Speed Week: Athens Terrapin Twilight

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: Speed Week Athens Terrapin Twilight Criterium The Course: 40 laps of crowd-lined insanity The Field: Pro 1/2/3 women The Finish: 11th Athens is an amazing, 'have to see it to believe it' experience. Instead of a bike race with a handful of people watching who are either waiting to race or recovering from their race, Athens Twilight has actual fans who are not wearing spandex (or really, in the case of many of the college girls, much at all). There is nothing more exciting than flying through a corner completely lined with screaming spectators. I was anxious before this race (as opposed to all of those other ones where I am a model of calm, aside from the tears and the panic) for two reasons: (1) would my ability to hold position and ride confidently have improved since my last national-level crit last year, and (2) how would I fare in ...continue reading.

Recipe for an awesome health shake, as long as you’re unconscious for the last 1/3 of it

Posted on by lindsay
At the end of the Tuesday Night Worlds ride the other night, I was not in the mood for food. After drinking Recoverite, stretching, and putting away my gear, I was ready to get into a hot shower and forget about dinner. But skipping meals is unacceptable, especially after a hard ride, so I invented this fantastic smoothie: 1 heaping scoop of chocolate protein powder 1/2 banana 1.5 tablespoons peanut butter 1 cup milk 1/2 cup cold brown rice After blending it with my magic bullet (a name which always calls to mind non-kitchen-related appliances), I took a sip and was pleased. It tasted pretty good and the rice seemed to have blended in nicely. Perfect! All of this nutrition in a few easy sips! So I took my cup and got into the shower. That's not weird, is it? I mean, it's not like I'd take a sandwich or a rotisserie chicken ...continue reading.

In Defense of Poolesville

Posted on by lindsay
Twitter has been, well, atwitter today with buzz about the lack of Women's 1/2 field at Poolesville. I agree; it sucks. As a cat 1 woman, I'd like to think I have an option for racing other than going 74 miles with the 1/2/3 men. Pro rider and 2011 New Zealand National Road Champion Catherine Cheately tried it last year and ended up 52nd, which doesn't lead me to believe I'll be dominating the front of the field this year. But while it sucks, I also don't feel outraged and indignant. I'm all for women's racing, but the numbers can't be ignored: the Women's 1/2/3 field was the smallest field last year. Of the 17 women registered, only 13 started the race and 11 finished. That's not impressive. If a cut has to be made due to scheduling or resource availability, it makes sense that axing my field affects the ...continue reading.

A Complaint in Every Paragraph!

Posted on by lindsay
The last thirty-six hours have kicked my [word redacted because my mother scolds me for obscenities and, based on the comments, she is 68.73% of my reader base]. Yesterday morning started when I jolted awake early after a disturbing dream about chugging Coronas at a dive bar while crying because I'd just met this waifish, creepy little girl named Lindsay who was into brutally slaughtering people and eating them. I have NO IDEA where this came from, but I woke up completely freaked out. Dive bars are gross! Then came an exhausting day at work. I'm managing a big proposal right now and sometimes I want to climb into the paper shredder, if only to make the emails and the phone calls and the questions stop coming. I understand that work is not supposed to be fun - people pay to do fun things, so it stands to reason that if you are ...continue reading.

At one point mid-race, it occurred to me, “I am the only one here who can grow a person…weird.”

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: 19th Annual Carl Dolan Memorial Circuit Race The Course: 18 laps of a 2.1-mile lap The Field: 1/2/3 Men The Finish: 28th The races before the men's 1/2/3 at Dolan had seen a bit of what the officials described as 'carnage' (always a welcome word in the pre-race instructions) and as a result, my nerves were a mess. I tried to relax by circling the course over and over, but after 20+ miles of warm-up, I'd only succeeded in making myself sweaty, thirsty, and still anxious. Wise riders advised me to stay in the top 20 to avoid sketchy, inexperienced guys at the back (to which I couldn't help but ask "uh, aren't I one of them?"), so I lined up near the front. I thought about babbling nervously to the people corralled next to me, but settled for commenting, "Men don't talk about their feelings before the start, huh?" The answer is no. Then ...continue reading.

Group Rides: Lessons I Learned The Hard Way To Save You The Trouble

Posted on by lindsay
It's group ride season again! The time when every racer and non-racer suits up in their kits (or random assortment of cycling-adjacent apparel), straps on the ol' toe clips and aerobars, and joins dozens of other cyclists in an testosterone-fueled melee waged on the back roads of our fair region. Group rides can be a great experience with opportunities to ride hard, practice tactics, and bond with fellow cyclists. They can also be chaotic and unnerving, as people who rarely swing a leg over a bike decide that THIS will be the night they WIN! Here are some tips to make sure you're playing nicely with the other children: 1. If you find that you repeatedly need to muster frantic bursts of speed to move up in the pack because you have slid to the back, this may be a sign. This one time, at this one race, when I ...continue reading.