off to the big trees

the dutchboy and I are heading out for a short but hopefully fun and relaxing weekend. a bit too much driving for a two-day weekend, but we'll make the most of it!

we're driving north to the



we'll be



we won't be



but we will definitely be



we'll probably also



and we might even



we'll have some of this



and some of this, too!



and we might even do this (probably not)



and if that isn't enough fun, on Sunday we'll be doing this



oh, and I need a Julie-sitter. would you like to spend the weekend with her? she love you long time!

let's tri that one more time!

Wow! I just realized that I never posted my Wildflower report from May – it’s still in my blog draft folder. Oh well, I guess it's too late for that now. But anyways, after our victory in the Wildflower Olympic distance relay, my teammates (Janet and Kim) and I decided we had so much fun we just had to do it again. So, we registered for the Vineman Half Ironman relay in August. Ironically enough, this had been my very first race in 2002, so I had a little something to compare my aging self to. Kim was excited to run a half marathon (something she'd never done), I was committed to getting my TT bike out of storage (where it's been since Kern in 2006), and Janet just loves triathlon so she was game.

Long story short, Kim hired a running coach, upped her distance, but got injured and we had to find a replacement runner. I was a lazy-ass and never got my TT bike out of storage. And Janet, as always, was the rock -- organized and prepared to race.

Our "girls weekend" disintegrated and we headed up to the race for the day. Yeah, there's nothing better than getting up at 4:00am to drive to a race, but fortunately, Kim decided to accompany me to the race so I had great company and expert assistance with all my gear.

I had planned to do a trainer warm-up in the transition area, but once again, my lazy tendencies kicked in and I didn't feel like carrying the trainer to transition so my warm-up consisted of runs to the porta-potty line. There were a few relay guys on trainers, but I figured I'd just go easy the first 15-20 minutes and call it soup.

I decided to race on my carbon tubulars rather than my heavy powertap wheel, hoping that I wouldn't flat and let down my teammates. Besides my aero shoe covers, my skinsuit, and the tape over my front helmet vents, there was nothing particularly aero about my bike, but I felt pretty confident that over a 58-mile course with some climbs aerodynamics wouldn't matter too much but lightweight and cool would be more important. I kept the 13-29 on my rear more because of familiarity with the shifting patterns than a need for the 29, but I was glad to have it once we hit the 10% + grades of Chalk's Hill at mile 40-something.

I was really well pre-hydrated and took two bottles of GU2O on the bike, along with GU and Clif Bloks (in a Bento Box no less). I was pretty sure this would get me through the race and I wouldn't need to get additional nutrition or hydration at the aid stations.

Janet posted a super- solid time for the swim (35 minutes), but there were some uber-swimmers who posted times in the 20 minute range, so we already had some ground to make up on the bike and the run. Our transition was good, I ran down the "red carpet" to the timing mat, did a cyclocross mount, and climbed up the little stinker and out onto the road. It was still pretty cool in the morning and I started out pretty hard so I could feel my asthmatic lungs screaming, but I kept hammering. My mantra was "pedal harder -- don't rest" and I tried to keep this up the entire race.

One fun aspect of being part of a relay team is that the relays typically start in the last wave of a triathlon, so you're chasing other folks all day long. I like the chase. I got down into the drops immediately and held a threshold pace for most of the race. The only times I got out of the drops were on the steepest climbs.

Hour one rocked. There wasn't much wind, I felt super-strong, my legs were happy and I held an average pace that would put us in good position for the win (or so I thought). I just kept picking out rabbits up the road and passing them. There were a couple of traffic hiccups where I had to slow down a bit, but nothing that should impact our result too much.

Hour two I started feeling little twinges in my legs, probably because I didn't really train to TT for three hours, but I was still jamming. The course was hillier than the first hour and the wind had become more of a factor. I had moved up in the “ranks” to passing lots of guys (relay and full ironman competitors).

There was one particular guy in a Specialized jersey who I watched in the distance for a while. He drafted a car for a while and then drafted other racers. I passed him and he immediately jumped onto my wheel. I got sick of him (the word parasite kept crossing my mind), so I took a flyer out to the center line. He followed so I flew back to the shoulder. He was still there so I turned and scowled at him. I ramped it up a bit and dropped him, but suddenly he was back. So I turned back to him and told him if he didn’t get off my wheel I would piss on him. He picked up his pace and passed me (only to sit on some other guy’s wheel ahead). As we climbed the infamous Chalk Hill, I passed then dropped his ass, never to see him again.

