Making a list and checking it twice...

Twin Six is having 25% off EVERYTHING sale starting at midnight tonight!!! Hurray for pre-thanksgiving day deals.

The best part about this is being able to place an order in PJ's and a big cup of coffee next to you.

PS. I must have this hoodie! And while I'm at it I really want this Freedom T!

Eat Cough Sleep

This last week was so blah that it doesn't warrant a blog post. Except for the fact that last night I mastered a new talent.

My friends...(drum roll please)....I can now sleep sitting up. And not only can I sleep sitting up, but I can sleep sitting up with a Vick's cough drop in my mouth.

When I woke up this morning and saw all the cough drop wrappers on the floor I realized that I might be partaking in dangerous behaviors. I mean, sleeping with a cough drop in my mouth can't be that safe, right?

I went to the doctor last Friday after 1.5 weeks of non-stop coughing and he said that my lungs sound great but that I have bronchitis. That sounds like a huge contradiction, doesn't it???

"Your lungs sound great, but you have bronchitis..." How does that even work?

But it's true. I don't have a cold or any other sort of upper respiratory infection, I just have inflamed airways. This is my first time having bronchitis and can I just say that it is so....freaking....annoying!!! There's nothing that I can do for it except drink lots of water and wait for it to clear. And the WORST part about all of this is that I totally brought it upon myself. It started before Iceman, and racing in the cold really irritated my lungs. But what sealed the deal was racing cross a week later in 30 degree weather when I could barely talk.

IDIOT!!!! I am an IDIOT!!!

I never realized how much I take being able to ride my bike every day for granted until I had to take some time off. I basically spent most of last week sleeping and eating and more sleeping. The eating part has been fun since Scott has been experimenting with pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving!

Here is a before picture...

I didn't think of taking an "after" picture until it was in my stomach....I guess he will just have to make another one!

The good news it that the coughing is slowly going away! Yesterday was the first day that I felt slightly normal again, and I was able to sit on the trainer and spin really easy for a whole whopping hour. It was also the first time I didn't get that weird "tight band-burning feeling" in my chest since before Iceman. Progress!!!!! I think I probably burned off 1/100th of the pumpkin pie that I ate too...ha ha!

Naomi decided to join me for my workout in the basement. Here she is working hard....

One more to go....

This past weekend was the Kisscross Manhatten race, leaving only one more kisscross race for the season.

After Iceman I took a week off the bike and my first time back on the bike was for the Manhatten park cross race. Needless to say it was a bit of a shocker. First of all, it was really cold. Like temps in the mid-30's, and the sun has abandoned us forever cold. The race was only about 10-15 minutes away from my house though (by bike) so I sucked it up and rode my bike over. Driving would be unacceptable, even for someone suffering from cold weather wussitis like me.

I liked the course. It had a good amount of climbing for a cross race, but no man-made barriers. I screwed up the sand pit during the pre-ride and it messed with my mind during the first lap as I botched it again. I had to dismount half-way through and couldn't clip back in afterwards. What a mess. It took me so long to run through the sand that I decided that I was going to pedal through for the remaining laps at all costs. It was much, much faster!

Photo by Jack Kunnen

I was really happy that I wore my T6 backpack over to the course, as I won a 6-pack of Founder's beer and had to carry it home to Scott. The beer made me feel a little less guilty about leaving him at home raking leaves while I got to go race.

OK, who am I kidding? I didn't feel guilty at all, BUT I WAS happy to win beer for him!

While Scott was raking he found something that I had been searching for a very long time...

I had been missing my power tap computer since right after the Mohican 100 in June. It hadn't been much of an issue in the summer, but during the winter I use it all of the time. Scott found it embedded in the dirt on the side of our driveway. Not only had it been driven over repeatedly, but it spent 4 months outside in the elements!

And guess what? It still works! I think it's safe to say that it's pretty durable!!!

One!!!

Attention blogosphere...I did a push-up today.

I know, I can't believe it either.

The secret? It must be all the Vick's cough medicine that I've been taking. It gives you super powers. Really. It does.

Ha ha. Just kidding.

Today was my 6th training session with Jason after taking 1.5 weeks off for Iceman. First we did some deadlifts and then he had me do some baby push-ups. Meaning I did them with a resistance band looped around my stomach and attached to a chin-up bar. After my muscles got used to the movement I tried doing a real one and voila...a push-up was born!!!

Tonight I've been randomly dropping to the floor in a push-up position to show off my newfound powers to Scott, but my arms are so tired from today's workout that they feel like noodles. So I keep collapsing to the floor while Scott laughs hysterically.

Just another example of an exciting night in the Musto/Chambers household!

We have a winner!!!

Whoa, I slept for at least 10 hours last night...all thanks to the little bottle pictured above. So much better then Nyquil!!!

I think I had the tiniest of colds right before Iceman, and racing with it really irritated my lungs. As a result I've had a really annoying, non-stop cough. I hate taking medicine but resorted to drinking Nyquil like it was water. It did nothing and I was only getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Yesterday I switched over to Vick's and slept for at least 10 hours. Ahhhhhhhh....so nice! I think my lungs are going to make it after all!

My coach mentioned that I needed to take a week completely off after Iceman, but I would never in a million years have picked this week. Not only has it been sunny, but temps have been the mid-60's. It's so not fair :-) I've been pouting like a baby every time I see someone ride by on a bike!!!

