Category: Uncategorized

OK, I promise this is the last race report for two weeks, LOL.  So on May 5th I did the Battle the Bear in Lakewood, CO at Bear Creek Lake Regional Park.  I decided to be a big girl and step up to the 20 mile XC race.  Sure, winning is fun, and especially rather easy in the Half XC categories of RME, but it’s that whole mental battle of “do I go for the wins in the categories I know I can win in, or actually challenge myself in the higher category and probably lose badly?”

The thing with RME is that they don’t separate it into categories like beginner, sport, expert.  There’s pro, and then the age groups.  So in a XC race you can have Cat3, 2, 1, and pros all riding together.  That’s the big challenge I think.  Then again, I’ve never really run into a “fair” system of categorizing a racer at a bike race (especially USAC ones), so maybe RME is doing things right by just age grouping it.  Heck, I’ll take that!

The drive down proved amusing.  I super hydrated before leaving the house, so about Fort Collins my bladder was about to burst.  I decided to pull off to the rest area off of Prospect.  Well, as I went to turn on the road there were two sheriff’s deputies with guns drawn in the middle of the road, and another one tackling a guy as he got out of a stopped car.  Needless to say, my pee plans were definitely halted as I couldn’t get to the rest stop and wasn’t about to stick around that situation, however curious it might have been.  So got back on I-25, exited Harmony thinking the gas station was an easy pull in.  Nope, and I found myself on the wrong side of a concrete barrier.  Got onto I-25 AGAIN, and went to Johnstown since I knew there was a Loaf N Jug that was easy to get to.  Figured I was reaching the toileting finishing line when I opened the restroom door to find a line 3 deep.  WHAT THE HECK.  I nervously waited in line, hoping I could hold the 4 liters of water and glass of grapefruit juice in.  Finally I got to a toilet.  Ugh.

I got to the park about an hour or so before race time.  It was cloudy and overcast, with temperatures hovering in the 50s.  Definitely a base layer type of day, as I hate a cold upper body.  I ran into my friend I befriended at Ridgeline Rampage, which was quite nice as I had someone to talk to.  Got my number plate, ate my PB&J and half-ripened pear, and peed a few times.  I’ve come to realize that the past 4 weekends have involved Port-a-Potties.  Not sure that is something to write home about…

So I was lining up and on my way.  The loop started with a dirt road climb to spread everyone out.  I was pleased with how I started.  The course was some very speedy double and singletrack, with 3 or 4 climbs to kill all speed.  All the climbs were followed by fast descents, however.  Which I suck at.  I’m sure I’m a joy to be behind in a race on a descent, LOL!  Mt. Carbon is the longest of the climbs, but I found it to be not that bad since it sort of undulates as it climbs, so you can shift out of granny gear every once in awhile.  I was stuck to the rear wheel of another gal in my age group (and who was wearing a purple jersey… purple jerseys are out to get me this year!) for the entire first lap.  I didn’t really know where I was in my field, except I knew I wasn’t in the lead pack.  Either way, I was happy to be stuck to this girl, as she broke the wind for me and gave me motivation.

The first 10 mile lap flew by, literally.  I think it took me all of 50 minutes to complete!  The second lap started, and I passed Purple Jersey Gal and led her for a few miles before she caught me on another climb.  On the descent she flew away from me, and I found myself alone, nearly getting run over by the Half-Marathon men (some of which need to learn some courtesy skills when it comes to passing…).  My legs were protesting a bit more, but I found myself feeling surprisingly good considering the effort I was pushing and the miles.  On the Mt. Carbon descent I saw Yann finally, so I could yell out “Creeper in the trees!” even though this time he was in a bunch of yucca.  I finally let off the brakes and let ‘er rip, hitting 27mph.

Pro MTBer Rebecca Gross passed me, and told me good work on the strong effort.  Kinda nice to hear 🙂  I like the friendly pros, though I’m always way too nervous to talk to them because I’m still kind of awestruck by them all.  Just nice she took the time to give me some words of encouragement!

Soon the miles clicked down and I was in the last mile or two of the race.  One more muddy splash down through the creek crossing (gotta remember to close my mouth for things like that…) and I forced my legs to put down the power to get to the finish.  Came through the pits and under the big RME finish line sign and I was done.

1 hour 43 minutes.  20.3 miles.

Woohoo!  I did it, I finished my first race over 11 miles!  I ended up placing 6th in my age category, and was indeed NOT last place.  So that’s always a plus!  Sure, I felt a twinge of disappointed that I wasn’t getting some shiny cardboard plaque award this week, but I think I’ll come to realize I won a lot more by pushing myself to do something bigger than just staying where I’m comfortable.  (Funny thing is if I had done the 10 mile race I would’ve won it overall, and beat the girl in my age group based on my first lap’s time.  Oh wellllll…)

So now that I’ve raced 1/3 of a Laramie Enduro, I think I’m going to try to do longer races the rest of the summer.  One of the first things I did was get home and emailed and asked to be bumped up to Intermediate for the Gowdy Grinder.  I was going to do beginner, which is a single lap of Stone Temple Circuit for 3.5 miles.  Racing that little is really of no use to me I realized, so I’m going to do the 8 mile intermediate, which is a STC loop, then STC to Ignoramus (ugh hate that trail…) to Rock N Roller.  Probably won’t come near to winning, but at least it’s a bit longer!  And now that Beti Bike Bash went unsanctioned, I might enter the Sport category and race a bit longer than my Cat 3 license would allow me (yes, I promise I’ll become Cat 2 after Nationals!).  And of course I’m thinking I’ll return for another RME event, the PV Cycle Derby and do the 22 mile XC race.  Oh boy, I’ve become a big girl!

