The 8th Wonder

Introducing the final bike (at least for a few days, anyhow) of my collection:



As you can see, it's a Chili Con Crosso with some nice components that I've been squirreling away since winter. I just got the wheels and glued them last night- Russell did a bang-up job on them, and I've got to give myself a little pat on the back for going with green nipples:



I was tempted to go with black, because then the wheels would go with anything and not be so specific to green bikes. But I took a chance and went with green. How daring- Nay! heroic I am. It's also got a matching green headset and a custom painted Alpha Q fork (that came with it).



Last but not least, we gutted the front Red shifter, because it's a 1x9 build. When I want to switch it to a road bike, I'll put the shifter back together. It comes in at 17lbs exactly right now. The whole shifter would have put it over. Think about that.



Another thing I never got to blog about (How terrible! I know.) due to a busy work schedule was the 12 hour race at Crystal Ridge. I wasn't really looking forward to it, because I didn't remember the course fondly, but I really enjoyed it. It was a nice day, and I was feeling really good. I remembered parts of the course and conquered a lot of things this year that I hadn't last year. I was only a wee beginner, of course, and this go-round threw into contrast how much better I've gotten, and even how much endurance I've collected over the summer, since New Fane.

But it was an awesome day. Looking up at the ski hill from the bottom, you could see people racing their way down the switchbacks, the vultures hovering overhead for any missteps, and the very nice meadow flowers and grasses covering the reclaimed land. It was cool and a little damp in the morning, but it turned out to be a lovely early fall day. I think it might have been that day, or maybe one or two before, when you could first smell or sense that summer's coming to a close. It was nice to see everyone again- it seemed like we hadn't seen the mtb crowd for months. In fact, 24-9 was the last time Cale or I were on a mtb. For shame.

But I digress. I'll see some of you this weekend at the CX clinic in Madison :)

I'm in the Olympics!

Kind of. But like all good news sources, I'll save that for last.

So what have I been up to lately? Working like mad to get some stuff done for Eurobike, mostly. Cale and I have started running as part of our training plan, and we're about three runs in. I'm enjoying it more than I ever did when I was in Cross Country, and we're making it hurt in places it didn't before. I'm wrapping my ankle to stave off ankle pains, and it's going well so far.

We've also started looking for apartments in earnest. We wanted to move in at the end of this month, but we started looking a little late. Oh well. Now we just have to plan moving around weekends stacked with weddings (Cale's going to be the best man) and races and, oh yeah, that week we go to Las Vegas. I think we'll have one main day to pack and move after getting back from that and before two races that weekend.

I didn't mention, we did find a place! It's actually the place we wanted above all others, a loft space that we thought had been taken because our calls weren't being returned. Luckily, it had been turned down. We were suspicious because a couple of people had passed on it, but it turned out to be utterly livable. It's small and strangely shaped, and won't fit all of our (15) bikes and dozens of wheelsets. But it was cheap and we negotiated an additional large heated storage area (very secure) that's about 5 yards from our door, and right next to the heated unloading area with a hose (for washing bikes!). Per.fect. And we can get put on a list right away for the next larger space available.

So we're excited to move. We got a new couch that we've been looking at- on sale, too! The best part about getting new couch is that the old one finally went away. It was an ugly dark plaid thing that a roommate left when she moved out. She tried to spin it like it was a gift, but the real gift would have been moving it out with her, or even just moving it to the nearest bonfire. In any case, it went out with a bang- literally. We tossed it off of the balcony into the driveway, then set it lovingly on the curb, where it has since been picked up by someone, or perhaps confiscated by the fashion police.

Behold the new couch!


I went for a bike fitting yesterday at Ben's Cycle and Fitness. Now, I know those guys to be terrible goofballs. Whenever Cale drives to Ben's, he usually finds lewd, crudely drawn smut tucked beneath his windshield wiper when he goes back out to his car. Before walking in, I try to get into a 'sexual innuendo' mode, so I'm not caught flat footed. (If you were really good at it, you could even spin that to be sexual, I'm sure).

