It's been busy up here in the North Pole

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! Mine was filled with family, friends and lots of sugar cookies. In fact, if I ever hear the word sugar or cookie again it will be too soon!

Saturday was a monumental day for me just because I actually dragged myself out of bed at 2:50 a.m. to get my workout in before work. This may not seem like a big deal, but it's two days later and I'm still patting myself on the back about it. Because trust me, I am NOT a morning person!!!!

Anyways, it wasn't too bad once I was actually out of bed and pedaling. My legs felt good and I felt great afterwards. In fact, I had a ton of energy until about 11 a.m., when I absolutely hit the wall. Everything went into slow motion and I would have paid good money just to go back to bed. But it was all worth it, because after work I was able to catch the end of the Ergon Clinic going on at Velo City.

Namrita and Eddie sharing training tips....

It was pretty nasty out so we ended up coming home after the clinic and staying in for the night. Naomi was in heaven. More people in the house meant more treats and more attention...

While we were hanging out, a certain somebody knocked one of our pictures off of the wall. Namrita and I took it upon ourselves to fix it. And in typical "Namrita and Danielle fashion" it took us much longer then it should have!

2 hours later we were still working on it...
We are considering starting our own decorating business :-)
And just for the record, that picture still isn't straight.

The next day we spent the morning eating pancakes, drinking lots of coffee and trying to decide whether we should ride inside or out. Of course we chose outside...

Here we are just leaving the house, hence the smiles...
Winter can be a _______, but it sure is pretty!

Our friend Mackenzie joined us for the ride. She's the rider in the green jersey in front of me. She's also partially responsible for one of the biggest blow-ups I've ever had on a bike.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but right before we started climbing Knapp street, Scott peeled off and Mackenzie started leading. She asked if the pace was OK, and I said yes. But here's the deal with Mackenzie. She will go the same speed regardless of what we sort of terrain we are on. So all of a sudden we were doing the same speed up the climb that we were doing on the flat road.

I was supposed to be riding in my endurance zone, but I will be the first to admit that I am 100% stubborn when it comes to holding someone's wheel. Half-way up the climb I started to see light bulbs and as we neared the top I was mentally screaming at myself that I would never, ever, ever eat another sugar cookie for the rest of my life. Then I actually stopped pedaling. And just for the record, do you know how hard it is to get up a hill when you aren't pedaling? Scott had to come around and give me a push, because my legs were toast. Luckily I was able to rebound! I definitely hope to ride outside with Mackenzie more often. It will be like having a secret training weapon :-)

We ended up riding for about 1:45. I had initially hoped to ride longer, but our bikes were about 10 pounds heavier from ice build-up. And everyone was frozen solid. In fact, it's 24 hours later and my feet are still in the process of dethawing!!!

Next up is the annual Velo City New Year's Day ride. Don't miss it! The ride leaves the shop at 1:00 p.m., and the ride length is determined by the weather. If it's really nasty we can always just ride downtown on the heated streets.

Plus one is always better this time of year

I decided to ride outside today instead of the trainer. We got a bit of snow yesterday, but the roads were OK today. I only had to do a little over an hour on the trainer, but my rule for riding outside this time of year is that it HAS to be at least 2 hours-bare minimum. Not because I'm tough, but because I'm lazy :-) If I'm going to make the effort to put on so many layers I want to make it count!

Within 15 minutes of riding I was ready to break that rule. It was WAY more miserable outside then I thought. It was cold (25-ish degrees) but I could deal with that. What I had a hard time dealing with was the wind, and continual spray of slush from cars. I was all, "thanks, thanks a lot! Hope you are warm in your toasty warm cars!"

Needless to say my butt and feet were completely frozen within a half hour. But I had a "ride date" with my friend Amy, so I kept going. We live a good 45 minutes away from each other (by bike) and I think both of us were ready to turn around and go home by the time we met up. But that would have been completely lame, so we kept going. I'm glad we did. Yes, I was completely soaked, but I ended up getting 3 hours in! Riding outside is so much easier this time of year when you have someone to talk to...and complain about the weather with :-)

Now I'm trying to regain feeling in my hands and toes before yoga tonight at Velo City. And speaking of Velo City, a certain friend of mine, along with another friend of mine, are going to be holding a clinic (or I guess I should say Klinik) there on Saturday. Details in the flyer below!

PS. Rumor has it that everyone is going to New Holland Brewery (which is right across the street) afterwards!

