3 Day Breast Cancer Walk

Received a text message at 0603 this morning, what the hell? I thought I was the only crazy person up at this hour. Nope, it was Margeaux; she could not sleep and wanted to know when I could be ready to ride. We texted back and forth, the marvels of modern technology, for about 20 minutes then I crawled out of bed and got the coffee pot started. I thought it was much too early to call Julie our other riding companion for the day but Margeaux said Julie was "a morning freak like you" but in any case I waited until 0700 to call.  

Lash and I went outside; Lash to pee and me to stand on the deck with my coffee and assess the day. It was a nice chilly morning, just the way I like it. I huddled with my cup of steaming hot coffee made from the finest Ethiopian, the birthplace of coffee, beans; freshly ground this morning. I then got online with Margeaux and we instant messaged each other until 7 when I called Julie. 

So I have Julie on the phone and Margeaux on IM, this just ain't right; it's way too early in the morning to be multitasking. By the time we figure everything out it's 0730 and we're burning daylight. I want to go to Black Bear Crossing in Como Park for breakfast so the plan is that Julie will leave her house at 0815 and ride to my house we will then ride to Lake Como and eat breakfast. Margeaux will meet us there. Whew, we have a plan.

0817 and Julie is in the front yard. I toss on some riding gear, grab my helmet, shoes, gloves and camelback and head out the door.  

The idea for the day was to ride along the route of the 3 Day Breast Cancer walkers and cheer them on. Margeaux, Julie and I each know people who were participating and we wanted to lend our support.

Julie and I head west on Hoyt Ave then turn South to Arlington and west again to Lake Phalen, we followed the Lake south to Wheelock Pkwy and turned west. We followed Wheelock Pkwy to Lake Como. A wonderful ride and a nice hill climb just after 35 E, which justified the cherry turnover I added to my egg and cheese croissant I ate for breakfast. 

Margeaux arrived at Como and the three of us took off heading North on Lexington Ave. Just after crossing interstate 694 we started seeing the first 3 Day walkers. We hooted, hollered and cheered them on. We continued on Lexington to County Rd E then rode East to Victoria where we made a pit stop to visit with the 3 Day walkers. Just as we decided to leave the area and continue North on Victoria my friend Loafy arrived. It was great to be able to see her and wish her luck on the rest of her walk. 

We headed North on Victoria, Julie took over the lead as we were off my map and I don't know that area too well. We continued North to Snail Lake Blvd and followed that East, what a great road. We saw lots of dogs, must have been a retriever convention or something, they were everywhere. We followed Snail Lake Blvd for a while then made a stop to decide on the rest of our journey. We grabbed the first street heading South and stayed on it until we got back on County Rd E where we turned West again. We caught up with the walkers on County Rd E and cheered them on. 

Margeaux and I stopped at a sub shop for lunch and Julie continued on home, poor girl had chores to do on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. After lunch Margeaux and I headed South on Victoria and followed the walkers turning West onto County Rd D, then South on Lexington Ave. We stopped at the Lake Josephine cheering station for a minute then continued South on Lexington. At Roselawn Margeaux and I parted ways, she heading back to Mpls and me heading home. I followed Roselawn East to Reservoir Woods Park where I followed the path through the woods. This is one of my favorite paths, its short but sweet. The route spits you out near McCarrons Lake, I followed the Blvd to Rice St. 

I again caught up the the 3 Day walkers, the last Cheering station was on Rice Street. I cheered on the walkers for a bit then followed Trout Brook Co. Trail to Arlington where I rode East to the Gateway Trail. I passed a lot of walkers along the way as this was the same route they were walking. I followed the Gateway Trail to White Bear Ave. where I zig zagged my way around Goodrich golf course, nearly getting hit by a golf ball. I think it scared the guy who hit it more than me. I told him better luck next time :) I arrived back home a little past 1330. Ahhh what a nice day for a ride. The weather was picture perfect. I have no idea how far I rode but it sure was a nice day.  

Perfect days for riding

This has been the best week for riding; the weather has been perfect. Tuesday I went for a road ride, Wednesday a mountain bike ride, Thursday is yoga day and today I rode my mountain bike to cheer on the 3day walkers. Tomorrow I have a road ride planned and it looks like another fantabulous day! I cannot wait to get out and enjoy it. I am also planning a Fall colors tour. The leaves are starting to change, the temperature is dropping and I can smell the backyard bonfires burning. Fall in Minnesota, I doesn't get any better. 

