projects. and, adieu to 2009.

I'm in project mode. I'm always somewhat obsessed with setting a plan/pattern in front of myself and slowly accomplishing it. I think that's why I run marathons. So far, I'm 2 weeks in and 100% on the miles, which is pretty good considering the holidays. I ran tomorrow's 5 this AM since tomorrow morning I might not be in a state that's very welcoming to running.

For yet another long-term project, I ordered yarn to make this sweater, a Dale of Norway pattern (the blue one). This will be my third Dale sweater. I didn't realize it is kid and not baby sized, which means more time/work, but I'll get through. I think it's cute.

So, this is the end of 2009. I get to delete the "racing" section full of crappy results (and a few good ones) on the right and set it up with my racing plans for 2010. So far, I registered for the March Madness Half Marathon in Cary and for the Big Sur Marathon. Aside from that, I'll be dropping in dates for the usual MTB suspects- Crystal Ridge and Palos and Stump Farm maybe even Cheq again. I'm not horribly motivated right now. I'd rather be knitting.

the inbetween times.

Ben got a new camera last night. Prepare yourself for even more disgustingly cute photos of Molly.

A coworker came by my office today to share the news that Al, who sat next to me at our old location, was killed by police. I googled it and came up with this. He was an organizer, a super nice guy, always had something nice to say. I have a lot of trouble believing the police account of what happened. Either way, it's really, really sad.

So, here we are, somewhere between seasons and holidays, just lazing about. Ben's bikes are still sitting in their box. D-Pow shipped 'em on Amtrak for us - thanks! - and they arrived last week but I just haven't gotten together the energy for the proper wash-n-rebuild they need. I have 7 mos though, it can wait.

Running this AM was cold- 15 degrees according to the bank at the 2 mile mark. I'm still on program, though, and ran negative splits through today's 5 miler. These are the times when it gets hard just to get out of bed and into running clothes in the morning, but once the clothes are on, it's a done deal. Reading Ron's account of runner-insanity this morning, I sort of get it, but sort of don't. In my blood I'm still a cyclist. This is just what I do when it's too dark and icy out at 6am to safely ride.

a crappy way to start a long winter.

In the scheme of things, an 8 mile long run isn't very long. It should have been a complete breeze. But it wasn't. After heading out in cold gear, I went back in to change into my frickin' cold gear, including the sweet new jacket my sis n' bro got me. Once out there, there were two options: run in the salted, clear streets at the pace I should be running, or run on the sidewalks with 3-5" of snow accumulated, making it feel like running in sand and slowing me down nearly a minute a mile.

I started out on the road, but Molly was getting salt in her paws and we ended up stopping a few times to pick the salt out, so it ended up just as slow. So it was deep snow running instead, and it was hard, and it was slow.

Tell me again why I do this? Week one of 18. Oh, man.

I got lots of running stuff for xmas, incl new shoes, a new jacket, and new winter tights, so that makes things a little better. I just discovered, though, that Luna has discontinued the recovery beverage that I'm completely addicted to. I've spent the morning combing the internet for it, and found a few canisters, which I'll be apportioning out to make sure it lasts through May. Jerks.

Family is what it's all about.

Ben and I had the requisite bottle of champagne on Amtrak en route to visit my family in Milwaukee on Thursday. We spent two nights with them, the usual crazy big Christmas Eve dinner at the family house, and the German-restaurant Christmas day feast. Before Christmas day, though, 5 miles of hill repeats in Pewaukee, where I was surprised that I really still do have it.

I love my family. I love how the holidays bring us together.

Fun with Civil Liberties

I've talked about this before-- 7 years ago a critical mass was roped into a park and we all got arrested. I was held from about 10am Friday till Saturday afternoon about 2pm, first in a bus, then on a sidewalk, then overnight on a bus, then I watched the sunrise while sitting on a sidewalk, then tied wrist-to-ankle on a gymnasium floor for the last 8 hours.

The case settled last week. Finally. It's this odd ghost from 7 years ago that keeps popping up, but I'm so glad that it's been decided- what they did was wrong, and they have to pay for it. I'm not some crazy radical protest freak, I am just an American that did what we all have the right to do. Take that, the man. Power to the people.

