Challenges - bring em on.

My friend Warren posted this on his blog this morning - Bicyclesoup.  I want to talk about challenges.  I am going to do the same race he is talking about.  Yes it's going to be 98 degrees (weren't they a boy band?), yes the race is 5 hours long and yes I've tried this before. 

Two years ago I attempted the endurance race in Bedford, it was hot and I wasn't quite prepared.  I managed to get in 3 miserable laps - I think there's a post about here somewhere.  I know I felt pretty much like crap during the race (factors other than just racing and poor prep).  This year as the forecasted temperature has climbed and climbed, I'm looking more and more forward to seeing what I can do.  I'm not out to win in terms of beating the other women who are entered.  I'm not out to beat anyone in fact.  I'm going with the frame of mind that as long as I can get three laps in, maybe four then it was a successful day. 

I face all sorts of challenges heading into this - my longest ride to this point this year is probably right at 20 miles and timing wise the longest was probably a little more than 2 hours.  Time isn't always on my side in terms of prep.  Recall I wanted to ride all winter to build my endurance up, but Splinty came into my life in December and I spent 3 months off of the bike instead of enjoying the mild, ride friendly weather.  I've had my share of mental anxiety due to personal and work related stuff.  Things took a good turn when I switched shifts and jobs, I'm enjoying working 330-1130, my new coworkers are fun and my job is interesting again and sometimes even fun.  School is over so I have more free time than I've known in years. 

I've been riding more than in the past years.  According to my Garmin, I've ridden 576 miles this year and my first ride wasn't until January 31st and even then the first two months of the year I was limited because of those two nifty metal pins that were holding my finger together.  Recently I've been battling flat tires (this crap started the last ride before Splinty was born believe it or not).  I hopefully have that solved for now by using tubes again.  I'm not even going to think about tubeless tires for a couple of months. 

The other challenges this week have been hydration and nutrition.  I'm a picky eater so I have just kept on with my normal diet; but I've certainly added more water - tonight I will try to get in an extra 60oz plus some gatorade.  Tomorrow the plan will be the same.  Gonna have some pasta in a bit to hopefully add some energy stores.  Then tomorrow I will spend most of my day prepping food etc for Saturday as I won't get home from work until around midnight Friday.  Then I will have about 6 hours to sleep before I have to get up, throw everything in the Jeep and head to the race. 

It's going to be hard, it's going to be hot; but I'm going to make the best out of it.  At least if I can ride for 3 laps or 3 hours total, I can say that I did well.  It's just a training ride for me.  The goal remains the ~33 mile Rotor Meltdown in October. 

Frustration @ Fat Tire Frenzy

I'm frustrated with my race today - I felt good at the start. Got into a good rhythm, was handling the trail and its obstacles pretty well. Managed to ride up and over a few things I've not done in the past (weird uphill tree root, log stack, some uphill switchbacks) then blamm! caught my right pedal/foot on something and was thrown to the ground hard. Immediately after I got up, my right big toe was hurting and the left side of my low back, but the worst was is inside of my right thigh. I am left to wonder if I caught my right leg on the stem/handlebars when I was thrown forward off of the bike and I think my bike hit me in the back; so I can account for my bruises. I got back up, but my confidence was shaken and of course the adrenaline spike wiped me out for a bit. I was able to ride up another hill, but every bump hit my leg and every time I stood up to ride, the saddle would hit my leg...OW! I debated on quitting at the finish line, but felt decent enough after climbing the deer trail to keep going. As I went through the line to start my 2nd lap, Kenny said my time, I mumbled something about being due a wreck. I acknowledged him that yes I had crashed, but was fine for now. I felt like I could push through my second lap and would just walk any difficult parts.

Well 2 miles later, I quit because my back tire got two more punctures, puked out a bunch of Stans. I wasted a CO2 on it (I had given my pump to another guy who reported when he passed me back that he had lost it.) The tire didn't hold the air very long and by time I crossed over one of the bridges, bottoming the rim on bridge the front tire threw a hissy fit, I got that stopped with Stans, but I decided to quit before I wrecked again. Honestly, I was pissed as I felt ready for this race and was going to try to beat a couple of the sport guys since there were no other women in my category. I was out ahead of two of them by a good bit when I wrecked and close to a third.

