Pet Peeve # 12

People who talk on cell phones in public restrooms.

The BIG 28

Well, it is official. I am now 28 years old. I know to some, there is no sympathy, but for me, it seems OLD! But, whatever. It is just a number, that is all. Yesterday was actually my birthday. We did an early morning coffee shop ride in like 40 degree weather with a 30 mph north wind. Not really a recovery ride to spin out my legs like I wanted but it was still good. After the ride, I took a shower and did a recovery drink. I wanted to take a nap but I didn't have time. Before I knew it, 12:00 rolled around and I had to get ready for the first cx race. My race was at 1:00 and Charles raced at 2:00. I got to the course in plenty of time to pre-ride and register. It was still really windy and there was a 2 mile stretch straight into the north wind-with no trees or anything to block it from hitting you in the face. It was a very long course, like 8-9 minute laps. There were only 4 women, which is about the norm so I just sat on and spun around. I should have attacked a little and pushed myself, but I really didn't want to go in the wind alone. Yep, I am a wind weenie!!! But I won the race anyway, so that was my main agenda. Next race maybe I will feel a little more spunky!

Last night we went to Bahama Breeze for my birthday. Me, Charles, Joey M, Greg R. and his fiance N. It was a really nice dinner complete with CAKE!!!! I couldn't convince our waiter to sing happy birthday to me though. It was still good. My dad sang it to me on my answering machine when I got home.

SICK

I have been sick since Monday. I don't know why, which is maybe the worst part. I always seem to want to know why. Anytime anything is wrong or someone is upset or sick...I always want to know why??? It seems if you know "why" then you should know how to fix it. Like if I feel bad on my bike one day...I want to know "why"? Maybe I didn't eat enough or maybe I ate too much, maybe I rode too hard the day before or maybe I am just tired. But if I know "why" I feel bad that day, I can correct the problem so that it doesn't happen again. So, I got sick on Monday and threw up all Monday night. Tuesday I felt a little better and I thought Wednesday was the home stretch. But today, it is back. My stomach hurts and I feel like I'm going to puke. I haven't really eaten hardly anything this entire week due to the sickness, so it isn't something I ate. I still think it was maybe food poisoning from dinner Sunday night. I really want to curl up in the fetal position in my sweat pants and go to sleep. That would solve the stomach ache, at least for awhile. I think I have gone through one bottle of Pepto, one bottle of Mylanta and I am halfway finished with my new Maalox total stomach relief that I bought 2 hours ago. I meant to buy a straw so it would be easier to drink, but I forgot. I think I am losing weight though. Maybe this can be the new "fad" diet. Look out South Beach and Dr. Adkins...the liquid antacid diet is here and it really works!

Well, my b-day is Sunday. I am getting old!!! Maybe that is why my stomach hurts. It is old too.

We still have two puppies left.........

puppies

puppies 3
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

Close up of one of the puppies.

puppies

puppies
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

Here are the little puppies we found!

Puppies

We rode Tuesday evening and found some puppies. There were four of them on the side of the road with their blanket. I guess some nice caring person decided to just dump them off in the country and thought that four 8 week old puppies would be able to survive on their own. At least they left a blanket with them, I guess :-( Anyway, so I rode home with one inside my jersey, Greg R. held one and Charles had two in his jersey. Then my buddy and neighbor Shawn T. came to the rescue and met us with his car and gave the puppies a ride to my front porch. We have given one puppy away but still have three to go. Big Dog, our big rot in the back yard, is having so much fun playing with the puppies. I may have to keep one so he doesn't lose all his new little friends. Pepper is so mad. She hates the puppies. She has been pouty and grumpy since we brought them home. So much for that motherly instinct!

If anyone wants a puppy, please let me know!

wet ride

So last night we rode to Lake Hefner to do our recovery ride and to meet Joey M (aka the new King of the Lake)and it was sunny and beautiful. I put on knickers and arm warmers just in case it got chilly once the sun went down. So we met up with Joey M and he says "hey, do you think it might rain?" No way it's sunny out. He says "it sorta is hazy over to the west. I think it might rain." About five minutes later I felt the first sprinkle. It then began to rain harder and harder. We still had about 7 more miles to go before we got home. My recovery ride turned into a little faster ride because I was trying to get home asap. I made it about 3 blocks from my house when the dreaded wetness got to me feet. Luckily, they weren't completely drenched when I rolled into the garage, so that was good. But, nothing like doing a recovery ride in the rain and in the dark out on the open roads of the OKC metropolis. At least I have clear lenses now which helped out a ton. And thank goodness I grabbed the arm and knee warmers before leaving. It is still pretty gray outside but is supposed to clear off by this afternoon. I am sorta done with riding in the rain for a little while.

