Fat Friday

Nope, it's not the hottest new series on IFC, it's my life. *said with a smirk and a smile*

So Thursday mid-morning, right around my 10:30 feeding, I get this fabulous idea ... since this is basically going to be my last weekend of the "off season", let's send it out with a BANG! I am declaring tomorrow FAT FRIDAY!!

I had this genius plan to eat all of the forbidden fruits of a true athlete - I would stop at Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, go to Houlihan's for lunch and order a cheese burger and fries, and finish with pizza for dinner! On second thought, the donuts are probably enough to put the FAT in Fat Friday. Gawd, I'm smart!!

I ended up having a total of three donuts and three donut holes scattered throughout the day. I had to keep eating sugar to keep the sugar crash at bay. Come lunch time, I felt disgusting. Less fat than just ... kinda hung over. No dehydration, but certainly a headache and stomach ache. And this feeling was what compelled me to buy pretzels and raisins to hand out to the trick-or-treaters on Sunday night/Halloween.

Saturday morning: Boss Cross 3. Last cross race of the year for me because Tuesday is back to SBR! SBR!! Course wasn't as "fun" as some of the others but it was pretty. Nice little park in a residential neighborhood up north with lots of SAND!!! Sand sucks the life out of you more than any other obstacle. I would much rather do barriers down a 15% off camber muddy slope than run sand. Ahh well.

Photo: Philip Wilkerson

Only eight in the WC4 race and I was in 3rd right of the bat. My starts have been awesome -I'm always out in front! Then I played cat and mouse for 2nd with the leader's jersey/Wonder Woman. I was doing pretty well until ... I wasn't. I went down hard on a sharp turn. So hard that it put my front wheel out of true ... or the brake was stuck ... I don't know. Thankfully, the pit was not far away and Berning (teammate) was there to help me fix the problem!! Of course, by then I was down, down, down to ... I don't know what place. I only had one lap to go so I thought, "just ride it in". I must have gotten a concussion when I went down because somewhere mid-lap on the final lap I went the wrong way????

As in I was going the wrong direction???

Where am I?

It was too difficult to correct, so I pulled myself out and called it a day. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my shoe came off in the sand pit and I missed remounting my bike by about 4 inches ... all after the fall. I told you I went down HARD!

A special someone reminded me that I couldn't get too down about the results as I had already professed that I wasn't going to take racing cross seriously and I never practiced. Ha! Ha! Oh yeah, I guess that's true.

Um' what else?

Saturday night was date night with RDJr. Chili, cornbread muffins, hot apple cider, pumpkin carving and Children of the Corn (the original) and 1/2 of Amityville Horror (the remake). We had carved pumpkins a couple weeks earlier with some fun stencils but I forgot them when it really mattered (the night before Halloween) so we got creative and came up with some jolly lanterns.

Howl at the Moon

Haunted House

Goofy Guys

It's now 8:30 on Halloween night. I'm sitting in the dark in my office in the back of the house. The first of the munchkins came by at 6:30. By 7:15, I was all out of pretzels and raisins. Guess that wasn't such a bad idea after all - especially when a little Jayhawk exclaimed with glee to her parents, "You guys, she gave me pretzels!!" Score one against childhood obesity!

So close, I can almost taste it!

As in the the salty-sweat, the snotty-nose, and the chlorine smell that just doesn't wash off in the shower.

FOUR DAYS TO 2011 RACE SEASON!!!

Well, technically, it's five because I asked for Monday's off this year. (DOH!! I have to wait ONE MORE DAY???)

I logged into Training Peaks yesterday (about 40 times) - are they there yet? Are they there yet? My workouts. Around 3 pm CST they were completely posted. Two full weeks of simple, get back to the routine, kinda stuff. Honestly, I think some of that simple, easy-no-HRM work is going to hurt more than I think it will. I even saw a comment for week #2 that says, "drills are like eating your vegetables" (or something to that effect). So true, so true.

AND ... BIG NEWS that I'm just so darned excited about it, I just can't contain myself!!! Come March, I'm heading to Tucson, AZ for a train-cation! That's training vacation, in case you aren't up on my make believe vocabulary. Best idea I've had in years! And I don't care if it takes me TWO HOURS to climb Mt. Lemmon - Imma gonna do it!!! AND LOVE IT because it will be in the mid-70s and (hopefully) sunny!!! And I don't care that I'm going to blow all of my savings on this trip or rack up a huge credit card debt because I DESERVE THIS and I didn't go anywhere for vacation (remember Stay-cation 2010?) this year ... or even last ... or the year before that.

Oh my goodness! I can almost feel my legs climbing the podium steps at that "A" race, right now. Yeah, I just said that! So? Wanna make something of it? Key word for 2011 is CONFIDENCE.

