Food and the Lack Thereof

It's so much easier to drink calories. Fruit shakes are the best. One for breakfast, one for dinner or at least an after-work snack. We're getting a blender at work. Pretty exciting news, let me tell you. So, maybe now I won't ever have to chew again! If only we'd get a hot-plate, then I could cook eggs here, too. It's much easier and less expensive to eat the same stuff over and over and over...

I'm happy to report that I didn't eat a single Clif Bar while at Redlands (it's a habit I've been trying to break, so this is progress). However, without a blender at the host house, I often found myself confused when it came to grazing time.

Oops

Silly me, I just discovered that I was riding a 12-25 not 12-27 (as I had intended) at Redlands. Those extra two teeth would have been nice on the climbs. One more thing to fix, my labeling system.

Redlands Crit

Back from Cali

Just a quick one to say I'm back from Redlands and, amazingly, was able to get out of bed this morning (without the alarm). Most likely, it's because of hunger. I've been eating constantly since getting on the plane yesterday, that was the first that my hunger returned. (Usually after a road race, I get ravenous 4-5 hours after it's over, even though I'm pretty good about eating a lot after races). I wasn't too stressed during any portion of the race, but there was probably some subconscious stuff that was making my appetite different (besides the intensity of the race, of course).

Lots more posts here and at team.bikehugger.com later (at least by tomorrow).

Made the Front Page

After the Road Race

The road race was so exhausting, I was very happy to try to take a cat nap in the driveway as soon as we returned from the race.

Lots of pictures, Blog Updates

...can all be found at http://team.bikehugger.com. I'm having a great time, the team is great, the organization of everything is outstanding. Can't wait to race tomorrow, I'm riding at 10:45 am. More news & updates on Bike Hugger's website. Thanks so much to everyone for your support, encouragement and enthusiasm. It all means so much!!!

Joy & David--will email you soon with directions to the crit, can't wait to see you!

Redlands Classic Sunset Road Race

Check this out (and turn up the volume). This is the course of the last day of Redlands.

CU Racing

Today the racing was interesting. First, there wasn't anyone around at the start of the TT when I got there (8 minutes early, btw)...so I rode the TT at TT pace (or as much as I could motivate myself to do knowing that the time wouldn't count towards anything).

I bought a race laptop. I'll have a whole post on that later, it deserves its own post.

The crit was on a pretty flat course, some windiness to it, but no real corners. It was a combined field of USCF Women Open and collegiate "A" racers, so a pretty big field (relative to CO racing).

The race was bitter-sweet...This was the first race that Twin Peaks did together last year and it was such fun hanging out with everyone at that race.

The "sweet" part of the race was that this is the best I've ever raced. I'm not bragging, just stating fact. After this winter of training, it's necessary to dwell on how much it has helped, and how worth so much of the sacrifice was. The race was fast and there were very few lulls. Lots of attacks went off, and as soon as one was pulled in, another would happen. I was able to get away for three laps (I think...can't really remember it that well, it hurt a lot), but after I got caught, was ready to keep chasing stuff down without excessive recovery time. As a cat 3 last year, all I could do was hang on in the pack and hope to not get dropped by the 1/2s. Now it's time to think strategically, figure out which wheels to be on, corner fast and attack at the right times. I'm finally getting back to what I loved about racing as a cat 4...thank goodness the time as a cat 3 went quickly & having so much support by teammates helped me get through that time. It's really important for cat 3s to keep everything in perspective and keep racing hard because it's so worth it. Sorry to be preachy, but there are far too many women who drop out of racing as soon as they hit cat 3.

Oh yeah, the other thing that was totally freaky today...my cleat and pedal seemed to be superglued together. Very challenging to learn how to unclip with my right foot after doing it with my left forever. Guess what? SpeedPlays need to be lubed regularly. (And once they are, it's possible to clip in fast at the gun in a crit. Ah ha! Too bad to not know this before now, I've had so many bad crit starts...but at least there's an explanation.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Drink a Guinness for me. Nothing seems edible right now. Gotta love serious race intensity.

FIFO Employee

Definition: First in, first out of the office. The sun finally came out and it's getting warmer tonight (how weird), it's Boulder riding night. Not quite FIFO today, but I'm getting up earlier and earlier every day...nice to see the sunrise again.

Lookout Time Trial

Awesome ride tonight! Took 1 min 15 sec off last year's Lookout Time Trial time (and last year's time was done in a real race). Love it when I can see the results of the winter's training... and very fun to get some fast riding in afterwards with VC guys (thanks for letting me be a wheel sucker). Time to go work on Team Bike Hugger blogging & then to bed so as to be able to do something similar (but up in Boulder) tomorrow.

