DT Tues

Today was too nice to pass up the local Tuesday night ride Southeast of downtown. So, I skipped class and joined in the fun/pain. There was a large group at the blue star and we had a nice easy ~10ish mile spin to the start. The course is a pretty flat 7 mile triangle. The group does 4 laps. Today I made it with them for 2 full laps and on the third I dropped off. My heart rate was averaged out at 188 for those two laps. After cooling down I saw Ken Ciolli in the Subaru. YES!!! Motorpacing... ;) Ken was even nice enough to give us a draft back to the blue star.

No casualties this Tuesday, only a couple close calls with the local dogs! Better watch out for that Rottie, Jeff! Oh, and John Myre laying down on the RR tracks...

Conflicts

More and more often lately I have been in a love-hate relationship with the wind. After Sunday's ride I have decided that it is strictly a HATE relationship. After a 4.5 hour ride, much of it spent in the head wind I have decided that even the tail wind isn't always fun. I think this only applies when you are on a "training ride" with the double pistons of JT. I can honestly say that I have now motor-paced behind a cyclist (instead of the commonly used car/scooter). A 15-mile stretch of 32-36MPH, mouth open, drool/spit flying, leg aching pain was not how I envisioned the tail wind stretch to go. I hindsight I am glad for that effort I was forced to put out because now I am that much stronger - ladies beware!!!

Turning back into the wind was better because we were going slower, I just had to focus on finding the sweet spot with the most draft. Then I had to focus on conserving enough energy to make it home (still head wind). As soon as JT turned off I tanked. The remainder of my ride would be a miserable crawl. Thanks Jeff for putting up with that!

What I learned this weekend:
My front plant area needs 20 bags of mulch, not the 2 I thought was needed
Hills and wind both have horrible attributes, neither is better or worse
Check the dogs paws before they come back inside from a walk
NEVER go to Brackenridge park on a nice Sunday around 3pm

Update

Since I have not posted much this year, I have some pictures from January. Most are from the Colavita Training Camp in Austin and on from a TT in Casterville.

Fayetteville

Fayetteville (FSR) has plagued me as long as I can remember. I didn't race it last year because I was killing myself at San Dimas SR. In 2007 I DNF'd on Sunday's race. This year started out really good. Stage one we rode off into an abyss of fog; the kind that forces you to take your glasses off. About half way into the first lap the fog cleared. There were a few attacks and I chased down Tracey but other than that it was a lot of slow to fast, jumpy riding. I really suffer on those types of races, my quick-twitch muscles are pretty lame. I was happy to finally make it with the group to the sprint (I have been sick almost all season so far) and finished around 13 out of a starting field close to 30 peeps. After a nap I got ready for Stage 2: ~7 mile time trial at 5:15pm. It was great being able to warm up with my teamies. :) The TT went average, I got to remember what suffering felt like but my time was 6th fasted and I wanted top 3. I have some work to do.

Stage 3 was on Sunday and my group had a late start (11:20 am) which displeased me because I hate waiting around! So me and the teamies decided to mix the race up today and attack with counter attacks. I should have realized that I am still not near as fit as I need to be and just sat in. All I needed to do was sit in and I would finish in the $$. I was sitting 6th in GC and Catie was 5th. Anyways, I didn't anticipate attacking until the last lap (3 laps) but Kim was off with a pseudo attack around mile 5. Once the pack caught her I did the counter. I spent too much on the counter that when I got caught at the bottom of the hot spot hill that I couldn't grab the back of the group and was dropped. Mile 5. Soooo I tried to TT the rest of the lap and then decided to just call it quits for the day. Fayetteville is not my race. Who knows, maybe next year.

We did get to stay at Las Brisas Ranch and it was THE BEST!

Blaire's Baby Shower

Friends come first, so instead of racing Pace Bend (one of my favs), I helped out with my best buds baby shower.

BBRC Crew

So today, my fellow work mates and I took a "group picture"! HAHA, it made me feel like I was back in elementary school....too bad individual shots were not taken. And get this: Saturday is out "End of Year / Christmas Party". Umm, last time I checked, January is already almost over.

LEAKEY

Solare Eclipse had the LEAKEY training camp this weekend. Both days the weather was great and the climbing was abundant. Saturday we did the "Doctor Dolittle's Death Loop", or a portion of it anyways. Kim, Ken, Robert, and I stopped at mile 60 where a convieniently parked car waited. We sagged the remaining group for the remaining 40 miles. The beginning of the ride was great, Kim and I got a head start and worked together, pushing pretty hard. We wanted to see how long it would take the boys to catch us. Well, around mile 25 they showed up and were suprised it took that long. I was proud! Unfortunatly, I wasted all my energy in those 25 miles, so the rest of the ride I was pretty cooked.

Sunday was a nicer ride, everyone stayed together and Kim and I pushed each other going up the hills. It was a great weekend~!

Training Week (Day)

So Jim Slauson does an annual "training camp" the first week of January where he rides ~100 miles each day. I was fortunate enough to get off work on Thursday and attend. The weather could not have been more perfect: little wind and the sun was out, no armwarmers needed. After the ride I got to join Jim, Teri, and Lara at Bin555 in Artisan Alley. It was great food!

SAN ANTONIO ~ State Cyclocross Championships

This season the San Antonio weekend was my favorite. Saturday was sunny and hot, I was sad that I had taken my water bottle cages off. I mean, really, cyclocross is supposed to be crappy weather where you don't have to worry about dehydration. Jeff was there to give me hand ups though, thank God for that! The course was great fun, including the never ending sandpit and the landfill hole of dispair. I unfortunatly crashed on a loose off camber turn but was able to not lose any positions. I won the age group and got 2nd overall.

The weather on Sunday, however, was completely different than Saturday's "summer weather", as the sun was no where to be found. As I got out of my car at Padre Park I immediately regreted not packing my knee warmers and other cold weather gear but was confident that it would get warmer as the day progressed. Not such the case this time, it got colder. Stef Childs and I warmed up along the mission trail bike path, next to the San Antonio River and then I hid in the Solar Eclipse tent next to the space heater and waited for my race.

The Open Women raced 30 seconds behind the ample Men's 3/4 pack. The start was on the street and was a fast, straight shot, into the trees. This section was more technical; we wound our way through the trees on little banking rollers. Then we hit the pavement and I noticed Christina had already created a gap for herself. Lisa, another girl and I were still together as we came to a 180 turn down hill to another 180 where I got off my bike and ran back up the hill. I pulled away from the other two when we hit the cement climb and caught up to a few men at the barrier. At this point I just had to keep (and increase) my gap on the girls behind me. After a the 2nd lap I caught a Peak Fitness guy and was able to ride with him for a few laps. He was finally able to get rid of me on the straight to the finish line in the horrible head wind!

Stef stayed at my house this weekend and we had a blast, even when we had to get in our cars and hunt down her boyfriend who was lost 281N on his bike...haha

Jersey!

Lisa, me, Stef, Christina, Janice (with Bailey)
Wearing our championship jerseys from the TX age based cyclocross race