superfluous pronoun - ramblings from nufferdo

Pictures From Kimberly's 40th Birthday Party

2009-01-18T01:04:00.002-07:00

I'll be posting some pix via cellphone from the party. Please excuse the quality: the phone likes more light than we have inside the house.

last couple of pix

2009-01-17T23:24:00.003-07:00

of course, the kitchen's where it all happens.

Zelda made herself happy by finding accommodating laps.

2009-01-17T20:44:00.001-07:00

It's official now.

People starting to arrive.

2009-01-17T18:50:00.001-07:00

Party Prep

2009-01-17T12:56:00.001-07:00

Francesca eating an apple and reading The Economist.

OBARKMA rules!

2008-11-04T21:43:00.004-07:00

Today before school Isabella, Gynnis (Izzy's BFF), Kay (Glynnis' mom) and I waived signs before school/work for about 30 minutes. The kids counted 146 honks, waives and thumbs up in that time period. Not bad for mostly homemade signs! It's felt like Christmas today - and I got what I asked for ~~ woo hoo!

And lastly, here are our pretty pooches, both with new haircuts, on a beautiful fall day this weekend.

Z-Z-Z-Zelda!!! and the Goathead

2008-10-28T22:40:00.007-06:00

I have lots of catching up to do here on this blog. I just wrote a long email to my friends/family with an update on our new doggie (and how the kids have been throwing up all night - FUN!) which prompted Ken to tell me that I should just blog this stuff.

So we added to our family on Thursday by getting new doggie. She's a one year old gray miniature poodle and she's super sweet. We thought Oscar needed a playmate, and it's turned out to be true. He tormented her for a few days and now they're having lots of fun tearing around the house together. She's pretty scraggly looking and kinda stinky after living at the pound for about six days before coming home with us, and unfortunately, she can't have a bath till next week because of recently getting spayed.

This weekend was the cyclocross race at the Boulder Res which the COOL FUN people (that would be me) dress up for. I went as a goathead. I need to check the results to see if they put me down as racing for GOATHEAD RACING like I put on my ACA waiver. Fun race made way more fun by dressing up. I'm telling ya, you get much more cowbell if you are in costume!! I have to say my costume was not very aero and having the Stan's bottle on the back of my bike didn't make the bike any lighter. The gal who was behind me said it flipped down and was rubbing against my tire for the last few laps! ugh!!

Obama lost because you didn't vote.

2008-10-28T22:33:00.003-06:00

well, hopefully this won't be the case because you got out and voted. and voted early like I did today.

this video is very funny. watch it here.

hellovader

2008-10-14T21:51:00.002-06:00

this is what ken wants to be for Halloween. Frankie and i are going to be witches, Isabella will be a vampire bat, and Oscar will be a dog, i guess.

I love cyclocross!

2008-10-14T21:42:00.003-06:00

Cyclocross is just too much fun. I like cross more than road, I've decided. I've also decided that my new MO is that I have to have to bring beer for after the race if there is not a beer garden as part of the race. Unfortunately, I've been sick for the last 10 days or so and (foolishly?) did two races in those 10 days but did not feel up to the post beer feed. Drat.

On another note, I won Women's Rider of the Year (like ACA BAR) and also Masters Rider of the Year at the track this year. I got some sweet green backs in exchange! woo hoo! As my friend Gary Peterson said, "A check always fits better than a jacket!"

Pink Yeti bling

2008-10-05T20:07:00.004-06:00

Ken really needs to get his own blog. He likes everyone to *think* he's too modest to do so or that he doesn't have time, but in reality, he spends an awful lot moderating on Slashdot and reading his Powertap files! But I heart him anyway.

Well, today I was supposed to race the second Frisco cyclocross race but since I have this dastardly cold, I decided to bag it. I talked Francesca into helping me wash my mountain bike, air up and Stan's up the flat tires (since I have not ridden it since May!) and then we made this custom Hello Kitty Chain Slapper. I am mighty proud of it - two layers of flannel, velcro, and a great snug fit! Easily washable too! No more annoying chain slap noise. Now I just have to ride the bike...

Using The Strap-On In Public

2008-10-02T22:09:00.015-06:00

(This post has been moved to this location.)

