Yikes!

Found this little guy lurking around the back patio. He's headed for the bird's nest in the garden shed.

Fast Freddy's Famous

Check him out here

Bike Jam

Bike Jam at Patterson Park in Baltimore is always exciting. I jumped in the Master's 50+ race to get a good warm up for the women's race. It's really fun racing with these mature fellows. They are very supportive and respectful of the women in the field. I found out after according to Rule 1H2 of USA Cycling Rules and Regulatoins that I should not have been racing in this field because the field is limited to Cat 3/4 -35+ Women. Sorry. It was still really fun.

The women's race was pretty stressful. Riding heads up was key. There were a few casualites with Jdub getting bumped into the dirt on the last turn by flying bodies and bikes and http://www.annamilkowski.blogspot.com/ being the worst of the day.

Sometimes when a race doesn't go your way you get a little kooky~anyone know this guy?

Bellie buys the pit guy an ice cream for working on Jdubs bike ! So pro

Survival was the key for me at Bike Jam
Check out Anna's Blog for some great race reports.

My Town

You know you live in the country when the front page article of the Lifestyle Section of the Local Paper is THIS

The print edition actually has "Top Tips For Safety"

A few of my favorites....

"It's better to sit in the front of the vehicle"

"Keep your backpack close to you (i.e. on your lap), so you can grab it if you need to get out quickly"

"Wear your most valuable stuff on your body: passport, wallet, money, mobile phone. This way you will keep these items in case you should abandon"

"It is preferable to choose your drivers. You can ask for rides at gas staions, truckstops..."

And get this...a special section for "Women hitchhiking"

"It is good to get yourself some pepper spray"

"It might be useful to text message the license plate of your driver to a friend"

"If there are other houses or people in sight, you can wave to them or pretend to say goodbye to a friend...."

Have a nice weekend!

SoMD Crit - maybe next year

Many racers took the trip south to La Plata, MD on Sunday to race an exciting new venue on the College of Southern Maryland. It is fantastic Pax Velo could put on an event to fill the void of the beloved Leonardtown Crit!

As much as we like to race HPC powered by Altarum spent the day meeting and riding with the employees of our title sponsor Altarum. It was great to get to know the employees and see their enthusiasm about cycling and the healthy benefits. I didn't think it would be appropriate to show them my knees, elbows or shoulder scars:) We met in Georgetown early for a team group ride then headed over to Hains Point for the sponsor ride.

Pre ride at Dean and Deluca

Hains Point gathering with part of the Altarum crew

This is Alex. Look for him in the kids race at CSC. He's super fast!

Earlier in the week Bellie took time to represent the team at a press conference held in Reading, PA by the Organizers of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. Check out the article here

Another very important sponsor event took place on Capitol Hill last week. In support of National Women's Health Week and National Bike-to-Work Week part of the team got a tour of Congressional offices and adopted several members of Congress as co captains. Read all about it here.

~The Cycle~

WARNING: THIS IS A GIRLY POST

BOYS READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
I like to race my bike but there is another type of cycling that needs attention. The monthly cycle and the effects on female athletes. There is a wide range of experiences. My hope is that you will gain awareness of the craziness and if you experience any of this or more, you will be awarded a free pass like my wonderful husband gives me every month. By the way, he is horrified by this post.
Becoming scatterbrained is just one of the many unpredictable things that can be experienced on a monthly basis. There have been many rides from Kelley Acres that we were lucky to return. Combine scatterbrained with the other frequent visitor of indecsion and this is a true recipe for disaster. Luckily, I have a wonderful support group of riding buddies that always seem to go along with me like I know where I'm going. Little do they know... I need them!
Weight gain leading up to the monthly cycle can cause this...

Two yoga blocks stuffed in the legs of my cycling shorts to try
to prevent sausage legs.
Bloating is another evil visitor and combined with what I refer to as "junk legs" can cause a racing result like I experienced at Jeff Cup~DNF!
Emotional instability can rear it's ugly head. A good example of this would be grabbing for the box of Kleenex when Brooke was voted off Idol~even though it was expected and necessary! Totally irrational behavior, big red flag goes up and a pass is handed out.
My least favorite experience that effects me the most physically and mentally is nausea. I get the most sympathy when this happens but would trade it for sausage legs any day.
I try not to complain, embrace the craziness and know that it does not define me as a person the rest of the month. I'm so lucky to have my loving husband there handing out free passes and hugs at the right time.
An interesting article here.

Gut Check

This Saturday Fred and I ventured up to Wilmington to take on the first NRC crit I've raced in a long time. The full HPC powered by Altarum squad was in attendance along with several other local squads and of course the women that get paid to race their bikes. The promoters put on quite an event, closing down a huge section of downtown and offering up a festival atmosphere around the race course with several bands and lots of food and drinks.

Here's what I took away from this particular racing experience.

