ah well. hopefully i'll be able to ride at sheboygan tomorrow. if not, i'll watch i guess. hmmm... not sure if i can do that.
interbike all weekend... jp's and my plan was to ride every morning and head into work. rain and asthma screwed that up. can't believe it. i've been trying not to dwell on it, but can't help it to a point.
full blown asthma attack. i guess i knew it, but was dreading prednisone... i guess being fiercely hungry, bloated, crampy stomach, severe mood swings, weird heartbeats among other things aren't as bad as not being able to breath. ah well. i totally realized it when i went to jog back to the car after dropping casey off. i thought i was going to drop from lack of oxygen. i wonder if it was the weather or pepper that triggered it. i'd like to think it was the pepper but i have bad asthma attacks every year at this time... in fact i've dropped out of sheboygan twice because of it. hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow or saturday. i'd like to preride sheboygan, but at the same time i'd like to get to sheboygan.
rain yesterday. i was determined to ride anyway. so i sat in my car for over 2 hours to get to the trail... by the time i arrived i decided not to ride. it had rained a lot harder than i had hoped and it was cold. it wasn't worth getting sick over. mike said the trails were like mini rivers and real fun, but it was cold. if it were 90 degrees i think i'd have rode for sure. i miss riding in the rain.
i have this horrible pain in my sternum. i don't know what it's from. i couldn't even breath last night it hurt so bad. i thought i was going to cry. i can still feel it somewhat today. i feel it in deep breaths and moving my arms certain ways. no clue what it is but it hurt likes hell. part of me thinks its asthma related- something to do with the hot pepper i accidentily ate at lunch yesterday that was hotter than anything i've ever eaten.
i finished all the harry potter book. i really enjoyed them but now it's the long wait for the 7th. i will find myself in the car during my commute thinking about what will happen next. some of my nerdier moments i guess.
can you tell everyone is at interbike but me? saw this at sea otter this past year. i highly recommend it and can't wait for my copy to arrive. a cool movie about cross country racing... the freeride videos are getting out of hand for me.
i still love vanilla. i went to this site for the first time in awhile and drooled on my desk...
to have money and the patience...
i rode my fucking bike! it felt damn good. nice to not be on a dry dusty trail. it was almost tacky this morning at palos. it took me a few turns to trust my tires again. tomorrow afternoon is ride time for hump day. thursday will probly be nothing and then friday morning... saturday? preride sheboygan? sounds yummy.
it's monday and i still haven't ridden since ojibwa! boo. i suck. tomorrow am, jp and i will hopefully tackle palos. w00t! or whatever.
looking at pics from today's wors race... i'm sick as i'm bummed i missed it. but not as bummed had i gone and missed ryder, julie and doug for sure. why can't everything be planned on a non-race day? if i race next year i'll be sure to send the schedule of races in advance. i wish we had more time to spend with the calhouns. if time were for sale i'd buy it for sure.
i haven't ridden since friday before cheq. i feel sluggish and lazy. i can't seem to get motivated to put on the spandex. mon and tues i was home late, the daylight is disappearing fast. wed i left for colorado springs for 07 product meetings. you'd think they had a bike for me there??? no. left friday night and was home saturday 1am. then it was errands and two birthday parties. home by 7, i think... today more of the same. errands and then christening and birthday party. should be home end of the day... i'm gonna try and get motivated to ride. off or on?
you can see the darcy boys in blue at the almost lower left corner... bb's leading the cat.
is a long time to be in a fucking car. cftf. john was the 87th person to arrive, eighteenth in his age, sara took fifth in the women's overall, third in age, 325th overall. not bad for neither one of them having ever been there. me... i took pictures. it was fun being there for john and sara, but 16 hours in a car in less than 3 days with no race... bummer. i only dwelled on that for a few and moved on. i'd love to go back up there sometime with more time. i was only able to ride the ojibwa trail. loved it.
congrats again sara and john.
