Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Anything But The Road Bike...

My name is Amy, and I am a cyclist. It's been six days since my last road ride.

After a weekend of hiking and beating myself up on foot, I decided to continue the alterna-training with a mountain bike ride on Monday. I didn't stop there, and headed up to the New England Velodrome for opening day at the track yesterday after work. Unfortunately, the nasty weather forecast kept a lot of people away and the turnout was low... they missed out on a great sunny (and windy) evening though! The low turnout meant only one other girl, so the twelve total people got lumped together into one big race group instead of Cat A and Cat B's. Too bad for me since I have untrained sprinting legs under me at this point, but it was fun all the same, and I got to ride a yellow bike. Three Cambridge Bicycle teammates were also in attendance - Jeremy Dunn, Craig Roth, and Michael McKittrick were dominant in most all of the races run last night, and we'll likely have more in coming weeks. Oh yeah, so I was dropped out off all the races save for the points race in the end, which I actually finished. good stuff!

Today was the fun training day:
yup, it was unicycle day.

Being so close to Andover High School, I walked the uni up the hill and took to the parking lots. Today's goal was to master the unassisted mount... easier said than done. After several frustrated attempts, I decided to start with just plain riding instead. About 30 minutes later, this was getting exhausting, and I found a quiet driveway area behind the school to practice the mounts. The goal was to do 10 unassisted mounts.

Twenty minutes later mount #10 still seemed very far away after a sketchy dismount and leg injury from the right pedal. But, I kept plugging away. After mount #17, I decided to take a break, because once things got going I changed my goal to 30 mounts. Well, it was a good call, because I GOT IT at mount #25. I just got it and it felt right. From then on, things just started falling in place... on mount #31, I did my first hop in place and kept riding. On mount #46, I hopped in place several times and kept riding between hops too. On mount #50, I decided I needed to learn how to mount on uphills and downhills too, so I did ten of those too. Over the course of the uphill mounts, I also realized that I didn't need to sit on the saddle to pedal. amazing!

As it started to get dark, I decided it had been a good training day, and I rode the uni home.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Green Key Weekend

With my sister Kaity in town from Chicago this weekend, we decided to visit Dartmouth along with many other alumni who wanted to see old friends at school. So we went! The weather was supposed to be bad, but it turned out to be pretty fantastic after all:
On Friday while Kaity went out for a run, I headed out on my bike and pedaled around in Vermont a bit. Once we were done with that, we headed to campus to find some friends. We found some, and of course, found some drinks too... at Molly's, then at the block party, then at Ramunto's, then at 5 Olde Nugget, and then at some frat which I can't even tell you for sure at this point which one it was.

Needless to say, it was a long night of good times, but I found just what I needed in the morning to get me going. Kaity and Margi on the other hand were feeling ready for a good run, so they headed out and left me with my bike. I chose the Granite State on Saturday and headed around Lake Mascoma and Goose Pond in Enfield NH... definitely one of my favorite rides, and a good way to wake up too! Saturday was a much more low key night for us thankfully, and was probably low key for everyone since Hanover unexpectedly lost power around 9:30 that night.

Today Kaity and I left Dartmouth and headed to Framingham for an impromptu Wallace family mini-reunion, planned just a few days ago since Kaity was in town! Sadly I had to pass off Kaity to my dad so she could visit the western Mass contingent before heading back to Chicago on Wednesday :(

Monday, May 12, 2008

Bike to Work - OR ELSE!!!

Today marked the first day of a semi-national annual tradition that I like to take part in, because... well, it makes sense! It's Bike to Work Week May 12-16, and of course I got off to a stellar start by driving my car this morning. I'm sorry! I had a long day of field work planned in Somerville, so I couldn't exactly ride my bike there, but I did drop off my bike at the office so I could ride home.

I wouldn't consider myself directionally challenged, but today was a difficult day. After getting off the highway at what I thought was my exit, I could see my job site up ahead, but couldn't for the life of me get on a street that would bring me there. After turning around a few times and luckily not sitting in much traffic because it was early, I made it. The way home was a different story...

I got on 93 North heading out of Boston at 5:00, just like everyone else in Boston. I was headed for 95 South to drop off a meter before returning to the office. Well, I may or may not have been on my phone at the time, but I accidentally got on 95 North instead. WTF. I exit 95 at the first chance, and of course find myself on a smaller divided highway. After finally turning back around, I get back to the highway and onto 95 South. Glad to be back on track, I prepare to exit, and realize halfway around the off-ramp that instead of taking the first exit after the 93 junction, I have instead taken the exit to get back on 93 South... going back toward Boston. WTF again, as if I weren't angry before, now i'm on the wrong road again. I turn around on the second exit down 93, because the first exit would've been 95 North, and I flip it back onto 93 North... again. I finally take the correct exit for 95 South, and the correct exit to my destination.

Glad to be back to the office, I decide that I'm being spited by the gods of Bike to Work Week for driving today and putting myself in mileage debt for getting lost so much. So of course i'm going to bike home. I go to get changed at 6:15 and discover the day's final small mishap - I've forgotten to pack bike shorts. Not to be deterred, I biked home with the only option I had... in Carhartts.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

track day

Today was opening day for track practice at the New England Velodrome in Londonderry, New Hampshire. The track was looking pretty good, and has come a long way since the first work party day I went to a month ago. Tony and the crew have been putting in a lot of hours to clean the place up!

I headed up after work hoping to find some other Cambridge Bicycle team kids there, and found one teammate among another two dozen people ready to ride in 300-meter circles. I'm pretty excited to race track this summer! I'll eventually need to purchase my own bike so that I don't have to keep renting bikes from the track like the one pictured above... not that it didn't serve its purpose, but, my own machine would be nice.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Time For a New Blog

After documenting the winter adventures at ATMO-licious, I've moved on to a new solo blog... which will probably be much less exciting, But, here it is nonetheless!

Saturday was my first road race of the year... the old New England classic, the Jiminy Peak Road Race! To make things even more fun, none other than Mr. Dave Wallace was driving the pace vehicle for the women's race. The weather held out for most of the day, but a warmup on the trainer was in order with the wet roads in the morning. While I sat on the trainer, my giant butt apparently got in the way of my dad putting a bike in the car and a hole was ripped in the back of my shorts ten minutes before race time :(  Luckily, I had a sewing kit in the car, and the picture above is my dad doing some last-minute sewing before the race start!

The race itself was fun, and I even made stayed with the front pack after the first lap up the hill. I guess I have Alie to thank for making me a better hill climber this winter! One lap later I ended up with a pack finish, and then stayed to watch the rest of the men's races finish. After that I went with some new Cambridge Bicycle teammates to the Old Forge Restaurant in Lanesborough, and then home to visit with Dad some more.

In other news, my apartment has had some furniture in it for a few weeks now, and it's great!