Sausage Leg

It's pictures like these that make me wonder if I need to lose weight...

Pony Soprano and other stuff

This is Pony aka Pony Soprano or Po-po.  Pony is lovingly referred to as a "shepherd mix" by her people Jay and Audrey.

Here she is keeping watch on the chickens out in West Virginia.

What amazes me is that Pony will chase the goats over at James' (Audrey and Jay's WV neighbor) but she seems to have a soft spot for the hens.

On another note, Sonja and I will be in Charlottesville for Jeff Cup this weekend.  The race season is starting to rev up.  Time to "put it in second and go" as DJ Cyclone likes to say!

WV Easter Weekend

Goat and I headed out to WV for a long Easter weekend of riding and fun. The plan was to ride Friday and Sunday as Saturday was supposed to snow/rain all day.  So Friday we suited up and headed out into the wild blue yonder.

It was the first ride on my new Tarmac.  Well, I had raced it last weekend so that was the first ride, but this was going to be the first REAL ride.  We settled on a route that we thought would take us anywhere from 4 to 6 hours.  We had not actually ridden one of the climbs before, but we like adventure and exploring new roads.

On our way to Peru (pee-ru) we climbed the 10 miles up to Jay and Audrey's Raw Talent Ranch.  Sonja had forgotten to bring food so she stole cookies from the Harley guys that were staying at the barn.  (See her blog for the evidence.)  Once up and over the climb on Howard's Lick Road we headed due south to Peru.  The climb that we had mapped-out began here.
It started out innocently enough with a nice gradual grade on smooth gravel and dirt.  However...
Stream crossing #1.  That water was damn cold.  A couple of miles down the road we encountered stream crossing #2.

We had to let our feet dry off before putting our socks and shoes back on.  Did I mention that the water was DAMN cold.  And yes, there was a stream crossing #3 but we were disgusted by this time and rode thru it so no photos.  If the bike shop guys are reading this, yes, I will probably be bringing my bike in for a new bottom bracket.  And no, I don't have any idea how that water got in there.

My not-so-new-anymore Tarmac after the climb up Branch Mountain from Peru, sufficiently broken-in, West Virginia style.  How did I get so much mud on my bike?  The Goat has video.

The rest of the ride was tame at least by WV standards, except for the 6-inch deep gravel on the descent.  Sonja couldn't stop to take pics or take her hands off the bars... too sketchy to brake or film while rolling.  We did see some nice chickens on the way home.
At the end of the day we had ridden 6.5 hours with 8000 ft of climbing and 100 ft of swimming and seen many goats, sheep, chickens, hawks, and locals.

Saturday's ride was easy compared to this one and by easy I just mean all pavement so I am not going to blog about it.  Maybe the goat will.

Strasburg Road Race

I wasn't going to write a race report because Sonja pretty much covered everything in her blog, but since it was my first race of the '08 season I figured why not.

Sonja and I made the trek up to Strasburg, PA last Saturday for a 22-mile road race.  Yes, we are crazy and drove 2 hours to race for 22 miles which took us just over an hour.  Oh, but wait, then we had to drive 2 hours home so that's a total of 4 hours of driving for 1 hour of racing.  Pretty crazy since there was a crit right here at UMD.  (We didn't race local because there was only a Women's Cat 3/4 race and Sonja is a stud Cat 2 now.)  Anyway, I am not one for detailed race reports so I will only give the highlights:

• Sonja attacked 3 times, but I was mid-pack and didn't see her go.
  
• When I finally noticed her missing (after her third attempt) I went to the front and tried to pick up the pace to reel her in.  Who knows if I actually succeeded in increasing the tempo but it sure felt like it, at least to me.
• I realized that the break was only gaining ground so I went back to mid-pack.  Also, I am definitely not the strongest rider out there so too much effort for me at the front would have led to my getting dropped.  (Sidenote here:  How in the hell did Christine W do so much work at the front and still get 3rd in the field sprint?  That girl is a beast!) 
• I got run off the road and took a detour thru the grass.  Sara Z commented to me after the race that she saw me offroading and was thankful I was a cross racer or else half the peloton would have gone down.  That made my day.  Thanks Sara.
• I really screwed up the sprint but I finished 16th and with the pack which I am extremely happy about.
  

