still don't feel good. it's depressing. hopefully sheboygan will go alright. john is still debating on whether to hit the chicago cyclocross race sunday or wors. bryan's "shower" yesterday. it was fun... wet though. i really don't have anything to write about i guess.
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.
everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
it's all so plain it's all a plan
the sky doesn't ever end
the air just gets much thinner further up
you could keep digging down and down
a thousand graves down without turning around or finding hell
you find you're digging up again
everywhere everywhere everywhere
willful suspension of disbelief
road bike yesterday. not long. my legs were tired i guess. i hadn't realized it all day til i started spinning my legs. went for a walk with my mom and the dog after... she talked my ear off. i don't know what today will find me.
i wasn't sure if i was looking forward to franklin. i had only raced it once. over 2 years ago. i remembered a couple parts of the course. i mostly remember how hot it was and neil walking around in his spandex with no shirt on... not riding spandex, like spandex with no pad. it was not a good thing. anyway, i convinced my mom to head up there with us.
we arrived about 9:30 or so. we parked in the back of the port a potties. at first i wasn't keen on the idea... sun beating down and poop don't mix. but counting the number of times i visited, i was glad we were close. typical before race prep... get registered... chat with people on the way... chat some more. stall before getting all my stuff out. get my gear out and stare at as if i forgot what i had to do. start pinning my jersey, blabbing, etc. the d'arcy van pulled in as i was doing this. mike, zach, brian, tim, sara and zach all headed our way not to say hi, but to take care of business in the potties.
i headed out for a preride with tony for a bit. we chatted. i realized that i just put new disc brakes on and had not once checked them out. no break in, nothing. i decided not to think about it. we headed back to finish some last minute race preps. said my byes and headed down to staging.
staging seemed to take longer than usual. i felt lonely. there were port a potties in the staging area! this is now my favorite race so far and i hadn't even rode the course yet.
i was for some reason nervous for this race. i dunno why. i haven't been nervous for a race in quite some time. but today... my stomach was a wreck and i felt my heart was beating faster than usual.
i hate the fact that i suck at climbing. john said he'd teach me... when, i don't know. i watched people just pull away, not to mention a few passed me. bummer. by the third lap the start climb felt so big. i think it's a big psychological thing with climbing for me at this point. anyway, a young TW gal passed me climbing up. not to take anything away from her as she's a badass rider, but i couldn't help but be bummed because a 12-14 year old passed me. after the climb i felt better again and almost caught her going into the singletrack. i knew i could catch her in there but how would i pass? she asked if i wanted to go by, but i was still far away... i eventually almost was up on her when she went around a corner and bumped a tree. she apologized. obviously no need and i felt bad for her thinking she had to. i think she was nervous i was behind her. i'm so intimidating. especially in my sleeveless jersey and my new brakes. but honestly i think it was the fact i was in such an easy gear and my chain was slapping around all over the place- very obnoxious...
on the last lap some girl passed me coming off of the moon whatever climb. it must've lit a fire under my ass as i found this untapped energy and gave chase. i didn't catch her to be close enough to draft off of her until the middle of the loose flat gravel. i sat on her in the singletrack, which was of course a bit of a disadvantage in my mind, but in reality i probably would have been bouncing off trees if i were by myself. coming out of the singletrack i followed her over the bridge and headed for the last climb before the switchback descent. i gave it all i had to pass her up that climb (i actually liked that climb) nobody was ahead of me on the descent and hoped to get a bigger gap on her. i had no idea where she was. on the switchbacks i tried not to look. all i kept saying to myself was go go go- i almost felt panicked... i thought i was going to cry climbing up to the finish. i would've been demoralized had she passed me.
i thought i was dying heading toward the end of the finish chute, well not die, but never be able to stand or speak again. john wanted to hand me some water, no way. i couldn't take my hands off the bars.
despite my near death experience at the end...the course was awesome. i had a lot of fun. i ended up 6th overall and 1st in age. it's one of my new favorite courses.
i barely finished in enough time to see john go. i was looking for my mom and lisa. casey ended up doing the kid's race and from what i've heard and now seen (my mom video'd it) she may never do it again. big difference from last weeks bigwheel race. we have some gnarly video of the kid's wors race. they send them down the hill! well, not the big hill, but a really big hill for probably anyone under 5. the trike was moving so fast casey's feet got thrown off it and she was almost out of control. of course knowing she's okay, we laughed our asses off watching it tonight. one little girl took a header over the bars. scared me at first, but my mom said she was fine. a little shaken is all.
water bottle duty as usual. completely uneventful. zach was mia for awhile. turns out he had some tube issues. i saw sara at the end first, 3rd overall for the day. then brian, tim, kelsall, john and finally zach. it was nice to finally see someone else from the team on the podium besides us ladies for a change...
*note to self- practice opening gels and putting water bottle back in cage. if i practice i will probably gain a spot in the overall.
i'm sitting here by myself and don't know what to do... casey is sleeping, john is downtown and the dog is chomping on a rawhide. i have no desire to watch a movie or tv, i finished surfing the world wide web ages ago. i really don't feel like cleaning, although that's probably what i'll end up doing. dishes anyway for sure.
i really need to work on my bike... i keep procrastinating. sid or reba? barbarians or juicy? tonight wrenching on bikes would seem boring by myself. i wish someone were here to hang out with. blast some music, chat it up and wrench. sometimes workin on bikes by myself is therapeutic, but not tonight. i'm lonely... and besides, it's dark outside i'd probably scare the shit out of myself being in the basement alone.
rode last night. just on the pavement. it was a really nice night. i tried to get as much in as i could as it was getting dark. i hate when daylight disappears early. i rode the spot. i found out why that bike always feels different everytime i ride it... the seat was loose on the seatpost. kept moving up and down. i felt like frank not tightening and checking all my bolts. i still think i want a flat bar on that bike. i didn't work on the sycip yet, its in bad shap. lockout doesn't work, cables and housing are all messed up, rotors are loose... i need to do some serious work to it if i want it by sunday. john is heading to the mass tonight. he's meeting nick here. there's part of me that wants to go as it's all about riding your bike... but i'd feel much better hitting the mesa and getting some dirty action in.
