Ike

I guess it's that time of year when you look back at the year that has passed and reflect. I'm not much into reflection. I would rather just get on with it. However, this was a bittersweet year and one I'll remember. I lost one of the best friends a girl could ever have.

I still find myself spontaneously crying at times. Only last week I threw out his stuffies. It wasn't an easy task. The man loved his toys. Ike's bed is still in the bedroom and I'm not sure when I'll have the heart to throw it out. Ike came to me when I first became sick and I was having a hard time dealing with the fact of living with a chronic disease for the rest of my life. I credit him with keeping me on track and for my not giving up. Even when I didn't think I could move and I felt horrible I always made sure he had his walks and always made sure he got his swims in. He was 24/7 therapy.

Even up until his very last day he knew when I was not feeling well and wouldn't leave my side. It's still really strange not having him around when I hurt and am sick. I've relied on his comfort for a long time. He kept me in line and made me laugh every day. For that I am grateful.


He went everywhere with me. Road trips, vacations, bike shops, coffee shops, parties, races, rides...I even used to sneak him into the lab at NYU at night so I didn't have to leave him at home alone. Rarely did I even drive to the store without taking him for a ride. I could take him anywhere. He's been more places than most people.

He was a dear friend and a big part of my life. I'm so happy I had such a great friend for almost 14 years. I only hope he enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed his.

Festivus for the Rest of Us

There was a stop on our 10 hour trek home for some last minute gifts. Hit the usual bad weather around Cumberland, MD and rolled into Athens around midnight.

I am my father's daughter and cannot pass a Cabela's

A little bummed we couldn't ride at Lake Hope ('Mini-Mohican') on Saturday. It was extremely muddy there. We're spoiled up here because it's rock based and we can still ride somewhere even when it's been rainy. It's clay based there and it's not pretty nor fun. It was for the best anyway. I went a little crazy the week before Christmas and some easy rides on the bike path were exactly what I had been missing. Except for doing laps on the island section of Upper Greenwood Lake, we don't have any flat areas by us to do a nice easy spin.Yes, I do understand there is such a thing as a trainer, but I will not do it until I absolutely have to. 3 feet of snow and 0 degrees sounds about right.

Mom and her pie

It was nice to see everyone. As usual Christmas was a marathon event. It takes some endurance to make it through. Christmas Eve at my dad's and Christmas day at my mom's. Made a Lego jet, ate lots, rode some, looked at bridesmaid dresses, played with horses, saw the cousins, etc. Got some sweet new Carhart stuff, 75 mini tubes of toothpaste, 2 dozen toothbrushes, dental floss and Ibuprofen. I think I'm set as far as dental hygiene is concerned. Oh, and some fleece purple pjs. The picture does not do them justice. As Anonymous said: "So multi-functional, you can use them to mop your floor, or if you piss yourself, they will soak up all the urine and your skin will stay dry."

Lookin HOT

Actually, had them on last night and despite the appearance they may be my new favorite thing. Like wearing cozy, soft bath robe. Haven't tested the pissing theory yet. That will come soon enough. I just have to be sure not to walk outside so the neighbors can see me. Luckily, we don't have many neighbors.

Happy Feet

I had to post this picture so I remember it. Knickers and shoes with no shoe covers on December 22nd at Waway. Probably jinxing myself and there will be a foot of snow when we get back from Ohio. Also, a balding Geax Saguaro is downright silly in the rear on slippery roots, rocks and leaves. At one point I was standing and climbing and slipped out so hard that my head hit the handlebars. Good stuff.

Now for my unsolicited product review of the year. Peanut butter Gu is out. I love peanut butter. I was hesitant about this one. Tried it today for the first time and it's pretty tasty. Just have to get past the weird texture and that it has the consistency of epoxy. I believe if you were to crack a fancy plastic bike on a ride this product could be used as Bondo. And it tastes good, too.

Off to the Buckeye state tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone!

Crunch Time

For now I'm just trying to get to the other side of Christmas. Once that's done I'll feel a lot better. My work days have been spent mostly filled with typical HR nonsense: enrollment meetings and talking managers through issues that arose after holiday parties where employees were over-served and played grab-ass. Let 2012 be here already.

