More Photos from Sunday

First Cross Race of the Season

Today was a great day. I went into today's race hoping for a top 10, especially after taking the cross bike for a spin yesterday and falling pretty hard during a dismount. After the fall my confidence was pretty much shot and my knee and shoulder were hurting. Today I lined up with 30 women at the Charm City Cyclocross race in Baltimore, the largest cross race in the Midatlantic. I had a horrible start, probably the worst start I've ever had in a race but I quickly made up for it and worked my way up to 5th place. In the 3rd lap I managed to pass 4th and that's where I stayed. I'm somewhat disappointed that I couldn't catch 3rd because I was sooooo close, but I'm extremely happy because it's the best performance I've had at a cross race yet.

In other news, the women of Capitol Hill Bikes are trying to get sponsored by Cherry Pharm. If you have any ideas about a sponsorship proposal, please let me know.

Here are some pics from today. (Thanks Sonja!)

Toad

Tuesday evening Sonja and I were riding home along the Capital Crescent Trail when suddenly we spotted a very large toad sitting in the middle of the path. Unfortunately for the poor fellow, he had been run over by a cyclist. He was still alive and actually appeared to be none the worse for wear. Sonja moved him to a grassy area beside the trail and constructed a barrier out of sticks to keep him from coming back on the bike path. Fast forward to tonight. Sonja has been concerned about the toad so we decided to see if he was still there, which of course means he was dead, or not there, which could mean lots of things. Well, good news, he was not there. We like to think that he hopped happily away, not the darker scenario that some other critter snatched him up in his injured state.

This picture is from tonight's ride and is not the same toad from Tuesday. This is another toad that Sonja almost ran over. In fact, this one is only about a third of the size of that one. We also removed him from the trail. In fact we performed 2 toad rescues on our way home tonight.

Marathon

So I need to run another marathon. I took some time off from running to concentrate on cycling, but now I want to run again. It's the perfect time... offseason, cool weather. There's nothing like a nice long run on a cool morning. A Jan/Feb marathon gives me enough time to train, and it's over with before the cycling season takes off again. Here are the one's I'm considering:

• PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon Phoenix, AZ on 1/13
• Tybee Marathon Tybee Island, GA on 2/2
• Myrtle Beach Marathon in SC on 2/16
• Mardi Gras Marathon New Orleans, LA on 2/24

I'm leaning towards Phoenix (Sonja and I have friends there) or New Orleans (for various reasons). Any thoughts?

Website of the Day

http://www.helium.com/

Random Shots from the Turkey Day Race 2007

No pics of me because no one took any!!!

The start of the Women's Open race...

The Men's Cat 3 Bar 1st (Mike) and 2nd (Jose) place...

The Brothers Lumm...

Check out these Turkey Legs...

The sprint for the line in the Women's Open race...

My website of the day

http://www.ibelieveindog.com

Cross Season

Cross season is upon us and I am excited. I have a new bike thanks to Capitol Hill Bikes http://www.capitolhillbikes.com and it rocks. It's an Eddy Merckx, you know, the Belgian superstar of cycling. I figure that I have to be good at cross on a Belgian bike considering cross is practically the national sport of Belgium. I took it for a little spin on Monday and Tuesday and realized that my form from last year is rusty. The dismounts are at best ok, but my remounts are poor. Thank dog that I have a cross clinic coming up and only one race before that.

Weekend Wrap

The final 2 races of the MABRA season were this weekend. Going into them I had no real goals... just to keep the rubber side down. I had already secured a share of the BAR, and while it would have been nice to notch a win, I just didn't have the desire. Besides, I've got cross on the brain.

Saturday's road race was a real snooze for the first 3 laps. I was on the front most of the time with Pam from DC Velo and Liz from Hunt Valley. I know I shouldn't be riding on the front but no one else was willing. At least from the front I can cover any moves that go up the road, which is exactly what happend on the fouth and final lap. Erin from Artemis and Cynthia from AVMC got a little gap and I was a bit boxed-in at the time so I didn't react immediately. My mistake because that move happend to be the one. Amanda from Artemis bridged-up and they dropped Cynthia like a bad habit. A good pace line formed with me and 5 others. (Kudos to the HPC rider for being such a quick study in pacelining.) We caught Cynthia just before the finish and I got second in the field sprint for 4th overall.

Sunday's race went well too. I won't bore you with the details, but I led-out my teammate for third. I rolled in at 12th.

I have pictures from Sunday that I will post later.

The absolute best thing about the weekend was the fact that I had so many people approach me about joining the team. They like the way we work, always willing to have our noses in the wind. I have to admit, we are a pretty good bunch of women, and if things keep on going like they're going, we'll have one heck of a team next year.

Rider down

Sonja on the ground after the Wilmington Grand Prix. Thanks to Peg F, Leslie J, Robin Z, and the unknown Verducci Breakaway rider for helping her out. You guys were there immediately. And thanks to all the spectators for their concern and watching the 3 dogs while we were tending to her. And a huge THANK YOU to the EMT's that responded. You guys are top-notch. Sorry if I forgot anyone, but I was late on the scene.

Until we meet again

Today I said goodbye to an old friend. No, not the White Dog, but my 2001 Dodge Dakota truck. She died on me on my way home to Alabama over Labor Day weekend. Transmission problems can be a b@#&h! And expensive. Anyhoo, I decided to have it hauled down to Alabama, fix it there and then sell it. They came today to pick it up in Winchester, VA. I almost felt sad when I watched it driving away on the big trailer. I've had a lot of good times with that truck in the short period of time that I've owned it. It is lovingly known as the "Green Monster" and everyone seems to congregate around it after the bike races. Of course that may be because I usually have a cooler full of water, soda, and beer, all ice cold for everyone to share, and plenty of chairs and tailgate space.

