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.