dang...

i'm laying on the couch trying to take a nap (i came down here about a 1/2 hour ago). i made the mistake of turning on vh1c and the top 100 songs of the 80s is on.
i've tried to ignore it and change the channel but i just can't bring myself to do it! i'm still irritated at some of the songs that beat R.E.M.'s it's the end of the world... but it's been funny hearing all the songs i grew up with. culture club, duran duran, depeche mode, def leppard, bon jovi, devo, beastie boys, flock of seagulls (i preferred space age love song over i ran). so funny. i mean, oh micky yer so fine. hilarious. turn around bright eyes (total eclipse of the heart). the people they have commenting are cracking me up too- clinton kelley, run dmc. i remember roller skating to salt n pepa. omg. i need to stop now!

nothing to talk about

i absolutely hate this time of year and it's all because of the weather.
i can deal with cold. it's the rain that pisses me off.
and I57 is under construction. WTF? so now it takes me a 1/2 hour longer to get home.
it's so depressing.

missing memo?

did i miss the memo that Fall wasn't happening this year? WTF!

***

ewhhh. the weekend forecast is sucky. i don't even want to leave the house. on the way home from work tomorrow i plan on stocking up on fun food. a couple digiornos and some swedish fish.

geeks

my gamer geek husband is super stoked to have his newest game...


it's not supposed to be out til this friday. he was on one of his gamer geek web-sites and saw where some other geeks scored them at the 7-11. so he grabbed the fellow gamer geek neighbor kid ryan and scored on their 3rd 7-11 visit.
i totally am not into it but super stoked for them. they are like all excited.

dudes

whoa. i've been on like 2 rides since i last posted. and i dug them both.
kettle this past sunday and palos yesterday.
mountain biking rules.
i was hoping this weekend would be a group ride weekend but the rain in the forecast doesn't make that look good.
nothing new really.
house was painted (i think i posted that already). john turned a year older much to his dismay. halloween rocked with the girls. we played guitar hero world tour or whatever the other day with the drums and everything. we had a family hair cut night. other than that, not much going on. i couldn't find our camera for a bit so i don't even have photos.

sigh

ugghhh... i was so sick this past weekend. i could barely stand. the worst of it was yesterday. i'm at work today and can't believe the difference in how i feel.
i'm still sick but feel great because, well, it's better than yesterday.
nothing new really. bummed i missed out on the washington park party, but whatever. cross has done nothing for me lately.
no new bike parts. no new bike parts planned. no rides planned either.
i need to rake the mesa. maybe friday afternoon while casey is at school and i wait for her to get out... and maybe thursday too, see if my gram'll watch zoe. we'll see. i need to call beth.
i really want to ride the mesa. if this weather of late is any indication of what kind of end of fall and winter we are going to have there isn't much time left for enjoyable offroad riding.

sigh

me bored...
the house painters started painting today. of course i think i hate the color.

end of the weekend

we hit carpentersville earlier today with the girls. i thought i had never been there but as we pulled in i recalled how much i hated it. we were there two years ago.
i guess the course isn't all that bad, but trying to walk around with the kids was a royal pain in the ass. there was course tape everwhere and no easy place to cross once it was started. meh. i was a crab ass today anyway.
i missed the poker ride. i knew i wouldn't be going, but still bummed i didn't go.
i napped when we got home from the race. i felt like shit. when i woke up i got dressed and hit the mesa. i'm glad i did, i know come tomorrow i'd regret not getting out at all.
trying not to think about all the fun we missed out on at beechwood. but i can't complain. we do a lot.
zoe is sick. i'm listening to her hack up a lung now. to add to that apparently no kid under 6 should have otc cough drugs. i'll have to look into that.

three five

yesterday was my birthday. we started celebrating on thursday night with john's p's. we went out to dinner and headed over to their place for some cake.
friday began with lots of birthday kisses, nothing to do at work and then leaving early. picked up casey. she helped me clean up a bit (the house is cluttered with most of her stuff anyway). john came home and the kids helped me open my gifts (yes!).
after that we dropped the kids off at john's p's and we headed to the riviera to see against me. it was awesome. ted leo and the pharmacists opened up.
i still can't hear (for real). my ears are buzzing. i even lost my voice a little. i haven't enjoyed a show in so long. i'm still smiling.
no beechwood today. just not in the cards. i'm bummed but trying not to dwell on it. i had a great day yesterday; today and tomorrow will be great too.
a little target, mall, clean and carpentersville on sunday. maybe catch the end of the poker ride.

