Author: The Adventuring Heidi

I came, I raced, I conquered those damn rocks!

I talked in my last blog post about how Nationals this year for me was mostly about racing myself and just worrying about putting in a good effort against myself.  I think the strategy worked out!  I stayed rubber side down, I rode a heck of a lot more than I even imagine I could, and I slid in under 2 hours total, which surprised me!

The weather this year was way different than last year, luckily!  I felt good going into the race, though I was annoyed to discovered on my way to the bathroom in the lodge that my start got pushed back 48 minutes.  I wish I would’ve known this the night before (just another annoying thing USAC did this week… ’nuff said) as I could’ve slept in longer and also I wouldn’t have been so quick to eat breakfast.  Darn.  So I spun, hung out at the car, spun, hung out at the car.  I was busy chatting up Kim and her husband as they looked for their results and realized I had to pee at the “one minute to staging warning.”  HAHA.  Made my way through the gazillion male cat 2’s to my ladies.  Amy was back from last year – luckily as a 40 year old 😛  I finally met Robin, who I had followed on Instagram for some time.  We all stood around in the sun for what felt like an eternity.  They did call ups, which was neat.  I had second call up (surprising considering the lack of USAC races I have done this year!), and got to ride to the starting line as they said my name, team, town, yadda yadda.  There were only 4 of us ladies in cat 2 30-39.

The start was stupid fast… which well… is something I haven’t had all year!  I’ve spent all year training my sprinter self to start slow, and crap, there goes Robin like she’s being chased by a rabid dog.  Robin, Philicia, and I had a sizable gap going on the single track, with Robin up by herself.  On that damn first single track climb where I rode into the bushes last year my rear wheel spun and I had to walk. What the hell… what the hell?!  I jumped back on, and an annoying spectator told me to stop rolling my wrists under.  I just really hate unsolicited advice, especially while I’m racing. My rolled under wrists and I caught Philicia’s rear wheel rather quickly and I decided to just sit in and see what happens.  So we rode together through the forest, over the rocks.  On the first yucky climb that is a 50/50 split of me actually trying to ride it I made the mistake of following Philicia’s line, and she had to come off and walk, which meant I had to.  I passed her walking and took over 2nd place.  I hurried to the top, cyclocross mounted and powered my way over the flats.  I’m probably what some would consider a “power rider,” so I used the old narrow gauge mining roads to put down some speed on a course that doesn’t favor a power rider whatsoever.

I realized that the course is a lot harder at race pace when you’re cross eyed and redlined.  It took a lot more concentration than my practice runs had.  I continued to feel strong on the gravel and grass climbs to the summit, and I didn’t see Philicia behind me.  I skipped the summit water table (I had a Camelbak anyway) and headed down the single track for the damn Bear Creek rocks and roots.  I worked my way around the rocks cautiously.  I knew there was no hope in the world of catching Robin unless she had some sort of catatrosphic mechanical or wreck (though I did briefly think about how I thought that last year and then Alyssa vanished out of thin air giving Amy and I the top two spots), so I just wanted to ride safely for myself.  I didn’t know what to expect of Philicia… from USAC I knew she had raced pro years ago (!!!???) so who knew what tricks she’d have.  I nailed all the bridge crossings and the mud root pit which I called a “filthy whore” over and over until I got through it (hahahaha).  I went up and over a huge log ramp thingy that I walked last year, and felt good, but had the feeling Philicia was behind me.  She was, dammit!

I got my front wheel off my line on a rocky descent down onto the Bridge That Heidi Will Never Be Able to Ride Because It Sucks, and bobbled and had to stop, which allowed Philicia to pass me.  Since I was close to said bridge, I just ran it as I knew I’d waste more time trying to get on it and ride than running.  Philicia took off into the sunset.  OK, I was in 3rd.  I could handle that.  Now I was on the “10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain” rock garden switchback segment.  I dabbed a few times but rode it strong (missed my goal for the segment on Strava by only 2 seconds!), even clearing all the switchbacks for the first time.  At the top I went to switch back into my big chain ring (I baby chain ringed it for this segment only, otherwise no granny gear this year!) and my chain decided it wanted to lodge itself between my wheel and cassette.  It took about a minute for me to get it yanked out and back into place, and this kinda solidified Philicia getting away from me I think.  I passed a guy who was on his 2nd flat of the race, so I was thankful all I was having was chain issues!

Oh, the heckle pit.  Time to drop down into it… Down the first descent… riding smoothly.  Saw the final rock, stopped.  Effing rock!  It’s all mental!  Get back on and start up the steep descent and my left heel goes under my rear triangle and my shoe jams into my wheel.  WHAT THE HELL?!  By then a heckler took to too much heckling (seriously dude, where was your bike?  Why weren’t you racing?  See ya at high altitude sometime, I’ll have a word or two for you then), and I debated getting off and punching him.  But I continued on, clearing some rocky drop things.  Almost went OTB by a photog but bailed in time.  He got me while I was still on the bike, haha.  Which is great, the photo shows how messed up the line I was taking was:

I continued down the descending switchbacks and realized that last year I had walked from the top of the heckle pit all the way down beyond the last descending switchback… and this year I was still riding!  I was riding stuff I didn’t even ride in practice!  So I had a huge smile, and I had two separate spectators tell me I was only the second person to come through this section smiling!  Woohoo!  I feel like I had a ton to smile about!!  I got in a good rhythm and just rode those damn rocks like I had been riding these trails my entire life.  I finished up all the rocks and roots at the bottom (though I had taken to getting my handlebars stuck on every tree possible… time for shorter handlebars), and headed through for a second lap.

