4.5 hours, three flats, two hill repeats - a good way to say goodbye to 2005!

Need I say more? Started the morning with 10:30 ride meeting at Leschi. We headed out to Cougar Mtn. to do some hill repeats in the big chainring. Legs are feeling the weeks efforts but surprizingly they aren't that bad. Ryan and I are headed down to my mom's for an 80's party - pics to come.

HARD CORE

Think of the worse possible conditions you could ride in besides freezing weather - and that's what poured out of the skies today with a vengence. I may retract my statement of not riding the indoor trainer and rollers if I can't help it... because today really tested me. I thought maybe the rain might let up a little in the afternoon so I waited till 1 to take off. I headed north on the burke determined to do my hill intervals. I contemplated doing Hollywood hill and then Novelty, followed last by Juanita. I was pleasantly surprized by how long Hollywood was - you can almost fit in 20 minutes straight of climbing. The decent was wicked and cold - chilling my body temp off for the rest of the ride. Half way down Juanita hill I discovered my light was out of juice and so I headed for home. I have not bailed on a ride like this before - I seriously contemplated riding home in the dark and pouring rain with shitty visibility - but since I had a cell phone and was already over my 3 hour ride.... why not? I know, i was at mathews beach - only 30 minutes from home. But it was getting dark - FAST and I was so cold and wet. Ryan wasn't home but luckily I had a back up - my brother! He and Jaimie and Coleman are in town for New years and rescued me. What an awesome big bro.

Lessons learned: CHARGE YOUR LIGHTS!!! Wear warmer, more water proof clothing?

Positive things - I rocked up the tempo work out - and am getting stronger! Also - found a new route that has light traffic and a steady grade. Did a tough girl workout - putting in 3 hours and should hit 250 miles for the week. Saweet! Oh - and I ran into Katy. :)

that's not fair - you have gears!

I heard a guy yell after me when I hauled past him on the Burke. Apparently the male gender doesn't take kindly to being passed by a woman - especially on a pink bike. But I had tempo work to fit in and was on my last effort and not too up for chatting while I was trying to keep my heartrate at a decent pace. With only 8 minutes left of my effort, Mr. Fixy was spinning uncontrollably in a 42x17 while I was cruising in a 53x14. Poor guy. When I finally let up a little and returned to my normal spin we chatted from Lake Forest Park to the U District. I chuckled to myself when he said he was about to say something about my slow cadence and pounding on the gears - "that's bad for your knees...." tempo riding is supposed to hurt and look akward. It's all about building the muscles. I think I gained some muscle mass while in Colorado - I'm tipping the scales a little heavier.... which only matters when I start climbing hills. And oh man, the hills are coming soon!

christmas crisis

Ryan and I had a great time in Co with one little hickup... Christmas. We decided to take the day off from skiing so we would have fresh legs for the remainder of the trip. We ended up lounging around for the first part of the day and then took a walk up to the village for a cocktail. One turned into another, into another and next thing we knew we were walking home on our lips and started talking about religion. Bad idea. We ended up arguing really loudly... I took off to get some fresh air and when I came back he ended up calling my dad and asking him why he didn't call his daughter. He tried to make things right or at least initiate a conversation with him which ended up in a screaming match between him and Martha. Martha was in her cups as well, which didn't add to the situation - and she and Ryan started slinging mud back and forth. Well now I stood up for Ryan and told dad that I don't want to come down to Eugene to have a husband bashing session. Ugh. I am so sick of this. Basically at this point my dad refuses to accept Ryan and if I choose to stand by my man then that's all I can do. So really - my dad just excused himself, once again, from being a dad.

two flats, pouring rain and late for dinner!

Ah - riding the lake in the middle of winter. Of course that means one is guarenteed a flat or two and having a woman in a Mercedes in Bellevue tell you that you don't have a tail light. Thanks for that- I was actually headed to the bike shop when she tried to acost me. I am so thankful Alynda was there at Gregg's - she bailed me out. Big time. The mechanic took one look at my bike and asked if I ever washed it - to which I responded yeah. Do you ever ride in the rain? I just did the south end man! He still looked at poor pinky in disgust. I know, I know, I've been really bad about maintaining her lately - but I swear I'm taking her in tomorrow and will have her doctored up for some more hard winter training. These base miles wreck havic on my poor rear derailluer and chain. But spring and summer are coming - so please, please, please just hang in there for the winter and I promise easier days will come. Ok - does anyone else find it strange that I'm writing a blog to my bike?

