brgInRedSidis

thinking about sticking my toe back in the water....

2012-02-14T12:45:00.002-07:00

I've been awhile since I've played pool. I did join and play in the local APA pool league a few years ago but I really dislike the APA and quit playing. I don't like playing on little bitty(crappy) tables, I don't like slop, I hate the 'handicap' system, I hate APA's version of 9 ball (it's BS) and tho there are some cool people - I ran into several people that were very unpleasant to be around. It totally wasn't worth it.

On a whim - I looked up the 15 rack 10ball league run by Melissa Little @ Wynkoop Brewery. They play on 9' tables and it's you and 'the ghost'. Turns out the league starts this coming Sunday. I'm seriously considering joining....It would be nice to see if I can get my stroke back...

green lights

2012-02-09T21:10:00.003-07:00

~25 years ago, I was a harried and busy young woman.   This was in the late 1980s in Dallas, Tx. I was hard working and ambitious. As a petite and young female in a very chauvinistic world, I had to work twice as hard as my male co-workers in order to climb the corporate ladder.

With my burgeoning career and as a mother to a 6 year old boy, I was always in a hurry - driving to-and-fro. As you can imagine I was often impatient when things didn't go my way.   Whenever I was rushing around and I hit a red light, I would be very annoyed.

Once when sitting at a red light, I wondered to myself... 'I wonder if I pay attention when I hit a green lights if it will lessen my annoyance with hitting red lights'. So, I decided whenever I hit a green light I would do a vocal cheer and raise my arms in victory.

A funny thing happened - because i was paying attention to green lights - it seems the percentage of time I hit green lights was much greater than the red lights. I was shocked.   I stopped being annoyed at red lights because I realized that I mostly hit green lights.

That was a powerful lesson for me to really pay attention to the good things - no matter how small. I accidentally changed my attitude.   When you focus on the good stuff and celebrate even all the small joys of life - life in general seems so much better.

Which brings me to why I wrote this post. My mtn bike coach (who btw - is quite awesome) posted this video on Facebook and it reminded me that for 25+ years that I've been doing my 'green light cheer'. :)

Another 'green light' I experienced today was I got to run today. It's been a week but with rest and some PT (and taking it easy) I was able to run 4 miles (albeit slowly) without pain.   I'm stoked I'll get to put in another whopping 4 miles again tomorrow!

postscript: A few years back I told my friend, Tom Keller the green light story. Tom can be very cynical, he laughed and said 'I can't decide - that is either the most profound thing I've ever heard or maybe it's the stupidest thing I've ever heard'.   I just laughed - that Tom, never a dull moment.   :)

injury avoidance dance...

2012-02-05T16:02:00.003-07:00

Dance...did someone say dance?   I'm a terrible dancer.   Well...except there was this one time in 1996 when I danced amazingly well for hours on end with the drummer of the Cajun band, Mamou....but I digress.

When I first took up running, my triathlete friend(recently turned archer), Phil said the key to running is staying 'injury free'.   I mentally scoffed at that...I mean how hard can it be to be injury free??? Considering all the consistently long hours (16-18hr wkly during my peak phase) I was training last year and all the techy terrain I was riding - I figured it would be easy for me to stay injury free.

But as I started ramping up the miles and duration of my runs, I noticed that I had to stay on top of the stretching and the recovery. If I didn't something would invariably hurt.   I guess the good thing about being active is you learn what the 'good pain' is and what the 'bad/injury pain' feels like. So I've been calling this fine line of listening to my body, being very aggressive with recovery, and running as much as possible - 'the injury avoidance dance'.

I've been able to keep on top of things fairly well. Once when I felt I had strained my calf - I stopped running for 3 days and then I was good to go.   I was stoked I was able to log 94 miles last month and was looking forward to even more this month.   However; last Wednesday, my right adductor muscles started hurting. It didn't feel like a groin strain (i've had those before from speedskating) but like the whole group of adductors were strained.   I attended my Power Max cycling class on Wednesday evening and every time I tried to stand up and crank out some power my right leg rebelled.

I didn't run Thursday and was limping around all day. Friday and Saturday weren't much better. I'm finally feeling just a tiny bit less pain today but I fear I'm going to be at least another week away from running again.

I have an appt with Josh @ AllSports for a MRT session tomorrow @ 5:20 - so maybe that will help. I'm so bummed that I haven't run in over 4 days!

i want to run at sea level

2012-01-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time when I started mtn biking - I wondered why in the heck all the rides started with a gut-busting climb. Seriously - here's the elevation profile of one of my favorite rides.(btw - this is a totally awesome ride)

Just once I want to ride some place when it starts and ends with a downhill and there's 30+ miles of rolling terrain. I have not found that place in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, or New Mexico

Now with running I hear how great it is to run at sea level. I noticed when reading "Running with the Buffaloes" they mentioned (several times mind you) the time differences between running at sea level and at altitude. Don't get me wrong - I love spending the summers in Breckenridge and riding at high altitude. (and hopefully this year running at altitude.) But I'm lazy and I think it would be really nice to run somewhere where there's lots of oxygen. :)

mixed bag - yeti chase 5k race report

2012-01-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

The quick scoop
No PR. :( BUT I did finish 1st the 50-59 AG. There were 20 in my AG and I finished 22nd out of 226 within gender with a disappointing time of 26:19. Not quite the time I was hoping for but it's my 3rd race and first win...

The Plan
I was excited to race the Yeti Chase 5k. It was billed as a "fast and flat loop" - so I thought it would be perfect to test myself against my first race back in 10/29/11 and a PR of 25:50. I've been running for 4.5 months and have been feeling pretty good putting in 25+ miles a week for the 4 weeks so I was ready to go.

Here's Racing Underground's definition of flat - call me crazy but that doesn't exactly look flat to me...glad I didn't know this ahead of time - or maybe I would have paced myself better if I had know the elevation profile.

The Race
It was a cloudy, slightly windy, and chilly 28 degrees.   brrr.... I wasn't nervous - I wasn't super rested (tsb of -.03*) but I didn't feel fatigued.   The hope was to average 8:10s. The plan was to hit an ~8 minute first mile and if I slowed down any not lose too much time until the finish. I didn't take any music because I wanted to be able to focus on my breathing and form.

Off we went @ 10am. I tried to settle into my race pace. Turns out the 1st mile was mostly downhill and after a couple of minutes I looked at my pace and it said 7:32 (yikes!). I backed it off and the first mile clicked by at 7:46. Around the middle of mile 1 I saw Jill (i only know of her through her blog) pass me - I figured it was her because she had raced the Carlsbad Marathon last weekend and she was wearing her Carlsbad shirt.   She was running strong - esp considering she had raced a marathon last week.   I was impressed. I know she's a good runner and my goal for the rest of race to try to keep her in sight. I was also keeping a lady in black & teal about 10 seconds ahead of me as a marker. I kept trying to gain on her but the distance always stayed the same.

The 2nd mile seemed really hard - a bit windy and uphill(?).   I noticed as I tried to charge up the hill that my HR was only 168. My race HR is usually in the 172-175 range. I tried to push harder and my HR didn't budge and my pace was slow. Every time I looked at my pace I saw a ~9 minute miles. ?? I was a bit discouraged.   My only consolation the distance between me and Jill and the lady in black/teal seemed to stay the same.   Mile 2 clicked by at 8:46 - yowza! that was bad. I slowed down by a whole minute! boo!

Mile 3 seemed to level out some and here is where I focused on form with a slight lean forward from the ankles. I kept trying to push harder but the ole HR wouldn't budge any higher than 168. It was still a little bit windy and mile 3 seemed to be rolling hills. Mile 3 was 8:32.

My split for the last .16 was 7:44.

Here's the info from my garmin - 26:19:22, 3.16, 8:19mi, 193 calories.

I sure was happy when I crossed the finish line.

Aftermath and results
I talked to the lady in black/teal and told her that she kept me motivated and I kept trying to catch her but never could. We both thought that it was a tough course. I introduced myself to Jill and we had the same discussion.

Jill and I checked the results - I finished 3 people after her. She finished 4th in her AG out of 52 and I saw that I finished 1st out of 20 in my AG. I'm super impressed with Jill's race - it's crazy to think she ran a marathon last week and ran so well today. big kudos to her!

1st place swag and cute tech shirt

Thoughts about competition
I feel kinda weird about 1st place in my AG. I certainly didn't set any speed records and I was disappointed with my time so for some reason I feel a bit guilty about the result.

When I compete I'm usually competing against myself to see I can keep my cool under pressure, not panic and be smart while competing. In my pool playing days some of my best memories/matches were NOT the matches I won but the matches where I overcame self doubt and performed way above my ability.

So that's what I'm looking for when running. Can I keep my cool? Can I push myself above my known abilities? Can I leave it all out of the course? I feel like I didn't do that this race and hence I'm left with a feeling of disappointment and embarrassment.

I talked with a high level runner (holds some CO State records that have held up for over 10 years)later today at All Sports while we were sitting in the recovery boots. I asked her 'have you ever felt bad even tho you had a good result because you didn't perform at your best?' She laughed and me and said 'No - I never feel that way. I'm always happy to be on the podium even if my time/performance wasn't as good as I hoped.' hmm...food for fodder.

*By the numbers
warning - boring geek stuff...probably a subject for another blog post.

I am happy that my de-coupled rate was less than 5%


optimal TSB should be between 10-20...so at -0.3 it was a little low.

end of the line??

2012-01-26T09:09:00.002-07:00

All the running blogs I read have been doing the 11 Things post. Being new into running I'm probably the last person to be tagged. However; 2 bloggers have tagged me. Terzah and Pensive Pumpkin (love that name). I won't be tagging others since everyone else has been tagged multiple times.
But for the record - here's the rules:

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in your tagger's post.
4. ~~Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.~~
5. ~~Go to their blogs and tell them you’ve tagged them.~~
6. ~~No stuff in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you are reading this." You legitimately have to tag 11 people!~~

11 random things about me
1. I started running because my boyfriend broke his arm. After he got the pain under control - he took up running to gain fitness. I'm a mtn biker but I started running with him just to help keep him motivated and surprisingly fell in love with running. We only run roads because as of 5 months later he is still healing and he's afraid to fall and re-break it if we run on trails. I'll run trails if he isn't around tho.

2. I don't drink coffee...I love the smell of coffee but can't stand the taste. anything with any type of coffee flavor - be it ice cream, cake or chocolate - yucko!

3. My Dad made me take the auto mechanics class in high school. He told me "you'll have to put up with a car longer than me, a husband or children - so you should learn how to work on them" Then he promptly put me to work on his work trucks changing the oil, doing tune-ups, changing out the starter, etc. I think he just made me do it so he'd have free labor. Of course, the cars nowadays are WAY different than the ones in the 1970s - so I don't work on my own cars.

4. After watching Terminator II in 1991 and seeing Linda Hamilton knocking out those chin-ups - I went to work. 3 years later I was able to consistently do 3 sets of 12pullups with full extension(not chin-ups either mind you).   Every time I did them at the gym - invariably some guy would be really impressed. Of course that was all I could do - pullups. I bet if some one asked me to run around the block I would've keeled over within 2 minutes.

5. No matter how crappy my day is I realize any day I don't have to get up early and milk a cow is a GREAT day! I grew up on a farm and my Dad made me get up at 6am to milk the cows. I never understood why I had to get up so early - cows can't tell time!

6. I hate cilantro.

7. I LOVE going to Zolo Grill and having a wonderful dinner of margs and chips/guac. One of the perks of living alone and being an adult!

8. It annoys me to no end when my sister calls me a 'cougar' because my boyfriend is 3.5 years younger than me. Seriously that's not like i'm robbing the cradle - besides I look younger than him that's gotta count for something!

9.I dislike any animal print clothing or accessories. Be it leopard, tiger or zebra print. It's fine for other people but I would never wear anything like that - it just seems to over-the-top for me and my style.

10. My Dad was a carpenter - until I was 16 years old I would go to work with him when I wasn't in school. As a result of this I can setup/build a concrete foundation, frame a house, lay brick, read blueprints, roof a house, put up drywall and build cabinets.

11. I'm a pancake connoisseur.

Pensive Pumpkin's questions:
1. Who is your favorite superhero? Superman but only because he's Clark Kent in real life.   I'm a big time sucker for nerdy men. When I was single one of my requirements was any potential bf had to be an engineer. That and he had to mtn bike.

2. What is your favorite of all your awesome body parts? My quads. Strangers comment about them all the time...especially if I'm wearing my GeeWaWa boots and a skirt.

3. How many careers have you gone through so far? 1 - I'm 50 years old and have been in my career for 29 years and I love it as much as I did when I start back in 1983. wasn't that when MTV was invented?? is it still around?

4. What was your latest Halloween costume? flapper girl and I went to the local pool hall and challenged all comers and kicked some a$$

5. If you have the time and energy to cook anything you want, what do you cook? I don't cook much.

6. If you could wake up in someone else's body for the day, who would you be? Shonny Vanlandingham

7. What would you do as that person? (easy two parter- score!) Win the Kona xterra race of course. I wonder than that feels like.

8. What is your favorite book? Worthing Saga- Orson Scott Card

9. You win one of those around the world plane tickets- where do you go first?
New Zealand

10. What is your biggest struggle? wasting time on the internet

11. What is your biggest goal in life? Living my life without pretense and judgement. for a cynical, slightly sarcastic person - that's a tall order...maybe one day I'll get there. My friend, Rocky that recently passed away, is my model for living life without pretense.

Terzah's questions:
1. Which U.S. state do you most want to visit and what would you do there? New York. Mainly because Ricky(my son) lives in NYC and I don't get to see him often enough. Eat and shop!

2. If you are a parent, what's the most important piece of advice you have for those of us who are also parents (and I want to know this even if your kids are still young)? If you don't have kids, what's the best thing your parents ever did for you, even if it was unpleasant at the time? Read to your child every night. Ricky is 31 years old and he told me that me reading to him every night was the best thing I did for him.

3. Name your favorite sport (running, tris, cycling etc.). If you couldn't do it, what would be your next choice and why? Hands down - it's mountain biking. I love riding big, scary rocks. Running is next in line.

4. If you could pick a totem animal, what would it be and why? A cat. I love their nonchalant and confident attitude.

5. What's the scariest thing you ever did? Winter mountaineering on Mt. Shasta. There was a lot of black ice the year I went and I was with a guided trip and most of the people were beginners.   Needless to say there was a lot of self-arresting going on.

6. If you still live in your hometown, are you glad you stayed? If you don't still live in your hometown, would you like to go back and live there? No - I don't live in my home town and I would never go back and live there.

7. Are you a fan of motivational posters? No.

8. Do you do well on standardized tests? Yes - I'm a pretty good test-taker.

9. Which countries/regions did your ancestors come from? Do you strongly identify with any of those places? I'm Mexican with quite a bit of Mayan blood. I do not have a strong attachment to Mexico or the culture. Tho my sister (the same one that tells me I'm a 'cougar') likes to remind me that we are 'peasant stock'.

10. Which do you like best: baseball or football? neither

11. Name your favorite movie of all time. Terminator I

whew - that was a long f'ing post! is anyone still reading??

9 mile run recovery food

2012-01-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

9 mile run on Saturday (my longest so far). Post run recovery treat. Dizzy Donuts delivers or you can snag one at Vic's, Boom Yogurt and Ozo's. YumEEEE!!!

Dizzy maple donut topped with bacon.

I have a serious problem....it's a boot problem

2012-01-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yes - I have a boot problem. Is 14 pair too many??

2009 on a NM mtn bike road trip - my friend, Ben caught me braiding my hair before a ride...had to wait until the last second to trade the boots for my red sidis. :)

Putting on a pair of boots makes everything better. Just ask yourself that question and the answer is always "yes!". Some say it makes them feel sassy - others say no matter how slouchy they are dressed if you put on a pair of boots then that pulls the outfit together. I'm in the sassy camp - I totally love 'boot weather'.

My boot collection has grown in the past 3 years.

I have small feet but also have big calves from cycling. Lucky for me a lot of shoe manufacturers don't make size 5 and when they do sometimes they won't fit over my calves (tho i've been know to get the calf area stretched to make them fit....)which probably saves me a TON of money!

I'd say I like a comfortable but a slightly edgy style of boot. Even tho I am only 4'10" my feet cringe at the thought of high heels.

I do like a little bit of a lift so I'm drawn to chunky heels that aren't much over 2" high. I don't like the pointy toed shoes either - I prefer the rounded toe or a square toe - not crazy about the idea of forcing my feet into a point and developing bunions.

Here's how the collection stands as of now.

These are my favorites - the brand is Hispanitas. Size 5 that run a tad small - love the toe box and the red accent on the back of the boot. I bought them at Nordstroms - sadly they haven't carried this brand in over 3 years.

my 2nd favorite pair - red patent leather. A little bit of a heel, waterproof, great traction and comfortable. LaCanadienne purchased from Zappos.com

LOVE these - cydwoqs. The leather on these puppies is like butter - hand made in the USA. Purchased directly from the company Cydwoq (pronounced "sidewalk")

frye's - frye's run big and their smallest size is usually 5.5 - I found these (a true size 5) on 6pm.com (zappos outlet site). Yeah and ignore all those scars on my knees... ;)

These don't look like much but I LOVE the subtle detail. The stitching on the heel, the staples near the wooden sole, the post pins on the pull tabs and the wide calves for tucking in skinny jeans. oh yeah! Italian made - Vialis - purchased at Nordstrom Rack

Super cute oxford style booties - the brand is Antelope & were purchased at Anthropologie

Love these badass moto style boots - looks great with skirts(and bike shorts!). I get a lot of complements from guys when wearing these puppies. Gee Wa Wa purchased from Endless.com

brown Miz Mooz boots - purchased from Nordstrom Rack. A little high heeled for my taste and only get worn on rare occasions.

my old faithfuls - DKNY boots that are 18(!) years old.

This is one of my favorite brands - an Italian company - Moma. Love the shaped wooden heel and detail on the toe box. Purchased from yoox.com

Amazing leather and well constructed - these will last forever. Sendras from Nordstroms

fluevogs - love these olive green boots that *hint* of cowboy boots but aren't the full on pointy toed kind. these are totally sassy!

Another pair of Moma's - these are my "go-to" every day wear boots. Love the wooden heel and they are just a tad edgy.

Green Miz Mooz - so retro looking purchased somewhere in NYC in 2006

Places I shop

Other than checking out Nordstrom Rack a few times a year - I usually buy online and take advantage of all the free shipping/free returns offers from Endless and Zappos. 6pm.com does charge shipping but it's reasonable and throughout the year they have free shipping. (but not free returns). If I order something online from Nordstroms or Antropologie - I try to take advantage for their free shipping offers and if it doesn't work out I can return to the local stores.

Here's my list of favorite online boot shops
1. endless.com (they have the most variety of styles + free shipping/returns!)
2. nordstroms.com (love their styles and the fact they carry small sizes + free shipping/returns!)
3. anthrolopogie.com (tho a lot of their styles are *too young* for me or *over the top* they have a great selection. They are not consistent with carrying small sizes but sometimes I get lucky.)
4. yoox.com (LOVE this website - it's italian so they have a LOT of unique styles that you don't see anywhere else. Love, love, LOVE the Moma, Geste Proposition, Cafe'Noir brands)
5. 6pm.com (zappos outlet site - if I had my eye on something @ zappos - I check this site to see it's gone on sale)
6. zappos.com (good selection of styles but lacking on small sizes but they do have free shipping/returns)

As of this season - I haven't added any boots to the collection...

But the following are on the wish list...

BUT I should probably wear a couple of pair of my current collection out before I add more...I mean after all - how many pair does a girl need?? ;)

something has gotta give

2012-01-15T12:24:00.001-07:00

This running thing is making me give up one of the things I love best about off-season - strength training.

Once upon a time...
One of my favorite things about mtn biking off-season is strength training at the Alpine Training Center. I love the workouts - they are good, honest-to-goodness, full body, tough workouts.

The past 2 off seasons I went faithfully 3 times a week - I dare say I was addicted to the ATC.

Plus who could not feel good about:
being able to swing a 24kg (53lbs) kettlebell that is half your body weight

being able to climb a 15ft rope without foot locks - only using arms and core

being able to do 10 dead-hang pull-ups in a row - yes with full extension and without any of that swinging and kicking and kipping.

