John Bryan Fast Lap (Race 2) - DNF

It was bound to happen-- a race crash! Whoo-hoo- I'm in the club!

I was the lead off rider for my class and I hadn't been on the course 2 minutes when BAM, I'm down. I'm still not sure what happened. All I know is I was rounding a corner, then all of the sudden- I was on the ground.

When I came to my senses, I discovered that I was laying on my back, totally off the trail, with my left shin laying across a log that was bordering the trail. To add to my predicament, both feet were still clipped into the pedals and my bike was on top of me. Ouch! After struggling to get my feet un-clipped I was able to stand up. Once up, I immediately noticed that my shin was already swelling. While standing on the side of the trail watching my shin swell, I had a fleeting thought to get back on my bike and continue the race- but, I wisely decided to hobble back to the start/finish area for some ice.

While sitting at the start/finish area icing my leg (and waiting for Pops to finish) two more riders hobbled in with injuries. There was certainly some bad karma at JB last night!

Today, I'm just sore all over and my shin is bruised in the shape of the log. I've also I've got several bruises on my hip and butt and strangely enough on the inside of my leg (I think from the bike landing on me). But luckily, nothing was torn or broken - so that's good.

As my co-worker "Hopmaster Spanky J" pointed out... "Ya can't make an Omelet without cracking a few eggs". Well kids, breakfast is ready!!!

Colavita TT

My time today was 44:18. Eight seconds slower than last month! But, really, I'm not too upset about that-- Todays race was brutal!

As soon as I started- it started raining- but (luckily) the rain only lasted the first couple of miles. The real killer today was the headwind!!! Holy smokes!! All the way out we had a 10mph sustained headwind with gusts of 15-20mph. Oh my gosh! There were times when my heart-rate would be at pegged at 165 but was only managing to push 12-13mph!!! It was really hard to keep my head together when I was "busting butt" and still creeping along.

Since I've been racing against the same 4 ladies the entire series, a couple of months ago I started doing a some trend analysis with our results. (I knew that college degree would paid off!) Since I can not accurately gage my improvement from one race to another (because of different environmental factors- like todays wind), I've been looking at things like the change in the time gaps between me and the other ladies in my category. So, once the official results are posted for todays race, I'll see if I was able to reduce my time gap for this race.

Tomorrow, we'll do the 6 hours race at John Bryan... we'll see how that goes.

Bridges, ramps and trees - OH MY!

Today was intervention day....

Pops and I went out to ride the course in the direction we "think" they will use for the 6 hr race. I'm still having mental issues with the bridges and ramps. I know I can ride them- (I've rode every one out there!) but every time I approach a bridge or ramp my first instinct is to slam on breaks. I know this "problem" stems from my early mountain biking days when I attempted to ride across a bridge and ended up falling off the side and flipping over into some sticky nettles. My big mistake that day was not getting back on my bike and riding that damn bridge. Now, here I am today, fretting over obstacles that are out there to make the trail easier!

So, we worked on bridges...



ramps...






(and just to make things interesting) making 90 degree turns through tight trees.


This picture is a little deceiving. The trails comes up from the left, makes a 90 degree turn in between the trees, then goes right.

Fast Lap at John Bryan

We started the Fall Series of "Fast Laps at John Bryan" last Wednesday. This series will consist of 3 races, 3 weeks in a row. We were actually supposed to start the series a week earlier, but bad weather caused a one week delay.

I really enjoy this series. The course is great and just doing one "fast lap" doesn't take a lot of preparation or time.



At the finish, I felt a little disappointed with myself. I just "knew" I would have a "bad" time. I had felt bad from the start (I took off way too fast) and just couldn't find my rhythm. I felt squirrely and as if I was struggling the whole race.

But, once I got home and checked my times from the last series, I found that I had actually beaten all my previous times! I can't believe it!

My times so far:

Spring Series
Race 1: (did not attend)
Race 2: 39:48
Race 3: 37:28
Race 4: 36:47

Fall Series
Race 1: 36:29

Next week will be a BIG race week for us. On Wednesday, we are planning to do Race #2 of "Fast Lap". Then on Saturday, it will be the August "Colavita TT". Sunday is the "6 Hours of John Bryan" where we'll be trying something new -- competing as a team! (Boy, I sure hope he wants to ride a lot of laps.)

A busy weekend

What a weekend! Busy, busy, busy!!!

Friday night we took the dogs out to SugarCreek Park. This park is part of the 5 Rivers Metropark system and the dogs just love it. One of the trails actually goes down to the river and you can cross the water by stepping on large rocks. Milo can't wait to just leap right into the river and splash around. Millee will get into the water, but she usually just tippy-toes around and will not get too wet.

Saturday morning I rode my single speed from Xenia to Yellow Spring with my friend from work. This was our 3rd ride together and was quite enjoyable. She's just getting into riding so we take it easy and enjoy the day.

Saturday afternoon I stopped into my new favorite store - "Home2Home". This is a local consignment store for home decor. It located in what looks to be an old grocery store building and is full of unique and unusual items. They have everything from furniture to nick-nacks, and every day they get new stuff. I have found some really cool stuff there (at great prices). Today I bought a "Cafe de la Tour" clock (for $12.99) and a set of metal "big wheel" bicycles to hang on the wall (also $12.99).

After the home store, I stopped by Auto Zone. My "check engine" light has been on for some time and Auto Zone was advertising they could "read" my warning light code. I had taken my car to the dealer a while back and they told me my check engine light was caused by a misfire. The dealer then recommend that they could change my spark plugs and wires for some stupid price (I can't remember how much they said, but it was high)!!! Auto Zone confirmed that the code was caused by a misfire and they too recommended spark plugs and wires. But, they said it would only cost about $40 and they were easy enough to change myself. They were right, I had them all changed out in about 30 minutes- piece of cake!

Sunday morning Pops was riding with a guy he had met on the bike trail so I jumped on the single speed and the rode hills in my neighborhood. I rode for about an hour and did my "hill circuit" 4 times. It was a great workout!

Sunday afternoon we took to the river again, but this time we rented kayaks. We paddled for almost 4 hours and ended up going 9 miles! It was fun, but we both liked the canoe better. It was just more comfortable,easier to maneuver, and easier to get in and out of.

I love weekends that are packed with activities! If I stay home, I feel like I just wasted it away. To quote Bon Jovi- "Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead"

And now for something completely different!

"The Boy" and "The Girl" are visiting this week, so we decided try something different-- renting canoes and paddling down the Little Miami River. We had two options of distances to canoe, either 2 miles or 8 miles. After some discussion, we decided to do the 8 mile.





The river was a very low, but still lovely. Our canoes actually scraped the bottom numerous times and we got stuck a couple of times.







Great fun, lots of sites, and we even passed Hooterville USA...



Some folks "just ain't right"!