A well balanced dog...

When I used to show dogs one of my favorite breeds was Belgian Sheepdogs... Besides being a wee bit on the sharp side, they were wickedly smart and funny. The parent club of the various Belgian breeds do outstanding jobs in highlighting the fact that these are WORKING dogs. In fact, on of the parent clubs has a motto that a well balanced dog has a Champion at the front of it's name and a Utility Dog degree on the other end. Trust me, happiness is a well trained dog. Dogs like kids are not born with PHD's.

So this morning I head out on my ride and encounter a young man (17-20 ish) with a border collie mixed with something really big young dog on the side of the road. I was puffing uphill, and just as I got to them, the dog ran into the middle of the road, splitting the baby as it were. Ok, so I'm looking at our hero, waiting for him to call his dog... Wrong movie, girl. Young man is not mean, just kind of ... out there. So now there is a car coming at us, a border collie trying to herd me, and an owner who is "out there." Having a young dog biting my foot as a car is coming is not my idea of fun. Having him bumping the bike trying to turn me, even less so.

Finally, the car passed, I was able to sprint away, and life was good. Unfortunately, I can pretty much guarantee a bad end for poochie.

Obedience training is one of the best gifts we can give to our best friends. Cars and dogs are a bad combination.

I wanna be a weatherperson

Friday I checked weather.com and it said that the rain was going to stop before 3 am. Cool. The Saturday morning run-ride could take place. I called J and told her we were on.

Saturday morning at 6 am I was up watching the news on tv. The weather gal said that the rain was pretty much over, but there was a small chance of showers. The radar screen was clear.

Only problem, when I looked out the window, it was pouring rain.

I'm 2 miles from the dopler radar, and accu-weather just plain isn't.

So Cliff came by and we decided to bag the ride, and went into town to run. On the way, J called. "K, J here. So is it raining?" "Yep." "D says that its not raining." Big pause... "Well J, we're heading down 64 and the windshield wipers are swiping as fast as they can at this liquid stuff falling from the sky." (noise in the back ground.) Then J comes back on, "Well, D says that its going to stop..." I told her to call me back around noon and we'd try to get in an afternoon ride. We ran just shy of 8 miles and it "didn't rain" on us almost the whole way. At least it was warm...

Sunday I was going to host my team to ride Cliff's mountain bike trails with an eye towards putting on a mountain bike time trial sometime in '08. I got up, and looked out the window and decided to get out on the road quickly. Good thing. By 11 am it was starting to rain, and then it rained all day. I thought roadies were wusses, but the mountain bike guys were calling in to cancel the ride before the first drop landed. The weather people predicted rain for much later in the day.

So I want to be a weather person. In my job, you get it wrong and someone has to take the heat. Before I present a big case I swear I sweat a couple gallons as I double check everything. Man, wouldn't my life be great if I could be wrong more than 50% of the time!

For the love of chocolate

Vendorfest is not quite over after all. Yesterday I got this ginormous box of the most killer cookies anyone on the planet has ever eaten. I ate one. I admit it. Then I promptly put the box in my bag and decided to get rid of the stuff. You can't eat what you don't have.

Someone else had given me a 10 lb tin of Hershey's chocolates. Now that's just mean. I'm telling you. Just plain mean. So I gave them to Cliff. Guys need chocolate. Especially guys who are faster than me. Last night Cliff and I were going to run again together, and I decided to weigh him down a little more and brought him that box of cookies. I went on the maker's website and those suckers were over $5.00 per cookie. They were small, too. And they definitely needed to be far, far away from me.

This morning Cliff called me. He gave the chocolate to two brothers who do odd jobs on their construction site. Believe it or not, the two of them ate ALL that chocolate already. I'm sure that they're off some place in a diabetic coma by now. Poor guys are rail thin and work themselves to death. Now I've probably killed them with chocolate. What a way to go...

So remember in this pre-race season, friends don't let friends snarf chocolate.

Words of Wisdom from Greg

Lemond that is...

I got my Procycling magazine yesterday and Greg Lemond was the guest editor. Yeah, yeah, I know that he has had his up and down moments here lately, but there was something really interesting he said about training. He said that he didn't believe in the more is better training philosophy that is going on now (my paraphrase) that by doing too much you cause the body to release too much cortisol. As a more is better kind of girl, I had to look into this....

