good pace up the Shadow and passed lots of people who’d set out earlier than us that morning. Mostly-dry roads made the descent back into Ferndale fun and fast.

And then . . . it was over. It’s one of those things where you feel both victorious and a little sad that it’s time to pack up and go home. It was my last ride in California and with my dad before packing up all my crap and moving out to New England. It was fun, but also a little sad. The entire plan for our move out here was built around me getting to do that ride, and I’m so glad I did. Anyway, as my dad said, those mountains will still be there the next time we do it.

The Wall!

Ahh . . . the ocean. No headwind is a big plus!

Cold, wet descent into Honeydew.

Rockefeller Grove = big trees and bad pavement.

Awesomeness? Um, no.

2010-09-16T18:30:00.000-04:00

Ever since we moved into this house there has been this huge white envelope pushed behind the pipes that stick out in the closet. Today, whilst cleaning said closet, I decided to open it. Ohmgod why didn't I do this sooner? I don't even have words. Ready???

I've included my feet to give some sense of the scale of the card. It's freaking huge. Now, call me a cynic, but my guess is that Ian took one look at this thing and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

2010-09-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

So totally pumped right now . . . and possibly over-caffeinated. 1000 things to do but having a hard time pointing myself in any one direction. Much rather just look at cyclocross pictures and freak out. No, no, must be productive, must pack. We're pulling out in 6 days, and I'll be gone for the better part of 3 of those, riding Tour of the Unknown Coast with my dad, which is going to be great. And tonight I'm going to race a little informal short track, which will also be awesome. And when I get to Gloucester we get to move into a BIGGER HOUSE (erm, barn). Space!!! Acres and acres of livable space! So pumped. I really need to come up with better descriptors than "pumped" and "stoked". I should probably start working on my Boston accent, too, in which case I'd say "Bahsten", not Boston. Cody makes fun of me when I try to do the accent, but his is just as ridiculous, and he grew up there.

Okay, must channel all this excited energy towards some sort of productivity, even if at this point it means just eating breakfast.

The first one always hurts the most.

2010-09-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

The last REAL race I did was the 4th of July Crit in Davis - since then all I've done is a Geiger Hill Climb and the Cascade prologue. Sure, those things hurt, but not the same. In fact, since the Davis crit sucked so damn much for me, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the last time I really RACED my bike was Nevada City. Pathetic, huh? That was in June and here we are in September. I get the feeling some people think I'm a flake for bailing on the end of road season, and they may be right. However, in light of the impending Big Move, I think my reasons (read: justifications) are sound: 1: Road racing season doesn't really get going until April in New England, therefore if I took a break in the fall I wouldn't be racing my bike for 7-8 months. Ridiculous. B: The next couple months are going to be pretty tough, I think, and there are a lot of new things to adjust to and a lot of missing people. What better way to keep my mind off the things that I'm leaving behind than to do something that I love? And lastly, New England cyclocross is off the hook and I weaseled my way onto a good team, so how could I really say no?

But that wasn't the point of my post, and now I just sound whiney and defensive.

I raced 'cross on Saturday! And it went . . . okay. Maybe it's just not having a coach anymore, but I feel rather compelled to give a detailed race report to SOMEONE, so why not the internets at large?

My starts suck. I'm going to be working on that. Today. I was, if not quite last, almost last after the start. It was women's A's and 35+ A's, and a pretty good turn-out. Oh, did I mention the presence of multiple current national champions? Like, Barb Howe and Gina Hall? Plus some other nationals podium finishers, like Sarah Maile. Owwee. Anyway, the course was a slight uphill pavement start that funneled into a singletrack that got a little technical pretty quick, with a tight left hand turn into a dusty, loose drop in. I was so far away from the hole shot that I was stuck behind the only 2 girls who put there feet down making that tight left. Damn. Made some quick passes when it opened up, but by then the race was so far away from me that I'd never make it up. Sure, I never expected to hold Barb's wheel or anything, but there were a few girls in there who I think I could be competitive with. I think I have the fitness to duke it out with people, but not to close huge gaps and THEN duke it out, know what I mean? I mean, I'm no Katie Compton, and I can't start last row and win nationals. Nope. No way. So starts are going to be critical to me if I want to have a good season. Anyway, it was blazing hot down in Folsom and I suffered heartily in the last two laps and just kind of limped through the last one, content in the knowledge that I would not be getting lapped.

The bad:

1. Starts - must improve dramatically or be stuck in suck.

2. Barriers - OK for the first couple laps, but when I got really cooked I started running like a . . . I dunno, something that sucks at running.

3. Heat tolerance - whatever, I'm moving to New England. ;) Next time I have to race in 90 degree heat I'm putting a waterbottle cage on my bike. F' it.

The good:

1. Technical skills - I was rocking the loose drop-in and the following section of single track that had a loose, sketchy ditch to ride through. Super happy that I've been getting out on my mountain bike lately and feeling good about shredding some mini-gnar.

2. Fitness - good power until the heat sapped my strength through my brain, which it then sucked through my eye balls.

3. I had a ton of fun! Even when I was suffering I was like, "Yeah, cross! This is f'in awesome!!!" And that, really, is the most important part.

On tap for today is a brutal training ride, and more packing. Yeah, the house is starting to look like we're leaving. Sad . . . excited . . . overwhelmed. But that's what brutal training rides are for, they take the edge off all those emotions and replace it with pain and fatigue. I like that.

2010 'Cross Season Goals

2010-09-09T18:27:00.000-04:00

Well, with the first 'cross race of the season only two days away (weeee!!!) I think it's time to set a couple of goals for this fall. Goals provide me with a measure of how successful my season was, and give me something specific to work towards. Let me preface these by saying that I think I'm a much better cyclocross racer than road racer (that's not boasting, since I'm not a very good road racer). See, on the road I'm not really a climber (too big) and I'm not a sprinter (too wimpy). I'm a decent time trialist, but had kind of rough year for that in 2010. Now, 'cross? That's more my style. Climbing ability isn't a huge deal, you just need to be strong, and rarely does it come down to a sprint. It requires good bike handling skills in the dirt, which I have (decent, anyway), and crashing ain't such a big deal since you're rarely going super fast (no 45 mph descents in a 100+ person pack). I'm okay with crashing in the mud or the sand, no big deal. Plus, it's a short race, and I can always convince myself to suffer for 45 minutes. No prob.

(That said, I love road racing and I think I make a good teammate to the sprinters and the climbers. I'm there to work when I can, and then I get to show what I've got in the time trial. Love stage racing. Love it, and have lots of plans brewing for 2011 road season.)

So anyway, I had to preface it with that, since I think my goals sound a little overly ambitious. Whatever, if I don't succeed, try try again.

1. Top 20 at a UCI race. Hell, if 19 women show up and I come in 18th, that still counts.

2. Don't get lapped, ever. (barring, of course, major mechanicals that force me to run 1/2 a lap).

3. Win a regional race. Doesn't matter what, but I'd like to have a W to show for my season.

Okay, that's it. Oh yeah, ride fast and have a metric shit-ton of fun. Hells yeah.

Lost in the woods

2010-09-07T13:51:00.000-04:00

Made the most of my 3 day weekend and got two days of great riding in. On Sunday Cody and I climbed up the Tahoe Rim Trail to Marlette Peak lookout (see photo evidence above). It was a totally gorgeous day, as you can see. We then dropped down Dirty Harry's, which has some pretty gnar-gnar sections. Gnar trail + roadie + hardtail with a fork that hardly works = dirty socks. But there were some really fun sections that I rode. We then proceeded to get lost for 2 hours and spend waaay too much time riding fire roads. Uck. Anyway, 5 hours later we got back to the car and went to Blue Coyote for burgers. Life is good.

Yesterday I rode up at Donner with my dad. Lovely day except for all the lousy traffic! Gotta take in all the alpine granite I can, because where I'm going we don't have big mountains.

On our Sunday MTB ride we were on a trail that was almost grown in with manzanita bushes for a while. Manzanita has such a distinct smell, and it's one you don't get everywhere you go. I find it terribly familiar, and it evokes hikes up to the Quincy "Q" when I was a kid. Then there's the Tahoe smell, with that particular hint of DG and pine forests. Of course Peavine riding is a smell all its own, too, with sage and rabbit brush. I guess what I'm getting at is that everywhere I go, almost, I ride my bike. And when I ride my bike, I tend to breath pretty heavily and really internalize the particular scent of the place. Don't olfactory senses trigger memories with greater poignancy than either sight or sound? I'm pretty sure they do. When I smell wood smoke from someone's chimney I think of being a kid in Meadow Valley in the wintertime,with 4 feet of snow piling up outside our house and a fire going. Some places totally evoke "home" to me. My new home doesn't smell like home to me yet (well, I'm not there yet, but I've been there in the past, and it doesn't) but it's familiar nonetheless. I can't wait to come back for a visit and be struck by the smell of sagebrush and manzanita.

Blah blah blah.

I was reading the blog of an acquaintance and she said something that really struck me, and I'm going to quote her - "It seemed an ugly injustice to lose someone with plans and hope, until I accepted that our lives are present and vital while we're here and that death doesn't diminish the importance of the love and lessons we leave behind." I'm not trying to be dark and depressing, but I just thought that was so eloquently put that I had to share it with the world.

Anyway, on more frivolous news, I bought a full suspension frame and it's on its way to Gloucester as we speak! Something fun to come "home" to, because I can't possibly ride those east coast roots and rocks on my hardtail. Hells no.

Wednesday blahblahblahs

2010-09-01T13:13:00.000-04:00

So, totally nothing new or interesting going on. Just getting ready for the move, day by day, alternately feeling excited and anxious (mostly excited). Feeling super excited to go race 'cross (first race is in 1.5 weeks!), but really much too boring to blog. Until I saw this today, on the BikePure FB page:

Who got you into cycling?
Who did you look up to when you first joined a club?
Who kept you going in cycling when it seemed too hard?
Who patted you on the back when you did well?

It was concluded with something like, "What would these people thing if you doped?" Which is a good, thought-provoking question, but not the point of this post. (Doping sucks). Mostly it made me think of the people who got me into this sport and the people who keep me going in it day after day.

Who got me into cycling?

Well, the obvious answer is my dad, right? He never pushed me to ride, but when I started expressing an interest he was there with a bike for me to ride and a few helpful suggestions. When I was "too cool" to wear a helmet during my first couple of rides, he never hassled me, just let me be and rode with me. I know that sounds negligent, but if he'd pressured me I would have balked, and it could all have ended before it started. I know, I'm a thick-headed idiot, but whaddya gonna do? When I rode up Mt. Rose in 1:15 in my first time trial, he bought me a nice new bike. When that bike was stolen, he helped me get another one. He's always been there, enabling this awful(ly wonderful) habit of mine. And . . . it has brought us closer than anything else could have.

That said, it's not entirely fair to give him all the credit. My co-workers at REI, Hung, Tony and Nick, also drug me out on rides, gave me endless moral support as I tackled the Death Ride during my first year on the bike and on my 21st birthday, and made the sport fun for me. Taking that a step further, Nick dragged me to my first mountain bike race, didn't let me race beginner (conceding that I could race sport if i insisted, but should really be an expert), took me to Sea Otter, Auburn, Downieville, nationals, etc, and got me involved with the UNR cycling team, through which I met Cody. Nick and I went to 12 hr races together and he accompanied me on long road rides to help get ready for them. We won enormous trophies and ate lots of Swedish Fish and listened to Death Cab for Cutie. He lured me away from the stupidness of 21 and showed me a life of being healthy and happy and on 2 wheels. We kind of lost track of our friendship over the years, but more than anyone else I am more grateful to Nick than he can possibly know for helping me find this life I love.

