Author: The Adventuring Heidi

Whew, I woke up today finally feeling better and apparently over that 48-hour stomach bug I had.  Great timing, as it meant I could finally ride my new Shiv, even if it was just on the trainer.  Unfortunately the streets are still snowpacked here, and not to mention it is COLD (sorry, just ain’t gonna ride in 20 degree weather… in the snow… on 1″ wide tires.  Nope).  Kind of sucks to buy a new (road) bike during winter, honestly…

The Shiv is magnificently comfortable!  My 30 minute ride soon turned into 40 minutes, and then an hour.  I could just pedal that thing all day long!  Only issue is I sit too far back off the saddle, so my, um, girly bits take a lot of the pressure and they don’t like that.  Nothing some adjusting can’t fix… or I could just steal the nice, padded saddle from Matt’s Transition.  I mean, what gives… he gets something all padded and smooshy and I get a cement firm minimalist saddle?  But either way, soooo comfy.  I’m not sure why people say the aero position is uncomfortable.  I love it!  Granted, I’m sure I’ll nearly fall on my face the first time I actually have to ride ride the bike in that position, but that’s a mute point at the moment due to snow and cold and 1″ wide tires.

So after my trainer ride, which wasn’t an ounce of torture at all (seriously, that is how awesome the Shiv is, the trainer didn’t even feel like torture!), I realized my 2012 wrap up entry from two days ago was kinda sucky.  I know, I had a fever and yuckiness going on.  So I can excuse myself.  But I figure I should wrap up my final bicycle numbers from 2012, since I am a total numbers geek like that.

• Miles Pedaled in 2012: 1,102.2 –That’s like going from New York City to Kissimmee, FL according to Google!
• Feet of Elevation Gained in 2012: 48,960 –That is Mount Everest and Mount Kilimanjaro combined, and then some extra!
• Time Spent Pedaling: 100 hours 55 minutes –Yeah… that’s just a lot. 
• Biggest Ride: 72.7 miles –Ride For Sight 2012 in Cheyenne… I actually think it was over 73, but that was back when I was using Strava on my iPhone, so mileage got a bit wonky.
• Biggest Climb: 839 feet – Occurred on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota between Hill City and Mystic.  Yeah, that was sucky, at that time in my life. 
• Total Rides: 85
• Highest Strava Suffer Score: 301 –This was from my 63-mile Fort Follies ride in November.  I am sure if I had a HRM and Strava Premium for Ride for Sight or even my Mickelson Trail ride, I would’ve hit a higher Suffer Score.  But alas, I wasn’t as nerdy at that point.
• Miles on my ’12 Giant Rainier 29r 0: 336.8
• Miles on my ’12 Specialized Ruby Apex Compact: 727.3
• Miles on my ’12 Specialized Shiv Elite A1 Apex: 21.4
• Miles on my ’13 Specialized Epic Expert Carbon 29: 16.7 – Oh snap, I never mentioned that I put this bike on layaway after demoing it in October 😉

And there’s all my number geekiness!  Yay for numbers!  Looking forward to what 2013 has in store for me!

OK, that about wraps things up, in a more proper way 🙂  My New Year’s Eve will probably be a bit low key.  Matt and I might hit up the gym, and then I am not sure what!

I’m at the beginning of a 6 day off stretch from work, and wouldn’t you know it… I come down with some sort of gastroenteritis (stomach bug, LOL) and have spent all day sleeping or lounging due to the upset stomach and body aches.  Woe is me… it is especially bad since I just brought home my new TT bike yesterday AND joined a gym, and yet I can’t do anything due to be sick.

So 2012… wow, what an interesting year!  Definitely one of those years where when I started the year I didn’t imagine I’d be where I was at when it came to an end!  So here’s a hodge-podge review of 2012!  Probably not the greatest, but I’m running a fever 😛
I started out 2012 in western Washington state during a visit to see Matt.  We spent New Year’s Day driving up the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles in hopes of seeing some whales.  We didn’t find any, but we did get to listen to some awesome Canadian radio stations and hang out on Ediz Hook before heading back down to Lacey.

The spring months of 2012 were spent wrapping up my final semester of nursing school.  I was able to get out and do some car photography, and spent Spring Break visiting Matt in Washington again.

Upon Matt’s move out to Wyoming, he pestered me more and more about getting some sort of bike so I could ride with him.  After doing some hiking in Vedauwoo and realizing the mountain biking potential of southeastern Wyoming, we settled on buying mountain bikes as a way to get me on a bike.

On May 15th we bit the bullet and bought the mountain bikes.  We headed out on the Greenbelt in Laramie for a ride, and I quickly tired after about… well… 1/4 of a mile?  I hadn’t ridden a bike in 14 years, so it was all strange to me, along with the fit I didn’t have an ounce of fitness in my body.

