Windy Day

Today has been rough so far, not sure why, I've already gone to class, made some progress at work, had lunch and now getting ready to do some stats homework, more work later...I wish I could be more excited about school and grad school and my work, but I just can't seem to get there. I'm wondering if it's worth it to see what kind of jobs are out there, maybe at Amgen or CDC or anything really. I should just suck it up.

Race Weekend Four!

Grand Junction, the first hill climb and road race of the season! Plus a crazy crit thrown in there as well. Saturday was the hill climb up through the CO Monument. Very pretty, lots of corners, a few tunnels, and I did pretty bad....10th out of 12 or so. Oh well, it was a power climb for sure, Tirrel got second I believe, or maybe 3rd, but she was up there! Rachel was right behind Tirrel and I'm not sure where Julia ended up. The crit was insane and I didn't like it one bit. It was on a track used for racing little tiny go carts, so all the turns were way too sharp, and it was pretty narrow for a lot of it, and there was AT LEAST one crash in every category race the whole day! No fun! They tried to do a twilight crit as well; the Mens A started at 7pm! They ended up having to cut it short because they didn't have enough lights and it was getting dangerously dark. I was so nervous the whole race..please don't crash, please don't crash:)
The road race was a real wake-up call. The course has always been particularly brutal, this year seemed a bit better, but I still ended up in no mans land for a little while. A group got away after the first climb and the other three CSU girls were in it, so I took it upon myself to mess with the three CU girls that I got caught with. It was the easiest first lap of that course I've ever done! I did no work, and messed with their rotation until they got so frustrated they started attacking each other...and then the other two girls would pull back their own attacks! It was AWESOME! The second lap, one CU girl and I dropped the other two, caught up to Julia and then tried to bridge to the first group. The CU girl and I made, Julia did not, then as soon as we got up to the front group, I was all impertinent and said "let's get organized! We shouldn't have caught you!" So they proceeded to drop me...I was alone for awhile until Julia caught up, and we rolled turns the third lap and into the finish. The wind was so strong up on top, I literally couldn't keep my bike going straight and almost went off the road a few times. Julia ended up getting a good gap along the top and through the switch backs down to the finishing stretch. I would have caught her if we'd had about two more miles...Anyway, it was brutal and I was soooooo tired!!! I couldn't function until Caley made me a recovery bottle:)
Looking forward to a rest weekend, time to do some long rides maybe...we'll see how work goes.
-Megan

Mesa Crit nonsense

Pics from Spring Break!

Red Mountain Pass

Molas Pass



At Lemon Reservoir



On the way to Lemon Reservoir

Waiting for Caley to do intervals on Wolf Creek Pass

Heading off for some intervals on Wolf Creek

Spring Break cont.

Hopefully I'll have some pics up soon, we forgot the thingy that puts them on the computer from the camera.
Wednesday was a true break day. We slept in, had breakfast, lazed around, bought some tubular glue, glued a tubular, then napped until dinner time. Watched a few movies after dinner then went to bed. Aaahhh that's the life! Yesterday was amazing as well. We actually went for a bike ride up to Lemon Reservoir. A perfect Colorado blue-sky day with temps in the high 60's, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Plus, this road is awesome! Lot's of climbing on the way out, then rolling downhill all the way home. We were sling-shotting each other down the last big hill (or trying to, I ran out of gears just trying to stay behind Caley....) sooooo much fun!
Today will be another travel day, although we're not leaving until 3, so plenty of time for laundry, packing, going to the bank, stopping by the high school to say hello to my fav teachers, perhaps hitting up Bread?? And enjoying our drive through a part of CO that Caley has yet to experience! The passes we are headed for are some of my favorite passes in all of CO and two of them are on the race course for the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, so we'll kind of get to "preview" them.
Again, sorry for no pics, but they'll be here soon!
Have a wonderful day!
-Megan

Spring Break!!!!!

