Barry Robaix and Fisk Knob

Up this coming weekend is the long anticipated first bike racing weekend.  There will be alot of air sucking and racing in very cold weather.  I myself bailed on BR and instead will be armed with my new mega phone "urging" my teammates to kick some Fusion, Priority Health, and everyone elses booty to get on the coveted BR podium.  Yea I was scared...cryin and complaining about having to race against expert...blah blah blah and that I might not make it on the podium this year...I disguised it as "concentrating on Fisk." You know I will be chomping at the bit to race come saturday morning!  On to Fisk...I think we will have lots-o-pink on the podium in the different age classes.  Let's hope the ice stays away!  We will be sporting our best funny helmets so come out and spectate!

Spring Training Race!

Picture it! Sicily, 1932. There stood on a line of Cat 1,2,3's a young (!) category 4 cyclist. Ok, maybe not Sicily, but someplace in Ohio.

First race of the season! One bonus of being the wife of a great cyclist is the travel. While I would never in my newby dreams drive 6 hours to race one race by myself, hubby found back to back races this past weekend and off we went. While Burke raced both days, I decided Sunday would be the day to throw down.

The weather was a solid 10 degrees cooler than the weather people (Thanks Channel 17) reported with 15-20mph winds. Not ideal, but hey, it wasnt snowing. The course was a 12 mile loop with a few rollers and a few bitchin climbs. I can say bitchin, cant I?

Lining up was slightly intimidating as the fields were combined. Nothing like racing with the 1,2,3's! Secret Cycling was the dominating team with a total of 7 riders in the field. I hung on long enough (12 miles) to watch as Secret controlled the race while a number of smaller teams attempted attacks. It was exciting to actually see team tactics at play.

After finally 'uncle'ing, I fell back and caught on with two cat 3's. One blew up but the other and myself kept going. We passed several men (yay!) and made some good ground. Thirty five miles later, I was smack dab in the middle of the 3/4's. I also received a compliment from a male racer on my awesome colored kit ;)

Lessons learned:
1. You dont need a great bike to be a cat 2. This chick had a bike 10 years old...a 9 speed for cryin out loud!
2. The 2's dont screw around.
3. The Super 8 in Cincinnati, OH is scary. As in, sleeping at 3:45am and some drunk dude comes banging on the door, asking, 'Is this Emily's room??' I didnt know why he'd be knocking on motel room doors looking for an Emily...Burke caught on quickly and filled me in.
4. Crashing 5 feet after your group takes off is embarrassing. Sorry to the mens cat 5 that did. Poor guy. Even more apologies to the guys that had to ride next to him for 35 miles.
5. When jockeying for pre-race port-o-potty time, wiggle yourself behind 3-4 guys. The seat is guaranteed to be dry and hopefully de-tinkled from the women who hover....which is all of us.

Another KY Adventure

Alright, there must be an entry about the road ride the rest of us did while Stinky & RideInPink were off enjoying their wind sheltered mountain bike ride.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the winds were somewhere around 25mph, although it felt more like 40mph at some points... but anyway, we took off to do a 27 mile loop in the flatest part of KY we could find (as we were all pretty gassed from the hilliness of our Mammoth Cave route the day prior). Flatest route on Map My Ride… but still fairly hilly nevertheless.

Anyway, we had directions written out on paper tucked into the leg of our shorts that would have been fairly easy to follow, however, street signs seem to be optional in KY. And it is also worthy to mention that KY is full of “Y’s, T’s, and forks”. Don’t ask me which one is which… I do not have an eye for these sorts of things.

But I digress…We made the best of the directions we had , and only ended up doing an extra 13 miles with all the wrong turns and back tracking. It was pretty comical, however, that our directions told us to take a 180 degree turn and we all sat at the corner perplexed for several minutes before we realized 180 degrees is a straight line. Boy did that bring a pretty good chuckle.

The wind made echelon practice ideal. We could all really feel the “sweet spot”, and could easily shift into a pace line type format as we took (what we all now know as) 90 degree corners to head into the wind. We really had it down to a science.

Lucky for us, the locals really got a chuckle out of seeing 9 women in pink pedaling their “titanium” bicycles along their roads. They were always polite and quick to point out that we weren’t from aroun’ these parts. At one such “T or Y” in the road (whichever it was), we flagged down a Southerner driving a tractor to ask for directions. He found us quite amusing. He shut off the tractor and opened the door and said, “Looks like an invasion” (said in your best southern accent).

