Venti Velocity

Two weekends ago was Velocity Stage Race in Edmonton.  My one year anniversary to road racing!  It had been blowing a gale up North all week, so it was going to be a tough weekend out on the barren prairie.  Riding in the wind and on the flats are definitely not my strengths (compared to basket weaving or cross-stitching, for example) so I was ready to hurt and hopefully improve on these weaknesses.

Friday we made the all-to0-familiar haul up the QEII to Edmonton and got right down to business with Nachos and my first attempt at slack-lining:

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to get to the Time Trial, my favorite event.  As per usual, I had wonderful intentions of warming up really good for this stage, but naturally found lots of excuses not to warm up properly.  Such as when I pulled the disc wheel out of its bag and realized it was lacking a cassette.  Oops.  I swapped a cassette over from another wheel, installed carbon brake pads (which should have been done the night before), pumped up the tires and started a warm-up half an hour before my start time.  Not too bad.  Except..cassette  needed a spacer.  Went and looked for a spacer and got distracted looking for 4-leaf clovers in the grass.  OK  that’s a joke, but I probably would have had more success looking for a 4-leaf clover than a cassette spacer in my kit-explosion of a duffle bag.  Brian Robinson came to the rescue with a spacer and I rocked up to the start line with enough time to ponder why I insist on being such a gong-show for Time Trials.   The 10 km course was a square and the first leg was into a head-wind which should have tipped me off to be in an easier gear than normal.  It did not.  I mashed away for 30 seconds and finally wound my cadence up to 40 and started finding a rhythm.  Rounded the first corner and battled a cross-wind.  I was obviously losing this battle when Pepper came whistling by me spinning like a sewing machine (I guess this was relative because she later told me that I looked like I was doing 1-legged squats).  Anyway, I ended up in 6th place after the TT, 1min 7sec down on the lead.  Pepper was in 2nd place and 16seconds down on the lead.  Most importantly, I made the revelation that I should be spinning a higher cadence in the wind rather than trying to stomp through it.  As Pepper pointed out, I spin easier gears when up against the resistance of a hill, so why not while against the resistance of wind?  Roger.

Saturday evening was the criterium in South Edmonton.  The full fan squad was out to watch, including my parents and good buds Tommy, Christina, Adam, Agata, Neil and new bud Charlie (the dog).  Everybody stuck together for the majority of the race and with 2 laps to go I decided to try and make a dent in my GC deficit.  I attacked coming down the home stretch in the headwind and got a good gap going into the 3 chicane corners.  On the second corner I looked back and thought I saw the pack 30′ behind me and sat up.  Rookie mistake.  I was only one corner away from hitting the long tailwind section where I could have recovered…and I later realized that there was only one rider 30′ back and not the whole pack.  Moral of the story:  Never give up until they’ve made contact!  (Why didn’t Aesop write road racing fables?)  Pepper did an awesome job of opening up her finishing sprint up before the last corner (earlier than any of us expected) and holding it to the line to gain a few seconds in GC with time bonuses  I finished in 4th place.

Sunday it was back out to Josephburg for the 90km pancake-flat road race.  The GC was still tight with the Pedalhead Road Works  team occuping 1st, 4th and 5th in GC.  Pepper was in 2nd (by 9 seconds), Christina from Top Gear/Road was in 3rd, I was still a minute down in 6th place and Shantel from Redbike was just behind me in 7th.  Pedalhead was in a great position and all they had to do was keep an eye on Pepper and Christina to maintain their GC dominance.  This put me in a fun position because I had nothing to lose by initiating a move off the front of the race.  There were several favourable outcomes that could potentially occur from this:  1)  The break sticks until the end and I potentially move all the way up to 1st in GC, or 2) I stay away long enough that Pedalhead has to work hard to bring me back while the other riders sit in, and then somebody counter attacks the (hopefully tired) Pedalhead team.

