Snowshoeing!

I figured the weather Saturday would be crappy for riding, so I headed over to Hurricane Ridge with two gals on our cycling team to do some snowshoeing. It's been four years since I've been snowshoeing and I've been dying to get out, but it's just not the sort of thing I'm eager to do solo. I haven't been to Hurricane Ridge in years and neither Karly nor Julie had been, so we figured it would be a great place to go.

We headed out on the Edmonds ferry at 11:30 but when we finally got to the gate at the base of Hurricane Ridge Rd, the ranger told us they had closed the road about 15 minutes before we got there. Bummer!! He said it's pretty rare that they close in the middle of the day, but up top there were 60mph winds and the snow was dumping. Cars coming down had about 12"-18" of snow on them. Yikes!

We headed back down to the 101 and ended up going to Deer Park, which is just a bit east of Port Angeles. We drove as far as we could and then got out and hiked about 2-3 miles up the road on snowshoes. The weather was great, the wind was calm, and we even had some snow so it turned out to be a beautiful trek. I think it took us about 2.5 hours to do 5.5 miles.

My hamstrings were shot from Friday's gym workout, so it was extra challenging but a great workout. I forgot how taxing snowshoeing is, but it's so much fun!

More cowbell!

Up until yesterday afternoon I hadn't planned to race Kringle Kross, but I figured what the hell. How could I pass up the last cross race of the season? When I showed up to run registration I saw these awesome Moen cowbells hanging up and thought, "Wow! I want one of those!" A few of my teammates told me to win the race and then I'd get one since they were handing them out as prizes. I thought, "Yeah right!"

Well, I didn't win the race but I got my first podium finish in my career! Our Women's 4 field was pretty damn small, but hey, I still got 3rd and snagged me a kick-ass cowbell. The only bummer is that I had no idea I got 3rd so I missed my podium photo op! Oh well. My teammate Landon took a picture of me later in the day, so that's ok.

The race was very flat and very fast and the start was loads of fun. The promoters organized a Le Mans start, so we had run to a tree and around it, then back to our bikes before we could take off. I've gotten a crappy start in every race but this one! I'm a runner baby so I was rockin'! I settled into a good pace and maintained it the whole race. My remounts were definitely a bit rusty but I survived and stayed upright. The big water puddles on the back of the course froze my feet in no time but it was fun.

I think the race attracted about a third of the normal cyclocross crowd. Although it was pretty cold out, the weather couldn't have been better (it was dry!), the course was fun, and the prizes were awesome. It's too bad more people didn't come out since it's likely the only chance we'll have to race at Magnuson. Apparently they're tearing up the fields shortly so that's why we were able to go out there and race.

I might have to put my cowbell next to me when I go to bed tonight. It's the best prize I've ever won!

3:44!?

Why the hell am I still awake? Ugh.

The mud bomb

I spent nearly two hours today cleaning my car interior. I had the doors open and was getting ready to start vacuuming when the carwash attendant took a look and said, "Whoah! What the hell happened in your car?" Can you say 90 lb muddy dog?

Last week after the CycleU TT I let Jake run around in a field playing fetch. Since it was dark I had no idea he was plowing right through a huge mud bog. He hopped into the car before I noticed and then promptly let loose a huge shake. It took about five seconds and the whole interior of my car looked like a mud bomb went off inside. Ah, the joys of dog ownership. Luckily, once the mud dried it all vacuumed out pretty easily and after some detailing looks good as new. Never underestimate the power of a VW :)

I'm a complete retard

If you're part of my Facebook network then you probably got some interesting graffiti from me through the FunWall app. Talk about a joke gone awry. An old friend of mine sent me some interesting anatomical graffiti today, so I thought I'd have fun with it and send some back. Only problem was that it went out to my entire network by accident. Can you say embarassing?

My response to my friend: "Damn it you suck. I sent those stupid boobs to EVERYONE in my network. Twice. Grrrrreat."

My friend's response: "OMG chris!!!!! I sooooo sent that to you by accident!!!! I got one from a buddy so I was sending him back one.. but I just sent that to EVERYONE on my list!!! but YOUR BOOBS are awesome!!!!!!! ha ha ha.."

I can't stop laughing but it's so horribly embarassing I think I might have to remove my Facebook account now. Ugh.

I feel better now

Tonight I headed to CycleU for my second indoor TT session. Last time the CompuTrainers died before the end, so I don't have a time to benchmark against, but I was averaging about 18.5mph and probably would have finished the 6.2-mi course in around 20:30.

Despite my stomach arguing about the two Luna Bars I scarfed down on the drive over, I felt pretty good but just couldn't turn the pedals. Then on the way out my bike felt a little funny, so I checked it and discovered my rear brake was off kilter and rubbing. Duh! So maybe I feel a little better now that I averaged only about 17mph tonight, which just didn't seem quite right. Maybe next time I'll get a real benchmark.

