More catching up...
Well... I just spoke with one of my friends. He was mentioning blogs.. I'm like oh yeah... that thing. I've been thinking about posting something lately but not getting to it. Seems like a pattern. I think about calling someone or emailing them and they usually beat me to the punch. :( So here I am.. wondering... should I even keep up with a blog? Maybe I'm more of a seasonal blogger when there's lots of excitement and fun with the track season?! But now I opened up a live spaces website and wondering if I should just blog there... or not... Seems blogger is changing to force one to login with the google account. I'm thinking if that happens I'll go to just my msn site. Seattlebiker.spaces.live.com hmmm.... still in the works but I'm thinking about switching it over. So if anyone still reads this and you don't see a posting - you can jump over there. I'll try to notify people if that happens.
On to more exciting things, I'm loving my job at Microsoft! I'm still concerned about the whole contract work and whether I'll have a job after some time. I am praying they'll keep me on for the year and that I can find a job before the end of my contract. It would be nice anyway. :) I'm having a lot of fun meeting new people, learning TONS of new things and taking on tons of challenges. It is a blast. I have a great Lead to work for and talk to many a times during lunches.
On the biking front, I rode 90 miles this weekend. 50 on Saturday which was like heaven!! It was such a great day!!! I'm excited for spring and summer. I'm getting ready for the racing season.... and trying not to be tired going in. I am about to do my first TT on Sunday. I am nervous as all get out and excited. I have no real expectations but to finish. That is the only expectation. I just took my bike in tonight to get tuned - I'm sure it will cost me an arm and a leg but it will be a better tuned working machine. :)
Other than that, nothing much exciting happening in my life. Just working, working out based on my coach's workout plans and volunteer work. The week of March 9-16th I'll be in Seattle for one thing or another. Volunteering for BAW for the bike expo, the MVA for the Auction and then for my work related commitment for the rest of the week. It will be a VERY busy week. WOW! I'm sure I'm going to be greatful I don't have to do that commute anymore! :) My workouts will suffer a bit... but it will be fun talking with our 'clients' and having dinners, parties and so forth. Should be fun!
Oh yeah... and one of my cousins we've all kind of lost track of - finally came back into our lives. That is cool. And he lives near Portland. I'm hoping we will get to hook up with him and his kids soon! :)
That's all... take care... enjoy the great 'spring' like days we're blessed with early this year... and have fun. Life is too short not to! :)
Catching up to today....2007 begins!
Well I've been offline for awhile. I just got real busy and wrapped up with life... imagine that? A life?! HEE HEE!!! Anyway, the holidays hit and I was busy running back and forth between family, friends and what have you to get prepared for all that. The most important thing is that I had a good time hanging with my family and friends over the holidays. :) Even dancing in the New Year! HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! :)
As the holidays were hitting so were the windstorms, the floods, the snow storm that trapped all my co-workers in for 2 days, then another windstorm with some other minor floods again. The last windstorm hit the weekend before Christmas. It knocked pretty much almost every region out around me out of power due to all the fallen trees, etc. Fortunately, I had to be in Tacoma the day after it hit. I had no power coming home Thursday night but managed to do just fine packing my things and sleeping. I left at 7 am on Friday, did my errands, etc. and went to my mom's. My mom didn't have power but the neighbors on one side did and across the street. I managed to survive. I went to a holiday party that evening where we all hung out and ate by candlelight and two fireplaces. I called to check in on my mother and she had power. YEAH! Tacoma was far less hit then eastside of King County. My sister had no power, heat, etc. and lives in the boonies near Bremerton. She was able to come to my mom's and take a shower. She said all the cables down looked like spaghetti in her region. I stayed at my mom's until early Sunday morning and headed back to Seattle. I did a bike ride and then debated about what I was going to do without power. So many people offered to let me stay at their place and so forth. I felt I wanted to 'rough it out' and make the most of it at my own home. As I headed home I stopped in Issaquah. Not ONE light was on unless it was by generator. It was a ghost town!!! :( It was sad! However, by the time I got home we had power. Hallelujah! I was told it came on about 2 hours before I was home. Miraculously my sister's also just came on as we were hanging up from me telling her I had power. LOL! I think many people realized how blessed their lives truly are having gone through something like this. Many regions were without power for many days, some small pockets for over a week - just getting it in time for Christmas! Thanks to all those hard working men and women that brought us 'comfort' of electricity and heating capabilities again!