Winter riding

My workouts this week started out pretty strong, though I did have several "fails" towards the weekend. I started getting really sick of the trainer. I'm really good at doing hard intervals inside, but every now and then I "wander" when I'm spinning in L2 or L3 zones. Wander you ask? Yeah, like one minute I'll be pedaling and the next I'll be in front of the fridge looking for a snack.

Anyways, such was the case on Saturday night. I decided that I was going to ride outside Sunday no matter what. It was cold out, but I had so many layers on that I could barely move. Remember Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story?" The part where he had so many layers on that he couldn't get off of the ground? That's how I felt. I could barely bend my knees to pedal.

Halfway through the ride I yelled to Scott that I had to stop and fix my hair. He was all, "What??? Are you joking??? Why do you need to fix your hair on a ride?" It did sound ridiculous, but once he stopped and looked at me he understood why. In fact, I think I heard him gasp.

I had a serious case of balaclava head going on....

This picture doesn't really justice to what was going on. My ponytail had come loose and all of my hair started coming out the FRONT of my balaclava. At first I was going to ignore it, but once it started blowing in my mouth and I started choking on my own hair I knew I had to stop and remedy the situation!

Scott taking off...but I caught him :-)

Despite having really cold toes, I loved how refreshing it felt to be outside! We ended up riding close to 3 hours, and I was feeling it towards the end. I always feel like I'm working twice as hard when it's cold out. And in this case I probably was. When we got home Scott picked up my bike and started laughing. I'm not sure what type of wheels I have on my bike, but I do know this. They were buried in the deepest, darkest and dampest corner of our basement. Calling them hefty would be a compliment, but oh well. It's good strength training, right??? :-)

For those of you reading this blog at work, don't stop just yet! I added a link to someone who always makes a race twice as fast when she shows up to the start line. Congrats to Susan Stephens for joining the Bell's team for 2010. She and Erin Vicary are incredibly fast on their own. Working together they are going to be cuh-razy fast. And speaking of racing....3 months until my first race!

Monkeying around

On Tuesday I was able to spend some quality time with my Karate Monkey...

It went with me to the salon....

And out for a night ride... My hair actually looked "styled" for a whole hour. Then I had to cover it with a balaclava and helmet. I knew it was too good to last!

My karate monkey also went sliding down the road with me, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of that. Actually, it didn't go sliding down the road with me, it went sliding down the road on top of me! And just for the record, riding at night on icy roads is NOT a good idea. Especially if you have A LOT of air in your tires. Because one moment I was pedaling along, and the next moment my tires were flipping in the air. The only good thing about the pavement being covered in ice is that I was able to slide down the road and not get any road rash!

Here are my Tuesday night riding partners, Mike and Cat. They are way, way, way tougher then me. I like riding in the dark, but I'm making a new rule that it at least has to be above freezing. This 10-15 degrees stuff in the dark is not for me. I'm wimpy that way :-)

After our ride, I went to the VCC yoga for cyclists class, and I'm still feeling it two days later. Ironically enough, I'm way more sore from yoga then I am from crashing on ice. I'm not sure exactly why, but whatever we did in class must be working. Seriously, don't make me laugh, because my abs hurt so bad I will scream! My new year's resolution this year is to master Downwards Dog by March. I think that's doable!

Trying to keep up

I can't believe that it's already the middle of December. So far, winter has been flying by...which is a good thing! Between work, training, and sponsorship stuff, I've been busy and trying to hang on.

After a few really nasty snow days we finally had a break in the weather. Just in time for the VCC dessert ride. Scott and Jeremy put the finishing touches on my new winter bike so that I could test it out.

It's awesome on so many different levels....

Right now the bike has 3 chain rings, but no front derailleur. So if I want to switch to a bigger or smaller ring in the front, I literally have to get off of my bike and do it by hand. Again, so awesome :-)

We ended up riding for about 2 hours, and it felt great to be outside and breathing fresh air. Holland currently has WAY less snow then Grand Rapids, which was an added bonus. It was nice to actually see the shoulder of the road!

And there was plenty of "recovery" food waiting back at the shop!

Afterwards I had to put in another 2 hours on the trainer. I think that I may have burned off about half of the calories that I consumed! Or maybe not. Scott made his chocolate-chip-cookigasms for the ride and they are becoming a real problem for me. I can't stop eating them. Usually I have pretty good self-control, but not in this case. I would post his recipe, but trust me. I'm doing you a HUGE favor by not sharing it!!!

And in other news, I have most of my 2010 race schedule and sponsors finalized. I can't wait to share, as I am working with some really great companies and will be racing on AWESOME product.

Some of it's already rolling in.....

I'm so excited to be racing on Rotor cranksets again!!!!!! I raced on them 2 years ago, and loved how each pedal stroke felt. And don't get me started on how they look. See those smudges on the packaging? That's my drool!!!