Who did I look up to when I first joined a club?

Oh, UNR Cycling Team, how I love you. My first year on the team was amazing. There wasn't a person I rode with who didn't make me laugh and inspire me to ride faster. I found myself in this totally new situation of opening up to people and going with the flow of things. Some people I've lost touch with and some who I kept a connection - what an amazing couple of months that was.

One person in particular who comes to mind as being a total inspiration is Amber Monforte, who's gone on to be a crazy ultra-man record setter. She was a triathlete even then, and I think is the reason why I enjoy time trialing so much. Without fail she would be my 30 second girl up Geiger, and she'd always tell me "good job" when she rode by me, so totally effortlessly. Out at Cold Springs I would compare my time with hers and want so badly to be that fast. We never hung out or said much to each other, and I don't know if we ever would have had much in common, but I had a ton of respect for her as a cyclist and it inspired me to work hard and aspire to be faster.

Who keeps me going in cycling when it gets too hard?

It's cheesy and obvious, but Cody keeps me going. When I'm overtired and feeling fat and slow and having a meltdown about how much I suck and I should just give up, he's the person who points out all the improvement I've made, and reminds me of how much I love it. When I get sick of 4 hour road rides, he's the one who rides Hole in the Ground trail with me and keeps me challenging myself. He's the one cheering for me at crits and cyclocross - cheering so loud that he can be heard on the other side of the course - and standing in the feedzone to hand me a bottle and for a 5 second glimpse of a 4 hour race. He's the person who made it possible for me to race all this spring while I worked 15 hrs/week, who bought me a time trial bike, and who has been scouring Ebay to find me a full suspension mtb so I'll have fun riding the trails in Massachusetts. Can you say wow? Wow.

And, as any road racer will tell you, my team. I'm super sad to be leaving them, but having a great team this year was so inspirational. When I crashed at Cascade, struggled at Sea Otter, and sucked at the district time trial, having a support group who can all tell you that they've been there, done that, and things will get better is unbeatable. What totally amazing people - so happy to have gotten to race with them!

Who pats me on the back when I do well?

All of the above. Like I said, I haven't stayed in good touch with everyone, but those I have, even just on Facebook, are always ready with a pat on the back and a kudos, and it always feels so good.

I'm so totally grateful to everyone. Really, I know that sounds like a big stretch, but really, everyone who's ever offered a kind word or a hand up, thanks. In addition to teammates and close friends, there are plenty of other people I've raced with, formerly been teammates with, or been supported by. But I think starting a comprehensive list will be stupid and overly time consuming. Needless to say, those who I'm leaving when we start our eastward adventure - I'll miss you! And thanks for the awesome memories.

Eastward-ho!

2010-08-08T11:55:00.000-04:00

And it's official! September 22nd. No, I'm not getting married, but it feels like just as big a plunge. We're moving to New England! Probably Gloucester, although if Cody gets a job between now and then in Portland (Maine, people) or Burlington, we'll probably go there instead. For all the nay-sayers who tell me, with the best of intentions, no doubt, that, "you don't want to move to the east coast!" Well, I think . . . I might. Here's the plan:

I'm gonna race the f*#& out of some cyclocross this fall. New team, more support, less travel. But more on that as the info rolls in. Cross. Hells yeah.
We'll be keeping our insanely low cost of living, and perhaps lowering it a bit more.
Cody can work as much as he wants for his old tree company and make bank, and I can, presumably, get a job . . . somewhere. Point is, make money, pay off student loans, and be free to go where we please a year or so from now, free of debt.
Massachusetts has socialized medicine. Weeee! I haven't been to the doctor for a non-injury visit in . . . um, a long time. Yes, that is a legitimate reason for moving.

Cody's been in Reno for 5 years, I've been here for almost 9 (!!!) and it's time for a change. Gloucester's the only place we can go and not have to find an apartment (long story short, we're living in a barn . . . but it's quite nice) and be guaranteed jobs. I'd love to move to Santa Cruz, but how the hell could we do that and still have surplus income to pay off those loans? Yeah, not gonna happen. New England it is! I've had some issues with that place in the past, but I'm ready to give it a go. Certainly cyclocross will keep me occupied for the fall, then I can take a little break in the winter because road racing doesn't really start up over there until April, which means I won't be all hella burned out in July! See???? It's a perfect plan.

Seriously, though, I'm also a little terrified of moving 3000 miles away from my friends and family and the races and rides that I know and love. Plus, there aren't really hills there. I'll be doing like, 30 intervals to equal half a trip up Geiger. But people in Davis regularly kick my ass on the climbs, so I'm sure there's some trick to it.

But mostly I'll miss my friends and fam . . . who really ought to all start looking into the cost of tickets to Boston and come out for a visit!

I really need to keep my big mouth shut . . .

2010-08-04T11:03:00.000-04:00

I'm a flake, I admit it. I try not to be a flake, but it's hard. I just change my mind a lot, that's all. I have too many good options, and I have a hard time committing to any one because it would mean closing the door on others, and I hate limiting my options that way. What brings this up, you might ask? Ahhh . . . . cyclocross.

I'm back on the 'cross bandwagon for now. I started polishing up the bike yesterday to sell it (I know, I know) and decided that was a horrible idea and I ought to race it instead. Plus, with this whole possibility of moving to New England . . . you get the picture. So now the only question that remains is what to do with the rest of my road racing season. I have 5 on the calendar, including the Mt. Rose Hill Climb this weekend. Now that I'm thinking 'cross I'm thinking that I should go for a run, which really does nothing for my hill climbing legs, but what the hell. That climb hurts no matter what I do.

Is it too early for reflection?

2010-07-28T14:07:00.001-04:00

But first, some pictures.

Day 1 after my crash. Ew.

One week post-crash. It almost hurts more now then it did a week ago. Of course, I was pretty heavily medicated that day . . .

So, here we are! It's almost August (!!!) and I only have 5 more races in 2010. Wow, how time flies. I started reflecting on my season when I wrote down that, no, I didn't achieve YET another goal of the 2010 season. But . . . it was outside of my control. Also, for financial reasons I let my coach go, and planned the next month all by my lonesome. And I got to thinking . . . 3 more weeks of heavy training (I'm a little detuned right now after tapering for Cascade and then NOT RACING), 5 days of racing, and it'll be time to hang up my skinny tires for the year. Time for a fall of mountain biking and hiking and, gasp! maybe even some running and swimming. All the things I don't do enough from November thru September because I'm riding my road bike. Damn roadie.

So, now that the season's coming to a close, how do I feel about it? Well, surprisingly, pretty good! So I fell short of a couple of goals - the district TT because I was cooked from Hood, and Cascade because, well, you know. All that can be done is be happy for the goals I did achieve and refocus on 2011 with new, loftier goals. Not sure what those will be yet, since I'm not sure exactly where we'll land, but I'm confident I can find a place wherever that is.

What a wild month

2010-07-27T11:44:00.000-04:00

Sooo . . . wow. July's almost over, August's almost here. July is usually my favorite month - my birthday's on the 10th, it's beautiful and warm outside and I log lots of time at the river, mountain bike trails start opening up . . .

I think my cosmic order was off this time around, though. Things just didn't go quite as planned. Where to start?

Davis 4th of July Crit - umm . . . wtf happened? Went into it excited to attack and race hard for our sprinters, and ended up trailing off the back the whole damn time. I suffered in the heat, and I later realized, struggled in the corners. Subconsciously I was freaking myself out and letting myself get punked going into every last one of them. Undoubtedly fall-out from my TdN crash. Lame. Anyway, pulled out with 5 to go, tried to explain it, just sounded like lame ass excuses . . . moving on.
Geiger Grade HCTT - I averaged 14 watts lower than my last time trial up Geiger, yet I was 1:20 faster. Umm . . . another WTF moment. Still failed to break 40:00, still managed to get 2nd, still holding the lead in the SNHCTT series. At least until the Mt. Rose TT . . . that one's gonna hurt.
And finally . . . . drumroll please? Cascade! Holy shit, what just happened?! Oh yeah, I crashed out on the 1st stage (not counting the prologue, which isn't really a stage, just a whole day of sitting around, 1 hr of warm up, and 4 minutes of racing). Yeah, 1st stage. 18 miles in. We were on a descent, going pretty damn fast. It hurt. I tried to keep going, but my body said no. Now that I'm healing up I fine myself berating myself for not finishing. But I listened to my body and made a decision. In retrospect it's easy to say, "oh, I'm such a wimp, I should have kept going", but the truth is that my left leg was nearly useless and I had 54 miles and 6000 feet of climbing to go. I'm pissed, I want vengeance, I got lucky. Instead of being out for the rest of the season, I was just out for the week. And I even got in a couple hours of ripping up some sick Bend singletrack. Hells yeah. Make the best of a bad situation. Anyway, my totally radical teammate got 9th in the GC. So it was a good week, even though it was a crummy week.

So what now? Despite my lousy week, I find myself mentally recommitted to road racing, at least for another year. I'm going to go race Winters, Vacaville, Challenge and the Giro de SF. As much as the thought of racing a full season of cyclocross makes me all weak in the knees, I'm going to take a break this fall. If only to come back to Cascade next year for personal vindication. I honestly have NO IDEA where we'll be living next summer, or even 6 weeks from now, but I'll make it back to Bend for that damn race one way or another.

2010-07-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

Seriously thinking about moving to Gloucester, MA for the fall (maybe longer) and racing 'cross. A dozen UCI races within 4 hours of me? Weeeeee! Buuuuut . . . who knows. By the way, I am not talking about moving 3000 miles away solely for cyclocross racing - Cody can make good money there, too, and we can live for free. So I haven't totally lost it. Yet.

Isn't it amazing how you can go from crazy-motivated to wicked burned out seemingly overnight? And what amazing timing, too - just a few days away from the biggest, gnarliest stage race I've done yet! Oi. Taking a few days to try to recharge and improve my attitude about this whole mess before making the trek northward to Bend. I don't think we can call it the land of cowbells in July, maybe I'll make it up there again in December . . . .

mmm . . . . 'cross . . . .

Thoughts?

2010-07-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking of ending my road season after Cascade and racing cyclocross. Am I utterly insane? All season long I've been thinking, "I need an off season, I'm not going to race 'cross." But now? Ugh, I need help.

Affirmation

2010-06-27T23:04:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit to Allan Crawford.

I don't really look like I'm suffering that bad (I was). What I like about this picture is that you can see the reflection of my hands and bars in my sunglasses if you look carefully.

Woot! I finally won one. Okay, so there were only a handful of us, and it was a local race, but damnit, I won. I've been dreading this hill climb since I first decided to do it. Not because I dread hill climb TTs (well, maybe a little) but because this particular climb - starting by Incline Village, up Country Club Dr., then onto Mt. Rose Hwy to the summit - has never quite agreed with me. I think it might be those brutally steep sections on Country Club, or maybe the loooooong straight aways on the highway. Either way, I've always felt fairly miserable while climbing up it.

