Top 10 ways to know you're in Albuquerque

I was dreaming this up on the car ride back from Adam's tonight. (YES! Got to finally see my man after ~6 long weeks)

10) You see billboards for Ron Bell
9) There are sticks in peoples' windows to hold them shut in case a gangsta tries to break in
8) Adobe
7) You see low rider cadillacs/trucks with hydraulics. In the rear window there is old english writing of the person's last name
(generally hispanic, but would be any)
6) When you go to a mexican restaurant, you know what they mean when they ask you if you want Christmas
5) Orange barrels and hooting construction workers...except they yell in spanish instead of white trash english.
4) You know what a hoochie mama is, what she dresses like, and how she talks.
3) Houses look like forts with black cast iron bars. (adobe forts of course)
2) You go to the Frontier to people watch.
1) The beautiful view of the Sandias!

I'm sure I'll think of more later. If YOU think of more, don't be shy to post it as a comment.

Busting some moves in the Querque

I drove back to Albuquerque today that way I have a day in between the drive here and the Gila. Silver City is only a few more hours down the road. The drive went pretty quick, I made it in 6.5 hours. My '94 Sentra was rockin' today. I was driving 80-85 mph and getting ~42 mpg! I put some new spark plugs in a few weeks ago. I think that helps the gas mileage. I have never really appreciated my little car till now, where gas prices are around 3 bucks a gallon. Now all those gas guzzlin' SUVs are really paying. Suckas! It's always nice to come home and get spoiled by my parents. My mom was equipped with cake, cookies, two types of food for dinner, chips and dip, and my dad made us some mojitos. That's what I'm talking about!

Gila starts on Wednesday. I'm a little nervous because my legs have felt terrible all week. I hope they recover before the race. I am convinced there is an evil leprachaun who lives in my room. He makes bad things happen so I can't recover in my sleep!!! Hopefully the recovery fairy will pay me a visit. I did a 4 hour endurance ride yesterday out to Carter Lake. It's kind of out by Fort Collins and is a popular ride among Front Rangites. There were some threatening rain clouds and a 20 mph head-wind for 2 hours all the way out. I'm trying to learn to embrace the wind, so my mantra for the ride was, "wind is good, I like wind." Here's some pics of the lake. I was a little hesistant to put this pic of me on here since I look like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Too many cookies. Oh, and I look like a boy. hahaha





Actually, I figured out how to do well this week. For those of you who don't know, female cyclists have a stereotype of being lesbians. I need to flirt or possibly bust a move on one of the fast women so maybe they'll let me sit on their wheel. What do ya think? It's going to be hard to stay motivated and get all my school stuff done. That looming take home final is causing a lot of pain and will eventually cause a lot of tears once I get started!! That's it...peace out homie(I have to talk like an Alb homeslice since I'm here)

Rain,rain! Go away!

Despite going to bed at 2:30AM, I still woke up at 8 AM as usual. Unfortunately, I woke up to rain! This week is being mean to be!! I'm supposed to be getting in one last week of training before Gila so later, I may be doing intervals with my heart in my throat, and getting my bike all dirty. I guess it wouldn't be the first time!

Last night was really fun. I had drinks with Fred Dreier, celebrity mountain bike editor at Velonews. Fred is a cool guy, goofy like me. At the Rio, there was this horrible band...so after pretending to rock out and suck down a rita on the rocks, we moved on. We ran into a lot of cool people including Henk Vogels... a totally badass European pro(on Lotto) who is just in Boulder for the week. He does the Giro, Tour de France, you name it!! We also ran into the Nicks(Ranno and Martin). It's a good time. It's actually fun to go to the bars in Boulder(compared to Albuquerque). It's not super ghetto. Albuquerque boys would think they are heaven because there are a lot of hot chicks. In Albuquerque, homie G funks cruise up and down Central with their bling bling, old english last names on the back windows, hydraulics pumping, and their mouths screaming out the windows at the chicas. Most of these chicas are actually hoochie mamas. Hoochie mama= fat, too much make-up, big nasty hair, wearing clothes that are WAY too small for them and trying to act all tough, with the New Mexican accent. Hot! Hot! Hot!

TGIF! I'm so excited for the summer to be here! Yes! I have wanted to live in Colorado over the summer for my whole life.

Saying howdy

Today I had a bike fit for both of my bikes in Ft. Collins. I tell you what, in Boulder, you can't see the HUGE snow-capped mountains behind the flat irons. When you are further north, you can see them. It's pretty cool.

