RIDE A BIKE, ITS FUNNER!

my motto for Ashville...

Je crois pouvoir comme ça... je peux

posted by monkeygirl @ 9:20 AM 8 comments

synaptic function stabilized...

I no longer need my fingers to count. So even though I was doing pretty good yesterday after 103, I am totally bouncing back today which is great news as I mentally prepare for my JDRF Ashville ride. Yesterdays ride is the point though, it was a really nice ride, they changed it from last years course, and it was very scenic and I really enjoyed it, if you have not ridden a GPBC event you are really missing a good thing. Most of the riders that run the show in the club are very experienced riders, therefore they offer a great setup for sag and support. I always really enjoy their events and I have learned if I just sort of listen to them and never skip a sag things go better. there were three individual loops, they let the riders take them in any order, so you could pick your distance or do them all in whatever order you wanted. I took them in order, thinking I was going to like the second loop the least, it turned out to be the a great loop, though it was the longest, at 42 miles it was nice, with some inital climb to get you rewarmed, they had a sag at the start of all the loops, which evolved through the day to eventually include hot dogs and sausage with burgers, i did skip that going instead for a personal favorite, watermellon it was perfect. I started with friends on the first two loops but rode the last loop kind of alone, there were these guys from lincoln that I would catch, then they would speed away, then I would catch them, then they would speed away, it was fun. I hope they made it home, one guy got to the point that he felt like he could not stop, so I caught up to his friends at the last sag stop, he should have stopped there it was a good place for a final rest, with chips and salsa along with other assorted goodies and regular chairs to have a good rest in. That sag stop got me through it, normally I would not have stay so long in a sag stop, but I just sort of hung there and rested for maybe even 15 minutes. I felt completely ready to finish when I got back on my bike. I think that is one of the hardest things to learn about riding a distance, is when to listen to what your body is telling you, when you are just being a big baby, and when your body is just in need of a little more than a 4 minute sag stop, I listened at the right time and it turned out great. Plus as always, the great plains gang is a great group of people really worth knowing, there are always some at every ride I have ever been on, I am going to have to get a jersey I think, it is great to be a card carrying member and get discounts but it is a great group, I think I need to fly their colors once in a while too.
Celeste is off to Ashville dropped her off at Blues today, they were nice enough to let me keep her for yesterday, and now it is just me and Dewey, we will have a blast for the next two weeks. Think I will try to commute as often as possible this week and not back off till next week. Feeling ready for it now.

posted by monkeygirl @ 3:08 PM 1 comments

heatstroke 100...

actually it was 103, shaved and hours of my previous personal best for 70 and did the entire distance in 8:45, sorry jk and denise I said 9:45 but when I actually used my fingers to count it out I realized my error. woo hoo, that is way better than I expected. on to Ashville.

posted by monkeygirl @ 7:06 PM 0 comments

good people everywhere...on bikes...

I have been thinking about why I ride a bike. Because one of the blogs I read asked that question. Plus I have been trying to ride a lot lately, so I have had some time to think about it. And that would certainly be one of the reasons, time alone with the voices in my head. Fitness is a given, no reason to beat a dead horse. Because a good many people can't and I like to be in the group of people who can. Also I have this whole idea of getting where I want to be of my own volition. Self reliance, no motor or batteries needed. I came batteries included and I like to keep them charged. And those are all very satisfying reasons to ride a bike. And all of them contribute. But even more it is the people I have met who ride bikes, and work on bikes, who travel by bike, who commute by bike, who bike with their own list of reasons of doing it. There are some good people on bikes in this town. They give blood, they help crazy people out of the middle of the street when people in cars fear to step into the open and do the same. They give a homeless guy water, before he turns to dust and then is not problem anyone has to think about anymore. They ride bikes for their Daughters and for their sense of hope. They watch out for the new on a bike, they watch out for the old on a bike. They bitch each other out for being stupid, for stuff like not wearing your helmet when you know you should, and they just quietly keep the bitching rolling until you figure it out, more just to let you know they care that your brain does not get scrambled. They schlep you to the ER when you bust yourself all up. They see the world because the world it right in front of them, and that is a great thing, and then because they can, because they are close enough they participate in it all, they abandon the the capsule. They take a leap of faith. These are people I enjoy knowing. I like it when they say hi or nod because they have no wind for saying hi. I like that a bike can bridge the gap between parent and child, just go ride a bike with your kid and watch the gap close right up, even if you practically kill yourself keeping up with that kid, no worries they will always wait for you and your money at the quicky mart. And even though I am slow going up the hills, I love roaring down the other side.

posted by monkeygirl @ 9:16 PM 4 comments

grand theft self esteem...

actually this is the corporate challenge report. Nice ride, too many people, did not kick my butt this year, Ya! now I never have to do it again. Which is a real happy because 2500 people is about 2300 more than I prefer. I did actually see my friend david but he was on his way back to his car to grab a helmet for a guy he knew that did not bring one.