Caley and I packed up our things, cleaned the house, fed the cat, and headed out for our spring break adventure this past Monday morning. Monday was a beautiful day for a drive, we stopped for a short ride (Caley stopped for a short ride...) on Wolf Creek Pass. I was surprised by the amount of traffic and the amount of snow still on the pass. With our 70 degree weather in FoCo we'd forgotten it was still winter in other places around the state! Due to some unfortunate shifting issues, the ride was cut short, but no matter because the parents were waiting to take us out to burger night!!! Olde Tymer's cafe was packed as usual for their superb burger deal. I saw a few people I know, but for the most part, a new generation of kids has taken over burger night. I assume most of my other classmates are either working or out of town. According to my mother, most of the group that used to do burger night is now back in Durango working at various restaurants and other jobs they all did in high school. Hanging out with their high school friends and doing their high school activities. Different strokes for different folks I guess...
Tuesday was SO WONDERFUL!!! I woke up early for a quick dentist appointment (still a Crest Kid!) and a quick eye appointment. On my way home I stopped by the rec center to visit Mom who was hangin out at the pool with her class. Talked to Rick for awhile (he's my former ski coach and best coach I've ever had) and then a quick stop at the doughnut shop before heading home! After doughnuts for lunch (plus some other more healthy food...) I took a much needed and very delicious nap, then we headed out for a ride! One loop around the collegiate road course, three intervals up the front hill, and trimble and back to finish it off. Great fun! I didn't want to stop, it was so warm and Durango is so so beautiful. Much nicer than Fort Collins.
Today we plan on doing an easy ride out to Lemon Res. after doing some laundry and then we MUST work on some homework. I will break the streak of never doing homework on Spring Break!! I will!

:)
-Megan

Race Weekend Three!!

This weekend went pretty well, I put in a lot of attacks yesterday in Boulder, and chased down a lot of attacks, and Tirrel won!! Pretty much all you could ask for:) Picture for you here:


Today was slightly less spectacular. I was tired and should have just hidden in the pack, but the plan was for me and someone else to get into a break, and so I did my best to try, but nothing stuck and I ended up getting popped off the back. A CU girl who got popped before me, caught up and then sprinted me at the end (for 9th place....) I was pissed because she wouldn't work with me at all, and is just as b(*^&y as all the other CU girls. I don't say that lightly either, it's really a bummer that all the CU girls can't get along with the rest of us...we see each other every weekend....
Pics coming as soon as Caley can upload them:)

-Megan

ps. so glad Caley is ok and his bike is ok from a nasty crash yesterday!!!

Cold Cold Ride Yesterday

Yesterday we had the first Womens A TTT practice that everybody could make! Whoo! Temps hovered around 35-40 the whole time...very chilly on the bike. We had some good moments, we had some bad moments (I got dropped...on a flat section....) I have determined that Tirrel has the power of a thousand Amazon women (reference to how I was dropped on a flat...) At one point on the way home after we'd finished practicing rolling turns etc. we ran into an injured bunny rabbit on the side of the road. Of course we had to stop and there was much discussion about whether to break its neck, leave it to bleed to death or be eaten, or try to take it home. Eventually it hopped away. I was at a safe distance where no blood or suffering could be observed, yuck, never have I wanted to be a people/human doctor. Our next stop came with a flat tire about another mile down the road. Good thing it was Julia's, she came prepared and can probably change a flat faster than any of us, and she even has those crazy German tires that Caley hates so much:) In any case, I was thoroughly cold and tired when I got home and made Caley make me some dinner:)
Today I am feeling worn out and will stock up on Vitamin C when I get home!
I'm also showing the apartment to someone this afternoon, hopefully she falls in love with it and agrees to take it for June and July!
-Megan

ps. I also had a new chain and new cassette! Whoooo shifted like a dream!

Strange Day

The sun is shining brightly, but the temps have only made it up to 32 as of 1:30pm. I feel that this discrepancy is causing me some psychological distress and weirdness. On one hand, I want to either curl up on the couch and go to sleep or hide myself away in the lab, and on the other hand I want to go ride my bike until I don't have enough light left to see. Unfortunately, none of these things has won out, I am not cuddled on the couch, not hidden away in the lab, and not on my bike. :( This morning was spent reviewing a stats lecture I missed; it's pretty cool because all the lectures are posted online in video format. We have "e-commuters" in the class, so the videos are for them, but we all benefit from it. In any case, I'm not feeling particularly jazzed about anything at the moment.
In other news...someone is coming to look at the apartment tomorrow evening. I'm glad to have some interest after only putting up the craigslist ad yesterday. In case you all weren't aware, Caley and I are moving to a bigger place! Two bedrooms, washer/dryer, dishwasher, patio, wood floors, still only a block from campus, and will only be roughly $150 more than what we pay now. Which means Caley will actually have to pay rent every month instead of me cutting him slack all the time...:) but I CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE APPLIANCES!!!! I was thinking yesterday how odd it is that I have come to care so much about these modern conveniences, but I do, I really must have the appliances. I guess if I was home all day and had time to do the dishes and the laundry day after day, then it wouldn't be so bad. But with both of us busy and tired from biking and racing, etc, this might just save our relationship in the long run :) I will miss our darling little apartment, but it's time to move on, we need more space.
Well, time for me to do something, one of my three choices, still not sure which.
ciao,
Megan

