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.