Back In The Saddle / Christmas

Well my loyal tens of readers, I'm back to training. Last night after Cale got back from work, we went to the gym and 'threw some weight around'. I tried to go for a short run (20 min) on the track, but I got a sharp pain under my kneecap, so I cut it short at about eight minutes. I think it's my shoes- I remember not liking them last year- so I'll trade Cale for his New Balances next time. I recall liking them much better.

It's hard to say where I am as opposed to last year. I kind of remember what weight I was doing on what machines, but not with any certainty. Too, I was taking it easy last night so as not to be walking around like the living dead (very stiff) today and tonight, at parties. I know I've fallen in fitness running and doing situps, but I think my legs have held fairly steady in the weights department. That's nice.

Now, if you please, prepare yourself for tales of Christmas. Cale and I went up north to Tomahawk to spend time with my family. My aunt and uncle live up there, and we met my parents, cousin and the Cohn family from North Carolina. When all assembled, we had twelve people.

We did a good amount of lounging around and reading. I finished Cold Mountain, which I enjoyed, and spent some time outside shoveling snow (it's novel now because I never have to) and snow biking. I helped Cale cook one night, too. Cale's an excellent cook; His family gatherings are centered around cooking (and excellent cooking, at that) while my family usually focuses on activities and art. Unfortunately, that means he's used to wonderful meals and we're used to heating up leftovers and making sandwiches. Luckily, I am very clever and thought of the perfect solution. Cale cooks dinner for all of us, he's satisfied and we're awed. Voila!



So it was a typical Christmas but for one activity. Karaoke. The day after Christmas (it was Sat) most of the family went to the closest bar, the Clover Club, to play pool and darts, and- lucky us!- it was karaoke night. When we walked in, an eight year old was butchering Man on the Moon by REM. It was ... mouth puckeringly bad. The bar tender offered the kid a quarter not to sing again. The bar tender was actually quite good with old country songs, and there was another woman who wasn't half bad. Of course, it was only a matter of beers before we started singing.

My cousin Shannon sang a bunch and roped me into some duets. I found the White Stripes' Fell in Love With a Girl and decided to sing that one solo. I'd never sung karaoke and figured I owed it to myself. Plus, this particular song I knew to be less than two minutes long, so if it was unbearable, it would at least be over quickly. It probably felt like more than two minutes to the rest of the bar :) but I had fun.

On to the photo journal!

On the family land's trails.



On Silver Lake Rd.



On Silver Lake (we were careful to stay along the edge to avoid any chance of thin ice).



Back from our ride. I've got a forehead comb over going on.



Shannon making bread. She's an excellent bread maker. Breadisan?



Uncle Paul got a denim blazer from my dad.



Dad and the dog, Carmel, in typical fashion.



The best seats in the house! The tall chairs overlooking the meadow.



On Sunday, when we left, the sun was just starting to come out. This was my parting shot.

Santa Rampage '09

What can I say about the Santa Rampage? First to explain for those who don't know, it's a bar crawl done on bikes. Oh, and everyone is dressed up like Santa (or an elf, or someone who didn't have a costume and instead paired lots of red and green items of clothing together). This is the second year I've done it, and I really looked forward to it. It's so much fun, and I get to see so many friends from the cycling community. I was totally tired out but still disappointed it was over when we headed home for the night. It felt like Christmas was over or something- but then I remembered we're just getting started!

Here are a few of my favorite costumes from the ride (OK, there are more than a few):
Wearing a tree skirt, which was surprisingly appropriate because of the tree ziptied to his helmet. (Which was decorated with the pretzels from this stop.)



Reindeer: one pair of antlers, plus any brown clothes.



This costume had lights wound all over, with an extension cord handy to bring out at each stop.



My favorite holiday turtleneck costume. I think there was more to the costume, but while we were inside a lot of people took off layers. We are left with this. (Creepy!)



Another reindeer.



A naughty nurse costume from Halloween converted to holiday garb. Clever!



There was some tough competition, but I think this was my favorite because it makes me laugh every time I see it. This is supposed to be something like a redheaded elf, but it looks so much like Teen Wolf... there we are, I'm giggling to myself.



Second favorite holiday turtleneck costume. For all I know, he wears this sort of thing every day.



