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

Jeff Cup 2009

"Train as hard as you can. Race as hard and you have to."

Those words of wisdom are from Cheryl O. and pretty much sum up my Jeff Cup experience. I guess I don't train as hard as I can and that's why I can't race as hard as I need to.

I got dropped with a rather large group the very first time up "the hill," spent a lap trying to chase back on, rode around for the remaining laps, and got 4th in my field sprint for 16th overall (5th Cat 3) thanks to a leadout from teammate Mel. Hopefully LJ will post a report about her race experience on the team blog. She finished 2nd being the rockstar that she is. Mitch and Sonja both flatted out of the race.

After our race, Sonja and I stayed to watch the Masters and 1/2/3 race. My teammates had already headed back, so I crashed the Artemis compound. They had beer, wine, cheese, and chocolate, and I somehow persuaded Ev to let me have some of her special Stag's Leap Artemis wine. Maybe she was hoping that I would switch to Purple? Most likely she had poisoned it before she handed me the glass, though! Regardless, hanging with Ev and crew is always fun.

More importantly, here are post race pics of the party.

The Enforcer.

Very appropriate wine for Ev and her crew.

Drinking $50 wine straight from the bottle. We are a bunch of classy ladies.

We were having so much fun Pete decided to abandon his race and come party with us...

... or maybe it was the erotic massages being offered by Ev.

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.