Performance Bicycles - A Lambast from a US Soldier

As many of you know, I am on my way to Mosul, Iraq. I just spent some quality time in Fort Hood, TX donning one third of my body weight in body army, firing my M-16, and reacquainting myself with the Army's system of "hurry up and wait". I found out what my address will be, and decided to send some supplies ahead, since I am unable to carry much with me (besides about 400 pounds of "essential" military equipment and a one month supply of toiletries and my laptop). I knew my husband was planning on doing some indoor training this winter, so I decided I would leave my trainer home with him. I went online to Performance Bicycles and I ordered a Cycleops fluid trainer, a trainer mat, a trainer tire and a riser block. I had them all sent to my Mosul address. Shipping was reasonable at about $66.

I received a call today from Performance. They are unable to send my order to Iraq since I ordered with a domestic credit card. If I had an international credit card, then they could ship internationally. WTF?!? I informed the woman on the phone that I was a US Soldier, and even once I was "over there", I would have a US credit card. She said she could ship to a US address and then they (my husband, apparently) could ship it to me. So I should pay for shipping twice? This is how Performance Bicycles treats US Soldiers. I'm calling for a boycott.

Look for the Facebook group.

A Look Back at Downing Park on You Tube (complete with race highlights and interviews!)

Emotions

The closer we get to January 4th the higher my emotional lability. It is a 1:1 relationship. January 4th is when I get on a plane to Ft. Hood, soon to be followed by a plane to Kuwait, then some form of transport to Iraq. People keep asking me "when are you going?". The answer "January 4th" doesn't seem sufficient. Although that is when I am leaving "for good" (hopefully not), I am mini-leaving Wednesday. On Wednesday I am going to Bend, due to the kindness of others, and I am going to give it my all in the Masters Women 40-44 on Friday, and the give it some more on Sunday for the Elite Women. I'll travel home on Sunday, late, and get into JFK on Monday at 0800. I will have time to hug the kids and Jeff, check the next suitcase (already packed with my deployment stuff), and get recharged before my 1500 departure from a small airport closer to home. I will be at Fort Hood until the 22nd of December, and then will be able to enjoy the holidays with the family before the "real" departure.

I survive the days fairly well. The hardest time for me is the kids' bedtime. Each night gets harder. My son (almost 9), started to get moist eyes last night and I picked up on it. I asked if he was okay and he said "I'm sad". That was it. I was a geyser. Tears a-flowin'.

Today, it seemed like everything I did was a goodbye to someone. A last time for something. My tear ducts got a good work out, as I tried to work to control them, doing tear duct kegels. A cool exercise that nobody knows you are doing!

I'm happy to be deploying. If I have to go, now is a very good time. The family is in a very good place at West Point, with extended family close by in Massachusetts. The kids are doing well in the school they are in, and the support system here is great. The deployment should only be about 6 months (can't beat that), and I'll be back in time for prep for cross season '10. I'm anxious to see what Operation Iraqi Freedom is all about, and how I'm set up in my Physical Therapy clinic over there. If only I could shut down my emotional outpourings!

Bad Mom

I was just perusing my blog. It suddenly dawned on me that I am an egocentric, self-absorbed, vain woman. Damn. Look at all those pictures of me! That's okay. I like me. Someone has to, right?

Anyhow, in an attempt to balance things a bit, and to prove I really do love my family very, very, very much (and I really will miss them more than cyclocross when I deploy), here are some recent pictures:

I may miss my Tempur Pedic bed equally as much as my husband while I am gone....

Thank you

Thanks to those who have supported me. You know who you are. Your kindness inspires me. When I have left Bend, and am sitting in the middle of northern Iraq (I won't be much warmer than you, ironically), I will have my memories from Bend, and they will make me think of you. Thank you for that. All of my support came from the DC metro area. Huh. It's no wonder I'm trying to get stationed back there, is it?

There aren't enough ways to say it. Thanks.

