oooooh, ahhhhhhh!

Ok, so when I really was despirate, I couldn't find any small frames. Ok, any small frames that I could afford. Give it a few weeks and whammo! Meet Oscar!

Thanks to Chris Hong for selling me his baby, and packing it with so much bubble wrap that my Dad will now not need to buy any for his move out here. Oscar got here in great shape, and I can't wait to get him built up.

Yes, Cliff is going to croak when he sees my new Spanish stud, but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!

Where were you?

I know exactly where I was. I was on the phone with my running buddy, Bob Wong. Yes, it's the same Bob Wong that little Bobdog, ratface is named after. Bob and I were doing jock talk, and were tormenting each other about how I was going to kick his ass on an upcoming run, no he was going to kick mine, and so forth.

One of my coworkers came back and told me that I had to get off the phone. NOW! That a plane had hit the World Trade Center. What? Get off the phone. RIGHT NOW! So I hung up on Bob and pulled up CNN. Then I got a tv out of a conference room, and turned it on in the lobby. For hours we all watched the horror and nightmares unfold. It remains the most singular day in my life.

Needless to say, no work was done on 9/11 in my office. When the Pentagon got hit, I wondered how many people I knew up there, and what was next. Then the towers collapsed and cell phone traffic up and down the east coast stopped. My friends at the Fed luckily had Blackberries which somehow still worked, so they could get word out that they were ok.

A few weeks later my friend Therese and I ran the Marine Corp Marathon. Goofy me, made US flag pins, and carried them in a butt pack as I ran. I stopped and gave all the soldiers I saw one, and thanked them for keeping us safe. And trust me, the race was just about the safest place in the world that day. There were sharp shooters everywhere, and everyone was locked and loaded. As I ran by the gaping hole in the Pentagon I had to stop and cry. There were desks hanging out the giant wound in the building and you knew that thats where somoneone's mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter had sat.

To this day I don't know what you take from an experience like this, except to live each day with meaning. All those people got up in the morning to do what we all do every day. Each one of them meant a whole world to someone else. I wish all their loved ones peace and serenity in the loving memory of their lost family members.

What exactly is old?

From today's Velonews live coverage of the Vuelta...

"4:54 PM In case you feel like whining
about your advancing years, here's a news item for you. Jeannie Longo has been named to the French squad for world's. The race in Stuttgart is just a month shy of Longo's 49th birthday. She's one of our heroes."

Damn straight. And if you ever want to read something hysterically funny, there is an old Velobella story on their website about when one of the Bella's hosted Jeannie's team. Jeannie came into her house, and then proceeded to clean, including the bathroom! Jeannie, you are welcome at my house any time. I'll even supply the cleaning materials! (by the way, the Velobella's website is some kind of funny in case you ever have an extra few hours on your hand to go surfing.)

And Bella girls... We want GRASSHOPPER! Dee Dee where are you?

Waiting to exhale

One of the things that I love most about cycling is that while a lot of us like to go fast, there are lots of people who like to go slow. There is room in the world for both styles of riding. While I dont think that I could ride a recumbant, I'm thrilled to death that they are out there for the people who need them. I also think that it would be really cool to do a slow, self-supported ride cross country, as long as self-supported ment staying in hotels.

What I dont like is people that can't relax and see the world for the cool place that it is. Hey, I used to speed like a deamon, but just dont anymore. There really isn't anyplace that I need to get to that I cant wake up 10 minutes earlier to get to at a relaxed pace. Yep, it means that I'm on the road before 5 am to get to the PLT type races, but I arrive without being stressed out.

Which brings me to the small problem that I have with people on Sunday mornings, who are late for church, who try to squash me like a bug when I'm out on my bike. Um, in VA, you have to give me 2' clearance. No, thats not 2' from the drivers window, but from the passenger side MIRROR! Lets look at it from a "What would Jesus do?" point of view. Think the thou shalt not kill means anyone except cyclists when you are LATE for church?

Other than that Sunday's ride was great. There was lifting fog, and the world looked like it was wrapped in fairy dust. At one point, the sun came thru at just the perfect angle, and my dew laden arm hair turned silver in the light. It was magic. The horses were happy, and would snort at me as I rode by, dogs were happy with the cool morning air and several ran nicely beside me with joy.

