Heidi Rides Bikes

My last blog post was a drag… here’s what I’m super excited and happy about!

1: New Kit Day!!!

When I came home from visiting my parents for Christmas a big box from Panache was waiting for me – my kits for Naked Women’s Racing!  Sure, I might’ve gone a bit crazy, but I was so excited to be able to get lots of nifty gear prior teams didn’t offer, like a thermal long sleeve jersey!  I even got a vest, even though I’ve never used a vest for cycling before!  And hello, so nice to know I have 4 pairs of bibs so I’m not having to wear dirty ones on multi day stuff or when traveling!

 

 

2: I finally did something with all those race photos I’ve accumulated.

Over the past couple of years I’ve really accumulated a digital stack of race photos, and mostly just posted them up on Facebook and in this blog.  I decided I wanted something more tangible to look at, plus my mom is always telling me “I never get any photos!”  Enter Blurb!  I made two books, one for 2012 & 2013 and one for 2014, with ease with their Book Smart program.  I ended up getting them a week earlier than what was quoted.  It’s pretty neat to sit down and flip through a book of all my various racing memories!  A set will be going to my mom, of course!

 

 

 

3: Marie got me these awesome socks!

When I did the Four Seasons of Horsetooth Challenge a few weekends ago my friend and super awesome amazing stood-on-a-World-Championships-podium mountain biker Marie presented me with these socks to match our puking unicorn Halter’s Cycles jersey – unicorn pooping rainbows knee high!  Definitely a case of our socks > your socks.  Don’t mess with the Unicorn Mafia.  We’re hardcore!

 

 

 

 

4: Bro shorts and carbon shoes

I got a lot of awesome goodies from our Naked Women’s Racing team order night.  I finally “completed” my road bike with SRAM Force 22 WiFli rear derailleur and 11-32t cassette (bring it on, Rist Canyon!), Quarq Riken power meter, and a S-Works Specialized carbon seat post.  I also picked up the new Garmin speed and cadence sensors that work via accelerometers and no magnets!  I also loaded up on Specialized green footbeds and some new road gloves.  Then there’s my super awesome Sidi Spider mountain bike shoes… whoa carbon soles and insane adjustability, which means my skinny left foot is as secure as my fatty right foot!  And to top it off, there’s my neon green Specialized Andorra mountain bike shorts!  My “bro” shorts for when I want to shred the gnar in baggies 😉  I ordered a large, and whoa, they were HUGE in the waist, but great on my thighs (my current “baggies” are actually pretty tight in my thighs).  Luckily my mom is a whiz with a sewing machine and took in the waist and they fit perfectly now.

5: Training wheels

Over the holidays I had my mom dig out the scrapbooks she had of photos of me (I was after a photo of my Backstreet Boys decorated room when I was 15… ahem).  I found this gem.  I was 4 or 5, on my purple bike that would be the first bike I would ride without training wheels.  I also remember riding it off the deck and down the porch stairs (by accident).  Just training for what was coming 25 years in the future 😀

 

 

 

Scrolling back, I realized I never even wrote about my December 1st FTP test and the start of training for 2015.  It was such an embarrassing effort that I guess it wasn’t worthy of remembering, until today when I did a follow up FTP test since I’ve had my Quarq Riken power meter installed for a week.  My test today was almost just as embarrassing, but at least I netted 5 more watts in amongst all that mental-failing.

I’ve read somewhere that “your mind will fail long before your body,” and it’s oh so true.  I don’t know what to say about my last two FTP tests.  Sometimes for no reason at all I just stop pedaling in the 8 minute block where I’m suppose to, you know, keep pedaling as hard as I can.  Sometimes I get the crazy notion that my heart will explode, never mind the fact I’m riding under my typical heart rate for a 40 minute cyclocross race, and really… who has heard of a 31 year old female cyclist having her heart explode whilst riding a trainer during a FTP test?  Right, no one because it won’t happen.  Sometimes I just can’t put a finger on why I stop.

December 1st’s FTP test was a hot mess that garnered me an end result of 193… my FTP in April was 217.  I almost cried.  My coach flat out said “well that explains your cyclocross season” and told me I’d get back to where I was and beyond that.  Still didn’t help.  But I felt strong during my intervals, sometimes doing efforts into the VO2 power zone because that felt “better.”

