Funny 'Cause It's True

(warning: contains language inappropriate for young ears)

Can I go riding ?

I'm training for an Iron Man

Message Received

There are times when we all let life get to us. Personally, I get overwhelmed with stress and start getting impatient with people, my politically correct filters start to drop and I am generally irritated by the slightest things. I also get a bit more aggressive than usual when people are (what I deem to be) inconsiderate. I don't realize it's happening until I do or say something that gets me in trouble.

I realized last week that the stresses of the past couple of months (work, life etc) and the "joy of the season" had pushed me over that edge. It was a sunny Weds morning and since I didn't sleep well, I found myself heading south on 95 for a weekly management meeting in Virginia a little earlier than usual. Let me pause here to acknowledge that I am a bit of an aggressive driver - not obnoxious, but aggressive. A couple years of racing cars will do that to a girl.

Anyway, everything is rolling smoothly until we get right around the ICC construction zone - somewhere near Laurel. Now, I know that traffic always slows in that area. I have no idea why, there are no lane closures and aside from speed cameras, I can't figure it out. Speed cameras shouldn't STOP traffic, they should simply slow it down a tick.

So, I find myself behind a gray Chevy Impala in the left lane going UNDER the speed limit. He's pacing the car in the next lane so I'm boxed in and not very happy about it. I tend to show my unhappiness by borderline tailgating. He finally gets far enough ahead of the other car for me to slide through. Admittedly, I did come a little extra close on purpose to show my displeasure. I intended to pass him and get back in the left lane but now he was pacing me. He pulls up next to me and I look over and clearly ask "WHY?" through the window. It's a small blessing that I've grown out of flipping people off. I drop my car into manual shift and hit the gas to do a clean pass and switch back to the left lane. Looking in my rearview, half expecting this J-O to come up to tailgate me, my heart drops as I see him flip on his lights. EFF. I laughed to myself thinking - well, it was bound to happen.

Having pulled to the shoulder, I watch him get out of his car and literally do the cocky-cop strut to my car. As I rolled down the window the first words out of his mouth were "In answer to your question "Why"; because there are speed cameras in this area and if I get caught speeding, I have to pay the ticket. You sped up to 85mph to pass me and tailgated me to get through (I think he was being generous, I know I was going faster than that at one point). I started to argue with "I only sped up because you were pacing me ..." and then couched it with "but I understand what you're saying". By now I realized that this guy wasn't a traffic-type cop - probably a detective or something judging by his car. He hadn't asked for license or registration. I wasn't getting a ticket but I wasn't pushing my luck. I apologized for my transgressions and he mumbled a "slow it down" as he walked away.

I pull back into traffic, which was coming to a stop directly ahead. I saw in my rearview that as the cop pulled back in, someone nearly hit him and slammed on the horn. Cop pulls off to the side, lets the guy go ahead and proceeds to hit his lights to pull the guy over. This cop was having a tough morning !

I laughed at a rare stroke of good-luck and then laughed at myself for letting things get to me enough to push my normally aggressive but acceptable driving to a level slightly below obnoxious.

Message definitely received.

Simple Pleasures

Simple Pleasures from this weekend:

- Gorgeous weather made for an amazing ride with good friends on Saturday.

- Go Navy ! The game was fun and watching the 4th quarter on field on the 20-yard line was awesome !

- Intelligent, relevant interaction with intelligent, relevant people. Sharing good food, wine and experiences with a couple friends and a few people I just met reminded me that while bikes and training and racing are pretty cool, there are other interesting subjects and experiences in life. To supplement bikes, training and racing, of course.

- Integrated bluetooth in my car. It will change my life.

- Living in a place that doesn't roll up the sidewalks on Sundays ... I found someone to fix the flat tire on my car. Despite the fact that I missed my scheduled ride, I'm happy I didn't have to worry about starting my Monday morning with a flat.

- The Harry Potter movie was worth the price of admission.

- Re-discovering intelligent humor: Bill Maher is hysterical. I watched an episode re-run where he interviewed Bill O'Reily, who made for some interesting conversation (and was pretty funny himself). DC Mayor Fenty also made an appearance and made some good remarks about education and his administration's accomplishments.

- Running around on my Vespa for probably the last weekend of the year. Now I need to figure out how to get it into storage sometime this week.

- Knowing I have a short week of work - not a fan of the holidays but am looking forward to spending some time with Mitch and her equally fantastic family.

- Glimmers of hope. After a couple rough years and more than a couple traumatic events, I'm starting to see signs of good things to come. Sometimes that makes all the difference.

- Funny signs.

Finding My Way

It is a well-known fact that sense of direction is not one of my many talents. I truly get lost in shopping malls - no, not just in the parking lots, in the mall itself. My very first post on this blog mentioned my gps (Jack - he's British and sounds like he knows where he's going) and how my friends and family lobbied me to please get a gps as they were tired of getting calls from me asking them to "google me here".

I remind my dear readers and friends of this fact to brag - more than a little. I did a ride this weekend with an un-named companion that had never been on this ride. I planned on checking the route in the morning online (map my ride and map it pronto are awesome as long as you can deal with the advertisements). Of course, my internet was down in the morning ... thank you yet again, Comcast.

We set out on the ride with my caveat that it could get a little interesting as it's been at least a year since I navigated these roads. Thankfully it was a gorgeous day so we figured that worse comes to worst, we could always do an out and back.

My bragging starts here: I remembered the route - all 65 miles of it. I'll admit to one minor detour that we corrected in less than a half-mile ... but otherwise, the route was golden. The ride itself is pretty challenging and believe me, I knew I did a hard ride. But the whole way home I was smiling through the suffering - because I was so damn proud of myself for actually finding my way.

Ah, it's the little things, isn't it ?

TGIF - 11/12/2010

I honestly have no idea how we're in the middle of November already. Didn't it seem like we were all wearing shorts and complaining about the oppressive Mid-Atlantic humidity just a couple weeks ago ? Now we're less than two weeks from Thanksgiving.

Promptly on Nov 1, I saw my first Christmas TV ad of the year. I know it's all downhill from there. I have a coworker that is pretty much finished with her holiday shopping. I can't even comprehend that concept right now. First, I am not a fan of buying gifts for people simply because there's a certain date on the calendar. I am a fan of random gifts - you know, just because you thought of someone, just because you saw something they'd like. Second, the thought of fighting traffic and crowds at the mall makes me throw up a little. People forget that whole "spirit of the season" thing and will run your ass over with a cart or their stroller or whatever else they're wielding to get through the task at hand. I liken it to riding my bike on Sunday mornings ... people are so intent on getting to church on-time that they're willing to run over any obstacle (like, say, someone riding a bike) in their way. All's fair in Christmas shopping and getting to church on time.

On a more positive note, I recently discovered Netflix. If you haven't discovered Netflix yet, go forth and do so. It will change your life. I am almost (almost) looking forward to those indoor training sessions this winter. Between the e-motion rollers (that I heart) and the option to stream any kind of distraction I please, I may survive another winter. Due to my work schedule and dwindling daylight, I've already caught up on Grey's Anatomy and finished the final season of The Tudors. I'm telling you, it will change your life.

