Monday, June 23, 2008

avc weekend wrap up

so when driving to the track with joe fineman on friday, i sheepishly asked him: "joe. if i don't get on the podium this weekend, can i still get a double kiss?" (cause joe was the podium boy) he kindly said "of course." but i very happily didn't need a charity case, and got myself four joe fineman kisses. (kinda really only 2, cause he does the double kiss...but you get my drift).

let me just say this. it was hot. now that that was said, i will continue on.

friday night i just the keirin. my first race sucked balls, but me and karla had some fun whacking each other fighting for last wheel, duh! this meant if i wanted to go to the finals, i had to rep in. a bit nerve racking, but, i figured at least i was getting my monies worth, right? matt martinez whispered some secrets in my ear, along with a little pep talk which was much needed. 'confidence' i think is the key word. i kind of lack it on the line sometimes, which makes me not get position where i know i need to go. anyway, the rep round went well, and i luckily held it off to the line. i heard mary ellen make some noise behind me and thought to myself: "oh shit, it's the mary ellen sprint grunt!" and that gave me enough fear to get a few extra rpms to make it to the line. the final was 8 of us, and i slotted in near the middle, but because of some moving around in front of me, i think i ended up fighting for 4th wheel. i was pretty happy i held my spot, and then right after lady in red moved back, i thought i was clear so i was riding a little wide, and in slips jen triplett on my inside. need to stay on my toes a little better. long story short, is i was a little bit too patient in this race. i was waiting for a move from the back to hop on, that came on the late side (just enough time for her, not enough time for her and then me!)...so by that time, i couldn't move up all that much..... so, if/maybe i could have gotten a position or two higher on the moto, i think i could have maybe placed a bit higher...but i was pretty satisfied with 6th place, but more happy that i just handled myself well at that speed in the pack. oh yes, thanks to fred, alice, & michiko for coming to watch! here are some keirin videos. here is the rep round. and here is the final.

garrett lau took this picture during the keirin rep round

and here is a picture mara took at the start of the keirin. check out her website-- lots of photos there.
and here is the same shot seconds later that rob took. i thought they were both cool, so i couldn't decide which to post.

got home way late, slept minimally, and woke up really early to get back to the track for the sprints. had my best time in the 200m (13.22) so that was a nice start to the day. it was the 4th fastest time. in the 3-up, i just barely won. that meant i didn't have to rep. that was nice. in the 2nd round, i took the lead and held andrea at my hip and even did a tiny bit of that flicky business. just before one lap to go, she jumped, and i raced to beat her to the pole and began a 1 lap drag race. i was in better position, as she was riding wide. but she had more in her and beat me to the line by a bit. i was a bit bummed, cause i wanted to make the semis...but, i didn't make a tactical boo boo--just not as fast as her on a long sprint like that. so, i was happy that i didn't do anything wrong. we had a 4-up to place 5-8. i led this out, and was a bit worried this wasn't a great idea with 4 people. i rolled into the poll and slowly ramped it up. in turn 3/4, i felt someone coming around and i just thought: "not on my track!" and got some more energy to hold it off. really had to have some local rep on the podium, and that was some extra motivation on the homestretch.

here are a couple of photos mara took during the match sprints.
3-up

2-up (duh!)

and jenny took this picture making fun of my stuff.

i was super cooked. steven woo took a picture of the bracket-- and no wonder i was tired. i sprinted four times in the mid-13s-- that is faster than i ever had sprinted before... all in a matter of a few hours.

i went to that awesome veggie vietnamese restaurant (di da-- down senter road) and had some good food before the night session and ended up making friends with everyone in the restaurant. everyone was so chatty! they were all insisting they had seen me at some tibetan buddhist temple in san jose. but i kept saying it must have been another white girl, cause i live in oakland. but they didn't believe me. then back to the track....

the miss n out, i just wasn't in the race at all. i didn't have much energy and not much motivation...so i figured i'd just stick myself in the middle and see how long i can go before getting pulled. it wasn't long, and i didn't do much to get out of position.

a couple of my friends were there-- my xc/track runner friends brittany and rachel from college. and also mel & laura. so, i wanted to at least be respectable in the scratch race. i also needed some major mojo, so i put on as much orange as i could find-- arm warmers and those booties i won from friday night. this served a good purpose, as it was easy for my friends to see me.

