Finally. Spring seems to have arrived for the weekend, just in time for us racers to launch a two-day industrial-park assault. The Syn-fit and the Carl Dolan Memorial races will have outstanding participation if only because the basement dwellers finally come out on 70-degree, sunny days in April.
After a long run-up to tax-day, I finally had some down-time at work today so I took some coworkers out to lunch. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a "sneak out early" kinda day, too. Just too nice to be inside posting blogs and such ... I mean, working.
Chicken suggested that I do a blog on hamsters. I don't really know her latest fascination with hamsters, but I think it has something to do with the time she and Robin sat on my couch drinking wine and watching me finish my workout on the rollers. Since the only thing I know about hamsters is that my little brother had a couple when he was younger and that they multiplied like crazy. You know that cliche about breeding like rabbits ? Based on my experience, I'd rephrase that to breeding like hamsters.
That said, this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while ... I was laughing so hard I was in tears a few mins ago ... my coworkers came in to see what I was doing. Note the bike computer at the top of the wheel. Thanks to Chicken and Chris K for forwarding this gem.
On that note, I'm out ... enjoy the weekend.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuff Girls
All the best laid plans:
Original plan: road trip up to the Mt. Joy race. The event listed a 50+ mile race for 1-2-3 women. Unfortunately, our field was eliminated due to complaints from women in MABRA about the promoter not showing the confirmed rider list until a day or so before the race.
Maybe I'm missing something: traditionally, women are last minute sign ups for races, often showing up on race day to register. Even when promoters show confirmed riders, if there are only couple of riders signed up (as of yet), it can be counter productive because people won't sign up thinking that it's going to be a parade with under 10 competitors. I am not saying it's ideal, I'm just saying I get both sides of the argument. But, instead of signing up because we WANT to race, we give the promoter a hard time and wind up screwing it up for all the 1-2-3 women. How is that encouraging more women's fields ???
We complain that people don't offer enough fields for women, but then we torpedo the fields offered if they don't do it exactly as we wish. Yes, I know this particular promoter has had some issues, and yes, I realize that there are other pieces to the story, but I think I'm getting the general gist down ...It baffles me.
Alternate plan #1: the 7am. At 545am, while our Cat3s made the trek to a cold, rainy race, we barraged each other with texts and phone calls to assess the situation. Alternate plans were canned, raining too hard and too cold out.
Alternate plan#2: the 10am. At 845am, we continued the debate about the weather. Ever the optimist, Sonja (aka Rockstar) declared that it wasn't really raining so she was rolling out to make the 10am start. I ended the debate with Mitch by telling her I was in my car.
As we pulled into Rock Creek Park, Mitch's mom (MM) called:
As we waited for the "10am" to roll through in the pouring down rain, Mitch and I were sitting in the back of my car. Fully dressed and helmets on, we looked at each other and asked "are we really going to do this?"
We almost - almost - gave in. Then Sonja came rolling by and saw our bikes. We climbed out of the car to hear that only two people showed up for the ride: Sonja and a hard-core NCVC junior. It made us all laugh at how none of the tough-guys showed up in this weather. Ha, we were tougher than the tough guys !!
By this point, none of us wanted to be the one who wussed out so off we went. We figured we were doing it in solidarity with our teammates racing in PA. Soaked within a few minutes but undeterred, we did repeats on the hill leading up to the Mormon Temple. Someone - I can neither confirm nor deny that it was me - mentioned coffee as our reward for being tuff-girls. The aftermath of the debacle is below - all smiles, so it couldn't have been that bad, right ?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Zim and Chicken wound up at my place on the way back from Lancaster - Chicken stuck it out for a 5th place finish in the race but was damaged by the wind, cold and rain. At Casa de Ulmer, you get full service for being tuff, including fuzzy socks and warm tea.
Talk about teamwork.