1. Get you head out of your arse and do not end up in the back at the start line~rookie move

2. If you line up in the back be prepared to completely kill yourself to move up. duh!

3. No one is going to let you move up.

4. The chances are extremely high of some type of incident occuring when you are riding at the back. duh again!

5. If an incident occurs that results in chasing back to the field, never give up. ugh!

6. Gut check for next race.

Almost reconnecting after "the incident"

The bottom line is I raced about 20 min. I did not realize how many riders were behind me until I was changed and on the sideline cheering on the rest of the team. Looking back I'm not so happy I pulled out of this race. I'm not much for parade laps but this race was shredded into so many pieces I could have at least had a good workout without looking too pathetic. The good news is HPC powered by Altarum ended up with 5 riders in the money! The results are here.

Warm up laps~look we even had frame numbers~Wow!

It was so nice to have my hubby there to give me a hug and make me go people watching with him.

Check out the lease going into the Porta John

Next up~Bike Jam and RFK Crit

Great Riding Weather!

Another fantastic turn out for the Tuesday Night Worlds. Riding fast is really getting popular in the boonies.

It seemed like the entire Antietam Velo Club was in attendance and it's a good thing...

How many AVC'ers does it take to......(do whatever TTT is doing)

The featured rider this week

Ray Train

Ray Train making fun of the rest of us after hammering up this hill

It's very exciting to blog about Ray Train this week as I had a little help from his better half Judy on some of the more important details. Judy is an awesome wife, the mother of their two boys and quite blogworthy herself.

Here we go with the basics...Ray Train hails from Niagara County, NY. He races for NCVC. His favorite color is grey. He got his nickname for the enormous strength he brings to our group rides. When you are riding behind RT it is truly like a freight train moving. RT prefers Levi's to Wranglers, enjoys making waffles and used to be quite the trumpet player.

Here's where it gets a little more complicated...There have been sightings of RT playing and hanging out with a clown band and a German Umpah band. Oh my! AND evidently he can dance a mean Polka! There was a little in house controversy as to being voted most likely to succeed vs. most talented in his high school class.

Regardless, RT is a truly gifted athlete and great person.

Special thanks to Judy for all her input

Tuesday Night Worlds with PhilBilly

I'm a little slow in getting this out but a great time was had by all this week at the Worlds!

A new structure was added to the ride. It's a little hard to explain and even harder to execute. Check it out at Frederick Velo it involves riding in waves. Bascially we ended up doing our normal ride with organized sprint and hump points. Lots of leg crushing fun.

Our featured rider this week is none other than PhilBilly!

Phil Billy ready to roll at the Worlds

Phil Billy (PB) made the trek east to join our ride this week. He races bikes for Evolution Cycling Club , drives a Prius like Lumpy, has an awesome girlfriend and is a Cat. 3. His favorite race is Tour de' Toona. We graduated high school together~TJ class of '83! PB is famous for what I call Philysms. These are sayings that I have either never heard or heard them for the first time from Phil.

Some of my favorite Philyms:

The sound of angry shopping carts - referring to the sound heard when a group of cyclist crash.

Taco'd my Zipp's - crashing and ruining very expensive cool wheels - I believe this happened twice to Phil Billy:(

Getting the Ya Ya's out - randomly attacking your group ride to test your legs.

Spinning the dinner plate - trying to climb a mountain in your easiest gear.

I'm Batch'in it - when Phil isn't spending the weekend with his girlfriend.

You better hurry up before RIGAMORTIS sets in - one of my favorites, click on rigamortis. (ok, my granddad used to say this one)

And hot off the press the newest Philysm is......A sock in the frappenheimer-showing up in the results for a race without even going

Along with a few local riders, The Grinder & PhilBilly joined Fred and I on a cycling vacation a few years ago to the beautiful of Majorca off the coast of Spain. This is where the nickname Big Ring Phil came about. He conquered all the brutal climbs in the big ring! Ok, so he got a little sick by the end of the trip but he really did do this.

PB enjoying a plate of paella at a mountain top restaurant in Valldemosa

Phil Billy adds alot of character to our local peloton and is an all around strong rider and nice guy!

Helmet tip to you buddy.

Racing in the rain....

Fred had a chance to take our tricked out little Miata to Summit Point Motorsports Park for a track day on the Shenandoah Circuit. The weather wasn't so cooperative but the show must go on.

Fred and his buddy Wade looking optimistic-that's our little white Miata and the party umbrella

Not so much now

Oops ! Wade went off track trying to keep up with Fred- it's a little slippery

A couple times actually

Ed had a really bad day - he was the organizer of the event

Fun times...

Emma and Alyson

My cousin's 4 yr. old twin's, Emma and Alyson were up for a visit.
I brought them the first Poppy that opened from our garden.
We got in a little Mr. Potato Head
And it wouldn't be a visit in the country if you didn't dig for worms.