As for questions I've had about the bike: Yes, I plan to race next year. Yes, I'm back on the bike, though I'm still running a couple times a week until I finish the Rehoboth half in mid-December. Yes, I am masochistic and hope to have the guidance of the Slavedriver for my winter of 2010 super-secret-training plan. Oh, fine, it probably won't be super-secret. It just sounds better that way.

Friday couldn't come soon enough this week - this weekend I'll put my Vespa in storage for the winter. Sad day, though necessary. I'm thankful that I was afforded the option to store it in the Meidhof garage last year - the poor thing would have been buried in all that snow.

Yeah, I said it. The "S" word. In November, no less. Take that.

One Sport Short of a Triathlete

Ah, yes, it's been a while. The last two months have been a bit of a whirlwind for me with a century and a half marathon (my first!) intermingled with Ravens games, a trip to NC, a trip to Rehoboth, rediscovering my bike a couple weeks before the century, re-kindling some old friendships and oh, working, eating and sleeping.

The Seagull (part deux) - again, I let priceline make decisions for me and wound up at the same hotel I stayed in last year. Actually made the start with the DC Velo train (thanks to them for humoring me!) I was more than anxious seeing as my longest ride in the past 3 months had been 55 miles and here I was, starting off with the big-dogs. Away we go and I was pretty pleased that I stuck with them for about a half hour before silently crying uncle. I settled in with a little more civilized group and picked up another friendly face (ie another "train" castoff). The guys we were riding with were fairly strong and very quick to explain to us what it meant to take a pull - they were also quick to show their surprise when I pulled off by exclaiming "that was a great pull". I just smiled and said thanks.

Later, we intermingled with a different group - one that was too big to stay organized. At one point a guy yelled at Steve for passing on the right - there was a second line forming on the right and Steve was just moving up to catch the draft. The guy continued to b*tch until I rode up behind Steve and said - look, we've done this before. You ride your bike and I'll ride mine, m'kay ? I heard the guy muttering a little while longer about how he was just sensitive to people who don't know what they were doing or something of the like. In that same group, I rode up to one of the few girls in the crowd, again in the right "lane". I looked over and said hey, how ya doin'? She responded by "I guess no one knows what passing on the left means". I should note that this girl was in her tri-bars part of the time in the big group (uh ... duh ... bad idea) and that later in the day, her group came past mine and passed - on the right !! Sigh.

Post-ride, I was invited to attend the DC Velo dinner - much love and respect for that crew, always a class-act and always welcoming to this orphan cyclist. Thank you for including me, it was a fantastic ending to a great day.

I was thrilled to see my auditor on the start line and I know my recruiter was there - both reported a great day on the bike. I consider these guys good friends and am happy to think I had some influence on their relatively new-found love of the ride.

As for the Baltimore half marathon ... a whole different ballgame. I've run a couple 5ks and 10ks back in the day, but once I found the bike, that was o-v-e-r. I diligently trained according to a schedule Mitch gave me. The goal: do the half in Baltimore and maybe be fit for the Rehoboth marathon in early Dec.

In running, things are a bit different with over-training and injuries. On the bike, I am well known to train or race through just about anything (barring a pelvic fracture, I wussed out on that one). You just can't do that running. If something is injured and you try to train through it, you just eff yourself up even worse. So, when I got a new pair of kicks (same model I've been running in for years) and they caused a foot injury (note: do not run 14miles in new kicks)I had to stop running. As in none. Nothing. Not one step. For three weeks before the half. Thankfully, I fared ok, sticking with Mitch for the first 6miles or so, then running at my own pace to finish about 6mins behind her. I was relatively happy with my time until Mitch put it in perspective: 4 months ago, I couldn't WALK. And here I am finishing a half-marathon in just over 2hrs. All of sudden that made the whole thing a little emotional: I woulda cried if I hadn't been so damn dehydrated.

As a note, I fail to see the logic on some of the running stuff. For the half marathon, we all parked at Ravens Stadium and had to walk over to the Inner Harbor for the start. Call it a warm up. Then we had to cross through the Marathon runners to get to the actual start. Not so smart - I saw a bunch of near-misses and I know a few of them actually had to slow down because idiots were crossing when they shouldn't have. Last, right after you finish, they funnel you through to get your shiny blanket (never understood these, now I do!) and your finishers medal. Then you go out of the corral and they give you tix for two free beers. Which brings me to my point of confusion: they give 2 free beers to people who just finished running 13 or 26 miles, are dehydrated and have no food in them. I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just sayin'.

I do admit that while I'm not a beer-drinker, I had no trouble downing one beer - I think I actually enjoyed it. By the way, I decided that I'll do the half at Rehoboth, not the full marathon. Running just doesn't captivate me as much as the bike does.

Big, huge props to all of my coworkers who manned up and did the half-marathon. Most of them are not obsessive athletes like our cycling brethren - but they diligently trained and all but one of them finished the event. I think I enjoyed seeing them discover the thrill of achievement more than I enjoyed my own achievement. How cool is that ?


On to off-season training - I made my decision last month that yes, I'm going to give road racing another whirl, though I'm still not sure what my race season will look like. Its the first time in several years that I haven't been running a club, creating a club or holding a club together ... it's rather refreshing just to ride when and how and with whomever you want.

And yes, I am one sport short of a Tri-geek. Too bad they don't have a water-wings division in Tri's, I might've actually considered it during my stay on injured reserve this year.

Word of the Day: Mamil

For those that may not know, I'm an admitted world-news-geek ... I've been known to listen to NPR, watch BBC and I get news-feed updates from WSJ. Usually the news is depressing these days - oil spills, floods, the middle-east is still a disaster, unemployment is still up despite rising corporate profits and Apple continues their takeover of the world.

I recently received a BBC news update on my phone that actually made me laugh. The gist of the story is that the new mid-life crisis for men in Britain is ... riding bikes. Seriously ! Mamil is an acronym to describe the participants of this phenomena.... Middle-Aged-Men-In-Lycra.

The story itself is pretty funny- mostly because I (or others I know) can relate on a very personal level to the various symptoms of this condition. Well worth the read - here's the end quote:

"... I conclude with a message from my own Mrs Mamil to other cycling widows. She's discovered a precise form of retaliation. If your portly husband buys another stupid fluorescent jersey, buy yourself another pair of shoes. That way, at least one of you can look good." (Rise of the Mamils (middle-aged men in lycra) by Dominic Casciani, BBC News

In most of our cases, significant others would be thrilled that we were only buying fluorescent jerseys instead of wheels, bikes and parts that cost a helluva lot more.

