Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada May Classic Criterium

I went into this crit wanting points and a podium. I have the endurance and my sprints are slowly but surely coming back. It's been a frustrating road, but thanks to my coach, my injuries aren't worse. I know that if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have progressed as much as I have. To be honest, my dumb ass would probably still be really injured.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! http://acaurora.smugmug.com
 I went to the race on 3 hours of sleep. I felt like hell. It was just a bad night overall. The most frustrating part was that I couldn't get the proper rest even though I wanted to do well in this race. I got there early because I wanted to see a few friends race in the 5's and a couple of friends in the 4's. The races were fun and I hung out and chatted. After that, I went to do a very poor warm up (I was exhausted), a few people came to talk to me, I gave up trying to warm up, and went out by the course, where I met up with a couple of teammates.

Asa (aka my sister from another mister) and I were in the women's 4 together. It was awesome being able to race with her. We lined up, did our neutral lap, and off we went.

The cool thing about this course is that it's fast and safe. The bad thing about this course is that it's fast and attacks don't usually stick. Yeah, you can attack, but most of the time you'll get caught unless you can get really organized or you're some freak of nature. The course is in the shape of a D, and the two turns that it has aren't sharp nor technical. Cake. If you're thinking of doing your first criterium, this is the course to pop your cherry.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! http://acaurora.smugmug.com
We started racing and I heard that there was a prime. $10. Okay. I went for it. So I sprinted, got it. I know I should have probably saved my legs for the final sprint, but dude, $10! Anyway, we went by, and another prime lap was belled. Asa went to the front and I followed. She led me out beautifully for the sprint. Got the prime. After that lap I told her not to worry about the other two primes since I wanted to save some legs for the final sprint. She agreed and we just kept going with the race. I pulled to the back of the group for a bit since I wanted to rest. Since this course is so easy, falling to the back of the group isn't that big of a deal. I rested for a bit, saw how many laps we had to go, and started to organize ourselves.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! http://acaurora.smugmug.com
Asa pulled me beautifully into the last sprint, but I was about two strides too behind in it and missed the podium by a tiny bit. Disappointment to the max. I got 4th, which yes, is still in the points, so I'm happy about that, but still disappointed. Damn. I was right there! At least now I know I have more than enough endurance and my sprint is coming back. Soon enough I'll be getting on that podium again!

We all gathered and I went to get my two primes. As I was waiting for them and I was chatting with people, one of the promoters said, "you got three primes?" Uh... I wasn't aware that I got a third prime but okay. That was a nice surprise. While I was waiting for the promoter to gather my prizes, a few people congratulated me on a good race, on my strength, and told me I was racing very strong out there. Some ladies came up to me and thanked me for a good and safe race. My coach said I did well but that we need to teach me to do less work. I agree. I'm pretty bad at that, but I'm learning. I'm telling you, internet, with his guidance, I'll be back on the podium!

Party time!







So what did I get as primes? Two bottles of wine, coffee, and $10. Basically, I got 4th place and a freakin' party. Not bad. At least I got points toward my upgrade, some wine, coffee, and enough cash to buy Asa and me some beer at Sam Horne's.

One of our CAT 3 racers and his daughter. 




We hung out a bit to watch some more racing, took some pictures, and hung out. Asa, Frank, and I had to set up course for one of our mountain bike races, Race Behind Bars, hosted at Folsom prison, so we couldn't make a day of race watching and, as Dean Alleger says, "trolling for racer boys," so we had to leave shortly after our race so we could get some food, a little bit of rest, and get back to work.
What happens with lack of sleep, racing, and working.
The day was fun. I'm still disappointed in my last sprint, but it's coming back. I look back at how hurt I was two months ago and I have improved a lot. People can't say I'm not improving, because damn, two months ago my achilles and calves were killing me. Now I'm able to sprint (sorta). It'll get back. I looked at my results from last year, and I got 10th in this same crit. Going from 10th to 4th isn't bad, though I still would have loved to be on that podium. It will come.

My next race is Cyclebration. The crit is the same course just the other direction. I'll race smarter. That podium and upgrade are inches away.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Step One Complete



I've reached the light!
I thought this moment would never come, but it came and it went. After all the work, studying, classes, having to deal with Sac State's horrible administration system... it's over. The light at the end of the tunnel finally came.

