Never a dull moment

Let me introduce my esteemed co-worker, James.

Christmas Tree

This is my first real Christmas tree--ever! This tree was born and raised in Coal Creek Canyon. It's such a nice tree, I wish I could keep it all year. And, it really beats the little fake one that I had last year. Between this and getting to play in the snow this weekend, I'm really in the Christmas spirit now.

*Sneeze*

I'm dusting off the ol' blog...it's going to be all shiny and new in a few days. Too much has been going on, sleep has been minimal and I value sleep pretty much more than everything else in life.

There's a ton to blog, too. :) Hope everyone in blog-land is enjoying the July-like Christmas season!

I just signed up a new...

I just signed up a new Jott.com account this is really cool. I am talking through my phone and Jott will translate that text into a blog entry so lets see if this works. Bye.

Powered by Jott

jott.com

Tonight I learned about this cool new service called jott.com. I'm not being paid to write about it, it's really cool, though, so I thought you'd want to know all about it. Basically, you call this number from your phone, leave a message to yourself or someone else, jott.com then transcribes the message and emails you with the text.

Something else jott.com does is allow you to speak your blog entries. So, I just tried it. Hopefully it'll show up here in the next few minutes. Speech recognition on drugs, man!

Happy Birthday, Doug! (For those of you who don't know, but you should if you've been to my place, Doug is the coolest painter in the world.)

Time Delay

Has it been that long since I last blogged? Apparently! Now, the Rockies have made it through the off-season and are in the World Series!!! No, I'm not the biggest baseball fan, but I have always been a fan of the Rockies. Besides, I'm a native Denverite, therefore, I do qualify as a loyal supporter (because everyone knows that Denver has the best fan base in the country).

It's hard to believe how loud the crowd was--my windows were shut (and the building is well insulated from noise) and I could hear every time there was an Arizona out or Rockies run. The energy is pretty amazing.

To celebrate, I started the morning by running around Coors Field. Three sports reporters and their crews were by the stadium reporting on the game. Of course, there was nothing going on and the grounds only showed slight signs of wear.

In other news, the past couple of weeks have been family-filled. There were lots of pictures and stories...so, of course, I haven't blogged anything because it involves uploading pics and writing...and my priorities have been focused on other things (same ol, same ol....training, reading, sleeping, working...)

Thank you, Rockies

Mondays are always the busiest day at the gym. It was quite a pleasant surprise to find that everyone except two people are such Rockies fans that they chose to watch yesterday's game rather than workout. It was a good game and the Rocks are going to the playoffs. That's big news...hopefully they go all the way so I have the gym to myself for awhile. Go Rockies!

Best Food Ever Made

Someone left a coconut curry chocolate bar in the kitchen for public consumption. I've just discovered my most favorite food! (Yes, that's food, btw.)

CSU

Got a chance to check out the CSU campus last Thursday, catch up with Carol & work a career fair for my company. Being a CU grad, I'm not allowed to say much, but I did like what I saw of the campus.
The funniest thing I saw at the career fair: a guy with dreads, surfer-like shirt and shorts, sandals, complete with iPod plugged in both ears. Why, exactly, did he come to a career fair? If he was toting a bag of schwag, that would have at least made a little sense, but he wasn't even there for the free stuff.

After the career fair was over, it was time for some fun climbing in Rist Canyon.
Beautiful riding, lovely evening. Always nice to have a day out of the usual, though I found out that there's no way I could work a job that requires standing.

Say a Prayer

Not sure how many people read this blog, but if you do, say a prayer (or many) for Chuck B. to get better soon. He's in the hospital hanging onto life after an infection got a hold of him...just a few weeks after being declared cancer-free. He has put up an incredible fight against cancer and is still fighting...

He's the guy responsible for all of the cool pictures at Cyclimages.com.

Get well soon, Chuck!

What's been happening?

Almost something every day. Have gotten a fair amount of training in during the wee hours of the morning so as to have evenings free.

Yesterday - Maiden voyage of the Ergomo power meter. So far, I think it's great (though a bit distracting). Also, I'm a little disappointed at how different hr is from power (ie it's such a lagging indicator of what's really going on).

The ride I went on yesterday was pretty easy, I'm still recovering from the weekend's riding.

Mountain biked and hiked 3 Sisters...it was beautiful, but not much in the way of fall foliage yet.

It was a bit hard to move Sunday, after an epic 6 hr 45 min ride Saturday. Actually, what ended up hurting was Saturday's company softball game versus Utility Engineering's team.

I'm hiding because I showed up in cycling apparel. Also, I found out that I can't sprint...running from 2nd to 3rd base found me in the gravel with a scraped and bleeding knee. Developed a new appreciation for softball and baseball players.

There was a silent auction for the Challenged Athletes Foundation so that was a good time with a different group of people than usual (triathletes).

Friday was a free showing of "The Flying Scotsman," a really well made movie about Graeme Obree trying to set the 1-hour record. It'll be out on DVD very soon, highly recommend watching it. Lennard Zinn was in attendance. Read his review.

And, finally, Thursday was a talk on the psychology of training and racing put on by HART.

In other news, I switched teams for next year. This team is competitive, but has a good attitude and positive image in the community. It also has a solid squad of cat 1/2 women. Next year will bring very exciting racing. More on that soon.

Corporate Challenge

The bike racing season is over, but there was one last chance to race my bike yesterday. My company is involved in a competition with other companies in a variety of activities. Whoever gets the most points for all of the activities wins the whole competion. Since my company is so competitive, we're bound and determined to win. We've been sitting 2nd place to another company and if we did well yesterday, it would put us back at first. The events were a 5k run and 10k bike race. I didn't want to do the 5k initially because that would tire my legs out for the time trial (what I really wanted to do well in). Since we get participation points, it seemed to make logical sense to do the 5k but jog it.

Everything changed, though, when they said "go." I raced it and won my age group, came in 3rd overall. My time wasn't great (24:10), but for the 4th time running this year, it felt so good. Thank goodness for fitness from riding.

But it was all about the bike...I got the 2nd to last spot in the TT so I'd have rabbits to chase down. My goal was to pass everyone. With over 5 minutes between me and the first racer, that wasn't to be, but I caught all but 3. There were a few people out there on mountain bikes and old road bikes they didn't know how to ride, but there were enough there racing it to make it a competition. My aero helmet came out just to be intimidating. Left the super-dooper aero wheels at home, that would have taken too much effort for a 6 mile TT. Won the TT by a few minutes over all of the women, lost to the 1st place guy by 8 seconds, so took 3rd overall.

Sure, that wasn't an ACA race and if some 1/2 women or 1/2/3 men had come out, the results would have been different. But, I think the race today might be what it feels like to race in other states (say Nebraska or Kansas or something). In any race there is (be it a little home-town TT or NRC stage race) it's only between you and the others who show up. So it's fun to enjoy being on top for a little while and not worry that the competition wasn't where it usually is in Colorado.