Catching Up

My, it's been a long time. This summer is ticking by and before you know it, we'll be back in the throes of winter, longing for these 95+ degree days. I was at the atm the other day and the woman at the machine next to me actually said to her male friend "I can't wait for winter". These are probably the same fools who tried to drive through 3' of snow in their 1989 Corolla and couldn't figure out why everyone was angry with them as they blocked the only lane going through the neighborhood. Wow, look at that, I can go on a rant within 3 sentences of my first blog in a month. Good to see I haven't lost my touch.

I was lucky enough to be invited to ride the Bike to the Beach century a few weeks ago with a great crew ... I figured, why not ? I haven't been riding regularly so a century should be a good kick-start (cough). And, we're going to the beach, so it has to be all downhill and flat, right ? A sign of my failure to think this through was me setting my alarm for 2am to make it to a 4:30am start in downtown DC. YOU try riding in the dark with a bunch of ya-hoos who probably don't ride all that steady in the daylight. It was an adventure, though, and one I'd gladly do again --anyone who knows me knows that says a lot because it is my belief that no-one should know that 2am comes twice in one day. Unless you're catching 2am on the backside because the party hasn't ended yet.

My second annual trip to Charlotte, NC followed the B2B adventure. Spent a few days hiking, biking and (gasp) running and timed it to take in the big-boy race at the Presby Crit. Charlotte really turns out for the annual event and the locals cheer like they know the guys (and girls). Was a fun weekend, one of those you hate to come back from. I think we all need a few more mornings in life where you roll out of bed when you're ready and stroll down to the Starbucks for some coffee to go with a good book. Now doesn't that sound groovy ? (photo courtesy of CyclingNews.com).

This past weekend I joined a ride starting in Capitol Hill, going up to my area at Patapsco State Park (the turn around was going up lawyers hill, a mere 2 miles from my house) and back. Again, I figured a good way to get into shape. There was nothing really flat on this route but it was a really cool ride - if asked, I'd do it again, hopefully with a little more time in the saddle showing in my legs.

I guess I'm taking motivation in "epic" rides and routes. Yes, I know 70 miles isn't epic, but it is when you haven't been on the bike much. I suppose I'll start some epic rides of my own by revisiting some of my old training routes in Howard County on the weekends. It's ALMOST time for those great fall rides that remind you why you love your bike. I suppose I ought to get in shape so I can enjoy them.

Renshaw, McEwen and the MABRA Incident

Happy Monday !

I know this is a little late and my excuse is TDF obsession ... after spending all day, every day trying to avoid any news media, twitter, blogs or fellow cyclists who might slip up with stage results, I would rush home, try to get in a workout and finish off the day with Phil and Paul's bantering (or bickering, depending on the subject) while watching the day's event. I grew rather used to the schedule, though I must admit my social life (and blog) suffered greatly for the effort. Now that I'm going through TDF withdrawal, I finally put together the image that came to mind after watching Stage 11, where Mark Renshaw was DQ'd ...
That's him on the right, headbutting Julian Dean. As soon as I saw the video, it brought back images from a prior TDF - witness Robbie McEwen using his head in a sprint :




Most mainstream media have likened the Renshaw Incident to the McEwen Incident. But what Phil and Paul neglected to mention was the well-known MABRA Incident at Tyson's a few years back - Witness SuperDave and Cameron in the finishing sprint ...



As you can see, there is an obvious disparity of height in the SuperDave/Cameron incident. Had they been closer in height, it might have been a real-live imitation of the McEwen Incident and a precursor to the Renshaw Incident.

BTW: SuperDave took the sprint in a photo-finish, if I remember correctly.

TGIF - 7/9/2010

A history lesson: I happened upon the wikipedia entry for TDF and thought I'd share some of the highlights of the history. I found much amusement and most of it explains that the drama has pretty much been there from the get.

- The origin of the Tour was a dispute between two sporting newspapers: L'Auto and L'Velo. The owners of each disagreed on the guilt/innocence of a soldier convicted (later exonerated) of selling secrets to the Germans. L'Auto was owned by a prominent cyclist and part-owner of a local velodrome. To jump-start newspaper sales, they founded the very first Tour in 1903 - a six-day stage race in which events would go through the night and finish the following afternoon.

-Henri Desgrange, the first organizer, stood against the use of multiple gears and required that riders use wooden rims, fearing the heat of braking while coming down mountains would melt the glue that held the tyres (gears were finally allowed in 1937).

- Riders were required to fix their own bicycles without help, and to use the same bicycle from beginning to end until 1932.

- Desgrange conducted a campaign against sponsors and bike factories ("he was sure they were undermining the spirit of a Tour de France of individuals"). In 1930 he required competitors to ride plain yellow bicycles that he provided without a maker's name.

- Desgrange decided to require riders to all eat exactly the same amount of food each day in 1925. Threat of strike ended this plan before the Tour began.

Cheating started from the beginning

- The 1904 "winner" was disqualified for use of a train. (easier to do when you're "racing" at night!!). Another rider was punished for being towed uphill by a car (1937).

"Doping" also started early:

- As early as 1903, riders used alcohol and ether to "dull the pain"

- In 1924, the Pelissier brothers admitted use of strychnine, cocaine, chloroform, aspirin, "horse ointment" and other drugs.

Rider protest has a long history at the Tour as well:

- In 1920 half the peloton abandoned in protest of Desgrange's management style.

- In 1966, riders went on strike after drug tests the previous evening.

- In 1978 the peloton rode slowly all day and walked across the finish line in protest of having to get up early to ride two stages in one day.

- In 1988 the entire race went on strike in protest of a drug test on a prominent rider.

- In 1998, the race stopped "in protest of what riders saw as heavy handed investigations of drug-taking allegations".

All of these facts were taken from Wikipedia's Tour de France article - there's lots of other info on there that is well worth the read. There, now don't you feel just a little more educated about your sport of choice ?

Happy Friday - see you all at the Capital Crit on Sunday.

Quality Control

The caution tag on my new hairdryer ... and this is not a cheap/off-brand machine. Somehow this made it past editing, printing and quality control. And we wonder why our children can't read, write or speak.


Sigh.

July - Already ?

It seems like just a few weeks ago we were digging out of record-setting snow drifts.  Now we're sighing with relief from the record-setting 90+degree temps we've had for the past two weeks.  Ah, gotta love Maryland weather !

I've had a busy few weeks - and I'm sticking to that as my excuse for missing not one, but two TGIFs.  The bad news is that I was without a/c for almost 2 weeks.  The worse news is that part of that time was the aforementioned record-setting highs. It got even better when I acknowledged to the HVAC guy that yeah, I probably needed a new system since this one was almost as old as me.  His response?  "Nah, it can't be that old!".  I coulda kicked him. 

The good news is that I now have a shiny-new HVAC system.  I don't even want to think about the check I had to stroke for the pleasure of a/c.

Everyone that knew I was sans a/c gasped at the very thought , which brought to mind the question - how did we survive without air conditioning for eons ?  I suppose the same way we survived without cell phones ?