But I digress. Basically what I'm wanting to say is that they're a little... goofy. But my fitting was amazingly good and very thorough. Maybe it was the butterfly shaped cookie I bribed Alan with, but he did a really nice job. I had never been fitted before, so it was cool to figure out why I had been going numb certain places getting sore in my knees. And did you know my sit bones are about 155mm apart? Hopefully not. They're kinda wide, and I could try a different saddle. I found out that shims will help me out with numbness and that my right thigh is probably about half an inch longer than my left (usually if one is longer, it's the left). Anyhow, I fully endorse going to Ben's for a very thorough fitting. Problems will be addressed.

So now the exciting stuff, the Olympic stuff. I designed this little beauty a while back at SRAM:

It was ridden to victory by Levi in the Tour of California, and now he's ridden it to a podium finish (bronze). Kinda cool. I just found out, too, that SRAM is going to produce it in a 42 tooth (or so the rumor goes) and that would mean I could put it on my cross bike!

The other thing that is even more exciting- Nay! you say, What could be more exciting than that?- is the Olympic edition Rock Shox fork.

It's hard to find a good photo of it online, but it's a fork with a dragon on the right leg that I drew. I can't take full credit for it, because it was finished after I left, but the original drawing was mine. It's being talked about because there were only about 13.5 produced and the general public won't ever get close enough to admire it IRL (in real life). So I'll take the little bit of credit that I can, because dang, does it ever look nice.

An inside scoop on it: I did a bunch of sketches for the dragon and chose the final because it worked well and also made a sort of capitol "E" and "J". The body was the E and the tip of the tail the J- the tail was eventually modified to wrap around the D of SID. So why EJ? Well, it was already practically spelling it out, and I have a friend named Emily Joy. I thought it would be neat and it didn't take anything away from the design, so why not? Heh, I think her husband was even more excited than she was, because he's big into mountain biking.

Well, with that, all of my bragging is done and you're caught up.

I would like to mention that there was a bad accident at the track this past Tuesday (I wasn't there) and that a young girl is slowly pulling herself out of a coma. If you're the praying type, it wouldn't hurt to mention her.

I guess not...

In my last post, I implied that there must be something in the West coast water: now I learned there have been THREE DEATHS in the Racine/Kenosha Area (within an hour of Milwaukee). Below is a link to an article about a very recent one involving two experienced tourers this weekend. The most terrible thing is that Cale figured out that we may have crossed paths with these guys that day. On our way to the East side, we passed two tourers going the other way (South) on the Third Ward Bridge. One of them saw us looking over at them (checking out their gear) and grinned and waved. Maybe it wasn't them, but it's just the fact that they probably were that friendly and all...

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/27069154.html

I think I'm going to write a letter to the editor of the Bayview Compass, or maybe JS Online, begging drivers to be safer/nicer. It is just absolutely terrible that these things are happening.

Relations

Tonight while riding down North Ave with the Immaculate Heart messenger bag, a woman in the back seat of a car said "That's a good looking bag" to someone else in the car as they went past.

Not only is that cool, it's so much better than "Get off the road!"

I've gotta say, with all the stories in the news, biking is getting just a little scary for me. Maybe not scary... but I'm definitely much more wary of cars now. The stories in the news I'm referring to are the ones where drivers get mad at bikers and decide to 'give them a bump', or gun it ahead and then step on the brakes right in front of them. This is like speeding up to hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk- we're just as vulnerable and are obeying the law by riding on the road. It shocks me how few people know that its illegal for adults to ride on the sidewalk!

For the non bikers that read this blog, I've got to explain that when a biker gets hit, it doesn't just knock them over. It rips noses off (as was a case in CA), breaks bones, twists fingers, ruins bikes and gives the victims some serious emotional scars if they survive. Even if a biker is 'just' knocked over, they could fall into the road in front of traffic.

I haven't heard any very bad incidents in the Midwest, but I'm definitely a little on edge. When I hear a car gunning it, it occurs to me that they could be trying to scare me, or side swipe me. Do I quake with fear? No. I know it's very unlikely that this scenario would actually happen. But the fact is that a few months ago I would hear a gunning engine and think someone was in a hurry, not that they could have malicious intentions. It's a shame that everyone's suspect.

