Lessons learned at Elkhorn

Well, it’s been a week since Elkhorn Classic Bike Race and it has taken this long for me to get my self put back together.  It was quite a weekend!

I learned a few valuable lessons, and I will share them with you…just to share a little wisdom and help you all not have to deal with the crap I’ve had to this week.

#1:  Carbon rims and rain don’t mix.  I didn’t learn this from a personal experience, but a friend did…and it’s not like you can really just change your wheels all the sudden when it starts storming and blowing and raining in the middle of a race…but it sucks when you keep going into the wheel in front of you because your breaks aren’t engaging.

#2: You need to eat more than 500 calories on a 72 mile really hilly race.  Yep, that I learned from personal experience.  Mind you,  I’ve learned this before, but my brain wasn’t really thinking properly considering I had 92 women of all categories trying to get to the front before “the big hill.”  I succeeded in bonking hard and couldn’t even get my legs to turn a cadence over 50 on the false flats and rollers on the way back.  I was in bad shape.  Luckily, ayce sphagetti served me well that night (even though my stomach hurt so bad from all the sugar I shoved my face with in response to the bonk).

#3: Good lesson: I love crits.  The crit was awesome.  I kicked butt…rode hard and didn’t give a care about the end result.  One lesson I did learn: listen to the MC call out primes.  I did this when I don’t think many people were and we succeeded in getting a couple primes when no one else knew it was a prime.  Yah team!  Also, don’t let your guard down with 3 laps to go…and better yet, pay attention to the laps period.  Before I knew it I realized I had been too busy paying attention to prime laps and all the sudden there were only 2 laps to go and I was stuck about 15 people back.  Darn it!  Lesson learned.

#4: Bring all of your cold weather clothing to elkhorn race.  This includes Thermal booties, cold cold weather gloves, base layer, hat, etc.  The final day was 48 degrees and raining and below freezing on the top of the mountain.  Luckily the race was shortened to a whole 20 miles consisting mostly of a hill climb up the backside of the mountain.  But it was still pretty cold.

#5:  Most important lesson of all: IF THE HOOD ON YOUR CAR IS FLAPPING A LITTLE IN THE WIND, DON’T DRIVE AT FULL SPEED INTO A 30 MPH HEADWIND!  Or better yet, maybe you shouldn’t drive it at all!  Derek Chris and I were headed back from the race and the hood of our car flew up into our windshield.  I was driving and was able to maneuver the car over to the side of the freeway.  After securing ourselves and the vehicle we decided to get it off the free way and try to make it to the next exit.  About 1/2 mile away we happened upon another group of cyclists from the Veloce team who were pulled over because their entire roof rack had flown off their car (bikes included).  I’m not sure which condition I’d rather be in…

Considering I’ve already dealt with bikes flying off the car, I’d pick the windshield.  We all need new experiences right???  Well, the Veloce guys happened to have some awesome tape and we taped the hood down and taped the windshield for reinforcement.  Miraculously with much debate and indecision we actually drove the car all the way back to Eugene.

Here’s what it looked like:

My new improved windshield

My poor car...

My car is totalled. I found out yesterday.  But, I actually didn’t get screwed by the insurance company, so that was wonderful news.  So, for the while I will be without car.  Finally!  I can use my cycling skills for a purpose!  You mean, I can actually ride my bike to get me places that I need to go and not just riding to a finish line????  Amazing!

Anyway, so those are lessons learned. I think there may have been one more…but I can’t remember.  OH, maybe the last one was….Derek and Chris together for an entire weekend is a lot to handle…but quite amusing.  OUT OF CONTROL!  That’s all I have to say.

Anyway, a whole weekend of fun and games.  The actual race wasn’t too bad, but it was draining.  It’s an off week for me to try to reboot my system.  Cascade is approaching fast as well as Elite Nationals.  Fun times!

