The Accidental Groupie

I've had a couple bouts with groupie-dom in my lifetime. I'm not ashamed to admit it. But while all my friends were fawning over pictures from Teen Beat, I had something a little more serious in mind.

This gentleman is Eric Clapton. You may have heard of him. He's a virtuoso—arguably one of the best guitar players of all times. But a teen heartthrob he's not, at least he wasn't in 1988, when I was 15. Still, I was bound and determined that I was going to marry this guy, despite the fact that he was a rock hero, was 28 years my senior, had a lousy track record for relationships and a history of substance abuse and was living in England at the time. I had birthday parties for him on his birthday. I listened to his music constantly and I bought and saved every piece of press I could find on him. I saw him in concert. When I was 19, I actually got chased out of his office in London by the secretary. You could say I was a groupie. But I digress.

Remember this guy?

I'll admit that when we headed for Leadville in August I didn't really know who he was. I'll also admit that I went there specifically to see Lance finish and was disappointed when I didn't. But something else was happening there. Everyone was excited about him. Everyone was cheering for him. Everyone loved him. I started to think there must be something to it. The more I read about him, the more I liked him. When I watched Race Across the Sky, I thought that really clinched it for me. He was obviously a great guy. But it didn't compare to meeting him in person and experiencing first-hand how he treats people.

My Dave Wiens groupie story began at the Short Track Race. (I apologize to those of you who have already heard this story ad nauseum. Feel free to skip this part.) When I pulled into the parking lot, I thought I saw him sitting in the vehicle next to me. As I was getting ready, three guys got out, and sure enough there was Dave. I tried not to stare at him, but I could tell I was grinning like crazy. I kept looking over and one of the times he smiled at me and spoke.

"Hi."

"Hi, Dave."

He walked toward me, held out his hand for me to shake and said "And you are?"

(A Dave Wiens groupie?) "I'm Andrea. Thanks a lot for coming. We're really excited to have you here."

"Thanks for asking me."

Somehow I finished getting my bike ready and concentrated on the race. My next experience with Dave Wiens came when he lapped me as I was beginning the second lap. Of course, he was very encouraging as he passed me. That was also the case when he lapped me the next time at the end of the same lap. That's right. He lapped me twice on the same lap. If it had been anyone else, I would have been completely humiliated, but I actually felt kind of proud.

Dave started his presentation by telling us he wasn't really used to being a guest speaker and he was nervous. He had about five pages of notes and 100 slides. The slides were really cool because there were a lot of pictures of the Gunnison/Crested Butte area. I sat in the front row, hung on every word and took scads of pictures.

Afterward, I dutifully stood in line to get my photo taken with him. I got the opportunity to chat with him for a minute about Crested Butte and wanting to move there. When I asked him how we could do it, he answered me with a question: "Are you independently wealthy?"

 

But it gets better. They held some kind an after-party in a room at an East Lansing brewpub and I ended up sitting next to Dave Wiens. We sat there for a couple of hours CHATTING with him.

 

Let me say this starkly, if I haven't made it clear already: This guy is so down to earth it's completely incredible. He's in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. He raced against Lance Armstrong and won. Yet, he is ridiculously NICE. Sometimes, it's really good to be a groupie.

P.S. More about the rest of the weekend and the Expo in my next post, along with an update on how I did last week

It Was True and It Was Awesome

It was a busy, fun-filled and action-packed weekend. I'll have to tell you all about it, but not tonight. By the way, in case you don't recognize him, that's Dave Wiens sitting next to me.

I Don't Know if It's True, But It's Awesome If It Is!

I heard it from a reliable source, though. The rumor is that Dave Wiens is actually going to race in the short track race on Sunday. How cool would that be?

A Few Random Things

I realize I never did the post I was going to do about my new eating plan, but I don't really feel like it tonight. Maybe I'll post it in the future and maybe I won't. Instead, here's some randomness.

