More time to live...

As much as we all dread Daylight Savings Time coming to an end, I have to admit I've been sort of looking forward to it for the past few weeks because now I'll have more time to get things done..With the dwindling daylight hours I have to learn to maximize my time, on and off the bike, that is if you are a normal person who works full time and races bike the rest of the time.

Early to bed; early to ride

I'm now going to bed earlier than a senior citizen, and earlier than I did as a kid. In order to get up early enough to get out there and get a 2hr ride in, means going to bed early. Since it is nearly dark by 5:00pm, I have to get my ride on in the morning. Despite that it is about 75 degrees in the afternoon, I must accept the fact that I will be riding in 30deg temps for the next few months. Thank you evil plastic companies for making sandwich baggies to keep my little toes warm.

Maximize your time

If you can't do the early to bed, early to ride thing, then do what you can with what you have. Make a three course meal out of your workouts. For ex. for breakfast an easy hour ride or 45min spin on the trainer. For lunch, 45min interval session or 20min jog. For late afternoon snack post-work, trip to the gym or squeeze in that run if you didn't at lunch. Granted you probably don't want to do this every day.

Enjoy your evenings

All spring and summer long I would finish my ride at 7:30pm and then eat a late dinner and have no time left in the day. Now that it is dark when I get out of work and I don't feel safe enough to ride around here solo, I enjoy my evenings knowing that my workout for the day is already done. With it being dark out, what is a gal to do but catch up on housework, hang out with her friends, and of course get her hair done.

Like sands through the hourglass...

At the Beacon cx race on Sunday in Bridgeton NJ, I had the chance to race another circuit on the Mid-Atlantic series and also a chance to look back and see how far I thought I had progressed. The course hasn't changed much in the three years I've made the trek up to the beach. The sands may have shifted a little bit and each year the sand seems more packed down during pre-ride and then all chewed up by race time anyway. The damn stairs in the ampitheater have only gotten higher I'm sure, thanks to some erosion and packing down of the earth.

If you turn the sand upside down and let time reverse itself back to 2004, you will see me lining up for my very first UCI race at Beacon, which was also a USGP. Nervous and full of enthusiasm, I shyly said hello to the big-name pros and took my place at the very very back. As my typical style I blew the start and bummbled myself up the hill and on to the hard-pack paths. I had no control of my bike in the corners and definitely no style or grace. I bumped into other riders all over the course and was very apologetic in my oxygen deprived state. I was happy to have fans cheering for me and just happy to finish. I finished 22nd and over 5 minutes down, but just one place ahead of the now Champion, and one behind the Model. And from henceforth a friendship and "arch nemesis" were formed. The Model and I would be each others mark for probably every race since that first battle in the sand at Beacon.

In 2005, Model did not race Beacon and the battle continued with a different player, Ms. PETA. I came into 2005 with much more fitness and confidence. I had even trained just for Beacon's ampitheater of pain by doing stair repeats. To no avail. Although I could control my bike this year, the high steps were still a challenge and it was the last time up the ampitheather that Ms. PETA would launch her attack to a wilting me. I couldn't respond and finished in third and the new and improved Champion was born - with her win here.

2006. New team. New look. More experience. Much better start than previous attempts, but same lousy ability in the sandpits. Despite demonstrating embarrasing form as I dragged my bike through the sandpit as Model rode it ahead of me, I'm glad I finally did manage to ride the damn pit on the last two laps. My other accomplishment this year was that I didn't knock into anyone, that I can recall, although I nearly knocked myself out as I tripped on the stairs in the ampitheater and mid-race nearly crashed into the cement wall in the beach because I couldn't maneuver the corner in the deep sand.
But I'm happy with a great team performance and a good race. Second is an improvement over last year. I wonder what next year will bring.


Three years, three very different races, and different results. The continuity has been racing with the same Mid-Atlantic gals race after race and year after year. Although I've been racing cx since '99, I've been a true MAC girl only since 2004.

Team Spirit

This weekend's tour of the East Coast brought the Velo Bella-Kona cx team to the Mid-Atlantic, the new heart of U.S. cyclocross. Home-team of 2x Nat'l cx champ Katie Compton put on another fantastic race at the unforgiving Granogue Estate near Wilmington DE on Saturday. Sunday we did the visit PA thing and made the trek north-west of Philly to new suburbtopia Ludwig's Corner for Wissahickon's race.


Overall as a team we were pleased with our race results with two top 10s both days and decent results all around. Cyclocross is more of an individual sport, but it's nice to have a team. There aren't too many team tactics or blocking or anything like that going on during a race that necessarily requires teammates - at least not that I'm aware of. However the benefit of having a team like Velo Bella-Kona is that we warmup together, pre-ride, and talk about the course and various lines. During the race we encourage one another and try to take turns pulling when you are with a teammate. After the race we cool-down together and just hang out. It's very enjoyable and motivating to have a true team presence and support crew including friends and family. We are all in it together, managing our time, life stresses, work, school, finances, just so we can all hang out on the weekend and race our bikes. Pretty cool.


There are two things that really make Velo Bella what it is. We wouldn't be Velo Bella without our trademark flair. PA Bella Sheryl was so helpful in getting us in the spirit with colorful goodie bags for each of us, our flair, and a huge help with the logisitics for the weekend.


The other key is the unofficial supporters and the fans. We often here people we don't actually know cheer for us all along the course, "Go Bella". Or the little ones that look up to us. Nothing more cool than introducing future bike riders to the rest of the team and seeing the little kids' eyes light up and the smile on their face - thanks little KK. These are the things that make Velo Bella great.

