Riding for Rescue Update // Last call

****UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE! Donation totals are at $1801.00!! THANK YOU! **** Make that 1851.00 as of 4pm on Thur 4/29. Maybe we can break 2K?

Calvin's Challenge is in 3 days. I guess I am ready.

Claire, AKA Speedy Speedracer is coming down from Boston to ride the 12 hour too. I am so excited to hook up with her. We've been blogger buddies for a couple years now. She's going to smash some records. After the race, Claire's coming to stay with us for the weekend. It's going to be fun.

This is my last call for donations. Two more days to donate and NCDR is a 501c(3) so all donations are tax deductible. Go here to donate online, or mail a check to:

North Coast Doberman Rescue

3983 Grand Bend Dr, Groveport, Ohio 43125

So far I have raised a tad over $1600.00. I am excited because that's the most I have ever raised (so I guess it's a PR!). The support from this blog is incredible. THANKS to all who donated.

Demons from my past. They never fucking go away.

This a picture of me and the guy who introduced me to the needle. Later, after we broke up, he saved my life one night.

Feeling some gratitude today than I'm not in line to get my methadone or trying for two hours to find a vein

A girl I used to shoot dope with is on my Facebook page as of recent weeks and she posted that this morning. I clicked the "like" button and posted back to her 'LMAO'. I did laugh a little when I saw her post.

This particular girl and I have a history that goes way, way back. We experienced some bad things together. She now has her masters and lives out west helping other junkies get clean. She also has a family and all the other good stuff that comes when you put the dope down.

Finding a vein. When I see my new athletic veins pop out, I think back to the days when I couldn't find a vein for my dope. My veins were small and hard to find. I'd go to her hotel room and 2 or 3 people would try and help me find a vein. It was disgusting. Junkies will stick themselves over and over to find a vein. Jabjabjab.

This particular girl also saved my life once. I posted her email to me a while back. I'll post it again. Sometimes I need to re-read these words to remember.

you overdosed and it took me 20 mins to revive you. Right when I was ready to give up, the police and the paramedics kicked in the door. You opened up your eyes like two seconds before they opened the door. Someone must have heard me gasping and called the paramedics. They took you and forced me to go with you to the hospital and get narcaned. Then, you told me the whole way to the hospital "why didn't you let me die? it was my time to go." I think you had taken some klonapins. You overdosed a few times I've seen where you had to be given mouth to mouth but that time you seriously almost died. In fact, I almost left you because you were so blue I didn't know how long you had been out.

I was blue. Many times. Yet here I am.

Life is fucking crazy.

Catchup

Damn I have been busy! I haven't posted much in regards to what's been going on in my life, other than racing and training. In case you care, here are a few updates.

+ I think I am hiring a coach. An affordable local x-pro (who still wins cat 1 races) named OB. We're supposed to start after May 1st when I am done with my 12 hour. We've had a couple phone calls and some email communication. I like him. Local cyclists rave about him. I hope it works out.

+ I wore a HR monitor this week per OB's request. I hate training with it. My HR is a lot higher than it used to be. Groover is always talking about HR and health and I have learned a lot just reading her blog. My resting HR used to be in the 60's. When I ran more. Now that I just ride, it's been in the 80's. If I am about to go on a ride it spikes up into the 100's. While I ride on flats in stays in the 120's. I saw it spike as high as 236 when I sprinted to the top of Vine st (per OB's request to sprint the last part of the hill). I hate numbers.

+ To date - my Riding for Rescue dollar amounts are well over $1500.00. This is because of you and your donations so THANK YOU! I could not raise this kind of money without this blog. You all are so kind to help me complete my goal. Northcoast Dobes appreciates every penny and it will be spent well!

+ I have a boil the size of Texas right on my bikini line. I think it's going to have to be lanced off. It hurts so bad. I have popped it several times but it won't go away. It just grows back even bigger. The DR is giving me a round of antibiotics today so we'll see how that goes. Aren't you glad I told you?

+ Flatland is making a comeback! Dominic is stoked to be back at it (see post below). He attracts a crowd whenever he breaks out that bike.

+ Both of my Mom's eye surgeries are out of the way. We had to take her dog this week for two nights but now he's back with her and all is well. Thanks for your good thoughts on Facebook for her.

+ I rode 107 miles yesterday. I under-estimated my mileage (was hoping for 200k) and fucked it all up. So I came home pissed and decided fuck it. I am going to go and ride my bike for 12 hours next weekend and just see what I can do. I don't give a fuck anymore. The money is raised for NCDR. That was my MAIN goal. Now the fun part comes, right?

Have a good weekend.

Showing off my man.....

Last night was a good time. I met up with MTB folks at Tower and rode (and walked with my bike a lot) while Dominic had a flatland session in the parking lot. He and his buddy took turns doing tricks while we rode in the woods. In between laps he had a crowd.

