Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!


Hitcher, Raichle, and me.


Pazza and me.


This is the only action my trainer has been getting lately!

Merry Christmas! There is absolutely nothing bike-related to report, as I have not worked out in over a week. Not once. It's good to take a little break, and then I'll start up after New Year's.

Our Christmas celebration is going to be shifted by one day, so our Christmas Eve will be tomorrow. Rusty is on a work trip right now and doesn't get back to Memphis until tomorrow. He'll immediately hop on a flight to head here and Ted and I will pick him up at the airport in Spokane tomorrow evening. We're hoping it'll work! I guess there have been a lot of delays in the midwest this week, so we have to cross our fingers that he can make it. He only has a few days off, so he really needs to make it back soon, if he's going to come.

We're going to make deep dish pizza tonight and hang out with the animals. I am dog sitting for my friend Laura, so Hitcher has a brother for a week. Raichle (pronounced Rikely), a Border Collie, is several years older than Hitcher, so he gets a bit annoyed by Hitcher's incessant begging to play. It will definitely be interesting to get the Border Collie, Treeing Walker Coonhound, and Miniature Schnauzer together at Mom and Dad's house tomorrow. I don't think you could have three more different dogs.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Cyclocross Nationals Day 3

Crashes like this were a common sight throughout the entire weekend of racing.


Kevin Bradford-Parish of Spokane, on the right, finished 21st in the elite men.


Todd Wells and Jonathan Page led for much of the elite men's race.


The start of the elite men's race, with eventual race winner Tim Johnson in the center of the photo.


Riding the frozen ground.


Getting ready to head to the start line.

The conditions for my race yesterday were far better than for Ted's the day before. It was at least in the 30s and sunny, so some of the frozen ground had thawed. There was still, however, a great deal of ice! I had never before even ridden on snow, so it was a completely new experience for me to race on a course like that. Grooves a tire width across were carved out from previous races, but the ground was frozen; if you did not get your tire perfectly in the groove, you would slide all over. It was very disconcerting for a roadie like me. I was eventually caught by the race leaders, but it was a good experience. It made me realize that I need to experience many more types of course conditions.

We hung around after my race to watch the elite men. Even more of the course had thawed for them, so it was a pretty muddy race. It's amazing to see how much faster and more fluid they are than all of the other categories. They really do make it look easy... but it's not!

To finish up our experience in Kansas, we went to the post-race party at Dave and Buster's. Lots of people were there and lots of beer had already been poured by the time we arrived. We chatted with a few people, had a couple beers, and played some arcade games. We're home now and pretty tired after our 5 hours of sleep last night. All in all it was a good trip and definitely a learning experience.

Cyclocross Nationals Day 2

Mark McCormack led Ted's race for most of the day, but collided with a lapped rider before the finish.


Climbing a very slippery, frozen hill.


Winter.


Battling in the snow.


The start of Ted's race.


The conditions at the start of Ted's race.

Ted pre-rode the course early Saturday morning; I was originally going to go with him, but opted to sleep in when I heard the conditions were 17 degrees and snow. By one o'clock when his 35-39 Masters race was set to start, conditions really had not improved much, so he knew he was in for a slippery ride.

There were large numbers of no-shows in every category. Ted's category alone had over 70 registered racers who did not start. There were lots of bobbles and lots of guys went down on the frozen ground, but Ted managed to keep it up for the duration of his race. He says he isn't thrilled with his result, but loved the experience. He was smiling and laughing each time I saw him go around. Afterall, we're from dry eastern Washington, so we aren't used to these frozen conditions!

Day One in Kansas

We watched a few races yesterday, starting with the 17-18 junior men in the morning. The ground was frozen rutted mud, taking out at least 6 racers in 2nd corner. It was great to see the junior men from Seattle, as they finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Later, we watched the 30-34 and 35-39 masters women race, followed by the 45-49 masters men. By that point, the ground had thawed into a thick, soupy mess. There were still crashes left and right as tires would slide out, but at least they looked less painful than in the morning.

Of course, we did get the called-for couple inches of snow overnight, so the races today will be very interesting! Ted pre-rode the course this morning and crashed twice. Once again, the sludge is frozen, but it is now also covered with a layer of slippery snow. The high today is supposed to be in the 20s, so it probably won't thaw out as much as it did yesterday. Thank goodness we bought those knee-high rubber boots at Wal-Mart yesterday!

