(the jumping frog is tired today and is taking a day off…. he wanted a vacation)

It looks to be a soon to be rainy day here in Barto, PA… it isn’t raining yet, but it may be at in moment in time… There are actually so many trees here that we may not get that wet on our bike ride through the jungle… just a little bit. Its nice to get wet every so often… buts its better to stay dry, really… 

So anyways, Katharine and I adventured into New York City…. the city of tall tall buildings, lots and lots of people, pricey this and that, lots and lots of people, and more tall buildings. It was my first time really being there and an adventure on foot it was… We walked and walked and walked some more through the streets where the sun doesn’t shine for more then 20 minutes on them… the streets that is. 

Which is kinda strange because there is a lot of trash on the streets… it just seems to multiple and grow… I guess you don’t need that much sun in New York to make things grow. Because the people multiple like crazy there too… 

Five o’clock rush hour walking is one wild adventure….

We were heading for the train at this particular time and I discovered people walk all over the place. This is actually more fun then the walk in Chicago… it adds a little excitement. There is no right side walk one way, left side walk the other way…

I think this is in fact a good idea. It breaks up the same old, same old feeling you would get everyday walking to work. You can run into people left and right…  I actually think I had an unfair advantage due to my resent crit racing. I think I was able to avoid more individuals on average.

In fact if you are having trouble with your crit riding this is a great place to begin…  If you can corner in crowds like this, you will surely be able to corner in crits. And you will get used to the feeling of rubbing shoulders with people so if this happens to happen while crit riding
1)    you won’t be so nervous 
2)    Hopefully you won’t get yelled at by your fellow bike racer, unless you really like to…
3)    And you won’t get the road rash you otherwise might get from visiting the ground… T

here are many other reasons too, but that is all for right now… 

So like you, I also really want to be on the Today Show, but we just didn’t make it down there in time… dang. I guess I am going to have to return someday… I also didn’t see the statue of Liberty so am still not entirely sure it really exsists because the few times I have flown over this particular city I haven’t seen her either.  That’s it on New York other then the pictures I took, which I can’t put up because my computer is still sicker then a dog… 

There is some training schedule in today for Bermuda, but I think I am going to have to be flexable with my plans because if it is raining outside I sure as heck am not going to go lay out by the pool and swim. Well maybe swim, but not lay out in the rain… true you can get tan even when clouds are out, but who wants to lay in the rain… 

Alright time for a ride, hopefully not in to much rain and a movie in a bit… Then we (Laura, Laura (already there) Rachel, Katharine, Mike, Chris, Kim, and me as in I) are off to New York and from there I go to Canada for a week….. wahoo   

:)Chrissy   

ps.. good luck to all the National team girls going to Holland… watch out for the lawn funiture, wind, and ”punching” neutral section at the start of the race      

I didn’t mean to put this up…. but since I did… don’t forget to scrub in the shower

First I must mention that the dates and times of this post have occurred over many days now… I start one then something else comes up and I don’t finish them so right now I am going to try, key word try to finish the post…

Today was the national criterium championships for the stars and strips jersey here in the Downer Grove area where the trains run wild and the ladies and men go around curbs for hours at a time… We (being all the girls) almost started off the action winding and grinding for just over an hour where former speed skater Theresa Cliff-Ryan won, followed by many more individuals… The race was aggressive from the gun or whistle, I am not really sure which, but there was a lot of action in the pack. Rounding the last corner there was a bit of Ker-fuffle, but with or without the ker-fuffle on Sunday, biking can always be a little harry and scary… Thank goodness we all shave our legs

K, now that was 2 days ago. I started writing about this and that and then Chris wanted his computer so I didn’t ever finish… that is until right now. I am sad to announce my computer is still sick and not up to working so I can’t put any pictures up. There is still some hope for it… I am encouraging it to work.

So anyways we circled around many curbs yesterday to Barto, PA where we will be until Saturday. After Saturday we will be jumping in the van for a ride to New York, the state, not the city to race the Chris Thater Criterium where we will again be making circles riding the same block or two a number of different times…

But really if you think about it you never really ride the same loop the same way the whole time… different lines, different places… heck even some people bounce off different people each lap.

Today we (Laura, Katharine, and I) are riding into the small town where Kirsten lives to eat some spinach since that seems to be all I eat now a days trying to get my iron back to normal… and drink some coffee and talk about this and that before she heads to CehNehDeh…  

That was now yesterday and I am now on today which brings me to….

Then last night Laura and Katharine spun around in circles on the track until someone decide the swing down the track on top of Katharine taking her out…. I agree it is fun to swing up and down, more so on actual swings then the track. Which brings me to my first and next point… didn’t anyone tell you not to jump and land on people while you were swinging on the swings at school. I would have to say the same applies to the track. I guess she didn’t play on the swings much in school… (not Katharine, the girl that swung down on her)

Which I guess they should add to the requirements before racing on the track… swing practice. That would eliminate some of the crashes really… I think it would.