Points race, team events, getting home

2008-09-09T21:06:00.003-06:00

Wow, what a week it's been. let me try to catch up here. I had a day off on Friday but played Bike Girl for Kenny. i hope he appreciated it. I did a lot of video taping for the team which was not that much fun, but hey, we all have to take one for the team, right? ha ha. So Saturday, I had the points race. Deb and I were both in it, and we were looking forward to having some fun. A couple of people scratched, one gal was kicked out because she was not the right category, and a few were added. There was only one entrant in the 30-34 group and she was going to ride with us, and she was a known fastie (Jan's term). Warren, the race promoter, told me the young chick was going to be told by the officials not to interfere with the outcome of our race, however, to make a long story short, she wasn't. I asked her about it as we rolled up to the rail, and she said that she was racing this one. We let her get off the front; she may have even lapped the field. We didn't really care because she wasn't supposed to be scored. Deb and I worked hard to get points, but this youngster gal decided to pull the other California rider around, and that gal ended up winning our race. Deb and I were second and third, respectively. Being the (ha ha - work people, are you reading this?!) diplomatic one, I talked with Warren after the race but he couldn't really do anything.

The next (last) day was the team events. Yet again, it was VERY HOT!!! As in 103 under the canopy on the infield, probably 110 on the track. Deb and I had the top seed for team sprint. We ended up with fourth but rode a much faster time than last year so we were at least happy with that. The two men's sprint teams also got 4th. That would be Kenny, Rich and Big Sock in the 50+ group, and Butch, Paulin and Pellitier in the 40+. For some unknown reason, they decided to run the team pursuits as one-ups rather than having two teams on the track. Oh my goodness, this took forever!! We finally got on the track at 3pm. We were seeded last which was great, so we knew what we had to ride. Last year, we got the top seed and were able to cruise to gold thanks to Rich letting us know exactly where we needed to be with lap times. This year we worked like crazy but ended up third. All I can say, is we'll be back!!

The bad news is that we rode sometime after 3pm and our flight was at 5pm. Not good timing. We missed the flight in San Jose but luckily got on the last flight out of San Francisco which put us home a couple hours late.

Good to be home. Tons of tomatoes and herbs to harvest (email me if you want some!) Now on to cyclocross season - woo hoo!

More pictures on the camera to come later.

More Results

2008-09-06T10:42:00.002-06:00

OK, I am falling behind with posting here. I see Ken highjacked my account and did his own posting...It's been super hot here, over 100 degrees during the day, so I've spent a lot of time trying to stay cool in the swimming pool or just lying in bed trying to ameliorate my sleep debt.

Sprints didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I qualified second in the 200 to Julie Bautista from San Diego who won the sprints and 500 in 2006 (my year of two broken collar bones!) I won my quarter final ride pretty easily and was then matched with my teammate Deborah Kidd (from Santa Fe) for the semis. I beat her in the first ride, and then she took me in the second two. I was pretty tired for my bronze medal final and ended up in 4th. Deb got silver in the finals.

Marsha and Shannon did their points race (50+ age groups but scored separately). It was a really small field so it was hard for them to really do any team tactics. Marsha ended up with gold and Shannon with silver.

Vic Williams got bronze in his pursuit. Steve Whitmore got 19th.

Today the 40-something men and women sprint and the 30-something men and women points race. George Hertner and Dave Macintosh showed up, so more Coloradoan to cheer for. That's it for now...

Ken's sprint day

2008-09-05T14:50:00.004-06:00

Today I had a 200-meter time trial qualifier in the morning, and then match sprint rounds afterward. I was up against 17 riders, with the top 8 going to the quarterfinals, then the next four fastest doing a race for ninth through twelfth places, and everyone else just going back to the hotel.

I rode a 12.4 second 200 meters, which was good for 10th. But the fastest time was 12.1 seconds, which means that there wasn't much that separated the top finishers. Rich Voss qualified second with 12.2 seconds, and was surprised that his first round was not going to be an easy one. Normally, the second qualifier would have a fairly easy ride against the seventh qualifier, but not this year. There were a couple of upsets, with lower-seeded riders winning against higher ones, and a few of the best-of-three heats actually going to three rides. Rich lost his heat, but won the eventual ride for fifth place.