In all honesty, I was fairly miserable whilst climbing up it today.

But in the end I prevailed, beating an incredibly skinny girl by ONE second. One. Do you know what I was thinking about for the last mile? I was thinking about how ever second counts, and how I missed the podium at the district time trial by six. One second. And she was damn skinny, too. And I had some Hostess Chocolate Donettes yesterday. Okay, I should probably lay off the snack cakes, but seriously, this is cool. And since this course has never been run before I "technically" set a women's course record. I'm going to say it again - I set a course record, in a hill climb. Ahhhh . . . that's nice. Gotta savor it because I don't hesitate to think that it's the last time I'll be able to make that claim.

So . . . things are coming together! I ended last weekend on a high note, after NOT GETTING LAPPED!!! at Nevada City. First time I've done that race that I've finished on the lead lap. Boooya. Anyway, that was followed by a kind of rough week, with lots of owies from my crash, and just feeling generally kind of bummed. But right now I'm feeling pretty good about things. I have a two day mini-break from bikes starting tomorrow, then some hard stuff coming up to tune up before what will undoubtedly be the hardest 6 days of my life, so far. Dun dun dun . . . . Cascade! Stoked.

Weeeeee!

2010-06-25T12:15:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm so totally stoked on life and what's to come that it's difficult to contain. Or maybe I've just had too much caffeine? A definitely possibility.

Three weekends of racing coming up - hill climb followed by crit followed by hill climb - then my folks bought me tickets for my birthday to go see Neil Young here in Reno the weekend after that, and then Cascade! Sooooooo stoked! And Cody will be home somewhere in the middle of all that.

All this is helping me ignore the lingering ouchiness of my crash last Friday. While I emerged road rash-less, I got a nasty tire burn on the back of my leg from the girl who hit me (my bad, my bad entirely). And while I've never had road rash as big as what's on my leg, I'd venture to say that the tire burn hurts significantly worse than the road rash I have had. I mean, it's a burn, right? it hurts like a burn. And it's all scabby and nasty and it hurts when I sit down because it's on the back of my upper thigh. Ick. And I landed on my head in such a way that my neck is all spasmed.

But the point of this post wasn't to bitch about my owwies, but to talk about how freaking stoked I am. Yay bike racing and travel and great music and awesome company! Sorry, I'm just being annoying now. Over and out.

TdN and NC Pics

2010-06-22T12:46:00.000-04:00

I've got a good suffer face going on here. In fact, in all of the NC pics I look like I'm about to die., while a lot of the girls around me look super chill. I don't think I was necessarily suffering MORE than them, I just have a pretty intense suffer face.

I like TTs again . . . I think. Anyway, can't pack up the TT bike for the year yet, gotta race it at Cascade!

Game on!

2010-06-22T12:26:00.000-04:00

At some point I'll write a report about Tour de Nez and Nevada City, or maybe I'll just post some photos or something, but not today. The news for today is that I have been convinced to try my luck at Cascade after all. All it took was a little flattery, and a little begging for time off. Cascade is a go.

At some point during the Reno criterium on Friday I had a funny thought that I can't remember now. It triggered a Seinfeld reference in my head, which I also can't remember. What I CAN remember is thinking - this is during a really tough crit, mind you - that every event in my life can be related to either an episode of the Simpsons, Seinfeld, or Mystery Science Theater 3000. Some of you may think that is incredibly lame, but I think it's incredibly awesome.

Not the first time . . .

2010-06-13T22:44:00.001-04:00

. . . and it won't be the last. That I fail to achieve a season goal, that is. Last year I failed to get enough points to get my upgrade, and this year I failed to break an hour at the district time trial. I don't have a lot to say about it, really. I didn't have a good race, my power was really inconsistent, and I need to work out some issues with my TT bike fit. Issues that I didn't notice until after 30 kilometers of hard pedaling. It happens. Move on. I'm frustrated by my inability to put together a good time trial in the past couple months, but I'm happy that I was, at the very least, faster than last year. And my legs are totally fried right now so I guess I went hard. After this post I'm done talking about it.

Looking forward to next year - if I'm still around these here parts and I figure the district TT into my schedule, my goal will NOT be to break an hour. I had my chance on that one, and I didn't do it, moving on. My goal next year will be to break 59 minutes. The self-lecture goes thus, "Oh yeah? You can't pull your s#*t together to go under an hour? Try 59 minutes, see how you like that." Yeah, I talk to myself a lot. 'Specially during time trials.

Moving on.

Oh yeah, how about the barn board backdrop? I think it appealed to me because Cody is in Gloucester until July 6 and I wish I were there too so I could just ride and swim and race Fitchburg and not have to worry about work and bills and stuff. Oh yeah, and the house has barn board walls in one of the rooms. I think it was a poor choice of interior decor (the house was only built 3 years ago) but the motif still reminds me of Gloucester. I know, sometimes I don't make a lot of sense. Until next time . . .

Mt. Minty

2010-06-09T10:54:00.000-04:00

The Team!

Warming up for the TT. My bike is sexy.

Start of the TT - it was so windy they discontinued use of the starting ramp.

The support crew relaxing after the queen stage. Cody won the beer drinking GC.

Before the start of a very wet crit that lasted about 9 minutes for me!

Ahh . . . a day off. After arriving home at 3 AM on Monday morning after 6 days away from home, then working on Monday and Tuesday, it's awfully nice to just be able to sit on my ass, drink coffee, and write a race report. Oh yeah, and I guess I'll do laundry or something at some point today. Maybe.

I survived Mt. Hood! Hells yeah. Okay, so I was 2nd to last in GC, that's OK! You know why? Because my teammate-for-the-weekend won! And I don't think I'm being inappropriate when I say that I sacrificed a number of places during the Queen Stage of the race so that my teammates could arrive at the final long-ass climb with rockstar legs. I mean, I really hate that coulda-woulda-shoulda stuff, but I'm confident in my assertion nonetheless. Whatever.

So, where's to begin?

Last tuesday Cody and I loaded up the Jetta and drove North. We arrived at our intial destination in Bend, Oregon, and found the house of our friend, Lizzy F'in English. Just so happens that her S.O. is Adam F'in Craig, so crashing at their house is an experience worth its own blogpost at some point. Let's just say that their garage is Off-The-F'in-Hook. Anyway, long story short, Lizzy took us out for a spin on the mountain bike (I borrowed one of her bikes) on some totally ripping Bend singletrack, followed by dinner. Good times.

Next day we loaded back up to rain, reloaded the car, and drove further North, arriving at our Motel 6 in The Dalles around lunch. People keep asking me why we stayed in The Dalles instead of Hood River, since The Dalles is kind of ghetto and is about 17 miles from Hood. Let me just say this - good luck finding a cheap hotel in Hood River. I prerode much of the time trial course (in the rain) and then drove to Hood River for our pre-race team meeting, and for the distribution of Metromint kits.

The next day was stage 1 - a 52 mile road race with about 3600 feet of climbing. Doesn't sound too bad, right? The plan for the day was to keep everything together and preserve all of our GC options, since we had 3 girls that could take it. Unfortunately I was dropped after about 8 miles. To be fair, the climbing started on mile 1. And it was fast. And there were attacks. I was doing fine, moving up, responding. And then I was spit out the back. D'oh! We rallied a group of 5 of us and pulled fast for the rest of the race, finishing only 9 minutes down on the main pack, which finished in a field sprint. I felt decent for most of it, but didn't eat enough and bonked on the 2nd climb of the day with about 1 K to the top. I hung on, but just barely. Our group was 7 by the finish and I won the sprint for 39th. Wow. The day had been pretty nice, but about 1 minute after I finished the rain started. Oh, Oregon. This is why I live in the desert. Good timing, anyway.

Stage 2 was a 18.9 mile time trial on probably the most difficult course I've tackled. The climbs, the wind, the descents, the kamikaze squirrel that almost took me out . . . it was tough. And to top it off I didn't have a very good day. It started out OK, and then I was passed by my 30 second girl and my moral took a digger. Then on the climb I was passed by my 1 minute girl. Then the rest of the race was a struggle to keep my power above 200 watts. Seriously suck. Plus I just wasn't digging that Metromint chamois, so to top off my suckiness I was seriously uncomfortable. I finished the race and went back to the hotel where I proceeded to feel sorry for myself for the rest of the day. At least until I learned that my teammate Molly had WON and taken over the GC lead! That boosted my moral significantly. Heather finished 5th and Jane 7th. We had the GC lead and some serious contenders in the top 10, so who cares about my lousy race?

Stage 3 was the queen stage - a monstrous road race with 8600 feet of climbing over 72 miles. And we had GC to protect. The plan was for myself and another girl to patrol the front before the first climb of the day, which came about 20 miles into the race. I had my job. I could do my job, and then when I got dropped I could be content in the fact that I'd helped the team. As it turned out, I lasted quite a bit longer than 20 miles. So, the race started with a long, not particularly steep descent. I worked my way towards the front and sat on teammate Amanda's wheel while she made sure nothing went off the front. Then we had a pee break, which I was actually pretty happy about. Some Hagens Berman girls were like "what's a pee break?" and didn't want to stop. Seriously? You've never heard of a pee break? Anyway, Molly pulled rank on them and told them that if the race leader called for a pee break it was customary to accomodate them. Radical. Anyway, after that I found myself at the back again. I was trying to edge up the road without much luck. Then the attacks started. I saw Amanda at the front chasing and thought "crap! That should be me up there, Amanda has to cover the 2nd part of the race!" So I gunned it to the front and helped chase. Mission accomplished. Then we hit the climb, and I found myself on the front, again with Amanda. What's the best way to make sure you don't get dropped on the climb? I say set the pace. So we set the pace up the 5 mile climb to discourage attacks and keep things moving at a pace that I could just sustain. It felt great to lead a climb at a race like Mt. Hood. There were no QOM points for the women, but the signs were still there from the Pro men's race. Myself and Sue Butler "sprinted" for it, and I "beat" her - just for fun. People laughed, it was good times. This was followed by a fast descent, and then we hit some kickers before the real climbing began. At that point I was on the back, hoping for the best. I got gapped off a few times but chased back on. Finally I cracked, about 40 miles into the race. I knew that I'd done my job well and I trusted my teammates to finish it off. So for the next 30 miles I rode through some beautiful Oregon forest, up some long ass climbs, and was perfectly content knowing that the time cut was 30%. As it turned out, Molly held onto the lead. Yay!

The next day it was raining. A lot. And we had a crit to race. The organizers decided that the crit would not be counted for GC, as the conditions could be considered unsafe. A number of girls opted out of racing. Metromint took the line, however, out of respect to the yellow jersey. It was really wet for our race. From what I hear, ours was the wettest of the day. Great. Without getting into a whole lot of unnecessary and demoralizing detail, only one of us finished, but none of us crashed. Molly won the overall. Life was good.

Me and Cody drove home after the awards ceremony. I should say, actually, that I drove to Bend, then slept almost all the way from Bend to Reno, while Cody stayed awake driving until 3 AM. Whatta guy!

One last thing - if in Hood River I totally recommend Dirty Fingers Bike Shop - the guys there were awesome in helping Cody find places to ride, and it seemed like a great bike shop. I do not, however, recommend Salmon Cyclery in The Dalles - that guy was utterly unhelpful, a jerk, and a total tool.