Using experience gained in Stages 1 and 2, I attacked towards the end of the cross-wind section and didn’t do 1-legged squats nor sit up too early.  I already had a decent gap when I hit the tailwind and looked behind me and see Shantel and Rhonda (Speed Theory) bridging up to me.  Awesome!  We joined up and started working the echelon and growing our lead on the main pack.  None of us were marked riders and we were going strong until we hit the tailwind section on the second lap, about 35km into the race.  I was in the lead and riding in the middle of the lane when a gust of wind flicked me at the ditch.   Shantel was sitting second wheel and wisely stayed on the road but Rhonda followed my bad lead and rode into the ditch.  I ended up riding through the ditch and back onto the road without dismounting and tagged back up with Shantel.  Rhonda wasn’t quite as lucky and took a bit more time to get back on the road, but we were optimistic she could catch back on. 

Going through the feedzone at the start of lap 3 I was led to believe we were on the final lap.  We were intended to do 4 laps but I figured they had cut it down due to the savage wind.  We still could not see the womens pack behind us and I was feeling strong and starting to think we might be able to stick it all the way to the end.  I wanted to take a long pull on the headwind section but pushed too hard and accidentally rode Shantel off my wheel.  Now I was cooked and on my own, but I figured I only had one lap (20km) to go so I might as well try to hold it.  By this point the wind was downright nasty and it wasn’t long before I was gobbled up by the remainder of the womens pack.  Pepper went to the front and slowed it down so I could recover.  Shortly thereafter, two of the Pedalhead girls (1st and 4th GC) got away with Pepper.  I tried to get up there as well and was followed by Kristin (remaining Pedalhead rider), but didn’t make it.  Rolled the rest of the lap with Kristin while the lead three drilled it.  As we neared the finish line there were soo many people standing around that I really did believe we were finished.  We were not.  That bell I had heard on the previous lap was for somebody else and we still had another 22km to go in the vicious wind.  I pleaded with Kristin not to leave me alone on the course and she kindly obliged.   Pepper ended up winning the race by 3 seconds and taking a 6 second time bonus, but still finished 4seconds down in GC for a hard earned 2nd place.  Pedalhead took a much deserved 1st, 3rd and 4th place in GC.

And that was that!  My 2nd Velocity Stage Race Experience.  Great weekend with lots of experience gained and lots of catching up with friends and family!  Really awesome to see a good womens field out at the race who weren’t afraid to mix it up.  

Mutual of Enumclaw Race was last weekend (May Long) and that post will come to you this week!

Next up for racing is Summer Solstice mountain bike race on Saturday at COP, then Pigeon Lake Road Race on Sunday at Mulhurst Bay!

Surf’s up.

Katy.

Calgary Bike Holiday and Dragon Boating

Today is Calgary’s 5th Annual Bike to Work day.  For many people it was either their first or only bike commute of the year, which is pretty rad.  I bike to work almost every other day of the year, so today I flexed my work hours and went for a morning ride NW of the City, which was also pretty rad.  Tom VanO adopted the same interpretation of the Bike Holiday and we had an 80km ride done and dusted by noon before the skies opened up.  I felt pretty smug about this and happily spent the rest of the day working my day job, knowing that I didn’t have a 3-hour soggy training ride looming.  It’s also particularly nice riding behind Tom because he is 6’5″ and my line of sight is under his saddle and over his bars…not only do I get an amazing draft, I also see the road ahead of his front wheel. 

Before I launch into my V.Island recap:  Cyclemeisters are hosting MTB Nationals this year at the Nordic Center in July and they tasked me with starting a FB Page for the event, which I found mildly amusing considering how FB savvy I am not (Thanks Tommy for helping me out and being the first person to ‘like’ the page!)  Check it out and stay tuned!  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/2011-Canadian-XC-MTB-National-Championships/214962498531081