I was in the ride for 9th-12th places. Sprinters are heavily rewarded on this track when they ride from the front, as it takes a lot to pass someone here. (The track has fairly shallow banking, short straights and long turns, which means that one has to ride a significantly longer distance to pass in the turns, and minimal opportunity to pass in the straights.)

I have a habit of watching the official while he or she arranges the little sticks with numbers written on them that are used to determine starting position on the track. I saw the number 1 flash by while the official was shuffling them, and I went for that stick. So I had the inside lane, and the opportunity to control the race a little. I won the heat and got ninth place in the men's 50-54 age group, and so this stick-watching will continue in the future.

Ron Hargrave advanced to the semis in his age group, and he will be leading the first lap of Sunday's team sprint, with me riding the second lap and Rich finishing.

I'm happy with my riding today, much like I was with last Tuesday's 500 meter time trial (in which I got seventh of 27 starters). I'm riding well, but it seems that all the fast boys in my age group have shown up.

Results from Day 2

2008-09-04T08:41:00.002-06:00

Sorry, I'm falling behind. Yesterday was a long day. I'll get some pictures posted soon. Here's how we did...

Gold for Marsha in the 2k
Gold for Deborah in the 2k
Fourth for Jan in the 2k
Fourth for Shannon in the 2k
Fifth for me in the 2k

As you can see, the Hammer Betty Joes are ROCKING!

The guys did well too.
17th for John Boland in the 2k
pack finish for Steve Whitmore in the uber fast, way-too-many-people-on-a-skinny-track points race
Bronze for Steve Worley of Subway-Peerless in the 2k
Paul Mack and Shannon Fox (more Coloradoans) also did the 2k but I am not sure of their finishes.

I was happy to get on the podium in the pursuit since I have done no pursuit training at all this year, other than road TTing. On to the sprints today for me. Jan, Marsha and Shannon all have points races tonight.

one more thing

2008-09-02T23:33:00.002-06:00

and the big news for me today was that my bike - my NEW bike - IS NOT UCI LEGAL!!! IT'S TOO LIGHT!! Luckily I had planned to use Kenny's Speedplay modified toe straps and that got me to the weight limit. Chris Kopp, I hope you're reading this!! Now I have an excuse to get the old school heavy steel sprinter bars that I think are pretty cool...

This is the first time I've seen them measure/weigh everyone's bikes, not just the folks who set national or world records. OK, I'm off to bed.

Evening Results Day 1

2008-09-02T23:22:00.002-06:00

Thought I'd posted this last night but I guess I was really tired! Here it is...

I'm too tired to really write much. Here are the results from the evening session.

Silver for me in the 500m.
Fourth for Deborah Kidd in the 500m
Sixth for Rich Voss in the 500m.
Sixth for Mike Paulin in the kilometer.
Seventh for Kenny in the 500m.

Butch also did the Killer Meter but I am not sure how he placed, and John Boland did the 500 but I didn't get his result either. Oh, and Vic Williams from VC got bronze in his kilo! In hindsight, I should have stuck with my plan to ride a 90.6 but instead decided to gear up to a 92.6. Ended up with not much juice left at the end. That's racing - shoulda, coulda, woulda - but now it's on to the next race. The rest of the week will be spent in my 90.6 gear except for the 200m and maybe the team pursuit if we all ride bigger gears. Got the pursuit tomorrow morning. All of us gals pursuit tomorrow either in the morning or evening. Go Hammer Betty Joes!

Morning Results Day 1

2008-09-02T16:14:00.002-06:00

...Hot off the press: Results for Hammer here at Nats...

Silver for Marsha Macro in the 500m
Fourth for Ron Hargrave in the 500m
Fifth for Jan Lischer in the 500m
Sixth for Shannon Lucy in the 500m

...More to come tonight...

Tooling around in the Bay Area

2008-09-02T10:35:00.006-06:00

Well, we've had three days to ride the track and bum around town a little bit. On Monday, we went to Berkeley to have dinner with friends of Ken's. Ken missed a few turns a few times and we ended up turing around on Treasure Island. Here's the view from there. Oakland-SF Bay Bridge with San Francisco in the background. Alcatraz is off to the right but not in the photo. We had great Indian food in Berkeley. Yesterday we went to Alameda where Ken's oldest sister Vivian lives. We met up with her, Ken's youngest sister Alisa and Alisa's friend Robin. We had fantastic Chinese food in Alameda. Saw this carved watermelon at the entrance to some divey restraurant on the street. Pretty cool carving!