Alright it is time for me to eat breakfast before I bonk from not eating… not that I do that, not eat

Have a good day

:)Chrissy

ps…. I forgot to mention about the water balloons… I think water balloons could go in your jersey pockets, but I like to put my food there so I would say the front of your jersey is a good spot.

I think the key is to keep the jersey slightly open so you can either grab a balloon out of your jersey to lanch it or catch the balloon and put it away fast so you can still win the sprint to the trees…

We didn’t end up having any practice on our next group ride almost a week ago…

pss… I am sure there are even more spelling errors then usual on this one cause I haven’t look through it, not that I really ever do.

psss…. remember all the dates and times are not right on this post

There has been a lot happening in the past few days… for one some lady took vaseline on the airplane from London to Washington DC or actually I think Boston causing great havick and Kay-oss. But causing even more havick and kay-oss then that is the fact that my computer has resently become very sick… oh yes this in fact true and sad. It just can’t get past the window part… I have tried everything from turning it upside down, shaking it, pressing countless buttons, and talking to it. Nothing seems to work, but I am still hopeful it will return…

We are still in the windy city where it isn’t that windy and way back when around last weekend Rachel won the first day of U-turn racing in the Chicago area where the boys won so much money I heard it was hard for them to fit it all in their pockets… Thank goodness we didn’t make that much because we had no problem putting the money in our pockets. I was actually almost able to buy a box of cookies instead of just one. Just kidding I was able to buy a box of cookies… please we made a tad more then that…

Then yesterday we went on a group ride with a bunch of guys on cratered roads where we flew through stop lights, down center lanes, around corners into the wrong lane, and over some railroad tracks all at mock speeds. We (being Laura, Laura, Lauren, Rachel, Katharine, Brenda, and me) didn’t know it was the “hammer” fest and forgot our hammers at home. Needless to say we hung and even dodged the one water balloon launched at the group from a car… yes this is in fact true. And all I have to say about that is JERK!!! Geeze… I can’t believe some one wanted to play water balloon toss with us at that time… It is hard enough trying to sprint for trees let alone ketch a water balloon without even knowing it is coming…

BUT I am preparing for our group ride tonight… I am about to head to the store to buy some balloons and fill them with water. I have to see if Katharine or Rachel want to practice too, otherwise I have to just throw them up in the air and try to ketch them…

Either way… I am going to be ready for the ride tonight.

Well that is about all that has been occurring in the windy city which was named not because of the wind but because it was built so fast… true really. Thats what a map that we bought said… oh yes we went into the city on the train too the other day and walked for hours… It was almost awesome…

Alright until later, Have a good day doing whatever you are doing today

:) YssirhC spelled backward

ps… Happy Birthday Kele on the 15th!!! I knew how many people would wish you a happy birthday on your birthday so I wanted to wait a couple days!!!

We are off to the windy city of Chicago today… as of right now we are all sitting around drinking, not drinking drinking… just drinking… This is mainly because as you may or may not have heard you are not allowed to bring drinks through the security region anymore…

If I were a store in an airport I know what I would start selling ASAP if I didn’t already sell it… drinks. And after how long it is probably going to take to get through security I know what else I would have on hang to calm the nerves of all those people who missed their flight, or heck even the ones who have some time to kill… well gum for the youngsters, actually I like chewing gum too…

Anyways, in the windy city I guess our circular multiple lap race tomorrow has a bunch of U-turns in it… I have been perfecting my U-turn, something many people don’t work on, but really should… in fact I don’t know why they don’t put more U-turns in races.

I love the felling of the wind blowing through my hair at mock speeds down a straight away only to pull on the levers in front to come to an almost complete stop, followed by a skid here and there, and then the track stand start to get back up to mock speeds again.

The other day, not yesterday, but before that we went on a pretty long ride here in Asheville. Now I am not really thinking about doing cyclo-cross, but if I ever did… I got some good practice in today. We were just riding along and bam… we ran into a course set up just for us…

It went a lot like this…

Mike in the lead after bounding over the creek…

Brenda getting ready for her attempt waiting for…

Them to finish… them being Laura, Rachel, and Ryan… please note Mike running off in the distance and even further in the distance a bathroom set up on course for us to use if we need it… Maybe someone should suggest this for some of the women’s races…

And still continueing the journey…

Over the creek or crick and through the ditch…

This creek… I think

And Brenda demonstrating just how large the wall was we had to get up and over… (picture coming soon… it just up and vanished)…

followed by the rock climbing… with a little hip hip hera cheer with the left arm…

mud and water…

AND oh yes success with a cool background off to the left… not right… not the tractor… the hills

Then after that we rode some more pedaling and what not until we got to the top of this gigantic hill where..