With my newly installed Quarq and a few weeks of intervals and heavy hours and miles on the bike I felt ready to redeem myself.  Then I work up and weighed myself and saw the heaviest weight I’ve seen on a scale in many years.  I lost a bit of motivation.  I sat on the couch for an hour and so.  Then decided to shovel a path in my backyard to my trash cans so I could take out some cardboard boxes and recycling.  With blood flowing through my muscles I felt ready.  I swung my leg over the bike and felt good through the warm up portion of the CTS 8 Minute Test.  When the first 8 minute block started I was rocking out to “Bartender” by Lady Antebellum and felt strong, pedaling at 230-245 watts.  Then just about 4 minutes in I cracked.  I stopped.  Just like that, stopped.  The remaining 4 minutes were filled with stops every 30 seconds to a minute.  My legs weren’t screaming, they weren’t burning.  My knee was feeling ok, and so was the bunionette on the other foot.  Part of it might’ve been the 185bpm heart rate, but come on, a typical cross race sees me racing for 40 minutes with no recovery at 190bpm.  I was pissed off.

10 minutes of soft pedaling for recovery and then the final 8 minute block.  I decided to try to see if I could just hold 220-225 watts.  Nope.  Constantly stopping.  I managed to finish up the last 45 seconds at 240+ plus but otherwise it was a disgusting mess.  I held my breathe as TrainerRoad popped up with my new FTP.  198.  OK, so I didn’t get worse.  5 watts gained.

Imagine what it could’ve been if I could’ve turned off my brain.

It’s becoming more and more of a phenomena that only happens on the trainer, and more so during FTP tests.  I’ve gotten pretty darn good at turning my brain off outdoors.  Heck, last weekend before the snowstorm I climbed for 47 minutes straight from the Blue Sky parking lot to the top of Horsetooth Mountain on Southridge Trail without stopping.  I chugged along and randomly thought of random other things as I turned over the pedals.  Surprised the crap out of myself, but I did it!  I thought I had reached the turning point in my mental toughness.

But I suppose I can’t dwell on the numbers.  A FTP is a fraction of a moment in time, and in no way the judge and jury about what type of cyclist I am, especially for mountain biking when skill plays a big role as well.  My technical skills are coming along in a very awesome fashion.  During the Four Seasons of Horsetooth Challenge a week ago I rode most of those trails for the first time so I walked down some things, but rode other things I never thought I would, like a staircase down Sawmill.  I’ve never ridden down a staircase before, and I did it on the hardtail with 80mm of travel and the shock set to full firm.  😀

And about my weight… I suppose I should feel “lucky” that I made it through the holidays with only 3 pounds of weight gain when “they” say the “typical” American gains 10 pounds over the holidays.  But it’s a disheartening feeling.  Over the past few weeks I’ve become more acutely aware about how my eating habits are getting out of control.  I’ve always been on the “see food, eat it diet,” but lately it’s been spiraling out of control.  I’ll make soup in the crock pot and proceed to eat it ALL in one sitting… or when I eat a can of soup/pasta (hey now, Spaghettios are still OK to eat!) I cook 2 or 3 cans.  I eat a whole Tombstone pizza in one setting.  My lunch bills at my work’s cafeteria are often $10-11 and my tray is covered in food – the cashier has accused me of having eyes bigger than my stomach.  I’ll sit at my desk at work and eat a whole bag of snack size candy bars.  I think I painted a decent picture… for so long myself, and many others around me, justified it as “well, you’re/I’m a cyclist.”  But how can an hour trainer ride justify binge consuming thousands of calories?  I’m not riding in the Tour de France for pete’s sake!  I’ve never been one to worry about my body image, I’ve always been quite secure with it.  However, the past couple of months I’ve started to notice I’m chunkier than a lot of girls I’m competing against… a skinsuit and camera don’t lie.  When you feel like you’re the only one on your cycling team ordering large bibs, it can start to gnaw on your conscious.

I know a big problem of mine is a combination of boredom and dehydration.  Instead of drinking water I eat.  And since I spend a lot of my time idle, I tend to eat to kill some time.  And at work I munch on stuff to keep my hands busy because I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day.  I eat a lot of food because I can get “hangry” (hungry angry) when my stomach starts to growl.

What a downer of a blog post… First world problems, eh?  “wahhhh, I gained weight and it makes me slower on my expensive mountain bike.”  I don’t mean to be all woe is me, but I’m not waddling along in a pool of misery.  I’m just realizing I have some self defeating habits that are getting worse, and since I now have the crazy idea stuck in my head that I WILL go pro in mountain biking in the near future, I want to start getting healthier in all aspects of my life.  First up I am going to work on portion control with my food.  I already bought a bag of petite carrots (way smaller than baby carrots, ha) to munch on when I get that “I must put something in my mouth” feeling.

