J.R.A.

I've Moved!

2007-09-18T21:16:00.002-04:00

From now on, check me out here.

Ride424

2007-09-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be a contributor on Ride424.com. I've already got a link in my column on the right because this is THE site for endurance mountain biking. And now it is going to be even more THE site because, well, because I'll be a contributor. Ha, the Princess of Power strikes again. (Okay, like two people got that). Anyway, I am really excited about it and I'll post again when the link is up but for now I'm just spreading the word to look for me there soon while I start moving in (so to speak).

In a related stroy, I removed the detailed post about my plans, um, changing for the fall. It felt a little akward. You know, just writing here all about the utter debacle that is my personal life. (And yes, I'm aware that my entire readership is probably little more than four or five people who probably know me personally anyway, but that is beside the point). Suffice to say, my plans have changed and I'll be heading back to Boulder City a little sooner than expected. That is, I'm busting out of here in five days. It feels a little overwhelming to be going back on the road already but I gotta say I am wicked excited to ride in Bootleg and Cottonwood again. You know how some places you just fall into a good thing and it feels like home? Well, that's how Boulder City is for me. (Okay, that was really cheesy). Of course, I did pointedly leave there for the summer because it gets to be like a billion degrees there. And from what I hear it's still pretty hot but it should be cooling down in the next month or so. I remember Joey, one of the other mechanics at All Mountain Cyclery telling me, "Yeah, we nightride in the summer here a lot. It's about 120 during the day but it'll get down to about 105 at night." Good grief.

She's Like A Raaaaaainbow...

2007-09-08T23:41:00.000-04:00

So, as I mentioned, I crashed a few times pretty hard in the SM100. Well, first those bruises were a gentle blue, then purple and now they have turned all kinds of pretty colors.
Of course, the tan line is just another stripe in the rainbow.
This is the bump that grew on my arm right after I crashed on it. This was taken right after the race was over.
I finally found some decent places to ride around my parents house. A few weeks back one of the guys from Bicycles Unlimited, the local shop I have been working at a little, took me on a ride in Wendell State Forest. There aren't exactly endless miles of trails but what is there is really fun. Not pedally at all but rocky. Really rocky. It is clear that local riders have put a huge effort into making it the place that it is. There are a ton of bridges and rock work, all of it really fun to ride.

I also went out to Hawley State Forest where I used to nordic ski with my team in high school. We used to ski on fireroads and double track and I never knew there was much singletrack there. But I heard people were riding there so I decided to check it out for myself. Since I know the area pretty well, I just jumped on the first section of singletrack that I found and when I popped out again on fireroad, I knew where I was, rode for a bit, found more singletrack and went like that for a couple of hours. Below is a picture of one section of trail. This actually doesn't look anything like most of the riding there but it looked really cool so I took a picture of it.
Again, there isn't exactly endless miles here but the singletrack that is there is really fun. And, again, it is clear that the locals have done a ton of work on these trails - lots of log, rock and bridge work. And tons of spots where I can just clean stuff. Always the most fun.

Shenandoah

2007-09-04T10:01:00.000-04:00

The Shenandoah 100 is over. Didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was plagued by the same stomach issues I have struggled with in the last few longer events I have done but mostly I just didn't have it. I had a hard time concentrating and I didn't have the legs. The decents and singletrack sections were pretty technical but weren't stuff that I was very good on and I know I lost a lot of time on the climbs. Beyond that I don't really know what happened but it was pretty disappointing. Oh well. I finished 14th out of I think 31 female finishers - not sure how many started.

I finished the race pretty covered in blood. I went down a few times and two times pretty hard. I'm really sore now. Broke a spoke on my front wheel, too when I caught a huge stick in it. I was actually surprised that more spokes didn't get torn out.

I really debated not finishing this one. When the stomach issues set in during the third or fourth hour it took some serious will-power to stay in it. The stomach stuff wasn't that even as bad as it has been in some other races, I am just so sick of dealing with it.

I took a picture of the swollen lump that appeared on my arm after I crashed on it. I had already washed the blood off. I guess it doesn't really look that impressive but it's the only picture I've got from the race so there you go.
Also, thanks to Chris Scott and everyone who helped make this race possible. There was in incredible amount of support on the course and everything was run really well - registration was smoother and quicker than most other races I have done.

Reigning in the Kingdom. Again.

2007-08-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

I spent the last week back up in the Kingdom Trails. I can't seem to get enough. I really did mean to take some pictures of the trails to put here to impart some small hint of how good the riding is but I couldn't seem to stop long enough to take a picture. I hate stopping when I'm riding and when I do have to stop for something I always feel this urgency to get going again - I never seem to remember to just pull out my damn phone and take a picture. BUT... I'm sure I'll be up there again in the next few weeks and I'll *try* to remember to take some pictures then.

I ended up mixing up the riding quite a bit - I spent pretty much equal time on either side of Darling Hill and on the mountain. Darling Hill is all rolling terrain with no extended climbs, just lots of fast, swoopy singletrack. It seems to me like the north side is a little gentler and more suited to families and beginners and the south side is a little more technical. But I think beginners through experts could have a lot of fun on either side, really. The mountain is a little more technical but only the DH and Freeride trails at the top are really challenging. I didn't ride the Freeride trail but I imagine I would end up walking most of it if I tried. I found the DH trail to be quite challenging enough, thank you. Steep, rocky and rooty - I had to walk a couple sections. (Of course before I rode it, Knight assured me that it was 'easy'. That from the guy who casually pointed out the ski lodge...then mentioned he had ridden his bike off the roof of it. Go figure.) I rode up the mountain toll road a couple times too - I think that is the most challenging paved climb I've been on. I shuttled the guys up it for some downhill runs, too. Next time I think I'll pedal up and drive down. Maybe I'll even shuttle some downhill runs myself - !

Less than a week now before the Shenandoah 100. I think I'm ready. I've never done a 100 mile race before, though so I feel a little like a wide-eyed rookie. I guess I would just like to get in there and see if I can mix it up with some of the women who have been doing this series. After that, anything else would just be gravy.

Camp

2007-08-16T15:23:00.000-04:00

I've been working for the last week and a half at a local summer camp through the shop here, Bicycles Unlimited. Myself and a mechanic from the shop take our group, the mountain bike group and ride with the kids and try to help them get better. Most of them are awesome. (I say 'most' because there is one kid who is decidedly not awesome and I want to punch him most of the time. Does that make me a bad person?) There is nothing cooler than seeing a kid clean something they didn't think they could... Okay maybe when I clean something I didn't think I could!

Here is a picture of the kids on a trail we rode today.

I was planning on doing the six hour race at Holiday Farms this weekend but I'm having second thoughts. I felt pretty good last weekend, despite the 24 hour two weeks before. But, as always seems to happen to me, it's the recovery of events after a 24 hour that seem to slow me down. As in, I was okay last weekend but know I can't seem to recover from that. I can't believe how much the long ride on Saturday and the race on Sunday took out of me. Last night I went to a local race series to preride the six hour course. The plan was to take it easy and do a tempo ride but I was barely even able to do that. So the race on Sunday may be pushing it. It will be a game time decision.

Queen of the Kingdom

2007-08-13T06:49:00.000-04:00

Now that I just reread this post I am amazed at how long it is given how bored I have been since I got home. Turns out you can make something out of nothing.
I just assumed that the riding around my parents house here in western Massachusetts would be awesome because it is so rural. Au contraire. There are trails that run through the woods literally through our backyard but after riding them for a week I was ready to pull my hair out because although they are awesome trails, they just aren't suited for mountain biking. So I took off on Friday morning to go ride the Kingdom trails in northeast Vermont. Knight lives up there and I had heard a lot about these trails from him and other New Englandites and read about them too. And they lived up to all the hype. And more. I don't think I can adequately put into words how utterly blown away I was by this trail network. Like Bootleg, they were all built for mountain biking so they flow really well, they are tight and twisty, full of banked corners, buff and smooth in many sections, rocky and rooty in others but totally amazing everywhere. And there is OVER 150 MILES OF SINGLETRACK. I repeat, 150 miles of singletrack. That's unheard of. The 'Darling Hill' section has trails that run along either side of a ridge, mostly flat with some small rolling hills. There is also a large section that runs over the ski mountain with some longer ups and downs. I could probably ramble on for a good few more pages about these trails but I'll stop there. More info here. Also, if you go, be sure to check out the awesome local shop, East Burke Sports.
I got to East Burke on Friday afternoon and since Knight was busy, he hooked me up with a friend of his who took me out and showed me around the trails for a few hours. When we finished, some of Knight's pals were getting ready to do a shuttle run down the freeride trail on the mountain so I shuttled them up and hiked up to the firetower at the top of Burke Mountain. Pretty cool view from up there. I decided not to risk breaking my neck on the freeride trail though. I'll do that next time.
On Saturday I wanted to ride pretty much all day but I was a little wary because I was also planning on racing on Sunday - my first pro race - so I didn't want to kill my legs the day before. (Not to mention having done a 24-hour two weeks ago). But the trails were too good and I couldn't help myself. I rode for five or six hours and even though it was at a pretty easy pace, I didn't think I was really doing myself very well for the race. But Sunday morning I dragged myself out of bed at the ass-crack of dawn and drove back to Massachusetts for the race.
By the time I got to the race I was in full panic mode - "Why did I ride for so long yesterday?; I am going to get killed.; I should have stayed to ride Kingdom trails more and screwed the race - I am an idiot." The first other pro woman I saw was Maureen Bruno-Roy. All I knew about Mo is that she has podiumed at Cyclocross Nationals. Um, you think she can ride? Turned out there were three other pro women.
We started with the Expert women and as usual I went straight to the back from the start. How do people stay warmed up when we stand around in staging for 15 minutes? Anyway, within the first five minutes or so, I had moved back up and we had dropped the expert women and it was just the four of us in pro, cruising along in a train. I think one of the others may have had a mechanical, she bobbled on a steep climb and I didn't see her again. So then it was just the three of us - Mo, Meggan Flaherty (another woman I had heard of) and I. And it was so friggin' fun. We were just flying along in a train, going so fast. I have never ridden that fast with other women. As much as I was hurting, it was incredibly fun to fly along with them. We stuck together like that for the first lap and part of the second. And it made me realize; in Expert you could see that some women were climbers, some were better technical riders, etc., so you could see where they were weak and where to attack. But these women were fast E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.
Somewhere during the second lap, Mo began to pull away and then it was just Meggan and I powering along. I had been content to sit in the back until this point just seeing how things went down but I figured, "Hey, this is a race, I should try to make a move somewhere." So I tried to pass Meggan on a fireroad section. I passed her and totally blew myself up trying to gap her before the next section of singletrack. But when I turned around, she was right on my wheel. We had passed a couple of Expert guys who had started a couple minutes ahead of us. I was blown and Meggan came back by me and then the Expert guys came back and jumped back in front of me right before the next section of singletrack. And this was when I became infuriated. These guys get reinspired to get back in their race because they got passed by a couple of chicks. So Meggan got a gap on me because I was blown, these guys all of a sudden decide to get back in the race, they jump in front of me before the singletrack so now I am stuck behind them and the small gap to Meggan that I could have closed is getting bigger and bigger. By the time I got around them, Meggan was pretty far up and I never closed that gap. This sounds horribly bitchy but I am going to spell it out just the same. It is one thing to jump in front of someone before singletrack who is in your own category but don't pull that tactical bullshit with someone who isn't in your category. Beginner, Sport, Expert, Pro - it doesn't matter. If they aren't in your category, what is the point? We had closed a two minute gap on them. I think we were going faster. LET ME ONTO THE SINGLETRACK FIRST. Who knows, I was pretty beat by that point anyway, so I probably would have cracked just the same, the point is, now I don't know because I didn't get to try to chase down Meggan's wheel. Okay, turning the bitch knob down. I don't really take things this seriously, but for some reason, it really pissed me off.
I finished third - out of four - but I was still really happy. Less than three minutes down on Mo and about a minute and a half down on Meggan. That's a pretty tight finish. And motoring along in that three woman pace-line was such a thrill; I'll be riding that high for quite a while.

Home Again

2007-08-09T06:39:00.000-04:00

Yup, I finally made. I only left San Francisco seven months ago. I was supposed to get here in mid-January but I had a small layover in Boulder City...and then Crested Butte. But I'm here in Massachusetts now. I may be moving to Montpelier, VT as soon as a week or two, though, but then I expect to be there for a while.

So Pro

2007-08-04T13:29:00.000-04:00

Found out yesterday that my request for an upgrade to the Pro categroy was approved. Which makes me.... a fake pro. This term was coined by Kerry Litka. It just refers to the fact that while it earns me the privilidge of racing in the pro category - which is really exciting - it means nothing as far as mountain biking being my profession (meaning, I won't be any less broke...*sigh*).
As far as the endurance racing goes, it really doesn't change much. Most of that is not sanctioned by NORBA so categories aren't relevant. But since I have started doing some shorter xc racing this year, so now I'll be able to race in the pro category - which is really exciting. But basically I can count on getting destroyed.

Addendum - Thanks and Product Review

2007-08-02T13:05:00.000-04:00

Not sure how I managed to write a full writeup about Nationals and not thank anyone. Maybe it's because I'm a total bitch.
Aaaaanyway... I guess it's not too late.
Starting with my bike. My Racer-X was absolutely the perfect bike for this race. I always think it's perfect for 24 hour racing. It pedals like a hardtail but it is plush enough to absorb some of the beating that is 24 hour racing. Also, I think that the fact that it is a xxs was an advantage on this course. That super short wheelbase allowed me to get around all the tight corners with much more ease.
The WTB wheels and saddle were awesome. The wheels are light but bombproof. There were some serious rock gardens on this course and 15 hours into a 24 hour race, I'm not exactly smooth. But the Laserdisc rims let me get away with it.
Since the race was pretty close the whole time, I never stopped to change clothes. And it's pretty humid and damp in Wisconsin. Let's just say riding for 24 hours in the same wet chammy isn't, um, pretty. There aren't many saddles that would let you get away with that. But the WTB Rocket does. Enough said.
I rode 2.0 Kenda Blue Grooves. I really like racing on these tires and I usually do unless conditions are really wet. As usual, they were awesome. Really light and fast, sticky over all the rock gardens and hooked up around all the corners.
My Magura brakes were the best, as usual. I didn't have to think about them once, which is about as good as I could ask for. On a course with so many tight corners, being able to carry speed into and through them, is a huge benefit. These brakes modulate so well I can come into corners as hot as my nerves will allow and not have to worry about locking them up.
One other note about the Maguras - I have a new pair of Martas on the backup bike. A few weeks ago I climbed over a 11,000ft pass in CB. The brakes had never been up that high and the pressure forced an air bubble out of the line. All of a sudden I had no rear brake. It's not unusual for that to happen at such a high elevation. I don't have a bleed kit so the next day I stopped by a local shop to see if I could borrow theirs. I did and I bled the brake in five minutes in the parking lot. Brake bleeds don't really get more straightforward and easy than that.
I rode Eggbeater pedals with Lake MX165-W shoes. Some say that the Eggbeaters don't have a big enough platform but with a stiff enough soled shoe, this isn't a problem at all. The Lakes are super stiff and my feet were totally comfortable the whole time. The Eggbeaters are really easy to clip in and out of, no matter how wet and muddy the conditions.
I continue to be lucky enough to run the best lights out there. I ran the BR Lights E.2 on my bars and I was even able to run a prototype helmet light. I have always felt that the E.2 was plenty of light and I didn't need a helmet light but this course was so tight and twisty, I ran one dark lap with just the bar light and decided I would be safer with a helmet light as well. The BR Lights calling card is that the lights are all self-contained - no battery cords. The helmet light runs with an internal battery but is also able to run off a small, light battery pack. This allows the helmet light to stay light but allows it to have a much longer burn time. So after my first dark lap with just the bar light, I ran the helmet light as well. I was concerned about the soreness that was developing in my neck and I didn't want to excacerbate it by having extra weight on my head. But that wasn't a problem at all as the helmet light is very, well, light. It was just as bright as the E.2 and having them both I felt very safe all night even on a course that was very tight, twisty and rocky. The lights provide such great depth perception which has always been the main issue for me while nightriding - large rocks can look like only shadows and what appear to be shadows may be big drops. But with these lights, everything looks like it should. I ran the helmet light off the internal battery for the first dark lap and after that I ran the external pack. I toggled between the high and the low beam and the light lasted all night. I switched the bar light after a few dark laps for a fresh battery charge and between the two I still had plenty of charge left when it got light.
I mentioned that I had some problems with my nutrition. I often change the ratio of mix I use to the water in my camelback. In the very early morning I thought that I wasn't getting enough nutrition so I asked John to add an extra scoop of mix and not long after, was when I began to have problems with my stomach. I have had problems with my stomach using that high a ratio of mix before so I absolutely should have known better. At that point I should have turned to something else to fulfill my nutrition needs. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking clearly at that point and that was the beginning of the end.
Luckily I was using Elete electrolyte solution and it probably mitigated some of my stomach problems. It is comforting to know that while my stomach may possibly have cost me a place in the race, at least Elete kept me in it.
In the last couple of 24 hour races I did I was able to use BNRG Powercrunch bars. These bars were awesome. They never messed with my stomach no matter when in the race I ate them and no matter what else I was eating. I wasn't able to have any in the this race and I really regret not using them. I won't make that mistake again.
I threw back 30 Sportlegs capsules in the course of the race - I took two every time I came through my pit. I continue to be amazed by how long my legs last when I use these. In fact, my legs still felt okay, considering, the next morning.
I also want to thank Gene Hamilton and his BetterRide clinic for helping me navigate all that technical singletrack. Gene can articulate body movements so well, which makes his camps so helpful. You can watch someone do something a million times but if they can't adequately articulate what they are doing, it doesn't matter. Gene can do both really well and that's the difference.
Thanks so much to John George who came out and was awesome support for me. John tried to race the 24 Hours of Moab with me last year but of course it was called. So now at least he got to hang around for a full 24 hour race, even if he wasn't racing himself. He did great.
Lastly, I owe Chris, the big cheese at The Mouse an enormous amount of thanks. Chris has made it all possible for me this year and I couldn't have done it without him. If you are in San Francisco, this is the shop to see.
And congratulations to everyone who was out there. It was awesome racing with you all.

