A Tisket, A Tasket, A New Bike Because of a Basket?

Since I was a kid I’ve always been a fan of big dogs. I’m not sure how it started, maybe it was because our family poodle never wanted to be around me and even bit me when I was five. Or because that neurotic toy thing was later replaced with a loyal Shepard/Collie mix that my brother brilliantly brought home on my birthday much to my mother’s chagrin. If it wasn’t either of those reasons, it had to be my repetitive viewings of Old Yeller.

But then came Lance. Not some pound puppy, stray or offspring of a friend’s surprise litter. No, Lance was an addition to our family after a year of research of what dog would be small enough to take back and forth to Canada with me, to the office and of course spend his fluffy little Maltese days on the bike with me.

To locate the right cycling companion I read everything, contacted breeders and hung out at pet adoptions on weekends, lifting and sizing potential distance riders.

At less than 3 pounds, Lance came home with us and immediately turned 12 year old Duke back into a puppy. Every morning started with the two of them racing through the house while the cats looked for higher ground. Our Retriever mix had always hung out quietly under my desk or by my side where ever I went. Now I was forsaken as she became a partner in this rapid fire Mutt and Jeff scene.

Now came shopping! Lance would need all the doggie basics… a helmut, a portable water dish for our stops and a basket to ride in. I did resist the urge to get him a yellow doggy jersey.

The helmut was a guessing game to me. I knew how large he was at the moment but since he was a rapidly growing member of our family I had no idea how large his head would be. Lance was turning out to be just a wee bit bigger than the 4 to 5 pound baby Maltese the pet store had promised him to be. In fact, he has settled in at just a hair over 8 lbs. Bless his bow legged little heart!

I found a fabulous basket on ebay. Collaspible and light weight, plus it had a rain bonnet (just in case!). The basket became part of our sharing time together. I put it on the bed and petted Lance while he sat inside it while I watched TV or read (or truthfully spent too many hours playing solitaire on my cell phone.). I placed the basket on the floor next to my desk so Lance could hang there during the work day next to Duke would would squeeze under the desk between reams of paper and my feet. I even carried Lance around in the basket so he could get used to the motion of a soon to be basket on a bike.

What I never did was actually test the basket on the bike.

Uh oh. I couldn’t put the basket on the intended commuter bike, old Belle had her brakes in the way. No worries, at 40 years of well loved age, Belle didn’t ever shift out of 3rd or 4th gear anyways so I tended not to ride her much. Not to be diswayed I attempted to place the basket on my Trek (I will now admit to you what a geek I am and let you know that she is named Enterprise). Nope, didn’t fit here either. As I moved from one bike to another, I found that all 3 of my road bikes, from Belle to the WSD would not accept a basket of any sort at the handle bars!

I’m not comfortable with rambuncious Lance in a back pack, And believe it or not, I am too anal to handle the idea of one panier, making the bike lopsided in my mind. With the way I am about visual balance, I would have to get two dogs – and what if they didn’t match? Or worse yet, what if one was Lance and the other Lemond – would they get along? Yeah, he’s named after that Lance.

So here I am with my”bikey dog” still paying off a Madone 6.5 while looking at Beach Cruisers for the two of us.

Can a marriage survive a bike addiction?

Sometimes you marry the perfect match, but yet, your interests drift in different directions. Such is the case with Dave and I.

How did it happen? We were two geeks happily following the path of techno weenies everywhere, downing Jolt Cola and eating Fritos, never leaving our keyboards, never seeing the light of day. Life was good. Until…

I found out about Team and Training. Instantly, I was back in the world of biking – something I had not done since I left for college a lot of years and 3 kids ago. I loved it, the constant joy of being back on the bike, the constant struggle of being back on the bike, I rode every chance I got. I was hooked. Dave, not so much.

Rae joined me in our first Team and Training event and the months of training up to it. Then a few years later, Josh joined in – in fact, he participated in his second event this past weekend, the Tour de Cure. Most of the household was now in the saddle.

