Mulberry Gap-I want to go back!

I had to make an important choice the day after the race. I could either drive home on Sunday, which would allow me to be home all day Monday to study for my final exam, or ride with my friends, have dinner at Mulberry Gap, and then drive home late Sunday and early Monday.

Naturally I chose to ride my bike. As if there were any question!

Carey was nice enough to start us out on a dirt road climb to warm up....

It only took us about 45 minutes to get to the top. Needless to say, I was definitely warmed up....
By the way, do you see the sun and blue sky in the background? Of course the weather would be absolutely perfect the day AFTER the race. Sheesh!

After our climb we hit a few awesome, awesome trails. The riding in Northern Georgia is pretty phenomenal. I'm convinced that my coach is super woman as she would just disappear up the climbs. And so would Carey. And now that I think of it, so would Dave. Not me though. My legs were all, "what??? You actually expect us to pedal today???" My goal for the race was to burn all of my matches, and I could tell that I did that. In fact, I think I was running a match deficit.

Even though I was dragging I still had a blast. It would have been impossible not to. But after 2 hours of riding Carey stopped us on the road and gave us our options. We could go climb some more steep singletrack or ride down the road to Mulberry Gap and eat cookies. Everyone else decided to ride a bit more, but I decided to ride my bike back to the food!

While I was waiting for everyone I was able to explore the camp a bit more. Mulberry Gap is a really cool mountain bike resort run by two really great women, Diane and Ginni. They instantly made me feel at home.

The resort has cabins, a hot tub, general eating area, Koi pond, bath house, and a place to have bonfires at night. Basically you get to ride/hike/do whatever you want to during the day, and then eat amazing food when you get back. You can either request a certain menu, or be surprised!

The bunk houses...
Can you tell that mountain bikers stay here? I saw a Bell's bottle, but no Founder's or New Holland.

This is my type of camping. It was completely secluded and rustic feeling, but the bath houses had electricity, warm showers, and good smelling lotions :-)

When everyone got back we were finally able to eat. And the food was delicious. We had homemade pita chips with pistachios and sea salt sprinkled on top, chicken salad, and the best cookies I've ever had. They had oats, and cranberries and almonds and maybe a little crack in them. I was given 2 for the road (in addition to the 2-3 that I had already eaten at the table) and within a half hour they were both gone....

Pita chips...
Chicken Salad...
Best cookies ever...
The prices are really reasonable, because it includes lodging and 2 meals a day. Plus you get to stay in mountain bike heaven. Mulberry Gap would be an ideal place to get a lot of friends together for a weekend of long rides, or a training camp in the winter/spring. I've been told that you can pretty much ride year around there.

I'm trying to think of a way to get back there this summer!!! And I'm not sure what's drawing me back more....the riding or the food :-)

Cohutta 65 Part 2 (race day!)

I slept pretty well the night before the race, but woke up a few times to the sound of rain. I wasn't surprised. I had been watching the weather report all week, and the chance of rain kept growing and growing as the race day grew nearer. I think it was up to a 90% chance the day before.

My motel-mate Amanda had her alarms set for 4:29 and 4:31, and I had mine set for 4:30 and 4:33. Needless to say, we woke up! After coffee and breakfast I headed over to the race venue. It was still raining a little, but felt surprisingly warm out. I was able to line up with just a jersey and shorts on. We had over 35 women in our class, and the promoter had told me that it was a really stacked field. I realized just how competitive it was when I lined up. For the first time, the entire front row was almost all women. I heard one of the guys behind us tell his friend that the women meant business this year. It was a very true statement.

We had to wait 15 minutes after the hundred mile start so that the fields would be well separated. It felt like the longest 15 minutes of my life. My goal was to go off really hard, so that I could hit the singletrack first. I had been warned by my coach that my L4 and L5 levels might not be there because of Paris-Ancaster, but figured that I had to try!

