two things i love!

cycling and football.   by the way, my fantasy football team has made it to the playoffs!  team pedalphile is hoping for a first or second place finish, and i have to no shame to admit it's for the money.  i hope to have a win this weekend to make the finals next weekend.  who would want anything less?  not this girl, that's for sure!   keep your toes crossed for me!  :)


*update* i made it to the finals!  wish me luck this weekend!!!!

*update 2* second place.  not bad for my first try at this and i'm $80 richer. 

mountain biking!

i headed up to pittsburgh this past weekend with my friend tom to do the punk bike enduro, a fun mountain bike stage race.  seemed easy enough, right?  admittedly, i was a bit nervous, as i have never really mountain biked before and i wasn't exactly sure what i was getting myself in to. well, i certainly found out sunday.  lesson learned, mountain biking is hard!
i didn't really have the skills or knowledge on how to handle my bike.  i learned that quickly in either the first or second stage.  while attempting to go down the single track, i hit something.  i flipped over my handlebars, yelled "oh shit" and then laid there whimpering with my bike on my back.  ouch.  thankfully tom heard my whimpers and when i didn't get up right away, he grabbed the 25lb bike off my back.  hey!  thanks guy!  it was really too cold out (snow!) to feel the pain except for the wind being knocked out of me.  it wasn't until later would i realize how badly i hurt and would debate which was worse, road rash or eating dirt.  i decided then i was pretty happy that i made the decision to stick with the platform pedals and not borrow shoes and pedals from our awesome hostess eryn! 
ok, soo maybe i wasn't cut out for mountain biking.  i mean, everyone made it look soo easy!  i am used to pavement, where i don't have to contend with snow, mud, tree branches, AND rocks!!!  what the hell?  it didn't help with below freezing temperatures and mud as by stage 6, my rear derailleur was no longer shifting.  cool, i am now rocking a single speed.  i think anyone who wasn't riding a single speed encountered the same problem.  so there were 12 stages.  by stage 6, i was cold and my bones had started to hurt from my crash.  the beer a guy offered me helped to warm me up a bit.  i decided against grabbing any beer from the kegs stashed in the woods earlier, because sobriety was probably a wise decision after my fall.  all in all, i think i walked my bike more than i rode it, but i had a blast!  i really like mountain biking and the people who come with it.  they don't seemed as concern with matching kits and carbon.  i am now rocking some pretty vicious bruises, and it's hurt to laugh and cough all week thanks to bruised ribs.  maybe by next year i will have the mad skillz to actually finish!  until then, i am going to find some mountain bike bunny slopes to hit!  :)

p.s.  if you are ever in pittsburgh, check out the otb bicycle cafe.  great spot!

p.p.s. check out simon lamb's post over at la gazzetta della bici.  thanks simon!  :)

tis the season...