You're a rotter...

...Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.
Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots.

Yes! My favoritest thing in the whole wide world is on CBC right now :)

Still fighting the cold...

...and I didn't make it to Kelly Creek :( Every time I think I feel better it comes back. Ugh. Hopefully one solid day of staying in bed got rid of it for good this time. The only problem with sleeping from noon - 7pm is that once you wake up you can't go back to sleep. So now it's almost 3am and here I am wide awake. At least I managed to launch a freshly updated grepgirl.com. I just need to get my portfolio online and I'm good to go.

What a nice surprise I got in the mail today. Apparently the balance in my condo escrow account is too high so I got a nice refund. I'm scared to cash checks like that since they usually find some way to want them back in about 30 days. At least I can fatten my savings for a bit, though it's funny how the check is almost exactly the same price as that Kona mountain bike I've been drooling over. Maybe it's fate.

Cold time

I guess I was having sinus issues for a reason yesterday. I figured it was allergy related until I woke up this morning with a full blown cold from hell and sore throat. How do you go to bed feeling just fine and wake up with this? Ugh. Time for gallons of OJ. I *will* be going to Kelly Creek tomorrow damnit.

You know you bike too much when...

...you blow a snot rocket while walking across the parking lot to work and everyone reels in disgust. Ooops. I guess that's only marginally acceptable when riding. My bad.

Portland rocked!

Portland delivered an epic weekend of racing in the mud, wind, and pouring rain. A few times Saturday we even had some snow flakes coming down (see picture at left). The crowds were crazy, loud, and obnoxious and the racing was nonstop.

Saturday morning I lined up with JoAnne for the Women's B race. Despite the dry conditions the course was muddy from the previous days' rain and it was barely 35-degrees out. Brrrrrrr. Both of us narrowly avoided a nasty crash right at the gun that took out several gals on the pavement. The first lap of our race was pretty marred with crashes and I quickly got stuck in the back, but managed to slowly move up and pass a few gals. The course was mostly flat, fast, muddy, and slippery. I had a blast despite not having a clue where I finished. I was just out there to have fun and get dirty! The highlight of my day was being able to ride a slippery uphill section of the course that gave a lot of people trouble. It's great to get crowd feedback about that sort of thing!

Zoka had a fantastic showing on Saturday. Landon finished with a decisive victory in the Men's C race and Andy would have had a great finish but was forced to abandon after his rear derailleur detached itself. JoAnne got 13th in a large, strong women's field despite her saying that she had a bit of an off day. In the Men's B race, JDub visited the podium with 3rd, Jeff was 13th, Chip nabbed 22nd, and DiRtY was 46th in a field of over 100. Rick claimed a 9th place finish in a large 60+ field of Master's. I know Bill was out there too but I'm not sure how he finished. Rock on!

Watching the elite racers later in the day highlighted the whole weekend. It's unbelievable how friekin' fast they are! Tim Johnson won the elite men's race averaging just under 16mph for the entire course. Crazy. Georgia Gould put in a great effort and overtook Katie Compton (negotiating a turn in this picture) for the win in the women's field. The crowds were rowdy and the mud made it even better!

I would liked to have raced both days this weekend, but I'm still working out a calf muscle tear that continues to bother me. I should get a clue and take some time off. I showed up Sunday as a spectator and cheered on our racers. Unfortunately I didn't get too many great shots because the pouring rain wreaked havoc on my camera focus. Though the temperature warmed a bit for Sunday, the rain fell steadily and turned the course into a muddy, soupy mess.

Landon doubled up for the weekend and won the Men's C race again today. Awesome! JoAnne had a great race and killed her fellow Seattle competitors to nab 10th. A large crash at the start of the Men's B race took out Chip and DiRtY, but Chip was able to finish the race strongly. DiRtY suffered bike damage and had to withdrawal. He lamented how his 30-second race cost him $1 per second. JDub revisited the podium with 2nd place in the Men's Bs and I think Jeff finished in the top 10.

Unfortunately I didn't stick around as planned to watch the elite races. After spending three hours on the course I was soaked, frozen, and ready to bail. I'll be eager to hear how the rest of the day turned out for the people who stayed. I read on Velonews that 40mph wind gusts took out a tree during a later race. Crazy!

What a blast of a weekend! I did snap a few more photos, but didn't get that many mostly due to the weather.

Epic mud here we come!

I'm stoked!!! I'm getting ready to bail out of work and head to Portland for the USGP of Cyclocross. This week has been nuts. I had plans to leave midday today and carpool with teammates but given some work developments I couldn't take the day off, so Wednesday I decided to skip it. Then last night I started thinking about how much I really wanted to go. The problem is that I have to drop off the dog in Olympia by 7 for dog-sitting, but can't leave work until 6. Ugh. Finally today I said, "Screw it!", ran home, packed my shit, grabbed the dog, and headed back to work.

