2010 TNW!

Last night was my first Tuesday Night Worlds for 2010. (They started last week but I was sick).

I thought I was ready, but I was mistaken.

Phil and I kind of nervously "kitted up" at headed over to Carondelet. We arrived with "plenty" of time to register and pin on numbers. I spied Jamie warming up as we rode to registration, thinking I would ride over and join her for a few warm up laps. Mistake number 1. Instead, I chatted up the guy from Pi (couldn't tell you what he said), nervously pinned my number -taking twice as long as it should have, waiting for Phil to find the right tree to water, listened to Pirtle yell "3 to go"....Time wasted = no warm up.

(Potential) Mistake #2. (verdict is still out). I "peeped" instead of gu'd. Hoped that sugary little guy would give me what I need to hang with all those B racers.
As we rolled to the line, I felt this eery combination of wanting to throw up, pee (just a little) or poop my pants. Not sure how the Peep played into that.

I really really wanted to sit on Jamie's wheel. That lasted all of about 10 feet and Crystel came around and took my spot (!). Ouch, it hurt from the word "Go". I recall thinking as I dove into Turn 2, "Do I remember how to corner?" Fortunately for me and everyone around me, Yes, I do remember. I quickly found myself moving backwards rather than holding my position. I couldn't keep up with the pace (24 mph average) and off the back before I knew it but according to the lap cards, I lasted 10 minutes. Cory came up behind me and we cruised a couple of laps, jumping back in where we could.

My lungs seared with pain from the lack of warm up and breathing so hard. After a couple more laps, I dropped out and the coughing began.
I kept that Crit cough going all night and half of Wednesday.

Next week, I'll warm up & I'll try to stay in for 12 minutes!

Hub Women's Team Training Camp

The weekend of March 6 was our Women's Team Training Camp in Hermann, MO. At around 9am, Alice, Katie and I met at Kate's house and piled into two vehicles. I lead out, with the understanding that both drivers (myself and Kate) knew we were headed down Hwy 44 to Hwy 100, and once in Hermann, I could follow the specific directions to Ashley's parent's home.
We quickly fell into a driving and talking rhythm and never noticed that we passed our exit. It was only when I noticed signs that we were approaching CUBA that I realized something was not right! Oops. We had driven some 30 miles past our exit!

After a quick call to Ashley, we were given the choice to turn around and head back East on 44, or take a twisty, curvy Hwy 19 to Hermann. I don't hurry well down curvy roads, so I opted to head back on 44.
OK, so what should have taken a little more than an hour and a half, took slightly longer! After that, we arrived in Hermann without incident.

Thanks to an amazing team weekend skills and drills plan from Pro racer extraordinaire, Carrie Cash, we had two great days of rides planned. We quickly suited up, commenting on just how much stuff five women brought for two days of riding! You would have thought we were moving in!

Our first day of riding took us on a quick warm up downtown and then straight up hwy 19! Yikes! That first hill is a doozy! We attempted to work on staying together but somehow I was off the back near the top of the climb. Mountain goats, Ashley and Katie sailed up with ease!

We continued up hills and practiced some team building tactics. Once we turned back onto hwy 100, we quieted down and settled into a single pace line. Our first flat of the weekend came a couple miles down 100. Kate's rear wheel was victim but thanks to a genuine innovations CO2 we were back on the road in no time.

The down hill into town was incredibly fun, but I know we had committed to climb Gutenburg hill, and it was looming just around the corner. With none of my team mates contesting, I took the sprint finish downtown, then we regrouped and made our way to Ole Gutenburg. I was out of gears before the 1/2 way point. I knew I was in trouble when I had to swerve to stay upright. Again, Katie and Ashley climbed with ease. Kate followed close behind. Alice was behind me but as she passed, I nearly took her out with a swerve to the left. It was everything I could do to keep that front wheel from bouncing up. Eventually I made it to the top. We regrouped again and headed back to Ashley's parent's house, where we promptly decided that the day was way too nice to stop there. We opted to head toward the TT route, but took the flats to the West instead. We cruised along at 20 mph and chatted easily. The tailwind fooled us into complacency and we pushed a little further down the road, wanting to "reach the end" at Blufftown before turning around.

