LRRH News Feed

[yellow]

What does "sandbagger" mean?

sand·bag n.

v. intr. Slang
To downplay or misrepresent one's ability in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.

[jobob]

sand·bag n.

v. intr. Slang
To downplay or misrepresent one's ability in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.

Eh, I prefer to think of it as keeping expectations low, so that when you do succeed, everyone is pleasantly surprised.
Including yourself.

[CyclaSutra]

Girls, I had a fantastic time. It was great to meet so many of you during dinner and the ride. Glad you liked the stickers! I had to e-mail the dude from Laramie three times before he finally mailed them to me... I would have picked them up, but Laramie is 7 hours east of here.

What great energy from all the women! Someone told me 1,050 women registered before ride day.

I was pretty cranky about not getting on the road until 8:40, but I met up with like-speeded riders soon enough (and almost followed the 65 milers straight at one point, but Bikerhen and Marty helped me figure it out). Then I rode with them for quite a ways before trying to hook up with some fast gravy trains.

But I got in trouble, leaving the wrong way for the 100 right after lunch with some girls, and then when one got a flat (not my friends, not planned ride partners, and Little Red Riding Hood was there to help change it!) I kept going in pursuit of the ladybug team. Missed the top loop altogether so was at the metric length (65ish) at the final rest stop, which was supposed to be 17 miles from the finish. Yikes! I was 23 miles short! So I created my own loop by going left and around the bottom loop again, all by myself. So it sort of stunk being alone for the last 30 miles of a group ride, but I ride by myself a lot.

I couldn't believe that my average heart rate for the day was 150! I've never been able to hold that for 6.5 hours. I believe my average speed was 14.9.

Next year, I'm appointing a navigator, or at least getting one of those stupid $5 map holders so I will actually read the map.

Only 363 more days until LRRH 2007!

[jobob]

Random thoughts while the morning coffee kicks in.

TH, I love the photos you posted. I'm glad we have a picture of the whole group before we went off on our merry ways. And the look of joy (and relief!!) on our faces at the end says it all.

It was so fun riding into the finish with Trekhawk and CindySue. Bubba as well as Trekhawk's husband and her three adorable little boys were there at the side of the road cheering us on. TH's boys were too funny. One of them took off at a run and followed his mom to the tent, and the other two and dad caught up momentarily. They were soooo cute.

I overheard snippets of conversation among TH and her boys at breakfast earlier that morning and the words of encouragement they were offering her made me crack up. Can't remember verbatim but one of them said something about coming out to get her and towing her back with a a bungie cord if she needed it.

The AV jerseys really stood out. Although the six of us (me, Trekhawk, CindySue, aka_kim, SK and yellow) managed to ride together a great deal, more often than not the other four would soon be way ahead of me & Trekhawk. Which was fine, TH and I were very happy going at our own pace and she was great company. Then we'd round a bend and waaaay off in the distance we'd see a bunch of bright red jerseys, with the distinctive green off-center chainring logo, standing off to the side of the road. Yep, must be another flat! So TH and I would like to thank the rest of you for having flats at strategic locations so you never got very far ahead of us

There was a nice breeze to keep us cool, which was great since I was worried it would be awfully hot - which it wasn't. The breeze did pick up some as the day progressed, but it looked like we'd have a nice tailwind for the ride back.

So when we did the 90 degree turn at mile ~ 75 which pointed us back towards the start, we had a lovely tailwind and we were cruising along at 18-20 mph with almost no effort. "Sweeeet!" I thought. "We'll be finished in way under 2 hours, and fresh as a daisy!". Silly me. About 5 miles later the wind did an abrupt about-face and we suddenly found ourselves riding into a headwind. Trekhawk mentioned something about learning things from me but she neglected to mention much of it was new swear words. The headwind wasn't that bad, and ordinarily the hills in the last 20 miles would not have been much effort at all, but truth be told I was getting tired. Many thanks to TH and CindySue for the words of encouragement and the occasional windblock!

Funny moment: We're chugging along and a gust picks up. CindySue's clear, lovely voice rings out "AGAIN WITH THE HEADWIND?!?!" It was hilarious.

What a great weekend.

[bikerHen]

Wow! What a weekend! From dinner Friday night to Sunday breakfast with Trekhawk and family, it was a weekend I'll never forget. It was great to meet everyone, and put a real person with your name. I thought the ride was perfect, with the exception of the aforementioned headwinds during the last 20, not flat, miles. Marty and I just kept plugging along and along until we finished!

CyclaSutra, you're great! From trying to teach me to draft to mooning me to show off your great tattoo. Sorry your hunt for the perfect gravy train got you off track. Maybe next year I'll be fast enough to keep up and help you stay on course. Marty, again thanks for being the perfect riding partner. Too bad we live so far apart, we could be training for our next century together. And Trekhawk, it was great meeting and riding with you for a few miles anyway. Your family is great, and you are an awesome rider.

My ride moments? Meeting everyone, riding under the irrigation sprinkler for a quick refreshing shower, having a 14.5 MPH average for the first 70 miles, and finishing my first century.

