While I'm away...

Here I am in france for the plouay world cup on saturday, trying to type on a french keyboard. Just to demonstate the different key placement I'll type something as if it were an english keyboard...

ze zent for q long ride todqy qnd ze got rqined on qnd it zqs reqlly zindy
we went for a long ride today and we got rained on and it was really windy

so if thing begin to make zero sense, that is why. We are currently in the same place as last year before world's so at least it's a bit familiar. the other girls are over here until worlds sept 21-24 but I am heading back home on monday until the sunday before worlds, lucky me! I would definitely "lose it" if i had to stay here until then. phew!

actually, lucky trinity cause while i'm away she's up at my mom's house doing some fun stuff. she went to plunge, an indoor waterpark, lotsa fun. She has also realized her dream of riding a horse! well, it was actually a pony but whatever, more her size. Many thanks to Ashlee and Liza in helping her with that one! below are some photos of it...


she doesn't really look like she's achieving her dream here, maybe a little nervous or perhaps just in awe, could be. that's greystay she's riding. the equestrian helmet totally completes the look even though she's missing the neat jean jacket she bought for the occasion. she really wanted a cowboy shirt but we couldn't find a western styled shirt. oh well, the pink will have to do!

so, i did bring a camera here en france. now if I could only remember to take it with me when i may have a photo op, like riding or out to the cafe. so, hopefully i'll have some pictures to post after the race. I sure know where that backspace key is now that i'm using it all the time...

charlotte

This past weekend the team met up again in Charlotte for the Bank of America criterium. it was great to see (almost) everyone ('cept dotsie and sima) again.

I almost didn't make it. When I left for the Buffalo airport friday afternoon I forgot to account for delays at the border due to it being Friday and a long weekend here in Canada. oops. I kept cool and parked the car quick and ran to the check in counter. I arrived about 25 minutes before departure. As I approached I wheezed out "can i make the 7:20 to detroit??" the agent said "oh yeah, no problem". Then as I started the check-in she said "oh, is that a bike?? Oh, I don't think you'll make it..." I literally threw the $80. for the bike charge at her and said "please!". they put it on an elevator and I didn't expect it to make it with me but it did! that was a relief!

The race went well. I didn't know what to expect since I hadn't raced in a while. It certainly was shock at first but I settled in. I didn't feel as fast as I felt in June but when there's a job to be done you gotta do it and see if you're still breathing when it's done. Of course, when you have such great sprinters like Tina and Gina (note to self, if i ever have another daughter her name must end in "ina" if I want her to win a lot of races - tina, gina, ina - very fast peoples, at the very least it must end in "a" - there are some fast lauras out there too) you just have to deliver them to the last corner and let them do their thing. I don't know how they do it but I have a lot of fun delivering them. Anyway, so that's what we did. Great job tina and gina! And extra props to gina for going out there and winning the mental battle against a race that wasn't so kind last year. you are a champ.

So, while I was away I missed my brother in law's graduation party. It was hard to miss that but congratulations andrew for graduating with 'high distinction' from computer engineering, hard work does pay off.

I also missed a great day that chris and trinity spent at christie's conservation area with a bunch of friends and their kids. and trinity, that's what camping is all about. trinity wants to go camping because a friend of hers was going this weekend and in trinity word's she gets to "do all the stuff you could ever dream of!!!" pretty funny.

and the 3rd thing I missed this weekend was a family reunion at my uncle neil's and aunt maddy's place. It's a fun time and congrats uncle neil for finally winning the games competition, it's about time!! My uncle bob and aunt sharon dropped by too with a boat that is pretty special. My dad refinished a 1956 Shepherd wooden boat back when I was almost a teenager and my sister, brother and I had a small hand in helping. We drilled the wooden plugs for the screw holes on the drill press for him, my brother helped glue and hammer them in. We had some fun water skiing with that boat and it's got tremendous sentimental value to me. shortly after my dad passed away my uncle bob (dad's bro) bought it and is using it now. I'm so glad he has it and is using it. I need to go visit him and have a ride and a ski. I haven't been in it since I was 15!!

anyway, enough sentimental rambling. today is a holiday here and I have an easy day then maybe we'll go fishing! trinity landed a big catfish last time, it was soo cool. here's a pic of her waiting for a bite.

check out the styling rubber boots! fishing is fun and we always do catch and release cause trinity loves animals so much she couldn't kill one. Now she's watching fishing shows on TV. scary.

well, that's all for now. sorry no pics of charlotte, hopefully next time.