... rode palos last night. my bike sucked. well, it was the mechanic actually. i didn't have my front skewer skewed properly. so i kept stopping to figure it out. i missed tp. thought he ditched us, turns out we ditched him. oops. they had a kick ass route, wish we had waited. next wed could be one of the last without lights. so new parking lot and charge up the lights. sweet. nice time to ride all the illegal junk. john's doing the mass tomorrow. don't think i want to. i'm headed out for a ride now. out.
no ride yesterday. i did go for a long walk/run with the dog. i didn't get home until 7 pm from work! sucked. i feel guilty leaving the dog anyway. he's been trapped inside all day and when i get home i feel bad trapping him again. ride for sure tonight. i hope my contacts come in before the weekend.
i feel better today. i can actually lift my arm and my thumb isn't sore to the touch. fell asleep at 10 o'clock last night. that's the earliest i've been to bed in months! we finally opened up the doors and windows yesterday. it was nice to get some fresh air. i woke up this morning freezing and didn't want to get out of bed. brrr... casey came running in saying "i'm cold, cold cold cold..." and hopped into bed with me under the blankets. that made it even harder to get out of bed. but carbon ruined it by licking his ass right by our heads. mesa tonight. palos tomorrow.
can i say my kid is bad ass? we went to the downers grove crit this afternoon. big wheel race at 1:45. i couldn't wait. it was pure chaos. the 2 and 3 year old girls took off first. this was casey's heat. she was so cool i can't even explain... so cool i couldn't believe she was my kid! anyway she had a blast, we had a blast. she wants to go again. she said she had just too much fun.
here she is with her game face on checking out the course ahead of her:
look how cool she is getting her medal:
and of course she had to show it off.
john and i thought for sure she'd chicken out. when the lady blew the whistle she took off. we have great video.
luckily it was a laid back day. i feel like i've been hit by a car. so i'm going for a ride now. hopefully i will feel better.
we were suppose to leave at 7 am... whenever we say we are leaving at a specific time, add 45 minutes to that, and that's when we are leaving. john, tony, izzy, josh, casey, carbon and i headed for peoria at around 7:45am. we hit the dunkin donuts for some coffee and bagel sandwiches... and donuts before hitting the expressway for the next 2 hour or so drive. it was pretty uneventful. the kids entertained themselves by throwing stuff on the floor out of their reach so i could pick it up. izzy had her ipod on and slept the whole way and john n tony chatted it up in the captain's chair. we got there, mike was already there and scoped out a spot for the rv. kind of off by itself. john and i headed to registration. sport women were only doing 1 lap of an 8 mile course! so i jumped up to expert to do 2 laps. we are so used to going to WORS races this year, so showing up at something other than t hat it's so laid back. the race was at noon and at 11:30 we were all still sitting in our shorts chatting it up... even mike. about 11:37 mike and i made the move to start getting our gear on. it was pretty hot... really humid actually. they did get some rain the night before. none of us knew what to expect out on the course. there were 5 expert men and two expert women. we all started together. the men had a slow start as i stayed with them through the whole first singletrack, the doubletrack into the next singletrack and of course they were gone. i was ahead of the other gal in my class. i think i had a pretty good lead on her and then... i crashed. i hadn't crashed all year... it was like a record or something. i was coming up to a log. i thought i had it, it was tall and all, but i thought i had it. i didn't. right over the bars. total yard sale. i lost both water bottles... got up as fast as i could surprised i didn't hurt. put the water bottles back in took off in a panic and then it hit me. holy shit. my palm by my left thumb, my right arm, my stomach, my knee and my chest. ouch. i felt sick. the adrenaline from the crash had worn off. to make matters worse i lost all confidence on the slick trail. i lost my water bottles twice from being all shakey trying to put them back in, my fork wouldn't unlock, my shifting was messed up and my front rotor was loose. i was sort of irritated at this point. this was my course... technical turny singletrack. burak passed me on the gravel climb they call whistler... tony caught me in the doubletrack just after the creek crossing... the girl in my class caught me later on the climb out of what appeared to be an old creek bed. i got my confidence back a little bit later at the end of the lap. my second lap was way better, but the damage was done. i was still hurting from the crash. finally i was finished. i wish i had paid attention to the lap times or what our finishing times were. if the girl beat me by a bunch, she would have caught me anyway, if she only beat me by minutes, i know i would have beaten her had i had a good race. oh well. i can't complain. i waited at the finish line expecting mike and john to be in any minute. it was taking awhile so i headed back to the rv to grab the dog. i put my bike down and looked down at my shirt for the first time. holy crap was i dirty. my bra acted like a scoop when i went otb. i had a bunch of dirt down my bra, down my jersey and in my shorts... nice. i looked at my left hand... it had one of those nice purpley hard bruised forming. luckily annie had an ice pack, thanks annie. i went back to the finish line to wait again. mike came in with another guy losing the sprint. as i congratulated him he told me john would have had them both but something happened. turns out john tried to hug a tree and was knocked off his bike. he took third for the day. mike kicked himself at the end of the day for not challenging the guy who took 1st sooner and john's kicking himself for taking his eye off the trail for a split second. we were on real singletrack. no looking away. tight turns, lots of trees, stunts and off camber sections. there were lots of logs there as well, from what i've heard from lori, she'd have loved it. tony was stuck on the course with a flat and a leaky extra tube. he finally made it in glad it didn't happen at a wors race and happy he was out racing.
all the experts for the day walked away with some pretty good prize money. i need to go back to get that log. as i sit here it still irritates me. was it too tall? did i not lift the front end enough? was i too cocky? maybe next time.
we leave for peoria tomorrow am. nobody knows the course so it should be interesting. a friend says it's his all time favorite course so it's probably pretty good. we like riding similar stuff. the rv is getting the call so casey and carbon can tag along. tony's bringing his kids as well. we should hopefully be home at a decent hour. sunday hopefully hit the mesa for a ride early. then head out to downers grove for some crit action. there's a bigwheel race for the kids and i want to sign casey up. i think she'll have a blast! today i'm hoping to bust out of work early. get some minor cleaning done at home and get ready for tomorrow. i'll try to get on the bike as well. mtb or road? i think sara and zach should be on their way home. i look forward to seeing some pics and hopefully some fun stories.
it's raining outside. last night was a decent ride. it seemed really short. the singletrack felt really fast. we pretty much rode the basic popular stuff... gravity cavity, one day, ho chi minh, stair steps, psychopath, turf 1, three ravines, ho chi minh again, pipeline and out n back. seems like a lot but we were only riding for an hour and a half and that's with stopping to chat. it was a good group. dana, james, chris, mike and myself. we never had to wait for more than a minute or so before we could move on. today work... hopefully my specs come in, or contacts or something. casey's crazy today but the dog is even crazier... tonight tp may come over. we'll discuss peoria.
i was just looking at my blog page and looked at the pic of me at the start line... do i look pumped or what? geez, could i look any more excited? i just got home. my mom and dad have casey. they are like getting new phones or something. i just got back from their house thinking i would be picking her up. so i think, cool, i'll go ride! i can't. i feel bad leaving the dog in his cage again after he's been in it all day... john rode his bike out to swallow cliff and is probably riding the trails out there. maybe he'll be back early enough so i can ride. til then maybe the dog and i will go walk... or jog... or run or something. maybe i'll go read... tomorrow palos. i'd like to hit the mesa at some point. pamba saturday. w00t.
we made a last minute decision to head out to WORS #7. we left about 6:30am and headed north. i'd been to this event once before but it was for work, so i didn't race. i didn't even ride the course as it had rained that year. thanks to jerry for the rockstar parking and mountaingoat for passing off the pass... it was nice to not be miles away from the course.
