Big 3

wtf

So the other morning I saw one of these:

















Hauling something akin to the wooden object to the right:

It was odd.

Pycho Cross #3

Half the reason I dont race cross on a regular basis is the mud. I hate mud. It gets all over everything, messes up the bike. Destroys parts. Gets everywhere and takes hours of time post-racing of dealing with.

But on dry days I will attempt cross. Note: I do not have a cross bike (I feel if I did have one, I'd have to take cross a lot more seriously - which I cant quite stomach), and have only ever practiced dismounting and remounting once. I can now dismount my bike pretty ok like, but I stutter when I try to hop on the bike. Not to mention I dont like banging my lady parts on the saddle (I know thats now how its supposed to work, but re-read the above, I've spent a whole 40 minutes outside of races doing that).

So yesterday was Psycho Cross #3, put on the by the lovely Sal, who may actually be thinner than I am (he is, however, significantly taller). Sal loves to torture us. Women's races are 45 mins. The course was so long that we only did 3 laps. The leaders could have done 4, but that would have been 50-55mins for the race, and the last girls would have been out there for an hour+. So 3 laps it was. Which was fine, because I wasnt too excited to do 4. There was pretty much everything. Barriers, sustained running (gross), run up, baby head rocks, single track, peanut butter mud, fields, winter crops, puddles, sand and descent. It took us about 12-13 minutes per lap. Yes thats long. I mean it took the men A 9-9:30 per lap. So its not like I was walking or anything.

So I get the hole shot (haha, that one of my favorite phrases). But give it up quickly as I didnt want to be the first one through the peanut butter mud. Oh well. The one A girl and the B sandbaggers were much faster than I was. Not to mention they have cross bikes and dismount/remount skills.

I caught one, she dropped her chain, and was trying very hard to get it back on. So I drilled it. Got a gap on her, but she made her way back up to me. I held her off for just over a lap (thanks to the fatty tires and my low weight in the mud) until we got to the last barrier, where I didnt get the front wheel up quite high enough, tagged the barrier, and then tripped over it. In the process of doing all that I managed to drive the end of my handle bars directly into my ear. Note: I dont recommend this. She killed and got a gap on me.

I rode a clean last lap and came in 4th in the Bs. And 5th overall (out of 15ish). So thats not too bad. I have dirt riding abilities, but obviously no barrier skills. The one thing that made me most proud was the fact that nobody passed me on the running section. Oh and the fact that I could ride the run-up.

I rarely use that part of my head.

Mercedes Benz

So why is it that Mercedes Benz SUV drivers seem to be total asshats? Is it the fact they feel special because they have an extra-expensive gas guzzler? Or is it the people who are willing to spend 48-55,000 (MSRP) on an SUV that you cant even drive over a curb, are the most important people on the face of the planet? Whatever it is these people on their cell phones in these things really chap my hide.

I'm going to work yesterday. There is a big intersection a couple of blocks from my house that has no bike lane through it. There are bike lanes leading up to it, but the intersection is old and there wasnt enough room to expand the intersection. Whatever there are loads of bike merge signs. Its a 2 lanes each way with a protected left turn lane.


View Larger Map

So I take the right lane, I wait for the light. Yes people like to turn right on the red light. But I've hugged the curb before and been cut off too many times by people running late to do that. So Monday am, I'm sitting there enjoying the sunshine waiting for my coffee to really kick in, and I hear a noise behind me. I look over and see this metallic navy blue M Class Mercedes SUV straddling the stripped line between lanes inching towards me.

I'm confused. What in the hell is going on. So I look at him with a quizzical look. Give him the palms up WTF gesture. He smiles and waves. All the while on his cell phone. Whatev. Its quiet for a little bit then I hear his studded snow tires (because the 4WD in an SUV isnt enough to get to the mtn) creep up again. I look over and give him the same WTF look. He continues to creep up on my space. I point to myself and I point to where I'm standing.

So the light changes. And we're off. Ok so I get the hole shot (yes I'm always racing - and yes that ALWAYS sounds dirty). Then Mr MB SUV driver is on my ass revving his engine. He flies around me at significantly faster than the speed limit. The best part is when he turns around makes eye contact with me (yes still on the cell) and smiles and waves.

So this dude was trying to "squeeze" in my lane at the intersection. Not to turn right, I might have had a bit of understanding. But no, this guy was going straight thru, in a 2 lane intersection with nobody in the adjacent lane.

I guess I dont need coffee in the am with drivers like that.

Picture montage of the last few months.

Add your own favorite montage music. Maybe Eye of the Tiger.

Pim modeling the chicken costume.

Eshe all dressed up for Halloween

Halloween Cross Race - Little Red Riding Hood

Mtb Crash Aug 2008, Yea that left a mark. And a lot of antibiotics.

YES!

I drank the Obama cool-aid and damn was it tasty.

So the right guy won. Yippee! But now its gonna be lots of hard work and sacrifice and in all reality it will get worse before it gets better.

Lets see what has BushCo left us to clean up:

Iraq
Afghanistan
Mortgage Crisis
Bank Failures
Auto Industry
Energy Crisis
Global Warming

To name a few. And if anybody cares, I think BEFORE we give out 100s of BILLIONS of dollars we should make the industry that we are bailing out follow some damned rules. Out line things they can and cannot do with gobs of my money. Like requiring the auto industry to create more efficient autos and or develop the technology we already have into viable options. By just bailing out these companies we are just rewarding the piss poor management and outrageous pay scales that got us into this muck in the first place.

CEOs, boards and the like of these "too big to fail" companies need to put their big boy undies on and realize that they made some seriously flawed decisions and that does not equate to a large bonus or any sort of monetary reward.