Later, Justin and I did a Boulder bike path ride from his home up 4 Mile Canyon. It wasn't a ride for slackers, Justin's in shape...it makes me happy to see someone with the same genes as I with strength and rapidly growing fitness. (He's running now, too!) Maybe I have a new workout partner.

At Wild Oats in Boulder chomping on the junkiest baked goods that I could find there (not terribly junky) but sugary enough to keep me from going into the bonk that I was seriously close to. In fact, on the turn into the Wild Oats parking lot, I panicked braked (for no good reason other than I was bonking) and endo'd. I found it funny and was happy to be so near solid food so all was well. Justin and Arrick made us the best dinner that night. That's as much as is possible to fit into a single day.

I *heart* eBay

It's been a long time since eBay started but I only recently made my first purchase: some very cool jeans that I can only buy in Montreal (they're sold all over Canada). That was a successful purchase: $14 for jeans that would cost close to $100 in the US (and that's if they were sold here...since they're not, that makes them priceless).

My second purchase: an Ergomo power meter! I can't wait to get it on my bike and start training to it. That will free me somewhat from worrying about heart rate which is so variable and doesn't necessarily indicate how the pedaling is going.

Seems to make sense that this is the next step in training and trying to get stronger, faster and more competitive. And, while on the subject of training, it seems so faux paus amongst women to like training or to take it seriously. Some of the most fun I've had on a bike has been on training rides and my best experiences racing have been at the NRC races...it just makes sense to me to take the off-season seriously and stay focused because it equates to more fun!

Not meant to cross-train

Ouch. It's cross training time of the year again. This year, like all previous years, I am attempting to get good at something besides riding a bike to keep the off-season a bit more interesting.

Saturday I tried to mountain bike. One of my friends emailed (after I mentioned that I intended to mtn bike last weekend)...he questioned my ability to shift a mountain bike. Right, that took some practice. At first, every little itty bitty pebble was freaking me out. By the end, I was so exhausted from breaking, my hands hurt. However, it was a blast. Now I see why there are so many pro mtn bikers in the Durango area. I'm happy to report no endo's on my first mtn ride in a year (and probably the 5th one in my life).

Monday it was running. A little, slow, 1 hour run. I'm *still* sore. Luckily, the blisters have healed. How anyone runs a marathon is beyond me. An IronMan is inconceivable. I'm in total awe of runners. And I know I'll never be one.

Then last night was yoga. Power yoga. My neck muscles were sore today...along with every muscle that wasn't sore previously from the run. I've never felt so uncoordinated or unathletic as I did last night. Half of the class was doing head-stands. Right. I'd attempt it, but then I'd kill the person next to me. No way. My abs were burning today. I hope to have the motivation to go back.

Hmmm...other city cross-training activities? I'll skip the pool...tried that last year and it lasted 20 minutes. Gotta get creative fast...the winter is fast approaching...

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I took the last two weeks off from riding my bike, for the most part, to recouperate from the road racing season and the break fell nicely into my personal schedule. I started running again so as to be ready for the company 5k coming up next weekend...and I can't sit still for 2 whole weeks. Impossible.

Activities such as WaterWorld (super fun, so much better than the last time I was there...9 years ago) were able to happen since I wasn't freaking out about training (like I'm notorious for the rest of the year). And that was a day after the company picnic at the Boulder res and ... (Carol, this is for you) I finally got my hair cut. There are certain things that I simply cannot find the time for when I'm racing and that's something that kept slipping...for a year. Fortunately, my beautician is awesome and an athelete and engaged to a road racer. You can imagine our conversations versus standard salon chit-chat.

Eric and I road tripped to Durango this weekend. We stayed with his friends, road bikes, ran, ate well and relaxed...it was an awesome way to say "bu-bye" to the summer.

Finally, I don't have to apologize for not taking pics or downloading them. Here is a whole lotta pics to make up for the past month of not blogging:

When I'm not training, I have time to cook. Here's a red snapper from Whole Foods that was scrumptious. I've never cooked a whole fish before. Okay, I've hardly ever cooked fish before.














And, after doing a bazillion hours of reading on nutrition and cycing, etc, etc...it finally dawned on me that I haven't been eating enough protein. So I'm scrapping the vegetarian diet and eating meat. But, only happy, free-range, organic meat and I have found that fish is so, so much tastier and easier to prepare than red meat. I've made other changes, too, though...I'm harder to feed than ever so don't get all excited about my meat-consumption.















A few weeks ago, in lieu of racing a crit in Copper Mountain, Eric and I pedaled from Copper Mountain up Vail Pass, to another town, then to Leadville and back to Copper. The "destination" of the ride ended up being the Molybdenum Company at 11,500ish feet...after this mine, it was a screaming (but still hard, after 5 1/2 hrs) descent back to Copper.


Will you look at this? This is the bike rack at work. They were looking pretty sweet there, practically next to my desk, last week. So they got their picture taken. Lots of people riding these days. Not bad for a company owned and run by a bunch of really competitive runners.
















Ahh, finally to the Durango pictures. I would have loved to have stopped and taken more pictures on Saturday's ride after we pulled into town, but it was waaaaay too intense to slow down to take pictures. Yeah, it's time for base miles, but after 2 weeks off, I was feeling good and kept pushing it. (Didn't expect that...thought all my fitness would be gone and my legs wouldn't have a clue as to what to do).

Sunday's ride was a repeat of Iron Horse...from Durango to Silverton...but the lightning stopped us from reaching Silverton. We hung out in this nice little ditch until our friends arrived. Then we went out to eat at a pizza joint while Durango was dumped on...we were kind of bummed to not be prepared to go tubing down the streets.
































The riders: Rob, Me, Eric & Pete. Rob raced for Eric's team back in NY as a junior (now in school in Durango) and Pete and Eric have been friends since they were 4 or 5. How many people are still friends with anyone they knew at that age and aren't somehow related?


















Sag wagon piloted by: Rebecca (Pete's wife), right, and her friend, Alyssa. They were really good sports to be seen in public with those of us who were getting way too much chamois time.

That's all folks. It seemed to make more sense to come home, check the results from all of the weekend's exciting racing (Green Mountain Stage Race, St. Louis), read email and blogs than unpack...I have no idea where my phone might be and it can just stay there for a little while longer.

It's so nice to get out of touch for a long weekend, to refresh, get some perspective and away from traffic...and then come back to everything with renewed energy. Training is in full swing for '08, I'm ready for another off-season and, unbelievably, the trainer time that is, sadly, inevitable.

Oh yeah, one more thing:



















We could see the exact spot where this rainbow was touching the ground. No pot of gold anywhere to be found! But I'm not going to let that little setback keep me from chasing rainbows.

