Pain on Mt. Tabor

Well, I drove my little self up to Mt. Tabor, because I just couldn’t go another week without racing. I hated to spend all that money on gas on just 1 person, but I was suffering from cabin fever and needed to go feel some pain.

Got there in time to change my tires, dress, and ride around a minute.

12 laps…up down up, up down up…and on and on it went for a total of over 1200 feet of climbing in 40 minutes. Mt Tabor is basically all the hill repeats you could ask for wrapped up in one big ball we call a race. This was my first ever Cat 3 race, and as the women’s field always consists of Pro1-2-3 categories, I expected to be schooled. BUT! My goal was not to be DFL. (dead freakin’ last)

So, I hung in for about 4 laps and lost it on the start of the first climb on the next lap. I just couldn’t move up to the front, which is where I needed to be to successfully stay with the pack on the climbs (that way I could fall back a little bit, and not be dropped). Well, I succeeded in getting dropped, but continued on with another girl for the rest of the race. She ended up dropping me on about the 10th lap when I went to get a drink and was in too high of gear to climb up the hill. Darn it!

After 12 laps of greulling pain and an awesome work out, I ended up getting 20th out of 25 riders. Not too shabby for my first 3 race, and certainly a rather difficult course. My driving paid off because I ended up giving Kennett a ride home, so that was nice. He didn’t even fart once! I was so proud!

Next week I am off to WA to play the piano for a boys choir, so no racing for me…but the next weekend Chris and I are going down to Pocatello, ID for Gate City Grind stage race…which should be loads of fun! I’m looking forward to a hard couple weeks of training!

Good luck to everyone else at Elkhorne this coming weekend!

Well, hmmm…

The past couple weeks haven’t been very exciting.  The first thing is that I’ve been a little sick with something that slightly resembles a cold.  Only I think it’s really bad allergies that have caused me to have this wretched chest cough.  Who knows?  All I know is that it’s forced me to coup up in the house as to not get any “sicker”.

Last week on Tuesday I went to Green Hill Industrial Park to participate in the weekly Crit series.  After riding 75 miles the day before at Chris’ pace, my legs were less than fresh.  I was dropped within the first 6 laps.  (Oh, I was riding with the Men’s 4/5, by the way).  I spent the rest of the time chasing, never to catch, never to be lapped. The first and foremost thing I learned was that men accelerate a lot harder and faster than most any of the women I have been racing with!

Last weekend there was no racing, and we all went to the UO Cycling team BBQ.  It was a lot of fun.  Saturday I stayed in as to not get sick. Sunday, Lisa and I went out and rode Hamm.  It was good.  We went at a semi-fast pace, not to hard not too easy, and of course, Lisa schooled me on the hills, but that’s alright.  I’m gettin’ better!  After almost bonking over the backside of Dillard, I recovered with some fresh water and made it home okay.

Monday: stayed home sick

Tuesday – another weekly crit series.  I showed up with only 5 minutes to spare.  Enough time to do 1 lap around the course.  THe first lap out I was second wheel and was ready for the acceleration this time.  Little did I know signing up this week, I was in for 30 laps!  Last time we only did 20.  I thought I would be doomed.  Little by little, the laps went down on the count board, and I was still hanging in there!  I was much smarter this time about my positioning and holding on for the attacks and chases. It was a lot of fun to be in there, really racing a crit.  It’s a much different experience than just going off the front on your own.

There were a few sketchy points, and 2 crashes total, one right right next to me and one a little ways behind me.  Talk about cuttin’ it close.  I ended up finishing 18th out of 30 riders. I finished with the pack, which is a lot more than I could say last week.  And I also beat 11 guys!  (There was one other girl).  I felt pretty good after the crit, and actually felt like I could have gone harder at the end.

WEdnesday – learned my lesson about recovery.  I tried going out for a ride today.  The first 2 blocks I could already feel my legs screaming. I thought about going back home for about the next 10 blocks – and then some more about the next 5 miles.  I decided I should just stick it out and do an easy recovery ride.  About half way through Mackenzie view, I tried to put in a hard effort…not happening.  My legs couldn’t even push me above 24 mph on the flats.  Definitely a no go.  I eased back up and just focused on high cadence drills and easy riding.  I really need to focus more on recovering even when I don’t feel that tired. I know that the lack of water and/or food after the crit yesterday reeked havoc on my legs.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

This weekend: Mt. Tabor Circuit Race: my first 1/2/3 race.  Time to be crushed!

Upgrade Time

Well, it’s official. I’m a Cat 3. After winning the Crit in Albany, I have enough points, so I’m making the leap. I don’t know if I’m ready, but we’ll find out, eh? I guess if anything, I’m prepared to get my butt kicked, so that’s good. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!

I think my legs are 10 times weaker than they were 2 weeks ago…

Well, this weekend was a flop.  I was supposed to go to a stage race up in Enumclaw, WA with Chris.  After paying the $60.00 to go, and hoping to do really well, I was brought to the realization that I had a prior committment which I hadn’t known about until 2 days before the race.  I had to be at a mandatory rehearsal for the choir I accompany (on the piano), and a Choir concert on Saturday and Sunday.  My enumclaw dreams were dashed to smithereens…along with the hope of schooling everyone on the TT course up there.

So, I decided that since a few other people on the Life Cycle team (and Ivar) needed a ride to Silverton Road race, that I would volunteer (so I could race for free) and drive everyone and myself up there today.  We woke up at 5 in the morning, and headed out.  After driving down OR-126 for about 15 minutes before we realized we were not on the I-5 headed towards Silverton (we only noticed when we happened to come upon a stop-light and thought…I didn’t realize that there were stoplights on Interstates…)  Anyway, so we turned around and went back the other way. We lost about a 1/2 hour and got Ivar and Will there in just enough time to change, roll around a bit and be on there way.

Meanwhile, I had been contemplating the whole morning whether or not I should even go because I had weird pains in my stomach and my throat has been feeling weird.  I decided to tuff it out and I registered to race.  I went to hurry and get changed…and got a horrible feeling…I don’t know if it was nerves or what, but I just knew I couldn’t race.  If I did race, I’d have that feeling with me the whole time, and I just didn’t feel good and didn’t feel like I should race.  So, after pinning my number on and chamoising up…I put back on my sweats and decided to wait around with Mike.  It just wasn’t my day.  I was kind of torn because I think today was  a record day for Cat 4 women with 20+ people there…and I probably missed my chance to race my last race with the cat 4’s…but that’s that.

I was supposed to be a follow car for the Cat 3 men that afternoon, but after only 5 men putting wheels in, they only needed one support vehicle for follow, and they no longer needed me.  What a waste of a day.  No race, no support needed.  I spent 12 hours of my life sitting there doing nothing.  I could have ridden around, yes, but did I?  No, because it was wet and rainy and miserable, and I didn’t want to have a wet miserable body or bike.

So, that’s that.  To make matters worse, there is no racing next weekend.  Looks like I”m going to have to go get my legs torn off in the Men’s 4-5 Crit series this tuesday.  Bring it on brothas!