Salsa 2-4...quick update!

First place and second overall!

The Salsa 2-4 was so much fun I didn't want the weekend to end. The atmosphere was great, the volunteers were great, and the course was a lot of fun. That being said, the course was also one of the hardest that I've ever raced on. But I think that's what made crossing the finish line so freaking awesome.

I wish that we could stay longer and explore Minneapolis because it seems like a really cool city. Unfortunately we are already packing up for the long drive home. Work is going to be interesting tomorrow seeing that a snail could move faster then me right now.

Full race report tomorrow!

Here I go again!

10 minutes to take-off! Naomi has been dropped off to the dog spa (my parents), my bikes are dialed, the truck is packed and I have enough Powerbar products to feed a small army!

For the race I'll mostly use gels, gel blasts and the endurance formula drink mix, but I like to bring protein/recovery bars for the trip.

I'm really, really excited about this race. Tomorrow my teammate Tim and I will be leading a group ride followed by a Q&A session. The entire event schedule can be found here.

Also, Hydrapak sent some really sweet swag to give away after the group ride!

See you there!

Don't bet against me!

It probably goes without saying, but recovering from Ore to Shore was WAY better then recovering from the 12 hours of Wausau. I think it only took about a day to feel fresh again. As a result, I've been getting some really good training days in.

There are always a ton of races going on in Michigan, and this weekend was no different. On Saturday I went to watch Scott race a crit near our house.

Scott at the front...

After the race I ended up riding my Dos Niner on dirt roads and trail for four hours. I felt awesome, the weather was awesome, and the night ended with really good Mexican food. It was a perfect day in my book.

Over dinner I mentioned that I was considering waking up really early on Sunday so that I could ride in the dark. Trust me, I need the practice. Later on I heard Scott and my Dad taking bets on whether I would wake up early enough. Except I'm not so sure you can call it a bet when both people are on the same side. In other words, neither Scott nor my dad thought I would do it.

I was still up at midnight and Scott thought it was a done deal. He was like, "there is no way that you are getting up in the morning!"

All I have to say it HA! It took four alarms going off in five minute increments but I managed to roll out of bed at 4:45 a.m!!!

I had to take a picture for proof. I swear it's me :-)

I'm glad that I was able to get out as my night riding skills are a bit rusty. It was nice being able to watch the daylight arrive while on the bike too. During 24 hour races I'm always happy to see morning come, but usually I'm too whacked out to fully enjoy it. This time I was fresh enough to take it all in!

The best part was being done with my ride at 9 a.m. I had plenty of time to ride my bike over to East Grand Rapids to watch the EGR crit state championships. Both my little sister Toni and Scott were racing.

On my way ride over to the crit I had my second breakfast of the day. I'm so addicted to gelblasts that it's becoming a problem!

I made it just in time to see Toni (far left) lining up with her team. They dominated the race!

Toni post race. This was her last race of the season as it's back to school and back to swimming for her. Kind of a bummer....

Another great action shot of Scott. I kind of just point and shoot without focusing or using the zoom button. Oh well, at least I managed to get him in the frame!

Tomorrow all I have scheduled is a 30 minute run and a lot of rolling on the foam roller. I definitely don't mind taking it easy for the next couple of days because I'm going to get a whole lot of riding in next weekend!

Ore to Shore race report

I think this was my 6th Ore to Shore and it's still one of my favorite races to do. Marquette is always super pretty in August, and having a big (and equal) payout draws a really competitive field of women to race. I think we had about 80-plus in our field, but it was hard to tell where everyone was since the men and women start together.

I was really nervous about the start because I knew it was going to be a) fast and b) hundreds and hundreds of racers pounding down the pavement together. I knew I had the endurance but wasn't sure how my legs were going to handle the fast start.

After a few moments of shock (where I swear I was pedaling backwards) I started to pick people off once we hit dirt. I think I'm going to start training for next year's Ore to Shore start NOW :-)

I was in a pretty good position as we hit the first powerline climb but I could tell that my legs didn't have anything extra. It was one of those days where I felt like I had to do twice the effort just to get anywhere. What's the term...pedaling in squares? I felt like that's what I was doing.A lot of the Ore to Shore course feels like a road race, and you can lose a lot of time if you ride alone. Unfortunately that's exactly what happened to me this year. I popped off the back of a few guys that I was riding with, and pulled off the front of others.

For most of the race I was riding between 4th and 5th place, but got passed by 2 teammates working together in the last 7-ish miles. For some reason I hopped on the wheel of the guy that they were riding with instead of hopping directly on theirs. Dumb! They pulled away and I couldn't bridge up.

I ended up finishing in 3 hours, within a minute of my time last year. In my training plan my coach had planned for 3 hours of racing, and I guess I took her literally. Next year I'm going to ask her to write down 2:45 instead :-)

I placed 2nd in my age group, and 7th overall. It's always good to finish in the top 10 at this race, because there are so many fast women competing, but I was pretty mad at myself for some of the dumb mistakes that I made during the race. I know I mentioned this in my last post but next year I'm definitely going to do a few XC races and group rides before to get some group practice in.