Becoming a big girl also ushered in my very first flat tire.  Driving home I hit Fort Collins and noticed my bike flapping around in the roof rack, and that the front tire was completely flat.  Luckily I had to stop and exchange kits with Amy, so I put my bike in the fork mount rack and found one goathead in my tire.  Found another small thorn at home.  I guess the warnings at Battle the Bear were right, and I was just lucky it didn’t go flat during the race.  Took 4 tire levers and my dad to get the tire off so I could change the tube, so I am VERY lucky I flatted after the race.  But the Epic’s all fixed back up, and enjoying her two week break before the Grinder.  Nearly 1800 miles on a bikes without a flat…

The rest of the weekend I’ve been terribly lazy.  I was going to ride today, but it’s been thundering and raining off and on so I decided the couch is a better place to be.  The weather is suppose to be gorgeous the next 10 days, so the road bike is coming up to work with me, so at least I can get in some short after work rides this week.  I’m hoping Curt Gowdy dries out this week so next week I can practice the Grinder course, especially Ignoramus and Rock N Roller, which I haven’t ridden that much.  And hopefully I’ll have something to post about besides another darn race report in the meantime…

I feel like my blog is going to turn into nothing but race reports at the rate I’m going… and I don’t necessarily want that!  Needless to say, I raced twice last weekend, and race again tomorrow and I can’t go without saying a little bit of something, right?

So last Saturday on the 27th I raced in the Ridgeline Rampage race, which kicks off the Rocky Mountain Endurance series.  I entered the 10-mile “Half XC” category as the course has a ton of climbing and I’m still increasing my mountain biking distances.  I was racing “sight unseen” which had me a bit uneasy as I would have no idea what to anticipate.  I actually think it worked to my benefit as I didn’t have time to stew over something coming up on the course, like I did in Fruita with Chutes & Ladders.

Turns out only 3 ladies showed up to race the Half XC category.  OK, cool.  Podium for me!  That made me quite happy actually.  I led the group out on the pavement, and in turn was the first to hit the singletrack which meant in turn I was the first to have to start passing all the Half XC men racers.  And boy did I pass a lot.  Then I started passing women in the XC category.  WTF?!

I was owning people on the climbs, but getting caught on the downhills.  Loose gravel and super tight switchbacks made me play it easy.  First serious switchback I panicked and jumped off the bike, letting my competition pass me.  She was a lot stronger on the downhills, so I’m guessing she would’ve caught me eventually.  I was alright, though.  I was proud, as I carefully cleared the rest of the switchbacks for the rest of the course without a dab!

Soon there was this INSANE long climb out of nowhere.  No joking, there were XC and Half-Marathon men passed out and puking on the sides, and about 5-8 XC women walking up it.  Granny gear it was, and I sat and spun the whole thing at a mighty 4.4mph.  It sucked, but I couldn’t have been happier about passing all those hike-a-bikers, knowing that  6 months ago I would’ve been in their shoes as well.  Soon I had gapped the walking ladies, and was riding mostly by myself, except for an occasional lady or guy I’d catch and pass.  The course crested way above Castle Rock, and all below me were identical little McMansions spread out.  Without thinking I burst into the “Little Boxes” song that is the theme for the TV show “Weeds.”  Seriously, I totally felt like I was in Agrestic!

8.7 miles in I dropped my chain off my front chain ring.  Calmly I stopped and put it back on, and continued on.  Luckily no one caught and passed me during this time, so I’m sure I lost a minute or two from the leader in my category.  Before I knew it the 10 miles was up and I was back on the pavement for the final sprint to the finish.  I went into roadie mode and pegged it, which led to the announcer saying something smart ass about how he couldn’t understand how I had so much left in for me for that kind of finish.  I call it Finish Line Motivation 🙂

I crossed under the big finish line sign and grabbed a water bottle from neutral support and downed it.  It was a hot day, well over 70 and I couldn’t swallow my Clif Shot drink mix that was in my bottle… it was just too sugary and hot for me, so I did the whole race without any hydration – not to mention the course was so curvy that there was really no time for me to drink before the next switchback would appear!

There it is, my first race win!  Granted, I won my age category by default of being the only 30-39 racer, but I’m still pleased as I raced a race and didn’t just sit back!  I was 2nd overall in women’s Half XC.  Finally good results!  I was mostly excited by the fact I would’ve been 4th place in the men’s race, and definitely not last if I would’ve done the full 20 mile XC.  Sometimes I surprise myself 🙂  The best thing was the feeling I felt after all the climbs.  Climbing use to make me cry and throw little kid fits, and I took that and made it one of my strengths by forcing myself to take climbing routes.  That says a lot I think 🙂  Anyways, I skipped out on the podium ceremony, and just grabbed my award and headed home since it was a long drive and I was sunburned, hungry, and exhausted and felt no need to stand on the sketchy wooden blocks and put my arms in the air all awkwardly.

The next day was the Deer Trail Road Race.  What possessed me to sign up for a 43 mile road race in the middle of freakin’ nowhere on an 80 degree day at the beginning of allergy season is beyond me.  Seriously… gotta think things through better!  Dehydrated, grouchy, sunburned, and definitely not adjusted to riding in 80 degree temperatures, I knew it was going to be bad before it even started.  My body didn’t want to cooperate, I wasn’t in it mentally, and some evil purple-weed flower stuff that smells like vomit threw me into 3 asthma-like attacks (I don’t have asthma, I’m only guessing what I experienced is what they must feel like) on the bike.  15.5 miles in I called it quits.  My first DNF.  I hung out with Wendy and took photos of Shareen and Matt.  Luckily Matt had a kick ass race in SM5!  I’ve decided that when it comes to pavement and skinny tire riding, I’m a time trialist and “excel” at stuff at 25 miles or under.  I’ve learned my lesson on road races of longer distances…

So in light of my experiences at the Ridgeline Rampage, I decided to give the next RME race – Battle the Bear –  a go this weekend.  It was suppose to be today, but snow once again postponed it to tomorrow.  BUT… I’ve decided to step it up and take the challenge of the XC category and race 20 miles.  The course is fast and non-technical, so I know the 20 miles will go a lot faster than it does at, for example, Gowdy.  Still nervous to challenge myself at that distance, but it has to happen at some point as the Laramie Enduro is getting closer and closer, and I gotta learn to do 20 miles if I want to finish 70 miles!

