This is a product from Specialized that caught my eye a few months ago, and I was eager to get my hands on one. Oddly enough, the Specialized website offers up no product description, so I really had no idea what the jacket was like until I could see one at my local bike shop, the Bicycle Station, that the owner had ordered in.
My own product description:
A hoodie jacket that has a knit sweater-like fabric along with nylon-y type shell. Features two large front pockets, and a small zippered pocket on the upper left sleeve. Sleeves are extra long in length and have thumb openings. The hood is lined in either hot pink or teal material and wraps around to a high collar. The inside of the jacket has fuzzy lightweight thermal material.
Note, this is a VERY different design than the Men’s Podium Jacket, which is pretty much a standard zippered hoodie of the same fabric and price point.
My initial reaction is that once I put it on, I didn’t want to take it off! It was warm and cuddly, and the fit was spot on (I had to special order mine, so I had to guess on size). I ordered a Large. As a reference point, I am 5’8″ with long long arms, 34″ bust, and about 150 pounds. The jacket is not meant to be skin tight naturally, and I feel like it has enough of a relaxed feel without being tight or baggy in the wrong areas.
I especially like the high collar, which is something not found on any other hoodie-type items that I own. However, this is not the warmest jacket out there! Then again, I don’t think it’s intentioned to be a winter jacket. I have worn it in some 20 degree (with wind chills in the single digits) weather and the wind cut right through the fabric and didn’t leave me too warm and cuddly feeling. I think in milder spring/fall temperatures it will be quite perfect, along with perhaps chilly summer mornings (I suppose this just comes down to where a person lives!).
I don’t necessary anticipate wearing this jacket while riding a bike, though certainly the sleeve length and fit would work well in the riding position. So far I’ve worn mine to a Christmas party, out running errands/shopping, and nonstop around the house. I can see it in rotation with most of my other light weight jackets for every day use, and maybe wearing it to bike related events when not in team gear.
The main downfall: Retail price: $130.
Ouch. I cannot really say this is worth anything near $130. My favorite Columbia shell jacket only cost me $20 at an outlet store, and is actually waterproof and windproof, and my full on poofy winter sub-artic jacket was only $140. Then again, I may be missing the point of this Podium Jacket. It is a cute cuddly jacket that has some nice features. And no one ever said Specialized’s clothing was reasonably priced, though it is better priced than other cycling brands. If you’re a brand loyal cycling nut, or have a big preference for teal or pink items (like me!), this might be for you!
Front view of Podium Jacket in Carbon/PinkBack view of Podium JacketHood and thumb holes!Inside thermal fabric and print on inside of hood
(Sorry for photo quality… I decided to do this at night, and my house is pretty dark)
Disclaimer: I purchased this item at a discounted retail price (due to team sponsorship) for my own personal use. All comments and opinions are my own and I was in no way compensated for the review.
Wow, here we are, the end of 2013! Last weekend I raced my final race of the year, the Colorado state cyclocross championships aka Castle Cross, in Castle Rock. Oddly enough, it felt like my strongest ‘cross race effort of the year and ended up one of my racing highlights for the year. I felt a bit sad, knowing it was too little too late in terms of a halfway decent cross effort, and the fact that it meant the year’s season was over.
2013 Cheyenne Cycling Club Broken Spoke Award
States Raced In: Colorado, Pennsylvania, Wyoming # of Races: 14 mountain bike, 4 road/time trial, 11 cyclocross, 1 triathlon, 1 running # of Wins: 3 # of Top 5: 9 (including the triathlon, excluding the 5k) # of Bags of Granola I Won That I Can’t Eat Due to Allergies: 1
# of photographers who I almost ran over: 1, shotwilliam during Castle Cross. Eek. My face says it all.52 minutes… the length of suffering I endured during the first race of the Cheyenne Cyclocross Series.
Shawn Curry… 1 badass race photographer… which leads into # of barriers tripped over in ‘cross season: 2.# of bushes mowed over during the start of cross country MTB Nationals: 3 or 5. Maybe 10. # of pairs of wheels I was envious of on my rivals bike: 1 pink set.
4: the number of badass ladies I shared the podium with at Nationals! 3: the number of silver medals I earned this year (actually, the only color I earned…)# of times I wore the badass alien helmet: 2.# of hole shots won: Far too many, especially in ‘cross. I suppose that’s my talent, 1st or 2nd place to 20th place in a half of a lap!
The # of DNF (did not finish) results: 3. Deer Trail Road Race, Laramie Enduro, Lory Mountain Challenge #3. # of DNS (did not start results): 3. IHBC Time Trial, Stone Temple 8, Boulder Cup.The # of times I tried to look like the badass that Georgia is and post up on the finish line: 1. # of times I was successful at such a task: 0. The promoter of the Cheyenne Cyclocross series managed to catch me as I was falling over. Oh, and I was posting up for finishing last. Ultra cool.
Count down to 2014 Rumble at Road 18: 17 weeks.
I, along with my Spradley Barr Wind Chill Cycling teammate Joe Dailey ,were awarded the 2013 Cheyenne Cycling Club Broken Spoke Award, which is for most improved cyclists. Nice icing on the cake, and I am honored they thought of choosing me! Though my season had some super highs (winning the Gowdy Grinder unexpectedly) and super lows (the burnout period of July and August), I am thankful I got to race and have the experiences that I did!
2014 training got a little messed up about the time I closed on my house, so last week I restarted. I also restarted by training with power instead of heart rate. Trainerroad.com is an amazing tool for this. My time during Castle Cross, which included a Saturday ‘cross skills clinic with Georgia Gould, my awesome race during Sunday morning, and spending the afternoon reconnecting with my camera and photographing the women’s open race, where I finally got to see Georgia race in person and see her earn the CO state champ title!
Fort Follies ‘cross skills clinic with Georgia. Who knew, I magically could run and jump on my bike the first time I tried at this clinic. Way to pull it together at the end of ‘cross season, Heidi.(Photo: Christi Leong)
So what’s up for 2014? First off, I am uber excited to announce that I will be racing as a Specialized Ambassador through the Bicycle Station here in Cheyenne! Specialized has been my go-to for bikes and gear since pretty close after I started riding, and the Bicycle Station has helped me so much throughout the season so I am excited to be racing for and representing these two great companies in 2014. 2014 will kick off nice and early on January 4th & 5th at Altitude Adjustment Cross, and follow soon with the US Cyclocross National Championships in Boulder on January 7th. Road season (which my road season is never anything big or special) starts February 22nd with the Carter Lake Road Race, and follows soon with the Frostbite Time Trial on March 1st. And finally, the biggie, mountain bike season and the road to Cat 1 starts on April 19th in Fruita at Rumble at 18 Road! Here’s to making my goal of Cat 1 by age 35… at age 30 😀 And cyclocross season… well, never too early to start planning, and September can’t come soon enough, LOL!
Gotta get stronger to herd the wild turkeys better.
Wow, the day has come. I finally got off my butt and made an effort towards this odd thing called a training plan. You know, those things with weird acronyms like FTP and things with heart rate zones and interval thingies. Heart rate zones, what the hell are those?! I thought the point was to ride at 190bpm so I could show off my scary heart rhythms to nursing coworkers, right? Power? That’s the thing that costs a lot and I get a monthly bill for, right?
But seriously, this is needed. Considering I have my heart set on a Cat 1 mountain bike license upgrade in the near future (aka before I’m 31), and people don’t get slower when you race higher categories, and I’m not getting faster spinning random circles on a trainer and riding only when I’m not distracted by the couch, it is very much needed. So my teammate and cycling coach Coach T stepped up and un-lazy-ing my lazy butt. He is one of the coaches for CritFit, and is going to set me straight!
