Week #20.5: Bonus Footage

This week's update is pretty late, because last Thursday I was having a particularly bad day at work after several nights of three-ish hours of sleep per night in a row and various other circumstances. Although things are kind of busy at work right now, my boss basically convinced me that I needed to back off from the go, go, go, crash pattern on which I've been operating lately and take some time off from work. I'd already asked off for Friday because my mom was coming to visit for the weekend and I wanted to get one good long ride before she came. I ended up taking Monday-Wednesday of this week off, too.

Even with six days off, I was still kind of go, go, go, but I still managed to get nine hours of sleep most of the nights, so that did wonders for my mental health. The go, go, go was pretty beneficial, too, since it was at least 80% doing things that I wanted to do and seeing people that I wanted to see.

I got to ride BCSP twice and Versailles once, although I still never got more than 30 miles in a single ride, due to time constraints, rain, etc., which was a bit disappointing. I've got to start pushing up to more like 60 or so soon for the 6 hour series. I also got to do touristy stuff with my mom and spend a lot of time with friends, so it was a good time.

Week #19: Handicapable

I would love to tell you that my hands are all better now, but alas, I'm really not sure if they have improved at all in the last week. I was able to do a couple of road rides during the week and use the shifters semi-normally, but it took a lot of concentration and effort. Regardless, I made some good steps towards getting back into my groove and accomplished a week that at least looked something like my routine prior to the Death March. Then I looked at my calendar and realized that, after a visit from my mom next weekend, I will have about five weekends off from racing for the rest of 2013. That is if I do all the remaining DINO races after the one I'll miss this weekend, which is the plan as of now. However, it seems that me and DINO never go without our share of mixed feelings, and this season may come with more than most. So I think the theme from here on out will be to stick to routine as much as I can, but also to continue to go with the flow as needed.

The biggest positive note of the week is that I was able to get out and do a 50-mile gravel ride with Dustin and Corinna, which was exciting because I hadn't ridden with them in nearly two months and hadn't been on gravel since Barry-Roubaix. I can't believe how much time slipped away without my noticing. We did the route that we attempted on our first ill-fated ride together, but this time we finished successfully, despite Dustin experiencing shifter problems and me crashing within the first five miles. After that it went smoothly.

It was a hard ride for 50 miles, with strong winds and lots of chunky gravel. I was glad to have the "weekly ass-kicking" sensation back after missing it for so many weeks, although I was a little disappointed that it only took 50 miles to induce. I managed to get through the whole thing despite my "handicap", and by the end of the ride, I was so used to my awkward shifting method that I barely even noticed it anymore. It probably helped that the route was pretty flat (flat does not mean easy in gravel-land) and a lot of the time I would just mash up the little risers to avoid shifting. Good singlespeed training, I guess.

Week #18: Not So Normal

My main goal for last week was to reestablish a normal routine now that I'm fully set up in my new house and done with traveling for a while. Let me just say that I failed miserably. This was due to several factors, the greatest of which was that I did nerve damage to my hands at the Big Frog, and now I have sort of tingly/numb fingers, poor fine motor control, and really weak grip strength. On top of that, all of the stress of the past weeks finally go to me after I got home from Big Frog and I found myself getting hit when overwhelming bouts of exhaustion, stomach aches, and general ennui all week. Pair this with numb hands that currently won't allow me to operate SRAM road shifters, and all attempts at training went down the drain, with the exception of a SS mountain bike ride on Thursday night.

I also had to deal with the messed up bike from the Big Frog, and I spent all week procrastinating about going into the shop to get some Muc-Off with which to clean my bikes. I finally broke down and went in early Thursday morning, got them cleaned Friday night, and discovered that my geared bike was pretty much screwed. That pretty much scrapped any remaining thoughts I had of racing the DRT time trial at BCSP on Sunday, but that was fine since it got cancelled, anyway. I was hoping not to have to take a bike into Adam's shop for repairs quite this soon, but I had to do what I had to do and took it in this morning. Hopefully that won't be too weird.

With racing off the table, I still had a pretty good weekend. I went to Indianapolis so that my friend Sarah could do some acupuncture on my screwed up hands, and also just because I'd been wanting to go up and hang out with her for a while, anyway. I think the acupuncture helped some, but she thinks it's basically inflammation that will take some time to clear out. Now that things have calmed down, I need to focus on managing stress, getting better sleep, and good nutrition to try to give it a better chance to heal. For this weekend, though, it was enough to go out to dinner, have some drinks, not mountain bike because of the rain, and walk around the neighborhood touring open houses. Maybe not the best thing from a training perspective, but good for the soul.

One good thing that interfered with my training this week was the arrival of my new kitten, Clementine aka Clemmie. I missed my Tuesday night weight workout to stay home with her and Mushu for their first evening together to make sure they got along okay. Mushu spent a lot of time hissing at her for the first few days, but they are starting to come around, sleeping together and playing a bit.

So this week is once again going to be another attempt to reestablish normal. I went so far as to post the above note on my refrigerator to help me manage the household on top of work and training. I figure it's best to break it all into small chunks and not let thing pile up. I'm going to go on road ride after work today, even though I still can't shift normally. I have to take my hand off the bar and punch the shift lever with my fist to go to an easier gear, but I guess I'll make it work. I'll get all of this stuff figured out eventually.

Week #17: The Big Frog 65 & The End of the Tour

After this was established, everything was cool 
The tour was over, and she went back to school 

I'm not really sure what motivated me to jump onto my teammate Janelle's "Tour of Pain" idea. I guess it was because I was already doing two of the four events already. I hadn't done a endurance MTB race since 2010, but I was already kicking around the idea of the Tri-State 6 Hour Series.  I guess when she signed up for the Big Frog 65, I figured it was time to give it another shot. Barry-Roubaix was just to complete the quartet.

Of course, I had no idea when I signed up for "the tour" that it would correspond with such a period of upheaval in my life, so over the last two weeks I spent a lot of time flip-flopping about whether I would go to Big Frog or not. Even after I saw that I would be fully moved and have my house in order in time to go, I still wondered if I had the emotional strength to make the trip and race the race. My main motivation for going was that I didn't want to let my friend Chrysa down, because she, her husband, and another friend were depending on me to split a cabin with them.

Things started to come together in the final days before the race, and I finally started to feel at peace, if a little sleep deprived. My fitness/preparedness to race was a non-issue, as I had been lacking in weekly ass-kickings for a while, but I also knew that I'd finished harder races in worse shape before. Right after the Death March, which seems roughly a million years ago, I looked at the results, thought that I ridden legitimately well, and dreamed of a possible sub-7 hour finish at Big Frog. I got in my car Friday morning with no intentions other than to get myself and my bike to Tennessee, make it to the starting line, and start pedaling.