It didn’t really discourage me, and within a week I was riding hiking the Death Crotch trail at Happy Jack and dabbling in my first singletrack experiences.  When I rode 5 miles I thought I was the awesomest person on a bike ever!

For Memorial Weekend we headed up to Devils Tower, and then over to South Dakota.  Plans were to ride a stretch of the Mickelson Trail.  Well, low and behold we ended up riding about 30 miles on it!  Still can’t believe I did that to this day only 2 weeks after buying a bike!  (Now in 2013 we want to ride it again for comparison)

On June 26th I did my first ever mountain bike race.  I was actually doing pretty damn well before I decided to fly off the bike, slide on my head for a ways, and donate some skin from my elbow.  Ended up 4th, which still shocked me as I was expecting to not even be able to finish!  This started my obsession with racing, and I ended up fitting two more races in my summer.

In August we on a whim decided to do the Ride for Sight in Cheyenne.  We started off wanting to do 50 miles, which turned into 62 miles, which ended up as 75 miles.  I do not understand the meaning of “slowly build your miles.”

In November I hooked up with a new women’s cycling team in Fort Collins, the Fort Follies.  Did a few group rides and made some new friends!

Here we are at the end of December… bike collection is steadily growing, Matt and I are on a race team, and I’ve even begun registering for races this spring/summer.  I do find myself thinking “wow, who I am?!” from time to time… just crazy how much this single year as changed my life.  Matt and I no longer are in different time zones, I finally finished up and became an RN, I am in shape enough I can ride 75 miles on a bike, I’ve lost 15 pounds in what I feel in a very healthy/natural/permanent way, and I have a crazy new hobby to occupy my time!

I’m definitely looking forward to 2013.  New adventures, new travels, new friends, and new memories!  We plan on traveling to Fruita, CO; Durango, CO; and Pennsylvania for races.  My BFF in the whole world is going to come visit for a week in June.  I’ll finish up my BSN degree and maybe finally be done with college for awhile after 11 years.  And hopefully I learn to stop falling off my mountain bike so much, or at least maybe I’ll learn to wear some elbow pads 😀

Oh my, the time sure does fly… work has been hectic, and I did a stint on night shift before going (permanently) back to days so my days off were spent mostly sleeping.  I’ve been off of any sort of bike in over two weeks, and I feel like I’m going a wee bit crazy because of this!

So what’s been up the past few weeks?

1. I broke 1,000 miles on a bikeDecember 2nd I finally rode my 1,000th mile, woo hoo!  Considering I started out on May 15th with barely any ability to ride a bike after my 14 year bike-free stint, I’m pretty darn proud of this!  I went from not being able to ride 1/2 mile on Laramie’s Greenbelt to being halfway capable of suffering through 65+ mile rides on the road, and hammering the single track on my mountain bike.  Everyone now is asking me what 2013’s mileage goal will be.  I honestly can say I have no idea.  I’ll definitely be way above and beyond 1,0oo fairly quick into the year due to actually training, but other than that I can’t say…

2.  Ruby got a new look
My 38cm handlebars came in, so I decided to spice up Ruby – my road bike – a little bit with some pink grip tape.  Adding to the awesomeness, the mechanic at my LBS added some pink cable ends that he had laying around.  I never quite liked my bottle cages, so I added neon pink Specialized Z-cages.  Pink, pink, pink, oh my!

The handlebars feel good…so far.  I actually have not ridden the bike since the new makeover.  But on the trainer it felt more natural.  I also did some more fit adjustments, added MORE varus shims to my shoes, and hopefully got my knees in a more neutral alignment.  I seriously just don’t know what is up with them… damn knees.

All that needs changed now is that damn white stem…

3. New team, new kit, new excitement
Matt and I were fortunate enough to get added to the Spradley Barr Wind Chill Cycling Team based out of Cheyenne.  Matt’s been beyond delighted about it, and it makes me pretty darn excited as well!  We attended the fit kit party, where the fit kits were surprisingly good looking… no puke-like patterns to deter you from just stealing the fit kit!  Though we’re some of the youngest on the team (I’m pretty sure I am the youngest female), everyone was awesome and welcoming!  We ended up staying long after most left chatting up bikes and races and listening to stories of years past of Wyoming’s cycling history.  Definitely really looking forward to race season to start, and rocking my new team’s kit!

4. The Shiv
I can’t resist getting a new bike… so I dropped the ball and ordered me up a Specialized Shiv… just the base model, so it’s all “UCI/time trial” legal, because everyone knows I don’t like water and you can’t get me to run, so triathlons are out!  Time trial racing really appeals to me.  The only way I can think to explain it is that it reminds me a lot of drag racing, which I did a ton of back in my “younger” days with my little modded up car.  And I also tend to ride all out when I ride alone.  That’s why I’m such a Strava nut, there’s really only on and off, and no “well, let’s take it easy today.”  And I like the challenge of learning how to ride in a completely different position.  The bike still needs to be built, but I am looking forward to bringing it home soon and at least getting use to it on the trainer!  Then I’ll save up my pennies to upgrade the wheels!