And the Island…

We rolled in on Monday and the weather was fairly dismal so we occupied ourselves with food.  I was aleady knackered from a 3-day weekend of long training hours and full work days as I had a deadline to meet before I left, so I wasn’t too disappointed with the weather.  On Tuesday we rode down island to meet up with Danika who was riding up from Victoria.  We were invited to a Dragon Boat practice at 7pm that night, which sounded interesting, so we signed up.  On arriving at the harbour it quickly became apparent that these dragon boat ladies took their sport seriously:  Group stretching, personal paddles, Team Captain, DB specific clothing…and a genuine fear of ‘Fran’, the hard-ass coach.  Fran was out on the water with her competitive team during the group stretch, so we waited in suspense to meet this woman.  At precisely 7pm, the legend herself came marching down the dock.  The other 10 ladies on the team were permitted to enter the boat while Fran authoritatively provided us with a dryland demo before we were allowed to occupy Pod 3 (rear) of the boat.  Fran hunkered down on a stool at the front of the boat, facing us, and started barking commands, to which the other 10 ladies eagerly/fearfully followed.  At one point, Fran tore open a granola bar (I think she ripped the wrapper off with her teeth) and chewed that granola bar apart like a wild animal.  She was living up to her reputation.  The four of us newbs were all incredibly impressed with the power and grace of the team.  Fran didn’t fuss around with our names, just called us “al-BURRR-Tah” She played the drill-sergeant role very well, but there were plenty of laughs on the dock and in the parking lot afterwards.  It was a beauty evening and an awesome way to spend 2 hours, we were all grateful of the opportunity to attend.

The next day, Wednesday, we had grand plans to do a monster ride.  The frigid rain foiled that plan and we ended up with 3.5 hours in the saddle and frozen bodies.  I have never been that cold on a bike.  I was especially glad that I opted NOT to wear my wool baselayer that day because I didn’t want to be too hot.  I wore it every day after that.  It was also my first trip to Gabriola Island, which I’m sure is lovely when there isn’t torrential downpour.

Thursday we rode Danika towards Victoria, via Salt Spring Island.  I had never been to SS Island either, so this was a sweet ride.  Turned into a long day with 175 km in the saddle, my longest ride ever, to this point.

On Friday, Pepper and I had grand plans to do a  ride on Nanaimo River Road down to Cowichan Lake and home through Duncan, which should have been about 200km round trip.  We reckoned we would be looking at least 50km of gravel on private(ish) logging roads,  and couldn’t find much information on the road let alone records of anybody riding it.  We were both grinning as we geared up that morning…excited for the adventure of riding our road bikes on gravel roads over mountain passes, and ever-so slightly nervous for the unknowns.  Not enough nerves to cause apprehension, just enough to make sure we were really prepared:  Double breakfast, 6 jersey pockets each rammed with food, tools, tubes (and more tubes), rain gear, matches, jack-knife, lights, and our phones (which would be useful for taking pictures but not much more).

We set off on mildly heavy legs but in high spirits as we rolled out of town on the beautiful Nanaimo Lakes Road.   We  met gravel about 20kms later and were stoked!  The road was quite scenic as it traced the Nanaimo river through the hills towards the Cowichan Valley.  There were enough pot holes and sketchy sections to keep us on our toes and we only succumbed to two pinch flats.  We were passed by one logging truck and rode by a few cottages (shacks) on the side of a lake, but otherwise didn’t see a soul.  That is, until we bumped into three dudes building a bridge over our road, “hey guys!  Whatcha doing?”.   Dude #1 looked at us, presumably assessed us as clinically crazy, and walked away without saying a word. ha!  Dudes #2 and #3 were more interested in a conversation and they hounded us with questions/unsolicited advice:  “What are you doing out here on road bikes?” “We’ve never seen anybody out here on bikes”, “Where are you going!?”  “You’re going to run into 3′ of snow on the pass”.   Dude #2 was a little less talkative and his facial expression didn’t deviate from disapproving/bewildered.  Dude #3 was the engineer and initially quite interested in chatting, he even busted out his detailed map to show us alternate routes and where the snow would be etc.  We persisted with our original route and quizzed them on how long we would be in 3′ of snow (trying to gauge if it was actually possible).  They informed us we would be trudging through snow for about 5km which didn’t initially deter us.   At this point, they must have decided we were not only crazy, but also a liability, because they snatched up their map and asked us if we had SPOT to check in, to which Pepper said ‘nah, but my mom knows to be concerned if she hasn’t heard from us by dinner time’.  This probably led them to believe we were about 16-years old so they asked our names so they could ‘identify us on the Evening News Missing Persons Report’.  They were done with us and walked away, leaving us to snap this picture:

It was already getting late so we decided to retrace our steps back down the gravel road and look for a back route into Chemainus (which we saw on the dudes’ map).  We failed on that too and headed for home, ending up with 110km and 5hours in the saddle. 