So in the pouring rain at 7:30 on Saturday morning, that is what I did. And strangely, once I started pedaling, I felt good. I slowly moved up through the pack on the gentle paved climb to the singletrack, and once I hit the trail, I was flying along through the mud, passing dudes left and right. I kept that up for quite a while until I finally had to stop for a gel, lost a lot of places, and then had to work to get them back.

Once the singletrack was over, things spread out a bit, although I still felt like I was still doing more passing than being passed. Unfortunately, a flat tire not very long into the gravel section derailed my awesome groove. My fingers had already been numb for a while, and when I tried to fix the flat, I found myself completely confused and my hands to be useless stumps when I tried to get the old tube out. I fumbled for quite some time as person after person passed, and eventually I had to accept help from a passerby. I was fully chattering, shaking, and hypothermic at that point.

The rest of the race was just whatever. I pedaled hard, got myself back up to a non-shivering temperature and ground through the rest of the gravel. It did lift my spirits a bit at the next-to-last aid station when I caught a girl who'd passed me during the flat tire delay, and she said, "Good God you're fast!" or something like that. I've definitely never heard that in an endurance race before.

Anyway, I finished in 7:56, which wasn't the sub-7:00 for which I'd vaguely hoped, but I really considered getting myself to the starting line pretty miraculous, so I can't complain too much. It appears that 39 women registered, 20 finished, and I came in 13th. So really, it blows away any previous endurance race performance where strategy and male assistance didn't come into play. Maybe this is the "new normal" I hoped to find after Barry-Roubaix; regular dates with podiums and prize beer may still elude me for a while, but maybe DFL's are a thing of the past, too.

And the "new normal" is exactly what I've been craving for the past week. Now that The Tour  of Pain has ended, in all senses, I'm ready to just settle into normal life again. Go to work, get back to training, induce some weekend ass-kickings etc. I think that for the rest of the year my adventures will be limited to regional-series MTB and CX races, with the possible exception of an appearance at the Gravel Metric on Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, it's free and you don't have to register, so I'm done with commitments for a while. Maybe I can talk Janelle into an epilogue for the tour, though...

Week #16: Moving Out

Last week I committed to keeping up with my weekly posts regardless of how ugly and uncomfortable things got, both to keep myself accountable and so that if anyone is worried, they'll know that I'm still on the face of the earth. I wasn't expecting to move into my own place so soon, but a really good opportunity came up last week, and I took it. So most everything in my life for the last seven days has revolved around setting up my new one-person, one-cat (although I'm getting a new kitten next week) household on the fly. Frankly, it has been sad and terrifying, but I've thought long and hard about this, and I really feel like it was what I needed to do.

I finished the move on Saturday and was able to go mountain biking yesterday, and it sort of made everything feel normal and okay again. So begins my new life. It's not going to be easy, but I have a lot of hope for my future.

Home for the next 15 months.

All my bikes in their new room.

Week #15: Goodbye Game

It's always awkward. You stumble upon the blog of a stranger or a casual acquaintance and you start reading. You start to become invested in the happenings of their life. The posts are focused on racing or there's just a long break in between. Eventually there is a mention of a divorce or breakup with serious significant other.

So I guess the awkward moment has come for me, sooner in the process than most, but hey, it's already been all over Facebook, so it's not exactly a secret. I would have preferred it not happen that way, but it did, so it's just as well now. It makes the decision about what to write on my blog a lot easier. The fact of the matter is that there was a reason that I committed to weekly wrap-up posts at the beginning of the year: I knew that hard times were coming I wanted to keep myself accountable. 

Of course, I didn't know exactly how it would all play out, but when I posted my New Year's Resolutions, I knew it would be a life-changing year. Without the weekly social interaction of cyclocross, I was petrified of a making it through a long winter alone without falling prey to depression. So I focused on making it to the Death March, which had the advantages of being my first race of the year, being a race where I stood a good chance of placing well, the beginning of daylight savings time, and having another person who was depending on me to perform well. So if I ever write my memoir, "It's Not About the Callahan", I will confess that of all the bike races for which I've chronicled my training, this was the most important, because I wasn't training for a bike race so much as I was training myself to handle major life changes. Of course, at the beginning, even 10 weeks seemed overwhelming, so the weekly posts helped serve as way stations to break up that period and ensure that I was doing my best to prepare for the race, and more importantly, take care of myself.

As an aside, I will say that it was one of the most important learning periods of my life. I had to learn to how work through uncertain and ever-changing conditions. I learned to reach out and ask for help from expected sources, and came to see how awesome people can be if I just trust them a little. I also learned to deal with the disappointment that sometimes comes when you put your trust in people in a way that was healthy and empowering, rather than disconnecting. Finally, I improved my baseline anxiety a little by seeing that often whatever I imagine will go wrong doesn't and then something I never imagine will go wrong does, and either way I manage to handle it, now matter how much it sucks at the time.

I guess my point is that accountability in my blog has been and important anchor that has gotten me through the year so far, so as awkward as it is to say, the biggest thing that happened in the last week was that I told Adam that I wanted a divorce. I don't want to go too deeply into the reasons, but as you might guess from all my admission of struggle above, I basically just can't see myself being happy in the relationship and I think we have some pretty fundamental disagreements as to what is important to each of us. 

Checking important stuff before buying.

So as a first step building a new life, I had purchase my own car, since we've been sharing all these years. I wanted another Mazda 5 since it's about the most awesome bike car ever, but financially, it just wasn't going to happen. After discussing contingency plans, it basically came down to, "Here is what you can afford: the Mazda 2. We have one in stock. It is lime green." So I drove it home, made sure I could fit a bike in the back, and went back and bought it. It was the first time I'd bought a car myself and my first step towards building a new life for myself that I can be proud of. The color is also starting to grow on me, especially after my friend Sarah christened it "The Lime-a Bean".

Got It Wednesday: A Singlespeed and a Tattoo

"More often than not singlespeeders have tattoos, carry whiskey flasks on rides and are proficient with the use of foul language."

Today is not so much a "Want It Wednesday", as a "Got It Wednesday", since I have made not one, but two exciting purchases in the last couple of days. I hadn't planned on both things coming together back-to-back, but I'm glad it worked out that way, because they go together like peanut butter and jelly. Er, um, like avocado and bacon for Paleo folks.

What are these things? A singlespeed and a new, much more visible tattoo.

My new blue baby

The first is the Surly Karate Monkey that I did a Want It Wednesday on back in January. I finally got the money together right in time for mountain bike season to start, and it arrived on Monday.

Facing the wolf at my door.

The second is tattoo #2. After I got over the fear of the first one, I came to terms with the fact that I really wanted one on my arm that I could see while wearing regular clothes. I guess I'd been held back by fears of having a tattoo that showed in my work clothes, but then I realized that it wasn't that big of a deal. I will probably never become president of the university now, but I probably wasn't going to, anyway.