And now onto the good stuff.

2010-05-26T11:41:00.000-04:00

So the cool piece of news that I didn't want to have thrown into my Miss Negativity post was that myself and my two teammates who are heading up to Mt. Hood will be guest riding for Metromint! They're also sending three girls, so we'll have a strong 6 rider squad. Unfortunately, I'll definitely be the weakest link. But I'm sure it will be an excellent learning experience, nonetheless! I'm hoping that the altitude will give me a bit of a boost. I mean, a lot of it starts at 1100 feet or so, but on the gnarly 3rd stage we get up to 5300. Even if it's just psychological, it could help. And honestly, I need all the help I can get. I'm nervous, but I'm also wicked excited. I hope I can hang in there long enough to be of use to someone.

Oh yeah, so, since I've switched jobs and now won't be able to make it to Cascades in all likelihood, I've developed a little secondary season goal. I might even add it to my list, although I'm not sure it's entirely realistic. So, over here on the Eastern slope of the Sierra we have the Sierra Nevada Hill Climb Time Trial series. It's 4 races long, and I've already missed one, but if you do 3 of them you're eligible for the overall. The races I've added to the calendar are the backside of Mt. Rose (my most loathed of all Reno-area climbs), Geiger (must redeem myself!), and Mt. Rose proper (also eligible for redemption). You get points based on coming in 1-3, and they're weighted depending on which race it is. Mt. Rose proper gets the most points. My friend Amber Broch, who's totally insanely fast this year (and last year, for that matter) won the first one, and won the Geiger TT a couple weeks ago, and beat me by two minutes. She's strong and lean and flies up hill. I don't know if I can beat her, but I'd like to try. It will be a good motivator for my climbing, and even if I don't win, I'll be happy knowing that I was bested by a friend, and a strong one at that. Anyway, winning the overall is not a terribly realistic goal, especially considering that I already missed a race, but maybe I'll make my goal a top 3 in the overall. I don't think I want to start setting time goals for the various climbs - if something goes badly and I suck then I don't want to dissolve into that blubbering whiny thing that I was after Geiger. Get a grip, Mare, fo' rizzle.

And, working on that climbing is going to be important since the Elite District road race is going to be at Challenge this year. You may recall my last attempt at this race. Not. Pretty. Gotta get the climbing legs ready!

In other good news, my neck is doing a lot better today. I still have to turn my whole upper body if I want to look at something that's off to my side, but I can sit up and move around without whimpering. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm a big wimp. But feeling uber-motivated by having such a crappy day yesterday, so I'm going to be getting off my ass and away from the glowing rectangle of my monitor and get some shizit done.

Okay, one last piece of snooze before I go. I was in the paper yesterday: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100525/LIV/5250319/1089/Pedal-power-for-Northern-Nevada-bicyclists

Apparently I'm like, an expert, or something.

More Whiny Crap

2010-05-25T18:30:00.001-04:00

As I recall from the beginning of May, I may have made some statement about how blogging was going to be slim because I wouldn't be racing much. Um, hello? Mare? Turns out that when I'm less busy with travel I seem to blog a lot more. But my posts suck, so it's kind of a hard call which is better. Mostly they've been sucking a lot lately because it's just been bitch bitch bitch, whine whine whine, boo hoo, poor me. God, people like that are annoying as hell, aren't they? Whether it's my crappy Geiger time, getting a wimpy little cold, my lousy job (haha, not any more, suckers!), the weather, or whatever else I have to complain about, it's been pretty much non stop negativity out of me for the past couple weeks. Well, this is more of the same, so I would encourage my 1.5 readers to find a better use of their next several minutes.

This morning I sneezed, and promptly threw my neck out of whack. I got some whiplash when I was 13 and ever since then I have to treat my neck like a Ming vase to keep it from doing this crap. It's actually gotten a little better over the past year or two, and I don't think I've done this since last November or so. It used to be ever 3 months. I'm going to tell you that it hurts, a lot, and I hope you understand that I fancy myself a pretty tough guy (girl), and I hope I don't come off sounding like a big wimp. Whatever, it hurts. I didn't get anything done today because I was laying around, rubbing Tiger Balm into it and sucking back pain killers. Tuesday = suck. I finally took a couple of Excedrin because Vitamin I wasn't cutting it. I'll probably be awake all night, but at least I'll be somewhat more comfortable.

I have a cool piece of news, but I feel kind of like a lame-ass including it in my whiny post, so I'll save it for next time.

Changes

2010-05-22T23:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I officially have a new job. Phew. The downside of this is that I probably won't get to go race the Cascade Classic. C'est la vie. So I'm changing my goal to "don't get time cut from Cascade" to "don't get time cut from Mt. Hood". I can race NRCs next year. This year there's nothing wrong with sticking to the regional stuff.

I rode for 4 hours in the snow/wind/occasional sun yesterday. I think that I need to increase the distance/intensity of my longer rides now that I'm a 2. 90 miles instead of 60. Still a zone 1/2 effort, but more zone 2.

Okay, off to do another 4 hours in the rain/wind/hopefully sun today. It's Reno, so the chances of it being very wet are slim. Still, I might throw on a fender.

Pull the Plug

2010-05-21T18:10:00.000-04:00

Today I quit my job. Good riddance. The official rational is that they never once paid me on time, in the almost 4 months that I worked there. There are other reasons, but the cycling world is small and I'd prefer to not talk too much shmack. If you can imagine the total lack of respect that an employer exhibits by not setting and maintaining regular pay periods (as is required by law) you can understand how that lack might manifest itself in other ways. I feel very, very relieved. I asked Cody this morning if it would be cool with him if I quit my job today, and he gave me his blessing - "They never pay you on time!" he said. But I had to promise to start looking again on Monday. Well, I started looking again today, and I think the outlook is good. Making the Reno bike shop rounds here, but sooner or later I'll find one that isn't run by crooked jerks. It's not just me, ask anyone else who's worked at my last two bike shops and they'll fully support my opinion. Whatever, I don't need to justify myself.

But it does pose a couple of new problems. Namely, how am I going to get myself to races with no income? Hopefully the new shop works out, and there's no sense in worrying about things until I know for sure that it won't.

I'm not going to race the TT and RR this weekend. I'm too damn sick. Which is lame, but health is priority number one. So what am I going to do? It's supposed to snow tomorrow and sunday. The wind is gusting like crazy right now. Fingers crossed that this is it, that summer is right around the corner, that I have a new job, and that my legs will come around for Mt. Hood.

The Haps

2010-05-20T13:28:00.000-04:00

What I did this weekend, in no particular order.

Climbed Iowa Hill. It was really, really steep. I want to go do it again.

Saw the Tour of California race through Nevada County.

Watched it with my pops.

Watched Cody graduate!!! This shot is of the whole family. Both of my parents, his mom and her S.O., his three brothers, his sister-in-law, who's expecting! and his boss/friend/father figure from Massachusetts, who flew out and surprised us! Oh yes, and Riley, who's like my furry little child.

Yay!

In addition to all this I went to an Elvis Costello concert on Saturday night that was fabulous. Oh yeah, and went out on Tuesday and raced an Air Center twilight crit, which was way fun. And now I'm paying for my big happening weekend - I'm sick. Seriously, I went all winter without getting sick (aside from my systemic MRSA infection, but that doesn't count, because I didn't FEEL sick). And now, in May, with the sun shining and the birds singing? I'm laying in bed with a nasty head cold. So. Lame. Especially because after four weeks since my last race I'm making the drive over the hill this weekend for a nice TT and road race. I figure as long as I'm not coughing up a lung, I'll be OK.

Anyway, I suppose a head cold is small price to pay for having the whole family together under one roof for one awesome weekend. Cody's applying for jobs - the other day he applied for one in Manchester, NH, and one in Folsom. I hear they put in a velodrome in NH, not too far from Manchester!

Feeling My Roots

2010-05-09T00:48:00.000-04:00

So, I grew up in Quincy, California. It's a quaint little town in the mountains, close to nowhere. I loathed the place when I lived there, especially near the end. Let's put it this way, Quincy is a "small town" in all senses of the phrase. Nosey neighbors, narrow-minded church-goers, white bread. I mean, this is California, right? And yet there were like, 2 hispanic kids. Just sayin'. I was always a little different, and you know how cruel kids can be, especially to other kids who don't quite fit the mold. I'm not trying to make myself sound cool, or like a free-thinker, or rebel. I wasn't really that interesting, I just wasn't ever accepted. I had a few close friends, only one whose life I stay involved with. I mean, the occasional Facebook comment doesn't really count as staying in contact, that's just cheating. Anyway, Quincy is the kind of town (it could be that all towns are like this, I just don't have the first hand experience necessary to make that call) where if the kids don't like you, the parents probably don't either. Maybe it's because my parents were kind of antisocial, maybe it's because they spent their weekends playing on kids toys wearing spandex instead of mowing the lawn and going to church, perhaps because their kids said I was a witch . . . . you know what the funniest part of that is? That it actually bugged me - stupid rich, white kids calling me a witch. But I digress. Point is, I always felt that from an early age I was not quite approved of my classmates and their parents, who really ought to know better, but don't. "Witch" manifested itself to "lesbian" in junior high, which also got to me. The LGBT population of Quincy isn't much bigger than the non-white population, or the non Judeo-Christian population. Again, the label bugged me. I have no issue with anyone's sexuality, nor my own, but I think it was just the act of being bullied that got to me, which I suppose is the whole point. I mean, it really doesn't matter WHAT someone says to you, but how.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah, so in high school I was kind of punk rock I guess. I was more interested in good music than image (at least in retrospect I'd really like to believe that) so I didn't really listen to much punk. I listened to Neil Young, Idiot Flesh, Melt Banana, Sun Ra, James Brown, the Melvins, Bad Religion, the Ruins, Queen, Frank Zappa - just the stuff I liked, you know? Anyway, the only real sub-group in Quincy was the hippy population. And by "hippy" I mean dreadlocks and weed, not social or environmental activism. So it's kind of a derogatory term in this case. Anyway, I freaking hated the hippies. I felt that they did a disservice to environmentally and socially consciencious people by being such lazy-ass posers. Sorry, but it's the truth. I was a little agro back then (these days I channel my continued tendencies towards aggrivation through my pedals).

Anyway, the whole reason I started this blogpost was that I was feeling like a little bit of a hippy and it made me think about Quincy, and how I've changed in the last (gasp!) 9 years since I left. See, I got this really bad sunburn yesterday because I didn't put sunscreen on my arms before riding for 4 hours in the desert. So today I bought some unrefined coconut butter to rub into my skin. I'm wearing baggy flannels, drinking Kombucha, listening to some mellow girl music that I actually listened to when I was a teenager (whoa, am I not a teenager anymore? daaaamn.), rubbing coconut oil into my arms, and thinking that I could probably pull off dreadlocks, at least as well as any other white girl. Oh yeah! And I bought a Neti Pot, and cleansed my sinuses, which made me feel very holistic. Anyway, I'm going to go do some yoga and foam roller my IT bands, then pass out. I have a long ride to take care of tomorrow - fingers crossed for this damn wind to go away!

Ughh

2010-05-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

So much for not blogging. This is as much for me as anyone else (as are all my blog posts, but whatev).