Tour 2

Read this article, le Tour makes le Onion!

Watch TV

Nature Valley Grand Prix Highlights Program Airs (Press release)
(St. Paul, MN, August 15, 2007) - TV coverage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix is set to air. This stage race, ranked at the top of the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar, is part of Minnesota's GreatRiver Energy Bicycle Festival. The 2007 Nature Valley GP included a unique mix of criteriums, road races and a time trial, and featured Stillwater's 20 percent Chilkoot Hill, part of the "Hardest Criterium in North America."

In the men's race, the battle for the yellow jersey turned into a shootout between two teams. Toyota United held the Nature Valley Grand Prix lead, but HealthNet presented by Maxxis won five straight stages to try to take it away. Minnesota's pro bike race came down to the hilly last day to decide who would win the title and the jersey.

On the women's side, World Champion Kristin Armstrong (TEAm Lipton) wasn't content to sit in and wait for the win. Armstrong attacked every single day to dominate her race for the women's title.

The Nature Valley GP attracted a "Who's Who" of U.S. racing. In addition to Toyota-United and HealthNet, the men's field included Jelly Belly, BMC Racing, Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast, Jittery Joe's, Priority Health, Colavita-Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light and Navigators Insurance. The Nature Valley GP was also the second stop of the Women's Prestige Cycling Series, which saw racers from TEAm Lipton, Webcor Builders, Aaron's, Cheerwine, ValueAct Capital and Team TIBCO. These fields were complemented with international riders from the Colombian and New Zealand National Teams.

Versus (formerly known as OLN) will air the full program of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. The action is called and analyzed by legendary announcers Bob Roll and Dave Towle.

Versus

Sunday, August 19 at 3:00 PM
Tuesday August 21 at 5:00 PM
Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Check local listings.

Crazy Kids

Friday night was a cheap night ($7.50 total) of laughs and a different kind of adrenaline rush at Lakeside amusement park with girls who race road and the track. Funny that some of the track racers were worried about going on spinny rides. Here, though, is Kate and Renee, unafraid of the Tilt-A-Whirl. I was just worried I would squish someone. There were 5 of us who fit in this car. I was so happy to not have to stand in line.

...and watch some people plunge to what, luckily, wasn't their death. It was hard to watch them!

Click on the picture to see the Amy, Renee & Kate relieved to have lived.

Not bad for a run-down ol' amusement park that I used to love as a little kid. Already looking forward to next year's trip!


And there was some awesome, epic riding this past weekend. A little over 13 hours in the saddle, 17,000 feet of climbing...super fun riding in absolutely gorgeous parts of the mountains. I didn't take my camera, very, very sad!

Why it's good to be over-the-hill

It came as a total shock that 30 means being over-the-hill. Certainly, I feel too young to have that designator. However, after thinking about it, isn't that the best? The first 30 years are more of an uphill battle. Leaning to walk and talk are pretty challenging. And then there's middle school. College, finals...working the first job...(what? this is what I got my degree to do?) Figuring out where to live and what kind of lifestyle to have. Not easy, especially when looking back on it.

30 is a way of designating that the really hard life-learning stuff is in the past. Now, it's all downhill from here, for the next 70 or so years. Cruisin' with some awesome friends at 30 mph with the wind at my back.

Pic above: A group of us got together last night for happy hour at Dazzle (a jazz club).

Bannock

Wow, all sorts of cool stuff happening these days that I'm not blogging, because too much is going on! Bannock is traditionally one of my favorite races and this year it didn't disappoint due to family and friends coming to watch. A highlight to me was my Grandmother coming and enjoying the race. It was special to have her there considering bike racing is a whole other world she has never experienced prior to today. This was the first race Mom and Dad saw this year, too, and I was very happy to see my legs showed up today (they decided not to come to Salida with me so I was a bit skeptical as to what to expect from them). The race was fast, agressive and very fun.

The race organizers really didn't do a great job, though. There were four fields racing at the same time (ie different speeds made for near-crashes when girls from different fields met in the corners) and no primes for the women. Funny, since all of the other men's races that I watched had plenty of primes offered.

Time for sleep. That 45 minutes of riding today has me tired... and there was a b-day celebration with family, I'm going to be 30 in 3 hours.

On Sale Now!

The Astana team jersey is on sale. Wonder how many they'll sell.

Kazakhstan Not Helping Themselves

Seeing as though I'm not yet a world traveler, my first impression of Kazakhstan came from watching the movie Borat which wasn't particularly positive.

This article just came through VeloNews:
Kazakh federation expresses support for Vino'

..."We are going to support the position that the results of the A and B samples were a direct result of the violent fall Alexander suffered during the fifth stage of the cycling race," said the executive director of the federation, Aleksandr Antychev.

Dumb move. I, like most everyone else, thought Vino was a great cyclist and great person. Though at this point, let's forget about him and the others who have doped and spend valuable press space on the clean winners and upstanding individuals of the sport.

While on the subject, it's important for everyone to keep the doping scandals in perspective. The sport can be cleaned up internationally, and locally, we can all keep having fun racing and not worry about what's happening with the really well paid pros who are overseas and may or may not dope. This is not the end of the sport unless we, the amateurs, decide to leave it.

Imitation...sincerest form of flattery

Being at a loss for new blog material, I keep finding good stuff on other people's blogs. Today's food for thought is:


"To win, you must be willing to lose." If this is true, I should be winning a lot sometime...maybe something about patience should be tossed into that quote.


I have many weeks worth of photos still on my camera. Call me an uninspired blogger. No, I just want to minimize after-work computer time. This is such a perfect time of the year! And, tomorrow marks the best day of the year!!!

Found quote

I found this off of a forwarded email.

"Far better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Rosevelt

It's so absolutely true, though it would be possible to take out the "to win glorious triumphs" and it would still mean the same. To me, it's the process of daring and trying...it's the trip that's worth all of the effort. If it ends in failure, hey, it was still an experience that made like more interesting than it would have been otherwise. If it ends in victory (and that can be defined in many different ways), that's just icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake, I'm getting hungry...

Longmont Crit

Twin Peaks did another fabulous job of promoting the Longmont crit today. I'm not just saying this because I'm on the team, it's true. What other race can you go to and get free beer? (From the Lefthand brewery, too...it's GOOD beer.) Unfortunately, my race was at 3:50, so no free beer for me. Also tons of other quality stuff was being given out. My day was made when Jamba juice gave me a really cold smoothie.

The Longmont crit was the state criterium championship race, so it started (and stayed) fast and there were attacks all over the place. It was really exciting and I had a great time out there. This year, I didn't get intimate with the pavement and it was pretty safe. The heat out there, though, was killer. I can usually survive an hour crit without drinking, but today I had to drink a few times just to get through. The after-race hydration was ugly. Had to drink, but everything upset my stomach, so I drank tons and felt sick for a few hours.

