Now who put the invisible 50 pound weight on my bike? it is not funny.
The group ride last night was okay. Actually, it was good, I was just okay. We had a smallish group but formed a very nice pace line...I was highly impressed with the smoothness we had in our rotation and amount of time each person pulled. My legs were feeling heavy, almost like I'm riding on some heavy POS but, unfortunately I am not. I managed to ignore the legs for about 45minutes and then did my own thing. Oh well...you can't feel amazing all the time. Angela and I tried to go to Bastille days, but after driving around in search of parking for over 30 minutes, we went home and crash...sleep is better sometimes.
This morning I woke up and did my ride, not feeling incredible either. I did sleep well, but the legs are screaming at me...now I will listen. This weekend will be filled with plenty of rest and relaxation time for me. Not to mention the shopping, the baseball game, the time with the Dad, and tons of vegan food. I am so exciting I could jump up and down!
It's a busy week...after getting back late from the WORS race Sunday night I feel like I'm running on empty. Monday brought a trail work day at Crystal Ridge...a quick "recovery" lap with Angela and then off to clean up the trails. We were turned into a buffet for the mosquito's and ran from the woods for more bug spray. After a quick shower in the replant we headed back in. I can say, this years race course is going to be sweet. Pretty similar to last year with some new twists and turn...possible some more new stuff. We'll see.
After the trail work I crashed for the night so I could wake up and do a recovery ride in the morning. Amazing how high the HR gets first thing in the AM. I felt like I was riding a 50lb bike...but I wasn't. I guess I really needed the recovery. After work I hit up one of my fav places...fuel cafe. The Fat Vegan and VLT rocked...I should have remember to bust out the camera for some food porn pics, but I forgot!
Up early for Wednesday to get my intervals done with...then 2 large cups of coffee...to keep the eyes open. Then after work I headed out to 'Tosa for a nice ride on some new roads...well, not new roads...there were tons of cracks and potholes to deal with, but it was a new route for me!
Today brought about more eating out...this time B&B's...seriously, I've eaten at my 3 fav place this week, it's like flippin' heaven! Tonights group ride should be fun, if I can hang...and then this weekend I'm in Chicago with the Dad...lots of vegan goodness will be happening. I can't wait!
Oh my...this was almost like my old bullet point posts from last year...scary. I need to update more.
I’m exhausted, that’s all there is to it. Eau Claire was a tough race for me. As I’ve always said my strong points are the hills and the singletrack. Although Eau Claire boast some amazing singletrack, a new crazy rock garden, and some of the best switchbacks I’ve seen, it also is a hammer fest. I’m still learning how to do this and I totally felt like I was the worst mountain biker in the world on Sunday. The laps were long (7.5miles) so we only did 3 laps. I felt good on lap one, hanging with the a good pack of women, into the singletrack, crazy long line of us, got hosed up at the first technical rocky switchback due to a timid rider, but all was still well. Then the Junior X boys were barreling down our backs…not knowing how to pass properly, got all screwy with them. By the time the singlespeed open came upon us, they were better…these guys know how to pass well!
The climbs felt amazing, made a sweet pass on a switchback climb, and I was still feeling good…lap 2 I started to feel some pain, ate some gel, drank some water, made it through the rock garden, still hanging with the strong women I like to be around. But then…it happened…towards the end of lap 2 the stomach went, the legs got crampy, the bonk was upon me...again! I don’t know what my problem is. My body is great for 15miles and then it just crumbles to pieces, I eat and I feel like crap, I don’t eat and I feel lie crap…I don’t know what to do.
My body can so handle the Sport Race distance…maybe I just need a year to get used to this…maybe I shouldn’t be in cat 1 and should go back to my sport singlespeed which I loved so much…heck, maybe I should just race the damned singlespeed in cat 1 and get over it…all these maybes and what if’s are circling in my head! I was on the verge of tears by the end and I literally broke down in the garden at the end of the race. I just felt like crap and caused a big issue as the top 3 pro men came through for their finish. Jesse got trapped behind me and we both did our fair share of saying sorry to each other after the race.
At the end of the day my results weren’t bad considering the trouble I had during lap 3. I was 18th out of 25 women overall, 7th out of 11 for my age group. Thanks to everyone who cheered me on, thanks to Brittany for the bottle hand ups, and thanks to Ty & Christine for the ride to the race!
After the race I cried, called Angela, cried some more, got a good kick in the pants, ate food, and did some soul searching on the way home. It wasn’t a fun race, but maybe it takes a while. I’ve already paid for the license; I might as well suck it up for a year. But really, I just want to go to kettles and ride my singlespeed…find my happy place, and have some flippin’ fun!
