D A N I E L L E M U S T O

Sore

2012-02-28T06:39:00.002-05:00

Last night was my first time strength training in a few weeks. My weight lifting buddies and I all went on a brief "maternity leave" while Jason was busy lifting a brand new 4.9 baby!!! Unbeknownst to me the guys started working out again last week, while I was on an extended weight lifting vacation. It felt great to be working out again but I DO feel especially sore today. I wonder if I will ever be able to do lunges without getting sore??? Probably not!

Well, time to go hobble around at work. I posted this link on Facebook last night, but here is my latest blog post for Salsa. I was asked to send in a few pictures from the early days and went a little crazy with the baby pictures. Luckily Scott was able to stop me from sending a million pictures of me as a baby to my sponsor. At one point he looked down at one of the pictures I had grabbed (it was me eating raisins) and asked, "what does this have to do with your blog post?" He was right. So I had to narrow down the kid pictures to two. But please note my rad little red Nike's that I am wearing and ignore the fact that I am wearing a bonnet...ha ha!

PS. Don't forget spin class tonight at the Ada Bike Shop! 6:30 p.m.

Jackpot!

2012-02-26T17:13:00.004-05:00

Today's 2.5 hour ride turned into almost 3.5 hours due to a wind from hell. At one point I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was doing a 6 minute mile.

Nothing demoralizing about that....

Anyways, since my ride wasn't that long I only brought the bare necessities in nutrition. That's pretty rare for me since usually I pack enough bars/gummy bears to survive for at least 24 hours. Combine the fact that it was lunch time with the fact that I was battling an evil wind, with the fact that it was chilly out and I started to bonk.

I actually pulled over on the side of the road to search my frame bag for a spare gel blast or something. And then I found it....
I had thrown a Cadbury egg in my frame bag a few weeks ago and completely forgotten that it was there. It sank down to the darkest, deepest corner of my frame bag and probably would still be there next year if I hadn't bonked so badly today.

The last hour of my ride flew by. Thanks partly to the Cadbury egg and partly to the fact that I had an awesome tailwind. It almost made the headwind worth it. Almost, but not quite :-)

Today was the end of my recovery week and I think I'm pretty recovered. I definitely rode harder then I was supposed to today, but I had to push hard against the wind or I would still be out there.

PS. I wonder how long Peeps would hold up in my frame bag? They could come in handy while racing Barry-Roubaix!

Recovery week

2012-02-24T11:12:00.004-05:00

Things have been on the down-low these last couple of days. My coach had me scheduled for a recovery week and it is COMPLETELY needed. I have to admit that I always get disappointed when I see that I'm scheduled for a recovery week. Let's face it, easy one hour rides aren't that much fun compared to long rides to the beach. However I know that taking time to recover is just as important as training, so I'm being good and following my training plan.

Plus, my legs/body have been so tired this week that the temptation to do longer rides is much less then it usually is :-)

Today I have a really easy hour spin, and I plan on doing it on the trainer. And that's A-OK with me. We got a few inches of snow last night, and the roads are covered in a deep, wet slush. Not my favorite riding conditions.

I'm sure I'll be spending some time out in the snow though with the dogs. Or I guess I should say dog. Naomi would rather sleep all day on the couch, but Ben is another story. He loves, loves, loves the snow. I wish I could take him along with me when I ride my Mukluk outside, but we aren't there yet. Between my lack of coordination, and his lack of ability to walk straight, it would be a crash waiting to happen :-)

For now he'll have to settle with running in the backyard...

Just Me, My Mukluk, and my Bff

2012-02-19T21:45:00.013-05:00

In my last post I mentioned that I was "possibly" going to do a 5k this weekend.

It did not happen.

My plan was to do the race for fun but when my alarm went off at 6 a.m. Saturday morning my plan sounded decidedly un-fun. All week I had to wake up at 5 a.m. for work, and I was sleep deprived. And sore. I could not come up with one logical reason of why I should pay money to go run while being tired and sore.

Needless to say I went back to bed. Not only did it feel amazing to crawl back under the covers but I'm really happy that I listened to my body and got more sleep. I know lots of people who wake up as early (or earlier) then me, and are perfectly fine with it. My problem is that I'm a complete night owl. I always say that I'm going to bed early but then the next thing I know is that it's almost midnight and I'm downloading cute pictures of my dogs sleeping (which is slightly ironic) to facebook.

So my Saturday consisted of lots of dog walking, a 2.5 hour ride with Scott, a nap, book reading, and a movie. Not too shabby if you ask me :-)

Sunday I woke up feeling much better. It's amazing what a few good nights of sleep will do. My coach had me scheduled for a 5 hour ride, and I figured it would be a good day to ride out to the beach on my Mukluk. I had yet to ride it on sand and could not wait to see what it was like. When Scott heard what I was doing he was like, "no way!" It looks like he is going to be my ride buddy on shorter days.

Luckily my BFF is training for some endurance mountain bike races this summer, which means a training partner for moi!!! Temps were in the mid-30's when we left, but there was no wind. As a result we had to strip down within a few blocks.

Juli showing some skin...

Between my hydrapak and frame bag I have the ability to pack a lot of stuff. And I do....

36-ish miles later we were at the beach. A lot of my friends have talked about riding their Mukluks at the beach, so I knew that the bike could be ridden on sand. However, the idea still seemed slightly foreign to me.

The sand was hard-packed, so we decided to see how far Juli could ride with her Dos Niner. At first she was pedaling fine and then...her Dos came to a stand still. We realized that we were going to have to take turns riding the Mukluk around.

Juli took off first and I could hear her giggling and shouting down the beach....

And then it was my turn. It felt slightly unreal to be riding on sand so easily, but that's what made it so much fun...

Being able to ride right next to the water felt amazing. Between snow and sand, my Mukluk has given me a lot more freedom....

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

The wind had caused big sand drifts and I was able to ride right over this fence...

I have to admit that after riding at the beach I started to think that perhaps I have it all wrong. While I love riding in the snow maybe I should explore other options next winter. Like taking my Mukluk to Australia and riding on the beaches :-)

After our beach adventure we had to refuel. I think we were both one minute away from a serious bonk. Juli showing off our ride food of the day. Rockstar and Twix!

BTW...if I can't get sponsored by Payday I will gladly be sponsored by Twix. Just throwing that out there :-) The rest of our ride went by really fast but I was running on fumes the last couple of miles.

To sum up today. 75 miles, riding a Mukluk on the beach with my BFF, and Twix.

Freaking awesome!!!

Valentine's Day Spin

2012-02-14T22:05:00.003-05:00

We had another hot spin class tonight. And when I say "hot" I mean temperature wise. I swear, I always lose about 10 pounds of sweat in that class.

I've taken a few spin classes in the past and it seems like the instructors are always super cheerful and motivational. I think I'm usually pretty positive in class but tonight I had to bust out with a loud "THIS SUCKS!" during one of our intervals. Definitely not motivational but at least I was being honest :-) We were doing a set of Andy's famous intervals and I felt like I died a thousand and two deaths. I definitely had the "good workout burn" going on after class!

Thank goodness I lived to eat some of the chocolate covered strawberries that Mary brought in!

Tomorrow is a rest day and not a moment too soon. I have a long day at work and then I plan to put my feet up and not move for the rest of the day. This weekend is going to involve a lot of riding and maybe a little running. I think I'm going to do the Heart and Sole 5k on Saturday. It's my one day to sleep in and the race is early in the morning. There is a chance that I'll hit the snooze button when my alarm goes off, turn over, and pull the blankets over my head. The only thing that might motivate me enough to go race that early in the morning is that I mentioned it on this blog :-) Plus I got lost in my last running race so I feel like I need to redeem myself a little!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody. I hope chocolate was involved!!!

Winter is Back!!!

2012-02-13T12:22:00.003-05:00

Yesterdays ride kicked my butt. 4 hours and I'm pretty sure the wind was switching direction whenever I would. I'm talking about a constant headwind. It was borderline ridiculous. Afterwards all I wanted to do was climb into bed with a million blankets on top of me but instead I had to work. Thank goodness for HOT coffee.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Spin class at the Ada Bike Shop is still on and I'm hoping that there will be chocolate afterwards (hint, hint!)

See you all there!

Wahoo!!!

2012-02-08T21:44:00.005-05:00

Yankee Springs...Plus

a friend to ride with....
Plus

a Mukluk to ride on.....
Equals an AMAZING day!!!

Amanda and I had the trail to ourselves and knocked out 3 laps (33 miles). The trail is in fantastic shape and I had to keep reminding myself that it's only February. Today felt like spring! The cold slushy days we usually have to deal with in winter make me really appreciate days like this.

On a side note, this was my first time riding my Mukluk on actual singletrack and it was fun. The sandy parts felt nonexistant. The only difference that I noticed were the downhills. Cornering with the wider tires was a little different but I got used to it by end. I wonder what it's going to be like when I actually start riding my Selma again. Not only is my Selma 14 lbs lighter but the tires are obviously a lot skinnier. I have a feeling it's going to feel like I'm riding a road bike on the trail :-)

Today definitely gave me the "singletrack bug," and I'm definitely racing the Yankee Springs TT again this spring. My race list is getting longer every day.

One less layer

2012-02-06T13:15:00.004-05:00

The weather this weekend was a far cry from what we were experiencing last year at this time. Scott and I took full advantage of it's awesomeness on both Saturday and Sunday.

It's funny how quickly we acclimate to colder temps. In October I thought 50 degrees felt freezing, but now 40 degrees feels like a heat wave! I never thought it possible in February, but I actually had to stop during our ride and take layers off.

We mostly stuck to pavement on our rides because the dirt roads were really mucky. Both days were really great workouts (3 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday) but I did notice a habit with Scott. He would almost ALWAYS make me pull on the uphills, and then when we were going downhill or on a flat he would take over. Hmmmm. I was going to point out that if he kept this up I might beat him at Barry-Roubaix (like I did in Marquette!!!!) but I decided not to egg him on. Scott builds fitness very quickly....so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and then attack when he's least expecting it during the race....muhahahahahah.

Speaking of Barry-Roubaix...it's officially sold out. 1500 racers and the women's fields are pretty big. I think there's going to be over 175 women racing between the fields, so there should be some good competition going on.

Initially I thought that I was going to sign up for the 62 miler but then I noticed that there is a fat bike category for the 36 mile division. I had to sign up for it. It's going to be so freaking fun...especially since I plan on beating my hubby again :-)

Happy Groundhogs Day!

2012-02-02T23:01:00.009-05:00

I saw a shadow today....a FAT shadow!

It feels like Spring is already here. Temps were in the mid-40's and the sun was shining. In fact, today felt more "spring-like" then the weather we had last year during our actual spring season.

I ended up getting a 4 hour ride in on my Mukluk. I rode on a little bit of everything. Pavement, dirt and even a little bit of rock!

It was surprisingly smooth!
I have to admit that I'm a bit torn right now. I've only been able to ride my Mukluk on real snow trails covered in real snow a few times. It was so much fun that I want to do more of it. At the same time I will never complain about the sun being out and being able to ride on dry pavement.

Tomorrow is a recovery day and I am going to use my extra hours to try and figure out my race schedule for next year. There are a few races that I repeat almost every year but I also want to do some new ones as well. I've been so distracted lately by trying to ride through snow banks etc. that races are selling out (Cohutta) before I've had a chance to sign up. Oops! I have to admit that I'm a little bummed about missing registration for Cohutta. I spent a good couple of weeks convincing my BFF Juli to do the race with me. It was going to be her first hundie...we were going on a road trip....gummy bears for road trip snacks...I had it all planned out. So now I need to find an equally fun endurance race for us to do that's early in the season.

Well time for bed. Today's ride tired me out!!!

Noquemanon World Championship Snow Bike 25K race report

2012-01-30T00:20:00.013-05:00

Race Day!

After hitting the snooze button a few times, Scott and I finally got going. After a quick breakfast we loaded up the truck and drove over to the start venue. We arrived about 40 minutes before the start of the race. Normally I like to arrive at least an hour early but it was so cold and windy out that we didn't want to stand around and get cold.

Scott went to find our timing chips when we got there (which was very nice of him!) and I sat in the car enjoying the heat a little bit longer. I also mentally prepared myself for pain...lots of pain. I am not going to lie. I really wanted to win this race and knew I was going to hammer hard to cross the finish line first. It felt weird to be so nervous in January...but I was.

Finally I got out of the car, grabbed my gear, and put my timing chip on. I was cold but knew that once we started racing I wouldn't be. Lucky for me they had a warming house to hang out in before the race.

Since the race was only 25K I should have gotten a long warm-up in but instead I was doing this....(my coach will be oh-so-proud)
With 10 minutes to go I finally hopped on my Mukluk and rode around the start area. The cold air felt shocking on my lungs. Pedaling through snow takes much more of an effort and within a few minutes I was breathing hard. Then it was time to line up.

I lined up in the front row with Scott. Since these were the snow bike World Championships it was all very serious. The promoter asked if any "officials" wanted to speak. Everyone looked around...no "officials" were in sight. They must have been hiding in the warming house. The promoter said "go," cowbells started ringing, and we were off.

The start was chaotic to say the least. I remember being near the front, someone wiping out (for once it wasn't me) and a lot of us having to jump off of our bikes and run. The snow was deeper then I expected and I had to travel a bit by foot before I could hop back on my bike. The first half mile of the trail was hard packed and I tried to keep a fast pace going. But even with eight pounds of pressure in my tires my rear end was fishtailing around a bit.

I was riding with two other guys and all of a sudden the trail was no longer groomed. Since I was completely oxygen deprived I couldn't figure out what was going on at first. All I knew was that I couldn't stay on my bike for the life of me. Anytime we hit a hill we had to dismount and push our bikes. It was slow going all around. Not only were we pushing our bikes in snow, but it took a lot of work just to walk in it! I kept trying to get on my bike and pedal but almost always would have to get back off and push my bike some more. This is where I really noticed the benefits of the workouts both Andy and Jason have been giving me. Not only am I stronger on the bike, but my upper body was able to handle the pushing. The downhills were fun, but slippery. I had a few wipe-outs and at one point landed directly on my face.

It goes without saying that the first couple of miles were frustrating. My little mental race demons started to show up in full force. "You aren't going to make it...everyone is going to catch you....muahahahaha!" Then the opposing force showed up..."keep going...don't look back...you can do it....bahahahah!"

One thing that I've learned from 24 hour racing is to just shut-off my brain and keep pedaling. Or in this case riding, sliding, and walking.

My friends...it took me about 55 minutes to complete 5 miles of the trail. I repeat...55 minutes for 5 miles! Talk about demoralizing. Just when I started to consider building an igloo and bunkering down for the night the trail became more firm. It was fishtail-y at first but then I hit completely groomed trail. Thank goodness. From that point on I lowered my head and pedaled as hard as I could!

The last couple of miles were the best. We were on the Ore to Shore course and lots of people were there to cheer us in. At one point I passed a group of women dressed in all pink with feather boa's and they started yelling that I was the first female and ringing cowbells. Even though I was going as hard as I could I couldn't help but smile.

Hearing the announcers voice and seeing the finish banners was a great feeling! I did it!

And it got better!!! One of my favorite parts of the Ore to Shore race is that there are doughnuts waiting at the end and I was happy to see the winter version had them as well. Thank you awesome promoters :-)
After eating some doughnuts I went back outside to get a picture of Scott finishing. Scott introduced me to cycling and has always been super supportive of my racing. I finally beat him on his birthday :-)

But to be fair I think his legs were a little tired from all the speed skating he had been doing! After the race a newspaper reporter asked how winning the snow bike world championships felt compared to winning the 24 hour SS National Championships last October. I answered that it felt just as good. Granted there was no fancy jersey to put on, but there WERE doughnuts.

Snow bike races rule.

Podium Pics!
Next year the promoters said that they will groom the first part of the race, which means that it will be much faster. What would be really cool is if they added a 50K option like the skiers have. I would definitely do it!

Greetings from da U.P!

2012-01-28T19:36:00.012-05:00

Well we made it to Marquette. And as of now Ben is passing the test of being away from us. We dropped him off on Friday and he didn't even glance up as we left because he was too busy playing with another dog.

However an hour into our drive I got a phone call from the trainer. Apparently Ben puked 3-4 times and then had major puppy poo outside on their walk. Poor little guy. At least by now we know that it's just nerves/excitement.

Since then Leah (his doggie sitter/trainer) has been texting pictures and giving him A-plus reports. Apparently Ben is in love with a 100lb golden retriever that is also staying for the weekend :-)

The rest of our drive flew by. We had great weather to travel in and it was super pretty out. Before I knew it we were crossing the bridge....

The water below DID NOT look warm...

Once we got to the Upper Peninsula we had to stop for a Fig Newman break and check out the bridge from the other side. Yup, that's where we came from...

It was dark out by the time we arrived in Marquette and we had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat. The Noquemanon ski race was happening on Saturday with about 1500 skiers racing. The town was packed!

Today (Saturday) was super low-key. We slept in, went to my favorite bagel place for breakfast sandwiches and then went hat shopping. Scott wanted to buy a new Kromer and naturally I had to try some on too. It was very tempting to buy one but right now I'm on a self-imposed hat buying freeze. Too bad, because Kromer's rule! Plus they are made in Ironwood, Michigan. Dang it, now I want to go back and buy one after all :-)

We also checked out some of the ski race that was going on. When we left Grand Rapids on Friday there was very little snow. Not the case up here!

There were lots of spectators cheering the skiers on as they went through the woods. I was really happy that I was not doing the ski race. For one, I haven't skied once this year. And secondly the littlest thing will make me crash. And once I crash with ski's on I can't get up. I could only imagine myself on the ground in front of the spectators trying to get up.

Finally we hopped on our snow bikes and spun around town. It was cold riding next to the lake, but also really beautiful.

Tomorrow is the 25k snow bike world championships and we will be going off at 10:40. Temps are going to be in the low teens and it's going to be windy. I would never come up here and expect it to be easy, but I have REALLY TOUGH competition tomorrow. And the shorter distance is not going to play to my favor. It's basically going to be all out from the get go. Right now I'm really nervous and really excited. It should be a blast in a very painful way :-)

I won't be able to do another post until we get home, but I should be able to do an update on Twitter!

Chubby with a few bald spots...but I still love him!

2012-01-27T07:21:00.005-05:00

You guys, I'm talking about BEN!!!

We're taking off for the weekend and this is going to be a BIG test for "sensitive" Ben. Our vet said it's a big myth that the "bully" breed of dogs are tougher then other breeds. In fact, she has found the opposite to be true-that they often are the most sensitive. That's definitely the case with Ben.

At first I thought she was exaggerating a bit when she said that Ben was getting an upset stomach because we were leaving for a race but so far he's gotten sick every single time. Naomi on the other hand...sheesh! She could care less. In fact, she'll take off with my parents without a glance back at us :-)

Hopefully this weekend will be the turning point. Ben is going to stay at his trainer's house and have lots of dogs to play with. And then he's going to my parents. There's still a chance that I'm going to have to deal with puppy poo (and lots of it) when we get back but that's OK. I'm a poo-pro now!

Well time to finish packing and hit the road. We have a long drive (7-8 hours) ahead of us. This weekend is going to be a blast. The snowbike 25k world championships aren't until Sunday, but tomorrow is the noquemanon ski race. This is a HUGE race that has been going on for years and I'm excited to finally see it. The upper peninsula has been getting a lot more snow then us too, so we will actually be able to ride our bikes on groomed snow trails!

My next post will be from the U.P!

Eating pad thai at 11:30 p.m.

2012-01-24T23:26:00.002-05:00

These last couple of days have been very, very busy. Scott has been in Dallas and I've been working, dog walking, working out, more dog walking and definitely NOT getting enough sleep.

Today was especially busy because I also had a dentist appointment thrown into the mix. I swear, I put off going for a really long time and now I might as well have my own parking spot. While they were cleaning my teeth I started to think about getting another custom mouth guard to solve my grinding issues. The only problem is that a custom mouth guard costs just as much as a new bike fork. So while my teeth were getting cleaned I was making a list of pro's and con's for both a new fork for my bike versus a mouth guard. I think the fork won :-)

Once I got home I had just enough time to grab my bike, trainer, and the dogs (Naomi and Ben were going to my parents while I was at spin class). I was in such a hurry I grabbed the spare keys, which do not have a house key attached. Of course I didn't realize this until I locked the house. D'oh!

There was really nothing to do but continue on. I dropped the dogs off at my parents and went to the Ada Bike Shop for spin class. I figured that I could always sleep at my parents if I had to. After all I had the most important things. Dogs, bike, trainer and cycling shoes.

Spin class was a blast. Not only was it 80's night, but we had a great group of people. I was laughing so hard that I completely forgot how sore my mouth is and the fact that Ben, Naomi and I were locked out.

As luck would have it my mom located the spare key anyways. My little sister Toni had it out at school. So the dogs and I went on a mini road trip and I'm happy to say I'm back in the house and eating dinner really late at night. Talk about being famished!

I have the day off tomorrow and I could not be happier. I'm sleeping in and then heading back to the Ada Bike Shop to pick up my Mukluk. I've crashed on it a few times so Ted is looking it over before the race this weekend. AND he's putting some new tires that I just bought on the bike. Basically the tires have better tread on them then the tires on my car. Hopefully I will be able to climb snow covered hills without spinning out.

And I just realized something. I don't want to buy a mouth guard because I want to buy a new fork for my bike, and I just bought new snow tires for my bike when the tires on my car completely suck. I do have my priorities!

