addendum

Thanks to Lynne for getting an awesome shot of me at the finish as I'm about to actually outsprint someone.

I forgot to mention that Christopher may have had the most fun this weekend. They redid the park there since last year and it is really, really, really nice. Lots of things to climb on, slides, play race cars and a fire truck, sand box, etc. Unfortunately, it was so much fun that he had quite a few accidents in that he didn't want to leave to use a rest room. We also got to "go on a trip," which made Christopher happy.

Good races & not-so-good races

We went to the USGP cross races in Sun Prairie this weekend. First, a huge, huge thanks to the Poppers for glueing our tires for us. Tom & I are total newbies at the whole tubular tire thing and would probably still be trying to get Christopher unstuck from a wall or something if we tried it ourselves.

I picked up Christopher from preschool in the RV and was able to meet Tom near downtown on Friday afternoon. I was able to get a decent preride in before it started raining on me. Tom rode too and had his crank come off. We went to the packet pick up and Williamson Bikes was awesome and fixed it for us, even though they were officially closed. And, they only charged us about $10. Yea!

My race on Saturday was great. I felt strong. I kept making stupid mistakes, mainly due to not being used to the tires. I know -- never race on something that you're not used to. But, the weight difference is so fricken huge that both Tom and I raced on them anyway. I was 4 out of 7 in Masters but out of all the girls I was somewhere between 10-15 I think out of 29. I was quite a happy girl.

We were able to spend the night in the grass parking area which let me get my number Saturday evening and preride Sunday's course. I knew it would be brutal.

Sunday -- well, it wasn't as good as Saturday. I think four girls I beat on Saturday ended up beating me on Sunday. I was 5 out of 6 in Masters and I think 18 out of 28 for all the girls. Not attrocious but, after Saturday, I was cranky. I was way too wussy in the turns and stuff -- I'm going to spend as much time as possible this week trying to get used to the tires. And, I only made it up the hill one out of three times. The first lap, I was almost up and my tire slipped. The third lap, I think I drifted into the tape, I don't remember. But, a 3/4 girl tried to sprint past me at the end and I got outsprinted her right before the line. Yea!

Tom's races didn't go well. He did the 35+ so we would both have time to warm-up. The announcers kept saying how it was former pros and the second fastest race of the day. But, awesome courses.

My main complaint is they had the little, little kids start before the women. Other racers saw kids crying by the side of the course and I probably scared the crap out of two of them when I slipped in some mud and crashed into the tape when I was passing them.

We still don't know if we're doing DeKalb or the Wisconsin race this weekend. But, hopefully, I'll be totally rockin' my new wheels by then.

No throwing up & not DFL

(photo from NikkiCyp)


The bugs won. I spent nearly 36 hours from Friday night until Sunday morning hoping to be well for Jackson Park. I did two easy warm-up laps and was kind of worried. Then, I did a hard lap and realized this was totally going to suck. It didn't help that everything I ingested made me want to throw up -- including water. I lined up anyway. I figured I paid $30 (on Thursday, when I still felt okay) so I might as well race. I started out okay but didn't have it in me. I also let too much air out of my tires and had some problems cornering because of it. But, like the title says, I didn't throw up and I managed not to be last. There were girls I felt like I could have beaten if I was healthy; but, of course, I'm not healthy. I shocked the people at preschool by actually driving Christopher today, came home and laid down for two hours before picking him back up. My mom's watching Christopher today so I can lay in bed and a relative may watch him briefly tomorrow afternoon for me too. Of course, being self-employed means no sick days so my income is definitely going to take a hit. As long as I don't drink anything, don't eat anything and lay in bed, I feel fine.

I was able to cheer on people after my race and Christopher got to play in the dirt with some new friends. Tom survived the 1,2,3 race. (No results yet though for his or my races. WTF?) And, I was able to give Ben my wheels which should be glued and ready by the cross races in Sun Prairie next weekend. Man, I hope I am.

lots of packages & sick bugs

My house is starting to get filled with boxes. Two small packages arrived last week and earlier this week that I'll be giving to my dad for his birthday, my new desktop arrived this week, the printer arrived last week as a somewhat cruel joke and then today I got three packages!
FedEx came with my new wheels and, literally like a minute later, UPS showed up with my small box from Cyclocross World with the tires and brake pads. (Last package was from Ex Officio -- they were having a sale and I have come to love their underwear to commute in.)

