Fisk Knob TT

Every year I find myself asking the same question at the start line of the Fisk Knob TT...

WHY? Why am I doing a road time trial???

Except for this year. When it was finally my time to go off I was too frozen to think.  We had some seriously nasty weather going on. Temps were in the low 30's, and it was raining and snowing. Oh, and definitely windy, but that's not a surprise. I've never been to Fisk Knob and had it NOT be windy. 

The hardest part for me was actually warming up. A lot of Velo Citizens showed up to race, and our friend Rick brought his motor home. It was so warm and cozy inside that 0% of me wanted to go sit outside in the rain/snow on a trainer. I ended up warming up on the road, but that didn't go very well. I mean, are you supposed to be shivering uncontrollably at the end of a warm-up?

Anyways, the actual TT is one long, cold blur. I did not feel like I was "one" with my road bike but that's because I never ride it. Hopefully I will be able to buy a power tap for my road bike someday (like when I win the lotto) but until then I do all of my training on my mountain bike. 

When all was said and done I ended up 3rd overall female, 1st in my age group. I also promise to never complain about it being hot during the summer. Someone just needs to remind me about this race! I think this is the first race where I never warmed up.

Thanks to Jeremy for my perfectly working bike, Glenn (he's new at Velo City) for standing at the start line with our jackets, and to Rick for sharing his motor home. That was a lifesaver. And special thanks to all of the race volunteers. Do you want to know what's harder then racing in snow and wind? Standing in snow and wind. The volunteers were out on the road for a few hours and still managed to cheer for us. That's completely awesome! 

Of course I'll be back next year!

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes

SO...(drum roll please)

I went mountain biking! Here-in Michigan!!!!

Yesterday I was scheduled to do a 4 hour ride on the road, but the weather was not cooperating. It was a much better day to ride in the woods. After I got the "Ok" to switch plans from my coach I was out the door in five minutes flat. I'm surprised I remembered everything.

I drove out to one of my favorite local trails (Yankee) to do some laps. It's a bit of a drive (40 minutes) but definitely worth it. Most trails are still going through a spring thaw of some sort, but not Yankee. It was completely buff. In fact, there were already sand pits forming. 

I ended up doing 4 laps (about 44 miles) and it was awesome. A bit cool (high 40's) but that's fine in the woods. In fact I didn't even realize that it was cold until I finished riding. Afterwards I was completely beat. And starving. The only time that I moved all night was to walk over to the fridge :-) 

And thank goodness today was a rest day. I feel more sore after riding 4 hours at Yankee then I did after the 6 hour race that I did in Arkansas. I definitely rode a lot harder during the race, but Yankee is bumpier. And I feel those bumps all over! All day I've been kind of shuffling along, because lifting my legs takes too much of an effort. It's definitely a good sore though!

P.S. Be sure to show up for the Yankee Springs TT April 19th! 

P.P.S . There is a forecast for snow on Sunday. That better be a joke!

Comme Ci, Comme Ça

That's the best way to describe my week o' training. It went pretty well until today, where I barely got started before I was blowing up. 

I'm not so sure what went wrong except that maybe I was trying to be an overachiever and tried working out immediately after breakfast. What was I thinking? My normal starting time is late morning/early afternoon. I should have known better and slept in :-)

Anyways, I could tell it wasn't going to be a good day from the start. My legs felt like blocks of cement and I was blowing my nose every minute from the cold that I got almost 2 weeks ago. 

I knew that my workout itself was going to be painful, because it was level 6. What I did not know was that blowing my nose while doing intervals at level 6 would be hazardous to my health.  Not only did I get a bloody nose, but it was actually spurting. Where was the camera when I really needed it? I was a bloody/sweaty sight to behold.

Luckily the bloody nose didn't last long, but unfortunately my legs didn't last long either. They just completely and unequivocally blew up. I had a few more feeble attempts but then I just had to call it a day. And I HATE failing at workouts. 

