Pay attention

Today I was buying some healthy, weight control animal food for my pleasantly plump kitties. The skinny, spiky brown haired pale faced teenage boy at the checkout lane said to me "I like your Squirtle keychain." "Huh?" I said distractedly, and looked down at the small plastic figurine nestled in the giant wad of keys and accoutrements I had just handed him when using my loyalty card - one of about 5 cajillion things on my key ring. "Oh, yeah. I think I got this in college on a pop tart promotion," I explained away, trying to justify why a grown woman would be carrying a Pokémon keychain. I didn't really smile because I was afraid I had food in my teeth from just eating a sandwich for dinner. As he handed me my receipt I finally looked up, and saw him looking at me quizzically. 2 seconds of locked eyes, and I realized he was trying to figure me out. "Who the crap is this lady?" his subtle smile said. And I smiled back (oh well, guess he'll have to see food in my teeth if I have any), said, "Oh well, i guess I'm kind of weird," then hightailed it out of there.

In retrospect, this is probably what he saw (at first): a woman in dress pants and a blazer, nicely coiffed hair (believe it or not it usually looks decent at work), probably with her kid's favorite Pokemon on her key ring, buying cat food. Then I had to go open my mouth and say something surprisingly different than what he expected. And you know what? He was paying attention. And I only kinda was.

Pay attention. This world is worth it. That goes for me, and everyone else. But I'm still not giving up my Pokemon keychains, even if it means people will notice them.

Lying in wait

So my last post, I left you hanging!

The duathlon last Saturday went as well as one can expect of someone who rarely runs, and who spends most of her weekday rides indoors.  :)

In short, I got severely trounced by the ladies who train for this stuff, and held my own against the weekend warriors such as myself, winning my age group (after they took the top 3 out of my age group for the overall, of course!). If I counted right (and I might not have, usually I need a calculator), I was 7th overall. My mountain bike split was even exactly the same as my buddy d-dubb's, no small feat!

It was super fun to do something different,  plus the weather was sublime, allowing the cobwebs to clear my brain and reinvigorate my desire to achieve certain mini-milestones so I can be fast in a few months.

The next day, I joined some fellow members of the Asheville Bicycle Racing Club for a windy, sun filled, lovely 2.5 hr road ride around Buncombe county.  I was sore and a bit tired, but I was surrounded by good people and loving the smooth  speed of my BMC bike.

Monday, I woke up and wondered how I never noticed a truck running over me on the weekend. I was so sore! My legs hurt from race-running 6 miles, and my shoulders hurt from manhandling my mountain bike in my first cross-country effort in untold years. But, all in all, it was a kick ass weekend.

Now, I'm lying in wait for Andy, who is 'running' the inaugural Georgia Death Race, a 60+/- mile trail run race that includes ~30,000 feet of climbing. Holy. Caraapp. !!!!

Kinda makes last weekend seem pretty tame!

Happy is what you do

I've been riding my bike just about every day since the beginning of the year. But in the last month or so, I've only ridden outside a handful of times.  And even then, it's been cold or wet or generally not very inspiring.

All this stationary trainer time allows for much tv watching (or, in my case, streamed video watching, 'cause we don't have tv). Yesterday i plucked from my watchlist a video entitled 'happy', about the study of happiness. Good times. Funny that i pick that when my motivation to ride seemed at its lowest, and it took every ounce of energy just to slide onto the saddle.

Anyhoo, the video was all well and good, telling us about what makes people happy. Most of the findings should already be blatantly obvious but are pretty much lost in a sea of digital communication and pressure and everyday hustle and bustle. Key to many people's happiness, as mentioned in the film, is EXERCISE. And while I've been exercising daily, the cold weather, my poor circulation which causes me to wear gloves even when inside, and a general lack of vitamin d have combined together into one big wham-o punch of simmering disquiet.

Cue today: the weather warmed up 20+ degrees,  and I snuck out of work early to head to Georgia with Andy. We've foolishly signed up for an off road duathlon tomorrow (first ever in my life!), and arrived with just enough time to pre-ride the 10 mile mtb course.

