Want It Wednesday: Giant Anthem X 29er 4 W

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A few weeks ago, Jez "wanted" an Anthem X Advanced 29er.  Well, yeah.  I suppose that maybe it's not so obvious to everyone, but I really just don't even look at bikes that aren't Giants.  Since Giant doesn't make a singlespeed frame, I might cheat with on them with a custom Shamrock Cycles model if I had the funds.  In general though, if I were going to buy a $9000 mountain bike (or even the wholesale cost that I would actually pay), it would go toward the nicest model in the Giant line, which is currently the Anthem X Advanced 29er.

However, I'm so behind on lusting after the newest, coolest thing in Giant's press releases each spring (I really just need some lighter wheels for my aluminum hardtail 29er), that I pretty much skimmed right over the sparkly new carbon fiber delight that was the focus of the press releases until my eyes landed on this instead:

Not carbon fiber, but a thing of beauty nonetheless.  Probably about a 27 lb. thing of beauty if one tried to race it exactly the way it's pictured.  Of course, I would never leave it the way it's pictured.  White bikes are the perfect canvas for pinkification, and the light blue accents would coordinate nicely.  It's kind of a shame about the fork, because it's quite pretty, but doesn't really meet standards otherwise.  You're going to have go for the "girly murdered out" Anthem X 29er 0 W model if you want better parts (it's been getting great reviews).

As it is, the 4 W model is just affordable enough to make think that I can squeeze it out of my budget, but then I remember that I've budgeted for exactly 0 new bikes this year.  And if I did spend the money, it should be on improvements to my hardtail, instead of pouring more money into pretty but underspec'd bikes that I intend to upgrade beyond adding pink highlights and never do.  It's fun to imagine how it would look, though.

Fast Twitch

We've tried to wash our hands of all of this
We never talk of our lacking fast twitch
And how we're blown out and slogging 
With our heads on the floor
So we jumped on some bikes 
And when we couldn't really sprint, we'd say

I can't be held responsible
She was setting the pace
And I won't be held responsible
They said to run in the first place

I've been remiss in my blogging since what I'd hoped to be my Billy Brubaker Moment at Ceraland has so far not really come to fruition. There have been a few notables over the last few weeks, but nothing that seemed worthy of a full post.  However, as I stood in the gym waiting to do my second set of 155 pound deadlifts, which are getting more comfortable and less back-threatening, "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe started playing on the "all the good songs from when I was in high school" Sirius radio station they usually have going in the afternoon.  This song always make me think of myself and my other frequently injured college running buddies for some reason, and along with thoughts of Jamie's Tweet and Meredith's blog post got me inspired.

I had my "real crit" debut last weekend at the McDonald's Capital City Criterium in Frankfort, KY, but I haven't really wanted to do a race report all week, because I got next-to-last.  Or I won the sprint for not last if you want to look at the glass as half-full and want to generate a lot of "Likes" on Facebook from friends who you suspect didn't really read the whole statement.  I wouldn't call the race terrible or anything; just another step on the what's seeming to be really steep learning curve.  I made it 40% of the way through the race before I got dropped, so that was a bit of improvement.  I might have made it longer, but I took a risk that didn't pay off.  I knew that part of the reason I was struggling was that I was stuck at the back of the pack, so on a straight I rode up to the front and jumped into second position when the train got messy through a corner.  Wow. Second wheel is sooooooo much easily than the back of the pack.  I just have to learn to get there and stay there without feeling like an asshole.

The asshole feeling was what did me in.  I felt like I should take a token pull to absolve myself for cutting into the front of the pack.  Unfortunately, when my token pull ended was about the time the 1/2/3 girls lapped us, and as I was sucked back to the back, the front girls mixed with the 1/2/3's as they had been explicitly told not to do.  The increased pace plus being back in the yo yo zone did me in.  I rejoined for a bit when they came around and lasted until the pack sped up again for a prime near the end of the race.  Finally, I found myself overtaken by a girl who was dropped early in the race but was pulled back up to me when the pack lapped her (karma much?).  I couldn't shake her, so I sat up and waited for the last straight.  I would be damned if I let her relegate me to last place, so I followed her through the final turn, we started to speed up, and I dug deep to put a half a bike length on her before the line.

So, despite my poor result, I had a good time and put many of the crit-related fears that have built up in my mind over the years to rest.  It actually seems like a discipline that I could get into for the "off-season", since I'm currently burnt out on XC mountain bike racing and my brief experience with open road racing didn't impress me much.  I've just got to keep working and learning until I can keep myself buried for the entire race.  Then we can see how my sprint fairs against the front-of-the-pack girls. I know that as a former runner I'm supposed to assume that I don't have one, but the 155 pound deadlifts say that maybe, just maybe, I might have more than I think.

Ceraland 2.0: My Billy Brubaker Moment

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this old post, and I've been meaning revisit it ever since. The reason is that when I read the post I realized that, although it took two years to happen, I finally got my Billy Brubaker moment and even got a picture to prove it.:

In case you didn't click through above, my definition of a Billy Brubaker moment is a small success that gives you the confidence to achieve bigger successes.  Although I spent the days following last fall's AppleCross wondering what would have happened if I hadn't crashed myself out of the lead, at the end of the season I had a pretty good idea.  I could have won the pre-season race and ended up Cat 3 pack fill, instead of getting third, realizing that I wasn't ready to cat up yet, and becoming the OVCX Cat 4 women's champion.  Some might argue that Cat 3 pack fill is better, but after five years of being pack fill (at best), I needed the season of learning to battle it out weekend after weekend with something that I considered worth winning on the line.  I'm also sure that those lessons will prove more useful in the future than another season of struggling for "not last" would have.  Sometimes small successes are better than big ones.

Anyway, this weekend was the redux of the Ceraland circuit race that I originally blew off for gardening.  Since all but one of the scheduled races were cancelled due to the severe weather, the promoter brought it back this weekend, and included a women's Cat 4 race, as opposed to the single 1/2/3/4 race offered the first time around.  So I figured it was a good time to get back on the road racing horse after kicking my season off with a DFL and a DNF (yeah...left that one off the blog) back in March.  There were five of us in the race, but we started in the same group as the Cat 5 men.  Things started off badly with me once again not knowing what to do with myself on the downhill corner going into the beginning of the second lap.  I got gapped and couldn't (or wouldn't) close, and quickly found myself alone and disgusted with myself for wasting $35 and the drive over to Columbus for five minutes of racing.

Then I realized that with the speed I had been dropped, I would be lapped quickly and that this was a good thing.  I just had to be ready when the pack came by, and I could at least still get some good racing experience in, even if my result was still another DFL.  However, as I heard the wheels behind me, sped up, and successfully re-integrated myself with the group, I realized that there was only one girl left from the starting group.  I just had to stay on until we caught the others and I would have a shot at getting myself back out of last place.  Once I was in again, it wasn't that hard to stay there, except for each time through the turn where I got dropped the first time, when I would have to pedal with all my might to keep contact until the group slowed again.  I'm not sure how many laps I stayed there, but it was enough to pass two other girls who didn't jump into the pack, and I realized that I had snuck my way onto the podium.  I did get dropped again when the group sped up a bit with five laps to go, but then I had something to fight for and was able to maintain my place soloing in the last few laps.

Unfortunately, for my first road race "podium", they didn't actually have a podium, but they did give a cash payout instead of merchandise prizes, a rarity for Cat 4 women.  So even though I felt like a bit of a jerk for getting on the podium by cunning rather than speed, it definitely felt like a huge victory for me since it was about the first smart thing I've done in a road race ever.  I'll only do handful of other road races over the rest of the spring and summer, since I'm trying not to overdo the racing before 'cross season starts, but I'm crossing my fingers that today will prove to be the Billy Brubaker moment of my road racing career.

