riding

i wish i had a race report to post. or even be able to blog about the awesome rides i did this past weekend (while missing the race).
i have nothing. this weekend was spent helping my soon-to-be-in-back-surgery sister with her kids, errands, house chores, etc. we did have a grad part on saturday for my cousin's kid. their new pool was amazing!
i finally picked out a new sofa for the living room though. and a new couch (futon really) for the basement. apparently the one down there doesn't work well for gaming.
anyway, i'm hoping to get out for a ride tonight. even if it is only a road bike ride, at least its a ride. or maybe my mountain bike on the road and then i can hit a little bit of the mesa. even if it is just raccoon alley. a taste of dirt is better than nothing.
tomorrow is rachael's ride day. i'll be at palos guessing the meltdown course or not. i may bust out the walt. it hasn't seen palos under my power all year.
this weekend it's jill's wedding. then sunday who knows. ride hopefully at palos or kettle. probably palos. i can't see myself driving that far right now.
john's sis is in from cali this week for the wedding so it'll be fun catching up with them. their kids will seem huge i'm sure.

the right call

john and i made the decision to not hit the border battle this weekend.
my stomach dropped when i agreed. i really really want to go, but know it is best if we stay home. casey is already in school and we have lots to do. this seems to be a great weekend to get motivated and complete some tasks.
i have so many things i'd like to get done right now- carpet, tile, picking colors for paint, change prints to freshen up some rooms etc.
everyone have fun up there and don't rub it in too much as to how much i would've loved the course.
hopefully we'll get some killer rides in. i need my legs ripped off to make up for not going.
took the girls for pics last night... i hadn't realized it had been a year since they've had them done professionally. they both were amazing. i couldn't have asked for anything more as far as cooperation goes. zoe made me proud. the photographer was in shock at how good she was. casey made me proud too, she didn't complain and helped her sister get into positions and to remind her to smile. so cute. i'll get them on my flickr account if i can... which reminds me of another project- get the new printer (scanner) connected to the imac.

icky burrito

saturday i spent most of the day at home. john headed out to palos via the mesa and swallow with jeremey and jerry. zoe was what i later realized sick. she was clinging to me all day. i started to get a little frustrated as i couldn't do anything. i eventually just resigned myself to being her mom and felt a lot better- i think she did too.
when the triple j's arrived back we decided on some burritos. on the car ride over to grab them i debated on stopping at the chipotle right next to el famous for myself. i've always gotten indigestion from el famous... but i just decided to make one stop.
when i opened my burrito it was dripping with orange grease. i was sort of grossed out. i cut it in half and dealed. in one of the later bites i felt like it was a mistake and it sure was. minutes later i could barely stand- my stomach cramped so bad. this continued all day and through the night. it didn't subside until i started riding on sunday. weird. it all came back when i stopped riding although not as horrible. i'm finally feeling okay today- but i have moments where i feel like it may return.
on sunday bubba and crew along with gina and tom met john and me for a tour of palos. it was good fun. i was more than happy to be trail guide. we stopped the ride short of what i had planned as most couldn't stop thinking about portillos. i don't blame them...

if you aren't up for the drive to rhinelander for wors or have no plans, the meltdown race registration is open. get registered before it fills up!

rain of terror

it seems that it rains every wednesday. my night to ride.
i know this because i can count on one hand how many wednesday night rides i've been on this year and the summer is nearly over.
driving south on 55 you could see it was a bit dark out west. but it was northwest. i hoped it would slide right on top of us.
it didn't. as i pulled into the parking lot it started raining (for real). i wasn't giving up. we hung out for a bit and about a half hour later it stopped. it was enough rain to make it slick and grimy (not muddy). it kept our speed in check, we all touched the ground at least once, but man it was so good to be out! i could tell it had been awhile since i'd been on a bike. i was slow and hurting (even at the slower pace).
today we had an unbirthday party for casey. we never had a birthday party for her in february for a variety of reasons.
before school started i promised her something. today was filled with little kids, hot dogs, nemo, swimming and cake. i love cake. i baked two because i wasn't sure if i wanted chocolate frosting or vanilla.

still... no ride.

i need to go for a ride. i feel tired, stiff and old. i'm certain its from inactivity. tonight's not looking good but tomorrow is.
last night i had to go grocery shopping. i had to also pick up birthday cards for three people. this was not as easy as it sounded. however the card i found for my dad had me laughing out loud in the grocery store.
by the time i arrived home, unpacked the groceries (i hate putting laundry and groceries away- actually i hate putting things away- i don't like putting dishes away either) and getting food in the fam's belly it was almost after 8.
tonight i need to get my bike in working order. it still has a layer of dust from 24-9 not to mention parts that need replacing. maybe i'll ride the walt.
i need a haircut.

no riding?

i haven't ridden since 24-9.
this weekend was filled with family, errands and fun other than biking.
i'll admit this morning all i could think to myself was i can't believe i didn't ride this weekend? it was so beautiful.
i even forgot it was kewaskum until i saw the blogs this a.m.
we started working on getting windows replaced, garage door replaced, getting the girls' rooms in order (we haven't had trim in zoe's room since before she was born). the house needes to be painted. lots to do.
i'm getting tired of my house being in shambles and cluttered. i used to take pride in it looking nice, i want that back.

