Trainin' on a Prayer

2012 Is Go

2012-01-09T12:45:00.005-05:00

I guess three weeks (minus that one itty bitty race) was the appropriate amount of time off before starting to train again for the 2012 season. When I counted out on my calendar from January 1st to the Ouachita Challenge, I came up with the odd, but not necessarily unlucky, number of 13. That meant one spare week after carving out three of the lovely four-week training blocks by which we cyclists like to map out our lives. So, extra week of taper right before the OC or extra week of break before the season? Since the first two weeks off the bike flew by largely unnoticed due to holiday stuff, I was really glad I let myself have one more week to just be at home, chill, and a focus on the first few days of my Whole 30 before starting training again.

I knew I'd made the right choice, because by Saturday I was ready to dedicate this song to my road bike:

It probably didn't hurt that the weekend was sunny and unseasonably warm for January, although I still ended up in pretty much full winter gear on Sunday morning when I woke up to 27 degrees and didn't feel like sitting around until it got warm. I just got out for a couple of hours of base miles each day, which was surprising tiring after riding more than 40 minutes so rarely in the last few months. Regardless, I'm happy to be "training" again.

I'm also getting pumped about taking on the Ohio Spring Race Series this season. Given my limited road racing experience, my biggest goal is just to stay in a position where I can watch what's going on and learn about racing tactics. It will be a bit of a departure from the "just go hard until you get to the finish line" nature of mountain biking and 'cross. I think what used to turn me off about road racing is suddenly becoming intriguing.

Finally, the bike inventory reduction from the sale of my Anthem didn't last too long. I've been wanting one of these little cupcakes since the 2012 Giant catalog came out, so I finally decided to spring for one before it went out of stock. Adam has the more manly version that he uses for commuting and seems happy with it.

Once I get it hooked up with a basket, Jake can be relieved from commuter duty and reverted back to 'cross bike mode. I decided I wanted an "ambassador bike" on hand to lend out to girls who would like to try 'cross but aren't sure enough to commit to a bike purchase. Potential situations include but not limited to: Sarah F. successfully convincing her Little 5 team (or any Little 5 girls for that matter) that 'cross is way more fun with multiple gears, real brakes, and knobby tires, and possibly a sweet clinic/ pre-season practice race deal I'm working on cooking up. I know it's a long way off, but file this away in your brain in case you encounter any other situations where Jake can be of use in 2012.

Crossing Over

2012-01-02T16:23:00.007-05:00

This weekend was interesting in that it marked the end of the 2011 season and the beginning of 2012, with little space in between. Now I'm enjoying a paid holiday and reflecting on some of the things involved in crossing over to the new year.

The irony of my recent promise to myself that I would not make myself show up at any races that I did not really want to do in 2012 (not really a resolution, but kinda) was that I ended 2011 with one more last race when I'd already declared myself done. The problem was that when I made that declaration, I thought done meant done. Wash the bike, put it away, no more 'cross except for maybe watching Adam at Masters Worlds. However, Adam wanted to race the ICX finale as a tune-up for worlds, and I didn't have the option of staying home. The Rodkey Ford Focus Express was leaving Saturday morning and not returning until Sunday afternoon after the belated Christmas celebration with Adam's family was complete. Staying home from the race was not an option, and I really don't like to be at a race and not participate. Plus, several people seemed concerned about my missing out on my ICX third place t-shirt if I didn't show up. I hoped that my two weeks of not riding or lifting might give me some sort of magic rested legs, but really I was just kind of weak and in shock of the hard effort. Meh, nothing ventured, nothing gained. At least I got my t-shirt and a couple more muddy tongue pictures for the season.

I also ended a relationship on Saturday. Even though I hadn't ridden my Anthem very much the last two seasons, I hadn't been really trying to sell it, just in case I ever had the sudden need for a full-suspension bike. However, the one time I rode it this year was on a day that I thought I might need a full-suspension bike (the Rangeline Rampage), and that ended pretty badly. So without really advertising, I'd found a few potential buyers in the last few weeks, and on Saturday, nine-year-old Will Johnson (if you race around here, you know the badass little kid in the DRT kit) become the proud owner of a new-to-him, slightly too big bike with pink cable housing. I have a feeling he will do it more justice than I ever did.

I used some of the proceeds to buy myself a new helmet, since the old one just concluded its third season. I figured I should wait until the mud-slinging was over so that the new one would get to stay clean for a while. I actually went to Bikesmith's to buy it, rather than just leaving a blank check on the desk at home like I do for most of my cycling purchases, and the salesman (my husband) tried to upsell me with a pair of Giro socks that perfectly matched the helmet, which perfectly matched my new road bike. Too bad my Speedway Wheelmen kit doesn't really match any of it.

I've also already entered my first race of 2012. I missed the Sub-9 Death March in 2011, because I was still only partially rehabbed from my surgery, but several friends did it and came back with rave reviews. Since it is so close and is Indiana's answer to spring endurance racing, my new Speedway Wheelmen teammate Val and I will be throwing our sparkly new helmets in the ring for the women's team competition. Given I haven't been able to stay on her wheel all 'cross season, but I have ten weeks to train, and maybe I can keep up when she's not actually *trying* to drop me.

Finally, I'm ending the abuse that I've been heaping on my body the last couple of months and starting the new year off right by starting a Whole 30 eating plan for the month. I had to delay the start by a day due to yesterday's holiday celebrations (stayed grain and dessert free but not 100% paleo), but since January is 31 days long, it will work out perfectly with the end of the month. I've been hesitant to try this in the past, because I'm really attached to butter, but since clarified butter is now allowed, I think I will make it through using home-clarified butter from The Swiss Connection in situations that really, really require butter. Also, since my horribly broken out skin the last month or so is an indication that my Gut-Brain-Skin axis is kind of pissed off at me, I'm also going to be avoiding nightshades and eggs and going heavy on the sauerkraut, bone broth, and cod liver oil. Hopefully, by the end of January I can look and feel as awesome as I did at the beginning of the season when I my diet was a lot cleaner.

Love and Cyclocross

2011-12-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

If it don't come easy, you better let it go.
'Cause when it don't come easy, there's no natural flow.
Don't make it hard on your heart, you might be better off alone,
If it don't come easy, you better let it go.

I think that possibly the worst way to follow up a bad race is to come back six days later and race on practically the same course against practically the same field. No opportunity to start fresh there. About five minutes into the Indiana State Cyclocross Championships I found myself falling further into the Spiral of Suck that I had started the weekend before. And since the officials let the thing drag on and on, I had a loooong time to think about that Spiral of Suck before I was finally allowed to finish at 45 minutes.

The thoughts were basically that I was done - mentally and physically. That I had set a goal for myself for the season, to win my category in the OVCX series, and that I had accomplished that goal, with awesome overall race win to cap it off. It had been a very good year, and I had given it everything I had. And despite my desire to support my state's ongoing series, I had no desire to give any more. I thought I could skate by on a half-assed effort for the rest of December, but my competition was not going to let me get away with that. On the second lap, Tim O'Donnell yelled, "What, are you saving it for next year?" (possible nominee for heckle of the year?), and I yelled back, "Why, yes. Yes, I am." Time to go home and get ready for 2012, kids.

The thing is that, while cyclocross is notoriously hard, from the starting line at Apple Cross to the finish line at Kings, going hard had come surprisingly easy. Those first few "Holy crap, I'm leading!" moments laid the foundation for little successes that built every week and forced me to dig a little deeper and learn a little more about racing every time I went out. However, conscious willing of effort was pretty limited. Occasionally, I would have to make the decision to give an extra 10% effort in an acceleration to pass, cover a move, or prevent a pass in a straightaway, but for the most part, success either happened or it didn't. And for the most part this year, success happened for me. It was more about resisting the urge to back off than trying to force myself to go harder.

So during Saturday's very long and very conscious tour of the pain cave, I remembered this old song, and realized a) It had ceased to come easy b) I better let it go. While both love or cyclocross require a certain amount of grit for long term success, sometimes you have to take a break from a dysfunctional relationship.

This is really about allowing myself to enjoy my bike-free Christmas vacation that starts tomorrow and not ending my super-awesome 2011 season on a sour note. I'm pulling the plug one C priority race short of what I planned. In return, I’ll get the chance for a real end-of-season break before my official “start 2012 training date” of January 7th. I'm still inspired by those battling back from a slump like Sierra Siebenlist with her elite women's state championship this weekend, and the John Gatch in The Best Bike Blog Ever's awesome "Stations of the Cross" post. I'm putting it on the record now that I fully intend to follow up my Cat 4 OVCX championship with another one in Cat 3 next season, so if things start to go sideways and I start bitching about being "burned out" in mid-October, you all have my full permission to slap me, tell me to HTFU, and play this song.

De Cross Gaat Door (The Cross Goes On)

2011-12-13T12:06:00.000-05:00

The cross always goes by from September to around Valentine's Day...
Though it is so cold, this is where you really love
No, you can't miss this ever again

Yeah, I know. You've already seen this and thought, "Belgian country music video about cyclocross? Hilarious. Moving on..." But me, being well, me, I had to obsess over free online translations of the lyrics. Despite the fact that the grammar is really funky and there's no real consensus on whether the 'cross goes on, by, or through, you know that Miss Tatyana Storm may be onto something, cheesy as it may be. Don't tell me that imagery of multi-colored tents, the "pretty pain" of the first hill, or the smell of "hot oil" in the air doesn't bring a smile to your face. In regard to the "hot oil", I'm just assuming that like the Eskimos and their snow, that Belgians have eighteen different words for "embrocation" that our feeble English language just can't express.

Anyway, "the cross goes on" is a good way to express my feelings this past weekend. Coming off the high of my OVCX championship, I tried to get myself bundled up and pumped up enough to have a good race the ICX Backyard Cross, but it just didn't happen. I'd kind of made peace with the fact that I wouldn't be dragging myself up to the front the ICX women's "fancy 4's", and was okay finishing things out floating in the middle like I had been doing. Unfortunately, I knew that Catherine Hollibaugh was coming off of a huge breakthrough race at the OVCX finale, and was probably less willing to settle for her current place in the cyclostrata than I was. Numb hands and feet and a slow initial pace for the race kind of did me in. I was passed by both Catherine and another girl, and I slipped into the "spiral of suck" before I could really get myself together. Yeah, I sucked, bad. However, I was probably due for one of those, and perhaps it will be the kick in the pants I need to get through the last two races.

The other thing goes on is the end of season party. We had to have a post-race party in honor of the Scotch we won at the OVCX finale party. That part was definitely more fun than the race. Of course, we probably have to have a state championships party this coming weekend and of course an ICX finale party, which just happens to be on New Year's Eve. Not that I'm complaining. I'm totally going to miss my 'cross friends over the winter. Each race is starting to feel a little like the last day of camp.

You know what else goes on? Cyclocross friendships. Awwwwwwww. I'm now cheesier than that video.

My Cup Runneth Over

2011-12-06T09:57:00.005-05:00

All I do is win, win, win, no matter what,
Got [drinking vessels] on my mind, I can never get enough
And when I ride it 'cross the line, I put at least one hand up.

Ask you what you laughing at, represent that mud life
Dirty money, bitch, you better get your mud right

Okay, okay, I'm getting a little full of myself, but Sunday was a good day. I guess I made the right decision regarding cat up vs. have one last good race as a 4, because I had one last *great* race as a 4. I'm also wondering about the power of blogging my intentions. When I wrote that I wanted to get a top 3 overall, it happened the very next weekend at Gun Club. When I wanted to win, thought I could win, and knew conditions would be damn near perfect for me to win at Lexington but was afraid to publicly announce it, I didn't win. When I finally allowed myself to say it, it happened.

Anyway, the OVCX finale race was more sticky than sloshy, which is different than the muddy conditions where I have excelled in the past. However, I got a good start and made the turn out of the first bog in the lead. I kept it through the half-lap prologue until we had to run up the hill to the finish line and Karin Reed beat me to the top. She got a little gap, but then I started gaining again, and passed her when she had to run the first time up the "camel hump" and I was able to ride. SRAM may be all about pushing their top-end Red group, but there's something to be said for a low-end Apex derailleur that allows you to run an 11-32 cassette on a hilly and sticky course.

I held the lead until the next time through the finish, but Karin came back up even with me as we crested the hill. I jumped back on my bike and dove for the inside of the turn, shutting the door and maintaining my lead. Then I hammered to keep it. By the time I came around to the stairs again, Adam told me that I had over 30 seconds, but a glance at my watch indicated that I would still have one more full lap to go. My mind started asking me how I could screw it up, like it is wont to do in such situations, but I told it that I wasn't going to screw up this time. So I didn't. I rode hard for another lap, and as I made next-to-last turn of the course, I glanced over and saw that I had a sand pit and 150 meters of sloggy hill between myself and Karin. I let up for a just a couple of pedal strokes on the downhill before the finishing straight, then jumped off, shouldered my bike, and ran with all my might to patch of firm grass before the finish line. At that point, my lead was secure, so even though it would have been faster to keep running, I stopped, remounted, and rode over the line for my first win.

The Heckle Off and the series awards party were a ton of fun. I wasn't feeling hopeful for the Shamrock Cycles team to take the Heckle Off victory, because practically everyone got recruited to pit as conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day. Luckily, the winner was determined by audience yelling at the awards ceremony, and even if we spent more time during the last two races swapping and washing bikes than we acting like hooligans, we are really good at yelling. We yelled hard, and claimed the bottle of Scotch and case of Little Kings. For some reason, Will handed me the bottle of Scotch before I got up on the podium for the series championship, so my overly dramatic victory picture is kind of funny.

I'm sad that the OVCX series is over, but I'm happy with the way it ended. I'm going to miss everyone through the long winter months of training before next season, but we still have a few ICX races left and apparently, a bottle of Scotch to drink. I'm looking forward to the new adventures of road racing and giving the 100 mile mountain bike race another go. Regardless, I still expect there will be many times in the next few months where I look at the newly stamped "CX:03" on my racing license and think, "Is it September yet?"

Keep hustling (it ain't over me, yeah, it ain't over for me)
Keep flowing (Ima step up my game and get what's comin' for me)

Penultimate

2011-11-21T12:43:00.001-05:00

pe·nul·ti·mate
adjective
1. next to the last: the penultimate scene of the play.

I've always liked that word for some reason. I first learned it during my college track days when I'd hear the coach talking to the jumpers about their penultimate step, which I gathered was critical to a good jump. Of course, it sounded way cooler than what it actually meant. I've had plenty of penultimate finishes in my cycling career, but yesterday was the penultimate (perhaps ultimate?) race of my Cat 4 cyclocross career. Luckily, I did not finish next to last; I finished next to first.

I guess I can admit now that I was really hoping for first-first, but it didn't happen. The combination of a small field and sloppy conditions set me up for my best shot at a for-real overall win possibly ever again (save some huge improvement on my part plus hella mud plus Nikki Dalliare doesn't show up scenario in the far future).

At the start, Karin Reed took a huge jump off the front, and I spent most of the first lap chasing her down. As I got closer, I realized that the pack behind me was thinning considerably, but that Sharlyn Golding was emerging and getting closer. Even though it was only her second cross race, I knew she was strong from Storm the Greens and that I only beat her there because her road bike with cross tires setup failed to survive "the Christmas mud hole" and gifted another position to me. However, she had returned to Lexington with a new 'cross bike, and despite the fact that the whole course should have been my Christmas mud hole, it appeared that I wasn't to be given any gifts that day.

I successfully caught and passed Karin early in the second lap (we only did two due to the long course and slow conditions) and then just tried to ride like hell and keep away from Sharlyn. She did eventually catch me with a couple of minutes to go, and then I got antsy trying to get back in front of her before the final uphill. I didn't have the confidence to go up against her in the final uphill once we passed the technical stuff, and I became overly aggressive. I ended up making a few minor slips and losing several bike lengths, so that I spent the last section just hammering to keep Karin from passing me back. In the end, second place was still pretty good, but I really wanted to win one.

Riding the Brown Stripe

So after nine races, my Women's Cat 4 Open OVCX championship is secure. My lead is greater than the points available at the final race, so regardless of who wins, they will not pass me in the series points standings. Since a Cat 3 upgrade is inevitable in the near future, I'm debating whether I should just go ahead and race Cat 3 at the OVCX finale.

Pros:
1) I want to see how I stand against the next level of competition in real life, rather than just comparing lap times. I *probably* won't be DFL.
2) They are paying 20 places deep, so I might win money.
3) We wouldn't have to leave before the crack of dawn like we have all season, because my race would be later.

Cons:
1) If I race 4's, I could still get my elusive outright win, even if the Kings CX field is a little tougher than at Lexington. Especially if I cross my fingers for more mud.
2) I'm not sure how informative racing my 2011 self against the Cat 3 field will be, because I'm expecting my 2012 self to be faster. Maybe I should just enjoy one last Cat 4 race, and leave the measuring stick for next year's AppleCross or whatever tune-up races are available.
3) If I race 3's, I will miss most of the Shamrock Cycles vs. Rogue Racing heckle-off. Although switching my role to heckle-ee instead of heckle-er does have it's appealing points, I probably won't get a accurate idea of how I stand against the 3's if I spend the whole race grabbing dollar bills, bacon, and Jello shots.

Looking at my list, I seem to spend more time justifying my cons. I'm not sure if that means I really don't want to cat up yet or that I really should cat up because I need so much justification. Regardless, I have about a week to mull this over, and I'll probably change my mind at least five times before I actually register. Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

Navigating a slippery downhill switchback at MTV

I also raced the ICX race at Major Taylor Velodrome on Saturday. Despite hopes that the short and slippery course might play to my advantage, I overcooked a couple of turns in the first few minutes and had to work my way back up from last place. So it ended in typical ICX form, Rebecca and Val up front, me a minute or so back, then the rest of the field a couple of minutes behind me. I'd be thrilled if I could beat just one of them at one race by the time the series is over, so I guess that will be the post-OVCX goal to get me through December.

The Best Birthday Weekend Ever!

2011-11-17T10:54:00.001-05:00

It's been a busy week since returning from our weekend of 'crossbauchery in Louisville, so I'm a little late getting a report up. For the USGP weekend, the focus was more on fun than racing, and with my 31st birthday taking place on Saturday, this seemed pretty appropriate. I milked it for all it was worth getting a birthday shout-out from the announcer, a cupcake from the hostess of the My Wife, Inc. Cupcake Chronicles, and Happy Birthday serenades both during the race and after.

My races for both days fall into the "meets expectations" category, although perhaps my expectations for the weekend were a little low. Between the hotel bed and the restaurant food, I wasn't really channeling my A game. Saturday I had a bit of a motivation crisis, because I was floating around mid-pack in the mixed 3/4 field and didn't know much about the ability level of the girls around me the race. I ended up 23rd out of 40, knowing that I probably didn't fight as hard to get up to 20th or 21st as I should have. I regretted this after it was over and vowed to give it a better go on Sunday. Well, give it a better go after some post-dinner margaritas on Saturday night, you know. Luckily, my legs weren't aware of the dehydration and fatigue that the rest of my body was feeling, and I rode pretty well, except for a failed remount that lead to a fall and a dropped chain after the barriers on the second lap. This cost me about six places, but I maintained fighter mode as I'd promised myself I would, and made back all of the lost places by the end of the race. My only disappointment was that I just missed catching the 2-3 girls that I'd been chasing before the fall, and ended up in 21st place.

So after all us amateur folks were done racing Sunday, we cleaned up and checked out of our hotel. Then we headed back to the venue, and it was time for the real fun to begin. Since I've probably already shocked my paleo cycling advisor with talk of cupcakes (just one) and margaritas (not the NorCal sort), I will now shock my mother (dooon't look at it) with the sequel to "Best Barriers Ever", in which the Shamrock Cycles Super Friends bring their heckle game to a whole new level. Although my face is either obscured or in the background most of the time, yes, those are my hands doing the dollar bill placement in the opening scene.

Harbin Park 2011: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

2011-11-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

Harbin Park holds a special place in the the cyclocross-related section of my heart. It was the venue of my first 'cross race back in 2006, where I came in last out of six women. It was also where I got the crazy idea to try and race the elite class the next year, because there were only ten elite women so everyone got prize money and UCI points. How freaking cool would it be to have a UCI point? The next year Katie Compton showed up, destroyed the elite women and most of the elite men, and put Cincinnati on the UCI cyclocross map. No more freebie UCI points would be handed out from that point on.

As for me, I was learning that, while my mountain biking skills had improved, I hadn't made much progress in gaining the raw power necessary for 'cross success. The only success that the 2007 Harbin Park brought was that I was *not last*. I used my mad skillz on the final turny sections and beat *one girl*. Afterward I witnessed the top girls from my category getting their podium pictures taken in front of the United Dairy Farmer's banner, was extremely jealous, and subconsciously thought, "UCI point be damned. I just want my picture taken in front of that banner."

Well, 2007 self, feast your eyes on this:

Okay, so the fields have evolved a bit since 2007 in that yesterday all females over the age of 15 with no UCI license were lumped into one wave. Within that wave, there were categories for Under 19, Cat 4, Cat 3, and Masters 1/2/3/4 35+. With the Masters World Championships coming to Louisville this winter, efforts are being made to allow masters women to stay out of the UCI elite races and preserve their eligibility for worlds. Good for them, but it also means that us Cat 4 chicks have to race in much faster fields at the big races.

So the field was big and fast, but really there were only six girls in the Cat 4 open class. A couple of my key crossresults.com "nemeses" had signed up for the race but didn't show up, and another didn't finish. So as cool as it was standing on the big stage, it didn't require the dominating performance to get there that it would have in years past.

Overall, I finished 17th out of 35 starters. The field was about half 3's and half 4's with a couple of juniors and one masters Cat 2 (and several 3's that probably should be 2's). It was a good opportunity to see how I stood against the next level of competition, since my days as a Cat 4 are numbered. I beat a few Cat 3's and was the fastest of all the OVCX regulars from my wave, so I think fared pretty well. I think I'm close being able to race in the OVCX "big girls" race without getting my butt completely whipped, but I'm not totally there.

If my magic deadlift-centric training yields the improvements in 2012 that it did in 2011, it shouldn't be a problem. The blessing and the curse of improving way more this season than conventional wisdom says I should have is that I really have no idea what to expect next season. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and hope it keeps working.

Next weekend I will get a chance to test myself against more Cat 3's as the 3/4 field at the Louisville USGP is huge and dare I say, sandbagger-tastic. Yeah, I said it. I guess I should be glad for the experience, but it annoys me that they have a 2/3 and a 3/4 race going at the exact same time and practically all of the 3's signed up for the 3/4 race, despite the fact there will probably only be a couple of 2's at most. But I guess if I get too whiny over getting bumped off the podium for the weekend, that kind of makes me a sandbagger, too.

Lion of the Den/ Storm the Greens

2011-10-31T14:28:00.000-04:00

Warming up in the morning light
Light the prayer candle of Sven Nys
To keep the season's hope alive
Gotta replace BloomingCross with a top five

I don't wanna wait, for November to be over
I want to know right now what will it be
I don't wanna wait, for November to be over
Will I be OVCX champ or will I be...sorry?!!

This was what was running through my mind all last week and leading up to the Storm the Greens race. After a rapid fire campaign through the first seven races of the series, I was left with a two-week gap before race number eight. That's a lot of time to sit and home doing math and run through possible race scenarios. The worst part was knowing that after the two-week break was up, I would get one more small piece of the puzzle squared away, and then the last two races would be spread over a long five-week period. Luckily, I was able to increase my lead a little bit more yesterday which will probably help me make it through the next two weekends of third row starts behind higher category riders without going too crazy.

In addition to the Storm the Greens race, Adam and I also returned Yorktown, where we both rode bikes and went to bars a fair amount back in our Muncie days. My race was nothing to write home about. I basically tried to hang with Rebecca and Valerie, which only worked for a couple of minutes, and then basically settled in for 2.5 laps of time trial. I finished two minutes behind Rebecca and three minutes ahead of the fourth place rider, so it was kind of a long haul out there by myself.

You may notice from the picture below that I am wearing a Speedway Wheelmen kit. Adam's team director and teammates have been trying to get me to join their team all season because they want to have a real women's team. The plus side is that in addition to the one strong female rider they already had (Valerie from above paragraph), they got Jayne Prater and Janelle Renschler to join. So the part about having actual teammates that I'm already friends with is cool, but I'm really attached to my Velo Bella kit and I'm having a hard time giving it up. Seriously, the arrival of my new road bike marked the replacement of the one cycling related item I owned that was not some combination of black, white, pink, and blue. Now you're wanting me to throw orange in the mix? Now that I've seen the pictures, it looks better than I thought it would and I'm coming around to the idea of being a Speedway Wheel-woman. I'm going to need teammates if I want to race road in the spring, right?

Storm the Greens went about as well as I'd hoped. I got the hole shot and held through the long, long straightaway to the first turn. Then I got nipped on the inside of the turn when I swung wide, and then I lost a couple of places when I had to dismount on the first steep uphill. After I regained my composure, I made one spot back and was chasing down another girl with pretty spotty success. Then I came through the one mud hole on the course (it was obviously put there just for the sake of having a mud hole) and saw the girl I'd been chasing with her legs pedaling wildly while her bike slow coasted to stop. She dropped her chain, and I dropped the hammer. The next girl up was pretty fair ahead, but I tried to stay on the gas as much as possible. Then on the final time through the mud hole I saw her stopped in front of me trying to get her bike going again. It was the like the Christmas mud hole for me. I kicked into high gear to try and hold her off until the finish, and it worked. I ended up fifth overall and first in the Cat 4 Open. Most importantly I increased my series lead enough that my fears of having it all taken away from me in the last race are starting to calm down a little.

I picked a good race to win my category, because Storm the Greens gave out better prizes than the usual swag from the sponsoring bike shop's clearance bin. We got these cool Halloween shirts, a hooded sweatshirt for me and t-shirts for second and third place.

Raceless Weekend

2011-10-24T11:46:00.004-04:00

The past weekend was the first break in the OVCX series this year, and although there was an ICX race at Major Taylor Velodrome on Sunday, I thought that a weekend off from racing would be good for me. Besides, my mom was coming to visit, so I just went ahead and chilled out with a couple of bike-free days.

