Where in the world has Renee been?
I've been at the SICI cycling science symposium the last 3 days which has meant driving to Denver every day at 6 am. How do those commuters do it?
(p.s. name the attentive young man in the front row of last year's conference)
I went up with a lot of the other CTS coaches. We literally had a dozen coaches there.

Note the CTS coaches efficient use of time while multitasking on their smart phones during each lecture.

So I had another song stuck in my head on my ride today, but for different reasons. I've had company on all my rides lately. She's always there, especially since I've been on the trainer so much lately, and she was so annoying on on my long rides this weekend. I really wish she'd just go away and leave me alone.


Her name is Lola, and she is my saddle sore.

On the way to Denver tonight we passed by this horse trailer on the highway.
So you can go online today and help Danielle and Trixie get their boob jobs, just log on to myfreeimplants.com now.

Anyway, went up to Kimberly's house in Denver for the Switch and Bitch. That's where you bring all those clothes taking up room in the back of your closet for basically a big swap meet with all your friends. Kind of like leave a penny, take a penny.

Of course the stuff in the back of your closet probably is something like these nice stretch pants.


The best part of the evening was I volunteered to be the designated driver, which of course means that you get to drive the M3 home.

"This lotion is so thick."
...Someone said after spreading chamois cream all over their face.

I have not laughed that hard in a very, very long time. A good chamois cream story is always a good cure for a bad mood.

That's right, you've seen it before and you'll see it again.... today I've been in such a bad mood. However, after a lengthy discussion with my sister who talked me down from the ledge, then a kick in the pants, a shower, a little flat iron of the hair, and putting on a sassy outfit and some lip gloss I feel much better. Which begs the question, who is this person I've become?

So I hardly ever blog one of those blogs where all I do is ramble on and on about some bike ride, mostly because get bored reading them on other people's blogs. So be forewarned, some stupid bike ride is all today's post is all about.

There's only 3 weeks to go until Buellton camp, and I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The coaches actually train for camp. See, we come across as always being "so fit" like it's no big deal for us, but we actually train for camp just so we can make it look easy. This year, I really need to train for camp, as I found out on the ride today.

So today's ride was all about cramming for the exam since all of have been stuck indoors for the past month. So since it's all about cramming, our threshold for cold weather riding has been drastically reduced. I think it was about 23 degrees when I left my house today.

It was me and the other coaches going to camp. So besides me it was J-lay (Jim Lehman), The Kid aka : CC, the Big Boss Man (Chris Carmichael), Mike D (Mike Durner), and Adam Halfwheel Pulford. Babs (Rick Babbington) wasn't there as the lucky bastard lives in California and does not have to cram for the exam. Get to know these names because I'm going to spend 2 weeks straight, 24-hours a day eating, riding, sleeping with (no, not like that), and playing whiffle ball at 1 am with these guys once camp starts.

So today's ride was like some kind of death march. I really think J-lay just likes to test us a little. You know, see who's the weakest link. And by the way, J-lay is a secret trainer, that guy is always fit. So J-lay gets to the front straight out of the office and I think to myself, "Oh, this pace is a little brisk." Not to mention, the air was a little brisk.... I think I was getting an ice cream headache just from being cold.

So we get a little out of town and I pull up next to Jim and try to set pace. I quickly realize that this is no social ride as I look down at my wattage and see power numbers as high as the VO2 intervals I was doing Tuesday. However, there's no going to the back, because as a the token girl coach for camp and on this ride, my ego won't let me be the weakest link. So I suck it up and tough it out at the front with Jim the whole way through Fountain. After 20 minutes over LT trying to stay next to Jim, CC finally needs to stop to adjust his seat and Jim and I can finally get off the front for a few minutes.

So we ride and we ride and we ride. And I'm not really chatting much, mostly because I can't, but also because I had this Modest Mouse song stuck in my head all day. So much so that I had to play it on repeat about 4x when I got home. (edit: about 10 times now)


So Adam (who half wheeled me the whole time) and I take like a 30-minute pull all the way to Hwy 94. That about cracked me, but 94 is always the last hard stretch with big rollers and I had to will myself to make it through that section. I started to struggle one roller and I let a little gap open. I feel a hand on my back and it's CC giving me a little push. No, that's not acceptable, so from then on I'm just burying myself to get up every hill so CC doesn't have the chance to give me a push.

