Yikes!

Someone I know who sends out interesting email articles and links from time to time sent out a fresh crop yesterday. There were some thought-provoking and disturbing articles/videos about our economy and also some about the direction our health care system is headed in. If you have an interest in the dire (as in, don't listen to the video if the economy is already keeping you awake at night) economic predictions you can find one of the links here. I had not heard of these people until I got the emails, so I know nothing about the trend forecaster or his track record. Hopefully he's wrong.

On a side note, I was going to post some pics of the weekend (COG party and x-c skiing) but my printer is not recognizing my memory card. Says memory card error. No idea why. I've never used this type of card before. Grrr.

The Yellow Devil

If you haven't seen it yet, here is an awesome photo sequence of Lance pushing the Yellow Devil into a snowbank at Tour of California! The yellow devil has traded a pitchfork for a different, more controversial, implement. It may have been in the TV coverage - but I missed it.

Ooops!

Disregard the post you may have read earlier here about an upcoming race. I wrote it very late at night and wasn't paying attention to the dates. I have been too wrapped up in things other than bike racing!!

Last Week

Cyclocross Worlds link

A possible Cross Worlds link to a live feed, courtesy of Brian Matter. I'm not sure what the secret is for getting it to work, I don't know Flemish or Dutch! It may have just been the wrong time when I tried it, or I may have the wrong browser. Try early Sunday morning for the elite riders? If you get it to work, tell us how!! This is what he sent out Saturday morning. it could change before Sunday if he gets new info, so check his blog.

Update: A little bit of blog reading tells me people have been out riding and running today. I am headed out of the xc skis this afternoon. I want to go a few more times before the snow becomes a sloppy mess....if that hasn't already happened.

Dream Race?

I guess it's that time of the year for a little wishful thinking. You probably read about the BC Bike Race last year. I remember reading some great first-hand accounts of the race. But June sent me an email with a link to their web site today. She also mentioned something about winning the lottery.... or needing to in order to be able to do this race.

So, if you have a spare $2250 sitting around, you need to find your teammate(s) by Feb 1st, which is creeping up quickly. Someone ought to try this! I bet this one would be a good one for Chris and one of his WBR teammates, if he didn't have big endurance plans already for this season... anyone have some free time and a generous sponsor?

It's worth looking at the web site just to see pictures of the course. There was one picture in particular that made me want to hop on a bike and jump into the photo .... I found some great photos by clicking on the registered riders. I wish someone I know would go do it, just to come back and tell us all about it. And, no, I wouldn't sign up - it's way above my skill level. BTW, the entry fee covers EVERYTHING. They make it really easy for the riders - they take care of everything!

(oh, and don't miss reading about the night race below!)

Night Race, Daily Random Flickr Blogging, and Thanks!

Have you ever heard of Daily Random Flickr Blogging? I hadn't, until I ran across one of my pics from the Woodstock cross race on this blog. The blogger, who picks a random flickr pic to blog about every day, titles my pic "Amsterdam Gothic" and it turns out it's a pic of Helge of Half Acre Cycling and his new-at-the-time dog!

A big thanks goes out to Al of WEMS for his always creative awards! Nice!! Mine arrived today - it's a mug (or maybe it would be called a beer stein, not sure) with my name and team on one side and the overall series place, race category, and year of the other. I'll try to get a pic up later. I'm always impressed with how much effort and thought he puts into the awards. Thanks Al! And thanks to all of the WEMS directors for putting on a great series.

A note in the box with a schedule mentions that this year they will be doing a NIGHT RACE called the "Twelve Hours of Pitch Black Singletrack" in September at Cam-Rock! Could be interesting! Great name, too. That is one of the few places where I have actually ridden off-road at night! One year (2003?) Tawnya and I went up to get a Trek hq tour from friends who worked there, then that night we went night riding with the Trek peeps and then hung out around a bonfire the rest of the evening. The night riding was, fun, though challenging for me. I wonder if having much better lights than I did then would make any difference?

Cross on Cable

In case you don't already know this, thanks to Greg, there is some cross coverage this weekend on the Universal Sports cable channel. It's 251 on some local Comcast stations. Yesterday's cycling coverage turned out to be CrossVegas coverage, which should be repeated this weekend. Greg also mentions that Cross Worlds coverage is being advertised in commercials, and may be on soon.

