A few things...

First of all...Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Woo hoo. The weather forecast for Michigan is freaking awesome. I'm slowly but surely starting to acclimate to temps above 70.

Second of all....tomorrow is the Velo City Lumberjack 100 pre-ride. Tomorrow we will be doing one lap including the start. There is an opportunity to carpool, and info can be found here. In fact, all info about VCC rides can be found at that blog from this point on. Also, you might want to bring a bag of bread crumbs to the ride. Just so that we can leave a trail to find our way back out should we get lost.

Kidding...sort of.

Third of all....Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!!!

Monday night rides...

The first Velo City Monday night ride was just about perfect. It was hot, we got dirty, and there were a few wipe-outs in sand pits. What else do you need? Half-way through the ride I thought I heard one of the riders tell me to go faster. "Oh no," I thought! It's never a good sign when the group that you are leading is telling you to pick up the pace!

I asked the rider about it after we exited singletrack, and he told me that he didn't say faster...he was calling one of the trees a bastard! That I could totally understand. I have met many bastard-like trees in Michigan as well :-) In my case the trees like to hit my knuckles.

Anyways, I was especially pumped during this ride, because of this rockstar rider....

Meet Cathy, aka. Kaat

A year ago she showed up to one of my rides on a borrowed bike that had the smallest handlebars I had ever seen. Seriously, I don't know how she was able to turn. And since it was her first time EVER riding dirt, it naturally started raining out. So not only did she have to worry about the fact that we were riding in the woods, she also had to worry about wet roots and bridges.

This year she's back, keeping up with the boys, and on a much cooler bike (I might be a little biased about the last one!) I don't think she's even realized how much she's improved, but I sure did. And it doesn't stop at group rides. She's racing the Lumberjack 100 this year.

And speaking of the Lumberjack 100....I'm co-leading a group ride with Velo City this Sunday (11 a.m.) on the course. We are going to do one loop, and discuss nutrition and pacing. Notice that I said co-leading! I have back-up in the form of someone who can actually read a map. So don't worry, we won't be lost for days in the woods and having to live off of the land....knock on wood, please!

I'll post more details about the L100 ride tomorrow. In the meantime, Jason posted a video of me demonstrating a workout. So yeah, I was trying to look very serious and tough for the camera, but that didn't last very long!

Our vacation is officially over

It's back to work, back to reality...

At the risk of sounding like a complete loser, taking a vacation at home was pretty awesome! 

We did a whole lot of this....

lots of this....

And some of this....
The only thing I didn't do was get on my computer much. And I have Jason to thank for that. I was able to work out with him twice last week, and anything that required any sort of arm movement was too much.

Not only do I quite possibly have the weakest arms in the universe, but my left shoulder is a lot weaker from when I fractured it. Plus I'm really uncoordinated. See that picture of me above standing on one foot. That was taken right before I toppled over :-)

This rope exercise was pretty fun, though much harder then I thought it would be. I basically had to pull my body weight up without using my legs.
Tonight is the first Velo City no drop ride of the year at Egypt Valley. 6:30 in the parking lot...see you there!

Stony Creek 6 hour race report

One thing that is usually true about Michigan is that there are multiple races to choose from on any given weekend. The moment I found out that we couldn't go camping in Wisconsin I checked to see what was happening here, and lo and behold....I could choose between a stage race and a 6/12 hour.

I was scheduled for a few 6 hour days this coming week, so I figured that the 6 hour race was my best bet. Plus it was at Stony Creek, a really great trail I never get to ride on.

This year the promoter had the 6 hour start at 2 p.m., which gave Scott and I plenty of time to drive over to the east side of the State in the morning. It was SO nice not having to wake up at daybreak. In fact, it felt weird! On the way over I kept feeling that we had missed the start or something.

Once we arrived I prepared my "not-so-secret" race nutrition....This year I started using the hydrapak soft flask and it's freaking awesome. In the past I would always carry a bunch of gel packets in my pocket because I hated using those small, hard plastic gel flasks. They would always leak or I wouldn't be able to get all of the gel out. The soft flasks are a different story though. They are super easy to use, don't leak, and I was able to fit 8-9 gels in. More importantly, I could get all of the gel out!

Unfortunately I didn't have much time to warm up, but that's OK. I still had a pretty good position going into the opening singletrack. From the get go I could tell that I was pretty tired from my previous week of work. In the past I would always stress about it, like, "what's the matter with me, why am I tired, am I sloooooow?" This time I just admitted to myself that I was going to feel like poo, and didn't give it another thought. And the funny thing is that I actually felt better after that :-)

The course had a lot of really tight, twisty singletrack with long doubletrack sections in between. There weren't any long climbs on the course, but PLENTY of short little butt kickers.

Since the 6 hour went from 2-8, the promoter had the last lap cut-off at 7:30, to make sure that there wouldn't be any riders stuck out in the dark. I rolled through at 7:20, and stopped for a minute. It was very tempting to not go back out. But then I remembered that I made a promise to myself that I would never stop before the cut-off. Dang me and my stupid promises!

