Monsters of the Midway !

I attacked at Monsters and it worked!  Woot!

Saturday morning Alex & I drove up to Chicago to race Monsters.  As we got into the city, it was drizzling and gray outside and I was worried about rainy slick conditions.  Right after we parked the car the sun started peeking out and it dried up.  I registered for the 3/4 race and felt a little regret as I watched the girls I normally would race with go off in the 4/5 race.  I thought that I was going to get my ass kicked....   There was a crash at the end of the 4/5 race though, and I was thankful to have avoided that.  Hope no one was hurt.  

I lined up with the rest of the women to race and felt pretty good.  My nerves have gotten so much better!  The course was flat and rectangular; four wide corners and a slight head wind on the far straight away.  We went around about five times, and each time someone would throw and attack and I'd chase her down with a couple of other girls at the front.  After going around a few times like this I realized that I must have been as strong as the women throwing the attacks if I caught them every time, so I HAD to attack.  I waited until a few seconds after someone attacked on the head wind section and ZING jumped around the pack on the right side.  This was about halfway through the race I think.  

I went as hard as I could and fought the urge to look behind me.  Nearing the third corner, I heard a girl shout "get on my wheel!" and I leapt on.  Only one person had caught me!  Now we were going as hard as we could, trying not to let the pack catch us.  I recovered for a minute and then took a hard pull.  We hammered around a couple more laps and realized that we had gotten away.  Now I was tired.  

Whewwww so happy to see the one lap to go sign.  Or maybe it was 2 laps.  Well...few laps anyhow.  I was feeling good and recovered...and thus made a stupid mistake that cost me the race.  With one lap to go I decided that I was strong enough to drop the other rider, Jessica, on the head wind section.  I was scared of the sprint and thought it would be better to lose her early.  She took a pull and I went for it.  I was definitely not sure of myself, and when I looked around she had caught me.  I pulled for a second longer, laid off, tried to get on her wheel, and after we rounded the last corner she sprinted toward the finish.  

Second place.   (!!!!!!!)  I am thrilled at how the race went.  Save the stupid mistake toward the end, I raced smart.  It was a BIG mistake though!  I learned, and I'll be less hasty next time.  Everyone I talked to after the race thought it was an exciting race :-)  Good job to Jessica of..I forgot the team because I can't read kits.. !

Today is a Good Day

Good news from Miz Miles, but I'll let her tell...

I graduated today. It was fun. Bittersweet, I suppose, but I'm ready to start the next big adventure.

Now I'm back in Skokie until Monday. I'm going on the Laurel Park cycling club ride tomorrow morning which is usually good for a hoot and a holler. Then it's back to CU to prep crazy style for SNAKE and the other Memorial Day weekend races. Then I have to move out of my house, then it's my birthday, then it's party time and then it's time to find an apartment in Philly. And of course there will be lots and lots of bike riding and racing. Oh man, oh man, this summer is going to FLY.

Likes & Gripes !

Likes:

1) Hills at Kickapoo at 7:30!

2) Dipping into public artwork dreams

3) Okara burgers

4) Foldable camping wok

5) CSA starts tomorrow!  Fresh greens!

Gripes:

1) Um m m  m mmm m   m     m     m      (weirdo anonymous posters)

2) The missing elastic in my cycling cap that makes it not fit as snugly as it should.

3) Tony Almeida in 24. So mean, so cruel..

AAAAND I'm digging at the bottom of the barrel for GRIPES because it's so sunny outside!

B.CHan & I did Hill repeats this morning at Kickapoo:  Hissssssss...........

Now I'm off to study for my exam.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazzzy ^_^

Eagle Creek Park Crit.

Grumble grumble 3:30 early moon still out dark.. ahhh

At 8:00 the women (about 20 of us?) lined up at the start behind the Citizens category, and the official asked us if we preferred to go off at the same time or 20 seconds after or if we wanted to race with them at all. I wasn't shy about saying that I thought the women should get their own race, but some other girl butted in and said "but then we can work with them!" I shut up because I thought that other girls actually wanted to race with the Citizens... whatever...I wasn't going to be the bitchy one.  

