Holy crap

Ya know....when I was in NOLA the other week working on cleaning up a big oil spill, I joked, "Hey it's almost hurricane season, we'll have one come through and clean everything up for us."

I was kidding.

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New Orleans evacuation ordered
The Times-Picayune
Saturday August 30, 2008, 8:43 PM

Warning that Gustav is the "mother of all storms," Mayor Ray Nagin late Saturday ordered a mandatory evacuation of the West Bank of New Orleans for 8 a.m. Sunday and the east bank for noon.

"We want 100 percent evacuation," Nagin said. "It has the potential to impact every area of this metropolitan area."

Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said.

"This is worse than a Betsy, worse than a Katrina," he said.

The mayor speculated that Gustav is so fierce Baton Rouge likely will experience 100 mph winds.

"You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now," Nagin said.

Nagin said he expects Gustav to "punch holes in the Harvey Canal," which could cause the West Bank to become a bathtub.

The West Bank has 8-foot-high to 10-foot-high protection, he said. Gustav's storm surge may be 15 to 24 feet high.

Anyone who opts to remain in New Orleans "will be on your own," Nagin warned, adding that services will not be available.

Before the month is out....

I'll post about something.

- Happy 3rd Katrina Anniversary! It's still a mess down there. Isn't this America? Another hurricane could only make it better by funneling money down there and making NOLA one of America's most livable cities again.

- Spent last week on a leisurely road trip from Santa Fe, NM back to Seattle with Zack. He was down there getting his Wilderness First Responder training (a.k.a. 80 hours of playing MacGyver) and is the person to go to if you ever have a ski pole or ice axe sticking out of your chest. We loaded the car with his mtb for me, and his singlespeed CX bike for him. After an afternoon at Ojo Caliente mineral hot springs we headed to Durango and reveled in some of the legendary, local mtb trails. I was a total GEEK an insisted on hitting all the spots I'd read about in the early 90s when Durango was the center of the mtb world and I idolized the likes of John Tomac, Juli Furtado, Big Ned, H-Ball, Sarah Ballantine, etc. We hit the local bike shop that was a museum of early 90s MTB history: Tomac's XC bike, H-Ball's downhill frankenbike (Oooooh!!! Anodized!!!), Ned's Worlds jersey, the old Specialized ads, etc. I even dragged Zack to the Steaming Bean, which I always read Juli Furtado hung out at. Geek. We also met a few guys packing their car for the MTB Singlespeed Worlds in Marin County and then for a bike ride from Reno to Burning Man. The one guy was wearing a pink VeloShop t-shirt so it was a kindred meeting. We gave them advice on surviving Burning Man and wished them a fun trip. As if.

So on we went to Molas Pass and riding the Colorado Trail, Ouray, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Missoula, and back home. It was great to see that part of the country that I'd never been, but dang I was ready to get off my ass and out of the car. Three weeks of sitting had taken its toll.

- Sarah Palin. Is McCain NUTS???? Sure she's savvy and can fish and shoot a bear all while rocking like Tina Fey, but......is McCain NUTS??? She's no Hillary. American women are not that gullible. He just sealed the nail in his coffin.

- Obama. OHHHHHH-BAAAAAAAMMMMMMM-AHHHHHH. It's not about me, it's about you. America, please don't fuck this up.

- Hurricane Gustov. It must have heard that I ate at the most amazing Argentinian steakhouse the night before I left NOLA and I wondered why it took us 2 weeks to find this place and that I wanted to come back. The universe is funny like that.

- Speaking of being gone....rumor around town is that I was clubbing seals for a few weeks. Why yes I was and they squeak like hell which makes you want to club them more.

- Cyclocross. I came back from my travels to cold weather and rain. I've never been so happy to wear wool clothing and a cotton cycling cap and be soaking wet. My 2 weeks at NOLA = new Ridley. BRING IT.

- Malt n' Vine in Redmond (oh so convenient to Wed night CX practice). My absolute new favorite home away from home (well, almost as favorite as the Burke Counterbalance). Doug and Lizzie will hook you UP with the best beers you've never heard of and even give you a free pint of what's on tap as you check out their goods and expand your mind. Kasteel Rouge - cherries and cherry juice infused Belgian beer? OMG put a nipple on it. In fact, I gave my favorite mechanic a few bottles of good Belgian stuff for totally rebuilding my Serotta and bringing it into the 21st century. Belgian beer, bikes, CX. I love the fall.