I am thankful this week is only a 4-day work week. I'm also somewhat thankful I opted to reset the alarm for an hour later when I woke up at 4:30am the first time. It wasn't raining yet, but when I got up at 5:30as is was. Had I gone out, I'd have gotten wet...and cold. There's nothing I hate more than wet chamois. I'm hoping the rain stops by mid day so I can get a recovery ride in, if not, I guess that's God's way of saying 'move more stuff'. I've been busy this week moving into Angela's house (thankful for that too!)...it looks like I'm about two carloads away from being complete (um, make that 3 if you count one load of bikes). I plan to be done on friday...hopefully I'm done by lunch time...then maybe a nice recovery ride, grocery shopping, unpacking, and I might hit up the fireworks with some peeps. Not sure yet.
I'm also getting excited for WORS # 5 Chippewa Valley Firecracker this weekend! Ty & Christine were gracious enough to offer me a ride (again...thankful for my awesome friends). I really love this course...minus the boring forever flat lead out, I still have nightmares of last year on the singlespeed...totally spun out. The singletrack there is amazing though, which makes up for most of the pain. Every WORS course has it's good and bad...I don't think it's possible to make every mountain biker happy on every course, they're all awesome once you're finished!
This weekend had it's up's and down's. On Friday Angela and I made the trek out to Ron's for the ranchito ride. It was probably the best recovery ride I've ever done. I rode my old road bike turned singlespeed commuter and can say I beat Ron up a climb on one of the bike path's in the area...this is also probably the only time I can ever say I beat Ron up a hill. It's the small things that make me happy =) The ride was awesome and it was great to hang out with all the peeps.
Saturday I woke up early, did a bunch of packing for my upcoming move and rode my bike to my hair appointment and then back home again. It was a nice ride, but I've noticed my legs are starting to feel heavy...it might be possible that I ride too much...dare I say that's even possible? Who knows, I'm having fun.
I was able to meet up with Angela for the Downer Ave Classic and watch cute guys on some pretty sexy bikes race at speeds that I only wish I could ride at. Here you can see Angela and I before we drank way too much beer...We worked our way through the crowd and headed over to the Ben's Cycles area to hang out with the Alterra peeps and large numbers of other awesome people too. I paid up for the Ultra Prime, won some Alterra goodies in the raffle, drank beer, made sure Angela drank beer, and got a nice picture of Christine twittering away (well, I think she was twittering...I'm just jealous of her iPhone, I want one too).Then I got a nice shot of Tim & Michelle...They're so cute! I spent the night chatting away (met some of Angela's team members too...some of which were attempting to get me to road race, lol) and drinking more beer. Which eventually leads to a nice hangover on Sunday morning. I woke up at about 5:30am...eyes pounding and had that awful day after drinking cotton mouth. Yuck. I texted Angela to see if she was still going to ride the Tour de Cure the Alterra team signed up for. She said yes and that she too was suffering from a nice hangover, so I started to get ready to. I was always going to go, I just didn't want to suffer alone. I hopped on the bike at about 6:30am and rode to Grafton for the start...12.5 miles later I was there...and so were several other hungover Alterra team members too.
Once the ride started we headed into the wind...a very strong wind. I stayed with the start pack for about 10 miles, dropped off, rode alone, battled the wind. I think we managed to get about 5 miles where there was a nice tailwind...but it was pretty much a terrible head or cross wind the entire ride. At one point I was blown into the middle of the road and almost got hit by a truck. I made the final turn back to Grafton, headed straight into the wind...pedaling like a mad women, downhill and a whooping 14.6 mph. 71.66miles later, I was laying in the grass, totally bonking.
While on my ride I got a message from Angela...the group she was with missed a turn and was completely lost. They did find their way back and she was gracious enough to give me a ride home (because I had originally planned to ride my bike back, but the bonk prevented that...and the wind). I think almost everything in my body is tired today. Lack of sleep this week, some high stress moments on Saturday, moving boxes to my new home, and 70+ miles in some strong freaking wind will do that to a girl.
Hmmm..the plan for last night was to get home, make dinner, and start painting trim and the door to the bathroom. Here's what actually happened.
