got the bonk

my new blog

2007-11-26T19:22:00.000-08:00

My new blog is located here:

www.strats.wordpress.com

another...

2007-10-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

under construction

2007-10-08T16:32:00.001-07:00

I wasn't sure how to fix the formatting issues on my old blog design (which I really liked), so I decided just to start over. So the blog may be under construction for a few weeks.

Questions & marathon

2007-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Questions
I have a few questions for Wordpress users:

1. Is there an easy way to turn comments off in Wordpress?
2. Is there a way to password protect a Wordpress blog - without having to pay extra for customizing CSS?
3. Have recommendations/websites for good code for password protection if paying for the CSS customization is the only option?

Marathon
Props to all the marathoners yesterday who ran in crazy humidity/heat. The cyclists were out there representing....Margot, Angie, JT, and I even spotted a Cat6er. Even the newlywed Moses was there taking photos. I thought it was hot riding my bike around the course, so I have a lot of respect for those of you who ran.

Hudson CX Race

2007-09-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a few years since I've done a cross race, so I figured I'd give the Hudson CX race a shot since Margot recently taught me some new dismounting skills. I thought the Hudson course was tough and I struggled, especially with the sand. I even had a half-ass crash on some easy part of the course, but I don't even remember what happened. I'm super bruised and sore today. I liked the part of the course that ran along/on the St. Croix river even though I didn't really have time to enjoy the scenery. After the race, everyone asked me if I had fun, and I wanted to answer "yes" (because those CX racers all love CX so much), but I just couldn't lie. I'm sure if I were better at CX I'd like it more, but for now, I just don't get excited about getting off of my bike during a race. In fact, I found myself thinking "I wish this were a crit" on multiple occasions. Props to my teammate AmyC who won the women's C division. I think I ended up 8th out of 10, but I'm not sure. Here's some video of my sub-par cross skills:

I shouldered my bike through the sand pit on the first lap, but I was too lazy/tired to do it on my second lap (see video) - then everybody was yelling "shoulder it", so I didn't make that mistake again:

p.s. Check out Lieselot's results from Worlds!!

the longest red light ever

2007-09-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

So I was riding along the Minnehaha Creek bike path last night and as I stopped for a red light, this dude, who had been riding my ass for the past few blocks, rolls up behind me and starts talking to me:

Dude: wow, that's pretty nice...
Me (realizing he's checking out my bike, not me): yeah, I like it.
Dude: you must have a rich boyfriend....
Me (giving him the WTF look): huh?
Dude: ....to have a nice bike like that.
Me (giving him the I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face look): actually, I bought this one myself.

He then went on to tell me how he wanted to get some "rims" like mine, and then asked me how many miles I've ridden this year. Luckily, I have no clue how many miles I've ridden, and I knew he didn't care anyway...guys like that only ask that question so you ask them how many miles they've ridden so that they're given the opportunity to one-up you. As expected, when the light turned green, he took off like a bat-outta-hell to show me how fast he was. His yellow neon jacket was a blur....I was so impressed.

neglected blog rebels

2007-09-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Apparently my blog was feeling so neglected that it decided to spice things up by reformatting itself. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to fix it. So I think I should take this as a sign.

lunch time

2007-09-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Lunch time for the roofers working on our house yesterday - they brought their own microwave:

fine...

2007-09-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is for all of you out there that keep pestering me to post something new. I'm telling you, my life just isn't that interesting lately. We've been doing a lot of house projects - we're hoping to finally move into our master bedroom within the next few weeks which is exciting for us, but not all that exciting to read about. But I will have some before and after pictures, so I know you will all be on the edge of your seats until then. We're also getting some roof work done this week, and some new carpet soon. And I'm still hoping to plant some perennials yet this month...exciting stuff. The for-real excitement we've had is the news that Mikey and Renee got engaged!

I did my first cross ride of the season a few weeks ago with Casey, Pete and Donimator...and I took at least one photo. Donimator tried to get me to drive the Hummer, but I refused, so he decided he should drive something a little less obnoxious. While Pete and Don were having their annual date at Chequamegon last weekend, I spent the morning drinking coffees with the kids then went on an "easy spin" (not my words) ride with Dale, PattyCakes, and Casey. It was 35 degrees when I got up, so I had to dig out some winter riding gear which was no fun for a ride in September. Dale took us on roads that I have never even been on...I was so lost, and it was so hilly. In fact, it may have been the hilliest ride I've done all year. We had a quick stop at 318 in Excelsior which has the best and most bike-friendly staff in the Twin Cities, along with some great coffee and food. I was also using this ride to try out a new pedal system and new shoes and insoles, so I spent a lot of time trying to clip in and catch up after every stop sign/stoplight. It ended up being a 3-hr ride, which was fine, but my little Cat 4 legs were hurting. And instead of taking a nap, I had to hit up the recovery drink, shower up, and throw on a dress and high heels for a big fancy fun party that night. We had a great time (and I had my share of gnt's), but we didn't end up getting to bed until about 3 am...not good for people our age. I'm still sleepy. But Margot convinced me to meet her for some cross practice tonight which was really good because my mounts and dismounts are a bit rusty. I haven't done any cross races in a few years, but since I'm not burned out on bike races just yet, I figure I'll do a handful of cross races...preferably the less difficult ones because I'm lazy like that. I've always sucked at cross, but I'm hoping to do a bit better this year, especially after the sweet skillz Margot taught me tonight.

I'm looking forward to a few non-eventful weekends at home, watching the marathon in a few weeks, getting the nephews for a full weekend, and spending a week in October as my company's site supervisor for our annual Habitat for Humanity work week - I finally got a good excuse to order up the lined Carhartt bib overalls (which they now make for women too) that I've always wanted. Now I just need a tool belt.

new stuff

2007-08-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Two new things showed up at my house this week - wanna guess what they are? I'll even give a hint for each of them:

crabby

2007-08-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm crabby. Want to make something of it? For the past few weeks, strange/random things have been happening to me. Not life-altering or horrible things, just strange and frustrating things. But it's been extremely stressful. And it seemed to all come to a head last night while I was shopping at Target. As I was trying to find the best laundry-sorting equipment/option and was struggling to make a decision, I suddenly felt like I was going to either (a) have a total meltdown amongst all the "back-to-school" shoppers, or (b) vomit. I began to panic a bit because I'm not a fan of loss of control in any form, but then I realized that the past few weeks have been so shitty that I didn't even care if "a" or "b" happened. In fact, "a" and "b" would just add to the long list of strange occurrences of late. Once I made that simple realization, I was no longer worried about "a" and "b" - instead, I felt tears starting to well-up. But even that passed quickly. I decided I needed to get out of Target quickly as the crowds and their mega-carts were driving me nuts. So I quickly grabbed the remaining items on my list, and headed for the check-out. And in that short time between near-meltdown and check-out, I passed about 10 women shopping with their newborns, and I swear every single kid under the age of one was smiling at me (or perhaps just looking at me funny). It felt like the Twilight Zone. I think I'm losing it.

Strats

p.s. if you're looking for the Downer's Grove race report, here it is - rain, shortest Cat 3/4 race ever, more rain, lots of crashes, ended up 13th (out of about 30). MN racers did well - Cam (BW), Tracy (BW), and Paula B (Flanders) were all top 10. GP/Pete's race - not so good. Pouring rain, crash fest, Marcotte went down with about 5 laps to go, Pete was the only GP guy left with one to go, and crashed hard in the last 750 meters.

nothing to see here folks...move along

2007-08-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

Gotthebonk - drama free and boring it's readers since the inception of LGR.

the strangest race ever

2007-08-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

My cycling team put on a bike race on the campus of the U of M yesterday. The timing of this event was unfortunate since this particular part of the U of M is near the 35W bridge over the Mississippi River- click here for a map (the race course is highlighted in blue/purple).

So the race course turned out to be gawker central and volunteering for our race turned out to be a stressful exercise in crowd control. Gilby (a teammate of mine) has a good blog entry about trying to keep gawkers off the race course.

East River Road, the back stretch of the race course, is also one of 2 -3 access points on the east side of the river for "official vehicles" to get to the collapsed bridge site. Since the roads were blocked off for our race, it was weird to see the "Special Investigative Unit" and the "Dive Team" vehicles having to turn around - it felt a bit disrespectful, but they all seemed understanding and cooperative which was much appreciated.

The most surreal part of my day was when I actually did my race - (a) there were helicopters hovering overhead which made it difficult to hear and concentrate on anything but the collapsed bridge, (b) there were more spectators than usual but all of them were facing the river rather than the race course so I was constantly watching for oblivious people that were about to step in front of me as we traveled anywhere between 20 - 25 mph, (c) during my race, thoughts of disrespect floated through my head since there are still people trapped in their cars, and here I am racing my bike in full view of the collapsed bridge, and (d) I couldn't help but wonder why so many parents had brought their young children to view the collapsed bridge. I'm not a parent, so I'm not sure how I would handle that situation and I'm guessing it depends on the age of the child, but I can't help but think there will be plenty of 5 - 8 yr olds who will be scared to cross bridges in a car during the formative years of their lives. I'd love to hear from those of you who are parents - what age is appropriate for viewing the collapsed bridge and what explanation goes along with it?

There wasn't a shortage of photographers at this race, although most of them were not there for cycling photos. But the local cycling photographers were there as well, so if you go to the Skinnyski website and look for the headline "Campus Criterium Coverage", you can find photos of my race under the heading "Women's Open" - it will give you a feel for what the day was like (if you want to know).

I've always found that when tragic events occur, it feels like time should stand still - it always feels strange to just move on with your life as if nothing happened. But yesterday was just a reminder that "normal" life goes on, whether it feels like it should or not.

After the race, I was pulling down all of the caution tape we had used to try to keep people off the course. Three college-aged gawker guys were walking by and one of them asked me if he could have the caution tape. I pictured him using the caution tape for some frat party purpose, and I asked him if he was serious. He said "yes", so I gave it to him. As he was walking away I heard him say that he was going to try to Ebay it. It took me a few seconds to realize what he meant. I felt sick for giving it to him.

I think I understand people's need to see the bridge - after seeing it with my own eyes yesterday, it definitely makes the situation seem much more real. So I don't necessarily have a problem with the fact that there were so many people there to see the bridge yesterday - I'm sure everyone has their reason. But for every story the media has told about the community pulling together in this time of tragedy, I now have a conflicting story about the selfish assholes in our community who get pissed off at something as simple as asking them to stay on the sidewalk for their own safety. It was a bit disheartening.

I'd like to thank everyone who volunteered their time yesterday to help our team keep everyone (gawkers, respectful viewers, photographers, bike racers, assholes, etc.) safe. We were able to hold races from 8 am to 5 pm without a single incident which was no small task.

On a much lighter note, for my high school friends, I'd like to direct your attention to photo #48 in that set of Skinnyski photos - nevermind my ass, but note that I've finally grown some calf muscles (and you thought it wasn't possible). And no, I'm not doping.

Respectfully,
Strats

speechless

2007-08-01T19:45:00.001-07:00

Pete and I met for a bike ride on the Greenway at 6 pm and decided to head west instead of east towards the River Road - the River Road goes under the I-35W bridge and is a popular route for cyclists. We were still riding when we got word of the bridge collapse. I'm speechless and hopeful that the number of fatalities stops at six. I cannot even fathom what victims, witnesses, and rescuers have gone through tonight.

Superweek: Whitefish Bay

2007-07-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

There's not much to say about my last Superweek Crit in Whitefish Bay, another 25-mile (1+ hr) crit. I just couldn't get into the rhythm of this race. This course is more technical than the others with a few tough turns and no one seemed to be able to get off the front, so the whole field was coming into the turns together which resulted in more braking in this crit than any other I've ever done. Even with all the braking, the pace stayed surprisingly high - I think we averaged around 22 mph, so we dropped some people pretty quick. But I was hanging out at the back for the whole race, so it was like interval training - brake, sprint, brake, sprint, etc. Obviously if I had gone to the front I probably wouldn't have had to brake so much, so I have no one to blame but myself, but I just wasn't feeling good enough to be up there. And it was a bit sketchy, so it just seemed safer in the back (as opposed to sitting in the middle of the field). Even the overall leaders did a lot of just sitting in, and I don't blame them since a lot of them had done six straight days of racing. With about 12 laps to go, I was just logging laps at the back and I had lost my interest in this race, so I just wanted to be done. With about 5 laps to go, GW Sara attacked (because she's aggressive like that!), and it took the field almost a full lap to reel her back in, and then she fell off the back a bit. With 3 laps to go, some women tried to crash coming into the first turn, and at that point, I decided that I was happy with my three Superweek races and I was very happy to still have all of my skin intact, so I slowly just drifted off the back. GW Sara caught up and said "we can still get back in and try to help out" - bless her optimistic heart. But I had no desire to get back in, so I rode the last few laps by myself, and those few laps were the most enjoyable of the race because I didn't have to use my brakes. I ended up finishing 24th in the race, and 26th overall for the series.

