Separated at birth?

I've been called under the bus.

I'm not exactly sure what's been causing my ambivalence lately with the whole blog thing.  I've found that other people's lives tend to be more interesting than mine so I've been reading blogs instead of writing them.  Then there was that whole bowl of worms that got opened up and the next thing I know, there's a huge attribution (?) going on over in Afghan - i - stan.

A few of the CycleLife Powered By Specialized ladies headed out to WV this past weekend for some last minute training before Jeff Cup, but before I get ahead of myself...

Plain Jane and Chicken taking a break in Baker, WV.

... be sure to read Zig's blog on the first race of the season up in PA.

Zig and Chicken before the race.

Then there was the whole training thing going on down at CycleLife.  I decided to test out my new TT position.  Thanks Josh.  I can now lick my front tire should I so desire.  Honestly, Josh did a fabulous job with my fit.  He spent hours with me and I have no doubt that he gave me that extra 58 seconds I need to beat Sonja.  Of course, all bets are off if she actually gets a TT bike instead of racing time trials on her road bike with aero bars.

On the CompuTrainers at CycleLife.

But back to West Virginia.

Wendy and I headed out early enough on Friday to get a nice ride in before sunset.  We decided to ride the race course for the Lost River Classic with an extra loop out to Criders and Bergton to get in the required 2 and a half hours.  Nice ride, nice company, couldn't ask for anything more.

Plain Jane all smiles before losing her Garmin battery on the rough road surface.

That evening while waiting for Badger and Jen to arrive we decided to go out to dinner instead of cook.  We had planned on making dinner and having something ready for the later arriving guests but we were exhausted from our ride and the Lost River Grill was calling us.  Good thing too, because on our way home from dinner Wendy asked me... "Did you happen to get the ground turkey at Whole Foods?"  My reply:  "No, I thought you were getting it."  Needless to say, we had taco shells, taco seasoning, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, and every thing else imaginable for tacos except the meat.

Jen and Badger arrived to find us on our second bottle of wine and at that point were offered some stinky cheese and bread.  The conversation/gossip ensued and lasted until 3 am.  Hey, we are a bunch of girls after all.

The next morning (or should I say afternoon) we met up with Michelle from Teasim and did a wonderful loop out to Wardensville and back on Old 55.  Hopefully Badger will post more about our ride on the team blog, but just in case here are some pics from the day.

Heading out Dove Hollow.

"I'm too sexy for my socks."

Having exhausted our supply of wine the night before and being without much food for dinner, Badger and I set out on a mission.  Our first stop was Darlene and Pilar's where we procured two fantastic bottles of wine (thanks girls!).

Darlene and Lily.

Pilar and Gabby.

The next stop was the Shop 'N Save in Moorefield where we were able to find ground beef for our tacos.  Again, another late evening of wine drinking, food, and conversation/gossip found us getting to bed at 2 am.

Sunday Wendy and I had to get back home because she had a prior commitment so we hit the road early.  From what I understand, Badger and Jen had an epic ride.  Wendy and I did manage a short ride in Baltimore County and even got a chance to watch the finish of the expert races at the Rockburn mountain bike race.  It was nice seeing all my old mtb buddies.  So one last weekend of WV in my legs and it's on to race season.  Jeff Cup, here I come!

What happens when Badger gets ahold of your camera.

Training Weekend at the Raw Talent Ranch

This past weekend the gals of CycleLife Powered By Specialized headed out to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia for another team camp.  Saturday we were on the road by 10 am and dressed in shorts and short sleeved jerseys.  How often does that happen in March in WV?

Jay decided to take us on a route that included descending the "back side" of the Barn, then heading into Moorefield.  The day included 3 significant climbs, the last one being the climb back up to the Barn.  It's at this point (and I won't name names) that one teammate was caught walking, and another decided to lay down on the side of the road and was only motivated to get up once the buzzards started circling above her.

Heading into Moorefield.

