a turtle on wheels

And I doubled up... Charm City Cross!

2012-09-25T12:59:00.000-04:00

Or better said, I tried to, but was only partially successful.

Anyways. Let’s start from the very beginning (why do I always think of the “sound of music” when I say that?). As I had decided after the suffer-fest and the assorted pains and aches all over my body that resulted from the first CX race, nothing that was going to stop me from racing the following weekend… NOTHING… NOTHING… NOTHING except for, goddammit, work. Ugh. Two deadlines magically appeared on my calendar for Monday, which meant I dorked my entire weekend in front of the laptop while staring longingly at my bike. Sigh. Sometimes I hate being a grown-up.
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It has begun… Tacchino Cyclocross!!

2012-09-11T00:30:00.000-04:00

Every single muscle in my body hurts, I have bruises on my shoulder, forearm, legs and I think there is a bottom bracket imprinted on my lower back. Ouch. IT’S CYCLOCROSS SEASON, BABY!!!! And the first race was Tacchino CX at the beautiful Rosaryville State Park this last Sunday.
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Dawg Days of Summer

2012-08-21T23:46:00.000-04:00

And, the last race of the year turned out to be my first. Go figure. I spent the entire season riding, not ever “training” and always avoiding races… I did semi-decide to race a couple of times, but always something more “important” such as 100 degrees days, a trip to Shenandoah, or my total lack of desire to get up at an ungodly hour got in the way.
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Infographic: How bikes can save the world!

2012-01-02T14:11:00.000-05:00

Had to share...

Created by: Healthcare Management Degree

Bonking to de-blob

2011-12-11T13:40:00.001-05:00

About two or three months ago, I started noticing that my clothes were fitting a bit too tight, and even my upgraded bras were kind oh, hmmmm, overflowing. Soooooo, being as pretentious as I am, I got worried.

I decided to face the truth. I stepped on the evil, dreaded, and always truth-telling scale. And I had a moment….. A HOLY FUCKING SHIT moment… Yes, it was THAT bad. I had never seen those obscene numbers before. And, of course, pretentious girl over here completely and absolutely freaked out.
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No pain, no gain

2011-11-03T21:56:00.000-04:00

As I may or may not have conveyed earlier, I kinda really really hate using the trainer. Yet, I am complete cold wimp. It’s a conundrum. So, the question of every fall season comes up again, what am I to do to train now that it’s getting cold outside?

I keep hearing about people’s adoration for rollers. Well, maybe not exactly adoration, riding outside in nice weather is always better. But, compared to the trainer, rollers apparently are some sort of a heavenly invention.

If by any chance, you don't know what the hell rollers are, well, they are some sort of a treadmill for bikes. Here is a pic:

Addicted

2011-05-04T17:05:00.011-04:00

Houston, I have a problem: I am addicted to bikes.

Or maybe it is not a problem, not a bad one anyways. But I am. Ok, let’s face it: there are worse things to be addicted to.

The evidence:

(1) I have 5 bicycles, which are not that many by *some* of my friends’ standards (not naming any names here!). But I always want more, can convince myself I *need* more, and I can’t imagine letting go of any of the ones I currently have… As someone said in a Facebook post last weekend: "Correct numbers of bikes is n+1, with n=to the number of bikes you currently own."

Grrrrrr…. Bunny Hop

2011-05-01T13:26:00.009-04:00

I am grumpy, cranky, pissy and downright in a really bad mood. That race did not go well. It is actually very simple: I raced 5-6 laps, had an asthma attack, and ta-daaaaaa, I was out. What else is new.

The day did not start in its best foot either. You see, I have these neighbors that, despite being married, the wife is the prototype of the cranky grumpy old maid and he is a schmuck. And they do not like dogs; they are actually the only people in this block who do not have any sort of critters to look after (critters being any kind of pet or children). And I have the good luck of having them living right next to me. Yay. So, they judge me, they bug me, and since they do not have a life, they mess with mine. So, this morning, when I was putting my bike on the roof rack, the bitch comes running to tell me that "YOUR DOGS WERE BARKING LATE LAST NIGHT!! I HEARD THEM AT 7PM!!! AND XX (the schmuck) GOES TO BED EARLY AND THEY DON'T LET HIM SLEEP!"... 7 pm... REALLY?!? I mean, how bad is she in bed that the poor schmuck feels compelled to go to sleep at 7 pm on a Saturday?!?

The good news is that I got that non-elusive first crash of the season out of the way

2011-04-22T00:36:00.009-04:00

Every year, every season, there is always that one first bike crash looming on the horizon, almost like a rite of passage, that every cyclist has to get out of the way. Well, the good news is that I got that non-elusive first crash out of the way yesterday. The bad news is that #!#$%&^$@!! headache I’ve had all day today, and the 5 hours that I spent in the %%$@#$!!&^!! ER last night.

And it was a stupid crash. Oh, so very stupid. Somebody needs to give me a stupidity prize for it: I actually run into a car. Yes. *I* hit the car. From behind. Guess who won.