Seriously though - I got two flats today on my lake navigation. It actually turned out ok - just a little glass and both in spots that were well lit so I could change it easily. I came home soaked to the bone and tubeless - one more flat and that should take care of it for quite some time. I'm making cookies to console myself.

enjoying the sunshine

Yesterday went on a nice long ride with Miller's group. Unfortunately Grant struck a poor walking woman from behind going about 12 mph and she had to go to the hospital in a stretcher. Grant's front wheel was tacoed - which was worse for wear compared to him. He said he had sharp pain in his shin where he struck his top tub. Apparently he was just spacing out and then BAM! He and this poor woman went down. When the fiasco was settled down Tim, Chris and I continued on our SE intervals - one down the Burke and the other up Juanita hill. My legs are tired today - but in an hour I'm hoping back on the bike and headed out for only a three hour ride. Yippy!

crying wolf - again

So every couple of months I get this frantic email (email - not a phone call - I'm not sure if he even has my phone number any more) from my dad saying how I should call my grandparents routinely because they are dying. I don't mean to sound harsh - I love my grandparents a lot - but my dad makes these alarms and hairs raise off my neck that drive me insane. He's not on the same wave length as some - our only communication has been via email because he's either too chicken shit to pick up the phone and risk talking to Ryan (like Ryan would pick up the phone, we have caller id) or call my cell phone because that would take too much time and energy. Instead he writes me scathing emails that can easily become misconstrued and misunderstood and expects me to do exactly what he asks when he asks them. We have such a strained relationship as is because of a run in Ryan and he had a little over a year ago. I honestly don't know what to do because he has made no attempt to move on from the run in - just ignore it and thinks it went away. Too bad this whole thing put me directly in the middle - where I refuse to be so what do I do? Ignore it as well. That's terrible. And I'm the one calling the kettle black.

It is such a mess that I would rather ignore it then deal with it - because if I try it will just blow up in my face. I feel like emailing him back and saying - thanks for the phone call. I appreciate hearing this in your own voice. UGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this is totally a rant - I'm warning you now.....
What do you do if your husband and father hate each other's guts? My dad and hubbie got into a political tiff last November and have since refused to talk to one another. I won't go into the details - but the jist is they don't see eye to eye and now think of each other as dog meat.
As the years have passed - I have grown ultra distant from my dad. He wasn't there much when I was growing up ... my mom did the majority of the parenting. When they divorced he was even more removed and became the "every-other-weekend" dad who had no rules and let us do what ever we wanted so long as we put on a happy face in front of family. Flash forward 10 years to college - where I met the love of my life. We connected and decided to get married after 5 years of dating. Other than the occasional family gathering I didn't see or hear much from my dad. On my wedding day he told me that he had wished his father had asked him what he was about to ask me - are you sure he's the one? That tore at me for a couple years - shouldn't a father be supportive of their child's decision? Then he and Ryan have this big huge rift and I get stuck in the middle. Added to an already strained relationship and now the only communication I receive from my father is via email. He doesn't even have the courage to pick up the phone. And now my grandparents health is failing and he's suddenly back in my life emailing me telling me what to do. This is really upsetting me.

How about being there when it's a non-emergency? Instead of only showing up when it's absolutely necessary? And you wonder why I don't come running when something like this happens? Why not pick up the phone yourself??????????????

strength endurance

my mom rulz. she let me cut out of work a little early today so I could take advantage of the last couple hours of daylight. I hopped on the bike and headed down to Seward to do some strength endurance riding. Translation - two by 15 minute hard grinding gears (53 x 14) at 65 cadence so you feel the entire pedal stroke and "scrape mud" off the bottom of your shoes. Why do it you might ask? It builds not only incredible strength but also helps to even out the pedal stroke. Often the quad is the most dominant muscle - but with grinding the gears like this you have to have as much pressure on the entire stroke - the upswing included so your concentration centers on every movement. The end result - tired legs and I found it difficult to keep a higher cadence on the way home. You also want to try and keep the upper body as relaxed as possible.

I didn't think I would be this tired tonight -but after twenty minutes off my feat - my legs feel like lead weights. Nice.