I was also busy trying to find a new job! I succeeded! I started to work for Siemens at Microsoft on December 21st. :) I am doing contract work anywhere from 6 - 12 months. If I do not find FTE by the end of that first year then I have to take a mandatory 100 days off then I am allowed to return as a contractor again. I am working in an elite subscriptions department. It is quite exciting. I am loving it already and have a great lead that is teaching me all kinds of things. He even expects me to be fully on board by the end of this week as he is leaving town next week. EEEK! I am confident but eek! It will be fun to see how well I can succeed... I'm nervous... but I'm sure I'll do fine. :) My lead's name is Joe. He is a really great guy. Ironically his brother is dating someone I went to high school with out here - when I briefly went to high school out here. What a small world, huh?! Hey... I may even get him back into biking.. he used to do it way back when. :) LOL! He's a really cool guy and I am fortunate to have such a great lead for my first experience with Microsoft.
Other than that, just busy trying to keep up on my training. The holidays and a bit of being under the weather threw me off. However now it is a new year and I am onboard to start training like an animal!!! It should be quite exciting! I am excited to see what this year will bring both in my personal life (so many family members trying to hook me up - hey ... it will be what it will be and when it will be), career path and on the track! WOOHOOO!!! So many new and exciting adventures await.... so stay tuned!!!!
I hope everyone has had a great start to the 2007 year and I wish you all the very best with your friends, family, health, work and so forth. :) Please take care and I hope to keep in touch with all of you!
Working with the new coach & loving it...
I am in my 2nd week of working with Kenny Williams as my coach. I am totally loving it! I am doing all kinds of good, fun things. Weights, Yoga, Roller Skating, Fixed Gear riding, Road riding and Roller work. He said in 8 weeks I'll start seeing some changes/results from the weight workouts. I hope so! We went to my gym on Saturday so he could see what machines I had available and what exercises to do and how to do them. The 'sore muscle' feeling felt sooooo good. I love that feeling! I can't ever get enough of it! LOL! I think I scared him and challenged him with my balance issues. One thing I'm going to struggle with is keeping my shoulders down and back flat. Oh well! I got to keep on trying and I can only keep on improving from here on out! I am excited to see where I'll be next year and what progress I'll have made. How fast will I be? How strong will I be? What goals will I achieve? I know it will be a long road which I may not succeed all of them this year and it may take a couple years. I'd be happy with this years' results with just losing some weight, being stronger, faster, working in my zones better and having tons of fun!
I am having fun so far and hope to join some weekend women and team rides while staying in my assigned zones. I've been doing fun things like hanging with friends, going to social get togethers and other things as well. I have quite a few planned in October which will be fun. It is good to have these different activities so I don't feel so burnt out. Now we are thinking about possibly going up to Burnaby the weekend of November 11th to see how it feels to be on that track. Should be fun! I can't wait!! :) WOOHOO!! Another possibility might be in January. I'm all for some new adventures and just enjoying life. I can't wait. This winter will be a great building block to reaching my goals for next year. If I can keep up the enthusiasm and keep away from the boredom and burnt out city.... I'm going to do just fine and have lots of fun! Kenny said it's his job to help me with that. So far he's doing great. He's focused, encouraging, disciplined but yet chill about not pushing anything too hard right now as it's too early in the season. I'm gonna enjoy working with him!
Elite Nationals - Yeah REED!
Here's the article that was found on the usacycling.org website. Here's the results regarding Reed. Also, if you notice, there are results for Tim Luther who is the sprinter that Jane and I got the privilege to ride on Alpenrose together.
Reed, Hammer complete sweep at nationals
Carson, Calif. (October 8, 2006)—The 2006 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded Saturday after Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash./Spike) and Sarah Hammer (Temecula, Calif./Ouch) added more stars-and-stripes jerseys to their closets. Reed claimed two more national titles to sweep the women’s sprint events with four victories and Hammer won the women’s 15-kilometer scratch race to score a hat trick in the endurance events.
After successfully defending her sprint and 500-meter time trial victories earlier in the week, Reed won the keirin and teamed up with Liz Carlson (Jim Thorpe, Pa./East Coast Velo) to win the women’s team sprint Saturday.
Hammer, already the individual pursuit champion and points race winner, claimed the scratch race after pulling back a late race breakaway and holding off Becky Quinn (Quakertown, Pa./Spike) for the win.
Together, Hammer and Reed were the most dominant competitors in the four-day event as one or the other stood on the top step of all six individual event podiums.
In the keirin, Reed easily sailed into the finals with wins in each of her two preliminary rounds. There she squared off against Michelle Bono (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii/Eddie B. Cycling), Kacey Manderfield (Davisburg, Mich./Wolverine-Lees McRae), Anna Lang (La Jolla, Calif./Big City Velo), Catherine Fiedler (Long Beach, Calif./The Home Depot Center) and Cari Higgins (Boulder, Colo./Hammer Racing). In the six-woman mass-start event, Reed held the front position when the pace bike peeled off the track and kept everyone at bay to hang on for her third individual title of the week.