is everyone's tummy full of turkey?  i hope you had a good holiday weekend!  i am going to take another break from babbling on about cycling to talk about something amazing that happened to me this weekend.  so sit back and relax for a moment, because i can tell you were on the edge of your seat.
saturday night started innocent enough.  i went over to my friends' apartment to celebrate a birthday.  good food, some libations and funny conversation were to be had.  unfortunately, i was with my twin sister, whom from this day forward, we shall refer to as satan.   sorry if satan didn't think a get together was enough for a saturday night and decided we needed to go balls to the wall.  well dang, i don't have a car (zipcar when i need it!) and all the bikes were sleeping at home.  satan decides to meet up with some other friends at a bar in bethesda.  awesome!  the exact opposite of what i like to do with my time on  a weekend night.  if you know me, then you know i prefer a dive bar, a show, listening to house music, at the very least, somewhere within bike/walk/stumble distance to my apartment in the city.  i decided to make the best of a crappy situation the best i could.  the decision was made, it was time to get wasted.  so i threw back some adult beverages and got sleepy.  i asked my sister for her car keys, went to her car and went to bed.  you know, it was like 1am or something.  don't judge me man, little did i know i was coming down with a cold and needed that sleep.  satan and her friends were in party-mode that night and i was in sleep mode.   so they dragged me around and i curled up where i could to get that essential beauty rest.  fast forward to 5am when i figure out that my wallet is missing.  panic sets in and some expletives are said.  i am pretty upset with myself for being so careless.  i should have ordered a coffee instead of another shot.  ugh.
why hello sunday morning, it should be nice to see you, but i am upset.  waaaaaaaa!!!  how could i lose my wallet?  license, bank cards, metro card, gym card, insurance card, you know, the things you keep in your wallet!  waaaaaaaaaa!!!!  i go online to check my account, interesting, my accounts haven't been touched.  hrmmm...  maybe my wallet is just hiding in my sister's car?  i go search to no avail. waaaaaaa!!!  i am sleepy, depressed and all that jazz.   top it off with both my fantasy football team and my redskins losing.  sigh...  sunday night comes and my accounts still haven't been touched.  i tell a girlfriend that for some reason i have a strange feeling i will find my wallet.   just to be safe, i finally decide to cancel my cards and off to bed i go.
in the morning i wake up and check my email like most of the world.  why...what the heck is this?  i get an email, "did you recently lose your wallet?  if so, can you describe it and confirm your birth date?"  what??!?!?!  huh?!?!?  i furiously type the description, my birth date and some other aspects of my wallet, hit send, and wait.   maybe i need some coffee, maybe i am still asleep and this is all a dream.  i get to work, open my email, and wait for a reply.   around 10:30 i get a message back.  "hi mary,  yes, i found your wallet".  it seems that at some point during saturday's debauchery my wallet fell on the ground and a good samaritan found it.  he went through the trouble of googling my name and stumbled upon my google profile.  wow, just wow.  the luck of it all!  i met up with him monday night and was reunited my wallet.  i picked up a little gift card for him to show him my gratitude.  he refused to take it.  he told me that he had lost his wallet and someone had taken the time to find him.  he had to pay it forward.   i will too.  it doesn't have to be a wallet, just anything.  it doesn't have to be the christmas season, it can be any time of the year.  pay it forward.  :)

fall city riding

even our four legged friends like bike rides!  say hello to the coolest chorkie in the world, sophie!   i should invent pooch helmets.  where would her ears go though?!?!

why, i don't even know what to think...

ok, so yesterday (saturday) was another perfect fall day here in dc.  i decided to bike to the pool, swim some laps and bike home.  after the pool, i made a quick diversion to my sister's place to say hello.  i had a glass of wine, it was kind of nice after the work out.  i left her place around 4pm and decided to bike home and get ready for the night.  i really need new brake pads, and had just enjoyed that glass of wine, so decided to not rush my bike ride home.  i kept a nice steady pace and was taking in the beautiful fall leaves lining the city streets.  per usual, i stop at the light at 14th and r st nw, i always hit this light.  i was stopped in the middle of the bike lane, behind the crosswalk waiting patiently for the light to change.  i had just caught it, so i sat there for a good 35 seconds or so waiting for it to change.  i checked out the subaru next to me and noticed the friends seemed mostly uninterested in each other's company.  they were each on their own cell phones with the exception of the driver.  to my right, a woman was stopped on her bike and talking to her friend who was on the sidewalk.  that's always nice to run in to a friend i thought.
so the light changes and i slowly take off and continue biking the last few blocks home.  suddenly, i see this guy come up to the left of me and turn right, cutting me off.  now this is odd, there was plenty of room behind me to pass and make his turn.  also, wasn't he aware that i was moving and why would you make a right turn from the left of someone while you are both on bikes??  i slow down, yet don't unclip.  quickly analyzing how ridiculous this guy's decision was, but then offended because did he really think he could pass me just because i was a girl and he was a guy?  i soon became horrified that this idiot could have caused me to crash.  i quietly, but firmly muttered, "seriously dude?  what the FUCK? come on now" and shake my head at him.  he apologizes profusely, he clearly knew he was in the wrong.  then i realized something, i just intimidated and scared the hell out of him.  i felt proud of myself and i pedaled off.
as i biked, i re-analyzed what the hell just happened.   at first, i felt kind of bad, maybe i was too harsh on him?  what if i came off as some scary bike chick?  you know, the girls with the scars that aren't afraid to go fast and crash hard?  what if it wasn't apparent that i like my face and bones the way they are, intact.  what if he never rides a bike again?  i hoped that wasn't the result.  i then come to the conclusion that he really made a poor decision and could have hurt both of us.  he didn't even have a helmet on while he rode his cruiser with one hand.  what was the point of his decision?  why couldn't he have just waited .2 seconds or gone to the right of me where he had plenty of room?  the level of intensity with which i said those words could have cut glass, although i said it low and was surprised he even heard me.  it was if he had heard my thoughts and felt my annoyance with him.  so, i decided, i didn't feel bad.  do you feel bad when you yell at the car next to you for cutting you off and not having patience?   i didn't have a horn (or bell), i had my mouth and i used it.  keep riding, but have some common sense out there.

