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Tour of Tosa

This weekend brought on Halloween Cross, the Hofmann's Halloween Party, and the all important Tour of Tosa! Saturday Chris & I headed over to Washington Park to watch some CX action. The wind was stupid strong and it was flippin' cold out. Around 1pm we chickened out and headed home. I was totally frozen and in a need a of nap! The costumes were great at the CX race, but I can only imagine some of the people were equally as frozen as I was.

Saturday night was the Hofmann's Halloween party. I bailed on the dressing up part (I know, totally lame, but it was cold out!) so I got to judge costumes along with a few other slackers. It was fun...we voted for Best, Worst, and Most Creative. Lets just say the H1N1 costume won the night!

Sunday it was time for the Tour of Tosa...present by the Roommate. I knew I was in for a good time and was also looking forward to my first ever bike scavenger hunt. Chris & I teamed up with Rick, Toni, Trina, and Mike. It was good team because several people were very familiar with Tosa so we scored some big points...we also ended up in the same place with Rob Hofmann's team...so we did what anyone else would do and made a human pyramid.
Our team "The PBR Allstars" was in the top 5, thus competing in the Figure 8 of Death Relay race. The rules were simple; race on a crappy bike, your team cannot ride the same bike 2 laps in a row, you must pass the tire off to the next teammate in order to switch. I managed to get stuck on the biggest bike available...twice. It was mostly hysterical because the tire would get caught on the handle bars or the seat and there wasn't much I could do about it. We didn't win the relay...but we had a blast!Thanks Ronsta!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween...Ohio State Buckeye style of course!

Bike Love

Although my birthday was over 2 weeks ago this weekend I got my birthday present from Chris. Not only did I get the angry inch fork on my beloved singlespeed, but Chris hijacked the Trek and turned it into a 1x9. I was so excited when I saw it that I couldn't stop smiling. Heck, I'm still smiling about it. With the mass amounts of rain we received over the week I was worried I wouldn't be able to take out the new and improved Trek for a ride. Sunday morning I woke up to sunny sky's and I called up the Southern Kettles hotline and the trails were open! So I got packed up and headed out! I got in a solid 30 miles on the trails and had a blast (not to mention it was warm enough to skip all the layers and thermals...awesome). I love the 1x9 set up. So, Thanks Chris for the awesome birthday present, you rock!

Ugh

The weather has been all over the place this week. Long days at the office haven't helped either. Wednesday was aweosme, the first warm day of the month (how sad is that?). I was able to get in a run in the morning and then Christine and I hit up the road bikes for a good 1.5 hrs in the saddle. It was a great night to be riding and we were both completely over dressed! But, better to be over dressed than under dressed is my thought.

Thursday was the Race Across the Sky movie Chris & I met up with practically everyone we know from racing/riding bikes at the movie theatre. It was a good movie, although my only complaint is that the showed the Men's top 10 but never bothered to show the Womens podium finsihers...lame if you ask me. After the movie we went to get dinner (finally!) with Ronsta, Kelli, and Maciej. Although it made for a late night, it was still fun...thank goodness for coffee!!

Friday was the never ending day at the office, no biggie since it was raining nonstop since Thursday AM. I was so tired friday after my 12 hours at the office that I got in over 9 hours of sleep friday night. I woke up ready to go and making cinnamon rolls. I enduled in 4 of these babies and then got the Roommate to join me for a wonderful ride (to work off the rolls and so he could eat the rolls when we got back) and so we hit up the Oak Leaf trail for a good 40 miles of pedaling. We even ran into a few peeps on the route as well...Ronsta, and Lynn & Todd on their way to meet up with Mike Owens for a ride into the crazy west wind. The ride was good and I was glad the Roommate talked me out of my original plan to ride into the west wind. This ride was much better! Although a mtb ride would have been sweet...maybe tomorrow.

Beechwood Blaster and Rockcut

Over the weekend Chris & I headed out for a few races. First on the list was the Beechwood Blaster. I had never been to the Beechwood race before but have heard how incredible the entire race and general good times to be had there are. I was not disappointed in the least. Chris did the two lap race...decorated up his number plate in fine form too.

He headed out and was looking strong, in the lead going into the first section of singletrack. Neither one of us has been to Beechwood so the course was unknown to us both. I hung around a watched him come through a few parts of the trail and saw that he had a good hold on second place. He rolled to the finish between two of the home course Fuel Cafe racers! Awesome job Chris! I opted for the 3 lap ladies races. I had a good first lap and then started to feel some tightness in my chest. Lap 2 I went from 4th to 6th place and then had what can best be described as an asthma attach on a long climb. So I decided to just ride my bike for the rest of the race. Even though I didn't feel too awesome, I had a great time out there. The trails at Beechwood are unlike anything else and completely fun to ride. I love climbing and the singletrack there is just amazing, I'm looking forward to next year!

Here's the 4 lap men's podium...Darrin Braun taking the woolie on his first ever trip to Beechwood!

And Lori Sable taking first place for the ladies 3 lap race, followed by Abby and Claire!Beechwood was awesome though and the food spread was amazing...they even had VEGAN options...awesome! We'll be back next year for sure. With any luck it'll be warmer and then we can stay, camp, and enjoy the festivities to the fullest!