More snow is expected throughout the afternoon and evening. Wish Ted luck in his sloppy mudfest this afternoon! I'll be out there with my camera.

The Many Faces of Hitcher

Off to Kansas

We are off to Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City tomorrow. It looks like there will be about 170 men in Ted's category, and about 100 women in mine. There are over 2000 riders registered across all categories. Ted races Saturday, while my race is Sunday; it should be interesting since they're calling for snow Friday night. The course is predicted to be very muddy and mucky. We'll try to snap some photos since we don't race at the same time.

Lactic Acid

Having blood taken from my ear during my lactate threshold test.


Ted racing in Boise.


The cats love the Christmas tree.

We had a good, although short, trip to Boise. Corey Hart, who has worked with Kristin Armstrong, Tina Pic, and Kimberly Baldwin, among others, did the lactate threshold testing. My results ended up okay, but not as high as I had hoped. Corey said I am currently a bit lower than most of the female U.S. domestiques, which made me disappointed at first, but then I realized that I really have not been training all that much over the past 6 weeks, so I am definitely lower than I will be after some good training. We will have the opportunity to have the testing done again in a couple months to measure improvement. Ted didn't feel great for his race yesterday, but he did say he had fun and liked the course.

Corey said we'll have to get Ted tested too the next time we go down. If you have never had a lactate threshold test done, it's not a lot of fun. You start out riding at a steady pace on a trainer. Every 3 minutes, they add resistance to the trainer to increase the difficulty, ask you to rate your perceived exertion, and take blood from your ear (or finger). They measure the lactic acid in your blood each time to measure how well your body is able to utilize it. Everyone reaches a point where they can no longer utilize the lactic acid produced by the body; the goal is to get this level as high as possible. You basically ride until you cannot turn the pedals over anymore. The whole test only takes a matter of minutes.

We have another short week here, as we leave Thursday to go to Kansas for cyclocross nationals. Lots to get done in the next few days!

Headin' South

Boise is the destination tomorrow. We're heading down for me to visit with some of my new Bob's teammates. The team also has a deal to get some physiological testing done, so I'll be getting my lactate threshold tested Saturday. I've had these tests done before, but it has been a while, so it will be interesting to see how the results compare.

Ted will get to do a 'cross race while I'm being tested, so it should be a worthwhile trip for us both. You can bet we'll be driving in the daylight tomorrow to make those pesky deer a bit more visible!

Weekend at home

We were originally planning on spending this weekend in Portland, but we opted to stay home, for several reasons; we were both tired of travel with just getting home on Wednesday. Plus, neither of us is super fit right now. My car is in the body shop and I think we both worry a little about taking Ted's car on longer trips, considering it has ~265,000 miles on it.

Our weekend consisted of getting a Christmas tree, having lunch with my parents at their house, and making a batch of Christmas cookies, along with a tiny bit of Christmas shopping. Not a super exciting weekend, but it was nice to get some things done.

I'm hoping/planning to hear the insurance company's decision on my car in the next day or so. The body shop's estimate is complete, so it's now just up to the insurance company as to whether the car is repaired or replaced. If they decided to repair, it'll be at least a couple weeks until it's done, which is just one more reason to hope they decide to let me get a new one. Fingers crossed...

Home

We are home from our trip to Chicago. Aside from hitting the deer, the trip was otherwise good. Thanks to everyone for their comments and concern. The car is being taken to a body shop today to be evaluated. We're all crossing our fingers that it is deemed ruined, but it will likely be fixable.

While in Chicago, we squeezed in some Christmas shopping, some good meals out and in, visits with Ted's family, and a couple of races in Iowa. All in all we were pretty busy. We had a good time, but it's also really nice to be home.

Ted picked Hitcher up from the kennel this morning and he's a little under the weather. He's curled up in my lap as I type. It's probably just stress from the kennel, but the poor guy is exhausted and has some digestive problems.

Ted's fixing a fondue dinner for my birthday tonight, so that will be a real treat. Plus, it's cold here (30 degrees), so fondue seems fitting.

Thankful

We left Pullman at 4 am this morning, so I took a little snooze on the way to Spokane, while Ted drove. I awoke to a pounding sensation in my chest, the smell of gunpowder, and my own screams. I had no idea what had happened. We had hit a large male deer. We both jumped out of the car to find the front end of my new RAV4 ruined, and a large deer carcass on the road ahead. Debris was everywhere.

