Snow Day!

Yesterday was going to be a lazy day at home with some "quick" x-mas shopping thrown in at some point, but turns out Reid's friends bailed on him to go to the back country so he asked if we wanted to head up at about 10AM. Why not? I decided to get the troops moving and change the days plan to fun. Megan was still sleeping, I clearly remember being able to sleep until noon on weekends when I was young, now even if I don't have a thing to do I still can' t sleep past 9AM. Seriously though when was the last time I had nothing to do on a weekend?? Anyhoo, after promising Starbucks I got Megan out of bed and we packed up gear and the pup and headed out.

We played for a couple of hours,the girls were cutting some "extreme" new tracks in the snow, mostly on their buts ;p Reid did let them slide down on his split board and he pulled off a 180 (or so the story goes....) just kidding. Miley loved it, she is made for the snow. Reid brought Hershey his beagle who was hysterical good thing he likes cookies that was the only way to get him to come back from tunneling through the 16" + powdery white stuff.

We were never very far from the car, no sweeping views or solitude but it was fun.


One little moment of chaos... Emily is super bad, Megan has snow down her pants and Hershey is sure he can sneak a cookie out of my pocket. I no longer own snow boots (they are on Megan's feet) so I was in my hiking boots not really designed for walking in deep snow, me feet were freezing by the end of the day but I would do it again.

Back to Frustration

This weather does nothing for me except add to frustration and complications.

On my regiment of core exercise 6/week. Started out fine, even road on Saturday but that was my mistake. I should have stayed warm, road a trainer maybe. The cold combined with a bad night sleep due to back pain should have kept me from getting out the door. If that wasn't enough Gina saying she wouldn't be riding outdoors should have. But, I really wanted to ride outside and fit in a real bike workout. By the time I was at Seward in knew I needed to turn around. Low level pain and the feeling that every pedal stroke was in my hardest gear let me know I shouldn't try to continue around the lake. Took it easy going home averaging about 16mph. Got home warmed up and went about doing my core workout. Should have all been fine. I woke up Sunday in a lot of pain radiating into my butt and leg, grrr! Now lets make this worse, headed out to REI I slip on my friggin slush covered steps and fall head first down them catching my self at the bottom with basically my thumb. Good thing I didn't go face down but I did manage to tweak my already unhappy back. I felt every stop in the car go through me and getting in and out of the car sucked. Nuff said, my back is a mess again.
Rested most of the day, beside a few unavoidable things like laundry, picking up dog poop, dishes, all of these activities I now have to moderate and think about before moving lifting etc. It makes each chore more arduous, simple things now have great impact on how I feel. To make things worse the backed up drain came back this time raw stinking sewage in the shower, Yuck. I am getting a bit grumpy and I am feeling like everything is going wrong, this is an attitude I very much like to avoid it leads to a downward spiral of health and happiness. Got to find something positive... OK, I found some old CD's of photos of my girls when they were babies. The three of us sat around the computer and laughed and reminisced about times together. How fast they have grown, how sweet the memories. :)

Birthday

I just realized today is my dad's 67th birthday. The last time I saw him he was 45 years old. I don't know if I would even recognize him if I saw him. I have no idea how he is but I am pretty sure he is still living. Sad to think about it, sad that he has never seen any of his grandkids. I could say it is his loss, which it is, but really we all lose. Still don't know why he just cut all of his family off. Guess I never will, but it makes me appreciate the people I have in my life even more.

Tis the season

Ah yes, tis the season for spending all my money, eating and drinking too much... oh wait, that has been my MO for a while so what's the difference now? Well, everyone else gets to join in! Oh what fun it is to...

I have already started the Holiday shopping, I will never get it done if I don't start now. I am trying to be conservative this year, the girls have PLENTY of stuff so this year it is going to be more practical gifts, I know a bit boring but our little miss Miley was not a cute puppy in a cardboard box that said "Free!" she is the gift that will keep on giving for years to come. Incidentally, she chewed up my very nice Sony earphones over the weekend, my fault, anything I don't want to become a chew toy I need to keep out of her reach, I got it. I avoid malls at all cost most of the year, now is not an exception but every year there is something I can't seem to get for someone anywhere but a department store or mall, ugh.

Thanksgiving was great, I had friends and family over, we had a great dinner and played guitar hero and pop singer ( not sure if that is the right name) until midnight. I am not into video games but this is actually really fun to play, especially the singing, I would not sing in front of my friends if it was not for the game, guaranteed they thank me for that now that they have heard what I am capable of.

I didn't manage to get any time to ride my bike all weekend or do any other form of exercise besides hiking around Discovery Park. Not only do I feel fat the scale confirms it for me. Worse yet, the lack of exercises sent my back into a downward spiral of pain. I went to my chiro today and it feels better, it is only temporary and will just go back to hurting if I don't strengthen everything around it. I get a deep tissue message tomorrow. 1st one ever, not sure what to expect.

OK I am doing it... I am making a Thanksgiving resolution, (can't wait for New Year to do this) Keep up on the Daily core exercises, ride my bike to work, eat less, no more beer (it is wine season anyway). I want to lose 4 lbs by Christmas, this is a reasonable goal, at this time of year just not gaining is a good goal so I will be very happy if I can dip the scale back even a bit in the month of December.

Broken, stopped up, can't find, not mine

This is my day so far.

I have a broken instrument that is heavily overbooked and now needs to be fixed while people are breathing down my neck. Wouldn't be too big of a deal but this whole week has been hectic and my one employee was "sick" yesterday and is on vacation today. Even my 8 year old said he didn't look sick, why is he leaving. Trying to get everything set up and working while constantly being interrupted today is not helping. All fixed, whew! now I can blog ;) kidding... well sorta.

Got a call from home (my youngest doesn't have school all week and has been coming to work with me but today would have been too much for both of us) the shower and toilet in the basement were backing up with bath water from upstairs. Not sure how this is possible exactly but the drains do eventually meet up. Could be worse, could be raw sewage backing up right before I host T-day.

Drove to work, should have biked. Couldn't find my card to park in the garage, made me late with people waiting for me when I got in. I hate being late! Worse yet I found my card at the bottom of my bike bag!