Running is taking all my reserves
Last off-season I was able to do ~6 -7 hours of biking and 3 days ATC workouts per week - no problem.

But - 2 weeks into my half marathon training putting in ~25 miles of running per week - I have been too tired to go to the ATC. I know myself well enough to know if I go to the ATC I will be digging myself into an over training hole.

I'm hoping that once my 'running chassis' gets in place and I'm used to running 25 -35+ miles per week - I can slowly start incorporating going to the ATC again.

In the meantime - I purchased this book. I saw a blogger, Jill had recommended it on someone else's blog. I checked it out at the bookstore and really liked it so I bought it.

I figured I could take what I know from the ATC and match it up with some of the exercises demonstrated in the book. At this point I am going to try to do a couple of easy 30 minute strength sessions per week at the regular gym just to keep some of my strength.

I'm hoping eventually I will be fit enough in the running department to be able to go back to the ATC...I sure to miss the coach, Connie, all the people that workout there and the hard work.

little feet - shoe dilemma

2012-01-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

normally size 4.5/5 shoe but some in running shoes I can wear a Kid's size 3 too...

I'm a small person - 4'10 - the height of an average 5th grade student. When I went to my son's field day when he was in 5th grade a gallizon years ago I noticed I was the same size as all the kids in his class. That was an eye opener.

I don't feel little but then I see pictures of myself with people - I think 'dang! i'm SHORT!!'. It cracks me up when women that are 5'2" say they are short - uhhh...yeah they got 4(!) inches on me. I can only dream...

here's me with some of my girlies - they range in height from 5'4" to 5'7" (but I don't feel little!)

Luckily I'm in proportion. I don't have long legs (relatively speaking of course) and a short torso and I don't have short legs and a long torso. I'm like a normal sized person just shrunken down a bit.

For reference here's a picture of my Asics Nimbus in Kid's size 3(!) next to Dave's shoe - he wears a Men's 9.5

When I find something that fits I just usually buy it right then and there. Once I did score these Jimmy Choo's at Nordstrom Rack for $80 bucks. The PLAN was to wear them to Ricky's wedding but after I showed him this picture he nixed the idea of me wearing them. They were too "young looking" for the mother-of-the-groom to wear...but I digress...

Size 4.5 Jimmy Choo's for 80 bucks! How could I pass up that deal. Supposedly they are like $800 shoes. And oh yeah - they hurt like a mother too!

How many running shoes do I need?

left to right - Nike Free, Newton Lady Issac, Asics Nimbus

I've only been running for 4 months and I already have 3(!) pair of running shoes and I am considering buying a 4th pair. (yes - I know I have a shoe and boot problem).   To be fair my Nike Frees were my gym shoes before I started running - they just got drafted into running duty.

I bought the Nike's because they run small and they come in a size 5(yay!). I've been wearing these to the ATC workouts for about a year. I like the fact they aren't too cushy - which is nice when I'm doing a deadlift that's twice my bodyweight - my feet feel stable.

So when I started running I just ran in these puppies. They seem to work just fine but the mesh lets a lot of air in and my feet get cold when it's under 30 degrees.

I went to Boulder Running Company to get some shoes that would be better for cold weather running. The sales girl seemed a little disappointed the only pair of shoes in the store that fit me were a pair of kids shoes that were on sale. Apparently the Asics Nimbus in adult sizes go for ~$120 and these (supposedly just like the adult construction - just shrunken down) on sale for $40.

Turns out I don't like the Asics that much - they seem more clunky than my Nike Frees. So even tho they were inexpensive- I rarely use them. I seem to naturally have a mid-foot strike so a friend of mine told me about the Newtons so I tried a pair of those. They carry size 5 and the style I chose runs a tad small. They seem to work fine too but I still like my Nike Frees the best. The Newtons   are just a teeny-tiny bit big but I figured I could wear thicker shoes for cold weather running. BUT they are TERRIBLE on slick terrain.

So NOW I want some shoes with better traction.   I've been looking at the Saucony Peregrine. The reviews I've read say they run a half size small and they come is size 5. (yay!) and supposedly they have great traction.

So my dilemma is - do i just put screws in my Asics and use those when the conditions are slippery or should I spring for a pair of Saucony's??

out of limbo

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ok...decision made. With the sign-up to the Platte River Half Marathon - I'm committed the next 4 months to run and then after that - it's mtn bike time(that's the plan anyway) baby!

I'm not a "new year resolution" type person so the goals I've set myself for the next 4 months don't have anything to do with the fact 2012 just started. :)

But here is goes -

Race schedule

Running Goals-

have FUN! If i'm not having a good time and smiling then I need to be doing something else! yeeHAW!
be smart and don't get injured! Even if that means backing off of races or time goals
race a 5k at a sub-8 minute mile pace which equates to a sub 25 minute race. That would be the total of 50 seconds faster than my first 5k I did in October 2011. A goal I feel is very doable.

secret goal - race a 5k in the 'age graded' range of 70% or above. That would mean a 24:10 minute race and a pace of 7:46 minute miles (approx 30 seconds per minute faster than my first 5k) A time of 24:10 is the age-graded equivalent to a "young person"(aka a person half my age) running a 5k in 21:08.

Run a my first ever half marathon within a sub-2 hour time frame.

To help me reach these goals I've been fortunate enough to be able to enlist help from bouldercoaching.com. I'll be working with Darren De Reuck. I do feel a little bit out of my league - the same way I did when Lynda Wallenfels agreed to take me on for mtn biking since both Darren and Lynda coach world level/elite athletes.

I'm stoked I have so many great resources at my disposable...I'm gonna give it my all and do my part to not squander it!

Still some Uncertainty...

here's me in my costume for the 2010 edition of 12 hours of Mesa Verde

So I figured a week of recovery from the Platte Half Marathon and then that would give me enough time to train for the 12 hours Mesa Verde mtn bike race on May 12, 2012, right?? I'd done this race the past few years and it's been one of the highlights of the year. Fun course and fun atmosphere.

But then after talking to my daughter-in-law (they live in NYC) I'm *thinking* about doing the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 20th...

I wonder if that's doable - race my 1st ever half marathon on April 15th - race a 12 hour mtn bike race on May 12 and race another half (at sea-level mind you!) on May 20th. hmm...wonder of my old body can take it??

guess we'll see how it goes! i'm excited to see what happens in 2012. bring it!

who me?? Runner's World story

2011-12-29T22:21:00.002-07:00

This past week I had a phone conversation with a guy doing a Runner's World story about recovery methods. I felt kinda like a bozo - 'who me? what do i know about running??' But that's typical Boulder - there's always someone that's connected to someone else or knows someone and somehow a newbie like me gets asks questions by some guy writing for Runner's World. how weird is that??
Backstory
This past summer as I was ramping up toward the crux of my Breck Epic training...Coach told me "you are a slow recover-er". That really bummed me out..I thought to myself "great another thing I need to worry about.' But it was true - every workout left me sore and tired. If I was going to reach my goal of doing a 6 day mtn bike race at high altitude- I'd have to recover faster in order to be able to train harder.

slowing easing into a freezing cold river in Salida!

As any great coach would do - Lynda took a hard look at my nutrition and recovery methods. This is when I learned the *magic* of ice baths, compression tights and foam rollers. I think the ice baths were the key. My first "ice bath" was soaking in the river in Salida after day 1 of a 2 day stage race. I was seriously amazed how good I felt afterward and how well I rode the next day. SOLD! From then on after every hard workout there was a ice bath immediately afterward, a little foam rolling and then compression tights.

Since then I have joined All Sports Recovery and take advantage of their MVP Normatec Compression boots, circulating ice bath and cold lasers. I get my moneys worth for sure - I'm pretty much a fixture at the place... after every run I go there and use the boots and any achy spot I have I use the cold laser on it. I think it's given me the ability recover faster to go out and run the next day.

no - this not me - it's picture I stole off the All Sports Recovery website. But let me tell you - you'd be smiling like that too if you were in those boots - those puppies are awesome!!!

Now to the Runners World part...
So other day I was at All Sports and I had a conversation with the owner Josh.

Josh: "hey -you are a runner, right?"
me: "welll...I just started running I'm not quite sure I'd call myself a runner"
Josh: "this guy from Runner's World is doing a story on running and recovery methods - would you be willing to talk to him?"
me: "uhhh...shouldn't he be talking to like a *real runner*...maybe even an expert?"
Josh: "No - actually I recommended another lady that comes here - but he recognized her name and said she was *too fast*. He wanted to talk to someone that was more average"
me: "uhhh...we'll i'm definitely average - so..ok...sure..I'll talk to him"

The guy called me up and wanted to know a few things:
1. how long I had been running (4 months)
2. recovery methods I was consistently using . (ice baths, MVP compression boots, foam roller and compression tights)
3. how long I've been doing these recovery methods (since the summer while training for a mtn bike race and since then I use the same recovery methods for running)
4. Did I think running was harder on the body than mtn biking( yes - I think a demanding, technical 3 hour mtn bike ride would be equivalent to a 1 hour tempo run)
5. Had my running speed gotten any faster since I started running (yes - i have definitely improved over the last 4 months)
6. Did I think the recovery methods I was using allowed me to run faster.(to this I said - yes and no. Whenever you start something new big gains are usually made at the start. So the fact that once my body got used to running consistently then my speed increased. So the fact I was a newbie with a good cardio fitness base gave me the ability to run faster within a few months. However; I think the fact that the recovery methods I used allowed me to run consistently. If my muscles weren't sore and fatigued that allowed me to go out and run the next day. So yes - recovery methods I used enable me to run faster since I wasn't fatigued)

It was interesting conversation...I don't know if he'll use anything I told him..but it was a cool experience.

committed

2011-12-26T23:22:00.000-07:00

At least until April 15th. Hope my mtn bike(s) don't miss me too much. :)

The Best of 2011 - the Best day of my life - July 23, 2011

2011-12-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

While everyone has a list of "the best of 2011" - I only have one thing on the list and it overshadows every other day in my life. Now don't get me wrong - I had a lot of great days and personal achievements this year...actually every year I have amazing and wonderful days - but July 23, 2011 was hands down the best day of my life.

July 23, 2011 was the day the light of my life - my son Ricky married Catherine.

I knew it would be a wonderful day and as it unfolded I realized it was turning into something very special and I made sure I was present every moment and didn't take a second for granted.

It even made me happier when Ricky told me the wedding wildly exceeded what he dared hoped it would be. With both the families and his life long friends all sharing in their magical day.

The couple
Catherine is the perfect match for Ricky. From the beginning when Ricky talked about Catherine - I knew she was something special to him. And tho personally I haven't spent much time with her - I know about her through Ricky. So when they announced their engagement last year I breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't going to let her get away!

Catherine looking stunning on her 30th birthday

And after spending the wedding weekend with them on that estate in upstate New York - i was able to witness how in sync they were and their love and devotion to each other. A mother couldn't ask for more.

AND how could one doubt that they were meant to be together. Catherine drew this picture when she was around 9 years old. The groom in that drawing looks just like Ricky.

The families

I met Catherine's parents that weekend. Without them - this magical day would not have been possible.

Larry, Catherine, Marilyn

They contributed so much to making it happen. It was really nice to meet them and they told me "Ricky stories" and talked about how much they loved him. Catherine has a large family - 2 sisters(Megan & Colleen) and 2 brothers(Matt & Chris). She's the youngest child. Plus the Aunts, Uncles, cousins and family friends were in attendance. Everyone I talked to had "Ricky stories" and they were talked about what a kind and good person Ricky is...I was filled with so much joy that day knowing how much Ricky is loved.

Colleen and Mega

As the sisters gave their toasts for the couple that both spoke of how not only was Ricky - now Catherine's husband - they also considered him a very good personal friend.

My Mom really made this weekend special too. She made sure that every close family member made it to the wedding. I know she did whatever she had to do (be it airfare, hotel room or rental cars) to make sure all my sisters and brother and their children attended this event. Seriously - it made it all that more special to have all our close family members there and my Mom made it possible.

my Mom and Dad - Ricky's Grandparents

Daddy, Mom, Ricky, Catherine, me and Dave

uhh...the Ferrer sisters aren't all in one place very often - but maybe that's a good thing! Kathy, Leticia, Patricia, me

The Friends

Marcus was Ricky's best man. They have been friends since kindergarten. The rest of his groomsmen are friends from High School and/or college. All of his friends are amazing and fine young men in their own right. As a young man of 30 years old - Ricky has lifelong friends. I think that speaks a lot of his character.

ricky and marcus - BFF

Ricky's friends have all grown up to be fine young men

the Groomsmen looking stylish - actually I'm still slightly freaked out that the boys I remember from Ricky's childhood are now young men.

Marcus gave a great toast to the couple. He started off by saying "Our friendship is old enough to rent a car" They have been friends for 25+ years. Marcus had everyone rolling on the floor with laughter. My only regret for that day is that toast was not recorded.

The reception was so much fun. Much dancing and merry making. I had to call it quits at 12midnight - but I heard my 76 year old Mom outlasted pretty much everyone and was up until 1am. that woman has stamina!!

The Venue

As I said - Catherine's parents made this special day possible. They rented an estate for the weekend that slept 20 people so the immediate family members were all together for the weekend. It was a beautiful location.

In the end

As a Mother - I could have not dreamed of better for Ricky. You hope you have provide an environment where your child can have a better life than you. That's all I wanted for Ricky. Now as a young adult he's grown into a kind and good person. He career is his hobby (he's a graphic designer) and he is hard worker and always does his best. He married his perfect match. He lives in the city he always wanted to live in. (NYC) He is much loved by many people. He's created a wonderful life for himself.

So, I find myself at a slightly odd space in life. After Ricky went to college - I moved to Boulder, CO. In the 10 years I've been here - my life is spent doing what I want to do whenever I want to do it. I feel I live a "decadent" life. No - it's not one of wild parties and unrestrained eating. But one of riding my bike, or running or sleeping late when I want or eating breakfast at The Walnut or Turley's whenever I damn well please or even adding another pair of boots to my boot collection.

And in Boulder where so much revolves around personal accomplishments (not that I'm not immensely proud of my hard work and accomplishments around mtn biking) it feels so damn good that the best day in my life has nothing to do with me or something as frivolous as doing well in a mtn bike race.

What's your secret? Skin care regime part deux

2011-12-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

I am 50 years old and have been told I look "young for my age". Since I've been in my early 40s people have asked me for my skin care secret. I have been consistent in taking care of my skin for 25+ years - that consistency (which means I look like a big nerd sometimes) has left my skin in decent shape for a 50 year old...(disclaimer: I'm NOT a skin care expert - this is just info based on my layman's knowledge, advice from my PA derm sister, and my personal research & experience!)

here's picture of me at Ricky's wedding - July 23, 2011(i'm 49.5 years old in this picture). This picture is taken in natural light - I'm wearing lipstick but other than that I am not wearing any makeup at all. And I do happen to have a big zit on my right cheek. ;)

if you click on the picture you can see the gray hairs are showing & the crows feet

Yes - this is soft lighting. This is my friend Brooke and I at my 50th birthday party - Brooke is 40 and has been listening to me preach the sunscreen sermon for over 10 years. ;)

2 pics of me in harsh outdoor light - the wrinkles and gray hair stand out!
No botox for me - I like having facial expressions ;)

ok..maybe I went a little overboard here with the sunscreen on the arms and the "burqa" around my face - what a dork! Look how cute my friend Tracy looks in a tank top without all that white sunscreen on her arms...

I did a blog post on my skin care regime back in 2006.(i'm ~44 years old in the pic in the 2006 blog post) Due to the fact my regime has changed a little bit in the last 6 years and after attending a Slipada party the other night where pretty much every women there (when they found out my age) asked me about my skin care secret - I decided to revisit the subject.

So here is is...

First off - consistency is KEY.

I never, EVER leave the house without putting sunscreen on. I put it on my face, neck and back of my hands. I don't care how cloudy it is or how short the days are or if i'm only going outside to run errands for 15 minutes - i always wear sunscreen. I've been wearing sunscreen everyday for 25+ years...since my mid-20s.
Over the years so many people have asked me for advice. Months later I'll ask how it's going and they'll say - 'oh - i'm not really following the regime any more'. Then they wonder why are they aren't seeing results.
Be patient - it's not an overnight change - it takes time. I'd say give it at least 6 months - take before and after pictures. Take close up pictures in good lighting to track progress.
For the past 12 years I've been using my daily/nightly skin care regime (outlined below) religiously.

I guess i beat the consistency horse to death, eh?? ;)

There are several good options out there

Skin care be overwhelming and confusing. With all the products(there are several great products available) that are out there it's really hard to know what to do and what items to pick.

Is expensive better than less expensive?
What combination is the best?
When do you use these products?
What order do you use the products?
When will I see results?

The Oil of Olay Regenerist and Neutragena Ageless Restoratives are 2 very good lines if you don't want to mix and match products.

The best option that is easy to follow, not too expensive (and works just as well as the way expensive stuff) and can be tailored to your skin type is the Oil Of Olay Regenerist line(i have no affiliation with Oil of Olay). This link will take you to a questionnaire to determine which products are best for you. This site outlines products to use based on your skin type and when to use them. If it wasn't for my PA Dermatologist sister - I would go this route.

In addition (BIG recommendation) ...

I recommend getting micro-dermabrasion every 4- 6 weeks. It helps with the sun damage and "supposedly" it helps stimulate collagen production which helps with the elasticity of the skin.

Yep - it can spendy but there are good options out there.

I go to Longs Peak Acadmeny in Longmont. Mircoderm treatments are $50 - if you go the 3 pack route - it ends up being ~$39 per treatment.
I see so many groupons and living social micro derm deals every week. Snag one of those and use it! But do it every 4 - 6 weeks - just like getting a hair cut!

My Personal Regime

Personally - since I know what my skin looked like years 10 - 15 years ago - I definitely see the signs of aging but I think in general what I am doing is working well for me.

here's the goods I use

Products:
1. MD Forte Glycare Facial Cleanser
2. SkinMedica Night Eye Repair
3. SkinMedica Retinol
4. SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic
5. SkinCeuticals Eye gel
6. SkinMedica TNS Recovery Complex
7. Any suncreen containing titanium oxide & zinc oxide. I don't use chemical sunscreens - so look for the ones that contain titanium or zinc oxide.
8. Cetaphil Unscented moisturizer

9. AmLactin alpha hydroxy lotion

Evening regime:

Wash face with MD Forte Glycare Cleansing Gel
Apply SkinMedica Night Eye Repair under eyes
Mix a dab of the SkinMedica Retinol with a dab of Skin Medica TNS Recovery Complex and apply to face and neck
Apply moisturizer

Morning regime:

Wash face with MD Forte Glycare Cleansing Gel
Apply SkinCeuticals Eye gel
Apply SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic (vitamin C)
Apply moisturizer
Apply sunscreen to face, neck and back of hands

Body regime:

Mix a dab of AmLactin & a dab of Cetaphil together and slather on body immediately after a shower or hot bath. I especially make sure I cover around the top part of the arm area, the skin that covers the collarbones and the decolletage. These areas seem to be very susceptible to becoming crepey and saggy
I also rub AmLactin on my feet every night before I go to bed.

Biking/running regime:

Any skin that is exposed to the sun I slather on 2 layers of sunscreen to make sure all spots are covered. I only use sunscreens that contain zinc or titanium oxide. The physical barrier is much more effective for sun protection than the chemical sunscreens.
I've taken to wearing either long sleeve SPF material clothing or Arm Coolers that provide sun protection - no matter how hot it is outside.

While everyone looks cute in their tank tops and is showing off beautiful muscles - I'm the dork with long sleeves. I usually have a nice white sheen to my face too. My friends make fun of me for being all covered up. But what can you do?? ;)

July 4th 2011 - me and my arm coolers

notice the nice white sheen on my face & oh yeah - that jacket is EMS Teckwik 50+ spf
this is my pal Jessica and I just after we finished a 12 hour mtn bike race.

my favorite sunscreen

I purchase most of these products through Amazon. For the SkinMedica stuff (super spendy) I usually buy the sample sizes - it's a lot cheaper that way. It's hard to get a deal on the TNS recovery so I usually just pay full price - but it's worth it. Or maybe it's not working but I'm afraid to stop using it in fear of what might happen.