Blahdy blah blah blah

You guessed it !  Nothing exciting happening in this neck of the woods.  Chris and I graduated with our Bachelors (me in Music and Chris in Economics) this last weekend.  It was fun and exciting, and thoroughly a let down.  Graduating is so anti-climactic.  Seriously…it’s like…you’ve worked how ever many years for this degree, and then you walk across the stage in a cheap (quality – not $$$) black gown and get a holder for your degree. You don’t actually get the degree because they don’t send those out till they verify that you’re legit.  hmmm…. I don’t now how I would make it more climactic…but something needs to happen.  Fireworks maybe?  Or…something.  Dunno…

Anyway, so I’m officially done with college.  Hoorah!  Now, more time for bike racing…I mean…finding a job????  I’m so excited that this is such an excellent time for job searching.  I mean, jobs are in abundance right?  I should have no problem!  Actually, I have been searching for a job for the past 6 months…so if anyone is reading this and would like to inform me of an absolutely wonderful job where I could actually use my talents and/or skills, that would be superb!  I think Chris is better off on the job search, considering he recently obtained his USA cycling coaching license as well as his Bachelors in Econ.  I think a lot more people are paying attention to economists than to musicians at this point.  Maybe if it were the other way around this economy wouldn’t be in the state it’s in!!!!  (no offense Chris – or any other really good economists out there)…but seriously, maybe if we had a group of musicians running the nation, we  wouldn’t be in this mess! (please no political comments or any of the like…I’m just flapping my lips in the wind).

Anyway, that’s about it.  Due to family visitation and other graduation hoolabaloo I haven’t been riding much.  Thank goodness last week was a rest week anyway…but still, I should be riding more or harder or something.  I feel my lazy body is losing fitness as we speak.  Big race this weekend – Elkhorn Stage Race in Baker City, OR.  Should be a good one with lots of women!  That’s exciting!  I’m just looking forward to the TT and the crit.  Fun times! Hopefully my little legs will wake up enough to get me up and over the hills in the rest of the race.

Well, time to sleep and try to work out some knots in my back.  It’s been a beast lately.

I left my legs on Mt Hood

Well, I got through it, which is more than a lot of people can say!  Mt Hood Cycling Classic was rough, tough, and just plain awesome.  I think some time last year I posted something saying that this next season (current season now) I wanted to do some really hard races that would just kick my butt, because that’s what I needed to get to the next level…Do you remember me saying that?  Well, I said it, and Mt Hood did it for me.  I got my butt handed to me multiple times all wrapped up in a bright red bow…

Okay, maybe no bow, but still…I was whooped.  There weren’t a whole ton of women in the field (35 to start to be exact), but there were some pretty tough ladies out there ready to put the pain on.  It was awesome!

Prologue: So fast – so quick – it was over before you knew it.  This was my first ever prologue.  I did okay…my legs felt really tired still (I’ve been struggling with tired leg syndrome for a week now)…I got through it.

Cooper Spur Circuit Race (Stage 1): Hard.  I couldn’t recover.  I stayed with the pack for 1/2 the race…then hit the steeper section of the hill going up to cooper spur and popped 1/2 way off.  My legs just wouldn’t work.  I also really didn’t feel “in it”.  I was sick of descending behind people that couldn’t descend…and was sick of not being able to recover.  Basically I was being a whiney baby.  And it continued for the rest of the race while I watched 3 riders ahead of me join with another group of 4 riders (which my amazing Teammate Pam was in) and they rode off into the distance, leaving me to wallow in my misery on Cooper Spur.  I finished.  Not near as far back as I thought…but still, this stage was rough for me.

Scenic Gorge TT (Stage 2): AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was ready to put on the pain!  And I did.  At least on myself.  I passed quite a few women on the first hill and just kept it going.  I think there were times where I could have gone a little harder on the descent and last hill…but at the end I was definitely maxed out and it was an amazing ride for me.  My legs felt better than they had the day before…once again…the TT is what I do.  I LOVE IT!

