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!

Oyster pics

Pics from the Oyster Race are up! Here are some great shots of our team in action. Poor Justin is never going to live down his little rollerblading accident :)

Kickin' this week

I'm trying to kick back a bit this week and give my body a bit of a rest, especially my knee. I still headed to Marymoor last night for a Kore Kross workout but just took it easy. The women had a great turnout, but the skill levels were so disparate that it became a little frustrating. I'm by no means an experienced cyclocrosser, but I can still mount, dismount, get over the barriers, and shoulder my bike. Several of the gals in the women's group were having a lot of difficulty and probably should have been in the beginner's group. There were too many bottlenecks and when you have to slow to a barely moving pace it's difficult to really get much out of the practice.

I think someone helping with the clinic mentioned that next week they will try to separate the women more, which I think will be beneficial for everyone. I took some easy laps on the course and tried to focus on my cornering, which really sucks. I need to improve a lot.

It's looking like the weather for this Sunday's Snohomish race is going to be wet so I'm trying to mentally prepare for a very muddy and slick course. I hear there are a lot of off-camber sections, and for some reason I have a big mental issue with off-camber, so it will be good practice. At least mud is soft!

This afternoon I'm doing the Headquarters-dog-bowling shuffle so hopefully I can get my gym workout in, grab the dog, and head to Edmonds all before 7. I finally bought a new ball last week so I better roll better than the 470 I rolled last week. Ugh. I won't digress into bowling speak to explain why...just take my word that it was warranted.

Oh yeah, and I have my appointment tomorrow at 4pm for tattoo #3! I can't wait!

My body hates me

This past weekend was filled with epic racing! (WARNING: VERY long post ahead....)

Saturday: Star Crossed at Marymoor
Saturday I headed to Star Crossed at the Marymoor Velodrome for my cyclocross debut. To say I was nervous as hell was an understatement. I couldn't believe how many people were already there when I pulled in at 12:45. I was surprised to see DiRtY already there with our team tent set up -- DiRtY rocks!

I got ready in a hurry since I wanted to ride as many laps on the course as I could. With each lap I became more comfortable and tried to remember where all of the extremely bumpy sections were. The bumps on this course definitely challenged the back! The time went by quickly and all of a sudden I was running a bit late to the staging area for our 2:15 start.

I hightailed it over there and lined up in the back of a 50+ women's 3/4 field. I sat there until someone yelled at me, "Hey Zoka! They're yelling for you at the front!" I was perplexed until I learned that the official lined everyone up in order of registration. Crap. I was the 2nd or 3rd person to register so I was supposed to be at the very front of the line. Are you kidding me? Normally I would jump at the chance to be in front, but this was not where I wanted to be at my first cross race. Note the photo at left: me looking around in dismay. I finally thought, "F*** it. I'll let everyone go around." As it turned out the start was faster than a crit and I was in the wrong gear so I didn't have to try too hard to float to the back.

As soon as the race started I totally loved it! Chaos ensued once the pavement transitioned to grass and everyone tried to find a place to fit. It was awesome! I had three goals for this race. #1: Don't get lapped. #2: Don't finish last. #3: Don't take a header on a barrier right in front of the beer garden.

Guess what? I accomplished all three! I navigated the course just fine, survived the horrible bumpiness, though my back might have disagreed with me afterwards, and got over all the barriers just fine. I finished 47th out of 52, but I don't care. I hung in there, had a great race, and had more fun on the bike than I ever have. Now I know what I need to work on to get better. The logs slowed me up and I need to get my knee in check so I can run up faster. My dismount feels good but I'm slow on the remount, so I need to work on that as well. I got the technique so the speed will come with practice. I think I lost the most time in corners, so I really need to work on tightening my line.

Thanks to Beki for these great photos!

Afterwards I got to hang out in the beer garden and cheer on the guys. Cross is such a blast! Where else can you have this much fun drinking beer and watching bike racing? I got home really late Saturday night and still had to pack my stuff for the Sunday adventure race I had planned.