i'm hoping sara gets her ass in gear and posts pics. or saves them on a disc and gives them to me. hint, hint.
word. rode the cliffs last night. sara and i rode the trails that snatched away my singletrack virginity. brought back a lot of memories. cftf this weekend... i'm not racing. i'm going for the party. sara and john will be flying the d'arcy colors while i hang out in the SRAM tent with ed "the j is silent" nasjleti. should be interesting. tomorrow morning oh six hundred hours is take off time. eight hours later, i hope we'll be there.
so i get home from the dino race on saturday and check out the wors board. i think people just troll that board. anyway, i read that the sport course is gonna be awesome (in my mind anyway)... then i had second thoughts about doing dino. i mean i thought we'd be doing laps in the field with barely any singletrack. apparently no, we are doing a bunch of singletrack and get to taste winterpark on the way back! i was excited and hoped i didn't cash myself at dino.
the excitment lasted til we got to the race. turns out we really didn't get to do anymore additonal singletrack. boo in capital letters. oh well, it just turned out to be what i expected all along.
we busted out of the driveway a little after 6 am. casey dazed and confused becoming one with her car seat slightly reclined in the back wondering why we were leaving and the sun was still sleeping... we hit the dunkin donuts for some bagel sandwiches and caffeine. john says no to coffee. when will he learn it's the nectar of the gods... i used to hate it too. anyway, looked like a 4 hour drive ahead of us according to mapquest. no radio on the way up! can you believe it? we shot the shit the whole way up. we came into the city two rivers and saw tony and beth right in front of us. it was as if they appeared out of nowhere.
we hit the piggly wiggly for some bagels and scooby snacks before we got to the race. we wandered for a few, checked out the scene. and then to be honest i don't know what the hell i did. must not have been too exciting. i gave the darcy van til 10:30 before i'd go back and get dressed and register myself instead of registering all together.
there were yellow jackets everwhere. bastards. i'm such a wimp now when i see them. it was 10:30. i headed over to the truck to start getting ready. man i take long. i headed over to registration with my blank check and just so happens the darcy crew are in there. perfect timing. i ruled and didn't even know it.
got registered... blah blah blah.
11:30 rolls along. start time. staging was uneventful. actually there was something, but best kept to myself. waited with nervous stomach as i knew what was ahead. road. and lots of it. gooooo... i wasn't too bad getting to the climb. then after the climb i was like 4th from last. 4th from last. oh man. i knew i sucked, but i didn't think i'd be that bad! i got a bit more motivated as i could see where racers were entering the atv trail. i passed two girls on the road before the dirt. then passed a few girls in the dirt. first singletrack section. bam. stop while everyone walked up the singletrack. oh man again. this is gonna be a long day. lots of track stands and hanging on to trees beginning of the first lap... cursing (in my head of course) people that can't ride singletrack. then cursing myself for sucking ass on the road... finally in the open i passed a bunch. got stuffed by a 50 year old... passed a couple clydes. saw some age groupers ahead of me and just started picking people off. my next lap i was able to ride the singletrack for the most part by myself. 2 more age groupers to find before i finished. passed one i think without even realizing she was in my group. now one more. we've gone back in forth in a few races this season so i didn't think i'd do it. i can't say i wasn't trying though. then i saw her in the open sections. just out of reach. i realized i was starting to gain on her. i saw her keep looking back so maybe she was worried. that's what i told myself anyway. we got to the big whoop thingees in the field, down up, down up, down, steeeppp uppp, drop chain! dammit. hurry, hurry get it on, she's right there walking the hill. go go go. i got my chain on and hopped on at the top of the hill cyclocross style. james and dana were screaming at me... she's right there, get her! i couldn't help but giggle. i wanted to catch her so bad at this point. we came to the last section of singletrack. just a little bit of loamy dirt, trees, roots and a small technical turn with rocks n roots. i told myself if i rode that clean i'd have her. i almost had it (wish i prerode) but had to grab a tree to push off of. i didn't see her and was like, shit. she's fuckin' movin'. then i saw her, standing by the tree. i sat up, she was okay. she said go ahead, good job. there was almost a part of me that felt bad. dumb, eh? anyway, i boogied out of there. it was a long ride back. i was on the atv trail coming out hot, i jumped the lip to get on the road, shifted down and moved on. holy shit was it long... road, road, more road, wind, road... pass couple guys... more road... where is the freakin' turn already. finally saw it... yay! 1st in age, 4th overall. i was pleased.