Hour three I was ready to be done. The wind had really picked up and I had some severe pain in my right leg that seemed to originate from my sciatic nerve and run all the way down to my foot. I wanted to stay in the drops, but had to adjust my pelvic tilt to alleviate the discomfort. I assumed that since I don't typically ride in the drops AT INTENSITY for hours at a time, my body was simply rebelling. I was ready to be off the bike. I was counting the miles. I was on target for my goal time. I was happy.

Of course, my Garmin is set up for my mountain bike and I'm too lazy to figure out how to set up another bike, so my distance was off and the course didn't have very good distance markings. This meant I didn't really know how many miles I had left. As the 2:40 mark passed, I'd ask the course marshalls as I passed them, but most didn't have an accurate answer. Oh well, just keep pedalling, Lorri! You’ll be done when you’re done.

Finally, the course enters the town of Windsor. The end is near. But twice I got "stopped" at traffic lights -- during a race no less! I bit my tongue and kept riding even though I was pissed at the police officers for waving through the extra few cars that caused a delay for the bikes. It's just a race, right? The final “climb,” a highway overpass, felt like a 20% grade in the wind. But it was short and I kept spinning.


The last mile of the course was lined with spectators, and I found a last little reserve of energy to hammer to the finish. Last time I did this race (2002, remember) I didn’t know you had to dismount and cross the timing mat on foot so I sprinted to the line and almost killed myself with an emergency stop. This time I knew better. I dismounted, heard my teammates yell my name, and started running toward the transition area like a crazy-woman. I had never met our runner and didn’t know where she would be, so I yelled out “Velo Girl” repeatedly until she saw me and ran up to me. We ran together to the bike rack, racked my bike and attempted to remove the timing chip from my ankle and transfer it to her ankle. After a few fumbles, she was off and I “crashed” mentally and physically.

Pain rushed through my entire body, I fought not to puke, and I started to cry. Isn’t it funny how that sudden adrenaline rush, released at the end of an event, can make you cry? I laid down on the ground for what seemed like 10 minutes, heard my teammates from the spectator area, and attempted to walk over to the fence in the transition area. I couldn’t put weight on my right leg. Ouch! Finally, I was able to limp over to them.

I got a post-race massage (apparently I had a severely inflamed muscle in my ass caused by impact with the saddle), ate lunch, and we waited for our runner to finish. Once Jennifer finished the run, we checked the current results and learned we were in 3rd place. Not the win, but we were still happy. But that meant we had to wait around in the hot sun for the podium (almost 2 hours later).

My goal had been to ride the 58-mile course in 2:50. Of course, that goal was based on nothing other than the fact that I raced it in 3:16 in 2002 and I wanted a faster goal and 3:00 didn’t seem like an aggressive enough goal. Silly coach -- do as I say, not as I do, right? I finished in 2:56 (averaging 19.94mph), one of the fastest bike splits of the day, but not fast enough to beat the two uber-teams in our category. Oh well, third place was good, too!

During our wait for the podium, I had the pleasure of meeting Marco Fanelli. He's a SoCal bike racer and has a link from his blog to mine. He heard our names at the finish and came up to introduce himself to me. His lovely wife was racing (she won her age group), so he was waiting around for her.

When the podium presentations took place, we were a bit disappointed that the promoters didn’t really have a podium (no photo opportunity). AND they only awarded prizes two-deep for the relays! Hrmph! So, we spent two extra hours in the hot sun waiting for something that never happened. Oh well. But we all received a pretty pink “finishers” medal. And had fun. And raced hard. What more could a girl ask for?

I think I’ve been bitten by the tri bug. I’m ready for my next adventure. I think I’ll register for Scott Tinley's Dirty Adventure in September. It’s a 3-event mountain bike triathlon stage race. What the heck, it will be good motivation for me to begin running and swimming again and a nice change in my training routine. Afterall, in 2002 I had been training for tri. Why not go for it now, right?

by special request

I know, I know, I'm not blogging. no stalkers this time, I'm just not blog-inspired. life is too good right now. I don't feel sarcastic or bitter or funny or have tales of woe. everything's just right, Golidlocks! and I've been busier than a bee.

July has flown by before we even knew it.

