bravery ribbon and a piece of the track

Well, we're here in San Jose for Masters Track Nationals. Rode the track yesterday and again today. I made a video of the track with commentary but Ken says it's too negative (the San Jose tourism board will hunt me down) so I'm not going to post it. Let me just say that the track is 335 meters, 23 degrees of banking, and feels like a cyclocross course at times. So it's long, flat, and bumpy. It will be fine. The weather is great and all of the Hammeroids from Hammer Racing Team are trickling into town.


The big news today was that I decided to take myself out on the track. I miscalculated what lap we were on during our team pursuit practice and was in second position. I tried to come around Deb just as she swung up for an exchange. We overlapped wheels and I went down. Luckily, no one else did, and I rolled like a pro so nothing broke. Got some road rash and trashed a skinsuit but was able to get back out there and do another few hot laps with my team. The dude who was sweeping the apron saw it happen and immediately came over and gave me a bravery ribbon (it says KIDS ON TRACK) and a piece of the track ( a little nugget of concrete). This is what they give to the juniors crash on the track. So it was 100% my bad and thankfully I'm ok. The bike, however, suffered a major ding in the toptube. Ouch.

Freewheelin at the Democratic National Convention

The DNC is over now but I wanted to post a few pictures from my time volunteering there.  I have to say that overall, it was really fun to have the convention just a mile or so away from our house. Thankfully, I always take my 1971 Schwinn or my scooter when I venture downtown, and my route to work and the kids' schools is via the interstate, so I didn't have to deal with driving downtown.  

So for the DNC, I volunteered with Freewheelin which is a program of Humana, and they partnered with Bikes Belong out of Boulder to bring 1000 bikes to the DNC (also to the RNC). My CBL teammate Kate Scheider works for Bikes Belong.  So with Freewheelin, anyone could check out a bike and ride it from 7a-7p.  There were cruisers, auto shifters, mountain bikes, and zippy single speeds with disc breaks (my personal favorite) from many mainstream manufacturers like Giant, Specialized, Trek, Schwinn and Raleigh. We had two single speed belt drive front suspension Spot Brand bikes. Those were sweet but reserved for the VIPs. Mayor Hickenlooper and some other governor rode those around.  Here are some pictures.

We were right next door to the Alliance Center also known as The Big Tent. It was the blogger headquarters. Google had half the building and had white leather couches, a smoothie bar and chair massages. I got to go inside when I was helping the Pedros guys figure out where to park. Lots of action here.

We had a bike with a wheel-powered blender. Here's Ryan giving it a try in the morning making smoothies.

This Spot bike is SWEEET! Can you tell Iiked it? This one had Barak Obama on the toptube in the name spot, but I don't think he rode it. I don't think it's going to the RNC with the other 930 bikes. Freewheelin is leaving 70 bikes behind for Denver to start a bike sharing program.

Tomatoes.

These beauties are from my garden. I think I have at least a dozen kinds of heirloom tomatoes this year. I am still into beets. You know, they are the new spinach? I made a TDF (that's to die for, not Tour de France, you cyclists!) beet salsa yesterday. Just grated beets, chopped cilantro, jalapeno and scallions from my garden, garlic, salt and lime. great on tacos.

I will shift my focus in blogging to the press agent for Hammer Racing Team as we travel to San Jose, CA for Masters Track Nationals this next week. But of course, I do have a little catching up to do with my time spent at the DNC with the bike sharing program Freewheelin. I think I'll omit my political commentary on John McCain's choice of a running mate which was the news today. Let me just say that this Hillary supporter is fully behind Barak Obama. If McCain thinks he's going to woo Hillary supporters with this woman as his VP choice, he needs to take some more Aricept!!

Beets.

I grew beets for the first time ever this year. I didn't think I liked beets, but Ken does, and they are supposedly easy to grow and uber good for you. Well, today I decided I like beets. I made this Raw Beet Salad by my fave Mark Bittman whose NYTimes blog is one of the few I get as an RSS feed. I also made his Grilled Flank Steak with Provencal Herbs which was excellent as well. Yum. Pair that with some new potatoes and Colorado Olathe corn. Tomorrow I may tackle the beet greens. (BTW, these beets are from my garden. hard to really capture the beauty of them. they are freakin' amazingly beautiful once you peel them!)

On another note, one of these days I'll post a picture of my new track bike - a custom frame by Chris Kopp, paired with a sweet Reynolds track fork and other goodies. Since it's painted sparkly green, I'm not sure if the backyard photo shoot will work since the yard is still pretty green, not yet a victim of the Colorado drought (which thankfully has not rained out any of the Thursday night racing at the track!)