They say April showers bring May flowers. Today was more like April drizzle. Jeff and I went to ride some trails (2 days in a row on trails, lucky me!). The plan was to go for 4 hours, but the weather had a different plan for us, forcing us off the trails early. I joked that it would start getting too wet when we were the furthest away from the road, and voila! It happened.  My glasses got too foggy and wet, so my vision during riding was reduced to squinting out of too blurry slits that used to be called my eyes.  It is amazing how much dirt and rain still manages to fly into them when you have them down to the tiniest apertures you can.

We still had a great day – nothing too crazy. He and I are both still feeling a bit tired from last weekend so we rode pretty easy with a couple of harder efforts up the climbs (at least for me!)

After about 2 hours, we headed back because the dirt/clay was starting to get sticky and collect on our tires, and we did not want to damage the trail. I was thankful to have a rain jacket with me.  Jeff and I felt like it was Camp Lynda all over again!

My sustained power is still lacking, but starting to come back. It takes a really long time to fully recover from a 60 mile mountain bike race!

Here is a video of me that Jeff took during the ride. You can see the weather get more wet based on the clarity of the camera!

3 more days in Boulder, and then I am headed to Sea Otter. The XC will be interesting… and the short track will be even more… interesting…. since my training is focused on 4-7 hour races! That means less super high intensity in my training. I guess I’ll see what I got!

Coming right up… next weekend. Found this cool pic on Bike Rumor.

Tomorrow is Monday. The highlight of my day after a long day at work will be massage #2 from the magical man. Reed rocks! He will make all the evil gremlins in my legs disappear. POOF!

I frequent  Cycling Dirt on almost a daily basis.  I think it’s awesome that it’s dedicated to mountain bike racing.  Let’s face it, road racing on this planet is a much bigger deal than mountain bike racing so 85% of what we hear about has to do with slick skinny tires – not that there is anything wrong with that.  But us dirt junkie enthusiasts want to hear more about mountain biking.

When people find out I am a pro who are not in the sport say, “Well what does that mean?”  I think that Colt from Cycling Dirt has a good take on it here. E.g.  We work our asses off, most of us don’t get paid, and the marketing of the sport is a little off.  It’s not very spectator friendly. I think that is how it is across the board with endurance sports, but mountain biking is one of the least spectator friendly in the United States.   Bottom line – people race mountain bikes because they love the sport, not for glory or money.  It is bittersweet.  I love the passion in the sport and that makes it extra special, but sometimes I wonder if too much glory or money was thrown in, if it would taint it.  I don’t know…  the cock-eyed optimist in me says “I hope not!”

Time to go ride!

After a heinous work week, I am SO ready for the weekend. I have to give mad mad props to those of you who work full time, train, and race. That is a task. I was working about 9 hours a day, then riding after work this week. It was doable, but I was dead tired by the end of the day and barely had any free time for my friends. I got to see Liz one night, but that was it! So yes, those who work full time, train, and race (add in kids too) are superheroes!

Mr. Kerkove and I fueled up this AM. He did the Oval Ride, and I met Sean Madsen, Jason, and Jason for a mtb sufferfest.

I met them at the trailhead in Loveland, and they were hammering from the get-go.

My HR was pegged at LT and I was tasting blood from the lack of warm-up.  Tough, and honestly not my favorite way to start a ride.  We rode the difficult trail branch of Devil’s Backbone, and it really did feel like trying to ride the spine of satan.

You mean this is a trail?  I felt like a worn out ox on the Oregon Trail.

At least this part was rideable.  yeah, I was admittedly on and off the bike through some of the rocky trail.  I am also still pretty tired from the race last weekend.  Hills hurt WAY more than they normally do, and I had a mini crash just because I couldn’t push over some rocks.

It was a chilly, cloudy morning today.  I still enjoyed riding, and Blue Sky/Indian summer and always fast and a treat!

It’s so easy to take people who do trail work for granted. I made sure to say thank you every time I saw people on the trail doing work today. I had the honor of being the first person to ride a section of trail they just finished working on. Everyone said, “yeah! Ride it! You are the first!” It wasn’t that bad, but I was very nervous with all those people watching. My legs and arms turned to jello, but I was happy to christen the virgin patches of trail!

I left the guys early rounding out a 3 hour ride on trail only today.  No need to slog through a ride, especially since I have Sea Otter next weekend.  I hope my body comes around in time….

I forgot I had left some beers in Jeff’s fridge, and all I wanted this week was a beer. It was like finding the golden egg on an easter egg hunt!  1 beer is a good reward… too bad I wanted like 3!  I behaved.  Odell’s Cutthroat Porter.  OH YUM!

Tomorrow will be another mountain bike ride, and hopefully it won’t be in the rain.  I am guessing I will still be tired and will have to ride tempo or easier, but who knows how my meat sticks will fare!

