Race Report: Steel City Showdown April 29, 2012

The Steel City Showdown, a criterium bike race through Downtown Pittsburgh, was held on Sunday.  I woke up Sunday morning to gorgeous sunshine.   We had just endured several weeks of wet, cold, and overcast weather in Pittsburgh, and on Sunday the sun was shining.  The weather said 34 degrees when I left my house, but it felt wonderful.  I left with plenty of time before the race, so I took a laid back Sunday morning ride through the strip district, singing songs about the gorgeous day.

Getting ready

Velo Femme teammates Mary, Kate, Kim and myself met up on the North side, where we did essential pre-race activities such as pin race numbers on each other, have team gel time, and warm up on the trainers, side by side.

Group warm up on the trainers.

Once again, I was terrified of the race.  Mostly for two reasons: (1) my bike skills are pretty cruddy, particularly cornering, and (2) there were so many people watching this.  If I messed up, it would be in front of the entire city of Pittsburgh. My major goals of this race were to finish, and to learn something new.  (New is the key word here: for instance, during the race I learned that my cornering has a long way to go, but this isn't new information).

Pace lining on one of the bridges.  I spent nearly the
entire race on someone's wheel.

We lined up with the other Cat 3/4 women, and the race started.  I started near the front, but at the first corner lost the woman I was behind by a distance of about 2 bike lengths.  Then the same thing happened at the second corner, and then at the third, until the lead pack was gone.  I looked back and didn't see any of my teammates, but saw another girl who had gotten dropped along with me.  I absorbed this information and went timidly to her wheel.  At the downhill portion of the course, down the second bridge, during the first few laps Mark Rauterkus was in coach mode yelling stuff at me like, "SARAH! Get her wheel! WORK TOGETHER!!".  This actually helped me a lot (Thanks Mark), because it really helped me understand the situation clearly and gave me to confidence to boldly get on her wheel and stay there.  After a couple of laps riding on this one girl's wheel, I asked if she wanted to work together with me because I could take a turn leading.  She looked relieved, but at this point Tammy from Iron City Bikes and a few other girls caught up, Tammy yelling supportive stuff which really got us all into a pace line.  At this point, I took Tammy's wheel, which was where I spent most of the race.

You can even see in race photographs
that I need to work on my cornering.

Tammy's wheel was a great place to be.  She has years of bike racing experience, and I practiced "keeping her line" and copying what she did at every corner.  The second corner was really the brutal part of the race course.  You went into it still at downhill speeds, the pavement was riddled with potholes and sewer covers, and then it went immediately uphill on a bridge.  I got dropped at that corner every single time during the race.   Fortunately, while the group I hung with during the race had significantly better skills than I did, I was really strong on the uphill and caught up with them every time, and every time also then got a chance to rest because they were taking that hill very slow each time around.   In all the criterium literature I've read, this is exactly what you want to avoid: expending energy in ridiculous places like catching up after corners.  However, in my position as a n00b, my strength worked to my advantage because it put me in the position to be able to hold on, and from there, I could observe and watch what other experienced riders were doing.

The end of the race was kind of a mess.  At minute 26 on my computer, we got lapped by the lead pack.  We followed them into the downhill, where the cowbell started jangling.  I realized I still had all this energy from riding conservatively (even with those uphill sprints - I really need to learn how to process bicycle riding endurance into kicking ass on races), so I started going really fast too, just saying to myself, "this is either the last or second to last lap, you can sprint this for one of two laps!" and I actually stayed within range of the fast pack, so I was there watching them when they slowed down.  I was really confused, but decided that since I was lapped, I should ride around again really really fast.  I did this, and then started riding slow until I saw Anne Marie and she told me I wasn't done.  So I went a little faster, crossed the line, and decided, "Okay, NOW I'm done".  I caught up with Velo Femme teammates, and we were all riding around and being loud and fun.  Well, I am not sure how the race ended, when the race ended, how you're supposed to know when the race ended, but according to the standings I came in after my teammates at 12 laps, and the fast group did 13 laps.  What I learned here is: in a criterium, it doesn't matter where you place unless you're at the front.  I really observed this watching the men's cat 1/2/3 race, and was envious of the fact that every single one of those dudes knew what was going on.
So, maybe one day I'll be that person who knows what's going on!