You know, come to think of it, too bad for the people who are in such a hurry. I'll take my Sunday on the slow side this time of year.

Pumpkinfest

After my ride last night I flipped on PBS and watched the funniest program of the year. Up in Cooperstown, NY there is a fierce competition to see who can grow the biggest pumpkins. I was laughing so hard that I thought that I'd cry. Of course I had to call Cliff and tell him to turn it on as well.

People would baby their pumpkins, giving them milk baths to increase the chances that they wouldn't get blossom end rot and split. They had surveillance cameras set up to keep the jealous competitors from vandalizing their pumpkins, and they did shot gun patrol to keep the dreaded wood chucks and mice at bay.

Every day the farmers go out and measure the pumpkins. They weigh them, build tents for them, and mist them with all kinds of concoctions. All leading to the big day, to see who has the biggest pumpkin.

So what does this have to do with bike racing? Ok, so those people were seriously weird. Come to think about it though, so are we. While bike weight doesn't mean that much to me, I do know that Dottie weighs 14.5 lbs, and that was certainly a plus when I was writing the check for her. We all know that I'd be much better off sitting on a 16 lb bike and loosing 20 lbs, but easy is better. I have friends who keep pushing to have the lightest bike possible. They weigh the parts when they get them and complain that the manufacturer says the part weighs x when really it weighs Y. They ride on parts that they are too heavy for, and then bitch when the parts break.

I know people (me) who regularly pass up high dollar meals with vendors in order to ride. I know people who have come late to weddings (thier own) because they had a race. Sheesh, I've even snuck out of weddings to go ride.

Yep, I'm glad those weird pumpkin people are out there. I sure wouldn't want anyone to take a hard look at me!

The chicks ride season 3

We're down to the last weeks of the chick's ride, and like the end of racing season, I'm getting bummed. Last night was the first night of the 5 minutes per week rule. Normally the ride starts at 6, and last night, it started at 5:55, next week 5:50, etc... Daylight gets to be a precious thing this time of year.

The funny thing that coincides with the lack of daylight is that everyone's fitness level goes thru the roof this time of year. We had our fastest ride of the season last night, I was told over 18 mph. After the racing season ended, I took off the computer on my bike so I didn't have a clue how fast we were going. When we started the season, we were averaging about 15 mph, so this is a great improvement! I felt it, after 3 hard days of riding this weekend I was looking forward to a rest day, but they weren't going to let me have one!

Next year I'm going to see about teaming up with the Trigirls and expanding the ride. The plan is to have multiple levels on the road so that we can have an "A" ride, "B" ride etc... There are some very talented women in that group, and maybe I can encourage some of them to bite the bullet and try a bike race!

Cruising for Labor Day

When you have little to no vacation time left for the year, 3 day weekends are a God send! For the last, I dont know, 10 years I've tried to save all my vaction time for Mom and from last summer thru this spring all my time, and FMLA time went to taking care of her. So it was a cram fest to try to get stuff done this weekend!

Sunday, Dottie dragged me out the door to tackle my infamous Hadensville Hill Ride. I haven't been able to do this since my surgery, except for once, which took me off the bike for weeks. So it was with a little worry that I headed out. I shouldnt have worried as the Dotmaster slayed the hills one after the other. It's incredible what taking 2 lbs off a bike will do for your hill climbing abilities! Now if I can only take a few (20) lbs off my frame! Hadensville is hill after hill of the long, steep variety on the way to Charlottesville.

Saturday night Cliff and I picked up branches until we were sick of it. The thunderstorm that killed Trixie caused all kinds of trees to fall, and Cliff will certainly have enough fire wood to last several years. I think its going to take several years to get the trails back to snuff! Now if I could just teach the boys how to clean trails. Dallas ought to be able to do that job!

Monday, Cliff decided to do the RABA Labor Day ride, which starts a few miles from my house, so of course we just rode there. Its been a long time since I got to see my friends at RABA, so in the few minutes we had before the start I had a lot of cramming to do! Then we were off, and the attrition started. There were probably 200 at the start, a fast group of about 20 went off the front, and within a few miles we were down to about 12. A few miles later, 10. It didnt take long until that was 8, and after a series of tough hills, about 6. It felt awsome to hang thru the hills, especially after doing Hadensville the day before.

So look out world, next year is going to be my year!