First up was doing a Functional Threshold Power test. I’ve never paid attention to power stuff, as stated earlier, to me it means a big monthly utility bill and not much else. But alas, the test would set my fitness baselines and provide my Strava/number happy loving self with more numbers to focus on.
The testing process was quite easy. Coach T strapped my Shiv down to his trainer, had a program opened up, and we were off! Lots of warm up and then two 8-minute long blocks of the maximum effort I could sustain for those 8 minutes. Mathematical magic figures out the rest! It all seemed a lot easier than it actually was. It was brutal. Not quite tabata interval brutal (which I tend to cry during), but brutal enough. Coach T was there, pushing me along, which helped because otherwise I think I would’ve faded pretty quickly.
So what is functional threshold power (FTP)? I had to google it, I admit it. Easy enough, it is the “highest mean average power you can sustain for one hour.” What’s the neat part that unlike heart rate which can remain the same over training, FTP can change and is a good way to see improvements over training and getting ready to race. I’m sitting at 195 watts as of last night. I can’t wait to see how a few months of training will bring that number up (and hopefully will help me crush the people that crush me).
The final results:
Functional Threshold Power: 195 watts
Functional Threshold Heart Rate: 165 beats per minutes
Coach T prescribed me the CritFit PSP 18 week training plan. Usually training plans have sent me screaming and running in the opposite direction, but I am very excited to begin this one. CritFit is nice, because unlike other coaching services, they aren’t delusional and think people have no life except riding a bike. The weekly training plans are moldable around my crazy 3-day, 12-hour night shift nursing schedule. They don’t require being on a bike every day, and incorporate functional strength training and recovery in very nice ways. This means that I won’t feel guilty about adding in yoga classes (yeah yeah, gotta get that gym membership first set up… shhh) as it fits in. Twice a week I will have Workout of the Day (WODs… luckily not crossfit style, haha) to complete. They’re interval sets that can be repeated as many times as you want. All WODs are given a points value, and each week you’re suppose to complete so many points. So say a WOD is 25 points, you can do two rounds of it, and have half of a weekly 100 points done. Pretty easy – so easy I understand it! I will be training by heart rate since I have no desire to buy a power meter, or the money for that matter.
Though I’m excited now to try it (who doesn’t like new things), I know ongoing motivation is always a hard thing for me to maintain. That’s why I’m finally happy to have someone – Coach T – to keep me on track and accountable for my actions.
And that’s that! Finally getting this whole bike riding thing on track 😀
Considering I did race reports for nearly all my mountain bike races, I do find it odd that I haven’t been blogging about my cyclocross season. I suppose there can’t be too much to say: “I rode in circles, had to jump off the bike and run, and finish mid to bottom pack every time. And had fun!” Seriously! I’m at a lack of words the past couple of months…
Zero Gravel Cross – September 14th
This race I pre registered for before Colorado started flooding. Night before the race the WY-CO border was still closed until 8pm, until they opened Hwy 85 south out of Cheyenne. So I got up hella early, and hit the road in the fog, not knowing what I’d find in Colorado. Everyone told me I was crazy for going, but dammit, I pre registered and it was still on. I picked up a racing buddy in Greeley, and we discovered that getting to Littleton (south of Denver) was really easy. And we were way too early to the race! But what glorious stuff did we find? MUD MUD MUD!!!! YAY for true ‘cross weather!
I finished the race in 16th one lap down. The sun had turned the morning’s runny mud into peanut butter thick stickiness, and it was the most power robbing experience I ever had. Every pedal stroke was effort and my bike picked up several pounds of mud and grass as well. I made it my goal to ride a steep hill every lap that some were treating as a run up, and I did just that 4 times over!
Mud… the preferred bike lubricant.Playing in the mud on a bike is the perfect girly thing to do amid flooding, right?
Cyclo X Valmont – September 21st
I journeyed to the People’s Republic of Boulder to have a go at Valmont Bike Park for my first time. Parking? It sucks, and feels like it’s in a different zip code. Bathrooms? They rock because they’re not porta potties! This was my first race on my 2013 Specialized S-Works OSBB Crux frameset built up with the components from my ’12 Crux Apex. I did a quick shake down at North Park the previous day, but otherwise I was indeed racing on a brand new bike.
One word for this race: AWESOME! The big stair run up sucked, but otherwise I enjoyed the ever living crap out of the course! I felt it was very “mountain bike-y” and lots of power sections which tend to be my advantage, along with a longish climb near the start. If there’s anything I’ve learned over all my races is what my course advantage is, and it’s power/mountain bike-y. Grass and mud, not so much. Anywho, the goal of this race was to chase down Jen and hang with her. Which indeed I caught her, and passed her. On the last lap I went into frantic mode trying to stay ahead of her. During the second stair run up I sprinted up those suckers so fast you’d have no idea I can’t run and ride a bike at the same time! The previous lap I had fumbled a bacon hand up, and my friend was there again trying to give me bacon and I blurted out “No, I must beat her!” And off I went, baconless. 16th Place again, out of 27. I was jazzed 🙂 Jen told me she’d get me next time, and I accepted the challenge (I love her to pieces!)
I do occasionally have a rare smile during the hell that is a ‘cross race!Pig tail helicopter, engage! Dropping 2 pounds on my bike really helped when I had to carry it!
Cyclo X Flatirons – September 27
This race had been rescheduled due to the floods. It was unique in the fact it was at Flatirons Mall, so unlike Valmont, the parking was awesome. It was nearly all grass with a small bit of mud and paved walking paths. It was a weird race experience. At the start I took off like a bat out of hell, and everyone else started really slow. Thinking that it’d be better to be in front when the course turned off the road and onto the grass, I just stuck with my awesome sprint moment and hit the grass in 1st place, and settled into second for about 1/3 of the first lap. Odd, and I felt like a rockstar for brief moments, at least until after the first run up where a guy was yelling to the girl behind me “come on, get second place and beat her!” I spent the rest of the 5 laps working backwards to 22nd place. LOL. At least I had the holeshot, right?
Once again, I put myself ahead of Jen and Celeste. Celeste got around me on the 4th lap, and about halfway through the last lap Jen got around me. Woe is me. I was absolutely spent (grass SUCKS, that’s all) and since there was no one nearby me on the rear I accepted where I was and suffered onto the finish. Not my best effort, and even Jen was like what the hell in regards to us going 21st & 22nd in the results. Then she told me my new bike made me a lot faster. Yay! 😀
The Holeshot rockstar enjoying my brief 2nd place stayI channeled Chris Froome and stared at stems a lot during this race…
I also tried to channel Captain Picard and my warp drive, but alas it didn’t work
Primalpalooza – October 6
This was indeed my best race so far this year for cyclocross! Unfortunately, it also showed my last lap bonk that happens way too much. Endurance? Who needs stinkin’ endurance…
This race seemed to be a disaster from before the start. During warm up some girl ran into my rear derailleur and bent the hanger so I had a “I’ll shift whenever I please” drivetrain. Second warm up lap I got the brilliant idea to try bunny hopping the short barriers. Cuz you know, I’ve never bunny hopped anything in my life, so it was a perfect time to try. Can you say deep tissue injury to my left thigh, crunchy noises in my shoulder, and re-cracking my left elbow along with ripping my pretty bar tape and bending my left brake hood all the way over? Yeah, it was a great time. So I rolled up to the start expecting a horrible race.
I didn’t have the best start, but placed myself well into the Top 10, and avoided the massive crash that happened behind me. The bike behaved for the most part, and once again the course was my preferred mountain bike-y style with climbing followed by a long descent to help me recover my heart rate before technical parts and a run up in the grass. I toppled over on one of the steep switchbacks, but otherwise had no other mishaps. I rode in 11th place until halfway through the final lap where three girls caught me out of nowhere and I couldn’t put in a solid chase. 14th out of 31, which is still great, but I had bits of sadness knowing that if I just had that much more fitness during my last lap it could’ve went better.