Wy-East RR (Stage 3): BRUTAL!!!!!  Pam and my goal was to make it past the second steep descent with the pack.  We did it…but not without me trying to pop off the back a zillion times.  LEGS!!!! JUST WORK!!!!! PLEASE!!!!  I got popped shortly after the second feed zone about 1/4 of the way up the 35 mile climb.  I chased and chased…and was about to reach the caravan (yes, I was that close)…and I realized…I still have 20 miles of climbing ahead of me…I think I should just motor up at my pace.  Right as I was deciding this, I witnessed an attack at the front anyway, so I gave up the chase and settled into my tempo pace.  I caught one other Total Restoration woman and also caught my teammate Pam.  The three of us rode to the finish together.  It was awesome to have a couple people to ride with this time.  We took our time to make sure we’d be able to make it up the last little bit…and we finished together.  92 miles of craziness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Down Town Criterium (Stage 4): FAST!!!!!!!!  We started out and I knew I needed to be near the front.  I got in a pretty good position through the first few laps.  In order to finish the stage we needed to complete 16 minutes of the race before getting pulled/lapped.  I kept looking at my clock thinking, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.  I made it through the 16 minute mark and just held on for dear life.  I felt so comfortable in the pack.  Taking good lines, fighting for wheels, doing everything I needed to.  Then suddenly, coming up the front stretch (which is a little hill) my legs turned to lead.  I started drifting back a little.  I moved up again through the side stretch (good tips from Bill) – but to no avail, I was slipping back again on the front stretch.  I had hit my wall.  I struggled and then finally popped off again because there was a gap after the big turn at the bottom.  I chased and chased…and then sat up a little. I  rode hard for a few laps and made it with 8 laps to go before I was pulled.  Not too shabby.

My legs feel better now than when I started the race.  Yes, they are tired, but feel good.  Time for a rest week and prep for Elkhorn!!!!

TAI Women are at it again!

Well, it’s official.  My teammates are awesome!  Today was the OBRA Time Trial Championships and we kicked some butt!!!!  It was apretty warmish day – and really nice out.  Not too windy.  Jill, Lisa, and I headed out to the course right outside of Corvallis and where we were met by Pam.  We discussed a few race tactics (which I will have to keep confidential as to not allow any other teams any advantage for next year).  My legs are still not up to par, but nothing a little ibuprofin won’t help.

We started the race and settled into a good pace.  Some of the corners were a bit tricky, but overall it went really smoothly.  All the rotations went awesome, there were no surges and everyone communicated very well!  We finished with all of us together which was also awesome!

So, that’s that.  TAI Women are OBRA Team Time Trial Champions!  (for the Senior women anyway).

Now it is time to relax and try to recover and eat a lot before Mt Hood Classic which we start on Wednesday.  By the way…if anyone knows where I can buy some fresh climbing legs…please let me know asap!  I am willing to spend quite a sum if anyone can provide!

Tired little legs

Well, it officially has hit me. My legs are mush.  This is what my legs feel like:

My Legs

I tried doing the Coburg TT last night…and as you might imagine…if my legs felt like that…it did not go very well. I was almost 2 minutes slower than my time last week.  This equals about 40 watts slower on average with a HR of 15 beats lower than last week.  220 watts felt like 300…and I could not get my HR up above 162.  (which is pretty low for me).  Talk about pain and a little frustration…but hey, it’s alright.  Time for a rest day (or couple of days).

As I was searching for the image above, I found this.

Banana Holder!

So, I’m thinking, next time I should get one of these and maybe some how My legs won’t feel like squashed banana.  Okay, maybe that’s not how it works…but I still think the banana holder is awesome. I wish they made them in the bunches so you could encase a whole bunch of bananas for a race weekend. I always end up with smooshed or baked (black) bananas.

Anyway, today is a rest day.  And I am getting my hair cut.  I’m thinking maybe something like this?