Nats...The Full Report

2007-08-01T07:59:00.000-04:00

So here is a more full report from the race. There was almost no climbing on the course; lots of little ups and downs but no extended climbs. But it was really technical - tight, twisty and full of rocks and roots. It absolutely beat the crap out of us. As a result, my wrist got really sore and strained starting in the evening and when I actually looked at it the next morning when the race was over, there was a huge purple bump - yikes - seems to be going away now, though. I rode 15 laps of the 14.3 mile course. I actually had time to go out for a 16th but I wasn't going to pickup or lose a place so I waited out the clock and crossed the line with 15. I actually rode most of the race in third place until my stomach shut down at about five in the morning. I wasn't able to eat anything or drink more than a couple liters of water for the last six hours. Needless to say, I bonked and I wasn't able to hold off Danielle Musto who had been in fourth place. It was heartbreaking to see third place slip away like that, by that time I could taste third but Danielle is a monster and it was a thrill to spend some time in front of her anyway. It was a huge thrill to get to stand on the podium with a bunch of my idols.

I am finding that the five months I spent riding Bootleg Canyon everyday really help me on technical courses and technical courses are even a benefit to me now. I also owe Gene Hamilton some thanks for that. His camp helped me learn to ride technical terrain smoother and faster and that was invaluable on this course. I had fun holding Mark Hendershot's wheel for a while on some singletrack in the middle of the night.

I felt really fast and strong everywhere on the course for the first 18 hours and my lap times were pretty consistent until that point. But after I started having trouble with my stomach, I slowed way down and I was stopping all the time; at first doubled over with excruciating cramps and then once the cramps stopped just completely bonked from lack of nutrition.

I crashed once - I don't even really remember it, it was in the middleof the night. But I remember looking down and seeing blood on my knee.

One more highlight... I actually fainted after the race. John, who used to wrench at the Mouse came out to be my support. We went to Subway after the race. I was pretty weak and was leaning inappropriately all over the glass cases I guess because I could barely support my own weight. Then, when I got to the register, I just collapsed on the floor. I just remember John poking me in the ribs and saying, "Are you fainting right now? Get up, you have to get up." I don't remember saying anything but apparently I was saying, "I just want to lie down here for a little while." Good times. John assured the girls working behind the counter, "She's going to be fine." I'm sure we scared the crap out of them. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I had tried to go out for a 16th lap -probably wouldn't have ended well.

So that's it...Another 24 hour in the books. I have to say, it's a huge relief that this one is over. This was the third this year and that really felt like a lot. I was actually thinking that in the middle of the night, "Three was just too many... three was just too many... threewasjustoomanythreewasjusttoomanyghghghgh...."

Here are a couple better podium shots thanks to Danielle.

Quick Recap

2007-07-30T18:13:00.000-04:00

Just a quick one to say I took fourth at 24 Hour Nationals! Even got to stand next to some of my idols on the podium. It was an awesome, technical course that beat the crap out of us. I was actually in third place for most of the race but at around five in the morning my stomach completely shut down and I wasn't able to eat anything or drink more than a couple liters of water for the last six hours. Needless to say, I bonked pretty hard and I absolutely could not respond when Danielle Musto passed me to take third place. It was heartbraking to see third place slip away like that but it was a stacked field, a challenging course and I guess that's racing.

Here is a blurry, cuttoff picture of me on the podium.

More details to come later.

Bad Luck...In Twos?

2007-07-26T18:37:00.000-04:00

That's what I'm hoping anyway. I've had a small run of bad luck the last couple of days and I'm hoping there isn't a third bit of it coming soon.

A couple days ago my car started doing some funny things and after some phone calls to try to diagnose the problem, it sounds like the transmission needs to be replaced. Faaaaaantastic. I can obviously afford that. Well, nothing like more debt. I was going to try to nurse it home back to Massachusetts but it's getting worse fast so it looks like I'll have to hang around in Wisconsin for a bit after the race while it gets fixed. I like explaining to the auto mechanics, "Well, the car has almost 200,000 miles on it and I've been, um, living out of it for the last six months. So, you know, it's carrying a little extra weight."

Then, this morning, when I went to pre-ride the course, I managed to lose my wallet. I stopped while I was riding to answer my phone - I usually hate being that girl but I thought it might be the auto mechanic calling me back so I answered - and, evidently, my wallet fell out of my camelback. I realized when I got back to my car and I was pretty sure I knew where it was so I ended up riding an extra hour to go back to that spot on the course and look for my wallet, which wasn't there. Luckily, an hour or so after my futile search, another rider turned it in. But it was a tense couple of hours without it. That's a horrible feeling.

So, maybe I had some good luck, too. I did, afterall, find my wallet. And, as my mother pointed out, the car did get me this far, at least. And there were over a thousand miles through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin where it could have decided to die. Now, I just have to nurse it between the course and the motel a couple more times. Fingers crossed.

Oh yeah, I also have this race this weekend. You know, just Nationals. I'm having a little trouble staying focused.

Help Me

2007-07-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have no pride, no dignity and no shame. That's been established. Um, many, many times over. Anyway, I know that I have a huge and expansive readership from all over the place so I thought I would ask if anyone knows anyone between Crested Butte, Colorado and Wausau, Wisconsin where I might be able to stay for a night. I've been thinking I might sleep better in the nights leading up to the 24-hour in a real bed - or even on the floor of a real house - than in the trunk of my car. And so... I figure I'll ask for help. I leave CB this Saturday and I'll try to spread the drive out over four or five days on this route. So maybe you have a cousin in Smithfield, Nebraska who has a couch where I could crash...maybe...?

And completely unrelated, here is a actual proof that I dirt jump...okay that I ride my bike at the dirt jump park and attempt to actually put air between the ground and the tires. Weeeee.

Snowmass....Lining Up With Melissa Buhl...?!

2007-07-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

I went to Snowmass this past weekend to race another in the Mountain States Cup series. The XC didn't go very well. It was supposed to be mostly a training ride - the last hard one before my 24 hour in two weeks. But even as a training ride, I would have expected better results. I decided to race with water bottles instead of a camelback because, well, because that is what the pros do so I was basically just trying to look cool. I had practiced the week before and figured I would be fine. Well, not so much. The race started out great, I felt really strong, settled into second place and figured I wouldn't have any problem holding onto that. UNTIL I dropped a water bottle, um a FULL water bottle. And I decided not to pick it up, which was really the kiss of death. I had a really big gap on third place so I had plenty of time to take the 5-10 seconds it would have taken to pick it up. Instead, I thought I could make it to the feed zone and rehydrate there. But there were two major climbs between me and the feedzone, the second of which was a 2 mile, 1400ft grind up a hot, exposed fireroad. I pretty much fell to peices on this climb and by the time I got to the top, I had lost six places. I couldn't even pedal hard enough to get out of breath. The feedzone was at the top of the climb. When I got there I just stopped and drank a full bottle of water, took one with me and basically limped home. Good times. That will teach me to try to be cool. I need to stick with a camelback and come to terms with the dork that I am.

Sunday was the Super D. I've never raced Super D but since the four months that I spent in Bootleg, I have gotten better at descending and it always looks really fun. I didn't know which category to enter since it is separated only as an 'Open' category and age groups. I asked at registration and said I race Expert XC. I was told Open so that's what I did. And when we lined up, I realized that this was basically the Pro class. And I was lined up right next to Melissa Buhl. And, we're off...and I'm in last place. I was in a train of four women, three of us were stuck behind a slower woman on the singletrack. The other two got around her but I was still stuck behind her for most of the way. I even bobbled the turn onto the only mid-way section of fireroad so she got a gap on me and I couldn't even come around her then. Finally, on a section of singletrack near the bottom I was able to get around her. Luckily I had run the course twice the day before so I remembered that there was a switchback with a wide and narrow option. As I hoped, she didn't remember and took the wide option, I took the narrow turn and came around her on the inside, securing not-last-place. This race was SO MUCH FUN. I see a lot more Super D in my future. Official results aren't up yet but according to my watch, I would have won my age group if I hadn't raced open. And I am ostensibly trying to get my pro license so it was cool to kind of hold my own in this race. I especially enjoyed the non-preparation required for this race - i.e., no worries about hydration, staying out of the sun, getting a good night's sleep, etc. Just run what you brung and it's over in 10-15 minutes. Pretty much the polar opposite of a 24-hour race.

Thanks and Good-Luck, Lynda

2007-07-02T17:24:00.000-04:00

Last week I did a coaching consult with coach and endurance racer extroadinaire, Lynda Wallenfels. Right now Lynda is racing in the BC Bike Race with Dave Harris. Um, they're winning - no surprises there.

I have never had a coach but after the way I have stagnated in the last couple of months, I thought it was time to try what I could to pull myself out of the rut. Lynda put together a training program for me for the last month leading up to the 24-Hour National and talked me through the mental stuff I have been struggling with.

A week into her program I am beat but I definitely feel much better on the bike. My head seems to be coming around, too.

Aaaand, after following Lynda and Dave and everyone else in the BC Bike Race, I am wicked excited to do this race next year. Let's do a team of two - who's coming with me? In a related story, I really want to do La Ruta but it isn't, um, financially feasible this year. That one next year, too - I plan on finding a sugar daddy sometime before then so it shouldn't be a problem. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Speaking of that - I love how I got more comments (that would be all of three) than usual on the post with the word 'Sexy' in it. And thanks Doug for all the pickup lines - for a second I thought I was at a bar.

An integral part of my very intense training has been taking place at the dirt jump park. Okay, I just seem to end up there on my days off or after training rides. I really need some pictures of my Racer-X with the seat slammed all the way down, flat pedals, me with baggy shorts, sneakers, pads and my xc helmet. I'm so cool. I actually had to get a pair of kids skate shoes because the soles of the shoes I was jumping in got completely shredded and so did the duct tape I used to try to repair them.

Here is a picture of smooth, flowy trail at Hartman Rocks. I might have mentioned how wicked fun these trails are.

You Don't Need to be Sexy if You Ride a Bike...

2007-06-28T14:25:00.000-04:00

Case in point... I don't even know how to be sexy but I have often been told that I get "points" just for riding. And this is obviously true because fighting off potential suitors is practically a full-time job for me. Annnyway, last night after I finished being a cowgirl (read: got off my waitressing shift - don't ask) myself and the other waitress sat down at the bar for our shift drinks - what other job has 'shift drinks'? (For the record, I usually give my shift drink to someone else). There were a couple of drunk guys also at the bar. After a while we ended up talking about mountain biking - what else would you talk about with random drunken strangers? When I revealed that I xc and 24-hour race, one of the guys slurred, "Ohmygod... you're like my favorite girl ever." Well that's a line I haven't heard before. He's obviously Mr. Right. So ladies, take it from me, apparently riding a bike is extremely alluring. Although, maybe all my relationship advice should be disregarded because - what else is new? - I'm single again.

Wildflower Rush

2007-06-25T11:26:00.000-04:00

Crested Butte hosts a race in the Mountain States Cup Series so I was able to race right here in CB this weekend (read: I had no excuses not to get back out there and try to not DNF like last weekend). I pre-rode the course on Friday afternoon - I had actually never ridden any of the trails that made the xc course, they loop around on the ski mountain and aren't part of any of the standard rides around here. It was a lot of climbing. 10 mile loops (for Expert we did two) with 1800' of climbing. Luckily for me, it was mostly pretty pedally climbing, only a few really steep pitches, which is where I tend to struggle.

Saturday morning rolled around and I headed to the race with some new friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma who were in town and were staying at the campgound as well. (Being a bum has its benefits). They were really funny and laid-back so they prevented me from getting too nervous. The plan was to take it pretty easy (easier said than done when you see racers riding away from you) but I really didn't want to blow up like last week - and end up dizzy and dry-heaving again. So I let a lot of women go as we started up the first climb, which was straight out of the start, naturally. I settled into a comfortable pace and passed a couple of women on a road section. I sat in behind some women on a long singletrack section and told myself I was better off resting a little rather than blowing myself up. Finally, I couldn't take it and I passed when the trail opened up a little. That was about one quarter through the first lap. Through the rest of that lap and the next, I was able to pass a few more women, one passed me back but I finished third in my age group. I'm happy. I actually felt pretty good, which has been a rare occurance over the last few weeks.

After the race, I got my beer can tied to a strand of mardi-gras beads, I mean my medal, and then we all hung around drinking beer in the sun while the guys from Tulsa made plans to ghost-ride a shopping cart into a fruit stand. The major point of debate was whether the guy in the cart should superman or try to complete a full flip into the fruit stand. I'm not sure what the ultimate decision was.

Yesterday, I went for a really long ride and, again, felt really good. I think I have turned a corner. I went out on trails that I haven't been on yet here and they were really awesome. I started on the Reno-Flag-Bear loop and then took a left instead of a right about three quarters of the way around the loop to get to a road where I climbed up to the Doctor's Park trail - a wicked long, fun descent back to the road. I had to ride a lot of road into a headwind back to my car, after running out of water so I was pretty much hating life at that point - especially when I saw a guy coming the opposite way coasting UP the hill I was killing myself to pedal DOWN - but once I downed a Gatorade and some water, I felt a lot better and was able to finish the ride feeling pretty good. It was an epic ride and took about six hours. Today is a recovery day and I'll probably just spin around for a while. I predict that I will find myself conveniently spun over to the dirt jump park...

Better Ride: A Review

2007-06-21T14:13:00.000-04:00

I wrote briefly last week about Gene Hamilton's Better Ride Clinic. Now that a little time has passed, here are some more thoughts.

Like I said, I leared how to do a wheelie. And I'm still really excited about it. Wheelies are a pretty fundamental move for mountain biking. I was able to get by before just knowing how to unweight the front end of the bike but being able to wheelie over stuff makes a big difference on the trail. But it also changed the way I responded to other things Gene taught us throughout the weekend. I have had so many people try to teach me how to wheelie but I was never able to put it all together and make it happen. Somehow, Gene was able to articulate the body motion in a way that made sense. Within about half and hour of his explanation, I was able to get a full pedal-stroke around in a wheelie. (Of course, I totally freaked out and swerved all over the place because it was such a foreign sensation, but that is beside the point). What is the point is that this really proved to me how helpful Gene could be - the fact that he was able to articulate something and I was able to pick it up really quickly after struggling with it with so many other people, made it clear that Gene is able to translate words to body movement - not something many people do well. Here is proof that I can do a wheelie.

I'm not going to give away Gene's secrets (not that my writing them here would replace taking his camp anyway) but we worked on a lot of other skills that have made an immediate difference in how I get through some technical sections. Getting up steep pitches and getting around uphill switchbacks, I am noticeably more smooth (and I'm able to get ones that I couldn't before). I did find that a lot of what he told us were things that I had been told before but either weren't fully or clearly explicated. Having Gene connect those dots was what made the difference.

We also worked on cornering and descending skills. These are going to take more time to see the effects of. I have no doubt that they will result in faster exit speeds from corners (something I have struggled with and specifically wanted to get out of the camp) and more confidence (resulting in faster speeds) while descending. The muscle memory required to corner this way will take some time to develop, however. I am still more confident descending and cornering my old way so Gene's way feels akward now. But I know from watching the best downhillers, this is the way to do it, I just need some patience. Again, though, the thing that made the difference here was Gene's explanation. I have tried to mimic what I see the pros do but I knew I wasn't quite getting it - Gene's explanation laid out each aspect.

One of the overwhelming themes in the camp was vision. And every drill we did and skill we learned had a vision segment. I've always been told to look up and I know how much faster I am when I do that. But again, Gene's vision technique was significantly more involved than just looking up. When I am able to do it, I can see how helpful this is. Although, again, right now I am still struggling with it - I go back and forth; looking far ahead than at an object right in front of me, than ahead again - and I end up disorienting myself. Again, patience.

I knew from talking to people who had taken Gene's camps that I was going to get a lot out of it - and I did. It felt good to walk away from it with some really concrete skills that I didn't have going in. But what we get out of the camp is also dependent upon what we put in. Based on the new skills I got immediately, I know the descending, corning and vision stuff will come with time - if I practice.

Overall, I totally recommend taking Gene's camp. No matter what type of rider you are, he has a lot to teach.

Up and Down

2007-06-19T10:37:00.000-04:00

I guess seasons have ups and downs. I seem to be in a bit of a down right now. I decided at kind of the last minute to drive to Park City for the Deer Valley National last weekend. It's an eight hour drive so a bit of a commitment. I got there on Saturday morning after camping a couple hours away but since there was racing by other categories all day on the x-c course, I couldn't preride until late in the afternoon. I felt pretty good and liked the course. Had dinner and shared a hotel room with my teammate, Bev. The next morning we got there early. I still felt good and really thought I could win the race.

We started and I chased harder than I probably should have up the hill at the start. I couldn't recover on the long decent and when we started the second long climb, I felt dizzy and started dry-heaving. I chased for the rest of the lap but the dry-heaving and nauseau didn't go away. I started the second lap, then decided to drop out. I turned around and headed back to the start finish, then decided I couldn't drop out, turned around and started up again, dry-heaved a couple more times and dropped out for good. DNF. Now I've had a couple bad races so I am just going to try to get myself refocused for the second half of the season.

I Can Ride....Better

2007-06-13T11:46:00.001-04:00

Which was the point of taking Gene Hamilton's Better Ride Clinic this past weekend. I will write a more in depth review in the next few days but here are a few of the major things I took away.

I can ride a wheelie. You have no idea how exciting this is for me.

Uphill switchbacks and steep, loose, technical climbs are way easier.

I can see descents getting much faster but those skills may take longer to develop and won't provide the same immediate gratification as some of the others.

That is the short recap. More to come in the next few days.

Also, Andy, who works with me at Big Al's took me yesterday to the dirt jump and skate parks here in town. It was, um, really fun. This morning, I kind of would rather go mess around there than go for a training ride. But I won't. I'll go tonight. And, unfortunately now I need another bike.