I'm so excited about the wheels and tires. But, I won't have them for Jackson Park. Julie will be glueing them for me and she is off having fun up north right now.

I'm trying to get Christopher healthy and trying to keep myself healthy. He picked up some type of bug. Diarrhea and then vomiting last night and this morning. I kept him home from preschool today, obviously, and it's been a long day and Tom won't be home until after 6 p.m. today. The doctor's office said they've been getting a lot of calls about kids with similiar symptoms. I'm supposed to give him bland things and no sugar. He's a picky eater and I had no idea how few things we actually had in this house without sugar. I was feeling crappy myself late this morning but am feeling a little better now. At least I don't have his symptoms yet. I'm crossing my fingers that I can stay healthy since the cross season is finally hear (pun intended).

I'll try to get a pic of the wheels and tires up soon. I don't have my new computer hooked up yet so I have to figure out how to get the photos downloaded to my laptop.

DNF

I hate not finishing a race. But, as I sit here sore, I know it was still the right decision.

Tom & I were originally both going to race but he's had a cold or something and decided not to which meant Christopher could go on a trip and race. We got there late on Saturday and I rode a lap. Awesome trails but, man, what a lot of climbing.

I warmed up starting a little after noon with some guidelines/tips from my coach since I tend to just pedal around, chit chat, etc. I finished in time to watch Christopher do the kids race, which was definitely one of the highlights of my day.

Lined up. Soon into the first lap I acutally passed a girl in a green jersey (possibly Hannah?). Holy crap. I lead the rest of the lap, even keeping the lead after a guy HAD to pass me up the singletrack climb, bumped me which I recovered from, and then hit me again sending me down off the trail and into the trees. Arrgh!!!! My Garmin got knocked loose from the strap and I had to shove it in my pocket. I'm such a geek that it was horrible not knowing my lap times, when I should eat a Gu and not being able to see my HR -- it makes me go harder when my HR drops.

After the rock garden on lap 2, I saw a girl in a blue jersey just ahead (possibly Liz?). Soon after I passed her and was actually in front of two girls! Wow. Then, the girl in the green jersey passed me on one of the climbs. I went into lap 3 barely ahead of the girl in blue -- I was really feeling the hills and heat. We passed Christine who was stopped. Then we came to the singletrack climb. The girl in blue was chatting with me as I felt like I was dying. My hamstring felt like it was going to cramp and I put my foot down. I shouldn't have. Oh well. She and Christine went by. I started again, feeling better actually. I rocked the rock garden -- as I had every lap -- and then started down the rest of the downhill, and crashed. I would have sworn I fell right but all of my scrapes are on my left-hand side. I got up, untwisted my handlebars and started again. But, I didn't feel right. I would've sworn my helmet was on crooked but, when I felt it with my hand, it was fine. I shook my head and it wasn't loose. But, it felt off, I felt off. I thought I could just ride it off but it didn't work. I kept having to stop. Not because I was cramping or felt like I was going to puke or because of pain (although I was in some pain). I just had to stop. Then, I would just stand there. Not good. I finally found a course marshall who directly me to another course marshall who sent me on the trail. It took forever. I finally found a sign for a cut-off for citizen/sport which I fell onto. Made my way down to the finish area and tipped over again. By then, women were finishing up. I have no idea how long it took me to get off the course. I woke up early this morning with some pain on my left side by my ribs. No serious bruises. A lot of scrapes.

So, I didn't finish, which I hate. But, as odd as it sounds, it was a good race for me. I rode that rock garden beautifully each lap. It was cool hearing people cheer me on each time. And, being in front of three separate girls at different points of a WORS race is awesome for me.

This weekend is Jackson Park Cross. I'll have to take it easy so I'm ready. Unfortunately, I won't have my cool new wheelset. Which leads to my dilemma -- 32 or 34 for what will be my new Challenge Fango tubular wheels? Julie said 34. Russell said 30 or 32. I posted on the cross forum on MTBR and got pretty evenly 32 and 34 with some 30 suggestions as well. So -- I'm looking for a few more suggestions and reasons for 32 or 34.