Now to the grand theft self esteem...actually I have never been so excited to totally lose my self esteem. First of all, I was flying the new monkey wrench jersey, and on a side note if you did not know it, Nate is a super star, so many people gave me a shout for my shirt, it was great. I am so proud of him. Because when people do shout out, you can tell they feel proud to know about Nate, "Monkeywrench , yeah! Nate" or "Monkeywrench , yeah! Nate rocks" it is awesome. So this cat flying Scheels colors comes roaring past and gives one of the afore mentioned shouts while still behind me, and then says how you doing, and I am fine, so I turn to smile at the wrench shout, and say alls good. Shock begins here, as my brain realizes the roar is from super fattys rolling on the PUGSLEY he is riding! He was moving that machine like I cannot even imagine. I mean I was sort of in what could have been considered the first passing lane, and I was moving pretty good with some nice fresh legs. I actually for one second thought it was Nate. But no way in Scheels head to toe. I did not even know Pugsley could move like that. So he is gone by the time the shock has set in, and I move up to pass someone else, and as I go by I say, did you see that guy just steel my self esteem, and he just busts out laughing with a no kidding. I personally never saw this guy again. My son saw him at the very end, Emory was sitting in the grass at the end, and the end is this riverfront part, that is v-shaped, it just has these really steep grassy hill walls to it, and he said while he was sitting there, this guy rolled his finish and went straight up the side, I mean you can hardly stand or walk up these hills and rolled the Pugsley up it. Amazing.

posted by monkeygirl @ 8:36 AM 5 comments

the return...

Of what appears to be the big lesson of my life. Everything I "hate, have contempt for, etc", I appear destined to become. You know maybe you felt that way sometimes about your parents, then you became a parent, then you became a parent who is just like the one you had for the most part.

Today I was the sweep vehicle. I am not so fond of the sweep when it is behind me, so I tried to keep that in mind and not make people feel like I was waiting for them or rushing them. Byekin and I volunteered at the Callahan 5K this morning. It was very fun. Lots of people in running shoes, and man could they make them work. My running shoes in comparison appear to be broken, I am sure it is an equipment problem. The guy that won the 5k won it in just over 16 minutes. He was moving. It was a ton of fun. Lesson learned again.

posted by monkeygirl @ 9:19 PM 2 comments

A continuing process of change from one state or condition to another or from one form to another...

evolution. It has been an interesting year. Working with new people and old people alike. Working with people who ride bikes, and who ride bikes differently. I work with one guy and he told me he never rides his bike for fun. Though that seems like an oxy moron to me, ok. I work with another fellow, and he rides his bike big, he is all about endurance. He is all about the mental component. I can respect that. Then there are commuters and the commuters that are happy go lucky, and just love getting on their bikes and going riding, ride your bike alone, or with a friend, either one works. I am the last group, I am happy go lucky, and I love riding my bike, I will ride alone, or with people, I will ride to get somewhere or to anywhere. I will go great distance or just a short little jaunt. I like to climb because of the challenge, I like to go fast because of the danger. I love the park but am still scared of the big dips. I am evolving. Will I race, probably. Will I endure, definitely. Cornbread asked me the first time I ever met him if I had ever thought about racing, and Skip and I both just bust out laughing because just that day, I had been pondering the evolution of me as a cyclist. How Amazed I was at how quickly I was becoming a cyclist. How I was already not content to be a single dimmension of some kind of rider. And how it was so not like me to just let the bikes take me where I am going. I am a little analytical for that, so I have had to work on just getting there, sort of surrendering, and surrender is definitely not the norm for me. But that is what evolution is all about.

Well it has been a big year. I started on a very nice hybrid, and now I have that nice hybrid and also a nice road bike. I have mostly gone far this year. But so far never more than 75 miles. I have gotten stronger and faster. I will think of speed, but not yet, for now just need to stay on my bike and finish. My time for 70 miles has dropped significantly from 6:45 to anywhere from 5:30 to 6:00. And that just happened, never even thought about it other than wishing that darn sweep car would back up just a little, cuz he can get as close as he wants I am not getting off of my bike. yes its been a very good year. Happy birthday Dewey.

posted by monkeygirl @ 7:11 PM 0 comments

monday night ride...

