Time to update the ol' blog, I guess.

Truth is there's not much going on. Actually, scratch that, there's plenty of great stuff going on, I just never take any pictures, and words tend to fail me.

Let's see . . . where to begin?

I'm back training now. Trying to get some super-duper fitness before August, when I have a bunch of Cal Cup races planned. Trying to slim down, which is a lot easier to do when I'm not worried about being properly fueled for an upcoming race. Enjoying the summer and the lack of obligations. Oh sure, there's work, but beyond that it's just me and my bike (and Cody, and the dog, I suppose). But it's awfully nice, I'll tell ya what.

4th of July weekend was pretty rad. I had a good ride up at Donner with my daddio on Friday, an epic 4 hrs on the Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume Trail on Saturday followed by our very own backyard bbq. We played Stump and drank mojitos (well, I didn't drink mojitos, but everyone else did). Stump is one of those things (it's a game involving a very large hammer, a tree stump, and some big nails) that I really have to provide photos of to do it justice. Sadly, the camara remained untouched for the entirety of the evening. We climbed on our roof and watched the fireworks over in Sparks. It was cool, I guess.

On Sunday I took Cody to my hometown of Quincy. Why? Good question. I guess because he'd never been, and there were some friends of mine in town. We went out to breakfast, then I took Cody on a tour of my former hood by bicycle. It went something like this, "Here's the high school where I spent 4 years of my life dreading each day. This is the cemetary where we'd run spring drills when I was on the cross country running team when I was 14. Here's the woods where we'd go party when I was 16 and 17. I'd come smoke cigarettes here. Oh yes, and here. And here." Haha, it sounds dark and unhealthy, I know, but it's not really that bad. And in the infinite wisdom I've gained in 26 years (on Friday!) I see the error of my teenage ways. Ha, right. Anyway, we rode out towards Bucks Lake after touring the town, and I promptly dropped Cody, who's never smoked (tobacco) in his life, on the climb. So there. Then we went to Spanish Falls and swam in Spanish Creek and jumped off of big rocks. It was perfect. Quincy has a couple of things to recommend it in the summer, but so help me I will never, ever, ever live there again. haha, never say never, I know, I know.

Blah, that was a stupid story. Anyway, on to more pertinent stories. First of all, I ordered a Powertap hub yesterday! Woo hoo! I'm so freakin' stoked! And even more exciting then a Powertap? On Friday me and Cody are going to Wild Island Waterslides! All freakin' day, baby. That's right, I took work off to go play in chlorinated water and run across hot cement. Dude, stoked. Hella. I WILL take pictures, 'cause it's going to be epic.

More Nevada City Pics

I know, I know, posting endless photos of myself seems both vain and uninteresting. But it's my blog, and no one's forcing you to read it (and if they are I am supremely sorry).

And yes, I listened to Michael Jackson last night. I dare you to not love Dirty Diana. Triple dog dare ya.

Nevada City Classic

I like this picture because I'm hanging with fast girls. Slowly falling off the back!

Happy after the suffering is over.

SUFFER FACE!

This morning I'm so freakin' sore I didn't even want to get out of bed. Oddly enough it's not from racing Nevada City, but from cross training yesterday, as this is my official Week Off the Bike, per coach's orders. Actually I just got called out on Twitter for running during my rest week - I thought that was okay!!! But I guess I won't be running either. Jeez, what am I going to do with myself for the rest of the week?!

So anyway, back to Nevada City. This weekend was the culmination of 3 1/2 months of racing, with only one non-race weekend in the mix. Needless to say it was starting to wear on me. Prior to the Nevada City race I'd planned on racing the Tour de Nez - Nevada City is on Sunday, TdN Thurs-Sat. Well, I raced on Thursday, up against Tibco, SugarCRM, Touchstone, VAC, Metromint . . . and I got dropped about 15 minutes in. Decided to just take it easy, not race on Friday and Saturday, and if I decided to race Nevada City just do it as a no-pressure fun thing. Right, fun. Wee.

Seriously, tho, I did have fun, in a sticks-in-my-eyes sort of way. I was hanging pretty well for the first couple laps, caught back up to a pretty fast group, and true to form, immediately went to the front of the group and gunned it. Well, those fast girls in my group decided that was a good time to attack, so off the back I came, along with another girl who I know to be a cat 3 like me. We rode together for a while, then she dropped me. I was pretty hurting for the last couple laps, and one girl caught me with 1 to go. That motivated me to pick up the pace, but she pipped me at the line. Bummer. So I came in mid-pack, and I'm pretty sure I was the 3rd cat 3.

Anyway, it was lotsa fun, good crowd, tons of people out there who seemed to know my name cheering for me! That's always fun. Hernando was there every lap in his Vanderkitten jersey offering words of advice and that I actually always find remarkably encouraging.

We stuck around and watched the Lance-Circus, which was actually pretty cool. I heard that they had 30,000 spectators in Nevada City that day! And also that the town ran out of beer.

De Fault

So, I dunno if you remember, but there was a Simpsons episode called something like "Homer in Space" where he becomes a NASA astronaut. Remember? Well, it's between him and Barnie, and Barnie stops drinking and is selected to be an astronaut over Homer, and they're celebrating with a champaigne toast. Barnie takes a drink and says "It . . . begins!" and starts chugging the champaigne and going all drunk-crazy. One of the NASA guys says, "That was non-alcoholic champaigne! Well Homer, I guess this mean's you're it by default." Homer says, "Woo hoo! De Fault! The two sweetest words in the English language!" It's pretty much hilarious.

