thursday quad measurment and other random mublings that are probably really boring to read, so i'd go to someone else's blog!

michiko forgave me for missing her big cyclocross debut and let me go for a ride with her today. except she let me go riding with her on her interval day,
so that was my big payback. ow-eeee! i definitely won't miss her races anymore...or who knows what bike torture she'll have planned for me next?! i thought the intervals were kinda fun in that sucky way, so i figured i got out easy on the karma...but no. i was silly crossing the trolly track and made out with the pavement. but on the ups now i have matching knee holes in my knee warmers. that means i can make matching orange patches on them!

i did have an excuse for missing michiko's big 3rd place finish. the night before the cross race i went to san jose for mary maroon's birthday race. saturday afternoon i called mary to say happy bday and she invited me to san jose that night, saying i could beat up on all the street fixie boys during the sprints in her b-day alley cat. this sounded like fun. at that moment, i was feeling sorry myself dabbing hydrogen peroxide on all my bruises that i got that morning when grey tried to teach me to ride my bike. beating boys in sprints was just the confidence booster i needed.

i made a snap decision. in 5 minutes i packed my bookbag, hopped on my bike, was out the door, and rode BART to Milbrae, got on caltrain, randomly saw bennet on the train!

this is how happy i was to see bennet on caltrain! (if you can see his big smile here!)

3 hours later, i arrived in san jose. sadly there was no race cause there weren't enough people...but all was okay cause i got to see maurice do a track stand no hands for several minutes and then face plant at a stop light. the next morning the plan was to bike from san jose to san francisco/brisbane for the cross race. me and mary showed up at maurice's house. he came out in a neon red and black skinsuit. hot-t-t-t. what a nice bday present for mary! we looked like a crazy group of three biking...maurice in skinsuit, me with my clunky bookbag... (i guess mary looked pretty normal.) we were flying up north, sprinting at all the town signs, they were being messenger showoffs drafting off cars and giving me near heart attacks. (in fact, this was me hanging out with cool messengers weekend. i was hoping grey, mary, or maurice would grab hold to a car michael j fox style like in back to the future...but no such luck.) i was nervous about our time, but at 1:30 we were 5 miles away and i knew i'd make the start of michiko's race. then we were going up a little hill, i was trying to be a tuff girl and keep it in my big ring, then shifted down, and quickly unclipped realizing my derailleur was stuck in my spokes. yikes. my derailleur hanger was pretty bent.

no picture of maurice in that skinsuit, but i assure you
it will draw the crowds for track racing next year! come one, come all!

mary works at a bike shop, so she said she could make my bike single speed and i could still make it...but the chain was stuck pretty good in my cog. they were playing tug-of-war with my bike. some dude stopped on the side of the road and pulled out a hammer the size of my head to "fix my bike." no thanks, sir! i don't want you to bend my wheel spokes! well, i clearly was screwed. we bungy corded my wheel to my bike with a tube and i shouldered my bike to colma bart, about a mile away (i was very lucky we were so close!) still, it is hard to shoulder your bike that long!

that night i dismantled my bike (hopefully i didn't lose any screws). tuesday i took my bike to ed litton who is either going to replace my derailleur hanger, or bend it. good thing i have a STEEL bike! while i am sad about me and gunnar's weeks of separation, i am focusing on other important things: like how to pimp her out for next year......

my quads really aren't that strong; i had bent the hanger twice before during my january crashes, so i guess it was weak.

well, the real point of the post. my quads today measure in at 59.0cm...smaller, but they can still bend (previously bent) steel!

so, for my bike update... i am down a road bike, having an argument with adjusting the brakes on my cross bike, re-geared and put a brake on my track bike, and salvaged my commuter bike from the u-lock. sheeesh. too eventful of a bike week for sure! .....and how the hell did i go from one bike to four bikes this past year?!?!