5. 2013 race season planning
I haven’t wasted any time getting my races lined up for 2013.  Looks like my “season” will be kicking off with the Frosbite Time Trial on March 2nd.  Then mid-April I plan on racing in Fruita, CO on the mountain bike, which should be a nationals qualifier.  Last night I went ahead and registered for the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic mountain bike race and the time trial race, which will be over Memorial Weekend in Durango, CO.  (How cool is that?  Racing my mountain bike one day, and time trial the next!  Perfect blending of Matt’s preferred discipline and my preferred discipline!)  July is dedicated to the US MTB Cross Country Championships, where I plan on rocking category 3 like any proper beginner would!  In the back of my mind I am contemplating the Dog Dead Classic in Laramie in June and the Copper Triangle Ride in August.  Then filling in when my work schedule allows any races in between.  Whew!  I got my USAC license the other night which was pretty awesome, though for some reason they don’t list my team under my MTB license, only road and cyclocross.  Only huge disappointment is that since I turn 30 in October, I have to race the 30-39 category all year…

6. New car!
Nothing to do with anything really, but on December 1st I bought myself a new-to-me car!  My little Nissan Sentra SE-R is just getting too little for everything, so I got a 2009 Subaru Forester XT.  Now I have room for all my stuff, can fit a bike inside my car, and I have heated seats.  Heated seats being the most important thing 😉  It is a bit weird having a grown up car, but I have been enjoying it, and it’s been awesome for my long commutes to work.  Now I just need to get some cross bars for the roof rack so I can get it all swapped over.

I think that just about does it… since I haven’t pedaled in awhile, I am hitting the trainer hardcore in the next few days.  Cheyenne got about 15″ of snow yesterday, so outside riding is out (though I am tempted to see how the mountain bike does).  Guess winter finally arrived?!

Well, that about sums it up, right? 😀 Not really sure what else I really need to say…
Just kidding, I’ll write a real blog entry

After a relaxing Thanksgiving holiday filled with lots of food and family, Matt and I had a relaxing Black Friday that didn’t involve fighting over TVs or other craziness American-ness that accompanies this day.  We grocery shopped at Walmart, and I picked up a new, little Nikon point and shoot camera for $69.  Then we kicked it at our favorite local bike store, the Bicycle Station, where my beloved bike-guru Wendy took a look at my road bike’s fit, since I was having elbow pain the weekend before.

Well, wouldn’t you know, I oddly enough already have 40cm bars on my road bike (it should’ve come with 42…), which is what I was recommended to buy during my BG FIT in October – good thing I didn’t go ahead and buy 40 bars!  Wendy ordered me up some 38cm bars (and I was a good girl and went with alloy instead of dropping the $$$ on carbon 😛 ), and now I am awaiting those to come in so we can see if that fixes the issue of me being uncomfortable riding on the hoods.

Not letting achy elbows deter me, Matt and I set out on a Fort Follies group ride on Saturday morning around Carter Lake south of Loveland, estimated to be 50-60miles.  Doesn’t sound bad, right?  Oh, did I mention the 4,400+ feet of climbing it involved, or the stupidly hard winds in Loveland, or the fact I was riding with people with about 5x the fitness that I have and 10x the years of experience?

Yeah…

I just always feel bad and discouraged when riding with strangers, and strangers that are faster than me.  I didn’t want to hold everyone up, but it reached a point that my body just couldn’t push any faster.  But hey, I did a good job at hanging in there the first 30 or so miles!  Then we turned and headed west towards Carter Lake and I was greeted with the wind.  Winds so bad that certain gusts actually stopped me dead, mind you.  4mph was a struggle to maintain.  Even Matt dropped me.  Poor pitiful me was riding all by my lonesome, half crying, half pissed off, and holding onto my 19 pound carbon road bike for dear life in the wind gusts.  All the usual thoughts started to occur:  “Why exactly did I pick this as a fun thing to do?”  “I hate this, screw this, I’m going back to being a bum on the couch.”  “I hate everyone else and their monster legs that go forever, screw them.”  “WTF is Carter Lake and why am I here?”  “what’s for dinner?”  “Maybe I can hitch hike back to Fort Collins…”  “What would Georgia Gould do?  Oh, she’d probably just laugh at me…”

One of the guys riding with us came back and rode with me, leading so I could draft off of him.  I love him dearly for this act of kindness towards a noob with no little engines that could!  I felt bad because I didn’t get the chance to thank him for doing this.  (Thank you guy in the red jersey, whoever you are!).  No worries, the group quickly dropped me again on the climb up the Carter Lake dams, except this time Matt stayed closed.  On the torturous climb up I started crying.  Seriously, why do I pick something to do that makes me cry?!  Then I realized that I couldn’t really stop, as I wasn’t about to really hitch hike back, and all of this torture just proves to myself that something torturous is actually fun and does help with the whole mountain biking thing.  So after a couple of F bombs and tears on the dam when I swore the wind was going to blow me either into the water or off the side of the mountain (I have a fear of water and heights… oh goody), I buckled down and went as hard as I thought I could with this much riding behind me.

