Lumberjack 100 Miler 2011

Oh, where to begin my book...

The couple of weeks between the Transylvania Stage race and the Lumberjack 100 were incredibly busy, mostly in good ways. It was part of my motivation to bag the last day of the stage race after getting sick there, to get home on Saturday to have a all day Sunday to rest, recover, get caught up, etc., which I am very thankful I did. It was a full week of work and family stuff -- niece's high school graduation, dad's retirement party, which meant lots of family around to hang out with...etc., etc. It also meant I got little riding in and not as much sleep as I would have liked which was a tad frustrating but it was what it was.

Needless to say, I figured I should be "fresh" for the Lumberjack. The women's field was incredibly stacked, much like the stage race. I was trying to get in the mindset of "I have done enough of these 100 milers that I should really truly try to push and see what I have, and if I bonk, I bonk." Of course, I knew that would be semi-contingent on how the legs and body felt on race day. I was after all, feeling a bit spent from all the activity heading into this race. So, mostly, I wanted to have fun. I do not make my living off racing so there should be some pleasure in riding a 100 miles (haha!).

I had some new travel mates this time around. Down at the Cohutta 100 back in April, I had run into a friend/fellow racer I had met ~5 years ago at the Jay Challenge in Vermont - a 65 (er, I mean ultimately a 72 mile) torture fest that had 'broken' me and had me crying at the end of it vowing to never ride my bike longer than 2 hours ever again (that lasted huh?; what is wrong with me?). I didn't have anyone to travel to the Lumberjack with so Chris invited me along with his friend Matt. They lived in Poughkeepsie, NY so it would only be about 3 hours to get there. I told him I'd give it some thought as I had been debating bagging the race altogether for another one later on in the season, but I decided to go with them.

I headed out Thursday morning to Poughkeepsie and arrived at Chris' just around noon. Chris had given me directions to get there either via Rt. 90 or Rt. 84 to Taconic Parkway. I took the Mass Pike (90) since I've been driving 84 all the time. The directions seemed so straightforward that I didn't bother to look at a map before heading out. I got on the Taconic Parkway and thought it was 8 miles south from Rt. 90 to the exit I had to get off at, but I was chatting on the phone and had probably gone well over 8 miles by then, and started to realize, hmm., maybe I should have looked at this on the map. So I called Chris and well, it was 8 miles off the Taconic Parkway, but many miles heading south on the parkway first.. Got it. It was really simple.

I arrived around noon and Chris' buddy Matt showed up about a 1/2 hour later. We packed up Chris' mini-van and hit the road to Youngstown, Ohio, about 6 hours away. Oh joy.. the beginning of many many hours in the car. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We chatted a ton about biking of course -- training, nutrition, strategy, etc. Chris asked me what my goal was for this race. I was like, huh, I guess to do better than last year. I try not to set myself up for a bad head day on the chance that if I'm not feeling great, I don't want to have the added expectation of killing it, even if that is ultimately what I want to do. The Jay Challenge had taught me to be cautious of too lofty of expectations. I hadn't even looked at my time from last year on this course. I had guessed it was around 8:20 or 8:30 (it was closer to 8:30). Anyway, Chris and Matt were great traveling mates. We all got along well and were accommodating to each other, although I think they were perhaps a bit more accommodating to me, giving me, the "well you're the pro", which kind of cracks me up.

We ate dinner at an Applebees somewhere over the border into Ohio (or maybe still in Pennsylvania). Getting a beer was very tempting, but I behaved knowing I was probably still trying to 'catch up' from the crazy busy weeks I just had. Then we stayed at a cheap hotel in Youngstown. Matt is an early bird which wasn't a bad thing as it was probably a good thing to hit the road at a decent time since we still had many many miles to get to Manistee, MI. Chris had mapquested the various routes to take to the race with going through Canada being the shortest and fastest. He's from Netherlands originally and has a green card and thus didn't want us to get hung up at the border (and who knows how long it could take at the border regardless). By Chris' calculations we would have 7 hours to drive on Friday, but the GPS calculated it out saying 9hrs. Yikes! That would get us there about 5pm and we still wanted to get a ride in, get dinner, get everything set for race day...but thankfully, it did really only take 7. And, thankfully Chris and Matt were pretty chatty and fun to hang out with so the time didn't totally drag. Chris is also quite the cook. He quite generously shared his delicious banana bread with us.

We arrived at the race venue just after 3pm and picked up our race packets. I caught up briefly with some friends. Then we went to the cabin I had rented for us to settle in and get ready for a ride to loosen up the legs. The cabin is basically on the back side of the course so we rode from the cabin to the race start/finish area and back. I felt pretty good considering I had just spent 17 hrs in the car over the past two days. The legs were a bit heavy and dead at first but I did a couple of hard efforts on a climb that helped kind of open them up and that made me feel a bit more awake.

We cleaned up and headed into the small town of Manistee for dinner. It was reasonably early still so I suggested we head down to the waterfront on Lake Superior since neither Chris or Matt had gone in the previous times they had done this race. It was a beautiful evening out, warm, sunny, cool breeze. The water looked inviting (but chilly). I had been wondering about the "good morning buttercup" Matt said to Chris that morning, but then I caught a picture of them holding hands. I told them I would blackmail them to their wives :) (completely joking around here/silly).

We ate at the restaurant I have eaten at the past couple of years for dinner the night before this race. I knew it was pretty good food and shouldn't pose any problems for racing the next day. I refrained from a beer or glass of wine again. We hit a grocery store for final supplies, post race snacks and beer etc. Then, it was back to the cabin and preparing for race day.

Man, the mosquitoes are ridiculous there. There was a nice little deck with chairs to sit outside and enjoy the evening with the very late sunset (close to 10pm since it's at the end of the eastern time zone), but we'd have no blood left to pump through our body for race day if we did that. So, it was to bed before it was dark out. I felt like I was like 5 years old again.

I didn't sleep all that great that night but I was, for once, actually not overly anxious or nervous about the race. It's usually race nerves that keep me up. Anyway, 5am comes early regardless and the thoughts of "why the heck do I do this" coming flooding through my brain. I ate some oatmeal and downed my coffee and then we were off to the race, about a 10 minute drive.

We set up our cooler and other bike parts/supplies for the race at the start/finish area. This is the one 100 miler that I do that is 3 laps. The mosquitoes were pretty bad that morning and thankfully I was able to bum some bug spray off a friend. I forgot mine in my car back in Poughkeepsie. I was still surprisingly calm for pre-race time, especially given the many talented riders in my field. I knew I should be pretty fresh, but I was worried that I hadn't done a ride longer than 4hrs in quite some time. Normally, by this point in the season I have done several 5 or 6 hour training rides. I also wasn't quite what kind of impact the busy few weeks would have on me once I got several hours into the race. I reminded myself again that I don't do this for a living so just try to have fun out there and if you feel good, go with it.

I actually did warmed-up with a couple hard short efforts to get the legs opened up. The race starts down the paved road a couple of miles to help spread out the pack before dumping onto singletrack for the majority of the race. So, you have to be ready to go super hard to make sure you have good position getting into the singletrack or else you can lose a lot of time on the first lap. I'm sure I have said this in my blogs in the past, but I hate the starts like this - a few 100 mountain bikers all jockeying for the front spots. It is quite stressful. I tried to stay pretty close up front as I could but wasn't doing an overly good job of it. Once we hit the singletrack, I realized I was kind of farther back than I had hoped to be. That, and I hadn't tracked who of my competitors were ahead of me.

I made some stupid passing decisions that I sort of crashed myself but thankfully didn't take down anyone else. I apologized quickly, but was annoyed with myself for the wasted effort. I wasn't overly happy with the pace of the group I was in and you can lose a lot of time right there in the beginning as there really aren't great places to pass on this course. And early on in the race, no one wants to let you pass since they all want to pass whoever is in front of them.

I finally kind of settled in and found a 'spot' of my own. I find in these race that I always seem to end up around the same group of racers for a majority of the race. You pass them, they pass you and so on.

I felt pretty good for most of the first lap. I can't say I felt like a superstar or anything, but my effort and heart rate and feel all seemed ok. But by the end of the lap, I had started to feel the effort already and was a bit disheartened by that. I also didn't know what position I was in. I knew there were at least 3 women ahead of me, most likely more. When I came through the start/finish area from the first lap, someone said I was in 3rd which I knew was wrong unless Amanda or Cheryl had dnfd. Highly unlikely.

