Greetings from the back of the pro women’s field! Today was hard, but I had fun. I felt much better than last weekend, but still definitely not feeling like I should…but I’m on my way. Hopefully after resting this week, I’ll be ripping it up at Nathrop next weekend. I went to the venue with Nina, Theresa, and Judy. I did a 1 hour warm-up which is WAY longer than normal, but I think it actually helped. I also drank Nina’s special coffee 3 hours before the race that did me well too. I know now what else to do in my warm-up…go HARDER! My race didn’t officially kick off until the race was halfway over. Woops.

Anyways, the temperatures were much better this weekend, which is surprising considering the race was in a concrete wasteland. They actually called it Southridge Urban Assault. It was more like 70 degrees instead of 100 degrees. I can handle 70. There was definitely a stacked women’s field, and they screwed up the call-up like usual. I got to line up in the back row in a pack of 60 women. That’s a lot of chami to look at. (if you could see me rolling my eyes, you’d get my point). However, that’s sort of what I deserved after how I’ve been finishing. I decided to take it easy at the start since at the last two Norbas, I have been exploding spectactularly after about 20 minutes. We were all impatiently waiting for the start, and listening to the obnoxious Norba soundtrack they play at every race. Seriously, I think they purchased the Monster Ballads CDs from the TV adds. It’s not good…it doesn’t really get me pumped. About 2 minutes after the gun(errr…beep), 75% of the field was OFF their bikes running up a steep jaunt. It’s so frustrating that we are pros, yet we are running our bikes up hills. The next climb, everyone was off their bike. I tried to keep it moving and took some sketchy lines, but had to get off. I hardly noticed the graffiti and rusted out trucks as I went by. All I could see were the steep sand pits in front of me.

Then I rode like a child for a lap and a half. I was passing girls on the short, steep climbs at the beginning of the course(suffering wholeheartedly with my legs that were like mealy apples on the inside), but they were just dominating me on the downhills. I don’t think I have ever descended so bad. My arms/wrists were also hurting, so that didnt help. I think I just need my dualie(my scott spark). I want to be a hard tail rider, but I’m not sure that’s my calling. Maybe I should at least throw a 100 mm fork on it. I decided after I was off the back, that it was time to start going a little faster on the downhill. I had some crashes where I got to roll around in the sand, but it was still fun. One man spectator commented on my sweet dust tan. All that dust was happy to stick to my sweaty skin. I passed 2 girls on the last lap and was just starting to rumble, and then the race was over. I shoulda gone harder earlier (and been more rested). But these are all learning experiences. They say it builds character to finish in the back… I think I have enough character.

I ate good food, took an ice bath, and am looking forward to bed time. Tomorrow, short track. I’m going to try and stay in for 10 minutes before the second ranked woman in the world (Georgia Gould) comes to lap me.

tomorrow morning is the third national in the series, the XC in Fontana. I heard that Fontana was kind of a weird national, but you really need to experience the magic yourself. After driving through the heart of LA and sitting in traffic FOREVER at a very off-peak time, we were ready to get on our bikes. The freeway is 6 lanes EACH way!!! I tried to take a photo, but it didn’t really work out.  

We took an exit off the freeway. The road was like mangled asphalt and there were weird industrial yards on either side. Suddenly, we were in suburbia. The race course is pretty interesting. Very very sandy, steep descents with huge rutted out sections where its really easy to wash out your front wheel. You go through a junkyard and by this ghetto ditch with all kinds of graffiti. Interesting, yes.

The legs are still feeling horrible. Preriding today, I was SUFFERING up climb in my easiest gear. That shouldn’t be happening. I wish I knew what was wrong. I know that I shouldn’t have ridden as much as I did this week, but I’m on vacation in CA, I’m going to go have fun and ride my bike. No race is worth giving that up (at my level at least). I also pulled some weird muscle in my abs earlier this week. It’s not quite my abs, maybe my very lower abs. It almost feels like a hernia and hurts really bad to walk. At least I can pedal….

I’m hoping maybe tomorrow the legs will miraculously feel better, but I’m not counting on it. I’m going to try to grin and bear it, and hopefully I won’t feel too humiliated if i’m blown off the back again. All I can do is stay positive, try to enjoy it, and remember I’m trying my best. I have the rest of the year to perform at my true potential… I just need some time off. I know I sound positive, but in my head, I’m actually being super down on myself and negative. Not so good, but I’m trying to not think that way. I’m actually NOT excited to race tomorrow. Nathrop, the first mountain states cup of the year, is next weekend…I’m going to spend the week (after I take my final and turn in my paper) trying to relax.

After pre-riding the course, we came to our hotel. After our tiny tiny room at Motel 6, this place felt like a palace. Seriously, at Motel 6, we were crammed in like sweaty sardines with bikes and organic food. The sheets felt like paper mache, the beds were the smallest double, our bedspread had a cigarette burn in it…seriously. Did I mention though that it was the first Motel 6 every made? Obviously, gosh! The people at the front desk had messed up our reservation b/c we wanted a room with two beds. instead, they gave us TWO rooms with a king and one with a queen bed for the same price. We went from 3 people cooped up in the tiniest motel room ever (we are talking no space between the bed and the wall) to a room with a full kitchen and lots of space.

Hallelujah! At least if my legs feel like total ass, I can still feel like a pro staying in nice digs!

