Yes… I will give you the full report later, but it’s time for bed now. Read it and I will weep my friends. First I flatted with 15 minutes to go in the XC. I was in a solid 10th or 11th with at least a 6 minute gap on the next person. I only lost 2 spots, but those were 2 big spots I wanted to have.

Short track the next day. Start gun went off and I had a super start. Katie Compton was off the front instantly. Gretchen Reeves and I were shoulder to shoulder, so I let her have the second spot. I’d rather sit on her wheel. Downhill we went and I felt like I was going really fast, but staying smooth. I felt something wet on my leg and thought, “oh god I hope that isn’t my tire sealant.” then I heard the horrible sound of air whooshing out of my tire. Puncture, wouldn’t seal. That was it for the short track. I was feeling good and the field was such that I had a mere chance of getting the podium. Guess my streak is over for awhile…

My friend Jeff and I went riding in the north foothills yesterday. I always love going back to the roots and riding the foothills. It was nice to actually have a mountain bike to ride. IN the late winter when I was here, I still didn’t have a mountain bike b/c I sold mine from the year before. I had to ride my rigid cyclocross bike and was sad b/c I couldn’t bomb the downhills! I was bummed not to have my camera b/c the desert is so gorgeous right now. Apparently Alb. has been getting a lot of rain, and there are all kinds of desert blooms and greenery.

There was quite a bit of wildlife on this particular ride. I was going pretty fast on a section of trail when it registered that there was HUGE snake hogging most of it. To avert it, I had to slam on my brakes and run into a bush to get as far away from it as possible. What is “it” you wonder? The biggest rattlesnake I have EVER seen. It looked like a huge python. I yelled to Jeff trying to warn him. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the snake had coiled itself up out of the trail when Jeff came by (I am not sure Jeff really heard what I was yelling). The rattlesnake had like 10 prines or rattles and was about 3 inches in diamater, and was several feet long!!! I have been seeing WAY too many snakes this year. A rattler is not who I want to run into!! I have seen them on the trails before, but NEVER that large. I was highly alarmed. In my alert state, about 5 seconds after I got rolling again, a bunny ran across the trail and scared the life out of me. I wonder if Rattler has been chomping down bunnies to get so big? After that, the sight of a root would mildly freak me out.

This isn’t the actual snake we say, but the size is comparable. He was coiled up like this after I went by. He was stretched out across the trail initially.

Later on, Jeff and I were going downhill again on some singletrack when suddenly I felt a sharp, biting pain on my chest near my collarbone. I pulled over erratically to brush off whatever bit or stung me. I thought it was gone, so we got rolling again pretty fast. Suddenly I felt the stinging on my back. PING! PING! one after the other. I almost wrecked when it started, slammed on my brakes and very frantically unzipped my jersey, and stuck my had on my back. I felt some bug on my back and crushed him immediately. It stung for quite awhile after, but I didn’t think it’d be a big deal. I’m not sure what it was that got me, but it did not feel good, and the little critter certainly left his mark. I have one of these on my chest, and this is his work on my back. Ouch!!!! It was like he was zorro or something making a Z. haha

That’s a lot of bites..that’s how long it took me to stop I guess. Now it itches. Little jerk.

The rest of the ride was fun and uneventful as far as animals go…well besides Jeff being an animal on the bike.

A few notes…

This race was nice because it was local. We did 5 laps. I lined up in the front row, but felt insecure about being there! I was happy to place where I did because at least now I feel like I deserve to be in the front row. It’s not my favorite type of mountain bike course because it was so flat! There were two very short hill sections. That was my only hope of putting time into people because I don’t like the flats! Flats are hard because there is no place to recover. You have to constantly be pedaling unlike a hilly course where you get a long downhill section. I would actually force myself to sing a song out loud (a Son Volt song) on the flats to keep myself from blowing up. I blew up the first lap trying to attack and lost a spot, and I didn’t want it to happen again. I was happy that I was pretty consistent with my lap times. Hopefully I can keep up my podium streak!

Podium shot!

It’s funny, this photo was actually taken of me on my warm-up lap, hence the ipod.

I like this photo a lot. Downhill section! there was a sneaky turn on this part that I almost missed a few times. I was borderline crashing grabbing rear brake to whip the back end around. FUN!

Look at all my hot teammates! These photos were taken at Battle the Bear. For more about my team, go to toughgirlcycling.com

Kid’s race

Hmm… Team blondie + Sonya

Albuquerque is not a small town, yet every time I come home, I run into a slew of people I know.

Example 1: earlier this year I was at this bar called the copper lounge. In the space of 2 minutes I ran into not ONE but TWO ex-boyfriend types (never officially boyfriends, but dudes I went on a couple dates with)

Example 2: I go out to eat somewhere and the waitress was this girl who I really didn’t like in high school. I realized people change (thank goodness), but she was still as snooty as ever.