Okay, this story is getting tiresome so I’ll be finished with it now.

So, after the first draining on the Friday (13 days after crash), I was feeling good and decided to do a local one day, 2 stage event on sunday. I did a 15km TT in the morning then a 60km road race in the afternoon. The TT went well, I was 2nd behind Merrill who is always strong. The road race was okay too. I got in trouble with my doctor on Monday as she said “riding is good but not intense riding and what if you crashed on it again, you could do some big damage” I was like “but there were only 10 people in the race and it was all left hand turns…”.

Anyway,the hematoma was filling up again so we decided to lance again on Wednesday morning. We did. Driving my mom home later that day I started to feel feverish. It kept getting worse and by the time we got to her house I laid down on the couch with 2 blankets and shivered (no, my mom doesn’t even have air conditioning). Finally I agreed to let my sister take me to the hospital and they checked me out and said “yep, it’s infected”. This doctor conferred with another and they decided the best thing to do was to “pack it”. That is, pack it with mesalt gauze to draw out the fluid and let it continually drain and not fill up. This meant daily visits to the wound care nurse along with 10 days of antibiotics. Fun stuff. I got used to the daily unpacking, irrigation and packing but it meant no swimming and no proper shower at first. I have a good dressing on it now that I can shower with. This dressing is something most cyclists would covet for road rash, it kicks tegaderm’s butt! Actually, most cyclists, if given the opportunity would pillage that wound care clinic, lots of good goodies in there!!

So, the up side to these happenings is I won’t have a growth hanging off my hip for a few years (if not forever) but the down side is I couldn’t go to Altoona because of the daily visits to the nurse. I also had to take some time off to let the 3cm radius pocket to close a bit. I took 9 days off and it did close a fair amount in that time. I would say it’s been a little slower healing since I started riding again. I’m down to 1.2cm radius now though and every 3 days to visit. I’m hoping to have only one or two more visits left.

So, I am training again, lots. I have committed to going to worlds in Austria so that means I must ride. I don’t know what I was thinking when I made that decision but whatever. Two months left in my cycling career then a BIG party. I am struggling with a training prescription that calls for “double days”. I am waaaay too lazy for double days…

I guess I'll deal, only 2 more months after all then I can finally get all the things accomplished that I been wanting to do forever, or not. That's a big list. Anyway, in the meantime I've posted a picture from I don't know when (a few years ago, it could be anytime between 2001 and 2003). It's from the Plouay world cup when I was staying at the same hotel as Jaja and so was Catherine Marsal (who is a friend of his) so I got a photo with him. He was pretty cool and I have always been a fan of his, I'm such a groupie. Not really a groupie but it was pretty cool.

That's all for now. I have Bank of America in Charlotte N.C. this weekend. It'll be nice to see the team since I missed Altoona. I hope they remember me.

Things happen in threes, or do they???

So, with my thumb and crash on the Saturday in Rochester I figured I would get hit with one more mishap. Things happen in threes right? Or is it 3 X 3? I don’t know, I’m still counting. So, went to nationals and started the TT and things weren’t going too badly. I wasn’t winning but I was competitive and close to Erinne W and Felicia G at the one turn around. Then just before 3km to go I hear the sound of a flat tire. DANG! When I figured out which one it was I put my hand up and stopped. Chris came running with a spare and changed it but all I was thinking was “Dang, I can’t catch a break”. On the other hand I was thinking “okay, that’s number three and I can handle that, at least it didn’t involve bodily harm”. Oh, I forgot to mention that it started stroming with lightening, thunder and driving rain about 1km after my start. I was the last to start but I don’t count that because it affected some others too.

