Utah Cyclocross Series #7 - Heber, UT

I think my body is still in a state of shock. Going from racing in Boulder, CO on Sunday getting completely dehydrated, wearing a short sleeve skin suit and putting on sunscreen in the 70 degree weather to coming home this week and training in 30 degree weather has been pretty interesting.

Last year the temperature drop was a lot more gradual and took its time which meant your body had time to adjust. But going from 70 to 30 degrees in 3 days? Wowzers and "Burrrrrr!!!!!"

So today I had the privilege of racing in my hometown of Heber City. How great is that! I only have to travel 6 blocks instead of 600 miles to race and I could watch my husband race too! It is certainly a nice change from all the travel I have been doing, that is for sure. And the fact that I got to warm up in my basement before riding to the start line....well yeah.. that really was kind of cool.

I went to check out the course on Friday and found this:

Mushy and gloppy mud and puddles


and a bit of snowy grass next to the barn that we always ride through in this race.


Not sure what to think there except that I was hoping some of that mud would get pressed out by the time the A Women were off. I love mud and muck and all but I had to do 2 races today and was going to be working hard anyway without mud involved. So having my legs fry double time trying to get through mud and muck wasn't appealing to me much at this point because they were already going to get fried as it was. But at the same time you get what you get and you have to suck it up and take it!

But I didn't have to take anything. Today we woke up to a misty morning but as the day wore on, the mist wore off and things dried up substantially.


And by the time the A Women's race began the mist had lifted and everything had been pressed out from the previous races (thanks for doing all the hard work for us guys and gals!).


We had a great turn out of women from the mtb side as well as the road side. I love to see that. Our group is just growing and growing and I think that is just so cool!!

The fun part about the race in Heber is the run up. This picture is taken from the top of it. I was actually enjoying it a ton! A fast approach with a quick hop over the barrier at the bottom


and you were running up that muddy thing full speed or as full speed as one gets (ugh)


getting to the top completely maxed only to make a u turn.


remount


and ride down that same muck that was like squishy play doh while watching your braking and balance on the way down!!!

I feel like I am really getting the hang of throwing that bike on my shoulder quickly but can ALWAYS use more practice!

In true Heber fashion, we had cows and bulls to ride by during the race. Oh and a "peter rabbit" came out of this area too while trying to commit suicide under my wheel but thankfully he and his little white cotton tail decided to run away at the last minute.


Another part of the race course:


I grabbed a win in the Women's A race which felt really good but it couldn't feel that good because my mind had to immediately start focusing on my next race with the A Men in 15 minutes. Good lord what was I thinking? I had just enough time to thaw my feet out, have a gel packet, sip on some water and then gather at the line with the best dudes in the state. This was gonna hurt especially after already putting some pain in.

I lined up on the last row with a plan. That plan was to build my mental confidence more than my fitness. That wasn't my coaches plan but it was mine. She was after the fitness but I know what I need and a mental boost could do me some good right now. Plus I will race hard weather starting at the back or in the front so I wasn't worried about not committing to puking.

So the idea was to line up on the last row and go through as many people as possible because it is only up from the last row right?! It was that vs starting in the front and having 80 men blow by me like I was standing still and I didn't want to end a good day like that and have that be my last thought going into next weekends race.

So I raced hard with the boyz and made some passes before getting lapped by Ali socks and Bart who were putting a hurt on the field.

Incredible! Dem are fast boys. And at about the 30 minute mark of the 60 minute A Men's race I started losing my s*&^. I hadn't had anything significant to drink since BEFORE my race (2 hours prior) and I was starting to feel the effects. I popped a gel at that point which really didn't do much because I was staring to dig the hole that you don't want to dig when you are in the middle of race season and there are tons of germs going around. Your body is going to be messed up enough after 2 cyclocross races in one day without dehydration and all so it was at that moment that I thought about pulling out of the race to save my body the stress of trying to recover AND being in "the hole". But I couldn't!! I just couldn't do that because I don't DNF unless I break something (me or the bike!) so instead I backed off the gas a little maintain my position and rolled it across the line completing the A men's race in full.

