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friday, march 10
Well this winter I've been doing spin class a couple of days a week - Tuesday and Thursday - and I tried to get to yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I'm sorry I didn't do more weight training -- oh well, that is just something I'm going to have to try to do more of next winter.  I don't particularly want to spend time in the gym these days -- it's time to ride!

saturday, march 11
A great weekend in Austin at Kate and Bryan's.  The Shipmans are such cool people -- Kate has such a great sense of humor and such enthusiasm!  They ride a recumbent tandem.  Their nickname is 'Captain Kate and Deadeye on Lazy-boy.'  Kate's the captain, Bryan's the stoker (he's blind) and the recumbent, of course, is 'Lazy-boy.'

So today we did the "twelve mothers" ride, (so called by Kate because Dallas has the 'three sisters' and she figured Austin needed something similar -- both the mothers and the sisters, of course, being hills) which is south and west of town.  It was a very hilly route and boy!  was it cold when we started out.  And very, very windy.  I was pretty miserable when we started out, but it warmed up later.  Ashish, Tammy, Alissa and Debbie (the last three being the gu girls) had a push-up contest at mile 25 or so... then Ashish got cramps not too long after that (thus earning the nickname "crampy gu") and the gals got lost and went way out of their way.  I was glad I didn't get lost because I was feeling pretty tired by the end of the ride.

sunday, march 12
Another cold ride.  We left from Kate and Bryan's place in Pflugerville and did a loop.  Still feeling some fatigue and soreness from yesterday.  Lee Clifton kicked everyone's butt -- pretty amazing considering that not that long ago he was in the hospital because of a bad accident (some jerk hit him).  But all in all, a fun ride!
 
 

sunday, march 19
Didn't get much done over the last few days.  Need to get more miles in.  Today I did Chris' McKinney ride.  Windy, cold, tiring - a rough day. 
 

saturday, march 25
This was the TAR training ride kickoff.  Good fun!  We got completely drenched on the first round around the lake.  Then it cleared up and we dried off a little bit.  Most flat.  A good group with a fast speed. Anne was the training ride leader and gave everyone a toy frog to start off with.  The only problem was that the group seemed to want to stay together so we wound up taking fairly long breaks at the pit stops.  But we actually had pit stops - that was nice!  Unfortunately due to the rain and the mud on the WRL trail, one rider fell, and from what I heard, bent up his bike frame pretty bad.  He was OK though.  I have to admit, my first thought on hearing that was, "bummer!" but my second thought was "Hey... new bike!"  tee hee.  Now you just watch - I'll wipe out and have to get a new bike.  No, no, I don't want to wipe out!
 

sunday, april 2
Due to losing the sweep ride leader, who will henceforth be known as "Wrong Way" Richard (how can you get lost going around White Rock Lake?!) this edition of "Ramp Up," our series for beginning riders, was a little harrowing for me.  After a nice easy lap, we got back to the cars, and I realized that we were missing at least three people.  So I hop back on the bike (after sitting around chatting to people for a good 15 minutes, in which I now realize I'd let myself cool down too much) and set off around WRL the opposite direction... no Richard.  And, of course, the farther I went, the more I worried, because, after all, how can you get lost going around WRL?  And the more I worried the faster I went -- I was simply FLYING! -- but unfortunately, later, my knees were bothering me.  Testimony to the fact that you should NOT push yourself until you've adequately warmed up.

Turns out that they'd gone off into the neighborhoods for some bonus miles!  oh well, at least they got back OK

thursday, april 6
Knees still bad.  Been to the pin doctor and have tried a couple of short, easy rides, but still having pain. However, am still going to Austin this weekend for the Ride for the Roses.  I've been planning this for a while!
 

sunday, april 9
Spent another weekend hanging out with Kate and Bryan!  Austin road trips are such fun!

Saturday, just noodled around south of town.  Knees weren't too bad.  Made a point of stretching a lot.  Also got a massage Saturday afternoon when I went by the Austin Convention Center for packet pick-up.  The massage therapist worked on my IT band a lot -- she said I was really tight there -- and that seems to have helped no end. 