Oh if you become VP...

Freaking brilliant...

Off Season

What to do when the season (and by season, I mean my haphazard, mediocre, lackadaisical attempt to race) ends and cyclo-cross seems unappetizing?

Commute on your race bike! Weee!

Look for a rain bike, aka a cross bike with fenders and slick tires.

Beer

Margaritas

Read a book

Yoga

Obviously I'm bored off my ass. My slowly widening ass. So I have a plan for next season. Watch out.

I'm taking time away from my bike, a long time. I love my bikes. I love riding my bikes. But having only raced while in school, I've always felt guilty about training because I should have been doing homework or the like. So I want to completely erase that guilt. I want it to be completely enjoyable and fun.

I however, need to keep my strength and not get fat. So I'm going to swim my butt to extra fit. I also am going to supplement my swimming and occasional riding with some pilates to keep me limber. (when I dont feel like doing the trainer).

And finally I need a few races to aim for:

Willamette (road)
Mudslinger (mtn bike)
Table Rock (road)
Chain Breaker (mtn bike)
AIDS/Lifecycle Ride 545 Miles from SF to LA to raise awareness and money to fight the spread and find a cure for HIV/AIDS - This ought to be a lot of fun, its completely supported and should be good and challenging but awesome.

So there ya go, I've got a fitness plan, races to aim for, and fun stuff to do. Bring on the winter.

Economization

So by this time, everybody and their belly button lint has heard that the economy is in the toilet and headed towards that swirly watery grave.

How? Why? What the hell is going to happen now?

How: We've all been living on too much credit and not with in our means. That goes for pretty much everybody, and the vast majority of businesses too. At some point it was going to bite us in the ass. It was driven by the large mega-corporations who make shit-tons of money on high interest rates, late fees, over the limit fees, and other assorted fees. These companies target the young, the old, and those at the bottom rung of the socio-economic level. It gets to the point where more money is made on the people defaulting on the loans and credit cards than was made on the people who actually pay their bills. So, you guessed it, they want to make more money. By doing so, more people get into debt that they can never pay off. And these banks and funds get richer. Its not just people living on borrowed money, its everybody, companies big and small, governments big and small. So basically we've built an economy on debt. Not surprisingly enough, its not particularly stable.

So there is your economic less of the week. Pay your bills, your credit card bills off asap, dont get a loan or any other credit that sounds too good to be true, read the fine print, and mostly live within your means. We'll weather the "credit meltdown" it'll be a rough couple of years and then we'll figure out that the only way to fix it is through green businesses, alternative energies, petro-less cars.

Deployment Photos

A nifty tree seen on our first day.

We dug a lot of holes, thankfully I didnt have to dig this one.

Safety first.

Does this really need a caption?

Our fearless leader.

The hair and the kids.

Grubby Feet. Yes I did wear shoes.

Recovery

So I went back this week to pick up the seismometers and other equipment that we deployed the other day. It wasnt quite as long, significantly less tedious, but no less demanding.

Lets see things that happened:

I dropped a GPS on the way down from a site (super steep slopes). It was in my pocket but the lanyard snagged on a manzanita bush. It wasnt super accurate, usually was about 10m off, but it wasnt mine to lose. So the next day (after it had rained for the majority of the day and night) we had a little spare time and went back to look for it. I found it! The bright blue case was pretty visible hanging off the manzanita, just waiting for me. We hiked to the rocky outcrop near by and took some photos. At least it was sunny, cool but hey I'll take that over working in the rain any day.


Earlier that day we came across a seismometer that had been dug up. It was just hanging out by the hole. The bag with the battery, recording device, and GPS antenna was completely untouched. It was very odd, and we had a debate about who or what could have done it. We came to either bear or human.
Pro human: the hole wall looked very staight and sharp on one side.
Pro bear: bag wasnt touched, humans probably would have screwed with the other equipment.

That same day I found a 4 point buck skull and several vertebrae. I kept the skull but left the spine parts. The bones were pretty fresh as they still had connective tissue and ookie stuff. The skull made it home and is sitting out side waiting for the bugs and ants to clean it out before I bring it in the house.

The nights were cold, I mean frost on the inside of your tent cold. I bought a down jacket just before going out and I am so glad I did, as I pretty much lived in it. Other than that, I worked my butt off, had a good time and drank lots and lots of beer.

East Lake

North and Middle Sisters, as see on the way home.

Cheezy Poofs

I got Pim to eat some today.

One of the many reasons I love Jon Stewart

(Thanks to Galen for posting so I could re-post)

Mount Ashland Hillclimb

Hows about we go ride our mountain bikes up hill only for several hours? Ya? I've had better ideas, but I also know I've had much much worse.

Oof.

4800 feet of climbing. 18 miles. Almost all uphill. And I dont mean some nice little 3% grade, but we're talking 8ish% on average, with some definite steeper slopes.

I wasnt super motivated, but I did want to do it just to see how much I could make myself suffer. But I did it. And I came in 2nd for all the mtn bike women, 1st for my category.

The 1st solidified my Oregon Bicycle Racing Assn, Best Allround Rider for Sport Women 19-39. Which I'm pretty happy about.

Venomously Against John McCain/Sarah Palin

Yea, more wars!


Warning: this is disturbing.


For more information on Sarah Palin's promotion of aerial hunting of wolves please click here and here.

Life as a Geology Grunt

So, I havent blogged in a while because I was away from modern technology for 7 whole days. It was nice at first, but by the time it was over, I was scared to open my email. I had 242 emails at work and over 90 in my gmail account. Yikes.