So there you have it.  The first race is in the books and I didn't get dropped, which leads me to my goals for the season.  I am not chasing upgrade points.  In fact, I wish I had not been upgraded to a Cat 3.  I do have some races marked as "A" races that I would like to do well in, but my focus is on cross so I will also be doing more mountain bike races this year.  My goal for road is to ride strong, ride smart, and try my best to be there at the end.  I think I accomplished those goals at Strasburg for the most part.  One thing I realize is that I need to work on my positioning in the pack and picking better wheels to be on for the sprint.

Results here.

Welcome

My friend Laura out in Woodland Park has a new blog.  Yipee!  Check out her synopsis of last night's American Idol.  Very entertaining, that is if you are an American Idol freak like me.  I agree with most of what Laura says, but I would have rated Brooke a lot better.  She's one of my favorites.  I was also very impressed with Amanda O.

Contest

A bottle of wine to the first person to tell me where this photo was taken.

Rena

Jen's dog Rena is staying with us for the week. We've been keeping her busy, from hiking the Potomac Heritage Trail...
... to helping the Chicken blog.

Kelley Acres Ride 3/09

This week's KA ride happened on Sunday instead of the usual Saturday. Saturday the weather was being too uncooperative for any long rides to happen outside. With that said, I did manage to ride my trainer for over 2 hours while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just what I needed the day before Chris decides it's time for the death march known as Lambs Knoll.


Chris was riding so fast up the climb that she's just a blur in this photo.


Unfortunately, my bike decided after Lambs Knoll that I was done. It somehow turned itself into a fixie and I was forced to take a short cut and pedal all the way back to Chris', literally. Back at the Elephant I was pouting due to my shortened ride.


Sonja and I waited at the house for the gang to return from their ride because Fred had made mac and cheese and we wanted us some of that goodness. Chris has more pics and more bloggin' over here.

Some family pics

Do I look more like my mother or my father? Growing up people always told me I was the spitting image of my dad. People now say I act just like him.

My sister Valerie and my mom Doris Sue

My cousin Liz and my dad Raul

\

Happy Birthday Mom!

67 and counting.....

Dog Is My Co-pilot

Another weekend of good training rides. Sonja, Hank and I covered nearly 5 hours on Friday meandering thru the suburbs of Maryland. Yes, this was only supposed to be a one hour ride for me, but this is what I get when I agree to ride with Sonja on a little "out and back on the CCT." Yeah right. Saturday we skipped the Kelly Acres ride because we are wimps and decided to ride up to Great Falls for some hill repeats with J-Max and K-Lo. Brutal I say, especially the 2 repeats up Brickyard. Sunday was a chill Arlington Hills ride again with J-Max. I think I rode a total of 10 hours this weekend. Maybe that does not seem like a lot to some of you, but this chicken was in bed by 8 last night because I was so tired. Thankfully, today I only had to spin 45 minutes so I just rode the ss to work and home and that covered it.

After riding Sunday we had a play date with the white dog. We picked her up and off to Rock Creek park we went. She loves fetching sticks out of the creek and the bigger, the better.

Throwing sticks.

When we got her, she seemed ok but I'm sure she felt much better after this...

What did this dog eat?

Sorry for that nasty picture, but Mom, you asked for it. On the way home Azu took her co-pilot job seriously.

Dog is my Co-Pilot

Afterwards we stopped at Finn's for a little refreshment. Yes, I have sworn off alcohol, but the temptation of a Belgian brew was too much for me to resist. We enjoyed our time chatting with Russ. Sonja has more (and a better picture) over on her blog.

Russ goofing off for the camera.

Russ promised me more lucky water bottles. Yes, I race with Russ' used water bottles for good luck. Everyone's got a good luck charm, right? Mine are the waterbottles. I discovered Liz Hatch had a Texas quarter glued under her saddle when I was borrowing her bike. Sonja claims she doesn't have one. Let me know if you have one.