There are a lot more new bikers out there on the road and I just don't think biker/driver relations are the best right now. To all the non-cyclists, please know that most bikers are just trying to get home, run errands, meet up with friends, etc. Just like you.

The Stripper

Now that I've got your attention, enjoy this photo blog of the past week or so. Cale took apart his cross bikes (the cream colored one was doubling as my road bike) and stripped them, getting 'em ready for a Team Pegasus paint job.



Thursday night we went out on Gunnar's dad's Boston Whaler, turning the whole lake green with envy. The waves were a little choppy, but it was fun riding on the bow and being bounced around. At one point, I think we got the whole boat out of the water, which is a mean feat. After we tired of near death experiences, we cruised up and down the river through downtown.






And last Saturday, I went home for my high school reunion and hung out with two good old friends at my parent's house. We went swimming in Ludden Lake, just like in the old days, and played fetch with the family dog, Carmel, who is a fetching fiend.

Midnight Oil

Up late, can't sleep. Too many things on my mind, like whether or not I need 300 count sheets (probably not) and workout regimens (going to be good). Rather than stare at the ceiling, I've been working some design magic for Interbike and Eurobike.

In some other work related news, I recently acquired a new (used) laptop that'll run a little faster than Ol' Trusty here (a little 4 yr old iBook). I just got a newer Powerbook G4 off of a friend for a good price, and once I beef it up with a few more gigs, the larger files I've been working on will be easier to work with: faster to save and not as slow to modify.

Speaking of files (check out that seamless lead-in), apparently the designs I made for t-shirts are starting to come out. Hm, maybe I shouldn't post them here. My massive readership will surely want multiple t-shirts in each style, and I don't know if supply could keep up with demand. The t-shirt companies will have to overwork their employees just to produce enough t-shirts, and that'll result in discontent and, inevitably, uprisings and well, it would only get worse from there. Not to mention, further back, the demand for cotton! But I guess I'll risk it: check out the t-shirts here. There are things I'd change, but for the most part I'd say it was a good first effort.

A little behind-the-scenes for you-all: The t-shirt below was proposed as a total joke, and I never actually thought it would get produced. I was getting frustrated with the Hayes shirt, because I didn't have any particularly good ideas. I was cruising along with the Manitou designs, but was just hitting a block when it came to disc brakes. Just for fun, and to fill out a sampler platter of sketches I was sending to my boss, I made a 'bling' sketch and a 'sexy lady' sketch. Unfortunately, the sexy lady sketch, which contained silhouettes of sexy ladies and text proclaiming "hayes disc brakes are sooo great!!1!" did not make the cut. But lucky for all of us, the cheesy bling idea squeaked through:

Flight or Fight

"The fight-or-flight response, also called the fright, fight or flight response, hyperarousal or the acute stress response, was first described by Walter Cannon in 1915.[1][2] His theory states that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing. This response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms."
-Wikipedia

(photo taken from Roehampton University's site)

Why the interest in flight or fight? Lately races have really been stressing me out, and Cale sent me an article about how time off during the winter is key to de-stressing from cyclocross the fall previous to the racing year: read it here. Here's a quote from it that grabbed me:

"How could cross lead to burnout? Every time you go to a race or do an anaerobic workout there is a certain amount of physical and psychological stress created. This stress causes the body’s many systems to work overtime, especially the endocrine and sympathetic nervous systems which prepare the body for fight or flight.

Together they get the body ready to face an artificial “crisis” such as a race or hard workout. These systems can handle only so many crises in a short period of time before they are exhausted. Some liken this to having just a few “matches” to burn in a season. Once they are all used up with races and very hard workouts extensive rest is needed to create more matches."

So enough quotes. How does this pertain to me? (And more importantly, what excuses can I derive for myself from it?) I've been getting really stressed out for races, even when I know it doesn't matter how I do or what happens in them. It seems to happen no matter what I do, and leave me feeling pretty helpless to control my emotions. There are two instances that come to mind, which are races I have not blogged about. They're not my most shining moments.