Ever see the 1939 movie version of the Wizard of Oz, where the film starts out in black and white, but turns to Technicolor when the house lands in Oz? That was today's ride. I don't even care how badly i embarrass myself tomorrow (i said I've been riding; didn't say anything about running!) Tonight's ride on sickly sweet Georgia trails, finishing up a few minutes past dusk my favorite time to ride, should last me a solid few days, come what may.

Happiness is what you do; it's up to you to do it!

Merry New Year, take 2

Hmm, I started a blog post in January titled 'Merry New Year', but of course never went anywhere with it. This should not be a surprise, coming from a girl who mailed most of her holiday cards at the end of January... when did I mail the rest, you wonder? Umm, no. No, I haven't. They sit in the box, envelopes addressed, waiting for a short note before being mailed. Will they be mailed, ever? Let's not speculate.

To paraphrase a quote I read recently, by some smartypants who never had modern day distractions like facespace and constant email access, "Write daily and much happens. Write monthly and there is little to update."

Now it's been TWO months since I've posted anything and of course lots has happened. Of course it's too much for a quick post. Or not enough, depending on how you interpret my posts!

So, here's a quickie, based on what has occupied our time most recently:

Andy and I went back to the 34 mile Snake Creek Gap Mountain Bike Time Trial races (tandem style) in January, February,  and March, after a year hiatus.  We came home from the last one yesterday. January was cold and slow (4 hrs 17 min), February was colder and slower (4 hr 28, at least 3 miles of frustrating stop-start walking on frozen rocks), and today was cold but somewhat respectable (3 hrs 57 min! rode lots of rocks). Whatever one might consider respectable for a tandumb. We'll never be able to truly rail it, it's just too tight and rocky near the end for the wheelbase. My body is wrecked and I'm wondering what new adventure (that doesn't involve frozen feet that burn for days) we can choose next year...

That's the only bike events we've done so far this year. (Wha? Huh? Der?) Well, I did have team camp one weekend, that I mostly missed because I was working in hyperdrive on a special project for work, but... no other bike races... yet. 

Our goals include: 

April 28, the Cohutta 100 (tandumb)

June 1, Dirty Kanza 200 (tandumb)

August 11: Ore to Shore (tandumb)

September 18: CrossVegas!!!!!

And last, not anywhere near the least, sometime in November: Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships in Philly! 

The last two if I behave well enough I get to do on my own bike! 

This is us at the Snake in February, I think at the midway point. We were about to encounter snow and  frozen rocks...

2013 Pepper Palace Women's team, as photographed by Paul Christopher of Christopher-graphics.com. The team's a little smaller this year (still contains megatons of awesomeness), and focused 99% on National Calendar crits. Ooh, I've always wanted to say I'm part of the 1%! hee hee hee.

Andy's still doing lots of endurance runs. Paul Christopher snapped this shot at the Tsali Frosty Foot 50k in January.

Just for giggles, I did the 8k trail run the day after Andy's 50k. I actually won my age group??!?! But the overall women's winner is my age, and literally beat me by a mile. Paul took this shot too. He takes awesome photos!

Hollydaze Update

Wow, it's been 6 weeks since my last update! My poor blog is dying a slow, painful death. And here I am, writing away, prolonging the agony.

Ah well. Andy is making me write, with my early bird christmas prezzie of a bluetooth keyboard. Which is quite sweet of him, really. I started a Special Project on the 1st day of December, which was supposed to last 30 days but lasted all of 4 because I realized I had a shit ton of crap i wanted to get out of the house, thought it might be worth some money, and the best way to do it was via ebay. Which suddenly became much more important to me than my Special Project., which I will take up again on January 1.

[Why the urgency of shit leaving the house? because my mom has spent more than 4 solid weeks of sorting and throwing out of random stuff at my dear grandpa's house - and that's with the help of dad, her brothers and sisters in laws! Observing that was a wake up call.]