In fact I think I'm a huge hypocrite when it comes to bad workouts in general. If I hear or read of someone else having a bad day I'm always all, "that's ok, everyone has a bad day," and so on. But with me? No, siree. I get really mad at myself. Which is weird because my personality is pretty laid back about everything else. For instance, I started painting a wall in our house 2 years ago, and never finished the trim. And does it bother me? Not at all. But fail at a workout and it bothers me all freaking day.  

Next week I get to do this workout again, and I better hit those dang numbers. And then next Sunday I'm doing a road TT. It's actually the lowest priority of all races that I'm doing, so it will just be part of a 3 hour ride that I'm scheduled to do. Even so, I'm excited. And of course I'll have to pull out the skinsuit!

Finally...

Today was a good (actually great) day for two reasons...

1. I finally feel like I'm starting to get over the cold that has been kicking my butt for the last week

and 

2. I finally ventured into the great outdoors on my bike

Oh, and the weather was amazing too! Temps were in the 60's and it was sunny. I managed to get four hours of riding in today and it felt amazing to be in just shorts and a jersey. Besides the two races that I did, this was my third time riding outside since November. 

Overall, my ride went really well. My legs felt pretty good and never seemed to fatigue which was a good thing. My arms and lower back, however, were a different story and my muscles started to get really tired right around the three hour marker. Lynda is going to start scheduling more long days throughout the next couple of weeks, so eventually my arm muscles should remember what it's like to hang on to a bike:-)

I'm glad I got my four hour ride in today, because the weather forecast for the rest of the week is looking nasty. I'll be back on the trainer but that's ok. My next two workouts are going to hurt so bad I might not be able to see straight!

I'm also hoping to get out to Velo City at the end of this week to drop off some bike parts. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of this by next week!

Team Blog

My fabulous team has a blog now, so be sure to check it out! I just put up my race report (which everyone already read) but I at least added a few pics!

On a side note, I'm really glad that I don't have to ride outside today. It is freezing, windy and snowing. Maybe Spring is going to skip us this year. That's what it's starting to feel like at least. 

Other then spinning inside I'm taking it really easy. Ted was really sick on our trip, and I spent 28 hours in the car with him. And now Scott is sick with a sinus infection. Basically germs have been chasing me down for the last couple of days. Today I woke up feeling very "ugh," but I'm trying to think positively and drink lots of water. And take vitamins. And get enough sleep. And...eat chocolate. 

Thanks to everyone who sent in nickname suggestions for my new "swag gurl of the midwest" role. My favorites so far have been bro bra, and nerve nut...mainly because they made me laugh for a long, long time. I'm still open to suggestions though :-)

Time for a Swag Fight!

Like almost everyone else in the universe, my favorite sunglass sponsor has a Facebook page. I check it on a regular basis and happened to notice someone named Swag-Gurl posting on it. Hmmmm...who is this Swag-Gurl I wondered? 

I decided that I would designate myself Swag-Gurl of the Midwest. So be on the lookout for me at races as I will be handing out some good stuff. Sunglasses, t-shirts, sunglasses, and more t-shirts! Maybe a few hoodies! My Optic Nerve sponsor asked me if I thought I could be as good at promoting as their Colorado girl, and I was like..."um, I'm not going to be as good, I'm going to be better!" And then he told me that if I was going to be competitive about it I needed to come up with a new name. Apparently I can't just use hers :-)

So, hmm....I need some suggestions. 

Also, feel free to write on the Optic Nerve FB page about how awesome (and modest!) I am :-) I need to get a running start on this Colorado-Swag-Gurl! 

Spa City Update

This race was SO MUCH fun. The course was a blast, and everyone was super friendly. 

Our entire pre-ride crowd did really well and we all got to get up on the podium together. There was a pretty good group of solo women and it was cool how many different states were being represented. Rebecca took the lead from the beginning, followed by a Sobe Cannondale racer, and then me. I had no clue who the Sobe racer was as she does mostly Norba XC races, but she was fast-that's for sure. 

