Intermountain Cup #4 - Soldier Hollow, UT

Ahhhhh. A home race at last. It was only a ten minute drive from our house to Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT where the local MTB race was. Got to love it.

After putting in hard VO2 efforts on both Wed and Friday of this week I really didn’t know what to expect of the ole legs. As for the lungs, I didn’t know what to expect there either because I had only been home for about a week at elevation again after being gone a month at sea level. But things went better than expected I guess. I just did what I could and pulled out of it with a win…….although I didn’t win by much. Monique (Pua) Sawicki showed up to give me a run for my money. She is an elite level endurance racer who specializes in 24 Hours solo races, 12 hour events among others. She even has a 24 Hour National Championship under her belt!! God bless her on all that because after about 4 hours on my bike I am ready for something different!! J

So I had the strangest thing happen during the race as I came up and over this rock. I hit the bottom of my down tube on it and it rattled my water bottle cage TOTALLY loose. What the…..? That was weird.

After the race we had a BBQ and I just have to say…….we have the best friends ever. How many friends do you have that will sit around on your deck and WILLINGLY eat those Harry Potter Jelly Beans that taste like grass, vomit, salt, dirt, pepper, etc? That was great. Thanks for entertaining me everybody!! I was practically crying with laughter watching everyones faces as they chewed.

Where Have You Been Kathy?

Why haven't you been blogging? Has something happened? What is going on?

These are just some of the comments I have been getting lately and yes, something has happened.........it's called life. After being gone a month from home racing I was sent into a spiraling mess of stuff to take care of, do, catch up on, finish or start. It has been downright nuts these last few weeks. From booking the June Quebec World Cups hotels, airlines, registration, etc to booking, figuring out, coordinating, etc. the July East Coast NMBS race trips, to deciding at the last minute that I want to go home to WA to see my parents (and therefore needed to pick a bike, put parts on it that I wouldn't miss and ship it home where it will stay forever to make traveling to my parents home easier in the future)......... life has been out of control busy.

Oh ya, and then there was Mothers Day, our 9th Wedding Anniversary (nice!!), Chris's Birthday, my birthday, my dads birthday (same day as my b-day), a wedding that we attended, a baby shower, a graduation, BBQ, meeting with my Nutritionist and working with her, switching up my race schedule with my coach, getting my new training figured out, filling out USADA's lovely quarterly Athlete Location Form that is mandatory and due soon, going to doctor appts among other appts.

YES---- ALL THESE LAST COUPLE WEEKS. And NO---I am not making any of it up!!!!

Don't forget that I still had to squeeze sleeping, training, eating, going to the gym, and actually taking a shower in there too. It has been downright nuts around here and I am NOT complaining and am just telling it like it is. Notice I didn't complain about having to pack for my parents house???? Well that is because I was still packed from the CA trip!! That works for me....except that its the same junk that I have been staring at for the last month. Oh well, it was a blessing to be pre-packed for certain.

And that my friends is where I have been. I am going to post date this one because I need to catch you all up on some real doozies from this past week.

Welcome to My World

of commonly starting my mornings these last few months like this:














Awaking to the sound of USADA pounding on the door is actually a good thing because I have been sleeping in way too late since we got back to UT. Still on CA time somehow which isn't a big deal unless you are sleeping until 10 am every day.

NMBS #3 - STXC

Ahhhh. I was able to redeem myself today to come in 10th in the Short Track race. I gave it my all and told myself nothing but a Top 10 today lady. It is amazing what a bad result does to your head. You suddenly think that it's the end of the world, the end of your career and that you have no fitness anymore. NOT TRUE. Get on with it and just go out there and do it!

Today wasn't without a few heart rate fluctuations right before the race though. As I was warming up on the course (because our trainer broke yesterday) I discovered that my seat post was pivoting a good 30 degrees. Lovely. So I had to make a quick decision to either forgo a good warm up and replace the seat post or just cross my fingers and hope that nothing bad happens during the race (like having it fall off.....). I decided I would be way too stressed out not doing the rest of my warm up and instead watching someone take my bike apart only minutes before the race. It was a toss up decision for sure......warm up well, have the seat break=race over....forgo warm up, have working saddle and then you aren't ready to race. I chose the risky one of warm up well and HOPE the seat stays on and it did.

Today the field was once again stacked with former Olympians, National Champions, World Champions and then good ole me from good ole Heber City, UT. I had my work cut out for me right off the bat. In the short 30 minute race of a max all out effort I ended up working with a group of 4 ladies vying for positions 7th-10th. I had an evil plan to just sit on the back of my group (which I did) because there was a super strong headwind. From there I was planning on attacking on the last lap on the most painful uphill section of the 3 minute loop. Once there and in position on the last lap I unfortunately was already maxed out as the pace was extremely high. Oh well, at least I HAD a plan.

So right now we are driving to a place called Cottonwood Cove which sits on Lake Mohave where some of my family owns a place and are kindly letting us stay. And, after some training tomorrow we will be headed home!! I haven't been home in a month now and I am excited to get back and see everyone again. I promise to bring some sun with me because it sounds like you guys need it!!!

NMBS #3 - XC

Bad day is about all I can say. It pretty much sucked and don't know why. It's hard to get over and move on and think about the race tomorrow but I have to.

Here is the run down on the race with one of my favorite little tunes from the movie Parenthood:

When you are sliding into first and you hear a big "crack".......check your knee, check your knee.

When you are flying off your bike and your saddle totally turns...better fix it, better fix it.

When you seem to be on fire and then the situation turns dire......keep on pedaling, keep on pedaling.