Difficult Campground

2007-06-08T10:59:00.000-04:00

That's where I stayed last night. Difficult Campground. And it was. I guess it really only seems like it because the name is so handy but it did seem like a number of things were, um, difficult. First it was $18. Maybe I'm cheap (and I am) but that seems like a lot for a National Forest campground where vault toilets are the nicest amenity. When I first pulled into my site, I filled my small water bottle from my bigger water jug. And promptly dropped the bottle, spilling the entire contents on myself and all over the inside of the car. Next I got out of my car and got covered in mud. On the drive there, there was roadwork being done on a dirt road I was on. The road was reduced to mud so when I drove through it, it got all over the bottom edge of the car. So when I got out of the car, and touched the edge of the car and leaned on it again and again when I was reaching in and out of the back seat and trunk before I noticed, I was covering myself in mud. I even managed to get some of it on my sleeping bag. Anyway, I guess that was it for the difficulty, except that I got lost this morning trying to find this place but what else is new? Hopefully Gene's clinic will prove less difficult.

I'm A Cowboy

2007-06-07T14:12:00.000-04:00

Yee-haw. Yup, I got a job waitressing at a restaurant called the Cowboy Saloon. Unfortunately we all have to wear cowboy hats, chaps, spurs and cowboy boots but it's a small price to pay for a job. Just kidding. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I wouldn't want to offend any cowboy hat, chap, spur and cowboy boot - wearing readers.

This is way late but I just got a picture from the x-c race I did at Fontana where I took second.

I think I may be doing another NMBS x-c race in a couple of weeks at Deer Valley. I'll have to see about all the logistics. It is an eight hour drive.

Also, I finally got a photo of some of the riding around here. Not that a fuzzy picture from my phone does even the remotest bit of justice to the scenery here but nonetheless, here it is. This was taken from the Strand trail.

Yesterday and last night it snowed here. In case you may have forgotten, IT'S JUNE. I couldn't believe it. My top-notch Wal-Mart tent fared pretty well, save for a slightly mauled tent pole so now the tent kind of leans a little.

I'm off to Snowmass for the weekend to take Gene Hamilton's clinic so I can learn how to ride my bike. I mean how to ride my bike....better. I mean, take my training wheels off.

Living on the Edge...

2007-06-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

...of financial collapse, that is. Yeah, it would be cooler if that title referred to some kind of wild and crazy adventure but alas, it is more about scrimping by on rice and beans. Crested Butte is awesome, for sure and so is Big Al's - the bike shop I'm working at (Big Al is actually Allison, which makes the name and the shop infinitely cooler, I think) - but there aren't that many hours for me to work there and finding another job has proven more difficult than I anticipated, spreading my waning dollars veeerrrry thin. Still the riding is epic so I can't really complain.

I've done some exploring on my own with mixed results, i.e. Strand Hill was way, way cool, really buffed singletrack and flowing corkscrew descents; on the other hand, the 409 trail turned out to be decidedly less cool and was more hike-a-bike than I could ever call fun. I've also ridden a few times with Knight's friend, Doug, who it turns out actually works at Big Al's, too. Doug is wicked fast so I chase him around gasping for air even more than I already do at this elevation. Yesterday I went for a long ride with Ali (Big Al) and her friends Mark and Jenny. We rode the Deer Creek trail and on our way back Mark and I took a detour over Snodgrass. We finished Snodgrass and were on our way back to town when Mark suggested finding a trail he had heard about that was supposed to take us over a ridge and drop us on the road closer to town. After some bushwacking and exploring, we kind of found the trail by mistake. We climbed way up over a ridge and descended for what seemed like an eternity, through an abandonned mine site and finally down to the road. Turns out the trail is highly illegal (we might have suspected as we rode past 'No Trespassing' signs) so we won't be doing that again anytime soon but it was pretty fun while it lasted. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. Well, partial ignorance anyway.

Now I'm nursing a sore shoulder. This morning I shoulder-checked a tree while flying between aspens. Good times.

Colo-rad-bro

2007-05-29T01:03:00.000-04:00

...That's how my friend Mike says it and it's pretty accurate. Colorado is pretty rad, bro. I've been here a week now and the riding is really epic. My plan was to take a week off and try to recover and start a new training cycle but the riding is way too good for that. I've done a few of the local rides here, around Crested Butte and nearby in Gunnison. All really epic, although I've been suffering from the elevation. It's bizarre, really, to experience the elevation change. Disorienting, almost. As a rider you know how your body should feel in relation to the amount of effort you are exerting. But with the elevation, it often feels as though you're exerting only a small amount of effort but suffering in huge amounts. Good times. Still, the riding is incredible and different than anything I have ever done - around every corner is a view like a photograph.

This past weekend Knight came into town and we took off for Fruita for, well, some more epic riding. We rode around the Bookcliff trails, the Mary's Loop trails and the Rabbit Valley area. The Bookcliffs were really flowy - huge berms and really fast. The Mary's Loop and Rabbit Valley areas were also really flowy but were a little more rocky and technical - more ledges and more like Moab. Epic singletrack all around. Now, we're back in Crested Butte and about to crash - seriously, I needed fishing line to hold my eyelids open on the drive back.

Next up, some time off to recover. Whew.

Some Days You Got It...

2007-05-21T17:05:00.000-04:00

...And some days you don't. Turns out this was one of those days. Not sure quite what happened. I think that I haven't let myself recovery properly from the 24 hour race a few weeks ago. I guess I was able to get away with it at the x-c race at Fontana because it was short and not especially difficult as far as climbing and riding at altitude. The Whiskey 50 was pretty much all at altitude and was pretty much all climbing. And basically, I couldn't get away with not being recovered. I was doing okay for the first half of the race, leading for some of it and in second for the rest. But going into the second half, and into the killer climb, I pretty much fell apart. I couldn't get into a rhythm on the climb at all - usually one of my strengths on a sustained climb like that - and I lost a lot of time over the course of the twelve mile climb. At the base, I was in second, within sight of first place. By the time we got to the top, I was in fourth and had pretty much fallen to peices. It was all I could do to limp the rest of the way home.

I was disappointed because I wanted to do well at this race. As anticipated, Todd and the Epic Rides crew did an amazing job. Wish I could have put in a race a little more up to par with their effort. Despite the disappointing race, it was a really fun weekend as I got to see a bunch of the Titus crew who came up from Phoenix. We were all pretty much too beat to compete in the Whiskey Row Watering Hole Challenge but I have no doubt it was a huge success - or utter debacle, depending on your perspective.

From Prescott

2007-05-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

I'm here in lovely Prescott, AZ to race the Whiskey 50 Mile tomorrow. I had never been here before but now that I have, I have to recommend it. The town is really nice - it actually reminds me of towns you usually see on the east coast. Really quaint. I prerode part of the race course this morning and it should be a great race. All the singletrack I rode was really tight and twisty. Todd Sadow of Epic Rides is putting on the race. Todd and his crew also put on the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo that I raced in February and that is the main reason I'm here for this race - Todd knows how to host a race! I highly recommend his events. Not sure how I'll do, I've never race this distance before but I'm sure it will be a good time nonetheless. Speaking of 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo... check out the latest issue of Bike Magazine. I'm mentioned on page 41 - thanks Dave for pointing this out. I had actually already been warned and been to the bookstore to hoard remaining copies - alas, there was only one left.

Going Fast

2007-05-09T23:55:00.000-04:00

Went out to Fontana this past weekend to race the NMBS #3. I didn't have very high expectations as I'm only two weeks out of the last 24 hour and given that the race was only 21 miles long, it would require, you know, going fast - something I have very little experience doing.

I ended up having a few teammates there and a bunch of other people who I knew, which was unexpected and helped relieve some of the pre-race nerves. My teammate, Bev, was especially helpful as she is very fast and a very experienced X-C racer and she answered myriad questions about how things might go down. Former Mouse, Emily, who now races pro for Bear-Naked/Cannondale was also really helpful. She and fellow Mouse, Ray, and I pre-rode together and, having raced there last year, Emily gave us quite a few tips about how to ride various sections of the course. The thing she stressed the most was to get out in front from the start for the first section of dirt road, get up the nasty steep climb, where the bunch will get messy and people in back will have to get off and run, and get to the singletrack first.

So the next morning before the race, that's what I was concentrating on - get to the front at the start. Well we started and I went...straight to the back. Apparently I can't sprint to save my life. I was second to last of nine of us up the steep climb and onto the singletrack. I don't even have a joke here. At least we were all in a close train on the singletrack climb and when it opened up and we climbed a section on the road I was able to pass a few girls. I was in fourth by the time we got the next singletrack section and first place was not far ahead of us. I was able to pass second and third place on the next climb and I started to put some time into the gap to first place. All of a sudden near the bottom of the last long decent I found myself right behind first place. I rode right behind her for a minute or so and then she had a mechanical. It looked like she had a stiff link as a section of her chain wanted to bind in her derailleur. She was still on the bike and pedalling, hoping it would work itself out. I couldn't bring myself to attack her on a mechanical. I asked if she was okay and slowed next to her as she struggled with her bike. And then it worked itself out and we took off again. I rode her wheel on the long flat section. I hung on but she finally dropped me when I couldn't make it up this tiny embankment and I had to push my bike while she rode it out. Still, I was only about 10 seconds back as we finished the first lap. Nothing changed too much in the second or third laps. I continued to put time into the women behind me and continued to lose time to first place. I would close the gap a little on the sustained climbs but lose time to her on most other sections. I finished just over a minute behind her.

It was really fun and it helped me see my strengths and weaknesses. Clearly, sprinting is a stuggle - I didn't have a prayer to get out in front at the start. Short, steep power climbs are also a struggle, although I think that may be related to turning over 150mm cranks. I actually do well on technical sections except on this course there were these steep chutes of deep, fine sand. If you didn't stay off the front brake through them, you didn't have a chance. I think I went down four or five times through these. Luckily sand makes for a pretty soft landing.

I'll be racing the Whiskey 50 Miler in Prescott, Arizona next week and then another X-C race at Angel Fire, New Mexico the following week.

Recovery...Or Lack Thereof

2007-04-29T23:49:00.000-04:00

I went out this morning for a quick ride in Bootleg before work. I was supposed to meet some of the local 'fast guys' - as I had been warned - and I wanted to see if I could hang with them at all. Given that it's been a week since the 24 hour, I felt recovered and ready for a good chase. It started out great and I was hanging on no problem and then it became ABUNDANTLY clear (a reference that only, like, three people will get... but given that my entire readership is probably only a few more than three, that's pretty good odds. But I digress.) that I was not recovered. I remember this happened last year when I attempted to do an x-c race the weekend after a 24 hour. Anyway, even though it was already 85 degrees at 8 in morning, I started getting the chills and getting completely nauseous. And that was pretty much the end of my chase. I still tried even though the voice in my head was telling me continuing to push myself through nauseau and goosebumps was not probably the best call but it was pretty futile. I made a decent showing for, oh, I don't know, about 10 minutes until I got dropped like rock. So evidentally, one week is not, I repeat, not enough time to recover from a 24 hour. Hopefully two weeks is because I am supposed to race the National at Fontana next week and it's going to be a lot harder fighting nauseau and chills.

Also, did I mention it was 85 degrees at 8 in the morning? At one point today the temperature read 102 degrees ONE HUNDRED AND TWO DEGREES. It's April. I'm glad I am getting the hell out of here in couple of weeks. Good grief.

24 Hours of Vail Lake

2007-04-26T12:12:00.000-04:00

I guess there will be no suspense for this race report since I already wrote the result but here is how it all went down.

Joey, the other mechanic at All Mountain Cyclery came with me to be my support and we took off wicked early Friday morning so we could get to Vail Lake and I could preride pretty early in the day. Well, instead, we sat in traffic for four and a half damn hours - I'm not even kidding. The entire drive was supposed to take four and a half hours and it ended up taking NINE. It was getting dark and raining by the time we got there so I bagged the preride. I felt terrible about how the race was going to go. In addition to my great attitude and lack of training in the weeks leading up to the race, now I had spent the entire day getting stiff in the car and not preriding. I spun around on the street for a few minutes outside our motel in an effort to loosen up.

As always, the race started at noon with a running start. I was even further back than usual during the run. Great. I was watching the other four solo women and as we settled into the first lap I was in second but I kept first place in sight. I stayed about 30 seconds to a minute behind her for the first four hours until I passed her and started putting time into her. In addition to Joey, my friend Mike was at the race wrenching for team Vello Bellas and Mammoth Fellas - which went on to take first in the Co-ed pro category with a staggering 27 laps. We combined our pits, which was awesome because there was always a lively crew to come 'home.' They were keeping track of my gap and as it got dark, it looked like as long as I kept a steady pace, I would take first without any trouble. But around 10 pm, Terri Wahlberg, who had been in fourth had moved up and was right behind me. I guess Joey and the gang hadn't paid attention because she had been pretty far back but as I went through the start/finish and headed out on the course again, I could still hear the announcer as he said, "And here comes Terri Wahlberg! She was in fourth, than third, now second and only two minutes behind first place Sarah Kaufmann." Damn. (Although it was absolutely a stroke of luck for me that she got as close as she did. If she had been 3-4 minutes back, I never would have heard the announcer and she would have caught me by surprise.) Anyway, as it worked out I got the warning and turned it on pretty hard. I turned in a few fast night laps and was able to put some time into her. By four a.m. I was beat but instead of taking a nap on the side of the trail like last time, I waited until I got back to the pits and I crawled into my sleeping bag on the ground, still wearing my helmet and shoes. I slept for ten minutes, then took off again. Terri had made up some time on me by then but once I started riding again I was able to make up the time I had lost.

I flatted once in the middle of the night. Weirdly enough, it happened just as I was getting passed by Alex, from the Velo Bellas/Mammoth Fellas team and Mike who had gone out to keep her company for a lap. Mike stopped to help but since it is against the rules to accept outside help on the course, there was nothing he could do. Not gonna lie here, though, I definitely wanted him to help me, regardless of the rules. But thanks, Mike for keeping me honest - and not getting me DQed - and taking off with your pump after I blew my only CO2 and had to ride the rim back into the pits. Luckily I was only about a mile out.

I was really suffering by then. I definitely suffered more in this race than ever before. The course had a lot of steep climbing but mostly I just pedalled really hard to stay in first - harder than I thought I could for 24 hours.

I didn't have the severe stomach cramps that have plagued me in the early hours of my last few races. I think I have solved that nutrition mystery. But as the night wore on to the early morning I was plagued with a new stomach ailment. I know you will all enjoy this, let's just say I kept having to stop on the side of the trail to go to the bathroom, um, with urgency. Good times.

By the time it was light, I had increased my lead to 20-30 minutes but I was hallucinating and every time I turned around, I thought I saw Terri right behind me. I kept telling my crew that I saw her right behind me and that I saw her everytime the course doubled back on itself. They were pretty worried about me because I was so convinced and so freaked out and they were seeing for themselves that there was no way that was possible.

I finished my 16th lap around 11:10 a.m. I was allowed to start another lap anytime before noon. Terri, the woman in second wasn't going to finish her 16th lap until after the cutoff. I was in no condition to do a victory lap and since I had the win anyway, I called it a race and finished. Sixteen laps was good for a new solo women's course record. Of course the race is only five years old so it's not like these are long-standing records but it was still kind of cool.

All in all I'm satisfied with how it went. I definintely discovered a new threshold of pain.

As always, none of this would be possible without the generous support of my sponsors; BR Lights, giving me a huge advantage during the night laps; Crankbrothers pedals, plenty of platform to pedal for 24 hours; Elete electrolyte solution, keeping my head in the race; Hammer Nutrition and BNRG, nutrition that I can actually digest after pedalling for 20 hours; Kenda tires, wicked fast and sticky; Magura brakes, the lightest, most reliable braking systems available; Sportlegs, neutralizing enough lactic acid to keep my legs pedalling; Titus, making the best - and the smallest - bikes available, my Racer-X is the perfect 24 hour machine; WTB, light and stiff wheels and the only saddle I could sit on for 24 hours; All Mountain Cyclery, financing the gas for the trip and giving me Joey who was awesome support and took great care of me; and last but definitely not least - even though I forgot to thank him after Old Pueblo, I think my brain was still turning pedals - Chris, who is Roaring Mouse Cycles for making it all possible.

Just a quick one...

2007-04-24T00:59:00.000-04:00

...to say I WON the 24 Hours of Vail Lake this past weekend. It was a hard race and I one I had to fight really hard for. I'll write a full race report in the next few days but just wanted to leave a quick note. Official results are here.

Closer Still...

2007-04-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

Well, now it is two days before the pain. I feel pretty horrible about how this race is going to go. How's that for a positve attitude? As a consequence of trying to recover from overtraining, I now feel untrained and generally frustrated and unmotivated. Should be a great race.

Annnnnnyway. I got my pink Racer-X built up and I took it for its inagural ride around Bootleg. It felt way better than any bike should on its first ride. But it's a Racer-X so I guess that's to be expected. And it's pink. Was that clear? I broke down and put my first peice of XTR bling on my race bike. I realized that the only thing I was missing in my parts kit for the pink bike was a front derailleur. Since I'm pretty much going the opposite of all out on the build kit for it, I went to grab a Deore or similar one but when I opened the case, the XTR one was just staring me right in the face. I picked it up and I could not put it back. So I put that one on the race bike and put the XT one it replaced on the pink bike. Wow, XTR. I like to say that I won't ever get XTR or X.O or whatever the top of the line crap may be unless someone is giving it to me for free because it is never, I repeat, NEVER worth it. (Not that I work in a shop and it's my job to tell you that it is always, I repeat, ALWAYS worth it...) Either way, this proves the previously unsubstantiated theory that you can never be too broke to buy bike bling. Because, trust me, I'm broke.

I actually was able to get a digital photo of the frame with a few of the parts on it even though my phone will still not send pictures - thanks Cingular! - but I can't seem to post said picture here. Go figure. Trust me, it's pink.

One Week Until the Pain

2007-04-13T11:42:00.000-04:00

Yup, this time next week I'll probably be preriding the course getting ready for the hurt tomorrow. I always spend the last couple of weeks before these races torturing myself thinking about what I was doing 24 hours ago and thinking about everything that has happened since then and how long that feels and realizing that is how long I have to ride my bike. I think I am a little overtrained going into this race. I've been really tired and lethargic the last couple of weeks. My trip home to Massachusetts was supposed to cure that since I didn't ride much but it think between lack of sleep and jetlag, it didn't really happen. I was also sick but I think overtrained, as well. I have another week to recover but it may be too late. Either way, I don't feel the same excitement going into this race as I did the last one, another symptom of overtraining. I'm still out for blood, just frothing at the mouth a little less.

