I gotta get my Fred

Here is a somewhat entertaining captioned version of "A little help from my friends" telling us what Joe Cocker was really singing at Woodstock in 1969.

Things that bite in the night

If you need a reason to ride faster in your night laps at 24/9 in early August, read the article about a 14 year old girl who was attacked by a bear while doing a night lap in a 24 hour race in Alaska. Unfortunately, it sounds like she was severely injured. And I might add that Christine just told me yesterday that there are estimated to be 25,000 bears in Wisconsin! (not the same type of bear, though, I don't think)

Better train a little harder...

Mini-Recap

It's looking doubtful that I'll have time to catch up on race reports before Levis Trow this weekend... which I hope to go to although it's not definite yet. Jason, Kim, and the Chainsmoker crew put on a good race, and I like the trails there.

The short version in case I don't ever get to the long version: (actually it started out short and got longer as I kept adding stuff...)

Subaru Cup X-C: Brutal.

Especially after not being able to sleep all night, getting up at 6:30, standing and working the booth all day, not eating much or hydrating much, then racing at 5 pm. everything one should not do! legs felt like lead. the course was above my technical skill level, but it was perfect weather for me. I did too much walking and running, mainly because of my back but also due to technical ineptitude. It was good riding with Sheri on the last lap, we kept each other going when we didn't think we'd survive to the finish. I almost dropped out several times - I truly didn't think I'd make it. Oh, and it was funny riding by a friend showering in the woods near his campsite. It made the race seem even more surreal that it already was, I was in such a fog by that point. I did the worst I have done this year in age group.

Super D: not my best event, that's for sure! but if you have good technical skills, it would be a blast! it was my first time doing a Super D.

The uphill LeMans start was hard. I had no energy left for the Super D after the X-C the night before. I still have the bruises from someone hitting me and knocking me over when they tried to pass at warp speed near the end. (I did pull over, but they still got me!)

I enjoyed talking to the downhillers while I was waiting for the Super D to start. Having them there added another dimension to the weekend. One guy I talked to only gets to ride downhill in Colorado. We think we have to travel to find trails - those midwest downhill guys have it much worse. (yeah, I know there are places here and there, but not that many) I have much more respect for them as racers now than I did when we used to go to the big Norba Nationals and x-c people I knew would make fun of the downhillers because they would party all night and not train. Those guys are serious now, just in a different way. (watch the movie Seasons if you are skeptical about this)

Don and his crew did a good job of making it a fun weekend for everyone, thanks!

Reforestation Camp (Stump Farm!!): Fun, fun fun. this course is totally my kind of course. had so much fun riding it. the singletrack just flows and you can fly in the open sections. I won my age group, was hoping for top ten overall but some peeps I didn't see must have gotten away! I came close enough, though.

Peck Peck Pecking Season

Now you don't have to drive all the way to Kettle to get pecked at...

Bike Commuters Beware! It's pecking season! Male blackbirds are attacking cyclists (and pedestrians) on city streets when the cyclists come too close to their nests. Apparently there is even a bird near Grand and Rockwell that has been dubbed "Hitchcock" based on it's aggressiveness.

That's one of the best arguments I've heard yet for wearing a helmet... you might wish you were wearing one even when walking in nesting areas!!

I'm headed for Stump Farm aka Reforestation Camp this afternoon....

Subaru Cup weekend

I spent a lot of time before Subaru Cup getting ready for our team (and some friends) to do this....

There wasn't much time to think about the actual racing part...

Not everyone was busy though...

Every now and then we got a chance to do this...

But we didn't have time to do much of this....


It was a fun (and exhausting) weekend!

A BIG thank you to teammates Jeff, John (and Karen), their families, Rich, and to friends Ben and Dierdre for all of their help in keeping the booth up and running all weekend!! It was a new experience for us, especially to do it without DJ. And thanks to our sponsor Clif for supporting the race and racers.

I'm still catching up on paperwork from the weekend instead of writing a race report. Just dropped the truck off yesterday (awwww, I had a blast driving it to the race!). I hope I can get around to a race report for the x-c and the Super D before Reforestation Camp rolls around this weekend. The X-C was absolutely brutal.

Subaru Time

It's Subaru Cup time. I am hoping for better conditions than last year!! That race was so muddy it was almost comical. I do remember thinking that at least I was having fun. For some reason that particular muddy race was more fun than some other super-muddy ones I have done in recent years.

I picked up the Clif truck today. Some of the team will be staffing the tent for the weekend. It was fun sitting up high and driving it through the city. The entire back cargo area of it was pretty much already full when I got it, believe it or not! I got many gallons of water at the store tonight, too, for the electrolyte and recovery drink. Stop by the tent to say hi and check out some of the newer flavors and some old favorites of bars, shots, bloks, and drink. You can try the Builder's minis in Vanilla Almond! Yum!

Good luck to everyone this weekend at Subaru Cup! And good luck to those staying around to do closer races like Sherman Park.

Dirt Camp!!

Off to Camp

I am off to the dirt retreat tonight if I can just get all my stuff ready....it's taking longer than it should. Got my bike tweaked today, minor shifting issue, went to the grocery store for some food to take along, and now the phone keeps ringing. One call was a friend in Boulder who wished I was there cuz she knew I would go with her to see Gary Fisher and Bob Roll at the opening of the new bike store there. I've been trying to dig out some warm weather stuff for off the bike. Shorts? T-shirts? what are those? I am really looking forward to meeting Alison Dunlap tomorrow. The whole retreat should be lots of fun.

Busy week! A highlight was going to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park. I really liked the venue. I have never been there before for a show but I loved the view, when you could see it! The fog was really rolling in and at times you couldn't even see the lights in the high rise buildings right across the street. The band played my favorite songs. I enjoyed the show. Ben, Emily and Kenny were all good company. Julie was supposed to go but she had to go to P.R. for work - wish she could have been there. It's been a while since I have been to a concert and it was nice having it be in a convenient place.

Wednesday night I really really wanted to ride but I forced myself to go to the Tile Outlet on Fullerton. I had a bunch of samples that needed to be returned before the return deadline. Last night I got over two hours of road riding in, so that was good. I am so happy that warm weather is here. Hopefully there will be many many nights of warm weather riding to come!

Here is a fun pic that I just got from Soupy from XXX. Thank you, Soupy! It's from 12 Hours of Gears.

Awfulness.

This is a truly disturbing picture and story about a car crashing into a bike race. If you have a vivid imagination or are planning on riding road today, you might want to skip this one.

Nine Mile is a Ten

                                   (this photo from Edge Photo's Flickr Photostream)
I could barely lift my head off the pillow this morning (Monday) after Wausau. Then I stopped to think about it. In the course of around 26 hours, I drove 5+ hours, slept for about 5 hours, got up and raced, stood around for about 5 hours to watch the other races and catch up with people, and then drove a little over 5 hours to get back home. No wonder I'm tired!! It wasn't just the racing, it was the whole package.  

What a great event!  A big turnout, both in racers and spectators.  I heard so many people yelling when I came through the pit area, it was very motivating.  

                                      It was a perfect day.

The juniors had a good time.

Congrats to all of you who had great rides (as well as those that escaped the flat-fest caused by the evil pointy rocks)! It is good to see so many friends and teammates doing so well.

                                           There was a lot of this going on.

I ran across a race report on endurance racer Danielle Musto's blog for Monday June 2, called Big Ring Classic. I loved her post. It reminded me of how lucky we are to have a race series like WORS and a great race like Wausau. With a new person's fresh perspective, she captured some of the things that make WORS special.  She was there to prepare for 24 hour nationals at 9 Mile in July.  

My race report later.