Time for bed. Not only was it a long day but I'm in a pad thai coma. Thank goodness I have two dogs who like to sleep in!

Powered by gummy bears and payday bars

2012-01-20T13:15:00.006-05:00

The weather seems to be bipolar lately. First it snows, then it rains, and now temps are supposedly going to be in the 40's again by Monday.

40 degrees seems hard to believe right now, as the last couple of days have been on the POLAR side. Sadly most of my workouts had to be on the trainer this week, but I did get out for a good ride on Wednesday. Since I didn't want to deal with cars or ice, I decided to hop on the White Pine Trail and head North up to Cedar Springs. For the most part I had the trail to myself!

I have to say that I'm completely sold on riding with a frame bag in the winter. It's amazing how much I can cram in it-in fact at this point I don't even know everything that's stored in there. I usually bring extra gloves, hats etc. just in case I get cold. And let's not forget ride food. If we were ever to get a mouse in the house I'm sure it would head straight to my frame bag. Mental note: clean frame bag out.

It was colder then I expected and by the end of the ride my face was about the same color as my jacket. This picture does not do justice to how red it was. Even my eyeballs were frozen.Today I'm sticking to the trainer which makes me feel like a wimp. However I have a short workout day and I think putting all my gear on would take more time then the actual workout. Tomorrow though should be an awesome day of riding outside. If you look at the radar we have this big blue blob heading straight across the lake towards us. Right now they are calling for 1-3 inches of fresh snow. That's a good thing because I need as much practice riding in the snow as possible between now and my race next weekend.

Farmer's Fat Bike Race Report

2012-01-15T23:18:00.019-05:00

I had no clue what I was in for when I signed up for the Farmer's Fat Bike race. At the time we had zero snow and zero snow in sight. As the race grew nearer, Scott started to get really nervous. The Farm Team was putting on the race and snow was kind of essential. So almost every night he would watch the weather forecast and report back. Secretly I was enjoying riding my bike in warmer weather but when I was around Scott I would always shake my fist at the sky and yell, "show us the snow!"

Like my previous blog post said, winter showed up JUST IN TIME!!! And it was beautiful!
The morning of the race I woke up feeling much better (phew!) The race didn't start until noon so I had a few hours to get my gear ready, walk the dogs, and check the time neurotically every couple of minutes. Both Salsa and the Ada Bike Shop had tents set up on the race course. I felt completely spoiled because my bike was waiting for me and ready to go when I arrived. Awesome!!!

It was great seeing so many friends in one place. Reports were circulating that the course was hard and slippery in spots. Even so, everyone was really, really excited. It kind of reminded me of when I was little and would spend every waking hour playing outside in the snow with my friends. All of a sudden I love winter again.

The race had a duo and solo option. I was racing solo and rolled up to the line after the duos went off. There was some serious Mukluk power in the front row. Tara Jansen was racing on a Mukluk 2, Dan Jansen was on the Mukluk Ti, and I was on the Mukluk 3.

Photo by Joshua Duggan

I don't even know who said "GO!" but someone did and it was time to hammer. The 2012 race season had begun.
Photo credit: Joshua Duggan

I had a great start and settled in right behind the lead guys but knew that Tara wouldn't be far behind. She is one of the strongest racers that I know and I had to push the pace the entire time. It was my first time riding in real snow and during my first lap I realized that I had my work cut out for me. The course was a complete hammer-fest. The flat sections required a lot of strength to pedal through the snow and there was virtually no place to recover.

Photo by Jack Kunnen

There was one slippery hill that I had to run almost every time because my rear wheel kept slipping out. I was so thankful I've been running a bit!
Photo by Joshua Duggan

The second thing that I noticed was that I made a total "rookie-snow-bike-racer" mistake. I was so busy walking around and talking with friends that I let my powerbar drink mix freeze in my hydrapak before the race started. Therefore I had absolutely zero water to drink during the race.

I was off the bike every time I had to run up the steep hill, and at one point I grabbed some snow and shoved it in my mouth. There was a crowd watching and they started laughing. I think they thought that I was doing it to be funny but in reality it was because I was really thirsty. Even though it was cold out (24 degrees) I was working my butt off. Not only was I breathing hard but I was sweating. Luckily there was a lot of snow around to "drink!"

The race had a surreal feeling to it that I can't describe. Racing in the snow was absolutely beautiful and a ton of cyclists came out to cheer us on. I crashed hard once and even that was fun. If only I could always land in a big pile of snow!

There was a "last lap" cut-off at the 2.5 hour mark and I made it thru with 5 seconds to spare. I ended up getting 12 laps in with a finish time of 2:42:42. I was the first place female and 5th out of the guys! I crossed the finish line really happy with how I felt throughout the race...and also really thirsty.

Here I am holding my trophy for first place. A Farm Team custom pooper scooper. This will be perfect when walking Ben and Naomi :-)
Special thanks to Salsa Bikes, the Ada Bike Shop and Grand Rapids Ophthalmology for sponsoring the race. And a huge congrats to the Farm Team for putting it on. I've been to a lot of races in a lot of cool places and I can honestly say that this was the MOST FUN I've ever had during a race.

I had lots of talented friends taking pictures out in the snow. Check them out!!!

You can find photos, report and a great video at XXCMAG.COM

Jack Kunnen has photos HERE!

Joshua Duggan has photos HERE!

Now it's time to recover and then get back to training. The snow bike 25K world championships are right around the corner...yikes!

Snow!!! (just in the nick of time)

2012-01-13T21:52:00.007-05:00

For once the weather forecasters were right! We got close to 8 inches of snow last night-perfect timing for the Farm Team's snow bike race. The race starts at noon and ends at 3:00 p.m. I have no clue how many laps I'll get in. The course has been lengthened since I last rode it and I know that the snow will make some of the hills harder to get up. Regardless it's going to be fun.

I've definitely put a few (hundred) miles on my Mukluk since I've gotten it so I brought it into the Ada bike shop this morning to have Ted look it over. And then went back to the shop tonight to hang out with everyone picking up their registration packets.

The Farm Team working registration....
Here's a picture of just a few of the Mukluks that will be available to demo tomorrow. So sweet looking! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my Mukluk 3 but I have to say...the Mukluk ti makes me drool!

Now I'm back at home and trying to think healthy thoughts. Scott was sick all day yesterday with some nasty stomach thing and I slept out in the living room to try and hide from the germs. Even so, it's really hard to escape germs when you live in a house that only has about four rooms (our realtor described it as cozy).

For the most part of the day I've felt like absolute poo, but I'm hoping it's because I had a horrible night's sleep. Since I was camped out in the living room Naomi couldn't figure out who to sleep with, and spent the night splitting her time between the two of us. And then in the middle of the night Ben decided to start joining her so I kept hearing little dog feet running up and down the hallway all night.

Right now I have the heat cranked to 72 degrees and I'm sitting in the house wearing winter clothing...
Ha, I just posted a picture of myself blogging. That's a sign of two things.....

1.) How exciting of a Friday night I'm having and 2.) that I need to go to bed

Hopefully I wake up feeling great tomorrow because I can't wait to go race my bike in the snow with all of my friends!!!

Dear Michigan, Thanks! Love, Danielle

2012-01-12T06:56:00.003-05:00

So yesterday was the best ride day I've ever had in January. 60 miles on my Mukluk in 50 degree weather. It made me want to go ride singletrack in just a jersey and shorts.

It's probably a good thing I emptied my hydrapak and ran out of food, or I would have kept going. That would have been bad for racing this weekend because my legs are TIRED. Between spin class on Tuesday night and riding outside yesterday, I feel the need to put my legs up and not move. Luckily I have a recovery day on Friday.

Speaking of Friday, be sure to stop by the Ada Bike Shop from 5-8 p.m. for a fat bike party. There will be chili and beer...and more beer! I hope to see you there.

Today it's back to reality for me. Back to work, and back to layering up for riding outside. Winter is coming...for real this time!

Farmer's FatBike race recon

2012-01-09T21:59:00.008-05:00

On Sunday Scott and I rode over to the Versluis orchards so that we could ride the Farmer's FatBike race course. I wore my trusty Garmin so that Scott could get the exact mileage of the course-all two miles of it.

I've been sworn to secrecy but I can tell you this. It's going to be fun, and it's going to be a workout. I did manage to snap a few pictures when Scott wasn't looking....bahahahaha!

The start (imagine snow)....hammer time!
This part dumps you into a bit of singletrack with a few little climbs (imagine snow).
Both Salsa and the Ada Bike Shop will be on hand with lots of Mukluks to demo. And THERE WILL BE SNOW!!! At least I'm hoping so. The weather forecast for Thursday thru Saturday is for temps in the low-20's. We are supposed to get 6 inches Thursday night and more on Friday. Woo hoo!!! I never, ever, ever thought that I would be wishing for snow, but having a snow bike has completely changed the way I feel about winter.

There will be plenty of coffee, hot chocolate and hotdogs after...which incidentally are three of my favorite things :-)

Speaking of hot drinks....after our race course recon we headed over to East Grand Rapids to get some coffee. Some kind person left their lock, and we gladly slipped it over our seats to detour thieves.

No one could figure out how to get this lock loose :-)
I was watching out the window the entire time. If I even saw someone trying to take my Mukluk I would tackle them full on!

Scott was nice enough to transport my latte home....Tomorrow is the first spin class of 2012 at the Ada Bike Shop. 6:30 p.m....be there!!!

I came to a fork in the trail....and did not go the right way! (Yankee 5 Mile race report)

2012-01-07T23:00:00.008-05:00

I have to admit that I spent a few minutes questioning my sanity yesterday morning when my alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. I spent all week waking up super early for work, and what was I doing on the one day I could actually sleep in? Waking up early to race a 5 mile trail run down at Yankee Springs. Clearly I'm crazy.

After a quick breakfast I spent 10 minutes trying to squeeze into the one pair of running capris that I own. Scott put them in the dryer the other day and they now look like they belong to a small child. I guess the silver lining to all of this is that I now own my first pair of compression wear!

I picked up my friend Roxane and we made good time to the race venue. It was still dark when we arrived and there was much more snow in the area then I expected. Brrrrrrr.....

Since we got there an hour early there was no need to rush. Just plenty of time to get nervous and worry about falling on my face during the run. Before I knew it I was pinning on my race number and lining up with all the other runners. There were several races going on that day, and we were starting with the 5ok runners. BTW...I would never, ever consider running that long. Because I would die.

The promoter told the 50k racers to follow the orange flags, the 5 milers to follow the blue flags and then said "GO!" We were off. I was near the front at the start and noticed that there was only one girl in front of me. I should have gotten behind her for the first half of the race. But instead I ran past her and tried to hang with the lead guys. Smart, real smart.

The guys were running at a good pace. They were all talking with each other and clearly weren't working that hard, which meant I could stay with them without completely exploding. I glanced behind me and noticed that the second place female wasn't that far behind. Shoot. We hit a short steep hill and two things happened at once. The group of guys I was running with disappeared and the women behind me caught and passed me. I decided that I would just try to stay with her as long as I could.

The first place female would put a little distance on me every time we would hit a hill but I always had her in sight. However I started to feel pretty tired at the 3 mile mark. I'm not sure what happened but my body suddenly felt like it was losing all coordination. So much for endurance!

Then I came to a fork in the trail. Literally. I could either choose to go left or right and both were marked with blue flags. This was NOT a good situation for someone who is directionally challenged AND oxygen deprived. I came to a complete stop but then noticed that the lead women had gone to the left. Phew!!!

I ran down a hill (wheeeee) up a hill and then found the lead women talking to a volunteer. Apparently we had gone the wrong way. Noooooo! He sent us back in the direction we had come from and we ran into another volunteer who sent us on trail marked with all orange flags. We got so turned around it's surprising we found the finish line at all :-)

Once I got back I was very happy to find this. Those runners know the way to my heart!!
My friend Roxane warming up by the fire. She actually ran the wrong way on the trail too but has a good sense of direction (unlike other people who will remain unnamed) and realized that she was going the wrong way!
Besides getting lost it was a really great time! The trail was in great shape and I couldn't have asked for better weather in January.

Once I got home I ate a quick lunch and then it was time to go riding with my BFF. Juli and I ended up riding for 3 hours. My legs felt tired when I was walking from my running race but they didn't feel that tired when on the bike. Phew.
Of course we had to stop for some fuel at the half-way point....
I really, really need a Payday and Rockstar sponsorship!!!

This is January???

2012-01-06T22:09:00.004-05:00

50 degrees and sunny....I'll take it!!!
All of the trails near my house are either closed or unrideable (because of mud) but the cool thing about riding a Mukluk is that you can find trail anywhere! Today I was riding sandy doubletrack next to a rail trail and having fun...

It was tempting to stay out all day but today was a rest day and I definitely needed it. I didn't get a ton of volume in this week but had a lot of long days at work and a few harder sessions on the trainer late at night. As a result I'm pretty tired.

I need a quick recovery because tomorrow I'm doing a 5-mile trail race. Wow...two running races in two weeks. I almost seem like a runner-minus the lack of training :-) I DO like trail running though, so this should be fun. The race is down at Yankee so I'm meeting my friend Roxane at 7 a.m. and then we are going to drive down together.

I don't think tomorrow is going to be as warm as today, but temps should be in the 30's for the race. I have no clue what condition the trail will be like, but there could be some muddy sections. I just have to keep reminding myself that the faster I get done the faster I can get home and on my bike. I'd like to say that I learned my lesson from last week and won't go out as hard, but it's doubtful.

Hopefully I don't fall on my face. With my lack of coordination there is a very good chance that it could happen :-)

Coming up!

2012-01-04T09:17:00.002-05:00

Spin classes are starting next Tuesday (January 10th) at the Ada Bike Shop. We start spinning at 6:30 p.m. so it's a good idea to come a little early to set up. Classes are free...all you need is a bike and trainer. Oh, and water...

Of course I'm biased, but Tuesday night spinning is one of my favorite nights of the week. Every once in a while it's nice to be warm and toasty and get a good workout with friends. And trust me when I say warm and toasty. I remember a few nights last year where I lost about 10 pounds of sweat in 1.5 hours.

Hope to see you there!!! I promise lots of bad 80's music. And by bad 80's music I mean completely awesome :-)

Last run of 2011 and first training fail of 2012

2012-01-01T20:42:00.004-05:00

The Wolverine resolution run went surprisingly well for me. But it was definitely every bit as painful as I remember it. Who knew that four stinking miles could feel like an eternity?

This was my second year competing in the race and once again I got lucky with the weather. Temps were in the low 40's and it was dry out! Hip hip hooray!!! The race didn't start until 3:30 p.m. so my coach had me spin for an hour in the morning. After that I spent a lot of unproductive time surfing blogs and stalking friends facebook pages. And starving and dehydrating myself. I need to learn how to eat/drink before running races. Not sure what the difference is but I can eat almost anything before hopping on a bike but it's a whole different story when running. I basically had to start the race on empty!

Anyways, back to the race. I met up with my friend Hannah at registration and we did a few warm-up laps around the track. This was Hannah's first race but she can hammer. During our first lap around the track I realized that I couldn't talk and when I looked down at my Garmin I realized that we were running at a 5:30/min mile pace. It definitely shocked my lungs into action.

With 10 minutes to go we lined up at the start area. This is a pretty big race and had 780 finishers. The really cool thing about it is that there were almost as many females (359) competing as men (421).
The promoter said "go" and we were off. Once again I started way too hard and once again I felt like I was going to pass out within the first minute. I need to thank Andy again for having me to do steady state intervals because I was definitely able to push the pace harder this year. I think steady state intervals help everything...even running. But I need to reiterate that IT WAS NOT PRETTY. At times I felt like I was going to puke and at one point I felt like the sidewalk was coming up at me. Meaning that I was so oxygen deprived it's surprising I didn't faint.

My goal for the race was to beat last year's time of 27:58 and my plan was to race at a 7-minute mile pace for the first 3 miles and then sprint the last mile. However, I went out so hard that I could barely hold up my Garmin to see my pace...my eyes were blurry. And forget about sprinting the last mile. I'll have to save that for next year :-)

I was really, really, really happy to see the finish line and crossed the finish line with a chip time of 26:59.
The promoter had the race results up really quick, and I was happy to see that I got 1st place in my age group (out of 68), 14th (out of 359 females) and 76th overall (out of 780 racers). The overall female winner was a little 15 year old who's legs were the size of my arms. Sheesh.

The rest of my New Year's Eve was really low-key. I'm just going to say it. I watched Pride and Prejudice with my mom while Scott and my dad went to a hockey game. And I wore pajamas...don't judge. To tell you the truth I really can't think of anything else that would have been more fun. Trust me when I say that I went out enough before I started racing to last a lifetime!

When I finally got home I had a glass of wine with Scott and was in bed before the ball dropped. Like most people I planned to start 2012 on the right foot and instead I started it out all wrong. While most people were rushing out on rides and rushing to the gym I overslept, and woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck.The fact that it was raining, sleeting, snowing and windy did not do much to motivate me either.

So how did I start out 2012? Instead of doing the 5 hour ride Andy had scheduled for me I took a huge nap, and then ate homemade brownies, pasta, and now I'm going back to bed. Talk about bombing a workout-not quite sure how to explain that one to the coach :-) I spent the day looking and feeling like I had the world's worst hangover but I think I just got really dehydrated yesterday.

Tomorrow it's back to work for me and back to working out. I was supposed to have a rest day but since I took an impromptu rest day today I'm sure I'll have a workout scheduled for me tomorrow...

Happy 2012!

An unhappy foot

2011-12-31T12:29:00.004-05:00

Little Ben sprained his ankle or knee the other day and is ringing in the New Year with strict orders from the vet to take it easy for two weeks.

Someone please tell me how to keep a one-year old dog on restricted activity because so far we are failing miserably. Part of the problem is that Ben gets sooooo excited about everything. Like I'll get up to go to the bathroom and he will be sprinting across the room to try and accompany me. He even gets excited to go to the vet. Tail wagging, kisses to everyone...you would never guess that he was in any sort of pain minus the fact that he was hopping on three legs.

Today Ben seems a little better and seems to be taking cues from Naomi (the laziest greyhound in the world). The two of them have been taking a nap for a few hours...which should help with the recovery process.

My feet are up too. All I had to do today was a one-hour spin and now I'm killing some time before The New Year's Resolution Run. I'm sure there are a million more productive things that I could be doing but I've been looking over my blog posts from the last year. 2011 was a great year. I didn't get to travel as much as I would have liked to for races, but who cares. I had so much fun. Not to mention I won the SS 24 hour National Championships and did my first ever chin-up!!! Those are two HUGE accomplishments for me.

Hopefully 2012 will be even better. But first...I still have one more race to get through. Don't ask me why but I'm actually nervous. Probably because I know that there is a 99.99999% chance that I'm going to have to run hard with a side stitch.

Happy New Year's Eve everybody!!!

Yes! I can still eat sugar!!!

2011-12-29T19:38:00.003-05:00

So my trip to the dentist went as well as can be expected. The good news is that I don't have any cavities. To tell you the truth I still find this hard to believe. I was bracing for the dentist to tell me that I had at least ten.

The bad news is that I like to grind my teeth at night. This isn't exactly news as I used to wear a mouth guard. When I told my dentist that I used to wear one he asked why I don't anymore. I had to tell him that a dog ate it. Totally lame excuse but true. This happened a few years ago when I was staying at a sponsors house. Long before we adopted Ben. Long before I learned that anything left in the open is considered a toy to young dogs.

Anyways, I guess that I managed to grind through almost all of my enamel in a few spots. SWEET! I have no doubt that it happens during the race season, when I'm having crazy dreams of missing the start or getting lost on course. Sigh.

Oh well, enough about the dentist. I have to go back in a month, but until then I will talk (I mean write) about other things. My legs are slowly recovering from my stair sprint against Jason and it's just in the nick of time. We lifted weights tonight but only did light leg work. I am racing the New Year's Resolution Run (4 miles) this Saturday again and I am bound and determined to beat my time from last year. My legs should feel OK for the race, but I'm not so sure about my arms. I had an awesome upper body workout tonight so I might have to run without moving my arms on Saturday.

My time last year was 27.58, and I know that's nothing to brag about. However I do remember that it almost killed me. And even though I barely ran last year, I think I've run even less this year. And forget about running intervals. Ha, I told my coach I was just doing the race for fun, but I can't help myself :-) My plan is to run the first three miles at a seven-mile pace and then sprint the last mile. It's a good plan when I'm thinking about it but we'll see if I can actually pull it off. There is just as good of a chance of me puking, and or completely erupting. There is also potential for me completely passing out.

It's going to be interesting, that's for sure!!! I was reading my blog post about last year's resolution race and I can't believe that it's already been a year. When I think back to how I felt like I was going to pass out...well, it feels like it just happened yesterday!

OK, enough procrastinating. Time for workout #2. All I have to do is an hour on the trainer, but I've been putting it off for waaaaay to long.

Just as bad as I remembered!

2011-12-28T11:19:00.004-05:00

Monday was my weekly strength workout with Jason and a certain somebody thought it would be fun to do stairs since we hadn't done them in a really, really long time.