Hippie Things I Did This Weekend: The Square Foot Garden

Both my training plan and the part of me that wants to someday not suck at road racing said that I should race on Saturday.  There was no shortage of choices:  OSRS Germantown, the Ceraland circuit race just down the road in Columbus, or rarely-seen 30+ woman fields at Hillsborough Roubaix in Illinois.  The only problem was transportation.  Adam wanted to do Ceraland, but that was last-place in my choices.  If I'm going to race road, it needs to be in a group big enough (preferably Cat 4 or at least 3/4 only) to allow me to practice burying myself in the pack and hiding from the wind.  I've still got to get that skill down before I move on to more advance things.  Ceraland only had one girl pre-registered, and even if more were to show up, it would be a small, mixed 1/2/3/4 field, which pretty much means it would have turned into a time-trial for me after about 5 minutes.  My teammate Sarah had mentioned possibly making the trip to Hillsborough-Roubaix, so I thought I could maybe get a ride with her, but I didn't want to be an inconvenience since my race would have started an hour earlier than hers.  As the weekend drew closer and I was filled with indecision, I knew what I really wanted to do: build my Square Foot Garden.

I've toyed with a little garden off the back porch for a couple of years, but I've really been wanting to make the jump to something that was a legitimate food source and not just a weed patch where I'd remember to plant and harvest stuff every couple of months.  I bought the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" last fall, but being cyclocross season, it kind of got pushed aside.  Then the weather got nice and I realized I was under the gun if I wanted to actually get everything planted, so I sat down and read the whole book last weekend.  Then, while spending week trying to commit to race plans, I was plotting my Friday trip to Lowe's to gather supplies.  The plan was to race Saturday and build a garden on Sunday, but it was obvious that my heart was way more into the gardening project, so I decided to just knock it out and improve my road racing skills on some other day when I was more into it.

So after three hours or so of shopping, hauling, and stacking supplies on Friday, and another seven hours of hard labor in the rain on Saturday (would have been a crappy day to race, anyway).  I now have 48 neatly arranged squares of super special "Mel's Mix" soil in which to lay out a lovely food supply that will mature in waves rather than sticking with pounds of ripe whatevers at once.  The main garden is three boxes that are six inches deep with mulched areas in-between to keep Adam from having to mow so much.

Then, in the side yard, I have a 12-inch deep box that will be used for longer carrots, potatoes, and other larger root crops.  I'm also going to put a trellis on the north side where winter squash vines can climb without blocking sunlight from the rest of the plants.

The project was a lot of work, and I think I may have already blown my annual vegetable budget, but it should provide a lot of low-maintenance growing years to come.  Hopefully I can learn a lot this year and add a couple more boxes next year, so that I can produce almost all of our household vegetables myself.  I can't fully explain my motivation for this, as shopping at the farmer's market already provides pretty good separation between myself and the industrial food system, but it will be nice to be able to race on Saturday mornings without the annoying consequence of having to eat grocery store vegetables.  I still don't have an egg solution, since my research so far has shown that, unless you live in a rural area with no restrictions on number of birds or the amount of space you have to move them to fresh grass daily, backyard hens are more of pets with benefits than a real food source.  I guess that it is just an extension of the realization that I've made since I've started buying most of my food from local farmers, that there is so much more to the food world than what you see in a grocery stores and that even "normal" vegetables are so much better in the home-grown form because of the varieties used.  Whether plant or animal, if something has been bred for mass production, it's almost inevitable that compromises have been made in the flavor.  Now that I have my own little backyard lab, I can experience the full range of what different types of vegetables are really supposed to taste like.

Want It Wednesday: Doc's All Natural Chamois Cream

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I actually avoided chamois cream for the first few years that I raced bikes.  Back in the early days, Adam got me a tub of the Assos stuff that he uses, but it never really caught on with me.  However, after the winter of 2010 when Emily and I endured so many long, cold, damp winter rides, I began to rethink my position.  Then Velo Bella scored Hoo Ha Ride Glide as a sponsor, so I decided to give it a shot.  It turned out that I really liked it, and half a bottle or so made my failed attempts at both the Ouachita Challenge and Syllamo's revenge that spring much more pleasant.

2010 was also supposed to be the year that I started "taking 'cross seriously" again.  Equipped with a new bike, I was ready to conquer the whole OVCX series from start to finish for the first time.  And, wanting to be a real hardcore CXer, I realized I needed to order up some embrocation when start time temperatures started dropping below 50 degrees.

After considering my options, I decided to order Winston's Brand, a regionally-popular make produced in Fort Wayne, IN.  My only hesitation was that one of the humans in the two humans and a dog company was my very first cyclocross "rival".  Or at least as I understand it.  She denied me the Cat 4 state championship that I'd foolishly thought I had in the bag back in 2006, and then beat me by approximately one position in about every race I did the next year.  So I had an unspoken rivalry with her, and it may have been mutual, but we never confessed it while sharing post-race libations like with most of my recent crossresults.com victims and nemeses, which is unfortunate, really.  Regardless, since I'd solidly been on the "victim" side of the relationship, I figured I shouldn't be too worried about having my order of "warm" embrocation secretly switched with "nuclear".  Sure enough, not only did I receive my order as stated, but I also got a free full-sized tub of "Cobble Cream", which made me an instant fan.

As you may know, 2010 would not be the year I made it to the bitter, snow-tastic end of the OVCX series, thanks to a pancreatic cyst.  After a couple of months off the bike, I found myself getting ready for one of my first rides back and contemplating my chamois cream selection.  It was just too cold for the Hoo Ha Ride Glide tingle, so I inspected the free Cobble Cream more closely.  I must have been spending at least of some of my non-riding time on the beginnings of my Liz Wolf indoctrination (although I hadn't yet given up store-bought lotion, facial cleanser, deodorant, or laundry detergent).  Because when I read the ingredients, my beloved Ride Glide was full of a long list of "FDA approved" ingredients, the Winston's Brand list was pretty short and centered around the magical ingredient that's beneficial in so many ways that it's like an edible version of  duct tape, coconut oil.  And thus began a new chamois cream love affair that lasted until Winston's Brand went of out business last summer.

The last tub actually lasted until a couple of weeks ago, but, knowing that it was coming, I've been considering my options for a while now.  I considered Mad Alchemy, the go to brand for "serious CXers", but from perusing their website, they seem to put soy bean oil in just about everything and seem sort of proud of it.  (The exception is their "Pure" chamois cream, but it just looks too greasy to me.)  In reality, using soybean-oil based cycling skin-care products is probably not as bad as my unfiltered tap water drinking and plastic-container microwaving habits, but I have a special hatred for soy among all of the gnar gnar neolithic foods that are best avoided.  Finally, it occurred to me to just Google "coconut oil chamois cream", and I came up with this:

I wouldn't call the ingredients list quite edible, but pretty clean for a manufactured skin-care product.  I only got it last week after returning from training camp, so I haven't tested it on any super-heavy rides yet.  However, it's been good on the couple of short rides where I did use it.  The look and feel is very similar to Winston's Brand Cobble Cream, although it's a little thicker and most tea tree oil scented than Winston's.  Overall, though, I think that the many folks in the region who have been missing their Cobble Cream would be quite happy with this as a substitute.