Short and Fat

or as Tara says, the Short and Smart. We were up and out of the Lodge early, packed up the van and headed to Cable. We put our bikes in the line up then headed off for some breakfast, we landed great starting spots. About 0900 I got dressed to ride and started warming up. The weather was mild a little chilly but not bad, the sky was overcast a perfect day for a ride. At least in my opinion, overcast days are better than sunny days in the woods. 

At about 0945 we located our bikes and prepared to ride! I met a super nice guy standing next to me, he has been racing a number of years and was going to race this year on a cycle cross bike.  I wish I had gotten his number so I could see how he did. 

1000 the gun goes off, I clip in and off I go. I knew from last year that I needed to pace myself in the beginning so I will have enough energy to finish. Goal #1 finish the race. Within the first couple miles I had to go around 4 crashes, one looked pretty bad, lots of people down. The first 3 miles are on the Randysek Rd, paved for a short distance then packed earth, rocks and gravel, and a continuous climb. I experienced a nasty cramp in my right leg that lasted a couple miles, I think until my muscles were sufficiently warmed up. It may have helped me in keeping my pace a little slower. We then turned left into the forest and started our journey to the finish line. The ride was excellent, it had rained most of the day on Thursday so the ground was packed, most of the sandy patches were in good shape and posed no problems for me. The only issues I encountered were downed riders and wet grass. It seemed like there were a lot of crashes on this ride. 

Big Bertha defeated me again :(  I will ride that hill someday and where I got the idea that it was a giant pile of wood chips I do not know for Big Bertha was no pile of wood chips she was a full on big ass grassy hill.  And the biggest problem for me was that there was no down hill to get momentum. You do go down a short hill but have to make a hard right turn in wet grass before you start to climb Bertha. I only saw one guy make it up her.  I took a break at the top to catch my breath and wash down an Accel Gel, which works much better for me than Gu. I jumped back on my bike and had a great down hill cruise.  I have to say my bike kicks serious ass on the down hills. There was one woman whom I played tag with through out most of the race, she would catch me on the up hills and I would pass her on the down hills. Fortunately she was not in my age group so she really was not the competition and I beat her to the finish line.

Big Bertha is at about the halfway point in the race and I was feeling pretty good, I had made it up all the other hills and was still feeling pretty strong. Around about mile 12 my right knee started to throb, not a good sign. I thought hell, there's only 4 more miles I can do this, just slow down a bit and keep pedaling. The pain went away and I had a great ride to the finish. There were some sections of this ride I really loved and some sections I hated but all in all I really enjoyed it.  I had a couple near crashes, a guy in the beginning of the race shoved me over into another rider and we almost crashed and I hit a big rock coming around a corner that almost toppled me, but I held on the kept on riding.  I met 4 out of 5 of my goals, I finished the race and knocked a tiny bit of time off last years time, almost 1 minute. I had hoped to knock off more time but I am happy with my ride. 

I don't know if I can convince Tara to ride with me again next year. She had a couple crashes one that threw her off her bike. I'll have to try to convince others to do it. And if I don't get into this ride next year then I am most definitely going to do the Ore 2 Shore race in Michigan. It would be great to do both races. 

I do have to give props to the Cable Nature Lodge, an excellent place to stay. I will for sure go back there. I would love to go back next Spring and/or Summer, stay there and do some riding. I have to figure out how to get up Big Bertha. It will happen. She is going down!

Oh let's not forget

The bikes!

Karen's proud steed
Tara's proud steed

Too tired to write, here's some pictures

Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival 2008

The starting gate
Tara's game face
Karen's game face
Finish line
The best part, ice cold 1554 the enlightened black ale...

Friday's Pre-Ride

Tara 

Karen because Tara told me to
Things to come

Getting ready for Chequamegon

I love it my registration card says "short and fat women" what are they trying to tell me??? The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival is this weekend. I have really been looking forward to this, I only hope I am ready for it. My game plan for this summer was to concentrate on mountain biking but as they say "make plans but don't plan on your plans." I've done more road riding this summer than I think I have done my entire life. It's just so much easier to find people to road ride than mountain bike but in any case I've been on my mountain bike and if I remember, the race is mostly fire roads so my road riding should be helpful.  