The story of my truck reminds me of a song called "Kicking the Tires" by Laura Wilson, a friend of mine and Sonja's. She released her first CD in August. Check it out at www.flylikeabeagle.com. I guarantee you'll be humming these songs in no time... a truly awesome CD. I'll blog more about her CD later and try to post some video of Laura performing some of her songs at her release party.

And here's a parting shot of the truck. Or least the back of it at a bike race.


I miss it already. But maybe soon I'll be in one of these.

Or these.

I know. Two completely different vehicles and the FIT is the exact opposite of the truck, but I'm struggling with what I want (and what costs more) and what is more economical, gas wise. The truck was great but not too practical in the city, or on gas consumption for that matter and I don't want to be a planet-hater. The Element would be great for camping, going to the bike races, etc, but the FIT gets almost 10 more mpg than the Element. Of course, traveling with the bikes on the roof may affect that whereas I can put them in the back of the Element. Oh well, decisions, decisions.

My Favorite Commercial

"Pain" and Simple

Check out these results.

http://prologsoftware.com/proracingtiming/results/r09_09_07Final.htm

Today was a much better day than yesterday. I actually won the TT and so did Sonja. Can you believe she was passed out on the ground yesterday and bounces back and rocks the house today? She was the fastest woman overall (and I was second fastest woman, but first in my category). With our results today we both sealed the BAR. The picture above is not from today but I thought it was appropriate since I'm all geared-up for a TT.

I don't have much to say about the race. It was hard and I'll leave it at that. Oh, and I actually made myself hurt today. Usually when my legs start to burn, I put it in an easier gear and spin. Not today. I cranked out the tempo in a bigger gear and felt like I wanted to throw up at about 25k. I'm pretty proud of that.

Next weekend are the final 2 races of the road season then it's on to cross.

Hot Enough For Ya?

Today was the Wilmington Grand Prix and it was hot.

Here is why I didn't race today.



Look at the guns on her! That's Laura Van Gilder and she won today after riding away from the field with two other women early in the race. She is a pro and rides for Cheerwine. I learned today that she is known as the "Dynamo from the Poconos."

Maya enjoyed watching the race.



Sonja had an eventful race today. She flatted while riding in the second chase group, crashed riding the flat to the pit, had a pretty good finish (in the money), then promptly passed out after a cool down lap. They wanted to haul her away in an ambulance but she refused. She's ok now but we still don't know exactly why she went down. Heat exhaustion? Iron deficiency? Your guess is as good as ours. She was hydrated and not cramping so who knows. But for someone that had a bad race, she still finished well. I would have been off the back of that pack in about 3 laps.

Sonja in the opening laps with a TEAm Lipton rider on her wheel and LVG behind her.



Tomorrow is the Church Creek TT. Sonja is determined to do it because she wants to win the 40+ BAR. I want to do it to get more points for the Cat 4 BAR. Note that I did not say that either one of us wants to do it because it's fun. Time trials are never fun.

Cheers,
Chicken

Testing from the Mac

At home now and trying to post from the Mac. It seems that Blogspot works well with PC's but leaves a little to be desired if you use a Mac. Go figure. So I just added this photo of the West Virginia goats and it took a long time and it's very hard to edit. Don't get me wrong... I love my Mac but this is kind of ridiculous. I thought most web publishing was done with a Mac???

More pictures

Here are more pictures, this time cycling related. (And I will figure out how to get these pictures formatted better on the page to avoid all this wasted space.)




This is me at the French Creek XC earlier this year. Notice the exceptional log jumping technique? Yeah, right! I was just praying to make it over this log in front of the photographer. Talk about pressure!

This pic is from the Iron Horse Classic Road Race out in Colorado. This was taken at the top of Molas Pass right before the screaming descent into Silverton. And yes, I did beat the train.

This last pic is from the MABRAcross championships last year. It's almost cross season again, yeah!!! Nothing like mud, sand, grass, cool weather, and off-camber turns to get a girl excited.

Kelso Ridge

I'm just playing around with this new blogspot and wanted to see how easy it is to upload photos.

Here is one from a trip to Colorado in 2005. That's me climbing up Keslo Ridge to summit Torreys Peak (a 14er). As of my last trip to CO I had summitted 13 (14 if you count Cameron) peaks. I attempted Harvard twice but got turned back, once due to weather and the other due to my stupidity. Note to self: when there is a fork in the trail and you are not 100% positive which way to go, look at your map! I also failed to summit San Luis Peak due to snow cover and lack of snow shoes. I did not feel like post holing for hours upon hours and turned back. I eventually want to summit all 54 14'ers, but it will be hard living here in DC. Maybe my parents could retire in Colorado (hint, hint) and I could make a few more trips out there each year. For more info on 14'ers go to http://www.14ers.com/.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

After numerous attempts to create a blog using my mac account I finally succumbed to the lure of the "blogspot." The frustrating thing about mac is that every time you add to your blog, it reformats and uploads the ENTIRE site which takes FOREVER. Maybe I was doing something wrong... I'm not exactly the most computer literate person out there... but this blogspot thing seems a lot easier. So, Mom, Dad, Bob, Donna and anyone else that may come upon these ramblings... enjoy! I'll try to keep you posted on what's going on up here in DC and share pictures with you this way. Toodles for now.