After the race, we congregated in the parking lot and ate some delicious peanut butter cupcakes that Kim made, and had some delicious ice cold adult beverage:

Team sports are the best.

Then we went to one of those bars in front of PNC park, to sit in the sunshine, drink some beers and watch the women's cat 1/2/3.  It ended up we also got a great view of some Steel City Endurance rears:

And finally migrated to O.T.B. where we drank more beer and ate delicious bar food:

O.T.B. post race celebrations. 

Craft beer week: Keg ride April 28, 2012

Becca and me and our sweet rides.

Pittsburgh celebrated local craft beer this week with several events, including the Keg Ride put on by Bike Pgh and the East End Brewing Company.  Apparently this ride celebrated the first of this season's kegs of Pedal Pale Ale by having a few people tote kegs on trailers hitched to their bikes to a secret celebration destination.  600 people registered to participate to ride along, including Velo Femme teammate Mary, so I was in too.  Becca and I volunteered to table for Pike Pgh during registration, a task which consisted of getting there very early, handing out a lot of bike maps of Pittsburgh, and telling people where the trash can was.

The day was freezing cold, but hundreds of people still showed up with their bicycles, which was a beautiful sight.  The ride started in Larimer (?), had a super secret route around Highland Park, and ended up at a hot dog shop in East Liberty, but that was the surprise.  Becca split off early, leaving me at the end of the string of cyclists with an extra beer ticket.  I started pedaling through the crowd, looking for Mary and her buddies.

Look at all those bicycles!

The ride was comparable to a parade; we took up a whole lane of the road and stretched for several blocks behind a police escort.  I had recently read a lot of online literature about criterium racing strategy, and I was definitely employing the "Move within the pack" technique to move up the pack.  To further the criterium analogy, I ultimately got the front of the pack, missing Mary, but realized that the ride was much sweeter up there.  For one, the front was populated by much stronger riders; no wobbly front wheels (or "squirrelly riders"), and at the back of the pack we had to wait at red lights, but right behind the police escort, we ruled the road.  And, most importantly, once we arrived at our destination, I got a sweet spot near the front of the beer line.

Final stats: 8.33 miles (from my front door to my front door) and 3 beers.

Race Report: Greene County April 21, 2012

Greene County is the second race in the Abra road racing series.  The course is shorter (36 miles) than Morgantown with less elevation (2500 feet of climbing).  Velo Femme teammates Mary and Kim signed up to do this one with me, so I came with a team.  Holla!

Everything was all hunky dory until Saturday.   Come Saturday, the temperatures were in the 40's, the wind was blowing hard, and it was raining.  YES!!!  The three of us carpooled, which was pretty awesome, and we got there nice and early before there was any line at the Port-o-let.

Barb had sent a positive email the day prior telling us to remember: "No whining, no quitting, and have fun!".  This would be the mantra of the day, particularly the "no whining" part.  When I started riding down the street to warm up in the cold rain, all I wanted to do was whine.  When immediately after the race started and my shoes flooded, all I wanted to do was whine.

"No whining, no quitting, and have fun!"

At this race, they had the Cat 4 women racing with the Cat 5 dudes.  We lined up, shivering, and the race started.  Immediately I started noticing the fountains of muddy spray coming off of everyone's bikes.  But Mary's bike had the best spray; a beautiful plume.  Of mud that would later be a face wash whenever I pace lined behind her.  We turned onto a main road, which went up a hill, and Kim and Mary fell back.  I held back with them, hoping to catch their wheels and pull them back to the pack.  Well, I caught their wheels, but as soon as I started catching up, I had lost them.  Mary later explained that at this point, they had no idea what was going on.  Well, I can relate to that!  At this point, I made a team decision.  I stayed back, got their wheels and we started riding.   A minute later this huge semi, a lowboy actually, of whose driver had not received a memo about the 4 foot passing law drove by us.  Pretty darn scary!  Fortunately we pretty quickly hairpin-turned off this road, and got ready for the first climb.  When we were waiting for the race to start, I had made a joke about how we could start singing to make ourselves feel better.  Well, this joke turned into reality as during the first climb, in the rain, I started singing Avril Lavigne Complicated while I climbed and I felt so much better.

