It's been a while since I've posted.  Why?  Well there's not been any racing going on.  But I've got lots of news.

1) I've changed teams.  I'll be racing with Touchstone Climbing next year.  This is going to be awesome.  I guest-rode from them at Gila.  They're fantastic on and off the bike.  And their kits are cute.  Here's me from Gila, with the broken rear derailleur bolt.

2) I've gotten stronger (let's keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't wash off).  Damon has me doing some intervals and my numbers have been good.  And my legs have felt good.  Of course I still have the frequent "argh-I-suck-and-am-totally-useless-and-am-wasting-my-life-and-ruining-my-career-on-a-bike-seat" moments.  But they are fewer.  Lana, formerly of Rock, has given some good pep talks.

3) I'll be guest riding at El Tour de Tucson for a  new drink company called XOOD.  Yes, I do exude! (This is a favourite TCTMJ line).  It will be a reunion of sorts with EX-OAer Glicko.  Much fun will be had.  Maybe we'll track down more vegan pies?  Yum.

4) I'm riding my "winter" aka piece-of-shit bike.  It's got some parts on it that are 13 years old.  Those would be the breaks.  Don't stop suddenly in front of me.  They are Record though, so maybe all that bs about campy lasting forever is true?  It makes a tonne of noise and weighs about 28 pounds (maybe that's why my wattage looks good?)  I look super-sexy on it!  If you like mooses.

That's some good updating.  I have a long weekend this weekend and need to do much work.  ugh.  Both on and off the bike.  double ugh.  I'm riding with coach D demain.  So that should be fun.  Hopefully TCTMJ will keep recovering and be fast enough to ride with me again soon.  Of course then I'll complain that he's too fast.  oh well.  This time change is nice for am riding, but I'm getting sleepy at 5.  Not good.  I also need to have a bit more fun.  I've fallen off the fun bandwagon.  All work and no play make L'orginal very cranky.  Yes, I consider riding my bike and dreaming up new test-cases for harm work.

More soon.

Supèr-Fantastique!

Here's what it looked like outside my place after I got home from my ride on Saturday. 

Panning from south-west to north-east:

Send thoughts of rain (I never thought I'd say that!)

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Supèr Mauvais

Links:

Hola!

I made it to Tucson.  It's nice here.  I could probably live here.  And there're several unis.  Hmmm....Anyways.  The drive was fine, albeit windy.  I listened to some really bad music, but that's nothing new.

Glicko and I went for a ride with our other XOOD teammate, Spring Clegg.  Coincidentally, her husband was the guy who loaned me a bike at Gila.  What a small world.  The ride was windy but fun. Then we went to the meeting.  Oh boy.  Chaos.  So many über-dorks all in one spot.  Glicko challenged me to a wattage test at the Carmichael Training Center booth.  I killed him.  I'll post video of that on Monday.

Glicko

L'Orignal

Here's the video blog for the day.  

NOTE:  There's some swearing.  Mom and Dad -- don't watch this ;)

Tomorrow:  wake up early and don't get killed by any squirrels.

Yay!

Ugh.  

Results:

Spring Clegg (XOOD) got 3rd or 4th. Congrats!

I got 7th or 8th.  Blah.

Jonathan Scholnick (XOOD) got 9th.  Fantastic!

Glicko got 13th.  GORAWNOW!!

XOOD had a great showing on both sides and I can now say that I have tasted it.  It's good!  You should try it too.

This was the most insane this I have ever done on a bicycle.  I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I'm not exaggerating.  We got there almost an hour before the start time and we were in the platinum section (the top starters) and we were still at least 200 back.  Even after I pulled the biggest elitist bitch move ever and walked, with my bike raised over my head, past about 400 people.  I was called many nasty names.  Sigh.  Then there were about 7 crashes in the first hour.  It was ridiculous.  Annie (who was awesome and met us at the start line to take our extra clothes and the finish line to give us vegan doughnuts.  THANKS!) took some video with my camera.  I'll post it on Monday and you'll be able to see the chaos.

VIDEO HERE

The race was ok.  I was way too tentative at the start and didn't move up enough or quickly enough, ultimately missing the first major selection and finishing with the second group.  I kept getting stuck behind crashes and got run into twice, but never went down (which is amazing in itself).  I rode the first wash and was riding through the second wash pretty well when the guy in front of me endo-ed.  That was my cue to get off and run.  I rode some through the middle of it and the ran up the last part.  Immediately after that was a decent climb and I got in with a group of 4 guys and we got a break that worked really well for a while. I met some cool guys, including a NOW rider and a USAF rider.  Do you know the motto for the West Point marathon team is "Invictus?"  Just like my tat.  Perhaps I should join

 I felt decent, although up until that point (around 50 miles) it was tough to suck in enough food amidst the chaos.  We ultimately got caught by a big group and then bridged up to another large group, thus forming the "second" group.  This was scary (although I did run into the guy from Collard Peccary from the 508 -- where was the cowbell?!?) Some of the people were riding with their hands ON the brakes and freaking out about everything.  Very few people would work and I took several turns at the front out of frustration (at least there I was away from danger).  

I'll never complain about doing a women's race again given a) the amount of sketchiness, and b) the amount of bitching i experienced in El Tour. I didn't participate in the sprint since I was worried about breaking a nail, or a collar bone, or a pelvis.  It was a good decision.

Here's the post race auto-interview:

 All in all:  It was good to build my character some more (ha) by doing what was essentially a crit on super EPO.  Will I do it again?  Hmmm.  It would be fun to win it, but only if I can convince TCTMJ to be my domestique ;)

Tonight:  Allegedly I'm supposed to go party.  But since I"m a lot like the person NY Bike Snob refers to here, I might skip  it. 

Yay!

I was totally not the coolest person there.

Tomorrow:  Glicko has arranged for me to get my miles in.  

Here's a pic of me coming around the final corner, 200m from the finish.  L'orignal is alive and well.

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Saturday I convinced some people that doing a 45 minute ride wasn't going to cut it, so Glicko, Jon from XOOD, and Emiliano and Jarned of and/or formerly of Colavita New Mexico went on a ride.

Before the ride, I warmed up on the micro:

Then we met for a pre-ride coffee (since I'm so pro) and I ran into a Tucson living legend:  The Grey Wolf.  He's got a seminal youtube interview here and here I am with him and his sub 12 pound (even with a half pound of glitter paint) bike:

After wasting half an hour at coffee, I got to go on the famous "Big Square" ride.  It's exactly how it sounds.  Two very exciting things happened:

1) I got to eat the "Big Square Brownie"

2) I saw the Sasquatch (photo from Glicko)

On our way to the post-ride coffee stop, Glicko did some OA style foraging:

It was a fantastic trip.  I hope to go back in January for some more "pro-style" training and lots of coffee.  Wait.  I think I might try a coffee detox over the next few days:  watch out for some snarkier-than-usual Cara.

Yay!

ps:  Glicko recommended this sight.  It's NSFW or my parents or relatives or anyone who for whatever reason thinks of me as a "proper" person.  I'm serious.  DON'T look at it if you don't like obscenity.