Right now, it looks like more snow is on the horizon, but that's OK. My coach is keeping me plenty busy with intervals, and I'm going to try and get out on the road whenever I can. When I initially talked to Lynda about winter training, she mentioned that I should try to get away somewhere warm to get some long rides in. I protested and said that I wanted to save all of my nickels and dimes for the race season.

Yeah right.

First snow storm of the year and I was on my computer, checking flight prices to Phoenix. Lucky Jason! Thanks to him and his wife, one of my best friends and I get to have a mini-spring training camp based out of their house. I'm flying out at the end of January and can't wait to ride actual single track again! And it won't matter if I can't afford food while I'm there. The amount of calories I've gotten from all of the chocolate chip cookies I've consumed will keep me pedaling through the next couple of months :-)

Things to do when the weather blows

Sunday, December 13th- Velo City Dessert Ride. The ride leaves the shop promptly at 2:00, but the mileage depends on the weather. I think the ride usually averages around 25 miles, give or take a few. There are short cuts available if you want to be the first one back to the brownies.

Yes it's freaking cold/downright nasty out. But you get to ride outside and then eat cookies and brownies and hot chocolate and coffee. Seriously, all it takes the mention of brownies and coffee and I'm like, "snow???? ice??? slush??? Bring it!"

Wednesday, December 16th- Mel Trotter fundie-undi-event at Mcfaddens. Bring socks/underwear and/or money and party with fellow cyclists! The fundraiser starts at 7 p.m. and goes until whenever. This is a great event for a great cause. Hope to see you there! More info here...

And in other news I finally did my power test today. I managed to procrastinate all the way until 5:30 p.m, but I finally got my butt downstairs and on the trainer. It's amazing how long 20 minutes can seem. I know I said this before, but I will say it again. I'm so happy that my body goes into auto-drive at times. Because my mind was sending out very strong arguments about why I should quit for the first 10 minutes. I was a little worried doing the test because my legs felt pretty tired, and I'm hoping I won't have to do it again for at least a month. Preferably a few months :-)

Scott's little workshop

Is it just me, or does Scott look slightly elf-like in this picture???

I can't believe that it's been almost a week since my last post. Since then we've gotten our first snowflakes of the year, quickly followed by our first snow dump of the year. And ever since then I've been on the trainer. Boo!

Not for long though! Scott gave me my Xmas present early this year. A Karate Monkey!

I know it sounds slightly ridiculous to get a new frame just to ride in the winter, but I'm selling my Tomac hard tail asap. Right now it's in really good condition, but that would not be the case if I rode it outside in snow and salt all winter long. Hence the Karate Monkey!!!

Luckily we have enough old parts in the basement to build up the entire bike. All I need to do is take it to Velo City for a bit of tweaking...

Scott was all, "I'm sure we have the right gear somewhere!"

Vroom, Vroom! We are building this bike up as a 1x9 for the time being. I can't wait to take it outside!

I also registered for my first race of 2010! I didn't do it last year, but I heard it's hard. It's going to be one big hammer-fest!

Well, I'm tempted to keep blogging away, but that's because I'm in full procrastination mode. I'm scheduled for a 20 minute power test today, and I have to do it on the trainer. I worked close to 13 hours yesterday, and I've been absolutely dragging today. I need to just get the darn power test over with so that I can quit thinking about it!!!

Over the creek and through the woods...

I took full advantage of the weather today (mid-40's and sunny) and rode my bike over to Luton Park. This was only my 2nd time riding on singletrack since I fractured my clavicle. I felt a little rusty at first, but it all came back quickly!

The trail was in perfect conditions, minus a few slick spots. I wanted to stay out there all day, because the weather forecast for the next couple of days isn't looking pretty. Think snow/rain mix....ugh.

My shoulder felt really stiff after a while, so I only stayed on the trail for about 1.5 hours. I spent the rest of the day on paved roads, and I think I ended up with close to 4 hours of ride time. Definitely a good day.

On my way home I did a quick food stop. My ride nutrition always changes in the winter time. During the summer I live off of gels and powerbars, but in the winter all that I want is sugary things. And just for the record, I think PayDay bars are one of the best candy bars ever invented!
In other news, I have a really good idea of what my 2010 schedule is going to look like. Eventually this blog will be updated, but I'm saving that for the really bad days when I can't go outside. Also, I can't wait to announce who my bike sponsor is going to be. I'm so excited I can barely stand it!!! I think I'll be able to announce it at the end of this week, so be sure to check back!