Day One of the Preseason

Already tested with the dismal rain, today began the next phase of preseason training. 30 miles of zone 2-3 with 4x 20 second high cadence sprints. I'm not going to lie to you - my legs felt tired from last weeks marathon riding and I was less than motivated to get out there today. But I ended up dialing it in and taking advantage of the last few minutes of day light before it completely disappeared. And once my legs started spinning - the miles flew by. Ryan changed my ipod music so that helped the time travel even faster. And I'd much rather be outside in the pouring rain than another minute on the indoor trainer. I'm feeling good - damn good. Watch out ladies - there's a new kid on the block. ;)

day after day, mile upon mile

managed to log 16.1 hours on the bike this week for a total of 247 miles. Not bad - not bad at all. Especially considering that it was supposed to be my rest week. Today begins the serious training - 30 miles with high cadence sprints at the end - 4 by 20 second intervals. I misread it wrong originally and thought I only had 30 minutes... nope. I'll have a rest day on Wednesday. Pain and suffering has to take a back seat to hard work and motivation.

The weather has been nice. It's chilly out but not raining - which I prefer. Chris mentioned yesterday that we've had terrible weather the past couple weeks - well if he considers this bad - I would much rather take this then the rain. I hope I didn't just jinx myself. :)

I did the lake yesterday with Tim - it was so nice to ride it with someone else. We talked the entire 3 1/2 hours. Next midweek I have to ride the lake again and add a couple of miles - I'm dying to learn some of the east side routes to add on the extra mileage. Maybe I'll email Adrian and see if he has some suggestions.

mile monger

last night we partied like rock stars. It was pretty fun - we amused ourselves with shuffle board as well. Moller came too - and proceeded to order Christmas Dark Ass Ale and we all got shitfaced. Thanks coach!

So as punishment I got to pedal a total of 4 hours today... just shy of 60 miles. I have put in 15 hours in the saddle already this week - with more in store for tomorrow. Oh the joys of base miles ... they really help in the long run and it requires a lot of big picture thinking to enjoy yourself. I'm looking forward to relaxing at Kele's house tonight and knitting!

Caio,
Jen

hump of the week

It's Wednesday already. I can't believe how quickly time has been passing lately. Christmas will be here and gone before we know it! I've been upping the time spent on the bike and it feels good. I bought some Windtex pants, booties and gloves yesterday and had to buy a new pump because my Joe Blow finally blew.
I also went to the doctor yesterday for a swollen eye lid. I woke up two days ago and my upper lid was almost swelled shut. He couldn't diagnois it - and just said to apply a hot compress. He also got on me for not calling him back about a potentially low thyroid issue. I've been having irregular periods for a long time now and he thinks it might be from that. They drew more blood yesterday and I'm waiting to hear the results.
Meanwhile I look like an ogre. Scary.

pooped!

My nephew was in town this weekend "denny, denny denny" he calls me. He's only 2 and has a hard time ennuciating certain words. When he tries some things it just sounds hilarious. And then he flips out when he hears a vaccum. He runs up to it and insists on using it. He got ahold of mom's bissell at one point, took the nozzle off and started sucking his face with it. We were laughing pretty hard. We were having a lot of fun playing horsie until I laid on my back and he jumped on my head. I think I may have a concusion.

It has been snowing hard up in the mountains. Ryan convinced me to skip a 3+ hour ride in the rain and go hit the slopes at Alpental on Sat. Believe or not it was actually hard to get me to commit - but boy am I glad I did! 18" of powder! It was sick. First full day of the season and my legs still remember how to turn. We had a blast.

Then today I had to put in 3+ hours of ride time. I managed to do almost 4 hours. It was hard to stay warm. I'm pretty exhausted right now. Good training this weekend though - speaking of the weekend - where did it go?

family visit

My brother, sister in law and nephew came up for an extended weekend visit. It sure is great having them around - yesterday I got to cuddle with Coleman for 2 hours straight. Apparently he has a hard time sitting still and his parents were both amazed and bewildered that he was chilling out for so long. I love that little guy so much!

Jaimie mentioned that Geo has been working a lot lately - and Coleman has been making comments like, 'daddy sleeping. daddy working,' etc etc. She thought it was time for him to take some time off from work and come and visit us Northerners - and my mom needs some extra loving due to Marcy leaving. It made me realize that sometimes we get so caught up in the routine that we often forget to do the little things that make us happy. And those little things that make us happy give you balance in what can easily become a lop-sided lifestyle.