I refilled my camelback with my Carborocket powder mix that I had pre-measured out in ziplock baggies. (I finally got to meet Brad Keyes, owner of Carborocket, my awesome sponsor - very nice guy. He had a great race on his single speed.) I made a bit of a mess on my camelback since I was in a hurry. I grabbed an Odwalla bar, ate half and stuck the other half in my pocket and hit the trail again. The 2nd lap is tough since you have gone pretty hard the first lap, especially since the trails are super fast, flowing awesome single track. There are no major big climbs which means you are pedaling all the time pretty hard. On a course with big climbs (ie, Shenandoah or Wilderness 101), you just find a smooth climbing pace you can hold for, oh, an hour or so, and then you get to descend for a long time and hence get a long recovery, or use you legs in a different way. The Lumberjack course is just go go go. So, now you still have 2 more laps and your legs are starting to feel the hard effort.

I got in my head a bit too much this lap. I was not enjoying it and how hard it felt. I have been starting to think I don't want to do these 100s anymore. Of course, they are always hard. I don't know why I assume they will ever feel easy. Anyway, I convinced myself that I would only do the two more on my schedule this year and next year, none. I would just take a nice break and go have fun riding some awesome trails out west and enjoy a good beer or two in the evening. Get up and repeat. And then, I would remind myself to make that decision at the end of the season. Nonetheless, I convinced myself to keep going. I just tried to keep riding steady and try not to worry too much about getting caught from behind. I was assuming I was in 4th at this point which was confirmed (if I wanted to truly believe the person telling me at the start/finish area).

I finish Lap 2 and stop to refill my camelback one more time. I figured I wouldn't want any food so I gulped some water and hit the trail for the final lap. It was nice to know it was just one more time, even though it was a long one more time in comparison to doing short 2 hour races where a lap is done in an half-hour or less. I actually felt pretty good starting out on the lap. Fairly early on in the lap I saw Vikki up ahead and eventually caught up her. This of course was motivation. I chatted with her briefly asking how her ribs were feeling after hurting them at the stage race (she came in 3rd still there with broken or badly bruised ribs!). I passed her on the next climb. She had told me Cheryl (2nd place) was about 5 minutes up. I thought, ugh, 5 minutes is pretty significant and Cheryl is such a strong rider.

I just kept riding strong and was happy to feel like my legs felt better this lap then the last lap. I had tried to calculate out whether I thought I would be able to do a sub-8hr 100 here, but I was guessing given my lap times and having taken about 8 minutes longer on the 2nd lap, and my last like would likely be at least the same or longer that a sub-8hr was not probable.

I was passing some guys on the final lap and one of them told me Cheryl was about 2 minutes up. I was inspired in that if that were true, I had been gaining time on her. And not too much longer after that I saw her up ahead. I finally caught up to her and just stealthily stayed behind her and a guy she was right behind. I hadn't quite decided how to play it out. We were about to hit the aid station which was half-way through the lap. I was starting to figure I would just see how we both felt on the next climb to see what she had in her legs still and to see what I had left. To my surprise, she stopped at the aid station for water and I didn't need to stop since I had plenty left in my camelback so I rode right on through wondering if she realized I was right behind her and/or saw me pass her.

I was hoping she didn't see me and then she would be less likely to dig deep to catch me again. I figured it was highly unlikely she didn't see me or that someone wouldn't have told her I passed. I kept trying to look back to see if she was coming up while reminding myself that she is a very strong rider and if she catches me, well she catches me. But I didn't see her and I just kept riding hard. (She told me after the race that she figured it was coming up on her that far into the race and at that point she had bonked.)

Eventually, I was in home stretch where I knew Cheryl wasn't going to catch back up to me. I started to calculate out my time and realized that hey, I have 6 minutes to get in for a sub-8 hour race. I have 5.. I have 4... and finally I knew I would make it in on time and finished in 7'57". Woo hoo!!! My first 100 under 8 hours and a 2nd place in a really strong women's field. I was stoked. My lap times were 2'36; 2'43" and 2'37" --very nice to see a big drop on the last lap :)

I couldn't wait to get my shoes off and get off my saddle. My shorts are getting a bit old and the seam for the chamois was digging in to my butt quite nicely, or not nicely, for the last few hours. It was rather uncomfortable to sit after that. I got cleaned up, which was a chore. My camelback mouthpiece has starting leaking a bit so I had carborocket sticky water on my legs that had attracted quite a lot of dirt/dust. It got warmer out than had been predicted too so it was a challenge to change when I was still sweaty.

I ate post-race food and chatted with some friends/racers waiting for Chris and Matt to finish up. They both had strong races, although not quite as good as they had hoped but they didn't get too hung up on that. We headed back to the cabin to clean up and then headed in to town for some food and a beer and ice cream!

We got back to the cabin and packed up the mini-van that evening as we were heading out at 5am since Chris and Matt both wanted to be back home to work on Monday. I was like ugh.. I usually do this drive over two days but oh well. I had figured I would just crash in Poughkeepsie Sunday night and finish driving home Monday morning. It wasn't too bad heading out at 5am, granted they both did all the driving. I had offered to drive but they were quite kind. So, I spent some time in the back trying to nap, and then riding up front to avoid getting carsick and so on for oh, 14 hrs. We made back to Poughkeepsie a little after 7pm. I wasn't completely cooked so decided to drive the 3 hrs home so I could sleep in my own bed and hopefully sleep in really really late.

I was pretty wooped driving home. My left eye kept twitching on me. I did make it home safe and sound, well except for one close call with a deer. It took me a while to fall asleep, probably too much caffeine. I did sleep in some, but not as much as I had hoped so I need to catch up. This week is looking kind of busy too though.

It's a nice long break till the next 100 - end of July. I will probably do some local short races before then - hoping to race Putney, VT Root66raceseries this Sunday.

Thanks for reading this far :)

2011 Transylvania Epic - Stage Race

Well, the 2011 Transylvania Epic Stage Race (TSE) turned out to be a roller coaster ride for me. I went into the race with the mindset of getting on the podium for any one of the stages would be a really good day given how stacked with talented riders the women's field was this year. Many of my friends were trying to convince me that, I too am a 'talented' rider, but I know my competitive side would have eaten me up if I went in with the attitude of having to be in the top three all week. It would have taken away from the fun factor putting that kind of pressure on myself. I knew it was better to race as hard as I could each day and whatever happened as far as results was what would happen.

I arrived at the Boyscout Camp (race headquarters for the week) on Saturday afternoon. I registered and headed up to the lodge I would be staying at all week. At least this year, I knew what I was getting myself into as far as living in a bunk bed all week, sharing a bathroom that would get filthy, and a kitchen that was also less than cleanly, so it didn't phase me as much this year. I unpacked my car and settled in as best one can settle into this style of living for a week. I then got ready to go pre-ride Sunday's Time Trial, Stage 1.

It was a pretty hot on Saturday, with the forecast only getting hotter through Tuesday. I was ok with that as I tend to do really well in high heat and humidity. It sometimes starts to throw off my stomach some, but generally, I'm ok. I started out on the TT course which was marked already. It wound through the Boyscout camp, which had some very wet stream crossing and other muddy sections, and then out onto the road but opposite the direction we went last year. I thought I had messed up following the arrows. I saw a rider coming up behind me and it happened to be Ray Adams, one of the race directors, and he told me the course had changed from last year and this was the right way. We rode together for a while chatting away. It was a few miles of road before heading into some very twisty singletrack, unusual for PA riding. Ray had to stop to help out with some course markings so I finished the pre-ride on my own. It was shortly thereafter that the long singletrack, loose dirt/rock climb started. I was like, ouch...this kind of hurts and granny geared it to the top where it joined the course we rode last year for the TT. The rest of the course was the same from the previous year which was pretty fun, although it follows along a stream heading back into the boyscout camp and that was super wet, muddy and slippery. Oh, and it felt like a long distance for a time trial.

I got cleaned up, ate some dinner, hung with fellow racers for a bit and then went to bed pretty early. It was surprisingly quiet in the lodge but the smell was pretty nasty. I believe this was the first time the lodge had been opened up all winter and it was damp, musty and stank of vinyl-finish on the walls or something. Icky. I slept pretty well but had started to get some pre-race nerves going. It helped knowing I had all morning to chill as the TT didn't start until 3:00, with my start time being 4:13.