He held it for 30 seconds while we ran for a camera

Vandervorts Corner Road Race Report

+++ UPDATE - I came in 15th out of 26 women.


Today's race I had a teammate! A kickass cat 2 racer girl who just had a baby 8 weeks ago. And she's back out racing (you hear that Julie?). She killed it too.

Today's course was 8 miles (5 laps for 40 miles). Me and Ryan pre-rode the course and there was only one short, small hill and then lots of wind. It was a fast flat course (compared to Mitchell) and it was going to be scary.



More than 30 women had pre-reg'd and it seemed like more than 40+ women lined up. Team Dayton dominated (it was their race). We were all chatty cathys standing around.





We stayed together as a pack for about 7 miles. It was neat. We looked great and it was so fucking rad riding in a pack. I didn't feel nervous, all the women were cool, and we just rode. It was a slooooow 7 miles. I'd look down at my computer and see were doing 15mph. The lead women were about to make a break and then they did.

Onto lap 2 - I rode alone. I passed quite a few women but kept going.

Picture by Jeffrey Jakucyk


I caught up to this girl and we worked together to catch more girls ahead. I pulled a lot.

Picture by Jeffrey Jakucyk


The final 3 laps I rode with a few other girls and we all worked together in a paceline. I took way too long pulling. Mary kept yelling at me to take a rest and I would and then all of the sudden I'd be pulling again.

Picture by Jeffry Jakucyk


We started to lose 3 of the girls and us girls up front screamed for them to catch up. We slowed down even to let them catch up. Then we just rode and rode and rode until the last lap was done and we made the turn towards the finish line. Half a mile to go and they all took off.

My dumbass pulled so much that by the time we hit the sprint my legs were toast and I had nothing. So I lost like 5 places even though we rode together for so long.

Picture by Jeffrey Jakucyk



I'll know better next time.

I don't know my results - website says TUESDAY. I know there were quite a few behind me so I think I finished mid-pack somewhere.

Ryan did great too - finishing in the top 10 and staying with the lead guys to the finish!

Riding for Rescue Update

I just wanted to tell you - the readers of this blog - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Since my last post pleading for donations, I have well over $1000.00 raised for Northcoast Doberman Rescue. My 12 hour bike ride is still 2 weeks away. Hopefully I can raise $300 more to make my goal but I'd be happy with the amount I have so far.

This is all strictly from YOU. I posted a link to my post on Facebook too but I account 99.9% of the donations from this blog.

Which is really cool.

So, just wanted to say thanks.

Still taking donations for 2 more weeks.

First mountain bike ride....

Last week my friend Jeni somehow roped me into racing my MTB one week before my 12 hour. The race is at Tower Park. I knew nothing about it when I agreed to race. Turns out it's the most technical trail in the area. Read this blog post on Tower Park and tell me what you think. Especially if you are local and ride there.

I guess it's a big deal to NOT ride suspension up front. "Rigid" I keep hearing, when people see my bike. Ok, so what. I like old school. I have zero experience riding mountain bike trails. The only time I have ridden singletrack was on my CX bike last fall.

We met up with Ryan and headed into the trail. I was off my bike within a few feet I swear to GOD! This trail SUCKS to ride - it's ROCKY and has roots everywhere, switchbacks are for crazy people. I sucked so bad - Dominic kept yelling at me to stay on the bike. So I tried. I rode where I felt comfortable. After an hour or so I started getting used to it and was on the bike a lot more.

The boys did a lot of waiting on me.


Dominic is pretty fucking huge now. I can see how tiny I look compared to him now and it's not me. I am a big girl. He's gotten huge.



Ryan bombed down this hill and fell into a thorn bush.



The bike is awesome, she's so fucking sexy, pink, and another rider on the trail called out "that pink bike's NOT a girly rigid".

Our friend Dave commented that the bike fits me like a glove. Man I cannot wait to ride it again. Tower is too hard. I will probably pussy out of that race. I would DFL for sure. I'd be the only girl riding a rigid singlespeed though.



Cool story - last winter I posted some pictures of Dominic on Drunkcyclist.com. Gnome forwards me an email from a reader who recognized Dominic from my post. Ends up they rode together as kids. Flatland. Pretty cool. We've stayed in touch and last night was our first ride together. Dave rides at Tower all the time on a rigid singlespeed. He showed us around the trails and Dominic was super excited to catch up with his friend.

After we got back to the parking lot we all tried out each other's bikes. I rode Dave's ss, Dave rode Dominic's 9'er, Ryan rode mine, Dominic rode Ryan's. I am going singlespeed I think.


Reunited via Drunkcyclist.com


Dominic wrecked twice.

