“AGAIN!?!?!” is what I thought the other day as I glared at the rising price of gas. In these troubled times of oil slowly becoming a rarity, you gotta consider the alternative to driving. Now I know some of you live in areas that are difficult to ride your bike. I can appreciate not wanting to ride on a tiny shoulder while F350s with the wide angle mirrors whir by at 60 mph, blowing dust and black smoke in your face. However, if you do live in an area where bike paths are accessible, there are ways to make your day easier. Things that make even the savviest bike commuter smile with glee on the way to wherever you may be going. “What are these things I can do to make my commute more enjoyable and make me look like a pimp daddy?” one might ask. Living in Boulder, Mecca of the cyclists, I’ll tell you what I think. I have been seeing more bikes on the paths and while that means riding alongside people who get incredibly nervous if you ride next to them, or flinch and swerve in your way if you call the polite, “On your right!” you have to give them some credit for being out there and making a statement on paying 4 dollars a gallon on fuel. I used to be one of those people, and it’s so great to see more people riding bikes.

First, what you need is a sweet commuter bike. I would recommend the Cannondale Bad Boy, Capo, or something equivalent. Flat bars are a lot more comfortable than road bars, and there is no real reason to be “aero” on your way to work unless you are time trialing with the best of the chodes. That doesn’t mean you can’t have big wheels. 29 inch mtb wheels or road wheels are a great way to rock the pavement.

Second, please. ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET. I don’t understand why people don’t wear helmets. These days, helmets are really light, they look cool, and most importantly, these brain buckets can save your life. I prefer Uvex helmets. They are pretty sweet, lightweight, and has great ventilation. When I see someone NOT wearing a helmet, I shake my head and mutter “idiot” under my breath. Yes, that is really how I feel.

Third, carting around your gear. Whether it be the world of cubicles, a job where you’re face to face with people, meeting your best pals, or simply running errands, you will need a medium to transport your essential. I don’t know about you, but I hate several things about commuter bags. 1) Your back has the potential to get drenched with sweat if using a backpack. A wet back is never comfortable, nor is it hot if you’re commuting to a date. 2) I HATE it when my bag is flailing around everywhere. Sometimes I want to take the trail, do a little commute-a-training, or simply stand up on a rise. You’d think messenger bags would be the answer. The truth is that I have THREE messenger bags, all different brands. Sure they look cool on the way to the coffee shop in Boulder and have their perks, but they always make my shoulder hurt, they give me a dork sweat stripe across my chest (yeah…don’t want to attract more attention there), and they usually have velcro, magnets, or latches so my schwag isn’t as secure as I’d like. Plus, if mother nature strikes and it rains, my precious treasures get wet. Enter Ergon BD2 backpack . My newest BFF. Why is this bag the shiz?

Yes, they come in different sizes to fit any size or shape. This is one fits me like a glove. Props to Mr. Eric Saletel, our one and only Cannondale mechanic. Not only can he fix bikes, but he is a great photographer.

Listen up!

1) It has a frame that provides mucho support. My back doesn’t hurt when I ride, nor do my shoulders. It straps around your chest and waist. Plus, the whole bag is only 1.5 lbs. Take that weight weenies.

2) The backpack is WATERPROOF and it has its own special built in rain coat in case conditions get really bad. That’s right, your tabloid magazines will stay pristine.

3) It has lots of pockets and compartments to keep you organized. It’s not just a bag with one place to put stuff. It has a handy pocket on the outside that I like to put my cell phone in, and some separating pockets inside too. It even has a bungee cord to hold your stuff in place.

4) It just looks badass. Enough said.

5) It’s very functional. You can put your Hydrapak bladder in it and there’s a spot for the hose to come out. Peace out Camelback, you’ve met your nemesis.

6) The engineering is wicked smart. It doesn’t move around at all. Check it out. I have a master’s degree in engineering and this design impresses me. Yes, I speak engineer. It’s a pretty foreign language, even to me.