Those guys are so nice to let me race with them and it was such a pleasure being amongst the fast guys in the state handing me my tail left and right. That is how you get fast if you can handle the demoralization of it all mentally. But the guys were awesome and I appreciated the opportunity! I got a great workout in and now its time to rest and recover and get ready for New Jersey this weekend!

Barfing seems appropriate about...........right now.

You think I am joking? Not but it wasn't massive.

Oh and I graduated a bit today too. I didn't wear my wrist brace in the Women's A race and didn't think twice about not having it on!! Just to make sure, I put it on for the Men's A race and it only drove me crazy! Cool! The brace will now retire in my medicine cabinet in the cemetery of all the other braces, wraps, splints, etc.

Ah yes and all photos today are with the big courtesy of Lady Cross. That would be my good buddy and fellow bike ripper extraordinaire Theresa Carr.

I Guess We Can Take the BBQ In

It Takes A Village

There is some good meaning to that phrase especially when it pertains to getting my buns back to Heber City, UT from Boulder, CO.

I flew to Boulder and had a car ride all set up to get home since its only about a 7-8 hour drive. But, at the last second that person couldn't make the drive out and I was stuck! Now, there are certainly worse places to be stuck and it wasn't like I was in Antarctica or something so I wasn't too worried. More annoyed with the fact that I got to deal with all the logistics of trying to find a ride home the entire race weekend. That is stuff you like to have wrapped up BEFORE you go to the races so you can use all energies for the race but, stuff happens and you roll with it.

So after disrupting....hmmmm....let's see.....one, two, three, no...four, five .....yeah about 7 or 8 peoples lives, I found a ride home. And it wasn't as easy as one might think because I had my double bike case, my bag, 2 bikes and me! That is a lot of shiz to fit in ones car given that two crossers can fully pack a car no problem-o and everyone had already made their own plans with their own stuff and own friends.

But luckily I had some help from my own person travel coordinators consisting of Art, Kevin, and Mike. They wasted more time than I did trying to figure out how I was going to get home which was so incredibly nice of them!!! So with half my stuff in Chris Pietrzak's trailer and me with the U-23 boyz, (Mitch P and Rob Squire) I found a way back to Utah. And of course, the boyz had to ditch a wheel box on Art and crew in order to fit me in their car. Good lord. What a cluster-y mess for everyone.

And let's just say it was an adventure getting home with da boyz; we almost didn't make it.

When we noticed we needed gas it was too late and we were in the middle of nowhere. That is super bad! So in a total bike racers style, we had to peeve a couple truckers off and draft them going 50 in a 65 to conserve as much fuel as possible. Mitch kept saying that he'd never run it this low before and we began making plans for who got to ride their bike to the gas station when we ran out. But it didn't come to that and we aren't sure how.

I really need to give a HUGE shout out to Art, Kevin, Mike, Chris P, Mitchell, Robby and everyone else who was in on the madness of getting my arse home. Thanks so much you guys! They all coordinated everything, were so nice about it and just rolled with the punches.

THANKS U GUYS!

NACT #6 - Boulder, CO

Ah yes.....DSQ (disqualified). Gotta love it. This is a first for me for sure! I should know better than that to pick fights with the girls at the line though. But I was just in the fighten' mood!

Just kidding.

What happened is that I turned myself in for an incident that happened out of the sight of everyone. I couldn't have finished the race, taken someones prize $ and taken points for the series knowing full well that I had technical help from somebody OUTSIDE of the tech zone which is not allowed at all. Last time I checked that would be called stealing and cheating.

That is not my style as I have integrity and wish to keep it. I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night knowing I had done something "illegal" if I had continued on with the race. Yes, it may cost me big in the way of final standing in the NACT series since I was sitting in the money in 5th overall but at least I have kept my honesty and didn't cheat. That is FAR FAR FAR more important to me more than anything else. Integrity will get you far in life, not coming in 3rd or so in some UCI race.