My best friend, Dan, my parents, and I all went to Power Balance Pavilion (dude, whatever. It'll always be Arco arena). Once we parked, I went to the graduate area and met up with some friends while Dan and my parents went to get a seat. All the psych graduates were hanging out and gleeing over the fact that, holy crap, we're finally done! We stayed around for a while, talking, jittering, taking pictures, and congratulating everyone we knew because hey, we're done. We went outside, took more pictures with Justine's family, went back inside, and started to line up to enter the ceremony.

Justine and me.
It was a very exciting moment. It didn't really hit us until we started to walk in. The ceremony was pretty boring, but it was all worth it. We then started to walk, and that's when it really hit us! Hey! We're walking, we're graduates, we have walked over step one (for some of us) on the path to our careers.

The goal for the ceremony while we were walking was to not trip. We didn't. Success!

A lot of hugs, smiles, some jumping (on my part), and more congratulations. We switched our tassel and went back outside, where we all found our families and took more pictures.





Leah, Justine, me, Jamie.
Parents and me. 
Dan and me.

What happens when you don't pay attention. 


After the ceremony, my dad had to go to work, so Dan, my mom, and I went to Red Robin to get food and celebrate with some fruity drinks. I was still all giddy from graduation and the fact that holy crap I'm done!!! A lot of fun times started to go on.


So, after Red Robin, Dan and I slept a bit because we were both tired. After our nap, we met up with Asa and Frank at Sam Horne's Tavern in Folsom for some more celebrating. And let me tell you, we (mostly I) celebrated. The whole night was pretty fun. We made some plans for the morning after, which, when you're celebrating, doesn't dawn on you that it will most likely hurt. Whatev. I'm a champ. I think.

Yeah, the morning hurt, but it was still fun. I met up with Frank and Asa and we went up to Tahoe to meet up with some of Asa's family. After getting sick (I never get car sick but hello, hangover!), which was a blessing in disguise, and eating some yummy food with Asa's family, we went to the lake and hung out, talked, and enjoyed good company.

Quote of the trip, "I don't always drink, but when I do, I make sure my liver knows its job." You're a champ, Old Blackie. You're a champ.

We came back home, I took a nap, and got the mountain bike ready to ride with Frank, Asa, and Cab. 19.5 miles of torture. It was an easy, easy ride, but my liver thought otherwise. It was pretty painful. In those few miles, I actually drank my whole CamelBak. "Drink, Kasea. Drink drink drink."
"Ugh, no mas."

Came home, chilled, watched movies, had fun, passed out, slept like crap. I did a road ride in the morning in which I felt as strong as a baby deer. I'm pretty sure I didn't "recover" from celebrating until noon on Sunday.

Went to see my horse and then had dinner, in which the question, "What's next?" popped up. I said I had a second interview for the Doctoral program in Sacramento. I know that I've mentioned that I was going to move to the Bay Area, but that program lost its APA accreditation, so that's out. There's one in Pleasant Hill that I like. So, I get asked, "What if you make it into the Sacramento one?" Well, then I made it in. Moving would be awesome. So many what ifs. New life, new people, new friends, new cycling. I know a few people there and a bunch of my cycling friends go there often. The riding is amazing. Sacramento is home, though, and I already have a bunch of cycling friends, family, and I'm the area's "registration girl." Choices. If I don't make it into the Sacramento program though, I have made another plan that doesn't involve me moving, but... I know. It's easy being a single 25-year-old girl with no commitments. I can just up and leave if I wanted to. The temptation is there.

After dinner, in which I scored a $50 gift card to Folsom Bike from my friends, I went out with Brandon to celebrate both of our graduations. I didn't get to go to his graduation party because I was dealing with some issues with my horse, but we still celebrated. A psych graduate and a nursing graduate in Midtown. It was fun. We even watched a Drag show that was going on in Faces and it was pretty amusing. I'm happy I got to spend time with him and we're planning on doing a huge celebration before he moves to Texas.

What a fun weekend. The picture on the left pretty much sums it up. Let's see what the future brings. I'm out of one tunnel... I guess the next logical step is to walk into a darker and longer one. I'm excited!











Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Finals Week: The Little Random Things


Little random things always happen. I just got done with an 85 question final and have a 5-hour break before my next final, which is an easy one. 

We're always so busy thinking of the crappy moments that we forget to give credit to the good ones. It's finals week, so we're all stressed. You walk into the library and I'm pretty sure we're all a term paper away from jumping into the river (eh, it's been warm. Shouldn't be too bad). While some crappy things have happened (I can't believe the betrayal that I have experienced!), so many good, funny, and random things have happened as well! Here's a weird story for you. 