I am getting some new road pedals from a friend. Egg Beater Quattro SLs, and they are pink. I'll show a pic tomorrow...now my pedals AND my seat are pink. Sweet!! A lot of bugs decided to commit suicide on my face today during my ride. I tried out some aerobars for the time trial at the Gila and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm looking forward to going home and getting this semester ALL done. Tonight I'm going to the Rio to get some margaritas with a friend. I randomly made friends with the velonews moutain bike editor, so he'll probably have some cool stuff to say!! This Rio place has a limit of 2 on the margaritas so I think one will be sufficient for me. Then maybe I'll go to sushi happy hour at Hapa. 2 rolls for 5.50. no bad,eh?

Wine party

My friend Chris Jung has wine and cheese parties(that's sooo snobby Boulder! ha) every now and again. Our little cliche of cyclists gets together and sees who has the most lightweight tendencies(usually me...) Oh, and we make fun of roadies ;) jk

Chris Jung, me, and Josh Bezecny. Those bunny ears were pretty clever!

Caroline Jaromilek, Jess Vogt, me. DHers teach me how to be cool

Collin is always trying to be a badass.

This is Karl, not a statue. Amazing, amazing.

Today in Boulder

The roads were dry so I got to ride today, but here's a pic I took on the way to school...

Let it snow?

Yesterday and all last week: Sun and 80 degrees. Today: snowing.... 32 degrees. What's going ON? I saw several confused victims to the weather, trying to fight the strange day still wearing shorts and t-shirts. Maybe feeling cold made them feel better...I don't know. At least it was an excuse to take a rest day. I did want to try out my new seat though. I also got some aerobars to practice with before Gila next week.

Here's a quick overview of the race yesterday: The course was an out and back circuit. It was about 7.4 miles/lap, we did 6 laps. The road had 2 huge rollers and was on a closed section of highway. I arrived at the race bright and early (7:10 AM to be precise). I did the pro race(cat 1/2/3) and there were about 20 women in the field including Ann Trombley(former Olympic mountain biker). Basically the race consisted of me getting hammered. I am no roadie, and it's quite evident during the races when someone attacks. I can hop on the attack for about 10 seconds and then POW! Off the back i go. It's the super high end bursts of speed that I do not train for, nor have. As a mountain biker, I train to sustain a pretty hard effort for a long period of time. Road racing is more about riding in the pack, conserving energy, and then going super hard when someone attacks. I need to work on that stuff. I don't it will be as big of a problem in the Gila next week because the climbs are pretty long and if people jump the way they do on a roller(a relatively short, steep hill), they definitely will not be able to hold it. I got dropped off the back 4 times over the course of the race and was able to flog myself and chase back up to the main group. I'm pretty satisfied that I'm able to get dropped and catch back on, but dang it, I would save so much energy if I could just hang with people on the attacks. I didn't do so well, got like 15th or something. The official results aren't in yet, but I had a good time and got some good training. I was trying to get used to riding in a pack again before I hit the big time next week where there will be more like 70 women in the pack versus 20!

I'm leaving sometime this weekend so I have a day or two in Albuquerque before I go down to Silver City. I still don't have a confirmed place to stay, but hopefully it will all come together!! This week I'm just trying to wrap up my schoolwork and get ahead.

Adam has been missing my cookies(more than me I think, haha), so I did some work in the kitchen and here is a picture to tease him... now you can take joy in his pain as well. muhaha













There's that crazed look in my eye!

PINK bike seat

Well, I am tired of getting chami sores so I decided to get a new seat. This is the Terry Damselfly seat, made for women. I got it in pink so I can really piss off guys when I pass them and made chodes feel like wusses when they try to hammer me and then blow up. Sweet! I'm trying to pimp my ride a little, but hopefully next year I'll get me a nice, new road bike. The frame on this one is a handme down and it's actually pretty heavy compared to what the other girls are riding. It's a leaned out frank the tank. The original frank was my 35 lb mountain bike that I thought was light before I knew better. More later on the race I did today. All I can say is that I will be in a world of pain next week at the Gila.

New template

Ok, so I figured out how to put a pic of the Sandias up. I may change this template again... you have to let me know what you think.

I had to go in for a drug test today for my internship. I drank THREE Nalgene bottles and then left(about 96 oz of water). It all hit me at once and I ended up having to wait 40 min. By the time they called me back, I was clenching every muscle in my body trying not to pee my pants. I think they purposely wait till you're at your breaking point so they can laugh at you.