Sunday: Seattle Oyster Urban Adventure Race
I went to bed well after midnight, which set me up for a whopping 5 hours of sleep since I had to join my other five teammates at REI at 7am. We geared up and got ready to spend the next 8 hrs running around Seattle. Here's Justin ready for urban warfare!!

Having a 6-person team rocked since only three of us had to be on the course at one time. While those three were out, the other three could rest. The race had 7 challenges, all of which took about an hour or so to complete. I started the day with tired legs and a sore back from Star Crossed, so naturally I went out with Ben and Justin on the first challenge.

We had to run to the Pier 68 grainery and get our passport stamped, then head to the Wandering Rocks in the Olympic Sculpture Park and take a team pic, then get a 2nd stamp at the Space Needle and return to REI. We took a shortcut through the rail yard near Pier 68 and ended up fence climbing to get through. Oops! It was fun though! Here's a pic of Justin showing off his injury and a shot of us at the Sculpture Park.

The first challenge had 4-5 miles of running, 3 of which were further than normal for me. My IT band totally snapped and by the end I was completely gimping back to REI. That put a damper on my day since I could no longer do any running or walking.

I sat out the next two legs while my teammates climbed the rock at REI, biked to Gas Works and the Husky stadium, kayaked around Lake Union, and threw darts at Jillians. For the fourth challenge I hopped on the bike with Julie and Denise to get team photos in front of the troll and at the Ballard Locks and then returned to REI.

The next leg sent my teammates running to Pike Place and then Justin, Denise, and I hit the bikes again headed to Greenlake, which was the craziest adventure I had all day. Once at Greenlake, we had to do two laps around the lake (about 5.5 miles) on either inline skates or non-motorized scooters. I haven't rollerbladed in nearly 8 years so I opted to bike up there with a Razor Scooter. I didn't plan ahead and think to bring shoes so once I realized the incompatibility of bike cleats with a Razor I ditched my shoes and was left in socks. You can't believe the number of crazy looks I got while I spent the next hour scootering along in socks. We all finally completed the two laps and made it back to REI after what seemed like hours.

The last challenge sent our other three teammates running to Pioneer Square to take a photo with a Toyota truck (they were a race sponsor). Our team ended up barely missing the 8hr mark and finished around 8:04 I think.

The race was well organized, fun and engaging, and took us all over Seattle in new and creative ways. Our fellow competitors were all very fun and the promoters even had beer, lots of snacks, and great prizes for everyone. I really look forward to doing this again next year. This year was the inaugural race in Seattle and it drew 33 teams, so I can imagine it drawing even more next year.

After all the weekend events I'm taking a few days off to rest the IT band and my back and legs. They took a pretty good pounding in the cross race and the Sunday adventure race didn't help. I saw Laurel today and had a good draining massage done, so hopefully I'll be feeling chipper tomorrow. I'm beat, so it's bed time.

Ride the "SLUT"

This article is funny as hell.

Today was single speed day

I really can't explain it, but there's just something epic about riding a single speed around all day long, especially when you have a hilly commute :) I did the work commute today on the trusty Univega, then cruised downtown for my gym workout at Headquarters.

Riding around downtown on the single speed is definitely more of a pain in the ass. I got yelled at by some biker behind me when I didn't take off fast enough at a green light. Hey, I'm on a hill, and I'm on a f***ing single speed. I don't accelerate as well and it takes me a few seconds to get rolling. I can't say I've ever experienced biker rage before. Weird. Funny thing is, I had to pass the guy because he was too friekin' slow! This is probably the same person that pulls right out in front of you with his car, then proceeds to drive 5mph.

I've always respected bike messengers and fixies out there, but now I have even more admiration for them. By the time I got out of the gym and had to ride up Jackson to Leschi I was done with hills. This better make me a damn good hill climber next year.

