Derby City USGP

What a great weekend of racing! I came, I pedaled, I suffered. REALLY suffered. Saw the highest HR averages I have ever seen and definitely woke up my anaerobic system after a long summer slumber of ultra racing. Louisville is a great city and the USGP series is top-notch. I was happy to be a part of it all and was pleased with my performances.

Lip glued to teeth in agony...must be cross season.

I knew going in that perhaps going into a USGP with no UCI points was a questionable decision, but hey, a gal's got to start somewhere, right? I got hooked up with some great host housing in Louisville (thanks SO much Meredith!), travel was easy and Nate got a miles ticket to support me in my first big cross race of the season, so all I had to worry about was riding myself into the ground.

The only real shocker was the weather and air quality. Highs near 80s, smoke filled skies from a forest fire burning to the south and DUST. Kentucky is in a severe drought right now and riding in the pack was like breathing from a vacuum cleaner hose turned onto blow. Gross.

I had to draw numbers at registration because I have no UCI points. I pulled 31 for Saturday (out of 40). Ouch. I thought "okay, it can't get any worse"....then I pulled 35 for Sunday. Double ouch. 4th rows...no fun.

I love this photo b/c of the number layout
(both photos by Dave M. @ trailwatch.net)

I headed to Saturday's start motivated and ready to suffer. And boy, did I suffer. But, somehow I moved up from my 4th row start to the top ten within the first lap. Partly because of luck-I managed to stay out of the crashes in the first sand pit and generally rode like a lunatic to get up to the chase group as soon as I could. Then it was just a test of survival. I think I got as high up to 8th at one point, but I was so completely blown from the chase effort that holding onto 10th was as much as I could muster out of my diesel engine. But to me, 10th felt amazing-I got a point!

Sunday was more of the same. A deeper call up, with a little less luck. Again, I turned myself inside out to move up through the pack on lap one, but luck didn't go my way. I got caught behind a big crash in the first big sand pit and lost some ground and although I actually felt better than the day before, I felt like my legs were putting out less power. I had fought my way up to Mo's wheel in 10th place with less than 2 laps to go. Sweet. We approached the long sand pit with me glued to her wheel, downshifting and accelerating so I could ride the first part of the pit when she suddenly slowed and dismounted before the pit started so she could run it. It caught me totally off guard and I overlapped her going into the sand and crashed. That little gap was all she needed to slowly pull away from me, eventually besting me by 13 seconds. I finished somewhat disappointed in 11th. No point for me :(

Overall I was stoked with the weekend. Now's it a week of training and visiting friends and family in Colorado before the Boulder Cup this weekend.

Tis the Cross Season

Where does the time go? Even though I haven't been "racing" I have been plenty busy. We took a whirlwind, 6-day trip to the east coast in which we went to a wedding, visited my parents and Nate's mom, and (my favorite part) went up to visit my bestest girlfriend from college, Hope. She and her hubby James and little one Forest live in the dead center of the legendary Kingdom trails in East Burke, VT and we did multiple rides right out their door. I'm already planning when/how I am going to move in next summer! Hope is currently growing twins that will be ready in just a few months, so I figure she can use the help when she has 3 little ones in diapers. I'll just have to resist the urge to ride 5 hrs a day if I am there to help....

James, our guide, host, legendary high school English teacher and official member of the Kingdom trails patrol. He showed us the best of the best.

Nate on a rented 29er dually in VT. I think he needs
to make the swap to big wheels.

Ladies line up for Moosecross

What else? A few weeks ago I raced Moosecross, a double day of cross racing right down the street. Coming fresh off a 10-day break and only 1 day of cx practice I was surprised and pleased with how my body handled the 45 min of pure pain. Victor Velo put on a great show and I was so, so happy I decided to skip Gloucester and race at home instead. I won both days and got some good schwagg:

In the middle of all this, Nate's been ordering parts and building bikes like a maniac. He got my new cross bike up and running last week which meant a trip to Boise to visit Tom Coleman at Wobblenaught. It's become a borderline obsession, but I don't let anyone but Tom touch my bike fit. He's now fit my 29er hardtail, my 5" Virtue, my road bike, my old cross bikes and now this beauty, the new Felt 15x (mine is a bit different: American Classic wheels, Rotor Q rings, FSA components and red bar tape!)

So, we headed to Boise to spend an afternoon with Tom where he worked his bike fit magic and also taught me a thing or two about how to race cross. Oh boy, my poor brain has a long way to go especially coming from a 100-mile MTB season, but hey practice makes perfect!