So once the decision was made that the arm tattoo was happening, I had to decide on content. I spent a lot of time looking on Pinterest and fyeahtattoos.com for ideas. I quickly came to the conclusion that there was no way it was going to be a bird, bow, or a peacock feather, and eventually narrowed it down to a "paper cut" design. Then I looked for actual paper cut art on Etsy and found this shop with lots of designs that I liked. For some reason the Little Red Riding Hood spoke to me the most, although I don't have any particular attachment to the story. Something about the little girl and the wolf conveyed a sense of bravery, though. So I had Colin at SKINQUAKE draw up a simpler version that would fit on my arm, and yesterday I got it done. I'm still getting used to how big and obvious it is, but that's what I wanted, and I work itself is beautiful.

A bandage messed up the most poser Instagram ever.

I took Monday and Tuesday off of work for some additional chill-out time after training camp, so once the tattoo was complete, I took my burrito-wrapped arm and headed out for the Karate Monkey's maiden voyage at BCSP. I've been making jokes about how it will be my dumpster bike, because it's inexpensive and a rigid steel singlespeed is all that I can afford right now. Well, the mechanical brakes aren't that awesome, but otherwise, I FREAKIN' LOVE THIS BIKE.

Singlespeeding is so much fun, and the rigid fork is not nearly as rough as I imagined it would be. Yeah, I noticed a difference, but it wasn't too bad. It was definitely an asset when I needed to stand and climb, though, which happened a lot with the 32x17 gearing that came on the bike. I think I need a 32x19, but I didn't have time to change it before the first ride. I still survived a lap of North Tower and Green Valley without having to get off, though. It was harder than bopping around at easy pace on a geared bike, but it was also faster and allowed me to keep up better flow, so it was still a very good time. I'm definitely looking forward to the Monkey and I spending much more time together this summer.

Now I just need a name for him...

Week #14: Training Camp Photo Dump

Last week was the second-annual Speedway Wheelmen training camp. The riding was good and all, but nothing too exciting. I got 40-50 miles in the mountains each day while everyone got about 80. It was appropriately hard, but not killer. My work capacity is way better than this time last year.

Otherwise, it was a good time with friends just like last year, so instead of a lot of writing, I'll post some of my favorite pictures.

Sarah, Janelle, and I making up for lost time by modeling our sparkly
headbands with duck lips and  popped out booties to go with them.

While everyone else turned right to climb Clingman's Dome, I turned left into
Gatlinburg and got frozen custard before riding back to the cabin.

Family-style dinner the first night. Lots of pans to
mix-and-match to everyone's unique dietary needs.

Posing with a a giraffe statue at a roadside fireworks
superstore on the way home.

Someone just built their house around their RV.

Week #13: Let There Be MTB

There's really not a lot to say about Week# 13, except that it finally offered that elusive window of mountain biking that comes every March. And as it happens every March when the window appears, all training plans go out the window in the name getting a little slice of dirt. I was able to get in MTB rides both days this weekend, at French Lick on Saturday and at BCSP on Sunday.

Since the point of these weekly check-ins to keep myself on track with the plan, I'll confess that I've been a little off-track since the Death March. My weight training schedule got off a bit when I took days off for the Death March and Barry-Roubaix, and I feel like I haven't had a proper weekly ass-kicking in a couple of weeks. My next big event is the Big Frog 65, but I don't have the motivation of a potential podium finish that drove me in the weeks leading to the Death March. I guess the next thing that I am really excited about is the Tri-State 6 Hour Series, but that doesn't start until June 22, and the order for my Karate Monkey keeps being a delayed by a few more days. So right now, I'm just going through the motions, but maybe that's okay for a bit.

French Lick

This is Jack, who we found near the end of the ride. Turns out he belonged to
another rider that we know and they were reunited shortly thereafter.

Week #12: Barry-Roubaix

Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it

I'd like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it

After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own

Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone

Week #12 saw the race that almost didn't happen. With rumors of snow, ice, peanut butter mud, and general treacherousness in Michigan, my Speedway Wheelmen teammates vacillated all week about whether we should even go to Barry-Roubaix. Since I had really only signed up for it to complete the "Tour of Pain" quartet, I wasn't really attached to going if no one else was. In the end, though, Sarah seemed determined to go, and couldn't really think of a good excuse not to.

So we made the trip without Janelle, who seems to have officially and permanently broken up with Michigan racing, and is now out of the running for the "Tour of Pain" GC. We had a really good time driving and hanging out at the hotel, as you can see from our "openers" workout below.

The race itself was pretty meh. The weather was supposed to be 40 and sunny, but the start saw 20-something and overcast, and I don't think it got above 35. So starting with full winter gear, including lobster gloves, kind of killed whatever competitive spirit I had. The race started and I just rode. I couldn't get a good wheel, and I didn't really try that hard to keep one. The course had some ice on it, but overall wasn't too bad. I did manage to slide out once and bruise my hip. In the end, I made the time cutoff that I've been worried about for months, although they moved back 30 minutes for conditions. However, I missed a turn during the last 20 miles and ended up wasting 20-30 minutes riding off course. 

The above lyrics entered by head during the time I was trying to find my way back and get to the finish line. Let's just say it was bit of a letdown after the awesomeness that was the Death March. In the end, though, I persevered, because that is what I do. Now that I've already had a high and low in this infant season, I'm hoping to move on and find what the "new normal" is for 2013 Lindsay. I'm a different person than I was in my previous endurance racing life; I'm just not sure what that is yet. So maybe my "old self" is the exact opposite of what I'm trying find. I wouldn't mind my two-weeks-ago self, though.

This is what I made immediately after finishing.

Week #11: Belated

I think after the Death March I thought I should stop with the weekly check-in posts, because it was racing season and I should have race reports pretty often. You know, the whole weekly report thing was just supposed to be something that got me through the winter until Death March, but winter seems to be clinging on, and I still think I need my Monday motivation. So we're just going to pretend I didn't skip week #11, and I'm going to post these awesome pictures of a 50 mile gravel ride that I did with Dustin and Corinna that weekend. 

Week #10: Then the Death March Happened

I've been spending the last 28 months

Thinkin' all endurance racing ever does 

Is break, and burn, and end

But on a Saturday, in cemetery

I watched it begin again

Well, last week I thought it was weird to have my training complete and the Death March only days away. Now that it's over I don't even know what to say. We came. We raced. We got second.

And we got some beer.

I don't really feel like doing a full play-by-play, so here are the important tidbits, in no particular order.