Here is how the race went down and what happened:

First of all, I felt way better today and my stomach was normal again - yes!! I guess the dinner of plain white rice worked last night.

Once the race started, right off the bat Georgia gets a gap and Rachel L is behind her fighting it alone. Then there is the chase group consisting of my teammate Amy D, me, Kerry B and eventually Rhonda M, Kelli E, and Heather I. We were duking it out for that 3rd place podium position for about 3-4 laps. Well, I can use the word "we" BEFORE I slipped out on some dry fresh cut grass on a corner going down pretty hard. Or hard enough that I wondered immediately if my bars had turned on me. I thought for sure that they would be sideways but to my surprise they weren't. But my chain was off which I didn't figure out until I went to go again and catch back on to my group. Dang it! Nothing like looking like a dork sitting on your bike trying to go and you are just spinning in one spot because your chain is off! So I do finally get going again and everything was fine and dandy as I made my way back up towards the chase group. I was feeling great today.

Oh yeah, and on a side note, today was dry, sunny and about 70 plus degrees out, one uphill barrier section, one stair step section, and there was volleyball sandpit that they had you ride the whole one side on, get a 3 second rest in on grass before u turning you back into the other side of the volleyball pit. So there was certainly enough to keep one busy on course today.

Alright, back to the story.....I am making my way back up to the group best I can and on the far side of the course where no one is my tubular tire decides that it has had enough fun being glued onto my Reynolds wheel and it rolls off the wheel in an off camber corner. I got all fudged up and couldn't figure out why as I came to a stop. I just couldn't pedal and it never occurred to me that the tubbie rolled off the wheel, fully inflated no less. Nice. So I start running towards the pit which is forever far away to get my second bike. It also never occurred to me that I could actually roll the thing back onto the rim until THE ONE spectator back there yelled at me to give it a whirl. You can guess how well THAT went with my weak a** left hand.....like NOT at all!

So I am struggling off the bike with the tire and before I know it, that spectator (who had extremely good intentions) runs over and pops it back on my wheel in about 1.5 seconds. Before he did I told him he/I wasn't allowed to do that but he did in a blink of an eye and it was fixed. I was slightly bummed about that because I would have liked to try to do it myself for more than 15 seconds to see if I could have gotten it to go back on (chances WERE indeed slim on that one though). So there went my race in my eyes because I had just received help outside the tech zone.

Yes, I could have rolled forward and raced my heart out until the very end, pretending I had done nothing wrong because no one saw what happened. But I wasn't about to do that, finish in the top 10 and then go to bed with a clear conscious. You gotta be kidding me?!

So I jumped back on my bike, raced to the tech zone, stopped and told a UCI official what happened and told him to DQ me. He asked if I wanted to finish the race and I said absolutely! So I got rolling again eventually, took the corners super easy and finished out the few laps we had left of the race

BIG BUM----MER!!

The other Bellas seemed to have similar fates today: Shannon G derailleurs broke, Kari S. snapped a chain and Maria was feeling the effects of 7000 feet vs Minnesota where she is from. But Amy D was able to pull through for the Bellas to finish the race and keep the NACT Leaders jersey thank heavens!!

NACT #5 - Boulder, CO

The Boulder Reservoir where the race was.


Everyone is entitled to a bad day on the bike but mine started out as a bad night last night. My stomach was on the rocks from then on into today's race. I wasn't throwing up or anything but my tummy was less than happy when I woke up this morning. If I had to guess I would guess that my stomach was unhappy with my food choices last night unfortunately (a burrito). Sounded good at the time, seemed good, was good but my tummy had other ideas. This morning I couldn't even eat all of my pre race breakfast and had to throw it out! Unheard of! Luckily this wasn't some 3 hour mountain bike cross country race!