Thanks to EJ at Titus I got a new Racer-X frame. It's pink. Pictures to come soon but right now my camera phone isn't able to send any pictures. It's been a real pleasure spending time on the phone with Cingular customer service trying to get the problem worked out. Really, I can't say it enough. I will now light myself on fire. But I digress... the frame is awesome. It is a 2005, which was the last year the aluminum Titus frames were made in the U.S. It has a Manitou rear shock, which I'm curious to ride after riding my Fox RP3 for the last year and a half. And, it's pink. Hopefully I'll get it built up in time to use it as a spare at the race. All my good parts have gone on the race bike so this bike is being built almost entirely from parts that I either scavenged from the Mouse parts bins or saved when customers didn't take them (read: left them as garbage). Maybe I'll build the first 30+ lb XXS Racer-X. Either way, I can't wait to build it up and pedal it around Bootleg. Did I mention it's pink?

Surprised... Again

2007-04-10T00:08:00.000-04:00

Yeah, once again I am realizing that it is T-minus 11 days until the next 24-hour and I had no idea. Joey, who is going to be my support at this race, was asking me what exactly he would need to do and what he should know in advance. I kept putting him off and saying how we would go over everything in the weeks before. He was like, "Um, it's next week." "Oh."

I have a little bit of wrenching to do before the race. I just need to overhaul the Racer-X and fix about eleventy billion broken parts on it (including several integral carbon parts that are seriously compromised but I continue to ride anyway), build a new set of wheels and build the new Racer-X frame. And of course hope that all that newly built stuff makes it through the 24-hour. I'm wicked excited to build the new Racer-X frame. It's pink. Me-OW.

One of my wicked cool sponsors, Elete just posted a profile of me here. Click the link to open the pdf file. The story based on their interview is posted here. On long rides, especially in hot weather I always put Elete in my camelback. As I said in the interview, I've never really had a problem with cramping but it really does seem to help my head - it keeps me from feeling really scattered and it allows me to concentrate and focus even when I am really suffering. And it tastes good. It's very subtle but it tastes more like the water that comes out of the faucet at my parents house - which is really good.

Quick, Like a Bandaid

2007-03-31T21:02:00.000-04:00

I went out to Cottonwood last Saturday to race in the Las Vegas X-C race. I was hoping to race in the Expert category so I could race three laps instead of two and because I thought I might be sandbagging in Sport. Of course, I have no upgrade points to race Expert because all the racing I do is not sanctioned by USA Cycling and therefore earns me no upgrade points. The race promoters denied me so I decided to race the Sport race and just go out and do an extra lap. I also realized that I was going to have to kill it in Sport or I was going to look pretty pathetic after complaining about not being able to race Expert.

It turned out there was only one woman racing Expert so she decided to go off with us Sport women so she'd have a group to go with. I told her I would chase her around for a third lap so she would at least have someone else out there. I planned to try to stay on her wheel for as long as I could because I had no idea how to pace myself in a short race like that. I figured I would just see what pace she rode to get an idea of how I should go. We took off and literally within two minutes of the start I heard the hissing sound of a flattening tire. And for some reason, the Stan's I was running wasn't sealing. Dammit. I pulled over and took about 10 seconds to decide, screw it, I'll keep riding and hope it seals and not deal with it until it was literally flat. (Also I realized that although I had CO2 cartridges, I had cleverly forgotten the dispenser so I was screwed anyway). I caught back up to the Expert woman, decided I could ride faster than that and passed her. I had put about 30 seconds into her by the time the tire was totally flat. I stopped and borrowed a pump from some guys watching. She passed me again. Tire reinflated, I took off and took a couple minutes to catch and pass her again. I continued to put time into her for the rest of that lap and our second lap. By the time I finished my second lap, the tire was flat again. I crossed the line for my official Sport finish and started frantically shouting for someone to lend me a pump. Everyone just stared blankly at me like a bunch of slack-jawed yokels until finally a couple guys sprung to action and lent me theirs. The tire wasn't holding at all and as we pumped it up, we could hear the air hissing back out. I saw the Expert woman go through and decided again to screw it. I took off, caught and passed her again and finished the rest of the lap again with a pretty flat tire but I managed to unofficially win Expert by a minute or so - even though it was only a field of one.

All in all, it was really fun and relatively painless. After the endless suffering that is 24-hour racing, I couldn't believe how quick this was over. I had a great time and I really felt fast. I caught people on all sections of the course - on climbs, on decents, on technical sections and on flat power sections. The only parts I felt weak on were short power climbs.

I just found out I was approved for an upgrade to Expert category so now I can race three laps for real. Of course I don't know when the next X-C race I'll do will be... but whenever it is, I'll be an Expert. Radical.

In other news, I have been debating how to thank Chris and the Mouse for some really generous extra sponsorship and I don't know what I can possibly write here to adequately convey how appreciative I am. But that is about all I can do anyway, short of going out and killing it in every race - which is, of course my plan. But I digress. The point is Chris recently very generously put me on the Mouse Prior Employee Sponsorship Program which will make a lot of racing this year a lot more feasible and will give me a lot more flexibility in choosing which races I do. For all my multitude of readers, those that have not been to the Mouse, it's a shop like none other. I really don't know that the Mouse character can be matched anywhere. You certainly won't find that many wicked nice frames - especially the Tituses, or Titi, if you will, in that small a space. Seriously it's maybe a little bigger than your average size closet. The service will be awesome and Chris will be ridiculously patient and help you through everything, even if you happen to be really annoying and I would have given up on you a long time ago. (Whoops... did I just say that out loud?) Annnnyway, the point is, it's an awesome shop with awesome product and awesome staff. Did I mention it's awesome? Thanks so much Chris, you've been so good to me. I'll be racing as hard as I can for you.

Better Waaaaaay Late Than Never

2007-03-29T23:31:00.000-04:00

Just got a few more pictures from the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.
This was the next morning. I think this was one or two laps after I found out I was winning and I still didn't really believe it. Not sure what I was doing here but it doesn't really look like I was exactly preoccupied with pitting really quickly. Yeah, look how fast I was. Really efficient.I think this was my last lap. I had just ridden down the rock face that was the 'black diamond' option at the end of each lap. I rode it all but two laps when I just felt too shakey and didn't trust myself not to crash. You can see everyone is way more interested in looking behind me at the next person coming down the face.
Ah, the sweet taste of victory. Also known as double fisting liquor and beer. This shot must have been taken after we had spent several minutes cleaning off the layers of encrusted sweat and drool from my face.
My pit. Next to all the campers, vans, EZ-Up tents and other elaborate pits, mine looked pretty pathetic. But Lindsey, Chele and everyone else did an amazing job despite that.

Not So Summer...

2007-03-22T23:23:00.000-04:00

Okay I thought it was summer, yesterday I wasn't so sure. I rode up Mt. Charleston, which is on the other side of Vegas - baby. It's about 8500' at the top and it was decidedly not summer. It was, in fact, the polar opposite of summer, pun fully intended.

Allegedly there is a 21 mile trail that starts at the bottom of the mountain and goes all the way to the top. I planned to go up and down it - I was really excited to get such a long climb and I figured the ripping decent would be pretty fun, too. I spoke with a few people about how to find the start of the trail but each person I talked to made me more and more skeptical that I was actually going to find it. The landmark I was actually looking for was a 'tree with hole in it around mile marker six'. Really promising. Anyway, finally I gave up looking, parked at the bottom of the road, around 3,500' and started pedalling on the gravel on the side of the road. Obviously a trail would have been way better but it wasn't actually that bad. Maybe my love of suffering also includes suffering from extreme boredom. Anyway, it took about three hours of climbing at a pretty slow pace in the loose gravel and on some dirt roads that ran along the paved road, until I reached the summit. It was below freezing for the last 45 minutes or so and snowing really hard. As usual, I was well prepared for the weather. Actually, I was more prepared than usual as I had actually taken a vest and arm-warmers. I knew it was going to be a brutal decent in the cold but I was too stubborn to turn around before the top. And it was brutal. My hands and feet were completely numb - not just fingers and toes but entire hands and feet. But that may have more to do with my adapting to this blazing desert climate than anything else. Except for the top few miles, the road was pretty open and straight so I rode most of the way back down with my hands behind my back to protect them from the wind. When I got back to my car, in the 75 degree temperature, I was still shivering. I got in the car and cranked up the heat. I've never been so cold when it's so warm.

After I recovered from the cold, I drove over to Cottonwood to do a couple laps on the race course of an x-c race I am going to do there in a couple of weeks. The course is really fun, wicked fast and flowy with a decent amount of tempo climbing. Although, I have gotten a different answer every time I have been told what the course is going to be so who knows how it will actually go. I have no idea what to expect in this type of race. The laps I did today took less than 40 minutes and we'll be doing two of them. 1:20 is significantly shorter than 24 hours so I'm not sure how to pace myself. I guess just go out and go hard. Really hard. I'm not sure I know how to do that.

In other news, I have been meaning to mention that the Mouse is looking to hire a mechanic. Keep in mind, this person would be replacing, um, me, so we all know how impossible that would be. Please, I am known around those parts as the Princess of Power. But if you are an experienced mechanic in the Bay Area looking for work at a high end shop with an awesome boss, really fun other employees, lots of way cool regular customers and team members, get in touch with Chris. His email address is available off the website, or click the Mouse link to the right.

It's Summer

2007-03-20T22:20:00.000-04:00

At least it feels like summer to me. It has been 90 degrees here the last few days and it is freaking me out because I know it is going to get a lot hotter and that is already way too hot for me. Soooo, I am thinking about migrating up to Colorado for the summer to escape the heat. I have a couple of leads on shop jobs in various parts of the state so we'll see. It has also crossed my mind that I could take up waitressing again if I had to. I did love waitressing so much when I used to do it. I am the smiliest, friendliest, most accomodating waitress you'll ever have. I just love it.

It sounds like Fruita would be pretty much the perfect place for me - miles of endless, pedally singletrack. As much as I love Bootleg, there just aren't quite enough miles here for an endurance racer. Or enough sustained climbing. I usually head over to Cottonwood on my days off because there are just more miles of trails over there and more climbing. The Racer-X loves it over there, too. I did a night ride there a few days ago with a friend and it was pretty awesome. We were looking at some of the rockier hills and my friend said how Bootleg type trails could be made there. A couple turns later on trails I hadn't ridden before and we pretty much could have been in Bootleg if we hadn't known better. Most of the trails in Cottonwood are really smooth and pedally but these were rough, rocky and steep. It was really fun technical climbing. I love that stuff - when it's hard enough that I can just clean it. But it's not really the same kind of workout as a more pedally climb where you can just put your head down and punish yourself. Sometimes I feel like I can't pedal hard enough to suffer when it gets technical. Anyway, we ended up having to turn around before the trail ended because we didn't know where it went and neither of us had much charge on our lights. But I went back the next day and scoped out the rest of the trail. It is actually a point-to-point connector from the Cottonwood trails to the town of Blue Diamond. And it is much gnarlier than the rest of the trails out there.

I signed up today to take a clinic from Gene Hamilton of Better Ride. Click his link on the right. Gene commented that he was surprised that I have done alright racing with my negative attitude about how I ride so I am going to make a concerted effort not to put down my abysmal technical skills anymore. That's it, that's the last time. Really, it is. Unfortunately he is in such high demand that I couldn't get into a clinic before the end of April but I can't wait. I have heard nothing but good things about his clinics and Gene is awesome so I have no doubt it will be great.

On the Road Again...

2007-03-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

Just for a couple days, though. Joey, the main mechanic at All Mountain, and I went up to Gooseberry Mesa in Utah with some guys who were in town to ride, from Vermont of all places. Joey and I got last minute clearance to split from the shop so we took off and got to Gooseberry in the afternoon just in time to meet up with our new friends and with a good four hours of daylight remaining. If you've never been to Gooseberry, it's really fun, there is stuff to ride for everyone. We rode the South Rim trail out to the point of the Mesa. The south rim is more technical than the north - lots of bowls and drops. I had to walk a lot of sections but it was cool - I lived vicariously through the guys from Vermont. They are all hard-core freeride/DHers and they were taking huge drops and doing crazy things on their bikes that I had before only seen in movies. I, on the other hand, felt like a stupid ox - all I can do on a bike is pedal it. Anyway, we went out to the point of the Mesa and sat around for a while. Of course I didn't take any pictures so I can't show how incredible it looked. We rode back on the North Rim trail, which is much faster and more pedally. That was where I got to really have fun. I always feel like an elastic on trails like that because I get caught or fall behind when it gets rough and then I spring ahead when it smooths out. But at least it was pedally enough that I could actually work hard enough to break a sweat and get winded. Good times. We finished as the sun was setting.

Just as Joey and I were heading back to B.C. we got a call from Jeff, who owns All Mountain, saying that we could stay away for another day if we wanted to. Done and done. We had brought sleeping bags in the car just in case so we threw them on the ground and slept under the stars. It was pretty cold by the time morning came, though. I kept waking up curled up in the fetal position all the way at the bottom of the sleeping bag. We got up and rode the Jem Trail the next morning. We hooked it up with a few more trails to make a 20 mile loop. It was awesome. Some people find those trails boring - really smooth, not technical and pedally. But I loved it. The Jem Trail itself was awesome, all banked corners and fast and flowy. Grip it and rip it. We ate lunch after we rode and felt so full and sloth-like that we ditched our plans to ride more and headed back to B.C. I did, however, pedal around Bootleg a little when we got back. I'm off work again today and I think I'll head over to Cottonwood a little later. Tonight we are hiking out to a hot springs. Um, could life get any better?

P.S. There has been a great deal of discussion regarding my questionable fashion choice on the podium at Old Pueblo. All I can say is, give me a break - I hadn't slept in almost 30 hours. Also I was modelling 'Recovery Socks' and I couldn't show them off without rolling up my pant legs and looking like a clown.

Back to B.C.

2007-03-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Boulder City... and Bootleg Canyon - both B.C.'s. Been a couple of weeks now. Working at the shop. Living...in a tent. What? Yup.

Anyway, not too much to report. Riding a little - getting back to training after some time off to recover. Next race will be the Payson Stampede 24 Hour on May 5-6. Radical.

High Bikes

You can tell we've been hard at work. The little one is the S.S. - Sarah Specific.

Addendum - Race Photos

2007-02-21T23:19:00.000-05:00

Heading out for my last lap.

On the podium with second and third place.

Thanks Pat for the photos.

Still Riding This High

2007-02-19T13:31:00.000-05:00

This one is wicked long. Just letting you know.

Even though I'm finally off my bike, I am still for sure riding the high of WINNING the Solo Female category of the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. I got in 15 laps and everything went really well. My support team Lindsey and Chele, were absolutely awesome and were on top of E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G and took unbelieveable care of me, waiting on me hand and foot and having everything I wanted ready for me every lap. Alex was there tons of laps I came through and helped out a lot with my bike and lights, etc. - unfortunately for him, my Racer-X is just too damn good a bike so there wasn't much work for a mechanic. Johnny was also was there to support for a ton of my laps and helped me set up a killer pit area. Also thanks so much to Pat, who pretty much put me up for the weekend when I wasn't racing and let me use a ton of his stuff to set up a solo pit replete with a table and chairs, stove, lantern and other amenities to help my crew help me. Thanks also to EJ, Rhea, Rachel, another Lindsey, Jeff, Daryl, Foye, Jacques, Scott and Mark for all the support over the weekend. Everyone was absolutely awesome and incredibly supportive. Congratulations to Daryl, Foye, EJ, Jeff, Johnny, Tom, Richard (Dave) and Pat, the Pistolas de Sierto. They took second in the corportate category, despite several mechanicals and mishaps. They rule. Congratulations also to team Scofflaw, they took sixth in the 150-199 coed category. Also, I want to thank Peter and Curly at Rage Cycles in Scottsdale. They totally hooked me up with last minute stuff I needed. Last but obviously not even close to least, thanks so much to Todd and everyone involved with putting on the race. It was an absolutely incredible weekend. The sense of comraderie and support was overwhelming. As much as I was hating life at times, I couldn't help but smile and laugh when I came through the transition and pit areas and received everyone's support. Thank you SO MUCH.

In addition to all the people who made the weekend possible. I had a ton off equipment that got me through it. As usual, my BR Lights C2 was, you know, pretty much the bomb. I was using a new Endurance model, the C2. 1-E. I am still blown away by how strong this light is. I don't have to be any slower in the dark. Of course, I'm beat by the time it gets dark so I am for sure slower but I can still rip the decents as fast as my nerves will allow because I can still see like it's light out. The new C2 that I used for this race will run for 5.5 hours on the high beam. I switched between the high and low beam to conserve energy and I didn't even test the limits of this light. I had planned to switch it out after two laps but that ended up being after about 3.5 hours and switching between high and low power settings. The battery indicator showed that I had only used about half of the charge. I could have easily gone another lap before switching the light out. And at that point, the only reason I did change it was because my crew was all prepared to do a light switch at that point so I just figured, stick with the plan. The large power button on top of the light also toggles between power settings so I don't even have to look down - the button is really easy to hit with a gloved hand so switching between settings is really easy - the only times I didn't switch setting were a couple times later in the night when my senses weren't all there and I just forgot! Can't say enough about this light. The fact that it is all self-contained makes everything so simple. Fifteen hours into a 24-hour race, negotiating power cords is about the last things I am equipped to handle. It is lightweight, simple to operate and it lights up the trail like nothing else. Enough said.

I'm not going to say my butt doesn't hurt after riding for 24 hours but it hurts a lot less than it should and that's because my WTB Rocket saddle is awesome. I'll be riding WTB LaserDisc wheels pretty soon too, which I am stoked about because they are really light but still pretty bombproof and with all my finesse, that's pretty important. I'll also be riding Moto Tec grips, which I'm pretty excited about, too. I've put them on a lot of bikes in the shop and they look like they might rival the custom grips I made for myself that I've been running. Also, I suspect actual clamp-on grips might work a little better than the JB Weld I'm using now. That's right, I said it.