Finally found the illusive Legos I was searching for. Some shopping left to do. A treat or dish to be made for tomorrow's work potluck. Thank goodness it's not another cookie swap year. The 10 dozen homemade brownies with peppermint icing and crushed candy canes about killed me last year. Not to mention the icing remnants still to be found in odd places around the house. Ike was wearing icing for about a week after that.

We're off to Ohio Friday, bikes and all. Hopefully, it will get colder there this week. It's been so warm and rainy there that I'm told it's muddy as all hell.

I may just finish up the shopping on the drive home. Cabella's for everyone.

There's Always a First Time

I would like to preface this post by saying that the holiday season makes me a crazy person. I don't like the holidays. I REALLY don't like the holidays. Add a full moon and you get, well, it's a recipe for a woman on the edge that's what it is. I'll just start with that.

Sums up the day at Blue

Saturday, Jim, Mike and I went to ride at Blue Mountain. Nothing crazy, just a leisurely paced, fun ride. Something snapped in me in the first 10 minutes. Nothing was going right. I was mad at my body, my finger was stuck to my GD glove, my suspension felt awful, I felt like I was dragging a sled, and the trails at Blue sucked. We got to a techy section that I remembered being able to ride and I freaked out. Grabbed my bike and attempted to launch it. I wanted to throw it into the creek. However, a branch caught the rear wheel and it only went about a foot. I couldn't even throw my bike right. I think that pissed me off even more. Jim and Mike watched, mouths gaping open in horror and disbelief. They had no words. I've had thoughts of throwing my bike before but I've never actually done it. I've kicked the wheel in protest after a crash, but this was the first official toss and I'm not proud of it.

Crispy Hoeferlin Trail

Sunday, I decided to isolate myself from the rest of the world and go out by myself, just in case that crazy person came back. Waway was a ghost town. Usually, I will see signs of life on certain trails. No one. I was the first to break through the frozen puddles. It was frozen and perfect. I felt like I had the park to myself.

Iron Mountain is not really much fun to climb after all the water damage

Everyone always asks about the elevation gain at Waway and they think there's not that much climbing. On paper, yes. However, when you are climbing over loose baby heads, root packs and up technical switch backs it makes it seem like a lot more climbing. It's full body climbing. None of the climbs are smooth and groomed.

The reward for not throwing my bike

No bike was harmed on Sunday. I guess I would call it a success.

I give you...

The finger. No. Not that finger. This finger...

I've been having some issues with this guy lately. I smashed into a tree over a month ago on a ride. Nothing new there. I thought I had a pricker or something in it because it had this weird bulge at the top and I actually squeezed bloody yuck out of it. It has been discolored at the joint and there's a raised purple blue bump. Last night I was talking to Mike about it and after I mentioned it still hurts pretty bad, he pointed out that it is crooked and there is a bump on the side as well. Perfect. I haven't really paid much attention to it because my hands hurt frequently and my joints and that pain is much more uncomfortable than this. This is just a nuisance. It has been really achy lately and I've noticed at yoga I'm having trouble straightening it out for planks and down dogs and such. I realized that I can't straighten it without pain. So I went to get an x-ray, mostly to make sure there was nothing in it...pricker, wood, metal, plastic...sounds crazy but for those of you who have raised me, lived with me or those that know me well you understand that none of those things are out of the question. I do weird shit.

Got an x-ray. It's broken and has been for a while. Looks like it's tried to heal and now has started to heal in a curved position. Awesome. The doctor suggested I go to a specialist because he thinks it may need to be re-broken and re-set. Not sure if the splint will do anything now. Hello. No way. I'll see how this splint thing works out. I've already had it off a few times at work today because I'm a chronic hand washer at work. I'm going to try to keep it on. It does hurt quite a bit now that's it's forced to be straight in the splint. Already putting together my 'riding' splint for the weekend...

