1 pound down 19 to go

Wow, I guess eating ice cream every day really does add the pounds. Combined with not working out...oh well, got to focus on the future, not the past. I'm slowly getting back on track - three trainer rides and two runs in 7 days is pretty good, especially since I didn't run at all in 2008 and only biked 7 times (yup, that's right - I could almost count the rides on one hand). I have to say I was a bit jealous at Gloucester watching the cross races and wished I was racing too - I made so much progress last season only to end up fat and out of shape this season. I'm planning to tele ski this weekend and get back on the bike next week. Yeay! I can already see the pounds melting away :)

High School Reunion

Wow. It's been 20 years and the high school reunion was really eye opening! It made me realize how lucky I am and how very grateful I should be. It's so easy to take one's life for granted and it's amazing how one night can make one realize how fortunate one is. It was really shocking to see my married classmates hooking up with my other married classmates - soooo weird and so horrifying that it has prompted me to blog. Cathy, get ready, I'm back on the blogging track :) It was really sad to see actually and made me realize how lucky I am that (a) I'm super smart and have an amazing job and (b) I never married a loser guy and instead met a super amazing guy that totally loves me and would do anything for me (except cheat of course!!) and (c) never got sucked into loserville like some of my fellow classmates. All that being said, it was so much fun to see the normal people that I haven't seen in years - there were some really great people in my class and it was nice to see them again. The after party was eyeopening to say the least however.

In addition, after biking, oh a total of 7 times in 2008 - yes that's right - 7 times - I've recommitted to 2009 racing and after getting on the trainer 3 times this week will be back in full force in 2009. The puppies sidelined me this year, but with the help of my Colorado friends I will be racing in '09 - and probably for NEBC if they'll have me. Count me in for April and May in New England!! If I actually train this winter as I hope to, I'm planning to hang on strong for the hills! The cigarette tonight probably wasn't a good idea, but it solidified my resolve to get my fat ass back into shape and pull it together for next year somehow. It would be great to race Fitchburg again and actually hang with the pack this time. We'll see - that may be a bit too ambitious for me with my bi-coastal living arrangement.

So long for now. And a thank you to my parents for raising me the right way!

Work, Work, Work

Seems like all I've been doing lately is working! I need some time off to calculate my training time for 2007 (which was far below 2006) and to start getting back into shape! I haven't had any time (or I guess haven't prioritized time) to run, swim or bike the past two months - very disappointing. But I'm getting back on track and am adding more skate skiing and teleing to the mix - I haven't been getting out on the snow that much either!


Went on a two day trip to the Polar Star Inn near Vail - lots of hiking/skinning and a tiny bit of powdery back country teleing. It was worth it - kind of. Here's a pic of our group sans C.D. who had to leave early.

We also had a fabulous day at A-Basin skiing the newly opened Montezuma Bowl - lovely!

Cross Results

Found a cool cross results site:

http://crossresults.com/?n=racers&sn=r&rID=787

If only I can mush myself into the top 25% next year. If only.

Pondering the next mogul

Another shot from day one of teleing - pondering the next mogul - if only I had the coordination, skill and muscles of Kyle Kershner to just fly through the moguls, light as a feather, like water running through creek stones. Soon. Soon. By April that will be me :)

First Day of Skiing

Here's a shot from my first day of tele skiing this year at Keystone. It was an amazing day - lots of powder and too little muscle. Looking forward to many more days like this!

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

I feel like I just walked through the secret wardrobe door into winter. I landed in Denver on Tues night and was greeted with a winter wonderland upon arriving in Summit County. Since then it has snowed, snowed and snowed. Literally - every day, all day from Weds through Sunday. Today is the first clear day with blue skies and mounds of powdery snow. Tele'ing has been great - but my back is now killing me so it's time for some R&R and some M&A deals, three to be exact. When it rains it pours - I am now officially swamped with work - which is a good thing, especially since I can do it all from my yummy home office facing the snowy forrest.

CX Season Wrap Up

Well, after Putney the season only went downhill.

I chose to sleep in over getting to Lowell early enough to actually warm up and pre ride the course. Despite that, I had a great start - in 4th - but promptly lost 10 places between the brutal run up and twisty turny section. The race only went down hill from there (due to the uphill part!).

The following week was Palmer - in 20 degree weather. I couldn't warm up properly and only had time to pre-ride a short section of the course. I did terrible - worst race of the year. A good start, but went so far backwards each lap it was embarassing (as was me trying to get up the horse jump - so sad).