My Titus Racer-X was, as usual, awesome. I absolutely love that bike. It fits me like a glove, which is pretty crazy, given that I am 4'11". And like the adage, the shoemaker's children have no shoes, the bike mechanic's bike never gets worked on. But my Racer-X and all the parts on it, let me get away with that. It's a perfect 24 Hour race bike. It is really light and efficient, fast like a hard-tail but it takes the edge off and lets me rip through rough stuff that would toss me like a ragdoll on a hardtail. It lets me get sloppy, too. And, while my technical skills are developing, they certainly suffer after, you know, 12 or 15 hours on the bike. But this bike gets me out of trouble.

My Kenda tires were hooked up around every corner. I ran 2.0 Blue Grooves, which were light and fast rolling. I actually thought to myself, several times during the race, "I feel like I am cheating. This bike is rolling too damn easy." I suspect that is a testament to the bike, wheels and some of my other equipment as well but the tires were certainly a big part of it. Sticky and fast...perrrrrfect.

On nutrition, I used Hammer Sustained Energy in my camelback and that kept me going really well. I had some trouble with my stomach in the first half of the race but I think it was due to the heat. (EJ insists it wasn't hot at all but to me, 80 degrees is too friggin' hot). I used the same ratio of mix to water that I always use in training but my stomach wasn't handling it as well. I also used a product made by BioNutritional Research Group, BNRG, called a Powercrunch Bar. I don't understand all the science behind it but they claim their bars support much more protein absorption than traditional bars. I can vouch for that. Further, my stomach handled them really well all through the race - other bars don't work at all for me. A little after 6 a.m. I was really struggling and I ate two of these - and fully expected my stomach to revolt. It didn't and not only that, I had a complete turnaround and finished the lap at a faster pace and started turning faster laps again after that. I think I downed 10-12 packets of Elete electrolyte additive, which helped keep me sane and pedaling. To me 80 degrees feels hot, the temperture at night when everyone else felt cold, was the most comfortable for me. Anyway, Elete helps me even more in the heat, and I was suffering enough, I can't imagine how I would have fallen apart without this stuff. I downed 30 Sportlegs pills in the course of the race. I was amazed by how strong I felt. Even on my last lap, I was still standing to pedal on short powerclimbs, something I don't think I have ever done that late in a 24-hour. My legs, although, pretty much jello at that point, still felt remarkably strong. A contradiction I myself don't really understand but I'm pretty sure it was due in large part to all the Sportlegs.

Each 24-hour that I do feels a little more like business and I feel a little less like a wide-eyed rookie. I seem to come away with fewer and fewer crazy stories and I go into each one a little more prepared - although deciding to do this race only a month prior isn't exactly the best way to prepare. All in all, this race did feel more like I was able to just get down to business and churn out the laps, with really only one exception. Around 5:30 a.m. I was really suffering when I started my 12th lap. I was going through the 'seven bitches' - seven power climbs on a dirt road that were the hardest mental hurdle of each lap for me. Anyway, on that lap I could barely keep my eyes open and my legs didn't want to pedal at all. Once I was through them, I stopped and just laid down on the side of the trail to sleep. I knew I was uncomfortable enough that I wouldn't sleep for very long. I thought only about five minutes but it ended up being about 20. (I did have visions of waking up hours later when it was light and warm and hating myself but luckily that didn't happen). Anyway, my eyes stayed open better after that but my legs were still pretty useless. About 10 minutes later, I stopped again, sat on the side of the trail and ate two Powercrunch bars (like I mentioned above). That was the turning point and after that I felt much better.

I didn't crash in any cactus like I predicted - although I did hear some horror stories about people who did. On the first couple of laps before things spread out, I found myself stuck behind slower people. In order to come around them a couple times I ended up swiping through cactus with my hands and feet. Not being from the desert, I thought cactus was just spikes. Well, apparently those spikes are poisonous. So my fingers and toes are now all swollen and red and sore. Not to mention that it was pretty painful to pedal those laps with cactus spiking my toes everytime I pedalled. It brought tears to my eyes. Finally on my third lap it was so painful that I stopped, took my shoes off and pulled the spikes out.

I didn't bleed out my nose like I did at the 24 Hours of Willamette Pass last year - or at least I thought. But when it got light, I noticed my arm warmers were streaked with blood from wiping my nose so evidentally there was some blood.

But NO CRASHES. I can't even believe that. I dabbed once when I came into a sandpit that developed in the evening and I wasn't prepared for. Other than that, I spun out a couple times climbing a couple of the bitches and had to walk short sections of them. But that's it. I was able to keep the rubber side down and stay safe. I'm tired now, sore, wind-burned and chapped but utterly satisfied and happy.

Thanks so much to everyone there and everyone not there reading this. Next race...? Don't know when or where.

Four More Days...

2007-02-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

Somehow these races always seem to creep up on me. I prepare and prepare and then somehow it seems to come up really fast. Yipes.

I have developed a bad habit of making big changes to my bike and equipment right before the race. In the months and weeks before, I always resist making big changes because I get afraid that I won't have time to adjust. Then, right before the race, I freak out because I realize that I do need to make those changes and by then I really don't have time to adjust. A la this time with my tires. When I decided to do the race about a month ago, I thought about converting to tubeless tires because of all the cactus along the course. But I didn't think it would be enough time to adjust so I didn't. But now I realize that with standard tubes, I will be flatting all over the place so a couple of days ago, I converted to tubeless. So now I really don't have time to adjust and the stuff doesn't have time to settle in. It seems to be holding so far, though. Kind of. This has become my modus operandi, like when I put different grips on my bike a couple days before the 24 Hours of Adrenalin at Laguna Seca and a new saddle on right before 12 Hours of Weaverville last year - which I promptly peed on. But I digress. Anyway, so far it hasn't caused any major problems so fingers crossed that my luck will continue to hold - and so will the tires.

I am in Phoenix now. I left Boulder City last week. I found out a few days ago that I didn't get the job I interviewed for in Vermont so I might be heading back to BC to hang around for a while longer... Incidentally, the reason they cited for not hiring me was that they didn't think the job would be enough of a priority with all the riding and racing. Well...FINE.

EJ and I went down to Tucson a couple days ago to preride the course. In typical Sarah fashion, I had crashed within about 10 minutes. Some scrapes, bruises and a possible cracked rib later, we were able to ride the course a couple times. We did both laps pretty easy in around 1:20, race pace for me, less than race pace for EJ. Anyway, I'm not sure if I cracked a rib but that particular pain is pretty distinct and that's how it feels. It's weird because I cracked a rib the week before the 24 Hours of Willamette Pass last year. It hurts when I go over bumps on the bike or try to take a deep breath of air. Good times.

The race looks really competitive. Lynda Wallenfels, who won last year and Monique Sawicki, who is the 2005 24 Hour National Champ will both be there as well as quite a few other really stong women. I'm scared.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try and write once more before we split for Tucson in a couple days.

Skillz

2007-02-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

Yup, skillz. I'm actually developing them. Wicked cool. Bootleg is making me better. I start laughing like a small child every time I clean a section of trail that I haven't before. And even though there is still lots that I can't ride here, it is definitely making me better. I am almost out of here, though. I take off for Phoenix on Thursday. I'll go down to Tucson over the weekend to pre-ride the Old Pueblo course and the race is the following weekend. I am getting wicked nervous. It hasn't exactly been the most ideal race preparation. You know, deciding to do the race only a month before it, promptly getting sick and being forced off the bike for a week and then scrambling to train as much as possible in the remaining time. Yeah.

I am kiiiiind of thinking of coming back here after the race, though. We'll see. I'll find out in the next few days whether I got a job in Vermont that I interviewed for a couple weeks ago. If I don't get it, it would be hard to convince myself that getting to Vermont any time soon is urgent enough to give up the riding here and in Cottonwood on the other side of Vegas.

That's it for now. T-minus 13 days until the race. EEEEEEP! (I don't know what 'eeep' means but that's what I said in my head when I realized it was that close).

Boulder City

2007-01-22T23:36:00.000-05:00

Not too much to report. Been riding quite a bit and still loving the riding around here. Working at All Mountain Cyclery is a great time - really different from the Mouse and is giving me a chance to work on some bikes that I have rarely ever worked on before. Lots and lots of downhill bikes and almost no gram-counter, lightweight x-c bikes. I've been back out to Cottonwood a couple times but mostly I just ride Bootleg Canyon which is still unbelievabley fun. I've been out on the road bike a couple times, too, around Boulder City, along Lake Mead and around the Hoover Dam. Damn. Everyone needs to come ride Bootleg Canyon at least once. All Mountain Cyclery is putting on a downhill race February 17th and 18th - the same dates as the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo so I won't be around for it but it should be a great race and a great time. And the word is, they'll be putting on a 12 hour race sometime this fall. Mark my words - I'll be back for that. I already can't wait. Yesss.

U-turn + U-turn = O-turn

2007-01-14T12:47:00.000-05:00

Worked one day in Boulder City, actually not even a full day, spent four days in a motel, which was definitely NOT part of the plan, and now I'm back in Phoenix, getting ready to turn around and head back to Boulder City. Good times. So when I first when to Boulder City I was feeling a little sick. Achey and weak but I thought it would pass and I would be fine. I went in for my first day of work and had to leave early because I was feeling so bad. Freezing cold and then really hot and too weak to turn wrenches. I couldn't camp like I was planning because it was too cold - not that it was that cold but I was really cold. So I was stuck in a motel. I couldn't work - I couldn't really do anything. I was so weak that I slept one night with the lights on because I didn't have the strength to get out of bed to turn them off. It was miserable. I was alone. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with me and it was disorienting to be so incredibly weak. Finally on Friday I decided I couldn't just continue to live in that dumpy motel so I managed to pack up the car and head back to Phoenix, where at least I had friends who could take care of me. I ended up in Flagstaff for the night, still really sick. It took 45 minutes of sitting in the car, right outside the office of the motel summoning the strength to get out of the car and get a room. The next morning I drove through a blizzard to get out of Flagstaff and made it back to Phoenix where I finally started to feel better.

Today I actually feel a little normal and I'm going to ride my bike for the first time in a week. I'm going to go back to Boulder City tomorrow. I can't wait to do that drive again. Good times. Actually I can't wait to get back to Boulder City again because this time I'll actually get to ride those trails. Yessss.

Part Trois

2007-01-09T01:43:00.000-05:00

After Gooseberry Mesa, I drove seven hours to Phoenix to stay with EJ. I planned to stay for just under a week and then head to Dallas to stay with my friend Andy, who I met biking across the country a few years ago. But while I was driving for seven hours I got to thinking... The guys at the shop in Boulder City had offered me a job. I really wanted to do the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo in Tucson in February... Maybe I could work in Boulder City enough just to stay afloat and then do the race and head east again after that. But when I checked the race website, it was listed as being full for solos. So I got in touch with the race promoter and was able to sweet-talk my way into the race. I called the guys at the shop in Boulder City and told them I wanted the job after all. So I spent about a week in Phoenix and now I'm back in Boulder City - I start work tomorrow.

Phoenix was really fun. EJ lives with his friends Johnny and Lindsey so they put me up too and they were really awesome. After living out of my car for the last week, it was nice to be in a home. EJ took me riding on the National Trail at South Mountain and all over the trails by Trail 100 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. We did a some road riding too and I went out some on my own. Trail 100 and 1A were really awesome. That network of trails is really loose and rocky with some ledgey stuff but almost nothing that isn't rideable. The National Trail is really fun too but there are a lot of bigger drops and more stuff that I couldn't ride. Some sections further out are really gnarly - I would love to see someone actually ride that stuff. I also drove up to Sedona and did some riding up there. I wasn't feeling that great so I don't think I got to fully appreciate the riding there but it was still pretty good. Lots of slick rock and desert singletrack and some really gnarly trails with huge drops. EJ also took me around the Titus facility, which was really cool. I watched the guys welding, fitting frames and cutting tubes. You know, just generally making sick bikes. And all the guys at Titus are great, it was good to see the guys I had met before and meet the ones I hadn't.

I got sick later in the week and I still seem to be suffering from some kind of flu/fever thing. Yesterday afternoon I got so cold, my teeth were chattering and I was shivering uncontrolably. It took a couple of hours of laying under blankets with the heat on high to get me warm again. I felt a little better this morning and took off to drive back up here to Boulder City in the afternoon. And again I got really cold. So I turned the heat on in the car about as high as it would go. I thought my eyes were going to boil out of their sockets. But I couldn't get warm. Finally I took some flu medication and I started to warm up. Then I got so hot that I was dripping with sweat and when I stopped to get gas, I realized when I got out of the car that my clothes were absolutely drenched with sweat. Good times. Anyway, my body seems to have regulated its temperature a little better now and I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. So that's that. A little over a month until the 24 hour race. And some kick-ass riding to do before then here in Boulder City and nearby - assuming I get better, that is.

Part Deux

2007-01-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

The next day I ended up in Boulder City, NV to ride Bootleg Canyon. John and I rode here on our way back from Moab so I already knew how awesome the riding was. The guys at All Mountain Cyclery were awesome as always and they hooked me up with a map and some idea of what trails were best now. This is where the dirt demo takes place for Interbike and it is truly an awesome network of mountain bike trails. They are really unique because they were designed specifically for mountain biking. The network is quite an oasis amongst the sprawl that is outside of Vegas. By all estimates this should have been made into condos and golf courses long ago but instead is some of the raddest mountain biking around, replete with restrooms and showers at the trailhead. All Mountain runs a shuttle most days for the downhill runs - haven't ridden those myself but from what I hear they are damn gnarly. Anyway, I rode the x-c trails for almost six hours that day and could have ridden more if the damn sun didn't have to go down. The next morning I rode a little there with the guys from the shop, who know the trails better than anyone and it was cool to watch their lines and learn from them. They jokingly offered me a job at the shop...more on this later. After that, I headed over to Cottonwood - another network of trails outside of Vegas about an hour away. I met up with a guy there who turned out to be another endurance racer and the two of us rode for another four or five hours. Cottonwood is really different from Bootleg. Bootleg is all rocky and tight, trails cut into the sides of the canyons and hills. Cottonwood is long, open desert singletrack. Longer climbs and way less technical but really fun, especially the sections where you can really open it up in the big ring and fly. That night I headed to St. George, Utah, where I had been told Gooseberry Mesa had some awesome riding. The next day I rode Gooseberry for a few hours, again really awesome riding. And again, really different. There are some sections of slickrock, which was cool because I never actually rode the Slickrock trail in Moab. But I really had fun on the Northrim trail, which is less slickrock and more tight singletrack with some fun rocks and ledgey steps. As the name indicates, it runs along the rim of the mesa and there are some spots where it opens up and the views are absolutely incredible. You're so high up and it is just vast, open, expanse in front of you. Breathtaking. And wicked fun.

Leaving SF, Part I (of who knows how many)

2007-01-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

The trip has been awesome so far. I rode in Kernville, CA; Bootleg Canyon and Cottonwood outside of Vegas; and Gooseberry Mesa near St. George, Utah. It has all been amazing. I hadn't heard much about Kernville and it was hard to find much information about it but it turned out to be really awesome. The main ride is usually done as a shuttle or a big loop with a bunch of road climbing. I didn't have time for that and I had heard the top was snowed it - the bottom is at 7000 feet and the top is at almost 9000. So I started from the bottom of the shuttle run and rode up. I couldn't believe how much the altitude affected me. I climbed for a couple of hours until I ran out of water. Given that it was totally isolated, at elevation, I didn't know the area at all and the riding was really gnarly, I decided not to push it and keep going much further. So I turned around. Back in town I met another cyclist who told me about another ride nearby. I didn't have much time before dark but I headed out for a quick out-and-back on a fun, bouldery trail. Sweet. That night I headed to Boulder City outside Vegas. I crossed the border into Nevada around midnight, stopped to get gas and promptly locked my keys in my car. Faaaantastic. And my AAA card happened to be in my calendar book that was stolen. So I called my darling mother at 3 in the morning, her time, to get her AAA number. Thanks Mom. Turns out I didn't even need it becuase some really helpful CHP officers helped me get into the car. I heart the CHP. And since I watched them get into the car, I saw how my car got broken into and now I think I can prevent future theft. My new anti-theft device? Duct tape. Don't ask.

Dammit

2006-12-20T08:07:00.000-05:00

My car got broken into on Monday. I was parked on Skyline Blvd while I was riding in Joaquin Miller Park and some ass-clowns broke into my car. There wasn't much for them to take - some clothes and my calendar book but it's still a drag. They couldn't get into the glove compartment because it was locked. Instead, they broke the handle off. Thanks assholes. At least I had my cell phone and wallet with me, and most importantly, I was riding my damn bike so they didn't get that. When I filed the police report I asked what the chances were of anything actually being recovered. "Um...none." Thanks. Then the police officer told me how much theft there is in that area, "Yeah, I wouldn't never go up there unless I had someone to drop me off and come back and pick me up. I would never leave a car there." Wow, that's great...I'm really glad there were signs around saying something to that effect. Really, that's so helpful. Are you picking up the sarcasm here? Because I'm laying it on pretty thick.

The Best and the Brightest

2006-12-15T08:06:00.000-05:00

In addition to lighting up the trails better than any other lights out there, it turns out BR Lights are also pretty durable. Check out just how tough they are here.

Rain, Rain Go Away

2006-12-14T08:26:00.000-05:00

Lots of rain. I've been riding through it most days though, in an attempt to make myself tougher so I'll be able to handle the winter riding around Burlington when I get there. The thing about riding in the rain out here is that it really isn't that bad, though. I mean, it always sucks after a few hours but a couple wet hours when the temperature is a balmy 65 degrees, is not really that bad. That said, I might get myself out to ride when it's raining but I'm not exactly jumping out of bed to go. But no amount of rain will ever compare to the 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Championships at Whistler last year. It might as well have been called the 24 Hours of Rain and Mud. It was brutal. I'll never suffer like that on a bike again - and hopefully not not on a bike, either.
Went to my going away party last weekend which was a really good time until it got to be a little too good of a time. Put it this way, I was doing great and drinking beers most of the night until we went to a bar and someone bought me a shot of whiskey. Things went downhill pretty fast after that. Enough said. But it's official; I'm outta here. T-minus a week and a half. Insane.