YEUH!

BLVD CUP RR

Sunday was the Boulevard Cup race and it was, once a again, the best CX race of the season! The weather was GORGEOUS, if not a little on the warm side (75-80). The course was mostly flat and fast but very twisty-turvy (I think I just made that term up) and had a couple of technical ... um, "ticks" ... as in you come screaming down a hill, left 90 turn up a 15% grade incline with a sharp right turn at the top. (Yes, I bit it there - but only once!), sand, tall barriers, etc.

This time I did the perfect amount of warm-up (only two loops or so) but I had feeling that this race was not going to be pretty on account that I was feeling sluggish still from the cold I have only 90% kicked. Whatever. I'm on the Boulevard Team and it's the Boulevard Cup so I'm here to represent no matter the outcome!

Line up was an awesome sight! Biggest womens field I have seen at a cross race! 9 in the open, probably 15 in masters, and 13 in Cat 4. It doesn't seem like a lot, but on the local level, this is huge - which speaks volumes about this race and the sport in general.

Pavement start/finish meant big gears going out. First lap I was in 3rd-4th and felt great! I was thinking to myself, "sheesh, if this is going to be the pace all day, this will be a piece of cake!" but then there was the sand pit and the false flats and my lungs filled with goo. Ultimately, I fell to 5th out of 13. You know how sometimes you have that "not so fresh feeling"? Yeah, that was me yesterday.

RDJr. raced right after me and was looking pretty good for the first lap and a half ... until his cleat lost a screw and he had to finish the race with one foot clipped in!!! Three laps with one foot!!! He still finished mid-pack with a HUGE field and that really says something!!! Way to go RDJr!! Rockstar!

So I've done three cross races this season. Two last year. Total of five. This year is WAY better than last year and I would say that it has a lot to do with my high confidence level lately. And I'm happy. Very, very happy.

After the race, I was hacking up a lung! RDJr. thought maybe I over did it and should not have raced. Awww, he's always looking out for me. :) But here's the deal, I've got two more weeks of unstructured "play time". I'll take a couple of days off to kick this cold 100% then start back with the easy stuff, and then one more cross race (Boss Cross 3).

Can you believe I'm actually counting down the days until November? I am so ready for 2011! Bring it!

Quittin' Time

Two more weeks of "off season" and I can hardly stand it!! When everyone is just ending their race season, I'm itching to start back to base training. Really. Seriously. But I think that's what happens when you end your season early ... like really early ... like at the end of July. Ha! Ha! But I needed the money and I didn't really have any BIG goals or races for August and I had a new distraction to focus on. *wink, wink*

Having all this time "off" has been good in a number of ways, but most of all, it has given me time to reflect and assess. First month was "PARTY!" Second month was, "what do I want to accomplish next year?", and third month has been, "what is it going to take, mentally, to get ready for a breakthrough year?" because it's gonna hurt - in a good way, of course.

For the first time in a long time, I am really excited about next years goals. They are just enough of a stretch to be a challenge, but also attainable with hard work, focus, and some sacrifice...

... and THE biggest sacrifice is something I have struggled with for a long time but is also something I am finally ready to give up.

I'm going to quit drinking.

Of course, I'm talking about alcohol. And when I say it like that, "quit drinking", it sounds so much worse than it really is ... today.

Without getting all "woe-is-me" and cliche, I have had a problem in the past. I have had it under control for a while, but it's time to finally get the monkey off my back for good. And I'm in a place where I feel like I can finally do it.

So for the past three months I have been working on the issues that cause me to drink and mentally preparing myself for how I will handle parties and holidays ... or Tuesdays ... and I've come up with a pretty good plan and some substitutions that I really like!! I also have the most amazing support system (RDJr. and The Aubs) who will help remind me why I am doing this.

This post is starting to sound all sad-gloom-and-doom but honestly, I am in such a good place now that I don't even think it will be all that hard and I'm really happy and excited about all of it!! For realz.

Yes, I will likely be caught with a glass of wine in hand at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and I'm not going to go all "holy-ier than thou" on people at parties and, for crying out loud, my bike team is sponsored by an AWESOME brewery (which I still promote and love all of their products!!) but, for me, right now, it seems like the right thing to do.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Cheers to 2011!!

Random Weekend Blather

Another fun-filled weekend! Where to begin? Where to begin?!

Friday night: RDJr. was up to his eyeballs in homework so I went to his place, whipped up an awesome meal of spinach, mushroom, green onion, and goat cheese quesadillas while he studied. We prepped our bikes for Saturdays ride and went to bed early.