Late Edit:  I also just stumbled on this more in-depth analysis of the ingredient list:
http://ecosnobberysucks.com/2011/11/docs-all-natural-chamois-cream-review/

If You Like Pina Coladas and Getting Caught in the Rain

If you like climbing mountains, with lactic acid on your brain, 
If you catch flying squirrels at midnight, and hang out on the interstate 
Then you'd fit in real well, on the Speedway Wheelmen escape.


Our action-packed trip to Tennessee left me too tired type, even after a couple of extra days off of work, and even then I wasn't sure what I wanted to say.  It was an awesome trip.  It's hard to give it justice, especially when Adam's "epic" post and Sarah's artistic rendering already covered the high points.

I guess since this is supposed to be my blog about my training, I'll mention some that, even if it is not as entertaining as acidic hot tubs, epic thunderstorms, bubble butts, "fuck Satan", or flying squirrels.

While I wasn't up to the ability level of most of my teammates, I still got in over 10 hours of riding during the time we were in Tennessee.  The highlight was a four-hour ride on Friday was somewhere between 60 and 70 miles, depending on whose bike computer was consulted.  The first part was a long climb up and over the Foothills Parkway, which I basically rode alone.  I was able to hang with the group to base of the climb, but once we pointed upward, I settled into my own pace, which turned out to be pretty good one, for me at least.  At the end of the parkway, I regrouped with Val, Eric, Janelle, and Bob.  Much of the group had opted to keep climbing on the Tail of the Dragon to the North Carolina border, but that sounded like a good way for me to bite off more than I could chew if I continued on.

The rest of our grupetto decided we should take a longer but flatter way to Townsend.  This section was actually harder for me than going over the mountain, because their pace was such that I could hang with them for decent chunks of time, but the effort was well above threshold for me.  It was a rough couple of hours of burning, dropping off, regrouping, and burning some more.  In the end, I inadvertently set new all-time peak power records for 20, 40, and 60 minutes on that ride.  It kind of sucked, but it also made me feel like I am probably stronger on the road than I give myself credit for.  I just don't like hurting that bad when there's no tight turns and obstacles to distract me.

The next couple of days were easier for me.  The team rode the Cades Cove loop on Thursday night, but we set out too late in the evening for me to finish before dark, so I wanted to go back ride the whole thing on a day that the rest of the team was doing a harder ride.  So while Adam and Josh were doing their leg-breaking "Homestead Loop", and the rest of the team was doing a 30 mile climb up the Cherohala Skyway, I opted to do the Cades Cove loop alone.  This allowed me to go as noodly a pace as I wanted on my tired legs and to stop and take pictures as much as I wanted.

The final day was a nice, flat, conversational ride along the river with Sarah and Janelle, before we packed up and headed home in time to get stuck on I-75 over 4.5 hours.  Sweet.

Anyway, it was a great time it was totally worth missing the Ouachita Challenge for, even though I did get a little jealous of folks' Blowout Mountain pictures on Facebook.  I guess you can't have it all.  In the end, I gained some fitness, bonded with my teammates, and acquired a good arsenal of stories to tell.  Oh, I also drank my first Pina Colada during out post-ride Mexican feast on Friday, thus the title.  I was disappointed it didn't actually come in a coconut shell like in the picture on the menu, but overall it was pretty tasty.

Want It Wednesday: Giant Via 2 W (Accessories Sold Seperately)

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For the last year or so, I've been trying to become a better bike commuter.  It's hard to live up to the example of my husband, who has commuted by bike practically every day in rain, snow, sleet or hail since we moved to Bloomington in 2005.  Of course, he's a dude and a dude that works in a bike shop at that, so messy hair, runny mascara, or smudged/wrinkled clothes aren't an issue for him.  Luckily, I'm now in a job where I wear jeans most days, so I don't have to worry about running up a dry cleaning bill, although I still won't ride to work if there's a decent chance that I'll get wet.  I'll also admit to keeping a flat-iron in my desk drawer to tame the damp-ish wind-blown look before my co-workers arrive, although my current wavy, asymmetrical hairstyle seems to only get better with a 15-minute bike ride.

There's also the issue of security.  Neither my current nor my last job really allowed me to bring my bike inside with me, and I didn't want to leave any of my racing bikes locked to a bike rack all day.  Then when I got my current cyclocross bike, I kept my old one as commuter bike.  I added a rack and milk crate to the back and bolt on skewers.  This made things tons more convenient than they were before.  I could just throw my purse and lunch box on the back, and I could feel decently secure U-locking a wheel to the dumpster, old-fashioned bike rack at work that isn't very accommodating for the elaborate cable-locking through both wheel and frame that is required for bikes with quick-release wheels.  At least the rack is in the parking garage and sheltered from the weather.  It is also within site of the parking garage attendant, so if anyone were bold enough to bust out an allen wrench and try to remove the locked wheel, it would quickly raise suspicion.

So with all of the modern conveniences, I started commuting significantly more last summer and fall.  Enough so that when the 2012 Giant catalog came out, I couldn't help but drool over the pretty mocha-and-pink themed women's Via 2.  Adam has been through a myriad of different commuter bike options and for the last year or two, a men's singlespeed Via has been his summer vehicle.  As dorky as it was, I thought it would be fun if we both had city bikes.  So when I sold my Anthem last winter,  I bought this with some of the profits:

I went full-on with Beautiful Godzilla aesthetic and had to search far and wide for a basket big enough to hold my purse and lunchbox that was also white to match the fenders.  I had to forgo typical cycling channels and ended up with this for $19.99.  Not such a bad deal.  I also like to head straight from work to gym, so I needed a way to carry my workout clothes without adding anything more to my already over-capacity basket.  I remembered Laura posting a cute, brown pannier bag a few months ago when she also purchased a brown city bike, so I tracked one of those down, as well. (No Bontrager at Bikesmith's)

So I'm fully equipped to point that there are basically no longer any inconveniences associated with commuting for me, and the beautiful spring weather that we've had lately is only helping my motivation.  I do need to get a warmer coat for next winter (I'm not going to do the layering and hand-warmer stuffing that I do for sub-freezing training rides) to extend my comfort zone a bit more.  I know most folks of the traditional cycling training mindset would say that commuter miles don't count, but since I withdrew myself from the training log olympics last year (with great success), I don't really feel the need to focus on my totals too much, anyway.  However, logic tells me that as long as it is not otherwise interfering with my recovery, and extra 2-3 hours of low-level aerobic activity per week is probably going to be beneficial for my fitness, even if I don't look bike-racer cool when I'm doing it.

I most certainly will look some kind of cool, though...

A Race on Pavement and a Ride on Dirt

You could sustain
Or are you comfortable with the pain?
You've got no one to blame for your unhappiness
You got yourself into your own mess
Lettin' [the roadies] pass you by
Don't you think it's worth your time
To change your mind?

Is it a bad sign when I already have my tongue out before I start?

When someone on Facebook tried to correct me earlier in the week on my referring to the Long Run Circuit Race as a road race, I rephrased my definition to "a race on pavement in which one is expected to draft rather than gunning it for the hole shot". It was definitely one of those cases where knowing something intellectually and actually acting in accordance with that knowledge are two different things.

Once the race began, I didn't quite go for the hole shot, but I did go to the front of the pack, along with pretty much all of the other cyclocrossers in the race. I made a joke about this to the girls next to me, and immediately regretted it. I've made the same mistake in my limited road racing experience in the past, and it didn't work well. I've got to learn to just keep my mouth shut and my nose out of the wind. I'm just not used to the first couple of minutes of a race being anything less than a lactic acid shower of hell.