I finished up the CCCX series in 2nd. finally had my bite back in the last race but a month of no intensity prevented me from pulling out the V needed to move back into 1st place in the series. but I'm okay with that. Keith and Rod put on a fabulous series and I had more fun than I've ever had racing. I'm not sure what my plans are for next year, but I'm certain they'll include some mtn bike racing.



immediately after the race I flew to Colorado for a week of riding, gardening, partying, meeting friends and family, and helping Hans prep one of his houses for sale. I did some awesome rides and for some odd reason, the elevation didn't seem to affect me much at all until I hit 9,000'. I rode Squaw Pass with Daniel, Jamestown with Vera, and climbed Dear Creek Canyon with Hans and Pieter. oh yea, and we went mtn biking on borrowed mtn bikes -- me with my speedplays and road shoes -- not the best ride of my life. and I rolled along the fabulous bike path network of Denver -- what a great system!!! Denver is definitely somewhere to consider for my future. I love the hot sunny days and HOT nights and being able to wear a skimpy little dress instead of a fleece or a leather jacket.



home again, a furious week of work and preparation for the Death Ride. my long-time readers might recall that I had some unfinished business from last year. this year, 25 pounds lighter with better fitness and some recent altitude under my legs, I hoped to complete all five passes. Hans agreed to ride it with me even though he's not really an endurance rider.



long story short, we started too late. don't ask why. the plan had been to start riding at 5:30am when most folks begin, but we didn't leave until 7:00am. we jammed on the first two passes (Monitor), felt okay on the third pass (Ebbetts), and then started our death march. seems we mis-interpreted the cut-off times and were making it into the rest stops with only moments to spare. and being at the back of the pack of 2,800 riders, we found that many of the rest stops had run out of food and water. by the time we finished the fourth pass (Ebbetts), we learned that we had only 35 minutes to make it to the stop in Woodfords before the cut-off time (and it was 14 miles away). a bit dehydrated and glycogen-deficient, we rode like crazy until the clock struck 4:00 (the cut-off time). we still had three miles to go to the rest stop, so we weren't going to make it. the 5% grade suddenly felt like 20% and my legs slowed to a stop. I dismounted, sat on the side of the road and cried. it was over. we failed. of course, we still did 4 mountain passes, 85 miles with almost 11,000' of climbing, so it really wasn't a failure, but we didn't get that darn pin!



after piling me into the car and driving back to Turtle Rock Park for the post-ride BBQ, Hans wasn't doing so good. he was certain he was going to die. I tried to calm him, explaining that the way he was feeling was normal for someone who just spent seven + hours on the bike. but he retreated to a nearby haybale, laid down, and curled up into a ball. I finally convinced him we should go back to the campsite and shower. he felt a bit better after that, but still didn't have that sparkle in his eyes. he asked me if I would keep his bikes at my house for a while -- maybe even sell them for him. he never planned to ride again. I felt terrible, thinking that I'd ruined cycling for him after he's loved riding for 15 years. he informed me that he never loved riding. in the back of my mind, I knew everything would be better the next day, but I still questioned what it would be like being in a relationship with someone who doesn't ride.

I finally persuaded him we should go get a little something to eat, so we headed down the hill to the Creekside Inn for spinach salad, greasy burgers and greasier fries. and cobbler for dessert. half way through dinner, he came back to life. whew! crisis averted. by Sunday morning, he was talking about how we would approach the ride differently next year (including leaving on time at 5:30am).



and here we are, at the end of another super-busy, whirlwind week. the new Tri-Flow program started on Monday so I'm busy-busy again. I've gotten some good rides in, including a short but sweet climbing epic with Kim yesterday in the Los Altos hills. Amazingly, I hit my peak 5-second, 1-minute, and 5-minute powers. my legs are just about fully recovered and I'm feeling great! and my strength is obviously coming back.

next week is my birthday. every year since I started riding I've either done a century or hosted a birthday ride. this year, we've got 6 or 7 birthdays on the team in the same week, and since there aren't any local races, I decided to host a ride. big fun, I promise, and I'd love to have lots of friends (boys and girls) join us. here's your invitation!

so that's that. are you happy now? I am!

forgive me, father, for I have sinned

earlier this spring, the race director of one of the classic bicycle races in northern california eliminated the opportunity for CAT4 women to race at that event. women and men alike shared their displeasure with this decision in private emails and public forums. but alas, the CAT4 women weren't given the chance to experience this particular race this season.

this same club promotes a second race each year, a standard industrial park crit held in August. this race has been part of the bay area women's cycling series for many years, and there has traditionally been a combined W3/4 race (picked separately, of course). registration for this race just opened tonight, and I'm thrilled to see that for the first time in my memory (2002), Timpani Criterium is offering a separate CAT4 women's race.

the summer seems to have a dearth of W4 races. with the exception of the Fremont Crit this weekend, all the other crits currently posted are open women's fields (CATs 1 through 4) or combined W3/4. I've been pretty vocal in my opinion that combined fields aren't the best opportunity for many CAT4 women. so thank you to LGBRC for offering the CAT4 women a race of their own! perhaps this is their atonement for past sins.

it's not over til the fat lady sings

so, the CCCX mtn bike series is winding down for 2007. the final race of the season is this Saturday. I can't say I'll miss it -- it's been a long, dramatic season and I'm ready to move onto something else for the summer. it's challenging to sustain a high level of performance for five months straight and I've had a number of personal health issues that screwed with my early-season fitness, so it's been a bit frustrating for me.

