Another Pro XCT?

I sure am glad I went to Fontana. I'm probably just re-stating the obvious here, but I love racing my bike. Any opportunity to race, no matter the length, venue or conditions is a chance to do what I love. So yup, definitely psyched I went.

I rolled into the venue Friday afternoon after a long solo drive and set out to find Nate immediately. It was so nice to see him. He was really busy, so after a quick hello and a few minor adjustments to make my bike somewhat rideable, I headed out for a lap on the course. The changes from last year were obvious-the course was significantly harder, but also a lot more fun! It's always a good thing when both happens at the same time. I got back to the hotel in time to see Nate for a few minutes before he headed out to a late dinner. I stayed in so I could get ready for the next day and hit the hay.

Nate being the ever-awesome Nate he of course couldn't let my bike be as it was (and he promised if I made the 16 hour round trip drive to see him, he'd fix my bike). It was kind of a mess, as I had a local shop build it for me and it needed a lot of corrective work. After he finished all the work he had to do for Adam, he got busy on my bike while I slept. Apparently, I learned I can sleep through a hack saw going at 12:30pm if I combined a 5am wake up call with an 8-hour drive that same day.

The ladies had to do 4 laps, which meant we had to go up the Wall, a heinously steep climb that seemed to go on forever. It was my 2nd ride on my new 2x10 set up. I have to say after a little hesitation, I'm stoked to have it on my Nine. The 26x36 is just enough for those "Oh my god this could possibly kill me" type of steep climbs. (I may eat my words 6 hours into my first ultra, but whatever...). Anyway, 4 trips up the wall meant we were rewarded with 4 laps of tight, twisty singletrack that was-gasp!-tacky. CA had gotten a hefty amount of rain the previous week making the conditions the best I have ever seen them in 4 years of racing there.

Just one part of the wall. Ouch. @ trailwatch.net

I had a 2nd row call up and managed to not blow my good position for the first time in recent memory. I was as high as 8th at one point, but comfortably settled into 10th after a short 1-lap battle with Amanda Sin and Judy and that's where I stayed. I cleaned the wall every time and generally rode well. My race brain was finally turned on and I felt good all day. I crossed the line and and as always, questioned "could I have gone harder?" I typically feel that way after all my xc efforts. Maybe it's the ultra racer in me, always conserving that secret reserve of power for when #*($ hits the fan...but I felt great about the day, my race and my effort.

Nate was working all day, so I returned to the hotel, chilled and watched the sad result of the U of A vs. UConn game. Adam basically raced the Super D straight to the airport, so after dropping him off, Nate drove to Thousand Oaks to drop the Truck at Giant HQ and I followed in my car. Granted, this meant a 3-hr additional drive, but we at least got dinner together and had 1.5 hours in the car with each other on the way home. He had a 7am flight so we had to get our time in however we could. I have a feeling a lot of the season is going to roll out like this.

I skipped the Short Track in favor of another look at the Vision Quest course. Although when I got there, I was welcomed by a total mudfest. Never mind. I took a 30 min easy spin on the road and headed back to Tucson. A top-10 at a National, seeing my hubby and a great race weekend made it all worth the drive.

Turn of Events

It's amazing the difference one week can make.

I've been spending lots of time on the Lemmon. It never gets old

At this time last week I was hammering away at a 20-page final paper for my current graduate class, I was exhausted from the previous weekend of racing/team camp/late night bike building and 16 hours of solo driving, mystified about my lack of performance/cramping issues at Bonelli and didn't have a rideable mountain bike. The world's most annoying noise was still coming out of my car. I missed my husband more than ever, especially because he had to cancel his 4-day trip to visit me in Tucson at the last minute. I had just received my recent blood test results that were stacked with abnormal results, yet had to wait a week to meet with my doc. I had to pull the plug on a local race at 10pm the night before because after multiple trips to shops and a late-night conference call with Nate, my mtb still wouldn't shift. I felt pretty crappy.

Fast forward a week. Okay, I still feel pretty crappy, but other than that, things are looking significantly upwards. I've gotten a lot of good, hard and long rides in to get ready for Vision Quest. I turned in my paper (spring break, woo-hoo!), got my car fixed, have enjoyed many nights of good sleep, and finally picked up my mountain bike today after having all new XX installed. Granted, another trip to the doctor yesterday yielded lots of hypotheses but no definitive answers and has me headed in for more tests. But, my world is feeling remarkably more positive than it was just one week ago!

With this nice turn of events and a good chat with my coach, I have decided to go to the Fontana Pro XCT after all. I never in a million years thought I would be going with Vision Quest next week, but when I saw the weeks' training plan, saw that Saturday was calling for short intensity and Friday was a rest day, and most importantly, knowing that Nate would be in Fontana for the weekend (and I haven't seen him for a month), suddenly 16 hours in the car doesn't seem so bad at all.