We had a fast, fun descent that put a smile on my face (and 4th out of 80 women on a Strava segment, haha!).  Then another long boring flat-ish climb.  I didn’t even try to stick with anyone anymore.  It was just Matt and I, with me hoping someone would wait up so we’d know how to get back to Fort Collins as getting lost was not something I wanted at the moment.  My entire right leg from butt cheek to ankle had started to cramp, regardless of the Hammer Fizz I was consuming in my water, gels, and electrolyte Clif Shot drink mix.  My right knee screamed in protest every pedal stroke.  Now my only thoughts were about my glorious Nissan Sentra waiting for me back in the parking lot, and how great those econobox’s seats would feel on my tush during the ride back to Cheyenne.

Glorious thing to behold, Whitney and Lila had waited up for Matt and I.  We started up the CR38E climb, with Whitney and Matt out front, and me trudging behind like 20 feet.  This honestly is not a climb that should be bad, but with 50 miles already in me (mind you, I usually only ride 20-30miles normally, this was the second time ever going over 40 miles…) I was in pain.  Deep, deep, deep inside the pain cave.  And then…

Georgia Gould pedaled happily by, saying a cheerful “Hi!!!” as she passed me.

OH MY GOD!!!

I seriously can’t even expressed my excitement over this.  I honestly thought it was Lila that had caught up to me.  It wasn’t until I saw the Luna kit and Georgia’s hair (I know, creepy I recognized her by her hair… I swear I am NOT that creepy, just observant!!) that it clicked.  I frantically started quietly yelling “Matt, Matt, MAAATTTT!!!” and started pedaling like an idiot on crack to catch up to Matt, who turned around with huge eyes and a shocked expression.  Whitney nonchalantly goes “Do you guys know who she is?” and both Matt and I giggled like obsessed school girls “Georgia Gould!!”  As fast as she appeared, she disappeared up the road.  And my day, week, month, possibly 2012 was made.  I giggled like a retard, giddy with what just happened.

Seriously, Georgia Gould is totally my biking idol.  And the fact she lives practically in my back yard (southern Wyoming, northern Colorado, eh… close enough) is freaking awesome, and it’s even more awesome she’s always out riding and is awesome and friendly enough to say Hi to those she passes.  I really don’t think anyone could grasp how awesome that Hi was to me, at that moment where all I wanted to do was flop over and die.  I grew up idolizing the Olympian gymnasts of that era (and the era of decades before such as Olga Korbut) – Shannon Miller, Kim Zmeskal, and so on, but I’ve never seen any of them in person.  I never had the chance for them to just cartwheel on by me.  So to see my current role model/idol in the wild just amazes me.

The rest of the ride back into Fort Collins was still torturous, but just a little bit better to endure!

Looking at that, who in their right mind rides from Fort Collins to practically Berthoud?  Oh wait… me.  In my BFF Kim’s words, “you cray cray” and she’s right! It was a quite alright ride, though, besides me feeling crappy for holding everyone up.  But I guess the only way I am going to get faster is to ride a lot, right?

I’m now just 22.7 miles away from my 1,000 goal for 2012.  We were going to ride in Cheyenne on Sunday, but my knee was done for.  Even just “air pedaling” caused excruciating pain.  So we just relaxed and bummed around, and then I headed up for my work week.  It’s now Wednesday, and the knee feels fine again.  I seriously don’t know what is up with it.  I think it goes beyond bike fit issues now.  (For the record, randomly, my tush didn’t ache at all on this 63 mile ride… woot!)  We’re been blessed with some unusually warm weather so far this fall/winter, so I’m planning on riding more this weekend and breaking the 1,000 mile mark and beyond.  Thinking a weekend ride with the Fort Follies, maybe some more with Matt, and weather cooperating, maybe breaking out the mountain bike at Gowdy.

On a final note… I decided to be silly on Strava, and ended up with good results!

AHHHH, so excited!  So a week or so ago I saw a post on Facebook from Your Group Ride out of Fort Collins, CO about an all-women’s cycling team that was forming.  What perfect timing, right?  I had been wanting a team to ride with, and make new friends that are into cycling and to learn new things.  I wasn’t able to make their first meeting, but was still welcomed into the group, which is called the Fort Follies. 