I'm actually glad I went back out, as the "dusk lap" is always one of my favorites. Towards the end of the lap it was getting pretty dark in the singletrack, and I thought I could hear geese squawking nearby. It was scary...ha ha!

I crossed the finish line as the 1st placed female, and 3rd overall with 82 miles in 6 hours and 17 minutes! Woo hoo!

Who needs a recovery bottle when you can just drink out of the canister???

I was going to lift my bike above my head for the camera, but after a week of lifting at work, and then racing for 6 hours, I couldn't lift my arms above my head. And my bike IS light!!!! I clearly need to do more upper body strength training :-)

Still in the mitten!

Ignore my last post about taking a vacation in Wisconsin. It looks like I'm going to be making s'mores over our stove at home instead!

I was running around like some sort of crazy on Friday, trying to get everything together, when Scott called from work. He was checking his calendar for meetings, saw that he was scheduled to be there on Saturday, and by the time everything was cleared up it was too late to go. We decided to just bag the trip and vacation at home. I think it was a very good decision as we were not prepared to go camping in any way.

I have two other races in Wisconsin this year, so there will still be time for cheese curds :-)

PS. I still raced this weekend anyways. It was just a bit longer then what I had initially planned on doing. We went over to the east side of the state for a 6 hour race and I placed 1st and got a really good workout in.

Full race report tomorrow!

Time to eat cheese curds by the campfire!

I can't believe that it's already Friday. This week flew by so fast I feel like it was just yesterday that I was riding with a goose in my back wheel.

I ended a busy week at work with a marathon shift yesterday. 7 a.m-9 p.m. I did have a two hour break to drop my bike off to Velo City for some TLC, but 12 hours of work is a looooong day in my book. By the time I got home I was barely moving, and I started having LOTS of second thoughts about going to Wisconsin this weekend. Truthfully, all I really feel like doing is sitting on the couch in my PJ's.

Once we get on the road it will be OK, because Scott can drive and I can sleep. And I never fully unpacked from Cohutta, so I guess that means I'm already half-packed??? This "never completely unpacking" is kind of a good system I have going.

Right now the plan is to leave really early in the morning because we have at least 10 hours of driving. Then we have to set up camp and spin our legs out before racing on Sunday. I am doing the Wors #2 XC race for some speed work, and I have NO DOUBT that it will be a good training day. The Wors race series is probably one of the most competitive series in the country. My goal is to push myself so hard that I puke...and possibly pass out :-)

After the race we are going to hang out in Wisconsin for a few more days, and get some long rides in. I'm bringing my foam roller with me to keep my muscles as loose as possible. My right hip flexor is still really tight, and I know that driving in the car won't be ideal. I've been down to see Jason twice at his new office, and he was pretty appalled at how locked up all of my muscles were. Basically my muscles were so tight that my femur was practically coming through my ear. He didn't say it exactly like that, but you get the general idea, right???

I'm not sure where we are going to be camping in Wisconsin, but I AM sure that it won't have wireless. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures though and will post them when I get back. Now that I'm thinking about it I'm starting to get more excited about camping. After all, it does involve two of my favorite foods. Hot dogs and s'mores!

I couldn't make this up if I tried

Mother goose may be everyone's favorite nursery rhyme, but "father goose is a real A-hole!" I'm not sure what's going on around here, but I had another run-in with a goose that leaves me thinking that I need to start riding my bike with a bow and arrow strapped to my back.

Since the weather on Saturday was rainy and cold I decided to do my 5 hour bike ride on Sunday. It was still pretty cold but at least the sun was shining.

About 30 minutes into my ride I was hit by something so hard on my side that I almost crashed. I had one of those freaky moments where my bike was swerving, one leg was unclipped and I was trying to stay upright. Initially I thought that a dog had jumped me.

It only took a split second for me to realize that it was another mother-effing-goose...and it was attacking me. It's wings were beating on me and I just remember seeing this huge beak next to my arm.

Talk about freaking out. And it gets worse....

Keep in mind that my bike was still moving while all of this was happening.

The next thing I knew was that the goose somehow got stuck in my back wheel. Even the thought of it gives me the "heebie-jeebies!" The whole thing happened in a few seconds but everything seemed like it was happening in slow motion. The goose was making horrible screeching noises while it was trying to fly away, my back wheel was swerving back and forth, and who knows what I was doing. Probably screaming with my eyes closed. Half of my brain realized that I was being attacked by a goose, and the other half was like, "no way is this happening!"

Obviously a crash was imminent as my entire rear wheel and drive train seized up. Me, my bike, and the goose went down hard in the middle of the street. I don't remember getting up, but I do remember being afraid to look at the goose. I was thinking it was going to be headless or something. It managed to get free and I don't remember if it flew or hobbled off. I think I was in a little bit of shock!

That goose is lucky that it got away (I can act tough from my house now!) because I was one unhappy camper when I saw the scratches on my bike. And the blood and bruises on me. I went down hard! It's rather ironic that I managed to ride slippery singletrack during a thunderstorm in Tennessee with no problems, but crashed my brains out during a sunny day during a training ride. In my own defense....this really wasn't my fault.

