False Alarm

So, I don't have the chicken pox now. I guess it was just a mean heat rash. That's what long hard rides in the 100 degree-110 degree heat index, Oklahoma weather did to me. Most of it is gone now, so I'm good. I did the hard group ride on Tuesday and didn't make the break of 6, but I stuck in with the 2nd group of about 8-10. It was super windy. I mean like 30 mph north wind, windy. I don't know which was worse: the headwind or the crosswind. Probably the head wind, huh? Anyway, we average 21 mph for 40 or so miles, so it was good. Wednesday we motorpaced. We did sprints. They were hard and I had a hard time recovering between each one. Thursday was the hard and hilly group ride. It was pretty smooth and I felt comfortable the whole time. I stayed in and I got 4th in the sprint to the city limit sign! YES!!! (just kidding). It was a good ride and I felt ok afterward. My legs are good and not too fatigued. I'm sure the two 70 mile rides I'll do this weekend will inflict plenty of pain on them.

My friend Becky wants me to go to Springfield, MO with her this weekend for some crits, but I am sorta out of the habit of racing right now. I'm sure if I do a few crits it will come back pretty quickly, but then I might get that racing bug again and spend every weekend out of town. Plus spend all my money and let other areas of my life take a backseat and get behind at work and so on and so on. I guess that is why racing isn't all that important to me right now. Maybe next season when I am a little more financially stable.

My brother is having a birthday today. I am really glad because he was withing 1/4 of an inch of never having another birthday. He had a terrible motorcycle accident in March that nearly took his life. The doctors thought for sure he would never walk again. BUT, I saw him last weekend and he was walking with a cane and almost back to normal. He has had a bunch of surgeries and his face looks different now, but at least he is alive and walking. He can't really use his left hand and his feet don't cooperate with his brain, but he is darn lucky to still be here. So happy birthday, bro.

Chicken Pox???

I have this rash all over me and it appears to be chicken pox. I have been trying to get ahold of my mom all day to find out if I have ever had chicken pox before. The bumps hurt more than they itch. My secretary found all this info on the internet about chicken pox and it says that it is 50 times worse as an adult than it is for a kid. They even say it may be fatal! I am really hoping it is just some sort of heat rash or chigger bites or something.

I have been so busy at work lately. I have this huge mess of a case over a horse. A $75 horse to be exact. These people have spent are are going to spend so much money to try to get their $75 horse back from their crazy ex-neighbors. I don't know if my clients are out of their minds or if they are just really good people that are trying to do what is right. I am leaning toward the latter. They love horses, for sure. The defendants are crazy though. She calls me at least 3 times a day. I told her I am going to send her a bill for every phone call she makes to me. Especially since she's not even my client!

I did the Norman Conquest this weekend. Luckily it started at 7:30 because is was super hot. I got dropped once in a water feed zone but managed to catch back on a mile later. It was 64 miles with lots of hills. My new strategy of going to the front on the downhills seems to be working for me. I didn't get dropped in the hills, at all! A mile from the finish a group of 20 or so were still together. I hit Cate on the hip and "lead me out"! He said, "hop on"! So he took off and we went to the front and then off the front. The only problem was that neither of us new exactly where the finish was. Some other guy flew by me and threw his hands up. So, I guess he won??? Whatever. If that was the finish, I think I got 4th because Schlegel's belly is bigger than mine! It was a good ride and I'm glad I did it.

We finished up the front yard landcape project this weekend too. I am so sunburned, again. At least my farmers (cycling jersey) tan is blended out now!

I just got another call regarding my horse case. The crazy defendants have called animal control on my clients and have called and harrassed their vet. My clients are at the police station right now wanting me to fax over some paperwork. All because of a $75 horse. Maybe I am missing something here!

3 for 3

Three group rides in three days. I'm pretty tired right now. At least my legs are.

I did the Tuesday BLN ride. I rode from the house to the bike shop, picked up Charles and we made it almost to Norman. So, I had 20 miles before the ride started. It was super fast and much faster than usual. I got popped much sooner than I usually do. I couldn't seem to get in a draft anywhere. The wind was switching out of the north and it was strong. So, I was left to ride home by myself and north all the way. A few miles into my solo trek and van skimmed my and I could here someone yelling at me. I had my ipod on so I didn't know what they were saying. I just assumed it was the usual, "get out of the road" type of thing that I usually get. But to my delight, it was Steve from the bike shop being motorpaced by his wife in their van. Sweet! I jumped on and they pulled me all the way home at 30 miles and hour. About 5 miles from my house it started raining and lightening pretty good. So I was very thankful Steve came along. I got 48.3 miles and 21.1 average.

Wednesday was the OBS Lake Overholser ride, aka Wednesday Night Worlds! Charles and I rode over to the lake, which is about 10 miles. The wind was out of the north so we headed north on the ride. There was a tanden on the ride that was bent on keeping the pace between 25 and 30 mph. When I wouldn't pull through (or couldn't pull through) so the back of the tandem told me I was lazy!!! Whatever. I'm not getting popped 10 miles into the ride because you want me to come around you at 30! Anyway, I tried to sit in but the hills sorta got to me. The first big hill I got dropped, but Charles pulled me back up to the pack. We went to the front to prevent it from happening again. I was already blown. It was strung out single file, 30 mph for almost 10 miles. Smathers was behind me and he said he felt like they were leading him out for the sprint! It was that fast. And then the dreaded hill came and I popped. Nothing more left in the legs. Down to 14 mph and rolling backwards now. Charles and Pete flipped around and we rode back to the lake. It was everything I could do to hang on with them back into OKC. We stopped at 7-11 and filled up with water and the best fruit punch in the world, at least it tasted like it at the time! Charles and I rode back home trying to beat the strorm. We made it before the rain started at clocked 64.8 miles. Pretty good for a Wednesday night ride.

