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And I rode

I actually rode 2 days in a row this weekend and have gotten a nice start in transitioning from skiing to riding. This is probably just in time to transition back to doing some rollerskiing (which for the record I have not done yet this year).

Saturday I did 60 flat but windy miles to the lovely little village of Cooksville and then on Sunday I did 36 more hilly miles in a ride called "Tour of Nine Mounds". If I count my commute home on Friday then I got a nice 100 mile weekend. All this early season riding and I may just show up at a race before September. Maybe.

I had an awesome weekend though with all the riding along with the Henry Rollins show on Friday night and The Runaways movie on Saturday night. Add to that dinner at the Green Owl vegetarian cafe on Friday and the delicious pear and gorgonzola pizza at Sundance Theater and there is nothing to complain about this weekend . . . .well, except that it ended and I had to go back to work.

Birkie

Okay, so it has taken me a lifetime to finally do a post about the Birkie but I've been busy and I got a nasty cold. I wanted to document the event but blogging motivation is not super high right now. However, how could I skip blogging about an event where I met my race goal - to enjoy the event enough to do it again.

After last year's Birkie debacle I had low expectations this year. I trained hard in Oct/Nov but then got H1N1 flu, skipped my planned trip to West Yellowstone, and generally stopped trying. At some point I told Dave that I was going to classic the Birkie as I had stopped enjoying skating. Everytime I went out to do a long skate ski I found that I wasn't enjoying it and couldn't fathom skating the Birkie again. The only problem with my plan to classic the Birkie was that I didn't know how to stride - sure I could double pole pretty well but that wasn't going to be enough to survive the Birkie.

Luckily one day in early January my brain finally clicked and just like that I could stride. Not great but enough. So I did the Seeley Classic 22k race to test out my new skill and even with a jaeger/red bull shot at the 11k to go mark I did great, felt great and most importantly had fun. That lead me to the Mora 42k classic which is mostly double poling but still was a step in building my confidence that I could classic ski a marathon distance event. That race went well and I had fun so the Birkie Classic was on (and they even put me in Wave 4 based on my Mora results).

One of the hardest parts about classic skiing is getting the kick wax right as bad kick wax can make for a long day. Luckily I'm a member of the CXC Master's Team and so the CXC team waxers would be doing my skis and I knew they would test 15 million combinations to find the secret to success (and for the record they did a freaking amazing job on the team's skis). Being a member of CXC kicks butt on so many levels (support an organization that is making a difference, get to know lots of other cool athletes from jrs to elites to masters, fast looking ski suits, good training camps and waxing at the Birkie).

I was nervous race day after having a bad day last year and realizing that 54k of classic skiing is really a big day of skiing. However, I reminded myself that if striding was tiring I could double-pole or kick double-pole or herring bone and that it wouldn't just be skating, skating, skating.

Anyway, in a nut shell the race was awesome - fun at times, really hard at times, really fast at times and totally manageable). I reminded myself to go out slow as I noticed in my other races that I have a tendency to go out fast as I am much more of a half marathon distance skier. I stuck to my plan, sometimes stayed behind slower people on the uphills to conserve energy and refused to worry about who was passing me or who I was passing. No need to get too concerned about Wave 5 passing me or too over excited because I'm passing people from Wave 3. It was an awesome feeling as my biggest problem with skating is just skiing easy and at a manageable pace.

One big area of improvement for me this season was being efficient at the aid stations. I usually would lose the group I was with as I lingered overly long going through the aid stations. This year I told myself that I would speed up and I did. I still took on enough food drink but without spending too much time.

Was it hard? Absolutely. I love the new Classic trail for the Birkie but you still have to climb a lot of hills and it is 54k. When you're skiing along and you still have 30k left to go it does seem a bit overwhelming. And at 10k to go I was feeling it and wishing I had done more than one 35k and one 42k ski for training. On the 2nd to last downhill I got wildly out of control attempting to get out of the classic track and took what was described by the people behind me as a spectacular fall complete with a full roll. However, I felt strong double-poling across the lake and down Main Street.

I felt so great that when I hit the lake I was able to do a totally "pro" jager shot hand up. Each year there is a table on the lake and they are handing out jager shots. I figured with my experience with beer hand ups in cross that I would have to take one. And if I do say so myself I did awesome. I grabbed the plastic shot glass without stopping and then downed the shot on the move (spilling some on myself), and threw the glass down. I got some good cheers from the people at the table! Jager really burns going down and unlike at the Seeley Classic there was no water to wash it down. It was fun though even if it does taste nasty.

