Andrea

Countdown to KCCX

Ryan & I are leaving on Thursday for Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City, MO. Last year, the weather was foul. It snowed several inches, and high temps were in the teens. The course was just a bunch of frozen, ice-covered ruts. This year, it looks like it will be warmer, with some rain chances thrown in. Sounds like a recipe for slop to me… luckily, I’ll be prepared:

Before- Kenda Kommando Clinchers (and Turbo)
Before- Kenda Kommando Clinchers (and Turbo)
Add one Stan's No-Tubes! CX Kit
Add one Stan's No Tubes! CX Kit
Hutchison Bulldog Tubeless!
Hutchison Bulldog Tubeless!

Sorry, I don’t have photos of the actual sealing process. It takes both hands and can get a tiny bit messy if you’re not careful. Stan’s site has some great video of the process, though.

Andrea

Training Zombie

The more than 11 hours I’ve spent on a bike between Friday & Sunday are catching up with me. I worked on some grades this morning, but after spacing out a few times while staring at my computer, I decided to call it a day. Now, I’m listening to the wind howling outside and thinking about how awesome it is that I get to ride 2 more hours today… I can’t wait for race season, when this will all pay off.

Andrea

80 miles, tractors, and a near-epic chili failure

Even though I stayed up late last night for a Christmas party, I managed to drag my butt out of bed early enough to start a crock pot of sweet potato chili before my planned 10:00 departure for my long solo base ride. Everything looked good- I even remembered to turn the Crock Pot on! There’s nothing better after a long, chilly ride than a giant bowl of chili, right?

So I head out on my ride (I altered the last bit to go through Arlington in order to make it longer, so it was close to 80 rather than 74):

After 3 hours of riding, I made a stop at the infamous “Cat Pee Store” on the north side of Oakland. It was closed, but it’s got couches on the porch, so it’s still a nice place to take a break and have a snack. While I was there, I got a text message from Ryan:
“Do you mean for crock pot to be cooking? It is unplugged!”

Oops. So at the time of this posting, I’m having leftovers instead of chili. It will be ready by dinner time, but it would have been much worse if my goof-up hadn’t been caught!

So I head back out towards home. Along the way, I was on Hwy 196 outside of Galloway (it’s not on the above route since I changed plans mid-ride). I ride up behind a large tractor with two men on it- a driver and his passenger. They’re going about 15mph, and I was cruising at 17-18mph. So, I go to pass them… the passenger starts lauging and pointing at me- and the driver guns the motor to match my speed. The passenger is still laughing, and in the distance, there is a car coming in the lane that I’m trying to use to pass. WTF?! Effing rednecks. So, rather than slow down and get back behind them, I (for lack of a better term) attack the bejezus out of the tractor and ride my butt off until I was sure that they weren’t going to catch back up with me. They were close for a minute. It kinda sucked. I got away, though, so it’s all good. I imagine they’re back at home sippin’ Natty Lite and tellin’ me-maw & the kids about some crazy idjut on a bike that they were messin’ with the same way I’m telling the story about some backwoods rednecks not wanting to share their tractor-transporting road.

Thankfully, the rest of the ride was uneventful (though I did get chased by several dogs earlier in the ride). I felt like I still had a little “go” in my legs near the end, which is a nice feeling.

Andrea

Product Review: Descente “Wombat” Gloves

…possibly another addition to my “top 10 favorite things of all time” list.

Those of you that know me might know that I have HORRIBLE problems with cold hands in the winter. I have all the syptoms of Reynaud’s Phenomena, so cold hands to me aren’t just uncomfortable- they’re effing PAINFUL and put me at risk for tissue damage.

Because of this, good gloves are a must for me. I’ve got a pair of Pearl Izumi “lobster” gloves, which I don’t especially like because A) They’re PI, and I think that PI is trash for their latest ad campaign, B) the liner is really bulky, and C) if I sweat in them, they get reeeealy cold and cause my usual hand issues.

So, when it got cold out, I went out in search of something less bulky than the lobsters, and NOT made by PI (I swear, if you have any respect for female cyclists, you’ll avoid giving them your money). Enter the Descente “Wombat” glove. They’re a mid to heavyweight glove that have a cool little wind/waterproof “mitten” cover that can either wrap around your fingers or tuck into the back of the glove if not needed. They’ve also got a decent amount of snot-wipe area, and stretchy, articulated knuckles.


I LOVE these! The knuckles make them much more “wearable” than other gloves in the same category- meaning that you don’t have to take them off if you want to lock a door, use an allen key to adjust your saddle, zip your jacket, etc. The finger cover is the absolute BEST feature, though. I pull it over my fingers for the first few minutes of a cold ride while I’m warming up, then tuck it in, and will get it back out any time my fingers threaten to lose circulation… and it’s worked so far!