Mission Accomplished

Would you trust your shoreline to these fools? You should. They're some of the lead scientific coordinators for spill response and we've just completed another successful mission along the Gulf. In between all-nighters and meetings about oiled rocks (ooops, I mean riprap) we managed to hit the streets together: French Quarter, check. Bourbon Street, check. Hand Grenades, check. Sweet live music, check. Small, intimate, smokey bars, check. Beads, check. New liver, yes please.

Line of the week:

- "What happened to Liz last night?"

- "I dunno. Last we saw Liz she was on Bourbon Street with the Coast Guard."

Go Liz!

The Big Easy

It's oil spill time down in The Big Easy.

I don't work on salvaging gnarled wrecks like this guy:

And I really don't clean up oiled snakes like this guy (serious heebeejeebeez):

I mostly sit around for long days mapping areas that are oiled and habitats that are damaged and will need to be restored in the days, months, and years ahead. The next time your buddy asks you to cut off an 800 ft tanker full of styrene and biodiesel. Don't.

So long fit summer. It's all po'boys all the time.

Alpenrose Challenged

A tale of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

- I did not go to the hospital

- I rode on 47 degree banks

- There were so many women signed up that they split the mass start fields into PRO 1-2 and Cat 3. I came in 8th out of 12ish in the 5-mile scratch. I felt like I could have done much better, but the other women couldn't or wouldn't help to chase down a break so it ended up more a pack sprint and I was too wigged out by the unevenness and banking of the track to do any spirited sprinting.

- I was super inspired watching Juice and Kele battle it out with the other PROs and kick ass on this crazy track! They both gave Jane and I some much needed words of wisdom and support, esp Juice's equally demoralizing story about her first time racing at Alpenrose years ago when she......well you'll just have to race down there and earn the right to hear her story!

- I had the most fun catching up with former Seattlites Jose, Sharon, and Kori and just chillin' under our tent. They took a ton of photos that captured the power and speed on the track as well as the festive community on the infield. Now I'm more excited than ever to return to Alpenrose.....for Cross Crusade!!

The Bad

- Yours truly gets to start her racing by being the first person to do the 200 meter TT. Are you kidding me? I have all of 20 minutes on this whacky track, most of it trying to negotiate around 50 other riders and remembering to breathe, and I have to go FIRST? So I asked for some advice from the locals and did a flying shot in the dark. And came in DFL. Woohoo!!!

- There were at least 5 crashes that I saw over the weekend, which left me shuddering whenever I heard the bikes roar through the first turn near our tent. My stomach was sick anticipating another crash. Oh, and then I'M supposed to participate in a pack race. I spent most of my time staying far away from anyone's wheel and trying to control my bike that was fighting bad physics through the turns and bumps in the concrete that tossed us around.

The Ugly

- The worst track crash (not on YouTube yet for some reason) I ever seen, right in front of our team tent. Not a good way for a wide-eyed newbie to start her weekend of racing. I saw it happening, shut my eyes, opened them again only to see a guy flying up by the rail so I shut my eyes again expecting them all to be dead. Luckily they all eventually walked away with only some track rash. Make sure to note the wheel and part of its fork hurtling through space.

- In another bad crash, a poor guy slid on his front side across the apron, ripping the front of his skin suit and getting some nasty track rash on his face and half of his chest, nearly ripping off a nipple. Is track racing worth losing a nipple? I think not.

Big Waves

This weekend will be "Jane and Jill's Big Adventure" as we road trip down to Portland for the Alpenrose Challenge. Elite chickees from around the country and even from around the world (Guatemala? Trinidad?? Tobago???) will be there, too. Why, you may ask, am I showing up? Well yes I'd be asking the same thing if I sat where you are. How does anyone get roped into something way over their head?

1) They've been talked into it by someone else who makes it sound like SO MUCH FUN
2) Sheer ignorance/naiveté
3) Both

The same could be said when my grad school roommate and I went to Puerto Rico for a week of surfing a number of years ago. Everyone from our little town had been there and told us we HAD to go because it's warm water and so beautiful and that, oh sure - there are plenty of easy waves for you to ride.