luxembourg cycling project...

best new team in the peloton?  quite possibly with everyone making the mass exodus from team saxo bank and leaving mr. 60%, bjarne riis a lonely director sportif.  now riis is left standing there with the embattled contador.  well, maybe he won't be standing there if contador's people don't pay off the uci in time and he faces a ban for his plasticizers and tainted meat.  oh wait, he threatened to retire because his good name has been marred.   guess maybe he learned a thing or two from lance armstrong while they were teammates on the astana squad.  if contador isn't banned, whom better to be his new doping mentor than riis?  anyways, i digress...
let's focus on the more important subject here, which is my new favorite team to watch in the peloton, the luxembourg cycling project!  by now, if you've read my few blog postings or follow me on twitter, you know that my heart will always lie with garmin.  i suppose i favor them, because they are an american pro team, and they are actually pretty decent although some may disagree.  ;)  now, the reason i am looking forward to this new team is because my baby daddy andy schleck, his brother frank, and my other baby daddy, spartacus himself, fabian cancellara will continue to ride together.   mmmmm, hold on a few minutes..............................................................  ok, done daydreaming.  they will be joined by some of the best riders in the peloton, jens voigt, stuart o'grady, and jakob fuglsang to name a few.  how excited will you be to see big jens crossing the finish line and cancellara handing everyone their asses in the time trials???  mmmm, cancellara's booty............................................................   ok, sorry again, got distracted. 
so i think the 2011 year is shaping up nicely.  this new team is going to give the others in the peloton something to worry about.  i can't wait to see their final roster and all their new sponsors.  no need to speculate, the official news will come soon enough.  hurry up with the spring classics and my favorite stage race, the giro d'italia! until then my friends, let's hope for a winter filled with riding.

oh contador!!!!

with all the lovely pictures of el pistolero, why did i choose this one?  well, because after learning the news of contador's supposed doping, i quickly posted on a kiwi friend in japan's facebook page about the news.  his response?  "oh shit! oh well he was on lance's team, what do they expect?"  i might have literally LOL-ed.
i have never really liked lance armstrong.  he always came across as a douche bag, and i never appreciated his run through women.  now, i know i shouldn't judge one's personal life, but damn, your first wife gave you children and stood by you while you had cancer.  way to give her the finger in the end.  ugh... and frankly, i found the fact that he creates a twitter page for his yet unborn child highly annoying.  seriously dude?  i thought i was insane for making a page for the coolest chorkie in the world.  stay retired, drink your cold beers, sell yellow rubber bands and hang around austin.  i find you annoying.
ok, enough ranting about armstrong, back to contador.  soooo, his urine test came back a few micrograms positive for clenbuterol.   ummmm, the best part?  he blames it on bad meat.   wtf dude?!?!?!?!  that's the best you could come up?  can you tell me where you found asthmatic, needs to lose a few pounds, cow meat?  i'd love to find it.  i could breath better and drop a few pounds, all the while not spewing obscenities while climbing a little hill.   i figured his pr people would have at least come up with an excuse that he suffered from a bout of bronchitis during the tour, hence his only 36 second win to my boo andy schleck.  btw, andy, if you are reading, i still love you and my offer for marriage is still on the table.
in the end, i really hope this is all some major mishap and contador is innocent.  not sure cycling fans can take another blow of a doping scandal.  glad you guys don't watch baseball!