Congratulations to Vitamin Cottage for taking the state crit title...they deserve it considering how well they race as a team. At one point, I was in a break with one of their racers...neither of us was working all that hard, but the rest of the VC team was doing such a good job blocking, we gained a decent gap on the pack quickly. It only took a lap or two for the pack to catch us, though, which was just as well.

My Twin Peaks teammates and some friends (Amy, Cari, Julie, sorry if I didn't realize who you were) were awesome cheering and keeping it fun! It was so great to have you all out there. I think I absorb the energy from the crowd, it means a lot.

That's it for racing stories from this weekend. Yesterday I slept and did an opener ride & watched le Tour with Cristienne & Scott. There have been a few weekends now where every day hasn't been all-bike related and it has been a pleasant change, though I'm starting to look forward to base training (long days on the road) again.

Friday, July 5...no, no, it's Friday the 13!

Deja vu. Today must be the 5th since Denver thought last night was the 4th of July (again, so soon?)...at 10:30, long after I had begun my slumber. Guess I shouldn't complain. In my sleepy confusion, I thought the city was being attacked by aliens.

To highlight my tiredness this morning, I squeezed sunscreen on my toothbrush.

TGIF, all!

Pseudo-Mead World Championships

Last night was another attempt at racing with the big boys (cat 1-3 men). The first time I did this race, I hung in the pack for the full hour and finished pretty well. Yesterday brought a whole new level of racing that redefined "fast." Leave it to a full squad from Australia, a couple of Slipstream-Chipolte guys and Vitamin Cottage to push the pace almost from the gun. Training races have very relaxed rules about getting dropped...your race isn't over, just jump back in. So I kept jumping back in with the break (oh, ouch) and then drifted back to the chase group and got spat out over and over again. It was a Nature Valley flashback, but it was much better having my butt kicked by guys, who are supposed to be stronger.

A sentimental moment

I just sold my first road bike, a steel yellow Serotta Fierte (pic coming). It was such a good bike, it is what helped me fall in love with being on the road, it helped me fall in love with racing.

Fortunately, its new owner is a brand new roadie (well, she will be a roadie once she gets the bike on the road). She is so excited to ride and I know this bike will introduce her to the joys of long days cruising roads that would never be seen, if not on a road bike. She will meet people she wouldn't have met otherwise and discover that going fast in fresh air brings about clarity, freedom and purpose.

Goodbye, dear bike, I wish you many, many more miles of memories.

Long Time No Blog

Well, here we are, in the middle of a *hot* Colorado summer. Blogging has taken a back seat to being out and about. A quick update: Last week started with a crit in Pueblo.
It was hot, hot, hot. Sarah Uhl (world-class sprinter) showed up and took all of the primes. Was it totally necessary to sprint for the coaching-for-2-month prime? For all I know, she gave it away to a local after the race. It was a good course, but not too many racers showed up. We had some local spectators, but I can't say it was all that desired. The comments and attention from the men watching to the women racers would make anyone pretty uncomfortable.

There was a break and I was in the wrong position for it...so I was left chasing like a mad woman for the rest of the race. Leigh (my teammate) has a sprint & I thought it would be fun to try a leadout. With half a lap to go, I gunned it with all I had and she took off my wheel to win the field sprint. I forgot that I still needed to cross the line...and spent the rest of my energy yelling to Leigh to go faster since a girl was gaining on her. That was definitely the highlight of the day and a good way to reintroduce racing and intensity to my legs that hadn't pedaled more than an hour during the entire previous week since Nature Valley.

Fireworks & Fun

Finally, I got to see track racing for the first time ever! Yesterday was a fun trip to Colorado Springs (then hanging out waiting for racing to start since it was raining/hailing upon our getting to town)...but that was after a 5 1/2 hr ride in the morning, so there was no guilt at eating a good dinner, ice cream and cheering. Track racers make every other type of racing look super slow.

I took pictures, but everyone was going much too quickly. Fun watching you race, Cari!!!

Still Recovering, Happy Bike to Work Day

Hanging out not doing much of anything, recovery is challenging. It's easier to be constantly on the go and get little sleep than it is to be disciplined and get to bed early.

Pretty good video coverage of each day of Nature Valley is available. You won't see me up close, but it's a decent view of the courses and players at the front of each stage.

I walked to work today and rode home. Unfortunately, it was Bike TO Work Day, not Bike Home day. No treats were being handed out to those of us who didn't have wheels for the morning commute.

A true Wall

Here's the hill that we had to do repeatedly on the last day of Nature Valley...thanks to this blog for the pic. I've been trying to find one that properly expresses what a hill that gets as steep as 24% looks like.

Never thought it would happen

Does this make cycling a real sport in the US now?

NV Pics

Team pic taken during our pre-race ride of the TT course. Italian dinner family-style in the motel room. Missing from photo: Ryan, Dana, Gina.
Nicky's award-winning sprint against Laura van Gilder.
Nicky on the podium for her 2nd place finish at Friday's crit in Minneapolis. Next to her is Laura van Gilder and Brooke Miller.

Survived Nature Valley

I didn't expect a race without a super long climb in it to be so challenging. The power hills and simply length of the race made for very intense racing. It was a great race, Minnesota was welcoming (shockingly mild weather as compared with previous years) and the team couldn't have been better. I'm very, very happy to have the experience and even though I'm so tired I can hardly move right now, I feel better having done it.

http://team.bikehugger.com has been updated with details from each stage.

There's so much to be learned and gained from this kind of experience. It also keeps your ego in check. Being threatened with a time cut each day is scary, but then again, it adds to the drama.

Huge thanks to Team Group Health for paying for the team to go to Nature Valley. This is a very expensive race to go to and it was so nice to have a bed every night (we stayed in the race hotel, the Holiday Inn...at the center of everything).

As compared with Redlands--it was much faster, more furious, there were more crashes and it was, by far, the harder of the two races.

What did I learn from this race? Every day I had personal victories (aside from the not-so-great results) and learned a ton...

Day 1 Success: Leading the kiddie race with my teammates and getting a kiddie medal.
Learned: Positioning is key and if you don't have the right position to start, take every opportunity to move up before the pack splits (they did callups for at least 30 people making the rest of us not called up start really far back). Time cuts are soooo scary.

Day 2 Success: Figuring out how to position in a road race. I entered the small dirt road next to Kristen Armstrong. Success part B: Not taking her out when we turned onto that little dirt road.

Learned (or yet to learn): How to ride on dirt and wet-ish pavement. I was so freaked out, I slowed waaaay down, basically making me lose the leaders. Grrrrr.

Day 3 Success: Being able to hold back and ride slowly in the TT. It was hard to hold back when slow girls were passing me, but I needed to save my legs.