Or this…

Anyway, today is definately a rest day…I’m not doing anything but drinking my coffee and eating oatmeal…oh crap…the oatmeal is still cooking on the stove, I’ll be right back…

Speaking of which, Irish cut steel oats are the best.  They are so much better than regular oats.  At Trader Joes, (and maybe else where), they make some quick cooking Irish cut steel oats and they are definately the best because then you don’t have to wait so long for them to cook.

Anyway, that’s about it.  Rest day today, some riding tomorrow.  This weekend is the TTT so I gotta be plenty rested for that!

Movin’ right along

Well, there hasn’t been too many exciting things going on in the past couple weeks.  Once again, I fail to write in the good ‘ol blog…I know, I know…I’m letting my readers down.  BARE WITH ME! Is it Bear?  Bare?  Anyway, here goes…

Chris and I were planning on going down to Treasure Valley SR in Idaho, but due to the large amount of time and $$$ it would take to get there, we decided to stay here and race in Oregon.  It ended up being an exciting weekend and some fun racing.

OBRA Rehearsal Road Race which also acts as the OBRA Road Championships for the senior women was on Saturday.  We had 3 TAI women there, Lisa, Pam and myself.  The race was sort of rubber-badndy the entire time.  People would go hard up the hills and then let up.  It was sort of frustrating because even on the hills people would slow clear down and then surge causing quite a bit of sketch near the back and middle of the pack.  I tried to stick near the front, which I usually need to do anyway to not get popped off the back if someone attacks on the hills.

1/2 way through the second lap I attacked over the crest of the long hill and 1 woman (Amy from River City Bicycles) came with me.  We busted it down the hill and actually got away for quite a while.  We worked well together and tried our best to go as fast as we could up the hills.  Unfortunately my speed and ability to decend and motor on the flats does not carry over to the hills, especially when I’ve been all out for the last 20 minutes or so.  We eventually heard some one’s carbon brakes coming up behind us, and had just enough time to recover a bit before the pack overtook us 1/2 way through the 3rd lap. +

It was fun being off the front like that, and it’s my first time in a road race that I’ve been able to do that in the “big girls’ field.”  I also felt lucky to have some teammates back in the pack that were doing an excellent job of blocking for me!  Thanks gals!!!!   I was able to stay in the pack after that as everyone seemed a little tired and not wanting to attack. I think a lot of people were trying to conserve their energy for the uphill finish.

We started down the descent and Lisa was forced out front.  Well, we were going for her win, so I motored up to the front from the middle of the pack and sat on the front and drilled.  I stayed up front and kept a pretty steady and fast tempo through the entire descent and up to the 1K.  At this point I’m feeling pretty tired and try to keep going hard, at which point some one attacked.  Lisa was able to hop out from behind my wheel, grab on to someone else and sprinted to the win, also thanks to Pam boxing a few people in on the right side of the road.  I just sat up at the 200 feeling like I had done a good days work and rode easy to the finish.  It was a fun and very successful race for all of us!  It was great to be able to finally pull off some team tactics for a successful win!

Yesterday I raced PIR…it was…interesting, and I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened.  The race started and I was a few people back from the front…and around the back side in the headwind one of the Sorella Forte women was on the front and started to pick up the pace, then pulled off a little, so I got up to the front and started to pull.  I wanted a work out and so I decided to pick up the pace a little.  Now, at this point, I wasn’t attacking… I just got up front and SLOWLY rode a little faster…23mph???  Then a little harder 25mph as the wind changed…feeling good I kept up the speed, figuring I’d just string it out a little and then pull back in to recover.  I looked back after the first corner and….NO ONE WAS BEHIND ME!  They were clear back…I was like…what the heck???  This is the first lap?  They just let me roll off??!!!???!!!

So, then I had a decision to make.  Do I sit up and just roll with the pack (I really wanted a sprint workout) or do I continue to drill it and see how far ahead I can get.  Well, I went for the second option.