Shopping cart hell, that damn cart won't go away. I called Safeway and they never came and got it so last night we walked it back to the church parking lot, this is also a soup kitchen and I am thinking that one of my neighbors didn't walk home from Safeway with a cart and someone who comes for soup brought it to the street and left it. When I went to work this morning it was still there but I got a call telling me it was back in front of my house! I should be able to laugh at how crazy it is that I have a shopping cart problem but it actually is not that funny some one took the time to walk it back up specifically to my house and put it in my driveway. It actually creeps me out a bit that someone is that aware of my house who I am sure doesn't live here and would take the time to replace the cart once it was moved. I hope they are not staking out my house for more fun filled pranks. I called Safeway again and said it has to be picked up today. We will see.

Tomorrow is Turkey Day and I have lots to do. Here is hoping that all my bad juju has been used up for awhile.

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat, drink, and ride! (not in that order necessarily) :P

Randomness

Feeling fatter, got my body fat analyzed and was told I could stand to loose some, 19.6% yes I suppose I could.

Halloween candy, brought it into work in the hopes that all the people there... um here (opps, am I supposed to be working right now?) would eat and save me from binging on excessive empty calories and carbs. I have beer for that! :) No dice it sat outside my office in the computer lab calling to me every time I got up to help someone. I guess the alternative was to have it sit on the counter at home all 5 lbs from Costco and eat it all by myself over a greater time continuum. It is gone now except for a couple tootsie rolls, a couple of those couldn't hurt me...
20.1%???

Have to start Pilate's, this is going to be a home program. I am using up all of time away from the house now with little Miley I am on a shorter leash. Hmmm is that the way it should go?

Puppy kindergarten, she is doing great, I am fumbling with holding her lead, treats in both hand and a clicker while making kissy noises and trying to get her to come even amidst distracting fun puppy's. I think we have the potty training in full forward momentum which is a relief.

Shopping carts. What does a person do when a Safeway shopping cart parallel parks in front of her house? Options:
1. (the not an option) My neighbors have undoubtedly seen it there so rolling to another house is out.
2. Wait several days for someone going to the Church to shower and get soup to claim it as their own. Its been 5days, hasn't happened.
3. Return it to Safeway. The closest Safeway is 36 blocks away I am not too keen on pushing that damn thing back up there.
4. Joy ride. I am on a hill slight hill I could jump in and go for a Jack Ass type whirl.
5. Craigslist or the like. Put a sign on it that say "Free" (it is amazing what people will take with them off the curb if it is free).
6. Call the Safeway manager and ask them to come get their property. I may do this it has got to be good for a little entertainment if nothing else.

Magic Bullets

Just as there are no free lunches there seem to be no magic bullets either at least for me.

Potty training a puppy, consistency, perseverance and sleepless nights. Miley is doing better but she caught a bug and I have spent the last two nights up every 1-2 hours with a puppy rushing to go out and relieve herself in the worst way. At least it has been outside, well mostly. Got to love Natures Miracle for stain and odor removal. So no magic bullet for puppy training, it is work but in the end it is worth it.

Other magic bullets I was so kindly made aware that do not exist are for my back. Injections won't do much is seems and I am not fusing my vertebrae. This leaves me with work. Work to further strengthen my core and work on patients for the natural healing process to continue as I relieve irritation by stabilizing my spine. It is up to me to get better that was the message today. I did get the OK for deep tissue massage and will pick up with my PT again. I will be happy to get stronger and ultimately it should make me a better bike racer (I can hope ;) )

Outside in November!

Got to love the sunshine! What a treat for November. Today I road in and get to ride home at lunch to let out little miss Miley, then ride back to work then home again at 5PM. If it was raining I might not be so anxious to commute twice in the same day. But for my new little gal it is worth the extra trip home.

Spent yesterday doing some yard clean up and mulching, it is amazing how mulch makes the garden look better. Miley spent the afternoon outside helping mostly like a union worker, sitting back and "overseeing" what I was doing.

We started puppy-kindergarten, she did great. She already can sit, sit stay, and come. All for treats of coarse!

Between commuting and spin class I am getting in more hours riding this fall than last. That is a good sign. My back is not improving but I don't expect that it will until there is some kind of intervention medically. I go to the spine doc on Thursday, keeping my fingers crossed that he will have a plan to make it better or more manageable. Sleeping is interrupted every night because of pain. Maybe the Temporpedic bed is in order, although I can't afford one now with vet bills and dog food. Oh well, I wouldn't trade my Miley.

News and newspaper

Not so good news, but at least I now know why my back is messed up.



I had x-rays of my spine last week and was diagnosed with Spondylolysis. As a result I have grade 1 spondylolisthesis. I probably have had this since I was a kid or at a minimum, from a previous car accident in my 20's. But in recent years I have had no pain (until the day I was hit by the guy who dropped his cell phone). Ugh, apparently that little fender bender was enough to re fractured or stress the weak point in the vertebrae and is the reason my back hurts so much. I am going to a Spinal Rehab and Sports Medicine Doc at Harborview in a few weeks. Hopefully he will be able to give me some relief and I will be racing in the spring.



Now for much better news... puppy delivery day is next Sunday. Woo Hoo! We are getting a little girl, her name will be Miley. If you have kids you may know who Miley Cyrus is, oh yeah, Hanna Montana. I am not a fanatic Disney star addict pu-leese, but my girls liked the name and I can't argue it is a cute name, and who wouldn't be honored to have a Bernese Mountain Dog with their name??






One of these little darlings is going to be ours. Aw how cute!


Time for lots of news papers and keeping the house picked up of bike gloves, shoes arm warmers etc. Fun to chew expensive to replace.

If you have a stock pile of newspaper let me know I will take it off your hands. Unfortunately since I get most of my news in blog form or some other electronic fashion, I have no papers of my own. *sigh* You could even get the chance to meet little Miley (she needs to meet all kinds of people for her socialization).

Cheers!

Chiro "magic"

Things are a crackin'! This guy is pretty cool. He is the resident Doc/ paramedic for the Rat City Roller girls so he's GOT to get points for that. Roller Derby has a special place in my heart as one of the Lil' Derby 100 at Marymoore last year. Or Something like that....

Photo evidence, hopefully I will not get reamed by the other ladies in the picture, but if you know these gals you'll know they are not shy ;)

Anyhow, the chiro seems to be making some progress, things all over my back are moving. Guess that is what they are supposed to do. I am sore from all the manipulations 3X with him and 1X at PT has left me tender, but I can already feel more flexibility in my back and the deep pain while sleeping has lessened. Good good good! I will see how I feel after the team ride tomorrow. Here's hoping for more goodness!

new approach

We had the Meet the Team Ride yesterday. All went well, the weather was favorable and the newbies were pretty cool. Definitely some good additions to the women's team is possible. This is the second team ride I have been on since that spring. The good news is that the effort was easy the bad new is that by the time we reached Coulomb Park my back was not feeling good. I consciously worked on keeping my abs engaged and not hinging on the part of my back that is still injured. It helped but today I feel like I was body slammed. Not encouraging for winter riding when it is cold and I am on my tank of a rain bike.

