That was one messed up class

Wednesday evening I thought I would checkout a new spin class. I’ve been to this instructor’s class before but it was a while ago. I was warned several times not to go, but I didn’t listen—sometimes you need to make your own mistakes in life to learn a lesson. All I could remember, she had an insane amount of energy with pretty good music and she didn’t put enough (if any) tension on her bike—no problem I would. 10 minutes into class I was thinking about my exit plan. Should I just leave, how should I leave or should I stick it out? I stuck it out only to be witness to the most F-ed up class I’VE EVER ATTENDED!!!

Reasons why:

#1
If you’re a guy, you might not mind this first grip, but I was the one in class so let’s precede…Every female in the class (including the instructor) was wearing the short booty shorts. You know the kind that is so short you can see cheeks. No wonder you hear women complaining about their seat hurting. All you have on is a thin piece of cotton that is barely covering your ass! I, on the other hand, felt strangely awkward being the only one in padded spandex shorts that went halfway down my thighs. Hell, I even had them pulled up from where they normally would fall!

#2
In other classes when the instructor says “turn up your resistance” you turn the dial a minimum 1/8 of a turn to maybe a full turn. Not this class, she kept telling us to turn up or down the resistance 10 to 15 full rotations! OK STOP…if you have to turn your resistance up 10-15 full rotations and you’re still in a seated position—you don’t have ANY resistance on in the first place! What’s the point? It’s like going downhill in your smallest gear. The very sturdy and durable bikes were moving from their location due to lack of tension they looked like they were going to take off.

#3
While we were turning our dials up and down—which, by the way, I kept at a reasonable climbing resistance—she had us do push-ups and jumps. If you’ve attended a class with me you will know that these two moves are on the top of my short ‘hate to do’ list. There is no benefit to push-ups. When was the last time you did a push-up on your bike outside? That’s right—NEVER! Jumps—I’ll do 4 or 8 counts since you might need to do them when you run out of gears during a uphill climb (or if you are a MTBer) but if you need to do 2 count jumps while you’re on your bike—you’re expending more energy then you should and should just sit you’re butt down and work your way up the hill.

#4
Outside, the talented riders can ride no-handed while zipping up their jacket, opening up a package, etc. I am not one of those talented riders—at least one hand at all times. The “no handed” trick can only be done while seated. During this crazy class the instructor had us stand—while spinning—and do some synchronized swimming moves with our hands. Again, I did not participate in this action.

Now…here comes the best part of the class…

#5
She had us take one foot out of the clips/cages. So far I’m in—this is a great way to focus on your less dominate leg, but then she said “now stand up” WTF? Oh hell no! I clipped back in and refused to participate. I wish I had a camera because this was so absurd and is hard to explain—I was in a full on giggle the entire time. I was picturing Matt and Bill’s reaction if they were in class with me. While only clipped-in with one foot she had the class stand up—causing most of your body weight to be transferred to the bars—and use the momentum and the strength of your arms to continue to peddle ONE LEGGED while standing.

A few times I caught the instructor looking at me—since I sat second row right in front of her and refused to go along with her shenanigans—and was not please with my participation. Although, I did my own thing I had a pretty good workout—I stayed in a high zone, sprinted several times in a high resistance and burned a ton of calories.

If your focus is not outdoor riding and just want to have fun maybe this particular class is for you, but as someone who attends several classed I would have to say there are far better ones out there that are just as fun.

The next morning I went to Chris’s class. She was not aware of the crazy class I went to the night before but by coincidence she said, “If your legs are rotating too fast and your bike is moving, you don’t have enough tension and are doing a disservice to your workout.” Later, “I don’t do push-ups because you would never do push-ups on your bike outside.” And another instructor said a week prior, “I don’t have you stand and go no handed because it will do more harm to your body then good.” AMEN!

Preparation H

For the past few months I’ve had the joys of going to the gym during the day where I can wake up at a decent hour (9 or 10am), I don’t need to fight for a machine, space on the track, or bike during spin class. Yes, there are the benefits of a mid-day workout. Although, there are some downsides.

You might think I would say the number of small children. No, they’ve actually helped me work on my quick reflexes – you never know which way they are going to dart.

It’s the number of elderly people. Hey, good for them towards staying active – I hope I have the same amount of energy they do at their age. What bothers me is in the women’s locker room there are more naked women over the age of 65 then all the women combined during high traffic hours. I won’t get into details—because they should never be discussed. I acknowledge these older women had many years of rushing through life and now have the right to take it easy. BUT, I would like to point out, this does NOT mean they need to have a 45 minute casual conversation naked while they do god knows what—since there seems to be no progress in that 45 minutes towards getting ready. The same four words go through my mind everyday: Put some clothes on!

The other thing I’ve noticed is that Preparation H has a very strong and distinctive odor. Either that or my senses are more sensitive while I’m in a high zone hart rate. What I know for sure is at 10:30am if you are on the track you will be punched in the face by the oder every time you go past the aerobic room and when you pass someone.

Quick rundown on what I did since my last positing. Friday: Did my own 1 hour spin class followed by interrupting Kenny’s 1 hour spin class. Then my 40 minute 15 % incline walking (switching every 5 minutes forward or 5 minutes backwards) – you sweat as much as you would during a cardio class. Saturday: Jody skipped class so I skipped working out. Sunday: recovering from the Loon party with a hangover – yeah I know I’m not on the team anymore but racers from other teams crash the party. Monday: Checked out a new spin class at Plymouth—good class so I’ll go again, followed by light elliptical. Tuesday: 20 minute run, spin class that almost killed me, weights.

I recently got the current Runner’s World magazine. A survey was taken (over the course of a year with 17,000 submissions) the Fargo Marathon was ranked #8 for the best overall marathon. The Twin Cities Marathon was ranked #18. I’m feeling pretty good about my choice.

Fall training is now over (or what others might call the “off season”). It’s time to get serious!

To stick to my last post committing to going to the gym and telling you want moronic thing I did or saw, here we go…

This past weekend was my family’s annual holiday cookie making weekend. We make somewhere between 10-12 different types of cookies at 2-3 batches each. I dread this event. Why? Because I have no willpower. On top of that I have to take home a quarter of the quantity. I have full intentions on packaging them up and giving them out, but in reality I can’t control myself and I eat too many of them. So I quickly packed them up, gave them out, consumed the rest in a timely fashion and as quickly as I consumed those cookies I ditched my fall training program to start my “New Year” program before the new year.

Yesterday was Chris’s spin class—same Chris I talked about in my last posting. After three weeks she was finally back in town to teach her Thursday spin class. She travels a lot for fitness education and appears on QVC. She’s also in Prevention, Oxygen and a few other magazines. So I was surprised when she recognized me and said hi before class started—she knows a lot of people. Today’s mix of everything was very much welcomed after three days of specific training. Overall, I was happy with my performance—I would even dare to say I was shocked at my performance. I pushed it and still had a lot left to give.

That said, I ran intervals on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then jumped in the pool for another 20 minutes of non-stop swimming. This was the first time in 3 months that I’ve been in the pool so I wasn’t sure if it was like riding a bike (sink or swim). I swam.

I’m happy to announce I’m now 1.5 days clean of cookie goodness.

I should have my marathon training program in the next few weeks. Something about “we’ll make sure to schedule in planned events” came up during the conversation which clearly meant other running events. I don’t know how others train for a marathon, but “planned events” was not really part of MY plan. Run a bunch of miles, do the marathon, get the t-shirt, drink a few beer and talk about it on this blog—that was my plan.

Dear Santa,

I've been evaluating my performance over the past year and I feel that my performance would qualify me to be within the top 10% of your criteria to warrant a good review.

That said, I decided instead of a lot of little presents this year that I would only list two (in case the first one is not available).

1. Trek Equinox TTX 9.8 size small (or equivalent to a 52" Madone)

2. E-Rocket

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34r1xtbh_1k

If possible, can you see if they can throw in Shimono Ultegra pedlas on either bike?

Sincerely,

Madonna from Minneapolis

Are Blogs a thing of the past?

Now that we have Facebook, Twitter and Woot (a shopping site where you can talk about products) should we abandon the originator Social Media outlets like MySpace and Blogger? Truth is, I was never a fan of MySpace but there will always be a little piece of my heart still with Blogger. I’ve noticed lately blog sites I would drop in and check out are either blocked or they are linking their Twitter/Facebook/Blog together. Quite frankly, it’s not the same!

I know, I’ve been MIA lately so I’ve decided to get back into the grind of working out and then tell you what moronic thing I did that day.

