Wow! It’s been soooo nice to be able to be consistent with my training this week. I feel so much more relaxed and satisfied. When I don’t get to successfully push my mind AND body to the limit on a regular basis, I feel anxious and lost. We had an interesting weather pattern this week… a few 70 degree days (my legs actually don’t glow in the dark anymore!), followed by a snow day… Boulder got 7-10 inches of snow. Just when I thought I *might* get to ride singletrack, Mother Nature showed me who was boss. That’s alright – it means the mountains will be gorgeous this summer, and we’ll have a green, fragrant spring.

I doubt that training for one week will salvage my fitness before the race next week, but it certainly won’t hurt. I’ve been pushing myself pretty hard and hoping it’ll pay off. We leave on Tuesday for Arkansas in the NEW ERGON SPRINTER! It is getting wrapped and I’ll have pics for you on Monday. It’s a 2 day drive. Blah, I am dreading that part, but it’s going to be really fun to ride technical singletrack and hang out with teammates!

Earlier this week I took to the steep, dirt canyon roads – my favorite thing to do when I can’t ride singletrack.

I admittedly spend too much time climbing and should be spending more time on the flats. However, a lot of my 75-100 mile races have 9000-17,000′ of elevation gain. That’s a lot, so I try to do what I do in races. That’s ride uphill (and rage the downhill!)  Plus, most of these rides go up to 9,000+ ft elevation which is a very good thing since I do a lot of high altitude races in the CO Rockies.  Turns out that John Denver wasn’t full of shit!

I can’t say enough how much I love the Ergon GX3s. They are my favorite grip, and I’ve tried pretty much all of them. The bar ends are perfect.

My rides have been looking like this lately:

and

The Suunto T6 is serving me well! Steady, subthreshold efforts uphill…

…and then the pendulum swung, and the weather went back to winter yesterday.

and it only got deeper.

I’m sick of freezing my butt off in sub-arctic weather. Conveniently, I received a brand spanking new trainer from Kinetic Trainers a couple weeks ago and actually WANTED to ride it! I’ve been riding a garage sale antique for a long time which is, needless to say, pretty awful.

This thing… is… amazing. It works really really well. It’s the first time I ever enjoyed riding the trainer.

I have been SERIOUSLY considering putting a flat bar on my road bike. I never ride the thing because I hate road bike handlebars. I threw on a mtb handlebar with Ergon grips. I can’t tell you how much happier and more comfortable I was on the bike. I think a flat bar for my road bike is in the very near future so I actually use the poor little Cannondale.

I had a really good time because I was 1)comfortable the flat bar 2)riding a really great piece of equipment and 3) had some really fun new techno beats to keep me motivated…oh yeah, and I was doing intervals which makes the time fly:

The sun is out… I’ll be taking it outdoors tomorrow.

Well, I finally am going to be able to ride more than two times in a week!  Good thing too, but I have a 60 mile mountain bike race (The Ouachita Challenge) next weekend.  I’m feeling a little down because I know that over the past couple months, all the travel has made it incredibly hard to be consistent with the bike. Translation: I AM OUT OF SHAPE!  I can tell on all my rides… so my goal this spring is to not be down on myself.  My season goes through October, and coming into the season sans fitness means I’ll have to race my butt into shape.  My trips are also going to become more conducive to riding because they’ll be for races, and I’ll have my sweet little Rotwild with me.

Spring days are becoming more frequent, but peppered with snowy days.  Friday and Saturday will be two of those days, but I am starting to see green grass!

I even got to flirt with some singletrack yesterday!

I said this on facebook, and I’ll say it again. The feeling I get riding singletrack is the same feeling I get when I’m in love. Giddy, about to burst, excited, giggling, smiling, pure happiness. What could be better? I’ll tell you what could be better – when the high alpine singletrack melts!

The newest bike porn I have for you is my NEW DT Swiss wheels!!!!! The word on the street from DT Swiss is that the carbon wheels are actually stronger and even more crack resistant. We’ll see… I’m stoked.

Here is my set up for the Ouachita. Continental Mountain King 2.2s – my tire of choice, and of course Stan’s! Riding tubeless is one of the best improvements to mountain biking. I would be very sad if I had to go without.

THANK YOU DT SWISS!!!!! I am really really loving the change in the time. It seems like I suddenly have a lot more free time and am not rushing to get out the door every single day. Speaking of, my stallion awaits me!

