happy halloween

saturday we headed for kettle "on the way" to the wors banquet. we couldn't have hit it any luckier with the weather. john had a migraine so it wasn't the "funride" we had hoped for. virgin ride for me on the connector, of all the times i've been out there, i've never hit the connector trail.
the banquet was fun. it was nice our team and teammates earned some metal. i still hate karaoke. saturday ended up being an early night, we just can't hang anymore. kids? age? i dunno. all i know is i didn't regret missing out and falling asleep. party pooper.














john is still laughing about the "rebel yell". yesterday i would glance his way and see a smirk, all i had to say was rebel yell and he'd start laughing. thanks for making his weekend brian.
we made it home after picking casey up about 10:45. we were going to try and hit the milwaukee cx race. what the hell were we thinking? we decided to take casey and reese out to lunch and we ended up buying them some things at the dollar store. i was hoping they'd have some more halloween junk in there, but no go.
we went on a trail hike later in the day. it was a beautiful day to be out. the girls had a blast and were thoroughly exhausted upon our return. carbon had a smile on his face the whole time. it was nice to be out in the fresh fall air with the beautiful orange and yellow leaves.

sox and scooby doo

it was crazy last night... fireworks, people screaming and yelling around the neighborhood, people roaring around in their cars honking like mad. it was cool. i haven't been a baseball fan in a long time... nor have i ever really been i guess. but cool for chicago and the sox fans. i'm sure my brother-in-law was drunk off his ass loving life. he's a huge baseball fan and an even bigger sox fan.
it was casey's halloween party at school today. i'm glad i work from home on thursdays. i was able to see their little parade. all the kids super stoked to show off their costumes.














wors banquet this weekend... i'm still trying to find some housing for scooby. crap, i guess we need to find carbon a place as well. dang. i forgot about that.

big cheese grips, anyone?

okay, i don't want, i need the big cheese grips that are green with the orange stars... anyone know where i can find them? discontinued according to Q, dang.

moula

check out madcross for more mad pics.

red tongue

this weekend was alright. i can't complain. i was super crabby friday night. work, the weather and lack of riding i'm sure are to blame. i decided to hit the group ride leaving out of palos 9am saturday. man, i was sooo slow. i had nothing in me. i just couldn't pedal. my skills are still there as the downhills and fast singletrack were all good. my cornering comes n goes, but that's more lack of concentration than anything. it was a 2 hour ride with stopping which was fine with me. i didn't really know anyone on the ride, but it was fun. i ended up doing something to my knee coming out of the staging area singletrack for the second time. ouch. pushing too hard of a gear? i dunno. but i couldn't put any pressure on the pedals, in fact i need to get out and see if it still bothers me.
john spent the morning with nick putting in the new water heater. i swear just when you think you are getting ahead something happens. thanks to nick for helping john out.
later that afternoon i started to tackle casey's room. good gawd. what a wreck! she has the toys of 5 houses. i packed 8 garbage bags full of toys and two boxes of clothes she has completely grown out of. we brought most of the stuff to goodwill. hopefully good timing for christmas. as i got deeper into the chaos, john stepped in to help. things go by much faster and are less frustrating when everyone pitches in. her room is unbelievable now. in fact i'm almost in shock when i walk past it. even when it was clean before there were so many toys in there, you could barely make out the floor. the whole upstairs is a shocker actually. it feels good to walk up there now.
next is our room. boo. our room is crazy. i don't think it'll ever be in good shape until we get some closet organization going on. what will help is we cleared out a bunch of closet space by ridding ourselves of a lot of clothes. i will probably tackle the linen closets before i do our room. should help a bit.
yes, i know boring post, but it felt good to get it down.
sunday we headed to the cross race...




