Marathon v3.0 begins today

Unlike #1, where I was excited to do something I'd never done before, and marathon #2, where I sort of skated through, #3 is going to be somewhat challenging. Why?
1) I'm training for Big Sur, the hilliest marathon in the country, by running in Chicago, the least hilly place ever.
2) I'm trying to fold a decent amount of cycling in. Unlike #2's once-a-week, or #1's no cycling at all, for #3 I'm going to be doing 4 hours/week on trainer as part of an indoor class. That's pretty hefty, and forces the schedule to shuffle a little.
3) I for some reason chose Hal's Intermediate I, a training program that has only 1 rest day, and then added the cycling on top of that. Erm. It's easy to put this stuff on paper, it's a little harder to actually do it. Thanks to Bob for helping make this fit together, but it's still a pretty tall order. So, we'll give it a shot. If this is v3.0, v3.1 might be dropping one run a week, and there are ways to make v3.2 too, if I'm burning out. But why not shoot the moon?

So, I'm already running at 10:30 pace, no problem, which will get me to the 4:35 I wanted last year (before I got sick and puked during the marathon- no joke). BUT with those hills, who knows what will happen. My goal is to finish in the 6 hour time limit- I really hope that's not an issue, or I shouldn't even be trying- but be comfortable running a decent pace and be able to enjoy the scenery. Really, I'd like to come out of this in May with a fun race under my belt but better equipped for MTB season.

And so this morning the program started, on the shortest day of the year, with a soft dusting of snow hiding the ice on the sidewalks.

And there's a cold wind blowing. And there's a silver bell hanging.

Sometimes the randomness blows my mind.

Yesterday as I walked to work, I listened to "Neon Orange Glimmer Song" about three times, on repeat. (I seem to listen to this song a lot lately, its rhythm matches mine well.) I thought to myself that I haven't gotten much new music lately, and that I don't even know if my favorite artists have made new music.

At work, I searched my favorites: Mountain Goats, Magnetic Fields, Polyphonic Spree, I'm from Barcelona, etc. Interestingly enough, the Mountain Goats listed two shows upcoming, one that was THAT DAY in Chicago. Huh? A deeper look revealed an odd $15 tickets-at-the-door-only show as part of a Second City 24-hour fundraiser. Woah.

Ben picked me up at work for my "late lunch" (+some comp time) and we rolled up there. Second City was still performing on a teeny stage in front of an audience of about 50, and I sat there dumbfounded- are they really playing here? Sure enough, 2pm on the dot, John Darnielle takes the stage. No Peter, but it'll do!

Two rows back, I could see the plush purple lining of his guitar case as he pulled out his instrument and got to work. Two older songs. "Distant Stations." A break for Second City. An improv'd song about an old guy who still remembers bad things "she" said to him. Then he took requests. I jumped at it. And he played exactly the song I was addicted to that morning.

Then more requests- "Surrounded" from Moon Colony Bloodbath, "Southwood Plantation Road," sang a capella "Best House Guest" and played piano for a song I didn't recognize that was pry-your-heart-out-with-a-spoon emo.

Anyway, thought I'd share. How often do you trip across one of your favorite artists, in a small venue, day-of, for cheap, and get to request exactly the one song from his hundreds that you want to hear? Nice.

On the home front... 4 workouts in 36 hours, and I've dropped 4 of my "Athena" pounds. Things might work out ok, after all.

We've taken this thing national.

This is it, this is the end of the session. I won’t be taking any more questions, and I think my attorney will second that notion.

1. The Elite National Championship
2. But that’s not what really counted…
3. Wrapping it up with a bow.

Last year seemed so cut-and-dried. Go, go, go… try, try, try. Clean up the bikes, do the laundry, do it again. This year was different. With a month off from traveling in November, and with me actually lining up to race a few times, my focus was pretty scattered. I admit I didn’t try nearly as hard this year. But things worked out anyway, and it was more fun for me.

The Elite National Championship
Sunday’s “big dance” was pretty visible from the pit. With his eleventh row start expectations were low, but the first time past the pit, Ben had moved up from his eighty-eighth position into the fifties- an amazing feat. He just kept battling it out until he was nearly up to where (I believe) he should have been, though I could see the riders near him were making passing difficult.

Officials were very aggressive in pulling people, and nearly 40 riders had been pulled into the pit by 40 minutes in. (Sidenote—can’t they find somewhere else to put pulled riders? They totally got in the way.) Time was ticking for Ben, and I let him know it. He was about 1/3 lap ahead of the lead riders but the race staff was taking no chances, and next time by he was pulled with 2 to go. I have no doubt he could have made up a few places had he gotten his proper 60 minutes, and realistically they could have left him out there another half lap without getting caught, but it was a good ride. It also meant that he never got to the part of the race where he starts slapping his ass and blowing kisses as he rides by the pit- my favorite part. No mechanicals. In the end, just 33 of the 120+ starters finished on the lead lap, and course on the bell lap looked eerily empty.