I can't wait till May!

Howdy howdy. I got in a killer ride yesterday. The state of my legs never ceases to amaze me. Tuesday I was totally blown from my weekend and long ride Monday. So blown that I cut out my ride. Yesterday i went out and did some of the canyons, and it felt like I had my race wheels on. I guess that hint of fitness is a little encouraging for the Gila. A preview of this weekend: 50 mile road race in Grand Junction/Fruita and crit in Fruita. it should be pretty fun. next weekend I will take a break from racing and get ready to go to the Gila. I gave notice at Wild Oats...I just can't justify working there if I make twice as much at my internship this summer. I am so excited to have school over and done with. This year has been incredibely challenging in both school and life. It'll be great to have fun, go camping, race my bike, and have a change of pace with my internship at Xcel Energy. It shouldn't be very technical since it's for a utility company.

Sierra, you would be very proud of me. I was talking to a friend at 11 last night, and we spontaneously went out for Mojitos. I am such a wuss... I had ONE and was feeling prettty good. ha I was the decoy for my friend Thurein. He likes this girl and is trying to play hard to get. He wasn't going to show up tonight b/c the girl he likes asked him to go. Instead, he decided to show up with me and I laughed at him when she wasn't there. Why do guys feel like they have to play all these stupid games? BOOO

On another note, I'm trying very hard to change the template of this blog. I don't like it, but I'm no whiz with HTML coding, and I am picky.

Durango... long entry!

Last weekend I went to the beautiful Durango, CO for my first real race of the year. I went with the CU Cycling team. We were supposed to take a 16 passenger van which we rent for races. The vans arrived 2 hours late. People were probably wondering why there were a bunch of cyclists standing in the Safeway parking lot for 2 hours. We finally loaded up and it was packed...butts in every seat! We departed at 5:30 PM meaning that the 7 hour drive would put us in Durango very late! At a gas station about 60 miles away from Wolf Creek Pass, we had a scare. Signs were saying the pass was closed after 7 PM meaning we would have to tack on yet another 2 hours to the trip. Fortunately, it's just Mon-Thurs, so we were okay to go. However, it wasn't so easy. As we started ascending the pass, it started to snow, turning into a full-on blizzard. There was also construction, so to add to the chaos, we were on a dirt road in total darkness except for our headlights and the blowing snow. The van got silent very quickly. It looked like something from a horror movie where 16 college kids get murdered in a blizzard under the full moon. The werewolfs decided to spare us and we made it to Durango okay. The site of our hotel was the next fun thing. I didn't think Durango had ghettos, but apparently it does. It had weekly/monthly rentals. The people in the room next to me were living there, complete with the lawn chairs outside. After seeing who lived there- basically white trash, we weren't suprised to experience the bum fight the next night. That's right, bum fight. A bunch of drunk dudes, one named CJ... yelling for 2 hours at the top of their lungs to show some respect. They were slamming up against the vans, against the doors, drunken punches being thrown. It was pretty crazy and we almost called the cops. I was glad Adam wasn't there, because I knew that if his sleep was to be disturbed, he would have been partaking in the bum fight to try and get them to shut up. I tried calling the front desk, but for some reason, the front office was always closed. Oh wait, I know why! We were in the ghetto. We left at 7 AM Sat morning to head to the TTT. Our bum neighbors were already outside getting started on a 24 pack of Bud Light. That's right! No wonder CJ had no respect later that night...he had been drunk since 7 AM. That's just how they roll.

We didn't have enough women there to do the TTT, but we watched the guys. It was snowing and freezing. Tom Danielson and Ned Overend even showed up. The team went out to lunch and I went to City Market to buy pb&j supplies for the weekend. That's me, poor grad student extraordinaire. I don't have mommy and daddy giving me all the money I want like most of the trustafarians... I like pb&j though. It's good stuff. :) Later that afternoon, I drove the huge van and we went to get ready for the hill climb TT. I wasn't feeling that great on the bike and the TT was a very short 2.5 miles. Ouch. I was warming up on the course and I found the most pompous official ever. We'll just call him cowboy hat. The moment he saw me, he yelled, "You can't warm up on the course!" when the chief ref had already given me permission. He proceeded to complain that I crinkled my number, and had to comment on my headphones. He had to go on and on. The weather cleared up for the TT. At the start, my calves cramped, but I tried to ride through it. I got 3rd in the TT right behind Molly Hummel... not too bad I guess!