I just signed back on with Joe at Headquarters last week. What can I say? I guess I miss totally getting my ass handed to me. I've lost my upper body and can barely get through a second set of push-ups without falling on my face. The machine bench press is killing me and I wrestled with the last rep on the incline bench press for like 5 minutes. I'm going to be hurting tomorrow, but it's great to be back!

Tomorrow I have the CycleU women's cross boot camp. Should be fun! I'm getting ready for my cyclocross debut at StarCrossed this weekend. As if I don't have enough stuff planned, I have to follow it up with an 8-hr urban adventure race on Sunday with some co-workers. We're all signed up for the Seattle Oyster Urban Adventure Race. We'll be doing our own version of "Amazing Race", running around Seattle all day by foot, bicycle, kayak, rollerblades, and maybe even skateboards.

The way this week is going I'm going to need a week off to recover. Thank goodness I'm chillin' to Jimi's Blues right now. "I can hear the blues call my name baby"....

A fun and exciting weekend of bicycles!

I had to sit down today and try to think about what I did with my time before I discovered bike racing. I honestly don't have a clue, which is sad. I'm glad I love bicycling!

Friday night I went to the Velodrome with my friend Liz from TiCycles to watch the last night of track racing. It was a great time, there was a good turnout, and later in the night the MVA provided free beer and pizza. I think I had one too many Skinny Dips :)

Saturday I headed up to UZoka for our first official Saturday team ride. I figured I'd get in a few extra miles by riding from my place in Leschi and bumped into Gina on the Burke near the stadium. We saw the aftermath of some guy on a mountain bike who took out a pedestrian. Enough people were taking care of the situation that we didn't need to stick around. The Burke traffic was heavier than normal due to the Husky game, so we just wanted to get the hell out of there. Hope the dude is ok, but he was passing pretty recklessly so I guess I'm not too sympathetic.

We had a great turnout for the ride and at one point heading into Coulon a handful of people broke off the front and really pushed the pace. Much to my surprise I was able to just barely hang on to the tail end of the lead group, which was a major accomplishment for me. I redlined doing it, but hey, it felt great to hang! Maybe I've actually improved my fitness!?

This morning I was supposed to do the "Meet the Women's Teams" ride and represent Zoka but was bummed to wake up and find my knee looking like a softball. Yeah, great. It hasn't done that in a while but after a few hours of Naprosin and ice it looked better. Unfortunately I had to bail on the ride, but a few other Zoka gals should be out there the rest of the weeks, which is good.

I headed over to South SeaTac at 1pm to watch the Men's Cat 3 and Women's 1/2/3 cross race and got some great pics and videos. Check out the kickass new Zoka tent we have! By the start of the race there was light drizzle that turned into a light rain and made for a fun time. Our Zokas did great with JoAnne taking 2nd, Jeff getting 7th or 8th, and Rick taking the win in his earlier race. Paul came off the course looking like hell. He was caked in dirt and covered in blood. Even the announcer made a point to publicize the location of the medic when Paul finished. Great job out there Pauly!

The SeaTac course is super technical so I'm not sure I'd want to do any races there for a while. I'd be afraid of providing crash entertainment. My plan was to do a workout with JoAnne after the race but the rain changed our minds, so I just got home from doing a little cross workout on my own. Today was the first day I've actually run around a bit and practiced some mounting and dismounting since late last year. I did surprisingly better than I expected and can't wait to get some more practice. Star Crossed...here I come!

The Baker Hill Climb

After the Zoka "Meet the Team" ride on Saturday I headed to Mt Baker for another tandem adventure with the Z-Dog. But, let's first rewind to Friday so I can tell this tale appropriately.

I decided Friday would be a great day to get started with my weight training routine at Headquarters again. I had Joe run me through an "easy" leg workout. I had no idea that a little jump roping and some calf raises would cause me so much weekend grief. I woke up Saturday completely unable to use my calves. I suffered through the entire team ride thinking for sure I'd be better by Sunday for the hill climb. As soon as Z found out what I did he yelled at me all weekend. Yeah, it was not a bright idea.

