Send a Good thought or three please

A little while ago, I got a call from my friend (and co-worker)s husband, calling from the ER. On the weekly Velo Club road ride (which Bob tried to talk us into going on earlier tonight) She was hit by a truck, hit and run. Word is she will be OK, but we're worried about her so please send a couple good thoughts or prayers her way. It's a scary thing to happen, and the scariest part is it could be any one of us out there on the road.

Weekend Update

Friday Night after work, I took a big bike in the country all by myself since Mike wanted to run. It was good to get out there and hammer the pedals. I took a long route and tried to detour a busy road, which is where I got a little lost and also found the biggest hill ever. Couple hundred feet of climbing in a pretty short distance - not fun, but I did it.

Saturday, we had thought about doing a race - we had 2 to choose from, one in Beloit and the other in Broadhead. Apparently they were both super secret races since we could not really get any details on them. Mike even emailed and asked specifically when, where, and how much for the race, and they emailed back without really answering his questions. So, since Mike was on call for work anyhow, we decided to scrap those plans. My thought was if it was that hard to get details or find really any basic info at all, that the field of runners for these 10K's would be very very small and consist of hardcore folks..... translation: I would get totally smoked. I was OK with not doing any race. Instead I watched my niece Isabel for a couple hours while Michele got a haircut and all gussied up for the Lone Star concert at GOEX where here hubby works. We had a blast. She loved watching the dogs run around and act stupid (it really isn't an act, it just comes natural to them...), except when Maddy would lick the bottoms of her feet.

In the afternoon, we went to the Parker Football Team Picnic. It was hot and was inside the school which was quite hot and humid. I might also mention that it took place directly after Saturday practice, so the room was packed with sweaty teenage boys and was smelling quite rank, Eau de Sweatsock I believe it was called. After 3 hours we arrived home with Lucas the proud owner of a new t-shirt, this one for qualifying for the 1000 Yard Club which recognizes performance and community service throughout the year. Pretty cool, although I could think of a couple other ways to spend my Saturday off......

We watched a couple movies and headed to bed with the intention of getting up early and driving to Madison to ride a loop of the IMWI course. We slept in a little and had to scrap that plan as the heat predicted for the day was not conducive to a late start. Instead we took the Velo Club route to Beckman Mill, a restored mill that is also a county park. It was a nice 40+ mile ride and I hadn't ever taken that way before although a lot of it was actually roads I ride all the time. Bonus - I got to climb the same big monster hill I had hated to ride AGAIN!

The first picture is a lovely shot of my behind (thanks, Mike....) showcasing what see on nearly every coutry road ride, miles and miles, and miles of corn with a smattering of farmhouses.

The second picture is Mike after using the incredibly clean facilities at Beckman Mill County Park. This last picture is a shot of the pond the buildings overlook. Thought I would get an artsy shot in there for Di.

Now, in other news, Mike and I were one of the front page stories of the Janesville Gazette today. That was kind of cool. I am having a bit of difficulty getting over the fact that she included our starting weights, something I have been pretty protective of by telling people what I have lost in pounds rather that where I started. I have always figured anyone that really wanted to know could do the math themselves..... Anyhow, there it was paragraph one, every fat girl's nightmare - your weight printed for all the world to see on the front page of the paper. A little mortifying, but I think I am getting over it. The rest of the article was pretty nice, so I should really just shut up and enjoy it. Besides, it was my own fault for telling her, I just thought it went without saying that any girl would not be happy with that.

MTBs return

Tonight Mike and I did another Monday Mt Bike Ride with the Velo Club beginners group. It actually was just Mike and I, led by Larry and Janet. I guess maybe with the holiday coming up the group was kind of sparse. Mike went off into the single tracks with Larry and Janet and I took off on our own.

Janet did NOT try to kill me tonight. I know usually I report her homicidal intentions by dragging me through the single tracks, but tonight she cut me a break and we worked instead on confidence. We started on the wider grassier trails and gradually made it in towards the meatier single track stuff deeper in the woods, but she would do a quick run through some single tracks, then take a loop through some wider trails. That was perfect for me - just enough single track to get some practice in, yet not so much that I got flustered with it and started making stupid moves and worked my panties into a bunch. Once I get all twitterpated I might as well pack it up and go home, and I never got there tonight.

