Madison by moonlight.

Riding from day...

Into the night...

The last two nights I arrived home at 9:45 pm from my training rides. There is really nothing like getting reacquainted with your bike like doing intervals at night.

Holiday Weekend.

Memorial day weekend has been a pretty low key event this year. Ryan and Wendy headed to the WEMS race. I decided to stay in Madison to chill out and bring my stress level down. Saturday I helped a non-cycling friend fix her bike then I took her on ride around Lake Mendota. Sunday I rode over to the Madison Marathon. A few of my friends were running the half and I thought it would be nice to cheer them on. Unfortunately there were so many people that I couldn't even find them at the finish line.

It's been a long time since I hung out at a running event; I forgot how skinny runners are. Many of the top marathoners literally have sticks for legs. Another thing I noticed is that there was a large portion of people limping after the race. There were way too many racers sporting knee braces and ice packs post event. Honestly I think the best thing a marathoner or ultra runner can do is to pick their parents well. Some people just are not able to put in the miles to do that kind distance and stay injury free. And I'm one of them.

I had a pretty interesting ride this evening. I rode my bike downtown, past The Terrace, down to the Lakeshore dorms, then back home. For reasons unknown to me, my emotions were extremely stirred up and I had a total sensory overload. Maybe I've been so numb to the world lately that this ride was a much needed release or maybe it's the anti-depressants messing with me. All the memories from college started to flood back into my mind. The places I hung out at, the relationships I had, the apartments I lived in, the friendships that I made, all the experiences that made me who I am. Between all my college flashbacks, the streets around me were buzzing with activity. Warner beach full with people picnicking and fishing, a fishing boat that was tagged with the words "muff diver down here", the governor's mansion, the smell of Lake Mendota on a summer evening, frat row/Langdon street full of people drinking and playing frisbee, a couple making out on the terrace, a 13 year old boy trying to race me on the Lakeshore path (and as the Pilgrim would say - he got "girl'd"), picnic point, the Open Pantry where I used to fill up the moped and buy booze underage, someone pumping "Rhiannon" in a white Toyota Prius on the corner of State St. and Johnson, the man with the unicycle at Tenney Locks. I'll never live anywhere else.

Time to hit the road.

I've been popping vitamins, anti-inflammatories and anti-depressants like they are candy. My physiotherapy starts in June and I've given up on icing my wrist. My online research has told me that treating RSD with RICE (rest,ice,compression,elevation) is probably not a good idea. No more taping either. I'm going to resume training on the road this Friday and take life one day at a time.

I received a little post card from the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival today. This small piece of paper was conformation documentation for my entrance into the Short and Fat race. It also stated that I've been awarded a preferred start. This was thoroughly surprising to me considering that my race resume is far from impressive and has been mostly non-existent for the last 12 months. A few years ago I tried to get a preferred start into the 40 and was pretty much denied. I'm guessing that they hand out preferred starts for the Short and Fat without much selectivity. That's okay, I'll take it.

The month of June should prove to be very interesting. While I'm waiting for my medical situation to improve, I'll probably do a crit or two. Maybe even a road race. I know very little about racing on the road. Aside from all the duathlons and triathlons that I used to do, my "roadie" career has consisted of three criteriums.

One year I entered the Badger State Games criterium on a whim. The course was pretty cool as it was on Madison's Capital Square. Unfortunately no other women turned out to race so they asked me if I wanted to roll with the Masters 50+ men. I said sure, why not. I thought to myself, how fast can they be? Minutes later a few 50+ year old dudes roll up on 4000 dollar carbon bikes. Shit, this might be interesting. Go.....and we were off. I hung on for about a half of lap and I was dropped on the small uphill on Carroll St. Even though I knew I couldn't catch these guys, I pedaled the shit out of my bike because I have too much pride to give up. A little while later those old guys came around to lap me so I tried to hang on again. I started to notice that there was a large amount of people congregating on Carroll St. UW students, out-of-towners, street people and whoever else started cheering for me in a disproportionately loud fashion. It was nuts. Every lap I went around they were clapping, chanting and screaming for me to keep up with these old men. You would have thought it was the Superbowl. I had an ear to ear smile that day because I was pleasantly amused at the ruckus which my "race" created. I think I was lapped at least twice for the 20 or 25 laps that we did. What I didn't want to tell my over-exuberant fans is that I could have pulled over at any given time, called it a day and picked up my first place medal....because those guys weren't technically my competition.

