Better

This blog is MY place to vent. As soon as I wrote my post below, all angst was released. I felt better.

A friend sent me a rad text that made me cry a little:
...feel that inner anger bubble up and use the fury to explode on the bike. you gotta feel that buried pain from childhood, use your adversity those other girls don't have, it will make you propel beyond them soon.

Will I do better in next race? I hope to. That's all I can do.

I sure am kicking Dominic's ass on the road bike, if that means anything. He has lost a lot of cardiovascular fitness. All he does is flatland these days. He's prepping for a contest in Indy in January.

I am going to continue to be that girl who races on a POS. I'm over that temper tantrum too. You all didn't even get to hear about that. Poor Steven (Zanne's husband), he had to see me right as I was boohoo'ing about the ten year old girl with zipps and sram red. WTF. SILLY and LAME of me. I need to get the fuck over that right now. It's about being out there and racing and having fun and feeling some pain.

One of these races will be muddy, I swear.

My Drunk Cyclist jersey made a debut at USGP last weekend.



Halloween will be fun - a CX race in Louisville in the morning, and then we're passing candy out in the 'hood that night. I haven't passed candy out in 6 or 7 years. We love all the kids around here so we just decided to go ahead and do it this year since it falls on a day we're both off work.

Gun CX is the week after Halloween which will be a fun race. I am working the race and Dominic will be serving up Belgium beer from the Dilly Cafe. Should be a fun day.

Racing and competing.

Official bruises from the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Derby Cup Race


Warning: Pity Party!

When I participated in marathons, triathlon, and then Ironman, (note the word "participate", not "race"), it was all about the finish. I didn't give a shit if I got passed. I didn't give a shit if it took me took 10 minutes in transition. I just loved being out there, swimming, biking and running. Crossing the finish was the goal. The accomplishment of finishing was enough. If I did well, great. If not, I didn't cry about it.

After yesterday's 30th place out of 33 that finished, I found myself in tears after the race. Like, boo-hoo'ing. SO stupid, I know. Lame, lame, lame. I am the queen of pity.

**** Update 10/29 - I was 30th out of 37. If that matters.

I've heard people say USGP is a lot like the racing in Belgium. There was a little bit of everything on that course. A BMX type bump hill, right into a dismount and over some barriers, a downhill sandpit, a green monster, some twisty turny sandy shit, a sandpit that seemed to be a mile long, a hill so steep I crashed on my warm up lap (see pic above) and more run ups than I care to even remember. *Run on sentence, I know.

We were off the bikes a lot. I was passing girls on foot. They'd pass me back on the bike. It was pissing me off.

Somewhere along the line I started to care about placement, and finishing, and beating other women. I never used to care.

This sounds really fucking stupid, but I really want to be good at this. I've trained all goddamn year for this CX season and I am sucking!!

Now for the excuses:

If only I had a proper cyclocross race bike.
And wheels!
And new lungs!
And a new attitude!

Ok, that's it, I am done. Thanks for letting me vent. I've been wallowing in this pity party for long enough.

Moving on.

Local CX racer, hit by car.

A girl I raced with recently, Ali Delgado, was seriously injured in a collision with an automobile this past weekend while on her bike. Currently, Ali is still in intensive care at University Hospital with serious injuries, and while she has shown improvements daily, she still faces a long, challenging road to recovery.

This fund has been set up in conjunction with Ride For World Health to offset her medical expenses.

Any support you can offer, or assistance in spreading the word is very much appreciated.

Click here to donate.

Thanks.

I've been on my road bike this week.

On Sunday I joined a group called the "Iffy" ride. My friend Anne sent me the email earlier in the week so it was on. Anne is a kick ass rider. She won a few 3/4 road races this year and can take a sprint like nobody's fuckin' business. She is tough. I was worried I would hold everyone up and not be able to keep up, since it's been a month since I rode anything over 2 hours. I knew it would be hilly and we'd do about 60 miles.

The first 18 miles I struggled to stay bridged. There were 15 riders. The guy "bringing up the rear" rode with me. Once there was a turn, everyone stopped to regroup. I was pissed! I didn't think I was going to be able to stay with them.

And then something happened.

I stayed in the group. I used 30% less energy. We were averaging some good speeds and I was feeling great. I was climbing strong. At halfway through the ride Anne and I were just talking away and we were split up into two groups. She's like "let's get up there", so I just put it down, got bridged up, and focused on staying on someone's wheel. I stayed with the fast group untill I looked back and saw we had lost the hosts of the ride. Oops. There was another regroup after a phone call, and a long slow climb that we had to descend back down. We stayed in a group for the rest of the 10 miles back to the house.

I felt like I rode pretty strong.




Yesterday's schedule said to rest but instead I took an easy ride with Dominic. We call it a cafe ride, which is usually under 20 city miles, going to get coffee at the 9 mile mark. I made him work to stay on my wheel. He was crying about his quads when we got home.

