Santa Barbara - Lake Mohave - Utah

After racing outside of Palm Desert at the Idyllwild Challenge we headed back to Santa Barbara to do those things that we wanted to do but hadn't yet.

But do remind me to never go wine tasting and then go home and make a pot of tea. I poured boiling water down my leg and literally watched the skin melt. It hurt soooooo bad for a few hours at least. No pain threshold for 2nd degree burns apparently. OUCHY.


Training on some easy to find steep a$$ hills in Santa Barbara.


Ok, so the views were worth it.


Headed to Thousand Oaks for a day of mtbing and a nice dinner with friends. In pic: me, Meg, and Chris. Yes.......Chris rode his bike!! I was actually able to tear him away from Kitesurfing for one day.



Ok, so the non water sports thing didn't last long for Chris. A whole day in fact. That next day we headed to our cousins house on Lake Mohave on the way back to Utah. Thought it would be a good halfway mark on the way home to rest and relax for a night. And it was! Sometimes I think the best part of this job is getting to see family that you may not see as often if you weren't tootling around to all the nooks and crannies of the country racing your bike.

Chris water skiing for the first time in quite a while......



Chris cruising on the Kiteboard behind the boat.


Chris getting some air while Kiteboarding!!

Chris doing his thang that he loves so much!

Later that day we drove up to St. George and got a bit of a ride in to stretch the legs before heading home. For Chris is was a big day as this was the 4th sport that he did! He is nuts. For me if you call sunning yourself on the boat and holding the flag up when someone falls in the water a sport then it was my 3rd sport of the day. Ha!!

We ran across this little guy in St. George.

LOVE turtles. He was getting his singletrack today too.

Holy cow I got Chris on his bike AGAIN. What is the world coming to?!

After the ride, we got some grub and boogied back to our new home that we pretty much purchased, lived in for 2 weeks and then left for 5 weeks. Was it really going to feel like home?? Kind of a weird scenerio really.

AMBC Idyllwild Spring Classic-Idyllwild, CA

What a better deal than to go to the Palm Springs area, see my Aunt and Uncle and race at a new venue near their place! Awesome!!!

Chris and I arrived in Palm Desert on Thursday evening after battling with traffic all the way from Santa Barbara. Crazy how busy the roads were at 9pm at night!

That left us Friday to go check out the new venue (for us) at Hurkey Creek Campground. We made our way out of the sunny, beautiful and quite balmy Palm Desert up into the mtns that sit directly behind Palm Desert. Who knew that we were about to ascend to approximately 5000 feet to the start of the race!!!

Some views on the way up.



The further we climbed up into the mtns the more we found it to be absolutely beautiful!



We got to the alpine campground around 1pm and were ready to check things out, course included.



We knew it was a 30 mile course but I wasn't sure what kind of 30 miles it was (fast, techy, major hills, switchbacks, etc) which was why I was there to pre-ride what I could dependent on the terrain.

But plans changed big time when we found out that the course wasn't quite marked yet. Yikes!!!! They really really really tried to help us out by giving us verbal directions and a map but it was way to much information to remember unfortunately.

We were able to figure out the start loop and then the first uphill section but after that we had no idea where we were or where we were going so we pulled the plug on the pre-ride idea. We were stopping and breaking out the map so much that the "ride" was turning into not riding at all and it was getting late in the afternoon too and we still had to drive back home.

Sometimes you just have a to say to heck with it and get your buns home to rest and recover instead of dinking around trying to figure things out. Sometimes that is the best choice you can make. It was a bit unnerving to leave the course after having seen maybe a couple miles of the 30 mile course but so be it. It was going to be a good challenge for me the next day to race sight unseen. Having the ability to do that is a good weapon to have in your race arsenal and I definitely need to work on that particular skill. I don't like to do it but I was going to have to tomorrow morning.

The singletrack we did find was looking mighty fine though!!


