Switchin' It Up

I have another business trip coming up in a little over a week. This one to NYC and I'll need to leave Sunday afternoon. This puts a serious crimp in my plans to race the Landmine MTB race. Technically, I can still do it but I'm just not up to the craziness that will be caused by doing a 25 mile MTB race that starts at 10am. Then throw in a long drive to CT, followed by a train to Manhattan and somewhere along the line cleaning myself and bike up - my brain is exploding just comtemplating it.

Fortunately, there's another event that I'm actually incredibly psyched to do. The Montrail Run Like A Girl Train Run that's happening at Great Brook Farm. I fell in love with trail running on a half marathon trail race at Point Reyes. I know the views won't be nearly as good and there won't be a quarter mile finish on a sandy beach but northeast woods have their own charm. There's something pure about running. And it gets even more distilled down to its essence when there's dirt under foot rather than pavement.

Now I need to get my ahead around the fact that I can no longer run an 8k in under 35 min. Easy enough - I just look to S who's going to do it with me on an ankle that's basically fused and shouldn't run a step. And I realize that it's not my finish time, it's not crushing my age group, it's not putting the hammer down, it's not any of that. It's just doing it. Get out there. Run hard. Get sweaty. Finish with a Mike's. I'm there, baby!

Essential 'Cross Gear

'Cross season is almost here. Most racers are busy this time of year prepping their rides, practicing their technique. I, on the other hand, have neglected to order my new 'cross tires and have chosen to focus more on my apres-race wear. Yes, my motivation for surving 45-60 minutes of pure hell is to get out of my skinsuit asap and throw on ripped jeans and my new mud boots. (And yes, I modeled them with bare legs. Not sure it's the look that I was going for but hey, it's still summer.)

A PR In The PR

This morning I rode the TT loop in the PR. I rode the entire loop - didn't clip out once. This includes the switchbacks, all the whoop-de-woos, the bridges and all the other little things that typically trip me up. I will admit to using one "tree hugging" maneuver. So, perhaps not a 10 ride but a 9.99 from the Czech judge. Given the lack of cycling accomplishments this season, it's nice to have a tiny victory.

Current Obsession

I'm not sure why. I can't explain it. But lately, I've become completely obsessed with building the absolute coolest single speed bike to use as a commuter.

Here's what I know: 1) it has to be a single speed 2) it has to have disc brakes 3) I don't want to break the bank (so that rules out custom frames)

I started playing with the idea of using a 29er frame, like a Surly Karate Monkey (and no, not just because I like the name). I thought it would be cool to be able to swap out the 700c wheels when not commuting and throw on some mtb wheels. Only problem is I'm too short to ride a 29er frame. At least that's my understanding given all the 29er frame specs I've been reading up on lately. Really should have drank more milk as a child. ;-)

Then I thought about the Surly 1x1. But the mtb geometry wouldn't be so good for commuting. So now I've started looking a 'cross frames that have disc tabs on them. Not so easy to find since the UCI banned disc brakes for 'cross. Anyone have some ideas? Vicious Cycles has The Slider but that's a bit more than I was looking to pay for a frame/fork. Soma has the Double Cross DC and I was thinking that may be the ticket. But, no, wrong dropouts for SS. ~sigh

Hoping that perhaps other options will pop up at Interbike next month.

More Cool Stuff

I love building cool products that are used by people to build even cooler stuff. A couple of grads from my alma mater started Mixtape Club and their video, built using some of our products, is getting rave reviews and lots of visibility on MTV2. And it's just way cool. Check out the video here.

It's 'Cross Time, Baby!

Yesterday morning I had to wear arm and leg warmers on my morning ride. It was 52 degrees. And if that wasn't bad enough, a few of the trees have orange leaves on them. Wah! Summer just doesn't seem long enough. But the good news, it's 'cross season. First race is actually this Sunday. Not sure whether I'll go or not (still a few mtb races happening and why rush the season).

There are two events I really WANT to do but am not about to fly to the west coast for. The Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships in Portland and the Starcrossed Cyclocross race in Redmond. Anything that combines 'cross, tequila, beer gardens, twilight racing and a DJ works for me! It figures they have these things AFTER I move east. Geez.

Voting for Paris

Ok, well, not really but this totally cracked me up.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Vacation From The Blog

How else to explain not touching the blog in over three weeks? One week of vacation, one killer week on tour in LA, and one week nonstop in the office making up for all the time away.

Obviously, the vacation week was the most fun. Hard to beat a week at the Chappy Shack. It rained almost every day in Boston but we were fortunate and had mostly sunny days on Chappaquiddick. Except for Wednesday. It rained like crazy. We ventured over to Edgartown just to get out of the house and perhaps grab lunch but after the solitude of Chappy, it was difficult to adjust to crowds of tourists there. We lasted 45 min and ran back to the ferry.

Typical day: breakfast outside on the deck, grab the 'cross bikes for a 3-4 hour ride, back to The Shack to swap bikes for beach chairs and books and head to the beach. Then it was usually time to uncork another bottle of wine and grill some fresh fish from the market.

The Vineyard isn't all that big - I think perhaps 25 miles point to point at it's longest. We still managed to ride 200 miles or so during the week. Early in our stay, I stopped in at Edgartown Bikes (dudes there are surly - and not in a good way (i.e. Surly Bikes). I guess they get tired of dealing with tourists but damn, I'll avoid going in there again.) Anyway, stopped there to get a bike map and while pouring over the map noticed a little note about a bike ferry that crossed a little spit of water at Menemsha Harbor. Having never been on a bike ferry, it instantly won a place on the Must Do List. And that ended up being our best ride: out to Menemsha, Chilmark and Acquinnah. Only bad thing was having S cough up a lung as we rode up every hill. We found out later she rode that entire week with pneumonia. Crazy girl!

And some of those hills were big. Either that or the DPW can't do math. ;-)

At one point during one of our longer rides out to the Acquinnah lighthouse, I felt the velcro strap from my seatbag rubbing on the inner thigh. Annoying but not enough for me to stop. Once we reached the lighthouse and were taking pics, I looked down at my shorts and found a quarter size hole. Ummm...I'm thinking I seriously better consider a diet. ;-)

I'm not sure what it is about the beaches on Chappy but it's won my heart over places like Maui, Lizard Island, the Mediterranean, California, the Pacific Northwest (no surprise there) and the Caribbean. Guess I'm really a true east coast girl.

More vacation pics here.