Example 3: I go out to Fox and Hound and invite a bunch of my friends. One of my other friends from high school happened to be working there (which was a plus, who invited more people I knew in high school that I liked.) Fortuitously, a large group from my undergraduate is 30 ft away playing pool. I try my hardest to be antisocial and not make eye contact. One of the guys is the one who pinched my butt at a party while I was intoxicated, resulting in me chasing after him outside into the street…followed by him diving into a moving car to get away from me and me falling down in the road mangling my knee(I took a picture of it with my cell phone, but I will spare you and not post it. It’s really bloody and gory. Just because I think it’s rad doesn’t mean you will!!)….followed by Adam driving me to the ER where I was crying and blubbering in the car b/c I knew I couldnt do this bike race I love that was in 2 weeks. The guy who pinched my butt didn’t believe me when I told him what happened. I couldn’t bend me knee for two weeks…so I couldn’t drive my standard and it was very hard to sit down. Let’s see who else I will run into here. I stay free and clear of Defined Fitness on Juan Tabo, land of many guys who I dated and decided that it was not going to work, some I may not have been super nice to after they started acting retarded. Yes, sometimes sarcasm gets the best of me. I don’t hate anyone and wouldn’t hide from an ex, but I prefer not to have the awkward conversation about how I’ve been. Do they really care anyway? I know I don’t really care about how they have been (well, except for a select few). Sorry, tantrum.

Back to the beginning of example 3…the bar was really fun. It’s great that my bro can actually come and hang out, and drink me under the table any day. Yes, I confess. I had beer last night(3!, oh the humanity!), and 3 nacho chips, and 1 french fry. I miss my Boulder hippie food, the green trees (and green tea), the river, my hilarious roommate, and my Boulder hippie green architect bike riding boyfriend who needs me to entertain him so he won’t work 80 hours a week and ride himself into an oblivion.

Saturday I’m off to Angel Fire. XC is on Sunday, STXC on Monday. I’m about to go ride Sandia Peak today. My old stomping grounds….it’s where I did my first bike race. I’m hoping to break my record to the top. It will be a precursor to how fast I’ll be climbing this weekend. Basically I have to ride up and down the Angel Fire mountain twice. Good times. I am excited to finally do a real mountain bike race, no more of this flat crap with no rocks. Boring. I just wish my Scott Contessa Spark came in this week. I am ready to ride a dualie for a little while!

I’ve enjoyed a relaxing week this week. I went and rode the Betasso connector this morning and am happy to report that I didn’t feel like fainting. I don’t know what was up with that last week, but I am doing much better. yesss

Tomorrow morning is a local race in Lakewood. I am not looking forward to getting at 6 AM to eat breakfast tomorrow (you have to eat 3 hours before your race to avoid digestion issues). I am happy to not have to travel very far to the race, just a 35 minute drive. From what I hear, the field will be pretty challenging tomorrow. However, my legs felt good today during my opener ride, so wish me luck!

I’m headed to ABQ on Monday to finally spend some quality time at home. It seems like every time I go home, it’s a mad rush to train, see everyone, and drive home. I may actually get bored this time. I am looking forward to paying Sportz Outdoor a visit too. I’m staying in ABQ till Saturday, and then I’ll go to Angel Fire, NM for the second mountain states cup. yaaay!! I love that race. Then I have to come home and work like a normal person. Damn, and I’m just getting used to vacation mode.

My first pro podium, woohoo

Last Saturday was the XC and the first Mountain States Cup of the season in Nathrop, CO. My start wasn’t until 2:30 PM, so I got the luxury of leaving Saturday morning at a reasonable hour. I have never done this particular race before and I really like to pre-ride the course before I race it. I decided I was going to warm up on the course before my start. One loop was 7 miles, so I figured it shouldn’t take too long. There were some expert men racing at the time, so I just stayed out of the way. I was beginning to get nervous when it seemed like I had been out on the course for awhile and the trail just kept going farther and farther way from the venue. Finally I asked someone how far we were on the loop. When he told me about half way and my watch said 2:20 PM, I started to freak out. I already had to pick up the pace earlier because I realized I should make it back with time to spare, but when I heard this, I had to go at race pace in order to make it back in time. Fortunately we were more like 2/3 of the way through, but I rolled up to the start with 2 minutes to go, disheveled, out of breath, and flustered. I reached down to get a drink of water only to find that I had lost one of my water bottles on the course, and did not drink as much water as I should have during the warm-up. since there was a neutral feed and I still had one bottle, I decided that I would just get another at the feed and would be okay with just one bottle for the first lap. There were some fast girls that showed up, but despite that fact, I had a pretty decent first lap considering how hard I had just gone to make it back in time. I was looking for the feed, and the guy had his BACK turned. I said, “bottle!” he didn’t flinch. “BOTTLE!” He turned around too late after I had already past. I decided not to go back b/c I still had a little water left in my one bottle. 5 minutes later, I reached down to get a sip of water because my mouth was getting really sticky and dry. I wiffed some air with my hand where my bottle should have been. I looked down at my bottle cages in disbelief to see that my SECOND bottle was gone. There are some trees we had to hop/ride over, and a lot of people were losing bottles there. About half way through the second lap, all bets were off. I had gone 15 miles (including my warm up lap) with NO water in the afternoon heat, and still had 6 more miles to go before I could even get any water. Suddenly I started feeling really sick to my stomach and was dry heaving, and trying to hold my stomach with one hand and ride with the other. Then my legs turned into rotten, dried up sponges and at least 5 girls past me. By the time I got to the aid station, I was really angry and pulled over to grab two bottles, and downed as much water as I could. I spent the next 14 miles trying to get my legs and body to work again, but to no avail. I wanted to quit and was so frustrated that I finally felt decent at a race and then got dehydrated. I guess there is something to learn every race!

