2 days and then we're outta here!

The countdown is on until my next race. Things have been insanely busy around here and I have a feeling that I am going to be doing some last minute packing. The good news is that I can pretty much pack in my sleep for an endurance race.

And now that I said that I'm going to forget something huge.

Yesterday I got worked on by Jason and feel so much better today. My back muscles were super tight...not exactly ideal going into a 12 hour race. I think I'm going to try to get worked on one more time before the race. Just in case anyone was wondering :-) Until then I have strict orders to foam roll, foam roll and more foam roll!

To be honest I keep wanting to chicken out from racing my SS for 12 hours. I'm not going to though. I'm racing with the same gear ratio I raced with at Lumberjack (32x18). I basically use that gear for everything. Not sure what will happen if I ever have to change it :-)

Well time for work. I've been going in at 6 a.m. all week which is super early for me. My 12 hour race doesn't start until 10 a.m. and we are camping on site. It's going to feel so great to sleep in a bit and not have to rush around in the morning!

Check it out...

Scott wrote a guest blog for the Salsa website about crewing for a 24 hour race. He is the best pit crew anyone could ask for and I am willing to rent him out for a large sum of money.

All joking aside, I am so, so, SO thankful to have Scott crewing and Ted wrenching for me. I could not do it without them. Now I just need to remember that the next time I get grumpy at 2 a.m. in the morning!!!

You can read Scott's post here...

Hottest recovery ride EVER!

It's been crazy hot here these last couple of days. I guess it's good because I'm finally getting used to the heat, but at the same time I feel like I can barely breathe. Today all I had to do was a 1-hour recovery ride and I was still completely drenched with sweat when I got home. However, I am not complaining!!! Last winter I promised myself that I would never complain about hot weather and I'm sticking to it :-)

My next race is coming right up and it's one of my all time favorites. I'm talking about the 6/12/24 hours of Wausau. Also known as the venue where 24 hour Nationals should move back to :-) This year I'm racing the 12 hour again, but I'm going to do it on my Selma. I've never done a lap race on my SS before and for some reason I'm a little nervous about it. Not sure why because I raced on it for 8:22 at Lumberjack...what's a few more hours???

In other news, it's almost been a month since we adopted Ben and I couldn't be more happy with him. He's pretty much the happiest and sweetest dog I've ever met. We had puppy class tonight and the first half hour is basically a free for all. There's another puppy about the same age as Ben named Jerry (yep, Ben and Jerry) and they basically wrestle the entire time. Ben was so tired after class tonight I almost couldn't get him into the car. He hasn't moved since and I'm highly amused by his snoring. He takes after Scott.

On second thought....

I've been playing around with the idea of doing a XC race this weekend for training, but I've nixed that idea after today's ride. No racing for me. I'm sticking to my coaches initial plan for some good old tempo intervals.

My legs are completely shot. Lately Andy has me doing a lot of steady state intervals where I'm riding at the top end of my threshold. I will be the first to admit that I completely suck at these intervals. Clearly I need to keep doing them and hopefully one day I can make it through a workout without exploding. Yesterday Scott and I were watching the tour after my workout and they showed post race footage of some of the riders cramping after they crossed the finish line. I stood up to go get something and guess what happened? My legs were one big cramp. Scott thought that I was being dramatic but that was not the case at all. I think my legs were just full on revolting against me :-)

Today was supposed to be a recovery ride but it was my mom's birthday and she wanted to go for a ride. I'm not sure exactly what happened but I ended up riding for close to 4 hours. This is the main reason why I'm not racing tomorrow. There is no point for driving a total of 5 hours to race 28 miles with tired legs. It would take me all day to finish...probably. Instead I plan on sleeping in, going to the farmer's market, walking Ben, and then doing my tempo intervals with a small detour to the mountain bike trail after. It sounds like a really good day to me!

Heat Wave

It's been a week since my last bruised and bloody post. I'm STILL bruised, but less bloody :-) All of a sudden summer seems to be flying by, and I'm trying to make the most of it. Between training, greyhound walks and puppy walks, I'm outside whenever I'm not at work.

After a week of intervals (ouch) I was able to get some mountain bike action on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I took my El Mariachi out for a 2.5 hour ride and then on Sunday I hooked up with my friends Bonnie and Barry for 5 hours on my Selma. I'm lucky enough to have 3 different trails (Cannonsburg, Egypt Valley and Luton) within riding distance and we did the trifecta.

The hardest part of the ride was trying to keep up with Bonnie and Barry on the road while riding my SS. I had to spin my brains out on each downhill, and actually looked forward to any sort of incline.

And shade. After riding on the road being on a trail covered by trees felt amazing!