And the FTP test?  It’ll get better next time 😀

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Yule, Happy Solstice, Merry Kwanza, and so on to anyone who might be reading my slice of the Internet!

We’re in the middle of a pretty big winter storm here in southeastern Wyoming. I managed to sneak in some miles at Happy Jack before it got too crazy, though falling snow was quickly covering my freshly laid tracks. It was absolutely beautiful nonetheless and I couldn’t help but to think how thankful I was to be able to be put pedaling in the trees in weather like this!

Granted all this snow will make the trails hard to ride, but I’ll be in Laramie a few more days and will try to do my part to pack something down!

I hope everyone has had a happy holiday season! One week from now we’ll be starting 2015!!!

Gowdy in December, in shorts.  Hot damn!

It was an amazing early winter day.  Not too cold, no wind, and the trails had just enough moisture to be grippy and fast.  And for the first time ever, I cleared Stone Temple Circuit 100% in both directions, all the rock features!  I even launched off the drop going clockwise, albeit I landed a bit funky and ended up having the save of the century to stay upright.  On Mo Rocka I rode a bunch of new stuff as well.  I’m not sure where my newfound confidence came from, but I’m loving it!

Unfortunately it is suppose to snow tomorrow, though just a few inches.  I hope things dry out quickly, as I could totally “deal with” having to ride Gowdy over the winter!  😉

I had a blog post from back in February 2013 claiming I didn’t “need to own no stinkin’ fat bike.”  I swore up and down I wouldn’t own one because it was too “specialized” of a bike and that I wouldn’t enjoy it or use it enough to justify one.

I have a bad habit of doing stuff I swore I’d never do.  (The post involving yoga will be next… ahem)

Fast forward to November 2014 and one of our only snowy weeks so far this fall/winter, and as I was driving home from work I told myself, “Damn, I really want to go for a bike ride” and frowned at the idea of taking the Fate or Epic out on the icy and snowy roads.  Ten minutes later I was researching fat bikes on my laptop and the very next day walked in and purchased one.  Just like that!  I wanted a tank I could treat as a toy, nothing with pricey carbon fiber and XTR parts that cost an arm and a leg to replace.  I wanted an option to get outside and off the trainer during the winter and those early spring months where I’m antsy and have cabin fever.

My very first ride on “Carlos,” my 2015 Specialized Fat Boy, was also my very first night ride.  Talk about a learning curve!  I couldn’t believe how hard of a work out it is.  I was out of breathe and my legs screamed!  A couple days later I went out for about 3 hours with another friend, and pretty much hated life.  It was hard.  I was walking stuff that I shouldn’t have been walking.  I fumbled with the flat pedals after riding clipless nearly the entirety of my mountain biking experience.  I started to scheme up ways to sell the bike to recoup some money from this “stupid decision” I made.  I felt like a newbie that had never touched a bike before, not the Cat 1 XC racer I am. It was humbling.  The only redeeming quality was descending.  Descending on a fat bike is one of the most confidence inspiring things!

Then came Thanksgiving and I had a few days off work so I stayed over in Laramie at my parents’.  Time to give the fat bike another go.  And whoa – HERO SNOW.  The trails were perfect.  I was more comfortable on the flat pedals, especially with climbing.  Though it was still hard, I was flying up and down the trails, I had my mountain biking mojo back!  I was amazed at how easy climbs that challenge me in the summer months I could ride up on the bike and how easy technical features and rock gardens seemed.

 

My favorite thrill has been descending Haunted Forest, a trail I haven’t ridden since the early days of biking in the summer of 2012.  In the summer it can be a muddy muck fest, but has a few techy rock gardens, and a decently steep rocky drop in at the top.  It’s been my personal race track on the Fat Boy, and I’ve now come within a minute of my favorite pro’s, Georgia Gould, time on Strava (because it’s all about the Strava)!!  Granted with the snow there’s no muck, but there’s still a few spots I have to finesse to stay upright, and the tricky rock garden, which I cleared for the first time ever.

My three rides over Thanksgiving ignited my love for fat/snow biking.  It showed me what perfect snow conditions is like, and the capabilities of the beast of this bike!  I’m use to a 20 pound carbon hardtail, and I had to rewire my brain to embrace this 35 pound beauty for it is!  The Fat Boy just monster trucks over stuff and chugs up hills like a little diesel engine that could.  I’ve cleared several climbs that I struggle with in the summer even!