popcorn dreams

There's really not much to report. I've been pretty boring. Leaving the house around 7ish all last week and not returning home until 8ish on most nights. Not much fun. Not much time for much else. Flare-up last week. Mouth sores and the whole thing. Not sure if it was work or the previous week on the bike. Probably a little of both. Saturday, I tried to ride but it didn't work out. It felt like my appendages were going to rip off at the elbows, knees and ankles and I was weak as all hell. I started with Mike and Gerry from our house and ended up circling the lake home. I actually took pain killers on Saturday. I don't do that very often because they make me feel so horrible a few hours in and the day after. I have quite the collection (Percocet, Oxy, Vicodin, Ultracet). It's a 'hillbilly heroine' jackpot in my cupboard. I was miserable and had to cave.

A day and night of in between asleep and awake and some really screwed up dreams (Mick Jagger and Orville Redenbocker were my next door neighbors who rescued parrots and hamsters and ran the Utopia deli. Mick was excited for the bear hunt. Orville liked to give me free popcorn. Mmmm.) and I awoke Sunday with a hangover and disappointed there was no popcorn. I rode to Waway for a ride by myself. Didn't want to commit to anything more in case I felt awful. Well, I did feel awful. Just a drug induced awful. It's like a hangover but without the fun.

I worked some things out on the ride over (mentally and physically). I stopped for some dry heaving and a reexamination of my plans for the day. I finally made it to the park and started to feel better. I ran into some freeriders and rode with them for a while. They always put things into perspective for me. I realize what a wuss I am most of the time.

Hunting season started to day. Bear and deer. That puts a damper on the local woods. Not ready to give them up quite yet. Snow will take them away soon enough and I will be under 40 lbs. of clothing on the road. Boo.

Turkey Daze

I started off the morning planning on making it to the boat launch for the annual Thanksgiving Waway ride. However, I had wardrobe malfunctions of sorts and was missing two right winter gloves and I had done a nice job of inside-outing the liner in the one complete pair I could find. This took sometime to correct and a few tantrums were had in the process. After shoving a wooden spoon and working a screw driver into the fingers I finally was able to wear gloves without having to cut off a finger or two and get out the door. Because I was late I rode in the back of the park in hopes to run into a ride and decided whatever group I ran into I would ride with. I was still feeling the 6 hour race and was hoping to run into a nice group with a leisurely pace. After an hour I found life on Rockadendrum. Guess which group I ran into? Mike's group. Happy Thanksgiving. They stopped to regroup but it wasn't the leisurely pace my legs and I had hoped for. I hung in and it was still a good time.

So it has become a tradition of ours that we go to Boston Market on Thanksgiving and pick up a spread and bring it home. It's not for a lack of places to go. We do get invited to various Thanksgivings. We've just made the decision that if we are going to deal with any Turkey Day shenanigans and family craziness it will be our own. Plus, I think the last Thanksgiving I crashed was a vegan Thanksgiving and I'm still having nightmares about tofurkey and some sort of odd wild rice/tofu/seaweed side-dish concoction. Just thinking about it still gives me the chills.

It has also become tradition that while I am waiting to pick-up the food at one end of Boston Market Mike goes to the register and buys a brownie platter which he consumes on the ride home...

After picking up the food we decided to stash the food in the fridge and go back out and enjoy the day. My legs and hands wanted nothing to do with the bike again so I decided to trail run at Jungle while Mike worked off a few brownies on the bike. It was so beautiful out and Jungle is a great place to trail run.

Saturday was a Skyline Drive/Ringwood day and it hurt me. It's been a while since I've been in there. Technically I was fine. I had just forgotten how demanding the terrain is if you want to keep moving forward and not be off and walking. That was a beat down. I pulled over to throw up at one point while Gerry and Mike watched. Fun times. Not sure if I was cooked or sick from my pumpkin pie eating clinic that I had been running the last couple of days. I'm sure a little of both.