Larry on the other hand apparently was fixing to kill Mike. (you didn't really think we would BOTH have a good night at the same time did you? What would we have to gripe about then?? SHEESH!)

I should also mention that I am nearly done with my last 2 classes and will finally graduate from my program in a couple short weeks. I had a near miss with papers this weekend though, so I made myself a little nervous. There were 3 MAJOR papers due before the class ends, one due each week. Well while I had some time off last week, I spent a lot of my time working on 2 of the 3 papers, not so much (or at all really) on the third one. Well - long story short- I was doing them in reverse order and I realized Saturday like at 9pm that the one I hadn't started was actually the one due Sunday by midnight. I stayed up til 2AM working on it Saturday, then got up at 6:30 Sunday to work some more. By about 2PM, I had a finished product to submit. Voila! Somehow I managed to pull the paper out of my ass, which apparently was where I have been storing my brain lately.

I.CANNOT.WAIT.TO.GET.THIS.OVER.WITH. AND.WORK.ON.WORRYING.ABOUT.WHETHER.OR.NOT.WE.CAN.DO.AN.IRONMAN.

I need something new to obsess about for a change.

MTB Mayhem and the SWAT team

It's been a busy couple days.

Monday night, Mike and I went to the Velo Club Mt Bike ride in Rockport Park. I had an off night. The decision was made to work on some of the technical aspects of the trails, in particular hill climbing and some of the single track stuff. I fell down a lot. Several of them really hurt. I became convinced the Schlegels were trying to kill me. We ran through spots in the park named FUBAR, the figure 8, the roller coaster, and broken pinky. Broken pinky was especially heinous. It is a gimongous steep hill covered in loose gravel. I pretty much spun out midway up and fell off my bike onto to my elbow.

I struggled with:
- my clipless pedals. The shoes for my road bike and my MTB have different style clips. I could not get clipped in a lot of the night, kept using the wrong motion to clip, pushing forward instead of stepping down.

- my emotions. The more frustrated I got with the ride, the stupider I rode. I had trouble with shifting sensibly and just did some stupid crap for no reason except sheer frustration.

- my fears. The more I had clipping problems, the more I timid I rode. Because I rode scared, I kept riding into trees. Or flipping myself off my bike.

- my directional orientation. We rode the trails backwards from what we have done the last two times. Totally threw me off and just felt wrong. I think this led to my first (of many) falls off my bike where I slid backwards down a hill and took out a tree. The poor thing never saw it coming, but the scrapes down my back where I slid down the bark as I laid that sucker out will last me for a while - they are pretty raw.

- My balance. I fell off my bike a lot. Sometimes for no real reason at all. I felt like a big giant ass.

- my stupid bike. Did I mention I really hate her this week? I do. Just as I reached the peak of my pissiness, I was pedaling uphill and the chain broke. I let out a little whoop. "YES! I CAN'T RIDE ANYMORE TONIGHT! WOO HOO!!!" Unfortunately, Bob whipped out his fixy thing and fixed up the chain. I rode some more, then as we were fixing to leave the park it broke again. He fixed it again and we went home. I hate my stupid frigging bike this week. I'm sure it will pass, but I blame her for this ride. Lord knows, it's not MY fault..... :-)

Tuesday was our first Tri-out (like a work out tripled). We started in Rockport Park at the pool. We swam some laps. I swam/walked beside Mike trying to help until he got pissy and got out of the pool to pout. Then I swam some laps of my own and got out myself. I no longer want to help coach him since I just get the brunt of his frustration with it. I plan to call around for a coach for him, letting someone else get bitched at would be well worth it for me.