Ok, more things you need to be the savvy commuter. Four! A music player. I prefer my ipod nano, but you can really use anything. Nothing like rocking out (not too loud so you can hear sounds of the road) while you are blasting off to your destination.

Five, a light, please. I recommend niterider lights. They are not only for the 24 hour racer, they make ones for riding to and fro at night as well. I have one and it’s great.

Six, a smile. Yes. Smile!! You’re not blowing all your latte money on gas, you’re saving the environment one bike mile at a time, and you’re getting wicked fast!

That’s what marriage is supposed to be, and I think it will be so with Sierra and Scotty. Sierra is my cousin, but she is more like my sister, and Scotty Q could not be a better match for her. I’m so happy for her, and so glad that I was her maid of honor.

The model/bride

A different shot the day before the wedding…can’t blame her.

The fam at the rehearsal. The men on the looney side always wear hawaiin shirts, pretty much all the time when they are not at work. The wedding rehearsal was no different. Grandpa toned it down and didn’t wear neon, but my dad, his brother, and my uncle had no problem.

Me and one of my favorite girls in the whole wide world

Some of the wedding people. Fun!

I made some awesome new friends. Miranda is one of my favorite new friends.
Maid of honor/best man-David (Scott’s bro…can you tell???). I think that those are a couple of very nice smiles.  We win best smile section, hands down, and we didn’t screw up at the wedding…and we gave some sweet speeches at the reception too.   Mad props!
Got mullet?

Denise’s rockstar glasses. I need some of those if I ever see Vegas.

When Sierra and I start drinking, we start taking a million pics of ourselves making faces. When she came to visit awhile ago, we took like 50 at once. Weeee!
Splitting margarita number…?

Throwing gang signs from the Burque. That’s right, we are both natives.

View out of my window on the plane. It was pretty amazing.

Texas isn’t that bad, but man, it’s not for me. The best thing about it is all my friends and family that are there. I don’t have any pics from the reception b/c my camera battery died…but it’s probably best kept that way.

I am looking forward to spending Memorial Day Weekend with my friends and riding slow and easy. Well, not looking forward to riding slow and easy, but sometimes you just gotta.

That’s right…that means no Angel Fire.  I am pretty damn disappointed because it is one of my favorite races, but my legs are still way too tired.  I have dug myself an early grave finishing Sea Otter and Gila feeling the way I did.  I don’t really know when to quit.  Fierce determination doesn’t always pay off.  That said, Sean Madsen is coaching me with trainingpeaks.com and that is getting started in a few weeks.  He is going to get me back on track and hopefully next year I won’t follow my routine of racing myself into the ground in the spring.  Tough decision to pull the rip cord till Teva Mountain Games, but I’d rather feel awesome then mediocre the rest of the season and turn in embarrassing results.  Nothing but flat, slow, short road rides for me for the next week.

My next post will be about the wedding and the one after that will be about how to be a super commuter with gas at 3.80 a gallon.  Stay tuned!

Where the heck was everyone for NMBS #3?  I just looked at results and there weren’t even 30 women that showed up.

My cousin’s wedding could not have been more fun and perfect. I was actually sad TO LEAVE Texas, which is pretty much unheard of in my book. ;)  I got home pretty late, but there will be some fun photos coming up from the wedding.  I’m leaving Friday for Angel Fire too.  COME ON LEGS!!!!!!!!

That is a sound of frustration that I really made when I had to turn around on my ride today. My legs still feel like (as my friend Adam would say) “regurgitated dog shit.” Sometimes you have to know when to call it quits, and that is what I should have done at Gila. Now I’m trying to get out of this massive hole I have dug myself. At least I took pretty pictures and the light was awesome on the ride. It turned into a 1 hour spin, and the leaves just looked so green. Since I manage to overtrain myself every spring, and I’m sick of being frustrated and confused, I am getting a coach. I met one that I truly feel I can trust and that is a huge deal for me. I’m a skeptical engineer. More on that later.

Pics of Boulder Canyon

I ran into Adam on my ride today. I have known him for 5 years  now and the man has always had the dirtiest bike I have seen. Today was no exception.