Mmmm, deep tissue injury!During my ill fated warm up right before I decided I could hop over barriers
Look, I had a front row call up! 😀
I also did another smart thing and wore my brand new Lake shoes that I got as a homie hook up from BOA. I didn’t tighten my cleats down super tight, so they turned as I tried to unclip. Wasn’t really an issue during the race, though the BOA dials were as they are the “pop up to release” kind, and when I had my one topple over my left shoe released and loosened up. One day I’ll learn not to try brand new equipment during a race. But all in all, considering all my disasters it was a great race!
Colorado Cross Classic – October 12th
Due to this being a UCI race, the SW4 women had a 8am start time (versus our usual 10:45am start). Double yuck, and I pulled into the parking lot and it was still dark outside. And cold. Very cold. Held at Boulder Reservoir, there was an unacceptable amount of sand. It was mostly a grass race (with lots of goatheads apparently – I survived just fine) besides the sand.
This was a race that just was crappy from the start. Bad start, and back of the pack almost immediately. I settled into for a battle for 16th place essentially. So I concentrated on clean cornering and good dismounting. Sometimes when my placing is going to be that hopeless I just have to fight the personal goals more than anything! Due to the time line and putting the SW35+ women in with us, I got pulled before even being lapped. Kinda annoyed at paying $40 for 5.8 miles and less than 40 minutes of racing, but oh well. I just wish that I would’ve known my last lap was actually my last lap so I could’ve fought for my position a bit better.
Turns out that afternoon the killer sore throat kicked in, and the fever, stuffiness, and cough. I picked up my first cold I had in years, so I’ve decided that is what I’m blaming, haha. I was suppose to do the Boulder Cup the next day at Valmont, but instead laid on the couch all day super sick. Sad I missed a Valmont race, but happy I was smart and didn’t go out and race sick like that!
Riding the Beaches of Boulder.If I look fast, that’s all that matters, right?
I like this photo a lot for some reason… the derpy face just says it all!
So that’s my midterm report! With starting my new job in Cheyenne I am not sure how the rest of the season will shape up. I am very conscious about not burning myself out, and it’s hard to look at every weekend being a day I have to wake up early, drive to Colorado, race, drive home, etc. I do like racing for keeping me in shape and honing in some skills I get away with being sloppy at while mountain biking. But I know I gotta be careful. Essentially when ‘cross ends in January at Nationals I’ll really only have two months off before road season starts, and another month after that before mountain bike season starts again. It’s really non stop racing… this week I gave myself time off the bike to kick this cold, and probably won’t ride until my race on Saturday. Which I’m really only doing because I have to go to Fort Collins to buy cat food, and the race is also in Fort Collins, haha. Good excuse, right? I also know I need to start some basic training as I don’t want to get my ass kicked all summer long in mountain biking (ain’t driving to PA again unless it means a podium spot, dammit!).
I mostly write this silly little blog for myself and my BFF Kim, as I’m not sure I have a lot of other readers. However, there is one post that generates traffic for me, and it was my review and unboxing of my Garmin Edge 510 back in February. Since it gets a lot of traffic, I decided I should do a follow up post with my impressions of the device and how my last 7 months of usage have been going.
Garmin Edge 510 still going strong!
Accuracy: Spot on! This device has yet to fail me in this department, whether it be straight, long road rides, tight and curvy cyclocross courses, or in the heavy tree cover of the eastern U.S. on a mountain bike. Where my Edge 500 would be having me make crop circles in a field on a straight road, the Edge 510 keeps me straight as an arrow. I have mine set to generate data points every one second, which is crucial when mountain biking and for cyclocross. I have yet to have erroneous data! The 510 also connects to satellites very quickly, usually within seconds of being turned on! My 500 would take sometimes 20+ minutes to get satellites, so the 510’s speed still amazes me. Usually I can roll the bike outside, turn on the 510, and be on my way within a minute.
Elevation: I have noticed a big difference in elevation readings between mine and Matt’s 510’s, and can’t figure it out. Matt’s usually reads several hundred, if not more, feet higher in elevation gain. Mine tends to be within a few feet of most of my buddies using their smartphones with the Strava app. I have only had one occurrence of wacky data, and that was earlier this month during a cyclocross race where on one of my laps it looks like I climbed a mountain peak. The GPS data for the course was spot on, so not sure what happened with the elevation reading. I know elevation data is not perfect, so it is not a major worry of mine.
Water Resistance: I’ve done my share of playing in the rain, snow, and mud with my 510. Once again, it has not missed a beat and the touchscreen still works when wet. I do not have a silicone case on mine, and covered it in mud at a cyclocross race a few weeks ago even, and no harm was done!
Touchscreen: The biggest annoyance of the touchscreen is if I put it in my back pocket of my jersey it will change screens. Hasn’t really messed up any settings. Just a minor annoyance. Otherwise I am still finding that the touchscreen works well with gloves, muddy fingers, sweaty fingers, and when wet, as mentioned above. Some reviews mentioned that the screen is hard to read in bright sunlight. I haven’t really had any issues with this that I am acutely aware of. Sure, I can get a glare depending on the angle I have it mounted, but that’s more my fault, right? Anyways, I can read it, though sometimes I’d prefer not to see that my heart rate is 200 and I still have 30 minutes to go on a ‘cross race…
Bluetooth: This is one feature that I have abandoned. The few times I synced the 510 to my iPhone 4 with Bluetooth my phone’s battery drained way too much for my liking. I rely on my phone as one of my “I’m in trouble” lifelines when out riding alone, so I don’t want my battery draining just so my ride uploads to Garmin Connect automatically (I plug the 510 into my computer anyway after rides to upload to Strava). I also turned off the weather alerts, as I don’t need to be reminded of “High Winds” in WYOMING every 5 minutes. Thanks Garmin, but I am well aware of what the wind is like here 😉 The Live Tracking I have used once so Matt could watch me mountain bike in Curt Gowdy State Park (where cell service can be sketchy). He enjoyed watching me slowly make my way around. However, it drains the phone battery. Instead I am just very particular about texting my ride plans to him before I leave. Sure, won’t help if I’m kidnapped, but a kidnapper would have to catch me first, right?
Arghhh Strava: Still the #1 downfall of the Edge 510 is lack of 3rd party site support for uploading. Garmin Connect is great, but I only use it to back up my files. I’m a Strava-geek, and sometimes it’s painful to have to wait to see my Suffer Score, LOL. Granted, I’m sure this would require use of the Bluetooth connection, which above I said I didn’t like. Go figure.
Battery Life: … is awesome! I did a century ride this summer, and it was about 7.5 hours start to finish, and from fully charge the battery dropped to about 75%. Unlike using a phone, no worries about battery drainage here! Most of my normal rides will only drop the battery 2-3%.
Accessories: I use the GSC-10 cadence sensor and Garmin premium heart rate monitor and have never had any issues with connectivity to the 510. The heart rate monitor is always accurate for me. I know a lot of people have issues with it, but both of mine always give reliable data.
So… 7 months later and I am still very pleased with the purchase of my Garmin Edge 510! Follow up reviews are good, because often something seems good right out of the box, and only starts to disappoint months down the road. Hopefully my follow up will help others who are curious how the 510 performs once the box collects some dust in the corner and the device is covered in bugs and mud 🙂
Disclaimer: I purchased this item at full retail price for my own personal use. All comments and opinions are my own and I was in no way compensated for the review.
I don’t even know where to begin on expressing my love of cyclocross racing. Need I say more, my weekend was completely awesome considering how much hesitation I had over whether I would even like cross racing.