So whatever. The next day was the road race and I was less than enthused about racing. I had no desire to crash on the hip again and it was foremost in my mind. It was also raining and on a hilly city circuit I decided the risk wasn’t worth it. I remember the physio saying “crashing on it again would be bad...” So, I hung in the feed zone trying to at least be of some use to Audrey and Gina. After the race I was not feeling too good and went back to the hotel and went straight to bed. I developed a fever and eventually had it coming out both ends. I didn’t know where I was most of that night. The next day about noon I was feeling well enough to tell Chris to go to the pharmacy and get some pepto bismal and gravol, I just wanted to go home. I love Gravol, it just knocks you out. I don’t remember much of the 9 hour drive home either.

So just to lighten things up a bit I’m going to post a picture of Trinity goofing around at home. What a monkey!

So, the next week was full of appointments, especially with the physio. At $45 a visit, I was hoping I wouldn’t need too much physio. My neck was also completely out of whack and the physio worked on that too (it’s still out of whack, I think I need a chiro or osteopath). So, each day was like massage, ultrasound and ice on the neck then the hip and a little suction cup inferential thrown in for the hip too. So, I guess I was getting my $45 worth, it took an hour. But, I was going broke. I continued to ride because they said it would help. Whatever. The surrounding tissue was going back to normal size leaving a huge half melon hanging off my hip that jiggled when I rode. Other than the jiggling, it didn’t bother me or hurt me when I was riding. The jiggling was getting excessive though and finally, 13 days after the crash I decided to have the lump drained.

That was gross and you’ll be happy to know I don’t have a picture of that to share with you. First the doctor tried to draw out the insides through a syringe. That wasn’t working so he had to lance. Well, he got a load of stuff out, well over a cup of clotty blood. Almost 2 cups plus I got about a ¼ cup more out 4 hours later. It felt so good to have that extra-terrestial thing off my hip. I thought "I am on my way baby!! "

Ha, there’s more to the story but I need a break. To be continued again…

Not for the squeamish

Well, again, it’s been a while since the last post. So much has happened. I did manage to finish Nature Valley even though Stillwater was pretty tough. What a mean way to end a race. And then, to top it off I think the prize money for 6th place overall was like $100. That was totally worth it.

So I went home from nature valley, minus the Keen shoes that were stolen while I was racing the downtown crit on Friday night. I had a great week at home and was re-adjusting well to home life. I had to go to Rochester to race that NRC on Saturday but no worries cause it was a twilight race. That meant I could finally catch one of Trinity’s soccer games on Saturday morning. I should have known I was going to have a bad day when I slammed my own thumb in the car door on the way to soccer (Duh, left brain-right brain not communicating). It really hurt, in fact the whole hand hurt and I held it up the rest of the day. I dropped by the local pharmacy to get a splint after the game because I couldn’t touch it and I needed to be able to have some thumb function for the race in Rochester that evening. I should have heeded the thumb warning that this was going to be a less than stellar day.

So, I started the race and for the first two laps all went well, thumb splint was working and I was okay. Then on the third lap on the fast back straight a rider touched and rubbed wheels with the bike in front of her. Of course, I was beside the toucher and could see this developing while telling myself “move right, move right, get away from falling bike rider!!” I didn’t get away soon enough and she caught me on the way down pulling me down too. Kaboom! I hit my face, which is the worst. I’m no model so I wasn’t overly scared of ruining my face but it’s just so obvious when you get road rash on your face, plus it stings like hell. The other thing was, my nose hurt. It hurt so bad it would radiate up into my head for a week afterwards giving me headaches. I also hit my elbow pretty hard and my hip. When I looked at the hip while changing I was like “yes! No road rash!” My shorts weren’t even ripped!

I was happy until about an hour and a half later when I realized I had some foreign object growing on my hip. It was FREAKY. It was totally numb and out to HERE! The colour was starting to come in too, a nice eggplant colour. Very pretty. So much for the bikini for a while. Anyway, jumped into the car to get going home, only 2 and a ½ hour drive. I iced the hip the whole way. All in vain. It got huge and all various colours. Below is a picture of it 4 days after the crash.