I was/am part of a study to image the "red hot magma" chamber under Newberry Caldera. For those of you who dont know, Newberry is in central Oregon, south of Bend and just north of La Pine. Mini geology lesson: It is the same type of volcano as Crater Lake, but has had more volcanic activity post massive eruption. There is a small cone in the middle of the caldera as well, but there have been several other lava flows in the last 7000 years to create 2 smaller lakes and a pretty nifty obsidian (volcanic glass) flow (which stumps geologists because Obsidian doesnt usually flow and so the mechanism to make it do so is poorly understood).

So in a NE-SW direction we put in seismometers every 300 to 800m (depeding on location). The farther away from the center of the caldera the farther apart the seismometers got. There are currently 80 sensors in 80 holes that are 12-14 inches deep. About 20 of which I dug or helped dig. The other components are above ground, the recording device, the GPS antenna, and a set of 8 12volt batters wired in a series. All of this had to be packed in, usually 500m-2k from a road so that wasnt too onerous usually. The battery, recording devince, and GPS antenna all were placed in a very durable black plastic bag with an opening left so the battery could breath. On the 2nd day, a rodent had already chewed through the bag and gnawed on the cardboard box the batteries were in. Yippee. We also put these in rattle snake and yellow jacket territory. I am no so excited about the recovery week after next.

I will post pictures soon when I find my mini USB to USB adapter for the camera. It was fun though. And really really dusty. Its all pretty much just ash and when you are digging in the dirt for 8 hours a day, one tends to not stay so fresh and so clean clean. My hair would stick up straight a la Sonic or the villian on the Incredibles. It was pretty amusing and impressed pretty much everybody.

Finally a week after my return, almost everything (except my shoes and sleeping bag) are dirt free and put away. Only to do it again in a week. Weeee!

DNC, McCain, and some chick from Alaska

First off, I'm biased as hell. I cannot understand how people who are not rich, white, and sit on the board of large corporations can be republican. I like Barak Obama. He seems like a normal guy who you could have a good conversation over beers with. Yes some said that about Bush II, but without the good conversation part. When he speaks, he is describing a bright future where there are loads of shiny happy people. It may not be perfect, but its a significant change and better change from the 8 long dark years we've had.

Freaking McCain though. Jay-sus. The 'oh I'm gonna ride the Hilary wave and get me a woman' mentality is disgusting. Sarah Palin has NO political experience. She was the mayor of a town of 9000. There are 3 times more people than that at the University of Oregon. Now she is the governor of Alaska for LESS THAN 2 years. The population of AK is 684,000ish. The city of Austin Texas has more, 743,000ish. Crap, Portland Oregon, has 568,000ish. I'd say those mayors have at least as much or probably more experience than she does.

The other thing that pisses me off, is that she was tapped because she is a woman. Not because she has a good leadership record (or any for that matter). Its the oh gee we need to find someone who isnt white and or male. Its degrading to all women who have worked for what and where they are today. She was chosen because she has a v-jay jay.

While it may seem awesome that a woman could be vice president, its terrifying that THIS woman could be president. I mean come on, McCain is just about the same age as my grandparents. In 4 more years he'll be almost 80. Its entirely possible that he could have some serious health issues in that time. And if he does who gets to be in charge? Oh yea, Sarah "I have no experience" Palin. And if the republicans are touting their own horn that they would be the one with a woman on the ticket, I just want to remind everybody that the democrats did it first, 20 years ago...can anybody say Geraldine Ferraro?

And finally, in true republican fashion, she is currently being investigated. Yep, she's been in office for less than 2 years and is already being investigated. Why? Because it looks like she dismissed the Public Safety Commissioner when he refused to fire her ex-brother in law (who is a state trooper). Ah yes, this "reformer" whistle blower type is just the same as it ever was.

PS McCain has met her only once prior to his (I mean his handlers) choosing her for the VP position.

Perils of Urgent Care

So on Sunday I took a magnificent dive off my mtn bike at about 25 mph into very large gravel due to a ginormous blackberry bush that was in my way. Well it was either blackberry bush or median of large loose gravel. Either way I knew I was going to eat it. And I did. Brilliantly. So I banged my knee and whacked my handle bars in my stomach (yes I have a round bruise right of my belly button), and I really abraded the hell out of my left elbow. I clean it up, I put neosporin goo on it. I've had road rash before, I know how this goes.

Fast foward to Tuesday night, my arm is swollen and a bit red, and definitely warmer than it should be. Crap. So I try a little ice, and I prop my arm up on the back of the sofa for most of the evening to see if I can get it to drain. No dice. All that I get from that is lost feeling in my hand and a cold elbow. Crap.

So today I go to urgent care...and by urgent they mean if you are not spurting blood everywhere, then you are probably ok and going to sit there for hours. And by hours I mean minimum of 3. Do not go to urgent care if you are not obviously seriously injured. So I'm there I check in. Lesson number one dawns pretty quick: do not act chipper or upbeat or have a pain number less than 5. Yes my minor infection is a 10. It is totally the worst pain I've ever had. Evar.

Lesson number 2: Hospitals do not care about blood born pathogens - do not touch ANYTHING. So some dude who'd been there for 2 hours, bleeding (see he wasnt at the 3 hour mark, so they couldnt help him yet) from a very large laceration on his palm. He went to the bathroom to put more paper towels on it and when he came out, there was blood dripping down his elbow, all over his shoes, jeans and the floor. He didnt notice until I pointed it out. They didnt bandage his hand up for about 5-10 minutes. It took about 15 minutes for them to get out the antimicrobial spray and wipe down the floors. And the nurse did it w/o gloves.