LIARS.

When Meghan and I got there we did find a sweet little longboard cove on our first day with no one else around, but out of no where, like a switch had just been turned on, the waves suddenly got really Really REALLY big and we found ourselves completely out of our element, pitifully trying to paddle back into shore while not getting our brains bashed into the coral.

But we survived. And we challenged ourselves every day and got a little bit better. Our timing became more in tune to the faster, bigger waves that rose up out of the deep. We learned how to wait just a few seconds longer and throw our weight back on the steeper face and to pop up faster than we ever thought our tired legs could. And the people we met in the line-up coaxed us along and laughed even when we got pummeled, but really cheered when we got that one good ride-of-the-day that left smiles a mile wide.

Yeah, that's how I'm looking at this weekend. I'll get pummeled, but I'll get back up and keep paddling knowing that I've taken myself up a notch afterwards and that I can bump it up even more the next time I'm in the water.

Summer!

This is my first real, long, enjoyable, activity-filled summer since 2005 and it's a BLAST.

- Did my first Keirin on Friday night and somehow came in 4th in the finals, behind Amara, Annette, and Tela. I call it beginner's dumb luck thanks to my excellent pole positioning in both races. I can definitely dig a race where you don't have to do any work except for the last 600 meters and I even did a new personal high speed of 32.8mph (and the girls who won were going even faster!).

- Need to race smarter in the longer races. No more chasing down everything and saying "it will make me stronger." No, it will make you blow up and finish at the back.

- I've discovered a cure for the hipster fixie plague: make them do workouts 2x/week in a +92" gear. Soon rear derailleurs will no longer be in stock at your LBS.

- I love riding Kermit around town. More than anything I love his gear range so I can spin up any hill and coast at leisure to recover from said 92" gear workouts.

- I love twilight at 10:30pm and sitting on my deck after a hot summer day of riding around, checking out our little garden of spinach, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. It should be like this all the time.

- Despite the wonderful summer, I'm already thinking about CX season and getting a new, GEARED bike. Even one that's light enough for me to shoulder. So far Jake the Snake is at the top of my list, mostly because it's blue and PRETTY. That goes far in a girl's book. What? A 2nd new bike in 2 months? Well.....yeah. Gotta support the LBS in my own form of economic stimulus!

Breathing is for sissies

I thought I was all set up to have a great night of Friday racing. I caught up on all my desperately needed sleep the past 2 days, and even played hookie Friday so that I could sleep in and relax for once. I was rested, hydrated, fed, got my vitamin dope the day before....what could be better?

10 Lap Tempo - One big sprint into the race and my tongue doubles in size and my entire mouth is swollen and I can't breathe. I watch the entire pack swoop by me as I try to keep pedaling and freaking out at the same time. The rest of the race I watch them string out from the other side of the track. 8 laps in I mercifully get lapped and pull the fuck out.

First intermission - Meltdown #1. My life is over. I'm selling all my shit. I have no idea what just happened to me. Being blown off the back in front of hundreds of people is not my idea fun. Having my whole mouth swell up is not my idea of fun.

Miss n' Out - Too stubborn to drop out just yet, I make it about halfway through the race by sprinting around the pack up-track. The paced is manageable enough that my mouth isn't quite as swollen any more but I feel like I'm breathing shards of glass.

Second intermission - Meltdown #2. I'm afraid that I'm allergic to my inhaler and I'll never make it out to race again. No one around me can explain what might be happening so of course I fear the worst. I finally summon the courage to go talk to Kenny without having a meltdown in front of him. Within seconds he explains that the hot dry air is sucking all the moisture out of my mouth and lungs and that I need to stick a piece of gum up in my mouth during the race and it will all be good.

J: "But I've never had this happen before."
K: "Well you just did."
J: "But it's never happened before."
K: "But it just did."
J: "But it didn't happen on Wed or ever before."
K: "You weren't exerting yourself under these conditions before."
J: "Yes I was."
K: "No you weren't."
J: "But it's not really that dry out. It's Seattle. There's still humidity in the air."
K: "Yes it is really dry tonight. Trust me. It happens to me all the time. Try it in this last race and we'll go from there."
J: "I'm tired of getting old."