I've not been on any sort of formal training plan since racing began, and I usually just evaluate a my level of fatigue on Tuesdays and Thursdays and decided whether I should ride hard, easy, or not at all. Very rarely has the answer come up as "hard", and it doesn't really seem to have hurt me. Racing doubles every weekend really fatigues the body and I'm not going to help myself by pushing further into fatigue that I won't be able to recover from before the next race. The only part of my training week between races that I don't compromise on is my one day of maintenance strength work on Wednesdays, because I feel like my gym time over the summer was the major contributor in my improvements this season, so I'm doing my best to maintain my strength and not have to go through any major soreness when I start to go heavier again in the off-season.

Anyway, with a weekend off from racing, I knew that I needed to get a couple of hard workouts before I raced again, even though I was out of practice in forcing myself to go hard without anyone to chase. A combination of the last days of sickness and then some days of crappy weather caused me to delay the first workout until Friday morning, which I had off from work in anticipation of my mom's arrival. I decided that a set of Jamie's "Intervals of Death" would be a good tune-up between races.

The workout consists of 6-12 rounds of 30 seconds as hard as you can go with 4:30 rest. Sounds like a lot of rest, huh? The key to the workout is that if you just go "hard" it isn't that hard, but if you can force yourself to go bleeding eyeballs hard on each rep it is hard and gives a big improvement in speed. I'm not even sure of the mechanism (maybe neurological?), but for my May training block I did two days a weeks of heavy weights and two days a week of these intervals and when it was over my legs were super snappy and I got my first XC win. They just work. Anyway, I went for eight rounds and had good numbers. Not only did I set a all-time best 30 seconds, there wasn't too huge of a drop-off between my best and worst. Normally when I set a short power PR a) I'm intentionally trying b) the rest of the workout is crap. Neither was the case this time.

Bhu Fan (went with my first instinct there) got her first hard workout, as well, and rode like a dream. Unlike her namesake, she definitely doesn't have a "tin can Oriental voice", just smooth and quiet with zoomy carbon fiber sounds here and there. (Bhu Fan the character is a Korat cat, so I don't think "Oriental" is racist in this case. Just as long as you stay PC and call her a "companion animal" instead of a pet.)

Fall foliage in Cascades Park

Saturday and Sunday were spent off the bike and with my mom. We did some fun stuff like shop for antiques, hit up the farmer's market, and took a tour of Marengo Cave. We saw this guy on the way out. It was the first woodchuck my mom had ever seen and only the third for me.

This week will start looking like a normal race week again, but I will be rested enough for one more hard workout on Tuesday. I'm going to try something a little different of my own devisement. With the current infrequency of hard workouts, I was trying to figure out what two workouts would give me the best tune-up during this mid-season mini-break. I thought the 30-seconders were a good choice, but I decided that rather than doing just a regular V02 max workout that I would go to the hill that I use for V02 max intervals in the 2-3 minute range. I think it might be 3.5 minutes to the actual peak of the hill, but less than 4, so I've never really ridden it out all the way in repeats. The last minute is tough, anyway, since it flattens out after a really steep section, and it gets hard to hold my power high. So for tomorrow, my goal is to ride to the peak regardless of time and not let my power drop during the last flatter section. This should be a good simulation for not letting myself slow down on the flatter, straighter sections during races where I tend to back off a bit and get passed.

OVCX #7: BloomingCross

2011-10-17T11:57:00.006-04:00

I'm blaming the announcers at Gun Club. Some time in the afternoon, they were discussing "cross cough", and I thought, "Hmm, I haven't coughed after a race since AppleCross." I felt the tickle in my throat soon after, and it seemed that there was no turning back the tide.

I knew that three weekends in a row of double races, including some 4:30 a.m. wake up calls would drive my body to the edge of what it could handle, but I just wanted to make it through to BloomingCross. After that, I would have the minimum seven races down for the OVCX series, and then I would get a weekend off when my mom came to visit October 21-24. Unfortunately, a nasty cold set in before I could get to my "one more race".

I did what I could to try and get better by the weekend, and spent a lot of time fretting about how things would turn out. The winner of last week's race had catted up to a 3, so that really opened up the possibilities. When I scanned the entry list, I realized I'd beaten every girl entered at least twice, with the exception of one. The one left had only beaten me by one second at Gun Club, so I thought I might have a good chance at the overall win. The cold, however, would not go away.

So I showed up yesterday just hoping for the best, and trying to convince myself that I would feel good once I started racing, even though I felt like crap. I did get a good start, but halfway through the first lap, I heard the rattling that meant someone was trying to come around me. It turned out to be about five people, including a couple of girls that are usually way behind me. I think that kind blew whatever facade of toughness I had left. I know I should have fought harder, but the nerves and the cough and the pressure just got to me. I kind of just rode through the rest of the race for ninth place.

Despite feeling awful most of the afternoon, I still kitted back up for the Little 500 bike race at the end of the day. For my non-Bloomington readers, you've seen "Breaking Away", right? With so few feature films about cycling, I'm going to assume so. Anyway, the race that they ride is a real thing (and humongous deal) at IU. What you may not know is that each four-person team is given two standard official Little 500 bikes, which are very different from any other kind of race bike. They are sort of like really heavy track bikes, but with flat pedals and coaster brakes rather than being fixed geared. The single gear is a 46 x 18 and the tires are wider and more textured than road tires.

So for BloomingCross they had a special category at the end of the day where we had to ride stock Little 500 bikes. They even paid cash prizes three deep. I'd never ridden a Little 500 bike before, but racing CX on one seemed so ridiculous that I had to try it. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. The coaster brakes weren't so bad, because I normally hold my feet parallel going through turns anyway, so I just had to make sure they were set the way I wanted them and lean back on my rear foot a bit more than I normally would have. Conditions were dry, so the semi-slick tires weren't an issue, and while the gearing was something I would normally only use for paved starts, I was able to make it up all the hills without walking. I was going about 2 mph a few times, but I made it.

I ended up third out of five girls, which was okay considering that I was last when we hit the grass at the beginning. It took me a lap to figure out what I was doing and then I was able to pass a couple of girls. I also lost some time in the sand pit, because I took the time to grab every dollar that people had stuck in the sand. I heard that this was annoying the coach of some of the other girls in the race, because I wasn't leaving any for them, but after several weeks of watching hella focused elite men turn down dollar bill hand-ups when they were 35th place, I was determined to milk my one shot at the "money pit" for all it was worth. I ended the race with my sports bra stuffed with seven sweaty, crumpled dollar bills, and then I got a check for $20 more for my third place finish. Mostly it just gave me a chance to have fun and blow out some of the crud I'd been feeling.

Now I have a couple of weeks to rest, finish getting well, and maybe even train a little. A little part of me is afraid that I peaked at Gun Club, and that I might lose my form in the last half of the season. Hopefully, that will not be the case. It's funny, because I still have 12 races scheduled, but only three that I consider "important". I really only care about doing well in the last three OVCX and getting some better places so that I can drop the seventh, eighth, and ninth places that are currently dragging down my score. For now, I guess I just need to enjoy my break, and do my best when Adam and I return to our old home town of Muncie in a couple of weeks.

Sun's Out/ Gun's Out

2011-10-10T14:17:00.010-04:00

No, this isn't another post about my arm muscles. After a damp and frigid weekend in Dayton, Indian Summer returned to the Ohio Valley, and made for a somewhat toasty weekend of racing.

Saturday was an Indiana Cyclocross Cup series race near Indianapolis. Although it's a bit burdensome to be racing a whole other series on top of OVCX, Adam's team director has been the driving force trying to get this series going the last couple of years, and now it seems that it's actually coming to fruition. While Indiana is making headway in the regional cyclocross world, we are still kind of the awkward third wheel to the Cincinnati and Louisville epicenters. It seems that many Indianapolis folks are interested in trying 'cross, but don't want to commit to the 2-3 hour drives every weekend (sometimes twice). As a Bloomingtonian, I fully accept that racing equals driving (often on two lane roads). We are pretty darn lucky just to have BloomingCross and the DINO race at Brown County. However, if the ICX Cup is the free taste that gets more Indiana folks hooked on the 'cross crack, I'm willing to do a little bit more driving to help it along.

Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I'd hoped it would be warm enough to wear my new rhinestoned pink gloves before it got cold again. It definitely was. Temperatures were over 80 degrees by the time we took our 1:00 pm start. That's not that hot for racing mountain bikes in the middle of summer, but when you're racing full bore in an open field with no tree cover and you've lost your acclimation from the summer, it's HOT.

We actually had a decent-sized field, with seven Cat 3/4 Open women and one 35+. Although eliminating the term "women's 3/4" from the public cyclocross consciousness is my cause célèbre (we need wristbands), the ICX series isn't quite "there" yet. As of Saturday, determining where Cat 3 women should go was not a problem, as there were none. Just eight 4's and two 2's. Gotta fill out that elite class.

Anyway, despite being small, our field was definitely not weak. I knew that I would have my hands full trying to stay with Valerie and Rebecca, but 14-year-old Chloe, who had kicked some butt during the last half of the DINO series was a last minute entry, as well. As it turned out, I didn't get much of a chance to see how long I could hang with them. The starting area was very narrow, and I got caught by a domino-effect of bar-banging and had to dab, reset, and get going again while the rest of the field rode away. It took me over half a lap to make it up to fourth place, and by the time I did, the top three were out of sight. I had to turn myself inside out just to hold my position, but I was able to keep it together to the end. Since the overall winner was a 35+, I still made the podium and finished where I expected to, but the gap was much bigger than I had hoped.

Sunday was my first time at the Gun Club. I was looking forward to this race, because it is the favorite course of about every mountain bike-oriented 'crosser I know. The pre-registration list was a little intimidating, because it was essentially a confluence of every woman who had beaten me in an OVCX race this year all showing up on once, along with quite a few others, since there were 34 women in our field.

After pre-riding the course, and noticing quite a few slick and/or technical choke points, I knew I needed to ride like hell and not get caught up behind too many people. So I did. Rebecca and a junior rider took off fast, but I stayed close and only gave up one position on the long open stretch before the sandpit. That is pretty good for me on a long open stretch, but it was still one position too many. I had to be careful negotiating the sandpit and the tight turn up to the barriers behind the other rider, but no mistakes were made and by the next open section we'd caught the junior girl in second. I knew the most technical sections were coming up so I passed them both. The junior girl stayed on and passed me back for a while. We battled back and forth for the rest of the race. I tried attacking her a few times early in the third lap, but she matched me every time. I decided to sit on until the flat out-and-back before the finish, since I had been faster in that section on the previous two laps, but she got a little gap and I was not quite able to make it up by the finish. I did, however, reach my recently stated goal of getting a top three overall, and I was only 10 seconds out of first. I would call it a damn good good day of racing for me.

This picture is actually from last weekend at Gearfest, but I thought it was a good one.

Hi! My Name Is...

2011-10-07T10:09:00.002-04:00

Well, she doesn't have one yet. Nor has she yet been set up with all of the proper pink accoutrement's that come with being a member of my bike fleet. You see, all of my other bikes were planned, saved, and slaved for over the course of months. This girl was more of a surprise, albeit a happy one.

I've been in "a new road bike would be nice" mode for maybe a year or so, but wasn't anywhere close to actually saving more or doing anything about it. Then about a week ago I saw Adam flipping through the new Giant catalog, and he pointed to a bike and asked if I liked he color. He was planning on buying an inexpensive bike for the frame and then building it up with the Sram Rival parts left over after he upgraded his "A" 'cross bike to Red. After a bit more discussion, we decided that the Avail Composite 2 might be a good choice, because it was carbon fiber, a nice color, and wouldn't require any parts swapped except for the ones Adam already had. I went to the shop on Monday to try out sizes and last night, my early birthday present arrived.

I used to not be a bike naming person, but it seems that this will be the only bike I have without a name. As is well documented, my 'cross bike is New New, and my old 'cross bike, now commuter is Jake. Although it is embarrassing to admit this publicly, last summer I was contemplating how the plot line of True Blood had so greatly diverged from that of The Southern Vampire Mysteries while knocking out some speedy laps on my 29er at French Lick. During this time, I decided that my tall, sexy, efficient bike must be called Eric. Along that vein, the squishy Anthem at home must be Bill.

Anyway, the new road bike won't have a name from the Sookieverse and probably will not have one from an obscure hip hop roller skating movie, but I'm thinking about other characters from books or movies that might be appropriate. Despite my ultra-geeky admittance above, I am in no way interested in the full pantheon of vampire literature, so if Charlaine Harris is not churning out anything new, you can just as easily find me reading about mysteries solved by 19th century Turkish eunuchs or Maine Coon cats instead of telepathic barmaids. I am considering the name Bhu Fan from the latter series, as both the bike and the character are tiny Asian princesses.

Regardless of what I decide to call her, I'm excited that she is here. I've actually had the Ohio Spring Race Series on my mind a bit lately, after realizing it is how many of my cyclocross competitors occupy their time in the "off season". (Ha ha, CX is supposed to be the off season, but we know that's not true.) My spring/ early summer goals for next year will still revolve around the Ouachita Challenge and trying to *finally* finish my first 100 mile mountain bike race at the Mohican 100, but other than that I think I'm a little over cross country racing. It seems that women's road racing might actually be reaching a critical mass in the region where the race becomes a peloton instead of a mass start time trial. And while being able to beat certain girls in 'cross doesn't mean that I will necessarily beat them on the road, looking over my recent results compared those of last spring's series makes me at least want to give it a shot. Now having a pretty new bike just begging for a public debut, I might just find the motivation to try something a little different in 2012.

OVCX Dayton Weekend: Halfway There

2011-10-03T15:28:00.002-04:00

She says we've got to hold on to what we've got
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not
We got each other and that's a lot
For love we'll give it a shot!

Oh, we're half way there
Oh oh, trainin' on a prayer
Turn those cranks and we'll make it I swear
Oh oh, trainin' on a prayer

It's hard to believe that in the space of 22 days that I've raced six times and the 2011 OVCX series is already half over. The thought of doing another double CX weekend in a row was a little daunting, especially with both races being over three hours away. The complicating factor was that I was leading the series in the Cat 4 Open class and had worked my way up to number one on the call-up list. I just couldn't bear to skip a race and let myself slide back into obscurity.

Adam seemed less interested in beating himself up for call-up spots, so I made the journey to Dayton alone on Saturday morning. The temperatures were in the low fourties and it was windy and drizzling. I think I was still in weather denial since we were racing in hot dusty conditions this time last year, and it didn't really even occur to me to bring leg warmers. I didn't really want to wear them, anyway, because dressing for 'cross is much different that bundling up for winter riding. There is only so much bulk one can put on and when it's in the fourties, you've still got to keep an ace in the hole for when it's in the thirties or even the twenties.

Unfortunately, my attempt to prove my hard(wo)man status kind of failed, because I think I got chilled to the point that I couldn't race well. I got the hole shot, but was quickly passed by a couple of much faster riders and then even more when I went over the first set of barriers and discovered my numb feet weren't clipping back in too well. With three dismounts per lap, slow clip-ins were kind of a problem.

I ended up swapping around with a group of 4-6 girls throughout the race, including Collyn, who had won at AppleCross and had also beaten me at Brookside. We were back and forth, never more than a few bike lengths apart for most of the race. We were sent out for a fourth lap (the first race where I've not been lapped by a SS man and pulled after three) where I tried in vain to shake her from my wheel. With 200m to go she was still there, and while I did my best to sprint, she flew around me and easily made it to the line first. It turned out that we were sprinting for the last podium spot, so I was relegated to fourth and was eighth in the wave.

Sunday was a better day, being sunny and having a couple of key players missing from my category. The course had a couple of long slightly uphill slogs over ground that managed to be both rough and squishy at the same time. I didn't get the best start and I allowed myself to be passed by several people that I shouldn't have during the first quarter lap. After the first barriers, I got myself together and started making places back. By the time I made it through, I was feeling decent, but the leader was way off the front and there was a group of three girls, including my category leader, who still had a big gap on me. I tried hard to shut it down, but in the end they still had about 45 seconds and I ended up second in my category and fifth in my wave.

I was telling Adam that I think I may have already done more races by the beginning of October this season than I did over the entire season any previous year. That might not actually be true, since I was pretty gung-ho at the beginning of 2007 when I had what now seems to be the ridiculous goal of racing the elite category at the first-ever USGP Louisville and not finishing totally off the back. I actually did race the women's "A" category the first few races, but I was totally off the back even against the locals and had to reevaluate my goals. I soon found out that I had a pretty hard time just not getting last in B's.

It's kind of funny trying to imagine what the 2007 me would think of me now. I still have a big jump to make up to anything loosely resembling "elite", and I'm still haven't cracked a top three overall finish (my new goal for the last half of the season). However, I now get to take podium pictures on the reg, and if I just keep plugging away with decent-to-good races, maybe my luck will hold out and I squeak out a series title in December. The 2007 me was really jealous of all of the medium-fast chicks that got to stand on the Cat 3/4 podium. Now I'm one of them.

Muddy Pictures

2011-09-29T09:25:00.008-04:00

I just wanted to add this cool sequence of pictures from Sunday that were posted by Cycle Exposure after I'd already written up my race report. I feel lame even mentioning this, but I feel like I'm actually starting look like a lean racer chick in this weekend's photos. Even Emily commented on my muscles in one, although she could just be mocking my interest in analyzing the number and degree of visible muscles I can find in race pictures of myself.

Indy CX Weekend

2011-09-26T18:05:00.002-04:00

After what seemed like a very long double CX weekend, the logical thing to do is to spend Monday reliving it all by looking at a bajillion Facebook pictures and silly videos, right? In addition to my own blogging, I also volunteered to keep up with the CX coverage for Bloomington VeloNews this season after our esteemed local cycle-razzi Geraint Parry moved back to England last winter. So now I am busy following and photographing the racing exploits of other Bloomington residents in addition to my own. I realize that at least half of my readers come from BVN already, (another 40% are people Googling abdominal scars) but if you want to read what I have to say about other people's races click on over and check it out.

The race course at Brookside on Saturday had a decidedly roadie bias (the course designer would freely admit this intention), so it didn't exactly bode well for my skill set. The field was a little tougher than the one at Fisherman's Park. Before the race I identified a couple of girls who would almost definitely beat me and 3-4 that could go either way. It turned out that 3 of the 4 went the way of beating me, plus another one surprised me. I ended up fourth out of the Cat 4 open and seventh in the wave. I did beat one 35+ women who had beaten me the week before, so that was a positive. Overall, it wasn't an exceptional race for me, but I'd give myself a "meets expectations" on my performance evaluation.

Rain all Saturday night and Sunday made for slick conditions at Ft. Harrison State Park. Although our early race didn't have the epic mudfest conditions of the elite races in the afternoon, the slick turns and sloppy fire road on the back of the course still played to my advantage. I got a good start and stayed with the top three for the better part of the first lap. I then lost contact with them and was eventually passed by one more powerful rider, but I kept it rubber side down for all but one corner and maintained my position for the rest of the race. This left me in third place in the Cat 4 open and a best-ever wave finish of fifth. I managed to beat a couple more good 35+ women from previous races, and even if it doesn't sound as good as "winning" at Fisherman's park, it was probably my best performance so far this season. The girls that got first and second in my category were really strong and racing for the first time this season. Luckily, one was just on a short weekend stopover before her Cat 3 upgrade, so I still feel like I might have a decent chance at winning the series. There's still a long way to go, though.

Besides the racing, the best part of the weekend was actually spectating during the muddy elite races. There were a bunch of crazy people handing out money and beer at the barriers. Luckily, someone made this awesome video of the festivities, which is bound to become a classic of "Joey's Okay" proportions.

And This One Time, at Fisherman's Park

2011-09-19T09:02:00.005-04:00

For so many years, I had to tell the story: "No, I've never actually won a race. At least not one with other people in it. Well, except for this one time at Brookside in 2006, I beat one girl, and it was awesome."

And then my day came. I climbed to the top step of a real live cyclocross podium at a real live OVCX race, and this is the picture I have to prove it:

Looks a whole heck of a lot like, "this one time I beat this one girl", huh?

Well, don't let the picture fool you. It was a tough battle getting there.

A steady drizzle through the morning left the grass on the course slick, although no real mud had started to build up when I took my practice lap. I wasn't feeling too great, mostly due to nerves. It didn't help that my bike seemed to weigh 20 pounds more than the sprightly steed that I'd ridden at Applecross the week before. When I finished the lap, I realized why and didn't feel so bad.

All of the wet grass was clogging my brakes and making my bike look like Swamp Thing:

Adam got it cleaned off and loosened my brakes a little to compensate for the buildup that would happen during the race, and then I had to just line up and hope for the best. Three categories started in my wave: Cat 4 open women, Cat 4 35+ women, and junior girls 15-18. We were all mixed together and then separated on the results at the end.

I got a nice front-row center call-up and a decent start off the line. I was in third until the first barrier, but lost a few places before a particularly tight turn where a I got caught behind a crash and lost a couple more. I started to make up the ground and then I was bumped off course when I tried to pass a girl on a twisty up and down section. It was probably mostly my fault for not calling out that I was passing, but I was a little too gassed to yell and hoped I could sneak through.

So the first lap concluded with me chase mode, and it stayed that way until about a third of the way into the third lap. At that point, I had lost the wave leaders, but still seemed to be in good position within my age group and was making up ground on who I thought was the category leader. Then a couple of girls passed me and I started getting worried. Fortunately, the last half of the course had a lot of off-camber and slick up-and-down turns. Rather than killing it, I stayed calm and focused on being smooth and mistake-free. This worked perfectly, as I managed to pass back the two girls who'd just caught me and finish off the one I'd been chasing all race when they each made mistakes on the slick stuff.

Clearing the last technical section, I gunned it as hard as I could to get away from the girls I'd just passed. There was still a chance that I'd have to defend for a fourth lap if no singlespeed men lapped me before the finish line. Part of me wanted to get a fourth lap in, because I knew some of the top women in the wave would, but I was also 95% sure that I was leading the under-35 race and really just wanted to seal my win. So when I glanced over so see the rider coming around me before the final uphill was male, I said a silent thank you and pushed with all my might to make sure no women passed me before the finish.

Even though I got to stand on the top step of the podium, I was still beaten by a couple of hella fast juniors and four women from the 35+ category. So my first "win" still feels like unfinished business. I want to make it to the for-real top of my wave and not the arbitrarily age-graded top. The good news is that I'll head to Brookside on Saturday with greater confidence and try to climb a little further up the ladder. It should be good. After all, I did beat that one girl there that one time.

Speaking of confidence, I wore these nifty socks yesterday. Sure they match my kit, but they also just kind of spoke to me. I mean, it's just a little easier to have swagger in competition when your socks are "cocky":

Huber's Applecross

2011-09-11T16:18:00.002-04:00

So the test results are in. New wheels: freakin' awesome. Body: meh, pretty good.

I got a good start at Huber's Applecross today. I contended for the hole shot with a girl from Illinois who had won the day before, and when the course narrowed into the first turn I let her take the lead. The pace seemed a little slow through the first part of the course, so I passed her right before the apple orchard section (mmm, rotten apple smell). Unfortunately, I found myself being flung through the air at the exit of the orchard. A closer inspection on the next lap revealed a pretty large hole camouflaged by the grass that I'd failed to notice on my pre-ride.

The cool thing was that while I scrambled to get back on the bike I realized that I gapped the field enough that I almost had time to remount and keep going without losing my lead, but I panicked at bit and didn't move efficiently enough. I tacked onto the back of the lead group and tried to regain my senses, but things got pretty crazy shortly thereafter. There was a weird section where the course appeared to go down a steep off camber hill and then back up. However, it was taped wide enough that I could ride the high side of the downhill and low side of the uphill so that it was more of just a zig zag with a few pedal strokes of climbing. I got caught up behind a lot of traffic in that section and the climb ending in a run-up after it. Some of the 35+ women were catching up at that point and I kind of lost my bearings as to my place in the pack. A couple of crashes in front of me on the gravel-to-grass transition right before the sand pit during the second lap made things even less clear. I just tried to maintain at point.

The middle laps were rough because, even though I'd made up a few places, I'd lost sight of the leaders. I also had a two or three girls following me that I needed to hold off. It's ironic that I just did a blog post on how awesome it is to have people cheering for me during races, because I was getting the complete opposite today. Amongst a Louisville-heavy crowd being pursued by several Louisville girls, I was mostly hearing cheers for my competitors and knowing that they were still in hot pursuit. One finally got around me and started to slip away when I saw the lap board and realized we were in for four laps instead of three. I got close to making the place back during the last lap, but didn't quite make it. When we crossed the finish line, it was announced that we were second and third. At that point I was a little disappointed that I hadn't fought harder for second, but at least I'd made my first real cyclocross podium.

Time to 'Cross

2011-09-09T14:25:00.002-04:00

Sunday I will be testing out my body and my new wheels at Huber's Applecross before things really heat up with the beginning of the OVCX series. I did have a minute or two a couple of weeks ago where I suddenly wished I was continuing my 6 solo streak at the DINO 24, but it passed pretty quickly. If I'm going to be racing every weekend until Christmas, it's probably best to keep it to 30-40 minute bouts.

Anyway, I figured I'd get myself and everyone else pumped up with what became my unofficial CX anthem last season. Weird choice, I know. I think it started last season going up that annoying steep section at Fisherman's Park when I heard Fred Rose yelling, "You're a warrior!" I'm not even sure if it was intended for me or for his girlfriend who was likely on a nearby section of the course that just happened to be half a lap or so ahead of me. Regardless, it made me laugh and maybe made me push a little harder for a while. I realized that with so many vocal 'cross peeps and the short and twisty courses, it's pretty hard to go more than a minute or two without a friend yelling for you. So it's more about the feeling than the exact lyrics, but "somewhere in the crowd there's you" is pretty much everyone I know instead of any specific person. Plus, the peppy beat eases the pain just a little.

Good luck to everyone tuning it up at Applecross or Lionhearts CX or topping it off at the DINO 24 Hour this weekend! I guess we'll all converge again in Louisville in a week.

End of MTB Quotes

2011-08-29T12:24:00.001-04:00

"... like a f***ing roller coaster for hillbillies." - Tomasz Golas

"Cycling is a bitchy sport at times..." - Jamie Scott

"Well, MTB season is officially over. Can't say I'm heartbroken. Had a couple good races early on, mostly shit otherwise." - Adam Rodkey

I almost feel like I don't need to write a whole post on this; my husband's tweet above says it all. The other two are just kind of funny/fitting.