Here we go…

This morning was Jody’s class. Amazingly I was able to get up and get to class. When you currently don’t have a set schedule 5:45am class seems like a chore. When Jody walked into the room everyone went silent. Even the crickets stop chirping! She had on a light African print jacket and a skort (a skirt that goes over your shorts) that was Hawaiian print. A need to do laundry and adequate home lighting was questioned by several men in the room. I had no right to talk with my bottom of the dresser draw selection.

Today’s class seemed a little different then a typical Jody class. I don’t mean it was bad, quite frankly just the opposite. After yesterday’s 50 minute interval training with Kristen, a second day of interval training was hard! My legs just didn’t want to work so it became a mental game just to keep going.

Then I got this bright idea!

I was going to go to Chris’s Total Conditioning (lifting class) over at the Plymouth gym. I walked in and there were so many people I couldn’t believe it! There had to be at least 50+ women in that room—barley any room to walk. I found a spot and got my stuff, when we started she said, “Alright, we have a lot to do in the next 70 minutes.” WHAT 70—like 7-0? Shit! Exactly 2.5 minutes after we started I was already in pain. For the next 7-0 minutes I saw stars at least 4 times, did 100 push-ups, a ton of lunges my legs clearly wasn’t ready for, a combine total of 15 minutes of jumping jacks, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember. What I know for sure is that I broke down every muscle. I walked out of the gym after class like I just got released from a POW camp. I now know what those stay-at-home moms do to stay fit and I was using the lighter weights. Damn it, I’m going back—as soon as I can walk again.

Thankfully, I found my sense of mind because I was going to go back a third time today for Jessica’s spin class. The girl is nuts—but I’m not ready for her intensity. I think I’ll be ready for her in…March.

Cat 3!!

It's official. I'm a cat (category) 3 racer!!

What does this mean:

1. Road races will be at least one additional lap
2. I will no longer be racing with newbies (i.e. sketchy racers)
3. Fields will be smaller--at least here in Minnesota (unless we get combined with the 50+ men)
4. I'll have to race with the Women cat 1 and 2's (i.e. the "big" girls)
5. And last but not least: Prizes have just went from water bottles to $$!!

What does this mean for my group rides/training:

1. Just one, I need work by butt off to stick with the guys.

My race goals this year will be simple. To stick with the group as long as I can and to learn how to be more efficient.

Cardio Kickboxing

Yet again another day of full intentions towards going to Matt’s spin class and I overslept. I haven’t been to his class since…ummm…March! Matt I miss your witty humor—just kidding (not really). :P

Instead I decided to head over to the Maple Grove gym mid-morning and attend Cardio Kickboxing followed by a few laps in the pool. I was just as excited and nervous as I was for my first time in spin class. I heard kickboxing was hard and you would burn a lot of calories—two reasons to sucker me into trying the class.

As soon as we started my heart rate was up to 140 and I don’t think it ever went down—our mid-class break was to run around the track—Nice. Boy was I a mess. Ok, I got most of the jabs down but the instructor called my bluff—or me being new to class—when we did the side hooks. She turned around and said “how many are new to this class?” I was so rapped up on getting my form that I cowered in the back row and didn’t raise my hand. Thankfully there were other new people in the class so she broke it down. Hell if I could get that damn move! I was swinging all over the place the entire class.

What I thought was comical was the backwards kick. You were supposed to be slightly bent over at the hips while you lifted one leg backwards (bending at the knee) and kicking with your heel. Like you would be pushing a door closed with your heel. Seems easy right? Oh hell, I looked like I was an untamed horse that had the jimmy leg. Sure the first two kicks went well, but once your tired—don’t even look in the mirror. You would be ashamed at your performance—as I was. Let’s not even go into the arm/leg combinations—there’s a reason why I don’t attend step class.

All in all, it was a good class. I burned a bunch of calories and then headed over the Plymouth gym to do 30 minutes in the pool.

Flounder

I saw a quote today that said “Inspiration is contagious. Once inspired you’re capable of anything.” That explains a lot.

A couple of weeks ago I told myself that I’m going to learn how to swim in a heavily chlorine treated pool—bacteria infested lakes was not an option even if it was warm enough to be in one this time of year. What was I thinking? I have too much time on my hands! I took a few lessons with Paul before he left to Iraq. He gave me the basics and then set me on my way. I didn’t do much with my new found knowledge at the time until now. Quite frankly, splashing around with arm floaties or a noodle wasn’t something I wanted to entertain. Come on. I would laugh too. But, I was highly encouraged by a friend to get back into the pool—damn peer pressure and guilt and my sister threatening to push me into the lake without a life jacket next time we are in the boat. Since I seem to have all this extra time on my hands I decided it would be perfect to pull on the waistband flotation device—since it’s not as noticeable—and try to concur my fear.

Learning how to swim as an adult will be much harder then as a child. Too many thoughts and worries go through your mind as an adult—children don’t think about all the minuet issues that could go wrong.

I left my pride at home and went to the gym (at 2pm when no one is around) and started with just getting into the pool to do a few laps remembering what Paul taught me. Nothing crazy—I had no expectations on how I would do just that I needed to get in. Every time is a lesson learned. What I learned that day was this was going to be a process. I concentrated only on one element (the most important element in my book)—breathing—reminding myself that I didn’t excel on the bike by riding two miles here or there…I would have to put my time into the pool (exerting myself to daily humiliation with the waistband flotation device). Knowing some day “I’ll get it.”

Day three of swimming, I was on my last lap (first day I tried a few laps without the flotation belt) when an older gentleman asked to share my lane since the other lanes were full. Panic took over—why my lane of all lanes? There were 7 other lanes to pick from and hell if I can keep a straight line! I’m new to this whole swimming thing—I don’t know the periodicals to lane sharing. So I told him I’m learning how to swim and that I was almost done. He said he could deal with it if it was only one lap—I’m glad I wasn’t going to inconvenience him even though he was budging into my lane. While I stood there catching my breath and he was putting on his cap he asked me if I was new to swimming what did I normally do. I lifted my leg showing him my crazy tan lines and said I was a cyclist. He responded by saying “That’s what I thought. Once you get this down you’ll be doing an Ironman.” I laughed at his comment. Has he been talking to a few of my friends? Fighting with 2,000 people in open water was not in my future.

Now that I’ve been going often, each time seems to be another small accomplishment achieved. The waistband flotation device is no longer needed and I’m trying to learn how to do a four count stroke while remembering to rotate my shoulders and hips. The turnaround flip is part of the advanced course. I'm still in the beginner/intermediate course I continue to remind myself that I’ll have my good and bad days and that I’ll appreciate each day as it comes no matter the outcome. I’ve even learn to appreciate the serenity that comes from swimming.

On a side note: What I don’t understand is why the hell do they have that line in the middle of the pool that indicates that you are entering the “death zone” i.e. the deep end? It’s bad enough to see the blue water get darker. I don’t need a big fat black line indicating the question “are you sure?”—Hell no, but I guess I’m going anyways.

Attack of the Zucchini!!

I was talked into going to Jody’s 8:30am Saturday spin class in Fridley. My trouble lately is waking up to make these early morning classes since I don’t have a normal schedule at the moment. The Fridley spin studio must have gotten new bikes during their remodel last year because I’ve never been on a spin bike that didn’t have some sort of problem—these were so smooth and I didn’t almost fall out of the clips! That’s what Bill’s bike must feel like at the MG gym—I joke that he comes in early to oil and tighten his bike.

One of the members gave Jody a Zucchini and Eggplant from their garden. All I have to say was that Zucchini was enormous! And I’ll leave it at that…Umm…I wonder if Zucchini bread is in my near future. You know my birthday is coming up.

I guess the University of Wisconsin was playing that day because it was the Baggers vs everyone else (I’m more of a Hockey fan—Go Sioux!). We simulated being in Madison on a bike race—being in Madison recently I can appreciate the simulation. You had to be there, I can not express how funny it was to be out of breath, heart rate in the upper 150’s and out of no where Jody picks up her giant Zucchini and pretended it was a machine gun! There was no reason or no ill harm intended it was just purely for laughs. I told a friend a few weeks a go that is new to the gym that Jody’s class is like a 2-for-1. While spinning you work on your abs by laughing at her stories or actions.

A few minutes later we were doing a climbing sprint for 2 minutes to the same song Jody called me a bitch last year during class (hey I was feeling good). I told her I was giving her the bitch card back…that sucked!