I had three personal goals this season:

#1 -- win a race -- I did that on March 3rd -- yay, me!!!

#2 -- win Sea Otter -- well, I blew that one, probably by switching to a new bike a few days before the race. I got 6th -- okay, but that wasn't my goal. oddly enough, I realized that my age group is filled with fast women! I would've been on the podium in any other age group except mine. I was very disappointed, but moved onto the next big event (Wildflower, for which I still haven't posted my race report).

#3 -- win the CCCX series overall -- I lead the series from race #2 through race #7 -- six races. but I blew it big-time on Saturday. I raced so poorly that women who I never see in the races, women who finish 20 minutes down from me, passed me in the first lap! I kept waiting to get lapped by the leaders. I felt like I was in a time warp -- racing at the level I raced last year. Combine this performance with a lost opportunity in the prior race, and I'm now 4 points down from the new series leader. 4 fricking points! only 4 points, but it will be challening for me to regain the series lead just the same. challenging, but not impossible. given what's going on with my health right now, I'm not holding my breath. but I'm happy to say that even 5 days off the spiro and I've got a bit of strength and spirit back. I guess we'll see on Saturday, won't we. at worst, I'll finish the series in 2nd place, which should make me happy. right.

I have great motivation to ride fast on Saturday. that afternoon I fly to Denver to join Hans for a week's vacation. he'll be working on his house so he can put it on the market. I plan to spend a week climbing Mt. Evans, Pike's Peak, and lots of other big climbs at altitude to try to salvage my fitness this summer. it's amazing that I went from being super-fit in early May to feeling slow and fat and tired. but, I digress. CO will be a blast, with dinners and parties planned almost every night with his family and friends. I can't wait, so if riding faster on Saturday will get me there sooner, I'll hammer my brains out!

excuse me, but could someone help me find my testosterone?

a month ago, my dermatologist prescribed spironolactone for a skin condition. this is the drug that pre-op transgendered men take to reduce the amount of testosterone in their bodies during transition to becoming a woman. at the time my doc. recommended it, I asked her if the reduction in testosterone would affect my athletic performance. she replied that it wouldn't. well all I have to say is bullshit! in the past month, I've gotten soft, lost my edge, gained weight, lost muscle mass, and basically sucked on the bike -- at a time when my performance was critical. I'm sorry, but if someone doesn't really know the answer, they shouldn't lie about it. I've had two other docs and an exercise physiologist concur that the spiro should not be recommended for athletes, at least not if they don't want to lose performance.

does anyone know a dermatologist who understands athletes (preferably someone located on the peninsula)?

voting with your dollar

This deserves a bump! C'mon ladies. Only 15 women registered for this race? It's a fabulous course and a CAT 4-only women's race. Pen Velo likely won't offer CAT4 women next year, so we won't get a chance again until 2009.



Pen Velo and Pilarcitos made good on their promise from last year -- they are running a women's CAT4 field at the Burlingame Crit in 2007. Registration is open, ladies! Let's show them how excited we are about this!

Many of the CAT4-only races have sold out this season. Maybe the promoters who insist on combining the CAT4 women with the CAT3s (or in open women's races) and then complain about low registration will figure this out. CAT4-only races are good for your bottom line. Combined races aren't. We'll show you some love if you show us some, too!

doing it all night long

over a year ago, I raced my first 24-hour mountain bike race as part of a five-woman team. considering I'm a roadie through and through, this was a big accomplishment for me. my lap times were good and I had lots of fun.....until the night lap. I headed out for about a mile, scared myself to the point of being dangerous, turned around, woke up a teammate to take my place, and cried myself to sleep. after that weekend, I decided 24-hour racing just wasn't my thing. but since I love endurance events, I decided to do the 8-hour solo event this year.

best laid plans, I guess. somehow, I raised my hand and signed up to race a two-woman team with my teammie, Justine. Justine is an endurance racing guru -- that's pretty much all she does and she usually does it solo: 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours. what the hell -- it would be a good goal for me, right?