Recovery rides are over and my training has resumed after a few days of down time after the Ouachita. Rick da man had me doing some LT work today to get the machine back up and running again. When I have to do intervals, I usually do my workouts in the morning instead of after work so I am fresh and sharp instead of loopy and out of it.

Lefthand Canyon was where I headed today. The air was crisp and clean from the lingering mist and rain clouds from the evening before.

I was a bit surprised that I was able to go hard (and of course, slobber all over myself), but by the second 10 minute interval, my mojo was gone and I was definitely feeling some left-over fatigue.

This canyon rocks b/c you go from 5200ish ft to 9600′ at the top. I just rode to about 7000′ today. Good ‘ol altitude. I look forward to riding on top of some big mountains in a couple months – above treeline where the air is thin, the tundra is bare, and all you see is epic views.

Speaking of epic views, this was a good day awhile back:

I love this time of year when all the berries are plentiful and on sale. One of my favorite snacks… I just wish I had a truckload of blueberries and a motorcycle sidecar of raspberries to go with it.

Dinner the other night. I somehow could only eat half of it too. Usually I can put that away like pacman!

Tomorrow is going to be a half day at work, and then a 4 hour ride at endurance race effort. I need to work on my pacing….

I found this video here.

This video shows a bunch of different spots on the course. It’s a good video I need to find me a videographer somehwere…!!

After 14.5 hours in the car yesterday, it was nice to get back to CO! Jeff drove the whole way back, and Yuki and I tried to keep ourselves entertained. That was a looong day in the car driving across OK and KS! This week will be rebuilding what I have destroyed.

Fortunately the effects of my crash are not hampering me in any way. It’s just kind of annoying to have this big lump on my shin with fluid painfully sloshing around in it. The bruise on my hip is already getting better too. “Tis but a scratch! It’s merely a flesh wound!”

I came across this video of the start on Chris Locke’s blog.

Lots of people! It’s actually kind of scary riding in a peloton of mountain bikers of that size.

I am hoping to find some action shots and/or videos. That’d be goood.

Today was a long, busy day at work and an easy little recovery ride for about 1.5 hours. Recovery rides are tough for me. I have to constantly remind myself to go slow and not push. Today I distracted myself by whistling to John Coltrane and not allowing myself to use the big ring.

Tomorrow will be a bike cleaning day…. my poor, sweet Rotwild. He worked hard this weekend. I used the Ergon GR2 Carbon grips for this race. They worked awesome. It was cool to see so many people with Ergon grips on their bikes.

Tomorrow will be another day at work and seeing what Coach has in store for me the rest of the week!

I had never been to Arkansas, let alone done any riding in the midwest other than in South Dakota last August. Yuki, Jeff, and I painfully pulled our bodies out of bed at 4:45 AM and ate a breakfast consisting of COFFEE, whole wheat pasta, scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, and olive oil. Around 6 AM, we headed to the venue… in the sprinkling rain. After meeting a few more new friends (I love it when my blog readers say hey-o!), I put on some layers and rode around for a quick 20 minute workout, and fortunately was able to leave some behind for the start.

There were a ton of people lined up to start (like 200+)and I was a little nervous because riding in a pack on the road for like 6 miles is kinda sketchy. I tried to take it easy, but it’s hard when you have that many people. Coach told me to chill for at least 30 min, and I was half-ass chilling, but once we were halfway up the doubletrack climb and people slowed down, I couldn’t take it and had to go around. I *should* have been more patient. Next was singletrack – there was a lot of carnage – people crashing, flat tires. I got in a groove with a group of guys on a road climb for awhile, but I kept asking myself, “Can I go this hard for 5 hours?” (Jeff’s advice) and the answer was NO, so I backed off for while. I soft-pedaled to the first aide station the best I could to recover, and was lucky again to get in a group with 4-5 guys on a long road section. I somehow pulled away from them later on the gravel road and came up on another guy to ride with.

I had taken in 2 bottles and a lot of Gus on the road, so by the time we hit the Ouachita and Blowout Mountain singletrack, I felt pretty good. I pushed way too hard up the Blowout Mountain climb and drained every ounce of fight I had in me. It got really technical, and I found myself on and off the bike a lot. I tried to ride some of the “scary” sections, and then it happened. Down I went head first over the bars, and the bike went on top of me. I tried to shake it off, but my bike kept making weird noises. I kept stopping to try to figure it out, but it wasn’t making sense. A guy behind me named Andrew (that I rode with for a lot of the latter portions of the race) commented that I broke a spoke. The rest of the race was not so good. I was freaked from my crash and was riding way too conservative – no Looney donkey tuck on the DHs, and my legs were dead and felt like blocks of cement. I somehow did not eat or drink much on Blowout Mountain. After the third aide station, I was walking up some of the climbs and trying to chug Cytomax. The trouble was that I felt nauseated and my eyes wouldn’t focus. That is a bad sign but I got over it and started to become at least functional. I remembered something Dave Wiens said. He said, “Even when it’s the toughest times, you just keep pedaling. One foot after the other.”  I was looking and looking for the last turn onto the long gravel road. Andrew rode with me and pulled a great portion back to town. I couldn’t believe I won based on how much I slowed down the last 20 miles. I know what I’m supposed to do in endurance racing, but in practice, sometimes it’s hard to obey the rules. Hopefully next time I will be smarter, and I feel kind of lucky I won! Fortunately the next girl (I heard some she was some fast girl from Texas) was 20-30min behind and she was probably having a hell of a time like me.  I could swear she was going to catch me!