I do not know what LJ (aka Flipper) and Mitch are doing in this picture.

After our ride, Sara prepared the best recovery food ever... fresh guacamole.

 

LJ and Mitch hanging with the White Dog.

After diner we had a team meeting to discuss the season and goals and swap recipes.  Seems that LJ has taken to putting fresh beets in her juicer and highly recommends it, although gives warning to not be startled by what comes out the next morning.  And try as I might, I could not get Jen's super secret cranraisin oatmeal cookie recipe out of her. 

Team meeting.  We all look so serious.

Sunday we decided to do an "easy" ride out to Bergton/Criders and back.  The most significant thing about this ride (at least in my mind) is that I won the VA state line sprint on the way out.  I won because I was the only one that knew it was there and went for it.  On the way back, Mitch tried to give me a leadout for the WV state line, but her leadout had me at full sprint and I could not do anything as LJ went by for the "win."

Rest stop at the Bergton General Store.

Things to note about the weekend:

In general...

We all love our new Tarmacs.  Thanks Mike!

We all love our new S-Works helmets, shoes and shades.  Thanks again, Mike.

We are more than a team of random riders, we are friends.

Specifically...

Mel will forever be known to me as Smelly Melly from now on.

LJ's first job was as a Dominoes pizza taster.

I love Mitch for giving me a reason to open that second bottle of vino.

Jen cooks some mean pancakes and French toast.

Where did Sara go?

For the weekend (Sat and Sun) we rode a little over 7 hours and climbed over 10,500 ft.  Maybe not the TITS that The Muscle put in, but we are a bunch of girls after all.

I love my teammates/friends

Sorry reader for the lack of blogging lately... just haven't felt like it.  Added to my apathy is the fact that I am without my camera.  I often use pictures to remind me of events since my short term memory is lacking.  I do however, offer you this:

I was lamenting the fact that my email inbox was empty and this is what I get.  Thanks Wendy.  You made my day.

New Victory Salute?

Seriously?  Is pointing at your pee-pee the new trend?

Thank You, Badger

For the best coffee cup in the world...

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

For the past year Sonja and I have been sharing a Powertap wheel.  It really was not that big of a hassle because it was the wireless version so we just ordered a few extra mounts and were good to go.  That is unless we both wanted to use it on the same day.  Or the same ride.  Or I was in a hurry to get to work and didn't take the time to transfer the wheel from her bike to mine.    We rarely butted heads over the wheel until the ever so uncoachable Sonja hired Bill Gros to be her coach.  (I'm sorry, Bill.)  Now he was asking her to do specific power workouts and such and interfering with my wheel use.  There was only one solution.

I looked at SRM's (just too expensive), Quarks (do not come in a compact version, yet), and all sorts of Powertap wheels and decided on the above:  Williams Cycling 38 full carbon clinchers.  I wanted a wheel that could withstand training, yet be good enough to race if I wanted.  I've got a set of Williams 50 full carbon clinchers (they don't make this particular wheel anymore) and love them (even won the MABRA Cat 3 TT championship on them) so going with another Williams wheel was a no-brainer for me.  I've used my 50's in everything from road races, crits, wet weather, training rides, and TT's and they rock.  (The only other wheels that I've had this much luck with are my Rolf Vigors.)  Besides Rachel Lloyd, my favorite bike racer, uses them and I would just love some of her fast.

I took the money that I demanded from Sonja as a buy-out on our shared wheel, pooled together my birthday and Christmas money, and ordered the wheels on January 6th.  I was aware that they needed about a week lead time to build them, but as the weeks wore on, I started to get antsy.  Today I called the number listed on Williams Cycling to inquire about the status of my wheels.  I got a voicemail and decided not to leave a message, but to email instead.  About 10 minutes later I received a phone call asking for "someone that just called Williams Cycling."  Turns out none other than Keith Williams was returning my call.  Talk about customer service!  He informed me that Saris was having trouble keeping up with demand on the new hubs (as I suspected anyway) and that he would inform me the minute he got my hub and could start building my wheels.  We went on to chat about various wheels, etc.  What a great guy.  Anyway, I later received an email that he had just received my hub, so my wheels should be here soon.  I can hardly wait.