The front end of the car is totaled. Often, when drivers hit deer, you hear of them driving away from the scene. Not the case with us. We are seriously lucky to be uninjured, let alone alive. We hit the dear at 60+ mph, and it could have gone through the windshield. My side of the windshield has a large fracture. The driver's side hit the deer, which we think rolled across the top of the hood, hitting my side of the windshield. Both airbags deployed and we both have sore backs/chests as a result.

We made it to Chicago after all of this, getting in 4 hours later than originally planned. But, at least we're okay.

This is the new Vanderkitten cyclocross team kit, which I'll be sporting for the first time this weekend.

Playing in the snow

Pullman has woken up to snow the past two mornings, and, oddly enough, it's not really annoying me that much. Give me a couple more weeks of indoor training and I'm sure I'll be sick of it, though. I do have to say that it is really fun to watch Hitcher with the snow because he goes wild for the stuff.

I am occasionally going to be filling in as a worker at the WSU deer pens; they use the animals for research. I worked there for a few hours on Monday and the little fawns are adorable. They have 27 fawns right now and they are so friendly and tame. I was told that the only thing to worry about with the babies is that they'll love you too much. The adult bucks, however, are a different story. It is the peak of breeding season right now and the males do not at all like anyone going near the females. One buck in particular snorts and makes threatening noises if you even walk by the pen. Then, when you go enter the pen to feed them, he heads straight for you, with a goal of headbutting you into a corner. Thankfully, his rack has been removed, but he still makes me nervous! I'll take the sweet, innocent fawns, thanks!

For anyone who enjoys things cycling-related, I have to recommend the Bikecar movie. It was made by two brothers from Moscow, along with some others. They built this "bikecar" and pedaled it all around the northwest to different snowboarding venues. Ted and I found it very entertaining, and we can vouch that the filmmakers are great people (pro snowboarders and cyclocross racers). An extended version of the DVD will be out soon... hopefully in time for Christmas.

The main guy in the film, Louie, has little twin daughters who go to all of our cyclocross races to cheer on their dad. Ted has become their favorite cheering subject because they love to shout "Go Teddy Bear!" at the top of their lungs.

Where in the world?

Spooned by the dog.

Ripples.

Watching the world go by.

The weather in Pullman has finally turned a bit, but I still can't complain. It is November, afterall. I barely worked out this week since I still was not feeling good, so I'm going into Jingle Cross with less fitness than I had hoped. It'll still be fun, though!

It's hard to believe that the final race of the Inland NW Cyclocross Series is Sunday. It went by so quickly! After a couple weeks of very little training, I am very much looking forward to racing on Sunday. Then, we'll have three days in Pullman before heading to Chicago for Thanksgiving.

We went to the Cougar basketball game tonight, which is always really fun. We had the most annoying fans sitting behind us, though. Three overweight ladies were sitting behind us, screaming in our ears the whole time, and I just grew increasingly annoyed. Was it really necessary for them to tell the Cougs to "REBOUND!!!!!!!!!!!" each time the Vandals attempted a shot? I mean, honestly! It's not like they could even hear these women, no matter how much they screamed. Then, there was the guy who was the ONLY person in our section to stand. Thankfully, he was not in front of us, but he continually stood in front of the poor women behind him, completely blocking their view. I'm all for getting into the game, team spirit, etc., but some of these people are just ridiculous!

I talked to my brother today. He and I have yet to take the trip he gave me for Christmas last year, but we're hoping to go in early 2008. I have the total freedom to pick any place in the world for said vacation. We will be somewhat limited on time, as Rusty will most likely only have 7 days, at the most, off. Where to go? I am currently leaning toward Paris, Prague, or somewhere (safe) in South America. Rome would be fun too, and Greece has always intrigued me. Japan would be neat also. Hmmm.... any suggestions?

Race Skippage

We packed our bags and made our watter bottles last night, setting our alarms for 7 am. They went off and we decided not to make the trip to Coeur d'Alene for today's race. I've been a bit sick all week, battling a sore throat, congestion, headaches, chills, etc. Ted's ankle is still sore and he has a lot to get done here, so we decided it didn't make sense to make the trip. The races are so fun for me that it was hard to skip it, but I think it was probably for the best.

We went to the first Cougar men's basketball game Friday night. It was a pretty impressive turnout in comparison to the early games of last season. To make it even better, Patty's Kitchen is now serving food at the games, so we'll be eating dinner at the game on Friday.

