I Hate Election Season

Every time the political season heats up, I ended up in vehement discussions with my parents that cause me to either: 1) chug directly from the wine bottle at the dinner table 2) hang up the phone and run through the house screaming like my hair's on fire or 3)bang my head on the keyboard after I read some crazy email they've forwarded me even though I knew better from reading the subject line.

Last night, they tied me to the couch in the family room, propped open my eyelids with toothpicks, put the TV volume on 100 and forced me to watch Fox News, O'Reilly and then Hannity and Colmes. OMG. I'm still speechless about it. Wow.

So, I'm returning the favor with a video from a very cool internet tv site who I got lucky enough to visit this past week in NYC for a project I'm working on.

Last Visit To The Stadium

My dad is my favorite person to go to baseball games with. He'll stay all nine innings. He likes hot dogs as much as I do. He doesn't hog all the peanuts. But my absolute favorite thing that always cracks me up is when he yells in his Bronx accent, "Awww...come on! You bum!" when someone strikes out on a lousy pitch, flubs a grounder, drops a toss, etc. Saturday's game provided ample opportunity to hear him yell that again. Yanks blew a 6-2 lead. As Toronto was scoring catch up runs, my dad states, "You know, we could easily lose this game." Do NOT even say that. I did NOT come down to the Bronx for a last visit to the stadium to see them lose.

Bottom of the 9th, down by 1. Two on (first and second). No outs. A-Rod gets up. All we need is a long fly ball to the outfield to tie the game. The bum hits a shot to third, cleanly fielded by the 3rd baseman who steps on the bag then guns it over to first. Double play. Again. I think my Dad is so beaten down by A-Rod's lack of clutch hitting since he's been a Yankee that he didn't even have the energy to heckle him. I really wish the Yanks would trade the dude.

Despite the loss, I did enjoy the game. The weather was perfect, the seats were great and it was exceptionally nice watching the Yankees on their home field. I've probably attended more Yankee games at Fenway than Yankee stadium. Sad, but true. Years ago, while wearing my NY cap in Fenway, I could expect some pleasant heckling of my own. But over the past few years, ever since the chant "Yankees suck!" became popular, it's been downright unpleasant and perhaps a bit dangerous to be an obvious Yankee fan in Fenway. So I refuse to set foot in Boston's home park these days. Which is a shame. This last game made me realize how much I've missed spending a summer afternoon or warm evening at the ball park. Or how much I love watching a game with my Dad. And I can even buy the beers now!

How Cool Is This?!?!

Yet another reason I love 'cross. What other bike racing discipline (can I really call it that?) has racing under the lights AND a limited edition bike with GLOW-IN-THE-DARK paint to go with it? And, we're not talking just any bike, but a Seven. Talk about bike porn! Damn. Now I really want to go race in Seattle at the end of the month. You can order yours by Friday. I'm in total bike lust.

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.

Jorge's Wild Ride

Last week, Jorge (a.k.a. The Colombian) came by my office to talk me into a ride. He's part of a team doing the 24 Hours of Great Glen race (a race I really want to do sometime) and he wanted to do a long-ish ride on 'cross bikes. The goal - avoid asphalt as much as possible, seek new routes, to go where no Columbian has gone before. ;-)

We got a late start due to pouring rain at 7am. This ensured the trails would be extra muddy and slippery. Even more fun. It also meant the streams were higher than normal. Hence, our water crossing.


After our first stream crossing, we have the following conversation:

Jorge: "You know, Teri, at some point we're going to have to cross the Concord River."
Me: "Uh huh. Should we look at the map and figure it out?"
Jorge: "No! We'll just ride and if we hit it, we'll swim."
Me: "I can't swim. And, besides, what about the bikes?"
Jorge: "They'll float. Upside down."
Me: "I'm not swimming! And I'm not putting the Tsunami in the river!"

I wasn't quite sure I convinced him, however, and feared that in our meandering we would hit the river and I'd be dog paddling.

Shortly after this conversation, Jorge somehow managed to ride over a hornets' nest. Ooops. His head was engulfed in a cloud of the meanies. Watching him pick up the pace, swat as his head as he rode and not biff it on the trail was pretty amusing. I had a good laugh but paid for it when I was stung in the butt (they didn't sting him, just me. Nice.)

Despite my griping, I really enjoyed the ride. Even the wading across the pond. We stopped in Concord for coffee and croissants (thanks, Jorge!). I'm still waiting for my shoes to dry, though.