One thing I realized this past weekend is that I'm really glad I wasn't doing early season races - because if I had, I'd be burned out by now. Instead, I'm really enjoying all of my favorite crit races and really look forward to racing in August.

Strats out

Superweek: Kenosha

2007-07-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the quick stats from Friday's Kenosha race:

30-mile, 1+ hour crit with about 40 women lining up.
This was the fattest, hardest crit I've ever done. I think we averaged something b/t 22 - 24 mph which is fast for Cat 3/4 women.
I felt good early in the race, so when a woman attacked about 3 laps into the race, I decided to chase her down. When I reached her, she just sat up, so the field caught up, and I sat in and recovered. But luckily I was near the front on the next lap because some more women decided to lay on the pavement. The race was pretty sketchy for the first 10 laps or so, but then people seemed to settle down (and we dropped a bunch of riders too, so that helped wittle the field down).
At some point, 5 women got off the front, and the field just could not get organized enough to bring it back. But since there was a break up the road, the pace stayed high for the entire race.
During the middle of the race, there were a few laps where I was really hurting. But I somehow managed to hang in there and not get dropped.
With about 10 laps to go, I decided to go to the front again just to see if I could - I made it up there, regretted my decision, but decided to deal with it - so I tried to keep the pace up for half a lap, then returned to the field for some recovery. In the end, I was glad I had done it just to test myself.
Coming into the last lap I moved towards the front again and tried to position myself for the big field sprint. I didn't do a very good job and got caught behind some women who were bumping into each other, and had to hit my brakes.
I ended up coming across the line in 20th place and feeling really good about my race. I was just happy to be able to hang on in a tough race. Last year, I got dropped in all four Superweek crits that I did, so I'm feeling much better about my performance this year.
And somehow I ended up in 23rd in the GC (overall) after only doing two races.
The hard race effort and my lack of proper drinking and eating during the race left me feeling nauseous for the rest of the night, and my stomach still wasn't feeling well this morning, so I opted to skip today's race to let myself recover. It was a good decision and I'm feeling much better and ready for the last race in Whitefish Bay tomorrow.

That's all I got.

Superweek: Sheboygan

2007-07-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the highlights from today's 25-mile (1+ hr) Women's Cat 3/4 crit in Sheboygan:

GW Sara deserves the most aggressive rider award for today! Damn, did she attack a lot...she definitely helped keep the pace high and kept the race interesting and she reeled in some primes while she was at it.
Speaking of primes, there must have been at least 10 throughout the race...5 of which where in the last 7 laps of the race (I was starting to get pissed every time they rang that bell).
Flanders Paula had a great race too - she threw in a few nice attacks and was riding strong!
My goal was just to sit in, see how my legs felt, and not get dropped.
With two laps to go, it started to pour - the field was actually being pretty careful in the oily corners, so it wasn't too sketchy.
The pace ramped up with one to go and the field was totally strung out - I just tried to hang on and stay towards the front. I was trying to stay on Paula's wheel coming through the last turn, and a few women in front of us decided to lay down on the pavement (and one of them didn't look good as she was laying on her neck), so we had to hit our brakes, but everyone else was far enough behind us that we were still able to roll in 8th and 9th (out of about 25). They pay 12 deep, so I actually got money today! Woohoo!
Everyone was cleaned up off the pavement by the time we came through again on our cool-down lap, so I'm assuming everyone was okay which was a huge relief.
So I was happy with today's race, to say the least, and I'm hoping tomorrow I'm feeling even better for my favorite Superweek crit in Kenosha.

Side note -apparently there's been some trickle-down from Le Tour. The report from the men's 1/2 race is that they finally decided to do some drug testing after tonight's race. And apparently a few guys are suddenly no where to be found.

remember your first bonk?

2007-07-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

Do you remember your first bonk?

My first bonk took place in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, back in 2003. It was around June 1st, so it was hot in Moab. Pete and I were technically still "just friends", but had decided to take a two-week trip out west together. I was not in good shape. I was still recovering from leg surgery and was about 10 lbs under my normal weight (due to some serious muscle atrophy and a few months of taking painkillers). We were camping in the "Devil's Garden" campground which is about 18 miles in from the park's entrance. We decided one day to ride from the campground to the park entrance and back. We had eaten a big breakfast in the morning to prep for our ride, but decided to wait to ride because of the heat. But as I recall, we ended up riding later in the morning/early afternoon when it was still hot anyway. I don't recall why we didn't wait until the evening hours to do this ride, but in hindsight, that would have been much smarter. So we were biking in Arches when most people were viewing the Arches from their air-conditioned RVs (for good reason). The roads through Arches are quite hilly, and it didn't take me long to realize that there was no way I'd be able to ride to the park entrance and back. So early in our ride, we turned around. Unfortunately, the bonk came before I could make it back to the campground. I recall pulling over on the side of the road and forcing down a GU, but it was too late. I had bonked too hard to recover without a full meal and a nap. We decided that Pete was going to have to ride back to the campground to get the car and then come and pick me up. Pete helped push me up a hill so that I could make it to one of the parking lots (accurately named the "Fiery Furnance" parking area) near one of the trailheads so that I wasn't just hanging out in the sun on the side of the heavily-traveled roads. But there is no shade in Moab. As I sat, cross-eyed and crabby, in the parking lot trying to get shade from parked cars, numerous people stepped from their air-conditioned vehicles and commented "wow, I can't believe you're biking in this heat...that's impressive!" I could barely muster a smile and I remember feeling like a total poser. I felt so small. So weak. So bonked.

Goals for Superweek

2007-07-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

1. Stay upright.
2. Avoid heat stroke.
3. Do not get dropped.

The forecast for Sheboygan on Thursday is for rain/storms, so goal number one may be more difficult to achieve than I originally thought. To reach goal number two, my first line of defense will be to start hydrating; however, spending the day in the car makes that difficult as I'd like to avoid having to stop for potty breaks every half an hour. If I learned anything from racing at Superweek last year, it was that the key to reaching goal number three is positioning; therefore, I will do my best to make at least half of the women's 3/4 field stare at my see-through gray shorts instead of dangling off the back where no one has the opportunity to view my ass-crack.

We'll see how it goes.

Track Racing & Tour of Granite County

2007-07-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

Track Racing Last Thursday Night
It was awesome to have Special K back in town and racing at the track. It was also notable that it was probably the only time that the entire Grumpy's/LGR track racing contingent will be at the track for a night of racing. Karla and Gwen did awesome in the women's races (I had a typical night of track racing), and the highlight for the Grumpy's team was T-Hag's second place finish in the State Keirin Championship.

Tour of Granite County
Loon State hosted a great weekend of racing last weekend - it was the 3-stage Tour of Granite County. Honestly, I don't know how Skibby and Delaney do it - promoting races is so draining, yet these guys just keep doing it - so big thanks to Skibby, Delaney, and the rest of the Loon State Cyclists for a great, organized weekend of racing.

Bell Tower Road Race (45 miles): This was the first road race I've done this year, and it turned out to be the strangest road race I've ever done. The Category 1/2/3 and Category 4 women raced together, and it turned out to be more of a training ride than an actual race. Don't get me wrong - there were some times during the race where it got hard, but there were also times when we were literally going 12 mph. But given the breakdown of the teams represented (i.e. there was a lot of blue in the field), it seemed like everyone did what they had to, but it made for a boring race. I felt pretty good and I chased down a few attacks, but in the end, it came down to a field sprint for the Cat 4 women, and while I did my best not to get boxed-in by the sea of blue, my hamstrings weren't up for a sprint, and I rolled in second to last in the field. Such is road racing. We had dropped some Cat 4's earlier in the race, so I ended up 9th out of 16.
Albany to Avon Time Trial (5 miles): I've never been a fan of TT's - I do not find them fun and I suck at them, so I usually try to avoid them. But since I signed up for the omnium, I was stuck doing my one TT for the year. 5 miles doesn't sound like much, but after doing the road race and being out in the sun all day, 5 miles into a strong headwind totally sucked. I ended up 7th and I was pretty happy with that. After the TT, Pete and I packed up and headed to St. Cloud in search of much-needed sustenance. We found a Godfather's pizza place and proceeded to replenish all the calories we had burned. Yum.
St. Cloud Crit: The women's Cat 4 crit was at 9:10 am, and having to get up at 6 am just to eat really sucked after a full day of bike racing. When I got up, my legs felt okay, but my stomach was not happy with the previous day's diet which consisted mostly of energy drink, GU, coke, and pizza. But I love crit racing, so I was excited for this race. There were only 11 or 12 women in our field, 4 of which were Birchwood women, so I fully expected to be on the defensive the whole race. But when the race started, I suddenly felt really good. I loved the course - it was a 6-corner crit and more technical than any other local crit yet this year. I tried to stay really active in this race by attacking 3 or 4 times, and I was impressed that the other non-Birchwood riders were willing to be active too - Julia from GP, Kristy from Silver, Dano from MnJRC, and even an unattached rider all took their turns attacking and working at the front. It was a super fun race, and in the end, I knew that I would have trouble out-sprinting a few of the women, so I attacked on the last lap so I could be at the front coming into the last turn - I was going so fast (for me anyway) on the last few turns that I took them super wide (sorry ladies!), but I managed to come through the last turn first and tried to get my legs to sprint. Two women passed me before the finish line, but I was super happy with my race and my 3rd place finish. The race was great practice and a confidence-builder for my upcoming races this week at Superweek where I'll be happy just to finish the hour-long crits.

It was fun to stick around and watch the rest of the races. The LGR guys did great, and Pete and his teammates had a great race as well with Marcotte taking first and Pete taking second.

Thanks again to Loon State for some great races!

velodrome becomes "salon" for local male cyclists

2007-07-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

Attention local male cyclists!! Want to chat about which guys are getting fat and who's the biggest drama queen besides SickBoy? Want to know who's in a fight with who? Want to check out all of the latest cyclist fashions?

Then velodrome racing is for you! Thursday nights, 7 p.m., walk-ins welcome.

4-yr old futbol

2007-07-18T15:23:00.001-07:00

Last night I watched 4- and 5-yr olds play soccer. My dad had suggested that it would probably be like watching the tail of a kite. Aside from the whining ("I'm too hot"), the bored goalie sticking his head through the net and laying down on the ground once in a while, kids taking their own timeouts to run to the side of the field to get a drink of water or say hi to mom, some tears (only from my nephew), and a lot of yelling "you're going the wrong way!", I was actually quite impressed with their skills. They were kicking, dribbling, running, scoring, knocking each other over and getting right back up...not bad. But my nephew had a rough game (note that the game was about 15-minutes long). After playing goalie during last week's game, my nephew had apparently forgotten that when you're not the goalie, you can't use your hands. So early in the game, he decided to pick up the ball while he was playing defense. The ref blew the whistle and the coach (his dad, my brother-in-law) reminded him that he can't use his hands...the tears started flowing and his game was pretty much over. He came to the sideline and informed me and his uncle that he didn't want to play soccer anymore. I then found out just how difficult it is to give a pep talk to a sensitive 4-yr old. He eventually went back out on the field, but mostly just to lean against the goal post for the remainder of the game. A few teammates even tried to cheer him up, but he wasn't having any of it. After the game, I asked him what it was going to take to get him to play soccer without crying (he's 2 for 2 now)- his pouty response was simply "I want to play goalie". I then tried to explain that him and his teammates all need to play different positions, and that didn't go over so well. He cheered up a bit when he got refueled with his post-game snacks (Teddy Grahams and Gatorade), so before I left, I figured I'd give it another shot and we had the following conversation:

Me: So are you going to be playing soccer again next week?
Him: I don't know.
Me: You really don't want to play?
Him (in a very sassy voice): I said 'I don't know'...but I didn't say 'no'.
Me: Alright then, I best be going now. How about we have this conversation again in 14 yrs or so?

Kids these days.

track night

2007-07-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

I made the trek to the track last night for the first time in a month or so. As I was sizing up the competition, I realized I really hadn't raced with a lot of the women who were there - there are a bunch of new women racing at the track this year, most of whom don't race on the road. It was a pretty strong women's field, including TargetTraining's Mandy Lozano. While it was a strong field, it also seemed pretty sketchy, but everyone managed to keep their skin and bikes intact.

