A Birthday and A New Team

Thursday was my birthday, and it was really nice.  Erin took the day off, and we went to the Nordic Heritage Museum (sort of funny), the art museum, and we walked around downtown.  Finally, we made ice cream sandwiches, which were really good!

I finally made the decision to switch teams to Hagens Berman.  They are a much more race-oriented team and most of the women are cat 1/2s.  It will be really cool to race on a team with such talented people; in Michigan, there were only about 2 cat 2 women.  

My old team was also really nice about it.  They have been so great, but the team goals don't fit so well with mine.  HB can offer more support and I'll be able to jump in some NRC races with much of the costs covered.  I'm sad to leave sbux because everyone was so nice and it was a great community, but I am also really excited about this new opportunity.  

Training is going pretty well.  My legs feel great thanks to these compression tights I got.  My back has been hurting a lot lately, though.  I am getting acupuncture on Monday; hopefully that will help.  Power numbers keep going up!

My Tooth!

About 5 years ago, I knocked the backs of my front teeth out at swim practice.

I was doing gutter pushups, where you pull yourself up like you are going to get out but then go back down into the water.  x100.  I hit my mouth on the gutter, and my front teeth went through my lip.  The backs of them broke off.

My dad's friend (dentist) fixed it by bonding them back on, but they only expected it to last a few years.  Today, 5 years later, as I was taking a sip from my water bottle, I almost drank the back of my tooth.

It doesn't look so bad; just a little uneven, but boy does it feel weird on the back.

I have to go to our team "tactics talk" soon.  I didn't do my homework -- we were supposed to read a book.  I didn't know that you could learn racing tactics from a book...  

Buddy Flaps

Please take a moment to admire my amazing buddy flaps.

I also put gatorskins on my rain bike (Litespeed... haha), which have been slipping all over the place.  I assumed it was just user error on my part, but it got to the point where my tire would slip out on those little metal strips on bridges.  Kind of scary.  It turns out that it's due to the mold-releasing compound, which leaves the tires very slick at first.  I ran some sandpaper over the tread, so hopefully it will be better.  It's taken away some of my confidence about what I can take a road bike over mainly because I can't take it over anything.

I think this whole gatorskin/winter tire idea is kind of dumb.  Is it really worth adding this much weight to my bike?  Erin and I usually put out the same amount of power when we ride, but on Sunday, I was consistently putting out 20-40 more watts than him, just because of the damn tires.  It seems kind of silly considering that I got 2 flats last year, 1 from hitting a pothole during a crit the size of a crater where I simultaneously broke my Zipp and another where I got a giant tack stuck in my tire.  I don't think these gatorskins would have helped either of those.  I'm thinking of getting some vittoria Paves so I can pretend like I'm doing Paris Roubaix, but I am also cheap.  

In other news, still no job.  Training is going well.  It's fun watching the watts go up and up.  

Bellingham Getaway

Yesterday, Erin and I headed up to Bellingham for the night.  He had to work on Saturday, so we left around 2 PM.  On the way up, it was so pretty outside.  We even saw a rainbow.

We walked around for a bit, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then went to one of those pottery painting places.  We painted Christmas ornaments.  Since we were from out of town, they will ship them to us when they're ready.  I hope they turned out nice!  It was so much fun, though.  We laughed and laughed. :)

Today we went to breakfast and then headed out for a 3.5 hour pure E ride.  We went from Bellingham up to Birch Park, which is right along the sound.  It was kind of rainy but still pretty.  Now I am tired.  It was nice to get away for a day.

We also finally mounted the deer hoof coat rack.  My dad gave me the hooves last year from the deer he shot (I guess they come with the mounted head...), and today, we finally mounted them.  Before this, I just had 4 separate hooves with screws in them.  I have a feeling this will freak out a few people.

Day 13: This Sucks.

Here I will complain.

Today I am really bored.  For some reason, I am also really tired, dizzy, brain fogged, and generally out of it.  This combination is bad because whenever I try to do something to combat my boredom, my brain fog and tiredness get in the way, so I return to boredom.

I'm trying to study for this dumb CSCS test even though I already studied all this stuff for 4 years straight.  It's not a problem, and I finally scheduled my exam today.  I can't take it until early December, so really, what's the hurry?  

In the mean time... I don't know.  This has been a low volume week for training. Only 10 hours, but I was really dragging during my weight training today.  I'm not sure why I am so tired.  My coach is loading me up on protein, and I've been sleeping a lot.  Maybe it's the whey protein that I'm not handling well.  Or it could be a combination of the whey, training more, and somewhat higher levels of anxiety because I have no real future.

It's weird.  Every other time in my life where I've had a break, there has been a definite end.  Summer break ended with school, but now, there is no definite end.   I've been in a daze for the last 2 weeks, searching for jobs, trying to figure out what to do.  I'm having trouble coherently interacting with people.  The marketing job market isn't being too responsive either.  

I tried to fill out a form to do volunteering, but just as I had filled it all out and submitted it, the server was down.  

Rock Star Pumpkin

We carved pumpkins last week.  Well, only 1.  The other was really rotten.  

Things are getting better.   I lifted weights this morning, and then took the most wonderful, protein shake induced nap. 

 Election day isn't as much fun when you don't vote in person.  I voted absentee in Ohio, and I didn't even get a sticker! :(  Actually, I've never voted in person...

I won?

yesterday, my team put on a cyclocross race to benefit the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.  the turnout was pretty low because there was a Seattle series race today, and I guess series points are more important than cancer in most people's minds...  

there ended up only being 4 cat 4 women, so they bunched us with the masters women.  the course was really scary, and i had some trouble just getting through it during warmup.  it had some tricky, off-camber descents covered in small, loose rocks.  i don't like rocks or twisty downhills.  i ended up running a LOT, 4 times a lap when I only needed to run twice.  it was funny.  my teammates were laughing at me, but i was laughing too.  

i ended up winning somehow, and i won a free pair of sugoi shorts!  i know that running through everything that scares me isn't the best racing tactic, but this stuff doesn't come easily to me at all.

erin, of course, was the master bunny hopper.  he finished mid pack again, and as usual, his sweet mtb skills made up for his somewhat lacking fitness.  he sure can bunny hop his cx bike high!

today alyson, liga and i went for a 3 hour ride, which was nice until it started raining really, really hard.  rain is much nicer when you have fenders and buddy flaps, though.