it's cyclocross season

bring on the frites and belgium beer!  you guys can bring on the pain for yourselves.  my cross bike serves one purpose, and that is to get me to the bar and back.  hey, it's a steel s/s that i don't worry too much about when it's locked outside.  for now,  i'll watch from the side.  :)

let's take a short diversion here...

we are going to take a short break from talking about anything cycling related here.  i have a small confession to make, i love american football.  i love the redskins!  you can feel free to scroll back a page or two and see a little post i made about a year ago in regards to my beloved redskins.  not only have they not won a superbowl since 1988, but, well, the team has since seem to be in some sort of behind the scenes breakdown.  they have also added making a few bad decisions to the mix.  i think we can all relate to the latter.
so this year, i decided i wanted to do fantasy football.  i asked my sister if i could join the league she was in last year.  she informed me i was too late in asking, and the league was filled.  bummer...  well, fast forward two weeks and i received a text from my sis asking me if i was still interested.  sure! i responded back, with enthusiasm!  i agreed to the $40 buy in and excitedly looked forward to fantasy draft day!
team peadalphile (best name, ever?) was selected and i was eager for september 12th to arrive.  well, now it's september 13 and monday night football has come to an end.  team pedalphile is just doing meh.  i never realized how many statistics were involved in the game of football.  is anyone really good at this?  i'll throw you a $20 and my password, and you bench the people i need to for the upcoming week!

r.i.p. laurent fignon

he died at 50 years young from cancer on august 31st.                                                                               

this is about right...

me too...

i got a wheel!!

woohoo! a very dear friend sent me a bike wheel the other day. as previously mentioned, i cracked the crappy wheel that came on my motobecane fantom cross uno. yup, still trying to figure that one out. well, it was a beautiful blue mavic cosmos, which after some research i found out is no longer being produced. now, i've put some time in to my road bike and a crash or two, ouch. plus, i live in the pothole capital of the world known as dc. the mavic open sport front wheel is in need of a truing, so i switched out the wheels. the murrrcycle deserves the nicer, albeit slightly heavier wheel. pfffttt, we are talking grams here people, i can't really tell the difference! i hate changing bike tires, but i've gotten quick! well, once i can pull that damn tire off the rim. thanks tire lever for saving my nails! the new wheel came perfectly true, and i got some strange looks walking home from work with a bike wheel in my hand. hey, it would have been better than dragging home the box that was pretty much the size of me. so my bikes are now both happy. can you see them giving each other googly eyes in the pic?? :) the best part? i am back to biking around the city and locking up my bar bike without a care in the world!!

fantasy vuelta!

so the vuelta a espana starts this saturday, august 28th. i can sense your excitement just as much as mine! it's the last big stage race of the summer. it's kind of bittersweet for me though. it's like that famous t.s. eliot quote, "this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." the vuelta is my least favorite big summer stage race. i love the giro and le tour! there is something about it that seems soo anti-climatic to me, and i am not sure why. maybe i should talk about it with a therapist, and please don't hate me you vuelta lovers!!! :)

ok, i am excited! why? because it's time for me to kick some butt in my fantasy cycling league. i am still riding high off my 35th placing in my tour de france league hosted by the wonderful simon lamb at his blog, la gazzetta della bici. so he decided to move the vuelta fantasy league to road.cc. i think there are some more prizes. it's cool, i fully expect to claim those prizes as the bootyhouse team has been rising steady ever since the giro! in fact, both times i kicked simon's butt. i don't expect my amazing team to do any different for this year's vuelta. so simon, i am looking at my vintage campagnolo water bottle where it belongs, on MY bike! you can send me some delicious british chocolate when i win! :)

it's time for the...