I'd taken a couple of practice laps and figured out what I thought were good lines that allowed me to go through the corners with no brakes, although I was still a bit tentative about forcing myself to pedal through. However, as the girls around me starting to fall into a single-file line before the first corner, I realized that I was in a bad position in relation to everyone else and kind of panicked. A few people slipped in front of me as we entered the turn and I saw the girl in front of me lose traction just a tiny bit. She stayed upright, but it scared the crap out of me and going up the first little hill (where I got dropped in 2009), I found everyone was strung out that I had been pushed from the front to the back of the pack. This continued through every corner of the first lap, until I finally got gapped on the downhill turn into the second lap.

I tried to catch on, but I just couldn't close the gap. I watched Karen Elmore, my frequent cyclocross and mountain bike rival from the previous year, fly by me down low with her hands in the drops and reattached herself, as I thought, "Wow, she's looks like she knows what she's doing." I foolishly believed that I would be okay by just going through the turn at the bottom of the hill alone and full bore, and that I would reattach to the back of the pack as they slowed on the next hill. I got very close, but didn't quite make it. I observed a few little sub-groups breaking off at the top of the hill and hoped to at least join them, but they pulled away again on the downhill. And that was pretty much how the next few laps went. I would get really close to catching someone on the uphills, only to lose all the space I had gained on the downhills.

Finally the last person got within in a uncatchable distance and I had to proceed with the unpleasant task of the slow, painful time trial to the finish for DFL. Seriously? DFL? Yes, DFL. That was humbling. I knew I wasn't in tip-top shape, and I knew that due to my lack of road skills, that I could potentially be beaten by people I normally beat in cyclocross, but that was ugly. Ultimately, I think it has way more to do with the fact that I don't know how to road race more than anything, which means that I just have to keep at it until I learn. My whole point of doing this was to try and close up a known hole in my cycling skill set, but I just didn't realize how gaping the hole was.

Anyway, I get another chance to try and do better in the OSRS New Haven race this weekend. Say it with me: Mouth shut. Nose out of the wind. Find someone you trust and follow them through the corners.

Sunday was a better day, since Adam and I went to BCSP for our first mountain bike ride since the DINO Town Run race back in August. I think that's the longest I've ever gone without mountain biking since I've owned a mountain bike. Normally I go a least a couple of times in the fall, but I've never done such a full cyclocross season as I did last year. Anyway, it was nice to be out on the trails again, even if it did feel a little odd.

A Quick and (Relatively) Painless Death

At least they didn't suffer...


But we might have preferred it if we did.

After all the plotting, scheming, a little training, and a lot worrying, the Sub-9 Death March came to a more abrupt end than Val and I were expecting.

There was a minor panic the morning of the race when our team director told me that Callahan Cemetery was in the drawing as possible mandatory checkpoint. Until the night before the race, the website had fine print saying that Callahan would *not* be in the drawing, so all Speedway Wheelmen route plans had eliminated it on the premise that it would not be worth the possible time bonus. As a result, the confidence in my navigational skills that I had gained from one last drive-though of the course on Friday was tanked, because I had *no freaking clue* where Callahan was located. Luckily, it was not pulled out in the drawing, and we were able to proceed with our originally planned route.

We hit the initial traffic jam where everyone was squeezing in to get their pictures taken at Fleetwood Cemetery a mile or so into the race, but when we hit the next turn on our planned route, we saw that only a couple of teams went the same direction as us. Knowing that Sarah and Liz, our teammates and likely the strongest competition within our division, were doing the same route but in the opposite direction, I started to feel pretty good when it seemed like most of the other women's teams were taking a much less efficient route than us. As we chugged along our mostly paved route, I found Val's pace a little hard to maintain, but I figured I'd just try and keep it up as long as possible and see how things went.

We got through the first three checkpoints in short order, and we had just turned on to the first gravel section of the day, a long climb our teammate Jeremiah refers to as "The Bitch", when Val started to gap me a bit, as she had on every climb of the day. Then she stopped. At first I thought she was just sitting up to pace me up the hill or something until I saw her derailleur flopping loose from her frame. Not good. After some deliberation and some unsuccessful phone calls, a pair of guys came along and rigged her bike into a singlespeed. I was a little worried about attempting to do the whole route with her on a singlespeed and the fact that we had lost 45 minutes or so due to the repair. But she is tougher than I am, and after already having to start the day wearing a pair of chamois-less tights when her shorts came up missing, she was still determined to complete the next 40 miles of riding with one gear. (Insert mad props here.)

And for a while it seemed like it was all going to work out fine. We hit Lutes and set out for Elkinsville via Story. Despite Val's top speed being somewhat restricted by gearing on the flatter paved sections, we still made good time (and I was still feeling smug about our route), and I was surprised at how quickly the tiny town of Story came into view. Unfortunately, our day ended just as I was thinking how well things were going (stupid positive thinking). We're not exactly sure what happened, but Val's crank locked up and would not move more than 180 degrees. Since locomotion requires the pedals to go in full circles, there was nothing more to be done. We sent a polite text to the cell phone number on the back of the map, and hoped there would be some mercy for us in the "you are responsible for you" race policy. We walked to Story Inn and waited while for a race volunteer to come get us while a few teams passed, including the Sarah, Liz, Scott, and Janelle grupetto who came flying by on their way to respective victories in the women's and co-ed team division.

So it was a little disappointing to have to take a DNF in the first race of the year, but we were fortunate to break down in a convenient place. We only wished we would have brought money for coffee or hot chocolate to keep us warm while we were waiting to be rescued. I do feel a lot more confident in my ability to navigate the area, though, and I'll be ready with the fitness, the chain tool, and the coffee dollars for redemption next year.

For now, I'll just have to settle for some Cat 4 road racing glory. And by glory I mean participation/ general life lessons. The Long Run Park Circuit Race was my very first road race back in 2009, and it was an unmitigated disaster. It was pouring rain, I got dropped at the first little kicker, and my chain snapped when I stood up for the last little kicker and I had to walk the last 200m of the race. I did one other road race a few weeks later and then decided to avoid that silliness for the next three years. Then I became good enough at cyclocross to realize that I could be even better at cyclocross if I had some road racing skills in my toolkit. Up until a few days ago I thought that the Long Run race was not happening, and I was disappointed since, despite the rain last time, it was pretty good beginner course and should have a decent-sized Cat 4 field comprised of much of my previous CX competition. Luckily, I stumbled across a link to registration page a few days ago, and I'm pumped to go out and give it a shot.

Blowing Off Blowout Mountain?

So the week of my 2012 racing debut is here, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. This weekend's Sub-9 Death March is going to be hard, but I think Val and I will be fine. It's been a little hard because she and I live somewhat far apart haven't had a chance to do a recon ride together. I'm not too worried about this because I've been on a couple of recon rides, and while I haven't done the whole route in one shot, I feel like my ability to navigate the area is pretty decent now. However, without having ridden together yet, I feel like we may each be worried about disappointing the other. She's been sick the past few weeks, and I've been intimidated to do recon rides with the guys, so I feel like I haven't got in as much gravel time as I should have. I've also been a bit lenient on myself training-wise with everything going on at work and stuff. I'd actually be 100% okay with coming into form slowly (still plenty of time to get ready for 'cross) if wasn't worried about imposing my slowness on my teammate on Saturday. Hopefully, she will be feeling better next week and we can just show up Saturday, ride decently, and have fun doing it.