One of his arguments was to look at Jan Ulrich. He trained all the time and couldn't seem to loose the gut. Cortisol makes you retain body fat. I can tell you that when I ran 50-80 mpw that I would stay the exact same weight. My buddies who ran 20-25 mpw could loose weight. Greg's solution is to ride an hour and do intervals.

So I went to Winkipedia my latest and greatest source for info and found that Cortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the Adrenal Gland. Hyper = Cushings Syndrome, Hypo = Addison's disease (JFK). Cortisol acts to increase blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and has an immunosuppressive action. As a corticosteroid it also acts as an antagonist in the treatment of allergies and inflammation. Prolonged over secretion causes hyperglycemia, excess gastric acid secretion, a weakened immune system, osteoporosis, brain damage which impairs learning, and my favorite- the laying of belly fat.

So maybe old Greg has a good take on this after all. Most of us aren't going to be riding the Tour this year, and our races are under an hour. Maybe the thing for me to be doing, with my high stress job is interval training, which is something that I hate the most.

If you have a take on this, I'd love to hear it. And no, I'm not going to get my supply of Cortislim!

Santa Gets a Repreive

OK, I'm gonna give Santa a pass this year. He didn't bring me a new bike, but left me a note saying that I have too many bikes, and need to stop naming them! (not happening.) He did bring me a neat new toy though, a Garmin for the Queen Cab! This of course, puts J out of a job. J has saved me on numerous occasions when I have gotten lost in very, very questionable areas.

The conversations tend to go like this: "J, just left the race at RFK, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is closed. I've been driving around trying to find a way to get to 301, and I think I'm in a bad way here! Where the hell am I, and how the hell do I get home?"

Then J would go into her best map lady routine, find out where I am better than a bloodhound, and get me the most efficient way out of whatever mess I had gotten myself into.

On one of my emergency trips cross-country to take care of my Mom, J and her hubby saved my sorry butt on more than one occasion. Believe it or not, you can get most of the way cross country on about 2 roads from my house. 64 to St Louis, 44 after that. I happened to have to come back just as tornadoes and other fun stuff hit. Trust me, all you need to know about driving you learn from bike racing ie.... when you have 60 mph cross winds, and you go to pass you will end up in a ditch. If you have to pass, do it gradually. And listen to your team car (J) they know the dangers you are going to face up ahead. J and D would be on line, calling me with updates and re-routes to get me home. It was a harrowing experience for all of us.

But now I have this new toy. It even talks to you, and from where ever I am, all I have to do is hit the home key, and allegedly it will get me there. I'm not sure if J is really out of a job or not though. I doubt that little dohicky will be on the computer with the latest and greatest wind speeds, rain fall amounts and stuff like that. I may have to keep J on the payroll after all.

Back up plan...

Sunshine in the Fog

J came over last night to ride with us on a "Tacky Light Tour" downtown. It was an interesting bunch of people, not what Cliff would call the wine and cheese crowd. After a start that resembled Critical Mass, and a bunch of riders running red lights, and drinking beer out of bottles in their pockets we decided that this was probably not a group for us. I'm a stick in the mud, I think that sometimes we deserve the reputation that we get on the roads, and I'd just as soon not be part of furthering that bad reputation. No offense, thats just the way it is.

This morning J and I went out as soon as the fog lifted a little bit. The roads were soaked, and while lifted was a relative term, the conditions were not bad. It helped that again we looked like the Sun out there, in bright yellow jackets, with full light set ups. While most of the cars out there didn't have lights on, we did. The way I figured it, while it was 40 degrees out at 8 am, and predicted to be 65 for a high for the day, 40 degrees and not actively raining was better than 65 in the rain with up to 50 mph winds anyday.

We almost made it in before the wind started, but the last five miles were tough. Of course I did what I always do when that happens, I sent J up to the front! Yeah, lets put the skinny bitc* up front! J is strong as an ox, and is a hell of a puller. Even if you really can't draft off her...

So hopefully, you all got out to ride today. And hopefully, eveyone behaved themselves. Santa's coming... and he's been watching!