I went into State College for breakfast and hung out reading for a while before heading back to camp to get ready to race. I was the first women to start. It didn't matter all that much as we had a minute between us and the course was long enough that no one knew what the times were before starting. I just didn't want to get passed. I warmed up as my coach had instructed with some semi-aggressive intervals to really get the legs opened up for the short hard effort of a time trial. I arrived right on time at the start line for a 30 second count down and I was off. I felt pretty good but I just tried to keep reminding myself to ride hard and not worry about how I placed. I got immediately muddy through the first couple of stream crossings and wet/muddy patches. Then it was out on the road section which was hot in the sun. I rode steady but fairly hard. I made it through the twisty singletrack and began the long climb up and started to get a cramp in my right shoulder/neck area. I tried to relax it out and take it back a notch since I was going pretty hard, especially with six more days to come. I settled into a rhythm and finally reached the top of the climb. I rode pretty aggressively still and kept thinking in the back of my head that this was a really hard effort that I hope it at least gets me in the top 5. I finished out the wet nasty stream bed section having to pass a couple riders fumbling through the slick roots and rocks. I continued riding hard around the pond at the base camp and across the finish line. I was not sure of my time as I didn't start my bike computer on time.

I pedaled around lightly to help flush the legs out and then got cleaned up and started 'recovery' for tomorrow's hard stage. I eventually went back down to the timing tent to try to get some results for my race sponsor, MTBRacenews.com and when I saw Zac, the timer, he was like 'nice job'. I was like thanks...'so do you have results?" and he told me I won. I was like, "no way! you're pulling my string." But he was serious. I was truly shocked but obviously extremely happy. I couldn't believe I won a stage which also gave me the leaders jersey, as least for a day :) It certainly made me feel better about how hard I went. I had a 40 second lead over 2nd, who was the winner of the whole race last year and just over a minute on this year's to be winner. I was stoked, but also knew what a long week it was ahead. It definitely helped the confidence.

Monday's stage 2 started at 9:30 from the base camp. Last year it was a remote start but they were trying to simplify the schedule a bit more this year which was nice. This meant a bit more dirt road however, which I wasn't thrilled about. I for some reason didn't quite pay attention that well to where exactly the stage was heading out to until we were out on it. It was a neutral roll out of camp but after the first turn it was balls to the walls on wet downhill rough dirt road. I thankfully felt pretty good and was able to reel in the women up ahead and we mostly rode in a pack of 5-6 of for a while. I was happy to have the legs to hang there and not feel like I was pushing it too hard yet. It was still early in the day though. There was a lot of technical rocky trails in today's stage which was good for my skillset.

It eventually ended up a group of three of us, myself, Vikki and Amanda. We rode through the majority of the stage together switching up leads etc. I finally broke free from them through some switchback technical trails when Amanda messed up on some rocks. I needed the gap as we were going to be coming into an aid station within 4 miles and I had to stop to re-fill my camelback whereas they were both going to be handed bottles and not really have to stop. I also was happy to get out front on the technical trails finally as I can ride them much smoother at my own pace and finding my own lines versus following someone who doesn't always pick the best lines or just throws you off your rhythm. I made it in and out of the Aid Station without being caught. But shortly thereafter one my ties holding my number plate broke so my number was bouncing down into my front tire. I was like crap. I tried to get the bottom tie loose and wrapped up around my cables while still riding and it worked for a bit but dropped down again. So I finally had to stop and take the bottom tie off and use it to replace the top one that had broke. A little bit of wasted time :(

On the final ~8+ miles of road to the finish, Amanda caught back up to me and said that Selene had caught up at the Aid Station. I was a bit bummed out about losing the lead but I was at my limit at that point. Both Amanda and Selene are super strong riders and I was pretty pleased with myself with how strong I had been riding all day. My legs were starting to feel a bit twingy/crampy so I took a bunch of electrolyte tabs and just tried to keep it steady. Amanda was getting a gap and I could see Selene up ahead but just couldn't get back up to her. I could also see Vicki back too and focused on keeping up my pace up the final climb to not lose 3rd place, which I managed to do.

Two days in a row on the podium. I was stoked. Twice more than I had anticipated. It was definitely a boost to the confidence for sure. I felt ok after the stage. I felt like my carborocket had kept me fueled pretty well and hadn't upset my stomach. My new Zaboo bike was handling awesome. I definitely had gone pretty hard again but I was able to eat well after the stage and ate a good dinner that digested well despite it being another really hot day out there. Last year, my stomach was bit a undone by the heat and race nerves by this point. So I was hoping for some good rest and recovery that night and see how stage 3 would go. I lost quite a bit of time on Stage 3 last year. I don't think Stage 3 gets the credit or respect that it deserves as far as how hard it is despite being mostly dirt road. The climbs on it are pretty long and steep. It makes it feel like we hardly climbed the day before.

Anyway, I slept ok that night only to wake up maybe around 5am with my stomach feeling a bit nauseous but I was hoping it would go away. It didn't. I knew it was bad news, but was trying to avoid accepting that. I kept thinking was it something I ate, or did I eat too much? I had felt fine last night and no indications of digestion issues. But the couple across the from me had gotten sick over night throwing up and then the women bunking beside me woke up feeling really nauseous and none of us ate the same thing the night before. Ugh! I tried to eat a piece of toast but my body wanted nothing of it. I got a piece down but it was not good. The guy who had gotten sick that night said he got an anti-nausea pill from the on-site doctor and said it helped him out some. I was so bummed out. I hopped on my bike and just pedaled down the driveway and broke into tears as I had that gut feeling that it wasn't going away. I found the doctor and took anti-nausea pill and some tums and figured I would hope for the best and start the stage.

I toed the line not feeling good about it at all. We started out from the camp again in a neutral start for maybe a mile. I had nothing from the get go. I was so depressed. I had no energy and the nausea wasn't going away. I was starting to feel achy too. We had a rough downhill that I would have normally eaten up with smiles but it just hurt my body. I figured I'd try to get to the first Aid Station at mile 17 and pray that this feeling would miraculously turnaround. But I was starting to think through that I was going to be so far back today that it didn't matter if I finished or not as far as staying in the top of the GC. I knew it would be stupid to push it not feeling good, especially in the heat and miss the rest of the week.

Some women had gone off course early and came up behind me and tried to convince me to hop on their train. I got semi-inspired to keep going but I just felt horrible and eventually let them go. I broke down at this point as I knew it was over. I just rode chill down the road into Coburn (where the Wilderness 101 starts) and tried to enjoy the views. I had thought the aid station was right there in town but it was farther out which was nice as I got to enjoy the mostly flat road along the river and just took it easy to the aid station. The doctor was riding around course with Mike Kuhn (the other race director) and they came by me to see how I was doing and I told them I felt worse and was pulling out at the Aid Station.

I made to the aid station and tried to keep it together. I knew I was making the right decision but it sucked, especially after starting the race so amazingly well. I had to wait a while to get a ride back to camp. I had moments where I felt ok and then a wave of ickiness would hit me again. I was starting to get chills and it was probably approaching 90 by that point.

The drive back to camp felt long and I was freezing in the AC. I felt like absolute crap. I had at least avoided throwing up though. I got back to camp and showered. I had some bike clothes soaking in soapy water that I knew I needed to rinse out and hang up or else they would rot so I managed to do that before resting. Racers had already finished up by this point and I was hoping someone was going back down to the main lodge to get a note to have the doctor call or text me when he was back on site but no one was heading down there. I walked down there and thankfully the doctor was already back so I went with him to get an IV bag of saline hoping that would help me get back on track quicker and maybe riding again tomorrow. I'm not crazy about needles and almost got woozy at first but chatted with the doctor to take my mind off it.

I walked back up to my lodge and tried to sleep. The fever part of this bug was really starting to kick in. I felt horrible - achy, cold, hot.... It's no fun being sick period, but really no fun being sick with no one there for you in a stinky lodge in a bunkbed. I had a fan that I had to keep turning on me and then away. I tried to eat that night knowing if I wanted to race again I had to get some calories in me but I only got a couple pieces of toast down and half a can of soup. My stomach was still really off though so it was debatable whether it was worth the discomfort. By then, I knew my hopes of riding Wednesday were out, which was a total bummer as it was the Raystown stage. Raystown is a sweet sweet trail system that rides like a giant pump track. It's really fast roller coaster like terrain. Last year, I was totally cooked on this day so I didn't really get to enjoy and well this year, wasn't happening either. I think I will just try to go spend a weekend there riding the trails and swimming in the lake and not involve a race.

Some of the other racers in the lodge knew I raced the 100 miler series and there was the Mohican 100 race in Ohio this Saturday. They threw out there the idea of bagging the stage race and heading over there. I was like, hmmm? I figured out much farther it was, 5 1/2 hrs and the weather forecast was dry and 90. I could handle that. I wasn't too keen on the drive over and then it meant 11-12 hour drive home on Sunday. I had some buddies doing the race who I could stay with, so?? I emailed my coach and ran it by him. I was up in air about myself as I wasn't too psyched to drive that far. Anyway, coach said I 'could' do it, but only if I felt significantly better on Thursday.