borrrring

i'm pretty caught up at work. it's kind of a weird feeling.
however today all i've dealt with is outlook problems. i've had to shut down, ctrl+alt+delete more times than i care to remember and spent way too much time waiting for outlook to "check my files". if i had a shotgun this computer would've been shot already.
the guys in IT just changed something so hopefully that'll help, but now i'm sitting here waiting for the folders to rebuild. yawn.
i'm even bored surfing the net.

woo.

wow. i went for a ride on saturday on the mesa trails. i was inspired by the photos of singletrack on bender's flickr site. his photos reminded me how much i love and missed singletrack. the pics ignited my lazy ass to pull the spandex on and strap my helmet and go. the eriksen and i headed out to the mesa. good thing i remembered the ipod as my breathing was super annoying. so loud. anyway, it was so fun to be out. it hurt though. i figured it'd help me get the carbon out for sunday's race or i essentially was blowing my wad.
when i got home i thought i was going to pass out. inspiring indeed.
as the day went on i felt a lot better. so good to have gotten the blood flowing.
sunday came quick. we actually pulled out of the driveway 2 minutes before plan (which for us is essentially a miracle). we arrived in sheboygan in good time as opposed to our usual holy-fuck-i-hope-we-get-there-soon-as-i'm-not-registered...
i had low expectations for myself. i hadn't ridden and the rides i did manage to muster definitely weren't of any intensity. i was actually nervous. i tried not to think about it.
the start came and i actually felt pretty damn good. i was up front and it didn't seem too hard. in fact, it was the best i've ever felt at the start. weird. it didn't last long. i was breathing really really hard and it hurt with every stroke for a bit. i passed a few girls. eventually there were 4 of us women in the lead. i don't know how far back 5th was or where anyone was for that matter. in fact what i just wrote might not even be accurate. i think at some point though it was brenda leading holly's mom, another girl and then me in 4th. i tried to pass with no avail a couple times. when we came up to the equalizer holly's mom and one other girl were gone. brenda was a little bit ahead of me. i ended up catching her on the pavement as we headed into the dirt to start our 2nd lap. i was giving it my all to stay with her. catching the men's traffic slowed us a bit which allowed for some recovery time. brenda kept offering to let me by, but i certainly wasn't ready. eventually i was and went by. i know moriah was right behind us. i think i was in 3rd at this point.
coming to the equalizer i hopped off my bike. usually i can ride at least half or partially up this, but yesterday i had nothing. it was as almost if my legs hit a brick wall. when i dismounted i felt a cramp. fuck, fuck, fuck. i still had one lap to go and i had no electrolytes on me. i knew the bottle i'd be getting would be just water. oh well. i marched on. i fought cramps off the rest of the way. i gingerly pedaled on. moriah passed me on the pavement pushing her big ring. we got to the singletrack and i stayed on her wheel. i hoped she'd make a mistake and she did. i made my move and drilled it.
i of course then was stuck behind a train of 6 guys who hit the brakes for every root or dip. i had to dab a couple times which sent my left calf into cramp mode. i couldn't clip in. i'd just put my foot on the pedal and hope for a bump to put it in. luckily it worked every time. moriah passed me again on that little rock drop heading towards the other side. i was hurting. i tried to stay with her and caught her again just as we dropped into the river singletrack. i stayed right behind her and just hoped she'd tire or i'd get a burst of energy. my thoughts were of the equalizer and how i'd get up it. i passed her in the grass heading up to the famous hill. as soon as i got off my bike both legs seized. quads, calf muscles. full on cramps. no matter what i did, one of my muscles would cramp. my foot even cramped. i had no idea how i was going to get up the hill. painfully no doubt. as i stood there moriah passed me and a bianchi chick passed. damn. that's racing. stupid electrolytes. i gingerly rode to the finish hoping nobody else was right behind me.


jeremey snapped this picture of me hurting and really pissed off. i suppose i should be glad he doesn't have a video of me swearing and complaining.

5th for the day. WAY better than i had imagined. it was a fantastic day. there's just something about sheboygan.

drought over

i ditched the last half day of work to ride my bike.
the ferrous got the call. joe was in town and was dying to get out for a ride.
joe, paolo, ken and i headed out for a couple hours. it was a beautiful day to be out. pretty much perfect weather wise. the trails were prime. perfect tackiness.
it was good to be out, but the lack of riding was apparent. the short climbs hurt. i felt i had no power. hopefully i got the bugs out and my next ride won't hurt so bad.
thanks to joe for really needing to get out... otherwise i'm not so sure i would've gone.

twin six

it's that time of year again. cool enough to get me to update my blog.
twin six is having a sale.
stock up.