Sunday I was to go down to Lakeville and ride with my team. An hour drive one way for 30-40 miles didn’t seem too appealing so I met up with Joe on our bikes to watch the Twin Cities Marathon. I had to see what I was getting myself into. We met Laurie and Bob at mile marker 15—I was impressed on how good everyone looked. I hope I look that good at mile 15.

Bob had his bikestereo and was pumping out dance music while we followed a friend on the sidewalk. It was fun to ride behind him so many people turned around to see him and his bike. We had one hater, but a runner ran over to Bob and thanked him he said he bonked a while back and the music got him running again—take that music hater! Amber, the girl we were following, had to hold back from dancing and keep running. She got an impressive 3:41 time and qualified for Boston—her goal.

Hum…maybe I should think about doing the Minneapolis marathon instead…

So I have this great idea…

That’s were it all starts. Four-five months later I’m thinking “What the hell have I got myself into?”

Anyways, I have this great idea. To get ready for next years riding season I’m going to train for a marathon! Training for the half marathon did wonders for my hill climbing. There seems to be a few questions you need to ask yourself. Are you sane? Are you sure you are ready for all of the intense training? When should I do one? Which one should I do? Should I travel or stay local? If you’ve ever researched a marathon you know there are so many choices.

I’ve decided to do the Fargo Marathon as my first.

Why that one? Here is the breakdown
1. Have you ever been to Fargo—pancakes have more hills
2. I’m a North Dakotan. I went to college in Fargo/Moorhead so I know the area.
3. Based on previous racers of this event the entire course is packed with spectators.
4. Believe it or not, the Fargo Marathon is becoming one of the top marathons in the US.
5. I believe a shout out to a few friends and family via social media and I’ve got a pretty good support team on the sidelines. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come—the more the merrier.

My plan is not to start the serious training until January. In the meantime, I will be putting in some conservative base miles so it’s not a complete shock to my body and mind when I kick it up a notch.

I spoke to a friend of mine who is a marathon runner for advice. He said “Be ready to not have a social life.” I laughed at him and said “That’s funny. You think I have a social life now?”

Let’s take today’s ride easy

There was nothing easy about today’s ride (I started this blog on Thursday). Who does the Stone arch ride in September and then adds an additional 30 miles to that ride?

Joe called and said “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s ride out to St. Paul and do the Ramsey hill.” My response, “Ramsey Hill? Are you crazy? How about we do Grand Ave instead?” (Ramsey hill is a 2 block 15% grade, Grand is a 4 block hill at a steady 4% grade) Few minutes later I said, “How about this, we meet along the Luce Line trail, go downtown, and do the stone arch ride (35 mile route with 4 major hills) and MAYBE we do the Ramsey Hill.” What was I thinking? I just went from his level of difficulty of a 6 to my new suggested route a level 12. We decided to play it by ear.

I left my house and met Joe along the trail we headed to the stone arch. I’ve never done this route but it turned out to be 17 miles to the stone arch from my house. Normally the ride out to St. Paul is crazy fast but we took it easy. We stopped at the usual gas station for a Red Bull after I told Joe I can’t talk while we were climbing the Smith Bridge (2 mile climb). I think I shocked him—I admit, I’m always talking! Hey, I had to conserve energy that’s a long climb.

We continued on the route. I told Joe that I was debating about using my granny gear up Ohio Street. He was on his compact I was on my triple. To be fair I didn’t use my granny gear—but OMG that was much harder to go up that street then it was the first time in the spring. The minutes between the top if the High Bridge and the bottom of Ramsey is the most nerve racking moments. Can I get up that hill? Will this be the time that I have to walk? Should I just chicken out and do the side streets? Panic was clearly written on my face. Up until a block before the base of Ramsey hill I was still debating my route. Take the easy way up or concur the hill and be happy with my achievement? I haven’t climbed something that steep in a long time—I didn’t know how I would far. At the last second I turned to Joe told him to get in front of me and I’ll do the hill. Being happy with my achievement was much more important then taking the easy way out. He was a little taken back by my directness. We got to the top my heart rate maxed out at 180. I stayed out of my granny gear. A few choice comments came bursting out of my mouth once I got to the top. The young pedestrian crossing the street got a good laugh at my outburst. I acknowledged his laughter by saying “that hill sucks!” One of these days I’m going to be laughing at the Ramsey hill!

On the way back we stopped at Freewheel Bike shop to get a smoothie. 70 miles went by quickly although it took much longer to complete then most 70 mile rides. Oh well, it was fun.

On a side note, this past weekend my first cousin got married. Most of my family from my mother’s side was there. I haven’t seen a lot of them in 10 years. Oh how everyone has changed. The biggest change was my mother’s perception that now that I’m the only one not married out of her 7 children that it was time that she found someone for me. Her exact words were “Madonna, It’s time that I find you a husband because obviously what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working.” 30+ years and I have NEVER had the pressures from my mother to settle down. She has always stressed that I need to find the right one and that time was not an issue. She enlisted my aunt’s help in her search. I’m not sure if the Captain Morgan was clogging her judgment but she tried to set me up with Jason—who turned out to be the biggest player in the room. Hey, two can play this game. At the end of the night he was chasing me around. Mom, don’t worry it will happen—I’m just picky.

Candy Shop Ride

Formally known as the Madonnator.


Joe M. and I meet on County Road 6 and did the Candy Shop ride. The difference between last week and this week was stopping at a unique candy shop in Excelsior that sells candy you use do have when you were a kid. Joe insisted on two bags of taffy—which I didn't appose, but offered my extra pocket for transportation of said taffy (note the photo). I question my maturity about this ride. I’m talking about riding my bike and candy shops and loving every second of it—I don’t think I’ve changed much since I was a kid! Although, the sweet 72 year old lady behind the till told us she sees the type of glee we were expressing everyday. She must love her job!

After sitting on the pier taking in the nice weather we were having on the first full day of Fall we headed back just beating rush hour traffic. Joe and I joked about how our day starting off in Jody’s 5:45am class, my ambition to run a few miles after class, followed up with a nap, our 40 mile ride and then making plans for another ride with Jody tomorrow. Seriously, why am I looking for a job? Oh yeah…so I can continue to support my passion.

It’s too nice outside I have to go home.

While the boys were drinking beer and playing in the dirt at the Fat Tire race, in northern Wisconsin, seven of us took it to the road. We did the God’s Country Century. You couldn’t ask for a better day to hit the road for a long ride. Clear skies and slight wind from the south. Only a number of days left before we have to pull out the tights and the under layers. Seriously, if you were indoors for any reason—you need to check your priorities and then go jump on your bike!

Somewhere between Elk River and Zimmerman Dave turned to me and said “So, are we in God’s Country now?” I said I wasn’t sure where the line was but I’m pretty sure we already passed it and were in his country. What a beautiful route! What seemed odd was the unusual number of various road kill animals on the side of the road. A lot of raccoons, birds, turtles, snakes, frogs, deer—I wonder if they all went to heaven since they were in god’s country?

Since the weather was so nice and everyone worked together to make sure we stayed as a cohesive group averaging 20 mph, I guess I didn’t put two-and-two together why my legs were feeling like 2x4. In my mind I blamed everything from the bike to the shoes to my fitness peaking too early in the season while everyone is at their strongest. I didn’t realize until I got home normally we would stop about 3-4 times during a century ride but we only stopped once during the ride at the bakery in Cambridge for lunch and headed back. Although it sounds like I’m complaining—trust me I’m not. I’m actually excited that we only had to stop once and finished so quickly.

After we got back to Anoka, Perry—who tends to be more of the quite one in the group, said he had a great ride. If you ridden with Perry you know he’s a really nice guy and the pace car of the group. Always out front and always challenging us. We thanked him for pulling, but he said he only pulled twice. Yeah for 30 miles each!

My goal for the end of the season is 4,000 miles. I’m 400 miles away from that goal—so what do you say? Are you in for another ride?

By the way, congratulations to everyone that raced the Fat Tire this past weekend! We missed you on our ride.

Madonnaator

What a beautiful day for a bike ride. Four days before it's officially Fall, 80 degrees and NO wind. Are you sure I'm in Minnesota?

Tired of the usual routes I found a great new route that takes you around and through the lakes of Minnetonka. Best part was the traffic was low and the shoulders were clean and wide (for the most part). Definitely a route to put on the favorite list. I think I'll call it the...Madonnaator. Why not? I've always wanted a ride called after myself. It's the thing to do if you’re a cyclist - hell why do you think I blog. :)

Here are a few pictures of my ride today:

Trek enjoying the last few days of summer by Lake Minnetonka.

