It's no fun being a "3"

...at least a Female 3 that is.

The Ronde van Brisbane only has a women's 3 race on the first day. The circuit race, no luck. There is a women's 4 race that day, but nothing for the 3's (or the 1's or 2's either...)

The Cascade Cycling Classic only has a Pro/1/2 women's race.

The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic only has a Pro/1/2 women's race.

Oh well...guess I better get stronger so I can race with the guys. But by then I'd probably also be strong enough to be a 2! (that is, if there were races to enter so I could get upgrade points)

There's always Kern...

Ciao!

The Crying Game or Lust on a Schwinn (guest Blog)

(I have a guest blogger today... who happens to write better than I...so enjoy!)

by Sadie LeSueur


Cyclists take a perverse interest in the details of other people’s crashes. How many feet did so-and-so slide? How much road rash? Did he cry like a guy (dry gasping) or like a girl (moist sniffling)? We rarely take such a keen interest in our own accidents and, in fact, attempt to de-narrativize them, probably to avoid humiliation. I was recently enjoying a good gossip about some crashes, and I realized that my first sexual encounter occurred as a result of my first massive cycling wipeout. I had apparently de-narrativized them so successfully that both had been long forgotten.

I was riding a Schwinn metallic yellow-green, banana seat bike with the white plastic handlebar basket decorated with pink and yellow Daisies. It was my first bike. I got it for Christmas the year before when I was not yet 6. My older brother and I got bikes at the same time, and he unknowingly tormented me by learning to ride it immediately while it seemed, in comparison, to take me forever. It was a heinous crime, and I cried like a little girl (wet gasping). His other early crimes included being able to saw a piece of plywood in half and being allowed to walk without an adult on our balcony, which had no railing. People imagine that children are innocent and pure, but this is a fiction adults embrace so that they can patronize precocity and pretend that they were once entirely good. In fact, I hated him with a pure and childlike hatred for being better than me at biking and sawing and standing at a great height.
I was cycling comfortably once a year had gone by. Times were changing; my mother got divorced, and a wiry man who resembled Ronald Reagan was trying to get her to marry him. (In retrospect, I realize that my mother must have been really hot because she gave several serious suitors the heave-ho, before she settled on my father, in spite of having three kids, 2 horses, 2 cats, and a dog.) In order to impress my mother, Wiry Ron invited our entourage to his race horse stable for the weekend. My brothers and I resented him instantly. His game was pretty obvious from the start. He gave us an elaborate tour of his large and empty house, and the race horses just ate. He was on the make for our mother and was practicing an artless, soulless form of bribery.

Wiry Ron conveyed my mother off somewhere, and my brothers were busy, probably throwing horse manure or pond scum at each other. The foul object wars began that summer. The arms race eventually moved on to leeches and other invertebrates and the things to which they cling. Left alone, I decided to take my Schwinn around the farm, which was criss-crossed with dirt roads that were dusty from the lack of rain. I headed out, down the hill from the house. I soon realized that there was a truck following me and panicked. I felt that I shouldn’t hold up the truck, so I began to pedal faster and faster. I gripped the hard plastic handlebars and labored on in a dust ball, feet helter skelter on the pedals like a crazed Raggedy Ann doll. There is a limit to how fast a 7 year-old girl can move her legs on a single-speed bike. I reached that limit as I made the sweeping left-hand turn at the bottom of the driveway. A manic comet of dust, I missed the turn and barreled into a ditch. I flew over the handlebars and landed entwined with the Schwinn. I did what any child would do. I got up and tried to act as if I just happened to be there. Discerning the difference between having done something wrong and having been the victim of a terrifying accident is difficult when one is 7.

As I looked up at the truck, I saw a tall, tanned man in faded jeans approach me. He picked me up and set me on my feet. He was mesmerizingly beautiful with sandy colored hair and heavy, dark eyes, and his skin glowed. He told me that he was Wiry Ron’s, 17 year-old son and asked if I was all right. I was too terrified to speak, and I tried to hide my bleeding elbows and knees. I didn’t feel the pain. I felt only the stinging humiliation of being exposed as a total wanker in front of this steaming, gorgeous god of a man. I sat in mortified silence as he took me back to the house. Even worse, while I was in the shower, he opened the door and leaned in just enough to put a bottle of iodine on the counter. I slumped against the shower wall in despair, a creature so lost to humanity that I didn’t even merit an “Excuse me” or a privacy knock.
I wasn’t hoping that he would waltz in and kiss me or grope me (please). I wasn’t in love with him. Romantic love is too advanced for a small child. If I hadn’t managed to go down in the maenadic frenzy, I would have stalked him secretly. It was a pure, childlike sexual attraction, impotent and miserably angry. I cried like a guy.

