Yay - I made it!
Now I have less than a week before I conquer my race nemisis - the REDLANDS CLASSIC.
Mind you, this time I am WAY more prepared, but I'm still a little frightened and I'm readying myself to battle my demons from two years ago when I was time cut on the 5km "Stage 1". Good times!
In the last week I've made important discoveries - like - since I purchased my car last June, I have ridden more kms than I have driven. So the next time I'm trying desperately to "integrated with regular society" and someone asks how much I ride - I can tell them that in a year I ride more than I drive...and I drive enough to own a 2007 Versa.
The real question at this point is whether it costs more to fuel my car at $1.20/litre or to provide me with food...
That gave me a something to ponder while training with a great group of Junior+ athletes (the official age was U20) put together by Jeremy, last week. It was a fun to train with a different group and it was good motivation for the end of a build. The boys were entertained by my Driven shifters - I love it! It's so much fun to have a product that people aren't used to seeing - it gets lots of attention. Plus I like that I can shift down with my pinky finger when I'm on the hoods!
I'm chilling out this morning as part of my "makeshift" weekend as I am usually more busy on Saturday and Sunday with my "real job - ie bikin'" and so every now and then I need to relax during the week. Going to head out later this am (it's supposed to rain this aft, so I better get out before that!) for some power intervals. Yeee haw!
Here's to the start of 2008 - GO VANDERKITTEN!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
SO CLOSE!
This here photo in the Langley Times was SO CLOSE to being SO COOL - it's from the first weekend of racing where I won! - check it out
This weekend went okay. Snake roadrace was AWFUL - but I made it through...in order to go chill out on Bradner road on Sunday - I ended up 5th...wish I had done better, but you win some you lose some. :)
The kittens had a go of things down in CA this weekend, but were the victims of bad luck - especially Lizzer who has a multi-coloured face and bottom - feel better soon!!!
This weekend went okay. Snake roadrace was AWFUL - but I made it through...in order to go chill out on Bradner road on Sunday - I ended up 5th...wish I had done better, but you win some you lose some. :)
The kittens had a go of things down in CA this weekend, but were the victims of bad luck - especially Lizzer who has a multi-coloured face and bottom - feel better soon!!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Ahhh, if only I were insightful
The days when I am looking to procrastinate (much like today...) I spend WAY too much time surfing the net. Actually that is likely a true statement without any qualifications - I get up in the morning and check my email, Pedal, Cyclingnews, Canadian Cyclist, The Weather Network, and when I'm feeling intelligent, CBC.ca. Then I trundle into work and turn on the computer - where I intermittantly check those same websites throughout my 5-9 hour tenure (depending on my training load and my ability to stay focused on the task at hand...) When I really don't feel like doing anything I start checking out people's blogs. In all honestly, it's a pretty scary world the internet - you can learn a good deal about people you've never met.
All this being said, the number one thing that strikes me when I read other people's posts is - I'm boring. I can give race reports most weekends and beyond that...well...I could give tax tips? Although I'm fairly sure that would scare off anyone who wastes their time checking out what I have to say.... That, and I never have poignant, insightful rants. I guess some people have it - and well, I don't. Not to say that I don't have strong opinions (which I do), that I am more than willing to share (which I will!), but I just don't see myself sitting down to record my whitty banter.
So now that I've shared my inadequacies - this last weekend was the first full weekend of Spring Series. The best news of the weekend: Armstrong is over! It's a good time...it's actually hill repeats that someone decided to disguise as a race - maybe I'll like it more when I remove half my torso to lose 25lbs - until then...I'm stoked that it's over - and that I survived - and that I rode quite well! YIPPPEEEE. Props to Kika Pendrel who stayed with the front group of the Bs!
In all honesty - the day before was more my cup of tea with the roller Zero Ave course. In the end I was 4th in the sprint which is better than a kick in the pants. I came around the final corner (about 300m from the line) too early in the group and had to lead it out up a 3% rise from 250m. I gave it, but was punked at 50m and 10m to go by the rounding out of the podium - but I guess I'll live ;) On to next weekend of Snake Hill...because Armstrong's not hard enough!
All this being said, the number one thing that strikes me when I read other people's posts is - I'm boring. I can give race reports most weekends and beyond that...well...I could give tax tips? Although I'm fairly sure that would scare off anyone who wastes their time checking out what I have to say.... That, and I never have poignant, insightful rants. I guess some people have it - and well, I don't. Not to say that I don't have strong opinions (which I do), that I am more than willing to share (which I will!), but I just don't see myself sitting down to record my whitty banter.
So now that I've shared my inadequacies - this last weekend was the first full weekend of Spring Series. The best news of the weekend: Armstrong is over! It's a good time...it's actually hill repeats that someone decided to disguise as a race - maybe I'll like it more when I remove half my torso to lose 25lbs - until then...I'm stoked that it's over - and that I survived - and that I rode quite well! YIPPPEEEE. Props to Kika Pendrel who stayed with the front group of the Bs!