Saturday called for an ‘easy’ day so we drove up to Buckley Bay and took the bikes/ferries across to Denman and Hornby Islands.  Finished the day with a drive up to the Waverly Hotel in Cumberland for dinner.

On Sunday we planned a big day and intended to burn out whatever else was left in our legs.  Made it down to Shawnigan Lake, all the way around, and back home.  217km, my biggest day on a bike! 

Monday was my last day on the Island and I was talking big about getting out for a ride.  Except it rained all day and I wasn’t interested in a soaking wet shammy, so we went for a hike instead.  Nice finish to a great week of training with great friends!

The last three days were spent working 12 hour days in the office and field, in preparation for this morning’s Bike Holiday.   Next weekend is Velocity Stage Race in Edmonton!

Walla Walla

Walla Walla, Washington:  The City so nice they named it twice!  Also home of the famous Walla Walla Sweet Onion, the Washington State Penetentiary, and the Tour of Walla Walla.  Several Albertans made the trip South (for the race, not the pen), including three of us piled into Jonathan’s car with freshly mounted summer tires.  I confidently assured Jonathan that he was A-OK to ditch his winter tires.  Then it snowed 1ft in Calgary the night before we left.  oh.  After half an hour on the snow shovel and cramming 3bikes, 13 wheels, 6 helmets and 3 bodies into the car we were on our way with room to spare.  We had arranged host housing and were looking forward to staying on a farm thriving with goats (preggo), cats, dogs, horses, lamas and of course our gracious hosts Patty and Clint.

 

Stage 1 was a 9.3 mile point-to-point Time Trial with a 400 foot climb.   No disc wheel this time, no Atlantic hurricane, no getting passed by 6+ girls, and no white knuckles from clenching the brakes.  Already a marked improvement over Cherry Blossom TT!  I’m not saying I was cruising along like the Bluenose Schooner I aspire to be, but I did manage to stay in the aero bars almost the entire 25 minutes.  Small victories.  I ended up 17th overall out of 28 racers and 1 min 36 sec down on the lead time.  Pepper put in an impressive 7th place on her (mom’s)  road bike and only 45seconds out of 1st, for her first race of 2011.

Stage 2 was the 30minute criterium on a 1.1mile loop in downtown Walla Walla.  I was particularly looking forward to this stage as it was my racing reunion with Pepper.  8 corners and rough pavement!!  Round and round we went with both of us riding comfortably.  It was great having Jonathan and Clint cheering for us from different corners, and of course Eddie G cheering “Go Alberta!” from various points along the course.  The race came down to a sprint finish with Pepper crossing the line in 4th and me in 3rd.  I picked up a 4second time bonus for placing 3rd, and remained at 17th place in the GC.

Stage 3 was the much anticipated 64 mile Kellogg Hollow Road Race which consisted of 3400 ft of climbing and guaranteed wind.  It started out with a 1-mile neutral roll-out across the dodgy train tracks…yes, Pepper bunny hopped them.  We embarked on 14-miles of generally uphill terrain and the pace was hot.  Within a few miles there were two girls up the road and about 10 of us slightly behind.  The pack size fluctuated over the next 50+ miles as riders caught up and dropped off.  The pace was alternating from full gas to Sunday Tea Party, which I am still getting accustomed to with road racing.  My descending, which leaves much to be desired, was gapping me slightly on the descents and forcing me to chase back on up the climb.  I was hanging in there, but not with much to spare.  At 5 km from the finish line, a sprint finish seemed inevitable and I was feeling fairly content just being there.  In the last kilometer I found myself in good position and somehow the legs were responding so I ditched the complacency and grabbed a wheel.  With 75m to go I realized I had lucked out with my wheel choice and was sitting in 2nd and still feeling decent, so I came around the lead wheel to squeak out the win by the narrowest of margins.  First Win of 2011!  Earned another time bonus of 10 seconds and was bumped up to 7th overall in the GC.