I know that he's bringing extra special stuff to:
James- for putting up with me and J.
To Felix- for working so hard to get all the details of running a club done. It's mind boggling how hard a job that can be.
To Jenn- for joining a club and then jumping up and taking charge of designing all new kits right off...
To Cliff- for taking care of my dogs when I race, and generally keeping me on track...
To Pete- for sending me funnies and making me laugh..
To Ben- for giving me the best advise ever and sympathy thru the trying times after my hip surgery
And to all the women I race against, who were so supportive of me when my Mom died this spring, thru the surgery woes, and during my recovery. I'm so proud to be associated with all of you.

Karen

Creatures of habit

Ok, I'm old. I've gotten set in my ways, and whats really bad is when total strangers have taken notice.

Pretty much every day I go to Ukrops and have a salad. Except for the rare days, like today, when they have seafood wraps in the prepared food case. Then I get a wrap. Otherwise, its a salad. A very expensive salad at almost $6 per lb. Ouch. I get it there because I can sit in the area off the coffee shop area, at a four top table, and grab the paper that people always leave behind. I get the paper that way because that's recycling. Recycling is good. Plus, I'm cheap. I have to save money after having that $6.00 per lb. salad.

Today I got the wrap, but someone was sitting at my table. I turned around to snag a paper (recycle) when I had a tug on my sleeve... the little man who had sat at my table had come over and was motioning me to come to the table. "So, sorry!" he said. "I sit at your table. Here, you sit! You sit! You sit here everyday!" Before I could protest, he moved his lunch, and grabbed mine and moved it to the table.

Yes, I sit there everyday. It's by the window, but has a heater vent right under it. It's also far away from the side door that brings in cold air. Until today, I really didn't realize that I do sit at that table. Every day. Isn't it funny that just when you think you are totally anonymous out in the world you find out that you aren't.

So Merry Christmas to the little man at my table today. I'll make sure to notice him next time!

Just a little funny

Sent to me by a well known cycling official... who says that refs don't have good senses of humor!

Now I'm not sure what he's implying here... that the women on my team are more "endowed than most", or that we shouldn't ride together. Or maybe that there is some serious blondness going on at Cycor? Hey! Maybe that's why Santa brought us all those neat new sponsors!

Hopefully the end of Vendorfest

I'm just not cut out for weeks of parties. I admit it, I'm old. I don't know when it happened, but I came to the concrete realization that I just can't hang anymore. Actually, I never could. Ruths Chris serves big glasses of wine, and after 3, I'm toast.

Last night was hopefully the very last party I have to go to. I did manage to make my excuses for the post dinner drinks and head home. I don't think my tummy could take one more night of too much wine, guys and song. At least I didn't have to get up to run at 5 this morning.

Racing season starts early this year and I'm sure going to pay for all of this fine living. Let no good deed go unpunished!

Finally, the sponsor announcement!

NEWS RELEASE
December 18, 2008
Richmond, Virginia

Fiorucci Foods, Inc. has signed a multi year title sponsorship of CyCor Sports LLC and its cycling teams/clubs. Located in Chesterfield County, Fiorucci’s mission through three generations has been to provide authentic Italian foods known for their high quality. It is a 150 year old company that started in Norcia, Italy using long-cherished family recipes and with the help of old-world artisans, they became the number one selling deli meats in Italy and in the United States. Claudio Colmignoli, president of Fiorucci states: “We are very excited about getting involved in the Richmond community. We have been based in this area since 1986 employing Richmond area citizens. Through the sponsorship of CyCor and its partners who advocate a healthy life style we believe that we will realize our investment in the community.” John Jack, Fiorucci vice president of business development adds: “We will incorporate this strategic sponsorship with the launch of our new product called Rostello, an old Fiorucci recipe for the main stream deli meat category.” Thus the team will be known as Rostello presented by Fiorucci.

CyCor is a 14 year old cycling organization that started in professional cycling and now field’s amateur road and mountain bike teams including over 100 members in its recreational club.

Coming aboard as Supporting Sponsors are Endorphin Fitness (EF) and Advance Orthophedics Center (AOC).