Anyways, I tried to sprint to the top against Jason and lost horribly. Jurrien was there too and I think I heard him say, "oh man." Pretty sure it was because he was witnessing me getting my butt kicked horribly. I couldn't even make it to the top without coming to a stop. Now I owe Jason 2 expensive coffee drinks. I better quit betting unless I'm sure that I can win :-)

Today is D-day. DAY WITH THE DENTIST. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm afraid of the dentist and the answer is NO. However I am mortified that I waited soooooo-freaking-long to go, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be painful. And I can only blame myself. Growing up I always prided myself on not having any cavities and with all the gels and drink mixes I live on while training that is probably going to change. In fact I have one tooth that hurts whenever I ride in my tempo zone or higher. I'm not sure why...but I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign.

Well I'm off. Hopefully I can still open my mouth when I get back!

Christmas weekend...

2011-12-26T10:54:00.007-05:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!! Mine was just how I like it. Very low-key, lots of Christmas cookies, and awesome gifts with my name on them :-)

Seriously, this weekend went by WAY too fast. I was able to sleep in a bit on Christmas morning eve, and then Scott and I got trapped into drinking coffee and watching The Dog Whisperer. There was a marathon of the series going on and we couldn't pull away...

Even Ben started watching TV. I think The Dog Whisperer is his favorite show because he gets really close to the screen and wags his tail whenever any dogs on the show start barking. It's more fun to watch him watching the TV then watching the actual show!

Finally we pulled away and rode our Mukluks around for 2 hours. It had snowed the night before so I finally got to ride on some white stuff. It was awesome.
Afterwards I went for a 50 minute run with my BFF Juli, got some more coffee, ate dinner with my parents and then did some present wrapping.

There's something that you should know about me and wrapping presents. I hate it! I'm just way too impatient to make them look good.I was in charge of our adopt-a-family at work this year too, which means I had to wrap a lot more gifts then usual. By the time I got to Scott's presents I was especially unmotivated.

I had to laugh about the present on top. In my own defense I ran out of wrapping paper, and it's the thought that counts anyways, right???
On Christmas morning I woke up early and was running around Reed's Lake with my mom by 8:00 a.m. It was awesome. For December it was unseasonably warm (39 degrees) and there was zero traffic out. Afterwards we grabbed some coffee and I came home to Scott making banana pancakes. Yum! I ate enough for a small army and then hopped on my Mukluk for a 4-hour ride. Once again I had the roads almost completely to myself. I loved it.

Today it's all about recovery. I'm tired from working out over the weekend and I'm exactly one Christmas cookie away from falling into a cookie coma!

........................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mukluk'in around...

2011-12-22T05:08:00.004-05:00

Since I've gotten my Mukluk I haven't ridden anything else. It's just so. much. fun.

I almost always ride with my hydrapak, so right now I don't have any water bottle cages on the bike. This is what it's weighing in at (with the frame bag).

And speaking of the frame bag...how did I ever ride without one before? It's so nice to have during the wintertime. So far I've noticed that whenever I'm on my Mukluk I need about one less layer on. It's nice to be able to store clothes in the bag when I overheat. Not to mention having easy access to christmas cookies. In fact, I better watch it or my bike won't be the only thing that's fat :-)

Well off to work. I can't believe that yesterday was Winter Solstice already. However, it's really nice knowing that we are moving in the direction of longer days again!

Now that I have a Mukluk all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

2011-12-20T10:27:00.004-05:00

This past weekend flew by! I finally got my Mukluk Friday evening so I spent the weekend riding. You would think that I would have a million pictures posted on this blog of my new bike after the months and months of talking about it, but I haven't had much time to take them yet. When I wasn't outside riding this weekend I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in hysterics over a loose tooth. Yes, at the age of 29 (ha ha) I managed to have a chipped tooth turn loose. Talk about full-on panic attack.

And the worst thing? Besides the fact that my tooth was loose? I had procrastinated going to the dentist for SUCH A LONG time that I didn't even have a dentist anymore. I was so freaking mad at myself and probably not that much fun to be around this weekend. Except when I was outside riding of course :-)

Luckily for me I was able to get into a dentist on Monday. I had absolutely no excuse about why I've put off going to the dentist for so long, but I think that I'll be going enough now to make up for it. I get to go back next week for a full check-up/cleaning...yeah!

Mukluk pictures coming up later. Right now I'm taking two lazy dogs for a walk and then going riding.

There will be no gloating in this post...

2011-12-14T19:23:00.005-05:00

OK, so I got beat on the watt bike again. We ended up racing the 1000 meter again and I had my worst time yet. Grrrrrrrr....I'm starting to realize that I'm a sore loser :-) Thank goodness I don't want to be a track racer. I don't see a future for myself in all out sprints at all.

The rest of my workout buddies are getting faster and faster times...I think we need to start doing a longer distance!
I was supposed to do a long ride today but the weather had other plans. Pouring rain all freaking day long. All of a sudden we are getting Seattle weather. It's probably a good thing because I've had a pounding headache and the rain forced me to take it easy.

Rain though...blech. I would much rather ride in snow. Especially because I need the practice. I just signed up for my first race of 2012. I've been to Marquette a lot during the summer but never in the winter. I absolutely can't wait. The snow bike race is new this year but the ski races have been going on for years and the race waves take several hours to get everyone out on the course. It will be fun to watch.

I have no hopes for the weather tomorrow as there is like a 100% chance of rain again. I'm planning on sitting on the trainer after work then doing another strength workout afterwards. Hopefully this weekend will be clear!

Two-A-Days

2011-12-12T11:02:00.004-05:00

I didn't think it would be possible but there is a good chance my Mukluk will be built before we get a significant of snow. There I just jinxed us. People living in Michigan expect a blizzard...tomorrow!

Anyways, it's definitely been an on-going process but it's almost done. I might have to sell my car but that's OK. I'll just ride my snow bike everywhere :-)

This weekend kicked my butt. Or I kicked my own butt. Whatever. I didn't have any super long rides this weekend but my coach does has me doing two-a-days every now and then. And this weekend I did two-a-days two days in a row. Ha!

On Saturday I went for a trail run with my BFF. As much as I poo-poo running I have to admit that trail running is pretty fun. The ground was covered in snow and it was really nice to be working out but not completely frozen. The only bad part is that we went out for coffee afterwards and then I completely wimped out on my intervals. I did them, but not outside. I did them on the trainer with the heat cranked and the TV on. Sigh.

Sunday was a little warmer (for Michigan) and I was able to get out on the road for 3 hours. I'm still riding with a 32x16 and the verdict is not out on if I'm going to keep that gear ratio. I like it for flats but I feel like some sort of sloth going up climbs. Once again I had a crazy headwind and by the time I got home I had talked myself into skipping the dirty herd run. I tried bailing on my friends but they "guilt-texted" me into going. The problem with having such tough friends is that it's hard to make excuses. I couldn't say that I was tired from working out, because they had all done just as hard (or harder) workouts as me.

I'm glad I ended up going for the run. It was fun. Running with friends is so much more fun then running alone. You would think that I would have running partners at my disposal but not so much. Naomi is a little over 9 years old now so it's understandable that she doesn't want to run, but Ben? Apparently he missed the memo that he should like trail running...
Today I have strength training with Jason and I am dreading...DREADING the watt bike. Last Thursday we dropped back down to racing the 1000 meter and the guys all kicked my butt. Jason had me do a ton of leg workouts before hand which I found suspicious but whatever. I was a sore loser :-) Today we are supposed to race the 2000 meter and I'm going to do my best to beat them. I just don't know how since I am dragging today.....

However, if I do win you can surely expect a post bragging about it tomorrow :-)

Moving along...

2011-12-08T05:20:00.004-05:00

These last two days have kicked my butt. Tuesday I did a 3 hour ride with steady state intervals (which always hurt) and yesterday I took my SS out for a 3.5 hour ride. I was hoping to get out for 4.5 hours, but I completely ran out of daylight. Not to mention I switched my gearing to a 32x16 and now I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have. I died a thousand and one deaths trying to get home last night. I had a crazy headwind and for the last half hour I was lucky if my cadence was 50 rpm. Talk about riding in slow-mo.

I have absolutely no complaints though, because it's December and I can still ride outside. It's just always surprising to me how cold weather makes me SO tired afterwards. I was asleep by 9:30...which is good since this morning I had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. for work!

Below is a picture of my snow bike....slowly but surely it's coming along!!!

PS. I have to thank my favorite mechanic Ted for color coordinating my wheels :-)

A small but VERY important victory!!!

2011-12-06T12:01:00.004-05:00

Now that it's the off-season it's back to my regular scheduled strength training sessions at Train Out Pain. I never actually stopped strength training in the summer but the workouts were less intense and much more sporadic due to racing. I'm excited to get back into a regular routine and get stronger!

We've all been at it for several weeks now and already the competitions have begun. Last year it was about the rowing machine and who could row the fastest on it. By the end of winter it was slightly out of control. Not only were we betting coffee drinks on it but I was calling my sister who rowed at U of M for tips to improve my form...on a rowing machine of all things!!!!

Recently Jason bought a Watt bike for the office. We started with seeing who could up push the highest watts and I got my butt kicked. Then we decided to see who could cover 1000 meters the fastest and I got beat again. But this week we upped it to 3000 meters and guess who won??? Yup, that's right. Yours truly!!! Insert victory dance here. I have to gloat a tiny bit because I always get beat me in everything else. Insert another victory dance here.

Of course I had to take photo documentation of my workout buddies as they got beat BY ME!!!

Gareth ready to puke....
Jason unable to get off the floor...
Jurrien suffering....
Ok one more victory dance and then I'll stop gloating...until I crush them in the next watt bike competition :-)

Ick

2011-12-05T15:11:00.003-05:00

There was absolutely nothing even remotely exciting about this past weekend. It rained all....weekend.....long. I turned slightly neurotic in checking weather.com, hoping that there would be a break in the rain but it DID NOT happen. It's one thing to ride in the cold, it's another to ride in the cold when completely soaked. There's no use in complaining about it because everyone around here was in the same boat. I had a few moments (actually a few hours) of extreme grumpiness but then made the most of riding the trainer and catching up on reality TV marathons.

I did get out late Sunday afternoon to run with a few friends for the dirty herd trail run. I'm still not a huge fan of running but it does have a few advantages in the off-season. Such as, it's nice being able to work out in a light rain/cold temperatures and not completely freeze. The trail was pretty muddy in parts, which made the run even more fun (to me). Luckily I remembered to wear my trail shoes this time. Having traction was a good thing and I'm happy to report that I did not wipe out on my face.

Grippy soles....
Anyways, this was my second time running with the dirty herd and it was pretty fun. Every week the group runs the trail at Robinette's (about 4.4 miles) which is super close to my house. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be brave enough to show up without my cyclist friends though. I still feel like a fish out of water when it comes to running :-) And I definitely sound like a fish out of water...talk about gasping for air!!!

The rest of the week is looking much better and I hope to sneak some riding outside. Temps are going to be cold but it looks like it's going to be dry. Crossing my finger and toes....

Mudholland cross

2011-11-29T13:51:00.009-05:00

I was going to post this earlier but I was too busy hanging out in the Federal building for jury duty. And they DO NOT let you play around on your computer or phone when you are in the courtroom...for obvious reasons :-) I never got picked for voir dire (just a little term I learned yesterday while sitting in the courtroom for endless hours) and I am very OK with that. The case was estimated to last 10 days and I DEFINITELY prefer to NOT sit in a courtroom for 10 days.

Two things that I took away from it all?

1. Never drink a venti Americano right before going into court unless you are 100% certain that the judge is going to break a lot.

2. Avoid getting in situations where you might have to go to court and have a jury decide your fate. Trust me, there were some very angry jurors there yesterday. It was kind of scary. Especially since a few of the jurors picked said (after moments of silence and sighing) that they "thought" that they could give the defendant a fair trial. I wanted to stand up and be like, "excuse me, you think you can give a fair trial or you KNOW you can?" It seemed like an important difference to me but what do I know???

Anyways, back to cross.

When my friend Kim Thomas (cyclocross extraordinaire) asked me to move up to the A's (against the elite/expert men) with her I was 100% positive that she wanted me to move up so that she could kick my butt. And that's exactly what happened!!!

I was really, really tired going into the race from the last couple weeks of training/work and could tell instantly that my legs had nothing in them. Oh well. There were huge mud pits that seemed to require several minutes to get through. The difference in technique between Kim and I while going through the mud was huge. Kim would dismount, shoulder her bike and run. I am so freaking stubborn that I kept trying to ride though the pit every single time. Each time I was convinced that I would find a magic line in the mud...not so much. I would make it half-way then come to a complete stop, almost fall off of my bike, and then have to push it to the other side.

My legs had absolutely nothing in them the entire race but I did get a really good workout in. Which was what my coach wanted me to do.

Here are some lovely pictures from the cross race....

BEFORE:

AFTER:

MORE AFTER:
Talk about a mess. I had to leave immediately after the race to get back home (it's about a 40 minute drive) so that I could get ready for work. There was no place to wash off bikes so I had to throw it in my car and actually drove home wearing my muddy kit.

It felt GREAT....not!

Next up? Some recovery time. This week is a pretty easy week and it's definitely needed so that I can start training hard all over again. I'm still on call for jury duty for another week and the jury administrator warned us that there was one more case in the dock before the holidays. However she also said that it probably wouldn't happen. Which means with my luck the case WILL happen and I'll get picked :-)

Let's hope not!

Sore all over

2011-11-22T20:53:00.003-05:00

I'm back to off-season training which means strength intervals on the trainer, endurance rides outside (I've been lucking out with the weather so far), and strength training with Jason. I'm really glad my coach made me take a few mandatory rest weeks after Nationals because now I'm really excited about training for next year. I'm still not 100% what races I'm doing next year but I'm training for something...and having fun doing it.

I'm definitely stronger (biking and strength training) then I was last year, so I'm excited to see what I can do this winter. Last year I couldn't do a push-up and by the end of winter I could do 4 in a row. That may not sound like much but keep in mind that my arms would collapse while I was just in the push-up position at the start of winter. This year my goal is to do a real, bona fide chin-up. When I first started training with Jason I could only hang from the bar, but now there's a bit of movement. There may be hope for me yet :-)

This weekend is the last kisscross race of the year. I've gotten peer pressured into racing with the A's, which is the expert/elite men. It's probably not going to be pretty. First of all, my cross skills are non-existent, and right now I'm sore all over from strength training. Not to mention the race is an hour long. I know it probably sounds ridiculous to be worried about an hour race when I prefer endurance races but it's all relative. When I'm doing a 45 minute cross race it seems like it's the longest race in the world!

I'm just not going to think about it right now...otherwise I'll get nervous!

Taking the long way home...

2011-11-16T12:03:00.004-05:00

I lucked out yesterday. It's not very often that we get 60 degree days in November and I took full advantage of it with a 60 mile ride. My coach had me scheduled to do a 40 minute tempo interval with a lower cadence during my ride, so I got that out of the way first. Half-way through my interval two roadies turned in front of me, and I was going fast enough that I caught up to them. I felt like a moron passing them because my legs were going in slooooow motion with such a low cadence. And then I felt like an even bigger moron because I wasn't going fast enough to drop them.

As a result they finished my interval with me. One of the guys was on a carbon TT bike, and we were doing that "wheel to wheel" thing where each rider keeps going faster and faster. I hate that but at the same time I could not slow down. At one point I looked down and was pushing 100-150 more watts then what I was supposed to. Needless to say the end of my interval was a lot stronger then the beginning :-) Finally I announced that my coach wanted me to rest, and shot off the back. Once I was by myself I was able to ride at a much more enjoyable endurance pace.

Happy to be riding in awesome weather...
It felt slightly surreal to have such warm temps when all the trees are completely bare. Winter is definitely coming but I hope it holds off for a little bit longer....

More mud...

2011-11-14T22:58:00.006-05:00

Another weekend cross race = more mud!

So far the weather has been pretty great for November. I think it's because I'm building up a Mukluk. Since I want it to snow, the weather is staying nice. Either way I have no complaints. Scott and I went for a 3 hour mountain bike ride on Saturday and then I raced Kisscross on Sunday. And there was no need for layers....

My cross race went pretty well, minus the fact that I got off my bike before the finish line. As I was getting close someone yelled "that's it!" and I took those words literally. I completely came to a standstill and got off my bike before I realized that I still had one more set of barriers to go over. I think I would have made the top 10 overall, but a few guys passed me when I got off my bike.

After the race I had some lunch and then got very, very sleepy. I had made plans to join friends for the dirty herd run (a weekly group that runs trails) so I forced myself back off the couch and threw on some running shoes. I'm glad that I went. I'm starting to run during the off-season and running trail is WAY more fun then the road.

I was going to go into a very long post about how I wore the wrong shoes but I'm skipping all that. The good news is that my feet and ankles survived. Now it's time to ride. Not only did I get out of work early, but it's 60 degrees (in NOVEMBER) and my bike is by the door. I'm outta here!

The Iceman Cometh-race report

2011-11-08T16:53:00.010-05:00

Well another Iceman has cometh and wenteth. I've lost count to how many Iceman races I've competed in but I've been doing it since I started racing a bike. So this was probably my 8th or 9th Iceman. I didn't have much time to ramp up for this race after taking some time off from Nationals but I still had a few goals for the race. Race my SS, win, and have fun :-)

Scott and I drove up to Traverse City Friday afternoon with his teammate Steve. We pre-rode the end of the course (where most of the hills exist) and then registered at the expo. After that it was time for dinner at a new Mexican restaurant and then bed.

It was cold in the morning and I basically put on every layer that I had for the drive over to Kalkaska (where the race started). My coach wanted me to try and get a longer warm-up in and I failed miserably at this. Mostly because I was being a wimp and wanted to stay in the car with the heater blasting. Finally I got out and started riding my bike around. Brrrr....

The start area was slightly insane because there were so many racers but it was also really organized. Everyone is assigned a wave based on last years finishing time, which means you don't really know who you are racing against. It's basically a time trial to the finish, not something I am particularly good at doing. I headed over to my wave (#6) which was scheduled to take off at 9:15.

At 9:00 a.m. I glanced down at my bike and noticed that my number plate wasn't attached. Scott had taken my bike out of the car and I assumed he had put my plate on. I have a few things to say about this. First and foremost, the fact that I even noticed the missing number plate is pretty darn impressive. I'm always so nervous before a race I have a hard time finding the start area. Second of all, the fact that my number plate wasn't attached was totally MY fault even though I was blaming Scott at the time. I should have checked!

Scott was milling about somewhere in the crowd so I rushed back to the truck. Locked...CRAP. It was 9:03 and I started to sprint around looking for him. The timing chip was attached to the number plate so I needed it on my bike to get a time and not be disqualified. 9:06...total panic mode!!! 9:10....agggghhhhhh! With 5 minutes to go I found Scott, we rushed to the truck and threw my number plate on. Holy moly, talk about a high heart rate. I think I inadvertently got the warm-up my coach wanted.

I didn't have to wait long at the start line before we were off. The moment we started pedaling I realized that I was completely under-geared. I chose to run a 32x17 and it was a bad decision. BAD, BAD, BAD!!! The course was way flatter then I remembered it and I spent the majority of the race spinning my brains out. My legs felt like they were going to explode. Not because I was red-lined but because I was trying to spin so-freaking-fast. I was actually relieved when I reached the hills at the end and normally I don't feel that way!

I finished with a time of 2:06, good for first place. I never got that "wasted" feeling you get when you leave it all on the course though, and I kind of like that feeling. Instead I felt like I did an endurance ride with about 4,000 of my friends :-)

At the finish line....
It ended up being a beautiful day and after grabbing a bite to eat I changed clothes and hopped back on my bike. Scott loaded up my messenger bag with beer and we rode over to Williamsburg road to watch the pro's come racing through. It was an awesome day...

We woke up early Sunday and I have to say it was the best I've ever felt after an Iceman. I think it was due partly to the fact that I was under-geared during the race but mostly due to the fact that I skipped the after-parties and went to bed!

Later in the day at home we went for a bike ride. Temps were in the low-60's and I was able to ride with just a jersey and shorts on.

Scott took me down by the river and I have to admit I was suffering from Mukluk envy...
Finally I got a turn. So. Much. Fun. I can't wait to build one up!!!!
And speaking of Mukluk's....get ready for the farmer's-fat-bike-race!!!!

Back to reality...

2011-11-08T07:35:00.002-05:00

What a difference a week makes. Last week was ladies night and Iceman. In other words, lots of fun. But it all came to a grinding halt yesterday when I left work and saw that it was already dark outside. This is the time of year that is always hardest for me to adjust to.

And speaking of work, I need to get out the door now. It's amazing how time flies when you are drinking coffee :-)

Iceman report coming up tonight!

Too much fun in Two days

2011-11-03T21:22:00.017-05:00

This past Tuesday and Wednesday were so much fun I'm not even sure where to begin...

Late last week I received an email from my sponsors telling me that they were going to be flying into town for Ladies night at the Ada Bike Shop. I spent the weekend in an excited haze trying to clean my house (I tend to leave a lot of piles all over the place) and coaching not-so-little Ben. Ben LOVES everybody and get's really excited when we have visitors. And when he gets excited he likes to do things...like chew on my converse tennis shoes. Or run around with my sports bra in his mouth. And then there was that time that I caught him licking the chamois of my cycling shorts after I did a long ride. Sweet.

Needless to say he received much coaching about NOT chewing my sponsors shoes....

Tuesday arrived before I knew it and I woke up really early. I had a lot going on. Not only was I speaking at ladies night but I was also scheduled to do a short interview on the radio. Talk about nerve wrecking. The radio interview was scheduled for 9:45 a.m. and I was completely calm about it until 9:30. Then the nervousness kicked in and by 9:45 my heart was beating so fast I felt like it was in my mouth. I absolutely can't stand the way my voice sounds so it's hard to listen to but here is a link to the interview. And btw...when I refer to Mackenzie as a driver I really meant pilot. I'm sure everyone listening imagined Mackenzie driving her tandem partner around in a car. Whoops!!!