How I feel when I ride my Bike.

2009 WI Ironman

This past weekend I met up with a number of my REGBRAI friends to cheer on two of our teammates in the WI Ironman. I can not express how inspiring it is to cheer on 2000 racers who spent the past year of their life getting ready for this event. If you have never had the opportunity to watch an Ironman you are missing out!

Consider yourself warned, there are two distinct moments in the race that will cause you to choke-up and give you chills. 1. The moment they fire the gun to start the race. The breath taking view of the lake with a beautiful sunrise, all the racers swimming at once and knowing that 2000 lives have just been changed at that moment is one word—Amazing! 2. After standing out on the course cheering these athletes on for 11-13 hours to experience them come across the line and the announcer yelling, “XX YOU ARE AN IROMAN!” Well, you know you were there to witness one of the greatest moments in that person’s life. Inspiring!

Last year I went down to watch 4 of our friends' race. The four of us spectating had so much fun that this year while they raced last years racers paid it forward 100%. Bob brought his bike/stereo which we blasted dance music and rang cow bells while the racers came by—it didn’t matter if we knew you or not, we were cheering for everyone. It was so much fun to see the racers on mile 22 run past us and do a little dance of their own—which only fueled us to yell a little louder. By the time our racers came though we were in full dance party mode.

Scott, one of our racers, had the support of his entire family along side us. Each one of them said in a choked-up voice that they were proud of him. The most touching moment was when I spoke to his father. He said knowing that his son had friends that came out to support him, like we did, made him even more proud of his son’s successes in life. It really drove home the meaning of success was not monetary it was your support system.

Once we got word that Scott’s average run speed started to slip we sent the family to the finish line while we went out to find him on our bikes. We all knew that this race for the past two years was extremely important to him. So, with music and cowbells in toe we stepped up our game and cheered him on at every corner. The last few blocks two of us were able to ride on the sidewalk next to him yelling “YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT!”

Jared said in a later email, "The run was tough but seeing you guys always made me smile. I will never forget running out of the stadium (Camp Randall) and seeing the dance party. It was the best part of my run."

Now, the question: What am I or you going to do to inspire someone?

125 mile ride

Holy crap! That’s a lot—at least for me!

Ok, I admit for those of you 125 is nothing, but if you’ve ever ridden with me I see 100 and I shut down. Something inside me says, ‘Not one more revolution—you’re done.’ ‘You said 100, here we are. You better call someone to come get you.’ So for me to go that far and still feel like I could go more—is a big deal in my books.

During my first year of riding on a ride I saw the 100 on my odometer. Not knowing what I was doing I stopped my bike and got off. I still had 4 miles to get back but my mind and body (mostly mind) said ‘That’s it! You’re walking back.’ I will never forget Drill Sergeant Paul, with his large commanding voice, next to me screaming “What the hell are you doing! You are NOT done. You do NOT get off your bike on a hill. Get back on!”

Anyways, I degrees. On Thursday I road the God’s Country Century. Elk River to Zimmerman up to Cambridge and back down to Anoka. I’ve done part of this route before but have never done the entire course. I started from my house and headed north. I love my location, but it’s not bike friendly by any means—so I waited until the morning rush was over. I have to say, riding during the middle of the weekday has to be the best time to ride (unless it’s during rush hour). No one is in a rush, people are not pissed off due to the stress of their jobs. Everyone obeys the 3 foot law—hell they even give you 5 feet! The only thing bad about my ride was the morning talk radio I was listening to—can they please just play music? Seriously, I don’t care what you have to say about Lindsey Lohan.

Everything was going great. The weather was perfect. The roads were clean and smooth. But, while I was going up this small hill at about mile 50 “Baby Got Back” came on the radio. The black women in me—yeah we all have a little of that in us—said ‘oh no they did not!’ so I attacked that hill. It was true motivation.

Now, one would think that guiding four guys across the country only momentary getting lost once or twice you would think that I could navigate myself based on my own handwritten directions—you would be wrong. Instead of heading north I went south thus putting me in a town that was not on my map. Thanks to modern technology—the nav button on my cell phone—I found another road that would take me to Cambridge—what I didn’t know was that it was a 4 lane highway! HOLY CRAP that was scary! I got off that road and into Cambridge like I was sprinting to the line.

I stopped at a Subway to get lunch before I headed back. It’s a little uncomfortable to be standing inline with cycling shorts and your hair worse then it was when you rolled out of bed and your eyes bloodshot from the dirt that slipped though the crevices of your glasses. Thankfully the guy behind the counter was friendly and asked where I came from—this took a little while to register. I told him from the cities and that I was 65 miles into my ride. He said, “That’s a 45 minute drive in the car.” I responded, “Oh, really? I wouldn’t know, I’ve never driven up here before.” He told me that a guy comes into Subway every Sunday from the cities and puts on about 14,000 miles a year. HOLY CRAP! That’s a lot of miles! I don’t think I put in 14,000 miles on my Jeep and my bike combined. I guess I need to step up my miles.

Anyways, I got back and felt surprisingly really good but not with a few extra detours and battled with the evening traffic.

Back to the spin of things

Now that it’s September and it feels like fall, and daylight is getting shorter, I decided it’s time to get back into the spin of my fall/winter/spring routine—not yet ready for the intense running thing yet. Ugh! Note how many seasons that just covered! Why do I not live where it’s much warmer? Yesterday I woke up before the birds to go to Traci’s spin class. Oh how familiarly—is that a word?—strange it was to get up at 4am, walk into the gym, set up “my” bike as I’ve done several times before and pushing your self to uncomfortable limits. Ok, that part I could do without.

It was great to see the same gentleman behind the counter taking my card to check me into the club I’ve been so used to seeing every morning. To seeing old friends you haven’t seen since April, catching up on what you and they have been doing the past couple of months. Now that school is starting and road racing season is over this will become true come the springtime when I’m outside again with my roadie/racing friends.

Traci took it easy on us. A few songs got my heart beating a bit faster thinking we were going to go harder—there are select songs that each instructor has that never leads to a comfortable workout. Other songs during the class brought a smile to my face thinking about a ride or event I did this past summer.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of riding time left and a lot more miles I need to add to my bike, so for putting the road bike on the trainer in the middle of the living room will just have to wait.

The Dog # 6—3rd place overall in the stock category

Last Wednesday was the last Blackdog Time Trial of 09 and the race of the season for me. All I needed to do was complete the race and I would podium. It was a great night no wind—strange as it sounds (yet makes sense) no wind means when you're on the course there is wind, the same amount from both directions. Think about it, it makes sense.

I got to the dog, with my dog Zoe, and started to get ready. Zoe was really good she stayed in my Jeep the entire time and didn't cause any ruckus—I, on the other hand, was crabby. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to race and then leave. Chatting with my teammates it seemed they felt the same as myself. Once the race was over we all seemed to have a different outlook and had a good time, so I stuck around for the awards ceremony. Out of six races my average time (18:25) awarded me 3rd place overall in the women’s stock category.

During the race I decided to try something different, I put a Band-Aid over my computer only allowing me to see my time not my current speed. As expected, after the turn around I was caught by a guy on a TT bike. I was more then willing to let him pass because keeping him in my sights helped push the pain away and focus on him which also give me the chance to follow his line though the horrendous condition of the road. Worst part was Teresa, the best female racer in MN, was at the turnaround watching how I took that turn. Let’s just say it was disaster and I was quite embarrassed to have her see me go wide and into the grass. Between the Band-Aid and my carrot I posted my second best time (18:15).

The past couple of weeks I’ve been uncertain about my speed and abilities to race. My teammates informed me after the results were posted all of my whining that I’m not fast anymore was a load of crap. Well, when you ride with the TH guys you feel like you are slow. Hey—Thanks guys for the training!

3rd Place Winner for MN Rider of the Year

Yeah…that’s me!

My girls called me up and said I had to do the Birchwood Road Race (north of Stillwater) to secure my 3rd place in the cat 4 MN Rider Of the Year (ROY) competition. I was in 1st place but with everything going on—I had to stopped racing. Not because I didn’t love it, but because of the cost of the races. I wasn’t mentally or physically ready for a race, but they made some good points—plus it’s hard for me to say no—so I went, got 5th place and secured my standing. I couldn’t believe how seeing all the girls and the other racers brought me out of my funk and made me forget about everything—cycling is more therapeutic then I thought!

