Christopher's first race

It was somewhat of a last-minute decision to hike up to Eau Claire. I really wanted more single-track and Christopher had kept saying he wanted to go on a trip. Tom reluctantly agreed to come along and let me race.

Christopher did pretty good on the ride there and rode around on his bike without pedals while I prerode. On Sunday, he woke up cranky and not himself. When I said I had to sign up for my race though, he said he wanted to race too. So, we signed him up. He seemed to have fun and insisted on wearing his medal inside the restaurant we stopped at last night and to summer camp this morning. = )

I really enjoyed most of the course during the preride except for a rock garden they added simply to have a rock garden (well, that's how it seemed to me anyway). It was basically a long driveway of large rocks. I'd ride all of it but the last bit that you had to turn left.

My race was icky. I went way too hard my first lap trying to stay with the girls -- which didn't work for long -- and trying not to slow down the guys too much. My first lap was 43 minutes (which included some unintentional stopping trying to let guys pass) with a heart rate between 187 and 195 for 21 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't know at the time that I finished lap 1 not that far behind a group of girls. That definitely would have been the push I needed but Tom didn't think to mention it to me (watching Christopher is not exactly easy). I do much better when I'm just behind someone.

I had opted to use bottles for this race and, in hindsight, I should have taken the camelback -- I went a little too easy on the long sections when I was taking a drink and ended up a little dehydrated with a little stomach cramping the last lap. I was about 12 minutes behind the next girl and also about 12 minutes longer from my goal of finishing in.

But, I thought my technical riding was really good. I'm trying not to beat myself up too much. I hadn't done a mountainbike race since the Palos Meltdown and my last WORS race was last year's Kewaskum. I'd like to do decent (decent for me, anyway) at Crystal Ridge, Lake Geneva and the Palos Meltdown. I'm planning to do Kewaskum -- more of a training race for both the mountainbike and cross races coming up. If you see me slackin' off during the race, be sure to yell at me. = )

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy

(If I was better at this, a link to Underworld's song "Crazy" would be here.)

I had really wanted to go to the Suburu Cup but we decided not to with Tom still being injured. I ended up being then was able to run a bike rodeo in Homewood, which are what the photos are from.

I went to the Metro 12 Hour on Saturday. I ended up being the only 12-hour girl which ended up being fine by me. I'm still getting over a cold Christopher picked up from summer camp and my body is no longer used to doing 12-hour races. But, I had a hell of a lot of fun. The singletrack was great. My bike was making these horrible squeaking noises and, by the end of the day, my wonderful Team Extreme teammates had fixed it. My poor bike is so in need of some love and maintenance. I only did seven laps with a lot of socializing in between. Riding, chilling out and catching up with people I haven't seen in ages was just what I needed. It was an awesome day.

Good deed

I decided sort of last minute to try to get a ride in before it rained. I grabbed some bike shorts and one of Tom's jerseys that were hanging up to dry and rushed to pick Christopher up from summer camp. We get to the paved trail start up a hill and Christopher says "Mommy, it's raining." Crap. I put the rain cover down and continue. It starts raining harder. Crap. So, at the top of the hill (where there is a "T" intersection), I turn us around and start back. It eases up so I decided to aim for an hour ride and go to the lake, do a little more meandering and start on the spur back to my house. I pass a guy stopped and then my mind starts wandering. I hear the "on your left" and apologize as I had been taking up most of the trail. I then get to see him crash magnificiently. The trail curves after crossing the street I was going to hop off the trail at and he took it too fast for the wet conditions. I cross the street and stay on the trail to see if he's okay, ask if he wants me to call for an ambulance as I see blood on his arm and think of Tom's crash a couple of weeks before. He says he's fine.

I notice Christopher is passed out and I have just over an hour so I decide to cruise around a little. I get to the next street and turn back -- the guy is still sitting on the ground. Hmm. I ride down a side street 'til the next busy street and turn around and come back. The guy is up but walking his bike. Turns out he got a flat. I have everything but the pump which he has. He's impressed as I start changing the tire. Then, of course, I can't get the tire back on. He gets the last bit on. Then, as usual, I have problems getting the pump off without half of the air coming back out.

Eventually, I get him on his way telling him to avoid to big bumps and I actually got 1 hour, 30 minutes in. Yea! Now, it's raining again and I'm doubting ever being able to ride my mountain bike again.

Successes

On Saturday morning, I decided to gamble and try to go up for the 12 Hours at John Muir. It looked like it might rain but it looked like there was a better chance it would rain at my house. It rained quite a bit as I was driving up there. By the time I got there, I was tired from the 12+ hour work day on Friday and not in a competitive mood. I told myself to go out and ride a couple of laps and that, if it wasn't fun, I'd go home and see my little guy and my injured guy. The trails were muddy and I just kept thinking that, if I crashed, who was going to change Christopher's diapers.

