Training

Andrea

Will it make me faster?

Triathletes may be the most notorious for trying to “buy speed,” but I’m trying to break the stereotype by placing a bid on this gorgeous gem: Dave Weins Bagel from Leadville

Between the trading of a full-time teaching paycheck for a part-time bike-shop paycheck and employing someone to tell me how often and how hard I should ride my bike (a.k.a. “The Wizard”), I’m having to budget my funds wisely, so I only bid $25. If that wins, I’m planning on eating the bagel and posting multiple photos right here on my blog.

Supposedly, the bagel has magical power-increasing capabilities, so I’m guessing I’ll be out-bid by some triathlete or something (the money also goes to a local trail fund, so this auction would be very tempting to an x-terra triathlete) who wants to get the same magical FTP boost that this bagel promises to bring to its new owner.

EDIT: Damn, I went out for a 2 hr ride, and now it’s up to 10 bids and $45.44. Well, if any of you have spare money and want to see me eat Dave Weins’ bagel, feel free to put in a bid and send it my way.

Andrea

The End of Michigan

Sort of, at least.

Yesterday when we got settled in at Copper Harbor, we decided to head out on some of the easier trails in the local trail system. However, I got sidetracked in thinking that maybe we could find the end of the Keweenaw out in Lake Superior. We passed a sign for the beginning of US Highway 41, but the road turned to gravel and kept going into the forest. Of course, I wanted to see where it went and what was at the end of it. It HAD to have an end, right?

Fast forward to half an hour and 600 feet of climbing later. We hadn’t found anything other than some nice forest roads. We figured we should turn back so we could get back to town before dark, so Ryan came up with a loop back based on his Garmin’s map. Though we ended up on at least one pretty sketchy section of “road,” we ended up having a great ride, and made it back in time to get to the last restaurant open before the town rolled up their sidewalks from the evening.

Photos…

Oh yeah, and, as you can see, I’m experimenting a bit with self-portrait type photos. Our motel also provides its guests with afro picks.

Andrea

Rainy Fond du Lac

So, we’ve been in Fond du Lac since Saturday night, and both nights, it’s rained enough that we can’t (responsibly, at least) ride the Kettle Moraine trails that we were hoping to visit while we’re here. Yesterday, we headed out on the road, and along the way, we stopped by to check out a really small local system of trails. These are supposed to be multi-use, and the initial entrance to the different trails was marked with what uses are “OK” for what sections of trail, but we quickly found that if you took one trail marked for bikes, that it would dead end at another trail marked as “no bikes.” We rode in circles for about 45 minutes then got frustrated and hit the roads for another 15 miles or so.

dunno

road

windmill

After we were back and fed, we fished in the small canal behind the house. Surprisingly enough, remembering how to bait, cast, and un-fish a hook is kinda like remembering how to ride a bike…

fishin

bluegill

sadfish

We fished the rest of the day, had some dinner, and made preliminary plans to ride the trails since they “should” be dry. However, last night, another large patch of rain moved through the area and re-soaked the trail. So, if we want to ride, it’s out to the roads again. Normally, I wouldn’t mind that too much, but we only brought our mountain bikes, so it’s kinda boring. Ugh. Hopefully the rest of the trip isn’t so soggy.

Andrea

Sponsorship Requests- better than internet dating

I won’t try and keep it a secret- since I arrived home from Colorado, I’ve been sending my race resume and bio out to my favorite companies. Chances are, some of the people I’ve sent it to are reading this post right now. It feels like internet dating- I like you, I send you my info, then anxiously await a reply back, hoping to gain your approval.

I hope that you (people I’ve requested sponsorship from) realize that I’m more “e-harmony” than “adult friend finder.” I mean, I’m honestly looking for support from companies that I already really love and extole the virtues of to all of my friends and riding partners (both on the internet AND in real life). You got a request not just because I’m in need of some help for 2011, but also because I love your stuff, and I want to help spread the word so that you can keep on making awesome stuff for years to come.

Sponsoring me is a hell of a lot cooler than a first date, because, unlike the date, you know you love me already ;)

Andrea

An open letter to my legs

Dear legs,

I know that Saturday was hard for you two, so I’ll forgive you for being so weak today. However, you’ve got 4 nights worth of sleep to recover before ORAMM. Just making sure you know. Thanks!