Finally we were off. I had a really good start, and found myself heading up the 2 mile paved climb behind the lead guy. Eventually I got shelled, but still entered the singletrack with the top 5 guys. You could barely even tell that it had rained the night before, as most of the singletrack was super hardpacked and fun. There were a few loose corners, but I barely noticed them.

We started catching the back of the 100 milers pretty early in the race, but everyone moved over really quickly to let us by. Eventually we hit a longer climb, and I felt like I couldn't keep up a fast enough cadence to get over the roots. I shifted into my granny gear and heard my least favorite sound. The sound that means your chain is no longer where it should be. Aggggghhh! I was in the worst spot too, because the climb was very narrow. I tried to ignore all of the guys passing me, and yanked and pushed on my chain until it came loose. It cost me a good 5 minutes, but I was just happy I was able to get it out!!! Phew!!!! After that I really started to hammer because I knew I had lost a lot of time.

After the first aid station my legs started to cramp up like crazy. I'm positive it was from not being recovered from Paris-Ancaster and then going out really hard during the start. These cramps were crazy too. They were going all the way up the inside of my thigh and on the top of my quads. I decided there was nothing to do but just grit my teeth and continue to pedal. I refused to shift into my granny gear for the rest of the race, so there were a few times when I really had to mash to get up a climb. It felt like one long strength interval.

Although the race was "just" 65 miles, it was still pretty hard. For some reason I wasn't expecting it to have so many climbs, but trust me....the course was hilly! The training Lynda had me doing over the winter must have been spot on though, because I felt really strong.

It started to get darker and windier as the race progressed and finally started raining as I entered the last singletrack. I was wearing my Optic Nerves with clear lenses, but the trail was dark. The lightning would light the trail up often, but that's not necessarily a good thing!

I felt like I was pedaling down a river over the last couple of miles, but didn't need to slow down that much, except for the wet bridges. I'm pretty sure that my Mamasita is one of the best bikes on earth. All I had to do was hang on :-)

I finished with a time of 5:43, 1st women and 10th overall. The rain and cramps were a bit of a bummer, but I still had a blast racing my bike and hanging out with friends.

Below are 2 not so great podium shots. Both Nam and I were MIA (we were too busy petting dogs and talking) the first time everyone was called up, but we made it back for the redo.

Thanks to Barb and everyone else at New Leaf Adventures for putting on such a great race. I'll be back next year for sure!

PS. Check back tomorrow for Cohutta 65 Part 3. Just because the race was over doesn't mean that my weekend was. There was more bike riding to do!

Cohutta 65 Part 1 (the day before the race)

My drive down to Tennessee was an adventure of sorts. 12.5 hours of driving solo. And if you count the half hour that I was pulled over, my total trip time was 13 hours. It was a long, mind numbing day complete with lots of coffee stops, scary gas stations, and a $200 ticket for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle.

At this point I need to interject the statement that I DO move over any time that I see emergency lights. I just had really bad luck where the moment I crossed over the Indiana border I passed a police officer who had pulled over another car on the left shoulder. And the next thing I knew was that he was pulling me over too. The crappy part is that I was trying to get over, but there were so many semi trucks driving in the right lane I freaked out. I spent the rest of the drive thinking that I was totally in the right, and that the officer was being a jerk to me, but now I can admit that I was in the wrong. There I said it.

After a good night's sleep I woke up, caught up with my old Kenda teammate Amanda, and then headed over to the whitewater center to meet up with Carey and Namrita. Rumor had it that the 65 mile female field was pretty competitive, and I wanted to pre-ride the beginning singletrack so that there wouldn't be any surprises. Up until this point I had been training for Paris-Ancaster, so all of the riding on my Mamasita had been on paved and dirt roads. I couldn't wait to ride actual trail!

We rode at a really easy pace, and I was basically in heaven. I had the same feeling on my Mamasita that I had on the Dos Niner. Like I was riding a bike that had been custom made for me. It didn't matter if I was climbing or descending over roots and rocks....everything felt really effortless.