A crystal trophy!

Thanks to Jeff for letting me wear his jersey and get it all muddy and sweaty! Also thanks to Twin Six for sending me a T6 kit. I used the bibs in the race!

What I consumed during the race:

8 or 9 Gus

3 Tab-Eletes (I should have done more but they were all messed up in my pocket from the tons and tons of wetness from the trail)

2 packs of Margarita Clif Blocks.  The new packaging is awesome.

2 big bottles, 4 small bottles (I should have had more water too)

Jeff told me I got 15th overall, out of the guys. My reaction, “no. that can’t be right.” It was! Funny to think I was riding around 10th for a good portion of the race. Whhhhaaaa?!? (yeah, the last 20 miles were not pretty)

I had fun but it was one of the toughest races I have done in a long time.  Hopefully I’ll have some sweet action shots. I saw people taking photos and video. Now to get my grubby hands on those….

Fortunately I have some kick ass new tires from Continental – the Race Kings. Heck yes!

These tires are some of the best I have used so far.

Rick da man and I talked some nutrition and pacing strategy on the phone. It always helps to have a plan rather than to “go out and go hard.” although that has worked before! Basically the race is 60 miles and I’m hoping to finish between 5 and 5.5 hours.  We’ll see… I do not know what to expect – it may take way longer.

My stem mojo. Yes, it plays music. My roommate loves kid’s cereal, and this was a toy that I stole. Now I can rock out all the time!

Today, Yuki, Jeff, Jason, and I pre-rode the first 8-10 miles of the course. It was fun and WET! It’s going to make for a dirty day tomorrow, and I love getting all muddy!!!

Thanks, but I hope I don’t need it!!! EEEP!

Some pics from the pre-ride:

There are some powerclimbs, gravel roads, and lots of technical singletrack from what I hear.

Some spots are tight and if you don’t pay attention, you’ll hit your handlebar on a tree and down you go.

photo courtesy of Yuki

As you can see, there will be no room to pass on the singletrack in the beginning, hope I am behind some good riders

Go boyz!

Jeff’s best intimidation face.

New buddies! Mia Phillips and Sarah Parish. They’ll kill it tomorrow.

My legs felt good today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  I hope the weather holds out.  See you on the other end of 60 miles.  Then it’s back to Colorado.

Greetings from the green hills of backcountry Mena, AR!  Seriously, the green grass and surplus of trees is a delightful shock to the system. Also, while the high in Boulder tomorrow is 29 degrees, lookie at what we are basking in here:

And sitting at low elevation once again.

The gas stations in Mena had bobbers, camo hats, flasks, and homemade biscuits and country fried food.  It was awesome!  Even better, we arrived at our rustic cabin for the weekend.

There is even a little stream.  I am very impressed with the landscape of Arkansas!

Then it was time to go ride after sitting on our butt for 14 hours.

Yuki and I following our fearless leader.

There was lots of water, water, everwhere!

It’s so weird that you don’t have to water your grass!

Tomorrow is course recon day.  Stay tuned!

It’s actually not so bad as I am acting… I just feel like being a drama queen for fun. The drive from Boulder, CO to Mena, AR is around 14 hours. We left at 830AM today (the roads were actually dry despite the nasty snow we got yesterday) to retrieve Yuki, and headed out. At 7 PM Colorado time, we stopped for the night in Tulsa, OK. I have never seen Kansas, Oklahoma, or Arkansas, so I am adding some patches to my US States quilt. Note: I do not actually have a quilt. In fact, the only midwest state I have been to is South Dakota, and that was in August for a race.

The views did not hold much excitement after being super spoiled. This is what I saw a lot of:

I was like, “What?! There is actually water in those things?!?” Jeff was also giving me the DL on the corn/grain elevators, which were not scarce. How juvenile of me… but I have not seen many water towers or grain elevators in my time. I got to see many many many of them. In Kansas, there were also a ton of anti-abortion and jesus loves you signs. Nothing wrong with that, so don’t get your panties in a twist… just something I noticed. I hear there are some cool hill somewhere in that state, but I didn’t get the opportunity to see them. I did see an awesome wind farm. That is what I love about the US. Not only each region, but each state has a distinct culture!!

3 more hours in the car tomorrow and we’ll be at our destination. I can’t wait to get on the bike and pedal around, and start prepping for the race. YEAH!! It is also going to be 60-75F for the highs and I am missing a snowstorm in Boulder this weekend. Sweeeeeet. I brought my banjo.