Speaking of coming into form slowly, I've also been mulling over another conundrum that could affect my fitness deadlines. After the 2010 Ouachita Challenge, I won a drawing for a free entry to the 2011 race, but I had to decline due to the fact that my abdominal cavity was only tenuously held together by glue and scar tissue at the time. They were kind enough to let me delay my entry for a year, and now that my mementos from 2011 can be boiled down to a thin white line running from my sternum to my belly button and an awesome handmade beer stein on my shelf, I should be ready to use my deadlift-hardened legs to mash up Blowout Mountain once again. Given that all potential endurance mountain biking plans since my surgery have been pushed aside in favor of closer, speedier fare, I really planned to give this year's OC a go, just to remember what it felt like, and then explore my roadie-curious tendencies through the rest of the spring and summer.

However, those tendencies are creeping up on me faster than I thought they would. A couple of weeks ago, plans were cooked up for a Speedway Wheelmen team training camp in Tennessee the same weekend as the OC. Adam and his friend/teammate Josh usually go Josh's brother's house near Knoxville every spring break, but that didn't work out this year. Instead, around 20 or wheelmen and women, including Val, Janelle, and Sarah will be renting cabins in the area for a long weekend. The cabin situation is working out to look a lot like the USGP lodging arraignment, which was totally fun, and I suspect will be even more fun in this sweet cabin with a hot tub. So even though I want to do the OC, another part of me is whining, "I don't want to go to Arkansas by myself. I want to go with my friiiiends," even if going with my friends means riding up big paved mountains for three days instead of big rocky mountains for one.

I've joked that that April 1, 2012 may be known as the day that Lindsay Rodkey became a roadie and was never heard from by the endurance mountain bike world again. April Fools! Really though, if the last year has taught me anything, is that this is a long-term game and one race or even season of races is quite small in the context of an amateur racing career that I expect to keep moving forward (even with ups and downs) for the next 15 years at least. In 2009 I fell almost completely off the CX radar, only to come back better than ever in 2011. So I suspect that when the time is right I will pay good money to come back to the OC as one of those obnoxious roadie chicks who can hammer the gravel sections between stretches singletrack (but still remember how to ride the singletrack sections, too).



Also in the vein of altered plans, Adam's brother and his wife had a new Leap Day baby this past week. Daphne must have been quite determined to have a special birthday, because she held fast for an extra 12 days in the womb to make it. Adam and I debated on whether this Sunday or the next would be a better day to make the trip to Chicago to see her, which would mean a missed training day due to the length of the trip. Next Sunday looked better for me since I'd be shot from the Death March, anyway, but Adam preferred to go ahead and go on a day that the weather was relatively bad (in the context of our super mild winter), so that he could train on a nicer day the next weekend. We went ahead and made the trip, and we had a really good time. I even got to have some beef tongue hash topped with a poached egg and bone marrow hollandaise sauce for brunch. I was a little nervous about this, but it was the one item on the menu that didn't include bread (I hate being forced into the burger with no bun thing in restaurants), so I went for it and it was pretty good.

Want It Wednesdays: Rapha Oversocks

Well, it's still "winter", even if the weather outside doesn't indicate such, so there's still not a lot to report riding-wise. I hit a bit of a hiccup this month when the student activities information system that I've been working on developing for the past couple of years finally went live at the beginning of the month, but not before churning me into a stressy tailspin during the weeks immediately before and after the release. Things have calmed down now, and while my big winter base-training block didn't come off as perfectly as I'd hoped, I still got some good work in. Now I'm a mere 2.5 weeks away from my first race of the season, the Sub-9 Death March. From my first couple of attempts at pre-riding the course, I know it's going to be a long, hard day, but I think Val and I will still fair pretty well amongst the women's teams.

So with my last month of bike-related stuff condensed into a single paragraph, I now present you with my latest Want It Wednesday object of desire, Rapha Oversocks. Cyclocrossers know this brand as the title sponsor for newly-crowned U.S. Champion Jeremy Powers' team, and the discipline's more hip aspirational luxury brand (leave the Assos and their terrible women's clothing designs to the MAMIL's). I'm probably just caught up in the marketing ploy like everyone else, but I've bought into the hype about the quality and design, and the soft, understated (often pink-trimmed) colorways do appeal to me. I both love and hate that they've pulled pink further into the CX mainstream; the stuff is sooo cute, but I resent JPow making it cool for dudes to rock pink hoods.

Anyway,I do occasionally find myself trolling their site to see if they've release the *PERFECT* women's bib shorts yet. No luck so far, but they haven't released any bad ones, either, so I'm holding out hope. Their women's 3/4 bib knickers look nice, but I'm not that big on fleece knickers. In my opinion, if it's cold enough for fleece, it's cold enough to cover your shins. So once the women's page is perused, I move on to the pink-trimmed accessories section. Since my all-pink Defeet Slipstream oversocks are getting pretty worn, I find myself eyeing these beauties, which are twice the retail price, but still relatively affordable for Rapha:

The Slipstream booties have served me well for three(?) seasons now, but I've always thought they were a little too short. They don't even come up to the bottom of my leg-warmers. I like the height of the Rapha oversocks, and the fact that they are mostly black with a just a little bit of pink flair, which is much more appropriate for an item of clothing that will see most of its use on cool, usually wet spring days, where the likelihood of road spray is high.

Want It Wednesdays: Women's G.S. Panache Bib Short

After a few months of super regular posting in the form of Monday morning race reports, I was a little worried about keeping up with material through the winter. My training-related activity since my last post can pretty much be summed up by saying that I've been picking up a lot of heavy stuff frequently, riding a fair amount of base miles, and this past weekend I went on a Sub-9 Death March recon ride with my Speedway Wheelmen teammates that would have provided some good photo opts had I not been riding myself cross-eyed trying to keep up. I suppose I could post another Lady Gaga video (Eh, eh, there's nothing else I can say), but I'll spare you that. So in the interest of finding something to post through the winter, I've decided to participate in Want It Wednesdays.

Long-time readers will know that I've been in pursuit of the perfect pair of bib shorts for years, and that a couple of years ago, I got pretty close. I actually did get officially perfect bib shorts and lycra knickers from Voler as part of my 2011 Velo Bella clothing order, and even though I changed teams, I still ordered a pair of bibs from the 2012 Velo Bella order as a back-up pair. Unfortunately, the 2012 bibs were radically different in a bad way (FAIL!). On the Speedway Wheelmen side, we are using Pactimo, so I just shelled out a big chunk of change to make sure we met the team minimum on the women's custom version of the bibs I reviewed a couple of years ago. On the pair I have at home, the cut and design were good, but the chamois was a little weird and ill-placed. We'll see how the new team bibs work out.

Anyway, all of this got me wondering if there were greener pastures in the women's bib world that weren't available when I really dug into this a couple of years ago. (What's Katie Compton wearing these days??) In all of the team clothing discussions, someone linked to the Panache site and I realized that they have a lot more retail clothing than they did a couple of years ago. I have a men's-cut Panache kit at home, and while it doesn't fit me that great, I was really impressed with the quality and construction. So I was kind of intrigued when I saw they have now have a retail women's bib.



I probably won't be trying a pair anytime soon, since my bib supplies are high and my budget is low right now. (Unless a Panache rep wants to send me a pair to review. This blog gets like 50 page views on a good day, you know.) However, they are definitely pretty high up on my want list.