A pair of 7's

Data from my 2nd race of the day

The blog lives! A new season of bike racing is upon us, which means that the blog can re-invigorate! I was supposed to be in a work retreat all day today...but I managed to escape it after the morning so I would not miss the first crit of the year, our local Mothballs!

My time was very limited today, so I had gone over earlier and registered for my 2 races before work. Then I went to the retreat, and escaped just in time to rush back and get a quick spin on the trainer before my first race, which also happened to be my first 1/2/3 crit as well. I was in such a hurry that I forgot my bike computer, which is all fine and good, but that meant I had no idea what time it was in the race! Oops...I was racing blind, so to speak, until the 5 laps to go came out! I just wish I had the data from that race...it was a blast. Everyone is so smooth, and fast, and knows how to corner, and it was fun. I was kind of sad I missed the key break when a couple girls got off the front, but honestly I'm not sure I would have been able to hand on up there anyway! I ended up finishing in the pack, and having timed my sprint a little wrong (I haven't sprinted since last August....), I wasn't quite there but pulled of a 7th, about 1/2 a bike length back. Oh well....room for improvement! I was pretty pleased with how my legs felt under me. They actually had a little jump when needed, which is good! It was a fun time for sure.
In the interest of good old training, I decided to do the 3/4's race as well. For this race, my tactics were different. I wanted to stay out of trouble, and work hard and get a good workout. So my goal going in was to be a player in this race, not just to sit in and let it happen around me. I spent lots of time up front, put in a few attacks, and chased down everything that got away. I was pretty happy with the way I felt...my legs were getting a little fatigued by the end, but overall I was happy with my race. After being way too far back in the final corner, I worked hard to get up there, but again the sprint timing isn't quite there, and I again finished 7th, this time it was just a field sprint. A pair of 7s. By the 2nd race, I had time to go get the computer, so I have data. What a huge difference between this year's race and last years Mothballs crit! Anyway, it was a fun day. I had lots of fellow Chicken Ranchers in many of the races, so there were lots of folk to cheer for, and I got lots of support when I was racing. It was a very fun day.

Echelon Santa Barbara put on the race, and they did a fantastic job! Congrats everyone!

Ciao!

on lame drivers.

Leave it to a lame driver to put a damper on what was almost a really great ride today! There was a pretty sizeable group of us out this morning for the 7am, pre-weekend-storms lake ride. The sky looked a bit ominous...but at the same time, the forecasts looked almost OK for making it in time. We decided on freeway-first since it is no fun to be out on the freeway in heavy winds (unless of course they are directly behind you...). Aaron Olson pulled the ENTIRE ride, giving us a nearly 20mph average, which is pretty speedy for an off-season training ride! That guy can sure hammer! (so can his wife, too, I'm in awe...) I'm not sure, but that might have been my quickest Lake ride ever, even counting the ones I did in the middle of race season last year! I still feel slow on the climbs, but today all the speedy people came back down the final climb to collect us all up and we rode in together. That is a small thing that makes a big difference...riding the last 15 miles of a 65 mile ride as a group is just so much more pleasant than by yourself! Thanks, guys!!

The only damper in the whole thing was in montecito, where a driver nearly took us out. Some woman in a very large sedan made a right turn RIGHT in front of our whole group, causing some fast braking to go on. Me, by chance, being near the back of the group, was caught a bit by surprise at this sudden stop, and unfortunately my bike caught in someone else's rear wheel, and took out a bunch of her fancy carbon spokes. Ack! Nobody went down, but what a bummer... we tried to find this driver...but when she saw the cyclists coming, she made an abrupt turn and left the premises. Lovely. I feel really bad about the dead wheel. It was a new Mavic R-sys, too... I guess things happen, but ...