long story short (because I'm too busy these days to write a long story), we raced. it wasn't flawless. we were the only two-woman team in the 2-person category. we raced 14 laps (170 miles) and finished in 4th place (of 5 teams, so we "girled" one team of boys). of note, the 2nd and 3rd place teams finished only one lap up on us. I rode not one, but two night laps, the second lap missing one light (scary). I ate wrong and got a terrible belly ache in the middle of the night and missed my 4:30am lap but got back out there in the morning.

total for the weekend: 6 laps, 72.33 miles, 9+ hours on the mtn bike, 9,648' of climbing, aches and pains everywhere (even my eyeballs), oh, and that stupid le mans start run (blech!). considering my primary goals were to conquer the night riding and to complete as many laps as I could, I was pretty proud of myself.

my teammie is a total stud. she finished 8 laps (almost 100 miles). she and her boyfriend, John, make an incredible team. Justine really knows how to race endurance events and it was such a fabulous learning experience for me.

and we couldn't have done it without Hans and John, who took care of us, fed us, rubbed us, wrenched for us, dressed us, nudged us to keep going, and were just plain heros in my book. although these races are solo or team events, I truly believe you can't succeed without the support of your crew (especially if you race solo or two-person), and we had the best!



I learned a lot of good lessons this weekend (about racing endurance events and about life). if I ever do this again, I expect to put those lessons to good use and have that much more fun!

shyte! did I just say this was fun?

another sprint finish

this has been the season of sprint finishes for me at CCCX. I won the sprint in my last two races by only a bike length. unfortunately, neither of these sprints have been for the win. but yesterday's race provided the most exciting, tactical game of cat & mouse I've ever played. let's just say I'm quite the assertive cat.



and yes, that's snool covered in sandy dust on my face. H-O-T!!!

congratulations, as always, to all my fabulous teammates who represented at the race -- Erin (1st), Janet (7th), and Lauren (12th). and big congrats to my client, Stacy, for her first win this season -- she was a woman on fire!

like a virgin

how often to you get to do something you've never done before?

I've been riding a bike a long time. there aren't a lot of things I haven't tried at least once. but yesterday during the race, I did something I'd never done.

I like to descend, especially on long, steep, straight descents where I can get a lot of speed. but because of my gearing (compact cranks with a 13-29 cassette), I spin out at a relatively low speed. so, I've become pretty good at a severe tuck and am able to descend a lot faster than other riders who are in a more upright position. I guess having a fast bike and a higher body weight than other riders helps, too. I'm not crazy enough to put my hands on the tops like a true hot-dog, but I'll dip into the drops, sit on the nose of my saddle, and really get as low as my big body allows.

yesterday's race was completely miserable for me, from the moment I got out of bed until the minute I finally got off the bike. so I wanted to make the misery as short as possible. my climbing sucked so I had to make up some time on my descents. in the midst of a tuck, I suddenly found my chin on the bar. yup! I've never done that before, and I realized that I didn't really like it. on the bumpy road, I just kept envisioning that I would hit a bump and bite my tongue off. silly me, but that's what was going through my head.

a little whine with dinner

berkeley hills road race -- that just sucked. not much more to say except my legs hurt from the moment I got on the bike. am I not recovered? maybe not. after a demanding race last sunday I had a hard training week along with little sleep, poor nutrition, and too many hours on my feet because I scheduled 14 bike fits this week. was it the crash? I think I might've torn something in my left leg. it doesn't feel good. my hamstrings aren't engaging at all -- phooey -- and my quads just plain hurt! or was it just a bad day? or the curse of the three evil bears?

all I have to say is thank goodness there aren't very many days that my legs feel that bad. tired legs I understand. empty legs, no problem. but painful legs just plain suck.

the only redeeming aspect of the day was that even with crap legs I raced faster than the last time I did berkeley hills in 2004.

on another positive note, my girls did great!

and, I got to ride with Teddy for a bit and he gave me a packet of the new top-secret GU.

I'll post some photos soon.

we won!

that's cool. more tomorrow. I'm really tired now.

oh, I cut over 10 minutes from my bike split from Wednesday -- yay me. I rode hard and had just about a perfect race.

another oh, apparently we not only won the masters women relay, we also beat all the non-masters women by over 10 minutes!

it sounded like such a great idea in january

one of my teammates wanted to put together a relay team for the Wildflower Triathlon. I jumped at the chance! afterall, it would break up the monotony of mtn bike and road racing, and there are really hot guys who do tri and you get to see them half naked. and Wildflower is a big party -- a weekend of camping and racing and debauchery, right?

yeah, right! Wildflower is a big hoo-haw (no, not that hoo-haw, VB). it's expensive (all tri's are), it's a logistical challenge, it's a hard course. yeah, that's right! the course is friggin' hard! it's hilly and windy and bumpy.