$1,500 later (66 items), or maybe we should say $700 later since a certain someone decided to buy a guitar with all that hard earned ebay money, here I am just a few days before the holiday... no holiday card written, no cookies baked (or even eaten!), no prezzies wrapped, only a few purchased. Judging by the handful of holiday cards in our inbox, I know I'm not the only one experiencing this malaise.

We went to New Jersey for the Thanksgiving holiday. I convinced Andy it would be a good idea (hah!) to drive through Baltimore to see my BFF and her baby. It was awesome to see her but sorry sweetie, I don't want to ever live in Baltimore. We had to drive through some super sketch neighborhoods which are just around the corner from her lovely place.

Thanksgiving was not quite a month after Hurricane Sandy, and Bay Head was still under National Guard protection. It was a surreal experience, approaching the town while driving past highway exit after highway exit of normalcy, only to be escorted in through military checkpoint, and see the majority of homes with most of their furniture, fixtures, and everything else torn apart and exposed on the sidewalk in front of them. The town soccer field had been appropriated by public works as an impromptu dump, whose main feature was a two story tall high mountain of deconstruction debris.  And the beach! Holy crap the beach. Or, should i say, lack of beach? The town was literally saved by the seawall, giant rocks built up to help keep the ocean waters out. Only, for this storm they didn't work as well as usual.

This does not do a very good job of capturing the scale of the dump pile. Bonus points if you notice the solar panels on the house that peeks over the top, in the background. The next day there were giant diggers driving around on top of this.

The beach now runs through all these megamillionaires' backyards. Most looked pretty battered. Many were just gone.

Needless to say it was a bittersweet Thanksgiving for Andy and his family, who were born and raised and remained in the town.

You can very easily capture my heart by giving me a cornucopia of chocolate goodies.

Not much else going on. I quit racing my bike in October (just for the season - I was totally burned out and couldn't get motivated to train), and my own personal adventures seem to be limited to Being Awesome at work, which I do with joy and gusto because it is a kick ass place to be. Andy has had a couple Ridiculous Running Adventures (50k and 50 mile races!), but I'll save mention of them for another day. If there is one. Judging by the timeliness of my posts, you just might have to wait till January... :-)

In case i don't post again, Happy Holidays everybody!

Blasts of all kinds

Blast from the Past!

Last night I got together with a group of old friends with whom I'm ashamed to say I haven't spent much time since the last time we were all gathered together, a whopping 7 years ago.

The Cane Creek Elite Men's Cycling team, which lasted from ~2000 - 2005, is what brought us together in some shape or form oh so many years ago, and for our mini reunion it was the return to town of the World's Most Beautiful Swedish couple, Ann Charlotte and Jonas. (and their two beautiful daughters, who don't yet speak English but do speak Play!)

Somehow over these many years I've managed to draw myself into a turtle shell, and watching everyone happily interact tonight I wondered how it was Andy and I let these great friendships get away from us. It's too easy... Luckily we all stalk each other on Facebook, so we had a pretty good idea of what's going on in everyone's lives.  

It was a kick ass time, and here's this photo to prove it.

counterclockwise from left: lauren tamayo (people tell me she's kinda a big deal), jamie ritchie, jonas petersson, jennie ritchie, cujo coddington, ida petersson in the yellow (she speaks play!) ann charlotte andersson, jenn summerell, mike tamayo. missing: lots of really cool people.

Andy could not make it because on Saturday after running the 19+ mile off road Shut-In Trail running race, (32nd out of 209, 3 hrs 16 minutes) he hopped in the car and drove 12 hours north to Bay Head, New Jersey. 

This is Andy shadowing my BFF Karen. I saw them together at all 4 aid stations that I went to, but he pulled away from her shortly after this photo and beat her by about 5 minutes. He's usually right around the top women runners and this time I think only two beat him. 

Blast!