Yesterday I wrapped up the disappointing last half of my XC mountain bike season. When I look back I realize that it was mostly disappointing because I won the first race of the season, and then it went downhill from there. Without that initial success, I could have just gone through the season with the excuse that I was just coming back from surgery and was focusing on cyclocross. As it turned out, I tossed those excuses to the wind, tried to reach beyond the comfort of mediocrity, and failed.

"Held up so high on such a breakable thread" - Avril Lavigne

It's hard to decide how I should feel about this. I knew that first win wasn't against particularly strong competition. However, as the season progressed more girls started racing or moved up from Cat 3, and winning wasn't so easy. I was the slowest women's Cat 2 winner in the history of the BCSP race and the fastest last place in the history of Logansport. My eight place time from yesterday was faster than the second place time at the same race when I first raced Sport/Cat 2 back in 2007. (I know the course has been altered, but the men's times are about the same so it's not just a faster course.) So it's not like I actually did super bad the last the last few races, but at the same time it's frustrating, after six seasons of racing, to be competing against girls who have been at it less than two years and not be winning.

"The competition's getting younger. Tougher broncs, you know I can't recall." - Garth Brooks

In reality, I was faster overall this season than I ever have been, but only by a small amount. In light of the fact that I did have major surgery over the winter and trained fewer hours, I guess even a small improvement should be a happy surprise. I feel like I'm actually a lot faster for the first 30 minutes or so of the race, but I'm just not able to maintain it. I'm kind of hoping that the improvement to my top end will be more pronounced in 'cross races where 30 minutes is all I'll need.

So for better or worse, another mountain bike season is in the books. I have a nice mental list of things to do differently next year, but for now, all I can do is move on and try to have the best 'cross season I can with the fitness I have.

Ground Control

2011-08-08T12:20:00.014-04:00

I never could bring myself to write a race report from the Versailles race, because I'm still upset about it. I got into a verbal spat with another competitor, and I feel like an ass for it. Not a completely unjustified ass, but an ass nonetheless. I've been struggling with how my perception of things may or may not actually line up with reality (still not sure). I've finally come to the conclusion that regardless of how the other girl's past actions have contributed to my frustration and possibly the frustrations of other riders, as well, it was ultimately my responsibility to not let myself get so upset worrying about other people's actions. It's just a damn hard thing to do.

Also, I ran out of gas mid-race and finished fourth, which I felt was pretty dumpster. I'm sure the wasted expenditure of emotional energy didn't help.

I'd still been feeling "off" since I got back from Oklahoma four weeks ago (smacked head?), so I took Friday off from work to allow a nice three-day weekend and the chance to regroup a bit. I'm not sure what the deal was. I wasn't sleeping well, and was showing physical signs of stress, although I couldn't really name any particular thing I was worried about. Regardless, I thought an extra day of sleeping in, followed by a morning of light and not mentally taxing physical activity, would do me good. So I swapped my Thursday intervals for a Friday mountain bike ride at Brown County. A couple of hours at chill-axed pace did me good.

Green Valley

Later that day, I found out that my new cyclocross wheels had arrived. They are Velocity Major Tom rims with Ultegra hubs. I apparently also have "custom" tires, although I have only seen them on Twitter. The new wheels are not super fancy, but I'm looking forward to making the jump from clinchers to tubulars. Hopefully, the "unparalleled ground control" will help me step up my game this season.

Should have taken the picture before Adam started the gluing magic.

In other 'cross news, the registration pages for some of this season's races have begun to open and it appears that the campaign to get a Cat 3 women's class for the OVCX series was mostly successful. I say mostly because, while there will be a separate Cat 3 women's class for registration and scoring, they will race at the same time and for the same prize purse as the Cat 1/2's, as well as the newly formed Elite 35+ women's class. I feel like these category changes will help create a more defined path for riders progressing through the sport, and will give everyone a place where they belong, even if we don't all get separate swag.

After obsessing over the creation of a Cat 3 women's class for the last year, I certainly would like to participate in it. However, I'm a little scared of getting in over my head for the first race. So I'm strongly leaning toward racing Cat 4 for the first race and trying to earn my upgrade. Upgrading is easier than downgrading; plus I'm a strong advocate of "the upgrade points system is in place for a reason" and feel like I should earn my spot in the next category up.

Catching Up

2011-07-12T12:24:00.003-04:00

I keep telling myself that I'm going to sit down and write a blog post that isn't a race report, but I just haven't been inspired. I guess it beats a day-to-day accounting of the average power of every interval I perform, but I've gone too far in the other direction.

Anyway, I had a nice trip back to see my parents in Oklahoma during the first week of July. Since my impending surgery interfered with my normal Christmas trip, I hadn't been to see them in 15 months.

While I was there, my mom and I ran the annual Fireball Classic 5k. It had been a running joke since last summer when she was reading the results of last year's race in the paper and decided that she needed to the race "someday". While I was in the hospital, we decided that we would both do it this year and started in on the smack-talking about who was going to beat who. However, since I healed and got back to cycling faster than I expected, I really didn't do much running in preparation, except for an 800m warm up before my gym sessions. As the race grew closer, my mom seemed to grow unsatisfied with the idea of just walking the 5k and wanted to run, but she was also not very confident in her ability to do so. She set the goal of "finishing in a number less than [her] age".

As it turns out, she finished in 37 minutes and third in her age group, but didn't get her medal due to a mix-up. I also finished in a number less than my age, but at 29:18, it wasn't by much. I still figure that sub-30 is acceptable since I don't really run anymore.

I returned from Oklahoma around 9 p.m. on Friday night, only to unpack and then re-pack the car to go to the Rangeline Rampage time trial the next morning. I wasn't really thrilled about the idea of getting up early and racing the morning after an all-day drive, but after reviewing the results from the Muscatatuck short track race, it looked like I needed to go get the bonus points if I still wanted to be in contention for the DINO series championship. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I care about winning the series championship, but I kind of do.

Unfortunately, all of the voices that were telling me to forget about the stupid bonus points and stay home, go to the farmer's market, and do my scheduled 2 x 20 minute intervals were right. I was completely lacking in mojo, and while I thought my Anthem would be the right bike for a twisty, technical time trial, I'm just not comfortable on it anymore. Things went from bad to worse when I was grasping at straws to try and hold off the girl that started 30 seconds back, then endoed coming off a higher than expected log drop/jump thing. My head was ringing, it took a little while until I felt like getting up. When I did, I carefully traversed the rest of the course (9 bonus points still beats 0).

I thought I was okay, but a splitting headache, nausea, and difficultly concentrating on the drive back to Bloomington had me scared that I had a concussion. I stopped by Bloomington Hospital ER before going home, and it turns out I just "rattled my brain" a bit. I'm not really sure where the dividing line is, but I guess that if it was a true concussion I would have been too loopy to complete the race, much less a two-hour drive after. Some Tylenol and a nap cleared up the majority of the headache, and it still comes and goes a few days later. I also have a killer black eye now that the swelling had started to move from my eyebrow down to the lid.

DINO French Lick: Daring Feats of Reckless Bravery

2011-06-20T10:32:00.003-04:00

"In keeping with their credo of ‘Die biting the throat,’ a gnoll in haouka will take progressively greater risks, performing more and more daring feats of reckless bravery until she is killed."

Going out with the leaders. Thanks to Janelle Renschler for the photo.

Well, I failed to garner another win at DINO French Lick. I know that's kind of a bummer way to put it, but after my first win at Brown County, I was hungry for another, and it seemed very possible.

The race morning was strange, since early morning thunderstorms left us wondering if the race was on or off. Unable to get through to the DINO hotline, we set out and kept calling along the way. When Adam finally got through about two hours before the start time and over halfway there, there was no message either way. We assumed it was on.

The parking lot was so scarcely populated when we arrived that for a while I wondered how much competition there would actually be. However, there were some women from Missouri parked next to us and one of them was in my category. I knew nothing about her, so I just decided I would do my best to beat her to the singletrack and let the chips fall where they may.

By the time the race started, there were five Cat 1 girls and five Cat 2, including the girl who got second at Brown County. In this case, I knew I had to beat her to the top of the first hill so that I could gap her in on the downhill. Otherwise, I would end up engaged in a painful and frustrating back-and-forth like many times last season, which usually did not end well for me. Basing my strategy off of a fast start followed by a long max-effort climb is not the way I'd prefer to do things, but it was what I had to do in that situation.

So at the start I dove into my reckless feat of bravery. I shot out across the flooded driving range right behind the top three Cat 1 girls, and hoped that no one was too close behind me. Hitting the singletrack climb was painful, but I did my best to keep my composure, spin, and try to be as smooth as possible. Unfortunately, as I struggled to find my maximum sustainable pace going up the hill, the clicks of gears and chains behind me indicated that the pace was not fast enough to lose the competition. Early on I was passed by a Cat 1 girl with the Cat 2 girl from Missouri closely on her wheel. So I now I knew something about her: she was pretty darn fast.

At least the clicking behind me had subsided and I thought I could hold on for second. At the next switchback, it even looked like I had a decent gap. But the climb was just too long, and I was unable to hold off the next girl until the top. By the time she passed me, I was in full explosive state and I finally had to back off a bit. So I ended up being clear for the downhill after all, but not in the way I wanted. I limped my way through the rest of the lap for third. I think I would normally be happy with that, but I was mostly disappointed to have been outmatched by someone I know I can beat.

Now I have time to lick my wounds and come back fighting at Versailles. The last two weeks were kind of hard for me, because it took me a full week to feel normal after my effort at Brown County. Normally I struggle with a "phantom pedaling" sensation in my legs when I try to go to sleep the night after a race. After Brown County, I had that sensation for three nights. By the time I felt normal again, I didn't want to push myself too hard in training so that I would be fresh for French Lick. Not that I think two weeks of suboptimal training had much influence on my race result, but my plans have actually shifted to a 100% cyclocross focus for fall so I'm really supposed to just be training through all of the cross country races. I want to get back on track with that plan as soon as possible. Luckily, I get a rest week, a full training block, and another rest week before Versailles, so that should be perfect.

DINO BCSP: Die Biting the Throat

2011-06-05T17:33:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast where J. Stanton, the author of The Gnoll Credo, was being interviewed. The book sounded interesting from the interview, so I decided to go to the website and read the first chapter. The first chapter ends with the actual Gnoll Credo, which is pretty much rules of living for the gnolls, which are hyena/human hybrids. The final rule is "Die biting the throat."

When I bought the book from publisher's "Save the Serengeti" page, I received a signed copy with a nice note from the author and quite a few stickers, including four that said, "Die Biting the Throat". I decided that one of them needed to go on the top tube of my mountain bike.

Fast forward to this weekend. I still hadn't actually put the sticker on my bike, but a training cycle of many puke-tastic sets of 30 second sprints had seriously enhanced my ability to push myself, even if my power numbers still weren't as awesome as I'd hoped. I wasn't sure how I felt about my first race at DINO BCSP, because I didn't really know what kind of shape I was in. However, I decided to go into the race with as little expectation about performance as possible, but at the same time to adopt "Die Biting the Throat" as my own credo. Basically, if I wasn't fit enough to do well, that was okay, but whatever happened, I was going to go down swinging.

So we lined up and I scanned the field. There weren't that many Cat 2's and only one I recognized. I knew I had to do my best to be the first in my class to reach the top of the paved climb, since I hate being held up on the downhill singletrack. We took off and I was easily clear of all the Cat 2 girls and the Cat 1's weren't pulling away at the speed they normally do. One Cat 2 girl came around me for a bit where the climb flattens out a little, but when the pitch increased I shoved myself into the hurt box and re-passed her along with two Cat 1 women. I had made it through the first major obstacle of the race, and now I just had to keep it together and hold my lead.

One Cat 1 girl came around once we started climbing, and Emily, who was in Cat 1, passed me about halfway through the North Tower loop. However, she didn't pull away quickly, so I had a carrot to chase up until the Aynes climb. I glanced back early on and saw a girl from my category and panicked a bit, but I just rode as hard as I could and miraculously crested the climb without being caught. At that point I knew that I had a pretty good shot at hanging on for the win, but I still had to be conscientious. I did my best to rip the descent, push as hard as I could on the little ups and downs, and made it to the North Tower climb. Just five more minutes hard, and a screaming descent, and I had it. When I topped that climb, I knew I'd win, and a mile of downhill later, I did.

So I'd call my first race back from surgery a huge success. I think part of it is that I'm not taking myself so damn seriously this year, but at the same time I'm learning to be tougher when it counts. I also think I got lucky with the field today, but hey, a win's a win. I'm definitely hoping to repeat at French Lick in a couple of weeks, since that is my favorite course.

In case I forget sometime between now and June 18, I installed this when I got home from the race:

April Is The New January

2011-05-02T12:32:00.004-04:00

I've been meaning to write this post since the DINO Spring Tune-up was cancelled, essentially pushing my first race of the year all the way to DINO BCSP on June 5. Actually, I'd decided not to race a couple of days before the cancellation, due to the fact that Adam wanted the car to go to a road race day, I'd forgotten to renew my USAC license and hadn't accounted for an extra $60 in my April budget, and frankly, I just didn't feel ready to race yet.

I planned my season knowing that I would be behind for the spring and summer, and that I would be okay with that, but this April has felt much more like January than April. Many factors are contributing to this: the fact that I just completed my first base training cycle, the fact that I'm still five weeks away from my first "race" and even that doesn't feel real, and the fact that I've not been on my mountain bike the entire month. I was lucky enough to get one ride at French Lick in February and one at BCSP in March, but between the weather and trying to get reacquainted with intervals, mountain bike riding fell by the wayside in the last month. I'm actually feeling a little paranoid about my lack of trail time, but I have 17 weeks left to prep for The Unnamed Epic. Perhaps I'll take more advantage of the drier months of July and August this year, rather than being burned out by then like I normally am.

Here is one more January-like sign:

Yes, I've actually been on the trainer a couple of times. Of course, I usually won't get on that thing even in January, but I'm trying an experiment. I've been wavering back and forth about trying intermittent fasting (IF) for a couple of months, but I finally took the leap a couple of weeks ago. I've done quite well at making it until lunch time on just a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil around 8:30 or 9. Since I no longer need to take the time to prepare and eat breakfast, I have an additional half-hour or so more free time in the morning than I used to. Three days a week, I use it to get extra sleep. However, on Tuesday and Thursday I'm playing on the "fasted endurance in the morning, strength in the afternoon" paradigm from the Strength Training for Cyclists blog series that I mentioned in my last post. I basically get up and pedal easy for 30 minutes before I get ready for work, so that I get an extra boost to the efficiency of my fat metabolism. Hopefully, a few months of this result in a killer diesel engine to power through 75 miles of Wisconsin hills in August.

I'm actually finding the trainer more tolerable than I have in the past, probably due to the more relaxed effort. I really do just spin and check my email on my phone while old episodes of Full House play in the background. Ironically, the first morning of this routine involved an episode where DJ decides to starve herself to look good a pool party and is inundated with sorts of CW advice from the family. And Michelle crawls up on a table and shoves a bunch of cake in her face. I can only hope it was the Olsen twin that later developed an eating disorder playing that scene.

Anyway, things seem to be going pretty well, despite the feeling of being behind. The coming training cycle will be hard and fast, and hopefully the weather will start allowing me to do some Sunday rides on my mountain bike.

One Less Skinny Cyclist

2011-04-17T16:01:00.002-04:00

So I guess official cycling training for 2011 is under way.

As I've stated before, my plan was to spend 12 weeks focusing on Crossfit, with a little bit of base miles, and then go back to "official training" in May. I think I've discussed the reasons for this a bit, but I don't think I've ever discussed the real reasons. Yes, I wanted a chance to build my muscle back after my surgery, but it's a little more complicated than that. I really just couldn't see myself going back to cycling training as I knew it before I switched to a primal/paleo/whatever diet last August. I had struggled through the first few weeks on the diet, which is likely due to the fact that I was transitioning to a fat-based metabolism. Then the pancreas drama set in and gave me an "out". I hadn't really wanted "out" in the middle 'cross season, but as I've stated several times, I've been glad for the opportunity to step back and figure out what I want to do.

The fact of the matter is that I definitely still wanted to race bikes, but I didn't want to go back to my old way of doing things. What has been seen cannot be unseen, and what is known cannot be unknown. I've spent all these months hearing how "chronic cardio" is bad for me, and how too many carbs will make me fat. I also know it's not just hype, because for the first time after over 10 years as an endurance athlete, I sleep through the night without getting up to use the bathroom, my ankles don't swell up at work nearly as much as they used to, and I'm generally less irritable and unmotivated. The answer, my friends, is in the cortisol. Life is much better with less of it.

Unfortunately, for quite some time I struggled to figure out how to live a lifestyle where I could enjoy these benefits and still be somewhat fast on a bike. All the advice I was getting from the paleo-sphere was eat more sweet potatoes and that Robb Wolf really, really didn't care about endurance sports. I won't even get started on my thoughts on "The Paleo Diet for Athletes". So I figured I'd stall with a few months of Crossfit and maybe get my body composition where I wanted it before I threw myself to the cardio wolves again.

Then I saw a Twitter post about Jamie Scott's High Fat Diet for Cyclists and Strength Training for Cyclists blog series, and was hooked. He was saying that eating the diet that I was already eating could actually boost my aerobic efficiency, and he ranted on skinny cyclists. At 113 pounds, I'm still pretty skinny, and don't really want to gain more total weight, but I've long regretted the fact that I was a weak cyclist (even when I weighed quite a bit more). Reading these posts gave me hope that I could actually become a lean and strong cyclist (and even be able to do a pull-up??), and maybe not feel like I had to spend every minute of free time on my bike, either. The only thing I was missing was the specifics of how to implement these principles.

So a few weeks ago when my Crossfit workouts starting causing me to wake up in the middle of the night, I emailed Jamie to ask. As of last week, I'm on the "Paleo 2.0 for Cyclists" plan. This involves two days of intervals, two days of heavy but short lifting, and one day of endurance riding. The strength training is pretty bare-bones heavy stuff, and I'm able to keep doing it at the Crossfit facility, since I hate traditional gyms and like being able to play on the ropes and rings a bit after the heavy lifting. Weekend workouts are done in a fasted state before breakfast. This is kind of a struggle, but I think it's more mental than physical. It's more of a matter of wanting to eat before I ride than actually needing to, because my metabolism is in pretty good shape. It does make breakfast ever more enjoyable once the ride's over, though. My power kind of sucks right now, but it's no lower than it was when I started my 2009 "official training", and I was 25 pounds heavier then, so power-to-weight isn't terrible.

I guess we will have to wait until August 27 to see the full results of this experiment, but I'm feeling pretty good so far.

'Til the Cows Come Home

2011-03-20T15:15:00.004-04:00

This is completely not cycling related, but not all adventures are. Instead, I spent a sunny Saturday morning away from both bikes and Crossfit to expand my horizons and get a little a little closer to my food.

Real grass fed dairy is hard to find in this area, but for the warmer half of the year, The Swiss Connection brings top-notch raw grass fed dairy to the Bloomington farmer's market. However, the downside of their all-natural (and not the grocery store marketing kind) approach is that they don't produce year-round. So since November I've been getting by on Kerrygold butter and waiting for spring. When I saw a posting on Facebook that they were looking for volunteers to help move their cows from their winter pasture to the main farm as part of their bi-annual "cattle drive", I jumped at the opportunity to help out and maybe give the girls a pep talk to get the butter and cream flowing.

We were greeted by a neighbor of the farm, who does event catering with his chuck wagon and served up coffee brewed over an open flame.

This is me on the hay wagon that took us out to the winter pasture.

The cows awaiting round-up.

Farm owner Alan Yegerlehner giving instructions as the volunteers lined up.

Basically, they had a tractor and trailer with a movable corral panel on the back. Their were strings tied to both sides of the corral panel and the voluteers spread out about ten feet apart on each side and walked behind the tractor, creating a moving fence all the way back the farm, which was about three miles.

Moo-ing along.

This is near the end of the walk when the cows started getting spread out. It's a little hard to see the line running between me and the guy in front of me.

The cows seemed pretty excited to be back at the dairy. It's hard to see in the picture, but the ones in front started running about the time they got the barn in the distance.

After the we got back to the farm, we were treated to a nice lunch and lots of free ice cream. I had a good time meeting the farm owners and the other volunteers. Definitely a worthwhile morning, and I'm looking forward to trying the fruits, err butter, of my labor at the farmer's market in a couple of weeks.

Never Had It So Good

2011-03-06T15:27:00.004-05:00

Now you can do what you want to

And never feel sad

You've never had it so good, babe

I've never had it so bad

I'm not really sure who the singer would be in this situation, but the chorus of this song has definitely resonated with me the last few weeks. In total, I'm three weeks into "Project Crossfit", and I did my fourth post-surgery bike ride this afternoon. I had a nice little plan laid out, but my body is really dictating my schedule more than my plan. And when you're the person who "can do what they want to and never feel sad", it all works out just fine.

For example, last weekend my Thursday Crossfit session left me completely trashed, so I decided to take the weekend off and just go in Monday instead of Tuesday. I rested Friday and thought I would ride both Saturday and Sunday, but when I woke up Saturday morning it was grey and in the 30's and I just did not feel good. So my workout was this, plus this:

Rather than forcing myself to ride when I was carrying a bunch of fatigue and no desire, I compromised by still getting in some physical activity by walking a couple of laps around the park and even playing on the swings a bit. The next day was sunnier and warmer, and I had no trouble getting myself out for a short road ride.

I'm still working my way up to the planned schedule of Crossfit on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, with cycling on Wednesday and Saturday, because managing my fatigue level is my top priority right now. I like feeling healthy and motivated for the first time in months, and I'm not about to mess that up for some short term gains. I've set a goal of peaking for the The Unnamed Epic on August 27, to which I will commit 16 weeks of dedicated training after I complete my experiment in achieving as much Crossfit mastery (and hopefully some visible muscles) as I can by May 8th. However, unlike years past, my real goal for the season is to maintain the "never had it so good" feeling that I have now, and not getting bogged down with burnout silliness.

Was I Really in the Hospital Seven Weeks Ago?

2011-02-19T17:10:00.004-05:00

Earlier today I was in the shower in the ladies' locker room of the French Lick Resort golf clubhouse, struggling with the awkward hand-held shower attachment. There's a shower head, but the water always seems to be switched to the hand-held thing and I have to figure out how to switch it to the shower head. Regardless, while I was doing this I was thinking about how pointless hand-held attachments are when I looked down and noticed the fold down bench, and had a memory of another awkward hand-held shower. Seven weeks ago this afternoon, I was sitting in a rickety plastic chair in shower trying to wash myself for the first time in nearly a week with a hand-held shower attachment. I was really pumped on the shower and the fact that the doctor had finally removed the disgusting piece of plastic tubing that was still protruding from my left side earlier that day.

Considering the events that today's awkward hand-held shower concluded, it's hard to believe that just seven weeks ago today, I was still in the hospital.

My name up on the big board

I started the day off with a trip to Crossfit Southern Indiana. I had my first session there on Tuesday, and was still sore when I got up this morning after a crash-course in lots o' squats. This particular facility requires newbies to do three sessions one-on-one with a trainer so that they learn good technique before they are thrown in with a big group. I'd already scheduled today's session before I saw that the weather was going to allow for rare February mountain bike ride.

I wouldn't normally double up like this, especially since I'm still in the gray area about whether I'm really even supposed to be "training" yet, anyway. The fact of the matter is that I wasn't really told an exact timeline for my return to physical activity, but I've definitely been wanting to do stuff again the last couple of weeks. I just tell myself I'll stop when it hurts. It took a lot to hurt me today, which is a good thing.

I wanted to do one long lap and one short lap at French Lick, but I ended up only doing one big one. In some ways I feel like I'm in way better shape post-surgery than I ever expected to be, but riding today was hard nonetheless. The climb up from the creek was kind of torturous, even with the granny ring, but it's always hard. I'm guessing it would be extra hard anytime after doing a Crossfit session in the morning, even if I was in good shape, so I don't feel bad.

Seeing trails in middle of winter with no greenery at all is weird. How many times have I ridden past this old car and never seen it before?

I knocked off after one lap, because I really couldn't imagine another one of the sustained climbs that even another short lap would require. Plus, I was getting achy in the torso region while descending Buffalo Trace, so I decided it was it time to thank my body for the resilience that it offered me today and reward it with some rest before my luck ran out. It was supposed to rain tomorrow, but now it's looking like it will be nice again, so going out for another ride will be tempting. I guess I will just have to see how I feel in the morning.

First Ride Back

2011-02-12T17:26:00.002-05:00

About a week ago, I noticed that the pain in my abs was much improved, and that I could move pretty freely without feeling like I was going to tear something. Then the weather forecast called for weekend temperatures in the 40's and lots of sun. So it was time.

Today I rode my bike for the first time in nearly 11 weeks. Nothing too exciting, other than the fact that it happened. I went out for an hour and kept it pretty easy. Only a few minor aches in the abs here and there, but no big deal. The rest of my body felt weird being stretched into the unnatural position of riding a bike again, and it took me a few minutes to remind my legs how to turn in circles. It was good to be back, though.

I'm hoping to have my first Crossfit session on Tuesday, and guess at point my 2011 comeback will officially be rolling.

Waiting to (Fully) Exhale

2011-01-23T16:52:00.003-05:00

We thought a break would be good

For four months we sat and vacillated

We thought a small time apart would clear up the doubts that were abounding
At that particular time love encouraged me to wait

At that particular moment it helped me to be patient
That particular month we needed time to marinate in what "us" meant

Okay, so the title is a little bit of an exaggeration. I can fully breath in and out without pain, as long as I do it slowly. Coughing and sneezing still feel like being stabbed, though, so I tend to minimize that action. The fact of the matter is that I have reached the point where I feel very little pain during normal "get up and walk around, cook some food, take a shower" activities, so I'm getting a little restless.

Restless, as in I'm not physically tired enough to quickly fall asleep at night, despite the fact that I really need to do so that I can produce some sweet human growth hormone for mah belly. During those times my mind goes strange places, like trying to remember the lyrics to old Alanis Morrisette songs, which results in consulting the ol' Ipod and rediscovering old Alanis Morrisette songs that I had forgotten altogether. That resulted in getting a little irrationally weepy for a bit (it happens sometimes these days) and a good opening for today's post.

During the last week I have officially hit the "waiting" stage. Aside from the sleep thing, I feel generally decent, but the little tests that I conduct on my abdominal muscles tell me that they are still a few weeks out from being able to do anything besides holding me upright while I walk a slow, careful lap around Bryan Park. Still hurts to sneeze, still hurts to touch the incision area, still can't really stretch and bend very well.