***

And just because this has been sitting in my pictures folder forever and I can't even remember why, here's something relevent to my recent training:

2012 Is Go

I guess three weeks (minus that one itty bitty race) was the appropriate amount of time off before starting to train again for the 2012 season. When I counted out on my calendar from January 1st to the Ouachita Challenge, I came up with the odd, but not necessarily unlucky, number of 13. That meant one spare week after carving out three of the lovely four-week training blocks by which we cyclists like to map out our lives. So, extra week of taper right before the OC or extra week of break before the season? Since the first two weeks off the bike flew by largely unnoticed due to holiday stuff, I was really glad I let myself have one more week to just be at home, chill, and a focus on the first few days of my Whole 30 before starting training again.

I knew I'd made the right choice, because by Saturday I was ready to dedicate this song to my road bike:

It probably didn't hurt that the weekend was sunny and unseasonably warm for January, although I still ended up in pretty much full winter gear on Sunday morning when I woke up to 27 degrees and didn't feel like sitting around until it got warm. I just got out for a couple of hours of base miles each day, which was surprising tiring after riding more than 40 minutes so rarely in the last few months. Regardless, I'm happy to be "training" again.

I'm also getting pumped about taking on the Ohio Spring Race Series this season. Given my limited road racing experience, my biggest goal is just to stay in a position where I can watch what's going on and learn about racing tactics. It will be a bit of a departure from the "just go hard until you get to the finish line" nature of mountain biking and 'cross. I think what used to turn me off about road racing is suddenly becoming intriguing.

Finally, the bike inventory reduction from the sale of my Anthem didn't last too long. I've been wanting one of these little cupcakes since the 2012 Giant catalog came out, so I finally decided to spring for one before it went out of stock. Adam has the more manly version that he uses for commuting and seems happy with it.


Once I get it hooked up with a basket, Jake can be relieved from commuter duty and reverted back to 'cross bike mode. I decided I wanted an "ambassador bike" on hand to lend out to girls who would like to try 'cross but aren't sure enough to commit to a bike purchase. Potential situations include but not limited to: Sarah F. successfully convincing her Little 5 team (or any Little 5 girls for that matter) that 'cross is way more fun with multiple gears, real brakes, and knobby tires, and possibly a sweet clinic/ pre-season practice race deal I'm working on cooking up. I know it's a long way off, but file this away in your brain in case you encounter any other situations where Jake can be of use in 2012.

Crossing Over

This weekend was interesting in that it marked the end of the 2011 season and the beginning of 2012, with little space in between. Now I'm enjoying a paid holiday and reflecting on some of the things involved in crossing over to the new year.

The irony of my recent promise to myself that I would not make myself show up at any races that I did not really want to do in 2012 (not really a resolution, but kinda) was that I ended 2011 with one more last race when I'd already declared myself done. The problem was that when I made that declaration, I thought done meant done. Wash the bike, put it away, no more 'cross except for maybe watching Adam at Masters Worlds. However, Adam wanted to race the ICX finale as a tune-up for worlds, and I didn't have the option of staying home. The Rodkey Ford Focus Express was leaving Saturday morning and not returning until Sunday afternoon after the belated Christmas celebration with Adam's family was complete. Staying home from the race was not an option, and I really don't like to be at a race and not participate. Plus, several people seemed concerned about my missing out on my ICX third place t-shirt if I didn't show up. I hoped that my two weeks of not riding or lifting might give me some sort of magic rested legs, but really I was just kind of weak and in shock of the hard effort. Meh, nothing ventured, nothing gained. At least I got my t-shirt and a couple more muddy tongue pictures for the season.



I also ended a relationship on Saturday. Even though I hadn't ridden my Anthem very much the last two seasons, I hadn't been really trying to sell it, just in case I ever had the sudden need for a full-suspension bike. However, the one time I rode it this year was on a day that I thought I might need a full-suspension bike (the Rangeline Rampage), and that ended pretty badly. So without really advertising, I'd found a few potential buyers in the last few weeks, and on Saturday, nine-year-old Will Johnson (if you race around here, you know the badass little kid in the DRT kit) become the proud owner of a new-to-him, slightly too big bike with pink cable housing. I have a feeling he will do it more justice than I ever did.

I used some of the proceeds to buy myself a new helmet, since the old one just concluded its third season. I figured I should wait until the mud-slinging was over so that the new one would get to stay clean for a while. I actually went to Bikesmith's to buy it, rather than just leaving a blank check on the desk at home like I do for most of my cycling purchases, and the salesman (my husband) tried to upsell me with a pair of Giro socks that perfectly matched the helmet, which perfectly matched my new road bike. Too bad my Speedway Wheelmen kit doesn't really match any of it.



I've also already entered my first race of 2012. I missed the Sub-9 Death March in 2011, because I was still only partially rehabbed from my surgery, but several friends did it and came back with rave reviews. Since it is so close and is Indiana's answer to spring endurance racing, my new Speedway Wheelmen teammate Val and I will be throwing our sparkly new helmets in the ring for the women's team competition. Given I haven't been able to stay on her wheel all 'cross season, but I have ten weeks to train, and maybe I can keep up when she's not actually *trying* to drop me.

Finally, I'm ending the abuse that I've been heaping on my body the last couple of months and starting the new year off right by starting a Whole 30 eating plan for the month. I had to delay the start by a day due to yesterday's holiday celebrations (stayed grain and dessert free but not 100% paleo), but since January is 31 days long, it will work out perfectly with the end of the month. I've been hesitant to try this in the past, because I'm really attached to butter, but since clarified butter is now allowed, I think I will make it through using home-clarified butter from The Swiss Connection in situations that really, really require butter. Also, since my horribly broken out skin the last month or so is an indication that my Gut-Brain-Skin axis is kind of pissed off at me, I'm also going to be avoiding nightshades and eggs and going heavy on the sauerkraut, bone broth, and cod liver oil. Hopefully, by the end of January I can look and feel as awesome as I did at the beginning of the season when I my diet was a lot cleaner.

Love and Cyclocross

If it don't come easy, you better let it go.
'Cause when it don't come easy, there's no natural flow.
Don't make it hard on your heart, you might be better off alone,
If it don't come easy, you better let it go.


I think that possibly the worst way to follow up a bad race is to come back six days later and race on practically the same course against practically the same field. No opportunity to start fresh there. About five minutes into the Indiana State Cyclocross Championships I found myself falling further into the Spiral of Suck that I had started the weekend before. And since the officials let the thing drag on and on, I had a loooong time to think about that Spiral of Suck before I was finally allowed to finish at 45 minutes.

The thoughts were basically that I was done - mentally and physically. That I had set a goal for myself for the season, to win my category in the OVCX series, and that I had accomplished that goal, with awesome overall race win to cap it off. It had been a very good year, and I had given it everything I had. And despite my desire to support my state's ongoing series, I had no desire to give any more. I thought I could skate by on a half-assed effort for the rest of December, but my competition was not going to let me get away with that. On the second lap, Tim O'Donnell yelled, "What, are you saving it for next year?" (possible nominee for heckle of the year?), and I yelled back, "Why, yes. Yes, I am." Time to go home and get ready for 2012, kids.

The thing is that, while cyclocross is notoriously hard, from the starting line at Apple Cross to the finish line at Kings, going hard had come surprisingly easy. Those first few "Holy crap, I'm leading!" moments laid the foundation for little successes that built every week and forced me to dig a little deeper and learn a little more about racing every time I went out. However, conscious willing of effort was pretty limited. Occasionally, I would have to make the decision to give an extra 10% effort in an acceleration to pass, cover a move, or prevent a pass in a straightaway, but for the most part, success either happened or it didn't. And for the most part this year, success happened for me. It was more about resisting the urge to back off than trying to force myself to go harder.