At one point she was about 5-6 minutes ahead of me, so I tried to stay as smooth as possible in the tight sections ( sometimes I was and sometimes I DEFINITELY was not) and hammered as fast as I could on the flats and climbs. As I rolled into the pit area to go out on my last lap Ted told me that I had made up more time on her and she was only 2 minutes ahead. Aggghhh! I basically had to lay it all on the line to try to catch her. I would see glimpses of orange or red jerseys in the trees, would chase the rider down, and then would find out that it was a guy. And then with 2 miles to go I finally saw her Cannondale kit! 

She had no clue that I was coming and moved over to let me pass when she heard my bike rolling up. Trust me, there was no time to talk :-)  I was really happy that I happened to catch her near the last of the switchback climbs because I was able to drop her and ended up taking 2nd place by a minute! Talk about being close!!!

I ended up doing about 60 miles in a little over 5.5  hours. I was able to finish about 20 minutes early since I wouldn't have been able to get another lap in by the cut-off time. I followed Lynda's top secret nutrition plan and felt really great the entire time. My biggest problem during the race was trying to remain fluid while cornering tight trees. I felt a little rusty riding, but oh well. It was so much fun to be swerving through trees that I constantly found myself smiling even though I was also gasping for air. 

Congrats to Rebecca and Fuzzy for taking the big W! I had a lot of fun hanging out with them this weekend. 

I hope to do more 6 hour races this season. They are great for training because you can push it the entire time. And I actually feel pretty good right now. Tired for sure, and I'm sure my muscles will be feeling it tomorrow...but nothing like after a 12 or 24 hour race!

P.S. I have to send a HUGE thanks out to Ted, mechanic extraordinaire.  He did support for Fuzzy, Rebecca and I and had his hands full feeding us and giving out splits. My bike worked perfectly the entire time and he made all of our races a lot easier. Thanks Ted!!!

Pre-ride

Yet another bee-u-tiful day in Hot Springs. Warm and sunny, just how I like it!

I'm staying in a rented house with Fuzzy, Rebecca and Ted. After breakfast at the Pancake house we met up with Ernesto and pre-rode the course.  After that we hung out for a bit, went grocery shopping, made dinner and now it's time for bed. Such a busy day :-)

Anyways, back to the race course. It seems like a course that you would find in Michigan. There aren't any long climbs, just some short ones that you need to power up. Most of the course is super hard packed, though there are some loose corners. Once again, being able to ride outside on trail was awesome!

Tomorrow the race starts at 10 and ends at 4. That seems quite long this time of year for me! I'm sure that all of the short climbs will be feeling pretty long by the time I'm on my last lap. 

Tomorrow night I'll be sure to post an update. For now, I leave you with all of my great action shots that were taken during the pre-ride!

Ted and I riding along...

Rebecca and Fuzzy....
Ted posing....
P.S. I just found out our new team kits are in at home! I can't wait to see them!!!

Tired

Well I am finally in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It's only 9:30 p.m. here but it feels like the middle of the night for me. Probably because I had to wake up at 3 a.m. so that we could get here at a decent hour. The drive was painfully long (14 hours) but we were still here by 6 p.m.  

Tomorrow Fuzzy, Rebecca, Ted and I are pre-riding the course. I'll be sure to take some pictures! The weather tomorrow looks great...partly sunny and high 70's. I'm crossing all of my fingers and toes that it will last through the weekend!

It's that time again

It's hard to believe that while I'm eating oatmeal and drinking coffee this morning, there are a bunch of racers pedaling (and maybe pushing) their bikes across Alaska...in the snow...and cold...and wind (gulp!)

Reading Alaska Jill's book made this race a lot more real to me, and I'm cheering for everyone competing. The race home page is here, and updates on Alaska Jill can be found on her homepage. 

My day seems like a walk in the park compared to everyone racing in the Iditarod. All I have to do is a 1.5 hour spin on the trainer and a little core work. Easy!!!!