He quickly followed with “Ya’ll ain’t from aroun’ here, are ya?” What a sight we must have been from his usual routine. Anyway, he quickly asked us to say the word “R” “O” “O” “F”. When we said “roof”, he said “Oh, say it again”. He was just having a blast with us. Eventually we were given the instruction we needed and were off to finish the ride. I’d like to send that man a team picture. I have a feeling he’ll be talking about us for years, as we will do the same about him.

Those are the highlights from that group ride as I remember it.

It is important to note that the people in KY are awesome! I have never come across a more patient, friendly group of people. Their courtesy is fantastic, and their willingness to share the road with cyclists is something everyone should try to emulate. I was thoroughly impressed. Thanks for letting RWT “invade” your space.

-Kathy

Barry R

Pulled up to Yankee Springs to 50+ cars unloading to pre-ride the BR course.  Got going and felt like Id been run over by a mack truck...must be the time change...yea right...probably the scotch from the night before and fatigue from flying.

Hit the 2 track and quickly found it pretty much unridable...ice pack...zapped energy for sure.  Cursed like a truck driver and got through it.  Brian Moran thanks for the tip...I will make sure I pedal on the downhills from now on...didnt mean to curse u out for the comment.  5.5 miles in 60 minutes???? 

Got to the cutoff - Jane and I went left cause we had to be back for 4pm previoous engagements...the rest of the group went right to finish the 35 mile route.  We hammered it pretty hard to get back in time - thanks for the company Jane! 

I will be going back this week to do the 35!

KY (and I dont mean the lubricant) Training Trip

Prologue      Little did we know when we embarked on this adventure just what we would encounter....one thing we knew for sure...we wanted to get out of dodge, we wanted to ride our bicycles without snowmobile suits on, and we wanted to have fun.  All of that and more was accomplished.  This entry is set up in significant chapters...albiet they may be short but maybe someday the fodder for a long drawn out book.  The funny thing is this will be from my perspective so I'm hoping all those team mates that joined in the "training" will add their two cents...so all u "not it" slugs hop to it....cause at the end of the day I may crack myself up...but u all crack me up way more :)

Chapter 1 - Food   (Also known as sex trash art)
    Thanks to Cheryl's preplanning we did not starve to death....as a matter of fact there was so much food we obviously didnt know what the hell to do with it when we left because there was some very riskea (sp) pictures on the flicker sight.  I hear (literally) that there is a sound video that goes with the art but it was too much to put on FB.
      We had the full range of healthy eaters (Amy, Connie, Ellie) to those who mostly drank beer (Lori and Kelsey).  Everyone else kinda drank a little, ate a little, snacked a little.  These guys were hanging out by the trash for the leftovers when we "pulled out" (Tammy giggle giggle (look at the trash picture cause those two words have alot of meaning).


Chapter 2 - Driving in the Bike Van
     Pretty uneventful....until all hell broke loose.  Let's see.  Kelsey slept (she said she just came off of 7 days on, working 3rd shift but after finding out alot more information about her I think its not that).  Ellie kept us entertained at one stop cause she couldnt find the pop machine...she was actually getting pissed...we found it for her - it was soooo friggin big we all laughed hysterically!!  Really it was the largest (Tammy giggle) pop machine we had ever encountered.
     We were really making ground on the Korienek Mom van - Ellie was driving....we were rolling, listening to music, when the bike van got possessed....like Linda Blair..  Very scary.  95 mph....throttle stuck open....Thank god Ellie was driving cause she just doesnt let anyone or anything mess with her and she got the thing uunder control-really we were all scared out of our minds....I wouldnt want to go through that again but if I had to I would pick exactly the same group...they may not pick me - or ever drive in my car again but I would pick them.  We were about 40 min from our destination.  First thought...get all the bikes out now!!!!  There was about $30,000 in bikes.  I went into quiet mode after calling 911.  After getting all the stuff onto the wet, gross, side of the highway several agencies pulled up...none of which was the welcome wagon mind you...but Ron was close.  My friend the cop is below.  We had state boys, county, and city I think....that part is a blur cause we spent considerable amount of time trying to figure out how we would get all the stuff back to the house.  Tammy kicked in to logistical coordinator - thank u...cause we were all pretty shook up.   Back to Ron... The Kentucky stranger Ron was willing to drive us anywhere we wanted.  We were a little skeptical but we took a chance...  Long story short Ellie turned on the charm...sitting in the front seat with Ron...cause we all piled in the back leaving her shotgun...we kinda wished one of us was packin' when he said he would show us the scenic route.  Along with her charm kicking in was her KY drawl...she actually speaks the language.  I was understanding about every 4th word Ron was saying.  We had to stop at a party store and Ron told us not to get out...funny and scary...we did as told cause everyone had bad teeth and mullets.......Im not making any of this up...you know Kentucky....Deliverance....holy crap we are riding with a stranger and we have no idea where we are going....u get the picture.