We stopped to take some pictures during the ride and I can't help that notice that a certain red bike made it into almost every single one of them :-)

I think we ended up riding for about 1.5 hours. My legs felt a little sluggish but I was expecting that. Not only did I spend 13 hours in the car the day before, but it was a lot hotter then what I've been riding in. 5 days before in Canada I raced in 40 degree weather, and all of a sudden it was mid-80's in Tennessee. I was definitely not complaining though. Especially because there were rumors of bad weather heading towards us....

After our pre-ride we went back to the center to get our drop bags ready and catch up with other racers. Cohutta is race #1 in the NUE series, and it was like a reunion! Then we had a great group dinner and it was time to bed.

Race report up next....but now it's time for a very, very long nap :-)

Quick Cohutta update!

I'm back from an awesome weekend of racing and riding with great friends! I am completely exhausted, but that's good. After Paris-Ancaster and the Big Frog I have a full week of rest scheduled.

Overall, I'm really happy with how my race went. My legs weren't completely recovered from Paris-Ancaster, and I had a bad mechanical before the first checkpoint that sidelined me for at least 5 minutes, but I managed to push through it all for the Win. This was my first time riding my Mamasita on trail, and it was So...Much...Fun! Even in pouring rain, thunder and lightning :-)

Tomorrow I'll post a full report with some pictures! In the meantime, check out Namrita's blog. She had a killer race and won the sprint for second. I was able to witness it, but she and Ursula went by so fast they were across the finish line before my camera was out.

Must. Recover. Now.

I've come to the conclusion that I need a 3-day miracle to recover in time for Cohutta 65. For some reason I thought I would snap right back from Paris-Ancaster since my race was under 2.5 hours,  but au contraire. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. Actually I feel like I've been hit by a bus, and then it backed over me, and then hit me again. And then it dragged me a few feet.

Do you get the picture?

Part of the reason why I feel so crappy is that Monday was a really bad day for recovery. We got home late Sunday night, and I was only able to get 5 hours of sleep before having to go to work and school. Basically I couldn't have been more grumpy if I tried.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be the turning point. I was able to take a 3 hour nap after work today, and now I'm unpacking so that I can repack!

Oh, and did I mention how excited I am? This race is always one of my favorites, especially for the early season. I'm also excited to be doing the 65 miler this year, since part of the course will be different from what I normally race. I'm not exactly how it will be different, except that I need to go right at the first aid station instead of left. After that it's all a big mystery!

Paris-Ancaster race report

I'm back from Canada, land of Tim Horton's and all things Wayne Gretzky. I bet that Gretzky could run for President and win by a landslide if he wanted to. Seriously, almost everything in Canada is named after him :-)

This was my first year racing Paris-Ancaster and it was completely different from what I thought it was going to be like. For some reason I always imagined it as a big Ore to Shore. I even put 1.9 Karma's on my Mamasita a few days before. However, after checking out pictures of the course and talking to a few people we did a last minute switch back to cyclocross tires. It was a very good decision to do so.

There were over 1,900 racers competing, and the promoter sent us off in 3 waves with 10 minutes in between. The good news is that I was in the 1st wave. The bad news is that I was WAY in the back of the first wave. The first hundred plus spots were saved for top finishers from last year, and then they also called up a bunch of pro racers. There were over 100 women racing, and the field was SUPER TOUGH! And you know I mean business when I use a bold font, italics, and all capital letters!

I couldn't actually see any of the women in the front, but the UK National Cyclocross champion was there, along with some women from the Canadian Olympic road team. After the promoter would announce the women, he would mention their World ranking. I was trying to think positively, but a little voice in the back of my head started saying things like, "you are going to get your butt kicked!"

We were staged on grass in a corral of sorts, made out of metal fencing. The start was completely insane because I actually saw the front of the wave racing down the street before I even started to move. That's never a good sign!

After a brief road section we hit a dirt rail-trail and it was slightly unnerving. It was wheel to wheel as far as I could see. Passing was pretty impossible as there was no where to go. All of the racers around me held perfect lines though, and there were no crashes.