I went out to the Geiger Grade hill climb TT last night. Ugh. I sucked a lot. I haven't done it in 2 years, and I think my best time was something like 40:42. I really wanted to break 40 minutes. Seriously, it's been 2 years, and 2 years of intense training and focus and dedication and sacrifice, shouldn't I have an extra minute (at the very least!) in my legs? Well, apparently not. As a matter of fact, I was about 2 minutes slower. 2 minutes! Let's break this down a little bit.

Were I going off of heart rate I would say that I rode a good TT. It dropped a wee bit at the end, but overall it was within the range that I like to see for an effort like this. But after the first 15 minutes or so my power just started sucking. See?

Brutal.

Okay, I'm done whining. I've been training really hard the last week and a half and I'm obviously tired. And I've been a bit under the weather, too. I just wish, as we all do after a bad race, that there wasn't going to be a permanent record of it. Whatever.

My blog was boring me . . .

2010-04-29T12:44:00.001-04:00

. . . so I changed the template to this cornea-searing green one. Enjoy!

4-Low

2010-04-29T12:19:00.000-04:00

"ATTACK!"

A friend of mine is fond of telling people to "put it in 4-low" (those of you who didn't grow up in little redneck towns in Norcal and who don't understand the term may find reference material here). By "telling", I mean that he screams it at them while they're suffering through a race (road, DH, whatev), or when they're working, or when they're eating. Basically it's kind of a slogan like HTFU. At any rate, it's what I'm going to be doing for the next month. Putting it in 4-low, that is.

After two soul crushing weekends of racing post-upgrade (that's a joke, by the way - my soul remains un-crushed, I'm just trying to be funny, probably unsuccessfully) I have four weeks of hard training before my next race weekend, which will be followed by a nice week and a half long taper to Mt. Hood. And by "hard training" I mean, put-it-in-4-low, HTFU, go-suffer-like-it's-your job, training. Reaching for new power numbers, 17 hrs a week, awesomeness. I'm really stoked about it. Not even being sarcastic, it's gonna be rad. I really do adore my coach.

So if the blogging is a bit infrequent(er) in the coming month, you'll know why. But fear not, because after spending a month in 4-low there should be several weeks awesome stories about my venture northward to Mt. Hood, the 1 hr. sufferfest that is the district TT, the comedy of errors that will undoubtedly constitute the Tour de Nez, and a defeated limp through the streets of Nevada City.

I freakin' love my life.

Slaughtered

2010-04-20T12:52:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, the Sea Otter. Tell me again, why did I decide to do this race as my first P1/2 race? Guess I didn't really think it through. Basically, it was hard, and I got smoked. Not that I expected to win or anything, but it was rough. I didn't have rock-star legs, I didn't feel rested going into it, and I didn't recover properly between days. I think without those contributing factors I would have done better. Again, I wouldn't have won, but it wouldn't have been quite so rough. To Recap . . .

The good:

I finished, and wasn't DFL, in my first road race as a 2!

I got to race on the Laguna Seca Raceway again, and descending the corkscrew with a pack of 50 women was a blast.

I hung in for almost 1/2 of the Circuit Race, and got to see my teammates off the front!

After the Circuit Race I got to walk around with my awesome teammates and schmooze our sponsors. Rad.

I am the Alternator Queen.*

The bad:

I was dropped on the 2nd lap of the road race. Brutal.

I was dropped 53 minutes into the circuit race. Consequentely DNFed.

The ugly:

Totally sleep deprived for the whole weekend.

Didn't get to eat dinner until 8:30 PM on Friday.

Felt like I had to do stuff after the road race, instead of laying down and taking a nap like my body obviously needed. Idiot.

*Car broke down on the way home, spent an extra night in Fremont, and used my latent alternator installation skills to get us home.

Crushed the corner of my palm whilst removing old alternator, resulting in a puffy, bruised, and blood blistered hand. C'est la vie.

Anywho, in the end, it was a great experience, and awesome (expensive) training. I KNOW I can race successfully at that level. I just need a few more watts, a few more brain cells, and another year (or 3) of hard work.

Next up is Wente! I've never done this race, and I'm super excited about it! Followed by a month of no travel, which I'm equally excited about, and then . . . . dun dun duhhhh . . . Mt. Hood! Which I'm terrified for. But excited. Mostly excited.

Catch Up

2010-04-12T11:19:00.000-04:00

Please enjoy these low resolution cam-phone images while your party is reached.

Ice cream birthday cake. It was supposed to be red velvet with chocolate ice cream, but it really just looks brown. Tasted good anyway.

With raspberries and REAL whipped cream. None of that crappy (yet alarmingly delicious) cool whip crap.

The birthday boy.

My easter hyacinth. Smells amazing.

I looooove my doggie. Cute.

Coupla weeks ago, first trip up Mt. Rose of 2010. Boy was it cold on the way back down, tho.

On the way up, looking at the mountain.

My NEW TT BIKE! Can't wait to get out to a race with her.

My road bike pretending to be a TT bike at Madera. In the Day's Inn.

Halfway up Geiger Grade a couple of weeks ago.

Okay, I'm going to race the Otter Slaughter next weekend. First race as a 2. I am going to get slaughtered all right.

FINALLY!

2010-04-07T21:51:00.000-04:00

I got my cat 2 upgrade! 1/3 of my seasons goals - done!!! Now ready to suffer it out with the big girls! Ohmygod I'm soooooo stoked!

Just for fun

2010-04-06T12:33:00.000-04:00

Because it's a good shot. Thanks Hernando.

Frustration

2010-04-06T12:11:00.000-04:00

I have the hardest time thinking of blog post titles. Seriously.

So, I raced Copperopolis on Saturday! I love that race. Ended up third, after three of us dropped the rest of the field. It was a good race. For some reason I just don't feel like typing up a long report about it. I didn't win, but I raced well, my fitness is good, I'm content. Well, no, I want to win, but no regrets, except that I wish I had 20 more watts, but I don't. They'll come, watt by watt, some day. I'm cool with that.

Right now I'm trying to get my cat 2 upgrade. Like, I requested it, was denied, but then realized I had entered 2009 as the year for one of my recent races, instead of 2010, so homeboy told me my points had expired. So I resubmitted it with the date fixed. And pretty much pleading that he give it to me, or else my points are going to start expiring for rizzle, starting next weekend. If he doesn't give it to me I'll probably cry and eat some chocolate. And then go race Spring Hill this weekend on Cody's birthday, which I really don't want to do, but otherwise I'm going to lose a bunch of my hard earned points from Copper and Sea Slaughter last year. Decisions decisions. Just give me my upgrade already! I'm there, I've earned it, and I've been a cat 3 for 4 years! Obviously I haven't spent all of those years working towards it, but at this point I'm pretty much done with being a 3. It's like going to college for year after year after year, learning lots, progressing with your class work, and then never graduating. Like, oh, sorry, that class you took last semester has expired, you have to take another one. Crap.

In other news, my job kind of sucks. I mean, I like working in a shop, but my employer seems to think it unimportant to set and maintain regular pay periods. And then on my last paycheck, that was 5 days late, I was totally underpaid. Almost quit yesterday, but persuaded myself not to. No, scratch that, I chickened out. Probably for the best, but I'm getting really sick of not knowing when I'm going to be able to pay my bills. Plus, you know, it's a violation of federal and state labor laws. Grrrrrrr . . .

Anyway, I'm off to enjoy the (freezing) sunshine on my TT bike today. Weeeeee!

Weekend in the Pain Cave

2010-03-23T22:57:00.000-04:00

This last weekend I raced Bariani and Land Park - both 1/2/3 races, both with a big team. Both days were fast and hard. We attacked, counter attacked, drove some breaks, and ultimately won. Well, we won Bariani. Land Park was great, we just didn't execute our lead out quite right. But it was the most fun I've ever had in a crit. Ever. Loved every minute of it, even though I was in so. much. pain.

I can't wait to get my upgrade and do races that are that fast and challenging every weekend. Racing with and for a big strong team is incredibly liberating. I can attack and put myself out there and take chances, knowing that even if I get dropped, or come in DFL, I did my work for my teammates, and I trust them to do their jobs just the same. Real racing. Real awesome.

Madera Stage Racin'

2010-03-19T12:27:00.001-04:00

I like this picture, and not because my butt looks good (it doesn't, and it should be stamped with "Wide Load"). I like the colors, and the flowers, and the sunshine.

So, Madera! (How many blog posts have I started with "So, ____!"? Quite a few, I'd say.) Anyway, I've been super tired all week, super lazy about blogging. Still feeling lazy, so I'm going to go with the ol' standby and copy and paste the report I wrote for my coach.

Sooo . . . things went pretty well this weekend. The crit was good, as you know, and really happy with 2nd. There was a break going up the road that had the girls I knew to be the fast TT riders, and I was able to power up to them without dragging anyone else with me. There were only 3 laps to go at this point, so we were able to stay away, then I sprinted to 2nd.

I ended up 5th in the time trial. I decked out the road bike with my aero extensions, and some borrowed aero wheels. It was really windy out there, so I'm not absolutely positive that the the disc wheel helped a lot since I spent a lot of time trying to not get blown over, which I think kept me from going as hard as I could have. My average power was 240 watts for the 27 minute effort.

The road race didn't go as well as I'd liked. On the 2nd lap I dropped my chain at the base of the first roller before the feed zone. Couldn't get it back on, and I had to STOP and put it back on. Lame. I had to chase for a little while. I saw the pack round the corner, and the girl who was leading GC (who is a pro triathlete) looked back, saw me chasing, and attacked the pack. Chase chase chase. Things slowed down a little bit, eventually, and I got back on. Unfortunately, I think I burned a number of my matches doing it. Then, 5 miles before the finish, my teammate, who was helping me stay protected, got caught in a pretty bad crash (she was OK) but I was on my own at the finish. The triathlete girl went at the beginning of the first roller before the finish. I was pretty close to the front, but the girls in front of me were just letting her go. I decided to try to go with her hoping I'd get a gap on the rest of the group, but I couldn't hang. Then a group of 6 caught me, and I couldn't quite stay with them. The girl who was in 6th in GC, 30 seconds back from me, was in the group of 6, so I just tried to minimize the damage and hang on to my 5th place GC. I was able to, so that was cool, but I would have liked to do better in the road race. Ah well. I got a number of upgrade points from the crit and my GC result.

And . . . my TT bike arrived today! Just not in time for Madera. Haha, well, I'll have it for the next one. Anyway, I'm feeling fit and ready for more racing!

I feel a little self conscious putting in stuff about my average power for the TT (god, she only did 240 watts? What a loser.) But I'll get over it. Anyway, my coach said that was really good, and I'm getting stronger (which I knew, but it's always nice to hear it from the expert).

Later today I'm driving down to Grass Valley, then tomorrow I'm racing the Bariani/Zamora Road Race, then the Land Park Criterium on Sunday. I took it pretty easy this week and I'm looking forward to doing some hard work for the team (both are 1/2/3 races). I'm hoping that 4 weeks from now I'll have the last of my upgrade points and I'll be permanently racing with the 1/2 team.