On Sunday, I pedaled for way too many hours. I started by myself in the morning and then part of my day was spent busting ass and criss- crossing the park to find George and Rossi. I got in a short ride with them. When I hit the road to spin home my legs and body gave me a big "F You". I could hardly turn a pedal. The wind kicked up around the lake at one point and I wanted to pull over and have Mike come get me. I could see my road. I just couldn't get there. I left my bike outside. Showered. Passed out on the couch. So much for my big day of running errands and doing things around the house. Definitely overdid it all week. Hoping my body doesn't punish me for the week. I have to take it easy this week and let my body rest or I could be in for a major flare-up. Tis the season.

The Birthday Weekend

Castner and I left my driveway to head for the Something Wicked 6 hours of Cathedral Pines race on Long Island at 5:30 am. The Garmin's ETA to Cathedral Pines was 7:34. He kept looking at the Garmin. There was some sort of adversarial relationship there that I was just becoming privy to. It was a game. He wasn't checking where the hell he was going he was trying to beat the Garmin. Sweet Lord. I was riding with a madman. By the time we had gotten to the GWB the ETA was 7:22 am. We pulled into the CP6 at 7:00 am. No joke. Now I know why everyone says that you'll "Kiss the ground" when you get out of Castner's truck. Not a word of a lie.

So I lived through the terror that I call Castner's driving and feel the emotional scarring is negligible (I've since gone dead inside) and I came home with a win in the Women's SS. It was 70 miles of tight, twisty singletrack. The first two laps I actually felt dizzy and like I had motion sickness because of all the turns. After that I just tried to stay in a rhythm and not run into any trees. Those suckers were everywhere. I think I wore holes in the shoulders of my jersey. The first lap and the last lap were the most frustrating because of the traffic. All of the others in between went pretty smoothly. Well, except for the one where I ran into a tree face first, the one where I caught my handle bar and and did a 90 degree turn around the tree and the one where I crashed on a nothing, smidge of a log like a spaz. Besides that, smooth sailing. It was a relief to have a good day after feeling so shitty the week beforehand.

My favorite trail at Waway

For my birthday I had a plan. That plan was to sleep in and do absolutely nothing. The body really wasn't into letting me sleep in. It wanted to punish me for what I had done to it on Saturday. After popping one too many NSAIDs I mustered up the strength to go on an easy ride. It was too nice of a day to waste. Mike and I headed to Waway. I didn't think I felt that bad until we started to climb up Cherry Ridge REALLY easy and I felt like hot death. I at least made it through some of my favorite pieces of singletrack before I threw in the towel and we spun home.

Just recently they opened up a Fetch in Warwick. Had planned on going there for dinner. However, all I could think about was a meatball parm from a local pizza joint. A meatball parm and a Pepperidge Farm cake ended up being the birthday meal of choice. I'm a cheap date, what can I say?

Not Funny

It's A Go

Off to Cathedral Pines tomorrow. Not sure how I feel. Hoping it will come together tomorrow so I can put in the 6-7 hours. We'll see. It'll be a new venue for me so that makes me very happy.

Riding with Castner so rumor has it I will need to take a few Xanax for the ride. Rumor also has it he eats thin crust pizza for breakfast and eats an Italian sub during the race for fuel. God help me...

This Is Not My Bike

With me having broken, busted, used and abused things on a few different bikes I was down to only my carbon ss. I'm now down to no bike. I have frames that I can resurrect and ride. Just a matter of getting the components together. Still a pain in the ass. Saturday, I went to pick up a wheel at the shop and decided to ride at Stewart. My fork felt extra squishy off the car. I put air in it. I was riding with my friend Dave and we made it halfway up Scoffield and it wasn't holding air. Came back tried again. Stood on it and it wasn't holding. I thought it was acting up last weekend at Jungle. I just brushed it off attributed it to my poor 29er handling there and the big gear. This still was 90% of the problem but I do feel a little better.

Took the bike to the shop. Ready to call it a day and go home and go for a trail run. George was nice enough to offer his geared bike. I said no at first. The handlebars are a little funky for me so I was certain I would injure myself in some way. Also, the way I've been riding lately I also felt like there was a good chance I would bend something, snap something or break something off. I finally caved and took it out. Much obliged to be able to get a workout in. Even happier that I got it muddy and didn't have to give it a bath. I offered. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. As for the handlebars, all I'm going to say is that those things make the bike twitchy as hell. Thought I was going down in a few turns but I remained upright. I'll stick to the flat bars.