Eventually we hit the road, and that's when the big group that I was with started breaking up a bit. You basically had to stay in a paceline because it was so windy. There were a few dirt doubletrack sections, but those were few and far between. We raced through a few little towns, and there were a lot of people cheering in their driveways and on the corners. It was pretty cool.

I ended up riding with the same group of guys for most of the race. They shelled me a few times, but I would catch back up once we hit the grassy sections. I did have a very lonely 10 minutes on the road alone where I felt like I was barely moving, but I was able to jump on to a paceline of 3 guys and we were able to catch the group that dropped me.

The only part of the race that didn't seem like a road race was this long downhill that was super muddy. It seemed like everyone was running it, and my feet each weighed about 10 more pounds a piece afterwards. I had so much mud on them! I can tell that my endurance is pretty good, because everyone around me started to die towards the end and I felt like I was just getting started. I definitely could have kept going...but even so I was happy to see the finish line.

Despite the pain and the bleeding from the eyeballs, I'm really glad that I did this race. I can check it off of my list, and I feel stronger having raced it. My finishing time was 2:18, and I finished 14th out of 100 women. Helen Wyman (UK national champ) won the race, and I am not even going to say how far ahead of me she was.

Ok, I will.

In 40 miles she put 17 minutes on me. Ouch! I was only 7 minutes behind my husband though, so he better start looking over his shoulder :-)

Will I go back to this race? No, but only because it was kind of a long drive (6 hours) to race on the road. If it was closer, I would do it every year because I was definitely pushed out of my comfort zone. Canada has a lot of great mountain bike races though, so I would much rather drive over for those!

Now I have exactly 5 days to recover until Cohutta 65. Bring on the singletrack and long climbs!!! I can't wait.

Gear Review-Hydrapak

This month you can get 40% off an item from Hydrapak. Just type in the discount code MUSTO10 when checking out. The offer is good until April 30th.

The 2 main reasons why I race and train with Hydrapaks are pretty simple:

1. I stay hydrated

2. I can stop less during races and training rides

And those 2 reasons can make or break a race. I've learned the hard way that racing with just water bottles don't work for me. Even during a short XC race with hand-ups, I never take my hands off of my handlebars often enough to grab a bottle and stay hydrated.

The Chute is my #1 pack for racing because it's pretty minimalistic. It allows me to carry 50 oz. of water, and has a little extra room for anything else I want on me during a race. I use it for XC, 100 milers that have aid stations, and 24 hour racing. During 24 hour races I usually come to a rolling stop every couple of laps. I'll hand off my empty pack, and my crew will put a new one on my back. It makes for very quick pit stops! Plus the pack is super lightweight, which is a HUGE bonus for endurance races.

I'm always "squirreling" things away in the pockets. Case in point...look what I found inside today. 2 powerbar gels, a tire lever, and a cadbury egg.

In Arizona I rode with the Flume. It's very similar to the Chute, just a little bigger. It has a 2-liter reservoir system, which is always a good thing to have when riding in the desert. I also raced with the Flume during the Whitetank Marathon and loved it. I never had to stop once. This is a pack that I could easily use for 100 milers as well, since it was very comfortable to wear.

Side view of the Flume....

I gave my BFF Juli the Streamline to test out while we were in Arizona and she loved it so much it went home with her. It had a bit more storage then the flume, which she liked. Since she lives in Colorado she has to carry a lot of gear (like a rain jacket) that I don't have to carry on the local trails in Michigan. Apparently storms move in very quickly when you are riding in the mountains!

Juli modeling the Streamline....

Another pack that I have my eye on is the Morro. It seems like a really good pack to have for those epic rides when you need to carry a lot of gear and food with you. Plus, I dig the orange color!