The course was different from last year. They moved the course north so we didn’t have the big hill that we had last year. The main reason was to get to the hill you had to risk your life going down hill making a right hand turn at death defying speeds onto a busy road. Let me tell you, I’m not disappointed that we didn’t do that hill for many reasons. First, I fishtailed twice on that damn downhill turn and second, that climb was a beast! I contemplated quitting that race last year. Instead, I road the last lap solo—not fun.

Although the new course was nice it made it hard to attack. I won’t go into details on this race because quite frankly it wasn’t that exciting. There were a couple of attacks but nothing stuck. I looked around at my competition and knew that it would be hard. Most of these girls are so good now except for Sketchy Wheel Betty (not her real name). Damn sometimes I wonder if I attracted these riders. No matter what I did SWB was next to me or in my way. Especially at the end of the race when we had to take a right turn and sprint for the line. SWB got right in front of me before the turn so I had to go around her and then put everything I had onto the line. I passed a few girls getting 5th place. I knew better—positioning on the last turn is so important.

It will be a Hellion sweep this year for ROY!

I’ve Peaked.

Yep, I finally peaked for the season. My motivation for competition has now hit the wall. I have to admit I peaked a while ago. Maybe it has to do with an unexpected change that recently occurred but my drive to win or attack a hill like I did in the spring and early summer is now gone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still jumping on the bike but I’ve switched from short fast sprints to long tempo endurance rides.

I hate to peak. You tend to loose a little bit of the passion you had that gave you so much joy.

Preston 100

I’m finally recovered. I admit, it really didn’t take that long to recover physically but the mental recovery took a while.

Last Sunday I went down to Preston, MN with Carol and Tim to meet Neil to do a century. Memories of the terrain from two years ago where still haunting me. After climbing hills that look worst then they are you start to think that the hills in Preston won’t be so bad. Yeah right!! Those hills are killers. Right from the start we started a climb. OK, we had a 1.5 mile warm-up—but the climb was about 3 miles. I can’t imagine how the pros can do one climb for an hour. Thanks to Neil’s Garmin, I can tell you there were a number of 10% grades during that first hill. My heart rate for the entire 3 miles averaged 175 bpm. Being at that heart rate for that long—was excruciating. Yeah, I saw Jesus a few times but told him I'm not ready yet. I needed to finish this ride.

As the ride went on the hills got easier but the difficulty of them was just as hard. I think the first one was the hardest since there was not much of a warm-up. We climbed a total of 5 major hills. Carol was amazing! Her conversation did not skip a beat no matter the grade.

What I don’t understand is that the week before Carol and I did the Afton 100 ride climbing about 4500 feet. The Preston ride, with much harder hills, was the same amount of climbing! That couldn't be right—but it was. Comparing the two rides—hands down the Preston ride was the prettiest. I might have to say, the SE corner of MN is the most beautiful area of the state.

Went for a run…

…for the first time in 3 months. It sounded like a great idea until I started to run.

Actually, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. No heart rate monitor. No watch. No expectations. My plan was to keep moving and not to slow down until I completed my 3 mile course.

Now that I’ve changed my type of riding from short-fast intervals to long endurance rides I need to add running back into my plan for cross training. Seemed as if this spring, when I was at the peak of my running, jumping on the bike for longer rides and climbing hills wasn’t so hard.

Give it a try…add running into your cross training workouts. You’ll be amazed at your performance.

Update the next morning: My legs are killing me!
I can ride 100 hilly miles and be completely fine, but running 3 measly flat miles is making me walk like an old lady. I thought I was in better shape then that! Stretch it out...

MN has a 3 Foot Law?

I guess the semi truck that almost sucked me in this spring didn’t know about the 3 foot law either.

Maybe a helmet cam is not a bad idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJmxCuPiM0c&feature=player_embedded

1st Century of ‘09

What has taken so long? No, not my updates but why has it taken me so long to do a century this year? Great question. I don’t know, but I’m behind in my miles for the year.

Yesterday Carol, and one of the girls I race with, Cheryl decided to do the Afton century. With 470 miles in my legs in the past two weeks why not do 100 miles covering the Square Lake area, Stillwater, and all of the hard hills in Afton?

Although my legs were screaming and my speed up the Afton hills were slow—I told myself that I could not complain. This was my idea and this will be great training for the near future.

40 miles into the ride we ended up at the Bikery in Stillwater. What a great idea! Three things cyclists are passionate about: baked goods, coffee, and biking. We met two of my teammates, Dan and Jen, at the Bikery who road with us 40 miles in the Afton area. Once they pealed off we headed north—flat terrain with tailwind. Thank god! With the lack of long endurance miles this year I bonked at mile 80—nothing I could eat or drink would get me out of that funk. Just keep pedaling. With our detour in the Afton Park it gave us the perfect mileage—100.3 miles to be exact.

All I have to say is check that one off the list. Next century is scheduled for this coming Sunday.

What’s been going on?

The day after I got back from RAGRBAI I went on a 60 mile liver detox ride on my own. It was a really great ride! Except for one thing, I was so diligent on putting on sun block while at RAGBRAI but for some reason I forgot to put some on when I went of this ride and got burned.

Tuesday I was talked into racing the last crit of the year. My team was putting on the race. With a heavy race schedule at the beginning of the year you can tell most of us are burned out. There were only 6 women who lined up to race in the Open category. It was nice the teams were even—three teams with two racers per team. My teammate Jackie got all the sprint primes and the overall win—including winning the series. Unfortunately, I was no help—I felt every breakfast burrito, energy drink, and hill from the week before making it extremely hard to stick to the back of the group.

The next night I volunteered at the Dog and then went with Jackie to meet her husband in Northern MN—north of the Iron Range. He was doing Boarder to Boarder (B2B). It was funny they just completed 500 miles of biking and 50 miles of running and still had 50 miles of canoeing left when this one guy, one of the athletes, walked past us and said “Isn’t this the craziest thing you’ve ever seen?” I guess he was looking for a little pat on the back and for us to say “Yeah, you guys are nuts!” Instead I said “No, not really.” Come on! I just crewed for RAAM. If he wanted a “you guys are crazy” comment then he should participated in RAAM. At least at B2B they got to stop and sleep in a hotel every night. I have to say Jackie’s husband was nuts. He did B2B in first place and then the next morning competed in a triathlon getting 5th place and beating his best time by two minutes.

Jackie and I did a 50 mile route while we were in N. MN. We stopped at a casino for a break and saw our team drink—tequila sunrise—sitting on the counter. We couldn’t resist. We left hopping to beat the black clouds that were rolling in. We were ahead of the storm until Jackie popped a tire so we ended up changing the tire in pouring rain. All we could do was laugh—thus why I love riding in the rain. We ended up following the rainstorm all the way back.



The next day we cheered on Greg while he finished his canoeing and then headed home. Lucky for us we got a flat tire on the RV. Thankfully Jackie put her tire changing skills to work and were back on the road within an hour.

RAGBRAI 09

Sorry this has taken a while to update. I’ve been on my bike.


Another successful RAGBRAI is now in the books. I would have to say in the past three years I’ve been attending this year has taken the cake.

The bus picked us up in Des Moines, IA. Bob did a great job at renovating the bus taking out some of the tables and making one long bench (easier for beer hand-ups). What they didn’t know was that taking out the tables gave us space to have a dance party! They also put in a septic system and tinted windows for the ladies room. Loved it! I would have to say hands down the Dawg bus is the best bus on RAGBRAI with all of the amenities and little details. There is talk about getting a gater to take us into town and to run errors. We already have a name for it: The Puppy Pound. Now that would take us to a whole new level on being the best bus on RAGBRAI!!

This year we did not have a RAGBRAI/Dawg virgin on the team which meant everyone knew the drill. We settled in quite nicely. There is no rush on our team unless it’s to get to the next stop, we leave late which allows us to go at our own pace (avg 18-20) and not fight the crowds of novas cyclists. Wow are they hard to ride next to—they steer right into your wheel. Although, leaving late does have its disadvantages. A number of times we were in the black hole of RAGBRAI—this is when the cops come in and closes the bars/beer gardens for 30-60 mins. They do this to move the riders along.

I'm concerned about Bob's chair

While on the bus ride to Council Bluffs we started the dance party. Everyone was up having a good time. Then all of a sudden the bus broke down. Another team took us to a truck stop were we got something to eat and due to our behavior we got kicked out of the truck stop—who gets kicked out of a truck stop? Thankfully the bus got fixed and we were up and running. Turns out the dance party cause the bus to breakdown—speakers were not wired correctly.