EF provides endurance coaching, personal training, and group/corporate wellness. Michael Harlow, owner of EF said: “Endorphin Fitness is thrilled to be a partner with CyCor. We seek to change lives. Through unparalleled endurance coaching, personal training, and group/corporate wellness, we support life change by helping people realize their potential. Our charge to "Live Red" is the outward expression of this philosophy.”

AOC is a full-service orthopaedic center with two locations in Richmond. At AOC each patient is treated with the pinpointed expertise of a trained sub-specialist, a physician who dedicates his entire practice to one area of orthopaedics. The result of this approach: state-of-the-art healthcare. Dr. Kenneth Zaslav of AOC states: “The Sports Medicine Center at AOC is proud to sponsor athletes from Virginia that try to push the limits of their sport and promote a healthy athletic lifestyle. We firmly believe in these athletes and their quest to be the best.”

CyCor’s exclusive Bike Shop Sponsor is its former title sponsor of 6 years, Conte’s of Richmond. The first Conte’s bicycle store opened in Newport News, Virginia in 1957. When Charles R. Conte, Jr. became president and David Conte became vice president of Conte Bike Shops, Inc. they already had successful stores. They began exploring other ways to expand and replicate their success, but still keep the tradition of their father’s neighborhood bike store philosophy alive. P & K Ventures, Inc. purchased the franchising rights from Conte’s Bikes Shops, Inc. making them affiliate companies thus forming The Conte Enterprise. Now they have six franchises with franchise stores to open next spring in Conyers, Georgia, and Bel Air, Maryland. According to David Conte, “ Conte’s is happy to continue the sponsorship with the new Cycor cycling team to support and grow the sport of cycling.”

Another returning sponsor is Fast Signs of Alexandria. “Fast Signs of Alexandria is proud to be sponsoring such a strong cycling program with Team Rostello presented by Fiorucci and strong cycling advocacy in CyCor” said Kirby Newman, account executive.

CyCor staff includes:

EXECUTIVE : Felix Tapawan Garcia – President, Tom Doyle – Vice President , Thomas Bowden, Esq. - General Counsel, Jennifer Roman - Marketing Services Director, John Hewitt – Webmaster.
WOMEN’S PROGRAM: Karen Hanson- Program Director.
MEN’S PROGRAM: Mark Pye – Program Director, James Schaefer - Road Team Manager, Brad Turner - MTB Team Manager.
CLUB PROGRAM: Bill Battle – Program Director
EVENTS PROMOTION PROGRAM: Karen Hanson. Bill Battle, Brad Turner.


For More Information:
Felix Garcia
804.402.5722
cycorsports@comcast.net
www.cycorsports.org

Thanks Georgia for getting the discussion rolling

First take a look here:

If you haven't seen/done this already, please read the short petition below for equal prize money in UCI races for top 5 women and men and please sign.
http://www.petitiononline.com/equalpay/petition.html

Petition was started by mountain bike racer Georgia Gould and there is an interview with her in VeloNews you can read more about this:
http://www.velonews.com/race/cyc/articles/13802.0.html

Be sure to read the Velonews article before coming to your conclusion!

I was not going to blog about this. That is until I started reading some of the biggest dumb ass comments on various message boards. So because I'm stupid, I'm going to stick my foot in the fray.

I think that prize money for local races is a bad idea. Races cost a tremendous amount of money to put on, and its the prize money that a lot of times kills races. I can think of many road races that just don't happen because they loose money. Who the hell wants to work like a dog, only to be yelled at by Lycra wearing skinny GUYS who think that because they were 3rd in a Cat 4 race that the world owes them homage? To top it off, at the end of the day, all you have to show for your effort is that you lost money! If I redid this system, I'd take a page out of the tri book and only award prize money to "elites."

And yes, I'd award equal prize money, at least thru the top five places.

Now I'll tell you why. Running used to be a male oriented sport. The guys were very happy to keep it that way, too. Most running races now have as many or more women in them than men. Cycling? We girls have a saying, the only reason why guys let us race is so that we'll do all the work. Ouch. That one hurt, didn't it. Go to most crits and count how many races for guys there are, how many races for juniors there are, and how many races for women there are. Want to know why more women don't race? Lets take your local cat 5 guy, at his first race, and put him in a crit field with a bunch of cat 1 guys. Think he's coming back?