The Fearless Navigator Made a Mistake

For all of my knowing the route by heart, I always had this fear of just riding through on autopilot and missing a cemetery, and for a minute I thought I did in Elkinsville. Because that checkpoint is a mile or so out-and-back down a gravel road, I never actually went down there in training. I just sort of made a mental note of the road sign. However, when we were chugging along yesterday, I got kind of disoriented, thought we'd missed our turn, and panicked a bit. We backtracked a few minutes and realized that we hadn't missed it at all. I was going to feel really bad if we ended up losing place by the amount of time that we lost backtracking.

Is This Life or Death March?

However, a little later Erik saw a SAG van and wanted to ride back and get snacks. I agreed because, well, this stuff is supposed to be fun and not just race-face suffering the whole time. I also figured I could blame the Pop Tart break in the case of a five-minute defeat. Luckily, neither made any difference in the results, and I'm glad for the laid back approach.

I was also glad to be probably the only female in the top five of the co-ed division to not be physically pushed and pulled around the course all day. We did our best without pushing to the point of misery, and still ended up successful. Misery wouldn't have made us fast enough to get into first place; it just would have made us miserable. I rode really hard and was pretty trashed by the end, but it never stopped being fun (okay, maybe a bit boring on the paved stretch to Story). So I feel extra successful in that we were able to basically just go out and ride and still do well. I'm pretty sure we're even still friends, despite five hours of making up reasons to hate each other by the time it was over.

The Waiting Game

We spent most of the race knowing that Scott and Janelle were in front of us, but there wasn't really anything we could do about that. There was another co-ed team that arrived at the first checkpoint as we were leaving, but otherwise we didn't really see any others early on. I wasn't really sure of the routes of the other contenders, other than that Will Sherman and Jane Prater would be going the opposite direction. My thought was that if we could get to Story before we met them, we were in good shape. I got worried when we saw them a good 10 minutes before Story, though. As we were going out to pick up Hillenburg near the end, we saw them coming back, which presumably meant they had a 5-10 minute lead. I'll admit to a string of expletives coming out of my mouth at that time, but we sped up as much as we could and grabbed the last two checkpoints before heading for the finish.

When we got there, the lady at the finish said that there were maybe 3-4 co-ed teams ahead of us, but she wasn't really sure. The initial word around parking lot was that we were probably fourth, so as we changed clothes and went to eat I was pretty bummed thinking that we had missed our goal of the top 3. But it's not over until the pictures are checked and the time bonuses added up. While we were eating, we found out that another team that finished before us had taken a picture at the wrong Hillenburg Cemetery (there are two about a quarter-mile apart). That seemed to put us in the top 3, and so began the waiting game. Luckily, we had beer and fudge to keep us entertained.

After three or so hours, Scott finally came out and held up three fingers at us, which was heartening in that we had at least not waited around for prizes that would never happen.  However, while were were standing around waiting for the awards to start, Will came up and said we got second, because they finished nine minutes ahead of us, but we got one more checkpoint than them, and thus a ten-minute time bonus. Backtracks and Pop Tarts be damned, we came out on top! So to be honest, I still don't really understand how this all played out and probably won't until I see the published results, but we were happy and took our Hopslam and ran.

So that was the 2013 Death March and the official beginning to my season. Looking forward to Barry-Roubaix in a couple of weeks, although I worry that it won't be nearly so entertaining.

Week #9: The Last Time

This is the last time I'm asking you this
Put my name at the top of your list
This is the last time I'm asking you why
Won't you go on my Death March training ride?

So here it is. What seemed like an incredibly long stretch of winter prep at the beginning of January is now in it's final days. After nine weekly check-in posts and countless play-throughs of Taylor Swift's "Red" album (at least a couple of which were not in my car nor initiated by me so I feel validated), we have reached Death March week. It's funny how this feels like the end when it is actually the beginning. I'll soon be able to produce race reports at least every 2-3 weeks from now until December. I've just been so focused on making it to this checkpoint in my season, that it feels weird almost being there.

For the first time since 2010 I get to say it: the hay is in the barn. I know this to be true, although I'm not feeling very confident at the moment. I spent most of the last week with a lingering headache, sore throat, and general sense of malaise that kept my training pretty light and resulted in my spending most of Thursday at home in my pajamas trying to force my immune system to do its job. I was able to get out for one last recon ride with Erik yesterday, but I don't feel like I rode well at all, and the sore throat and headache are still around this morning. At this point, all I can do is treat my body as well as possible and hope it does the same for me on Saturday.

The illness and return of cold weather made for another picture-less week, so I guess I'll just show you how I entertained myself while trying to rest and get well on Thursday. Overall, it was kind of a failure, as I didn't get well, and "Speedway Wheelmen as Game of Thrones Characters" did not come off as hilarious as I'd originally hoped. I pulled a punch with this one, choosing to make myself and my partner the two worst characters on the show, when it would have been funnier to use our teammates/rivals/best fremenies for the weekend, Scott and Janelle, instead. I've already meme'd Scott once this season, though, so it seemed unfair. I guess we can all be friends again in a week, right?

Also, I'm apparently now cultivating a dynasty of OVCX Cat 4 men's champions, so perhaps choice of myself as Cersei Lannister is appropriate after all?

Week #8: The Girl with the Black Cat Tattoo

I kind of wanted to save the tale of #callahannightride for my regular weekly update post, which I normally worry about being too boring and picture-free. However, this week has been more of the opposite problem. There was so much awesome that I wanted to put in all it one mind-blowing post, but frankly, it's probably better that I split it up into two.

So here's the deal. When I typed up my #callahannightride post on Thursday evening, I knew it wouldn't be the last cool story of the week. I had a little ace up my sleeve that I'd revealed to only a couple of close friends ahead of time. That was the fact that, by Friday afternoon, I would have something else up my sleeve, and it was definitely not a playing card. After months of courage-building and trying to come up with the perfect design, I finally got my first tattoo. What can I say? It's perfect, and I'm totally in love with it. Too bad it's the middle of winter and I won't get to show it off for a while.

This photo is supposed to show the "The Mud" of bike shop legend, but Adam says that it's misdiagnosed.

Even though I got a bonus legit ride on Wednesday night instead of my usual one-hour spin on the road bike, I still needed to get in my weekly ass-kicking on Saturday. I'd been wanting to ride with one of the guys from Adam's shop and his girlfriend for a while, since I'd found out that they are really into gravel racing this season and are training for the Dirty Kanza (big time serious gravel race that frankly scares the crap out of me).