So Wednesday I probably should have just rested in bed all day again, but I was not too keen on staying in the lodge all day. I drove over to Raystown lake and hung out at the dam and the overlook. It was a pretty hot, humid day, but I was enjoying sitting in the nice breeze. I could have taken a nap but just day dreamed. Later on, I caught up on some emails at a coffee shop in a town near there. I had thought I would eat lunch there but I was feeling a bit nausea again when I got there. By the time I headed out I ordered a sandwich to go which I managed to get down but it was slow going. I went back to camp and debated on my plan for Thursday. I was at that point not feeling overly optimistic about a big turnaround for Thursday, or more importantly to ride hard Friday and Saturday. Both stages were pretty technical and suited my skills for a good day but only if I had enough energy to ride the rocks which at that point, I was most definitely not feeling up to the challenge.

Thursday I woke up feeling a little bit better but digestion was still slow and not quite right. I was feeling kind of tired, so I knew going to Mohican 100 was out. I figured I would go ride today's stage mellow and see how the legs were doing. I was on the fence about doing that or just doing my own ride near camp and then heading into town to read at a coffee shop. In retrospect, I should have done the 2nd option. Fellow racers were happy to see me back out there riding again. I however felt overly tired still and felt pretty labored in my breathing way too quickly. It was really depressing as it made me wonder about even being able to even race the final two stages. Friday's stage had lots of great singletrack and an awesome ridge line trail. After riding a couple of the mini-stages and hanging out at the aid station, I thought about heading back to the car at that point but started to ride out to the 3rd mini-stage. I calculated out how much longer we would likely be out there riding and decided to turn back with another racer. We rode back on the dirt road together and did the last mini-stage. It ended up being a long day which was probably not in my best interests as far as recovery. It totally bummed me out and I was thinking of just packing up and heading home Friday instead of sticking around. It didn't seem worth it to try race a tough stage through rough rock gardens and risk getting hurt because I didn't have the energy to ride it well, or risk recovering properly from being sick.

I was chatting with some of my fellow racer about what to do. I was pretty sad and bummed out Thursday night. I talked to my sister for a bit who was trying to encourage me to just take it easy and maybe go see a comedy movie and finish up Saturday. It had started out as such a great week and went down hill so fast. I had kind of held myself up with the hope of coming back to race hard Friday and Saturday, and well, that just didn't look like it was going to happen. Amanda has suggested starting the stage, which had a 3-mile group ride out to the start and then if I felt like crap still I could bag it at the Aid Station at mile 20 and get a ride back with her husband. So, I figured what the heck. I convinced myself that this would be it. I would ride out there and see how I felt and if I felt good enough, that I'd I would give it what I had and then call it quits and head home on Saturday, skipping the last stage.

So I started out the stage and felt better than the day before. It was hard to tell what I had in the tank on the ride over to the start but that at least felt like a lot less work then the chill riding between the mini-stages yesterday. And then we were off racing and I had something to work with. I held onto the front women through the first dirt road section. I could go relatively hard but definitely wasn't 100% but nobody else was 100% by then either. I managed to sit in third for the day. The first technical singletrack section we got on, I felt kind of spacey on but I finally came around. Every now and then, I had that feeling I might just totally bonk at any moment, but I stayed really good about fueling, taking in my carborocket and trying to eat a little since I knew my glycogen stores were probably still pretty low. It seemed to work and I had a pretty good time riding the trails.

I made it to the aid station which we hit at mile 20 and 26. Coming back through the 2nd time I refilled my camelback and reminded myself I could do this. It was only 12 more miles, long miles, from here. The ridge line trial is amazing. You totally want to look around and take in the views but you do so very cautiously scanning up ahead for any rocks that were going to take you out if you stopped paying attention for too long. I definitely love singletrack. It inspires me.

I was pretty stoked to pull of a 3rd place after being so sick. It felt great to back in there in the mix. I briefly debated racing the final day, but once I got back to camp and was starting to come down from the race, I could tell it took a lot out of me and that I was still trying to recover from being sick. It wasn't worth pushing it at this point with the next 100 miler race two weeks out. That, and well, I was totally sick of staying in the lodge at this point too. I also was looking at a couple of really busy weeks before heading out to the next 100 miler and well, a full day at home and sleeping in really late sounded nice. I almost changed my mind when I found out that the women had decided to ride for fun again like we had done last year for the final stage. I was tempted since it wouldn't be too bad of a workout, but I kept with my plan. So I enjoyed the last night hanging with folks. I got up and watched them start the final stage and took a bunch of pictures. Then, I packed up and headed home.

I picked up my pooch from my mom and unpacked some, watched the Bruins but called it a night when they went into overtime. I slept in very very late :)

2011 Cohutta 100

This past Saturday, April 30th, was the first 100 miler of the season down in Ducktown, Tennessee (southeast TN) and is staged out of the Ocoee Whitewater Center. Roughly 30 miles west of the Whitewater Center, tornadoes had gone through one of the towns we passed through. The damage we saw driving through the area was truly eye opening to the force and power of tornadoes... Maybe New England winters aren't so bad. The race course itself had few signs of rough weather, and was mostly in pristine shape.

I started the long trek to Tennessee on Wednesday evening by heading down to Doug's in Maryland. I was originally planning on departing Thursday morning but my work schedule was such that allowed me an earlier departure. I prefer to drive late if it's going to give me a full day of 'down time'. I got there at 1am Wed (well Thurs technicall). I was glad I made the drive then as I would have hit some of the severe storms seemingly hugging Rt. 81 Thursday morning, and thus would have made for a sketchy, stressful drive. It was rather gusty though Wednesday evening but there was no rain until after I made it to Doug's.

The week going into this race I was actually feeling pretty relaxed and not running around like a maniac trying to get ready, work etc. All I had to do Thursday was put some new disc brake pads on and just take a spin to make sure everything seemed fine (mostly, a last minute check on the new saddle I had only been riding on for the past two weeks and my new shoes that have been giving my left heel some issues). So, I swap out said disc brake pads which takes much longer than I anticipate and the piston won't push back in properly on the front brake thus rubbing annoyingly. I fussed with it for a bit but it was just frustrating me. Then, for some reason, the front derailler was not quite working properly and well, I just didn't want to deal with it anymore (which might have ended in my throwing my bike and having more problems to fix) so I decided to bring it to the bike shop for a quick tuneup since the mechanics could fix this is 5 minutes. Doug's bike was getting last minute work done as well so we were going to the shop anyways. And, thankfully, it was all fixed easily. I bought myself some new gloves while I was there, which was a tad risky to go with 'untested gloves for a 100 mile race, but I realized all my short finger gloves were in pretty sad shape. New gloves wouldn't be worse than goign with what I had. Plus, it had this extra side thumb pad thing that struck as a nice feature and proved to be durign the race. Anyway, mostly uneventful day otherwise.

It was to bed early and up at 5am to hit the road to Tennessee Friday morning. I have to admit, the driving is getting old. 5am was not met kindly. I dragged my butt into the car, which we had packed the night before, and even nodded off again for the first couple of hours. And then it was just a long long long long drive down 81. I had gotten a book on CD which proved to help pass the time. I am not a fan of channel surfing through country songs, classic rock and christian music.

We passed through one of the towns in Southern Virginia that was hit by the tornado. It was impressive the damage that was done. There were still 18 wheeler truck bodies strewn about the median. A whole travel center/building for turcks was wiped out and trees were completely blown down or half chopped off. It was stunning damage. The exit was closed there. We passed through another area just west of the race by about 30 miles. There were downed powerlines and damaged buildings, etc. I was almost afraid the hotel we were staying at might have suffered some damage but the tornado didn't travel quite that far.

We checked into the hotel, changed into riding clothes and drove the ~25 minutes to the Ocoee Whitewater center to register, get our race packets and ride the beginning section of the course. It was pretty warm out, well the warmest weather I have ridden in all season thus far. Not an entirely surprising fact. To my dismay, my disc brake pad was rubbing again which was very annoying since it had just seemed fine post bike shop tuneup. That, and I had to stop a couple times on the ride to tweak my saddle position. I finally got it right which made a world of difference in comfort. After the ride, I thankfully was able to adjust my brake pad/pistons.

We headed back to the hotel to cleanup and go grab some dinner since it was getting late. We ate at the same small italian place we ate at last year. I remember I was being 'smart' last year and going simple chicken and rice dish but I recalled it being bland. So, I decided on something a bit more flavorful. When it arrive at my table, I saw I had what I had ordered was super sloppy, juicy, cheesy... It tasted ok, but I didn't want to eat an overly heavy the night before a race. I ate my bland potatoe and picked at the entree best I could.

