Cece and the Hissing Swan!!

Now that the weather is getting warmer, Cece is back to her early morning rides!    She arrived along the bosque at 6:15 am with her bike and her gear.  She pulled into the Open Space and was immediately stopped behind a car.  She looked and saw a man who was unlocking a gate.  She has been to this spot many times, but as early as she has been here, she has not seen a locked gate that would prevent entrance.  She rolled down her window and asked the man about the gate and what time generally it would be unlocked each day.  Actually he was early this morning.  He usually unlocks at 6:45!  He explained that kids had been partying there at night so they lock the gate to keep the party cars out.
The Alameda Open Space is  under renovation.  They did the trail now they are working on parking.  The bull dozers are out and they are flattening the earth.  Cece hopes that they will make a huge parking lot. Currently only about 1/3 of the people that used to park there can park there now.

In the meantime, they have moved the porta pottys to along the trail and now they are slanted down hill.  Cece feels that she has to hold on for dear life when she is in there…especially in slippery cleats…..but she remembers how much worse it was in a porta potty in Moab during the Century tour when one was precariously perched on a hill overlooking the river and when you shifted, so too did the porta potty…so in the long run, she is very thankful for just a down hill slant!  Ahhhh! The things we have to worry about!

Anyway,off Cece went along her beloved bosque trail.  She smelled the freshness of the earth and the wildflowers along the way, she greeted many animals…was blessed by a road runner .and she stopped to take in the beauty of water in the desert at Tingley Beach.  As she walked her bicycle and herself in, she saw many geese and swans.  A very large swan was right near her. As she walked by, Cece said “Good Morning Miss Swan…you are so pretty!”  Well, Cece had no idea that swans were mean!  This huge swan opened its big mouth and she saw tongue!  Not only that. but that tongue hissed at her!  Not only that, but the swan lunged at her….Cece was being nice….she was cordial….she was friendly…..Who knew that swans hiss?  She was very intimidated by this sudden behavior.  In retrospect and having searched about hissing swans, Cece realizes that this is very common when they feel threatened….maybe it was the wheels!
Here is a You Tube, you might enjoy about swans that hiss.

She thinks she is traumatized for life!
Even given the hissing swans, Cece had a wonderful ride in the great outdoors!

Please Check In!

Every now and then, Cece gets a certain  type of email from her women's cycling club Women Riding Well.  The email makes Cece's heart skip a beat. The email Cece got this past Thursday morning began like this:

"This morning a cyclist was killed on Tramway.  Please send us an email and let us know that you are ok."

This is the dreaded  email.  It make Cece think of how dangerous cycling can be and it also makes her worry that one of her friends...or someone that she does not even know has been killed by a car while cycling.  In
the case this past Thursday, a car seems to have jumped the median and hit the cyclist.

Cece and her friends have attended several ghost bike memorials.  A ghost bike is a bike that is placed at or near the crash site to honor the slain cyclist.

"Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in over 150 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed."

Albuquerque has several of these memorials around town....and several.... is several too many.

The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

A few months ago, Cece was given a huge 600 page book with the above named title by Siddartha Mukherjee.  Cece discovered the other day, that he has won the Pulitzer prize for writing this book!  So, when she was asked to give a talk to the Leukemia Lymphoma's cycling team on Saturday, she immediately thought she might talk about this book.

Honestly, the book was overwhelming, emotional and very medical, and she was unable to finish it, but still it was one of the most fascinating books she has read in a long while....for the sheer fact that it informed her about where the field of cancer research has come from...all the way back to discovering tumors of cancer in Egyptian mummies!

This team in front of her and the ones she has ridden on in the past, are all  raising money to fund blood cancer research and leukemia was the predominate cancer in the book.  Cece wanted the team to hear about this book so they could "make real"  the efforts that the raising of money to fund research and their efforts on the bike were realizing!

As she looked to her right, as she spoke to the team, she saw THIS man, nodding his head in understanding.    This is Dr. Clark Haskins who is an oncologist here in Albuquerque.  He is one of the beloved  Dr.s that rides with the cycling team and is in the trenches every day treating people with cancer.  At a rest area, Cece commented on his "bones" cycling jersey and he replied, "You should have seen me on Cinco De Mayo!  I had on a big sombrero and a serape and I was all decked out."  Cece said, I bet you got people laughing."

He stated, "I have to make people  laugh!"

Loving Our Wheels!

Cece was out today being the support vehicle for Team in Training as they trained for their upcoming century in Lake Tahoe.  At a rest stop at the top of a long climb, she met these little boys and their sister and Cece thought, "Is this how we learned to love wheels?" 

The kids were fascinated by the bikes that came into the rest stop.  When they had a moment and stopped playing with THEIR wheels, they told Cece that they could pop wheelies and ride with no hands....ah the making of a cyclist begins to take form!

A Girl With Wheels!

On this beautiful clear Saturday morning before Easter, Cece, set off to revisit her beloved Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, New Mexico.   She has actually been waiting all winter for this visit and she chose the most perfect day to do so.  The path had been re-paved over the later winter into early spring and she thought immediately about a post she had read by the Fat Cyclist called "Fatty's Inferno"  Fatty had a dream that he ended up in cycling hell  and had to choose certain paths with various  road surfaces.   Here is a short excerpt:

“This is amazing,” I said. “This is the most incredible pavement I have ever seen, much less ridden on.”
“And you shall never ride its equal again. This place has the best riding surface in the entire universe.”
“But I’m confused,” I said, with a confused look on my face. “You told me before that I was in hell, and then you take me on a place I’d gladly ride in for eternity. I can see there are long flats, curvy roads, challenging climbs, and fun descents. The road’s perfect and so is the weather. Everyone looks incredibly happy. How can you possibly call this ‘hell’?”