A Mercer Dissection

Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith

Photo by Anthony Skorochod

Two days of UCI USGP style in Trenton, NJ, at the Mercer County Park. This was the same venue as the previous two years, but the course was in a different part of the park. It was muddy both days. I don't like mud. I have to admit, though, without the mud, this course would have been pretty uneventful, perhaps even boring? I would have loved it, really, and I would likely have had my best results of the season...but it wouldn't have been as fun.

Let me put this weekend into perspective for you. I am currently in the last few weeks of an 18 month Physical Therapy residency program based out of the United States Military Academy at West Point, in NY. The objective of these 18 months was to obtain a doctorate of science in Sports Medicine PT. To be successful in this goal, the primary requirement was the completion and submission of a dissertation (in 18 months), and of course, a successful oral defense of the research. My oral defense was scheduled for 9 am on Monday. This gets better, though. I volunteered to act as the Officer in Charge for the West Point cadet cycling team for the Mercer races. At the time I volunteered, I didn't realize that their races started at 8 am both days (and my races started close to 2 pm). As the team's budget has been tight this year, there was no hotel rooms to stay in, but a two hour drive to and from West Point at the beginning and end of racing each day. If you do the math, you can see that I was going to mighty tired at the end of these days! Preparation for my presentation? Not likely.

Day 1: EXTREMELY muddy. Tires: "A" bike - Fangos (21 psi), "B" bike - Hutchinson Bulldog on front and Piranha on the rear (19 psi). Thirty-six starters, and I'm wearing number 31, so I have primo position on the start grid (yeah, not so much). At some point early in the first lap I impaled my leg on a broken wooden stake. No good. Throughout the race, I probably crashed 8-10 more times, with some doozies in there. I got plastic stakes stuck in my bike twice! It took me forever to dislodge my bike from them. I was extra special lucky to have Jay Downs pit for me, and I switched out my bike every half lap. The power washer was running and I got a clean bike back each time.

Hindsight: Those Fangos aren't what they are cracked up to be (try to find some tread showing on my tire in the photos above), at least in this type of mud. I found myself often spinning and going exactly nowhere, when other people rode easily through. My Hutchinson tubeless tires handled the mud much better, sloughing it off and cutting through it.

Result: 28th, just barely got lapped by Katerina Nash as she won.

Day 2: Still muddy, but more ridable course overall. Tires: "A" bike - Fangos (19 psi), "B" bike - Hutchinson Bulldog on front and Piranha on the rear (19 psi). I sprayed everything with Pam cooking spray, to include my Fangos. I'd never done this before, but I figured things couldn't really get worse than the previous day, I might as well give it a shot. Thirty-four starters, and I'm wearing number 30, so just a little bit worse than the previous day. I had a decent start despite my last row line up. I crashed early in the first lap, hard, got ridden over and covered by riders. Not good (for them either, obviously). I was in DFL. I was very ready to quit. In fact, I spent the next 3 minutes just leisurely riding around the course, listening to people cheer me on, and often commenting "I think I'm quitting". At some point I decided to race again, I wish it had been sooner. I realized when I was actually racing, I was pretty fast, when I was crashing, I was not. I had another bad crash about 3 laps into the race, and it proved to be a tremendous time suck. The bike slid out, I couldn't disengage one of my pedals, then the bike was on the wrong side. I was in a bad spot to remount and ride, so I ran for about 40 feet and remounted. The chain was off. I got off, put the chain back on, and remounted. The chain was still off. Damn. I got the chain on, and spun the crank before remounting to be sure. I then had to pass back those who had gotten by me during this unfortunate debacle.

Jay was kind enough to pit again for me, but I never pitted once. The Pam? Or the different conditions? I can tell you that I was cutting through the mud when other folks were spinning their wheels. It felt very good.

Hindsight: Don't ever quit!

Result: 23rd, and I didn't get lapped. I finished in the thick of things with folks that are normally crushing me. Oh, if only I didn't crash (ever). Is that too much to ask?

Epilogue:

Injury breakdown for the weekend: 1 badly sprained finger (left hand index finger), one badly crushed thumb (done removing my trainer from the car, I will lose my right thumb nail), left leg contusion the size of a hardboiled egg sitting on top of my shin, bruises from ankles to butt cheeks and from my fingers to my shoulders.

