Fredly swappings

Look! The solution to the rookie mark

Lets just get this Monday over with

It is only 7:30 and I am seriously contemplating getting ready for bed.

And not the sexy kind of bed with candles on the nightstand and Portishead playing in the background, but the nigh-nigh kind of bed, with my big fluffy comforter and the lights OUT.

Sleep...its been far too elusive lately.


~~~

So this picture of Page totally makes me smile.

Remember that cross worlds podium pic, back in...crap when was that 2000? When DeClerq was full on crying and Nys looked morose...and Groenendaal was just a grinning away through each and every one of those dutch teeth? I have no idea why I was thinking of that, ...but a Belgian has won the Men's cross worlds every year since then.


~~~


We're headed down to Solvang next weekend. But I swear, its not because of this



or this




really.


Honey...get the candles.

Sundays with Jen- the aftermath

Sunday afternoons are meant for washing all the road grime out of your hair, drinking a beer and not moving any more than you possibly have to.

I wonder if I can get the shower moved up here to the chair, because going up and down stairs is a bit ambitious right now.

Go Fast Fun

Got this from Gill.

The team relay event is as fun as it gets. And check out the spanky flyer.

Peak Season Cyclocross

Tilt a Whirl

Today is one of those days where I wish I could bring my kitty to work.

Or maybe stay home with the kitty. That sounds better.

I don't even know why I am here today. I'm pretty much useless. Just staring at the screen opening emails, reading them only halfway through before stumbling over to some spreadsheets and sort of staring at them, wondering then wandering, ignoring the phone, smiling at people who walk in and ask stupid questions when I want to yell "does it really matter?"

Does it?

I want to ride my bike. I want to fall into his arms. I want to know. I want to hug her.

And I don't want to be here.

Shiny lights

Ninjas...so hot right now.

So, tonight at work, I totally burnt my popcorn. Like bad. Bad bad. Where it congealed into a ball of black unrecognizable smoldering crumble crap.

It stunk up the whole place and almost set off fire alarms.

I ran the bag out the nearest door, leaving a waft of acrid smoke in my cubicle wake.

And once I got it outside, I couldn't find a trash can anywhere. And I couldn't just leave it there, all litter like. So I stashed it in my car until I got off work.

2 wrongs do not make a right.
I still smell like burnt.

Whatever.


I hope they don't ban popcorn at work now.

The State of Denial Address

Whats the measuring cup for? Well, its what I used to measure out my ration of wine last night. Because I can fool myself so easily. For instance, if I pour one glass, drink it, and then keep refilling it but only about a quarter full, its still somehow only one glass.

Last night it was exactly 4oz. Not a (sigh) drop more.

Bugger.

I'm not very disciplined (and no Marscat, this is not the blog about it). I'm not. If I've ever been fast it was only because I like to ride my bike a lot. But I don't like the training so much.

I know some who LOVE the training. LOVE the suffering.

Uhh...no.

Don't get me wrong, I love to work. Just not suffer. German work ethic is all part of my wiring. I will climb a hill all damn day with a 40 pound weight on my back while pulling a sack of potatoes if I have to. Thats not suffering, thats just work.

But ask me to sprint when there's no one sprinting next to me, or go hard on a flat when there's no one to chase, or to climb a hill really hard over and over again just because.....ugh.

And this year I am so excited about the team. We have a great mix of exuberant untapped youth and experienced, smart strength. The vibe is one of maturity, but with a childlike love of the sport. And I want very much to race with them.

And I want very much to race with Laura again. I don't think we've had the time to train and race together since we started the team. Which is of course ironic considering why we started the team.

And after seeing how fast they all are and how much Laura is training (don't let her fool you, girl knows how to train!), I also know I have some work (sigh...and some suffering) to do.

So I'm going to order me up a heart rate monitor (click here if you have an opinion on a good one). And I'm going to go fast until the monitor explodes, and I'm going to sprint as if Kyle is coming up on my left, and I'm going to pretend my honey is at the top of each hill waiting to smooch me.

And then I get to play.

Chill Out

I guess its my turn to blog and give our much loved main bella queen blogger a break, I am really too busy to blog much so you get whatever pops into my brain that day...no draft, some daft. Lately I'm becoming obsessed with training again. I've taken a sort of hiatus from structured training but somehow got pulled into the oolaf/ vb training vortex. Today I practiced my accelerations...I remind me of the Roadrunner in looney toons.
I know its too early to start getting obsessed and I really need to chill out like this (scroll down the site and click on the motorbike kitty)

Just curious..