The rest of the morning flew by and then it was time to meet up with Mike and Kelly from Salsa! I was really excited to see them and show them around. After a quick lunch it was time to get ready for Ladies Night!!!

Everyone at the Ada Bike Shop worked really hard to ensure that the event would be a success and it definitely paid off. There was a huge turnout and the vibe was amazing. I wish I could bottle the feeling I had of being around so many great people. Having my Salsa sponsors come to the event made it extra special for me. It's really great to ride for a company that not only makes such awesome bikes, but also supports female cyclists.

Mike gave such a great speech that I almost felt like I didn't need to get on the podium :-)

I'll be the first to admit that I was really, REALLY nervous to speak. It was nice sharing the podium with Mackenzie though, and once I looked into the crowd of all of my friends I felt much more comfortable.

And then it was time to eat, drink and be merry! I've been wanting a Fidel Cap from Salsa forever....
Every time I looked around there seemed to be another friend wearing the cap...
I'm not sure what the final tally of ladies night was, but at one point there were about 80 awesome females under the same roof. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I had plans to take Mike and Kelly to ride at Luton Park on Wednesday and was relieved to wake up to sunny skies. This time of year you never know. On our way to the trail we had to drop Ben off to the dog sitter since we were going to be gone for most of the day. Ben was sitting in the back seat of the truck with Kelly and I think it was more excitement then he could handle. The little guy "let one out" and it was completely toxic. All I have to say is POOR Kelly because she bore the brunt of it all. We had to drive with all the windows down and Ben might NOT be getting an invitation to visit QBP anytime soon :-)

The rest of the day was perfect. I mean, how could it not be? I got to ride with my sponsors on fun trail in perfect weather. If only I could do that every day. After taking lots of pictures we had a late lunch and then I did a short interview. I went into the interview pretty confident that I would be able to speak coherently but au contraire. It was one blooper after blooper after blooper. I even messed up answering where I was from. How is that even possible??? I think I'm going to have to fly out to visit the Salsa gang for a retry. Maybe I can even bring Ben.

And speaking of Ben...he had a good day hanging out with the dog sitter and playing. Naomi (our greyhound) is much to dignified to roll around in the dirt, so Ben was in his element while playing with his pal Stuart.

Stuart on top....
Then it was Ben's turn....And a quick break for water!
I can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday. These last couple of days were so busy that I've hardly been thinking about the upcoming weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to pack in the morning and then we are heading up to Traverse City in the late afternoon.

It's Iceman time...ready or not I'm racing!

Lowell Gravel (mud) 50-race report

2011-10-30T20:40:00.008-05:00

So much for posting a race report over the weekend! I have no excuse other then the fact that I was tired after racing the Lowell 50.

Even though the race was only about a half hour drive from my house I still woke up early (for me) on Saturday. I had gotten caught in the rain during my bike ride the day before, and when I went to bed all of my gear was still soaking wet. I woke up early to ensure that it was all dry, or I was going to have to pull out my hair dryer and start blow drying my shoes!

Luckily everything was dry and after eating breakfast and drinking lots of coffee I gathered up my gear. At this point in the season I can pretty much get everything ready with my eyes closed. It was cold at registration and I had a hard time figuring out what to wear. In-between temps are always the hardest for me. Once it gets really cold it's easier because then I just put on every article of clothing that I have.

I knew that I would warm up quickly once we started racing though, so I ended up wearing long socks, knee warmers, sleeveless base layer, jersey, shorts, arm warmers and a vest. It was the perfect combo...GO ME :-)

Both the 27 and 50 milers started together and the pace was pretty neutral at first. It wasn't until we hit the first hill that the group started to break apart. I'm not sure exactly how it happened but I ended up riding with a group of 4-6 guys the entire race. They were driving the pace and I was working my butt off to stay with them. There was no one in sight behind us and I knew that I HAD to stay with them because I didn't want to face the wind alone. The majority of the race took place on dirt roads, and some were still slightly soggy. These were the worse because I felt like no matter how hard I pedaled I was barely moving.

I hung on until mile 28-ish and then I had a monster explosion. Ka-boom!!! I think I took a turn pulling and then my legs started pedaling in reverse...or something. I felt completely pathetic watching the guys ride away because no matter how hard I tried I couldn't bridge back up. Just as I became resigned to riding alone for the next 20 miles I noticed that the distance between me and them was decreasing. I am 100% positive they slowed down until I caught back up and I am so, so thankful.

From that point my legs rebounded and I felt stronger towards the end then during the beginning. I will never, ever complain when coach Andy schedules me for steady state intervals again, because that's what the entire race felt like. One really loooooong steady state interval.

The finish line was definitely the most random finish line I've ever encountered. It was basically a parked minivan with a volunteer taking our numbers. I finished in first place and was completely whacked out by the end.

No need for a halloween costume for me....rawwwrrrrr!

My not so yellow shoes....
This bike has seen a lot of dirt this year!
Not only did I get to be on the top step of the hay podium, but I also got a podium kiss. The only bummer was not having a video camera when I got home. The look on Scott's face when he saw red lip marks on my cheek was priceless!

Nothing like a last minute race...

2011-10-28T20:49:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow I'm racing the Lowell 50. I just signed up for this race a few hours ago and don't know much about it. All I know is that I'll be racing 50 miles on gravel roads and that there will be hot apple cider waiting for me at the end. At least I hope there will be hot apple cider left. I have a sneaking suspicion that everyone will be doing this race on cross bikes. I'm racing on my El Mariachi and will have my work cut out for me. It will be interesting to see how I do because I seem cursed when it comes to gravel road races. Seriously, I usually blow up within 5 minutes and then it all goes down from there. But it's been a while since I've raced one and regardless of how I do, it will be good Iceman training.

The only thing I dread about the race (besides waking up early) is how cold it's going to be at the start. I'm thinking I will be lucky if temps are in the low 30's. I need to just suck it up though because it's only going to get colder from here. In a month I'll be wishing for a 30 degree day.

Race report up this weekend!

One week from today...

2011-10-25T08:25:00.002-05:00

Next Tuesday (Nov. 1st, 5-8 p.m.) is Ladies night at The Ada Bike Shop and I absolutely can't wait. Tons of great deals, massage therapists, beer, wine, lots of food, and awesome giveaways. The event is absolutely free but we are collecting food and money donations for Safe Haven, a women's shelter.

There will be several different speakers (moi included) and we will be covering different topics, like racing, riding, or keeping a healthy lifestyle. This is a great time to invite friends who are interested in getting into the sport.

One of my favorite things about cycling is all of the inspiring and awesome women I meet along the way. I can't wait to see you all there!!!

Why does the weekend go by so fast???

2011-10-24T15:49:00.009-05:00

This past weekend was pretty awesome. Lots of riding and even a little racing!

On Friday I got a text from my 8 hours of Cannonsburg teammate (SS Danielle) asking if I wanted to ride. We had no plan but ironically enough ended up at Cannonsburg. I'm really glad that we ended up there because workers informed us that it was the last day to ride on the trail for the time being. Apparently they are digging ditches for new electrical wiring and don't want to risk anyone falling in. This I can understand because I would totally be the person who accidentally rides their bike into a ditch.

Anyways the weather was pretty dreary and both Danielle and I had problems picking the right gear to ride in. Danielle couldn't find her gloves and wore her lobster claws, which were WAY too warm for temps in the high 40's/low 50's.
I was on the other end of the spectrum and completely under-dressed. In the last week I've managed to lose both sets of my arm warmers and tried to make my own in a last minute desperate attempt to stay warm. Needless to say it did not go well and I think it's safe to say that I won't be appearing on Project Runway any time soon.
Despite the fact that Danielle was too hot and I was too cold we had a really great ride. Both of us figured out what gearing we will be racing at Iceman and I have to admit I feel a little wimpy power wise. Danielle will be pushing a harder gear then me and was completely rocking at Cannonsburg. I was very, very impressed!

The sun came back out on Saturday and I went riding with Jason. He's racing Iceman for the first time this year and I tried to simulate the course a bit so that he could get an idea of what he's in for. I threw in a few extra hills for good measure as well. I mean, I have to get back at him a little bit for all of the hard workouts he puts me through in the winter :-)

Sunday was my first kisscross race and I was pretty nervous in the morning. I knew that I was going to be in PAIN!!! And guess what? I was right! I decided to race on my El Mariachi because I wanted a hard mountain bike workout before Iceman. I started to kick myself once I pre-rode the course because it was really cross friendly (which makes sense since it was a cross race). There were a ton of long, flat grassy sections and nothing that technical.

For the first half of the race I was racing in 3rd place out of the women but managed to work my way up to bring home the beer for my husband. I love cross-so freaking painful but so much fun at the same time. I was amazed at how much snot and drool was running down my face at the same time...not a pretty picture, I know. However, as painful as it was, it was not as painful as racing for 24 hours at 7,000 ft. It's amazing how Nationals put everything in perspective for me :-)

The weather was absolutely amazing on Sunday so I headed out for more mileage with Juli after the race. She and her husband are house shopping right now and we ended up at an open house. Definitely a first time for me during a ride. Sadly the house was super over-priced and even more sad was the fact that there were no snacks. I was sorely disappointed.

I felt like the realtor did a double-take when he saw me and figured it was because he wasn't used to seeing people wearing helmets on their heads while walking through his houses. When I got home and looked in a mirror I figured out why he gave me a weird look. I had mud splattered all over me....I always forget about that!The realtor got off easy...I've been a lot muddier, that's for sure!

I should probably do something...

2011-10-20T11:38:00.007-05:00

Well, I think my rest and recovery phase is officially over. For the last 3 weeks I reached a sloth-like status. My coach MADE ME relax/eat lots of dessert/have a social life and it was definitely needed. Ok, he didn't mention that I should eat lots of dessert, but I'm pretty sure he wanted me to. For the most part, when I wasn't at work I was wearing PJ's and indulging in reality TV marathons. And since I have a ton more time on my hands I've been able to go out with friends who I normally don't get to see much. Fun!

I know I mentioned this a million times but this season was a long one and I planned on it being done the moment I crossed the finish line at Nationals. However, I completely forgot about one thing...Iceman. Scott signed me up last winter and it's been out of sight out of mind since then. You can't live in Michigan though and not hear about Iceman this time of year. It would be impossible. I have people who don't even own bikes asking me about the race.

Here are my thoughts about Iceman. My friends, I am screwed! Not only can I count on four fingers the times I've been on a bike since Nationals (which was the first weekend in Oct.) but I don't even remember the last time I did any sort of intensity. I think my last short, intense workout was in September. I might faint during the first mile of Iceman after the promoter says go. Seriously....

There's not much time before the race, but I am taking a few action steps before the race.

Step 1. I called up Andy to ask him to make me really, really fast in 2 weeks.
Step 2. I visited Jason today to get some serious work done. For some reason stretching and foam rolling seemed like too much work these last couple of weeks. You would think it would be easy to foam roll while watching TV, but like I said, it was too much work because it would involve getting off of the couch. As a result my muscles are completely tight and out of whack. I should know better...
Step 3. Time to visit the Ada Bike Shop and pick up my Selma. Ted took my Colorado gearing off my Selma because the gearing I ran at Nationals (32x21) would be waaaaaaay to easy for Iceman.
Step 4. I'm doing a cross race this Sunday. I considered doing one last weekend but opted out. This Sunday I am going to race no matter what. It's going to hurt like crazy but maybe it will shock my lungs into action!

Hanging out at the Ada Bike Shop

2011-10-17T05:19:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned that I really want a Mukluk???

Home alone. Well, not exactly alone

2011-10-13T22:36:00.003-05:00

I was supposed to travel to Milwaukee with Scott today to go see the Smashing Pumpkins in concert. Scott is a super-fan and had been looking forward to this concert for months. Me? I was excited to go to the concert before Nationals happened but I have to admit the trip started to seem a little less appealing afterwards. I'm in full homebody mode right now.

As fate would have it taking a road trip wasn't really an option for me anyways. I'm at home taking home of Ben and Naomi (who happens to be sporting a cone head).

I'm not sure exactly what she hit in our backyard during one of her sprints, but she managed to cut open the tops of both of her back feet and her thigh. Greyhounds have super thin skin, so just hitting a stick wrong can give them a cut. And when they hit a stick wrong while running 40 mph it can get bad quickly. On a side note, I wonder if I can get sponsorship from a veterinarian? Because lately I feel like I need one!

Ben has been very supportive and providing his butt for Naomi to rest on at night. However, he still wants to play with her really bad. Today we were in the backyard and he actually grabbed her cone in his mouth and started trying to pull her across the yard. I think he views the cone as a giant toy. Poor Naomi.

Scott will be back tomorrow morning and I'm hoping that we can get a nice ride in. My legs are FINALLY recovering from my adventure race. Today I rode for almost 3 hours and my legs felt really good while pedaling. However, all of the muscles I used for running are still sore.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing this weekend yet. Right now it looks like we might be in for some rain, and if that's the case I will probably stay inside. There's also a cross race this Sunday and I'm kind of tempted to race it for fun. If I do I can promise you one thing..it will be really ugly!

GR Urban Adventure race-Art Prize Addition

2011-10-11T20:53:00.005-05:00

This was my first adventure race and I had no clue what I was in for. I first heard about the race a few weeks before Nationals, texted my BFF Juli about it, and we were registered for it the next day. We would talk about it intermittently but I was so focused on Nationals that I didn't pay much attention to what the race entailed. In fact, when my coach asked about it I told him that we would be riding our bikes around for 4 hours and might have to do the limbo. And maybe toss eggs.

What got lost in translation was the fact that we were going to have to run. For some reason I thought that there were going to be 2 different races going on. One for runners and one for cyclists. But 3 days before the race Juli called and told me to bring running shoes...because the race involved both. I started to freak out a bit because I hadn't been running at all.

It was weird packing for the race. I had all the usual things...bike, helmet, sunglasses, hydrapak, cycling shoes...

And running shoes...I actually had to dust them off!

There were about 350 teams (700 racers) milling about at the start. The promoters went over a few basic instructions and then we were handed maps of the downtown area. It was our first glimpse of all the different checkpoints and challenges sprinkled around the city. We had exactly a half hour to figure out our route.

We had the liberty of choosing whether we wanted to bike or run first, but the rules were that you had to finish one discipline before transitioning to the other. Juli and I figured that we should get the running out of the way since neither of us had been running much (or at all in my case). We could hear all the teams around us plotting out their routes, and we followed suite. We didn't know if there were some adventure race secrets that we were missing out on, but just mapped the most logical path between checkpoints. Since this was our first race we decided to just play it by ear.

I was nervous at the start because I had no clue how I was going to feel. Since Nationals the most exercise I had gotten was getting off of the couch to go put a spoon in the Nutella jar (I think I covered some serious miles to the kitchen over the week) and I didn't want to slow Juli down. However once the promoter said "GO" I was off and running with my teammate. Let me tell you, instant shock. My legs were actually swearing at me.It was pretty brutal. Not only did we have to run close to 7 miles, but we were running as hard as we could from checkpoint to checkpoint. Half of the time we were on pavement, and half of the time we were on grass. Not to mention jumping over curbs and such.

Some of the checkpoints were easy. Get a punch and move on. Other checkpoints had challenges. They were way too involved to go into much detail but below is a picture of the checkpoint that we sucked at the most. It seems like it should have been a really simple challenge because all we had to do is count the number of monkeys that were hanging right side up (others were upside down) and then whisper the answer to a volunteer. However, if you look down the bridge you will see that there were a lot of monkeys...and they were swaying in the wind. It was really easy to lose count or forget which monkey we left off on. I can't even remember how many times we counted but let me tell you...we were on that bridge for a while.

Just in case you are wondering, there are 76 monkeys hanging the right side up...
Finally we were done with the run. I was NEVER SO HAPPY to see my bike. And it felt amazing to ride it after taking a week off. I was afraid that I would still be tired from Nationals but it felt so good to be riding at 700 ft instead of 7000 ft. I felt like I couldn't push hard enough if I tried. Ahhhhhhh....I will NEVER take riding at sea level for granted again.

I was riding my El Mariachi and Juli rode her Dos Niner. We made up some major time during the bike portion and our favorite part was being able to ride a little bit of singletrack. That being said, the challenges were still hard. At one point we had to fill up a tube (that had holes in it) with water from a lake using a bucket (that also had holes in it). Not only did we have to run down to the lake in our cycling shoes, but we also had to climb over wet slippery rocks. This challenge ended our race a bit prematurely because we accidentally got our map wet. It was a total adventure race rookie mistake but oh well. Live and learn.

Me and my BFF...
Even though the race completely kicked my butt I had a blast. Juli was so much fun to race with and we worked really well together. I couldn't have asked for a better teammate. Our field was pretty big (there were 100 female teams) and it was really close near the top. We finished in 3rd place, a minute behind 2nd place and a checkpoint behind 1st place. It was really cool to see so many people out racing. The best part of the race is where it started and finished...Founder's Brewery. It was great being able to sit outside with friends and celebrate the season. And we did a lot of celebrating :-)

I definitely plan on doing this race again next year. Hopefully I will be able to move by that time. Because trust me when I say that I AM WRECKED!!!! I was fatigued and a little sore after Nationals but nothing like how I feel after this adventure race. I can barely move. Every single part of my body is sore and I feel like people must think I'm being dramatic when I'm walking because I actually have to shuffle along like I'm 90 years old. No, right now a 90 year old could walk faster then me. I'm walking like a 100 year old :-)

Now I'm back to some heavy duty recovering. It's been 3 days since the race so I have to start feeling better eventually!!!

The sorest I've ever been....ever!

2011-10-11T05:21:00.003-05:00

I survived my first adventure race, but barely. Since then I can barely move. I suspect that it had something to do with the run. Actually I KNOW it had something to do with the run.

Full race report coming up later today!

Time for my legs to rally

2011-10-07T22:21:00.003-05:00

How am I spending the first weekend of my "off-season?"

Prepping race gear. Sheesh.

It seems surreal that a full week has passed since the 24 hour National Championships. It flew by and I barely accomplished anything...unless you count eating out of a nutella jar an accomplishment.

I always forget how long it takes for me to recover from a 24 hour race. I think I had so much adrenaline going through me the first couple of days that I didn't notice how sore I was and then BAM! Talk about feeling like I got hit by a truck. I haven't been on a bike since I crossed the finish line last Sunday. The weather has been beautiful and I've wanted to go riding every day, but then I would just take a nap instead :-)

That's about to change tomorrow. I'm racing my first 4 hour urban adventure race with Juli. It's part of art prize and there will be hundreds of teams competing. I'm sure my legs are going to feel great (insert sarcastic tone here). I'm NO WAY recovered but oh well, I'll just have Juli pull me. When we signed up for the race I missed the fact that we also have to run 5-7 miles. Oops! This is troublesome for three reasons.

1. I haven't run in months.
2. I have a huge bruise on my shin from a crash at Natz. It hurts just walking so running should be interesting.
3. We have to get around using a map...while running.

Agggggghhhh! I'm actually really excited about this. Our team name is Team Bad Ass. Nothing cocky about that, right? :-) Pics to come but for now I need to go to bed. We have to check in at 7 a.m. So much for sleeping in!

24 Natz race report- Part 2

2011-10-06T11:56:00.006-05:00

It was a relief once I was racing on the actual course. Leading up to the race, everyone that I talked to kept telling me that the course was super hard and technical, and I started to build it up in my head in monumental proportions. I basically pictured a world cup downhill course.

Once I actually started racing on it I could see what they were talking about. Yes the course was very, very technical. We don't have anything even remotely close to this type of riding in lower Michigan. And yes there was no part of the course where you could rest...especially on a SS. I had to stay on the gas the entire time and it was a challenge trying to clean all of the rocky uphills and downhills. Even so, I really, really liked the course. It was a lot of fun letting my bike fly over so many rocks. And the technicality of it kept me so occupied that I didn't have time to think about how my lungs were suffering at 7,000ft.

I took the lead during the first lap and focused on remaining as consistent as possible on each lap. It was brutally hot during the day, and I felt like I was baking in the sun. When the sun started to set I felt much better. In fact the "sun setting" lap was 5 minutes faster then my previous one.

Night was a different story and I started to feel much more fatigue in my legs and arms. The rocky climbs became much more challenging and I started to ram into rocks instead of lifting my front wheel over them. There were a ton of spectators on the course and they would always cheer loudly at the technical sections. At one point I was flying down a hill and they were all, "Yeaaaaah! Gooooo!" Well the downhill was immediately followed by a really technical uphill that I had to walk. They instantly fell silent and I could just feel them watching me in the dark. I told them that they didn't have to stop cheering just because I was walking and they started doing something close to war cries. It was awesome. I swear I could hear them cheering a mile away!

The rest of the night was pretty typical for a 24 hour race. More and more time passed in between seeing other riders and the rocks seemed to grow bigger and bigger. When I was little I used to have really bad asthma in the cold. I basically outgrew it but it seemed to come back towards morning. I think it was a combination of lots of dust, altitude, and the 40 degrees that I was racing in at night. Because I was on a SS I couldn't shift into an easier gear and find a rhythm. As a result my lungs were maxed out for most of the race.

While riding in the dark I kept my eyes glued to the sky for signs of daylight (Well, I kept my eyes glued when I wasn't bombing down a hill). Finally I heard one bird chirp, then another, and then the outer parts of the sky started to have a pink tinge to them. And then I could make out a rock and then another and all of a sudden it was daylight again. It's always such great feeling to be able to roll into the pit area in full daylight and see everyone's face.

Scott handed me a bagel with melted butter and cheese on it and I think it was the best thing I've ever eaten. After drinking some coffee I headed out for two more laps. The last lap was the worst because my lungs were completely closing up anytime I tried to pedal hard. And they were making this freaky high pitched squealing noise whenever I would breathe. As a result, I had to walk almost every hill and then stop and breathe deeply at the top. The next time I race at altitude I'm bringing an inhaler.

When I rolled into the pit after my 12th lap Scott and Ted were all big smiles! They told me that I could finish early since I had a few laps lead on second place. Woo hoo!

I don't think I will ever forget coming through the finish line :-)

I feel corny saying that "dreams come true," but in this case my dream really did come true. About a month before the race Andy had me working really hard for my final Nationals training block. Scott buckled down with figuring out the logistics of the trip and Ted was working on my bikes all the time. As a result we were talking Nationals 24/7. One night I had a dream that I won Nationals and it was the best dream ever. I was so excited in my dream and going up to everyone and saying, "can you believe that I'm the National Champion?" Ha ha, talk about a total let down when I woke up.

Scott took this picture of me after the race. I guess I wanted to make sure that I knew I wasn't dreaming again when I woke up :-)

24 hour Natz race report- Part 1

2011-10-04T21:54:00.022-05:00

24 hour solo racing is still my favorite type of racing out of all the different types of endurance races out there. I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with all the crazy/awesome experiences that come with it. That being said, it's also scary. You can go into a 24 hour race 100% prepared, but you never know how it's going to end up. A lot of unpredictable things can happen in a 24 hour race. Like the grown men dressed up as chickens who jumped out at me in the dark making chicken noises. At least I hope that there were men dressed up in chicken costumes on the course and it wasn't just a big hallucination :-) Come on, someone back me up. There were men dressed up as chickens out there, right???

Anyways, this was my 4th attempt at a National Championship jersey and my A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus, plus (ok, you get the idea) race of the year. I was racing in the SS division but it was really hard to figure out what gear to run because I had no clue what the course would be like. I was getting a lot of reports that it was super technical and would be hard for a 24, but that was about it. Luckily for me, my coach rode a lot of Palmer Park earlier in the season and told me to ride with a 32x20 or 32x21. I took both options out with me and figured I would decide after pre-riding the course.

I mentioned this in my previous post, but the course still wasn't marked (park rules) when Scott, Ted and I went to pre-ride it on Friday. However, I knew what gear I was going to run the moment I jumped on my bike. Ted had the 32x21 on my Selma and it didn't feel any different then the 32x18 that I usually race on at home. I was breathing hard just riding around in the parking lot...darn, darn altitude :-) I know that everyone is different with altitude and I wish that I were more like Scott. We were at 7,000 feet and I don't think he felt it at all. I seem to be on the other end of the spectrum and would get out of breath just talking. It was slightly demoralizing but I refused to focus on it. I went with the "mind over matter" approach and kept telling myself that I didn't feel a thing...We ran into a bunch of fellow endurance racers in the parking lot, and it was great catching up. After a late lunch, and a later dinner, it was time for bed.

And then it was race day. From the moment my alarm went off my heart was in my throat. I was so freaking nervous but also really excited. I was definitely more prepared for this 24 hour race then any in the past and I was excited to see what I could do. After a quick breakfast and a big coffee we all headed over to the race venue, Palmer Park. I had an awesome pit crew who did all the work setting up. All I had to do was sit and try to relax...and drink water.

Finally it was time to head over to the start area. I was wearing a hydrapak with about 40 ounces of water mixed with Powerbar sports mix and I felt like I was going to suck it dry before we even started. Andy had told me that I would need to drink a lot more liquids then normal, and I could tell that wouldn't be a problem.

With 5 minutes to go I was so nervous that I was pretty sure that I was going to puke at the start line. Finally the promoter said "GO" and we were off running. All that we had to do was run across a field to our bikes but it seemed like it took forever. I was breathing incredibly hard but felt like I was barely moving. And it was so dry out my throat felt like it was on fire. Finally, I reached my Selma!!!

I hopped on, heard everyone around me click into harder gears, and tried to spin as fast as possible to keep up. To tell you the truth, I don't remember if we went straight to the course or if we did a little extra riding in the field to break everyone up. All I remember is that I was happy when we started climbing the first paved hill to the actual course. Finally I was able to start moving forward!

To be continued.......

And that's a wrap!

2011-10-03T23:11:00.006-05:00

Winning the 24 hour solo SS National Championship was the perfect ending to a really great summer. I thought about this race all season long, and I can't even begin to describe how awesome it felt to put on the stars and stripes jersey. I still feel like I'm dreaming :-) I'm incredibly grateful to all of my sponsors/friends who helped me get to Colorado. It was a solo race but definitely NOT a solo effort.

Ted (my mechanic extraordinaire) flew back to Michigan this morning and Scott (husband/pit crew chief extraordinaire) is driving all of my gear back as I type. I feel a bit spoiled because I was able to stay an extra day in Colorado Springs to rest and recover. However, I'm not sure I did much recovering because my aunt and I tried to cram as much Colorado in a day as possible. I'm really tired.

I fly out tomorrow morning bright and early so I should probably try to catch a few zzzzz's. As beautiful as Colorado is, I'm really excited to get back to oxygen and moisture. My lips took a beating from the dryness/24 hour racing out here and they look awful. One more day and I'm pretty sure they would just fall off of my face.

Full race report when I get back to Michigan!!!

Greetings from Colorado!

2011-09-30T23:25:00.005-05:00

My trip out to Colorado definitely got off to a less then stellar start, but it's all good now. I left bright and early Thursday morning and arrived in Minneapolis with a good 3 hours to kill before my next flight. I called our dog sitter to check on Ben and she told me that he was sick. Apparently he puked in his crate and was trembling. The poor little guy. And then she informed me that she forgot she had to work in the evening so he would have to go back into his crate. What happened next is completely embarrassing because I completely lost it in the Minneapolis airport. I HATE crying in front of one person...but crying in the middle of the airport??? What can I say...I'm completely smitten with him.

I called my mom and she and my Dad picked up Ben and took him to the vet (his home away from home.) The verdict? I guess what we've known all along. He's a sensitive little guy and any changes or anything weird that he eats can make him sick.

A few hours later my mom sent me this picture...he's on the mend and staying at my parents for the remainder of my trip. I am so, SO relieved.
Now that everything is OK I can fully enjoy being here. I haven't talked about 24 hour Nationals much on my blog because I didn't want to jinx anything. I really wanted to do the race for the last 2 years, but it seemed like things always came up and I was never able to afford it. I have to admit that I was disappointed when I found out that it was going to be in Colorado because I really suck at altitude. In fact, there were a few months where I was definitely wavering. It's an expensive trip/race and to go in and be slightly oxygen deprived can be hard physically and mentally.

But I decided to just do it. Go big or go home, right? I've never raced a 24 hour race at altitude, so it will be interesting to see what happens. And I'm racing in the SS division, which I've never done for 24 hours either...eek!

Today we went to check out the course. I was very anxious to see what it was like because I've heard some really alarming reports about it. Mostly that the course is extremely technical and hard.

Scott and Ted rode their Mukluks and it was pretty cool to see how they floated over the sand. Meanwhile I was fishtailing all over the place.
Unfortunately the promoter was just starting to mark the course (park rules) so we barely got to ride it. This is the first time I'll be racing a 24 hour National Championship without pre-riding it but oh well. I have 24 hours to get to know it, right?

I probably should be worried about all of this but I'm not. I'm actually really psyched to race. Hopefully I still feel this way at 2 a.m. tomorrow. And hopefully I don't get so distracted by the views that I ride off a rocky ledge....it's beautiful here!

Not sweet dreams....

2011-09-29T07:49:00.004-05:00

I've been pretty good about not getting too cuh-razy before races this year, but after my blog post yesterday I went back to bed and had a crazy pre-race dream. It's been a while since I've had one. This dream was slightly different then the normal ones, where I usually miss the start of the race because I'm looking for a sock, or where I'm racing my bike in a house. This time I was racing in Wisconsin (on the 9-Mile course) and I lost my hydrapak on the course. And in my dream I was dying of thirst. So while I was bushwhacking through the weeds to find it I also noticed that I was accidentally racing with gears in the SS division....yikes! I think I must have been pedaling in my sleep too because I woke up in a full sweat.

I wish I could say the rest of my day was more relaxing then my dream..but it wasn't. Lots of last minute errands, cleaning and typing up instructions for our dog sitter. Naomi goes over to my parents house but we have a dog sitter stay with Ben. Right now my parents house is not puppy proofed at all, and there are too many shoes all over the place for Ben to find. Basically it's his favorite place to visit...because it's one giant puppy playground.

Oops...more updates later. It's time to go up in the air!

Oh-eM-Gee

2011-09-28T06:03:00.002-05:00

Let the racing begin!!!

I have back to back race weekends coming up. I can't wait. Or at least I think I can't wait :-)

I feel like I've been packing for a month and as usual I've gone completely overboard. It's what, the end of September, and yet I've packed enough cold weather gear that I could ride in 25 degree weather and be perfectly fine. Hopefully it doesn't come to that...

I've decided that I'm taking a nap, aka. going back to bed. I've been up since 5 a.m. to finish packing and it's only 7 a.m. now. I feel like I should stay up and be productive but my eyes will barely stay open. Plus it's raining, and Naomi and Ben are snuggled on the couch under a comforter. Ben is actually snoring! It's a perfect day to go back to bed if you ask me!

I'll post more on my upcoming races later...

There is a Mukluk in the house!!!

2011-09-21T13:50:00.006-05:00

I've been keeping Ted busy this week at the Ada Bike Shop. Every day it seems like I'm bringing a bike in or taking one out. I was super excited yesterday when I went into the shop because Ted was building up a Mukluk 3, and it turned out to be for Scott.

Ted...taking a break to smoke a carrot :-)
I'm heading out for a 1.5 hour ride but I guarantee you that I'm going to hop on the Mukluk when I get back to see how it rides. It's a size large (too big for me) but I'm sure I'll still be able to launch off of a few curbs :-) Scott has had a lot of bikes, but this is the first one I've ever been jealous of. And I'm really, really, really jealous!

Speaking of being jealous, check out this article on the QBP blog. It's about the humane society visiting the facility. Scott and I were able to get a tour of QBP when I raced the Salsa 2-4 last year and there were many, many reasons why it would completely rock to work there. And of course one of the biggest reasons for me would be that you get to take your dogs to work.

Naomi would just require a couch, and wouldn't move for the entire day...
And as for Ben, well, I think I could actually hire Ben out. He could either be the greeter (and licker) at the front desk or work for product development. Trust me, if you want to see how durable something is...just drop it on the floor. Ben will do the testing for you :-)

Signs of fall...

2011-09-18T20:32:00.005-05:00

I forgot how much I love riding in the fall! I started to see the first signs on my bike ride today. Most of the trees were still green...
But every once in a while I would round a corner and POW!
All in all it was a good weekend though it went by WAY TOO FAST (again). I rode for 4.5 hours on Saturday and then had to wake up at 5:45 a.m. today to go into work. When I got out of work I took Ben for a 45 min walk and then rode my bike for close to 6 more hours.

Both rides were awesome but I'm really glad that tomorrow is a rest day. First of all, my legs are toast. Second of all, I need to bring both of my bikes into the Ada Bike Shop to have Ted work on them. All of the racing/riding I did this season is catching up all at once and my bikes need some major TLC. I'm pretty sure that the rear brake pad on my SS is completely gone, and it made for some interesting cornering today on the trail.

I can't believe it but I'm going to bed before 10 p.m. tonight. That almost never happens!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2011-09-15T21:34:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to store up as many dirt riding hours as possible these days. This picture is from the trail nearest my house. It shuts down this weekend for hunting (BOO!!!) and won't re-open until February. Somehow knowing that I can't ride the trail makes me want to ride it more...until I see the hunters walking around with bows and guns. That kind of makes it a little less appealing.

This summer went by WAY too fast (sigh). Only one bike and one bike only will make me feel better about the upcoming winter. Yeah you guessed it...a ____________! Rumor has it that the Ada Bike Shop has another shipment coming in, and I think Scott's will be in that shipment. I might have to steal it from him when he's not looking!

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the sun for as long as I can. I have a new hobby...playing catch. Ben loves chasing after balls but the only problem is that he hasn't quite mastered bringing them back to me. And Naomi has started playing too, but she chases after Ben. So basically I throw the ball, Ben will run after it, but once he gets to the ball he will wander off and get distracted by a stick or something. Naomi will run after Ben, but when he wanders off she loses all interest too. So basically I'm the one who has to retrieve the ball. I guess I'm getting extra cardio, right???

Ben relaxing while I go chase after his tennis ball...we need to work on his endurance :-)

Not at Interbike...

2011-09-12T14:51:00.009-05:00

This weekend flew by so fast I almost feel like it didn't happen! It started with a taco truck...

And ended with a salted caramel frappachino....

Somewhere in between was about 11 hours of riding in 2 days. Luckily my BFF joined me for a good portion of my rides. Otherwise I would have been talking to myself :-)

This is the first year in a long time that I'm not going to Interbike. I'm disappointed that I can't drool over new bike stuff and visit with sponsors/friends, but not disappointed to miss a year at sin city. I just have too much to do here in the next couple of weeks.

Plus let's face it. If I were at Interbike I would just sit on a Mukluk the entire time anyways. I'm slightly obsessed with getting one right now. Ok, slightly is an understatement. I'm really, really obsessed. Scott and a few other friends just ordered them and I AM DYING to join in on long winter rides. Especially since it's winter 10 months of out of the year here...

Not giving in yet

2011-09-08T21:41:00.003-05:00

The weather this week has been a lot cooler and I've been half tempted to pull out my arm warmers and wear them. But that hasn't happened for two reasons.

1. If I wear arm warmers I'm acknowledging that summer is over (which means winter is coming) and I don't want to do that yet.

2. I don't know where my arm warmers are. I have a vague memory of myself in early spring shoving my arm warmers somewhere and thinking, "I won't need these for a very long time." If only I remembered where I shoved them. Who knows, maybe they are hiding with all of my missing socks.

Tomorrow is a rest day so I plan on cleaning the house and finding all of my missing cold weather gear. That is, I will attempt to clean the house if I can actually move my legs and arms. I'm pretty tired after today's workout. Andy had me doing intervals and then afterwards I did strength training with Jason. I suspect that I'm going to be sore tomorrow because my arms were actually shaking when I was trying to read tonight. Yikes! Maybe that's a sign that I need to do a lot more upper strength training this winter. It's pretty pathetic if I can't hold up a book after doing push-ups.

Well, time for bed. This is going to be a busy, busy weekend. I just need to get through one more day of work. Not only do I have some really long rides planned, but I get to watch my little sis race in the Reed's Lake Triathlon. It's really early on Saturday morning and I'm going to be so, so, so, SOOOOO happy that it's NOT ME jumping into the cold lake. I'll be drinking coffee and cheering from the sidelines instead!

Labor Day weekend

2011-09-05T11:22:00.008-05:00

So far this has been the perfect weekend. Even though I love summer, fall is my favorite time of year. Probably because the temps are cooler and most of my rides revolve around apple cider and doughnuts!

On Saturday I headed out for a 5.5 hour mountain bike ride with my BFF Juli. She rode her Dos and I tried to keep up on my Selma. By the end of our ride I was a snotty, sweaty mess...which means it was a good ride :-)

Our grand plan was to do a du-trifecta, meaning we were going to ride from our houses out to 3 local trails and ride them all twice. It took almost an hour to get to the first trail (Luton) so we realized we were going to have to cut down our plans a little bit.

Juli @ Luton....Practicing my mad rock skills on the ONE AND ONLY rock pile in Grand Rapids :-)

After a lap at Luton we took a quick detour to a nearby gas station to buy some ride food.

If only I could get sponsored by Rockstar and Payday bars....

Pow!
For some reason we thought it was really funny to take pictures of ourselves with our ride food. We definitely got a few strange looks from people filling up their tanks with gas!

Once we were hopped up on Rockstar we headed over to the ski area to do 2 laps. The course was pretty sandy and I had to run (I mean walk) my Selma up one of the climbs in the middle of the course. BOO!

Juli checking out her muscles...they are pretty impressive!
Last but not least was Egypt Valley. We were already almost 4.5 hours into our ride by the time we hit the trail so we only rode 3 sections of the trail. By the time we got home I had my 5.5 hours in for the day. Definitely a FUN workout and I couldn't ask for a better training partner. In fact, I think Juli needs to do the NUE series next year. I already know someone that she could travel with :-)

The weather for the rest of the week looks amazing. Temps are going to be in the low-70's each day which is perfect riding weather in my book. The only bummer is that we are losing 3 minutes of daylight each day. It doesn't sound like much, but I can tell the difference. Each week day it seems like I have to cut my rides a little bit shorter and ride home a little bit faster. It's the only bummer about fall.

Off to a good start

2011-09-01T06:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm officially 29 34 years old. That doesn't seem quite right. I feel closer to my facebook (yes, I took the test) age of 12 :-)

My b-day couldn't have come at a better time as I recently dropped my iphone for the thousandth time. The screen completely shattered and I had it taped together with scotch tape. It was very awesome looking but not very effective. So Scott surprised me with a new and improved phone. Hopefully I can avoid dropping this one for at least a bit...no more pedaling and texting :-)

Only 2 more days until the weekend....and I'm counting down every second. I don't have any huge plans, but I do have a few long rides planned. Ride partners are welcome.

Hurray for the weekend!

2011-08-26T09:46:00.002-05:00

My weekend officially started today and it's off to a good start. I was able to sleep in, go for a looooong dog walk, and now I'm making more coffee! If only every day could be like this :-)

And let's not forget the best-est-est part of the week. Ben is no longer puking up poop. HUR-Freaking-RAY!!! He loves giving kisses though, and has landed a few right on my mouth. I just try not to think about it....

This past week was pretty mellow ride wise. I had a few rest days etc, which were definitely needed. And then my coach had me do a high cadence workout which I completely suck at. I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way I became a masher. If you ever want to see me blow up really fast, ask me to hold a cadence over 100. It's ugly and definitely something I need to work on.

For the rest of the weekend I have some good rides scheduled. And the weather looks like it's going to cooperate. Summer in Michigan is so awesome it (almost) makes up for how cold Michigan winters can be. Right now it's 72 degrees and there isn't a cloud in a sky. It's time to ride. Be back in a few hours!

Pooped out...

2011-08-22T12:52:00.009-05:00

Today is all about recovery and our house is in full-on lazy mode. I'm pooped out from training, Scott is pooped out from working on the roof all weekend, Naomi is pooped out because she is a greyhound, and Ben is pooped out...because he went everywhere in our house.

My weekend got off to a crappy (ha ha) start when I got home from work Friday afternoon. Scott always comes home from work at lunch to walk the dogs, and decided to put a new comfy bed in Ben's crate. Ben is really good about not chewing things in the house, but apparently does not follow the same rule for his crate.

This is what I came home to...a chewed up bed and a strong smell of doggy poo. I couldn't figure out the poo smell because Ben is completely house trained and never has accidents in the house.

The crazy thing is that there was no poo (minus a poo dog print) in the actual crate. That's because Ben got sick, and then decided to clean up his crate by eating it right up. It was very considerate of him.

I feel the need to reiterate what happened. Our little 10 month old puppy chewed up his bed, got diarrhea, and then ate it. Seriously? Who does that????

I took Ben for a walk and he seemed OK. However the moment we got inside he started getting sick all over our house. Pooping and puking like it was nobody's business. And I probably don't need to mention what he was puking up, do I? Our house will never be the same.

Needless to say, we spent the next couple of hours in the doggy emergency room. They gave Ben x-rays to make sure he didn't have anything in his stomach (like a part of his bed) and there was nothing. His prognosis? Perfectly healthy except for a sensitive stomach.

I did not have a good night's sleep as we had to keep waking up in the middle of the night to take Ben outside. It's funny, we always said that we weren't going to have kids but I feel like we ended up with a few anyways :-)

I still woke up pretty early on Saturday to get my workout in before heading downtown to watch the Crit National Championships.

Ben and Scott were in deep recovery mode and it was tempting to join them. However, I managed to be pedaling by 8 a.m.
I felt like I was sleep pedaling for the first half-hour and was happy to have my friend Juli join me. You know you have a good BFF when they do hill intervals with you at 9 in the morning on a Saturday! After riding for 3 hours we headed downtown to watch the race.

Our friend Dan Jansen was one of the paramedics on duty...

It was a lot of fun watching the crit. However, no part of me wants to race one. In fact if you ever see me lined up to do one it means that something has gone horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY wrong.

By Saturday night order had been restored to our house and I was able to get a good night's sleep. Sunday couldn't have been better as the weather was absolutely gorgeous out. My coach had a 6.5 hour endurance ride on tap for the day and I had a blast. I love riding this time of year.

Next up? Not sure. I'm definitely going to soak up the rest of summer, but first....it's time for a nap!

Perfect!

2011-08-18T13:24:00.005-05:00

After Pando my El Mariachi had to go straight to the Ada Bike Shop. Ted (my mechanic) had to give it some major bike love as I managed to go through a brand new set of brake pads in 5.5 hours. My fork lockout was also jammed with mud and my bike would barely shift. What can I say? I like to keep Ted busy :-)

Yesterday I picked up my bike and immediately went for a 3-hour endurance ride. I felt like my bike was brand new. Not only was my bike riding great, but my legs felt great. I love days like that :-) I was having so much fun riding my bike that I kind of lost track of time on the trail until I noticed that it was getting dark...oops!

Needless to say the last half hour of my endurance ride turned into a 30 minute time trial effort. I keep forgetting that it's getting darker earlier (boo) and I had to beat the setting sun...

It was completely dark by the time I turned into our driveway and I was pretty sure that everyone would be worried about the fact that I was riding in the dark.

Not so much...in fact, I don't think anyone bothered to look up :-)

The crit national championships are this weekend and they are only a 15 minute bike ride away from my house. I absolutely can't wait. The only problem is that I'm schedule for longer rides this weekend. That means I'm going to have to wake up really, really early to get them done so that I can make it down to the races in time. I might have to ride with coffee in my water bottles!

5.5 hours of Pando-race report

2011-08-15T08:49:00.005-05:00

This past Saturday was the 6 (or 12) hours of Pando. The race started at noon and I went to bed Friday night extremely happy that I didn't have to wake up super early. I actually got a decent amount of sleep for the night before a race.

However, I wasn't as happy when I woke up in the morning to the sound of pouring rain and thunder. After the Wausau monsoon, I wasn't too excited to race in the rain again. Luckily it stopped before I had to pack up the car.

After hearing about course conditions (sloppy) I decided to race on my El Mariachi since it was set up with Karma's (my #1 favorite mud tire). Pando was just a training race and I could tell from the start that my legs were a little tired. Especially every time I climbed up the toboggan hill, which was often. The course was less then 5 miles long so every 20-some minutes I would be back at it. I just kept reminding myself that my legs weren't supposed to feel good for this race, and then found other things to focus on...like the dark clouds rolling in.

About 3 hours in I switched out my hydrapak for a new one and then started climbing the toboggan hill for the millionth time. All of a sudden I heard someone calling my name. I looked to my right and there was my mom on the side of the trail. I swear, she materialized out of nowhere. At the time I was trying to chase down a few guys in front of me and she started yelling that severe storms had touched down north of the trail and that I had to stop racing. Ha! Typical mom. I felt like I was 12 again.

I told her not to worry and kept going, but half-way through the lap I started to get worried. It was so dark I could barely see and it started thundering so loud I felt like the trees were shaking around me. Whenever I hit an open field it felt like the lightening was so close that I started to panic a tiny bit, which made me start riding like a moron. I couldn't stay on the trail for the life of me. I kept trying to pedal faster but my body was not cooperating. Clearly my legs weren't worried about being struck by a big bolt from above.

I was sharing a tent with Farm Team racing friends Steve and Nate and saw that Steve had lowered the tent and was underneath it. Once my lap was counted I went to join him since the race was temporarily stopped. It had cooled off considerably and I tried to think warm thoughts since my brilliant self only brought one kit. I was stuck in my wet clothes for the remainder of the race.

Luckily we didn't have to stop long, and I was able to get a few more laps in. Those laps were NOT FUN as the course was unrideable in parts. My chain kept wanting to seize up whenever there was any sort of tension and I constantly felt like I was one pedal stroke away from a mechanical. On my second to last lap I stopped to hose off my bike but that didn't help. Finally I decided to quit tempting fate and called it good after 5.5 hours of riding. I knew that I was in first place but had no clue how many laps I had in. I finished at 5:25 with 13 laps...good for 1st place overall.

Now it's time to see how great my laundry detergent really is...

Finally recovered (I think!)

2011-08-08T15:27:00.003-05:00

This past week was pretty blah. Nothing much to report on, just me trying to recover. It always takes me a good week to recover from a 12 hour race. There's no way around it.

For the first time (in a very, very long time) my training and recovery weren't the first thing on my mind each day. Last week Scott switched out Ben's dog food to this all natural stuff and IT DID NOT go well. I will not go into a lot of details but my week involved A LOT of cleaning and A LOT of mad dashes outside (at 5 a.m.) with baby Ben dragging his butt on our carpet. So yeah, I had all that to keep me occupied :-)

Everything is back to normal now though, even my legs. I'm looking forward to getting a good week of training in. Especially because the weather is breaking. There is even talk that temps might drop to the 70's. It's going to feel amazing after the crazy hotness we've had these last couple of weeks.

Initially I was planning on driving up to Marquette this coming weekend to race Ore to Shore, but work is super busy this week and I'm going to race a 6 hour that's closer to home instead. I'm bummed to be missing Ore to Shore because it's one of my all time favorite races, but not bummed to be missing the 7-8 hour drive. Instead I'm going to get a really good week of training in and still be able to cap it off with a training race.

Puppy school is hard work!

2011-08-03T06:20:00.004-05:00

Last night was Ben's last puppy school class. Next week he will be tested and then graduates.

Hahahahahhahahahhahahahahah.

I laugh because little Ben has a loooooooooooong way to go.

Here's the story. He's 100% perfect when alone. Ok, make that 90% perfect. If we are walking and dogs bark at him, he looks the other way. He can sit and lie down with the best of them. And he's the best cuddler I've ever seen.

HOWEVER, if he's walking with Naomi it's another story. Then he's in a puppy frenzy trying to eat grass and do cartwheels while on a leash.

So last night the teacher was using Ben to teach us how to teach the dogs to stay. Ben learned really quickly and I was beaming with pride. Go Ben! But then we went out into the store to teach the dogs to come. The instructor told us that she was going to put the dogs on a 30ft leash and we would have to call our dogs from way down the aisle.

The other two dogs in the class (Charlie and Jerry) completely nailed it. Then it was Ben's turn. I walked down the aisle completely confident that Ben would run right to me.

I called....no Ben.

Ben decided to run down a different aisle then the one I was in.

I tried again. Ben at least came down the right aisle, but stopped mid-way and started shopping. Apparently he wants bird food.

Then the instructor told me to start "meow-ing." First of all, I didn't want to do it because I don't think Ben has ever seen a cat before. Second of all, he's really smart. He would know the "meows" were coming from me. But the instructor was insistent so I started "meowing like an idiot." And what did Ben do? Ben didn't move at all. He just plopped down on the ground and rolled over.

The instructor gave me one more chance and when I called Ben he turned in the other direction and went to play with his buddy Jerry.

Total failure.

Clearly we have much practicing to do this weekend. And I need to find a treat that Ben really, really likes. A treat so good that he will ditch his dog friends and come to me! Right now his little Cesar Milan treats aren't doing it for him...

Wausau 6/12/24 (a picture-less) race report

2011-08-02T12:59:00.006-05:00

The Wausau 24 is one of my all-time favorite races and I look forward to it every year. The course is fun, the promoter does an awesome job, and the people are great. Whenever I go there I feel like I'm at a big bike-family reunion.

Scott and I left really early Friday morning so that we could arrive at the venue with enough time to set up camp and pre-ride the course. The race had several different divisions and my plan was to race my Selma SS in the women's open 12 hour solo division. During the drive over I told Scott that I was considering racing the first lap on my El Mariachi so that I could put it in the big ring and try to get the fastest lap. Scott gave a gasp and told me that I wasn't a true singlespeeder. Which I'd like to point out I never claimed to be in the first place. I like racing with gears and I like racing without them. What-EVER.

Anyways, I hung my head in shame and decided that I would stay on my SS the entire time. No shifting allowed at this race :-)

After a quick pre-ride, lots of talking and eating, we settled down in our tent and listened to giant mosquitoes attack our tent from the outside. It was scary! Wisconsin mosquitoes are just like the ones in Michigan...blood-sucking monsters!

The race started at 10 a.m. and I was dripping with sweat by 9 a.m. Not a good sign at all. My goal was to pace myself evenly throughout the race (even though I still wanted the fastest lap) and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I was racing with a bottle of water on my bike and had my hydrapak filled with powerbar drink mix. Lemon-lime! I never get sick of it.

We started with a typical Lemans start. I think we only had to run about 1/4 of a mile, but it was 1/4 of a mile too long in my book. It's hard to imagine that I did a 10 mile trail run this spring, because I was barely moving. It hurt so freaking bad. During the run I promised myself that IF I made it to my bike alive I would start running a little bit again.

I was so, so happy to reach my bike. I swear I heard everyone switch into their big rings all at once and I had to pedal my brains out to try and stay up on the doubletrack. Once we hit the singletrack I was able to move up a few spots, but for the most part it was wheel to wheel for the first 11 miles.

The trail was much clearer during the second lap and I ended up getting the fastest female lap! Woo hoo...and all without shifting! From that point on I just worked on building my lead. It was super hot out but my legs felt good and my laps were pretty consistent. It was the perfect trail for racing my SS on. The only difficult part was on a few tight sections of trail that had a lot of rocks and roots. Normally I would shift into an easier gear and pedal through but I obviously couldn't do that. Instead I was doing a lot of half-pedal strokes and coasting.

My legs felt good throughout the race, but during the 5th lap they started to feel awesome. At first I didn't realize that the temps had dropped, but once I looked at the sky I realized a storm was moving in. It turned really dark and windy and I loved every minute of it. Especially when it started thundering and lightening. At times I felt like I was riding in a river and it was FUN!!!

Obviously not safe though, and the promoter had to postpone the race. I was bummed because I hate stopping, and was ESPECIALLY bummed when I found out that my 5th lap wasn't going to count. It was because they had to pull some people behind me off the trail, so it wouldn't have been fair. Oh well, everyone was in the same boat. Since I couldn't go out for another lap I did the next best possible thing. Changed into dry gear, climbed into our truck with the heat blasting, ate a ham sandwich, drank a red bull and then took a small nap. It was kind of nice!

Exactly 2 hours later we were able to start again with a mass start. I was concerned that my legs would feel stiff, but they felt really good. It must have been the ham sandwich and mini nap. The rest of the race passed in a blur and by night I had enough of a lead that I was able to finish an hour early.

I am really excited about now I felt during the whole race and I never wished for gears once. Or maybe I did, and I've already forgotten about it :-) Now I'm trying to recover quickly. I'm not that sore, but I AM tired. I think I'm more tired from sleep deprivation then the actual race. I have the hardest time sleeping after an endurance race and it was even more of a problem in the tent.

Sadly I don't have any podium pictures but oh well. The awards weren't until noon and we had to leave early to get back to Michigan at a decent hour.

And we're back!

2011-08-01T04:23:00.003-05:00

I am 100% positive that I will be dragging today. We drove all day Friday, raced all day Saturday, and then drove all day Sunday to get back home in time for work. Technically Scott did most of the driving in the car while I slept, but still.......

It was worth it though. The Wausau 6/12/24 was just as fun as I remember it being. Even with an epic storm in the middle.

Full race report coming right up (after work)!

2 days and then we're outta here!

2011-07-27T04:18:00.002-05:00

The countdown is on until my next race. Things have been insanely busy around here and I have a feeling that I am going to be doing some last minute packing. The good news is that I can pretty much pack in my sleep for an endurance race.

And now that I said that I'm going to forget something huge.

Yesterday I got worked on by Jason and feel so much better today. My back muscles were super tight...not exactly ideal going into a 12 hour race. I think I'm going to try to get worked on one more time before the race. Just in case anyone was wondering :-) Until then I have strict orders to foam roll, foam roll and more foam roll!

To be honest I keep wanting to chicken out from racing my SS for 12 hours. I'm not going to though. I'm racing with the same gear ratio I raced with at Lumberjack (32x18). I basically use that gear for everything. Not sure what will happen if I ever have to change it :-)

Well time for work. I've been going in at 6 a.m. all week which is super early for me. My 12 hour race doesn't start until 10 a.m. and we are camping on site. It's going to feel so great to sleep in a bit and not have to rush around in the morning!

Check it out...

2011-07-20T13:50:00.004-05:00

Scott wrote a guest blog for the Salsa website about crewing for a 24 hour race. He is the best pit crew anyone could ask for and I am willing to rent him out for a large sum of money.

All joking aside, I am so, so, SO thankful to have Scott crewing and Ted wrenching for me. I could not do it without them. Now I just need to remember that the next time I get grumpy at 2 a.m. in the morning!!!

You can read Scott's post here...

Hottest recovery ride EVER!

2011-07-19T20:57:00.003-05:00

It's been crazy hot here these last couple of days. I guess it's good because I'm finally getting used to the heat, but at the same time I feel like I can barely breathe. Today all I had to do was a 1-hour recovery ride and I was still completely drenched with sweat when I got home. However, I am not complaining!!! Last winter I promised myself that I would never complain about hot weather and I'm sticking to it :-)

My next race is coming right up and it's one of my all time favorites. I'm talking about the 6/12/24 hours of Wausau. Also known as the venue where 24 hour Nationals should move back to :-) This year I'm racing the 12 hour again, but I'm going to do it on my Selma. I've never done a lap race on my SS before and for some reason I'm a little nervous about it. Not sure why because I raced on it for 8:22 at Lumberjack...what's a few more hours???

In other news, it's almost been a month since we adopted Ben and I couldn't be more happy with him. He's pretty much the happiest and sweetest dog I've ever met. We had puppy class tonight and the first half hour is basically a free for all. There's another puppy about the same age as Ben named Jerry (yep, Ben and Jerry) and they basically wrestle the entire time. Ben was so tired after class tonight I almost couldn't get him into the car. He hasn't moved since and I'm highly amused by his snoring. He takes after Scott.

On second thought....

2011-07-15T22:55:00.003-05:00

I've been playing around with the idea of doing a XC race this weekend for training, but I've nixed that idea after today's ride. No racing for me. I'm sticking to my coaches initial plan for some good old tempo intervals.

My legs are completely shot. Lately Andy has me doing a lot of steady state intervals where I'm riding at the top end of my threshold. I will be the first to admit that I completely suck at these intervals. Clearly I need to keep doing them and hopefully one day I can make it through a workout without exploding. Yesterday Scott and I were watching the tour after my workout and they showed post race footage of some of the riders cramping after they crossed the finish line. I stood up to go get something and guess what happened? My legs were one big cramp. Scott thought that I was being dramatic but that was not the case at all. I think my legs were just full on revolting against me :-)

Today was supposed to be a recovery ride but it was my mom's birthday and she wanted to go for a ride. I'm not sure exactly what happened but I ended up riding for close to 4 hours. This is the main reason why I'm not racing tomorrow. There is no point for driving a total of 5 hours to race 28 miles with tired legs. It would take me all day to finish...probably. Instead I plan on sleeping in, going to the farmer's market, walking Ben, and then doing my tempo intervals with a small detour to the mountain bike trail after. It sounds like a really good day to me!

Heat Wave

2011-07-11T12:05:00.008-05:00

It's been a week since my last bruised and bloody post. I'm STILL bruised, but less bloody :-) All of a sudden summer seems to be flying by, and I'm trying to make the most of it. Between training, greyhound walks and puppy walks, I'm outside whenever I'm not at work.

After a week of intervals (ouch) I was able to get some mountain bike action on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I took my El Mariachi out for a 2.5 hour ride and then on Sunday I hooked up with my friends Bonnie and Barry for 5 hours on my Selma. I'm lucky enough to have 3 different trails (Cannonsburg, Egypt Valley and Luton) within riding distance and we did the trifecta.

The hardest part of the ride was trying to keep up with Bonnie and Barry on the road while riding my SS. I had to spin my brains out on each downhill, and actually looked forward to any sort of incline.

And shade. After riding on the road being on a trail covered by trees felt amazing!

Bonnie and Barry riding at Luton....
My legs were complete toast by the end of our ride. Even though we mostly rode at an endurance pace, I still had to work hard to get up a few of the climbs.

I came home to find our two dogs (and Scott) chilling in the air conditioning. It's been a few weeks since we've gotten Ben and he's doing really well. He's super good with kids, and really, really happy all of the time. As an added bonus he's stopped trying to lie down in front of oncoming traffic. Thank goodness!!! We still have much to work on with him though. I've already learned that if I don't see or hear Ben it means that he has a sock (or some other sort of gadget) in his mouth. We actually own a baby gate now...something I never thought would be in our home.

Naomi has finally allowed Ben on her "bed" and he spends a lot of time watching her...
I think he's learning some greyhound habits...

StonyCreek Marathon race report

2011-07-03T08:52:00.004-05:00

The good news is that I did it and I finished :-)

I'm really glad that I went and raced on Saturday, but I will be the first to admit that it was hard to get motivated. My BFF Juli opted to stay in Grand Rapids to compete in a road stage race, and Namrita and Eddie decided to get a few hard training days in since they are racing the Creampuff next weekend.

I hit the snooze button 4 times (sorry Scott!) before finally climbing out of bed at 5:15 a.m. After a quick breakfast I threw my gear into the car and hit the road. Stonycreek is about 2.5 hours away, and I was hoping to get there a little earlier then when I did the 6 hour race.

There was a huge line at registration and by the time I got my number plate it was 9:45. The race started at 10:00! Yikes. Talk about zero time for a warm-up. The course was running in the opposite direction then the 6-hour race and temps were already really hot. I felt like my blood was boiling just standing at the start line.

We had a really strong women's field and before I knew it we were off. I had a good position (right behind first) but decided to take the lead the moment we hit singletrack. I KNEW that I was going too hard for a 50 miler, but I really didn't care. I was doing the race for a hard training effort and I was having a blast racing my bike.

I started to catch some of the expert men and found a good group to ride with. Before I knew it lap 1 was done. Lap 2 was more of the same and I kept my pace pretty high. It was getting really hot though and I was starting to feel it. I do OK in hot weather, but I have to acclimate first. To go from 70 degree weather to temps in the mid-90's was awful!!!

Towards the end of my second lap I passed a group of guys on a downhill and basically thought that I was a rockstar. Mental note: I AM NOT a rockstar. I took a downhill corner WAY too fast on a gravel road and slid sideways with my bike on top of me. To add insult to injury I couldn't unclip from my bike for a few minutes so I was wiggling around like a moron!

After I finally unclipped I hopped on my bike and started pedaling again but it was hard to get back into the race. It had been a long time since I've crashed and I think I felt like I was in shock for a few minutes. On Lap 3 I really started to feel the heat. Once again, it was awful. I wanted to puke and pass out at the same time. This is where I really started to feel the effects from going out so hard. I started the race with 60 ounces in my hydrapak and 35 miles into the race it was completely empty. And then I got caught by the second place female. She and I battled it out at the 6 hour for the first 2 laps and I knew she was super strong. I decided to stay on her wheel and try to regroup. We came through the transition area together and I couldn't find the water bottle that I had set on the side of the course. I watched Lynn get a fresh hand-off from her support person and wanted to ask him for a bottle as well :-)

My 4th and 5th laps were nothing to brag about. I was completely out of water by the end of my 4th lap and had to stop and find my bottle. Looking back I wish I would have had a second hydrapak on the course...I totally underestimated how hot it was going to be. I finally started to feel better towards the end of the 5th lap and then it happened again. Another crash. A giant stick got wedged in my front wheel and stopped it completely. I did an endo going uphill and slammed my shin into my pedal and my arm into a tree. Definitely not my day.

I had to settle for 2nd on the day. I think my finishing time was 3:59, not too shabby for how hot it was...and how much time I spent on the ground.

After the race my friend Erin Vicary (she had a great race and finished 3rd) gave me an ice cold bottle of Gatorade and we rode our bikes over to the lake. We didn't bother taking off our cycling shoes...we just walked in and sat down in our kits. It felt un-freaking-believable.

I think that was the hottest I've ever been during a race but everyone was in the same boat. Afterwards there were a lot of stories going around about epic blow-ups and crashes. The east side of the state hasn't gotten the same amount of rain that we've gotten here, and the course was the loosest I've ever seen it. In fact, I still have some of the course embedded in my skin today.
I left after the podium and was definitely feeling less then human on the drive home. Luckily I was able to meet Namrita and Eddie for a quick iced chai and egg and sausage sandwich from Rochester. After about an hour of sitting in air conditioning I finally felt better. And thanks to Eddie and Nam for sitting at the same table as me. I can't imagine what I must have smelled like after racing 50 miles and then sitting in a muddy lake :-)

100% addicted...

2011-06-30T14:49:00.003-05:00

My favorite part of summer (besides mountain biking and warm weather) is all the fresh fruits and veggies available at local farms...

These strawberries are fresh from the Versluis farm and I can't stop eating them...

I wonder how long it will take for Scott and I to finish these off? I'm guessing 2 days, maybe 3.

Only one more day of work until the weekend...woo hoo. I don't have any huge plans for the holiday weekend, except to ride my bike and catch up on sleep. But before I catch up on sleep I have to wake up really early on Saturday and go race.My legs are pretty darn tired from training this week and it's tempting to stay home and sleep in. Every once in a while I catch myself trying to talk myself out of racing, but NO!!! I'm going to suck it up and go. This race is strictly for training and my main goal is to gather whatever I have left and really push myself for 50 miles.

Speaking of racing...I put up my interview with Katie Spotz, endurance extraordinaire.

Look below...it's one post down:-)

Ok, who is this girl???

2011-06-30T06:05:00.011-05:00

So when I was first contacted about having the opportunity to interview Katie Spotz, I was like, "no way...absolutely not!"

I don't talk about school much, but that's because I'm still IN school, and I really, really, really shouldn't be. Except maybe to teach. I seriously have enough credits that I could be a professor ;-) I'm one class away from a PR/ADV degree and the only thing in my way is a third year french class. The only problem? I don't speak french. I transferred from a private catholic college (not sure what I was doing there, ha ha) to GVSU. Somehow the fact that I needed to take a language was lost in translation until it was almost time to graduate. What I need to do is sit my butt down and learn enough French to finish, but....ugh.

The only reason why I'm bringing this up is because while I was procrastinating French, I took every single PR class possible. Towards the end we worked with a lot of clients and I was using the word opportunity every single day. Mostly when I wanted to get someone to do something for me :-)

So I replied that I was "too busy," and that should have been the end of things. But then I made the mistake of typing Katie's name into google, and I was instantly hooked. At the age of 24 Katie has already had more adventures then most people can imagine. She is the first person to swim the Allegheny River (a total of 325 miles) and is the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She also ran 150 miles across the Mojave and Colorado desert (solo and self-supported) and completed a 62-mile ultra-marathon in Australia. And those fun facts are from wikipedia...who knows what she does in her spare time.

When I talked to Katie she had just completed Race Across America, a 3,000 mile bike ride across the United States. She and her partner Sam were using the race to raise $50,000 for Blue Planet Network and Farm America. Their goal? To bring clean drinking water to communities in Kenya that are suffering from severe draught. When I asked Katie "why?" she responded that she believes that the wars of the future won't be about oil, they will be about clean drinking water. Without it, people die.

The initial plan for Katie and Sam was to race across the country as a two-person team, alternating every couple of hours. Katie spent all winter training for the event but had a freak accident on a training ride she had done hundreds of times before. She fell and broke her pelvis.

It was 7 days before the start of the race....

Katie sent out a mass email imploring people for help and within 48 hours she had a handcycle. She also had a team of people to help her get across the country. Her support RV was now filled with 13 teammates (and 1 bathroom) and she decided that she was going to continue on with the plan. Only this time she would be pedaling with her hands.

I have to admit that I'm curious to what it feels like to pedal a handcycle. According to Katie, it was really hard. She basically had one day to learn how to control the thing before it was time to take off. Apparently you have to use your body to help turn corners etc. Going up hills was extremely difficult and at times she was only moving 5 mph. With the handcycle, Katie was covering about 20-30 miles each day, and her teammates were helping cover the rest.

On the 3rd day of the race Katie crashed her handcycle on a rumble strip (with a broken pelvis)...

Instead of giving up, Katie got the OK to get back on a regular bike from her doctor. When I asked her to describe her favorite moment of the the journey, she said it was the moment she was able to get back on her bike and started pedaling again. She felt absolutely free and was able to cover 100-plus miles a day for the remainder of the ride. Not to mention she was able to spend time out of the RV. I can only imagine how crowded it felt with 13 other people in it. And only ONE BATHROOM. I keep mentioning that fact because it must have required some creative scheduling :-)

After 7 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes the team crossed the finish line. Hurray!

At some point during our conversation I asked Katie how she would describe herself, and she used the term "bench warmer." According to Katie she was on a lot of different sports teams when growing up but she was the one always on the bench because she was always the worst one on the team.

I think it's pretty cool that a former "bench warmer" is riding bikes across the country and rowing the English channel, don't you? Katie said that the changing moment in her life was when she ran her first marathon. She wasn't the fastest but she crossed the finish line. From that moment on she realized that she could accomplish some pretty awesome things if she just kept trying.

My last question to Katie was simply, "what's next?" I was tempted to suggest Mt. Everest but I didn't want to give her any ideas :-) Katie answered that she still feels like she has unfinished business with RAAM. She would like to back next year sans broken pelvis to race on a 2-person team.

I'm really glad that I took the "opportunity" to talk to Katie. She may describe herself as ordinary, but she's certainly living an extraordinary life. While I'm impressed by her athletic endeavors, I'm more impressed by the fact she's because she's using endurance events to raise money for a great cause.

More info about Katie can be found here.

And that's the end of my interview. At first I was going to just write the interview in a question/answer format, but my notes were chicken scratch. I was so interested in what Katie had to say that I kept forgetting to write down her answers!

Whoa

2011-06-28T21:34:00.005-05:00

This past weekend was pretty crazy. Scott went off to Wisconsin to race and I stayed home to take care of Naomi and Baby Ben. It was an eye opener...that's for sure. I wish I could put into words what it's like to try walking a 9 year old greyhound and an 8 month old puppy. Naomi was freezing because she wanted to go home and Ben was throwing himself on the ground because he wanted to play.

I'm sure I'll laugh about it someday :-)

Overall things are going really well, and I'm so, so, SO glad that we adopted Ben. He's such a great little guy and he's already become part of the family. That being said he's also a handful. So far he ate my computer charger, tried eating my Ergon gloves (they are puppy proof!), and decided to start rolling in the middle of the road in front of an oncoming bus while I was walking him. I think my heart has stopped at least 3 times this past weekend alone. All I have to say is puppy school starts on Tuesday!

I thought the puppy/TP thing only happened in commercials...

Ben is already helping Naomi with her modeling duties....so cute! He has an old man snore that's louder then Scott :-)
Now that things have settled down here I'm looking forward to a few relaxing days coming up. I'm racing on Saturday and have a few hard(ish) training days before. My legs are finally feeling better too, which is a relief. They still felt like crap this past weekend but I think it's because I was pretty sleep deprived.

Check back here Thursday. I did an interview with Katie Spotz and it should be up soon. I'll be the first to admit that I came very close to saying NO when I was asked if I wanted to interview her. I'm really glad that I did the interview because she is pretty amazing.

Well time for work. 7 minutes to get ready. I can do it!!!

Unplanned and definitely unexpected!

2011-06-24T08:22:00.005-05:00

I've barely ridden my bike this week. It's been all about recovery and recovery. Normally I hate weeks off but the weather has been crappy and we've been busy. I've also been busy dog walking. Lots and lots of dog walking!

Internet, meet Ben. He was brown when we got him. That's how dirty he was....

On Sunday I went with my little sister to an adopt-a-thon to look at little dogs. She wanted to "just look" at them. My FB status said that I was trying to take Scott's credit card with me, but I was seriously JUST JOKING. We adopted Naomi 7 years ago and she is THE PERFECT dog. I felt no need to get another one. And if I did get another one, I always thought it would be another female greyhound.

I certainly never imagined that I would end up with a puppy named Ben (who snores).

So far, Naomi has been doing a great job of pretending Ben doesn't exist....
I've never had a puppy before and it's taking a few adjustments. Ben barely moved the first 2 days that we had him. But I think he's realized he's home now, because he is in full puppy mode. I've always known how great Scott is, but I'll say it again...Scott is pretty great. We were supposed to go out of town for a concert the night Ben came home, and instead of going Scott was at the pet store buying dog toys.

Initially I was planning to go to Wisconsin this weekend with Scott and our friend Shawn D. They were going to race, and I was going to hang out and cheer on all of the racers. It would have been fun, but I'm staying home. First of all, I'm on puppy and greyhound duty. Second of all, I'm still tired from Lumberjack. As much as I love camping I think staying at home is the smarter choice then another road trip and sleeping in a tent.

Today is my last easy ride day then it's back to training. I'm racing next weekend and can't wait. Not only is my BFF Juli going with me to race her Dos Niner, but Namrita and Eddie will be there racing as well!!!

Lumberjack 100 race report

2011-06-20T21:22:00.005-05:00

The Lumberjack 100..

Where to begin?

How about with, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Ha! I wonder how many bike racers have started out their race reports with that sentence? Probably a lot! In all honesty, the majority of the Lumberjack was the best of times for me. I had a great time racing on my Selma and hanging out with friends before and after. The worst of times came at miles 70-85, where I had a really big leg explosion/bonk. But oh well. I still finished the race with no regrets. Of course now that two days have passed I have a few woulda, coulda, shoulda's, but I have those even when I win :-)

The only thing that I wish I could have changed differently before the race was me, myself and I. This whole season has been great so far, and I've done a really great job of not getting worked up before races. I've noticed the more relaxed I am, the better I do.

That changed the week before Lumberjack. Maybe it was inevitable, but I got so nervous I could barely breathe. Just ask Scott, or my mechanic Ted. I will be the first to admit that I was in rare form the week leading up to the race. Yikes! I promise I DON'T go around the house wearing a heart rate monitor, but I bet my average HR was 130-plus sitting down.

Things got much better on Thursday, when Carey and Zeke pulled up to my house. I've raced against Carey many times, and she's beaten me more times then I can count. However, she's one of the first people that I always call after a race, and I know she's cheering for me just like I cheer for her. So while I wasn't jumping for joy that she was racing SS against me, I was jumping for joy that she was in Michigan and racing Lumberjack!

We talked a lot about gears the days leading up to the race, and Carey ended up racing with a 32x19, and I raced with a 32x18. At the start line I was a little worried that I was running the same gear ratio as many of the guys, but I knew that I could do it since it was the same gear ratio I ran the year before.

The entire female field was stacked, stacked, stacked this year. I knew I had stiff competition from both the gears and SS ladies. Carey is one of the strongest endurance athletes that I know, and she had been racing on her SS all season. I knew that she would be super strong and consistent, and that there would be no fading. I decided to go out hard and take a chance that I could get far enough ahead that she wouldn't catch me.

In theory, it was a good plan...
However, I couldn't go that hard at the start. It was a mile of completely flat, paved road. I watched the front of the pack fly away and tried to spin as fast as I possibly could after them. It was funny, but also NOT funny at the same time.

Finally I entered the single-track behind a train of people. Obviously I've only been working with my new coach for two weeks. I can't imagine that it's easy starting with a new athlete in the middle of the race season, but I have to say that he did a really great job of getting me to the start line. My legs felt great, especially since it was my 3rd weekend of racing in a row.

I basically rode the majority of the first lap in a huge group of people. I would try to pass when possible, but everyone was stacked up in the singletrack. The second lap went much better and I noticed that I could make almost every hill that I had to walk last year. Woo hoo! All of the workouts I did this winter with Jason paid off. That being said, I probably should have gotten off of my bike and run a few of them. I was under the mind set that staying on the bike is always better, but it took EVERYTHING I HAD to get up a few of the hills. I pretty much blew my legs up.

It felt really, really hot towards the end of the 2nd lap and a few guys who passed me mentioned that there was a SS'er not that far back. Darn! I tried to downshift, realized that I couldn't, and the rest was history. My legs exploded, I bonked at the same time, and Carey caught me like I wasn't moving at mile 70. Even though I was NOT HAPPY with being caught, I'm glad that she had a good race. Hopefully I can get her and Zeke to come back next year.

I had a rough time from miles 70-85. Not only was my last lap 7 minutes slower then the first two, but I felt like I was riding sideways instead of straight. I drank my entire hydrapak, ate a few gels, and eventually started to feel better towards the end of the race. Phew.

Here is a picture of our SS podium. Even with the leg explosion/bonk I still had my fastest year yet with a time of 8:22:22.

Congrats to Carey on a great race. And I have to send out a huge congrats to my 8 hours of Cannonsburg teammate, SS Danielle #1. She rounded out our podium and pushed a 32x17. Yowch!

Next up...a rest week. Then it's back to training for me!

Hello internet...welcome back!

2011-06-16T21:15:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. This time? Totally not my fault. AT&T has been upgrading "stuff" in our neighborhood and as a result we've been living in the dark ages. I felt like I was being held hostage in my house all day, waiting for different workers to arrive. Let's just say that after today I feel like I know most of the AT&T staff.

Instead of facebook I started reading an actual book. I had almost forgotten how much I like to read :-)

So let's see...what have I been up to since my last post? Well, in my last post I mentioned that I was doing my first duo race. It seems so long ago now to post up an actual race recap but let me just say this. It was a total blast. I had so much fun and couldn't have asked for a better teammate then Danielle #1. She was incredibly strong and really fun to race with.

My new coach told me not to kill myself during the race. I'm still alive, but I did have to push a little harder then I wanted to on a few of the climbs. We had to end each lap by climbing half-way up the ski hill and I was almost at a complete stand still at the top. Ouch! Danielle #1 was pushing a harder gear then me, and to this day I don't know how she managed to get up the hill. I predict a great Lumberjack race for her!

We were the only females racing in the duo elite category and I'm proud to say that we got 3rd place (out of 3 teams).

Have you ever seen a more pro podium picture? Neither have I!

Both Danielle #1 and I were putting out really consistent lap times and I couldn't be more proud of us. I always wondered what it would be like to race on a team, and it was really nice to come around the corner and see my teammate waiting. That being said, I still have a lot to learn. Towards the end our lap times were only about 30 minutes long and I was eating an entire meal in between. Probably not necessary!!!

The rest of my week was really busy. Long days at work and all of my spare time was spent with my middle sister who was visiting from L.A.

Which brings me to this weekend..

Lumberjack weekend.

Yikes!

Ready...set....

2011-06-10T21:31:00.003-05:00

I'm racing duo tomorrow @ the 8 hours of Cannonsburg with my friend Danielle from the Ada Bike Shop.

Initially I didn't think it was going to work out because she couldn't find anyone to cover her work shift. But we sorted things out tonight. All we need now is a name for our team!

Danielle has to work in the morning and won't arrive until noon, so I'm covering the first two hours. We are planning on meeting up in the transition area when she arrives, so hopefully I come through at the right time!

I've never raced duo before, but I think Danielle is going to be an awesome teammate for it. Let's see...her name is Danielle, and she races on a Salsa SS. Naturally I think she's really cool :-)

Hanson Hills race report

2011-06-06T20:55:00.008-05:00

Scott, our friend Shawn and I drove up to Hanson Hills the day of the race. It meant for an early morning, but I was able to sleep the whole way up (like usual!)

Lining up....
We started with the elite men, and the first mile or so was completely flat with a sand pit or two. Very Lumberjack like. I had to spin my brains out but managed to stay with the lead women. It was painful, but NOT as painful as the intervals Andy had me doing earlier in the week. Instead of going into shock my lungs were like, "ok, we can do this!"

A few miles in I decided to go for it. The climbs weren't long, but a few were pretty steep. I had to mash my brains out to get to the top.

I felt tired during the 2nd lap, but started to feel better during the 3rd. Probably because I knew the finish line was in sight. I think that I went out pretty hard and need to work on being able to hold that pace. I have a feeling more hard intervals will be in the near future!

Yeah!
Now I'm headed off to Chicago to pick up my middle sister from the airport. It's 4 a.m. and lots of coffee is in order!

Hanson Hills XC short update

2011-06-06T05:16:00.004-05:00

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to climb up on this thing...

Yesterday's race went really well. I raced my Selma and took the W! My legs were cooked after 30 miles though...it's hard to imagine that in 2 weeks I'll still have 70 more to go.

Race report coming up tonight!

I hope my legs cooperate tomorrow!

2011-06-04T10:55:00.004-05:00

So, I officially survived my first week of training under my new coach.

I first started hearing about Andy and his wife Cara a long time ago, back when my friend Bonnie and I went down South for our mini-winter training camp. Over the last couple of years I've gotten to know them better and really like both of them. Needless to say I'm really excited for the rest of the summer.

So, back to my workouts. On Thursday I had to do race start simulations and I can honestly say that my "pretend" race starts were faster then any actual race start I've ever done. When I came home I was telling Scott about how Andy had me standing during my first 15 seconds, and Scott was like, "well you were sprinting...of course you are going to stand." Hmmmm...apparently my husband has never seen me sprint before :-)

Anyways, the workout was awesome and I was feeling totally cocky during the first interval, because I was flying past roadies on my mountain bike. Second interval? Not so cocky...but much more pukey. Third interval? Total leg explosion. And then on my way home I got passed by a guy wearing khakis. It was total payback for feeling so cocky during my first interval :-)

Which brings me to today. I think my legs are still sore from Thursday's workout. I keep telling Scott that I need to be excused from all housework and he keeps pointing out that I never clean anyways. He has a point, ha ha. Tomorrow I'm taking my Selma to race at Hanson Hills. This is race #6 for me but my first XC race of the season. This race is totally for training and all I care about is getting a really hard workout in. And I'm testing out my Lumberjack gearing. It's been years since I've raced on this course but I think I remember the start being a climb that turns pretty steep towards the end. Let's hope that I don't have to get off of my bike during the first couple minutes of the race!!!

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-30T22:01:00.008-05:00

I had a few "forced" recovery days after the Victoria 100. I say "forced" because Michigan weather was not cooperating with riding outside. It was a nasty week with temps in the 40-50 range and rain almost every day. It made me grumpy but the weather was probably a blessing in disguise because there was less temptation to go ride. I know that recovery days are just as important as training days but sometimes they are really hard. Scott says that I start moping around the house and I think he's probably right :-)

Finally towards the end of the week I was able to get out and start training again. I have to say, I never feel good the first time back on the bike after a few days off. BUT...I have a new coach and my first workout snapped me out of my post-race funk in a hurry. It's been a while since I've done such intense intervals, and I had that tunnel vision feeling where I thought I was going to pass out. Plus I was coughing, snotting and drooling all at the same time. Such a pleasant vision, I know.

The good news about these sorts of workouts are that they seem to get a tiny bit physically and mentally easier each time. At least that's what I'm hoping since I have to do the same workout again tomorrow...but with one extra interval.

I have to admit that I'm really excited about the rest of the summer. And btw, I think it is finally summer here. I'm not sure what happened but we went from 40 degree weather straight to temps in the 90's today. Holy heat wave. It feels almost unbearable because we had no in-between.

Poor Naomi, she hasn't moved from in front of the fan all day. And don't worry-she's still breathing. I actually checked today because she went a few hours without moving once!
More on my new coach and race schedule tomorrow. Right now I need to go to bed so that I can wake up and do some more "bleeding from the eyeball" intervals!

Victoria's 100-race report

2011-05-23T19:51:00.007-05:00

I was really excited when I read about the Victoria 100 on cycling news in the early spring. Every year I like to try out a new hundred miler and this one fit into my schedule really well. And even though it was in a different country (Canada), it was a lot closer then many other hundred milers that I've done in the past.

Scott and I spent the majority of the day driving on Saturday. We arrived at the race venue late in the afternoon, registered and then pre-rode the course. Somehow I managed to puncture my tire in the process. Stan's sealed it right up, but after dinner Scott put on a new tire. Such a nice hubby :-)After doing the usual "race prep" it was time for bed. I slept pretty well for the night before a race, but having a wake-up call at 5 a.m. was still brutal. BTW...that's probably my least favorite part of hundred milers. The early starts. I know why it's necessary, but it never seems to get easier.

After a brief riders meeting we lined up and it was time to go. The race was a 2-lap format, and had several different divisions. You could either do the race as a relay, 50 miles or the full hundred. We all started together so there was really no way to tell who I was up against. The promoter sent us out on a small grassy loop to break up the field, but I knew we would enter singletrack soon. My goal was to try and enter it near the front of the pack.

The start was on the neutral side but I was definitely riding slower then I did the previous week at Stony Creek. My legs didn't feel horrible, but at the same time they didn't feel great. Even so I was able to keep the lead guys in sight, and entered the singletrack pretty near the front.

From that point things slowed down dramatically. I have never, ever, EVER gotten off of my bike so much in the first mile as I did that race. I think I was off 5 or 6 times. In a mile!!! There was a nasty muddy walk-up, a few steep short climbs with traffic back-up, and a few trees with rider bobbles. It was not a good feeling to have to get off of a bike so many times during the first mile. I started to panic a bit.

Things started to speed up after the first mile but not that much. The course was almost all really twisty singletrack with short punchy hills that made it really hard to carry much speed. The best way to carry any sort of momentum was to try to remain as smooth as possible and keep a fast cadence. I was racing with my Garmin and realized quickly that I was in for a LONG day in the saddle. There was no way around it.

I was excited when we finally hit doubletrack, but even that wasn't fast. The part of Canada where we were racing has been in the same position as Michigan weather wise. They had a lot of snow this winter, and have been getting a ton of rain this spring. As a result the trail wasn't as packed down as it should have been, and the horses made things seriously bumpy. There were many parts of the doubletrack where I felt like I was going up and down more then forward.

Finally I was done with the first 50 miles. I grabbed a new hydrapak and went out for lap 2. It was slightly easier the second time around because I knew what to expect, but the first mile still seemed to take a million, gazillion years. My legs were feeling better and I passed a few more guys. After that I didn't see anyone else except for volunteers for the remainder of the race. That's a good thing too, because I had one of the clumsiest crashes of my life trying to do a cyclocross dismount over a fallen tree. I'm not sure exactly what happened but one moment I was running and the next moment I was flat on my face.

It started to get a lot warmer during the second lap, and I had to stop at one of the aid stations to refill my hydrapak with water. While the volunteers were filling it I grabbed a peanut butter and banana sandwich and took a few bites. I couldn't eat it all, and I remember looking around for the trash. Since I didn't see anything I put the half-eaten sandwich back on the table with the other sandwiches. At the time it made perfect sense...but I'm wondering if any other rider grabbed it. Ha!

I was never so happy to cross the finish line!!!
Overall the race was really great. The promoter was extremely organized and the trail was marked really well. Looking back I can't remember exactly what was so hard about it, but it was by far one of the hardest hundred milers that I've ever done. Definitely the type of race that make you stronger mentally!

If I could give out two pieces of advice to anyone racing this race in the future they would be:

1. Ride a full-suspension bike. My Ti El Mariachi absorbed a lot of the bumps, but next time I would race on the spearfish.
2. Don't ride with any sort of garmin (it's demoralizing!)

Afterwards we hung out waiting for the awards and I was reminded why I love the endurance scene so much. It's incredibly laid back and the camaraderie can't be beat. There was mucho clapping as each rider crossed the finish line and I noticed that everyone had the same face when crossing the line. No matter how long it takes, the "I'm done" feeling is the greatest!

On our way home Scott asked if I wanted to stop for ice cream. I was shocked (that he didn't automatically know the answer!)

I had the best maple-walnut ice cream of my life!!!

Now it's time to do some serious recovering. This includes paying several visits to Jason. I think I felt my whole back shift during my "running crash."

Victoria's 100-quick recap

2011-05-23T10:11:00.002-05:00

Ok, that was a whirlwind trip.

We drove 8 hours on Saturday, pre-rode 10K of the course, slept, raced 100 miles on Sunday and then immediately drove home.

The course was way, way, WAY harder then I ever imagined that it would be. Even so, I had a great race and ended up first female and fourth out of the guys.

I'll post a full race report later in the day. Right now my arms are so sore I can barely type. I feel like I just worked a jackhammer for a million hours...

6 hours of Stony Creek Race Report

2011-05-16T21:21:00.003-05:00

This race report is a bit belated, but I figure better late then never, right!? Once again I've fallen behind on my blog. But in my own defense I had 1 day off from work in the last 12 days, so it's been a little busy.

So, Saturday was my one day off and I chose to race the 6 hours of Stony Creek. I was scheduled to do a 6 hour endurance ride and the weather forecast was awful. 70% chance of rain and temps in the 50's. I knew that it would be much easier to ride in those conditions during a race. Plus I had raced Stony Creek the last 2 years, and wanted to try for a 3-peat win.

Scott chose not to go because of the weather, but I managed to convince my little sister Toni to come along for the trip. "Racing in the mud is good training for road racing," I told her over and over whenever it started raining on the drive there. Ha!

The 6 hour race didn't start until 2 p.m. but we left early in the morning to leave plenty of time to get food on the way. However, the drive took much longer then planned and we didn't account for the summer road construction that seems never-ending. As a result we couldn't stop for food, and pulled into the parking lot 30 minutes before the race start. To say that I was panicking would be an understatement. I usually try to arrive at races really early so that I have plenty of time to get everything ready without feeling rushed.

We ran to registration, ran to change, and then I threw a hydrapak under a fellow racers tent. That was the extent of my pre-race preparations. I didn't even have time to check the pressure in my tires.

I stood at the start line giving my little sis last minute instructions about the trail. You know, the typical mountain bike things involving wet roots and bridges. Basically all of the mistakes I've made in the past.

And then it was GO TIME!

I had come off of a week and a half of hard training but my legs felt pretty decent at the start. I found myself in the middle of a good group of guys, and we were moving at a pretty good pace. We were all talking, but I think that they were a little more talkative then me :-)

In the first singletrack section I realized that I didn't have that big of a lead. Whenever I hit a switchback I could see the second place women right behind me. I didn't know who she was but she was moving at a really good pace. Egads!

I didn't see her once we hit the first flat doubletrack section, but the group that I was riding with all went straight on singletrack when we should have veered off onto more doubletrack. The course tape was up really high, so it was super easy for us to ride under. We quickly realized our mistake but we all had to slam on brakes and turn around (actually they realized the mistake and it's a good thing as I would have kept going!) The wrong turn maybe cost us 30 seconds, but it was enough time for the chase group (including the 2nd place women) to catch us.

She pulled ahead and I jumped on her wheel. Let me tell you, the pace accelerated pretty quickly from that point. The group that we were riding with started falling back one by one. I still didn't know who she was, but she was super strong and obviously knew the course really well. My legs were not liking the climbs at all, and I lost contact towards the end of the first lap. Instantly the "race demons" started entering my brain. I'm talking about the "am I fast enough? will I ever catch her? Why do my legs feel so crappy?" thoughts.

I caught back up to her pretty quickly, and we spent half of the second lap going a little under XC race pace. I wasn't sure if I could go that pace for 6 hours, but figured there was no better time then the present to find out. Eventually we both reached the top of a climb at the same time with another guy. He and I descended together and she fell back. After that I never saw her again but I swear I could feel her breathing on my neck the entire time.

After the 2nd lap I realized that I never put nutrition (ummmm, hello rookie!) under the tent with my hydrapak. And I couldn't stop to go to our car to get some because I had no clue how far back the 2nd place female was. As I went through the pit area I noticed a guy standing under a tent doing support for his son. As I rolled by I asked him to find me some gels and have them ready for me the next time I rolled through. From that point on he always had food for me whenever I came by. I later found out that his name was Mike Silver and I will be forever grateful! Especially since he had a variety of flavors of the gel waiting every lap :-) Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I finished the race in 1st place with a time of 6:05 and 73 miles. This was also my 3rd year of being 3rd overall in the guys. One of these years I need to move up a spot:-) We lucked out big time with the weather too. It drizzled off and on, but the course was in really good shape. There were a few muddy sections but nothing too bad. Temps were in the low 50's for most of the day, but I felt great racing in just a jersey and shorts.

I spent a little time afterwards talking to friends about the race. The funny thing is that their faces were all clean so I assumed that mine was too!Not so much!

And to think that some people pay for mud masks at the spa....
We didn't get home until midnight and I was completely exhausted. 5 hours of driving and 6 hours of racing = a long day. The next day it was back to work for me and it's been go, go, go every since. I felt super tired during the first part of the week, but am finally starting to feel better now. I can only hope that I am fully recovered by this weekend. I have my first hundred miler of the season this Sunday and I am crossing every single finger and every single toe that my legs come back!!!

I rode a Spearfish and I liked (loved) it

2011-05-12T06:58:00.005-05:00

I wanted to post this a few days ago, but blogger was being difficult and unavailable. Oh well, it's been a busy week and I haven't had that much computer time anyways. I've been working late, subsequently riding late, and then going to bed late. You should see the dark circles under my eyes...

Dark circles aside, I'm not complaining. My training rides have been going really well, and the weather is finally warm. It's so much easier now that I can just throw on a jersey and shorts.

My favorite ride this week would have to be the Salsa/Ada bike shop demo day at Luton Park. I definitely did more talking then riding out there, but I FINALLY got to ride a Spearfish. I heard nothing but good things about the bike out at Interbike, and the good reports continued out at the demo day. Everyone who took the bikes out wanted to go out for another ride.

I waited patiently (kind of) for my turn on the bike. While waiting I talked to my old teammate Barry who showed up with his new El Mariachi...

And then I rode my El Mariachi around.....

while eating a hotdog...

And then finally I was able to take the Salsa reps bike out. To tell you the truth, I was really curious to how the bike would ride. I like my bikes to feel really responsive and I didn't know if the Spearfish would feel too full-suspension-y for me.

One pedal stroke and I was smiling. Huge smiles. The bike does not bob at all. It's 100% awesome and the perfect bike for any sort of endurance race. That being said, I think it's perfect for just about anything. I would totally race it in a short XC race too. And then I'd go ride down a mountain afterwards.

Anyways, I'm gushing. Back to the trail....I rode behind my friend Tara (who wanted to test my El EM out) and her dog. The measurements on the spearfish were definitely not set up for me. The handlebars were too high and the seat post wouldn't go high enough. My knees felt like they were coming up to my ears. Even so, I was having so much fun I wanted to stay out there forever.

At one point I whipped out my phone because Tara's dog was doing such a good job of keeping up with us and I wanted to take a picture. First of all, anyone who is as uncoordinated as me should NEVER EVER attempt to ride trail with just one hand. I don't know what I was thinking. Right after I took this picture I rounded the corner and hit a bunch of rocks.

And I think that moment proved to me just how smooth the Spearfish really is. The bike sailed right over the rocks like I was on pavement. The Spearfish definitely saved me from a crash because like I said, I'm uncoordinated. Sometimes I'll walk past a table and just bang into it for no reason at all.

Eventually the sun started to set and I remembered that I wasn't on my bike. Tara went on to finish the trail and I hurried back. Everyone was packed up and waiting for me. Oops! I was having too much fun out there.

Thanks to everyone who came out and thanks to hydrapak for shipping swag for giveaways!!!!

Spinning...really, really fast

2011-05-09T21:24:00.010-05:00

My weekend consisted of dirt, pavement and sand.

And Swedish fish (which is one of my favorite emergency ride foods!)

I have to admit that I went into panic mode a little bit this weekend. For the longest time we seemed to be permanently stuck in winter, and all of a sudden it's full on race mode. I'm racing the next two weekends, and Lumberjack is coming up slowly but surely.

I spent 4 hours on my SS this past Saturday and definitely need to get more ride time on it. I'm fine on the trail, but completely suck on any sort of flat. Instead of pedaling really fast I kind of pedal, pedal, coast. Pedal, pedal, coast. It's a really bad habit and I need to eliminate the coasting part and teach myself how to pedal with a really fast rpm. I see more SS rides to the trail in my future :-) That way I can practice on flat roads. Plus, the adrenaline rush I get from trying to make it through a busy intersection before the light changes is great!

By the end of my ride I was completely tanked. I forget how much more of my back and arms I use when I only have one gear. Afterwards I dropped my Selma off to the Ada Bike Shop. It's getting a "facelift," but hopefully I will get it back in a day or two. Or maybe today if I'm lucky!

Sunday was another great day outside. I rode my Chili out to the beach and back which was good for 77 miles. It was a perfect ride day and I followed it up with a perfect nap. Afterwards I did have to go into work, but no one wants to read about that, right? ha ha.

Photo shoot with the Chili. Right after I took this picture it started rolling towards the lake. Talk about an instant heart attack!

I'm not the only one enjoying the nice weather either. Naomi was finally able to get some quality time outside in the sun in her new DOGGLES. Ok, first of all, I want everyone in the blogosphere universe to know that I DID NOT buy doggles for my dog just for the fun of it. I need to make that absolutely clear. In fact, until a month ago the word doggle didn't even exist in my vocabulary.

Naomi was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that attacks her eyes :-( Poor doggy. Luckily it can be controlled with eye drops, but her eyes can't be exposed to the sun. The good news is that we live in Michigan, and the sun doesn't exist 10 months of the year.

The doggle website states several things about their product. One being that the doggles are so stylish humans will want to borrow them (seriously?) and two being that dogs will usually forget that they are wearing them (seriously???)

Naomi won't walk in them so it looks like we will be doing lots of shady walks. This is probably a good thing because I don't know how I could walk Naomi down the street in doggles without peeing my pants. So freaking funny. I can't imagine how crazy I would look either. Imagine me walking down the street, laughing hysterically, being led by a dog wearing sunglasses. There would be a whole lot of awesomeness going on, that's for sure.

However, I can slip them on when she's napping in the sun.

Well, time to get rolling. Don't forget to come ride at Luton Park tonight after 5:30. It's Salsa demo day. And I have some great swag from Hydrapak to raffle off too! Hope to see you there!

Salsa Demo

2011-05-06T08:42:00.002-05:00

Come out and ride this coming Tuesday (May 10th) @ Luton Park @ 6 p.m! Salsa is having a demo day with some really sweet bikes to test out. The Ada Bike Shop will also be there helping out and riding. There will be food and refreshments afterwards!!! I'm pushing for s'mores :-)

Bikes available will be the Mukluk, Spearfish, El Mariachi, Fargo and Vaya.

See you there!!!

Done recovering

2011-05-03T21:57:00.008-05:00

After two full days of recovery I'm finally starting to feel human again. More importantly, I can walk up the stairs without screaming!

On Sunday the plan was to do an easy spin on the rail trail. I convinced my little sister Toni to join me for the ride but we quickly had to take a detour. There is some massive flooding going on over the trail.

Once we hit the road my easy recovery ride turned not so easy. It was so windy out I could barely move. That's when I had to pull the big sister card and told little Toni to go to the front and pull. I figured it was good training for her anyways....hee hee. She's so strong on a road bike it's ridiculous! We were out there for 2.5 hours and I drafted for 95% of the ride. Awesome!

It was a pretty uneventful ride, though we did stop to rescue a turtle from a sure death. Ugh. I hate picking them up but I always feel too guilty to leave them in the street...

This one was tiny but I screamed when it started wiggling. Not sure what's going on. First I'm screaming at snakes and now I'm screaming at turtles. I think I'm developing some sort of wildlife phobia. And it all started with the goose incident of 2010.

Monday I stayed off of the bike completely but did some upper body strength training with Jason and Gareth. And today it was back on the bike for me. It's still pretty cold here and temps were in the high 40's. I have to say that the weather hasn't been cooperating this spring. It seems like it's never going to warm up. Oh well. Once I was on the bike it didn't matter anyways. I had to do a few hill sprints so I warmed up quickly. Plus my legs felt WAY better!!!

Training for the rest of this week is definitely going to ramp up, but I'm going to have to be really creative with the weather. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that all of the rain in the forecast is a BIG FAT LIE. I've been saying this for the last 2 months, but eventually it does have to warm up!

And that's a wrap!

2011-05-01T09:15:00.006-05:00

We got home late Wednesday night, but this is the first time I've really been able to sit down at my computer. These last couple days have been busy with post race vacation stuff. Like cleaning and putting away a lot of gear. And catching up on dog walks. Naomi spent the week with my parents and I suspect that they were serving her dog food with a side of steak. Actually I don't just suspect it...I KNOW it. Spoiled!!!

Anyways, I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, our trip. Scott and I didn't spend an inordinate amount of time down South, but we did get two really good days of riding in after my race. The day after our race we travelled over to the Nantahala outdoor center. We arrived late in the day and our inn was completely deserted. There was a pay phone that didn't work and a note saying that we had to check in a few miles down the road.

spooky.....

On our way to check in I was all, "this is how it starts in all the scary movies!" Scott thought I was being ridiculous, but clearly he hasn't watched the same movies as me. One moment an unsuspecting couple is driving up a (very steep) driveway to a motel in the middle of nowhere and the next thing they know people with masks are trying to break down the door with axes.

In all actuality, our little room was really clean and nice. And definitely quiet. Scott slept like a rock each night. Me? I slept, but not as well. It's hard to get a good night's rest when you are sleeping with one eye open and trained on the door :-) ha ha!

We rode a total of 10.5 hours in the two days that we were down there. My legs were pretty tired from the race so we kept the rides at a really easy pace. Even so, I started to drag towards the end of each ride. I forgot how looooooong the climbs are down South. Next year I'm determined to go back for at least a week really early in the season. The riding in phenomenal and potholes don't exist down there!

I have no clue what I'm doing here...being my usual dorky self....

Recognize this dam???
All in all, a really great trip. But now I need some rest. When I'm at home I can do day after day of intervals, and recover pretty well. That is not the case after a race and traveling. Then I turn into the world's slowest recoverer.

Yesterday I took my little sister Toni mountain biking at Fort Custer and I'm really glad that we went because it showed me that my legs are completely tanked.

My little sister Toni waiting for me after dropping me a million and one times....
Today I'm doing nothing but a really easy spin on the rail trail and then more resting. It's time to go back to work too. I almost forgot about that...

Defeat

2011-04-26T16:03:00.007-05:00

Don't judge...the driveway up to the inn is like 40% grade.

Full updates on our rides when we get home. Right now we are at the NOC whitewater center and the internet is too slow to post anything else.

BTW...tomorrow is our last day here. You know what that means, don't you? It's driveway or bust day. So help me...I'm going to make it up that thing if it's the last thing I do!!!

6 hour Grind on the Greenway race report

2011-04-23T21:00:00.009-05:00

I think the 6 hour Grind on the Greenway was aptly named. It was a grind all right.

The race started at 11 a.m. and I was really happy to have a later start. It had rained the night before and everything was still pretty wet by the time we arrived at the venue. Within 10 minutes I managed to have red clay all over my clothes. It slowly started to warm up while we were doing race prep, and I hoped that the trail would dry out quickly.

I had a typical "Danielle" moment about 20 minutes before the race start. I had placed my timing chip in a spot where I wouldn't lose it, but then couldn't remember where I had put it. This happens all of the time before races because I get so freaking nervous. I basically need someone to follow my around to help me get to the start line :-) I had to go get a new one, attached it to my ankle immediately, and then lined up with the other racers.

The promoters had us start on a gravel road to break up the pack a bit and I went out fairly hard. My legs felt pretty good and my new El Mariachi felt amazing. To tell you the truth, I still can't believe that bike is mine. Once we entered the singletrack the pace slowed a bit, but I was definitely still going hard. The 9 mile trail had about 800 ft of climbing, but nothing too steep. However, it was super twisty and rooty, and you basically had to be on the gas at all times. There were a ton of random roots all over the place, and a lot of people were wiping out. They were wet and muddy. I almost slid out a few times, but being on a 29'er made up for rider error!

Scott started behind me and I kept waiting for him to pass. However he got stuck in a lot of rider traffic that I was able to avoid, and didn't catch me until mile 8. There were a few mud pits on the course, and he mentioned that he was running them because it was easier then trying to ride them. I did not listen :-)

I still felt good on Lap 2, but the heat started getting to me by lap 3. I think that it wasn't that hot to people who live down here (it was 79 degrees) but I felt like I was stuck in an oven. The one thing that saved me was that the course was 99% singletrack. The shade helped a bit, but I still felt like I was suffocating. I am so happy that I bought a hydrapak. I would have died out there without one as there were only about 2 spots where I would have felt comfortable reaching down for a bottle.

Grinding on the green....ha ha.

Half-way through the race I really started to feel it. My muscles were aching and it was obvious that I haven't had much time riding trail yet. I was really happy the course was so twisty, because it's an area where I need more practice. I'm getting better, but there were times where I lost a ton of momentum because of too much braking.

Also, remember those mud pits that Scott was running? I was riding them minus a deep one in the middle of the trail. I kept picking the wrong line and had my first endo of the year on my 5th lap. My front wheel came to a complete stop in the mud pit and I went over my handlebars into the mud. Sweeeet! I think it's safe to say that I've broken my bike in!

I look like a mountain biker again!
Towards the end of my 6th lap I was riding with a group of guys when I heard the 2 guys in front of me yell something. I was completely delirious from the heat, so the fact they were yelling snake didn't register until I almost ran over it. Let me just say, it was huge. I'll see snakes in Michigan every once in a while, but they are usually the size of pencils. This thing scared the crap out of me. And since I was crazy from the heat (this is my excuse-I'm sticking with it) I slammed on my brakes and started screaming like a lunatic. I'm talking blood-curling screams. The guy behind me started laughing and looking back, I'm embarrassed by it now. But the good news is that I discovered a new talent and might have to audition for a horror movie. I had no clue I could scream like that!

I was able to finish a half hour early in 1st place with 6 laps. I could have gone out for another lap, but there was no point. It would have just made me more tired and we are staying down here a few more days for some more training.

We hung out at the race afterwards with friends and it was nice catching up with everyone after such a looooong winter.

Apparently I thought something was funny....

Podium shot...
Arms up! 2 out of 3 is good enough :-)
Tomorrow we are heading over to the Tsali area and will be doing a easy recovery spin. After that we are hoping to get a few long days in.

Greetings from South Carolina!

2011-04-22T19:48:00.005-05:00

Let the bike riding begin!!!! Or not! Unfortunately today was mostly spent driving around in our big truck. Not exactly the way I wanted to spend the first day of our vacation (not to mention on Earth day!) but at least we got everything that I managed to forget :-)

The most important thing for me to find was a hydrapak and powergels. I'm not sure how I could forget 2 race necessities but I'm sure they are right next to each other on our kitchen counter. During the drive down I tried to convince myself that I would be OK with just water bottles, but I know myself well enough to know that it wouldn't work. I never drink enough with bottles...I think it has something to do with being severely uncoordinated. I bought the Soquel which will keep me going for a few laps. It holds 70 oz. and is light! And it comes in black-my favorite color :-)

In between errands we stopped for some BBQ at a restaurant in Charlotte. It was so freaking good. I don't follow any specific diets, but I usually eat pretty healthy. Wait, are pizza and gummy bears healthy??? At any rate, I usually don't eat dessert for lunch the day before a race. However, today it could not be helped. We split homemade pecan pie and banana pudding. Good night. Seriously, I am still in a food coma. At any rate, I'll be faster going down the hills tomorrow :-)

Scott and I are both doing a 6 hour mountain bike race tomorrow and wanted to pre-ride the course today. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating. Temps were stuck in the 50's and it rained all day. Hmmmm....just like Michigan (only warmer). Instead I spun my legs around in the hotel parking lot. Completely lame, but our hotel is stuck in suburban hell-one wrong turn would put me on the highway!

Tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting. I have no clue what this course is going to be like, and the longest I've ridden singletrack this year is 3 hours. And it's going to be hot. I'm having a hard time believing it, but apparently temps are going to jump from being in the 50's today to the 80's tomorrow. I am definitely looking forward to it being warmer, but I know it's going to be shocking/brutal to race in. Hopefully the heat will mean a dry course!!!

And we're off!

2011-04-21T05:21:00.002-05:00

Time to head South!!! Scott and I are heading down to South/North Carolina for some training. These last couple of days have been so busy tying up loose ends that I don't even know where we are going. I am doing a race down there and should have internet access for updates.

The thing I can't get my head around? The fact that it just might be warm. Yesterday I rode in 35 degree weather and it started rain/snowing on me half-way through. Sun? Warmth? Right now it's just a distant memory, but hopefully I will find it down South.

Bye Michigan. Please be at least 50 degrees when I get back