Hope this post was informative and useful!

Floundering and searching for clarity

2011-12-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Knowing what to do during the mtn bike off-season has always been easy. Strength training(check), yoga(check) and enough biking/cardioto maintain a cardio base(check) . Usually I know what's in store for next year too. Which races I want to do - which of my weaknesses I want to work on, etc. But mostly i want to ride the heck out of my bike.

I can't explain how much I love mtn biking - i LOVE technical riding, i LOVE fast, swoopy, smooth single track, I LOVE the exposure to the sun that goes with desert riding and I LOVE being enclosed in trees on the high alpine trails. I LOVE the grinding, lung busting climbs and the scary, break-your-teeth rocky descents and everything in between. I LOVE the Spring where every little hill puts me in the red zone - I LOVE escaping to the cooler mountains when it's hot during the Summer in Boulder and I LOVE the beauty of Fall riding it's indescribably joyful. So it's easy - the off-season is for prepping for mtn biking.

photo album of fun rock moves

But now here's this running thing. At first I thought - well I can do this for 3 or 4 months and then go back to my 'regularly scheduled mtn bike program'. Now it's closing in on the end of December and I don't think I'll be able to give it up. I do love to run.

Wasting time
I feel like I've squandered the time I allotted myself for running. I started running on September 15, 2011. It's 3 months later and I don't have any idea how to be a better runner. Right now I'm just running when I feel like it - doing "speed work" based on things I gathered off the internet. But I have no idea how much speed work to do, when to do it, when to do a long run, when to do an easy run and when to rest and when to recover.

I feel a "shortness of time" that I allowed myself closing in.

What do I want?

At this point in time - I'd like to keep running.
I'd like to be faster. My secret goal is to run a sub-25 minute 5k. But I have no idea how to get there tho I think it's a reachable goal..
I'd like to be able to run longer. Maybe a half-marathon...so far my longest run has been 6 miles.

Which brings up the following questions

Is it possible to become a better runner without fully committing to it? i'm guessing the answer to that is "NO!"
I wonder if I can do both - the mtn biking and running? I want to go to Camp Lynda in Feburary - but really hate to show up without any biking legs.
Am I too old to do both at the level I'd like? Can I recover enough doing both sports or would I just dig myself into a big overtraining hole...
Can I accept the fact my mtn bike skills might decline? that would be tough...I don't know
Should I give up the bike for a year and just run? My friend, Phil tells me having a "running chassis" is important. Maybe I should give up the bike for a year and get my running chassis in place and then try to combine both...

Tough - tough choices...I guess for right now - at least for the next 2 weeks - i'm going to ponder this dilemma by running my little, frickin', heart out.

running disappointment put into perspective

2011-12-14T10:51:00.003-07:00

It's been over 8 weeks since I've raced my first race. I've been itching to give a 5k another go to see I have gotten any faster.

The original plan was to race the Colder Boulder on Dec. 3rd - however the Wednesday before(Nov 30th) I strained my LCL playing tennis. I attempted to run on the 2nd and I couldn't even get 20ft. I rested for 5 more days then ran 5 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday even cranking out a couple of 8 minute miles. My leg felt good - so on to plan b - I signed up for the Denver Jingle Bell run on Dec. 10th.

It probably wasn't the best idea as I had a intense week of exercise leading up to Saturday. Not wanting to give up any strength gains I've made I went to the 3 Alpine Training Center workouts last week. I also attended my weekly Power Max cycling class at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and last week we did a time trial. Then another 5 mile run on Friday @ an avg 9:07 pace. Needless to say I was going into the weekend slightly fatigued - my TSS was a negative 8.8. (I used WKO+ software for my Breck Epic training and after I started running I was thrilled to find out it calculates a TSS score from my garmin run files!! I'm in data geek heaven!)

The Race
I did a 20 minute warmup and legs weren't feeling very peppy - I was hoping they'd perk up during the race.

I was happy to be on the start line and wasn't nervous at all - I was just ready to throw down and go visit the hurt locker.

Mile 1 felt pretty good - I was working hard and looked at my garmin - I thought my pace was too fast so I tried to back it off. Still i started off with too fast of a pace as the first mile clicked by in 7:52.(my goal was to try to avg 8:10s) Then it all unraveled. Every little incline my legs felt sluggish. I focused on keeping my head up and trying to keep my turnover high.   I couldn't seem to really push into my red zone - typically I can maintain a 175 HR for a short effort like this but my HR seemed to be hovering around 168/169.   Mile 2 clicked by at a disappointing 8:27...ughh...Since I couldn't red line my HR I decided to spend the 3rd mile just focusing on a lady in a bright blue shirt. She had passed me at the beginning of the race and was staying the same distance ahead.   So I tried to maintain my running form and pass her. It was nice to have something to focus on other than my negative thoughts - I did eventually pass her and she never passed me back. I did slow down a bit more during the 3rd mile it clicked by at 8:37. According to my Garmin the course was 3.18 long and the last .18 took me 1:20.

Final official time 26:23 - a disappointing 33 seconds slower than the Eerie Erie.   I'm thinking my Garmin might be a bit off because my speed average based on my garmin is a little bit faster than the official 8:31 pace.

The results were posted fairly quickly (that is SO different than mtn bike races where it may be DAYS later before they post results) and I saw I had finished 3rd in my age group.

meh...I was disappointed I was so far off from my target pace and was moping.

Then everything changed

30 minutes after the race i received a text - a very dear friend who had been battling some tough health issues wasn't doing well. Dave and I immediately booked it down to Pueblo - with me still stinky, sweaty and slathered in sunscreen. We visited with our friend at the hospital who was very weak but he seemed to rally - even enjoying the entertaining Broncos football game that night. Full of hope he would bounce after the energy he was displaying back we drove back home late the evening.

Monday morning we received word that he had taken a turn for the worse and probably wouldn't last the day. Dave and I dropped everything and drove back to Pueblo and were with him and his family as he left this world.

My heart has been heavy since the loss of my friend. He was a wonderful person and he will be greatly missed by many people. It seems really silly to be disappointed in the race - losing Rocky really put everything into perspective. I'm still trying to process Rocky's death...I wasn't ready for it...

"you gotta learn how to hurt" and other sage advice

2011-10-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

Sage Advice

Sage advice #1:
Once upon a time I asked Dave - how do I get faster on the bike - our conversation went like this:
Dave: "you gotta learn how to hurt"
Me: "i am hurting when I'm going hard on the bike"
Dave: "ummm...no you aren't - you are uncomfortable but you aren't hurting"
Me (thinking to myself) 'you don't know what you are talking about because what I'm doing does hurt'

Turns out Dave was right - i was just in 'uncomfortable' mode not in 'burying myself in the pain cave mode'.

Sage advice #2:
I was talking to Dana D. about one of my laps at the 24 hours of Moab. I mentioned that I was chatting with a girl on the back side of the course.

Dana: "girrl!!! if you were talking to someone - you weren't racing"
me: "of course I was racing"
Dana: "nope - if you were racing you'd be too out of breath to hold a conversation"
Me (thinking to myself) 'damn it! she's right - I should have been pushing harder'

Sage advice #3
I was telling Phil how frustrated I was with a race I had raced the previous weekend. I told him - I worked my ass off to get the hole-shot so I wouldn't be bottle necked at the sharp switchbacks by other riders. I cleaned the switchbacks but in the process blew myself up and as a result 5 people passed me on the straight-away.

Phil: "oh that's great!"
Me: "what are you talking about?!?! that was bad - I lost a ton of places because I couldn't maintain"
Phil: "but you have to blow yourself up to find out where the ceiling is and what if feels like"
Me: "But it sucked - because I had a bad race result"
Phil: "nope - don't agree. You have to know where that ceiling is so you can push right to that edge when you are racing...and the only way to do that is to blow yourself up a couple of times"
Me(thinking to myself) 'well that sucks - you have to suck at a race to find out how to race'

Sage advice #4
This wasn't really advice from a person but something I learned from experience.

It's loud up front.

The year I raced Singlespeed - I would start with the Expert women - due to the gearing I was usually at the front of the pack on the opening climb. After a couple of races I noticed something that happened at the front-of-the-pack that doesn't happen in the middle-of-the-pack. Everyone is breathing a lot harder and louder.

I realized - it's loud up front because everyone is working as hard as possible. Everyone is breathing hard and loud. It's not like that in the middle - I thought 'hmmm- maybe the front of the pack is faster because they are working harder? they know how to hurt??'

Which brings up to my first running race...

Eerie Erie Race Report

race number

the prep
I was a little leery going into this race - I thought I might have a good shot of placing in the top 5 of my age group. I had looked at previous years results and based on those times and my pre-run of the course - I knew I had a good chance for a top 5 finish - which would be a great result for me considering i'm not a runner and it would my first ever running race. BUT to think I might be in the top 5 made me feel a bit weird...maybe I was fooling myself.   Maybe running 8:10s on the treadmill isn't the same as running a real course. Maybe i'd blow in the first mile and crawl to the finish.

BUT - in lots of ways I was more than ready for this race. I was hoping for a sub-26 minute race. 26 minutes is just a tad longer than the Short Track Races. And I've had a lot of practice this year of holding a just-below-anaerobic pace with all the gazillion 20 minute intervals LW Coaching had me do this summer.   So I thought I had a good chance of being able to hold that 'in the hurt locker' pace.

I talked to Phil and he gave me some 5k race advice:
1. Do a 20 minute warmup: Start warming up ~40 minutes before the race. The 20 minute warmup instructions - run easy for 8-10 minutes and do 3 or 4x1 minute hard efforts just at race pace finish up at an easy pace. Then just try to keep moving until the race starts.
2. Do NOT go out too hard in the 1st mile!: According to Phil - this is a mistake a lot of people make.   This was going to be difficult to not bust out the 1st mile because it's a slight downhill and quite fast. In my pre-run - I ran the 1st mile in 8:08. I was secretly hoping to have a sub-8minute on the 1st mile but I was going to listen to Phil and keep my pace in check.
3. TLC: run tall, lean and fast cadence.   If I felt myself hunching over from the waist - take a few seconds and reset my form and then keep on motoring
4. Run just below the "i'm gonna blow up ceiling" until the finish line is crossed.

Runners Ready...

Xanthe getting ready for the 10k, Dave & I the 5k

Turns out the 5k was going to start at 9:45 and Xanthe and the 10k-ers were going out at 9:30. oops! With that change - I timed my warmup too early. but what can you do?   It was nice to see Xanthe off and I just tried to keep moving until the start.
.
I positioned myself in the top quarter of the pack figuring I'd be fast enough to not slow up the people behind me and hopefully the people in front of me would be faster so I wouldn't have much traffic to dodge.

then it was Runners ready...GO!

Mile 1
By feel I settled into my race pace in the first couple of minutes. I wasn't worrying about anyone but me and the perceived effort. I focused on running a smart race. Sure enough after ~half mile a lot of people in front of me faded. I was definitely in my race pace - it was just slightly below the anaerobic threshold edge. I could've gone a little harder that 1st mile but I believe it would have been at the cost of slower subsequent miles.

i was running neck-and-neck with a lady that looked like she might be in my age group. She was right behind my left elbow for probably most of the first mile. She had a strange stride but she was motoring right along with me...toward the end of the 1st mile she pulled away from me and I let her go.(turns out she was in my age group and finished 2nd - kudos to her) I wasn't going to worry about anyone but me.

Toward the end of that first mile - I was breathing hard (but not raggedly) and I looked at my GPS and saw I had ran the 1st mile in 8 minutes. 'good - that's just where you want to be' - I thought to myself. I was suffering but it was a manageable suffering. ;)

Mile 2
Here in mile 2 - I started catching up to people. I also noticed besides catching people that had went out too hard - no one was passing me. I had noticed a tall lean girl in a blue tank top and black knickers at the start. She looked like a fast runner and as the pack thinned out I was right behind her. I would pass her on the uphill and she'd pass me on the flats. I stayed right on her shoulder and caught a draft and when I tried to pass - her pace was just fast enough i couldn't pass her.

I saw Dana on her bike twice during the 2nd mile and she made me smile as she cheered me on.   I could have gone just a tad harder during this mile but I wanted to make sure I was just below that "blowing up" pace and have enough in the tank for the last mile. But don't get me wrong - I was a hurting puppy.

Mile 3
I held just a tiny bit back on the first half of this mile and then a half mile from the finish I ran as hard as I could. Me and blue tank top girl kept going back and forth. I saw Dana again on the last hill (I was breathing *very* hard at this point) and she said "work this hill girl!"   It was all I could do to barely acknowledge her. "Hey Dana - I am really racing!" - I wanted to say but didn't have any energy left to talk. I was deep in the 'pain cave' and was looking for the finish.

I was just behind blue tank top girl as we ran into the finishing chute - she kicked it out and finished 4 seconds ahead of me.   As I crossed the finished line the race clock read: 25:47 and I punched the STOP button on my GPS.   Oh my!   that was HARD - i was WORKED.

race data

Aftermath
I was really happy with my race. I felt I executed well and I thought *maybe* could have gone maybe 10 -15 seconds faster but in all I really felt like I had pushed as hard as possible. I didn't have any regrets on how I ran that race.

I was stoked to see Dave come in at 30:08. I was very proud of Dave. Just before Dave finished - Princess Leia came running through the finish line pushing a stroller with 2(!) kids.    Dave made a joke about that. I wish I had a picture that would have been so awesome.

Dave and I ran the last few blocks with Xanthe. She had never raced a 10k before and she had a sub-hour goal in mind. She finished in 59:30 with an average 9:30 minute per mile pace.     She did awesome.

Xanthe and Dana booked it back to Boulder. Dave and I hung around hoping to win a prize at the raffle. (we didn't)

Race Results
When the results were posted I saw that I had finished 3rd in my age group out of 26 runners. I was amazed and happy with that result. Especially when I saw I would have been 3rd in the 40-49 age group out of 39 runners and 5th in the 30-39 age group out of 57 runners. Out of the total of 205 women - I was 18th.   wow! that's so crazy!!

Usually I feel I had to give an excuse when I have a good race result. In mountain biking - I am just at the age where there are few competitors in my category. When I was in my mid-forties there weren't that many 40 year olds. Then when I raced singlespeed - there weren't that many singlespeeds and now that I'm in the 50 year old category - there are very few competitors. Usually I would just have to show up and finish in order to get on the podium and I feel a bit like a fraud.

So it feels very odd to me that this is legitimately a darn good race result. There was plenty on competition present and plus this is Colorado where the competition is always stiff. I'm a bit shocked, embarrassed and happy that I did so well...and i'm gonna leave it at that...

running geekiness...or...MY what a big watch you have!

2011-10-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

I've been running with my trusty bike Garmin Edge 500 GPS. I just hold it in my hand while I run...I've dropped it a couple of times and this seems like a recipe for disaster - so I've been looking for a watch style GPS. When I saw this Swaggle deal - I jumped on it. I figured if it didn't work out I could always sell it on ebay for the same price I bought it.

I received it in the mail today. It's ginormous!! Sometimes I wish I was a normal sized person - I think life would be even easier.

my - what a big watch I have - it's almost the same size as my fist!

When I wear it watch-style it hurts my poor little bony wrist. Dave gave me the great idea to wear the watchface facing toward the inside and it's much more comfortable that way. I wore it during my run today and that seemed to work out just fine.

Last week I decided to go to StridePros for a formal gait analysis. I figured since I was new to the running thing I should make sure my running technique was good to ward off any possible injury and not incorporate any bad habits. I did have my running form advice from Phil (TLC) and that had helped improve my speed but I thought having a professional check out my form would be a good thing.

A nice gentleman by the name of Curt Chesney did the analysis. He watched me run and video taped from the side and back. The good news was he said in general my form was good. My arms were in the right place and not angled out to the side. My head was up. I don't have any pronation. (i run in neutral shoes) I don't have any hip drop and I'm fairly efficient. But the bad news is I was a shuffler. That kinda bummed me out because I didn't *feel* like I was dragging my feet. And I was heel striking. Not badly heel striking but enough that is was inefficient.

Back View - nothing really bad with my form here.

Side View - BEFORE - i'm a shuffler. You see where my heels only come up to the 1st horizontal line in the chart behind me. (i love me some data)

He just gave me a couple of suggestions for leaning forward a bit more and to really use my glutes in the backside of my stride. Those suggestions helped a ton! You can see my stride is lengthened and my heels are coming up much higher. My left side is stronger than my right side (probably from speedskating) but running like this seemed fairly comfortable.

Side view - AFTER - much better.

the next time I ran - I knocked a whopping 18 seconds off my minute per mile pace. I'm such a NERD!

I am NOT a runner...

2011-10-26T15:26:00.002-07:00

I'm *not* a runner.

Whenever I meet new people and they ask what I do (no - it's not Dallas where they are asking your profession - in Boulder they are asking what's your outdoor activity of choice) I invariably answer "I'm a mountain biker".   Yes - i ride a road bike, I work out at ATC, and do (and have done) a variety of other things but I *am* a mountian biker.

Running never comes up in the list of "things I do/did".    The last time I ran was probably 3 years ago during the off-season and I was trying to do something to keep in shape.   I didn't like it - it hurt, it's boring and the fact I was slow didn't add any appeal. I could hold a steady 10 minute mile pace for an hour or so but anything faster was torture. I remember once a heavy-set middle-aged lady passed me on the Bob-o-Link trail and I tried to keep up with her. I held a 9:30 pace with her for ~3 minutes but then I thought I was going to DIE and had to back off. Seriously - 30 seconds faster per mile takes that much more effort??? are you 'effing kidding me?? Let me tell you - this isn't for me!! I probably "ran" for ~3 or 4 months - then the mtn bike trails opened up and that was that.

After Dave broke his arm after the Breck Epic - he was looking for something to gain some fitness. Actually he had been toying with the idea of running for a month prior to that. But since ice hockey was off the schedule for a while - he bought some running shoes and started running.

I thought it might be fun to join him - so I started running - as long as Dave was running so would I.

Run #1 - 2 miles/11:10mile pace:
I know that 2 miles isn't a "real" run but you gotta start somewhere... on Sept 15th I did a little 2mile run from the house.

OMG - are you kidding me?? It was just as I remembered with all the various body parts that hurt. My upper tailbone hurt?!?! How in the heck does running make your upper tailbone hurt?? Seriously! I don't know but it did. My right hamstring was hurting, both psoas muscles were screaming at me, and my left vastus medialis hurt and not to mention i was working hard cardiowise.   I took my little trusty GPS with me and my avg was 11:10 minute per mile pace.   I nodded to myself when i was finished - 'yep - that's about right...slow as molasses and in dire pain'.

I did know that if i kept it up - everything would settle down and eventually stop hurting.

Run #2 - 2 miles/10:09mile pace:

2 days later I ran a little 2 mile loop with Dave. He had been running for a couple of weeks by now so my goal was to try to keep up. It was a struggle but I was able to keep up at his pace.   My psoas muscles and right hamstring were "talking pretty loud" to me but I could tell it was "not used to being used" pain and not "injury pain" so I focused on keeping my feet moving and my head up.

I was glad when the 2 miles was over. ;)   And I was happy that I was able to hold a pace that was ~1 minute a mile faster than my 1st run. Cardiowise it was a "tempo" effort with a HR at 160. I know I can hold a higher HR for longer but I was happy...progress!

Run #3 - 3 miles/10:30mile pace

I added another mile to my run and the pace went down slightly but so did my HR. My HR avg was ~155 and various things started hurting less.

Run #4 - 3 miles/9:40mile pace

I tried a different running route and rode my bike to the Bob-o-link trail and ran for 3 miles. A strange thing happened - I started feeling pretty good and so I pushed the pace. Shockingly I dropped my mile pace by a whopping 50(!) seconds.   How in the heck did that happen? My HR was a tad bit higher but for 50 seconds a mile faster the effort was certainly worth it.    Maybe it was fluke...i didn't know but I was exhilarated by the run and couldn't wait to run again. ??