my race started at 11:30am as usual. i didn't feel good. i was super bloated and my stomach was super tore up. there was a long road and grass lead out, 1.89 miles. my favorite. i fell off the back on the road and entering the grass... i passed a few ladies coming up the grass heading to the ski hill. i was 12th climbing the grassy part of the ski hill. brutal but short climb. then it was pretty flat except for a few more climbs. i always felt like i was climbing though... on one particular hill i passed a couple of gals climbing up, i don't remember where, but i think it was the one next to the freshly cut singletrack. so at this point i was sitting in tenth when singlespeed amy came roaring passed me! holy shit. i didn't know whether to think she was badass fast on that climb or i was super slow! i think it was a combo of both. i never saw her after that.
coming around the start area for my second lap i think, or was it my third? i saw someone in my age group... i think i took the dirt climb too hard to catch her. i pretty much did, but couldn't recover and she took off on the multitrack to never be seen by me again. coming into the finish i missed the stupid left turn and had to slam on the brakes, turn around and finish. 2nd age, 11th overall. not bad for feeling poopy.
i finished in 1:19. plenty of time to change and watch john take off. it was kind of a small elite field. mikelsall was there as well as dave and tim racing comp. tony and i watched the elites take off. john came around the lake in like 4th to last! very unlike him. but he picked people off as the race went on. he liked the course and had a good race.
we took off early, didn't check expert results and headed for some food. some hobo restaurant. i had an open roast beef sandwich with a huge mound of mashed potatos and gravy. yum.
calument sun run happened today. i've never done that course before. my result doesn't show it, but i didn't feel very well today. you always wonder how good you could have done if you felt better. i've been placing top 10 lately so 11th overall to be honest kinda bummed me out for a minute. i know, boo hoo right? anyway, i'm happy with it.
saturday we got a bunch of shit done in the house. i mean the upstairs is still a wreck, but downstairs rules. we then had e's bday party at my aunt deb's house. good times. it was nice to see the family again. i hadn't been to a family gathering all year.
friday night, shit, what did we do... oh yeah, dinner and bed.
thursday i finally saw the eye doc! woohoo, no more green specs for me. not that i don't like 'em or anything. they were great for riding, or being funky occasionally... but anyway, new pair hopefully in this week. and contacts!... w00t!
race report tomorrow. hopefully mike will have pics up and i can borrow them.
no plans for the week yet, well, all except wednesday at palos... hopefully the yellow jackets have plans to stay in their hives or whatever.
i'm going to go snuggle with casey (yeah, she's still up!)...
nah, yellow jackets... tons of them. we started the wednesday night ride in hopes of doing something a little different than the usual. freshen it up a bit. all was well until we headed towards the canal. we were all a little leary as we always come back with some poison ivy. i started to head into a section that was overgrown a bit and was hesitant. in my mind i went through this trail section as i'd been here before remembering that the overgrown section wasn't very long. as i broke into the trail i felt this sharp burning sensation on my ankle... my mind started racing what is that, i kept feeling it again and again, thorn bushes, no... it finally hit me, bees! i was being stung. it felt like somebody was taking a hot cigar with a sharp needle inside and was pushing it into my leg. as the realization hit me, i heard sara screaming. tony and i were inside the trail. we weren't being stung anymore. however john and sara got the worst of it. they ran 50 yards away from the trail dropping their bikes trying to get away from the swarm. as they were running tony and i were trying to figure out how to get out of there. i couldn't believe how much the stings burned. we ended up having to walk through the thick weeds to get out... spider webs, glass bottles, sticker bushes and the fear of more bees. we made it out. tony and i had been stung 3 times, sara 12 times and john 9 times. buzz kill being a total understatement. when all was done we headed back to the cars laughing about the incident. thinking about how it must have looked. i'm glad we can all look back and laugh.
we weren't sure what they were, someone mentioned they looked like honeybees, no way, they were too aggressive. my guess was yellow jackets as they look similar. i read up on it when i got home. yellow jackets they were.
jill was stung out at the mesa just a few weeks ago going over a log, 15 times. they swarmed her as well. we need to nuke these things bad.
four miles on the bike... boo. 3 miles on foot with my mom and the dog. good karma. palos tomorrow.
i left at around 7 pm to hit the mesa. i was glad to get out as work sucked more than last week. it'll suck tomorrow too, it's pretty much a given. after riding the trails on saturday i realized how much i really missed the place. as each day passes the days keep getting shorter and i regret not going out offroad more often. the spot got the call. i also thought to bring my camera, it actually fit perfectly in my baggy's side pocket. i put my cell phone in the other side to even it out. it was still in the mid-80s it seems when i took off. i hit the road, almost the same path i took yesterday on my road bike. my how slow it felt. i never realized how peaceful the road bike was til i farted along the pavement... i didn't pass a soul. i bounced into the singletrack and headed out to the mesa. the plan was to ride the mesa and come on back. daylight wouldn't last long and i'm a wuss in the woods alone. i bombed down the trail through raccoon alley and up the steep climb over to rachael's log.
my nemesis. for two years i have almost thought about going over it, but psychologically no way. that crash set my confidence back years. but the past two mesa rides i've had the itch. but not when there wasn't anyone else around. maybe next time, perhaps not on the way in, but on the way out. "in" the boards have a scoliosis look to them and you are coming at it flat, on the way "out", the boards are straight and you've got some speed going... so no go, but i decided to stop and snag some photos. i was stopped anyway. it was just me and the deer. i saw white furry butts everywhere. if i didn't see them, i heard them. speaking of confidence, i seem to have too much... there's a small whoop which leads to a bridge. you then climb up. the climb is infested with big roots. see the first dark pic above. i was just telling john saturday about how much i ruled that climb- that i haven't dabbed in like forever. not tonight. my front tire stopped dead. i was like wtf, and then just had to smile. i continued on. it was still eerily quiet.
i finished up at the end of the mesa, i went down the hill, only because i wanted to climb back up. the outer loop was calling my name, but i resisted and turned around. the bridge (sara's bridge)needs some love, but the missing plank isn't a bother at all, it just looks bad. actually, it just pretty much scares the crap out of people.
i pretty much time trialed back home. i was done being photographer and wanted to get back. it was fun snapping some shots of the trail as we don't have any, but it was a little dark in the woods. mid day afternoon would probably be better. but who cares. you get the idea. i rode home. john had dinner waiting, what a guy. tomorrow i need to fix my front hub. it has some weird kinda play in it. bummer.... hope it's nothing serious.
went for a road ride. nothing spectacular. i only have one water bottle on my bike so i stayed close. i keep telling myself quality over quantity... surprisingly there weren't many people out. totally a good thing. the only thing slowing me down were the deer. lots of fawns with their moms hanging out right on the edge of the trail. we have a loop around the golf course that i usually end my ride on. i did it twice after my ride. on the last lap i made it a goal to finish in under 10. i made it, but wow, my legs and lungs were screaming. i probably made it in like 9:20. i came home and john was in the yard washing bikes. i jumped in to help.
