my new blog

My new blog is located here:

www.strats.wordpress.com

another...

work in progress

under construction

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

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

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

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

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

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

fine...

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

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

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

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

the strangest race ever

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

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

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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. Flanders Paula had a great race too - she threw in a few nice attacks and was riding strong!
   
4. My goal was just to sit in, see how my legs felt, and not get dropped.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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!
   
7. 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.
8. 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?

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

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

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!