My first PIR ever turned into almost a 40K TT by myself.  I ended up gaining at least 3 minutes on the pack by the end of the race….I was told afterwards that some of the women didn’t even know I was off the front??!!!  I don’t know how that happens, but I guess it happened so early that if anyone near the back didn’t notice, then you wouldn’t even realize I had gone. I also heard that some of the women saw me roll off, but were saying, “We dont’ need to worry about it…we’ll get her back.”  Well…I love to TT and if I get in that situation, I’m probably not going to stop…it’s just what I do.   Either way, it was a good work out, but no sprinting for me.   TT’d all the way to the end.  Good practice for a long TT, I guess!

Anyway, we went and had some good Mexican food after the race to celebrate Jim’s birthday and headed home.  A pretty good weekend and holiday of racing!  Tonight is the last week for the coburg TT.  I’m ready to nail it!  We’ll see how my legs are doing from last night.

Slacker!

Yes, I’m a big huge slacker.  I just realized that I have not written on my blog for ages…and I really have no excuse.

So,  I have decided that I won’t talk your ear off with all my fabulous (word of the day) stories about all my cycling adventures, because it would just take too long to get all the juicy details in.  Instead, I will feature a bullet point rendition of the past few weeks.  I’m sure it won’t be near as exciting, but it will take less time for you and me.

- Table Rock: did I write about table rock? I think I did…cause that was Llama land.

- Deschutes River Valley TT: I’m not sure if I previously wrote about this, but it was awesome.  I kicked butt…it was hard, not hard…BRUTAL!  Got 1st place out of the W3’s and got the fastest overall women’s time.  It was awesome.  I also came away witha  major hurting underside because of lack of a comfortable TT saddle.  It is time to do some saddle research.

- Icebreaker Crit: fun, somewhat easy, got 3rd.  Got boxed in a little at the sprint and when I started my sprint I was at about 120rpms and had to shift multiple times to actually get into a gear that would propel me forward.  Needless to say, I had it at the end, but didn’t plan correctly.  Such is life.  Better next time.

- Prior to Icebreaker Crit: Got my 2 upgrade.  I’m officially a Cat II!!!!

- Prior to Icebreaker Crit: Chris proposed!  I’m engaged!!!!  The wedding date is not decided but will probably take place next summer.  Exciting times!

- Training: been good.  I’ve been going through heat acclamation as a part of a human phys study at the UO.  I’m in post testing phase and it is getting me great results, so that is awesome!  Other than that, it’s just back to base for me.  I’m not planning on peaking until late July, so I have plenty of time to get some more miles in.  It’s been nice, and actually got around 20 hours last week and I feel great.  It’s sort of worrysome because I’m not getting a huge amount of hard efforts except for races, and I feel like I’m loosing some of my mo-jo, but I start building again next week, so it should all come back soon!

- Other stuff:  Nada.  Still no job.  Still riding my bike.

- New favorite desert at Sweet Life: Blackbottom Cup cake!  AMAZING!  If you get it, have them warm it up.  It’s absolutely fabulous!

Edamame

So, I’ve recently discovered edamame. They are a great snack. And, yeah,  I think I heard a rumor that soy beans cause cancer?  Well, I still like them anyway.  I like to eat them by themselves – they are fun to pop out of their little shells.  I also tried them on my salad the other day and it was quite tasty.  So, yeah, edamame is good.

In other news, time trialing is good also.  Last weekend Chris and I went down to the Deschuttes River Valley Time Trial Festival.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s basically a 3 stage TT stage race.  Yes, you guessed it!  3 Time trials in a row!!!!  What more could you ask for???  (maybe some edamame???)

So, we decided to go down last minute because the Willamette Valley Stage Race was cancelled.  We had some awesome people, Chad and Ana, offer up their house and we got to stay for an affordable (free) price.  We even got to watch The Shining with them, which neither Chris, Ana, nor I had ever seen.  So that was exciting.