Carol, Holly, John, Neil, Belinda, AND Paul came over to check out the bus! I was amazed to see Paul. I didn’t know he was coming back for a week from Iraq to see his family and to stop by and say hi to everyone!

Much more fun was held that evening including sitting outside of a casino for an hour asking people that came out if they won or not. Crazy as it sounds it was a lot of fun!

The next day we set off for our fun across Iowa. Yeah you read that correctly—fun across Iowa—who would have known! Who would have also known southern Iowa was crazy hilly!? About half way we started to ride with the Budweiser team—where do they recruit their members—they were all hot! Anyways, while we where coming down a hill we came upon an accident one of the girls crossed wheels and went down. Luckily we had two doctors on our team so they ran over and kept her still while someone called 911. Turns out she received a concussion and was later released with a clean bill from the hospital but couldn’t remember anything about the accident.

A few miles down the road we stopped with the Bud team and had an off course party in the cornfields. Best part they had a DJ, free food, and free beer!! Can’t ask for more! It was one crazy party. Dance offs, table beer slides, one of the best karaoke singers I’ve ever heard.

The next day we took our time finding the bus thus ending up sagging due to the rain. I’m not ashamed or apposed to sagging. Not when you have a wedding in the back of a bar. Check out the video. Obviously we thought it was quite funny.


Anyways, I could go on and on with the stories but I would have to say a lack of fun was not happening on our team. We defiantly had a great time and plan to cheer on our teammates at the Wisconsin Ironman in September. Even though a lot of us like to have a good time we have a lot of great athletes on our team.

By the way, Boom Boom Pow turned out to be the RAGBRAI song of '09. We heard that song every time we came into a town.

If you wondering what's up with the rainbow umbrellas and the guy with the pink Miller Light hat? Well, a few things. 1. the umbrellas help block the sun on the patio of the bus and they were reasonably priced—why we couldn't get a solid color is beyond me. Hey hey hey! 2. This is Dave our bus driver. 3. His wife thought it would be funny if he wore a pink Miller Light hat to complement our gay pride umbrellas. 4. We are sponsored by Miller Light.

Back next week

I’m off to RAGBRAI—a ride across Iowa.

The Race of Truths

Yesterday was Trailhead’s third TT—a 9.2 mile course by Fletcher (south of Rogers). Unlike any USCF race this one is self policed. There are a few rules. 1. start and stop the timer in the same spots (they are marked) 2. no drafting. 3. don’t cut the course. That’s it. Feel free to do whatever you want or wear whatever you want. This race is the race of truth. Your competition is yourself.

This was my first TT on this course (with arrow bars). I got 25:30 with 20-25 mile winds. The winds were not an issue—only on the way out. You start at Trailhead bike shop ride 10 miles to the church (i.e. the start/finish area) race the course and then ride back. I would have kept up with the guys on the way out, but I wasn’t ready to hammer it before I even raced. Thankfully they slowed down after I said something at a stop.

Last time I did a longer then blackdog race I found that I favored my left leg thus causing my left glut to fatigue. This time once I felt my left leg go weak I focused on the down stroke of my right leg and my speed picked up! It was like finding out there was another tank of gas in the car.

After the individual TT a few of us stayed around and did a Team Time Trial. Let’s just say I should have taken a gu shot, practiced being on the arrow bars in a group, and overall we should’ve drafted like we were on a normal group ride. It was a disaster.

All in all I had a good time and best of all it was a FREE race!

Spam Jam

2 hour drive for a 25 mile road race. I know—crazy. It’s no Headwaters, but it’s a race that my team, Silver Cycling, does as an entire team. Kristy, Jackie, and I represented the Hellions while we were accompanied by 15 of our fellow male teammates. Last year’s race had us battling against 25 mile an hour winds, at least this year it was manageable.

My goal was to stick with the lead group as long as I could and to stay on one of my teammates wheels. For the most part that goal was accomplished.

Heading North we had a bit of wind to battle. I tried to stay as well protected as I could but with a lot of novas racers within the group. I was more nervous during this race than riding in a early season race with a bunch of Cat 4 women. What is up with all of the moving around? Really, moving to the left or right when you are in the middle is not necessary. I had a heck of a time just finding a good wheel.

Once we got to the most northern part of the course we made a right hand turn. I moved to the front and as far left as I could then leaned my bike as much as I could while peddling to make the corner. The entire time I made a turn I was just praying that I wouldn’t get dropped—with a bunch of guys this was going to be tough. After the race was over Jay came up to me and told me my positioning and cornering was awesome.

Jay got a good laugh when I started yelling at all of the guys to hold their line. I must have yelled it about a hundred times. Every time someone was trying to move-in next to me they cut me off! Jackie got pushed off the road into the dirt at least 3 different times. I don’t understand how the cat 5 men can race with each other. I was told once that I shouldn’t be yelling so much—but if you are going to go into my line and threaten my or my teammates safety you better understand I’ll call you out.

On the final stretch our lead group got broken into two groups. I was about three quarters back and gearing up for the big sprint. Jackie and I were the only two women left in the lead group. There was no way I could out sprint her, but hell I was going to give it a shot for fun. I started to come around when this guy in front of me jerks his bike to the left right into my line of fire. I can be a little hot headed when I’m trying to sprint to the line—so the fireworks started to fly out of my mouth.

I came in second in the women’s division 16 overall, but the worst part was the width of the sprint was so wide—no center rule for this race—that ended in a narrow width area. Unknowingly it was going to be set up like that it became very dangerous. We had 15 people sprinting at once at 40 miles per hour with little orange cones fling all over the place and older ladies jumping out in front of us trying to rip off this number from your back. That was scary!

Northfield

Somehow after RAAM my entries do not seem so exciting. But, I’ll give it a shot.

Saturday was the Northfield crit. A favorite to most—not so much mine. I’m not a fan of the hill right at the beginning much less dragging my butt up it 15 times. A mere fraction of what one of my teammates did (she double dipped—i.e. raced twice) or what the cat 1/2’s did (about 50 laps). Well, I’m not a cat 1 either. I just remember last year blacking out a few times and almost losing my cookies on that hill.

This year turned out to be a bit different. I found my line through all of the corners making this race fun—knowing that I didn’t need to touch my breaks at all during the race unless needed. The hill didn’t seem all that hard. I dropped down a few gears and spun up gaining ground on all of the girls. To our luck we were the only group of racers that got rained on. If you’re a cyclist you know that the roads can get quite slick when it rains especially on a main city street with paint. Much less when you’re trying to be aggressive around the corners. I almost lost it three separate times. One of those times scared the crap out of me—taking out some of my sidewall on my back wheel. I decided that finishing the race without a crash was more important than getting a higher position. One the girls thought differently and found herself on the ground on the final turn—she was ok. I got 5th place.

Thanks to Sean from On Support for fixing my front derailleur. After months of frustration, it turns out that entire front derailleur was not aliened to the chain. Thus not allowing me to sprint when needed.

2009 RAAM—First place baby!

(photos to come)

Where do I start? First of all, we got first place in the 4-person stock catagory. 6 Days 10 hours 30 minutes. Average speed 19.52--sorry Brett it was no 20. Should have worked harder. :)

There were so many moments and stories about RAAM this year that a couple of beers would not be enough. Tim Case described the experience as a whole eloquently.

For myself—This was by far one of my top 5 experience of my life. There was not one moment that I could say it was because X, because it was everything. The racing, the competition, the craziness, the racers, the other crew members, the driving through the most beautiful parts of our country. I didn’t want to miss a moment of it thus why they couldn’t get me out of the vehicles until 4am for a five hour break.

I slept 5 hours in 72 hours. The last 10 miles of the race was the hardest for me. I was crewing in the mini van, jumping out, and running after bikes for 16 hours. My breaking point was when we had two racers in the van and one on the road. It took everything we had to stay ahead of the racer on the road since the entire leg was a downhill decent. Ryan, who I was driving with, said he could see me go from my normal self to crashing within 10 minutes. I was so tired I couldn’t process the words in my mind when I was trying to read the directions. I wanted to cry for no reason, but held it in because I knew I was just tired.

The town in Missouri my sister dropped me off in was a lot better than I expected especially when she said she found a motel for me to stay at because she wasn’t going to drive me back—thanks family. Turns out it let me cheer on some of the solo racers and gave the crew time to shower and clean up the bikes.

As soon as they turned into the driveway all of them in the RV stuck out their head and said “do you know how to power hose a RV out because this place is a pit.” It took about 45 minutes before I gathered my nerve to step into the RV. Yeah it was a pit.