Since I can't do much physically, I've been making plans to do stuff physically. That doesn't sound like typical Lindsay behavior at all, right? Extrapolating potential outcomes and laying out plans to try and control the situation? (At least I'm not trying to control The Situation. What a mess that would be.)

The plan is, when the abs are ready, to spend 12-16 weeks devoting myself to "general fitness", rather jumping on the bike and being all "OMG, I GOTTA GET MY THRESHOLD POWER BACK NOW!!!" This is going to sound trite, and I hate trite, but I feel like this whole surgery mess is really an opportunity for a fresh start for me. When I think about the "four months we sat and vacillated" in the lyrics above, I think about July-October of last year, rather than my recovery period. I sure as heck did some vacillatin' during those months, and the doubts were abounding. I changed my diet, lost some weight, and got happier, but I had to pull away from a full devotion to cycling to do it. When I found out that I was going to have to take a major break, I saw it as a opportunity to fully let go of cycling for a bit and make all of the changes that I wanted to make, rather than feeling pressure to hurry and come back.

Losing weight was the one of the changes I'd hope for, and I've more than exceed that goal according to the scale. However, due to the circumstances, I'm still not as lean as I would like, but that is where the other change comes in. For quite some time, I've been bothered by the fact that, aside from the ability to ride a bike for a really long time, I'm pretty freaking weak. I can't really do more than one or two real push ups, and even then my form is pretty bad. I've been Crossfit-curious for a long time, ever since my former coach had me do Olympic lifts and linked videos to their site. It's not really the kind of thing one can just throw on top of an intense cycling training program and keep their sanity, though.

So I've decided to take a few months and satisfy my curiosity. I've shopped around and found a local facility (sorry, I will neither say "box" or ever refer to my food as "blocks") that will teach me the basics, but won't force me to stick to a rigid group workout only format. Once I learn what I'm doing more, I can focus on the elements that best help my cycling strength, as well as my general conditioning. No random going 'till I puke without a plan involved (the major criticism of Crossfit). The plan is Crossfit Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, base miles on the bike on Wednesday and Saturday, and keep my usual off days of Monday and Friday. That should give me a good foundation for late May or June when I feel ready to back to full bike training with a little bit of maintenance strength training so I don't lose what I've gained.

In preparation for this plan, I bought some new running shoes to replace the 5+ year old super-padded, ultra stability Asics that are a relic of my triathlon days. You might guess that I picked them for the color (which I love), but they also come highly recommended in the crazy Paleo ultra trail runner community, or at least among those who favor regular shoes over Vibram Five Fingers. I figured since I'm out of practice on running anyway, if start back with my Bryan Park walks in minimalist shoes that my feet will slowly grow stronger along with the rest of my body.

Finally, for the sake of another picture, my other project while I'm "waiting" is learning embroidery. I kind of procrastinated on this one, as I didn't lay down my first stitches until Friday, two and a half weeks after getting out of the hospital. Now it's underway, and easier than I thought so far. Of course, as you can see from my "Stitches I Know" sampler, I know only know about two stitches so far, but hopefully I can buckle down and finish the thing before I have to go back to work.

Free and On The Mend

2011-01-06T15:03:00.003-05:00

The long-awaited surgery is finally behind me and I am on the mend. They ended up just taking out half of pancreas, because once they got in there, they discovered there wasn't enough tail left to do the funky double pancreas thing they planned. No big deal, I still have enough left to live a normal life once I'm all healed up, which may take a while.

A lovely shot Adam took the day after surgery. He got me a stuffed cat to keep me company since I had to be away from the real ones.

The first couple of days after surgery weren't too bad, because I was on so much morphine that I didn't feel a lot of pain. I made a lot of early progress and was cleared for "full liquids" (blended soup, pudding, ice cream, etc.) two days earlier than planned. However, a sudden onset of nausea and a drop in my white blood cell count set me back enough that I had to stay in the hospital until the morning of Day 6, as predicted by my well-read "surgery book" that they gave me before hand.

I felt pretty awful when I arrived home, but I have made small bits of progress every day since. I haven't made it through a night in bed, as I get really bad internal pain in the pancreas area when I lay too flat for too long. For some reason, I can sleep on the couch much better, so I usually end up there from 2 a.m. until Adam wakes up. Then I usually toddle into the kitchen for some food, and then go back to the couch and sit there upright while I have my breakfast. I don't spend a lot of time away from the couch yet.

Eating has been my other struggle since I've been home, since all but the tiniest portions make me feel sick and bloated after eating. I had this great plan to bring my own food and maintain a strict paleo/primal diet in the hospital, or at least avoid gluten no matter how bad things got. Unfortunately, there was even less in the way of refrigerator/microwave access for my caregivers than I had expected, and with the arrival of my nausea, those plans were thrown out the window.

When Friday rolled around, I knew I they wouldn't let me out if I didn't start eating, even though I felt really nauseous. The doctor finally just said to eat whatever looked good to me, which turned out to be some homemade Chex mix that my grandma had sent with my mom. So I pretty much lived on Chex mix and boiled or scrambled eggs from the cafeteria until I got out on Sunday. I know it sounds weird, but those were the only things that didn't make me sick. After that, my barriers were down, and I had no problem eating the homemade chicken noodle soup that my mom made when we got to my house (with saltine crackers even), and finishing off the Chex mix. I finally finished the soup off yesterday, and woke up today with a little bit more appetite for meat, so now it's time to raid the freezer and get back on the straight and narrow.

So now for the "scandalous" pictures. I know, this is even more risqué than the time that I posed in my sports bra and bibs. Yes, I am in my underwear, but it covers more than most bikinis, and I wanted to show my scars, as well as the weight I've lost.

I've secretly always wanted to get down to an even 50 kgs, to not only be "mountain goat waif-ish", but to make calculating my watts per kilograms easier. As of this morning, I'm more or less there, but I'm much more skinny-fat than I'd planned to be that weight, and my threshold power would definitely suck right now if I had one. (I'm guessing the inability to ride a bike equals a threshold power of zero.)

Scar

My belly is still pretty swollen, not to mention the lack of usable abdominal muscles. I'm going to have some serious postural issues to work out when this over. My back is killing me about as much as my incision is.

Thinking of getting a gansta tattoo to cover up the scar. What do you think?

December 27: It's a Date

2010-12-16T09:14:00.006-05:00

I'm going to start off with kicking a little scientific knowledge, Lil' Emily style.

This is an normal pancreas.

This is my pancreas.

This will be my pancreas (or double pancreas) after December 27.

After two months of testing, examining, and above all, WAITING, I finally have a date for my surgery. In my last post I mentioned how I was worried that this thing would turn in major abdominal surgery, and the powers that be would continue to drag their feet resulting in the surgery not being done before Christmas. Unfortunately, I was correct on both counts. I underestimated my worst case scenario the seriousness of the surgery, but the date only missed the Christmas deadline by a couple days.

So here's the deal. Due to the size and location of my cyst, I have to have the middle part of my pancreas removed. Once that is done, the orphaned tail piece is going to be attached directly to my intestine, so that it can continue to produce pancreatic enzymes. Supposedly everything will still work pretty normally once it is all over, but healing is going to take a while.

I will have to be in the hospital for about seven days, and for the first three I will be all cracked out on a morphine pump with no food or drink. After that will be the starting to drink, eat, and walk enough to prove that I can survive on my own at home. After that, I will spend another 5-ish weeks recovering at home before I return to work.

As for the timeline for my return to cycling, I'm just going to play it by ear. I don't really expect to be able to mountain bike until late March, but really no one in Indiana gets to mountain bike more than a week or two before that, anyway. The difference is that I will have lost a lot of muscle and fitness. Since it's highly unlikely that I will be anywhere near healed enough for the Spa City 6 Hour or the Ouachita Challenge, as I had been planning, I might not rush into the beginning of XC season, either. I may take this spring and summer to work on building back lost muscle mass, strength, power, flexibility, and all that jazz, before I get serious about cycling again and give New New the proper CX season she didn't get this year (and some new wheels with tubies). Of course, that's pretty far out to be planning, and I may find myself dying to race in April. We'll see.

I Wanna Be Sedated

2010-11-28T13:01:00.002-05:00

One, two, three more hours to go, I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh, I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the OR, give me something for the pain
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no

Not much to report in my world. The biopsy went okay, although it was nearly three hours late getting started. (Thus the lyrics above, which were going through my head all morning.) Unfortunately, it will still probably be another week or week and a half before the full lab results come in and we can proceed. I think surgery is still going to be the conclusion, but things are getting fuzzy about what kind of tumor I have, etc. Hopefully, the lab analysis will reveal something helpful, since I feel like there's more going on that just have something pressing on my internal organs. After nearly five weeks of rest or very light riding, as well as a super clean diet that is claimed to reduce systematic inflammation, my muscles and joints are still stiff and achy and I'm still pretty weak. I'd hoped that getting the cyst taken out would allow some sort of full-body healing to take place, but the doctor sort of looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if the cyst could be causing more systematic problems. So now I'm worried that I will go through surgery and then not really feel any better once it's over.

Additionally, I'm starting to be afraid that by the time the lab work is all finished, that all of the super special cyst surgeons at the IU Medical Center will be booked up until after their four week long holiday vacations to the Caribbean. (Okay, that's mostly making an assumption based on what the orthodontist that my mom works for does.) It's also looking like it might turn into full abdominal surgery, which I think would keep me from even riding outside again until sometime in April.

Needless to say, I'm getting very frustrated and worried. I keep hoping for the best case scenario at each stage of the process, but it then it turns into something worse. I'm crossing my fingers that my luck will change soon.

Last Dance With New New

2010-11-21T11:47:00.003-05:00

The pancreatic situation has been moving pretty slowly since my last post. I have to have a biopsy on Wednesday, and then hopefully we will finally get the surgery on the books. The good news is that after two weeks of complete inactivity post-Berryman epic, I actually started feeling better on my own and I've started doing a little bit of easy riding and some simple bodyweight strength training at home. I'm not really training because a) I don't want to push myself too hard to and start to get weak and sick again b) I know I'm going to have to take more time off after the surgery, so even if I'm feeling better, trying to mount a comeback is impractical until after the surgery. I'm basically just trying to maintain my strength and muscle tone until I'm fully healed and ready to start my 2011 base training.

That being said, something was niggling at me to race one more cross race if I was able. I remember feeling bad for New New as Adam was loading his 'cross bikes up for the USGP Louisville and I was loading up my 29er for the Berryman Epic while she sat in the back room of the basement, all dressed up with nowhere to go for the weekend. So I felt like she needed one last run before winter.

This weekend provided the perfect opportunity with Backyard Cross, presented by Adam's team, the Speedway Wheelmen. The race was at Adam's teammate's property, which was intended to be a housing addition, but currently only contains one house. So making the best of a bad economic situation, the place has been turned into a very large cyclocross course until the housing market picks back up. I wanted to participate in this race, which is part of the Indiana Cyclocross Cup, the younger less-attended sibling of the OVCX series, which the Speedway Wheelmen are trying to get going. With no other Cat 3/4 women entered, I was able to boost their attendance numbers a bit, and get a "win" without blowing myself up. Of course, once the gun went off, I had a hard time "riding easy", but I would make myself back off when I felt like I was going super hard, and I didn't allow myself to try to pass the one junior who passed me. So I got my last race in and don't feel like I pushed myself hard enough to do any damage, plus I got a sweet bag o' swag for my "win".

Don't Call It a Comeback

2010-11-06T19:40:00.002-04:00

"Don't call it a comeback; I've been here for years" - the cyst on my pancreas

The reason that I haven't posted any news since the Berryman Epic is that I've spent most of the time waiting on news myself. As I mentioned in my race report, my stomach was messed up the week before the Berryman Epic, and I think the lack of proper nutritional intake was what slowed me down so much. The week after the race was spent waiting and hoping my digestion would come around and I would get my strength back for the Storm the Greens CX race. When I didn't, Jason's pre-race pep talk call turned into a discussion of gallbladder symptoms and I spent the weekend waiting to talk to my doctor on Monday. I spent Storm the Greens camped out in the Shamrock Cycles tent, which is fun, but not as fun as getting to race first and drink after. (I figured whatever was wrong, I probably shouldn't pour hard cider on top of it.)

When I went to the doctor on Monday, she poked around on my abdomen and made the initial guess that it was, in fact, my gallbladder. I had blood work and an ultrasound done and then spent most the week waiting for results, and worrying about a future of compromised ability to break down dietary fat, just when I'd really started to fall in love with dietary fat. (Butter is my methadone and without it, I might go back on the hard stuff: Ben & Jerry's). As it were, I was nearing three weeks with compromised ability to break down dietary anything, and the ~1000 calories a day I was able tolerate weren't really cutting it.

On Thursday, I finally got the long awaited call with some unexpected, but not really surprising news. I get to to keep my gallbladder, but a baby pancreatic cyst that discover during a previous abdominal incident after my first Ouachita Challenge is apparently all grown up and pressing on the organs around it. No wonder I feel more full than usual after eating. So I still have to have an MRI next week, but the upshot is that I will have to have surgery of some sort and my CX is 99% likely to be over.

I'm disappointed but not devastated. I was looking forward to one more month of racing, especially since I've been enjoying 'cross much more than I have in a couple of years and placing better, as well. I spent the first half of the season waxing nostalgic about the old days when I was a 'cross devotee, but lost the love when I was repeatedly handed ass-whoopings by every new girl who rolled each weekend during the early explosions of the American Cyclocross Boom of 2007. When I started this season and realized that I could hold my own better than in the past, the famous opening lines of L.L. Cool J's "Momma Said Knock You Out", came to mind. Unfortunately, my threshold power isn't the only thing that's been growing since 2007.

The good news is that I should still be healed up in time to still get a good base for spring, and with the 11 pounds that I've lost since August, and the weight I will continue to lose until I get a full-time appetite back, I will likely be a much better climber next season. So I guess I will report back with my progress once all of the tests are done and the timeline has been established.

"I'm gonna knock you out, Momma said knock you out." - Lindsay to cyst

The Berryman Epic: Even If You Don't Have The Legs, There Are Still Worse Places To Be

2010-10-26T07:59:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend I traveled to Steelville, "the floating capital of Missouri" (although I'd say it's more of the four-wheeler capital of Missouri from my experience) for the third iteration of the Berryman Trail Epic. It was my first time at the race, since it always conflicts with the Louisville USGP, but this year I decided it was worth missing the USGP to see what the Berryman was all about.

Unfortunately, my stomach had been out of whack for the week prior to the race, and the lack of good digestion was throwing the rest of my body out of whack. During my mid-week sprints, I knew I was feeling awfully weak, but all I could really do was eat lots of protein and sweet potatoes and hope that my muscles would get what they needed by Saturday morning. Unfortunately, whatever it was that my muscles needed, they apparently did not get it, because when I got on my bike Saturday morning it felt like 100 pound foreign object beneath my labored pedal stroke. I realize that my bike is, in fact, actually a foreign object, but on a good day it doesn't feel that way.

So when the race organizer set off his "big fire cracker" that was used as the starting gun and sounded like a cannon, I set off into the unknown. I just pedaled as best I could, but I was quickly in nearly-last place. It was three miles of relatively tame dirt road to the singletrack, and I was surprised to find the opening stretch of singletrack easier than I had expected. While it wasn't screaming fast, it was gently winding and mostly flat, if a bit rough.

I still had to work to keep my ragdoll legs turning my middle chainring at any sort of decent clip, and the occasional short, rooty climb was a struggle even in the granny gear. It didn't take long for me to doubt my ability to keep going at that rate all day, and started calculating whether I could be back home in Indiana by dark if I dropped out at the first aid station (and maybe stopped for a piece of foot-high pie in Illinois). Then I saw Zeke Lilly on the side of the trail with a flat. His tire was cut so badly that the tube kept popping out of the hole, so he couldn't fix the flat. I tried to convince him to take my tire so that he could finish the race, and I would have an excuse for quitting. He wouldn't take my tire, and in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't have to do the 2-3 hour hike-a-bike it would have taken to get to the aid station.

After that, I started feeling better, and while I wasn't fast, I felt like I could make it through the day. I kept going past the first aid station, but my spirits started to sink again as I dragged along to the second stop. I had myself about 80% convinced that I should quit at the next stop, but while I was discussing my options with the volunteers at the checkpoint I heard someone yelling my name. Sarah Miller was at the aid station, and after stopping for a quick chat with her, I was compelled to go on.

Sarah had told me the next loop was 15 miles and had some road in it, so it shouldn't be too bad. However, an hour later I caught up to a guy who was walking up a hill and I asked if he was okay. He said he was just tired and was debating about whether he would go on after the next aid station. I said that I was going through the same thing, but if we'd come this far we might as well finish. Then he said that we had ten miles until the next stop, which would mean that I had only covered five miles in the previous hour. I decided that the guy's computer was wrong since that would be the only way I could console myself.

Not long after, I was teased by an intersection of the trail and a dirt road where I saw a rider about to cross my path. I then suspected that I needed to get to the end of the trail and a reasonably easy dirt road ride back to the aid station would await. Unfortunately, I crossed, or at least saw, the road three or four more times before I was able to collect my zip tie and head on down the road. Unfortunately, that section concluded with a mile-long paved climb to the aid station that felt like the longest paved mile I've ever ridden.

I made the final cutoff by about 15 minutes or so, and after eating, refilling my hydration pack, and washing some of the sticky grime from my face, I committed to what I expected to be 2-2.5 more hours on the bike. The last section of singletrack was probably the most technical, but I liked it. There were several fairly big drop-offs where the trail had eroded beneath a root, and I enjoyed riding off of those and pretending I was some sort of freeride badass or something. Nevertheless, I spent most of the section looking at my watch and bargaining with myself about how far I'd probably gone and how much I probably had left to go.

I finally reached the dirt road to the finish and was accompanied by numerous locals on four-wheelers and other all terrain vehicles. Some were polite, some seemed to try to choke me with as much dust as possible, and some tried to joke around with me, although I couldn't hear much over their roaring engines. I have to say I saw way more four-wheelers than people floating down the river, thus my opinion on the appropriate namesake recreational activity for the area.

And then at the bottom of hill, I once again reached "river level" as evidenced by the super-soft gravel that was hard to ride through. The only upside of this was that things were starting to look familiar and I realized I was at the far end of the campground where the race started and finished. The last five or ten minutes of riding the soft surface seemed like forever, but I finally rode into sight of 200 or so clean people sitting around eating barbecue and relaxing after finishing quite some time before. Although it took me two hours longer than I'd expected it to, I was happy to be off my bike and that I would return to Indiana without another scarlet DNF on my record for the year.

Triple Race Report All the Way!!!

2010-10-19T09:41:00.005-04:00

I was so tired after my Java Johnny's CX and Brown County Breakdown weekend that I put off blogging for a few days. Then I got really busy the last half of the week. Then it was time to race again at BloomingCross, so I figured I would just roll it up into one big TRIPLE RACE REPORT ALL THE WAY. (What does it mean???)

However, a week and a half later I don't remember a lot of what I was going to say about JJ's and the BCB. Basically, Java Johnny's had the big, intimidating 60ish person field that I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately, I couldn't muster Adam's swagger, and I found myself REALLY intimidated on the starting line. I would say that my start was not great and not terrible, but with that many people, not great still puts you 20 places back at the first turn and near stopping through all the little chicanes leading to the first sandpit. I did pretty well at getting off, running the sandpit as fast I could, and taking off again, but I messed up going into the steep ridge that we had to ride over twice in succession early in the lap. I just couldn't power myself up, and had to run it. We hit the mid-lap twisty section and I was determined to use my cornering skills to make my way back to the upper mid-pack, but there were nuts all over the bases of the trees and I ended up crashing not once, but twice, before the middle section of the first lap was complete. By the time I got myself upright and going the second time, I well behind the group of racers I wanted to be with and had to motivate myself to pick through the back of the pack. I made up a few places, but I still ended up 22 out of 27 which was disappointing.

I seem to be doing pretty well here, but this was before I fell in the nuts. Twice.

Much further back post-nuts. I am ahead of everyone else in the picture, though.

In the background making my barrier face.

The next day I did the 60 mile route of the Brown County Breakdown. I'd never done this ride before, because it always conflicts with the Cincinnati UCI 3 weekend, but this year I gave up racing on my old favorite CX course at Harbin Park because I knew I needed to get in a long training ride before the Berryman Epic. It was hot and dusty to the point that the trails were kind of slick from dust instead of mud, but overall it was a pretty good day. I overcooked myself a bit early on trying not to slow down the long train of riders making their way through the North Tower Loop, Aynes Loop, and up to Hesitation Point. I have a fun moment going up Hesitation Point when I rode the S-shaped rock garden and most of the guys around me didn't.

After the first aid station at HP, the traffic got a lot more sparse and I settled in for a few hours of riding by myself at a comfortable but solid pace. My goal had been to go under 7 hours, mostly because I figure that going under 7 hours at the Brown County Breakdown is an important step to my long wished-for sub-7 hour finish at the Ouachita Challenge. I did okay through the ride, but I did struggle some during the last two hours. I ended up going about 7:25, but I also spent more time at the rest stops than I would have in a race, so it wasn't too bad. It was at least enough to make me feel confident that my riding once or twice a week plus racing CX on Sundays training plan of the two months hasn't left me too under prepared for the Berryman Epic.

It really is looking like what I told Jason back in August: Even if I train really hard, I probably won't get on the podium at the BTE, and if I focus on 'cross and just do a couple of long rides I'll still probably do okay. That may seem like a little bit of a defeatist attitude, but I'm actually mostly happy with the way things are going now. I'm not highly motivated to train, but I'm enjoying racing. So if I can't just squeeze one more month of fun out of my residual fitness from earlier in the season I will be happy. Then I'll buckle down and start getting into serious preparation for the spring endurance races again.

Spinning on some dirt road at the Brown County Breakdown.

Finally, Sunday was my first opportunity to race "above ground" cyclocross in my hometown at BloomingCross, since I missed the inaugural BloomingCross last year when I was at the Pisgah Stage Race. Besides being a home race, I was also excited because a lot people were taking the weekend off between the Cincinnati UCI 3 and the USGP Louisville. That would mean a smaller field and a shot at a top 5 or, on a really good day, podium for me. Regardless, I was looking forward to being able to tell what was going on in my race after the previous weekend's giant jumble. I pre-rode the course on Saturday and I determined that while all of the wide, flat straightaways weren't going to help my case, that if I could get a good start and make it the rideable sandpit about a minute into the course with good speed, that it could still be a good day for me.

Unfortunately, I must have spent too much time thinking about this plan, because standing in the staging area, I was ready to throw up. When the whistle blew, I stood to sprint to the front, but I seemed to be going in slow motion. I was just pedaling and watching racers come around me from the row behind, and thinking "Noooooo!" By the time, I hit the pavement downhill before the sandpit, I was in next-to-last out of the women and had several of the juniors that started behind us clogging the way. I still tried to get enough speed to ride the sandpit, but it's hard to do with that many people in front of you. I had to dismount and run the rest, at which time was I passed by the last place women putting me DFL with some juniors preventing my immediate catch-and-repass. In the end, I did get my top 5, but that was because there were only 7 starters in my class, one dropped out after I passed her, and I passed another for next-to-last. I was pretty bummed about my missed opportunity, but hopefully two weeks away from 'cross and a 55 mile trip through the Ozark mountains will bring me back to Storm the Greens in costume and with my head on straight.

Tour de Louisville

2010-10-06T12:32:00.004-04:00

The Tour de Louisville went a whole lot like Kings CX, with the exception of being a lot chillier. It was actually just overcast and in the 50's, but since it was the first even remotely chilly day of the year, it was still a shock to the system. A guy had a bad crash during the men's 4's race, and the rest of the schedule was delayed while they got the ambulance down the course to pick him up. That meant that our field spent a lot of extra time standing around the staging area getting cold. By the time the whistle FINALLY sounded, my legs were pretty blue.

The good news is that I was at least listening for the whistle this time and had shifted into my big ring for the start, but I was still a little slow to react and was already 10-15 places back by the first turn. I shoved my way back through the twisty section up to the barriers, but my first time over sucked pretty bad. I messed up my remount as my bike wobbled over into one of the stakes holding the course tape while I tried to clip back in. I lost back nearly as many places as I'd gained in the turns while I got off, backed out of the tape, and did remount number two.

Once I was on my way, I made up a couple of places again, but then I was back to trying to catch the only girl in sight through the next couple of laps. Once again, I was faster in the turns and she was faster in the straights. I got in front of her right before the second pass through the barriers, but she quickly repassed me and was never really in striking distance again after that. I ended up 9th out 15 AG and 13th out 23 overall, so it was a lot like last time place wise. Unfortunately, it seems that I keep burying myself with the 35+ field, so even though I'm close to the top half of my field place-wise, I think I have a pretty big time gap I need to overcome. Hopefully, this will get a little easier as the season progresses and I start to learn to who look for in the opening melee.

Speaking of melees, the Cat 3/4 women will get our own time slot for the Cincinnati UCI 3 races this weekend, and we will be the first race of the day. I'm only doing the Saturday race, but that's going to be the biggest field, since there are already 27 women pre-reg'ed in the 3/4 Open class and 29 in the 35+ for a total of 56. Add in a few day-of registrations, and there will likely be 60 women on the starting grid. I get a little nervous thinking about this, although I can't explain exactly why. I'm not really afraid of the bumping and jostling at the start, because I'm usually the bumper and jostler. I am a bit of afraid of having to work my way through a lot of traffic if I'm less than on point during the opening frenzy, as I have been the last two times out. Mostly, I think I'm just intimidated because 60 is so darn big (and sorta awesome). It's almost like being a dude for the day.

Guess I need to channel my dude's attitude:

Kings CX: Imma Ride It, Dammit!

2010-09-22T12:22:00.003-04:00

Sunday was my first 'cross race of the year at Kings CX in Mason, OH. Going into the race I was definitely in "let's see how this goes" mode, since I've only started to get my post-primal legs back since the DINO 6 hour, and last Wednesday was the first 'cross practice that I didn't feel awful. I still didn't feel fast, just not awful.