I also did the Great Dane crits last year and got popped off the pack in both of them. I felt like I was certainly one of the stronger riders, but unfortunately I didn't really have a strategy or know what I was doing. Maybe next month will teach me something.

Lake Geneva from the sidelines.

I headed to Lake Geneva this weekend with Wendy and Ryan. None of us raced due to a variety of circumstances but we certainly had a decent time camping, socializing and riding. Wendy and I took a easy lap on the citizen course so she could practice her singletrack skills. Ryan did a few laps of his own and managed to catch the wheel of an Alterra superstar. Camping was a little trying with the annoying rain showers. Sitting around the campfire with good company and hot beverages was a great way to combat the cold.

Race day was a little chilly, but at least the rain stayed away. After all, most people did not want a repeat of last year. It is extremely difficult to sit on the sidelines and watch others participate in the sport you love. So I did a lot of cheering and picture taking to keep from dwelling on my current doctor ordered, non-mountain biking status. The subsequent inflammation that followed my 5 mile pre-ride lap on Saturday has convinced me to listen to the doctor; I'll be hanging up the mountain bike for a few weeks and crossing my fingers that my supposedly "incurable" condition will magically go into remission. If that is what is even wrong with me.

I snapped a ton of pictures of ChainSmokers, MadForcs, and women racers in general. Feel free to grab photos from my gallery.

Cooking it up.

Since I don't get to see him very much in everyday life, at least I can see him on tv. My husband, Chef Jeff.

What did I do today?

Not much.

I started taking the anti-depressant that my doctor prescribed for my possible RSD diagnosis. Supposedly OT, ice, ibuprofen and nortripyline are the answers. RSD sounds like one of those catch all ailments when doctors don't know what's wrong with you. The only side effect that I've noticed from this drug is that my mouth is dry.

Today was such a lazy day. A little cleaning, a little grocery shopping, too much time spent fooling around online and no cycling. I had to take the dog for a walk because I refuse to take her in the backyard until the neighbor puts his fence up. The heated exchange that I had with my neighbor yesterday obviously didn't sink in. I had to chase one of his unsupervised dogs out of my yard around dinner time. His wife ran out of the house and started yelling at her dog. Bad dog, bad dog is all she kept saying. Like her dog knows what he flipping did wrong. Those people didn't put even the most basic training into their dogs let alone advanced boundary training. You can't just let your dog out into the backyard and expect that he'll magically stay there. Irritating.

I think I'll hit the gym tomorrow. I know I'm supposed to rest the wrist, but I think I need to pump some iron and ride the stationary bike to purge the anger that I've build up over the past few days. Maybe I'll hit the Forcs group ride on Tuesday if they have one. I hear they have a few girls who like to turn the pedals fast.

I hate people...

Well, not all people. Just a select few.

My neighbor is putting up a privacy fence between our houses. Unfortunately he took down his chain link fence, but has not yet been able to fully finish the 6 foot wooden fence. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal except for the fact that they have 3 dogs. The dogs are typically unsupervised and run the fence line while barking at us non-stop. Now that the fence is temporarily gone, the dogs are running into my yard and craping all over the place....unsupervised of course.

I too have a dog. She is a high-strung, high-anxiety, super sweet little gal that I adopted from Angel's Wish about five years ago. I've done a lot of training to help with her problems (I should mention that besides my mediocre cycling escapades and working as a research assistant in a pharmaceutical laboratory, I also help teach family dog training classes in the evenings at one of the quality local science-based, positive reinforcement based training facilities). Pepper was seriously bitten by another dog a few months ago. It was so serious that she almost lost her eye. Pep is very scared around other dogs and really wants nothing to do with them now.....and understandably so.