Bird Update

After surviving numerous downpours, gusty winds and a cat that was intent on eating them as soon as they were fat enough, the baby robins have flown the coop. While I'm happy they're now off on their own, I actually miss them. So does Gracie. Her entertainment outside the living room window is now gone.

Passport Stamp Quest By Bike

Saturday, I went out for a ride with S and PFFC. And I STILL cannot get those guys to branch out. They will insist that we did change up the ride a bit but somehow adding 1 mile of new road in a 42 mile ride doesn't count in my world. I didn't press the issue since I new I'd be going out on ride the next day that could become epic given I'd be following the Crazy Columbian (and it did - more on that in another post).

We went out past Hanscom, through Concord, up Strawberry Hill (with a little diversion - those guys started shaking once we went off route and quickly scurried back to the tried and true waypoints that are permanently etched in their brain. I'm kidding, guys. Kind of.)

Anyway, we stopped at the "Pee Pavilion" (a.k.a. Great Brook Farm) for what Phil Ligget would call a "natural break". Given that I was dehydrated and not drinking enough, I roamed through the picnic pavilion while S and PFFC went to use the facilities. I saw the above poster for the Massachusetts DCR Passport Program. How cool! What a great idea for kids! It's part of the "No Child Left Inside" program. Kids can go to each park with their passport, find the stamp box, open it with the secret code in the passport and then stamp it on the appropriate page. When they accumulate the stamps for a region, they can then get a pretty darn cool t-shirt.

And then, thought about it some more, realized I'm a 46 year old kid, and damn, I'm going to get a passport and ride my bike to or in as many of Massachusetts State Parks (76) that I can and collect the stamps. A ranger was nice enough to give us passports right there and then. She was so surprised that adults were into it that she took our pictures for their site. Really psyched to start collecting some!

Storm Update

First, a bird update. The little guys survived the storm yesterday. Their nest is still intact and the parents seem busy fetching more wigglers for food. Hopefully, they'll reinforce the nest and everyone will dry out in today's sunshine. Thanks to all who offered words of advice on how to help them out. We're now all ready to construct a temporary nest for them if it comes to that.

I didn't get to ride last night. Probably should have taken Cathy up on her offer and done an epic ride on the trails in a downpour but a small part of me was worried about branches falling on my head (especially after hearing about the damage suffered in parts of NH from the storm). The sun finally broke out this morning and it seemed appropriate to take out the Tsunami. Lots of debris on the trails all through Lexington, Concord and Bedford. Made for some good 'cross practice.

Stormy Day

The forecast for today is severe thunderstorms and heavy downpours. Already this morning, I'd guess we've had over two inches of rain. It also most likely means that my mtb ride with the girls won't be happening this evening. Grrrr....

But the worst thing, we have a robin's nest in the tree outside our living room windows. I believe there are three babies in it. Mom's been doing a remarkable job keeping them all safe and dry. She sort of sits on top of them, puffs out her feathers and acts as an umbrella for them. Unfortunately, the rain is starting to cause the nest to disintegrate. And we're watching this whole thing, freaking out and trying to figure out what to do. We've even called the Audobon Society to see if they have any helpful info. May just have to climb out the upstairs window and figure out how to secure one of my old shells in the tree to protect them a bit.

From First To Last (a.k.a. It's Mo' Betta To Win)

~sigh. I knew going in it wouldn't be pretty. And you know, it's true what they say about visualization, believing in yourself, and training your head. If you go in with no expectations, you'll pretty much come out with nothing to show for it.

I told myself, "You haven't trained. You're not fast. You haven't raced enough this season. You're packing on 8+ extra pounds. But you are better technically." And guess what, I rode up those hills like I was towing a BOB trailer full of fat, 100lb, negative-thought gremlins. It's amazing I stayed upright on those hills given how slowly I was going. But damn, I was smooth on those downhills - tell yourself you can float down the nasty stuff Mount Snow throws at you, and you can.

I was in San Francisco the days before Nats. I was supposed to catch a 2:30pm flight at SFO to connect in Denver and get home around 1am Thursday morning. Around noon I discovered my flight was delayed, which meant a missed connection in Denver and a red-eye to make it home. I went through security and into the Red Carpet Club (one of the best presents S ever gave me) and explained my situation to the woman behind the counter. "I'll even take a red-eye from SFO to Boston! Any where on the east coast! I just have to get home!" Behind the counter, the woman is typing away, almost feels like she's IM'ing her friend, "We have a desperate one here! How much should we screw with her?!?!" Instead, she says to me, "I'm not supposed to do this but I put you on a direct flight to Boston. But it leaves in 30min so you better get to the gate!" Sweet! This meant I'd get in around 9:30pm. Yay!