I rode with a girl a good part of the lap that was competing as part of a 12-hour team. I did one lap, stopped to fix my speed sensor and really had to convince myself to go back out. Most of lap 2 I had a guy behind me who wanted to chat -- and wanted me to find him a girlfriend. It was still muddy, I still wasn't having fun and the guy would come up beside me as I was trying to pick the best muddy, rocky line for uphills/downhills causing me to put a foot down and hoof it up the last part of the hill in one instance and get a handlebar in the quad during a downhill part. As I finished the lap, it started raining again. Decision made. It totally did not help that I was planning on ditching out early on the Friday event I had to work ,which my co-worker knew -- she then bought tickets to see some play and ditched the event completely meaning I didn't get home 'til late and didn't get to see Christopher before he went to sleep.

I went home after bailing from Saturday's race, helped Tom with Christopher, cuddled with Christopher, spent more than 1.5 hours mowing the jungle of our front yard with a reel mower. I was absolutely shocked, amused and somewhat embarrassed to see I actually took first in the 12-hour race. I believe the other girl was a young girl who took a spill during her first lap.

For the 12 Hours at Crystal Ridge, I plan on not working the night before, tucking my son in the night before and coming with my game face.

Tom's still on the mend. The pain is not as bad but he's getting back spasms from the arm sling. Two weeks down. Hopefully only four to go. It's been a very, very long two weeks for both him and me.

LCI 51207272

I have my official LCI number after taking a really, really, really long three-day class to be a League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor. I'm co-teaching my first class on July 1 down in the Champaign area.

Other than that, my life has been even more insanely hectic than before. As I'm sure most of my few readers know, Tom broke his clavicle (I think that's how you spell it) at the Wonder Lake Super Crit. It's now been one week and one day. It's hell for him. He's in pain and in an arm sling for probably a little more than six weeks. I've been trying to help Tom out and also doing everything with regards to taking care of Christopher, the house, etc. (Both our back and front yard are only partially cut at the moment.) I've been going out of my mind. I did do the crits in Winfield this weekend and volunteered. It was nice for me to get out of the house but horrible for Tom to have to deal with Christopher for most of the weekend. I was kind of sad to not get to race 9 Mile but my plan of sticking to races closer to home has seemed to be working well for the most part -- with the exception of Tom crashing during a crit.

1st to DFL in 24 hours

I decided to do ABD's crits this weekend. I'm dying to be on my mountainbike but the races were close to home and I could race for free. Saturday went well. I hung with the pack of women (30+, 40+ and one 50+ woman) and finished 2nd in my age group and I think 8th overall in the about dozen racers. Sunday we were with two men's age groups. I couldn't hang with the faster pack but noticed no other 30+ girls were up there either. I rode with two guys most of the race, took first in my age group and got quite a few compliments about riding strong. The compliments about strong riding and the top podium spot were very rare and very nice.

Then things started to suck. We thought we had someone to watch Christopher Sunday afternoon so Tom & I could actually go on a mountainbike ride together. She said she couldn't last minute. On Monday, I had a good chance of taking the overall and getting $50. A teammate and another girl even said they were going to just ride with me the whole race to make sure I got the overall. I'm sure my few readers know where this is going. I had a horrible race. It was really windy and we had a smaller group and I can't draft for anything. I fell off our little group. My teammate had previously shot off and ended up winning the race. The other girl who was going to work with me worked with one of my competitors and, working by myself in the wind, I almost reeled 'em in but couldn't. I ended up with the same amount of overall points with another girl. Even though I had beat her the previous two days and my best placing was a first vs. her second, she got the overall. Then, I realized I lost part of my skewer for my front wheel that had been in the pit. I was told that there were no vegan sandwiches (they had a PB and J for me the day before) and I couldn't find the spare umbrella we keep in the car. Someone at least lent me a rain jacket as it rained on me for several hours being a course marshall. And, then last, I had to argue with the volunteer coordinator because she didn't want to give me one of my volunteer vouchers (which I can use for race fees). So, I was cranky. Some seemed to be annoyed I was in a bad mood. But, what a crappy day!

On a good note on Sunday evening, we briefly had the training wheels off Christopher's bike. He's "riding" the bike without pedals like a pro. We took the training wheels off his little Trek, he rode a very small distance (with me kind of holding the back of his seat), he started tilting to the side and wanted his other bike. He is sooo close! = )

[Edit: I added a photo taken on Saturday since it shows the new bike. It no longer has the white seat, which you can't really tell since my butt's on it.]

Starting to catch up with me

I've been going at a really hectic pace and this weekend it appears to have caught up with me. I did ABD's time trial on Saturday morning and then did the Vernon Hills crit on Sunday. The time trial went icky. My pace was slower than I was expecting. So, it probably was not the best idea to decide to go to a crit on the next day. The crit was really fast and I made a dumb move of starting in the front to the left which put me in the wind when I should have been trying to draft. Most of the race was basically a time-trial effort. At least, I have a rest week this week. Now, whether or not I'll actually have time to get any rest will be another story.