For this race I had written "Live Fully" on the toe of my boot. It was in honor of Garett Kipp who died at 36 from cancer shortly before the Birkie. In 2009 we skied together a bit during the Birkie before he passed me up on his way to a great race. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with cancer. I wrote that on my boot so if I got in a tough spot in the race I would remember how great it was just to be out there.

All I can say is what a great year! I don't care if I move up a wave or down a wave or whatever. I had a good day which was amazing given my preperation and the fact that it wasn't that long ago I couldn't figure out the secret to striding. I even skied 1 second per kilometer faster this year than I did skating last year. I may be a classic specialist!

Thanks to everyone at CXC for their support - especially the waxers, the camp coaches and Yuriy. Without Yuriy's patient coaching I certainly wouldn't have figured out any part of ski technique. Also huge thanks to Dave who not only bought me classic skis for Valentine's Day several years back even though I didn't really want them but also for helping me with my classic skiing so much this year and getting me classic rollerskis. I couldn't have done it without him since he clearly has more faith in my ability than I do.

Photos

Thoughts

There are days when I really want to go back to my caffeinated diet soda drinking habit. It's a bad habit but was always a nice addition to an afternoon at the office. However, I persevere.

I'm not sure if blog posting will resume or not. I have very little to say these days. Even a Jaeger shot with 11k to go at the Seeley Classic did not elicit a post. Neither did my first classic marathon. I'll commerate that with a picture today though. Maybe my first Birkie skied Classic style will elicit a blog revival.

A Tale of Two Races

Saturday I was at the Whitewater race and I was riding my bike and there were other people with numbers pinned on going around the same circle at the same time. I guess that makes it a race. Hills make me hurt just thinking about riding them let alone actually lining up for a race that is almost entirely hill climbing. I'm not sure I can even explain why I would line up for a seriously hilly race against some amazingly fast Cat 1/2 Women when I don't ride my bike except at the races. There is a certain level of insanity to what I'm doing. But it's cross so I do.

I won't complain (much) about the Whitewater course as I know if I was a climber I would have loved it. I'm not a climber and even when I ride a lot I'm not a climber. I did razz Dave T. about the course but hopefully he didn't take it personally. Different course favor different kinds of riders and that's okay.

The actual race . . . We start, everyone rides away basically at the first climb immediately at the start. We go by the lap cards and it says "9". My mind reels with the horror of that concept. "This will be a great workout," I tell myself. I ride hard because to ride easy would not be possible. Luckily there are some amazing superfans on the climbs whose enthusiasm keep me motivated. They made it shockingly close to fun. I suffer through the climbing while getting some sort of perverse joy out of running the sand (which I realize was rideable but not necessarily faster ridden). About half way through the race I realize that the 70 degree temps are leaving me very parched and I wonder about the likelihood of a beer handup. As luck would have it one appeared thanks to Cale from Team Pegasus. It was well executed and through some miracle I had enough momentum to not tip over while taking a quick drink even though it was the top of a painful hill. As I approached the 1 to go lap I could see the 40+ leader coming so I slowed and slowed and slowed. Then I stopped along with Pegasus's Katy and feigned a mechanical so we could get lapped and not have to do another lap. There was just no need . . . the placings weren't going to change and we'd both had beer handups already so why climb those hills again?!?! And don't say "for pride" as that is clearly not a concern this year for me. I was happy to be done and go do some superfanning of my own!

Whitewater race looking to see who might be lapping me now

And then came Sunday . . . very quickly after Saturday and with tired legs. Amazingly I got up and out of the house with enough time to photograph some of the first race. So you know how sports psychologist types are always telling you to visualize success. Guess what? That's not what I was doing. I was visualizing a painful race all by myself off the back just like last year. It's ironic that I would feel that way about Estabrook since the first cross race I ever won was Estabrook.

Estabrook brought out some additional Cat 1/2 Women racers with 9 total. I didn't get a great start but kicked it up a notch moving off the grass and onto the bike path and passed Rachel. This is not uncommon as Rachel starts slowly but usually speeds up quickly. I was doing my usual go hard for a lap before moving into last place thing. I was enjoying the corners after the first barriers and hit the spiral with a decent gap to Rachel. The four barrier section was painful especially followed by the grass to pavement straightaway. I know the race course well enough to know you can really go all out in the woods so I always try to maintain lots of speed through there.

As I completed one lap I was happy to see that Rachel hadn't caught me. That motivated me to keep going hard. I actually shifted up on the pavement section and did my best impression of someone who can drill the straights. When I hit the corners after the first set of barriers I even stood up and sprinted out of some of the corners. I felt like it was 2006 and I was serious about cross. The great part about the spiral section in the course was I could see how much distance I had on Rachel. Not a lot but enough. Still I expected her to be behind me and passing any second since that is how it always goes down.