I didn't have a good night of racing, which isn't that surprising. But it was a weird night for women's racing. For starters, every time the official told us to "roll out" for our neutral lap at the beginning of each of our three races, nobody "rolled". What's up with that? Twice I had to start the "rolling", and the 3rd time I think Amber did. I guess people were concerned about their positioning, but I thought it was kind of lame. And what's up with riding too slow on the neutral lap? I actually clipped my Speedplay pedal during one rollout...that's messed up. And then there was the crazy dad who stands in the infield and yells at his two daughters during the races, then proceeds to publicly bitch them out after each race. I felt so bad for them. And I was so happy when Sister #1 finally broke and yelled back after the last race - she ended with "I don't want you coming here anymore!". Amen sister. As one of my teammates commented, "they must still live at home because there is no other reason why anyone would put up with that shit". It was disturbing. Sometimes I wish only racers were allowed on the infield - it would help keep the crazies (like Angry Dad) from standing next to the track. Make him go yell from the stands amidst parents and children and see how that goes over.

Anyway, the first race was a 15-lap scratch race, and Mandy ramped up the pace right away. I think I attacked once, and then blew up (this was a common theme for me last night). The second race was a Bavarian Win & Out. My goal was to go for the first sprint which would have given me 4th place, and then my race would have been done. However, I didn't position myself well - but S. Brokaw did, so I watched her execute my plan perfectly, and I was stuck riding the rest of the race. Actually, I think I may have quit the race...I don't even remember. The last race was a 30-lap points race. I don't like women's point races - I think they're too predictable. We ride in a paceline, then sprint, then get back in a paceline, then sprint, and so forth. So I think I attacked on the first lap. Why not? No one really chased me down (probably because they knew I was not a threat). Eventually another women caught up, and the two of us got points on the first sprint, but then the pack came flying by me like I was standing still. I got back in, and eventually attacked again a lap or two before a sprint lap. In the end, I quit that race too - my legs hurt and "track lung" was in full force, so the infield seemed like a more safe place for me to be. I don't know, maybe I'm missing something....maybe I'd do better if I just sat in more, and sprinted when everyone else sprints. But it just seems boring. And as I've said before, patience is not my forte. So maybe I'll never be a good track racer or win any races or the omnium, but I'll really enjoy the racing a lot more if things are happening.

Strats

"Are you considering retiring from bike racing? Seriously?"

2007-07-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

From the comments section of my last post:

Are you considering retiring from bike racing? Seriously?

First, let me clarify something - I use the term "retirement" tongue-in-cheek. Lets be honest here - I'm a bike racer that has been racing at the Cat 4 level for a few years now and my goal for every bike race still remains the same...do not get dropped (and I've only been successful a handful of times). What would I really be retiring from?

To get to your question, am I considering it? Yes. But I started considering "retirement" the moment I finished my very first humiliating road race. However, for the past few months, I have started to seriously consider it. I recently told a friend that I feel like I either need to start really training and try to upgrade, or I just need to stop racing and stick to riding just for fun. My reasoning is just that it's difficult to do this sport half-ass. And I'm sure there are a few people who are thinking "then quit already and shut the hell up". My problem is that I just wouldn't be happy doing either of those things (training hard or quitting bike racing altogether) - which is why I just need to learn to be happy with where I'm at (i.e. Cat 4) and stop my whining.

Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying cycling in general a lot more this year. But it's because I've made a concerted effort to (1) not burn myself out by racing too much, (2) only do the bike races I really enjoy (which is why I've skipped the road races), (3) do fun rides with friends, and (4) avoid weeknight cycling stresses (e.g. Opus, Black Dog, track, etc.) when I have too many other things going on . Which reminds me - I really miss racing at the track. And I've gotten a lot of shit for not racing there lately....trackies really take it personally (I know because I've been begging others to race there for years). Bob Williams likes to tell me that I work too hard (at my day job). But the reality is that I don't work any harder than any other racer who works full-time, and I like my job, and it pays for all things cycling. And when you're required to bill every six minutes of your time, it gets a little difficult to work less than 50 hrs just to bill 40 hrs. So leaving work early a few times every week for weeknight races all spring and summer really starts to dig in to my comp/vacation time. In the past (when I had a ton of comp time), I was okay with that. This year I'm not okay with it.

So, to summarize, I'm not "retiring" just yet. In fact, I'm suddenly excited about bike racing again - maybe it's because I recently spent a night drinking wine with a very inspirational group of women cyclists or maybe it's because I finally did well at a race or maybe I just needed a good break and now I'm ready again - I don't know. But I'm not going to worry about it (for real this time). Of course, chances are good that I'll return from Superweek ready to "retire" again.

All I know is that when next Tuesday night rolls around and I'd love to leave work early so that I can be at Dakota Tech and ready to race by 5:30, I'll be heading to my nephew's soccer game instead...and the smile on his face when he sees me will remind me that there are much more important things in life than a bike race.

Strats

p.s. Julia, this long post was for you!

Hopkins Crit

2007-07-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I told Pete that the Hopkins Crit might be my last race...ever. The Hopkins Crit is my favorite local race, so I figured it would be a good one to end on. Here's why I like it so much:

I can ride there from my house and be warmed-up by the time I get there.
It's flat.
It has corners (unlike that other crit nearby).
It's in a downtown area where there is plenty of food available after the race.
They offer both a Women's Cat 4 and a Women's Open race so I can do more than one race if I choose.
Cash payouts for the Cat 4 Women!

And since I love the Hopkins Crit so much, I've always wanted to do well there, so I was pretty excited when it finally happened yesterday. I got 3rd and I was pretty stoked about it. So I finally do well at a race, and I can't even provide an interesting race report. Basically it came down to the one thing I've never been good at in bike racing and life in general...patience.

And now I have a wild hair that's making me think I should do some Superweek races. It's crazy how this damn sport just keeps sucking me back in.

more lessons learned

2007-07-05T15:41:00.001-07:00

Painter's tape is the key to a good caulk job for first-time caulkers like myself.
Attacking (or more accurately, attempting to attack) on lap 2 of one's first real crit of the year is NOT the key to success for once-a-month bike racers like myself.
Wearing boxers under shorts on a hot day really makes your butt sweat...I don't know how guys do it.
Junior bike racers (18 and under) are not allowed to use big-boy/big-girl gears for any road race, even if it's a Pro/1/2 race. Am I the only one that didn't know this? The reason behind the gear restrictions is actually quite interesting. And it's quite entertaining and impressive to watch the Cat 1/2 juniors spin their 52x14's while the big kids are pushing huge gears.
The neighborhood rabbits are foiling my plans to impress the master gardener next door with my novice green thumb - apparently their weekly diet corresponds with whatever plant in my garden is about to flower.
I'm told that strange sensations in the leg can be caused by a pinched sciatic nerve, even if you don't feel any discomfort in your back where the nerve is supposedly pinched. I'm skeptical that this can be true, but I'm no doctor.

PCakes gives us a scare

2007-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Patty Cakes was riding to work today and got hit by an SUV. He's fine for the most part...just really banged up and sore. He's damn lucky it wasn't worse. It was Pat's fault...he rolled through a stop sign (instead of stopping) about a block from his house and the next thing he knows he's on the hood of a Jeep. The driver of the Jeep didn't see him in time to react, so it wasn't until after impact that the driver hit the brakes and Pat went tumbling off the hood. The shaken-up driver and a bunch of people from the neighborhood instantly tended to a stunned Patty Cakes and the driver called an ambulance. The EMTs checked Pat out and gave him the go-ahead to go home instead of to the hospital (he had someone help him get home). Since he took a bump to the head (and learned a valuable lesson about wearing a helmet) and Pete and I have the day off from work, we made him come over to the house so we can keep an eye on him. He's got some nasty bruises on his face, head, shin, and shoulder...he's going to be hurting in the morning, but he knows he's lucky that it wasn't worse. His mom said I had to fill in for her and do what she would do...snuggle with Pat all day. And his dad talked to Pete and made him give Pat a big bear hug for him. He gave us all a hell of a scare today.

Please wear your helmet.

random stuff

2007-06-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

A few things that have recently led to some life changes:

Buying/having a house. Turns out I find gardening more relaxing than blogging and sitting in traffic on Thursday nights trying to get to Blaine, doing 3 short races, and getting home at 10 and eating dinner at 10:30. I'll be back at the track sometime...when I'm tired of gardening. So while Skibby's comment to me at the NVGP Mpls Crit ("this must be the closest you've been to a bike in a while") made me feel guilty (even though it was not accurate), I got over it about two beer sips later.
Smithers' post about side view mirrors. Ironically, just before reading his post, I almost broke off one of my side mirrors. But seriously, you should give this side mirror setup a try. I'm still getting used to it, but it's pretty cool.
Riding my bike just to ride. It's a change in mindsight to not feel like I need to be training for anything and I love it. And the strange thing is that I think I'm actually riding harder than I ever did while "training". And doing social rides with friends is much more fun.

Some favorite quotes from the past week:

"This race just keeps getting faster every year and I just keep getting slower" - Pete, talking about the NVGP Mpls Crit.
"The truck is still big, but he's super nice, so I initiated a good night kiss." - a friend who shall remain nameless, referencing a second date with a cool guy who drives a big truck that scared her on the first date.
"Do you think that giving a 'thank you' card to a guy from a guy, when the card in question features purple as the dominant color, has homosexual overtones?" - a local female cyclist who shall also remain nameless, referencing a "thank you" card she bought for her boyfriend to send to another man.
"Graffitti is not just an eye-sore, it's a public safety problem" - a recording I heard while on hold with the City of Mpls when I was ordering a second recycling bin (I have to do double duty to make up for Donimator).

On a side note, 40 years is a long time to be married to someone...my parents should know. This weekend we're celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary. Congrats mom and dad!

Strats

First night of track racing

2007-05-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Highlights:

Having the whole LGR track racing contingent (and Swiggie) cheering us on.
My teammate Gwen and I going 1-2 in the Chariot race!
Nine women showing up for the first night of track racing.
Bumming a non-expired Clif Shot from DonimatOR- see #4 below .
Not crashing - see #5 below.
Not puking - see #6 below.
Not having to do a Miss-n-Out.
My teammate DW getting #20 for the season.
Gwen winning the very first race of the track season.
Drawing #1 in the starting line-up for both of my Chariot races.

Lowlights:

The longest drive ever to the track...bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to 694.
Track lung - this is common for the first night of track racing and it involves coughing up your lungs (it's 11:30 pm and I'm still coughing). Those of you who race the track know what I'm talking about.
Realizing that one of my Speedplay pedals was missing one of it's two screws after the first race of the night (and not having a replacement screw to use).
Starting to eat a GU that tasted sour - I looked at the expiration date and it said 12/05.
Watching someone pull out splinters with a tweezer from a racer's back.
Almost puking during the last lap of the last race - those of you who know me well know that I have a fear of vomiting, which is why I don't usually let myself get to the point of almost puking from exercise (this is not a good fear to have if you want to be a decent bike racer).
Eating dinner at 10:30 pm which consisted of a blueberry waffle, a banana, oriental rice crackers, and cranberry juice.
Being too wound up to sleep and blogging instead.
Thinking about the track hangover I'll have tomorrow.
Worrying that my legs won't recover for racing on Saturday night.

Strats out

In case you care...

2007-05-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm just barely keeping my head above water these days. I apologize to those of you whom I've failed to return calls and e-mails...give me two weeks and I'll get back to you.

I finally did my first bike race of the season last week. I lined up for Opus, rode a few laps amidst the sketchiness, and got my ass dropped after the first sprint on lap three. I sat up and was surprised to see a handful of people behind me - they all came by, a few yelling at me to get on their wheel. Feel free to disagree with me, but I am of the opinion that Opus is not for time trialing (either by yourself, or with one other person) in circles. I really think that unless you really have a chance of catching back up to the group, that you should sit up and wait for the field to come around - then jump back in and practice your group riding skills, positioning, helping out teammates, etc. It's a training race....you can ride circles by yourself any day of the week at Opus...Tuesday night races are for group riding practice. I don't care if I come in last because of it (or if I don't even show up as DFL in the results).

And so began another year of bike racing in the same fashion as the previous few years.

The Opus races are actually going on right now as I type. My race starts in just under 1.5 hrs. If I don't leave work in the next half hour, I won't make it. The model I'm running at work says it has over half an hour left to run...and after it's done running I have to compile the results...you do the math. I don't like to write about work on my blog, but I find it a bit ironic that the stormwater model that I'm running actually includes the whole Opus area. And the building I work in is also owned by Opus. I can't get away from Opus. It's a good thing I like saying (and typing) "Opus".

So it looks like my second race of the year will be at the track this Thursday! I'm actually really looking forward to it. Then there's another track race this weekend - I'm also excited for a weekend track event....they're even serving beer. There's apparently been a lot of drama at the track lately, so it should be an interesting week of racing.

The rest of this week and weekend will be spent packing. I close on my condo next week, and that same day we close on our new house...we're pretty excited, but we've got a lot to do before we move.

I'm guessing that this summer I'll be doing about half of the bike races that I did last year, maybe even less. I just don't have the time or energy to keep up the bike training/racing schedule that I did last year, and having a house certainly isn't going to help matters.