The thing is I should have not been riding yesterday, as I had a bit of food poisoning and not feeling quite hot. But I am addicted. And as a good addicted, and one feeling pretty out of shape to top, I *had* to go train. So I did.

I started riding in some sort of autopilot mode, in a fog, not really paying attention to my surroundings and just pedaling. I’d be fine, I thought, as disaster could strike only if something out of the ordinary that needs quick reaction happens, but that is never the case, right? RIGHT? Shuddup.

The first lap at Hains Point went ok. The second lap was better. The third lap…. Well, this is when trouble started. My asthma kicked in, and I slowed down, was coughing and looking down (First rule of riding bikes, kids, always ALWAYS keep an eye on the road). Then that Illinois minivan decided to stop in the middle of the road, go figure out why. And I was looking down. When I finally looked up, it was too close and personal for comfort.

I did not have time to brake or swerve to the side. So I got plastered in its back. Laws of physics apply: action, reaction and gravity, and they did not like me too much yesterday. So, I bounced back falling and hitting the back of my head on the curb (second rule of riding bikes, kids, always ALWAYS wear a helmet, no matter how much it messes up your hair and how dorky you look. It is always better to be a lively dork than a stylish tardy or, worse, a stylish corpse). Sometime during my crash (which I have not been able to fully reconstruct), I also managed to make a big gash on my chin that required stitches along with assorted hits to the rest of my body that made no sense whatsoever. Oh, well.

I strongly refused an ambulance and tried to sneak out on my bike to ride to my car, drive to my house and hide under my bed while hugging my dogs. I was utterly unsuccessful in my sneaking out efforts. At this moment my friend and teammate LP appeared and turned into my guardian angel. I am sure I saw wings on her back at some point. We found someone who could drive my car to the GW ER (seriously, I think more people need to know how to drive stick) and off we went.

Once we got to the ER, we discovered that "I hit my head and neck on a bike crash" are the secret magic words to be seen right away. But they do not help much when you just want to go home. We spent 5 wonderful hours there, with me wearing that horrendous collar along with my boobs, bra and jersey all bloodied and both of us starving to death. We spent our time talking about bikes, crashes past, present and future, scars, men (we were absolutely shocked of not seen ANY cute doctors around, WHERE WERE THEY?), and mostly daydreaming of pizza, hamburgers and beer.

The head and neck CTs said that I am ok, just a small concussion (remember that helmet!), and not any crazier than usual. I also got some pretty cool stitches on my chin that will make me look tough and will hopefully make for a sexy scar.

An observation from our long ER hours, apparently two women walking like ducks on stiff cycling shoes and wearing the same spandex outfit on an ER can turn into some sort of celebrities (or maybe just a tourist attraction or something like that). Both of us overhead few conversations about us and riding bikes, and were asked questions about it and about clipless pedals. We were even called professional cyclists. HA! If they really knew... Also, we took pics (hey, those were *5* LONG hours), and upon sharing them on Facebook I have discovered that, apparently, the pic of me with a neck brace, a bloody bra, a bloody cleavage and a bloody jersey is considered hot by other cyclists. Go figure. Cyclists are weird (no, I am not complaining).

Oh, well. I’ll be back on my bike tomorrow as some magical premonition led me to buy a helmet online last week that arrived YESTERDAY. Talk about timely.

I also ordered and additional helmet today. It is good to be prepared. Now I need to get ready for that second crash of the season...

Hellooooooooo

2011-04-18T14:34:00.002-04:00

Hi y’all. C here. And as you probably already suspect, this is my first post.

So what is this about? This is about all things cycling, including training, racing, commuting adventures and most likely misadventures (and let’s face it, misadventures are usually much more entertaining and fun than things always going peachy), and all of it from my very self-centered perspective (don’t you love me already?).

Now, just so you know, as much as I love bikes, I kinda suck at it. This season is my attempt to get back at racing after a failed attempt about 6 years ago. In the meantime I kept riding, with a couple of attempts at racing, although nothing real was accomplished due mostly to lack of time for training and health reasons. But this season I decided to find the time and invested in a fancy new bike with fancy new wheels and other fancy stuff to use as commitment devices. And I will let you know here all about how this thing goes.

What else? Well, I am fairly disorganized and unstructured, so this cycling blog will probably be sprinkled with dogs (as I have two adorable German shepherd monsters), and I simply don’t seem to be capable of keeping any part of my life separated from dogs (be them mine or random beasts) anyways. It will also have some health spicing as my asthma tends to interfere with many of my bike adventures, especially those of competitive nature and are a great source of misadventures and self-deprecation. Some side dishes may be a bit of economics (professional deformation), politics, religion (or lack-of-thereof), Chile (my home country), and I am sure I’ll find some more stuff to add to the cooking.

But it will mostly be about bikes, because I love bikes, big part of my life revolves around bikes, and I just love talking bike.