My husband was not too enamored of the concept of peddling to get to where he wanted to go. Still, he continued to meet me at Helen’s cycles, eyeing the new models and every now and then looking at a bike for himself. He would talk to the manager and gear techs, making sure I was being taken care of, asking about the new Madone I was looking at, etc. He seemed into it, but I still couldn’t get him on a bike.

I teased him, encouraged him, cajoled him and finally I just gave up. I muttered something about those tech support guys whose only time away from the computer is when they are discussing going to the next level with other World of Warcraft players. He jerked his head up in hurt surprise. “You really think so? You think that is all I am interested in?” Uh oh, I had crossed a line. “Uhm, well…” trying to quickly assess how much damage I had done, “it does seem odd that you keep looking at bikes and talking about wanting to ride and you never do.”. Not knowing when to quit, I continued on, “Dave life is just better when a couple have things in common, things they do together other than raising kids. I know we can’t do everything together, we have to have some interests of our own, but this is something that the kids and I really love and you have to get up in the morning and drive us to training rides anyways…” I whined. “Right,” he responded, “I get up early, check the bikes to make sure they are safe and ready for the road.” . “I know, I know. So if you are there anyways, why not be a part of it?” I asked perplexed. As patiently as a Father to a dolt child, he learned close and softly asked ” If I rode with you, who would be your SAG vehicle?”.

It must have been seconds, but it felt like minutes or even hours passed as I processed this. All this time I thought Dave just didn’t care about it all. The very fact of the matter was that Dave cared a great deal. He cared about us. He has spent the last two and a half years carrying bikes, tires, tubes and basic medical supplies, waiting hours at SAG (support and gear) stops and picking up hurt riders, taking them to safety. His addiction may not be to cycling but it has been to “his riders”.

Sometimes, you marry the perfect match.

7 Things About Me

I took a 30 year hiatus from the bike (amazing when you realize I am only 29)

I’m the most active fat girl I know.

I have a love/hate relationship with snow.

I believe I am the single active support for the eBay economy.

I am Wife, Mother, Grandma. I am woman, hear me roar.

I make a killer brisket.

I have yet to be made into an action figure.

Sportive Survival Guide 1 – Climbing

I thought this was the most amazing video for climbing techniques. Who says YouTube is just fluff?

More Cycling Videos at:
http://www.cyclefilm.com/
Gain an insight into the basics of Sportive Riding in 6 episodes available from Cyclefilm.com. This informative video guide is narrated by top UK cyclist and Sportive Specialist Michael Cotty. Full length 45min Guide available on THE TRILOGY and ROAD TO HAUTACAM DVDs

One more offspring joins Team US Cares

For the last two years, since I returned to the saddle, my son had been asking to join one of our teams working towards a Century ride. Because he was so young (12 now) LLS would not allow it and poor Josh got stuck standing in the sun working SAG with his dad or just sitting in the car waiting until his sister and I finished a training ride. So not fun for a kid.

This season is a little different. With the Tour de Cure I am a ride leader that offers weekly training for my own team (Team US Cares) and anyone else who wishes to join in. Its not a ADA thing like Team in Training was, so I can bring my son.

I have to admit, I went into this with the typical mom view of lets-see-if-it-will-stick. I really didn’t expect him to give up Saturdays with friends or attempt putting mid week rides into his already full after school schedule. But he is doing wonderfully. He has even added biking to and from school to his daily routine so that he gets in more hills!

The Rock vs The Bike – ca-ching!

Recently, I ordered the bike of my dreams as a birthday present to myself.

When I returned to cycling after a 30 year break, I purchased a good bike (Trek 1500), just a step or three above entry level, and one that would take me towards my goals. My previous bike had been my brother’s Peugot which was about 40 years old by now.

I don’t want to imply that the Trek 1500 is no longer of use. That could not be farther than the truth! While its still my baby (something only a bike geek could understand), I have bike envy. I also told myself that if I stuck with this for two years then I would buy a “forever bike”, one that would be around another 40 years.

Week after week, I continued to climb the stairs at Helen’s Cycles (where they keep the special bikes) and eye them like a hungry orphan watching the fat cats dine on meals just out of reach. Each time, I would tell myself that these are for the real cyclists and return to the bikes downstairs, the ones for the rest of us.