Saturday morning was the Kick It Cross Festival and Time Trials… a one lap race done in time trial format to determine call ups for Sunday’s race. I resisted wearing my aero helmet (though, hey… it would’ve worked with the randomness that is cross!), and was eager to do a time trial on the dirt. I showed up early, and found the time to do a pre-ride lap of the course. I didn’t know what to expect and was pretty clueless on everything… tires pressures… course preview flag colors… the fact that if you put bib numbers in your jersey’s rear pocket they will fly out causing you to have to walk the course backwards to find them… It was hot, already pushing 80 by 9am. I immediately discovered how bumpy the course was and how the dirt had a powdered sugar consistency.
At 9:12 I set off for my lap. I immediately pegged my heart rate and therefore about halfway through the 3 odd miles felt all my energy draining. I was super proud that I made it through a technical downhill-uphill part without walking, which was caught on camera, yay!
I made that powdered sugar hill my bitch! (Photo by Shawn Curry)
I was passed once, and then at the finish lost the sprint by about half a second with another gal. Not bad considering I was coming to a full stop at dismounts and it was my first time ever, right? I ended up 9th in my SW4 category. Average heart rate of 190 for the nearly 19 minute race to boot.
I signed up to do the BRAC Women’s Cross Camp in the afternoon so I had plenty of hours to kill. I laid out a sleeping bag behind Mr. Fozzy and laid in the grass watching the other categories and almost falling asleep. It was relaxing and despite the heat, a beautiful day. By noon I was hungry to I packed up and wandered to Panda Express before the camp started.
Relaxing in the shade
The BRAC Women’s Cross Camp was up next. Ann Trombley was coaching it along with the gals from Tough Girl Cycling. I was excited to practice skills, dreading the 95 degree weather we had to do it in. We split up into 5 groups for different skills stations, with Amy and I ending up in the “Intermediate-ish Advanced” group.
The 54 participants waiting to get separated out into groups
Our first station was run-ups with Rebecca Gross and another girl from Tough Girls. I have a huge awkward fear of getting off my bike while it is moving, so this was a challenge. First go at it I came around hot on a tight turn and almost ate it, long before I had to dismount and run up a hill with railroad ties. Nice… We practiced shouldering techniques and the most efficient ways to run up stuff.
Next station was starts with Lynn, a USAC Official, and Lynn from Tough Girls. We went over USAC regulations and got free hair ties (I found a leopard print one! ARGHHH so cool! Hahah) and then went over starting techniques and theories. I realized that I usually like starting on the inside line as I thought back over my mountain bike races. We practiced both inside and outside, and yep, I confirmed the inside notion. Afterwards was a short break, and then onto more.
The third station was my clumsiest. First we practiced “scootering,” which is keeping your left foot clipped in, and hovering on the left side of the bike and using your right foot to kick yourself along, like a big awkward skateboard that is really a bicycle. Swearing I didn’t have enough coordination for this, I did get the hang of it. And wouldn’t you know, I got more comfortable with the dismounting technique! We also worked on remounts, which is something I think I’ll never get the hold of.
Fourth station was with Ann Trombley, and Olympian mountain biker, and Ksenia Liepkhina who I always tend to be at mountain bike races with. Of the 5 skills stations, this is the one that I felt was the least helpful, as it was skills I carried over from mountain biking. However, always good to still practice! We practiced neutral and attack positions and some cornering.
Finally the fifth station was technical riding. This is where my full squish mountain bike has given me bad habits, as I can be lazy and just mow through stuff and come out alive at the end. Quite different on a cross bike, so I enjoyed thinking about line selection. We practiced on the powdered sugar hill from the TT (and I couldn’t ride up it this time) and on a switchback downhill.
Finally we regrouped for food and raffle prizes. I won a pair of neon green and orange Basil Docs socks, which is awesome because I never win anything! Dehydrated, tired, and completely filthy I headed home. Was attending a skills camp worth it? Most definitely! You get to look like a dork along with tons of other people looking like dorks! For $25 it was well worth the money and gave me some new things to think about!
Sunday was Cross of the North. My first official mass start cross race. I arrived and spent a lot of time sitting on Mr. Fozzy’s back hatch, watching the action. About 20 minutes until call ups I took off to warm up in the neighborhood by the course. I took the inside edge of a second row call up, and gave myself a good position going onto the gravel thanks to decent flat line power I have at the start. It suddenly became apparent that 20 girls riding the same 5 foot wide section of trail sucks, and rideable stuff becomes a scramble off the bike and around traffic. Still, it was fun. I took a tumble soon in the first lap, kinda going over the bars to the side but not really. Abby managed to not run over me (yay!) and after I freed Hank (my Crux) from the barrier tape I was on my way. I was passed and passed others, and had no idea where I was in placement. The second lap was better, as traffic strung out and stuff was clear to ride. The third lap I started getting chills and goosebumps in the 90 degree heat, reminding me of MTB Nationals in Pennsylvania. As I neared the finish line I hoped hard that they would pull me, but wouldn’t you know Christine, Abby, and I rolled through for the final fourth lap – they pulled everyone behind us.
The fourth lap was just all about survival. I battled with Abby, finally pulled away on some technical corners and worked at closing my gap on Jen, who was always so close by always so far away. My granny gear felt like the hardest gear in the world. My 22-ish pound bike felt like 50 pounds on run ups. I saw my teammate Bill near the end, yelled out something about feeling like die, and put in a decent sprint effort to the finish. And then tried not to puke. And tried to stay upright.
When results were posted I let out a loud “Holy crap!” at the results board. I was 12th out of 20! I was expecting to definitely be near the bottom, so I was shocked. 48 minutes of racing, 192 average heart rate, 7.1 miles, and 90 degrees.
The number one reason why this weekend kicked butt: The people.
Everyone is just so darn friendly and helpful. On my 4th lap of COTN I took a bottle hand up from a guy on Team Rio Grande (he offered on the 3rd lap as well). Not my cycling team, and heck I didn’t really know him except we talked about SPD pedals briefly the day before. And there he was, offering me water. A long time friend Malcolm was there spraying water and heckling both Reanna and I, which is great and always nice to see a friendly face. Jen immediately offered up her water bottle at the end as I stumbled over barely forming sentences, and she proclaimed me her “nemesis” and said I better be chasing her to the point I beat her this year (she got me by 26 seconds in the time trial and something like 14 seconds in COTN). Dejan and another photographer laughed and said how funny it was that I was giggling while racing, and I told them that they really had the hard jobs of the day. Lots of congratulations and good jobs and good times all around.
So I’ve pretty much decided cylocross is my thing, aside from the fact I don’t drink beer. It has the dirt, it has the kidney-jarring non-squishy bikes, awesome people, and challenge. I signed up for the two races coming this weekend, and can’t wait for them! Here’s to new adventures, friends, and being covered in dirt!
Oh, and I may or may not have purchased this frame… as I cannot resist pink and black bikes… Ahem.
Hot temperatures still abound, but there’s that ever-lurking feeling that summer is just over all around. The aspens up in the mountains are slowly going to yellow, and there’s a certain crispness to the air in the early morning.
Most of my spring and summer of 2013 involved number plates it seems.