Lesson number 3: Your wait will be 12x as long as your actual visit with any medical professional. I sat for 3 hours. I saw the dr for about 5 minutes, the nurse for about 10. Fifteen minutes. She cleaned my elbow (by pouring what looked like water on it), slathering some polysporin on it (whats the difference between poly and neo?) and then wrapping it in gauze (because I'm allergic to adhesives so I dont to medical tape well). And fax a script for antibiotics to the pharmacy. At least the dr and nurse wore gloves.

The Never Ending Quest

What will Pim (the LWC - large white cat) eat next? It was about this time last year that we discovered he not just eats, but begs and voratiously devours corn on the cob. Since then its become a personal goal of mine to find the foods he wont eat.

Last year's corn noming...

So this week he ate:
Oatmeal
Blueberries
Melon
More corn (der)
Beans and Rice

Now he and his sister are laying around looking like they are going to melt due to the heat.

Uber Geekiness!

The LHC is a Large Hadron Collider. It is being built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC will become the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. From Wikipdia. More here. And here.

Actual Prizes!

Holy crap bat kids! I actually won SOMETHING at a bike race. Besides bragging rights and or a medal.

And that would be a $20 gift certificate to REI, beeyoches. Woot.

Women's Series Crits

We raced a very short race on Monday due to an accident in the B field. After that got cleared up and the A women got a little organized, we had time to do about 8 laps. So I did an 8 lap crit. Normally thats about 1/3 of a race. The women's series has been doing 18 laps for the previous 2 weeks. There was a pretty heafty head wind too on the back side. So I'm glad I only had to deal with the wind 8 times. We were giving a pretty decent effort and only going 15mph or so.

I managed not to get stuck out in the wind towing everybody with a 1/2 lap to go this time, saw the break start and I went with it. Stuck on, but didnt give it enough in the sprint to actually do much of anything. I need to practice my sprinting and doing so in a much larger gear than I'd like to be. But I got 4th in that race.

With two 4th place finishes and a 6th place finish I ended up getting 3rd overall in the series. I even get stuff. We didnt stick around for prizes because it was getting dark and we had to get home (no lights). I'll post about my splendiferous prizes when I get them.

Oh yea, I've now done 4 road races this entire year. Stupid mt bike season overlap.

EPMotion

For all the girls that pipet late at night....this is too awesome. Yea its an ad, but I'd buy it if group was part of the deal. Enjoy!

Monday Monday Monday

The last 2 Mondays have been the Eugene Women's Crit series. Tomorrow will be the final race. On my birthday. They should let me win based on that alone. ;)

They have been a lot of fun. Kori Kunz from the Poplollies is doing an awesome job of teaching the less experienced girls about bike handling and sprinting and general cycling etiquette. The races have been really laid back and relaxed

I felt great last weekend. Even after I raced the day before for a couple of hours at Mt Hood (which is hard and rugged and hot). Although my placing wasnt as high, I did a lot more work at closing gaps and staying on wheels. My crit racing skills are a bit rusty, since monday will be only the 4th road race I've done this season.

Between mtn biking and finishing up shcool and work, I havent a lot of time for training. So now that I do have some time and some ambition, the season is pretty much over. And the few road races that are coming up I will be doing field work. So bummer, but thats ok, if I can keep my strength through the fall and work on speed for next year, it will be ON.

I like it when Chris takes pictures like this, I like to pretend I'm off the front and about to win.

Beef Jerky Time

So my cat is actually a small white basset hound. He'll eat anything. I mean anything. Some of the long list includes:

corn chips

corn on the cob

every flavor of ice cream I've had

gummy bears

margaritas

red and white wine

grapefruit juice

Massaman curry (spicy)

beers, esp IPAs

So its no wonder he likes beef jerky. Chris left some out on the counter last night when we went to Thai food. I came home and turned the light on in the living room, and there was the spicy peppered beef jerky, bag torn open jerky and peppers spread across the living room floor. 

And then as we went to bed, Pim was back up on the counter trying to get into the human food cupboard. Presumably to find more jerky. Or corn chips. Or pop tarts. Or whatever else he could get his grubby paws on.

Picketts Charge

Phil's Trailhead, Bend OR. Good legs, lots of rest, smiles and sun = good race.

Swoopy fun and not too long or too hard. It was great. I rode with Anna from Team S&M the whole way and pipped her at the line. Felt kind of bad for that, but I really wanted the points for 5th place since we were so close overall in the series. I was happy to be there, felt fantastic and I didnt even crash. Well ok except for the pre ride, where I burped my front tire (I dont use tubes, I have a strip that seals the rim, and then put a liquid latex mixture in there so it seals up any small punctures from thorns or the like that would normally give a flat tire, but when you peel the tire away from the rim, its called burping, and usually makes you crash). So I have a plethora of bruises from that, but not from the race. And yes, 2 weeks later, they are still there. Thanks to my pastiness.

This was a fun race, there was even 6 sport women (which is a lot, yes that is sad). I rode with them most of the way, Heather from Tireless Velo took off like a rocket from the start and put about 15 minutes into the rest of us. I think that kind of time calls for an upgrade. There was a split about half way, which I managed to miss due to being at the back of the pack. Generally I'm very uncomfortable with people riding right on my wheel. I dont know why, but I tend to ride like crap when someone is right there. I obviously need to work on being way off the front.

Anyways it was a great race, well organized, good turn out. But most of all fun.

Rave: Smart/Kind/Nice People in Cars

Thank you to all the wonderful people who dont endanger my life when you drive.

Thank you for moving over.

Thank you for waiting for me to go straight when you want to turn.

