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. = )

A good week

I rode a total of five different bikes this past week and was able to ride my mountain bike three days with different trails each time. It was a good week.

My old hardtail Juliana is hooked up to Christopher's little Trek and Christopher now asks for his helmet on and to get "Mommy's green bike and my blue bike." My kid is three and already bugging me to ride. Awesome. = )

I also went to the bandit Church Cross on Sunday morning. It was a great layout and it felt awesome to be on my cross bike and hopping over barriers. I was even happy to look down and see my heartrate so fricken high. Yes, I'm insane. I opted to ride out there, which wasn't bad, but riding back home in the heat after the all-out effort was brutal. I definitely should've brought an extra Gu with me.

I should have worked this morning while Christopher was at summer camp but snuck in an hour ride on some singletrack before the forecasted rain. It hasn't rained yet which is even better since I'd like to log some more time at Palos before the race.

I'm planning on doing Downers Grove so I'll probably do the Matteson training crit tomorrow. Downers is a huge race and I'm interested to see how I'll do but it's hard for me to get excited about a road race. Now, Palos -- that I'm totally psyched for. I've been feeling good and have my fingers crossed that I can actually stay healthy for a couple of weeks.

Almost

(photo from Rusty)

First off, sorry to those I spoke to right after the race as I always tend to be cranky-- focusing on what I did wrong. In this case, I started the race freaking out about the guys having to pass me in the singletrack, particularly the first rock garden on Alpha. I kept thinking I would crash if I had a bunch of guys behind me there. So, of course, I did. I rode it super smooth my second lap. But, both the first and third lap I stopped and then tipped over to the left. Totally dumb.

The rest of the race actually went pretty good for me. I rode most of the singletrack really well. Even parts that I usually have problems with (although I did clip a tree my first lap). I would occasionally freak out and tell myself to calm down and ride smooth. I noticed Liz coming over the bridge over all the rocks as I was heading to O'Malleys Woods near the end of our second lap and looked at my heart rate monitor. When I got to her spot I realized I was only four minutes behind her. I tried to kick it up a notch telling myself to just ride smooth. Then, I tip over in the same stupid rock garden my third lap. Great, there goes that I thought. But, as I was climbing the top of the hill I saw her standing on the down hill, letting people go by (which was because she had unfortunately crashed as I later found out). I tried to kick it up again although that last part of the climb to the top is a killer. When I got to the bottom, I realized I was probably less than three minutes behind her now. I went all out and ended up about a minute and a half behind. (I thought I was less but apparently WORS timing doesn't delete the minute delay from the men's start to our start.) My best WORS finish in a long time -- not including the short track at last year's Suburu Cup. So, not bad considering it's only my third mountainbike cross country race of the year when it's probably double that for many and I'm still hacking up crap on climbs from that chest cold I had. I'm excited about the Palos Meltdown. I got out there twice last week and am hoping to get out again this week. We'll probably do Lake Geneva and then switch to cross. I've bought numerous stuff for my cross bike with my QBP discount -- Tom and I (mostly Tom) will have to get crankin' on getting it ready. I love mountainbiking but, boy, do I love cross too. = )

Back to life

I was sick all of last week. It really sucked -- especially, since I had so much crap going on last week, which I'm sure is one of the reasons that it's been more than a week and I'm still not quite back to 100%. I'm mostly better but I still have crap stuck in my lung/chest area. After climbing up a hill, I'm hacking for awhile.

I went out on a long ride yesterday evening. I rode from my house to Canal Trail and then did as much as last year's Meltdown course as I could remember, thinking it'd be better to have a planned route. It was a lot of fun but I kept getting lost on the multi-track. My mother had Christopher this afternoon so I kind of played hooky and rode back doing Canal Trail and then the course from two years ago and back. There was plenty of work-related stuff I should have been doing but I just needed another fix before it rains again.

The photo is of Christopher in his Elmo costume. He refused to wear it last Halloween and yesterday I couldn't get him out of it until he was a big sweaty mess. Christopher enjoyed his second race at Kewaskum. Me, not so much. But, it was an okay race-effort. Looking at my heart rate monitor after the race, it seemed my heart rate was too low and then, waking up the next morning sick as a dog, it makes a little more sense. Poor Christopher will not be racing at Alterra as both Tom & I are registered. But, he'll be with his fan club and will get ice cream and other goodies. The fan club may only be able to watch him part of the day though so we have to figure out if we have to take two cars or if I have to try to hitch a ride home.

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.