Recovery

2006-12-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

Went to the YMCA the other night to do physical therapy for my knee and sit in the hot tub because I was still sore from Monday's crashfest. Before I went in though, I took a quick look to see who was in the tub. And then I decided not to go in. I think a good rule to follow is, if you find yourself wondering, in the words of the BSG, "Are these people actually in my phylum?," maybe you shouldn't share a hot tub with them. In a related story, I'm going straight to hell.

Bruised and Battered...

2006-12-05T09:01:00.000-05:00

...but still smiling. Oat Hill Road - where Nate and I rode yesterday - was nothing short of awesome. Hands down the best riding I have done out here. Without exaggerating, it actually compared to the riding in Moab. It took a little over an hour to climb the main trail to the fork. Apparently the main trail continues to climb after that but we decided to head out on a trail that looked pretty untouched. We climbed for a bit more on a trail that literally looked like it hadn't seen traffic of any kind in quite a while. After the first fifteen minutes or so we didn't see tracks of any kind except for a single set of Moto tracks. And the riding was absolutely epic. More technical than anything else I have ridden out here. Most of it was rideable, even for me, but a lot of it was just hold on, grit your teeth and let the bike go kind of stuff. I crashed a few times, enough to have some serious bruises and scratches today but I didn't let it go enough to crash really bad - I'm still a little nervous about my head, although it has been two weeks so I am officially through the post-concussion danger period. Most of my crashes were actually going up - I would try to motor over or through stuff, not make it and fall. So those tend to be pretty low-speed. Damn, it was awesome riding. Can't get over it. Eventually we had to turn back. Apparently the trail goes on for miles. Both of us wanted to keep going but we were both low on food and water and given the serious isolation and our lack of maps or any knowledge of the area and the fact that it looked like no one had been out there in quite a while, we didn't think it would be smart to keep going. I took some sweet blurry, unfocused photos that absolutely do not do the ride justice but they provide some inkling of what this was like.

Making up for lost time...

2006-12-04T09:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I went up to Fairfax to ride the Tamarancho loop and the Repack. Tamarancho is pretty much all really fast, fun singletrack and one of my favorite rides around here. It's short - less than two hours but still wicked fun. Coming down on the Repack means riding some fireroads but there are some rocky climbs that keep it interesting and I always dork out becuase I think all the stuff that went down there is so cool. If you don't know, check out Charlie Kelly's site about it here. It's called the Repack because the Clunkers those guys rode used coaster brakes which compress the bearings in the hub to slow and stop and they rode down so hard that they had to repack the hubs almost every time they came down. Insane. I am still nervous about my concussion and I always end up riding a little more conservatively when I'm by myself but it was still wicked fun and my legs actually felt okay after barely riding the last couple of weeks.
After riding my mountain bike this morning I came home and got ready to go cheer for some friends racing cross. I decided to ride my road bike down to the race, which meant another hour and a half on the bike. I helped tear down the cross course after the races and by the time that was done, I was thoroughly beat so even though I brought lights and was vaguely planning on riding home, I bailed and caught a ride.
Today Nate and I are headed up to a place called Oat Hill, which is supposed to be a brutal, technical, ass-kicking of a ride. Two hours of climbing, followed by a gnarly, technical descent. Should be a good time especially after the beating I gave myself yesterday.

I got nothing...

2006-12-01T08:33:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a little while. And I'm not really going to post anything now. Haven't been riding a whole lot. I've been sick. And lazy. So not a lot of riding - or writing - is getting done. Just a few more days until I'll be two weeks post-concussion, though, meaning I'll be in the clear to smash my head into things again. What a relief.

I'm Feeling a Little Concussed

2006-11-22T08:12:00.000-05:00

Went down the other day and smacked my head into a tree. Hard. I'm feeling much better now but it definitely shook me up a little. Mom - I'm fine, I'll call you tomorrow, please don't worry. I don't think I have ever hit my head that hard, thank god for helmets. Note to self, replace helmet. I was trying to avoid a ditch and went too wide, slid into the high edge of the trail and slammed into the tree. My bike was fine. Other than that, it was a really fun ride. Chris, the head Mouse, Jared, former mouse mechanic and I went up to China Camp, which I always think is going to be boring and always end up having a lot of fun. We went up the the Nike Missle Site and then went off the backside and looped around. I thought I was going to throw-up on the final paved climb up to the Missile Site. I was riding my singlespeed and since I put 150 BMX cranks on it, I have had a really hard time turning over the gear I have on there. Anyway, by the time I got to the final steep section of the climb, my legs were shaking and I really thought I was going to throw-up. But I didn't. And I made it, much to my surprise. I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my mouth descending on the backside on the rigid fork but they didn't - and they didn't when I slammed into the tree, either. We were almost done when I crashed, luckily.
I promised to post photos of the baby cranks from Tom at High Sierra Cycles. These are the 150s - not quite as little as the 142.5s I started out with. These have not been finished or anodized so they don't look quite as nice as the final product but you get the idea. Again, they use a square taper bottom bracket and are available in a variety of bolt cirle diameters. I found they were machined really well - exactly to specification as far as installing chainrings and onto the bottom bracket, shifting, etc.

Done and Done

2006-11-20T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well, Temecula and Moab both didn't go quite as planned and it's a little disappointing to end the season that way but that's racing I guess. So that's it, next race will be next year. I'm taking a little time off of training, moving back to the east coast and getting ready to start training in conditions not quite as perfect as those out here... Yeah, I'll wind up in Burlington, Vermont in the dead of winter. Should be good. I roll out of here on Christmas Day. I thought about making the trip a little longer and being in Tuscon to do the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo in February but it doesn't seem like that is going to work out so I think my next race will be in April - I think the Dirt, Sweat and Gears 12 Hour race in Tennessee. I'm getting excited about racing on the east coast - it looks like there are quite a few really fun races. Of course I'll have to learn how to ride technical stuff. But from what I hear, riding in Vermont, I won't have much of a choice. I plan to make some studded snow tires and tear it up on my singlespeed all winter. Yay. In the meantime I am training my legs to get used to 150mm cranks. That is the length I have decided on. I found the 142.5s were just too short. Even though I could spin really well with them, I just didn't have enough leverage to get up steep pitches. Tom from High Sierra Cycles was nice enough to lend me another pair of cranks, 150s, and I really like them, so that's what I'm having him make for me.
I'm having another bike maintenance clinic at the shop, Wednesday, December 6 at 7:30 pm. This time I think I'll cap it at six people so it will be easier for people to see what's going on. Please email me at sarah.m.kaufmann@gmail.com if you are interested.

Another Race Bites the Dust...

2006-11-13T11:23:00.000-05:00

Yes indeed. I had to bail on the 12 Hours of Temecula. On the third lap of the race I caught a stick in my chain and pulled my derailleur and chain between my cassette and my wheel. It was so jammed, I couldn't pull it out and I couldn't even take the wheel out of the frame. The derailleur and hanger were both bent. I spent about 45 minutes walking back to the start/finish while carrying my bike on my back. I don't have a spare bike - or a spare derailleur for that matter, even if I could have gotten the hanger straight - so that was the end of my race.
I was winning at that point. The first two laps I had a couple minutes on the second place woman, Terri Wahlberg, but she passed me at the start of the third lap, then we went back and forth a couple times. I was ahead of her when I caught the stick in my chain. I stopped to try to un-jam everything and she went by me. Terri rides for Ellsworth, she is really strong and is pretty well-known on the endurance circuit - I don't know if I would have been able to win but I think I would have at least given her a good fight. I was happy just to be mixing it up with her.
One small consolation was that I won $50 for being the first woman up the climb on the first lap of the race.
Anyway, I'm off to assess and amend the damage to my poor bike.

Off I go...

2006-11-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

...down to Temecula this afternoon for the race tomorrow. I have been telling myself that my lack of training since Moab is because I was tapering for this race....yeah...that's it...tapering. For a month. My bike is also in the worst shape I have ever raced it in. Since it got utterly trashed riding in the rain and mud for 8 hours, I have changed one cable, lubed the chain, replaced the brake pads, and...that's it. Poor thing. At this point the front hub is so loose it's acting as additional suspension. I'm hoping to get on the road around 1 this afternoon but may not be able to get going until 4, depending on how busy things are at the Mouse today. Leaving at 4 would probably mean not getting to the venue until after midnight. Faaantastic. So, yeah, this should be great. BUT I am wicked excited to race - feels like it will be some kind of redemption after Moab. Also, it sounds like the course will be really fun - one long climb and some moderately technical stuff in the second half. Yay.
Also, I really want to thank the guys at Titus who have offered me some sponsorship for next year. If you have ever been to the Mouse, you probably know that we are all pretty big fans of these bikes because they ride great and last forever. Thanks especially to Jeff at Titus who handles all their sponsorship and actually made the decision to help me out. Also thanks to EJ who also, um, helped me out and has been nothing but totally professional - (!).
Thanks also to Val and everyone at Elete who also offered to help me out with some sponsorship for next year. I'll write more about this stuff in a later post, suffice to say a lot of electrolyte solutions do not have all the components they need to adequately replace electrolyte loss. Elete does and it can be a real lifesaver.
Kyle of BR Lights also offered to help me out with some lights for next year. I might have mentioned before how these are, um, the BEST LIGHTS EVER. We are now carrying them at the Mouse - come in and check out the one on display. Come in at night and take it outside to see how bright it really is. I'll be using one for the dark hours at the race tomorrow.
Anyway, wish me luck at Temecula.

One more...

2006-11-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

So it looks like I will actually make it down to Southern California this weekend for one more race. I don't have very high expectations for the 12 Hours of Temecula but at least I'll be there. I haven't done a ride lasting more than four hours since the 8 hours of 24 Hours of Moab so I'm sure riding for 12 hours is going to go really well. I won't have any support either - I've done 12s before without support and it's not that bad but it's nice to have someone to help and offer some encouragement. I wasn't sure I was going to have a ride down but I am buying a car and now I'm getting my car on Wednesday and driving it seven hours south on Friday - hopefully that doesn't prove to be a horrible idea.
I've still been spinning up the 142.5mm cranks on my road bike and I think I might end up with some that are slightly longer. I found some 150mm BMX cranks that I put on my singlespeed mtn bike and those felt better so I think I might end up with something in between. Tom at High Sierra Cycles has been really helpful - he's sending me a pair of 150s he has around so I can try those out on the road bike before I commit.
On Sunday I went up to Santa Rosa to ride Annadel State Park with Nate and Jared, current and former Mouse mechanics. The ride turned out to be somewhat of a debacle - between thinking we weren't going at the last minute, Jared turning his 5 and 5" bike into a three-speed because his rear shifting was so bad, Nate not being able to get on his bike and then not being able to stop without his leg siezing up and - just when we decided we were done and headed back to the car and I asked if anything else could go wrong - I flatted. It was still a wicked fun ride, though. Annadel has some really fun trails. I don't even know the name of it but there was one trail that wound all the way down to the backside of the park - I don't think you could have gotten the grins off our faces with a hacksaw.
Yesterday I headed out to the headlands in the late afternoon to get a couple hours of riding in the dark before the race this weekend. I poached some of the illegal singletrack in the headlands. It's some of the best riding around. And I know I'm not furthering the cause of trail access for mtn bikers by poaching but frankly I don't hold out a lot of hope, given how unreasonable most Marin hikers are about the issue, I don't think it's even worth being respectful and not poaching. So I do. Didn't see any rangers - or hikers. But I did get a talking to from another cyclist who was worried I was going to ruin it for everyone, "You better watch out for the ranger with that light," he said when I passed him. The light was on the low setting, pointing almost straight down at the ground. Thanks a lot Kyle - your lights are just too damn bright.

Moab in my rearview mirror...

2006-10-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

That's it, I'm officially putting the race behind me. It's OVER. I am now focused on getting one more race in before the end of the year. I was only vaguely thinking of doing 12 Hours of Temecula but now that Moab pretty much didn't happen, I am thinking more seriously about it. Although spending more money getting to and entering another race is about the last thing I should be doing now. But at the same time, my sponsorship proposal said I would definitely be doing this race so I feel a little obligated. Also, with no result from Moab it seems even more important. Of course, I suppose that means I should probably be continuing some semblance of training...
I finally put the custom 142.5mm cranks from Tom at High Sierra Cycles on my road bike. They're pretty unbelieveable. I think the most noticeable change is how effortless it is to spin really well. I usually spend a lot of time concentrating on spinning a really high, even cadence when I ride. But with the shorter cranks, I don't really have to think about it anymore - it is almost involuntary. I do notice that I spin easier gears but I am able to do so at a much higher and steadier cadence. I also notice that it is much easier to pedal while standing and the transition from sitting to standing and back down is much easier and more efficient. It is going to take some serious getting used to, though. It's a pretty major change and I have spent quite a few hours spinning 165mm cranks - it will take a while to adjust. But I am definitely converted. I think the real clincher was getting on one of my other bikes again. After only having ridden the new cranks for a couple of hours, without totally dialing in the new position and getting on another bike that I have ridden countless hours on and totally fine-tuned the fit of, my old cranks already felt ridiculous. Pretty remarkable. I really will try to post some pictures. The ones Tom sent are not anodized and finished so they don't look as nice as most of the ones he makes but they are still pretty crazy looking - the end is barely longer than the outside teeth of my 53 tooth big ring.

More on Moab

2006-10-23T11:15:00.000-04:00

Maybe I can write a little more about Moab now that my head has cleared a bit and I can reflect with a little less rage. This is a wicked long one.
The first lap of the race was pretty good. John, the other mechanic from the shop was racing solo as well. He had never done one and, even though he is very fast and strong and schools me regularly on short rides, I was hoping to be able to beat him over 24 hours. The running start was really muddy and since the race is so big, there wasn't much you could do in the first half of the lap - there were just too many people. John and I got separated pretty quick. It was just impossible to keep track of anyone. But the trail is pretty wide in most places and it thinned out by the backside of the course. The course is set up so that the first half of the lap is pretty slow and technical and the second half is really fast. A couple miles from the finish is pretty much the only sustained climb on the whole course. This is where I passed most people. After getting dropped like a rock on the technical stuff in the first half I would pass them back on the climb. After the climb it was a long descent back to the start finish. So the first lap was pretty good. The second lap I had some major stomach issues. Not sure what was going on here becuase I didn't do anything different as far as nutrition but I was really struggling to keep the pedals turning. I forced myself to keep going, though and told myself if I came around I could make up the time later. Finally, I started to feel a little better on my third lap. The course was pretty brutal by that point - I saw a few people being taken out by EMTs. When I headed out for my fourth lap, John and I headed out together. He had pitted a little before me and we took off together. As expected, he dropped me as soon as we hit the technical stuff. The course was really rough by this point. It was raining pretty hard and the mud was really deep and the slick rock was really, well, slick. A couple of the creek crossings had flash flooded and what was a foot or two deep a couple hours before was now nearly saddle deep - and I heard that at some points was shoulder deep. My bike was in rough shape. I planned to take a quick break at the end of the lap to put in new brake pads - eight hours had worn through brand new semi-metallic compound pads - and try to free up some of my cables because my hands were so numb that I could barely move the gunked up shifters. As I closed in on the final mile of the course I came up behind someone and realized it was John. He had schooled me on the technical stuff but I was able put some time into him on some of the more flowing sections and on the climb. We got back to the start/finish together and were told the race was called until the next morning. Of course it didn't end up restarting anyway. But that was the four laps that I did. The only consolation was that I had caught John and he conceded that I would have put a couple more laps into him if we had gone the full 24.
The rest of the week was really awesome. We did some great rides and I felt like I got a chance to ride some stuff that was way more technical than I am used to. And I did pretty well - by the end of the week I was taking way bigger drops than I would have before.
On Sunday everyone else went and rode Slickrock but I was too pissed off about the race and I just wanted to sulk so that's pretty much all I did - it's my own punishment, Slickrock is only one of the most epic rides around and I missed it. Monday we rode Porcupine Rim. My friend Dane and I did the road climb up to the trail head and met everyone else up there - I had a little frustration to take out on the climb. Porcupine Rim was AWESOME. I can't say it enough. That ride absolutely rules. Lots of ledges, drops, rocks, fast sections...really, really fun riding. I started slow - I'm not used to riding stuff that technical but once I got a little practice and I started getting the hang of it, I was chasing John and holding on, which was wicked fun. Tuesday it rained again. We did an utterly forgetable ride at Kodiak Bluffs. A couple soggy hours - some fun sections on slickrock but nothing too exciting. Wednesday we rode Poison Spider to Portal. I wasn't feeling great but the climb up Poison Spider was pretty fun and it was a thrill to be on Portal - there aren't too many trails with a death toll but most of it was pretty unrideable. Apparently it used to be more rideable but now it's pretty rough. Friday we rode Amasa Back which was wicked fun. We did it as an out and back and I hadn't had enough after one time so I got John to go up and back once more with me. I really loved that ride, I just wish there were more of it. The climb up was wicked fun, with lots of rocks and ledges that made you work to get over them. And the ride back down was awesome, too - fast and fun, almost all rideable, even for me, but still challenging. John and I left Moab at the ass-crack of dawn on Friday morning and drove to Bootleg Canyon just outside of Vegas. This is an awesome network of trails and a total oasis that by all estimates should never have survived in the social and economic context of Vegas. Instead it has thrived and has received state funding to maintain and build new trails and build public restrooms and showers at the trailhead. Apparently all the trails were built by one guy ten years ago or so and he still does most of the maintenance. Radical. The trails are awesome. Lots of different kinds of stuff - some really tight and twisty, some rocky and loose, some wicked fast and flowing. We rode for three hours and didn't even touch the downhill course or looping trails below them, but I hear those rule, too. Next time you're in Vegas, rent a bike at All Mountain Cyclery, a cool shop just down the hill from the trails, and tear it up. All Mountain runs the downhill shuttle, too.
Anyway, that was the rest of the riding in a nutshell. It all had a slightly different feel than I was expecting - i.e. I was planning on being beaten from having just done the 24 hour and instead I was fresh and rested. It made me realize how much I was craving the beating that is 24 hour racing. It's a drug, I'm addicted. I'm thinking the next one will be Conyers in May... followed by Big Bear and Killington in June and July. I'll have to decide later about NORBA Nationals and Worlds depending on sponsorship and scheduling.
Thanks so much to everyone who emailed and commented to offer condolences on the race. I really appreciate it and for the record, I DO understand that these are pretty small problems in the scheme of things. But it's nice to know you guys are pulling for me.