So when the guys are belly aching that more women don't race, lets be honest about it. More women don't race because the system is stacked against them. I know. I've been the new cat 4 woman racing those awesome cat 1 girls. I've seen bad crashes because of it, too. I've seen a lot of women say that they won't race crits anymore because of that stuff. And, to make it worse, since there are so few road races, they can't race there, either. That leaves time trials.

Down here in Virginia, we have lots of time trials. They are very, very well attended by women. Fact is, we get deeper women's fields than those precious cat 1-2 mens fields.

Women will race if given a good chance, are treated well, and encouraged to come back. Sponsors are trying to reach that women's market, look at Specialized and their great efforts to give women bikes and apparel that actually fit. But guys, if you think that any sponsors are giving prize money because they think that someone wants to watch YOU race... you need better drugs. On our local level, few people are watching ANYONE race. Most sponsors are doing their stuff for community service. Lets get real here.

I came from running and I remember super talented Vickie Huber who lived with her infant daughter in her coach's shed so that she could train. I know lots of women racers who don't live much better. Lets not begrudge the best of each sex the opportunity to not starve. If we all have to cut out the paydays for the 50 year old men, and the master's women to do so, I'm for it.

That's just my opinion. Talk amongst yourselves.

OK, What I REALLY NEED!

Sunday I got up from the multiple days of licentious behaviour to start running cross country to build up some kind of speed. Two miles cross country, then quarters on the track, and then another 3 miles cross country. Oh yeah, and it was raining, and 33 degrees. Windy, too. Of course it would have been in bad form to whine about it, knowing that the real psychos were out in Kansas facing snow, ice, and eyeball deep mud.

Cliff informed me that if I was going to keep partying like I've been I'm going to have to start training for that as well. By the time we did the second quarter on the track I was stick a fork in me done. I really did try not to whine, but I think a few tantrums did find their way in there.

Running across some farm fields Cliff started egging me on... hot chocolate ahead. Yummy, hot chocolate will warm your tummy, just got to run to get it! Come on girl! Now thats a man who knows how to motivate me.

This morning I got up at 5 am to run in town. What do I really need? A house keeper. Maybe just a keeper. It sure would have been nice to have Alice from the Brady Bunch. After the run I found out that the shirt that I grabbed to change into... was tights. See what happens when I fold laundry? Crap, so I had to rush to Walmart to buy something to wear. When I got back to the office, I discovered that I should have checked my bag a wee bit closer... I also didn't have shoes.

So now I'm trapped at my desk, with my feet under it so that no one sees that I have running shoes on. Yep, what I really need is Alice. Santa, can you bring her to me?

What I really want

This time of year gets hectic. Friday night I took my office out of towners to Pomegranate for dinner, and drank far too much wine. It was good, a nice Cotes du Rhone. Food was great, and the company- the best. Saturday I had to run/ride thru the too much wine fog, quick spritz off and take my group around town, and then that night get to the company Christmas party. My company does raffles all night to encourage everyone to stay. I never win anything, so about half way thru I started to think about what I'd like to win...

Really good shoes.. you know for WOMEN! Shoes that fit my feet, like those heat molded jobbies. Who needs Italian toe killer heels. I want carbon sole savers!

Great gloves. I have a glove "complex" and wash the suckers to death. I'm tired of gloves that rip up my nose, or allow my fingers to freeze. I want winter gloves that keep my hands really warm, and summer gloves that are kind to the nose, and my poor hands.

Lights! Being seen is crucial. I want light weight lights that really work! Something that even dummies like me can use for both road and mtn biking.

Wheels! What cyclist doesn't like great wheels... I can't afford some of the fabulous wheels everyone has. I see these "new" companies, like Planet X and Blackwell with such nice stuff, but I don't see this stuff at our races... Are they any good? Can I afford them?

So Santa Baby, put a little present under the tree, for me. I've been a very good girl this year, so hurry down the chimney tonight.

Got Lights?