Doctorate: I successfully defended my research yesterday, and now I am in cruising mode until I deploy to Iraq in January.

Cyclocross Epiphany at Cyclesmart International

That's what it was. It was an epiphany. It was a life changing moment, or perhaps it was a string of moments. Two days in a row I lined up at the back of the pack. Two days in a row something marred my start. The first day, it was the person in front of me going backwards. The second day, it was me going backwards (my pedal seemed to have disappeared when my foot went looking for it). Despite the crap starts, both days I hammered as hard as I could for as long as I could to get into a group. Both days, I managed to do a fairly decent job of this, but my legs felt like wet noodles by the time I was finally merged up with others.

Saturday I ended up riding most of the race with a woman wearing a 7 Cycles kit, her name was Marilyn. I know this because everyone everywhere was cheering for her. I felt like the big bad wolf or something and she was little red riding hood. Anyhow, for 5 laps she would get ahead of me in the sand and on the run up, and then I would chase her down on the power sections. We bridged up to another rider, and on the final lap, I put in a hard effort through the sand and the other rider (Natalia Gardiol) and I gapped Marilyn. Natalia attacked and clung to her wheel until the pavement homestretch. If you know me well, you know the next thing that happened...I took her on the pavement.

Sunday, after finally getting hooked onto the end of the main train, we entered the sand and I was completely red lined. I thought I was going to be able to ride the sand, but in my current state of system failure, that wasn't possible. I stalled and had a few seconds of complete and utter motionlessness. How stupid! I finally managed to get my body moving again, but it was awkward, and bobbled my bike and tripped in the sand, and tripped over my body and my bike. What a spectacle I must have been. When I emerged from the sand I was certainly near last wheel. So I dug in. Again. I passed a bunch of people and bridged up as far as I could possibly go. At this point I was with Michelle Kersbergen, and we were eventually joined by Brynna Nestor. The three of us rode together for essentially the next 5 laps. On the 2nd to last lap, Brynna gapped Michelle and I. I was behind Michelle, and I expected (hoped?) Michelle to close, but she didn't. Neither did I. Michelle and I entered the sand. I crashed. Michelle got away. I chased. I caught and passed Michelle on the pavement and put in a hard effort to stay away. It worked. I spent the rest of the final lap with my sites set on Brynna. I didn't know if she was attainable or not. She had gained a substantial lead. I tried to just ride smart through the technical sections. On the "ride" up, which I ran every time, I concentrated on not dropping my bike and on stretching out my strides, and remounting quickly at the top. On the top section I concentrated on not getting bounced around too much on the roots. When we hit smooth pavement and smooth grass I concentrated on making up ground. She was maintaining a pretty constant 8 second or so lead on me. I knew it was going to come down to the sand. The sand, the sand. 5 laps in riding, 5 laps out running. I had to make a decision to make up time. Run or ride. One or the other, and commit. I chose the ride. I dove into the sand on a tight inside line on a deep rut in the sand and my momentum carried me about 1/3 way through and then I pedaled like a mad woman. I made it through and I had halved the distance to my competition. At this point in the course there is about 90 seconds of riding remaining. My legs were starting to seriously burn. I dug. My goal prior to starting the race was top twenty (I had never been top twenty at Northampton in the elite women's field). In my mind, I was picturing Brynna as number 20, and me as 21. I had to get her. I finally caught her as we transitioned from the grass onto the pavement. My legs were rubber. I feared I wouldn't have enough left....but I did. I was 18th.

Mary McConneloug won both days. My house guest for the weekend (at my in-laws, gracious hosts that they are!) got 2nd on Sunday and 3rd on Saturday. She is riding great this year! The field was filled with some amazingly fast girls. There are girls that hit the top ten of these races that are pretty darn new to cross, and will be fun to watch develop in the next few years. For instance, the whole Minute Man Road Club women's team. WTF did these girls all come from? They take up the first two rows of call ups for God's sake. Granted, they earned these call ups. Very fast girls.

Okay, okay. The epiphany. Here it is: I don't suck.