Learned: How to race a time trial, by watching Kristen Armstrong (the world TT champ). It was obvious she was going to win based on the lack of her upper body movement and very straight line that she took.

Day 4 Success: Playing in the front with the big girls. Chasing down attacks and covering most of the moves up there...Dropping back to the team car to pick up bottles. This had totally freaked me out before (at Redlands), but I did it twice during this stage.

Learned: I need a new seat. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen my seat (it's all ripped up from extended periods of trainer sessions)...but using another seat saved that race since the old was was so uncomfortable. Learned #2: How to motorpace. Never done it before, but I can see why it's valuable for training.

Day 5 Success: Making the time cut and not being "DNF'd" from the race. Not a huge accomplishment, but with 118 starters, it was nice to be among the ~84 who finished.

Day 5 Learned: Need to do lots of hill repeats up brutal climbs so it's not so shocking to see such a grade in a race.

And, after doing Redlands and Nature Valley, I just cannot fathom doing any stage race without a solid team, without a super supportive manager, an A+ mechanic and totally self-less soigneur.

I'll be racing locally for the rest of the season and focusing on each weekend. But, for now, I'm resting, sleeping, working, eating...my bike will stay packed for a few more days.

Team Group Health in Action

Racing started yesterday with a downtown St. Paul, MN crit. It ended up being a crit of attrition...and there was more of a hill in it than I had expected. The course was technical, 108 women started and positioning was key. With two call-ups per team plus a few more (this is when they introduce riders who are national champions or have some other notable accomplishments...then those riders go to the front of the pack prior to the start), there's no way to start at the front of the pack. The start was hairy with everyone shoving for position and with the number of corners and speed we were going, any sketchy cornering (and there was lots) really made it easy to lose positioning and make the effort necessary to stay in contact with the pack higher.

I survived the race for 20 minutes and it's the hardest 20 minutes of racing I've ever done. My hr was completely maxed out (higher than in Colorado because there is oxygen here) and my legs were blown when I got pulled. Unbelieveable! And I went into the race fully rested and feeling good. That makes it obvious that racing smart, keeping the right position and simply being extremely strong are keys to surviving this kind of pack, one that includes almost all of the best riders in the country.

That being said, most of the rest of the team did a fabulous job yesterday! We have tons of fire power and our two GC riders (the girls we're riding to support) are outstanding. Nicky is a fantastic racer, playing at the front of the race almost the whole time & finishing 12th and she gives us tons of useful advice from her experiences. Leah is 26 and insanely strong. She's got a great attitude and it's obvious that she will be someone to watch in the very near future. The rest of the team, Jadine, Lisa, Dana and Gina and Trisha, are very talented and are from Seattle. I'm having a great time getting to know them and hearing the fun stories of their racing in Seattle. It sounds like they, along with Suz (who I raced with at Redlands), consistently win every Seattle race. Most race for Team Group Health in Seattle, but there are two who race for their main rivals...but all of the girls get along great.

The highlight of my day yesterday was being a "moto" for the kids' race. Dana, Gina and I were the professional riders (as we were introduced) designated to escort the kids on their 1-lap race. My kids were 7-8 years old and they go fast! I rode in front of the kids, so they went the right direction and to clear the path in case anyone was on the course. The girl who was in front of the other kids and going really fast through corner #5. To put this in perspective, corner #5 is the one that we all had issues with during the race. It's a fast downhill, a slightly off-camber to the right. She ended up not being able to make the turn and popped up onto the sidewalk. There were lots of people there to catch her, so I'm assuming all was well. At the finish line, I got a kiddie medal with all of the kids who finished their race. Whew, my ego needed that pick-me-up. So, I finished one race yesterday and got a medal. I'll take what I can get out there!

Getting ready now for a 65-mile road race with lots of wind and there's a good chance it'll rain, too. Yesterday was a good opener so my legs shouldn't feel tired today. My main concern for the day is my throat--it was burned yesterday with the extreme intensity, breathing the hot, humid air really hard. It makes talking a little harder and last night my throat really hurt. It's feeling better today. There's no way today will be as intense as yesterday, though I'm expecting it to hurt at least as badly. Today my goal is to support my teammates and help the team GC ranking. Stay tuned!

Time for Nature Valley

I can't wait...absolutely can't wait for this race!!! Unable to withhold my enthusiasm, I'm turning to blogging so I don't start jumping up and down. It's almost time to go! Yippee.

Blog updates by me and my teammates (Team Group Health) will be found at http://team.bikehugger.com. Buy a t-shirt, help support the team.

Racing begins Wednesday (June 20th) with an early evening crit, around 130 women will be starting, from all of the best teams in the US. (A very similar line-up as was seen at Redlands due to this race being part of the Women's Prestige Series.)

http://www.minnbikefestival.com/

Weekend of No Racing

Not racing is almost as fun as racing, but it's still hard to watch racers do a perfectly flat crit course --yeah, if I hadn't had specific directions not to race, I would have been out there today. Pretty exciting racing happened this weekend, mainly involving DQs, strange crashing, and what sounds like an attack during a pee break. I'll withhold my opinions on these and other weekend events from this blog since I wasn't there to see what happened. My rides were awesome this weekend, especially since they were both concluded with a dip in the Platte River.
Watching the cat 4 women's race this morning took me back to my cat 4 days...the early morning race, the small pack, the unknown girls out there who have been doing something active their whole lives, but just turned to bike racing. It's a bit upsetting to see this perfectly good race go unused by so, so many women who could be out there. Why are women so terrified of crits? Women cat 4 crits are a completely different sport than cat 1-4 men's racing (and women 1-3 racing, too, generally). I am so impressed by the cat 4 women who embrace racing and say outloud that they want to race and go after their goals...this is very cool and you've got a lot to teach other women about just doing it.

Bike path bugs

Are little swarming bugs organic? One thing is for sure, they are free range, and, arguably, have a very nice, happy existence. I hope they qualify as healthy cuisine since my ride tonight involved eating quite a few of them. It has been such a moist spring that everything is alive and thriving.

Prepping for Nature Valley full time this weekend, so that means no racing. I'm oh so disappointed to not have to drive 2 1/2 hours to the middle of freaking-nowhere Colorado for a road race (it's a great race & it has been fun to go in the past). However, I'm not missing the long drive or very, very intense heat all that much. Twin Peaks has 11 women out there representing and quite a few men, very exciting! I'll live vicariously this weekend...and it'll be a serious challenge watching the crits on Sunday, but I can't wait to be a spectator for once in such a long, long time.

Summer's Here

I'm just now finally downloading pictures from a couple of weeks ago...this was taken from my office window, early afternoon a week or two ago. The road below was a swampy mess of hail floating on an inch or two of rain. It's so much fun to get to watch this kind of weather (and it didn't do any major damage except for take out some pretty flowers).

Twin Peaks Group Shots

The men all got into the spray tan stuff just before this pic was taken...