This past Saturday the team held a group ride (was suppose to be A/B and beginners, but we all ended up riding together).  Of course I jumped at the chance to go!  Fort Collins is NOT windy like Cheyenne and the weather was suppose to be gorgeous, and I was just so excited to do a group ride!  Though… I would have to face my fear: a paceline.

OK, so going 25mph down a rocky descent on a mountain bike doesn’t phase me (usually).  Riding with a bunch of others on a road bike?  Scares the heck out of me!  Luckily Whitney gave us the basics before we headed out, and we rolled out on a 24 mile ride east out of Fort Collins.

First thing I learned how social these things are!  Instead of my usual solo ride mode of cussing out the wind out loud, and go at full force 100% of the time, I got to ride at a moderate pace and hold conversations with the fellow ladies around me.  Definitely awesome!  And whoa, definitely love how pacelines give you a break from wind (“wind” is more proper… sorry Fort Collins, you ain’t got real wind!).  I was sketched out by the fact I couldn’t see down the road like I use to, but I became more and more comfortable as the miles went on.  By the end I could ride about a foot off of the person in front of me, woo hoo!

And look at that, I finally had a crazy motorist yell something at me while on a bike!  Some cranky old lady yelling something about single file or something… gotta love drivers in Colorado…

I was so giddy when I got done with my ride, it was so exciting to finally hang out with girls that share the same interests as me!  They were doing another group ride on Sunday, so I made the trip down to Fort Collins once again.  This time we rode up by Horsetooth Reservoir.  Ugh, huge climbs!  Which is funny, it totally reminded me of how 6 or so years ago I would drive up that same road in a car and chuckle at the cyclists and say “look at those idiots riding up this!”  Umm, yeahhhhhh… I am now one of those “idiots!”  Whoops, be careful of who or what you mock 😉

The descent was fun, but scary.  I still can’t get use to speed downhill on the road bike, especially with others around.  4 of us then broke off and rode some more roads for a total of 34 miles.  Whew, hard work but once again I felt so giddy!

So I am super happy as I learned some new skills and made new friends!  It is awesome to be surrounded by so many experienced cyclists I can learn from, and have others that can push me, especially on those killer climbs!  This coming weekend there’s more rides planned, so I am looking forward to laying down the miles (85 to 1000 for the year!)!

Slowly winter is creeping up on us in southern Wyoming.  Maybe not so much in a snow way, but definitely in a cold temperature, low wind chills type of way!  It’s slowly been driving me indoors instead of enjoying the open roads and trails on my bikes.

My first time on a trainer I wanted to bang my head into the wall repeatedly after 5 minutes.  I was using Matt’s Blackburn fluid trainer, and it just SUCKED.  Horribly.  I did 20 minutes of torture and called it quits.  Just wasn’t worth it.

This weekend we decided to head down to our local bike shop and see what they had in stock for trainers.  I read about wind trainers, and how they mimic real riding conditions the best, so that’s what I was aiming to get.  The LBS threw a road bike up on the floor model so we could try them out.  Matt liked the CycloOps wind trainer so much we decided to get two of them.  For some odd reason, I was even excited to try it out!

Wind trainers aren’t for everyone.  They are loud.  Loud actually doesn’t even begin to describe it.  The loudness is a wind noise, though, and nothing mechanical or clunky.  But if you live in an apartment, I wouldn’t recommend one unless your neighbors don’t mind hearing it.  Watching TV is also out, except maybe if you have surround sound.  Or headphones.

But what do you know… riding in an indoor trainer is still torture, but so much better now that I have this new one to ride on.  I can easily do an hour without wanting to run out into I-25 traffic, which is a good start!

So I’ve decided to compile a list of what is needed to survive the indoor trainer in my opinion:

1) Music
Since I can’t get my TV loud enough to make it worth it, I settled for the iPod and headphones today.  I really really really like to use ska music while working out.  In particular, I like a CD from a local ska-core band I hung around with in high school.  It’s just over 30 minutes long, and just has a great tempo.  I do intervals to certain horn solos and uptempo parts.  Less Than Jake also works.  I’m sure the typical rap and dance stuff would work as well, but I just always fall back on ska.  Maybe because it varies and I can turn these into intervals?  It’s just all boils down to picking your poison and going with it.

2) Towel/Headband
Does this even need an explanation?  I sweat like whoa on a trainer because there’s no moving air to evaporate it from me before I notice it.  I love my Halo handband for keeping the forehead sweat river dammed up, and always throw a hand towel on the bike for wiping up the drips the Halo doesn’t catch.  (Which leads to the question… do I seriously sweat this much when riding a bicycle normally?!)

3) Water
Yes, duh.