All that being said, I still finished both races in a decent place for me, but really should have done better - last year I improved with each race. My friend Carol really put it in perspective for me at Gloucester when, me being disappointed with my mid pack finish, she asked me how I had done last year - that was when I remembered that I came in second to last both days. I also have to remember that I've been lifting weights 3x a week to get stronger for next year - and that this is probably impacting my results (along with the lack of warm up).

So, CX season is now over and it's time to ski! Off to Colorado for some powder and tele'ing in the trees.

Putney

I got the hole shot and led the entire first lap. I never thought that would ever happen, but it finally did. Despite the fact that I hadn't been on the bike for two weeks and couldn't clip in at the start or after the first set of barriers. Wow. I'm finally improving.

Tommorrow is Shedd Park in Lowell - a traditionally bad race for me due to the ridiculous hill that I can't bike or run up. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully all the weight training will pay off.

My New Kitty

I finally have a pet! Here are some pics of my new cutie, Willow:

4th of July

4th of July was all about strawberry picking. I picked 33 pounds in 2 1/2 hours.

Fitchburg

It's been a couple of weeks since Fitchburg and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Given that this is my first season of road racing, I'm sure some people probably thought I was crazy to do Fitchburg, especially since I'm a cat 4 and the race is a 3/4 race. Seeing as I get dropped on the first hill of every cat 4 race, it was sure to happen in a 3/4 race. But I didnt' get cut & finished! I was 49 out of 57 starters and 49 finishers - so I wasn't really last - just last out of those people who finished. Pretty good for my first stage race. Special thanks to Bill and to Scott for giving me great advice on what to expect and how to race each race - all the tips were great! Thanks to Sol, Sean, Keith and George for being so supportive, Darcy and Hannah for cheering me on, and Julie for feeding me a bottle and finding the one I tossed!

Quick summary of lessons learned:

1. Warming up on the trainer before the race works. Wish I had known that before the time trial and before the circuit race - maybe my legs wouldn't have felt like lead weights and might have actually functioned.
2. Having to drive back and forth to Boston each day is a real drag - especially when you're in a car with broken A/C. Best to stay in Fitchburg and lounge by the pool after racing.
3. Stay in the front. Let me repeat that, stay in the front. Getting to the front is not really a problem for me. It's managing to stay there. This is especially important in the crit and the circuit race.
4. Stay away from the sketchy girls. Hopefully I'm not one of them, but there are really a lot of sketchy girls in the pack - either they're aggressive but lack bike handling or they just lack bike handling. I'm not sure why people slam on their brakes in the pack for no apparent reason, spin really fast then coast only to spin really fast and then coast over and over again, or try to squeeze into spots too small for them causing other people who are already overlapping someone else's wheel to come close to crashing much too close to me.
5. Fellow biker friends are super! I was so, so lucky that I ran into Julie Lockhart and she offered (ok insisted) to take a bottle for me - she was so right that I would need it & was so nice to offer to help me out! I was also so, so lucky to have Darcy and Hannah to cheer for me and give me pointers - they were both too awesome for words.
6. Going back to work on Thursday and Friday after racing was stupid. Especially since I ended up working until 7:30 pm both days, doing conference calls in the car on the way back while trying to stuff food and water down my throat. Not to mention getting up each day at 5 am to crank out work for an hour or so before leaving for the race. Everyone else was warming up to their iPod, while I warmed up my thumbs with my Blackberry. Next year I'll take both days off and throw my blackberry into a river so no one can reach me.
7. Working until 9 pm Mon, Tues and Weds - and not really eating anything for lunch or dinner was probably not a good way to prep for 4 days of racing.

Two Gaps - Piece of Cake

So this weekend was my team's epic 6 gap ride - ain't no way I was riding 6 gaps or 130 miles given my lack of training to date. So, I did my own two gap version with Bradley. We started out in Pittsfield, biked over Brandon, past Lake Dunmore, and over Middlebury back to Pittsfield. It was awesome! Brandon was a piece of cake compared to East Mountain Road. Middlebury wasn't bad at all either - there were only two spots where I dropped down to an epic 3.8 mph, but cranked on through. Overall, it seemed much easier this year despite my 12/27 than it did last year when we biked Middlebury, Appalacian in my triple - granted App is much harder, but still. I was pretty much done once we arrived back in Pittsfield after 67.2 miles at a 15.8 mph pace (again, a great pace for me for the gaps, although I did draft off of Bradley the entire way back, and for most of the other flat parts of the ride - so amazing to draft!). Again, we faced ridiculously brutal headwinds on the way back on 100. I think I would have been much stronger at the end had I adopted a better eating strategy - OJ for breakfast, 4 cliff blocks at the top of Brandon, two cliff gels on the way to Middlebury - probably not enough fuel. I made up for it with a turkey club and B&J Coffee Heath Bar Crunch at the Pittsfield Country Store. So, next up three gaps in July. I'd like to do Middlebury, App, Rochester.