Thank you for not honking at me when you want to turn right on a red and I'm in the way.

Thank you for acknowledging my presence and treating me like traffic.

Rant: Stupid People in Cars

I dont know what has gotten into people. Or why they are more stupid than normal. But they are.

I'm talking about bikes and cars. Yet again. I swear since the weather has gotten nice, people have become much worse drivers.

Last Thursday: I'm headed up to the trail head. I have to go straight through a light (because the turn lane doesnt recognize bikes). This is a 3 lane road, one lane each direction for traffic, and a turn lane in the middle. I need to turn left into a parking lot so I can cut across it to get to the road I need. So I look behind me, there is a car, a little ways back. I have plenty of room. Nobody coming the other direction. I put out my arm to let the car behind me know that I am turning. I'm almost in the turn lane, when the car flys up behind me and passes me on the left. Yea, I'm attempting to turn left and I get passed on the left, with my arm still out. The driver and I made eye contact, I gave him the finger. This dude deserves it for his stupid behavior. I dont even drive and I know passing on the left when someone is turning left is bad/illegal/potentially deadly. Best part is he slams on his breaks when I flip him off so I almost hit his shiny new black Impala.

Monday - Friday: People just driving waaaay too fast on small residential streets. Come on people, the speed limit is NOT 40. It is 25. So what if a bike is also doing that...doesnt mean you HAVE to pass that person on a bike to prove your superiority of fossil fuel burning.

Yesterday: On the way to the market, there is a car in the separated bus lane, trying to turn across 3 lanes of traffic w/o any sort of right away. The buses HAUL ass in their own lane, and they trigger the lights so they get the green...this could have been bad. After work, I'd to catch the bus to get to the shop to pick up my bike. I'm waiting for the bus and some idiot tries to make a left across the same 3 lanes of traffic, where there is no turning left. He creeps across the intersection and is halfway into one lane waiting to turn. Nobody even honked at him. And then on my way home from my ride, at about 8:30 - plenty of light left, sun didnt sent until 9ish. I have a kid (he couldnt have been over 20) in Mom's Camery, look directly at me and pull out infront of me, causing me to hit the breaks had and the dude who was behind me to almost hit me. I just gave him the hand up in the air, WTF look. He looked at me with 'What, I didnt do anything wrong, f#*king cyclist'. He also got the finger. Had he waited the 10 seconds or so for me and the dude behind me to pass, he would have been able to pull out w/o any traffic around. But no, his time is more important than my life.

It really seems like people have no idea what to do around bikes. How to interact with bikes, or where bikes even belong (the "get off the road" comments). I'm amazed at how many people dont seem to understand hand signals even. I am really surprised there are not more car/bike incidents in this town. Maybe there are, but they arent reported or maybe there isnt a good public forum (like www.bikeportland.org ) But I am getting very tired of almosts and close calls and feeling like I'm a target sometimes.

Life Updations

Now that I'm all graduated with school, you are probably wondering what I am doing with my time. Well, probably not, since all 4.3 actually read this blog. But anywho, no matter. I'll fill you in with life goings on.

Sat 6-14: Graduation Day. Hang out with family. Ride a couple of hours on the mtn bike with Chris. We previewed his short track training course. Pretty cool. Lot of climbing. Would be a fun race, but on private property (shhhh).

Sun 6-15: Test of Endurance. 50 freaking miles on the mtb. Oof. And I didnt even race. I organized, and did all the results. So I guess if there is an issue, you can blame me. I did bottle feeds for all the Collin's racers. I got a bit of a sun burn, and now its just a few freckles. Bother the northern European decent. I did have fun working the other side of the races. Its pretty amazing they can keep results straight like they do. I mean its hard when there are 2 people coming across the line at the same time. And mtb races are easy compared to road races where a group of people could be all bunched up and number hard to read. At mtn bike races we make em stop and can enter the data on the spot. I did get a free pair of socks and bit o cash out of the deal. Oh yea and I didnt kill myself trying to race 50 miles in one day. The fastest Sport Woman did it in just under 7 hours. Thats a long assed time to be on a bike, especially a mtn bike

Mon 6-16: Work. Work Work. I get to work full time now. Woo. I dont have any homework. My time is mine after I leave work. I can do whatever I want! Wooo! Freedom. Work. Ride. Dinner. Crappy TV. Guess what I didnt do, and didnt feel guilty about not doing HOMEWORK!

Tuesday: Same as Monday. Watched Cloverfield. My recommendation: Dont. Predictable, obvious, and the creature was unbelievable, the main characters were annoying and deserved their ending for being stupid pratts.

Wednesday: Yep you guessed it: Work and Ride.

Today: Yea this is freaking awesome. Work Ride. Weather is even finally good. No warmers needed. No rain, so the trails are dry. Currently watching Sweeny Todd. Frankly, a bit too much singing. But damn, its got quite the cast. Sasha Cohen Baron is in purple very tight tights and singing with a cheesy Italian accent...I'd call that comedy, not a dark drama.

Anyways. Chris gets back from Tahoe tomorrow or Saturday. We go to Bend immediately after that for Picketts Charge. The last of the series. Right now I'm in 4th place, but the points are wrong for Firecracker, so I should really be in 3rd. So I need to do well, and I could be in the top 3 Sport Women of the state. Which means I probably should upgrade....next year, when I have time to train!

I Done Be Edumacated!

Sent to me by my overly educated father (BS in Math Ed, BS in Math, MS in Ed, MS in Math, and soon a PhD in Math Ed...like I said, overly educated).

Things Younger than John McCain

Ralph Lauren

The Automatic Transmission

The LP Record (Long Playing)
And for my younger brother "those big black CDs"


And last but certainly not least....