And when I got in the car to get to the venue I knew things weren't good still and that sucked. I put it in the back of my head and just went along my merry way as if all were well. Is that what you call game face? Perhaps.

Got a more than stellar warm up in and felt good leg wise. And, after all of us nearly missing our call up because not enough time was given in between races for ONE lap.... which most of us did not complete (because we could hear announcers starting the call up!!!) the race started. I started strong but my throw up levels were considerably lower than normal (by about 10 - 20 beats per minute!) and I just could not push through that at all. So instead everyone else just pushed through me as they made their way to the front. Dang!!!!

That is how it goes sometimes and this would be a good example of the race day picking me instead of me picking my race day. I told myself this during the race and tried to remind myself that I needed to push through with no if ands or buts. So I did and that set me up for an 8th place or so which I am not thrilled about.

What I am thrilled about is that I stuck with it, tricked my head during the race, and was able to finish. I even came up with small goals during the race to satisfy the urge to actually complete something successfully.... like riding the whole backside of the course which was a super long sand pit. That was something I was successful a few times at!

Still feeling sick after the race and practically doubled over, I decided to just have plain rice for dinner but to still go to dinner with the team. We sat outside and I got a bit cold so I grabbed some newspaper to cover myself with which made me look like a nerd!

Halfway through dinner, Kari was putting on her second layer of clothing to fight the cold weather and when she did she knocked her hand into the waitress who had a tray FULL of glasses and plates.

That is Diana (our awesome host for the weekend) looking at Kari with dismay. Ha ha!!

Glass went everywhere.

Oops.

Let's see what my tummy brings to the table tomorrow! Cross your fingers because I have done my best to clear the system completely.

Boulder Cup Course Pre-Ride

Can you say goathead central?

4 of us pre-riding = 8 flats in under 6 minutes.

That was our pre-ride and with not enough tubes to go around we had to stock up along with everyone else and their mother at the local bike shop.

Thank heavens we didn't take our tubbies out there today!

After getting geared up all over again and getting some lunch we decided to play it safe and hit the roads instead. There are some great views outta Boulder for sure!

Then kids starting coming to the house one after the next for some trick - or - treats. And, in full on Boulder style, the first to arrive were the Devo kids:

I am sorry to report though that I missed the kid wearing a homemade Styrofoam toilet costume where you were supposed to through the candy in the bowl. Dang it!

And I Call Myself a Bike Racer?

I have NEVER been to Boulder, CO. Yep, that is some confession. Boulder - home of what seems to be almost every successful road and mountain cyclist known to mankind.

I was actually pretty anxious to see this place after all I have been reading and hearing about for the last decade. And as we came up and over a hill from the airport "bam" we get the full view of the Boulder Valley. The shuttle driver said "There she is, 24 square miles on the edge of reality." I can relate to that pretty well though being that I am from the Park City area.

Boulder is actually pretty big. I had envisioned something like Durango but its not. I mean heck, how can it be since its got the University of Colorado at Boulder smack dab in the middle of it. Pretty cool. A building ordinance keeps buildings at respective heights. And there are plenty of bike paths to go around. The downtown area (Pearl Street) to me resembles Europe a bit as it is a pedestrian only area on brick walkways.

I am lucky enough to be staying with Shannon Gibsons sister and brother in law in Boulder. And, Nick gave me the bike path tour almost immediately upon arriving. It is not a tour you can really do by yourself either. There are bike paths everywhere going up and over the roads, under the roads, around the roads. Secret entrances here and there and everywhere. Dirt paths that lead to a Wed night Short track series, a crit series, a this series, a that series. Impressive. And many cyclists to go around as well. Pretty cool. It doesn't sound as though the area is super populated with mountain bike trails, but they are working with some success to change that. The road riding here as I understand is out of this world though.