4) Wish to torture thyself
Even with a smooth riding trainer, the best music in the world, water, whatever, riding a trainer still isn’t like riding a bike.  There’s always a mind numbing boredom aspect to it, as you never see the wall in front of you get any closer.  Even time seems to slow down, especially if you’re a clock watcher like I am.  Some pros refuse to ride trainers (Georgia Gould! ), and I can see why…

5) Cycle computer
What’s the point of torture without seeing how long you ride or how many miles (or heartrate)?  I use a Garmin Edge 500.  Using the wheel speed/cadence sensor I can actually get a rough mileage estimate (I say rough because I have a bad relationship with the speed sensor portion of the speed/cadence sensor on both of my bikes, but it does seem pretty accurate on the trainer), which is nice.  And of course I use a heart rate monitor, so I can do my intervals or try to ride in certain zones.  Not that I know anything about training in zones, but I like to pretend I do 🙂  My files all go on Strava, which has a stationary trainer option.  Strava is great and doesn’t put the miles into your overall totals (still 145 miles left to 1000 for me this year… gotta find pavement time eventually!), but does add the miles to the specific bike (if you have them profiled).

Once I have the extra funds, I am going to try some of the Sufferfest training videos, and at least make my trainer time worthwhile.  The trainer came with a training DVD, but it’s of a crit race and is super intense for the whole thing.  I want more options, and Sufferfest has ones that mimic climbing even.

My trainer and I are going to become bestest of friends this winter, you just wait and see!  And by that I mean the type of friends that want to kill each other secretly.  😀  As much as I wish I lived somewhere where you can ride year around, it’s not possible at this exact moment so I gotta make due with a trainer like most of snow state residents have to!

It’s going to be one of those blog posts… very random and all over the place!

The past two days I’ve been out suffering on the road bike against the Wyoming wind.  It is so discouraging to be pegged, and only going 8mph against the wind.  Not to mention the feeling of a crosswind trying to blow you over on a carbon fiber bike… but I’ve been plugging through the miles, and enjoying the ride home with the wind pushing me!  In fact, today I was averaging a very nice 36mph on Otto Road coming back into Cheyenne, tucked down in the drops and trying not to think of how fast I was going (speed still gets to me on the road bike… 150mph in a car feels so much safer than 30mph on a road bike…).  Having a grand ol’ time until a semi truck driver thought I only needed just about a foot between him and I when he passed me.  Literally, I thought I had crapped my pants as I tried with all my might to keep my bike on the narrow shoulder and hoped that he wouldn’t hit me.  I knew going into ditch at 35mph would not be a fun time for me or the bike, so I held on.  Then I unleashed a verbal tirade and maybe a rude gesture  or two.  Seriously Mr. Truck Driver, you could’ve killed me.  I count this as my very first near miss while on a road bike.  So incredibly infuriating considering there was no oncoming traffic so he could’ve easily given me more passing room.  I was already riding to the right as far as I could be safely.  I wish I could’ve gotten a license plate number or company name, as I would’ve made a few phone calls… I hauled butt down Lincolnway in hopes I could catch him, but he turned onto I-25 before I could.  Sigh.  Just so scary.  Share the road people, dammit!  We all have a right to be on there.  You wouldn’t want someone running over your kid or mom or dad or grandma or whoever, so just be courteous…

*off my soap box for now.  I promise.

Onto other news… About a week and a half ago I finally got my elbow x-rayed to check out the damage from my fall in Moab.  I had an orthopedic surgeon from work check it out, and he said it was likely cracked, but you can’t do anything for a crack.  I was just toughing it out, as I am pretty damn tough when it comes to pain.  But it was to the point that nerve pain was radiating up and down my arm and even fabric from a shirt was causing pain.  Luckily, the x-rays showed no obvious fracture, and the urgent care doctor once again confirmed it is likely cracked, which you can’t do anything about, and the nerves that run along there are inflamed.  I was prescribed 500mg naproxen (Aleve) and sent on my way.  He told me I was good to keep riding my bike (like I already had been doing… ahem…), and suggested elbow pads.  I commented on how they were not my style and he goes, “Do you wear a helmet?”  “Of course I do!”  “Well, you’re already looking dorky in a helmet, what’s elbow pads going to matter?”  Geez, thanks… that’s a great way to encourage helmet use 😛

I’m guessing injuries are just going to become a fact of life for me.  I’ve spent nearly every day since May with some sort of bruise or 10 on my body, scabs, scrapes, cracked elbow… it’s just normal!  Hell, even while demo-ing the Epic last week I went over the bars and bruised my legs all up.  Smashed out my Garmin Edge 500’s screen even, so now I’m injuring inanimate objects, haha!  At least I think I’m fairly tough.  Gymnastics taught me that at a young age, which is good and bad, as I tend to ignore pain and issues.  Maybe I need to learn to stop falling off my bike, too.  That could be a start…