We arrived at Mount Snow late afternoon on Thursday. Checked into the hotel, changed and went out for a pre-ride on the newly changed course. What a difference from last year's pre-ride in the dumping rain! The surface for the most part was dry, dusty, and loose. The first section (north loop) had been changed so there was no cut-through in the woods on single-track. This meant we had to climb a bit higher and the descent was on a service road. Not technical, kind of boring, a few drainage ditches to keep an eye on but otherwise a piece of cake.

Then the long climb to start the south loop. And it just seemed like it never ended. Instead of the hike-a-bike section in the woods, they routed us up a STEEP service road. Ouch. Then into some switchbacks in woods (yay, shade), then back on service roads, up, up, up. At a couple of the climbing sections there were 90 degree turns. You'd think you had reached the top, turn, and look up to more climbing. Finally, some downhill. Some of it was different from last year. In particular, the nasty stairs sections was gone. All in all, it felt very rideable. There was one section that caused me to pause, get off and watch some riders go by. Soon, I saw Libby zipping by me. Figured that was the line to take and tried to imitate her. I managed to get down but just not as fast. I think my extra 30 or so years on her make me a bit more cautious. ;-)

Throughout my pre-ride, my chain was skipping all over the cassette again. Unfortunately, the Shimano guys were gone by the time I made it back down so I did manage to get it fixed a couple of hours before my race on Friday (bent derailleur hanger. No idea how I did it.)

Lined up at the start with 10 other women, only one I recognized from local races. At the line, I was making my usual squint-into-the sun face that the announcer mistook for a smile. "Look at 804 folks! She's smiling! She won't be smiling soon, though, on that first leg burner granny-gear hill." No joke. I had an awesome start at the whistle and led the field up the first hill. That was the last time I saw first place. One by one, 6 women passed me on that first hill. I was determined not to get off and push. I'm still wondering about that strategy. One of my goals was to ride the whole race - no wussy girl pushing the bike up the hill or walking down the tricky downhill sections.

So I did manage to ride the entire first lap. The uphills were painful - just sat there, spinning the pedals and going about 4 mph. How lame. But the downhills - I flew (for me). Weighting and unweighting the bike, concentrating on picking a line that wouldn't kill me, so wrapped up in the trail I almost forgot I was racing. I love that zen feeling. At one point, I was congratulating myself on riding a particularily nasty section of trail that had me walking on the pre-ride, and managed to plant my front wheel. Uh oh. Here goes. Spectacular endo in the making. But somehow, I balanced on that front wheel, felt the rear of the bike swing around, I kicked it back with my left, unclipped foot, and shifted my weight back to get the rear wheel down. OMG! No endo! A proud moment despite being caused by my carelessness. Even the marshall was expecting carnage, "Nice recovery there!"

At the end of the first lap, I passed one woman. I was soon passed back on the first uphill of the second lap. Then passed by another. And one more. That last one we traded places back and forth for most of the second lap but she finally put down the hammer on the last long uphill and I never could catch her again. As she cruised up the hill, I gave up. (Meh - I hate admitting that.) I was hot, on the service road, sun beating down, pedaling hard, going about 3 mph now and not making up any ground on her. I got off and pushed. Wretched. Just wretched. :(

So I'm trying to take away some good from the race. I finished DFL. Ok, well maybe not last but the only woman behind me was a DNF. It's clear that I'm able to ride stuff that scared the shorts off me last year. That's a plus. The minus is I'm clearly in worse shape than I was last year. I hate that. It's also clear that I need to figure out a way to train better given my travel schedule if I'm hoping to do better at 'cross this season. But the real goodness: I'm still riding my bike. S couldn't compete this year, much to her frustration since they cut the beginners to only one lap. I remind myself of that and am thankful. Similarly, I saw pics of Sue Haywood being carried off after fracturing her leg and again, am happy I didn't bite it on the course.

Bottom line: I enjoyed myself but both S and I decided that it's mo' betta to win. ;-)

And speaking of winning, Mike took third the next day in his expert division. Scott took 4th in his division and Libby gets another stars and stripes jersey. NEBC Happiness! And, my MTB idol, Mary outsprinted Georgia the Luna Chick at the line to win the Pro women's race. Smokin' hot! Hoping she can get gold in Beijing in August.

