Bedford County MTB Time Trial and Dual Slalom

Had an absolute blast yesterday at Falling Creek Park in Bedford.  It was the first event in the Bedford County Mountainbike Championship Series.  The morning was a 6.8 mile time trial where the goal is to get through the course as quickly as you can.  I was the only Sport Chicky to show up, so I won before I ever started.  I decided to ride as quickly as I could to see if I could beat any of the men.  Might as well not be last.  =)  The course itself was challenging at times.  I found myself walking a few of the hills (gotta work on that).  The trails were awesome.  Mostly dry, a few slick spots but very rideable.  It was odd as the course layout took me backwards on the trails that I've ridden or run on.  During my ride I saw a skunk, two deer and a snake.  I told Kenny afterwards that that is the advantage of being slow.  =)   I managed to finish in 53:02, which was good enough to beat 3 other people.  =)

Borrowed from Ron G (fastest overall/expert). Also pictured Doug Falls and Todd Gilley (1st Clydesdale)

The second event was a dual-slalom race where I raced head to head against my friend Kelly Hazelgrove from Lynchburg.  The object here was the ride downhill through a designed course with bermed turns, box jumps, rollers and drops.  You are timed on the runs. After the first run, you switch lanes and do it again.  I had never done something like this in my life, so I did one practice run which quickly reminded me how much I like riding downhill.  The deceptive part is that you have to pedal hard between the obstacles and you wind up out of breath at the bottom.

Photo by Chris Overstreet

First the first trip down vs Kelly I was in the Blue Lane.  We started off on a trailer and had to go off down these ramps that weren't that wide.  Once I got over the freakout factor and got clipped in Kelly was already ahead of me.  I got rolling as quickly as I could and nearly caught her at the bottom.  For the second lap I was in the red lane which I had ridden before the race.  There is a section of 4 "rollers" which I totally missed on my practice run; same thing happened during my 2nd race.  I came out of the bermed turn was was too wide to get back to them so I went between the white line and obstacle.  As I understood the rules before the race, this would be ok.  "If you can't get to something, don't do it"  Well I didn't think that I could get back over to them and keep a safe line during the race.  Eh whatever.  It was funny because Kelly and I were close together at the top after the first turn, I heard her slip/slide so I dropped a few more gears to accelerate and actually beat her to the bottom.  I was happy with that.  Kelly is a super strong racer and does crazy downhill stuff so I had to smile all the while wondering if I'd get DQd for missing the stupid bumps.  Eh whatever!   The results are posted and show her winning by 0.3 seconds.  HAHAHA.  I want to go back and ride that stuff some more!  It's fun!!!

So I guess the Bedford County Mountainbike Championship is off to a good start.  I have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to get ready for the Fat Tire Frenzy XC race on June 11.  The catch there is I will be out of town until the 10th. I will be doing a few road rides while on vacation so hopefully between now and the 5th when I leave to go out of town I can get some MTB miles in!

It's all about having fun, and I'm having a blast.

Bipolar Sunshine

Here is VA, we have strange weather.  I was born and raised here, but I think it's gotten a lot weirder over the years.  I don't remember it being windy or rainy this much.  Thunderstorms seem more violent than the used to be too!  So yesterday I got up and decided that the weather was nice enough to go for a mountain bike ride.  Here's the catch - my Jeep, my good bike rack (carries bikes by their wheels, not the frame), my helmet and gloves are all in Christiansburg being held captive by the Shelor Motor Mile Service Department.  No big deal.  I have a spare bike rack which I wouldn't put Punkin on for fear of scratching the paint, I have Ritchey and I have a spare helmet which I hate and of course many pairs of gloves.

So I stuck the bike rack on the lovely 4Runner that I've been fostering for a week and off we went to Mill Mountain. Decided to park in the Star Tail Parking Lot as I wanted to climb the new part of Woodthrush and wanted to get the 4Runner dirty, ahem.  I went up Woodthrush through the fog, clouds and rain to JPFish Parkway, up the road to Ridgeline where I climbed to the Star - absolutely no view to be had Saturday.  Rode back down Ridgeline to Riser to the Car Trail.  Took the old road down to Monument, up Monument which wasn't too horrible.  From Monument I went to the "rogue" trail that I call Two Tree (for the twin crooked trees).  Took it back down to Woodthrush back to the car.  Total ride distance was 8.85 miles with almost 1600ft of climbing.  It took me 1.5 hours.  I enjoyed it a great deal!  It was fun to ride full-suspension again as it had been a while since I had taken Ritchey on a real ride.  For some reason it seemed harder to climb on the 26" wheels?!?!?!

The weather wasn't looking promising today either.  Sunshine to start the rain storm.  I decided to work on stuff around the house.  Upon heading to the grocery store the sun burst through again, so I decided to come home and go straight out on the road bike.  I got in 26.2 miles in a nice meander around the valley - it took 1 hour and 48 minutes.  I'd blog more about it, but I need to get back to my group project.