Oh well as it turned out, it was probably best that I DNF'd as my best biking pal, Paula had fallen trying to cross the slick rock and dislocated her left shoulder. Long story short, I ended up literally running back to my car from the finish line area and driving over to where my pal was tearfully waiting for assistance with some other racers (the frame pump guy who had found it by the way) and some volunteers. About the time I was helping Paula to the car, her husband arrived. We proceeded to drive her to the hospital - Warren driving (w/o a license) and me in the back seat holding Paula's arm in the best immobile position I could manage. Poor thing!!! She was in severe pain and very upset. I would have been too!!! In the end, the ER doc and staff was awesome, got her drugged up with Morphine and Zofran and successfully popped her shoulder back into place. Looks like she'll be off her bike for a few weeks, but hopefully she'll recover well enough to ride again soon. I miss her already because of my job change and haven't ridden with her in a few weeks. =( I'll forge ahead with my plans to get stronger and ride longer and keep focusing on Conquer the Cove oops Rotor Meltdown in October. I've entered the 5 hour race in Bedford in two weeks. It may be that I wind up teaming up with Warren since he and Paula were registered already as well - that remains to be seen. Either way, I'm still going and I'm going to just do the best I can. I enjoy the people I'm around while I'm racing, so that's reason enough to go back!

Meanwhile, I'm anxiously await UPS to bring me some tires that will hold air. I hope this works. I just want to ride and not worry about flats!!!

Busy bike week (relatively speaking)

Hey!!!

It's been a while since I posted.  I've been trying to get into a routine of riding regularly, but rain and vacation threw a screw in the works.  Oh well, I start working a 2nd shift job as of Monday - yes it's a new job and something kind of different.  I'm optimistic and open minded that it's what I need to do to advance in my career.  Hopefully not having to be at work until 330p everyday will allow me time to get rides in in the morning before it gets too hot.

My plan is to try to ride 3 days a week for 1.5-2 hours per ride.  Mostly I plan to focus my riding at the Cove and Mill Mountain.  Once the bottom trails of the Cove dry out again it will be great.  I've been trying to ride from the Timberview Parking lot which means I get to climb up and over Brushy Mountain - so far I've done it twice using Trough, Buck, 4 Gorges, the Fireroad and the Gauntlet and it's taking about 2 hours (13 miles).  If the lowers dry out, I can ride from the boat dock on about a 12 mile loop that takes a bit over an hour, but this is kind of boring because half of it is fireroad.  Then there is the normal lower trail loop from Bennett Springs which is about 13.25 miles.  The weekend is where I want to try to get in longer rides - I'm hoping to loop some stuff together tomorrow at the Cove to come up with a long ride.  I guess any combination of upper and lowers out there will be about 26 miles or so.  We'll see what I come up with tomorrow.  I'm hoping that the weekend rides will include riding with my friends!!! 

Why am I doing all of this?  Well I want to be a stronger rider when I get to ride with my friends since I won't see them as much with my 2nd shift job, but I'm also looking at 7 races...  I've already done the one MTX race where I "returned from Splinty."  A few weeks ago, I did the Montvale Time Trial where I was proud of doing my lap in 39:53 and actually beat a few other people.  The biggest highlight of that day for me was riding through both creek crossings which were about 3 feet and a foot deep respectively. 

Here's my tentative schedule:

Jun 16th  Fat Tire Frenzy (Bedford, VA)
Jun 30th  Fat 5 Enduro (Bedford, VA)
Jul 22nd  Dirty Dawg (Blacksburg, VA)
Aug 12th The Sizzler (Greensboro, NC)
Sep 15th  Montvale Mayhem (Montvale, VA)
Sep 22nd  6/24hrs of Angler's Ridge (Danville, VA)

and most importantly to me...

October 13th Rotor Meltdown at Carvins Cove!!!  Undecided on long vs short course...

I think there may be another race or two that I might try, but it all depends on whether I can get in my training rides.