Earlier in the evening, Reed and Carlson paired up to post a 36.19-second mark in their qualifying round to earn the top seed in the women's team sprint. In the gold-medal final, Reed and Carlson beat the second-seeded squad comprised of Martha Dunne (Coronado, Calif./Jelly Belly) and Lang for the national title.
In the bronze-medal ride, Hammer and Shelby Allen (Cerittos, Calif./Major Motion) beat Higgins and Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Spike). Not necessarily known for her sprinting ability, Hammer’s team sprint medal was her fourth of the week.
In the women’s 15-kilometer scratch race, Hammer and Quinn entered as the favorites, but when a late-race breakaway of Miranda Duff (Beaverton, Ore./CPT-Colnago), Kimberly Geist (Emmaus, Pa./Victory Brewing), Christen King (Huntington Beach, Calif./Young’s Training Group) and Kori Seehafer (Louisville, Colo./Team Lipton) escaped, it looked as though an underdog would score the upset. Ultimately though, the foursome didn’t have enough horsepower to fend off the Hammer-led chase from behind. The break was caught with two laps of the 40-lap race remaining and Hammer continued to lead out the sprint with Quinn on her wheel. The reigning individual pursuit world champion showed why she’s one of the top endurance riders in the world, keeping the pace high enough at the front to prevent anyone from sprinting around her at the line.
In the men’s team sprint event, Giddeon Massie (Colorado Springs, Colo./Spike) claimed his second national title of the week with the help of Michael Blatchford (Cypress, Calif./Spike) and Kevin Selker (Colorado Springs, Colo./Spike). The top-seeded trio bested the second-seeded threesome of Ben Barczewski (Breiginsville, Pa./Spike), Adam Duvendeck (Santa Barbara, Calif./Echelon Santa Barbara), and Andy Lakatosh (Trexlertown, Pa./Spike).
In the bronze medal match, Eduardo Cocina (Miami, Fla.), Ryan Nelman (Taylor Lake Village, Texas/CKR Racing) and Mike Friedman (Pittsburgh, Pa./TIAA-CREF) won to take third place ahead of Tim Luther (Vancouver, Wash./Northwest All Stars), Stephen McLaughry (Washougal, Wash./Bike Central), and Zachary Copeland (Vancouver, Wash./Northwest All Stars).
In the final team event of the competition, TIAA-CREF added a second team victory to its list with a win in the men’s madison. Friedman and Brad Huff (Fair Grove, Mo.) joined forces to score 22 points and win the gold medal over a second TIAA-CREF team of Chad Hartley (Boulder, Colo.) and Rahsaan Bahati (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Huff and Friedman joined with Will Frischkorn (Boulder, Colo.) and Michael Creed (Colorado Springs, Colo.) to give TIAA-CREF a win in the team pursuit Friday.
2006 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships
Carson, Calif.
Oct. 5-8
Day Four Results
Women’s Keirin
1. Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.)
2. Anna Lang (La Jolla, Calif.)
3. Michelle Bono (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii)
4. Catherine Fiedler (Long Beach, Calif.)
5. Kacey Manderfield (Davisburg, Mich.)
Women’s Scratch Race
1. Sarah Hammer (Temecula, Calif.)
2. Becky Quinn (Quakertown, Pa.)
3. Theresa Clif-Ryan (Cedar Springs, Mich.)
4. Catherine Fiedler (Long Beach, Calif.)
5. Anna Webb (San Diego, Calif.)
Men’s Team Sprint
1. Giddeon Massie, Michael Blatchford, Kevin Selker
2. Ben Barczewski, Adam Duvendeck, Andy Lakatosh
3. Eduardo Cocina, Ryan Nelman, Mike Friedman
4. Tim Luther, Stephen McLaughry, Zachary Copeland
Women’s Team Sprint
1. Jennie Reed, Liz Carlson
2. Martha Dunne, Anna Lang
3. Sarah Hammer, Shelby Allen
4. Cari Higgins, Katie Compton
Madison
1. Brad Huff, Mike Friedman
2. Rahsaan Bahati, Chad Hartley
3. Dan Vogt, Austin Carroll
4. Kevin Suhr, Ryan Luttrell
5. Scott Zwizanski, Cody O’Reilly
A view into the future......?
Jane and I decided to go to the track and do a workout. Mostly so Jane could try out the new strap pedals that she is borrowing from Jennie. I got there and there were about 6 people that were starting to ride around it on their road bikes. They were there with their coach who was video taping their cadence, sprint and things like that. Jane finally met up with me and we got out there to ride around.