Running week 2/ holding the 9:40mile pace

I ran 5 times the next week - usually for 3 or 3.5 miles...nothing long but I wanted to be consistent before I added a ton more mileage.   I was shocked my avg pace for a tempo effort was 9:40.   After only 2 weeks of running - I was happy with that. Who knows maybe I could up the pace to a sub 9 minute mile - now that would be a miracle!

Running week 3/pace dropped by 35(!) seconds to a 9:05
On Oct 1st I ran in Longmont - warmed up for .5 miles, ran 3 and cool down for .5 miles.   As I was cruising along about halfway through I looked at my trusty GPS and saw my pace was 9:05.   I was flabbergasted. Really? Plus running felt GOOD - i mean it still was an effort but I got in a rhythm and felt happy just cruising along. The pace/effort was hard but not undoable and PLUS it kinda felt good to "hurt".

I wondered if my GPS was off or broken. But after I downloaded my data - it looked consistent and accurate. I couldn't believe I was running 9:05s.   I was really excited about this and all of a sudden it was all i could think about running.

Running week 4/ 8:55pace/good advice & perfect storm of fitness & strength

By now running was part of my routine.   I love Saturday and Sunday mornings where Dave and I would get up and go run together and then hit up the Mini Walnut for breakfast.

I talked to my friend, Phil (great runner and athlete) and he gave me some good advice. TLC (T= run tall, L= lean from the ankles, C=fast cadence).    So incorporated it into my running and like magic my pace dropped from 9:05s to 8:55 with the same effort. Wow - there was my sub-9 minute miles.

That Saturday the weather was crappy so I ended up running on the treadmill at the gym. I thought it would be torture to be inside but once I accepted the fact that I was inside - I turned on my ipod and cruised. I ended up kinda liking running on a treadmill - you could control/force the pace. hmm....not bad.

Never in the past had i dreamed I could run a sub-9 minute mile. I know it's not *fast* in the whole scheme of things but it is for me. I think for me - the reason I could do this now where I haven't been able to in the past was becuase my cardio fitness is the best it has ever been. (a side-effect of my Breck Epic training) and all the strength training i have been doing at the ATC.   I noticed when doing "front squats" "turkish getups" "running with a 50lb sandbag", "jumping lunges" , "weighted lunges" that I'm using my running muscles.   So being strong with the running muscles and my cardio fitness - this was enabling my body to perform better.

So between the "running form" advice from Phil, the cardio fitness from the Breck Epic training and all the strength work from the ATC - it has been a 'perfect storm' for me to do my best ever running.

Running week 5/signed up a for a 5k and pace drops even more
Dave and I signed up for the Eerie Erie - a 5k or 10k run in Erie. This year it's a new course. It literally starts 2 blocks from his house and coincidentally it's *very* similar to our "normal" weekend run. We both signed up for the 5k.

On Saturday I wanted to time trial the Eerie Erie course to know what to expect.   Dave had been injured for a few weeks and lost some fitness so I was just going to bust it out and not worry about running with him. He was ok with this.

The course is a tad short of a true 5k. 2.94 miles but I ran it in 25:23 which comes out to a 8:37 minute mile. A whopping 18 seconds faster than last week's average. I was running pretty much as hard as I could. My HR avg was 168 - that's high for me. I might can run a tad faster during a race - I don't know I've never run a running race in my life.

Yesterday the weather was crappy so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill.   Just for fun I put it on a 8:10 mile pace and ran that for a mile - it seemed doable but it scared me for some reason that I could hold that pace comfortably so i backed off.

We'll see how Saturday goes.

Oh yeah and for the record - I'm a mountian biker - I am not a runner. ;)

Breck Epic Stage 6: Gold Dust

2011-10-06T13:08:00.001-07:00

Oh man - last day...yeeHAW!

I was stoked that Dave was going to be at the top of Boreas Pass to ride the last 7 mile descent with me.

Talk about party atmosphere at the start.

I took a picture with my new friend, Kelly. The guy that loaned me a water bottle on Day 3 and we paid him back with a $1000.00 bill. if you click on the picture you can see - it's really a $1000 bill. :)

He rode his Blacksheep singlespeed today.

me and my new buddy - Kelly and his $1000 bill :)

I got a picture with Alison. I was so happy she was able to rally and ride the last day. She also confirmed her 'badassedness' by telling me she has competed in and *completed* the Trans-Rockies, BC Bike Race, La Ruta and Test of Metal. From what I heard all really tough races. She said the Breck Epic is the toughest as it has the steepest climbing. She also told me she was a really good descender and technical rider. Yay for us old ladies!!

alsion and i on the last day

Today was the easiest day with only 32 miles and a measly 3500ft of climbing. Maybe I'd actually try to push the pace today...so funny now that I think about it. Yeah - like after 5 days I would all of a sudden be *fast*....hee-hee - I crack myself up.

So off we went. It was familiar territory as the first 4.5 miles are the same as the Breck 32. I felt decent and felt like I was riding well. When I was spit on out on my first trip of the day on Boreas Pass road I thought about burying myself on this climb but decided to save burying myself on the return 7 mile climb back up Boreas. So I went hard but not super hard. Made a quick stop at Aid 1.

Last stop at the aid station - Tracy from Canada holding my bike

The fun singletrack after the top was enjoyable - i passed 4 people on the descent and leap frogged with those 4 people back up the last climb to the top of Boreas Pass.

I was pushing it hard and kept thinking "dave! dave! dave is waiting for me at the top". 3hours and 17 minutes after I had started that morning - I made it to the top of Boreas and it was literally 'all down hill from here'.


so happy to be at the top and see Trisha and Dave

"come on Dave! you are holding me up!!"

let's roll!

I'm leaving without you Dave - get your ass in gear!


off we go!

It was so great having my honey with me on the descent. He noticed I was tense so i tried to loosen things up. We had a lot of fun riding together...35 minutes later I was at the finish. OMG - I can't believe it did it!

DONE!

Sonya getting a shot - fellow competitors celebrating in the background

me and dave

me and Sonya - i love her!

I saw Sonya at the bottom and she was so proud of me - that was really sweet. She of course crushed it and won the Pro Women's Class. So strong.

Yes - I did it!! It felt great to have worked so hard and successfully accomplish my goal. But I couldn't have done it without my coach, Lynda. She had me totally prepared. All those solo rides i did, those road bike intervals, the nutrition and recovery advice. I learned what my endurance pace was (slow) - i learned how to bonk and recover from a bonk while riding - i got to exercise my mental toughness. And I learned a ton about myself. I followed the plan and it paid off.

And of course I couldn't have done it with all my friends and family that supported me during this time. Megan's advice 'cramping or bonking doesn't kill you so just keep pedaling!' echoed in my head a few times. I carried an email that Jeny wrote to me the entire race. All my friends kept up and sent me encouragement on facebook. And my sweet Dave was so patient and supportive during my training. And of course my sister - giving up a week of her life to support me in this endeavor. Seriously - i can't even believe how lucky i am to have the bested friend in the world be my sister Trisha.


BFF - Trisha and i

Wow - I wasn't so used to being done so early. I went home and showered - and i DIDN'T take an ice bath. I was done with those puppies. (i regretted it later tho) Then we went straight to Lucha's where I had chips & queso and a margarita! yum. Ran into several fellow racers in town and everyone was giddy.

Then the final awards and banquet and then off to Stage 7 at the Gold Pan.

final podium - me and alison

my! what a big belt buckle i have

Everyone got a nicely framed picture

pro women - yay sonya!


me and molly - we spent a lot of time together the last 6 days.

Breck Epic Stage 5: Wheeler Pass

2011-10-06T10:41:00.001-07:00

Whew - 4 days done and 2 to go. I was a bit apprehensive today - I had such a rough day the day before I was hoping my GI system would be working.

I did feel and look really bloated. I swear I looked(and felt) like I had gained 10lbs during the race. ughh...

Sadly, Alison wasn't at the start. The day before and her dehydration had gotten the best of her. I'm sure she was quite disappointed not to be at the start line.

I have never done Wheeler Pass. My friend, Cat Bywaters had told me her boyfriend (a fantastic rider) said the descent into Copper off of Wheeler was sketchy. Lynda had ridden it and told me it wasn't that bad but it would be worse if you were racing it. hmmm....I was a bit apprehensive about the descent too.

We started up a dirt road and I was pleased to find that even tho I was tired - I didn't feel too bad. We took a detour to get to Burro Trail, enjoyed a rocky trail to dirt road and then the climb to Wheeler Pass.

heading to the start of the hike-a-bike

   It was a long hike-a-bike for me.   I would count steps and it seemed like after an hour of hab-ing - I finally reached the top. But it wasn't the top - it was the beginning of a saddle. It was boggy and marshy. There was a nice big scree field in the middle of the saddle and sadly i didn't even attempt to clean it - it looked a bit overwhelming to me. Finally the last bit of hike-a-bike to the top of Wheeler.   whew - glad that hab was over!

here's a great video that Jeff K. made of the saddle portion.
2011 Breck-Epic Stage Race - Stage 5: Wheeler Pass from ergon on Vimeo.
It was windy at the top and even tho the first part of the descent didn't look too bad - my rear end was skidding all over the place. yowza! I felt tense and it was really hard to just 'let it roll'.

Then the singletrack narrowed and at the time it seemed like there was MAJOR exposure to the left. I ended up walking part of the exposed part.   (Interestingly enough - I went back 3 weeks later and did this ride again and the exposure wasn't NEARLY as bad as I remembered.)   I remember the descent being sketchy and big and bouldery.   I walked more than I care to admit.   It was a pretty long descent but finally I reached the bike path and it was on to the Peaks Trail. Molly had long ago left me at the start of the hike-a-bike but I caught up to her at Aid 2.

I suffered on the Peaks Trail. Any sustained hill I had to walk. I felt slightly vindicated later when Sonya told me she cyclocrossed some of the climbs too. Of course Molly passed me on the climbs and I passed her on the descents.   I finally made it to the finish line in 5:46.

As I mentioned earlier - I went back 3 weeks later and re-did this ride. I cleaned the scree field in the saddle - no problem. And the descent off Wheeler wasn't that bad. It was all rideable - I did botch 2 sections on my re-ride but other than that I did pretty good.   Having that success will be good when (if) i do this race again.


felt a little sheepish about my "win" today since my lone competitor didn't start.

I was craving a burger so my sister drove me to Empire Burger. When I walked by people I would see them seem to recognize me and say hello. I would say 'hello' back but was confused. then I realized they were other racers and since I was getting on the podium every day they would recognize me. It felt weird to have people that I didn't know - know me. Once I figured out the deal I would chat with them. I think I would be a lousy celebrity.

day 5 done - one more to go! woot!

Breck Epic Stage 4 - Aqueduct/CT trail stage

2011-10-01T21:14:00.001-07:00

Since I rarely update anymore - I'm quite sure no one reads this blog - but I've been wanting to get my BE experience all written down...

Man - a good's night sleep was great. My legs weren't as sore today as they had been yesterday. Actually I felt pretty decent considering it was Day 4.

Day 4 was to be the most mileage and most elevation gain.

My friend, Kay had come up to ride and give me a massage after the race. She came to the start to give my stash of Sports Legs - I left my bottle at home and didn't have enough for the entire week. What a lifesaver.

The start was a party atmosphere as it was the last day for the 3-dayers.

Actually feeling slightly sassy this morning.

The Boulder Cycle Sport team.

Today I rode a bit at the start with Chris (3 dayer from Santa Cruz). Chris told me ended up DNFing on his day 2 and he was feeling better today. I was glad he was having a better day.

(big digression - possibly showing bad sportsmanship on my part) I also noticed a lady that had joined the group at the start of Day 4. Her name is Jackie.   I kinda knew who she was - she was at the Breck 32 and i remember her because of her attitude. Very aggro demeamer. At the Breck 32 - I had wondered if she was in my age group (50+) because she looked older than me...but she turns out she's a hard-worn 46. I remember her because I figured that with that attitude that she was really good. In that race after the fiscso at 1 mile and the flat and broken spokes - I was dead last. But I ended passing her 6 miles after my flat and even tho i had a bad race (30 minutes slower than 2010) I was still like an hour faster than her. So I remember being surprised that she was so aggro considering her ability.

Anyway - I don't have ANY problem with people that aren't in the race joining in for a day or two of fun.

Heinous Hill was on today's menu. The beginning is fairly steep and I've ridden enough to know that if you just grin-and-bear it on the 1st steep pitch - it's rideable. As I approached the bottom I saw Chris and Jackie off their bikes. As I rode by I noticed Jackie make a noise of disgust as i rode past her. I can't even say how much that annoyed me.   Are you fucking kidding me??   First of all - I'm not even CLOSE to being fast in this race. Secondingly, I'm on friggin' day 4 - even tho I'm feeling decent - i have 3 hard days in my legs and this lady is fresh is acting like she's racing ME? I am seriously annoyed by her aggro attitude. But I rode on and never saw her for the rest of the day.

I didn't think about her for the rest of the day as it turns out I had other fish to fry.

(end digression)

I was surprised i was feeling so good. Day 4 started off with a 6 mile climb (including the aforementioned Heinous Hill) and I was even in front of Molly during the whole climb - which was a first.   I roll into Aid 1 fairly pleased.

After Aid 1 - I started getting gassy. Uggh...i had been doing so good on my nutrition and hadn't had any GI issues. I backed off my pace a bit and quit taking in calories hoping the gas would pass. (no pun intended)   An hour later when I was hike-a-biking Vomit Hill the GI issues hadn't got any better. Actually things got really bad. I hadn't been able to take in any more calories during this time and the gas got worse. But it didn't quite feel like I had gas - i felt like I might be something more liquid or solid wanting to come out.   I jumped off my bike ran to the side of the trail, pulled down my shorts and luckily it was only gas..because I didn't have toliet paper I didn't want to take a chance of really messing up my shorts. I felt better and jumped back on my bike.

An odd thing happened as I was hike-a-biking up Vomit Hill. Vomit Hill is steep - like 16% steep. I have cleaned it in the past but it's been when i was fresh - there was no way in HELL i was able to ride up it today. A guy with the number plate 17 RODE past me on his bike and he wasn't even breathing hard!! ?? I got out of the way and said 'so sorry - I didn't hear you coming - and you aren't even breathing hard!" He answered - 'i'm like a ninja'. I laughed at that as he rode off. I wondered what he was doing way back where I was - maybe he missed the start.(more on this later)

I finally make it to the top of Vomit Hill - the GI issues wasn't getting any better. The gas kept building and since I never knew if gas, liquid or solid would be coming out and I literally didn't want to have crap in my shorts for the next 30 miles so I would run to the side of the trail and pull down my short to let whatever was coming out - come out. I probably stopped at least 6 times during the race to run to the side of the trail.

I saw my friends Kay and Amy at the Homestead after the Vomit Hill decsent. I was so happy to see friendly faces I almost started crying. A big sign of my bonking state. Yes - I started bonking at mile 15 and never fully recovered from the bonk.

I struggled along - a climb that usually takes me an hour and 10 minutes took me and hour and 50 minutes! My decsending skills were very poor - but I kept plugging away. So dissapointing since the day started out so well. By the time I hit the Middle Fork of the CT - I was walking every little power move. I felt like i was crawling. But I rode what I could and tried to force some calories in.

I hit Aid 3 after 6.5 hours out and still had 8 miles left with a major climb. Molly caught up to me at Aid 3 - it was her birthday and she literally pulled out a magic wand out her of Aid bag. I laughed my ass off. That girl is so awesome!   She ended up slowing down and riding the climb with me. It was so nice to have the company. She is a great and interesting person. It made the time pass more quickly and before I knew it we were on the descent and I rolled in a shade short of 8 hours.

Damn that was brutal. But I never wanted to quit - at the beginning of the day i had high hopes for a good day - instead it became a day of just plugging away.

Turns out the ninja guy was Colby Pearce. His frame had actually broken - he rode back to town and surprisingly someone was able to fix it and he re-started the race where he had left the race. He said he ended up passing 50 people - that was half the field.

Whew was a rough day but I knew after I made it through this day and I was on the downward stretch for the Breck Epic. Sadly, Alison had a rough day too. She got dehydrated and threw up several times but she was one tough cookie and she FINISHED the course - pounding out every hard mile. A well earned finish.

I accepted my 4th leaders jersey. Had a great meal from Lucha's and a wonderful massage from Kay.   I slept like a baby that night.

Breck Epic: Stage 3 - Mt. Guyot Circumvention

2011-09-15T21:15:00.001-07:00

I still had trouble sleeping the night before. uugghh...I did finally drift off to sleep and 5am came WAY too soon. Yesterday I had been tired but felt ok. This morning I woke up with *very* sore legs. ouchy! I thought about taking some Advil - I had heard that endurance runners pop that stuff like candy during their long races. But since I rarely take Advil - I thought it best ask Lynda. I felt bad texting her so early expecting a response sometime later. But she responded immediately "no - advil reduces blood flow. Only take it if you have a sore knee or something like that. Just start slow and try to spin them out."

Sonya had warned me this was a big day. I knew there were be quite a bit of hike-a-bike for the circumvention of Mt. Guyot and the CT descent is chunky at the bottom so today I wanted the Era.

At the start was the usual chit-chat. Jeff Kerkove was doing the 3-dayer and he looked over my bike. He said "whoa! you are running a 42/28 for your 2 chainrings? that's crazy! I can't push gearing that hard." I was like ??. Jeesh...no WONDER I was struggling on the steep climbs. Jeff is WAY stronger(and younger) than I am - so no wonder I was liking the hardtail gearing so much. I thought I was struggling because the Era weighs 2.5lbs more than the hardtail but now I had an idea of WHY i liked the gearing so much on the hardtail. man - how lame of me to not question my gearing. When I ordered the parts the bike shop guy told me it was equivalent to my 9-speed gearing and I never really calculated the ratios myself.   BUT I certainly didn't need to hear this right now.

Also, I got a chance to finally meet Alison Jones. It was the lady with the gravity dropper on her bike. We chatted a bit - she was from Canada and was really nice. I told her how impressed I was with her pounding out the hard miles and sticking with it. She talked about being slow and I said "well...i'm not setting any speed records" then she said "yeah - but you got a stranglehold on that leaders jersey".   I didn't know how to respond to that and just smiled and shrugged.

Of course the day started with a climb and I let the gearing info get in my head and annoy me - as I struggled up some steep pitches I was thinking 'dang! i shouldn't be pushing a gear this hard'   I knew the negative thinking wouldn't help me any so I tried to focus on better thoughts. Then I realized that Lynda was right - after I got started my legs loosened up and felt ok. Actually I was surprised that didn't feel as bad as I expected. But I was riding my all day endurance pace. This is something I was wondering about - I wondered if I should try to push harder and finish in less time - but since my #1 goal was to complete the race AND I still had 4 days of riding (including today) that I would continue the endurance pace.

I rode a bit with the big, strapping red head from the day before. His name was Chris - he was a 3-dayer from Santa Cruz. The altitude really got to him yesterday and today it was still putting the hurt on him. I wished him a good day as i rode away from him. During the climb to Little French Gulch I felt on the verge of cramping. At aid 1 I popped some electrolytes and saw in dismay I didn't have a water bottle in my aid bag. I like to have nuun electrolytes in my water bottle - I had the nuun tablets in my aid bag but not a water bottle to put them in. I asked around for an extra water bottle and another racer generously gave me his empty bottle.

Then off to the Mt. Guyot hike-a-bike. I ended up riding with Jim (the aforementioned CT switchback guy from the day before) - Molly was way ahead on the hike-a-bike. Jim was a 3-dayer from WI. He was having trouble with his rear brake - knowing the techy descents coming up I told him to be careful. Jim and I completed the hike-a-bike together and since he was descending without a rear brake - I left him behind. The descent off French Pass included a snowfield (which i walked) and an interesting wobbly log crossing over a creek - then a fun loose rocky descent. I caught up to Molly here and rode off in search of Aid 2.

Mike Kane catching me smiling and restocking @ Aid 2

As usual Mike was there with a smile and his camera. I still felt on the verge of cramping so I downed 3 Endrolytes and loaded up my borrowed water bottle with nuun. next up was a 4 mile climb to Georgia Pass - it was getting cloudy and I wanted to get over the pass before a thunderstorm hit. As I rolled out of Aid 2 - Molly and Jim rode into the aid station as I was leaving.   I kept expecting Molly to catch me on the 50 minute climb but I never she never did. I was anxious to hit the CT descent. It's one of my favorite descents with a nice little rock garden at the bottom.   About half-way down it started raining and hailing. the hail was finding it's way through the slots on my helmet and stinging my scalp pretty good. I tried to pick up the pace hoping to get down before the rocks got too wet. Alas - it started getting slippery and i felt like a little pinball as my tires slipped off the roots and rocks and I marveled I was keeping the bike upright. Normally this would be super fun for me but as it got more rocky and slipperly I got more cautious not wanting to crash - so i ended up walking the lower part. As slippery as it was -even walking was treacherous.

After the descent one more Aid station and the "oh f#Ck" climb of American Gulch. I kept downing the electrolytes and nuun as it seemed the cramps kept threating to appear but then never did.   I just kept trucking along at my endurance pace slowly ticking off the miles.

I finally crossed French Gulch Road and knew the finish should be close then I got routed on some singletrack I had never ridden before and it seemed to be taking me AWAY from the finish. I thought the last part to the finish was supposed to be double-track and this was honest-to-goodness singletrack. It was fun singletrack but I didn't see any course markers for over 2 miles and I just KNEW i had gone the wrong way. ugghh!!!   If you don't ride the correct course then you are a DNF. I DID NOT want that to happen so I prepared myself to have to ride back to the last known intersection in order to go the correct way.   I was really concerned about this as 3 miles clicked by without any course marking. Then FINALLY i saw a course marking to the finish and finally rolled in. I still wasn't sure I had ridden the course correctly but since i was routed through the finishing gates I had to assume I had ridden the course correctly.

This was a long day of over 7 hours. I was happy to be finished and happy i held the cramps at bay. But considering how I felt this morning I was concerned about tomorrow - which was the day with the most miles and the most elevation gain.

Trisha was waiting at the finish. I can't even say how great this was to know she'd be there - a big moral booster for sure. I am so lucky that my sister just happens to be my bested friend in the world.

I texted Lynda about the almost cramping and she told me to eat a salty dinner and do some light stretching.

I was getting better at the podium pose.

When looking at the results I saw that I was ~1.5 hours faster than Alison today - which bumped up my lead to 3.5 hours. I still felt a little guilty about the advantages I had while training but at the same time - I didn't want to give up the leaders jersey. I vowed to myself to ride smart the next 3 days. I saw that Sonya had a rough day with a flat and c02 that wouldn't work and she finished 2nd in the stage (6 minutes behind Selene) but she still was 1st in the GC. I was relived to see that.

At the racer meeting the racer that loaned me the water bottle asked if I had it. It was his Leadville 100 water bottle and it had sentemential value. I was like 'ughh...yikes! I'm not sure where it is' The Trisha pipped up and said she saw it on my bike back at the apt. We told him we'd wash it and put in in his aid bag in the morning. Trisha then asked him if he wanted anything in it(thinking maybe water or energy drink) and he said 'yeah - a thousand dollars'. We laughed at that.

After eating a salty dinner. I went to bed and 9pm and FELL RIGHT to sleep - thank goodness!!!

Breck Epic: Stage 2 - Colorado Trail

2011-09-12T21:44:00.003-07:00

I had trouble sleeping after Stage 1. I hate that feeling of being so exhausted but not being able to fall asleep.   I looked at the clock at 1am and dreaded having to get up at 5am -sometime after 1am i managed to fall asleep.

My routine for the next 5 days was get up and eat at 5am. Lay back down for 30 minutes. Load up my aid bags. My sister would run them down to the venue by 7am. Check my tire pressure, lube my chain, load up my camelback. Head to the venue @7:30am for the 8:10am start. Spin around for a few minutes. Then race.

I was wearing my leaders jersey this morning and it felt a little weird as many other racers made nice comments about it.   I was still not feeling like a "winner" but I managed to thank everyone without apologizing for being slow. I now felt a little more anxiety. Now that I had the leaders jersey I wanted to KEEP it.   I didn't know what Alison Jones looked like and I saw a woman that might be my age. (Actually it's hard to tell how old people are due to the fact some are very weathered by the sun and they look older than they really are...) The woman in question was riding a Santa Cruz and I noticed she had a gravity dropper on her bike. I didn't get a chance to talk to her so I didn't know if that was her.

This was also the start of the 3-dayer so there were many more people lined up.

Today I was on the Specialized Era.   I haven't been digging the 2x10 gearing on this bike and had felt like I struggle quite a bit on the really steep climbs but the Blacksheep hardtail was with the mechanic as he was re-stans-ing my rear wheel and putting on new rubber since my rear tire was un-fixable.

We started off on an old favorite - the beginning part of Fall Classic course which includes a little ride up Heinous Hill. I had pre-ridden most of this course with my friend, Cat Bywaters the previous month and knew I was i in for...a TON of climbing which luckily means a lot of fast descending. I was looking forward to the CT West Ridge and Red Trail descents.

So day 2 was similar to day 1. I had Molly to gauge my progress. She disappeared up the climb on Heinous, I caught her on the rubble strewn descent into Aid 1. The good thing about getting to the Aid Stations was seeing the volunteers and my friends. Last year I had worked the aid stations and met some really cool ladies from Canada. Tracy and Meegan. They would cheer for me when I arrived at the aid stations - that always lifted my spirits. In addition, Mike Kane was working aid two. He'd always ready with a smile, an encouraging word and his camera to capture me "in action". ;)


Here's a pic from Mike of me at aid 2. what a dork -	I look like Willis of "different strokes"

After aid 1 Molly rode away from me on the CT climb - I caught her on the Red Tail descent. We made our way up Vomit Hill with Molly in the lead, I let it rip on the descent. It's then a moderate climb up the CT back to the Dredge trailhead. I saw a gentleman struggling with the sharp switchbacks on the CT (the ones that start at the Tiger Run Trailer park) and said "some switchbacks, eh?" and he said "some COURSE!" I was guessing he was a 3-dayer. As I rode past him I laughed and said "yep - there's plenty more of that to come too - let me know if you need to pass me back".

After the Dredge parking lot it was up Gold Hill and on to the toxic forest. Here it just sucked - to me it was a soul-sucking rooty climb of 11%. I knew I was close to the finish but the climb was getting the best of me. I had to alternate walking and riding. I had company on this part as a few riders were struggling with it too. FINALLY it ended - I passed a big, strapping red-headed guy in a white kit on some mine tailings close to the finish. He looked like he was suffering pretty good - I said 'less than 2 miles to the finish - hang on!"

I finally rolled into the finish. I was happy to see my sister there waiting for me.

day 2 - done! whew!

I never saw Molly after Vomit hill. I knew she said she was bonking a bit. I hoped she was able to recover from the bonk - I hung around waiting for her for ~10 or 15 minutes and then gave up and had Trisha drive me home.

Same routine - Recovery drink, shower, ice bath, more food and then off to the mandatory racer meeting at 5pm.

I checked results. Today I was 1.5 hours faster than Alison. I breathed a small sigh of relief. Yesterday I didn't know if the 1st day was a fluke and if the time difference between us was abnormal but it looked like as long as I kept my consistent pace and didn't have any mechanicals I had a good shot of winning the race.
But then I felt a little bad - I mean I had some amazing advantages that I'm sure that Alision didn't. I had been training for 9 months with the best endurance coach in the country. I'm familiar with the trails and I have trained and spent a lot of time at altitude. I now felt like I had an unfair advantage. I was really impressed with this person I hadn't yet met. I can't imagine how hard it is being a 50+ year old woman and coming to a place you've never ridden and do a 6 day race. Like me (and I certainly wasn't setting any speed records) she was pounding out mile-after-hard earned mile to complete the stage. You got to hand it to her - she has a ton of courage, detemination and guts.

Looking at the results I was super happy to see Sonya Looney had won the stage and padded her lead in the pro-womens field. She's was an amazing 2.5 hours faster than me (very humbling to say the least) It was a tough field and Sonya had definitely had her(very public) ups and downs this race season. In this field was Selene Yeager - they raced against each other earlier in the season in PA. Sonya didn't have her best race in PA so I was happy to see that she had convincing wins over Selene the first 2 days. I love Sonya - she's a really great person in all aspects and I feel very lucky to consider her a friend. I was hoping she'd savor the success she was having.

After the racer meeting - a guy comes up to me and said "congratulations on your win". I said "thank you" and *almost* added 'but I'm so slow'. I'm glad I didn't say that because then he said "you passed me today and you looked like you were riding well - good job". He was the gentlemen at I talked to on the CT switchbacks. Whoa - that was a lesson learned...be gracious and don't badmouth myself!

it was super cool to earn a 2nd green jersey - Sonya had to prompt to me race my arms but my sister didn't quite get the shot. so funny.

working on the podium pose. ;)

Breck Epic: Stage 1 - Penn Gulch

2011-09-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

In Colorado - climbing is KING and descending is QUEEN and the BE contains plenty of both. The thing I really liked about the BE is it has some serious descending - the kind where you actually need some skills to ride everything. Oh and there is also a fair bit of hike-a-bike - usually above 11k elevation. Yeah - there is some dirt/jeep road but it's mostly singletrack and with the exception of the last day of all the dirt road was demanding to say the least.

Race goal - my #1 goal was to ride and finish all 6 stages of the Breck Epic. In the past years - I have witnessed riders WAY better & faster than me not complete all the stages. Knowing the caliber of the riders that race the BE - I knew I'd be toward the pack of the pack. My *secret* goal was to not be last but I would GLADLY be last if it meant that I rode 6 days and rode every friggin' mile of each day.

Pacing plan - Since my goal was just to finish - I had planned to ride in mostly zone 2 & 3. When the trail went straight up and dictated a anaerobic effort I would pedal as slowly as possible and hike-a-bike when needed in order to not stay in the red-zone. For the descents I would dial it back and descend conservatively. I hadn't slept well the previous 2 nights and as a result I didn't feel spunky. I was hoping to feel fresh and spunky at least for day 1 but I just felt kinda blah at the start...but I had a plan and I was going to try to stick too it.

I knew there were 3 of us signed up for the 50+ age group but I wasn't going to worry about anyone else but me and what I could do. Eat smart and ride conservatively and don't blow myself up.

Today I rode the Blacksheep ti hardtail. I like the gearing on the hardtail better than the gearing on the Era and I figured the descending wouldn't be too bumpy - i'd save the Era for the more techy stages.

Stage one starts with an easy climb to Aspen Alley - a short descent that's fun and techy.

ahh...aspen alley - how i love you!

I started at the back of the pack and rode at a hard but not to too uncomfortable pace - I hit Aspen Alley in ~20minutes. There are 3 guys stopped at the entrance looking uncertainly at it so I called out to pass them. It starts off moderately, then gets steep, loose, rocky and sketchy and here i would call out to pass people that were either riding slowly or walking.

rubbly, steep & loose (pic doesn't do it justice) - a little rock surfing is required

Then I got to the mine tailings where it's a short super steep loose kitty litter drop-in. 4 people were walking this section and I called out to pass. The steepness is enough to where the my back of my seat in is my belly button and since it's so loose it requires a light feathering of the brakes - gosh it's so scary fun!

from the top - looks worse than it is

another view


the crux - from the bottom...a little sketch but not too bad

sadly this section is only 1.5 miles and i counted the total of 12 people I passed in that section...i was smiling as I exited Aspen Alley.

The singletrack turns into a false flat for the next 3 miles before the climbing starts in earnest. The next 6 miles of climbing consists of some steep rubbly sections w/up to a 15% grade along with more mellow sections at 5-6% - the jeep road descents were rubbly too due to a massive summer storm and that required some navigation the hardtail and more steep climbing. Here is where I met Molly Breslin - she could climb like no tomorrow but I was a better descender so we would leap-frog each other for the rest of the week.

After more than 2 hours of riding - I made it to aid 1 where Dave was waiting for me - I was happy to see him.

exiting aid 1

The rest of Stage 1 mostly follows the Firecracker 50 course.Molly passed me on the way to Nightmare on Baldy and I passed her back on Nightmare descent only to rip a hole in my rear tire on the Sally Berger descent. CRAP! I messed around with the wheel throwing some c02 in and spinning the tire in hopes my freshly Stan's-ed wheel would seal up the tire. No luck. At this point Molly passed me and asked if I needed help - but i'm a pretty good tube changer. I threw a tube in - blew the tire up really hard and hoped it would hold until Aid 2 so could replenish my tubes/c02. Looks like I lost ~13minutes messing with my flat.

Little French Gulch had been pretty destroyed with the recent massive storm. I walked more of LFG than normal due to the condition of the trail. I hammered the flume trail and was conservative on the descent not wanting to flat. Made it to Aid 2 and grabbed an extra tube & more c02. Caught up to Molly @ Aid 2 but it was a climb so off she went - caught back up to her on the descent and we rode into Aid 3 together. She easily rode away from me on the Sally Berger climb - i stayed conservative on the descent and caught up to her on Moonstone and finally finished Stage 1...WAY slower than I would have liked (6:37) but finished never-the-less. Day 1 done - 5 to go!

Stage 1 - descending to finish

My sister was waiting for me at the end. Recovery drink, shower, ice bath, more food and then off to the mandatory racer meeting at 5pm.

I looked at the results and there were only 2 people listed in my category - me and Alison Jones with me ahead of Alison by about an hour. huh?? What happened to Kim Bear - based on last years results she would have been a good hour ahead of me! I guess she didn't show. So when Mike announced me as the Stage winner I was surprised and embarrassed. I didn't feel like a stage winner - tho I did manage to make my *secret* goal of not being last. Aren't stage winners supposed to be FAST? Honestly, I felt like a fraud as I stepped on the top step of the podium and was awarded a very cool minty green leader's jersey.

Stage 1 - 1st place on the podium

I texted Lynda with the news she definitely made me feel better about my win and reminded of the fact I was racing my peers - 50+ers not the 20, 30 or 40 year olds. She told me to wear the jersey with pride and a smile. So I went to bed with a wry smile on my face.

Breck Epic: Mission Accomplished

2011-09-05T20:24:00.004-07:00

Short Verison: ( for the long version follow up on the blog next week - I will be posting a stage by stage report)

I am turning 50 years old in 2011 and decided competing and completing the Breck Epic would be my big goal of the year. Worked with a great coach, Lynda Wallenfels. Got strong and well balanced at the ATC during the off-season.(thanks to Connie Sciolino) Worked my ass off for 9 months(thanks to my awesome boyfriend, Dave for being so patient) relying on Lynda's plan and advice. Learned a ton of stuff about nutrition and endurance pacing. Had a shaky race season leading up to the Breck Epic.

Ricky's wedding (the BEST day of my life) put *everything* in my life in perspective.

Coming off the high of Ricky's wedding - I went into the Breck Epic relaxed and happy. Knowing I had put in the work - I was ready to tackle it. My wonderful sister, Trisha, came to support me for the week. I rode my little 'effin heart out every day - I suffered, bonked, rode well, rode poorly, made new friends, texted my coach @ 5am (she responded) and rode a ton of single track and racked up a ton of elevation gain. Out of 2 women in the 50+ category - I ended up on the top step of the podium every day.(more pix here) Mission Accomplished.


Podium pic after Stage 6

small victories

2011-06-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time in a previous life I was pool player and in another previous life I was a motorcycle roadracer. (that's one thing about being old...you have probably had many "previous lives")

As I started in my journeys I went through different stages on what I considered a successful outing.

In pool it started with:

I'd be happy if I made 1 or 2 good shots per night
Then it turned into I'd be happy if I made 3 or 4 good shots in a ROW
Then it turned into I'd be happy if I played a good game or two per night
Then it turned into I'd be happy if I played a really great match in a tournament
Then it got to the point where I'd be really happy if I played a great tournament

With moto racing it was:

I'd be happy if i didn't crash
then it turned into I'd be happy if I did a race and didn't get lapped
then it turned into I'd be happy if I wasn't DFL in a race
then it turned into i'd be happy if I could really LEAN into a corner
then it turned into I'd be REALLY happy if I could lean the bike over so far I'd drag my knee
then it turned into I'd be REALLY happy if I passed a guy
then it turned into I'd be REALLY happy if I passed a guy in a corner

you get the drift...small victories have always been a measure of progress for me.

So now here's the mountain bike thing. Physically it's the hardest sport I've ever done and I am constantly (even after 9 years) getting humbled and have to count the "small victories" to keep me going.

Last night I did a mtn bike race that consisted of many "small victories:

Small Victory #1 -the hill
I raced the Breck Summer series race last night. It's a ~13mile course that's fast and furious...a total power course. And on the last part of the course is a short but STEEP hill. The steep kicker part(3/4 of a the way up) is ~24% grade (per my garmin) and I've never cleaned it. It's super loose dirt with fist sized loose rocks strewn over it.

Last night there were a group of 4 of us going back and forth on lap 1 - up comes the hill. Girl #1 doesn't make it, Girl #2 (right in front of me) gets close but loses traction and is off her bike (thankfully she heard me coming and quickly got out of the way), then here I come I kept up a good cadence and then when it kicks up sharply I really leaned into my handlebars and gave 3 really hard power strokes - made it onto the steep part but I lost of the line and went into the looser rocky part - I just kept my chest to the bar and kept cranking and cleaned the hill! Woot! Girl #2 was aghast and asked me as i rode by - "How did you do that??" I replied "I have no idea". Girl #4 behind me was cheering me on as I cleaned it and she almost made it but lost traction and had to dismount.

I cleaned it on the 2nd lap and it was the same scenario with Girl #2 and again she was very complementary as i rode past her.

I was super stoked to have cleaned the hill and I've heard from a few other riders that are better than me that they have never cleaned it - so it was a small victory for me.

Small Victory #2 - catching the tail end of the sport men's class
The competition in Breck is fierce.    I would hear the men talk about the "fast sport women" that would catch up to them even tho they start a minute or two ahead of us.   In this race about 6 minutes in I started catching up the tail end of the men's sport class. I was stoked and each guy i passed motivated me to ride harder to catch the next one.   So that was a small victory - being able to pass guys that had a head start. ;)

Small Victory #3 - I am older, fatter and faster than I was last year
This is my 3rd time doing this particular course and every year (this one included) I have gotten faster.   It's not a LOT faster but faster never the less and as I'm a post-menopause 50ish year old - i'll take it!

Small Victory #4 - Legs felt fantastic the whole time
My cardio was my limiter. I had been in Breck for going on 3 days and was feeling the effects of the altitude. I had a headache all day and was really tired. I literally took 3(!) naps that day.   And usually the first couple of races at altitude my legs burn like heck with any hard effort at all.   They feel like that are starved for oxygen. However, thanks to LW coaching and I think I am better conditioned and my legs didn't burn at all the entire race. Now my cardio was a different story... but the fact that my legs felt so good is another small victory.

Small Victory #5 - i felt I was in the mix of things
I finished 5th out of 9 girls - not a super stellar result but there were a group of 5 of us that pretty much raced at the same pace - passing each other back and forth on different parts of the course.     So being in the mix and not *that* far behind was another small victory for.   I wish I had pushed a little harder midway through but that's a lesson I'm taking away from this race.

I got a great workout in, had fun and I'll take the small victories for now. ;)

bee pollen drama, uncle nazty & other happenings

2011-05-23T15:01:00.001-07:00

I’m still plugging along – doing all I can to reach my end goal: complete and survive the Breck Epic. (minimal suffering would be nice too) With that goal in mind – this past weekend I headed down to Salida for the 2 day mtn bike stage race.

After being drenched with rain for that past 2 weeks here in Boulder– I was excited to get to Salida where there was sunshine and DRY dirt! Woot!

dry dirt AND singletrack! woot!

In addition to dry DIRT - Salida is one cool town. Huge biking vibe, cool people and great restaurants. I stayed at the hostel (The Simple Lodge) and ended up having the entire girls bunk room to myself the entire weekend. In addition to being inexpensive - it’s located in downtown so it’s within walking distance to all the places downtown and to the race venue. Don’t get much better than that, eh?