There are a few rules on the coachs' rides. #1 If you want to keep your job, don't half wheel your boss or drop him on a climb, #2 If you don't want to get ridiculed by your peers, don't get dropped by your boss on a climb. So definitely getting pushed up a hill by him is enough to hang your head in the locker room.

Anyway, we get to the top of the final big roller on 94 and Adam looks back "We lost Mike." Mike D. is like 20-sec off the back. Phew, I'm not the weakest link! Funny though, we wait up for Mike D. then get rolling again. Not even 2 minutes after that we go up this little tiny hill and now I finally fall off the back. Oh well, at least I wasn't the weakest link.

We get back in 2:54. To put this in perspective, this is a ride I do by myself in about 4 hours. Something like 1300 kj, normalized power at 160 watts (yah, that's like my Tempo wattage), and definitely the hardest ride I've done since Thanksgiving which is bad because it was not really that hard of a ride. Oh well, I still got 3 weeks to get fit.



One question: Why does diet coke taste so good after a hard ride?

Happy Birthday Steph!

Last night we went to Poor Richard's to celebrate Stephanie's birthday. In our little circle of friends your popularity score is directly related to how many people you can get to show up to your birthday dinner. Given that we filled the entire back room of the restaurant and about 25 people showed up, I can safely say that Steph's popularity among the group is off the hizzle fo' shizzle. Of course, the promise of delicious cake also doesn't hurt in getting lots of people to show up, especially when it's one of Steph's cakes. mmmm!

Hmmm, blog update.... there are many things I could blog about. So much pissin' and moaning, so I'll leave you with this.

Check this out if you're bored with all the CDs you have from the 80s and need to listen to something different.
Pandora Radio

Do you ever feel like you're being watched?

My favorite time of day to see the mountains (don't you wish this was the view from your grocery store?). The nice part is this time of day is getting later and later every week. Photo taken at 5:30pm, and I can't wait until this happens at 7:30 pm because that would mean that it's probably also 70 degrees out.

Team ride 2008. Our first official team ride of the new year. Note, we were missing several teammates on the ride today because a few of them are either pregnant or in California, or both pregnant and in California. (note: Anne was missing too, but she is neither pregnant nor in California.)

Jenna, as usual, is all smiles, especially when she is laying down stick on all the climbs.

The most interesting thing we saw on the ride today... how about that for a playhouse in your backyard.

Gun Barrel was surprised to find out that we not only discourage her from wearing this t-shirt on the same day that Jenna wears hers, but we in fact discourage her from wearing it at any time we are in public with her.

Retro Album of the day: REM - Document


It's probably been 10 years since the last time I listened to this cover to cover because, of course, the last time I had a copy of it was on cassette tape. Ahh 1987, once again proves to be a good year.

Now, if I just had a copy of Life's Rich Pageant or some kind of mechanism to play cassette tapes...

So I've been experimenting with Spike Shooter again, and it seems to be working for me a bit better now. I've had a couple of amped up trainer rides after having a little, although I'm still working on the proper dosage. One day last week I drank a whole can of it then decided it'd be a good idea to do the Incline, TWICE. Then I had some extra energy when I got home, so I rode the rollers for a while, and later on I thought it'd be good to go lift weights too... I was sore for 4 days. I think a full can might be a little "too much" energy. I don't see how this stuff is legal.

Screw you mother nature!

Another snow storm last night and I opted for the Incline instead of the trainer.

However, the Incline is surprisingly much harder in 6+ inches of fresh snow. Thank Jesus for Yaktrax and Goretex trail shoes.

Although I despise the snow that keeps falling from the sky, it is somewhat pretty when you are not trying to ride your bike in it.

Happy Birthday Beth!

I'd rather be here....

(sunset in Santa Barbara, winter 2006)

As I lay in bed this morning, I looked at the light coming through the blinds. Gosh, I thought, the light looks kind of white.

What the ****! It wasn't supposed to snow today. I curse you mother nature.

Holy heatwave! The first day it's above 30 degrees in a week and it's 60 today. How about some middle ground and every day it just stays at 45 this month... I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the 60 degrees, but really don't like those 20s and 30s.

...Well, this guy is certainly going to hell. (warning: not a PG rated link)

And you thought I was going to hell for bloggin' about Jesus.