Yesterday was a great test- temps in the low 40’s, and two hours of riding followed by a 10 minute rest stop and another two hours of riding. Typically, the worst pain I experience is following a rest stop- my gloves are sweaty, then I stop, and both me and the sweat cools off, so when I start back, the cold, wet gloves will often cause the painful vasospasm associated with Reynaud’s. After my rest stop, I pulled the windproof covers over my fingers and it prevented this from happening! Not to say that my hands didn’t get a bit cold, because they did. They just didn’t get to the point of losing circulation & going numb.

As long as these don’t disintegrate like the Gore Vulcano gloves I bought last year, they’re WELL worth the $55.00 I paid at the LBS (you can get them cheaper online, but I can’t stand buying gloves w/out trying them on).

UPDATE: I wore them today w/temps in the 30’s, and they were comfy. I’ve seen reports of people using them in colder temps, but I think that I’ve found my personal limit for them.

Andrea

Addition to my top 10 list of favorite things…

Pristine, perfect bar tape in a color other than black (I think that black tape actually increases rolling resistance and take 5 watts off of your FTP).

I just wrapped the handlebars of Ryan’s Ridley CX bike after he replaced them following his carbon fiber mishap.

Enjoy:

Hanging next to my cross-check:

Andrea

OK, I admit, I used pre-baked pizza crust…

…AND pineapple from a can!

Today has been busy-
After a couple of french-presses worth of coffee, Ryan and I rode out to Shelby Farms. I’ve been coaching him into a short-term overreaching cycle in order to get him on form for Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City (exactly two weeks from today). Today, we used the cross-country running course on the north side of the park. It’s about two miles long, and a perfect CX practice course. After riding a warm-up loop, I rode ahead of him and created some makeshift barriers out of strategically placed logs (I even managed to create a sweet forced run-up!) The interval I prescribed was tough: two minutes of all-out hammering followed by three minutes of “recovery” at an LT effort, for 30 minutes. Right off the bat, Ryan noticed that one side of his handlebars felt a little “off,” but he finished the workout anyway.
After that, we rode back home, had a snack, and headed back out on our road bikes for a two hour ride that included several more (shorter, less intense) intervals and one hill attack.

Beware… what follows gets somewhat domestic (again)!

Ryan had to go to the Outdoors, Inc. store on Union to pick up some new handlebars (see link above), as well as stop by his workplace for a little while. Meanwhile, I did some dishes, washed clothes (damn winter riding laundry!), went to the store…
Afterward, I removed the cables & housings from Ryan’s CX bike and snapped some photos of the carbon fiber explosion. He came home & worked on the re-installation while I made dinner: pear, walnut & gorgonzola salad (with arugala… yum!), and Hawiian pizza (I promise- they go surprisingly well together).

Which brings us back to the title of this blog entry…

Andrea

Beat the Freak CX- Sunday Edition

Sunday was a nice learning experience.

When racers were called for the start of the singlespeed race, only one other entrant- p1/2 racer Jeremy Chandler, came to the line. I figured I was in for a beatdown & probable lapping at some point during the race, but he told me that riding alone was boring, and that he’d stick with me. It was actually a great experience- he gave me a wheel to follow through some tricky sections of the course where I’d tend to slow down, offered a little advice, and generally pushed me to ride as hard as possible. At one point, the race promoter yelled an offer of a $50 bonus to me if I beat him. I told Jeremy that if he let me win, I’d gladly split the bonus money. So, on the last lap, I buried myself. Once, in the wind, Jeremy offered a draft (I think I proposed marriage at that point), but otherwise, he rode behind/beside me and yelled at me to go faster. He let me take the race by a wheel. Later, at payout time, the $50 bonus was “forgotten,” so I gave Jeremy back the difference between 1st/2nd place prize money. He could have easily ridden off and left me on my own for the 45min race, but was nice enough to not only ride with me, but offer some help & encouragement, so I felt that it was the least I could do.

Here’s a shot that Ryan took from the sidelines:

As for my second race… it was a learning experience as well. I learned that if I want to kick some butt, don’t race earlier in the day! Not only did I finish DFL (unlike the Saturday, when I managed to pass a few of the men), I also got lapped by at least half the field within the last two laps of the race. It was all I could do to drag myself around the course for 5 laps!

There were a few people taking photos, so hopefully I’ll get a few up this week.

Ryan raced well in his races, though was a bit dissapointed to finish in 2nd place on both days.

Andrea

Beat the Freak CX Race- Saturday Edition

I was the sole CX 1/2/3 woman lining up today with the 1/2/3 men for a 45 minute race. I let the guys go ahead of me, but kept the DFL man in my sights. After a lap, I began to pass him. Of course, he sped up and passed me, only to be caught again within the next lap. I laughed at him little… he was a little miffed and said if he hadn’t just raced his ass off that he could easily beat me. Ah… the male ego (eyeroll). I managed to pull in a couple of other guys for a total of 3: a 1/2 and two cat 3s.

Tomorrow I plan on doubling up & racing the single speed category (I’m expecting similar results) along with my usual women’s race.

Here is some post-race mud hotness: