Hurray for the weekend!

My weekend officially started today and it's off to a good start. I was able to sleep in, go for a looooong dog walk, and now I'm making more coffee! If only every day could be like this :-)

And let's not forget the best-est-est part of the week. Ben is no longer puking up poop. HUR-Freaking-RAY!!! He loves giving kisses though, and has landed a few right on my mouth. I just try not to think about it....

This past week was pretty mellow ride wise. I had a few rest days etc, which were definitely needed. And then my coach had me do a high cadence workout which I completely suck at. I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way I became a masher. If you ever want to see me blow up really fast, ask me to hold a cadence over 100. It's ugly and definitely something I need to work on.

For the rest of the weekend I have some good rides scheduled. And the weather looks like it's going to cooperate. Summer in Michigan is so awesome it (almost) makes up for how cold Michigan winters can be. Right now it's 72 degrees and there isn't a cloud in a sky. It's time to ride. Be back in a few hours!

Pooped out...

Today is all about recovery and our house is in full-on lazy mode. I'm pooped out from training, Scott is pooped out from working on the roof all weekend, Naomi is pooped out because she is a greyhound, and Ben is pooped out...because he went everywhere in our house.

My weekend got off to a crappy (ha ha) start when I got home from work Friday afternoon. Scott always comes home from work at lunch to walk the dogs, and decided to put a new comfy bed in Ben's crate. Ben is really good about not chewing things in the house, but apparently does not follow the same rule for his crate.

This is what I came home to...a chewed up bed and a strong smell of doggy poo. I couldn't figure out the poo smell because Ben is completely house trained and never has accidents in the house.

The crazy thing is that there was no poo (minus a poo dog print) in the actual crate. That's because Ben got sick, and then decided to clean up his crate by eating it right up. It was very considerate of him.

I feel the need to reiterate what happened. Our little 10 month old puppy chewed up his bed, got diarrhea, and then ate it. Seriously? Who does that????

I took Ben for a walk and he seemed OK. However the moment we got inside he started getting sick all over our house. Pooping and puking like it was nobody's business. And I probably don't need to mention what he was puking up, do I? Our house will never be the same.

Needless to say, we spent the next couple of hours in the doggy emergency room. They gave Ben x-rays to make sure he didn't have anything in his stomach (like a part of his bed) and there was nothing. His prognosis? Perfectly healthy except for a sensitive stomach.

I did not have a good night's sleep as we had to keep waking up in the middle of the night to take Ben outside. It's funny, we always said that we weren't going to have kids but I feel like we ended up with a few anyways :-)

I still woke up pretty early on Saturday to get my workout in before heading downtown to watch the Crit National Championships.

Ben and Scott were in deep recovery mode and it was tempting to join them. However, I managed to be pedaling by 8 a.m.
I felt like I was sleep pedaling for the first half-hour and was happy to have my friend Juli join me. You know you have a good BFF when they do hill intervals with you at 9 in the morning on a Saturday! After riding for 3 hours we headed downtown to watch the race.

Our friend Dan Jansen was one of the paramedics on duty...

It was a lot of fun watching the crit. However, no part of me wants to race one. In fact if you ever see me lined up to do one it means that something has gone horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY wrong.

By Saturday night order had been restored to our house and I was able to get a good night's sleep. Sunday couldn't have been better as the weather was absolutely gorgeous out. My coach had a 6.5 hour endurance ride on tap for the day and I had a blast. I love riding this time of year.

Next up? Not sure. I'm definitely going to soak up the rest of summer, but first....it's time for a nap!

Perfect!

After Pando my El Mariachi had to go straight to the Ada Bike Shop. Ted (my mechanic) had to give it some major bike love as I managed to go through a brand new set of brake pads in 5.5 hours. My fork lockout was also jammed with mud and my bike would barely shift. What can I say? I like to keep Ted busy :-)

Yesterday I picked up my bike and immediately went for a 3-hour endurance ride. I felt like my bike was brand new. Not only was my bike riding great, but my legs felt great. I love days like that :-) I was having so much fun riding my bike that I kind of lost track of time on the trail until I noticed that it was getting dark...oops!

Needless to say the last half hour of my endurance ride turned into a 30 minute time trial effort. I keep forgetting that it's getting darker earlier (boo) and I had to beat the setting sun...

It was completely dark by the time I turned into our driveway and I was pretty sure that everyone would be worried about the fact that I was riding in the dark.

Not so much...in fact, I don't think anyone bothered to look up :-)

The crit national championships are this weekend and they are only a 15 minute bike ride away from my house. I absolutely can't wait. The only problem is that I'm schedule for longer rides this weekend. That means I'm going to have to wake up really, really early to get them done so that I can make it down to the races in time. I might have to ride with coffee in my water bottles!

5.5 hours of Pando-race report

This past Saturday was the 6 (or 12) hours of Pando. The race started at noon and I went to bed Friday night extremely happy that I didn't have to wake up super early. I actually got a decent amount of sleep for the night before a race.

However, I wasn't as happy when I woke up in the morning to the sound of pouring rain and thunder. After the Wausau monsoon, I wasn't too excited to race in the rain again. Luckily it stopped before I had to pack up the car.

After hearing about course conditions (sloppy) I decided to race on my El Mariachi since it was set up with Karma's (my #1 favorite mud tire). Pando was just a training race and I could tell from the start that my legs were a little tired. Especially every time I climbed up the toboggan hill, which was often. The course was less then 5 miles long so every 20-some minutes I would be back at it. I just kept reminding myself that my legs weren't supposed to feel good for this race, and then found other things to focus on...like the dark clouds rolling in.

About 3 hours in I switched out my hydrapak for a new one and then started climbing the toboggan hill for the millionth time. All of a sudden I heard someone calling my name. I looked to my right and there was my mom on the side of the trail. I swear, she materialized out of nowhere. At the time I was trying to chase down a few guys in front of me and she started yelling that severe storms had touched down north of the trail and that I had to stop racing. Ha! Typical mom. I felt like I was 12 again.

I told her not to worry and kept going, but half-way through the lap I started to get worried. It was so dark I could barely see and it started thundering so loud I felt like the trees were shaking around me. Whenever I hit an open field it felt like the lightening was so close that I started to panic a tiny bit, which made me start riding like a moron. I couldn't stay on the trail for the life of me. I kept trying to pedal faster but my body was not cooperating. Clearly my legs weren't worried about being struck by a big bolt from above.

I was sharing a tent with Farm Team racing friends Steve and Nate and saw that Steve had lowered the tent and was underneath it. Once my lap was counted I went to join him since the race was temporarily stopped. It had cooled off considerably and I tried to think warm thoughts since my brilliant self only brought one kit. I was stuck in my wet clothes for the remainder of the race.

Luckily we didn't have to stop long, and I was able to get a few more laps in. Those laps were NOT FUN as the course was unrideable in parts. My chain kept wanting to seize up whenever there was any sort of tension and I constantly felt like I was one pedal stroke away from a mechanical. On my second to last lap I stopped to hose off my bike but that didn't help. Finally I decided to quit tempting fate and called it good after 5.5 hours of riding. I knew that I was in first place but had no clue how many laps I had in. I finished at 5:25 with 13 laps...good for 1st place overall.

Now it's time to see how great my laundry detergent really is...

Finally recovered (I think!)

This past week was pretty blah. Nothing much to report on, just me trying to recover. It always takes me a good week to recover from a 12 hour race. There's no way around it.

For the first time (in a very, very long time) my training and recovery weren't the first thing on my mind each day. Last week Scott switched out Ben's dog food to this all natural stuff and IT DID NOT go well. I will not go into a lot of details but my week involved A LOT of cleaning and A LOT of mad dashes outside (at 5 a.m.) with baby Ben dragging his butt on our carpet. So yeah, I had all that to keep me occupied :-)

Everything is back to normal now though, even my legs. I'm looking forward to getting a good week of training in. Especially because the weather is breaking. There is even talk that temps might drop to the 70's. It's going to feel amazing after the crazy hotness we've had these last couple of weeks.

Initially I was planning on driving up to Marquette this coming weekend to race Ore to Shore, but work is super busy this week and I'm going to race a 6 hour that's closer to home instead. I'm bummed to be missing Ore to Shore because it's one of my all time favorite races, but not bummed to be missing the 7-8 hour drive. Instead I'm going to get a really good week of training in and still be able to cap it off with a training race.

Puppy school is hard work!

Last night was Ben's last puppy school class. Next week he will be tested and then graduates.

Hahahahahhahahahhahahahahah.

I laugh because little Ben has a loooooooooooong way to go.

Here's the story. He's 100% perfect when alone. Ok, make that 90% perfect. If we are walking and dogs bark at him, he looks the other way. He can sit and lie down with the best of them. And he's the best cuddler I've ever seen.

HOWEVER, if he's walking with Naomi it's another story. Then he's in a puppy frenzy trying to eat grass and do cartwheels while on a leash.

So last night the teacher was using Ben to teach us how to teach the dogs to stay. Ben learned really quickly and I was beaming with pride. Go Ben! But then we went out into the store to teach the dogs to come. The instructor told us that she was going to put the dogs on a 30ft leash and we would have to call our dogs from way down the aisle.

The other two dogs in the class (Charlie and Jerry) completely nailed it. Then it was Ben's turn. I walked down the aisle completely confident that Ben would run right to me.

I called....no Ben.

Ben decided to run down a different aisle then the one I was in.

I tried again. Ben at least came down the right aisle, but stopped mid-way and started shopping. Apparently he wants bird food.