so, today I decided to head down to lovely Lake San Antonio and pre-ride the course. I wanted to decide which bike to race (tt or road), gearing, pacing, etc. and it was going to rain in the bay area and be sunny there, so why not?

the course is definitely challenging. you begin with a one-mile 9% climb out of the transistion area and then lots of "rollers." the rollers aren't really rolling, but who's complaining. there are definitely some challenging grades but also some nice descents where you can easily hit 40+ mph. and the pavemnt's not that bad. and I saw 1,000s of turkey vultures and 100s of deer (most laying down -- I think they get fed well at good old Lake San Antonio). of course, there will be 1,000s of moving obstacles (ie other riders) on race day.

long story short, not recovered from last night's intervals, with no warm-up, with nothing aero or lightweight on my bike, in a big-ass swirly cross-wind, wearing a shimmel and my bibs blowing in the wind (oops), I beat last year's winning masters women's relay bike split by almost a minute and I was 4 minutes off the pace for the 2005 winner (in a year when there was no wind). can't wait to see what I can do with the carbon tubulars, skinsuit, booties, spaceballs helmet and fresh legs!

amazingly enough, this isn't my kind of course -- I logged almost 1,900' of climbing with many of the climbs settling in at 9-10%. or maybe it is my kind of course now.

V is for Velo Girls.....and Victory!

more photos here!


congratulations to Team Velo Girls and the members of the Tri-Flow Women's Development Racing Program on a stellar race (and another win)!


I may never be a great bike racer, but I sure can teach women how to race.


I love my job!

play along at home week #6

what if we threw a party and everyone came?

that about sums up saturday's tri-flow menlo park grand prix. beyond all expectations, we tripled the size of last year's race. was it the change in categories? the date? the lure of t-shirts and kisses? who knows! but the bottom line is that we somehow pulled off a HUGE event!

when I got home Saturday night, all numb and tingly from being awake and on my feet for close to 48 hours, I wrote a lovely blog post. unfinished with the post, I fell asleep sitting at the computer and somehow lost my post (maybe it was my forehead on the spacebar?). so, in short.....

many thanks to our fabulous sponsors, especially Tri-Flow who has stepped up to underwrite this event for the past two seasons (along with lots of other Velo Girls programs).

thanks as well to Tom, Alec, Casey, and Jeff. they make me look good even though I have no clue what I'm doing.

to all the many volunteers from the team and the club, who dedicated countless hours in the weeks prior and on the day of the event, to make sure we put on a safe, fun, efficient event! especially of note, the racers who raced in the morning and then volunteered all afternoon -- thank you!!!

to all the beautiful racer boys and girls. thank you for your patience with registration, results, and wait lists.

to Brooke Kuhn, for choosing our race as part of the Bay Area Women's Cycling Association points series.

to all the upper-cat women for coming out and racing with the boys! I admire you.

to all my blog friends who always make me smile. it's especially fun to see all my road-racing friends who I haven't seen since August or September!

to Lauren, for the bestest race t-shirt ever!

to Kim, for taking over at registration so I could extract myself from the computer for a while during the afternoon.

to Anna and Erin, for taking over the prizes so I could deliver girl scout cookies and frosty beverages to the course marshalls.

to all my clients for being patient while I've been semi-absent the past week or so.

and to mother nature, for blessing us with beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine.

we hope to see you all again next year (especially mother nature)!

ps -- results and podium photos will post tomorrow.

play along at home week #5

third time's a charm

today was race #3 in the CCCX series. interestingly enough, I almost didn't go. you see, I just got back from ten days in Colorado last night, and I had about 1,000 excuses when the alarm went off at 4:30 this morning.

first, congrats to my beautiful teammates.

Elizabeth did her first race clipped in the entire time -- and she had more fun than I've ever seen her have during a race!



Justine raced her single speed and got 2nd in the sport women's race, beating a bunch of geared girls. Jenny raced sport as well -- and got 5th in a super-competitive field.



and Janet came to pre-ride with a friend and cheered and took some great photos!

so, I'll start my report with the punch line. why the punch line, you ask? because my race today should have been a joke. but I guess the joke was on my because I won! yes, I won my very first race (at least where there was more than one competitor in my category).

but now I'll digress. I went to CO to participate in the elite/level 1 coaching clinic for USA Cycling at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. during the clinic, my favorite speaker was Kristen Dieffenbach, PhD, who discussed sport psychology. this is one of my favorite topics. one of the more interesting parts of the lecture was her explanation of athletes with a fear of success. she also classified athletes with an aversion to failure (although not necessarily the same as a desire to win). this is an interesting group of athletes, and I bet everyone in the bike racing world can identify at least a handful of these types. you see, these are the athletes who have pre-qualifying excuses about why they won't do well in a given race (poor sleep, catching a cold, gained weight, etc) -- anything that they can cling to post-race to explain why they didn't succeed. but in having these pre-qualifiers, the athletes also didn't fail because they told you in advance that the pre-qualifier would affect their performance.

so, here are my pre-qualifiers for today:

• I flew home yesterday without sufficient time to prep for the race last night, which meant that I had to unpack from my trip and pack for the race this morning.
  
