The Tease of Cool Air

That cool air we had Saturday night into Sunday morning just screamed of fall and CYCLOCROSS! I got so excited until I realized it's still weeks away. Oh! But I need to get my equipment squared away! I have no money right now, so get ready to see some "for sale" ads from me soon.

I raced Saturday in Nashua, NH, at the Race for the Gate Crit. The race looped around Holman Stadium and included a short climb and a fast downhill to the finish.
We had an unfortunate crash in our race, which sent Leslie to the hospital, and decimated our field. Leslie looked BAD after going down and hitting a cement post that was part of the fencing that lined the inside of the course in that section. (Said fencing is visible in the pic to the right.)
I hope she recovers fast.

The field was neutral for several laps while the ambulance was on the course, then there were only around 5 laps to go after that point. Our team practiced the lead-out, with Sam on front with 2 to go, then me taking Susanne around the last corner. We got 5th and all had a good learning experience.

Our team leader Brooke RACED just 6 weeks after delivering her baby!!!! And it didn't look like she missed a beat. Unbelievable. What inspiration!

After our team meeting, I decided to hop in the men's P1/2/3 race. It was a good course to do this on, not too technical, a loop with a hill and a chicane, and the field wasn't too intimidating to me. After racing Wompatuck with the guys for a few weeks, I know I can stay with them, even be competitive. I wasn't feeling good, though, so I thought I'd get shelled quickly. Not so. Oh, and I got a call up. Skip Foley in his stars-and-stripes was called up to the line first, muscles bulging and everything. Ok, a little intimidating. Then little ol' me. Ha! I thought Richard was going to tell that story about how I won SUCKERBROOK 'cross 2 years ago, but he refrained, watering it down to "winner of several cyclocross races." Oh yeah, I belonged on the front line. The best part was Ward was called up next, and I got to stand on the line and share a kiss with my sweetheart before the race. I wonder if someone got that on film - I would LOVE to have that picture.

So the first couple of laps I spent at the front, even ON the front once. Ward said he was hurting with the blistering pace I was setting of over 26 mph, but I think he was just trying to make me feel good! A break of 8 got away, and that was that. The race was slow. I just sat in to finish. As soon as it was over, and I saw that the field sprint wasn't out of my reach, I wished I had moved up and contested the finish. I actually think I might have gotten in the money! Ward won the field sprint on a day when he felt AWFUL on the bike. That's my man. :) He started a new job in pharmaceutical sales this week, and it's like "bye-bye bike, bye-bye life as we know it." But we will work through this and find a way for him to train with all his traveling and eating out and working, and he will be Captain America again soon.

On Sunday, Ward and I made a last minute choice to just do a long ride. We drove out to my parent's house in Maynard and rode from there out to the Wachusett summit and back. Only 4 hours ride time, but LOTS of climbing. We brought my dad's canoe back with us (part of the reason we drove there to begin with) and hope to get it out on the pond soon!

Thoughts go out to Kimberly Geist

...and her loved ones.
Let's hope she can recover fully.
Horrific.
See the last news feed.

Back to Racing

Last weekend was NHCC's Concord Crit and our team's Central New Hampshire Road Race. Brooke and her beautiful new baby, Claire, were there to help direct us. We kept the race hard, sending attack after attack, but nothing stuck much longer than a lap. I think I attacked 6 or 7 times in the 20-lap (20-mile) course, and launched a counter after one of my teammates was caught just before 2 laps to go. I wanted to keep everything strung out into the finish, to avoid the typical group cluster sprint. It worked, and Susanne did a nice job finishing 4th. I had a pretty good workout, and it is always fun to race with the team! Check out the red-white-and-blue NEBC train with Amy on front stringing out the field!