Until then, I'm hoping to resume training in the next couple days to be somewhat fit for cyclocross nationals in a month. I've only gotten a couple short spins on my new Giant, but I can already tell I like it!

My New Team Bike for 2008

I arrived home from my ride today to find my new team bike, along with some team clothing, on my doorstep. It's amazing to have a team like Bob's that has already managed to get team bikes out for next season! Ted built it up for me tonight, so I'll take it for a ride tomorrow.

The happenings

Phil and Hitcher

Chin rester

Who, me? Drying rack? It's a cat tower, right?

Fluffy Shamus

Play is so tiring

Racin'

The start of Ted's race at Fort Walla Walla

The ramp from the Walla Walla race a week ago

Ted's parents just left Pullman today after a few days of visiting. While they were here, we went out to eat a couple times, took Hitcher for some good walks, and squeezed in a cyclocross race in Spokane. Unfortunately, neither Ted or I had a good race, so it wasn't the best race for Phil and Ellie to watch. Ted clipped his foot on a rock and crashed pretty hard, so he wasn't able to finish. His ankle is still swollen and bruised.



I'm nursing a very sore throat and not feeling so great. Phil was sick while he was here too, so there is definitely stuff going around. I got my flu shot a couple weeks ago, so I'm hoping this will just be a cold.

Hitcher starts advanced dog school tonight, so I'm crossing my fingers he does okay! I hope he's well enough advanced!

Busy week

We had an interesting weekend of racing. Saturday's course was at a private farm outside of Walla Walla, with the race taking place in the late afternoon. The course had some tricky singletrack, a barn filled with saw dust and Halloween decorations, a 12 foot high A-Frame ramp, and a bridge. While the course was unique, I wouldn't say it was a true cyclocross course.

I started my race and rode the first few laps at race pace. My back started to feel a little tight, so I backed way off and was passed by all the women behind me. I just finished the race, worried that my back would tighten up through the evening. Upon crossing the line, I noticed that Ted was already by the car. He was distraught because he had run over a little girl. The little girl somehow ran onto the course, directly in front of Ted. By the time he saw her, it was too late to completely avoid her, so both he and the girl went down. Ted felt awful, as did the girl's parents. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt - just shaken up. It was just one of those freak things, and a complete accident. Ted didn't finish because he wanted to make sure the girl was okay. We had a great dinner that evening, so that helped!

My back was really no worse yesterday morning, so I decided to really race full-out. I somewhat regret not racing harder on Saturday because I think I probably could have. I was just being overly cautious. I went hard from the gun yesterday and held the lead until the finish. It was cool because Mara Abbott, the current professional women's road race champion, showed up for both races. Chances are good that I'll never be able to beat her on the road, but at least I was able to beat her in a 'cross race. Ha!

Ted's racing didn't go much better yesterday, as he crashed a couple times. He's hoping for a better weekend here soon because he's really had some bad luck.

This week is going to be busy for us. I started my new part-time lab position today, which is very chemistry-based. We are going to a Modest Mouse concert on Halloween and Ted's parents are coming for a visit Friday. Throw in cyclocross practice and other daily workouts, along with a few miscellaneous appointments, and it's going to be pretty packed. Most of it's fun, though!

Animals, animals, animals

What is up with my animals? If it's not one who is sick or injured, it's the other. A matter of weeks ago Hitcher had a nail stuck in his paw. Today, little Pazza had to go in for a ruptured, infected abscess on her tail.

We first noticed a bump on her tail about a week ago, but didn't think much of it since it wasn't visible and didn't seem to be bothering her. When we eventually tried to look at the bump up close, we discovered a foul odor, so the possibility of infection popped up. Since we're racing again over the weekend, I decided to take her in today. Sure enough, they shaved a section of her tail to reveal an open, infected wound. They cleaned it and put one stitch in to encourage healing, and she's on antibiotics for a week. Poor little thing. I got her a new ball at Shopko tonight and we played fetch for a while. Our friend Ben, the future veterinarian, will check in on her over the weekend and give her the antibiotics.

Our weekend in Walla Walla should be a good time. Mom and Dad are heading over to watch us race and we'll have a good dinner tomorrow night at Whitehouse-Crawford. I just hope I can race. Still not sure about that. I plan to start tomorrow, and then I'll quit (or at least walk), if I have to. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though!

New Team for 2008

I will be racing for a different team on the road in 2008