Pro XCT #4 - Mt. Morris, WI

Wow, Madison, WI is cool. Never been there, heard all about it and....yeah, its a great place for sure. A tightly knit community with bicycle paths all over linking the city up at every point, bars, great food, coffee shops, co-ops and a great atmosphere are all part of what makes it amazing. Yet again, the reason I love my job is getting to go places like Madison where I may never have had the opportunity to go to in my life!

And actually, I paid a whole $10 to get there. I had a bunch of unused cyclocross flights from last year that I couldn't use due to life circumstances (see sidebar if you need a hint) and they were all going to expire mid July. So I combined them all in order to head to the the next Pro XCT race at Nordic Mtn (NE of Madison by about 2 hours).

And the really best part about going there was that I was about to meet some of my new teammates for the first time! Meghan Korol lives there smack dab in the middle of all the action but we had yet to get to the same race. And Stephan Ettinger, our U - 23 wonder boy, was making his way from MT to for this lovely event too.

I got to Meghan's after one of the best flights ever on Southwest. Not only did I get the exit row, I sat with 2 of the funniest people ever. We all didn't know each other when we got on the flight but we sure did by the time we got off it! It was perfect, the flight went by fast, we laughed the whole time, told stories and I kept getting FREE adult drinks from the flight attendant. We got to WI in no time flat! : )

I gotten eaten alive by mosquito's as I built my bike up but being lead around Madison by Meghan and biking around one of the many lakes in WI made up for it.



Road right past the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center (a Frank Lloyd Wright building) on one of the bikes paths there too.

We also swung by Machinery Row Bicycles where Meghan and her boyfriend Dave (what a great mechanic!!) works. It was an absolutely incredible shop. I have never seen so many bikes and gear in my life. The shop was well laid out with plenty of mechanics to answer any questions or work on your bike. Incredible place.

Oh and just outside the shop was this little ditty. Yep, a place right off the bike path for you to work on your bike in case of a mechanical. Note the bike stand in this picture.

And then the vending machine of bike parts, clif bars, etc in this picture!! Amazing!

And I just didn't have enough of Madison yet so we cruised up toward the capital and over to yet another lake. Check out the sun setting.

And the moon above the capital. This place was showing itself off!!!

Well not really.....I had a bit of a mishap. At the very end of the ride/tour my crank arm slipped and came loose!! Didn't come totally off but had to walk it home. And I will tell you what...having a mechanic at home to ease my mind that it was NOT a bottom bracket issue or something like that was certainly nice since we were leaving for the venue first thing in the morning! Or well uh....at least leaving for the venue after going to the bike shop to make sure my bike was going to work, going grocery shopping to load up for the weekend, having Stephan leave his wallet at the bike shop (these kids - hahaha!), packing the cars, getting gas, etc. So after all that we finally drove on up to the venue to check out the course.

The pic below is Nordic Mtn where the race took place. A bit different than those high altitude races with straight up straight down kind of action on the west coast! But don't let this pic fool you too much, there was plenty of climbing snuck in there. Short punchy climbs through dense forest and steeper twisty and techy downhills throughout the loop made for a quick loop of no rest. I would liken this course to a World Cup course.

CROSS COUNTRY

By the time we warmed up and started the race at 11 am it was already 82 and humid. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE humidity actually but today it didn't love me.

Dave and Meghan - our wonderful hosts/teammate/mechanic/support crew/tour guides

So yeah, about that humidity. This was a first but it happened. I hit the wall at about the 1.5 hour mark. The first part of the race I was amped, making up ground, getting through the pack, had that fighter instinct to kill it and then it was like a switch was flicked and the lights went out. I found myself at that point with a super high heart rate (anaerobic zone) but if you had asked me at that moment what wattage I was putting out I bet it was around 150. The heart rate wasn't matching the effort in the legs at all. I have never had that happen. I then started to dream and obsess about the cold water ski pond that was at the bottom of the course. We still had 2 or so laps to go and we would ride past the pond and I wanted to stop SOOOOO BAD and just jump in each time. I was overheating bad and getting worse.

Between that, the humidity, the cold chills, I should have known what was going on and perhaps I did but just pretended everything was ok as I drifted backwards each lap. I wanted to just go get in the air conditioning and/or get in that cold pond. I became more obsessed with the lake than racing. Oh wow, I just called what I did "racing" those last few laps....now that is funny. Let me clarify.......I was mearly riding. I will slow down but I will not quit!! Something inside said this is not right which was a first in my career and so I listened and backed off mid race - another first. I have learned to listen to those inner race voices at times because sometimes they know best even though you just want to beat them down and pretend all is well......which I did to a certain degree. But I did have a sneaking suspicion that if I pushed beyond what I was feeling I was going to do damage so I slowed way down which sux but I believe it was the best option unfortunately.