We'll end it with my favorite photo of the day, Mike getting groped by several people at once. Cross dressing, always a win.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, you scurvy scum!



To read about the project and download the 1600x1200 computer wallpaper, go to the Pegasus website.

The Day the Truck Saved My Bacon

Let me start out this titillating tale by describing how the truck behaves in winter. In a word, reluctant. Yesterday when I got up for work it was 2 degrees outside (after being so warm the day before that none of the snow stuck around). I had to hip check the door because it had frozen shut, and when I went to scroll through the radio, even the display was sluggish.

When I let my foot off of the brake, nothing really happened. It just kind of idled in place instead of starting to roll. When I did give it some gas, it was very much like a kid going to school on Monday. Dragging. Getting on the highway, I have to merge and get over four lanes within a quarter mile or so, so I have to get up a little speed. Yesterday I had to floor it just to get with the traffic.

This is all a little annoying, but I can relate to the truck. Is a cyclist not slower when their muscles are cold? So I take it easy on the old beast and hope that by coaxing it along, it'll keep moving for a while still.

Now that we've got the back story, on to the good stuff:

Over lunch, my coworker Jon and I decided to go to the grocery store, and I offered to drive. We were at a red light, waiting to turn left. Directly to the left there was a big municipal truck and a guy was doing maintenenace on an electrical pole or something. When the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake and eased on the gas. The truck started nosing out into the intersection, and then, from the left, an SUV goes FLYING past in front of us. The speed limit's 45mph and I'm betting they were going more than that. Jon swears at least 80. Whatever the speed, they just totally ran the red light, and I didn't see them coming because of the maintenance truck. We were a foot or so from getting t-boned or at least clipped at a very high speed, and if Jon were driving (faster driver, faster car) we definitely would have gotten hit.

Thus, the truck saved my bacon. No bodily injuries, truck repairs/replacements or legal battles for me.

Jon and I both swore and I stared at where the thing had torn past. I was too shocked to think about going after their license plate or anything, so I just turned as planned and drove on as my heartbeat returned to normal. Maybe it wouldn't have been as shocking to someone else, but I've never had such a close call. I was glad to have such a cranky, slow moving vehicle.

A Sad(dle) Story

Alas! First my rear derailleur, now my most expensive saddle, a Fizik Vitesse (which isn't that expensive, but still). It all started with a night ride, last Thursday.

The lineup:
Me



Andy


Nick (his first night ride, I think- he did well)


Joey


We rode the West side and then started on the East side (I think I'm getting that right). We came to the bowl, and though it was a little slippery, I decided to man up and ride it. All the guys were on the other side, so I yelled 'coming through' and dropped in. Well, halfway up the other side, I'm looking up to find the lip and yelling "Look away!!" because I had a couple of lights shining at me and I couldn't really see.

Heh. Of course, saying anything when you're zipping along and your cheeks are frozen, giving your speech a little slur, will get you puzzled stares. From all three of your riding companions. So I could see the dirt a few yards in front of me and then the most brilliant light coming from the top of the bowl. It probably wouldn't have been that bad- I was mostly just distracted and didn't pedal enough to get over the lip, so I kind of fell over sideways and then slid down a few yards.

I had one hand on my bike while I was skating along on my bum, and apparently the saddle was hung up on a root or something. It held for a second and then came sliding past me. Once I had stopped, I brushed myself off, hiked up the other side and tried it again. This time, success. Once on the other side I checked out the saddle a little more. Rideable but decidedly broken.





So anyway, now I'm going to try a few test saddles and keep an eye out at the swap meets for a replacement. Miraculously, I found an older leather Vitesse at the swap meet for $5! It might go on one of my about-town bikes instead of the mountain bike. I also picked up this white one to try out. It looks pretty decent, and I don't have any other white saddles. Also $5, so who could resist?



I'm terrible at resisting. Nowadays, I come home from each swap with several saddles to try out. Oh well, they're good to keep around for just such an occurrence, I guess.

Milwaukee Swap Meet

Swap meet report! This year there were almost exactly twice as many tables, and a good variety of things. There were some decent deals to be had, and it was well run. There was an announcer that wandered around the tables and advertised the best deals he found over the loudspeaker. It was helpful for dealseekers and the vendors, but it was also kind of a pain to talk over when you were trying to ask or answer questions.

