ex necte ad lucum

It is approximately 5 billion degrees outside right now...okay maybe 96.  I just got back from doing a 70+ mile ride with the team.  Next weekend, many of my teammates are doing the one day 120 mile Harbor to the Bay charity ride to sponsor the AIDS action committee.  If you feel generous, a couple people are still looking for sponsors.

Despite the heat, we had a huge crew of well over 50 people roll out for the early part of the ride.  For many people, it was there first time on a club ride and they had some difficulties mastering the whole "riding close to others but not actually hitting them" thing.  We keep it pretty slow until the end of the bike path and the club regulars and the racing team usually hang way off the back or torpedo to the front to stay clear of the newbies.  Unfortunately, today Will did not.  One particularly anxious new rider slammed on his brakes with such force the rear of his bike bucked up.  Will was drafting the guy and slammed right into him.  Will now likely has a fractured leg 'though it was still okay enough for him to ride home (and then go to the ER). 

I ended up working almost exclusively with two of the guys all day today since they were pretty solid wheels.  The way that we worked so well together really makes me wish that I had fellow women to work with when I race.  

I think it's nap time now.

It's kind of strange that on the very day that one of my close friends KD moves away, I find out that another friend is moving here.  Yay for Gatitas!  *emo sigh* that KD is gone (temporarily).

In other news, I bike lots, come in last place at one race, and win one race.  And I bike to New Hampshire and back.  But not all in the same day. 

Time for another race recap:

This Sunday, I raced in the Bow Road Race in Bow, NH once again representing the entire Quaddie women's team.  If I can't get another women to join up, I'm so flipping over to the Organic Athletes Vegan Team next season.  Not that I'm good, I just want the team kit with "Go Vegan" written on my ass.

So...the race.  Next time when a race recommends a specific cassette gearing, I will take note.  I rode with my 25 cassette when a 39 was recommended.  Yep, that means that the hill absolutely killed me.  The race started on an uphill, a fierce uphill, a hill the likes of which I have never biked before.  It was big enough that a KOM/QOM (King/Queen of the Mountains) was awarded if you got to the top.  And get to the top you needed to do. Three times.  That's right.  You had to climb the damn thing three times.  Post race, a fellow female racer commented that she'd done the Mt. Washington hill climb a couple weeks prior and that hadn't been as tough as the Bow Race.  I dropped my bike all the way into the smallest chain ring and I drug myself up to the top.  It hurt.  A lot.  At the final lap, the photographer takes your picture on the KOM line.  While the photos have not yet been posted, I know that mine shows me drenched in sweat, water (spectators sprayed me down with a hose), with my tongue hanging out of my mouth, and a look of either intense desperation or snarl.  I don't remember which.  I'll have to buy a copy when they're posted, my mom's been wanting an up-to-date picture of me.

How did I do?  Last.  Out of 23 starters, I finished 18th--the last of those who actually finished the race.  Since I have *no team* I was unable to convince any of the women on rival teams to work with me and they all did better through a combination of actual climbing talent and having other women to pace them.  At least I finished, that's better than a bunch of my male teammates did : )  I'm thinking that my style--pushing a big gear with a lot of force--actually lends itself better to the crit races than to road races.  It's not like I'm upgrading this year so I'll continue to race whatever has a Cat 4 Women's division and maybe figure out a specialty later based upon what I do less than terribly in.  It's hard to put in over 20 hours of training every week to pull out a last place finish but I guess there's a pretty steep learning curve when it's your first season racing and there's zero support of your team.  Next time at a road race I'll know to buy/borrow more appropriate gearing, station someone in the feed zone, and strive harder to make deals to get *someone* to work with me if I still have no team.

Today's a rest day for me since my ass muscles are sore--tomorrow's back to sprint interval training when I take on the NEBC women's night ride. 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul25news

Vino...how could you?  How? 

Cyclists: stop doping.  STOP DOPING.  Injecting drugs and OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOOD into your body is disgusting and wrong. 

Amateur cycling races has shown me how much determination, training, and magic makes for a wonderful sport that seems to defy the boundaries of what the human body can do...professional cycling should be doing the same. 

This athlete is powered by excessive quantities of tofu and coffee and I'm doing just fine.

This weekend, my friend Scott is doing the Seacoast Safari charity ride to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  It's a great cause--one of the members of my team has CF--and a challenging but fun ride.  Scott (also known as Robert) is still looking for sponsors if anyone should feel generous:

http://www.cff.org/LWC/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?idUser=212602&idEvent=5672

*hugs* to my Quaddie boys...(and Jon)...who managed to make the time to get trashed with me tonight

this is not helping today's anger management issues in which I seriously wanted to punch a fellow sword student in the face.

not helping

am I somehow unfun?

It's official!  I've finally sucked it up and bought myself a race license:

https://www.usacycling.org/clubs/members.php?club=9800

Yes, I'm licensed now to race a bike but not to drive a car.

Bike rant: in the last couple days and weeks I've seen a lot of people on bikes without helmets.  I've also seen a lot of people wearing helmets backwards.  No joke.

Anyway, it's Bike Week and I feel obligated to point out that 1) Biking is awesome 2) Biking is more awesome if your skull doesn't get smashed in.  I have my small gallery of busted helmets that protected my skull but nothing quite compares to this story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/15/mangled.helmet.ap/index.html

A delivery truck ran over this guy's head and he's fine since he was wearing a helmet. 

Dear friends,

Do you shudder with horror to recall sleeping on our metal futon?  Good news!  We now have a new (to us) sleeper couch.  Perhaps now the thought of coming up here and staying over the night is less terrifying?  Come on over, give it a sit.