Lubricated Condoms

Idea and more info from here, freaking brilliant.

Falls City Firecracker

I learned a new phrase that day: Hike-a-bike...

This was a fun course. I felt good. The course had A LOT of up hill. I tend to do well on those. I however wasnt expecting the fact we went the opposite direction on a downhiller's course. This means we werent just going uphill, we were going up stuff so steep it was completely vertical.

We had half a lap up, and then the other half a lap was downhill. I really enjoyed the downhill. It wasnt on the downhillers course, which is why I enjoyed it. Those courses and jumps and what not are INSANE. We also got heckled by a friendly dude in kevlar waiting for us to finish racing so he could fling himself, his 50lb bike which he pushes to the top, over jumps 3x as big as me. I'd seriously like to know how many bones he's broken.

Overall it was fun and good. I ended up doing 2 laps because the lap counters got a little mixed up with the masters sport women and the regular sport women and all the pro men standing around at the finish/lap point. And I couldnt hear at the start line, well I cant hear so well to begin with, but this was bad because I was behind all the beginners, so I started at the wayyyyy back and had to find my competition. Such is mtn bike racing.

I had fun, I got 3rd - PODIUM! And I got some nice swag...bottle and socks and a sleeveless jersey.

Finals

Finals suck.
Finals suck more when its almost the very last one for a long long time.

Sigh....back to Chem.

Sad Day

A cyclist was hit and killed by a car in downtown Eugene yesterday.

More here.

I will Derive

The sad thing is that I get this...

Bear Springs Trap

Lets just say this race was a long assed drive away. Wow. About 3.5 hours, and no we didnt even leave the state.

Also let me preface my last 2 terrible placings with the fact that I am not training. And it shows. School and work have taken over my life and if I get 3 hours of training in a week I'm doing well. So the racing for 2.5 hours pretty much has been doubling my training time. So in light of that, its no wonder I'm not doing as well as I'd like. I am however learning a crapload about how to actually ride my mtn bike (which surprise surprise is very different than my road bike).

Bear Springs is a really remote course. Its also very pretty. And has just about every type of terrain you could imagine. Rocks, exposed cliffs, single track, double track, water crossings, loose dusty areas, and patches of snow/slush/mud this year. Apparently the race promoters were on snowmobiles 2 weeks prior to the race.

The bright side to finishing last is the fact that I didnt have to push myself and put myself into uncomfortable situations where I didnt know how to handle my bike. I paced myself and figured out how to roll over all sorts of stuff. How to not whack my pedals on rocks constantly. And the best part, there was no crashing involved in this race (unlike Chain Breaker, where I made out with the dust several times).

The water was running really high in the areas near the streams. So high in fact that the trails were underwater in those areas. The organizers had put in a log bridge in one spot, and in others put in a bunch of log rounds for stepping on (so we didnt damage the delicate stream bank environment which is cool). The rounds were a little floaty so it was a bit hairy to walk across them. Also there was some that had floated away in the current, so we had to forge the creek. Not being a tall person, the water was mid shin on me and then sinking into the mud it was knee deep. The water was cold, but it was a hot race so it was kind of nice. Until the mud dried in my cleats around the pedals and I had a couple close calls because I had a hard time unclipping. The biggest frustration for me of the day was missing a small course marking and going off course, up a large assed climb for 15 minutes. I wouldnt have been so far off time had I not done that. Oh well.

Pretty much everything I do on my mtn bike is brand spanking new to me (still have been riding mtn bike for less than a year). It does make life exciting and interesting. And occasionally there are a few white knuckle moments (ok more than occasionally).

The most flattering shot of me...

Flying Genitalia

So this was a political new conference in Russia. At about 23 seconds is when this gets good.



The translations for what is said after its swatted down:

"After the security guard swatted it to the ground, Kasparov says, "I think we have to be thankful for the opposition's demonstration of the level of discourse we need to anticipate. Also, apparently most of their arguments are located beneath the belt." Someone in the audience shouts, "Finally the political power shows its face!" Kasparov quickly replies, "Well, if that's its face..." to laughter from the audience."

The original post here.

Harry Potter Rap

Not enough people know about this...it cracks me up all the time.

Everything still smells like dust.

I think I might even have dust still in my ears (after multiple cleanings).

Last weekend was Chainbreaker in Bend. I was excited to not have to race in the mud again. But I was also nervous about racing in the dust. I have no skills (or skillz for that matter) when it comes to lose dust and dirt. And I have the bruises to prove it. Oh and they are pretty shades of green still after a week.

I finished. By far my worst finish on a the mtn bike. But I did it. Because I paid and I'm gettin my money's worth (unless there is severe injury, then its just stupidity). I also ate, which is a triumph in and of itself. As I cant manage to eat and have both my hands on the bars at the same time. And as we all know, eating is important, esp when you're riding your bike for almost 3 hours.

I crashed, and crashed and well crashed. Nothing bad or on too many rocks. My friend Jason, crashed and managed to break his helmet, it was brand new. Whoops.

On a slightly more interesting note, I think Ryan Trebon's inseam is about 5'...when he passed me his saddle and ass were about eye level with me. Granted, I'm not a tall person, but he is one lanky dude.

Chemistry Procrastination

Just because I have chem homework due tonight and I'm procrastinating...at least this is chemistry...Gummy Bears and Potassium Chlorate

Bikes N Mullets

I passed a super commuter guy (with the helmet, the old mtb w/ slicks, 2 pannier bags, with both pants cuffed with the reflective velcro strap) who had a real live mullet.

I was impressed.