And now I can say I have been to Walla Walla.  The racing and weather were great and the area was beautiful, but what really made the trip were our accommodations with Patty and Clint.  They opened up their farm to us, provided wonderful company, and put on a fantastic spread of great food…home-made yogurt, granola, dried fruit, farm-fresh eggs, local produce & wine, and much more.  They even had a ‘barn cam’ to keep an eye on the pregnant goats from inside the house..we were ready to be part of the goat birthing action but it didn’t happen during our stay.  Too bad, I think that would have been name-sake worthy for sure.

I am out on Vancouver Island this week with Pepper and Judy for 7 days of riding.  Right now we are plotting out a route to head south and meet up with Danika tomorrow, who is a fellow AB racer currently living in Victoria.  Right on!

Katy.

Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic Race Report

First biking road trip and races of 2011 are in the bag!  We kicked it off with four days of riding around the Central Okanagan and made a dash for the border on Thursday morning.  As we pulled up to the border crossing we had a choice of two line-ups, both of which were only a few cars deep.  At the rear of one line were two young guys driving a 1970s Econoline motorhome and pulling a suspicious looking trailer. Deciding they were ‘probably going to get grilled and searched’, we opted for the other line.  Not only did that sketchy motorhome whistle right through the line-up, WE were randomly selected for a secondary search.  Served us right!  After successfully appeasing the secondary searchers, we continued our southward journey through the hills and orchards in Washington towards Oregon.  About 100km away from our final destination we pulled into a service station and who comes screeching and bouncing up to the pumps behind us?  The sketchy Econoline motorhome. 

The Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic was amazing.   Beautiful scenery, excellent courses, warm weather and great race-organization!  Well worth the trip down.

Stage 1 kicked off on Friday with a  56 mile road race in the Columbia Hills.  Time to spin those winter cobwebs out of the legs!   The race consisted of three laps on a relatively flat course with only one substantial climb.  Being a lone ranger in my 7th ever road race, my plan was to take a front-ish seat in the race so I could suss out the other riders and go with any early moves if they happened.  Seemed simple and things were going to plan for the first 10miles.  At the base of the aforementioned climb I quickly found myself eating dust at the back as a lead group sprinted up the hill.  I wiggled out of the traffic jam and waged a solo effort on the windy climb, figuring I didn’t have anything to lose.  I crested the climb a good 25 seconds behind the lead pack and naively still thought I could catch on.  I plowed through the snapping wind for another few minutes (very unsuccessfully I might add) before wising up and latching onto the chase group.  I ended up 13th overall in a field of 29, and 3rd in our chase pack, but almost 8 minutes down on the top-10. I would say the highlight of this race was when a big friendly dog wandered onto the course and a racer in the middle of the pack instructed us to start barking.   We didn’t, so she took  it upon herself to crane her neck skyward and bark.  Not a mean growly dog bark, more like a poodle yap “woof, woof, woof!!  GO HOME Doggy!  woof woof”.  Amusing, but seemingly effective.