Racing starts today. I'm feeling less banged up and my road rash is healing nicely thanks to Tegaderm. I couldn't get a name sticker made in time for the clearcoating of my bike, so I got some nifty puffy stickers at Target to make my own. Here ya go. The other side says Kimmy.

I'm loving the green of my bike, and it's only rivaled by the pink and orange of Ken's bike. We are into color, I guess you could say.

bravery ribbon and a piece of the track

2008-08-31T16:03:00.005-06:00

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

2008-08-31T08:19:00.011-06:00

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.

2008-08-29T21:49:00.002-06:00

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.

2008-08-05T20:05:00.003-06:00

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!)

Ahhh, summer.

2008-07-28T20:36:00.005-06:00

Through my kitchen window, I heard this happening while making the kids' lunches last night. I actually think the kitchen window rendition was better. You know how it is to have to perform on cue!

Singing In the Rain, by Graham Frederick Cox, age "almost three"

On a less than positive note, Francesca has strep throat, but as of tonight, she's no longer contagious. I sure hope I don't get it. I've had it 2x as an adult and it hurts like the dickens. I didn't think she really had it because she was able to eat and drink without really complaining. There's a reason I started calling her "Fireball" this summer. She's gonna be one mean crit rider someday!

life in the hood

2008-07-21T21:28:00.005-06:00

what can i say? i'm just not a regular blogger. i have too much to do and only so much time and energy. i am now 39.5 yrs old, closer to 40 than 39. sigh. it's good though. i have a stable 3/4 time job, a kick ass husband, two wonderful daughters, a groovy dog and a wonderful garden that allows me to be a locavore, at least lots of the time. As for the garden, I finally got the mulch in between the raised beds and now I'm waiting for Kenny to build the gate to keep the pooch out. So, what's in the garden? a dozen varieties of tomatoes (many heirloom grown from seed by my coworker's husband), several varieties of peppers, beets, carrots, fennel, two kinds of eggplant, lemon balm, basil, oregano, sage, marjoram, lemon thyme, garlic, dill, several kinds of lavendar, rosemary, scallions, chives, onions, lots of different kinds of lettuce, including ROCKETLETTUCE (arugula), and plenty of weeds. and my beloved composter! This is my current dream job. Let me know if you're interested in my services...

Having fun on the bike again this summer with the wonderful gals of ColoBikeLaw.com. What a great team we have this year - on and off the bike. Rivaled only by the Betty Joes of Hammer Racing Team!! woo hoo. We're off to track nationals in September in San Jose, CA. Kenny and I will get to go together again this year while my SuperMom comes from Indiana to stay with our kiddos. She will graciously take a break from her current project Hands of Mercy in Sudan to play full time, live in grandma while we're riding the concrete in San Jose.

We spent 10 days in northern Michigan again this summer just recently. This was my 39th summer up there in the same cottage owned by my SuperSuperGrandma Fay Squibb who is 93 and still living on her own and playing golf when she can. It really does feel like home especially in the years since my parents moved from my homeland of Texas. Ken and I got to ride together a lot, and the kids had a ton of freedom to roam around and swim.

That's it for now. Glad I made the time to post (but does anyone really read this?!!)

busy life

2008-02-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

well, i have been way too busy to blog. i really like the idea of blogging, but i just can't make it fit into my life right now. kinda like taking vitamins or flossing my teeth. should do it more often, but the reality is, i am an episodic flosser and vitamin taker. TMI, huh?!

what have i done in the last four months?? skate skiing, the Colorado Democratic Party caucus (i'm a delegate), lots of good cooking, lots of cycling (fixie riding and CX biking in the snow), the first annual Bitch n Switch party, and i guess that's about it, other than work, kids, keeping up the house, you know the boring stuff you do being married, working almost full time and having two wonderful daughters. Isabella climbed to the top of the climbing pinnacle at REI, Francesca can roll her Rs in Spanish words like you wouldn't believe, Oscar has almost finished doggie school and Ken had two flats today! that's about it! hopefully it won't be four months until my next post...

boring bloggin

2007-10-07T19:42:00.001-06:00

My Mac is still in the OR which means I can't post pix. oh well. haven't been doing much. I did race last weekend with my arm/knee full of stitches. it was good to get back on the bike and I thank my sweet hubby for encouraging me to do so instead of using it as an excuse to sit around, watch Netflix and eat ice cream. No racing this weekend because I was too lazy to drive to Frisco and I needed some time w/ the fam.