My mountain bike race for today was postponed to save the trails from the tires of several hundred racers, so I randomly registered for the Weld County Road Race.  Not too positive about how it would go, I figured it would at least be a forced 25 mile training ride that I probably otherwise would not do.  I haven’t touched my road bike in weeks in favor of riding on dirt, so I was worried.  All I can say is…

I HAD A FREAKING BLAST!

Seriously, I was giddy for hours afterwards!  It was seriously that fun!

The start was a neutral roll out, and it had me frazzled.  I can’t stand riding in large groups, let alone sketchy large groups with 41+ gals just going where ever.  I tried to stick with my teammate Shareen, but figured it would be better to hang back.  The course included a 1-mile long stretch of gravel road, and the neutral roll out included this.  OK, no offense roadies, but dirt, mud, and washboard is NOT going to hurt you!  This was the most stressful part for me, as the mountain biker in me just wanted to peg it and have fun, and there were girls slamming on the brakes over tiny washboard holes and swerving around mud.  Sigh.

Once we made it through the dirt the course turned 90 degrees right and the race started.  The lead peloton took off like crazy and I did my best for about 20 seconds and then just dropped back.  Oh well!  I was feeling going, and easily cruising fast.  Literally maybe a mile or so up the road was a massive wreck that occurred in said lead peloton that I couldn’t hang with, and I let out a huge sigh of a relief that I wasn’t part of it.  My biggest fear is crashing on pavement, which is why I will never do a crit, so I’m glad I got to avoid the whole mess.  Some gals were able to hop back on their bike, but one girl was pretty bloodied up and crying in the middle of the road.  The nurse inside of me wanted to stop, but I knew the race had to go on and race officials were there at her side and EMS was on the way.

In the drops I went, and I started playing cat and mouse with two other girls.  One finally asked if I wanted to work together with them, and I agreed though I quite didn’t know how it was all suppose to work – such as how long we would each pull and what not (I’m not up to par with roadie sign language, so I had no idea shaking your left elbow means you wanna stop leading, haha).  What I quickly discovered is I could out climb them on hills, so on every climb would I have to jump out of the line to keep up my momentum, and then usually could lead on the downhills a bit too.  This put a huge smile on my face as I always feel I struggle with climbing but yet it was my shining skill today at the race!

When working together you definitely feel the difference in effort, so I was pleased I could “team” up with some fellow riders and have fun!  I continued to surprise myself by taking some corners at a decent speed (over 20mph… hey, it’s a big deal for me!), and hanging quite well with the pack.  We would pick up and drop off occasional riders.  We picked up another girl with a few miles left on the first lap.

First lap over, we flew down the pavement (I managed to drink from my bottle and return it to its cage unharmed) and turned again onto the dirt.  Finally without a pack of crazed roadies who are scared of dirt (seriously people, this is where you wanna fall, if you must crash!), I had the time of my life!  I looked down once and saw I was doing about 26mph on the bumpy, muddy gravel road and my smile just got that much bigger.  One girl rode on the left side of the road, which I thought we weren’t suppose to do (and I wasn’t about to try it and get DQ’d), so I was kinda “stuck” behind one of the other girls I was with.  We turned on the asphalt again got up to speed.

One girl that was with us dropped us on dirt section (the one riding on the left), and soon two of us dropped another girl.  There was a super fast chick that the girl I was with encouraged me to catch and stick to her wheel.  I offered to pull her for a bit, and she said to go ahead and try to catch that girl, and worse comes to worse she’d just catch up to me.  So with that I zoomed off, and did the rest of the race alone.  I never did catch the super fast girl, but I did pass one or two other racers from other classes, so that made me pretty happy!  I’m pretty sure I had a smile on my face (which I turned into a pissed off serious look around photographers, haha), and even yelled a big thank you to the highway patrolman controlling traffic at an intersection.  Weirdly enough I caught me singing “Better Dig Two” by The Band Perry… I have NO idea why I get random country songs stuck in my head during races, but it cracks me up!

The last few miles my legs began to protest and I protested right back with a solid “SHUT UP LEGS!”  My speeds were not as high as the first lap, but I was keeping ahead of the girls I dropped.  Finally the last hill was in sight, and I powered up it, which left me thinking that it wasn’t the last hill as it wasn’t as bad as I remember the first time, and then I saw the finish line and mustered up the energy to put forth a good finish effort.

WHEW, finished!  25 miles done, with an average speed of nearly 18mph.  First road race in the books!  I survived, with a great big smile, and without getting crashed into!  The girl who dropped me on the dirt section and I cruised back to the parking/registration area, and had a nice chat.  I love meeting fellow girl cyclists, it’s awesome!  It was her first road race as well, and I think she only had me by maybe 20 seconds at the most!

I finished in 28th Place out of 39, so I’m super happy!  I set a goal of Top 30, not really knowing where it would play out, and look at that, I met it!  I am feeling super confident about my climbing abilities now, which I know comes in part of the mountain biking.  Shareen was laughing at how giddy I was, and that made me even happier.  After a terrible race last weekend, finishing last, and some ensuing drama later ons, I need this more than anything to get me motivated to continue racing!  I’m still not a fan of peloton riding (definitely prefer smaller groups of 4 or so), and that still worries me about future road races, but I am looking forward to next weekend’s Deer Trail Road Race, which will be a much longer effort (38 miles).  25 miles is my sweet spot, as it’s my usual road ride length, so we’ll see!

I wanna give a shout out to McDonald’s… see, I love Egg McMuffins and that meal is my typical pre ride meal.  However, I hate the yellow powdery yoke.  Well wouldn’t you know when I rode through the drive thru this morning there was the answer to my breakfast cycling racing prayers – an egg white-only sandwich called the Egg White Delight McMuffin!  It’s a new offering, and I sure hope it’s permanent as it kicked butt and I definitely felt adequately fueled.  Heck, it has protein, sodium, and carbs – what more can you need?!  Say what you want, I know it’s disgusting fast food, but it definitely set off my day in the right way!