B.Chan and I took the lead and soft pedaled around for a lap (2?).  I thought I felt great despite the short warm-up...but it was hard to tell that early on.  I was a lot more in tune with what was going on than I was at Hillsboro.  I was listening for the sound of a wheel or for someone to shift; I was trying to anticipate an attack.  The first girl went and I got on her wheel and caught her and the field followed.  I think there were a couple other attacks--nothing amazing--and I followed those every time and no one got away.

Seriously I am horrible at race reports because I can't actually remember what happened..

So somewhere early on, when a couple other girls and I were at the front a girl attacked and got away.  I started to chase, and hesitated, and then stayed with the pack.  Maybe if I hadn't hesitated I would have caught her, but I doubt it because she was really strong.  I decided to let her go rather than waste all of my energy.  As we were coming around the end of the lap I found myself with two girls at the front and I said "hey--let's catch her!" and they laughed at me and said "Um, she's our teammate!"   ^_^  Ohh.... "I'm in a bad place right now" I said... 

(Tip:  Know who is working together.  Look at the kits and remember how many girls are on one team, etc..)

Soon we caught the Citizens category.  It wasn't so bad at first, and I got on one guy's wheel and recovered for a few minutes.  When the whole pack of dudes were going up the hill I attacked around them.  I thought this would be confusing and break up the women, and I really just wanted to get away from those guys.  It worked, but the women followed and then the men caught on them and soon we were all together again.  

The next few laps were sketchy as hell.  I felt like I was playing defense, trying to stay out of the way of other racers.  I'm not super confident about cornering yet or about riding in big packs.  When I can trust other riders it's not bad at all, but how am I supposed to confidently keep my line when I see that you CAN'T keep yours?  At this point I had plenty of energy and was just waiting for the last lap.  I thought that attacking and getting away from this group would be to my advantage, but every time I thought about doing it something sketchy happened.  As we were crossing the finish with 3 laps to go a girl next to me crashed and some guy flipped over her.. ayyyyyy  I wanted this to be over!

At the last hill on the last lap, I sprinted as much as I could to the finish and got fourth.  I had a lot of energy left, but the whole thing was such a clusterf*ck that I felt that an inevitable crash was not worth 2nd place.  

Overall I felt super strong and I felt that I could have gone harder.  I didn't make stupid mistakes:  i stayed off the front, sucked a lot of wheel, chased down attacks, and was alert and ready.  I also didn't get that nervous or frustrated!  I need some work on my handling, but that comes with experience, and I think I did well not to crash in this race.  The 1,2,3 place women were Cat. 2 so that's a big confidence booster.  However, I have no idea what kind of Cat. 4 girls didn't show up at this race!  ABR is really shitty though... more later....must go to work..

Eagle Creek

A.Miles and I raced the Eagle Creek crit in Indianapolis this morning. We woke up at 3:30am to get there in time for our 8:00am race and STILL were only able to get in a 10 minute warm up.

I'll spare y'all the details because A.Miles' account will likely be more entertaining. In short, I felt flat today. Not good, but not bad either. And this was reflected in my performance. I got dropped and then somehow scrambled back up to the field. We're not just talking about dangling off the back. Nope, it was probably about half a lap dropped. I always wonder what possesses me to do these things-- if I just sat on to begin with I wouldn't have to expend the energy required to chase and catch back on. Idiot.

We got back to Champaign by noon. I convinced Axel to go for a ride with me and I worked on my sprinting form. I'm getting the body positioning and coordination part more, but now I have to practice practice practice to make sure its instinct when it comes time to sprint.

I'm a little worried now for the Memorial Day Weekend races. I was pretty pleased with the first few races I did this season, but between today's race and the Wisconsin weekend a while back I'm beginning to loose confidence. I guess the only thing to do is to train smart, eat well and sleep lots. The good thing is that I am done with school now, so I can focus on riding and taking good care of myself.

