Friday, September 29, 2006

Monday, September 25, 2006

Recovery

It is hard to believe that something as small and undectable to the naked eye such as a "COLD VIRUS" can take me down for the count without a fight. Once that darn little microorganism penetrates your first line of defense and invades your cells they are out for destruction. So wouldn't you know, they just wait for you to be a little weak before they make their attack. Seven days off my bike due to this little bastard and I can't do **** until it is done Partying in my body. I hate getting sick, I have no time for this, and I do not look forward to getting old, I am impatient! I am tired of chicken noodle soup and living with Kleenex up my nose.

As far as the weekend goes, it sucked watching all of you race when I wanted to so badly to join in, but I can't jeopardize my daytime job for a race that could prolong my recovery from this cold. You all looked great out there and it turned out to be a perfect day for a race.

Monday, September 18, 2006

CHEQUAMEGON FAT TIRE FESTIVAL 06

Thank goodness I had more fun this weekend to make up for the half *** race that I did on Saturday. That is about how I feel about the whole ordeal. We headed up to Cable around noon on Friday with our buddy Eeeeeeeeeeeee. We arrived around 6:30 PM or there about and we were welcomed by Ted and Andrea, Anna's parents who welcomed us for a weekend of celebration. They even had pasta dinner ready for us when we arrived and it was delicious! The night came quickly and it was 5:00 AM when our alarm clock went off. Ty got up and headed out with Sanjay to set their bikes up before the race. I got to sleep in a bit til 7ish which was a nice perk for having a preferred start.

I rode from the house which was just behind Telemark to the start of the Short and Fat. The morning was cool and I wore my winter Alterra jacket hoping to stay warm until the start of the race. After 10 mins on the road and a few warm up drills I was ready. I headed to the start and found it very easy to set up my bike, plenty of room. I started to think, should I put it right up front or a bit back? I know that the massive start it will not matter. I plopped the bike down somewhere in the middle and sure enough it had to be behind that Lobecki guy. I saw more familiar faces, Murphy Kate, Violetta, Karen Deboise Merra and Sara Lucas. One quick trip to the port-a-potty and then I was ready. The weather was starting to look threatening as we approached the start of the race. The gun shot could of not gone off sooner.

The start was a bit slow, I was able to keep in the pack of the top 50 for awhile and I saw people starting to pass on the far left of the pack to get ahead. There were some in experienced riders out there making there way to the front and not calling out there moves. Literally, these guys were coming within inches between me and another almost taking us out. I see this guy swerving in and out like a drunk man, knowing he is going to cause a problem somewhere. I was not the only one PO'ed about this idiot. I inched over more to the left as we were proceeding down the paved road at a pretty good clip, just in time before this huge wipe out to the right of me. I thought to myself it must of been that jerk who caused that crash unfortunately and hoping it was not too bad. Everything was going well, I was feeling great had a good pace and felt I could keep it up for awhile. We finally hit the hills of gravel road and the pace slowed a bit as people dropped off and others from behind caught up. Somewhere after 20 some minutes of gravel road I was feeling a bit tired and my pace slowed and that is where I got ******! I remember seeing quite a few women passing and I felt like I dropped to 30th or something. I kept plugging away and hoping for a miracle. I thought to myself where is the power I felt last weekend on those climbs? Where is the grass? Finally after how many miles of gravel road we hit the grass, my favorite:) I started to see the fun again and some girls in site. I was able to push it to the limit from here on out having fun on the rolling hills and passing all these guys who were making me work around them. Some people love to take the nice paved line at there own turtle pace and you have to learn to work with them by keeping off the beaten path or you will never get anywhere.

All of a sudden I see the sign, 4 miles to go Short and Fat as I looked down at my watch to see how much time elapsed since the start. No, I don't watch my heart rate during a race, but I do watch the time to see if I could beat last years time of 1:11 which was looking grim at that moment. I pushed it as hard as I could feeling like I was going to puke any minute, I caught up to some womam finally and told myself no matter how much it hurt I was going to pass her. I kicked it up another notch towards the end, one last hill climb to go, up and over, and flying to the finish. 18th over all again, must a hit the wall.

At least some of us had a good race, Congrats to Mikey for his 9th overall finish, I really got some nice shots of him at the finish. I had fun taking pictures of everyone that I could at the race, so make sure you check out the link at the top of the page. Thanks again to Anna and Sanjay for enviting us to stay with Anna's parents this weekend in that sweet home nestled just up the finsh line from the race, we had a great time and even made some new friends. Also thanks to Jo and Mike for letting us party it up with them on Saturday night and stay at there lovely pad on Rosa lake. Sorry if we missed the awards but the commentator was dragging it out a bit too long and were anxious to get out of there and have some fun.