This coming weekend Grasshopper and I head to NJ for Beacon's race to harass the MAC reporter. Look for our haunted tent, and stop by for some flair and treats. The following weekend I hope we'll more local DC area women come out and to have two more Mid-Atlantic Bellas up and running with their new cx bikes for the rest of the MABRA series races.

Fast and the Furious

As an F-1 fan, it's been a very exciting season watching the battle between the "new-kid" Alonso and veteran Schumacher. Alonso started the season in top form with half of the season's wins under his belt and Shumey plagued by bad luck. The dice were rolled and they came up in Schumacher's favor for the second half of the season as he and teammate Massa have been on a rage ever since the US Grand Prix a few months ago. Schumey has announced his retirement while still on top of his game and now on the verge of winning another championship to add to his too many wins to count as he has now tied with Alonso for points. Who will it be....It's a nail-biter.

Ice-man Kimi was always on the podium last year. This year he may be spending too much time focusing on extra-curricular activities. My personal favorite bad-boy, Montoya, has given up F-1 to try Nascar and hasn't fared too badly. Meanwhile Massa and new comer upstart Kubica have burst onto the scene and can be a threat to any podium.

F-1 drivers, the amazing athletes they are, train to withstand a variety of stresses on their body and mind. I grew up watching them on tv and even wanted to be a race-car driver when I grew up. Instead I just suck at playing driving games on the Xbox and waiting for the next F-1 race to air on SPEED.

Gloucester come and gone

Took a mini vacation to New England to check out the fall foliage in between switching jobs. Nothing like a four day break....

My team Velo Bella-Kona was hosted by a local family in Gloucester MASS not far from the venue at the park on the ocean front. No snow this year. No Halloween costumes. Just plenty of sunshine, ocean breeze, and tons of racers.

I was thrilled about meeting my new teammates from the west coast and seeing my former east coast competitors in the same team colors as me. Although I didn't race as well as I had hoped, I am pleased that my teammates fared much better and had some great results both days, especially Bella Loca and Grasshopper. The rest of us gals are still finding our form and will be roaring in a few more weeks.

With my UCI points from last year I was able to at least have decent starts both days.
Link to Abbi Orca's pics.

The rest of my first race went from not fun to miserable as I flatted my favorite tubular and was worried about destroying my wheel as I rode over half the course on the flat tire and then ended up dropping out a lap later after a case of the dry-heaves forced me to the side of the course.

Sunday was a new day. No mechanicals for any of my teammates this day. We all finished although Scout was hurting pretty bad after she went down on the last lap.

The weekend ended with a lovely 9 hour trip back home with 4 hours sitting in traffic that wasn't moving! At least I had some MadLibs, Sodoku, and Cross Word puzzles to entertain me while my passenger slept.


Up next is a local race. This coming one is a low key weekend for racing. Just time to enjoy the weather, cheer on my new converts to cyclocross, and eat candy corn (which, by the way, is what Vanilla GU tastes like). Just don't mix it with Root Beer.

I love my UPS guy, and the Fed-ex guy....

and any guy who brings me presents......

It seems like nearly every day now when I head out for my ride, as soon as I pedal away, Big Brown drives by. I zip around and hurry back to my doorstep, just to see if he has anything for me. So far, every day he has. Whether it's my socks from Team Estrogen, my pretty pink arm warmers from DeFeet, or my gorgeous new Kona frames.......Lust.

Long weekend on the island

Ventured up to Long Island with a friend for the Whitmore UCI races put on by Myles and Hampton Velo the last weekend of Sept. This was one of many long drives of this season to race and see new sights. It was my first time to Long Island despite being from upstate. Enjoyed the trip over the Verrazano bridge and then the few hours out to the Hamptons.
Stopped by the small town of my friend's family then ventured out to the course late Friday. Using a screenshot printout map from Google's satellite image map to get to the venue. Hmmm, looking at the image - it looked like the race was at a quarry or something. We followed the address and turned into the location - it was a landfill!
But as it turned out, the venue was next door at the youth center. The course proved much better than first impressions and actually was pretty neat - with the wooded trails and the challenging off-camber turns. It was a great training race-course - having a little bit of everything you'd expect to encounter during the cyclocross season.

It was really fun hanging out at the venue all day cheering on the small fields of very enthusiastic racers. The biggest smiles and mud stains were found on the racers in the first race - the beginners, despite having their race called due to lightening on the second day.

A few of the ladies from the Mid-Atlantic came up for Day 2, including Champion, the Belly Dancer, and the Hostess with the Most. Was able to do some catching up with Belly Dancer and High Socks while taking refuge in a construction area.

The women's elite race was probably very boring to watch as the field exploded from the gun and was entirely strung out half way through first lap. It was only minor changes of positions here and there but no dramatic battles. Race day 1: I tried to battle with the Little Candadian and the Model in hopes to shake them and make them lose their fizz. In the end I was sort-of close, but wasn't able to overtake them. Race day 2: Legs felt like bags of the wet sandy terrain we raced on. The damn little hill run/ride feature got bigger every lap. The Model and I were probably the only ones that couldn't ride up the darn thing. Tried to stay on teammates wheel but eventually lost a few seconds I couldn't catch-up after taking a header on the greasy slopes. It was a fun tough course, a very organized event, and impressive prize purse.

As soon as the racing was over, the sun came out and made the drive along Hedge Row of the Hamptons and Fire Island very enjoyable.

On the way home sold one of my bikes to a new cyclocross racer. Gotta help the sport grow and gotta clean out my aparment. Does one person really need 12 bikes?