Speaking of which, I'm graduating next weekend. Haha!

centurempt:

Yesterday after my Nervous System practical, Dan and I went out on a ride. As we were leaving Champaign, he said "let's so a century!" Of course I agreed...long rides are my guilty pleasure.  So we set out trying to do a 5 hour century.  Speaking Spanish only.  There was no wind.  

At mile 23 I had to slow Mr. Penner down because he was going over 23 mph and it hurt to keep up.   Keep it between 20 and 22... He didn't have a computer so he thought he was keeping it at 20.. oh oh oh

Dan started bonking at mile 46.  I felt alright, but we were almost out of water.  We rode North toward C-U and went for 10 miles without water until we got to Villa Grove and filled up.  The water tasted like a pool on a mid-summer evening...

After Villa Grove we met with Joseph and rode back to Champaign.  I'm feeling goood..

...

And now the Wednesday night fights..  Not as big a group as last week.  B.Chan rolled up just after we left.  After we turned back toward Champaign, Karl attacked and it broke the group up a bit.  This time I made sure to get in a good position--on Greg's wheel, on the non-windy side of the echelon so I wouldn't get guttered.  I kept up, following Thomas and staying on Ponder's wheel for a while.  After a bit I was struggling to keep up with them, so I dropped back and waited for everyone else who got dropped.  We formed a pretty good chase group and caught up to the lead when they stopped for what we thought was a flat.  A few of us kept going back to town.  I felt strong up until the end.  When we got back to Burwash, we learned that there had been a crash in the lead group.  ?? What happened?  Hope no one was hurt..

MMmm quinoa.

Sunday morning Dan & I were going to race at the Fat & SKinny Tire Festival buuuuuut we accidently slept in. My race was to go off at 10 something and the race was 4 hours away AND there is a time change, so we were scheduled to leave by 4:00 am. Dan's cousin was in town so we went out for a drink and ended up going to bed at 1:30...only a couple of hours before we were supposed to wake up. Uhhh... so first I was pissed but then I calmed down... We went out to Kickapoo and rode around the park a bit and then did hill repeats. 10 X up the longer steep-ish hill. Set a new 1 minute max. I started climbing in a bigger gear after Dan said I should try it, and the first time my watts were worse, and then they improved a lot, so I guess I'll start doing that more often.

Yesterday felt great in the morning and went harder than usual on my "recovery" ride. I feel recovered now though, so it wasn't a bad thing. Today we are going on a long ride and I plan on taking it easier and just getting some miles in.

Good job Mike and everyone else who went to Calvin's Challenge! It was Mike's first race (besides Alley Cat races) and he did really well, beating his goal of 200 miles in 12 hours and placing 4th in his category. All on an old skool Nishiki TT bike--the kind with the small (24" ?) front wheel and the slanted top tube, and a fixie at that. I knew Mike would make it 12 hours, but I'm pleased that he did so well and survived with enough zeal to want to do more races and even ride the Nishiki around town (it's his commuter now also!). Cool guy Mr. Pennington :-) Last night at the shop he showed me how to cut my chain off and install a new chain for my fixie. It's simple, and now I know how to do it! I had to get rid of my half-link chain booooo but now I guess I'm riding safer and my cog's saved. Thanks Mr. P.

ALSO Congrats B.Chan on finishing school! (!!!!!!!!!!!) And with honors of every sort...! Good job! And you look remarkably unscathed at the end of it... Undergrad.....check.

Last night I had a dream that I found a new bamboo bike for $90.

I am posting a picture of my sister on her Gary Fisher Simple City 3 because it's so cute !

FAST GRRRLZ Put Out More Watts.