The deal of the day: I got these guys at the swap for $60 apiece. Nothing wrong that I can see but a few dings. We're going to have them painted and keep them on hand for loaner frames for the team, in case anyone's frame suffers an untimely demise.




I got a pair of look-pretty-new-to-me Sidis for $45. The guy wouldn't take a check so I had to go around to a few friends and weasel some cash out of them. (So much for 'If I only bring my checkbook, I'm bound to buy less!') I have a pair of road shoes already, but these are better, and they're exactly my size. I'll probably sell off the old Garneaus.



I also got this for free, which someone gave to me, saying "Someone on pegasus will wear this, right?" With pleasure!



I know the Madison swap is king, but this meet is looking up. It may not be the biggest and best yet, but it's one to watch. In fact, I like that it's smaller and not as many people bother with it. More deals for me!

Appeasin'

Sometimes, when I'm chatting with people, they'll mention they read this blog. By far the most mentioned topic? Not cycling, but Citizen Snips. Well, I'm all for giving the people what they want, and they are banging down the door for a certain tubby tuxedo cat. (Although, he's been slimming down recently.)

This photo was snapped a few nights ago. I was working on Christmas gifts and watching a movie (in the background you can get a sense of how messy I've become in Cale's absence) and the cat was napping and doing his thing. You can make your own cute caption, but what usually runs through my mind is Rod Stewart's Do You Think I'm Sexy or Blondie's I Touch Myself.





If you'd like to inspire your animial to do a similar photo shoot, you should come up with a style board to really communicate to them your artistic vision. Some suggestions:

Only the Lonely

Since Jingle Cross, Cale's been gone on a business trip. And I'll be honest, the title of this post, Only the Lonely, came to mind because I'm the Only at home, and when I was a kid I owned a Roy Orbison cassette tape. (I liked 'Pretty Woman') Point being, I'm actually not lonely... yet. Another week to go.

So what have I been doing with my time? Mostly sitting at home, staying up late, working on Christmas presents and watching movies that Cale would hate. That's the best part about him being gone. I've watched Pride & Prejudice twice. Twice! Oh ho, while the cat's away the mouse will play, and how! Talk about gettin' wild. It reminds me of when I was freelancing for Hayes. I had so much alone time during my day. I miss that.

Speaking of the cat, when I got home, the cat was really, really clingy for days. Since we'd been gone for four days, he climbed into my lap every chance he got and followed me around the apartment.

This is the first weekend where there's hardly anything bike related going on. I like this time of year, where biking tapers off for the year and there are still a lot of events and gatherings. Later on in the winter, I swear there's nothing to do some weekends but mope and try to stay warm. But not now!

This weekend I'm going to get my makeup done for a Pegasus wallpaper project. It sucks, last year we had the calendar and we called it the calendar. This year I'm planning a ...thing where we'll release wallpapers throughout the year. You know, computer desktop images. Photomagraphs. So what do I call it? Do I really have to explain that every time? I fear it may be.

Anyway, makeup. But I have to get it done in the morning, before the bike swap meet at UWM, because the makeup artist isn't available later. I'm just grateful she's making time for me at all, but I will be wandering around the swap with gorgeous makeup, which I'm not used to. Maybe I'll just go all out, wear a short dress and heels and pretend I stayed up all night at some fabulous party. That I just decided to 'swing by the swap' on my way home. Hm. Tempting.

That night is the first of a string of parties, too, which are always fun. I like dressing up. Who doesn't? Next weekend is the Santa Rampage, which will rock pretty hard. My poor Santa's Mistress costume, though. It's seen some mud and road salt/grit in its day. I would wash it but it would probably unravel. Or bleed out. Or both. I'll try to spot clean it before year two of the rampage arrives.

Anyway, now it is sufficiently late and I can go to bed feeling like a rebel.

Taps

Jingle Cross was exhausting. My legs are very tired today. I did three races: Friday night, then Saturday and Sunday during the day. Friday: Very dark and cold. The course was lit pretty well, but not superbly. There were some dark areas. Saturday: Lovely. Nice and warm, I think it got up to about 55 or so, and it was sunny. Sunday: I shudder just to remember it. Very cold with a wind that just picked up and up.