I got up early this morning to go for a run in town as I have a in house party this morning, am entertaining out of town co-workers tonight, and our big company party is Saturday. Every little bit of exercise that I can get in to stave off the holiday pounds is pretty important right now. So despite the heavy fog, I headed in as the roads are better to run on in town.

I know that I looked like the Sun in the Jimmy Dean commercials. If you are going to run in the dark, especially if you are going to do it in heavy fog, being seen is vital. So I had on a bright, reflective, yellow jacket and a blinky light. I would just as soon not become a grease spot on the road.

Most of the roads I run on are neighborhood streets, and it was both quiet and beautiful. There is something wonderful about being out while the rest of the world is asleep. Well, most of the rest of the world.

Believe it or not, I did almost get hit this morning. Not by a car, but by a mountain biker! Not your poor Hispanic worker going in to work early, so don't go down that road. This was a guy with some skill, out in the dark, wearing all black. Yeah, and no lights. Not even a blinky. He came fast and was going to make a quick turn into the road that I was running by, and just about plowed into me. Me, the iridescent one...

We get a bunch of people hit on their bikes down here every year. The cyclists get all up in arms when the police start their investigations with the assumption that the cyclist is at fault. Guess what... sometimes we are. Riding in the dark, in the fog, wearing black, with no lights... doesn't do much to improve the assumption that we don't belong on the road.

Oh, well, off to dry my hair. Fine Norwegian hair and fog make for a Medusa-like do which is frowned on in the office!

Sponsor Teaser

Felix Garcia and Tom Doyle have been working hard this fall to get new sponsors lined up for the team. Last year, they had a nice sponsor lined up, who disappeared as the drug stuff started back up with a vengence in cycling. As you can imagine, I have "issues" with drug cheats. Our team is proof of the damage that filters down.

Anywho, Felix is going to be making the announcement probably tommorrow or Monday. I'm very, very happy. It really helps to have sponsors that you totally believe in, no matter if they are your sponsors or not. Julie, Cliff and I use one of the them, the ortho group, on a regular basis. You can say we're frequent fliers... The big sponsor... I know exactly where their stuff is at Ukrops. Yum, yum, yum. I've teased the girls on the team, "think beautiful Tuscan nights, out on the terrace, looking over the hillside... Yeah, you're gonna need snacks to go with that now aren't you! Yum!

Of course we'll still have the bike shop sponsor who has stood by us forever, and a certain bike racer with a sign company as well. Don't you just love companies that give back to their sport?

So for all my team mates who have been anxiously awaiting the news release it is coming. Poor Jenn Roman, our resident graphics goddess is getting really busy putting our new team kits together. If you'd like to see some of her work, click on the blog link to Ro Loves To Ride... she has an AMAZING piece of her work on her blog. I'm trying to talk her into making some seriously cool cycling t-shirts to sell. You want one, I know it.

So that's the teaser for the day. I'm really psyched.

Climbing Anyone?

I have issues with climbing. Most of them mental, and some physical. Being asthmatic does not make for swift pedaling uphill. Add to that that stinking hip problem and I've developed quite the complex for all things vertical.

So imagine my surprise on Saturday when for the second week in a row I beat all the guys up both big hills on the way out to Ashland...

It makes me start to wonder... hmmm, maybe that Wintergreen thing might just be doable now... Maybe. I've actually had far less trouble climbing the mountain in non-race situations than on race day. Two years ago my leg went numb and I couldn't get the breathing under control and thought that it was the better part of something (not valor) to whimp out rather than get carted off in an ambulance. That's the psych part of asthma. Sometimes adrenaline helps shut down those breathing tubes.

It's been a tough row post surgery this spring, but I think I'm really starting to see some power come back in the leg. I keep having these good day/bad day issues and if I do a mountain climb, it had better be on one of those good day deals. Sunday, was not a good day. I guess I'm only allotted so many of those per week. So maybe, God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be back out suffering with everyone else this year.

Just a little mite...

Sunday J, Cliff and I went out for an easy 45 miles to Ashland and back. J, my resident bird authority was the first to see the juvie eagles and gets the gold star for the day. Every ride with her is an education, as she can hear birds, tell you what they are, where they live, and all that fun stuff. In the summer, we'll go by a field and all of the sudden I hear her say, "Grasshopper sparrow," and by osmosis I've learned birds while riding.