So we drove to a undisclosed location in Green County and set out on a 50 mile ride of gnarly grinding gravel through open farmland. It was surprisingly hard, and I was in kind of in stare-at-the-ground-and-suffer mode, but I figured it was good for me. I also think my "weekly ass-kicking" training plan is beneficial for me, because I'm more willing to suffer when it's time to suffer if I haven't had all my willpower drained from dragging through a training plan I hate during the rest of the week. Basically, it's like I've finally found a method for training for endurance racing that mixes enough fun in that I don't mind the pain, which also seems to be making me faster. Win win.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun, as me and my permanently-emblazoned symbol of bad luck seem to inadvertently bring a little drama to every ride. About two hours in, Corinna's derailleur snapped completely off, and rigging it as a singlespeed didn't work. We were able to cover some of the distance back to the car with her coasting while Dustin rode alongside pushing her. It was pretty funny riding with what appeared to be two people riding bikes while hugging. Then we hit a super muddy road with some rolling hills, and the pushing didn't work anymore, so Corinna and I had to walk to acceptable pick-up point while Dustin got the car. My bike was still fine, but I thought I should walk for moral support.

Anyway, the my first attempt with riding with them definitely did not turn out as planned, but as always, it was fun in its own way and also made for a good story. I just hope that people don't decide that I have a few too many good stories and start refusing to ride with me for their own safety.

I don't think it's ever looked like this even after a 'cross race.

The Incredible True Story of #callahannightride

I posted this meme on Facebook this morning, but didn't provide details as to not ruin the story for those who would be hearing it in person today. However, I guess I should provide an explanation, so even if it leaves me short of material for my Monday post, I'm doing a special mid-week blog to fill curious parties in on The Incredible True Story of #callahannightride.

***

It was born of a concurrent discussion of the insomnia that has been creeping into my life lately, and the negotiation of a potential Friday morning Death March ride. Unfortunately, the proposed ride would have to happen just too early to be practical, but the discussion was not without a riding at 4 a.m. joke. Somehow in my insomniac brain seized on this suggestion, and I just couldn't let go of how awesome a story a nighttime trip to Callahan would make. It would also solve training ride scheduling issue.

I first considered Thursday night, as I could just shove the sleep into my now unscheduled time on Friday morning, but the forecast looked grim. I decided that if there was anything positive about my recent insomnia, it was the fact that I knew that I was actually able to go to work on 3 hours of sleep and still function okay, so I figured it might be nice to use that ability for fun instead of anxiety. Wednesday's forecast was cold and clear, and a ride that night would only force me to slug through one last day of the workweek in a state of fatigue. So I convinced my hashtag-loving Death March partner that #callahannightride was the best idea ever.

The ghosts of Callahan are pissed that we are disturbing them.

And it kind of was. The night was cold, but it was clear and beautiful, with a good amount of light from the moon and stars. We reached our destination without a hitch, although taking the requisite POIDH proved a bit difficult with the riding lights. Overall it was a good, solid ride, and a fun adventure. 

Then we got back to the car, which had been parked a Maumee Boy Scout camp, the host site of the last two years' Death Marches. I had thought nothing of parking the car there, but apparently it's presence on a cold Wednesday night caused quite a kerfuffle. There were two sheriff's cars awaiting our return, and after having our ID's inspected and receiving a long lecture involving suicide, meth labs, and mini skirts, we were informed of the apparent massive manhunt for our frozen, dead bodies. Because, you know, we'd been gone for like two hours.

Because the car was registered in Adam's name, they'd already called both him and his parents and pretty much freaked everyone out. Apparently they were looking for his frozen, dead body first. Then when they determined he was alive, they gave him so little information that the actual presence of frozen, dead bodies was actually implied, instead of just vague "missing" person of whom the authorities didn't even know the identities. I felt horrible to have caused so much drama. After some profuse apologies to the deputies and the caretaker of the camp, we finally allowed to leave. So I don't think we were ever in any actual danger of getting arrested, but it makes a better story to say that. We had quite a few laughs about it on the way home.

In the end, it was a memorial night that can only be described as both awesome and mortifying, but I would say the balance is heavily leaning toward awesome.

Week #7: 50 Shades of Red

Once again, another week of winter training has been knocked out. Spring is just around the corner, and soon I will have race reports to write again. I'm glad that I decided to keep up a weekly chronicle over the winter, because I really feel like it's kept me motivated.

And last week my motivation got tested. You see, after years of hermit-like training, I have suddenly developed an aversion to riding alone. It's fine for an hour or so after work, but on the weekends I want company. I had an obligation for Sunday, so I rearranged things so that I could do my big Death March training ride for the week on my partner's normal day off, Friday. Unfortunately, that fell through and I got pretty cranky about having to train alone for the second weekend in a row. Like, inside my head there was a Teen Mom cast member yelling at her baby daddy. Of course, no one would want to watch a show called 32-year-old mom, because there would be significantly less drama. I could at least recognize that this race is my metaphorical baby, and mine alone, so it's my responsibility to take care it. After a bit of pouting, I went out and did the route from last year's race, which was 53 miles, and finished not terribly far behind the time of last year's winning co-ed team, all on my own.

What?!! No red carpet at the Shamrock Cycles NAHBS Preview Party?

The upside to getting the big ride of the week done on Friday was that it made the weekend's workload pretty light. I actually woke up Saturday morning feeling trashed from the Thursday weights/Friday long ride combo, so I rested during the day and partied in the evening. Of course, "partied" is pretty relative for me, but since I've been locked into training mode the last couple of months, (Didn't I make a New Year's resolution about that?) the opportunity to go up to Indianapolis for a viewing party of Shamrock Cycles' North American Handmade Bicycle Show show bikes could be considered a huge night out. It was very refreshing to dress up in clothes that were neither office or workout wear, including super tall turquoise platform wedges, drink a couple of beers, and see friends that I haven't seen since the end of cyclocross.

Hoping the outdoor light would show off the color.

Finally, I'll confess to the "obligation" that kept me from riding on Sunday. I had the opportunity to be a model for a makeover photo shoot at the salon where I get my nails done. (Yes, bike girl gets manicures.) The deal was that I had to let a hairstylist that I barely knew do whatever she wanted to my hair without question. (Sounds like a less badly written version of 50 Shades of Grey.) I've secretly always wanted to do this, so when the opportunity arose, I struggled over committing to losing a perfectly good Sunday, but ultimately decided it was worth it to fulfill a longtime fantasy.

The result? No mohawk as everyone was predicting, but a shorter, assymetical bob to replace the grown-out regular bob I had already. No big deal. However, she got more interesting with the color. She dyed it a few shades darker brown than normal, and bleached out some pieces underneath. Then she went back in and dyed the bleached pieces bright red. It's hard to tell a huge difference in the picture above, but it's kind of awesome when the bright pieces peek out from the bottom.

Week #6: Callahan Found

This slope is treacherous
This path is reckless
This slope is treacherous
And I, I, I like it

Trying to look excited, mostly came off as crazy.