More good news: I've got my race-bike back.  There's some drama surrounding that (you wouldn't expect any less from me, would you?), but suffice it to say, I'm happy be be back in the saddle, so to speak. Some of you might have glimpsed the sight of me with the girls last Saturday in/around Rock Creek Park.  It was a gorgeous day for a bike ride with friends.  Thankfully, they were all racing Reston the next day so they took it easy on me.  My max ride right now has been 50miles- which is a lot with a fractured pelvis !  I've even worked up to about 3miles for running.  Don't tell my doc !!

With the long 4th of July weekend upon us, I'm back to debating what "normal" people do on holiday weekends.  Fitchburg occupied so many of my 4th of July plans but it'd just be odd for me to take that trip for the sake of something to do, wouldn't it ?  So, I'm planning some rides, a run or two, a BBQ with friends and I'm bound and determined to find some fireworks.

TGIF - 6/11/2010

Since dropping my crutches a couple weeks ago, I have resumed my traditional Friday before-work caffeine stop at Starbucks.  Carrying coffee to work while navigating on crutches is near impossible - though don't think I didn't try.  Anyway, my Friday routine is a beautiful thing and a good thing for everyone around me as it makes for a happy start to the day.  This morning I stood in line, observing other patrons as we slowly made our way around to order and then wait for our order.  I checked out a couple of guys awaiting their order (hey, I'm single, I'm allowed) and noted one of them was super tall and slender and kind of came off as a "too cool" guy with his aviator sunglasses and scruffy face.

The barista missed getting his breakfast sandwich and he was very nice in asking about it and letting them resolve the issue.  The girl next to me loudly said excuse me ... excuse me ... to him as he was walking by, but he kept walking.  She reached across me to grab his arm to get his attention.  I assumed she knew him and was saying hi.  He paused to look at who was touching him and she asked him "Are you Michael Phelps?".  Visibly irritated, he said yeah.  Yeah, I am.  And kept walking. 

Now, people have said that this Olympic star is a jerk in public and maybe he is ... but in this 10 minute experience I witnessed, he was super nice to the Starbucks folks when resolving the sandwich debacle.  He chatted with someone else waiting at the bar for their shot of morning energy. He smiled at me when we passed each other in line ... he didn't appear to be anything but a regular Joe ... I honestly would have never recognized him but then again I don't really get star struck so I'm not on the look out for "famous" people.

He only got irritated when someone felt justified in reaching out and grabbing him.  I'd be pretty unhappy with that as well - what gives people the idea that if someone is famous, they lose their personal space and privacy ?  It would never occur to me to grab a random stranger's arm (unless he was cute and the metro bounced the right way to give me an excuse !), so why would it be okay to grab someone I thought was famous ?  Let the man get his breakfast in peace ... he clearly made the attempt to be incognito so he wasn't looking for attention - he was just looking for a sausage breakfast sandwich.

Enough Already !

Things have improved greatly since my last post ... at least as far as my injury.  I went back to work the week before Memorial Day.  I was staying at a place about a block from work, so it was nice to be able to walk (crutch) to work. Sometime in the middle of that week, I was crutching (is that a verb?) back to the house when I passed a dad and his, say, 8 year old daughter.  I pass by them and hear her comment: "she's walking just fine.  why does she need crutches?".  Is it wrong to call a child a be-yatch ? The next day I dropped down to one crutch, which I needed mostly for the 2 flights of stairs to my office.

I've now been off crutches for two weeks.  My follow up xrays are this afternoon - the doc ordered me to be on crutches, no weight on the right leg, through today.  So, the question is, do I take the crutches in to the dr. appt just for show, or do I simply waltz in and take the tongue lashing with a smile ?  Knowing me, it'll be the latter of the two.

I certainly won't tell him that I went on my first out-of-doors bike ride on Saturday.  That lasted a little over an hour. While it was S-L-O-W, it was glorious - the feel of the road, the sounds of summer birds, the wind on my face ...  Sigh.  Definitely achy-sore afterward, but no permanent damage (at least I don't think - xrays will show the truth today).

So Saturday nite I went out with some good friends in the Parkville-area.   Everyone had a great time, I was the sober-driver and made sure everyone got home safely.  At the last drop off, I went in for a while to hang out.  It was in the middle of nowhere and I didn't think to lock my car.  Realized later that my purse - my ID's, credit cards, money and phone) was gone.  Seriously ?

Have you ever had to re-create your life without anything to do it with ?  First attempt at Verizon: Can I help you ? they say ... I respond with a nutshell version of my story.  They were kind enough to withhold their laughter that I thought they could do anything without my ID.  I held myself together but it wasn't pretty.  Ok, trip to work to get on a phone to start cancelling credit cards.  This is much fun, explaining my story about 6 different times to various people.  Oh, and by the way, I have no cash, no credit card and no ATM card, so I'm worrying about whether I have enough gas to go home.

Second trip to Verizon, I had my passport and the tax ID necessary (my phone is on a corporate plan).  They still say they can't help me, they need to speak to my HR dept, since I'm not authorized on the account.  Can you call them?  they say ... to which I held my tone relatively even ... I don't have a phone.  That's why I'm here.  Oh, we can let you use ours, do you have their number ? Less even tone:  ITS IN MY PHONE !!

I remember my boss's number (which I see on my work phone all the time), so I call him. The second he answers, I go into meltdown.  I had held myself together all day, but when I had to relate my story to him, it hit me for real:  I have no phone.  I have no ID.  I have no cash.  I have no way to get cash.  I'm dead in the water.  I'm sobbing on the phone in the middle of Verizon.  The security guy left his post to get tissues for me.  One of the ladies behind the counter came around to rub my back and tell me it'll be okay, sweetie, we'll figure something out.  The guys next to me looked like they wanted to run or give me a hug, not sure which.  My boss, after deciphering my sob-english, simply said: boy, you're having a run of it, aren't you ? Which made me cry even more.

The lesson I learned is that having a meltdown in Verizon makes the associates much more amenable to making something happen.  They gave me my "new-every-two" upgrade early and waived the fees.  They showed me my phone options and I wound up with a Droid.  They're packing up a phone cover, screen protector, chargers etc and ask if I want a black cover or a pink cover.With my tears still drying on my face, I said in a small voice: can I have the pink one please ? I was pitiful.

My coworkers are trying very hard to get the security video feed of my meltdown.  If they succeed, I may have to leave the country.  At least I'll have my replacement ATM/credit cards and IDs by then.

Can we say ENOUGH ALREADY !  Whatever powers-that-be that I've pissed off ... I'M SORRY - please remove this black cloud I've been living under, I don't know how much more I can take !

PS: a free annual credit report is available here ... good thing to have if you've had credit card or identity theft.  for those that are guilty of these acts ... eff you.  how do you sleep at night ?

If It Weren't For Bad Luck...

...I wouldn't have any luck at all.  Seriously.  These past two weeks can be summarized like this:  hit the deck, resist medical care, finally agree to a hospital trip, excruciating pain, no food or drink, possibly surgery, 4 fractures, good drugs, bad food, good friends and crutches. I could just leave it like that, but then I wouldn't be true to my "rambling" ways. 