My oh my gosh moment for the weekend? As I was driving into Logan, Friday afternoon I passed a guy jogging with another guy riding a bike fully loaded with touring packs. They were just coming to the top of a steep climb and I thought, they sure are fit. Well, fast foward to Sunday morning, I'm a little over a 100 miles into the drive home, truly in the middle of nowhere, when I see this guy riding his bike along the interstate. I think wow, good for him. Then about 100 yards ahead I see a guy jogging! It's the same pair I saw in Logan! All I could think was, My gosh I just drove over a 5000+ foot pass! Talk about being fit!!!

[caligurl]

great ride reports and awesome pics! thanx for sharing!!!!!!

[AuntieK]

I had a lot of fun at LRRH, ladies!
The weather, the ride, the company, and the route were all beautiful.
I enjoyed meeting many of you at the Friday night dinner. Here's a picture of us after our meal (sorry it's so dark):



I believe (I apologize if I've got some of you mixed up) this is
Yau Ming, Cyndi, JoBob, me, ljkl, Marty, Lifesgreat, CyclaSutra, BikerHen, TrekHawk, aka_kim, and one of the friends I brought along.

I wish I could have met more of you. I did pass some of the Amici Veloci jerseys at the beginning of the ride. I was the one who said, "Hello TE girls" as I passed. I would have hung out and rode with you if I wasn't in such a hurry to keep up the the group I was with. They were in a hurry to get finished because they had to be home by 5.

I managed to finish the 69.67 mile ride in 3 hours 54 min, with an average speed of 17.5 mph. I did manage to give myself a good case of road rash when I missed a turn, turned around and found myself in the gravel. Still mending that wound. But still I had a great time and am looking forward to next year.

Yellow, I will manage to meet up with you on one of these rides someday!
BikerHen, thank you for the very cool patch you made for me!
CyclaSutra, I love the sticker...still trying to find just the right place for it.

[yellow]

Great picture, AK. How can it be that we missed each other????? You kicked some serious butt. That racing training is paying off! Just think of the road rash as crit training!

Ladies, I want to thank those of you that traveled far and wide for coming to the ride and contributing to its grand-ness. I had such a great time meeting new friends, seeing old friends, and feeling like I belonged with a group of people again (live and in the flesh...not just online). I got a little melancholy last night after I said goodbye to the last of you. You are all my very fast friends!

(Blurry picture of me attempting to take pictures of people behind me. Learning curve is pretty steep on this activity. )

[jobob]

Learning curve is pretty steep on this activity.

Tell me about it.

A wee hint: Glance ahead first and make sure you're not about to ride into a crater in the road. Been there, done that, still don't know how I managed to stay upright and not drop the camera.

[jobob]

Yep AuntieK, I remember you whizzing by me early on in the ride ! Nice riding with ya.

Thanks for the dinner group shot. I think you have all the names correct, good job. I haven't gotten around to downloading my compactflash cards and wading through all the photos I took from the dinner. I'll get to it eventually !

[Lifesgreat]

Yep AuntieK, I remember you whizzing by me early on in the ride ! Nice riding with ya.

Well, it was nice for you TEs to keep flatting so I could catch up to you.

[maillotpois]

Wow - great photos and report you guys!! I almost feel as if I'd been there!

[cindysue]

This was a really enjoyable ride - for the scenery certainly - but the best part for me was riding with so many friends - some I had just met for the first time.

Everyone was so encouraging. I was having a rough time of it - lots of leg cramps through most of the last 1/2 of the ride. Sarah had warned me about drinking water at that altitude and I really tried but I just couldn't get hydrated - a lesson learned that I need electrolytes in addition to water. I had my new bike but no bottle cages, so I just had water in my camelbak. I suppose drinking 1/2 a bottle of wine the night before and only getting 3-1/2 hours of sleep didn't help....... Well I spent the next two days drinking lots of water and making lots of trips to the bathroom

I spent most of the ride with Jo and Leslie (trekhawk), and also had the pleasure of riding quite a bit with Sarah and Sue and Kim. Only saw Veronica once on the ride - she had left us all in the dust . I would occasionally run into some of the other TE gals - and it was great seeing all the AV jerseys on the road. We received a lot of compliments on the jerseys from other riders. Too bad we didn't have some sort of card or handout with info on how to order.......

Riding up and back to SLC with Sarah and Bubba was great. I had the whole back seat to myself. It was fun chatting with both of them - but I think at one point Bubba and I put Sarah to sleep talking about endangered species and eminent domain (I can see you all yawning in agreement). I get similarly disengaged when Andrew talks about his work......

We arrived at Sue's beautiful home about 9pm - just in time for burgers and beer. The mojito was yummy - and it's probably a good thing we ran out of tonic water given my dehydrated state. I don't think I could ever match Brian's exceptional skill at making homemade beer, but I will take a shot at making some mojitos this weekend........

and the chocolate - yummy! I especially liked the white chocolate with peppermint pieces that AG sent. Sue sent us all home with a bag of chocolate. Mine melted on the road trip back - but I still managed to inhale most of it.....