They made their racer exchange at the location of the motel. Brett made his entrance at about 35 miles per hour—they just caught up to Team Surfing USA. With a 110 degree weather and humidity so high you couldn’t even breathe, there was no way they could keep this pace up. After a while Team Surfing USA caught up to the guys and passed them.

Everyone has been wondering what happen to Team Surfing USA and Team Strong Heart in Missouri. Here is the story:

After Jefferson City Andy and Brett were on the road. We got into some back country area that was beautiful. Brett could see around the bend that Team Surfing USA was in eyeshot. I quickly learned Brett LOVES competition and has the eye of the tiger if he is in reach. Team Surfing USA knew that we were within their sights so they put all four guys on the road to break our two guys. Andy did what he could—and it was by far a lot—but you couldn’t touch Brett’s drive during that moment. I was in the Jeep which was the follow vehicle—we stayed behind the racer at all times. In my opinion, Team Surfing USA had way too many vehicles on the road—1 RV and 4 mini vans. Their vehicles were made up of 1 touring bus, 2 RV’s, a trailer with surfboards, 1 scooter to run errons, 4 mini vans—one for each racer, their own media crew, and cheerleaders. Hell if I could roll like that I would too.

Anyways, they started to climb some hills which made it extremely difficult to go around any cars, so the Jeep and our Van (with Andy) ended up behind Team Surfing USA’s train of cars. Thankfully the cheerleader’s van told Bret when to turn. It was amazing to see their efforts to break us wasn’t working. Brett was breaking all of their guys one at a time.

We made a racer exchange (Steve and Tim were now on the road) after the hills. I went from the Jeep to the passenger side of the mini Van. At this time we talked about slowing the pace down and riding at a pace they could keep for the next 4 hours. We came into this little town passing the Team Surfing USA’s racer and one of their vans that was stopped by the RAAM officials. Knowing that we were far enough up the road we decided to make a racer change (putting Tim on the road). We made a left hand turn down a short decent turned on our blinker to turn right into a diagonal parking spot right before a stop sign when at the moment we were starting our turn, Jason from Team Surfing USA, was next to our van 1/2 a second later he ran into our car. He’s bike was ran over by our front passage tire. He went over the handlebars. Thankfully we were not going that fast so we were able to stop our van before he was never hit. I don’t think any other words were used except the F word from everyone.

Tim jumped out of the car faster than you could blink. Jason got up quickly but what seemed shocking to me was that their media crew was filming before he was even up. Jason started to say his left foot was broken. Within seconds Tim was in his Firefighting mode. They got a bucket of ice while I called 911. At that moment I made the call to neutralize our team since Surfing USA was neutralized. I called our Crew Chief, Brad, and told him what happened and said they need to come to our location immediately. I then called the Jeep and told them to stop racing.

After about an hour of talking with the RAAM officials, police, the other team. We continued to race. Unfortunately Team Surfing USA decided that they were going to pull out of the race. They said they came to win and they would not be able to win with three guys. Jason who got hit was taken to the hospital but was not seriously injured. RAAM considered it an accent and told us to continue. Thankfully we did not get any penalties and that no one was seriously hurt. As for the entire Strong Heart team, we feel horrible on what happened and wish Jason a speedy recovery.

I could go on and on about what Brett did, what Andy said, what crazy decent Tim took, how Steve was amazing and that he got the nickname Diesel. All of these stories will and should be told on a long bike ride.

I want to thank everyone for the support for Team Strong Heart and to our biggest fan Jorge—Thanks Jorge for the “Madonna answer your F**n phone” voicemail at a time that needed a good laugh. This will be an experience I will never forget. If you have the time to crew for Team Strong Heart I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity.

Plans for 2010 are already in the works. Stay tuned. This will be another great year for Team Strong Heart and Race Across America.

Podunk Town, MO

I’m leaving Tuesday morning making my way down to the bible belt to meet Team Strong Heart for the second leg of their race. I can’t wait to see the guys. They are doing great!

Keep watching.

David Zebriskie is on Team Strong Heart?

The day before

The guys are ready. Food is pre-pared. Bikes are suped up with Zipps and arrowbars. Cars and RV have all the stickers and what-not placed.

Inspections today—Passed. Meetings. Pictures. Then they are off—June 20th 2pm PST.

The racers/crew have access to update the Team Strong Heart blog as long as there is internet service. We also have fellow Strong Heart racers updating the site. Watch our progress at: http://www.teamstrongheart.blogspot.com/

Or watch the leader board to see how far ahead we are vs our competition: www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/rcrank.php

I got a request yesterday from the guys for when I meet them in Missouri. Lots of pasta and pizza. I think I’ll also pick up a large bottle of fabreese. Those boys will be ripe by the time I see them.

Don't forget to check out Ben Popp's progress. Ben is from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and is a solost this year.

Blackdog #4

I’m going to try to keep this one short since quite frankly it feels like I’m saying the same thing as last time.

I got to the dog not mentally ready to race. My mind this week has been on Team Strong Heart. By the time I got to the line I was more focused.

The wind this time was going to be on the way back so I was going to go as hard as I could on the way out with the tailwind to make up time for the headwind on the way back. Since the finish line is 1k past the start line you have to do what you can to compensate for the loss.

The guy behind me didn’t pass me until I was half way out—I thought he would get me much sooner. On the way back, I was ready to lose it. I say that a lot, but this time there was true want to ease the pain. Thankfully I didn’t have anything in my stomach but I was debating about the water I just took in then thought against it. I needed it since it was a humid day. My time as 18:22 about my average time. I came in 4th place that day.

Once the pain was done it was time to party in the parking lot.

Next Stop: Cali

Steve, Chris, Tom and Ryan made it to Tim’s around 8pm last night and were off this morning at 5am adding 2 more bikes, $10K of wheels, 1 racer, and 1 massage therapist.

That’s one precious cargo.

There they go….

Team Strong Heart left this morning at 5:30am for California. First stop: Colorado to pick up Tim and the massage therapist Edward.

The crew will be broken up based on the racers.

Team 1: Formally known as Team B
Racers: Tim and Steve
Crew:
Edward Westhead (massage therapist)
Chris Schmidt
Ryan Davis
Jeffrey Magnuson
Madonna Lindgren (I will take over for Edward in Missouri)

Team A:
Racers: Andy and Brett
Crew:
Tom Claflin
Jim Popovitch
Terry Roach
Brad Cilley (Crew Chief)

Star Struck

Road with the Proman Team and Ciclismo Racing Team on Monday.
(no photo but trust me)

Road with Team Strong Heart and Jorge on Tuesday.

Chilled with Floyd after Wednesday's race.


Rory Suterland and his pit crew posed for me before Friday's race.


Then I hung out with Kristen Armstrong.

Went to the Stillwater crit on Sunday. Can you see me?

What a great week of racing!

St. Peter TT

I’m a little behind on my blogging—but a lot has been going on which is just the tip of my a crazy June.

Saturday was the St. Peter TT 40k. I love this course! One turn, small rollers, out and back, but NOT WHEN IT’S 48 DEGREES AND RAINING! This was no drizzle—this was a full on rainy day without a break insight. If it wasn’t for the ROY points and to defend my position AND on my goal list—I would have skipped that race. Thankfully Hollywood brought his event tent were we huddled together to warm up on the trainers. I stayed closed to Timmer hopping his fast cadence would generate some heat from his trainer. A good warm-up was essential for a day like today. You didn’t want to start cramping in this condition. Limping back would be brutal!


At the start line I asked Matt Anderson (official) if there would be an keg incentive if I caught Jackie who was going off 30 seconds in front of me. Jackie said she wasn’t sure how she should take my request. I told her she would be hard to catch and a keg would be well deserved and earned. She said “yeah, but maybe I want you to catch me so we could get the keg.” I love my team. It’s all about team work on and off the bike.

“Three, two, one…your off.” It took a entire three-point-five minutes before my socks were completely soaked—much slower than I anticipated. I lost a couple of seconds since one section was not clearly marked on which direction. There was a slight headwind, but my speed was respectively high, which made me think there was going to be some good tail wind.

I couldn’t believe about ¼ of the way into the TT I caught Jackie (she wasn’t trying to let me catch her). I passed her and told her to use me as her carrot. Something must have sparked a fire because she move in front of me. Instead of battling it out against each other we used each other the rest of the race even catching up to Barb H (honoree teammate) to be each other’s carrots. It was great to have the ladies out there within site. After the turnaround I was surprisingly smacked in the face with a headwind—WTF I was in tailwind already? Great. On top of that, I couldn’t feel my frozen wet feet. Thanks Minnesota weather.