After Nationals in July I went through a rather big period of disillusionment with riding bikes. I know I was burnt out on racing long before Nationals, both mentally and physically. It was incredibly frustrating watching myself seemingly get slower from my peak of racing at the beginning/middle of June. My right knee began having pain issues again, which I contributed to the running I was doing in May and June, which also inflammed my right hamstring at the ischial tuberosity. I went into July injured, tired, and just sick of everything and everybody. I had my high point of nailing the bike leg of the Cheyenne Sprint Triathlon, and skated through Nationals with a great deal of apathy and mental relief when it was all said and done. I’m still trying to digest the Laramie Enduro, which resulted in a DNF at 52 miles because I was so mentally over it. Over mountain biking, over everyone who mountain bikes, over dirt/rocks/obstacles, over myself. So over it I didn’t even care that my parents loaded my overly expensive mountain bike in the truck in a rather sketchy way, and I didn’t have a care in the world if it would’ve flown out of the truck at 75mph on the trip back in Laramie. OVER IT. I made some off key comments on Facebook about my disappointment with my overall crappiness in endurance racing which my real life close friends, coworkers, etc took properly (aka those exposed to Heidi 24/7 and know how I talk and how I am), and in which a handful of acquaintances took a lot differently. The whole resulting stupidity made me really evaluate why I even ride bikes and race, and a lot of good soul searching talks with some amazing gals at work got me straightened a bit mentally. I skipped the LMBS Race #5, opting to spend an extra evening at home watching Netflix. I returned the following week to the final race of the LMBS with just a personal goal of personally whipping Death Crotch’s ass (hrm). It took me 1.5 hours to climb that trail the first weekend I ever had a mountain bike, so the race was all about me not taking that long. I think I ended up doing it in around 25 minutes, so I did a secret happy dance at the summit and took to making it back to the finish line without a rear brake (my mountain bike was as physically exhausted as I was, even the bottle cage was falling off). I think I ended up 7th in the race, in all actuality it didn’t matter because I just wanted to climb Death Crotch. Which I did 🙂
Hating life 25 odd miles or so into the Laramie Enduro
And then I found myself at the end… end of racing mountain bikes in 2013. 13 odd races later, and it was done. I was both relieved and lost at what to do. Now I didn’t have to turn every ride into a some sort of training, “I can ride faster than you can on Strava” BS. Yet I still found myself lining up at a Lory Park Mountain Challenge race, expert class no less. It was nearly dark by the time I finished Timber/Kimmons for the second time, and I was lost as heck on the Valley Trails in the faint slivers of daylight. I turned around and found my car. Yet I strangely didn’t care. I climbed Timber twice in a row, who does that?! Then registration for the Stone Temple 8 came out, and I joined up with two others for a co-ed team entry… that comes later in September. Raced in 3 states, traveled probably… uhhh 7000 miles in Mr. Fozzy to races, and pedaled in the dirt in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I had my share of adventures!
Something new – bike and trails in town!
I picked up my Specialized Crux in the meantime during all of this, and reignited something desperately needed in my life – the desire to ride a bike. Harsh, crappy brakes, and silly fast – beyond excited for cyclocross season! I signed up for a women’s BRAC cyclocross camp, and two races next weekend September 7-8. I fail at getting back on a bike fast, so I’m mostly looking forward to how much I can laugh at myself during a cross race. I’ve already filled up most of September with races.
The Blue Train rolled into the Ride for Sight in impressive fashion if I do say so myself!
August 11 was another rendition of Ride for Sight. Last year I struggled through 73 miles, so it was only natural to aim for the full century/100 miles this year. I spent the first 8 miles redlining myself as part of the “Blue Train” and lead peloton, finally dropping off so I wouldn’t burn all the matches long before the 50 mile turn around. Matt, our teammate Bill, and I formed our own group and pedaled along. I enjoyed how much faster the ride was going this year in the comparison to the year before, even though we were spending tons of time at the aid stops. Bill turned around at Aid 3 for a metric century, so Matt and I continued on. It sucked, it was getting hot, but the boiled plain hot dog 50 miles in at the turnaround made it worth it! Best damn hot dog I had eaten, at least at that point in my life! I might’ve whined a bit, but I finished the ride… though riding into the park my GPS only said 99.4 miles. You can bet I did circles in the parking lot until I hit 100! First century ride done and out of the way! It was made awesome by my even awesomer teammates and the great volunteers (including a guy who asked if we knew those two that got medals at the national championships!).
I find safety pins everywhere… my car’s console, my nightstand, the bathroom counter, the kitchen – which leads to “you might be a competitive cyclist when…”
It’s been an interesting summer. I didn’t pedal nearly as many miles as I thought I would. I didn’t do as many cool things as I thought I would. I worked a lot, I laid on my futon a lot. I keep telling myself I’ll start training for next year soon. Soon. As in later. Not today. I do road rides time to time when I get up before the midday heat, and I’ve been hitting up North Park with the Crux frequently to get use to skinny tires on dirt. It is what it is, and I’ll eventually regroup and “train.” Until then, there’s ton of cyclocross fun to have!
A few months ago Matt turned on “The Town that Was” while browsing Hulu. I’m ever the curious person about towns/places that are abandoned, especially for human caused reason, so we left the documentary on and watched with big eyes. Chernobyl? That has been #1 on my bucket list since I was 12 years old). Heck, I’ve even explored an abandoned town that kept up Nike missile sites in NJ during a car meet, and we kept entertained by posing our cars in the abandoned driveways for photo opps. So needless to say, the documentary, which was about Centralia, PA, more than intrigued Matt and I, and it didn’t take me long to Google where it was in relation to our other planned activities in Pennsylvania.
Bustling city street in a neighborhood in Centralia, PA
Centralia is a former coal mining town located in eastern central Pennsylvania. In 1962 somehow the coal under the town caught on fire. There’s different theories on how it happened, but either way it occurred in the town landfill, so obviously someone wasn’t doing things properly. Things kind of just went on their ways until the 1970s when people started realizing their underground gasoline tanks were super hot, and a poor child fell into a massive sinkhole that developed under him in his backyard (he was rescued). Of course, the lethal amounts of carbon monoxide wafting up from the ground was a good sign things weren’t going well, too. The government offered residents relocation packages, and most of the town’s residents accepted. There were some holdouts, and in the early 1990s the government enacted Imminent Domain, which seized all the property and condemned all the structures. Later on USPS revoked the zip code (ouch). Still, there are a few holdouts, fighting lawsuits and all sorts of conspiracy theories surrounding Centralia, such as the government just wants the mineral rights to all the coal underneath the town.
As for the fire, it still burns. From what I’ve read, it’s 400 acres and spreading in all directions. Oh, and it’s suppose to burn for a couple more centuries or so. Yes, centuries. As for what’s left of the town… there’s a few old row houses without there row-counterparts, with walls supported by weird brick flying buttress supports. The drab looking municipal building is still there as well, and some very well manicured cemeteries. Nature has reclaimed the rest, with new growth forests filling in where houses once stood, sliced by city streets that go nowhere.
One of the last remaining houses in Centralia… a row house missing its neighbor, and therefor supported with buttresses out of brick.
We found Centralia quite easy by taking PA 61 south from where we exited I-80. At first we nearly drove right by it. There’s no town sign, and really since there’s nothing there, there’s nothing to tell you, well, that you’re there. A U-turn remedied our mistake, and we took to driving through the empty streets. Matt was instantly disappointed for the lacking of smoke billowing out of the ground, like the documentary showed. We drove to the top of the hill, just a smidge north of the biggest cemetary, and parked in a dirt parking lot and jumped out. I touched the ground, and it was indeed hot… it was also 95 degrees outside in full sunshine. I laughed. Another car pulled up, filled with European tourists and they asked where the smoke was. We shrugged.
A divided boulevard going nowhereA sidewalk to nowhere
Just streets through a forest, literally!
So we kicked with the European dudes, who were quite funny and strangely enough, kindred spirits since they were also in this eery abandoned ghost town with us. One guy lit a cigarette and said in his accent, “Look, I found the smoke!” We climbed to the top of the dirt rubbish hill, which appear to be more of a teenage party trash heap more than anything. No smoke. I took to being more amused by the 100 year old Ukrainian Orthodox church across the valley on the hill (old churches are another amusement to me, I love them!) than anything else.
Up on the hill, overlooking Centralia (tiny blue dot in upper left corner is the church that was fascinating me, white building in the middle of the photo is the municipal building)
European dudes found a guy and a girl that were also wandering around, and that guy pointed us in the direction of the abandoned stretch of PA 61 that had cracked and buckled from the fire (the highway re-routes around that section now). Matt and I grabbed the mountain bikes, thinking that we might as well bike in the apparently bike-friendly (aka no cars, nor people) town of Centralia while we could, and took off to the abandoned highway.