We did the Family Bike Ride today which means I have Isabella on our Burley Tosa (it's a road tandem) and Ken pulls Frankie in the Burley trailer. It's lots of fun but Isabella does spend a good amount of time asking me if we're almost there yet and telling me that she's cold or hungry. She did bring her iPod so that helped to cut down on the whining. Really, she's a good sport. We rode for about 2. 5 hours. Decided to leave the dog at home instead of putting him in the trailer with Francesca.

I was an Elite Track Nats results junkie for the last few days which was fun. Congrats to all of the Colorado riders, especially my former teammate Cari Higgins who scored several medals including a jersey in the team sprint!! Way to go Cari!

That's about it.

CROSS + ? = GROSS

2007-09-26T20:57:00.000-06:00

You know those word puzzles where you change a letter each time to get from one word to another? Well, you can get from cross to gross in one turn!! And I did that - one hard right hand, off camber turn at Pike Peaks Supercross last Saturday turned cross into gross for me. This was my first race of the season, and I was psyched. I won the first lap prime and wanted to get a bigger gap so kept the speed high. There were a total of four barrier sections, two singles on run ups and doubles on the flat sections. Flat for me means go fast! So I was going fast, and wow, then there's a hard right, downhill, off camber turn. The first time, I kind overshot it and went into the "rough" but recovered. The second time I went down. I quickly realized nothing was broken, and I got back on my bike. Soon, my arm started hurting. Then I was flicking blood off my arm because I didn't like feeling it dripping down my arm. Then I looked at it. Ick. Big gash. I kept going to the start/finish line and stopped. Nine hours later, I had 20 or so stitches (several layers - cut to the muscle fascia) in my arm and a few in my knee. If you want the bloody details, here's the picture that I had the RN snap with my phone before she cleaned it out. No, I don't know what that is hanging out of my wound. Pretty gross, huh? Not all was lost. I was totally happy with my form. I wasn't stutter stepping when I mounted the bike and I was getting over the barriers quickly. Now to get my handling skills where my fitness is.

I am doing OK and even made it to cyclocross practice this afternoon. My form wasn't great, but I was glad to be out there. Don't think I'll race this weekend which means I'll have to hit the Frisco races the first weekend in October!

L.A.Z.Y.

2007-09-13T20:50:00.000-06:00

ok, so i've gotten lazy with the blogging thing. we went to NYC and had a great time. So nice just to be on our own schedule with no races, no kids, no commitments, just us, the city and a morning latte. after 9 years of being caffeine free, i'm back off the wagon. anyway, ken flew home and i flew to Austin, TX and then ended up in Brenham, TX (population for 2000 was 14, 373) for my 20th high school reunion. I was very pleased to find that I was one of the very few who had not gained 20 lbs in the last 20 years. One of the highlights was talking with Starlie Graves who at 36 is training for the 08 Olympics and is likely to make the squad. She was 5th at the trials in 04. She's a long jumper and she was on my first-in-the-nation (thanks Hershey Chocolate) 4x100 meter relay team when we were kids and then all of my state champion relays in high school. oh, those were the days...so the reunion was lots of fun. I'm really glad I went. Missed the 10th but I heard it was a dud.

So now, on to CYCLOCROSS! I love cross because it's no pressure for me. I do it totally for fun and to get some intensity in once a week. I learned my lesson with a broken collarbone my first year of cross and now I will not let my ego, enthusiasm or bike handling skills get ahead of my fitness which is why I crashed. yes, all on my own, just going way too fast and not having the bike handling skills to manage my speed and the muddy pit that I was launched off of...