I tried to sneak out on the course for a lap between the men's 4's race and the 10-12-year-old race. However, I was confused about the course, and a guy showed me where to sneak in after the finish so that I could not interfere with the 4's but wouldn't have to wait until they all cleared the course. We rode together while previewing the course, and when we came to sand pit, I tried to ride through, even though it was very deep sand with no good line. I explained to the guy that coming from a mountain bike background, I feel like I'm more stubborn about trying to ride stuff, even when it might be faster run. Therefore my new MTBer on a CX bike motto: Imma ride it, dammit!

The course was bone dry and and had lots of swoopy bermy turns and I actually found myself whooping a couple of times through my practice lap. It was probably the best mood I've been in before a 'cross race in a long time. I was in my element. However, I didn't realize that they had already taped off the big hill for the juniors' race when I was preriding, so it was kind of a nasty shock during my actual race. My new joke is that the juniors' course at Kings CX is my favorite course (I liked the half-size barriers, too).

I came to line in a jovial mood, it may have worked to my disadvantage because I was a little too relaxed. I was joking around when the whistle blew and had a pretty delayed reaction time clipping in. I also realized that the medium-sized gear that I thought would be appropriate turned out to be too easy and I lost a lot places really fast. I was stuck behind a lot racers during the first swoopy section and was not able to make up the ground there. Then I bobbled the first time up the big hill, because I wasn't prepared and the 38 tooth small ring that New New came with is still kind of difficult for my wussy little legs on some occasions. A bouncy unclipped-in trip downhill and another trip back up left me redlined as I prepared for the first trip through the sand pit. I tried to gather as much speed as I could and thought, "Imma ride it, dammit!", only to bog down about a third of the way through and fall over as I tried to do an emergency dismount. Fail.

After I got up, I composed myself, railed some swoopies, and actually started to do okay. I passed a couple of girls, and battled with another who slower than me in the turns and faster in the straights for the most of the race, but in the end I got to the finish first and almost overtook another girl sprinting to the line. I ended up 8th out of 13 in my age group and 16th out of 27 out of all of the 3/4 women combined. I was still a couple of places short of adding a "Top 50%" to my page on crossresults.com, but I'm pretty sure I've never done better than next-to-last in a CX race so 10th from last is a big improvement. I feel like it might have even been my Bill Brubaker moment, and that I have a good shot at breaking the top half next time out if I just pay attention at the start, kill it on the accelerations, and keep the negative thoughts at bay.

This weekend is the last one without a race until December and I will be spending it my mom, who's coming to visit. I'm excited about hanging out with her, but I'm already counting the days until the Tour de Louisville, where I will get another chance to see if this is the year I really do stop sucking at 'cross.

Losing ground. I should really pay more attention at the start.

At least my barrier technique is better.

Race face.

5 Hours, 55 Minutes, and 6 Seconds of DINO (And 4 Weeks of Bacon)

2010-09-13T09:50:00.003-04:00

Some basic math will tell you that's slightly better than 6 Hours (2 Minutes, 58 Seconds) of DINO, but you may be wondering about the bacon part. Every race report has a back story, right?

I'm not really sure where to start, which is probably why I've been blogless for four weeks.

Several times over the past few months, during my perusal of not completely cycling related blogs and general falling down the Internet rabbit hole, I have stumbled upon the website Mark's Daily Apple. My initial reaction was something along the lines of "So...what? These people just eat big hunks of meat and vegetables? I'm not really a fan of meat and vegetables."

Yet, I kept finding my way back usually through various other sources saying that grains are eevill. Then I would have to wonder about the fact that I was frequently struck with "I HAVE TO EAT NOW" urges in the middle of the workday, not to mention the sudden obsessive thoughts about cookies/cake/ice cream that would not go away until I'd eaten copious amounts of the offensive material. I also came to terms with the fact that my dislike of meat and vegetables came from my 'rexy days as a college distance runner where too many meals consisted of grilled boneless skinless chicken breast and steamed broccoli. All the sudden I was reading that I could eat the roasted thighs of an organic free-range chicken with broccoli sauteed in real butter and it probably would not kill me or make me fat. It actually sounded kind of tasty and I figured it couldn't be any worse for my health that what binge-eating would do when my luck finally ran out. (Luck is the only real explanation for why I am not severely overweight.)

I really can't remember what exactly prompted the trigger pull, but four weeks ago I got my butt out of bed on a Saturday morning and headed to the farmer's market to stock up on organic meat and vegetables. The next day was the pilgrimage to Chicago to see baby Ramona, so I had one last day of "non-primal" food consumption. Then I woke up Monday morning and replaced my usual oatmeal with two eggs scrambled with nitrate-free bacon, onions, mushrooms and bell peppers, as well as berries topped with real cream. I'd known I'd be sad about giving up the oatmeal, so breakfast became quite a "go big or go home" affair. I lost three pounds during the first week, and really had no carbohydrate cravings, except for the oatmeal-related sadness that passed after four or five days.

But then there was the whole "bike" part of the equation, and it took much more of a hit than I had expected. At the end of the first week I went for a night ride at Versailles with a group of people that I didn't know very well, but I'd received a Facebook invitation and thought it might be fun to get to know them. However, I really struggled on the ride, and bonked so hard that I was nauseous when I got home and it took four days off the bike before I stopped feeling weak and shaky. I heard that this was called the "low carb flu", and I started adding some sweet potatoes to my breakfast since it appeared that I'd overdone it a bit.

At the end of the second week I thought I felt pretty good and did the final DINO race at SWW Park. It soon became clear that I had a lot less gas in the tank than I thought I did, and I basically just had to force myself to keep going through the race. That was followed by another week of lackluster training that lead up to Labor Day, when I went for a 1.5 hour ride at Wapehani and came home shaking and exhausted like after the Versailles night ride. Then came super achey muscles, headaches, and sore throat to the point that I called in sick to work on Wednesday. Despite the fact that my emotional relationship with food was starting to look pretty darn healthy, I became very frustrated that my body was not feeling healthy at all, and I started to panic about the DINO 6 hour race that was just a couple of days away.

When I returned to work on Thursday, I started to tell my office mate about how I was feeling without any mention of my recent dietary changes. It turned out that she had the exact same symptoms at almost the exact same time as I did. It may sounds funny, but I was actually pretty happy to discover that I'd probably had an actual germ-related illness rather than an ugly carbohydrate-related slump. By Friday I was pain free, and I just crossed my fingers that my legs would carry me through Saturday's 6 hour race.

And they did. I had to be pretty careful to not overdo it on the climbs during the first half of the race, but luckily Versailles has enough flat twisty sections that I was able to still go relatively fast without having to produce mega watts. I was in a world of pain during the fourth lap, and slowed down a lot more than last year, but in the end, I completed my four-lap race about 8 minutes faster than last year. I was probably 30-40 minutes slower than I would have been a few weeks ago, but really I was just happy that I was able to keep going the whole 6 hours.

I know that wasn't much of a race report buried in the middle of such a long post, but I guess it was finally time to come out an say all the things I have avoided the blog for four weeks to avoid saying. I guess I'm just self-conscious, because I'm terrible about suddenly jumping into "big ideas" and then having to admit that they resulted in epic failure. I'd really wanted to keep mum about the semi radical experiment that I've been performing on my body, but I guess it's better to just tell the truth than to try to vaguely explain away four weeks of sudden lack of bike power.

My weight has been holding steady since the first week, but my sudden lack of interest in sugar is a victory in itself. I'm eating food that tastes good enough that I want to eat it but not so good that I want to eat too much, and that's pretty exciting. This weekend was a good indicator that I will regain full power in the near future, so I'm not feeling so bummed about being slow. So frankly, if a little real, honest-to-goodness animal fat helps me quit sugar and eat my veggies, I'm cool with it.

Non-Race Report

2010-08-17T09:12:00.002-04:00

I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks, because nothing really noteworthy has happened cycling-wise. Since Versailles I have missed both the Sub-9 Super D at BCSP and the DINO Logansport race. I wanted to do the Super D, because it would have been a chance for me to compete in a more downhill than up format, which probably would have been advantageous. However, it wasn't that high on my priority list and I thought $35 was a bit much for a 5.5 mile race.

I've also spent the time since Versailles working getting back to consistent training and preparing for CX and the fall endurance races. Rather than giving up the weekend for a short race, the crown jewel was a two full laps of Versailles at 6 hour race effort. I was 15 minutes faster than the first two laps of last year's 6 hour, but still a bit off of the pace for which I was hoping. Slogging through alone with semi-stale legs is much different than working under the influence of race day magic though, so I still think some faster laps on September 11 will be in the cards.

On the other hand, I was a bit more bummed about missing the DINO Logansport race. Even though I had bad races there the last two years, it was also the site of one of my top five best races ever back in 2007. I had a good feeling about this year. However, Adam's brother and his wife had there first child last week (Ramona Elaine Rodkey), and we spent Sunday going to Chicago to see her. Although I'm pretty awkward around babies, it's still exciting to be an aunt.

It all may be just as well, anyway, because I had a little too much excitement on Saturday and had a pretty painful road bike crash. It was really dumb - a short downpour early in the ride was enough to make the streets wet, but not enough for me to remember that the streets were wet. So I whipped into a side street at full speed, and ended up sliding across the road on my left side. Now I've got a grated elbow and hip, and still some lingering sore muscles from the impact. As it was I was worthless for any riding on Sunday even if circumstances would have allowed. I'm seeing chiropractor/ART guru Brian Murer at lunch today, though, and I expect to be on track to complete tonight's interval workout, even if I'm not 100%.

Four Hours and a Feed Bag

2010-08-02T12:52:00.004-04:00

This weekend I got back into endurance MTB training, since the DINO 6 hour (I've settled on the 6) and Berryman Epic will be here before I know it. The plan was to ride four laps of French Lick at endurance race pace. Since French Lick has a nice wooden deck at the trailhead, I decided to ditch the pack and set up a "pit" on the deck.

The only bad part was riding from the parking lot carrying a fairly heavy bag, and I actually got off and walked the little steep pitch from the road to the deck, since my balance was bad. Of course, there was a big group of people sitting on the deck who watched me walk up and set up my bag, which was awkward.

The good news is that it worked out well and it was nice being able to ride pack free. I also tested out a new mid-ride food that worked out well: a Bloomington Bagel Co. soft pretzel bagel with Nutella, cut into quarters, and eat one quarter at the beginning of each lap. A good balance of salty and sweet, seemed to digest well, and didn't leave any weird aftertaste. (I hate the aftertaste of anything peanut butter or cinnamon flavored while riding.)

I ended up only doing 3.5 laps, because I needed to get home, but the three full laps that I rode were good. I did 1:03, 1:06, and 1:07, which were all significantly faster than my single lap at the French Lick DINO race (1:16). Of course, I had better trail conditions, a faster bike, and didn't have to ride the start/finish shoots nor the ridiculous fireroad section. Hard to tell if the DINO course was noticeably longer or if I was really faster, but regardless I was happy with my ride.

They Call Me New New

2010-07-30T05:56:00.004-04:00

This is New New. She's a rich girl from a nice family. They wanted to send her to the Ivy League (Granogue), but in the end she got her way and was allowed go to the HBCU (historical badass cycling university) of her choice. Although they raised her to be elite, she's going to be slumming it this season trying to help me work my way out of Cat 4 in the OVCX series.

She can be classy and refined, with her subtle white and black paint job, but has a slightly more gaudy side, with her blue glitter-paint underbelly and pink highlights.

This is Jake, a poor boy from the 'hood. Jake did his best for a few years trying to make it as a 'cross racer, but he just wasn't very fast. Kona marketed him as an all-in-one entry level 'cross bike and commuter bike, so lately he's been working in the less glamorous commuter field. Getting used to the basket was hard, but it's satisfying to be appreciated again.