So I did end up purchasing some elbow pads after receiving some recommendations on MTBR.com to stop trying to be a tough chick (apparently guys don’t dig chicks with skinned elbows?!).  I settled on G-Form elbow pads as they seemed the least intrusive.  I haven’t had a chance to ride with them, so a full review will come later (but I don’t plan on falling off my bike so… review might be a ways away!).  But… I did put them on, and slam my right elbow (the non injured one!) full force into my door jam and I didn’t feel a thing.  Pretty damn cool 😀  The pad is mounted on a compression type sleeve, kind of feels like an arm warmer, but just not thermal.  The padding is very low profile.  I think I’ll try to wear them on rocky, more technical terrain, and definitely if I go to Moab again as slickrock is quite hard!

On the dietary side of things, I decided I should try out some whey protein powder and make myself shakes for post-ride recovery.  I got this awesome blender kit from GNC, which is so damn exciting.  I haven’t owned a blender in my life!  Last night I tried out 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein, 1 1/2 cup of skim milk, 1 cup frozen rasperries, and 1 cup of ice.  Results were not as spectacular as I was hoping, but it was palatable.  The recipe made 28 ounces, which is quite a huge shake, and I think that was part of the problem because drinking that much felt like eating a massive meal.  Today after my 22 mile ride on the road bike and near death experience, I did two scoops of strawberry flavored whey protein, 1 cup of mixed frozen fruit (strawberries, mango, pineapple, and peaches), 1 cup of ice, and 1 1/2 cups of skim milk.  Once again a massive shake, but pretty ok tasting.  I put half of it back in the fridge for later.  We’ll see where this leads…

I’m thinking I’m going to join the gym up the street since the weather is bound to turn nasty eventually.  I can’t believe I’m even considering this, the old me from a year ago would’ve started laughing at the idea of joining a gym!

Speaking of cold weather, I am going to end this post with this awesome link:  http://www.bicycling.com/whattowear

You put in temperature, wind, weather conditions, and if you like to be warm or cool or in between while cycling, and it makes suggestions on the clothes you should wear!  It’s fun to play around with.

A long overdue post, if I must say so myself!  On October 29th, Matt and I borrowed two ’13 Specialized Epic Expert Carbon 29 mountain bikes from the Bicycle Station here in Cheyenne, and took them down to Lory State Park in Fort Collins, CO to give them a spin.  Both of us are disappointed and to the point of hating our current bikes.  I was looking into the Specialized Fate as my upgrade, but Matt convinced me to give the Epic a try, even though I never wanted to ride a full suspension bike.  Matt has been eying an Epic for awhile.

“Whether hammering technical World Cup courses or local cross-country trails, these competitive riders want their bikes to be super lightweight, efficient and ultimately fast, for explosive climbing and nimble handling. Though the Epic is an ideal bike for racers, it’s also appealing for riders who want a short-travel bike that shreds rugged singletrack”

I could pretty much end my blog post with that quote from Specialized’s website, as it pretty much describes my experience on the bike!

I immediately noticed how light the bike was when I went to put it on the car.  24 pounds vs. my current bike’s weight of 32 pounds is definitely noticeable!  Unfortunately, the weight and nimbleness of the bike did rattle my nerves the first few miles of riding.  The bike was just so fast and responsive I felt like I was going to wreck it at every turn!  I felt like it handle more like my carbon road bike, very twitchy.  I got over this by the end of the ride, naturally.

The first thing I noticed immediately was how well the bike climbed.  I felt like I could climb for days and days on it.  I loved the gearing, and the drivetrain smoothly shifted even on climbs and under pressure.  And I discovered that I could ride switchbacks for the first time ever.  Usually I have to get off my bike, waddle around the switchback and continue riding, making any trail that has these tight corners kind of horrible to ride.  The Epic handled all the switchbacks with ease.  I was amazed.  Sometimes it is about the bike, right?!  d

I was worried that a full suspension bike would suck on climbs as it would absorb the pedal stroke.  I didn’t even notice the Epic was full suspension, honestly!  Now, I must say I had the bike shop set it at full firm.  I did not have it set up to be squishy.  The Epic also has the Brain, which I’m sure helped.  I did notice the full suspension when I would go over a rocky part, and noticed it didn’t jar me as much as it would’ve on my hardtail.  I was so impressed, and minute by minute I knew this was going to become my new bike.