WOW! I felt good. Amazing how good I felt after feeling so horrible on Sunday, so sluggish with my legs having no energy and me having no energy. Jane and I did a few efforts. One of them I saw 28! 28 mph!?! Is that right? I haven't seen that for a long time! What's up with that!? And I felt GOOD! I didn't feel tired! I felt I could hold it for awhile. The front stretch I dropped to 26.5 but it felt so good to maintain such a high speed. Then I did a couple other efforts but staying high on the track since the roadies were in the sprint lane. Then while they were reviewing the tape, Jane and I did another effort. I was on her wheel. She took off and in turn 1/2 I was right behind her with hardly a gap, then a little gap, then almost overlapping her. Enough of a concern about overlapping that I backed off by pushing my weight back and slightly 'brushing' the top of my saddle almost like I was going to sit. Then as I saw she was about to jump, I re-positioned forward and went down. I didn't completely stay on her wheel but I was right behind her and I hit 29.3 and only dropped to like 27 or 26.5 for the finish line (head winds were strong). WOW! WOW! I haven't accomplished strong jumps and finishes like that in a long time. It felt really good and I didn't feel tired. Not at all! I think Jane said she hit 32 mph or so on her jump! AWESOME!
I don't know if it is a combination of my workouts I've been doing at home (with weights), rest, the foods I've been eating and/or attitude right now. Whatever it is I am hoping if I can 'end' that way and go into winter with such speeds that I can build upon that all winter and have such a great year next year! It will be incredible. We are going to be strong next year if we are ending the season this well this year. I just wish I would have had more 'gas' in my tank for the season and to end the season feeling so strong. Oh well, you can't change the past you can only change the future. I'll work on getting stronger, losing weight, getting faster, having more endurance, more of a sprint, not burning out and then focus on my track goals. My coach will help me with all these issues and I'm looking forward to hard work!
Track Heaven... sitting on Cloud 9 and loving it.
Jane and I decided to go for a road ride today. We decided we were also going to bring our track bikes - meet at Marymoor - and ride the track for a bit. Jane and I (although I already got a tiny taste of it on Friday) wanted to ride the track and experience it again after Alpenrose. When I got there Jennie Reed was there. If some of you don't know Jennie Reed she is a world cup champion, olympic medal holder just to name a few of many accomplishments. If you look closely she is listed under many of the 'track records' for the times in my Alpenrose Velodrome "Track Record" pictures. (My alpenrose velodrome adventure pics sent to people through ofoto - please contact me if you want to see them.)
I was so excited to see her as we have talked a lot this year when we've been on the track together. It is sometimes hard to talk to people, while working out, as you don't get a lot of time to 'build friendships'. The conversations always seem cutoff or short or 'impersonal' or more about just track. Anyway, we were talking a couple weeks ago and she said she'd be leaving prior to today for her travels. So I was shocked to see her out there and very excited. She is a real upbeat person and has a lot of knowledge about track racing. She's funny and easy to talk to - just real down to earth. Anyway, I was very excited and gave her a hug hello. She said with a greeting like that - how could she turn it down. Jane was just laughing and shaking her head... typical Molly, eh?!
We talked here and there while we were in the infield. Jennie invited us to do a couple last efforts with her. 500 m flying efforts. I'm no sprinter and of course, my legs are dead from end of year 'burnout'. I got nothing more to give so I didn't expect to be on their wheels. I took the back, Jennie in the front and Jane in the middle. WOW! Jane hit 36 mph on the jump. We jumped off turn 4 and the whole time she was only maybe 20 m off her after turn 2 until about 4 where it opened up a bit more. I couldn't stay on their wheels but I hit 29 mph. A number I haven't seen since the beginning of the season and/or being on JANE's WHEEL; nonetheless, doing my own speed. WOW! Incredible. I was soooooo excited!!! Anyway, it felt good. Then she showed us how to do track stands and Jane and I were doing it; albeit, sometimes only for a few seconds. It was awesome.
Jennie asked us if we wanted to go for lunch and invited us over to her place. I just returned from there. It was nice to sit with her and get to know her more without worrying about a workout and so forth. She is a really awesome person! :) And an excellent cook! I really enjoyed it. We had a lot of laughs and talked about all kinds of things. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed each others' company. I look forward to working out with her more - when she's not on the road - and also being able to hang with her. She is such an incredible person both on and off the track. Like I said, down to earth, funny, tell it like it is and pretty open. She's sweet. I wish her good luck at the Nationals. I hope she kicks butt and I'll be watching the cyclingnews.com website to see how she does! THANKS JENNIE!!! You are incredibly sweet and I look forward to getting to know you more!