Stage 2 was the Dufur Time Trial.  My start time wasn’t until 10:15am but we were at the course by 7 am because Shawna started at 8:15 am.  I had great aspirations of doing an hour long warmup including a substantial chunk on the road so I could get used to the aero bars.  Instead, I entered my custom time-warp machine and dispensed of almost three hours before beginning a lacklustre 20 minute warm-up on the trainer.  The wind was progressively getting stronger all morning and I contemplated ditching the disc wheel in favor of my borrowed Zipp404.  Meh, that would have required a cassette change and clearly I didn’t have 3 minutes to spare, so I wobbled over to the start line on the disc wheel and aero bars, feeling sketchier than the Econoline motorhome.  The first 200m of the race weren’t the smoothest, but I figured I would settle in by the 1km mark.  Next thing you know, I was in those drops and hanging on for dear life as the wind whipped me around.  I think I envisioned myself sailing along this TT course like the honorable Bluenose Schooner, but instead I felt like a rickety sailboat in the middle of a hurricane on the Atlantic Ocean.  Additionally, I was cursing like a sailor every time a gust whipped me towards the ditch or centerline.  Was I in a Time Trial or a Big Air Competition?  We had went off in 30 second increments and I knew it was bad when I lost track of how many girls passed me.  Not only was I in my drops and hoods, I was riding the brakes.  Obviously I need to get cool and start commuting on the pathways in my aero bars.  I finished a dismal 22nd place on this stage, 5 minutes slower than the winning time.  That knocked me down to 18th place on the GC and 13 minutes down on the leader.  Whatever, I was happy to be in one piece.  And as Josh pointed out, it was my second best race of the year!

Stage 3 was the 35 minute criterium at 8pm on Saturday night.  It was a flat, 4-corner course and we were racing under the lights!  Not quite as much fun as ripping CX bikes down the Dark Knight pump track under the cover of darkness, but fairly close. We all stayed together and I crossed the line in 4th place.   With 3 stages down I was sitting 17th in the GC, still 13 minutes down on the lead.

Stage 4 was the gruelling, but amazing, Orchard Run Circuit Race through the hills and cherry orchards above The Dalles, on Sunday morning.  The race was 42miles long with upwards of 5000ft of climbing, including a dirt climb which took us up to Pleasant Ridge and dumped us onto a snaking 5km descent.  We started out with two quick laps of a short circuit followed by two laps of the longer circuit.   There was a particularly rude climb at the beginning of this long circuit which had me begging for mercy.  Just when I thought I couldn’t hold the pace any longer, I looked behind me and realized there was a gap.  Neat, I was in the main group…couldn’t ease off now!  One of the Cycling BC riders who was sitting 6th in the GC broke away on the climb so I found myself in a group of 8 with the other GC contenders.  It was a good learning experience.  Our group of 8 whittled down to 6 by the time we hit the home stretch.  Evidently I didn’t read the tech guide closely, because the finish line was actually around the corner and 200 m up a hill!?  We carried our momentum around that corner and they opened up their sprint.  I followed suit but instead of charging towards the finish, I started flopping around like a fish.  It wasn’t pretty.  The wheel car pulled up beside me and escorted me on my 200m slither to the finish line.  Impressively, it took me an additional 43 seconds to cover those 200m than the rider who won our pack sprint.  I think I was actually going backwards a few times, and if my bike was equipped with 4-way flashers I would have used them.  Finished the stage in 7th place which bumped me up to 9th place in GC.

As if 4 stages of racing in 3 days weren’t enough, we hauled it all the way back to Calgary last night.  There’s a part of me that has always been drawn to the life of a long-haul trucker, and I think there are some parallels between trucking and cycling:

• Long hours plodding along, only to get to your end destination and turn around;
• Recording those plodding hours in a Logbook;
• Enjoying the scenery as you plod along;
• Having a plethora of gears to choose from, but still running out of gears on climbs.  Exception being that truckers can flip on their 4-way flashers and somehow be excused;
• Strategically planning your feeding and bathroom breaks to minimize stops;
• Nibbling on food you have stashed in your pockets while plodding along, and then binging when you arrive at one of your strategically planned food/bathroom stops.

Next up is for the sloppy snowy mess in Calgary to disappear so we can ditch the fenders and get on with riding!

10-4,
Katy.

Peace Out Trainer. And you too trainer tire.

On Tuesday at 10pm I finished my last trainer ride of the winter!   I still have a roller ride to do today, but at least it isn’t that despicable trainer.  Real road rubber has replaced the blue trainer tire, a sure sign that spring is here!  At this point I suspect everybody in Alberta will have something sarcastic to add..

