KillerSpin

Some of the SpinHeads - yeah, it's an old picture but none of us are tan anymore...

I don't usually talk about work/what I do for a living. I thoroughly love what I do and the people I work with but it's work, my j-o-b. Interesting to think that my j-o-b time is the 'play time' of those I work with but I guess that's the best way to put it. A long time ago I changed professions and have never looked back. To go back would be to regret and I don't in any way regret the change I made, ever. Leaving a successful career in healthcare administration was one of the very best things I've ever done. I've never missed it since walking away - not a single day.

So what, right? It's odd but lately I've been fielding a bunch of thank-you emails from people who regularly participate in the classes I teach and those I work with individually. This has caused me to stop and think more about exactly what it is that I do and why. Sure, there are days where I just don't want to get out from under the covers but I always do because every last day I have the chance to interact with some of the most amazing and cool people I've ever met. Most of them are so much more than just 'clients' but instead true friends who I am thankful to have in my life. They give meaning to my work, provide much-needed insight, help keep me grounded and keep me sane. So as much as they thank me, I have to thank them as well because without them I could still be stuck in my hospital office, despising every second of it.

This morning was a case in point - bloody freezing coldness in Chicago (17 degrees at commute time) and a bunch of people showed up to spin class at the butt-crack of dawn and worked their asses off. It's simply sublime to look around a classroom full of riders pouring their heart and soul into the challenge I set before them - extending the boundaries of their discomfort and discovering something about themselves along the way. And that goes for more than just today - it's every day. It just happens that it all really hit home with me today. It was freakin' killer, in every way and that's the kind of thing that provides me with a reason to get up every day.

Here's the playlist from this morning - lots of sweat and mental tenacity in todays' intervals...

How Soon is Now - The Smiths
Blow Up the Outside World - Soundgarden
Bite the Hand that Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
The Perfect Drug - Trent Reznor
Chains of Love - The Dirtbombs
VooDoo - Godsmack
Session - Linkin Park
Every Day is Exactly the Same - Nine Inch Nails
Uptown Girl - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Breathe - The Prodigy
Transmission - The Tea Party

That's enough of the sappy, emotional crap (ick). No racing this weekend, just some group ride stuff - it's so much easier to suffer and freeze with good company! Something else that's pretty cool - my picture is in Chicago Athlete magazine in the center of page 24 for the November/December issue. If you click through to their website you can view the issue online. That's all for now - thanks for reading!

Lansing 'Cross Recap - Brrrrrrrr Shiver Shiver

Over the barriers.
photo courtesy of PF

Through the sand pit.
photo courtesy of PF

I needed to have a flame lit under my ass to race this weekend in Lansing. Today was the third time that I have so much as even touched my cross bike this year. It definitely helped that Lou at the Pony spiced up my bike with some new white bar tape and a white saddle. I think the last 'cross race I did was about a month ago. I figured maybe it'd be nice to suit up for the Lansing race, seeing as how I grew up five minutes from the course and actually lived in Lansing for a short time during the dark chapter in my life known as 'The Engagement to Bob.' Sure dodged a bullet on that one.

Weather forecasts were calling for 30 degree temps and snow the past few days so I was totally on the fence until I awakened to see that the ground was dry with a morning temp of 28 degrees. No doubt it was going to be a day for Super Strength Greyhound Juice. Have I ever mentioned the fact that I intensely dislike racing in very cold weather? Yeah - hard to believe isn't it? Freezing coldness makes everything seem slower and more painful to me. I pre-rode the course very easy and then basically found someplace warm to hang out until go time and so never really warmed up, per se, prior to starting. I had to wear a bunch of layers under my skinsuit and felt like the Michelin Man.

The Lansing course is 100% pancake flat, 97% of which is grass with some very short pavement sections and a long sand pit. This year it was set up with a lot of twisty grass stuff, a few barriers and two pavement round-abouts. It didn't really suit me - I'm better on wide-open courses that don't require lots of speed changes. There were about a dozen 1/2/3 women on the start with June and I representing for Verdigris. June is leading the Chicago Cross Cup series and so my main objective was to make sure that she got as many points as possible today. I wasn't paying attention when the gun was fired so I was nowhere near getting the hole shot as we rolled off the start. I essentially settled into second position about 30 seconds into the race. My legwarmers kept falling down which was pretty annoying - they're really old and the grippers are shot.

