Ridin' high.

Imagine one of those old school roller coasters... like the Screamin' Eagle at Six Flags over Mid-America or some wooden rickety thing straight from Coney Island.  Remember how your momentum from one downhill flew you up and over the next hill?  Now picture those hills far enough apart so that you don't have even the semblance of momentum and instead have to get out of the coaster car and push it up the hill.  And instead of a roller coaster, you are pedaling, pedal-pushing, out of the saddle, cranking it like a peppermill, willing your chain not to break.  You are beginning to understand what the "Sublime Sublimity" was like.

The course began with a series of four such hills, the last of which was paved with chip-seal half-way up.  Chip-seal is the cycling road surface equivalent of walking/running in sand. Oh but the best was yet to come.  After three loops (and four turns on the roller coaster), the course turned toward the finish line... at the top of a hill so steep it had earned the moniker "Flypaper".  Many people physically got off their road bikes and walked up the last of the hill... maybe the first that their cleats had ever touched pavement.

I raced the women's 4s and it was good.  Brenda Spinney (teammate on PPBS and rockstar timetrialist), Dawn (from VeloShop),  and I made a move early after the roller coaster section and escaped for 3-4 miles before being caught by a group of five women.  All along the fast, slightly downhill, into the wind backstretch we formed a sweet paceline with 1:00 pulls.  By the time we turned the corner for the second lap and I looked back over the fields in the direction we had come, noone from our group could be soon.

At the first set of roller-coasters, one woman tried to shift two-gears at once while pedaling, and became a victim of chain-meets-spokes (been there, King's Valley 2008, no mercy!).  I jumped off the front and in the confusion another woman got left behind.  And then there were five.

One more time around and then there were three: Mackenzie, Dawn and Me.  We were going for the last round, and I could feel my quads misfiring every time I rose out of the saddle.  Dawn bid farewell after an impressive ride.  I tried to suck Mac's wheel for a hill or two, but she built a 10 second lead and never relinquished.  I left my broken spirits and added to the creakiness of my bottom bracket with me never-say-die attitude stuck to the Flypaper.  I didn't walk across the line, but I crossed it going 1.2 mph.

The only thing that would have made this race less painful and more fun, was to have Heather along for the ride (pun intended).  Next week.  Banana Belt #1...

And here's what I won (not really, but Heather and Jim were in Portland and stopped off to get me a little treat at Cupcake Jones, a shop that makes me salivate each time I think of it!):

Cupcake:  "Velvet Painting" -  red velvet cocoa cake filled with vanilla pastry cream and iced with cream cheese icing topped with a candied edible rose petal.  And all mine!!!

Snippets of life

I had a terrible workout on Tuesday.  I was on the track for the second time this year (third speed workout).  It wasn't even meant to be that hard — but something about the rain, the early hour, the 59 mile road ride I did on Saturday that was ever-so-slightly faster than I should have — left my legs trashed.  After a day off, a massage from Meghan, and an easy hill run in the forest this morning, I'm back to it.  For a day there, I thought I was done for.  NEVER!

I used my day off to get frisky in my own version of Kitchen Stadium.  The secret ingredient: the chick pea.  I picked up some hummus mix at my favorite grocery and made a homemade spread with minced and sauteed garlic and onion with a good amount of pureéd sundried tomatoes...  It was perfect for my falafel, sauteed vegetable, and hummus Greek-style sandwich (Oh so good).  With a lot left over, I've been casting about my kitchen all evening looking for things to dip in the hummus... carrots, cucumber, stale blue chips, some pita bread.  Yum!

Here's a crazy thing:  I was working in the greenhouse today for a few hours and about two hours in to my experiment, I thought... "I'm pretty pale right now, and even though my face lotion has sunscreen in it... I don't have any on my hands and arms.  Sure enough... My annual watch tan has begun in a bright red fashion.

Looking ahead... race season has begun!  There was the Truffle Shuffle running a couple weeks ago and now, road bike racing.  This week-end I am heading to Salem for the Sublime Sublimity.  Wish me luck!

Some random thoughts.

The ride:  Combination cyclocross/road ride/creek bath?  Yup,  When Jim and I went riding last week, I got a little muddy on the Contour trail... Here I am post-f#$%ing-freezing creek bath so that I could at least clip in and rotate my tire through the fork.  Notice the muddy and bent left shifter... I may have takin' a header into the mud.  Still smilin'!

The swim: Monday night.  Walking into the pool area, I could tell it was one of those night were I would either get in and make it only 1000 before bailing or start warming up and end up with the longest yardage of the year.  It was a long day.  I missed my regular Masters class at lunch.  And I was hungry.  Hungry for some speed!!! Longest and fastest swim of the training season.

