Poolesville RR, Reston Crit, and New Bike Update

Thanks to Jen C I finally have that Poolesville win.

Overall it was a fine weekend of racing for CycleLife Powered By Specialized. I won the Poolesville Road Race; Robin got 3rd at the Reston Crit with a fine leadout by Sara Z (who still managed a 5th place finish), LJ scored a silver medal and Sonja pulled in a bronze in their respective categories at the Masters Nats Road Race in Louisville.

Not one to write race reports I'll just say this about Poolesville. Jen C led me to the gravel perfectly and I attacked on the third lap bringing Harlow with me. We bridged up to NCVC's Beth who had rolled off the front prior to the gravel. Harlow was not feeling well and had to pull herself out of the break and Beth and I worked well together to get a minute lead on the chase. She was an awesome break partner and I look forward to racing with her again.

On another note: Do Jen C and I really look anything at all alike? I've got at least 10 pounds on her and am not Asian. I only ask because when she violated the yellow line rule during the race, I was the one called out by the moto ref and asked to move to the back of the pack. Then when I was in the break, all the roadguards were yelling "Go Jen!" Beth even asked, "You're not Jen, right?" It all was quite amusing.

At Reston my legs were tired. Not tired enough that it was an overly difficult race, just too tired to do anything other than sit in. I still managed 7th overall coming in on Jen Max's wheel as we were pretty much the last 2 standing after a massive crash on the last lap. We had no hope of catching the group of five up ahead as we were gapped off from the crash so we just rolled in. I was fine with that as I was pretty apathetic about the whole race. I never once made an appearance on the front, never once attacked, never once reeled in an attack. I was just happy to finish with the pack on lead lap which is a first for me at Reston.

And finally an update on the new bike. The parts are ordered and should be in the shop. I'm just waiting on the call to bring the frame in to have it built up. SRAM Red with Nokon cables with white housing. Should look pretty sweet.

Something to make me laugh and something to make me smile

I was looking for something to make me laugh yesterday and decided to look up some video of one of my favorite SNL skits, Debbie Downer. Go ahead. Watch it. Try not to laugh.



In other news, I received my new super secret bike frame yesterday. I am grinning ear to ear. More on the bike later.

Numbers

14 road races already in the books
Approx. 25 more road races on my schedule
15 cross races on my schedule, not including Mercer Cup and Nationals
111 days until my cross season begins

Can you tell what’s on my mind? 111 days. I’m already looking at wheels and tubies for the upcoming season. Sadly I had to retire my tubies from last season but I did manage to get 2 (TWO!) full cross seasons out of them. I put some slicks on my cross bike last night so I can start commuting to work on it. I know I’m not the only one. I’ve been reading blogs and Facebook status updates and can see the current swelling. People are starting to have dreams about cross, starting to think about practice at Fort Reno, starting to talk equipment.

In the meantime I’ve been enjoying the road. I do love racing my bike on pavement, but something about racing cross just makes me smile. I’ll be racing with the big girls this year so I expect that smile will be masking quite a bit of pain, but I will still be smiling. One thing I noticed is that every single picture of me racing my road bike… I am not smiling. In fact I am sneering, grimacing, snarling, you name it. But pictures of me racing cross… I am smiling (or at the very least don’t look like I’m about to kill someone) even though I am sure the amount of pain I am in at the moment is almost unbearable.

Last weekend I went down to the Clarendon Cup to watch the elite CycleLife gals race. LJ and Sonja rocked with top 10 finishes. Mitch and Mel were also in the $$$. Hopefully someone will write a race report here. This weekend I am heading up to Philly to watch them race the Liberty Cup. I may be helping out in the feed zone, but if not, I will probably be hanging out at The Wall or on Lemon Hill. I love this race. In fact, it’s probably the only race which makes me want to one day upgrade on the road to a Cat 2. One day… but for now I’ve got 111 days on my mind.

Memorial Day Ride, er... Feast

Sonja decided not to make the trip up to Sommerville for the race Monday. Instead, she opted to do a chill ride with me. We hit the hills of Arlington and en route we passed the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and Arlington Cemetery where we took a moment to give thanks to all the Veterans.