Oh, that's right, how'd the team do on the 6-gapper? Almost all of them did all 6 gaps - crazy! Even Todd managed to crank it out, asserting that we need to do it again in the fall once he's got his fitness back. Amanda said she'd never seen anything like Todd coming up Middlebury gap - bike creaking, gears churning, body weaving, sweat dripping, guard rail crashing - so amazingly awesome that he did it! When I mentioned doing it again this fall to Sol, he laughed and said it would take a lot of convincing to get him to do that ride again - that from the die hard, hills make you stronger, bike crazy, single speed mountain biking, pain junkie. Hmm, I don't think I'll be riding Lincoln any time soon. Maybe next year.

Longest Ride of the Season

Well, it's hard to believe that I did my longest ride of the season last saturday, and it was only 70 miles. So much for training hard early in the season to be strong for Fitchburg.

All in all, last weekend was the best training weekend so far. Did a nice hill climb on Friday - climbing up East Mountain Road in Killington to Killington Peak and then back down the access road and up Killington Pass. It was hard at points (my cadence was probably at 20 for too much of the ride), but once we got to Killington, my thoughts were: gee, that wasn't that bad.

On Saturday, it was a leisurly ride from Pittsfield to the Warren Country Store, where we promptly pigged out on all the awesome food there. The way back is fairly flat to downhill, but there was a fierce headwind (I think there are only headwinds in VT) and I managed to TT with Jamie from Rochester back to Pittsfield - dying out on the slight hill right before Pittsfield (damn hills, need to work on those still!). So awesome to draft behind someone going fast - so much easier than going fast alone.

Sunday was my team's mountain bike race out in Dalton, MA. I was registered to race beginner, but didn't really plan to race. I'm really glad I did! Sol and Jamie convinced me to do it, and the course was not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be last year (of course they did eliminate one crazy hill). I expected the rocky, rooty, gnarly trails of the Fells, Lynn Woods, Hinesburg State Forest, but it was not at all like that! I managed to bike over ALL of the bridges, save two (one had two planks and the other came up after I had broken my chain). I never bike over the bridges - and there was one with big mud puddles on either side that made it look impossible - good thing I had some people to follow - helped me realize what was bikable and what was not. I broke my chain at around mile 5 and had to walk out the last 3 and only finished 30 minutes after the leader in my age category - all in all, an incredibly successful race for me. I did awesome on the uphills - managed to pass most of the girls, but then got crushed in the technical and downhill sections (still can't make left turns). So, I may actually consider doing another mountain bike race. I was really surprised that the other girls weren't all that fast - I'm so used to riding with Sol, Jamie, Nicole, Bradley and all the other super fast people that can bike over anything - I get so discouraged. Now I'm encouraged and am looking forward to a weekend of biking up at East Burke on the finely groomed Kingdom Trails.

Race #3

Lake Auburn was a fun race - same story as the others, but I think I'm actually learning with each race. This time there were two hills on the course - a steep one right off the bat and another right before the finish with a slight uphill the rest of the way to the finish. Goal was not to get dropped on the first hill - acheived! The pack was filled with sketchy riders, so it was challenging to maneuver and I felt myself becoming sketchy around them. One girl was constantly over the yellow line. Next time I need to maintain my spot nearer to the front - once again I got dropped on the second hill b/c I was at the back and just couldn't catch back up to the pack - almost caught them after the finish at the first steep hill, but got to lactic-y and couldn't make it up the hill fast enough. Results aren't posted yet, but I'm hoping I finished less than 10 minutes behind the pack. Next up: Balloon Festival Classic (tentative) and Fitchburg Longjso. Fitchburg may be biting off more than I can chew, but I don't care. The only way to improve is to keep training and keep racing. I just hope I can make it up Mount Wachusett without walking...