So, I'm hoping to leave now and get to Olympia by 7. At least the doggie sitters are willing to wait for a bit if I'm late. I'll definitely post some updates once I get down there. How can I stay home when Portland is forecasting mud, snow, wind, and rain?

I think I should duck

Not sure who in the world of the overlords I pissed off today, but wow has it been one of those days. This morning I drove a new route to work and got nabbed for speeding with a bogus radar gun reading. Since the cop was on the opposite side of the road, she had to point the radar gun across two lanes of traffic: one moving southbound and one moving northbound. There was a lot of traffic so I'm certain she ended up catching a car northbound, which wasn't me. Now I have a $200 ticket I need to contest. Fantastic.

And boy, don't I wish I could blog about work, but I can't. I wouldn't stoop that low anyway. But seriously, today something happened that made me lose all faith in my employer. Admittedly, I didn't have much left anyway, but I feel like the wind has been completely knocked out of me. I came back after last week's vacation totally energized and excited to work on some upcoming projects and it's quickly been squashed. I think the environment there is slowly sapping my will to live.

Wake up body it's time to go!!!

I looked back at my training log today and the last two times I rode my road bike were Oct 13 and Oct 20. I've done cross races nearly every Sunday since then, but haven't really put much effort into it. Cross this year has been mostly for fun and even though I've pushed it in a few races, I've been fairly mellow. In the last five weeks since that Oct 20th bike ride, I've been on a couch-potato, Oreo Double Stuff free-for-all.

Today became my official giddyup and go! I hit CycleU for a performance test not having any clue how I'd do. A mere minute into the first 5-mi time trial my body hated me. My heart rate soared into the 200s, which is normal, but about 10 beats higher than usual. I couldn't get comfortable on the bike being in an aero position (hello! not used to that) and kept fidgeting all over the place. At about the 2 minute mark my legs were toast. F***. I had a long time left. At the end of the first TT I seriously couldn't get off the bike and thought I was going to puke. Sweet.

Keep in mind, I'm not even close to being a mediocre time trialist. Hills are my thing but I need to embrace this time trial thing and really get it figured out. I left CycleU convinced I had posted horrendously crappy times. I got home and pulled out my old test results and couldn't believe it. Yes, my times suck, but for me they were PRs. My first TT time of 15:33 was about 20 seconds faster than my test in February. I faded nearly a minute on the second one but still beat February. Somewhere during those five weeks of Oreo binging I uncovered an extra 5-10 watts. Unbelievable!

I guess at my worst I'm better than I was at my peak last season. That's encouraging news! Next week I'll be getting back on the road bike and putting in some easy miles before I get my new training plan. I need to get back in the saddle since I kick off the CycleU indoor TT workouts soon. Every night before I go to bed I tell myself ten times: "I love time trialing. I really do."

Happy Turkey Day!

Hurrah! I got out of bed before 8 today! But I decided I still wasn't motivated enough to hop on the bike for a south lake loop so I bailed on the Turkey Day ride. The roads around my place were pretty frosty anyway and I wasn't too thrilled to test my luck on the steep descents down to Lake Washington Blvd.

Here's a pic of that nice bruise I gave myself at Sunday's cross race. It's pretty. While shopping at PCC last night for Arnica cream, I found something called "Trauma Oil". I think I need that in massive quantities. It must have been made just for me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm in the bell jar

I took this whole week off from work, which is great since it's the first semi-long vacation I've had in probably a year. I planned absolutely nothing and I love it. I'm always stretched to the max with work, biking, and the dog so having a few days to do nothing is like a gift. Last year around this time I had this really bad problem with motivation and sleeping. I felt like I could sleep all day long and be happy about it. The same thing is happening this year. So far this week I've slept until noon almost every day, then taken a nap in the afternoon, and gone to bed around midnight to start the trend over. I could just easily spend the whole day in bed. What the hell is wrong with me?

Maybe there's some type of truth to this SAD thing or something. I swore I'd get up early this morning and despite waking up at 7 I decided to stay in bed all day AGAIN. Well, tomorrow I'm supposed to do the Turkey Day bike ride so I guess I better break this nasty trend and get my lazy butt up. I'm going to end up with bed sores if I'm not careful. Geez...

Everyone else got hardware...

...I got a big fat bruise. Of course, I'm talking about the State Cyclocross Championships today in Bremerton. Zoka rocked the house with five podium spots. Paul Guillien killed the competition in the 4s and easily cruised to victory. Then Bill Huggins won the Master Men's 3 35+ field and JoAnne took 2nd in the Women's 3s. Bill geared up again and took home 2nd in the single-speed field for two medals on the day. Unbelievable! Rick Heckenlaible secured Zoka's 5th piece of hardware with a 2nd place finish in the Men's 1/2 45+ field. We also had several other top finishers who narrowly missed podium spots and had great races. Great day for the team!