Last week: I ended up with 2 hours and 50 minutes of trainer time last week, with about an hour and 15 minutes of bike time on the road. I also did two circuit training workouts (25 min.) with Jillian. I did all the workouts I was supposed to, but I'm thinking this does not seem like a lot of time on the bike. I think this week I'll need to add another hour on the weekend. As far as my eating goes, I did pretty well. I mostly stuck to my plan, although I got a little carried away on Saturday. I'll give myself a B+.

Short track race: Thanks to our esteemed Mid-state VP Brad Potter, there will be a short track race in Lansing on the day of the Expo. It's doubtful that I will race, but I'm going to go to take some photos. It should be a fun race to spectate. All proceeds go to the Mid-state Chapter, and trust me, we could use the support. More info is here.

Bike Basics: Someone awesome and I are holding a women's bike clinic for beginners at a local bike shop in March. Actually she's doing it and I'm helping with promotion and will make a short presentation from a more inexperienced (self-deprecating comment left out here) cyclist's perspective. We're doing it at a local bike shop, and it's going to address things like clothing, basic bike maintenance, etc. for women who are just starting out (or occasional recreational riders looking to get more serious about riding).  I'm trying to think of some catchy verbiage that will attract some partipicants so we can do some advertising. I'll post more details here as it becomes more fleshed out. 

Wiens: Have I mentioned that Dave Wiens is coming to town this weekend? Woo hoo! Do you think they need someone to pick him up at the airport? Or maybe accompany him back to Gunny?

28 Weeks

I've been thinking about where I want to be. Late in the year 2006, I had a goal. That goal was to get down to a certain weight before my wedding in May 2008. What I really wanted more than anything was to look as good as I could on my wedding day and not have to feel regret when I looked at the wedding pictures. I didn't want the permanent physical memories of this very important day to be marred by how fat I looked. Of course, that's not what happened.

On my wedding day, I think I looked pretty darn good, and that's hard for me to say because my self-esteem isn't what you'd call great. I set the stage for everything to be perfect—the hair, the makeup, the nails, the dress—and all those things really helped. 

Most girls want to feel like princesses on their wedding day and I did feel that way. Still, all was not perfect. When I looked in the mirror, I saw that my dress was tighter than I wanted it to be and my upper body didn't look like it should be on display. Even though I tried to lose weight before the wedding (and I did lose 35 or so pounds), I started to gain it back before the actual wedding.

It didn't make my wedding any less beautiful or make me any less happy to be getting married, but it was a missed opportunity. Since that time, I've gained weight, lost weight and gained it back, but I never reached that goal I set for myself before the wedding. It seems like it's never-ending. I've seen all the statistics. I know that chances are the weight is going to return every time I lose it. I don't know what, if anything, is ever going to make it different for me. This has been happening my whole life.

What I do know is that I'm not going to give up. There are all kinds of reasons I want to lose this weight—some of them are good, valid, responsible reasons and some of them have more to do with vanity. I've been thinking lately about how much weight I should shoot for losing on this go round and I've decided I really need to keep the promise I made to myself in November 2006. I'm not going to share what that number is because I'm too embarassed and I'm not ready for full disclosure.

So what does that mean, in practical terms? It means that, according to my scale this morning, I have to lose 50.5 pounds. I have a decent start—I've lost 5 pounds in the last week and a half, so if I can keep those habits up, I'll hopefully keep that going.

One thing I have also learned in this process is that I have to be very specific about my goals, so I'm giving myself a time limit to lose the weight. (If I don't meet that, it doesn't mean I'll quit. It's just something to work toward.) I'm giving myself 28 weeks to lose the weight. It's a somewhat aggressive goal, but I think it's doable. By my calculations, that means I will reach my goal by August 9.

One more thing is that I know this weight thing gets boring to read about, particularly for people who don't have a problem with their weight. So, I'm going to try not to dwell on it too much or turn the blog into a weight loss blog. Still, I want to use this blog for some accountability, so I'll probably report once a week and keep a running total on the sidebar.

Ali's Friend

I had been having trouble with that whole motivation thing lately, as I think I've mentioned. So I thought to myself, "Ali's fast. She's in good shape. You should copy her!"

This is Ali's friend. We'll call her Jillian. And all those big plans for the upcoming season—she's going to help me with them.