And here is something I am curious about in bike racing: climb speed control.  In swimming, to be able to control your speed is a sign of strength; it's really not that hard to swim a stroke at one speed, but to be able to control your splits to the second, even going slow, easy or hard, well that means you are strong at that stroke.   One of my inside my head jokes about one reason why I know my breast stroke is so awful is that it's "one speed".  I believe that I am a pretty strong climber, but it is really hard for me to slow down climbing to pace with slower climbers - I'd rather wait at the top.  And writing this now just answered my question: since it's harder to slow down, controlling your speed on the climb IS a sign of strength.  Do people work on climbs at different tempos?

So I can't control my climbing speed and just slowed down and waited near the top, still singing Avril.  When Kim and Mary caught up, we were both warmed up riding and warm from the climb.  This began the fun part of the ride.  We shortened the time interval of the pace line rotation, the rain let up a little and we enjoyed how green everything was, we went into West Virginia where the roads were paved nicely (oh Pen-Dot), and had group gel time.  I was singing "Singin' in the Rain", Kim started singing about her squishy shoes: this was totally the honeymoon period of the race.  The last handful of miles on this route consisted of two big climbs, and we eventually got to the first.  At this point in the race, when I got to the race marshal at the top looking miserable standing out there in the cold rain, I just unclipped and started bullshitting.   This helped my attitude: I maintain I'd rather be riding than standing in that weather.  We all rendezvoused at the top and went on, ready for this race to be over.  We got our grand descent, and we're riding happy, when suddenly the last and steepest hill is in front of us.  Mary is leading at this point and just goes "WHAT is that!".  We start climbing, and this hill is so steep that at some point I gear up just to make sure something isn't wrong with my bike, I couldn't believe the resistance.  I made it to the top and once again, unclipped to wait, and started bullshitting with the race marshal who also looked kind of glad to have someone to talk to.  What a miserable day.

We went down that last hill very cautiously - glory was purely in finishing this race.  When we got to the flat I had lost them again, but as we were only a couple miles from the end I just started riding.  The end of that race was beautiful.  I waved at the cameras, put my jacket back on before getting cold again, and waited a couple of minutes for those beautiful Velo Femmers to finish.  When Kim and Mary became little visible dots, I just started screaming.  Then they started screaming  WOO WOO WOO!! I like to believe that this might have been the loudest finish in road race history.  We got the glory, we finished, and we finished strong.  GO US.

Trees Hall

Since I moved to Pittsburgh, one bike ride that has been a distinctive constant is the ride to Trees Hall.  Trees Hall is where my U.S. Masters swim team, Team Pittsburgh, has practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings with our wonderful coach Jennifer Michaels.   It is well known in the adult swim and water polo communities that a USMS practice is somewhere that anyone can go and get their ass kicked in the water by someone much older, and Team Pitt is no exception.  I love getting my butt kicked.

My bike parked in front of Trees.  Those are my teammates
Josh and Vlad standing there.  I told them to wave.

While this building is technically on Pitt's campus, it is actually located in Pittsburgh's Hill District, an appropriately named neighborhood.  In other words, the pool sits right at the top of a big hill.  Therefore, in order to get to swim practice three days a week, I need to ride my bike up a big hill first. (Because, seriously, why would I drive my car?)  But I didn't actually think this part out clearly when I first moved to Pittsburgh from New Orleans, a flat flat flat place.