Model's done running...gotta check to see if Opus is flooding.

Opus.

SOLD

2007-04-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

After 17 days on the market, we have a buyer for the condo! I'm so surprised and relieved that it happened so fast that I'm not even stressing over the fact that we close on May 24th and we do not have a house to move into yet. No big deal, we just have to find a house in the next 30 days or we'll be crashing in a Pod with our stuff. We actually found a house we like and might make an offer on, but someone told me it's in Smithers' neighborhood, so we'll have to reevaluate.

I got more good news last week - Chuck called to tell me that my new bike is supposed to show up at the shop this week. Holla!

Once I get my new bike all dialed-in and we get this home selling/buying/moving business all taken care of, I may not have any more excuses for not racing. So from now on, I only have one excuse - "I just didn't feel like racing". But it was fun to ride out to Opus last night to watch the races. Unfortunately, I missed the first few races, so I didn't get to see some of my LGR teammates. But Gilby got some points in the women's race, Dis got cross-eyed in the 1/2/3's race and dropped out, Fil may have gotten cross-eyed but stayed in the race, and SR and the Little Guy hung in with the rest of the pack. So LGR was representin'. The Little Guy's looking really aero now that he's sporting the summer look - and he must be stealth because I didn't see him once throughout the whole 1/2/3's race. Then there was Patty Cakes - I know first-hand that he's been training his ass off all winter/spring, and it shows. I don't know anyone who trains harder or wants it more than PCakes. The kid's not lying when he says he's finally riding like a man. And the whole GP team is riding well - Pete and Marcotte are going to be fun to watch this year.

That's all I got.

blog bonk

2007-04-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize to my five loyal blog readers about my blog having the bonk lately. As many of you know, we've been busy getting the condo ready to sell, which turned out to be about ten times more work that we had originally planned on. My parents were the true heroes of our condo prep - they did a lot of the hard work, and we couldn't have done it without them - so big props to the parents! While we've been working on the condo, we've also been looking for houses, and researching mortgages and brokers, and all that other fun stuff that goes along with selling and buying a home. One thing we haven't been doing is riding our bikes. But Pete started stressing out a few weeks ago (which happens when he's not riding much), and that motivated him to get riding again and he even went to Iowa last weekend to race. The good news is that our place is officially on the market - so if you know of anyone looking for a sweet cycling-friendly 2-bedroom/2-bath condo near the bike paths, let me know and I'll send you the details.

The Bonk Counter

2007-03-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

As Sickboy, and others, have recently pointed out:

"Strats, the bonk counter has been at "1" for a damn long time... have you developed the cure for the common bonk?"

I'm glad people have been asking, because while I haven't developed the cure for the common bonk, I have discovered a preventative measure - it turns out that if you don't ride your bike for a long period of time (or involve yourself in any sort of exerting activity) you will not bonk. However, I must forewarn you that there are many side effects to not participating in activities that can make you bonk - the worst of which include fat-ass syndrome, extreme bitchiness, and depression.

But no worries, I predict the bonk counter will start climbing within the next week...and it's not going to be pretty.

That's hot

2007-03-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

Check out the new LGR website if you haven't already!

Rocky mtn high

2007-02-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

No bikes.

Just backpacks, snowshoes, bad headaches, gasping for breath, beautiful scenery, a sweet log cabin, good friends, and good times.

Four days at 9,000 to 12,000 feet totally kicked my ass...and I loved it.

How do you know when you need new hiking boots? When your heels still look like this 4 days after hiking, it's a pretty good sign that new boots would be a good idea:

Doping in NASCAR?

2007-02-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Fuel Doping that is.

NASCAR actually has quite the inspection process to bust cheaters...and unlike cycling, it's not a "random" test, or a test just for those who are getting good results...every car is tested before and after every race.

Is this the future of competitive cycling?

2007-02-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

Would you be willing to go through this to help the fight against doping in cycling?

GTB Product Props #1

2007-02-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

This cold weather is making me stir crazy. Yet I just can't motivate myself to leave the house and go to the gym, so I've opted to stay in, watch tv or dvds, drink wine, and blog a little more. Last weekend Pete and I headed to the family cabin for some R & R, and I decided to pack only my most comfortable, warm, cozy clothes. So I started thinking about all of my favorite clothes, shoes, and chick products. And so begins my first installment of "Got the Bonk Product Props"...giving props to all of those products that have generally made my life more comfortable. In most cases, these will be products I've come across after trying similar products that I didn't like.

Since most of the people reading this blog are cyclists, it only seems appropriate for my first props to go to a cycling product...and that product is Craft clothing. I don't know what I ever did before I discovered Craft base layers. I had heard about Craft clothing, but when I looked into buying some, I realized it was pretty expensive, so I put it off. Then one day a few years ago, I went to Hoigaard's only to discover they were having a big sale, including a sale on Craft base layers. So I bought a Pro Zero Zip Mock base layer, and my cycling life has never been the same. Once I tried my zip mock, I wanted more - I did some Internet research, and found discounted Craft clothing online at Sierra Trading Post, so I loaded up. Craft base layers keep you warm when it's cold and cool when it's warm...they're amazing. And, I love my Craft winter wind tights too...Pete gave them to me for my birthday a few years ago, and that was the first winter that I was able to ride outside...my legs never get cold with those things on!

Here's a quick bonus product prop: after trying a plethora of saddle bags, I finally found the perfect one for my needs - the Pedro's Micro Blowout Bag - it only holds the bare essentials, and stays out of the way...I love it.

Possible future product props:

Cycling: shoes, sunglasses, chamois cream, sunscreen, helmet, shaving cream & razor, etc
Chick stuff: moisturizers, makeup, shampoo, clothes, shoes, undergarments, etc
Home: kitchen utensils/appliances, vacuum cleaners, coffee, alcohol, etc

It's getting to be a long winter and I'm bored, so if you have a favorite product you think I should try out, send me an e-mail: gotthebonk@gmail.com. But be prepared for me to blog about it whether I like it or not.

I hope it warms up soon...before this blog goes to complete shit.

Strats

From the comments section

2007-02-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

Lynne posted a comment on my last post (which was about waif-like models) that I think is worth following-up on, because I agree, it is a serious issue. She says:

Serious issue here. Come on, you can't tell me that you didn't grow up with the pressure to be so thin that your bones protrude? All the fashion magazines I remember as a teenager emphasized this image. That has an impact. There must be other women out there who were exposed to that (80's and early 90's) and have a hard time accepting it's not a good look? How many of us have checked to see if our hipbones stick out further than our stomachs? How many of us have felt better about ourselves if we looked in the mirror and saw our clavicles without shoving our shoulders forward? How many of us permanently now stand with shoulders hunched forward from practicing that as a teenager to get "The Look"? If you can say that you weren't and aren't influenced by that, I think you are in the minority. Really, would you look at a realistic nude photo of a woman which shows her real cottage cheese thighs and/or cottage cheese butt and think it looks better than the woman who's so thin that doesn't happen? I'm just being honest here; I think people right now want to jump on the righteous bandwagon, but it's not necessarily the look they would prize for themselves (I'm not saying you are one, I'm speaking more of the fashion industry right now).

I understand that Lynne isn't referring solely to my opinions, but I thought I'd share my experiences on this topic. First, let me clarify a few things about my teenage years. I can only speak for myself here, but I wasn't really exposed to many fashion magazines as a teenager, and we didn't even have cable t.v so I wasn't exposed to any of those fashion shows on MTV and the like. Don't get me wrong, I knew that being thin was much more fashionable than being a "healthy" midwesterner...I wasn't that naive, but generally speaking, fashion was not something I knew much about. Plus, as a pre-teen, I was one of those sporty, lanky, skinny kids - so while I may have been teased for wearing my Lee jeans from Fleet Farm instead of the much more cool/fashionable Guess or Esprit jeans from the store formerly known as Dayton's, I was never teased about my weight (which I know can be traumatic and life-changing for some kids). But once I hit puberty, I started getting all kinds of curves that I wasn't comfortable with, and I added quite a bit of poundage. But I can honestly say that I've never looked in a mirror to see if my hip bones stuck out further than my stomach (although now I will!) - again, don't get me wrong, I was certainly self-conscious about my new curves, my new ponch and my new weight as a teenager (and as an adult), but I guess I never knew about the hip bone/stomach relationship. Nor did I ever once pay attention to my clavicles. I recognize that teenagers are much different now - it's clear they have much more pressure on them to be thin and fashionable. And perhaps I was in the minority as a teenager - if so, I give all the credit to my parents and my friends during those years. My parents never pressured me to be thin, but my family was very active and there wasn't any time of the year that I wasn't heavily involved in sports. And all of my friends were the same way. We didn't spend much time (if any?) looking at fashion magazines or shopping for tube tops, mostly because we never had time - we went to school, went to volleyball/basketball/soccer/softball/etc practice, traveled for games and tournaments, and a lot of us had jobs (I started working when I was 16). And for the record, when I was in high school, I weighed 20 - 25 pounds more than I do now...same goes for a lot of my friends from junior high/high school. In fact, the nights we had away-games during basketball season, we'd go to Subway before we got on the bus to travel, and we'd each buy a "meal deal" - foot-long sub, chips, cookie and a soda - dinner #1. Then we'd play our game, and go out to eat at a fast-food joint on our way home, so we'd eat dinner #2...and ice cream. So long-story short, no, I did not grow up with the pressure to be so thin that my bones protruded. And I'm extremely thankful for that. That kind of pressure came later in life for me...the college years...although I still don't recall ever wanting my bones to protrude. I lost a lot of weight during those years, but those were the unhealthiest years of my life.

And yes, while I hate to admit it, it's true that I'd rather see a nude photo of a thin, non-cottage-cheesy woman than an average/normal woman with some hail damage. It sucks that I feel that way, and it sucks that woman expect men to think differently as well, but it's the truth. But here's the thing - I'd much rather see a nude photo of a fit, muscular female cyclist (or other athlete) than of any thin model with zero muscle-tone. And I'm going to guess that even most of the men reading this blog would agree. (e.g. Do you see the photos that Skibby posts on his blog? He's always posting pictures of hot women, but rarely are they uber-thin and waif-like.)

It's true that there is a lot of pressure for women to be thin - I don't think anyone, male or female, would argue that. And yes, that pressure can sometimes be devastating for women, especially teenagers. But I think there's a huge difference between being healthy-thin, and model-thin. My point for posting that article was that the women in those pictures looked sickly-thin/emaciated, and it's hard for me to fathom that some clothing designers and fashion magazines actually find that attractive and desireable. So I give props to anyone in the fashion industry, a la the aforementioned Spaniards, that are trying to take relatively small steps to make that industry more healthy (e.g. requiring a BMI higher than 18).

I'm curious what kind of "pressures-to-be-thin" other women have experienced. Anyone care to share?

And then there's the obesity epidemic in our country...an even bigger problem...but I'll save that for another day.

Strats

Bring it

2007-02-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

I'm sure all of my loyal blog readers are relieved that NASCAR season is finally upon us. Yes, that's right, this weekend is the Bud Shootout, a pre-season race for all of last year's pole winners (plus previous Bud Shootout champions), and guess who's on the pole? DJ in his Prius, er, Camry. So it's time to see how the controversial Toyotas will fare in their NASCAR debut. Not sure how I feel about DJ's paint scheme for this race - although it is kind of LGResque with the crazy bright-colored numbers. There are only 21 drivers in the Shootout (as opposed to 43 drivers in a normal race), and both of "my guys" are in it. So are Dis's guy, SR's guy, Kongsley's guy, and Petey Pablo's guy. And I think it's safe to say we'll all be rooting for the Little Guy, the man with the best hair in NASCAR, Boris Said. (Note: I knew Dis was a Said-Head, but I didn't know he had taken it this far last year.)

Shake and Bake.

On a different note (which couldn't be any more different than NASCAR), I read an interesting article today titled "Why Skinny Models Could Be Making Us Fat" - as you can probably guess, the article is about all of those waifs you see on runways and in fashion magazines. There were also some photos associated with this article (click on the link to "Photos: Dangerously Thin Models") - if you don't have the time or interest to read the article, just look at the pictures because they say more than the article. I've never seen so many protruding clavicles - and I've seen my fair share of broken ones after bike crashes (including my own). The article says that models weigh about 23% less than the average woman. I did some follow-up research after reading this article, and read that many models are about 5'10" tall, and weigh about 110 lbs. Holy shit, that's crazy. I also read that when they want to lose weight fast, they go on Diet Coke and lettuce diets. Are you kidding me? The Spaniards were on to something last fall when they decided to ban models with BMI's of less than 18 (i.e. if a model is 5'9", she must weigh more than 123 lbs).

I wonder what Pat's BMI is? He was just telling me last night that he's getting fat. Maybe he meant "phat".