Unfortunately, I've also gotten to practice my home grown emergency vet technique far to often while riding. I've patched together a lot of dogs while waiting for either their owner's or animal control to come. Some make it, some don't. All of them steal a little piece of my heart. Sometimes owners thank me, more often they don't. It's one of those nasty facts of life I've had to learn to accept.

Cliff and I found a puppy in a ditch a few summers ago. We called animal control, but their eta was about 3 hours, and the little guy was starving. So Cliff left me to go try to scare up some food. People rode by me, and some stopped to tell me that they had seen him in the ditch for a week. Really? And you didn't stop to free him?

Sunday, we were accosted by a ferocious little dachshund. She chased Cliff and then got confused when she saw me. So I turned the bike around to herd her back to what I hoped was her home. She promptly flung herself on the pavement and rolled over. When I stopped, she crawled to me and licked my hand. Then she decided we were best friends in another life and proceeded to go into ecstatic moans and slurps as we got reacquainted.

I asked the neighbors and they told me that "oh, she's fine, she's in the road all the time." So the rest of the day, I had to wonder about this little mite, with the coy eyes, and friendly attitude, and how long it will be before she meets a bad end. And then I took my 3 guys out to their acre sized dog yard, with 4' tall goat fencing to play with them. You can't save them all on a bike ride, but sometimes, little mites find their way to Camp Runamuck. We'll just have to wait and see...

Eww that Smell

Saturdays I've been doing this run/ride thing with Cliff. We get to the ABC ride parking lot, go out and run 5-6 miles and then come back and ride 40 plus miles. Ok, this is a Karen Math Question... how many sets of clothes do two people have to have to do the run and ride?

Answer: 6. Six sets of clothes. Running clothes for two people, then bike clothes which cant be the same running clothes because they are now wet, and starting off a bike ride with wet clothes is just awful. After the bike ride you can't sit around in wet bike clothes, and you can't put the running clothes back on as they are both wet, and smell bad. You can't continue to wear the bike stuff or you'll get butt fungus and other nasties. So now you have to have clothing change number 3.

After we ride we hit the grocery store as the ride is in town, and we live out in the country. Ukrops baggers insist on bringing groceries to the car (no tipping!!). It must look like a bordello to them, a van full of clothes tossed willy nilly around which have to be moved to get the grocery bags in.

The really fun part comes at home when I have to slip said clothes in the door, with groceries, past the dogs. The dogs think that the smelly clothes are just wonderful, and tend to pull them out of my hand and go into rolling fits on them. Bobdog, is a sock thief and I'm sure that there is a stash of smelly socks somewhere that only he knows about. You know the sight of true love when you see Bobdog laying with one of his prized socks, licking and rubbing his face on it.

Needless to say, laundry is a constant chore here. The perils of not washing this stuff immediately is a hamper so toxic that no one will go near it. Trust me, I've learned. I had to wash my skinsuit 3x in Fabreeze after leaving it in the truck for a week after a race. I was sure it was a total loss.

May all your clothes be fresh smelling. We'll be in the truck with the window open letting that eau du cycling stink out.

Let Vendorfest Begin

Vendorfest has luckily for me been very light so far this year. It's hard to loose a bit of the flab when people are constantly sending you gourmet goodies, nuts, and booze. Face it, no one's willpower is that strong that you can walk by all this stuff, day in, day out.

So, I went to Costco and got one of the huge veggie trays. Funny how that is lasting longer than the Harry & David Tower of Treats that came in.

Last night one of my favorite law firms came up from FL to take us out to dinner. Now that's a treat I'll take. We went to Buckheads, one of my favorite restaurants, vs the big chain places like Ruths Chris. There I could eat well, without breaking the calorie bank for the week. Grilled scallops. Yum. It probably helped that I ran 5 miles instead of eating lunch, too.

So everytime you look at the big displays of holiday fare, remember, Jeff Cup is coming. Every pound is a pound that you have to schlep up the hills!

Thursday funnies

I thought that it just might be a "me" problem with frozen body parts, but I guess not!

