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.

Lonely Week

It's been tough this past week to have any sort of motivation. We lost Ike last week, so needless to say I've been a mess. I'm sure I'll post something about him soon. I just can't yet. He was with me for a long time.

I had all these plans to ride my cx bike and get used to the handling this past week or so. Didn't really happen. Tonight I took it down to Jungle. There are some roads in there and a few pieces of singletrack that aren't too uber technical. The singletrack went okay. It became fun after I got used to the handling. My biggest issue is with my hands. Not sure I'll be able to do the whole braking thing for 62 miles. I was uncomfortable after 20 minutes. It's going to be an issue. It's an issue with disc brakes so I know I'm going to have some trouble. Rethinking riding the cx bike for that reason. We'll see. I don't need to stop or slow down, right?

Jane and I are leaving on Saturday for PA. Some much needed fun will be had.