Tomorrow I go to a new Doc. This is a Chiro, never been to one, in fact I have actively avoided them. My PT says this guy is different, he primarily sees athletes and doesn't sign you up for lifetime "adjustments", 2 or 3 times is all he will see me. If that doesn't help then I am off to either a spinal doc or another doc for injections in the scar tissue.

I just want to get this behind me. I have been diligent about going to the gym and working on core strength, I have been commuting and keeping my fitness from slipping any further. I am motivated to get strong and to be ready to really race next season but I can't do it if I wake up after a MTTR in pain like today. Yesterday's ride is far from what the winter has in store for training.

In other news, the IMA at the UW finally got spin bikes! I am sure I am not the only one that kept asking for them for the last couple of years. I start spin classes in Oct twice a week during my lunch hour. Only $50 for the entire series, coolness. Tried to get into the Cycle U classes but I can't swing the cash or times. Hopefully I will get to do some of the indoor TT's there, they are a great reality check for fitness.

For now I am keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow is a step towards recovery.

The roof, the roof...

I just can't help myself I guess. I have already found a new house project. This one is less intense but does give me the opportunity to once again use my newly found skill set.

It all started with replacing the roof on my garage. This was a much needed project that I paid to have done, the roof was very old if not original 1925, not sure> It leaked like crazy and made the garage less than usable once the rain would start. Plan now is to use it as my trainer room.

While the roof was off I took the opportunity to replace a switch in the garage attic that hadn't been working right. I turned of the garage panel like a good little electrician an began the quick replacement. Once I got into the metal box I knew that it was a good thing I was taking care of this, the side of the switch was melted and there were burn marks in the box. ( All I could hear in my head was the roof! the roof! the roof is on FIRE!) Does that date me?? Anyhoo... I started to disconnect the switch the hot side disintegrated and broke off as soon as I lifted it out. The guy (THC Dude as I *affectionately* call him) who wired it used electrical tape and no wing nuts putting all of the neutral and grounds together, bad idea... really. The black hot wire was stripped way too much and had made contact with the ground and neutral through the tape and over time had burned through. This is one of the leading causes of house fires!! (again, the roof!the roof! the roof is on FIRE!) I reached in to strip off the corroded hot wire and got zapped! "No way!" I thought "the power is totally off to the garage!" Guess not if I am getting shocked, turns out somewhere this THC Dude buried wires from the house to the garage. No idea where they are but my guess is that they are just under the grass somewhere, great fun...

Now I am trapped by my own inability to let a project sit and wait, I need to fix this wiring. OCD? no not quite, I just don't like fix it things looming over me I like to complete them so I can do something else. Like clean up the entire garage and turn it into a super cool winter workout and training room.

The new roof is great, only problem is the guys didn't have time to put the gutters back on this will create a new flooding problem in the garage. Mr. Roofer Boss Guy (RBG) called to schedule the gutter install and while I had him on the phone I wanted to let him know about a little "present" that his guys left behind. After they left I found an almost full beer bottle on my garage floor, now it was a nice micro brew bottle same kind that I had recently purchased. I didn't drink one in my garage, and I don't leave them 1/2 full. Hmmm, what could this be? my first though was correct, pee in my bottle that was left in the recycling. Nice, real nice, I love disposing of others bodily fluids. I was very nice when I told Mr. RBG about what happened, the guys were polite and cleaned up everything else but it wasn't cool and was kinda gross (ya think?) to have to get rid of their pee. Mr. RBG was apologetic (he said he felt like a poopy diaper) and would get to the bottom of it. I suppose no pun was intended and I don't know where the bottom really is, I am still waiting to hear back. Sure would like to get the gutters that are sitting in my yard actually attached to my garage...

Bike Police

Biking in this morning I was already on alert for the bike police around the UW since I had heard that they were hiding near the two new blinking stops signs on the Burke. When I reached the sign for the crossing at Brooklyn (which was not blinking today) I did the closest thing to a track stand that I can manage and waited for a car to pass. The nice lady on her cruiser style commuter bike did not stop and rolled through. Low and behold there they were on their mountain bikes on the other side in the grass. They pulled the lady over to reprimand her. I didn't stay for what they had to say or if they gave her a ticket, but I felt very bad for this person who is simply trying to do her part and not clog our streets with traffic.

There is the importance of safety and education for people on their bikes but I believe that if you post the stop signs most of these people on their bikes also drive and can read and will most likely understand the concept of a stop sign. If they then choose to ignore it and roll through they either are taking a risk that they have chosen or have enough common sense to know when stopping (i.e. when the several 1000lbs object is not going to stop and they will get squished) or when rolling through is safe (i.e. lack of vehicles on the road or these vehicles yielding.) Really if they make a bad choice unfortunately they will get hurt in most cases but the innocent driver just minding there own business while talking on the cell phone (or texting or checking the traffic alerts on their smart phones) will be unscathed. OK they could have some scratches on their car, but that is about it.

I am all for following the laws and rules but I also believe that people need to take responsibility for themselves and their choices and we don't need this extra policing by a third party. If the lady flew through without looking making a car screech to a halt and then she almost ran over a baby, then by all means pull her over and give her hell, but that is not what they are doing. It is like the Mercer Island issue and drivers in general that think that stopping is putting a foot down no matter what the circumstance. I see cars and motorcycles roll through stop signs all the time, we all do. The fact is that so many people do that they would need to keep a cop at every stop sign to enforce "the rules". Not practical and the majority of the time people are safe, we by nature don't want to get hit by someone or hit anyone.

These cops would be much better utilized if they would stop the runner with the headphones on that flips a Uey on the trail with out looking or the group of walkers that spread out over the trail blocking traffic in both direction. Educate not ticket, remind anyone who is not sharing the trail that it is a shared commuting thoroughfare (yes, this would include cyclist). That would require these bike cops to actually ride up and down the trail encountering all the users and vehicles the real trail users have to contend with daily. Maybe then they would be more aware of what should be addressed as unsafe and what is reasonable for a person on a bike to do safely. Hiding in the bushes waiting to catch those rouge cyclists who don't follow the rules is not the best incentive for getting the average joe to bike to work or making it any safer for the rest of the tail users.

