New Year, New Bike, New Look

Howdy! I'm moving my blog over to a new site...not deleting this site, but all my new posts will be at http://www.sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com/. Missingsaddle.com is a site that clumps together a lot of the pros blogs. Thanks to Curtis Zimmerman for designing my site! :)

http://www.sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com/

Beer's last stand...

My cousin, quasi-sister, and best friend (all the same person!) Sierra came to visit with her soon to be hubbie, Scott this past weekend. It was an amazingly fabulous time which is always had with Sierra. I will be posting stories and pics in the next couple of days. There are A LOT! :)

My Cannondale is on its way too- the Scalpel Team mountain bike. I can hardly wait!!!

Back to the Future tribute - The Power of Love

YES!

Dirt and tan lines

After a fabulous week of riding in Boulder, I decided to hit the road to Albuquerque for the weekend. I have some photos, but of course, I forgot my cable to transfer the pictures so you will have to check back on Monday or Tuesday for illustrations. The weather all this week was so perfect for riding and a great way to finish up my training block. The dirt roads progressed from snowy, windy and cold to a true mud-fest minus the 0 degree wind chill. I think it's fun to get all muddy, so no complaining from me.

Slushy roads in town. No fun....

Views from my typical ride. That town at the base of the mountains is Boulder.

Dirt roads in the mountains are snow packed, but not slushy!

Continental Divide. There is usually a cloud around there in the winter and boy, the wind and snow that blow off that mountain is FREEZING and the bane of my existence.

I highly appreciated the break in the weather. The vast majority of my rides have been really long climbs for the winter. I decided that riding flat roads for hours on end is probably not going to be that useful to me since none of the races I do are flat. Plus, I hate riding the flats. It's so dull. Call me a a glutton for punishment, but going uphill (my friend Liz would laugh at me and say mountains are not "hills") is my favorite thing to do. I can't tell you how many times this winter I have frozen my limbs off. Climbing up to 8 or 9000 ft in the winter is beautiful and lots of fun, but there is a price to pay- the descent. It's already somewhere between 15 and 35 on a typical day. Couple that with zero degree wind blowing in your face as you descend on a bike at about 20 to 30 mph with wet hair (from sweating on the way up). If you dress too warm, you are guaranteed to be soaking wet with sweat on the downhill. Don't dress warm enough, and you'll still freeze on the downhill. There really is limited space in your pockets to bring extra warm clothes...so you're stuck. The Catch 22 of frostbite. That would be my biggest complaint about winter riding. In fact, I have gotten home and taken out my braid where literally thin sheets of ice fell out. Sometimes I worry that I am actually going to get "frostbike" and am erratically pulling off the road, ripping off my gloves and trying to put my hands on my back to warm up...or if my feet get cold, it's bad because there's nothing I can do. I just finished reading a book on pain medicine, and one story was how putting your hands in ice water is a great way to determine someone's pain tolerance. I would say the way my hands get coming down is analogous to putting them in a bucket of ice water...nevermind the ice baths I take during race season. :) Next to being freezing, the hunger strikes you like a bunch to the stomach. Your body is rapidly burning calories trying to stay warm. So this is how it happens when I get home...my roommates can attest and probably secretly make fun of that crazy Looney they live with. My bike is left sitting outside as I am trying to open the door with numb hands. I may utter a curse word or two, but no worry, you can't discern what I'm saying because my face and lips are frozen. Usually the first thing I do is come in from my ride, make a recovery drink, and jump in the shower. In winter, I go straight to the kitchen, make food, and sit in a hunched over with red cheeks and gnarled, frozen hair trying to chew my food. My eyes are slightly glazed over until the nutrients bring me back to life. By then, still in my wet chami, My teeth are chattering from sitting around in wet clothes and I retire to take a long shower.