On the other hand, I rode my way to my worst cross race ever. So far I've stayed upright in every race but today all I could do was go down. Hmmm, where do I even start? First off, the course was mostly flat with a few short steep pitches that were ridable for most. Throw in a few mud bogs and it definitely favored the power rider. Definitely not my thing. I got my usually shitty start and in a very strong, small field of 10 this wasn't so good. I hit the first set of barriers bringing up the rear so I was already in trouble at this point.

I bought a new pair of Sidis last night to replace my crappy flat-soled traction-less commuter-turned-cyclocross shoes and found out the hard way that I should probably test them before racing in them. My cleats were new and a little tight, so when I tried to dismount for the first barrier my left foot didn't come out and I took a header at full speed. Awesome! Trying to jump a barrier with your bike still attached to you doesn't work so well. Thank goodness I don't think anyone actually saw it. I'm not sure my right calf is ever going to forgive me. Tune back in a few days when I post a picture of my bruise. Ugh.

Shortly after that crash I managed to slide out on what looked like a simple left-hand corner. Turns out three people on our team went down here so I don't feel so bad now. Between those two incidents just on the first lap, I was way behind the pack and pretty far off the pace. To make matters worse, my seat fell again.

With the course setup, if you were more than about 30 seconds behind someone, you really couldn't see them, so it became difficult to keep up the motivation. I was so frustrated on the second lap that I nearly called it day, but my teammates kept cheering at me so I credit them with keeping me in it. Unfortunately, I picked today to wear my new supercool pink and black-striped lightning bolt armwarmers, which just managed to draw attention to the fact that I was way behind and sucking. Oh well, at least I entertained the crowd.

On the third lap the leaders of the Master's field passed me on the fast single-track part of the course, so I pulled off to let them by and lost more time. Despite my crappy race, I got a top 10 finish due to a small field, and I wasn't last! Crazy.

For some reason I felt really flat today. Even if I had ridden a clean race I don't think I would have done any better. My legs were toast, my cardio was toast, and my legs were not diggin' powering through the mud bog. Not sure what was up, but hopefully I'll be in a little better shape for South Seatac next Sunday. And I'll still be rockin' the lightning bolts, even if I'm not moving lightning fast.

My dog is trying to kill me

Well, I broke my nose today. Yup, that's right. I wish I could say I did it in a gnarly cyclocross crash or something, but of course I don't work that way.

I was getting ready to take Jake out on his morning walk and leaned over him to clip on his leash. At exactly the same time my less than graceful cat jumped onto the bathroom counter, knocked over a ton of stuff, and scared the dog. He jumped...right into my nose with his head.

After the pain subsided I went about my day but stayed home from work because my head and my eyes hurt so bad. I'm still having difficulty looking at a computer screen. Later in the afternoon I stopped by my doc's office and she confirmed the break. I guess it's pretty minor and I'm lucky to say that I've been spared excessive swelling and bruising so far. If you look at my nose, you can't even tell it's broken aside from a tiny bit of swelling on the bridge. I really hope I don't wake up tomorrow all black and blue.

Current score is Jake 2, me 0.

Flagler fun!

This past weekend I traveled to Fort Flagler on the Olympic Peninsula for an infamous cross double-header. Ferry traffic proved a little challenging Friday afternoon so I didn't roll in until well after I had planned. I checked into the army barracks with a few teammates and then we spent the night trying to catch some sleep while howling winds threatened to flatten our building. Lack of sleep and a bit of burnout drove me to skip Saturday's race, so I helped with registration and became a cheerleader for the day.

Gorgeous weather and an entertaining sand pit on Saturday's course turned out to be a spectator's dream. Tons of people lined the sandpit screaming, yelling, and ringing cowbells at the bicycles and bodies flipping through the air. If someone rode the length of the sandpit they definitely got the crowd's admiration. I've never seen so many spectacular crashes in a cross race before!

At the end of the day we headed to the fort's mess hall for a lasagna feed complete with a free supply of Fat Tire and a showing of Evan Schmitt's cycling documentary One. Kudos to the race organizers! The ample supply of beer gave me a great excuse to carbo load. So many teammates gave me shit for not racing Saturday that I had to commit to racing Sunday and did some fine preparation. My teammate Rick isn't a Fat Tire fan, so I had to drink both my beer and his. Then I tried a bottle of the ale we bought in town. Then Dane encouraged my Sunday race preparation by handing me another Fat Tire. Who am I to disagree with a race official?