So Kenny gives me a piece of gum and I go along my way questioning whether this old wives tale will keep me from being humiliated yet again.

4x5 - I tell myself that I'll try 5 laps and if I can't breathe I'll drop out. Miraculously, the gum I'm playing with in my cheek is keeping my mouth from drying out and I can breathe and actually stick with the pack and even chase down some attacks. I finish the race with everyone else, minus any points, but my faith somewhat restored. I find Kenny right after and ask him if anyone's told him that he actually knows what he's talking about. John Hanson is within earshot and cracks up. Kenny smiles and pats me on the head. I end the night a little smarter.

Sprint Mania!

Last night was the first Sprint Mania event. Groups of 3 riders, seeded by previous 200m times, did three 2-lap heats over the course of the evening. I was SO excited to finally participate! I'd been waiting 2 years and now I was actually able to race. I had an idea of how a sprint race was supposed to work. Jane and I have been "playing reindeer games" on Sundays when we get bored with our regular workout. It's a total blast to psyche out your competitor or find ways to hide and get the jump on them.

They let the really fast guys go out first so we all sat around watching their tactics and listening to Bilko scream from the infield "GOOOOOO!!! GOOOOOO!!!!" whenever he saw a perfect opportunity for someone to get the jump. It was even funnier because no one could hear him or knew what an opening they had so they'd just keep rolling around looking at each other, which made Bilko even more frustrated and animated.

In our first heat, I got up high and was going to let my 2 competitors make a jump so they could lead me out. There was a wicked headwind on the backstretch so I didn't think I could hold it the whole way. Lesson #1 - I hesitated just enough when they jumped so I missed their wheel and couldn't make up the ground and came in 3rd. Rats. Never again!

After watching another round of the other riders, it was very apparent that 9 times out of 10, the person who surprises the others keeps their lead and wins. So in my 2nd heat I led the others around crazy slow and kept an eye to see if they were planning anything and tried a few fakey moves. But the second time on Turn 1, I decided to surprise them and got the jump. I sprinted as hard as I could and never looked back, but about 10 meters from the finish, the guy in our heat started to come around me. Good enough for 2nd and if I'd been a bit stronger could have won it. My sneak attack was fun and seemed to work well.

Third heat - take no prisoners. Again I led them around super slow. I knew that I didn't have real sprinters with me so no need to give them an advantage by ramping up the speed. At Turn 4 one of them went, albeit a little too slowly and not with the best commitment, so we got on her wheel and let her pull us around. At the turn for the finish I went around the first two and just nipped Lara at the end. Finally!

It was a really fun night and we all learned a lot. This sprinting thing is a GAS! I'd much prefer a thinking, tactical, 800 meter game over a boring 40 mile road race any day. At some point I hit 32.2 mph. Gotta beef up the legs even more!

Mountain Angels

Blessed are the angels who volunteered yesterday to search for and recover the 3 men who disappeared in the Crystal Mountain backcountry this winter. My friend and coworker, Dave, lost his best friend Phil in this accident. Thank you for helping to bring peace to Dave and the other family members who lost their friends, sons, and lovers. You changed their lives forever yesterday. You found the lost souls and reunited them with their loved ones. I love you Zack and am so proud of you to have been part of such a gracious effort. May you all be safe, smart, and strong in your journeys to the mountains.

Balancing life is haaaaaaard

If you saw me race tonight, I totally sucked. Thanks for being a sport and cheering for me. This was the first anything that I've done in 3 weeks and the humiliation was only amplified by being awarded 4th place for the pre-season races in their little award show at the beginning of the night. Really! I used to be kinda good! Ok I did come out of the races with 2 Positives: helped Jane win a prime and held off Tamara for my own prime until that wiley Amara dove down over us to nip it from me. I'll keep my eye on that one.

But tonight my legs were mushy appendages of overcooked asparagus. I've lost all my power and felt like that 90" gear I owned so well in May was more like 190". At one anoxic point in the first race I literally looked down to see if a brake was rubbing on my rim. D'oh! Couldn't use that excuse.