Sunday morning we headed back up to Telemark to watch E in the crit. The weather was cold and misty rain, and it looked like it was going to be a muddy race. The rain stopped just in time for the start, and it was really fun watching some of the pros' mixed with some of our WORS's riders in the competition. I think next year I am going to enter this race, you get a chance to race against some of the top notch racers just for fun. After talking to Sara Lucas before the start of the race, I thought to myself that really looks like fun. There were only a handful of women who raced and that is a shame. Sara did pretty good 1st in her age and 4th over all next to Sara Kylander-Johnson. Oh yea, Murphy Kate and her dad Tim did the Tandum race and they did pretty well too! The last race consisted of all the best riders of the day competing for a first place finish which was the most exciting race to watch this year by far. The sun came out in full force at the start of the last race, it got nice and warm, wouldnt you know just as we leave Cable.

Next stop, Wisconsin Rapids.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

CONTENDERS



2006 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival in Cable Wisconsin is just a few days away and I am pumped for a great weekend of fun. As you see in the picture, these are last years contenders of the Short & Fat race, Grabowski, Lembezeder and Smith who I will be racing against this weekend (GOD HELP ME NOW). I know I get shit from others about doing the Short and Fat race instead of the 40 mile, but I say, "the hell with all of you". I am looking forward to racing my *** off this weekend and only hope to be as good as these women.

Monday, September 11, 2006

SUNBURST 2006

check out Carlos's pic's
check out Jo's pic's
check out Tyrines's pic's

Not a bad weekend afterall, considering I did not feel like racing. My favorite moments of Kewaskum 2006 is riding with my teammates
for most of the race, having a blast out on the course and swapping stories at the end,
PRICELESS.

Friday, September 08, 2006

TGIF

Well it's here, Friday at last and I feel fatigued. I got in some good rides this past week but really felt tired riding last night and had to push it with the intervals. SRM battery died before my ride so I had to opt for the HR method which sucks! I am still tired today and hungry as hell. Hopefully no rain in the forecast for Sunday's race at Kewaskum. I would hate to have more mechanicals after another muddy race. Gotta save the bike for Cheq Fat Tire. Well all I can work on for now is recovery.

Tammi and her daughter Schenise are headed down to stay with us for the weekend. We plan on taking the backwoods girls out to dinner at Rock Bottom in the BIG CITY tonight. We then plan to pre-ride in the morning depending on the weather. Not sure if Tammi is volunteering for this one, I should of signed up too. Oh well, chin up........

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Mary Poppins

I made plans with Klipp to meet on Labor day to ride at the Kettles to ride unless it rains. I was stoked to ride Monday morning and headed out about 9:45 AM. Just as I was exiting on 83 it started to rain and the sky continued to look nasty towards the west so I turned around and headed back home all bummed out. I got home and tried to get my husband to ride but he was working on a project and then tried to get Duckette to ride with me but he too was skeptical about the rain. So I decided to get on the dreaded trainer. I at least got in my intervals so I was not too worried about not getting in the hours.

I was forced indoors by Mother nature and I decided to make it a Martha Stewart day in the kitchen. Ty's been bugging me to make Lasagna for him since he never tried my version of this tasty dish. I headed off to the store to purchase some fresh ingredients for my special sauce. I decided to make an extra pan for friends and family who are busy caring for infant children at this time. Halfway into making the first pan, I forgot how much sauce this project takes. I think I used at lest 6 quarts of sauce. Making Lasagna is not too hard it is just a process that takes about two hours from start to finish. Well the finished product came out of the oven at 8:00 PM filling the house with delicious Italian aromas. Five lbs later and with full bellies were retired.

After work today, I stopped over to my friends Rebecca and Joe to drop off a piping hot pan of Lasagna and I think they were happy to not have to fuss for an evening. They have a curious two and a half year old son Henry and a 19 day old infant named Charlie. I think this helped a bit. I'll wait to get a report from Henry about the Lasagna. I then headed over to Tony and Ulla's to deliver the rest of the Lasagna and arrived just in time. Ullla had an eventful time at her follow up Dr's apt today and looked like she could use a break. Ulla's in great health but I think little Frankie had a good social visit too. Hopefully they can take a break tonight and enjoy time with Frankie. By the way, Happy 11th Anniversary to Tony and Ulla, oops I forgot. So now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside just like Mary Poppins for the day.

Monday, September 04, 2006

GUILTLESS PLEASURE

I have family and friends always calling and complaining that the entire summer is almost gone and we never get around to do things with them because of our biking. You should hear some of our phone messages, some even go so far as to lay a huge guilt trips on us, thinking that will work, they just don't get it. So Ty and I decided to get together with some of our friends this weekend before we become friendless and head to Chi town for a little indulgence. I find it is not too easy to put the bike aside for more than twentyfour hours, I start to get withdrawal symptoms but sometimes you just have to take a breather and let loose. Good friends, great French cuisine a few drinks and... I swear the devil made me do this....






Friday, September 01, 2006

Remember this ?