looks like tony and the gang had a good time at imagination glen. i'm bummed i missed it, but at the same time it was fun spending some time with casey and catch up on my chores. i'd like to hit that place this year, perhaps hit the race as well. it's a really fun place to ride, and it's soo close.
did some chores this am. the kind ya hate but have to catch up on. we took casey to see charlie and the chocolate factory... disaster. i'm hopefully leaving for a road ride in a few...
the plan was to ride at 9am. yeah right. i slept in after that stupid daiquiri. i was rehydrating all morning. wtf. it was ONE daiquiri. anyway. we did a donut run and then called some friends for a mtb ride out at the mesa. we finally got out the door at like 11am. nick, john and myself were out for over 3 hours! it was a perfect sunny day (still is actually) blue skies, sun shining... the sun was hot... but we were in the trees riding singletrack the whole time so we didn't notice til we were on our way home. the ride started with the usual paved trail ride there. we bombed down into the trails after hitting the entrance. it was so dry and dusty. the dust was so thick in spots you thought twice about hanging it out in turns. the trails seemed narrower from the late summer growth. i kept an eye out for renegade poison ivy... we headed down raccoon alley up to the mesa to the outer loop. climbed up and headed to the outer leg. we ran into two other guys out there. that was it. we looped back to the outer loop to head back to the mesa. we walked the log that had the hornets nest that attacked jill two weeks ago. rather be safe than sorry. i am still wondering if anyone went out there to take care of that. anyway, made it up the snake pit. the mesa bridge connecting to the outer loop is looking a bit shady. we hit sublime next. nailed the teeter totter and proceeded to garden grove. i bonked as we came out of garden grove. my legs felt like jello as i hit the steep climb out. we didn't have any food with us. when will i learn. i guess i think when i'm less than 5 miles from home i don't need to bring any. we made it back and headed out for some food... and then some shakes from oberweiss. he he.
road ride tomorrow? yesss.
wanted to ride bad last night. my mom took casey for a sleepover at her house. just her and the grandkids. john and i took advantage. we headed out around 9pm with our helmet lights. we rode the pavement. nothing hard. just a nice night to be out. we then headed for some tacos. i had a daiquiri. phew. i don't remember the last time i had any sort of alcohol. i was super buzzed from one. john enjoyed it just as much as i did i think.
i need to ride more... other than wed and pre ride sat and race sundays. i can't seem to find or make the time. starting tomorrow i will hopefully change that. i was doing it before, i don't know what changed?
palos went on tonight. i pulled in the lot with john right behind me. what a surprise. i wasn't expecting to see him. sara was in the lot with mike and derrick.
it was a small group on the ride, probably medium paced. i had moments of breathing hard and legs burning, but for the most part, we were just riding a long. john, sara, dana, hans, tom, paul and myself headed up and out of the parking lot. mike and derrick went out on their own. we took the gravel to pipeline and headed out towards psychopath down into turf1. john flatted right away. he sent us on our way, he'd catch up. we took the road back up to dynamite road and headed towards three ravines. what a fun trail. i've been riding that trail for a long time and it never seems to lose it's appeal. we all regrouped and headed down towards one day trail up into gravity cavity climbing out to the multitrack to head out to the out and back trail. coming out of the back part of the out n back it was getting a little dark. it was kind of a bummer for a second as i realized the daylight hours were getting shorter by the day. better enjoy them while we can.
we all decided to head back. it was a good ride. wednesday rides are a good time and i hope they continue. i just need to ride more on monday, tuesday, thursday and friday. maybe if i did, i might be faster.
although i have to say, he really needs to tuck that thing away, and i'm not talking about the skinsuit
oh yeah, finally talked to james. he's stoked. i need my 5th element rebuilt dude. it rides like crap!
i'm still working on my 24/9 post. so much stuff went on over the weekend. it's hard for me to condense it.
us gals took 1st in the women's open 12 hour. the d'arcy boys and mountaingoat took 1st in the pro open 24 hour and zach took 3rd overall solo for the 12 hour. tony's team took 6th i think, or was it 9th? doesn't matter, they had a good time and busted out some pretty sweet ass night laps.
we all had a most excellent time. check here and here for some more race info.
don't kill me. my cell phone is fucked up and i think it's dying. did i spell dying wrong? if i did i'm sure you'll correct me.
call me today at work if you want.
lates.
It was a long drive. 7 and a 1/2 hours. construction, wendy's and storms delayed us by an hour and a half i believe. sunday home and in bed by monday morning. sucks. i'm tired. i can say i'm happy with my result but not satisfied. i had made it a goal to get top 5 overall, but there were only like 20 some women. top 3, 7 minutes back from 1st place. i'm sure i lost a lot of time on the start and finish stretches. i also went off course at one point. and i really really need to work on eating while on the course, i must come to a complete stop! sitting here right now i have no desire to do phillips next year.
the course started with the road to a gravel road with a big up, big down and another big up. we then headed right into some double track over a bridge to a steep, loose, sandy, rocky, gravel incline. i knew on the preride i'd be hiking up this... at the start i huddled back behind 5 women. i saw about 10-12 girls ahead of us, but didn't panic. i'm not a strong starter at all and a road start heading into the wind wasn't anything i was looking forward to. i conserved a lot of energy. as we hit the gravel i abandoned that 5 and latched onto two girls going up, then down and as we headed up again i started to rev up and passed em to head into the doubletrack where i knew sitting behind someone wasn't as important to me. down the doubletrack, over the bridge sure as shit about 4 women off their bikes climbing that little rocky loose incline. no matter, i knew i'd be running this in the race. but i saw an opening to the right and took it. it was way loose at the top so i dismounted on the right side of the bike and just started running. i think i passed two girls. next there was a small section of singletrack with a small climb which dumped us back out onto the doubletrack. i could see a couple girls ahead of me but told myself to be patient i'll get them in the singletrack. i actually caught a clyde first up on the first section of singletrack. he took it really slow. it wasn't a long section so i passed him as soon as we got out and looked for some ladies to pass. i passed someone on the doubletrack in my age group just as we were about to head into some off camber singletrack. on the pre-ride the day before i took the lower part of the trail with no problem. not on race day. the trail had become more off camber and i slid down the side essentially falling down in front of the girl i had just passed. man i felt stupid. i apologized for passing then falling. i know how irritated i get when that happens. but i guess next time i'll be a little more understanding. i would have felt worse if she finished with me. like maybe i had thrown her groove off or something. anyway... i got back on the bike and bolted out of there as fast as i could. i passed a couple more women. at one point someone said i was 3rd overall, but then i passed two women who i knew weren't the leaders after a granny gear climb heading into some steep, loose off camber singletrack. i knew tony and kristina were still up there. i just rode my race. it was possible i was in third overall. and if i wasn't i was for sure top 5 most definitely. on my second lap i felt a little off, i took the clif shot i had in my leg. i'd have liked to have had more water with me as i didn't feel like i washed it down well enough. i could feel my stomach cramp up a little... but as the lap went on i felt a bit better. as the third lap came around i still felt good. i dumped it into the granny gear a little bit more than previous laps but i never felt like i needed to get off or that i didn't have enough gears. towards the end of the elite/comp/sport loops there was a short climb in the doubletrack followed by a short descent (or something like that) but it ended in a short rocky climb that flattened out, climbed a little and had a small wicked descent into a soft sandy climb with another sliding descent. i had heard the hugi girl coming. i had followed her up on the first lap, with her bike making some odd noise. she stopped at the top of the climb and fixed it, i'm assuming. anyway, i knew it was her. i felt like she was right there on that rocky climb with me. i could hear her ratcheting hub. so i gave the climb all i had. i knew i could ride that better than her and i let it all hang on the descent (scary) in hopes of getting some time as i knew the race ended on the road (not a strong point for me). i kept looking back and nothing. i finally reached the finish stretch that seemed to last forever. it was quite bumpy and wet with a weird off camber climb out and then another climb out. i kept looking back but didn't see anybody. as i came on the road i popped it in 3, locked out and gave it all i had. she was close, she finished 20 seconds behind me :) . john seemed happy for me. he was like you didn't finish that far back, and after he came back from the clock he was like 7 minutes. UGHH. that is so far back. oh well. i was happy with my finish.