Original plan: road trip up to the Mt. Joy race. The event listed a 50+ mile race for 1-2-3 women. Unfortunately, our field was eliminated due to complaints from women in MABRA about the promoter not showing the confirmed rider list until a day or so before the race.
Maybe I'm missing something: traditionally, women are last minute sign ups for races, often showing up on race day to register. Even when promoters show confirmed riders, if there are only couple of riders signed up (as of yet), it can be counter productive because people won't sign up thinking that it's going to be a parade with under 10 competitors. I am not saying it's ideal, I'm just saying I get both sides of the argument. But, instead of signing up because we WANT to race, we give the promoter a hard time and wind up screwing it up for all the 1-2-3 women. How is that encouraging more women's fields ???
We complain that people don't offer enough fields for women, but then we torpedo the fields offered if they don't do it exactly as we wish. Yes, I know this particular promoter has had some issues, and yes, I realize that there are other pieces to the story, but I think I'm getting the general gist down ...It baffles me.
Alternate plan #1: the 7am. At 545am, while our Cat3s made the trek to a cold, rainy race, we barraged each other with texts and phone calls to assess the situation. Alternate plans were canned, raining too hard and too cold out.
Alternate plan#2: the 10am. At 845am, we continued the debate about the weather. Ever the optimist, Sonja (aka Rockstar) declared that it wasn't really raining so she was rolling out to make the 10am start. I ended the debate with Mitch by telling her I was in my car.
As we pulled into Rock Creek Park, Mitch's mom (MM) called:
MM: I'm on Braddock Road and just saw some crazy cyclist ... I just wanted to call -
Mitch: Hold on ... Hey Wendy, Mom just saw some craaazy cyclist on Braddock Road... (laughter)
MM: Oh. I was calling to make sure you weren't one of those crazy cyclists. Clearly I was wrong. Tell Wendy I said hi.
Mitch: Hold on ... Hey Wendy, Mom just saw some craaazy cyclist on Braddock Road... (laughter)
MM: Oh. I was calling to make sure you weren't one of those crazy cyclists. Clearly I was wrong. Tell Wendy I said hi.
As we waited for the "10am" to roll through in the pouring down rain, Mitch and I were sitting in the back of my car. Fully dressed and helmets on, we looked at each other and asked "are we really going to do this?"
We almost - almost - gave in. Then Sonja came rolling by and saw our bikes. We climbed out of the car to hear that only two people showed up for the ride: Sonja and a hard-core NCVC junior. It made us all laugh at how none of the tough-guys showed up in this weather. Ha, we were tougher than the tough guys !!
By this point, none of us wanted to be the one who wussed out so off we went. We figured we were doing it in solidarity with our teammates racing in PA. Soaked within a few minutes but undeterred, we did repeats on the hill leading up to the Mormon Temple. Someone - I can neither confirm nor deny that it was me - mentioned coffee as our reward for being tuff-girls. The aftermath of the debacle is below - all smiles, so it couldn't have been that bad, right ?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Zim and Chicken wound up at my place on the way back from Lancaster - Chicken stuck it out for a 5th place finish in the race but was damaged by the wind, cold and rain. At Casa de Ulmer, you get full service for being tuff, including fuzzy socks and warm tea. 
Talk about teamwork.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Bike Racing 102
Since most of us have taken Bike Racing 101, I thought I'd expand some horizons by taking it up a notch to Bike Racing 102. This is an intermediate course, so please make sure you've completed and passed the aforementioned course as a prerequisite.
Lesson #1: Blocking is negative racing. A more advanced and less barbaric strategy is covering everything that moves when you have someone in the break (CETM - because you know I love acronyms). Often confused as blocking, it is actually very effective without being negative.
Blocking is physically occupying the width of the road so no one can chase. CETM is simply following anyone who wants to chase. Do you see the difference ? In my humble opinion, if someone wants to get up to the break that bad, of course I'd want to hitch a ride to say hi to my teammate. It'd be downright rude not to.