In case you don’t know, the frame is supposed to be black…..

At least he was riding a Cannondale Scalpel. That makes him the coolest person ever in my book. It’s always a pleasant surprise to run into friends. Boulder is small, so don’t make too many enemies…especially ones that ride bikes. Some days I run into 5 or 6 people. After feeling so sorry for Adam’s bike, I got home from my short ride and gave it a nice cleaning. It’s sparkly and happy now…if only my legs felt the same! I am headed to Dallas tomorrow, so 3 days off. I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that I feel like a rock star on my ride on Monday, or I’m in a heap of trouble for Angel Fire MSC next weekend…

Till next time!

Well, sorta! After basically taking 10 days off the bike (ok, I did a teeny bit of riding in there), I attempted to go out and train today. I could actually get my HR above my LT which is a very good sign considering at the Gila, I was riding 30 beats BELOW my LT at max effort. I still didn’t feel awesome today, but some of that is probably due to being ultra stale. I’ll know tomorrow when I hit the trail again. It was really tough to take time off the bike. My body needed it, but it’s hard for my brain to handle. I’m used to getting those beautiful chemicals you get from going hard (serotonin and dopamine I think….) so I was actually feeling pretty depressed in general(which I tend to hide pretty well). I am back though. Back to happy, endorphinated Sonya.

I think of funny things a lot, probably stuff not everyone finds funny, but I am generally self-amused and crack myself up a lot. I guess that’s good? Anyway, I was laughing today b/c I after I bombed down the Betasso connector, I realized that my bike was doing most of the work. The combo of my Cannondale Scalpel and my Ergon grips is super killer. I had a status message up on my gmail chat today saying, “My bike whispered to me today, hold on to me if you wanna fly…” and fly it does, I’m just hanging on for dear life. You just have to point that wheel downhill, stay loose, and let ‘er roll.

I want to give a huge shout out to my mechanic, Eric. I was a royal pain in his butt, and he was awesome and shipped my bike back to me in Boulder (I made a decision to leave it on the truck in CA and I was really missing my sweet baby) so he shipped it back. I have never seen such mad packing skills. In fact, I was sooo impressed I took pictures. I will be trying to copy the master next time I have to pack a bike.

Listen up ladies, he isn’t this orange in real life, and he works with his hands. Hey-O!

I pretty much like anything that says Cannondale on it, even boxes.

Top down view, if you will

Mad zip tie and foam packing action.

No racing again this weekend. That’s 2 weekends off. It was very weird last weekend to actually be home. I haven’t been home on the weekend in like 5 or 6 weeks. I didn’t really know what to do with myself since I wasn’t riding either. This weekend, I’m going to Dallas- I’m the maid of honor in my cousin’s wedding, and the Looneys know how to party so it will definitely be a fun time. Then it’s hammer time- Angel Fire MSC. I am ultra excited because FINALLY! High altitude, climbing, and rocks. I love it. No more of the flat sea level BS.

Now I owe you some pictures so here we go.

I snuck out just for a short, easy ride at Marshall Mesa (shhh…I went easy) on Saturday because I couldn’t stand it any longer. The last time I rode in Boulder, it was winter. It is officially spring, and we are getting a lot of spring showers.

I stole this “view” from Ergon’s Jeff Kerkove His site is pretty rad if you ask me.

Flatirons

Some chick in a SoBe kit.

I went to see Sean at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine yesterday to get my bike fit tweaked. I was having some back pain, so Sean told me to put a longer stem on my bike. I called up my heroes at Cannondale, talked to Matty J and Sam. I’m sooo lucky to have such a good crew to take care of me. In fact, this is Mr. Sam Dodge. I have never officially met him in person, but he looks like a sweet “actor” from the 70s in this picture. Very nice. Rockin’ the sweet stache and charging for rides!

I will not be updating at the wedding this weekend, but there will be photos after if I don’t have entirely too much fun at the reception and forget to take pics.  The open bar may be my demise….