Then New New met Jake and they fell in love. I got home from work today she was leaned up against Jake in the back room of the basement. I just hope we can make it through 'cross season without the birth of any metallic blue push bikes.

~~~

Okay, so I remembered a little more about the character for which New New is named and I did my best to draw some parallels. Apparently, I only name CX bikes, but even Jake only has a name because he came with it. She's also the first "female" bike I have owned. Not women's specific, because my Anthem is women's specific. For some reason, though, I've always thought of him as a metro sexual boy, but I've never given him a name. My 29er is definitely a boy, as well. I'm not sure where I come up with these things.

Anyway, anthropomorphizing aside, New New is one killer bike. I took her out on a test ride yesterday on a mix of pavement, singletrack, and gravel road. She's so light (even lighter than my road bike), and just floats over the rough stuff. I'm totally looking forward to racing 'cross on my floaty bike.

DINO Versailles

2010-07-27T12:33:00.003-04:00

I went to Versailles without a lot of optimism about how I would do, but I still went because, good or bad, I wanted to know for sure. It turns out that it went okay.

I came away from the Muscatatuck race more than a little mentally broken. I can't really explain this, except for the fact a I'd been struggling in my training since May, it was obvioius that I wasn't going to be getting my Cat 1 upgrade back this year, and I let a woman racing in a bra top and old lady perfume push me around.

I'm not really sure how much I trained since that race, but it sure wasn't much, except for the weekend when I did the Nashville 90 on Saturday and four hours MTB on Sunday. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it is that I want from the rest of the season and what I need to do to get it. I decided that since I was feeling really down on XC racing, I should go to Versailles and it give it one more shot on a course that I liked, and if it went badly I could skip Logansport and Town Run. I took a few days off and committed to start my base training for 'cross and the Berryman Epic this week, whether I was feeling good after Versailles or not.

So I showed up at the race late and with little preparation, but also with little worry. I told myself to "just do it" and whatever would be would be. This meant that I took off at a pace that felt good to me and didn't look to see the order in which we reached the singletrack. When we got there, I found myself on Amelia Nelson's wheel and figured that was a good place to be and I should just work on staying there. So I stayed. And stayed. And stayed.

When we reached the Cliffside trail, I got a better view of what was going on. I was fifth in a train of girls and the leader was not going that fast, and wasn't doing much to allow the passing efforts of the girls immediately behind her. I have a feeling this probably happens to guys all the time, but it's a rare occurance in a women's race. I struggled with the multiple stall outs and accelerations, which required more effort and yielded a slower pace than I would have done by myself. Then a couple of Cat 1 girls got through and broke away, and I was left with just the two girls who had finished immediately ahead of me at both BCSP and French Lick. While the category leaders were well ahead, I was satisfied with the opportunity that was presented before me.

I started feeling taxed and got gapped by the two girls ahead. Jeni, who had been wisely biding her time a few bike lengths back while we all ran each other over, used the opportunity to make her move and passed me. She quickly passed others as well and was gone. I soon started feeling good again and bridged back up to the other girls to find that they had slowed to a pace that I found excessively comfortable for a race situation. Amelia let me through not long after, and I made a fairly aggressive pass (yay me) around Christina, then took off after Jeni. I rode hard and could tell I was making up ground, but I ran out of trail. I finished 14 seconds behind her in 4th place.

So now I'm feeling a lot better about the rest of the year. I'm actually looking forward to Logansport, although I'm still ambivalent about Town Run. I'm excited about the DINO 6/12/24, although I keep flipping back and forth about whether I want to do the 6 or 12 hour solo. I want to accomplish more than just doing four laps faster than last year, but I don't think I'm fast enough to do five, so I kinda want to shoot for the 100-mile mark in the 12 hour. However, a 12 hour race would take a lot out of me, and I want to be recovered in time to give a proper debut to the tiny, adorable, and super light Giant TCX W that arrived yesterday. (Pictures when it's finished.)

How Do I Pimp My Ride?

2010-07-22T13:38:00.003-04:00

Rashad: What kind of name is New New, anyway?
New New: I'm New New cause I always rock the new, new shit. Thank you.
- Lines from the movie "ATL"

I don't remember much about the movie ATL, except for the dialogue exchange above and a bunch of fancy roller skating. However, I've always thought it would be fun to quote that line in the context of cycling equipment. I figure now is as good a time as any, since I just got an email from Adam saying that a 2011 Giant TCX W, size XS, was on its way. I was super bummed last night because, after reading that these bikes would be available in August, a check for a specific date revealed that there were a few Smalls and Mediums available already, but the Extra Smalls were not to be had until late September. Somehow, Adam worked some magic, and it looks like I'll be rocking the new, new shit before August. Also, I might actually have a bike with a name for once.

So, now I just need to figure out how I want to pink it out. Definitely pink cable housing, but I think I'm going to eschew pink bar tap and go for black tape with pink hoods. I'd like to put on a white and pink saddle like I have on my 29er, but that seems like a waste since the bike comes with a Fizik Vitesse, my saddle of choice, that just happens to be black and white instead of pink. While cable housing and brake hoods are pretty cheap, buying a new Vitesse for purely aesthetic purposes, rather than functional ones, seems a bit silly. If anyone has some other pinkifying ideas, let me know in the comments. It's a 'cross bike, so I won't be installing bottle cages.

Lemon Shake-Up

2010-07-13T10:30:00.003-04:00

Every so often my coach will assign a road century for my Saturday workout, and in the past, my compliance has been spotty. The first time this task appeared on my calendar, I was afraid of going on a ride that long by myself, since carrying that many hours' worth of food and water on my road bike would be difficult; there would be no trips back to the car for refills like with long mountain bike rides. So I decided to leave the food/water/support to someone else and made arraingements to do the nearest organized century ride that day, which was nearly three hours away. It was a tiring but fun day and I blew all previous long road ride efforts out of the water trying to make sure I wasn't the last person off the road after a late start. Of course, that was last season when I was trying to establish a good relationship with my new coach and I followed pretty much every instruction with dogged precision.

When I was instructed to do a road century again in February, an organized ride was not an option. After researching some routes, I decided to break from dogged precision figured that doing the famed "Nashville 90" route would be close enough. Unfortunately, my ability for dogged precision had basically broken after the Pisgah stage race, and when I was assigned a road century on Saturday and another five or six hours on Sunday, I got seriously overwhelmed. I panicked two hours into my attempt at the Nashville 90 and turned around and went home before it was too late.

After that, the road century was off the table again for a while, and it didn't come up again until a few weeks ago. I very near the rock bottom point of my late spring/early summer slump and I never really even considered subjecting myself to a road ride that long. I planned to substitute a six-hour mountain bike ride, but even that turned into about a one-hour ride.

When my July schedule came with the road century schedule again, I got the feeling that I would not be off the hook until I HTFU'd and did it. I still had never completed a Nashville 90 in my nearly five years in Bloomington, so I decided it was time. I got up Saturday morning, put a bottle of unflavored Heed in both my bottle cages, a bottle of water in my jersey pocket, three flasks of gel in my other pockets, and a bit of cash in case I had the chance to buy more food and/or water along the way. As I mentioned before, my biggest fear on doing this ride had do with inadequate nutrition/hydration during the course of the ride.

I missed the start of the Bloomington Bicycle Club ride by about ten minutes, but I can't say that was totally an accident. While I liked the idea of not being alone on the route, I didn't really want to have to ride in a big group for 6-7 hours and make small talk with people who rode up next to me and tried to talk into my (deaf) left ear. I figured the late arrival strategy worked well for the previous century and maybe I could apply that day, as well. I did eventually catch a straggler who indeed rode up on my left side and told me that most of the riders did a short route and only the fastest riders were doing the full 90. He informed me of food and water stops along the way, which eased my mind, and I kept riding after he stopped so that I could be alone with my own pace and thoughts.

I made my planned water stop at the Story Inn, where I was able to go into the external bathroom next to the beer garden and refill my bottles. However, as I rolled along, the gel/Heed/water combo was not doing it for me. I decided that I should make another stop in Nashville and get another form of calories and see if that would work for me. I considered various locations and food items, and came to the conclusion that would stop at the BBQ stand with the leme shake-up sign on the far end of town and get one of those. It totally hit the spot, except for the lump that drink a 32 oz beverage in less than 10 minutes left in my stomach. It digested quickly and the last two hours of the ride were much more pleasant.

So I finally got up the courage to do my first unsupported Nashville 90. It was not nearly as hard as I had imagined, and that I know the food/water stops, I don't have to stuff my pockets until they are about to burst. I just need to bring some money for whatever sounds good along the way.

The Talent Code

2010-07-06T17:44:00.006-04:00

I started reading The Talent Code a few weeks ago and got about halfway finished, but like many other things in my life lately, I got too busy/ tired/ distracted to finish. Yesterday I had extra day off from work and a rest day from training, so I set out on the second half. I'm now a couple of chapters from the finish, and while I'm not sure if the information can be used to change the athletic ability of a almost 30-year-old only child with both of her parents still and alive and living in a developed nation, it is all very fascinating. Here' a particular passage that I've been mulling over since yesterday:

"First, Dweck gave every child a test that consisted of fairly easy puzzles. Afterward the researcher informed all the children of their scores, adding a single six-word sentence of praise. Half of the kids were praised for their intelligence ("You must be smart at this"), and half were praised for their effort ("You must have worked really hard").

The kids were tested a second time, but this time they were offered a choice between a harder test and an easier test. Ninety percent of the kids who'd been praised for their effort chose the harder test. A majority of the kids who'd been praised for their intelligence, on the other hand, chose the easy test. Why? "When we praise children for their intelligence," Dweck wrote, "we tell them that's the name of the game: look smart, don't risk making mistakes."

The third level of tests was uniformly harder; none of the kids did well. However, the two groups of kids - the praised-for-effort group and the praised-for-intelligence group - responded very differently to the situation. "[The effort group] dug in and grew very involved with the test, trying solutions, testing strategies," Dweck said. "They later said they liked it. But the group praised for its intelligence hated the harder test. They took it as proof they weren't smart."

The experiment then came full circle, returning to a test of the same difficulty as the initial test. The praised-for-effort group improved their initial score by 30 percent, while the praised-for-intelligence group's score declined by 20 percent. All because of six short words. Dweck was so surprised at the result that she reran the study five times. Each time the result was the same."

So I haven't quite decided what the "moral" of this story was, but it definitely struck a chord with me. The whole middle section of the book is about how chance events and small, often subconscious signals shape people's performance in sports, the arts, etc. much more than their genetic material. (The first and last parts have to do with practice styles and coaching.) In the end, I'm not sure if I like having my destiny determined by subconscious ideas that I don't even know that I have any better than having it determined by my genes, but it does make some good food for thought.

DINO Muscatatuck Weekend

2010-07-04T20:38:00.004-04:00

I think I can actually manage to keep my race report short and not-so-sweet this time.

Saturday's short track went fine. As far as I can tell, it all played out very much like last year's race. I think I kept the time gap up to the Cat 1 girls a few seconds smaller than last year, but nothing big. I did not win the Cat 2 state championship this time, because the girl that won was on a tear and lapped or at least got really close to lapping all of the Cat 1 and 2 women, except for Cat 1 winner. There was one other Cat 2 girl there, and while I finished ahead of her, she had some sort of issue that caused her to leave the course for a bit, which makes it's hard to determine how we would have finished in a fair competition.

Last year, the short track race was kind of the highlight of my season, because I was suddenly able to stay within 1-2 minutes of Cat 1 girls who usually beat me by 15-20 minutes in XC races. Of course, a shorter race means a shorter margin of victory/defeat, but it was still a pretty big shift. This year was not as exciting, because I was expecting small gaps and was actually a bit disappointed that they weren't smaller. The good news is that I think this year I think figured out the reason for the smaller gap: This particular short track course doesn't necessarily play to my strengths, but it definitely minimizes a major weakness that I hadn't really figured out until last night. Now that I know exactly what I need to work on, perhaps I can start getting some better XC and 'cross results before 2010 ends.

Unfortunately, today was not a day to chalk up good XC results. Everything I could say from this point on is basically an excuse, so I will keep it short. I got to the race feeling scared and generally not right about the course, my bike, the competition, or pretty much anything. The first 10 minutes went badly, mostly because I reverted bad into my old reactionary mode, rather than riding my own race as I have been trying to focus on this year. I let myself slip into "I suck" mode, and ended up dropping out.

Just Do It

2010-06-30T14:02:00.003-04:00

I've been in a rather large training slump since the French Lick race. Despite having a very hefty week on my training plan, my weekday workouts last week amounted to a single 45 minute easy road ride and the weekend consisted of a low-key preride of the Muscatatuk (woo, spelled it right for once) race course and some half-hearted tempo on my roundabout trip to watch Adam at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest road race.

I can't really attribute the slump to any single factor other than the fact that I have spent much of the last six weeks visiting the IU branch campuses and other work-related travel. Being the introverted creature of habit that I am, spending long hours traveling, meeting with people, and veering from my normal work schedule are probably even more stressful for me than they are for "normal" people. After a few weeks, the resulting patterns of insufficient sleep and the greater-than-normal urge to shove copious amounts of really crappy food in my mouth have left me feeling like a fat tired slug.

The problem with feeling like a fat tired slug is that it decreases the willpower to do things that seem initially unpleasant, but will ultimately make me feel better, like turning off the television or putting down the book so I can get to bed on time, eating healthy food, and following my training plan. It took longer than I had hoped, but I finally reached the point where I gathered the energy to do something that I really didn't want to do but that I knew would help deflect the downward spiral in which I was moving.

When I found out yesterday morning that the MMSF time trials were moving to a simpler bi-weekly schedule, which meant there was one last night instead of next week as I'd marked on my calendar, I decided to suck it up and go despite the fact that it was a rest week on my schedule. The fact of the matter was that I'd rested plenty the week before and if I kept the rest of the week light, I would still be sufficiently recovered for this weekend's racing. So I did it and it felt miserable, and according to my power meter, my power sucked. However, I set a season best by 1:15 and beat my best ever time from 2007 by about 30 seconds. I'm still trying to figure out that disconnect, but strange things happen at the MMTT. The most important thing is that I stepped up and did something hard and unpleasant, and that I feel better for doing so.

As for things that I accomplished last week, I bought some chocolate rocks from Sahara Mart (what with the shoving of crappy food and all), and in my typical nerd fashion, decided I needed to practice my trail building skills with them. Yes, I ate them when I was done.

DINO French Lick

2010-06-19T20:16:00.003-04:00

You know what they saw about the best laid plans of mice, men, and female bike racers (okay, all bike racers), right? Well, so it went for Lindsay "I never get chain suck" Rodkey today. (AKA, Lindsay "I never get flats" Rodkey, as I am know in Southwestern Arkansas)

I came to French Lick today with none of the gut-wrenching pressure that I had at Brown County. After BCSP's re-alignment of my season goals, my objective today was not so much to WIN, as to gather critical information to help me learn what I need to do to WIN. I know that the obvious answer is to train harder/more, but I really think that while my fitness needs to improve, that improved racing skills are going to be a critical piece in the breakthrough that I still hope to have in 2010.

I knew the race was going to be super hard, but I also knew that I would likely have the advantage of being the only Cat 2 woman who had ridden the new section. My plan was two-pronged: to stay in control effort-wise until a certain climb that I considered my "step on the gas" point and within reason of the first prong, do my best to drop into the new section with no one obstructing my path. I knew that with the exception of the long climb up from the creek, which I was hoping to save some spare muscle fibers for, that I would be strongest rider in my category on the new section.

It all seemed like a good plan, but it wasn't to be. I practiced much more pre-race patience than I ever have and continued to soft pedal around the starting area until about four minutes before we went off. I rolled up to the dashed "on deck" line on the far left side as I like to do, and it looked like I was going to get a place on the front row without bumping any Cat 1 girls. Then the wave before us went off and started to pedal forward to the starting line and I heard a crunch. My chain had popped off and lodged next to my frame. I pulled it out, but I didn't have room to pedal out the kinks between where I was and the starting line, so I lined up and slightly panicked knowing that I would not be able to shove hard off the line like the other girls. When the siren sounded, they flew off and I took a few awkward pedal strokes to get my bike working. The good news is that I started going normally, but the bad news is that I was already 30 seconds back at that point.

At that point, all I could do was chase, but I made sure not to kill myself to try and catch up, since it would do me no good if I made contact but was too blown to keep up when I did. When I dropped into the new section I was exactly where I didn't want to be. I was about to catch two girls, but it was in the place where I didn't want to have to be behind anyone. I quickly caught the first one, and she let me pass fairly quickly, but the second was the girl who I went back and forth with at BCSP. I caught her on an especially narrow portion of trail, we were heading into a steep, pukey climbing section (lots of rocks and I think three switchbacks), so she started pulling back away as soon as I made contact. The really bad part is that I started burning quite a few more matches than I was ready to give away during this cat and mouse portion of the race. I re-caught her and eventually passed her, but not after spending way too much of the technical section than I wanted to sitting on her wheel waiting to pass.

When I finally got clear, it was nearly time to for the climb I had been dreading, and I was coming in with more blown legs and a narrower margin than I had hoped. It hurt so bad. To make matters worse, I passed a Cat 2 guy not long after getting free of my competitor. I'm not really sure what all transpired during the next couple of minutes, because I think I passed another guy after him. At some point I dabbed on some little rock feature because my legs were about to pop off and I couldn't manage the extra 5% power to clear it. I heard a male voice saying something about getting my cadence up behind me. Are you freaking kidding me? There aren't a lot of things that piss me off more than making a minor flub in front a guy I don't know and then being the recipient of "helpful advice" that I apparently need since I'm a female and all.

The fact of the matter was my legs were fried and I was tapped out in my middle ring, but I was not about to give up a get all granny geared up when I knew I was being chased. As the climb went on, I struggled more in the most deeply anaerobic state I've experienced since I allowed myself to slip that far into the hurt box on the same climb at the DRT race. The difference was that this time I had known better than to let myself get in that situation, and yet it still happened anyway. I had reached the point of audible groans and out-loud negative self-talk. Well, at least it was supposed to be self-talk. Unfortunately, Mr. Sport Guy was riding behind me and responding, which did not help the situation at all. I guess he was trying to be encouraging, but it was just annoying. I finally got mad and told him to go around me. I'm now struggling with guilt over being the short-tempered bitch that I become in the middle of cross-country races, and a complete misunderstanding of how such a weird situation happened in the first place.

After finally getting rid of Mr. Sport Guy, my frustration had reached a peak and I gave up and switch to the damn granny gear for a while. I got really close to making it to the top of the climb without being caught by the girl behind me, but she passed me before we got to the open field that lead to the swoopy pine forest section that would allow for some recovery before the last bit of climbing. Then, to my horror, the pine forest section was rerouted to a long series of horrible muddy fireroad sections that somehow added even more climbing through a section that would normally be flat. I was so unbelievably mad at the promoter for this travesty that the short-tempered bitch flared once again and I resorted to walking my bike through a couple of the really thick muddy sections.

At that point, I just wanted it to be over and it mostly was. I got through the last climb, and started the descent that I love so much, but I found that I didn't even have the strength left to enjoy it. Although, it is downhill, it still requires a decent amount of pedaling and pumping to really fly, and I didn't seem to have much pedal and pump left. I even had a baby crash where I dropped my chain again just a minute or so from being done. That sucked.

So, all and all, it didn't go well, but the thing I'm most disappointed in was losing the opportunity to experience the start, since we still have four races left and, other that I girl I raced against today, I still don't have a good idea of the girls' strengths and weaknesses. The other disappointment is that the bad start deprived me of the opportunity to play my strengths. I guess the one good thing that I'm taking away from today is that I can now list "shredding the gnar" as a strength on my bike racing resume'.

What, Are You New?

2010-06-14T11:32:00.004-04:00

My Go Phone takes terrible pictures sometimes.

I know it's getting a bit boring to read that I spent yet another weekend riding in French Lick, but it seems to be my thing lately. I went back on Saturday because I heard the 9-mile loop was really, for-realio finished and I wanted a chance to ride the lap as it will appear in next weekend's DINO race. It also doesn't hurt that this trail, which is less than a year old, already dries nearly as well as the North Tower and Aynes loops at Brown County. From the trail reports on HMBA, it seems like BCSP has been abnormally wet in the last month, and I can't tell if it's exaggeration or what. Something isn't adding up, but I haven't investigated much, because I've found a new jam that I can count on. Rather than trying to decipher the actual North Tower/Aynes conditions from too many competing voices on the BCSP forum, I know I can look on the French Lick forum and if Alex says it's cool, it's cool. And more often than not, it's cool.

Anyway, the reason for the title of the post and the grainy picture above, is my excitement at finally getting to ride "the big loop" just days after it was finished. Since I knew not many people had ridden through the intersection above, I wanted to commemorate my inaugural ride through that section of trail. Of course, the final finishing work hasn't been done on it yet and I found myself bumping and sliding through that section. Then, into my head popped the family-friendly insult from one of Adam's old TV favorites, Boy Meets World. "What, are you new?" I asked. I'm not sure if it was directed towards the trail or myself, but it made for a bit of entertainment as I bopped along. I rode the new loop much better than I did at the DRT race or my Memorial Day ride. However, all I can say about this weekend's race is that it will be interesting. The plan is still to try to not kill myself in the first half of the lap (considering it's a one-lap race, but those decisions are a bit random on new courses) and hope it's a battle of wits rather than a battle of watts.

I also got a couple of non-grainy action shots from last weekend's Brown County race:

Thanks to Matt Link for taking these and to Angela Breeden for passing them along.

DINO BCSP

2010-06-08T13:47:00.007-04:00

Happy Warm-Up Face

The happy warm-up face belies my feelings at the time of the picture. I'm actually seriously thinking about throwing up, but I saw the photographer there and decided to cheese it up for him. Then I thought, "In another hour he'll take another picture of me in the same with my pain face on." I was right.

Serious Last Meters of Last Climb Face

Of course, there is a little more story to be told in between the two pictures, like why I felt like throwing up in the first one. The short answer is that since the possibility of winning was revealed to me at the DINO Spring Tune-Up, I had been placing an unhealthy amount of pressure on myself to WIN at DINO BCSP. Unfortunately, even though I've finally gotten over thinking that I'm genetically or cosmically doomed to lose, too many years of thinking that have weakened the skills I need to WIN.

All in all, the race went okay after I got over my jitters. I got a good start, and even though I lost more places than I wanted to on the opening climb, it was still probably the best start I've ever had on that killer hill. I entered the singletrack in fifth place out of ten Cat 2 girls, but I wasn't too far back overall and I was within a few bike lengths of third and fourth. I lost some ground early on because I was so blasted from the opening climb, but I worked my way back up to visual contact with fourth place. Unfortunately, I got caught by another girl very close to the top of the Aynes climb, and I made the overly polite decision to let her pass rather than turning myself inside out to stay in front over the crest and then rail the descent to lose her. As it was, I had to re-pass her right after cresting the hill and although I put some time on her on the descent, it was not enough to keep her away through the top of the North Tower climb.

In the end, I got 6th out of 10, which is sort of crappy in the context that I came into the race with the idea that I would be really disappointed with anything short of 1st. However, the top half of the field was well-matched, and my 6th place was still only about 6.5 minutes back from the winning time, and the 4-6 places were all within a minute of each other. After looking at old results, I realized that I have only been that close to the winning time of a race two other times: my last beginner class race in 2006 and my last DINO-sanctioned outing back in April.

So the point is that it was actually a good race, but it just fell below the expectations I had set for myself. I still don't like the idea of myself as a Cat 2 rider, because it's hard to admit that I still can't keep up with the girls who kicked my ass when we were all beginners a few years ago and that many of the girls I can compete with have only been racing a year or two. The positive side of it is that I am actually really getting to compete now instead of showing up and having the race decided in the first few minutes. It doesn't look like I'll be earning my sandbagger crown/ unarguable upgrade by July like I'd hoped, but it's looking like this might be the year I actually start to have fun with XC racing.

French Lick Double Dip

2010-06-01T21:49:00.003-04:00

For my three day Memorial Day weekend, I made not one, but two trips to French Lick. The first was for the DRT series race, which I wanted to do after having such a good time at French Lick a couple of weeks ago. However, I didn't really expect the new loop to be done in time for the race, but I guess it was close enough to being completed that they hooked up some fire road to the nearly completed loop for a nine-mile course instead of the five-mile course we did the other day. It also meant that I would be racing into what I'd heard was some fairly difficult singletrack that I'd never seen before.

The race on Sunday was not so good. It was terribly, oppressively hot. I felt okay on my warm-up and could see that my HR was higher than it should have been for a given effort, but I tried not to worry about it too much. I had only done DRT time trials before, and it turned out that the XC races start much differently than DINO series races do. The waves went in the order of Cat 1 men, Cat 1 women, Cat 2 men, Cat 2 women, and then Cat 3 men (no Cat 3 women that day). This was bad for two reasons: I didn't get to start with the girls I normally start with, and I had the Cat 3 men going off one minute behind me. I thought I was going to have to start alone, but there was one other Cat 2 girl who I have never seen before (later research showed that she was SERC series regular from Alabama, which was a bit surprising).

Anyway, I made a bit of a false start and was not "loaded" for the real start and she got a jump on me. I tried to catch and pass her before the singletrack, but it wasn't happening. She also continued to gap me once we got to the singletrack and I tried to straighten up and repeat my new mantra of "focus on fast", which means quit thinking about how hard I'm going or what the other racers are doing and just try to get through each section of trail as quickly and smoothly as possible. Unfortunately, my HR was pinned at around 199-200 and wasn't letting up even as I tried to calm and focus. Then the Cat 3 men caught me which meant I had to ride in the rough stuff on the side of the trail a lot and worry about what they were doing instead my effort, which did not help me relax and focus at all. Then I started getting the chills and goosebumps that signal dehydration, even though it was only about 15 minutes into the race. So I went into to complete soft-pedal mode and tried to drink, but it didn't really help me much. Basically, for the first 30 minutes of the race my HR would not go under 195, no matter what I did and it didn't let up until I got to an extended downhill. By that point, my body was trashed and I couldn't even ride normal easy pace. I soft-pedaled, granny geared, and even walked some to finish the lap, which took me 1:30 for 9 miles, and then went back to my car to pour an entire gallon of water over my head.

Not good. Must get back on that "no longer sucking" track that I was on in April, because not sucking was a lot more fun than going back to my old "it all got screwed up and I went slow because of..." mode.

On Monday, Adam and I went back to French Lick, because he'd never ridden there and wanted to check it out, but eschewed Sunday's race for personal reasons. For Monday's ride, I opted to break out my Anthem for the first time in quite a while and went "minimum effort required" pace for the first 9 mile lap. The new section is pretty freakin' hard and sometimes the minimum effort required to keep rolling was still pretty high, especially on legs trashed from the previous day. Regardless, my "minimum effort required" lap with trashed legs today was still 10 minutes faster than my "race" lap on Sunday, so it became obvious that this trail will not forgive killing myself in the beginning. For the DINO race, I've picked out a spot on the course where I will put on the accelerator, but until then I'm going to make sure to leave something in the tank. I'm not sure how effective the strategy will be competition-wise, but it sure as heck has to be more effective than my strategy on Sunday. I'm also going to race on my Anthem, because the new singletrack is so rough and saving myself some physical beating will probably help, too.

Anyway, aside from riding, I had a really nice weekend. Saturday was Adam's birthday, but we turned it into a three-day celebration with sushi on Friday, steak dinner at home on Saturday, and dinner out with his parents on Sunday. We also got to spend a lot more time together than we have for a long time, since our work/training schedules are so different and neither of us have much free time on a given weekday. It was fun just hanging out, though, and even kinda sorta riding together for a bit. After our ride, we stopped at the Fairfax beach on Lake Monroe and checked out the crowd there. Here is a picture of me standing in the "pee water", as I liked to call it:

Catching Up

2010-05-20T09:08:00.003-04:00

It seems like I've had several blog-worthy occurrences since Syllamo's Revenge, but I haven't had an blog-worthy pictures and have been a bit lax about writing things down over the last couple of weeks. So here's my attempt at a short and sweet review of the last couple of week's blog-worthy moments:

1) French Lick Ride/ Race Simulation: Since my return from Syllamo's marked the time to get all cross country-y, the next weekend Emily and I went to French Lick to get in some hard singletrack riding. I'd only been to that trail once before and didn't really feel so good that time, so I wasn't too impressed. However, I sorta fell in love a little when we were they the other day. The current five-mile loop is basically 2.5 miles of gradual climbing followed by 2.5 miles of awesome swoopy downhill. It was even open and flowing enough that I was able to put a few bike lengths on Emily in some places, which is quite an accomplishment.

Anyway, we did one lap easy and two at race pace, since DINO Cat 2 women's races are usually about 10 miles. I took off while Emily took a bathroom break and then tried to catch up with me, which was a good motivator for both of us. She caught me about 3/4 of the way up the climb on the second lap, but I repassed her by the peak and make to the bottom in the lead. The fact that she made up five or so minutes on me in an hour of riding isn't great, but is an improvement over the last couple of XC seasons. My goal was two laps in under an hour, and I did 66 minutes, but my legs were still a bit flat from Syllamo's. I think I can get under an hour with good legs.

2) Huge PR for Race-Sim Workout: A few days after our trip to French Lick, Jason had me to his "famous" power based race simulation workout on the road. I was a little scared going in, because my legs hadn't been good over the weekend and still felt a little sore. However, once I got going it was clear that it was going to be a good day. I was about 7 watts higher by all measures over what I did last July. That was good news considering that my training hasn't been quite as consistent as last year because of my nasty cold/allergy thing a few weeks ago, and just general life. I've been vacillating between really sub-par workouts then popping a really good one every couple of weeks. I just have to cross my fingers and hope to "pop" on race day.

3) Duffield (Demolition) Derby: Last Sunday I traveled to the southwest side of Louisville to try and get another race under my belt, since Jason thought that five weeks between Syllamo's and DINO BCSP was too long without racing. I had actually gotten pretty excited about the race, even though the Kentucky series races aren't as well attended as the DINO races, but I figured I'd get Emily to go with me and we could at least race against each other and pick up some prize money/ swag. Unfortunately, the weather was looking bad and Emily decided not to go. I pressed on because Adam had already given up a road race in Ohio so that I could race in Kentucky and I didn't want to back out at the last minute.

Unfortunately, it was pouring rain the whole time, and the course was like a very dirty slip 'n' slide. There was actually one other Cat 2 woman there, and I'm kind of disappointed in myself because I submitted to my baser instincts and did not fight hard enough for the hole shot at the top of the super steep quarter mile climb that we started on. I know most of the problem was that I'm afraid of racing in slick conditions and I was afraid of what would happen if I did get the hole shot, which is frustrating to me. The rest was self-fulfilling prophecy as we hit the mud, I washed out twice in the first couple of minutes, and I lost sight of her in no time.

The race didn't really help my goal of increasing my confidence and to start racking up so Cat 2 W's so that I moved back up to Cat 1 sufficiently mid-pack rather than leaking out the bottom like in 2008-2009. I think the difference between this year and years past is that in the two XC races that I've done this year, I can pinpoint the exact moment when I chose not to win, while in the past it's never even occurred to me as a choice. Now I just have to take it one step further and choose to WIN when the chips are down. Interestingly enough, the next time I will likely have to make that choice will be on another steep paved climb at the BCSP DINO race, and I've been trying to practice the scenario in my head so maybe I won't crack next time.

4) MMTT: Finally, I threw one more big effort in over the last couple of weeks at the Morgan-Monroe forest time trial a few days ago. Things looked bad at first because I had to spend Monday and Tuesday in Indianapolis for a work-related conference, which left me tired and cranky and pressed for time on Tuesday evening. By the time I made it home, I didn't have time to change and make out to the forest by bike, and I almost skipped, but at the last minute I decided just to drive out and take out a couple of days' frustration on the pedals. I felt okay, after the initial shock of absolutely no warm-up, but the results were a bit confusing and frustrating. I set a personal worst time and a personal power average for the 20 and 30 minute ranges. Given, I've not done one of those TT's since 2007 and that was without power, but I almost felt like if my time was going to be bad, I'd rather my power be bad, too, so I could just call it a bad day. Now I'm just confused.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately. I'm hoping the trails will be dry enough to bust a couple of hard laps at Brown County on Saturday, but we'll see. Then it's more race sim work and another trip French Lick, where I will be doing the DRT race on the 30th and hoping for the elusive 'W'.

Good Enough for Katie, Good Enough for Me

2010-05-13T21:58:00.003-04:00

As regular readers may know, I have a bit of an obsession with finding the perfect bib shorts. To spare a rehashing a lot of boring details, I will leave it at this: I have not worn an elastic waistband while cycling since 2006 and I have no intention of doing so again. Nor have I ever worn anything across my sternum except for my sports bra and my heart rate monitor strap. Unfortunately, as a short, curvy female, its quite difficult to maintain this streak without the help of custom clothing orders since the 7th grade boys on the Assos design team hatched this thinly veiled plan to look at boobies. For reasons that I absolutely cannot understand, most retail cycling clothing brands have copied this design or dropped out of the women's bib game altogether.

So when I got down to one pair of good bibs with no holes a few months ago, I went on high alert to try and get my hands on something to fill the gap until my next team clothing order. This heightened my awareness of clothing ads on cycling websites, and when I saw an ad for a brand that I'd never heard of claiming to be the clothier of Katie Compton, who I perceive to be not only fast but a woman of discerning taste, I did not hesitate to click through. What I landed upon was the site for Pactimo's custom clothing line, but a few more clicks revealed that they had a retail line that included the Women's Summit Bib Short, which looked exactly like a proper women's bib short should look.

It took me a few months to get a hold of a pair, since the line was apparently just launched last winter, but last week I finally got a tip about a bike shop in Colorado who would send me a pair. Today my package arrived from Castle Rock Bicycle Company, and I was ready to test.

The fit was spot on, with the front cut just right, some nifty ventilation holes in the back, and leg holes that weren't too tight. The quality was good, and although I'm still getting used to the waffley fabric, I think they look pretty good. My only criticism would be that the thick part of the chamois is placed too far back. While sitting on my road bike with my hands on the hoods, I had a good two inches of excess padding extending past the back of my saddle, while I barely had enough coverage in the front. It covered enough and worked about as well as most chamois do, but could have been placed better.

Overall, I have to say that these are the best retail women's bib shorts I've ever tried, and another plus is that at $130, they are less expensive than any of the inferior designs offered on Team Estrogen. Ladies, if you need bibs and don't have a custom order in your immediate future, I definitely encourage you to track a pair down.

I wanted to show what they looked like on a real person, so here are the sweaty, not super flattering pictures that Adam was afraid might be too risqué for my blog. (Sorry, no boobies.)

One More Good Thing

2010-05-04T18:44:00.005-04:00

I just remembered one more good thing from the weekend. In keeping with tradition, I've been trying to think of a theme song for the 2010 race season. Also keeping with tradition, it has to be something that was released before I was in junior high. So when I was hammering over the rocky singletrack of the orange loop, feeling like I might just make it to checkpoint to in time after all, I started mentally singing this ode to my hardtail:

She rode a fast machine
Kept her saddle clean
She was most color-coordinated woman that I've ever seen
She was sighting her lines
From her Taiwanese bike
Leaning through the corners with her American thighs
Winning more than her share
Had me fighting for air
I sprinted for the line but she was already there

Must focus on this visualization before my next race.

Syllamo's Revenge: Good, Bad, Interesting

2010-05-04T12:13:00.004-04:00

I sometimes watch a sketch/stand up comedy show on Comedy Central called Important Things with Demetri Martin in which he does a segment called "Good, Bad, Interesting", in which he explains funny circumstances under which the same scenario could be good, bad, or interesting. While I don't think I can condense my weekend into a triplet of jokes, I think the title pretty accurately describes my experience. However, I will have to go in reverse order for it to make sense.

Interesting: Friday Night Dinner and a Bathtub

Friday evening I was invited to dinner at Carey Lowery and Zeke Lilly's hotel. I've been reading Carey's blog for a couple of years, and we keep ending up at a lot of the same races, but this was the first times we'd formally met. Dinner was good and the conversation was fun, and it was nice to get to know them.

Then Carey got a phone call informing us that there were tornadoes headed towards Mountain View. No one really knew where the community shelter was and we were a bit afraid of going out to look for it, so we ended up in the bathtub with a mattress on top of us while we waited for the tornado to pass over. Luckily, it did not touch down anywhere in town, and nearest damage was 20-30 minutes away. Carey posted a couple of pictures from inside the "fort" on her blog.

Bad: Um, the Race

I knew the start of this race would not suit me as well as the Ouachita Challenge had, because instead of eight to ten miles of rolling road that did not have much extended climbing until the end, Syllamo's Revenge only has about a mile of 11% grade gravel road to break up the 370 person field before the singletrack. I didn't want to get stuck in stop-and-go traffic on the singletrack, so I lined up much further up in the field than I actually expected to finish, and rode exceptionally hard up the first climb. Unfortunately, it didn't help much, because when I got to the singletrack, I was still stuck behind a long line of people slipping and sliding on the muddy, rocky trail. The worst part was that I was having to stop, run, and surge over and over to keep up with the jostling pace, and was suffering from my lack of recovery after the climb. All the climbs after the first one were short, albeit steep, but I found my quads burning in protest at even the slightest upward pitch of the trail.

The first fifteen miles of the race were miserable for me, as my burning legs continued to slow me down more and more. The trail was very slick and very technical, so I had to get off my bike a lot. While hike-a-biking usually relieves immediate pain of steep climbing, I've found that pushing my bike for more than a few steps at a time tends to ruin my legs for riding after that, not to mention the layers of calf bruises from banging my leg on my pedal over and over. Finally, after more than three hours of misery, frustration, and gnats trying to eat my eyes because I was going so slow, I made it to the first aid station and got some fresh water, some clear Heed (my favorite), and a banana.

The combination of refreshments and a decent stretch of completely rideable rolling trail helped me to start feeling human again. I was not in great shape to make the time cutoffs, but it was still possible, so I just rode as well as I could and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, by the time the finished the "green loop", all of the volunteers had cleared out and the arrows on the road had all been worn away. The guy I was riding with and I took a wrong turn, and we ended up doing about four miles of the course over again.

Four miles in Syllamo's distance is a lot. Once we were back on track, I tried to ride hard for a little while to still make the time cutoff, but it was still a long way and I missed it by 30 minutes. So I finished my "spring endurance season" with two DNF's, despite feeling like I'm the strongest I've ever been. I say "spring endurance season" because I have kind of planned my year to have a spring endurance season, focus on XC through the summer, and do a bit more endurance in the fall. So my next chance at endurance redemption is not until the Berryman Trail Epic in October. But I have some Cat 2 races to win and a Cat 1 upgrade to reclaim before then.

Good: Well, at Least I Had Fun

In addition to my Friday night dinner invitation, I managed to find company for every meal while I was there, except for my race morning breakfast, which is probably better as a solo affair, anyway. After the race, I had dinner with a group of people from Kansas City, after I met a couple of them in parked next to me before and after the race. Then I had breakfast with a group from Tupelo, MS, who had stayed in the rooms next to me at the Angler's White River Resort.

It was fun getting meet new people and it kind of reminded me of my teenage years when I would go to camp not knowing anyone and have a big group friends by dinnertime. Being an only child from a very small town taught that if I wanted to do something, that I would probably have to go alone and just hope to meet people when I got there. For whatever reason, I became very shy and insecure in college and forgot those skills, but it was nice reminder that I once had them and with a little practice should be able to get more comfortable making my way as an unaccompanied female traveling to bike races. Of course, I didn't leave Arkansas with a stack of addresses with which I will exchange long letters written in colored ink over the next year, but at least I did leave with a quite a few "See you at the Berryman Epic" exchanges.

More "Don't Quote Me" Wisdom

2010-04-26T15:36:00.003-04:00

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what have already done." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It seems that the US Today "Don't Quote Me" puzzles are doing more for me that just staving off Alzheimer's Disease (something I'm afraid of, even before my 30th birthday). They are also providing me with little bits of bike racing-applicable wisdom. Today's quote was interesting to me because it's something I've already been thinking about for the last couple of weeks.

It all started after the results from the OC were posted and I went through a bit of "I coulda been a contender" remorse. Okay, not a contender, contender, but like a not last place contender. For me, that is kind of a big deal.

I started comparing the OC results to the Syllamo's start list to try and make some sense of what I could expect on May 1. I know darn well that this type of speculation is pretty futile, and I generally force myself to refrain from it, but this time I just had to go there. Guessing by past OC and Syllamo's results, less than half of the 34 women entered will even finish, and based on past OC, Lumberjack 100, and Pisgah stage race results, I will not be one of those women. Guessing by what I feel I am capable of doing, I will be among the top half that finishes and perhaps even a bit better. However, I have a feeling that most of the other women on the list feel the same way or they wouldn't still be signed up at this point. Only Saturday will tell who actually survives back luck, bad mud, or bad pacing. I'm just crossing my fingers that it will finally be my day.

Things Seen

2010-04-21T12:04:00.002-04:00

I may be starting up on a short picture-blog kick; I'm not sure. That's okay. I go through phases, and it's hard to come up with stuff between race reports. I'm sure you'd rather see this cute painted mule-baby that I saw on my ride last night rather than hearing the excruciating details of my Vo2 max intervals.

Painted Mule-Baby

I also saw a Little 5 team doing a motor pacing workout out on Bottom Road just a few days before the big race. That was interesting.

I, however, did not have a motorcycle pacing me, but I still managed to set a new all-time best five minute power record.

The Beat Goes On

2010-04-20T12:05:00.004-04:00

In deep concentration mid-race at the DINO Spring Tune-Up. I was hesitant at first, but really I friggin' love my 29er. Look at it. It looks way faster than I do.

So whatever was killing me last week finally let up. I still feel a little dry and itchy in the throat, but that could easily be the Singulair that I'm still afraid to stop talking, even though I think it gives me headaches. I rode easy over the weekend and plan to resume normal training with some Vo2 max intervals tonight.

One cool bit of news is that last night I recieved an email informing me that I had won a drawing for a free entry to the 2011 Ouachita Challenge, so I guess my race schedule is already shaping up through the next year. Not that I wasn't thinking that far ahead already, but a free entry sealed the deal. The only problem is that I want to race it again now and not have to wait another whole year. Normally, I would think about how much faster I will theoretically be in a year, but I think this season is much more about doing the best I can be now instead of focusing on how fast I might theoretically be in the future.

Photo via: http://www.williamlsnyder.com/blog/

Killing Me Softly

2010-04-16T13:20:00.003-04:00

(Pretty tree, not my house)

This spring has been without a doubt the most beautiful since I moved to Bloomington and started mountain biking. There have been almost no un-mountain-bikeable days since early March, when 4 or 5 is normally excellent in March and 50% is usually good in April. The flowers and the trees are gorgeous, with the exception of the poor tulips in my yard that seem to be stunted this year. This weather is great except for one thing.

It's killing me. Okay, that's not totally true, but for the last week I've not been able to get on board with all the Facebook and Twitter posts about how nice it is outside, because I've been stuck inside with a horrible allergy/cold thing. I'm not sure what it is, but pollen is a definite player. The thing is that I've never had allergies before, except for a random sniffle and sneeze here and there. From a nose perspective, that's all that I have now. However, the sore throat that I got last Friday turned into severe sore throat which move to an itchy, scratchy, irritated feeling down in my chest and I'm having a heck of time shaking. I got allergy medicine from the doctor on Tuesday, but I'm still having a hard time getting well, so I'm wondering if it's some sort of germ and pollen perfect storm. The only thing that has really helped was staying home from work yesterday and doing absolutely nothing, including trying not move too fast, breathe through my mouth, or speak above a whisper. I'm improved, but not out of the woods, so I'm trying the same approach today.

It's frustrating not being able to do anything when the weather is so nice, especially since Syllamo's Revenge is only two weeks away now and I just missed a key week of training. (Vo2 max cycle is favorite.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get well soon so that I can actually enjoy the beauty outside instead of being afraid of it.

The Reverse Dumpster Phil Effect

2010-04-11T13:32:00.002-04:00

I did not go to the road race today after all. When I woke up, the sore throat that I've had for two days, but ignored so that I could race yesterday, was significantly worse and I felt like the scratchy feeling might be migrating to my chest. I didn't want to do another hard effort and push myself into full sickness. Plus, the whole right side of my body was super sore, which I often try to make myself HTFU and push through, but I just didn't feel like it today.

The interesting thing is why my body was sore. The obvious answer was because I road a really hard race yesterday, and quasi crashing when I tried to ride off of the tread of a bench-cut trail, grab a tree, and get going again so the guy behind could get through did not help. However, the worst part is the pain in my butt from falling down the basement stairs yesterday. My slipper slipped off the tread 3-4 steps from the bottom and I hit my butt, elbow, and upper back on all of them on the way down.

So that, getting lost, and other vague nuisances were what I meant when I said that I horrible morning trying to get to the race yesterday. I also skipped my openers the day before in hopes of not aggravating the sore throat, and I had fish and chips at Upland Brewery for dinner the night before. Then I got 6 hours of sleep. Basically, it was the most imperfectly executed few days leading up to a race possible. Then I rode one of my best races ever.

A couple of years ago I wrote about how I sometimes succumb to the Dumpster Phil Effect, which is giving yourself a prepared excuse for a bad effort through either purposeful self-sabotage, subconscious self-sabotage, or conveniently writing things off to bad luck before you actually even know if they'll end badly. The Dumpster Phil part mostly focuses on purposeful and subconscious self-sabotage, but I've expanded the definition to include all of the negative pre-race thoughts/ behaviors that I've been guilty of in the past. (Seeing as it is my own layperson definition that I made up and not a documented sports psychology phenomenon.)

Paul Harvey: And now the rest of the story...

Perhaps the most important part of my Ouachita Challenge race report from a couple of weeks ago was what I didn't say say. While my mom and I were driving from my parents' house in Oklahoma to the hotel where we would stay the night before the race, the battery on my car suddenly went out. Luckily, we were only 10 or so miles from where we were supposed meet my mom's cousin for a late lunch/ early dinner. She and her husband came and picked us up and took us out to eat, but at a different restaurant than we had planned. The BBQ beef and French fries were delicious but not the best thing to eat the evening before and important race. Then we addressed the battery situation, which turned out to be an alternator situation, which meant that we had to borrow their van if we wanted to make it on to Arkansas. We made it, but it was much later, much more stressful, and my GI tract was worse for the wear by the time we did.

That night, as I lay tossing and turning my hotel bed probably four hours before I had to get up, I was thinking about how the long awaited race was actually happening in a few short hours. I thought about how nothing had gone right that day, and wondered if I would be able to hold it together when I was already worn down from the stress (my major issue with traveling to races). Then I told myself that whatever happened the next day, I was not allowed to blame in on what happened the day before. I swore that the story would not make it to my blog, no matter what.

And it didn't. At least not in the context in which I forswore it. The reason I'm telling it now is because once the race went off, it no longer mattered. Unfortunately, I still had some excuse making to be made when the race was over, but the two goods hours of racing that I had proved that the previous day's events had nothing to do with it. Nor did the events of Friday and Saturday morning have anything to do with how I raced yesterday. I actually remember thinking in the middle of the race yesterday, "Dang, I need screw-ups and bad luck become me." Really, I don't like racing sleep deprivation and an unpredictable stomach, but apparently I can do it just fine.

DINO Spring Tune-Up

2010-04-10T17:16:00.004-04:00

Holy Snikeys....

So it turns out that there were actual, you know, people at the DINO Spring Tune-Up. Most-of-the-time adventure racers Jayne Prater and Chikage Castle, as well DINO regular Bette Gumerson, were all present and insured that there was in fact a separate women's wave. Jayne was the sole Cat 1, so the rest of us made up the Cat 2 field.

I had a pretty horrible morning trying to get to the race, because the Garmin couldn't find my destination and Google maps misled me yet again. After a panicky couple of hours of driving, I arrived at the race 45 minutes before the start. After signing in and getting dressed it was close enough to start time that I was afraid to take the chance going for a practice lap and not getting back in time, so I had to rely my memories from 2006 and 2007.

The start was the most civil I remember since the DINO Spring Tune-Up of 2006 when the three of us beginner girls went to "Oh you go first" mode when siren went off. Today we jockeyed for position, but it didn't feel nearly as hard as it normally does. Jayne was first to the singletrack and Chikage was in front of me. She's normally a crazy-fast starter, so I was kind of surprised at the opening pace. As soon as we hit the doubletrack, I passed her and thought, "Holy crap, I'm LEADING a race with, you know, people in it." No longer sucking is weird...

I built up a pretty sizable gap, and even though I struggled on the rooty ups and downs that make up the last third of the lap, I maintained my lead until hitting that section again on the second lap. At the bottom of the steep, rooty hill that serves as the gateway to that section of the course, I was trying to granny gear and to keep my effort below completely cross-eyed level, but one of the expert men caught me and the trail was too narrow to let him pass without stopping. Unfortunately, once I stopped, I couldn't get going again and had to run the whole thing.

I struggled really bad through the techy section and Chikage latched onto my wheel as we went through the start/finish for the last lap. I tried going hard to gap her again, since we were in the section where I lost her before, but this time she was sticking to me like glue. I was completely gassed and was afraid I would crash trying to lose her, so I let her come around. She gapped me while I got my composure, and although I got within a bike length of her on the last pass of the steep rooty hill when I was able to ride a lot more of it than she was, the effort of doing so left me kind of useless for sealing the deal.

So there's the tale of how I almost won an actual race. The worst part is that the race director switched the race from two to three laps AS WE WERE LINING UP, so if we'd ending it at two like we were supposed to, I would have won. That's not really fair, because she might have gone harder if we'd been doing two, but it's still frustrating. I also have some regrets about having to run the hill and about giving up too easily when she was on my wheel, but the fact of the matter was that I rode well and I was actually in contention. That's still pretty cool.

In the end, my only real regret is that I didn't ride the sick drop that I said I was going to. It's a lot more tricky than it looks in the picture, and since I didn't do it at a composed effort level before the race, I was afraid to do it with lactic acid on the brain during the race. It was fun to go back to Avon after a three year absence, because it confirmed that my claims that it is the hardest course on the DINO circuit are in fact true and not the crazy ramblings of beginner chick who it once reduced to tears.

So tomorrow I road race with the newly formed Cincinnati Velo Bellas, which should be fun, and then it's back to work prepping for Syllamo's Revenge. I'm getting excited since I now have a bit more evidence that 2010 might finally be my year. I just need to refine a few things, like my killer instinct.

Quickie Friday Post

2010-04-09T14:29:00.002-04:00

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston Churchill

I was catching up on the Don't Quote Me puzzles that I've missed the last couple of weeks and this quote was among them. I liked it.

Tomorrow is the DINO Spring Tune-Up. I was hoping to race some actual, you know, people, but considering the grapevine-circulated roster for this weekend's SERC race in Tsali, I'm sort of doubting that's going to happen now. Oh well, IMMA RIDE THIS SICK DROP TOMORROW!

The Thought That Counts

2010-03-31T15:02:00.005-04:00

This was on the kitchen table when I got home last night. It's a paper bat (wom-bat) with a bloody dagger in it attached to a new pink Bikesmith's water bottle. It's supposed to be my reward for slaying the "Wombat Trail" (Womble Trail). Unfortunately, I didn't even get to see the Womble Trail this year, much less slay it, but I guess I get to keep the bottle, anyway.

I just got my first peek at the OC results a bit ago. A couple of weeks ago I posed the question on Twitter as to whether it was too ballsy for me to publicly announce that I wanted to finish in the top 15 of the approximately 35 females entered. It turns out that just finishing would have been good for a top 15. I totally could have done it without the flat tire.

And you know what? 15th out of 35 does not suck. I may not have proof on paper yet, but I NO LONGER SUCK. It's a nice feeling.

It Never Hurts Less; You Just Go Faster.

2010-03-29T17:01:00.003-04:00

That's the problem with my habit of picking blog titles out well before the events to be blogged have happened, but I decided two or three weeks ago that this would what I had to say about my third trip to the Ouachita Challenge. It's kind true, but it needs some qualifiers:

It actually does hurt less when you're going faster, because it's awesome.
It hurts a lot less physically when you get pulled halfway through the race, but it hurts pretty frickin' bad emotionally.

Basically, the race started off well. After things startle to settle near the end of the road section, I was sitting well out of last place, and I could think of at least 6-8 girls in my wake, and possibly more that were behind me from the gun. By the time we hit the singletrack, I was catching and passing a few people. I had been working really hard on the road, and tried to ease up a bit on the singletrack and just kind of get down to business. While I was settling and trying to eat, I got caught by a group of people, who I rode with then eventually passed most of, all except for two guys that I was riding with near the end of Big Brushy. (BTW, Big Brushy is way more fun when you aren't bonked out of your mind.)

Anyway, I was in the middle of trying to adjust my pace and decide whether I was going too hard staying with those guys, and then my back tire made the decision for me. I think the Giant 29er wheels' supposed ability to run really low pressure even with tubes is limited to much smoother trails and not for bouncing over a bajillion rocks as fast as my handling skills would allow. I'd already heard a bunch of bad sounding noises, but I just hoping it would hold and I was going to try to add some air at the aid station. Anyway, I was having a horrible time getting the tire of the rim to change it and lost a lot of time while all the girls I had passed flew by with the rhetorical "Are you okay?", which means "I'm not stopping unless you have a concussion." Finally, a nice guy (thanks again!) helped me and I made to the aid station frustrated and chilled to the bone, due to standing still in the drizzly upper 40's conditions after working up a sweat.

I got some toe warmers at the aid station, but it still took quite a bit of time slowly bobbing and weaving up Blowout Mountain to get warm enough to feel human again, especially since my delay had placed me back behind all but a few stragglers, instead of the speedier crowd I'd been with before. Blowout Mountain is in fact waaaaaaaaay easier in direction we did it this year, because at least after you make it over the worst rock gardens, it's a nice long descent to without too much technical stuff. (The past two years, it's been a long grindy climb followed by a rocky descent that requires stopping to get off the bike a lot for all of the rock gardens.) I did it about 45 minutes faster than last year, but I'm pretty sure it was more the direction than my improved abilities.

Anyway, I just kept moving forward after that, hoping I would make the cutoff times, of which I only knew I had to clear the last aid station by 3:00. At a few minutes to 1:00, I was chugging along the dirt road in the middle of the course, hoping that the "unknown section" that I was venturing into could be completed in under two hours. It didn't matter though, because I saw some cars up ahead and thought they were just giving me my zip tie, but they said that I had missed the 1:00 cutoff my 2 minutes. I hadn't even worried about the 1:00 cutoff, because in past years they set it so ridiculously easy that even I made it with lots of time to spare. If I had just read a little more closely, I would have known to hurry my butt up and would have made it. Stupid....

So my fastest year so far was the year that I didn't finish. I have a funny feeling that my tooth and nail fighting to the finish the last two years somehow resulted in my missing the finish last year. After carefully reviewing the cutoff times (hindsight is 20/20), I realized that even with the increased distance and difficulty, there was a very strategic plan laid out that would absolutely guarantee everyone would be off the course by 5:00 p.m., probably because I kept everyone waiting past 6:00 the last two years. I can't really blame them, but it was definitely a bummer.

The last two years I would have left the race saying, "I'll do better next year", but this I have more of a feeling that I wish I could give it another shot as soon as my legs recover. I know I had a better race in me, but it just didn't happen. The good news is that this year I have Syllamo's Revenge (Rodkey's Revenge?) in five weeks, and I'll have another shot at doing things right.

OC Photo Dump

2010-03-29T13:08:00.003-04:00

That was the easy part. Race report to follow.

FIRST!!!

2010-03-22T07:59:00.004-04:00

I always want to yell that when I get to BCSP first thing in the morning when it's barely light enough to see. It started one day last summer when I had to go really early to be back for something, but then I realized how much being first rocked. Saturday morning was bonus because I was first on the first ride able Saturday of the year.

The view from the end of the empty parking lot.

Trying to show off my awesome outfit (bibs sticking out of old track sweats with turquoise Crocs).

I had no trouble getting up and getting there on Saturday, because I was so excited for my first longish/hardish mountain bike ride of the year. I had been there the last two Wednesdays, but the first was just messing around and getting my bearings again, and last week started with some one minute intervals up the paved climb, so I was pretty weak for the actual mountain bike part.

Saturday was my one chance to try and dial my OC race pace. I was assigned 2.5 hours, but I had the secret goal of completing 3 laps, along with connector, in under 3 hours. The weekend before the OC last year I did 3 laps in about 3:50, so being the excessively meaning-making person that I am, I was hoping to be an hour faster for the same ride a year later.

Things went okay, but I didn't make my goal. I got 2.5 laps in 2:47, a pace slightly slower than my absolute best ride near the end of last summer. It was just a little harder because I was expecting a good ride this time, instead of being pleasantly surprised.

I've spent the last two weeks wavering between extreme confidence about the OC and self-doubt. I'm without a doubt much, much fitter than I was this time last year and I'd like to think that I've become a bit smarter, as well. Then I look at the map and compare it to the 2008 map and wonder how the heck they added so much trail and still kept it to 60 miles. I'm a bit worried that the additional fitness will be eaten up by the harder course and I'll still be OTB by the end of the day, except that there will just be a greater percentage of the field dropping out behind me.

The next week is all about focusing on positive self talk and minimizing the negative self talk. I probably shouldn't have even allowed myself write down my doubts, and instead made a list about how awesome I am. I definitely plan on doing that sometime this week.

The Hobbit Diet

2010-03-17T13:29:00.003-04:00

"They would enjoy at least seven meals a day, when they can get them – breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and (later in the evening) supper." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle

Ever since I started working full time I've tried to keep myself on a steady five meal a day schedule: breakfast when I wake up, snack halfway through the morning, lunch at 12, snack halfway through the afternoon, and dinner when I can get it, which can be anywhere between 4:30 and 8:30 p.m., depending on my workout schedule. Basically, I am usually hungry when I leave work, but on training days I either ignore it or tamp it down with some gel, depending on the intensity. I've pretty much had to deal with annoying, probing questions from co-workers ever since I adopted the practice.

I think there must be something about it that is out of line with American culture that I just don't understand. What do call these magical interim meals? They must have a label. It drove me nuts when someone would try to refer to my 10 a.m. veggies and hummus as either breakfast (yuck) or lunch, because I couldn't understand how it could be misconstrued as an actual meal. It was just something to keep my blood sugar stable.

Today my appetite is even more hobbit-like than usual. I had my normal breakfast at 5:45, and I was already craving my banana and mixed nuts by 9:00, so I gave in. At 10:00, I was hungry again, so I got a cranberry walnut salad from the BBC, which has plenty of appetite suppressing protein, fat, and fiber, but I was hungry for lunch by 12:15. Too bad my eating times and food choices don't quite line up with the hobbit scheme; 11:00 seems to be the only time I didn't feel hungry.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

2010-03-10T21:28:00.004-05:00

Sometimes in southern Indiana in March, there is a small window where the first S, Sunshine, becomes plentiful enough as to allow the other two S's, Singletrack and Shorts. Somewhat unexpectedly, today offered one of those windows.

My Blue Steele face?

Emily being gansta as always.

I didn't really expect to be able to mountain bike this week. We had passed the threshold of three days with temperatures staying above freezing at night, but there had been rain showers on Sunday and Tuesday and more are expected for the next five days or so. However, when I saw that the forecast of 60 with afternoon rain was really going to be 70 and sunny, I consulted the HMBA message board, hoping that Gnawbonelefty, the trail condition oracle of Brown County, would confirm my suspicions that the trails were drying faster than expected. I received my confirmation, along with instructions to poke any "puddle blisters" that I might see, and that was that.

After work, Emily and I rushed BCSP, since as nice as the weather was, the daylight was still limited. We got about a hour and twenty minutes in before dark, and I got acquainted with my new bike. I would like to say that I felt some magical floating difference, like the big wheels came equipped with their own locomotive power, but it felt hard like the first ride of the year always does. It was awesome, though.

The title is a bit punny because of Jason's "hay in the barn" saying. I probably would have made more of that kind of hay if I'd stayed home and done my assigned threshold bursts workout, but when conditions allow mountain biking in March, they must be taken advantage of immediately. Besides, this weekend is going to be one last crazy haybarn stuffing party before the OC, where I have hard intervals with 6 hours total ride time on Saturday and a full road century on Sunday. That's friggin' lot of hay, but among all of those road riding bales from the winter, I will now one special bale of grade A alfalfa to cherish when I arrive in Arkansas in a couple of weeks.

Got 'em Dirty

2010-02-26T07:47:00.005-05:00

It was Friday morning when I started this entry about my inaugural ride on my new bike, but it turned out to be a very busy day at work and then I spent the weekend in a achy, gross, sore-throaty funk. Basically, last week was a recovery week and since my Thursday assignment was 45 minutes easy riding, my urge to ride my new bike overcame my fear of getting it dirty.

I know, it's a mountain bike and it's supposed to get dirty. Something about the pristine natural dirt that flies up from singletrack riding seems less corrosive that the salty, scummy film that results from riding on pavement in the winter time or riding on wet gravel roads. Luckily, the streets were dry, so splattering salt wasn't as issue, and the mud on the Clear Creek Trail didn't seem too toxic. It was good to get out and give it a real try, since I'd only ridden it up and down the side street next to our house a couple of times. I felt good after getting used to being so high and the way the it felt to steer the bigger front wheel. I still need a proper bike fit before I race, though.

It looks a little like singletrack with the snow, but not exactly a good test of off-road handling.

As I mentioned earlier, the days since have been a bit weird. I've felt really crappy since Friday evening and I didn't ride on Saturday. I tried to ride a bit on Sunday, mostly to convince myself that I really felt bad physically and didn't just want to get out of riding. I really did feel bad, so I cut it short and spent the rest of the day resting. Today I'm much improved but not 100%. The good news is that after a weekend spent mostly on the couch, I seem to have shaken the "spinning out of control" feeling that's hanging over me the last few weeks and I'm craving sugar a lot less. I think the real honest-to-goodness rest did me some good, and now I just need to figure out how to maintain the calm as training kicks into gear again.

The Three S's I've Been Missing

2010-02-19T10:56:00.005-05:00

Sunshine

Singletrack

And Shorts (I ordered a pair of these.)

Despite having some good training under my belt for late February (80% of a hella hard training plan still does a lot of good), I still feel slow. I'm very confident in my ability to muscle up the OC climbs and not dissolve into a sobbing blob of jello by the end of the race, which should be good for a two hour PR in itself, but I'm having a hard time imagining myself setting a strong tempo on the roads or flowing through the Womble with the greatest of ease.

Even though I've spent sufficient time outdoors this winter, I think I still have the same cabin fever that every in town seems to be blogging about. Mine just has more to do with being trapped in Roubaix fabic, pavement, and low, overcast skies. I realized this last weekend when I really wanted to hold a strong pace through my ride, but it just wasn't happening. My conclusion is that no matter how hard you train, it's just hard to feel fast in lobster gloves, and the its harder to go fast on long road rides because, while working harder on the dirt increasing the fun, working hard on the road just increases the work.

I know I won't being seeing any of the above in the immediate future (except maybe some sun on the lower 2/3 of my face), but at least naming the things I miss is a good reminder that cycling doesn't completely suck all of the time like it has lately. Summer will come again, my limbs will see daylight, and I can go to Versailles (lusting for VSP much more than BCSP) and jet through the flowy, flowy loop unemcombered by pounds of fabric.

Suck It Up Sunday

2010-02-15T07:36:00.003-05:00

Nine o'clock already
I was just in the middle of a dream
I was ridin' my 29er
Through a mud-clouded Arkansas stream
But I can't be late
'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid
These are the days
When you wish your power file was already made

It's just another suck it up Sunday
I wish it was Monday
Cause that's my rest day
My "I'll be riding well the next day"
It's just another suck it up Sunday

Have to ride four more hours
Got to push my weekend total to nine
And if I had some ster-o-roids
My legs still would bounce back on time
'Cause it takes me so long
Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the snow
But the coach is already there

It's just another suck it up Sunday
I wish it was Monday
Cause that's my rest day
My "I'll be riding well the next day"
It's just another suck it up Sunday