Starting week 8 (of 10) in Module 5, my week's break comes soon and I will be spending it in Lancaster, PA where I've got a few bike rides in the works.  =)  Road rides through flat farmland sounds just fine to me!

Bike adventure coming up Saturday - Time Trial which equals me vs the clock on about an 8 mile trail loop and Dual Slalom which I'm not so sure about.  Anyway, it's all about having fun right???

=D

Stop raining, please.

Please?

Trail Nut 10k

So yesterday I went and ran my first ever 10k race.  I had never done one on the road much less the trail.  MountainJunkies aka Josh and Gina Gilbert are friends of mine and put on this fun series of trail races.  I had previously volunteered to help them at a few of their races and the runners looked like they had a blast!  Earlier this year I ran their Explore Your Limits 5k, finished 3rd in my age group and felt like I had some energy left in the tank.  So in order to see what I could really do I decided to sign up for the 10k at Falling Creek Park.

The Trail Nut 10k/Half-Marathon stepped off on a beautiful Spring morning.  The temperature was probably in the 50s to start.  I was a tad cool so I had chosen to wear a base layer shirt, under my lime green tshirt and to use my arm warmers that I bike in.  It didn't take long at all before I rolled the arm warmers down.  I had no idea about race tactics during runs anymore especially on trails, but I got behind a group of people who were chatting up a storm and poking down the trails.  Now in case, you can't tell I have long legs which equals long strides.  I can't go blazing down trails for obvious reasons (sticks, roots, rocks, etc) but unless I want my legs to cramp up for ever I can't do baby steps.  The people blah blah blah'd for awhile, the lead chatty Cathy finally stepped out of the way, and we all went by.  Kenny was at the top of the rocky hill and was like, "Go Jen, you know the trails better than the rest."  I thought yes I do and this is going to drive me nuts.  I knew exactly where we were and I was hoping not to get stuck behind these people for long.  Well I did pass one guy in a switchback, then passed four more by ducking under tree branches.  Of course, I went too hard after passing them and they all had the satisfaction of passing me back.  BAH!  Oh well, once they got by we hit the road and it spread us out more which was fine with me.  I'd rather run alone at my own pace and I did for the longest time.  I know there was one guy in a white shirt who passed me back and forth a few times, same for a gal in a green skort.

People stopped at the water stop, I kept going - I carry a bottle, plus I wasn't that thirsty.  I really was enjoying the trails.  I had to walk of course, but that's ok, I'm not really a runner.  I kept getting a cramp in my side and both of my shoulders.  I eventually worked that all out.  I kept looking forward to seeing Gina as I knew she was at the 5.4mile mark and that would get me to the end.  I remember seeing the sign for 4 miles and the 5th mile felt like it took for freaking ever.

There is one section at Falling Creek where the trails meander back and forth and you can see people all over the place but it's hard to place where you are as compared to them.  It almost makes you think you're off course.  I felt really good at one point and tried to pick up my stride, I soon found myself stumbling over a tree root and nearly face planting, fortunately I caught myself and didn't fall.

I finally found Gina where she was cheering and then was like, where's your shirt?  I had taken my green shirt off during Mile 3 and handed it to a friend.  He kindly carried it to the finish line for me, meanwhile I was running in a black, sleeveless base layer which was quite comfortable.  As I got to the last hill - the dreaded Deer Trail (see previous blogs about Falling Creek Park races) I knew I was in for it.  I started walking it very aggressively, I passed Read (my sherpa) who was like, you know this hill, go!  My teammate Doug came down the trail to meet and encourage me.  I was like please tell me the clock doesn't say 1:30?  He was like you're getting close, at that point, I started walking faster then finally broke into a run again.  I was so glad to finish!  The clock said 1:20 which was the 1/2 marathon clock so my time was 1:10!!!!  I couldn't believe that.  My goal had been to finish in 1:30!  I'm so happy with my effort.

I am hoping to run the Fab 5k in August and the Into the Darkness 5k in October.  I am hoping to continue to run trail races - it really is fun.  I ended up 3rd out of 5 in my age group, 72nd out of 96 overall.  Teammate Doug was 2nd in his age group in the 10k and Ron, another teammate won 1st in his age group in the Half-marathon.  Great job!!!

Bike racing starts soon - my only planned races are in Bedford, and there aren't that many.  I plan to ride my bike to work some this week as the $75.50 I paid for my full tank last week finally reached the point where I said no more.  Besides people are irritating me on the roads lately!  Ok enough blogging!  Time to do schoolwork!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

Yiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Tomorrow I embark on another adventure...  What now???

10k Trail Race...  on foot

I'm going to have fun!  Excited about it for some odd reason! 

I have a goal to finish in under 1hour 30min.