Electra StreetRod For Sale

I'm cleaning out the basement and have a bike that's not getting enough love any longer. It used to be my commuter when I lived in Seattle. Now, it's my latte/Redbones/farmer's market cruiser. Shimano Nexus 7 spd internal hub, Nexus roller brakes (awesome in Seattle's rainy weather). I can't remember the size (I think 18") which is big for me (I'm 5'4"). It's yours for $200. More pics can be found here.

More specs below.
Frame & Fork
Frame Construction TIG-welded
Frame Tubing Material 4130 chromoly
Fork Brand & Model Electra D-Blade
Fork Material 4130 chromoly, unicrown crown
Rear Shock Not applicable

Components
Component Group Shimano Nexus
Brakeset Shimano Nexus Roller brake brakes, Tektro RBP-363AP levers
Shift Levers Shimano Inter-7 ST-7S20
Front Derailleur Not applicable
Rear Derailleur Not applicable
Crankset Cyclone CPI 9-100A, 42 teeth
Bottom Bracket Shimano BB-CT91
BB Shell Width 68mm English
Rear Cogs 7-speed internal, 22 teeth
Chain 1/2 x 1/8"
Seatpost Kalloy aluminum, 26.8 mm diameter
Saddle Electra
Handlebar Arc aluminum
Handlebar Extensions Not applicable
Handlebar Stem Rito ML-80 aluminum
Headset 1" steel

Wheels
Hubs Shimano Nexus Roller brake
Rims Electra TA-5 aluminum, 36-hole
Tires 26 x 1.90" Electra Street Racer whitewall
Spoke Brand Stainless steel, 2.0mm straight gauge
Spoke Nipples Brass nipples

Always At The Last Minute

Last week I had to bail midride on my trail ride with the girls due to my bike shifting like crap. Put on a new cassette, rode it Sunday and all seemed well. During my pre-ride yesterday, the bike started its horrific ghost shifting again. Climbing Mt. Snow with the chain skipping all over isn't any fun and at points, somewhat dangerous.

So off to the Shimano booth. Turns out my dérailleur hanger was not so nicely bent. Those guys were super terrific. The bike seems to be shifting perfectly now. We'll find out for sure in about two hours.

Amos

So imagine this......you get on a BOS -> LAX morning flight, hit LA a little bit past lunch time, and then get on another 6 hour flight to Lihue. By the time you land in Kauai, you've been traveling about 17 hours (if you include drive to airport, security, etc), and it's late afternoon in Hawaii. You get off the plane, somewhat dishelved depite flying first class, head to the outdoor baggage claim where it's warm, humid, you can feel a line of sweat dripping down your lower back and a screaming child is parked near your spot at the carousel. Finally, you get your bags, get the convertible rental car, put down the top, roll down the windows and enjoy the sea breeze. Now, only thing left to do is call that 808 phone number, talk to some guy named Bryce and get the keys to the cottage that cost more for 5 days than your monthly salary for your first job out of college.

Bryce actually does exist, answers the phone and says drive north to mile marker #23. There will be a gas station on your right. Look for the black SUV. And so you do, for 45 min, through the Aloha Friday rush hour traffic on the only main road on the island. Finally, you see mile marker #22, then #23, then the gas station and wow, there really is a black SUV there. Bryce gets out, introductions all around, says follow me and hands you a CD to throw into the dashboard player. It says, "Amos Lee" on it. Hmmmm....who's that? Oh well, no worries, throw it in there and give it a listen. Starts off with Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight. With that soundtrack, you drive through a neighborhood toward the Kilauea Lighthouse, then through private gates down a long drive, to a very private cottage on a cliff overlooking the Pacific and Secret Beach on Kauai.

That was my introdution to Amos Lee. Just hearing his music brings me back there, to what has to be one of the most incredible places I've ever stayed on vacation. For my birthday, besides the toaster-to-die-for, S surprised me with two tickets to see Amos at the Somerville Theater. (Right around my birthday, I saw a blurb in the paper that he was in town. I tried to get tickets but they were all sold out. Good thing given S had bought two tix weeks earlier.) I knew the seats were good but both of us were surprised to find ourselves sitting front row center (who knew row B would be front row?). Lucy Wainright Roche (yeah, Rufus' sister) kicked it off with a fun, acoustic mellow set. Then Amos with his bass player, keyboard guy and drummer brought me back to that first warm Kauai evening. Fantastic concert - one of the best I've been to. I love my birthday. :)