Not Ok

Ok, this just pisses me off. I mean there is NO excuse for this. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch.

This weekend, someone shot 6 sea lions on the Columbia that were slated for relocation. So that means someone just shot 6 innocent sea lions who were not causing any harm. Several of the sea lions were on the endangered species list and several were also pups.

I know people are upset at the sea lions eating the salmon in the Columbia near the dams. They say it is causing a decline in the salmon population. Sure, but I think us humans with the dams have caused a hell of a lot more issues for the salmon than any of the sea lions could. Realistically, we are creating a nice all you can eat buffet for the sea lions. They are just opportunistic animals and taking advantage of an opportunity we [humans] created.

I hope these people are reincarnated as a slug that someone pours salt on, or an ant that some kid fries with his magnifying lens.

First Days of Sun = Stupid People Out in Force

Seriously, I want to know what it is that makes people drive and act like morons when it first becomes nice out here in the NW?

Are they blinded by the sun?
Are their bodies having allergic reactions to the warmth/sun?
Or is it that people are just venturing from their hibernation so they have no social skills due to a lack of interaction with other humanoid forms?
Or are people just plain fricking dumb asses?

I ask these questions because on my 3.5 hour ride yesterday I had roughly 5 drivers show obvious lack of thought when passing me.

Like the ass in the red Dodge Durango who decided to pass on a road with no shoulder into oncoming traffic. Oh but wait, he didnt move over into the other lane so the oncoming traffic wasnt an issue.

Or the small navy sedan that decided to buzz us for shits and giggles, no oncoming traffic, country roads with 45ish speed limits, complete visibility. He was going at least 60+, and didnt even bother to move over the center line at all.

What about the dipshits in a silver 4 Runner 2 blocks from the house who decide to ride my butt when I'm slowing down for a red light (yea its red, that means stop), and then cut the corner thru the 7-11 parking lot to make a right hand turn. Had they just waited the light would have turned shortly and it would have been about 5-10 seconds later. Nooooo. Their time is important.

I wonder how much people think about their antics in their cars actually affect the rest of us. Esp those who do not have 2000lbs of plastic and metal surrounding them. It seems like people view their cars as an extension of their houses. And since they can do whatever they want in their houses, the same follows for cars. I mean how many times have you seen people pick their noses in their cars?

I guess it seems like people either dont think about how their piss poor driving actually involves others. Or that all I have between me and the road is Styrofoam and a small plastic shell. That is no match to your mid-sized SUV.

This is my life, and the lives of other cyclists here. Its not a game. It is not amusing or funny. Give us some space and respect that we are a road user as well. Really the extra 2 seconds it takes to slow down and pass at a safe distance wont effect your life in any way shape or form.

Finally! No longer muddy...

Its been almost a week since Mudslinger and I think I have finally removed all the mud that I brought home from Blodgett. It was epic. It was muddy. We got hailed on, rained on, snowed on, and even some sun.

It is in the mid 30s when we showed up to help out with the registration. There was an inch and a half of snow on the ground when we left Monroe for Blodgett. By the time the start rolled around it was in the high 40s. I had legwarmers, booties (which became a lovely collection bin for the mud), longsleeved turtleneck base layer, jersey, shorts, jacket on. Some guys had knee warmers and a long sleeved jersey on, I have no idea how people function with so little clothing when its cold. I'm not sure if they are stupid or just really warm all the time. Maybe some of both.

So it started off well. The first climbs are hard. It starts off with a stair step climb. With an ever increasing slope, topping off at 27%. Which is, well, hard. During the pre-ride 2 weeks before, I went up it in my middle ring, which almost made me puke/pass out simultaneously. So went down to my little ring, puking during a race probably isnt a great idea. I did some serious booty kicking on the initial climb. I figured I had to due to the lack of experience in the mud.


Mud: this mud was ridiculous. That good ol NW clay, slippery, slimy, and deep and gross and heavy. I fell over so many times in the mud to do wheels sliding, me sliding trying to tripod it down slopes, and the extreme lack of traction due to the mud adhering to my tires and becoming on big muddy heavy rotating mass.

Guess what? I crashed. Der. I hit a rut on a nice wide open decent and the front wheel went right I went over and did a one arm superman. I wasnt hurt. The bike was ok, twisted the seat post/saddle to the right and the stem a couple degrees to the left. This made steering/riding interesting for the rest of the course. The coolest part (and I have no idea how this happened) was the way my bike landed. It was perpendicular to the trail, resting on the saddle and handlebars with the wheels still spinning. You see in the picture how my seat was off to the right, and the handle bars to the left. No I am not holding it funny, the front wheel is straight.

Overall, it was fun. Muddy. But fun. The clothes took days and days (along with not an insubstantial amount of oxyclean) to finally rinse clear. Wonderful Chris took care of most of the mud on the bike. She is shiny and clean.

Good things: Agnes (the bike), feed zones, gravel roads, post race food (thanks Great Harvest!), someone to clean up my bike, Oxyclean.

Bad things: no mud riding skillz, bonking, mud between my toes (with shoes/socks/booties on), turning everything I touched post-race in a muddy mess.

Ok, Gonna finish up my Nutella (the great Nutella Debate) and almond butter sammich - its tasty tasty stuff and ride my bike/do some homework (probably in that order).

More race reports and pics here: Collin's Cycling Team Blog
More pics here: Here.

80s and a tan to 30s and muddy

What the frick is up with the weather. It was 83F degrees last Saturday, I got a slight sunburn while mtn biking here in Eugene. And then it was 70F-ish for Icebreaker. Now, one week later there was snow on the ground when I woke up this am, its 43F out according to Google. Its partly sunny now, but its been spitting on and off. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same. Just in time for my first mtn bike race of the season, Mudslinger.