My 2012 Specialized Ruby Apex Compact performed marvelously, and I got some compliments on the pinkness of it!  Miss Ruby told me that she thinks she needs to be ridden on gravel more often, and she sees why Serenity the Mountain Bike like dirt!  😛  Big thanks to Wendy at the Bicycle Station for the endless fits we’ve done with the bike – I think it’s finally feeling good!

Hopefully more photos will come as photographers upload them… I just was so excited to write this race report I had to do it right this second.  !!!!! *bounces around*  Coming up is the postponed Ridgeline Rampage on April 27th, followed by the Deer Trail Road Race on the 28th.  Double-header next weekend!

I ❤ road racing. 

Well, finally the race was here – the one I had been planning since last fall.  I’m still digesting how I feel about this race.  I can’t say I’m overly elated about how things went down, but everyone keeps telling me I should be happy with how things went down.  I’m just on the edge…

Matt and I arrived in Fruita on Friday, and immediately went out to the venue – the trails at 18 Road – to pre-ride the course.  It was a super sunny and hot day, which had it’s own way of messing with me.  Going from riding in 40 degree weather to 70 degree weather does weird things to a body!  Though I was completely spastic on the ride (6 hours in a car does that to a person!), I felt OK and had a sort of game plan in my head.  My only concern was the fact my heartrate would hit 190 and just stay there, and I couldn’t recover.  I could actually feel pain in my heart muscle, ugh.

Satisfied with gaining at least a basic knowledge of the trails, we headed back to our hotel, which nicely enough had a jacuzzi tub (yay for being La Quinta Elite members!).  A bike may or may not have been washed in said tub.  That is all I’ll say!  We cleaned up and headed out to find some dinner.  Walking down the sidewalk I heard a “Heidi!” and saw my friend Reanna from Fort Follies, and fellow Wind Chill Cycling teammate Amy!  So awesome to run into friends like this!  I bought some socks at Over the Edge of a T-rex riding a mountain bike, and then we headed to the Hot Tomato, which is a Fruita food staple.  Very very very good pizza and breadsticks!  I usually hate non-commercial pizza (living in New Jersey was hell for me pizza wise…), but holy crap Hot Tomato was good!

Alarm went off at an uncomfortable 5:45am on Saturday morning.  We quickly readied ourselves and grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then off to the venue.  Which is stupidly dusty.  Beyond dusty.  But more on that later.  We discovered that they added another mile to the race course, adding in a start loop.  I wasn’t quite amused by this.  Sure, a mile isn’t a lot, but it can be a lot, you know?  We pre-rode the start loop as our warmup and then prepared to stage, as Matt had an earlier start time than I did.

I discovered that I apparently look very young.  A sweet girl in the 15-16 category (prolly cat 1… all those kids are too damn fast!) asked if I was in her category, which I had to laugh about and told her she deserved a hug for thinking I was that young!  So enough I was staging for my race, the women’s Cat 3 30-39.  Suddenly I knew I was going to lose horribly bad.  I dunno, just an icky feeling.

Whistle went off and I clipped in rather well and was sitting in 3rd place on the start loop.  I came off the big hill and heard the announcer say my name, which was a little strange – just not use to that at races!  I just hammered down, tried to focus on my breathing.  There was a girl in my class in a purple jersey, and I was determined to not let her pass me.  All this time I thought I was still sitting in 3rd, but was really 4th.  But thinking I was in a podium spot was good enough motivation.

The first part of singletrack was stupidly sandy, and I ended up washing out at a decent speed.  I swear I was only on the ground for a second before jumping back up and pedaling like crazy.  Purple Jersey Gal had caught up to me, which was NOT allowed, dammit!  Soon I became a bit more frazzled as the Cat 1 Junior boys caught us and were zipping all around.  Soon the Prime Cut ascent began and it took everything at times to keep pedaling, and I’d just concentrate at one pedal stroke at the time.  Amusingly enough, Toby Keith’s “Made in America” song randomly popped into my head at one point during a climb and I was randomly singing “There’s nothing that he can’t fix with WD40 and a Craftsman wrench…”  Yeahhhhhh… at least it wasn’t Jason Aldean’s “1994”, right?

I was going a good job at holding off Purple Jersey Gal when I hit the bottom of Chutes & Ladders, which I’ve officially deemed the stupidest trail in existence.  Seriously, no need for climbs that steep.  The world will not suffer if those climbs disappeared!  I didn’t even attempt the first one, instead I painstakingly started to walk.  My calves started cramping with every step.  I ended up walking all the stupid vertical climbs, maybe 4-5 in total.  So did Purple Jersey Gal, luckily.  But soon she was right on my rear wheel, and I sneakingly knew that when the moment came she would leave me in her dust.

Alas, that moment came on the last technical climb, where I got off my line and was stopped by a huge boulder.  That was the last I saw of Purple Jersey Gal until the finish line.  Ugh.  I had also run over cactus with my front wheel, which flung up into my face.  Now I was downright paranoid my tires were going flat, just as I got to the super speedy downhill singletrack! UGHHHH

So I played it easy… asked a course marshal if my tires were flat and he said only my rear looked a little flat (turns out it was fine).  3 miles to the finish, and I gave up.  Screw it, I was in last place, and as long as I crossed the finish line I would qualify for Nationals, so why risk wrecking?  I was pretty downtrodden at this point.  I smiled at spectators, who usually yelled something back about “yay, keep smiling, this is so fun!  You’re doing so good!” which started to feel like mocking as I was last place!  But it was awesome to see how supportive the spectators were, definitely not something I had seen at the time trial or my Laramie MTB races last summer.  Everyone seemed to have encouraging things to yell and cowbells.  Yay for glorious cowbells!