The only interesting thing I saw from the pit featured a cast of 6 in matching black Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld jackets. The announcer said that Powers had gone down hard. Soon, someone radioed in that Powers needed a bike. Indeed, Powers rode past the pit entrance and shouted “I need a bike!” The Giant team guys next to me laughed and said, “Well, you shoulda come get one, you only have two more bikes and six people here for ya.”

We all had a larf at that one, but Stu had a smile on his face. I heard someone in his crew quietly say, “That was smart of him. The other side of the pit is downhill and way faster.” Powers knew better than to lose seconds on the uphill side of the pit. Aha.

But that’s not what really counted…
I can say without a doubt, though, that the trip was far more rewarding off the course—meeting new friends and hanging out with folks we haven’t seen in a year or more, catching up and participating in the general tomfoolery for which this sport is known. Late nights in the hot tub, afternoons drinking and heckling on the pre-ride, 2x4 jenga, Boob Scotch, ocho ocho, and destroyer-driven entertainment. The Heenans are now our BFFs and are without a doubt the best people on earth that we could have ever done this trip with. And finally meeting Ben’s HRS/Rock Lobster teammates proved that we are quite fortunate to be in such amazingly good company. Oh, Lyne, here's (NSFW) one of what you've been searching for. And just for the record, I am likely to re-introduce myself to Myerson again and again, so let’s stop counting, eh?

(Photo: Andrew Lorente) I’m so glad I did that silly race on Saturday night, I wish I had been more sober to remember it. I mean, I was so drunk, I MISSED THE HANDUPS. WTF? I did take what looked like a plastic fork, and then thought to myself, what do I do with this? And then threw it away. (I wonder if it had Nutella on it, as the spoon I was offered later had?) Either way, it’s this mysterious part of my memory that involves lots of shouting, heckling, lights, beers, fogged-up glasses, and even a few pats on the ass while riding. I have to say the decibel levels topped CrossVegas without a doubt. I do remember that the people at the barriers were offering me the same heckles I dolled out earlier in the day, and it made me laugh till I missed a remount. It made the weekend super memorable for me, and I now have a title, and that’s pretty cool, even if it is a complete joke. And I got to actually ride the course, which I never get to do at these events.

Wrapping it up with a bow…
More than anything, Ben’s racing is a team effort, and we are grateful for all the help we get, in whatever form it comes. Being part of a real team for the first time, we really felt supported on this trip. Paul Sadoff is an amazing, fun, awesome guy with such great stories to tell, I wish we could have spent more time with him. His support of Ben’s racing has really made all of this possible, we can’t thank him enough. It took seeing the HRS/Rock Lobsters in action to sort of grasp what he’s built—truly a legacy of support for CX from the 6th year of his team dominating the CA CX scene to the sheer number of Rock Lobster frames speeding around the course under riders from all over the place. We are very, very lucky to be part of this crew, even if we rarely get to roll with them.

But this season’s cast of characters is too big for this small space. We thank the sponsors whenever we can, but the humans who helped don’t get a space on the kit but mean just as much. Ben benefited from John "Spud" Hattin's, Ryan Bontrager’s, and Mike Heenan’s mechanical help this season—stand-up guys who are always ready to help and don’t treat me like an idiot for asking. Traveling with Team Poppnan p/b Hemme was a hoot, and having Jessica Heenan around for some drinkin’ and sanity when the boys got all bikey made this trip superfun. Probably without knowing it, My Wife Inc was one of the greatest supporters we had this season, always at the races we were at with a tent and tools and a poorly placed “bathroom.” Thanks also to our housing hosts- Amber and Jason in Madison, Zach’s Mom in Cinci, Greg’s Aunt in Louisville, Cheryl and Richard in Portland (and Wes in Toronto, who took good care of Ben though I missed it). And Dad for watching Molly, of course.

What a dizzying adventure.

Now, the calm… I can finally catch up with my friends in town. One week till marathon training starts for me. In the meantime, best overhaul those bikes in time for the New Jersey State Fair, just seven months away. And maybe a little off-season viewing.

I am the Athena Cyclocross Champion of the Universe.

(photos: Amy) Oh, my stars. I don't remember much about what happened last night, but I do remember that I raced on this stupid frozen rutted course and lots of people watched. A few people said "are you from Illinois?" I didn't get that. Some people said "That's Ben Popper's wife." They were slightly smarter than the Illinois people.

Collecting the stuff for the race was a comedy of errors. I was really not very sober and Ry was helping me collect stuff, and I'm surprised I remembered a bike. I ended up riding with no battery pack for my helmet light, but whatever. The bar light worked.