Argh. I skipped Hornings because it was nas-tay. I did not want to play on a slip n slide with my bike in the mud. Plus its loooong drive to Hornings from Eugene (2+ hours) for that kind of mud-fest. So my penance is Mudslinger.

The Sport women get to race 17 miles (yea, I know that sounds like a short amount of time when I think about it on my road bike, but mtn bike time is much much slower, we're talking like an hour and a half to 2 here) and have 2500' of climbing. I will climb anything on Agnes (my super awesome 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper). I love climbing (and I never would have said this until I started mtn biking).

So I was just thinking that maybe I should go ride Foxhollow to McBeth to strech the legs a bit before I delved into my chemistry and calculus. But it just started hailing. Maybe I'll do my chem now and ride later (probably to a movie on the rollers...sigh I thought I was done with winter training).

Tomorrow: Mudfest er Mudslinger 08.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

A bit on the longish side, but hilarious.

Ice Breaker Crit - sans the ice and the breaking

So I did my first race of the year. Yea I know its April. Road racing is in full swing. I'm just a slacker who hasnt been able to train much due to work/school/and some dietary issues.

We went around and around and around 30 times. I dont know how long it took I forgot to look at my watch and my computer's battery went kaput. I was there I did it and I didnt even get last place.

Things that obviously need to work on:

- Sucking wheel in the middle of the pack and not at the back. Accordion effect = more work = Miriam gets tired faster.

-Turning with the pack. I'm not worried about my lines or that of most of the women I race with since they are all category 3 or up. I am still nervous about crashing thanks to Swan Island and going down 2x due to the rain and really beating myself up. I'm kinda over the crashing.

-Being more aggressive in keeping a wheel I want. Some of this was out of my control. There is a woman who races and is known for not being able to hold a line. If we had to pace lines of women, she would be all over the place and take both riders for her draft. There were several times I was caught between her and the curb, so I let her have the wheel. I had 3 choices. Tell her what I thought and to move over (this could have caused some tension). Make good up-close friends with the curb (I like my teeth where they are and my body and bike whole), or give up the wheel in the name of self preservation. So I chose self preservation. Which means I was back at the rear of the pack, again.

Things that made me pleased:
-The fact that I am not training much, and I raced against some fast-assed women, and I held on. I was always there, and the couple times I got gapped, I bridged and made it back on.

-That I have some afterburners of some sort. At the final corner I was off the back (yea corners!) and I just put er in a big gear, put my head down and gave it hell. I passed 2 other women, and came close to getting a 3rd. I do need to work on a shorter/faster sprint. Occasionally I need less endurance but more snap.

-Not getting last. And not caring about much else because I was there to have fun. Which I did because riding and racing my bike makes me smile. Especially in the 70 degree sunny weather.

-Getting my first cycling tan of the season - woooooo.

For the record, I got 8th, and I'm pretty ok with that.

Ridding the world of stupidity...

So I dont understand how people can be so ignorant sometimes. The other day I was coming home from work. It was a beautiful sunny day, one of those spring days where you are just thrilled to be out in the warm sun because its been soooo long.

So anyways, I come up to intersection #1, its got 3 lanes going E-W, 2 lanes going N and 3 going S, plus a bus lane that runs E-W between the lanes. Big. I'm waiting for the light with another cyclist, shes older on a more upright big squishy saddled bike, going for what looks like a recreational ride. The light turns and I roll through the intersection to the next stop, one block away. This one is 2 lanes in each direction and a 4 way stop. There are cars going S, N, and W. I wait for the car to go west. They sit there looking confused, so the cars going N & S go. I start to go, when this older woman blows by me w/o even looking around or pausing at this stop sign. Let me go back a bit, this 4-way stop is on the UofO campus. Near all the dorms. This equals a inordinate amount of bad/inattentive drivers in the area as well as higher congestion. Its not so smart to just speed through any intersection w/o looking around you, especially this one.

Few things irritate me more than fellow cyclists blatantly ignoring basic traffic laws. We are cyclist we are not exempt from them. When cyclist ignore traffic laws, we piss off drivers who are (for the most part) adhering them. The drivers then classify all cyclists based on the behaviors of the the few stupid ones. Later drivers interact with cyclists who are obeying traffic laws and treat us like we are not, or they dont respect our right to be on the road too.

So I roll up to this woman. I get her attention. She takes out an ear bud and acts all put off by having to do so. I tell her that she needs to stop at that intersection. (Note this is not something new for me, I will yell at other cyclists if they are being stupid, as well as cars and pedestrians if they being stupid too). She tells me with all seriousness that she doesnt have to stop at stop signs because she is on a bike. My jaw was on my handle bars. I probably looked like one of those cartoons. I was floored. I, of course, tell her she is wrong, and that she needs to re read the traffic manual if she is in doubt of this. She then tells me, "I am 56 years old and I know better than you do." I tell her just because she is old does not make her wise, again that she is wrong, and I ride off (to the next stop light).

I feel like I've hit in the head with something, I'm just so dumbstruck at the sheer stupidity of the conversation.

Additional Page to the Interwebs

After deciding there just wasn't enough blogs, opinions, and information on the internet I decided to add my own blog. Mostly it will be goofy things. Thoughts on annoying people that I come across. Goofy things I find on the web (when procrastinating from my chem and calc). Bikes, racing, and bike related things will also have a predominate spot.

I think I will start off with this awesome little video.



Its true, if you commuted by bike, your friends will high-five you and there will be disco balls.