Race Day T-Shirts!

This is the design for the RideOn team race day t-shirt for 2012 (I realize this is not the best quality, but you get the idea):

Each shirt is $10 and you can either get a pink or grey shirt. If you are interested (who wouldn't be?), send an e-mail to SAARideOn@gmail.com with the following information:

-Name
-Size (XS, S, M, L, XL or XXL for $2 more)
-Shirt Color

Orders must be placed no later than Tuesday, April 3rd by midnight. Payment will be due when you pick up you order. The date of pick-up is TBA and we will send you an e-mail about how that will work. Anyone can order a shirt so be sure to spread the word!

Can't wait to see you all in you're awesome RideOn gear at the Race on April 20th at 7:00 pm!

Pre-Quals!

QUALS ARE THIS WEEKEND and everyone is buzzing with anticipation, nerves, excitement and a little bit of fear. We have been working hard for months, and all will be put to the test at 10:50am on Saturday.

Quals is a nerve-wracking event, to say the least. All eyes are on you as you take the track, and although all it takes it four short laps and some clean exchanges, something we've all done zillions of times, the pressure is on as the fate of the rest of our team's Little 500 season rests on your shoulders.

On race day, a botched exchange may cost you to lose a pack or drop a few seconds behind, but there are countless other chances to make up for that one mistake. During Quals, it's do or die.

I'm scaring myself as I type this...YIKES QUALS!!

Last night our team was given the opportunity to do a practice Quals run. This was our only chance to get a preview for what Saturday would feel like; the track was all ours, the lines were drawn in the cinder, and Jordan Bailey announced from the press box.

We had spent most of track practice yesterday doing exchanges and almost-full-speed Quals runs, and were feeling good and ready to go.

Kelsey nervously chattered away about anything and everything, Mary did some pre-race jumping and stretching, and I tried to magically speed up the digestion of the Jimmy Johns sub that was sitting freshly in my stomach. Finally it was our turn, so we took the track.

I started us off with the pace lap, and all I could think was "Holy crap, am I going the right speed? Why am I going so slow? What am I supposed to do???" I had to remind myself that it was just another lap on the very familiar track, and everything would be fine. I rounded turn 3 and started to pick up my pace, and as I crossed the start line, the stopwatch started.

My mind was blank as my legs pounded out the quarter mile. Next thing I knew, it was time to exchange. Mary was set up just as she always was in practice, and I was going to bring the bike into her, as per the usual.

That's where things started to get messy.

For some reason, our exchange failed. I came in hot and a little too far outside, and we just didn't click. Mary went down pretty hard, but gathered herself back up like a champ and hopped on the bike to ride her lap.

Okay, good, we got the bad exchange out of the way, we can still recover this.

Mary sped through her lap, and brought and exchange in to Kelsey. Unlike the millions of beautiful exchanges before, this one didn't click either. Mary and Kelsey both took dives to the ground, and our bike flew through the air past them.

We were done.

A few minutes at the First Aid station, some deep breaths and a few bandaids later, we exited the track, Quals run unfinished, and took a seat in the bleachers to recap what had happened. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that mulling over the video footage of our falls, breaking down every second of what had just happened, and replaying it over and over in our minds was not going to get us anywhere.

We all know how to do exchanges. We all know how to ride our bikes fast. Everything will work out. Thank goodness we had last night's practice run to get all of our mistakes out of the way. We have two more days at the track to fine-tune out performance before it's show time.

I'm 100% confident in our abilities, and can't wait to see how everything and everyone turns out on Saturday! It's an exciting day for EVERYONE, and hopefully we'll have the Hoosier victory over Kentucky on Friday night fueling us toward a victory of our own (knock on wood)!

See you at 10:50am at the track!!

Quarries Ride!

This week we've been so busy riding our bikes we've forgotten to blog! So coming up will be some updates on the rides we've gone on and the tan-lines we've developed!!

On Monday morning, Helen, Mary, and myself decided to go on a nice road ride toward the quarries south of town. First, we headed past Bloomington South High School and out Fairfax Road. We rode to the back of a neighborhood and parked our bikes at the edge of the woods. With Helen as our tour-guide/camp counselor we took a quick hike to the quarries that starred in the film Breaking Away. The day was beautiful and there were few clouds in the sky, so resting on the rocks overlooking the quarries was both relaxing and breathtaking.