As for the actual racing, Fri and Sun were pretty much the same. I did my time and picked up my $42 (11 through 15th place got $42. Covering the costs!) Friday I did not enjoy, and Sunday I did. Saturday, though, was tragic.

I mangled the heck out of my derailleur. The mud and grass was doing a number on bikes the whole weekend, particularly derailleurs. I'd love to see a count. There were dozens of them broken. On Saturday, I didn't even make it a lap before my fork got so clogged that my front wheel wouldn't turn. I stopped, tried gouging out the mud, leaves and grass out with my fingers, and eventually just unhooked the front brake and tried to power through it. Well, my powering through it meant that I didn't notice any funny business until the derailleur was wrapped up like a Christmas present. Or twisted up like a pretzel. Any simile would do.

RIP, derailleur.



So on Sunday, I wore a 'Santa's Mistress' costume during the race and was told afterword by the official that there's a huge fine for not wearing regulation kit. They want kit with sponsors to be worn, because the sponsors support the races, etc. I didn't bother to tell her that our major sponsor at the moment is a mythical beast, because she was on a roll and it would have been rude to interrupt. Really, though, to try to explain it away might have seemed like I was trying to make light of it, so I let it be. Anyway, she made no bones about it that it was serious business, but was pretty nice about it, and I think it'll result in a warning instead of a fine. As an official she's gotta do what she's gotta do.

Oh, also about Sunday, I borrowed a bike from the Specialized tent. Thank you, Specialized! It was a top of the line carbon frame (can't remember the model name) with Zipps, Dugast tires, SRAM Red of course, and some TRP brakes. I'm kicking myself for not checking out the brakes and noting the model, because I want some (and apparently there are a few different models). Cale's always been in the camp that CX brakes don't have to have great stopping power, because you should never have to really stop during a race.

Baloney! Perhaps it's the right way, but it is no longer my way. Sunday with those brakes were the only time I descended Mt Krumpit (the huge hill) with any sort of confidence. I was able to slow to a speed that didn't frighten me, thus making the cornering possible. I think with a little time, maybe I would brake less because I would feel more confident all around. In any case, TRPs are on the list for next year.

Funny thing about the Zipps, though. On the way up the hill, I was making them flex quite a bit, to the point that they were rubbing the brakes on each pedal stroke. Howeverrr, the brakes might have had less clearance, and I wasn't being particularly smooth with my pedalin'. And let's remember, I am a powerhouse. With a substantial weight to power around. Other than that, the wheels felt great, and I am eternally grateful for the loan.

More photos as they pop up later.

Le Couch

Guess where I am Right. Now. That's right, I'm lounging on le couch. The couch which is not a bony futon with pilly fabric. Yes, I am sadly proud of this piece of furniture. I'm not crazy about the color and all, but goodness, is it the best for watching movies. And blogging.


(I Photoshopped the wall. It's pink and I'm going to paint it some other color...)

On the couch you may have noticed one of several mismatched pillows. I made this pillow out of Thomson bags on the sewing machine that Cale resurrected. It's made out of four seatpost bags.



That was an exciting day. Cale made a small musette bag out of the smaller stem bags, too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to lounging and feeling satisfied.

State Champs

The state championships at Hales Corners were bound to be good. Beans and Barley gave us three gallons of Grandma’s Thick Pea Soup and three gallons of a vegan chili to give away. Gary was bringing a keg, and we had heard from a few other people that there were some snacks and a few cases of beer coming, too.

Sunday rolled around and we got up early to pack the truck and run to get the goods from Beans. We got to Hales Corners early, snagging a good parking spot and a prime spot for the tent. We set up by the barriers with the My Wife Inc. and Magnus tents, making one super Hooverville the size of a city block. Well, it seemed that way, anyway. Slowly, more people started arriving. Our guys from Chicago showed up and started warming up, and I put the soup on heat.

(Mmmmm, soup!)


It was fun to watch all three of the tables fill up with food. One of the Magnus guys had baked a cheesecake, and lots of people brought cheese and crackers, cookies and other snacks to share. One guy came up from Chicago with his grill and cooked up (it was rumored) about 50 brats! Unfortunately, we didn’t save any brats for the officials, so I’m afraid we won’t be showing up on the results next year.