The reservoir system that Hydrapak uses deserves a post of it's own, so all I'm going to say is that it's the best available. I've never had it leak, it's really easy to refill at aid stations, and cleaning it is a breeze. After a long ride the last thing I want to do is clean anything, but the fact that the reservoir flips inside out makes it super easy.

Hmmm...what this picture is supposed to show is me holding the reservoir upside down and shaking it. I guess you'll just have to take my word that the thing DOES NOT LEAK!!!

This is quite possibly the best mouthpiece ever invented. It does not leak or clog, and the bite-valve allows a lot of liquid to come out at once. Plus it has a twist shut-off that you can use. Personally I never use the shut-off because the mouthpiece doesn't leak while open, but it's nice knowing that it's available.

So there you have it, my first gear review of 2010. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the packs. And if you want to order a Hydrapack and get 40%, just go HERE and enter the discount code MUSTO10 at checkout. It's good for one item until April 30th.

I'll post the discount code at the top left of my blog too. See it? Yup, there it is :-)

I love riding my bike(s)

This weekend was all about bikes. If I wasn't riding my bike I was talking about them, and if I wasn't talking about them I was thinking about them :-) It's a really good thing that today is a rest day, as I have some major catching up to do.

After I'm done writing about my bikes that is.....

On Friday I got a really nice 4 hour endurance ride in on my Mamasita. After that I went over to Velo City to get both of my bikes worked on. Aaron put my new fork on my Dos Niner while Jeremy put a rigid fork on my Mamasita. The only reason why I'm racing with a rigid fork at Paris-Ancaster is because it's mostly gravel roads. Trust me, the moment I'm done with the race it's coming right off. I really like having front suspension!

Saturday was the first Velo City dirt ride of the year and in my own humble opinion it was a success! We had about 15 riders total, and the entire group rocked. Scott and Aaron came along to help out and the group would break apart during certain sections of the trail, but then regroup at the top of climbs. Lots of good questions were asked, and I'm really excited to see how everyone does at the race next week. Next time I promise to try and bring better snacks too. All I had was 1 bag of tortilla chips and a canister of my powerbar recovery mix.

Not that I need anymore proof, but this picture of Aaron and I shows what a total DORK I am.

Notice how Aaron is still partially in street clothes and relaxed looking? That's because we still had about a half hour until ride time. And then there's me...already wearing my helmet.

I rode my Dos Niner for the Yankee ride, and couldn't wait to see how it felt on Michigan singletrack. Yankee isn't that technical, but it does have a few rooty hills. Usually I only had one line to take, but this time I had multiple lines. I couldn't believe how easy it was to get my wheel over everything and spent the majority of the ride home gushing to Scott about how my "technical skills" have improved.

But then I realized that my newfound ability to get over roots had nothing to do with my technical skills improving. It was my bike that made the difference.

Everything is going to be pretty low key this week as my coach has me tapering down for Paris-Ancaster. In the meantime, check out the Velo City Dirt blog that I started. I figured ride information would be less likely to get lost in the shuffle there. I'll post more dates this week, but one of the next rides we will be doing will be a lap of the Lumberjack course. And since it's 33 miles I promise to bring more then a bag of tortilla chips! I'll at least bring some Salsa :-)

PS. Congrats to Gerry and Tim for great races this weekend!

2010 Schedule

After many changes, my schedule is nailed down. The only race that I'm unsure about is 24 hour Nationals in Moab. Obviously I thought we were going to be driving down to West Virginia, which would have been A LOT cheaper then traveling to Utah. Especially since my whole family was going to come down to cheer-which meant free meals from the parents :-)

I have my heart set on racing Nationals though, and I've never been to Moab. The stubborn part of me is going to try my hardest to go...and I can be very, very stubborn. In the meantime I'm going to start playing the lottery and hoping for the best!

I'm more excited about this schedule then I've ever been before, mainly because I have some new races added that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Paris-Ancaster 60K is one of the new races on my list, and it's right around the corner. From what I've heard it's really flat and a complete hammer-fest. It's why I had to bump Cohutta to a "B," race and will only be racing the 65 miler. I'm only going to have 5 days of recovery in between the two races.