Sunday's ride was great, although it started late due to the massive crowds.  I hear they were a little overtaxed -- I know some of the rest stops ran out of bananas and I heard that they ran out of t-shirts as well.  I have to admit, I'm a little surprised -- Lance wins the tour, of *course* his ride is going to be fantastically crowded... well, duh!  The only bad thing about this ride is that I didn't manage to hook up with anyone I knew... mostly, I suppose, due to the big crowds.  Oh well.  It wasn't really that hilly, except at the end.  A very enjoyable ride.

sunday, april 16
The Greater Dallas Bicyclists's Lancaster Country Ride was Saturday.  A lot of fun.  There were a lot of nice bluebonnets on the route, and I ran into my old biking buddy Lela, a co-worker, and a couple of other people I knew.  There was quite a bit of rough road, though.  I took it pretty easy and enjoyed just tooling along talking to people.   Today's edition of Ramp Up was a little less harrowing than the previous one. 
 

sunday, april 30
Two weeks in a row, flats.  I don't think I'm going to ride at lunch anymore.  However, I'm getting much better at changing said flats!  I have gotten my time down to under 10 minutes.  Okay, so I'm not exactly a speed demon, but still, for me, that's pretty good.

The Muenster Germanfest ride was completely fun.  I did the 100k and boy, was it a hilly 100k.  I have to admit, I think I was ready to do a 100k, but I don't think I was ready for that particular 100k.  I felt pretty strong at the beginning, and was able to keep up with some faster riders, but I was very tired and sore at the end of it, and I had lost the group I was riding with.  That seems to be my biggest problem -- maintaining a reasonable speed.  I can go quite strongly for the first 30 or 40 miles, but after that, I just keep on slooowing down.

Oh well, I hit the biergarten afterwards and had my 2 free beers (they were some watery American stuff like Bud, but hey, you can't complain about free beer!  at least not too loudly!)  Anyway, after that I wasn't feeling any pain.  Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling the effects of the alcohol at all -- must have burned it off pretty quickly because usually after two beers I'd be feeling it.   Hmm.  Mental note, perhaps beer is a good post-ride drink!  at least in moderation.  I'm sure I don't want to get dehydrated and I know alcohol will do that to you. 

I ran into my friend Lela again, but she and her date were doing the shorter ride because they had to be back in Dallas at a reasonable time.  Also, the ride organizers  started the ride a little late because there was a horrendous amount of traffic coming out of Dallas.  TxDOT was working on a bridge and they had the interstate completely diverted onto the access road, so things had slowed to a crawl for a good 5 mile stretch.  I also ran into my friend Amy, the racer -- she is a fast, fearsome chick.  We enjoyed chowing down on German food afterwards.

The only complaint I'd have about this ride is that it's darn hard to find your way around at the end.  The biergarten and Germanfest are nowhere, but nowhere, near the start of the ride.  And there is absolutely no-one connected with the ride to ask questions of. It'd be nice if they put someone at the finish -- it'd be nice if they had the finish marked a little better too!

monday, may 8
Still trying to get my stuff together.  My goal for May is to do 150 mile weeks.  The Rowlett ride was totally fun.  I was the only chick but I was very pleased to be able to keep up with some of the guys, although there were these two hammeheads that kicked everyone's butts.   Anyway we had a spectacularly fun ride out with the wind behind us -- at one point I was doing 30mph on the flat and not even pedaling.  What a scream!  The ride back, of course, was not as much fun but we got in small groups and drafted like demons and were able to keep a somewhat reasonable pace. 
 

saturday, may 13
Another good long ride, although it got off to a rough start.  Lots of hills -- I wasn't able to keep up with the lead group -- and then a long, long break at the first pit stop because of mechanical problems.  After that it just got hotter and hotter.  The rest of the group had more mechanical problems -- a slashed tire, and a trip to the hardware store -- but the lead group that I was in got going pretty good.  After we got back it was still pretty early so Monty, whom I met at Cliff's ride, and I, did another 10 or 20 just for fun.  Actually we missed a turn on the route sheet and so we cut a lot off the route that we shouldn't have!
 