Once I got to the turn I knew that I had to give everything I could until the finish line. I was happy to see that I shaved 8 minutes off my time from last year spite the conditions.

There was not going to be a cool down after this race. I went full speed over to my car, pried my feet front my clips, g leaned my bike against my Jeep—I was shaking and couldn’t feel some parts of my body—grabbed my dry clothes and ran inside to change. We waited for what seemed like an hour before results were posted. I was sitting in third place with a time of 1:08:47. One Tri lady argued her position which pushed me down to fourth. Kristy got third.

Blackdog #3

Last night was the dog—finally a calm night. I luckily made it past the “over 25 minute” traffic jam to get to the race in time. I quickly registered got my bike ready to go for a quick ride on the course to loosen up the legs. Walking up the stars at work during the day was a chore—I felt every Afton hill in my legs.

I felt pretty good, but waiting to go off I could feel my legs start to tighten up—Great! This was going to be the hardest 7 mile race in a long time.

I was next but noticed I was in the wrong gear. Every move I made to fix the position made it worst. Finally the official said “you have 15 seconds” Ohh no! My Chain fell off! I got it back on with just enough time to clip one foot in before he said “Go”. UGH—I needed 15 more seconds before I was ready. I never got to reset my computer so I had no idea where the splits were or my average speed. I just had to go as hard and fast as I could but my legs started to tighten up on me right after the first turn.

I can't complain I kept a steady pace the entire race. I was so much in my own zone that I couldn’t believe I passed the guy who started 30 seconds in front of me! He looked to be a fit guy, also on stock, who has put in a few miles or so on the bike. Once I passed him he let out this defeated sound once he knew it was me. That kind-of brought a smile to my face—I never thought I would catch him much less pass him and still put another 30 seconds on him. Thanks for being my carrot whoever you are.

I got 2nd place within my category, but beat my best time by 22 seconds (18:08). I’ll take it!

Time trialing is quickly starting to become one of my favorite racing. It’s funny when your tt-ing your in your own world. Head down, eyes slightly open, the sound of your rhythmic breathing, feeling every flex of your leg muscles, the coach inside of you telling you to push harder and don’t give up—not even for a second. Don’t get me wrong, you feel like you are in some third world POW camp and the entire time you just want the pain to stop. But the best thing about TT-ing is no matter your performance or what the race results said as long as you gave it everything you had for as long as you could—you won!

This weekend is the St Peter 40K TT. I’ve been waiting for this one before my race even ended last year—so many things went wrong. Most of all I didn’t feel good on the bike. My time last year was 1:16:19—one of the worst times of all the racers.

Afton Hills

To start: The bike is ok.

Last night I went to Afton to meet my teammate for our weekly hill ride when her husband Dan said he was coming with us. Oh, great…this was not going to be an easy ride.

What I learned is when in Afton if it says “Dead End” it means HARD HILL! Oh and if you are having fun flying down a hill—don’t forget how much fun it will be to go back up that same hill.

I crashed trying to climb a hill in the wrong gear because there was minimal turnaround space at the bottom of the dead end to get in the right gearing.

Final major climb (note major climb, there were about 7 more good hills left on the way home) was out of Afton Alps. Just over ½ a mile long, 20-21% grade, no flat sections—that sucker was a beast to climb. Yeah I’ll do it again , but the pain is still fresh in the legs.

Tonight is the Dog.

East Union Circuit Race

I’ve never done a circuit race before but it didn’t seem all that different then a short road race.

I don’t know what it was, but I was nervous about this weekend’s race. A few things brought on these nerves: 1. Still tired from Duluth’s races. 2. Not sure how I would do after the poor performance on Monday’s crit race. 3. Poor performance training on Wednesday when we went out to ride the course. 4. I needed to have a good ride in order to secure my ROY position. All in all, I wasn’t mentally prepared for the race and it was windier than expected.

After talking to some of the guys after their race to find out the “sweet spots” we pulled out the map and formulated a plan.

As you all know, formulating a plan in the parking lot is great in theory but we have been trying for the past four races to play the team strategy but have never got it to work as smoothly as we hoped. In racing there are too many variables.

Jen wasn’t able to race this weekend (and we missed her dearly) but Carrie—our secret weapon—came out for the first time. She is a true Hellion. This girl is so strong, but you would never know that before a race. She will smoke a cigarette, kick your butt during the race, and then finish the cigarette and drink a beer after the race is over.

The first stretch (start/finish) was tailwind. We were all flying down the road without breaking a sweat. Turn one, there was a north west crosswind—I was able to find a sweet spot to stay sheltered. Turn two we were in head/cross winds. I was stuck in a bad spot and exerted too much energy just to stay with the group. Jordan was in the Junior group that started 5-10 minutes behinds us. He jumped and soloed most of their race on his own. He came up and passed us making it look easy to ride in the wind when you 100 lbs soaking wet—but for him, it was—14 years old and an amazing racer!

We make turn three and had more tailwind then I expected. Right from the turn the group picked up speed and a breakaway group got away. I wasn’t sure who was in the breakaway so Kristy and I worked together to get towards the front of the chase group. June was leading the charge, Kristy was in second position. I pulled up to Kristy and said if we work together we can get them. Kristy informed me that it was OC and Carrie who was in the chase group—two of our own. We both said “sorry June we can’t help” I sat up and fell back a few spots.

On the start/finish stretch Points, Kristy and I got to the front and held the group back. On the first turn (of the second lap) the girls figured out what we were doing. Five of them went to the front and started to work together. Kristy, Points, and I stayed with the chase group who was gaining ground on our girls. Turn two same story, but our girls were no longer insight. Turn three, we got to the front. Kristy was itching to jump so Points and I stayed up as long as we could—not much, while Kristy soloed it to the finishline. Once she made the final turn I knew she had it. Then it was Points and my turn to make our move. I knew that it was going to be a sprint to the death. I gained ground on a few girls but wasn’t able to match two of them. 5 more feet and I would have had 4th place. I got 5th for my category.

It was exciting we swept the podium, but was even more exciting was that our team strategy worked!

As I said before, there are too many variables and we are too new to this sport so if you’re racing against me don’t worry—we just got lucky.

"Can I take your picture?"

You've got to be kidding me!

Our very own is in the Cervelo Test video.
Check out minute 4:30.

Training

Last night I met up with OC to pre-ride this weekend’s circuit course in East Union (south of Chaska). Finally back on my training bike after a serious overhaul, I didn’t feel so good and my performance was low. This will be a hard race. It’s a short-flat course with a large possibility for strong westerly winds—tailwind finish. A lot of girls showed huge improvement this past weekend. Should be interesting.

Duluth Classic

Bikes, crashes, drama, smack talk, collaboration, vendetta, victory, hugs, and laughing so hard your belly would hurt—was what this weekend was all about and more.

Friday

I loaded up my jeep with more crap then I ever thought I needed for a weekend of racing and met two of my teammates. We were taking an RV to Duluth—also known as the fun bus—with a 2.5 month old and Grandma. As always Points was running late (1.5 hours). When you call her and the first thing she says is “Girl” you know it’s not good. Thankfully we waited for her, because really…she’s too much fun, and traffic wasn’t as bad as we expected it on a holiday weekend. The first race was going to be a 16.2 mile time trial. There were 17 women in my categories, we were all going off every thirty seconds in alphabetical order based on your last name. I was the last one from my team to go off. Right after the first turn I passed the two girls in front of me. Alex—one of the girls stayed with me (remember her name), which was fine because I wanted a carrot and she was keeping at a pace I wanted to stay. On the third and final turn we hit a section of road that was horrible. The road dipped down and up every few feet making a sound like “cha-kunk, cha-kunk”. Not only is your seat hurting from the position you were in now you are on this horrible road grimacing every time you hit the bump. I could have done without.

Once I saw the town I kicked it up and whizzed past Alex finishing with a time of 43:59 putting me in 4th place. My teammate Kristi got 2nd place (43:17), but what seemed odd was the girl that got 1st place (38:14).

Long story short, she started 60 seconds behind Jackie and ended about 60 seconds in front of Jackie but was able to beat Jackie by 6 minutes. We discussed this for hours and hours about this issue, but since there was no chip timing and the officials are standing by the results we can’t prove that they are wrong. Doesn’t it seem odd that a Junior girl put in a TT time that would beat the Men’s Cat 1/2 time from last year? And don’t you think that if a girl can put in that time she wouldn’t have lost 15 seconds on a flat road race?

All races were based on overall time.