I gotta go eat...three heads of lettuce and 3 diet cokes may start to fill me up. Sounds like a good recipe for a big 'ol bonk.

I'm bonking

2007-01-31T15:52:00.000-08:00

I'm bonking and I'm not even on my bike.

I had a hard workout week last week that ended with a 3-day workout bender - hard night at the gym on Thursday, my first spinning class ever (taught by a friend) on Friday night, and a 3-hour ride outside on Saturday morning when it was crazy windy and the windchill was biting. I followed that up with too much alcohol over an extremely fun dinner with friends on Saturday night and then I hit the wall on Sunday. And I've spent this last week fighting a looming scratchy throat and headaches while working long hours at work trying to meet a deadline. I've been drinking the EmerGen-C's and tea, and sucking down Halls Defense like nobody's business, but I keep waking up feeling the same. I'm starting to think it's stress induced.

The one thing I really dislike about bike racing is that I always feel guilty when I'm not training in some way, shape, or form. It pisses me off. I shouldn't feel guilty about that, but I totally do. Unfortunately, the nature of my work requires that I occasionally have to work some long hours to meet deadlines. I like my job, so that doesn't bother me, except for the fact that long hours at work is not conducive to training. So I find myself stressing out that I'm trying to meet a deadline, and then stressing out that I'm not working out, and then stressing out that I'm stressed out about bike races that aren't until April! I'm just not good at this whole "balance" thing - I honestly don't know how people can balance a full-time job, families, and training/bike racing all at once. And I even live with someone who seems to do a much better job with it than me, and even gets some good race results come racing season. I just get tired of not having a life outside of work or cycling. I miss my old life sometimes. And I'm just a Cat 4 - is it really worth all the time and stress just to be able to keep up with the other Cat 4's?

There are times when I go without riding or training for a few days, and I enjoy the things I get to do in lieu of sweating my ass off, and those are the times that I tell myself that I need to be done with this whole bike racing thing soon. Then I'll go for a ride that weekend, and I'll remember why I'm not ready to give it up just yet. But damn, I feel like I'm too old to be trying to squeeze so many things into one day, one week, one year.

But today Dis was the savior because he sent out the final design for our sweet new LGR kits! So this morning I may have been ready to give up bike racing, but then I saw the kits, and I realized that I'm really excited about this season, even if it could be my last.

Morning

2007-01-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

They say you need 8 hrs of sleep...I need at least 9.
I'm definitely not a morning person, but I'm not really a night owl either.
I don't wake up to an alarm unless absolutely necessary...
Instead, I just sleep until I'm ready to get up, which is usually between 8 and 8:30.
When I do need to set the alarm, I wake up many times during the night in panic that I've overslept.

I always maximize my sleep time - I sleep as late as necessary, then get up and get ready to go to work in record female time.
During the work week, I don't mess around in the morning - while I want to ease into my day mentally, I physically just want to get up and out of the house as quickly as possible.

So when I finally get up in the morning, I want to be left alone for that mental ease.
I don't like sharing the bathroom or the closet - stay out of my way or deal with the consequences.
I don't like morning chit-chat (at home or at work) until the coffee's had a chance to kick in.
I purposely wait until my roommate is gone in the morning before getting out of bed...it's better for both of us that way.

I'm lucky to have a job with flexible hours.
They seem to understand that letting their employees work the hours that suit them best is much more efficient, and the company benefits from that.
But I still have to bill my 40 hrs every week, so that means that I normally work later at night.
Which is fine and dandy until race season rolls around, and I have to be at Opus by 5:30.

I actually worry about being a bad mother because mornings are so painful, and kids don't care what time it is.
People with kids say your schedule will change, but I'm skeptical.

One recent morning, I decided to go to the gym before work because I had something going on that night.
It was a good idea in theory.
At one point during my workout (at 6:30 am), I thought how nice it would be to do morning workouts on a regular basis.
By the time I was done, I thoroughly regretted my poor decision.
I could hardly function all day, and that two hours of missed sleep affected me for two days after.

I'm sure there are plenty of non-morning people out there who embrace their anti-morning-ness, and just deal with it.
But I've always wanted to be a morning person, so I can't seem to let it go.
Yet I'm apparently not willing to do anything about it.
So perhaps it's time to embrace.
I'll think about it over coffee.

What the?

2007-01-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

In the past few months, I've had four friends get their car stolen - 3 Honda Civics stolen from Minneapolis, and one Honda Accord stolen just today in St. Paul. And a few weeks ago, a co-worker was car-jacked (at gunpoint) in Uptown. And a friend of a friend was also car-jacked recently in Hopkins (the guy opened his jacket to show that he had a gun). What the hell? And then there's all the bike theft...including one of mine a while back. And every night the news stations report that there was another murder. I've heard that crime in Minneapolis is significantly up, although I'm not finding any really good valid statistics through Google. Smithers must know. Maybe Tuffy? Someone please provide me with the statistics that I'll regret having asked for. Is it really getting as bad as it seems or am I just being paranoid (I've been known to do that)? I realize crime in Mpls isn't half as bad as some other large cities, so don't give me that whole lecture on growing up too sheltered. I'm just saying that it seems to have gotten noticeably worse in the past year, and I'm just wondering how much worse.

Happy New Year

2006-12-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

Here's what I look forward to in 2007, in no particular order:

Moving into a house with a lot of bike storage
Helping my nephews learn to ride their new bikes
Celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary
Racing for Little Guy Racing
Finding a new hobby that has nothing to do with bike racing
Downer's Grove
Superweek
Girls Weekend in WI with all of my lady friends
Snow-shoeing with friends in CO (since they actually have some snow)
Traveling to Europe again
Cheering for the #44 and #9
A new Masi!
Reading more stories about The Donimator
Scrubs

Some things I'm not looking forward to:

Finding and buying a house
Having most of my weekends filled with training and/or racing
GU to avoid The Bonk
Trying to keep my blog updated more than once a week
Karla moving
Riding circles at Opus
Temps below 20 degrees
Trying to get back in shape after two weeks of non-stop eating and no exercise

Here's to a happy and safe New Year!

Strats

"Tim M"

2006-12-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Karla meets coaster boy Tim M.

Tim M and cousin Derek meet the women behind Karla's phone service.

I found this picture from Karla's party last year....those two guys look suspiciously familiar...

Sunday's ride

2006-12-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

~4 hrs of riding, 1 flat tire, and one bonk.

I wasn't very happy about Pete taking this "aftermath" picture at the time, but I was too tired to do anything about it.

But it was a beautiful day to be out riding with LGR and friends, so it was totally worth it.

MCF & related topics

2006-12-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

So there's quite the discussion going on about the MCF on some of the local blogs. At the risk of opening myself up to much ridicule, I'm going to chime in on this discussion here at Got the Bonk, but before I do, I'd like to list a few of my qualifications for the skeptics out there - my resume doesn't quite look like Skibby's or Smithers', but it's better than nothing:

I am a MN Cat 4 bike racer on the new Grumpy's/LGR club
I volunteered for a plethora of races before I even started bike racing, and I have volunteered for a bunch since I started racing
I am the co-founder of the local Velo Bella club and I promoted the State Crit/Campus Crit for two years as part of that club (and helped promote a third race, the Withrow TT)
I attended almost all of the MCF meetings while on Velo Bella (~ 3 yrs), and never once left early (not that I have a problem with that)
I helped start Midwest Women's Cycling Made Real (MWCMR) last year, and I kept track of all of the points for that series throughout the season
I am involved with planning for MWCMR for next year
I was part of the 3-person committee who started StartBikeRacing.com (and I created the original website which is now being updated by StevenCX)

So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think I'm entitled to an opinion or two, and I'd like to share a woman's opinion since it seems most of the people posting comments on this MCF topic are men:

While I agree that the MCF should do more to help race promoters, specifically first-time promoters and/or new clubs, I think that promoting/encouraging new racers, especially women and juniors, still deserves some attention from the MCF.

Women's racing here in MN is not like men's racing. Imagine rolling up to the line for your very first race, along with only 10- 15 other women, and when the race starts and you're trying to clip into your pedals newbie-style, Teresa attacks. Your race is done before it really even started, and this is not uncommon for a women's race here. Women's Open races do not promote growth in women's cycling. Or imagine doing an Opus race with only 6 - 12 other racers - there really isn't any such thing as "sitting in", and "tactics" rarely come into play (unless 5 women on one team are ganging up on the other 4 women who are all on different teams). The MCF was involved in helping start MWCMR which provided Cat 4 only races for women. Like Cat 4/5 races for men, women's Cat 4 races are an integral part in growing women's cycling, and while MWCMR has made some progress and hopefully will continue to make progress, the MCF has helped make that happen...both through funding and support.
While the StartBikeRacing.com initiative hasn't gone as far as we originally planned, I still think there's more that can be done with it, and it could eventually serve it's original purpose - to provide general cycling information (e.g. licenses, rules, types of races, etc.), to provide information for new racers to make racing less intimidating, and most importantly, to connect new racers with local clubs. We did recognize that getting people on local clubs will give them the support system and encouragement that they need. The StartBikeRacing.com initiative has also been funded and supported by the MCF. (note - sometimes it's difficult for a lot of the experienced racers to remember what it was like to be a newbie)
Juniors - I'm no expert on juniors racing, but there are currently very few racing in MN. Why is that? I'm not sure what the answer is here - but I do know that I was a very athletic kid, yet I wasn't exposed to serious bike racing until I was in my mid-to-late twenties. Cycling is expensive, it's not a high school sport or even a club (with a few exceptions), and very few kids get exposed to it. The junior discussion used to come up a lot at MCF meetings, and the bottom line was just that there were no "adults" willing to volunteer their time to help out with the juniors program (after Banning left). Dag has done a great job this year, but I'd like to see the MCF sink something more into a juniors program - any ideas?

Race promotion

I think it's great that the MCF is willing to consider the "First Time Race Loan" that Super Rookie had proposed. When we first started Velo Bella and wanted to promote the state crit, we had $0 in our bank account (like Cat6, VB doesn't have membership dues). A few teammates and I had to front a lot of the money with hopes that we'd be able to get that money back. Amongst many costs, the police for the race (which is required by the U of M) cost $600. We were lucky enough to have a big cash sponsor (which was awesome, but is obviously not the norm), but we didn't get that money until after the race. That first year, I was truly amazed/overwhelmed by the costs and efforts that go into race promotion.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing the first year I promoted the state crit - but I was lucky enough to have one of the previous promoters hold my hand through the whole thing. I think it would be great if the MCF did more for promoters, but what are your ideas? They've been doing the "Promoter's Clinics", and I attended one of those before promoting the state crit the second time around, and I thought it was really helpful...so I'd like to see the MCF continue that, but what else? If you think that race promotion is the biggest thing the MCF should be working on, what are your ideas?
I don't have any great ideas (just yet anyway) for doing more for race promoter's, but I'd love to answer any questions about race promotion.

Personally, I'd like to see the money that is spent on the MCF banquet go towards other initiatives - race promoter clinic(s), juniors, MWCMR, StartBikeRacing.com, etc. As I mentioned above, a lot of these things have been funded the past few years and I think the MCF is on the right track, but could do more. Do we really need a MCF banquet every year when there's other seemingly more important things to fund? It seems like the banquets are just for those people who feel strongly about ROY, CRY, TTOY, and TOY...but I admit I could be wrong about that. I have been to the last few banquets, and while Bob Roll was awesome, I think one really good speaker every 2-3 years (if that) would be sufficient.

One last thing - I know this has been said before, but if you've been to the MCF meetings over the years, you know there's one common theme - there are not enough volunteers to help make all of the great ideas come to fruition. Say what you will about the MCF, but remember that everyone on the MCF board is a volunteer - and most of those people have been volunteering for years. I'm by no means saying that there's not room for change/improvement...of course there is, but cut these guys some slack.

Strats

NYC

2006-12-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't been riding (or blogging obviously). I've been working and hanging out with my sis and her husband in NYC.

Where's Waldo?

The infamous tree.

(Dis)pencer's favorite car.

Three rich NASCAR guys.

One rich multiple racecar owner,
two not-even-close-to-being-rich
multiple bike owners.

Since Pete, my sister, and I were standing behind the #48 car, we ended up getting in a bunch of the official photos from the photo shoot outside the Waldorf Astoria before the big championship dinner (Pete's in a white t-shirt, I'm in black, and my sister is the one in the cream-colored sweater next to me). The funny thing is that we just happened upon this photo shoot. Needless to say, I was so bummed that Kasey didn't win the championship...or anybody besides Jimmie Johnson for that matter. But it was still kind of cool. Jimmie is short in real life (which must mean that Jeff Gordon is approximately half my size) and he seemed really awkward, and his wife needs to eat some donuts. Rick Hendrick was kind enough to take a photo with us. And as soon as he turned his back, Pete informed me that Rick Hendrick was the recipient of a presidential pardon (by Clinton). Sweet.