So, my doctor said maybe nationals wasn’t a great idea and I wouldn’t be at my best. ya, no kidding. This picture isn't even the worst of it. It looked awful when it was just the impact spot of about 3-4 inches diameter sticking out like a melon. I must end this post now but there is so much more to write about. to be continued...

epic racing continued

Gina Grain celebrates birthday with 3rd place finish and a storm for the ages

by Jim Williams

The Nature Valley Grand prix is turning into a survival contest for the Colavita/Co oking Light Team. Tonight was supposed to be a downtown cycling celebration in Minneapolis but it turned into a little bit of everything with an emphasis on wet and wild adventure. One hour before the race a sprinkle started from what was expected to be a quick passing thunderstorm. The sprinkle grew to a hard rain and then to sideways sheets of rain. The staff had set up the temporary race camp sandwiched next to 2 big buildings and huddled under their race tent with Sue Palmer Komar and Gina Grain to weather the storm through. The rest of the team was out warming up and had to seek shelter in a bus stop. Every minute when the rains seemed as though they should be letting up they some how managed to come down harder until the rain turned to hail and then the hail got larger and larger. Form the loosely protected area those in the tent were able to watch tents from other teams blow apart and then had to run out and rescue equipment that began floating away after the streets flooded over the sidewalk. Sue Palmer Komar the wise experienced racer put on her race helmet to protect her from the flying chunks of ice and Gina Grain laughed and claimed, “this is the best birthday present ever” When the storm finally passed and the damage surveyed, the only lose for the Cola vita/Cooking Light team were the race radio’s that got a drenching even though they had been put in zip lock bags. The upcoming race was shortened and for the third year in a row would be contested on slippery wet roads. Nerves were high as a wet crit course usually means crashes but the team had been equipped with high friction Michelin rain tires and everyone stayed up right during the race which was fast and aggressive and strung out single file for its duration. Colavita/Cooking Light rode a conservative race and at the end rain specialist Gina Grain gave it a go at the line and was able to earn a spot on the podium and even more reason for the team to celebrate with her. .


Okay, so that is Jim's report and it just about sums it up. It was NUTS!! I was not a happy camper to be racing a crit in the wet. But it's true about the tires, they were super grippy michelins and I love them. I wish I had my camera to take a picture of the hail. Let's just say there was no need to buy ice for the coolers, we had tons after that!! You need to check out Doug's and Timmy's blog, they took pictures so hopefully they post. Plus the water was up over the curb and the waves were approaching our little protected encampment. It was wild. Alas, the flood waters receded quickly and we were able to race, in the wet but at least it stopped raining for a bit. Different story for the guys though, they had to call their race 17 min into it. Better them than us.

Today it was windy again for the long day in the saddle. I wasn't too happy about that either. I mean 80 plus miles of crosswinds only to come into town and have to do 4 circuits with a heinous hill. BRUTAL! I will never do this race again!

Meanwhile, at home, Trinity scored 3 goals in her soccer game!! Way to go girl! I am finally going to get to see her play next saturday before I head to Rochester for the Twilight crit. She has scored 6 goals in 3 games so far.

well, I should go prepare mentally for this stillwater hell that's in store for us tomorrow. Sounds like a fun day, ha!

crazy chaos

that about sums up the first road stage out here in minnesota. colavita certainly had some bad luck yesterday and bad timing with the bad luck. crazy cross winds and 2 miles of loose gravel (some tail swishing goin on) made for a hard day at the office

it was a killer wind with lots of open type roads and a huge 132 rider field. It's annoying how a promoter will boast about the size of a women's field. It's so large this year, blah blah blah. Great. the only reason our field is so large is because they let in the 3's. It does look good on paper but most courses lately are getting more technical to "challenge" the riders. some 3's just don't have the experience and skill level to be in some of these races. Certainly the philly organisers are guilty of that. They would never throw senior 3 men in a men's pro12 race would they??

anyway, just saying that could open a whole can of rotten worms but I don't have time to go on now, i have to get ready to leave for tonight's crit. thank god it's only 40min. but yesterday didn't go as we had planned, lots of crashes and mishaps. we'll make up for it in the next three days hopefully. there are a lot of tough women on this team.

gotta fly!

return of blogger sue

okay, so blogger sue has been absent lately. It's been so long I don't know where to start. last post I said I'd write about Athens and Roswell. So, they were tales from the big ring. We didn't win those two, tina was second in both but then she won the sunny king crit the next weekend in Alabama. I wasn't part of that. I was bummed we didn't win athens or roswell but i was happy to be feeling waaay better after a less than stellar april. I felt pretty useless most of the month and just started feeling better about 3 days before athens. there was a time I thought it would be useless for me to even go to athens. it all worked out okay though. i wasn't exactly myself but the form was coming back.