Confession time:  I was kind of dreading my mission to Callahan this weekend once I found out that I would be stuck doing it alone, but Indiana winter weather waits for no man or woman, so I couldn't risk putting it off another week only to have more snow dump down or something equally terrible. Luckily, the worst thing that happened was that, since I was alone, I listened to a Taylor Swift album on the drive out to the starting point. I guess I did miss my turn onto the trail to Callahan on the first pass, but I figured out my mistake pretty quickly and was back on track in no time. The trail itself was also not nearly as bad as it had been rumored to be, although I can see it getting a lot worse in muddier, high-traffic conditions. As it was, though, it wasn't too bad.

So mandatory checkpoints and time bonuses are set, and the final route is mapped, scouted, and committed to memory. All that is left now is to see if I can squeeze any more speed out my little body in the next four weeks.

Week #5: World Championship Edition

It's funny how a few weeks ago the stretch between the holidays and race season seemed like an insurmountable hurdle at which I was white-knuckledly chipping away. Now it's half over and it almost seems like time is flying too fast. I have a mere four Sundays between now and the Death March, and I have non-bike obligations for two of them. And I still haven't been to Callahan yet.

Of course, the biggest highlight of this week was that the cyclocross world championships took place in Louisville over the weekend, so training wasn't the number one priority this week, but it still turned out pretty well. I took Friday off with the intention of getting a good recon ride in before being out of town and off the bike for two days, but the 12 degree temperature that manifested on that day threw a monkey wrench in those plans. Luckily, I still got in a good mountain bike ride on my day off. It was less than two hours, but the combination of the extreme cold, the ungroomed trails, about a half-inch of snow, and an ample dose of boy pace made it a sufficient ass-kicking for the week. On one hand, my training so far this winter has felt kind of unorganized and random, but it really works out as consistently hitting all of my weight workouts with some aerobic riding in between, then adding one proper on-bike ass-kicking per week. I feel like it's working well for me.

Since the world championship races were condensed into one day, I considered a second self-imposed ass-kicking for the weekend, but too much additional snow fell yesterday for the HNF roads and trails to be anything less than miserable.  Plus, I think I've just had my fill of cold in the last 48 hours.

Anyway, I guess I should mention the worlds races themselves. With the exception of the unfortunate incident dramatically depicted above and the fact that I was overwhelmed by having to stand in a huge line for everything always upon arrival, the experience was pretty fun. I'm sure everyone has seen lots of much better pictures already, but here is one from my perspective as I was pinned to the railing during the elite men's race:

It was cool to say that I was at a world championship and to see such huge crowds at a 'cross race, but in the end, I have to say I prefer regular ol' 'Merican-style cross races any day. Oh well, in nine more months I'll be back at Eva Bandman wearing a costume, drinking any "outside beverage" I want, and coming and going from my car as I please. Oh yeah, and hopefully not being DFL this year. I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Week #4

Okay, this one really is going to be short and boring. I successfully completed my fourth week of training as planned. No pictures were taken, as it was very cold all week and lobster gloves and photography don't mix.

I did finally get to do a Death March recon ride with my partner yesterday, which was pretty fun, although also pretty hard. Going boy pace for almost three hours is hard, even at easy, riding wheelies up hills and bunny-hopping road kill, boy pace. I mostly tried to keep the legs turning, mask my distress, and maintain gasping conversation. It was actually kind of awesome, because I usually just get intimidated/frustrated when I ride with faster people and give up.

Otherwise, navigation went smoothly except for one minor, "Is this a real road?" discussion that added maybe a half-mile while went a little to further to look for an alternative turnoff. That is a definite improvement over last week's 20-mile epic headwind detour. I finally feel like I'm getting somewhat competent in that area, which is good, as I'm preparing for all sort of scenarios while we await the official list of mandatory checkpoints and time bonuses.

Want It Wednesday: Surly Karate Monkey

Once again I am throwing a fickle want out to the universe for Want It Wednesday. And we all know that on Want It Wednesday, I always end up doing what I say I'm going to do. So all further ramblings should be regarded as a binding contract signed in blood.

***

I recently mentioned that I'd gotten the wild to idea to race the solo women's singlespeed division of the upcoming Tri-State 6 Hour Series. My reasoning for this? The old "because it's there" excuse. Excitement about the new series is high, but we won't really how big of a deal this thing will be until May. When I heard that a women's singlespeed class would be offered, I thought, "This is going to be someone's niche; why not mine?" I can't really think of any obvious choices for women's singlespeed domination in the Ohio Valley, so why not give it a shot? The big contenders will be duking it out for prize money in the geared class.  Unless OG singlespeed lady Nicole Borem decides to go back to her roots and kick everyone's ass, it may be worth a shot.

There's just one little problem: I don't have a singlespeed bike. Once I made the decision to focus on the 6 hours series instead of racing track this summer, I was kind of liking the idea of not buying another bike this spring. Regardless, the idea had burrowed its way into my brain, and thus I began my research. It really didn't take long, as Giant doesn't offer a singlespeed frame, and I wasn't enamored with the Cannondale model (the other major brand at my husband's shop) which wouldn't allow me to add a suspension fork if I were to choose to do so in the future. So after a casual mention of my plans, Adam and I independently came to the conclusion that if I am going to pursue this path on a budget, that the Surly Karate Monkey will be my steed of choice.

Just add pink.

We're going for low barrier to entry here: get me a bike that's ready to ride, ride it, and hope I do well at it. I could buy a suspension fork, but I probably won't. Getting used to riding 6 hours on a rigid singlespeed can't be that much of a step beyond getting used to riding 6 hours on a singlespeed, right?

The interesting thing is that while Adam was independently coming to this conclusion, he consulted his coworkers, who, from the secondhand account that I received, seemed quite supportive of the idea. Apparently one of them is getting me a t-shirt if I buy the bike? I think he may be the only one at his job that doesn't have a Karate Monkey, so this makes me wonder if this purchase will not only allow me to pursue my SS race plans but if it will also gain me entrance to some sort of secret club. A bike with secret club membership?  That sounds pretty cool.

I'm not 100% committed to this idea yet, but I'm coming around. We'll see if I actually follow through.

Week #3

Really? Only #3? I guess that's right, but it feels like so much longer. The boredom and anxiety have fallen away, and routine is setting in. I guess that's a good thing. Another week has been completed in a satisfactory manner, but not without a little adventure.

As you may have guessed from my weather-related whining, it has so far conspired to be crappy on any day that both my Death March partner and I are off of work. However, Saturday was supposed to be about 50 and sunny, so I pressed on, planning to do the real meat of the this year's planned route with my teammate Kristen as company. It should have been about 40 miles, cutting out the new stuff that I already hit the week before and big chunk of old stuff that I know pretty well already. Unfortunately, shortly after entering unknown territory, I realized that the cue sheet had fallen out of my jersey pocket on our food break. I thought I had the route memorized, but I was wrong. We ended up in a place where we definitely did not want to be, and ended up having to ride 20-something miles down a annoyingly rolling paved road into a relentless 20-something mile per hour headwind to get back to the cars. Double bummer in that the ride back was horrible, and I lost week's worth of route research. I can now clearly see where I messed up, but I still need to do that ride again next weekend to make sure that I can complete the whole thing flawlessly from memory alone.