i watched the elite guys take off. i then headed back to the car to get cleaned up and head out to be the water feeder. what a long bike ride to get to where i wanted to be! anyway, i felt good about being there for them.
beginning of my blog i made it sound like i didn't have a good time. but really i did have a good time. i felt good. it was hard though. harder than devil's head i think.
sara scorched the women's elite field winning by 4 minutes. zach and john took 22nd and 26th. i think... the drive home wasn't as bad as the drive up. we made it home in like 5 and a 1/2. but still, really long day.
this weekend 24 hours of 9 mile. hell yeah. lots to do though.
went to the beach yesterday. i guess i'm not a beach person. i get bored easily. hour and a half is fine with me. it was all for casey though. she had fun. talk about a bad week. not horrible in the grand scheme of life or anything, but just minor annoyances that built up and created a super emotional day yesterday. i need to call walgreens and insurance...
is a good way to describe this weekend... have you ever tried to put spandex on while there's drops and streams of sweat covering every part of your body? it's a mess. you start by putting your foot in the hole while your still sweating... then you are all nervous so you wanna do it quick, cuz god forbid someone see you naked. you get your leg in and then you pull them up... but the only thing that comes up is the elastic for the waist because the bottom is still wrapped around your ankles. so essentially your spandex are tights right now. so now that your good and bad parts are covered you bend over (i'm sure a beautiful site) and start maneauvering and grunting to get them up. and then you pick at them for the next 10 minutes. i think if sara shook her head saturday while changing her tires she'd have given us all a shower! it was so frickin' hot!
it was a slow start for our drive up to devil's head. we watched the tour stage and it was too exciting to bust out. luckily we had packed the night before so the only thing we had left was pack the element. we dropped casey and carbon off and headed out. we ran into some traffic on the way up near schaumburg. i must've stared at the bright blue ikea building for a good half hour. that sucked! we finally passed a construction something or other. i have no idea what they were doing.
anyway it was a pretty uneventful trip up... til we got the resort anyway. right as we are ready to turn in a cop put orange cones in the turning lane and had us stop. looked like a huge motorcycle gang! turns out there were over 2000 riders riding for muscular dystrophy. how cool. we sat there for a good 15 minutes and headed in. we met sara in the parking lot. she wasn't hard to miss standing behind her element. we pulled next to her and started getting ready for the pre-ride. mike came in shortly after.
the guys were ready pretty early so they headed out without us. sara had a "quick" tire change and she, jill and i headed out as well. we took the ride pretty slow. i didn't know how i'd react to the climbing as the last two times i was at devils head i had an asthma attack, so i wasn't taking any chances. i have to admit for hating climbing i loved the course! i was a little awkward in the singletrack and even climbing as the front end seemed to wander, but i was okay with that as i knew it was the stem that i had recently changed. i brought the old one just in case.
we finished preriding and headed out to watch frank and jeremy ride the pro/semi-pro shorttrack. it was so fast. frank started pretty good and had a hell of a few laps. he dropped out just as hall and devine were coming up on him. man they were fast. way to start and hang in there frank. jeremy was still going strong. we entertained ourselves watching him from the sidelines as he usually rides a rigid singlespeed and he was on a suspended geared bike... so we'd watch him shift or not shift... we convinced ourselves he was confused all in good fun as it made it more fun to watch :).
we headed for the hotel room and food afterwards. it was a pretty early night. we had some minor bike work to do and we chatted a bit, but all were in bed by 10:30pm.
wake up was around 7:30 am. we headed down for a buffet breakfast. it was nice having something other than mcdonalds for a change. i love my sausage mcmuffin, but this was nice.
we headed back up to the hotel room to get the flock out. numerous trips were made by all and we were outta there. the van pulled in as we were getting out of the room. perfect timing i guess.
i was flippin' happy to hear our sleeveless jerseys would be arriving for dh. it was a brutally hot day with temps well into the 90s and the heat index over 100 degrees. i wrestled my spandex on and all my other goodies and headed out for a preride. i hung out in the shade on a road climb for a bit, came back for a little brake adjustment and headed to the start area.
i was called up first. it's nice being called up, however i am better off hanging in the 3rd or 4th row as i can never hang in the start. this i knew would be bad. i feel pressured to hang on with the real strong sport ladies. but today i just rode my own climb. i knew it was slow but at least i was riding. as i was climbing i thought of the sand turtle that was lost from orland park a few days ago... it had been missing for two weeks. i imagined how slow he must have gone but he got so far... i even thought that he was probably faster than me on that climb. i'm at the top of the climb now headed into the singletrack... i felt like i was in like 15th, when i really think about it, that's not bad. 15th out of almost 50. although that was just a guess. i knew I had the whole race to go. but it’s still frustrating to watch everyone pass you. i knew jill was right behind me. i could feel her. we were now in the singletrack. nice backup on the steep climb. a rider behind us apparently felt that she was going to win this on this particular climb. nope. wait with the rest of us, cuz if we coulda gone faster or around we would have. an opportunity to run up the side came and i took it. i must’ve passed 3 girls.
the temperature difference in the woods compared to the hill was amazing. it felt like 10 degrees! on the first lap coming out of the woods with the log crossings on the clim heading to the feedzone, i thought there is NO way i am going to be able to compete 3 laps. i grabbed a water. HOLY SHIT. it was soo cold I started to hyperventilate. i had to concentrate to get my breathing back to normal. sucked. i was tempted to just stop racing and sit in drink that cold water though…
but i moved on. I had no idea where i was in the race, who was ahead, who was behind… all i knew is the were dropping like flies.