So during Saturday's very long and very conscious tour of the pain cave, I remembered this old song, and realized a) It had ceased to come easy b) I better let it go. While both love or cyclocross require a certain amount of grit for long term success, sometimes you have to take a break from a dysfunctional relationship.

This is really about allowing myself to enjoy my bike-free Christmas vacation that starts tomorrow and not ending my super-awesome 2011 season on a sour note. I'm pulling the plug one C priority race short of what I planned. In return, I’ll get the chance for a real end-of-season break before my official “start 2012 training date” of January 7th. I'm still inspired by those battling back from a slump like Sierra Siebenlist with her elite women's state championship this weekend, and the John Gatch in The Best Bike Blog Ever's awesome "Stations of the Cross" post. I'm putting it on the record now that I fully intend to follow up my Cat 4 OVCX championship with another one in Cat 3 next season, so if things start to go sideways and I start bitching about being "burned out" in mid-October, you all have my full permission to slap me, tell me to HTFU, and play this song.

De Cross Gaat Door (The Cross Goes On)

The cross always goes by from September to around Valentine's Day...
Though it is so cold, this is where you really love
No, you can't miss this ever again

Yeah, I know. You've already seen this and thought, "Belgian country music video about cyclocross? Hilarious. Moving on..." But me, being well, me, I had to obsess over free online translations of the lyrics. Despite the fact that the grammar is really funky and there's no real consensus on whether the 'cross goes on, by, or through, you know that Miss Tatyana Storm may be onto something, cheesy as it may be. Don't tell me that imagery of multi-colored tents, the "pretty pain" of the first hill, or the smell of "hot oil" in the air doesn't bring a smile to your face. In regard to the "hot oil", I'm just assuming that like the Eskimos and their snow, that Belgians have eighteen different words for "embrocation" that our feeble English language just can't express.

Anyway, "the cross goes on" is a good way to express my feelings this past weekend. Coming off the high of my OVCX championship, I tried to get myself bundled up and pumped up enough to have a good race the ICX Backyard Cross, but it just didn't happen. I'd kind of made peace with the fact that I wouldn't be dragging myself up to the front the ICX women's "fancy 4's", and was okay finishing things out floating in the middle like I had been doing. Unfortunately, I knew that Catherine Hollibaugh was coming off of a huge breakthrough race at the OVCX finale, and was probably less willing to settle for her current place in the cyclostrata than I was. Numb hands and feet and a slow initial pace for the race kind of did me in. I was passed by both Catherine and another girl, and I slipped into the "spiral of suck" before I could really get myself together. Yeah, I sucked, bad. However, I was probably due for one of those, and perhaps it will be the kick in the pants I need to get through the last two races.

The other thing goes on is the end of season party. We had to have a post-race party in honor of the Scotch we won at the OVCX finale party. That part was definitely more fun than the race. Of course, we probably have to have a state championships party this coming weekend and of course an ICX finale party, which just happens to be on New Year's Eve. Not that I'm complaining. I'm totally going to miss my 'cross friends over the winter. Each race is starting to feel a little like the last day of camp.



You know what else goes on? Cyclocross friendships. Awwwwwwww. I'm now cheesier than that video.

My Cup Runneth Over

All I do is win, win, win, no matter what,
Got [drinking vessels] on my mind, I can never get enough
And when I ride it 'cross the line, I put at least one hand up.




Ask you what you laughing at, represent that mud life
Dirty money, bitch, you better get your mud right

Okay, okay, I'm getting a little full of myself, but Sunday was a good day. I guess I made the right decision regarding cat up vs. have one last good race as a 4, because I had one last *great* race as a 4. I'm also wondering about the power of blogging my intentions. When I wrote that I wanted to get a top 3 overall, it happened the very next weekend at Gun Club. When I wanted to win, thought I could win, and knew conditions would be damn near perfect for me to win at Lexington but was afraid to publicly announce it, I didn't win. When I finally allowed myself to say it, it happened.

Anyway, the OVCX finale race was more sticky than sloshy, which is different than the muddy conditions where I have excelled in the past. However, I got a good start and made the turn out of the first bog in the lead. I kept it through the half-lap prologue until we had to run up the hill to the finish line and Karin Reed beat me to the top. She got a little gap, but then I started gaining again, and passed her when she had to run the first time up the "camel hump" and I was able to ride. SRAM may be all about pushing their top-end Red group, but there's something to be said for a low-end Apex derailleur that allows you to run an 11-32 cassette on a hilly and sticky course.

I held the lead until the next time through the finish, but Karin came back up even with me as we crested the hill. I jumped back on my bike and dove for the inside of the turn, shutting the door and maintaining my lead. Then I hammered to keep it. By the time I came around to the stairs again, Adam told me that I had over 30 seconds, but a glance at my watch indicated that I would still have one more full lap to go. My mind started asking me how I could screw it up, like it is wont to do in such situations, but I told it that I wasn't going to screw up this time. So I didn't. I rode hard for another lap, and as I made next-to-last turn of the course, I glanced over and saw that I had a sand pit and 150 meters of sloggy hill between myself and Karin. I let up for a just a couple of pedal strokes on the downhill before the finishing straight, then jumped off, shouldered my bike, and ran with all my might to patch of firm grass before the finish line. At that point, my lead was secure, so even though it would have been faster to keep running, I stopped, remounted, and rode over the line for my first win.



The Heckle Off and the series awards party were a ton of fun. I wasn't feeling hopeful for the Shamrock Cycles team to take the Heckle Off victory, because practically everyone got recruited to pit as conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day. Luckily, the winner was determined by audience yelling at the awards ceremony, and even if we spent more time during the last two races swapping and washing bikes than we acting like hooligans, we are really good at yelling. We yelled hard, and claimed the bottle of Scotch and case of Little Kings. For some reason, Will handed me the bottle of Scotch before I got up on the podium for the series championship, so my overly dramatic victory picture is kind of funny.



I'm sad that the OVCX series is over, but I'm happy with the way it ended. I'm going to miss everyone through the long winter months of training before next season, but we still have a few ICX races left and apparently, a bottle of Scotch to drink. I'm looking forward to the new adventures of road racing and giving the 100 mile mountain bike race another go. Regardless, I still expect there will be many times in the next few months where I look at the newly stamped "CX:03" on my racing license and think, "Is it September yet?"

Keep hustling (it ain't over me, yeah, it ain't over for me)
Keep flowing (Ima step up my game and get what's comin' for me)

Penultimate

pe·nul·ti·mate 
adjective
1. next to the last: the penultimate scene of the play.

I've always liked that word for some reason. I first learned it during my college track days when I'd hear the coach talking to the jumpers about their penultimate step, which I gathered was critical to a good jump. Of course, it sounded way cooler than what it actually meant. I've had plenty of penultimate finishes in my cycling career, but yesterday was the penultimate (perhaps ultimate?) race of my Cat 4 cyclocross career. Luckily, I did not finish next to last; I finished next to first.

I guess I can admit now that I was really hoping for first-first, but it didn't happen. The combination of a small field and sloppy conditions set me up for my best shot at a for-real overall win possibly ever again (save some huge improvement on my part plus hella mud plus Nikki Dalliare doesn't show up scenario in the far future).

At the start, Karin Reed took a huge jump off the front, and I spent most of the first lap chasing her down. As I got closer, I realized that the pack behind me was thinning considerably, but that Sharlyn Golding was emerging and getting closer. Even though it was only her second cross race, I knew she was strong from Storm the Greens and that I only beat her there because her road bike with cross tires setup failed to survive "the Christmas mud hole" and gifted another position to me. However, she had returned to Lexington with a new 'cross bike, and despite the fact that the whole course should have been my Christmas mud hole, it appeared that I wasn't to be given any gifts that day.