These are the new DrunkCyclist jerseys, 2010 edition and ten year anniversary of the site. The colors are so beautiful. Snake Hawk did a rad job on the design. Get one now, while they still have some. They run out of them pretty fast, I hear.



The next three Sundays will be spent racing CX. Please let it rain!

RIP Rubi 1993-2010

In the end, her spirit out-lived her body.

Significant changes.

I have been working on a post here for 3 fucking days now. I can't seem to get the right words out. I hate it when I can't sit down long enough to concentrate. My fucking Facebook and Twitter accounts need to be deleted, for real.

A few important things happened this week.

1) We got the marriage certificate on Tuesday and on Wednesday I was down at the social security building requesting my new name change. It was surreal. I kept telling the guy at the window how fucking happy I was to be rid of my old last name. Then I headed to the DMV for a new driver's license. I am officially Judith R. LoPresti. Finally rid of my father's last name. This has a huge amount of significance for me. No one can ask if I am related to "Ed" anymore. You don't know how long I have been dreaming of this day. I blame him for so much of my anger. I hold a grudge. I know it's not healthy. Forgiveness just does not come easily to me. You fuck me once and I will never forget.

2) I saw my liver specialist this week. It's been 21 years since I contracted Hep C, when I was tattooed with a contaminated needle. My last liver biopsy was 7 years ago. At that time, my liver was in stage 2 fibrosis. A small portion was starting to spread to stage 3. I have 4 stages until cirrhosis sets in. I hear it takes years for that to happen. Dominic wants me to have another biopsy, but insurance only pays 80% after I pay a $2K deductible. I show zero signs of having the virus, have no symptoms. The doc says I will die of something else, as long as I stay off the booze. You know what's most fucked about having Hep C? I can't get life insurance. My obese neighbor who smokes has life insurance. That fat fuck will probably die of something stupid, long before I do.

3) Last Friday, October 8th, marked 11 years off heroin. I still struggle. Some days more than others. My Mom took this picture. I looked and felt like shit. This was after my last full blown relapse that lasted about 4 months. I stayed in bed for a week.

Taken Oct 10th, 1999.

UCI3 CX Races

** UPDATED**
Katie Compton interview is up.

CX is hard work.

Photo by Debbie Baker


Cincinnati UCI3 was this past weekend and it was a BLAST! I wish I had raced Saturday too, but I had to work, no PTO time from Interbike.

I am beat up. I raced Friday and yesterday.

Friday I started with 32 women, classed in 34 and under, and 35+. There were 19 in my class. Here is what went down. First off, it's dry here, and HOT. It was 80+ degrees and I was thirsty at the starting line. It takes forever to call us up, so I made a mental note to myself to bring a bottle with me to the starting line next time.

It's supposed to be a tad chilly in October, not HOT.

I digress.

We started uphill on pavement into a hard right uphill of acorns, dirt, roots, and off camber. And then the next 40 minutes were a blur. I can't even remember, it was just brutal. Potholes every few feet and no spray paint markings. The hardest fucking cx course I've ever raced. A few others said the same thing. It's just ALL uphill, false flats and tight turns. My HR was 185+ the entire time, saw 189 a few times. There was NO place for recovery.

I was in the top 10 on my 4th lap when my fucking chain got caught in the chain catcher. This has only happened one other time, and when it happens, you can't just pop the chain back on. You have to remove the chain catcher (which requires tools), pop chain back on, then put chain catcher back on. I was going to just DNF but some guys pointed out I was only a few feet from the pit. A couple good guys Andrew and John had me back in the race in about two minutes (THANK YOU!).

So I had some recovery.

I passed a couple of girls, ended up 16th out of 19.

But damn, if I had a pit bike, I woulda been in the top 10.

Sunday's race was so fun. I was really glad to get my race over with early, so I could hang out and enjoy the day, not working the race. This was my 3rd year at Harbin, 2nd year racing. I love this race so much. It's a blast.

I lined up with 43 women, 24 in the 35+. That's a lot of women to try and get around, since they start the masters women in the back. They were supposed to call us up in OVCX series order, but that didn't happen. I ended up in the way back and it took me a while to move up. I knew this course and since there was time for recovery I could really work hard.

I battled it out with Diane, Fatmarc's wife for most of the race. Here is video of us in the sand pit. The only time I could pass her was on foot. She's tiny. I have 35lbs on her, at least. She'd pass me and then I'd pass her and then she'd pass me again. Marc was screaming at her the entire time WIND IT UP WIND IT UP! I finally let her go on the last half lap. I was done. Finito.

Wound up 15th out of 24.

The rest of the day was spent socializing.

Oh, and I got an interview with Katie Compton.

Here is how that went down. I emailed her husband Mark on Friday, asking if we could bring her a special beer, for an interview for Drunkcyclist.com. Mark emailed me back that she was gluten free, and Dominic said they had gluten free belgium beer at The Dilly, where he works. We emailed back and forth. It just so happened they needed a nice place to eat on Friday night, so he asked me to make them reservations. Katie's parents were flying in too.

If you've ever met my husband, Dominic, you know he is very charming. He totally wined and dined them, treated them like royalty. Mark even tweeted about it.




