Gloucester - keepin' it classy.*

Nearly the first thing I did when we arrived in Gloucester last year was race the Gran Prix of Gloucester, and now we've come back to that point. Full circle, or something . . .

If I were to look exclusively at my placing - 35th and 33rd - I'd think that I was slower than last year. But when I look at the talent of the field I think I'm actually doing better. Certainly there are things that need improvement (like 20 more watts) but by and large I'd say I'm getting faster.

Day 1

I love my team. I've yet to belong to a team that I didn't love, and this group of ladies is no exception. While I was back in the field duking it out for 35th my teammate Andrea Smith was battling with Helen Wyman, the British national champ. That's pretty darn cool. But anyway.

I have this tendency to think I'm doing really well at the start only to find I'm in last place. Day 1 at Gloucester was one of these. Rats. Must. Improve. Starts. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the start is definitely my least favorite part. Not a sprinter. Intensely dislike the feeling of digging myself into such a deep, dark hole in the first 30 seconds of racing. But either I figure it out and get it done, or resign myself to never breaking the top 10. Starts. Will practice. Anyway, Saturday's course was FUN! They built this sweet flyover, and there was some weird sketchy mud leading into it, and those tight off camber turns they put in every year. It was a little hot, in my opinion, and I was pretty parched by the end. Anyway, the big news for my CX racing this year is that I'm totally killing the run ups! I know, right?!?! I've always kind of floundered during the running parts, but this weekend I was PASSING PEOPLE on the gnar Gloucester run up. On the last lap I passed Vicki Thomas, only to have her get back on her bike faster on top of the flyover (d'oh!) and beat me by 10 seconds or so. I ran more this year than I've ever run before. And I trained it, doing track workouts, and plyometrics. And it worked!!! In an effort to not let people think I'd gone over to the dark side and become a "runner" I kept saying that I was just training my run for CX, and as it turned out, I was! Okay, I'll shut up about it, but the truth is I'm really psyched.

Day 2

The course on Sunday was a little less technical, no flyover and it was dry, but super fun, lots of turns, and a beach run/ride that lead to a big ol' set of stairs. Now, I was kind of dreading the stairs, but since it turns out I'm like the Usain Bolt of cyclocross, it actually worked to my advantage.

Anyway, determined as I was to have a good start, I didn't. I lined up on Lyne Bessette's wheel - bad idea? I dunno, but right after the whistle the girl to my right promptly ran into me and then moved into my line. Bitch. But then I popped out of my pedal. Uh, yeah. I'd sprayed some lube on my cleats to keep them from mudding up and then I kept popping out of my pedals. And I think they still mudded up. I just. Can't. Win.

I passed a bunch of girls on the first lap, then gave up a couple places. My legs weren't as snappy as on Saturday (well, no duh), but I had a good race. I kept it together and stayed upright as people fell over all around me in the corners and the sand. One girl passed me at the beginning of the last lap, then fell over on the beach and I darted around her and totally dropped her going up the stairs. I know, I know, I'm awesome (kidding!). Of course then someone else passed me and out-cornered me to such a degree that she opened up 15 seconds in in the last half lap. So starts and cornering. Yes, I will work on these things.

Anyway, big big thanks to all the friends who came out to cheer and tell me I'm awesome! And to Cody for pitting for me and telling me to "go faster", "dig", and "get on that wheel" so many times that I wanted to throw my bike at him.

Oh, and if you missed it on facebook, I made Cyclingnews:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/nepcx-gran-prix-of-gloucester-2-2011/elite-women/photos/192802

Or at least, part of me did.

*Note on the title:

On day 2 the course had to be re-routed due to a backed up septic system and pools of veryverybad water on course. Then later I heard that some bikes were stolen out of the parking lot? And it just left me with the feeling that Gloucester is like Reno - everyone who visits it thinks that is kind of quaint, somewhat delinquent, a decent place to visit but why the hell would you want to live there anyway? It gave me that warm feeling that I felt towards Reno - that which you'd feel for your slightly unstable second-cousin with a police record on unemployment. Sure, you wouldn't want to lend them your car, or money, but they're family so, like, you've gotta love them a little bit, right?

Nor'easter - from High to Low

I showed Cody this picture and all he could do was make fun of my Alfalfa hair . . .