I went home after athens until joe martin. I did a local race but didn't win it, that always sucks. Joe martin I was feeling better still and it went okay but we didn't win that one either. Although, the lead out in the first stage was a drag race between kori seehafer and myself. that was fun and hard and we created a gap to the rest of the field which was kind of neat. At the finish when I pulled off to let tina and dotsie do their thing, I kept waiting for everyone to start coming around me (I was pretty cooked). but they never did so I was able to snag 5th place.

I had a rotten tt though. Dotsie had a good one and before the race we were figuring there was no lynn gaggioli this year so probably around 10min flat would win it. Wrong! Dotsie did a 10:01. erinne willock blasted up the hill to win in 9:43 and dotsie was 2nd. then the crit the next day was super hard and we lost 2nd overall to alisha lion so dots ended up third. I hate that crit.

I went home again after JM and did a local race the next weekend. it went better cause there was a significant steep hill that we did 8 times. I finally won a local race! At the other race I did a few weeks ago that i lost, there was a kid's race that Trinity did. it was a ton of fun and she was pretty psyched for it. she was telling me before how much she wanted to win and me, being concerned about her being disappointed if she didn't said "well honey, it's about having fun and trying your best no matter if you win or lose, just have fun!" she seemed to buy it and a little later while we were walking to registration she said to me "mommy, it's my dream to come 2nd, then i'll be on the podium". maybe she didn't buy it. So, in the race she rode so hard she did cross the line first. there was a tight battle between her and the son (Ethan) of a riding buddy of mine. they were neck and neck going like crazy until ethan pulled up about 10m from the line.

After we crossed the line she started crying and I was like "what's up? you won the race!!" she blurbled out that she had a leg cramp in her leg. I wanted to laugh but thought better of it but what a trooper. she said that her leg was cramping in the race but she had to "KEEP GOING" cause "Ethan was right there!!" YOU GO GIRL!!

so that was my proud mommy moment. there has been lots more racing since then. montreal, somerville, captech, CSC and Philly. Now I'm in nature valley for a 5 day stage race. It starts today and I hope I have my tt legs. At least I have my CDN TT champ skinsuit. This is my only chance to race in it before Nationals again at the end of the month.

i hope to continue with the updating later this week, i should have the time, i just might be lazy. or occupied trying to find a bug cage or bug catching kit for trinity. later.

Little Ring

More tales from the little ring today. Trinity is in Senior Kindergarten this year and only goes to school Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday (all day long). So, I have Tuesday's and Thursday's when it's difficult for me to get out for a ride. So, I was going to get Trinity back in daycare for 4hrs those two days a week. She opposed, strongly, with tears. She reminded me why she doesn't like it there and even went so far as to say they don't like her at daycare. They wouldn't let her sit beside her best friend at lunch and apparently they told her and Sydney they couldn't play with each other, they needed to play with other kids. She can be a bit of a storyteller so I didn't know if I should believe her or not. Anyway, I thought about it more then decided to solve the problem another way. I need to ride those days.

Anyway, like you needed to know that. Trinity likes to ride, likes to do anything outside actually, which is great. So, she rides a lot. She has all the clothing too as you can see in the photo below. Those leg warmer's she wearing are an old pair of my arm warmers!! ha ha, so funny. Check out the cool bike, it's a Cotton Candy bike. She has informed me I need to "higher her seat".


Trinity also likes to go fast! She doesn't look so fast in this photo but she's about to do a U-turn. yep, her saddle is low.

Below is her going faster, check out the concentration on the face. She's very serious.