we arrived around 10 or so. frank was already there in full get up. and when i mean full i mean full. two pairs of shorts, thermal vest (and who knows what else under that), long knee warmers, arm warmers... it was 50 degrees and sunny! we convinced him to take it off... frank was there to redeem himself from his last place finish from the previous race.
the race started and it was strung out before the first barriers... it was a fun race to watch, for awhile the leader switched a couple times, 3rd and 4th were iffy. there was a pack of about 5 after that, which included frank. john was a pack behind them. it was a long flat course. frank loved it, john hated it- he said it was a good one to get the cobwebs out though. in the end frank took 6th overall in the As! in the money- sweet. john hung in for 11th or 12th. it was a super strong field with a lot of guys.
casey and i, along with raymo and ryan cruised around the course. casey had an exhausting day, for the most part she spent it on a sugar high playing catch me...

crab apples

man am i in a sour mood. for what reason i do not know. lack of bike riding is certainly a culprit. sitting in a car for hours on end every day does wear on me. my back aches... my ass is numb... i'm tired. i lose hours and hours a week to the element. time wasted and calories not burned.
i want to build a new bike for myself, but i don't want to sell any either... not that i think i have too many (see post below), i just don't have cashola.

you like

getting bikes ready to sell... first off john's nrs w fox rear (prolly frame, fork, stem, post, front der)- 18.5" and xtc (complete)- 19"... both carbon.. if you know john, you know that these are so damn clean you could deliver babies on them.
i've yet to find the time to get these posted on ebay or mtbr... too busy writing blogs, cleaning house and building bikes... here's some pics. if you are interested lemme know- perhaps light a fire under my ass. there are lots of details...

buttload

even more than that...














i was just reading a blog that i usually check out... he mentions having a lot of bikes. it made me happy that i'm not alone. why is it that some people care how many bikes you have? when you say how many you have, they get all indignant and ask why. why? why the fuck do you care? it's simple. i like to. it's my favorite thing to do, build and ride bikes. it's more of an obsession really...
no, i don't and can't ride them all at once... i don't ride them as much as i'd like either. i have favorites, but sometimes that changes. for me, there is nothing like building up a new bike. whether old parts or new (sometimes building up the old stuff is more satisfying). to see and ride the finished product is exhilerating. i forget all my problems.
problems were forgotten about tonight, we just finished john's redline. it looks pretty bad ass... the spot isn't ready yet so the redline is getting the call. race sunday.














i've been slowly working on the surly... stupid stuff is holding me back- spacers, chainring bolts. dammit. this is when i miss working at the shop, all this little petty stuff was at your fingertips.
i've got some other stuff in the works too. hopefully everything'll come together sooner than later.

Congrats!

to tad and nadia, our very good friends (they are way better friends than we are)... they welcomed their twins into the world yesterday... Gabriela and Thaddeus. woohoo!

what a total ham

i was trying to take pics for bikes to sell and she just kept jumping in front of the camera... the dog too, you can see his ear in this one. can you believe she's not even 4?

from jw

33 bottles of beer on the wall

33 bottles of beer
if one of those bottles should happen to fall...
32 bottles of beer on the wall.
one for every year i've been alive.
it's my birthday today.
after my 32 bottles of beer i'll be celebrating like my nephew ryder, he really knows how to eat cake.

so...

i'm bored. casey and john are sleeping on the couch and it's just before 10. i looked for some pics of me from sheboygan besides the cool ones from the team site. i found one of me climbing the equalizer in my seven jersey. okay okay, it's not me... it's mary. i did used to have that fork and besides i'm way more cut than she is... but anyway, i did have that same smile on my face walking the equalizer, except i was kind of like jogging or whatever.
i'm still laughing about the fishes having sex...

don't drink water, fishes have sex in it

haHA... i laughed pretty good after reading that. mainly because, well, nevermind.