Ahhh, Nor'easter Cross. What can I possibly have to say about my first DFL at a UCI race? I know, I'm as surprised as the next person to realize that I've never come in last at a UCI race before! But that streak is, alas, over.

I think the cosmos were trying to warn me not to go - I'd felt wiped out the whole week, not really training at all, then, at 10 the night before the girl I was going to carpool with texted me that she was bailing. Not to be deterred, I got up nice and early on race day (did I mention it's a 4 hour drive to Burlington, VT?) to take a shower, and when I was toweling off my hair I heard a crunch and my neck got all out of whack. Again, I persevered, loading up the car, eating breakfast, etc. The drive up wasn't too bad, all in all. Got out for a couple laps on course and, erm, it was really muddy. I mean, look at the pictures on Cyclingnews or wherever, it was muddy. And it was the kind of mud that is really, really hard to ride through. You keep turning the pedals but you're pretty much not moving. And there were two long sandpits. Of the running variety. I mean, it was a fun course and all, but at this point my perspective has been distorted by what a dreadful race I had. Anyway, got on my trainer for a little warm up, and when I climbed down to get ready to race my head started throbbing. Like, instant onset headache. At this point I'm thinking, "God damnit, I drove 4 hours to get up here and I'm going to race and finish in the money!" Which, props to Adam Myerson, the Verge series, and the race promotor, was equal for the men and women for the 15 places it ran in the women's race.

Last row call up, of course. Did I mention that Helen Wyman was there? Yeah, the British national champion. Yeah. She won. But I digress. The whistle blows and I'm not in a big enough gear but I figured it was going to all bog down in the first turn so I didn't need to panic. Then I find myself in last place going into the first turn. OK, I can move up, look at all those people right there? I passed one girl, got on my teammate's wheel, and hoped for opportunities to move up. Then . . . it just kind of fell apart. I was going as hard as I could but it just wasn't happening. My head felt like it was going to explode, my stomach was exceedingly unhappy with me, and I just wasn't having much fun. With one lap to go the sole person I'd passed at the beginning passed me back, and that was that. During that last lap my train of thinking was along the lines of, "I should really just downgrade, I'd have more fun racing with the amateurs, I suck at this." I know, bad thoughts, but the mental game can be the hardest part when you're rolling in DFL. I suppose the good news is that I actually finished, and didn't get lapped by Helen. In retrospect, perhaps it would have been better if I'd pulled out on lap one, given the 4 hours of misery that were to follow.

I felt like I was about to pass out after I finished, so I immediately rode over to the bike wash to get cleaned up and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. I didn't cool down (I told myself that my entire last lap had been a cool down. ha. haha. yeah.), but I hung out with my teammates for a few minutes while they did. I had some recovery drink. Then I hit the road. I talked to my dad on the phone whilst meandering my way through Burlington and probably running over someone's cat/child/foot in my somewhat distracted and unhappy state. Once rolling I started feeling really, really lousy. Head throbbing, stomach seriously unhappy with the state of affairs. And I had 4. Hours. To. Go. I'm not really sure how I made it home. It involved occasional stops for light napping and puking out the car door. It involved a whole lot of silence because every little sound hurt oh, so much. Somehow I made it home by 10, crawled into bed, covered in mud, and failure, and probably vomit. But oh! The joy of stillness and quiet.

Anyway, needless to say I should have listened to the signs and stayed home, and most of my Sunday and Monday involved continued recovery from whatever it is I did to myself on Saturday. I even called in sick yesterday, the first time I've done that since I started my job in January. I'll get out on my bike today and hopefully be able to salvage a little something for the Grand Prix of Gloucester this weekend. I love this race, let's hope it loves me back more than the Nor'easter did.

Northern Kingdom

I wanna go back!!!

One week ago today I was camping outside of East Burke, VT. I'd wake up that day, drink good coffee and eat oatmeal, and go ride brand new (to me) singletrack for 3 hours with Cody and Riley. We'd get back to camp and eat whole wheat pasta with our homemade pesto, about a pound of bacon, and good romano cheese. And drink beer.

(Today I woke up at 4, came to work, and am currently drinking bad coffee - there's something about the Turbo Shots that Dunkin' Donuts put in their coffee that make me feel all hella cracked out. I mean, more than normal espresso. 'S weird. I currently find myself grooving to a La Bouche song at 5:30 AM, inspite of my better judgement.)