The other part that worries me a bit is how trashed I felt from that ride. It ended up being somewhere in the low 50's mileage-wise, although I don't have a computer on my 'cross bike. The wind was a killer, but the route was only about 25% gravel at best, but I felt worse than I did after the Gravel Grovel, which was 62 miles of 95% gravel. I was pretty much catatonic for the rest of the evening once I got home, showered, and shoved food in my mouth. I had kind of hoped to turn this long weekend (MLK Day off work) into a mini training camp, but just getting through my regular planned 1.5 hour ride and evening weight session yesterday was enough. With the high temperature being 21 today, I not only decided to forego the second long ride for the weekend that I had originally considered, but I actually decided to take the day off entirely. I probably could have done another 60-90 minutes today, but I kind of wondered if there was any point to it. It's probably better to recover and hope the weather gods look more kindly on attempt to redo the route next weekend.

Anyway, with my free time today, I'm catching up on my TV and reading, and I've also been cultivating this little project:  http://deathmarchmemes.tumblr.com/. Everyone liked the Grumpy Cat I made after Saturday's ride, as well as the Scott Bond as Ned Stark from a couple of months ago, so much that I thought I might try making Death March memes as entertainment until the race. We'll see how well my creativity holds out.

And Also: DO NOT WANT Wednesday

I forgot to mention my unfortunate discovery that I made when I went to order my new winter collar yesterday.  After years of hoping and wondering what kind of wonderful thing that Rapha would come up with when they finally released a women's summer bib short, I got my answer, and it's a big, fat FAIL.  Apparently, they too think that boobs are some kind of super complicated alien appendages that require elaborate vests, weird mono straps, etc. to tame.  Oh well, I guess I can spend $260 on something else now.

Want It Wednesday: Rapha Winter Collar

I said that I might have to start participating in Want It Wednesday again to bump up content over the winter. Even though I have now decided to go ahead and assault your sensibilities with weekly "I trained" posts, I figure I might as well still throw some wants out to the universe. (Not counting: I want winter to be over. I want to race again. I want to be able to ride gravel roads really fast and not embarrass my teammates. I want Sunday to actually be the nicer weather day of a weekend for once.)  

In the area of purchasable cycling accessories, I decided to buy myself a little present to take the sting out of all of those other non-purchasable wants. As I got ready for my 20-something degree Monday ride, I decided that a neck gaiter was in order. I pulled on the one that I have, which is this weird Pearl Izumi convertible hat/neck gaiter thing that I don't really like, headed out the door, and decided that it was time for an upgrade. So yesterday I ordered myself something more pink, pretty, and merino wooly: the Rapha Winter Collar. It hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here in time for the weekend when the temperature drops from 49 on Saturday to 29 on Sunday. Hopefully it will take some of the sting out of both the 29-degree temperature and the knowledge that I still have to get through a few more weeks of this before spring.

Pink things and whining: they always help.

Week #2

Okay, you're going to have to indulge me.  I've decided that a weekly check-in with the boring details of my boring 10-week preparation period before the 2013 racing season begins will actually help me keep my motivation up.  I suppose this was originally intended to be training blog, anyway, until I realized that was lame. (The name would imply such, although it was secretly supposed to chronicle my rise to fame and glory, which never really happened.)  So I don't suppose it will hurt if it reverts to such for a few weeks.

Yes, I am still having to employ tricks to keep my motivation up, although it is working, as I finished another week with all rides and weight sessions completed as planned.  The problem was that I really wanted to start doing Death March recognizance this weekend, but I didn't want to go alone. The forecast had Saturday with mid-60 degree temperatures, but Sunday as rapidly dropping temperatures and pouring rain.  There a few Wheel-people doing a gravel ride from Story on Saturday, but it started too early for me to do my important farmers' market business dealings and still get there on time.  Otherwise, I was pretty much like Bob Roll in a Road ID commercial trying to find company for a Saturday recon ride, and it kind of bummed me out.  However, I told myself to HTFU, and scouted out all of the new checkpoints west of 446 on my own.  That makes a few less things to worry about for race day.

Cemetery self-portraits are a critical part of training. See, I still have to figure out how to get one without foggy glasses.

I guess I should mention that this year I will be entering the co-ed division with my teammate Erik as my partner.  He proved his mettle as my long-suffering travel companion (okay, I hope it was more fun than suffering) for the ICX series this season, so I figured if I were going to once again "drag another person into my mess", he would be my first choice.  Additionally, last year I noticed that the Death March had one of the highest percentages of female participants of any competitive cycling event that I knew of.  A lot of that came from the co-ed division, which seemed a little weird to me, as if women were only willing to enter a cycling competition with a male escort, or perhaps dudes were dragging unwilling wives or girlfriends into the fray.  I wanted to be all girl-power and enter the women's division, although I've since seen the error in my ways.  I'm not sure how I expected how to handle the possibility of wet bridges and loose skewers all on my own (or, as it turned out, a partner's snapped derailleur), but this year I will no longer be traveling as an accompanied female.  I'm sure that will guarantee smooth sailing to the finish line, and hopefully a podium spot behind Scott and Janelle.

Week #1

Okay, week 1 of 10 in my 2013 pre-season training is complete, and I'm not *quite* so restless as I was last week.  There's not a lot to say so far, except that all rides and weight sessions have been completed as planned, and I guess I just wanted to document that for self-congratulatory purposes. So please forgive me one boring, picture-less post meant for my own motivation.

I guess the highlight of the week was that I did travel to Indianapolis on Sunday for the first-ever Speedway Wheel(wo)men team ride.  Regardless of the time of year, it's pretty hard to find a weekend when none of us are racing, so we pretty much had to go on a frigid January day almost immediately after New Year's.  Janelle, Sarah, Kristen, Kristine, and I braved the cold, wind, and a few ice patches for a couple of hours around the city, which was interesting compared to the hilly rural roads that I'm used to. However, it was a lot of fun, and it was good to get to spend some time with my teammates.  (This is where I should have gotten pictures, but lobster gloves and photography don't go well together.)

As far a my New Year's resolutions go, I guess I'm doing okay so far, as I got in the team ride yesterday, and today I'm having lunch with an old co-worker that I haven't hung out with in a couple of years.  I'm not doing so well on the cultivating interests outside of cycling part, but maybe that's a little much to expect in one week.  I went so far as to browse Meetup.com for ideas, but frankly, I'm not that interested becoming a web developer, libertarian (at least not a serious activist one), polyamorist, or pagan.  I'm going to have to keep working on that one.

