Race Report and so much more...

So I've been a bit of a slacker on the Blog side so here is a quick race report from last weekend.

Last Saturday I went to an all day women's bike clinic - it was AWESOME! Dawn, my sometimes trainer and in general great bike guru was our host and she had a number of people from the priority health team there and former pike pro Sarah Uhl (she was 24 - wouldn't it be great to be retired at the age of 24. We learned a little about bikes, got to meet a bunch of fun people, got to do some bike drills (including practicing falling - more about this later) and afterwards Dawn took us out for dinner at ABC and I got peer pressured into trying my first bike race on Sunday. Yeah free beer and dinner and peer pressure.

So I had to quickly run from dinner to go see Bobby McFerrin, Chic Corea, and Jack Dejohnette with my mom and Steve. It was amazing - the kind of awe that you get when you see something like Cirque du Soli - the awe of having something so amazing so amazing just seem to happen in front of your eyes and you can hardly believe it. When someone is such a master at something they can come out, and improvise for 90 minutes, no even speak a word to the audience, but hold them enthralled the whole time and get them to sing along, in tune. It was amazing. Afterwards they did a little Q&A which was also fun. Then we went out for a little ice cream (super yummy) and I was in bed by 11.

So with a whole 6 hours of sleep I wondered on off to the bike race. Mind you, I didn't actually know where it was at, so there was a bunch of driving around and a bit being late, but I figured it out and pulled in right behind one of the other ladies, which gave me a bit more confidence that I was at least in the right place. After removing my aero bars and getting yelled at for riding around without my helmet (more good advice I would use later) I registered, was given a relatively hard time my a normal bike jack ass, but so is life. While technically I had a number one, so I technically 'raced' it was not really a race. I had two lovely people - Joe and Darrell - coach me, teach me how to take some crazy corners, do a few intervals, and teach me how to draft (Joe was easier to draft behind than Darrell) and just had fun.

Afterwards Joe helped me fix my seat and I went out for a little ride with Dawn, which was fun. Dawn wanted to go back for the B race pre-talk so she told me to turn around, which did not go as well as planned. The whole time I was doing the turns with the gentlemen going 20+, no problem. The time I try to turn around in a big ole road going 2mph, I forget to bring my inside leg up and my pedal clips the ground and down I go - head hits ground, handle bars hit hand hits ground. Magically I unclip somehow and end up on my back in the middle of the road, not being crushed by the bike, thank goodness. After a second, I realize that OMG I'm laying on my back in the middle of a road (A corporate park, mind you) and I jump up and pick up my bike. By this time Dawn had realized I had fallen and came back to check on me and helped me fixed my shifter. Apart from a bike ole scrape on my elbow/forearm area (I will not include photos here cause that would be icky) and the fact that my legs looked like someone took a paint ball to me, I was okay. Mind, you, if I had not had the lovely session about falling, I might have done something stupid like stick my hand out and broken my collar bone or something. Not that I had enough time to even think about sticking my hand out, it was more of a pedal hit ground, oh I'm on the ground, OH I'M ON THE GROUND! The best part was that even though I had a big ole scrape, it wasn't actually bleeding - it was just one little skin layer away, so it LOOKED icky, but no blood. Great for the freak out value, and it still hurt, but not so messy.

Ok - Enough for now! Next I will write about my lovely cold (woot woot)

Status from this weekend

I got talked into bike racing this morning... all it cost me was some skin, dignity, and a new helmet - two of those three things grow back....

Not Dead

Just a little note - I am not dead - I have been biking a LOT with this great weather, but I promise to post tonight (or tomorrow at the latest) with updates on my fantabulous life.

Food Poisoning

I have been absent this week because I have been taken down by the dreaded FOOD POISONING (dum dum dummmmmmm). When I got home from work on Thursday (as if this week wasn't bad enough with the boy thing and work going south faster than a thermometer in Antarctica) I was feeling a little queezy, but I had just had a few drinks... no biggie I thought. Boy was I WRONG.

Needless to say it was a lovely evening - Fever over 101, sleeping on the bathroom floor, texting friends to see who could bring me some pepto (My friend Chris rocks - he brought pepto AND smart water (Water + Electrolites)), and just general unplesentness.

I learned a few things that I had forgotten that night and in the past few days that I would like to share:

• The body should not need to be nauseous and use the toilet at the same time. Evolution, please catch up.
• Food Poisoning is a great ab work out - you work ab muscles that you didn't even realize you had
  
• When you are sick, you smell like you are sick. No matter how much you shower, that 'sick' funk just keeps coming back
• Honey water is good for upset tummies that can't handle tea (just pretend you are a humming bird or something)
  
• Gu is good when you need something that your stomach can handle after its big purge
• Apparently it is impossible to sleep too much
  

I still haven't gotten back to eating real food yet - I tried some soup last night and some rice this morning and my stomach is still upset, so I've been having a gu every so often and some honey water (and just a LOT of water over and over and over again).

I am trying to find some positiveness in all of this by hoping it will kick off my healthier eating. I am hoping to plan out my meals this week and then stick to it for the week. Plus my desire to eat out (cause that is where I think it came from), has pretty much totally been lost. Maybe this was my body's way of telling me I eat out too much and I need to start something better. I am back up to the 15 lbs I need to loose by the end of May, so I need something to kick me off.

Anyone out there have any good food poisoning stories (using a very loose definition of good)?

Real Life Chutes and Ladders

So true....

I think I spend too much time planning and not enough messing around with the plan.

http://xkcd.com/267/

Stealing from Steep and Cheep

I totally am stealing this from a recent Steep and Cheep email - I admit it, but it was too good and true not to pass along.

"If you don't like a book someone recommended, keep it to yourself. They won't take it well when you tell them it was bad, and they'll be especially upset if you launch into a well-reasoned explanation supported with literary precedent. I learned this not when I compared the Poisonwood Bible to a doorstop, but when the friend who had recommended the Poisonwood Bible responded with a dismissive shrug when I asked what he thought of a book I'd loaned him. Books take so much of an investment in time that I think they form a bit of a cognitive dissonance for their readers. Unless you quit reading halfway through, it's like you've invested so much time in the book that it had better be good. Taking a particular liking to a book is similar to finding a song you enjoy deeply--there's something about it that resonates with you. So when someone comes back with a negative review of a book you like, it's more like it informs your differences with the person than your taste in books. And that person can never be trusted again."

Proving yet again, as said in High Fidelity, it is what you like, not what you are like.