I do value my lungs (a lot) though, so I'm being good. Hopefully this nice weather will stick around a little bit longer!!!

Iceman race report

Iceman....Snowman...Mudman...this year there was a little bit of everything!!!

Unlike previous years I didn't go up early to work the Iceman expo. After a really long week at work it was nice to sleep in a bit and not rush around in the morning. Scott and I finally left our house into the late afternoon to pick up Namrita from the airport and then we all headed up to Traverse City.

The drive up was a little disconcerting as we had our first snow of the season. Back home it was just scattered snowflakes that weren't sticking, but there was already three inches of snow up North.

Hello winter, nice to see you. Now go away.

The expo was the usual usual, and after talking with lots of people and registering we had a late dinner and went to bed. It was awesome not having to worry about an early start. In fact, with a start time of 2:30 p.m. we didn't even bother setting an alarm clock.

The first waves of the Iceman went off in the early a.m., and I could only imagine how cold it was for the racers. I think temps were in the mid-20's at best. Early reports were coming back that the course was super fast, but that there were large patches of ice in the shades sections and a lot of riders were going down.

After a late breakfast and lots of coffee we finally headed to the start venue. I was anxious to start. The late start wasn't as cracked up as I thought it would be since it gave me WAY too much time to get nervous. I just wanted to GO!!!!

My bike all ready to race....

Temps were in the low-40's by the time of our start, but it still felt pretty cold. I hate being hot when racing though, so I wore a sleeveless base layer, jersey, arm warmers and track socks. The track socks were definitely not a smart choice as they are 100% cotton. They got soaked early in the race, and kept my lower legs really cold the entire time. However, I did get a lot of compliments on them from people cheering...so that's something, right?

Trying to keep warm at the start....

There were over 20 women lining up at the start. Lots of fast racers, but that's no surprise. Every year it's a complete hammerfest!

My legs felt pretty good on the road, and I found myself in a good position once we hit the first dirt doubletrack. The pace started to ramp up a bit, and our group started splitting up. I was at the tail end of the lead group (hanging on for dear life) when we started to catch the stragglers in the pro men's field. Unfortunately we caught the first couple of guys just as the trail narrowed and I lost contact with my lead group because I didn't get around the guys in time.

NOOOOOO!!!!!!

It was not a good situation to be in. The Iceman is basically a road race, and you can lose massive amounts of time to groups working together if you are alone....like I was. There was nothing that I could do but chase though, so that's what I did.

It was pretty surreal riding through snowy woods. In just one day it had become winter. Normally when I'm alone I instantly fall into my endurance pace, but I could tell that the last couple of XC and cross races that I raced were paying off. I was able to push the pace enough that no one ever caught me.

At least, no one caught me until the last couple of miles. I tried to avoid looking behind me but every once in a while I would sneak a peak to see if there was anyone there. It's so bad to do, but so hard to resist! Anyways, there was never anyone behind me until the last time I checked.

And there was Heather Irmiger climbing behind me. I was like," seriously???" Out of all the female racers that I would pick to battle with at the end of a race, Heather Irmiger would not be one of them. Mostly because the odds would always be heavily stacked in her favor :-)

She was on a SS, but dude....she's a former singlespeed World Champion. Not to mention XC and marathon National Champion a few times over. NOT TO MENTION completely clean! There I was covered in mud, bleeding from the eyeballs, blowing snot, and Heather looked like she didn't have one speck of dirt on her.

It turned out that Heather had a mechanical early in the race, and had gotten a ride to the half-way point so that she could at least ride the course. She had to get off of her bike towards the end to walk a few of the hills (SS thing) so I ended up riding alone to the finish. I could not believe how fast the race went by.

I ended up in 9th place and was happy to crack the top 10 in a tough field. I was NOT happy with my start, or the fact that I ended up riding alone the entire time, but oh well. All I have to say is thank goodness the starts aren't that fast for 24 hour races or I would be in trouble :-)

That's officially it for 2010 mountain bike races. It was a great/fun season and I have to admit that it was a bummer saying goodbye to some people that I won't see until next spring. I'm glad there are a few more Kisscross races left, and I hope they are good and muddy!

The Iceman is comething

The count down has begun! In exactly 2 hours Scott and I will be leaving to pick up Namrita from the airport and then heading up to Traverse City for the Iceman Cometh. I'm very, very excited for the weekend. And also a little, I don't know, worried. I've had no structured training this last month and I really don't know what sort of fitness I have. It's probably a good thing that I don't know.

The Iceman has never been a high priority race for me but this year it's been even less priority then usual. This past week has been insanely busy at work and I think I'm coming down with a cold too. I know, right? Waaaaaaaah....waaaaaaaaaaaah.....waaaaaaaaaaaah!

At this point all I can really do is show up to the start line and hammer as hard as I can. Hopefully I'll be able to hammer for more then two minutes before blowing up :-) Initially I was hoping to ride my SS, but work was so busy I never got around to having my gear switched out. So I'm racing my Mamasita/Cross bike instead. The only thing I don't like about the set-up is that I have a rigid fork still on it, but oh well. The race is short enough that I can deal!!!!

Well, time to finish packing. Naomi is already off for her vacation at my parents and I need to finish getting ready.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and I'll see a lot of you in Traverse City!!!