The Cookie Ride

A couple of times each year, we travel to Fair Haven, NY for a laid-back 30 mile ride on the rail-trail. Fair Haven is located a bit west of Oswego on route 104A and is a charming little village located on one of Lake Ontario's bay shores. Due to the Memorial Day weekend, the Jeffina had put in a lot of saddle time and this ride seemed like the perfect recovery ride for this day. The rail-trail itself is home to many swampy and marshy areas which makes it a haven for mosquitoes, but also for other types of creatures, such as turtles, snakes, beavers, and an occasional wild turkey. The weather south of Syracuse was predicted to reach in the low 90's so we headed north towards the cooler waters of Lake Ontario and to keep our legs spinning. The best part of this ride is the Fly By Night Cookie Shop located right next door to the home of Jeff's good friend, Brandon. Brandon deserves a couple of sentences here because he was the one who introduced us and came to our wedding, as well. For quite a few years, Brandon and Jeff (who are about the same age) regularly duked it out during races and it was always a toss up who would beat the other on any given day. Today, though, we all embarked together for a fun ride with no competition and only friendly conversation based on all the years that we have known one another.

The ride itself was fairly uneventful, but afterwards, we commenced to enter the Fly By Night Cookie shop next door. As we did, we were all sharing with one another the type of cookie we wanted to purchase and take home. I am a fan (and great lover) of Bonnie's world famous "P.M.S." cookie. No, you don't have to be a woman to enjoy this cookie. You only have to love chocolate, more chocolate, topped off with mint icing. Jeff was more focused on other varieties and even picked up a loaf of homemade multi-grain bread made earlier in the day by the hand's of Brandon's partner.

After swarming the cookie store like a bunch of ravenous cyclists, we walked back to Brandon's place and basked in the sun sippinng on beer and water with lemon (for me) as we enjoyed the brisk lake breeze coming off the water's edge. Jeff and Brandon even tentatively planned a trip to the Kingdom Trails in Vermont later this summer and spoke of learning the banjo.

For anyone riding (or driving) to Fair Haven, this mystical little store is a must to see and the surrounding community is just as charming.

Tomorrow, we are headed to Rochester for another training race. I have a lot of miles in my legs and will definitely feel somewhat fatigued, but Jeff is riding great, feeling great, and looking to do well.

Enjoy the photos of the day.

Together, we are Jeffina, crakin' out the love, crankin' out the miles for Crankskins.com.

Memorial Day Memories

The root of memorial is "memory" or "remembering" and for this reason, this particular post will be about racing/biking memories of years past. I am always fond of Memorial Day because it is the official start of summer and living in the north east, summer cannot come soon enough for me. I was born and raised in West Virgina and my internal clock tells me that spring should arrive in late March and summer should be here by early May. However, in the northeast, this is not the case and by the time that Memorial Day comes, I expect warm weather. We are fortunate that this is the case this weekend.

Years ago, Memorial Day usually entailed my running of the Elby's 20k Distance Race in my hometown. I started running as a young girl and by the time I was 12 y.o., I was running 10k, 15k, and 20k races. The Elby's distance race itself was followed by an awards bangquet and for the next few days as I recovered, we attended family picnics. My brother, Chris, (See follower's below) and I were always invited to my step-mother's sister's house for a picnic. Often times, Chris and I would ride our bikes (yes, after running a 20k race) to this picnic. Living in WV, one could imagine that there are big hills, mountains, and a general undulation of the topography. Chris and I would ride our bikes to this picnic, hang out for a few hours, and ride our bikes home. It was always a race, always competition between us. In many ways, I credit my brother with my drive to compete, race, and do well. I was the little sister always trying to keep up with my big brother.

By the time I started cycling at 20 y.o., Memorial Day usually meant a 3-day block of racing. As an undergraduate student, I often traveled to Dayton, OH for a couple days of crit racing. Later, I would go to Canada for an afternoon crit and head off to a stage race which started later that afternoon. I have fond memories of Dayton, OH. I would cram into a hotel room with several of my racing teammates, separate out the mattress from the box springs and we would spend the next few days racing, recovering, and eating. As an undergraduate, I always enrolled in summer courses (or took an overload during the regular semester) and I very quickly learned time management skills to fit in my training and studies. To this day, I must compartmentalize my time.