So, below is my solution to the problem of the tuesday/thursday riding. It's a trail-a-bike and it's pretty cool. The flag is in the bike in this pic but she never wants it there when we go out. We only go on the rail trail. She wants to go on the road but I told her there are too many crazy people driving cars out there. We went out for almost 2 hours the 2nd time we went out. It's a really good workout for me because it's like dragging an anchor in sand. She can pedal or just freewheel. I get some good heart rates doing this and it's kind of like doing strength training.

We are having fun with it at least. It comes in handy too (for runs to Baskin&Robbins for ice-cream). Notice the basket in front of her. Every ride one of her friends (or two or three if they fit in the basket) get to come along for the ride. That's teddy and furby for this ride. She also has a camelback on with liquid refreshment. I'll admit the camelback is a little "out there" but there was no place for a bottle on her bike. Plus, she might actually drink it if it's that handy.

She bugs me to go out on the trail a bike everyday. It's fun and it does give me a good workout on a day I might not get the opportunity to get out training. She's a good coach, especially when she yells at me to go FASTER, FASTER!!

Play Time

This post has nothing to do with cycling. So much for tales from the big ring. More like tales from the little ring lately. Hopefully after Athen's Twilight this weekend I have some from the big ring. Today I've posted some pics from Trinity's "Ponies" play time. Trinity is BIG on "getting set up" (her words by the way). She likes to set things up. I don't know what that may indicate for her future but I'm finding it entertaining at the moment.


So, this is her after she got the ponies "all set up". Quite the layout and below are the close-ups.

For this set up she pulled off a tulip leaf to use as a blanket for the ponies. Their pillow is comprised of leaves from some other bulb flower in the garden (I have no idea what they are called - but they are really pretty). The mattress is a pocket type face cloth. Apparently it's what every discriminating pony chooses for sleep equipment, no sleeping bags for these ponies!

This is their pasture or pool, I can't remember. Nice ambiance with the purple hyacinth flowers (stolen from my garden).

Some ponies didn't get a blanket, they were basking in the sun while others were just to big for the blankets she had available. That must be the mommy pony.

Trinity cracks me up sometimes. It's great entertainment, who needs cable? Oh, and Hi mom! I know at least she reads the blog.

Good Friday RR

Every Easter ('cept last year when it snowed, that can happen up here in the great white north) the Hamilton Cycling club has held the Good Friday Road Race. They've been doing for a million years and this year it was actually back in Hamilton for the first time in a while. It was a damp, cold day as you can gather from the pictures. I felt like crap on the bike and could only manage a 3rd place. At least Trinity didn't cry this time when I didn't win (like she did at P2A). This is the first year that she seems to "get" the whole bike racing thing. Normally, she'd be playing along the side of the road asking her dad "when can we go to McDonalds?"...

So, here I am above pre-race, waiting for the start so I could get warm.

After we started my coach, Neil, gave Trinity his wife's (Tara's - she won the race) clothes to wear and keep her warm.

Yeah, here I am riding beside my friend Nada, we are trying to get warm in the first lap.

The podium. There was a gambler's prime of $50 (courtesy of Central Cycle) at one lap to go. I tried really hard for that...but I didn't get it. So, the consolation was an HCC medal and a GOLDEN FLEECE!!! I really wanted the $50, then Trinity could go to McDonalds. ha ha

This is the Trinster with Cynthia. Cynthia and Ben took Trinity around the course backwards during the race. It was 5km around. They did a lot of walking but Trinity had Heelys on so she didn't walk as much. In addition to that when Tara and I went to find them after the race we found Cynthia and Ben pulling Trinity along on the Heelys. That's hard work for them (it was uphill too) but I'm secretly proud of Trinity for getting them to do it. Thanks Cynthia and Ben for being so good to Trinity that day, she had a blast with you two.

After the race we headed up to C'wood for Easter with the fam. The killer is that on Friday it was like 7 degrees and wet in the Hammer and 15 degrees and nice in C'wood. So, I figured I was heading for better weather. NOT! Saturday and Sunday we're cold in c'wood (like 8 degrees) and very nice in the Hammer (17 degrees!). I got ripped off with the weather. Oh well, I did get some nice riding in the hills around c'wood at least.