I am very disappointed that I wasn't able to watch this. I found channel 251, but there was no picture! Just the "one moment please" in a blue box, and the description of the show that's supposed to be on. I called Comcast today and they said that I can't get that channel in my area! She said that my area must not be upgraded or something. I also missed the mt biking coverage listed as being on after the Cross race. I hope it works for some of you!!

As for my extreme lack of updating... there has been plenty to write about, and I have wanted to! I never posted about Cross nationals, for one. Writing and editing a blog post is a long process for me. Instead, I am trying to do some stuff that had been pushed aside during years of racing every weekend. I am trying to start on some of these projects while I can. I know what will happen as soon as the weather starts to improve!

As for trying to keep fit and burn off the winter calories, a week or so ago I got out the x-c skis and have been doing some of that. A little snowshoeing, too. Otherwise, alot of the elliptical trainer at the gym! A text I sent to a friend who needed a little motivation to get to the gym: gym = smaller pants.

I wish it were truly that simple!

The Marshmallow Test

After I read this article today about the apparently well-known "marshmallow test", I found myself wondering if I would have passed that test as a four-year-old, or if I would pass it now. I decided that I would, but mainly because a single marshmallow isn't that tempting to me. Now put something I am craving in front of me, and I'm not so sure...but I'm curious how my young nephew would do. The premise is that a kid is told if he can sit and wait (for what turns out to be 20 minutes) until the adult comes back without eating the marshmallow, he can have two when the adult returns. Kids who are able to wait do better later in life in many areas. The article above just touches on it, but a google search yielded some more detailed articles on the subject, as well as even some religious interpretations relating to other impulses, which you'll have to find yourself!

(looking for images was fun - did you know you can make a marshmallow bra, a solar-powered marshmallow roaster, and many more things you wouldn't think of? as long as you can resist eating them, that is....)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you have a good day.

DOUBLEbikeMATCH!

Have you been reading or hearing about DOUBLEbikeMATCH? Wondering what it is? If you give a bike for $134, or a donation of any amount to World Bicycle Relief before December 31st, an angel donor will match your gift!



So giving one bike is like giving two!

On another note, here is avery short article about Brian Matter's upcoming trip to cross camp in Belgium.

Cars on Ice!

This is kind of awful but it's hard to look away.... some will find it funny...

This may or may not be in Seattle. When I was there at Thanksgiving my sister said they hardly ever get snow there when I asked how people drive on the hills when it snows. I remember an old boyfriend who moved to Seattle saying that people were totally helpless when it snowed, they had no idea how to drive in it. Not that any of us would do so well in those conditions!

This also hits a nerve after just driving through some icy stuff hours ago coming back from Nats....

Thanks to Naz for pointing this one out!

I'm back from Cross Nats - pics are going up in batches. Hopefully there will be time for a post later this week.

IL State CX Champs at Montrose

Congrats to Scott on winning the IL State Champs race and the overall series! This is his second year in a row as the IL State Champ.

The Cat 1/2's race was super exciting, thanks to these guys! Kevin K. and Scott battled it out here, with James LaLonde behind them in the photo. Luca and Mike S. were also strong contenders in the battle. Congrats to Kevin on a strong second place and a great season!

Congrats to Devon of the Pony Shop on being the IL State Champ in Women's Cat 1/2/3! Devon usually races with the Cat 3 men, but for this race she decided to do the Women's Cat 1/2/3 race. (there's Naz in the background, approaching the sand hill) Lou and his Pony Shop team were out in force in every race all season and had great results all year, in addition to Devon's win.

Above is Holly (Killjoy) coming in second in the IL State Champs race. She rode a great race, finishing well before the other women she's been racing with all season. Congrats, Holly!

Tim B's Verdigris team was rocking it in most of the categories. They are a contender in any race they enter. Many of my old Whole Foods/Active Endeavors mt. bike teammates (Tim, Chris, June) are now on Verdigris. I believe, but am not sure, that June won the series in Cat 1/2/3 women, Tim B. won Master's 40+, Wayne won Masters 50+ (Wayne had a stellar YEAR all around!!!), and I'm guessing Chris L. won the state championship and the Masters 30+ series? Correct me if I am wrong... I wasn't able to access the overall standings on the web site.

Chris L., who rocked the 30+ as State Champ and Series Champ AND often raced the 1/2's as well! This pic is from the Cat 1/2/3 race yesterday.

A big congrats to all the IL State Champions in the various races, as well as the overall series winners. Congrats to ALL of you who rode your hearts out all season long. (I can think of lots of people not mentioned in this post) Whether you got 2nd place, or 10th, or 35th, you worked hard, improved, and hopefully had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends in the process!! For fun, friendship, and a sense of accomplishment, cross is the best!!