After taking in the quarries for a while and thinking that this would be a lovely place to have a picnic at, we decided to head back out for the road. Heading out further toward Lake Monroe we came upon Ned's Sculptures (more details about Ned's fabulous art here) a lot filled with many colorful fiberglass animals. Of course we had to stop and take some pictures! Mary posed with the gorilla, Helen found a nice giraffe to hide under, and I posed with a lovely elephant. Ned offered to sell us some animals, but unfortunately we hadn't brought our bike trailers and could not tow any back :(


Jumping back on our bikes we finished our outward journey to Lake Monroe and took in the calm of this beautiful spring day at the lake. Anyone who has been out to the Fairfax State Recreation Area knows that heading into Lake Monroe is a pleasant descent, but heading away from the lake is a steady climb. While the climb wasn't fun, it was made easier by the rest we had just had and we all successfully made it back to the main part of Fairfax Road. The rolling hills we encountered the rest of the way back, with temperatures climbing into the mid-70s completed a perfect Spring Break day in Bloomington!

Reasons to stay in Bloomington during Spring Break

1) Track is open for 8 hours a day!!
Because of the limited track times, many riders miss the chance to ride on the
track due to class, work, and etc. With the extended track times, we will be able
to spend lots of time on the track!

2) We can have unlimited number of
riders! Usually, we are only allowed to have two riders at a time on the track (except
Laura Bliss, who is on Riders Council). We will have an opportunity to ride in
a pace line as a team, and avoid trainers/rollers while waiting for turns.

3) Exchanges, exchanges, exchanges! The
Qualification is the Saturday after spring break, and being able to practice exchanges
on the cinder track is a huge advantage.

4) Save money and save time! We won’t
have to drive 10+ hours back and forth with $4/gallon gas price. Plus,
Bloomington has been warm enough that there is no reason to travel for warm
weather.

5) Bike tan lines which are 100 times
cooler than swimsuit tan lines.

6) Bloomington is awesome when everyone gone! No
traffic, no crowded restaurants, and etc.

7) No extra 5 pounds from excessive
drinking for a week!

Please add to the list, this is all I can think of right now!

Not much to say... but in a good way!

This website shows an inside look to how crazy some cyclist can get! Many cyclists feel that an image must be upheld while on a bike, and while I somewhat agree, sometimes I like wearing zany socks that don't match my kit.

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

Anyway, this particular blog post got my particular mind in quite the whirlwind before my ride this afternoon. More specifically, the particular number six (which is also my favorite number) sparked the windy-whirl in my head.

Rule #6 // Free your mind and your legs will follow.

Your mind is your worst enemy. Do all your thinking before you start riding your bike. Once the pedals start to turn, wrap yourself in the sensations of the ride – the smell of the air, the sound of the tires, the feeling of flight as the bicycle rolls over the road.

Why is it that I ride? What enjoyment do I get from spinning 110 rotations per minute across terrible backroads for hours at a time? I think it's the escape from my real life. Homework, clubs, jobs, bills, parking tickets, grocery shopping, bad dreams, good dreams, pink eye, muscle soreness; when I'm on a bike, those things don't matter. All that matters is the smell of cows' waste in the pastures, climbing up that next hill, and knowing there are more exhausting hills coming soon.

Cycling is a one-[wo]man game. It's about pushing yourself and knowing that you can always go a little harder.

You Might Be a Rookie If...

1. You don’t know where the Wilcox house is.

2. You have to ask someone where Bill Armstrong Stadium is.

3. You show up your first day in sweatpants

4. You also show up the first day with no bike shorts and immediately feel remorse for your private parts

5. No one knows your name so they yell “hey you! You in the yellow!”

6. You think jumping on a bike is going to somehow render your Valentine’s Day null.

7. Your bike is from 2002- and you’re still freakin’ lovin’ it like Schwinn just sent it to you brand spankin’ new.

8. You are afraid to go over the speed of 5 mph

9. Skidding during breaking isn’t even an option- You are no way in hell going fast enough for that.

10. You wear something white to the track- jacket, pants, gloves, etc (this being because you don’t think about getting dirty in the cinder)

11. You don’t even know what cinder is.

12. Hearing how to get cinder out of your leg for the first time is the most shocking and intimidating thing you’ve ever heard.

13. You wear underwear with your bike shorts.

14. You don’t know who won the Little 500 the year before.

15. You don’t know what it means to drop a chain.

16. You have no idea what to do when you drop your chain (after you find what it means)

17. You’re still hesitant to do any kind of work to your bike for fear of getting oil all over your newly manicured hands.

18.  Pack riding means that you are riding at LEAST five feet away from each and every other rider in the “pack”

19. Rider’s Council yells at you to “GET OFF THE BIKE!!!” when practicing exchanges

20. Rollers are the scariest stationary apparatus you’ve ever laid your eyes on (or laid your body on after falling for the 1,000^th time.)