Bonnie and Barry riding at Luton....
My legs were complete toast by the end of our ride. Even though we mostly rode at an endurance pace, I still had to work hard to get up a few of the climbs.

I came home to find our two dogs (and Scott) chilling in the air conditioning. It's been a few weeks since we've gotten Ben and he's doing really well. He's super good with kids, and really, really happy all of the time. As an added bonus he's stopped trying to lie down in front of oncoming traffic. Thank goodness!!! We still have much to work on with him though. I've already learned that if I don't see or hear Ben it means that he has a sock (or some other sort of gadget) in his mouth. We actually own a baby gate now...something I never thought would be in our home.

Naomi has finally allowed Ben on her "bed" and he spends a lot of time watching her...
I think he's learning some greyhound habits...

StonyCreek Marathon race report

The good news is that I did it and I finished :-)

I'm really glad that I went and raced on Saturday, but I will be the first to admit that it was hard to get motivated. My BFF Juli opted to stay in Grand Rapids to compete in a road stage race, and Namrita and Eddie decided to get a few hard training days in since they are racing the Creampuff next weekend.

I hit the snooze button 4 times (sorry Scott!) before finally climbing out of bed at 5:15 a.m. After a quick breakfast I threw my gear into the car and hit the road. Stonycreek is about 2.5 hours away, and I was hoping to get there a little earlier then when I did the 6 hour race.

There was a huge line at registration and by the time I got my number plate it was 9:45. The race started at 10:00! Yikes. Talk about zero time for a warm-up. The course was running in the opposite direction then the 6-hour race and temps were already really hot. I felt like my blood was boiling just standing at the start line.

We had a really strong women's field and before I knew it we were off. I had a good position (right behind first) but decided to take the lead the moment we hit singletrack. I KNEW that I was going too hard for a 50 miler, but I really didn't care. I was doing the race for a hard training effort and I was having a blast racing my bike.

I started to catch some of the expert men and found a good group to ride with. Before I knew it lap 1 was done. Lap 2 was more of the same and I kept my pace pretty high. It was getting really hot though and I was starting to feel it. I do OK in hot weather, but I have to acclimate first. To go from 70 degree weather to temps in the mid-90's was awful!!!

Towards the end of my second lap I passed a group of guys on a downhill and basically thought that I was a rockstar. Mental note: I AM NOT a rockstar. I took a downhill corner WAY too fast on a gravel road and slid sideways with my bike on top of me. To add insult to injury I couldn't unclip from my bike for a few minutes so I was wiggling around like a moron!

After I finally unclipped I hopped on my bike and started pedaling again but it was hard to get back into the race. It had been a long time since I've crashed and I think I felt like I was in shock for a few minutes. On Lap 3 I really started to feel the heat. Once again, it was awful. I wanted to puke and pass out at the same time. This is where I really started to feel the effects from going out so hard. I started the race with 60 ounces in my hydrapak and 35 miles into the race it was completely empty. And then I got caught by the second place female. She and I battled it out at the 6 hour for the first 2 laps and I knew she was super strong. I decided to stay on her wheel and try to regroup. We came through the transition area together and I couldn't find the water bottle that I had set on the side of the course. I watched Lynn get a fresh hand-off from her support person and wanted to ask him for a bottle as well :-)

My 4th and 5th laps were nothing to brag about. I was completely out of water by the end of my 4th lap and had to stop and find my bottle. Looking back I wish I would have had a second hydrapak on the course...I totally underestimated how hot it was going to be. I finally started to feel better towards the end of the 5th lap and then it happened again. Another crash. A giant stick got wedged in my front wheel and stopped it completely. I did an endo going uphill and slammed my shin into my pedal and my arm into a tree. Definitely not my day.

I had to settle for 2nd on the day. I think my finishing time was 3:59, not too shabby for how hot it was...and how much time I spent on the ground.

After the race my friend Erin Vicary (she had a great race and finished 3rd) gave me an ice cold bottle of Gatorade and we rode our bikes over to the lake. We didn't bother taking off our cycling shoes...we just walked in and sat down in our kits. It felt un-freaking-believable.

I think that was the hottest I've ever been during a race but everyone was in the same boat. Afterwards there were a lot of stories going around about epic blow-ups and crashes. The east side of the state hasn't gotten the same amount of rain that we've gotten here, and the course was the loosest I've ever seen it. In fact, I still have some of the course embedded in my skin today.
I left after the podium and was definitely feeling less then human on the drive home. Luckily I was able to meet Namrita and Eddie for a quick iced chai and egg and sausage sandwich from Rochester. After about an hour of sitting in air conditioning I finally felt better. And thanks to Eddie and Nam for sitting at the same table as me. I can't imagine what I must have smelled like after racing 50 miles and then sitting in a muddy lake :-)