insert your own witty title here

I'm bringing back the bullet list tonight:

1. I did Wheels on Willy last Sunday. Cool race, but I rode dumb and paid the price. After I got dropped, the other droppees apparently just wanted to do a little spin around the course for the rest of the race. So when the main field came around again (which didn't take long considering our pace) I jumped back in and finished with the group. I think I ended up 11th or something like that. I was disappointed. But Special K did awesome, so if you want a good race report, check out her blog. Oh, and after the first crappy race, I decided to jump into the Women's Open race too...not much to report there besides that it started out fast, and with each passing lap, I looked more forward to dropping out. I think I made it about 15 minutes. On a more positive note, it was great to see the GW ladies at the races!

2. Contrary to everyone else in cycling blogland, I LOVE this weather!! Although I haven't been able to enjoy it much yet since I've been working 12 hr days at work this week. No riding. Little sleep. Just work. Good times.

3. Due to my burnout from so much traveling and work over the past few weeks, I've decided to skip the Quad Cities races this weekend. If I'm not working, I'll be heading to the lake this weekend instead. I might ride...I might not. I might go for a run for a change of pace and see how the hip handles it. Then I'm going to drink wine and margaritas all weekend with my family...or by myself - either way, it will be delightful. And maybe go fishing. And throw some rocks in the lake with my 'lil guys. And celebrate J-Dawg's second birthday. And eat awesome grill food. And lay in the sun and try to get rid of these goofy biker-chick tanlines. And watch NASCAR...that's right Sick Boy, there's a long-ass (600-mile) NASCAR race on Sunday...and I can't wait to watch it. Check out these "then and now" photos of DJ - nothing says old-school-NASCAR-driver like a sweet mustache:















4. Random local restaurant recommendation: Rice Paper in Linden Hills. Ate there for the second time tonight...very yummy.

Sorry, that's all I got. I think I need to find a guest blogger because I'm officially boring. Any takers?

SS

wearing a clown suit, but no circus in town

For some reason, wearing my Bella kit riding around Madison by myself made me feel funny (pun intended)...like I'm wearing a clown suit, and everyone's looking at me weird because the circus isn't in town.

These past few weeks have been crazy. After having a relatively good race (for me, anyway) in Neenah a few weekends ago, I involuntarily took 1.5 weeks off from riding due to the combination of really shitty weather, being super busy at work, and taking an unplanned 4-day trip to IL for a funeral. After returning from IL late Monday night, I repacked my bags, and headed to Madison the next day for work. Did I mention that I broke a work laptop on the way down to IL? Yep, I completely cracked the monitor so that it looks a little like an Etch-a-Sketch...and it was a brand new computer. It's been a hell of a week.

Anyway, I think that's the longest I've gone without riding since I was on crutches in December.

So last night (Wed) was the first road ride I'd done since the Neenah Crit. Pellis had given me a few good routes to try, and the ride was awesome...and while it felt good to be out riding, my IT band issue was making my ride painful, which seems weird since I haven't ridden for so long. I figured it just needed to loosen up a bit, so I went for another 25-mile ride tonight (thanks to the "bike in the tree" route recommended by Ridge)...and it still hurts (please, no lecture Marjie!). And I'm supposed to do two races this weekend. Hopefully some stretching and ice will help, but I'm thinking I'll skip the road race on Saturday, especially since Barb referred to it as "Durand on steroids" - and I didn't like Durand.

Oh, and I also managed to somehow tweak my lower back (for the 100th time in my life) last weekend, so I've been walking around all week looking like I've got a corn cob stuck up my...well, you know where.

Madison is a cool place. And there are a ton of bike lanes. I was hoping to post a few stories from my rides, but I'm just too tired. And I need to get some sleep since we're going out on the town tomorrow night for Pellis' birthday...a hangover would be another good reason not to race Saturday morning, so I think I'll work on that tomorrow night too.

p.s. I just heard on the Madison news that May 25th is "take your brat to work day". Only in WI.

SS

racing in Packer country

So I was in WI yesterday for the Neenah crit. Turns out Jana and Matt live on the crit course, so Pete and I went there to hang out for the weekend and race yesterday...it was so nice to get a shower and food from the grill right after my race! And I hadn't seen Jana and Matt in a long time, so it was great to hang out with them for the weekend and spend some time with Anna, and also get to meet their new baby Ellie.

I was nervous for this race because the crit was a Women's Open race (i.e. no separate Cat 4 race) and it was long...50 minutes plus two laps - that's about twice as long as the crits here in MN. The really nice thing was that I had a teammate there too...Barb was there. Barb's been trying to get the Bellas to race in WI for a long time because she says it's just "different", and now I know what she means.

It was a 4-corner residential crit with just a tiny slight uphill section...for all practical purporses, it was flat. But two of the corners were rather sketchy - they were tight and the road was bumpy and patched up. In the inside of the 4th turn, the race promoters covered some telephone poles and trees with bed mattresses, and I was fairly certain that someone would be very thankful for that.

About 20 women lined up for the race. Being an out-of-towner, I had no idea who these people were. How many Cat 2/3's? How many 4's? Who's going to attack right away? Who should I NOT follow? All I knew was that the "cow chicks" (the America's Dairyland team that wears the pink, black and white cow print jersesy) are good.