Last weekend I felt strong. This weekend, another story. Saturday my knees were a little achy and my hands hurt. I chalked it up to the positioning. I knew better. By Saturday night my hands, knees, elbows, ankles and feet were killing me. I felt flarey. I was hot a sweaty. My resting HR was around 100. Good times. I was bummed. I woke up Sunday and it wasn't good. Standing was uncomfortable. Breathing hurt. Walking to the bathroom was no fun. I had a date with the DVR and got addicted to Discovery Channel's Gold Rush. I could write a whole post on the amount of work those guys do for a fleck of gold. Unreal. Watch it. You'll be amazed. So basically not much I could do on Sunday besides sleep and tv. Today I made it to work. Albeit very late, but I made it. Still feel crappy and walking is not comfortable. Hoping it changes this week. Planning on doing the 6 Hour this weekend. If I haven't come around by Wednesday, Saturday is probably doubtful. The fork may be here in time. The Marathon will be together just in case. Thinking about going old school and bringing the rigid 26er Vicious (Roxie) out to play. I've been missing her lately.

Back On

After last weekend of dealing with mother nature's curve ball and being down with some sort of funk the weekend before that, I had a plan for the beautiful weekend...RIDE LOTS. Slapped a big gear on the ss and went to Stewart on Saturday. I was worried I wouldn't be able to push a big gear for long because I've been spinning so much as of late. As soon as I got on my ss it was like meeting up with an a really great old friend again. We picked up right where we left off. Besties again. For the first time in a while I found my smile and my rhythm. I was laughing, smiling, singing horribly off key and enjoying the ride. Oh, yeah. And I worked my ass off. That felt pretty damn good, too. It's been a month or so of lackluster rides at best. I needed this ride.

Still smirking at 4+ hours.

Sunday, I was pretty sure I would be paying the price for Saturday. While doing laundry I bent over to pick up a sock that had absconded from the dryer and my hammies and lower back confirmed this hypothesis. Ouch. Mike wanted me to ride with him. I hesitantly agreed and secretly just wanted to do a recovery spin. Between forks and wheels being out of commission I don't have a geared bike right now. The fact that I would be on a ss and Mike on an Epic was ass backwards to me. We rode down to Jungle and I did my best to stay on his wheel. The easy ride thing was quickly thrown out the window.

Bamboo snack

So we didn't change my gearing. It was great on the road to Jungle (which is mostly downhill) but it was frustrating as hell in the park. Jungle is way too twisty for big gears. I had a minor meltdown on Animal Chute. Walking something you normally ride was no fun. I sucked it up and did the best I could. It was a lot of work and my legs and arms were not happy. Then I realized I had to make it home. I still had a road ride home that included climbing the Warwick Turnpike. Ooof. The fact that we moved to the top of a mountain makes me upset sometimes. Nothing like being gassed and having to make it home on a big gear. Builds character, I guess.

We'll see how I recover this week. Right now leaning towards the 6 hour in two weeks. However, if it's raining/snowing/sleeting or anything other than a beautiful, crisp fall day I'm out. It's not worth doing that to my body. It's also my birthday weekend so I feel like I shouldn't subject myself to misery or risk hypothermia on my birthday weekend. The bike and I are in a good place right now. Don't wanna ruin it.

Night

Some find it hard to believe that I have never ridden at night in the woods. Yes, it's true. And I'm not counting a few miscalculations when I got stuck in the dark and rode/walked/crawled out with a cell phone light. I've never owned proper lights for riding. I sometimes trail run at night and have been known to use my little Petzl light to ride around the block at night, but I've never ventured into the woods. Well, the time has come. I finally ordered lights. My helmet light came. Still waiting on the handlebar light. The helmet light was enough to go cruise around Waway.