My tour guide extraordinaire, Nick Stevens who when he decides to race his Pro/Elite class will have to start on the last row with very few points and always ends up killing it to come in at least mid pack. That takes work!!!! Let's just say he is extremely used to the phrase "on your left".


But really I think that is just par for the course here. Everyone has extreme talent and when they come out of hiding they will kick your pants off.

What's in His Wheaties?

I leave tomorrow for Denver by air for the next races. The bikes have been packed since I got back from Delaware so that makes things super easy. I know that is way bad but I chose to put my energies into something else.....like watching Chris train for bike racing:




Yep, he's Kite Boarding again. I wish I knew his secret. Maybe it's just a good dose of doing whatever you can because you can and loving every bit of it. He came away with another win last weekend in the Utah Cyclocross Series!!

MTBing Deer Valley

It is still getting up to 70-75 during the day here which is the perfect time to get out on the mountain bike and take er for a spin......although I haven't done that since the day I broke my hand and wrist in Windham, NY in July.


So today was the maiden voyage on the dirt with my Cannondale Scalpel since my incident. It had been sitting in the garage collecting dust this entire time which is so sad. I hadn't even touched it but when I did today that thing felt like a Cadillac - with suspension and the whole nine yards. I am so used to my cross bike right now!

Riding with the da boys (Chris, The Chad and Blake-ee-poo)

We got a good 3000 feet of vertical in, saw a dog that we thought was bear, put up with Chris's stinky's (and he was leading!!!) and even got a tad off the beaten path too but what else is new on that one.....we were with The Chad after all. :)

Hand Surgeon

We had a nice sunset tonight!

This week has just been a down right cluster. Between trying to nail down sponsorship for next year, bills up the yang coming in for all my broken body parts from this race season, a full email inbox and appts everyday I have had plenty do to.

So when my Hand Surgeon was 1.5 hours late to see me today I didn't even notice. Seriously. I was on the phone and texting the entire time I waited. Too much shiz going on right now for sure.

But once I got in to see my Hand Surgeon he let me know that he was breaking up with me and this would be our last visit unless I wanted to consider having the metal plates taken out. People leave them in mostly but some have them taken out if they are inter fearing with life. For instance, my left hand gets extremely cold compared to my right hand because there is freaking metal in there not far from the surface of the top of my hand. And I guess if its too annoying I can have the plates removes. They also remove them if range of motion is still hindered which mine still is. I am opting to leave everything as is for the moment because it's another 6 weeks of recovery time after yet another surgery. And although the second time around is not as insanely intense as these last 3 months have been therapy wise I will opt out on that one for now. Plus I am just not into opening the body up unless you HAVE to.

So I guess I am fully healed according to the x-rays that were taken today and my doctor about fell off his chair when I told him what I had been up to (9 races in 6 states) since I last saw him 6 weeks ago. He was psyched and blown away too at just how well my racing is going and even told me that I had come VERY far in a VERY short time. I love hearing that!

He did scare me though. He told me that I only had 1 - 2 months left for trying to get my range of motion back and that was about it. That sucks.

Right now I am completely pain free (hail to a good hand surgeon!!) and I don't feel it or think about it at all while I am on the bike. The only thing I am lacking is range of motion and strength in that hand. The only way I can describe the range of motion thing is that if I were to grab a bunch of almonds with that hand, I wouldn't be able to hold onto all of them completely because I can't make a tight fist yet. Is that something I could live the rest of my life with? Sure, and people do, but why should I if I can do therapy myself to get as much range as I can in the next 2 months out of it. You never know when you may actually NEED that motion later in life either!

Hand Therapy

Yep, still doing plenty of therapy when I am home in between races. It is still extremely time consuming but if I want full use of my hand, I have to do it. The cool thing is that racing is therapy for it. I never thought THAT was possible, but just gripping the bike bars and using my hand during the races works the range of motion as well as the strength aspect.

That is a good thing since I walked back in to see my Hand Therapist in Park City, UT with my tail between my legs. I had to confess yet again that I hadn't done any formal therapy on my own while I travelled to races. She was ok with that though but did say that this patient did the same thing one to many times.