After too many beers I headed back to the barracks around 9:15 and noisily crawled into my sleeping bag in pitch darkness while everyone else slept soundly. Slacker! The only good thing about drinking that many beers is that I slept really well despite a few racers doing naked cyclocross practice through the barracks at midnight. The funny thing is that no one in my building said a word or even muttered, "What the f***?" Everyone was too busy trying to get back to sleep - haha!

I woke up in surprisingly good shape Sunday given the previous night's beerfest, worked registration for a bit, then lined up for my 9:30 race. The course was mostly flat but used old army bunkers to create some short, steep run-ups and a quick gravity-defying downhill. We even got to ride through a concrete tunnel that was part of the bunkers. Very cool! The wind proved challenging but wasn't nearly as bad for our race as it was later in the day.

On the first runup I lost my traction and face-planted right into the hill. Luckily, it was so steep that I didn't have far to fall. When I remounted my bike I felt my seat fall and quickly realized I was about 3-4" lower than I should be. Despite the mechanical, I did manage to pass a handful of gals, barely escape getting lapped by the guys, and finish the race. Never did it occur to me to go to the pits and get my seat fixed. The low seat definitely explained my lack of power, sore quads, and wrecked knees. A friend joked that it looked like I was riding a kid's bike. Thanks!

After my race I cheered on my friends and teammates still racing. As the day wore on the wind got stronger and how anyone stayed upright in 30-40mph wind gusts is beyond me.

Zoka had a great showing at Flagler and snagged some top finishes. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the interesting courses. Despite the mechanical I had fun and Sunday's race was just what I needed to get re-motivated to finish the rest of the cross season. I think I just needed a week or two off the bike to put things into perspective.

Today I'm taking stock of my multiple bruises, mostly from bad cyclocross form. I have a massive bruise on my butt, probably from the pedals nailing me when I face-planted. Nice job. I also bruised the hell out of my shoulder roughly throwing my bike around because I was too lazy to softly place it higher up on my shoulder. I think the shortness of the runups lead to a little botched technique on my part.

Unfortunately my camera battery died early on Saturday so I only snapped a few pics of Saturday's races. I'll upload some funny video of the sand pits shortly...

Dog training 101

A little over a year ago I walked into the Bellevue Animal Shelter to look at dogs and ended up coming home with a very cute, very out of control 9-mo black Lab. It's hard to believe I've had him over a year! Since bringing him home, I've learned that Labs generally come in two styles: the very mellow ones, and the very crazy ones. I got the crazy one. Ever read Marley & Me? I can definitely relate.

Jake's big problems are with personal space and patience, meaning he respects neither. As soon as he meets someone (well, sees them from afar) he breaks out in a wiggle and he can barely contain himself. Usually it's a matter of seconds before he's pulling me down the street, jumping on them, and giving them a great big kiss. To say that he likes to jump up is an understatement and since he's a solid 90 lbs, it's not cool.

I've enrolled him twice in beginner training at two different dog training studios and invited over scores of friends trying to unsuccessfully solve this problem. Finally, one of my friends gave me a recommendation for a dog trainer, Jeff Tinsley. He stopped by this morning for a one-on-one session and I learned more in an hour and a half with him than I have in countless dog training classes.

Most of all, I learned that I'm a horrible dog trainer! Jeff spent time working with Jake but I think he spent most of the time teaching me how to train him correctly. It's amazing what a difference it makes. Already Jake is doing things he never would have done yesterday. I may actually end up with a well-behaved, obedient dog sometime in the next 10 years! Awesome!

Burnout

I've been racing cross every Sunday and I love it and will definitely finish the SCC series; however, I'm certainly not racing at 150%. I don't even think I'm close to 70%. Since the series started I've been more than content to do one practice lap for a warmup, start near the back, expend little energy getting going, and pick off a few people as the laps go by. There are certainly times I'm pushing hard but I just haven't felt motivated to really race.

Today I dropped my car off at University VW for service and brought the bike with me so I could ride to work. I figured I'd get an easy 20-mi ride, but once I hit the road all I could think of was finding the next bus stop so I could get off the bike. The fact that I can barely manage to ride the bike 20 miles means one thing: burnout.

I've been skipping the gym, staying off the bike, and generally sitting on the couch eating cookies and drinking beer. The whole time I've been wondering why I'm so tired, unmotivated, and generally in a funk. I looked back at some of my old blog posts and realized that at this exact same time last year I was writing things like, "Hey, what's wrong with me? I don't want to ride. I'm tired. I'm blah. I'm in a funk." Hmm...I think I see a pattern here.

SCC #4: The Steilacoom runup!

After hearing all about the murderous Steilacoom runup I decided to skip the team ride Saturday so I could be fresh for Sunday's cross race. I was told Saturday's ride got a little hot the second half, so it was probably a good idea!