Then the instructor told me to start "meow-ing." First of all, I didn't want to do it because I don't think Ben has ever seen a cat before. Second of all, he's really smart. He would know the "meows" were coming from me. But the instructor was insistent so I started "meowing like an idiot." And what did Ben do? Ben didn't move at all. He just plopped down on the ground and rolled over.

The instructor gave me one more chance and when I called Ben he turned in the other direction and went to play with his buddy Jerry.

Total failure.

Clearly we have much practicing to do this weekend. And I need to find a treat that Ben really, really likes. A treat so good that he will ditch his dog friends and come to me! Right now his little Cesar Milan treats aren't doing it for him...

Wausau 6/12/24 (a picture-less) race report

The Wausau 24 is one of my all-time favorite races and I look forward to it every year. The course is fun, the promoter does an awesome job, and the people are great. Whenever I go there I feel like I'm at a big bike-family reunion.

Scott and I left really early Friday morning so that we could arrive at the venue with enough time to set up camp and pre-ride the course. The race had several different divisions and my plan was to race my Selma SS in the women's open 12 hour solo division. During the drive over I told Scott that I was considering racing the first lap on my El Mariachi so that I could put it in the big ring and try to get the fastest lap. Scott gave a gasp and told me that I wasn't a true singlespeeder. Which I'd like to point out I never claimed to be in the first place. I like racing with gears and I like racing without them. What-EVER.

Anyways, I hung my head in shame and decided that I would stay on my SS the entire time. No shifting allowed at this race :-)

After a quick pre-ride, lots of talking and eating, we settled down in our tent and listened to giant mosquitoes attack our tent from the outside. It was scary! Wisconsin mosquitoes are just like the ones in Michigan...blood-sucking monsters!

The race started at 10 a.m. and I was dripping with sweat by 9 a.m. Not a good sign at all. My goal was to pace myself evenly throughout the race (even though I still wanted the fastest lap) and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I was racing with a bottle of water on my bike and had my hydrapak filled with powerbar drink mix. Lemon-lime! I never get sick of it.

We started with a typical Lemans start. I think we only had to run about 1/4 of a mile, but it was 1/4 of a mile too long in my book. It's hard to imagine that I did a 10 mile trail run this spring, because I was barely moving. It hurt so freaking bad. During the run I promised myself that IF I made it to my bike alive I would start running a little bit again.

I was so, so happy to reach my bike. I swear I heard everyone switch into their big rings all at once and I had to pedal my brains out to try and stay up on the doubletrack. Once we hit the singletrack I was able to move up a few spots, but for the most part it was wheel to wheel for the first 11 miles.

The trail was much clearer during the second lap and I ended up getting the fastest female lap! Woo hoo...and all without shifting! From that point on I just worked on building my lead. It was super hot out but my legs felt good and my laps were pretty consistent. It was the perfect trail for racing my SS on. The only difficult part was on a few tight sections of trail that had a lot of rocks and roots. Normally I would shift into an easier gear and pedal through but I obviously couldn't do that. Instead I was doing a lot of half-pedal strokes and coasting.

My legs felt good throughout the race, but during the 5th lap they started to feel awesome. At first I didn't realize that the temps had dropped, but once I looked at the sky I realized a storm was moving in. It turned really dark and windy and I loved every minute of it. Especially when it started thundering and lightening. At times I felt like I was riding in a river and it was FUN!!!

Obviously not safe though, and the promoter had to postpone the race. I was bummed because I hate stopping, and was ESPECIALLY bummed when I found out that my 5th lap wasn't going to count. It was because they had to pull some people behind me off the trail, so it wouldn't have been fair. Oh well, everyone was in the same boat. Since I couldn't go out for another lap I did the next best possible thing. Changed into dry gear, climbed into our truck with the heat blasting, ate a ham sandwich, drank a red bull and then took a small nap. It was kind of nice!

Exactly 2 hours later we were able to start again with a mass start. I was concerned that my legs would feel stiff, but they felt really good. It must have been the ham sandwich and mini nap. The rest of the race passed in a blur and by night I had enough of a lead that I was able to finish an hour early.

I am really excited about now I felt during the whole race and I never wished for gears once. Or maybe I did, and I've already forgotten about it :-) Now I'm trying to recover quickly. I'm not that sore, but I AM tired. I think I'm more tired from sleep deprivation then the actual race. I have the hardest time sleeping after an endurance race and it was even more of a problem in the tent.

Sadly I don't have any podium pictures but oh well. The awards weren't until noon and we had to leave early to get back to Michigan at a decent hour.

And we're back!

I am 100% positive that I will be dragging today. We drove all day Friday, raced all day Saturday, and then drove all day Sunday to get back home in time for work. Technically Scott did most of the driving in the car while I slept, but still.......

It was worth it though. The Wausau 6/12/24 was just as fun as I remember it being. Even with an epic storm in the middle.

Full race report coming right up (after work)!