As usual, the race started out fast and I struggled to keep up, but found myself still in the main field when the fast chicks sat up a little. At some point early in the race, someone attacked and a group of 5 or 6 riders got off the front. The main field had also dropped some riders, but I'm not sure how many. About halfway through the race, Barb decided to attack. At the time, I was towards the front of the pack, so when Barb took off I just sort of soft-pedaled and made everyone try to go around me then jumped on their wheel...it was fun to let others do the chasing. In general, I was amazed at all of the organized attacks and counter-attacks. Towards the end of the race, the leaders had caught up to us, and it was confusing for me since I didn't know who was part of that lead pack and who was part of the main field. I guess that's one of the benefits of racing with the same people in MN all of the time.

With about 3 laps to go, one of the cow chicks attacked again. I was at the front of the field, so I chased after her and was able to keep up. So with one lap to go, there was still a main field of at least 10 women. I was nervous about the final sprint because the last corner was sketchy, and it was best to go through the corner single file...and I knew that wouldn't happen on the last lap. Halfway through the bell lap, another chick decided to attack which was good because it strung out the field. The bad part was that I couldn't keep up with the attacker and a few others, but luckily I had dropped some others in the process of trying to keep up.

I ended up placing 11th, so I was pretty happy with that. I have no idea how many Cat 4's were ahead of me...I'm hoping they post that info when the results get up on the web.

This race was cool because it was long enough to have a lot of things happen and I really learned a lot. For maybe the first time, I really felt like a racer because I had to do so much - try to help out a teammate, take some pulls at the front, chase down attacks, do some high-speed cornering, try to sit in, work on my positioning, and sprint at the end. And two things about WI racing really stuck out - (1) these teams really know how to work together...there were about 3 well-represented teams, and they were organized with their attacks and counter-attacks and were "secretly" chatting during the race; and (2) the race felt more safe than I'm used to which makes it a lot more fun, especially when you're flying through tight corners (which I'm not used to since Opus is just a big circle).

On a side note, it was also fun to watch Pete take a bunch of primes and win the Master's 30+ 1/2/3 race. And it was fun to watch Pete and Paul (with his sweet new bike) race in the Pro/1/2 race...they did awesome considering it was just the two of them, and a few of the other good local teams appeared to have about 10 guys each.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

Big thanks to Jana and Matt for a great weekend!!

SS

one bike down...

I finally have time to update my blog since I'm sitting around waiting for the police to show up (I hope it's Officer Eberlein). Someone stole my mountain bike today, and I'm pissed. I live in a small "secured entrance" condo building, and my bike was locked up with a cruiser bike and Pete's cross bike frame in a random closet in the hallway of our building. They've been locked up there for months. When Pete came home today, he discovered his cross bike frame (probably more expensive than my entire mountain bike) was sitting in the laundry room across from the closet our bikes were in...so he knew the lock had been cut. Sure as shit, my mountain bike was gone. Did I mention I'm pissed? I'm totally creeped out that someone was in our building today...either someone has keys, or someone else let them in (I'm totally assuming no one who lives in our building actually stole the bike...we know everyone, and they've all had plenty of opportunities to swipe our bikes before this). And they used some significant cable-cutters on the lock, so they knew what they were coming for. Oh, and I hope the idiot who took it didn't have a car when they came to steal it and planned to ride away on it fast...because it didn't have pedals on it. Anyway, if you happen to see a dark blue/purple Cannondale F400 with a Rock-Shox seatpost on it...feel free to derby with the asshole riding it.

Here's a picture of me and my mountain bike at SlickRock in Moab...oh the fun we had together.













Getting my mountain bike stolen just tops off two bad days of biking. Opus didn't go so well yesterday, starting with the fact that a couple of geese decided to wander onto the course during our race, which caused a chain reaction that led to two Bettys going down. Twice in one week I've heard the horrible sounds of a bike crash which freaks me out. Both Bettys were okay...just some nasty road rash and cracked helmets...still scary stuff though. I'm lucky I didn't get goosed (giggle). Anyway, I got dropped right after the goose incident, and then just rode around the course for nine laps trying to get a good workout in. Then I watched Petey Pablo's race, and we headed home - oh, and we got hailed on while riding home too. Good times.

Racing on weeknights is not good for me. I get so amped up that I can't sleep. So when I got home from Opus, and ate dinner around 9:30, I think my heart rate was still above 100...at least it felt like it. I figured a few glasses of wine would help, but really, they didn't, and it took forever for me to fall asleep. And the worst part was that Letterman had freak-boy Tom Cruise as a guest...what a disappointment for the one night I'm up late. I had to settle for Kurt Russell on Leno. I was looking forward to Conan, and only got through the opening dialogue before my heart rate finally dropped. When I woke up this morning, I was really dehydrated and felt like I had gotten hit by a bus....or a goose.

My legs felt tired today, but I still decided to do the Black Dog Time Trial. Let me just say up front that I don't like TTs. They're boring, and I don't like doing boring things. Plus they're hard. And it was really windy. So it was extra hard. But I like the Silver Cycling team, so I totally like supporting their events...and, they were kind enough to add a "Women's Stock" category this year...so I felt obligated to race The Dog at least once. And now my legs are completely trashed.

And someone stole my mountain bike.