More recently, Memorial Day itself does not always consist of a race, but usually a good ride and a picnic, but I still attempt to chase down Jeff (which is nearly impossible) with the same fever that I would try to chase down my brother.

This year, Memorial Day leads us directly into the month of June and June is a very special time of year for the Jeffina. We met at the Raccoon Rally race eight years ago. We met through a mutual friend who had coordinated this weekend trip. I remember meeting Jeff for the first time thinking, "He's a really nice guy...." Then, after the race, Jeff and I walked around for a while and he bought me a hot dog for $1. Yes, we still laugh about this moment because there's a misnomer that men can buy a woman's heart with expensive gifts, but for me, when he opened his wallet and pulled out the dollar bill, I was thrilled. After the race weekend ended, I didn't talk to him for 3 weeks and doubt if I would've called him if it hadn't been for a freak bicycle accident. Jeff got hit by a car and I was informed through our mutual friend about this. I immediately called Jeff as a concerned fellow cyclist and during his time home recovering, we started to spend time together....the rest is history.

Today, we did a great 3 1/2 hour loop on our mountain bikes with good friend, Paul, from Endicott. The loop had a little bit of everything -- road, dirt road, double-track, single-track, and hike-a-bike sections with 3200 ft of climbing. It was awesome! My back held up and I'm finally putting in some saddle time, losing some weight, and hope to be in better shape for the next big race at Williams Lake.

The ivy of poison has once again invaded my body. Unlike last year where my legs got infected, I am trying my best to keep the area washed and using a topical spray. Let's hope it doesn't spread.....

On a non-cycling related issue, my book chapter came out about 2 weeks ago. The chapter was published in a book entitled, "Positive Peace: Reflections on Peace Education, Nonviolence, and Social Change." Look for my chapter to fall directly under 'social change.'

Together, we are Jeffina, crankin' out the miles, crankin' out the love for Crankskins.com.

1 – 1 of 1

Racing Round-Up and Other Good Things

Jeffina raced this past Sunday in Lagrangeville, NY in the H2H mountain bike series. We decided last year to try this series even though most of the races necessitate that we drive 3-3 1/2 hours one-way to compete. The level of competition is very high at these races and we felt that it was important for us to attend these races to raise our abilities. Last year, we did about 3-4 races of the series; this year, we are dedicated to this series, as well as to the NYS series.

The course was a 5.5 mile loop and the cat. 1 racers did 3 laps. We were pleased that the course was dry, in contrast to last year where there were sections that was a soupy mess. Living in the northeast tests our abilities as the weather and terrain are always so varied.

Jeff races in the singlespeed (SS) division which is an open division and in my mind, one of the most difficult. Yes, as the word implies, he uses one gear and before every race, he has to make a judgment about the cog/gear that he will use to compete. For those of you who have never done this, it is a true physical test. I've only done one single-speed race and had a blast, but this is Jeff's beast and he finds the challenge of this type of racing as a fall back to when he was a child and had a one-geared bike that he rode around the neighborhood. In the SS race, Jeff's well-respected friend, Brian, took the win and for Jeff personally, he was riding with another competitor and it came down to a sprint for 3rd or 4th place. Jeff has incredible leg speed, but his competition beat him into the final stretch of single track which forced Jeff at the end to attempt to come around him. Jeff lost 3rd place by 1/100th of a second. So far in the series, Jeff has a 3rd and 4th place finish.