• I stepped on the scale this morning and weighed six pounds more than when I left 10 days earlier. tell me that doesn't affect a woman's mental game, even if it only is water retention!
• I ate crap yesterday and this morning, including wheat, which I'm allergic to and which triggers my asthma.
• I was chronically dehydrated in CO -- probably from too much coffee, the occassional beer and not enough water.
  
• I kept re-setting my alarm this morning, finally getting out of bed 15 minutes after I'd planned to leave the house.
  
• I got up so late that I grabbed a piece of banana bread at Starbuck's for breakfast instead of my usual oatmeal and strawberries.
• I arrived at Ft. Ord so late that I only got 20 minutes to warm-up and pre-ride part of the course.
• I forgot my tire pressure gauge and over-inflated my tires, causing me to slip & slide all over the course, especially in the sandy banks and turns.
• my muscles all hurt from my non-cycling activities in CO. My core was blown, causing me to miss my line about 100 times during the race, riding off-course, into the grass, and basically just being sloppy. My hamstrings, abductors, and adductors were screaming at me when I walked, never mind when climbing on the bike.
  
• the race was a bit intense, and I didn't GU at all (and only drank twice).
• I snotted all over myself several times.
• I kept trying to clear my throat, making a really loud, scary sound (which must've given my competitors a mental edge thinking I would die soon). When not clearing my throat, I was breathing like a horse.
  

but somehow, I put it all together and held off the competition. Ayshe and Jackie sat on my wheel for the entire race. I'd open up small gaps on the climbs and flats, but they'd catch me on the technical sections because I slowed so much due to my over-inflated tires and under-inflated core muscles. Ayshe passed me at one point in the first lap, but Jackie nudged me to close the gap and I passed her back and she was never able to pass me again.

with about a mile to go, I told myself that I wanted this more than the two of them, and there was no way I was going to lose another race in the final minutes. so I turned up the heat a bit and hammered to the finish.

as I approached the line, Rod announced me as the winner of the women's race. I started to cry. knowing that I was finally going to win my first race was an overwhelming feeling. the next second, I realized that my competitors could still nip me before the line, so I pushed it to the finish.

it wasn't a pretty race. but the gold medal is beautiful!

play along at home week #4

always the bridesmaid, never the bride

Yesterday was the second race in the central coast mountain bike series at Ft. Ord in Monterey.

My legs were worked on Saturday at our Tri-Flow training, probably due to standing on my feet (in heels) for many hours on Friday night. I was a super-model (bah!) at the Tour of California gala in Sausalito, and combined with all the standing, we didn't eat until about 10:30 that night, so I was tired, cranky, and my legs were killing me. Saturday morning we worked on race drills, and anytime I hit my high-end my legs would flush and burn. I was a bit concerned they wouldn't be recovered for Sunday's race.

I arrived at Ft. Ord with enough time to do one pre-ride lap as a warm-up and roll to the line without a minute to spare. The timing was actually great -- no waiting around and cooling down, although in the last ten minutes I was a bit worried I wouldn't make it to the line by the whistle. Knowing I wouldn't have time to make it to the porta-potty, I used the green door on the side of the trail, waiting for Jill and Al Painter to ride by -- they didn't. whew!

I was more nervous for the race this weeek than I was last week. I think it was because I suddenly felt pressure to do well again. What if last week's 2nd place finish was a fluke? what if I really did suck again like last year. what if a certain ex-Velo Girl who was rumored to be racing this week showed up and kicked my butt? What if? I tried to channel my nervousness into positive energy.

I got my usual good start and rolled up the hill. I didn't push myself as much as I usually do -- not sure why. And for the first time since I've been racing mtn bikes at Ft. Ord, no one passed me on the starting stretch. You see, I usually get a good gap in the first 45-60 seconds and then blow pretty badly and get passed by at least a few racers (sometimes a lot of racers). But this time no one passed me and I was first onto the single-track. As we hit the first early climb (aka "the hill"), I kept expecting women to pass me. I tried to make myself as big as possible, but since this climb is on double-track, there are other lines to pass. Again, no one passed me and I was shocked. I rolled through the finish in 1st and Rod called out my name as the leader.