I'm sick of 3s races - everyone wants points, so no one will take any chances, and it leads to negative racing. I'm as much to blame as anyone. At the road race on Sunday I wanted to attack soooo bad (because I was bored as hell) but sat back and sucked wheel (I actually took a pull or two, unlike a number of people) so I could get that one extra upgrade point. Weak. But whaddya gonna do? The really frustrating part was the two teams that actually had some numbers (5-6 riders) and no one anywhere near the top 5 GC standings, and yet wouldn't do a lick of work. If I'd been in that position I would be attacking non stop. I mean, what do you have to lose? So anyway, this was kind of a long ramble, but the point is I can't wait to be in the 1/2 races, so I don't have to play the silly upgrade point games. This weekend is also the San Dimas Stage Race, followed, of course, by Redlands. Next year, so help me, I will be racing down there.

Clearing Skies

2010-03-01T10:46:00.000-05:00

As promised, Saturday consisted of a wet, cold ride. I did the Saturday morning World Championship ride, for the first time in probably 8 months. I tend to avoid it because those guys (and it is almost always only guys, unless Amber is in Reno and decides to come out and teach them a thing or two) because they're wicked sketchy and generally rude to automobile traffic. It was a pretty small group this week (aw, come on! You's guys don't want to go ride in the rain?) and everyone was fairly safe. I hung with them up the first couple climbs which I've never been able to do before, even though I got dropped eventually. Waited for them to come around, did some fast stuff on the flats, got freakin' poured on - good times. Ouch.

Yesterday, in a complete departure, I went mountain biking in Auburn with Cody. It. Was. Rad. Seriously. I haven't been in the dirt since cyclocross nationals, so I was totally ecstatic to shred some singletrack. "Shred." I was kind of a chicken, but I feel justified because I haven't been on my mountain bike, except to ride snowy roads, since probably November. Weak. I want to buy a trail bike sooooooo badly. Except, probably not as badly as I feel like I need a TT machine. C'est la vie. Gotta start making a little more money.

Anyway, a day in the dirt and the sun and the mud, a long day, with lots of climbing - that's just what the soul needs. Days like that always renew my energy, my joie de vie, and my motivation. Today is rest, and work, but the motivation, the drive, are there.

Drive (long and verbose)

2010-02-26T22:18:00.001-05:00

(I really didn't think this post was going to grow into an recounting of my life story, but it did. My apologies. My life story is boring, and verbose.)

Bummed - because I'm skipping my race tomorrow to focus on my health, which hasn't been so great all week.

Setbacks, though, have the tendancy of sharpening my focus and determination. "Setbacks". To be fair, my versions of life's speedbumps are pretty small. Mostly it's just a sniffle here and there, struggles with inclimate weather, flat tires, etc.

When I injured my knee in August at a MTB race I had about 2 weeks off the bike, some infected stitches, but then it seemed to be over. Fast forward to October, when I had an infected blister on my heel, and a weird boil thing on my hip. Antibiotics - check. Ready to rock and roll again. Fast forward again to New Years Eve, when another of the boil things popped up on the back of my left calf. Ouch. And, since I was in Massachusetts, I couldn't really see a doctor. It's a long story, but Mass has state run health insurance (of which I am a big fan) but if you're from out of state, and uninsured, makes it pretty f'in hard to see a medical professional without a $2000 ER visit. Word. So as weird infection thingies kept popping up on my legs (by the way, I love my legs, I treasure them - they're the tools with which I pursue my passion) I couldn't see a doctor for a couple weeks until we made it back to Reno. Luckily I saw the same physician's assistant I'd seen before, and she put 2 and 2 together and concluded that I developed a systemic infection at the time of my FIRST infection (from those stupid non-dissolving dissolvable stitches) and whenever my immune system was compromised, or I had a small injury, or a little teensie weensie ingrown leg hair (hey, who doesn't?) the little bugs on my system would go crazy on it and I'd get an infection. So she gave me a monster dose of doxycycline (the same antibiotic I'd been taking for each infection - it's cheap, it works) plus another one, in the hopes that it would knock it out of my system. Yay, cured! Right? Wrong.

Two weeks ago I started getting the boils again. Just a little one to start with, and I thought, 'maybe it's just a fluke, right?' Wishful thinking. I got a big one behind my knee a week later. So I went in to see my physician's assistant friend at Urgent Care. And . . . she lanced it. Yeah. Gave me a nice shot of local anesthetic (ow), took a scalpal, sliced my leg open, squeezed, and then stuffed it full of gauze (or something like that). Ow. Oh yeah, and she took a culture and sent it to the lab so we can figure it out once and for all. Went back in to have my gauze stuffing removed, and before I could protest she stuffed some fresh stuff right back in. Anyway, the whole infection thing has left me feeling lousy, kept me off the bike (it's like I have an incredibly painful golf ball behind my right knee), and pretty much made this the most blah week I've had in a little while (fortunately it was a rest week, so resting was on the schedule, though maybe not to the degree I took it).

Okay - so, not to sound like I'm bragging or whatever, but I think I'm pretty good at handling pain. The re-stuffing of the gauze was the single most painful 30 seconds of my life. Good. God. Make it stop. Which it did, pretty quickly.

Fast forward to today. The lab results came back! And, much as suspected, I have MRSA. Which conjures up images of necrotizing bacterial infections, but it's not that bad . . . yet. haha, just kidding (I hope). So I'm going back in for the final gauze removal tomorrow (whilst my teammates kick some Snelling butt), and to get some new, MRSA-spanking antibiotics. I hate being on antibiotics, but I hate having pockets of pus in my legs more.

So, what was the point of this whole long, over-sharing story? Well, I've had a shitty week for training and pursuing my of my goals. I'd lost a little weight prior to this, and I'm pretty sure, with the lack of activity and the drowning of sorrows in chocolate, that I've gained it back. Whatever.

My season started great - with Cantua and Pine Flat. This has been a minor setback. I have 2 weeks until the Madera Stage Race. 2 weeks to get back on track. 2 weeks of solid training.

It's raining out. Like, cold, cold rain. At least it's melting the snow. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm going to go ride for 3 hours in the rain. I'm going to strap on the fenders, the Craft winter riding pants, rain jacket. I'll be grateful that I have the health, that my body does everything I ask of it, day after day. After my ride I'll take a long hot shower (a "thank you" to my cold corporal self), and eat a good meal so my body has everything it needs to recover from the stress I put on it. So I'll be able to go do it again, the next day. When Cody proffers ice cream I'll eat some fruit instead. Because I want to win races. Big races. Lots of them.

Monday Morning

2010-02-22T11:14:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting on the couch, Cody's MacBook Pro on my lap, a cup of coffee in hand. Yesterday it snowed about 10-12" here, and this morning I can't even bring myself to look out the window. Our thermometer says it's 25'F out there. Today will be a roller day.

But first! I'm going to work! The big news is that I got a job (in addition to the middle school strings assistant job). And it's a bike shop job! So a new bike rests somewhere on the horizon. Anywho, I'm working at Peloton Bicycles. It's a small shop (literally, the floor space is tiny) with a small crew, but solid. I like my bosses, and I have vastly more experience than the other employees, so I feel like I have something positive to contribute. That's a nice feeling! So I'll be working there a couple days a week, still helping with the orchestra on my days off, and squeezing in as much bike time in between as I can. I finally signed up for my Certified Personal Trainer course so in my other spare time (ha! Spare time? What's that?) I'll be studying to take the exam for that. Professionally, things are finally coming together!

Last weekend I had my very bestest friend come visit from San Francisco, so I neglected my bike a little bit and ate too much chocolate, but the weather forecast is for things to melt and clear up so I'll be making up for that this week, and hopefully heading back over the hill this weekend to race Snelling with my team. I've been feeling just a touch under the weather lately, and I had an awful experience at Snelling 2 years ago where I went there "a touch under the weather" and came up so sick that I was on my ass for 10 days. So if I'm not 100% I'll probably bail, because I really, really, really don't want to repeat that experience. Good riddance.

Anyway, I guess I should go face the ice and snow, get myself ready for my sweet new job, and clean the cat box. Ahh, what a glamourous life I lead.

2010 Season Kick-Off

2010-02-15T17:21:00.001-05:00

Ha! Check out the dude behind us - dying! And we're all smiles and sunshine.

I - can't - go - any - faster! Crap!

Oh, the agony.

More agony.

I don't have much to say about the Cantua/Pine Flat weekend, except that it was rad. We didn't have the numbers to earn upgrade points, but I had a blast duking it out with my new friend Rikke for two days, mixing it up with the 35+ ladies on Saturday and the 1/2 ladies on Sunday (hey, guess what? I outclimbed a couple of them!). Rikke ended up nipping me on both days, but it was awesome having someone there to challenge and push me (and vice versa of course). We're both looking for our upgrade, so not having even a measely 5 girls show up to race in the 3's was lame, but we made the best of the situation and flogged ourselves and eachother. Bike racing is awesome, and even more so when you feel strong (I did), and good company is just the icing on the proverbial cake. Radical. Life is good.

Speaking of awesome - Cody deserves huge credit for not only chaffeuring me around all weekend, feeding me (on and off the bike), dogsitting while I raced, and offering moral support, but also giving me the most killer leg massage on Saturday after the first race. Ahh, if only he could come to all my races. Sadly, he has a life of his own.

Now I'm home in Reno, it's 60F outside and sunny and gorgeous and the birds are singing. There are 1000 things I should be doing, but right now I think I'll just go lay around, in the sunshine, on the hammock, and read a book. Life is good, indeed.

Wasted

2010-02-04T21:52:00.001-05:00

Finally! My training gets really on track. I was struggling a little bit in January - weather, travel, motivation - but lately both my head and my legs have been where they need to be. Still unemployed (for the most part, more on that later) but totally taking advantage of the free time to ride ride ride. All this free time also makes it so much easier to attend to my rest, recovery, and nutrition needs. If/When I have a 9-5 it's going to be a struggle to not have this kind of time.

So, on the employment front, I am sort of employed. I'm working 5-10 hours a week helping with a couple middle school orchestra classes. For those who aren't privy to my dark life before bikes, I was a musician. Violin, tuba, and tenor saxophone. So now I'm using my latent violin skills for (minimal) financial gain. It's actually really fun. I've always loved teaching (spent a number of years teaching music, and was a music education major for a number of years) and I've really missed playing music since my jock-transformation. It doesn't exactly pay the bills, but it helps a bit. I've got a plan in the works, so hopefully soon there will be more profitable news in the job report.

Last weekend was our Touchstone Cycling team camp. It was rad - the girls are nice and awesome, and there's sooooo much serious talent on the team. We raced a crit on Saturday, and I was happy with my fitness, and very surprised that it didn't hurt as much as the first crit of the season typically does. I'm incredibly motivated by the strength of my team, and I feel like I have something to contribute. Good all over.

Right now I'm totally exhausted after finishing a third consecutive day of hard training. I love this feeling - coming home from my ride with barely the energy to eat a good recovery meal. Jeez . . . I think I just reached the end of my creative energy (not that my blog is especially creative, but you get the point).

Photo Essay

2010-01-25T18:02:00.000-05:00

Cozad, NE - located on the 100th Meridian (whatever the hell that means). On the way across the country we stopped here so I could ride. Typical small town - we'd been parked for 2 minutes while I got dressed and a cop came up to ask us what we were doing. "Reno? Well now that's a big city. What're you doin' 'round these parts?" He was pretty cool when we explained, though. And I had a really nice ride in the sun.

When the brutal cold and snow of Northeastern Massachusetts finally broke my will to ride (fortunately only 2 days before we left) we did some skiing instead.