Mike ate a honey stinger gue…

AND we saw…

That and…

This and…
went through this to see…

Darkness and the light at the end of the tunnel…

And when that was all finished… said and done the next day it was Laura’s Birthday…

Happy Birthday yesterday!!!! Laura

So we took her out to breakfast and

cover her eyes… but when no one was looking

She (being Laura) peeked…

And this is a lake we went by too that I thought was cool…

Then last night when it was storming outside we ate dinner on the porch… he is what it looked like

sweet indeed…

And lastly Ryan… ready to help spiderman or superman if need be

Alright that is all for now cause we are leaving in four minutes and I have to go run through the house and make sure I have everything…

Have a good day today,

:)Chrissy

But before spinning around on pavement we (being Rachel, Mike… yes Mike is riding now, yes our director Mike…, Lauren, Brenda, and I) stopped by the bakery to get cinnamon buns to help support our buns on the bike. Also due to the law of inertia we want to allow ourselves to be able to get maximum speed and maintain that maximum speed in the next few races we have and since there are little to no hills left to climb this year we will be set…

In fact we mostly have crits left and for the most part you go around in circles for an hour, give or take a few minutes. And have you ever seen a big ball going around in a circle with some speed… it is hard to stop.

Although the other day we went and played some frisbee golf… it went a lot like this…

oh but first I must tell you about spinning around on pavement… that is the second thing I did. Really all that consisted of was riding around the track here for a long time trying not to get dizzy while sprinting… Thats all, nothing like break dancing or anything

Anyways,

Frisbee Golf…

Began with some

basket tossing followed by

frisbee gathering… high fives… tossing… high fives… throwing… slinging… more high fives..

AND

jungle exploring… masquitoe bitting… weed wacking…

AND

super sliding at the bottom of the hill after chasing my frisbee down the hill only because the backet moved on me at the last second causing me to miss it…

then the two champions…

still playing and playing and playing…

oh yes 18 holes!! That was a definate first for me… oh no I only made about 11 out of the 18 holes… but that beats my new 7 maximum hole record…

Alright we are here until we leave for the windy city on Friday were we will continue our circular motion racing…

Have a good night and day,

:)Chrissy

ps… Grasshopers live in grass and bark chips not pants and shammies

pss… Thanks for the job advise, but I don’t really think card making is my calling

psss… I am not 32 and I do not have 2 kids… I don’t even own a dog that is mine, although Phil thinks it is a good idea I am still not sure… about the dog, the dog

We are here still in Asheville getting ready for our departure to Charlette hanging out in the AC cause it is way to hot to be outside hanging with this guy…

AND for the last few days this is what we (being Lauren, Rachel, Brenda, Katharine, Mike, Chris, Laura, and Ryan) have been up too… RIGHT HERE

Cheers,

:) ME

Yep, that is right… for the rest of the season we have crits and more crits so we better get ready for them. AND you probably want to do the same thing…

Right now we are here North of South Carolina in the other state of Carolina. Which makes me realize: At the time of state naming someone couldn’t think of another name for the 2nd state so they just decided to name one North and one South… I guess the same thing happened to the Dakota’s too. Thank goodness that didn’t happen when Jenny and I were born or one may have been called Older Jenny and One younger Jenny… since Jenny was the first one I am guessing they would have used her name and she would have been Older Jenny.

Anyways, we are here in Asheville, NC hanging out until we go to the Bank of America to race around in circles. Actually at this race there is a divider in the middle of the street so the front group of racers can give high fives to the racers off the back… I am just saying if that happens, that could happen.

BUT here, the past few days it has been hotter then hot here and for some reason we keep waiting for it to get hot to ride. Plans of riding early always gets pushed back and back some more for really no reason other then that is action of the day and if you start the action of the day to early then what are you going to do the rest of the day?? Exactly!!

Like I was saying, I think before we leave tomorrow I am going to go rent Donkey Cong… I think it will help with my crit skills. This is because every time I do a crit that Dave is at he says it is on like Donkey Cong… and if it is on like Donkey Cong I want to be ready.

Yep that’s right the key to making bank this weekend at the Bank of America is renting Donkey Cong. I better head out before all the copies are gone…

Hope you find a copy of Donkey Cong too and tear it up in the crit. Also don’t forget to practice you high fives for the race…

Yes, yes my camera is still working. I just haven’t downloaded them which means I can’t upload them.

There are a lot of cool pictures on the Internet that you can look at though…

Later Gator,

:) Me

ps… the spacing makes it look like I wrote more so I added that for today

pss… Cong may in fact be spelled Kong