The bike was an easy 20 down Afton Road and back. I cannot fathom why they ride that busy road with glass all over the shoulder when there are tons of virtually empty country roads branching off it everywhere, but whatever -it was not my party so we went with it. Not knowing what to expect from this group, we hung towards the back at first, then took off and hammered it a little harder on the way back in, getting ahead of a big chunk of the group. We skipped the run, mostly because we didn't bring our shoes. Maybe next time. It seems like a nice group, very helpful and offered some good advice so far. We'll keep going for a while and see where this goes. The seem to keep a good pace for us, which is what I was most concerned about.

Mt Biking, Part Deux

Mike and I have been kicking around volunteering for Ironman Wisconsin this year, since we are not ready to do an actual Ironman ourselves. For days we have been weighing what a good thing to do as a volunteer would be, what would be a time commitment we could live with, what we are qualified to help with, etc, etc, etc. We finally decided that we were game for about anything up to Transition 2, but would prefer to work our way through the earlier opportunities if possible. This morning, the volunteer spots opened up and Mike was in charge of getting us registered. We are all signed up to do body marking with race numbers from 4:45-7 AM (OUCH! Thats early!!!), which will free us up for any other minor volunteer jobs as well as allow us to watch lots of the tri as it unfolds. Oh yeah - we will get a t-shirt too, which should definitely make Mike the Tshirt Whore do a cartwheel from sheer unadulterated joy. One the jobs we kicked around was stripping wetsuits after the swim. We didn't sign up for it because we got the body painter spots first, but I wonder if you get a special tee that says something like "I was a stripper at IMWI 07." Maybe we should find out and switch, that would be kind of funny........

Tonight Mike and I did our second Velo Club Beginners MTB ride. First we had to make an emergency pit stop at the bike shop because Mike went to prep his bike and discovered his tire was flat. When he tried to change the tube, he discovered that the valve stems were not the right ones and would not fit through the hole in the rim. The bike shop boys did us up right and we got ourselves together int time to meet the group at Sunnyside.
I have to say I had myself pretty wound up by the time we started the ride. After last week, i was not looking forward to taking my life in my hands again and I was very nervous about doing the single tracks again in Rockport. We had a larger group tonight including a 9 year old boy who was pretty much fearless. No way was I going to let a kid kick my ass without putting up a good fight so that was the motivation I needed to get moving.
We did a lot of the same trails so even though I had no idea where I was most of the time, certain things looked familiar to me from last time - like the trees that bit me last week or any of the numerous places I hit the dirt, or a tree, or a rock, or a sharp turn, or a root...... (you get the picture). I would call the night a success because:
- I was not the least experienced person on the ride (there was someone else there that was newer than I)
- The only person I told to shut up and leave me alone was Mike, and he's tough so I know he can take it
- I only fell off my bike 3 times, one of which was over a log hop which I had never tried before.
- I was able to maneuver most of the single tracks tonight
- I only shrieked out loud once, down roller coaster hill.
- I only said the F word out loud once, and i think the kid was out of earshot when I did. (In my defense, it was on a rather scary hill)
- I have no tree bites to speak of, I only bled a little bit from one knee, and none of the bruises hurt yet.
We saw a few new spot tonight too. Janet had a quirky name for all kinds of different parts of the park, and there is a story behind them all. Tonight we didn't do onion run, but we did visit "Porno Point" which is a ridge where a pile of girly magazines was once discovered by some of the MTB riders, hence the name I guess. Funny.
Next time, I will be working on cornering better and trying to keep my brakes from sparking a forest fire. I can't believe I just said "next time"............. guess I'm hooked.

Every day should be Saturday

Another weekend is almost over and it seems like it just started. I could use a 4 day weekend every week, or better yet, work 2 days and have 5 off - if only I would win the lottery and live my dream!

