Stuff

So aside from working my ass off at work (we're talking ~50hr weeks for all of Jan). I've decided I should probably start training again. Well if I dont want to come in dead last all the time. And I dont like being last so...that leads to the having to ride my bike for more than just to and from work.

Collin's Shop team folded so I was on the hunt for a road team. I will be riding for Team Dirt for mtn bike. But I wanted some teammates and people to train with for the road. I missed most of the road season last year, I was uber busy with school so training was pretty nil and the mtb season conflicted with the road season. So this year, I think I'd like to balance it out with closer to 50-50 road/mtb. So I joined the Poplollies. We are the only all women's race team in the southern valley. And I have some wonderful teammates with some serious horsepower. It ought to be awesome.

I'm pumped about racing this year. No homework, no school. Just me and the bike. Woo hoo!

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.