How to get fast - a true story

Part of my plan to get fast(er) by July is to hang with really fast riders. Lest you think I'm kidding, this plan worked for me in 2007. Friends noticed when I started "coming into form" last year, i.e., actually getting some Ws and hanging in with the big girls at the Crystal City Classic... Clearly, I was doing something different. Okay, so I was actually riding my bike and doing that training thing and having fun with the R1V peeps. But I was also seeking guidance and insight from Josh Frick, who was rumored to be pretty fast, with minimal training, and an equal love of ice-cream and Maryland rest-stop cinn-a-buns. I'm not kidding. He loves racing and eating. Ok, me too. Now make me fast. And while you're at it, are you going to eat that last cookie?

This is my life. Work too much, ride too little, eat whatever the hell I want, and remember that despite results or lack thereof, this is fun. And it is. Not just because I love my new teammates, but because showing up at every summer wedding and poolside-bbq with that all-too familiar bike tan is the new mullet. People stare, they whisper, they point, they say, "wow, you've got some look going there." And secretly they want it, too. The bike short tan with a bikini is a show-stopper. As in, please, stop this show. I digress.

Josh was known to tell me on more than one occasion, "Robin, you cannot get fast just by talking with me." But I talked to Josh a lot in 2007. And I got faster. And I raced smarter. And I had a ton of fun.

It's now 2008 and we're smack into the season. And I am still following that tried-and-tested training plan from 2007. Talk to fast guys. Josh clearly sees the ways of my training as he called me yesterday while he was riding with the fast guys, and said, you should grab dinner with them. Yummy food with fast bike racers? No brainer. When, where, and do I have to bring my boyfriend? (Yes, because he took the picture.)

In case you cannot tell from the dimly lit atmosphere at Sonoma's, these handsome, charming and super fast men surrounding me (while I breathe in their aura of speed) are from left to right, Blake Caldwell, Jason Donald, Magnus Backstedt, yours truly, Tyler Farrar, and Steven Cozza.

Was great to meet the Slipstream Chipotle crew! You've definitely got a DC-based contingent cheering you on this season and wishing you all success. And of course I'll thank you now for making me fast in the latter part of the 2008 season.