CP finally got the web iste up and running: http://cycleok.com/
It looks good, even though he took my picture off the homepage! :-)

Weekend

This past weekend was great! Friday night we went to Galileo's to watch Tall Cotton String Band. Brett H from Bike Mine and Joey M met up with us and we had a good time. Except this old lady insisted on leaving her table to come over to ours so she could smoke her cig. She stood about a foot behind me holding her inch long ash above my head. I really don't like cig smoke anyway and this was just way too much! Saturday morning came way too soon. An 8:00 am ride from the northside vo-tech and it was cold. About 25 or so people were there so that was really good. We ended up with 45 not too fast-not too slow miles. It was sunny and warm by the time we were done. Greg R. cramped pretty bad and had to stop like 5 times to stretch. But then again, he was on a fixed gear and this was his longest ride of the year. Sunday we met the ride at Java Daves downtown at 9:00, so that time was a little more managable for me. Another good group was there and we ended up with almost 45 again. I felt really good both days and never was in trouble of getting dropped.

We had dinner last night at Greg R's house with his fiance. She is a professional ballerina with the OKC ballet and her feet are so tiny. Like a size 5! And Greg R is a pro BMXer. They are really into eating healty and vitamins and stuff, so I am feeling a little guilty. I guess I need to jump on the bandwagon, at least for the winter anyway.

COLD

So I guess I missed fall. It has basically gone from summer straight to winter. Last week while I was in Vegas it was in the low 80s, so I guess that is all the fall we will get. But, on Sunday it was almost 90 dgrees and today it is 50! That is not normal, but Oklahoma weather is not really normal anyway, so I guess it is normal for Oklahoma. The good thing about the cold weather is that when it is cold in Oklahoma it is mandatory that the wind be blowing at least 20 mph from the north. Or it must be raining. That is what makes winter training so enjoyable. Not only is it butt-cold, but it is windy and/or rainy to top it off. Last night it was cold and windy and raining. So, I went for a run. It was also dark. Since I haven't mentioned it yet, I will now do so. I really do NOT like winter. It is depressing. It is dark all the time. It is cold. It is windy and/or raining and/or snowing. So there you have why I do not like winter.
I ran for 20 minutes last night and my legs are killing me today. I was planning on riding tonight, but it is cold! Maybe I will run again. I am also planning on building some CX barriers and making a CX course at the park across from my house. I haven't started working on CX, so that may be the plan for this evening. My first CX race in on October 23. That means I have 2 weeks to get ready. I guess I should get started, huh?
Monday night we went to the Cross Canadian Ragweed CD release party. It was awesome. They played for almost 3 hours and we stood way to close to the speakers. So all day Tuesday I had this weird ringing sound in my ears I kept saying huh? I could not hear a thing! Probably not really a good thing but all is good now. So the new CD is pretty good. Check it out here: http://crosscanadianragweed.com/
Friday night is the Tall Cotton String Band concert at Galileo's. Check them out here: http://www.tallcottonstringband.com/tc/index.htm

Me and Eddie

Me and Eddie
Originally uploaded by cyclesq.

Eddie Merckx is the man! This was taken during Interbike at the Festina store, which is the largest watch store in the world! Eddie was being interviewed by Frankie Andreau about comparing the Tour back when he won to what it is today as well as comparing the bikes, equipment, new technology and training plans. He said when he raced he did not train that much because he raced every weekend so that was enough training for him. When asked if he is faster now that he has lost alot of weight? He said well, I go down the hills much slower now! It was great listening to him talk!

Check this out:
http://www.eddymerckx.be/

Interbike

We went to Interbike in Vegas last week and had a blast. The outdoor demo was a ton of fun on Tuesday. Charles rode a Look and I rode the new Giant TCR Advanced. It was sweet!!! We rode off course a little. More like all the way to the Hoover dam in Arizona and back. It took us a good two hours because number one, it was up hill all the way back to Boulder City, number two, we had a really strong headwind and number three, we got lost, several times. The people at Giant were not too happy with me at all for having their bike out for so long. But it was so pretty with the mountains and Lake Mead in the background. I forgot to take my camera so I missed some great photo opportunities.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the bike show and then some shopping on the strip. The show was good. I saw a ton of new cool bike stuff that I will never be able to afford. But it's still fun to look at, I guess. Charles and I both won a pair of Diadora road shoes from the Cannondale giveaway so that was really great because I need some new road shoes for next season. Mine are a little (a lot) scuffed from crashing so much. I also bought some custom orthoetics from Foot Fitting (http://www.footfitting.com/). Ryder Hesjedal was getting his fitted at the same time I was and Floyd Landis and Dave Zabrieski were signing autographs at the booth while I was getting fitted. They wheeled the machine over to the Hincapie booth because Georgie wanted a pair. So I suppose if they are good enough for those guys, I could probably manage to wear them too!

Thursday night, the whole crew went out to dinner and then to Cirque du Soleil. We saw Ka at MGM and it was awesome. But it was so dang cold in that theatre it made the show sorta miserable. The next day I bought a sweater, just in case I got cold again. We went up in the Eifel Tower at Paris and watched the water show at Bellagio from up above which was very cool.

BUT... the best moment in Vegas had to be the butt-flossing action by Steve. As soon as I get some pictures from Aaron S. I will post them. I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time. It was full-on Vegas Steve mode! What is even better is that he was sober (sorta)!!!