Look at these women, to be seen in future pictures as simply a blur of blue as we fly past...

Ft. Collins Vacation

Here's a short & sweet version of the weekend:

Brutal road race Saturday, but beautiful and very nice all-in-all. I enjoyed all of the descending and the happy power hills and the scenery...

The rest of Saturday was spend recovering. Eating, sleeping, drinking... it was oh so relaxing and since I didn't have my computer with me, I actually did these things.

Sunday was the downtown Ft. Collins crit--wow, was it exciting! There were attacks constantly throughout the race...finally, I have the jump I've been in search of all season (yes, after the brutal road race)...I attacked a few times and tried to jump on all of the attacks I was near. I spent half a lap on the front trying for one prime that I missed by an inch, but at least it didn't mean getting spat out as has happened before.

The finish left me in 10th & with $20 (the field was close to 40-large), but after having such an exciting race, it left me feeling pretty good. I headed back to my host family's house for a quick shower & then got back home to hang out with Rebecca who had come up from Durango for the weekend...finally getting to enjoy Denver and some quality off-the-bike time.

Picture of the weekend to come if I can collect enough energy to unpack my car and find the camera (yeah, I took one picture...hope it turned out!)

Now for this weekend

This weekend involved some seriously fun time on the bike. 95 miles yesterday, maybe 9,000 feet of climbing, oh yeah, with LT intervals thrown in for good measure. It was a fabulous ride. Basically, it involved riding to Estes Park from Boulder, so much of the ride was at fairly high altitude. Then this morning, I did a TT (on my own), in order to prep for Nature Valley...coming soon! Afterwards, a power nap was necessary as well as a shower and fresh clothes, so as to be able to race City Park tonight.

What's wrong with me? -I really like going into races tired. I think it helps me deal with the pressure to do well (so I'm the only one putting that pressure on, but it's real, no matter its source). Also, all of this training will hopefully make Nature Valley a fuller experience. I'd like to dedicate yesterday's ride to my Bike Hugger (aka Wines of Washington) teammates who had to race that distance and feet of climbing at Mt. Hood. I'm really impressed with what they've done this week (http://team.bikehugger.com).

Speaking of teammates, it's great to be back on Twin Peaks locally. They have the team tent set up at the races and they never tire of cheering. Hopefully one of these days my race is earlier in the day so I can hang out and cheer afterwards.

Blogging is for winners

Hi again, sorry for the lack of posts in the past couple of weeks. I watch quite a few blogs (RSS feeders make this possible w/o spending too much time snooping around trying to see what's changed on which blogs)...and it occurred to me that a large majority of bloggers are winners. Almost every blog is someone announcing another win at a race or successful book publishing or some other great accomplishment. And, of course, these people blog regularly (usually) and seem to always be winning something. Guess people who blog have the confidence to share their lives, which they expect to be successful, with the rest of the world.

So, therefore, since I have a blog, I am successful and expect to bring you some really awesome racing news before the season is over. Thank goodness it's a long season and there are lots of races. Of course, racing doesn't define success, but it's the coolest thing to talk about in a blog. And since racing well takes many of the same qualities to do almost anything in life well, I'll let it define how successful I am...at least to you, dear blog reader.

Last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) was an amazing weekend spent in Durango with Eric and some of his friends there & then some of mine in Denver. It felt like vacation and, being coupled with a bike race (Iron Horse road race and crit), I got the riding and intensity in that was necessary. The Iron Horse race is very mentally challenging with all of the climbing involved, but since they close the road to all traffic, it's worth doing it. Yep, even for a non-climber such as myself.
It was a unique experience to watch cattle being moved. Look how close they are! It took many men, on horses and ATVs, to keep these really loudly moooooing cattle going the right way. I thought that they would put cattle in a truck and take them to where they want them. Guess it's cheaper or easier to do it this way.

Lots and lots to share about Durango...not going to blog it because sleep is important to me. It's a great town & I can understand why everyone from Durango can climb like a mountain goat on the bike.

Back in Blue

For all of you wondering about my cryptic post a little over a week ago, finally, it's announceable-- I'll be racing for Twin Peaks for the remainder of the '07 season.

I learned a lot about trying to be my own team (there were 3 other women on Einstein's, but with all of us doing different races, we couldn't act as a team). Basically, I straightened out my priorities and know that what I want first and foremost is to enjoy racing with people who make it a full experience. It's important to me to always enjoy being on the bike and racing takes it's toll when there isn't a huge support structure. Believe it or not, to become a really great racer, it takes a lot of support by many, many people, not just one or two. Blogs and articles about great athletes show this to be true a lot. And no, I'm not a great racer yet, but I know my chances of being great are so much better when I'm surrounded by good people...getting free stuff isn't going to be what does it.

On that note, it's time to train...inside due to some seriously uncool weather...

Riding Paradise

After much hemming and hawing, Lana and I decided to stay local to her home and hang out and ride like crazy women this weekend (we needed to make up for all of the long rides we didn't do together this past winter since she moved). You heard that right, I decided not to race. There are so many chances to race in Cali, but why race when you can have fabulous rides, at race pace, and leave from home?

Boulder riding is nice, but I do believe the riding here is better. Of course, the traffic to get to the riding is a little more insane than it is in Colorado, but at least there's a bike lane on every road from what I can tell.

These pics are from the Friday ride--totally twisty-turny road all the way up, much of it just like you see here...and very steep. It varies from 8% to 20% grades. Excellent place to do some hard intervals!

We pedaled for 3 1/2 hrs, and stopped by the Stanford campus for a riding tour of the campus. It's a pretty campus, and big. We were interested in knowing what was going on in the background of this picture. College (probably frat) boys...

Yesterday (Saturday), I went on a very fast group ride with ~100 local racers--Lana's boyfriend, Aaron, took me there (Lana didn't want to go since we thought we'd be racing on Sunday). A few women on the ride are pro, there were quite a few women there. They weren't intimidated. No one talked much on the ride, people took it pretty seriously. There was a group of 4 deaf guys on the ride--they were "talking" more than anyone out there (they were signing to each other). Everyone is nice, I haven't seen this many friendly cyclists in a long time. Almost everyone waves "hi." The guys were good to give pushes to the women who were dangling on the back. After the ride, then, everyone was chatty and I went with Aaron and a few of his friends for some climbing. Total ride time was almost 4 hours and my legs were toast.

Lana and I caught the train to San Francisco--it was a double-decker. Doesn't take too much to impress us.
We made some new friends.

The North Beach area is very Italian and after wandering through China Town, we had some yummy Italian food, served by Italians. It passed the test of my critical taste-buds.