I finally got to Salem (actually I'd been there once, earlier on this trip, but only because I got lost on my bike, crossed a huge bridge, and found myself there)! We went to the Essex-Peabody museum, which is HUGE (especially considering it's only 20 minutes from Boston) and awesome. Next time I'm totally going to the witch dungeons (hahahaha, take that, kids who were mean to me in high school!).

Yes, the sunset was lovely. Cold, but lovely.

The way the sunset was shining on the trees it made them look like they were on fire. Just lovely.

Went to Cody's brother and sister-in-law's house in NH and built a sweet bouldering wall in their basement. Now I've got a serious itch to do some rock climbing (an itch that will be scratched in a major way this Friday at Touchstone Climbing in Sacrameno!).

This was my New Year's Eve ride. It was snowing (umm, duh, really Mare?). Weee.

Last day of the drive across the country. Serious boredom has commenced.

I saw this guy when I was riding in Maine! New do-before-I-die goal - ride my bike in every state. Even Arkansas. This trip I added 2 states to my list: Nebraska and Maine. Let's see, so I'm at: 1. Nevada, 2. California, 3. Oregon, 4. Utah, 5. Washington, 6. Colorado, 7. Massachusetts, 8. New Hampshire, 9. Vermont, 10. Montana, 11. Nebraska, 12. Maine. Okay, only 38 to go.

Proof positive I was in Maine. On an island, no less!

More scenic Maine.

That pretty much chronicals my 3 weeks "vacation". In fact we did a lot more than that, I just don't have photo evidence of it. I'm still unemployed (a fact that will hopefully change soon), finally logging some good training, and looking forward to Touchstone Climbing team camp this weekend! I'm sure there's more to add, but I'm totally fried from my ride yesterday (Cool thing #67 about unemployment: Rest days really are quite restful!) and can't think of anything interesting to say.

Eatin' chowda and hanging at the ba' (that's bar, to you non-New England types)

2010-01-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

It’s snowing. Again. It wasn’t supposed to start until noon today – I guess it came a couple of hours early. I know I’m going to go ride, but I’m putting it off, putting it off. Struggling to find the motivation to spend 30 minutes getting dressed, bundling on every layer I can, then searching for a hill that takes more than a minute to climb up. Those are scarce around these parts. “These parts” being North-eastern Massachusetts. If you head west you can find “big” climbs (it really puts things in perspective when the definition of a big climb means anything lasting 10 minutes), but I’m without transportation. I’d considered taking the train, but that would end up being something like 3 hours each way, as you have to go south into Boston and then get on another line and head west. So I know I’ll do my intervals here, on a rolling little bit of a climb that might top out at 3 minutes if I pace myself. It’s just this week that my hill intervals will be so difficult (another cyclist perspective – when the difficulty associated with training is not the work-load, but finding a route that is long and hard enough) because on Monday we’ll be heading home.
And home, what awaits? Well, I guess I totally dropped the ball on the goings-on of late report, but to sum up, my return to Reno will involve selling of anything not necessary to life (my bike IS necessary to life) to pay next month’s bills, and a whole lot of job hunting. What will I do? I don’t know – serve coffee, go work at a gym, cocktail waitressing? All options are on the table provided they give me race weekends off and time to train, of course. But more importantly, home brings with it normal patterns and food, huge climbs to ride my bike up, my own pillow, and my dog. Even, heaven forbid I mention this as a positive, but my rollers, and resistance trainer. I know, I know, truly pathetic. But it’s days like today, when it’s just so hard to face the cold winter roads, that you sometimes just need to pop in a DVD and sweat on the living room floor.
I made this trip to the Eastern seaboard to see if I could stand to live here in the winter. I’ve been here in the summer, and if one can get past the poison ivy, mosquitoes, midges, greenheads, ticks, and god awful humidity, it’s actually pretty nice. Winters? Truth be told, they’re a lot like Reno winters, just much wetter. Not Portland wet, but not sunny Reno dry, either. They salt the roads heavily here, and that combined with the dampness has every bit of steel on my bike thoroughly rusted, despite liberal applications of WD-40, which I hate using on bikes to begin with. People don’t seem to ride outside here much during the winter – each day I’ve been out I haven’t seen more than one other person, if any at all. There’s very little shoulder to ride on, as it’s mounded with snow, and drivers don’t seem too concerned about my well being. The cross training possibilities are decent, but no better than in Reno (we have Tahoe for christ’s sake!). And the hills, oh, what hills? Seriously, I know that sounds stupid, but I always feel that, even with the lousy weather and limited ride options, living in Reno affords me the benefit of altitude (our house is at 4500’) and endless long climbs to suffer up. I feel, truly, that living at sea level (since I can hardly afford an oxygen tent) with nothing but flat to rolling terrain to work with will be a huge disadvantage. There are wonderful things here, too. The cyclocross! Oh, the cyclocross! It’s almost worth all the other crap to have a UCI race within 6 hours of you EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND in the fall. Almost.
Well, time will tell what happens. Mostly I want to live in Santa Barbara, but I think that may be a little out of my price range.

Nationals

2009-12-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, my goings-on of late are going to require a separate blog post, so this one is just about nationals!

Last weekend I raced my first ever Elite national championships (of any kind). This one of course was cyclocross up in Bend, OR. As you may (or may not) recall, I travelled to Portland for the last round of the USGP, had a jolly good time, then rented a car and drove to Bend. Bend greeted me with sub zero temperatures and a lot of snow. I rode the trainer, ran on snow covered trails, and spent a lot of time that week with my feet up. Ahh . . . the good life. Teammate Beth arrived on Wednesday and we relocated to our host housing for the week. On Thursday I had to go out to the race venue to "work" at the booth my employer (now former, but that's another blog post) had set up. The big news of that day, aside from the slip'n'slide snowy course, was chatting up Kristen Armstrong and Katie Compton, both of whom stopped by the booth within a half hour of eachother.

Anyway, my race wasn't until Sunday, so I had quite a bit of time to kill in the meantime. I had fun cheering for Beth on Friday when she raced the 30-34 race, and I ate frites and hot chocolate to stay warm (and subsequently arrived home a bit more well padded then when I left). On Friday night I was getting ready to go out to dinner at the Bend Brewing Co. with Beth, when I reached in my bathroom bag and jammed my left middle finger into my shiny sharp new razor. I pulled my hand out and was horrified to see that a good chunk of finger tip had been lost in the process. After much elevation, pressure, and raiding of the house's Man Bathroom (the guy we were staying with is a flight nurse), the bleeding stopped, and Beth utilized her Air Force buddy first aid to help me patch it up.

I finally got on the course the next day and the relative warmth of the day had softened things out quite nicely. I have to say, I think the course they set up for nationals was super fun! The changing conditions changed the technical aspects of the course as the week wore on. After a couple laps I'd determined that I would be fine racing with my mangled finger as long as I A) didn't have to shift into my big ring (or could do so by reaching over with my right hand) and B) didn't have to use my front brake, which was really easy to avoid during my pre-ride.

Things froze up overnight, so when we arrived on Sunday morning the slop from Saturday had turned into frozen ruts, and the deep puddles were sheets of ice. There were a couple of races before ours, however, and many parts of the course softened up.

What is it like to line up 98th out of 100 women? Ummm . . . discouraging? Not really, because after such a lousy call up all I could hope to do is improve my position. I had two goals for this race: 1) to not be last onto the dirt, and 2) not finish last. I wanted to take a few chances, and ride aggressively.

The start was fast, but I made some passes and achieved goal #1. Instantly everything bottle necked and we were off our bikes, trying to run up the first little turn and get rolling again. As we remounted I got on a wheel, but girls started passing me right away. It took me about half a lap (at which point I think I was 3rd from last) to realize I was going to have to make some kamikaze passes and be a bitch if I wanted this race to happen for me. So I did! When you're taking the inside line on an icy turn to get around someone, even if you go into it just a little ahead of them, they'll have to slow down and let you by. Sure, it's not very polite, but it's a bike race, right? Gee, did I just figure that out? Anyway, I worked my way up to Beth, who had a somewhat better call up than me. I'd just passed a couple people when, on an off camber grassy hill, I came in a little too hot (taking chances, right?) and my tires slid out from under me before I had time to realize what was happening. I hit hard, wacking my head, shoulder and hip, but got up fast, wondering if I'd concussed myself (I hadn't). I glanced behind me as I was slip-sliding my way up the slope to remount my bike, and saw Beth also running with her bike, and another girl picking herself up from the course tape. Uh oh, did I cause all this carnage? Later Beth would tell me that we perfectly executed the rare and difficult synchronized teammate crash sequence. If anyone has a video or photo of this, I must have it. It must have been a thing of beauty. Anyway, after that I rode a bit more conservatively. My goal for the race was to get up to former Bella Shannon Holden, who finished about 45 seconds ahead of me at both Portland USGPs. I caught her, actually passed her at one point, but she passed me again and finished the race about 10 seconds up from me. I only gave away one more place - on our final lap about 40 of us were lapped by the top women. Katie Compton lapped me in the pits, Meredith Miller lapped me before the barriers, and Amy Dombroski lapped me just after the barriers. I moved way over and slowed down so Amy could go by, and a girl who'd been sitting 5-10 seconds behind me went past! I had slowed down before a slippery little "S" turn so I wouldn't accidentally take out a podium contender, and when this girl went by she totally almost did so when Amy caught up to her in the turns. I was a little irritated, but still felt that I'd done the right thing, even though it cost me 68th place. ;)

In retrospect I'm really happy with my cyclocross season. I set out to have fun and become a better cyclocross racer, and I truly feel I accomplished both of those goals. At the end of the season I was left feeling that with another year or two of hard work I can make contact with some smokin' fast girls. (Top 30 at nationals? That's a good goal.) Anyway, Bend was awesome, and I have every intention of going back next year!

USGP

2009-12-07T18:20:00.000-05:00

I'm onto host house numero dos. This one is full of three teenagers, so not as restful as the first (more on this later) but warm and cozy and there's a hot tub in the backyard.

Bend is freezing (-10F right now) and snowy. We drove by the course last night and it's under about a foot of snow. I heard the inside scoop is that they're going to shovel all the snow off of it. This is probably for the best. Left alone it will probably melt and the course will turn to soup, then progress to frozen ruts, or we'll be sliding around on rutted ice. Either way I'm just as happy to see it go. But I'm a wimp like that. :)

Sooo, the Stanley Cup! Both days ended up about the same for me. It starts with well, a lousy start. I always feel like I'm doing pretty good until I look behind me and see no one there. Where'd everyone go? Oh, they're in front of me. Crap. Something to work on. I think I just need to start throwing elbows or something. Anyway, on Saturday that lousy start was followed by a big crash in front of me, so any hope of catching on with a faster group was gone. I ran around the crash and past the muddy section, jumped back on my bike, and then all the crashed riders rode past me. I need to get faster at the remount. Seriously. The course that day was mostly dry (dry? In Portland?) with a couple of rutted sections and a couple of slimy turns. Lots of roots sticking up to flat on, too. I avoided the flats, but as it turned out I rode alone for most of the day. I beat a couple of girls, but didn't even come close to cracking the top 30. C'est la vie. Next time. On Sunday it was about the same at the start, but no crash. The course had dried out a bit, but they'd added a couple more technical areas on the moto track area, as well as some "nice" mud pits. This time I ended up having a couple of girls to race against. I'd pass this one girl, get a gap, then she and her teammate caught me, her teammate flatted right before the pits, some other girl caught me and the 3 of us were riding together. With about half a lap to go I made a pretty cool pass on this off camber uphill turn. I took the inside line and just started hammering. I got a gap on the other two which I was able to sustain and even grow a bit until the finish. So yay! I won the "sprint" for 31st. Whoop tee doo. Really thought, it was fun having girls to race against, and I was happy I rode smart and hard and didn't settle for 35th. And for almost the entire race there were 5-7 girls ahead of me who I could see and, had I just a wee bit more power and speed, I think I could have hung with them.