And you thought NASCAR was over...

2006-12-01T20:24:00.001-08:00

Recognize anyone in these photos (besides Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus)?

These photos are from Yahoo.com. More personal photos to come...(Dis)pencer should have been here.

The beginning of an era...

2006-11-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Since the Little Guy recently got hit by a car while riding his bike, I figured this would be the perfect time to honor him by revealing the much-anticipated sweet new LGR kits. If this kit doesn't scream "Little Guy", I'm not sure what would. Like Super Rookie said, "Stars. Baby. Stars."

The end of an era

2006-11-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

The 88's getting left behind, but I still look forward
to watching DJ racing in a brown Prius (or whatever)
next season!

2006 racing season revisited

2006-11-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

After witnessing the MN State Championship Cross race last Sunday, I'm happy to announce that the 2006 MN bike racing season is officially over. Props to everyone who did the race on Sunday...that is a hard course. I rode out there early Sunday morning (before the race) with Pete and Patty Cakes with the intention of doing a hot lap, but I decided that there was no need for me to climb the hill, run through the Creek, or run up the stairs. I thoroughly enjoyed watching a few cross races this year - don't get me wrong, I missed not racing CX just a little bit - but generally speaking, I'm glad I had the cx season off, and I had much more fun watching than I would have if I had been racing.

Looking back on the 2006 racing season, there are definitely a few races that stand out for me. The highlight of my season was my first (and only) win at the track. Granted, a few of the big dogs were missing from the women's field that night, but it was still the highlight of my season (and my cycling career) since I had never won a race before (and haven't won one since). Another race I really enjoyed was the early season crit I did in Neenah Wisconsin in May. It was the first long crit I'd ever done, and it was one of my best races. I also thoroughly enjoyed the big pack riding experiences at Superweek...I'll definitely be headed back next year. What is strange is that my best/favorite races all took place out of town (with the exception of my one glorious night of track racing). I'm not sure what that means, but I'm hoping to do better at the local races next year. And while crits are my favorite, I realize I'm going to need to train better for road races as well.

Speaking of the 2007 racing season, I'm currently in southern MN recruiting for LGR. More on that later.

On an unrelated yet equally important note - for those of you who enjoyed my blog more than usual when I was in France, check out Eye of the Beerholder - Chadley now has his own blog, and I'm looking forward to it. Although it took him a month and a half to get it going, so I'm a little nervous about how often he's going to post...he may need some encouragement.

Strats

Car-buying Part 2: The Research

2006-11-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

The first step of my research was to consult Consumer Reports, so I paid my $26 annual subscription fee, and went to work. I found the information to be very helpful and was amazed at how accurate it was. For example, the Honda Civic is one of Consumer Reports highest ranked cars. The only thing that was rated "poor" on the Civic was the exhaust systems for '97s, '98s, and '99s. I just happen to have a '99, and I had to replace my exhaust system a few years ago. And that's the only problem I've ever really had. The new car I was looking at was a Consumer Reports "recommended" car and after reading their rankings and road test results, I was more than satisfied.

The next step was Edmunds.com - and this is where I found the mother load of car-buying advice. If anyone reading this is considering buying a car, I highly recommend that you read the series of articles on Edmunds.com called "Confessions of a Car Salesman" - this dude went "undercover" for Edmunds and became a car salesman and the information he provides in this series of articles is extremely valuable and sometimes almost unbelievable. One of the things I learned about in these articles was that car dealerships now have "Internet Sales Managers" (I realize this may be old news to some of you, but I haven't bought a car since 1999) - and your typical floor salesman does not like it when someone enters the dealership and asks for the "fleet manager" or "Internal sales manager" because typically that means that the customer has done all of their Internet research. Which leads me to step 3...

Step 3 was using Edmunds.com "Free Price Quote" tool. Using this tool, I just entered in the make and model of the car and my zip code, then all of the local dealerships that sell the car I was looking for popped up. Then I just entered some info (like my e-mail address) and choose which dealers I wanted to send my "price quote" to, and hit "submit". Within hours, all of the dealers I had chosen starting sending me their price quotes via e-mail. And I couldn't believe it...their initial quotes were $1,000 less than the sticker price at the dealership. While the price quotes were coming in, I used Edmunds to get a "True Market Value" (TMV) report. This report lists the MSRP price of the car (including any add-ons you may want) and the destination fee. The TMV also lists the invoice price for the car (and any add-ons) so that you have an idea about what the dealer paid.

Step 4 - I started e-mailing the Internet Sales managers back. In their initial e-mails, they all said "have you driven the car yet?" and "we should set up an appointment for you to come in and drive the car and talk" - they were trying to lure me to the dealership, which is exactly what I didn't want to do since I realized that I was actually feeling like I was the one in control. So in my responses, I started dropping names - e.g. "I know you said you were giving me the best price in the state, but dealer X offered me this much lower, and dealer Y offered me the same price plus a bonus package." One dealership started getting whiny about what the other dealership was offering, and the others kept trying to sweeten the deal....and this was all via e-mail. I had everything in writing. It was awesome. And I was actually having fun.

The 5th step would turn out to be the key step in my research process - I phoned a friend. I called a friend/car saleswoman and I talked to her about the offers I was getting and she told me exactly what to do. Long story short, I offered to buy the car from one dealership for $200 less than invoice (plus some discounts on my add-ons), and much to my surprise, they accepted my offer. In the end, I got the car and add-ons for about $2,000 less than the sticker price. I was satisfied.

Still to come...Financing with Mr. Slippery and Lessons Learned.

LGR update

2006-11-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a few more questions, so I thought I'd share:

What do the LGR kits look like?
Oh, they're cool. Think they're not? They're very celestial.

Does the Little Guy really have hairy legs?
You tell me:

I haven't seen Tuffy out riding for a while, is he doing some secret training?
Only the monkey knows.

So I see that Time is one of your sponsors, does that mean Smithers is joining LGR?
While that would be a natural fit, I think Smithers prefers to race against Super Rookie at the track so that he has something to talk smack about. But maybe if Ped joined, Smithers would reconsider.

What do some of the LGR member's tattoos look like?
I'm glad you asked. Guess the LGR team members:

Are you really getting a tattoo?
No mom. No Pat. But I would like a NASCAR belt buckle.

What's the most number of piercings that a LGR team member has?
I haven't taken a poll yet, but I'm told there's one team member that has eight...so that might be tough to beat. Although rumor has it Gilby's going for nine.

Car-Buying Part 1: Let the games begin

2006-11-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Four days ago, I dreaded the idea of buying a new car. I've only bought a car from a dealership once before, and it was the cliche car buying experience - slimy salesmen throwing out phrases like "trust me, you're getting a great deal", "you should definitely get the extended warranty", "I need to talk to my manager", "okay fine, we'll throw in the floor mats for free", "you're not going to find a better deal anywhere else", and "want to go water-skiing with us?" (okay, the last one wasn't typical, but I was actually asked that). That was about 7 years ago and I had to take my dad with me to help with the negotiating part because I was so nervous about getting ripped off.

So it's no surprise that I was not looking forward to going through this process again. But last weekend, Pete convinced me to go test drive the car I've been eyeing up for a while now. Having been through the process many more times than me, Pete is much more experienced at it - but he's also much more cynical about it. The second a car salesman starting walking towards us, Pete put his head down and mumbled to me "quick, walk away before he talks to us". When the salesman asked if he could help us, I politely told him that we were just looking, and to his credit, he left us alone. But when you actually want to test drive a car, you have no choice but to deal with Mr. Slimy Salesman - but much to our surprise, we got to deal with Ms. Friendly-and-Not-Too-Pushy saleschick. Pete and I both drove the car, and really liked it, so when we got back to the dealership, they got us right where they wanted us - in the office talking numbers. I actually liked Ms. Friendly-and-Not-Too-Pushy, and felt like I might actually be able to buy a car from her eventually...but then her evil twin, Ms. Used-Car-Sales pushed her way into the office. Ms. Used-Car-Sales was the cliche car salesperson - smoker with raspy voice, lots of bling, pushy, annoying, and not a good listener (e.g. her-"what color do you want?", me-"black", her-"we don't have a black one, but we have a yellow one", me-
I definitely don't want yellow", her-"well we have a red one too", me-"I'm actually set on black", her-"well that limits your options", me (to myself)-"no shit, that's why I want to buy a new one"). By the time Ms. Used-Car-Sales was done yammering, we'd had enough of the process for the day. And fortunately, since I wasn't in a hurry to buy, it was quite easy to walk out (knowing that they'd be contacting me soon anyway).

Having test driven the car, I decided it was time to do some Internet research. And I was amazed at what I found...

For (Dis)pencer

2006-11-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays!

p.s. the ears were too difficult.

Brick Tamland would be proud

2006-10-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I recently bought a "Wireless Forecast Projec tion Station" -i.e., an indoor/outdoor thermometer/weather forecasting dual alarm clock that projects the time and outdoor temperature on the ceiling. I've been wanting a projection alarm clock for a while now, and I found this one for half price at SierraTradingPost.com. So I finally set up my new clock yesterday, and I love this thing.

One of the reasons I wanted one of these fancy weather stations is because I'm terrible at dressing for those weekly weekend group rides - doesn't matter if it's spring, summer, fall, or winter - I never seem to dress appropriately. So now when I wake up in the morning, I'll know exactly what the temperature is and I'm hoping that will help me figure out how to dress for riding. Of course, the obvious major flaw in this plan is the fact that when it's less than 20 degrees outside in winter, I'll know before I even get out of bed...which will make it extra difficult to get out of bed and motivate myself to go ride. This leads me to my next issue - finding good winter cycling clothing. Over the past few winters, I've found a few pieces of winter cycling clothing that have significantly improved my winter riding experiences - Craft windstopper tights, Louis Garneau lobster gloves; and a super warm Velo Bella winter jacket. I have some Castelli booties (that I use with toe warmer packets), but I don't think they're that great - I'm looking for something that will keep my feet a little warmer. I'm also looking for some medium-weight bib tights - the kind of tights you can wear this time of year. My Craft tights are awesome, but they're too warm to wear in the 30 - 50 degree weather. Suggestions? Favorite booties and bib tights? Any other cold weather gear that a cyclist in MN can't be without? Bring it.

"this guy isn't competitive stripe"

2006-10-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Attention NASCAR fans/members of LGR:

Did you read "We Wonder" this week? Mark Spoor was wondering whether or not Denny Hamlin should remove the rookie stripe from his car, and he says:

Isn't it time the rookie stripe comes off?

It's not like the other drivers see the stripe on his car and think, "Oh boy, I better watch out. This guy might not know what he's doing."

Instead of a rookie stripe, there should be a "this guy isn't competitive stripe." We all know there are more than a few non-rookies out there that should have some sort of warning label on their car.

Talk amongst yourselves.

I like the idea of the "this guy isn't competitive stripe" (see Michael Waltrip) in NASCAR. So who do you think is most deserving of the "TGICS"? My favorite non-competitive guy is Hermie Sadler - family dinners at the holidays must be rough for that guy.

I also like the idea of bringing the rookie stripe to bike racing - first year racers should have a big yellow stripe on their helmets. Or maybe they should have a rookie flag for their bike.

19 going on 40

2006-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Head over to Patty Cakes's blog and wish the future of MN Cycling a Happy Birthday!

Photos courtesy of www.skinnyski.com

For Skibby

2006-10-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Let me just preface this by saying "I got nothing"...i.e., I have nothing that interesting to be blogging about lately. However, since Skibby seems to think I'm slacking here at 'got the bonk', I'll post just for the sake of posting (see Super Rookie). I should also point out that there is just one of me - I do not have a list of "contributors" (see Skibbysez). Nor am I a football fan (see The Donimator). Nor am I a baseball fan (see Tuffy Town). I haven't gotten my car stolen just yet (see Karla!). I'm really not that good with a can of spraypaint (see (Dis)pencer). I didn't go to track nationals (see Ugly Bike). And let's face it - I just don't have half as much to say as some other bloggers (see Smithers). Although I apparently have way more to say than at least two local bloggers (see Pure Jenius and Ladyvelo).

But since Skibby wants to know what I've been up to for the past week, I'll go ahead and bore everyone with a few details.

I didn't really do much last week - I've been enjoying the last few weeks of my "rest month". I've been taking the time to cook good meals, drink some wine, and I've been trying to take it easy so my hip heals. My doc has ordered up a cortisone shot if/when I need/want it.