This past weekend my friend Jon and I joined Melanie, one of the gals I’ve spent a lot of races with, for her first night ride on her fat bike up at Happy Jack.  We tackled Death Crotch, which is a whole ‘nother experience at night, on fat tires, and in the snow!  We saw the full moon rise at nearly 9000 feet in elevation, a deep orange on the horizon.  Though both Jon and I were cooked from high miles and racing (me), we enjoyed the ride.  I could’ve been at home on the couch, but thanks to my impulse decision to buy a fat bike, I was out experiencing awesomeness!

I found a cheapy frame bag on Amazon for $15 that I got for storing a spare tube, tools, water bottle, and my battery pack for my handlebar light.  I also picked up some Dogwood Designs pogies in neon pink to keep my hands toasty.  I’m debating changed the pedals since I’ve gotten use to flats.  I do not like how much my feet can get bounced off on technical terrain, but I’ve also gotten really use to cornering and using body English involving sticking feet and legs out so I worry about being connected to the bike, so that’s something I’ll just have to wait and see.  I did order some Sidi winter riding boots, but they have a treaded sole like a hiking boot so I might not necessarily have to change to clipless to still use them.

Otherwise I’ve gotten the winter riding clothes down, and often find myself on the warmer side of things – which is great, I’d rather be warmer and than cold!  Luckily I didn’t have to buy any clothes, aside from some Patagonia thermal long johns I got on sale from REI that I wear under my therminal Specialized tights.  So far my Keen hiking boots have been doing a good job at keeping my feet warm along with snowboard/ski socks I had shoved in the back of my closet from my downhill skiing days.

My lights are NiteRider Lumina 750 and NiteRider MiNewt Pro 770 Enduro, which are mostly purchased for 24 Hours of Old Pueblo, but will do double duty on the fat bike in this dark winter months.

Though Curt Gowdy State Park is grooming fat bike trails whenever they get snow (the regular mountain bike trails are snow free and still very rideable, even though it’s mid December), I’m finding Happy Jack is the place to go!  So much winter-only single track has popped up through the packing activities of some amazing riders from Laramie, and trails like Headquarters, Crow Creek, Pole Creek, Death Crotch, Haunted Forest, Aspen, Bypass, and others are packed as well.  Happy Jack is traditionally a cross country ski venue in the snowy months, but I’ve found I’ve had no conflicts with other trail users since I don’t ride on the groomed XC ski trails.  With so much awesome single track, the XC ski trails are honestly kind of boring!  I’ve always seen more fat bikes up there than skiers anyway!  So I’m quite spoiled that my home mountain bike trail systems are also awesome in the winter.

Most of all, I’m just happy I gave something a try, even though I had previously found it silly and not of use to me.  I know staying on a mountain bike, even it’s a bit different than my XC bikes, will keep my skills sharp and also my body in a bit of mountain biking shape over the winter!

 

Woohoo, I’m super duper excited to announce that I was selected to be part of the Honey Stinger Hive, which is the company’s athlete sponsorship program, for 2015!

I love Honey Stinger products – so much I have to “hide” the waffles so I don’t sit around eating them – so I figured I’d give it a shot and applied for their sponsorship.  I just got my acceptance email a few days ago, and I’m still super bouncy from the news 🙂

There’s a TON of amazing athletes in the Hive… talking about world championship MTB medalists and many kick ass runners, so I feel humbled to be included in such an awesome bunch of people!  I only hope I can do the Hive proud with my 2015 season 🙂

Located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Honey Stinger makes nutritious and great tasting honey-based foods including energy bars, protein bars, energy gels, organic waffles, organic chews, kids specific snacks and our very own Organic Wildflower Honey. Fueling more than just the country’s top cyclists, runners, triathletes and teams, Honey Stinger products may be found at specialty sporting goods retailers, natural food grocers and honeystinger.com.

My favorites are the Organic Waffles in lemon, vanilla, and strawberry flavors (I have heard gingersnap is to die for so I will be trying those out in the near future) and the Organic Energy Chews in pink lemonade, fruit smoothie, and lime-aide.  I can often be found licking chews and sticking them to my top tube during longer races, and I’ve found them to be super convenient to eat on the bike, especially at race pace.  I’m definitely looking forward to fueling myself through all my crazy plans for endurance mountain bike races this year with Honey Stinger products!