sunday, may 21
Yay!   A thoroughly successful Ramp Up Ride!  No flats, no injuires, nobody got lost.  Easy, relaxed ride.  Felt good.

tuesday, may 23
A practical  riding day - took the car in to the VW dealer to get its 30,000 mile checkup, then to work, then to WRL, then back to the dealership.  Didn't feel very good, though - tired, sore, hot.  It's gotten hot all of a sudden -- summer is here.  I'm not looking forward to the 100 degree days.
 

tuesday, may 30
A great weekend of riding at Kate and Bryan's Memorial Day weekend ride in Bastrop state park!  Kate and Bryan really outdid themselves with food and accomodations - the cabins in the woods were too too cute, (with hot tubs on the front porches!  wow!). The riding was great too -- well, all except one day.

Saturday made me face up to my limitations and look fear right in the eye.  Traffic.  Ever since Todd's motorcycle accident -- well, I have an overactive imagination.  And being on a road with no shoulder and a 70 mph speed limit and a lot of traffic made me wig out.  Fear.  Pure adrenaline.  Terror.  I kept trying to breathe and relax, but it didn't help.  Things did get better after I stopped saying to myself, "I don't want to die" and started saying, "Oh well, if I die, I die.  So what?"  Then I switched over, in sort of a black humor,  to "Today is a good day to die."   Even though we were only on that road for about a tenth of a mile, when we finally got off it, I had to pull over and get off the bike for a few minutes until I stopped shaking.  The road after that wasn't that great either, but at least we had a shoulder.  I sort of broke down at the pit stop but then I got back on the bike and I finished the day. 

Just a little episode of 'road freak' -- I had a lot of problems shaking myself out of it, though. However at least I did not completely, totally lose it until I had gotten to a safe place and was off the bike.  I think that's a good sign.  I'm sure the road gods will continue to send me challenges and opportunities in the shape of traffic.  I'm simply thrilled -- NOT.  ;)

But other than that day, the riding was great. We had a great, fun group of gals in our cabin and of course we had the obligatory pranks, etc.  It was a wonderful weekend.  It's very hilly in the park, with lots of tall pine trees that really make it very still and hard to breathe -- but once you get out it's your typical Texas terrain - flatter and more open.  On the last day we had a fun, swift, snappy ride with the "Smithville Six" - it was hot but we smoked! it out through the town of Bastrop, Smithville, then back to camp.

thursday, june 1
Down with a cold.  Not feeling great.  Going to take a few days off riding
 

monday, june 12
I took the weekend off from riding and most of the week prior to it, too.  I actually spent most of the weekend in bed - but I think I'm pretty much over the cold now.  Actually it was a good weekend to spend in bed because it rained most of the time. My big concern right now is fundraising -- I sent out all my letters last week but still haven't gotten any pledges.  Also I just finished getting out all of my fundraising party invitiations.  I think I'll try evite.com -- an electronic way to send out invitations-- I just got an evite from Kate and Bryan for Bryan's birthday, which is how I found out about it. 

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to be back up and around and feeling better!  It's nice to be able to *breathe!*

friday, june 23
Oh, lord, I have almost nothing worthwhile to report in the way of riding.  OK that's not quite true.  I did Tour d'Italia last weekend and renewed my acquaintance with techniques for riding in the rain.  It was actually quite pleasant because it was so warm.  They had a wonderful t-shirt, as usual -- Michaelangelo's 'anatomic man' -- the guy with four arms and legs -- only, of course, he was wearing bike shorts and he was in a circle that was a bike wheel.  They also had their trademark plums -- yummy!  I got a flat at Frost, just like last year.  I also got to see Elvis again.  All in all, a great ride.

And today I had a great fundraising party.  I'm halfway done for both rides.  I feel a lot better about where I am now.  At least I've gotten some money in my account!