Second Race Weekend Recap

Two race weekends down already! And another one fast approaching! This past weekend we raced at City Park in Denver


Me attacking off the front around one of the three round-abouts!

The crit at City Park was sooo much fun! I spent a lot of time attacking and shutting down other teams attacks (not that they did much attacking....) Tirrel and I also had an amazing lead out train for the last three laps! I went on the front on the 3rd lap to go, Tirrel took it on the 2nd lap to go, unfortunately Rachel didn't have it on the last lap, but it was alright because Julia is a most amazing sprinter and took the win no problem.

Saturday was an IT at a park off of E470, and a TTT in the afternoon:




I placed 5th in the IT right behind Julia (or should I say a minute behind Julia....) but there were 12 girls so not too bad. I'm not sure what the results are for the TTT, but I got dropped on the long hill after taking some big pulls in the beginning and also pulling up on of the shorter hills. So, all in all, a good race weekend for me!

I am sooooo excited for spring break. I think we have officially decided to drive down on Monday. Can't say I can blame Caley for not being excited to get in the car for 7hrs after a race on Sunday. I'm looking forward to showing him some of the great rides around Durango, like up to Vallecito and Lemon, and out to Mancos, or around through Wild Cat Canyon. Hopefully the roads will be dry and in good shape for the week we are down there. Plus, it will be nice to be fed for free and just relax and not do anything work related.

Anyway, I should get back to doing something productive!
-Megan

First Race Weekend Recap

First two races of the season have come and gone already! Saturday was here at the CSU oval, and we had a GREAT turnout!! Collegiate races were in the morning, and it was much colder than any of us wanted...but not too bad. I went off at 11 with 9 other A women, pretty disappointing field. Julia ended up winning, Tirrel was 4th and Rachel and I took 5th and 6th.




The two of us (R and myself) spent the whole race attacking the crap out of two CU girls. They couldn't hang for the last couple of laps so I was Rachels lead out.



I was pretty impressed with myself for putting in attacks and still getting back on to the group! Even though the group was only like two people...I did much better than I had anticipated. The afternoon was spent course marshaling for the USAC categories and then cleaning up the course and heading down to the Springs to stay with Tirrels family before the CC criterium Sunday morning. Sundays race was really strange, no one was strong enough to attack and get away for any substantial amount of time, and we were experimenting with switching up team leader...and ended up not having any sort of cohesion at all. In the end, Tirrel was second after a great lead out by Julia and she was very excited! I ended up like 8th or 9th or something because of a small attack I put in about two laps to go. It ended up popping one of the really strong girls from another school, but I was toast:) Not too bad though! Actually better than I've ever done at that race. It's weird not have the couple really strong, pro-level riders that we usually have.
Anyway, back to reality. I realized I forgot to leave my rent check before 5pm on Sunday, so I put it in there around 9pm, I saw another envelope, so at least I'm not the only one, and hopefully won't get penalized. It's the first time I've been late, and only by a few hours, and maybe he didn't even pick them up on Sunday! Aaah, still stressful. I also hadn't paid for utilities, and will probably have a late fee of like $10 cents since their offices were closed when I called it in. Or maybe not since it was Sunday again...we shall see.
Gels are going ok, I messed up two of them yesterday, one didn't set right and the other leaked out all over the place. Sometimes it's just completely random when it happens, other times it's because of the equipment...not sure which is was this time. Hopefully I can get two more good ones this afternoon before I load them all up. Dr. Black is getting anxious to move on to the next step as well (sequencing individual mosquitoes DNA to compare). For the most part though, this week is pretty calm, just have a small Stats homework and the rest is lab work. Maybe I'll even have time to ride my bike in the 75 degree weather today! Winds are pretty vicious though, maybe a run instead or something.
Well, I should go, seminar soon!
-Megan