I will have to say it will take some getting used to. It's a little different sensation. I felt like I was moving so slow. Still not certain if my HR was so high because I was working hard or if it was my body going into fight-or-flight mode. After awhile I started to enjoy the quiet and the sound of my breath. I liked riding at night a lot more than I thought I would. I wasn't phased by the dark or being alone until I started to think about why Tombstone is named Tombstone. Yes, that's right. There's a graveyard just off the singletrack. My hackles went up and I wanted to get the hell out of there. I tried to quiet the imagination, but I couldn't. It likes to run wild. Next night ride will be at Jungle. I'm stoked because that should be super creepy. Here's to new adventures.

White Halloween

WTP

Saturday, I ran to Lowe's while Mike ripped out the shower. Really good idea if we hadn't lost power, but I digress. Thank God I took the big truck because I would not have made it home. By the time I turned onto Echo Lake it was nasty and there were cars pulled over everywhere. Coming up the Warwick Turnpike was no fun. It was odd to see snow clinging to trees with the leaves still on them. Snow covered Fall.

Night Walk on Saturday

Electricity went out on Saturday. Monday was the first time I had anything that resembled a shower or bath since Friday. Not a pleasant smelling weekend. Power finally came on Monday morning. We were lucky. Many of my friends and coworkers still don't have power. I woke up Monday so extremely sore from my shoveling adventures on Sunday. I felt like I had had a stroke on my left side. I definitely need to start hitting the gym regularly.

So last night I dragged myself to the gym and I was feeling pretty lethargic after a long day at work and a two day candy bender. I decided to try an energy chew. Coffee usually make me feel pretty good so what could go wrong? As someone who has never had an energy drink and technically should stay away from such things, well, let's just say it was a bad idea. I made it through without clutching my chest and falling off the treadmill. Although, for about 15 minutes it was touch-n-go. I envisioned passing out and falling and having the belt sear my face off. I made it. I even did some weights with some meat-heads.

Just say "NO".

Surprisingly, not sore today. Makes me think I babied myself and didn't lift the weight I should have. The meat-heads were right. They told me I looked like I could handle more. Should have listened, or not, it's nice to be able to lift my coffee without wincing.

Mountain Man rescheduled for the 12th. Still thinking about it. I registered for 6 Hours of Cathedral Pines a while ago. Not sure how I feel about it now. I'm not feeling so good about my cycling self. 6 hours seems like a lot of work for November. I'm sure a couple of rides on my ss and I'll be chomping at the bit. Maybe. Hopefully. We'll see...

Spring, Summer, Winter

Denial

It's been a week of telling myself it's my allergies and asthma. Night sweats are normal. Everyone has the chills. I'm just really, really tired...I don't have a cold. I am not sick. NOT sick. Friday I could hardly keep my eyes open at 6:30 pm. We went to Lowe's for a Friday night outing and I was a zombie. Came home and passed out. I think I slept for over 14 hours on Saturday and Sunday. In my state of denial I thought I could take the ss to Ringwood and beat the tired out of myself. Yeah. Didn't work. Came home and passed out. Sunday, I couldn't even attempt a move from the couch. Bad tv and more sleep. Today I made it to work. I'm obviously not looking so hot based on the comments and reactions from my co-workers. Apparently, I'm a little puffy in the face and my eyes are swollen. Feeling extremely attractive. Hoping I can kick this soon. Sometimes a common cold can turn into something much more wretched for me. I have to be careful.

Thinking about doing the Mountain Man Biathlon this weekend. 2 mile trail run-11 mile mountain bike-2 mile trail run. We'll see. It's kinda pricey and I'm always embarrassed to run in public. I'm weird like that. I prefer the cover of night or woods. Provided my face is back to normal size and I can breathe I may just suck it up and do it. This is the year of trying new things.

Views

The weekend: uneventful. It was nice to have nowhere to go and no place to be. Saturday, I went to Ringwood by my lonesome and rode. I climbed up the new red trail which is fantastic. It's a long, tough, technical, switchback climb. You are greatly rewarded with the view from the top. Riding down it's pretty cool, too.

Sunday we got pretty wild. Cleaned out the basement. After throwing out more bags of crap than I can count (including a fax machine and an old Tivo that I should have donated to a museum) Mike and I decided to head out from the house for a hike/trail run.