Thursday night we drove to Norman for the BLN ride. It was really sketchy for most of the ride. I guess for some folks it is hard to ride in a straight line behind the wheel of someone else. And for some, it is difficult to ride on the right side of the road up hills where cars may be coming at them in the opposite direction. But anyway, it is a hilly ride and hills are typically not my friend. But I did ok and am working on moving to the front on the downhill so I don't get dropped on the uphill. It seemed to work well for me last night. It was hard going into the sprint for the Norman city limit sign especially when Rat blasts around us at 40 mph. I was out of gears and was spinning like crazy to catch up to her. After the sprint was fast too, 30 mph all the way back in to town. I had so much sweat in my eyes by the end of the ride I could barely keep my eyes open. I got 32 miles and we averaged 21.6 mph.

So for three days, I have 145.1 miles. Pretty good for me. I think that is the most miles I have ridden in a week since this winter. I sorta want to race this weekend, but I have neglected the yard and the house. It needs some cleaning up. After the three hard rides I may need a day or two to rest. But I really want ot race this weekend.

Campus Corner Crit

I raced in Norman, OK on Sunday at the Campus Corner Crit. It was HOT!!! I found a nice shady spot in one of the corners to lounge all day until my race at 4:00. Did I mention it was HOT!!! Only 3 other women were there. I heard no women showed up because they didn't want to race 55 minutes as the flyer said. Whatever, that is such a lame excuse. The women's race had a $400 purse, which was second only to the p/1/2/3 men's race. I would have race 2 hours for that kind of purse. Anyway, they shortened the race to 30 minutes plus 5 laps. I guess they felt sorry for us. It would have been a little boring for 4 women to race for 55 minutes. Anyway, it was HOT!!! Andrea Rat was there and she is super fast. We are sorta on the same team so I told her at the start line, "when you come around to lap us, slow up a bit and I'm going to jump on." She said "ok, cool, we'll split everything." So we took off and she really takes off. She took off like a madwoman. I had a little difficulty clipping in and then I chased like crazy trying to grab her wheel. I can go 30 mph, but only for a short time. I think she did the entire first lap at 30. So I sat up at waited on the other 2 girls. As soon as they caught me, one of them attacked, so I had to jump and cover it. And then the other attacked. They were on the same team so I knew this was not going to much fun for me. But I could tell by their brathing that they didn't have many more of those little jumps in them. The first prime, one of the girls jumped and I went with her and came around her before the line. And the second prime, neither of them would pull,so I jumped way too early and go a gap going in to the line. So I was happy with 2 out of 2 primes, plus I knew I could out sprint them both for the finish. I kept looking over my shoulder for Andrea to come flying by but I never saw here again. Toward the end I heard someone in crowd say that she crashed. I sorta slowed up the pace a little because I didn't know where she was or how she was. The pace got super slow in the last few laps. Finally one girl jumped, I went with her and then she sat up. It's that little cat and mouse game that I am actually learning to love! So the last corner I was following a wheel and we weren't going too fast. I was a little impatient and I jumped hard and put my head down and sprinted my butt off. I won it by a good distance, so I was happy with the race. We raced for almost 45 minutes and we averaged almost 22 mph. I saw Andrea after the race and she crashed in the same spot where almost 5 other crashed happened earlier. She was pretty scraped and I'm sure bruised today, but as always, in good spirits. So, it was a good race and a good payout and it kinda gave me the racing bug again. So, who knows, maybe some crits are in my future.

By the way: I won an Aliente saddle with carbon rails if anyone is interested in buying it from me. I am very saddle picky and the Aliente doesn't work so well for me. And it is blue/gray in color. Send me and email and let me know: mjquigz@yahoo.com.

Ridin the scooter

Ridin the scooter
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

A little scooter action around town!

Santa Fe sky

Santa Fe sky
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

Blue skies.

Santa Fe Mountains

Santa Fe Mountains
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

The beautiful mountains just north of Santa Fe.

Scooters and bikes in Santa Fe

Scooters and bikes in Santa Fe
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

This is outside of out hotel. We were loading up the scooters and bikes.

Santa Fe

We went to Santa Fe, NM over the fourth weekend and had a blast. We took both scooters and our road bikes. I am pretty sure we rode the scooters more than the road bikes though. The altitude gave me alot of trouble for sure. I felt like I was breathing through a straw. But it is so beautiful there. We rode the scooters up to Ten Thousand Waves and got massages which was very cool. We attempted to get in the healing water tubs, but all the naked men sorta scared me away. I think they scared Charles away more though. We did some sightseeing stuff, too. We rode our bikes up Bishop's Lodge road and came across the very best road to ride on. It was really windy with some little rollers and completely tree covered for almost 10 miles. There was a sign on the side of the road that said, "CAUTION: BICYCLES ON ROADWAY". So, I knew we were on the right road. We ran into a local cyclist who basically rode all the way back to Santa Fe with us. It is a good thing because we probably would have been extremely lost and been out in the Santa Fe country with the rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds for quite awhile. We ate lots of really good food. Maybe the best mexican food I have had in awhile. The green chili sauce was the ticket. We saw some good bands. I think my favorite was a dixieland jazz band. It was jazz, but with a banjo! All the members were at least 50, and they were rockin'! The worst part of the trip was the all night drive and sleeping in the truck. Not so much fun! But well worth it. On the way back, we stopped in the big metropolis of Clinton, OK to watch the local fireworks show. I was impressed, for sure. It was quite good. But now, I'm back to work and busy as heck. I also have this nagging cough that refuses to go away and my head feels like it is spinning. I was hoping for a good hard ride tonight, but the couch and some Nyquil may due me more good. I'll post pictures of Santa Fe shortly.