I successfully caught and passed Karin early in the second lap (we only did two due to the long course and slow conditions) and then just tried to ride like hell and keep away from Sharlyn. She did eventually catch me with a couple of minutes to go, and then I got antsy trying to get back in front of her before the final uphill. I didn't have the confidence to go up against her in the final uphill once we passed the technical stuff, and I became overly aggressive. I ended up making a few minor slips and losing several bike lengths, so that I spent the last section just hammering to keep Karin from passing me back. In the end, second place was still pretty good, but I really wanted to win one.

Riding the Brown Stripe

So after nine races, my Women's Cat 4 Open OVCX championship is secure. My lead is greater than the points available at the final race, so regardless of who wins, they will not pass me in the series points standings. Since a Cat 3 upgrade is inevitable in the near future, I'm debating whether I should just go ahead and race Cat 3 at the OVCX finale.

Pros:
1) I want to see how I stand against the next level of competition in real life, rather than just comparing lap times. I *probably* won't be DFL.
2) They are paying 20 places deep, so I might win money.
3) We wouldn't have to leave before the crack of dawn like we have all season, because my race would be later.

Cons:
1) If I race 4's, I could still get my elusive outright win, even if the Kings CX field is a little tougher than at Lexington. Especially if I cross my fingers for more mud.
2) I'm not sure how informative racing my 2011 self against the Cat 3 field will be, because I'm expecting my 2012 self to be faster. Maybe I should just enjoy one last Cat 4 race, and leave the measuring stick for next year's AppleCross or whatever tune-up races are available.
3) If I race 3's, I will miss most of the Shamrock Cycles vs. Rogue Racing heckle-off. Although switching my role to heckle-ee instead of heckle-er does have it's appealing points, I probably won't get a accurate idea of how I stand against the 3's if I spend the whole race grabbing dollar bills, bacon, and Jello shots.

Looking at my list, I seem to spend more time justifying my cons. I'm not sure if that means I really don't want to cat up yet or that I really should cat up because I need so much justification. Regardless, I have about a week to mull this over, and I'll probably change my mind at least five times before I actually register. Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

Navigating a slippery downhill switchback at MTV

I also raced the ICX race at Major Taylor Velodrome on Saturday. Despite hopes that the short and slippery course might play to my advantage, I overcooked a couple of turns in the first few minutes and had to work my way back up from last place. So it ended in typical ICX form, Rebecca and Val up front, me a minute or so back, then the rest of the field a couple of minutes behind me. I'd be thrilled if I could beat just one of them at one race by the time the series is over, so I guess that will be the post-OVCX goal to get me through December.

The Best Birthday Weekend Ever!

It's been a busy week since returning from our weekend of 'crossbauchery in Louisville, so I'm a little late getting a report up. For the USGP weekend, the focus was more on fun than racing, and with my 31st birthday taking place on Saturday, this seemed pretty appropriate. I milked it for all it was worth getting a birthday shout-out from the announcer, a cupcake from the hostess of the My Wife, Inc. Cupcake Chronicles, and Happy Birthday serenades both during the race and after.

My races for both days fall into the "meets expectations" category, although perhaps my expectations for the weekend were a little low. Between the hotel bed and the restaurant food, I wasn't really channeling my A game. Saturday I had a bit of a motivation crisis, because I was floating around mid-pack in the mixed 3/4 field and didn't know much about the ability level of the girls around me the race. I ended up 23rd out of 40, knowing that I probably didn't fight as hard to get up to 20th or 21st as I should have. I regretted this after it was over and vowed to give it a better go on Sunday. Well, give it a better go after some post-dinner margaritas on Saturday night, you know. Luckily, my legs weren't aware of the dehydration and fatigue that the rest of my body was feeling, and I rode pretty well, except for a failed remount that lead to a fall and a dropped chain after the barriers on the second lap. This cost me about six places, but I maintained fighter mode as I'd promised myself I would, and made back all of the lost places by the end of the race. My only disappointment was that I just missed catching the 2-3 girls that I'd been chasing before the fall, and ended up in 21st place.



So after all us amateur folks were done racing Sunday, we cleaned up and checked out of our hotel. Then we headed back to the venue, and it was time for the real fun to begin. Since I've probably already shocked my paleo cycling advisor with talk of cupcakes (just one) and margaritas (not the NorCal sort), I will now shock my mother (dooon't look at it) with the sequel to "Best Barriers Ever", in which the Shamrock Cycles Super Friends bring their heckle game to a whole new level. Although my face is either obscured or in the background most of the time, yes, those are my hands doing the dollar bill placement in the opening scene.

Harbin Park 2011: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Harbin Park holds a special place in the the cyclocross-related section of my heart. It was the venue of my first 'cross race back in 2006, where I came in last out of six women. It was also where I got the crazy idea to try and race the elite class the next year, because there were only ten elite women so everyone got prize money and UCI points. How freaking cool would it be to have a UCI point? The next year Katie Compton showed up, destroyed the elite women and most of the elite men, and put Cincinnati on the UCI cyclocross map. No more freebie UCI points would be handed out from that point on.

As for me, I was learning that, while my mountain biking skills had improved, I hadn't made much progress in gaining the raw power necessary for 'cross success. The only success that the 2007 Harbin Park brought was that I was *not last*. I used my mad skillz on the final turny sections and beat *one girl*. Afterward I witnessed the top girls from my category getting their podium pictures taken in front of the United Dairy Farmer's banner, was extremely jealous, and subconsciously thought, "UCI point be damned. I just want my picture taken in front of that banner."

Well, 2007 self, feast your eyes on this:



Okay, so the fields have evolved a bit since 2007 in that yesterday all females over the age of 15 with no UCI license were lumped into one wave. Within that wave, there were categories for Under 19, Cat 4, Cat 3, and Masters 1/2/3/4 35+. With the Masters World Championships coming to Louisville this winter, efforts are being made to allow masters women to stay out of the UCI elite races and preserve their eligibility for worlds. Good for them, but it also means that us Cat 4 chicks have to race in much faster fields at the big races.

So the field was big and fast, but really there were only six girls in the Cat 4 open class. A couple of my key crossresults.com "nemeses" had signed up for the race but didn't show up, and another didn't finish. So as cool as it was standing on the big stage, it didn't require the dominating performance to get there that it would have in years past.

Overall, I finished 17th out of 35 starters. The field was about half 3's and half 4's with a couple of juniors and one masters Cat 2 (and several 3's that probably should be 2's). It was a good opportunity to see how I stood against the next level of competition, since my days as a Cat 4 are numbered. I beat a few Cat 3's and was the fastest of all the OVCX regulars from my wave, so I think fared pretty well. I think I'm close being able to race in the OVCX "big girls" race without getting my butt completely whipped, but I'm not totally there.

If my magic deadlift-centric training yields the improvements in 2012 that it did in 2011, it shouldn't be a problem. The blessing and the curse of improving way more this season than conventional wisdom says I should have is that I really have no idea what to expect next season. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and hope it keeps working.

Next weekend I will get a chance to test myself against more Cat 3's as the 3/4 field at the Louisville USGP is huge and dare I say, sandbagger-tastic. Yeah, I said it. I guess I should be glad for the experience, but it annoys me that they have a 2/3 and a 3/4 race going at the exact same time and practically all of the 3's signed up for the 3/4 race, despite the fact there will probably only be a couple of 2's at most. But I guess if I get too whiny over getting bumped off the podium for the weekend, that kind of makes me a sandbagger, too.