Katie dominated her 3rd race in 3 days, she did her cool down on pink compact rollers, and then we sat down with coconut waters. She was so cool. The conversation flowed from payouts, to dogs, to canine diet - she feeds real food too! No dog food! We talked about breed specific legislation, injury, supplements, nutrition, doping, clothes, weddings, music, dogs, and much more. I have almost an hour of audio and 5 pages of notes.

I think the interview with Katie Compton was the highlight of my weekend. Besides racing and finishing, having fun, seeing friends (and some enemies), it was so rewarding to just talk to her. Find out about who she is, where she came from, why is she so fast (her Mom is a runner and her 5k PR is 19 something, FYI). She fucking dominates. It's insane to see her race.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Christa loves her skinsuit so much.


Kill me


Me, Sherri, sweetest southern belle.


John Gatch the announcer gave Drunk Cyclist a shout out!


Our only bike messenger in the city wins 2/3 masters 45+.


Polly and Mark before his podium.


Team Hungry has the sexiest skinsuits around.


Katie, my new BFF (kidding) after the interview.

I need a new set of lungs.

I raced pretty well again last Sunday. It was dry and cloudy and cool. Dominic and I arrived in Louisville with an hour to spare. That hour turned into close to 2 hours due to a bad crash in the men's 4's race (Dave S., a guy I know from Cinti, has a broken leg in 2 spots, surgery, etc., GET BETTER DAVE!!!) which delayed all the races. I ended up standing around shivering and yakking it up with all these women.

Finally they lined us up. Juniors started before us, and then they called the 3/4 women, and then the 3/4's masters 35+ women. I always reg' as a master since I am 40 but I'd like to see how I compare to the younger girls too sometime. They line us masters up all the way in the back so as soon as the gun goes off, I tried to go around everyone, to get in front.

I was racing the course blind since the announcer kept telling people to stay off the course cuz it would fuck up their timing chip. The 1st turn a whole bunch of us went down. And a whole bunch passed us. I was back up in an instant and just got back on my bike and rode like hell to pass some girls.

Down a huge hill there were 2 girls stopped with a dropped chain. I passed them by and kept riding and then took a 90 degree turn into a huge hill. Some people were running it and some were riding. I ran it the 1st lap. There was a lot of off camber (like riding sideways on a hill) riding which would have been way more fun in mud. A lot of curvy turns and barriers (video on DC). No sandpit.



The last 2 races I have made it 4 laps in the allotted time. Last year I could only make it 3 laps. I am showing improvement, and there is a lot more confidence now, but much needs to be improved.

I would also like a new set of lungs. I guess the 25+ years of smoking lots of stuff is catching up to me. I cough so much after racing CX. I need to have that looked at it. I call it CX cough but it's really 'exercise induced asthma'. I suck on an inhaler a lot after racing CX. Not sure why it doesn't happen in crits or road races. Only CX.

I got 4th place in the 35+.

I am ready to get my ass whooped in the UCI races this weekend. Bring it.

I've been sad today.

The past couple of weeks have been fun getting to know some of the BSM guys. I rode with Sam and Max last weekend for 3 hours. They totally and completely destroyed me but it was a fantastic ride and I actually kept up pretty well! I felt super excited and optimistic about finding cool people to train and race with.

Then I recruited another girl (14 years my junior). I knew her through a couple of mutual friends, and IMKY. We raced a crit together last year, and I thought she'd make a good teammate since we rode so well together. She even hooked us all up with vo2 max tests at NKU, with the agreement that we participate in a study on cyclists. I was psyched, only to find out I didn't q'fy for the study because I have Hep C.

Blow to my face. And I was too embarrassed to say anything when the emails came flying through about when everyone else would be doing their test.

Then I found out they were meeting with a local bike shop to set up some kind of sponsorship. The shop they chose didn't sit well with me. At all. It's the highest end shop in the city, carrying bikes like Colnago, or Pinarello. I can't even afford to look inside the shop, let alone buy a tube!

$85.00 for a tune up?
$60.00 for a 1/4 hour of labor?

Please. That's not me.

So I guess I jumped the gun, way too fast, on my new team for 2011. I won't be riding with BSM. I like the guys a lot though. They will do well, but it's not the fit I thought it would be for me.

I am just gonna do my own thing next year.

FTW.

CXCXCX

The day before we left for Vegas, I raced my first CX race of the season and did pretty well. There were only 9 women racing the 3/4 masters 35+, more 3/4's reg'd as open. I came in 4th with the old ladies. Still missing that podium. Maybe one day, right?


Photo by Jeff

This Sunday I am racing down in Louisville for the TDL brought on by Bike Cliques. I can't wait to see Zanne and Nani again, as well as Sherri, Joan, and Lindsey. Racing CX in Louisville is so much freaking fun too. I love it down there.

Next weekend is the 3 day UCI festival and I am racing Friday and Sunday. Let's have a rain dance! It's cooler out, but no rain. Dry. as. hell.