During the first few races, I ran back and forth from stirring the soup and chili to the barriers to take some photos and then back again, each lap. The morning went really quickly and soon enough it was time for me to race. It had gotten pretty warm, but I pulled on the ol’ lace up stockings anyway. Two years of racing and those things are still going strong! No holes or anything.

I lined up behind the men with maybe… six other women. The women I had battled with from the Kletch Park race weren’t there, but Toni (who recently catted up from a 3, and who had come in ahead of me at the state road race) had lined up with us, so I wasn’t sure how the race would go.

At the start, Toni got out ahead of me. I decided to stalk along behind her for a while. She had raced the women’s 3 race earlier in the day, so I suspected she might be tired. At the barriers by the Pegasus compound, I had a sloppy dismount but managed to get ahead of her.


Photo by Chris/ffonst

I wasn’t feeling too spectacularly strong, so I just kept it at an even pace. Toni would catch up to me a bit on the straights, and then I would get a little space through the corners and barriers, I think. I really pushed myself to take the back part of the course as quickly as I could. There was a lot of slick mud that coated my tires, with some slippery downhills and corners that made me a little nervous. I figured I might have the advantage there, though, so I focused on it.

My favorite parts on the course were the corners up by the pool and the sand pit. The corners by the pool were really fast, so you could keep up your speed and then really bomb down the hill right after.

The sand pit was PERFECT. It was just perfect. Deep, thick sand that you could just kind of plow through. There was a kind of path to one side, but I was having too much fun kicking up sand right through the middle. On one lap, I heard some kids, either making fun of me or the person ahead of me. When I hit the sand pit, though, they both stopped and went “Wooooaaah.” Heheh.

The race wound up pretty much as it had started. I got third in the state championship, because the woman who got second, Holly, is technically from Illinois. Hey, I’ll take it!



Moreover, it was a beautiful day, perfect for hanging around outside. One of my favorite photos from the day is a photo of a few of us reclined in the camp chairs after the races. The course was being taken down and the sun was getting pretty low in the sky. We were all pretty tuckered out from racing and cheering, full up on soup and snacks.

Aforementioned photo! by Nick Holbus.

The End, but not.

Just got back from a long day of 'cross. We did it up right at the state championships and then had the Pegasus end of the year party at Centraal. It's funny, it's the perfect way to end a season... and yet it's not over. It's confusing! I find myself thinking something along the lines of, "Aaaahh. Perfect. And now for some relaxation." and then I remember that next weekend is Thanksgiving and Jingle Cross (and with it, many many hours of driving), and after that the IL state champs. Can't a girl just sit at home for a while?!

Couch Teaser

We got a new couch today. Positive: It'll fit like six people on it. It's more comfortable than the futon it replaced. Even the cat likes it because it gives him front row seats for the fish tank. Negative: Buying furniture is a warning sign that you're becoming Grown Up. :(

A REAL RACE!!!

AAAaaahhhh! Can you believe it? As I said in the previous post, I haven't done a whole lot of honest-to-goodness racing this year. This past Saturday at Kletch Park, two women showed up, Lisa and Lindsey, and it was on. Lisa took off at the start, hanging onto Holly's wheel. I went at my own pace, not wanting to get going too quickly. That's right, I don't like to race cross races like a cross race.

Lindsey and I gradually caught up to Lisa and passed her. She hung out on the end of our train for most of the rest of the race. She would not be shaken! Shook? Shooken! Anyway, I lost track of how many laps we did, but it was plenty. (I think it was seven or maybe eight.) The race went like this, though: I had a little gap on Lindsey. She would catch up to me on the flats, and I would go as fast as I could, helter skelter, over the barriers where she was slower. On the hill I think we were about even.

I've been told a few times that it never looks like I'm racing. I'm mostly slackjawed and expressionless, so I put on my tough face for this one:



In the photo below, you can see Linday and Lisa behind me.




Anyway, maybe halfway through Lindsay caught up to me.

Long story short, I faked it. I was falling behind a little bit, maybe two yards or so, on the flats and then catching up all snug and tight on the barriers. (There's no doubt, if it hadn't been for the barriers, I would have gotten smoked.) I think I had just a little left, so I was 'faking it'- pretending that I felt Great and hoping to demoralize the competition. We were neck and neck for a while when she dropped back and I got a gap. Apparently, my ruse had worked.