Stages
The race was organized into 3 stages – 1- hill climb time trial, 2 – short track on Saturday and the 3rd stage - the xc race on Sunday. The xc race course was going to be 75% singletrack and not the buff, flowy kind. Except for the 2mile asphalt/dirt road climb at the beginning – it was twisty with some rock moves here and there and then the “Uncle Nazty” section was a full on gnarly rock garden. All I could say to the xc course(excluding the road part) was it was YUMMEE!

I had signed up for the “wildcat” class which basically means you race with the Cat 1 women but your points don’t count for series awards. Since I really don’t care about series awards and the fact the Wildcat class was quite a bit cheaper – I choose the Wildcat class. All the Cat 1 classes were sparsely populated and I was the only person in my class – so I guess I would be 1st and last in every stage. ;)

After a nice dinner at The Fritz – I went to bed early because the hill climb started at 8am.

Saturday’s races
Well…the only thing good I can say about the hill climb and short track – is now I know the next thing I need to work on is – climbing. I can’t even say how bad I am. I was hoping to be in the 11minute range for the 2mile climb but I was 2.5 minutes slower than my target. A big 15% off from where I wanted to be.

My short track performance was no better. Each lap of the short track (the race was held 4 hours after the hill climb) started with a 1/2 mile climb and ended with a steep 1/3 mile climb. I was dropped like a ‘hot potato’ on the starting climb and continued to lose ~2 minutes per 1.6 mile lap on each of the 3 laps. I finished 6 minutes behind the main pack which is a HUGE amount of time for a short track. Again – ~15% from where I wanted to be. I am quite sure a 15% climbing gain is not achievable – but I’m hoping my training will close as much as that gap as possible…

After the race I soaked my legs in the cold river water. I can’t believe how refreshed I felt after the soak. Despite 2 hard efforts that day – my legs weren’t sore at all and when I woke up Sunday morning the legs were feeling pretty darn good!

Sunday’s xc race
I was worried about this race – it was ~11 mile lap and there was a cut off of 1:30 for the 1st lap and because of the technical nature of the course it wasn’t a smoking fast course. I had pre-ridden it in sections and didn’t know if I would be able to make the cutoff. If you didn’t make the 1:30 cutoff then you were pulled and given your placement and time.

The xc race started at 7:30am – luckily the weather was decent (high 40s with light winds). I woke up at 5am to eat my breakfast – got all my stuff together - ate a kep ball 30 minutes before the start – did my warm up and was ready to race.

There was the whopping total of 7 Cat 1 women and me at the start – the turn out was so low all you had to do was show up and you’d be on the podium. Everyone knew a 1:30 1st lap would be close and the girls petitioned to change the race to only do 1 lap. The race director said no. And out of 8 women – 4 didn’t make the cut-off (myself included) and the ones that did make it – were close. Their 1st lap times were ranged from 1:27 – 1:29.

It started with a 2 mile asphalt/dirt road climb and sure enough I was dropped like a ‘hot potato’ right off the bat. 19 minutes later – I finally reached the singletrack and everyone was long gone.

But the great thing was I was FINALLY on some great singletrack. As soon as I hit the singletrack I had a huge grin on my face enjoying the turns, tech moves and pushing as hard as I go. I had no idea if I was making ground on anyone but I gave it all I had. Even tho I couldn’t see a soul – I know someone can be less than 30 seconds ahead but since you can’t see them you feel like you alone out there. It’s easy to let up; however knowing that there could be someone just around the corner kept me pushing as hard as possible.

The middle of the race has a pretty steep 1 mile climb – avg 9% gradient with a couple of 15% gradients thrown in there. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of another racer but saw no one. I kept pushing as hard as possible.

Once past the climb then came the 1.2 miles of rocky, chunky stuff – the aforementioned “Uncle Nazty”.

chunky!!!

I focused on keeping enough momentum to roll over the chunks, looked ahead and kept off the front brake as much as possible. Halfway through the chunky stuff – I saw the blue jersey of another racer - I stayed on the bike as much as possible…I did have to walk some things that were above my skill/nerve level but rode as much as possible. As blue jersey girl was tentatively navigating a rock section – I called out to pass on the left. Knowing the trail smoothed out soon and she could out climb me – I kept the throttle on full blast.

By mile 9 I realized I wouldn’t be able to make the 1:30 cut off – but if I was only going to be able to do 1 lap – I wanted to use up as much gas as I had.

I finally reached the last bit of singletrack and saw the white jersey of another racer ahead. I caught up to her to find her standing on the side of the trail and it looked like she had dropped her chain. I passed her by and rode up to the finish in 1:41. The lady that dropped her chain finished 1 minute back (apparently she had some mechanical) and the blue jersey lady finished 2 minutes back. Based on the other riders 1st lap times – I was now ~8% - 9% off the pace I wanted to be– seems like the singletrack equalized things a bit more for me.

So – even tho my climbing is at a low point – I guessing that my dirt riding skills aren’t too shabby. Both the ladies I passed were the only 2 girls in the 40+ class – so in my mind it was a “virtual win” –( if I had signed up for the 40+ - I would have actually won a race) A tiny piece of redemption for my poor performance on the hill climb and short track. ;)

Bee pollen drama
My friend, Cat Morrison turned me on to kep balls a couple of months ago. I really liked them and ordered a couple of bags. They taste good, they are easy to eat and have lots of good stuff in them. I’ve been using them for pre-race energy food.

I ate most of a kep ball 30 minutes before the race start. I left 1 small bite and stuffed it in my jersey pocket – thinking I might use it as a treat during the race.

Since I was pulled from the race – I went back to my car to mix a recovery drink – I ate that last bit of kep ball. As I took a swig of my recovery drink I felt something lodge in the back of my throat. I tried to cough it out and wondered what was stuck in there. It literally felt like a 1” long piece of chicken bone was lodged sideways in my throat. After ~15 minutes it changed from the “chicken bone” feeling to the “my throat was swelling shut” feeling. Then I realized I must be having an allergic reaction to the bee pollen in the kep ball. I had some Benadryl on me so I immediately took 3 of them. I decided as long as I stayed around people (and didn’t get the car and drive home) and as long as my breathing wasn’t labored I would be ok until the Benadryl kicked in.

After 1.5 hours the swollen throat feeling hadn’t gone away so I went to the Safeway Pharmacy to see if I could get an Epi-pen. The pharmacist said I needed a prescription and if had been more than 2 hours since I had the reaction and it wasn’t getting better I should go to the ER.

I went to the ER. The people there were super nice and were able to get to me right away. By this time I was nauseous, had an elevated heart rate and swollen throat. They said since I wasn’t wheezing and didn’t have a rash – it was probably a ‘mild reaction’. The gave me a zantac and took some blood. Finally my throat un-swelled and my gut calmed down. They sent me on my way and told me to follow up with my primary care physician.

By the time I drove home – I was pretty much back to normal. But all I know is I’m never eating another kep ball again!

Whew – busy and crazy weekend…survived the bee pollen, got my ass handed to me a couple of times, learned some things, got some things dialed in and got to ride some dirt. All-in-all a great weekend!

checking my ego at the door & other ramblings

2011-05-10T06:12:00.006-07:00

I guess it's been awhile, eh? Facebook has stolen away my blogging time but after this past weekend - I thought I'd do a little race report...

Checking my ego at the door
You would *think* after trying so many new things as an adult I would be used to humbling myself and checking my ego at the door. This year I'm learning how to be a multi-day mtn bike stage racer. Since I'm turning the big Five-Oh - I figured I'd race myself into middle age by racing the Breck Epic.

Here's a little table of new activities I've learned as an adult and in the process I usually embarrass myself pretty good...

I don't know why I would expect this to be any different.

The Coach

I knew I couldn't prepare for the Breck Epic all by myself - i needed some good coaching and advice. Luckily for me - I've been able to enlist the help of the top endurance coach and racer in the country, Lynda Wallenfels. I can't think of anyone better - she just pulled off an amazing OVERALL win on the AZT 300 race. She knows what it takes for sure.

So I've been working with LW Coaching for the past few months preparing for August 2011.

I have raced a couple of races so far and I haven't been pleased with my performance. With the 12 hours of Mesa Verde fast approaching(I would be racing this as a duo team with my good friend, Jessica Moon Bernstein. We raced an 8 hour race in September 2010 and pulled off a 1st place finish.) and discussing the past 2 races with LW - she came up with a different approach than I'm used to for the 12 hours of Mesa Verde.

The Mesa Verde Race Plan

1. I couldn't bust ass on laps 1 & 2. I have to keep my HR in as close to the "tempo zone" as possible. If it started getting higher than that - I was to start "soft pedaling" - if my HR started getting toward the "threshold zone" I was to "STOP PEDALING". Are you kidding me? Stop pedaling? In a race?? Yowza, I'm not that fast to begin with and I knew how it would go down. I cringed at the thought of riding slow(er) than normal and watching everyone & their grandmother pass me in the process. I told myself "girl - check your ego". After laps 1 & 2(~32 miles) I could bust ass (if i had anything left) and not worry about HR. But she was pretty clear on what I had to do for laps 1 & 2.

2. I couldn't look at the time. I would only race by HR and I would have no idea how much time was passing. Seriously? Are you kidding me again!? Anyone that knows me knows how much I love my numbers & data. Asking me to ride without my data is like asking me to ride topless! (btw- Lynda if you do ask me to ride topless - that's something I won't do ;) ) I was horrified - but I trust Lynda, I swallowed hard and setup my Garmin Edge to only display Heart Rate and distance. I would use distance to determine when to get some calories in.

Lap 1
Jessica when out first (thank goodness as I'm NOT a runner and it would've been ugly if I did the LeMans start). I figured with congestion she'd come in ~1:40 range and sure enough she showed up at 1:42.

Off I go on my 1st lap and I'm immediately in the red zone - I backed off and spent the first 20 minutes trying to get my effort under control. I didn't feel too slow on the descents and I think I've been improving my swoopy singletrack skills but every time the trail pitched upward and my HR started climbing - I had to soft pedal or not pedal.

And sure enough - it felt like the entire field was passing me - here are some examples:

first Megan came by me - she was on her 2nd lap (on her way to 7(!!) laps and a solid 2nd place finish in the Solo Female category) sounding cheerful and looking strong.
then the girl in tennis shoes, flat pedals and a 35lb hardtail
then there was a rock on the trail that "tennis shoe girl" hit and fell over - I passed her back - 3 minutes later she passed me again.
then the fat, old guy(s) passed me
a heavyset older lady (probably my age) blew past me
then the guy with 1 leg passed me (actually this guy was really fast and he would've passed no matter how fast I was going)

But I stayed focused on my effort - drank my calories, resisted the temptation to speed up and watched them all ride away from me. My only redemption were comments from a couple different riders on my tech skills. ("you'll pass me on the next techy bit" said a girl as she passed me on an uphill. another rider said "you make those step-ups look so easy")

After this lap - I felt pretty darn good. My legs felt good - I really couldn't tell i had just rode 16 miles. I drank 1/4 a serving of a recovery drink and ate some other things to keep the calories coming in and waited the 1:30 for Jessica to complete her 2nd lap.

from photoreflect site -in process of ordering photo

Lap 2
My legs felt fresh and feisty when I started this lap.

However, my stomach started feeling queasy and I was experiencing some "gastro distress"...ugh. I decided to switch my "on bike" calories from Infinit to EFS liquid shot hoping that would ease my discomfort.

The first 8 miles I felt great - I finally got the hang of riding at the prescribed pace and I was feeling really good - feeling i was riding smooth and nailing the tech bits with ease. I was taking in my calories but my stomach was still not right. Then around mile 8 the sides of my quads started hurting (nothing major but noticeable) and then I noticed my effort suddenly got hard (labored breathing) but my HR dropped. Oh crap! I was glycogen depleted. Lynda had told me what glycogen depletion felt like and this was it. MAN oh MAN - what happened? what did I do wrong?   I kept pushing knowing I was halfway through, finished off my 400 calorie EFS and I hoped when I got my next break I could "fix it".

After this lap - I immediately downed another 1/4 serving of recovery drink and 12oz of water hoping to clear my stomach of whatever was bothering me. I decided to stick with the EFS liquid shot for the next lap as that's what tasted the best. I rested - drank a de-fizzed coke, some soft cantaloupe, some honey stinger waffle and grapes. I was trying to get easily digestible calories in and replenish some glycogen.

Jessica rolled in banging out a ~1:35ish lap time and I went out for my 3rd lap.

Lap 3
I *knew* I'd be cutting it close to get back by 6pm. 6pm was the cut off time for a rider to go out on course. But since I wasn't able to look at the time - the best I could do was ride to the best of my ability, hope my legs would come around and pray I'd get back in time.

My stomach stayed queasy and my gastro distress lingered on. I focused on riding smooth and pushing as hard as my legs seemed to let me. I kept up my calorie intake and every once in a while I'd feel a little better but it never lasted long.

Around mile 9.5 at Moki hill I saw my friend, Sarah Rarick standing on the side of the trail. She was on her 5th(!) lap on her rigid singlespeed and she was hurting. The rigid fork was exacting a toll on her and she had to mentally prepare herself for the chunky rocks that were coming up. I stopped and gave her a hug and commiserated with her for a minute or so but since I was racing to get back for 6pm - I wished her well and continued on.

At mile 15 - i heard someone behind me and asked if they wanted to pass. the girl said "no - i can't keep up with you on the descents and it's mostly downhill from here". Then she said "are you on a team? If so, it's 5:51 and we have 9 minutes to get back to get another rider out".   Really?? All of a sudden I got a BIG burst of energy and gunned it. I rode my little friggin' heart out for the next mile for the first time this race I was passing people. As I exited the singletrack I asked the course marshall - "how much time? how much time?" she said I had 3 minutes to get to the transition area.   I kept it pinned on the gravel road(I rode that last mile 11% faster than I had in Laps 1 & 2) and reached the transition area with 2:08 to spare.    Jessica was kitted up and ready to go - she went out and tacked on one more lap to make it the total of 7 laps.

We finished 8th out of 18 teams.

My awesome partner Jessica.

.
Aftermath
I think I found the 'gastro culprit'. Usually I have a cast iron stomach - as my sister likes to remind me "We are *peasant stock*" my family is definitely hardy.   But I think it was the 1/4 serving of Ultagen every lap - it's probably too much protein for me to handle while racing . At the Dawn til Dusk race (the 12-i mean 10 hour race in Gallup) I was having the same stomach issues but I thought it was the Hammer Gel shots I was using as on-bike fuel and the 25 degree weather/51 mph gusts of wind/pelting snow/ & freezing rain that was shutting down my stomach.

Jessica thought she'd try what I was doing and after downing some Ultragen after her 1st lap she had stomach issues too. She didn't take in anymore and by her lap 3 - she said she felt great. I was happy to learn this from her. Of course since we didn't have a chance to talk during the race - I didn't find out until much later.

Since my stomach was in distress most of the race and even tho I was putting in the calories I wasn't able to replenish my glycogen stores.   In our pre-race discussion Lynda told me when all your glycogen is depleted then your body switches to fat for fuel. Converting fat to fuel takes more energy and hence you can't go as hard. Usually your breathing will become labored and your HR will drop. (exactly what happened in the middle of lap 2).

Of course I've been glycogen depleted before but I haven't really be doing long races - it's been on rides where it didn't matter that much. But it's very interesting to me that now that i am paying attention - it was literally like a switch being turned off.

Now that I recognize what that feels like - hopefully I can be more aware in the future and prevent it.

Badass friends
Several of my friends were doing this race - it's such a fun event. And true to form - many of them pulled off some great performances.

Megan railed out 7 laps and finished 2nd place in the Solo Women. She passed me every lap I was out and she looked great every time - riding strong and sounding cheerful.

Cat Bywaters and Katri pulled off a strong 6 laps each. Cat told me her goal was 6 laps and she was hurting after 5 laps but she's stubborn and went out for the 6th one.

And of course - Jessica - she rode strong all her 4 laps and pulled off some great lap times.

It's super cool to be friends with such amazing women!

"cows can't tell time"

2010-12-20T21:28:00.002-07:00

Origin of "cows can't tell time"

I grew up on a farm in Texas. We had cows, chickens and pigs. Our family of 7 (2 parents and 5 kids) got our milk, eggs and meat from these animals.

It always seemed like my Dad enjoyed rousting me out of bed early in the morning to feed and milk the cows. Like 5:30/6:00am early.

Nowadays one of my favorite sayings is: "any day I don't have to get up at 6am to milk and feed the cows is a GOOD day".    And I truly believe that - no matter what is going on in my life - if the day doesn't start off with getting up early to deal with the cows - then it's a damn fine day!

I never really understood the getting up early part. Cows can't tell time - why couldn't we feed/milk them at noon??   I never got a good answer for that one.

ATC
I told this story to once to Connie( the owner/coach at The Alpine Training Center) . I was trying to distract her(and grab a few seconds of rest) by telling her the exercise she had me doing with a sandbag(which involved picking up off the ground and throwing it somewhere) felt a lot like feeding cows. Very similar to throwing 50# hay bales.   Of course she then noticed I was doing the exercise with a 45# sandbag so she grabbed a 50# for my next round of sandbag throws.   That will learn me to keep my mouth shut!

That Connie never forgets anything so when I walked into the gym to do my birthday challenge - the name of the workout was "Cows can't tell time".

Personally I can't say enough good things about Connie. The workouts are tough (but doable) and she remembers EVERYTHING about EVERYBODY. And she knows how to motivate you to squeeze every last ounce of energy out of you. The money and time I spend at ATC is money/time well spent.

Getting old isn't for wussies!

My birthday present to myself for my 49th birthday was inviting my friends to come suffer with me.

I didn't know exactly what the workout would be but I knew it would be tough and push me hard. Now my girlfriends are all tough, fit, smart, independent amazing women. I only had 10 slots for the workout - so I didn't get to squeeze everyone one. I had 1 male in attendance, John Wright. He's a regular at ATC and I knew he would be a good pacer.

The workout was tough - I focused and worked hard to get the 10 rounds done in 49 minutes. Sadly - I only made it through 9.5 rounds. But that's the typical birthday challenge. Connie has her knowledge of her athletes dialed in and she knows exactly how to push you.

And oh my! Did we had fun! Everyone dug in and worked hard but in the mist of all the hard work was bantering, laughing, encouraging words and lots of joking around.

here's a video of me and Brooke doing the rope climb.

Brooke kicked everyone's ass on the rope climbing - including yours truly!

here are pics during the workout

here's what I looked like AFTER the workout

Of course the drinks and food at Zolos with my pals was a nice cap to the evening.

me and my honey and I'm fixin' to enjoy some banana creme pie!

long and winding road...

2010-11-06T19:56:00.003-07:00

Trisha and I decided to do a road trip...a road bicycling trip.

The plan was 4 days and ~300miles. We ended up with a tad under 300 miles but considering the WHOLE state of AZ has chip-sealed (not smooth asphalt road) that was PLENTY!

Day 1 - Tucson to Tombstone - 87 miles

We battled horrendous headwinds to Sonoita (the halfway point). Those headwinds sucked especially since there was a 6% grade climb that lasted for 4 miles. boo!
After a quick lunch in Sonoita - it was heading east to Tombstone. Luckily at this point we had a tailwind and we made the last 40miles in 2:20.

feeling fresh and feisty

Trisha with a big pack

Man - we were glad to get to the hotel and we were especially happy it was on the North side of Tombstone.

us - as usual - we are slathered in sunscreen ;)

The hotel had a decent restaurant and we ate there.

We ran into 3 gentlemen while at dinner. The guys and us two were on the only people in the place. They were Harley motorcycle riders from Phoenix. They were aghast that we rode our bikes from Tucson. They asked "you don't have a gun with you? you weren't afraid?" It never occurred to us to be afraid. We answered a resounding "no!" to both questions.

Day 2 - Tombstone to Bisbee - 25 miles

we woke up feeling pretty good and ready to roll. This was a short day - we made it to Bibsee in ~2 hours.

us after breakfast

rode to bisbee

trisha feeling good

we got to Bisbee before noon and had the whole day to relax. Bisbee is a super cool town and we enjoyed the day. Bruce (Trisha's boyfriend) drove down and brought us extra clothes and stuff. We had a great and fun dinner at the Screaming Banshee Pizzeria

Bisbee

Day 3 - Bisbee to Sonoita - 68 miles

We were still feeling pretty good this morning. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club. Yummy breakfast and a great way to start a 68 mile ride!

