This past weekend was the Barrio Logan in San Diego. It’s nice to have races that don’t take forever to drive to occasionally. But before I talk about Barrio I also did two other races in the previous weekends as well as some other things happening in life.

So firstly, my day to day riding has been limited significantly. Back in early February Brandon asked me to marry him and we were planning a small wedding for July. In April we decided we would try and rent a house since out lease was nearing its end at our current residence. Upon looking at places to rent, we decided we’d rather buy something. We both have decent incomes, have some cash saved up, and are established enough in our lives to make this kind of move. I mean we’re old, it’s not like we’re just starting out in life as some just out of college couple!

As we started our house hunt and worked on getting our loan pre-approval we realized we could get a much better loan amount and rate if we were married. So on April 14th 2011 we eloped… We eloped for a loan for a house… Yes, not the most romantic of things but it was the most economical choice which we both agreed on! So Brandon is no longer boyfriend but husband!

We have since found a house we like and are currently in the process of trying to purchase it. Hopefully all goes well, it is quite the “process”.

Anyways, with all the above stuff that’s been going on, and some crappy San Diego weather, I have not been riding much!

So maybe 3 weeks ago was the Cyclo-vets crit. I think I had only rode my bike once in the week before and that was on the track. Pretty sure that was my first real workout on the track too so my legs were sore. It was a 3/4 race around an easy course in Sorrento Valley. Race-wise this was the most comfortable I’ve felt in a crit because I trusted all the girls around me. However, this was also a 40 minute crit, 10 minutes longer than any of the ones I had done before (on top of not riding much). It was mentally brutal for me because I was gassed fast and my legs were slow feeling do to the track. It’s been so long I can’t remember much else from it other than somehow I pulled off a 3rd place finish amongst the Cat4′s.

The next week I went with Alison to the LA Circuit race. I can’t tell if I liked this race or not… I believe it was a 4 mile loop with two 180 turns. I hadn’t rode the bike since the Cyclo-vets crit so I expected little. It was a frustrating race because no one would make a move, we were riding around at like 16mph. I tried 2x time make a break but no luck, so I just stayed near the front of the pack the entire boring ride. I chit chatted a bit and one girl made a comment about it but I said if we’re only going to go this fast we needed to do something to kill the time. She laughed. It was only on the last turn that it really picked up and I screwed up big time. Sprinted WAY too early and was not able to maintain it the distance needed so I just gave up and think I got 20th. It was a good sprint if I didn’t go like a freaking MILE early! :P

Since then I’ve been able to ride a bit more thankfully. So last weekend was the Barrio Logan. Our race wasn’t until 4:30pm. Poor Brandon had to listen to me all day be wishy-washy on whether I was going to go or not. It looked crappy out and it was so late I kinda wanted to just stay home. We went out and did house stuff for the first half of the day. An by 1:30 I decided I should do the race seeing as I had already paid for it.

So I packed up my shit and we headed down to a gross area of San Diego. At a bunch of the races I’ve been too, people feel comfortable leaving their trainers out by their  cars when they race… Not here, it is a super scummy area.

I warmed up on the trainer for a bit and watched the W1-3 and the M3/4 races until it was our turn.

The field was SMALL! The results only list 11 people. I thought there were a few more but I can’t imagine anyone dropped off.

This is a figure 8 course meaning 8 turns and there was a pretty decent headwind on the back half. For the most part the street was “good” but there were several reflectors and a couple of bumps here and there. I stayed towards the front the majority of the race. I know people say not to do this but as slow as we were going I felt like I was coasting half the time. I tried to make a break on the backside a few times and I believe a little group of us got away for a bit. We tried to work together to maintain but were brought back after awhile. A few more unsuccessful breaks were attempted and pretty much we just did the hamster thing the entire race. I don’t think I ever fell much behind 4th so I’m not sure what was going on towards the rear.

Interestingly when I was going through some of the photos from Cyclo-vets I was looking at my pedal position while going through turns. It was “close” to the ground but all the turns felt comfortable so I didn’t worry about it. Three days before Barrio I bought some new pedals… better pedals… potentially wider pedals?!… I clipped twice while making turns. The first time it happened it didn’t even occur to me, I just heard a weird noise. The second time I barely felt it but then it dawned on me. Checking out the pedal after the race you can definitely see where I shaved off the edge. I figure now that it’s shaved down sufficiently it won’t be a problem in the future!