Dumb Monday!

I had a great weekend, went for a long (relatively speaking) slow ride on Saturday and then went with Reid to Mt Rainier on Sunday. We hiked to Pebble Creek, the flowers were amazing, I love the mountains and have spent far too little time in them recently.

Even though the mountain was obscured by clouds, it was beautiful. In the morning I was feeling guilty for not doing Seward but after hiking up this mountain in the fresh air I realized my day was very well spent and Seward will be there next year.


I have missed seeing my friends and racing but I have been healing and have fun doing different things. I am actually looking forward to training. I say that now but as soon a s the roads are sheets of ice I may have second thoughts. :)


While hiking we ran into a couple of guys from Russia, they had spotted a marmot and were super excited. We told them what they were, the younger guy kept calling them mormots, (insert Russian accent). He was surprised when I told him there were black bears around as well. They were trying to feed the marmot and I told the guy that the marmot's work with the bears louring people into feeding them then the bears come out and eat the people. His eyes got huge and he said "really?!" I laughed and told him I was just kidding and he started laughing. I couldn't hlep myself.



Cute marmot eating alpine lupin.










Now for Dumb Monday.
I am dumb for packing my bag this morning and forgetting my shoes. Yes, I am walking all over my lab in cleats. Clopping around and slipping trying to help people set up their experiments and all. Funny things is it took a couple of hours before anyone asked me if I had forgotten my shoes. It is also dumb that the weekend weather was more like October than August and now Monday greats us with sun while we all have to go to work. I want more weekend(w/ sun), not Monday.

I have Wednesday off with my girls looks to be sunny, time to swim in the lake! School starts in a week. Started coaching soccer, fall is already here. Fingers crossed for an indian summer. Please, please, pretty please!!

What's new...

Apparently I should update my blog. :]

New? My basement is 98% done!! Yes the annoying 2% are things like painting molding, installing bi fold doors for the laundry closet and small "weekend" projects. They still loom but nothing I can't live with. I did a thorough cleaning of the entire house last weekend, my life is sooo exciting. Actually is was great to get all the dust and neglected little things cleaned after a year of working on such an all consuming project.

I spent 10 days in Durango Co at the end of July, it was great to see my entire family and spend quality time with my girls. We hiked, went swimming, did the alpine slide at Purgatory, had a great day at Mesa Verde and just relaxed. I also got to ride with my sisters on some of the most beautiful roads around. It was great to be on my bike. My back did pretty well and I feel like it was what I needed to start my come back to racing.

Speaking of racing... Volunteer Park was my first race since Methow, it went as well as I could hope for. Good to know my fitness isn't completely gone and I do have some power back now that my injuries have had time to heal. I really need to focus on patients when I race, this was evident at the crit. Last lap I went way too early and blew up on the final hill. I knew that I had made a dumb move but other than that I loved racing again. It was nice to see friendly faces I miss my teammates though.

OK some photos of the back breaking project.

Here is the framing. This is the 1st time I have ever framed anything, needless to say later on I learned how important square, level and plumb really are. I had already completed all the demo and removed literally a ton of material. Notice the windows, it is amazing what a tigersaw can do.

Drywall installation, not plumb, not square and not standard 8ft walls=lots of measuring & cutting

Floor leveling and beadboard install. Hopefully all the foundation sealing will keep out the winter water.

The finished bedroom!! I love the floors.

Tile install with radiant flooring, very nice to walk on.

Glass shower surround & finished bathroom.

TV room and laundry. I can't believe the difference it has made to have flooring! The cement floor was very cold and dirty. I feel like my house is twice as big now.

Now I get to focus on training and enjoying my house and yard... Coming soon will be the garage renovation. It will make a great winter training room :) Never a dull moment!

Why won't you heal?!

I am partially to blame for my back not healing, I work on my basement and garden. I am allowed to ride and have been, but racing has not been working out. I am trying to strike a balance with all of my commitments and interests. Finishing the basement is key to getting my life back in order. It is getting closer. The bathroom is functional the shower surround should be fulling installed this week then it is just trim work which I like. The bedroom is painted and foundation sealed (keeping my fingers crossed) I need to level the floor and install the hardwoods and trim. The rest is office and hallway mud and paint then flooring in the remainder of the basement. It all depends on how much I can do each evening , many I can't do any. Others I want to ride or head out to the track. I think I will do ok at the track, with my back shorter distances don't cause as much fatigue but then again I won't know how my back is until I try it. Hoping for the best.

My yard is looking amazing! I spent most of Sunday edging and cleaning things up a bit. All of the seeds I planted last year have taken hold and are growing well this season. The yard was bare and ugly when I moved in now it has color everywhere and feels like it is becoming mine. I have tons of different flowers and every time I go to the nursery I manage to find more that I want to add. Keeping little mental notes of what they are and where they could go. Looking forward to my next big project once the basement is done. I want a patio surrounded by flowers and plants. Then it's the vegetable garden... should take some time to chill out and let my back rest though.

Wenatchee

Not too much to say about my racing. My head was not in this race from before I left. My unfinished house and it being Mother's day on Sunday was at the forefront. I wanted to go because I wanted to be supportive of my teammates and not bail when I had committed to going.


Quick rundown:
The TT I gave it my best effort but simply didn't push hard enough on the way out. Turned around and the wind stopped me, same as everyone else. Still need to practice those darn things.

The crit was my best opportunity and I just didn't make it happen. From not getting clipped in bad position for the 1st few corners and then trying to chase back on without enlisting help (I do know better but I wasn't thinking.) Then the asthma + redlining I pulled myself out disappointed with all of the mistakes I seemed to have made all at once. Then I watched as the remaining field raced and realized how dang hard they were going. Kudos to everyone who hung on to the finish!

The RR I had no plan except if it was raining I wasn't going to ride at all. I never treated it as a race for me it was training. But I was not going to do that decent in wind and rain. The weather halfway cooperated. I did the race my hip in pain the whole climb, I could barely pedal if a sat so I spent much of the time standing and climbing. I caught up to a few of my Group Health friends and was so glad to have company. The decent was windy and I was timid. I sure liked the tailwind on the way home though.