On a more serious note, my grandma who has been in the nursing home for several years has taken a turn for the worse after a series of strokes. My mom got the call last week that grandma wouldn't make it through the weekend (this is not the first time she's gotten that call). But grandma rallied once again, and assuming she makes it through this week, I'll have a chance to see her next weekend. It's difficult because she hasn't really been able to communicate well for a few years and I don't think she remembers me...it seems like the strokes have caused her memory to go back about 30 years. I remember the last "normal" conversation I had with her many years ago before she had her first stroke. My grandpa was in the hospital and I had gone to visit. That was around the time that I was considering having leg surgery and I remember my grandma asking me all about it. I am glad a have that memory.

On a much lighter note, I had a fun weekend to help take my mind off the more depressing part of my week. Saturday I did my first Little Guy Racing team ride. Apparently Super Rookie was feeling a bit nostalgic, so we did the Tour de Super Rookie's Childhood. It was actually pretty cool because I haven't done much riding on that side of the Twin Cities, so it was nice to mix it up a bit. Unfortunately, our team's namesake had a mechanical problem (i.e. broken spoke) during the ride, so we were Little Guyless for most of the ride. And so began Little Guy Racing...without the Little Guy.

After riding in the chilly weather all morning, I got home just in time to avoid the bonk. I felt it coming on, so I went straight to the shower to thaw out for about 40 minutes with my recovery drink in hand. I really wanted a nap after that, but I didn't have time - I was cooking a pre-cx-race dinner for eight that night (it felt like Thanksgiving), so I had to start dinner prep. I spent the afternoon and early evening prepping and primping until our dinner guests arrived. We ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine, and told a lot of cycling stories (and there was one poor non-cycling soul that had to listen to it all!).

On Sunday, Pete and I had decided to forego watching NASCAR in favor of watching some local racing action over at Powderhorn Park. I made some hot-chocolate-to-go, we got bundled up and headed out on the Rollos. Powderhorn is a great race venue, and The Hub did a great job putting on the race - although the "mud pit" that had gotten a lot of attention on the MCF message board was a bit of a disappointment - if you're going to make a mud pit, make it a serious mud pit...not just a mushy little turn where even the C racers can all get through it upright. Apparently my pre-race dinner didn't have enough punch, because everyone who ate it struggled more than usual at Powderhorn...apologies from the chef. Anyway, it was fun to watch and I was so glad I wasn't racing...that course really looks hard. And the cold ride home on the singlespeed into the headwind was hard enough for me (it's my rest month after all!).

I wrapped up the weekend by visiting my other little guys who were excited to show me their Halloween costumes and to show me the toy section of the Fleet Farm flyer that contains what they want for Christmas. And I'm happy to report that one of my nephews wants a Lightning McQueen bike.

Wow, this got long...and it's all Skibby's fault.

Grumpy's Cycling/LGR

2006-10-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

I recently made the difficult decision to leave the Velo Bella team and join a new team for 2007. It's truly been an honor to be involved with such an unique, all-female team these past few years. When I put on the Velo Bella kit for the first time a few years back, I had no idea how supportive everyone would be of a team that wears a pink and blue kit with a Schwin Slick Chik (with a flowered basket), a very feminine looking woman, a black cat, and an "Ooh La La" on it. Velo Bella has done great things for women cyclists both locally and nationally, and I'll definitely miss the "go Bella!" cheers I get from perfect strangers no matter where I'm racing. Thank you Bellas, Fellas, and Friends!

For 2007, I'm joining a brand new team here in the Twin Cities...Grumpy's Cycling/LGR. I'm really excited about having another team mixing it up in the local cycling scene and I'm especially excited to have yet another women's team representing in the women's fields.

I've had a lot of questions about Grumpy's Cycling/LGR, and while I don't have answers to all of them just yet, I can at least give them a shot:

Who's sponsoring your team? Well, I guess the most obvious sponsor is Grumpy's Bar. Moose and Sadie's coffee shop is also on board, amongst others that I'm not sure I'm supposed to mention just yet.
How many people are on your team? I'm not actually sure. I'd guess about 10-15 at this time, but you'd have to bug (dis)pencer or Super Rookie for a more accurate answer.
Are there other women on the team? Yep. One of them is Gilby.
From what I've heard, this new team is all trackies and/or bike messengers. That's not really a question, but it's true that pretty much everyone on the team races at the track, but I think everyone also races on the road. And yeah, there are some messengers...I'm not sure how many are actually practicing messengers these days, but they definitely have some messenger history.
I've heard that messengers are all tattooed and don't shower. Again, that's not really a question, but I know that a lot of my new teammates do in fact have tattoos. As far as not showering, I don't know the answer to that - but I hope that's true, because it could motivate me to ride fast enough to be at the front of group rides so that I'm not downwind. So I could be fast next year.
What does "LGR" stand for? Little Guy Racing.
Why Little Guy Racing? It's better than Team Awesome (in my opinion anyway, Super Rookie probably disagrees).
Yeah, but where does "Little Guy" come from? Um, I'm actually not sure where he's from. I actually don't know the Little Guy very well, but I'll be sure to get the details on a group ride soon...I wonder who his favorite NASCAR driver is?
Little Guy's an actual person? Oh yeah, he's a legend at the track, and he's got some of the coolest kits around...you can't miss him. I'm actually not sure if he'll be wearing the same kits as the rest of us next year...it might be against everything he stands for.
What's the deal with everyone on Grumpy's Cycling being NASCAR fans? Being a NASCAR fan is a prerequisite for being a team member...it was on the application I had to fill out. I think it said "Who is your favorite NASCAR driver and why?". More importantly, there was another question that said "Who is your least favorite NASCAR driver?", and I'm fairly certain if you answered the #19 or #48 that you won't be on Grumpy's Cycling/LGR next year (unless maybe you're the Little Guy).
So are you getting a tattoo? Probably. Since I'm not a messenger and have never actually ridden a fixed gear outside of the track, I might struggle to fit in, so a tattoo would definitely help me bond with my new team. I'm leaning towards a team motto...maybe something like "Little Guy Racing - where nobody dis's a rookie".
What's up with the talking monkey? Nothing says "Grumpy's Cycling/Little Guy Racing" like a talking monkey.
So is your pink Peacock Groove track bike going to clash with your new kit? No, I think our new pink, teal, peach, and bright green colored kits will match just fine (I think those are Little Guy's favorite colors, so the kit colors really do make sense).
Did the Donimator really offer his Hummer as the Grumpy's Cycling/LGR team car? Wow, I haven't heard about this offer. I suppose it's possible...what with the high gas prices and such...maybe he's looking for car-poolers.

I'll try to answer more questions about Grumpy's Cycling/LGR in later posts after I have some more accurate answers to all of the questions I've been getting.

I'm looking forward to '07!

Strats

What do weddings, NASCAR, and CX all have in common?

2006-10-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

Alcohol.

My sister got married last Friday, the 13th. So my parents rolled into town last Thursday afternoon and helped me clean for the post-wedding brunch we'd be having at my place on Saturday morning. My parents don't mess around when they clean - my dad was taking screens off my windows and taking them outside and sweeping them off, and my mom was using every unique cleaner I have (stainless steel cleaner for the stainless steel appliances, ceramic cleaner for the ceramic oven top, Resolve for all of the grease spots from our bikes on my white carpet, etc.). It was amazing...I totally appreciated their help. After my place was sparkling clean, we headed to Cafe Lurcat for the groom's dinner. We met everyone in the wedding party, had an excellent meal, and started the drinking.

Friday was the big day...coffee, hair (and a bottle of hairspray), make-up, nails, lunch at Yum!, and pictures...7 hrs of prep time for a 10-minute ceremony...now that's a short and sweet wedding! Then it was time to celebrate with my sister and my new brother-in-law, Jazz (also a big NASCAR fan)...eating, dancing, drinking, catching up with relatives, drinking...it was a great time. I decided that weddings are a lot more fun when you know both the bride and groom. So now both of my siblings are married...and it became very obvious on Friday night that I could no longer avoid the inevitable "so when are you getting married?" comments. Ugh.

My sister and Jazz then swung by Saturday morning to say goodbye and head off on their honeymoon somewhere in the middle of some ocean on some island that I had to Google to figure out where it was. Then the relatives came over for coffee, brunch and mimosas. More drinking. After everyone left, my mom helped me clean once again, then my parents headed home...that was probably around 1 pm, and I was exhausted.

I then proceeded to the lay on the couch all afternoon napping off and on, watching cheesy movies on TBS when I was awake, and counting the hours until the NASCAR race started. When the race started, the drinking began again (although it wasn't very NASCAR-like, because we were drinking wine instead of Budweiser). It was a great race - I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with DJ after Sorenson took him out, and I particularly enjoyed that he mentioned how his engine just happened to stall in front of Sorenson's pit box when Sorenson was trying to pit...I believe his comment was "Imagine that". But, the highlight of the night was definitely Kasey's big win. It was particularly exciting because earlier in the morning, I had given my nephew the #9 car (matchbox size) to add to his collection of DJ cars - I figured it might be a good idea to get him excited about a driver who might actually still be driving when he's old enough to drink a Bud while he's watching a race (he's 3.5 yrs old now, so he's got a while). Although I think the blue paint scheme on Kasey's car probably threw him off if he was actually watching the race.

I wrapped up the awesome weekend with a short ride with Gilby before heading to Boom Island to watch the CX races and drink more free beer! It was exciting to see so many people racing. And it was fun to watch the women's B race come down to the final sprint, with Margot just barely nipping Linda S at the line.

Good times, good times.

More photos from France

2006-10-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded a few more photos from our trip to France...Flickr limits the number I can upload in one month, so I'm trying to be patient.

I apologize that got-the-bonk has actually had the bonk lately. I'm not racing cross this year, so there's not much to report on the cycling front...except that Pete and I did some nice longish rides last weekend and enjoyed the fall colors. And I'm officially sad that it's getting cold.

The big news for the family is that my little sis is getting married this week...on Friday the 13th. And my mom's having Saturday brunch for a bunch of my relatives at my two-bedroom condo...should be...cozy. I'm really happy for my sister and her soon-to-be-husband, so I'm looking forward to this weekend. The wedding/reception/dance will definitely be a good time and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of my relatives.

Speaking of weddings, congrats to my Bella teammate and her Fella on their recent engagement (they're finally making it "official")!!

Strats

p.s. for those of you who enjoyed my guest blogger Chadley, rumor has it, he was inspired to start his own blog...I'll link to it as soon as he actually posts something (hint-hint).

Bonjour!

2006-10-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

I thought that when I returned from my trip to France that I'd pull out my journal from the trip and blog about anything and everything. But now that I'm home, I'm tired, and there's so much to say that I realize this is a situation where less is more. So I'll just skip right to the highlight of the trip...the day I did my first century ride that included climbing Mt. Ventoux. When I woke up that morning, my goal was just to ride to Mt. Ventoux, climb it, and ride home. The catch is that I had no idea it would involve 100 miles of riding (which also included a Cat 2 climb in addition to Mt. Ventoux). Just as a side note, it turns out there is no such thing as a "flat road" in Provence...you're either climbing or descending...there's nothing in between - and oftentimes, those climbs are many miles long. Riding to Ventoux and climbing it was amazing. Riding home sucked. And while that day was definitely the highlight of my riding career so far, I paid the price for it for the remainder of the trip.

There are 3 routes up Mt. Ventoux - I rode the "easiest" one (up the east side of the mountain from the City of Sault). It's a 26 km climb that rises about 1220 meters. Pete rode with me and photographed my ascent and then he later climbed Mt. Ventoux via the most difficult route - the Tour de France route. The last 6 km of the route I did is the same as the Tour route...and it's steep.

Instead of giving all of the grueling details, I'll just provide some stats from the big day and the link to the pictures for anyone who's interested in seeing them.

Number of Category 2 climbs: 1
Number of Hors catégorie climbs: 1
Miles ridden on the way to Ventoux before starting the ascent: approximately 40
Number of other cyclists climbing Ventoux on mountain bikes: a lot (most)
Number of men climbing Ventoux: a lot
Number of women climbing Ventoux: about 3 (including me)
Number of cyclists I passed on the way up Ventoux: 11 (10 men, 1 woman)
Number of cyclists that passed me: 0 (unless you include Pete)
Best guess at my average speed during the ascent: 7 mph
Lowest speed I saw on my computer during the ascent: 4.9 mph
Total miles ridden: 100
Total time in the saddle: 7 hrs, 54 minutes (ouch)
Total food intake along the way: 5 GUs, 1 bottle of GU2O, 3 bottles of water, 1 almond pastry, 1 espresso, 1 coke, 1 piece of bread

Photos of the big day are located here.

When Pete climbed the Tour route later in the week, I think he climbed it in around 1 hr and 15 minutes (I believe the record was set by Iban Mayo and is somewhere around 55 minutes). That was the other highlight of the trip...watching Pete get to do something he's wanted to do since he was a kid.

It was a really fun trip filled with beautiful scenery, delicious food, wonderful wine, and great riding.

And now it's time for my rest month.

Special thanks to Chadley for updating my blog while I was gone!