I don't know how racers balance everything in their lives. Some are lucky and only have to focus on eating and training. Others even have kids. Throw in a job that takes you away and health issues and everything else that ticks off the minutes of the day and you're living your own Amazing Race from dawn til dusk (and after). I guess it's just one day at a time and do that best you can. It sucks that you can be so close to achieving that sense of balance and the universe aligns to make everything perfect, but then inevitable chaos intervenes shortly there after to humble your ass. Balance. Somehow. Some way. Some times.

Paula Remounts

What to do on a Friday morning instead of getting ready for work? Figure out your bike porn name! This should keep you entertained through the weekend.

It's June. It's cold and rainy.

I've been feeling mighty funky and un-momo-tivated to do anything since being in NH for work 2 weeks ago. Think I caught a little bug that's wrecked just enough havoc with my immune system to sap my energy and the Puget Sound region's March-like weather hasn't helped. Haven't done a decent workout in 3 weeks! And I get to go back to NH next week so that we can finish this LARP business and nuke Portsmouth Harbor so my race fitness will hardly improve. I'm wavering between continuing the quest to become healthy and strong and fast again and just throwing in the towel and drinking delicious Belgian beer every night and tooling around for the rest of my life on Kermit. So within reach.....

One definite major goal that I'm obsessed with is the Marymoor Little 100 this Saturday. I love bikes. I love costumes. I love racing bikes in costumes. Jane, Ed, Scott and I will be out to secure the Co-Ed and Best Costume Title. Not convinced? Oh you will be.

Because Hillary is DONE

I love the timing of the universe. I ordered 20 of these spokecards a few weeks ago from a nice person who was making them, and subsequently was sent 54 plus a handful of larger stickers. Let me know if you're interested in helping to unload them!

And Kermit makes 7!

I got one.

I'm one of the Geeks.

I'm now the owner of a bike that I never.....ever....ever....ever imagined I would ride.

The freak wagon.

The midget wheels.

The Thing with no top tube.

What the hell IS that?

A Bike Friday.

It's bright green and I've named him Kermit.

I travel quite a bit for work and I always try to take one of my bikes with me so I can get away from my co-workers and explore the surroundings. Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was one of the better places I've explored. My Fat Chance and I rode out to the local landfill at 11 o'clock at night to watch dozens of bald eagles snack on mounds of garbage in full daylight. While it's a liberating feeling to be able to ride around once I get there, it's a serious PITA (pain in the ass) to get a bike anywhere. I pack it up in the big monolith bike box, get charged $60-100 each way, huff it around the airport terminal, then rent a huge vehicle to cart the box to the hotel. It's to the point where the logistics are so expensive and such a PITA that it's not worth it to bring some two-wheeled fun along for the ride. I thought about S&S couplings, which run about $400, but didn't have a bike in hand to sacrifice to the gods.

Then, Zack and I were talking about taking the train more frequently between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, so I could live up there part-time next year and the idea of having a car-free commute between the 2 cities was idyllic. A folding bike would make the commute that much easier - just ride to the train, fold it up, enjoy the scenery for a few hours, then unfold and ride away. No need to box it up or worry if the train would have enough bike space. Take control of your lifestyle and just GO.

We researched folding bikes quite a bit. We quickly discounted many of the cheaper models that are made overseas because we want to support local businesses as much as possible. That quickly narrowed it down to Bike Friday, which is made down in Eugene, OR, and the company runs on wind power to boot. The bikes are also made of steel so we knew the bikes would be completely bomber. Plus if you know Zack and I, we are devoted fans of steel bikes. We crash and we get right back up.

As for what model, there are several to choose from. We leaned towards the more tour-worthy bikes since neither of us has a real touring bike. We didn't need anything sporty or light-weight or for off-roading (yes...they can do the Continental Divide Trail!), so that narrowed it down to the New World Tourist, their most popular touring folder. And while we're at it.....throw in some custom sizing, componentry, our own name plates and frame color, cook for a month and it's ready!