Andrea

Andrea

Quick(ish) Race Report

I can’t get quite in to the detail that I normally do since I’m trying to wrap up packing for a month long trip out West for some training and racing, but here’s a bit of a rundown on the Memphis Velo/Smith & Nephew Grand Prix…

Thursday morning, I woke up feeling kinda cruddy. My head hurt, and I generally felt tired. As the day progressed, I kept feeling worse, and ended up with a sore throat and fever that lasted through friday night. So, even though I’d had every intention of racing with my team Saturday morning, I decided to skip the road race in order to keep recovering from whatever bug had struck me down.

The race itself had a great turnout (as far as women’s races are concerned). 31 ladies signed up for the omnium, including Debbie Milne, who also registered (and raced) in the men’s P/1/2 race. Spoiler alert- she won all three of the women’s omnium events, and held her own in the men’s races. M-B fielded 6 total (though only 4 completed all 3 events).

Saturday afternoon (after pacing around the house all day like a hungry tiger at the zoo), I mustered the energy to head to Germantown for the short, painful time trial. I didn’t feel great, but I still managed to pull off a 3rd place finish behind Debbie and my teammate Marda. Even though I had some issues with chest & throat congestion, I was glad to get out and open my leg muscles a bit.

Sunday morning, I wasn’t very sure how I’d feel. I was rested, but also still not quite feeling like myself. Given the results of the RR and TT, my position was of workhorse. Job #1 was to mark several riders who were placed well in the overall points. If they tried to escape, I was to chase and be absolutely unhelpful in their efforts to get away.

Check.

Job #2 was to try and get Marda and Kat up the road. After nearly spacing out halfway through the race, I remembered them. I attacked, looking for one of them to counter. Alas, Kat tried a couple of times. I knew I didn’t have much left, so with 1 lap to go, I went for broke with an all out effort that left me close to passing out on the back side of the course. I’m not sure exactly what happened after that, but Marda ended up 3rd, and the others were up high enough in the placings to end up 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Overall placing. Generally a sucess, I’d like to think.

This week, I’ve been trying to prep to leave town. I’ll be heading to Cimarron, Dolores, Breckenridge, Winter Park, and lord only knows where else. I’ll be gone ’til mid-july. Today was a good One9 shakedown at Clear Creek. That bike freaking ROCKS. I love SS… I even bought some fun socks to celebrate.

Keep watching for some awesome road trip adventures.

Andrea

Forest Roads

After having to DNF Mohican, I was looking to take my frustrations out on some steep climby goodness (yeah, I just made that up. You can use it if you want). I loaded up the car with my sweet new tent and my beanpole buddy for a quick trip out to Lake Sylvia for some Ouachita gravel grinding.

Some random camp photos:

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We prettymuch followed this route, though at about mile 27.5, we stayed on the main forest road and went a little further north up that ridge that runs parallel to the route marked here. We also took another side trip up North Fork Pinnacle (the steepest, rockiest climb of the day- as far as I can tell from my Garmin data, it was 270 feet of elevation gain at an average grade of 12.1%), which is the high point directly north of the 30 mile marker on this screenshot:

route

Matt showing off over the Rocky creek crossing on the southeast corner of Lake Winona:

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…and a few from on top of North Fork Pinnacle (temps were getting hot at that point):

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The Garmin says 4600 feet of ascent for the loop. It usually overestimates those things, but I don’t see any glaring elevation jumps when looking at the profile, so I’d guess it was somewhere upwards of 3500 feet of gain. Not a bad training ride for a couple of flatlanders…

After we arrived back at camp, we cleaned up, had a snack, then headed back to Little Rock for a side trip to Pinnacle Mountain. I’d hiked it once before during the Ouachita 50k trail run, and I wanted to show Matt how “awesome” it was. He’s got the photos on his camera, so I’ll load them as soon as they’re in my possesion.

Andrea

Evolutionary Theory

When I was in training-zombie mode the other day on the Outdoors Inc. ride, I was spacing out and thinking about the absurdity of “hammerfest” group rides. We gather up socially, dress in costumes of our respective tribes, then proceed to thrash the hell out of each other on bicycles. Watching (and participating in) this ritual reminds me of territorial and mate battles between animals. Is it some sort of evolutionary thing? Am I supposed to choose a mate based on who gets to the city limits sign first? I sure as hell love watching it.

Andrea

Happy Mother’s Day

Ok, so I originally had this story in my last post, but it just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the post, and well, it’s just kind of “weird.” So, I took it out shortly after the last posting. My mom read it first, though, and she called today requesting that I re-write it because it was her favoritest thing ever…

A few miles in to my solo ride home from where I’d split from the Outdoors Ride group, I rode by a cemetary and had what I can only explain as a psychic experience. As I approached, I noticed two African American men standing next to each other, hands in their pockets, heads down, looking at a memorial. Passing by, one of them looked up at me. At the same instant, I felt intense sadness. It sucked the breath out of my lungs as if it had traveled across the headwind from him and been absorbed into my capillaries. I believe those were two family members (probably brothers) that were visiting their mom at the cemetary. No idea really how I know, but that’s the sort of feeling I got. It was hard not to start crying- I felt as if I’d been shot. I did my best to compose my thoughts, and the next chance I got, pulled over to call my mom & wish her a happy Mother’s Day.