Without a decent warm-up it took me about three laps to settle into some kind of groove where I could stay until the end. I played it cautious and ran the sand pit almost every time. It was actually faster that way. The twisty grass section was killer - it was intermittently into the wind and just seemed to suck the life out of everyone. June hung pretty close for a long time and I kept yelling at her, 'get up here!!' I was planning to literally stop before the finish line on the last lap so she could get the coveted finishing points but the cat 3 men came through us at the finish, so they ended our race on the same lap. Bummer too because I know things at the top of the standings are close. I was happy to be finished - it was a bit of a suffer fest at times as evidenced by the (simultaneously cool yet nasty/gross) copious amounts of spit and snot stuck to the various surfaces of my bike.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for coming out to spectate a bit and to everyone who shouted encouragement along the way - it definitely helped my psyche today to hear your cheers. Congrats to the Verdigris guys who all posted impressive top finishes and also to the Pony Shop boys - well done, gentlemen! Mr. Pink, you are my hero!!

Unless we have some kind of miraculous break in the weather or I have a weak moment it's likely that today was my final 'cross race for the season. But you never know - I might get a wild hair the morning of the Montrose Harbor race in a few weeks and just show up for the heck of it.

What I'm reading at the moment: 'Fraud' by David Rakoff. I just finished 'A Dog in a Hat' by Joe Parkin and before that 'When You are Engulfed in Flames' by David Sedaris - which was hysterical. Not sure what's up next - maybe some classic American literature that I've never read or some Vonnegut. Depends on what I can find at the book store.

That's the story for now - as always, thanks for reading. If any decent pictures from today find their way into my inbox I'll be sure to post them later.

Saying Good-Bye and The Laziest Weekend - Evar!!

Sitting here at this stupid-early hour and seeing that the temp is 28 degrees makes me realize that indeed we are yet again headed for winter in the Midwest. It also makes me question why I live here anymore as I really cannot stand cold weather. I've tolerated the freezing coldness in the past and just rolled with it but I don't know that I can do that so easily anymore - age has changed me.

So, I'm saying good-bye to decent weather for the next 5 months or so and also saying good-bye to two of my bikes. The time trial bike has been dismantled and the frameset will be retrieved by it's new owner in a couple weeks. My back-up road bike will soon be someone else's number one. We know what that means - something new will be making it's way into the bike room hopefully before the end of the year. The hunt to find the perfect replacement TT bike has begun....

I believe there's something to be said for passing a weekend doing absolutely nothing. In fact, there are lots of things to be said for it - we should all be so lucky to do it once in a while just as a reminder of how good it is to not be a lazy ass all the time. This past weekend is a perfect example of how I did next to nothing and felt so guilty about it that the prospect of doing it again is unthinkable. I watched entire football games and only left my place to go upstairs to feed my neighbor's cat. It's a good thing the fridge was empty or it could have easily been an all-day eating extravaganza. My ass is thankful for that.

Okay, so I did ride my bike both Saturday and Sunday (a fine roller session complete with fierce melon Gatorade) but I didn't race even though there was a 'cross race about 30min away. I indeed feel guilty about that - I really need to get out and race again for Verdigris. I intend to do that next weekend in Lansing. I just wasn't into the idea of freezing my face off after suffering in Saturday's killer 20+ mph cross/head wind and temps in the low 30s, never mind the wet pavement. My hands were so frozen that I was alternately shoving them up under my jersey until I could almost feel them again. Not a whole lot of bike love going on at that point.

Of course, I always tell myself, it could be worse - so just HTFU and live through it. It will all be over in a few months. Think I'll just start planning those early 2009 getaways now....Arizona, California, Florida, where do I go? Maybe San Antonio now that I'll have a friend residing there....

This Makes Me Happy

'nuff said.