Human Power!

Not a bad idea, for next winter. It's 70 and sunny today!

Stazio Take 2

Stazio was so much better this week than last. There was actual racing happening and the pace was reasonably high. It was easier to race it this week after having all week to think about the hill and not be intimidated by it. The pack was much bigger, too. Today's racing was self-centered--I was only there for my own fitness, along with bike handling and positioning practice--not for results or anything else. Amazing how much easier it was to race with this being my focus. Came very, very close to a prime, too. And, it also made it easier to not be too upset when the race was over and I hadn't heard a final bell (and maybe there was a lap counter, but I didn't see it the whole race). I was convinced there were at least 10 laps left, the race seemed so short. It was a beautiful day, too. Much better than getting pelted by ice rain and snow during yesterday's ride.

Happy Time Change!

Total oversight on my part: Thank you so much to everyone who was cheering! It was awesome to hear you out there. And way to go Einstein's guys!!!

Cat 4 Racing

Here's what early-season cat 4 racing is all about (and I'm not saying they aren't riding fast...just quite far apart). Cat 4 women are usually scared of racing the first few times. (This is understandable, I was a little nervous at my first race, too). Now you can see for yourself that it's really not all that scary. So, if you're new to the race scene, start early season when everyone is just starting, too. (The cat 4 rivalries really heat up as the summer progresses.) The best way to learn how to race is to race. It's helpful to have done some group rides for basic bike handling skills and drafting, but that's all there is to it. Go out there, race as hard as you can (worry about tactics later)--you'll learn a lot and feel great afterwards, no matter what place you come in. Guaranteed.

Team Bike Hugger / TRIA

Our Redlands team has a new name: Team Bike Hugger/TRIA. Bike Hugger will be posting blog entries written by members of our team (yep, I'm begging to do some of them).

Check out the Bike Hugger blog. It's really cool to find out that a blog like this exists. Their motivation for creating the blog and purpose of the blog is about as close as it comes to describing what I am trying to convey in this blog--except they are actually going to hit the audience who it's intended for. Read their definition of a "hugger." It looks like these people understand (at least their definition of hugger leads me to believe that they do). Often it feels like few people really understand my lifestyle and motivation.

Keep an eye on this blog, it looks like the posts there are very interesting!

The Stazio Group Ride and Climbing

Climbing has been the first order of business lately (as of yesterday). Got over 11,000 feet in this weekend & it was outstanding, mostly because it meant riding outside (still a novelty) and lots of sunshine. (When in Sunshine Canyon, expect sunshine.)

I did the Stazio crit today...the field was a whopping 12 or so people big. Pretty sad, really. It was also a sad race. Only 2 girls there actually raced (Kori, Lipton and Carol, Excel. Go Carol!!!) I know I didn't. The group I was with wasn't working much and it wasn't clear as to anyone's strengths or intentions. I tried to attack a couple of times, but with the wind, I didn't have enough to pull away. The "race" could be described more as a group ride, a really, really boring group ride that went around and around in circles.
This is almost the whole field (top 2 pictures). Everyone must be in a warmer place. What a brutal winter we've had! The first Stazio crit last year had much better attendance--maybe 30 women.
Rebekah and I after the crit. (Note the sparkling clean bike.)


This is how gunked-up the bike was after yesterday's Coal Creek to Ned ride.

From where the mud got too deep to ride in, almost the top of Sunshine Canyon. Time to clean the bike again. And, I finally got a flat tire (luckily, it wasn't noticeable on the ride today). Considering I picked ~30 pieces of embedded debris out of the tire this morning, it's suprising this is the first flat of the year. (Okay, today is the third outdoor ride in Colorado this year.)

Road Ridin'

Wow, it's pretty cool, kind of forgot how to do it. Visited Nederland today, awesome!!! This is kind of a test, this post will be updated with something real later. My camera decided not to turn on today, wanted to have the sunshine on record.

Redlands

This just in: I'll be racing Redlands. Translation: I have less than a month to become a climber. Another chance to escape the snow! The team is TRIA, 8 of us will be representing. Looking forward to meeting my teammates and spending almost a week in the sun, even if there is massive amounts of climbing to be done.

Google Traffic

Look what Google did. They now have a "Traffic" button on their maps (for major cities) so you can see how much traffic is backed up. I resisted the urge to Google Map Phoenix, but I'm sure that map is solid red. If I haven't said it enough, Google is cool. And, they saved me from posting a full rant on the weather here. Snowing again. Yes, again. Had to say it, it's just so wrong.