As far as what happened, I can only rely on witness accounts because I remember going really fast thinking I would maybe make a jump after the turn into the headwind and then oh-shit, asphalt, curled into the fetal position, bikes and bodies on top of me.  A brief aside: seeing the race roll past as you're laying on the ground lends an interesting perspective.  Witness accounts tell me that the girl in front of the pack swerved to miss a pothole/manhole cover and clipped my front wheel.  Really ?  We passed over that cover a dozen times in laps before.  RIDE OVER IT- yeah, it's bumpy but it's less bumpy than hitting the ground.  Really.
(dinner one night at hospital - thank you ,LJ, for saving me from this !)
One lesson learned in this debacle - Don't Listen to the Girl With the Concussion.  That would be me, by the way. The question: Do you want to go to the hospital ? I guarantee if you asked that in a crowded room, not one person would say yes. My reaction was that of any sane person: No.  And bless them, my friends and concerned citizens listened.  EMT's carried me over to a random lawn chair, where I proceeded to hang out for about an hour.  Trying to stand up, almost passing out from the effort and deciding to wait a little longer to see if things magically improved.  They didn't.  Eventually the adrenaline from the race started wearing off and the pain increased exponentially.  Dammit.  Something was very wrong. 


Z and LJ were super supportive and helpful, managing logistics of car jockeying.  Brigham put my mind at ease by assuring me that aside from a deraileur hanger and maybe truing a wheel, my bike was absolutely fine.  Christine helped LJ carry me to my awaiting car and Erin, seeing that I couldn't walk at all, came through with an assist.  Z quickly chauffered me to St. Agnes, the nearest hospital to my house.  Noting Christine's concern regarding my offensive odor, I somehow managed to change out of my lycra and into the sundress I wore to the race.  Don't ask why this was important to me, I had a concussion, remember ? 

Fast forward to the ER,,where more than one nurse complimented me on my dress. Transferring bed to table for xrays, then again for cat scans.  Having to explain that No, I could not twist sideways for a better shot.  Sobbing when they told me I was broken.  2 fractures on the pelvic bone.  Sobbing again when they added a 3rd fracture and (4) a lateral fracture to the sacrum for good measure.  The strange feeling of morphine as it enters the bloodstream.  LJ and Erik, kindly bringing food because thats what we do in hospitals, and then being informed by nurses that I could not eat or drink because I might need surgery.  ER does NOT believe in sleep.  Literally passing out when the PT girls had me stand up.  They learned to believe me when I said it wasn't a good idea.  FINALLY getting food/water after 25 hrs.  Unfortunately it was hospital food. 
The roommate who couldn't sleep without the TV on . The roommate who couldn't stop talking.  The visits from friends when I least expected them but most needed them.  Gorgeous flowers.  A Harry & David basket that provided sustenance in lieu of aforementioned hospital food.  A walker, then a wheelchair - I was hell on wheels, as you can imagine - finally, crutches.

I'm out and getting back in action- it's amazing how the human body heals itself after trauma.  BIG thank you to LJ and Z, who tag teamed me in the hospital and took care of logistics. Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes or made the time to call or visit. Half of what keeps me coming back to the madness that is bike racing is the community.  Teammate or competitor, in the end, we take care of our own.  Call me tenacious or call me crazy - I'm down but I'm not out. 

TGIF - 4/23/2010

I went to a concert in the recent past after a semi-last minute invite from a cute boy, to see a band that I semi-knew and liked what I did know of them. 


So, I'm all excited about the concert because I love live music and I think it'll be a great show.  It was - I didnt know all the songs but the lead singer was entertaining, showed a ton of talent by busting out into various songs that were not his genre, the sound was awesome and it was one of the better shows with regard to pyro-technics.  It was a blast - no pun intended.
 
I should take a quick side-bar to explain that I despise radio ... I may have mentioned this before so humor me while I rant again:  The DJs on regular radio are loud, obnoxious and laugh at themselves and each other, even though most of the idiotic things they're saying really aren't that funny.  It's kind of like a laugh track, only live ...  Laugh hysterically NOW.  No, NOW.  They play one or two songs, often ruining good songs by overplaying them, and then you are subjected to 10mins of advertisements, headlines, traffic, weather and who-knows what else.  What's really annoying is that the ads are usually louder than the music so you damn near get blown out of your car if you have the volume up because they happen to play a good song that they haven't ruined yet.   Okay - climbing off my soapbox now.

What does this have to do with anything ?  Well, it makes me reliant on friends to clue me in to new music, what's playing and what I might want to download to play on my ipod (which, other than NPR, is pretty much what I listen to on a daily basis unless I need traffic info on TOP).  This means I'm often a little behind and don't keep up on what people think of various bands/music.  I think this lets me make my own decisions as to whether I like the music/bands without being influenced by others.  This means that if you ever get ahold of my ipod, my musical tastes are laid bare for judgment ....

Me being me, I did some research on said band when I got to a computer the next day.  I had no idea that this band is one of those -either you love them or loathe them- bands.  Those that loathe them are pretty visceral about it.  Comments included that the lyrics were sophomoric, music unoriginal and/or was the same album to album, the lead singer must be violent, depressed or on drugs etc etc.  All the "respected" publications (eg. Rolling Stone) are pretty harsh about this band, and those who consider themselves music snobs seem to follow suit. 

On the other hand, they're pretty damn successful judging by album sales so they must have a following.

Personally, I think the music itself is decent most of the time but the lyrics are fantastic.  They often range from a little crude to really crude, but I find them to be mostly amusing.  There are a few pretty catchy "anthems" and some "down and dirty" songs, intermixed with a few slower, more poignant numbers.  Granted, my musical taste is pretty varied, from Beethoven to Eminem to Elvis to Kanye, so maybe that's why I can appreciate something that doesn't appeal to everyone.  

By now you're wondering what band I'm talking about- or maybe you've guessed ?

At Least It Didn't Rain...

This is a little late but that's the summary of Walkersville this year for me.  I should just end the discussion with that one sentence, but at the risk of being that kid that makes up all kinds of excuses for a poor performance, I won't.

I've been trying to make some changes in my work schedule to better accommodate after-work, out-of-doors riding, which seems to be working out fairly well.  So, thats a plus.

I've also made some changes in my eating habits - while I'd love to lose some of the weight I put on during my various traumas this past year, I actually made the changes because they make sense for long-term health.  I suppose it's a looser version of Paleo mixed with the Primal Blueprint-thing ... no grains so pretty low carb except for what you get from fruits and veggies.  Lots of protein and "good" fats.  I do feel better on a daily basis.  However, I learned very quickly and in a devastating way that those lifestyles do NOT work for competitive cycling.