5 nights, 4 days in Seattle. It was a blast! I got to run 6 miles a day by the bay (in the sun and in the rain), visit about 15 bike shops, and work at the Seattle Bike Expo for 2 days. For the bike photo fun, check the Ergon blog.

Fun photos….

Kerkove likes the Easter Bunny. I think it’s kind of scary… hehe

I had some fantastic espresso. You could throw a stone in any direction and hit a coffee shop. I check out Victrola, Cafe Vita, and Vivace.

Went to this really awesome place for lunch one day called Brouwers.

and delicious food.  I wish we had one in Boulder!

Theo chocolate factory was right across the street from one of the bike shops. mmmm

Sampled some local IPAs.

Fun with Ergon GC3s…

I love coffee beans!

It was amazing… at least in the area we were in, there were people drinking EVERY morning with breakfast!! At least half the tables in the restaurants had tables with PBR, whiskey, tequila shots, and margaritas. I asked the server about it, and she said a lot of people do that around there. crazy!

It was a great trip.  The bike shop scene is really cool and very eclectic.  Looking forward to my next visit there sometime in the future!  However, it’s great to be home and riding again!

I am not very Irish. My hair is dark and I can’t hold my liquor to save my life. I’m more of a russian, italian, lebanese. However, “Looney” IS Irish, more specifically from the Isle of Man. Special holidays that embrace drinking Guinness and other Irish delights is always a great thing(in the US and anyway)! So, from me to you, Happy St. Patrick’s! Pinch yourself if you’re not wearing green.

P.S. Just got back from Seattle… update coming today or tomorrow!

One word. MUD.

Snow is melting and the sun is peaking through the clouds more often. My training ground is all the fun gravel roads in the mountains, which are now muddy rivers of fun. It’s a good thing I like getting muddy!

My poor drivetrain.

My helmet has mud freckles.

Mud dork stripe. My shorts were much worse.

You start getting these funky knee warmer tanlines.

Shoes were made to get dirty…and then clean.

I wonder if this has the same effect as a “mud facial?”

Daylight savings on Sunday…. another good sign. Now, I’ll be looking for little teeny buds on tree branches, signs of a warm breeze, and the smell of fresh pine.

Off to Seattle on Wednesday for 5 days. If you’re in Seattle, come to the bike show! I’ll also be paying some dealers a visit. Training… not going very well right now. No time, unfortunately… I’m riding an average of 3x a week. Guess I should look for later season fitness this year. Sigh.

Well, I finally got around to downloading a couple of my HR files from 24 Hours of Old Pueblo. I know some of us geek out on this stuff, so here we go:

Lap 1. Solid, hard, XC type effort. Executed nicely

Lap 2 (night lap) Started really well. You can see how the HR at the end dips down. That is what happens to your HR when you get a flat tire, you have to stop, and you have to go slow and baby it for the rest of the lap.

Lap 3. This is what happens when you bonk because you were eating too much in between laps and have a brick in your stomach, but no blood sugar!

I’ve honestly been in sort of a funk this week. My body doesn’t seem to want to let me train which is frustrating, considering last week and the week before were pretty light weeks in terms of training. I guess stress is really wearing on me.

My training objectives on my rides were having to switch to that of recovery and going home. I know what happens when I don’t listen to my body! At least I could enjoy the view.

I got up to ski at Loveland yesterday. It was by far the coldest day on that mountain in awhile. They even shut down the 9 chair (the one that goes to the divide) due to wind and snow. I’ve been trying to work on my technique so I can ski the harder stuff with more confidence. Maybe I just need my friends to hook me up to one of these!

Today is a brand new day for brand new opportunities, and hopefully a good training day.

Spring is coming….

I forgot to post this! For some reason, the Fort Collins newspaper wanted to interview me for the Xplore Section of their Sunday paper. Here is the online version if you’re interested!

Click the image to read.

See! I got behind again. This time, I was in Phoenix enjoying the sun and all 70 degrees. The cold, wet white stuff was just a distant memory by the end of the week.

Bicycle Retailer does a tour called the “BRAIN” Tour to 4 different locations over the course of the year. Ergon is one of the sponsors, so off I went. It was actually pretty fun. Giant provided us road bikes and we rode to 12 different shops (very very mellow pace, not the crazy group rides I try to avoid) Here is the post on Ergon’s blog by yours truly.

Here are some pics NOT on the Ergon blog from the tour that I thought were super cool. If you want more on the bike shops we went to and those photos, make sure you go to Ergon’s blog. I unfortunately have lost some of my favorite photos, so these will have to suffice.

There was a fire in the lobby the first day.