Why is Nate going to Fontana? The big news in the Carey household is that Nate got a new job! He's working for Team Giant this year and will mainly be doing Adam Craig's domestic support along with some other team events. I couldn't be any happier for him. He's such a great mechanic and has worked really hard to get to where he's landed. I can't help but think that Giant has scored big by hiring him because beyond being a very good mechanic, he is the most patient and helpful person I have ever met. Giant's racers are going to be stoked.

Although this means a lot more time apart for us, there's no conflict of interest. I race the NUE Series (where no outside support is allowed) and he still gets to come with me for the race I need his help at the most (Transylvania Epic). Well, okay, maybe it'll be weird riding past him at Leadville when he is supporting my competition. But hey, at least I can take a little pride in that I am handing him over to Giant with 3 years of rigorous training in navigating the absolute chaos involved in supporting the fast people at Leadville.

One more 4 hr ride tomorrow and off to So Cal. Friday am. Nice.

Expecting the Unexpected: Team Camp and Bonelli Pro XCT#1

This past weekend I made the 8-hour drive to San Dimas, CA for our Kenda/Felt Team photo shoot. There was a big race so I went to that, too. The first Pro XCT was held at Bonelli Park and was my first opportunity to go hard all season.

@ Dorothy Wong

@ Dorothy Wong

Other than a mysterious, highly annoying humming noise reverberating out of the front end of my Honda Element, the drive was uneventful. On Friday morning, I rode over to the venue, got a bunch of practice laps in and tried to remember what it was like to be a bike racer again. The rest of the day was spent clearing out the cobwebs and going through the typical race prep: testing the tube out of the box before I put it on my bike-a harsh lesson I learned at Leadville 2009, trying to remember what an XC warm up consisted of, choosing the proper hammer gel flavor, etc. and generally scrambling around for a lot longer than I wanted. Did some homework, got some sleep. Pretty standard, expected stuff.

@ Dorothy Wong

I started my warm up at around 9am for the 10:45 race. I got onto the course at about 9:45 for a preview lap and was doing another pass at a steep, hard to ride up and over root section when kid you not, I started to cramp. Badly. Like, sharply in my right inner thigh. I wasn't even going that hard-just above tempo-and I was cramping. IN MY WARMUP. I'll add the disclaimer that I have only ever had a muscle cramp once in my entire life. It was at the very end of a very hot race in Fontana my 2nd year pro. I had gone straight from Jackson Hole winter to wicked hot Fontana and rode too hard in the sudden heat.

So, getting shooting muscle cramps going moderately hard in my warmup was totally unexpected and prompted a minor panic state. Thankfully, I ran into my pal Rebecca and she ran to her car for me and grabbed a bottle of Elete and a bottle of Endurolytes. I grabbed a hand full of Endurolytes took some and tucked the others in my jersey pocket. Then, kid you not, opened the bottle of Elete and shot it straight into my mouth. Straight up. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever done but hey, desperate times, right? I do not suggest it to anyone. Now, I realize that the research is inconclusive about what actually causes muscle cramps and there's no direct science that says electrolyte imbalance causes cramping, but I had to do something.

@ Dorothy Wong

So, I did what I thought was right. I spun lightly or stood still for the next 30 min. before the xc start and never really went hard in warm up. Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect out there. I was actually considering have to DNF for the first time in my life which was NOT cool. Quitting a race is the worst thing possible for your head. If you quit, it makes it easier to quit the next time. I've finished and started races with broken ribs, a cracked tailbone, with no front brake, you name it. So, this was a pretty awful way to start the 2011 season.

@ Dorothy Wong

But, I did my best. I just had to tone the effort down and not push too hard. As soon as I pushed it, I started to cramp, so I just rode as hard as I could, and instead tried to ride well, not hard. Things got a little more challenging when, mid race, I couldn't drop into my small front chain ring. Must have bent my front derailleur. So, lots of standing and cranking a gear that was waaaay too hard. Not exactly ideal, but oh well.

The course was awesome. Really punchy, lots of twisty singletrack, no where to rest. The ladies did 6 laps which was just crazy to me, almost dizzying. The US courses are only going to get shorter to coincide with the world cup moving to shorter lap formats. Thankfully, someone out there at the start/finish had a lap counter as I definitely would have lost count. I had a few battles going out there for a while and won some and lost some. Mostly I battled myself, my body, my semi-functioning bike. I slipped into the 8th spot which was pretty unsatisfying just because of my gap to the leaders - it was too big. Even for someone who is focusing on Ultras distance. I finished with a big sigh, knowing that I was grateful that I finished in light of the cramps, but disappointed with how it all went down. Ho hum. The first race of the season is always a mystery. Going into it you wonder if you are ready. You never feel ready that's for sure, but you always hope for the best. If it goes well, you never really know why. If it goes poorly, well, same thing. Again, expecting the unexpected is a good way to roll.