Sunday we headed down to Rockcut for their annual race. I was debating about doing the 3 lap race there, but woke up to some sore legs from all the climbing at Beechwood. So I signed up for the 2 lap race instead. I lined up with everyone and sort of wondered how the body would respond to racing another 25 miles. Off we went and I had a few issues of the start. One funny one was when Chris actually knocked me down. He didn't know it but sort of moved into my path and washed my front wheel out from under me. I recovered and pushed my pace to get ahead of the other ladies.

The course was fast and just remember pedaling as hard as I could. I cleared all the log piles, made it through the new creek crossing just fine and felt pretty strong going into my second lap. I know I slowed down a bit on this lap but still tried to keep my pace up, not knowing how far back the next women was. I didn't even know what position I was in. I heard someone say I was the first place lady, but you never know for sure.

I rode everything cleanly and even did an awesome skid into a tight turn...I was impressed with my skid, too bad no one else saw it! I rolled to the finish as the first place lady! Awesome! Congrats to Ron on his first place 3 lap finish at Rockcut! You're incredible!

The weekend rocked and my legs are smoked. Looking forward to some early morning rides this week, a great movie premier, some mtbing this weekend, and just some great times.

Hmmm...October

Not much has been going on this week with the end of WORS. Well of a lot of laziness on my part has been going on but that's about it. I figure it's okay because I have two MTB races this weekend and my legs will be nice and "fresh" for them, or they will totally crap out on me. Either will result in some fun since it involves riding my bikes.

Next week I plan to get back in the swing of training/cross training, eating properly, cooking more, getting things organized, fixing up bikes that need it, and just enjoying life.

WORS #12

The last race of the season has come and gone. I finished 10th overall out of 19 and 4th out of 10 for my age group! Over the last week I was debating about what bike to race, go Singlespeed or go for Gears. But then the decision was practically made for me....Chris built up an incredible fork for me to try out on my Singlespeed, The Angry Inch as it's been called. So, what is the Angry Inch? Well, it's a possible new fork from Manitou. What makes it so awesome? Well, it has about an inch of travel, weights in at around 2.6lbs, all of which make it a really good option for those looking to replace a rigid fork with something to take the edge off but don't really want to go with full blow suspension. Please post up any comments, questions, feedback on what you think of the Angry Inch, either here or via the Manitou site, Twitter, or Facebook.

photo: Julie aka Megatrons Mom

So I set out on Saturday to preride on the SS and try out the Angry Inch. I did my usual 2 laps for preride and felt pretty darn good. The Angry Inch was amazing. I remember going down the roots of all evil and thinking how great it felt compared to my old carbon rigid fork, how The Angry Inch floated over every bump, took corners quickly, climbed like a dream, and how after my ride my forearms weren't sore. I got back to the car, smiling, and excited to race the SS for the final WORS race of the year.

Sunday's race day came and with it some very cold weather. I dressed in several layers and spun out on the SS for my warm up. I felt really good but was also just looking to have a great time on the course for my last WORS race. Sheboygan is always a great course for racing (and riding). I headed to the start line, huddled with the other women to keep warm, got my call up and lined up with some incredible women racers. With Don's "GOOOoooo..." we were off. I was impressed with how well I kept up with the ladies at the start, I knew I wouldn't get the start prime but, if I could avoid being DFL I was in good shape. I entered the singletrack with a few of the Junior X ladies and towards the last third of the elite ladies. I worked my way up on laps 1 and 2, passing a few women each lap.

The course was amazing, and with the Angry Inch I was able to float over the bumpy roots and rocks and not feel as beat up as you can start feeling on a fully rigid bike. On lap 3 I settled into my position. I was still feeling good and was just trying to keep my pace and keep some time on the ladies behind. Lap 4 I slowed down a bit. The legs were getting tired and I was getting cold. One more time through the creek crossing and I managed to clear it, but in the process I soaked my entire left leg. Yep, icy cold water in my shoes...awesome. I was able to ignore the coldness and just kept pushing my pace. I was twisting through the singletrack and got to the last climb before the equalizer and saw Jennifer behind me. I jumped on the bike and spun like mad to the equalizer. Running up the climb, people still cheering, lots of complements on the sweet socks I was sporting, and then I hear Jennifer behind me. I made it to the top, hopped on the bike, and started pedaling. I just kept my head down and pushed it to the finish. Not looking back, just pushing my pace, and made it to the finish in 10th place overall. I was super pleased with my race and just had the best time out there with all the ladies.

photo: Christine

This year has been great, I can't wait until next season. But only one question remains...which category do I race next year? Thanks to Alterra and TwinSix for the support this year, you guys are all awesome and thanks to all the wonderful racers/fans or racing, it's been a great year!

photo: Christine

More B-Dayness

My birthday turned out pretty good. My boss got me this awesome vegan cake.

Everyone at work loved the cake. And then I brought it home and saved a few pieces for some friends and also feed some to Chris and Russell...they both enjoyed it too! After work I made dinner and then went out to Cafe Hollander for some b-day drinks with Chris.

Yum, b-day drinks:

Ack! B-Day

It's my birthday today...I'm officially old now. Okay, maybe not. But, I am officially old-ER than I was yesterday. And to celebrate the b-dayness my Roommate took em out to dinner after cross practice. We hit up Flattop Grill and I indulged myself in TWO bowls! The first bowl was bigger than that second one, and the second one I turned into lettuce wraps. Both were awesome. I heart Flattop Grill