On the way home we looped thru Hains Point. Tons of people were there with their grills fired up. It made me HUNGRY for some bbq chicken, a hamburger, a hotdog, anything...

Once we got to the Hill, we decided that Matchbox would be our best bet for burgers and beer, but alas, it was closed for Memorial Day. Instead, we hit our old fave, Cafe 8. Mediterranean food... not the same as burgers and dogs, but still pretty damn good.

I couldn't decide what to drink so I ordered a coke, water and an Efes beer (or two).

The feta plata as an appetizer.

Pides, their speciality. This one is spinach.

No road races for me this coming weekend so I was looking forward to a hard week of training, but looks like the weather is not going to cooperate. I am considering a mountain bike race Sunday. Having not ridden my mountain bike in over a year, it could be very interesting, but I've got to start getting ready for cross season, right?

How long until cross season?

With the Murad road race being postponed Sonja and I took advantage of a beautiful day and went for a leisurely ride.

I was supposed to do some intervals but we got lost.  OK, we didn't really get lost... more like the sirens called us into the woods where we found some awesome trails.  Riding these trails made me realize how much I miss cross and miss riding my cross bike.  But then I realized, I CAN ride my cross bike whenever I want and now that I've discovered some super-secret trails so close to home, I'll be making frequent visits here.

I'm happy to be off-road.

Skinny tires and my road race bike probably not the best choice...

Contemplating:  Do we attempt to ride into the abyss (you can't see it but the trail ahead drops significantly under that tree) or do we turn around?

See you all at RFK tomorrow!

Can I have your autograph?

Wow Kenda ladies.  This is totally cool.  I will be asking for autographs at RFK Sunday.

The Return of Sausage Leg

Gwadz has inspired me to blog, or to at least post these pictures I stole off his blog from Bike to Work Day.

Note the sausage leg in the picture below? I guess this god-awful picture from a year ago hasn't inspired me yet.

Thanks Gwadz for the pictures!

As for what I've been up to lately... lots of racing but since I despise writing race reports you will have to check out the team blog. Really, how much of "she attacked, so and so covered, then she attacked" and on and on and on can one person really take? Hence, my blog has been quiet recently. For the most part, my racing leaves a lot to be blogged about anyway (however the team is kicking ass). Me, not so much, but I did get shat on at Ft. Ritchie. Better than getting dropped!

Dolan Break #2

It's very rare that I find myself in a break. In fact, up until this weekend of racing, I've never even been in a legit break. Just so happens that I found myself in not one, but two breaks at Carl Dolan and thanks to Susan M (and Janet O), I have proof of at least one of them. Neither break stuck, but both were fun while they lasted. I would love to find a pic of the first break with Chris K.

For CycleLife race reports, go here.

Jen Ras, Aihoa, Christine the water bottle kidnapper W, Susan McQ, Me, and Dori's butt.

Kelley Acres

What better way to spend Easter Sunday than making the trip up to Kelley Acres for my all-time favorite ride. I have to admit, I've been missing my KA rides. Seems like weather and team stuff got in the way during the offseason and I only managed 2 KA rides, but what's that saying, if you can't beat them join them. So, instead of a team ride on Easter Sunday we decided to take the team ride to KA.

Along for the ride was local strong man Wahl. He's rolling these days and even though he didn't mean to, he rode each and every one of us off his wheel at some point during the day's ride.

Stephan looks good in his new ABRT kit, even though I was giving him a hard time about beeing too skinny to get a good draft off anymore.

Also along for the ride were Marni, JMaxx, and Arley.

Arley at the top of the Civil War Century climb. She would later rip my legs off.

The plan for the day was the infamous prison loop. Chris loves the novelty of this ride, or is it the fact that she knew I'd feel right at home.

Chris smiles for the camera.

Jen R lit things up today as well. At one point she went flying by me and asked "You wanna catch that group up ahead?" My answer was "No, I'm not riding hard today." Truth is I couldn't hold her wheel if I had wanted to and that was my excuse. She is a rockstar.

The only time today that Jen was slow enough for me to talk with her.

Rolling by the yard.

Arley, JMaxx, and Marni attempt to string it out :-)

Chris' loot for the day.

My commute home