the night before i had switched my stems. 100mm to 90mm. saved me. holy crap. i felt oh so comfortable in the singletrack again. Man, this race report is soo boring to write… long story short (i'll edit later if i remember anything important), my 2nd and 3rd laps i loved. i had a blast. i was actually passing people in the hidden rock singletrack… it felt good. i came into the finish in an hour and 40 minutes… just in time to give john a kiss and wish him luck as well as the others on the team. well, i didn't kiss them.
turns out i was 8th overall and 1st in age. sweet… jill was the surprise of the day with 2nd in age and 10th overall!!! way to go girl.
after wishing everyone luck i went to hose off and get changed and head up to the top of the hill.
as i was climbing i saw frank going up… next was kelsall followed by zach and john. later i saw sara come through essentially right behind kim and sara kj. she was flying. go sara.
jill and i headed down for awards which seemed to take forever. we ended up missing a bunch of the action… we saw everyone come in for the finish. sara was the winner for being the dirtiest of the whole bunch.
i'm so tired. i'm leaving work early today. i have so much to do. i'm completely burned out at the moment. i had a rough night last night. in bed by 10:30. a first in months... however, i was up at 3 am because of carbon and casey. long story i'd care not to write about. i wouldn't be here today but i had some packages to pick up. i'll hopefully leave after lunch or something.
holy fuck it's cold in here. it's like mid-60s... cold ass air. sweatshirt on with another as a blanket. can't wait to watch the tour tonight. it read exciting, i'm sure it'll watch even better. i may take friday off to catch up on some housework and pack early for the weekend. casey will be staying with the gatto's while we are gone... i already miss her. she's been sooo good at the races. phillips or no? i can't decide. i really want to go, but i don't think we could ditch the dog again.
the l.a.t.e ride. out of the last 6 years i've missed it once. i'm tired today. i was tired yesterday. hopefully tonight i can catch up on some zzzz's. devil's head is this weekend. i'm excited for it, but at the same time i'm worried about my breathing. i'm having a hard time taking a full breath. i'll see how i feel tomorrow. if i still feel the same i'll have to do the dreaded pills. sucks. hopefully get a road ride in tomorrow.
it's a bit after 1pm this lazy friday afternoon. green day is playing on itunes. it's really cold in the office. it's mid-80s outside and i'm sitting here freezing with a hoody on and goose bumps covering my legs. red the fraggle is staring at me. she's hanging out at my cube. i forget fraggle rock. i watched it all the time. in fact i'd like to watch it again as an adult. i'm waiting for some packing slips to print to send to raleigh. pain. it takes forever and you can't do anything else while they are printing- well except maybe update your blog and send emails. it's a typical friday here at work. nobody is really here. in fact i'm the only one down on this end of the building. i feel lonely. my stomach is growling. i need to find some lunch. i'm starting to get that weak fidgety feeling. i don't want to leave. i didn't bring a lunch either. not even any ramen in my drawer. on a more positive note, the day will eventually come to an end (i'm guessing early) and i'll head home. jill will come over so we can finish her bike and maybe we can order a pizza or something.... mmmm. tomorrow will be a lazy saturday. hopefully straighten the house early and do whatever. then the l.a.t.e. ride. looks like a pretty big group is going. john, eric, tad, jill, sara, tony, izzy, bos, umhhh... who else, i thought there were more. anyway, still a decent crowd. i'm riding the spot i think. the fit will probably feel all fucked up, but we'll see. sunday, hopefully a mountain bike ride out at the mesa. i haven't been there all week and i miss it. anyway, back to work. i'm sure my packing slips printed.
i flatted last night. i haven't flatted in a long time. i hope it's not a sign of things to come. the ride was good. we had a good cast of characters. met a couple new characters. it wasn't too slow, but the pace wasn't grueling either. sara had a good spill in the first ravine i'm sorry i missed. hope her shoulder isn't too painful today. i'm dreading a crash. i haven't in awhile, so i know it's gonna be good. we pretty much rode everything legal. the canal trail looked completely different. surreal was brought up and i kind of looked forward to doing it as last time i was there i had such a good ride. but it wasn't missed. out n back, burrito hill, canal trail, dynamite road, three ravines, ho chi minh, psychopath, turf 1, stair steps and badass hill to green grassy for the ride home. sweet. we definitely missed beth. i hope she can ride with her cast. i know she will, i don't think anythin could keep her away. i'm so jumpy right now. iced coffee with extra sugar on the way back from daycamp this morning... woo. maybe i'll use this extra energy and clean the house... we'll see ;)
(think austin powers) she's a man baby... woohoo. hope someone has a better pic of me from the race showing my braid. how could i forget running to the podium? as usual awards were at 2:30 which is of course the time i'm expecting the guys to come around on a lap for water... and of course it's a middle lap so it's always iffy if i'll make awards. so after john goes by i take off for awards... they are announcing my age group as i'm running past the horse or cow stables or whatever they were... so i get up there and run to the medal lady and say who i am just as the guy is announcing first place. DUH. 1st place gets announced last. i showed up as they were announcing third thinking they announced me first. i felt kinda dumb and flustered. nobody noticed, but i still felt dumb for a minute :)
did you ever notice some fireworks look like sideshow bob's hair? that's all i could think of last night watching the fireworks. wondering when i'd see sideshow bob.
it hasn't rained in ages in the southwest 'burbs of chicago, so of course it rained on the 4th of july all day on and off. i guess it's a good thing as the ground was pretty dry (dry being an understatement) so the rain i'm sure warned off many lawnfires. we got ready to hit the OF fireworks over by the park district. they always put on a damn fine show. this year was no different... but to get there by bike, we were bundled in rain gear and soaked by the time we got there. but i guess that's what made it special. i'll always remember it for that reason.
but anyway... the race weekend.
john, casey and i left saturday morning for the stanford's for a ride up to the inaugural chippewa firecracker in eau claire. it was a hectic morning... on our way to wors #5. my how quick time flies. our watches were fast so we thought we were way late... turns out it wasn't too bad, but we stopped for donuts anyway. we pulled up, everyone was hanging out in the driveway. i offered up some donuts and mike was all over it. we got the van loaded and everyone got situated for the long drive up. we had a yukon, instead of the van, so setup inside was a bit different. before we even got out of the cul-de-sac i offered up the donuts... at first i was given the look of "donuts, nah, we are healthy racers", but that didn't last long before everyone dug in for their favorite.
aside from sara freaking out about directions the ride was pretty uneventful. i don't even know what time we left or what time we go there.
john, mike and zach all headed out for a preride and sara and i hung out to pre-ride together. casey pulled me around for a bit on the back of the trike and sara tried to take it from her, but case was having none of that.