I love Halloween! Actually, she didn't say that and was cool with it but then proceeded to make me hit the ceiling trying to force the range of motion as she wrenched my hand for the next hour.

We did some testing again on it too and despite my lack of therapy on it the last few weeks, I had improved range of motion wise by a few degrees as well as strength wise too. Cool. You have to love the body for always wanting to build itself again and be healthy when it's not. My right hand is still twice as strong as my left but the left is catching up on its own! Yes!

Good Lord It's Cold Here

Ever have those days where you are cold all day? I hate that!



Even so, it is great to be home. I missed my hubby!

PA to UT

If I hear one more person sneeze or cough....

The not so joys of travel.

MAC Series #4 - Ludwigs Corner, PA

Today started out a lot better than it did yesterday since no one ran over my bike wheel with their car prior to my race but their were still bike issues.....just not during the race.

So I am trying to not be too hard on myself but I have to say that the outcome of today's race was a bit a of a bummer for me. I came in 5th but should have done much better than that because my fitness is there.

I had the power today but just not when I needed it which was at the very beginning of the race. A bit of a lack of power off the line despite a great warm up and a great call up along with a problem getting into my pedals left me fighting to get to the front by the first corner of the race. NOT the position you want to be in on the first corner. But you take it for what its worth and move forward.....or you try to until someone makes an inside pass causing a big tangle of your pedals in other peoples wheels. So after getting off my bike and untangling things I was on my way again and the lead group of four were "gone baby gone". GREAT. Here we are 2 minutes into the race and I am in the chase group already.

Seeing that it was now or never for me I sat in on the chase group, got my brief rest in and then started the process of bridging across to the lead group by myself in the howling wind. They were far far ahead already but I HAD to at least try. Why not? What is the worst that can happen? You blow and get a good workout in? Ya, maybe but you have to try.

I knew I had the overall power to get there and I had to try as the race was unfolding in front of me and I didn't like that! I wanted to be a part of it like I was yesterday! So I gave it the longest and hardest effort with absolutely no break in order to bridge alone. And with every lap I was seeing the rewards of doing so as I was closing in on the lead group!! The crowd was super supportive in helping to motivate me even more by hooting, screaming and yelling. I was giving it all I had hands down and even started to think that I was going to be in trouble once I got there because I knew someone would (should!!) attack once reconnected with the group. But that never came to fruition because I only got as close as 7 seconds off the lead group and then started feeling the effects of my lonely efforts in the head wind. That left me with 2 laps to go and dieing on the inside. Completely turned inside out, body is trying to recover and I am now just simply trying to hold on to 5th without having a late race meltdown.

Success....I got my 5th and I should be happy with that especially since I know deep down inside that I gave it absolutely positively all I had today. Everything.

Here is a picture of the finishing straight and area

And the ever so popular Circle of Death in the background. You somehow wind yourself in there making nothing but a right hand turn and then wind yourself back out doing nothing but a left hand turn. Very dizzy-ing when you are on the rivet.


So the drama of today unfolded AFTER the race. My bike fell partway off the bike (trunk) rack on the freeway and was dragging behind the car. Luckily Dee Dee (who came in 2nd today!!!) was paying attention to the rear view mirror because Buck, her hubby and I, were just chatting it up as if all was wonderful. Meanwhile my bike is hanging on for dear life on the back of the car!


They have since bought a new rack, the bike is ok and because I didn't freak out at all as all of this was happening (and knowing what happened to me yesterday with someone running over my wheel and having a bent derailleur too prior to the race) I was deemed by Buck as either a really good actor OR someone that just doesn't let things work them up.

I can definitely get worked up but you just have to pick your battles and decide what your energy is going to be wasted on I guess. Plus, you do this long enough and you start to see things happening again and again and it comes as no surprise anymore!

Home tomorrow!