Once in Glacier we met Todd, who rode his bike 100+ miles from Seattle to Glacier and showed up looking like a rock star. (See pic of Todd at left). We also rendezvoused with Rick and his friend Brett, who both raced the Bellingham cross race that day.

One of my co-workers was kind enough to let us use his cabin for the weekend, so once we had some grub we all checked in for a Euchre match and some foosball. Party! The funniest part of the whole evening was walking into the cabin and encountering a bat flying around. Rick and JoAnne nearly had a heart attack and were cowering in the corner while we tried to shoo the bat out the door. JoAnne even had her hoodie on so it wouldn't fly in her hair. Too funny! Z has the funny pics of this incident....

The next morning I woke up and was dismayed to find my calves were in even worse shape than the day before. I seriously couldn't even put my heel on the floor when walking. Really great job with the gym thing eh? Z and I lined up for the 8:30 tandem start with three other tandems and then realized about a 1/2 mile after the start when we got dropped that we probably should have warmed up a tad :)

The weather couldn't have been better so we rode a steady pace and enjoyed the scenery. Near the top some of our teammates finally caught us, which was a bit of a bummer since we started 30 mins earlier. We finished with a time of 2:04:59. Not fabulous, but hey, I was just happy to get to ride, enjoy the views, and listen to some tunes. True to form, Z brought the iPod speakers and we rocked out the whole way up the mountain.

We took a partial team photo at the top but missed JoAnne, who was still finishing up the climb. Sorry JoAnne!!

The best part of the whole day was the descent back down. Boy was that fun! A little ways down there was a long, gently curvy stretch of road where we let the bike go and hit 40mph+. Todd had to do an all-out sprint just to catch us.

Overall, the weekend was a blast! We had a great time on the ride and had some teammates get some great finishes. I think I'd like to try this ride on my single bike to see what kind of time I could do, but being on the tandem was fun. At least you can support each other and keep the motivation going. (And the tunes definitely help!)

More pics...

New bruise!

Guess what leaves something retarded like this on your shin? (The lighting was bad so it looks pretty weird)

This is what happens when trying to bunny hop a mountain bike without first checking to make sure the toe clip straps are tight. And yes, I was using f*** toe clips. Not my choice so no comments please.

LA pics

Just posted some pics from the LA trip. There's nothing too cool there right now. I'll have to wait for some of my dad's photos.

HOT

I flew down to LA to visit my dad and stepmom last Thursday. I said I wanted some sun and that's definitely what I got. My dad lives in the valley area so it was between 108 - 113 the four days I was there.

Friday I ventured over to the pool to get some sun and quickly found out I was the only person willing to sit in the sweltering heat. The locals all thought I was crazy until I said I was from Seattle. Hey, I gotta soak up enough sun to last for a while! An hour in 108-degree weather was about all I could manage.

I rented a mountain bike from a local store Friday afternoon and made the mistake of falling completely in love it. I've never ridden a full suspension bike so I wanted to try one. Since I'm in the market for a new mountain bike I just cost myself extra money with that move. I usually bring my biking stuff but I didn't this time so I had to ride sans-chamois and with toe clips. It took me all of 5 seconds to wipe out with the stupid clips. Note to self: make sure the straps are tight BEFORE you try to bunny hop the bike. I think I added my left shin to my list of "might be permanently scarred" body parts.

Saturday we did a nice 25-mi bike ride from Ventura almost to Ojai. Afterwards I took the bike for a little spin and reconfirmed that I have no business at all riding in sand. I think the bruises are still forming. Sunday we ventured up to the mountains and got to see a cool lightning storm.

Four days of sun, biking, hiking, and margaritas -- good times! I even got to come home with this lovely sunburn stripe on my lower back. I'm glad that I rode 25 miles on the bike with a shirt that was a little too short. Now I have a semi-permanent reminder of why bike jerseys are cut longer in the back.

Once I get home tonight I'll post some pics...for now it's back to the daily grind at work.