What's My Excuse?

So much has happened. Where to begin?

Rainy Hill Repeats:

I'll start with a pic. Right after I got my road bike back from the shop, I did rainy hill repeats along Southshore, which runs almost the length of Lake Lemon. I stopped to get a few pics of this guy. There are always people fishing along the causeway; I wonder if they ever catch anything. After showing this pic to Thurston, he replied with the proper way to cook a carp--which is what he says this looks like. Get a log good and hot; smoke the fish on top of the log; discard the fish; eat the log. I'm guessing carp doesn't taste good.




Fox - Cat Standoff:

Later that week, Mr. Wonderful called me to the window where I snapped a grainy pic through the screen of a cool Fox-Cat standoff. The cat is seated in our compost pile where the fox wants to peruse the goodies. I was surprised to see the cat win when the fox retreated. Who knew?

Ride 2 Recovery:
Engaged with some volunteer duties, I missed some training time. I sometimes stress over missed days, but I understand things will pop up every now and then. One such occassion was the Crane Cyclefest that I helped organize. As part of the national Ride 2 Recovery program, this bike ride raised $$ to help wounded veterans go through bicycle rehab for their injuries.

Our venue raised over $35,000, mostly in corporate sponsorships. I had the opportunity to go to dinner with and ride with a couple of the veterans that travel around. These guys (and girls, I presume) have overcome severe challenges and continue to have fun on 2 wheels. What a tremendous achievement and attitude. From now on, I ask myself, "What's My Excuse?" whenever I'm feeling sore, tired, or defeated. These guys are super cool and it was a pleasure meeting them.

Delvin McMillian:

Juan Carlos Hernandez:

Racing:

Twice yesterday I had to tell myself to keep going and to keep pushing it. The French Lick DRT race was a 27-mile race with over 3,000 feet of climbing. OUCH! I had a goal to try to stay with the fast girls. That lasted about 90 seconds when we started climbing on the single track. We didn't finish climbing until mile 6 of the 9-mile loop. One sweet down hill on the back side then it was all climbing again. I had the EXACT wrong set up for this course. With my stiff seatpost and 1x9, I was begging for a granny gear and suspension. The trails are quite new, so I was bouncing around all over the pace. I'm definitely riding my thudbuster for the US Cup qualifier DINO race. In other news, I'm getting my new bike next week, so I'll have a granny on at least one bike!

Yesterday I rode in a time trial--a fund raiser for HMBA. This event took place on the flat, twisty turns at Town Run Trail Park. It's a terrific place to practice cornering--something I really, really, really need to work on. Perhaps a road trip is in order for me. I was the 3rd of 5 females--respectable in my opinion.

Tractor:

And last, I have to mention the new tractor. I've driven it twice now, and I have to say it is WAY COOL. I'm sure I'm not as excited as Mr. Wonderful is, but it's certainly a workhorse. Coming down to the wire, I was sure he would get a John Deere, but he changed his mind at the last minute and went with the Kubota. It has a bunch of hydrolic hoses & stuff--seems like a lot that could go wrong and be a pain in the butt to fix. I guess that's the trade-off for all the goodies: front end loader, back hoe, mower, & tiller.