The race:  The Truffle Shuffle.  Is there anything better than having a huge chocolate truffle waiting for you at the finish of the race?  I didn't quite finish as fast as I had hoped (10 seconds  off of last years' time for the 4-miler).  But, I did manage to run sub-6:00s.  And Heather and Jim were there to cheer me on, which made it so worth it.  Meghan took advantage of her extra days of track workouts and her knowledge of my finishing speed.  She dropped me hard right before the 3-mile mark.  Even though, I closed quickly... I ran out of real estate.  There is a reason she is a US National team member and a Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier.. freaky fast!

The just reward:  Some pictures need no words.

Parting shot:  The best bee-hive ever... Major props.

Oh, my hamstrings!

This week my training switched into a new phase.  I moved from the "All miles are good miles" phase into the "I really am doing a half-ironman in three months" phase.  How's that different? Track workouts and aerobars.

It sounds like a bad diet.

Monday- I knew Meghan A. had moved her training to the track on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I procrastinated texting her on Monday afternoon to confirm this, hoping that she just wouldn't get it in time, and maybe — just, maybe — I could save myself the painful experience of getting out of bed that early to run in the dark and cold, coaxing stiff, unaccustomed muscles into something resembling a tempo cadence.

No such luck.  She texted back immediately with the planned workout and a few exclamation points to make it look fun.  I waited to write her back that I was coming until late in the evening.

Tuesday-BCofD.  When the alarm went off, I briefly thought... "oh, she didn't get my text, she won't know if I don't show up".  But, I know Meghan better.  So, I scarfed down half a Mixed Nut Mojo Bar... "mixed nut" because it was a wonderful description of my mindset.. and everyone needs a little "mojo" at that hour.

At the track, we arrived simultaneously to watch the last of the early, early crazies on the HOTV team finish up their workout (heckling us as they went about their cool-down).  We eased it into with a long interval at 6:10ish pace.. and then did a quick set of 1000s and 800s at just below our goal race pace for this week-end (side note, I'm racing the Truffle Shuffle 4 mile in Eugene on Sunday).  Toward the end, I could feel my legs doing that little "I'm about to give out if you don't stop running so fast"-shuffle step.  Time to be done... I barely had time to stretch before work, so I promised myself a little yoga time in the evening.

Wednesday night- after a lunch-time swim with the CBATS (Corvallis Bad-Ass-Team-Swimmers) and being cooped up inside the rest of the day while the rest of Oregon was bathed in 50s and sunshine... I needed to work-out the rest of my kinks.  What better way than to ride the trainer (imagine this being said with sarcasm).  I actually was looking forward to it a little because I rented "Live Free or Die Hard"... excellent trainer-ride material.

I rocked the Orbea for 45 minutes while Bruce Willis took out a car with a helicopter jumped out of not one, but two movie vehicles and managed to crash a semi-truck into a jet fighter!  My ride would have been an hour, but I was taking a swig of my cheap-o water bottle... bit down on the nozzle to pull it out and pulled the whole frickin' lid off.  I got my shower while on the bike!  Ride, over!

But after the track workout and the riding in aero position for the longest time since August (OMG has it been that long?), I may need a massage that focus exclusively on my hammies.

101 and the Saturday Rave Run

First, I have no posted 101 times!

Second, I got some running in sunshine!  Runners from the Corvallis Trail Runners, Heart of the Valley (HOTV) Runners (my group), the Corvallis Running Project, and a few other non-affiliates met up at the 29th St. Bumper for a little forest running Saturday morning.  The ultrarunners were putting 3 hrs. on their legs, and some like me wanted less than 2 hrs, so we caught them mid-run coming from town.

Courtesy of the dry weather we have been having, the trails were "mucky" instead of "muddy"... an important distinction that means the difference between having your foot stay put where you plant it and sliding off the trail and catapulting into a tree in an imitation of a person falling from a plane without a parachute.

The first part of our run was a 40-odd-minute slug up to Dimple Hill through Chip Ross and then up Dan's.  Once at the top, we shed layers, regrouped and sidled around on the fire-roads, Hydra trail, a trail-to-remain-nameless that led to the top of Bombs Away, and then finally down Horse Trail back to Chip Ross.  The whole thing was at conversational pace, a total of 11-miles through the winking sunbeams filtered by the trees and ferns.  My longest run this year and it felt great.

All was fine until the last 400 yds back to the cars.  We hit a patch that could best be described as muddy (see previous description).  It came after a hair-pin turn and just after the beginning of a really steep section... Arms and legs went in four different directions as they searched for purchase... I came to rest on two feet (thankfully) about a foot from a barbed wire fence (ooohh... that would have hurt) and best of all, not taking any runners out with me.  Gerhard was behind and he gave me some major props for the save and not pulling a muscle.

After that, I figured I deserved sustenance and awesomeness in the form of a bottomless cup of coffee and a southwestern-style omelette at Zia's on 3rd St.... can you say "mouth on fire"!  I think this may be the second time that I have discovered that jalapenos and coffee don't mix :-)