I held that gap until about one to go, when it started closing. I kicked it in when I noticed, and held both Lindsay and Lisa, who was starting to come back up, off for the win. Ok, so it wasn't the win. But finally it felt like I had won something, that I had had good competition to duke it out with. I actually got on the podium, too, in third place.



You can't tell from the picture, but we're doing jazz hands.

Whitewater and Estabrook

Catching up on last weekend's last weekend's races. For a blog about bike racing I don't actually blog about bike racing much anymore...

Two Saturdays ago was Whitewater. I kind of like Whitewater. Most people hate it, or hate it so much they don't even go to it. I'd hazard to say that it's the hilliest course of the year. This year they made the lap a little longer and kind of broke up the hills into smaller, slightly less vicious climbs.

Whitewater is so hilly. How hilly it is?



That's the best photo I've got for illustrating the size of the hill you have to bike up and down. Anyway, I guess there's not much to say about the actual race. This whole year, two of my closer competitors have been out with injuries, leaving me to race against National level ladies. Needless to say, I've been just kind of trucking along, doing my own thing. In this race I would hit the hills, have a good time on them and then trudge around the rest of the course. As much as I like hills, they tire me out for the flats.


Photo by John.

On one of the later laps I took a beer handup by the barrier on the hill and wound up with another beer dumped over my head. Thanks for that, guys.

The other thing I like about Whitewater is the sand:



It was actually faster to get off and run your bike, like the guys are doing in the above photo, but I prefered to ride it, because I wasn't in any huge hurry and I liked the challenge.

Estabrook was on Sunday. Have I mentioned it was gorgeous out that whole weekend? Well, it was. For Estabrook, I knew I'd be out of the money so I planned to take a lap on the Cale's newly set-up Pugsley, which got more attention at the race than a fluffy puppy. And there was a fluffy puppy there, so I would know.

There was a little wrench thrown into the mix when there was actually someone there for me to race. While the top ladies were beating the pants off of me like they do, there was someone hanging out with me in the middle. I wanted to take a lap on the Pugsley, but I didn't want to look like I was bowing out of the race. Also, it wouldn't be fair to the other lady to be stuck in no-man's land with nobody to race. I decided to play it by ear- about halfway through or so, it seemed like I was pulling away from her. Since we'd both me in no-man's land soon anyway, I decided to take a lap.

What can I say about the lap on the Pugsley? Highly inefficient, in a word (or two). The plastic on the bottom of my shoes kept slipping on the metal flat pedals, and I had to bring a car jack to get it over the barriers. Ok, I made that up, but it is 36 lbs. The cool thing was, the grip around corners was amazing, because the tires are many inches wide.

When I got back, I found that one of my teammates had taken my cross bike from the pit and taken it back to the tent. After hollering from the pit and waving my arms around, one of the Planet Bike guys brought my bike over (phwew!) and I finished up the last four or five laps.

Tour of Tosa

A couple of weekends ago Cale and I did the Tour of Tosa. For those not in the know, it's a true scavenger hunt with a time limit but no bonus for getting back early. Russell set it up so just about each team got a different set of instructions to follow, and then some general things to find, like a dog wearing a sweater. Our set of instructions sent us to almost all of the bridges in Wauwatosa, which is a lot. There, we had to find where Russell had posted a sign and then get a picture with a digital camera of the majority of the team by the sign.

Enough typin', more photos!









We were having fun and weren't in a huge hurry, so we stopped for lunch when we were scavengering 'two members of the team in a grocery cart'.




Other things we were after were a rubbing of a grave (earliest date won)...


...majority of the team in a human pyramid in a bus stop...


...and something not on the list at all, a picture of the team with a buck.


It was a great time, and I'm having trouble limiting the photos (all from Ronsta's Flickr), as you can tell. We didn't win, but none of us cared. Luckily, we weren't even in the top four teams! The top four (I think) competed in a figure 8 death race on bikes that had been found in dumpsters. It was dangerous, with more than a few crashes, and I hope everyone is current on their tetanus shots. I'm glad I wasn't a part of it, because watching it unfold had to be just as fun and a lot safer than actually competing in it!