Other new races are the Cascade Creampuff, Salsa 2-4, and Chequamegon. We are also returning to the land of cheese curds to race the Wausau 24. This will be my first time racing on a team, and good training for my solo races later on. I'll be able to do some fast laps, some night riding, and still not be completely wasted afterwards.

I also have to send out a huge thanks to my friend Andy for transferring his L100 entry to me. This will be my 6th year of doing this race. Lucky #6!

Anyways, without further ado.....drum roll please!

4/18 Paris-Ancaster (60K)

4/24 Cohutta (100K)

5/16 Wors XC #2- Crystal Lake Classic

6/5 Mohican 100

6/19 Lumberjack 100

7/10 Cascade Creampuff 100

7/31 Wausau 24 (4-person team)

8/14 Ore to Shore

8/28 Salsa 24

9/19 Chequamegon XC

10/9 24 Hour National Championships (solo) ****tentative

11/6 Iceman

The return of wussitis

This winter I managed to ride outside in some really cold and nasty weather. But show me a few really nice days where I don't have to wear any layers and I turn into a total wimp. That was the case yesterday. Temps were in the 50's and it was drizzling out and I had to give myself several different pep talks before going outside. It went kind of like this, "suck it up you stupid wuss." I'm so nice to myself...really.

In all reality it wasn't that bad at all once I was outside and pedaling. After all, I spent most of my winter dreaming about the day when temps would reach 50 degrees. Plus I was doing L5 intervals. By the time I was done with the first one the arm warmers were already coming off.

While doing the intervals I tried to imagine the start of Cohutta. Everyone wants to get to the singletrack first, right? My legs were pretty worked afterwards, so I had a nice, slow spin home eating one of my favorite Powerbar products.

Not only does this bar have 12g of protein, but the flavor of it is Peanut Butter Caramel Crisp. Need I say more???

I'm really excited to be sponsored by Powerbar because I have used all of their products. Not only do I love the way that the products taste, but I know that they work!

And yes, that's our kitchen table. It's kind of like a convenience store. When I unpacked the product, I told Scott that I was going to do some organizing in our cabinets before I put it all away.

That was a week ago.

I quickly realized how nice it was to be able to see all of my options as I was heading out the door for a ride. And besides, there's still room on the table to eat. See all of that empty space in front of the boxes? No one needs more room then that anyways!

Poor Scott.

PS. I have some awesome sunglasses from Optic Nerve and a really sweet Hydrapak to raffle off at the Yankee Springs pre-ride this Saturday. I'll post some pictures tonight. And it looks like the sun is going to make a guest appearance as well.

As good as it gets

So, you may have noticed that my blog looks a tiny bit different. One of the nice things about having a blog with a simpler format is that I can edit it whenever I want without having to wade through a lot of code. For instance, right now my blog is titled bikes and bangs, but that will change. I mean, the bangs will have to grow out eventually....right?

Anyways, back to the blog. I still have to put my bloggers reading list back up, along with my 2010 racing schedule. As of now it looks like I'm only doing one race, but there will be more-I promise. I was planning on updating everything today, but the weather was way too nice for that. I had bike riding to do!

Today was day 3 of a 3-day training block right with intervals at the border of L3 and L4. My legs felt pretty good throughout the whole week and I was able to push it at the end today. After I was done with my intervals Scott and I rode some dirt roads that were super soft, and super bumpy. And that's when my legs had enough!

I think I actually fell asleep for a minute or two!

See all those lines in the road? All bumps! My arms and legs felt like they were going to fall off by the time we finally reached pavement.

Tomorrow is rest day...kind of. I guess I'll be resting because I won't be pedaling, but I still have to work from 5 a.m. until 2 p.m. and then go to school until 10 p.m. Ouch!

Excuse us while we remodel

Just picture me behind the computer screen screaming at my blog, because that's what I'm doing!

Happy Easter everybody :-)