soon the guys returned. sara, tony, beth and i all headed out for a pre-ride. we took it a bit slow as beth had a torn tendon or ligament in her left hand. there were a lot of people preriding the course while we were out there. there was lots of singletrack. i thought it was a blast, but I was nervous about it as a racecourse.
after the preride brought up the usual question of "where to eat". turns out our hotel had the best looking restaurant around. once inside the menu confirmed it was a good choice. i unfortunately wasn't happy with the lasagna i ordered, so i snacked on other's plates and wished i'd gotten a hamburger.
it was getting late so we headed up to the room to get cleaned up and go to bed. it never fails, somebody always has a bad case of gas... never a dull moment.
wake up call was about 7 am, but as usual we all laid in bed for few extra moments.
breakfast was at the local micky d's. next stop, the race venue. wouldn't ya know, it starts pouring as we get to the event. wind was blowing like crazy. we all sat and felt sorry for ourselves for a bit. finally we got motivated and started to get ready. the rain stopped and the wind died down. we all went and picked up our numbers. turns out the chippewa firecracker had child daycare. how cool is that? it made life simple for the Gattos for sure.
anyway, race time was 11:30 for me... i warmed up with tony for awhile and headed back for staging. i decided that i wasn't going to blow myself up at the start. the past couple races i've started awesome... but then just watched everyone pass just as we'd gotten to the singletrack cuz my heart was stretching out my rib cage... not that my results have been bad, but how demoralizing to watch everyone pass you right at the beginning? anyway, don said Gooooo and we were off... the start wasn't too fast... in fact i could see the leaders the whole 3 miles or whatever it was. my strength is definitely not open flat trail on the grass. all i could think of was the singletrack and how fun it would be... finally made it to the singletrack. i felt like i came to a halt. all the women screaming c'mon... rider, rider... i knew it was going to be like this the whole first lap. unfortunately there were only 2 laps for this race. i rammed my tire into a number of riders in the first lap of singletrack. riders just coming to complete halts in the singletrack. panic-braking in turns or dowhills. if you are walking or fall down and can't get back on your bike... get out of the way! geez. i will say i definitely need to work on my singletrack passing. although it's hard to pass the clydes when there are a couple of them bunched together. some help you out, some don't. i had a bummer start for the second lap. i was sooo looking forward to that section of singletrack that started the new lap. unfortunately i don't think the guy in front of me was. i kept asking if there was room... he never budged. He was a bit big and that singletrack was super twisty and tight. But that's racing i guess.
end of the second lap i was behind a racer in the next age group up... she was ok in the singletrack but i ran into her twice as she struggled on the root lined short ups... i couldn't get by her. everytime i tried to pass her she accelerated so i couldn't get by. it's like she'd see my tire and be like nuh uh and push a little harder, then i'd have to get back because of the trees... then she would slow up again. i tried a couple times and wore myself out a bit so when the open came my legs were tired. i wanted to sprint her to the finish but i couldn't. i'd like to think that was her strategy, but i don't think it was. sitting here right now, i feel like i could've outsprinted her. but who doesn't when it's over.
I can’t complain about my race. My start wasn’t where I’d like it to be. I want to be able to hang at the beginning as to not get hung up as bad in the singletrack. I do need to be more aggressive about passing is well. I rode well in the singletrack, however. When some of the other racers were hung up I was able to stay upright and power pass them on most opportunities. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. So hopefully I will be better at each race.
The race was a short one. I was done in an hour and about 16 minutes. I finished in plenty of time to cruise around and chat with other racers and friends and still have plenty of time to get dressed to watch the elite racers start.
There was a big field with the combination of the MN riders there as well. The national anthem was done and it seemed like forever before don said Gooooo!!! I watched the men take off. It was a fast start as usual. I couldn’t see any of the D’Arcy guys with all the dust and other racers. No comps from the team were there so I walked over to wish Sara luck. It was nice to see more than 10 woman in the elite field. They were off and it was just a matter of time before I would be needed at the feed zone.
I ran over and picked up Casey. We walked over to get a smoothie and an ice cream cone and headed over to Tony and Beth’s tent to watch the race and feed the team.
For the most part the race was uneventful. I could tell Mike was having a good race. He passed at one point just chatting up a storm with a fellow racer flying by (and then wondering later where I was)… Zach moved up the field as usual. I could tell John was struggling a little and not having an optimal day. Sara looked good. After John passed for the last time I headed towards the finish to welcome everyone. Sara was the first to come in. She looked like she fought a hard one by the look and color of her face. She fought hard with a fellow elite racer who finished just in front of her. We laughed about her dirty face for a bit and watched as the rest of the field came in. Mike was the first to arrive. A little bummed about some leg cramps but excited about his finish and even more excited about what could’ve been if he hadn’t cramped. Zach followed a few minutes later. He had a decent crash on the last lap that left him tumbling for awhile. The spectators I’m sure were talking about him for awhile. He lost a bunch of places so he was a bit bummed about it. John followed shortly after. He crashed himself on the last lap towards the end but only lost about one position.
All in all a good weekend. We all have good days and bad. We just hope the good outweigh the bad.
WORS cup next. Ready?
same old thing day in and day out. get up, go to work. work. go home. what causes a person to not be motivated? boredom? hopelessness? do I care? not really. i just want to go home. clean my house and ride my bike. i’m having a day where i wished i won the lottery. not billions… maybe a million. or a few hundred thousand. enough to pay off the bills and be able to buy some fun stuff for some short term happiness. bill paying is long term though. maybe have someone landscape the house. paint it. build a nice deck. pool? carpet. train the dog.
race sunday. big ring classic. hope i'm feeling up to using my big ring. i figure that will make or break me this weekend. leave sat. preride. eat. sleep. eat. race. feed. eat. go home. sounds like a good weekend. mmm... i forgot i brought swedish fish with me... father's day this weekend. got me pops some shorts. it's more of a gift for my mom actually. he walks around in shorts that look like underwear. kinda funny actually. little fishies all over them or something. he doesn't care. that's the way it should be.
just heard a good friend of our's family member died. our thoughts are with you. take care.
out.
i had a good weekend. i think. wait. oh yeah. 50 mile road ride on sat. it was flat, but fun. it was good to get some miles in other than the 11 mile loop. 11 mile road ride with my mom on sunday. no mtb ride. blasphemous i know. izzy's grad party on sunday. we had a good time. lots of food and cake. i love cake. i have come to find that it is my weakness... that, clothes, shoes and bike stuff. i am weak. i wish i had cake right now. a ho ho will have to do. mesa ride with jillian last night. it was fun. i was hoping to get out a bit earlier, but i'll take what i can get. late dinner it was for sure. tomorrow wed night out at palos. more mtb. casey's first day at camp today. i was so nervous and happy for her. i hope she had a good time...