Why do I bring this up? Well, yesterday I got 3rd in the Elite women at the NCNCA District Time Trial! Yeah, 3rd . . . out of 3. So I got to stand on the podium, by default! Woo hoo! I took full advantage of this, my first opportunity to stand on a podium with the likes of Alison Starnes (2nd) and Molly Van Houweling (1st, of course). The first, but hopefully not last time! And it wasn't as though I totally sucked out there, I am actually really happy with my ride. My goal, that I set for myself waaaaay back in November, was to complete the 40k in under 1:01. And . . . I did! I completed it in 1:00:56:90. So just barely made the cut, but good enough! Alison was a little over 2 minutes ahead of me in the 58 min. range, while Molly turned in a screaming 55:06. Sheesh. My goal for next year is to break an hour, I know I can do it! For now I'm happy with my default podium, and knowing that I put in a killer effort and have made tremendous progress from last year (last yrs. time was 1:04:32). I wanted to post my podium pic, but can't find it online, so maybe later.

Dissatisfied

Watching the results up at Mt. Hood, Philly, at Nature Valley this week, and I want to be racing there so bad. I have a dozen reasons why, after 4 years of racing (with varying degrees of commitment and success), I'm still a mediocre cat 3. There's nothing wrong with being a cat 3, I'm just not satisfied with it. I want more.

So I'm thinking of cutting back the school load. That's really a euphemism for "dropping out of school," except you can't accuse me of dropping out because I'm going to be taking 1 class! Just for that very reason. I want to race my bike, with a greater degree of commitment and success. This time next year I want to be in Minnesota for Nature Valley.

I'm taking the month of July off from racing. Get 4 weeks of super focused training, a good mental break, then going at it full-bore in August, September, then take another break. Get some results, get my upgrade, get a little momentum going into next year! Up my training load, and be ready to race with the big girls, finally.

I have the blessing of Cody to do whatever makes me happy. He'll be graduating next spring, and the . . . who knows! I'll tag along where work takes him (we have a tacit agreement to not live in the midwest, south of Virginia on the east coast, Reno, and most places in california - the latter is his request, personally I love Cali and would pack my bags for Santa Cruz tomorrow if he'd consent).

So I'm committing to, erm, dropping out of school? Yeah, it sounds bad, but you only live once, I'm not getting any younger, carpe diem, blah blah blah. And if I fail spectacularly, at least I tried.

Flogging Myself Like a Rented Mule?

Yes, that's probably my favorite Phil Ligget-ism. And a good description of the Dunlap TT this weekend, and, well, any TT pretty much ever. I got 2nd! So a good ride, and one of only 2 of us in the 3/4s to go under 48 minutes, which was my goal, so I'm happy. Think I could have been faster, made a couple of stupid mistakes in the corners, got a little stitch in my side at one point, room for improvement. Still a good race. Here's a picture.

http://hcphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/8494219_yq5Jp/1/559478266_RSMTk/Large

Hmm . . . I almost look like I know what I'm doing!

Won $22, almost covered my race entry, didn't come close to covering my gas money! Sigh . . . I love TTing, I think I'm pretty good at it (relative to the rest of my skill-set) but it lacks the excitement of finishing 2nd in a road race or a crit. Sometimes I feel like I don't want to be good at the TT, 'cause then I feel like I should be a triathlete. haha, that's a stupid thing to think, and don't worry, it will never happen. (Never say never? ha! You haven't seen me swim! It's hilarious! If only there were a triathlon where you were forced to doggy paddle, and the run was some crazy down-hill trial free run, then I might be down.)

Anyway, enough of the tangent, the Dunlap TT was fun, can't wait to do it again, only for longer, and in a much more competitive category, this weekend! Ah districts, how I love thee.

Fresh Out of Ideas

Fresh? I should say "Long out of ideas" - that's a little more accurate. Whatever.

No race results, or excitingness to speak of. Three more weekends of racing and then I'm taking a break! For rizzle. God. Sorry, I'm bored. I need a new job, one where I get to move around and interact and stuff. This desk job stuff is boring.

• Note to self: must stop sucking at racing crits. Like, seriously, get with it, ya know?

Sadly, with only 4 or so more races (until August, when I'm picking things back up for MTB season) I have few opportunities to vindicate myself on that note. Two weekends of time trials followed by the Pro1/2/3 Tour de Nez and then the Pro1/2/3 Nevada City races. Crap. Like I'm really going to be able to pull off a result at those! Let's see, against Tibco, Vanderkitten, etc, at TDN? Sure, I'll just attack on the hill. Right. And whilst I adore the time trials and expect to do fairly well at them, even if I set a new course record at Districts I don't get any upgrade points. So, yes, I'm going to get a big "3" tattooed on my forehead as that is the category I am destined to race for ever and ever and ever.

Seriously? I'm not bummed or anything, or feeling discouraged, or any of that stuff, I'm just bored out of my mind and ruminating on this stuff. It's been a good season, I'm happy with many of my results, my training, my life. I just want to be faster, like, now. These things take time, yes yes, I know, but when trapped alone with my bemused wanderings it's easy to feel dissatisfied.

In other news, it's been raining a TON here and I LOVE it! It never rains in the desert, and it is amazing when it does. Oh the smells! It's impossible to describe the smell of wet desert, sagebrush, rabbit brush, willows, other stuff . . . so nice.

Yawn . . . I need a nap.