Wow! Holy-Headwind. Well, it was a good time to work on rotating pace lines!
By the time we arrived at Ashley's house we were very tired and very hungry. Dinner and bedtime couldn't come soon enough.

We loaded up in Kate and Ashley's vehicles (My Beetle sits too low to navigate the road to the "ground" where the cabin sits) and headed just a couple miles south of town. A quick turn off the highway yielded a gravel road loaded with pot-holes filled with water from the recent rain/snow melt. Ashley navigated this 1/4 mile winding road like she knew each and every one of those holes. Soon we were parked in front of a little cabin on a little pond. Ashley's parent's beautiful new home is in the process of being built across the pond.

The cabin was furnished with a queen bed, bunk beds and a sofa, all the necessary amenities to clean up and cook up. Kate got to work on the steaks. Alice popped the rosemary herbed potatoes into the oven. I started on the salad, only to soon realize I had forgotten the fresh baguette in my car in town. Boy, I was really really wanting that bread. Once we also realized my purse was waiting in the car with that bread (and my glasses/contact solution) and possibly the steak knives, Ashley and I headed back to town to retrieve it. We got back just in time to sit down to dinner.

Dinner was as amazing as our ride. Steaks, potatoes, spinach/raspberry/walnut salad, HUGE bowl of mixed fruit, bread. We ate and ate and talked and grew quiet as our bellies were full and sleep grew heavy on our minds. We readied for bed. Ashley on the sofa, Alice on the top bunk, Katie on the bottom bunk and Kate and I in the Queen bed, with hopes the cabin kitty Chester would snuggle in with us (we missed our own kitties!). When Ashley turned out the light, I realized how far from home I was! It was complete darkness.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast, as delicious as the dinner the night before. We readied ourselves for another ride and some more team drills. After dropping the vehicles and stuff off at Ashley's house in town, we headed out to the TT course. The headwind from Saturday had shifted, so we enjoyed a tail wind was we rode East. We chatted, worked our plan from Carrie, developed a race strategy we will call "The Hedge" and rode on to the turn around point. Yikes! Headwind time again. Another good opportunity to practice drafting and rotating. We worked on getting in tighter formation and then practiced attacks, reeling in, etc. The headwind and previous days miles had worn us down and after about 15 miles, we were ready to head back home. We did get to enjoy a little more tail wind on the way back and this made for some nice impromptu sprints and playfulness on the bike. A great wrap up to a great weekend of rides.

After a quick lunch in town. We loaded into the cars and headed back to St Louis. The drive home was MUCH faster and uneventful. My legs felt tired but strong and I felt a sense of increased camaraderie with my team. We have a strong team, filled with amazing women.

Look out St Louis, Here comes the Hedge!

2010 Race Report Numero Uno

Race #1 is in the books.

Froze Toes 2010. Sunday February 28.
Temps were mid 30's, topping out in the low 40s. Sunny. Very un-Froze Toes like.
In fact, my toes were only mildly uncomfortable.

I carpooled to Columbia with Kate and Kubinak. The constant chatter was actually a good distraction. I have a tendency to get into my head and over think things.
On the way to Kate's at 8am, I listened to Liz Phair... I carried this with me:
"It took an hour, maybe a day. but once I really listened, the noise just fell a way."

By 10:30 we were in Columbia. In a flurry with everyone else, we registered, pinned numbers, dressed and engaged in typical pre-race conversation. I "sized up" my competition... Molly Vetter-Smith, Gina Champion, Jacqueline Denny, Chris Roettger, Cindi Inman, Teresa Sedlacek, Maureen Maciekowicz. Ouch! Fortunately, I had my tried and true teammate Alice to dive into our first Cat 3 race together. Molly humored us by saying "I haven't been on my bike in a week!" (she also share an excellent tip of putting the wind vest under my jersey.That way if I needed to remove it last minute, I didn't need to re-pin anything! Thanks Molly!)

Kate and Ashley were there to represent the Hub Women in the Four's race. As it was Ashley's First Race (!) I wanted to make sure to give her some pre-race tips and cheer her on. My teammate on another team, Suzanne J was also there in Team Rev colors. These three ended up giving each other a great sprint finish, with Kate taking the Sprint win and 7th overall!