So after a not so stellar finish with the temp now in the 90's, you could find me in the lake - helmet, shoes, glasses, EVERYTHING still on. The water skiers were getting a kick out of the crazy fully clothed bike racer hanging out in the water!! I was the happiest I had been all day!

Like I said, that lake was calling me and I forgot to mention, I really am not a fan of pools of water, ponds, streams, lakes etc. I like to LOOK at them but usually do anything I can to stay out of them! So the fact that I was dieing to get in one says something.

SHORT TRACK

The next day we had the Short Track race which I wasn't too concerned about over heating in. I could handle 20 minute all out effort. I did make some modifications to my warm up though, broke out some ice and was extra cautious to stay cool as possible up until the start.

My start was dreadful too.

Not sure what happened but I think I was almost last by the second corner. There was some kind of hoopla going on up front but I couldn't quite make out what had happened as I focused on my race.

My glasses slipped down on my nose from the humidity!!

But I was so annoyed that I was almost last that I just gunned it, even more than the all out effort that you have do in order to survive the race. The big effort paid off though because I was able to make a ton of passes and land in 12th in the end after suffering like a dog.

And where did I go after? The pond again! And it felt GOOOOD.

The rest of the afternoon was first spent trying to find Milty Wilty (known for its custard) and then the rest of the evening was spent hitting Madison with Meghan, Dave, Stephan, a slew of U-23 nats team and a bunch of others. It may have involved lots of beer, bars, bikes, barfing (not me), broken bottles and almost a brawl (not really but it rhymed!!) but we did manage to stay outta trouble somehow.

We stayed up till 3:30am and I had to leave at 4:15am for my flight!!! I just ended up staying up and leaving a bit early for it and didn't even bother trying to sleep. It was pointless. Ugh, haven't done that since.......oh........college maybe. But man it was a fun night!! Now I need to put my pro "hat" back on and go to bed at a reasonable hour for another 15 years until I do this again. Once every 15 years isn't so bad! : )

Here is a quick video of the races that weekend starting with what I call "Lake Obsession" now:

Intermountain Cup #8 - Logan, UT

Immediately following the race in Vail we headed home to WA to take care of some family business. This was the first time I was home since my parents funeral in November and it was hard. Hard not to call them to tell them I am going to be there and hard TO visit them...not at their house but at their grave.

Their graveside was more beautiful than I remember, lush with trees, flowing streams and a blooming rose garden too. I was happy for that. It is so amazing to me that this was reality as I stared at a plaque that now represented my beloved parents. There is something to be said for being gone in another state and not fully understanding the scope of things until you go "home" and realize there is no one there to greet you with those loving open arms as a parent would. Reality struck when in WA that is for sure. My parents are gone in body but definitely not in spirit (thankfully!!).

On top of that reality was the reality that Chris's mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer. All signs are pointing to good places at the moment and she is doing everything she can to get her body into fighting mode. I am proud of her for everything she is doing right now to combat this and will continue to sending healing vibes her way as she undergoes treatment for the next 5 years.

I did get some riding in too while I was there. Seattle is so lush green!!!



But there is a reason for that too. I think I missed 2 huge storms by about a minute. I was one lucky ducky.

Speaking of rain....holy cow when we got home there was nothing but storms galore!! Yikes!

The calm before the storm from our deck.



Not too long afterwards the storm was here



Lightening



Another shot of lightening



The bad part of the storm clears out leaving just massive rainfall. Yep......it's June alright. Hmmm????



As for the race in Logan. It was a beautiful day!!! Probably one of the hotter days that we have raced this season. It was also pretty much the first weekend that it was beautiful out. The drive up to Logan was awesome just seeing ALL the outdoorsy people doing their thing or getting ready to do their thing from camping, motoing, kiteboarding, hot air ballooning, road biking, para gliding and....oh ya...mtbing!!!

Oh also forgot to mention that I woke up early this AM and saw a BOBCAT at our next door neighbors house!!!! Here kitty kitty kitty. I have never seen one of those in the wild let alone 50 feet away from my house!!! Anyway, that was pretty cool although it was only cool because I had a house protecting me. : )

The drive up to Logan.



I hadn't pre-ridden the course yet so when I got there I got on it to see what I was up against. That is a total first for me to do that the day of the race. It was a good choice though as I needed to know the course because the last time I raced there was in 2004. It luckily made for an excellent warm up too. 10 years into this sport and still having "firsts".....always learning or trying out new stuff I tell you!

The course was the same for the most part which was a good thing because its still fun with windy tight singletrack through dense trees that eventually spit you out into open fields making you fen for yourself as you gage your pace. Short laps too which I like. A hot 1 hour and 45 minutes later I came across the line in first!

Next up is the Pro XCT in WI this weekend!!