I started plucking all the feathers out of my bike when I realized that I needed to take some photographs. I mean, I barely believe this story and I was there! I went from never seeing geese during training rides to having two run-ins within four days.

There were actually feathers stuck to my grips...nasty!

And everywhere else!



After that, the rest of my training did not go as planned. Since my power tap went temporarily haywire I decided to just go mountain biking. My right knee hurt way to much to do intervals anyways.

The rest of my ride was goose free, and I can't help but start laughing every time I think about what happened. So freaking crazy! I wish someone could have caught it on video, because I can't even imagine what I looked like swerving down the road with a goose stuck in my rear wheel.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to suffer from goosenaphobia now!

Duck....Duck....RUN!!!!!

Good time management skills (something I have very little of) have been necessary these last couple of days. Basically I have to immediately hop on my bike the moment I get home from work, ride until dark, sleep and repeat. The other day I had a very important conversation with Scott that went something like this...

D: "Our house is going to be very messy this next week"

S: "Our house is always messy"

D: "True that. Ok, it's going to be even messier"

S: "Sigh"

Luckily Scott does ALL of the cooking and most of the cleaning anyways....or I would be ordering pizza every night :-) Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Overall, my legs have been feeling very good. On Tuesday I was scheduled to do 2.5 hours with 3x20 minute L4 intervals. After I was done I decided to keep riding because the weather was so nice. Add in a nice bonk towards the end of the ride and I got a little over 4 hours in! The only un-fun part of the ride was my stupid right hip flexor. Did I not just mention that I'm the queen of tight hip flexors in my last blog post? I think I jinxed myself. Actually, I think I didn't stretch nearly enough during my rest week, and now I'm paying for it. I can only blame myself.

Wearing my lucky number on my sleeve :-)

Wednesday was another great weather day, and I immediately headed towards the dirt after work. On my way to Cannonsburg ski area I saw these cute baby ducks on the side of the road with their parents. I stopped to take a picture and then proceeded to ride past them.

The next thing I knew the big one on the right was flapping it's wings, squawking and flying straight towards my eyes. Holy moly, it was like a bad episode of Animal Planet. I'm amazed I didn't crash because both of my arms came off of my handlebars to cover my eyes while I was still rolling. Not to mention screaming!!!

My friends down South and out West talk about run-ins with bears and mountain lions and this is what I have to deal with. The sad thing is that I could not ride down the road. I tried to get past once more and almost got attacked again. I felt like a complete moron turning around, but I do value my eyes.

That night I told Scott about how I was almost attacked by ducks, and Scott was all, "umm...I think you are being dramatic." So of course I had to show him the picture on my blog tonight and he was like, "those are geese!" Part of me thinks that he might be effing with me, so I'm just going to leave my blog title the same. Ducks...geese...whatever!

Despite my detour I finally made it over to Cannonsburg and the trail was in terrific shape. I had been training on the road a lot, so now my coach has me putting in some longer days to work on skills. I was curious to see what it would be like to ride a 29'er in tight singletrack, and Cannonsburg has a small section that is pretty narrow and twisty. I felt much more confident while cornering, but I can tell that I still need to work on becoming more fluid....

Practice makes perfect right???
After 4 hours of riding I made it home just before the dark. The ride was definitely a success as I had an awesome day mountain biking AND managed to avoid getting attacked by duck/geese/whatever. I even managed to get home before Scott, which meant that I was able to surprise him by starting to prepare dinner....

This is my version of cooking!

Let the training begin...again!

After Cohutta I took 3 full days off the bike. It was just what the coach ordered! I spent the rest of the week doing some easy rides and my legs feel really good now.

I'm also really excited that a certain sponsor of mine is back from the Olympics and has his own business in Grand Rapids. Jason and his wife Kelly started a chiropractic office right on the outskirts of downtown. It's the perfect location, especially for me. I can pretty much coast down to the office in 8 minutes on my bike. If I actually pedaled I could get down there in 5 :-)

I know I've mentioned Jason on this blog a lot, but he plays a huge part in keeping me rollin'. I seem to be the queen of tight IT bands and hip flexors, and Jason does a lot of Active Release Techniques on me...which I swear by!

Jason hard at work (on Facebook). ha ha!

I think a bike rack needs to happen!

Anyways, the office is perfect. I'm going to start doing all of my core work down there, and Jason is going to help rehab my left shoulder. It's significantly weaker then my right one. I didn't even notice, but I think I've been overcompensating with my right arm ever since the "fracture incident" last October.

There's going to be a few weekly yoga classes in the loft...Since today was my last day in recovery mode I took Naomi the wonder dog to cheer for Toni in her weekly road TT. Normally I have a hard time watching races, because I always want to be on the bike and competing myself. Not for road TT's though. No way! In fact, I don't even own a road bike right now.

We walked around for over an hour and Naomi has not gotten off of the couch since....

A small photographic victory my friends! I actually managed to get Toni in the frame...
Total roadie....
Tomorrow I'm going to be spending some good time in L4. The first interval is going to wake my lungs right back into action!