Cece would find that out later....but anyway, as she  was enthralled by the perfect pavement, she cruised along and got reacquainted with the land.  She was spinning away not concerned about much. She watched the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners grace by as they trained at altitude.  She watched the river glide by.  She was not trying to go fast or working on any of her skills...she just rode along and appreciated the earth!  It occurred to her that this is the zen of cycling....just going along effortlessly so that you felt you were not even moving at all....very still, very quiet...

She arrived at Tingley beach and took notice to see any changes since she had last been here...her favorite little train was in place,

the birds, the men fishing with their sons...check...all was in its place.

But then, in the silence, you know,......there is never a dull moment.  A man cycled by, "Are you the race official?" he asked Cece. "No," she replied, What race?"   "There is a triathlon along this course and they will be coming by at any moment.  I thought you were a race official."  Cece rode a bit farther along the path and was stopped by guess who?  The race official. She was told that she better go back north and try to out run the triathlon because after their run south, they were cycling north all the way to the Montano.

Off Cece rode, scurrying north to try to out run the triathletes.  She made it,  but ended up in a pile of runners from who knows where,...she thought she was in a crowd in Grand Central Station.  Runners going north and  south taking up the entire heavenly pavement...maybe this was the hell that Fatty mentioned?  She shouted  'Bike back, going North" and hoped the sea of runners would part....she  slowed to a crawl.  Where did all these runners come from?  The triathlon was the other direction.  No one had race numbers on.  Whew!  She made it without incident.

She crossed under a tunnel on a blind turn and all of a sudden she saw a cyclist coming at her looking over his shoulder  in the opposite direction......he was barreling right for her....no where to escape...only tunnel on one side, river on the other, She shouted " HEY<> HEY HEY" and the guy snapped out of it just in time to swerve and almost end up in the river himself.  Too close for comfort.

The day started out so quietly!  So restful.....well, she finally made it in one piece back to the Alameda open space parking lot.....and met friends and petted dogs and met a cute army paratrooper guy  who had just run 8 miles....and was a newbie cyclist...he said, "If you see me on the trail again, don't pass me by!"

Oh!  She won't!

Wind and Cycling. The Wicked Witch of the West Weather!

Do you remember that picture of the Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Gulch) cycling in the midst of the beginnings of the Tornado? Later she appeared in the midst of the tornado at Dorothy's window screaming out her scary cackle?  Then.... add in the witchy music that became her signature sound!  Cycling and the Wind!  URGH!

Well, the winds today in Albuquerque have reminded Cece of  this scene from The Wizard of Oz!  It is spring in Albuquerque and that means allergies and tremendous winds that spread dirt and pollen everywhere!  Yes! Everywhere.  You can look out your window and all you see is dark amber colored air because the adobe dirt has infiltrated the clean air....dirt is flying and grit can get in every open orifice!  Not a pleasant picture of mostly scenic and bucolic Albuquerque...but the first time you even unexpectedly get sand  your teeth or in your ears, you will stay indoors from then on in these conditions.

And so it was the Cece lamented not being on her bike on this warm, but too windy day for cyclists.  She even saw a car with a bike on its carrier on top of the car and she wondered if it would blow off! 

Well, good thing she still has her date with Troy Jacobson...he is so faithful!  Irregardless of the weather, he appears on her DVD saying "push ,push push." some things never fail!

The Master of Cycle and Fit comes to Women Riding Well!

If you live in Albuquerque and you cycle, it is likely that you know or know of.... Matt Caruso.  Cece calls him the guru of mechanics and fit.    She will never forget the first day they met.....she went to his shop called Caruso Cycle Works , and brought her 27 pound Colgnao , "Yellow Bird" with her.  The bike was given to her and it was way too big for her. She was also a brand new cyclist at the time. She was told if any one could fix the bike to fit her, it would be Matt.

Up, up , up the steep hills she went thinking nothing of it since she was driving her car.  She got out near the top and there was Matt's shop.  He set her up on a trainer and with his back to her working at his bench, he said, "OH!  Do you have a right knee injury?  I can hear the difference in your pedaling."  Well of course Cece did have a knee injury to that knee!  But on top of that remark, when he was finished fitting her on the bike  he said, "I want to watch you go up and down this hill."  HUGH?  Climb THAT hill?  If Cece had only known... she might have picked a mechanic whose shop was on flat ground.

And so it came to pass that Cece would have another opportunity to learn about bike mechanics and fit from Matt.  On 3/19/11, he came to Sympatico Cycling Studio and Women Riding Well to give a bike clinic.  He brought along his  huge Park Tool box and his bike stand...which probably most of us could not have lifted!  He gave a hands on repair class that discussed the repair of many parts on the bike including cables, derailleurs, tires and how to trim if your chain is rubbing.  It was a 2+ hour class that was very interactive and interesting.
Thanks, Matt.  Now Cece is going to get on her bike!  Really!