Anyways, it was only on the last lap where the pace picked up. Again I stayed towards the front and out of the final turn I instantly popped in front and sprinted. I felt pretty good at this point and maintained my position all the way until like 5 inches from the finish! Oh well, considering I was debating not even racing, I’m happy with 2nd!

Oh, I also won a prime! Not a nasty sushi-poppers one this time! It was a gift certificate to a place called Heaven Sent Desserts! Now, looking at the photos of me compared to the other girls… I really don’t need to be eating desserts… But I’m still going to use the gift certificate, lol. Then maybe I should stop eating desserts and maybe I’ll get first… /sigh food.

Tomorrow I leave for Arizona… again.

This time I’ll be in Tucson with both my TT and road bike. My jeep is so handy. Two bikes, one on each side with luggage, trainer, work stand, and whatever else down the center. And now that I’ve discovered cruise control, a 6-7 hour drive doesn’t seem as bad. Plus this time I get to listen to my own music, the entire way!

With the added benefit of the time change, I should actually arrive with sunlight left! Very exciting. Even more exciting is meeting up with the rest of my new team, DudeGirl. It will be nice to have teammates this time to share the experience with.

Brandon just got back home yesterday, so that’s kind of a bummer to bail for the weekend right off the bat but he’s a package of supportive awesomeness and is excited for me.  As he cannot leave with me on Thursday he may try and fly out Friday night to watch the rest of the race and drive back together. I’m hopeful this works out but also would be fine if he chooses to take the weekend to himself to recuperate from his 3 weeks away from home.

So tonight is go home, grab some travel foodage, clean the bikes, last minute laundry, and Brandon time.

The Friday race doesn’t start until noon so plenty of sleep in time with no urgent rushing to get to the race. That’s a nice way to start. Saturday and Sunday are awful early though… Saturday is like 7am and 30 minutes away from the hotel while Sunday is at like 6:45!!! Sunday is only perhaps 2 miles from our hotel tho. While racing that early kinda stinks it will provide ample time to get back to the hotel, shower, and hopefully be on the road to home no later than 10-11am! Back in San Diego with sunlight to spare again!

As before the goal is to stay safe and do my best. It will be my third time on my TT bike so I just don’t want to be last. And I’d really love a crash free race for everyone, especially after Callville.

First there was Ruby…

Ruby was a good bike. It got me into the sport, made it to the top of Onyx Summit twice, and now gets me to work when I commute. I outgrew Ruby rather fast, I believe in about 6 months. I probably should have gone for something a little better right off the bat but you never know how much you’re going to like something longterm and bikes are expensive.

Ruby is dying this weekend. It served me well but I’m going to start learning how to take it apart and put it back together so I can be semi-self-sufficient with bike maintenance. I pretty much do all my own technical type stuff, there is no reason to not do the same with bikes.

Then there was Amira…

This is my main bike and I love it. Steve at UC Cyclery built it for me and it is “teh” awesome. This is the bike I’m starting racing with. Someday, hopefully not soon, I’m sure it will die a horrible death in a crash. But right now it’s my favorite thing. We did this bike right with awesome parts. It’s had a few issues along the way but those seem mostly work out at this point.

Now there is Transition!

I caved, I got a TT bike. After Valley of the Sun, seeing that my biggest hold back was on the Time Trial… I decided to take the plunge. It’s interesting and certainly not going to be my favorite thing to ride but it’s still pretty entertaining. I rode it for the first time last Sunday and it’s going to take some getting used to. I was definitely not holding any lines the first couple of times around Fiesta Island. By the third lap though things were starting to get better. Not sure it’s totally fitted yet as after the first ride I went back to UCC and they adjusted some things for me. I haven’t gotten a chance to ride it since so hopefully I will today or Saturday since I signed up for a Fiesta Island TT this weekend! I have no expectations for this little race, it’s mostly just to get on the TT bike and see how it goes. I even bought one of the Alien helmets! Yup, you didn’t think we could look any “douchier” in our spandex outfits, did you? Throw on a TT helmet and you have successfully smashed that thought!