The finish was a super fast downhill (I think I was going at a decent 22mph… Matt reported he was going 31!), with a 90 degree turn.  I slammed the brakes on, determined not to wreck in front of everyone, and turned towards the finish, which was met with something along the lines of “Here comes Heidi Gurov from Spradley Barr Wind…” I stopped listening.  Still creeped about my name being announced!  I turned off the course and ran into Purple Jersey Gal, whose name is really Christy.  I congratulated her.  She’s actually pretty badass as she finished up chemo for breast cancer not too long ago!

Soon Matt and Suzie wandered over, fresh off of both of their 1st place finishes.  Found my results, discovered my 5th Place and the fact that there was a DNF girl, which I guess means I wasn’t last?  Hmm.

So yeah, that was my Rumble at 18 Road.  Qualified to Nationals in July, but not completely happy.  I dunno, it just felt so off.  And I’m sorry, and maybe I’m spoiled by Gowdy being in my back yard, but for the life of me I’m still trying to see what the hoopla about the 18 Road trails is about???  Desert is awesome, I get that, I’m a desert lover!  But otherwise the trails themselves, meaning Prime Cut and Chutes & Ladders just didn’t ring out anything special to me.  And the DUST!  OMG!  Mr. Fozzy looked like he just did a rallycross event, instead of just being parked at a bike race!  Once again, Gowdy is my home trail system so I think it comes down to me being a spoiled brat.  I still had fun, and it was fun hanging out with Suzie and just being in Fruita in general.  Just not overly thrilled about the race.  Or the dust.  Bad for lungs!

For the record, my tires were fine for the race after the cactus murdering.  However, my front tire went flat 24 hours later on the bike rack and the valve stem was broken.  Still trying to figure that one out…

 

After awards we headed out towards Moab for more riding and camping!  We attempted a ride of Pipe Dream, but we were both worn out.  So we spun out the legs on the 4×4 road Pipeline, and headed back into town to meet up with Reanna and Amy.  After a very fulfilling dinner at Moab Brewery, where I had a bacon cheeseburger, fries, coleslaw, and about 10 pickles we set out towards Arches National Park, which is where we would be camping for the night.  A blustery cold front was blowing in, so our campsite greeted us with hurricane winds.  Not really sure what we should do, Matt decided to block the wind with Mr. Fozzy and put our tent under a tree, and Reanna and Amy used barren desert trees to try to block the wind from theirs.  Since it was so nasty we all pretty much set up camp and retired to our tents for the night.

Soon it rained, which lulled me off to sleep.  The campsite was beautiful and spacious!  So fortunate I was able to book a site in Arches, and the $20 was a whole lot nicer than the hotel prices!  The morning greeted us with clear blue skies.  The storm had blown through, leaving nice weather in its wake!

Matt and I packed up and headed out of town, stopping at the Klondike Bluffs trails to get some more Moab riding in before the long drive home.  We rode DKG and Dino Flow, doing about an 9 mile ride before calling it quits.  Definitely like the trails in that system, and will have to come back later and spend some more time there!  And so began the long drive home… stopping in Grand Junction to feast at Famous Dave’s before heading up over I-70.  Luckily the roads were not too bad and we rolled into home about 9pm, with a screaming bengal greeting us at the door.  Woke up Monday morning to a foot of snow… sigh.

So that was the big Fruita/Moab race weekend!  Got some awesome cyclist tan line action going on, had a fairly decent race (I just gotta keep telling myself that…), Matt won his first ever mountain bike race, and we camped in a hurricane in the desert with friends!  Eventually I’ll start training and actually stop being lazy…

You better have a snow shovel ready!

Over a foot of snow up here in Douglas, which has me conveniently stranded here until the roads open so I can get home.  Weird to think I’ll be in 80 degree Moab in 4 days…

I saw my first blooming wildflower yesterday – it must be spring!

Ahhh… green grass, chirping birds, little baby prairie dogs – so exciting!  This winter was hard on me for some reason, so I am much enjoying the warm temperatures and greening-up of the world.  I’m even compelled to do yard work… not sure what’s up with that, but I’ll take it (and it’s a decent work out as well!)

I haven’t posted in awhile, so here’s to a hodge-podge of thoughts

1. Oh snap, race season
One week from now I will be done with my first mountain bike race of the year, Rumble at 18 Road.  Kinda nervous, not sure how it’ll go.  Then a week after that I’ll race in the Ridgeline Rampage.  A week after that the Deer Trail Road Race.  A week after that hopefully a time trial in Colorado Springs.  Few weeks off, and I’ll round out end of May/beginning of June with the IHBC MTB race, IHBC TT, PV Cycle Derby, Beti Bike Bash, either a MTB or TT mid-week, and end the first week of June with a 5k running race.  Eeek.  And speaking of racing, I got into the Laramie Enduro through the lottery.  What the heck…. I’m sure it’ll be a bad idea, and not sure why I actually paid the entry fee, but at least I’ll get the tee shirt, right?

2.  Moab!
The race in Fruita next weekend mostly means super awesome trip to Moab afterwards!  I scored a campsite in Arches National Park (actually, the only one available for weeks and weeks… booyyyahhhh) for Saturday night.  Sooooooooooo excited!  All the hotels were $100-200 a night, so $20 for camping doesn’t seem so bad at all!  Definitely excited to ride the Klondike Bluffs trails, and especially EKG.  Nerdy nurse here, of course I want to ride a trail that looks like a scary A-fib rhythm!

3. Fitwall
Wouldn’t you know, I am still doing Fitwall!  After dealing with the debilitating soreness after my first try at it (my blog post wasn’t fully accurate… though I woke up fine, the uber soreness hit later that afternoon on a MTB ride and left me barely able to move the next two days.), I’ve learned it’s not so bad and don’t feel that sore anymore.  I’ve been going once a week due to work, but am noticing some improvements in my upper body strength, especially when mountain biking.  Who knew I’d do something like Fitwall, right?