I honestly thought I was going to fall on my head and die or puke. I did neither. I wiped out three times on the pre-ride though, once so hard that Ben wanted to 'inspect' the helmet I was borrowing. Another woman, Mary, rode behind me for half a lap but wasn't as bold on that malicious downhill as I was - probably because she was more sober. I did beat Santa though, and a handful of other people. Icy stairs, mad rutted icy off-camber downhill, it was all just really stupid. But fun. Stupid fun.

Thanks to Ry and Rock Lobster for hooking up the loaner bike! Super light, tubulars... compared to what I'm used to "racing" on it was like a dream.

I forgot my race number on the table at the bar. Here's what it looked like:

Today, my head hurts.

Bend: a whole lot to love.

Bend reminds me a lot of Bozeman. It's up there, in the clouds, and people care about hippie crap like drinking organic coffee and there are fancy pants stores for the rich people and tourists, but really, it's built on a bedrock of hard, normal-people jobs, and it's cold. Also, it's the home to lots of good beer, which I have begun to and will continue to use to slowly poison my liver and/or put on some extra 'off season' weight- the offseason ending just a week from today, so surely i'm going to regret it more than just once...

This morning were the B races, which were some reason made "open" so that true B-racers who paid thousands of dollars to get their selves and bikes to the biggest race of their season could get lapped early and pulled by people who really aren't B's. Why did USAC set it up that way, allowing riders with UCI licenses to contest B's? Makes no sense. Either way, Mike, a true B, raced and had a crap start position but was picking people off pretty solidly, but then took a tough fall and DNF'd, spending a short time in the first aid tent. And someone stole his $150 Vermarc tights. Who does that? Craptastic.

Later in the day was Paul Sadoff's Masters race. We had spent a little time in the beer tent and were enjoying heckling on the barriers and were seriously looking forward to this race. It did not disappoint, particularly because Richard Sachs and Paul came through TOGETHER on the first lap. For the rest of the race, the two framebuilders-- the two most influential builders in the sport, East and West-- were trading places. In the end, the Rock Lobster bested the Richard Sachs, but it was the coolest race to watch.

After that we ate some, drank some, dropped Ben off to chase trains and retired to the hot tub with the Heenans. (see note above about hating the new additional weight) Naturally Ben showed up and jumped in the way he always does. Sitting in an outdoor hot tub at ten degrees, watching the steam rise... it ain't so shabby. Follow that with a big group Rock Lobster team dinner, and it's a good day.

Seriously, though, it's all exhausting. We all have something we want to do or somewhere we want to be at all times, and it sort of piles up and leaves me exhausted by 10pm. Which is the time now. OK, 10:15 or so.

PDX

sorry, been really busy with really important stuff. like:
- Bloody Mary runs
- Coffee
- Donuts
- Beer
- More of the above
- Delicious veggie food

I'm sitting now in the Lair Hill Market, which is owned by Cheryl and Richard, our housing hosts. They live upstairs of their cafe, so we're sort of staying in a cafe. Saturday night our hosts suggested we make pizza, so the group took over the closed cafe, using the cafe's kitchen and drinking from the draft beers. How freaking amazing is that?

Oh yeah, we raced last weekend. Ben was 31st and 34th. Paul has been taking really, really good care of us this week- and took some photos too. Saturday there was mud and some washing and running, both days bikes came into the pit because the orwhgjkerhk front skewer on his a-bike keeps loosening itself. (replacing that this week!) Spud in DC is shipping new teflon cables to Ben for us too, which will be nice.

Rollin' deep this week with Jessica and Mike Heenan. Good times abound!

it's back.

this morning, i had a plan in my head to run up Connecticut through Adams Morgan, over the bridge, up to the Zoo, then down to Rock Creek and take the trail down to P, heading East on P back to the hotel. It was hilly. And it was way longer than I anticipated, so I came up from Rock Creek at Connecticut Ave instead and took the diagonal back, but still 6 mi. Wow! After an ouchy 9mile week (total!) last week, I'm 20 miles in this week, and I feel strong. The hills were slow, but the legs are there, and I'm getting over it all. Onward.

I like running through the zoo, but it's hard. It's one big, long hill that hurts either way you do it- up or down. Rock Creek was full of people RUNNING TO WORK. How odd is that? Backpacks full of work clothes and all.

Yesterday I ran up to 18th & Columbia, then down to U, back up to Columbia on Ontario, down 16th, up 15th... just up and down the hill.

Anyway, tomorrow I fly to PDX. Enough of these long hours of torturous powerpoint in windowless rooms. I need some mud.