BBC

The ride started off with a 18 mile downhill - woot! But then the next 20 miles to Sierra Vista was uphill.

On Hereford Road we ran into 2 gentlemen that were biking. One talked the whole time and the other guy was nice and quiet. We let them continue ahead of us. About 10 miles from Sierra Vista the quiet guy came back riding toward us. He offered to show us the way to circumvent the traffic in Sierra Vista. His name was John. He was SO nice. He had a nice pace and I could easily match it but we were dropping Trisha. I told him I wanted to make sure I could keep her in sight. So he adjusted his pace. He was pretty amazing - he was almost 70 years old and had the body of an athletic 29 year old man.

Meeting and riding with John was the highlight of the day! I wish I had thought to get a picture of him.

The rest of the trip to Sonoita was uneventful. It took us 4.5 hours to ride the 66 miles.

The LOWlight of the trip was our hotel. The Sonoita Inn. From the website the place looks like a lurixous spa. At $140 per night it was a total rip-off!

in reality it looks like this

the only place to eat was a steak house operated by the Sonoita Inn owners - it was mediocre too but at least the bartender had a generous pour when she gave us our glass of wine.

Day 4 - 75 miles

Ok...we were officially tired today. Our legs felt good but we were definitely tired.

I SWEAR by UltraGen and Sports Legs. We were really good about our recovery drink and Sports Legs and I guarantee we would have felt a lot worse if we hadn't carried a 4 day supply with us.

Around 5 miles out of Sonoita we had the pleasure of hitting a 30(!) mile downhill (it was 30 miles uphill on our first day).

we were GLAD to see this sign!

The last 30 miles home were tough - we were tired - it was hot and I for one was READY to be done. But we made it. 75 miles in 4:45. Whew!

trisha and i just after we arrived at her house

I can't tell you how proud I am of Trisha. She only started road biking 6 months ago!! She is mentally tough and always ended the day with a smile. I am SO lucky my BEST friend in the whole world is my wonderful and beautiful sister.

"I'm walking a strange line..."

2010-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

lyrics and song - "Molly's Vertigo"

I'm falling, I'm flying through the air
Had a bout of vertigo
I'm spinning around in a chair
Hey, I want you to know
I can't even crawl out of bed

Hey, mister, there's a mystery inside
You're taking over my mind
I was only trying to have a good time

You cast a spell on my whole world
I've left it behind
Give me some of your time

I'm walking a strange line
Just say that you're all mine
Just say you're mine, just say you're mine
I'm walking a strange line
Just say that you're all mine
Just say you're mine, just say you're mine
'Cause I won't wait around for you forever

I'm calling on the phone, it's ringing, it's ringing. You hit ignore
I've been changing the colors that I wear just to make you want me more
But you can't even tell green from red

Hey, mister, there's a mystery inside
You're taking over my mind
I was only trying to have a good time

You cast a spell on my whole world
I've left it behind
Give me some of your time

I'm walking a strange line
Just say that you're all mine
Just say you're mine, just say you're mine (4x)
'Cause I won't wait around for you forever
I won't wait around for you forever.

Acrylics: Molly's Vertigo/Rockaway Beach (Ramones cover) from jason miller on Vimeo.

saSSy girls racin' @ Stone Temple 8

2010-09-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

One more race popped up this season. With the thought of trying to keep up my fitness for as long as possible I decided to race the Stone Temple 8.

When i originally signed up - I thought it was a xc race and then i realized that it was an 8(!) hour race. I figured i could probably suffer through an 8 hour race but didn't really want to - so I went on the hunt for a partner. i asked Jessica if she wanted to race and after a couple of days of deliberation she said "yes!".

Of course she asked me if I was racing singlespeed (because that's pretty much all she rides is a 29er SS) and I said "uh..no...wasn't planning on it". But then when thinking up team names the only thing i could think of was "sassy girls" and I thought "saSSy" would be much cooler than "sassy" but that meant I had to ride the rigid SS. I like the name so much I agreed to ride singlespeed.

Saturday morning at 5am rolled around WAY too soon but i got up and headed to Jessica's to pick her up - we were on the road by 6am on Saturday morning. It took around 2 hours to get there and we had plenty of time to take a photo and for Jessica to get ready. She was going to go first.

i must say - Jessica is looking pretty saSSy here

off on the first lap
go jessica go!

I definitely got the better end of the deal with Jessica as a partner. She's way stronger than me and fast as heck. That was proven when she was the 3rd female to come through on the 1st lap under the 1 hour mark. uh..oh..that meant I had to bust ass as hard as possible to not negate her effort.

The course was very technical...lots of fun little rock techy sections, with some power moves, finesse moves and a few rock drops - definitely suites my riding style but i must admit it was still pretty rough on the rigid SS. I rode as fast as I could and my first lap was in the 1:04ish range.

photos from the event photographer - Action Photographic
(yes - I ordered and paid for prints of these photos - just haven't received them yet)

After about 30 minute after my lap - I checked results and was shocked to find we were in 1st place with 11 minutes over 2nd place. hmm....

Jessica came in faster on her 2nd lap with a sub-1 hour lap time. damn...sadly that wasn't the case for me. Even tho I felt pretty good and much smoother on my 2nd lap - I was ~3 minutes slower on my second lap.

Even with me slowing down a bit - i checked the results and we were 24(!) minutes up on 2nd place. wow!

Jessica came in again at just under an hour and I went out. I was feeling pretty tired on my 3rd lap and I struggled on the techy bits and walked a few of the power moves I had cleaned earlier. I tried to minimize my slowing down and came in 4 minutes slower than my 2nd lap. not too bad I guess...

I checked results we were 45 minutes up. dang! that's crazy - I thought "if i don't screw things up we could win this thing"

Around 10 minutes before Jessica came in for her 4th lap - I found out that the 2nd place team went out for their 7th lap at 4:30 - so that meant all Jessica had to do was finish her 4th (which would be our team's 7th lap) and we had 1st place wrapped up and I didn't have to go out for the 8th lap.

But our goal was to do 8 laps and so when Jessica came in after an 1:01 lap at around 4:45pm(we had until 5:15 to go out on our final lap) - I went out. I was pretty cooked at this point and I tried to take it easy. After riding the rigid for 3 laps - the 4th lap was rough. My upper body was tired, my brain was tired and my reaction times were poor and a took a couple of hard diggers. But I finished and we won by a really big margin.

Let me tell you - winning doesn't suck. Of course it was Jessica who set the bar and all i had to do was hold my own.

podium shot
(well kinda - i was off getting a band-aid for my knee when we got called up)

thanks to my partner...hopefully I can convince her to team up with me again!

my part of the swag!

i had no idea...

2010-09-28T10:42:00.004-07:00

Last year I went to my high school reunion. I friended several friends from that era on Facebook and after the initial "hi - how are you" most of us have not really interacted that much. Lives are different, we are in different locations and have different interests.

I guess the email I am about to share just goes to show - you never know how your words/actions can influence other people...so always strive to be the best you can be!

so there i am - doing my thing...living my life...posting stuff on Facebook.

Last week I received this email from one of those high school friends. I was totally flabbergasted and flattered. But as I told my friend, she's the bad-ass. To be "our age", living in a place where mtn biking is not the norm and to do what she's doing - is *very badass". I am super stoked to hear someone else has gotten the bug. :)

"Cynthia, you are my hero...my inspiration at the very least!!

Because of you, I am bike riding now along with my 10 yr old daughter. After seeing all the pics you post of your biking....it just looked like so much fun.

It is!!

NOTHING like being out there, wind blowing across your face, the rush of down hill, the push of a climb.....well, you know what I'm talking about! (words can't describe it!)

The 25lbs I lost was a wonderful benefit too!!

Of course we aren't doing anything as challenging as what you do, YET! We have a blast! Who knows....one day we might just be as bad ass as you!! =)
Thanks for sharing & changing my life!
Keep posting.....you are an inspiration to all!!!"

jiu-jitsu hair do

2010-09-24T08:59:00.010-07:00

I've always thought the "fighting" sports and martial arts were very interesting. The fitness required, the aglility, the reading of the other person, the mental focus/toughness required under pressure all seemed facinating to me.

It seemed like something i'd like to try except (and this is a BIG except and a total deal-breaker) the 'getting hit in the head' part. I don't mind getting bruises and beat up - I just don't want my brain sloshed around continuously. But I guess that's the whole point of fighting - is to take the other person down, eh? So I thought it would be something I would admire from afar.

Then last weekend, Dave and I watched a show about Royce Gracie and how he used jiu-jitsu to defeat much larger opponents with finesse, intellence, patience, technique and skill and NOT brute force and NOT by hitting them in the head. Damn - don't you know that sucked me in bigtime...so you know where this going.

I started reading about jiu-jitsu and in training and competitions of straight jiu-jitsu you don't focus on hitting people in the head. You focus on getting their bodies in position in order for them to 'submit'.

Yes - I signed up. My first class was last night and i LOVED it. It is *very* technical. It was described as a 'isometric chess match' and after experiencing some of the moves that is an apt description.

so...move over speedskating...this off-season i'll be doing jiu-jitsu as cross training.

A big annoyance to me was my hair. I did the typical one long braid down my back but that didn't work out so well - with all the tumbling, grappling and tussling - my hair was constantly getting matted up and coming loose.

After a little experimenting - I think I have a good jiu-jitsu hair do. I know it looks goofy but hopefully it's functional. We'll see - my next class is Tuesday. :)

step 1 - regular hair do
(not that it's that much of a "do" ;) )

step 2 - 2 pony tails high up on my head
(so when I'm rolling around on my back i won't roll on these)

step 3 - braid into pig tails

step 4 - wrap braids into a bun and secure w/bobby pins
(modified "princess leia" do)

viva la canadiens!

2010-09-18T13:36:00.003-07:00

More Breck Epic Stuff...

It's official - I paid my $ and am signed up for the Breck Epic 2011 (and i'm TERRIFIED!!!)

While doing support for the 2010 Breck Epic, I had the pleasure of hanging out with the crew from Canada - ending my 'mini-epic' riding with Linden.

Meagan sent me some pics - what a fun crew!

I'm happy to hear they'll be back supporting next year - so it will be nice to see some friendly faces at the aid stations while i'm suffering during the race next year.

aid station girls - me, Meagan, Tracy, Sarah

linden (29year old Canadian fireman) and me (i was worked trying to
keep up with him!) on the CT

me all smiles on the CT

fall colors!

2010-09-17T13:51:00.003-07:00

Hit up two of my favorite rides Wednesday and Thursday. Kenosah Pass and Monarch Pass.

Rode them at an relaxed pace since for ONCE i wasn't the slowest or least skilled. Usually due to the company I keep (super fast and skilled mtn bikers) I'm in "pushing hard" mode to keep up.

Actually I think my fitness has improved and I know my recent spat of back-to-back days of rides made these two days "easier" for me. :) PLUS how could I not have fun on those trails - esp this time of year.

here's my favorite picture from Monarch

here's me on kenosha using body english to get around
the root and gate.
(I cleaned it - no toe-dabbing or un-clipping!)

Hooray for Fall in the high country. :D

boulder is burning

2010-09-08T09:44:00.005-07:00

After being gone for 4 days - I came home to learn there is a fire in Boulder County.

Being in town(Boulder city limits) and ~5 miles east of the fire - my home is safe.

I have friends that have homes in the burn area - some of their homes are still standing and some aren't.

Thanks to all the Firefighters doing their best to contain the fire.

cyn's mini-epic

2010-08-26T10:19:00.010-07:00

This is what my mornings looked like last week.

Waiting to load aid station bags into
the truck (photo credits: yuki saito)

working aid station #1
(i'm to the left handing someone things out of their bag)

For 4 of the 6 days of the Breck Epic - I've been working Aid Station #1 for that day's stage. After working Aid #1 - I eat lunch, take a nap and then 'cherry pick' the fun parts of that day's stage and go riding for ~2.5 - 3 hours.

While the hard-cores are doing a whopping ~225 miles with the total of 35,600 elevation gain in 6 days. I started on Saturday and and my totals are a measly 109 miles with 15,537 elevation gain...and i tell you - i'm whooped. (I know those totals don't sound like much to a road rider - but let me tell you those were demanding miles - I had one guy tell me that 1 day is harder than TheTripleBypass)

I'm considering doing this race next year so I wanted to check it out and this way I got an up close and personal look at the race. And let me tell you - this isn't for the faint-of-heart.

After 5 days of riding (I started my mini-epic riding the day before the race started) basically one-half of the race - I'm exhausted.

I was on the fence about even riding on day 5 and I figured I'd take blow off riding. One of the race contestants (from Calgary, Canada) that I had gotten to know over the past few days wanted to ride with me. (he dropped out of the race after stage 1 due to altitude sickness was feeling much better by his 5th day at altitude)

So off we went on a 25mile/3500k ride. We basically rode the Stage 4 course from Aid #1, past Aid #2 and up the double-track to the CT, then down the West Ridge into Blair Witch and back to Aid #1.

Surprisingly even tho I was super tired I feel I rode fairly well - even cleaning "Vomit Hill". As we rode along I found out Linden is a 29 year old fireman and he's raced TransRockies where him and his partner finished in the top third of the field. One the downhills he was faster (he's 6'5" weighs 200lbs and was on a Stumpjumper FS) but I wasn't that far behind. I ended up pushing myself pretty hard on this ride to not slow up Linden and I felt I held my own. I'm glad I ended my 5 days in Summit with a good ride.

hmm...maybe if I actually train and prep for a 6 day stage race - maybe I could do it...we'll see... :)

Fear Factor

2010-07-19T18:03:00.012-07:00

I'm a chicken.

Once upon a time when I was like 5 years old and learning to swim at the YMCA - I was the best swimmer in the class on shallow end of the pool - they wanted to bump me up to the next class which was on the deep end and I balked - bigtime. The thought of not being able to touch the bottom of the pool scared the crap outta me and I couldn't bring myself to get in the deep end. In shame I walked back to the shallow end of the pool and in stayed beginner class.

I don't think I ever got in the deep end that summer. 45 years later I still remember this incident and i'm still embarrassed by it.

I have a few other incidents in my life where fear has kept me from even trying whatever I was afraid of...fear is very powerful and easy to give into...however it never feels good to give into fear...but with that said - i was ready to give into this past weekend.

Last week I had decided NOT to race the Breck 32. I finally admitted to myself the reason I wasn't racing the Breck 32 was because I was afraid.

The ~~Breck 32~~ - ahem, I mean the Breck 34.5 course profile

Backstory

Last year I raced the Breck 32 and had a blast. This race has so much fun singletrack - more than most of the other xc races. I finished 2nd to a really nice girl, Holly Wiek. She's WAY stronger on the climbs and I was faster on the descents. Last year the race ended with a hefty climb before a short descent to the finish and even tho we started the last climb at the same time and she beat me by ~4 minutes.

Holly and I had tentatively planned to ride together after that but it never happened and all of a sudden it's year later and Holly emailed that she had signed up for the Breck 32 and was asking if I was racing.

Originally I had planned to do the race but then the fear started creeping in. I started making the excuses. I was racing 2 days before the Breck 32 so I wouldn't be recovered. I'm old - I need lots of recovery time - so I wouldn't be up to par for the Breck32. There's no way I could do both races in a week and since I have been doing fairly well in the Wed night series I wasn't willing to 'sacrifice' a Wednesday night race. That was my excuse for not racing.

So ok - decision done - I wasn't racing - I had my excuses firmly in place.

But of course the REAL reason was I was afraid I wouldn't do well and it would embarrass me to do poorly - esp in front of Holly. So I admitted to myself, Dave and Dana the reason I wasn't doing the race was because i was AFRAID.

Then of course Holly throws a wrench into the whole thing. Holly and her husband are moving to Minnesota so he can go to school. For some reason (tho i barely know the girl) the thought of bypassing a chance to see and visit with Holly again really disturbed me.

So I thought - well i just go "ride" in Breck and visit with Holly after the race. (how lame is that) So after thinking how lame it would be for me to sit on the sidelines in Breck and not do a race on a course I love - I decided to race. I mean what was the worst that could happen - I could be DNF - well I've been DNF before and it didn't kill me. And I've choked at crucial times during my life - like the time I played in a WPBA pro event and choked in front of an audience.

So on Friday evening I packed up the car and headed to Summit County. Game on!

Partners in Crime
I saw on the web that there were 11 girls signed up for our category (40-49 open women) and but Holly was the only person I really knew so in the mist of ~300 people starting at the same time we lined up together. We stayed together for most of the opening road climb and after a bit Holly pulled away and i kept riding at my pace not willing to blow myself up so early in the race.

Then we hit the singletrack. Man - what a cluster. there isn't any "racing" going on here the best you can do it hold your line, stay on your bike and not lose any positions. After a switchback I see Holly standing by a switchback - I tell her to hop on and she got behind me and followed my line up the rest of the singletrack.

Then a dirt road climb that's 1.5 miles long we stay together for a bit but then she pulls away from me - I see her crest the climb and I start counting - she crested the climb 35 seconds ahead of me. But then here comes a fast and furious 1.5 mile descent where I topped out at 36.4 mph and I catch and pass her.

I see as i pass her she's gripping the seat with her legs and her elbows are in. After the descent and the road points up again - we are riding together and I tell her on the descents to open up her legs and let the bike bounce beneath her that will help with stability.

Then here comes Little French Gulch - that painful 1 mile climb that averages a tough 11% grade but has sections of up to ~15%. I've learned that every bit you can stay on your bike the faster the climb will be over but it's so steep and painful sometimes the pain wins and I'll walk parts. This time I vowed ride the 1st creek crossing and stay on my bike until the last steep pitch -walk ~50/60ft and when it lessens just a tiny bit by a downed log - I would get on my bike again there and ride the left turn - stay on the bike and ride the final creek crossing.

At the beginning of the climb I can see Holly maybe 40ft ahead of me - I slowly keep cranking.
Then I see a girl in our category(in a GS Boulder kit) pass me - I slowly keep cranking.
It gets steeper - Holly and the GS Boulder girl are walking - I slowly keep cranking.
I get close the creek crossing and I am DYING to get off my bike and walk - but I slowly keep cranking.
I ride the creek crossing and slowly pass GS Boulder girl as she is still walking.
I see Holly standing off the side of the trail catching her breath - I slowly keep cranking.
It finally get to that steep pitch were I have to walk and I getoff the bike and start pushing. At this time both Holly and I are side-by-side. Holly says "Cynthia - push your bike with one hand on your seat so youwon't be so stretched out". I try that and it's way easier - I was very grateful for the tip.
I see the log that signals for me to get back on the bike. I FORCE myself to get on my bike even tho I don't think I will be able to actually pedal and I slowly start cranking.

I stay ahead of Holly - ride the tricky descent into a little creek crossing and breath a sigh of relief that it's big-ring terriorty on the Flume trail.

It might seem funny that even tho Holly and I are racing each other that we are sharing tips that might help the other person but I like that. I wanted Holly to do her best and I know she wanted me to do my best too.

Descending, climbing, descending.
I ran into traffic on the Flume trail - usually I can big-ring it in ~8 minutes but I got stuck in traffic and it took ~9 minutes to get to the American Gulch descent. I bombed the descent as quickly as possible in order to put as much distance between me and Holly as I could knowing she'd be able to catch me as there was a ~30 minute climb up the CO Trail coming up.

The CT trail climb is alway painful - after going full bore for 15 miles - this climb kicks my booty. I slowly grind my way up the climb - passing a few people here and there and a few people passing me here and there. I see some people walking and I force myself to stay on my bike and slowly keep cranking.

Just as I am getting to the top of the climb - I hear "Hi Cynthia!" I'm like "holly - is
that you?" She answers so happily back "yep - it's me!" She sounds so happy and chirpy I have to smile. I'm relieved the descending it about to happen and I turn it on for the descent.

I LOVE the West Ridge descent - it makes me happy. I'm hauling ass(for me) on the descent and kindly the guys I catch up to nicely let me by - then I quickly catch up to a guy and girl. The girl is toe-dabbing the switchbacks but not letting me and the other guy through. I'm a little be annoyed by this then she really badly botches a switchback and me and the other guy sneak past. The guy pulled over and let me pass and I have an open trail for the rest of the descent. I do hear someone behind me and ask him if he wants to pass but he says 'no - you are pulling me and i want to follow your lines'. I mentally shrug and get back to task at hand.