Failed commute & CX obsessions

I had my first flat during a commute last night. I decided to try a new route out to New Lenox for a school board meeting which should have shaved at least two miles off the commute. But, the sun was setting and I was riding west so I missed my turn. It turned into an 18-mile ride as opposed to a 14-mile ride. Still, I made it just as the meeting was starting so I was still in relatively good spirits.

On the way home, I was on the planned route, things were going good. I was going through a housing development that wasn't finished so all the street lights weren't on. All of a sudden I heard a pssst. I had seen a dead huge snake on the side of the road going to Lincoln-Way Central so I immediately thought it was a snake and screamed. I, then, quickly realized I had a flat and pulled over under a working street light. It was going good. I even thought to take my skirt off (I had shorts on underneath) to keep it from getting all greasy. Pumping up the tube was a huge pain. People kept stopping and offering me a ride home. I was in Mokena at this point, I believe, and still a good chunk from home and people were assuming I was down the block. I almost had it pumped up (after a few tries) when a guy in his late 40's, early 50's walking with his wife decided he had to help me. He let all the air out, twice at least. Then, he thought he broke the stem. Well, he didn't but he had loosened it so, when I almost had it filled again, it twisted out. Crap. I got it pumped up, I thought good enough, again and started out. I only made it less than nine minutes when I got a pinch flat. I had only a cheap light for a weight savings figuring that I'd be on lit streets. I didn't see the huge bump and, as soon as I hit it, I was like oh crap. Start walking, pull out the cell phone, Tom is of course thrilled to grab a sleeping Christopher (who of course didn't stay asleep) and go pick me up. I kept walking and, let me say, walking with a bike on Wolf Road over I-80 is not for the faint of heart. Ick.

As for CX obsessions, I now "need" new wheels. I put "need" in quotes because I obviously rationally do not need them. I have wheels. But, man, I need, need, need them. I'll look odd having blinged wheels on my Trek XO1. It would be a good deal but nearly four-figures so I'm trying to get Tom's blessing, so to speak. I figure he could use them too so it's like we're getting them for half the cost, right? Obsessions can be a terrible thing. I think Tom is going to put me in a 12-step program soon.

First day of school & other madness

The past couple of weeks have been insane. Christopher didn't have summer camp or pre-school for two weeks and started pre-school again on Tuesday. That would have been crazy enough but I decided to really try at the potty training. He was ready but didn't usually feel like going through the effort of stopping what he was doing and using the potty. My car died -- the alternator and starter have been replaced and now there appears to be a short somewhere. The car is a 1996 but we just really can't afford another car payment right now. And, now, my desktop computer is pretty much dead. It's been dying but, after yesterday late afternoon, it's pretty much dead. I was able to get it back up to get some files off it. I had last backed it up late August and wanted to make sure all the photos, etc. were on the external hard drive we have. At least new desktops are a lot cheaper than new cars.

The Meltdown could have gone a little better for me but it was still an awesome time. Cook County cut out a lot of logs the week before the race. Considering it is the technical stuff I'm good at and am not a speed demon, that made my race a lot harder. I was duking it out with Ronit, from Half Acre. I was faster in the single-track and maybe a little on the hills but she was faster on the flat power sections. She'd be right on my butt and then I'd get a little gap to see her back on my butt again. I was ahead until almost half-way through the race but couldn't stay with her when she passed. Almost every race this year, I get nauseous when I eat during a race(I had eaten a Gu a little before she got by me) . It's annoying. I stopped feeling like I was going to puke but she was gone and beat me by a few minutes. My legs started cramping going up gravity cavity for the last time but I am proud to say I didn't go in my small ring in the front and stood to climb most of the last time up the grassy hill -- mainly because Julie and Erica were screaming at me and were almost as fast running as I was trying to make my way up the hill for the last time. I did beat about five guys and passed several of them during my last lap. All in all, awesome race put on by an awesome group. I can't wait for next year.

Tom and I will likely do Lake Geneva and then switch gears to cross. Yea, cross! Tom put in to upgrade so we're still working out how we'll both do this. We'll likely focus more on the Wisconsin races with me doing Women's 3 and him doing the 30 plus or 35 plus (I can't remember which) for 1,2,3. With the Chicago series, he'd have to do the men's 1,2,3. We'll definitely be at Jackson Park though. And, I'm already registered for the Jonthan Page cross races in Sun Prairie and just registered for Jingle Cross. = )