In other news . . .

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

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

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

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!

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 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

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.