Oh, one last thing. While I was gone, my beloved Apple Powerbook's charger died which means I am using Ken's old laptop and can't get any pictures up on the blog or to send out to those lovely folks from TX who I had not seen in 20 years until last weekend.

Manhattan bike tour

2007-09-04T08:10:00.000-06:00

Kimmy and I went on a bike ride around town yesterday.
This is the route we took.

Riding in midtown traffic on cheesy bikes is fun.....

Then we ditched our bikes and went to Times Square.

The Hats

2007-09-03T08:41:00.000-06:00

So we're at Battery Park in NYC and Kimberly sees this guy selling umbrella hats.

You'll notice that they are National Champion hats. Hammer Racing has a need here.

The guy wants $12.00 each, or two for $20.00. Kimmy asks how much for ten, and he suggests $50.00 ($5 each). We think that 10 is too many, so Kimmy suggests seven for $30.00 ($4.29 each) and the guy accepts.

We do the deal and then realize that we really need ten after all, so Kimberly chases the guy down (he's trying to escape, I think) and offers him $12.00 for three more hats, claiming that it's now up to our original deal for ten hats. He accepts and we now have ten hats for $42.00 ($4.20 each).

These NYC hawkers are supposed to be tough cookies, but I guess they just aren't tough enough.....

The Big Apple

2007-09-02T07:42:00.000-06:00

We made it into NYC without issue. Staying at this hotel. Pretty sweet room with a flat panel TV in the black marble bathroom. The room doesn't have free WiFi but there's a great little cafe around the block. anyway, here are some photos from our first few hours here.

Outside of Port Authority.

NYC rat.

There's a bike shop right across from our hotel and we're hoping to tool around Central Park one day. The bike shop is named Master Bike and there's a Pita Grill next door. Some Hammerers will appreciate that.

evening session - last day...and the party

2007-09-01T10:25:00.000-06:00

Our 40+ team sprint took GOLD! The 30 and 50+ teams took silver. Deb and I took bronze and shaved a second off our qualifying time. We were very happy with that. Not sure where the fifth place team is on our podium.

The after party needs little explaining - just check out the photos.

Now Kenny and I are off to Manhattan...

last day - BETTY JOES TAKE THE GOLD!!

2007-08-31T13:13:00.000-06:00

The big news of the day is that the Hammer Betty Jo pursuit team took GOLD in the 3k team pursuit. We were seeded last so got to see what the comp did. We thought we could take gold but there had already been a number of crashes in the men's team pursuits so we needed to ride safely but still go hard. Well, we did just that and crushed the competition by 8 seconds. Ken didn't have the camera for the podium shot but here we are after we'd just finished. It was definitely the most fun event of the week. There's nothing quite like sticking a good pursuit exchange at speed. We got lots of compliments on how smooth we looked. I have to say, we really ROCKED and as I heard the announcer say with two laps to go, "They really put the HAMMER down!!"

Earlier that morning Deb and I did the team sprint. We were seeded in the final heat with Annette Hanson and Linda Foti. We ended up qualifying 3rd and will ride for the bronze medal tonight. I was pretty beat after that event. The last 1/2 lap felt like it took forever. I didn't realize how hard it is doing that second lap by myself after sucking wheel for a lap! I think we'll probably go faster tonight, but unfortunately, the best we can get is bronze.

All three Hammer men's teams qualified for the gold medal rides tonight, so we're looking at more jerseys for the team.

And then is the famous Hammer Racing after party.... :-)

evening session of day 4

2007-08-30T20:11:00.000-06:00

Ron and Jim took silver in the sprints.
Marsha won the points race (she was the only 60-64 in the group sadly).
The big excitement was seeing Shannon win GOLD in her points race; she also won the entire 50+ race. Marsha was in that race and did a great job helping Shannon out. They had plans to break from the field but that never materialized so Shannon just turned on the juice on the sprint laps and Marsha did a super job leading her out and boxing the competition in. Shannon was actually tied for first with a local favorite until the last sprint. Her time trialing skills came in handy as she basically rode away from the field on the last lap. It was amazing to watch!

We were awarded the Best Overall Team Championship and ended up with lots of free tshirts, hats and bottles of wine!! woo hoo. They know us too well!