Illness

** Update - NOT racing tomorrow.

I listen to my body for the most part. If I am feeling run down I take a break. I am big into prevention which I why I take handfuls of supplements and get acupuncture. Even during the last 10 weeks of IM training, I only asked Coach Jen to skip ONE workout. I never felt sick. In fact, in the last decade or so, I have rarely been sick. A cold once a year if that.

I have had Hep C for 20 years now. Over half my life. What kind of condition is my immune system really in? What kind of affect does the train/race/train/race really have on my immunity? The stress overall - what affect does that have on my health? Dominic is constantly worried about it.

I feel like I have been sick on and off weeks. I woke up yesterday with a stuffy head, watery eyes, typical allergy issues.

Why did my allergies appear just fucking now? Last year was the 1st year I ever experienced them and I had to use an inhaler and everything. All my life I have always been free of allergies.

So I have an acupuncture appt for Monday. I started snorting salt water this morning. I tried Clariton(sp) yesterday and Zhertek(sp) today. Nada.

I whined on Facebook and more than 20 FB friends recommend a neti-pot. I went up to Walgreens and bought one, as well as a zinc supplement. I imagined the neti-pot to be a steamer of some sort. I never imagined it would be something you stick in your nose. What a fucking pukey mess that was. But it seems to be working.

I was afraid to train this morning after feeling so shitty all night.

I am afraid this isn't going away.

I will be super bummed to miss the Hueston Woods road race on Sunday.

I took 5 days off the bike. Did nothing. That's fucking HARD for me to do. It makes for a disaster in "judi's world'. You might as well knock me out for several days. I fucking hate when I can't train and I know all you get this. Most of you anyways. Thanks for letting me vent.

Cheese with a capitol C

We had a great Easter Sunday with Dominic's family. The weather was kick ass. Dominic wanted to dress as twins so we did.




They busted out Bopit. Remember the commercial?


I finally got in my 1st 100 mile day yesterday. I say it like that because I split it up 80/20. I rode 80 miles alone. Then went home, let the dogs out, hung out for an hour or so, and headed out for ride #2 with Dominic and Ryan. We went down to the TT course that starts next month. There were a bunch of people out riding. It was a great night to ride. Like summer.

My legs felt pretty good. The 1st lap I just rode alone with my music, singing along. Dominic and Ryan rode way ahead of me. I rode the 2nd lap with Anne, a girl I met at the race on Saturday. Nice girl, found someone else to ride with now.



Today I gave my legs a rest and lifted weights. I swear, turning 40 is starting to freak me out. I am starting to lose bone density and muscle mass and I OBSESS over whether or not I get in enough weight sessions. Lately all I have been doing is riding and lifting once a week. Ugh. Tomorrow I'll be back on the bike doing some interval stuff before work (thanks Julie!).

I am racing again Sunday. In fact, I think I am racing every Sunday for the next 4 weeks. I agreed to race my MTB on 4/25. I haven't even ridden trails yet. Seriously. I guess it's just best to go for it. Rigid old school.

That last post brought in another $200.00 for NCDR. THANKS SOOOOO MUCH! That's awesome. All of your donations are totally tax deductible - so if you haven't filed your taxes yet....

50% just won't do.

Volunteer work used to take up a huge part of my time. I volunteered in a nursing home for 4 years with Cheeko. He was my 1st Dobe and I trained him for the Therapy Dog test. He passed the test when he was a year old. We volunteered up until 2 weeks before he died of Cardiomyopathy at age 5.

Cheeko died about 2 weeks after this picture was taken. He was very sick.


I also volunteered for a Doberman Rescue that had a shelter facility out in EBF (where we ride nowadays). I went out there almost every weekend for 5 years. Those days I smoked, and I only ran 4 miles 3xs a week. I'd go for my little run and then go clean kennels and walk dogs.

In 2007, me and another volunteer branched out with another lady from Cleveland and started Northcoast Doberman Rescue, based out of Columbus. I was on the BOD and everything.

And then I quit smoking and all of the sudden everything changed. I ran a marathon. Found triathlon.

And my volunteer work went out the window.

That's why it's so important to me to raise money for them once a year.

Guilt.

Plus I love the dogs and know the horrors of rescue all too well.

So you get where I am going with this....just a few bucks. Any amount will help. Right now I have only raised about 600 bucks. That's not even 50% of my goal. I have less than a month till my 12 hour bike ride. Help me out!

Donate here.

Or send a check written out to NCDR and mail here:

North Coast Doberman Rescue

3983 Grand Bend Dr, Groveport, Ohio 43125

THANK YOU! XXOO!!

My first road race - Mitchell Memorial

I raced! I did it! That's how I feel right now! I'm so happy the 1st one is DONE. I completed the only goals I had which were to 1. not dfl 2. not crash and 3. have fun.

Would I like to win?