When your trainer decides to be broken it can be a sign you may be choken....not so good, not so good.

When there is someone on your wheel and there is no love that you feel.....end up 20th, end up 20th

Ya......20th. Sweet.

NMBS #3 - Super D

Chris (blue shirt) came in 3rd tonight!!!! After what he says was "...bobbling around like an idiot, dropping my chain and crashing I still managed to SOMEHOW come in 3rd."

But I can answer the question on how he SOMEHOW managed to come in 3rd. It's because he has the talent and is a great downhiller.

After racing the Mountain Cross qualifiers, Brad Newby out of St. George, Utah came in 5th in the Super D! Nice work guys!!

BTW- what's in that guys duffle anyway?

Leaving SB

After 3 weeks in Santa Barbara at our friends, Kristin and Eric's house, we are off to Fontana, CA which is only supposed to be 2.5 hours away according to good ole mapquest. Yeah right. If there is NO stinking traffic maybe. This is the sight we saw almost the entire way down 101:

Sweet hugh? We got so stuck in traffic that Chris and I had the fullest and most painful bladders that we have ever had in our life. The one place we stopped at and went running up to.....locked doors. All I will say is that that some of their trees may live and others might not.

We will certainly miss everybody in Santa Barbara. Kristin and Eric have some great friends who opened their arms to us and treated us to many fun evenings, dinners, tons of laughs, bbqs, etc. We had such a great time there thanks to all of them and of course thanks to Kristin and Eric who had to move into their first home together............with us. I bet they never dreamt of that when envisioning buying a new house. Never the less , they were nothing but hospitable and bent over backwards for us in every way.

Poor Chris

This:

is related to this:

And it's not getting any better.

Seriously???

So while our buddy Chris who is a designer at Teva in Santa Barbara was finishing his running race......

This dude was jamming on his stairmaster right above the finish line in his apt. Say what??

My Stomach

I found this video that resembled my stomach on Sunday. Think of the water as all the GU2O energy drink that was sloshing around in there.

For those of you that need help with figuring out how to play the video (ie MOM-love you!) just click the play button on the lower left hand portion of the video screen.

NORBA NCS #2 - XC

If you would have told me during the first 30 minutes of the race that I was going to end up 12th I would have laughed. I was happily in 4th place reaping the benefits of all my hard training and work that I have been putting in when someone flicked a switch of some sort sending my stomach into a knot of horrible pain. Throwing up several times, GI trouble, tummy cramps, bloating and all the rest....it was as if someone had pumped my stomach full of air and then lit it on fire. I couldn't believe what was happening to me as I catapulted backward through the field. I was in utter misery and it was just the stomach- legs and lungs were groovy. I tried pushing through it and found out quickly enough that I had just gone into total survival mode. The harder I pushed the more it sent my stomach into an unbearable twisted knotted cramp so I went as hard as I could which wasn't that hard while bearing the pain of my stomach. The bumps and small pits that formed over the day on the trail just added to the immense pain that I had going on.

Tough times for sure especially when everything else is in place but I have to keep in mind that I came in 12th on an absolutely and positively miserable day. I have had the after affects of whatever was in my system all day today and haven't been too into the eating thing yet.

That said, I have Fontana to look forward to this coming weekend. I know my fitness is there so if I can just keep people from taking me out and keep my stomach in line I will be good. That is racing for you!

NMBS #2 - Waiting

Let the waiting begin. XC Race today at 2:45pm and I am just hanging out w/feet up. It'll be during the heat of the day for us and 24 miles or so of fast singletrack. Yee Haw.

If I have to eat more more carb I think I might hurl; but hurling seems to be part of the game in good ole bike racing and training. Guess you get used to that feeling somewhat eventually as it becomes part of life. My friends think I am a pig too because I have munched my way through every carb I can find. Ugh.....(all you cyclists know the feeling).

NORBA #2 - Super D

Chris just got home and he placed 2nd in his Super D!!!! Yes!!!! He said their were 20 starters in the Expert Class without the "0" in 20. No just kidding, we were just giving him a hard time and there were about 20 people in his race!

But unfortunately just now when Chris got home and entered the front door he was hit in the face with a wall of pepper spray. Ok....here is what happened....................our buddies Eric and Kristin who are kindly offering their services up as our soigneurs tonight by making us a huge pasta dinner had some friends over and someone got into the pepper spray that was sitting on the table. Maybe it was Liberty who did it. Doesn't he look guilty? So here we all our are standing outside their new house waiting for the pepper spray to clear out. Nice, thanks Liberty. :)

NMBS #2- STXC

What a hot day in the saddle at 86 degrees but I loved every minute of it. It was 100+ degrees in the tent I was "warming up"....(why????) in because there was no breeze in there-youch that's gotta hurt.

The STXC course was actually pretty long at around 3 minutes a lap. It started with a flat and windy ATV width road, U turned up a quick gradual hill, flattened out and then sent you on a few super dusty "S" turns on your way back down and through the start/finish area. The day went pretty solid for me coming in 8th with a group that were all contending for the last spot on the podium!! Why not me? Why wasn't I able to pull that one off? Not sure because I was feeling good but apparently so were the other gals! Talk about being on the rivet the whole time too. Wow I love that feeling. Why am I so sick and twisted like that? Anyway, no excuses but it was darn fun and a good race for me and fun race to watch for Chris who was there yet again to support me at every corner.

Right now he is racing his Super D up there while I am blogging from the couch prepping the legs for tomorrows XC race. I am hoping for some good news here soon from him.