HELLuvaRIDE

there's a very slow group ride leaving out of palos next saturday morning. i might join them just so i can feel good about myself again... i have no idea how the group ride was this past saturday. i never saw anybody. i occasionally ran into people at trail intersections but then they promptly left when i arrived. i must've smelled or something. i hope everyone had a good ride.
four hours plus on saturday. it was way faster than i had planned and to add to that i was still suffering from being sick. so not only was i last (as i expected)... i was way further back than i should've been. at first i thought i'd leave the ride as i couldn't catch my breath for a long time. it was worse knowing that everyone was waiting on me as it made me super anxious. it got so bad at one point i thought i was gonna faint and lose breakfast from lack of oxygen. after climbing zip and not knowing which direction everyone went i relaxed and just tried to catch my breath. john and i pretty much thought we went the wrong way and figured we'd just ride and enjoy ourselves. we even stopped to pee. turns out we did go the right way, d'oh. and everyone was waiting for us at the bottom of porno hill. we climbed up dynamite road and hit three ravines next. i was finally able to catch my breath on that trail. but the damage was done. way later on across lagrange after doing all of the island and swallow cliff, i had a good crash. my front wheel snagged a bundle of roots sticking out of the side of the earth. i wish i had my camera to post a pic. my leg is pretty gnarly where the rock snagged it. i'm having a hard time wearing pants today (not to john's dismay) as it's right where my knee bends and yer pants crease. luckily no damage to the bike, it slammed into the rocks pretty hard- even dislodged my rear wheel, so i was suprised yet relieved. apparently sara lost her ovary, again. i only saw the aftermath- sara dusting her self off. it was super dusty out. almost dangerous in spots. i'm still picking dirt out of my ears and nose. my eyes are spewing a funky dirty grossness... although i think that has stopped. in the end tony and i opted to take the sport course. we bypassed cemetary hill trail and rolled on down to 95th. then the road home. he was cramping, i was cramping- everything below my crotch was a complete crampy mess for the last 45 minutes of the ride. had i expected that long and hard of a ride i'd've brought a replacement drink. i didn't have a horrible time, i did have some moments of fun- mainly towards the end when everyone slowed down and we chatted and laughed. but i guess i expected more horsing around. more poo flinging ya know.
towards the end of the race season we told ourselves that after sheboygan we would take care of our poor house. it's a wreck. we never really did any spring cleaning this year so it all just added up. we planned on tackling a room or two on the weekend and do any misc stuff during the week. this saturday after the hella ride we tackled the spare bedroom. this bedroom held everything from posters to spare clothes to a child slide. a wreck is an understatement. we conquered it saturday late afternoon. dang it felt good. we had about 8 garbage bags full of clothes to bring to goodwill. we even dropped that off too. ran a couple of errands (vacuum cleaner bags) and headed out for a real late dinner. marios... mmmmmm... oh and get this, i had a daiquiri, i wasn't even buzzed!
sunday we slept in a bit later than usual. had some breakfast and tackled the office. how can two people collect so much junk? anyway, we conquered that room as well. amazing. it feels good to get it done. asthmatics worse nightmare though, the dust was thick. we then busted out to target and the depot to get some bins and photo holder junk and price some shelving and drawers out. we have some closet planning to do.
next weekend mesa ride, casey's room (should be fun) and maybe the utility room. then jackson park for cross. this week will be filled with building john's cross bike. should be fun.
i also need to get bikes ready to sell. john's carbon nrs, xtc carbon, and my blur (maybe- i saw it the other day and it's just so damn good looking). the surly is ready to go. it even has pedals on it. i may sell my cross bike too- i want a 29er or another cross bike- steel of course. the basement is starting to look old, it needs some fresh wheels down there.

effin' ay

it's so nice outside... we've been posting subtle hints that we may try to bust out early. we have not yet gotten the response we were looking for. dang.
ride tomorrow at palos. there's a part of me that wishes it were the mesa.
john, casey and me, night ride tonight. cool.

you like rainbows?

rainbow bridge, last fall.