What I came away from this weekend can be summed up in one word, friendliness. All my interactions were with super cool and friendly people. Really I can't think of a better way to feel at the end of a race. I received support from so many people and had fun in spite of my personal racing performance. I was able to celebrate the success of many friends who accomplished great things like overcoming mistakes, getting back out there after injury to getting back up with a smile after going down and even winning. Thanks for a great weekend Wenatchee, see you next year.

Vance Creek

My first hilly RR of the year. Not so bad, actually better than last year were at lap 2 I blew up on the hill and got dropped. This year my goal was to not be the instigator of attacks I was to sit in ride smart and be patient. From the start I knew that two ladies would be taking off and I was pretty confident that know one would be able to catch them. The second time up the hill they simply road away from the pack. A second group of about 5 were chasing with one of my teammates in the group, the two up the road were both my teammate's so for me there was nothing for me to do but sit in. The group of five got reeled in on the flat section. Apparently the other teams failed to notice that we had no lead car thus the race was still up the road. I rider from another team came up to me and said we got them all back. I told her actually no, there is a break up the road, she was confused no she said we caught them. I told her "no I have two teammates that are long gone". She then said "hey we've got a break still up the road lets chase them down!" Good luck they are sooo gone. We stayed together and made our way up the hill the final time. I felt pretty good my back hurt some and I had to spin more than I am used to, not as much power especially when I would stand. Another one from my team pulled away from the group on the corner for the pack finish 1 2 and 3 for the day. Several more in the top 10. I didn't even see were I placed, for this race it simply didn't matter I finished with the pack I climbed better than last year and I road well just not aggressive. The race was good for learning and getting back to racing/climbing for me but it wasn't as much fun as playing with team tactics. There was no organization beyond the two that took off from the pack for our team. Mostly we all seemed to just be surviving and doing a fast ride not really a race. Good for training not what I consider a real race.

I think my teammates that disappeared up the road so fast that the rest of the ladies failed to even know they were gone are moving up to the 3's. I am very happy for them and I think they will do great. I saw that the 3's are getting their own scoring for the BARR this year, that is so cool, finally enough critical mass to start giving women in the category something to work for that is more attainable against their true competitive peers. They still race with the 1-2 but the separate scoring at least for the BARR races is definitely a step in the right direction. I also believe that when women can completely drop the entire field they need to move up, they are not learning how to race if they are in a solo break or with one other person. Their abilities are above the other women in the field and as great as it must feel to win it doesn't push them to become better racers. Hopefully the goal is not just to win for the sake of winning but to better yourself against those who are better than you. Every year there are new 4's that are more fit, stronger and faster than me. As long as I race I think this will the the case. But every year I see my own improvement and I know that eventually I will have that race that it all comes together, it may only be once but I am sure it will feel good.

Landis Case Thoughts

I am a scientist and know quite a bit about creating and following protocols. As part of my job I set up and maintain quality control of sophisticated instruments (flow cytometers the same instruments that were used in the Hamilton case. This is another whole issue that I have reserved comment on because I know how easily flow data can be miss read and without seeing the raw data I hesitate to draw any conclusion.) as well as helping investigators design experiments, run the instruments, analyze data and troubleshoot. I have also worked for a company that produces toxicology products for solid phase extraction of drugs/compounds found in blood, urine etc. for analysis on HPLC and GCMS as well as the quick initial screening for the presence of all drugs using simple chromatography. I used to design the methods to extract specific molecules of interest out of a sample to produce a clean mass spec or other analysis for the compound in question. I do feel like I am probably immersed enough in this field to speak up without just talking out my ass.

From the New York Times "Don Catlin, the former head of the U.C.L.A. antidoping lab who now runs his own antidoping research facility, said that initial tests of urine samples could produce negative results because none of the tests fail the screening for a high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone. If a sample comes back below the threshold of four to one, he said, there is nothing to trigger the more sophisticated carbon isotope ratio test. That test examines the atomic makeup of testosterone in the urine and can determine if it is natural or synthetic."

Yeah, so seven samples taken did not have elevated ratios of T:E but one did. That one sample was then tested for synthetic T. C12 vs C13. This alone raises concern since it is the minute difference in C12 and C13 that consitutes synthetic vs natural Testosterone and a lab that is potentially flawed in its proceedures could easily get false results. Now I am no genius but one out of eight are elevated and gets further testing low and behold synthetic T is found. The one out of eight makes the 1:11 sample an outlier in my opinion, inconsistent with the rest of the tested samples. Usually if there is one sample that is not consistent with the rest it is suspect. In this case it became a smoking gun. The other problem is the other 7 B samples that were just tested by the same lab, again if it is a reliable test it should and would have to be reproducible with the same protocol anywhere. Having the same lab preform the test, excluding outside witnesses and coming up the identical results to the original one outlier is very curious. The other 7 samples did not trigger the more sophisticated test because there was no elevated ratio so how come they now test positive for exogenous Testosterone? Yes, yes I know that ratio of total T:E is not indicative of the T's natural or synthetic origins but it is the consistent synthetic finding NOW and the inconsistent T:E from the original tests that raises doubt for me.

Conveniently the French lab does not have to answer to any of this to anyone because they have now destroyed the evidence to which they are using to build a case against Landis. That is very bad and shady science. "It's true because we say it is" will never convince me. Science should be transparent if it is good then they should want independent verification to further solidify their findings and the overall reliability of the methods they use. Besides that there is the whole leaking of information that keeps happening. Wouldn't surprise me if the "results" were leaked before the tests ware even performed. Sheesh!

Landis is the winner of the 2006 TdF weather the French like it or not.

I am all for catching a cheat and keeping the sport clean, but how can it be clean when the ones in charge of the whole process are dirty?

G-MAX flush

I got up this morning at 6:30 and decided that there was plenty of time to grout my shower tile before work. See, I hired a plumber to install my shower fittings, sink and toilet, he comes on Friday. As of last night I was a bit ill prepared for finishing work on the new bathroom, thus I must make it happen. I dreamt about it all night, little scenes in my head of grout, taping, mudding, painting and oh yea, getting a toilet. Now not just any 1.6gal wimpy Home Depot toilet, no no, I was introduces to the G-Max ToTo toilet this baby gets the job done the first time I hate that low flow toilet that you have to flush multiple times just to get the paper to go down. Anyhoo, so at 7AM I went out and started mixing up the grout. The job was annoying and I probably should have had my mocha before I started. Gravity is not your friend in many cases, 1. when you are no longer rubber side down, 2. whe you step on the scale and 3. when you are putting grout on a wall and it keeps plopping onto the floor. I finally worked out a technique of keeping most of it on the wall before smooshing it in every darn crack, 4X4 tiles look pretty but that is a lot of surface area to cover in between each one. I was down to my last two rows and the bucket was lookin' a bit shy to complete the job. Momentary panic as I had no more grout in the bag, only those plops on the shower floor. I scavenged up every bit of loose grout and narrowly escaped another mishap with this fun little project that I have taken on. Sponging off the tile made me feel better, it looks really nice. My hands an wrists are supper sore but it is just one more step closer to getting done.