... vuelta!!!! it's the last summer stage race and i am about to pee my pants in excitement!

twitter

i love it! i have noticed a lot of people really don't understand it. i have met some awesome people on twitter! i won't mention them here, only to keep their privacy somewhat private. i love meeting anyone willing to talk about not only experiences on the bike, but the sport itself. let's talk about fixing our own bike problems, our favorite rider, and our problems on our own bikes. let's talk shit about our favorite riders and our favorite teams. i know i catch a lot of flack for having unconditional love for garmin transitions. yup, despite my tweets of millar time and my love of dave zabriskie; i don't really know why i love them. maybe it's the argyle, maybe it's the felt bike despite the fact i don't own one. i may be in love with their track bikes! speaking of track, i am going to daydream of keirin!

time to true a wheel...

oh jesus. i enjoy libations of the alcoholic kind. this isn't a shock to anyone who knows me. hey, i'm irish catholic, it's like my god given right in life. yeesh, let me at least have that! anyhow, it was just another normal wednesday night, hanging out with a friend and drinking beer, after beer, after beer. did i mention i was drinking beer? sigh... somehow i pretty much damaged my front wheel on my single speed cyclocross bike. how? well, frankly, that's a good question, and if you know, please leave the answer in the comments. i must be the queen of somehow messing up my bike. last year's fiasco was the broken rear derailleur on the murrrcycle, thank god for the bike mechanic boyfriend at the time. so, tomorrow i will take the single speed over to my parents' neighbor who is always building, fixing, doing something to bikes, a cool french guy. he says he can help with the truing. i hope he's right. i am pretty positive the wheel isn't bent, but then again, i woke up with only one contact in my eye. where the hell did the other go? frankly, this seems to be the running theme of my life at the moment! let me get this wheel straightened out and maybe my life will straighten itself out too!

update!!!
came home tonight and inspected my wheel one last time before i took it over to be trued... yup sunlight, you do help one see. that's a nice crack right there on the rim. great, have to buy a new wheel....

35th!!!!!!! i rock!

yup! that's right yours truly ended up 35th in her fantasy tour de france league! check out the results over at simon lamb's marvelous cycling blog, la gazzetta della bici. i frankly find his blog to be one of the best cycling blogs on the internet, and he gets all this awesome schwag from pro cyclists. admittedly, i am a bit jealous too! hey, maybe i can get my baby daddy, andy schleck to send me his autograph! anyways, i am pretty excited about my fantasy team and it's placement, especially seeing how well i did in our huge league. i think our giro d'italia league was half the size! anyways, le tour ended and alberto contador proved himself to be a true champion. andy schleck came in second and truly earned his young rider's jersey. i really expect to see some amazing things out of him in the coming years!
so let's all get excited for the vuelta in august! i am excited to pick another fantasy team filled with my scientific choices. oooh, i think he is cute, like his team kit, wish i had that bike. it's worked for me so far as i have kicked simon's team's butt twice! we have a little competition between us for the vuelta. if he wins, i am sending him a vintage 70's campagnolo water bottle and a t-shirt with the dc flag! he can rock dc in london!

my favorite thing

that is all.

my new obsession...

is avoiding the bike shop. i love my bike, and i want to learn how it works all on my own. sure i own "zinn and the art of road bike maintenance" and have the park tools website bookmarked. i cleaned my drive train the other day. i was covered in grease and it felt soo awesome! why? i did it myself. the next day i went for a ride and my bike purred. ahhh, so that's what it sounds like when not covered in dirt. oh my god, it actually shifts nicely too! 0.o i take a bit of pride in owning a chain whip! i appreciate the specialized ruby elite (a.k.a. the murrrcyle) even more! it's my bike and i love it!

vacation!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHTiXvELNg

vacation all i ever wanted, vacation had to get away! ok, so after snowpocalypse 1 & 2, it's time to get out of dc!! my 29th birthday is coming up. gotta celebrate the last year of my twenties in style. miami here i come! no, it won't be for winter music conference. my twin is down there for a business trip and our best friend ly and colleen's partner in crime valicia will be joining. it's girls gone wild in miami without the flashing of our boobies for a free t-shirt. sorry guys! now, to only get through this weekend! gotta celebrate a good buddy's birthday on saturday. i can't wait!!! a shit show weekend, a few days of rest, a good bike ride in the down time, then a trip to miami! yay! i will report on this all later. :)