It's been a while. I've been wading through 49 Investor's Group applications for the last few days so time has been tight. I'm posting stuff from a while ago, like the P2A race but oh well. This group of pictures was snapped by Larry J while he and his family and his kids' friend Sam were out watching the race.

I have also already written this post once and tried to post it but there's a glitch in the matrix so I'm doing it again. Kind of like banging your head against the wall...

Ha! finally got the pictures to go where I want them.

The Jones family wrote this message in the rail trail near their house. cool eh? It was a nice surprise at that point cause I was suffering so bad. You could still read it in the trail when Trinity and I were riding there 9 days later! The picture below is more encouragment. Is that Sam behind the GO?? Sam was in a Sprockids course that I helped out with last fall. He was a trooper with his single speed, heavy as lead BMX bike chugging up the hill to finish every ride. It's the same hill on which the P2A finishes. It's a killer!

More signs. I tried to 'allez allez' but I was sputtering like an old jalopy running out of gas...

Ah, the final climb and a picture of my better side after I high-fived the Jones family on the way to the finish. I was finished!!

April showers = May flowers?

Can you tell it's going to be a lovely day here in southern ontario?? woo hoo! I feel like I'm back in California!! At least it's over 10 degrees (celcius that is, over 50 for non-metric people).

I'm going to be brave today and go out in this. If it was a race I'd have to deal so I might as well get used to it right?

Okay, I'm going to play in the puddles.

Ah, now it's fixed!!

Clearly there are glitches in the matrix....

Is it me???? or my computer? or blogger? I think that blogger is having issues.

Below there should be 3 posts put up today (monday april 10 2006). First one about P2A. 2nd one about my frustration over having lost (or at least appeared to have lost) the P2A post coz when I did it, I lost it but now it's there, magically and not just once but 3 times!! same for the two post afterwards expressing my frustration, lost when I tried to post but now magically there and in multiples too. I have since deleted the multiples but it's yet to correct it. I guess it's on time delay. I'm only clicking on 'publish post' once this time.

#%$&*!!!

I just spent a load of time writing a post (with pics!!) and I lost the whole thing. at the moment I want to write many four letter words...

%$$##&* blogger crap!!

P2A

Well, the images were posted in reverse order so I'll have to work with it. This is me coming out of the woods when I still felt good. I was feeling like a rocket in the woods, too bad the rocket puttered out later...

Ah, this is trinity and me pre-race, on the line, all smiles...60km to go!

yeah, I was feeling okay here too, it was early on, heading into a single track section from a gravel road

It's wierd the order these pics posted in...anyway, this is also a pre-race shot. It's too bad that I didn't get any after photos to post, but they weren't pretty. I was covered in mud and it took two cycles in the washer to get stuff clean, even after a hosing down outside before they went in the washer. what a mess!

I should have known when I stepped on my sunglasses just before warming up that I should maybe reconsider my participation in this insane race. You would think I'd take the hint when I had issues with the free hub body on my rear wheel, like the pawls weren't catching and it would slip. Chris tried to fix it and even looked for a wheel to borrow but I had to use the slipping one. Actually, it didn't turn out to be a big problem, I just had to be careful and remember the slippage after I had free-wheeled down a hill or in a corner. That wasn't the reason I hit the tree. Before I hit the tree I was feeling GOOD, keeping up there in the top 20-40, bloody tree...

I am sore all over today from that tree. I think I fared okay from the encounter, nothing broke in me or on my bike at least. I do remember thinking as I headed towards the tree "gosh, I hope I don't break anything" and I wasn't thinking about the bike. After that, I struggled big time, I could hardly get out of my own way. Groups kept going by me and I was thinking "I need to get on that group..." but I just couldn't. I also think that being sick with a cold was starting to catch up with me. I did grab a group eventually and things were getting better, then in a uphill single track my chain just came off, and I wasn't even shifting at the time. So, I lost my group. After that it just became a struggle to get to the finish. The mud was so deep and thick I heard people lost their shoes in it. I found it unrideable. My bike got really heavy from collecting all that mud. My feet at the finish were so heavy with mud I could barely lift them. Duh, no wonder I couldn't run up the hills!!