And now... a little rant. Things that need to be G-MAX flushed. 1. people talking on their cell phones while trying to park, resulting in blocking traffic as they try to manoeuvre their car one handed oblivious to the line of cars (and bikes, me) waiting for them. 2. The next person on their cell phone trying to back out at the same time as #1 not paying attention creating a multiple car SNAFU neither able to negotiate either pulling in or backing out because they are too busy talking on a phone. 3. It the third person on the damn cell phone who gets impatient and tries to pull out from behind #1 and #2 almost tagging the car in oncoming traffic over corrects and almost hits me! 4. Is the guy in the Beamer 5 minutes later talking on, you guessed it his cell phone as he flies past me so close that I am almost knock off my bike, plenty of room and no traffic in the other direction. I sit up and give him a very uncharacteristic for me f/u and the accompanying gesture. Yep, G-MAX to all those people who can't hang up the dang phone or at least use a headset and pay attention to something outside their little self absorbed existence. OK, I am done.

Seward Spring Classic

Whew! What a weekend. It started on Thursday, I took two days off work to finish the dry wall and tile the shower. Feeling like there is a foreseeable finish to this project makes me happy. Friday night I went to the Bodies exhibit. Very cool and a bit creepy. I kept reminding myself that these were real living people many of them seemingly young and relatively healthy (minus the fact that they died) it made me wonder if they would have wanted to become part of this attraction. The process to create these human "sculptures" included dissection then vacuum sealing the bodies in a bath of acetone (to remove all liquid) and silicon (to replace the tissue)the circulatory system was super cool, they start by removing all fluid from they circulatory system and replacing it with colored polymeres then digesting all the tissue revealing the cast of the veins and arteries. Amazing to see the arteries and capillaries suspended in a case, the human form revealed by the network of vessels that deliver oxygen to every part of our bodies. I also thought the smoker lungs were just amazing, to see what all that smoke really does to the tissue should make anyone who smokes want to quit on the spot.

Saturday finished up the wall tile minus the grout (always one more step it seems) then took all the drywall leftovers to the dump. Relaxed the rest of the day.

Sunday was again a great day to race my bike. Broken clouds, bits of sunshine, what could be better? I drove down to Seward, on the way I had the pleasure of seeing a bald eagle sitting on a low branch of a tree while going down the switch backs huge beautiful bird so close that I could see the scales on his talons. Once at Seward I quickly got ready to warmup. My warmup consisted of a spin up the blvrd then back down to the hill heading towards Rainier Ave. Three hard efforts up the hill and I was ready to go.

There were 26ish women at the line, mostly WoW and TGH. Off the line we were crawling but we quickly upped the pace. This was a fun race, it was smooth for the most part I was up front most of the race so if there was any sketchiness I missed it but I didn't hear any complaints. I attacked and chased and got in a couple of little breaks, basically I worked really hard and played but should have saved more for the finish still figuring out how to be patient. Two laps to go and a TGH attacks on the hill, I hesitate (oops) then go. My teammate Morgan sees the move also and goes. All three of us are spread out with a gap on the field, me in third I should have jumped quicker to get on the TGH wheel instead I had to chase. At the bell lap we were still spread out and I could not close it, I looked back once at the bottom of the hill and saw the entire pack on my wheel. I wasn't going to catch the two up ahead of me but I also wasn't willing to slow because the pack would have swallowed me. Last time up the hill I gave it everything I had to stay out front before the final corner. Two women got around me right before we turned I pushed a bit more to catch the TiCycles wheel then decided to go for it and try to get around her I moved out and dug as deep as I ever have. We crossed the line so close it took multiple replays of the video to determine who crossed 1st, it was me!!! 4th place I am happy.

I feel like every race I learn something, it once was simply how to hold a wheel or just finish with the pack, now in each race I am learning what it takes to win and more importantly how to get the team a win weather it is me or someone else. Morgan won Laura was 3rd and I was 4th. Good days work rewarded with sitting in the sun with friends and my girls watching bike racing.

Race Race Baby!

I am surely on the road to recovery. I road around Mercer on Friday afternoon, the weather was too nice to just throw on the pack and ride my measly 6 miles home. Beautiful day to be on my bike, practically no cars or other cyclist, just me and sunshine. Very nice. I even got a start on my tan lines, no not a tan but the lines.

Saturday I woke up early and started hanging drywall, lots of smaller odd shaped pieces, slow going but progress. Funny thing, time flies when you are not paying attention, next thing I knew it was noon and needed to be at the Silver Cloud at 1PM to ride out to Bothell for our cornering clinic. Oops, quick change, Endurox and out the door. The clinic was great, it is why I really like my team, development of new racers and being around similar minded women and the amount of support. Especially from the Women's team captain Gina, she is the reason we have such a cohesive team and I have a huge amount of respect for her, a little warm fuzzy with out getting too mushy ;)