And then, on my drive home (in my quest to keep today under a Century, I had driven to the start of the ride), someone on the freeway changed lanes RIGHT into me, and caused me to do some serious evasive driving to avoid being sideswiped at 70mph. I felt like i was in a crit!

I feel like today just has some bad driving karma going on, and I should just hide inside for the rest of the day. Good thing I have a lot of work to do...

Ciao!

too much data...

Well, I put the ibike back on the bike this weekend. I had been in a "no data" mood since my injury this fall. I didn't want to be depressed by the numbers, and so I just took all computers and monitors off the bike and rode because I like to ride my bike. But the data bug bit me again when the iBike wireless HR/Cadence upgrade came out, and this weekend I finally decided to put the thing back on the bike. My fitness is still on the upward trend, and the weight training is still tiring out my legs, but I decided to start tracking things again in the hopes that I'll see significant gains as it gets closer to the race season...

The good news is that they have really upgraded their software for Mac! I was pleasantly surprised that the interface has improved so much, and that you can do a lot more with the program. It still has limitations, and if I had a little more $$ I would just buy Cyclingpeaks and use that, but for now, this is ok. For example, here is my ride today. It was a spin from my house in Goleta down to "worlds" and then home again, on a slightly different route. As you can see, the final stretch coming back to the polo fields today was pretty brisk (a little past 2 hours on my ride...you can see where my heart rate was maximized...)!



I think I need a nap!
Ciao!

Holiday Memories

Christmas is one of those nostalgic times. I was back up North a couple weeks ago, visiting my parents who still live in the great white north, and my mom shared some old photos with me, and I got a bit nostalgic. Although I am totally a California girl, seemingly switched at birth and forced to live for the first 17 years in the Midwest...I did have a pretty fun childhood...and here are some of those memories. These are the early years...note the presence of snow and winter in so many of them.

Christmas time, 1978
First winter in Upper Michigan (1978)
Yes, that really is a snowbank! This is the front porch of my folks' house! Yes, the snowbank is taller than I! (that year, it snowed 380 inches, or something insane like that). After the roof was shoveled a couple of times, the snowbank on the ground met the one from the roof, and you sometimes couldn't see out the windows anymore!
1979, fall. (Quincy Copper Mine Hoist in the background)
1979...my first dog...my English Setter, Louie (oh, and my grandma, little sis, and dad, too)


Anyway, I was up there to get an alumni award at Michigan Tech, so here's some more recent photos, too!

Getting my 1.5 minutes of fame at MTU commencement.

My dad and I while out snowshoeing.
And my mom and I. This was a silly sign I saw on the ski trail I had to pass by while snowshoeing. Check out all the icons! And I was happy to see that this was a "dog trail!" I found out later what that meant...when someone came by on XC skis, with a dog harnessed up! Skijoring is quite popular now, I suppose! Looks fun.

Yes, this is an industrial-strength snowblower cutting back the banks, and a dumptruck following along to 'catch' the snow!

Now, hence anyone get the wrong idea....it was fun to visit 'winter' for a few days...but it sure was nice to have the last 6 days on the bike, outside in the beautiful crisp Santa Barbara air...sun, no snow, (a little frost a couple of mornings) and the company of friends.

It is a Merry Christmas.

Ciao!

more weight-y thoughts.

how skinny do you have to be to be a cyclist?
I was at a party last night where we were eating desserts and talking about weight loss..
Someone said to me,"5 pounds would make a big difference in your racing next year...now's the time to start making that happen".
I almost said "gaining 5, or losing 5?" because I discovered on Friday that i had gained 2-3 pounds since my weight training kicked into high gear...and of course I hope that training will eventually make a difference in my racing.

I bought a pumpkin scone at the Starbucks this morning when I was out with the red dog. I brought it home, took one bite, and then couldn't eat it. All I was thinking about was that stupid comment about weight loss, and how bad it was of me to eat something with little to no nutritional value and lots of calories.

I went out for my bike ride, which happened to be 'sunday worlds.' I didn't eat enough this morning, just sucking down a banana on my way out the door. I put trader joe's pop tarts in my jersey pocket.

I rode for 3 hours. I didn't eat the pop tarts. I ate one goo. I felt ill. I thought about being skinnier from burning many thousands of calories yesterday (did a really really long training ride), and then I thought about how stupid it was to not eat enough before going on a hard ride today.

And then I ate the scone.
And it was good.