I moved to Pittsburgh on a Friday, so on Monday morning I got on the Sedona to scout out Trees Hall to avoid getting lost going to practice later that evening.  The day was hot, sunny, and gorgeous, and I was cruising.  I merrily found my way to Centre Avenue and somewhere around Craig street started feeling kind of hot.  I kept riding, and suddenly, it was kind of hard to ride.  I remembered then that my bike came with gears for some reason, and started shifting down.  It got easier for like a second, and then I was dying.   I made it almost to Bellefield Avenue (2 blocks) before I had to get off the bike and start walking.  I walked that Sedona up that hill, made that turn onto University, and all hot and sticky made it to Trees Hall.  Phew!   So clearly, later that evening, I got right back on the Sedona and went back up the hill.  That time I made it all the way to Bigelow (one more block) and as a bonus, got a lecture from some older guy who was walking down the hill about using the granny gear.

But the true gem of this story is what happened when I left swim practice that first evening.  All refreshed from a swim and shower, I got on that Sedona and I flew home.  WEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Laura and myself in matching swimsuits at the Trees pool

Two months later, I would eventually ride that Sedona all the way up that hill and straight to Trees Hall.  My knees were shaking when I made that turn, but I did it.  Every time I bust up that hill like nothing, I am reminded of this. However, I usually come from my office at Pitt.  This is a very short ride with a steep elevation.  This hill is steeper than any point along the Centre Avenue climb but significantly shorter and hence less difficult, so I was puffing on the Sedona up this one pretty early on.  Nowadays, I'm riding the Traveler (another story, another fantastic bicycle) so the hill is even easier to blast up.

I guess the point of this whole story is that a few days a week I ride my bike up a hill.  Sounds like I live in Pittsburgh n'at.

Race Report: Morgantown April 7, 2012

At the end of last summer, I made the commitment to bike racing in the summer of 2012.  Spring approached, and with it the first road race of the Abra series: Morgantown.   Over a month in advance, I looked at the specs:  50 miles; 3,000 feet in elevation climbs.

I was terrified.  I had nightmares the whole week before the race ("bike terrors").  I had been riding like mad that month before, terrified of getting picked up by the truck at mile 30 because I couldn't complete the race.

Morgantown bike course elevation profile.

Come race day, the weather was beautiful.  Sunny and in the 60's.  In the gravel parking lot I got on my bike to start warming up, and in front of a whole bunch of dudes in spandex promptly fell off my bike and skinned my leg up.  In other words, I was real nervous.

I had been riding so much in the weeks leading up to the race that by this point I was confident that I would finish.  My race pie-in-the sky goal was therefore to finish within 20 minutes of the second to last person.  If I was last, fine, but I wanted to come in reasonably close to someone else.

Suzanne Atkinson was really there for me this race.  On the Thursday before the race, she came to the oval, gave me tips on how to improve my cornering, and told me some encouraging things which helped me mentally.  When I woke up Friday from another bike terror, I calmed myself with, "Suzanne said you're 'strong and powerful'!".   She also suggested I tape course notes to my handlebars, so I taped the elevation and miles diagram, which I was really glad to have during the race.
She was also there at the race and rode in the car.

Workin' the first hill

The race starts, and we are a whole pack of women - cat 1/2/3/4 riding together.  Fortunately, we start off at an extremely do-able pace, so I'm just riding my bike and paying attention to what everyone else is doing.  Such as, whose front wheel is all over the place, who is riding in front, etc.  And those first 20 miles were fantastic; comfortable pace, we all stuck together, and I was thinking, "Wow, this is great!  This is easier than 20 miles on a weekend ride, and we're moving faster!  Why don't I always ride in a group!".  Then we got the first big hill, and half the pack just went [race car sound effect].  Kam and I were in the middle, and she looked at me and went [race car sound effect] up the hill.   I rode up the hill solidly on my own, and then got to go down it (weeeee!), and when I slowed down at the bottom, I remembered there were women behind me.   I slowed down, ate some snacks, and just kept looking back.  Finally, there they were!  Stacie (Steel City Endurance) and two other girls from Dynamic Physical Therapy.  They caught up and Stacie just goes "Get on my rear wheel!".  The four of us pace lined through pretty much the whole rest of the course, admiring the beautiful scenery, saying "hi" to cows, thanking our good volunteer race marshals and so on.  I kept exclaiming, "I'm in learning experience heaven!", as I have next to no bike racing skills whatsoever.  Stacie really kept us together; that girl is a natural team player.