Andrea

Fun with Group Rides

Since I’ve been out of town so much racing and MTB riding, it’s been a while since I’ve done the staple roadie weekend rides (Trinity and Outdoors). Ryan left on Friday to go to the Joe Martin Stage Race. Since I’m not really interested in (or fit enough to) race the NRC level road races, I stayed home.

Side note- a few of my M-B teammates raced the 3/4 race. They freaking KILLED it. Kathrine Williams pulled off a sweep, winning all 3 stages. Pam Tate wasn’t far behind, finishing 5th in the GC. We’ve got an awesome damn team.

Last week, my Quarq Cinqo finally came in. I’ve been without a powermeter since I got the Trek since the older wired SRM I have wouldn’t fit the bottom bracket. However, I can’t get it to stay calibrated, so I’m sending it back for repair on Monday. I decided I wanted to get back to training with power, so Friday night I put the BH Connect back together with the SRM.

Saturday morning came early (I stayed out a bit late with friends at Flying Saucer- my night to celebrate the once a week alcohol allowance I’ve imposed on myself for weight/training/health/financial purposes). I drug myself out of bed and started making breakfast. For some odd reason, after never liking them my entire life, I’ve recently started craving eggs for breakfast. Alton Brown’s omelette recipe is top-notch.

The ride got off to a slow start. Someone got a flat tire, and while we were standing around waiting, I made the comment that flats aren’t that bad, but I hate when someone decides that the 30 seconds following the flat change is the perfect time to attack and rile up the group. So, naturally, Bryant Funston did just that. He also glanced back at me at one point (I was about 15 feet from closing the gap to his rear wheel in a solo bridge attempt), smirked a bit, and took off like a scalded cat. I dropped back to the group. We caught him a few minutes later, and I made sure to tell him that he was a jerk (in the nicest possible way, of course).

Out of this group, Dale and Jarret were the only ones that survived the ensuing chase…
triathletes

The remainder of the ride was tough. As a group, we rode hard as a group to the Galloway store. After a quick break, we headed towards home, though I was forced to stop at the park in Arlington when I started getting an unpleasant feeling in my gut. Must have been the beer. I finished the last hour of the ride alone in the headwind (a better option than what might have happened if I hadn’t stopped).

The rest of my day was spent laying around and occasionally snacking & napping. I replaced the chainrings on Ryan’s MTB crank. Torx bolts are lame. Mainly because we don’t have many Torx-head tools. Improvisation was needed.

fixed

Sunday, I wanted to get in a little more distance. I headed out the door to the Outdoors on Union around 8:00. After getting warmed up, I made sure to keep my wattage at a goo0d tempo pace. The group wasn’t huge, but it was full of tough love. Someone had a flat tire early on. He informed us that he didn’t bring anything to change a flat. We left him.

Once we left Watkins on the way to the General Store, the group turned on itself. Unlike the hard but cooperative effort of the Trinity group, the Outdoors ride is no-holds-barred, every man (and woman) for himself. I don’t always make it in with the lead group. However, this time I hung in. The power numbers I saw when I downloaded the SRM data at home made me smile a little.

At the General Store, I made a new friend. “Rooster” jokes abounded.
rooster

Instead of heading back in with the group, I headed east to ride home the long way. There was a tiny bit of a headwind, so I paced myself a bit. I figured the best thing to do was to start churning out some more good tempo. By the time I got to Arlington, I felt good. I actually felt really good, which is a wonderful thing at mile 65 of 85. I was hauling by the time I got back to town. Someone in an SUV with Memphis Runners and a “26.2” sticker on the rear window turned in front of me, forcing me to slam on my brakes to prevent a broadside collision. I gave them a giant “WTF” face and hoped to catch them at the next light. Jerk.

So that’s a roundup of a weekend of not much happening. Now I’m laying around with the dogs watching “Memphis Memoirs” on channel 10. I’m pretty stoked with some of the wattage I was able to put out this weekend. I also figured out that I love the BH. I knew the Trek just didn’t seem right. Don’t get me wrong… it’s an awesome bike, but I feel at one with the BH. It’s pretty amazing.