This is when I felt the most eery. 4 lane divided highway. No cars. Nothing. It was almost like a zombie movie about to go very bad. But hey, I figure I can out pedal zombies on my bike, so we were all good! The highway is filled with graffiti… some good, some bad, some just stupid. A lot of names, dates, and male genitalia. Now, I can’t say what possesses people to draw male genitalia on everything, but so be it. There was also a nice picture of a unicorn pooping cupcakes. Some messages to the government, and of course racial crap.
Warning!
About halfway down the road is the “speed bump.” AKA “oh crap, it looks like a super earthquake volcano happened here!” Cracked and heaved was the road, about 5 feet wide at it’s widest and a couple feet down. Still no smoke, but definitely the coolest thing we had seen in Centralia all day.
We got some cracks here… just a few!Looking south (downhill) on PA 61Looking north (uphill) on PA 61
Nah, I’ll just outrun them (hopefully) on my bike!
Matt and I continued down to the end of the abandoned stretch. Tourists on a Harley rode past us. (The only thing barricading this road off is a dirt mound with an opening wide enough for motorcycles and bicycles and maybe a wheelchair. Due to steep grades, wheelchair not advised.) The European dudes made their way down, also commenting on the very large amounts of, ahem, male genitalia painted on the road. Sheesh, at least I’m not the only one who noticed! We also ran into a guy taking film footage with an 8mm camera, definitely cool and made me sad that I didn’t have my Holga or vintage Lubital along for the adventure. We made our way back up (seriously, by bike is the way to do this!), and Matt took off through the woods (“please let there not be sinkholes!” rang out in my mind) while I hopped on the random pieces of sidewalk that were left. Upon getting back to the car, two elderly women pulled up and asked us what happened to the church. Not sure if they missed the Wyoming plates, but we kindly told them we had no idea. Such a random mix of people coming to see Centralia, that’s for sure!
Definitely one of the most unique bike rides I have ever done!
Part of me wanted to scour the cemeteries for long lost relatives (a lot of my family had connections to PA coal mining and the state in general), but Matt wasn’t up for that so we said Auf Wiedersehen to our European friends (who I think narrowed down to being Swiss or Austrian due to a funny version of German I swore I was recognizing) and continued our trip south.
So, check Centralia off the bucket list. Not quite what we were expecting (no smoke!!!), but still worth the side trip, especially the highway portion! I think the town would be awesome to visit on a foggy, winter day! Then maybe I could tell if the ground was really warm, eh?
Matt and I had reserved 3 days of travel time to make it to Allentown, PA for MTB Nationals , so the grand plan was to stop along the way and find places to bike that were close to I-80. Simple enough, I did some research, got some opinions of locals, and put a plan into place. We said our goodbyes to Cheyenne at 10pm on July 13th, and headed Mr. Fozzy east into the great abyss that is Nebraska.
Driving all day Sunday was done for one goal – getting to our first destination in Iowa!
Iowa, I must apologize. I cracked so many jokes about “I can’t wait to see a hill in Iowa” and had just general doubt about how the trails would be. Sugar Bottom changed all of that for me! This system was started in 1990, and consists of singletrack that winds through dense forests and pine groves along a reservoir. All the trails (aside from the central fire road) are directional, which is definitely helpful considering all the blind corners and lack of visibility you’ll have while riding them. There are north and south trail systems, all connected to the central fire road. Each trail intersection is marked, and in fact I really don’t think a person needs a map! Matt and I started at one end, and just kept going and going until we worked our way completely around. I love systems that are so well marked maps are not needed!
Both the north and south systems have a main “beginner” loop, and off of these spur harder intermediate/expert loops that loop back close to where they started on the main loop. This makes it very easy to pick and choose trails and the length you desire to ride! Matt and I tried to jump off on all the spurs we could find. This is where we did enjoy a chuckle, as an “expert” marked trail in Iowa doesn’t really equate to what we would call an expert trail here in southeastern Wyoming. The expert trails maybe would have a bit of roots or tricky switchbacks, or perhaps a foot drop, but nothing too extreme that someone with some time on their MTB couldn’t ride. The funnest expert trail we found was “Cyclocross Hill,” which is a bit swoopy downhill over a bridge and then straight up this insanely steep hill. I attempted it but chickened out at the bottom of the hill when I saw how really steep it was. Matt made it to the top like the rockstar he is. Next time, Iowa, next time!
Another look at the trails (Photo by Matt Galantuomini)
This was just the trail system to begin my acclimation to horrible humidity, rooty terrain, and lack of elevation. The humid weather left me drenched not too soon from jumping on the bike, but I noticed how happy my lungs felt. And due to the relatively low elevation (I consider anything lower than 3000 feet “sea level” so take my elevation comments how you please), I felt like I could just go for days and days. The tight switchbacks, especially on climbs, helped me develop some of those skills.
There were random play obstacles on some of the trailsBlurry photo of Matt coming up one of the tight, steep switchback climbs
Overall we did 10.5 miles, which included over 1,100 feet of climbing. Iowa, you did well in the elevation gain department! Another perk to the trail system is that we only ran into 3 other people the whole time (and 3 people hiking the wrong way on the trail…), so you can get nice and spread out from other people!
We called it a day in the Davenport area, got a hotel, enjoyed a nice shower to wash the sweat and dirt off, and had a burger at Steak n Shake.
Next up on the list was Illiniwek Forest Preserve, which is along the bluffs over the Mississippi River on the Illinois side. This was actually the first trail system that I had decided on when planning the trip. It is maybe only an hour or so from Sugar Bottom, but since we stayed overnight we decided this would start our morning off before hitting the road again.
Wooded, rooty, and humid.
Once again, these were singletrack-ish (might be a little wider than typical singletrack) trails through dense woods that climb and descend a bluff. Some roots, but otherwise smooth sailing. Heck, we saw a 5 year old tearing up these trails. Kid friendly! Not a lot of miles unless you do multiple laps, but enough for a quick and very satisfying ride!
Once again, this trail system is split into north and south loops. The north loop as an overlook you can go to for the Mississippi River. “They” say that the north loop has more climbing, but both loops seemed comparable to me. It was definitely fun coming down with banked corners! These trails are not directional, however, so don’t ride like too much of an asshat.
We did encounter a freshly downed tree on the south loop system, so we had to take a little re-route. No biggie, and I guess it was fresh since the day before according to someone I had run into who inquired why a Wyoming care was in the parking lot 😀 This guy comes out to Colorado and rides, so I recommended Curt Gowdy, and explained why we were where we were. Always nice to run into some fellow mountain bikers!
There is signage at some intersections, but there are not maps at every intersection. We didn’t get lost, and just took loops to see where we’d end back up. It was pretty easy to know how to find the car… go down!
All in all we did 5.7 miles for 344 feet of climbing. It is definitely easy on the climbs, nothing too insanely steep and all the switchbacks are more than doable.
Added bonus is that you’re on the Mississippi River, so we popped down to the riverbank with our bikes for an extra 2 miles to explore.
On the banks of the Mississippi!There was a little dam thing that went out into the middle of the river. So I couldn’t resist hoisting up my bike for a photo opp!
We cleaned up the best we could (thank goodness for baby wipes!) and jumped in the car for the journey across Illinois, Indiana, and half of Ohio. I initially was hoping we could make Royalview in Ohio for some riding, but I underestimated drive time so we settled into what is one of the nicest La Quinta Inns ever in Macedonia, OH and called it a night – only after a good meal at Bob Evans! We need those restaurants in Wyoming, I swear!