For the second lap I went back and forth with a few cat 2 20-29 women.  It was good motivation to keep pedaling, as that second lap was downright killer.  I was tired, nothing more nothing less.  I was hydrated, so that was on track.  Just pooped was all!  I knew I was riding a lot slower, and I started to get messier on the rocks.  Also, the phantom severe pain that comes and goes in my left big toe started in, in the worse way ever!  I tried to ignore it, but sometimes it took all I had to keep my foot clipped in and still pedaling.  (This is after I had been battling a pebble in my right shoe the entire race… princess and the pea action going on hardcore!) The second time around in the segment of percentages was a hot mess as the girls in front of me couldn’t ride stuff, so until I got around them I had to walk, which sucked because that portion really is about just going at a good rhythm.  Once I was around them I cleaned it nicely.  The heckle pit was nearly gone, just two (nicer) guys, and once again I couldn’t ride down that final rock.  Down the descending switchbacks was a mess as well, as my mojo was gone.  I knew it was all about staying upright on the bike and foregoing any mechanicals, I’d be in 3rd place!  Coming out of the woods onto the gravel was an amazing feeling…

Then…

USA Cycling ruined the feeling.

Sigh.

There’s nothing like riding and finishing underneath a national championship arch banner.  And they took that from me (and quite a few other competitors). Due to THEM moving the cat 2 start later, it ran into the junior’s short track start.  And since juniors rule everything (no, I’m not bitter… well, yes I am.  I’m 30, I don’t have as many years left in me!), they gated off the finish and I finished down away from the crowds, away from the announcer, away from everything by the ski patrol lodge to a grouchy official going “you’re done.”  Wow.  Thanks USAC, that was worth the 4000 mile drive.  So that was my anticlimactic finish to what I felt like was one of my stronger races this year, despite all the messiness on the second lap.

1 hour 59 minutes 16 seconds!

Whoa, under 2 hours!  I didn’t think I’d pull that off!  9 minutes off second (Philicia), who was 9 minutes off first (Robin, of course!), and I was 36 minutes ahead of the 4th place finisher (rawr, go me).  Definitely not the murdering or clobbering I was expecting, and I thought my effort was good for someone who does not ride this terrain ever (unless I do Headquarters repeats in the rain, haha).  Given another week or two on Bear Creek, and I know I would’ve cut even more time off… but that’s the beauty of nationals, it’s very rarely everyone’s home court advantage… can I put a bid in for a nationals at Gowdy, though?  Haha

Philicia and I hung around forever waiting for results, and finally I decided to just go get cleaned up and get food.  I took off to Wawa for a 10″ hoagie (which I quickly devoured!) and spent time with the Sauchon Valley bike team folks, who my friend Kim is on.  Realized USAC was messing up results all over the place (like DNF-ing people that they personally pulled), so I ran to make sure I was properly placed.  I was.  Whew!

I came, I raced, I conquered my own personal race 😀  So much better than last year, and dare I admit that I started to grow to like the course?!  Sure, not my cup of daily tea, but it’s ok once a year or so!

I’m happy I went with my ’13 Specialized Epic Expert as my bike of course.  I had briefly considered my hard tail, and I’m so glad I didn’t.  Sure, definitely would’ve given me an advantage on the climbing, but bouncing around those rocks would’ve been too much. The Epic did great on it’s second go-round of PA rocks, and aside from the one chain issue it didn’t miss a beat!  I am missing the back cover of my right hand shifter now…

I am super excited that nationals moves to Bend, OR for the next two years… it’s only about a 15 hour drive, and from what I can gather from photos, the terrain and rocks are much closer to what we have here in Wyoming so it’ll be a bit easier of a learning curve!  And hello to riding at elevation again!  The downfall is I know this year was quite possibly the last year I’ll be on a nationals podium for a long, long, long time.  Cat 1 is going to be an ass kicking and painful learning experience.  It took me about a half an hour of staring at the upgrade request before I could submit it.  As much as I want to be Cat 3 in cross, I’m not sure I’m going to exactly enjoy Cat 1 mountain biking.  Then I remember all the higher level non sanctioned races I do and how I still have a good time, so hopefully it all works out!  It’ll be nice to finally race for a Stars n Stripes jersey and National Champion title, too (cat 2 and cat 3 are not considered national championship classes)!

Thank you Bear Creek for the last two years, and the nice scar I’ll have my shin from practice last Tuesday!  I’ll miss you a tiny bit, but not enough to come visit 😛

The quick and dirty lowdown on the US Cup:

1. Puking while racing sucks
2. Heart rate of 200 beats per minutes that you can’t slow down while racing sucks
3. 93 degree weather while racing sucks
4. I magically became a fast descender over night that can huck my bike off big drops (and I mean big “cross country” drops)
5. 2nd place had 14 minutes on me, whoops
6. Pulpit Rock is my least favorite mountain bike course… even the Rumble at 18 Road course has it beat
7. Shivering 4 minutes into the race is a bad omen
8. I survived
9. Not only did I survive, but I closed a good 30-40 second gap in the first lap to take over 3rd place with my new gnarly descending skills
10. I survived to 3rd place, got a sweet trophy and a state championship medal!

Seriously, that pretty much sums it up.  The WORSE race EVER.  Sliding in the Fruita mud and taking out expensive bike parts was funner than this.  Cracking ribs at the Gowdy Grinder was funner than this.  Racing in 10 degree weather at Altitude Adjustment Cross was definitely funner than this.

The Colorado Springs US Cup was the final in the series.  It’s a pretty big UCI race for the pros, and for us amateurs it served as the Colorado State XC MTB Championships.  I decided to “pre-ride” the course by watching the pro women’s race on Saturday on the live steaming, which made the course seem flat, non-technical, and fast.  It wasn’t really any of those things once I actually rode it, oops.  I knew it was going to be a hot one (mid 90s), so I settled for racing with the evil Camelbak and made sure to load up with my Osmo pre-hydration stuff and Endurolytes and that stuff.  I did a practice lap with Suzie and immediately I was feeling the heat even at 10am.  My practice lap went horrible, to the point I managed to wedge my chain between the cassette and rear wheel AND the baby chain ring and the frame.  I still don’t know what caused that to happen.  I was drenched in sweat and already wanting to get in the car to drive home.