Around lap four I actually started to wish she would catch and pass me as this racing thing was starting to really hurt. My body was not accustomed to having to race hard this long. It's funny how the mind starts to have strange ideas as you're hurting. At first it thinks that there is no way I can beat Rachel but lets have fun and see how long I can hold her off. Then it starts to hope that she will catch me so I can stop suffering so much and let the race play out like it usually does. Then it starts to realize that if I really work hard that I might beat her and not be last at every race so let's keep this together. Then the mind starts to crumble a little and thinks we can't keep going like this. It's too hard. We're not prepared. Then as the laps get down to only a few to go the mind is conflicted . . . yes, no, please stop the suffering. Then finally with one lap to go your mind realizes that indeed you will be beating someone today so go hard but don't do anything stupid but go hard just in case.

And that's one of the things that is so cool really . . . sure it's about you and other racers but it's just as much about you against yourself. It was nice to be racing at all and racing against Rachel even if I heard she was recovering from illness. After so many DFL's I'll take a second from last any way I can get it.

Running the hill at Estabrook

All photos from djonnymac

Halloween Cross

I didn't think I'd be racing Halloween Cross so I did a hard week of ski training leading up to it. Then the promoter told me that next year they would once again offer equal prize money for the women's categories. That was what I wanted so on Friday when I found out I put the race back on the schedule. I hastily threw together a costume (which was Ana Killingspree of the Reservoir Dolls roller derby team).



I have to say that having not ridden my bike for two weeks but having spent a lot of time rollerskiing and one night of running hills I knew that my usual last place finish would be assured. I had one good lap where I rode with the Cat 3 women in the race but my legs just never got in the game. However, every person counts in the women's field so I went, I paid my entry fee, I stood on the start line and I rode around in circles.

The funny part of the race is that I felt really pathetic for not bunnyhopping the coffin barrier. Last year I did (although it was just a 2x4 so it was mentally easier) but this year I opted to just pop my front wheel up on the coffin and riding over it that way. On the preride I was thinking that I should bunnyhop but I told myself to play it safe. My mind reminded me that I had only ridden my cross bike 4 times this year and that in 3 weeks I was flying to West Yellowstone to ski. This was no time to show off skills that might not be so sharp. This is funny because I felt really lame the whole race but I later found out that very few women were riding it all.



Here is a little video from the start of the Cat 1/2/3 Women's race. I like footage from early on as I have not yet started to totally suck.



This is also from Lap One at the coffin obstacle where you can see that I am lame and didn't bunnyhop but I also didn't get off the bike. Thanks to Steve and Heather for the videos!

Canceled

My busy weekend of double cross races came to a screeching halt on Friday afternoon as I took call, after call, after call, after call to discuss the potential cyclocross race cancellations. In the end it really is up to the land manager as you can't make them allow the race to go on and the race promoter has to negotiate that with the conditions in mind. I just offer advice as to what can be done to notify people, reschedule, etc. I know cross isn't supposed to be canceled for bad weather but we also don't want to loose venues. It is just bike racing after all.

Here's the thing though - I love to race cross and was looking forward to it. However, I suddenly felt like some magical extra weekend in the year had been created and I could do whatever I wanted. It was tinged with a little sadness as I know that I will have to miss at least one of the rescheduled races (November 15). Yet it was so relaxing to have an unexpected free weekend.

I did lots of little things many of which were boring such as laundry, cleaning and the usual home chores/errand running that had been put off forever. I also cooked including some yummy blueberry muffins which I look forward to enjoying this week.




I also got in a much needed visit to my mother at the nursing home. Cyclocross season has been hard as I haven't visited her as much and when I do visit it has been post-race for a quick dinner and then I'm off. She was, of course, excited to hear of the race cancellation but I did force her to look at photos of me racing the last few weeks. She refers to cyclocross as that sport where you jump over things. Now she knows it also involves running while carrying your bike. Hopefully she doesn't tell the nurses where I am on the weekends as they likely would consider any description pf cross as a sign of increased dementia. Perhaps I need to print out and post a photo in her room to show that is what I am actually doing.

This weekend I also carved our pumpkins. I kind of thought Halloween was going to come and go before I got that done. I also got in a nice 2 hour rollerski. It was nice except that I ripped a hole in the knee of my favorite Patagonia tights. I planted a pole between my skis on the very last little uphill. I know better than to wear my good tights and now I'm paying the price. I also did a painful 5k run on Sunday.

Dave, however, was off on his own adventures with his father. He was up north where it snowed.


And he had a very lovely time hanging out in the duck blind with his father and his father's friends.