So A.Miles beat me to the post, but yesterday's ride was really great. And I even learned a couple things:

1. Lifting before the Wednesday ride = not a good idea
2. Being sickly for the week before the Wednesday ride (Swine flu?Not) and still going = less than optimal performance
3. I need to learn how/when/what to eat on rides, because I forget
4. Anyone who shows up to the ride on a Surly Cross Check with down tube shifting (cough, Frenchy, cough) is a bad ass
5. I feel squirrely on group rides. And when I feel squirrely I act squirrely, even though I know better. So I have to stop feeling squirrely and grow some confidence!
6. SchmowerSchnap is awesome.

I promise not to be nerdy about wattage and all that jazz in the future, but to echo A.Miles, it really is fun to look at the numbers. I wouldn't call it improving at this point, seeing as I've had less than 5 rides to measure what I can do, but it is fun to keep improving the baselines for my training for the rest of this summer.

I forget a lot how much I enjoy group rides, but yesterday was really, really great. It feels like a family reunion.

the pains of only getting ONE fajita when all the boys get TWO...

Last night's ride was so fun! I rolled up to Burwash Park with Axel & Nick and there were about 30 other people there, including Jess, B.Chan, E.Mart and all of the usual guys. SO MANY PEOPLE WOOOOOOT

We left town going east toward Homer and rode through the hills and turns...super fun route. The weather was perfect and there wasn't a lot of wind. I was riding with Jess, which was good because she's über strong :-) and I pushed myself to take good pulls and stay with her..

after we stopped at homer Lake alex attacked as we were heading back toward town. He tapped me so i followed him and Frenchie. Soon the rest of the group caught up. I thought Jess was just pulling around me because I didn't know the whole group was there too, and the whole group came around and kind of guttered me and i was flustered & didn't know what to do.. and..got...dropped. ........

i struggled to keep my watts at about my 5 minute max and soon caught up to some other people who got dropped, finally catching up to B.Chan, and then rolling back to town with her and Karl and ending up at the Park (where Nick, Axel, Chan & I began quoting our favorite Sesame Street skit).

It was a fun fun ride. I took along some Hammer gel this time and it helped. Again I set record wattage for everything except my 120 minute max. This week I've been setting records in every hard ride and it's confidence boosting. Even when I get dropped, at least I'm making improvements. I really just have no idea what to do in any race situation, but that comes with practice. In any case, I'll never really be able to keep up with the likes of Dave Stone if his wattage at the front of the lead group is almost the same as my 5 second max... oh oh oh ^_^

After the ride we came home to the Shire and all tried to cook dinner in the kitchen at the same time. We all had about two pots going on 4 burners, which doesn't really equal out... Nick's baby bok choy looked fresh & delicious though, as did Chan & Axels fajitas (B only got one...) and although my garbanzo beans were undercooked, the spices were perfect and anything is good with mango pickle. Asparagus with tandoori sauce is amazing btw.

Now I am going to take a long ride if the weather holds out. I'll be making some gel to take along, using sorghum molasses instead of brown rice syrup because it is half the price and I've never tried it...

With the arrival of B.Chan's Schmowerschnap our training has gone to a whole new level. Watch out Cat.4 women, the Tammy Thomas Twins have been spawned...

..and now we have another excuse to use DZ-Nuts.

SO it's been windy.  WINDY!  

Yesterday Nick & I went to Kickapoo and rode mtn bikes.  My second time on my 29er and first time mountain biking in SHORTS and a SS jersey and not wearing booties, tights, 5 hats, 15 base layers....   it was SO FUN !  I love mountain biking.  It's easier for me to put out a max effort mountain biking than road I think.  The obstacles are so tangible...you do whatever it takes to get over them.  The 29r rolls over everything, but it's fairly difficult to maneuver around hairpin turns and some corners.  Still I love the bike & the riding.. Ahhh

After Kick, I came home and Dan & I rode the tandem into 67 mile per hour wind to Friar Tuck to pick up the maltodextrin and some DogfishHead 120 Minute IPA (!!YUM!!) and then we went grocery shopping.  We made Chinese style dumplings and noodles for dinner.  It took us forever to prepare, and the result was a fairly doughy dumpling.. but delicious.  