4. Kim comes to visit oh so soon!
OK, first week of June… but that’s soon!  Soon enough to be on the new work schedule that’s coming out!  We’re all over the place on what we want to do.  Kim found a 5k running race in Westminster to do, so I might just try to do this foreign thing called “running” and waddle beside her.  Otherwise I gotta take her to see bison, and Vedauwoo, and Medicine Bow Peak.  And even the MAC store in Boulder, though I hardly wear makeup anymore.

5. Getting better on the bike
People love to hate on Strava, but I love it as I can compare my results and see how I’m improving.  Yesterday I did a rather long ride at Curt Gowdy, and knocked 30 minutes off of my Middle Kingdom time without even really “strava-ing” it.  And I’m starting to see heart rate improvements as well.  Pretty neat stuff, makes me rather giddy.  I even did this rather steep drop off off of granite yesterday.  I was pretty sure I was going to fall and knock myself out in BFE and the baby prairie dogs would eat my body, but I made it down.  I may or may not have done a dorky happy dance, which is alright because I was the only person around 😛

I really don’t know what else to write… the sun is shining, sky is blue so I’m being called to go outside.  I really want to rake leaves for some reason!

After a morning of disasters, including having to break into my own house when I locked my keys in, my bike coming out of my new Thule Side Arm bike carrier 1/2 mile down the interstate when I did finally leave home, and temporarily misplacing my debit card, I was a little hesitant on how my ride would go today.  I headed down to ride Blue Sky and Indian Summer in Colorado with the sole plan of riding without stopping – especially on the climbs – and finally starting my MTB training for the year.

But wait, you say, haven’t I already ridden a MTB this year?  Of course I have.  And sure, they were training.  But not training.  Two were pretty much social rides, one was goofing off in the snow on STC the day I brought home the Epic, and the one wayyyyy back in January with Matt was just trying to find my MTB legs again.  There’s a difference for me.  I like the company of others, but I feel I get the most bang for my buck on the MTB when I’m solo and determined.

The wind howled, and I almost felt like I was back in Wyoming for a moment.  My legs felt good and strong (I’m sure the wind pushing me helped!), and I felt comfortable on the Epic.  To this day I am still weary of the Epic’s speed and still lacking the connection to the bike like I feel with my old Rainier.  We zipped around corners and up and down the rollers, and I loved the fact the trail was empty.  Even had the chance to practice getting my bottle and drinking while moving, and realized buying the Purist bottle was the best decision ever as it fits in the pitifully small bottle space the Epic has.  I made it to the end of the zippy part of Blue Sky, to wear the railings and hike-a-bike starts and finally took a breather.  Over 6 miles in, no stopping and I felt good.  I snapped the above photo, drank more of the Roctane I’m giving a try and swung the bike around for the descent.  I played around with the idea of continuing to Devil’s Backbone, but decided the techy stuff of Laughing Horse loop didn’t quiet appeal to me and I still had Indian Summer to conquer.

Turning around I was faced with the wind, which halved my speed, but still felt a lot nicer on the trail than it does on the road.  I was bound and determined to make it to Indian Summer and up and over that trail without stopping, preferably to the junction with Coyote Ridge after the big Blue Sky climb.  I knew it was ambitious, but could be done.  I tend not to stop as much when I’m solo as when others are around (explain that one…).  The Epic and I started our granny gearing switchbacks up Indian Summer.  Every once in awhile a big wind gust would hit us and threaten to blow us off the hill, but we persevered.  Climbing, climbing, and more climbing.  Pedal stroke, pedal stroke, pedal stroke.  It’s true, sometimes a person just has to focus on keeping the pedals moving and nothing else.  Finally the steep portion that caused me to stop the last time I rode this trail appeared and attacked it – up and over I went, and I continued on.  Eventually I was on the descent and so completely satsified with myself.  “Do I stop at the bottom and have a snack?  Or do I just keep the rhythm going?  Mmm, Big City Burrito sounds good, I’ll treat myself.”

I kept going.  Almost immediately after coming off of Indian Summer you head up the Blue Sky climb.  First time I rode this in January it didn’t go so well and I walked parts of it.  Second time I was bound and determined to make it up it without stopping, only to have to stop when some people didn’t heed to the whole “yield to uphill riders” thing.  Third time is a charm?  Yes indeed!  The climb seemed short.  I reached the Coyote Ridge junction and wondered where all the hill had gone.  It didn’t seem as long or as hard.  What in the world?!

I pedaled against the wind the rest of the way down Blue Sky, but not feeling bad at all.  I finally was feeling one with the Epic.  We swooped around corners and I actively talked to myself about letting off the brakes a bit more.  I spun the legs out for a few miles on the Inlet Bay trail, only being stopped by trail closures due to the wildfire.  Otherwise I bet you anything I would’ve rode to Lory State Park just because I could it it felt good.  The Epic covers ground amazingly fast, it would’ve been cake.  People, please stop setting forests on fire – it hampers my trail time, dammit!

15.2 miles in less than two hours.  I rocked it today.  Best of all, I knocked 1 minute 15 seconds off of my personal best on the Blue Sky climb.  No wonder it seemed shorter!

And yes, I did reward myself with a Big City potato burrito!

First MTB race is April 13th.  I’m still wondering if I’ll be ready.  I feel a bit better after today, but know I need to hit the trails hard until race day.  Weather hasn’t been playing very nice lately, which always puts a damper on this.  I’m also battling skittish mental demons that plague my mountain biking.  I always fall off my bike to the left, no matter what, and therefore have a huge issue with left sided exposure.  Even if I’m not even close to falling or riding off the trail if I even give it a one second thought usually somehow my body will make sure I try to fall off that left side.  Last week it sent the Epic into a rock and me running 50 feet down an embankment for Horsetooth Reservoir.  I’m also having an issue with taking corners at speed.  I’m not sure where all these demons have come from but I wish they’d go away.  The clock is ticking…

 

Oh the things I find myself doing…

So one of my teammates is a FitWall instructor, and the studio is also one of my cycling team’s sponsors, so in turn we have little team workout sessions at FitWall-The Studio here in Cheyenne.  Matt went last week and was raving about how I had to try it, though he said I would probably hate it and wouldn’t do well.  Challenge accepted!