Rage Cycles was super cool. They had a bunch of different bike part artwork everywhere. There is a younger guy (teenager) who actually makes all this stuff. Creative!

Checking who had what Ergon product in the shops.

Fun!

I think this is the smallest little bike/trike I’ve ever seen.

Sweet paint job. I have never owned a cruiser. Is it time?

One morning before work, FRS’s Jim Murph-dog and I headed out on the road bikes. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a huge network of bike paths with scenic views.

I didn’t know there was water in Phoenix!

brahhhp

The coolest concept I saw was at Tribe Multi-Sport. They are a triathlon store, but they had a workout room with one of those pools that are like a pool treadmill, weights, trainers, massage therapists, physiology tests, and coaching. Pretty impressive!!! They also had wine where most bike shops give out beer. I’ll take both

Gotta get in shape!

The tour was Tues-Thurs. On Friday, Murph-dog and I met up with some of the folks at Pivot Bikes to go ride South Mountain. I got to ride a Pivot Mach 5, which is the first time I rode a “big bike.” 5 inches of travel?? YES!

It was soooo nice to finally ride some dirt after being on the road bike all week. (can you tell I’m not a big road person… I will ride dirt roads before I ride paved roads!) The owner of Pivot, Chris Cocalis rode with us too!

The crew! L to R Jim Murphy, Chris Cocalis, Rob Aguero, myself, badass DH’er Cindy Cocalis, and Cybil. Thanks for the ride guys!

After the ride, I hopped on a plane to Albuquerque to spend some quality time with my friends and family. I moved to CO over 4.5 years ago, but I still love the life I have in ABQ!

I got to bleed my eyes out on the trails all weekend. This travel and the snow have made it hard to actually train the last couple weeks. Oh well, it’s only February.

I’m lucky to have such an awesome family. That is 3 generations of Looneys right there. WHOOOAAA CRAZIES.

TOMORROW:

Tomorrow night, Jeff Kerkove and I will be doing a mountain bike Q&A clinic at the Fort Collins REI. If you are in the area, come on by!

Time for some down time this week, training time, yoga, a ski day, and some much needed catch-up for work and school. I think down time and catch-up in one sentence are oxymorons!! I have about a week, then I’m off to Seattle for the Seattle Bike Show (with a list of awesome coffee and bike shops in hand!).

I got back from Tucson on Tuesday night. On Wed afternoon, the snow began to fall, but not before I squeaked in a ride. I was definitely still tired from the race, but able to get in a good workout.

I spent Thursday up at Loveland skiing!! It was one of the best days skiing I have ever had. I with my roommate, Brad, and my friend, Jason. Jason is an incredible skiier, so I basically had a private lesson all day and I saw major improvement thanks to him! I bet he was like, “OMG, she is so slow.” Particularly when I was standing on top of this run, looking down at it and not moving. I had to tell myself, “1.2.3. GO!…and GO!” I had reasons – it was a double black with basically zero visibility. Descending into a steep abyss!

I admittedly shied away from riding this weekend. It snowed nonstop. I could have gotten outside and ridden… but it wasn’t worth it to me to suffer through that. Plus, I had the luxury of knowing I was coming off a race which gave me ample recovery. I did supplement with cross training – yoga, running, and I tried something new – Crossfit. I am STILL sore…. This is where I went: Flatirons Crossfit. I think getting through that workout was harder than the 100 mile races I do! I went with a friend who frequents that place a lot, and was squeaked in. They don’t allow drop ins and you have to pay monthly for memberships (I need to see if this is the case with all gyms). With my travel and racing priorities, I couldn’t go enough to make it worth it, but if I could do the technique classes and go when I’m in town and don’t have a race, it’d be sooo awesome!!!! I’m definitely looking into this new painful addiction that has left me crippled! In fact, on the waiver, you’re supposed to circle your fitness level. Being a pro athlete, I circled 9 out of 1-10. During the workout, I felt like an idiot for circling that because I certainly don’t have olympic power lifting fitness. I was a shaking heap!

And then the best part of my weekend… It was a good reward… I spent tons of hours doing hw and school stuff because I am so behind (enrolled in 8 credits right now which is more than challenging with my schedule)… BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS!!!! I have seen Todd Mohr 3 times solo, but never the whole band b/c I’m always at a race. I think this year I may be able to catch them at Red Rocks too! They have been one of my all time favorite bands since I was 18.

They put on an INCREDIBLE show! I think they are even better live than on their recordings. I got progressively closer as the concert went on until I made it! I was front and center, standing at the feet of Todd Mohr.