A guy walks up to me as I'm getting my stuff ready in my truck and says, "I know this is going to sound really weird, but do you happen to have a wire hanger with you? I locked my keys in my car."
"Umm... I don't know. Let me check." I looked and didn't think I had one, so I said "Sorry. Good luck." So I went to buy a parking pass. As I was buying a parking pass for the day, a girl walks up to me and give me hers since she's done for the day. I've done this several times. Then I think, eh, I'll look again. Maybe I'll have something he can use to unlock his car. Look, look, look. Nothing. Look under the driver's seat. Well what do you know... I found a hanger. I go up to him, "It's really weird that I found this but here you go."
"Oh my goodness you're amazing! Thank you so much." Guy's face lit up like no other. It was pretty awesome. 

It's little things that help make a stressful day... stressful WEEK... better. Giving someone a parking pass that you're no longer going to use, finding random objects in your truck (seriously, wtf?) to help someone get their keys out of their car, watching someone's stuff in the library while they go to the restroom, being called beautiful by the owner of the Pho restaurant (I'm going to miss that place the most), etc. It's not hard to not be an asshole. People should do this more. 

Now... off to study for finals #5 and #6 of 6. Almost done...

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Finals Week: Zombie Apocalypse

I don't have a race until the end of the month, though I've done some pretty cool rides since my last race that I could write about, and I don't have a bike to review just yet. But sometimes I like to have fun. So, instead of studying for finals (well, I have been studying but I get easily distracted), I've been surfing the internet/Facebook/Twitter/awesome stuff. A friend posted this on Facebook:

funny celebrity pictures - Zombie Apocalypse Team - How Boned Are You?
see more Lol Celebs

Who is on my team?





River Tam: She's hot and a bad ass. If my Latina fighting skills aren't enough, she'll definitely help out. Boom, baby!








Batman (Christian Bale Batman, thanks): He's hot, a bad ass, has a shit ton of gadgets and sweet, fast cars, and a fortress/Batcave. We're pretty set as far as housing, weapons, and transportation. Hot, rich guy. Okay.
















Snoop Dogg: Uh, hello! It's fucking Snoop Dogg! That alone is a WIN.














Gotta be pretty geeky every once in a while. Have some fun. Today, I will be finishing finals #2 and #3 out of 6 this semester (yup, SIX). Wish me luck. Hopefully I'll be coherent enough to get on my bike after these finals!


Monday, May 7, 2012

Golden State Race Series

On May 5th and 6th, Rio Strada racing hosted the Golden State criterium and circuit race, respectively. The night before I made sure I had everything ready and taped up my achilles. While my achilles isn't hurting too much, it's been really tight. Better safe than sorry.

Criterium
I arrived at the race, got my number (911... really? That's going on the wall), and saw that some of my old teammates from Team Revolutions were there. I decided to repark my 2500 diesel pick-up truck near my buddies, where there were nothing but compact spots. It fit perfectly. I warmed up with the Revs. Once of them, Karen, was in my race as well. Some of my new teammates spotted me and started chatting while I complained about how my legs weren't feeling it, wah wah wah, "holy shit don't post that picture on Facebook!" and so on.

After a crappy warm up, I lined up with the rest of the ladies. This was a 3/4 category, so meh, we knew what was going to happen. The 3's would decide that the 4's were annoying so they were going to try and drop us at whatever cost. Let's keep this in mind... the whatever cost.

A bunch of my teammates were there, cheering, taking pictures, etc. The official was telling us whatever notes they tell us before a race and then we hear the announcement, "The first two laps are prime laps." Ugh. Okay, so it was going to start fast and most likely stay fast. Hey, it's racing, I guess. Whistle blows and off we go.

Just as I expected, we started to go fast. We had a group of 40 women. It was one of the bigger fields I've been in for a while. Attacks started right off the bat, and because I'm me, I answered those attacks. The whole race went like that, attack, answer by whomever decided it was their turn to answer the attack, bring person back, attack, answer, attack, answer. The more we got into the race, the more attacks that were being executed, and the dumber that some chicks were getting. Hey, I completely understand being an aggressive rider, but you don't have to get stupid about it.

Since we had a lot of 3's there, I'm pretty sure they thought that they could intimidate a lot of the 4's by pressuring them off some wheels. It worked a lot of the time. A 3 would want a wheel, would get really close to a 4, and the 4 would give her wheel away. I'm a pressure rider, though. I've ridden and trained with people who don't have a bubble whatsoever and I'm comfortable with people bumping into me. It didn't work when a 3 would try to pressure me off my wheel, so elbows started to get thrown and quite a bit of bumping occurred. Oh, rly? Fine, do that, but I'm still not moving.