Well, that's about it.  I guess I'm going have to get back on the Want It Wednesday train again to bulk up content until racing season starts again.  I have been kicking around the idea of racing the women's singlespeed division of the Tri-State 6 Hour Series for the last couple of weeks since I heard that there would be one offered.  Of course, doing so would require the purchase of a singlespeed bike, which is definitely Want It Wednesday fodder, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready to go there yet.

Winter Has Come

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

- Thomas Paine

The view from my office window

Yes, on the third day of my 2013 pre-season, I'm already Googling the phrase "These are the times that try men's souls."  Not that it's really been that hard so far; I'm just restless, I guess.  After the holiday season, I'm so ready to get back into a normal routine again, but I've also been hit with the reality of that routine for the next couple of months will be, well, not as fun as cyclocross season.  My next race is 9.5 weeks away, and while I know how important it is to take time away from racing to actually train, everyone knows I like racing a heck of a lot more than preparing to race.  However, if I learned anything from the recently concluded 'cross season, it is that intense racing seasons only work if you do the necessary work before the season starts.  I'm just flinching a bit when it comes to steeling my resolve.

So far my 2013 training has been one bike ride and one initial evaluation session with Greg Simmons of Simmons Performance Training.  I've chitchatted with him quite a bit while doing my weight sessions at the Iron Pit Gym over over the last couple of years, and he seemed like a legitimately knowledgeable trainer for general athletic purposes. I've seen his logo on the Scholar's Inn Bakehouse team jerseys, and know he's worked with some local cyclists, although I'm not sure who, but I actually chose him for his knowledge of athletic pursuits outside of cycling.  "Train me like a power athlete, not like a cyclist," were my instructions on Monday, as that is what brought me success in 2011. Unfortunately, 2012 mostly brought a lot of back and glute injuries (I really think I was just too physically tense most of the time from job crap), so that I why I'm seeking in-person professional guidance this year.  Hopefully, it will work out well.

So chilly base miles and gym sessions are what I have to look forward to for January and February.  Per my New Year's resolutions, I'm already trying to recruit companions and plan distractions as much as possible.  So far all I've cooked up is a tentative Speedway Wheel(wo)men team ride in Indianapolis on Sunday, but it's a start.

Anyway, I guess while I'm steeling my resolve I might as well publish my planned 2013 schedule for inspiration:

March & April 2013: "The Tour of Pain"
March 9: Sub-9 Death March
March 24:  Barry-Roubaix
April 4-7: Speedway Wheelmen Training Camp
April 27:  Big Frog 65

"The Tour of Pain" is the name I cooked up when my teammate Janelle expressed concern for her own sanity in planning these four events in a two-month period.  I suppose insanity loves company, so since I was already anxiously awaiting the Sub-9 Death March and training camp, then entered the Big Frog 65 on a whim, I figured I might as well round out the quartet and enter Barry-Roubaix, as well.  I, will not, however be pursuing the American Ultracross Championship Series like some other members of the team are thinking of doing.  No gravel after March for me, at least not without significant chunks of singletrack in between.

May-August 2013:  Mountain Bike Season?
May 18:  DINO Winona Lake
May 25:  Tri-State 6 Hour Series: England-Idlewild
June 3: DINO Brown County
June 16: DINO French Lick
June 22:  Tri-State 6 Hour Series: Versailles
June 30:  DINO Muscatatuck STXC
July 1:  DINO Muscatatuck XC
July 14:  Tri-State 6 Hour Series: East Fork State Park
July 22:  DINO Versailles
July 28:  Tri-State 6 Hour Series: Hueston Woods State Park
August 12:  DINO Logansport
August 26:  Southwestway Park

I guess after a couple of years of denial, I'm going to be a mountain biker again.  I can't really see how I'm going to squeeze any crits into that schedule.  After all, I still have a cross season that I'll have to get ready for.

New Year's Resolutions

This post is a little early, but it's been floating around in my head for a while now. I've mostly just been waiting to get past the end of cyclocross and Christmas to put it out there. I have a couple of New Year's resolutions that I want to make, and I would appreciate any help that I can get from my dear readers. Here they are:

1) To increase both the quantity and quality of my friendships.

2) To cultivate interests outside of cycling so that I have other things to talk about with all of these awesome new friends.

Okay, so I feel like kind of a loser putting these goals out there for the world to see, but then there's that whole "admitting you have a problem" thing. Perhaps people will find my willingness to admit weakness endearing?

I keep seeing things about "meaningful relationships" being a key factor for both health and happiness in various articles that I read, and I usually feel like I'm lacking in that area. How did I find myself in this position? I guess the short version is that seven years ago I got married and moved to a new town where I didn't know anyone and proceeded to struggle with employment woes and general growing pains.  I was too focused on other things and never really made the connections that I should have.  Longtime readers will know a lot of that story, but even though I just rid myself of the latest employment woes a couple of months ago (and learned some important lessons for the future in the process), I feel like I am finally starting to get things figured out in terms of who I am and what I want.

I have made peace with my decision to pursue a career that requires me to spend my days behind a desk working on things that I'm not particularly passionate about (as long as I don't let my overly competitive self start taking it too seriously). It's a perfectly acceptable way to pay for the things I do care about, and I get 36 PTO days and 9 paid holidays a year on which I can sneak away for more fun stuff. The downside of this is that I spend my days surrounded by people with whom I have nothing in common except for the desire to get paid so we can do more fun stuff, although we have very different opinions about what is considered fun. Compare this to my husband's situation where everyone he works with presumably likes bikes, and now he's at the point where he can pretty much chooses his coworkers, and you can imagine how he spends his days in more socially stimulating environment than I do. I've come to the conclusion that I need better relationships outside of work to look forward to and make getting through the daily grind a little more tolerable.

As far as cultivating interests outside of cycling, I feel like this is a result of taking my training way too seriously for too long. For a few years, I felt like I was a slave to my training plan, and spending time on other things was just a distraction. I've since come to see it in a more realistic light, and realize that path is not what's going to make me happy. So I've come to terms with the idea that missing a workout, eating an unhealthy meal, or staying up past my bedtime could actually be better for my well being sometimes, if it's for the right reason. Now I'm just looking for a reason. I could definitely use some suggestions for new interests to explore, and preferably a companion with which to explore them.

So now is where I ask for help. I love all my cycling friends, but I feel like I don't really know people as well as I could. In this "off season", rather than just disappearing for the winter and posting pictures of ourselves riding trainers on Facebook, I would like to try to see people and maybe even do non-cycling things. So if you're doing something fun, I'd appreciate an invitation. If you don't live nearby, but need someone to talk to or just want to say hi, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever; I'm not hard to find. I'll do my best to try and initiate more contact, as well.