In addition to not knowing the course now, we also didn't know where the feed zones were, how to get to the them or even if I would need all/any of them. I think there were 3 and it was looking like Chris was only going to be able to get to one by the looks of the map. Just to make sure that he COULD get to the one he was eyeballing, we drove into the cute little town of Idyllwild (reminded me of Big Bear) and somehow found the off beaten road that we were thinking was the feed zone for tomorrows race. As if it weren't getting late enough in the day but this was important. We drove on it for a while and it was STEEP. I wasn't sure what I was thinking at that point but it was looking like the road we were on was part of the course at about a steady 18% grade. Whoa.

The first climb takes you thru the Tunnel of Love

That night I studied the extremely detailed written course description like I was going to be quizzed on it in the morning. Well I kind of was really!! And since I couldn't see most of the course that day I had to visualize big time as I studied. It was the only source I had and I wanted to be as comfortable with the course as possible without having ridden the majority of it.

RACE DAY

In poor form I forgot my purse which I needed to register for the race. This wouldn't have been such a raw deal if I hadn't had discovered this 15 min into the drive on up to the race outta Palm Desert. We had to turn around and go get it which put us at the very early race WAY LATE. I didn't stress to much because "it is what it is" but I had to finish my hour long warm up DURING the race. Nice. But luckily I knew I could do that because we had ridden that part of the course the day before. It was perfect for exactly what I needed to do too! I went hard when I had to then sat up when I didn't.....yes during the race. It was perfect in fact and just in time for the climb(s). Phew, barely got that in!

The race is wildly popular with the CA residents as it should be but unfortunately the pro women's' field was a whopping 3 people. Great prize money, spectacular singletrack and fun atmosphere........where was everyone!!!? Sad but maybe not such a horrid thing for me since I was not even supposed to be racing this weekend according to my training. I had been working myself over all week on that hill by my buddies house in Santa Barbara and was supposed to be chilling a little............but I wanted to race dang it!!



Good thing I did because I have never had so much fun during a race. It was gorgeous and the singletrack was EPIC. The only thing that was sucking bad was that I didn't know what was around every corner so I would throw the brakes on, then get thru the corner and either be happy I braked or completely annoyed that I did because I could have carried my speed through. Oh well, such is life and this something I need to learn and get over as I learn to let er rip on terrain that I am unfamiliar with. My own personal barrier I guess you could say. That is ok, at least I have identified the issue.

It was interesting how much I felt like I knew each part of the course though. Not the actual singletrack, but the AREA I was in. The descriptions I had studied paid off and I felt more at ease knowing approximately what mileage point I was at and where I was in the long race.

And the odd thing? I studied the topo, map, descriptions, etc and determined approx what time I would show up at that feed zone Chris could get to near Idyllwild and I got there within 2 minutes of the time I thought I may. Experience?? Visualization?? Course knowledge?? Whoa, that was pretty cool!!

And YES when I got there, it was that steady 18% climb of about 15-20 minutes too. Good lord! Luckily there were 2 guys just ahead of me and I just told myself to either keep that gap or close it and I used that to keep my mind (and body) from completely exploding. At one point my legs were turning 60 rpms AT RACE PACE. Owe that was steep but a good challenge that was over before I knew it. Glad we saw that climb yesterday though otherwise I would have wondered how long it was, when it was going to be OVER already, etc. Lucked out on that one big time becuase seeing that for the first time during the race could have been disheartening.

After it was all said and done I placed mid pack a few minutes behind the race leader Allison. Ok, that was 2nd place on this day but still mid pack. : )

Flowy fast fun singletrack - I highly recommend you go to this race next year if possible!

Afterwards there was a Q and A session for women racers to ask the pro women any questions they had about racing. Dorothy Wong was instrumental in getting that all put together.

Great day! Now back to Palm Desert for some chilling with the family and then back to Santa Barbara for some more fun.

Santa Barbara

After Sea Otter we finally got some time to hang with our great host, surfer, cyclist, tennis guru and local native to the area, Michael. He took us on a nice leg flushing ride in the Pacific Grove area. It was beautiful.



Chris and Michael


It was great to spin the legs out. They hadn't seen a double race weekend since August and needed some serious TLC!


Then it was promptly off to the land of Santa Barbara to stay with our awesome friends, Eric and Kristin until the next race in Idyllwild, CA.

I really started feeling like I was getting my life back some too. Just being away from the big move in Utah and getting away with the hubby for the first time since his big injury last year (at this exact time) really helped. It is a good feeling to feel almost normal again!