Before leaving for our warm up, Carrie took Alice and me aside to give us a pre-race pep talk. She advised us to be the eye and ears of the race. To soak it all in, using all our senses (later, when we road through a strong "farm" smell, I realized how literal this advice was!). Watch who goes where, who shifts when, who drinks and eats, who attacks and who responds. This directive turned out to be the best thing for me. It forced me out of my head again and made me attend to those around me and the race itself.

After some instruction from Aero, our race was underway. Chris took the lead and Molly and Cindi were close by. It was clear that they were the strongest team (the only other "Team" was me and Alice) and were setting the tone of the race. They organized the first attack and watched Maureen closely when she moved to the front for an attack of her own.

There were a few more attacks, from Chris, Molly or Maureen. I noticed that Jacqueline was quick to respond, usually followed by Gina. If I was careful not to block Gina, she'd jump on Jacqueline's wheel and then I could follow, in a much better position to respond and recover! The one thing I was frustrated by was my position in the wind. I wanted to be on the inside of the road but that was the direction of the wind for the first 1/3 of the race. Each time I would look around to where I should be, I found Teresa in that exact spot. I quickly dubbed her "VISA" (she's everywhere I want to be! - ok, that was dumber than saying "they don't make those boxes square anymore.")

The first BIG attack came after the first turn. We jumped to catch back on but only did for a minute. Pretty soon, Chris, Molly and Maureen were getting smaller and smaller in our sights. We found, disorganized/chaotically to catch but never did. Chases were instigated by Gina or Jacqueline but they'd reach their peak and back off. Alice, Teresa and I would come around, accelerate and then drop again when we tired. We reached speeds of 30 mph but weren't getting any closer.

Pretty soon we fell into a pseudo circular pace line. It would work for a few rotations but then become disorganized again. After several minutes of watching this occur, I finally decided to speak up and give it some direction to get things running like clock-work. With just a few directives, we were rotating well. Accelerating to about 27-28 mph on the Left and 24-25 as we "rested" on the right.

BIKE RACING IS A BEAUTIFUL THING! especially when it's a bunch of women working together in a gorgeous paceline! Flowing like water down the road.

I was feeling great (except for a little nag of a cramp in my left calf that I would just chose to ignore!) I assumed that everyone else was feeling no pain too, until Alice commented that she wasn't sure how much longer she could hang on.
Despite this comment, Alice continued to hang on, as did the other five of us, in our rotating, forward moving, circle.

It wasn't until we hit the rollers that the paceline started to fall apart again. Soon Jacqueline's pulls were shortening, as she was taking a lot longer to move from the back to the front (leaving me at the front to pull up a few hills!). I didn't notice that Alice and Cindi were off the back until Teresa commented that we were down to four.

Gina, Teresa, Jacqueline and I continued to work together through those rollers. Everyone seemed to be hurting a little, at different points. It wasn't until we turned onto Z that I realized some of us seemed to be working harder than others. Actually, I didn't notice til Teresa said something. But I was really liking that rotation.

One little attack from Jacqueline, but Teresa and I got her. T commented that we were down to three but I was peeved at having to cover that attack, so I just wanted to sit on and let her pull for a bit. We all got together and just before 1k, Teresa attacked. Gina didn't have the legs to go so Jacqueline and I were the only two to respond. At 200 M we ramped up for our sprint...

Warning.. I have gone over this part over and over and still wonder what I did wrong. I have gone from being observer to back deep in the depths of my insecure brain.
Basically, Teresa and I started to sprint. As the road turned, we continued on our courses. I was right on the yellow line. Teresa to the right of me. Next thing I know, Jacqueline is between us and we are leaning in to sandwich her. I could hear Teresa yell something about moving over. For several seconds, I could not move. My left side did not want to do any more work. I just prayed Jacqueline didn't go anywhere fast. Once Teresa and I disengaged from her, she just continued that path straight through for 4th place. It was down to Teresa and me. I didn't, COULDN'T stand for the sprint. My left leg was a huge cramp.
Somehow, I got 5th, by millimeters, I'm sure.
I keep wondering if I should have held my ground. Jacqueline wouldn't have been able to move up between us....Or should I have moved further left, since we had the full road for the sprint at 200 M. I can keep going over it, but it'll never change the outcome.