My goals this year:

1. finish the race

2. finish the race

3. climb big bertha

4. finish the race

5. get a better time than last year

Tara and I plan to take off on Thursday and head to Cable, we are staying at the Cable Nature Lodge and from the website it looks super nice. The Festival starts on Friday with a number of events; Chequamegon Area Mountain Biking Association (CAMBA) trail tours, a pasta feed, Trek factory demo tour and Tech service and a Sponsor and Vendor expo. I know I plan to take full advantage of it all. Last year we did not have time to pre-ride the course so this year I plan to ride the entire course on Friday. Take it nice and slow, get some pictures and hopefully figure out how to get up Big Bertha (a gigantic mound of wood chips). 

Last year we were able to make some great jersey purchases, everything $10; I am hoping to be able to find some long sleeve jerseys and if I'm lucky some cold weather gear.  

Tara and I will be competing in the Short & Fat cross country mountain bike race on Saturday, September 13, 2008. The race starts on Randysek Road in Cable WI at 10 am and finishes at Telemark Resort 15 miles away. 

Thanks to hitting the big 45 this year I will be racing in a different age category, I don't know if this is a good thing or not but maybe there wont be as many old ladies riding and I can get a higher ranking in my age group:)

St. Paul Classic Bike Tour

The alarm went off at 0600 and there was no way I was feeling like getting out of bed. I was up too late last night and inhaled way too much smoke yesterday. I had visited a kitchen fire at the neighbors, then went to a bonfire in the evening and ended with a party in the trailer where there were a lot of smokers so needless to say my lungs were not feeling very good this morning.  All I wanted to do was turn over and go back to sleep but I had made a commitment and people were expecting me so I gave myself a pep-talk and crawled out of bed and into a hot shower. 

I was feeling much better after the hot shower, I threw on some biking clothes loaded my bike and gear into the car and off I went to Val and Tara's house. I arrived at their house around 0730, got my bike and gear together and the three of us rode to the University of St. Thomas to meet Gordy and begin our ride. After registering we met Gordy and filled ourselves with delicious treats. I had the most fantastic cranberry sweet bread, I had to go back for seconds. 

We started the ride a wee bit past 0830. The four of us opted for the 30 mile route which took us along the Mississippi River to downtown St. Paul and the long climb up to a magnificent panorama at Indian Mounds Park where we made our first stop. This time it was cookies and bars! From here we followed Johnson Pkwy to Lake Phalen and along Wheelock Pkwy to Como Lake where we enjoyed a lakeside rest stop. If you choose to do this ride, this is the stop you don't want to miss as they have the best coffee!  It's provided by Black Bear Crossings, which is one of my favorite places for breakfast when I'm out on a morning ride. We relaxed a bit at Como, enjoyed the coffee, snacks (more cookies) and music then continued on and finished the ride back at St. Thomas.  

We encountered a little rain when leaving Como Park but it quit pretty quick. Once we arrived at St. Thomas were hit with a big downpour.  Val, Tara and I tried to wait it out under a tree, Gordy was already in route to his house but we grew tired of waiting and decided just to ride in the rain. It was really chilly willy but their house is only a couple miles from the University and by the time we arrived the rain had quit.  

We trudged into the house, changed out of our wet clothes then headed to my all time favorite pizza place... you guessed it, Pizza Luce! mmmmmmm I had been thinking of the garlic the entire ride. The food was delicious as always and afterwards I dropped Val and Tara off at their place and drove on home.  This was a very nice ride always one of my favorites. A nice easy casual Sunday morning ride and it was made all the more better by being able to share it with good friends.  

St. Paul Classic

New Saddle, New Helmet

Happy day for me.  Yesterday I was finally able to get out on my mountain bike to check out the new saddle; it is very nice, my butt is happy. Today I picked up my new helmet which matches my bike and then my friend Tara and I went down to Harmon Park for a ride. It was a lot of fun, I had only been there once before so I was not sure what to expect.  Tara had never been there so I had to lead the way. We actually made it through the entire course without getting misplaced.  We had the Park to ourselves, it was great. Oh, wait I take that back we did meet a woman and her dog, and towards the end a guy with his kid crossed paths with us, but we were pretty much done by then. It was a very fun ride, we plan to head back again later this week. The best part is the Park is only about 15/20 minutes from our houses so it's easy to get a ride in after work. 

Tara and I will be doing the Chequamegon Fat Tire race together in a couple weeks. In the mean time we plan to ride as much as possible. I've been feeling a little burnt out lately so I really need to kick it into high gear and start eating better. No more beer until after the race.