Off to the team events tomorrow for the last day of racing.

day 4 - pursuit

2007-08-30T08:49:00.000-06:00

This morning I did the pursuit. six laps of PAIN. I went out too hot and ended up 4th. The gal who won did so by something like 5-6 seconds and I was out of third by a few hundredths. Deborah ended up second. We're both kinda tired. Marsha and Shannon are going to whoop up in the points race tonight, so I'm resting now so I can have my full on cheering voice ready. Murdock and Big Sock are in the semi finals tonight. Randy qualified 2nd in the sprints but ended up 8th overall. Here are some photos from last night.

Getting ready for the sprint (above). Notice the Moe's Bagels sticker on my disc. I have a ton of them and now everyone is using them, even the manliest of men on the team. I need to hit them up for sponsorship...

Here's the start of my quarter final first ride (the ride before the flat).

Here we have a couple shots of the Hammer "nest". It's pretty clean and tidy here (this was taken earlier this week). now we've got a table, newspapers, magazines and water bottles all over the place. stuff keeps ending up in the wrong bags and, i swear, everything is black so it all looks the same!

Here's what Butch thinks of all of this. Butch was an excellent holder for my sprints. he remembered exactly how to place my pedals. thanks, Butch!

day 3 racing: sprints...and my first flat on the track

2007-08-29T20:34:00.000-06:00

Ok, quick post here with no pictures because yet again, I have to race early tomorrow morning!! (ugh)

Sprints (probably my favorite race after the 500 but also the most nerve wracking): I qualified third which wasn't great. Just didn't get that good of a warm up; it was an OK warm up but I could have done better (i am not always known for good warm ups as my road teammates and coach know). We underestimated how long the 3k pursuits would take and cut it too close with getting to the track.

I won my first ride pretty easily. Big Sock pushed me out for the second ride and my disc felt funky. then it started sounding funky. then i looked down and noticed that my tire was FLAT. i was only coming out of turn 2 at this time on the first lap! i had no idea if this was a legit mechanical or really what to do, so i decided to keep riding. by the time we wound it up i knew i was not going to contest the sprint. i did not want to go sliding down the track. so i ended up losing that round. i immediately checked my tire, and yep it was flat. not punctured flat but flat. Ron had checked both wheels when I started and they were fine. Later I talked with someone in the locker room who said she knew i had a flat because she could hear the wheel sounding funny from the infield. Now i had to do a third ride (ugh!). I won that ride which put me in the gold medal final.

The bottom line is this. I ended up with silver. My first ride went pretty well but she got me at the line. I just didn't have the legs in the second ride after trying to take her long. I was really happy with my racing in terms of having good tactics and riding smart. Just didn't have the horsepower for gold in the end.

Other results from our sprinters: Wil Zegers got 4th, Mark Pellitier got 5th, Mike Paulin got 7th, and Deborah Kidd got 4th. Kenny rode a great 200m and qualified 4th, but ended up 7th overall. Steve Worley and Paul Mack rode an awesome points race but didn't make the podium.

On to the pursuit tomorrow morning!

2007-08-29T05:48:00.001-06:00

Pictures from yesterday.
To the left here you have the drive to the track. Yes, this is rural Penn. You've basically got a track out in the middle of corn fields.

Rich getting ready for the sprint.

Here's Deborah TTing off the front in the points race. this was the 2nd to last lap when two gals decided to finally chase her down. she had about a 1/2 lap gap on the field for much of the race.

Randy checks out what's going on in his race.

You can click on the photos for a larger version in case you didn't know. I say that b/c I only realized that recently.

day 2

2007-08-28T20:58:00.000-06:00

Well, another long day at the track but there is nothing like watching match sprints and points races. Those are the races to watch at the track. Nothing can get my heart rate up like thinking about doing match sprints!!