It was a chill evening watching some TV before hitting the sack. Funny, Doug set his phone's alarm which also has his calendar events in it and it went off around midnight to 'alert' of an event the next day. He jumps out of bed and said and said, "Ok, race time!" I'm cracking up (since I hadn't fallen asleep yet and knew it wasn't possibly 5 in the morning yet). Back to bed for a little bit. I slept ok for a pre-race night. I hadn't really gotten too nervous about this race all week but it was starting to make me a bit anxious and thus hard to fall asleep, which seems to be standard for me.

And 5am did come early. I ate some oatmeal, drank some espresso and was off to the race with the dread thought of why? It's going to hurt...but I have to keep pedaling anyways. It was chilly that morning. I knew it was going to warm up but it was hard to not want to put on all my standard winter riding wear. I did start with arm warmers but the short fingered gloves left my hands quite unhappy for the first hour of the race.

The race starts up a moderate 3 mile road climb which helps spread out the pack before hitting the tight single track. Positioning onto this first single track is very important so I tried to go pretty hard. But then again, there's still 97 miles to go. I went into the singletrack in 5th place. Got into 4th half-way through but passing on a tight corner. Towards the end of the opening section it widens out some and by this point I had made it into 3rd place, but mostly because Viccki had to pull off to check her bike. Mechanical? I wasn't sure. Anyway, Amanda (the 100 miler series winner last year) and Cheryl (previous 100 miler winner, and fresh off a grueling long stage race) were up front and I wasn't overly confident I could catch them. I was a bit more worried about who was behind me at that point.

I managed to hold that lead throughout the race. I felt pretty good overall, especially for not having a lot of long sustained climbs under my belt for training this winter/spring. The legs felt, for the most part, 'there'. Although, the feeling lessened as the climbs kept coming, especially since it's all mostly over the long 60+ mile stretch of dirt/gravel roads that bores the crap out of me. So when my back starts hurting, and my feet are starting to make some noise and my legs are starting to feel heavy... there's not much to distract me. Although, there were some very nice views here and there. It is a held in a beautiful mountain range SE Tenn/NW Georgia. There seemed to be a lot of newly laid gravel on the roads which made some of the fast descents rather hairy, sliding around some corners. I don't know if there is any tire that handles that well.
The race does seem to go on and on these dirt roads that every corner looks the same after a while. I was mostly on my own, with the typical group of male racers that would pass you, fade, you'd pass them, and fade...etc. Although none of us seemed overly chatty with each other - too much suffering? Maybe too much wondering why are we suffering so much? My sister's frequent question of "wouldn't it be easier to sit on the couch eating bonbons?" seems more and more appealing.

I of course forged on, occasionally cursing the course at the top of a punchy climb that my legs no longer wanted any part of. The gravel made it difficult to stand and climb much to use the muscles differently and stretch the back out. I finally made it to the last stretch of single track. I was trying to remind myself that there was a lot more climbing in this section than you anticipate at this point. You are still rather high up on the mountain and the end of the race is just down the side of the mountain, but of course, it's not that simple. While I was happy to have the distraction of single track at this point, it just seems to be endless. And having the climbs in there that seem cruel at this point despite not being really all that long in comparison to other of the 100 miler courses. You can almost smell the end of the race-- it's just down there....if we could get there. And eventually you do and finish up with 1.5 miles on the road. I felt pretty strong finishing up and gave it all I had at that point, just in case one of my competitors had been sneaking up behind me. It would absolutely be disheartening to lose 3rd place in the last mile. So I crossed the finish line in 3rd in 8:18. I'll take that. Amanda superstar was 7:33 and Cheryl was 8:03.

I hobbled off my bike. My lower back was quite tight. I went down to the river and joined some other racers soaking their legs in the cold water. It felt good. I cleaned up a bit and went back to hang out with some friends/fellow racers and get the scoop on how their days went. I even almost won a raffle prize for 'person who drove the farthest to this race' - it was for a thompson seatpost which would be excellent timing as I need one to build up my new frame from our team sponsor, Zaboo Bikes. But some dude said he drove from California.. yeah right.. oh well.

While, I can't say this race is a favorite of mine - it's a long drive for a lot of dirt road riding - which is not my strong point - it is beautiful down there. We drove home heading east from the whitewater center and into Asheville,NC for lunch. Really gorgeous! And the weather was spectacular Friday through Sunday. Just long long drive home. Stayed in Maryland Sunday night and back home Monday.

Next up is Transylvania Stage Race at the end of this month... going to be some real tough competition. Being on the podium there for any of the stages will be quite a feat.

Bakers Dozen 2011

First, well technically 2nd race, and kind of ironically, on the same course, of the season is under the belt. The Bakers Dozen, held just outside Leesburg, Virginia, is a 13 hour race starting at 9AM and finishing up at 10PM wherein you try to do as many of the 9.2 mile lap as possible. Doug and I rode in the two-person coed category which proved pretty competitive. We came in 4th after holding 3rd place until the last lap.

I had come into the race more in the frame of mind of getting some good training in which was good as I stayed pretty 'chill' leading into the race, but apparently not enough 'chill' enough so as to keep me from feeling under the weather. It was tough packing for the trip since doing a lap race, one has the opportunity to change in between laps and be picky about what you want to eat. The weather forecast was not spectacular, upper 40s/low 50s for a high with a chance of rain. So, I packed just about every piece of bike clothing I own. It was ridiculous but I figured I'd be happy to have it "just in case" versus being there on race day thinking, gee, why didn't I bring that?...

I drove down to Doug's in Maryland Thursday afternoon with Bruschi in tote. It was pretty uneventful drive down. It did finally dawn on me that I hadn't packed everything. The race would require a couple laps after dark, and while I did remember my light, I forgot my helmet in my basement that has my helmet strap on it. Too late now. At least we had all day Friday to deal with that.

Friday was a pretty mellow day. I slept in hoping to kick the 'not feeling so good' feeling. We stopped by a bike shop on our way to the race site to see about getting a helmet strap. The bike shop didn't have one but they gave us some good ideas of how to rig mine up. We continued on to the race site, which was only about 45 minutes away, to set up an Easy Up tent and regular tent for hanging out in during the race day. Getting a good spot along the course in the transition area was important and we weren't sure how crazy it would be to find a good spot - not really that 'crazy' but good that we planned ahead. We were hoping to do a pre-ride lap which would have been nice to loosen up the legs after my long drive on Thursday, but it started raining pretty good and other racers who had shown up earlier were coming back from riding a lap pretty muddy, so we bagged that idea. It's not as if we wouldn't have plenty of time to ride the course the next day.

Doug was able to attach my light onto his helmet strap with some zip ties that evening. It worked out pretty well so that was the end of worrying about that. He had a handlebar mount that he would use for his light. We ate some dinner and got to bed early. I actually slept pretty well and woke up feeling ok, but still not quite 100%. I was still pretty relaxed, especially since Doug was doing the first lap so I figured I wouldn't be riding until almost 10AM. Doug wanted to get to the race site early as he thought it was going to be a mob scene with racers setting up camp etc. But we got there plenty early and were all set to go in no time. It was a pretty cold, damp, overcast day. I was starting to wish I had packed my very warm winter down jacket, but I had convinced myself that that was overkill, maybe not.

The race went off at 9AM in a mass start with not a lot of space to spread out before hitting the sinlgetrack. I was happy it wasn't me having to deal with the mayhem of a large group all vying for the front. I went back to the tent and checked on the dogs and made sure I had everything ready to go for my first lap. Doug came through in about 56 minutes which was pretty decent lap time having had to deal with bottlenecks the first lap at the few tough obstacles on the course, that are all rideable so long as no one is in your way. We swapped the timing chip and off I went up the field to start out my first lap. It hurt a lot at first. I realized I was kind of an idiot for not warming up at all, especially after not riding too much for a few days. The legs and lungs weren't crazy about going hard right off the bat. The course was slick and slippery after the rain from Friday. It thankfully wasn't too muddy and dried out some as the day wore on, but it became more of a tacky, sticky, suck your energy kind of feel. It would be a very, very fast course if it were dry. It was pretty rolling terrain, in and out of woods and through fields, with no major climbs. I was happy to have the 2nd lap as the racers were all pretty spread out by then. It was tough to pass sometimes on the singletrack, and I would look up ahead and see I was gaining on a group, I was like, hmm.. this will be fun to get by. But, it usually wasn't too bad, mostly racers would let you pass.