21. You take it personally when someone yells at you on the track (while they’re actually only trying not to hit you as they are trying to pull off)

22. You only speak to your teammates- all of the other riders are the still enemy

23. You wear your $150 Ray Bans to the track

24. You would rather look cute than be warm

25. You don’t know what the Cascades are (or Bryan Park, old 36, 446, or Musgrave Orchard)

26. You are shocked when you hear other teams have been riding together since August.

27. You didn’t know there were teams that AREN’T Greek (this only applies to rookies in a house)

28. “Little 5 bikes don’t have different gears?” Comes out of your mouth

29. The thought of missing the seat crosses your mind while jumping on and you end up making it much worse by crashing and burning anyway.

30. You still have a shock value when you see certain teams take their jersey off at any available moment, only to be wearing their bibs and sports bras… -__-

31. You’re sore after day one at the track.

32. You are surprised to hear that there are other events during the year other than the actual race- Like whaaaaat?

33. You’re a little worried to take your test on the IUSF website.

34. You don’t know how to get to the Little5 website

35. You don’t know what IUSF is….

36. You didn’t know that the IU Soccer field is in the middle of Bill Armstrong Stadium

37. You ride backwards on the track

38. You’re embarrassed to yell out what you’re doing (exchange in turn blah blah, pulling off, etc etc)

39. You think that your daily salad intake will be sufficient enough to support your worn out body during Little 500 season. (Someone get that girl a chicken breast)

40. One of the most important memories of your life to date is putting on your team’s kit for the first time.

41. You don’t know that a trainer is something you put your bike on inside instead of an overly, juiced-up, ex-army sergeant yelling at you to do ten more sit ups

42. Your team has already told you what teams to make sure you look at during Rookie Week (obviously so they are all reassured that they have the best rookies on the track)

43. Early, late , late, early, late, rotation, late, early, (text someone to double check you’re the late) early, early, rotate…. Is constantly going through your head so you know you don’t miss your practice when someone asks you to go do something

44. You have no idea how in the HELL to use your clips and you finally learn how to use them and someone tells you that you aren’t allowed to use them on the track. WTF

45. You fall for the first time and you’re more concerned about yourself than your teammate or Heaven forbid your bike (you know, the thing that HAS TO stay together in perfect condition for you to win the race that you’ve been training for all year)

46. Rain and snow now mean that you will be riding in the rain and mud all afternoon. It no longer gets you excited to wear your sweet new Hunter rainboots.

47. Sunshine is the determining factor to whether or not you will be able to feel your face that day.

48. You don’t realize that you are going to have helmet hair after practice so you don’t bring a hat to wear to your class that you have immediately afterwards… There goes your chance with that hot guy in your W131 class… damn you helmet hair…

49.You’re worried about the tan lines you are going to get from your bike shorts, jersey, track injuries, etc. for Spring Break

50.You have a loss for words when the vets on your team tell you that you have to stop drinking at a certain point and you immediately think three things:

a. Don’t I go to IU?

c. How will I survive?

b. Oh well, I guess I can get really drunk really fast come April 21^st. BRING ON THE KARKOVVVVV

A Season Opener

There are a lot of great things that come with Spring. Flowers, warm weather, Spring Break, and the ever present longing for Summer becomes even more existent. For some of us, it brings Little 500 season. Feeling the cinder crunch under your (more than likely) worn in tennis shoes for the first time feels better than finally getting that green “correct” picture on your Webwork after spending tireless hours on just one problem. What may feel even better than that is when you take your first lap, you finally get up to speed through turn two, and you feel the tiny black sand-like rocks move under the weight of you and your fixed-gear bike. Then you hear, “On your wheel!” “Overlapping left!” “Inside! Inside!” “Exchange in turn one!” And you quickly snap out of your dream-like state and remember you have to come out of your bike-coma and make sure you don’t crash the whole pack of riders racing around you.

The cold air is hitting your face and making your eyes water so that your tears are going straight back into your hairline and you start thinking about pulling out of the pack. You take five more laps, because you just don’t want to stop peddling. Finally, when your face is numb, your esophagus burns, and you just can’t sniffle anymore, you get to the outside, pull off, and catch some cold air where you hoped you would find your breath. You look up and see the pack racing on the back stretch and you tell yourself that you shouldn’t have pulled off- you could have gone at least another five laps. You can’t feel your face anyways right?

Wait until the pack has cleared and you mesh back in, just as if you had never gone to the pits. Bike-Coma again. You hear the people yelling around you and you snap back into the river-like flow that you had just left on your bike-of-a-raft. Turn three comes in fast and the tears are flying back just as fast as they were before, but this time you do the best you can to wipe them off with your padded glove because this time, you’re going those extra five laps- and probably more. “Inside! Inside!” escapes your mouth as you move ahead to the front of the pack where the wind is going to hit you harder, but you don’t care. Sometimes tears come with hard work, and that doesn’t mean they always come from grief, but also from the joy in success.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is nostalgia.