@ Dorothy Wong

Rather than race the short track on Sunday, I had a grander plan in mind. I woke up super early, packed up the car, loaded up the Garmin with a course, and headed south to pre-ride some of the Vision Quest course. A 4-hour ride sounded far better to me than a 20-minute effort and I am grateful I took this option as I had a harsh reality check of how hard this race is going to be! I rode the first 25 miles of the 56-mile course and oh-my-lord all I did was climb. Seriously. 6500 feet of climbing came in the first 20 miles. I saw lots of 18%-22% on my Garmin. I think I climbed for 3:20 of the 4 hour ride. The scenery was beautiful and I literally passed almost 100 people out there pre-riding the course.

Now I know why it's called the Vision Quest. My hunch is if I haven't hallucinated at some point by the end of this race, I didn't go hard enough.

I busted back to the hotel, grabbed some food, a bunch of parts and headed out to watch the shorttrack. Thankfully I made it in plenty of time to see my teammate Judy rock it and land on the podium! Just where she belongs. I was almost jumping out of my skin I was so happy for her. For someone who had the year she did last year and to only be 6 weeks out of a boot for a broken foot, holy moly, watch out word. She's gonna have a great year! Here's a shot Tom took of her crossing the line for 5th:

The rest of Sunday was a scramble. Getting new forks cut, shuttling back and forth from hotels to venue to get parts, frames and swap incorrect headsets. Colin, Andy, Judy and I were all out on the balcony of the Red Roof Inn building our new bikes for the team photo shoot until about midnight. I still don't know how we pulled it off, but when my alarm went of at 5:30am the next morning, I had a shiny new Felt Nine that was ready to roll pretty for the camera.

The photo shoot was quite fun just because my teammates are so awesome and our photographer Tom Robertson is not only very talented, he's a very, very nice guy to be around. Here's a funny group shot he just sent out to us:

I headed back to Tucson mid-day on Monday with a lot on my mind. I had to distract myself from that high-pitched noise. I thought about my mysterious lack of performance but more on my to-do list for the week. It's finals week, so I have to bust out a 15-page paper, my car needs to get to the shop, I need to get a bike re-built for a marathon race on Saturday and oh, yeah, training, too....but it's all good. Busy is good and where I need to be to be at my best. The year is going to be a great one. I came back from the weekend motivated, a lot more focused and so incredibly grateful for all the awesome support we have from a ton of great companies. Now that race season is truly on, I can't wait to get out there and represent them well!

Training Time

Jeeze Louise, I am boring. So boring in fact that I'm bloggin' sans photos. But, here's a link to an interview I did a few weeks back with MTB Race News to make up for the text-only update. I figure if I wait for photos to blog....it'll never happen.

I have to admit, boring had been really, really nice. I've been enjoying the rhythms of the simple life down here in AZ. Big miles, great weather, Trader Joes, farmers' markets and lots of resting and homework in between. Hopefully, I'll have more to talk about when I race for the first time next weekend. Just saying that makes my tummy flipflop a bit, knowing that I've done zero intensity so far this year, a big change from years past. I swear can practically taste the blood in my mouth that the first xc race pace effort of the season will bring just thinking about the physical shock. At least it'll feel short in comparison to the long miles I have been putting in.....right?

I've put together a race schedule for the year that has me super-stoked to pedal every day. Some new events, some repeats and a lot of suffering in quality races on tap. Defending my NUE Series title is the general priority. I have my sights squarely set on the Transylvania Epic and marathon nationals as well. I think the TVE has the strongest women's field I have ever seen at an ultra event. NICE. I have a hearty break scheduled mid-season, am planning on a mix of east and west coast NUE events and also have a lot more time at home this year than ever before. I think that's a function of stepping away from the xc scene almost entirely except for a few early season events. Focusing on just ultras forces you to prioritize and race and travel less. For example, I may have to skip xc nationals so I can instead stay home and see Michael Franti and Spearhead at Targheefest that same weekend (and to rest up for High Cascades the next weekend). You know, priorities.

Plus, the fact that there's a lot more racing close to home-there are actually 2 NUE races within 5 hours of my house-helps a lot. I did get into the Leadville lottery again, but Pierre's Hole is the weekend before, so although I will be racing Leadville, I have a bigger, more local fish to fry the weekend before. Like I said, priorities.

The new training approach has been going very well. I'm really focusing on building the engine this year before any intensity comes into the mix and I'm curious to see how that's going to feel next week. Probably not good, but if there's anything I need more of in my life, it's patience. Especially with cross nationals being in January next year, marathon national in September and Pisgah in October, I have to focus on the long haul this year more than ever.

So yup, life is good, good, good. Albeit a bit boring at this point, when I'm living out of my car/suitcase/bike box once the season begins, I will definitely miss it!