Riding the TT bike is way different than the road bike. I must admit I giggled when I heard the boys moan about their balls and looked at all the funky saddles they used on their bikes to relieve pressure on their “always in the way” junk. I didn’t realize how much more forward you sit due to the TT bike position! I mean it make sense that you’d have to roll yourself forward to be able to ride on your elbows… You go from sitting on your butt bones on the road bike to sitting on everything that’s soft and sensitive on that TT bike… It’s not that comfortable, hah. People have said you get used to that but I’m pretty sure that means they’d just killed all the nerves they had in that area.

Over the past year I’ve been to a bunch of the local bike shops. Trek, Performance, Nytro, B&L, and several with names I can’t remember. If you notice one thing about the names of my bikes, they are all Specialized and I’ve bought every one of them at UC Cyclery. With all the bike shops I just mentioned never once have I had nearly as good an experience there like I have every time at UCC. Some of the mentioned stores just wanna make a sale and aren’t really interested in helping you find what’s best for you, others you can walk in and can’t get them to help you even if you were dying on their floor, and then there are the ones who are just plain clueless…

UCC is none of that. You go in, they ask if you need help. You wanna just look around, they back off and let you look. You got a question, they got an answer… if they dunno the answer they FIND you the answer. You buy a bike from them and they will do tune-ups on it for life as long as your the original owner. One of the other shops gives you just 1 free tune-up then charges $60 every time! I just can’t speak highly enough about UCC. I would never recommend another shop to a friend. They’ve always provided quick turn around times if I leave my bike and quite often they are able to just adjust whatever on the spot if I stop by. You aren’t just a faceless person there and that’s important to me.

So that was my shameless plug for the best bike store around. I can do that since this is my blog.

Anyways, I should probably go make audio now since my job funds this obscenely expensive hobby!

My very first road race is this weekend. It will be in Boulevard, CA. Ever heard of it? I hadn’t…

It’s freaking cold in Boulevard, CA. Like, I had no idea how cold it could be 90 minutes away when it’s 70 here. It’s almost depressing, lol.

Anyways, Saturday morning I will be getting up at the gawd-awful time of 4am. The goal is to be out of the house by 4:45 to make the long trek to the race. My group starts at like 7:10am but I need to get there early enough to park, get my packet, etc. I hope that leaves me enough time…

I did a loop on the course last weekend with another SDBC girl. It didn’t seem bad at all. I just don’t want to be last!

Brandon will be making the trek with me to this event. I told him he didn’t have to, I mean it’s a horrible hour but he wants to support me which is awesome. Hopefully well be home by 1pm and can enjoy the rest of the weekend then. I mean it is Superbowl Sunday… and the Steelers ARE going to massacre the Packers!

I actually signed up for another race the following weekend in Arizona. Brandon won’t be able to drive out with me there unfortunately since I’ll be leaving Thursday afternoon. It’s a stage race so there is a Time Trial on Friday, Road Race on Saturday, and a Crit on Sunday. That should be an interesting experience and a tiring weekend. It’s about a 6 hour drive there from what I see on Google Maps. I already added all the points for the races on my GPS so I can hopefully find them easily. I have a coworker who also races and am hoping he’ll ride with me so I don’t have to make the trip alone… Not to sound lame but I’ve never drove more than 3 hours by myself. There’s a lot of freaking sand between San Diego and Gooodyear Arizona. Company would be welcome.

The title of this post can refer to 2 things really. Cycling and wedding.

Brandon and I are practical… After considering all the options for a wedding and reception(s), figuring out how to include everyone, where to do it, cost… I think we have come to a solid conclusion. We don’t want to spend some 20k+ on a wedding. Most of the people we have asked about it have given us that price range and up (friends and wedding planners alike)! I want a house, a nice house… a house with a nice kitchen and workout room… with a 2+ car garage so I can store the hardtop of my jeep in the summer. I feel good that both me and Brandon were like “Screw that!”… lol.

So we have a nice and sensible plan in the works. One that gears us more in the direction of future than present.

Well that’s pretty crazy isn’t it?

I really suck at updating this thing but I think that picture is worth a post.

Saturday, January 29 2011 was an interesting day.