Last winter, I rode miles and miles on the trainer. It helped a lot. I went into the season in pretty good shape. But the truth is, I was bored, and I don't think the long-suffering martyr act is going to cut it for me through another long winter. So I've decided to mix things up a little this time around and hopefully get into better shape, drop some weight and go for a well-rounded (not literally) approach. I'm also hoping that this will help me get more out of the time I do spend on the trainer and allow me to push myself more.

So, here's what I came up with for a loose schedule:

Monday Spinervals on trainer

Tuesday Jillian

Wednesday Spinervals on trainer

Thursday Jillian

Friday Spinervals on trainer

Saturday and Sunday outdoor ride or other activity (skiing, showshoeing, etc.) and one day of rest

Last winter, a bit of the time I spent on the trainer was done using Spinervals DVD, but I mostly did intervals from the Friel book, which I mapped out ahead of time and did while watching t.v. This year, I've decided that using the DVDs is better for me. The structure of someone telling me what to do the entire time will hopefully keep me from getting too lazy and loose with my trainer time.

I'm going to start doing three different DVDs a week and do that same rotation of DVDs for a few weeks straight. I'm starting with Sweating Buckets (45 min) on Monday, Recovery & Technique (45 min) on Wednesday and Aero Base Builder (80 min) on Friday. After a couple weeks I'll switch it up a bit and do some harder DVDs. That should help keep it interesting.

The last part of my training plan is that I've decided to switch to morning training. As much as I hate having to get up extra early, if I wait until after work, there are just too many excuses (I'm tired, I had to work late, etc.). I started this plan on Monday. I set the alarm for 5:45, it went off and I promptly set it for an hour later and went back to sleep. However, I did complete my training when I got home from work, and I had much better luck getting up early Tuesday and today.

Speaking of which, I'd better get to bed so I can get up early tomorrow. In my next post, I'll talk about the eating part of the equation.

2010 Plans, Goals and Dreams: Part 1, Cycling Goals

I never ended up doing the season recap I meant to do, but I have analyzed my season over and over in my head. The season began with a lot of promise and fizzled out somewhere near the middle. My accomplishments were the following:

• Finished Barry-Roubaix and came in first in Beginner Women 35+ (beat all the beginner women and about 18 beginner men), basically, my best race ever
• Finished Yankee Springs Time Trial, took 20 minutes off my time from 2008
• Finished Hanson Hills XC race, but didn't do very well
• Raced in four endurance races: 8 Hours of Cannonsburg, 6 Hours of Ithaca, 6 Hours of Stony Creek, 6 Hours of Addison Oaks (came in 3rd in Michigan Endurance Cup)
• Completed my first Iceman ever
• Completed six Kisscross races
• Completed my first Ithaca Grand Prix of Cyclocross race

This makes it look like I actually did a lot of races, even though I wasn't happy with my performance in many of them. My biggest disappointment was the fact that I didn't sustain the fitness I started the season with.

As I look toward the coming season, my hope is that I will be able to move before the end of it, but that's looking less and less likely. We haven't given up the idea of moving, but it looks like it will take longer than we were hoping it would.)

Given my disappointment with last year's season, it only stands to reason that my most important goal for the 2010 season is to improve my fitness level as the season progresses, rather than getting worse. I'd like to again concentrate on endurance races, with a few other select races mixed in. I also want to renew my determination to complete a longer (12 hours) endurance race. That was also a goal last year, but it just didn't happen.

So, here's my tentative schedule for the 2010 race season:

March 27 Barry-Roubaix
April 18 Yankee Springs TT
May 15 6 Hours of Stony Creek
June 6 Hanson Hills XC
June 12 8 Hours of Cannonsburg
July 17 6 Hours of Ithaca
July 31 8 Hours of Bloomer or August 14 6 Hours of Pando
Sept. 18 12 Hours of Hanson Hills
Oct. 9 6 Hours of Addison Oaks
Peak to Peak (?)
Iceman

I'm sure I'll refine this and make changes as necessary during the year. I'm finally starting to get my act together, so I'll write about that, as well as the details for how I'm going to make all this happen, in the coming days.