Tomorrow Shawna and I are heading to BC for a few days of riding on dry roads before driving down to Oregon on Thursday. First road trip and first race of the season!  Here’s to hoping we don’t get booted out of Oregon for laughing too hard.  At anything and everything.

We’re both pumped to Race in the Cherry Blossom Classic, first out-of-province road race for both of us!

Stage 1 is the 56 mile Columbia Hills Road Race on Friday, presented by Big Jim’s Drive Inn (thanks Big Jim).   According to the website, this stage ‘favors neither the true sprinter nor climber and favours those who ride on brute strength.  The biggest challenge typically becomes the wind which at times can blow hard across the treeless landscape and whip through the canyons.’

Stage 2 is the 11 mile Dufur Valley Time Trial on Saturday Morning.   This is touted as a ‘beautiful and flat out and back course which takes riders through wheat fields and vineyards.  Magnificent views of Mt. Hood looming over the valley make this an incredibly unique time trial course.’  I’ll get back to you on those views and the beauty of this course.

Stage 3 is the Cherry City Criterium on Saturday evening.  It’s fast, flat and rectangular, and in ‘Downton The Dalles’.  We go off at 8:05pm–I love night racing!  Except when I can’t fall asleep until 3am.

Stage 4 is the 42 mile Orchard Run Circuit Race, which has a dirt section!!   Also, ‘amazing views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and the Columbia River Gorge winding through a sea of white blooming orchards.’

Last night was spent at Bow Cycle with Marty getting my road bike and wheels prepped for action.  Fresh cables and bar tape for a fresh season.   I’m still waiting on a freehub for my new-to-me road wheels, so Bow graciously hooked me up with a ZIPP 404 from their rental fleet.  I also borrowed the Cyclemeisters disc wheel for the TT and splurged for a TT helmet…I am almost going to look the part for the picturesque TT on Saturday.

And…the biggest news of all:  I am no longer Crooked Helmet Katy Curtis!  I’ll be sporting a new blue and white skid lid which I am optimistic will not be perpetually crooked.

Today’s Random Hot Tip:  Keep eating your sweets so you’re not relegated to eating disgusting old vegetables, all day long:

Monday was door-to-door cookie selling with the Brownies.  Nobody home at the first two houses, but the lights and blaring TV made the third place look promising.  The girls rang the doorbell and (im)patiently waited.  Footsteps!!  The next 8 seconds were spent budging each other out of the way as each girl tried for the front-most position at the door.   When an elderly man opened the door, the girls practically fell into the house while hollering in almost-unison, “Wanna buy some Girl Guide Cookies!?  $4 a box!!!!”   The man shook his head apologetically and explained he could not eat sweets.  A wave of sympathy washed over the girls’ faces and they politely replied “oh.  That’s ok, thanks anyway.  Have a good night”.  A brief moment of silence ensued as they turned on the doorstep to head for the next house.  Then one Brownie piped up  “Poor guy, he must have to eat vegetables all day”.  The other two nodded in agreement.
***

Off to ride the rollers.  And probably fall off.

Katy.

Let’s Roll!

Welcome to the first multi-sentence post of my long-promised blog!  I wish I had a punchy opening line to declare why I am starting a blog and what its focus will be.  I do not.  However, when I was in Grade 2 I considered myself a blossoming creative writer and kept a journal called “Katy’s Funny Stories”.    It was a cream-colored Hilroy 40page Primary Exercise Book, the pages were half blank/half ruled and the lines were red/blue/red/blue.  It was a real-life account of all the wildly hilarious things that went on in my second grader life.  I was a writer, not an artist, so I contracted my mother to illustrate the stories which I inked.  Life got in the way of my creative writing career and I went on to pursue other endeavours, such as Grade 3, softball and chicken farming.  These days, as I aspire to race my bicycle faster, harder and farther, I am once again inspired to put pen to paper.  I googled it, $0.55 will get me into a brand spanking new, yet classic, Hilroy Primary Exercise Book.  Too bad I still can’t draw to save my life.  Luckily it’s 2011 and there are other options….and thus the birth of my blog.  Ta da! 