HELL YEA, but I don't give a shit if I don't. That's what I am figuring out. I just LOVE bike racing!

Anyways, they were predicting some crazy ass weather - wind gusts up to 30mph, rain, possibly some thunder, all which were to start around lunchtime.

Great. Race starts at noon.

I went early to help Dave work registration. About 5 minutes after I got there, the tent we were standing under blew the fuck away. I mean it. It blew away and also broke. And it was a BIG tent. So we scrambled all around trying to figure out a place to set up the tables where the wind wouldn't be so bad.

And then another wind gust came. And every fucking thing went flying. Registrations and bib #'s went everywhere. I snapped this picture as like 10 of us were running after the flying white pieces of paper. It was INSANITY.



So we scrambled after them and some of the women were shoving them in their shirts to keep them from blowing away again. The wind was fucking CRAZY.

Poor Dave, his face was bright red and he told me he was 90% sure he was going to cancel the race. I knew that wasn't happenin'. I told him so and he picked me up and hugged me.

Dave's helpers went to work organizing all that paperwork. It started raining so Mary set her car up as the registration check in. It was a trip. We were just getting everyone registered and then I realized it was time to get ready. I changed into my kit in the car and started running into friends.

Zack from Chi-town races for Half Acre


I did some pre-riding with Blair and then went to find a spot to pee, ditched my jacket and headed over to the staging area.

The winds were blowing our bikes in different directions, I SWEAR. It was bad. Then the rain started.

The women I lined up with were nice and I talked to several girls. Nervous chitchat. These roadies were way nicer than I thought they'd be.

Racetime.

We all just kind of lined up, no call outs like CX. I stayed towards the back cuz the descent was about 5 minutes away and I knew I'd lose them there anyways. I had already announced to them that'd I'd pussy out on the hill. I knew my only hope was to catch them up on the climb.

The 1st lap started and I was riding on the far right inside of a pack of about 15 women. Just staying in a straight line and all of us riding in a pack. I liked it. I stayed right there until that descent. No fucking way was I NOT going to brake. It was raining, windy, and scary. So they were gone. I stayed cautious down the hill which went on forever. Then finally I caught 3 girls on the climb and kept going.

One girl passed me on the 2nd lap and I chased her through the whole second lap. Then she headed back into the park and was DNF and boom, the 2nd lap was over, just like that.

Ok, half way done. Shit was hurting.

I was alone for lap 3 and 4 but rode the descents w/o braking. Then the ref on the motorcycle told me to stay to the far right and about 20 men in a pack passed me. I got to draft a little off them but that's a no-no.

On my last lap I asked a few people if they saw any women. I just could NOT catch those girls. BUT I knew there were two behind me.

I crossed the finish line and was SO elated.

I headed over to chat with the rest of the women who probably had been done for whoknowshowlong. Then the other 2 came across and we were all waiting for results.

The women were scored 1/2/3's and then 3/4's.

I think a 3/4 won the race overall.

And I think the two women who came in behind me were 1/2/3's.

So I might have been DFL in cat 3/4 but I wasn't DFL overall.

It was fun. There are going to be more pictures coming so I'll post them later this week.

Thanks for your support. Thanks for reading. Thanks to those of you that take the time to comment.

And for Fatmarc, your mullet/racing analogy, all work up front, party in the back, is so true.

Lesson learned today: I love bike racing and I really just want to have a good time on my bike and find other women who like to do the same. It doesn't always have to be PODIUM PODIUM PODIUM (i can dream). It's not about that for me. Not because it's out of reach, but because I am perfectly happy coming across that finish line second to last. :)

Mitchell course preview

As I was out riding yesterday, I was thinking about all the people I have come across in the sport of triathlon. Runners. Swimmers. Cyclists. Athletes in general. Sometimes, you can't even fit in the same room with their egos. They wanna throw out their training stats to you all day long. Brag about how great they are. Then they wonder why you don't want to hang out anymore.

I don't belong!

I got in a few good rides this week, including 3 loops of the Mitchell Memorial race course that's coming up in 2 (!!) days.

I'm just going to call it now.

DFL.

The course starts out flat before coming to a sharp right hand turn and then a long and windy downhill that's scary as shit! I totally SUCK at descending so I will lose the entire pack on that downhill. My only hope is to catch them on the climb up Buffalo Ridge. That's a long and slow climb with some false flats added in, before coming to another climb and then flat again, back to the beginning of the course.

We'll do 4 laps.

My Rudy sunglasses look a little silly but they are so NICE for riding!


In other news....I am going to Interbike in Vegas this year. I am VERY excited about this. I get to go as "media" with other Drunk Cyclist writers. It's going to be a trip. It's DC's 10 year anniversary as well. Good times ahead for sure. Dominic has finally said yes to fly YIPPIE!