Now you can see my appreciation for when we get a 66 degree day in Boulder like last Wed. I was grossly overdressed, and ended up removing arm warmers and leg warmers. I could feel the sun warming my skin and cheeks in contrast to the frozen catatonic state I'm usually in. The descent is pleasant and I don't even need a jacket. I am not screaming from pain at the cold. I laugh gleefully like a child at my good fortune and good time. When I get home, I take off my jersey to reveal a slight golden brown hue from the sun instead of red, raw, goosebumped skin.

After a ride in ABQ.


Thursday it snowed 4 inches, but I was glad to take a rest day. I was off to ABQ that night anyway and was looking forward to nice weather. Then I checked the forecast. 100% chance of snow on Friday. I was majorly bummed. Friday rolled around. not a cloud or snowflake in sight. I actually got to go real MOUNTAIN BIKING and was reminded of how much I love that sport. I was also riding in shorts in a jersey. We'll see how long my luck holds out! :) It snowed here this morning, but it's all melted off and the sun is shining.

March is rapidly approaching meaning springtime and breaking the ground of a new racing season. I can't wait to see what the future holds!

I also finally got some guts and cut about 12 inches off my hair. I have never had short hair before and when I found out you could donate it for Locks of Love, I wanted to be able to face my fear and do it. Nevermind that it took me about 6 months to muster up the courage, but at least some kids with cancer with have a little bit nicer of a wig!

The look


The damage

and the fun you can have with a cut off pony tail. Jeff came up to visit and we took many pictures mutilating the poor hair. Quite entertaining.

ELATED!!

Ok, so yes, my adrenal glands are hyperactive from the latte I'm downing before heading outside to freeze my butt off on my ride...but they are pumping extra because I know I have TWO sweet Cannondales coming in the next month. --> a mountain bike and a road bike. I haven't had a road bike in a year and a half, so it'll be fun to rage even faster on the roads (compared to my Scott HT mtb I've been riding all winter...!)

I got the Team Scalpel which is shown at the bottom of my blog and the SuperSix 3 for my road bike. Click here to check out Cannondale's line up and get one for youself! :) It's always exciting to get a new love of your life, and now I'm getting two new ones in addition to my other new love of my life- my roommate's juicer. Fresh OJ and carrot juice, amen. Yes, I'm in love with inanimate objects... such is the life of a bike racer.

Aw politics....

Well, I guess democrat is where it's at for me. Crazy liberals. ;)

78% Bill Richardson
74% John Edwards
73% Barack Obama
73% Mike Gravel
72% Hillary Clinton
71% Chris Dodd
71% Dennis Kucinich
69% Joe Biden
48% Rudy Giuliani
45% John McCain
40% Mike Huckabee
36% Mitt Romney
31% Ron Paul
29% Tom Tancredo
29% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Funny that I got Bill R as my number 1 since he is the governor of my homeland, New Mexico.

Site

In case you are wondering what the stance on the pres. candidates are for the election (and you probably should care), check out this site:

Grist

Sorry folks, gotta spread my environmentalist propaganda every so often. Global warming and humans mindlessly destroying the environment is actually happening. If you haven't noticed, it's been in the news and around a lot more with information as to how you can be more green. Here is a post from my other blog from October in case you're interested in simple and easy ways to go green. Make your life more green

Another quick note. Ok yes, I work 25-30 hours a week, which some people laugh at because they work double. It's very busy to train like a full time professional (especially in the winter when you have to put on big miles) athlete and to work part-time. I'm enjoying a lazy Saturday morning- sleeping in, catching up on my other peoples' blogs, reading a magazine, drinking chai. It's good to slow down and relax sometimes. I'm excited to go ride in a little bit too! ;) So this is what it'd feel like if I actually got paid to ride (minus the very large pressure of winning)! However, at this time last year, I was [trying] to train like a full time pro, going to school, had a boyfriend/relationship being upheld, and working two jobs! Amazing how we can always somehow manage time. I was able to do it, but my riding suffered from the high stress level. Turns out cortisol isn't so great when it comes to recovery. We'll see how it goes this spring with much lower stress levels and more time to actually recover!!