I awoke this morning to my dog panting and pacing around the house. I looked out my patio door to see another dog looking in.....and two other dogs crapping on my lawn. WTF. So I spent part of the morning cleaning up all the dog shit in my backyard. A few hours later I was outside with my dog when all hell broke loose. My neighbor's wife let the dogs out of the house and they totally bum rushed my dog. Once we got the dogs untangled I asked her to keep her dogs in their yard. I also mentioned that they were in my yard earlier in the day and I didn't want her dogs greeting my dog because she had recently been attacked. Her dogs were also left unsupervised the night before. I had to rush my dog out to the bathroom before they saw us and then rush back inside my house. She said she was sorry, that the fence would be put up soon and that her dogs were nice. I said that's great, but I don't want them in my yard greeting my dog.

Minutes later her husband came out and verbally attacked me. He told me not to talk to his wife that fucking way and that we have to be fucking neighbors, so act like one. Needless to say we got in a pretty heated argument where many f-bombs were dropped (by both sides). The argument ended up with him walking away from me mid-sentence. (Mind you that this is the same neighbor who weeks before told us that he was putting up a fence and that we wouldn't have to move our fence. Days later, without telling us, he unhitched our fence at the corner post and left it wide open for anything to come into our yard. Call me crazy, but having a hole in my fence is something I'd like to know about before I step outside at midnight my dog. We live right next to the marsh and it is not uncommon to have dogs, cats, coyotes, raccoons, deer etc. roaming around our neighborhood. Not to mention the fact that you can't detach a fence from the corner post. It could have buckled the whole damn thing. My husband was very cool about it and explained this to him.)

People baffle me. Common sense and courtesy are a thing of the past apparently. It doesn't matter if I'm outside with a social dog, an anxious dog, a two year old child or grandparents. I have the right to not have three strange dogs run repeatedly onto my property to interact with us. I've absolutely had it with piss poor dogs owners and shitty neighbors. If my intolerance to this rudeness makes me a bad neighbor, then count me in. Next time this happens I'll just call animal control. The going rate for "dogs running at large" is $200 per dog. Each pile of crap will run you about $100.

Ok. Rant over.

I went to the doctor this week and it's not looking good for me. My wrist is swollen and they don't know why. This isn't normal. I have to take a week off from cycling and mountain biking is currently on the back burner. I've had an x-ray taken and a battery of tests but no answers. My doctor is treating me for RSD and I'll shortly be heading to a OT wrist specialist. If this doesn't get better in the next few weeks, then I'll be seeing a specialist. Wrist surgery is something to avoid, but that might be the direction I'm heading.

Iola thoughts.

Picture courtesy of Rusty

While my results were certainly nothing to write home about (I posted a faster time last year), I'm glad that I decided to start racing in May. As I write this, I'm sitting here sipping on a glass of wine. If I can consume alcohol after a race, then I usually know that I'm doing well. The wrist is pretty swollen so I'll be icing and popping pills for the next few days. I guess that means most of my training is going to happen on the road. Oh well, life could be worse.

My time off from mountain biking really made me forget how tough racing is. During my first lap, I wasn't sure what was going to explode first - lungs, legs or mental toughness. On the first climb, I mis shifted and dropped my chain. Running up a hill with your bike is not the way to start a mountain bike season. Once I hit the singletrack, it all came back to me. It was awesome....while it lasted. Lap two I felt extremely sick. I have to apologize to anyone who saw me dry heaving on that lap; it was disgusting. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, the lack of fitness or something I ate at the wedding. I'm not sure. The 3rd lap had me cramping because the sickness on the second lap made me stop drinking. By the 4th lap a strange, peaceful feeling came over me and I felt ok with how bad I felt (if that makes sense). As I rolled to the finish, my HR monitor said 182 (average). That might explain some of my issues....

All in all, it was nice getting this race under my belt. I give my fitness a grade of D and my singletrack skills a C+ (I fucked up here and there.) Today was a good starting point and hopefully I can only go up from here. It was really great to see a lot of familiar faces again. It's good to be back.

Dialed.

Sort of. The bike is ready to go; as ready as it's going to be. The dual poploc is still giving me trouble and the Sram Video didn't really help with the particular problem I'm having. But I'm sick of screwing with it and so I'll have to take it into the shop next week. The Fuel 9 just might have a little too much suspension for Iola, oh well. I don't think my wrist will mind.

Doing all this work myself has been stressful. This week I spent just as much time wrenching as riding. Maybe next year I won't wait until the week of the race to get it together. At least the weather is looking better for Iola.