She is also why I woke up at 6AM on Sunday and was on my bike to Boat St. at 6:45. The morning was sunny and brisk a good day for a crit. Got to the course and started the pre-ride (sorry to all the guys still setting up but the pre-ride was really important for the new racers and chicken sh*ts like me to build a bit of confidence). Don't know if it is technically corner 3 or 4... uh the last corner before the sprint, I'll call it 4. I was feeling very edgy each time, I kept grabbing for the breaks more out of security then the need to slow down, this had me worried I told Gina and she said that she feathers her front break too, I felt much better knowing that and it gave me just a wee bit more confidence. Time to warm up and I felt awful, sick to my stomach, I couldn't get my heart rate above 167 my back was catching and pinching I finished the warm up and thought I was really going to be sick, nerves I was sure but it didn't make me feel better. Once at the start line the nerves subsided a bit and I just got ready to go. The gun and we were off, I got clipped in but didn't take off as fast as I would have liked to I was about two thirds back in the field, nope not the place to be. Got around the corner 4 not that bad. The pace was good I could tell women were falling off, I didn't want to get caught behind groups that were getting gapped so I moved up, to my surprise it was easy, not effortless but it wasn't killing me to get were I wanted to be. Holy cow I was not hanging on for dear life I was choosing position and thinking about what I wanted to do. The corner became smooth I trusted myself and my bike and took the corner faster leaning over and feeling good. Minor duh move I attacked to break things up and got a gap but knew I couldn't hold it for another 10 minutes slowed and was in a group of four, this was great but then they all slowed and we were caught by some chasers. Time to sit in recover and start positioning for the finish. I could hear Gina yelling at 2 laps "start thinking!" yep, time to choose my position. I did it 4th in line going into corner 3 then "shit!" we were going to overtake lapped riders right at corner 4! I psyched myself out and slowed just a bit giving a couple of riders position next to and in front of me at the corner. Now I had to navigate not only the 3 in front of me but four lapped women that spread out all over the road and several more that took the corner faster than me. I sprinted the best I could but needed a couple more inches apparently to nab 5th, 6th isn't too bad, it was a good day.

The 123 women rocked again yesterday. Suz showing us her amazing talent pulled away early and kept an impressive gap the remainder of the race. Back in the chase Amy held her position defiantly against some very strong women who I know had every intention of catching Suz but couldn't get it organized with the WoW in the group. Tricia fired off an awesome attack at two laps that splintered the field while Gina made sure that the ladies were playing nice. Good teamwork!

Next week, TST hmm, maybe not yet. Seward, I'll be there!

Stop thief!

Arrg! Ballard is ramped with a ring of thieves right now. Last month at 2am I was awake with my daughter because she was ill. I was laying there trying to get her back to sleep when I heard by back screen door open. There was no doubt that it had to be physically opened by someone. I jumped up and went out to the kitchen in to the back of the house. I didn't know exactly what I would do if someone actually had gotten in my house. In retrospect I probably would have done things a bit differently but regardless when I got to the back the screen door was swinging shut. I fumbled around in the dark for my phone dialed 911 and went to the front of the house. I witnessed a tall man walking across the street he was trying to open my neighbors car. The police finally drove down my street 10 minutes later the guy is long gone. I didn't sleep the rest of the night.

Next morning I get in my car and realize that things don't look right, stuff is all over the floor and seats (not all that unusual but not in my normal messy fashion) then I see that my iPod is gone and all of the change I keep in the car minus the pennies, they must not be worth their weight. Talk to my neighbors later that day and come to find out that they were broken into as well, the guy just walked into their house and stole cell phones iPods and a shotgun, his next stop was my house we concluded since we found their cell phone case next to my car.

Last night my girls came over to pick up a few things for their trip to Hawaii w/ their dad. They were out from about 8-9:30. When they returned home they found all kinds of drawers open and broken stuff. This jerk of a thief broke my girls piggy banks and jewelry boxes stole another iPod and stole their dad's race bike. The guy broke in through a very small unlocked window and went so far as to unscrew the light in the motion detector on the back of the house. Even though this wasn't my house this time I feel even worse because of the impact on my girls.

I do not like TT's I do not like them sam I am

I do not like them in the sun. I do not like them they aren't fun. I do not like them in the rain. I do not like them too much pain. I do not like them day or night. I do not like them to train right. I do not like them on the road or at CycleU's abode. I just don't like TT's I say but I will do them anyway.
Maybe I am a super wimp, is it the pain? am I just that out of shape? I really don't know. I can't stay focused and keep the hammer down. Maybe I was just tired. My bike was auto shifting so that didn't help but still isn't why I was so S-L-O-O-O-W. Keep training (and get my bike fixed)

UW tragedy

A 26 year old women was shot and killed by a man who she had a restraining order against, he then took his own life.

I know all too well the feeling of helplessness to someone who won't let you go and feels entitled to you as their own possession. People seem to feel that they deserve or should have all kinds of things including other people.

I have learned that you truly don't own anything that can not be taken away except yourself, but even this you have to hold onto and not give away.

Life is a gift, my children are a gift, my friends and family as well as cycling and health are a gifts that I love everyday and I will not forget how fortunate I am.

Racing is Fun

Yea! I was able to race my bike on Sunday. 1st was Saturday, I spent all day hanging drywall that my drywall guy didn't finish, I am still in need of two more sheets and one more day of cutting and hanging then the mudding fun will begin, *sigh*. All day I kept telling myself "drink water, eat and DON'T hurt yourself" but by the end of the day my back and wrist were sore. I made a nice chili lime shrimp and rice dinner with a glass of wine and iced various spots on my back and wrist, packed all my race stuff and went to bed.

Sunday morning woke right up and got to the routine of dressing, eating, and double checking my race bag. My ride showed up right on time and we were off. Seattle actually looked like it would be a nice day. My hopes were up for good weather in Sequim. Once off the ferry the rain started and I began to have doubts that the banana belt would pull through for the day. It was wet and grey until we hit the big elk statue that welcomes you to Sequim, oh lucky day no rain!

Once in the field (the grassy one) I became nervous, but I went about my routine that I did all last year and I started to feel better.

Things I did right...
I warmed up for 40 minutes three burns but not all out.
I stretched my back and legs
I dressed perfectly not too warm not too cold.
Timed the port a potty stops and getting my gear on to be at the line right on time.
Kept myself at the front end of the pack.
Attacked at the right moment when I saw a TGH going. Was in a break of two that turned into at final break of 11 used blocking, timing communication to get our girl in the winning break at the end awesome! We talked about strategy and we put it into motion. Attack - counter attack, keep up the pace but don't chase down our own team. Everyone got it. Personally I was worried going in that I couldn't hang or possibly finish and before the my attack I had even said I think I am done my back hurts. Luckily instinct kicked in when I saw the other girl getting ready to go I didn't think I went, gave it just about everything but reserved enough not to blow myself up when we were caught I recovered and hung in pulled and ended up getting 10th.

Things I learned...
I still don't hold a wheel well enough on the headwind sections, I worked like hell because I was off the wheel in front of me and couldn't quite close the gap with the wind. I would have had more for the sprint if I was closer. Good to learn (yet again), but in reality I didn't want to come in ahead of either teammate that was with me because of the point standings besides a STBX gal took out a TGH after the line! If I had been any closer I too could have gone down. Everyone is OK but there are lessons that I hope others came away with yesterday as well.