I went the wrong way just a few kms from the finish. After a muddy descent the trail came to a 'T' and the direction wasn't marked. So, I waited for the next guy to ask him which way, he said "right I think"... wrong! We went for a bit and I said to him "dude, there really aren't a lot of tire tracks here, I think it was the other way". So we turned around. My riding buddy, Rory, also made the same mistake with a bunch of people. Anyway, before I made the wrong turn I was the leading woman but while I went the wrong way I lost the lead to Tara Ross. But truthfully, I think that Tara may have caught me anyway going up the last long, muddy uphill to the finish. I think she was closing in on me before I went the wrong way. She did a great ride and on a cross bike too and I was so struggling up that hill. I know I wouldn't have made it on a cross bike!! It was waaaay too muddy!

In the end it was a fun day and it felt so good to just be finished. I will do it again some day but maybe only the 30km ride. They may have photos up on their page later, you can check it out at www.parisancaster.com. For now, I'll wait for the bruises and stiffness to go away and hope a nice light spin on the bike today will help with the stiffness at least.

what a day!

Okay, I want to say that the Colavita women rocked at Sea otter yesterday. A job better than well done, it was fantastic!! 1st for Tina and 3rd for Dots! Rockin!!

I don't have time right now for the Paris to Ancaster story but I promise to post again later telling the whole story, it was epic. I also have some pics to post too. Thanks to the Jones family and Sam too for coming out and cheering so well and for writing 'Go Sue Go" on the rail trail. You all made me smile today although it may have been hard to tell through all the mud...yes, I had a mud bath today, who needs a spa???

It was a bad day weather wise here so I ended up riding the trainer. That was hard but I also added in some time on the Powercranks so that helped a bit. It was good to get back on them since I haven't ridden them since late February. I think there's a bit of muscle memory going on. Although I still have a love/hate relationship with them they didn't seem quite as bad as I remember. Next step is to take them outside, I hope I don't get myself killed. I should be okay but they are still a bit freaky.

I did a school visit yesterday. I went to Janet Lee in Stoney Creek. I had the whole school except for the kindergartens in the gym. I shared the time with Chris from the Hamilton Cycling Club and Dave from the cycling centre (he talked about Sprockids). It was fun and I used the Power Point presentation that Larry J helped me do. Thanks Larry, I'm still getting mileage out of that one!! It does mention how many times I ride by Queen Rangers school and that I'm still only 37 yrs old, I like that! Speaking of Larry, he's a great fan and his kids are the best. The picture here is one he emailed me while in Australia and it certainly brought a smile to my day!!

That's Emily, Nick and Jordann and I hope to see them out cheering at paris to ancaster this sunday. It can only help me, it's going to be a tough day. It'll be nice to have some fans so Larry, bring the signs!

Anyway, the kids at Janet Lee were awesome, great school. They actually seemed to be listening to me...whatever. At the very least it helps make me less afraid for my entry into the real world of a real job someday (as a teacher). But, there still some bike racing left in me yet.

Home sweet home. Haven't posted in a while, I'm just lazy when at home. Actually, not much happening to write about. But, I gotta give a shout out to the Colavits girls out there in california!
Awesome job, I wish I could be there to share the fun. I can hardly wait to be racing with them again at Athen's Twilight at the end of the month.

In the meantime, I'm getting things re-organized here at home. the house needs some major re-organizing, like maybe a good spring cleaning or even a purge. How does so much stuff accumulate?? Between getting back into the groove with training I'm spending some good time with Trinity. We have blown up some of the giant balloons and they are pretty huge as far as balloons go. I have tried out my Heelys and I haven't injured myself yet. they are fun but they are tiring for the shins. You have to hold up your toe to stay on the wheel and I am weak. We went riding together on the rail trail for about 12-13km, she's a rock star.

I don't have any races with the team until Athens, just some local stuff happening here. Paris to Ancaster is this sunday, it's kind of like an enduro (a mix of rail trails, roads and singletrack). Some people use cross bikes, some road (crazy though) and some mtb bikes. I'll use an mtb bike if I do it. I'm a fair weather rider so if it's miserable out I may bail. We also have two road races on Easter weekend, one on good friday and another on the sunday.

Gotta get going out with the boyz on the rail trail for P2A prep.