FitWall is a vertical training system that engages our body’s “fight or flight” system (sympathetic nervous system for all you science nerds like me!  Which lead me to think about how I won’t wanna eat or pee while I’m doing it…).  By engaging the fight or flight, you engage a whole heck of a lot more muscles than your typical on the ground/sitting work out.  Also, your joints are decompressed while on the wall, which reduces the change of injury.  Pretty interesting stuff!

My main hesitation were about my knees.  I baby the crap out of my right knee, and all it’s suppose to do in life is pedal a bicycle happily.  I’ve decided to call it my Princess Knee, as I treat it like a spoiled princess.  Makes the left knee not so happy, but that’s how life works.  I whined about this to Matt, and he pretty much told me to suck it up and just go.  Ok…

A FitWall workout takes about 30 minutes, and since you’re engaging more muscles at once, you get way more of a workout in 30 minutes than you would in the gym in 30 minutes.  Even better!

So how did it go for me?  It was a sweaty, finger numbing good ol’ time!  Holy crap did that 30 minutes work up a sweat, and get my heart rate up!  Even better is only one or two of the exercises made Princess Knee angry, so my fears of hurting my knee were unfounded and I found ways to work around any discomfort.  I think I did discover new muscles in my body that I didn’t know I had.  11 minutes in, and my fingers were protesting having to get back on the wall, but I fought through it.  I really enjoyed some of the leg exercises, then again, any time I can point my toes and pretend I’m a pretty, graceful ballerina in my head is a good thing!  We ended with using bungee rubber rope cord thingies and doing some ab exercises, which was a nice cool down.  Thankfully I have decent abs naturally!

Now the big test was to see how sore I would be.  I woke up this morning pleasantly surprised!  I had that slight “I worked out, I’m sore, and it feels oh so good” soreness in my shoulders, arms, and calfs.  The only part of me that doesn’t seem to be working right are my fingers, and I fumbled around with the toothbrush a bit.  Fine motor skills are a bit off, but no T-Rex arms.  Not too bad for spending nearly 30 minutes hanging from my fingertips!  Actually made me excited to go do more, which is weird because I have a strong aversion to any sort of exercise outside of riding a bike and the occasional hike/walk.

So there, I tried a workout program, and surprisingly it went well and I see myself going back!  Unfortunately work will dictate how often I can go, but I definitely can see myself adding FitWall in between all the bike riding and couch sitting I do!  Maybe it’ll grow my little puny baby arms into something, right?  🙂

Time to mark my first race on pavement off the list of To Do items!  Today I competed in the Frostbite Time Trial in northern Colorado – a ~11.5 mile long out and back rolling hills windy time trial.  First race of the season, first race on pavement, first nerves of the year, first race for my team, first time wearing a team kit, first race on the Shiv, first time wearing a TT helmet, first time road riding without gloves… the list goes on and on!  Lots of firsts!

I went into this race with a lot of hesitancy and nerves.  A few posts back I talked about my lack of training and general slowness and dislike of road riding.  A week ago Matt and I rode the course, and I struggled to get it down in 40 minutes.  It was so discouraging.  I suddenly wondered if I should change my goal from “make the top 10” to “finish DFL.”

Matt and I arrived at the site around 8:10am.  Matt was scheduled to race at 10:06 and me at 11:31.  So plenty early, but I like being early.  We picked up our numbers and hung out until our teammates arrived with the Spradley Barr trailer.

After some chatting Matt and Kirk jumped on the trainers to begin their warm up.  I fiddled around feeding Matt bananas and water and wondered how my aching knee would handle the race.

Soon I was pinning on Matt’s number and sending him off to the start.  Definitely had some fun with spray adhesive and the number… oh the random tips you can find on Google!  I hustled up to the start with my camera, forgetting how far away it was, as I usually ride it by bike.  I barely made it time, as Matt was already lined up and ready to go.  I hung out and took photos for about 30 minutes, and then hustled back to the trailer so I could get ready, barely missing Matt’s finish (which led to me missing out on getting good photos of him… sigh).

I slapped some KT Pro Tape on my right knee, pulled on my knee warmers, tossed on my shoes, and piled myself onto the trainer.  For the record, this is the first time I have ever warmed up for a race.  For my mountain bike races last summer my warm up consisted of riding across the parking lot to the hut to sign in, and riding back to my car.  Maybe a 1/4 mile of “effort.”  So I didn’t know what to do, except I knew I didn’t want to stress out my knee too much.  I pedaled off and on for about 23 minutes and munched on a PB&J and banana and drank a bottle of water with Hammer Fizz (the bad thing to starting late… breakfast was out of my system and I was hungry!).  The pee started to come on like crazy, and I actually had to take a bathroom break on the trainer.  I finally gave up on the trainer and started just nervously wandering around.  My teammate Shareen was awesome enough to let me borrow her TT helmet.  One final pee break (seriously, what was with all the peeing?!), and Shareen fixed up my hair and adjusted the helmet for me.  Then off I went to the starting line!

I was first up to go in my class, SW4.  Much to my dismay there was no one to hold me at the start, so I would have to worry about getting my left foot clipped in after I started.  I kept telling myself to not go too hard at the start, as I would have 11.5 tough miles ahead of me in the wind.  Before I knew it the official was counting down and I went at GO!

I quickly settled down onto the aero bars (even got clipped in rather quickly-ish), made a\m/ and stuck my tongue out at Matt and his friend, and got on my way.  Time trials usually don’t have a lot to discuss, but lest I forget the WIND.  This event is known for the horrible wind!  Now, mind you, I live in Wyoming, I know about wind and bikes, but it’s a whole ‘nother animal on aero bars.  There was a terrible side wind, and since the race is held on a frontage road of I-25, the semi trucks would leave a wind wake that would swish me around.  One time I grabbed the cowhorns in panic, but soon figured out how to hang on tight and just go with it.  The out portion of the course goes downhill, so I reminded myself to not go too crazy.  I looked at my Garmin and saw I was cruising at a pleasant 23mph which I was pleased with, so I quickly turned to singing “1994” by Jason Aldean in my head (seriously, the most annoying country song out there at the moment, yet so catchy!) and remembering to keep my cadence up.