Our friends have orange, lemon, and mexican guava trees going off right now. It is so awesome to pick the best orange of your life right in your own front yard!

Mexican Guava's taste like a pear and a guava wrap into one. Yummy!


I was getting plenty of training on the nearby 3500 foot hill and ran into longboard skaters more than a few times. They go down the same twisty, turny, blind cornered, steep graded hill that I do except ON THEIR SKATEBOARDS.

Read as.....NO brakes!!!!!!!


They have this rig to pick them up at the bottom and bring them back up to the top to do it all over again too! It is quite cool to watch.....along with insane!



I got a chance to talk to them and it sounds like they have a team and competitions and the whole nine yards. And to stop or slow down they drag a foot or stand up on the board from a near squatting position. Holy Moly. They were super nice to talk to and very informative as well! It is cool to learn about other sports and what it takes.

Next up is the Idyllwild Spring Challenge just outside of Palm Springs, CA.

Sea Otter Classic - Monterey, CA

After being in our new house an entire week or two we were off to Sea Otter Classic race in CA. The only problem was that our house had a bit of a problem going on with it - a leaky basement! Luckily Chris happened upon this discovery while folding up his kiteboarding gear that was drying down there. Squish Squish Squish is not what you want to feel underfoot of a new home!!

A good lesson learned is to have an inspector come in both the winter and spring if you can....especially if the sale of your house is going to drag out that long. We had an inspector come during the winter not anticipating that buying our new house was going to take an act from God happening. When he came during the winter everything was hunky dory! Darn spring melt!

Everything was starting to thaw out and there was a pool of water sitting by our front door that was the cause of this leak. From the moment Chris discovered this, he worked day and night on digging a french drain with a ditch witch. What a dirty muddy mess!!!

We wanted to leave on Tuesday, 4 days before Sea Otter but he wasn't even close to done. He finally got everything done late Wednesday and we ended up leaving on Thursday for the Otter which is 2 days later than I have ever left for it before. This was going to be a great test for my legs......how much travel in a car can you do and still feel ok?? I was about to find out for the first time in my career!

The Mafia Racing/Pabst/Felt tent set up at Sea Otter:



Free Pabst anyone?


I got to the venue on Friday with just enough time to squeeze in a quick lap or two on the course. This would have been unheard of in years past with the 36 mile lap we used to do, so from that standpoint having a short spectator friendly lap this year was nice for me.

Ok, now it was off to Trader Joes to load up for the weekend, head to host housing in Pacific Grove and hit the pillow as fast as humanly possible. Short Track racing was underway tomorrow already!

SHORT TRACK
Got the Short Track race with plenty of time, got lined up and off we went. The course was the exact same as in years past. This year though there was an off camber/muddy section about 20 seconds from the start line that was sure to throw a few people off, in both senses of the word. Having rusty cross skills from the past cross season were going to come in handy on this one. Getting in front at the start was key to not getting bogged down. I made sure that happened here on the first lap.



I immediately fell behind pace of the race leaders which was slightly aggravating considering some success I have had in years past in Short Track.

Again, what was I expecting from this race though? I hadn't raced with most of these girls since August in Windham, NY, I had a lot of life changing events occur right after that, I then almost retired, then got super sick and I was BEHIND in all senses of the word right now - in training and in this darned race. : ) Who knows where I stood at this point in the game.

I was in it to see where I stand.....and if I stand. No goal other than that. There is something to be said for no goals sometimes! No goals = no stress but its not a good idea to fall into a pattern like that. You soon need to start setting those goals again or will be lost. But this wasn't the day, race, time or place to be doing that myself quite yet.

I just needed to make sure that I still can put up a fight and WANT to. And I did. I ended up in 12th or 13th (they never posted Pro Women's results past Top 10). I was pleasantly surprised with my first race back with the girls. It was invigorating to be doing what I love again!!!

In addition to giving out Pabst Beer we were selling Mafia Racing gear too


CROSS COUNTRY
The next day was the Cross Country event. It was only going to be about a 1.5 hour deal which is WAY different that the 3 hour event that it has been for many years. Although not true mountain biking except on the backside of the course, I stilled enjoyed the short course format. Personally, I have fun doing 4 laps instead of one big honker.