The TT went well for both Chris and I.  The courses were amazing and I felt like I rode really well.  The first day (Saturday) was extremely windy.  Along the top of the hill you had to pretty much ride leaning over ALOT even to stay up because of the cross-winds.  It was crazy!!!!  Then there was a screaming descent which was awesome!!!  And a lot of rollers and a crazy strong headwind in the last 5 miles.  One of the most brutal TT’s I’ve ever done and it was amazing.

The second stage was later that afternoon, still blowing hard.  8 mile hill climb.  We all know how much I love to climb…but it was actually not too bad because of the winds and I just barrelled my way up the hill and did surprisingly well.

The last stage is epic.  48 mile TT, out and back.  The first 24 miles is all uphill (except for a few rollers that give you maybe 15 seconds of downhill at a time) and all down hill on the way back.  Only the grade is only about 3% on most parts so you have to continuously pedal to keep up a good speed.  PAINFUL!!!  It went well as well!  My legs were absolutely dead when I arrived at the finish line.

Chris and I both took 1st place in our categories!

Speaking of Categories:  Say good bye to Cat 3 land and say hello to Cat 2 land from me!  Yep, that’s right.  I got my upgrade this last week and I’m really excited!!!  Time to get my butt kicked a little more!  I’m all for it.

That’s about it for now. My edamame is done cooking.

IT HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!!

It’s here!  It’s back and it’s brand spankin’ new!  My powertap just arrived via Fed Ex…and I am so excited.  Everything is brand new, even the hub!  It better work this time! (longer than 6 months).

Other than that – nothing exciting.  Nice weather.  Willamette is canceled.   But life will go on.  We may be doing the DRVTT this weekend, which I’ve heard is just amazing, so we’ll see!  If not, it’s a bunch of hard weekend rides on my own!  yipeee!!! Maybe I’ll just go have an individual Willamette Stage race.

They’re just so cute!

Llamas. I love Llamas!  How could you not love these adorable creatures. I realized how much I really love them yesterday at Table Rock Road race.  Hard race, feeling the pain, and then I look over and what do ya know????  A Llama is staring me in the face.  Well, maybe not right at my face, but it certainly seemed like it.  And it made all my pain go away.  Well, not really, but close…and I realized…that’s what Llamas are on this earth for.  To make me feel happy on painful rides.  How can you not feel happy when you see a face like this????

Hello! My name is LLAMA and I am here to make you happy!

Alpacas are pretty cute also, but they are less common in these parts.  This guy forgot his appointment at the barber, but he still looks pretty darn cute.

Is there actually an alpaca under all that hair???

In other news, I raced 2 races this weekend.  Roubaix and Table Rock.  Roubaix went well…until the end when I managed to botch the sprint and went way to early and lead the other 2 women out perfectly.  Way to go Karey.

Table Rock went extremely well in my perspective and I stayed with the pack (or what was left of it) much longer than I had anticipated and only dropped off after climbing the long hill for the second time.  4 of us chased for a bit and settled into a good pace and finished the race together.  I finished 4th in the 3’s which was an excellent placing for me considering the extremely hilly course.

In other news, my power tap is on it’s way home!!!!!!!  It should be here some time this week and I am so excited!!!!!  It just better work for a while longer than a measly 6 months like it did last time.

I think that’s it…Llamas, Alpacas, racing and Power tap.  Yup, that’s about it.  Oh…and Willamette.  If you are an Oregon racer and you are reading this you should SIGN UP FOR WILLAMETTE STAGE RACE!!!!!  If Mike and Sal don’t get enough people signed up by tomorrow (Tuesday April 21), then the entire race will be cancelled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  SO SIGN UP!

One last thing.  My boyfriend did really well this weekend at racing, so you should check out his blog if he ever updates it.   Here’s a picture of him getting his sprint on at Roubaix.