We got them this week and it's been nothing short of pure childish FUN. Zack already took his up to Vancouver on the train with great ease and has been rolling around up there, his bike folded up next to his bed. I rode mine to work once and did more Show n' Tell than I have since 3rd grade. I stopped by Herriott Sports and Russell nodded in sardonic approval of my "Geek Friday", then proceeded to do wheelies around the shop. Punk. I also took Kermit to the track to hang out during one of my workouts and he was quite the hit. Jane thinks that I should put my WSBA # and some aerobars on him and show up in full kit to the start of a TT. The look on those bike snobs would be PRICELESS.

The most popular question is "How does it ride?". You'd really be hard pressed to know that you're not on a regular touring bike while tooling around. I've found it really nimble and stable in turns and it climbs like a mountain goat. A 20 mile commute was as comfortable as my road bike. The gearing is much lower with the 20" wheels so it's a dream to be able to spin up hills for once!

I'm off to New Hampshire next week with Kermit in tow for our first little adventure. The first of many!

A perfect Bike Friday

Friday was Take Your Bike to Work Day, one of my favoritest days of the year. The city was one crazy biking bottleneck with 23,000 people getting into their summer commuting groove. It took me 90 minutes to get to work because of seeing lots of bike peeps I knew and just enjoying the fun. One of the highlights? Going over to take a picture of the BTW Banana and realizing that I KNEW the banana:

(That's one fine banana you got there Brian :)

After a day of commuting in the sun, it was time to head to the track! My Spidey-sense told me that the roadies who have been dominating our pre-season races would be melting in the heat at the Wenatchee stage race this weekend....and I was right! There were only 8 of us for the women's race, but it was all track all the time and by far the most fun night of the season. No worries about sketchy riding or cranking around at 30 m.p.h. like it's the U.S. National Crit Championships. You could feel the positive energy in the pack. Everyone was SO comfortable and confident because we knew each other and trusted everyone's skills. There was lots of strategy and track tactics, hard sprints for the points, and since we're lazy trackies, lots of slowing down to 10 m.p.h. after the sprints. It was laughable to a point because any other night with the roadies and we'd still be barfing up a lung after the sprints, but it was our night so we played by our rules and it felt damn good.

I'm delighted to say that I finally found my groove with this night of racing. Having these girls around me instantly brought me out of my shell. A few days earlier I was ready to sell all my stuff, but within a few laps I knew that my faith was renewed. I tried out some fun tactics, got screwed on others, and learned a ton. My fitness felt strong so I know I can go harder next week! I loved hurtling towards the finish of the very last race with some strange grunting noises coming from within and hearing Donna Smith scream "GOGOGOGOGOGO!!!" from the bleachers. She came up to me afterwards with a big smile and said, "You really had your GRRRRRR on!" Yes I did and it was AWESOME!

ISO: My groove

Raced tonight at the track. 14 women!!! Yay us!!

My energy was astoundingly awesome after getting 60 cc's of vitamin therapy earlier in the day. Yay doping on vitamins!

I was feeling mighty fine and put on a slightly bigger gear than last week, which should have given me the rocket boost I knew was in me. I had a game plan all in my head to take charge on certain laps and get points so that I could win those Babeland massage bars (prizes for pre-season ominum winners!), but then girls way faster and smarter than me showed up and put an end to that plan right away. Rats.

I tried to race smart, but once again it turned into more of me just surviving the blazing fast (for me) laps. I tried to stay towards the front of the pack, but then the line in the sprinter's lane would surge ahead and then I'd be stuck in the back. I tried staying down in the sprinter's lane to anticipate that wonderful surge, but then things got sketchy from riders above and I was too spooked to stay down there. BAH. Where's a girl to go?

More than anything though, I don't have my groove on yet. I'm discovering that I'm still racing extremely conservatively because I'm afraid of getting in a wreck and being on the S&I list yet again (even though it's much safer in a pack of people with no brakes!). I can't bring myself to being off the bike again and have developed an anxiety about being aggressive or assertive in the pack, that somehow being conservative will protect me from something bad happening. But with that anxiety comes riding more towards the back so that I can watch everything in front of me "thinking" that I'm in control, when it's actually far worse in that position.

The doctor will see you know.

I think that I just need to get a lot more races under my belt and I'll get that groove back. The confidence that I can own it again. It's been 2 years since any major form of racing so my pack instinct is rusty. I'll give myself a break and keep at it and I know that I'll have that groove back in no time.

