The Suit: Part 2

Since I wasn't on the docket at work Friday, I was up with the sun facing a day of highs in the 90s. 6 AM was the perfect time to ride. I grabbed my blue and black print sleeveless jersey from the pile, threw on my gnarly socks, and headed out the door to join Wheel on part of his commute.

As soon as I was out the door, I felt chilled. I'm heading in for a short-sleeved jersey -- back in a minute. I knew Wheel was ready to get rolling so I didn't have ding-around time. The shoes, helmet and gloves needed to stay on while I whipped the jersey off.

I threw open my drawer. Just grab any jersey. Which one? the red one, the neon yellow one, the white one...GRAB ANY JERSEY! I grabbed. The cute green and white one that fits like a glove. Very girly.

I threw it on and repacked my pockets. I turned and took a step...looked down at my socks. Gnarly blue and black sharks.

all you need to do is yank off the shoes and peel off the shark socks...half a minute, tops, the matching greens are right there in the drawer

Wheel was getting my bicycle down so it would be ready when I peeled out the door. I didn't have time to mess around...

your kit doesn't match

I ignored the voices and headed down the stairs...

but the suit!

...locked the door...

you're not wearing the suit

...headed out to the garage....

blue and black sharks aren't part of the green suit

It was a beautiful 30-mile ride through the streets and woods, over the river and next to the creek. There were coffee smells and bakery scents...

...except everyone was pointing and laughing at my kit.


- TOB is there a twelve-step program??

The Suit: Part 1

Another woman and I once showed up for a ride wearing the same jersey, but rather than laughing about being at a party in the same dress, I was given a hard time for looking so together while she claimed she looked disheveled. I was wearing socks that matched the jersey, my helmet and shoes were the same color.

It started way back in my racing days when my jersey matched the shorts, which matched the socks and gloves. Through the kit we wore, we advertised and represented our shop, our sponsors and our team. For all of them, we had to look good. Since it was the only cycling gear in my drawer, I could reach in knowing that whatever came up in my hand went with anything else that might surface.

I've slowly shaken off many of my racing habits, but the old mantra sticks: you've gotta look good. It's like dressing the part in the corporate world: if you want to move up, wear the suit.

So for me the suit, or matching "kit," is still a must. It's a bit more complicated now, though. My helmet and shades and shoes are a neutral silver, but I can't just grab things from the drawer and come up with a sure match.

I've got red and neon and leopard-print jerseys, and I have cow socks and paisley socks and some with flames; and the brown puppy socks just don't go with the orange sleeveless.

I'm working hard to keep the hyperventilating to a minimum.

- OB count to ten....

Rant to Castelli

...because I'm sure they read my blog...

THREE

FULL-SIZED

JERSEY

POCKETS

!!!


three of 'em!

- The CRANKY Old Bag what do they expect me to carry in mini pockets? or two pockets? or ONE pocket? We're cyclists, here, not lipstick-carrying credit card girls!

!@#%$!!

Things that Make You Go...

hmmmm....


- OB I guess it's accurate

Versus

or
Wednesday @ 5:47 pm

Them
looking north from the Greenway bridge over highway 100

Us
looking east from the Greenway bridge over highway 100

More of us!
looking west from the Greenway bridge over highway 100

- OB wahoo!

Back to Church

last Sunday at the Chapel of Murphy Hanrehan...





- Bag ...have you communed?

Mid-Afternoon Commute

a baiku

new tar on roadway
smooth as baby's bottom, hot
as steaming diaper


~ it's hot ~


- THe Old Bag ...s l o w l y wilting....

Love/Hate

The Teacher's Conundrum

I love SUMMER! sun warm weather time no plans cleaning house rearranging furniture riding s i t t i n g sorting shopping not riding espresso cream gardens riding grilling weekend plans coming home phone calls yellow fruit kittehs fluffy things red sunglasses hearts actually, I hate hearts and flowers

I hate spring gray skies dirty snow schedules feeling trapped dust and pet hair routine not riding hectic piles shopping not riding office coffee Coffee-mate bare trees %#@$!! schedules cooking packing for the weekend leaving home phone calls gray wilted veggies boxelder bugs #@! fluffy things no sunglasses hearts I detest hearts and flowers

- The currently waaay satisfied Bag

New Brew

I picked these up purely because of their names. I can't say I picture Betty as a blond, and I'm not sure how she feels about being called "Sweaty"...after all, we women don't sweat, we glow.

- The and in this humidity, I'm definitely glowing Bag

HDL LOL??

Family health history is not necessarily on my side.

In spite of inheriting my mother's lanky proportions, I've inherited high cholesterol tendencies from both sides of my gene pool.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

It hit me in my mid-30s. I'd been steadily surfing along for years with cholesterol levels somewhere in the 170s (I don't recall breakdowns being important then), until one summer my total weighed-in at 195. It wasn't too alarming considering the test had been done the day after I'd spent 8 hours at the Great Minnesota Get Together* noshing everything from deep-fried cheese curds to pork chops on a stick. It would be back to normal the following summer.

