Halloween & CX

Christopher had an adorable Elmo Halloween costume. He would not wear it. So, he was a bike rider for Halloween instead. I did get Tom to wear the Elmo costume on his head for awhile but, alas, I do not have any photos of it. Christopher liked being able to ride up to people's doors and have people give him candy for it.

I went up to the Polska cross race on Saturday. It was an awesome course except for the hill run-up which spiked my heart rate and slowed me down to a snail's pace. Getting over the barrier on the hill climb was horrible and I felt like I needed a ladder to get my short legs over it.

I had the same feeling on Sunday. Two of the barriers were on the tops of little inclines. My getting over the barriers was sloppy and I kept banging my shins while pre-riding the course. The course was, like all the Chicago races, almost entirely grass and asphalt. However, there were a lot of turns to make it interesting. I was right behind Beth, with xXx, when I took the turn leading into the gravel mushy road too quick and at a bad angle and washed out. Then, I was in too big of a gear and couldn't get going for about two minutes. I have an extremely bad tendency to get focused on trying to pass someone and forget completely about riding the course cleanly. I totally lost any chance of catching Beth and then had to put it in high gear to keep a girl from SRAM from catching me who I had previously had a pretty decent lead on.

Christopher has been a total demon lately. His new thing is to bring a chair to the fridge and then use the water dispenser to fill a cup and, then, overflow the cup causing water to go everywhere. After both Monday and yesterday, I would say "wow, this has been a long week." Thus, the late post. Tonight, I have a meeting for the local paper which will be a brief break and tomorrow afternoon my mother is watching him. I'll be jumping for joy when my mother's car pulls out of the driveway.

I love cross

I fricking love cross. I went to a Bandit cross training race tonight. I have some minor shifting and other issues I need to get fixed by Sunday but, as I was coming home, I just kept thinking I love cross. Although I find it so odd that the bottom of the top tube on the '08 Trek XO's come to an almost point. I got a bruise on my shoulder from a clinic I went to on Saturday where he had us practicing shouldering the bike.

I feel like I'm living in invasion of the body snatchers and someone took my little boy and replaced him with this big one. Christopher is no longer using a high chair and we took the side off the crib to turn it into a toddler bed.

I don't have photos of the trail-gator yet but we did try it out briefly on Sunday. We hooked Christopher's bike up to my old hardtail and I pedaled very slowly for a couple of houses with Tom jogging alongside Christopher. Christopher seemed to like it but it will be quite awhile before I'm actually able to take him the mile to mini pre-school or anything on it. I just bought a big dorky handlebar mirror for the bike so I can keep an eye on him.

Commuting surprises

I had to go to the village of LaGrange on Wednesday afternoon. I was running late so I took LaGrange Road/Route 45 all the way there -- about 15 miles. The majority of the ride was actually quite nice as there are now huge shoulders about a lane wide from 111th Street through Archer. I had looked at a map put out by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF) and took the recommended route home. It was better up until Archer--the map has Willow Springs/Flavin Road highlighted as the preferred route. There's no shoulder, the road is crumbling at the sides and cars are just flying by trying to avoid traffic on LaGrange. Who would've thunk Route 45 would actually be the safest street to ride on in that area?

On Sept. 22 I'll get to attend an all-day training on the bike for the new part-time gig I have with CBF. Very cool. The job may only go through July so I'll have to enjoy it while I can. Hopefully, I have better luck getting people to commute than I've had with Tom. He hasn't commuted since he got stung on the tongue.

We just got our trail-gator thing yesterday. It's supposed to let me connect Christopher's bike to my bike, kind of like a tandem. I'll post pics and a review once we get it put together.

New bike, lots of rides and rain

Christopher got a new bike -- a Trek with 12 inch wheels. The photo is of his first ride (not including in the store). At first, it was a little hard for him as it is a lot heavier than his little Radio Flyer bike and it's his first bike with brakes. But, he's getting the hang of it pretty quick and was riding around a little yesterday evening at the bottom of the big grassy hill at Palos.

I was able to get out for nearly three-hour rides Saturday, Sunday and Monday which was wonderful. Sunday's ride was pretty short since I had just got to Psychopath when I encountered two guys off their bikes at the first little log. One of them had gone over it, nose dived and flew into a tree shattering the helmet. He was sitting on the ground with his camelback bladder held up to his eye -- the area around which was already reddish-purple-ish. I had actually printed out a map of the trails thinking I'd be adventurous after Psychopath and Turf 1 so I used the map and called Tom to figure out the best way to get him to where his friend could pick him up. It took 40 minutes but there was really no way I could leave them there without them having any idea of how to get back. Tom also got in long mountainbike rides on Sat. and Monday and did a ride on the paved trails with Christopher on Sunday. I caught up with them as they were coming home on Sunday which was nice since Christopher kept saying "Hi mommy!"



This afternoon my mother is watching the little guy and I had hoped to ride the course for Sunday's race but it's been constant rain. We did both get a quick lap in yesterday evening after picking up the packets. I actually had a meeting I had to attend for the local paper at 8 p.m. so, while Tom was riding, I was changing and trying to get everything ready. I shut the rear window and then hear the front car door shut. Christopher comes walking over to me but the keys are still in the car and he had managed to lock all the car doors first. I had to flag down about 5 guys riding by before I found one with a cell phone (mine being in the car). While we were waiting for Tom to finish riding and my dad to pick me up, poor Christopher kept asking for juice and his helmet not understanding why I wouldn't get them out of the car for him.