I was riding a “medium” frame size.  I did notice some fit issues, such as the stem being too long.  I was often riding just holding on with my fingertips when it was smooth single track.  I can see how this is a difference between a women’s specific design and a men’s bike.  All my current bikes are WSD, mostly for the fact I wanted a pink bike.  Otherwise, the bike felt good, and fit me, which I can’t say for my current MTB.  I did find the saddle a bit too hard for my liking, and perhaps a bit too narrow for my sit bones.  So upon purchase I will do a BG FIT and switch to a shorter stem and perhaps a women’s specific MTB saddle that better accommodates my sit bones.  I know I am a special female case, as I am 5’8″ tall with a 34″ inseam, so I can fit a men’s bike a lot easier than most of my shorter counterparts.  The Epic is only offered in a Small through XL sizes.  If I’m on a Medium, you can gauge what body size a Small might fit.

We rode just shy of 17 miles on the Epics before the weather started turning nasty.  It all felt quite effortless.  The bike just goes and goes!  I even giggled a ton at the fact that on Strava I widdled down a 17 minute difference between Georgia Gould and I on a segment to 1 minute 33 seconds.  Granted, I know she was probably just casually riding (and heck, to my defense I wasn’t even “strava-ing” the segment, I was too busy getting use to the light weight and handling of the bike), but holy crap I love this bike!  Not saying it’s all the bike here, as I last did the segment earlier in the summer, but it has to be some of it!  And we all know how much I like seeing good results on Strava, LOL.

Matt loved his as well, and now is so excited to start racing with me.  Which leaves us hating our current bikes and neglecting them in the corner…. I think I am going to try to sell mine.  Nothing is really wrong with it, except it’s not my size and heavy and I’ve outgrown it skill and riding wise.  We have some lofty race goals for 2013, and are preparing to start training and eating right.  Now we should have the right bikes to get us there!

And goodness, there’s not an ounce of pink on the bike, aside from my Wedgie pink I attached to carry spare tubes and tools!  Losing a bit of girly, now aren’t we?!

Like it or not, winter weather is upon us in southeastern Wyoming.  I’m not the biggest fan, and definitely sad that my riding days are limited, along with warm temperatures and daylight hours.  Today I got the crazy idea to jump on the road bike, ignoring the whole 48-degrees and 15mph winds thing, and it was a great opportunity to finally use my Specialized Women’s Body Geometry Deflect cold weather cycling gloves.

The details according to Specialized:  Change your music or make that critical phone call (NOT while riding of course!) without taking off your gloves—WireTap technology makes these gloves touchscreen-friendly.  Sized specifically for women, the Body Geometry Deflect gloves offers great breathability and comfortable protection for temps down to 45°F/7°C.

Slacking a bit on updating about our trip to Moab for my birthday weekend over a week ago, but here it goes!  School and work have been crazy, so I spent the week back working 4, 12-hour shifts in a row and writing/cramming in two papers.  Slacking on some homework today so I can get this updated, before heading up for two more 12’s in a row.  Life of a nurse, eh?  (I love my job, I honestly do.  The traveling to work does get to me along with being away from home, as I feel my days at home are just spent running errands and running around like a chicken with no head.)
So yes, MOAB!!!  Matt and I wanted to go somewhere for my birthday (October 15th), as he managed 3 days off from work.  I was assuming we’d go back to Steamboat like we did last year, but he wanted to do something different.  Matt suggested Moab, and since I absolutely love the desert, it was really a no brainer!  Leave early on Saturday morning, come home Monday afternoon.  Mountain biking in the desert for my 29th birthday = beyond awesome.

This post is really just going to be a bunch of photos, as I don’t think a wordy, blow by blow description of the trip is needed!  After driving through the snow in Colorado, and playing at Doc Holliday’s grave in Glenwood Springs, we got into Moab about 3pm.  We immediately jumped on our bikes and rode 21 miles on the Moab Canyon Bike Path (even got in a little bit of singletrack as the sun was setting!).  Kicked it at Poison Spider Bicycles before heading out to dinner, where I wore my MTB shoes because they’re comfy.  Saturday was filled with riding at the MOAB Brands trails, where I managed to crack open my elbow and learned slick rock is only fun for about 2 minutes, then it gets annoying.  Arches National Park was later that night, and we watched the sun set at Delicate Arch.  I hiked 3 miles wearing Dansko clogs, because I’m a badass.  (Some guy told me “nice boots,” and I don’t know if he was mocking my hiking footwear choice, or if he really thought they were hiking boots…) Monday was recovery day, more time at Arches NP, and then the long drive home.  I was thoroughly sad to leave the desert 😦

What I do want to say is Moab is awesome if you ride a bike.  The streets are filled with cyclists, usually of the dirty kind (aka mountain bikers).  Every other car has at least a bike attached to it.  There’s big bike lanes, bike paths, and nobody, and I mean NOBODY, gives second thought to someone wearing spandex to dinner or at the grocery store.  I was just in love with the town.

Whew, I think that’s good on the photos.  🙂  More Moab trips will definitely occur in the future, and with both the road and mountain bikes.  Part of me wants to do the Skinny Tire Festival in March, but I am not sure how it will work into the schedule.