My quick lesson was at Walkersville so here's my version of the race:  start out a little warmer than I had anticipated (yay) and a little more crowded than I anticipated (racing with the 50+ guys).  Somehow between the lead moto and the pack rolling out, a mini-van managed to get in there and proceeded to slam on the brakes when he realized he was being swarmed by cyclists.  Sweet.

By the way, the 50+ guys were all gentlemen, as I would have expected.  The trouble was that there are varying degrees of experience - some of the long-time racers ares smooth as butta, but others, often spotted wearing a Discovery kit, have the cash to get the gear but don't really have the experience to use it.  As a side note to my side note, PLEASE, for the love of all things good, use the brakes that work with carbon wheels if you're going to ride your deep-dish rims in a race or ride.  If the winds are gusting to 30mph, think twice about using aforementioned rims.  The combination of being blown all over the road and brakes squealing at the slightest touch made for a very stressful event.

Anyhoo, we stayed tempo - ie fairly civilized through the first lap.  Until we got to the downhill leading to the climb - where there was a vehicle parked in the middle of the road, apparently picking up the collateral damage from the race before ours.  Panic and chaos ensued as we all tried to avoid the car, carry some momentum into the hill and avoid crashing into each other (brakes squealing all over the place).  I got a little gapped off through that melee and found myself alone as I finished the climb.  Caught up to a guy, then Diesel-Diane (ABRT) pulled through - I silently offered a prayer of thanks and knew we were going to make a run for it.  I dug deep to help Diane as we chased, finally making contact after turn 1.  I was pleased as punch.  But tired.  Settle in and regroup in the pack, the second lap passed without incident and I gained some confidence that I was going to be okay.

Then the 3rd climb ... thats when the wheels fell off.  Not literally.  Although I kind of wished they had, 'cause then I'd have an excuse.  Got up the first two pitches painfully but ok; the last one shut me down.  I couldn't turn a gear, I couldn't push harder ...
F A I L.  I chased a bit, trying to catch up with friend and former teammate, Sara Z, but she hooked up with another rider and they had a little more momentum.  I rode alone through turn 1 and made it about halfway up the highway before I called it.

After talking to Coach Slavedriver, we concluded that it was lack of carbs - easily accessible glucose to fuel the muscles.  The hard chase on lap 1, a decent climb on lap 2 and an increased pace for the 3rd climb was more than I had in my system.  I need to do a modified version of the Paleo diet for athletes, which would include some grains/starches pre-race to increase available glucose and post race to aid in recovery. 
 
I can count on one hand the number of races I've pulled out of.  Despite any excuses, I was devastated to say the least.  It's difficult when you know where you've been and how fast you CAN go, but you have taken three steps backward and have to make those gains all over again.  Sigh.  Thanks mostly to my teammates, I'll get over it ... and I'll get faster.  I'm not quite ready to take my dollies and go home ...

Today is Technically My Friday, so TGIF

With the Easter holiday approaching, the thought occurred to me on Monday that maybe, just maybe, I might have a half day on Friday.  You'd think that I'd know this since I've been here 5 years, but hey, it's been a year since last Easter so give a girl a break !  Anyway, I delicately posed the question to HR - I'm sure she's been getting these questions for days so I wanted to tread lightly.  She said no, we don't get a half day.  Pause while I lament my luck.  We get a full day off on Friday.  I coulda kissed her, and I told her as much.  She suggested that I should keep that to myself.  So, today is my Friday.  I've been talking myself through this week "hold out, you have a gorgeous, sunny, warm 3 day weekend coming up".  I dont know if it's the weather or I'm just completely worn out, but knowing I have a long weekend coming up was the only thing getting me through. 

So, for this weekend I predict some lobster-tans for my pigment-challenged cycling contingent.  I plan on getting a big start on my panda-tan for the season ... it's a hot look when we go to the beach or wear a sleeveless top.  Three full days of riding will definitely give me a little restart for the soul. 

The good news is that I had my very first after-work, outdoor training ride of the season this week !!  This is a sign of good things to come, as I got out of work at a decent hour and managed to get in almost 1.5 hrs, doing hill intervals up Lawyer's Hill and finishing up with some threshold running through the park to beat daylight.  It was liberating and exhilerating - talk about good for the soul.  I know many of you can't appreciate the big deal since you do this all the time but it was a special day for me. 

It really doesn't take much these days to make me happy.

Wednesday Rambling

I have come to the conclusion that every person has a finite amount of brain-power per day or per situation.  I seem to be hitting this limiter on a regular basis these days at work - around 5 or so, I start getting "stupid" ... forgetting where I was going, what I was doing or simply staring blankly at a computer screen.  I think I've used up my excess brain-power over the past few months and when 5pm rolls around, I shut down.  That doesn't mean I get to leave at "quitting time", it just means I am less productive. 

I'm thrilled to report that I managed to sneak out to a "meeting" last Friday afternoon - ie I played hooky and went for a bike ride on a gorgeous March afternoon. I dont worry about posting that online because it was clearly understood that when I asked for the time off for a "meeting" that I was going to ride my bike.  I'm fairly certain my higher-ups are getting a little worried about me spending so much time at work ... not that they can do much about it, but they seemed more than agreeable to let me escape to play on my bike.

So, with a nice 2.5hr jaunt on Friday through Ellicott City, I felt like I was prepared for a weekend of decent riding. Lets just say that Saturday's 7am dropped me about halfway up Mass Ave, and Sunday's team ride found me sucking it up on the hills.  Frustrating to say the least, as I HAVE been training - essentially working and training is all I've been doing.  I know that stress has something to do with fitness/fatigue etc, but dammit ... it's just too much time and effort to not see some progress.  

Anyway, I approach this weekend's event as a training race and will try to keep that in mind if things don't go well ... ya'll better watch out if my new assistant works out and I get more time on the bike, 'cause I've got something to prove... if I ever get there.  

Is that light at the end of the tunnel ....

... or is it an oncoming train ?  That phrase about sums up my life right now - at work, I've finally hired some help and am holding my breath to hope it's a good fit and that I can stop the madness of 12hr workdays sometime in the near future.  Of course, if it's not a good fit, all I've done is create a train-wreck for myself.  See how well the analogy works ?

As far as the bike, I'm finally seeing some progress - movement in the right direction despite long workdays and few training days.  Again, holding my breath and hoping it's a trend, not a blip in the otherwise dim radar.

And weather-wise - yay !  We are in the 50s most days right now, which is a welcome change.  We'd be all good if the damn rain would stop - or at least stop falling on the weekends.  My new hire says it's supposed to be a nice weekend so, once again, I'm crossing my fingers to believe that she's right and that I'm not being blinded by the light.

Enough of train analogies ... it was an amusing aside but I've exhausted the funny out of it.  Sigh. 

To Facebook or Not To Facebook

... That is the question.  Mitch and I are apparently two of the last holdouts on Facebook.  Not that we haven't been pressured to join facebook by friends and family - we just haven't heard enough arguments to convince us be like Tiger and "Just do It" (mildly entertaining link to mildly offensive posters).