P.S. I decided that since I take ice baths, literally sit in a frozen tub of water up to my waist, that I could handle the cold ocean. I went and played in the 50 degree ocean yesterday. It was painful getting in, but I was swimming, trying to ride the waves, screaming like a child. I love the water!

I was being very dedicated and spending some quality time at the coffee shop finishing up my paper, so when I got back, the boys had ditched me on their own ride. I decided that I don’t need no mans, and went to the bike shop to ask where some trails were. Solo mission. After trying to navigate through town and getting just a little lost, I found myself at Jesusita Trail. Finally, singletrack that isn’t hike-a-bike! The view was breathtaking.

That at the end my friends, is big blue!

The trail did have some walking sections, i.e. boulders at stream-crossings that I had to try and hop across with my bike on multiple occassions. You try balancing on rounded rocks with carbon-soled shoes. Not the easiest task. The single track was pretty sweet and had some smooth and also some technical sections. Toward the top it got super windy and I was getting dizzy. I saw a few snakes and big lizards on the trail which reminded me that I was not alone. When I started thinking about that, I was a bit anxious and was thinking about pumas sitting in the trees looking down on me. It felt like riding in a jungle instead of mountains. It was pretty incredible once I got up high because no only does the view show you how high up you climbed and of the city, but the ocean. A rare sight on a mountain bike. The ride down was fun too, although my wrists are STILL hurting. the pain is not nearly as severe as before, but it definitely slows me down.

Riding back into SB, I thought I’d take a shortcut since I took the round about way of getting to the trailhead. Little did I know where I was headed. I rode almost all the way across town THINKING I was going the right way. I figured that since I was riding into a raging headwind, the ocean was that direction. I finally figured it out, and rode my irritated butt home.

Santa Barbara is beautiful, but it has a really weird aura about it. Brian and I were trying to figure it out. It’s like the people there are empty inside. They don’t seem happy, no one really smiles… almost like they are owned by money or owned by their desire to make tons of money. They can’t be happy just to be. Just a little thought.

Ok, just an FYI, check back tomorrow for more photos in this section. blogger is not letting my upload pics from my ride yesterday. I’ll add them later because they are COOL!

Well, my last post didn’t make it so I have to redo it. Oh well.

It’s been a bit of a struggle to get wifi here. A lot of hotels don’t have it and it’s super slow in the coffee shops. The hotel next to us has wifi as Ryan figured out. Check him out.

We have been chilling in SB for the last couple of days. It hasn’t been as relaxing as I had hoped since I have all this school crap to do, but it’s been nice to be away from it all! I’m almost done with my final paper…I have about a days worth of work and I’ll be done. As of Wed, I’ll be done for the semester and have my nights and weekends free again. YES!

It has been actually really cold here. low 60s and the ocean water is in the low 50s. It’s no fair that we were dying of heat stroke during the race, practically blacking out, and now we are cold!! It should be the opposite. I’m a little disappointed that I can’t sit on the beach in my swimsuit and play in the waves, but what are you gonna do? I was debating going in, but I don’t want hyperthermia. I have been a camera nazi, so here are some pics.

COLD water!

Palm trees means vacation. Too bad I have my paper to finish and a final to study for. boooooooo

Pretty flowers.

Sorry boys, no bikini shots this time. it was just too damn cold. You’ll have to wait till I got to Hawaii in August!

SB Mountain Bike Adventure #1

After rading Trader Joe’s, the boys and I headed to a local bike shop to find out where we could shred some sweet singletrack. SB is awesome because you look to the west and you have the Pacific ocean. You look to the right and you see big mountains. Those mountains are actually only a 20 min ride away. It is so lush and green around here. The houses are all really cool too because they don’t all look the same. There is tons of herbage around the houses too.

Our adventure turrned out to be not so cool because we never could really find some sweet trails. We rode up a super steep fire road only to see a dead end. We thought we had found some singletrack, but it was SUPER steep and rocky. We ended up hiking up a fair bit of it, and then rode down. That’s part of the adventure I guess. The views were nice at least. I decided it’s better for me to get out and move around instead of be lame. I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to proceed with how my legs have been, but I’m guessing that spinning them out is a good idea.

yeah, pretty rocky.

ryan kills the dowhnhills

Monday was a very chill day. Brian and I hung out at the hotel in the morning and then went to add our third party to the group- the Grinch. (Ryan). This is how it should be when you have an SUV:

Loaded down…

We went to Rudy’s for the fourth day in a row for lunch. We went here EVERY day. It was good, but now I’m totally burnt out on mexican food and burritos. ughhh.

They had this amazing tiger shrimp fajita burrito, but no…more… burritos….

Judy had a friend who was a winemaker so we go the sweet hook-up. We went to his winery called Kalyra and go to taste all kinds of different wines. I’m actually shocked that making wine is not a more involved, detail-oriented process.

There were barrels of wine everywhere and the guy would just open a spicket, pour it into a glass and drink it. Must be nice to be a winemaker, play outside and drink wine all day!!

Sampling a lot of different types of wine and learning about grapes.

Vineyards, everywhere!!! We actually raced through a vineyard the last week. I was going slow enough to be able to enjoy it!

And finally we rolled into home sweet home. Motel 6. This was actually the first one ever made. The room is soooo small. There are three of us with bikes and all our stuff. There is really only room for one person to be up moving around at a time. 80 bucks a night. At least we are across the street from the beach. However, it is COLD here! low 60s and the ocean temp is in the low 50s. I should take my ice baths in the ocean!