Greenwood Lake

The decision was up to me if we were going to do the short loop or long loop. In my infinite wisdom I opted for the long loop. It was beautiful day, I felt pretty good and the cold is coming soon so I wanted to take advantage. It wasn't a leisurely pace. The fact that we stopped to take pictures of these two people in desperate need of a good night cream and a teeth whitening is amazing.

Surprise Lake

The terrain is challenging to say the least. My abs and calves are screaming today. That could be a little yoga hangover, too. The next order of business is to order a new pair of hiking/trail shoes that I can run in. The Salomon trail runners don't really cut it up there. Pretty earth shattering stuff, I know. Fingers crossed my internet research and Zappos search is fruitful.

Blah Humbug

It's been another week of mope. Still really can't stop thinking about Ike, and yes, I am still spontaneously crying. I started crying on Sunday during Iron Cross because for a moment I thought about him being back at the car waiting for me. I pulled over under the guise of peeing to get myself together. I can't seem to take my mind off of it. I'm a sad sack with no motivation. I'm still amazed I was able to pedal on Sunday. I've been living on iced trentas this week. If I keep it up I'm going to have to take a loan out of my 401(k) to support my habit.

I made myself go out and pedal around the lake tonight. I worked from home for the first time in two weeks and it wasn't the same. Although, Reggie does his best to entertain and keep me company, it's just not the same.

I'm not sure what it is about blow-up yard art that upsets me so. The yard I rode past tonight was scary. And not in that Halloween boohahahaa way. There were also sound effects. It's unfortunate you can't experience the full effect. As I was taking this picture a lady pulled up in a mini van to take a picture herself. She looked at me and said, "Isn't it great? I look forward to their yard every year. Come back at dark. It's better." I pulled out my superb acting skills and smiled and said, "Better at dark? I'll have to check it out." I had some dark thoughts of vandalism involving camouflage, a night raid, wire cutters and a pocket knife. I shook it off. Who was I to maim this neighborhood treasure?

I made myself go to hot yoga tonight. It was my first time going to this studio near our house. The instructor kept it moving and because it's been so long since I've stepped foot into a studio I had to totally focus so I could keep up. For an hour and fifteen minutes I forgot about everything else. Progress, I guess. On a lighter note, no one laughed/stared at me for my lack of flexibility and busted feet. The instructor and people in the class were actually nice and unpretentious. Not used to such things having only been to studios in Manhattan and snootier parts of Bergen County. It used to be like going with the cast of the Housewives. I do believe it will be a Thursday night thing.

Iron Cross

After numerous threatening calls and texts I convinced Jane to register for Iron Cross a few weeks ago. I advertised it as a 'girls' trip'. Come Friday I really didn't want to go. I felt like I was coming down with whatever funk was going around and I had zero interest in riding 62 miles. I couldn't possibly back out after begging her to come with. I knew once we got on the road that we would have fun. That we did. There was no seriousness. No normal pre-race jitters. Nothing. There was absolutely no planning and no expectations. As Jane put it, "It's a goof, mate." There were five rules: 1. Don't punk out 2. Don't get hurt 3. Enjoy it 4. Finish it 5. Keep a running skinsuit count.

We pulled into the venue Saturday for a little ride. Hello, black sheep. Jane on her mountain bike and me on my rusted and busted old cx bike. It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend. It was warm and sunny. Hot even. Jane realized that she forgot shorts and only brought one pair of winter woolly pants (Windstopper and all). We envisioned her melting like the witch in the Wizard of Oz. A pile of steaming knickers would be all that remains...

So we set off to ride. There was a beach and I rode up to the sand on my skinnies and thought twice and dismounted. Jane kept going. I saw it happen in slow motion. She tried to turn in sand. We all know how this ends. I watched her fall face down in the sand and flail helplessly. For once I wished I had a helmet cam. There were people on the beach staring at us. Some laughed along with me and others looked at me like I was an ass for not helping my friend up. She was fine. That was a pro move if I've ever seen one. There were also some very serious roadie/cx people staring at us in disgust. Apparently, laughing and having fun was not acceptable behavior.