    Ron gets us to the house, we unload and take a deep breath....make a stiff (Tammy giggle) drink and get on with.  Oh yea...the  bike van gets towed by another guy with a mullett. 
Chapter 5 - The Downtime  -  "What Happens in KY stays in KY" 

     Is it "buck naked" or "butt naked?"  Oh I digress...it doesnt matter cause there was a ban on naked hot tubbing...but we did alot of hot tubbing.    our skin looked like this cause we were in there so long! 
     I hate games but catch phrase was fun.  Its a blur though and I cant recall anything significant to say about it...oh wait...Lori was especially good at it...her whole body would be used to describe the word....the only other thing that stuck out was we managed to tie it back to some sexual thing....amazing how that happens...thought only a bunch of guys do that but obviously u bring women together and it happens too!
    My favorite morning game was looking at the "In Style" magazine and playing "Hot or Not" with Lori and Tammy....And of course the solidarity pinky press on nail...good times. 

Chapter 6 - Riding our Bicycles
     Route planning is always a conumdrum.  We settled or riding in Mammoth Caves Natl Park.  Great first day ride!  We did 40 miles of pace lining, echeloning, etc.  We all felt great and this was a great team effort.  Side bar....dogs dogs dogs dogs.  Why do people let there dogs run in their yards?  It should not be allowed.  Every house had at least one dog that didnt like me.  Since I am not a dog person they liked me even more.  When they would run after us....I would kick into high gear (its the only time I can sprint) and the dog would fall back laughing its ass off!  Since the trip I have been thinking about how to mount a taser gun on my bike....the girls bought doggie treats to throw at the charging dogs...that should give u an idea how big (Tammy giggle) a problem it was.   They were bigger than this one...   I think they would send this one out to scout us and see when we would be coming - yea he was their leader.  Moving on....

Chapter 6 - Mountain Bike Ride Day
     I was soo happy to have my mountain bike...It was gale force winds and although I missed the echelon practice I think Tammy and I had a better time mountain biking than riding hills and roads that day.  Very rocky single track...basically I got my ass handed to me....its cause Tammy has a better bike...a 29er...oh wait I do too...crap...so much for that....but NO DOGS!!!  Great 2.5 hour mtb!  Women, you will have to fill in what happened on your ride.
     We had mexican food that night...hmmm no gas.  Thank god cause when you are sleeping with someone you usually dont sleep with that can be awkward.  Side bar about bodily functions.  We all know eachother's poop habits...that's team building at its finest. 

Chapter 7 - Raining
    Rain was in the forcast for our third day of riding.  Aaarrrggg 80% chance....or according to the eternal opptomist Kelsey 20 percent chance of no rain.  While my bike van was packing up in the ugly weather...the other group was going on Kelsey's weather report and wouldnt you know it we were pulling out (Tammy giggle) and the other group was leaving for a ride...one that never got rained on.  Oh well.  Its ok cause all the dogs were waiting for us and I dont know that I could have taken the sprint intervals! 

Chapter 8 - The Drive Home
     Kentucky rain turned to Michigan snow but it was hot in the car!!!  The conversation went from bands of the 80's, 90's, and today to "other stuff" - lets leave it at that but I will say I still think about one topic regularly....like I see someone walking in the mall or along a trail or eating out and wonder....hmmmm. 

Epilogue - Team building
    Even though the beds sucked, the dogs sucked, and the weather the last day was sucky the company was the best!  I wish all the RWT could have participated in this trip...it was a blast.  I think we all realized that we were in a better place in our training than we thought and that made the trip worthwhile.  Just know Ive got your back RWT (my whole car should giggle about that one).  Thanks for the memories....

Real Women Tri Training and Race Reports: Race Reports

Real Women Tri Training and Race Reports: Race Reports: "Hey... I heard Griff placed in some running(?) race last weekend? Do share! -Lori"

Heart and Sole 5K - one of those early season races. You start indoors (whoo hoo) and then run over a dike and then you get to do a regular run. I decided to put my heart rate monitor on vibrate when I got to Zone 5. Duh, the entire race is zone 5. Duh, vibrate is not the same as audible.....which means everyone I ran near spent the entire race listening to my Garmin go off every 15 seconds. Live and learn. Oh yeah, 2nd place in my age group.