Saturday I had my first go of it on my new bike and the new fit at the SICX race in Kuna. Both were totally awesome. Tom even came and videotaped my racing so that we could do some post-race analysis. Lots to learn and even more to practice but the race itself was awesome and I went home with a lot more knowledge and even more motivation to improve my cross racing skills.

The course itself was awesome-about 85% grass, and it just twisted and turned relentlessly back and forth onto itself. The cat. 1 ladies started with the men, meaning I had crowds to race with and also had to go for a full 60 min. I felt great and had a great day, coming in first, but more importantly getting that motivating taste of true cross I need before the USGP this weekend.

Nate and I stayed in Boise to watch Boise state slay San Jose 47-0 and then headed out early to catch the local training series race in Sun Valley on Sunday morning. Not nearly as fun as the day before. Not even close. But hey, that's what cross can be all about-you don't have to like the course to suffer like a dog and bleed out your eyeballs.

My super-supporter and I pre-race. Nate will be on hand for most of my big races this year. Yeah! Cross is hard enough. Doing it on your own is just plain stupid hard. He makes it a lot easier and a heck of a lot more fun!

This afternoon begins my month-long odyssey of fall racing: I fly to Louisville from Denver for the USGP this weekend (lining up in the back will be sooooo much fun), return to Colorado and stay there to visit my sister and her kiddos, hang out in Boulder with my most awesomest teammate Judy to race the UCI races in Boulder, fly to Iceman (the greatest MTB race of the year) and then return to Colorado to race the USGP in Ft. Collins.

My car looks ridiculous: a pika double carrier with 2 packed cross bikes, a hard case for my 29er, my 29er, my road bike and all the things one needs for a month long road trip that includes cross racing, family time, halloween parties, mountain bike racing and enough of a wardrobe so that I don't get laughed out of the People's Republic of Boulder. Cross season 2011 has officially begun!

Transitions

At this time last year I was living in New England, deep in the hunt for UCI points. I had already raced a bunch and was living the cyclocross dream. It was great, but a bit exhausting.

This year, I've taken a hint from my nephew Asher to chill a bit more. To relax, slow down, splash around leisurely in the stuff that looks like fun between seasons and get back to my bike and to training after I've enjoyed a slower pace for a while. It's been awesome.

Maddy is loving my new schedule.

I learned a lot last year by throwing myself into a full UCI season with little cross racing experience. I still remember that when I flatted at Green Mountain Cross in VT and Matt Roy had to teach both me and Nate how to do our first bike change in the pit mid race. I had no idea feeds were not allowed. Pinning 3 #s gave me great amounts of anxiety. Perhaps ignorance was bliss, but Nate and I hacked our way through the season getting better with each race. I even managed to get on a few UCI podiums. Unfortunately, I think I burned my candle to the end of the wick. I got sick after Iceman, tried to race the USGPs in New Jersey the following weekend anyway, bounced back a little but hit the bottom again hard with a raging sinus infection that kept me from going to Nationals.

I'm spending my early fall enjoying lots of this instead of jumping directly into cross. The newly completely Ridge Trail on Teton Pass is perfection.

This year will be different. As I finally chose to focus 100% on ultra-endurance mountain biking, I have put a LOT of miles into my legs this year. I also chose to race Pisgah instead of starting up with cross right away, which means my first big cross race will be the USGP in Louisville. Am I concerned about lining up waaaay in the back for my first race? Whatever. It is what it is. I don't want to repeat my mistakes of racing myself into the ground after a great mountain bike season. So, an abbreviated cross season is in order. 6 painful weekends of UCI racing, Iceman in the middle and before you know it, it'll be ski season. I already have a new pair of S7s waiting in the garage (110 underfoot, yeah baby!)

Free time means lots of hikes with the dog. I love that I can walk to Wyoming from my house

What has this schedule done for me so far? I've had time to relax, recharge, and enjoy the spectacular fall weather we have been having for weeks on end. I flew direct from Pisgah to Vegas for Interbike and was SO incredibly grateful that I decided to skip CrossVegas. I quickly came down with a nasty head cold and enjoyed my birthday and anniversary (3 years-love you honey!) and the week in Vegas sick. But, I made it through the show and at least being sick gave me an excuse to hang inside in air conditioning as it was 100 degrees all week. We capped the trip off with a camping and riding trip to Gooseberry and landed back at home exhausted and happy to have made it out of Vegas alive for the last time.

There's lots more to report in terms of what's on tap for cross season (a few new sponsors and an awesome but short schedule), new training approaches, new bikes, etc. I did race Moosecross last weekend too, so a separate post is definitely in order. For now, I am quite enjoying having nothing to write about.