KCOI/BLVD ladies are hot even when the temps are cold!

Saturday: Woke up at 5:30 am for Tour de BBQ! Had to be at Boulevard Brewery at 7:00 am to meet the team and ride over to the start of the charity ride in all our green glory. It was truly a site to see: 15-20 of us all in green riding to the P&L as the sun rose over the downtown skyline. It was good to catch up with the girls (and guys) from the team and the chill of the morning quickly wore off by the time we made it to the first rest stop. The ride was well organized and, really just a ton o' fun. Honestly, it's hard to stomach BBQ and beer at 9:00 am. I tried a couple of bites of burnt ends and a sandwich at Okie Joe's, but we all passed on the beer.

After the 35-mile ride, I headed home, shower, quick nap, errands run (new yoga mat, towel and tank from Lululemon) and then home to make banana bread and dinner for RDJr. and I. He came over around 7 pm and we just lounged - watching "Catch Me if You Can" on TNT, hanging out in our comfy clothes on the couch, drinking hot tea. Sounds lame when I read it, but boy did I need the recovery!

Sunday: Another early morning! Well, 7:30 am on Sunday is EARLY these days. Boss Cross 2 up in Riverside today! I raced at Noon but I wanted to be hydrated, fed, and ready to go so that I had plenty of time to pre-ride the course and warm up. I got to the race at 10 am and rode the course for a full hour - mistake #1.

The course was AWESOME! So much fun!!! Three big climbs, two sets of barriers - with one of the sets ON a hill so that you had to jump them as you were pushing your bike UP the hill, then a short little landing at the top to re-mount before you were sent screaming down the hill with a sharp turn at the bottom! Oh, and there was sand. TWO sand pits and it was deep. The first pit was so deep and long that everyone ran it, the second one ... well, let's just say that was mistake # 2.

The second sand pit was a volleyball court, and before the race my teammate, Kat, tried to show me how to ride through it - instructing me to gain a ton of speed before, then shift down right before you hit it, pick a line and STAY IN THE LINE! I failed twice during practice so I thought, "I'm just going to have to run it during the race".

Lined up and GO! I was in second right from the start and quickly caught 1st on the top of the hill with the barriers. I stayed in first for a good portion of the first (of four) laps and thought "THIS IS AWESOME!! I'M IN FIRST!!" even managed to hold it through the first sand pit ... but when we got to the second, and I'm just about ready to dismount, everyone is screaming "RIDE IT" so I did and well, it went something like this ...

Still upright ...

... and down! This photo just cracks me up! (Photo by Jon Peck)

I had trouble getting up fast enough in the sand and fell to um, I think 4th. Rode hard and made it back to 3rd place in lap 2, but then I had some mechanicals when the bike would not shift down. This has happened before on this bike - last year Ashley rode the same bike in one speed (and of course, went on to win) because she could not get it to shift. So ... essentially I blew myself up because I could not get the bike to shift. Add that to too much of a warm-up (I think) and I fell, fell, fell to what I can only guess was 6th place - out of 9.

So what did we learn?

1). PRACTICE RIDING SAND!!!
2). Take the bike to the shop for a quick adjustment
3). Shorten the warm-up time

Finished the race with a BIG smile regardless, quickly grabbed the gear and left. There was still so much to do! Went home, mowed the front yard, quick shower, quick 30 min. nap, then headed to my first Bikram yoga class taught by my high-school pal, Jessica Johnson.

WOW! It's HOT! 100+ degrees hot! Yes, yes, I knew that going into it, but I had no idea that it would be ... so hot! The poses aren't that hard - I can't do all of them but that's mainly because I'm a runner and a cyclist and my hamstrings are tighter than a tuned guitar string. It will get easier I assume, and I plan to go twice a week for the rest of the month. Well, that's the plan now anyway. I did get pretty dizzy towards the end of the 90 min. session and had to sit down in the front lobby for 5-10 minutes before going to the changing room - where I sat for 3-5 minutes more before showering. I took a bottle full of Nuun but I'm almost thinking I'm going to need a couple of salt tabs as well. I didn't cramp, but I sure did sweat!!!

Yoga was followed by dinner at my parents house and a quick game of dominos - just the three of us. We were all yawning hard during the game and got a little silly about it, but that's my family. I love them and am so blessed that they are here in town.

Next weekend won't be nearly as busy ... I think. I bought RDJr. tickets to Widespread Panic for his birthday (back in August) so we'll be doing that Friday night. There is a cross race on Sunday but I'm not sure I will be racing that one. We'll see. After this busy, busy, busy, weekend, I could use a little break. Maybe get a pedicure. Maybe spend a little extra time in the pool. Who knows?