~~~

That's a classic from my mental Ipod Shuffle that hadn't come up in quite a while until yesterday. When it came back, it came back with verses and everything (okay, I made some of it up just now, but mostly on my ride). A side effect of not giving my Saturday workouts 100% of the time and power assigned during the last month is the fact that Sunday rides have been a lot less painful than I remember them being last summer. Another factor is that I've been riding with Emily on Sundays, which provides and an appropriate push in my effort and some pleasant distraction from most of the leg funk that does come up.

I was just thinking early on in my 70 mile Saturday ride that perhaps my ability to physically recover from hard workouts is improving, but once said ride was complete, it was obvious that my ability to recover would be put to its first major test in quite a while. It definitely didn't pass with the flying colors that I'd hoped. It was really no better or worse than Sundays past and unfortunately, my riding companion was stuck indoors. The result a cold, hard trudge through four hours of riding and the rebirth of my Sunday theme song. However, I'm already brainstorming ways of preventing this from becoming a Sunday ritual again.

The good news is that Saturday's ride was awesome and my Sunday fatigue was well earned. I rode to Gatesville for the first time and snapped this picture of my winding route through the snowing glacial ridges of Brown County.

Kicking My Own Ass

2010-02-10T08:03:00.004-05:00

They seem to be getting along...

It's been a while since I posted about anything other than my new 29er, although I still haven't taken a decent outside, real camera picture of it. That's mostly because the weather has been too crappy to take it out of the garage. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it now has pink cable housing, bottle cage, seat post collar, and a pink on white saddle. It also has a Thompson seat post instead of the Giant branded one that it came with. I've heard lots of bad things about the delivered seat post, so in spite of Adam's insistence that those bad things probably all came from 300 lb guys who didn't tighten things properly, I just felt better using something I knew was good. I'm also super excited to have a mountain bike with a bottle cage for the first time in two years.

Now I just have to deal with the trail condition waiting game until I get a chance to take it for a spin. I guess that's the problem with buying a bike in February, but it turns out that it was the last Small in the warehouse, so it's probably good that I acted when I did.

Anyway, aside from the new bike excitement, my other reason for 2-3 weeks of 29er-related posts is that my training hasn't been super blog-worthy. My Big Blue Ox training plan has been executed with perhaps 80% accuracy so far, which I suppose means that I will only be as strong as a medium-sized pink ox for the OC. I've done more than 80% of the workouts. In fact, yesterday was the first non-optional workout that I've missed, which was due to a tweaked knee and blowing snow conditions at the end of the work day. The problem lies more in the fact that I have skipped ALL of my optional workouts, come up short on time on multiple occasions, and have phoned in a few Zone 2 rides.

All that being said I have also had quite a few significant HTFU moments, riding in all conditions that this above-average crappy winter has thrown at me until yesterday. I've also put in over twice the number of hours that I had at this point in 2009, which wasn't my best winter, but I'm above and beyond anything that I've ever done before.

I was starting to get a bit down on myself for not being super woman until after Sunday's ride, when Emily and I put in 50+ miles out on 446 because no other route was clear of snow. For non-Bloomingtonians, that means 25 miles out-and-back of boring, boring riding with more wind exposure than the average route around here. In my mind, it was a nice day because it was sunny, but it was also in the mid-20's and windy with plenty of leftover snow patches. I expected to see tons of cyclists, because everyone who would be out would probably be on that road. However, I only saw a big group of fast guys, Adam, who caught us around the halfway point, and a couple of others. We were among the few that rode all the way to the end that day, which was pretty cool.