Once I got into my lap, I was feeling ok. I didn't have "race" legs that felt fresh and snappy but they weren't awful either. I finished up my lap in about 50 minutes and was happy to have a break. We had talked about riding a single lap for the first couple of turns and then going to doubles. I wasn't so sure after that lap if that's what I would be up for, but then after waiting around for 10 minutes and starting to freeze as I cooled down, I figured it would ultimately be better to go to double laps to stay 'warm' while you're riding and then having a longer time to eat and be in dry clothes while you waited. I get chilled fast though so it was rough waiting around. I cleaned up the bike some. There was a bike wash but Doug said the line was long and my bike wasn't that bad I figured I'd pass on wasting my 'down time' standing in line.

From that point on, we both did another single lap and then went to double laps. I felt fine on the 2nd single lap, and the first of my double laps. By the end of my double laps I wasn't sure I wanted to do another double lap but left it up to Doug which way he wanted to go on that and he went for double's again. My 2nd double lap would put me on the course when it was getting dark so that meant I had to carry my light with me for those two laps despite not needing it to well into the 2nd of my double lap as it would take too long to get it all set up in between laps. It's an older style light (the technology of newer lights is amazing, lightweight, super bright, etc.) so the light would keep kind of pushing my helmet down my forehead some. Oh well. I was definitely starting to feel the hurt on the 2nd lap of my double (6th lap) and starting to go down the path of "why do I do this?" and "how much longer do I want to make myself suffer like this?"... not good. I didn't wander too much down this path of thinking. I tried to assure myself that I'll feel better when it's a nice, warm sunny day out and I'm not trying to fight off being sick. I finished up telling myself just one more lap, one more lap.

Doug went out for what was supposed to be his last lap. Neither of use had checked the stats on where stood placing wise in the race all that much. We just knew we were in 3rd and thought our lead was ok enough. He rode a pretty strong night lap and when he came through, I was all set to go out and jokingly said "don't make me do it" and he just kept on pedaling through then. I shouted "I'm kidding!" but it was too late unless I hopped on my bike to chase him down and get the timing chip off his ankle from him. I was thinking he's going to regret that when he gets up to the top of the field. That, and he told me his battery for his light was only good for maybe 2hrs and at that point his lap time was just over an hour, and doing a double?...He's going to run out of battery. Oh, well. I just changed out of my riding clothes and starting packing up. I figured he'd be doing the packing up while I finished up racing.

He came in about 10:15 with his hiking light. His bike light died about a mile from the finish. The hiking light is definitely not a lot of light to ride by so we lost a bit of time there and ended up in 4th instead. I wasn't terribly distressed about this. Doug seemed more bummed out about. All in all, it was some good hard training in my book. We finished packing up and ate some post-race pizza and hit the road home with some tired pups in the car too boot.

A hot shower was welcome. Sleep took a bit as my stomach was not all that happy that night. It was tough eating race foods all day and my systems were just out of whack. Seems like I get sick before the first race of the season, thankfully it wasn't a 100 miler this year as the first race. I woke up Sunday with a pretty bad head cold and must have gone through a box of kleenix throughout the day. I didn't feel too bad race legs wise, just pretty bad in my head. There's been lots of stuff going around. Anyway, the drive home was equally uneventful as the drive down, well aside from a lot of knee steering to be able to blow my nose. Bruschi was pooped out and slept like a baby the whole way. And I slept like a baby Sunday night. Feeling a bit better today, but got some resting up to do before hitting the next race, this Sunday, just a short one. Hopefully the weather is better. I don't think I have too many more cold, wet races or rides in me. Am I getting too old ? :)

Oh, pretty cool - Brian is 12 years old and rode his unicycle for a lap!!!! holy cow! He's amazing.

Come on Spring!!

It's been a long time since I have posted to my blog. I have been meaning to update it for a while but this winter here in Massachusetts is beating me down (as it is most folks here) and leaving me with minimal motivation for anything, much less being overly inspired about the upcoming season. But alas, spring will come and maybe our trails will be clear by June.... ugh

I took a long break after the Shenandoah 100 last year. I did do a 12 hour race in Maine with Doug which was a lot of fun, but after that it was a long stretch of riding just when I felt like it with no agenda or purpose. It was great. I had a lot of fun. When I was making riding plans with my buddies they were like, really, no grueling 6 hr training ride?? You won't get after us for yip yapping... Nope! I have to admit, I didn't miss not racing cross. I surprised at how long my fitness stayed with me since the weather was pretty cooperative here through Christmas pretty much. The trails were really dry and in great shape so I was still getting in some decently long rides on the weekends.

It was all fun until Thanksgiving weekend I did a really randomly stupid thing -- I tore an extensor tendon on my middle finger at the last joint on my left hand -- ie, I had no ability to straighten my finger at the last joint. When I realized it was a tendon, I was horrified. I work as a massage therapist - how was I going to be able to work? Tendons take forever to heal. I googled it right away and it's called 'mallet' or baseball' finger. Six to eight weeks in a finger splint!!! So, I saw an ortho first thing Monday morning to get said finger splint for said injury and to get an x-ray to make sure no bone got pulled off with the tendon, which is not a good prognosis. Thankfully, the x-ray was clean. The doc said it would heal in time (time being the key word), but to do my best to not bend it all in the 6-8 wks. It was such a pain in the butt working around that. After a couple days of splinting it, I realized I was going to have to wrap a thin layer of gauze around it as the splint was plastic and keeping too much moisture against my skin which could get nasty if I didn't take preventative measures. I had to learn to type without my middle finger (I'm just starting to get used to using it again to type with and it keeps messing me up.), drive, grabbing anything was awkward, it's my brake finger for biking... and of course massaging was interesting. I certainly used my right hand a lot more. When I had a follow-up checkup on at just over 6 wks, the way the doctor said it was healing up made me realize there was a chance that just splinting it might not work and that I might have had to have surgery. Needless to say, I was quite pleased I didn't have to have surgery, but I could tell it still have several weeks of healing to do. It was probably almost 9 weeks before I started massaging without the splint on and being a bit bolder with using it. It felt really weird. It's mostly healed now, but I still have to regain full flexion. It's still swollen across the joint and weak.

So riding in December I was a bit more backed off to say the least and only riding on the weekend caught up with me. It was back to specific training in December, although a slow buildup to get back into the swing of things. It was a tough transition to getting back on the bike 5-6 days a week, and that including trainer workouts. It took a few weeks, but I was feeling back into the groove somewhat. Then, mid-December or so, my friend (who I won't name here, you know who you are ... :) ) was helping me swap out some tubeless tires and well, he was filling one up with an air compressor and I was putting on the 2nd one right next to him. The tire seemed to pop/bead a lot right away so I was surprised he kept putting air in with the compressor and just as I was thinking "I should move back"... BOOM!!! The tire explodes off the rim. We were both in shell shock. It was so unbelievable loud. He was holding his hands funny and I was like, uh oh, he's screwed them up bad and we're going to have to go to the hospital. But thankfully he didn't - I think they're a bit screwed up tendony wise. Anyway, holy cow. Our ears were ringing and I got a feeling of being car sick sort of. Very odd. We much more cautiously put the tires on and put the one on that had blown and it rubbed funny on the brake, and that's when we realized the tire blowing off it had warped the rim to the point of being ruined. :( So I had to get a new wheel (which turned into a new wheelset, a nicer wheelset, but still ouch to the pocketbook.) So, now I had a messed up finger and a messed up ear. I couldn't hear that well in my right ear. I had it looked at and was told there was a spot on the eardrum with lines coming out from it kind of like a crack in a windshield. It could take 6-8 wks to heal and get back to normal. What's up with this 6-8wks?? It was really ringy/toney for awhile and kind of felt clogged but it seems to be at least 95% normal now. Craziness.

I spent Christmas week down in Maryland and got in some great 3-4hr rides a few days down there. Then it was back home for a long, horrible stretch of winter. It had actually snowed quite significantly Christmas weekend here but it mostly all melted by the time I got back home. I rode outside the weekend after New Years on some icy trails and well that was only the beginning of my snow riding this year.

After that it snowed, hmmm, like every 3-4 days, like a foot or more of snow each time!! With no melting in between. Unbelievable! The first storm, you're like, ok... It's pretty, shoveling isn't that bad, and hopefully the Cape (cape cod) didn't get too much and it will melt fast. (The Cape typically doesn't get as much snow and the soil is sandy so it drains well when it melts.) HA ha hahaa.... I was ready to put boards across the top of the snowbanks along my walkway so I wouldn't have to keep trying to heave it up the probably almost 5 foot snowbanks to be able to walk my dog everyday. It was pretty wild, kind of a cool site, but also pretty terrible for a bicyclist. The roads got all narrowed as the plows even had a hard time plowing back all the snow. I can't remember the last time we have had this much snow on the ground and snow cover for so long. It's March and we still have about a foot of snow on the ground.