In all honesty - the day before was more my cup of tea with the roller Zero Ave course. In the end I was 4th in the sprint which is better than a kick in the pants. I came around the final corner (about 300m from the line) too early in the group and had to lead it out up a 3% rise from 250m. I gave it, but was punked at 50m and 10m to go by the rounding out of the podium - but I guess I'll live ;) On to next weekend of Snake Hill...because Armstrong's not hard enough!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
The Most Elusive and Lucrative Win of My Career
Each spring, up here in Vancouver, BC the largest development team in the area - dEVo - puts on a lovely set of 10 races held over each and every weekend in March called the Spring Series. Generally the weather is a little off of nice (read torrential downpour) and hypothermia is not unheard of...okay, well now I'm being a little melodramatic, but they do tend to provide true Canadian tough conditions.
This morning close to 300 riders congregated for the first roadrace of 2008 - River Road - Spring Series #1. I went in with a little bit of apprehension as last year I made the break with about 30km to go and was dragged along to the finish (with some moral support from both Cody Campbell and Jonathan Page) to finish up 3rd (thank you yellow line violator!). So last year's success haunted me a little as I REALLY wanted to upshow myself from 2007 - what with this being my first representation of the Vanderkittens on home turf. The race itself was fairly uneventful. Or perhaps that is not the word as there were more crashes than I could count (Laura get better fast!) and people were trying to attack, but in good cat 3/4 form, EVERYTHING was brought back. Oh - as an aside, at the Spring Series there are only 3 categories for everyone - A, B, C - I take part in the B category with all my buddies in cat 3/4 men, the juniors, the majority of the women, and often anyone else who wants to show ;).
Coming into the last 2km the pack was really very close together, thereby making it rather difficult to move around. On this course the finish line sits about 800m out of the final turn and today we had a good headwind rushing the straight. Consequently, I wasn't too concerned about my positioning out of the final corner as I knew that this one was a sprint of patience. Rounding the corner I was in the top 15-20 and I continued to move up. First to the lefthand side of the road, then I saw it open up to my right and I swooped to that side (doesn't that make me sound like a superhero) - then things seemed to go into slow motion as I realized that I was going to win. I jumped around my last two competitors in the last 50m to take it at the line... by at least 2 inches!
Bruce Denis was a great sport about losing to a girl ;) and Chris was impressed as he has difficulty beating Bruce on the track this winter! Speaking of which - huge props to Chris who was in a 2 man breakaway with 10km to go before his race was called due to a crash victim in the middle of the road.
And with the race report out of the way, why was this the most elusive and lucrative win of my career you ask? Well elusive - come on now - who doesn't want to ROCK the world in March - many people would agree that the Spring Series are the be all and end all of the season (please note the irony!) And for lucrative - well today kids, for my first place finish I took home a big 25 bones! That's right baby, making my net income for the day $(1). I'm not actually complaining as I really enjoy these training races and it's nice to have an opportunity to get some good, cheap racing in!
So now that win #1 of the season on my fancy new BH is under my belt, we up the training and prep for more success!!! PS - I am hoping that maybe there are a few pics online from today - and I will post one later if a suitable one is found.
This morning close to 300 riders congregated for the first roadrace of 2008 - River Road - Spring Series #1. I went in with a little bit of apprehension as last year I made the break with about 30km to go and was dragged along to the finish (with some moral support from both Cody Campbell and Jonathan Page) to finish up 3rd (thank you yellow line violator!). So last year's success haunted me a little as I REALLY wanted to upshow myself from 2007 - what with this being my first representation of the Vanderkittens on home turf. The race itself was fairly uneventful. Or perhaps that is not the word as there were more crashes than I could count (Laura get better fast!) and people were trying to attack, but in good cat 3/4 form, EVERYTHING was brought back. Oh - as an aside, at the Spring Series there are only 3 categories for everyone - A, B, C - I take part in the B category with all my buddies in cat 3/4 men, the juniors, the majority of the women, and often anyone else who wants to show ;).
Coming into the last 2km the pack was really very close together, thereby making it rather difficult to move around. On this course the finish line sits about 800m out of the final turn and today we had a good headwind rushing the straight. Consequently, I wasn't too concerned about my positioning out of the final corner as I knew that this one was a sprint of patience. Rounding the corner I was in the top 15-20 and I continued to move up. First to the lefthand side of the road, then I saw it open up to my right and I swooped to that side (doesn't that make me sound like a superhero) - then things seemed to go into slow motion as I realized that I was going to win. I jumped around my last two competitors in the last 50m to take it at the line... by at least 2 inches!
Bruce Denis was a great sport about losing to a girl ;) and Chris was impressed as he has difficulty beating Bruce on the track this winter! Speaking of which - huge props to Chris who was in a 2 man breakaway with 10km to go before his race was called due to a crash victim in the middle of the road.
And with the race report out of the way, why was this the most elusive and lucrative win of my career you ask? Well elusive - come on now - who doesn't want to ROCK the world in March - many people would agree that the Spring Series are the be all and end all of the season (please note the irony!) And for lucrative - well today kids, for my first place finish I took home a big 25 bones! That's right baby, making my net income for the day $(1). I'm not actually complaining as I really enjoy these training races and it's nice to have an opportunity to get some good, cheap racing in!
So now that win #1 of the season on my fancy new BH is under my belt, we up the training and prep for more success!!! PS - I am hoping that maybe there are a few pics online from today - and I will post one later if a suitable one is found.
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