Dinner was interesting. A van full of 15 roadies all bitching about where to eat. That was pretty much the theme of the van. Whining. No one could be pleased!! The sound of my alarm the next morning at 6 AM didn't feel good after being up all night listening to screaming bums. With the first few pedal strokes on the trainer, I knew my legs were feeling less than adequate for the day. The course had some good climbs...my favorite. I ended up working for my teammate. I helped bridge her up to the attack group since we were a little late jumping on. I had to turn myself inside out to do so, so 15 minutes later, I had just finished a pull and there was another attack. My legs were destroyed and I couldn't grab onto my teammates wheel in time. I guess she forgot I was with her or something... stupid road racing. I ended up riding solo for 20 miles and held off the chase group. I still finished mid pack overall which is okay. I got some good VO2 max efforts in since I didn't let off the gas at all when I was riding solo. Our new clothing sponsor, Domino is pretty sweet! Check out the new uniform:



Next up is Mesa State in Fruita this weekend. I want to bring my mtb so bad. I'll take some pics. I'm trying to get a little bit of race fitness before I become imprisoned in the hurt locker for the month of May. I'm hitting the Tour of the Gila(5 day this year!), a Prescott endurance MTB race OR a Las Cruces Stage Race(Road) Chili Challenge(MTB), and Iron Horse(road). I was thinking of going to collegiate road nats, but much to the coaches dismay, I think I'll decline that spot. There were waaaaaaay too many wrecks last year for my comfort level. I would rather not risk it. Plus, why in the $@*$# would I want to go to Kansas?!?!

Anyway, the length of this entry is indicative of how badly I do not want to do my homework. I have tried it and am again too dumb to do it. Grad school kills me. We got our midterms back for my soft switching and resonant converters class... I didn't do very well, but at least I didn't get the lowest grade in the class. I did get a C+ WITH the curve. I think I need to drop out of grad school. I refuse to live in the lab, and everyone else in my classes does...so basically I'm screwed! I'll figure it out someday.

Oh yeah, the final verdict is in! Adam is moving to Colorado in the fall. I know all of you were waiting to see if I was going to be with my heart's desire or turn into a Boulder pimptress. ;)

Race Recap

Howdy! I know it's been awhile. My life is kinda going crazy right now... hard times at school, possible break-up, no funding for school next year... no fun. On the up side, it was 80 degrees here in Boulder today. I enjoyed the sunshine and gorgeous mountains with a run and bike ride. I had my first race of the season last weekend in Golden, CO. It was a collegiate race, specifically a hill climb time trial. I am not the best at TTs, but I did this to see where I'm at as far as fitness. I am a climber though, so this suited one of my strengths. I didn't get to preride and as a result, was a little too conservative. I ended up getting 2nd which I am very happy about since last year I did terrible in a collegiate TT. However, I should have gone harder!!! Maybe I could have won it. Tom Danielson even showed up to the race in his Discovery Channel gear. He started two guys in front of me. It was weird having a Tour de France rider right in front of me like that. And folks, this guy is skinny. You don't realize how skinny these top guys are until you stand next to one. I took it easy on him...I didn't want him to feel too bad if he got run down by a GIRL. ha, right. Next race is this upcoming weekend in Durango. It's another collegiate road race. Mountain bike season officially starts next month for me. I'm peaking for my first race, Chili Challenge in Angel Fire, NM.

I got a job at Wild Oats a few weeks ago. I work in the deli/juice bar. I need to pay off some bills before race season gets into full swing. The job is alright. There are some weird people that come in! You just don't see it as a shopper there, but when you see everyone...you see the wack jobs. I only work there 2 days a week, so it's not bad at all. It is a nice break from engineering although it involves a LOT of cleaning since I have to take closing shifts.

School's out for the summer.... in about 4 weeks. I can't wait!!!!! I have been looking forward to spending the whole summer in Colorado since I was little. It's going to be great... and NO HOMEWORK!!!!! YAAAHHHOOOOOOOOOO. I have an internship at Xcel Energy and don't even have to work 40 hours a week. I'll shoot for 25-30 hours/wk and race my bike. That sounds like a dream come true to me. Funny...now I spend 20 hours/wk JUST working on homework for ONE class every week. What a nice change! I'll take my camera to Durango and take some refreshing new pics for my peeps.

You know it's bad when...

...you are out on a ride and you get passed by an old man, on a beater mountain bike wearing a backpack!!!!

...you wake up in the morning and realize you were happier when you were asleep