as much as i was disappointed in not being able to do the singletrack, i felt satisfied having raced the day before. there seemed to be less field than my race two years ago. so that was good. my race was only an hour and like 10 minutes. very short. i'm sure there were good reasons why singletrack was taken out, blah blah blah... but my race was still only an hour and 10 minutes. only one sport finisher finished outside of the two hour mark. that was antonia... however, she ran the whole thing. crazy.
casey was asked if she was going to be a bike racer like her mom and dad... she said, "i already race". she's so fresh. she entered the kids race. it was a fun course for the little ones. a small dirt path in the trees in a short circle. staging was long, but she had a blast.
after her race we sent john off and wished everyone luck.
i felt completely out of touch with the elite race of course. all i could do was wait for them to find me at the playground... turns out everyone had a good day. you can check out mike's report here. dont' mind the title... it's really the kewaunee race report, he didn't even do 24 hrs of 9 mile. check out jeremey's interesting report.
i haven't been looking forward to sunday's wors race: kewaunee. big road lead out (i suck at that) and then loops in a field. big whoop. i only wanted to go cuz i'm a points whore. i'd been eye-ing the imagination glen race all year. it's part of the D.IN.O series. i rode it two years ago remembering how full of singletrack it is (i must've blocked out all the climbing). anyway, my start time was 12:12. i hemmed and hawed all morning and finally decided to do it at around 10:30... like i wanted to stay home and clean all day. so i packed john, casey, the trike, the spot and myself... okay john packed most of it and we headed 30 minutes east to imagination glen. i decided to race elite there (hoping to win some cash for gas money sunday). besides sport there is too short. my race woulda only been 10 miles. there were 3 elite women, so i was guaranteed 3rd- if i finished.
it was really frickin' hot. it was a 10 mile loop and elite women had to do 2 laps. the start was a short grass lead out right into the singletrack. guys races were a big cluster fuck, but nothing like a wors race had it been there. horn went off and the sport and expert women left together after all the expert and sport men left. a sport woman took the lead. i had no problem with that. seemed she knew her place around. i followed her through the singletrack... it was apparent real soon that i was a stronger singletrack rider and she was the stronger climber (story of my life). i followed her through. she asked if i wanted to pass. i said nah. i wasn't up her butt or anything and i had 2 laps, she only had one. i was in no hurry and the other women, sport and expert were way the heck back there.
i sat behind her until we hit a steep sand downhill. she took the wrong line. her taking the wrong line allowed me to take the right one. i stayed ahead of her for awhile.
the course was 9.5 miles of singletrack with maybe 1/2 mile of doubletrack. long twisty singletrack to start, with the 1/2 mile of doubletrack connecting to trails called the basement, log jam and switchback. i never felt like i was going in a straight line. if you were you were probably climbing. dumping into the basement was a short dropoff of sand with tree roots. the trail below was nice and tacky compared to the sand above. it flowed pretty well. there were lots of bridges, some skinny, some wide bridging you over what was probably drowning trail. after coming out of the basement there were a few short steep climbs then i think the log jam trail. i'm sure i have some of this mixed up... all i remember right on was it was long and hot... the log jam trail was just that,log after log after log. some big and built up, some small and long. logs in turns after turn... it was a total power course. lots of upper body. the switchback trail equaled it's name just as well. i wish i had pre rode. i could feel i was getting kind of hungry. not knowing whether or not i'd be racing, i didn't really prepare well. especially for this long of a race. the sport racer passed me on a similar descent she missed earlier. dammit! oh well. i still have to finish this first lap and i have another to go! i wasn't too concerned. if i only had one lap, no way would i have let her pass or get away... anyway, i decided to try and take a goo. bad move. i decided to take a goo just as the 3-in-a-row steepest biggest whoops came up. really steep, sand in the bottom, couldn't use momentum to get back up. steep climbs. with a full goo flapping out of my mouth. it was hard to breath with that in my mouth. by the middle of the second steep climb i had to stop to eat the goo. then i was all good.