We lined up at 10:30am under the huge archway (it felt soooo pro!).  There were 4 of us in Cat 2 women, and I already knew one would beat me because she always does, and the other two I didn’t know.  We went off with the Cat 1 and Cat 3’s all in one group.  Immediately my body just said no.  Which sucked, because my legs were fine.  But my heart hates heat, and when it gets to 195bpm and just stays there even when I try to recover, I just can’t put anything out.  The Cat 2’s left me in the dust, but I managed to grab Marie’s wheel, who is a crazy fast Cat 1, on the pavement climb and some of the dirt two track.  The course has the consistently of baby powder, which means crappy traction.  We made our way up to the first big climb, which is impossible to ride, unless you’re Catherine Pendrel (I saw a photo of her still riding it near the top), which I’m not.  We all came off our bikes and started the steep push to the top.  This is when I started to shake with chills and goosebumps.  GREATTTTTT.  About 4 minutes in or so, and I was already feeling the heat exhaustion/stroke crap.

The part up top was a mess to deal with in the pack.  Girls were walking nearly all the technical climbs, and I was at nearly 200bpm just trying to survive.  I caught a glance of the 3rd place gal in Cat 2, Erin going down the steep, techy descent that has three drops that I normally would never try to ride because I have “Career&Mortgage-itis” and she didn’t seem to be going as fast as I could expect.  So I just bombed down.  Scary, yes… but then I realized there’s no reason why I can’t ride things like that.  I flew down that descent and closed up the gap.  The course turned back to a climb coming through feed zone 1, so Erin quickly sped away as I struggled to get the legs to do anything.  The small recovery I got on the descent didn’t do much as my heart decided once again to just go to max.  The course enters an area with about 4 or so punchy steep climbs that normally I would be able to climb if I wasn’t red-lined and if I wasn’t wading through baby powder, so off the bike I came.  I was feeling pretty dejected at this moment, and I started to get queasy under the non-relenting sun (no shade whatsoever on this course…).  I tried to drink down water when I could.  By now I knew Erin had a good 30-40 seconds, if not more, on me.

Luckily it turns to a descent with rideable climbs (to a point) after this, so I made up ground on the downhills.  There’s one last punch before feed zone 2 and the finish where I finally caught Erin again.  I stayed on her rear wheel until the feed zone, and then I made my move and zipped around.  I knew she was climbing way better than me, so I figure I had to put in the distance on the flats and downhills while I could to remain in 3rd place.  By the start of the 2nd lap I just started regurgitating any water I tried to drink, fun times!

Erin caught me at the base of the steep hike-up hill.  The course marshal at the top asked me if I was OK and urged me to stop if I had to.  I wanted to, oh so bad.  But every race I have those “oh just stop and take a DNF” moments so I didn’t pay much attention, although I know I was really physically out of the game, not mentally.  Mentally I was pissed I wasn’t able to do what my legs wanted me to do, and that I was riding way worse than I really can ride.  I got to the top, and committed to riding all the tech climbs, which I did, including a steep sandy punch.  I was pleased to finally see that I was able to live up to at least a few of my mountain biking abilities.  I hit the descent again, and coming through feed zone 1 I saw I had a very good gap on Erin, so I worked as much as my body would allow to keep it.  In the Land of Punchy Climbs I Couldn’t Ride, Sarah a single speeder caught me.  I thought I was being lapped, honestly, but she was just behind me the whole time.  She eventually got around me on the last punchy climb that I could almost make it to the top, but not quite (story of my day).  I didn’t see Erin anywhere behind me, but I didn’t take any chances and pushed the descents.

Came through the start/finish, and puked back up a drink of my Osmo I took in.  I came through for my third lap.  I had a motorcycle police officer behind me on the pavement climb and I joked to a pre-rider that he was going to pull me over for going so slow.  Same torturous stuff, yadda yadda.  Suzie’s man, Cody, handed me up cold water in the feed zone to dump on myself, which was heavenly.  I still wasn’t seeing Erin, so I felt confident that I just had to ride smartly and finish.  Really I just wanted to survive my embarrassingly slow race.  In the Land of Punchy Climbs I was caught by the Cat 1 junior girls and lapped, which is always a nice feeling, haha.  I came through the start/finish for my final 4th lap, and saw Erin off on the side, so I realized that she DNF’d and that I really, seriously, just had to survive to make it to the podium!

The final hike-up the big climb sucked.  I had to take several breaks on the way up, and the course marshal poured cold water down my back.  I sat at the top with my head on my handlebars for about 20 seconds just trying to control my heart rate.  By now the Cat 1’s were lapping me.  Marie caught me, and she didn’t know she was in 2nd place, so she was hollering that she was getting her butt kicked.  I got another bottle of ice water from Cody in the feed zone and gave myself a shower with it.  So I was a hot, heat exhausted, soggy mess with my jersey unzipped and flapping in the breeze and mud everywhere.  Super sexy sight!  Suzie caught me in Land of Punchy Climbs.  I rode pass some spectators and assured them I was racing, just going super slow.  That finish lap was just about one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen as I rolled through it at 1 hour 41 minutes 48.71 seconds.

14 minutes slower than 2nd place…. definitely not my best race… actually, just might be one of my worse races ever.  It was just so frustrating, as my legs felt good and wanted to go go go and I just couldn’t.  The heat was just that killer for me!  (Garmin read 93 degrees average during my race) And it wasn’t just the heat, there was absolutely no shade.  At least, for example, in PA on the nationals course it’s all shaded so at least the sun isn’t broiling you alive!  The course was a lot tougher than they made it sound, which frustrated me more as I knew I could ride a lot of those punchy climbs but just couldn’t this day.

Suzie, Marie, and I went for a cool down spin, and since finally my heart rate dropped away from max, I felt good… it was no granny gear spin (well, at least not for me), and my legs responded.  That just frustrated me even more, as I wish I could’ve done that during my race!!

The thing I wanna see most is the photos from the pro photog that was on the drops during the descent… I’m being impatient!  Never mind I looked like a hot mess (even my number plate was ripped off on one corner and dangling) and had a pain face!