So, for all of you that keep shouting about opposing teams blocking, check your terminology - perhaps you should be yelling "stop using strategy and pull us up to your teammate" - because that's what you really want anyway.
Lesson #2: Riding in the wind - in a peloton. When training, gusts of wind that throw you across the road suck but you can adjust at will without worrying about anyone else (except that car barreling toward you). When racing, you are handle-bar to handle-bar with, say, 50 of your closest friends in lycra, and it's a whole 'nother ball game. Small adjustments. Know the course so you know when you're turning into a cross-wind. And honestly, it's simple physics - put your weight on your front wheel (lets be honest, our back-wheels are not being pushed around). This isn't rocket science, kids.
Lesson #3: Trash-talking 101. The best trash talking is done with your legs. If you're whining about someone blocking (see Lesson #1), you'd probably be better served just going around them or putting in the extra effort so they don't get in front of you in the first place.
Lesson #4: When you write a post-race report, try and get at least the winner's name right. It was Michelle. And by the by, it was me that was trash talking. Right before I attacked going into the hill, where my teammates countered with the winning move (see Lesson#3). I love it when a plan comes together.
Lesson #5: These lessons have been hard-learned ... believe me, I've had my moments. This is all in good fun. I'm nowhere near race ready right now but I'm having fun and I'll get there. Everyone relax just a bit and remember we do this because we actually LIKE it. And if you don't ... maybe you should take up golf or chess ?
Happy Wednesday - I missed last week's TGIF so this is a mid-week HumpDay posting ... though I'm sure it won't have near the following as Kyle's old "Hump Day" posts ... I'm pretty sure he took that term literally. That one is a classic - I appreciate that he posted something for the girls for once. Thanks, Kyle.
Lesson #1: Blocking is negative racing. A more advanced and less barbaric strategy is covering everything that moves when you have someone in the break (CETM - because you know I love acronyms). Often confused as blocking, it is actually very effective without being negative.
Blocking is physically occupying the width of the road so no one can chase. CETM is simply following anyone who wants to chase. Do you see the difference ? In my humble opinion, if someone wants to get up to the break that bad, of course I'd want to hitch a ride to say hi to my teammate. It'd be downright rude not to.
So, for all of you that keep shouting about opposing teams blocking, check your terminology - perhaps you should be yelling "stop using strategy and pull us up to your teammate" - because that's what you really want anyway.
Lesson #2: Riding in the wind - in a peloton. When training, gusts of wind that throw you across the road suck but you can adjust at will without worrying about anyone else (except that car barreling toward you). When racing, you are handle-bar to handle-bar with, say, 50 of your closest friends in lycra, and it's a whole 'nother ball game. Small adjustments. Know the course so you know when you're turning into a cross-wind. And honestly, it's simple physics - put your weight on your front wheel (lets be honest, our back-wheels are not being pushed around). This isn't rocket science, kids.
Lesson #3: Trash-talking 101. The best trash talking is done with your legs. If you're whining about someone blocking (see Lesson #1), you'd probably be better served just going around them or putting in the extra effort so they don't get in front of you in the first place.
Lesson #4: When you write a post-race report, try and get at least the winner's name right. It was Michelle. And by the by, it was me that was trash talking. Right before I attacked going into the hill, where my teammates countered with the winning move (see Lesson#3). I love it when a plan comes together.
Lesson #5: These lessons have been hard-learned ... believe me, I've had my moments. This is all in good fun. I'm nowhere near race ready right now but I'm having fun and I'll get there. Everyone relax just a bit and remember we do this because we actually LIKE it. And if you don't ... maybe you should take up golf or chess ?
Happy Wednesday - I missed last week's TGIF so this is a mid-week HumpDay posting ... though I'm sure it won't have near the following as Kyle's old "Hump Day" posts ... I'm pretty sure he took that term literally. That one is a classic - I appreciate that he posted something for the girls for once. Thanks, Kyle.
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