But seriously folks.  If you are looking to buy new wheels, check out Williams Cycling.  Awesome product combined with some of the best customer service around... you can't beat that.

West Virginia Day 8

Not much to say. After 6 days of riding out here, I'm pretty beat. I managed to ride 2 hours today and took Jen and Bill on a preview of the Lost River Classic race course. After that, I pointed them in the direction of Middle Cove Road and headed back up to the Barn by myself.

3 tired pups!

Maya, Rena, and Azucar posing for the camera after our morning hike.

When Jen returned to the Barn after her 4+ hour ride she saw Azu with what she thought was a weird looking stick.

Azu and her stick.

That was no stick!

Thanks again to Badger, Jen, and Bill for keeping us company in WV over the past week, and thanks for all your cooking. Now back to the daily grind in DC but with fond memories of my Lost River Barn vacation.

West Virginia Day 7

The departure of the Badger Friday evening left us sad. At least she left us with some yummy banana bread. We were asked to save some for our new guests set to arrive Saturday morning, but needless to say, that bread never saw daylight.

Badger's gluten-free banana nut bread.

Saturday morning Jen Ras and Bill arrived, along with a cold front. Jen and Bill prepared breakfast and we settled upon a route that included Old 55 and the climb up the "back side" of the Barn. Sidenote here: Bill was amazed at the amount of pancakes we ate. I guess 5 straight days of riding in WV builds up one's appetite.

We bundled-up and set off on our ride which we expected to take around 3:30 hours. It was bitter cold and snowing but we trudged onward. At one point I had so many snowflakes on my glasses I could barely see.

Bill descending Howard's Lick.

Jen descending Howard's Lick just a few minutes later.

Down in the valley I did my best to hold onto Jen's wheel. That girl is a beast and was pulling me at speeds I've never seen before. I was just thankful to be out of the wind as I was slowly losing feeling in my fingers and toes.

During a respite in the pace I noted to Jen that it looked like we were headed towards sunlight. The forever optimist in me, as Jen pointed out, turned out to be correct. The rest of the ride was under sunny skies, and even though still a tad too chilly for me, good company always makes a cold ride seem not so bad. The only hiccup of the day was a flat tire suffered by Bill.

Flat tire repair. We are looking at a dog and trying to decide whether or not he was going to come after us. He did not.

The last part of the ride included the climb up the back side of Howard's Lick. I don't have fond memories of this climb, but big thanks go to Jen who pretty much paced me up the entire way.

Afterwards, Jen and Bill prepared dinner, there was some beer/wine involved, and we sat in the comfort of the Barn comparing notes about the day's ride and as the Goat likes to say, chillaxed.

West Virginia Day 6

The day started with another round of Badger's awesome pancakes and discussion of the day's ride.  The Goat announced that she was done.  Seems that Badger and I wore her out the past 2 days and she was going to take the day off.  Or maybe it was the peanut-butter salmonella that I saw Zim sneaking into the Goat's pancakes.

The morning's feast.

Zim and I set out in arm-warmers and knee-warmers, and even then were overdressed.  The day was beautiful!  We scooted down the mountain from the Barn and did a lap of the proposed race course for the West Virginia Classic.

The only thing I can say about the course is bring your climbing legs.  This will definitely be one for the climbers.  But don't think all you skinny climbers can get by on your climbing legs alone.  You will also need to be a fearless descender.  I would download my Garmin data to show elevation gained/lost, but I don't know how to do that.

Zim and I stopped a few times along the route to say hi to some dogs and take a few snapshots.

The sign on the door says "Neighborhood Witch."  Zim was taking photos left and right.  I just wanted to get out of there.

And finally, the long climb back up to the Barn.

The last stretch before exiting the park and the real pain begins.