It started with the standard SDBC ride. I’ve recently moved up to the A group which is their fastest Saturday ride. Amazingly I am able to keep up without too much issue. This particular day as the group was going down a hill at around 40mph a rather unnerving “braking” sound was produced and slight mass panic and avoidance occurred. Dude to my right started drifting towards me to avoid imminent crash happening to the right of him. I in turn slide over to the left and was riding knuckle to knuckle with some dude beside me. I held my breath, told myself not to panic, and hoped my bike crash wasn’t going to be at the same speed the cars were going… From what I hear only one person went down and another persons bike was damaged but they managed to stay up. Ah, survival…

Brandon was checking the surf while I was riding.

The A ride is nice and fast. I was back at the bike store by 11:30m and home by noon. Brandon and I had made dinner plans for around 5:30 earlier in the week but our modem/router crapped out so I scheduled AT&T to come between 12pm and 4pm to fix our issue. What is life without internet (and TV with this setup)? Little did I know I was undermining Brandon’s plans.

I didn’t expect the internet dude to come at noon, I mean does that ever happen? Brandon and I decided to shift our dinner plans to a more local restaurant a little later in the evening because we felt it time may get crunched.  By about 1:30pm Brandon said he was going to go check the surf again. He calls me about half an hour later asking if the AT&T guy is there yet. No… Brandon comes home and we start watching “Twilight” on the AppleTV to kill time. Finally at 3:30 the AT&T dude calls, comes over and fixes the internet. He’s done by 4pm.

My first thought is setting the router back up with our SSID and password so all our shit connects back up. I want my damn internet. But Brandon said he wanted to go get Golden Spoon and look at the waves again before dinner. I’m not going to say no to Golden Spoon. We get our obscene amounts of frozen yogurt (they even had coffee flavor!) and head to the cliffs. We get out and walk over to the edge and look down… And of course start reading whatever is written in the sand… takes a few seconds to comprehend… and I was blown away. I didn’t even have an inkling this was going down. Brandon gets down on one knee, pulls out a ring and that’s as perfect as it can get.

I said yes obviously.

Poor guy, sitting around waiting for this damn AT&T dude to show up, hoping the tide or people down ruin his writing in the sand, lol.

iPhone pictures turned out pretty good considering it was later in the day outside and taking perfect pictures wasn’t in the forefront of my mind.

Then we headed off to dinner at West, a steak house type place right down the road from us. The food is so awesome there.

It was a pretty great day.

I have slacked commuting in to work the past few weeks. It’s pitchy-black out in the morning, colder, and been raining a lot recently.

I was able to remedy 2 of the 3 above issues.

I got myself a headlight which works surprisingly well for its teeny-tininess.

It’s pretty neat. The light mounts onto the handle bars with a little rubber loop. It has a wire hooks into a little battery pack which velcros onto the frame. The little battery pack is USB rechargeable and is the only part that needs to be removed and reattached for use. Easy to charge at work and/or home. There are 3 illumination settings and the brightest gets about 3 hours of life which is more than enough to get me to and from work w/o a charge.

To combat the “frigid” San Diego mornings I got myself a new jacket. Previously I had a thermal jersey but that thing gets TOO hot.

This jacket is awesome. It’s more like a lightly insulated windbreaker. But it’s form fit unlike my other windbreaker so I’m not getting all the flapping from the material that I used to get and it keeps me warm enough w/o me overheating. Additionally it’s super light weight and crunches up very small to fit in my pack on the ride home with no issue.

I can’t do much about the rain until God steps aside and gives me reign. Fear that day!

With the end of DST in sight, I also purchased a trainer. I love my roller and all and will continue to use them but I can only manage about 60 minutes on them max, normally I do only 30. At least with a trainer I can zone out an ride them for 2+ hours. I got a 13 week HIT workout I am starting tomorrow night on the new trainer. I’ve been doing intervals on the rollers the past few weeks and see a huge difference in my ability so it will be interesting to see what a structured program can do!

I did drop out of the Velodrome class. Maybe I’ll pick it up again when summer rolls around. Driving all the way downtown at 7pm on a Wednesday and not getting home until 10pm just kinda of sucks. Especially during winter when it gets dark at like 5pm, lol. Oh well, I have enough on my plate right now anyways.

There’s more to write but time to go prepare for the ride home!