i can't figure it out... i seem to not be able to move on a bike. am i trying too hard? what's the deal... hit the paved path today. i started out on the cross bike and started to do some tweakage. felt a lot better, but now, believe it or not, i think i need a longer stem! i'd like a rise. anyway, tonight was a fucking mess with cars and dumb paved trail people. while sitting waiting at a light the people turning right DON'T even look to their right, just left and as soon as it's clear they are gone... every light i had the right away and i never got it. it's def not worth just going to prove a point. i was crossing 143rd street by harlem today and was looking behind watching for turn signals... didn't see any turn signals for five cars, so i went. fuckin' beemer started taking the turn (no signal)... i was like "nice turn signal dickhead", i didn't realize a cop was on 143rd st stopped at the light. he smiled at me... other than that it was pretty uneventful. i did run into my mom on the way back home. i took her around the small loop and then brought her home.
went for a ride last night... tstorms warning and watches all over the place. hour and 25 min from the circle to lagrange. shit. finally got there about 5:45. the skies were looking pretty grey. we decided to stay close to the lot in case it started to storm. hit out n back. came back and waited for tony. we missed him. mike flatted, he went back to the car. went back out towards the 12 hour loop and chose turf 1 over 3 ravines. we figured we could hit 3 ravines if the skies hadn't let loose yet when we swung back around. no rain yet so we hit 3 ravines. i'm not afraid to say i was a little scared. the wind picked up a little bit and big branches were falling all over. i wasn't afraid of the rain or lightning or anything like that... i was afraid of a tree falling on us! we made it back unscathed. nobody had a good ride really. it was just a really weird night. i need to find out why my legs feel like poop.
fuckin' poison ivy. wed ride out at palos on the canal trail heading towards swallow. it was so overgrown i'm dumb to think i wouldn't have gotten it.
sucks. it's all over my arms and legs. can't complain too much though, sara has it on her face, arms, legs and back...
stop touching yourself all over sara...
damn. it’s june already. time flies. WORS #3 is gone. phuck.
i had never done the rome around race before. for some reason i was getting all nervous about it at the beginning of the week. how ghey is that? when I’d think about the weekend my stomach would get all jittery… i think i asked everyone a few times each, “so what’s the course like?” i think sara was going to kill me on our girly ride the Wednesday before. Every section of singletrack we hit, i’d ask her “is this like rome around?”
my stomach seemed to settle towards the end of the week.
for a more detailed report of the going ons before the race click here.
got to the event. i wasn't really nervous. we started to set up and my stomach was grumbling. I had to go. It was like a freakin' 1/2 mile walk to the toilets. worst walk of my life. i made it. then the walk back. i started to get ready once I got back... clothes, shoes and helmet... fuck, where's my number. okay, got my number. fuck, i forgot gels. got gels. dammit, where are my sunglasses. found 'em. how many times have i done this? check tire pressure and fork pressure. my tires were way too full for the preride the day before and my shock was too. i didn't want to fuck with my shock, i could deal with it. my tires were like 22 psi from the day before- i let air out on the trail. i shoulda left it but i was afraid i'd pinch flat. i'm not running tubeless anymore so i'm a wuss. rode around for a bit with beth. noticed my handlebar had moved. rookie. went back to tighten it all up. done, went to staging. waiting for fucking ever as all the sport men were sent off. i was called up 3rd, that was pretty cool. man, that stretch of flat looked so long... so i waited for don to give us the Gooooo... and we were off. nobody wanted to take the lead. it was kind of funny. i always hear john talk about it during an elite race but have never experienced it. i kind of laughed at myself... but that didn't last long. that was a long lead out for me... my heart was ready to explode and my legs felt like crap. CRAP. hope i recover. i will. just settle down. I got to the road after the small leadout singletrack. it was a downhill road section... i felt like i was going backwards. my legs were bummed. okay, relax, you'll get it back. down the dam road, up into the singletrack. rider right in front of me... sometimes i always feel like if i was a more aggressive passer i'd do a lot better in a race, but then i have to remind myself, well maybe you do so well because you recover behind the other rider... i'll never know. anyway my legs were still bummed... too much tire pressure in my rear tire. i actually preferred riding with my fork locked out but didnt' want to blow anything. i'd've given anything to have a high volume rear tire... so, first lap felt like poo.... second lap, poo still, third lap i tried to get it back but nothing. i felt some girls on me in the singletrack. i could tell they were struggling a bit in there so i was able to turn it up a little. i knew going into the open for the end i needed a gap to not get passed as i wasn't feeling it at all. it made me appreciate the big ring efforts i had at the end of the first two WORS races. anyway, i did get a gap. i didn't hear them for awhile. climbing the gravel climb back home one of the ladies passed me. bummer. i couldn't respond. i had nothing. oh well.
i thought for sure i was like at least 5th in age and maybe like 18th, 20th overall. oh well, everyone has a bad day. i knew i gave it all i had so i was satisfied. saw the catt cruising around the wors tent with bos and casey. they were guarding the water bottles and waiting to stage. thanks again to amy dykema for keeping an eye on casey while i changed and john staged. a weekend saver for sure.
after my race it was a little stressful. i needed to change, get the water bottles for the team and head over to the feed zone. tony pleasantly surprised me with news that i was first in age as i was changing. sweet. at least i had a good result. i hurried up to get casey to get to say good luck to the elites... i barely made the start. found casey, thanked amy and started to get everything together for the feed zone. i wanted to get to the feed zone, feed and get my medal. beth allowed me the opportunity to do this without making it too stressful. thanks beth. i got to the feedzone and dropped everything off, waited and asked around when the elites would be coming through... i had about 10 minutes, which of course would've been 2:30. time of my awards. dammit. beth made me go. she took charge of water bottle duty. i ran up to the awards just in time to get it, ran back just in time to watch john ride by both myself and beth. dammit!!! he needed water too. i ran down the course to meet him at the road after the start of the singletrack. i had flip flops on so it was entertaining for me at least. i caught him. after that i realized how much i rule. he tossed his bottle in the ditch however. dammit. sliding down the ditch in flip flops... did it, had to save the motion control bottle. headed back. i only missed frank and mike. i was able to feed everyone else. how many times can i rule in one day?
headed back to the finish after waiting for tim to go by. i missed adam finishing but i saw everyone else.
congrats to all. it was a great weekend.
next race wausau. WORS #4. i'm gonna enjoy this off weekend. hopefully i'll post more often.
good ride last night. headed out to palos with beth and sara. did about 15 miles of singletrack over at the cliff. man, i forgot how fun it is over there. so fast and flowy. the trails were in excellent condition. it was fun just the girls. i'm looking forward to wednesdays again. kinda dreary today. i thought the sun would be out. hoped anyway. casey got the new trek trike. it's pretty sweet. i'll take her out on it today hopefully. get the dog out too. race this sunday in wisco again. wisconsin rapids to be exact. looking at about 5 hours to get there. we are leaving saturday. not sure if we are bringin' case or not. we'll see. i'd love to, but i really want to race too.
