Posts tagged cycling

MARCH 16, Tour de Dung #1 Beginner Women’s Race(Sequim)

36 miles, three laps. (My second race) Cat4B

I am so glad that I decided to do this race, just for the learning experience and because we were mostly a field of newb riders (it was windy!). This route has wider roads, a shoulder and not many hills to content with, but the weather and high winds made this day challenging.

I didn’t feel like doing Sequim the night before. I was thinking of different excuses not to do it. Well, I did have a legit excuse; It’s been 3 days since I fell off my bike on Blanchard and my neck muscles, knee and bruised hip has been nagging, but since I pre-registered for this race I figured I better go. If I get dropped at least I’d get a good workout and be there to support my teammates.

Adrenalin kicked in at the Dungeness recreation area (hence the name Tour de Dung, but I think it should be “Dunge”!); It was drizzling at the start, low 40’s but increased to rain showers later in the day. I warmed up  on my trainer for ~40 mins and couldn’t decide what to wear in that stereotypical chick sense (yes, you’d think it would be easy, but with the increasing rain & wind slowly picking up I wore a wind vest, my ss jersey/thermal capri bib and a borrowed Defeet long sleeve undershirt (which incidentally does a great job at regulating body temperature!). I didn’t know where to put my packet of GU, most of my teammates preferred to slip it under their shorts (it’s a little hard to reach in the back pocket), so instead of carrying it I quickly squirted a packet, threw some water back and went off to line up in the gravel parking lot with the others.

Roll out was uneventful. This was the first time WSBA had a Cat4B category and 30 gals and three higher mentor cats joined us, it was great! The number one advice from them: Talk to each other and communicate your actions and LOOK before you move. We’re moving in small increments and our pack was tight (to conserve energy) so I really appreciated the verbal communication between us all; I wonder how this may be different with the men’s categories. I learned to minimize my hand gestures with quick motion and honed my periphery vision (and looking underneath my arms to see back). No accidents, no one complained, so I guess we did well.  The mentors offered feedback during the race such as where we should position ourselves according to wind direction, which was essential for survival on this course. They told us what to look for (openings), when to attack and how teams can throw counter attacks (all this while we were riding 20+ mph in the wind and friggin’ rain, it was quite an awesome feeling). On our third lap we had to single file to the rt of the road so that one of the Men’s race could pass…that was kind of a pain because we almost had to stop just for them, so basically the third lap started with another roll out start (and lowered our avg…but hey, who looks at Strava avg, riiiight?).  :P

Lessons learned? You can use the side shoulder and move inside the white line! You still can’t cross the yellow, but you can cross in designated areas such as a sharp turn with officials and the last 200K mark (I think?). I finally learned to hammer it and do whatever you can to stay on someone’s wheel! I’m learning not to hesitate and to stop being so timid. I won’t stay in the game unless I’m willing to sprint immediately (and there’s no time to think, just do it!). I tried relieving my teammate who was up in the front during an uphill segment, but I couldn’t hold it for very long, but at least I pulled for a bit.

Towards the end I managed to creep up from the back of the pack maneuvering wide on a turn and hitting it hard coming out with a sprint on the final turn. I moved up the pack from the left side and ‘somewhat’ sprinted at the end. I’m not sure why I didn’t gun it, but maybe I was tired.

Tomorrow (Sat March 23) is Tour de Dung #2. I hope you’ll come out and support us racing ladies! It feels so good to be encouraged to do what you love, doesn’t it? :)

Here’s the site for more information about the race: https://www.usacycling.org/events/flyer.php?permit=2013-752

 

Bicycling is experiencing a growth in the United States but probably not in the demographic which you’d expect! According to a recent article in The Economist the total numbers of annual bike trips, between 1977 and 2009, more than tripled and more cities want to be known as cycle-friendly communities (IE: Washington, DC, Boulder, CO, Portland, OR) but surprisingly all growth in cycling has come from men between the ages of 25 to 64.Doesn’t this seem surprising? Where are the ladies and children? And there’s even a smaller pool of women in racing. Have you ever wondered why there is no Tour de France for women? It may have something to do with lack of cultivation in the women’s field. I’ve been an active member of the Cascade Bike Club and enjoy the many Free Daily Rides (If you live in the Greater Seattle Area I would strongly recommend you try a ride, it’s a lot of fun and an easy way to make new friends and tour Seattle). Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of options for women who seek more advance training for bike handling and speed training. I had to look else where. I was fortunate enough to find Gina Kavesh, a women’s cycling veteran who promotes women’s racing and held three day Intro to Racing rides this fall. I had the chance to attend two Sundays and learned how it feels to ride in a double pace line and cruise quickly as a pack. It felt exhilarating and a bit dangerous but after the second Sunday riding with these ladies I knew this was the direction for my growth as a cyclist.