Oh how the time flies… December is knocking on the door, with 2015 right around the corner.  Time to stop slacking and hop back in the saddle to prepare for next year’s race season… while I’m still in 2014 race season.

Eek.

I came to the realization a few weeks ago that I have raced every single month since March 2013.  Yep, nearly two years straight of racing at least every few weeks… I’m tired.  My body is tired.  Therefore I haven’t really pushed to do any training for cross or really to even try too hard lately.  But that’s all going to change December 1st when I kick off hardcore training again!

I am still continuing with CritFit and my coach, and he’s bringing out all the secret awesome stuff for me this year… I use the term “awesome” loosely when it comes to core workouts (what?!  I only ride a bike, ONLY RIDE A BIKE.  haha)!  We’re also using Training Peaks for mapping out and analyzing my workouts.  I’m finding it to be a neat system, though once again I’m on a crash course in understanding what some stuff means, like TSS. I think it stands for Torture Suffer Score.  😉

TrainerRoad will also be helping me along as my way of having my workouts in front of me and set up for power.  I do have a Quarq Riken power meter on order for my road bike, which opens up the possibility of doing some of my intervals and CritFit workouts outdoors when weather allows – something I couldn’t do last year when I got cabin fever but only had TR’s Virtual Power feature.

On Monday I’ll do my FTP test to kick things off (using Virtual Power until the Quarq arrives).  I was at 219 at the end of my pre-season training in April, so I’m curious to see where I am currently sitting.  Not that I’m looking forward to the test, but hey… necessary evil!

I only have two cyclocross races left – regionals and states and I’ll be done December 14th.  I’ve done a lot of long and hard thinking about my 2015 race season and what it’ll look like.  After some soul searching, I have decided to skip mountain bike nationals in 2015.  I loved my experiences the past two years attending nationals and the wonderful women I have gotten to know (Kim, Robin, Amy, Elizabeth!), but have felt my desire to attend 2015 wavering.  It’s a tough time of year and conflicts with a lot of other events I want to do, and honestly I am not super keen on the move of venue to Mammoth Mountain, CA.  So for at least 2015, I am sitting out.  I think it’s a wise decision.

I’ve randomly become interested in racing in a lot of longer, endurance type of races.  Can’t explain why.  But they’re something I want to pursue more.  I start out 2015 at 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Tucson, AZ in February!  I will be racing on a four women team, and am really excited for my first 24 hour race experience.  I am also eyeing the Gunnison Half Growler over Memorial Day weekend, the Laramie Enduro (one of the events that conflicts with nationals), Pierre’s Hole 50k, and the Dakota 5-O over Labor Day weekend.  Dang, so many long races!  After two years of bad experiences at Rumble at 18 Road, and the lack of needing to qualify for nationals, I am safely saying that I will be skipping out on 2015’s rendition of that race.  Instead I am focusing on the Nordic Valley Stage Race ProXCT in Ogden in May as one of my A races, with the Laramie Enduro being the other A race for the summer.  Yes, that’s right… the Laramie Enduro is a race I am training around!  Also on the mountain bike list is the Gowdy Grinder (first year in open!), Beti Bike Bash, maybe a few RME events, the Laramie Mountain Bike Series, and the Stone Temple 8 (hopefully as a solo).  Utah is hosting more and more USAC mountain bike racing, so I might make the drive over there for some of their other events as well.

Naturally I’ll be fooling around at some of the early season road events, starting with the Frostbite Time Trial in early March, followed by the Boulder Roubaix, Weld Country Road Race, and maybe the Deer Trail Road Race.  Apparently 2015 will the be year of redeeming myself at the two races I DNF’d in 2013!  I’ll also try to do a few of the hill climbs.

The crowning fun summer activity will hopefully be riding in the Tour de Wyoming, a 6 day tour of Wyoming (and South Dakota this year).  350+ miles on the bike that week, which is definitely above and beyond anything I’ve ridden before.  This event always conflicts with mountain bike nationals as well, so I am hopefully going to get experience some of the fun I’ve been missing out on getting those shiny medals in PA the past two years!

Whew.

But it’s coming together, and I’m diving into planning.  I know it’s time to focus and stop being lazy.  I’ve gotten rather good at not moving from the couch for the 6 hours between getting home from work and my bedtime, and I gotta rewire myself mentally to allow for that hour or two of training occur.