So typically, if there's this much snow on the ground and it stays as cold as it did, we can ride snowmobile trails, but even that too a long time to come to fruition as most of the snowstorms dropped really light fluffy snow that took a long time to pack down well enough and to harden up to be able to ride on top without sinking. I did a couple attempts in desperation and usually ending up riding back on the nasty, sloppy road. The snowfall did finally abate and the snowmobile trails became more rideable. In fact, there were a couple of days that the conditions were just right that I could ride on top of the snow just about anywhere in the woods. But that's a rare occasion. I did get a couple winter hikes that were nice.

I was back down in Maryland the end of January to race Snotcycle. Of course, it snowed down there too - a good 6 inches or more the Thursday before the race. I went down to visit Doug but thinking we wouldn't likely be racing. He assured me they would figure out some way to hold the race. I was like, yeah right. There's no way. I know snow and what you can and can't ride in. So we drive to the race Saturday morning. It's frigid out. My race wasn't the 3rd group to go. There were a couple categories that started before me and probably half dnf'd as they were sick of running the 8-mile lap that is usually super fast terrain. I rode down the driveway start of the race and it quickly turns into a field, and yup, I was off the bike pushing my bike through the snow. I was this is stupid, especially with my finger just about done the major healing phase. I figured since we were there I'd try do a lap. I'm no runner so that was going to be interesting. It took the first guy to finish from the earlier groups just about 2hrs to do one lap! hmmm.. So I started the race with not too big a women's field, maybe 8-10 of us. But the men had just started and we bumped right into off running our bikes too. It was silly stupid. I guess I kind of put on my race face and I don't like to run. It was useless to try to get on the bike and even go down a short downhill (which really, there weren't too many hills) as you'd have to kick the snow out of your cleats on your shoes and hope you actually clip in and get some balance...From everyone running there was somewhat of a path getting created it but it was so narrow it was tough to get going on the bike and even if you did manage to get going, it was equally difficult to hold a line and not get off into the thicker snow. Eventually, towards the 2nd half of the lap it became a bit more rideable and I was more determined or had figured out better how to try to stay on my bike. So, I got going somewhat and came through the start finish area in about 1'25" or so.. I can't remember exactly. I was totally thinking they wouldn't make us do a 2nd lap and thinking that, I hadn't brought any fuel with me except a water bottle. So when they said my category had to do another lap, I was like, oh, huh.. I better drink some water, and maybe it won't take quite as long as the last lap did but I was dreading it. The competitiveness in me must have taken over. But, I was actually happy they made us do a 2nd lap as it had started to warm up a tad so the running path had gotten packed down to a smooth packed surface now so if you could stay in the narrow path you could actually move along quite nicely. So, the 2nd lap was actually a lot of fun, especially after suffering so much the first lap. Anyway, I ended up winning it so I can retire for the season now a winner :) Ha! I was a bit sore from the running the next couple of days. But hey, the post race beer was mighty nice.

So back to Massachusetts...oh right... snow!
It has been incredible hard to stay motivated for the season and doing hard workouts on the trainer and not getting to at least get one ride in outside to remind yourself of why you do it. I did 'enjoy' a nice suffer fest with a couple local racers on some snowmobile trails a few weeks back. It was soooo cold that morning. It was ~8' F when we started. I thought many times of bailing those first 5-10 minutes. I had to stop and put heat warms in my gloves. It did warm up and I did warm up trying to keep up with those two. It was a good hard workout but somewhat of slog as the top layer of snow was just enough to have to constantly work hard to get through. It was a good workout and outside, but not what I'd call a ride that put a smile on my face. The next two weekends, I tried to do my long ride on the Cape but the first weekend of that there was still a lot of snow and a lot of ice so, it wasn't quite a good workout or particularly enjoyable. The next weekend was ok - a bit more rideable but still large sections of snow that we had to push our bikes through and random icy spots so you just didn't feel comfortable getting a lot of speed going.

But finally, finally, last weekend I went back down to the Cape (which is where we'll be probably for another month to do long rides) and had a very good ride that put a smile on my face. It had poured on Friday and then finished up with some nice crusty, snow/sleet mix even on the Cape. I was driving down there thinking man, we just can't get a break. I figured it still had to be better than the previous weeks and it was. Even occasionally, we'd go through a section of completely dry ground and the sun was out and it felt and even smelled remotely like spring. But I am not fooled. It's still a ways off here. My coach has tried to console me noting that I will be 'fresh' in July/Aug/Sept instead of starting to feel burned out by then. I was like ha... whatever... I have some big races early season :( I'm coming to terms with it. It's just going to take a bit longer this spring to build up the base for the 100s so I should maybe try to mentally focus more on the later season races and while I'll still give it my all early on, know that it is what is. Maybe I'll surprise myself. But, I'm trying to be realistic too as the trails locally really are going to take a long time to clear of snow and to go through a thaw muddy phase, and since there is still so much snow around, even as it warms up, the road are going to be really wet with snow melt for a long time. I really should get some fenders.

I will be quite happy when summer really truly is here. I hope we get as nice as a summer as we had last year, especially after all this suffering this winter. There have been many many days I've been close to packing up the car with as much as I can fit and heading to Arizona. Some day!

Well, my race schedule this year will look pretty much like last year so long as gas prices don't totally skyrocket like is being threatened. Then I'll be bagging the races that are long drives (most of them) and staying local as I don't have much of a race budget to begin with, unless a miracle happens :) I like miracles.

Till the first race!
-karen

2010 Shenandoah 100 Miler

Sorry for the delay in the writing of this race report - just sleepy...

The finale of the National Ultra Endurance Series (NUE) went pretty well for me. My goals for the race were to podium (1-5 in this race), hopefully be under 9hrs and have fun?... I got 2 out of three - 4th place in 8'56" and, well, I mostly had fun although at times it was a struggle.

Shenandoah is my favorite of the 100s that I have done. Oddly this year, I think I enjoyed the 101 a bit more, which had typically been my least favorite of the 100s (although I think Cohutta will take its place), but maybe that's because I felt really good at the 101 and only so so at Shenandoah. Thankfully, my so so pace is pretty good. I felt like I had decent legs for the first couple of hours but then I kind of petered out and just had my "all day" pace to struggle with. My head game with myself was a constant reminder of that this was the last meaningful race of the season and I get a nice long break when it's over so keep pedaling. No cyclocross this year. Just play, recoup, recover and be all fired up for next year. Not that this season has gone badly at all, it just isn't quite there for me mentally to keep the discipline in the training that is necessary to be really successful in this series and to really enjoy it. I fell somewhere in between.

Anyway, I headed down to Maryland on Thursday afternoon. I hit some traffic going through Connecticut since I was passing through pretty much at rush hour. It got me a bit stressed out since it took about 3-4 hrs before I could relax and not have to pay attention so much. I did see an absolutely gorgeous sunset over Scranton hills. And much to my delight, the construction zone where 81 intersects 80 wasn't that bad. The past two times heading down that way have been terrible backups since it goes from 4 lanes to 1 with a lot of truck traffic, and continues as one lane for ~12 miles. But it was smooth sailing through there. I was getting anxious from driving so long and thought I was home free getting off in Harrisburg to head down into MD but then I hit some more construction, similar 3 lane to 1 kind of crap...erggg. I thought about how easy it to just snap and do something really retarded, but I refrained and just showed up at Doug's a crabby cranky fidget bucket. So I drank a beer :) but that only helped a little.

Friday was mostly a chill day. Doug and I met up with a New England transplant, Mike Joos, to do a ride at Gambril Mountain. It was a beautiful day out and the trails were fantastic. I did a couple oh shi... and felt like I kind of pulled a muscle in my back but thankfully that subsided. After that it was just making sure I was all packed and ready to leave first thing Saturday morning so we could get to the race site Stokesville Campground and get a good camping spot since the race filled up. My friend, Laura, from the Transylvania race was driving up from North Carolina and I told her we'd save her a spot too.

The drive down was fine. I was still feeling pretty sleepy but I was hoping that would mean I would fall asleep quickly Saturday night. We arrived at the race site around 1ish and got a decent camping spot. We set up camp and got ready to meet up with Amanda Carey to go stretch the legs on a short ride. On our way out to ride we ran into our good friends Lee and Brenda Simril so they joined too. I felt pretty decent on the ride. The legs felt a bit like they had a long drive in them but I was hoping that was a good sign and that on race day they would be great. It was nice to catch up with everyone. I haven't really chatted with Amanda since last fall during cross season. She's been kicking butt this year in the endurance race scene.