BUST

2006-10-18T11:58:00.000-04:00

Just a quick one to let you know the debacle that was 24 Hours of Moab. I'll write more later. The race was called after eight hours becuase of weather. I couldn't believe it. We were told we would start up again the next morning but when we went to restart, they ended up calling the solo race as it was. They sent the teams out to finish, though. I was really - um -disappointed, to put it mildly. I was way back in the standings but I was actually pretty close to most of the pro women timewise, despite some stomach issues early on. But then I missed the 8 p.m. cutoff, when they closed the course, by five minutes. The woman ahead of me was six minutes ahead of me so she made the cutoff and got out for another lap and I ended up a lap down on the whole field when, before that, there were about eight of us all within about half an hour of each other. I usually make up most of my time in the hours after four a.m. so I am pissed every time I think about what might have been.
DAMMIT. Who knows. Whatever, I think it sucks mostly becuase I put all my eggs in one basket and put so much into this race, which was stupid. And I just wrote about eleventy billion emails each telling the same painful story, which feels like ripping another limb off every time. More to come, once the pain subsides a little.

This should be good...

2006-10-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

I guess this will make up for my prior lack of competition. The start list for Moab looks like a who's who of pro mountain bikers, adventure racers, RAAM finishers and one former Norwegian National MTB Champion. And most of them have raced Moab multiple times before. I guess I have my work cut out for me. I wasn't really expecting to do very well there - Moab is always one of the most competitive 24-hours but now I am pretty much counting on not doing that well. How's that for a positive attitude?
Anyway, I wanted to write a little about the lights I'll be using. They are made by Kyle from Team Wrong Way, also known as Team Wickety Wack, also known as the evil, twisted sister team of The Mouse. Anyway, I have been running a prototype light of his for a while now (including at the 24 Hours of Willamette Pass) but he just received his first production run and they will now be available for sale. I'll post a more in depth review after the race, suffice to say these are the best lights I have ever run. EVER. It's a self-contained light - that means no cords and batteries. For now, it is available only with a handlebar mount. I was wary at first becuase I like to run helmet lights but this light is so friggin' bright, it barely even matters. Bar, helmet, whatever, it is dope on a rope. I have never used a light that provides this much depth perception. I find depth perception is usually the limiting factor riding dirt at night - huge ruts look like small divits and shadows look like gaping holes. Not with this light. Becuase it uses two bright LED beams, depth perception is about eleventy billion times better than with other single beam lights. More to come about this light but in the meantime, check out Kyle's site at www.brlights.com

This time next week...

2006-10-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

...We'll be in Moab with the race only a couple hours away. OH. MY. GOD. The logistics of getting to the race have deteriorated into an absolute debacle but I think things are sorted out now. There was a possibility that John and I would not be able to leave SF until Thurs night to do the 15 hour drive to Moab. I didn't think that was enough time when the race begins on Saturday at noon and I was hoping to not be totally exhausted when we got there. But it looks like now I will end up driving by myself and John will get a ride there with a friend of ours later. John isn't taking the race quite as seriously so I don't think he is as concerned with getting there earlier. At this point, I better do pretty well becuase I have made a pretty big deal about everything being perfect as far as race preparation. The pressure is on. Not that it wasn't before. But now it really is. Really.
I got my custom cranks from Tom at High Sierra Cycles. Crank length = 142.5 mm. Pretty insane. As much as I cannot wait to get these on my bike and spin it up like a mad woman, I am going to wait until after Moab. Even just on my road bike it seems like it might be asking for trouble to make such a major change right before the race. Wish I had a digital camera so I could post some pictures of these.
Off to ride a little before another insane Saturday at the Mouse.

T-minus 13 days - !

2006-10-02T11:11:00.000-04:00

Good grief, I can't believe Moab is that soon. Seems like a whirlwind of stuff going on now. Vegas was awesome. So many friggin' bikes. After a few hours it is absolutely sensory overload. There is no way to explain how much bike stuff is there. I handed out my race resume to a bunch of potential sponsors. Some were really encouraging and I think will definitely help me out. Others I think probably filed it in the garbage as soon as I walked away. I would like to thank Chris at WTB, Kerry Litka, who races for Terry (she's also another freakishly short blogger, check out her site here ), Lonnie from Magura, Jackie from Light and Motion, the people from Sportlegs, Elete, Hammer and especially Jim from Kenda for speaking to me about my sponsorship proposal. I wasn't handing out the resume indiscriminately. I only went after companies whose products I have experience with and really appreciate, hence the links to their sites at right. I didn't go after any bike lines this time. I don't think I have the credentials yet to warrant that and I didn't feel it was worth the humiliation of asking.
But it was a great time. The guys at Titus took us out for a wicked fun night - perhaps a bit too much fun, I'm still recovering.
I did my last long ride before Moab yesterday. I tried to leave the house around 4 but I was having lights issues and I didn't get out until almost 5. The highlight of the ride had to be the climb up Eldridge. Sunday mornings there is always a pretty slow parade of people hauling up the fireroad climb. I like to ride steadily enough to be comfortable while still picking people off. But today I was coming up behind one guy (who I later found out is named Greg) and when he realized I was coming up behind him, he turned it on a little. I tried to keep closing the gap but he was moving pretty fast. Finally I caught up to him and rode his wheel for a little while. He moved over for me to pass and I could barely gasp, "I don't think I can pass." He told me that I had it so I went in front for a little while. I tried to gap him a little but he stayed right on my wheel. We came up behind some other riders and as soon as we passed them, they also turned it on so I was leading the four of us up Eldridge. I felt okay at first but then I think the debauchery of Vegas two days before caught up with me and I got completely nauseous and dizzy. I tried to keep pulling through it but I didn't last that long and I pretty much cracked like an egg. They all went by me and the two guys we had passed later were gone, never to be seen again. Greg went ahead of me but slowed enough that I could pretty much stay with him, I think just out of respect for me having just paced for a while. We talked when we got up to the East Peak and he wished me luck at Moab - thanks! I don't know if I have ever pushed it that hard up Eldridge, thanks, Greg for pacing me, it was wicked fun until the nauseau and dizzyness set in. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, I limped home and took a nap. It will be all tapering now for the last two weeks. I love this part. Gotta go overhaul my bike today and get it into some semblance of working condition.

Word of caution...

2006-09-28T00:20:00.001-04:00

My good friend and teammate, Julie was hit by a car last night. She will be alright save a concussion and some nasty cuts and bruises. Her bike was not so lucky. She is on crutches now as she took a pretty hard hit to her hip. Apparently some guy driving a Lexus simply wasn't paying attention and drifted into the BIKE LANE where Julie had just finished an interval. She was struck from behind. Her helmet saved her life. Five or six times. She and her boyfriend took an ambulance ride to the ER where they stayed for most of the night. But in typical Julie style, she is ready to go again and will still be coming to Vegas, baby, with us tomorrow for Interbike. Her boyfriend, Paule, has rented a scooter for her. What's the over/under on Julie parking that thing in front of a slot machine and chain smoking her way though about a billion quarters? We'll be checking out sweet new stuff for '07 and I'll be batting my eyelashes for potential sponsors. Anyway, wear your damn helmets. This could be a much sadder story.

I've Got Stripes

2006-09-26T08:15:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's another post named after a song. Weeee. So, yeah, I've got stripes. Yesterday I singlespeeded around the headlands for a few hours. And it was hot as hell. (Which, incidentally, John and I have decided is actually only a balmy 85 degrees or so. Yeah, it gets down to about 74 at night but for the record, the eternal flames shouldn't be too uncomfortable weatherwise. Which is good because I'm going straight there, the tatooed JAP that I am. But I digress). Anyhoo, since it was pretty warm, I decided to try to get rid of the ridiculous tan lines on my legs. So I rolled up my shorts a little to try to get some sun onto the bright white part of my legs above my tan line. Well, I ended up with an even more ridiculous sunburn. Now the tops of my legs are still white, then there is a stripe of red where I am sunburned and the bottom part is tan. A la the kind of ice cream that is vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. That's me. I've got stripes.

Skeggs Again

2006-09-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

John and I took the train down and rode King's Mountain up to Skeggs again yesterday. Neither of us felt that great but we rode pretty hard anyway and it was still a pretty awesome ride. As always when we ride together, we sang Eddie Money and made the same jokes for the eleventy billionth time. Some things never get old. Like John imitating the voice of a certain customer in the shop, who shall remain nameless. I managed to keep the bike upright this time. The last time we did that ride I crashed. On the road. We were decending back towards the train station down King's Mountain, which is a really twisty fast descent - not that that is any excuse, it is still A ROAD - and I managed to go down. I thought we were through the twisty section so I didn't think there were any more nasty corners. Au contraire. I went way too hot into a corner and totally locked up the rear wheel. I still wasn't too panicked because the edge of the road was pretty rocky but I thought I could ride it out. But when I hit the drop off the edge of the road I had failed to remember that my fork was completely locked out so instead of compressing and absorbing the shock of the drop, it stayed completely rigid and I endoed. Good times. I'm an idiot.
So, I have been asked a couple of times who Barbara is. Is she a stalker? No, she is my awesome roommate from college - although I suppose the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Small Bikes

2006-09-19T08:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I rode the road for a few hours on Mt. Tam. I felt really good considering the seven hours from the day before. But I can't wait to get those custom cranks on the road bike and spin it up. Last week I moved my saddle forward a little. It was already pretty far forward, now it is slammed all the way forward on the rails. Apparently the bike is too big for me. Who knew it was even possible to have a 45 cm bike be too big. I think I was in denial - trying to pretend it wasn't too big, "What I'm not running a 60mm stem and slamming the seat all the way forward to make the bike fit." Well, I am. Of the six bikes I own, one of them fits me properly. Thanks Titus. My XXS Racer-X has a 20" effective top tube. I haven't seen another stock mountain bike with an effective top tube shorter than 21". And I suspect that Titus will stop making the XXS bikes now that Chris Cocalis, who was the heart and sole of the company, is no longer there. I have a feeling those were his influence. Probably not the most cost effective but highly appreciated by me and the other freakishly small riders. But I digress. Anyway, someday I'll be able to afford a whole fleet of custom bikes that are small enough but for now I'll keep riding my fleet of really-small-but-still-too-big bikes.
Time for another product review. This is for Sportlegs capsules. These are calcium/magnesium/vitamin D caps that keep your legs fresher by neutralizing lactic acid. In my experience, people either love these or find they do nothing. I love them. I tried using them once last year and didn't think it did anything but I tried them again this spring and I have been addicted since then. I now use it whenever I am riding long or hard. I took twelve doses during my last 24 hour race. Of course, it's not EPO and it's not magic but if I take a dose every two hours, my legs feel significantly more fresh. Generally in very long events, I start out at a moderate to high cadence and allow myself to mash a harder gear as it gets later in the event and my legs are tired. Using Sportlegs, I find I can postpone the switch to high resistance/low cadence becuase my legs stay fresher longer, which saves my knees and back, as well. I also find that it aids in recovery becuase my legs are effectively recycled and aren't sitting in a pool of lactic acid. Try this stuff.

This is new one...

2006-09-18T11:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I did another killer long ride leaving my home at 4 in the morning to simulate through the night riding. I should only end up doing one more of those before Moab, thank god. Anyway, it was a really nice morning. As much as it sucks to drag my ass out of bed that early and get on my bike when I am still totally asleep, it is kind of nice to be out riding under the stars and get to watch the sun come up. And, of course, the trails are totally deserted. I felt pretty good, considering. Summer seems to have arrived here so it wasn't all damp and cold like it has been. Anyway, I was about two hours into the ride and it was still pretty dark when I was heading up Mt. Tam. I heard something move in the tall grass next to me. I figured it was just a deer or a squirrel or something so I didn't really think about it. But then something ran out across the trail only a foot or so in front of me. And it was a skunk. The whole thing happened in slow motion. "Noooooo." But yes. It ran right in front of me, turned and sprayed. At point blank range. All over my bike and me. I started swearing and yelling and being crazed in general. It was two hours into a seven hour ride so that left a lot of time to stink. When I was riding, I couldn't smell it that much so as I kept going, I started to convince myself that I didn't get it that bad and that I didn't smell that much. But the next time I stopped it was pretty clear that in fact I did really smell and it was very - eh hem - potent. I wonder how obvious it was to other people on the trail that the smell of skunk was in fact emanating from me. My bike absolutely reeks and I am still finding offending articles around my room that I had with me that are now stinking up the place. Delightful.
Anyway aside from that encounter, the ride went pretty well. I felt strong and I did the route faster than I ever have. I suspect I was aided by trying to outride the odor following me. And all I can think about is Moab and how wicked excited I am. So far myself and Lynda Wallenfels are the only solo women registered. If you aren't familiar with Lynda, she is only one of the top female 24 hour/enduro racers in the U.S., possibly the world right now. I'll be hoping to not let her double my lap total.

We've been rocked

2006-09-15T09:23:00.000-04:00

I'm referring to the cycling world. Good grief. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing. Maybe there needs to be some cleansing. But it might hurt for a little while. Like baseball. Watching Mark McGuire sit before the grand jury and say, "I'm not here to talk about the past, I'm here to talk about the future," and seeing the clips now of Rafael Palmeiro emphatically denying his steroid use, well, it hurts a little bit. And that may be coming soon for cycling. Frankie Andreu has admitted to using EPO when he was riding for Lance, essentially at Lance's coersion. Here is the Velonews article. http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/10853.0.html (I'm still working out how to make this be an actual link you can click on - yes, I'm very simple, so for now just cut and paste). One of our regular customers at the Mouse is a former team doctor for Postal. Here is the link to a statement he made several years ago making very similar accusations http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/9005.0.html. In light of what has happened since, he looks pretty vindicated. The article refers to his then current position with the TIAA-CREF development team. Since then he was fired from that job for saying that pretty much everyone in the peloton is doping. Given that he was working for an under-23 team, they couldn't let that fly. Doesn't make it not true though. We'll see how this all unfolds. But road cycling may have had it's day in the sun, here in the States at least. It's hard to believe it will continue to hold people's attention if Lance gets taken down.
Okay, on to the news about me - that's what really important here. I think I have come around after those few rough days. I felt really good riding yesterday and the day before. The intervals weren't as painfully slow as I anticipated. I had fun schooling a guy climbing in the headlands with aerobars - that must be fun. He must have been riding into a much stronger headwind than the rest of us out there to warrant using aerobars on a climb. It's kind of an empty victory, though. I can't imagine how hard he was making it for himself with those things.
I spoke to Tom at High Sierra Cycles about my custom cranks - yes, I ordered a pair. He said they should be here in about a week and a half. Can't wait. Since I was a little wary of how short his formula suggested my cranks should be (142.5mm!) he is letting me try some with no obligation. He said he would make a pair and not finish them - no anodizing or polishing or anything - and I could try those and see how they feel. I'm wicked excited. Those will be for the road bike. And if I like them, I send them back, he'll finish them and I'll have to bite the bullet and buy another pair for my geared mtn bike.
Today is a recovery day. I'll just spin around the park probably. Weeee.

Intervals and Pee

2006-09-13T08:25:00.000-04:00

I'm going to ride intervals in the headlands this morning. I haven't done any since the 24-hour race so I'm sure this is going to feel great. I really need to put some new tires on my road bike but I am too damn cheap. I'll wait until I get about seven flats on one ride and take that as an indication that the tire is a little worn. For now I'll just ride them all cut up. Also, as part of being totally cheap, the tires I'm running are piss poor and they corner about as well as a bare metal rim. Really confidence inspiring. I'm going to slide out one of these days and tear myself up really well. I guess that will be more material for Barbara's embarassing stories. Speaking of which, here is another, although I think Barb may have already heard this one.
So at the last 12-hour race I did, I had been going back and forth all day with this one girl. I didn't know what place we were in, just that some parts of the course she was faster than me and others I was faster than her. She had support and I didn't so she always pitted faster than me. On our sixth lap, which I knew would be our second to last, we went back and forth on the big climb that was the first part of the course. I got to the top first and turned it on as hard as I could on the flat section before the long, winding descent back to the start/finish. I managed to hold her off the rest of the lap and I got back to the start/finish first. I knew she would be able to pit faster than me so I did my best to get through fast. I didn't think I really needed to pee so I didn't. As I left for my last lap, she was just getting in. I took off and started up the first part of the climb. Evidentally, I slightly underestimated how badly I needed to pee. And as I kept climbing it was all I could think about. I knew she would be right behind me so I couldn't stop. And apparently after fighting this girl for 12 hours I was - eh hem - slightly possessed by the prospect of beating her. So I peed. In my shorts. And it was a totally conscious decision. I kept climbing but at one point about a half mile from the top, I looked back and saw her behind me. Oh shit. If I wet my pants AND she beats me, I'll have to kick my own ass. I was totally beat but somehow I found a little more strength and turned the pedals over a little faster. By the time I got to the top of the climb, I couldn't see her behind me anymore so again I rode as hard as I could on the flat fireroad and beat her to the singletrack where I was able to hold her off and beat her. And roll across the line in third place covered in pee. Good times, although I'm not sure third place really warrants wetting one's pants.
BTW, the article about me has been up on Pedal Pushers for a couple weeks now. It turned out to be less an article and more just the race report I had written with some edits. But it's still pretty cool to see my face on their site - I even made the front page.

