New Bike?

yeah, not quite. i'm still working on actually purchasing a track bike, and still working on replacing those chain rings on my mountain bike that are missing a few teeth... oops. But I did go for another new sort of bike ride this weekend with my dad, when we went out for a father's day motorcycle ride!! no, i did not drive...

It was 92 degrees INSIDE my apartment today when I got home from work... so, I opted out of track racing this evening, having learned my lesson from playing too hard in the heat on Sunday. I realized only when I woke up on Monday morning and still had a headache that i'd probably given myself heat exhaustion after two hours of unicycle practice on Sunday afternoon. oops.

Tonight's activities instead included the following preparation for next week's track racing:

Celtic Cowboy Thursday!

I've declared the last several Thursdays at work to be Cowboy Thursdays. It almost goes without declaration at this point, because... why not? Who doesn't like to wear a cowboy hat?

Yesterday was a special Cowboy Thursday because it was also the first day of the NBA finals. We couldn't ignore the Celtics, so we had to show our support for them too!

It was also a good excuse to eat Lucky Charms and Boston cream pie all day.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, Pete and I received a surprise gift at the office yesterday... this was a gift from our dentist because we have recommended so many new coworkers to see our dentist! Thanks!

Happy Birthday and Graduation!

Another fine weekend of playing outside was wrapped today up with yet another Wallace mini-reunion for Brad's graduation party... In this photo, Grammy demonstrates her "I love taking pictures" face:

Congrats to Brad on high school graduation yesterday, and his old man Mark who turned 50 this week. More pictures are at the end of this album here.

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.

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 :(

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.