feelin' better

i'm starting to feel better. sitting at the kitchen table i took a deep breath and didn't have to concentrate. my yawn was a yawn. it just happened without thought. finally.
i realized today i hadn't even posted about my mountain bike ride with the cat and bee bos on saturday. we went to the mesa and had a kick ass ride. we started downhill towards racoon alley, through the creek, over the logs and up to jill's turn (you'll notice a lot of things are named after jill... she crashes a lot). up the hill. we headed through the mesa, john and bry over rachael's log, i went over on foot. over "his" brige, passed bryan rock, down the "float" bridge, up jill's roots, flowing, flowing, passed the log ride, john and bryan made an attempt to ride it. over the rainbow bridge, squeeze between the trees, sharp right, log, turn, log, turn, log, turn, pedal pedal... watch for the root, skid left. pedal, pedal, lean left, lean right, pedal, pedal, jump, fast left, over the log, lean slight left, lean slight right, lean slight left, bam, fast, roots, squeeze between the trees, lean hard right, lean left, angled tree down, up n over, slow turns, fast down- log jump, log jump... line myself up to get on sara's bridge. over the bridge, up the off cambr section. ahhhh... we stopped to chat about how wonderful it was to be out. debated on whether the mesa was "single" friendly and other serious issues. up the climb, out through the roots to the outer leg. the party pit musta been jammin' friday night. down jill hill, skirted the grand canyon and onto the outer leg we went. big logs, new logs and dusty turns awaited us. back on the outer leg out onto the outer loop. over the bee log, over the bridges, looked to the left for my favorite view, maneuver around the stump, down into the snake pit, up the snakes (man it seems so easy now) down by the river, back to sara's bridge. climb out back onto the mesa. charged to sublime. stopped to chat again about how wonderful it was to be out and how next time we'd invite more people to share the abundance of fun to be had. we headed out for sublime, with bry in the lead. through the leaves (man it needs to be raked- jeremey, lori?)... floating over the bridges, carving turns, jumping the logs and roots. off the log jump, up the climb over the log... sharp left with tons of roots... over the teeter totter and headed out. fast downhill. WOOHOO. back to raccoon alley, up the rooted climb. it flattens for a second and climbs again. whew, catch my breath, hop over the log and head over to garden grove. this really needs to be raked. downed tree. big one. we prop it up so we can pass. what geniuses we are. back on our bikes, awesome slight dowhill over more logs. log piles, bridges, squeeze in between the trees. sharp right. ride fast, skid right, little whoop, go dooowwwnnn and then uuupppp... whew i made it. head back out to the pavement. 3 hours of singletrack fun and good converstation with my husband and one of my best friends.
this makes absolutely no sense unless you've been there. i sure had fun reliving it.
hopefully the ride sunday can live up to this.

dang water bottle

you can see it by my foot.

payless suckahs

saturday morning. 9 am. new staging area. group ride, everyone's welcome, a "no drop" rule will be in effect. huzzah.

wowee zowee

sheboygan, the last wors race. i love this race even though i dnf'ed twice in previous years from asthma attacks and finished 30-something last year trying to ward off an asthma attack. this year was no exception. i'd been sick for over a week leading up to this. but my points were locked up so i thought i'd go out and have fun. no relapses. i told myself to hang back and don't push, kind of hard to do but i did. man, did i have a blast. i love that course. the changes were for the better. i was nervous when someone had mentioned they changed the course. it was, i though, better if that was possible. i was chattin' it up with some of my fellow wors racers. bombing down the singletrack, taking it easy on the climbs. major fun. i started out not so fast, but it still hurt a little. i could feel the cold crisp air in my lungs. i didn't panic, but i was definitely paying attention to my breathing. i was fine. i just hung with some girls. got stopped up in the singletrack and i didn't care. i just passed when i could. first log jump i felt my bottle pop out onto my foot. i'm so sport it ruined my concentration. so i landed rear wheel off the log. oh well. 2nd lap i slid out on one of the switchbacks. my favorite, a loose and steep turn. always a good combination for me. i have some nice dirt burns and a chainring tattoo from it. got back up and had to fix the drivetrain. it was weird not panicking to get it back on. hopped on the saddle and i was off. never made the equalizer. i must have tapped the front d with my leg (probably when i got my new tattoo), i dropped my chain twice after that. once by the equalizer again by the roots of evil, again not panicking to get it back on. i finished something like 11th overall... i think. not bad at all! of course i did have to wonder if i gave it all i had... but nah.
it's hard to believe the season started in april. there's a part of me that is relieved the season is over. if the last race wasn't sheboygan i'm not sure if i would've cared if i had been there or not. burn out i guess. not from riding but from traveling and sacrificing the weekends. i'm not complaining at all. i wouldn't have changed a thing.
fall has arrived. daylight hours are dwindling away... this is the time of year for the ride with friends. hang out at intersections chatting about the ride or previous rides or races while waiting for the slower riders (i'm barely in any of these chats). arm warmers, vests, knickers and those damn leaves. how do you turn in those anyway?
today is john's and my wedding anniversary. how quickly time flies when you are having fun. happy anniversary john, i love you.