There's a body imprint in there somewhere.

Extremely rusty chain and cassette. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Saturday night Jane and I both had sore throats and the beginnings of a cough. I knew it wasn't going to be good. We talked about not doing IC and watching Civil War reenactments. As the night went on that option started to sound more and more inviting. Alas, we showed up to IC Sunday morning. It was nice to see new faces and the familiar endurance racing crowd. However, there were a lot of roadies in the mix. Roadies are a different breed. I'm not saying there aren't nice roadies. For the most part I feel they take themselves way to seriously. I have serious roadie and cx friends and I like to give them shit. Iron Cross was a whole new vibe. Somewhere in between road race and xxc race.

In true Jocelyn form I showed up on a bike that may or may not have 62 miles in it. I was scrounging through my bike bag for food for the race. I had untouched drop bags that I had from endurance races throughout the season. It was a little trip down memory lane. Found Michaux and Shen and a bag I couldn't place. Scored a bar and a few CO2s. I also found a few crusty Gu packs and Honey Stingers and what I hoped were Endurolytes in a plastic baggie. Unfortunately, this time of the year only the undesirable flavors/products were left. Something I've learned in my limited travels: If you have a limited selection of energy products always start with the nastiest flavor first during a race. Get it over with. You'll have the better flavors to look forward to.

It was freezing at the start. Jane and I were spooning at the racer meeting. Her woollies were starting to look pretty good. The start was a little chaotic because there were people everywhere whirring through the tape of the parade lap until the road. It became very apparent who was a roadie once we hit road. It also became even more apparent who was a roadie when we hit the first double track. It really was nothing. You would have thought baby heads were everywhere the way some were riding. Ten minutes in and there were numerous people with flats. I'm not sure what in the hell they were hitting.

I was on one of the longer paved road sections and as people came by I kept thinking to myself, "Grab a wheel. Jump on. Okay the next one. Okay maybe they were too fast. That's okay. Okay..now." I could hear an old team roadie coach in my head, "Grab the wheel! 30 seconds of effort can save you in the long run. Use your burst!!" Nahhh. Really couldn't harness my inner roadie Sunday. She was on holiday. She was on a beach somewhere with a stiff drink and a good read. She only comes out to play when she rides with the roadies to bleed out of her eyes and she doesn't know where she is and depends on roadies to survive because she's miles and miles from home.

The race was fun. The bike was torture. It wasn't that it was a cx bike. It wasn't even my hands. They did quite well. It was the fact that I haven't ridden the bike. I haven't even been on my road bike this summer. I'm not used to the positioning and it became downright unbearable towards the end. The positioning on a cx bike is far from aggressive. I'm not the most flexible person you will ever meet. Ask me to touch my toes sometime and you will laugh your ass off.

I should have heeded advice and changed to a bigger cassette. Some of the climbs were steep and long. I walked a lot more than I care to admit. I got the dreaded hot foot about 3 hours in. I stopped to adjust my shoe. I couldn't get it to loosen up. I kept making it tighter. I thought I was going to have a panic attack because it was so tight and I couldn't get it to loosen. I got a stick and a rock and was ready to go to work. Wasn't really sure what I was going to do with that stick and rock but it probably was going to involve ripping off the buckle. I thought about finishing without my left shoe. I also thought about sawing off my left foot because it burned so bad. I was about to go into full blown meltdown 'holy shit this girl is crazy mode' when a fellow rider saw me in peril. He stopped to help and unjammed the stupid Sidi buckle. My hero. It gave me some sort of relief so that I could finish with both shoes on my feet.

Ended up finishing in 12th place. I think around 20 women started with the day-of registrants. I think only 14 finished. That seems to be a theme at Michaux. Not so bad. I expected much worse. Jane ended up finishing unmelted and in 4th. It was a well organized and fun event with really great volunteers. If you get a chance check it out. It's worth it. Glad I went and got to experience it. But I'm also glad it's over. Looking forward to a bikeless week or so (we'll see how long I last). I'm thinking hot yoga couldn't hurt.