Worked

2006-09-12T08:36:00.000-04:00

So yesterday we ended up blinglespeeding in Marin instead of hauling all the way down to Soquel. And I ended up getting worked. I had to kill myself to hold on on the climbs and my legs felt like lead. I thought that after the day before, maybe I would come around... not so much. But when I was complaining about it to my mother she flipped out that I wasn't considering having just had surgery to tear out my wisdom tooth. Apparently the antibiotics and anaesthesia they pump you full of linger around in your system and you continue to feel the residual effects for a while. So I feel a little better about getting completely worked. I'll just keep waiting and hope I come around soon.
Okay, Barf-bara here is an embarassing story for your reading pleasure. So, a couple weeks ago I wrote about John and I taking the train down the penninsula to ride Skeggs. Anyway, while we were on the train I went to use the really lovely train bathroom. I never want to touch anything in there because I think it must be crawling with diseases. So when I was done, I was trying to open the door with a fingertip and a papertowel and the door was completely jammed. Great, I'm stuck in the bathroom where I'm going to contract some new strain of a virus becuase I spent more than a minute and half in there. But I didn't really want to start pounding on the door and shouting, either. So I kept trying to force the door open but I was using a little more than just a fingertip. Finally, there was a clanking sound and the door slid partway open...and a piece of it fell off. Yes, that's correct, I managed to break the door. I started laughing to myself like a crazy person and then when the people sitting around there looked at me I had to be like, "What, I didn't just totally break the door and then start laughing to myself and being crazed." So then I just went back to where John and I were sitting and told him that I'm a menace and I can't be trusted to not break everything I touch.
I'm off to go ride up to Rock Springs.

Blinglespeed

2006-09-11T10:35:00.000-04:00

I'm off the go ride the P.U.S.S. in Soquel. (That's Pink Ultimate Singlespeed, you sickos). I love that bike but it kicks my ass and it will for sure today since I have barely ridden it in the eight months since my surgeries and Soquel isn't exactly gentle terrain. You may recall I managed to crack a rib there a few weeks ago. And that time I was riding a full suspension. This should be good. Maybe if I sing enough Eddie Money at the top of my lungs I can overcome. Or Whitesnake.
Yesterday I rode around the headlands for a few hours and felt not that great. I'm not sure what was up. I thought since I had taken it so easy during the week, I would feel strong and rested but I just felt weak. Hopefully that will clear up today. I'm sure killing myself on the singlespeed is the best medicine.
So my friend and singular reader, Barbara, has demanded more embarassing stories in the blog. Well, there is certainly no dearth of material there. Give me about five minutes and I'm sure I'll have new stuff. But I'm off to go ride now so, Barb you'll have to wait with bated breath. Go back to working on your thesis, you slacker.

Ouch

2006-09-08T10:06:00.000-04:00

I'm off to get my wisdom tooth (or teeth) pulled. This all happened really fast. One is growing in and apparently it isn't advisable to just wait around and hope that it will stop hurting. This is going to be awesome. At least this is supposed to be a rest week with minimal riding hours becuase first I was sick and I'll soon be further out of commission so not a lot of riding is getting done.
Yesterday I rode up to Rock Springs on Mt. Tam. It's great becuase you can climb above the fog line and since living in SF this time of year pretty much means you never see the sun, it's nice to see sunlight again for a few brief moments.
Okay, I'm off to have my mouth shredded.

The Gambler

2006-09-05T00:13:00.000-04:00

In the theme of naming posts after songs, here is another. This is dedicated to the 2006 Red Sox. "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run." As my brother pointed out before the Wells trade, they were considering, "trading Wells to a playoff contender." Ladies and gentlemen, your 2006 Boston Red Sox. Okay, we've folded. It's OVER.
So yesterday I did my ass-crack of dawn long-ass ride. I thought I was getting sick the few days before that but I went anyway. My legs felt heavy, which is how they always feel when I am getting sick but I didn't want to stop. (I was already out the door at 4 a.m., at least I was going to make it worthwhile). So I did the whole damn ride. Got home around 11:30 with 7:15 hours of riding. Then I collapsed in bed and could barely drag myself out to go grocery shopping three hours later. I was officially sick.
This morning I went to watch some guys on my team race in a crit downtown. (And drink beer at 11 a.m.) As my friend Jamie from college used to say, "Alcohol kills the germs," - I was just trying to cleanse my system. Again, came home and collapsed in bed and could barely drag myself out several hours later. I planned to ride but seeing as how my body is just a sore, weak, shivering, sweating, snot-dripping mess, I didn't make it out. Oh well, it's a rest day I guess.
A couple notes and reviews - riding my old tires on my bike is making me realize how awesome the Kendas were that I was riding before and am now saving for Moab. They are so grippy. And remarkably light. And they wear remarkably well. I'm going to marry them. Of course, I wouldn't want to ride them in wet weather or mud but in dry-hardpack, even loose stuff and tacky soil, they really hook up well and roll really fast.
Also, my Magura brakes deserve some mention. The Martas are some of the lightest disc brakes available and are some of the most reliable, low-maintenance, strongest brakes around. I put these on my bike about six months ago. I rode them through the wet, wet spring. I am using semi-metallic pads to minimize wear and I have only changed the pads once. I have heard people complain that the lever return gets gunked up and you have to force it back with your fingers. Well, Magura provides very simple instructions how to pull the lever out, clean those bushings and get the return back to really springy. If you don't want to do it yourself, take it to an LBS and they can do it for you. Even short of that, drop some T-9 around the lever bushings and blow it out gently with an air compressor. Back to new. These are unbelieveable. Chris, the head cheese at the Mouse shop rides them, weighs 200 lbs and brakes with one finger. They weigh just less than XT V-brakes and I believe are heavier only than the Formula Puro discs, which, from what I have heard are less than totally reliable.

Here I Go Agaaaaain

2006-09-03T06:23:00.000-04:00

Seems like an appropriate title given that 24 Hours of Moab was renamed 'Operation Whitesnake' by John and I and I 'Here I Go Agaaaaain' to officially train for 24 hour racing. It's 3 a.m. - the ass-crack of dawn, possibly before the ass-crack, although I don't know when the official ass-crack begins - and I'm on my way out to ride night, the transition to light and day. It's supposed to simulate through the night riding. So I'm sipping tea at 3 a.m. while I get ready to ride. In a related story, I'm single.

Skeggs! For real this time.

2006-08-27T02:13:00.000-04:00

So yesterday John and I took the train down the penninsula, climbed King's Mountain on the road and rode Skeggs. You may recall this was also the plan last week but that didn't materialize because John ended up having some school orientation crap thing and I didn't go by myself. But yesterday it was on. For real.
We did this once before and I did it once by myself. The first time we did it, we got completely lost and neither of us knew Skeggs well enough so we ended up riding way more than necessary on the road and then mostly riding fireroads at Skeggs. Yesterday we knew how to get there and I had found an awesome loop that was almost all singletrack so it ended up being a really awesome ride. Doing the road climb up makes us feel so accomplished - especially when we schooled some roadies.
John was still raving about his Sycip and it makes me want a custom hardtail really bad - but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. We sang more Eddie Money and we also decided that the trip to Moab in a couple months will henceforth be called 'Operation Whitesnake.' Not sure why this was necessary but it seemed important at the time.
Skeggs has some awesome singletrack. Lots of different kinds of stuff - rocky sections, tight, twisty and some really smooth flowing singletrack. It's pretty awesome. Lots of climbing and lots of decsending. Really fun.
After the ride, we had burrtitos at a little Taqueria right next to the train stop and then we both slept the whole ride back until we had to shred our mountain bikes through the city to get home. Another epic day and an awesome ride.

SS in the Morning

2006-08-25T12:13:00.000-04:00

Whew. Just got back from dominating the headlands this morning with John. I rode my singlespeed and John was on his wicked hot new Sycip. It's absolutely gorgeous. Reynolds 853 front triangle, Columbus rear, brown with pink lettering and baby blue highlights, with one of those beautiful '07 Fox RLT forks and sweet Industry Nine wheels with black rims and spokes and pink hubs that match the pink on the frame and the pink King headset. So ill it has to lie down.
Anyway, we rode the fireroad loop around the headlands. I love singlespeeding that. We saw a coyote and a bobcat. Radical. And we sang Eddie Money, Take Me Home Tonight really loud. Somehow that has become a tradition when we ride together.
So another really short customer in the shop (she's actually shorter than me - who even knew that was possible) got some really short custom cranks from High Sierra Cycles www.hscycle.com. I test rode her bike and within about 30 seconds I was convinced I have to have them. It was unbelievable how great they felt. My knee didn't need to bend nearly as much so my surgery knee felt great and it has felt pretty bad the last couple of weeks. Since I didn't have to bend my knee nearly as much there was no point in the stroke where power is significantly compromised. But of course I need to get two pairs and they aren't exactly cheap even with a bit of a deal. But I couldn't see it being worth it not having them on both my road and geared mountain bike. We'll see. But if you are really short or tall - check them out. Crank lengths from 130mm to 220mm. Really nice. They will make them compatible with most major chainring BCDs and they use a square taper bottom bracket.
Alright, off to work.

Sucker-punched

2006-08-21T08:44:00.000-04:00

Watched the Red Sox get violated last night by the Yankees. Again. I didn't get to see the games on Friday or Saturday because I was working but watching it was way more painful. I don't know if I can take another one like that today. I still bought tickets to one of the games when the Sox are out here next week but I almost feel guilty - like I'm encouraging this pathetic-ness. They shouldn't be rewarded for this kind of behavior. One final thought - is there an official name yet for the Jonathan Papelbon stare? I had goosebumps just watching him. Of course none of that mattered thanks to Hansen anyway.
Anyway, on a more bike-related note... I put my old Panaracer Fire-XC pros back on my bike yesterday and rode those around. Those tires really suck, especially in dry, loose stuff. I had been running 2.0 Kenda Blue Grooves which I really was loving but I got a new pair for the 24 hour race and since they aren't worn from that very much, I am just going to save them for Moab. So now I just am going to ride all my old tires until there is nothing left of them. But that means I have to run really shitty tires. Note to self... work on sponsorship from Kenda. They really make great tires. We can't seem to sell enough Nevegals in the shop and the Blue Grooves that I was running are by far the best light-weight tire I have ever run.

Back to Normal

2006-08-19T09:44:00.000-04:00

This week has been fairly uneventful...what else is new? I am starting to feel normal again after the 24 hour race. It will be a couple more weeks until I am actually recovered but at least I no longer feel like I have just been through the ringer. I rode pretty hard during the week, except yesterday I just spun a little after a night of debauchery the night before. I'll head out in a little while for something easy becuase tomorrow I'll go pretty hard. John, the other mechanic at the shop I work at, and I will take the train down the penninsula then do a killer road climb up to Skeggs, where we'll ride some fun singletrack for a couple hours. The first time we did that ride, it damn near killed us - neither of us knew Skeggs that well and we ended up missing most of the singletrack and riding mostly fireroads in the blazing heat after getting lost and climbing the roads for two hours all the way up there. Then, I did it alone a couple weeks ago, brought a map and did an awesome singletrack loop, which was about a million times more fun. That's the goal this time.
I should probably give my bike some attention before the ride since I haven't touched it since the 24 hour race when it got pretty brutalized...but I'm not sure that will actually happen. Maybe I'll clean the blood off.

Howell Mountain

2006-08-15T00:27:00.000-04:00

Went up to this race Sunday with my teammates Paule and Julie. I raced my singlespeed against the field of singlespeed men. I am totally not recovered from the 24 hour race last week but it's Paule and Julie's last MTB race of the year - they are in full-on cyclocross mode now - so I wanted to get in a race with them. The race is two ten mile loops. Not really any extended climbs but lots of short power climbs, mostly smooth riding, nothing too technical but some hard-pack bumpy stuff. I was running rigid on my still-not-totally-healed cracked rib so it hurt a little.
From the start I was off the back of the pack but there were two guys behind me - my goal was to not get dfl in the mens field. I felt good for about the first half-mile or so. And I kept telling myself that I am the endurance specialist and I would just get stronger as the race went on. Not so much. I stopped at one point to let some air out of my rear tire which was slipping all over the place and I got passed by one of the two guys behind me. He had a jersey with 'DORK' on the back. I chased behind him for a while and we kept trading places for the rest of that first lap. Every time I passed him again, I thought it was hilarious to say, "Good job, Dork," without being a total bitch.
I had absolutely no power in my legs - when the trail went even remotely uphill my legs failed and I was pushing my bike. I wasn't too disappointed or surprised. But I had fun messing around on my singlespeed and I ended up avoiding dfl by two places, one of them was the DORK. After the race I felt like I had just been mauled.
I took the day off today. I'll get back to semi-normal training this week. It's been a pleasant break.

Photos

2006-08-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos from the 24 Hour race at Willamette Pass.

This was probably a few hours in. I actually pedalled away and realized I had forgotten my camelback so I came back for it.

Sometime in the afternoon. Just the beginning.

Just after the finish. Note the blood. And the relieved smile. It's hilarious because I wasn't actually in any pain. Um... scratch that - I felt like I had just been runover by a bus but I mean I hadn't had any kind of direct hit to my nose that caused it to bleed.

More blood.

This was about 10 minutes after the finish. It felt great to stop and sit down knowing that I wouldn't have to get up and get back on my bike.

The Hours of Willamette Pass - 24 Hours Solo

2006-08-14T11:27:00.000-04:00

I did this race last weekend so here is a report of what went down for me. I went up with my friend Eli as my support. A bunch of my friends went to race and ride Downieville the week before but I avoided it becuase I didn't want to hurt myself before my 24 Hour race. It turns out I was totally capable of doing that anyway - I think I cracked a rib riding Soquel Demo a few days before the race. It's feeling better now but it really hurt to laugh and take a deep breath. I didn't think I would be laughing too much during the race but I was planning on breathing so I was little worried.
Anyway, we went up on Friday. The race was 10 am to 10 am Saturday to Sunday. I hadn't preridden the course but I heard it was mostly dry hardpack. The description online said 11 miles and 1100' of climbing. It turns out that was the description from the previous year - this year the course was 14 miles and more like 1800' of climbing. The first six miles were a climb to the top of a ski resort and the last eight were all the way back down. The first half of the climb was pretty gradual
fireroad but the second half kicked up pretty steep on singletrack and as the race went on, the sandy trail got sandier and sandier and more and more there were footprints through the sand instead of tiretracks - mine included. The course was beautiful, there were awesome views as we traversed ski slopes and looked down on green lakes from the top of the mountain. The descent was fast and twisty with some sections of stutter bumps that hurt my rib a lot but a lot of it was just
smooth and fast, a couple creek crossings and rocky sections but nothing too technical.
There were three solo women. I spoke with one of them before the race. I had raced a 12 hour against her and been beaten. I recognized her name as pretty competitive on the endurance circut. When I asked her how many 24 hour races she had done, she rattled off about 10 before she even had to stop and think. I was intimidated. I
didn't speak with the other woman at all. We took off. The first couple laps were okay but on the third lap I started to feel terrible. We were only about four or five hours in but my body felt like we were 10 or 12 hours in. Not good times, bad times. I was really worried. I kept at it though and I think it must have been the heat becuase the next couple laps I felt more and more normal as it started to cool off. It wasn't even that hot - I guess I just can't handle heat at all. I didn't pee for the first seven hours of the race and I was drinking a lot of water and was really well hydrated going in. Who knows. Anyway, things went along pretty smoothly for a while after that.
There was a 12 hour race going on in the earlier hours of the race. There was a girl racing that who I went back and forth with all day at the last 12 hour race I did. I passed her on the climb like she was standing still. I thought maybe something was wrong but when I asked how her race was going, she told me it was going well and she felt good. I was wicked excited.
The solo 24 hour girl I hadn't met had dropped out after about eight hours and
I was in second - or last. But I started to make time on the girl ahead of me. Then at about one or two in the morning I had one of the most horrible laps I have ever had. I bonked so hard. Not sure why - I was still eating and drinking plenty. But I had nothing. My brain was completely disconnected from my body. Three or four times I woke up laying on the side of the trail. I don't remember how I got there but I guess I was on autopilot and simply decided it was time for a break. That lap was about 45 minutes longer than I had been averaging. After that lap I took about a half an hour off the bike (my breaks had been really quick until then - just enough time to grab Ensure, water, pee and for Eli to put some lube on the chain). I slept for 15 minutes, ate some real food and changed clothes. I didn't think it was possible to recover from a bonk like that but I did and my next lap was much better. I came in a little before six, pitted really fast and headed out again. The cutoff for laps to count was 10 am so I was hoping to do two sub two hour laps and get two more in, for a total of 11. Didn't happen though - I hadn't realized how slow I was at that point and my next lap was about 2:15. When I was
about a mile out from the finish my nose started bleeding. I don't know what that was about but I was so close to being done, I was not stopping to deal with it so I came across the line with myself and my bike covered in blood. This time it was blood, last time it was pee... ah hem. I finished my tenth lap around 8:10 - not enough time for another lap. The other solo woman who finished also got 10 laps
but was about 25 minutes ahead of me. I was pretty excited, though - she is really experienced and 25 minutes is not much in a 24 hour race. And it turns out the two of us actually BEAT ALL 10 OF THE SOLO MEN. I was wicked excited when I found that out. There was one guy who got 10 laps but he was half an hour down on me. We rule. My rib ended up not being too bad - it actually got easier to breath as the
race went on. I suffered on the stutter bumps but I really don't think it was a limiting factor. Ten laps may not seem like much on a 14 mile course but that climb really took it out of us. The 24 Hours of Adrenalin race at Whistler was more brutal because in rained the entire 24 hours and the conditions were brutal but phycially, this was more challenging. Neither of the other 24 hour races I have done had this much climbing - I really feel like I pushed myself harder and was able to not just finish a 24 hour race but to actually race it and push a harder pace, which was my goal. And I won $75 - so pro. It would have been cool to win but I'll settle for beating all the boys.
Thanks so much to Eli for the support. He came into this not knowing much about how it was all going to work - or knowing me, for that matter - and he did an awesome job.
Thanks to Robert for overhauling my entire bike and making it perfect - no mechanicals at all. It's just a little bloodstained right now. This mechanic has her own mechanic.
Thanks so much to Kyle from Team Wrong Way who let me use his prototype light, which was absolutely the fucking best light I have ever used. It was even better than I thought after using it in training. Doing laps in the daylight and immediately after, in the dark - I realized how I totally did not have to lose any time on the
descents in the dark. I actually passed people on the descent at night. And that was absolutely only because I had a better light than they did. He'll be manufacturing these soon and they'll be up for sale but they aren't ready yet. But when they are - they will absolutely rule.
Next stop 24 Hours of Moab. Yessssss.