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.