By the days end I found myself in 18th place. I fought hard to be there too. I was feeling good on every short steep climb that was thrown at us but apparently there were 17 others that were feeling much better on them than I was!

That's ok, it's still early for me and I am still trying to get my head around where I am at, why I am there and what I am going to do about it. It is all good and only up from here!

Intermountain Cup #2 - Hurricane, UT

As if the chaos of moving earlier in the week wasn't enough, I needed to pack for an upcoming race that was only days away now. Holy lord, my head was spinning. I had no idea where anything was, had limited time and really needed to pack and....oh yeah.....and unpack too. How was this gonna work?

In addition I was in the process of getting my new bike all built up by the weekends race. Everything always happens all at once doesn't it? All good stuff this time though!

Revolution Mtn Sports was awesome enough to get my new Felt Nine LTD frame all fresh and built up with my Shimano XTR parts just in the knick of time. Chris Tolsma at Binghams gets a big thumbs up too for getting my rig in and out all measured up to my specifications/measurements at the last minute. Whew, that was a close call.

Here she is in all her glory:


Check out the protective plate. Big flying rox + carbon = bad news bears.



Ok, got the bike so now it is officially time to pack........seriously??? Pack? OMG!!!

I know my bike shoes are somewhere.....Bueller? Bueller?

And I suppose I may find my sports drink at some point too if I am lucky

So 8 hours and tired Kathy later, I had found all that I needed for the weekend and was FINALLY packed for my second race of the season in Hurricane, UT.


Upon arriving on Friday with my new never ridden (NO, not even a pedal stroke - no time!!) I had flatter than flat tires. Yep, doing the jingle jangle with the ole Stans method on some new Kenda Smallblocks at kinda the last minute was the name of the game. Well that and crossing my fingers it would decide to miraculously hold by tomorrow morning. Oh man this was gonna be an interesting weekend.

My only goal became to just feel better/faster than I did at the first race of the season. Not the greatest goal on the face of the earth but lets get real. I was exhausted.

The Pro Ladies line up!

That goal was somehow realized after two mediocre laps and then a 3rd faster lap when the legs decided they wanted to do some work. Got 2nd place in the end.

And, my tires even held up for the most part. I think I might have pumped them up a good 20-30 times before the race in the last 12 hours though. I was pretty obsessive about it. I do know that I only had 18 lbs in the front tire when I got done with the race so it wasn't quite sealed completely yet. But they got me through and are bound to be sealed soon.

The venue


LOVING the 29r. It took about 29 minutes to get used to it too....just as long as it always takes me personally to get used to new bikes. Some people warned me that I may not like the bigger wheels in the corners but it cornered on this particular course phenomenally. For not EVER having ridden one, I am liking what I am seeing!

I nicknamed her "The SteamRoller" as the bike rolls over anything. There is none of this business of looking at a line and thinking there are too many rocks in it and going for the other smoother line instead. With my 29r you see the line you want and you take it - it doesn't matter whats in the way because it will get you there. I couldn't be happier with my new Felt!!!

Moving Day!!

Well so much for racing in that first national mountain bike race in Fontana, CA. It was moving day instead!! Yep, we got the house finally finally finally!!! And we sold our house we had been in for 12 years too. After all this time (many months) it came down to one closing day for both selling our place and buying the new one. Now that is timing.

As if things weren't nutty enough, along with us moving into the new place that weekend we were also holding an estate sale for all my parents stuff in WA. It was a huge weekend of so many mixed emotions both good (new house) and bad (knowing my parents livelihood was being liquidated). Both events were successful though.

So we are officially in and loving it. See picture gallery here of foreclosed wonder that we snatched up from the bank. We have been waiting for this opportunity for years to get the house we were truly after.

View off deck:



Front


We have seen moose already!!!


Taken from side of house

2 Elk just outside the house!

More deck views

More views from deck

Closing Day

Moving 12 years worth of stuff is real super fun let me tell you.