How many draft posts do you have that will never get published?

I just wrote another tonight that I saved as draft. I probably won't post it ever... but I feel better for writing it.

draft

Its 5:00 and I haven't posted yet

my word the sky is a fabulous orangey-pink right now...

Its been one of those days when I look up from my desk and realize the day is gone. Poof.

I didn't get a ride in today, and I was frustrated and cranky. I decided I HAD to get out of this office for a few moments. And go shopping at Trader Joe's.

TJ's just opened up around the corner from my work and I couldn't be happier about it. No more driving up to San Jose, which I hate (the city not the driving) or driving to Santa Cruz, which I hate too (the driving not the city). Just a quick hop around the corner and I am in the land of my favorite things: Cheap but yummy wine, cheese and chocolate.


So I decide to take today's crankiness to TJs. Maybe a little freeze dried mango, or a free sample of no pudge fudge would make me feel better.

I walk around the aisles, just in case I see something new that I haven't seen the hundred times before. Some fun music is playing on the store stereo, the little cash register bell is clanging (why do they clang that?), employees are laughing. The employees all wear those little aloha shirts with their names on them. They look really happy to be there. Some have flair on, some don't. So I bet flair is optional. It seems like a busy but laid back place to work.

I start to think about my stresses at work and how maybe it would be fun to just work at a place like TJ's. A place where I could be all busy but giggly, with no stress but to make certain that the mochi is all facing the same way in the freezer. A place where as soon as you walk out the door...the work stays behind.



I gather up my purchases (some freeze dried Rambutan and some Lemon Crystal Geyser in case you care) and do that thing you do when you try to figure out which register line you want to go to. Sort of calculating, based on a complicated formula of number of people in line times the size of the baskets, times the speediness of the clerk. So I am doing that when a clerk comes running up to me and offering to help at her register, which is otherwise closed.

I look guiltily at the other folks waiting in line, but figure, screw em. I assume the gal wants to help me because I am an easy customer to ring up. She's young, late teens or early twenties. She's got the cute little spiky bangs to the side hair do and cute shoes and other stuff thats all hip (I think so anyway because actually what would I know?).

As she's ringing me up, she points to my hoody and asks if I work at Fox. I tell her I do and she gets all excited. With a dreamy look on her face she explains how she would LOVE (she scrunches all up when she says LOVE) to work at Fox. She goes on to say that she is getting her degree in design and her whole family rides motox and she loves fox and she doesn't get to use her brain at Trader Joes and she wishes she had a more flexible schedule and a longer lunch break and that she didn't have to wear the aloha shirt.

Then she tells me I am sooo lucky (she scrunches when she says sooooo).

And closes her line.

While I munch on my popcorn

Another windy day....mind wanders...

I hate time trialing.

But all the cool kids are doing it.

I have tried to like it. Okay, I haven't really tried very hard. I think I have only done 2 time trials in my whole life. But I hated both of them very much.

People who relish the time trial, those are studly people. Able to suffer, on a flat when you could, like coast and stuff, when no one is right in front of them making them go hard.

Thats admirable.

Just thinking out loud here...munch...munch.

I'd rather be sleeping

But I can't stare at those black balloons any longer.

I must throw something up on the screen.

So here's a recommendation. Avoid eating black colored cake frosting if you can help it. Especially if you tend toward the hypochondriac.

For a few days this weekend, I was quite certain I had an exotic and deadly tummy ailment. It was not until I returned to work that I realized, with both embarassment and relief, what the cause of my "troubles" were.

I can now move forward to worrying about the more usual health ailments. What a relief.

I was also moved practically to tears with my two bday presents. Well, the first did move me to tears and the second moved me to tears only when I saw the picture that Lilly snuck in. How could she? Michael and Laura (no blog names please when I am being all serious and stuff like I am going to be in the next sentences)are two of the most amazing people in the world. I love and admire and am motivated by them.

~~

Bella training camp was a success. Thats probably because we didn't try to do anything but ride, eat, sleep and drink a wee bit of wine. Just a wee. (And damn do my teammates have good taste in wine) No wacky photo shoots, no prodding testing labs, no sponsor yippie hoo...just riding. Four days of it and I was wiped. Out. Success.

Thank you Miss Mary and Ana for feeding us so well! Thank you Michael, Brent, Tyler, Cody, Steven and Jeff for all the cat herding and the nice drafts on Sunday when the wind was making us cranky.

Our team is excited to race. I'm excited to race. I haven't felt this excited about racing since I first started. They all inspire me.