Rock Starved

2006-09-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

So, I said I'd blog about music and bands and rock and roll and all that, right? Well, when I was a kid, growing up in a tiny town in Northern Minnesota, I wanted more than anything in the world to be a rock star. It was the 80s, and I wanted long hair, a bad attitude, and at least one self-destructive-but-glamorous habit. I was also interested in playing music, but mostly because that’s what rock stars did. The ability to either scream your lungs out or play ear-melting guitar solos seemed like the surest path to rock stardom, but therein lie the problem: I could do neither. I could sing, but I had a range of about three notes. And as far as rippin guitar solos went, well, I played the piano. I was decent, but being good at a few Bach fugues doesn’t pull the chicks the way Eddie’s lead on Hot for Teacher does.

I tried to make my piano skills work for me. I bought an expensive keyboard and played in a band with some kids from school. (Believe it or not, one of those kids happened to be Alan Sparhawk of Low.) But let’s face it: keyboardists just aren’t cool. They’ve never been cool and they never will be cool. Think Yanni. They’re like the rock and roll equivalent of the IT department. The better they are at what they do the more likely they are to be considered nerds.

So I decided to try my hand at guitar. I picked it up pretty quickly, thanks to my familiarity with chords and scales and all that, but I had no luck with those blistering solos I was so desperate to master. Eventually, I gave up. I didn’t stop playing guitar, and I didn’t lose my interest in music, but I did stop dreaming of rock stardom. That was over fifteen years ago.

And then, one night last fall, I had a couple buddies over for beers. We got a little drunk and I started singing along to a CD. Now, like I said, back in high school I could sing, but only about three notes. But years of singing along to the radio in the car had actually improved my range a bit. That night my buddy heard me singing and suggested I try out for his friend’s band, which was in need of a lead singer. I didn’t even have to think about it.

It’s been almost a year now since I joined that band, and although I have no illusions of potential rock stardom (or even long rock-star hair), I am singing and playing guitar at high volume at least once a week and also working on a couple self-destructive habits (tame stuff; mostly staying up late on weeknights and not wearing earplugs during practice; that kind of thing). But really, it’s not about being a rock star at this point. I’m old. I gain weight easily, and even when I was young and skinny I would have looked ridiculous in leather pants. Now it’s about playing music. Not great music, just music. I’m still not much of a singer, but I’m better at guitar than I used to be. I can’t play any brain-bending solos, but I don’t really care. For me, now it's about getting together with some friends and playing. You know? Sometimes it's nice to just be in the moment and really enjoy it. Not every ride has to be a training ride, and not every practice has to be a rehearsal. I mean, training or rehearsing when you have a an event coming up is fun, but so is just getting on the bike or strapping on the guitar or lacing up the running shoes simply because it feels good. And seriously, thank god for that, because a lot of us spend our days doing things that we don't really enjoy all that much. So here's to the things we do enjoy, whether we're stars or not.

Lurnin' the Hard Way

2006-09-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Things I’ve learned recently:

If you put a bag of frozen corn down the garbage disposal, it’s probably not necessary to wait until it has thawed out to run the disposal. In fact, it’s probably best not to, because you’re likely to forget about it and then the next time you walk into your kitchen you will briefly believe that someone has just stepped barefoot out of a swamp and jammed their unwashed toes up your nostrils.

If you’re screening potential renters for your newly constructed basement apartment, you might want to ask them if they raise snakes. Granted, this might be a bit difficult if they happen to be deaf, but trust me, it’s worth the effort to write it out.

If you’re going to participate in a mountain bike race held on a ski hill over a period of 24 hours, get your flabby ass in shape first. And if you’re not going to do that, if you’ve failed to prepare yourself in any other way whatsoever, at the very least try to avoid eating a can of Spaghetti-Os just prior to the first lap.

I rode the 24 Hours of Afton mountain bike race for the first time in 2001, and I distinctly remember putting on a pair of cold sweat-and-dew soaked biking shorts and almost simultaneously promising myself I would never, ever, ever ride in that race again. I like riding and I like racing, but the 24-hour thing just ain’t my cup of tea. Unfortunately, I am an idiot, and an idiot with a short memory at that. And so, at the end of last month, I found myself once again pulling on a pair of very uncomfortable shorts and wishing I, a) was in better shape, b) wasn’t riding the 24 Hours of Afton, c) could get the taste of Spaghetti-Os out of my mouth, d) all of the above.

It’s d.

To be fair, I appreciated this race much more than the one I did in 2000. The trail was pretty sweet, the weather was decent, and our team wasn’t pretending to compete, which is good, because we’re not even remotely capable of it. But it’s still nice to ride well, to ride a fast lap now and then, and I like to put forth an effort. But something besides my beer gut was really slowing me down: a cramp in my left ass cheek.

It wasn’t one of those full on cramps that totally debilitates you, but rather one of those dull almost-ready-to-go cramps that might actually get worse if you stop pedaling and fully straightened your leg. But still . . . ouch. I was pretty uncomfortable until the cramp migrated from ass cheek to lower back. That’s when I decided to skip a lap or two in favor of lying very still and occasionally gulping fistfuls of ibuprofen. It’s amazing how a cramp in your lower back can really dampen the fun of going without sleep for a day.

Anyway, eventually my back loosened up and I rode a couple more laps. And I’m fully aware that my ass wouldn’t have cramped if I were in great shape. But I’m not, and it did, and I can only hope that this particular pain in the ass sticks in my memory long enough to keep me from doing it all over again next year. At least the riding and not sleeping part. The Spaghetti-Os weren’t really that bad.

My First Blog (sponsored by Fisher Price)

2006-09-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

Ha! Check me out: I’m blogging! Thanks to Strats and her invitation to be a guest blogger on Got the Bonk, I’m finally hip, maybe even cool. Oh sure, I’m well behind the curve on blogging and the coolness it imparts, but that’s pretty much “how I roll” (to use an expression I’ve been led to believe is something hip/cool people say). I’m rarely on the cutting edge of cool, especially when it comes to pop culture. I wish I could say I’m old school, but the truth is I’m closer to no school. For example, I didn’t even know what MySpace was until it made news for being a dangerous place for kids. I don’t own a TV and have never seen a single episode of Desperate Housewives, which, for all I know might not even bee a cool show anymore. Although between you and me, if it’s not a cool show anymore, I’d suggest they make a few more episodes where Teri Hatcher wears nothing but a potted plant for a good portion of the show. If an uninformed pop culture doofus like me knows about that episode, it has to be good for a show’s Q rating. (See how I worked in another hip phrase there? Q rating. I have no idea what that means. That’s just total BS. I may not know what the hell I’m talking about, but I’ll be dammed if that’s going to keep me from talking.)

Anyway, as Strats' guest blogger I’ll be sure to blog about biking. For example, I recently rode the 24 Hours of Afton (a.k.a., 24 Hours of Asspain), and that’s one of those experiences that’s more fun to talk about than to actually participate in. Seriously. The only part of that race I enjoy is the 364 days a year when I’m not actively involved in it. Which, I suppose, is why I end up doing it every couple of years or so. But I’ll probably mix in a few other topics, too. Like music, maybe. I just picked up the latest disc from Silversun Pickups, and it’s amazing. You should buy it. Maybe I’ll add in a few bits about my new rock star lifestyle, complete with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Those are interesting things, right? I’m not actually involved in all three at the moment, but I’m not going to get into specifics at this point. I’ll just have to pretend.

So Strats, have a good vacation and expect the majority of your blog readership to be either offended or bored by the time you get back.

Cheers.

my guys at Chequamegon

2006-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

93rd overall (out of 1702 people), second in their division. Not bad. Congrats to the Donimator and his Stoker! Props to Hareland for an 11th place finish on his cross bike...right on.

I've got one beef with the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 race though. There were 1702 racers in the 40-mile event...and only 139 of them were women. Yet I've been rejected from the race two years in a row. I know they claim to use the lottery registration system so that it's "fair", but something just doesn't seem right. Yes, I realize that there are a lot more men that sign up for the 40-mile race, so theoretically, the percentage of the total men and women who applied and were chosen during the lottery should be the same, but it just seems like they could use a few more women to help make the Chequamegon Festival less of a sausage fest. I'm just sayin'.

The photos of those guys on the tandem are hilarious...something just doesn't look right (photos courtesy of www.skinnyski.com).

So tomorrow's the big day...vacation will officially begin! I went for a ride yesterday with Karl a - my first ride in about two weeks. It went pretty well and my hip felt okay...it's probably at about 75-80%, but I think that's good enough to get me through my trip. But dang, did I feel out of shape...I was out of breath the whole time. And I somehow managed to tweak my lower back...which is not unusual for me (the timing is just bad)...I'm sure 10 hours on a plane tomorrow will help (I think my Real Age is probably more like 40+). I don't know if I've ever mentioned before that I have a fascination with aviation (although I'm a bit of an anxious flyer, so I prefer to "fascinate" from the ground). But I generally like hanging out in airports and watching the planes. So luckily, I don't really mind sitting around in an airport for hours - as long as I can see the runway. A few years back, I went to an airshow in Duluth...it was very cool, and the Blue Angels were there...they were awesome. That's another reason that I like watching/going-to NASCAR races...they always have the cool jets do the flyovers before the race. But I disgress.

It's about time that guest blogger of mine shows up...rumor has it he's posting something before I leave.

Until October,
Strats out

pre-vacation update

2006-09-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Only 4 more days until vacation...which means only 4 more days until the guest blogger! I'm fairly certain you will all enjoy my guest blogger...in fact, I think you'll enjoy his blogging more than my blogging, so my biggest concern is that you won't want me to come back. But I'm willing to take that risk just to keep my loyal readers (aka my mom and my brother-in-law Chris) entertained while I'm gone.

On a total side note, I think my brother-in-law Chris reads my blog and ALL of the other local cycling blogs in lieu of watching soap operas. This is a guy who went to his first bike race this year (the State Road Race) and helped me and Pete by giving us hand-ups in the feed zone (he took his job very seriously and did great!) and learned all about the Birchwood Bike Team (he was concerned since my race was 50% Bettys). I think he enjoyed the cycling drama. Shortly thereafter, he informed me that he had read some good gossip about the Bellas on the Birchwood message board. Huh? Yep, he'd been reading through all of the blogs, did some googling, and somehow ended up on the Birchwood message board - and it's not like that message board was just one click away for him...he had to do some digging. He even refers to the local cyclists by their blog names (since he has absolutely no idea who they are). Oh, and he's even a bit of a NASCAR fan. (And I know he frequents DrunkCyclist too...I'm sure it's just for the articles). One of these days I think he'll get brave enough to post a comment instead of just lurking in silence. Perhaps he'll comment on something my guest blogger posts.

I haven't ridden my bike for about two weeks now - I've been trying to take it easy ever since my little golf outing re-injury to my hip. The worst part is that I'm missing the last night of track racing tonight. But that's probably for the best since it seems like there have been a lot of crashes this year. I think taking it easy has paid off because I'm feeling a lot better and I'm going to try to get a few rides in this weekend before heading off to ride in France! You might think that I'm annoyingly excited about this trip and you're probably wishing I'd shut up already about going to France to ride my bike. But here's the thing - I've never been to Europe and I've never ridden my bike in a different country - so I'm not trying to rub it in, I'm just truly excited about this opportunity and adventure. And whether you like it or not, I WILL be blogging about it when I get back.

Anyway, be nice to my guest blogger - don't let Super Rookie scare him off. In fact, feel free to invite my guest blogger out on a group ride...he's been trying to find some good group rides. And while he's not a trackie, he has ridden at the velodrome...I witnessed it. Come to think of it, a lot of my non-cyclist friends have ridden the track...even MommaMissy!

Which reminds me...check out The Real Age Test that I read about on MommaMissy's blog. I thought I'd take that test and it would tell me that my "Real Age" is 25....but no, it said 31.7. Which is less than my real age, but not by much! It's kind of depressing.

Strats out

the drive-thru

2006-09-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

So I pull up to the coffee shop drive-thru this morning and order me up some coffee. The voice-in-the-box responds with the typical "will that be all?"

"Yes, thank you", I reply.

I then expect to hear the usual "please pull forward to the pick-up window". But instead:

"Do you remember Young MC?" says the voice-in-the-box.

"Yes, I do", I curiously reply.

Voice-in-the-box replies, "Good. Then bust a move."

It cracked me up.

Friday night festivities

2006-09-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

"This guy got in a dirty joke contest with a clown at a haunted house ride in Shakopee" - says the guy drinking the 40. Come again??

And yes, I know, guys who talk on Treos shouldn't be drinking 40s (nice touch Mikey!).

An excellent 2004 vintage...

One bottle of Bitch and one 40 later...

How did your ride go?

2006-09-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

I totally got the bonk.

Welcome to "got the bonk".