I’m not sure I learned much from this race… I just can’t tolerate heat.  and I’m not sure there’s much I can do about that short of racing in a cooling vest.  However, this does make the need of a hand up of ice on my second lap at nationals that much more important!  I’m glad I worked hard on the 1st lap to close what I thought was an impossible gap, too!

And once again, the time of year is here for the Laramie Mountain Bike Series!

I did skip a couple of race reports because I didn’t have a whole lot to say, but I’ll tie up loose ends… I raced at the Wyoming State Games in Casper on June 15th.  The race had been postponed to a day I didn’t work so I figured “why not?” and made the drive up!  It was a low key race that took place on trails and single track at some parks in Casper.  Very much a power course with one steep climb up an old paved road, and haulin’ descents.  The other lady signed up for Expert Women seemingly didn’t race the whole expert race, so I rode the 15.7mile race pretty much to a solo win in Expert Women.  Horrible 30mph headwinds going out, flying coming back on the loop.  Not too bad of a race, I hope they can up participation numbers in future years!  I did qualify for the 2015 State Games of America in Lincoln, NE, which is neat!  It’ll definitely be something to keep in mind when planning next year’s race calendar.

In between races I was riding one afternoon on the Cheyenne Greenway, heading home after a ride on some of the northern Cheyenne county roads where I was in a head on collision on a blind corner coming out of a tunnel.  I was smacked off my road bike, and it banged up my left arm and hip pretty well.  What the heck is up with this summer, and getting hurt?!  Luckily the road bike made it out ok, except for a shifting issue that occurs only in one specific gear.  It was just an unfortunate accident, and I just hope the other party involved learned to take it a little easier on those corners, or at least don’t ride down the wrong side.  And I’ve learned to be scared as heck of the Greenway!

June 17th marked the first race of the Laramie Mountain Bike Series.  I placed 3rd in Advanced Women on the Epic, the first time racing on that bike this year!  Unfortunately the whole race was kinda bland for myself, and I ended up kicking myself for not racing Open as I felt too fresh at the end of the race and knew I could’ve done a longer course.  I handled the technical climb up the Summit loops really well, only dabbing for a second once, so that was a proud moment!  I felt like I descended the technical parts well, and was oh so thankful to be on the Epic!  I was also proud of myself because I used a strange concept called race tactics and didn’t blast off at the start like I was sprinting for my life!  It was the slowest start of my life, and I actually sat up a bit and started humming, waiting for someone else to make the first move!  Ali ended up jumping out, and I got her rear wheel and we flew up the campground climb together.  It was good because I didn’t blow myself up for all the climbing that the start had!  If I can only keep myself in check on starts through cyclocross season, I think I might end my “1st place to 20th place” streak 🙂

Which leads back to where it all began 2 years ago… race #2 in the Laramie Mountain Bike Series!

I wasn’t feeling quite all ok the day of the race – I didn’t sleep or transition well from my 4 days on night shift leading up to it and was exhausted by the time early afternoon hit race day.  The skies also didn’t look good, with raining starting in Cheyenne.  Grudgingly, we made the journey over the hill to Happy Jack.  I was on the fence about upgrading to Open Women, just for the longer miles and to just get to the point of “well, these are the fast girls, and this is the highest category, deal with it,” but was also hesitant about whether or not I was moving up way too soon, getting too eager just to be at the highest level.  Even getting on the bike to go register I was still thinking, until I saw the all too familiar blue and white of a Luna kit!  Georgia Gould came out to race at our humble local series!!!!  I immediately said hi and blurted out some incomprehensible “OK, now I HAVE to race open because you’re here!”  Like that makes sense?  Super fast pro plus super slow me somehow equals racing open?  I digress….

So I was stupidly giddy that I quickly rushed over to claim my pink number plate signifying I was in open.  Jim and I set out to warm up and I think I said about 20 times “Georgia’s racing tonight!”  Granted, she was racing open men, so not even in my class, but we all started at the same time, so for about all of 5 seconds I got to claim I was racing an Olympic medalist, as she quickly sped out of sight with all the fast men soon after that 5 second mark.

The course was 18 miles… two long loops of Meadow, UW loop, Lower UW, Middle Aspen, Aspen, Haunted Forest, Old Happy Jack Rd, Pole Creek, Blackjack, Adler, and the Bypass; follow by one short loop of Meadow, UW Loop, Lower UW, Blackjack, Adler, Bypass.

The first long loop I had placed myself in 3rd out of us 4 gals racing through the beginning climbs and Lower UW.  Doro caught me on Middle Aspen.  She’s an insane descender and I was riding kinda conservatively (though I destroyed my PRs on Middle Aspen!), so she sped off out of sight as I carefully picked my way through the deep ruts and eroded roots.  We turned and begun to climb up Aspen which instantly made me think of Bear Creek in PA as it was muddy, moist, roots, and rocky!  It was a tough, technical climb but I solidly made it up and got myself back on Doro’s rear wheel..  She quickly left me on the Haunted Forest descent, and I recaught her on the double track grind up to the start of Pole Creek.  There were about 5 or so creek crossings – deep ones at that – that added to the fun of the night, and I’m happy I doused the Fate’s chain with WD40 Bike Wet Lube!  By the time I hit Pole Creek I had distanced myself from Doro a bit, but I kept hammering.  Travis and some of the guys of Rock On Wheels ended up behind me, and I somehow managed to jam my pedal into a stump which catapulted me up and then back, which rammed the nose of my seat into areas things should never be rammed into… all the guys collectively freaked out and hunched over I laughed that at least I was female!  The guys got around me, but I continued on.  I flew up Pole Creek, knocking about a 1 minute off my PR.  The climb up Blackjack I bobbled which allowed Doro to come back into sight.  She was on my rear wheel on Bypass when I managed to ride off the edge of the small skinny bridge, smacking into the cross tie which luckily my 29″ wheel rolled over, despite the impact.  I gathered myself, and headed up through the start/finish.  I had a 5 second lead!