Andy was in NJ just a few weeks ago to celebrate his parents' 50th anniversary, but this time he was returning for a significantly less joyous occasion. His hometown, where his parents and sister and brother-in-law still live and work, was ravaged by that awful Hurricane Sandy. The first floor of his parents' house, as well as the first floor of their hardware store just down the street, suffered the indignity of seawater filling its rooms, leaving furniture, carpet, flooring, appliances, drywall, fixtures, merchandise, papers, pictures, etc. beyond repair. Upon hearing this, he did what any good son might do: he gave up our warm, comfortable, still-with-power house to go help his family clean up the mess, enduring long cold wet workdays moving heavy things to the trash, 6:30 pm curfews, close-to-freezing nights with no power, and -worst of all- Internetless existence! Ok, maybe the last one's not so bad, so long as you don't need to work.

Everyone in the family and close circle is physically unharmed - this is a beautiful thing. But, seeing your home and livelihood destroyed by the angry floodwaters of a hurricane leaves a mark, not always visible. So it's a really good thing that Andy has a flexible enough job that he could swing the time up there, helping out wherever strong-but-scrawny cyclist arms are of use.

Bay Head is still without power, with no projection of when it will return. Every night they can look across the bay and see a few more houses illuminated, so hope remains that the power will come back soon. Andy's lifeline to heat, when he's at his sisters' house at night waiting out the darkness, is a small propane heater we bought for our camping trips a few years ago. His parents are staying a town away with close family friends. They are all fortunate enough to have access to hot showers, and the Red Cross has responded with amazing "emergency rations" support which is keeping them fed without the worry of cooking in cold dark damp waterless kitchens.

You can see some photos he's been posting in his twitter feed: http://twitter.com/andyapplegate 

According to Andy, the Applegates don't need anything they can't get on their own. If you want to support the recovery effort, please donate to the American Red Cross. If you want to send a note of encouragement, please mail your love to: Applegate's Hardware, 524 Lake Avenue, Bay Head, NJ 08742. 

Breakin' it up

Remember about a month ago when I said I would eventually post some photos of the awesome fun time I had at Crossvegas? 

During my travels across the convention center before the race, I happened into the Giro Trophy! Pepe just had to have his photo snapped with that pretty little thing. (the trophy, duh!)

Pepe El Pepper meets the original GIRO TROPHY! 

My superawesome team mechanic snapped this shot as I headed to the line. The calm before the storm. See something shiny on my arm and neck?

After finalizing my company's 2013 budget submission yesterday, on which I worked diligently and fixedly for two solid weeks plus a weekend, and still felt under prepared, I chose today as a "rainy day catch-up"  at work. I managed my email (inbox = 0!), whittled down my to-do list, and focused on a few "important but not urgent" items. 

One of those items was to watch a training video, and take a "quiz" on it afterwards. It's possible that I multi-tasked during said video, and it's possible that I found this kicka$$ photo on flickr at that time. I don't know Dave Mable, but I am eternally grateful that he (presumably) found my name by looking up my bib number and posted my photo to flickr. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise! When I look at this shot, memories of HAPPY rush in...  (note shiny bling on my arm)

I was probably smiling because I had just totally missed a dollar bill opportunity... OR, I was so effing tired that I was grateful to be going down the flyover.

But here I am with the two dolla' billz I managed to not drop or miss. And the best bottle of water ever. It was over 90 degrees when the race started, at 8:20 at night!

Despite how happy I am remembering this hella fun time, I'm taking a temporary hiatus from bike racing. I have not been enjoying it lately (the bike racing part, anyway), ultimately because I have zero events on the horizon to motivate me. I could throw out excuses all day long about how I want to be better at my job (and I do, dangit!) and that's keeping me from training, but... just excuses. If I *really* wanted something, I would get my bum on the trainer during the week and race my brains out on the weekend. Not training during the week, however, is making racing really suck on the weekend, and making me miserable.

So, a regrouping is in order. I'm going to spend my time enjoying the giant playground behind the house, and contemplate my next adventure. Andy has made some big tandumb plans for us in 2013.