The next day was the short track. The guys and I went to Chris’ condo in Breckenridge for the night. I took the coldest ice bath I have ever taken. I had a bag of 10lbs of ice, and another 6 lb bag. The water is so cold in Breck that the ice wasn’t even really melting. There was just this huge 7-8 lb block of ice floating in the water with a bunch of smaller ice cubes. I got in and wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it for my normal 7 minutes, but I managed to do it. I knew the ramifications of my day would be really bad for the next day of racing… which gave me motivation to stay in longer.

BRRRR

We got up early the next day thinking our short track was at 10:30. We got to Nathrop at 9, chami-ed up and ready to warm-up. It seemed like cars were missing. I asked a guy who was a race volunteers what time the pro race was at. He told me 2:30. There was an uproar amongst us because we were so tired and had to get up at 7 AM only to wait around all day in the sun. We went up to the venue where we were even more surprised to find that my race wasnt until FIVE PM and the guys’ weren’t until 5:40. I looked down at my watch which said 9:30 AM. It was mass chaos. The race was very poorly organized and people were really angry to have to wait around all day in the hot sun. Some people, including the guys I came with, decided they didn’t want to wait and were going to go home. I really wanted to race, I was there, I paid the money, and I wanted the points…so I went to every tent and started asking if anyone from Boulder could give me a ride back in the evening. Fortunately this pro guy, Steve, was staying for his short track and could give me a ride. To save time, the officials decided to race the expert women with us. Because my legs had felt so bad the day before and I was sitting in the sun all day, I was terrified that I’d feel horrible, much like the Firestone National short track, and that the expert women would beat me. I didn’t want to feel humiliated and was beginning to regret my decision to stay. During my warm-up, I was having trouble getting my heart rate up and my legs felt like lead, despite trying to spin them out that morning. The race started and I found myself on the wheel of a woman, Dellys Star, who I really respect b/c she is super fast. I tried to stick with her, but she was too fast so I dropped back. I rode in a group with just a few other women for most of the race and tried to conserve my energy and not endo on the bumps from the mountain cross course. They were pretty big! When I saw a lot of people had gotten pulled because we were going to lap them, I was surprised that I was actually in it for the pro podium. The offical said one lap to go, so I attacked hard and turned myself inside out to gap the girls I was riding with. I managed to put a lot of time on them and was coming through the start/finish, amazed that I was going to get 2nd. Much to my horror, the offical said AGAIN, “ONE LAP TO GO!” He had said that the lap before… so my “last” lap really was 2 laps to go. I was really concerned that I was going to get caught because I definitely could not keep the pace I set on what I thought was the last lap. I managed to hold everyone off, but barely. The girl in 3rd finished only 4 seconds behind me. I was ecstatic to get 2nd and get on my first pro podium…and I got some money too!

Yesterday, i was doing my opener ride for Betasso. I warmed up sufficiently, was hydrated, feeling fine. I went hard up the first climb and my max HR was really low compared to normal and suddenly everything got really bright. I had to get off my bike and was doubled over with nausea. Then I felt like I was going to faint and couldn’t stand up anymore, so I had to sit on the side of the trail. I tried to keep going, but felt the same way. I turned around and went home.

Saturday morning. heading up to nathrop in a couple minutes. I hope I can race. If I feel like I’m going to faint again, that could be bad news. I’m nauseous this morning too. I hope it’s not the concussion coming back. I haven’t hit my head since it happened over a month ago. Send good vibes my way, I’ll need it probably just to finish. On another whiny note, coming DOWN Betasso, my wrists are back to the pain again. GRRRR. I just want to ride my bike and feel good. Why is it so hard?

Yuki is so sweet and took photos of me during the Fontana short track. I don’t know how I feel about the way I look in the skinsuit, but I guess it’s hard to pull off skin-tight spandex while you are busting your ass!

These are the sweet short track socks. They are glittery pink. I’m NOT famous for being fast, but I AM famous for my sweet socks.

Stuffed into my skinsuit

So dropped. I got stuck behind TWO wrecks in the first lap. Lame.

Ok, got back from Cali last night, woke up this morning and studied all day for my final that was this afternoon. My paper is done and ready to hand in tomorrow. YES YES YES! Free time ! It’s here!! I’m not going to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, FINALLY. Time to just work part time and ride! Now maybe I’ll be fast… Nathrop Saturday!