I went down to C-ville to do the Jeff Cup

I went down to C-ville to do the Jeff Cup;
My goal was to ride well and not to throw up.

The changing forecast was cause for distress,
First sunny and warm, then a cold rainy mess.

My warm up was brutal,
The first effort felt futile.

A week full of rest
Does not lead to the best.

At staging we dithered;
Tried to drink while we shivered.

When finally we got going
The adrenaline was flowing.

The thrill of the race
And the fast early pace,

Got the blood moving
And the legs felt like grooving!

First time up the hill
Was a pretty big thrill.

My legs felt good,
Better than I'd hoped they would.

Down the rain slick descent
I must have hit a road dent.

'Cause my full bottle of Extran
Ejected and ran!

Oh me, Oh my...
I'm going to run dry.

With only half a bottle
I can't go full throttle.

Through the feed zone we speeded
I begged and I pleaded.

But no one could think
To give me a drink.

I decided to ration
And just race on passion.

The miles ticked by
And the pace remained high.

Some guys had fragile nerves
When anyone would swerve.

On the penultimate lap
The power suddenly sapped;

Sending me from the front to the back
Like a sad, sorry sack.  8-(

I dug in my heels
And chased after the wheels.

Catching back on
Before the pack was gone!

I struggled up the hill
On sheer force of will.

Over the top I stared at the gap;
Heart wanted to ride; Legs wanted to nap

I flew down the hill at incredible speed
Hoping the pack had pulled over and peed!

But try as I might
My legs said good night.

Another Jeff Cup off the back
I'm clearly a hack.

But it could have been worse
I didn't have to see the nurse!

I'll show em who's boss
When it's time to race cross.

Baby shower self-portrait

Baby shower self portrait
Originally uploaded by cbnystrom.

Self-portraits are one of the quirky things that we do. Even if there's someone around to snap the photo we always like to get a couple of shots doing the extendo-arm thing.

This one was taken as we were in the middle of opening gifts. We are now loaded up with cool baby gear...thus the happy faces.

We've run out of space in our condo so we're building a house just south of town in Ellicott City. By the end of this year or early 2006 we'll have a lot more space for our 10 bikes and mountains of baby accessories.

Did I mention that we'll be about to hit the mountain bike trails right out of our backyard?
That was a key consideration in searching for a new home...priorities.

Oh, and the schools are great. 8-)

Baby Shower

Cake
Originally uploaded by cbnystrom.

Our friends and family hosted an amazing baby shower yesterday. It was more of a party really with a lot of great friends and family there to celebrate. We had a fantastic time and were blown away by all of the great baby gifts we received. I thought that cycling was a gear-heavy endeavor, but having a baby tops everything for gear and supplies!

p.s. The cake was incredible and well worth a bit of extra trainer time!

Full suspension road ride

Chris, Bob, & I tried to do a mtb ride yesterday thinking that if we rode early enough the ground would still be frozen.
We were on our bikes rolling into the trails at 7:00am, but it was immediately clear that it had not gotten cold enough to freeze anything overnight.

The entrance trail was very sloppy. This was a big bummer, but since we were already out on our bikes we turned off onto the road and put in 2.5 hours of road riding on our mountain bikes. My new Fuel EX9 has the pop-lock control on the bar that allows you to lock out all of the suspension on the fly. This will be great for races like the Shenandoah 100 that have a fair amount of road and hard-packed sections. Fully locked out the bike did very well on the road, moving efficiently up the climbs and handling some tight hairpin descents confidently.

We did a nice tour of the Ellicott City hills, Oella, New Cut, College, & Beechwood. We rode the hills at a solid pace for a good tempo workout. That area is great for training rides.

When we returned to the cars our bikes were clean & we felt good about sparing the trails more misery. They'll need a good stretch of warm, dry weather to dry up. Thankfully, we didn't see any other riders heading in.