All in all, I had a good first Cat 3 race for the season. I watched, listened, assisted, worked, pulled, sat in and finished with the chase group. Goals met and season off to a good start.

Some girls are bigger than others...

Some girls' blogs are more popular than others.
Some girls have more interesting things to say and more often.
Some girls say whatever is on their minds, whenever a thought crosses it.

Clearly, I am not one of those girls.

I spend my days in a cubicle, doing work that must be done by someone. You might find it exciting; however, due to HIPPA regulations, I can't discuss that stuff with you here. Most days, I find it sad. I can tell you the themes of my work include mental illness, substance abuse, relationship problems, job loss, financial strain, hopelessness and despair.

Ok, enough of that Debbie Downer...

I just haven't seemed to cross into the mind set of viewing life in terms of what can I put into my blog.

My nights consist of workouts, too much food and not enough sleep.
I've watched the entire 5 seasons of LOST in the last three months, finishing Season 5 on Monday, and starting the new season/final season on Tuesday.

I've started to think of Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sawyer as my friends. That's scary.

The biggest drama that's crossed my path likely centers around the Frostbike T shirts. The lettering is coming off. But hey, THERE JUST T SHIRTS! no lives are at stake here.

My life is boring and thus, my blog is boring.
But I am ok with that.

I do have one exiciting story to share:

Sunday night, after watching the Superbowl, Phil and I went to bed early. We were both worried about getting a good night's sleep and took a sleep aid (Tylenol PM). We slept solidly until 4am, when we were both startled awake by the sound of screeching tires and a loud crash.
(We live at the interection of a busy, sharp turn and any time it's wet or remotely slick, there's an accident. Usually the car hits the bridge. Sometimes, the driver is drunk and drives off before police arrive. Other times, the driver is drunk and he hides from police in our yard. Once, a car actually went over the bridge into the River des peres!)
I jump up and dialed 911 before even looking to see where the car landed. It was the loudest crash we've heard in a while. While on the phone with the 911 operator, we realized that we could not see the car. Figuring that they might have driver off, but concerned for the worst, I asked the operator to send a police car out to make sure they weren't in the RdP.
Just before the police arrive, Phil and I notice a small light shining from the parking lot of a business next door. Our house sits on a hill overlooking this business. We can't tell if the light is a reflection from somewhere else.
As soon as the police pull in and shine the spot light, we see that this was the car that made that loud impact.
The car looks like it's parked up against the building; however, we know there are concrete stairs in the location where the car's front end appears to be. We can see the driver's side door is open.
From the police officer's behavior, it appears that this driver may too have gotten out to flee the scene. He shined his light in the car,then around the area and walked away to talk to another officer. After several minutes, a fire truck, ambulance and fire chief arrived. It became apparent that there was indeed someone in the car, when the EMT's approached. The weird thing was their complete lack of sense of urgency. Phil commented that this may not actually bode well for the person. They did not appear to be treating him/her. After a few more minutes, they moved a person from the car onto a stretcher and put him/her into the ambulance and then sat there...

I watched as the fire truck left. A couple more police cars left (there were four total), the fire chief left. A tow truck came and took the vehicle away. The last police car drove away.
All the while, the ambulance sat in the parking lot.
After nearly 45 minutes, the ambulance finally left. They turned off their emergency lights before leave. I fell back asleep at 4:45 with a sick feeling in my stomach, sure that the person was DOA and being carted off to the morge.

15 minutes later, my co worker called me to say she was sick and ask me to go into work early to cover for her. I got up, showered and headed to work with a heavy heart. I drove extra carefully on the snowy slick roads.

At work, I kept checking the news sites, expecting to hear a report about this fatal accident. After a few hours, I decided to call the police station, on the off chance that they could tell me something.
When the officer answered, I really didn't expect to get any info. I was surprized and happy to hear that the person was taken to the hospital with NON-life threatening injuries. The officer also aknowledged how many accidents are at this corner and added that I was the third person to inquire about this crash.

I continued through my day, feeling releaved but also especially thankful for the safety and well being of those I love.
Please drive safely! (especially when you drive by my house!)