The arguments I've heard in the recent past:

1.  Everybody's doing it (i dont tend to assimilate well so this has no effect on me)

2.  Even my mom's on Facebook (because we all do what our moms do ?)

3.  You can reconnect with people you went to high school with (I didnt really like them then, why would I go out of my way to find them now?)

4.  I put pictures on Facebook but you can't see them (oh, whatever did we do to send pics to friends/family before Facebook?)

5.  You can keep up with what all of your friends are doing (I can barely keep track of what *I'm* doing!!)

6.  It's easier to communicate with people (this is not necessarily a good thing - I already abuse email and texting as a way to control conversations, Facebook would pretty much render me a shut-in since I could communicate with just about everyone without actually speaking to anyone)

7.  You already have a blog, what's the difference (a blog is more of a one way rant ... at least that's how I use it.  People can choose to read or not read, and I'm often surprised to find out that people actually DO read.  Much different than facebook in my view)

8.  You can stalk people to find out what they're up to (this argument actually holds some merit.  I'm just being honest!). 

9.  People will be able to find you on the web (because it takes too much effort to google me, where you'd find a zillion less-than-stellar race results, my profile on our CAWES website, my blog, my linked-in profile ....you get the point)


So the question remains... to Facebook or Not to Facebook.  I can't decide if I'm a holdout now because it's too much hassle, because I really don't have time to deal with it (I can barely keep up with my one-sided rant of a blog) or simply on principle.

This blog was specifically written to my friends and loved ones who think I'm being obtuse by not signing up. 

Mayhaps I am putting wayyy too much thought into this...

A weekend without Snow !!

Last weekend a few of us from the MABRA community attempted to escape the snow by heading south.  There were races happening in North Carolina and while I'm not quite race-ready, I love NC and couldn't pass up a reason to make the trip. I took Friday off, picked up a way-ward cyclist who needed a lift and made what turned out to be a long and difficult trip around the beltway to get south of town.  Left my place around 9am, picked up SuperDave around 1030 (thats how long it took me to get to Olney with a short stop in the middle for much-needed caffeine) and finally got south of DC around 1230.  Main highways were plowed for the most part but had what I've dubbed as "magic lanes".  You're rolling along with 4 lanes and out of the blue, the plow must've taken a coffee break or maybe ran out of gas, so the lane disappears without warning.  A little way down the road, the lane reappears.  Seeing as people have trouble driving with regular conditions, this created all kinds of havoc. 

trying to get out my neighborhood - piles of snow as tall as my car !

Finally south of DC, we rolled along at a pretty good clip.  As the "Welcome to North Carolina" sign came into view, Badger called to let me know that it was going to snow that night.  In North Carolina.  Seriously. Temps were unseasonably cold and just as predicted, Carrboro, NC got about 2" of snow.  That was nothing for us northerners seasoned with FEET of snow, but it nearly shut down the town since NC doesn't really get snow.  Unless I'm there, apparently.  The saturday race was cancelled so I enjoyed a good trainer session in the "man room" at Ken and Laura's place ... their garage is set up with race dvds, a projector and a large, white "screen" (sheetrock painted white), the better to suffer by.  That night, Badger and Merdhot arrived and as the second pitcher of margarita's started flowing, I knew there'd be no 8am racing from this household on Sunday.   As suspected, the Johnson household waited until it was warmer to do an impromptu race, which I imagine was much more enjoyable than the 22degree morning that the "real" race offered. 

this is how NC deals with snow

Local heavy-hitter Jen Rasmussen hit the deck and broke her arm during the womens race (this is rumor, I have not confirmed), so send her some luv and get well - tough way to start the race season but I know she'll be back in action sooner than later.

This past weekend was FINALLY a weekend without snow - Badger and I played it safe by doing a computrainer session at Conte's on Saturday morning.  A mildly entertaining adventure, complete with a flat tire on the trainer (that takes talent, doesn't it?).  The mechanics expressed their displeasure with my shifting issues so we agreed to rectify the problem after our team ride on Sunday.  The weather was fantastic and it was borderline surreal to actually be riding outdoors.  A few weekends stuck on a trainer reminds you how lucky we are when the weather cooperates.... More about the team ride will be posted on our team blog in the next day or so. After  the ride, a few of us visited Conte's to stock up on lime-green tires and tape, and to get my shifting issues rectified.  I'm pretty sure I drove just about everyone crazy during the ride. 

Plain-jane, Eeps and Grizzly at Conte's on Sunday.

Snowed In Solo

Friday morning I had an amusing conversation with our Fed-Ex guy - making small talk, I asked him if he was trying to beat the impending snow, he said no, he'd be out for a while, and what were my snow-in plans ?  .. no plans, really but that I'd probably do a blog about things to do when snowed in solo. He got sad-faced and assured me that I'd find the right one and not to give up by blogging.  It was funny because 1) I wasn't lamenting anything, 2) he assumed that if I'm blogging, I've given up and 3) I'm getting relationship advice from the fed-ex guy.  Sigh.

So, here's a rundown of what I've done in my severely single and snowed in solo condition: 

- (friday) work until 5:30, at which time driving conditions were crap  Nearly take out neighbor's car sliding into my parking spot, literally.

- take two shifts shoveling, one at 8pm, another at midnight.  Share shifts with my vampire neighbors - super great people, but I swear they never sleep. 

- between shoveling shifts, take a hike across the next neighborhood to watch a movie with a friend.  Didn't really think as far forward as the midnight hike home - where did I put those snow-shoes again ?

- sleep in, wait for breakfast in bed and remember that my cat, lacking opposable thumbs, won't rise to the occasion.

- peek out the window at my neighbors shoveling out ... bake apple granola muffins. This delays participation in the first morning shift of shoveling and also makes me a hero for bringing baked goods.  

- peek out the back window to find the source of the very loud scraping sound I heard at 2am ... since my heat was still working and the roof hadn't collapsed, I figured whatever it was, it could wait until after breakfast.  Source is another neighbor's tree that fell into my yard.  It missed my roof but landed on top of my HVAC unit.  It's sad to think my luck is changing for the better simply because the situation could have been worse.  

- finally join neighbor to continue sidewalk maintenance. Running out of places to put snow in our townhouse community, we throw it onto an absent-neighbor's yard.  He might get into his front door around June.

- receive updates from teammates - Badger has a tree or two down, one on her fence and roof.  Grizzly finished some intervals and was walking to her neighborhood salon for some self-indulgence.  Eeps was stuck on the trainer, watching and wondering who was going to win the 2007 tour.  JenCheng went out to make snow angels and a snow bike.  I dont know what a snow bike is, but I cant wait to see pics.

- watch as another neighbor tries to get his truck unstuck - guy thought he was going somewhere in 2ft (at that time) of snow. To his credit, he got about 100 yards before getting stuck.  Offer help and assure him that if he needed some kitty litter, his neighborhood cat lady has him covered. He just looks confused.

- debate doing my slave-driver workout for the day.  opt for an apple muffin and a nap instead.