i finished out the first lap hurtin' a bit. i felt like the heat was getting to me. the forest was like a sauna. my right leg had the chills and my neck felt weird. i couldn't tell if i was sweating or not... but i wasn't stopping. so i just wandered through the first section of singletrack at the beginning of the lap and tried to get my bearings... i still felt like shit when i hit the doubletrack. nobody in the elite women were even close to me. so essentially i just had to ride this thing out. after i headed down into the basement i started to feel better. i had drank a bunch of water while i was wandering... then i felt the gu kick in. i probably lost almost 10 minutes hanging out but i really didn't care. i rode the rest of the race pretty strong and even made two of the steep climbs i missed at the end of the first lap. two hours and elevn minutes. i got to take $100 home.
afterwards we had to wait for the beginners to finish and the kids race to be done before awards started. at first i was kind of like ugghhh... but then we were like, casey can race! so she climbed aboard her trike and snapped her helmet.
the kids race was the grass that surrounded the baseball field. the one side was completely off cambr. the race director sounded the horn and she was off! she came to the off cambr section and of course tipped over. we secretly laughed as we consoled her back on her bike. she finished out to the cheering of the crowd. she beat the lone 3 year old out on the course.
it was nice to head out for a race so close to home. thanks to john for helping us out. i'm sure he was dying not suiting up to race.
every time this year i always get in the mood to go shopping, like clothes shopping. i think i like the fall styles and colors. the oranges and the greens and the browns. now if i only had money...
i guess this could be motivation to get a couple bikes sold. probably not.
casey had open house for preschool today. i think it's gonna be fun for her. imagination glen on saturday for dino and wors sunday. i wanna do both.
rode friday night, mesa. fun, even though i wiped out and my knee, thigh and hip are black as night. saturday picnic with backyard band. fun. sunday ride at palos, real fun- big group. sunday night millenium park and then the fireworks. fun. a little too late for a 3 year old though. monday very early morning body world exhibit at the museum. real cool, just too long of a wait. monday early afternoon ride out at the mesa. full circle. tuesday work... 3 and 1/2 hour drive home. apparently a car tried to beat a semi and lost. ryan shut down for 3 hours. i was stuck with nowhere to go. i stand as i type this, my ass is numb.
i hoped to get out of work early. it isn't an easy feat considering how busy it is. the plan was to start picking up about 4 and be out the door by 4:30. no deal. i forgot about an oe meeting. i was in the e by 4:50. traffic had red dots for the stevenson. i listened to the radio. hour and 50 to the north south. which meant maybe hour and 30-40 to the tristate. bummer. the times kept getting longer. i was sitting as if i were parked on the expressway. i decided to get off and take my chances on the side streets. ugghhh. fucking horrible. i sat in the car nostrils flared for over 2 hours. i still think it was better than the stevenson though. it was going on 6:30 and i was still in my car. palos was closer. there was never any thought of going home. i was going for a ride even if it was for a half hour. i arrived at about 6:50. i have never changed and been out of my car so fast on my bike in my life. i saw tp heading down the staging area trail. hooked up with him for pipeline, three ravines, one day, gravity cavity, secret, and then out n back. we saw matt heading towards the out n back. i rode for maybe 45 minutes. i was in my car driving about 7:50. more traffic as i headed home. big clusterfucks in all the gas stations blocking the intersections.