I didn’t DNF in the race, so I won’t DNF on this post….now for some Tour of the Gila, although I’m trying to block that out of my memory. One last painful recount and I’ll try to not think of it ever again. That’s the last time I’ll show up to a road race unprepared. I was exhausted from Sea Otter (and the races leading up to it), hadn’t done a road race in TWO years, or even owned a road bike in 1.5 years… my own fault. I was surprisingly comfortable riding in the pack despite all the crashes and despite the fact that I don’t even do group rides. It’s hard to fake it in a road race, but I finished the bastard. 25 women quit, so go me for finishing and swallowing my stupid pride.

Quick race recap:

Day 1, Mogollon. I felt like TOTAL crap and couldn’t push at all. I got dropped early and rode by myself the whole way back. I tried to take it easy and was seriously considering dropping out of the race. I actually almost decided not to show up, but I was already in ABQ and had already paid my entry, so I went…

Day 2. Inner Loop. I still didn’t feel great, but I hung on for awhile, and quite a few people got dropped. I ended up riding with a group for awhile and was one of the only people pulling b/c I felt guilty if I didn’t. Then the leader girl in our group got mad b/c this one girl wasn’t pulling and upped the pace to drop her, and dropped me instead. Then I rode all by myself into a 40 mph headwind for a long long time.

Day 3. TT. I had zero TT gear and my legs were super sore. It felt like I did weights the day before. Had to make due.

Day 4. Crit. My best stage. I’m used to going 80% for a long time so I hung until a few laps to go where I got stuck behind a girl’s back wheel who was a very slow climber and the gutter. Got dropped, rode laps of shame until they pulled me at 1 lap to go. At one point, I was frisky and thought about attacking the field for the hell of it.

Day 5. Outer Loop. Totally blown at this point. GC was close so the pack attacked like crazy from the get-go. I was amazed I held on for as long as I did. Some people including myself got dropped after awhile. I decided to just go really hard for as long as I could. 45 minutes later I caught the pack in the valley(was very proud of myself), and they were naturally attacking every couple of minutes. I held on for about 10 miles only to get dropped again. I was so done, but all I could do was just ride to the finish. It would have been dumb to quit a basically 300 mile race with 20 miles to go. Max HR for the day was 160. Usually my max HR in a race is 211. Yeah….

Pics

2 men who will never let me down! I got to spend time with my family before the Gila.

They actually make “Sonya” apples. I still haven’t had one, but I’m definitely going to, and stashing all the cool stickers.

My teammate, Jen Wilson, sticks Clif Blocks on her bike instead of her pocket. Creative. She was also sticking them on other places for humor, but those pictures are omitted to keep the site PG-13.

My badass friends and teammates- Nina and Jen. Shannon Gibson, Kathy Sherwin (who unfortunately got crashed out), and Josie are not pictured…sorry guys. I was too tired and grumpy to take a lot of photos.

Pretty much the sweetest road bike ever. Too bad it’s faster than I am!

Why you should put sunscreen on your lower back before a 70 mile stage. I’m going to have a sun-kissed tramp stamp for years to come…

Naturally, Nina and I took ice baths every night. Sometimes we took 2. They were delightful.

Mom taking my pic. One thing I did get at the Gila was a tan. It’s the Italian in me. I wore that outfit to the airport and the security guards were enjoying it. eeeewwwww.

Unpacking my road bike… I really wasn’t as happy as I look to work on my bike.

My brother is going to start riding to school and possibly recreationally (with my encouragement, he just doesn’t know it yet) on my dad’s old school mountain bike so I helped him get it working.

No, I have not forgotten, I promise. I am just playing hard to get. haha, j/k.   I have pics and all kinds of fun stuff to put up, I have just been preoccupied with trying to work full, 8 hour days (it is torture, I’m telling ya ;)…), drinking  lattes to get me through the day , catching up with my various posses, and NOT riding, which is also torture.  It was also bizarre to be home for the weekend, and nice too.