The best part of the race is at the finish line. Incidentally, Ore to Shore is one of the first races that I ever competed in. I was in WAY over my head, but was completely sold on the race when I saw doughnut holes waiting at the finish line! And I'm still happy to see them today :-)

I had to wait at the finish area for an hour while Scott went to get the car, and I was sneaking up on these boxes from all angles...

This is a picture of Chris Peariso's tire after he finished. He did the entire race with this big nail stuck in his tire. This is why you use Stan's!

We did a quick coffee stop 2 hours after the race. The barista asked me if I had just gotten done racing and I was all, "how did you know?" Apparently I no longer see the need to clean myself off after races....

It was a long day which turned into an early night. I was out by 9:00 p.m.
Next up is the Salsa two-four. I'm really excited for this race, and also really nervous! Last year I was all about the hundred milers, so this will be my first 24 hour race in almost 2 years.

Yeah, about that race report...

Pictures will be up tonight, along with a report. I promise. First though, I have to do a 3.5 hour ride! Also, we've been preoccupied the last couple of days with having to buy a new oven. Which is about as unfun (is that a word?) of a purchase that you can make.

We weren't expecting to have to buy a major appliance this month, but I had an unfortunate discovery when we got home from Ore to Shore. Scott dropped me off at home so I could go to work while he had dinner with my parents. Lucky him, unlucky me, right?

Anyways, our house was so hot when I went inside that I started melting immediately. I called Scott to tell him that our house was as hot as an oven and he said that it made sense since our air conditioner was off all weekend. But when when I went into our kitchen I realized that my statement was downright prophetic! Our oven had been ON ALL WEEKEND LONG!!!

Trust me when I say I that was 2 seconds away from dropping to the floor and calling the fire department. I was like, "where's the fire house when I need it?" But then I remembered that I can barely lift the thing anyways, so I just waited outside for Scott to come home. Keep in mind that the oven wasn't actually on fire, but it felt like it was going to blow-up at any second.

If your wondering why I didn't just turn the oven off, it's because the dial was already on the off setting. Somehow using the stovetop was triggering the oven to turn on by itself! Freaky! Needless to say we will not be using this oven EVER again.

OK, off to ride my Dos Niner. In the meantime, Kyia has a great race report about Ore to Shore that you can read right now!

Brutal!

This weekend was slightly insane. It officially started at 11 p.m. Thursday night when I got out of work. Friday I woke up early, spun my legs out, cleaned my bike, packed and then we drove 7 hours up to Marquette (The upper peninsula is so far away from where we live that it's about the same distance as the 12 hour race I did in Wisconsin!) Saturday was a pretty full day with the race and awards, and then Sunday we had to wake up early, drive home, and then I immediately went into work until 2 a.m.

I feel like I got some really good 24 hour race training in there!!! It's nice to know that I can still function on little sleep :-)

I'll post a race report later, but sadly it isn't too exciting. I went into it with tired legs and finished 2nd in my age group and 7th overall of about 70 female finishers. For most of the race I was riding in a top 5 spot but managed to make a few really dumb, tactical errors. Last night my poor manager had to listen to me keep replaying some of the dumb things that I did...over and over again. And at one point she found me hitting my head against the wall. Ha ha.

Next time I need to do a few XC races before Ore to Shore, along with a group ride or two!

More on the race and pictures in a few hours. This was Naomi's first long trip, so expect to see a "few" greyhound pictures!

Don't count on me to put out any fires!

So I've always had a lot of respect for firefighters. I mean, how can you not? They rush into burning buildings on a daily basis to rescue people. However, I never in a million years realized just how heavy their equipment was until Jason had me do a workout using a fire hose. Holy Moly. We did it a week ago and I think my arms are still a little tired from it.

This workout was really awesome because it worked my upper body and core. And probably everything else. I still don't know if I'm going to be able to afford Nationals since it moved to Moab, but I'm still training for it. I've never been to Moab, but my coach says that it's one of the hardest courses on your upper body. I figure that it's a win/win situation because I'll just end up stronger regardless of if I go or not.

Here is a video of Jason doing the workout. The video is a little shaky but that's because I was still out of breath!!! When we did it together we alternated so that there was no down time. He would run up the stairs while I (attempted) the hose and then we would switch. It was short and really, really hard. I'm surprised I didn't puke.

And speaking of puking, more friends from work have been doing the stair workout and Josh gets the award for being the first one to explode!!! I tried to be all encouraging and told him that at least he knew he was working hard!!!

Josh after his first puke session...

Josh rallying for another set...
Josh after his second puke session....

Trying to slow down summer...

The tell-tale signs of summer coming to an end are slowly showing. I've already spotted trees with changing leaves on my rides, and each day it seems to get dark a little earlier. Not to mention that Ore to Shore is this weekend! I can't believe it's already here...

I haven't even had time to look at the start list for Ore to Shore, but it's probably better that way. I know that the field is going to be stacked and I know there will be about 20-ish (or more) women who could easily place in the top 5. At 48 miles this will be the shortest race that I do all year until cross season. It's going to be a few hours of bleeding from the eyeballs!