Next up
Boat Street, never done it. I will pre ride and make a day of decision based on weather and how safe I feel I can make it. It will be the 1st crit of the season and the 1st time for a CAT4 only on this coarse. I am mostly worried about others ability here, I have done plenty of technical crits and we will have our corning clinic on Saturday so I think my team will get it, not sure about the others. If I do it plan A is warm up good and hard, start good and hard and don't slow down! Plan B $20 isn't worth loosing teeth or breaking bones and bikes so if it is sketchy as hell, quit!

I am racing again that makes me happy.

Getting in over my head

Ah well, yes I suppose gutting my basement, adding and replacing the windows, framing all the rooms plus completely overhauling the bathroom and thinking I could get this all done in about two months was a bit optimistic. This was my off season project I was going to get it all done before training started, ha!
I gutted with little despair just lots of debris yet with the bonus of therapeutic sledge hammering. I got the old windows out and framed in the new with pretty much no help (minus one tearful late night that I could no longer control my hammer so my good friends came to help me put about 4-5 nails in one stud so I wouldn't have a gaping 2x3ft hole in my house, thanks SP and JS). I framed the entire basement, 6.5 ft ceilings meant every darn 2x4 had to be cut BTW 80 year old houses especially basement are anything but plumb, square and level. Arduous job measuring and cutting each piece I have no idea how many trips I made out of my basement to the garage to make cuts and frustratedly return to re cut. My mantra , measure 3-4 times cut twice ;) All this framing started by hand meaning that every 3.5 inch nail I was placing was by my own not so skilled hammering. Lesson learned, there are power tools for a reason! Once I got the framing nail gun things progressed at a more reasonable rate. Unfortunately I didn't stumble on this epiphany of using such tool until my wrist tendon was blown and I simply couldn't lift let alone use a hammer. Framing done, albeit not perfect I was feeling like things were moving along. Until I was sidetrackedby dating, it was fun and good for me but dating also halted both my basement and much of my winter training (icy weather get a little blame but not much and the pesky car accident that messed up my back gets its fair share). We broke up no more sidetrack :( so now I am back to my project.
I hired a guy to do the pluming, I know my limits ;) ! He tore through the floor added a drain for my new shower and plumbed the rough in's for the fixtures in less than a day! Money well spent.
The re-wire and new wiring job drove me nuts mostly because the guy who I bought the house from must have been high when he did the original wiring, I call it the THC wire job. I ended up replacing most of the wire in the basement plus added new for lights, bath fan and radiant heat for the tile floor. The idea of radiant flooring is lovely, warm smooth tile under your feet as you step out of the shower, installing it, a very different beast! My tile job looked great until I started walking on it. I had to level the floor first not as bad as I thought it would be but there is a learning curve (I started on the xy=0 axis) this was also the starting local for laying tile over radiant heat with it's cute little probe that sticks up 1/8 of an inch in one stinking spot. Due to this I will now be pulling out a few tiles for the do-over. Nice.

Onto dry wall, I decided that this was something I could not do alone I asked my neighbor who is in the biz if he could recommend someone. Sure! the guy who build the house down the street, perfect. He comes over gives me an estimate of time but only works time & materials not preset price. He say $40/ hour he will bring a helper couple days to hang. Sounded good to me. Now this is why people don't trust contractors, 4 days later still not done, the helper he brought for 2 of the days he says he got for $30/hour instead of the $40. That is good right? No, not so good his "helper" he was quoting me is to be on top of his $40/ hour! Last time I checked that would equal $70/hour not what he originally told me and not until after the guy had come and gone. So what to do? Step one, kick myself in the head for doing exactly what I KNOW not to do! Always get it in writing and don't hire for time and materials. Step two, tell the guy that this isn't what he had originally had told me and the time factor is now double plus extra labor that I won't have money to have him finish the job. Well that solves that I say it nicely I am looking out for him so he doesn't get stiffed some money he agrees to put in one more day at set hours and to get all the drywall done. That is today, we shall see.

I picked out paint colors thinking that this part of the project was a weekend away. Not so much, I will be mudding my walls for a few days ( shh! I am being optimistic) alright, double the time double the cost, I should know the drill by now.

This weekend I am going to Sequim #3 I'll give it my all even if it's only for a lap or so ;) Time to start doing what is fun.

My basement will be there when I get home.

Will I ever ride again?

Well, yes. But will I be racing anytime soon, I don't know. Something about back injury and my inability to let my house projects slide for a while. I was going to race at Sequim #2 but decided that Saturday was a perfect day to lay tile in my basement bathroom and new wine cellar (the "cellar" will also dub as a puppy room once I get my puppy. Another story).

Anyway who knew that I could feel so bad after bending, kneeling and lifting heavy objects. I guess I did, but to feel like I did a max lift day and got run over by a truck was more than I had bargained for. Saturday night I cancelled race day. Instead Sunday I did the grout, cleaned up all the tools and random clutter so my drywall guy could walk around today. Tile looks great, I feel somewhat better and will try to sneak out on a ride today.

Did my 1st indoor TT and CycleU. Pretty cool, I kind of suck. But it is really interesting to see why. I go out way too hard and then blowup. A warm up would have been nice too but based on my past TT's it is par for the course as well. Fun to watch my watts. I am a geek when it comes to stats (part of my real job so I guess that is good) My average was low in my opinion 197 my max was 400 up the final climb. Max HR 189 ave 179. This tells me all kinds of stuff that I can work on. I plan on it as soon as I am able to really ride again.

I feel like I have missed so much racing, really it is early but each week my fellow CAT4 are racing and I am not I feel like I am even further behind. Fitness can return but I am supposed to be the Captain and my teammates barely know who I am. I don't care about winning (not that I could right now) I just want to be out there.

Guess I will settle for Seward rides a couple indoor TT's, downloading Polar data and being a number geek no matter how sad those numbers may be.

Winter Training is done

Why if training is done am I not racing? Well injury for one. A dude who drops his cell phone while waiting for the light to turn green rear ends me, my back gets all jacked up... nice. So now I ride the life cycle and sneak out on rides when no one is looking. OK no one really is looking or cares that much but I can't ride hard and I need to heal. Meanwhile Mason Lake #1 went down. As a seasoned Cat4 I could tell by the finish photos that not much happened all 24 miles downhill around the corner and sprint. Not much fo a race, wish I was there.