Today we did another long ride (over 4 hrs) that involved tons more climbing, with grades over 20% in places. It took us past massive, beautiful homes, vineyards, just absolutely lush, gorgeous places. We did some more intervals and when I found a guy flying up a climb, chased him until it was time to turn around (won't admit that I was tired and my legs were quite unhappy). Now we're relaxing and enjoying not doing anything (except blogging).

Wheels of Thunder

Saturday was the Wheels of Thunder circuit/crit race. During the time that I was in the race, it was fast, tactical, pretty exciting. It helped that there were at least 5 racers who are regulars on the NRC circuit and a few others with that strength, but who stay local. My race consisted of 4 laps, the last being a suicide ride in hopes of a $50 prime. Being out in the wind for half a mile really took its toll. I had totally underestimated the distance to the line and how much energy the wind would sap from my formerly fresh legs. The rest of the race was a painful time trial, trying to at least keep the pack in view just in case the pace slowed for a few moments which could allow me to rejoin them. No luck, just really good training. Oh yeah, and my cassette was loose. I was wondering why shifting was harder than usual, but I don't think that had anything to do with the final outcome.

Sunday was a fantastic ride up Super James, Ward and back down St. Vrain. St. Vrain is on the top of my list of fun, fast descents and it's incredibly beautiful (if you have a chance to look up). With all the rain we've had, it's green, really lush in places that are probably brown all year. The climbing was important since the next two weekends will be spent going vertical.

Stay tuned...I'm still planning on updating more soon (as the last post suggested).

I made a mistake

Okay, I've made 145 million mistakes since I was born, but I realized today that I made a big one a few months ago. I'll be cryptic in this post since I can't say too much, but hopefully in a couple of days, it'll be something that can be discussed openly here. A movie I'd highly recommend is called "Bobby Jones." It's about a golfer...but watch it anyway. I really, really enjoyed it (saw it while spinning on the trainer this past winter) and I've been thinking about a few key lessons it teaches ever since. To be continued...

If you drive a car, read this

Those who get fewer than six hours of sleep a night might as well be drunk. The Sleep Foundation determined that people who remain awake for 18 hours straight function similar to drinkers with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent, the level states use to determine whether someone is legally impaired to operate a car.

--From Penelope Trunk's blog, one of my favorite blogs.

Read this article, too. Thank you, Penelope, for saying it like it really is.

Training Race, another perspective

Someone else's account of yesterday. Interesting, I didn't realize all that attacking was happening. Guess I'll ride up closer to the front next time and try to follow some moves. Oh yeah, something else that was cool (man, do I sound like I've never been in a race before or what?) was watching from mid-pack as the guys up front cornered, all strung-out with the sun setting in the background. It was beautiful.

Fun Race!

Thanks to Chuck B for being out at pseudo-Mead taking pictures!!!

Warming up and catching up with Dean.

On the start line. Last year I never, ever started a race on the line. Now that's where I'm comfortable (far right). However, I'll admit I was a little nervous last night, especially since some Vitamin Cottage guys were starting on my wheel. It was impossible to know what the starting pace would be like. Lucky for me, it was coffee-shop-ride pace.This is what it looks like to be having fun in the pack!
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Women's local races are just not that exciting...small fields don't make for really cool racing. I've noticed this more than ever since I've been back from the large and fast fields in the NRC races. (See the last post.)

Tonight was a training race in Golden, where the 1/2 women race with the 1/2/3 men. What an adrenaline rush! Okay, I didn't push it, not for the first race. I won't mind trying some risky moves in the future (those that may result blowing up and ending up off the back), but for the first race, I wanted to prove my worth as pack fill. It's so fun worrying about position, cornering fast, not letting a gap open up. There were quite a few men from Einstein's out there racing, so it was enjoyable thinking that I have teammates out there. I still can't say I know all of them, but maybe these races will help. It was very cool racing with one of my old teammates from Twin Peaks. He's always been encouraging (which was key during the past couple of years) and it was a good chance to catch up with him and other Twin Peakers.

Sure, big deal, this was just a training race. But, it really opened my eyes to what I really enjoy about racing, and, sadly, I'm not finding that joy in the women's races right now. Maybe that will change as the season progresses, maybe I need to do more men's races. To be continued...

April Showers...

...bring May flowers. So what do May showers bring for June? This post is entirely inappropriate for today since the sun is shining and it's supposed to be in the 70s. But it has been raining enough to ask the question.

Spoiled

Wow, I really got used to the excitement of traveling all over the place in the early season. Now, May is here and I'm looking at the Colorado race calendar and my eyes are glazing over. Business Park crit #1 through Busines Park crit #6, road race in the middle of nowhere, circuit in the middle of nowhere...yep, super exciting.

I am also just really loving this training through racing thing. Basically, it involves going into races tired due to training. It pays off later in the season...or so it did last year...and I'm hanging onto a thread of hope that it'll do the same this season. But what's my competition doing? Maybe the same. How depressing!

My camera hasn't seen the light of day in awhile so my apologies for the lack of pictures or interesting posts. Today was the celebration of the mother's in my family. We thought we'd out-smart the Mother's Day crowd and celebrate a week early. It was very nice to hang with the fam and not talk about racing, though it seems to permeate most of my thoughts. It is so much a part of who I am, and I like it that way...but I'm not dreaming of winning one of these office park crits...though that's what's going to have to happen to be able to do the 10,000+ spectator downtown crits!

And now, before writing any more that really should be going in a personal journal, but I'm putting it here because it's so much easier to type than write by hand, I'll wish you a pleasant evening!

Weekend Races/Riding

This weekend was as good as it can get for perfect riding conditions. The racing was a bit strange, not too exciting since it wasn't coupled with any kind of epic weather.

See Sharon's account of the Deer Trail race.

And yesterday I headed out with the MOB ride and promptly found I had left my climbing legs on the rollers out at Deer Trail. Still, though, I got 7 hours of riding in and probably 6,500-7,500 feet of climbing in for the day. It was one of those days when going home wasn't an option.

Public Service Announcement

Attention all married men: guys, when a belly dancer shows up to work on your birthday, this is the appropriate reaction as Jeremy is demonstrating here. When things get even slightly normal around here, the sales guys spice things up. Much to our surprise, it was a female member of the management team who was behind this. And, FYI, the belly dancer performs at children's birthday parties?!?!?!

No pictures yet...

Argh, sorry to not get pics up here lately...or more posts, for that matter. My To-Do list is very long and it's only growing. This weekend was spent racing and there's really not much time before or after to accomplish much. And if there were time, there's not a lot of energy. Got a lot of great riding in this weekend between the races and the post-race rides. Did the Haystack TT yesterday (used a disc and aero front wheel, first time ever, pretty cool) and the AST crit today. The crit is a really fun course, where the uphill doesn't feel much like a hill and the descent is really fast. My amateur move of the day--sprinting for a non-prime lap. Oops. Oh well, good practice! Finally, the intensity isn't hurting as much. It was a good weekend for racing & it didn't end up raining or snowing, amazing since it kept threatening.