By the time Jeff was picking up our bottles from our fabricated water station, I was coming down to the end of my race. I've had a slow start to my race season. During the winter, I was plagued with low back problems. I wasn't able to get in the training I needed and as school wraps up, I am starting to get in more saddle time, while being ever so cautious of protecting the back, which is a constant reminder every morning I wake up. Oh the joys of getting old.....I had a solid race and was riding with the top gals on the first lap. The downhill was pretty technical for me and I made a few bobbles which allowed Marianne to go around me. I was never able to close down the gap after that. On my last and final lap, Ellen passed me which means that I was now in 4th place. I knew that I was doing the best I could do. I was able to close the gap between myself and Ellen on the last part of the climb and knew I had to 'let it hang out' on the final descent. Ellen it such a great technical rider that I was certain that she'd be able to chase me down on the descent. Luckily, I held me own and was able to roll across the line in 3rd place. Great! So far, two 3rd place finishes in the series. Nothing shabby at all the women in my age group are by far, some of the most talented riders I've ever seen.

Two days later, we traveled to Rochester for the final race in the Farmall Tuesday night series. Jeff and I participated in the first race in the 3 race series, missed the 2nd race, and competed in the final race. We were still somewhat tired and fatigued from Sunday's race, but wanted to see our friends at the final race. What a beautiful evening we had and what a great turnout for a mid-week series. The Farmall race course is held on private property and encompasses a roller-coaster type of 2 mile loop....lots of gut busters and fun rollers through the woods and back into the open fields. RV & E bikes puts on these Tuesday night race series and have done so for quite a while now. We use the spring series to ramp up our training, as the course and the competition tests our anaerobic levels. The races are short and intense -- for the gals, we do 5 laps and I have finished in about 58-59 minutes and for Jeff, he does 7 laps in about 1:08. I had what I would call "a sloppy race." The speed and the traction (due to the dryness of the course) coupled with my tiredness from Sunday's race had me over shooting turns, riding into the weeds, and even wussy out on one short descent. Ugh! Not a good day, but I did hold on to win the ladies race and due to my win two weeks earlier, I also won the series. Since there is no SS division, Jeff races in the open men's race where all men race together and then are broken out by age groups. Imagine Jeff spinning his brains out at the beginning of the race as dudes on their geared bikes vie for a good position heading into the single track. Jeff and I have a personal competition to see how long I can hold him off -- he always laps me -- but, I held him off a little longer this week and when he goes by me, he always has a nice thing to say to me and I cheer him on....he finished 3rd (maybe 4th??) overall and in the overall series, he got 2nd in the 40-49 age group. Local strong man Andy A. took the overall win for tis age group. By the way, where was Anne A. on Tuesday night? I love racing with Anne. One summer, we did a 6 hour race series together and Anne was the best teammate! We also missed our great team manager, EJ, (GO RIDE MF!), who was home watching the peanuts. See you next week, EJ, at the Park Ave. series?

One our way home, I called good girl friend, Christina, who lives down state, to check on her progress. She's been plagued my low iron and elevated heart rate. She's my rock and we try to help each other as much as possible. If anyone has any ideas to help her out, feel free to post your thoughts under the comment section.

By the time we got home Tuesday evening and showered, it was 11:30 and both of us were up early the next morning. I had a workshop at school and Jeff had work. I rode my bike there and left the house at 6:50....as tired as I was, it was a beautiful morning. Jeff met me on my bike on the way home on the road Tuesday evening and even carried my backpack for me. We rode side-by-side and talked about our day. He always makes me feel better about myself.

Check out our photos from Tuesday night! Thanks fellow Crankskin.com teammate Tommy and his lovely wife, Chelsea, for getting these to us.

Long weekend ahead for us -- we get four days together with no school work, no work, and just time working on the yard, garden, cookout, and of course, lots of riding! Maybe even a cookie ride in Fair Haven?

Collectively, we are Jeffina, crankin' out the miles, crankin' out the love for Cranksins.com.

Introduction to Crankin' out the love, Crankin' out the miles for Crankskins.com

This blog will capture the many elements of our life together. We are a husband and wife who love riding/racing mountain bikes, we love traveling, and most importantly, we love each other very deeply. Readers can expect to read stories about any of these things, as well as mentioning of our friends and families (but always in a positive light).

I'm a academician which means that I am tired of the rigors and demands of scholarsip on faculty and will purposefully stray away from formal writing and look to engage readers with a more humorous side of our lives. My other half doesn't like to type and I have been 'volunteered' to do most of the writing on this blog, but his voice will still be heard.

Together, we are Jeffina.