Second long lap started, and I managed to put Doro out of my sight on the climb, but she flew past me on Lower UW like I was standing still.  That would be the last I would see of her 😦  On Middle Aspen my seat bag managed to rattle loose and was flopping around on one piece of velcro.  The climb up Aspen didn’t go so well, and I ended up in a conga line of advanced men racers walking up it.  I decided to finally stop and fix my seat bag, and continue on.  My energy was sapped, and I realized I complete idiot for not bringing any nutrition with me.  The difference between racing a typical 13-15 mile course and racing 18 miles was becoming very clear very fast.  I suffered through Pole Creek and Blackjack and came through the start/finish to start my final short loop.  My friend Nichole even commented that I didn’t look too happy as I came through the second time.  It had started raining during my second loop, and during one of the creek crossings I had completely soaked my left foot so it was squishing every pedal stroke.  My gloves where soaked.  I can definitely say I wasn’t having a lot of fun.

During the campground hill climb I caught Travis, who was also really suffering.  I wasn’t expecting that to happen!  The good thing is the moisture helped pack down the sand and dirt, and I felt faster on the descents (though Strava proved this wrong, haha).  Once I got to the top of Upper UW I knew it was mostly descended back to the start which was good.  All I wanted at this point was to not get lapped by Georgia, and so far that plan was working out!  I came up the punch to the parking lot, and did a little sprint and crossed the finish line in 1 hour 49 minutes and change.  I think that was a good 4-5 minutes off of Doro, and 12 off of Sara, who won on her single speed.  I sat up in exhaustion and rolled through the finish with my hands off the bars (but NOT in the air, haha), which was the first time I’ve ever pulled that off.  I was cooked!

I quickly ran to change out of my soggy kit and gear, and enjoyed some adult beverages.  The downside to racing the longer course is all the beef hamburgers were gone, so I had to have a veggie burger.  Needless to say, black beans and I don’t get along so the beer and potato chips had to tie me over.

Overall, I was pleased with this race.  Sure, I’m totally not competitive in open women.  Can I use the excuse I was racing beginner and sliding on my head a mere 2 years earlier?!  But it went well and I don’t feel like it was a blow out where I was so off the back it was embarrassing, nor was I the last one off the course (and I even beat some advanced men who raced on the same course!).  Had things gone better on the second lap on Aspen I think I could’ve had a smaller gap between Doro and I, and if I had brought a gel or some chews that definitely could’ve helped as well with the post-14 mile bonk.  This is part of the reason I wanted to go to Open, as I need to get use to longer distances and times and get the kinks worked out now versus next year in my first Cat 1 races.  The LMBS races are a great place to work out kinks it seems!  Riding in the rain on soggy trails was also a good refresher on riding wet roots for Nationals which is coming up sooner than I was thinking!  So in Open I shall remain, especially since I want a pink number plate, haha!  Plus it’s kinda cool being amongst the Big Girls, and being in the top class!

I’m glad I chose to ride my Specialized Fate this race, as the technical stuff was limited (unlike the week before which ran a lot chunkier course where the full suspension definitely helped on descents) and there was a lot of climbing involved.  Just wish my Awesome Straps would hurry up and arrive so I can do away with that seat bag that likes to come un-Velcro’d on bumpy descents!

Unfortunately I cannot make it to Race #3 as I have to work since I head out to Nationals later that week.  But hopefully I am at the last 3 races of the LMBS!  This weekend I’m racing at the US Cup in Colorado Springs, which will be an excruciating hot (95+ degrees) and long (19 miles) effort for hopefully a good result for USAC rankings.  And then the pinnacle of my summer/season/year begins, and I turn east towards PA, with a pit stop to race in Iowa before returning to conquering the technical descents of Bear Creek, which I am going to FORCE myself to ride, dammit!

Oh Gowdy Grinder… probably my favorite race and the one that always surprises me the most.  This year was weird… last year I had shown up with no expectations aside from being really slow, and won.  That surprised me so much I did some Jersey-esque fist pump across the finish line even.  But this year, I suppose there were expectations.  I upgraded to advanced this year, as anyone should do after they win.  I wanted to do well, but when I looked at last year’s times and compared to my pre-rides, I’d just feel sick and have to fight the urge to downgrade.  Yeah yeah yeah, “better to finish last in advanced/expert/cat 1 then win intermediate/sport/cat 2″… that’s great, but podiums feel good, you know?  (And hence why there’s sandbagging!)

Higher category means the “honor” of racing later in the day, which just made me get more and more nervous.  Thanks, but I prefer my crappy 8am start times because I literally am not awake before I realize WTF I’m about to get myself into!  Waiting until 11:30am gave me time to get nervous and queasy.  My parents decided to come and finally watch me race for the first time ever (yay!), which was nice but added a whole another level of stress as I was having to explain to my mom why there were half naked men strapping on heart rate monitors and why the Honey Stinger kits look like honeycomb, along with my normal pre-race routine.

Sadly, a late May snowstorm caused the Grinder to be postponed to the date of the Beti Bike Bash, so the women’s fields were really suffering this year (especially Open).  I think nearly all the women’s fields were half of that last year.  I get that it was a big conflict, and unavoidable.  To me it was a no brainer after 10 minutes of thought of which race I would attend, but I know it wasn’t like that for most of the other women who race in this area.  There will still a lot of unfamiliar faces to me, but it was exciting to see the Wyoming gals in full force and with very good chances in most of the categories!!

There were 9 ladies this year in Advanced Women, most familiar faces to me from other races.  So we all fit on the front row!  I had a crappy start, I couldn’t get my left foot to clip in for the life of me, though I was out front.  I think this was a blessing because it stopped me from my usual habit of sprinting like a bat out of a hell at the start and therefore blowing up.  The start starts with a rather steep (ha, Koppenberg, you ain’t crap…) double track climb.  I just did my wanna be climber thing, and well, climbed.  And climbed.  And climbed some more… by myself.  I had that eery feeling come over me and waited for the pack to whiz past, or even just one or two ladies.  I looked back, wondering if everyone was just drafting off of me (it was quite the headwind after all), and I was alone.  Hmmm, OK, I can go with this!