Dr. Poboy, Morgantown finisher!

We arrived to the final hill, which I think was the most brutal of them all because we had been riding for awhile.  I climbed it the fastest out of our little group, so I was in the front at the descent.    Once I started descending, I had this sudden moment of "Holy crap!  4 miles left!  I'm not only going to finish this race, but I'm making my race goal!"  This prompted to me to brake cautiously at every scary downhill corner, telling myself, "You did it!  Don't do anything stupid or greedy!  Just finish girl!".  At some point the stronger of the two Dynamic Physical Therapy girls whizzed by, and I gazed enviously at her developed bike skills the way she handled corners.  A few minutes later, the less strong of the two whizzed by, and I was back on the flat with a sign telling me I was almost done.  At this point I just started riding my bike.  And that  was the race!  According to my bike computer, my time was 2:49.

I was very disappointed that the race officials did not record my time for posterity.   But I can get over that, because I was smiling like a mofo after that.  According to the official times, the number one female raced it in 2:29:47, and the number one cat 4 female time was 2:33:18, so I even came within my 20 goal minutes to the leader!!

Bike crafts: The Mardi Gras bike

Another huge problem in my life that was instantly solved by learning how to ride a bicycle was that of Mardi Gras.  I lived about half a mile to the closest parade point, and then to move anywhere along the parade route is additional walking.  Parking and general moving by car around the parade area is really obnoxious, and not worth it when you live so close.  Riding a bicycle solves all of these problems, and is the natural way to move along the route.  You can effortlessly go a few miles down to the Avenue Pub, where uptown parade watching is optimal (in between the family scene by Napoleon and the tourist scene downtown, plus they sell Jell-o shots and have bathrooms).

The Mardi Gras bike at Mardi Gras.  Geaux Hornets!

If you read my post about the Sedona, you may start to wonder what ever happened to that $80 mountain bike from Wal-Mart.  Because when I got the Sedona, I clearly made the jump from owning one bike to two bikes, one of them a piece of crap.  

The clear solution was to get some caulk (hehe) and gild that bike frame with Mardi Gras beads and glitter, making a festive mode of festival transportation.  I spent a weekend in the driveway doing just that, and made a very sweet looking ride, as you can see.

The major problem was that it weighed about 40 lbs, and all I wanted to do come Mardi Gras was ride the Sedona.  I ended up giving this bike to Marla, who totally rocked it.

My brief career as a triathlete

One phrase I say frequently enough is, "Reason # [Insert any 3 digit number here] why I'm not a triathlete...".  But this does not mean I haven't competed in any triathlons before.  In fact, before I learned how to ride a bike I was known to go running...for fun!  I would run as a way to cross train with swimming.  I would even say, "Wow, if I knew how to ride a bike, I could do a triathlon!".  Well, once I learned how to ride a bike, that turned into "I could do a triathlon".

Me, Steve, my gold medals, and that
fabulous and fast bike.