During the first lap, I kept waiting for someone to pass me on the climbs. Unfortunately, most of the climbs are on wider terrain, so it's easy to pass. And since climbing is my weakness, this is a big disadvantage for me. Again, shock as no one passed me.

Being in the leader's position is unfamiliar territory for me. I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I wanted to keep going hard but not too hard so I blew or got sloppy. At one point, I missed my line and ended up off the trail into a big pile of mud. It took some time to right myself and get back on the trail. I expected Jody (last week's yellow-jacket girl who was in 2nd this week) to pass me at that point but she didn't. I would occassionally glance back to see her about 30 seconds or so behind me. Not far enough for me to become comfortable with my gap, which kept me super-motivated to keep going.

Heading into the finish area, I see Jody's family and hear them cheer for her behind me. As we approach "the hill," I again expect her to pass me but she doesn't. A guy who I'd passed earlier in the lap passes me, but I pass him back at the top. That's one of the interesting elements of mtn bike racing that I've had to learn to deal with. Because there are multiple fields on the course at the same time, you can sometimes hear someone behind (breathing, shifting, braking) but not know if that person is in your field or not.

Heading into the finish chute going into lap two, I'm still in 1st place, but Jody is just behind me. Rod says something about "this is where the battle is being waged" so I know I don't have much of a gap. Back up the hill and I again expect Jody to pass me. I push as hard as I can and somehow make it to the top still in first position.

Lap two was pretty sloppy. I decided that I could increase my gap if I increase my risks, so I'm riding like a crazy-woman. At one point, I completely miss the trail as it turns to the left and stay on the trail to the right. Of course, I then notice the tape and realize I've ridden right off the course. The tape is low there so I turn around and ride over the tape and back onto the trail. Thank goodness the tape doesn't catch in my cranks or derailleur and I'm back on the trail (and Jody hasn't passed me). A quick glance back and I don't see her so I'm feeling a little more confident about my gap.

Then back to "the hill." I've always hated this hill. But today I'm able to ride it in bigger gears than in the past. On the second lap (my 4th time up the hill including my warm-up lap), I bottom out to my 34. Not a good sign. I hear Jody's family cheering for her, but she doesn't pass me on the hill.

Lap three is more of the same. At this point I feel I know the course well enough to really jam on the technical elements and fly through the single-track. I don't see Jody when I glance back except on the long stretch of uphill pavement (and she's way back there). But, she sees me which is probably enough to motivate her to pick it up a notch. Somehow, I stay on the trail the entire lap even though I'm pushing it. As I round the bend before "the hill" I suddenly realize I could win the race.

Alas, as I'm climbing "the hill" Jody passes me. I look down at my bike computer -- one hour and 20 minutes -- I've been leading the entire race for one hour and 20 minutes (in what was to be a one hour and 23 minute race). Unbelievable. As she passes, I try to respond, but my legs just cramp up and I barely make it to the top without stopping. But the race isn't over yet. I know that anything can happen (Jody could flat or crash or miss a turn) and I don't give up. So I try my hardest to catch her before the finish. But it just wasn't good enough today and she beat me by 37 seconds.

Although I'm a bit disappointed, I'm still pretty happy. My results are better than last year, I've learned a lot about mtn bike tactics in the past two races, and I think I still have the potential to win a race. I'm sitting in 2nd place in the series (down by only two points) and my fitness is far from peak so there's hope yet. I seem to have solved the nutrition issue for this race and my energy was constant throughout. Actually, our last lap was faster than the first two so that's positive, unlike my complete loss of energy in the week prior. The only things I would've done differently would be to stay on the trail (which I blew twice) and reconsider a couple of gearing choices. Regarding the latter, there were a couple of climbs on the trail where I got stuck in my middle chain-ring, not wanting to risk dropping my chain by shifting mid-climb, so I had to grunt it out. I'm sure this burned my legs a bit and didn't help my climbing the last time up "the hill."

So, another shiny 2nd place medal. So close, and yet so far from that elusive win.

Congratulations to my teammates also racing yesterday! Elizabeth did great, in just her third mountain bike race, finishing top-ten in the beginner women's category. Jeanine gutted it out with the sport women even though she was having a cleat malfunction. And Jenny, who missed the start of the beginner women due to some time spent with CHP in the morning, decided to race with the sport women, knowing she didn't have time to finish the race before having to take her son to his sporting event. After two laps she was sitting fifth or sixth and just jamming!