This actually came out of a fortune cookie...

I went to a Korean restaurant in ABQ and in my fortune cookie, it said,

"Here we go. 'Moo Shu Cereal' for breakfast with duck sauce." ...in bed(b/c you had to add that to your fortune if you don't already know). WTF??

What I've been up to

Albuquerque and the Sandias

I'm back to blogging after a little break. Okay, so last update was that I was really sick. I left to ABQ a few days after that for the holidays on a Wed. The antibiotics were finally working and I was feeling good. A week later I went for an easy ride. It was great to be home- dry, cold, and sunny which is great for winter riding (although I prefer warmer weather!) It was so great to spend a lot of time with my family and friends. Christmas day rolled around, a mere 2 days after I finished my 10 days of antibiotics and my throat started hurting again. I knew what was happening. I had a fever all night and a 102 fever the next day AND a sinus cold which I am just now getting over. I was feeling bad, but not even close to what I had experienced before. The CU Health Center was closed, but fortunately I had the number of the specialist I had seen at the hospital. He told me that the RNP at CU didn't give me a strong enough dose of antibiotics, and he was going to double the dosage and put me on more penicillin for 14 days. In a few days I was feeling back to normal again. I rode the entire last week I was home and put in a good 17 hour training week. It was great to do all my favorite road rides around Albuquerque since last year it was way too snowy and icy to ride anywhere! I don't have a road bike yet, so I've been riding my mountain bike on the road- slow going, but still nice. Even though I was on antibiotics for 24 days, I still had a very enjoyable December and felt really close to my friends and family.

While I was home, some fun things I did:

-worked on my car...yeah, I drove all the way to ABQ from Denver and it died in the next day in the street in front of my parents' house. Fortunately my dad is a genius at everything and helped me fix the tough old bastard.

My stupid starter was way down at the bottom of the engine meaning lots of taking it apart.

-had the best new year's ever. Some friends had a party complete with a bagpipe and guitar band...followed by lots of fireworks in the street, Mason playing Auld Lang Syne on the pipes, people belligerent and drinking champagne out of pint glasses, and some very nice New Year's kisses. ;)

First I went to a party with all our family friends with my parents





My doting parents

and then my kind of party!!


Some very fun people!

me and Jeff. No alcohol was consumed for any of these photos! ;)

More fun people

-lots of eating and quality time with the fam.


The Looneys can never seem to keep their mouths shut.

My sweet and innocent mom
and her crazy children

Christmas

My awesome, happy go lucky, fun grandma. and she's so cute too!!


Grandpa and Brian. The coolest Grandpa ever.

presents... after champagne.

ladies in red

political debate at the dinner table followed by arm wrestling. yes, I got dominated by both my dad and brother.

-lots of nice times with friends enjoying dark beer...particularly at Chama River Brewing company.


Jeff can give his medical expertise, even in a bar. :)

Cody and Brian. See, I told you the Looneys always have their mouth open.



I got back to Boulder this past Monday. It was cold and gloomy that day, but it's gotten better. I had to ride in a stupid snow-storm yesterday, but today was nice. It's a little chilly here, but I'm still able to get out and ride. No trainer-prison yet. Right now I'm doing long hours at a medium to low intensity to build up my base. I'm looking forward to getting my Cannondale road bike (not to mention my mountain bike). The bikes are so nice! I also planned my first mountain bike appearance of the year-- Nova Norba National is going to bit! I booked my plane ticket tonight! I can't wait!

It's weird to think that I'm done with my master's degree. No more engineering school for me! :) yes! It's also sinking in that I'm actually riding for Cannondale next year. Other than that, I'm working about 28 hours/week at Sunflower Solar, riding, and sleeping. Good times! Things are going very well and I'm very happy. :

Yeah...time to blog

I know I'm way behind... post coming in the next few days. Check back soon!!!! :)