Happy Birthday Zoe!

sigh

we have two trashed wheels (rims) from 24-9. it's sort of irritating, we don't build wheels. i need to get moving on that. two bikes are down n out right now and that drives me crazy.
i rode for an hour last night on my road bike. as much as i hate the aesthetics of the terry saddle it's the best one i've had on there so far. it's just too wide in the back. i can feel that on a longer ride my thighs are going to hate it. they get a little pinched not to mention they rub. i have a narrower one, i'll have to try that one. but i'm afraid that might be too narrow.
my house is a wreck. i'm not even sure where to begin... we have windows being replaced and our garage door being replaced soon. i thought i wanted the 4 rectangles on the door instead of the 8 squares so i went with the rectangles, now i think i like the 8 squares better. but john likes the rectangles. meh. i guess these are good problems to have.

where to begin...

it's been awhile.
last night was wicked. john took a diaper out to the trash. i knew it was going to rain when we were coming home from dinner as the skies out west were a bit grey.
when he walked back in the house i asked if it was raining yet, he said no. not even 10 seconds later the hanging plants were sideways, the bushes were laying flat on the ground and i thought the treee in the backyard was going to blow over. the wind was so loud. the lightning and thunder was constant.
i called the neighbor to make sure casey hadn't blown away and she was safely in their house. she was.
looking out back watching the storms listening to the tornado sirens we saw the neighbors looking for their dog. seven is a little jack russell and he was apparently blown away by the wind. john got dressed to help look for him but as he made his way out to the yard to hop the fence they found him.
that was the strongest storm i've seen in a long time! we got a little bit of water in the basement and apparently our tree was hit by lightning, but we consider ourselves lucky as one of our neighbors had their tree fall on their car. brutal.
i'm exhausted. and it's not from 24-9. i'm sure that has a little to do with it, but i had a lot of rest afterwards... it was zoe. she was up all night last night. i hope she fairs better tonight.
we left thursday morning to head up to wausau. it was nice to just take it easy and not be in a rush. it seems we are always rushing. we arrived and pre-rode the course. the course was wicked. the singletrack was nothing short of awesome. riding flower trail just as i was like omg when is this going to end, it ends.
friday morning i stressed about getting enough camping space for everyone. it all worked out in the end. i pre-rode the course again later in the evening with bubba and meg. i'm glad i did otherwise i would've missed out on being witness to the most spectacular crash ever. Bubba doing a superman over a huge rock and his bike behind him doing a complet sommerault and landing on both wheels while bouncing twice and then caught by the lady all freaked out in the woods. amazingly he wasn't hurt at all. i couldn't believe it.
the race for the most part was pretty uneventful. we were in the national championship category so we were up against some pretty tough women. results didn't dictate what kind of time i was going to have so i was all good. on my nigh lap coming up on red bud road i had a smile on my face. it was a total party up there. i think there was a ketchup bottle dancing in the woods when i went by. i started laughing. i heard there was a mustard bottle too and a hula dancer... what else? gollum also scared me coming into the pines! DANO was rocking the most excellent camp-site ever with the orange lights over the trail. i did 4 laps and was pretty happy with my times, well except for the last one. my back spasmed on every section of singletrack. i had to slow way down which was a total bummer as my legs felt good.
everyone on the team pulled out wicked laps. murphykate was the woman throwing down for the 5th and final lap for the team. you go girl.
watching the finish of the men's 30+ championship had to be the hi-lite of the weekend for me though. running down to red bud road with some peeps and watching mike curtes (who had a 1:30 lead on john at the start of the lap) come through with john about 40 seconds back and ray right behind him by 20 seconds (john and ray started the lap together). next time over the road john was 20 seconds behind mike and had about 35 seconds on ray. we all ran back to watch the finish... we saw the black n blue deluxe jersey (both john and mike were sporting it) heading up and for a split second we didn't know who it was until we say john blast around the corner seconds later. what a great race. john finished 7 seconds behind mike to get his team on the podium for 3rd. what a way to end 24 hours of racing!
after awards we headed to the hotel to get some sleep... too many years of driving home right after and almost falling asleep at the wheel. it was nice to get some sleep and grab some food with the goat, destiny, jerry and barb. the ice cream was even better... or maybe hanging out in the hotel lobby going over results while watching sports bloopers and reminiscing about that log or tree was better... good times. talk of next year has already started. i'm in for a 12 hour 4 person and then party up at red bud for a bit.
i feel like i should write more but i can't think of anything at the moment. thanks to murphykate for getting all of our info together, bubba for begging me to race and thanks again to holly for the wicked custom caps.
next up on the race calendar looks like the border battle and that's 50/50.