While making dinner I removed the door from the bathroom and got it prepped for painting. Ate dinner, then got started on the painting. While I was waiting for the paint to dry (kind of like watching grass grow) my phone rang. I didn't know the number and usually I just let those go to voicemail...however, today I answered. And it turns out I knew who it was after all! It was Greg Duckett and he was calling to tell me Angela crashed on her way home from their ride, she's at home, very dizzy and her knee got messed up...and wanted to know if I could come right away. So I jumped up, changed quickly, mad search for the keys, yelled to Bill what was going on and if he could put the paint away for me. I think I was out the door within 5 minutes. I got to Angela's in record time. Greg was there and so was her neighbor, she was sitting with ice packs and water. We got her loaded up in the Fit and were on our way to the ER. A very familiar place to me these days. Once we were there we got her all checked in and waited for the doctor. She was a good sport and let me take her picture. Her right knee swelled up pretty bad but after hanging in the ER for a while the swelling went down. The good news is that the doctor said nothing seemed broken and it was pretty much bad road rash on her left knee and elbow, and then the general bruising and soreness that's sure to come today and the rest of the week. She did end up getting 5 stitches in her right knee...her first time ever needing stitches.
She did well getting the stitches and surviving the cleaning of the wounds....if it were me, I'd probably have been crying like a big baby. I was purely fascinated by the cleaning of the wounds and the process of stitching her back up, while she opted to look away. What can I say, if it's not my body that it's happening to I like to watch...most times. I did my part to keep her distracted with stories of my crashes and just plain dumb moves on my bike. I'm just very thankful nothing more serious happened to her and I hope she recovers quickly so we can ride together again!
I decided to race the entire Subaru Cup this year. I have always wanted to participate in the entire event but life seemed to put damper on the effort. This year, I registered early…to basically make myself stay for the whole weekend. I had a blast. There were definite ups, downs, and general good feelings throughout the weekend.
The good…I did my preride post Friday rain storm on the singlespeed (32x20). Gearing was good, trails were wet and I was able to ride everything. My only hesitation on racing the singlespeed in Cat 1 was the start climb. It seemed more brutal than any other climb out there. I can speed up the side of the ski hill without an issue, but I’m as slow as molasses on the start climb.
I decided to stick with gears since I woke up to a sunny, hot, and humid day. I knew it would be a sufferfest. At Don’s “GOOoooo” I was off and in the pack of women up the climb…thankful for my easier gears. I was climbing well, riding with April D. and Amelia…so I felt like I had a great position. We made our way past Claire, I thought to myself as I made the pass either I’m have a really good day, or something is wrong with Claire (turns out she had an asthma attack!).
Lap one brought about a good pass for me with April D and then it was just me and Amelia for the better part of laps 2 & 3…she got by me towards the end of lap 3 and was able to gap me. I could feel the previous laps in my legs throughout lap 4, but overall, I felt strong and good. I ate well on the bike (no bonking this time!) and got plenty of hydration (thanks Brittany!!).
I ate my recovery food and got a quick (and cold) shower thanks to the Holcombs! Then it was off to awards to check my results. It was an awesome race...resulting in an 11th place finish out of 15 finishers (20 total racers, but 5 DNFs). And I came in 4th for my age group. I was very pleased with how I did and just the fact that I finished, felt good, and didn’t bonk! I followed my advice from Wausau and took more food with me for the race and it worked.
The rest of Saturday was spent eating and then doing my volunteer work as a course marshal (awesome job since I got to cheer on a great group of sport and citizen racers…I loved it!). Spent the night hanging out with a great group of racers and then off to bed to rest up for the remaining events on Sunday.
Super D was the event I was most looking forward to. I did on trial run, got some serious chain suck and thanks to John Holcomb got the sorted out. Then it was time for the official race. Got the bike positioned, lined up for my run, Don said go and off I went. Jumped on the bike at good speed and then lost my pedals…and was dead last. I caught back up to Brenda, Christine, and April in quick time and then proceeded to have a glorious crash in a rock garden…just me, skidding down a pile of rocks on my shoulder. Jumped up, crying, unable to grip well with my right arm, and off to chase the back end of the pack. I was able to catch onto the tail end but had nothing in me. I hurt badly and was in full on tears by the finish. So I was DFL and I hurt…iced and changed clothes…debated about if I would even do the Short Track since I could hardly lift anything with my right arm.
I was so bummed! After eating and taking some ibuprofen I suited up to ride around the Short Track course a few times and see how the shoulder felt. I decided to race and if I felt pain or anything I’d pull myself out. I’m really glad I raced. I was so nervous the whole week leading up to this because I’m just not a hammer on the flats kind of girl (it’s something I’m working on). Don told us we were doing 15minutes +2 and then we were off. I was holding my own, past Christine and Brenda, was on the wheel of April, behind Renee and MurphyKate. I was excited. Found a great spot to pass April and then made my way past both Renee and MK.