I hit the single track and luckily the one Open man I caught pulled off quickly to let me through, which I thanked him profusely for (wait, I caught an Open man?).  No angry yelling and cyclocross maneuvers needed this year to get around guys who couldn’t ride the techy parts on the ascent to the top!  I felt strong and though my thighs were burning I knew I was going the faster I have ever gone on this section of trail.  At the top before some of the descending started another guy pulled off for me.  That’s when the issue happened.  There’s a narrow rocky passage that is techy, butttttt for someone racing OPEN, key word OPEN, men, it shouldn’t be an issue.  Well, another guy in front of me couldn’t make it through it and didn’t pull off so I couldn’t blast through it which meant I got awkwardly stuck.  A spectator started yelling at the guy, and that’s when Mel, who was in 2nd, caught me and got through.  She gave the guy and ear full and I hastily said “you know if you moved we both could’ve made it through?!” and the spectator continued yelling at the guy for holding up the leaders of the women’s class.  Ugh, race drama.

So I was now in 2nd, which was alright because I could see Mel’s technical and descending skills were better than mine.  I knew from Strava she’d kick my ass, so I wasn’t too upset about it.  She would’ve got me regardless of the careless Open guy or not.  I was still feeling strong, and nailed a tricky portion of Ignoramus on the way to 2%.  Then the fun hiking started, and I decided to just run the rock garden (and was smart and carried my bike this year so it wouldn’t get stuck on something!).  I was keeping Mel in sight, though as I came off Rock N Roller someone told me she had 30 seconds.  I flew down the Stone Temple descent, and came through to start my “long” (and final) lap.  Jim was there to hand me a bottle but I didn’t take it as I hadn’t drank anything on the first lap.  I drank a bit (which always makes me feel like a rock star! “Hey, look at me, I’m all drinking from my bottle like a pro!” haha) and headed up the double track climb.  Which felt like hell this time… I had almost caught Mel again, but she got her legs back before I did and zipped off down Pinball.

Pinball and I have an awkward trail-rider relationship.  It’s not really harder than most stuff found on Stone Temple, but I just can’t find a good rhythm down it.  I had a pre-rider riding my butt behind me which also through off my concentration.  Still had a PR down it, and I flew over the scary cattle guard which is always a good thing!  I was dumb and decided to remount from the hike-a-bike-down-a-cliff-onto-a-bridge portion on the bridge, which was a mistake because I always bobble coming off the bridge so I had to run up the trail a bit and remount from there.  Crow Creek went well, and I rode half the rock garden before my whacko brain kicked in so I ran it past all the rocks.  I managed to ride up and over the second bridge, woo woo!  By this time I could no longer see Mel, and the only person behind me was Open racer #2 that had kindly let me pass at the top of Stone Temple – he’d end up being my riding buddy for the rest of my race 🙂

Down the dirt road section where I grabbed some water before the grind that is Mo Rocka came.  Oh Mo Rocka… the only trail I’ve endo-ed on while walking my bike.  By this time my heart rate was redlined and I was pooped and could feel myself getting messy.  Unfortunately the kind folks who put on the Grinder feel the need to torture us racers and taped off the easier ways on some of the rock features, which lead to two dismounts and walks I wasn’t planning on.  The first part of Mo Rocka is the last time I saw Mel.  I felt OK on the trail, knew I was going faster than I have ever gone, but could feel the clumsiness getting worse.  At one point I offered Open #2 to go around me and he politely declined, stating, “You’re in 2nd, I’m last, you stay in front!”  It was super kind, because I knew he was a faster technical rider than me and I was seriously holding him up at times!

Starting up Albert’s Alley I realized I was in a way harder gear than I use to using, so that was good motivation.  My left butt cheek had started to really cramp up and I was physically hurting, so I tried various Jason Aldean songs to keep me going (Hey now, Emily Batty sings while racing, too, maybe not country, but she’s sings!  It works!).  I think at one point I came up with the lyrics “I’m just a biker chick with a farmer’s tan” which I started laughing about.  The steep rock face climb I just didn’t have the power for, and actually half fell, half stepped off my bike so I walked up that hill.  Whew, I knew I was getting tired when I was walking hills… finally there was the descent and I knew a chance to kinda recover before the climb up Stone Temple again.

At the end of Albert’s Alley my parents and Jim were waiting, which was super awesome!  Their cheers put a smile on my face and gave me some mental motivation for the final push towards the finish.  I knew I just had to survive and keep my whits about me.  At the top of 2% I saw another girl and had a big “oh sh!t!!!!” moment and took off as fast as I could.  I knew I had lost a lot of steam and was hurting and just wasn’t going as hard as I could on Stone Temple with the risk of not knowing who was behind me, and it was catching up to me.  Rock N Roller went fine, and as I turned onto Ignoramus again to descend to Stone Temple I… well, I don’t know what I did.  Suddenly I was flying face first into rocks, cactus, and a very scratchy bush of some sort.  My chest smashed into a rock, and I felt the ground and bush scratching the hell out of my arms, and my left hand was in cactus.  My back popped, too.  By then I was in pure panic mode and as Open #2 rushed over to me I just shouted “I can’t, there’s a girl!!!!” and I grabbed my bottle and jumped on my bike, not even sure it was ok.  Alyssa was there, right behind me… bottom of Ignoramus she scooted around the right and flew away.  I knew chasing her down the descent was risky, and since I had already fallen back to 3rd I knew it wasn’t worth losing my podium spot just to chase her down.  I was shaken, sore, and my helmet and glasses were on crooked.  I almost lost it again where Suzie had her nasty wreck on Friday that garnered us a field trip the ER, so I had to mentally regroup myself and just survive.  Survive.