The Week In Review

When I was a little girl on Edgewood Arsenal, we had a kid on the block who was the definition of an accident waiting to happen. Poor Sean, if we were playing baseball, he would walk up behind you as you took a swing... I know, I knocked his teeth out one day when I was at bat. Housing was bad, and the Army condemned our garages. So we used them as forts, and would jump off the roof. Sean fell thru and fx his leg. If we were playing Smear the Queer(I know, not pc), Sean would get tackled and just happen to fall on glass and get sliced up.

After awhile, his Mom had his biorhythms done and he wasn't allowed outside if his were low. No kidding. To bad Sean didn't have his done in college. He ran off the road one night, killed the passenger in his car, and is now in a persistent vegetative state. Some people have all the luck, and its all bad.

That would also be me this weekend. First came the broken spoke on Saturday which left me stranded for 1.5 hours on a concrete post while Cliff had to ride back to get the van. That messed up my hip. Then Sunday I had to use a different wheel on my bike on my hill ride to Hadensville. J drove 60 miles to ride with me, so we were going. 2 miles out on the road I discovered that shifting with the new wheel was not great, 4 miles out I knew that shifting was not possible. So we rode 50 + miles with me having ONE gear. That really made my hip feel great.

Sunday night it rained. We need rain. Rain is good. I got to Cliff's and found out that he didn't get a paper and had to go out to Gum Springs to try to find one. Found it! And when I went to back up, I hit a post. I was going 2 mph, which should have been fine. Nope, somehow I missed the bumper, and hit the edge of the bed of the truck. Its going to be a very, very, expensive mistake.

I think of Sean all the time. He was a wonderful, fun kid. Maybe we BOTH should have had our biorhythms done. Some days you are just better off staying home with a good book. The trick has got to be knowing which days!

So Tell Me Why...

Ok, we all know that ice is nice. It's drilled in to us by all the docs, pt, and coaches we've ever had. After my hip surgery in the spring, my ice pack and I have become best friends. There are days that we are almost inseparable. Ice really is nice, and my hip is very glad for it.

So how come if ice is so nice, cold and wind are so bad? After yesterday's debacle, I was laid up for the rest of the day, with my ice pack! It was so bad that I could barely walk up stairs, and doing much of anything was out of the question.

I think its that nasty wind stuff. Some days when the wind is bad, and particularly right after I had the surgery, I would put a plastic bag over the hip to kind of shield it from air. I don't know why it helped, but it did. Moving air, aching joint, bad combination.

I'm trying to get out again this morning. We're doing my hill ride to Hadensville, and I'm hoping that the hyjinks are on someone else this time. I asked Santa for a team car this year. I've been good. I swear!

Just One Of Those Days

Yeah, you know that kind of day. Its the kind of day when you swear you can hear the entire town coming down the road singing that song from the Color Purple, God Is Trying To Tell You Something. Right Now.

I'm not fond of wind. Really not fond of wind when its really cold. Starting off a ride semi-wet after running 6 miles just seems to be tempting fate. It was a wee bit warmer this week than last, but that blasted wind was starting to get going as we got on the bikes. I have my new gloves on order, but they aren't here yet, and my fingers were cold.

Cant you hear the singing?

We had gone about 18 miles, just 2 miles to the coffee shop when the record broke. Paching! What in the world was that noise and why is my bike wobbling? Yeah, my nice new Ksyriums broke a spoke. Now that's a new one for me. I usually associate broken bike parts with big whoppers who are trying to ride parts that are too light for them.

Ok, is that singing again? Come on! My big Bertha Butt is not THAT BIG! Criminy! The only bike part that I've ever broken was a chain, and thats because the deraileur was not adjusted properly.

Paching! We did everything we could, but a broken Ksyrium spoke in the rear instantaneously makes the whole wheel way out of true. So Cliff turned around to ride back and get the van, leaving me sitting on a concrete support for a light pole. In the wind. Fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-reezing to death. I thought I was going to snap my tongue off freezing. Hip aching, going to make you pay for being such a dumbass riding in the wind and cold freezing.

An hour and a half later Cliff shows up. I was almost crying I was so glad to see him. I think I would have gotten in Ted Bundy's car if he had a heater going full blast.

Moral to the story, we're going to have to get a team car if I'm going to ride all winter.