We have done a few things since my last post. After our mountain biking experience last Monday, I took Tuesday and Wednesday off to lick my wounds and heal my scrapes and bruises. Thursday, Mike and I took a long run from home to Riverside Park and back, an 8.25 mile loop. Friday was errand day after work, but we got home from work early enough to squeeze in a quick 4 miler and bicker a little bit about whether Mike needs to act like he is my personal pace car.
On Saturday, we rode our road bikes for the Rock 50/50 benefiting the Rock Trail Coalition. We chose to do the 38 mile tour and it was a nice ride. I think we probably should have opted for the 60 mile ride, but at the time it was early in the morning, a little cold out, and honestly I didn't know I had a 60 in me until we were well on our way. Interestingly enough, we registered for the ride so we could do a different route than we usually ride and the route they planned went out on Hayner road to Murray Road and into Afton, which is where we ride all the time. It did veer off in an unexpected direction onto Bass Creek Rd and took us into Big Hills Park and then onto Creedy Road, back into Afton, and back to the bike trail. Despite a chilly start, the temperature of the ride was very nice and the route was challenging but not too much so. Next year, I want to do the long ride and check that out.

Today we chose to forgo working out for something much more fun - watching my nephew Jake and baby niece Isabel. Jake brought his Wii which was a blast to play and he swam in the hot tub for a while. It is always fun to hang out with the younguns and play. And my sister brought cookies when she picked them up, so that was definitely worth it!

Monday, we will be doing the Velo Club beginners mt bike ride again. I hope to stay upright and not take out too many trees, we'll see how that goes. We also want to preride the bike course for the Evansville Duathlon at least once this week or upcoming weekend with Jeff. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us, but Memorial Day weekend is notoriously rainy so we shall see. it is set to rain a couple days this week too, so I guess those would be good days to get to the Y and work on my swim, or maybe take a PiYo class.

"Ouch....hurts" Mountain Bike Beginners Group Ride

Mike and I took our first group ride tonight at Rockport Park with Janet and other velo club members tonight. It was quite an experience. All I can say is there is nowhere to go but up from here.
We started off going through some wider grass trails with gentle slopes and gentle hills. I thought to myself, this is OK so far. it did not take long before Janet veered off onto a single track winding dirt path and burst my bubble. We went careening through a narrow path cutting back and forth across a steep hill, many many many trees rocks and debris on either side. i think I fell off my bike in less than 5 minutes. I whined and whimpered to myself through the death track after picking myself up off the ground several times.
Before long I was following Janet and the rest of the group though the woods, up and down hills, around and over trees, and through the mud. I think I spent more time off my bike than on it, I couldn't get my pedals to clip in right, and I was basically scared to death and nearly peeing my pants for 2 solid hours. I crashed into numerous trees, scraped my arms and legs across lots of tree bark, and knocked myself off my bike lots and lots and lots.
Bob had lots of good advice for me, I wish I could have taken it. "Try to relax a little" (yeah, right!). "Don't look at the tree, look at the path ahead" (um yeah, harder than it sounds, ask all the trees I hit). "just squeeze the brake lightly and keep pedaling" (do you suppose my brakes should smoke?? I think probably not..... hmmm).
We did finally leave the woods and go home. I hurt everywhere. My arm is all scraped up and bleeding. my shoulder hurts where I ran it into a tree. I have a hole in the palm of my hand that really hurts. My legs are all scraped up too. I have several holes in the back of my calf that looks like it was punctured by my sprocket at some point. I had blood running into my shoes and a fat lip.
Did I love it? Not so much today. Did I embarrass myself? Yeah, I pretty much sucked. Will I do it again? Absolutely, I will conquer this, I can do it.

Our first Velo Club Ride

Tonight we took our first ride with the Janesville Velo Club (see ride details here). We started in Riverside Park and went out north of town from there. We had a total of 2+ hours including our ride to and from the Park.
Dealing with the new Shimano pedals was kind of a pain in the ass and I nearly bit the dust trying to clip into them several times. I'm sure with time it will become second nature like the SPD style pedals I am used to using, but for right now they are a little dicey.
It was awesome to get out and ride outside again and the temps were great, although it was hella windy on the way out. The tailwind back in was nice though.
FitDay says I burned 1266 calories on this ride, so I am very pleased with that. I hope it helps me break my plateau.
I don't think Mike had a super time, although he seemed to tolerate it. He says it would be more fair if all the skinny folks strapped a bag of water softener salt to their bikes - that made me laugh.