 

Two girls in my class that started several racers back whizzed by me, yet I remained unfazed.  I came up to the turn around, and cautiously took it and then hammered back up to speed.  I enjoyed about a mile of a tailwind until the wind swirled into a vicious side/head wind the zapped my energy.  I tried to power up the hills and recover when I could.  Soon I was getting passed by stupidly fast male racers.  I still concentrated on even breathing and my cadence.  I knew coming back in my time and speed was nothing like going out, but I was still ahead of my personal best time.   I randomly picked out girls in my class that I did NOT want passing me, and used this for motivation on the long steady climb back.  I had a scare about a mile from the finish when a huge gust of wind caught me and images of myself tumbling down the road at 22mph came into my head.  A quick break from the aero position saved the day, and I settled back down.

I was soon on the last climb and headed towards the finish.  I could see it!  I found every last ounce to pound down on the pedals and push as hard as I could.  Another girl slipped by me near the finish, and I used this as motivation to put my head down and sprint for it.  And then it was all done!

36 minutes 28.428 seconds

Yay, new personal record!  That right there made my day, knowing that I could ride the course in under 40 minutes.  I rode the race with an average heart rate of 185, which is just crazy.  I tried to get it down, but couldn’t, even on descents (thank you crazy wind).

I rode back to the trailer, clumsily got off my bike and sat down before my rubbery legs got the best of me.  I was pooped, and I’m not even sure I was forming proper sentences.  I dug out my chocolate milk (and spilt some while shoving an ice pack under my knee warmer), choked it down – ugh, milk just isn’t appetizing after an effort like this!  Matt wandered back from taking photos and we just hung out chatting up our teammates.  Finally we realized they were posting results, and wandered over to take a look.

Much to Matt’s utter surprise, he placed 9th out of 28 racers in his category!  This was also his first race ever, so big accomplishment!  I am so proud of him, but then again, I’ve known for a long time that he is a rockstar on his bikes!  His time was over 5 minutes faster than mine, also not surprising.  Great race debut for him 🙂

I then found the sheet with my category’s results.  I also finished 9th, out of 15 racers.  I met my top 10 goal!  Woo hoo!  Not dead last, either!  Not too shabby for my road debut, even with all my road slowness and semi-hate of it!  I had to laugh though… the top finisher in my category laid down a time that rivaled the pro men.  Yeahhhhhhhhh.  LOL.  She was 3 minutes over the 2nd place finished.  What a beast!

So I am quite fired up for the race season now!  And I’m definitely buying a TT helmet because they’re pretty sweet 😉  My next TT is not until Memorial Day at the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, so I have a ways to wait.  Next up on the schedule is Rumble at 18 Road in Fruita, CO, which is a mountain bike race.  I might try to fit in a weekend or two with some other races, pending my work schedule.

I definitely want to get a BIG THANKS to my wonderful team – Spradley Barr Wind Chill Cycling!  The trailer is a blessing, and I really enjoyed meeting and chatting up all my fellow teammates.  There’s nothing like getting congrats and high fives after a race!  Another big thanks for team sponsor The Bicycle Station who I got my Shiv from, and Wendy from fitting me and being my cycling goddess guru that she is!  And thanks to my right knee, though causing me pain, it kept it to a minimum so I could make it to the finish!

 

Snowmageddon is upon us here in Cheyenne (and most of southeastern WY and the front range of Colorado as well).  It’s actually kind of exciting to have a big snowstorm finally this winter, and I’m not that upset about it.  In fact, I was downright filled with glee to hop on my mountain bike alongside Matt, and go tear up the snow!

It was 23 degrees with 22mph winds, so I had my doubts.  But then it turned out to be one of the funnest days I have ever had on a bike!  There’s something freeing about just jumping on a bike with big ol’ snow boots and jeans, not wearing a heart rate monitor, and not caring about times/speed/cadence.  Just us two goof balls smashing through snow drifts and getting into general shenanigans!  Sometimes things end up being too serious… training, teams, racing, gear.  Just nice to have a day to get away from it all and do something completely goofy.

We found some awesome paths through Lions Park and enjoyed just riding in endless circles.  We even tested out our skills on stairs and steep bridges.  A workout and training without it feeling like one!  Our Giant bikes did awesome.  I was worried about the tires on my Rainier 29er being too whimpy for the snow, but I could plow through deep drifts.  Which led me to the whole “fat bike? I don’t need no stinkin’ fat bike!” thing.  (Nothing against fat bikes, I’m just showing that a “skinny” tire mountain bike can survive the snow as well!)

We ended having 6.3 miles of fun, and spent a little over an hour.  I was having a blast, I could’ve stayed out a lot longer but my cheeks were feeling the wind and cold – I really need a balaclava!

So what did I wear to keep warm on this adventure?  I wore my Specialized RBX shorts, Specialized leg warms, Smart Wool wool hiking socks, my big ol’ winter boots I’m pretty sure I got at Walmart years ago, blue jeans, UA long sleeve thermal shirt, Columbia jacket, scarf crocheted by me, Specialized thermal skull cap, Specialized helmet, and some of Matt’s big thick winter gloves.  I was downright toasty!  Still less than what some roadies in warm climates wear on 50 degree days 😉

Hard to believe I am suppose to be racing in 6 days when I look outside!  I was semi-tempted to take some silly shots of me on the Shiv in the snow all geared up with the clunky winter boots and TT helmet, but the warmth of the house lured me away from that idea.  Tomorrow (and the rest of the week for that matter) will be spent back on the trainer with the Shiv and the Sufferfest: The Long Scream video.