Another quick drive from the hotel for another morning of mountain biking, this time at West Branch State Park in Ohio. Oh man… I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s just say at least this trail made Bear Creek Resort in PA (the Nationals venue) look like a walk in the park. And it taught me all about nasty muddy wet trail systems with nasty wet roots and nasty mossy slick rocks. I’m pretty sure I shed tears riding these damn trails.
A common theme, once again there’s north and south trails all connected by a central road, Cable Line. We chose the southern trails along the reservoir first, as I heard they were milder. Immediately I took my glasses off because they kept fogging up due to the humidity. We slipped and slided along the trail, until we reached a flooded part. Uber flooded, like “no you won’t go pass Go” flooded. Matt happily tramped through the woods and found the road. Me on the other hand… I have a huge irrational fear of bugs, spiders, worms, nasty stuff. Humid east coast woods = nasty stuff. I swear it took him 5 minutes to convince me to walk through the woods. I dashed through, trying not to think of all the creepy crawly things that could get on me.
Then we jumped on the Gorge Trail on the north side. There is a slate bottom creek we had read about, and we wanted to find it. I think I for sure invented new curse words riding the rock gardens. Everything was just so wet and icky.
Success! A beautiful sight to see!
The slate bottom creek made the horrible trail worth it! Clear, cool flowing water, all over slate that you can easily ride a bike up and down (not very slippery at all!).
Riding up and down the creek!Got my bike all nice and clean so I could get it all muddy and nasty again
The bad about this trail system: lack of signage. Bring a trail map. And don’t listen to me when I say what direction the lake is in. Ugh. I suppose you could say we were lost. But we did make it back to the car. Not all was lost! We did 6.3 miles and 584 feet of climbing. Do I ever want to ride here again? No.
Got back to the car, discovered there’s no running water around the trailhead (a plus for Sugar Bottom), so I took SmartWater and used it to wash my body off. There’s only so much SmartWater and baby wipes can do, but I tried. We laughed at the fact our bike clothing and shoes were smelling something horrid after 3 days of use in humid/stinky climates. I get so spoiled by the ultra dryness of the West…
Eastward we turned for the final 5 hours of our trip. We passed the USA Cycling truck, which was nice surprise. Final stop before our glorious Red Roof Inn in Allentown would be the modern day ghost town of Centralia, PA. I’ll try to remind myself to make a whole post about our Centralia adventures!
We definitely enjoyed our little biking adventures on the trip out, and it was fun to see what different parts of the country have to offer for mountain biking! The trip home we did straight through, so we didn’t have the time to stop along I-70… another day!
Muddy & bloody… but at least my socks had lightning bolts on them!
Oh man, where do I begin?! After three days of making our way across the country (exploits to be discussed in a different blog post, hopefully!), we settled into our hotel in Allentown, PA – final destination on this whole “hey, let’s go to nationals!” idea that I’ve had since last October.
Wednesday was a large practice window, and packet pickup. As always, I made sure we were there an hour before we could do anything, so we sat around the air conditioned lodge. USAC races are a weird atmosphere in my mind. Uber serious bidness, always. I start seeing people whose blogs I read, or race results I know, and it kinda creeps me out. Also weirds out Matt when I’m like “oh, that’s so and so. They’ve won a world cup. No, I’m not a stalker, I just read lots of stuff!” I fretted about how my hairstyle matched all the Whole Athlete girls’… you know, all the important stuff I should be worried about before I race a big race on the east coast against people I’ve never seen before in life. In fact, I do believe I was starting to have feelings of apathy towards the race. Like I had thrown my hands in the air and decided that whatever happens, happens. There was 6 girls in my class, and I had resolved that I had to at least get 5th to make the drive worth it.
Swag bag… Gatorade towel, energy bar, USAC stickers and temp tattoos and luggage tag and lapel pin, and the all important ticket to FREE PASTA DINNER!
Seriously, free pasta dinner. I KNEW there was a reason I came! Packets picked up, licenses confirmed (they really check that stuff at Nationals… beats CO road races where they don’t even check my category), we stuff our goodies back in the car and hit the course. Humidity 1, Heidi 0. I almost passed out on a climb. I felt horrible. And other racers were rude. A girl blamed me, when I was off the trail, as the reason she couldn’t make a technical climb. Another took to just yelling “EXCUSE ME!” instead of a nice “Hey, yo, can I pass you?” like I’m use to. Couldn’t decide if it was the USAC atmosphere or just East Coast personalities. I was saddened. I realized I’m too nice of a person, apparently. Then I remembered all the times adrenaline-raging male racers did stupid stuff around me in Wyoming and Colorado and decided it sucks everywhere. Haha.
The course is… well… to Laramie locals, a combination of Haunted Forest (with it’s wetness, mud, bugs, roots, and rocks) and Headquarters (rock gardens) on hardcore crack. HARDCORE CRACK. If there is such a thing. Rock gardens, yeah… I have ridden those. Bear Creek Resort? They make Gowdy seem completely tame. Literally 5+ miles of a constant rock garden after the crest of the course on top of the ski hill. There is no rest, flowy section. Hell, even the wide gravel road portion of the start/finish was loose and rocky. I learned where to walk when I wanted to preserve life and limb. I learned that pegging it and just going was key to preserving life and limb. And hell, screw the mud, just barrel right through it. I wasn’t going to come out sparkling clean at the end, so play in the mud, why not?
We did one lap of the 6.5 mile course. We originally – before we saw the course – wanted to do two on practice day. But my body was done. I had drained my 2 liter Camelbak during the lap and just felt crappy. I asked Matt if he wanted to do a pro lap, which was shorter, and apparently 100% tamer, but he declined. It was over 90 degrees with whatever horrible % of humidity, and I just wanted to shower and get out of my nasty, wet kit. So back to Allentown we went to clean up, hit up Target, and head back for the pasta dinner.
I really should’ve taken a photo of my plate of pasta. I’m sure I had a few pounds on there! We joined a couple from Washington who brought their 15 year old daughter out to race. The mom thought my pasta plate was Matt’s. I proceeded to lick my plate clean as we chatted with them about various things. A race organizer/timer person joined us and we learned how pissed off everyone is that USAC dropped qualifying for Cat 2 and 3 racers. I agree, as we drove to Fruita to race in a blizzard to qualify, to find out a week later qualifying was dropped… We were also convinced to race with Camelbaks (well, I was… Matt had already decided he would) since the course would probably rattle a bottle out of the cage, not to mention there’s no smooth areas to drink.
Goofing around after creating my pasta food baby in my tummy
Back at the hotel I took to fretting about where I would place. I realized the 6th girl bumped to Cat 2, so we were left with 5 in my category. Awesome, we’ll all medal! But I didn’t want last place, so I compared my Strava segment times to course times at the Bear Creek Challenge (PA State Champs back in June). I would’ve been 2nd by over 20 minutes. OK… OK… OK… I got this I started thinking. I fell asleep rather easy and awoke to my alarm at 5:45am.
Time to get the show on the road.
Not wanting a repeat of the passing out/wanting to vomit thing, I decided on a lighter breakfast of a glazed doughnut and fruit from Wawa, with some juice and then lots of water. I’m pretty sure I had consumed a few liters of water even before the race started just to stay on top of the humidity. My right knee has been giving me grief for a few weeks, so I didn’t want to do a huge warm up, and not to mention I didn’t want to be sitting in a completely wet kit before the race even started. So we did the starting climb, where I pedaled at a horribly slow pace, not realizing Kate Courtney was behind me (my hair twin! LOL). She wished us well when I finally pulled over, and we cut under banner tape to get off the course and ride down, behind the lodge. I told Matt he could warm up more, but soon staging was starting. Matt’s group was first to go, and they had to sit at the starting line for a good 10-15 minutes. Talk about nerve wracking!