I carpooled down with Suzanne Sunday morning since she was helping at registration, but when we pulled up shortly before 7:30 the gates to Fort Steilacoom were still closed and a line of traffic waited to get in. Turns out the City of Lakewood reneged on their deal to open the gates at 7 and no one showed up until nearly 8. The races were all delayed about 30 minutes and we had our hands full for registration. I'm always looking for excuses to evade my warmup so I helped setup registration and get it running, then went off to get ready. Somehow even with an extra 30 minutes I managed to only get one lap on the course for a warmup. How do I always do this?

The course was definitely a blast though and is easily my favorite one so far. Personally, I loved the runup! I cruised up pretty quickly the first lap and made up some time from my crappy start, but had some trouble getting clipped back in at the top. My cleats were so full of dirt I could barely get them cleared. Maybe I need to invest in something other than SPDs. Unfortunately Elise had cruised into 1st place but had a mechanical and had to bail. Major bummer!

The course was a bit damp for our race due to morning fog, but was fast and fun. We had a few short descents, tight corners around some trees, a fast descent down some deep gravel (if you didn't stay to the outside), and a short but very bumpy section near the start / finish. I got caught close to the start line by the guys and ended up a lap down, but surprisingly only about 12 gals from our race actually stayed on the lead lap. Some guy in the Master's race crashed on a tight corner at the bottom of the gravelly descent and ended up with a broken and dislocated ankle. Ouch. I stopped for a few seconds to make sure everyone was alright and then continued on my way.

I ended up finishing 23rd out of 33+ gals, which wasn't as good as I had hoped for, but still fine by me. 23 seems to be my magic number! I'm sure if I could work on my starts I'd do much better, but right now I'm content just having fun and pushing hard, but not killing myself. I'm in that "kinda racing but not seriously" mode right now and I like it :)

After my race I stuck around to get photos and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Mt Rainier looked beautiful from the top of the runup and it was almost shorts and T-shirt weather! Incredible!

SCC #3: Kelly Creek

The weather held up nicely and we had another dry race for the Seattle Cyclocross series. I'm sure this won't be the case much longer! For a change I got there early enough to get a few warmup laps in. The course was fun and had a steep, fast descent, a few gravel sections, one set of barriers, and one downed tree. I was disappointed there were no real run-ups since I seem to do better in races that require more running. I'll just have to wait for Steilacoom next week, though I haven't done the course before so I may regret saying that!

Usually I'm fairly daring on the bike and especially love going downhill, but the steep descent on today's course gave my brain a bit of a meltdown. When I came around on my first practice lap I stopped at the top and immediately thought, "Whoa. I'm not f***ing riding down that!" The top few feet were a bit off-camber and for some reason I just couldn't deal with it. I sat there for a few minutes feeling like a total idiot. After seeing scores of people easily descending I figured it couldn't be that bad, took a deep breathe, and hit it. I aimed for the rut down the middle, laid off the brakes, and zoomed right down. It was TOTALLY fun!! It's amazing how much stuff you bounce over when you go that fast :)

I did a pretty good job of getting a crappy start again and ended up near the back right away. I was able to pick off a handful of gals but finished a lap down in 23rd place. I only needed about 10 seconds to finish on the lead lap, but oh well. Yesterday I felt like I was getting a cold, so naturally I went out and did a 40+ mile team ride in the rain. Today I felt a little under the weather and my legs and lungs were flat. I still had tons of fun and enjoyed the race, but was relieved when I didn't have to do another lap.

Zoka kicked some butt today. We had so many Zokas in the top 10 that I can't remember them all! Zoka went 1, 4 and 7 (I think) in the Men's 4 race. Hats off to Chip for his win! Dave Cook took the win for the Men's 3 with Chris Hill shortly behind him in 3rd. Elise snagged 7th in the Women's Cat 4 race and I know we had several other strong finishers. Unfortunately, I got no pictures this week. I was all set to snap a great shot of Chip coming across the finish and then realized I left my memory card at home in my laptop. Ugh! I'll make up for it at Steilacoom next week.

I'm just doing cross for fun this fall and so far I totally love it! I think if I start getting serious about it, which I'm certainly considering, I'll cut out the Saturday team rides. I think I could do much better if my legs were fresh so I'm going to take a Saturday off for Steilacoom next week and see how it goes. Big runup, here I come! Now I'm off to chug some OJ and stop this impending cold...

The crusher of souls

I don't blog about my personal life very much because...well...it's personal. Race reports and bike stories are more my style. However, this week I did something I feel really bad about, and I thought that writing about it might make me feel a little better. If it doesn't, I'll probably go back and delete this once I realize I wrote a "personal life" story.

A few months ago my boyfriend and I ended our nearly 3-year relationship. It was difficult at the time as most breakups are, but it was an easy decision given how unhealthy our relationship had become. Despite us being good friends, it just wasn't working out. We gave each other our space to get over it and since then, haven't seen much of each other.

