During the three weeks of the Tour de France, it's hard to find time to blog... or wash dishes... or laundry... or clean up the house. Heck, we take a break from chores all together when the Tour's on.
It is especially prevalent this year since we got the online "all access" package so we can watch the entire stage from Start to Finish without commercials and on-demand! No having to watch only 2 hours of the 5, no crappy adds, and no having to get up crazy early or stay up super late to watch it. Love it! But, it's online so the laptop has been spoken for each day. Lucky for me, Hwood has company and we've already watched the day's stage twice today, so I can get a quick wrap up in!
Where did I leave off? Early July marked my 5th appearance at the Spam Jam in Austin, MN - a 25-mi. citizen road race that kicks a$$! Not only do I get to ride w/ Hwood, but my whole team of awesome men and women. And this year was another fabulous year. Hot, sunny, and fast! Desta and I were the only gals to make the break early in the race and hung on for dear life at 25 mph average speeds. There were a number of attacks off the front early in the race and Hwood got away with TP and a mixed batch of competitors.
Desta and I rode hard in the chase group all the way to the finish. As we neared the end, silence overtook the group and the speed increased. I was feeling awesome and my heart race was chillin' and legs were ready to go. Rather than sprint against my own teammate for the finish, I was happy to ride her wheel across the line, proudly pointing to her like a Tour teammate as she won her first ever race - AWESOME!!! Hwood had been hauling arse, but was out-teammed and finished at an extremely fast third place. Way to go baby!!
Me - 2nd, Desta - 1st time SPAM Champ!
What else have I missed?
When I haven't been working my knuckles to the bone, or racin' bikes, I've been playing with this lil man - Rosco P Coltrane! We've had him for a whole month now, and we're definitely starting to feel like a family. He's been so chill at the races and loves being held by all the people at the shop or our friends at every event we drag him to, it's rad! And he's crazy confident and fearless - sweet! Can't wait for Jay to take him out for a bike ride,
a la Smokey's harness.
I really wish the photo hadn't cut off the top of his head cuz I love this photo of him by the puppy pool in the back yard!
This weekend, with heat indexes over 100 degrees, I haven't wanted to do anything but sleep. Jay on the otherhand, never stops. So much so that he raced a killa State Crit championships yesterday, taking 4th in the race and 3rd in the State competition (one guy was from CA). Way to go, Love!
And if that wasn't enough, we were both crazy enough to race a 40k Time Trial today. Even at our 10:30 start time, the temps and humidity were unbearable. I tried freezing a camel-back full of water and stuffing it into my skinsuit to keep me cool, but the water was HOT by the time I hit the half way point. I was flying for the first 8 miles, but then the heat took over and my gaskets blew. On the headwind section, I was so overheated and out of it that I had to ride out on my bullhorns to maintain control with the 10-15 mph winds. At mile 12 I started dry-heaving. By mile 15, all of my water was Hot, but I tried to choke it down anyway.
I lost count of how many times I thought about quitting.
I finally came to terms with myself that I wasn't going to be setting any new land speed records. Maybe instead of a time-based PR, I would get a PR for 'most weight lost in a race under 100 miles long'. ?? Worked for me. So I just kept pedaling away, keeping myself in control rather than pushing the envelope harder than I was. Although I knew I was slower than last year's ragin' time, I still finished in 4th place, only 2 min. behind last year! Hot-damn! I really don't know how that works... but of course now I keep thinking 'if only I hadn't ridden 5 miles in my bullhorns...'. Oh well, I finished and lost a lil extra water weight in the meantime. Whoohoo!
Rosco had the best seat in the house, happily snoozing in the car that was parked in the shade. To ensure his health and well-being, we through caution to the wind and left the car on to keep him cool as we did our hour long race... thank heavens we were right! ;o)
Anyways, back to chillin' and off to prep for another LONG week of work. Yowza. Hopefully the rain will stay away this week so I can at least get some good commutin' time in. Until next time, I'll be workin', racin' or watchin' the Tour..
Go BMC!
Kristy Kreme