Eye level…..

It was euphoric. When he raged his electric guitar solos, I’d stop, mouth agape in awe. Here are some pics. Watch out for the videos, some of the sounds are extremely distorted, but I wanted to get vid of his hands on that guitar!!!!

half decent sound. From their newer album.

First song I ever learned on guitar….. Resignation Superman.

Cover of Beast of Burden… kinda distorted, but cool.

This one has good sound.

Started back here…

Closer….

No zoom…I was this close!!

Turn OFF the sound, but check out the vid.

I am a superfan. If you’ve never heard of these guys, check ‘em out!

TODAY I am heading to Phoenix for work. There is 8-12 inches of snow blanketing the ground here in CO, so I’m very ecstatic to get out to warm weather and no snow. I’ll be doing a dealer tour with Bicycle Retailer and some other cool cats from the industry. Woohoo!

Alright! I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get back to the blog. Everytime I travel, I get behind in normal life, and then it seems like it’s time to go again once I get caught up!

In short: the event was amazing, fun, and well run with really great people. Thanks a million to my teammates, supporters, race volunteers, and race promoter of Epic Rides, Todd Sadow. See ya next year (maybe I’ll do a solo?!)

ROCK N ROLL!!!

I’ll break down the race instead of fully writing it all out.

1) Epic Rides puts on great events. If you haven’t been to one, you’re missing out!

2) My favorite thing about this race was that everyone was out there. People who had never
raced a bike before (or who don’t normally ride) to pros. It’s an eclectic bunch and it’s cool to see new enthusiasts out there giving it their all amongst the chollas!

3) Stan’s dedication dinner was cool. I got to meet Stan of Stan’s NoTubes… the guy who INVENTED tubeless. Thank you Stan!!!!

That’s him!

There was copious amounts of free beer. I tried the Pipeline Porter by Kona. To be honest, it was WAY too sweet… but I was happy for free beer! …and for cool, rusty, painted bike parts!

4) I have the coolest team!

5) My lap rundowns:

Pre-lap 2! Yuki did the first lap for our team which involved running to come get his bike from me!

and he fueled beforehand appropriately…

Lap 1: “Ok, I have only done 1 day of hard intervals this years, I’ll just go out and see what I got.” Turns out I had a lot. I was able to ride in Zone 5 for the whole lap. Score! It was super fun. The wind on the back side of the course was heinous and I was definitely slowed down by it!

Lap 2: The sun was already down, and it turned pitch black about 10 min into my lap. I was riding at almost the same pace as lap 1. My friend, Marty was riding with me and helping to push me. It suddenly felt really hard to go fast. I thought I had blown up, so I told Marty to go ahead. After awhile, I realized it wasn’t ME, but my rear tire had gone almost flat. My CO2 failed… so I had to use my hand pump which I now always bring with me after losing the Dakota 5-0 2 years ago due to a faulty CO2 and no pump (and running for 10 min till someone threw me a pump). I had to baby the tire for the rest of the lap which was a bummer…. Lost about 5 minutes, but still happy with my fitness on the lap

Meanwhile… I was eating in between laps thinking it would digest. I had a food baby and my food was a brick. I drank more water hoping that would help with gastric emptying, but it was still sitting. This also happened to me at 24 Hours of Moab! In retrospect, I now know you still can’t eat a whole lot in between laps and keep it to very simple foods, even with 3+ hours in between.

Lap 3: Night Lap… I was instantly hungry because my food didn’t digest. I went through the 2 gels I brought on the lap in the first 20 minutes and spent the rest of the lap bonking out of my skull. I was looking for food on the side of the trail… the road kill/trail kill mice started to look appetizing. I felt so weak I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to finish the lap, but I told myself one pedal in front of the other. My avg HR dropped 30 beats from the other two laps. Fail.

I managed to sleep 2 hours, and didn’t eat anymore. I think some food finally started to digest.

Lap 4: Night Lap…. the sun came up 2/3 of the way into my lap. I felt reborn with the sun and suddenly was able to put the pedal to the metal again. I was definitely dragging in the beginning, still a bit weak, and unmotivated at the beginning.

6) I got to hang out with a ton of my old NM racing buddies. We were all camped together. That was the best part of being at the race for me! Love you guys

King Kong Casey!

Pre-ride with my peeps.

Riding with Shannon Gibson

I heart Nina.

That was it. I only got one day lap! It was good night riding practice. Thanks again to everyone! I love the camaraderie of 24 hour races.

5 person co-ed category