At the bottom of the descent there's short 5 minute climb and I see the toll this course has taken. People are scattered off the side of the trail, some hanging over their bikes gasping for air, some sitting eating and some sitting and staring off into space. Knowing this climb is only 5 minutes I ride as fast as I can so I can get to the next descent.

Here I pass a girl, Sage, that passed me way back at the beginning of the CT climb - she says 'hello' as I blast past her on a rocky section of the trail. I can't believe I caught up to her - she's phenomal climber and this is why I like this course - you have to be able to be a compentent climber and competent descender.

No water for the weary
I finally roll into Aid Station #2. I had purposely carried enough water and electrolytes to get me to the aid station. When I rolled up I *may* have had 3-4 oz of water left. I figured here I'd pick up a bottle of water that would take my to the finish 10 miles away. BUT there's NO WATER. Are you fucking kidding me?? NO WATER?? They said the guy left 10 minutes ago to get water and should be back any minute.

I was trying to decide what to do - I had a grueling 30-40 minute climb coming (one in which Holly could easily catch me) and if I waited around for water I would be cutting into the time I had gained on her on the descent. So with a measly 3-4 oz of water I left the aid station empty handed. As I rounded the corner I see a lady with a jug of water - i ask her if she has any to spare. and she says 'yes'. Oh man - i'm so lucky - she filled up my water bottle and
off I went.

I rode as hard as I could during the climb (even tho I felt like I was crawling) I passed a few guys here and there, saw other casualities and people walking up Gold Run road - it does average ~10% grade.

I played leap frog w/a singlespeeder. When I first I passed him he said 'you are looking fast' I said 'thanks but i feel so slow' He said 'i saw you on the descent - i couldn't keep up with you are descending like a mad woman'. I was very pleased with that compliment.

I finally hit that 2.5 miles of downhill singletrack - I catch and pass a couple of more guys and then finally hit the road to home.

I pedaled so hard I started getting a slight cramp in my left leg so I let up a little...I looked behind and didn't see anyone behind me.

At this point I knew I was home free. I hit the descent into Carter Park and as I crossed the finish line I felt like crying. I had no idea how I finished in the whole scheme of things but I had ridden to the best of my ability and I had ridden my little fucking heart out.

I waited for Holly to come in and she finished ~10 minutes after i did.

Someone came up to me later and said 'are you cynthia?' I'm like 'yeah' she said 'you got 2nd place'.

caveat, aftermath & disclaimers

on the podium

First of all the fact I was 2nd doesn't not mean I am fast. Holly Wade was 1st and she beat me by a whopping 58(!) minutes. NOW that's fast! And I think this is an important part of the story that I was beaten by an hour. there are many a girl that are as strong or stronger than Holly Wade and the fact that I was 2nd is a case in "who showed up". USA cycling national xc championships were this day in Grandy so a lot of the fast girls were racing there.

BUT with that said I feel I'm a competent mtn biker. I was the oldest woman racing the 32 and finished 5th overall in the women's field. And I would've finished in the top half of the men's 40-49 field. So I am happy with my result - I just know I'm not one of the *really* fast girls.

It was great to visit with Holly Wiek after the race and we both have a lot of respect for each other's abilities. We are going to try to sneak in a ride on the South Boundary Trail in September before she takes off to Minnesota.

It's funny - Holly is the reason I did not want to race the Breck 32 but she's also reason I did race it. Funny how things work out, eh?

ask me again...ask me again...

2010-07-12T08:49:00.003-07:00

hypnotizing...

Cove Album Cover
artist - A Weather

a long time coming...

2010-06-24T12:36:00.004-07:00

On the podium - 3rd place
Breck Gold Run Rush Race

Backstory
Way back when I was a beginner racer(circa 2004) I headed up to Breckenridge to do the Fall Classic Stage Race. The beginners were basically racing a dirt road and the sport categories and above were racing a 25+ mile race w/lots of singletrack that included something called "heinous hill". Not wanting to race a dirt road - I jumped in WAY over my head and signed up as a sport racer. Such was my introduction to racing in Breck.

Needless to say I had my ass handed to me in that race and subsequently over and over again since then. All I can say is those Breck riders are tough, fit, fast and talented riders.

From 2005 - 2007 I rented a summer condo in Summit County and I was a fairly regular racer at the Breck Wednesday night race series...consistently finishing in the bottom 1/2 or bottom 1/3 of the pack. Due to gas prices and not having the condo the past couple of years - I haven't raced any Breck Wed nights in the past 2 years.

This year in order to get ready for racing at altitude for the Firecracker 50 - I've made the trek to Breck to race this June.

Expectations
I've never done this particular race(Gold Hill Rush) - I like to say because the timing was never right but in reality it's probably because it includes "heinous hill".

Currently the sport women are broken out into 3 categories. 19-34, 35-49, 50+. My racing age is 49 so I'm officially the oldest person racing in my category.

The first race of the series (2 weeks ago) - I finished a respectable 6th out of 12 girls in my category. Finishing in the top half vs the bottom or bottom third of the field. (hmmm...maybe i don't suck...)

I had no expectations for this race . I've never ridden this particular course so I didn't know what the descents were like or how long the climbs would be. This is a climbing race and i'm not a climber. My strengths lie in techy, rocky, ledgy descents (i.e. the Amasa back entrance) and short, bursty power moves. Plus I'm a solid 4(!) pounds heavier than my normal weight this time of year. (don't know if it's a post-menopause thing, more muscle from all the weight lifting this winter, or just eating too much - maybe a combination of the three...)

Gold Run Rush - 2009 SMC race #2
So determined to get in one more high altitude race before the Firecracker - i booked out of boulder ~3pm and headed to Breck.

I got to the start and warmed up on the first 2 miles of the course. It starts off with 1.5 miles of steepish climbing and just going at a normal pace was painful.

Normally I would start in my middle-ring but I decided to start in my granny gear. I wouldn't go all out at the beginning either - I would try to pace myself for the climb.

Off we go - I was probably toward the back of the pack as we started the climb - but i kept myself in check and let the girls go. I'd say around 5 minutes into the climb I was feeling pretty decent so I picked up the pace and started passing people. I saw several girls blow-up - that familiar sag of the shoulders and the drop of the head. (i know i've done that many-a-time)

As we continued to climb I surprisingly felt pretty good so i kept pushing harder and harder until I was toward the front. I was shocked but I told myself I could think about how good I was feeling later and right now I had to focus on the task at hand. A girl in a pink jersey and I traded places a couple of times on the climb keeping close to each other.

The first descent was a short singletrack section. I heard someone behind and as we exited the descent the guy behind me said 'you ride some nice smooth lines'. I was pleased with that comment as I consider myself a competent descender but not a great descender.

The next climb was a half-mile 10% grade climb and I felt FANTASTIC. I was in granny gear but I spinning hard and I passed pink jersey girl and another girl at this point. I put the hammer down...after a brief respite we came upon heinous hill.

On heinous I saw the 2 girls in the lead and I focused on staying on the bike hoping to clean it and make up some time. I ended up having to walk 2 short sections as my rear tire spun out and i couldn't recover and at this point pink jersey girl passed me.

After the top of heinous - it was mostly downhill with some short bursty climbs thrown in. On the flatish sections or the short climbs I would catch up to pink jersey girl and look for a place to pass then a descent would come up and she'd gap me. I was riding conservatively on the descents as I really didn't know what to expect. I kept hoping that I would be able to pass pink jersey but I never did. Pink jersey girl finished 2nd (with me in 3rd) 40 seconds ahead of me.

So that's it - my first podium at a Breck Wednesday night race. A big deal for me. ;)

spring has (finally) sprung...

2010-06-01T09:00:00.003-07:00

the trails are dry and the trees are green...

Indian Creek called out my name and I responded by riding the 27mile(3k vert) loop.

same bat place - same bat time

2010-05-21T09:25:00.006-07:00

Short Track races have started...started in May this year (usually they don't start until June).

The "Hurricane of Pain" as David Towle called them.

Here are pix from 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. (didn't race much 2009 so no 2009 pix)

hee-hee...looks like I'm getting my moneys worth from my castelli jersey I am wearing in 2006 and 2010. ;)

Race report for this year and subsequent years follow pix.

2010
2008
2007
2006

race report
These races hurt like no other - sure they are only ~20minutes long - but it a balls-to-wall all out effort and after about 10 minutes i am pretty toasted.

For that reason I've backed off from the crits the last couple years. I'm a wuss and lazy and don't really care to hurt that bad...but this year I'm trying to get in shape and this is great speed work.

In 2007, 2008, and 2009(I think i only did 2 short track races in 2009) - I raced on the SS. Last year I did one race on a geared bike and realized that I get a better workout riding gears - i am never spun out so I get a harder workout. So this year will probably be a mix of racing on the SS and gearie.

Due to the wet weather the back side of the venue was pretty wet so they just marked the front side - as a result of this the course was short (~2minute lap vs. the standard ~5minute lap).

8 girls lined up but then I saw Marion on the side line - she said she hadn't had time to sign up but they let her jump in - so I believe there was the total of 9 girls.

At the start Marion got the hole-shot with me right behind. I stayed on her for about 3 laps but she pulled away. I was passed by one girl and then I passed her back. I was stronger on the short power hills but she is light and agile and was faster on the flat. We went back and forth a few times and on her final pass she made it stick. By this time I was in survival mode and hung on for 3rd place.

2006 race report here.
2007 race report here.
2008 race report here.
More photos of 2010 race here.

12 hours of mesa verde

2010-05-16T20:21:00.006-07:00

In 2007 I was a racing fool. Racing mostly on the singlespeed. The past few years tho - I backed off from racing and just rode for fun.

But racing can be fun, eh? So on the spur of the moment I signed up with Dessert Rats(Sarah Rarick, David and Eric) to do 12 hours of mesa verde. The theme the race was Pirate theme.

Sarah and I semi-coordinated outfits.

Sarah - looking spiffy

me - post lap

me - since I didn't have jersey pockets -
I had to store my gels in my umm...cleavage

Megan was racing duo with Katri....they killed it coming in 3rd in a heavily stacked field. I got a sequence of shots of Megan cleaning a techy bit on her 4th lap. I was at the section for ~30 minutes and I saw many a girl botch the this section - Megan cruised through easily.

megan - cleaning tech and taking names

my semi-race report
Our team came in 11th out of 27 teams.

as for me - I only got 1 official lap in.

Considering my lack of fitness and after checking out the lap times from last year - I was hoping for a 1:45 lap time. I came in at 1:46 - so I was happy about that. There wasn't time for me to go out on a 2nd official lap - so I did one on my own - hanging out at the tech section to catch pix of Sarah and Megan. Ride time for second lap was 1:48.

Eric pulled in a smoking fast 1st lap of 1:36. David was next and was knocked off his bike by a couple of bozos 2 times but still pulled in a 1:43 lap. Sarah killed it on her SS with a 1:41 and of course I came in at 1:46.

I had a blast and look forward to a fun race season - hopefully I'll get faster. :)

slippery when wet

2010-04-26T06:59:00.004-07:00

It's the rainy season here...it's been wet and the trails are iffy.

Last week I hit up Devil's Backbone - it was a solo ride (as most of them are nowadays as I slowly try to get into biking shape) and due to the weather I had the trail to myself.

a little slippery here and there..

I was pretty wet after the ride - my gloves and jersey were wringing wet but I wasn't *that* uncomfortable.

I gotta say I LOVE my swrve wool knickers - they rock!!

bike was pretty dirty at the end of the ride

out of balance

2010-03-19T11:58:00.010-07:00

This winter in order to be a bit more structured during the off-season - I joined a gym call The Apline Training Center (formerly known as Mtn Athlete).

me - suffering through something

Previously, during the winter I usually go to Flatirons gym and work out on my own doing the same workout over and over again. Start out with 3 sets of strict dead-hang pullups (last year I got up to 3 sets of 8), do 100 push-ups, some shoulder work with dumb-bells and a bunch of jumps and lunges.

Last year I tried Crossfit (went to about ~4 different workouts) but it just didn't do it for me. I definitely liked the types of exercise and the intensity. The Crossfit workouts are short (HARD but short - ~20 - 30 minutes) and I didn't like the fact every workout is for time. I want to work hard but I don't care for every workout being a competition.

I saw an article about The Alpine Training Center in the paper so I thought I'd give it a go.

Oh my - i totally loved it...I am addicted to the workouts. The warmup is usually equal to a Crossfit WOD (workout of the day) and THEN we get to do another 45 - 60 minutes more of intense exercises.

strong lower body/weak upper body = out of balance
We just finished a 6 week "strength cycle" - we did a ton of olympic style lifting. Stuff like max front squat, bench press, deadlift, push press, etc. Anyways - Connie says that if you have a balanced upper body and lower body your bench press should be that same as your front squat.

max Front squat = 135lbs ( 122% of my body weight)
max bench press = 90lbs ( 81% of my body weight)

So as you can see - there's a huge discrepency - but considering my sports(mtn bikings/ speedskating) it makes sense. Still I would love to bench at least my body weight but I'm backing off from these workouts as cycling season ramps up.

the pain cave
Many a time I go into my own personal 'pain cave' and only have the ability to focus at the task at hand...nevermind what everyone else is doing or what is next..it's all about just surviving.

I guess others feel the same way too. Here's an article Rob Coppolillo did about the ATC.

I never knew that situps could be anaerobic

But they well can be when you are hoisting a 35lb plate while
doing 182(!) of them! And don't worry -
that was only a SMALL part of that particular workout

So...will I be stronger this mtn bike season due to the workouts? I have no clue - I just know it was 4 months of hard work that always seemed like fun (after the workouts were done) ;)

sassy!

2010-02-24T08:33:00.003-07:00

feeling pretty sassy lately.

first of all - got a sweet pair to red Frye boots for half price.

sassy!

hawt!then went with some my girlies to the Med for happy hour.

tracy enjoying the paleo options!

bacon wrapped figs - yummy!!

all smiles after a couple glasses of wine and good food. yeehaw!

racin' !!!!

2010-02-18T12:32:00.005-07:00

no not me racin' but crack head jeny...

it just so happened my trip to see my sister in Tucson corresponded w/Jeny and my new friend, Aaron racing at 24 hours of OP.

I went out to help Ed with support and they totally kicked some bootaaay!!!

notice (just like her wheels) her feet don't even touch the ground!

us before her last lap

there were lots 'o crackheads out there...Lynda W, Cat B and a bunch of others. As usual - interesting things happen at night. The whole crew pitting and racing from the tent were super interesting and great folks.

but i was focused on my girlie, Jeny, so get the inside scoop here!

haunting..

2010-02-18T07:43:00.002-07:00

i'm always a sucker for a haunting fiddle in the background and songs about 'lost love'...this fits the bill.&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://glenphillips.bandcamp.com/track/always-have-my-love"&amp;amp;gt;Always Have My Love by Glen Phillips&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

room with a view...

2010-02-11T16:15:00.005-07:00

view from just one of the many decks at Trisha's house in tucson, az

or maybe I should title this post: "it's been a while..."

my blogging has taken a dive...part of it is Facebook (it's so much easier to do a quickie status and post pix on there) and the other part is I've gotten out of the habit.

When my work load kicked up last year and I basically only had time to work, barely ride my bike and maintain my important personal relationships....blogging fell by the wayside fairly quickly.

I'm on vacation this week. My wonderful sister (and best friend) moved to tucson, az. They bought this awesome house (that needed a lot of work - all documented here) and are now enjoying the fruits of their labor.

The location is amazing...it backs up to Tucson Mtn Park and there is some GREAT mtn biking and road biking basically at their front door step. There is literally an amazing view from every window in there house.

My vacation days are slipping pass quickly. I'm enjoying the time with my sister - there's a lot of talking, laughing and eating going on. I'm glad she is back in the states and there's easy access(~$150 airfare between boulder and tucson) so hopefully it won't be 1.5 years between visits next time.

oh yeah - I had an awesome mtn bike ride today...it's been raining quite a bit since i've been here and today I rode the Yetman trail - it was nice and tacky. The trail head is a nice quick warm up ride of 1.5 miles from Trisha's front door. :)

stone house on the trail and the safire (now a AZ resisdent)

A easy to moderate trail(just enough rocky stuff to keep you on your toes) and PLENTY of cactus to dodge (oh my - I can admit to be mighty timid in some sections due to ALL the cactus).

It was JUST what I need to get back into the mtn bike swing of things. I think it's been 4(!) months (maybe early november) since I've been mtn biking. Hopefully i'll be able to ride at home but you never know what the weather has in store...and maybe a visit in April might be in the works....don't want the safire to get lonely. ;)

random threads leading back to colorado

2009-12-21T15:40:00.007-07:00

Since I've gotten my new little red nano - I've subscribed to "This American Life".

I usually listen to the podcast on my weekly trek to Colorado Cue Club on Sunday night to play straight pool with the old skool players - however when I tried to listen on my drive last night the battery was dead - so while at work I listened to last week's episode.

The fascinating story of a young man trying to come to terms with his mother's murder by making a documentary about the incident was mesmerizing. In the end his project was 'put on hold' in order to open a restaurant. In typical geek-a-zoid fashion I looked up the restaurant online and browsed the menu and wine/beer list.

I was surprised that I found "old chub" listed on their beer menu.

so - new nano -> subscribe to podcast -> listen to story -> wonder about restaurant -> surf the net-> see Oskar Blue's beer on NYC menu.

ricky's rock star hair

2009-11-24T23:35:00.002-07:00

Currently Audioslave is my favorite choice of music...I ran across this recent pic of Chris Cornell(singer for Audioslave and Soundgarden) and saw he has the same hair as Ricky. of course I think Ricky is MUCH better looking. ;)

Make a Smilebox collage

more ricky stuff

2009-11-04T15:23:00.013-07:00

Ricky just posted this link on FB - when he was 5 years old he saw this video - this video prompted him to start drawing.

I remember him telling me that something he watched on Sesame Street inspired him to start drawing but I never saw exactly what he saw and who knew it would spawn a career.

This is the result of that video -
25 years later it hangs on the wall in my living room
pretty amazing, eh?

Speaking of Ricky - I'm learning a couple of Nirvana songs (can you say 'power chords'?) - this song reminds me of Ricky - he didn't like meat back then because it was "too chewy". A snippet from the lyrics. "I couldn't chew my meats too good". I love that kid.

brgInRedSidis

thinking about sticking my toe back in the water....

green lights

injury avoidance dance...

i want to run at sea level

mixed bag - yeti chase 5k race report

end of the line??

9 mile run recovery food

I have a serious problem....it's a boot problem

something has gotta give

little feet - shoe dilemma

out of limbo

who me?? Runner's World story

committed

The Best of 2011 - the Best day of my life - July 23, 2011

What's your secret? Skin care regime part deux

Floundering and searching for clarity

running disappointment put into perspective

"you gotta *learn* how to hurt" and other sage advice

running geekiness...or...MY what a big watch you have!

I am NOT a runner...

Breck Epic Stage 6: Gold Dust

Breck Epic Stage 5: Wheeler Pass

Breck Epic Stage 4 - Aqueduct/CT trail stage

Breck Epic: Stage 3 - Mt. Guyot Circumvention

Breck Epic: Stage 2 - Colorado Trail

Breck Epic: Stage 1 - Penn Gulch

Breck Epic: Mission Accomplished

small victories

bee pollen drama, uncle nazty & other happenings

checking my ego at the door & other ramblings

"cows can't tell time"

long and winding road...

"I'm walking a strange line..."

saSSy girls racin' @ Stone Temple 8

i had no idea...

jiu-jitsu hair do

viva la canadiens!

fall colors!

boulder is burning

cyn's mini-epic

Fear Factor

ask me again...ask me again...

a long time coming...

spring has (finally) sprung...

same bat place - same bat time

12 hours of mesa verde

slippery when wet

out of balance

sassy!

racin' !!!!

haunting..

room with a view...

random threads leading back to colorado

ricky's rock star hair

more ricky stuff

"you gotta learn how to hurt" and other sage advice