Bicycling is experiencing a growth in the United States but probably not in the demographic which you’d expect! According to a recent article in The Economist the total numbers of annual bike trips, between 1977 and 2009, more than tripled and more cities want to be known as cycle-friendly communities (IE: Washington, DC, Boulder, CO, Portland, OR) but surprisingly all growth in cycling has come from men between the ages of 25 to 64.Doesn’t this seem surprising? Where are the ladies and children? And there’s even a smaller pool of women in racing. Have you ever wondered why there is no Tour de France for women? It may have something to do with lack of cultivation in the women’s field. I’ve been an active member of the Cascade Bike Club and enjoy the many Free Daily Rides (If you live in the Greater Seattle Area I would strongly recommend you try a ride, it’s a lot of fun and an easy way to make new friends and tour Seattle). Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of options for women who seek more advance training for bike handling and speed training. I had to look else where. I was fortunate enough to find Gina Kavesh, a women’s cycling veteran who promotes women’s racing and held three day Intro to Racing rides this fall. I had the chance to attend two Sundays and learned how it feels to ride in a double pace line and cruise quickly as a pack. It felt exhilarating and a bit dangerous but after the second Sunday riding with these ladies I knew this was the direction for my growth as a cyclist.

For the cyclist who has everything, now there’s The Hornster, a 178 decibel horn that uses a scuba tank blast any truck or car that may want to get their attention!

For the cyclist who has everything, now there’s The Hornster, a 178 decibel horn that uses a scuba tank blast any truck or car that may want to get their attention!

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This is terrific! GPS technology is opening up exciting new hybrid forms of mapping and art. Or in this case: cycling, mapping and art. The maps on this page are the product of Michael Wallace, a Baltimore-based artist who uses his bike as a paintbrush, and the city as his canvas.

Read more here.

Oopsy! RunKeeper has some how mistaken me for cycling in the Puget Sound, then back on land again. ;)

Oopsy! RunKeeper has some how mistaken me for cycling in the Puget Sound, then back on land again. ;)

Here’s a snapshot of my RunKeeper activity page from yesterday’s bike ride in Seattle. It’s only been two weeks since using this app that runs on my iPhone, but I’m beginning to see why it’s so popular. I have a small CatEye ‘cyclocomputer’ on my bike and because the battery needs replacement I couldn’t tell how accurate the RunKeeper app is, but the fact that it logs my route and has the ability to archive my journey with pictures along the way to share with friends on Facebook is pretty sweet. I feel it allows me to use this app as a traveling journal and with Facebook connectivity, I can share my favorite sights of Seattle with friends who live across the country (and I hope they will share experiences with me!). Do you have a favorite sport app? Please let me know, I’m curious to try! If you’re using RunKeeper I hope you’ll join my “Street Team”! According to RunKeeper: “Your Street Team is a collection of friends and other active RunKeeper users that you connect with to help motivate you. As you build your Street Team, your list of Street Teammates gets sorted by who has the most activities in the current month so that you can see who is leading the pack, and how you and the rest of your team stacks up.”  I think sightseeing via cycling is a great way to travel and ‘traveling remotely’ via sharing routes is pretty interesting and maybe we might just influence each others next vacation. Who knows!

Here’s a snapshot of my RunKeeper activity page from yesterday’s bike ride in Seattle. It’s only been two weeks since using this app that runs on my iPhone, but I’m beginning to see why it’s so popular. I have a small CatEye ‘cyclocomputer’ on my bike and because the battery needs replacement I couldn’t tell how accurate the RunKeeper app is, but the fact that it logs my route and has the ability to archive my journey with pictures along the way to share with friends on Facebook is pretty sweet. I feel it allows me to use this app as a traveling journal and with Facebook connectivity, I can share my favorite sights of Seattle with friends who live across the country (and I hope they will share experiences with me!).

Do you have a favorite sport app? Please let me know, I’m curious to try! If you’re using RunKeeper I hope you’ll join my “Street Team”! According to RunKeeper: “Your Street Team is a collection of friends and other active RunKeeper users that you connect with to help motivate you. As you build your Street Team, your list of Street Teammates gets sorted by who has the most activities in the current month so that you can see who is leading the pack, and how you and the rest of your team stacks up.” 

I think sightseeing via cycling is a great way to travel and ‘traveling remotely’ via sharing routes is pretty interesting and maybe we might just influence each others next vacation. Who knows!