Not that this was created overnight or anything.  I am, after all, the person who made a futile attempt to be a trend-kicker by deactivating my Facebook page 14 months ago.  Last Friday I revived that FB page and now I have a blog in the public domain–whoa! Some (Cara) would call me a conformist, but whatever. 

Here’s the background:  I set myself a loose target of having this blog in full operation by January 1.  By last Friday (March 4),  I was severely behind schedule.  As in, I had been talking about my imaginary blog but hadn’t done a single thing about it.  That afternoon I took the plunge and signed up for a WordPress account, which took a whopping 4 minutes.  I then committed to myself, and at least 3 other people, that I would have it up and running by this Sunday, today, March 13.  Yup, it’s 10pm and I still have a blank blog.  To be fair, daylight savings pinched an hour from today’s productivity.   OK that’s weak, I have never lived in Saskatchewan or Japan (or any other place that doesn’t recognize daylight savings time) and I have been ‘springing ahead’ every spring for 28 years.  In truth, I was envisioning this incredibly clever, graphic, entertaining, witty and informative blog that was going to have multiple pages with copious pictures and links to other fun stuff…and whatever else cool blogs usually contain.  Anyway, here it is, the 11th hour on Sunday and I am in the all too familiar position where I realize I have set overly ambitious targets and should focus on scratching together an inaugural blog post.  Gotta start somewhere right?  Yeh, I’ll go with that…and the extra fancy stuff will come later, if I can figure it out.  Or I’ll contract it out.

So!  March 13, 2011.  98 days after the last race of 2010, and 18 days before the first race of 2011.  Here is a summary of the content that would have been on my blog, had I started it January 1:

January kicked off with a large group of us descending on Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass:  Good laughs with good friends, a talent show, and a few Twister tournaments.  I won the first round of the Twister tournie quite handily and thought I had the tournament in the bag.  I divulged my Top Secret Twister Tactics to my competitors and was immediately knocked out of the next round.  Damn.  Over the next few weeks I pretended to be a xcountry skier and logged a considerable amount of time on the skate and classic skis, including another hut trip into Elk Lakes Hut.  No Twister that time, but the highlight was a midnight snowshoe in the falling snow to a peak overlooking the Upper Lake, followed by 2 cookie sheets of woodstove nachos at 2am.  Between two of us.

Ski season came to an abrupt halt on January 23 when I inconveniently sprained my ankle.  A gentle reminder not to over-estimate my abilities on long skinny classic skis, (which had been lightning-waxed by Marg) in the trees and deep snow.  With my Birkie debut scheduled for February 12 in Edmonton, I smartened up and hopped on the trainer for a couple weeks, optimistic my ankle would beat the healing curve and be ready to race.  It wasn’t, and since the 55km race (with a 5.5kg pack) was already a huge stretch on my xcountry skiing ability, I bowed out.  Hard to believe, I know.  My Birkie debut will wait for 2012.

February 17 saw me venture down to South Carolina for the Women’s National Endurance Development Camp.  It was…awesome!  30 hours of riding in the backwoods of South Carolina in the sunshine (except when it wasn’t sunny), lots of eating, laughing, bike fitting, and of course getting chased by dogs.  I’m not a dog expert, but I grew up on a farm and am familiar with riding on gravel roads around Calgary; I am accustomed to farm dogs retreating when you give them a stern “GO HOME!”.  Not the case in South Carolina.  I gave myself a sore throat and didn’t ward off a single canine.

Two more weeks of training in Calgary then it’s off to the Shuswap for a week of riding before driving down to the Cherry Blossom Classic in Oregon!  Not sure what’s up after that, perhaps Walla Walla.

I read somewhere that blog posts should be short and be limited to one topic.  I think my first post fails on both accounts.  At least I didn’t have to draw a picture of us riding our bikes in South Carolina being chased by dogs, with Shady Bob’s shack in the background.

Signing off from my Bushleague Blog with 2 hours to spare,

Katy.

oh hi

Blog coming soon!