The hairless guinea pig

Yesterday I donned my guinea pig costume so that my doc could begin experimenting with an I.V. drip for her chronically ill patients. She's learned about some exciting studies that show that giving patients frequent mega-doses of Vitamin C intravenously dramatically reduces their viral counts. When I mentioned this to a friend, she knew of a woman who did this treatment daily as an alternative to chemo and radiation and is now cancer free. Wow - pretty good company. The thought of killing this virus off for good and leading a somewhat normal life is just too good to be true. I also have a few friends with similar health issues who are following my progress with the hopes that it could help them, too.

So after a few months of training and ordering supplies, we finally began the experiment. My doc and her assistant organized all the hoses and tape, stabbed me good in the crook of my elbow (only spouting a few big drops of blood), and we watched the saline concoction drip drip drip down into my arm. Initially she was going to give me 25,000 units of Vit C (your stomach can absorb about 3000 units/day), but because they didn't know how I'd react they reduced it to half. It went pretty smoothly. I find that a junkie magazine like People does wonders for distracting you from an inch-long needle sticking in your vein.

Twenty minutes later I was all finished. She's not sure how long I'll do this procedure, but for now it will be once/week at the full dose. It's also not covered by insurance, so I'm hoping I'll only need it for a few weeks. I'll also continue the Meyers Cocktail shots that I've been getting this winter and spring, which are the only reason I'm as active as I am right now. They're mega-doses of Vitamin C, the B's, folic acid, zinc, and a few others that do an amazing job of boosting my energy since my body is so busy using these resources for fighting this virus that I'm not left with any more to do simple things like ride my bike. I've gotten a few of my other sick friends to get these shots and they've done wonders for getting them back on their bikes too!

A day after the I.V., however, I'm pretty wiped out. It's not too unexpected since my body is working overtime to knock out the virus and my liver is also being taxed expunging the toxins and dead carcases. It kinda sucks because I've had so much energy just from the shots, but now I'm at a crossroads about whether to continue the I.V. and hopefully knock out the virus, but continue to be wiped out for a month, or just go with the shots and hope that will be enough to get me through the season. Maybe doing both will allow me to still race and train and commute to work? But will that whack my body even more? No one knows. This is new territory.

Guinea pig oink oink.

By any other means

The universe is conspiring for me to not drive my Jeep any more. Witness:

Someone at work has been driving a Sparrow electric car the past month. It is absolutely EYE POPPING to see. You get out of your gas-guzzling car that you just filled up at $3.95/gallon and you feel like the biggest heel walking past this efficient machine (esp at a federal environmental agency). It even has dimples to make it slice through the air! They actually don't make the Sparrow anymore. They went bankrupt in 2003, but were bought by Myers Moters and are now made under the NmG (no more gas) name. Zero emissions. 76 mph. 30 mile range/charge. It has 6 cubic feet of space in the trunk for all the crap you'd ever buy during your daily errands.

I got a ride to the track last night in Tamara's Prius. While not totally off the gasoline grid, it's about as efficient an automobile as we have on the assembly line right now. Plus it fit 2 track bikes and gear in the back with the seats folded down. Spacious!

Jane just bought a super crazy cute Ducati Buddy scooter to zip around the city to her new job and errands and leave her Element at home. The Buddy has a 4-stroke engine and gets 100 mpg. She had to call and tell me that they have last year's model on closeout in PINK. I've always wanted a scooter to use when I just don't have the energy to ride to work or to do errands around town. But would I really ride it in the cold, dark, rainy winter? Probably not. And in the better weather I'm far more motivated to get on the bike. Maybe if my money tree starts budding it would be a nice addition to the stable. And maybe by then they'll have a solar powered scooter!

So tired....so good

Today I had my third track workout in 5 days (one being a race night actually). I could tell my legs were pretty whipped from this new repetitious intensity, but I dug in harder and made it hurt more. I've waited so long to have it hurt like this. The lactic acid searing through your legs, the top speed staring back at you from the computer display, the stratospheric ascent of your heart rate. It's like burning your hand with a candle to remind you that you're alive.

Tomorrow I go in for my first I.V. treatment to knock this virus so I want to give that bag something to really work on.

I'm on top of you, you little fuckers!