I came around to the finish and could hear my dad yelling.  I stood up and sprinted, though I ended up sitting back down because I felt silly sprinting against nobody.  I think I smiled when I crossed the line, but all I really wanted to do was stop and rub my boobs, which were hurting from my crash.  Hahaha, I know… so awkward!  Alyssa said she felt bad for passing me and I shrugged, haha.  It’s mountain bike racing, crap happens!  You crash, you run into issues with other racers, you have a bad day.  You’re just racing for some cheap prizes, it’s not your livelihood in nearly all the cases, so why care?  I had just finished my first advanced (“cat 1” level, so I tell myself) race, on an extremely hard course between the technicalness and elevation, and I had a podium placement!  Life was good!

1:35:07 was my final time!  I did the “yellow” medium lap 4 minutes 20 seconds faster than last year, so that made me happy, and I PR’d on damn near every segment.  Though I got messy towards the end, I think I rode technically well, though there’s room for improvement.  I’m glad I had the chance to do a technically challenging hard race before Nationals where I’ll be dealing with twice as many rocks.  And hey, it’s the Grinder – it’s my “home” race, the only time where I feel the home course advantage!  Wyoming gals swept the advanced women podium, too!

This has me primed and excited for the Laramie MTB Series, which starts in a few weeks.  It feels like I haven’t raced much this year, but I’m liking the feeling.  This time last year I had peaked, so I am hoping I just continue my momentum in a forward fashion this year

towards Nationals!  Now to recover for a day, race short track on Tuesday night, and journey to CO Springs for a USAC race on Wednesday night for all important “points” towards my Cat 1 upgrade!

Things are coming full circle, and I started to realize my race reports will need the year in them to make sense… but indeed, I toed the line for this year’s rendition of Battle the Bear, once again using it as my proving grounds for endurance.  RME switched up the categories this year, and the cross country categories now equal what the “half marathon” categories did last year distance wise.  I had been toying with the idea of doing the 30 mile race since the venue is non-technical and speedy.  Last year I put on my big girl panties and did the 20 mile race (first time racing over 11 miles), so I guess it’d only be natural if this year I did the 30 mile “XC” race.

One of the reasons I bought my S-Works Fate was for this race… it just screams for a hard tail since there is literally nothing technical about the course and is pretty much as smooth as single track can get.  With a new spoke and brand new rear derailleur on it from the Fruita destruction, I also decided to go tubeless.  I’ve always been a fan of tubes, and have actually never had a flat while mountain biking (only two flats occurred AFTER racing at Bear Creek Lake Park).  I’ve known my fair share of people who flat with tubeless, which added to my love of tubes.  But alas, Bear Creek Lake Park is filled to the brim with goat heads and I didn’t feel like risking another crappy race with a mechanical over those stupid thorny weeds.  Out came the tubes, in went the Stans.

The weather was pretty hot, over 80 degrees at the 1pm start.  RME races are different in that there are no ability level categories aside from pro, and it’s just all about age groups.  So it can lead to some stiff competition and a wide range of abilities at the starting line.  HOLY CRAP that start was fast!  All I could think was “is this a World Cup?” and “Umm, this is a 30 mile race, not 5 miles…” Usually I am an extremely fast starter, to my fault, and I couldn’t even keep up with some of those gals as we roared up the pavement and onto the starting loop.  I felt redlined from the start and I kept telling myself that there’s no way I could sustain this pace for long, given the length of the race (I’ve never raced over 22 miles before…).  Yet I stayed on the throttle, trying to keep up with those in front of me, and trying to get around the tail end of the men’s XC groups the best I could.

The trail through the creek bed that was under about 20 feet of water during the September floods was dry and powdery, which made for zero visibility and loveliness for the lungs.  I hit the creek crossing at about 20mph or so and have never heard a front shock bottom out so badly, which scared the crap out of me (I’ve had it with broken bikes for the year!).  Yet I stayed on it, within sight of gals in front of me.  We had a speedy downhill pavement stretch that bypassed some flood damaged trails before popping up onto a long gravel road hill grind.  My heart rate still wasn’t coming out of the high 180s and 190s during all of this, which made me uncomfortable.  But I felt good, and the descents off the few kicker of climbs made me pleased as I could tell I was descending faster than last year, and more confidently.

The Mt Carbon climb is the longest sustained climb of the course, but it undulates in a manner that allows it to not be a grind.  I ended up climbing it a minute faster than last year on my first lap, woohoo!  Once on the top of that, it’s a long descent down (and super fast), and back around to the finish chute/pits.  I had decided to go with one bottle of the bike and one in my jersey with no Camelbak.  I stuffed my jersey full of Honey Stinger Waffles and had Honey Stinger chews stuck down my top tube.  So I grabbed a drink when I could and pulled off a chew or two.

A little ways into the 2nd lap I was pretty much riding by myself, only getting caught by two girls in my age group about a third of the way in (which meant I had been sitting in 3rd, whoa!).  Occasionally I would pass a XC man, or they would pass me.  It was just hot and lonely.  About the time I got passed I had the most painful and awkward pain set into my left big toe.  It was deep in the joint, not toenail related.  It made standing painful, and some pedaling.  Strangest thing ever, but I tried blocking it out the best I could and utter swear words when it got really bad.  I could feel my pace slowing, but kept on the throttle the best I could.  Of course I had those occasion thoughts of “oh just quit, you already have XX miles in” but they weren’t too strong.

Came around for my third and final lap.  Someone offered me a bottle hand up but I declined.  I knew I wasn’t drinking enough, but a new bottle wouldn’t solve that.  By then my pace had slowed down a lot and it was more about survival more than anything.  I made sure to finish off the rest of my chews on this lap, and finally started in on my second bottle.  The climbs felt like torture, and the big toe pain came and went in intensity, but always remained a dull ache.  This time around the Mt Carbon climb felt like it lasted forever, and I grinded up it in my granny gears.  Getting to the summit was one of the biggest reliefs I had ever felt in my life, as I knew it was all downhill to the finish, except for a tiny little climb.  On this tiny little climb a guy caught me and as my bike misshifted I apologized and he goes “No worries, we’re on the home stretch!”  We rolled into the finishing chute and I wasn’t planning on sprinting against him, and by golly there he takes me by surprised so I tried to sprint and catch up to him… he got me, but made for a fun finish!