Well time for work. This week is going to be one of those week where the only free time I have is when I am on my bike.

PS. Congrats to my teammate for winning the Cascades Classic 100 (I may have just made up that race name, but it's something like that!)

And then there were 4!

A week ago I took Kendra (friend/co-worker) with me to do the stair workout that Jason taught me. Kendra did the full set, and I spent the next 3 days feeling really guilty every time I saw her walking around. It is a hard workout!!!! In fact, the first time that I did it I could barely move the next day. The workout uses different muscles from cycling, because I could ride a bike with no problems...I just couldn't walk.

However, it's really good for any race that has a run-up or hike-a-bike. Usually I feel like I'm going backwards when I have to get off of my bike, but this workout puts everything in perspective. Nothing else will hurt as bad :-)

Anyways, a week later I had 4 co-workers joining me! Here they are before we tackled the workout!!! All fresh and smiling....

And after...

I was super proud of everyone for working out so hard. The stairs can be a little intimidating to look at!

But not as intimidating as my multi-colored thigh. My iphone camera does not do justice to how many colors I have going on right now.

My friends, this is what happens when you get sloppy in rock gardens!!!

Wausau 12 hour race report

We are back from a really great weekend in Wisconsin! Lots of fun, lots of riding, lots of Salsa, and Twin Six. I felt like I was in bike heaven :-) I had a great race and finished in 1st place with 11 laps (120-ish miles).

Scott and I arrived Friday evening with enough time to set up camp and spin our legs out. We only rode about 3 miles of the trail, but I wasn't too worried. I've raced on this course many times before, so I knew what to expect.

My pit crew extraordinaire! You would have to see him in action to know what I mean, but Scott is very, VERY PRO when it comes to crewing for a race.

Case in point...we were only given one number plate for our bikes so Scott made me a second one!!! It was very custom....ha ha!
I slept really well for being in a tent, and before I knew it we were lining up for the start. The race started at 10 a.m., and it felt like a luxury to sleep in a bit!

We started with a typical Lemans start. You gotta love running in cycling shoes! Between my coach and Jason, I've been getting a little running practice in, and I noticed an improvement during the lemans start. By that I mean I made it to my bike without completely dying :-)

I passed as many people as possible during the first bit of doubletrack, because I knew that there would be a huge bottleneck once we hit singletrack. This was my first year racing the course on a 29'er and I was shocked at how easy all of the rock gardens seemed. I was able to roll over everything. It was awesome. In fact, I was having so much fun riding that I had to keep reminding myself that I was in a race! Scott would hand me a new hydrapak every other lap and give me race stats. By lap 3 I had a pretty good lead going.

During the race I had a million memories come flooding back from previous years. The course was backwards, but it was still easy to recognize parts of the trail that I raced on with friends. This year it seemed like there was more singletrack and less doubletrack and halfway through the race I started to remember another thing about the course....how physically demanding it was.

I started to really feel it between my 6th and 7th lap. I think it was the hottest part of the day and all of a sudden the roots seemed a lot slipperier and my perfect lines through the rock gardens disappeared. I found myself wondering if the rocks were moving on me, but in all actuality I was getting tired...especially my arms!

Luckily it started to cool off and I was able to keep my laps pretty consistent. I rode with a lot of people during this race, and time seemed to fly by. Before I knew it Scott was attaching my lights for my last couple of laps.

Heading out into the dark...

I thought Scott forgot to attach my alien light, but it was blinking on the back of my helmet the whole time...
Since I had a 2 lap lead I was able to finish a half hour early. Scott snapped this picture of me waiting to cross the finish line.

Drinking a cold coke after 11.5 hours of riding a bike = BEST MOMENT EVER!!!!

Crossing the finish line!!!

Talking with one of my NiteRider sponsors about the race...

Afterwards I was pretty wired from ingesting large amounts of caffeine in the form of powerbar gels and red bull. Scott and I hung out under the Twin Six tent and cheered on all of the 24 hour racers. Usually I'm out there racing, so it was weird seeing it from the other side. At one point a racer rode very slowly by our tent. I knew they were heading out into dark singletrack with slippery rocks and roots, and felt a little guilty that I was warm and dry. Not to mention standing over a huge bowl of hot, cheesy mac and cheese. I made sure to cheer extra loudly for them..ha ha!

The next day we did an easy spin and then went to the awards. I had this "great" idea to lift one of my prizes above my head. Just as everyone started cheering I realized two things. That my arms were really tired and that the box was much heavier then I expected. I almost dropped it.

I'm smiling in this picture, but really I'm about 1 second away from dropping the box. My arms were shaking!
This is one of my favorite races to do and I highly, highly recommend it. The promoter did a terrific job and made the whole weekend a lot of fun for both the racers and pit crews. There was food/coffee available 24/7, tons of great volunteers working the aid stations, over 22 course marshals roaming around, and wifi available so pit crews could check real time results! I definitely plan on coming back next year!!!!