We got back to camp and Laura had arrived. It was really good to see her again too. She had bunked across from at the Transylvania race and we shared lots of stories together. I semi talked her into doing Shenandoah this year. She had done it a couple years back and was on the fence about it, but I reminded her of how fun it is :) Haha!! Anyways, she wanted to get a spin in so Doug and I then headed off to our favorite pub in Harrisonburg for dinner. The food is fantastic and the beer is good too, but I refrained from the beer drinking tonight to 'behave' for race day. I was hoping we would make it back there post race to enjoy the beer and scrumptious looking nachos, and peanut butter something or other ice cream cake, and ... Really, the dinners are actually pretty "healthy" there if you want to eat healthy.

Back to camp to finish prepping for the race, chill, catch up with Laura and hit the sack. I slept reasonably well for a pre-race night. It got pretty cool overnight and at 5am when we got up it was darn chilly, but it always is in my recollection of doing this race. Brrr... Ate some oatmeal and had some espresso. I was just standing around and I felt this odd cold sort of damp feeling sort of thing on my back and I was like what the heck is that and I felt behind my back and it was a nasty bug of some sorts.. absolutely grossed me out. I ended up mushing it with my fingers not realizing what it was. All traumatized I took off all my layers and it left an icky mess on my race shirt. Thankfully I had another one with me so I put the clean unscathed one on instead.. gross... total girlie moment.

Well then it was off to the start line. They were attempting to stage the start based on estimated finish times to try to help ease the craziness of the start of this race. It seemed to semi work as it didn't strike me as being quite as nuts as it usually does. We head out of the campground on this narrow dirt road that usually you get kind of pushed or shoved around or someone messes up or goes off the edge of the road... not fun. It wasn't that bad this year but perhaps because I am probably getting more used to that kind of start. Then it's super fast down the road and onto a "rolling" mostly uphill dirt road which helps start to spread out the pack. I was feeling ok through here. The legs were warming up and when we hit the first more pitchy climb I felt ok and had caught up to Cheryl who was riding in 3rd at this point. I was with her through the singletrack at the top of the first climb and down to Aid Station 1. I was feeling a bit sketchy on the downhill and thought, hmm, maybe the dualie would be nice. She might get me on the downhills alone on her dualie. We caught onto a wheel and mostly drafted on the road section till the next big climb. She did try an attack and I pulled her back in and then we chatted briefly. She gapped me starting into the next big climb but was only a few riders ahead through the climb. I was starting to feel the legs a bit already and I was just hoping at that point that they might come back around to feeling good again, oh maybe in a few hours.

I hate the downhill on this section as we're still pretty bunched up in the race and there are always some yahoos that come screaming by passing in really sketchy areas. It unnerves me. I was following behind a slow guy and had some others pass us and then finally I got by the slow guy to get up to another slow guy with some more yahoos breathing down my neck so I tried to get by but clipped his handlebar and almost crashed big time. Very scary moment. I managed to stop and of course the two slow guys get by me again. I sat back there for a bit not feeling it worth it to risk passing. I finally got by them further down.

Then it's another road section for awhile to Aid Station 2. I had put my first drop bag here so I had to refuel quickly even though I hadn't really drank too much of my camelback yet. The volunteers at the aid stations in this race are amazing. They are so helpful and quick to get you water, food, etc. I was on my way quickly and off to the next big climb which we do again at the end but only go half way up then before turning off to head back to the finish at the campground. I found a decent pace but wasn't feeling super spunky. As I passed the turnoff for the next time we'd be climbing this I had a lingering thought of how nice it would be to just turn off there now :) But I climbed on reminding myself that this one just keeps going and going and going, like most of them. I did struggle to keep this thought in my head though. The downhill off this mountain is one of the best in the course. It's a bit rough and rocky up top but then as it gets down the mountain its slightly off camber smooth sailing and drops you right into Aid Station 3. I didn't need to stop here as I had my next drop bag at Aid Station 4 and would make it fine with what I had. I got out onto the road and sprinted a little ways to get on a wheel to draft for this section. The group was ok but not particularly well organized but it was better than riding it solo into the wind.

The course heads off the road and crosses a dry river bed which we all walked and then up a steep embankment onto the next climb. We were still sort of in our pack which was good for motivation to keep moving and not slow down too much as someone was right behind me especially since I was feeling like I could have easily backed off too much on this climb. It's kind of a fun climb but gets draining by mid-way and then there are some loose rocky sections which are tricky when you're barely moving along as it is. I got into one of these sections and got too wobbly from going too slow and stepped off the wrong side and fell down the hill a little bit. The guy behind me was like are you ok? I was too tired/mad to answer right away and he asked again.. I'm like, I'm fine, just pissed off now.. Got some nice bruises from that one. Anyway, I carried on and well the downhill on this is pretty darn sweet too, just about as nice as the last one :) I was happy I had learned how to brake properly with one-finger this year for these long descents. It makes it a bit easier on the arms. I forgot how long it was out of the trail at the bottom to Aid Station 4, but thankfully more level/down than up. I refueled here as well although the volunteer messed up and put my powder mix in a water bottle which I didn't take instead of my camelback which I didn't realize until after heading down the road :( hmm... Thankfully I had extra powder mix on me as that was my last drop bag and there was still just under half the race to go. It did make me drink more straight water which I think was a good thing. I just made sure I ate more of my food that I had with me to make up the calories.

The next road section just sucks. It goes on and on and on. I know this and I know it can break you before you even start the "big" climb. It was tough. I actually got to draft for a little bit of it which helped. I couldn't help but notice that there was a lot of road/dirt road in this race this time around. I guess I had always kind of blocked that fact out since the downhill trails are so so sweet!!! Anyway, the dirt road goes on and on and then turns and starts the huge climb that takes about an hour to get all the way up. This guy was riding with me chatting about the race and he asks so how far up the climb are we? Poor guy. We haven't even started the climb... really? yes. It goes on forever I tell him. He asks how long till we go down again? I'm like, hmm, an hour. There are actually a couple short downhills within the drawn out climb but it really does take a long time to get all the way up it. From Aid Station 5, which is about 2/3rds of the way up or maybe only 1/2, it took me 1/2 hr to finally top out and start the decent down... which still actually traverses a ridge so there are some more short ups before really heading down. Those ones always feel so harsh - short but steep and the legs are pretty cooked by this point. At least when you drop out onto the road, it's only a short ways to Aid Station 6 (which was also Aid 2) and then just the one last climb :)

I had hoped to finish up in under 9hrs but was feeling pretty skeptical about that at this point. I wasn't climbing too well but all you can do is keep pedaling. When I got to the turning point on the last climb, I started to think, hey, maybe I can make it in under 9hrs so I got moving and cranked out those last few miles. I kept checking the time thinking, hmm, 7 more minutes to get in... and then finally the whoopty doos into the campground and across the finish line in 8'56" :) yippee.. I'm done! Done the race, and done for the season!!

I slowly make my way up to our tent site and get changed and cleaned up and eat some food, then head back down to the post-race dinner, and more importantly, the post-race beer :) Some nice Dogfish IPA. I chat with my fellow racers...we pack up... do some podium pics.. and hurry off to Harrisonburg for a nice treat - I got to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law as they were driving up from Houston to Albany for work. I get to see them maybe once a year so it was pretty sweet timing that they would be passing through the area after our race. Of course I was pretty wiped out from a long day but got some food and drinks and chatted for a while before nearly passing out from exhaustion. Funny, we ate at Texas Roadhouse Grille... Doug and I had passed it the night before heading back to the race site after eating at the pub we like in town and I joked, hey, do you think Brian and Wendy will want to eat there... guess so :) It was pretty good and within walking distance from the hotel.

I slept reasonably well for post-race but of course was still dragging on Monday. We all got breakfast together and then hit the road. I'll get to see them again at the end of the month before they head back down to Houston.

Well, it was a good season. I am looking forward to taking a break now and just riding for fun or doing some other stuff, like hiking and kayaking and not feeling guilty about not riding. It will help me refresh for next year! Oh, I do have a 12hr race in Maine next weekend that I'll be doing with Doug, so long as the weather is nice. But other that, just chilling, trying not to get too fat or too slow :) Or whatever. Till then... thanks for reading my blog! I know they're long.
And thank you to all my sponsors, friends and family for their support!