2 hours 33 minutes 51 seconds was my official time, 31.1 miles total.  This placed me 5th in my 30-39 age category (in a field of 10).  Whoa!  So pleased, and I had no idea that I was that far up in the group, as it felt like I was one of the last off the course!  Pleasantly surprised, and once again happy that I pushed myself to do the longer 30 mile race.  And I had my first mountain bike race finish of 2014, and the bike stayed in one piece!  Even better, no goat heads (not sure how I pulled that one off) and no flat tires!  Maybe tubeless isn’t so bad!

Upon getting off the bike to chat with some friends I realized I couldn’t put pressure on my toe.  I was hobbling around, my face contorting in pain (I don’t think I’m a pain weenie, but holy crap… this hurt).  Hot, extremely dirty, rocking an awesome dust unibrow, and tired, I climbed on my bike and rode the 1.5 miles back to my car.  I took off my bike shoes, and it felt like my whole toe was stiff and cramped up.  It continued to hurt the rest of the night, but I was so tired I couldn’t really care.  I was asleep by 9pm with hopes I’d be fresher in the morning for the Koppenberg Road Race.  (Toe was fine the next day…)

And that is that… another Battle the Bear in the books!  Can’t say I’m jumping at the bit to do the “marathon” 50 mile race next year, so don’t worry about that!  But I am happy I gave the 30 miles a try, and I think it went okay considering how pegged I was on the first lap trying to keep up with the front of the pack.  As a result, I do think I blew myself up, especially for the final lap.  I don’t think my body is prepared to go that hard over that sort of distance, so it’ll be something to work on in the future if I decide to do some longer races.

After playing in the dirt as a mountain biker the previous day at Battle the Bear, I just had to turn around and play mountain biker on a road bike at The Koppenberg, a circuit road race in the Boulder-ish area that is about half-ish dirt with an awesome, made for a mountain biker ~15% climb.  I remember wanting to do this event last year, but I think it fell on the same day as Battle the Bear due to weather, plus I was a little bit more nervous about playing roadie last year.  Since race timing worked out for this year, back to back it would be. I really had no idea what to expect from my body after the Battle the Bear effort, heat, probable dehydration, and not sleeping in my own bed.  After picking up McDonald’s for breakfast, I kinda putzed around getting ready, not really wanting to make the effort of climbing on the bike for the fear my legs would go OH HELLLLL NO at me before the race even started.  So I eavesdropped in on amusing roadie conversations about “punchy dirt climbs” and how they were suppose to ride up it, took instagram photos, and well, sat around.  Finally at about 7:30am I hopped on the bike and tooled around Target parking lot.  Surprise surprise, my legs were content.

Soon enough it was time to line up.  Someone started in on “everyone, let’s give each other lots of room on the climb, we’ve crashed enough this year.”  Hmmm… I had switched to SPD pedals and my mountain bike shoes for this reason, and the ‘cross racer was ready to come out at a moment’s notice.  Which I actually love my SPD pedals on my road bike as I didn’t have to fumble with the clumsy Look Keo pedals at the start, and I clipped in without thinking, which wasn’t the same for the person in front of me.  Doh.  But we all got rolling, and I chose a spot on the right hand side with an easy out if needed.  The course turns to gravel fairly quickly, and I was happy with my line choice as it seemed to be one of the smoother options.  I stayed with the upper front of the pack until the climb, naturally. So the Koppenberg climb… well, I like it.  LIKE IT.  Yes, I just admitted to that.  And well, it wasn’t as bad as the general opinion makes it out to be.  I happily sat and spun it out, thankful I was in the middle line and wasn’t behind the girl that went down next to me.  I got to the top and remembered thinking “That was it?  Sheesh, the climbs yesterday were way tougher.”  Then I remembered I was being the obnoxious mountain biker that I am, and not everyone mountain bikes so I needed to shut up…

The pack split, and Michelle, Amber, myself, and two other gals formed a pack for the insanely speedy pavement back to the start.  This worked out nicely, and we rolled through the start to start our second lap.  Once again the gravel went smoothly and we hit the climb.  I took the lead on this, though everyone was right on my butt.  My Favorite Cycling Photog Ever, Shawn, cheered me on which made me happy.  Not as fast as my first time up it, but still decent.  Once again down the speedy pavement, and back through the start.

I was struggling and kept falling off the back of the pack, but would manage to bring it back in, especially on the gravel.  Michelle unfortunately flatted shortly before our final climb up the hill.  This was the time my legs went “OK, we’ve had enough, b*tch.”  I spat out the back on the top of the climb, and struggled to recover on the top and make my legs pick up the cadence.  Luckily I had the speedy stretch of downhill to recover and soft pedal a bit.  I looked over my shoulder and knew I had a large gap as long as I maintained some sort of effort.  Naturally, my legs responded strongly at the end (thanks legs, could’ve used that on top of the climb…), and I rolled across the finish line in 49 minutes 33 seconds, good enough for 14th in the field of 27 in women’s cat 4. Not too shabby, eh!?  I think I’m finally getting the hang of this road racing business, and Koppenberg is just about the awesomest road race ever!  I wish they were all like this… but maybe all gravel/dirt and with more climbs like that… (oh wait, that’s called a mountain bike race… whoops… or a gravel grinder…)  Definitely will return for this one in the years to come!  And well… I think my road race “season” has finally wound down… just a lot of crits on the calendar, which we’ve established I won’t do.  There’s a hill climb I’m eying, but I’m reminding myself that I can’t burn myself out by mid-June like last year.  So we shall see… there’s a few local Cheyenne time trials here and there I might make an appearance at I suppose… Yay for Koppenberg!