Last week I had to stop by the house to pick up some stuff and we ended up talking for a few hours. It was nice to see him again. We got together a few days later so I could pick up my spinning bike from the house and that's when things took a turn. We talked about getting back together and made plans for dinner and a show tonight. Why did I help the conversation along? I don't know. It's easy for me to forget the bad and remember the good. I got caught up thinking about all the great times we used to have and all the cool things about being together.

The next day I realized what I had done. He was all excited and happy thinking that we were back on and all I could think about was how this would never work. It's always been my belief that trying to get back together after a breakup is futile. Whatever issues drove you apart will generally always resurface. He's a great guy and will make someone very happy, but the two of us just can't go down that road together again. So I had to do the only thing I could think of doing, which was to cancel tonight's plans. Now I feel horrible, like a crusher of souls. Great job.

SCC #2 - Evergreen HS

The second race in the Seattle Cyclocross series took place yesterday at Evergreen HS in White Center under beautiful sunny skies! I stayed true to form and managed to f*** up my pre-race plan. Instead of arriving at 7:30 to get a warmup and course pre-ride, I overslept and got there shortly before 9. One of the benefits of getting to the race so late is that no one else is that dumb, so registration was really fast!

I had just enough time to do one quick lap on the course, but it really wasn't enough. My lack of warmup killed me and even though I started up front, I was quickly in the back of large 35-40 person Women's Cat 4 field in about 300 meters. Suck. Our race started in heavy fog, which was pretty cool, but made me chuck my glasses at the end of the first lap. I couldn't see anything after half a lap.

The course was really fun, with lots of tight, off-camber corners, a fairly steep runup, one set of barriers, and one short technical descent. I managed to stay upright the whole race and out of trouble despite a few crashes around me. One girl went down particularly hard in the twisty part of the course. It didn't look too good but I heard later that she was ok, so that was good news.

As usual, my 1st lap was the worst. Once I got cruising though I finally started moving up and picking some people off. The descent seemed to be difficult for most of the riders around me, but I picked a really bizarre line off to the side, laid off the brakes, and had no trouble. Granted, I was going too fast to negotiate the corner at the bottom, so every time I would hop off and run up and around it, but I still seemed to get a gap on the people behind me so it couldn't have been that bad of an idea.

We completed four laps, which made our race seem really long. I swear it was closer to 40 mins than 30, but after only finishing two last time I was happy to do more this time. I finished 26th out of 36, which is much better than I did at Snohomish, so I'm happy I'm moving up. Elise had a great race and snagged 13th. Way to go Elise!

I still need to get much tighter on my cornering. Every time I'd pull away from the riders behind me I'd have them right back on my tail after the twisty sections. I also need to start warming up so I can maintain a better position on the first lap, which is key. No oversleeping for Kelly Creek next week! My back is tired of being black and blue from getting stabbed by the pedals, so looks like I need to perfect my shouldering technique as well.

Overall though, I'm having tons of fun and I'm somewhat surprised that the technical parts of the courses are where I start to pull away from other people. I've never considered myself a strong technical rider, so that's a bit of a pleasant surprise. Good times!

Some of the highlights of the day included Chris Hill getting 2nd in the Men's 3 field and doing a groovy skidding stop at the finish line. Adrian Hegyvary also entertained the crowd with his post-finish superman-style amazing display of balance. Give those guys some props!

SoCal cyclocross here I come!

I think I might finally have my little Thanksgiving getaway planned. I have a friend in Sacramento that I've been wanting to visit, so I'm planning to drive down to LA and make a stop in Sacramento. Of course, he doesn't know this yet so I probably better tell him :) Let's just hope the weather treats me better this time. Last time I drove to LA I did it around Christmas a few years ago and ended up stuck when Siskiyou pass was closed due to bad weather. That was a fun time!

As an added bonus I found out that SoCal has a cyclocross series and they have a race on Sunday, Nov 18th near Redondo Beach, so...I'm going to pack up the bikes and head out of town in time to hit the SoCal race. I did some research and the course features sand, loose gravel, and a challenging 70m runup on...you guessed it...sand. I found this course description on cyclingnews.com: "The technical and demanding course took its toll as running was reduced to walking on the sandy, steep hill. Hairpin turns in the sand and gravel added to the excitement as riders and their skills were put to the test."

Wow. It's a nightmare come true for me! Should be fun! While I'm there I plan to take advantage of the weather and do some road training as well. I'm stoked!

An early Halloween

I spent my Saturday afternoon at St Edwards Park for the Crosstoberfest relay race. We had some trouble finding a 3rd Zoka teammate to round out our team, so Z talked his friend Levi into it pretty last minute. None of us had too much time to costume plan so we decided to go totally thrift store and just throw on some crazy clothes. The result was awesome! I picked up these groovy pants at Red Light in Capitol Hill. They're so smokin' I think I might have to wear them to work one day!