Back of house

other kitchen

Staircase

Kitchen

Living Room/Kitchen

So...yeah, this is why I fell off the face of the earth - packing, unpacking, changing addresses, etc. More updates to come!

Intervals, 1st Race and Houses

This month, now over half done has been a rambunctious one. From training in the snow to being too warm in one layer, packing to move (no we haven't moved yet or even closed for that matter) to having the first mtb race of the year, life has been a handful. It's all good, just busy.

So we will start with the evilness that interval training can be. I haven't done any hard race efforts yet as I am really just getting started with my training after being sick a month. But I have been getting in some sub race efforts. Did I say some? Holy cow I meant a ton. JEE-SUS. My coach was sprinkling them in almost daily working me over each time. The husband was/is getting sick of me crawling up the stairs each night!!

And those sub race efforts are sneaky little devils too because I would hammer out a long effort up a hill starting in the warmer climate and would make my way up to snow by the end. Then I would have to turn around and descend and when I did that I was freezing my tail off. OMG the descent was cold - so cold in fact that I would find myself begging for the recovery time in between efforts to speed up so I could start my next hard effort to get warm! Now that is just sick and wrong but I was freaking cold and wanted to head back up the mountain again so I could get warm again and, oh yeah, start the process all over again. Like I said, those efforts were sneaky little things...having me beg to do the next one which is just flat out twisted.



Next up was heading down to St. George on Friday March 5th for the first mtb race of the season the next day. And on the way down I could feel a nagging, tickle on the top of my mouth that I just chose to ignore.....which as it turns out was a bad idea. I did have my suspicions of course but was trying to will the thought of getting sick away. Chris had been super sick for some time and was just barely getting over it and since I never ever ever get his colds I felt like I was safe. Not this time apparently.

By the time I woke on Saturday for the race I felt like junk. Here we were away from home all packed up, gotta hotel, I was supposed to race, bike was all ready but the engine wasn't. But I really wanted to race still! So I put all logic in a bag, stuffed it under the nasty hotel bed and prepared to race in a few hours. Not the smartest move on the face of the planet but there we were with no place to go except home and I wasn't about to do that. I thought at the very least I will get out on my mtb on dirt for the second time since November. Plus how bad can it really be - its just a head cold?

Ha! What a joke. Between not being prepared for race efforts and being sick I only had one gear during the race. No punch, no kick, no va-va-va-voom, no NOTHING except the desire to sleep. Excellent way to race let me tell you.

Local legend Lynda W smacked it hard to me and took off in front part way thru the first lap leaving nothing for me to eat except her dust. It took everything I could muster up to keep her in site but that was short lived. She was on fire and took the win. I somehow slopped it in for second. KC, Sarah K, and Jen were to follow putting in amazing efforts for this early in the season.


Sarah, some chica in her new Mafia Racing gear, the winner Lynda, KC and Jen Hanks.

All in all though: great race, great friends and great sunny beautiful weather where I got to blind people with my milky white nasty pasty a** legs. Maybe that is what did it....I blinded everyone so bad that they couldn't see the trail to put up a fight as I passed them. Need to work on that tan for sure. SCARE-EE.

For the MTBracenews.com report on the race click here.

Once home from St. George I was able to get rid of the cold which took some time actually. How many times can one get sick in 3 months for the love!? Apparently I am going for the record here. As if I wasn't behind enough in my training already! Good lord. I will be flying come fall though. Ho-Hum.

But I was eventually able to get out and work my way back into hammering myself into the ground again. And to think that was my only goal while sick that I wanted to accomplish! Crazy cyclists! The weather here did take a turn for the better and got warm, getting up into the 50's occasionally. That was nice. Think I had a few days recently that I actually only wore ONE layer head to toe while riding. I like that!


You see the 2 swans? Kinda hard to since they look headless cuz they are hunting!

As for the house........we wait. That is the name of the game in 2010. All banks are dotting their "I's" and crossing their "T's" these days. It is a rough game out there to play right now as you might imagine but we continue to hope for the best.

Oh and my Mafia Racing/Pabst/Felt team was announced as well. Check out the announcement here if you wish.

Next up is heading on over to CA next week for the first big national race that takes place next weekend. Ok, off to train in the wind...