Teva Mtn Games - Vail, CO

Been enjoying some time at our new house now that we are not on the road a whole ton. We have these "meese" that keep appearing by the house too! Mom and her two babies. The babies are no bigger than your average dog. One was running around mom, bounding around and the other was sticking RIGHT by moms side. SO CUTE!!

Just mom moose



Mom and one baby



The week cont'd to be good. It is always nice to get fun surprises in the mail!!



And then there was .................RACE DAY

Like I said, it was a great week, had a great race on Monday where I felt like myself again for the first time in a year or so and I was really looking forward to racing at the Teva Games. That was........until I got to the very first corner of the race. I thought I was gonna die. Weirdest feeling ever came over me as I pushed into my race zone.

The women's start

Every fiber in my body was telling me to stop as I cont'd to force the effort into the pedals. I couldn't believe what was happening! I had to play mental games like nobodies business as I forced myself through the next 2 laps of a 3 lap mountainous race. It was excruciating really. I kept asking myself how I was going to actually finish the race when my body clearly wanted me to stop. But its not in me to stop. Not part of my stubborn DNA. I had to keep moving forward the best I could although it felt like each pedal stroke was getting me nowhere. I felt just terrible. I was searching for someone by the name of Kathy inside what seemed to be empty shell for those first 2 laps. I suffered like a dog and I couldn't tell you why.

After sticking it out I finally found myself somewhat on the 3rd lap...but little too late. I was miraculously in 10th and attacked hard for 9th on one of the last hills. The attack didn't stick but at least I had come around back to my old race Kathy!! Better late than never. It is races such as this that make other race days seem like a cakewalk. Hopefully I have now gotten that one race that I always have every year like this, out of the way.

I ran into the Mafia Baseball Team before my race!!

The Teva Games has all kinds of things going on!

Flipping on the rope - seriously?! Wow!

Intermountain Cup #6 - Draper, UT

I have been waiting a long time to feel like I did in today's race. It was one of those "no chain" days. Wow, I live for those. I think its been about 1.5 years (right before the parents got super sick) since I have felt the love like that in a race. I felt like ME again. I had the fire, the punch and the power!!!! All the stars were aligned for me to come away with another win.

The race course was 1,100 feet elevation gain per lap and we did 3 laps on a extremely nice and mild day on awesome singletrack. I hope there are more race courses and days like this!

Afterwards the wind picked up enough that Chris could go Kiteboarding with a bunch of buddies in Deer Creek Reservoir.

The kiteboarding launch area

Intermountain Cup #5 - Midway, UT

We finally got back from sunny CA and the weather wasted no time in welcoming us home........



Seriously? It's like summer or something around here and the sun should be blazing, flowers blooming.

Being home was weird since we had been in our new house a whole 14 days total before we left for 5 weeks. And now here we were back getting used to things all over again. I even at one point told myself that I needed to put a project off until I got home. The kicker was that I WAS home sitting on my couch. Change is definitely an interesting thing although it hasn't affected me too much since I am used to being at different place every other weekend.

RACE DAY

The morning of the race I woke up and it was cold, dreary, snowy and just plain yucky outside.

We had the heat on, the fireplace going and I was happily warm and extremely content. The thought of getting outside in that nasty cyclocross weather to race wasn't entirely appealing since it was May but I drug myself out the door to go ride in circles with a bunch of other crazy people that wanted to do the same thing.

Driving into the venue at Soldier Hollow looked like this.....not too bad by this time really as it was warming up some. Note the snow in the background that forced the promoter to re-route the course a bit.



I was reminded quickly just how much extra time you need on days like this to prepare for the race. Between fiddle farting with bike stuff and changing clothes 500 times, I manage to squirrel away most of my warm up. Yeah...not so pro to say the least. Whoops.

The first lap was a slippy and slidey one, especially since most of us showed up with "dry" condition tires. I just see that as optimistic, but again it really was.....not so pro. And I almost paid the price for it too as I slid sideways on one of the first corners on the race but was able to keep it upright somehow. You don't have to tell me twice to slow down!!!



So if it wasn't the corner telling me to slow down it was going to be the altitude on this day - or at least it was going to try. Here it was my 4th day back at altitude after 5 weeks gone and the 4th day back is always my worst. Sweet timing. Again, not so pro since I could have come back to altitude a lot earlier.

And, yes, I suffered the most extreme hurt that one can feel while racing at altitude after being gone. My legs were on fire looking for all that oxygen that CA had to offer and so were my lungs. I was breathing as deep as I could trying to make use of every inch of my screaming lungs.



I honestly thought I was gonna die during the whole race. Yeah, racing hurts but this was to the extreme as my body screamed for oxygen. The word misery comes to mind actually.



But apparently I am stubborn enough and know how to suffer with the best of them enough because I was able to put down the right amount of wattage to come across the line in first place. I have never been so happy to breath again normally!!!

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.