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

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.