A) For the Whitnal Park race (a few weeks ago), I couldn't eat much the night before, and the morning of, I couldn't eat anything. My mouth was SUPER dry, but when I tried drinking some Accelerade it nearly made me toss my cookies. I ate one Gu packet over the course of about a minute, feeling nauseous the entire time. I dragged my sorry self to the race, wanting nothing more than to go home and forget about it. Right before the race, I went in the bathrooms and cried (What is this, senior prom?), so badly did I not want to be there. Long story short, I picked myself up and got to the start line. During the race I was having trouble with my shifting, which was making me furious. I wasn't feeling good and was angry about that, too. With only five more laps to go (over half way through) I quit. I was toward the front of the pack, not feeling it, and decided to just quit. I held up my hand, let the pack go around me, picked up my race gear where I had left it and left the race without staying to watch who won it. It felt so good to have quit, and so good to be able to cut the stress and just leave.

So for this story, we see me miserable and wanting to flee, or furiously mad and cussing loudly (oh yes) at things that make me angry.

On another note, I had planned to do five Superweek races. This was the second. I was a bit of a mess for the first one at Cedarburg (it wasn't as bad as Whitnal Park, though) but I was planning on just barreling through them all. I thought that if I did a bunch of them, they would have to get easier and less stressful. Racers who have been at it for years get over it, right? I thought I just needed some practice. Whitnal convinced me to just leave it be, though. I didn't want to see what a third race would bring.)

B) Two weeks ago, there was a Keirin at the track. A Keirin race is one led by a... pace scooter, would you say? Kenosha's got a beautiful one, and these races are few and far between, so it's exciting when they come around. That and this was the first women's Keirin all year. It's very rare that anyone but the Cat 1-2-3 men get a crack at it. Add to that a big purse, and I was excited for it.

I drew the 5th position and we all lined up. I had a really good holder that was ready to give me a good push at the start. At the start, however, the woman in sixth position, shall we call her Imelda March, cut down in front of everyone for the spot she wanted. Everyone teetered and tried not to crash into her and each other, because we had all been catapulted by our holders right into her path. (You can tell this made me angry, because two weeks later I'm still calling her out rather than being a bigger person). So I was stuck between two people until the girl on top started drifting down, forcing me to fall back. I wound up in the last position, which is a terrible position, obviously. Two laps to go, I tried to get up and around people, but everyone had that idea and soon I had about six people wide that I had to try to get around on the corners. I wound up getting second to last, and on the cool down lap I was seething. As I was slowing, I was literally snarling. My teeth were barred. I wanted to throw and kick things, but managed to contain it to a pouty helmet throw on a chair.

This race I would definitely chalk up to a 'fight' reaction. I'm not trying to excuse my behavior, because it certainly was bad. And I could have acted better. But usually I'm not so aggressive, and it's troubling. It's like PMS (sorry fellas). The feelings feel real, but the reasons for the reaction just aren't there.

So now it's time to look up stress busters. I feel strange doing so, because my life is going pretty darn smoothly. I don't have many worries outside of races, so it seems like I should be able to recover from those stresses. The other puzzling thing is that I used to do every sport when I was a kid (up through high school)- swimming, flag football, volleyball, track, softball, basketball, cross country. That's a lot of races and meets right there. Sure I would get nervous, but it never bothered me this much.

For whatever reason, though, the race stress seems to be building up. Each race is worse than the last. Not being able to eat, an incredibly dry mouth, wanting to cry (?!). I've talked about it to a few people, and they say "Relax, it's not a big race anyway. It doesn't matter." It's frustrating because I know it doesn't matter how I do, and I'm ok with however I finish. There's an excuse for everything, right? ;) But I can't 'just relax'. Trust me, I would if I could.

The plan for now is to not race until cyclocross season. I'll keep doing the 12 hr races, because they don't turn me into a nervous wreck, but everything else is out. No more track (Thank goodness. I never liked you (the racing, not the people) anyway!) or even fun races. The team is going to try to put on some unofficial CX races for training this fall on Wednesdays, and I'm going to abstain. I'll go to them and practice barriers (a goal this season) on the side, but I won't race.

It feels good to have that much of a plan, but I need to work on a plan for de-stressing, lest I wind up snapping and streaking around screaming on some hapless CX course. It could happen. In fact, it's so likely, I think I'll start worrying about it now. *stress*stress*stress*