Matt at the line for his Cat 3 20-29 race
Finally Matt was off and I rode over to the staging area. I felt so awkward, as most people knew each other and I was just like “oh hayyy, I’m the random girl from Wyoming!” I picked out the PA State Champ who I had assigned a big target to. I just wanted to beat her. Nothing personal, she was just my random “You’re going down!” choice of the day! I started chatting with Dana and Kim, and we all agreed that we just wanted to survive the course with our bodies intact.
There were two minutes windows into each class, so it took awhile before we were called to the line. The announcer said all of our names and we waited for the whistle.
WHISTLE.
And we were off on the loose gravel road. Not wanting to be in the back to the single track, Amy, Alyssa, and I charged forward. I was third onto the single track climb, where I then rode off the damn trail into the bushes. Like a noob, totally. I jumped off and ran my bike up as Amy and Alyssa pedaled off into the sunset. Giving myself a big ol’ cursing I jumped back on and pedaled to try to distance myself from Kim and Dana. I couldn’t see the other two girls, so I almost right then settled on “OK, 3rd place isn’t so bad, just survive the race.” Kind of sad I had the resolution so quickly, but like I said, I was almost apathetic towards this race. You build yourself up for months and months and months for a result, and yet I really did so little for training and what not to get any results. Over ten races in for the season, and I was feeling rather fried both mentally and physically.
And yet, there it happened. I caught Alyssa. And the Walker, Texas Ranger theme song popped into my head. I had a mission now. “The eye of the ranger is upon you, anything you do she’s gonna see…” Frantic “get away from this girl mode” clicked on in my head. Her and I yo-yo’d for a bit, but finally I get ahead and stayed there on some techy bits. I’m not sure if she was having bike or body problems, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. Soon she was out of sight, and I was slowly picking off the 15-18 and 20-29 age group girls.
My body was feeling good, though I was sweating up a storm fast. The first third of the course is the easiest, with some rocks and roots, but still fairly easy and also has wide gravel road climbs. I knew my advantage would hopefully come here, though I didn’t really push that hard. I granny geared all the climbs, preserving energy. I was smiling, happy that I was sitting in 2nd and having a good race. A spectator yelled to me that there is no smiling in a race, and that I needed to try harder. Next time I saw him I did a dramatic frown, LOL. A first aid guy told me I had 200 yards to the top of the hill, so I dug deep up the steep climb and crested over the top with my heart redlined. I briefly saw Amy descending in the trees. That would be the last time I would see her.
So begun the miles and miles and miles and more miles of rock gardens. At the first descent they actually had three first aid people lining the rock garden, which is always a bit weird to see. One guy actually said “holy crap, you’re going to ride this?” as I flew over the rocks. I wanted to say something along the lines of “uhhh, this is cake compared to what comes!!” but I had to concentrate. My damn glasses kept fogging up with the humidity so I kept having to slide them down my nose so air could circulate around them. I tried to remind myself to keep drinking as well.
Funny thing is the course was going by a lot faster than practice. Then again, I was riding a lot faster! As my body and bike took a beating, I sailed over rocks and roots, trying to carefully pick lines and in other times just monster trucking over things. Yay for 29ers!
Every once and in awhile I had to come off the bike, whether it was for rider error or just getting caught up in something. I thought I could fly through the 20 foot wide root/mud pit, but got hung up half way so I gave my feet a good coating on black, sticky mud. There’s one elevation bridge thing that I can’t bring myself to ride for some reason that I just ran. Finally shoved my glasses in my back pocket. I hammered where I could, took it easy where I couldn’t. Before I knew it I was to the techy rock drops, which I walked, while joking with some lady spectators that today wasn’t a good day to break my neck. (Who jokes about that? Yeesh I’m strange.) Saw a photographer and since I was smiling he asked if I was having a good time. “I’m having a blast!” I cheerfully called out. And even sooner I was to the descending rocky switchbacks that I knew I was going to walk for my safety. And wouldn’t you know, that is where the heckle pit for Cat 3 was.
I swear I wasn’t as terrified as my face appears to be!
I casually said, “What a nice day for a walk in the woods with my bike!” to which the hecklers responded “Hey, we have a novel idea!”
Me – “yeah, what is it?”
Heckler – “Get on your bike and ride it!”
Me – “Nah, you see I have this novel idea called protecting life and limb, you should try it!”
Another heckler – “Whoa you have lightning bolts on your socks!”
Me – “Hell yeah, they’re magic socks. Magic powers and stuff!”
Different heckler – “Flash Gordon would be so disappointed in you. You’re suppose to be riding your bike when were lightning socks. Poser!”
By then I had rounded the switchback and tried to ride. “Hey look, I’m riding my bike!” BONK. Front tire caught a big rock causing me to nearly endo.
Heckler – “Get back on your damn bike, we see you cheating!”
I hate to know that I would disappoint this guy!
I love hecklers!!! It was a lot of fun!
By this point, I was getting tired and my bike handling skills were all over the place. From the summit down I was having chills and goosebumps, which is a not so lovely sign of not so nice things. I found myself unable to ride straight lines when needed, and unable to turn switchbacks (there I would ride straight lines). I knew it was just surviving at this point. Amy was long gone off the front, and my closest competitor was long off my rear. About a quarter mile to the finish I had my only run in with gravity when I bobbled over in a rock garden, slamming down on a rock and then sliding down it. Kinda stuck in my bike, I finally unclipped and got up and carried on. I didn’t waste any time seeing if the bike or I was alright, as I knew I was so close to the finish.
Out of the woods, and by the lake. The humidity was stifling. Right before the gravel climb up to the finish line they had the snowmakers turned on, raining cool water down on us racers. I seriously thought of just stopping and sitting there for awhile, but alas I carried on, putting forth a decent sprint effort towards the finish.
1 hour 14 minutes 15 seconds for 2nd place in Cat 3 30-39 women!
WOOHOOO!
Amy beat me by a good 11-12 minutes. What a beast! I had 7 minutes on the 3rd place finisher, Kim. Dana followed in for 4th. None of us know what happened to Alyssa, who DNF’d.
I didn’t see Matt anywhere, but I have to admit I was so out of it and shivering so bad in the 90 degree heat that I took to the shade and just collapsed. That’s there I took the first photo of this post. I was covered in yucky mud, blood was running down my right thigh, bugs were congregating on me like I was a delicious, I was soaked head to toe in sweat, and I just wanted to sit. Matt eventually wandered over, both knees bandaged up and ice on his right elbow and a hole ripped into the front of his kit. He held up two fingers signalling that he finished second. I did the same. Then he told me he broke his arm. Whoops.
We hung around for a few hours, then drove back to Allentown for showers and X-rays at urgent care. Grabbed a quick lunch at Panera Bread, and headed back to the awards ceremony.
Getting my awesome, super heavy silver medal!Cat 3 30-39 PodiumHis & hers matching silver medals!My 2013 Specialized Epic Expert performed wonderfully! Only damage is scratches on my carbon seatpost from my tumble… whew! The course was hard on bikes, and people were breaking theirs left and right so I’ll take some scratches!
Tons of photographers on the course, but no photos to be found, at least not yet.
What I learned: I have better technical skills than I believe I do. Now that I’ve survived Bear Creek I am super eager to go up to Gowdy and ride. I think I might be surprised! Humidity sucks, but it didn’t debilitate me like some people said it would. It actually kept my lungs quite happy. Heat stroke is no bueno, as shivering in 90 degree weather is not normal. Thank goodness I didn’t run my Fast Track tires. I’m not sold on tubeless – way too many people with tubeless tires flatted out of the races all weekend. Climbing at sea level rocks. Only wear lightning bolt socks if it’ll make Flash Gordon proud. Have fun and smile – it was a Cat 3 race, not the Olympics! Fly next year if we go, the drive sucks.
I’m now a big girl Cat 2 racer. And now I think I actually have to train…
Heidi Rides Bikes 