as i said, i was pretty cooked from the sprints. wasn't really expecting four sprints to make me so tired, but i think being in the sun and not sleeping much, etc, made me more tired than i realized. i pretty much just sucked wheels the whole scratch race. shelley and larsyn lapped the field, so on four to go, there was an attack as they got back in the field. i was in mediocre position, but did some weaving to get back with the front pack drilling the pace. with three to go, i was too many wheels back in the paceline and only slowly moving up... on bell lap, i was still too far back, and just said f-it, as i didn't have time to follow wheels anymore and moved in and out some and took some really wide turns in the curve to move up. i was with the finish sprint, but unfortunately on the tail end. i was coming up strong, and couldn't tell if i nipped someone for 5th in the sprint. (this would have put me in 6th, as someone else had lapped the field, but wasn't in the sprint finish). they told me i had 6th, so i was pretty happy-- i couldn't believe i had moved up and actually passed someone at the line to place. so i waited around and around for the awards ceremony in my stupid spandex. then 5 minutes before, justin said there was a mixup, that they forgot about someone, and i was 7th. no biggie really, i just wanted my chamois off! then justin pulled my line on me, telling me: "7th is the new dfl". jerk face.

here is me with my mojo orange on

so, then i was in my chamois and hanan is the little joiner and talked me into doing the flying lap with her and megan. i can always get my arm twisted to do another race, so i did. i can't remember how fast i went, but even if i did remember, the number would have no significance to me whatsoever. i guess i now hold a record, because a) they haven't competition timed women in the flying lap, and/or b) they can't find the actual record. haha. i take cheap wins anyway i can. my only regret is joe fineman didn't give me a kiss for this one. punked!! finally i was done. i decided to pull the team unattached moto: "cool down, schmool down"-- and shit, did i pay for that one the next day! stupid! note to self: don't do a lap sprint and then not cool down. maybe it wasn't the lap sprint. maybe it was just the whole weekend. but, whatever. i blame hanan. i cursed her name as i was laying on my couch crying late sunday morning.

saturday night, when i got back to oakland, mel, laura, and i went to get a drink. i was pretty wasted after my one drink. but, i took some advice someone gave me, and decided not to blog drunk.

well this is getting way too long. here are some wrap up points from the weekend, and some things i forgot to add.
  • the out of town girls were awesome! especially jen triplett. she told me i can stick my chamois in the microwave if i don't have time to wash them. i dunno about that one...but, i thought it was worth noting.
  • i was pretty satisfied with how i raced. of course, i think about how i could have maybe done something a little different to get one or two places higher...but, all in all, i'm satisfied and working on not being negative or down on myself (which is the june moto, btw). mostly, i was happy i felt pretty comfortable and think i was a bit better than normal feeling good in the pack.
  • i geared up for the weekend (86" for keirin, 84" for everything else)...but know that was still pretty tiny compared to what other people were riding. maybe if i can get my quads even bigger, they will be able to spin the bigger gear, and i will do better (well, maybe...)
  • confidence is really the key word of the weekend. i usually don't have a ton while riding, and especially didn't during the beginning of the weekend.. staying confident and positive is sometimes the biggest challenge - just thinking i should be there.
well, i am sure i forgot something, but i'm going to bed. excuse the boring race report. one of these days, i will be funny again.

9 comments:

Garrett Lau said...

Wow, you're really dedicated to your "unattached" team to wait around in your skinsuit for the podium ceremony. Everyone on the Scratch Race podium just wore a jersey over street clothes. Hopefully, I'll post that photo within the next 24 hours. The Match Sprint podium photo is
here.

Did you measure everyone's quads?

Steven Woo said...

Great weekend for you!

Flying lap times

Carol G said...

Congratulations, Beth. You're a friggin' bad-ass! ;-)

Meg said...

Hey Beth!
Great job this past weekend - You rocked! It was great to meet you and maybe we can go for a spin sometime!

place_holder said...

for the future podium presentations, i should lend you my medium jersey that's too big for me, except when i am pms-ing and my boobs get bloated.

beth bikes! said...

thanks. you are the best teammate.
i look like an amazon woman in those podium pictures with that skinsuit on. eek.

Laura said...

Actually, you looked really fast and strong out there. It was great fun to watch.

Garrett Lau said...

I've finally posted all my photos from Saturday. Just check the end of the gallery that I linked to in my first comment. I'll eventually add some of these to . You can put any of my Flickr photos on your blog if you provide a photo credit.

Garrett Lau said...

The HTML got messed up, but you know where my Flickr photos are anyway:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garrettlau/sets/72157605786784653/