meh

i've done nothing really.
hit the cross race on saturday. nice day.
i'm in a funk. when i feel like riding i'll snap out of it i'm sure.

fall color fest

anyone doing the fall color fest this saturday?
not sure what we are doing.
there's fall color fest saturday, peoria mtb race on sunday or wors.
wors sounds lame and far. peoria is always awesome and a nice change.

riding

haven't done much lately. in fact zero miles since the meltdown.
that changed yesteday.
john, the girls and i headed to jackson park for the first race in the chicrosscup series. they switched the course big time which was a huge plus for john. he raced well although we still don't know what his result was.


after that we headed up to bubba's house to ride the trails up there. about 9 of us hit the trails for about 2+ hours of riding. it felt good to be on the mtb again. i was thankful that the ride was at a talking pace. maybe that's all i need to get into a groove again. the waltworks turned out to be the perfect ride for there!
afterwards bubba threw some meat on the grill and we hung out for a bit. the girls had a lot of fun (thanks andrea and julie). we barely pulled out of bubba's street and both were already out like lights. neither woke til this morning.
i have a doc appt today to see if i can find out why i've been feeling so awful lately.

feeling better?

i must be, i just had thoughts of going downstairs to grab a candy bar.
mmmm... whatchamacallit.

ugghhh...

i've been sick since yesterday. i slept from 5pm yesterday til 6:30am this morning.
i'm still tired and my stomach is a crampy wreck! what's the deal?
i'm hoping i'm close to 100% tomorrow.

meltdown

yeah, i know it's been awhile. i seem to have been busy with nothing and everything (except anything bike related).
nothing's really happened really except for maybe the house is a little cleaner, we're a couple steps closer to getting our railings and we have a new couch and futon.
it feels good to walk in the front door and not be disgusted.
saturday there was no time to ride my bike- it was zoe's birthday. i had a lot of things to do not to mention getting two kids ready takes time. i headed over to my sis' and helped setup etc. the party was fun. the kids had a blast. i of course ate way too much. zoe came home with some great things.
saturday night had amelia and bender over for the palos race.
we watched some lame tv for a bit. when i couldn't keep my eyes open anymore i headed to bed.
sunday came quick. we had some breakfast and rushed to the course. i must've had wors on the brain as i thought the sports started at 11:30- it was actually 10:30. so we missed the start and the chance to cheer on a few friends.
i'll be honest, with my lack of riding and the course toughness i wasn't expecting much. i just wanted to finish without being miserable and not be last. i accomplished that yesterday but not today. i'm exhausted and dehydrated! i feel like crap.
i started with amelia.


i had no idea who was ahead of us. well, i knew holly was up there, but unsure if there were any other gals. amelia starts at my pace and i'm not sure if i can't hold the pace or she just gets faster and faster as the race goes on. either way she rocked it. i spent the majority of the race alone. i haven't raced alone in a long time. i had the sound of my rear rotor to keep me company the whole 3 laps. the centerlock adaptor came undone and my rotor was just floating in the back, i could tell the front was getting ready too. at first it was super annoying and i was pissed. i stopped to hand tighten it a couple times, but knew that was futile. it's very rare i have anything go wrong with my bike, so i'm not going to dwell on it. i'm guessing it was mechanic's error (me) and not the adaptors. eventually if it wasn't rattling it freaked me out. i'd expect to see the rotor behind me on the ground (i know impossible) and have no brake.
i was relieved to be done. john came to finish just as i was. it would've been nice to ride in together, but 6th place was at the top of the hill. still tho' it was close enough. he had a great race and finished 5th! i was proud and happy for him.


i'm not sure what weather gods cambr has in their pocket but it could not have been a nicer day. it was beautful. the 3 inches of rain we got on Thursday had the course in perfect condition. i haven't railed turf 1 or 3 ravines like that in ages. it was awesome.


i finished pretty much how i expected. i wished i were faster, but who doesn't. i'm not bummed about it as i haven't been riding. but i could tell that i haven't been riding, i didn't have any speed at all. hopefully i can get some good rides in for the last two WORS races and definitely for beechwood as that's a tough one!
but back to this past weekend, most of us headed back to my house afterwards for some portillos. good food, friends and conversation.
it was nice to see all the people i call friends have a good day. blue mound is coming up, but i don't think it's in my cards. maybe kettle this saturday with amelia if i find a sitter. john'll be near canada.

congrats to bender. he had an awesome race! the trophy he won was the best race prize ever!

thanks to rusty for the pics. i never get to scroll through his pics and find a pic of myself, so that was cool.