I've raced in Portland twice before. The first time as a 3/4, and then two years ago with the Elite class. Honestly I don't think my finish is a whole lot better than it was 2 years ago, but I know I'm riding better, stronger, smoother. I know my technical cross skills have come a long way. So maybe by this time next year I'll have an extra watt or two per kilo and I can hang with some of my totally rockin' teammates. :)

Now I just need to get up the crazy enough to go ride in this cold, cold icy town.

Plans

2009-12-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

I like this photo, even though it's kind of out of focus, because I'm smiling.

I've been planning my 2010 schedule and formulating my goals for the upcoming year. My schedule's posted on this blog - starting a little early and trying to use my cyclocross fitness to get some results and that ever elusive upgrade. Then taking it easy in April and May with just a few select races (some new ones! I love riding new-to-me roads) and then hitting it pretty hard again in June and July. My goals are as follows:

1. Get my *$&#*@*$ cat 2 upgrade!!! (why did Blogger highlight that as a link? What do you suppose it links to?)
2. Ride a sub-hour 40k time trial at Districts (should be cake - I shaved 3:30 off my time from 2008. Another minute? no problemlo.)
3. Race, and don't get time cut from, Cascade Classic, which I can't do without first acheiving goal #1.

My off season goal is to reach my race weight of 130. Just an arbitrary number, but it's proved elusive thus far. My "happy" weight is 140 lbs - can't believe I'm advertising that on the internet. Seriously, though, I'm 5'9" and pretty muscular. I eat anything I want to (really, I just ate 1.5 cannoli's that were in the coffee room) and this is the weight I hover at (sometimes a bit above). I'm comfortable with my appearance and my size, but I really believe that I'll be more competitive if I'm leaner. If I start getting down to that weight and my recovery or performance suffers then I'll have learned my lesson and start eating cannolis for breakfast again. For now, I probably shouldn't go eat that last cannoli. It is possible, of course, that I just really like saying the word "cannoli".

So my apologies of the next several blog posts fixate on food and weight and the like - it's for my own good.

From high to low, and season goals

2009-11-30T12:54:00.000-05:00

Ugh, my back and neck kill right now. Not sure if that's a result of my bike landing on my head after a spectacular cartwheel down a hill, or if it's from all the damn driving. Either way, it's a good reminder that what goes up, must come down. Haha, get it? Like my bike coming down on my head? Sigh . . .

Yesterday I went down to the NCNCA district championship cyclocross race with miss 3 time olympian, Katerina Nash. She's a Truckee local, so picking her up was on my way. Sadly, despite 4 hours in a car together, I wasn't able to absorb her speed by osmosis. Still a fun time, and I say with no small amount of personal pride that she crushed it (undoubtedly due to the comfort of my car and my great skill as a driver). My race on the other hand was just pitiful. I had a decent start, managed to not get crashed in the first two turns (come on ladies, keep the rubber side down!). The first two laps were good, then I just kind of faded. I was racing right where I thought I should be relative to the other girls in my category, but then I just went backwards. Ugh. My third lap was kind of a disaster. After slowing down A LOT I had my aforementioned acrobatic crash (Katerina crashed there too, and almost the entire men's A field!). I ended up getting caught by 4 girls who I'd already passed and dropped, and a couple more who were way back, and a couple of women's B's, and a couple of 35+ ladies. I couldn't really respond, couldn't try to follow, just survived the rest of the race. I knew going into it that I wasn't feeling superb, almost a little under the weather, vacation hangover, so I'm not super bummed. I know where I should be, and can be, sometimes things just fall apart. This week calls for lots of rest, and sleep, and recovery, and good food, so I'm ready to rock and roll by next Saturday in Portland. It looks like it's going to be wet!

I'm also trying to think up goals for next year, and to get a rough draft of my season calendar. It's tricky, you know? The most obvious and obnoxious goal is to GET MY FREAKIN' CAT 2 UPGRADE ALREADY!!! But I feel like that's a given. I'm thinking I want to race the Cascade Classic and not get time cut. I want to do a sub-hour District TT (40k). I'm thinking maybe top 10 at Nevada City? Or is that waaaay too ambitious? Unattainable? Sigh . . . I don't know. And should I include cyclocross in my season goals? Cyclocross seems like a whole different season, so I'm thinking no. I feel like any decisions and commitments I make now are going to affect me for the next 12 months, so I want to make them worth while!

Marian Pretzel

2009-11-25T15:28:00.001-05:00

I think the biggest omission I've made in my training is not giving adequate time to core and flexibility. Early in the season last year I did some pretty focused strength training, but as intensity increased that kind of fell off the radar. Flexibility is something I always struggle with - not enough time, it's too cold/messy in the house, just ate, etc. Lots of excuses.

In October I started up the strength training again. No legs, just core and upper body. Cyclocross provides more than enough heavy lifting for the legs, but I'll add some lower body work after nationals. I attribute a portion of my recent gains in form to having a stronger core. I can feel it, and I can see it. I loathe the idea of going to the gym, but when I'm actually there I kind of like it. I'm a total meat head.

I'm still struggling with the flexibility, however. I'll have a week or two where I'll do yoga ("practice" yoga? nah, I just do it) almost every day, then I'll get busy/lazy and stop. I don't necessarily feel like adding flexibility makes me faster, in the sense that I'm still putting out the same amount of power, but it makes my body feel better overall, which can only help. I'm always promising myself that I'll go to yoga class (I have a gym membership, so they're free if I attend the classes there, although they're only so-so) but again, lazy/busy. Also, going to a class is WAY outside my comfort zone. All the more reason to go. On Monday of this week I went to a class at a nice yoga studio called Yoga Loka (the one in Reno . . . there seem to be lots of these scattered about). I got fully schooled. I am still sore, 2 days later. Seriously, I haven't done a backbend in at least 10 years, and somehow I managed to get into one. Holy crap that 90 minutes was harder than my last 4 cyclocross races put together. It probably didn't help that I'd lifted weights that morning, so my arms were a little rubbery. My muscles were literally shaking in downward dog. Wow. And balancing poses? Resting on my lower arms with my legs balanced on my elbows? I have bruises on my elbows where they were resting on my mat! And I couldn't even get the weight off my feet! Golly. But like most (not all) things that I struggle with, I want to do it again. Awesome core workout, awesome for flexibility, good for my head. Sold.

Two more down, three to go.

2009-11-24T14:29:00.000-05:00

The Head Tilt - verification of mighty suffering.

Get off your brakes!

Last weekend I got in another two good days of 'cross racing. Saturday at our local series, and Sunday in Sacramento.

The local race was a new venue and one of the funnest courses I've ever ridden. It was a lot of grass, a nice sand pit, some fun decending and off camber turns, fast barriers, and 2 sets of stairs to run up. It was mostly all up on the way out, and down on the way back. I love courses like that, where you can just flog yourself to the point of "I'm-going-to-die", recover, and then do it again. My legs felt so-so, but as per usual at these Reno races there weren't to many ladies present so I was able to get the W. I won beer and money, which is good because otherwise I would've been hard up to come up with gas money to get down to Sacramento the next day!

I'm currently sitting 2nd in the Sacramento CX women's A series standing, so I wanted to have another good result there and keep it that way. The course was okay, flat grass, one set of barriers, ho hum. Not very interesting, but good for training the power with all those constant accelerations out of the turns. We race with the jr. men, and I made the bad mistake of starting behind one of them. The kid looked fit, but he had the slowest start of almost anyone there. I had to make some kamakaze passes and dig deep, but I managed to bridge up to the leaders! Wow, that pretty much shocked me right there. There were 4 of us in the lead group - myself, Emily (from last weekend), Joan Gregg (who has never failed to totally whoop me), and Linda Elgart, who was riding super strong. I was tired from the day before, and mostly sucked wheel. I took a couple of pulls, suffered, got gapped off a couple times, caught back on, suffered. On the last lap I got gapped off and couldn't get back on, so I pulled off another 3rd place. The podium was identical to the first Sacramento series race of the year, but instead of getting dropped by Emily and Joan, I hung with them! Woot woot! Hells yeah, I actually AM getting stronger! The training my coach has had me doing is really going to have me peaking for nationals! Not that I ever doubted it, but it's totally radical to be able to see some substantial improvement.

Next up is the NCNCA district race in Golden Gate Park this weekend, and then I begin my northern odessey to the land of mud and cowbells (aka Portland, followed by Bend). There are over 80 women registered for nationals!

Need a Lucky Penny

2009-11-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Ever since, oh, August I've had some rather terrible luck at the races. OK, OK, I don't actually believe in luck or karma or divine intervention, but this is getting ridiculous. I've gotten flats at 5 races since then. It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you consider the time and energy and financial resources that have gone into them it's a metric shit ton. Seriously. And on Sunday an ill-timed flat with 2 to go cost me a win.

I ended up skipping the BASP race (tired, broke, lazy) and just heading to Folsom. Not nearly as big a turn out, but one girl there totally smoked me at the first Sacramento CX race, so I figured it would be a good test. She had raced the night before, so I'm sure she was pretty beat, but I got a big gap and it kept grown. You know what was utterly and totally amazing? I was fastest on the run-up, and through the barriers! I suck at running, and am usually just in survival mode, so this was a big deal, and it helped grow my lead and confidence. Until . . . I learned what happens when you forget to unclip before a barrier. No endo, but a nice slide. That kind of killed my lead, but with 2 1/2 to go I dug deep and increased my gap again. And then . . . I pinch flatted my tubular. Again.

Okay, let's see here - isn't the whole POINT of a tubular that you can run low tire pressure and not flat? Well I may not be a feather weight, but I'm not a porker either. And now that's TWICE that I've pinch flatted my tubular while running about 30 psi. WTF?! I'm over it. Selling the carbon wheels, this is ridiculous. Obviously I'm just not finesse enough to run tubulars. That's fine. Hmph.

I wasn't too far from where my wheels where, but by the time I ran/gingerly rode over there I'd been passed. Swell. Got a fast wheel change from my pops and started chasing, but with 2 to go I couldn't get it back. 2nd. Not bad. Won a little cash and a tube of women's specific Hoo Haa Chamois Cream. Sick.

So there is good news out of this - my fitness is great! I know my closest competitor was tired from the race the night before, but I think if she'd been fresh I could have hung with her. Maybe not necessarily dropped her the way I did, but not get so totally smoked by her as I did earlier in the season. This is excellent, excellent news. This weekend brings a double header - Sagebrush CX on Saturday followed by Sacramento CX on Sunday. And a good chance to test my legs against awesome competition! This time I'll be tired and she'll be fresh, so it'll be a challenge indeed.