- wake up to the sound of shovels.  Guilt forces me to get bundled up and help since I don't have any baked goods ready for bribes. 

- catch CNN's coverage of "Snowmegeddon" (their name, not mine).  They actually mention Elkridge on national news for having over 30" of snow, the most in the area (around 1pm).  I live in Elkridge/Arbutus.

- finally motivate to get on the bike.  Watch bad tv to encourage anger ... I ride stronger when I'm angry (note to competition:  not wise to make me angry in a race). 

- watch my neighbor's daughter's bf roll through on his 4-wheeler - it looks like too much fun.  Silently thank Badger for letting me keep the vespa in her garage, make mental note to thank her and Merdhot again.

- make some dinner, consider more baked goods and sit down to blog, thereby signaling to my fed-ex guy that I've officially given up.  

Next to the tree is my patio set - that's the umbrella half covered by snow

... and here's the lucky HVAC unit, still in tact !

Let it Snow, Let it Snow - STOP THE SNOW !

I used to think that while I hate the cold (I really, really do), I'd be okay if we at least had some snow.  Snow seemed to be prettier, somehow more tolerable than bare, lifeless trees and brown, frozen grass.

 View from my back-door this morning

What I've realized in the past two months is that snow is a pain in the arse.  While very pretty when it falls, the remnants of slush and salt get your car all mucked up and prevent you from riding on real, live pavement for days.  Those lost days are so valuable this time of year when our four walls of (insert room here) are closing in.  A weekend wasted on snow right now gives us all the sad face.

 

Sad Face Identity Protected - never send me pics and think I won't use them !

This past weekend was a total surprise to me - I have been holed up at work most of the time and following the possible vs probable weather patterns is not on my priority list.  We (CAWES) had planned maybe a CT session at Conte's on Saturday and a decent ride on Sunday.  CTs were all booked up by more forward-thinking teams and when the snow started falling on Saturday morning, Badger was stuck in traffic (the kind where idiots are playing bumper cars with anything in their path, then looking bewildered at the fact that their little donut wheels can't navigate snow and ice ... or, better yet, those "hocky-moms" and dads who think they can jump medians and ditches to avoid aforementioned bumper car games in their SUV - albeit one without all wheel or four wheel drive .... I digress ... ) and after witnessing a couple minor accidents over 40mins where she traveled a whopping 6 miles, she called it and went home.

As an aside, please, please, please clean off your car !  I realize that it has no impact on you - hey, the snow disappeared while I was driving, less work for me.  Where do you genius's think the snow goes ??  It's bad enough when the roads are crap, then I have to dodge sheets of ice and snow as you get up to speed. And don't even get me started on how great it is on a bicycle when your two-day-old snow top-hat finally blows off.  Nothing but good fun all around. 

Anyway, despite the weather, I managed to get productive with a typical Slavedriver workout and some cleaning, all while convincing our Philly contingent that while it wasn't snowing there yet, I had 3 inches on the ground and no signs of stopping so a ride on Sunday in the out-of-doors wasn't going to happen.

Sunday was even more productive as I re-potted some plants and hung blinds in my living room (all without burning the house down, score!) and got in another good workout on the rollers - my old standby, Spinervals, made a reappearance as motivation.  Nothing like someone shouting at you in the middle of your interval to make sure you don't wimp out.

The weather gods are not with us, though, as another winter storm may or may not be in the works for this weekend.  Someone give me a heads up on that as the weekend draws near - I've got to get back to work.

Catching Up

I'm going to make a run at updating my blog more than once oh, every month or so.  The bad news is that a lack of motivation combined with an absurd work schedule and the resulting lack of wit and humor makes for no blog posts.  The good news is that I do have a few interesting stories and adventures stored up - from the Month of Wendy celebrations and team updates to sarcasm about people in general and trying to burn my house down.  Ah, yes, it is a good-news, bad-news kinda post.

On a good news note, our squad FINALLY had a decent weekend for some team riding and bonding.  Our philly girls made the trek to casa de Meidhof, where we proceeded to take over the joint as we donned our super-woman suits and headed out for an assault on suburban Montgomery County.  This was my first ride around that area in months, so it was fun to see lots of familiar and friendly faces.   A team ride like this is great for motivation after some long weeks of indoor riding.  Check out our new website and blog ... JenCheng is so excited with all the new changes that she's already posted !  Have no fear, there will be updates and "official" announcements made in the coming days.

My bike was a disaster for Saturday's ride.  It wouldn't settle into the big-ring (which is the preferred gearing for a masher like me), instead throwing the chain over to catch my pedal.  Between that and  my chain/cluster causing all kinds of racket, it was mildly entertaining once I got over being mortified.  I was spoiled at one point in my life (only with regard to bike maintenance, believe me) and I frankly never bothered to apply what I may have picked up during that period.  Thankfully, Badger married Merdhot, who knew that he was getting into with her friends, so he took mercy on me and fixed the bike all up.  So, I escape yet another ride without having to learn/apply bike maintenance.  Maybe I should take a class ... then again, given my home improvement debacles, maybe I rely on the kindness of other cyclists.  A girl's gotta know her limits. 

Sunday was supposed to be a trek through Howard County but the weather was crap.  Thats the bad news.  The good news is that we had the opportunity to hang out at Conte's for an impromptu computrainer session.  The Bethesda location has a super cool bike room with a huge flat screen, dozens of race courses or training rides and an awesome sound system ... We got to ride the same roads we had planned on riding, virtually.

All of this riding in one weekend is a novelty to me right now - work has been so obnoxious and deadlines keep looming over me.  My rollers, trainer, various viewing entertainment (I'm currently watching the last season of Heroes) and patience are about all worn out for indoor workouts.  The bad news is that indoor workouts can't substitute for real, full-on climbing.  The good news is that after Sunday. I can see things will come back quickly if I can string a few of these weekends together.

My most recent home improvement near disaster:  my bedroom has never had blinds/shades since I've lived here.  Yes, that's about 7 years or so.  I have realized in the past year or so that the potential for me to flash anyone walking or driving by is pretty high - in hindsight, I'm sure I'm not the only one who realized this.  So, I finally bought some nice blinds to protect my ... modesty (cough).  I was trying to read the directions (another novelty) and needed more light, so I plugged in a lamp that Mitch had given me when got new ones.  It immediately blew the fuse.  Not thinking anything of it, I dutifully went to the basement, found the offended fuse, and flipped it on.  By the time I got to my 2nd story bedroom, there was a haze of smoke everywhere.  I couldn't figure out what was smoking ... then I saw the cord going to Mitch's lamp was literally frying - on top of two brand new sweaters that I needed to hang up.  It burned through both sweaters and left a trail of melted plastic on my carpet.  Is there any way to get melted plastic out of carpet ?  A shot of the cord is above- it was a mess.

So, we'll end this post with the good news that I didnt burn the house down, and I did get the blinds up (and they look awesome, if I do say so myself).