Sunday was HARD. The course was changed due to construction on a good part of the old loop. Now the course included a tough climb right from the start, the hardest climb of the course, then a short decent allowing hardly any recovery before beginning the long grind into the nasty QOM hill. The course was 4 laps of just over 10 miles a lap. There was no flat, it went either up or down, offering little time for rest. In a nutshell, I ended up riding 30 miles alone, often within sight of Mary from IBC, the woman in 1st place. The climber-extraordinaire was about 30 seconds ahead of me the whole race! I left my chase group in the dust, thinking I could catch her, then road a long, nasty, TT. At least the weather was beautiful and the course was good training. My teammates will no longer accept my "but I'm not a climber" excuse, even though I'm still not convinced. :) Tami threw down an awesome finish sprint to hold off the field for 4th! I wish I had a video of it!

I hit Wompi on Tuesday, but drove there. I was tired, and in retrospect, probably should have skipped it. I wanted to just sit in and focus on practicing the finish, but when a break went from the gun... how could I not jump on it? I sat up after 30 minutes over threshold with hardly any warm-up, burning from the blistering pace of the break. I decided to wait for the field and sit in for awhile, but the hard charging field was going even faster than the break at this point and my tired body quickly got gapped off and dropped from the strung out wheels. Not the most successful Wompi for me, but good training again, if it didn't wear me out.
All in the name of CYCLOCROSS!!!!

Thanks!

I can't believe how many people responded to my last entry, either through comments or directly emailing me. I got so many long and thoughtful responses, encouragement, advice, and even just sympathetic "I know how you feel" emails. I love the bike community! Thanks for keeping me rolling.

I've been having lots of fun again on the bike. Doing training races is like tricking myself into training because it's social, I enjoy it so much, and I push myself much harder than I would alone. I've done the Wompatuck training race the past two Tuesday nights, and Wells Ave training race on Sunday. I really enjoy racing with men, especially those at these races, who tend to be experienced masters racers. Ward and I met with some guys at Landry's on Comm Ave in Boston and rode down to Wompi. It took about 2 hours to get there! After the race, we bummed a ride home, but still got a solid 76 miles in. Sunday we rode to Wells Ave, raced, then did a short errand in Lexington on the way home, so that was another 75-mile day with a 30+ mile training race. Yesterday, after our hour easy spin, Ward revved up the motorcycle and we headed down to Mystic so I could practice motorpacing. Fun! We thought it might be illegal, so we were a little worried since a lot of cops patrol the area, but we got passed by 3 black-and-whites, and none of them seemed to care that I was glued to a roller on the back of an old Honda pedaling 32 mph with relative ease. Judging from all the crazy looks people shot our way, I guess we were quite a spectacle. I'll bet everyone was simply admiring my long hair, which must have been unfurled behind me at that speed. Today I need to go get my motorcycle permit so I can return the favor and pace Ward. We also need to find a good, long stretch of road to do it on. Roads like that are scarce around here.

This morning, after dropping Ward off at Logan airport at dawn (he's off for Charlotte for the Presbyterian Healthcare Crit - a.k.a. Bank of America - show me the money, Babe!) I met Caroline (NEBCer and trombone player extraordinaire) and a friend of hers for an easy mountain bike at the Fells. Wow, I miss mountain biking!! I will definitely be doing more in the next month or two.
How much fun can a girl have in a week?

Well, I'm going to tell you. I also stripped and refinished this table, which was nasty old cracked white over spraypainted army green color. Now it looks super-cute as an end table in our living room and matches my favorite candles. I am so Martha Stewart. Ward and I are also working on refinishing a dining table we got at the Crate and Barrel outlet for ridiculously cheap. Really ridiculously cheap. A $550 table for $19. No kidding. So, it was a little scratched, but a very solid table, so we sanded down the top, and we're in the process of staining/polying it now. Fun! I've been back into my jewelry-making again, too. I'm particularly proud of a necklace and matching drop earring set I made to wear to an anniversary dinner for Ward's parents, a dinner cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. (see pic)
I might quietly mention that my cross bike has seen the light of day again, too, as have my running sneaks... (shh!!)
I'm also working on my next blog post, which will be a spotlight on our basement, or more interestingly, the 12 bicycles that inhabit it. :)