Then came my birthday, it was time. In the last two years I’ve cycled more miles than I ever thought any human could, least of all this human. I’ve signed on for more events and have organized a team. I very rarely drive any more, if at all. It was most definitely time for that forever bike.

Back to Helen’s I went. Right up to Tony, the Manager and announced which one I wanted. I was committed now! As we were doing the paperwork, I quietly joked/asked if this was too much bike for me. He replied “probably, but not by next year.” There it was, confirmation that by the time I was done paying it off, it would be the right thing to do.

A day later it hit me… I told my husband that I realized the bike was more cash than the very nice engagement ring I was wearing. He nodded, told me that he was well aware of it and that the ring had better be viewed as the “forever rock”. No worries, sweetie – I’m here for the long haul. But the diamond …

Sole Support

Last Sunday I joined Les Light, George Lodge and a few hundred others for the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® in Downtown LA.
George mentioned that he had planned on running the event but since I was there he’d keep me company at a brisk pace. Now you may think that walking 5k would be a piece of cake for an endurance athlete – after all, I cycle any times over that distance – I know I thought that!
It’s Thursday and I am still recovering. The front of my legs from the knee down are in tremendous pain. I was told these are shin splits. Whatever the heck it is, its not fun but well worth the cause.

Didja know?

Who was the host of TV’s first telethon, which raised $1.1 million for cancer research?

Answer: Milton Berle was the host of TV’s first telethon, which raised $1.1 million for cancer research.

Inspiration is everywhere

By now, you’ve most likely see it, the Powerade ad campaign that beautifies naked athletes. If you haven’t go there now. Run, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Rebecca Romero, a woman whose previous experience of cycling consisted of working in a bike shop as a teenager,  is one of the three nude Olympic athletes portrayed in this amazing display meant to sell another Coca Cola product, Powerade. To me, its an attest to what the human body can be.

Rebecca Romero - PowerAde Ad

The athlete, who modestly describes herself as ‘generally a lazy person’, beat Wendy Houvenhagel by about 2.5 seconds for the gold at this summer’s Olympics in Bejing. And so is confirmed as one of the few, if not only, Olympic medalist in 2 endurance sports.

It’s more than a month past the summer Olympics, so why am I touting her accomplishments now? Because the image stays with me. She is a fine tuned machine of muscle and dedication. She is no more and no less then anyone of us, getting on her bike day in and day out putting the miles behind her. There is no history of cycling since she could walk, just a love of the sport and maybe a little more ambition to take the gold then you or I have at this moment. Most importantly, she shows us what we can accomplish and I, for one, plan on keeping that in front of me as I continue to pedal towards my goals.

Brentwood Grand Prix, or Things that go bump in the pack.

We came back from Midnight Madness at 5 am, then up and in the car at 7 am to watch my friend Joe race at the Brentwood Grand Prix. I was pretty excited because I had never been to a race before, Dave was less excited – something about sleep I think.

The Brentwood Grand Prix was held on San Vincente blvd. which made a perfect 2.2 mile loop for them. It was a little lower then where I usually do my Thursday night rides (omg, those false flats!) but in a good spot not just for the race but to watch the riders warm up on the hill and back.

Joe had asked us to attend so that we could take pictures. This _seemed_ like an easy request but turned out to be much harder than we thought. His race (cat 3 mens, 33+) was at a much faster clip then the others we saw before and after. There was no coasting round the turn and they were shoulder to shoulder thru much of it. During the entire hour race (one frickin’ hour at top speeds!), we were only able to see him once and missed him in the camera frame.

There were 125 cyclists in this race, that sat at 30+ mph through most of it. During the final lap, speeds increased … Joe was at 38.6 when the cyclist in front of him clipped his wheel while looking for a hole in the group. Joe went endo, 30 riders went down and we celebrated by spending the day at the E.R.. Seems a broken clavicle was the trophy.

For the gear heads in the group, the bike that took a major owie is a Red Trek Madone 5.5. It is recovering nicely from what I hear.