Last night I went to bed early and this morning woke up and did an hour recovery ride.  It was hella windy.  Hella.

I'm deciding my plans for the weekend.  Got a couple of races to choose from.  The Fat and Skinny Tire Fest in Indiana looks like a great time (thanks Jess!)  

ok g2g kthxbai <3>

It's so windy!!!!

point taken

Use high quality locks !

wednesday nite ride

Ah ...  tonight I skipped out of work early (thank's John Henry Birkenstock!) and went to the wednesday night ride.  Good turnout.  Hella windy.  We rode west toward Centerville and then cut north and back east to town.  It was a gorgeous day and nice ride.  A few miles out of town, the guys in front just started cranking and I stayed with them for a couple minutes and then my legs just quit.  I tried to get on a wheel...another wheel....a wheel.... and then got dropped.  I made it back to my house totally spent...  Ahhhh     I feel good because I made more of an effort to stay with them, and I tried to anticipate an attack rather than space out while riding.  I gave more of an all-out effort than last Wednesday and feel much better (or worse) because of it!

D.Penn & I made pizza with okara "meatballs", asparagus, spinach, onions and garlic.  Deliiiicious.  We have pizza every day now.

Tomorrow we are having a picnic!  

schmower schnap ?

Woot!  B.Chan is playing with the buttons on her PT head right now.  Soon we will be posting our numbers ...NOT  -that is TOP SECRET!

In this morning's 20 minute intervals I improved my wattage from last time's 20 minute intervals by about 10% !  It gets me motivated anyways.  Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can get a ride in outside.

We survived the Spring Sale at the shop last weekend..sigh. Friday night Dan put together Roz's Simple City; its soooo beautiful and has a super annoying DingDong bell.  Saturday I went out with the three handsome Penner brothers.  Fun weekend, but didn't get to ride much...

Good job to B.Chan last weekend!  We know who we need to watch out for ^_^   & please get better Ms. Moon !!!

PPPPPower Tap is Here.

More later....



RAR!

Collegiate Season Wrap-Up

This weekend was my last race for the U of I. Long story short, it went okay, not great, but I still had a lot of fun.

The adventure started at about 4:35pm on Friday afternoon when I received a phone call from Miz Cole informing me that Mat Brown's car had died. Fear not: As any team of industrious engineers and LAS majors would, we packed 4 people, 4 bikes and all their stuff into Nick's 2-door Ford Focus. That's right, kids. Me, Nick, Mat Brown, and Logan in a 2-door Ford Focus. It shall forever be known as le Clown Car.

The next morning I lined up for a 30 mile road race. At the past few races, I've been chompin at the bit right up to the starting line, but Saturday morning was I definitely still feeling Thursday night's "festivities" (some time I'll have to blog about my Harry Potter challaces). I moved up the pack fairly quickly, and felt like crap the first lap. Then there was a three girl break on the last mega hill that I couldn't follow and it got away. I'm so lame. The beginning of lap 2 saw 2 girls from DePaul, me and Morgan. Morgan's knee was hurting her, so she dropped (feel better, Miz Moon!!!!). I tried to get DePaul together to work to catch the break, but they weren't working so I discarded them and chased for a lap and half by myself. I could see the break waaay up the road, but just didn't have the legs to drag my butt up there. I ended up 4th. Meh.

Today was a 45 minute crit around the WI state capital building. I really wanted to throw down a V today, but that didn't happen. The same beastly WI girl who won yesterday broke away today and I was left to working with UCVC and DePaul to try to catch her. It didn't work. We lapped the rest of the field, which was fun, but still no luck. I felt like I had no gas in the tank. I waited about 3 seconds too long into the final corner to throw down a sprint and Liz from UCVC beat me by about (half?) a bike length. (Props to her-- she's looking mighty strong!). 3rd place. Meh.