So I wonder, am I being too hard on myself or not hard enough? I think this is one reason why I'm OCD about doing every workout right every time. Because otherwise I can never really come to terms with whether my excuse was good enough. Sure the weather is crappy and my schedule is hard, but would I have been given that schedule if I wasn't hard enough to handle it? I just don't know.

P.S. In case anyone's wondering exactly how many bikes are stashed in our garage/basement now, the answer is twelve.

Initial Crappy Cell Phone Pics

2010-02-01T20:04:00.007-05:00

The new bike arrived a day earlier than expected and Adam threw it together kind of quickly. We still need to do some adjustments, swap out some parts, and do a proper bike fit. You can't really tell from the pictures, but there is actually a lot of blue on the frame that wasn't visible on the website. It also came with various blue accoutrements, including blue spoke nipples. Someone worked very hard to choose my accent color for me, so I'm a little worried about how well shoving a bunch of pink into the picture will work. The saddle doesn't match at all right now, but that's what I have for it, so it's on there. I'm going to add some more pink stuff and hope some sort of gaudy equilibrium is reached, but I'm wondering how long I can fight the power. Maybe I should just put more blue stuff on it and "boy it out", even if that's totally not me.

I guess as long as it rides well, that's all that matters.

BTW, I now have a black Fizik Tundra for sale if anyone wants to make an offer.

Okay, Fine.

2010-01-29T07:40:00.004-05:00

I will buy your stupid black aluminum bike, but I fear that I will never love it as much as the beautiful white Alliance cousin that you promised in your 2010 catalog and that I have been patiently saving my money for since November. I'm not mad or anything...

Dear readers, it is a sad day in the Rodkey bike basement, as today is finally the payday on which I have accumulated enough funds to purchase a Giant XCT Alliance 29er 2. However, while I was doing final accessory shopping yesterday and wondering one last time if I should go for the frame only instead of the complete bike, I discovered both had been removed from Giant's website. It turns out that they used up all their precious carbon fiber resources on higher end bikes that don't come in my size. Yes, that's right. I'm considered to be a waste of carbon fiber.

So after some deliberation, I've decided to settle for the nicer of the two aluminium models, which is actually spec'd out a bit better than the Alliance was. However, it does not match the white and pink saddle that I already have for it, nor the Vanderkitten "Ice" kit that I ordered for sole purpose that it was going to match my bike (and because I needed a backup plan when the last Velo Bella clothing order was placed through Primal Wear instead of Louis Garneau). I suppose I will now have to switch to the "Hot" color scheme for 2010. And my crystal blue helmet is going to clash with all of it.

In the end, it was interesting to realize that this is the most crushing disappointment that I've felt since my four year quest to find the right job reached a positive resolution last year. And honestly, if that's the worst thing that's happened in the last year, then that's still pretty good.

Anyway, the new bike should be here on Tuesday, and then I will set to work on pinking it out. I just hope the Anthem doesn't pick up on my disappointment and taunt it's new younger brother with "you were an accident, she wanted a white bike instead" jibes. I can't be riding around on a bike with low self esteem, you know.

Visions of Ice

2010-01-19T07:32:00.006-05:00

Nobody on the road,

nobody on the beach.

I feel it in the air,

the summer's out of reach

Empty lake, empty streets,

the sun goes down alone.

I'm [riding] by your house

though i know that you're not home...

These are the words that run through my head on every winter training ride across South Shore Drive, which I passed over twice during my three day weekend. I actually prefer riding across the causeway when the lake in frozen and empty. It feel likes the epitome of winter training.

Nothing about the the song is depressing. The summer's out of reach? That just means I have tons of time to get ready and it reminds me how early I'm starting. It's actually more true than normal this year, because after about five (so far) schedule revisions, I've elected to miss the first DINO race of the season to check Syllamo's Revenge off of my bike race bucket list. As a result, I will not be doing any XC races until DINO Brown County on June 6. That's 5.5 months away I'll be approaching fully peaked out condition for the June-July bulk of the DINO season. I'm not a huge fan of Winona Lake anyway.

As for my January condition, it's better than I was expecting. I've done two tempo workouts so far and I'm well ahead of where I started last year. I'm still a bit behind where I ended last year, but I think I will come back around fast.

Here's my other favorite winter training scenery - the frozen waterfalls in Cascades Park.

Like a Big Blue Ox

2010-01-13T12:44:00.004-05:00

My first week of being able to leave work at 4:00 didn't yield nearly as much outdoor riding awesomeness as I had hoped. In addition to conditions of Jens Factor 3 (Jens Factor became my favorite thing last week) or worse, there was major snow dumpage all Thursday and Friday. More importantly, after a week of big base training in Oklahoma, I was just not that into the idea of coming back for three more weeks in the weight room with high cadence seated sprints as my only structured workouts on the bike. Mostly I was just ready to start using my newly available outdoor riding time to start logging some more significant training hours and start building my aerobic and muscular endurance for the Ouachita Challenge.

So I finally broke down and told Jason how de-motivated I was by my training plan, and begged to move on more base phase like training. I'm not sure if it's accurate to say that I got more than I bargained for, but he pulled no punches in my updated training plan. Tempo, Sweet Spot, bursty-bustiness, big weekend hours, oh my. It's going to be a shock to the system, which is a really good thing. No more uninspired spinning for me; I'm going to be strong as a big blue ox when the season begins.

2010: Don't Stop Believing (and Other Random Stuff)

2010-01-05T14:38:00.005-05:00

I made it back from Oklahoma safely and logged about 15.5 hours or so while I was there, although my power tap troubles left me with no official data to prove it. You're just gonna have to believe me. By the time it was over, I almost started feeling like a cyclist again.

By the end of the week I even managed to find the motivation to finish Sports Psychology for Cyclists, which turned out to be interesting, once I was in the right frame of mind. I order it several weeks ago, but after slipping into my winter malaise, it was looking like the only cycling-related book I'd be interested in reading would be "Dead F-ing Last", where Sookie Stackhouse travels to the Tour de France to bust a dirty team of cyclists who win by consuming vampire blood, getting beat up and "accidentally" making out with Eric somewhere along the way. (The sad thing is that I came up with this fictional title and plotline in under five minutes.)

Of course, a new year was rung in while I was there. I use passive voice, because I was kind of oblivious at the time, but when I returned to the real world, the blogosphere was full retrospectives and resolutions.

The only resolution I made this year was to take all of the cats to the vet for a check up, since I got a reality check at the cat food display the other day. I realized that Campbell and Sixx are old enough for the senior formula and Mrs. Biggleworth (aka the Furry) will be in one short year. Time to engage in better pet maintenance, so they all have appointments during my training rest days over the next couple of weeks.

Other than that, I'm not really "resolved" in anything specific. Yesterday I started my 7-4 winter work schedule, so I will be able to ride outside in semi-daylight until DST. That should be helpful in my upcoming season. I also came back to the real world resolved to eat better and be nicer, but I've kind of sucked at that so far, due to the stress of being an adult again. So I guess if those were New Year's Resolutions, I would have failed already, but they weren't.

For the last few months, I've been employing the phrase "don't stop believing" (Journey song optional) in a variety of situations. Knowing how quickly "resolve" crumbles, I'm just trying to be a little better for the time being whenever I can. I've come to realize that having something to strive for is more important than actually getting the thing for which I'm striving (Cycling success? I'm not even sure that I'll know if and when I get there.) I feel like I've chosen steep rugged path to follow for no tangible reason and with no idea what's really at the end. So I just do my best to keep taking steps in that direction and believing that it is the right thing for me.

(Okay, that was a little weird, but I think most human motivation is.)

Anyway, I didn't take a lot of pictures with my lobster-gloved hands in Oklahoma, but here's a picture of "Ol' Coaly", a mural of a bull throughing a rodeo clown in the air, which was the key landmark of my 4.5 hour New Year's Day ride.

Snow-klahoma

2009-12-28T12:15:00.003-05:00

She was going to Stonewall, OK in a Ford Focus
Got past that big McDonald's
You know the one they built up on that great big ol' bridge
Across the Will Rogers Turnpike
Took the Big Cabin exit stopped and bought some Gummi Peaches
At that Indian Smoke Shop with the big neon smoke rings
In the Cherokee Nation hit Muskogee late that night
.....
Lindsay tried to make it, but she didn't quite

That's a more PG version of James McMurty's "Choctaw Bingo"and an account of how I came to spend Christmas Eve in a Best Western in Eufala, OK (main drag pictured above). After a rainy trip across Illinois and Missouri, the road got really slick as soon as I cross the Oklahoma state line. It started with driving 50 in a 75 on said Will Rogers Turnpike, but it turned to a road of slush after said Big Cabin exit. After Muskogee, the slush turned to crazy wind blowing snow across the road, and combined with my iced-over windshield wipers, I could barely see at all. So at 9 p.m., I had been on the road for 14 hours and was about two hours away under normal conditions and who knows how long at 25 mph. I finally gave up and spent the night on Lake Eufala (mentioned elsewhere in the song), and was able to make it in time for a slightly delayed Christmas dinner the next morning.

I tell you all this because it's way more exciting than the cycling portion of my trip so far. Obviously, I didn't get to get up early and have a nice Christmas morning ride as I had hoped and the next day consisted of riding as far as I could in one direction before the road became impassible and then as far as I could in the other direction and then back to my parents' house. I think that was about 1:45 of "riding time", although there was a decent amount of walking over icy patches and even the riding was pretty slow. During the ride the hub battery in my Power Tap died, so I'm not sure of any actual data.

Yesterday was sunny and clear, if windy and cold, so I got out for a little while, but I'm not sure how much. Since I'm so far from civilization, I haven't got replacement batteries yet, and I'm a little iffy on trying to open the hub up with a bench vise myself. I'm torn between thinking this is a job best left to Adam and the opposing fact that riding without a display to look at kind of sucks, even if I'm not really shooting for a specific power. Until it's fixed, my workouts will be "ride to such and such town/landmark and back". Today it will be Tupelo.

Inside the Box

2009-12-22T14:00:00.003-05:00

Since I know that everyone was is just dying to find out the contents the box featured in the fuzzy, cell-phone-camera-under-pale-living-room-light picture from last week's post, here is a fuzzy, cell-phone-camera-under-pale-living-room-light picture of what was inside. The small box contained the pink-on-white Fizik Vitesse saddle that I wanted for the pink-on-white Giant XTC Alliance 29'er that will hopefully be purchasing and pimping in March. The large box contained "the lightest for the money" SUNringle' 26 inch wheels, so the Anthem can lose some weight.

I forgot to mention in my solicitation of guesses that based on the the last few years, the box had a 98% chance of being a bike part. It's funny because my original guess was 26 inch MTB wheels, until I discovered the box was a 25.5 square, so I thought it was too small. I guess I was right after all.

Other than opening "Solstice gifts" (my ploy to find out the contents of the box a bit early), is that I'll be leaving for my sweet Oklahoma Holiday Training Camp in just two short days. Sure, the pros insist on training camps in Arizona and California, but Oklahoma does just fine for me. They don't understand the simple awesomeness of unlimited daylight riding time, since they aren't normally deprived of it, as I have been the last couple of months. Sure, it's not the coolest riding in the world and the mid-50's weather isn't IDEAL, but it's way better than riding my MTB around town in 30 degree weather and darkness or riding trainer.

Baby, It's 3 AM

2009-12-14T16:26:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's not anymore, but I've had that song in my head for the last few days as tried to remind myself that I needed to wake up at 3 am today to register for the Ouachita Challenge. Sure, I probably would have been safe waiting until I got up at my normal time, but you just never know. All divisions were sold out slightly after my arrival at work.

So I've entered my first race for 2010, which is pretty exciting. It's a little weird to think about because I'm getting a much earlier start on my training this year (no missed workouts since last post) and I have the experience of a semi-good endurance racing season behind me, so things should be much less ugly. Let's not forget that I should have a new bike by bike then and that should make me like an hour faster all by itself, right? (eye roll) However, the race is so early that I'm not sure how much intense riding I'll have done or if the weather will allow me to ride off-road before then (in 2008 the OC was my first singletrack of the year).

Of course, my mom is agast that I'm doing the race again this year, especially when I told that they've made the course harder, but I swear this time will be different. No, seriously. No last places for me this year. Promise.

Anyway, now it's time to buckle down and make sure that really happens. In the mean time, anybody want to help me guess what this is?

Winter Blues

2009-12-09T09:39:00.005-05:00

The view from my office window seemed an appropriate addition to this post.

I've been loathe to admit it, but I think that November broke me just a little bit. After a two-week end of season break, it was time to start my winter weight training. I am not a fan of gyms, but I've been forcing myself to enter the HPER or SRSC on the reg to try and maintain the dogged adherence to my training plan that I've spent the last nine months developing. I had a minor blip during the second week when I missed a couple of workouts due to some annoying bug that never bothered to turn into full-blown swine flu. After that, I was in the gym and on the trainer like I actually enjoyed it or something. That lasted for about 10 days or so, during which time I made sufficient progress in listening to David Sedaris' "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" on my iPod and even felt like I might sorta be getting a bit of bike fitness back.

Unfortunately, the first three weeks of weight training were really crazy work-wise. During my 10-day trainer binge, I was also trying to hold myself together while I was having to go to the library every evening to help train students a on a new student activities system that I've been helping to set up for the last couple of months. I did everything that I was supposed to, both for work and training, but when Thanksgiving week arrived the next week, I found myself trying to coast through a three-day workweek with no energy for either.

That was the point where I began the hypertrophy phase of the weight training, which is the hardest. I did my weight workouts like I was supposed to, but I would come home after work and fall asleep on the couch in my work clothes. During those two weeks, I rode three times, not counting cross bike trips to the gym. One was the Gravel Grovel, and then a couple of easy Sunday rides on the road bike.

Now it's December and hypertrophy phase is over. I have four weeks of weights left, but it's only 2x a week and the workouts are easier. It's time that I reaqquaint myself with the bike, but I'm just having such a hard time making myself ride trainer or ride in the dark. Part of the problem is that I'll be back to outside daylight riding on the reg after the first of the year, so I'm kind of letting December slip away. Unfortunately, my fitness is slipping with it and I'm wasting an opportunity to get a head start on 2010.

So, I'm not sure what my intentions for this treatise are, other than "admitting that I have a problem". Perhaps it will be a bit easier to get on the trainer tonight, knowing that the eyes of the blogosphere are upon me.

Gravel Grovel: I am Thankful for Mountain Bikes, Half-Bananas, and Neoprene Booties

2009-11-29T13:41:00.004-05:00

Half-Bananas are prepped and ready to go.

If I learned anything during the past season, it is to show up to every race with the following items: more food and water than I could possibly need, spare wool socks and chemical toe warmers anytime outside of May-August, regardless of the forecast, and a good attitude. The last item is the one I have struggled the most with, so when I was packing for the Gravel Grovel on Friday, I knew it was the most critical item. Of course, given all of the self-supported, "you are responsible for you" hype in the race description, I also stuffed my famous silver Wingnut pack with 50 oz. of water, a spare tube, a Co2 cartridge, a mini pump, a patch kit, four flasks of EFS Liquid Shot, four ready-to-eat half-bananas, and a zip-lock baggy with dry gloves, two pairs of toe warmers (which are good for pretty much all body parts including toes), and spare wool socks. Unfortunately, I didn't have room for the three chocolate chip cookies that I had pilfered from the previous day's Thanksgiving spread. I was pretty much a flask of rum around my neck away from being able to rescue myself and anyone else struggling on the course, given that they also had tiny hands and feet.

As prepared as I was food and equipment-wise, I knew that I was quite underprepared physically, but that is where the good attitude came in. I couldn't have put it so succintly before the race, but after I was done I realized what my "one-sentence" goal had been all along. Basically, I wanted one last opportunity to practice getting into my Ideal Performance State (IPS) before winter. IPS is a term that I picked up from one of the sports psychology books that I've been thumbing through the last couple of months. It is essentially the mental state at which you peform best. One important point is that athletes want to be able to channel this mental state regardless of other conditions, so the fact that I was in far from my ideal physical performance state was actually good chance for me to stretch the boundaries in which I could perform well mentally.

After all of the deliberation, I decided to go with my mountain bike instead of my cross bike. Since I was going to be slow anyway, I decided to go with comfort over speed and it turned out to be a good decision, as conditions were tougher than I had expected.

Things actually started off quite well and I was happy with my mental state in the opening miles. I settled into a hard-but-comfortable tempo and did not worry about the people around me too much. I was near the back, but not at the back, so I was okay with that. There was a steep climb 2-3 miles in and I was kind of disappointed when I had to shift to my granny gear and let a bunch of people pass me, because my weight-lifting trashed legs were loudly communicating their limits for the day. I just had to accept that and move on the best I could.

Luckily, it was not long before the mountain-bikey section of the course, which was a "gated road" that was technically wide enough for a Jeep to go through, but the singletrack going through it made it appear that it had not been traversed by a four-wheeled vehicle in quite some time. It was slick and gross, but after the steep hill in the middle, I was rewarded for riding my mountain bike when railed the downhill while the cross-bikers bumped and slid along. It was exceptionally thrilling, probably because in a mountain bike race you're just supposed to go downhill as fast as you can, but in that situation I was kind of being a show-off. Muah, ha ha ha ha.

That was really the last exciting part of the day, because after the high of Combs Road wore off, I just settled back in my tempo and tried to keep going as fast as I could without pushing my legs over the edge. This kept me in the same position of near the back, but not off the back, and near the halfway point, I was getting a little uncomfortable and struggling with numb thumbs, but was more or less okay. However, at that point, pretty much everyone in my general vincinity on the road decided to take a short-cut back. I wasn't really ready to give up, but I was fairly certain that my positive mental state would disintegrate if I were suddenly stuck in OTB no-man's land by myself for the next 30 miles. I decided that since my goal had more to do with a positive mental state and than a token finish, that I should follow the guys back and finish while I was still having fun.

I didn't have a speed/distance sensor on my bike, but I think we ended up with about 42 miles, which was still a lot more riding than I've done in a few weeks. The event seemed to be quite a success with 115 entries mostly just on word-of-mouth advertising, so I'd really like to try to come back and actually be competitive next year. For now though, I'm happy was that I was able to get in some good mental and physical training.

Twenty-Niner

2009-11-24T16:36:00.009-05:00

I'm not sure exactly when or how it happened. Just a few short months ago I was totally convinced that my little silver Anthem was all the bike I needed, unless of course, I won the lottery and replaced it with a similar carbon-fiber dream. However, at some point in the season that I started to feel like my bike was a little too heavy and inefficient. Sure, I could have been projecting my true feelings about myself or it could just be the two year itch, but I began to think about getting the Anthem a friend. A hard-tail friend.

Then came Velonew's proclamation that the 26-inch hard-tail is dead. Because I believe everything I read and jump on every cycling-related bandwagon possible, I knew I had to heed their advice like my entire bike-racing future depended on it.

Included in the article is Adam Craig's sweet, sweet Anthem-X SL, which Giant is not producing in my size. I realize that it may be a smart business decision on their part, as the respective markets of mountain bike racers under 5'6" and mountain bike racers who can afford $8000 bike are both relatively small. I'm sure the number of riders who fit both of those categories is tiny, but it's disappointing to know that I can't get one, even if I do win the lottery. Perhaps for one-meellion dollars they would make one in my size.

However, included in the great proclamation is the fact that 29'ers are not just for tall people. Thank goodness that us shorties (or slightly below average-ies of the female gender) aren't going to be stuck riding around on dead bikes, right?

Okay, so all of this aside, I still don't know the exact root of my 29'er craving. I think it may have begun with a fantasy of getting a new Ellsworth carbon-fiber hard-tail, with the pretty paisley paint-job that is on the Velo-Bella pro 'cross team's bikes. At one point, it was indicated that the color scheme would be available for other Ellsworth models, but that does not seem to be the case. Regardless, I got to check out a demo bike at the Cincinnati UCI weekend, and the smallest size is still way too big and it's more expensive than I was expecting. What can I say? I'm spoiled to unsurpassed value offered in Giant's non-$8000 bikes.

I was about to resign myself to getting the Anthem some nicer wheels and calling it good, but just a few days later I found myself in Pisgah and participating in various 29'er related talk to with Arkansas peeps. Specifically, Todd, of OC lantern-rouge lead out train fame and a fellow Jason Hillimire coaching client, broached the subject while we were washing bikes after one of the stages. He said, "I'm going to tell you what Jason isn't telling you: you need to switch to big wheels."

I suspect that if I'd ever asked Jason his opinion on the size of my wheels, he would have shared that information, but mostly he's concerned about the fact my wheels still have tubes in them, regardless of size. I've only had two off-road flats four years of mountain biking, so I'm kind of old-school in my attachment to tubes. I'm sort of superstitious about not messing with a good thing, even if it means a little more weight and a few more psi's. I'm sure I'll get over it some day, just not right now.

Despite coming home and trying to dismiss the events of mid-October 2009, I began compulsively looking up 29'er specs. Giant's smallest size was listed at as 16-inches, and I normally ride a 14.5. However, with some research I discovered that none of the brands I looked at make anything smaller than 15.5. Combined with the fairly frequent comments of "so and so rides a 29'er and she's shorter than you", I inspected the Giant geometry a bit more closely. Turns out that aside from the seat tube length, the Small 29'er was very similar to my current bike, but the front triangle could actually hold a water bottle. Score!!!

Anyway, Adam brought home a demo bike from an Bicycle Garage Indianapolis where a couple of his friends work (BikeSmith's doesn't have demo bikes), and I got to ride it around the neighborhood a bit. The proportions looked silly, and the un-shortened handlebars were awkward, but it felt good and that nice pedal=instant forward motion feeling I've hear people talk about but never really experienced. I even caught myself standing to accelerate up the hill behind my house and realized that I was experiencing zero bounce.

So I'm saving up my dollars in hopes of getting the pretty white Alliance (part carbon/part aluminum) model listed above. I think it will look awesome with pink Jagwire cable housing (Adam's favorite bike-pimping accessory) and one of the white Fizik Vitesse saddles with the pink thigh pads. To sweeten the deal, it comes with special wheels that are designed to run 20 psi, even with the darned old tubes. Corner well and not get flats? I'm there.

I'm hoping it will make the gravel sections of the Ouachita Challenge a lot more pleasant, and I only wish I could have it for Friday's Gravel Grovel.

Next Blog?

2009-11-20T10:23:00.002-05:00

Something strange showed up on my blog tracker log this morning.

(I know, the first rule of the blog tracker log is that you don't talk about the blog tracker log, but the marketing undergrad student turned sport administration grad student turned wannabe techie grown-up in me enjoys seeing how many people bother Googling my name off of race entry lists or results.)

Anyway, during my 10 a.m. banana and mixed nuts break, I was purusing the traffic from last night, which was surprisingly heavy. I kept seeing "Next Blog" mixed into the gobbledegook (yes, I soooo technical) along with the names of blogs that I've never heard of. Is this "Next Blog" button at the top of the Blogger screen new? Regardless, it's pretty cool. You can sit there and go from random cycling blog to random cycling blog and see if there's anything you want to read.

So I just wanted to share in case other people hadn't noticed it and you have free time on your hands. It also gives me a reason to post something at a time of the year when I don't have much to post. I hoping to report on test riding a Giant XTC 29er, which I plan to do on Sunday, so maybe I'll have more to say then.

Graveling

2009-11-15T17:30:00.003-05:00

Jake gets all bottle-caged up.

So with another week passing in between outdoor rides, I finally got out today and took my cyclocross bike on a test run for the Gravel Grovel. I'm still debating on the 'cross bike vs. mountain bike choice, so I wanted to test out the severity of the 'cross bike cons of not having enough gearing to get up the tough gravel hills and providing a rough ride over the gravel. The gearing thing turned out not to be an issue unless we get a lot of rain the next 12 days. I'm used to riding gravel roads in the spring and having tire-sucking mud with which to contend. However, thanks to the unseasonably nice weather, I found the big hill on Gross Rd. to be relatively smooth and hard-packed. It still hurt to climb on my 'cross bike, but it was doable. The rough ride sucked, but considering how many people ride gravel roads on 'cross bikes with no complaints, that part may just require a bit of HTFU on my part. The 'cross bike pros are about 8 less pounds of bike with a lot less bobbing around on the smoother parts, and the ability to carry more fluids since it is a self-supported race and I need to carry about 6 hours worth of food and water with me.

I'm not really sure how this thing will go since when I told my coach that this race wasn't that important, I think we were thinking different things. I was thinking that I was burned out on hard training going into Pisgah, and I wasn't concerned about being in top condition. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was looking forward to one last chance to experiment with a few hours in the pain cave (okay, mild discomfort cave) and produce a good-for-me effort in the closest approximation to my prefered race type that Indiana has to offer.

However, the off-season strength training program is going to make things more difficult than planned. My legs are sore and slow, and I didn't feel good on today's ride. I know that getting the complete shut-down and reboot phase over now will be good for my next season, because I will have so much extra time to be in good form then, but it's kind of making me worried about my ability to get through any ride over 20 miles right now.

Another Year

2009-11-12T22:05:00.002-05:00

Today I turned 29, which wasn't terribly exciting, but it seems like a good marker, since I'm rolling into 2010 mode pretty slowly. I got a week in the weight room and then I missed my Monday-Wednesday workouts due to some mild flu-like illness which I am referring to as the 2009 Adam & Ryan virus, because Adam and his friend Ryan had similar symptoms at the same time a couple of months ago. Just tired/achy/crappy feeling without being fully laid out on the couch and unable to move sick.

The aching has subsided and at this point the tired and crappy could just as easily be attributed to inactivity, so I plan to return to my plan tomorrow. That means weight workout with 30 minute spin on the trainer before and after. Yep, trainer. I've made arrangements to work 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. once my more serious winter training starts, so I can ride in the daylight, but I probably won't start that until January.

Anyway, as you may know, I like coming up with obscure and/or cheesy theme songs for my training, so tonight my new Preseason 2010 song worked it's way back from 1990 and into my head. An odd choice with metaphorical meaning (at least to me). In the end, the deep meaning doesn't matter; it's a good old fashioned rebound song. See below:

Why is it that I seem to prefer music that was produced before I hit puberty and that I was too young to understand when it was on the radio?