I know just from watching my friends that there were some incredible seasons out there. Congrats you guys!

Hopefully next year I will be back out there again, too.

One wonderful thing about cross is the consistent enthusiasm of the fans and the encouragement of fellow racers. The Half Acre Team, (an awesome new team themselves), decided to give the Awesomeness Award to the team that most embodied Awesomeness to them at the Cross Series this year. The only way to properly reward this was to make an awesome cross specific trophy! Julie, Ben and Audrey got their creative heads together and created just such a thing. It was awarded with much noise and fanfare by the Half Acre Team, after the Cat 1/2/3 men's race. See below for some pics of the "awards ceremony". You will have to add your own soundtrack. Imagine a small, very loud cacophonous (in a good way) mob migrating towards the Cuttin' Crew bus, and you will get the idea....







Pics are up. In the severe cold, I feel fortunate that my camera worked. It was slow and I missed alot of shots when it took forever to cycle, but I still was able to get some pics! Others had more trouble, it seems. Maybe it's because my camera is fairly new, hence the battery is newer? I've never had it in such cold conditions before. Now I have an idea of what to expect at Nats. I also had a lot of trouble with icicle hands (given that my gloves were off most of the time) and with my big fuzzy warm hat getting in the way! I switched the hat before the last races, whew, I could see again! (BTW, hand warmer and toe warmer packets rule!!)

Cat 4 men's set

Cat 1/2/3 men's and the Awesomeness Award at the end

Cat 4 women and juniors

Cat 1/2/3 women, Cat 3 and 50+ men

I'm sorry, I didn't get there early enough for the first race!

What's up with our weather that we can get a nice sunny day but it doesn't stay that way past the early afternoon, lately?

Visiting the Sprout Family

Above, Chris' friend holding Kate.

I got to do something really special earlier tonight (I'm writing this late Wednesday night). I got to hold Chris and Kim's baby Kate, who was, at that point, just barely over a day old! She is adorable!! Tiny and perfect. I wasn't expecting Chris and Kim to be comfortable having someone else hold her so soon, but they offered. When I got to their hospital room one of their friends was holding her, so she was already learning to adapt to various laps. I don't have much experience with babies, so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't inadvertently break her, drop her or hold her the wrong way!

Kim doesn't look like she just had a baby, except for her tummy. She didn't even look tired! Neither did Chris.

Kate's dad looks pretty happy...

Sprout is humoring me here by letting me hold her, plus she doesn't care that it's a kind of a bad hair day!

The Sprouting of Sprout!

Congrats to Chris and Kim on the Sprouting of Sprout!

To be more specific, congrats on the arrival of Kathryn Lois Strout, born 4:49 pm Dec. 2, 2008, 20.5 in, 7 lb 15 oz. I'm looking forward to meeting her!

JIngle Cross Mt. Mudslide Video

Here is an awesome video of riders AND the grinch descending Mt. Mudslide aka Mt. Krumpit at Jingle Cross!

(check out the previous post if you haven't seen the elite women mudslide photos yet!)

Mudslide!! aka Making the Most of Mud (with a smile)

Thanks to the Elite women for providing spectators at Jingle Cross on Day 2 (Sunday) with an hour of entertainment on the muddy downhill! Here are pics of Holly and Devon making the most of MUD, with a smile!! It was so fun to watch. Made my day. I'm still smiling.
Devon...

gives new meaning to the word mudbath...

Holly....

This one below is probably my favorite...click on it to see Holly's expression.

Happy Thanksgiving and Zero Traction

We just watched the Zero Traction DVD tonight on a laptop here at my sister's. I can't wait to see it on the big screen! If you were at Cross Nats last year, you have to see this. And show it to your friends who might not believe conditions could really be THAT treacherous. The crashes alone are worth watching.

I spotted quite a few people I know and that you probably do too. You can see Holly K. in the pack after the pavement stretch at the start of her masters race as they enter that mud pit before the bump, for example. I saw some familiar faces on the podium, including Devon, Debbie P. and the Wisconsin juniors. You can spot Devon in some of the racing action, too. I even spotted myself, Renee C. and Dave B. in the background at the top of the stairs spectating. My race was featured but I didn't spot myself - guess that means I was too far back!