Vroom.

Four - oh

Well, at least I won't forget how old I am this year like I've been doing for about 8 years now.

Racing Age 40

My work did that black balloon over the hill thing to my office. I am wearing an over the hill button. There's over the hill confetti and "lordy lordy you're turning 40" dinner mints all over the place. The whole staff is dressed in black too. They must have blown up like ... I don't know....30 black balloons. Sheez, I need to invite them on our race team with those lungs. I would have pulled out the bike pump. I wonder what happens if you try CO2 on balloons?

Its all almost as silly as Laura's 40th. That was a funny day. Gosh, what was that, like 12 years ago Laura?

So I'm going to call my mom up now and remind her I am 40. She likes it when I do that.

And I want my present now! NOW!

Are you harshing my popcorn?

I really need to get more sleep.

~~

One serving of low fat popcorn has 110 calories, 2 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein.

My past two jobs were places where you could not pop popcorn at work. Something about the smell being obtrusive. So, microwave popcorn was banned. Outlawed. Contraband. Smelly fish and garlic dishes, or burnt baked potatoes, however were not.

I am happy to now work at a place where we can pop pop pop away.

~~
If you are going to ride in Morgan Hill, you better learn to like the wind. Well, maybe not like the wind, thats just weird, but like the challenge of the wind. The battle against the invisible.

I've learned to like that challenge. To face the wind head on and say "hell yeah, just try and stop me". And to put my head down and grit my teeth and pedal right smack into it. (And sometimes spit on myself because the wind blows it back on me, but thats not a very romantic image so never mind I wrote that)

When the skies are dark and turmoil-y, this is easier to do. The wind, the sky, the epic conditions call out and dare you, challenge you, to ride against them. And so you take on that challenge.

But today, today the wind tried to trick me. The sky was bright and clear. And the wind howled amongst twinkling water and lazy grazing cows. And instead of challenging me, the wind just sort of suggested. As it if were saying "Hey, look how sunny it is. You might as well not fight me today. Just take it easy and maybe enjoy the scents I bring and the lush crispness of the air I cleaned".

And I almost fell for it. Almost.

~~
Today's pic has nothing to do with today's post (except that i took it today) so don't waste any time trying to make a connection.

~~
My hands smell like popcorn. Far less tale tale than orange cheetos fingers.

Just another lunch ride

I am completely lacking for blog material these days. So I was hoping I would concoct something fabulous on my ride today. I do my best blog writing while riding. Usually anyway.

So I rode and I pedaled and intervaled and I rested and I repeated. And that was pretty much it. Pedal, pedal harder, pedal easier. And before I knew it I was done and back at the office. Completely material less.

My mind didn't go on a creative wander. Instead I just paid attention to the stopwatch, noticed the wind direction, grumbled at the truck that passed too close, soaked in the warmish sun, wondered what was making that ticking noise, contemplated my new cleat position, looked at the paint chips on my top tube, watched a group of riders in the other direction, avoided a smooshed squirrel, discovered a smooth patch on the chipseal, adjusted my shorts, and snapped a pic with my camera phone.

Reluctant Techie on a lunch break

I am not a tech geek, but this team is forcing me to skim the surface of it.

I haven't been posting much this past week because I've been birthing some boards. And it was a tough labor. But I think the baby is out of intensive care now. You can check it out by clicking here. Anyone interested is invited to participate. Don't be shy, its just the internet.

And check out our new blog clothes. Aren't they pretty? Julie made them for us. Spiffy.

I heard that the new blogger version allows easy add of rss feeds into the template. I sooo want to do that. But blogger won't let my massive account update to the new version. So Flandria sent me her template code to see if I could slip it in anyway....and uh.....huh? If anyone knows how to add an RSS feed to the sidebar links of the old blogger, let me know.

I am going to run to the comfort of my 10 key now.

Cross eyed

This is me after crit practice.

Me and the couch are one. Its taken all my energy just to turn on the computer. I had to rest five minutes after logging in.

And now I can't remember what I was going to say.

Me team, she needs a caravan

one thats tip top

and cheap, but with wheels.

Supergirl Smokes

And she drinks tequila and eats lots of cheese. This week I'm still sweating the poison out of the pores. The New Year's Resillusions are in effect.

I started my training. I'm working on changing this...

to something like this.

And in order for me to do that I'll have to convince Ooolaf not to run for it until I gets me those superpowers.

something tells me coaching our team not only is as complicated as herding cats but can also be this...RUN for your life superman!!!