Marla (who is a triathlete, and a cyclist, and a runner, and a wonderful person) was the one who got excited about this and somehow it was decided that we would compete in two tris in July of 2009, both sprint distances.  We had a wonderful summer going on bike rides together and ending at the free pool, and Marla even got me to go running with her sometimes (because once I learned how to ride a bike, my running career was over.  I mean, seriously, running is bullshit.  Why run when you can ride?  This attitude is reason #349 why I'm not a triathlete).  I was going to ride the Sedona in the races, because it was a solid comfortable bicycle.  Less than a week before the first race, I went swimming with my friend and water polo co-ed teammate Steve, and he offered me use of his sweet light-and-fast-as-shit road bike.  Holy Hell!  That first day taking it out on the levee in all its speed and twitchiness, was the first time I ever rode on a truly sweet bike.  And in tri #1, at LSU, while I was so intimidated by all these girls in tri-kits and serious facial expressions, I just blew by everyone on this sweet ride.  It was a staggered start and I was modest about my swimming ability (I had the #2 swim time - the girl with the #1 time was an LSU swimmer with the school record in 200 fly), but that payed off because then I had people to blow by on that bike.  I ended up coming in 4th place overall and first in my age group.  A week later I also won my age group, landing me with 2 gold medals.  (Less than a year riding a bicycle!!)

Rip Van Winkle 2009: This might be the only time you
ever see me running.  (New Iberia, LA)

After this, Marla moved to Houston, water polo practice started back up again, and I settled in to finish my PhD.  In fact, while I was still riding my bike around everywhere and playing polo, I wasn't doing any of this nearly as much as I was doing math.  So by the time I moved to Pittsburgh at the end of the summer of 2010, I was out of swimming shape.  So much so that I was self-conscious about it when I started at Pitt masters, where I met Kamden.  I was so intimidated by her; she was telling me stories about her bike team that practiced at the oval and riding around the DC area n'at.  But the following spring, she hooked me up with a couple of short triathlons to try.

Then my friend Jill (who will get her own blog entry, so I'll just say she can kick your ass on a bike) came through for me and hooked me up with a sweet ass road bike.  Consequently, I kicked ass.  I got some medals, the most noteworthy being at Morgantown in June of 2011.  Kamden hooked me up with Tony, who was driving to the race solo, so I semi-spontaneously signed up for a race, got a ride, and great ass kicking company.   The main reason Morgantown was so awesome was because the bike course was amazing.  It was an out and back: except out was about a 600 foot climb, and back was about a 600 foot descent.  I had endorphins singing in my ears when I started running, and they didn't stop until about mile 2 when I remembered I hated running again.  Well, at this point I was lead female, so holla!

I'll also mention that I did do the Pittsburgh Olympic distance triathlon and learned a couple of things from that.  Firstly, that race costs too much for what you get and isn't worth it in value,  Secondly, 10K is just too far a distance for me to run and be happy.  This racing thing is supposed to a fun hobby, and running is not fun.  I'd rather ride my bike and schmooze at the pool with my masters buddies.  And then ride my bike some more.

Mountaineer Tri, 2011.  First place female, sprint distance.
Check out that sweet bicycle!  (Morgantown, WV)

Since I came to the realization that triathlon is not for me, I keep coming up with reason and reason on so many levels why I am not a triathlete.  But I support anyone out to push themselves and kick ass, the fitness lifestyle, and any insane person who goes running for fun.  Even those who do super crazy things like run marathons and 40 mile trail races.

Race Report: Tuesdays at the Oval

Tonight was my first race at the Bud Harris oval here in Pittsburgh.  Every Tuesday in the summer, the ACA holds a criterion series, which people absolutely love, but I've never even gone to watch as I've always been out riding my bike during this time.  (I have pretty great Team Decaf attendance).

I am registered to race in the Steel City Showdown this coming Sunday with a few of my teammates, and I am absolutely terrified.  There are 4 corners in a lap of this race, and not only do I have zero experience racing in a crit, I can't corner.  It doesn't matter how strong or badass or powerful I am, one turn of the corner and the pack will be up there and I will be back there.  Well, at least this is what I feel a criterion with corners will be like.  So clearly racing the oval tonight was priority.