WWMS Training Weekend

Last weekend was our annual WWMS tri team training weekend up at Newfound Lake, NH. It was raining and 45 degrees (ok, maybe 50) the entire weekend. Despite the rain it was a blast! There are lots of new members this year and many of them braved the miserable weather to come up, especially brave since our rooms were unheated.

Sunny and Julie did a fabulous job organizing lots of activities including smores night in front of an awesome old stone fireplace at the camp. Many people braved the weather and swam in the heated outdoor pool - there was absolutely no way I was doing this, even though I desperately need to start swimming again since my first race is in July and I haven't swum a lap since December 4th.

The food was actually really good and we all ate a ton. We also got the chance to try out our new team bike kits at dinner - which look really cool thanks to Jamie for his great designs.

Hopefully we can organize another training camp weekend before Timberman and get nice sunny weather, but it seems like me + triathlon = rain - every race I did last year save one was all out rain or light rain turning to mist. Maybe I'll have better luck this year!

Race schedule so far is as follows (theme this year is Massachusetts!):

7/15 Lowell Mill City Olympic
8/5 Greenfield Olympic
8/26 Cranberry Country Olympic
9/9 Hopkinton Olympic (tentative)

Lowell and Greenfield will both be river swims - which will be interesting to say the least. Not sure which is worse - river or ocean swim. But at least there are no sharks in the river - just water snakes. Not sure which is worse, sharks or river snakes.

Race Report

Ok - two races down - and still can't climb hills. Need to work on climbing, plus sprinting, plus endurance, plus... ok, just everything.

Sterling: Sterling was a great first race to do - a 3 lapper with a short but steeper than it looks hill. I was psyched to stay with the pack through the first lap, but didn't realize we were coming up on the steep hill, was at the back of the pack and promptly got dropped. Despite that, the pack remained within sight for 1/2 of the second lap, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch back on. So, for lap 3 I hooked up with Cathy, Julie and Stephanie from NEBC and finished strong, well actually weak - too little training and too much lactic acid made for a sad site of me struggling in my 12/27 to make it up the steep hill to the finish. Oh well, 23/26 was a good first start. Forgot the sunscreen and got sunburned too - hmm, maybe the sunburn caused me to struggle up the hill...

Mount Sunapee: Cold and rainy. Normally I would be mopey and not want to do the race, but I was actually psyched to race. Looking forward to seeing my NEBC friends and to doing better than at Sterling. Mission accomplished! I still got dropped on the first hill, but I had much better pack placement and managed to bike the 2nd half of the race by myself, but finished ahead of the girls I finished Sterling with. Thoughts during this race were: my shoes are too loose, need to tighten them; my toes are cold; ok, I can't feel my toes; why did I switch from my triple?; are my toes numb?; why did I switch from the triple?; ok, here come the pro men, there aren't that many of them, I wonder why, oh that's right it's raining and 45; my toes really are numb; ok, where is the next turn, am I on the right road?; ok, there's the rotary; my toes!!!; where do I go now?; there's Darcy cheering us on!; down shift, no more gears, sigh, why don't they make a 12/29?; finish line! 13/18

Next up, Lake Auburn and Great Falls.

Pond Skimming

Well, it's been a few weeks, ok over a month, but here are some pics from the Annual Killington Pond Skimming:

Take off!

Getting Ready

A Good Skim

Last Day of Ski Patrol (yeay!):

Me & Lisa soaking up the sun

Check out all the snow and it's 4/22!! Even Lower Ovation looks ski-able.

I did it!

Yup, I am officially an NSP Senior Ski Patroller - finished off my last elective (Avalance I) in February and got the official pin. I guess this means that my days of volunteer patrolling aren't over yet. After this winter of flying to Colorado to see Sol and doing 21 days of patrolling, I'm exhausted and psyched for the season to be over. Although I wish I could have one more fabulous powder day. There's always next year.

Bike Racing

Day 2 of the NEBC bike clinic ended with a fun game of gladiator - biking in a circle trying to push other bikers out of the circle - it was a blast! I'm so much more comfortable touching wheels and bumping into people than I ever thought I would be - I guess I really have come a long way over the past two seasons. Not long ago I was descending Bear Mountain Road at Killington, riding the brakes the entire way down - smokin'! Now I just need to get into shape for Fitchburg - after slacking for the past three months, not sure if I'll make the cut, but I hope so, just so I can at least finish it.