Transition Time

I played high school basketball and follow college basketball to this day. (The only NBA team(s) I follow are ones in the playoffs. The only ones I cheer for is the one that I may happen to know someone who plays or coaches for them.)

One of my best contributions to my team was my transition. Whether going from defensive to offensive or visa versa, I was always quick and reliable.

Same situation yesterday. Quick and reliable.

I went from racer... finishing up the 11 day TOAD to coach... picking up the first junior at the IND airport last night at 11:30 to kick off a junior Team Pursuit camp here at Major Taylor Velodrome. Quick and reliable.

I had doubts I would somehow make the 9:00 flight from Milwaukee to Indianapolis after our race ended at 4:30 in Madison. There was the award ceremony, the packing of the bikes, the speeding through construction zones, the quick stop for junk food at the undisclosed location off I-94, the meeting of the host family who brought us our bike boxes at the airport, the 1.5 hour drive, etc.

Made it. We checked into the dorm at Marian University last night about 12:30.

I now put on a different kind of "hat" this week and it will be a fun one.

Can't....Stop...Now

Been racing. Lot's of racing.

Right now I am in Wisconsin doing the Tour of America's Dairyland. 11 days in a row of racing. Ouch!

Needless to say I don't have much time and even less brain power.

Here's an idea of the daily schedule:

7:00 wake-up and bribe the body/mind to function with coffee (Alterra coffee in WI rocks!)

9:00 ride for about 1-1.5 hours.

10:30-12:30 only free time of the day for internet, stretching, core, cooking, shopping, napping, cleaning bike, etc.

12:30- usually when we leave to drive to the next race, find town, register, warm-up, etc

3:30-4:30 race. some races have been longer but for the most part these have been 1 hr races

4:30-6:00 cool down, podium, eat, pack car AGAIN

7:30- usually when we get home and cook/eat again... and start planning the next day's schedule.

9:00 in bed, although, i haven't been able to sleep until about 11.

So, for those of you who think this is vacation and we have a bunch of free time. Wrong. We have about 2 hours free time each day. That is like a normal work day for some of you 9-5 people. Same thing.... can't find the time or energy to do much else.

A dear friend of mine (who went to great lengths to coordinate all my host housing this week) asked me one day if I would like to join her for her lunch-break yoga class. Over text, she couldn't hear me laughing but I got a great belly laugh and roll of the eyes out of this one. I know she just thought I was sitting around being bored all morning waiting to race in the afternoon.

Ok... off to pack the car for the 10th race in this series. Pictures and race results to follow- whenever I get enough brain power and time.

C

Still hot

Tulsa Day #2- Still hot and humid. Surprised? Don't be.

Today's race was the one I won last year, 2010. The year before, I crashed hard, 2009. This year, I crashed again, 2011. See the pattern? Odd numbers are bad luck. Ok, that is just how my weird head works.

I still had so much fun out there today besides the last 1o minutes of the race when I crashed, got back in, went until I noticed my brake was locked up in the rear, went to the pit again, got back in... and then it was the last couple laps of the race and I didn't end up finishing where I wanted. Again, just some bad luck.

But, let's talk about the fun part! The racing here is great! Big fields, teams attacking left and right making it fast, fun courses, and good crowds. All makes for great racing.

Fitness is great... I know I can sprint with the best of them... it just will all come together at some point.

Yes mom, I am ok. Some banged up body parts but really ok.

Some pictures below are from Lynne at Podium Insight. This women KICKS BUTT covering cycling in the US. Check out her website www.podiuminsight.com She covers women's as much as she covers men's racing. Love her!

I'm not sure but I think the fields are around 70 women? Great for a non-NRC event.

A little of the action.

Today I was the lone ranger for Peanut Butter & Co. Tomorrow is a new day... we will see who is racing in the morning. See who can throw a leg over the bike and make it pedal. :) Three girls... three crashes in one week. Bad luck! But, we are lucky girls for racing our bikes and doing what we love. So, really, can we consider ourselves that unlucky? Perspective.

Tulsa is Tough

As my fav Willie Nelson says, "On the Road Again."

Some down time at home and now it's business time on the road. First stop, Tulsa, OK where you could cut the humidity with a knife. They call it Tulsa Tough and they don't lie. Three days of crits (yay!) in crazy hot weather (boo!).

There are three of us here... me, Tayler, and Olivia. Check out the article our superb host wrote. There you can see some pictures too since I am lame and never take any. Written from the "host" perspective.

Day #1- 2 of us racing. Tayler is sitting this one out. KDoc, our team doc, is giving the red light for a couple more days while she recovers from a crash last week.

Not great luck for us last night. Sometimes bike racing doesn't come down to the strongest or fittest. Luck plays a part and we had none of it last night.

Olivia went down in a crash and was out. (After 4 hours in the ER, we find out that nothing is broken but she is banged up.)

After the crash, which took out about 25 people, a break went off. I was near the crash when it happened so was out of position to follow the break. So, being alone now, I decided to play it smart and hope some other teams would do work to pull it back. Nada!

I followed one good/hard move to try and bridge the break with about 10 laps to go. Good effort but we didn't make it.

Field sprint for 5th. Damn. Ok, get in position.

I got on a train headed for the front and felt like I was sitting pretty. In the beginning of the last lap, sitting about 6 wheels back and the girl in front of me lost control of her back wheel. It skipped or slid or something. Either way, since I was so close to her, we both went swerving out of control and hitting the brakes. I went from 6th wheel to 20th wheel in 5 seconds. That was something that couldn't be compensated for in the last lap. BUMMER! Bad luck- that's what I'm talking about.

That's bike racing folks. Somedays it works and others it doesn't. The good news is that we are all safe and sound this morning and I have another chance tonight.

This weekend kicks off my road season. After a full winter, 1 week break, and about 1 month of training at home... I am feeling great! I worked out my "1st big crit of the year" nerves last night and the fitness is here... now it is time to find the "luck" part.

More tonight!

Sumfing difrent

I have been changing up training this week and doing things differently (for my Grandma who reads my blog- the title above is my ghetto spelling of "something different." i sometimes speak ghetto to entertain myself.) Ok, back to the 2 other people who read my blog...

Two mountain bike rides in 1 week! That's more times then I have ridden a mountain bike in 18 months. The first ride was with a group of cool chicks. Where can you easily get a group together for a 3 hour mountain bike ride on Tuesday morning? Answer- Boulder. The second ride was today with Greg.

Since Greg started his new working man life, we rarely get long rides together anymore. Today was a beautiful exception. 2 hours and 25 minutes of climbing up, up, up, up, up into the mountains followed by 20 minutes of screaming downhill back into Boulder.

Beautiful! It looks like a fake backdrop from Walmart.

Proof that I can ride dirt!

Coming back into Boulder, I wanted to stop by the creek and soak my legs. (It's like the quick and easy ice bath for recovery.)

Apparently, this is where the Boulder Beach is located. Funny thing- Greg was fully aware of the fact that on any hot day in Boulder you could find half-dressed college kids here. News to me!

He looks scared and he should be. The water is snow melt!

Ahh! The legs will feel better soon.

Happy Birfday to my ghetto homey Tricia! Love you!