Shot in HD, they did a wonderful job of capturing the action and the craziness of the weather that weekend. Big thanks to Keith for getting the DVD here so quickly - in time for me to watch it with my family for the holiday. I wasn't sure my mom would be up for it, but she watched the whole thing, and seemed to be really into it. I'd write more about the DVD, but I am so tired, must get to bed. Besides, I know you are going to see it!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!!

Greetings from Seattle!

I have had all these plans for great blog posts with cool 'cross photos the last few weeks (well, honestly, all summer, too!! I have lots of ideas but not the time/energy to execute them) but there just hasn't been time. Getting the photos up on Flickr takes up most of the time I would have spent on blog posts. I am a slooooow post writer and editor...not just a slow singletracker! (the flickr link is at the end of the post)

This week I am away from home on someone's elses computer without quick and easy access to my photos - so I have a free day but I am not in the right place!

And, I am struggling with how to write a race blog when I have been sitting out the races! It's been really hard to not be racing 'cross and to not be a part of it. I am usually one to do every single race in a series. So this is really difficult for me, although it would have also been very hard extending my season this long after all the traveling and racing I did pretty much every weekend all spring/summer/early fall. I miss being IN the races, though I also really enjoy being there.

I had a camera problem on Sunday at the Woodstock race, so it pains me to say that alot of the pics did not come out well. When I got home, saw them on the monitor and realized how much the problem had affected them, I was crushed. I know alot of people really look forward to seeing their race pics, plus I had promised to take some for the race story. I was also frustrated at my lack of experience and knowledge in this situation.

During the first race I realized that a setting had been changed, probably accidentally by someone playing with the camera last week, or maybe inadvertently by me, who knows? Once I noticed it, I tried to change it back using the way it would have been done on my old camera but that didn't work. I asked several other people with dSLR's and they all would have done it the same way, or else they didn't know. I couldn't tell at the race how much of an effect the problem was having. It turns out that many of the pics came out too dark. I tried different modes during the day so some came out fine and some did not! I was able to figure it out at home later with the manual. I don't have the software, the experience, or the time to try to fix each pic, unfortunately.

Not only do I have a lot to learn, but I don't know the extent of what there is to learn!!

That being said, if you haven't already found your way to my Flickr and thought "what happened?", here is a link to the "sets" page and you can see the Woodstock sets at the top. I find that on this laptop I am using, the brightness is turned way up so most of the pics look much better than they did at home. I got the 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 and some of the 2:15 and just a couple of the 3:00 races.

Woodstock Cross #9 sets

Also, congrats on some great results! I didn't see the Masters race but I heard Tim Boundy won the 40+, congrats Tim! And congrats to Lou on his 30+ win!!(originally I had a typo that said Tim won the 30+, I meant the 40+) Congrats to June and Holly K. on 1st and 2nd, and congrats to Mike Sherer and Scott on 1st and 2nd in the Men's 1/2/3 race. Mike was just flying out there! Kevin K. went out strong but got a flat early in the race, which dropped him into last place. After getting a wheel that didn't have enough pressure to really push it, he battled back to regain many places. Congrats on making the best of a tough situation. So many others were riding well that I haven't mentioned - you guys made the race fun to watch. Not to mention the beer and hot dog handups, and later on the dollar handups -those add such a festive air to the race, what would we do without them? It's like two races in one, running simultaneously yet entertwined, the "real" race, and the "fun" race!!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Julie P.'s second appearance in a local cross race. Usually Julie is busy being support crew for Ben on the national race circuit, but she made a rare appearance at the ChiCrossCup on Sunday. And she came up with a funny but apt name for what happens when one wears too-small leg warmers - "thigh boobs" - new word for the cycling lexicon!

I'm hoping to head out to Jingle Cross Saturday if I have energy left when I get back from my Thanksgiving trip. I'm visiting my sister, nephew, and brother-in-law in Seattle. It's a very gray, chilly day - I want to get outside but it's not too tempting at the moment! There is a lake just a couple of blocks away which would make a great hour walk - going around the lake.

Like Frozen Corduroy

"Riding those ruts was like riding over frozen corduroy. It was hard to keep going straight." Tim Johnson, in "9 Ball Diaries", in reference to the course at 2007 Cross Nats in KC. I like that description (and the visual of a course made of frozen corduroy). It was so true.

Hmmm, you'd never guess who fired up their brand new DVD tonight (Thursday) when they should have been preparing for having lunch with their team sponsor.... just couldn't resist....Thanks, Lou, for saving me a copy! I signed up online tonight for a copy of Zero Traction, too!