The race was pretty much the same the whole time. Attacks, surges, a lot of shitty bike handling, shitty turn-taking, bumping, bitching, and a crash. It happened right behind me. I didn't know who crashed until after the race, but that's racing. If you race, you'll most likely go down... or something.

I got myself in a bad spot for the sprint and didn't do much. So, no points for this race. Oh well. At least I know my fitness is there to keep up with a pretty fast race. I stuck around for the E3s since four of my teammates were there. These guys pretty much executed everything perfectly and Matt got the win, which was their plan. Awesome. These guys are pretty much textbook perfect in their tactics and know how to execute them. Took pictures of the podium and I apparently got awarded most aggressive rider in my race. Cool.

I went home and then decided to go on an easy spin. It was windy as hell. And then I went extra Mexican and decided to go do some celebration for Cinco de Mayo, which is pretty much like every other day in Mexico.



Circuit
I decided I was going to make a day of this. I went to the race, a bunch of girls came up to me, said hi, invited me to warm up with them. These are girls who live in the bay area, know me by name, and say very nice things about me. All because "[I'm] a powerhouse and very respectful racer." Giving my team a good name and being liked by other racer, I'll take that.

So, I did my thang for warm up, which consists of mostly working my jaw muscles due to chatting too much with people and spacing out while on the trainer for 45 minutes. I then rolled around the parking lot and saw my teammates, so I talked to them, then decided that I should probably line up. 2.1 mile course, officials said whatever officials say, the promoter told us that there had been a miscommunication that the 3's and the 4's could be started at different times, which most of the women are happy about. However, it didn't go through, and most of the women were very unhappy about that. So, the promoter said some words, worked his politics, probably to make the women feel better about the decision, and went on about women's racing and money and promoting races... whatever. The point is, we didn't start at different times and people were pissed, so he tried to make them feel better. Did it work? For some. Others were still pissed and nearly sat out the race.

The race was the same as the crit. Attacks, answers, attacks, answers. Only this time it was a lot more aggressive. Elbows were being thrown for sure, and I was getting annoyed. I don't say anything during a race, mostly because I don't want to be marked at "that rider," (or in women's racing, "that bitch") and I like to keep a good name for my team. This was getting ridiculous, though. Not only did I get to make friends with a lot of elbows, the sketchiness and dive-bombing turns was just stupid. No reason to do something like that in a fairly easy course. This circuit was not technical, yet some chicks couldn't ride their bikes in a straight line.  Actually, the squirrels that crossed our path during the race ran a straighter line than some of these chicks.

The last two laps were the worst. Way too many close calls. I got pinned in the last chicane. It was an easy one, too. Straight line. But for some reason it seemed like it was an impossible task to go in a damn straight line. Okay. So I figured out where I needed to be. On the last lap, in a different spot, someone decided to slam on her brakes and nearly caused a crash, I got elbowed and pinned on the turn. A lot of "fuck fuck fuck!" was being thought by me. I realized though that as soon as I touched my brakes, it was over. I rolled through the finish line.


Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! http://acaurora.smugmug.com
It was definitely one of the most aggressive races I've been in. I guess it's expected. But damn, I was in such a good spot in that chicane and then that happens. Oh well. I'm sure I'll remember that chick's elbow for a long time. Maybe I'll see it in my next race. At least now I know how she plays the game, right?



How awesome is this!?
So, I stayed the rest of the day. Took pictures, hung out with a bunch of friends, and saw a lot of amazing and beautiful legs bike racing. I watched the E3's race, where 4 of my teammates raced, and the guys swept the podium. Matt, once again, won as was planned. There was a break away for a while during the race with about a 16 second lead on the last lap. Asa said, "Well, I guess that's the only way you can beat the LeadOut guys." Yeah, right. Into the last chicane, the guys were 1,2,3 and took over the race. They were going about 5 - 8 mph faster than the rest of the field through that turn. Amazing racing by these guys!






Brad and my teammate Eric raced the E4's, which was also a fun race!  Brad and I went on an adventurous ride after his race and then came back to see some more racing.

The guys chatting after the P1/2/3, where Chuck (Marc Pro/Strava) won.

It was an overall good day. A bit disappointing, but I learned quite a bit. I won't be making the same mistake in future races.