Then towards the end all three past me, I thought there was still a lap to go and knew I’d get them going through the start finish…but then Don said “You’re Done” and I was pissed at myself for letting them get by me. Oh well, I learned I need to just go all out for the entire Short Track…lesson learned! But I was happy with my finishes considering how awful I did on the Super D.
Nothing like a nice picture of a Vegan by a Cheese banner.
Thanks to Brittany and Claire for the cheering during the Short Track, you both kept me pushing harder than I thought I could! Thanks to everyone for cheering for me the entire weekend and thanks the Holcomb’s for the shower and a stop to hang out, Liz for the sunglasses (you saved me!!) and Jerry for the great camping neighbor…it was stellar. The entire weekend resulted in my finishing 9th out of 13 for the Stage Race. It was awesome. I can’t wait until next year!
After the awards I trekked home behind Ty & Christine and we stopped to eat at Red Robin with Amy Dykema. Turns out the vegan options at Red Robin are few and far between. After ordering water for my meal a very friendly (and helpful) employee came to our table with several lists of foods available for different allergies or food preferences. She was bale to find me something to eat and it was pretty darn good too. Just some steamed white rice, side of steamed veggies with a teriyaki sauce…so dinner was good and with good company, and thanks to Red Robin for finding me something to eat!
And of course the best picture...Christine and I sandwiching the Coach! Thanks for the hard training and the good words of encouragement TJ!
Blasted sinus stuffy-ness. Pressure in my head...trouble breathing...can't tell if it's allergies, a cold, a sinus infection, some other combination of the above...it's just driving me nuts. It might be time to call the doc's office. Other than not breathing well I'm actually good...(which makes me think it's allergies)...body feels good, ready to race this weekend (if I can breathe). Blasted nose!
I think I had a very productive weekend. I took friday off to work on the house, but since the weather forecast looked like rain on Saturday I opted to got o Kettles and get in a good ride while the weather was nice. Beyond that I didn't really feel like racing WEMS that weekend anyway. So after wakign up early to run and then getting one coat of paint on the bathroom I loaded up Lola and headed to Southern Kettles with the Singlespeed. I managed to ride a bit of everything at Kettle...including my fav loop of long White to Rainy Dew. =) I even rode the orange loop and made it about half way up that awful climb.
After the ride I stopped to chat with the nice people from my old bike shop as they were doing a Giant Demo day. Then my friend Brian and I grab lunch at the General Store...yum! After getting home I got the second coat of paint up in the bathroom and even managed to install a light fixture. Saturday I removed trim from all the hallway doors and got started priming and painting that. Finished up the half bath with a shelf and curtain =). I even got in a nice recovery ride.
Sunday I headed to Church and ran a few errands, finished painting trim, started painting the hallway, picked out a sink for the bathroom, did a 2 hour ride with puke intervals...which with my allergies really almost made me puke, and helped save the house from a flood. The almost flood happened for several reasons...first, the house is older...which means the pipes are older. Second, we've been turning on and off the water to install new plumbing in the bathro0ms. Third, but turning on and off the water on old pipes...it busted. I notices and small dripping leak at about 6pm Sunday night. Got Bill and he wrenched on it then we realized that was only making it worse...one phone call to the police department (since the water utility is off on the weekends) and a nice call from the On-Call Water Utility worker we got the water turned off, fixed, and back on! I just made the phone call...Bill did the work...I did the cleaning (it's all I'm good at...cleaning, cooking, organizing).
So that was my weekend...now it's time to get started on my week...time to work.
Three years ago today I bought my first "real" (bike shop quality) bike. Three weeks later I did my first 50 mile ride, 2 months later I started mountain biking, one month after that I started racing. Although the mountain biking took some getting used to (hello, I fell...often, and hard). I did become addicted to it and can't imagine my life without my bikes. I love to ride, train, race, and do anything involving bikes (and vegan food too)! So Happy Bike Anniversary to me (and to all those who remember their first "real" bike)!
Here you can see Angela and I before we drank way too much beer...
We worked our way through the crowd and headed over to the Ben's Cycles area to hang out with the Alterra peeps and large numbers of other awesome people too. I paid up for the Ultra Prime, won some Alterra goodies in the raffle, drank beer, made sure Angela drank beer, and got a nice picture of Christine twittering away (well, I think she was twittering...I'm just jealous of her iPhone, I want one too).
Then I got a nice shot of Tim & Michelle...They're so cute!