yawn

i thought i was starting to feel better after riding on wednesday. probably because it was nice out. i'm not feeling too good today. rain and cold i'm sure aren't are to blame. hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to say bye to the wheeze. i'm being really positive about this... bos is coming over for an am ride at the mesa.... singlespeed style. i'll test myself out then if my mom will watch lil miss bru.

no monkeys

but i went for a walk with casey and carbon. it was a beautiful night. a moment in time that will be etched in my memory forever. i was a little behind casey with carbon. she was running just ahead giggling telling me how fast she was. it was getting dark out and the park lights were turning on. i could see the little outline of her body bouncing up n down with her arms in the air and her wispy blonde hair shadowed by the lights. look at me mommy, look at me... she turns around glowing, slightly out of breath and through her giggles says inquisitively, mommy, catch me, and then immediately she screams and runs more. my heart lept first and then my body followed after her. words can't describe.

r is for rad

i'm finally feeling a bit better... stairs don't require me to stop at the top and wait for my breath. i haven't pushed myself hard or anything so i'm hoping to check that out tonight. we'll see. my body is all messed up from the prednisone. i can't sleep, when i do sleep i have these super vivid dreams... almost to the point where i feel like i'm not sleeping. it's weird. i'm on the downward dose now so hopefully all that will fade away.

when monkeys fly outta my butt

chances of me getting out of work early tomorrow... hmmmm... i'm going for it at least. i'd like to ride in the sun again... no lights... i'm scared of the dark.

wheeze

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.

my bike rules...

still.

one hundred percent... me? no.

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.

denial

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.

no ride

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.

vegas baby... not

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.

words can't describe

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...

FINALLY

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.

oh my

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.

mud

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.

since ojibwa

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?

home... yay.

darcy 40 finishers

nice zipper.

5th overall, 1st place dirty girl

foe toes

check 'em.

making flames

sara on the firetower climb.

the cat and the bb

you can see the darcy boys in blue at the almost lower left corner... bb's leading the cat.

8 hours

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.

spicy=sycip

phat tire

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.

oooh baby

turn it on.

death by road

spilled milk

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.

imagine this

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.

the fall clothes whore

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.

pink is king

check it.














my aunt and my neighbor are both battling breast cancer right now. last year i bought these hubs after finding out a friend and fellow racer was diagnosed...

meh

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.

desperate for dirt

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.

willful suspension of disbelief

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.

franklin my dear

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.

sellin' out

i wanna sell my blur and surly 1x1... anyone? they are both badass of course.

stiff as a bored

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.

pissy

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.

eat my shorts

... 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.

boo

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.

improved

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.

dg bigwheel race and i hurt like hell

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.

my inevitability

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.

PAMBA

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.

raining

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.

calumet

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.

earth to james...

do you have tino's info? if so, could you forward it to me?

third eye

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!)...

bees...

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.

ha

four miles on the bike... boo. 3 miles on foot with my mom and the dog. good karma. palos tomorrow.

cockee... suckah

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.

bike laundry

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.

sunday, chocolate and a ride

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...

dustee

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.

dark ride

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.

dang

still haven't ridden yet. i suck. tonight? maybe. tomorrow? most definitely.

man

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.

good times

with twinkie the kid and 90 cent cowboy hats.

mmmm skinsuit...

although i have to say, he really needs to tuck that thing away, and i'm not talking about the skinsuit

where was i...

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.