Interesting…

• fixed gear bike
  • pedal forward, bike moves forward
  • pedal backward, bike moves backward
  • stop pedaling = not a good idea since if the bike is moving… so are the pedals
• no brakes
  • what the fuck…
• banked track
  • the thing isn’t flat…it got like a 27 degree angle thing going on

Interesting…

I used one of their bikes. It was pretty horrid. I didn’t like trying to get my running shoes into the cages on the pedels. I felt trapped to it, heh. And the saddle was so not comfortable.

Took me a few laps to get accustomed to the banking of the track. I initially felt like the bike would just slip down.

Overall is was fun. I kept getting behind some guy who would create big gaps with the person un front of him… then speed up to close the gap. I was not comfortable riding as close to his wheel as they wanted since I had no breaks and he kept surging and slowing down. Once I finally got behind someone else I was more at ease. So next week I know who to avoid.

I think I’m still looking forward to next week..

Never search YouTube for sports stuff btw… nothing good can come of it.

I don’t think I’ve posted since Brandon went to North Carolina for training. Just two weeks left to go in his 3 month “vacation”.

And in that time I’ve excelled at a new hobby. Cycling.

I had posted about it a few times when I first started, prior to Brandon’s departure but since then I have focused much of my free time towards it… I LOVE it! And… I am apparently not too bad at it from what friends tell me so that’s an added bonus.

So, I’d like to start blogging again a bit more once Brandon gets back. With cycling being a new focus in my life I have a feeling a majority of posts will be geared towards my new trial an errors! First and foremost is the Tour de Poway coming up on October 3rd. While considered just a “fun ride” I have signed up for the century (100 miles). The most I have done to date in a single ride with 80 miles but considering 40 miles of the was uphill one way… 100 miles of majority flat scares me little.

Another thing coming up, actually before the century, is my first velodrome class which begins next Wednesday! I am pretty excited about it. I want to start racing next season. I was hoping more for road races but since those are few and far between in the SoCal area crits are seeming to be the focus. Velodrome will teach me some close pack racing skills at high speeds and a bunch of other bike handling things that I feel will get me in a more confident place.

I also plan to start running again next week… with little expectations. More just to add another form of cardio into my life but not necessarily to get “good” at it. I am interested to see if I’ve improved at all tho considering all the cycling I have been doing.

So to end the week right, before I start focusing more on being healthy I had my farewell binge. There was the donut at work for breakfast. The frappacinno and cookie at lunch. And the caramel apple for dinner. And as I gnawed on each of those items I wasn’t even really that in to them. Should make the hill ride interesting tomorrow…

Kittens are still kittens (but bigger). Work is still work (with more work…). And everything thing else is business as usual. Baking has gone to the back burner until the kittens turn into catsloths and I can count on them to sleep 19 hours a day. Right now they are constantly on the counter tops and nothing can be left unattended without them getting into it.

I have more to post but it will have to wait a bit!

Yup, there’s been a lot going on in the past few weeks and I am SOOOO tired.

I moved in with Brandon this weekend. Spent all last week packing up my apartment after work. Brandon would come over and grab a few boxes each night and move them over. Then Saturday we had movers come to get the large things. I have many large items it seems… Is this more than most?:

• sectional couch
• futon
• queen size bed
• 2 book shelves
• 3 dressers
• glass entertainment center
• computer desk

It never seems like that much but it took them 2 hours to get it all down to the truck and another hour to unload it all. Whatever tho, it was worth the money and also worth us not breaking our own backs! We still need to unpack and such.

The garage is currently packed with stuff so neither of us can park in it. Brandon did get these awesome surfboard racks tho that hang the boards on the wall to clear up some space. Those look really awesome mounted! So we’ll slowly unpack over the next week or so. I still need to clean the old place but I’m hoping to get the majority of that done tonight. I need to turn the keys in by Wednesday anyways.

Now, hopefully Brandon won’t get transferred anywhere immediately.

Running still sucks. I hate it. I dread attempting it today as I’m still tired and sore but I only ran once last week. Cycling however is going swimmingly! I get faster each time and this coming Saturday I’ll try one of the longer rides with one of the local cycling clubs. I’m excited for that, those are pretty enjoyable.

Then in 2 weeks I go home and visit my parents for roughly 10 days! I’m stoked for that as I haven’t been home in a LONG time.

And when I get back… I want to BAKE! I’ve not done that in forever since it’s generally a weekend thing and I was rarely hanging out at my place on the weekends. Cakes incoming!