Ok, I am happy to say I have several excuses for not being the strongest rider on the monday night ride. (Yes I am having a low self esteem moment and my blog seemed like a good place to indulge it.) Ok, here we go. First of all, I did not really have much lunch today, I did try to make up for it, but I apparently failed. Because when my second excuse collided with my first excuse, I bonked. errrrr. The second excuse is as follows, right as we were taking off, someone got a flat, I was sort of middle to the back of the pack, and I was waiting to make sure flat tire had everything he needed as were most of us. Well my boy Emory(age 15) was up at the front of the pack with some guys, and they took off, since I did not immediately see this, I was playing catch up from the very start. And I chased them hard. I mean talk about your breakaway group. oooooweee. I did finally catch them. It was that all powerful mommy thing, you know, Emory does not have a ton of experience with hwy 77 and the guys he was with were new to him, so they would not have known his experience level. I think I chased them 2.5 or 3 miles before I caught them, of course it felt like 10. Oh yes, and just for fun lets give a third excuse, I am old, I forget it, but I am. Ok, I feel better now.
The monday night ride as always was a blast. Met new people, saw people I knew. Ended up working on trying to go fast (during that whole chase Emory thing). I would rather have warmed up in a more controlled way then ridden on with Syd and that group, but I was done, there would be no pace increase for me from there. Would have liked to have had a better chance to visit with Syd and Jana. I want to be like them when I grow up. The way Syd tells it makes competing sound so fun. Plus Emory wants to compete, and there is just no reason not to compete if I have to take him to races, it sure beats sitting around waiting for him. That was the worst part of when he was on the swim team, I swim a lot better than some of those kids. hmmmm, triathalon.... nevermind. Ran into Adrian and someone whose name I did not catch, so the group was large tonight and when we broke seems like it was sort of like dropping a box of bb's, we scattered in all directions. Still did not really meet Sci~fi, wanted to because I find we often comment on the same blogs. Oh well next time. I love the monday night ride.

posted by monkeygirl @ 10:10 PM 5 comments

JDRF fundraising video

posted by monkeygirl @ 9:39 AM 4 comments

My tale of woe (not really)...

so friday I go out to my car here at work, to run and grab some lunch and... nothing. Dead battery, call Baron in KC, cuz thats the best place in the world to buy a mini cooper, because if you are nice they are nice, l like them loads. Ask them if I should try to jump start it, turns out not so much for minis, to much creativity in there, just call road side service. They came and got it, they fixed it and it was back to me last night. For some this would have included great inconvenience and heart ache, and I admit I did see about the rental car, they were going to pay, why not? and I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. I knew I would be fine, I always have Dewey(my Kona hybrid) and Celeste(my Bianchi Giro) at my back. No reason to get all flustered. I did miss my Georgette(my Mini Cooper) but just because I love her. She is the picture of patience, friendship and service, as time and time again I go through the garage with a bike and leave her behind, she never complains. But I will say yesterday was the first time Dewey had worked in a while, other than transport to the ice cream shops, and he just flew, he had his wings on yesterday. I got totally jazzed for commuting with Dewey again. I did bale out on the rain today, but tomorrow is another day.
oh yes the tale of woe part.
Brace yourself.
I had to bale out of the monday night ride early, and that was really sad for me, because I had commuted, my legs were all warmed up, my lungs were working great because of the commute I had completely worked through any of the rough spots. But, Georgette goes to KC for service, and I had to get home to be there when she was delivered back to me. It was great to see everyone, and meet new people.
Recently I realized I had really been surrendering my motivation to ride, riding some but no where near enough, now with my 15 yr old son riding, and hooking up with some fun relatively regular rides, I am getting it back. Even got to ride home part of the way with Skip. I like to ride my bike to work, it is far(for a commute I think 10.5) and fun, and did I mention that Dewey had wings.

posted by monkeygirl @ 9:24 AM 3 comments

count down to the next big thing...

So today is August 1, I have just a little over a month until the next ride that I really care about though I will be doing at least two before then, the corporate challenge and the heatstroke 100. Ok given that I will rest before I ride, I am probably hovering at right around 35 days left for training. The important ride though is a JDRF ride in Ashville, NC. Lots of hills, 105 miles, I will set a goal of how long it will take me after I do the other two rides. I am trying to keep my riding numbers up, but they are falling thanks to the heat, probably try to ride a lot the next three days, rain or shine since it will be cooler. Try to be better about hitting the Monday night ride out of Blues, I whimped it last night. Plus probably try to work on legs with some intervals with Syd. I am still evolving, riding just at a year now, up to two bikes already. Kona hybrid, and Bianchi Giro, they are both great. I am thinking of putting some heavier tires on the Kona, Eric at the Wrench said he thought I could go up to a 40 with the wheels I currently have, that sounds like fun to me. I will put up my JDRF slide show this evening hopefully, still working on it. It reflects why I am riding. Plus it has some good music in it. I am just getting into this blog thing, so more later.

posted by monkeygirl @ 12:53 PM 3 comments