Well, I can say that I had no idea what was going on.  Upon reflection, I still am not sure I know what was going on.  First off, they had us women racing with these juniors, so you really have to get over the astonishment of having some 60 pound girl on a bike that looks too big for her riding next to you, or pace lining on these little bitty wheels of some intense looking kid.  Right as I was getting to the warm up loop, Kamden runs up and gives me a coach-like pep talk.  It went something like "grab a wheel!".  So the race started and I naturally grabbed Kim's wheel.  I have absolutely ridden behind Kim's wheel on that oval more than anyone's by a factor of a lot.  Plus, Kim is really smart.  A good chunk of bike stuff I know is because she told it to me.  Mary was riding next to us yelling tips at me, like "Pedal in the turns!".  I was just coasting and totally not keeping "a line".  So we'd get to a turn and she'd start yelling "pedal pedal pedal!".

Since I have no oval picture, here is one of my ass

 I spent half the race sitting there, until it looked like Kim was getting tired pulling me around.  (At this point, I didn't grasp the idea that everyone was in one big pace line.  Or maybe we were a mess and that didn't happen until later?  I don't know!)  So, I thought I was giving Kim a rest by trying to go in front of her, and after that I had no idea what was going on.  I do know that around lap 10 I started getting much much better at staying in line around the corners.

At some point with 2 or 3 laps to go, I ended up in front of the pace line.  My turn had come, which was great, except that I have NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING!!  I never actually figured out what to do: I was saved by a group of boys "making a play" and sprinting up together.  Then I was just like la la la I'm riding my bike.  This girl from Steel City Endurance who I do not know saved my butt and answered every single one of my stinking questions.  Saying stuff like "get over there" or "I'm off", which apparently means I'm not on the pace line so don't draft off me.  Even on the last loop, when I asked "Is this when everyone starts sprinting?", she answered my question.  ("Not until the last corner usually".)  So, I finished in who knows where in who knows how much time, now knowing that I now have an idea of what kind of questions to ask Thursday when we do skills.

I also learned that people at the oval are really nice, no one gets mad at you for being clueless, and so you shouldn't be scared.   I'll end this with a "Holla" out at Rick from Steel City Endurance for winning the dude race after us.

The Giant Sedona

January 2009 in New Orleans.  Like the Helmet?

I learned how to ride a bicycle at the age of 26.  (Thanks Tulane move-in day and Brad).  August 23, 2008 was the date that it all began...

One week later, Gus took me to Wal-Mart and I had an $80 mountain bike, which I jubilantly rode through the entire store, and then all of uptown New Orleans. Three months later, after riding the crap out of that bicycle, I fully realized how inefficient and poorly constructed it was. I obtained a sum of money (conference reimbursement) and rather than paying off my credit card, ran to Bicycle World of Louisiana, and bought the Sedona.  Here I am, riding around New Orleans without a helmet around when the Steelers won the Superbowl in 2009.

There was some strategy in all of this: for starters, I intentionally wanted to begin riding on a low performance bicycle, so I could appreciate a good bike.  This also gave me time to test ride lots of bicycles and save up my measly graduate student funds.   Kate and I went to every bike shop and I n00bily explained to store clerks what I was looking for.  Of all the bikes I test rode, I really felt comfortable on the Sedona.  It was so comfortable, so smooth, so effortless.

So in December of 2008, $400 later, Gus and I loaded the Sedona in the back of the truck, and I had the bike that I would ride hundreds and hundreds of miles more in a 3 year period of time than anyone should be riding a $400 hybrid bicycle.  Marla and I would go on "long" rides (12-20 miles) along the Mississippi River levee and I would ride that thing, Cathy Shaw and I would cruise across uptown on drinking adventures, and I would ride that thing and play D.J. Jubilee on my music phone. Chris C. and I would ride around Mid-City.  I would sleep on Jamie's couch and ride that bike home Uptown in the mornings after a Mid-City night.  I would ride to the grocery store, take the basket off, fill it up with produce and groceries and put it back on the bike.
Then, when I moved to Pittsburgh, I would tear up hills (I had to work up to that) on that bike.

The Sedona, primed for selling

The end of the Sedona came very recently.  Here is her selling picture, and you can see how significantly less shiny she is.  What happened? I outgrew the comfort bicycle.  With the free space, I bought a gorgeous cyclocross bike.