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.  :)