Each of us had to do one lap on the course, then chug a beer before the next person could take off. I'm never going to live down my horrible beer chug. I pulled in barely able to breathe after a hard effort on the course and couldn't get the beer down! It was too funny. I guess I need to practice for next year! Z did a great job downing his beer despite the distraction of Nathan's costume, which was well ... ballsy. Haha!

The relay was tons of fun and the course was a blast. After racing a lap I wish I had stuck with my original plan to race the 9:30 Women's Cat 4 race as well, but when my alarm went off at 7 I decided some extra sleep sounded a little better. As it turns out, a bunch of the women's field got stung by bees, so maybe it was a good decision after all. I'll be gearing up for the next SCC race at Evergreen and healing my shoulder from a little too close of an encounter with a tree :)

Guys are funny

I was just reading the Seattle Cyclocross forum and there's this very long thread going about sandbagging in the men's fields. Some guy is complaining that someone won by 30 secs, so they should be forced to upgrade and more people have chimed in with their 2 cents. I think all the talk is rather funny if you ask me. Look at the women. We're out there racing and having a blast while the guys are all whining about their competition.

Sometimes I think the tables should be turned and the guys should only have a choice of racing in two fields like the women. We get two choices: Cat 4 or Cat 1/2/3. Well, *technically* I guess we have single speed and masters too. Imagine if the guys had to race that way. Maybe it would put it in perspective. Seriously guys, you have like 20 categories to choose from! Give me a break. People talk about women's racing being catty but honestly, I think the guys are so much worse. It cracks me up.

And yes, the turnout for women's racing isn't nearly as large as men's, but our fields are growing. I'd still like to see men stuck with two categories. Imagine the drama. I'll quote a teammates' tattoo: "Shut up and ride!"

Muddy cross racing, cowbells, and hot chocolate...

...what better way to spend a Sunday? The Seattle Cyclocross Series kicked off this morning in Snohomish under perfectly rainy skies. My plan was to leave at 7:15 to get there around 8. That would give me plenty of time before my 9:30 race to register, warmup, and pre-ride the course. The only problem with that plan is that I hit "snooze" and somehow woke up at 7:20. Crap. After loading the car, grabbing the dog, and hitting Starbucks I didn't leave until 7:45. Registration took forever and all of a sudden it was 9:05 when I got changed into my gear.

So, I started the race with absolutely no warmup and only a small glimpse of the course. I was unsure of the course and my technical skills, so I took it way too conservatively the first lap. The second lap I ramped it up, finally got into a good rhythm, and started passing some people. Then my only big incident of the day happened: I lost my shoe to the mud bog.

There was a stretch of the course that was so boggy most people were opting to run it. Halfway through I noticed my left shoe was loose and then all of a sudden there was this loud sucking noise and it was gone. There I was, my bike on my back, trying to fish my shoe out of the mud. Too f*** funny. I wish someone had gotten a picture of that one.

We were supposed to do three laps but I ended up doing two with a handful of other ladies. Yeah, I sucked, but the race was the most fun I've ever had on a bike! It was an awesome day of playing in the mud and I felt like I was 5 years old again. I learned a handful of good lessons today:

• Michelin Mud tires rock!
  
• I need to tighten my shoes.
  
• My technical skills must be better than I thought - I stayed upright.
  
• I'm investing in rain boots for the rest of cross season.
  
• There's not a more fun way I can think of to spend time on my bike!
  

We had lots of Zokas out there today all having a blast on the course. I added a few pics of my teammates slogging through the mud. I'm bummed that our uniforms won't be brown anymore ... they hide mud quite well!

More pics

Tat #3!

I'm starting to become a regular customer at the Kirkland Tattoo studio now. Friday afternoon I spent a bit over an hour getting tat #3 done and as usual, Kerry did a fantastic job.

As you can see from the pics, I had an armband done around my left bicep. Trying to get a picture was difficult so yes, in one picture it looks like my right arm, but it's a mirror. The design I have is inspired by artwork of Jose Posada, a well-known Mexican engraver and illustrator. Posada's best known works are his calaveras, which have become associated with Dias de los Muertos. I love how the design is a bit chaotic but still repetitious.

This tattoo definitely hurt more than the one on my neck. It wasn't too bad until Kerry started working on the inside of my arm, then it got irritating pretty quickly. The last little bit on the very inside was difficult, so I'm happy it wasn't bigger. All in all though, it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I think the worst part was doing a team ride the morning after. The inside of my arm was extremely sore and every little bump in the road felt like murder. I'm so happy now that I didn't do this before StarCrossed!

I know my mom isn't a fan and is probably going to disown me. Sorry mom, but I love it!