dc pride

yeah, i got the dc flag tattooed on me, and yes, it's a rather large tattoo. this was tattoo number five for me and probably one of my favorites. sure, it's simple, but it means so much. many people balk and wonder why i have the dc flag permanently on my body. well, i grew up here for one. yeah, i actually grew up in dc, brookland to be exact. it's a wonderful, quiet part of the city that has the nickname "little vatican" thanks to three catholic churches, two catholic colleges, a catholic grade school (mine!), and a smattering of religious houses and seminaries to name a few. i grew up fives houses away from the house my mom and uncle grew up in, so my grandparents lived there. even my great grandparents lived on the same block at one point. we utilized the park at the end of the block, and i spent my summers learning to play tennis and my autumns playing on the soccer team. brookland is a great neighborhood that seems to evolve silently while dc itself has changed so much.
so alas, i moved from brookland to dupont circle eight years ago. being raised a city girl, i love being in the middle of the action and walking distance to a ton of great destinations, restaurants, and bars. i have never owned a car and get around via bike, my feet, or public transportation. it's fantastic!
within the last couple of years, dc has seen a huge gentrification process. neighborhoods that were filled with poverty and blight are now home to expensive "lofts" and fancy restaurants. soon a whole breed of hipsters were filling the streets, many of them sporting dc flag tattoos and a great percentage of them new to dc from their suburban upbringing. for some reason, this kind of irked me. maybe because i endured years of people assuming you lived in the ghetto because of your address. i'm not going to lie, the playground was often littered with drug paraphernalia and used condoms, but you told your parents or the teacher, avoided those items, and continued to play hide and go seek. hey, it was dc in the eighties and early nineties, and we had our crackhead mayor for life, marion barry! by the way, the hbo documentary on him does an excellent job of capturing what dc was like during that period. screw the fact that the president lives here, we were known for crack and being the murder capital of the world, and i as i like to say we were the "capital of crack". i experienced these tumultuous times first hand, and it shaped me in to the person i am now; fearless, cynical, and the ability to laugh at even the worst situation. i love this city! there is so much beauty and history here. i find myself just taking in the people, sites, and smells whilst walking or biking. i love it here, and that is exactly why i chose to permanently put our flag on my body.

mos burger, you delicious thing, you!

ugh, i don't know what happened today. i was attempting to have a nice relaxing day when suddenly delicious mos burger popped in to my head. i've only had it once, in the rocking city of hachinohe. ok, hachinohe isn't really rocking at all. it seems to be a semi sleepy factory town, the pittsburgh of northern japan. anyways, after a week and half of my stay there, i finally convinced my brother to take me to mos burger. i wasn't sure what to think. i was starving! after a 20 mile or so bike ride the previous day along the coast line, and the elusive large meal in japan, i just wanted a tasty burger. after much pleading with my brother, we finally turned in to the mos burger parking lot! mos burger is interesting to say the least. it's a burger, a generic bun, all the odd toppings you can think of and then the crack! yes, the japanese have a food version of crack, and it's the manwich/questionable meat slop/chili-esque addition to your mos burger. i've been dreaming of it all day, and even investigated opening a chain here in the states. i've amused myself with the mos burger website. it's soo cute and i have no clue what i am clicking on 90% of the time. i came to the relization that only an expensive plane ticket to narita will help me with my craving, and alas, i'm still hungry....

west virginia, wild and wonderful...

so i survived another trip out to west virginia a few weeks ago. i'm a city girl, and i get such delight in being stuck in the middle of nowhere. albeit, stuck in the middle of nowhere with an iphone in one hand and a friend in the other! i went with my good buddy charles and his partner ryan. i ate a ton of gravy. i have never seen so much gravy in my life. apparently the gravy boat has yet to be invented in west virginia, and a huge bowl will suffice. 0.o we were also greeted by cute pomeranian puppies! i got to shoot a few different kinds of guns, and i am convinced i hit the target even if no one else was. i ended my memorable trip with a stop at tudor's biscuit world! if you have never experienced this tasty delight, then your life is seriously incomplete. trust me! alas, here are the pics!