Except it wasn't. 206 that time.

Then 219.

It climbed steadily. Somewhere in the midst of the 230s, my doctor at the time asked could you exercise more? My life at the time included somewhere around 200 racing and training miles per week.

Could I exercise more?!? I looked at her squarely what! you a crazy woman?!? we'd just had the discussion about my "needing to maintain a healthy body weight" in the midst of my telling her I was eating everything under the sun because my life at the time included somewhere around 200 racing and training miles per week. I couldn't keep weight on. My grocery bills had doubled. My life was cycling, driving to cycling events, and logging my cycling.

Could you exercise more?

I tried hard not to give her my exasperated ER-DUH look.

NO. I can't. It's still my most satisfying answer to any question I've ever been asked.

Three years ago with life well back to normal, my cholesterol total topped out at 247. My current doctor wasn't worried, however. Taking into account my lifestyle and that my HDL was somewhere off the charts in the 80s, she explained ratios: ratio of HDL to LDL, ratio of HDL to total cholesterol. My ratios were low, a good thing, but it's still something I watch.

I was amused by test results the following summer, done three days after returning from a week-long bicycle tour along the coast of Michigan. 70-80 miles a day for six days returned a total cholesterol level of 217. It was an interesting aha: all I had to do was ride 450 miles a week.

Well.

That's a relief.

Somehow I missed last year's test...probably had breakfast before heading to the doctor and forgot to schedule a follow-up lab test. This morning, however, I got the results of my latest: 176. All my numbers are within acceptable ranges.

Clean livin'.

Well, or they got my results confused with someone else's.


- The skeptical Old Bag after all, it was a busy morning at the doctor's office....

*Minnesotans love their state fair...it's an odd thing

Is it a Commute?

when you go in
to get some work done
but you're not getting paid
because you don't work in the summers
but you're taking care of stuff
and you rode
but it's not like it's a ride
because if it were a ride, "going-in" would mean into a coffee shop for some joe and a scone
because you went in
to the place you work
but you didn't have to
yet you kinda did
so is that a commute?


- OB I thought I had the summer off....

Participating in the Giro

...er, the Gyros....




- The Baggie we won!

Intersection

straddling the edge pondering the unexplored steep narrow singletrack winding over rock beds across logs down into a bank of trees the climb begins someplace beneath the overgrowth I know the route that brought me here but unfamiliar intricate trails are demanding and even more amazing

- OB go that way!

I was Kinda Hopin'

that I wouldn't have to go back in the fall...


- OB *sigh*

It's Time

Three more days
until my first
real summer
in three years

Alice and I
will be having beer
to celebrate
the occurrence

-TOB beer me

Fat Lad's Meme

I swore-off memes, really I did. But can I deny Fat Lad? when I'm the only one tagged?! This is way worse than a chain letter...after all, if one breaks a chain letter there are still four more people knitting it together. If I drop the ball on this one

it
dies whichmaynotbeabadthing.

aarrrghh!

The responsibility.

From somewhere west of Huddersfield in the UK, the call came out. It went like this:

When I was a young lad, we used to play a word and memory game called: “My old mother went to market” it went a little something like this:

Little Bobby: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was: Tomatoes”

Little Jimmy: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was tomatoes… and some potatoes” until it had traversed the circle of children to me:

Little Fat Lad: “My old mother went to market and all she bought was tomatoes and some potatoes and some carrots and some lettuce and … ” already the witty one ” a rocket powered cyber ninja weasel”

So the meme proceeds as follows:

You nominate a blogger who you know will respond and ask them to add to the list of things they have bought only in June that are cycling related. Come the end of June Fat Lad is going to try and track it’s course and see what we’ve all purchased in June

1. Fat Lad went to the bike shop in June and all he bought was: A new PC971 Sram Chain and a Cassete Spanner and a chain wear tool.

2. TOB went to the bike shop in June and all she bought was: a new pair of ruby red Sidis and some X-Series Cleats (but it's only the 4th!).

Hey Mike J, in honor of your soon FIRST blogiversary -- you get to carry the meme forward.

Blame Fat Lad.

- Baggie

Church of the Middle Ring

With Wheel recovering from the stomach flu and me getting over my...um...whatever is is that's been making me tired whiny crabby, neither one of us was up for a long road ride on Sunday, so we got the mountain bikes out for a spin at Lebanon Hills: one of the first, if not the first, sustainable singletrack built in the area. It's an awesome legacy.

It was a perfect spring day: sunny, breezy, 70 degrees.




-OB we stopped for a Frosty on the way home

Ruby Slippers

Picked 'em up on sale, ridiculously cheap, I like red, they'd go with my favorite jersey...

...but they're

RED!


- Bag still deciding if there's no place like home