Major, major thanks to CErbach, Ameena, and Karl Erbach for treating us to an awesome pasta dinner and then showing us a good time at Essenhaus. And thanks to Nick for driving. And for having a Clown Car. And thanks to Logan and Mat for racing and having a good time, and taking some rad pictures. Riding bikes is so much fun :)

Maine Coon.

Time to do some catch up on some homework. And then it's off to a conference in Atlanta this week.

hot wheels hot wheels

hi !  Sorry I've been slacking lately.  Our blog is losing it's luster... 

Since last week I've done some intervals: pyramid intervals and 2 X 20s.  On dreary disgusting Tuesday I took a ride; it was one of those days where the sky looked like it was about to crack any moment...and I didn't want to ride.  I forced myself to ride, and only began to enjoy it after I turned the corner of Lincolnshire and was home (and locked out with Nick).  Wednesday I went on the Wildcard group ride and had a great time.  Unfortunately I got dropped...I just FREAK out when we start going really fast!  I wasn't tired the whole ride--the pace was easy--and then we started picking it up.... and up.... and then everyone sprinted and I just felt like I didn't want to go faster.  See...this is so frustrating, because I think I can totally hang on, but something besides my legs is stopping me.  The guys are strong and fast, and I'm not saying that I can always keep up... but I know I'm holding back, and I think I can stay with them.  No more of that.  No more holding back.  

Today I finally rode my new wheels !  I was about to leave on a ride when Nick asked if I was going to ride my wheels.  I was like Hum..ho hum  YES !  Dan helped me glue the tires a couple of days ago and they were all set..  SO I rode out to Kickapoo and did a lap through the park up the two steep hills and then rode home.  The wheels are delightful.  DELIGHTFUL.  Amazing.  They accelerate so fast!  I noticed that they cut the wind well, and they climb fast.  The whole way back from the park I would sprint and then cruise, sprint cruise, sprint cruise...  unusual for me because I've never had much fun sprinting.  Now I get why people love it!  Ah these wheels are such a luxury...  love love love them :-)  

Sometimes when I sprint the bike lurches forward and I feel like its going away without me, like it's too fast for me to keep up...   oh oh oh I must get faster.

Tomorrow Roz comes to pick up her new Simple City 8 speed!  yay !

IT'S BACK: LIKES AND GRIPES TUESDAYS!!!

Greetings, readers. We at Fastgrrrlz admit that there's been some slackin' over the past few weeks. What can we say? Gettin swol can be quite time consuming. But now that the first real race of the season is under our belts, le Gran Tour de Universidad has been completed, and spring is in the air, it's time to get our priorities straight. That's right, ladies and gents. Likes and Gripes Tuesday is back.

(A.Miles, chime in here when you get a chance)

LIKES
1. PENNDESIGN - Despite the results of our latest poll, after many pro/con lists, cross country flights, and loaded emails, the decision has been made. I'm going to the University of Pennsylvania to get me a masters in Historic Preservation. What now, betches?

2. Aldi - Yeah, it gets a bad rap for its lack of flashy food displays and plastic bags. But Aldi stocks awesome organic soy milk, the densest bread in the world, a fine frozen fish selection, and quite the array of dried fruit, all at low low prices. Background research (completed by my mother) revealed that Aldi is in fact owned by the same company that owns Trader Joes. Interesting. And, really, who needs a plastic when you've got a messenger bag? Good job Aldi. Galdi. YESSSS!!!!!!! Love & Matchin' SoymilK!

3. The State of Oregon- it's truly lovely. I'm so jealous of A.Miles!

4. Chocolate bunnies...

GRIPES
1. Paying for PennDesign- let's just say I won't be buying a new road rig any time soon....

2. Easter Candy Hangover- I ate too many chocolate rabbits last weekend and I have a feeling I'm going to pay for it when it comes time to climb some hills this weekend at Wisconsin.

3. Tuesday's gross weather. It's April!!!!!!

AMBIVALENCES new category!
1. Pyramid Intervals- eye-bulging-makes-you-want-to-puke-hell. But they are quick and you feel relieved when they are over and you are swol-er.