Today Randy got a 6th in his points race. Rich qualified third in his sprints but had a lot of back pain so was going to scratch but decided go ahead and ride for the team points (you know we have won 7 of the 8 last national team championship titles!!). he got points with his fourth place finish. The big fun of the evening was watching Deborah Kidd (our Hammer from NM) attack in the 30-39 points race (the one I chose to skip this year) with 20 (of 30) laps to go and she basically TT'ed off the front until the final two laps. These other chicks just could not or did not organize and Deb pushed her 93 inch gear around to win the race. Pretty cool for her 7th race ever on the track! This year they broke down the womens sprints into 5 yr categories (usually they stick all of the 40+ women together) which put Jan in 3rd for her age group. The big excitement was watching Donna Smith take Annette Hanson in two rides for the 45+ sprint. You really have to know these folks to get it, but for those who do, it was very cool!

I'll post some pix tomorrow. Time for bed here. I gotta sprint tomorrow.

evening session of day 1

2007-08-28T08:17:00.000-06:00

It was a loooonggggg day at the track yesterday. I think all of these days are going to end up being kinda long. Last night, Marsha pursuited and won. Shannon rode an excellent race and got silver. Jan was fifth in her race. Jim Murdock won his pursuit, as did Steve Worley (Boulder Masters). Paul Mack from Boulder Masters was fifth in his pursuit. In the kilos, Ken was 14th, Mike Paulin was 7th, and Wil Zegers got silver after two false starts. That's gotta crack the nerves!

Here are some photos.

official results

day 1 of racing - morning

2007-08-27T10:04:00.001-06:00

500 meters this morning. here we are warming up. pic taken from the bridge that goes over the track. pretty cool feature of this track. we have a tunnel, they have a bridge.

I had a BAD start (which is why I am not posting the movie of my race! sorry, Katie and Melissa!) but I made up for it and here's the result.

Here are our other podium shots of the Hammer women. The other Hammerer on the podium with me is Deborah Kidd (former pro mountain biker from Santa Fe, NM) who is riding for us here. She's on our team pursuit squad and we're riding the team sprint together.

Jan got 5th (above)
Marsha got 2nd (left)

Shannon got a 6th but unfortunately didn't get on the podium.

Jim Murdock was 2nd. Here's a cool pic of him. Why didn't Ken get my picture like this?

The other big news was that Big Sock Ron Hargrave won his 500 meters! He was the last to ride of 20 competitors in his group. Sorry, I don't have any photos of Big Sock right now.

Now, it's time for a nap! Pursuits and kilos tonight but nothing for me. And I'm off tomorrow! woo hoo.

masters track natz - trexlertown, pennsylvania

2007-08-26T15:19:00.000-06:00

well, we made it!! delayed flights, too much airport food, rain, crazy Jersey highways... here we are in rural eastern pennysylvania. it is really purty here - very green and very different from the urban scene in denver. here are the four Hammer babes who came to T-town (Marsha, Shannon, Jan and me). click the pic to get a bigger version. there was a classic car show in town this weekend so we were besieged by old cars at our hotel. the hotel is really nice - great breakfast, a mile from the track, nice rooms. (i made the hotel arrangements for the team, thank you.)

I didn't get a great shot of the whole track but here is turn 3 and 4 from the bridge that takes you to the infield. We have a tunnel, they have a bridge. I'll try to get a better shot this week.

They even have flowers on the infield.

Shannon made up these shirts for the people that Rich coaches. He is the S&M Task Master from what I'm told!! (OK, i realize you probably can't read the shirt. I'll try to get a better shot later.)

This wins the award for coolest thing I saw. Maybe this will be my new endeavor (along with the 27 other ideas I have for various things to make and sell...)

Tomorrow it's the 500 meters for me early in the morning, and Ken has the kilo in the evening. I'll let you know how everyone does!

i have a blog??!

2007-08-12T21:14:00.000-06:00

so what does this mean that i've started a blog? does this make me a narcissist? geez, i hope not. i know i enjoy stalking other blogs on occasion, and i often stumble across funny things in this thing called life that i think others would get a kick out of, but maybe blogging is just for you the author. whatever. i guess this is my chance to tell the world my point of view, as if i don't do that already!!

i took this picture with a potential blog in mind. it was a great weekend with no racing (rare this summer), out of town family here (lots of that this month actually) and a first multiple item harvest from my garden!! here it is.

also this weekend, along with my wonderful in-laws being here from San Diego, we had a Girls Night Out at Lakeside Amusement Park. All women cyclists. It was fun to see people off the bike. Here are are on the Cyclone. No barfing on this ride.