Look ma, no wrinkles!

I had to iron a shirt before going to work this morning since I'm going to be interfacing with people who will probably be wearing suits. This is the first time I've touched the iron in a year. It was a proud moment, so I wanted to share.

Vacation

This past weekend I vacationed in Florida with Eric and his fam. Like any obsessed bike racer, I couldn't leave the bike at home. But, for the purposes of discussion, this past weekend was vacation, since it involved a beach, crashing ocean waves, having a nice time with good people, eating well...even though Saturday was spent driving to a race (hey, the drive was pleasant, so it still counts as R&R time...of course, I wasn't driving so it's easier for me to say that) and Saturday evening involved speeding through downtown Jacksonville.

Thursday the flight to Tampa was pleasant. The in-flight movie was "Freedom Writers" with Jennifer Gardner. I was determined to get some sleep so I missed the first part of the movie, but judging from the last half, the movie is worth watching in its entirety. Eric was waiting for me at the airport, after driving a couple of hours to get there...and on the way back we noticed that where he had driven moments before had become a parking lot. Whew! Spring break in warm places like Florida (especially after such a brutal winter) yields traffic jams of epic proportions.

Upon arriving at his family's vacation home in Bonita Springs, we sat down to dinner and watched the sun set on the ocean. Not long afterwards, it was time to play mini-golf! The mini-golf place was nicely designed and I'm saying this more because the holes were at least twice the size of a normal hole found on a mini-golf course. So, it makes a really rusty mini-golf player such as myself feel pretty good. Come to think of it, I never heard the final score for anyone.

Later that night I got to learn, or begin to learn, euchre. It's a pretty entertaining game...quite fun to try to understand and to watch the players and the variety of reactions a seemingly benign card can cause.

Friday was a truly hot and humid day, but the heat isn't so terrible when pedaling along and creating a nice breeze. Eric and I had a really nice ride on the road, next to some pretty ritzy ocean-side communities. We wished that we could have gone for longer, but it gave us time to get the rental bike back (yes, they rent road bikes in FL), Eric took a long swim and I got in a nap. How easy to be lulled to sleep by the crashing waves and ocean breeze.

Once again, we watched the sun set and took in the last few minutes of calm prior to worrying about packing up and turning to race mode. Moments later, there was a torrential rain, it must have been all of the humidity becoming too heavy for itself. Hey, being able to live without cracked skin for a few days was great, the humidity is fine so long as jeans aren't necessary.

Saturday found us driving most of the day to get to Jacksonville. Countryside driving helped us avoid the interstate which probably saved us hours and lots of stress. Jacksonville is a pretty city.

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Jacksonville Crit

And Jacksonville knows how to put on a race, though I just read, through the blog grape-vine, that it doesn't actually count for NRC points. Oooooh, that mis-information could kill the race for next year. Pro teams usually don't attend non-NRC races and there were at least 3 of them (in the women's field) represented this year. With the race on the same weekend as Sea Otter, it makes it harder to attract the big-name pros. Laura Van Gilder showed and I was on her wheel at the starting line. The start/finish area was necked down by barriers so pretty skinny (no bigger than 2 lanes). Figured a good starting position was important (~50 starters).

This time, at the gun, I sprinted as I was taught to do in Redlands but couldn't execute there. That yielded good position early and I felt like my legs came to the race with me. It had taken some effort to snap out of vacation mode, but a long warm-up helped. It is possible that warm-up was long enough to tire me out, but the jury is out on that...especially since I did the warm-up to Colorado heart rates versus low-altitude ones (that would have been higher).

Cheerwine and Aaron's were the squads to worry about out there. The other girls? I had *no* idea who was there (a posted pre-registration list would have helped so as to have been able to Google everyone prior to the race). Another reason for good positioning was that I didn't know how much to trust the other racers. Which wheels were safe? Wasn't much time to figure that out. Within the first 4 laps (I can't remember), the girl right in front of me went down in a corner. The best-scenario was to hit her...to go around would have meant hitting the curb on one side or taking out more racers on the other. However, like all crashes, they happen so fast there isn't much that could have been done.

The crash wasn't bad (a little road rash on my elbow and knee, pretty topical), but my chain was pretty twisted and adrenaline kept me from fixing it myself. So I had to run to the start/finish and have them fix the bike. This whole process took two free laps...during the time when 6 riders that included Cheerwine and Aaron's got off the front. So, of course, the wheel-pit guys pushed me back into the middle of the now-chasing pack. Maybe I should have argued that I was near the front when I crashed (which I was), I could have been in the break had I not crashed...really. Obviously, no one knows and it was just bad timing. It's all part of bike racing. Some days stupid things like that happen. Other days everything goes well and you win the race.

So a lap after I got back with the pack, I tried to see if I could help close the gap to the break. One girl gave me a friendly push. I wasn't happy to know someone was on my wheel. She wanted me to stay on the front. Was this a ploy to get me to blow up or was she offering to help? I don't know. And I didn't trust any of the Cheerwine or Aarons girls left in the pack...they were interested in blocking. The rest of the race is fairly blurry in my memory. It was a challenge to stay to the front. I kept slipping to the back (on the downhill section, explain that) and having to make up positions in the uphill/into the wind sections.

I heard someone in the crowd cheering for me (and reminding me to move up on the laps where it applied). It didn't sound like Eric, so it was a bit confusing. I didn't expect to know anyone in Florida. Finally, I was able to look up, it was Josh from Twin Peaks! He and Val, Vince & his girlfriend had all come to the race together. It was really great to have the extra cheering...and to see friends. Josh has put a lot of effort yelling at me in races (Golden crit, Salida, amongst others)... :)

Finally, with two laps to go I decided I didn't want to finish in the back and made it back to a very nice place near the front of the pack. With one lap to go, heading through the start/finish, there was tons of bumping, it was the most contact I've had in any crit ever. Somehow it resulted in being squeezed to the back (I had been in the middle of the mayhem, stuck on whatever wheel I was on) and there wasn't time to recover for the final sprint (each lap was probably 0.5 miles in length). Final result--33rd. Not pleasing, but not disappointing enough to bring me down from the joy of the vacation.

A few short minutes after the race was over, the skies opened up an it rained hard, just in time for the men's race...and I heard there were quite a few crashes in the first minutes of their race. Then the sun set on their race and they were in the dark. It was fun to race late in the day, but I can live without racing on wet, dark pavement. Eric and I enjoyed watching the Pro men's race and spending time not worrying about anything besides eating and reflecting on the weekend.

Pictures will be posted soon! Time to get home and put the bike together again...

Elementary Math

A road sign in Fruita. This may demonstrate that the Fruita school system is lacking a bit. If one addresses an envelope to 11 4/5 Road, will it get to the recipient?