Anyway, needless to say it was a totally fantastic vacation - complete with sitting around a fire drinking beer and making s'mores. I think we spent about 12 hours riding ripping trails while we were there. My legs still hurt. A couple friends from Gloucester came up to camp and ride with us. One of them compiled some pretty fun videos from her helmet cam. Mostly there's just some shots of my butt, but you can see Cody getting rad over a couple jumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuFW3AFk8-A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6E0MkmkH4U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlIhj2ulyjE

On Thursday me and Cody spent almost 4 hours riding in a downpour. It actually was one of the funnest days, trail-wise. It was slippery with all the wet roots, but god those trails are fun.

New Christmas card photo???

After that picture was taken we went out and split a medium pepperoni pizza, an order of mozzerella sticks, and an order of french fries. Yeah. It was a lot of cheese. But it takes a lot of cheese to stay warm whilst camping in Northern Vermont in September. And with 3+ hours of hard riding each day I think Iate like, 10K calories a day and came back a pound or two down from when we'd left. Hey, it's race season, I gotta keep tabs on these things.

Anyway, the downside of taking a few days off work to go play is that I'm super busy and utterly vacation-hungover this week. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to heading BACK up to Burlington, VT this weekend for the Nor'Easter UCI cyclocross race. Two words for you: Euro Pros. Yeah, Crossresults has my ranked LAST on race predictor. Sad face. But I guess I can only do bettter than that, right???

Dude, Reno, what the hell? Why can't you get in the news for something not terrible? Seriously, the economy? Suicide rates? Mass involuntary aeronautical vehicular manslaughter? (Not that Gloucester is much better.) I tell this story a lot, but back in 2002 a dude crashed his plane out at the Air Races, and, well, died. I saw his picture in the paper and he was this guy who I'd waited on at The Diner out in Golden Valley (that's in Reno, for you non-Reno-ites). Anyway, he had been a jerk and had tipped me like, 51 cents, so I remembered his face. Then, well, you know the story. Life's weird, huh?

On a lighter note - did anyone watch the Pats game on Sunday? Did you see Wilfork's interception? Look it up on Youtube. It's priceless.

This digression brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts Turbo Shots.

Finally!

I think . . . yes, I do believe it is - a race report!

QUAD CROSS!


Yesterday I did my first cyclocross race of 2011 (it was, in fact, only my 6th race of the year. period.). Cody earned Awesome Boyfriend points by getting up super early after an extremely late night (more on that later) to drive me out to the Rod 'n' Gun Club in Maynard, MA.
Yada yada yada - driving, arriving, registration.

I got to meet a few more of my awesome and exceedingly speedy teammates, then I headed out to check out the course. It was super fun, with a couple little ups, a long decent, a longish but not overly difficult run-up, a bit of sand, one set of barriers, and some fun loopty turns on a grassy slope. And some fun singletrack through the woods! After a couple tire pressure adjustments and a good warm-up I was ready to go!

There were 76 women racing (compare that to the 30 women I counted in the results from CCCX - hells yeah New England!) - 20 or so in the Elites, a bunch of 3/4s and masters. And we were all on this little 2 km course at the same time, with 20 or so juniors. Cluster. I don't have a better suggestion, and I've put on enough races to know that if you want it different then put on a race and see how hard it is, then you'll quit the bitching. But by lap 3 (for me) there was some serious traffic. Not a big deal as far as my race went (realistically) but I feel bad for the little guys and girls who had to move over for people 3x their size going by at mach 10.

But onto my race . . .

I had an OK start, but made some good passes and ended up sitting in about 9th about halfway through the first lap!!! I could see my teammate, the uber-fast and nice Christina Tamilio up a little ways from me, and I was sitting on Allison Snooks' wheel. Feeling good and maybe, a little cocky, I passed her on the big-ring descent. That may have been a mistake, which I realized as she passed me back before too long and when I came through the finish and saw 4 to go. 4? 4?!?! I was not riding at a 4 laps to go pace. More a last lap kind of kill-myself pace. So I cracked a little, lost Allison's wheel (we'd long since lost sight of Christina) and fell off the pace. Before too long teammate Nancy came by. I tried to stick with her but it was not to be, apparently. Did battle with some NEBC girls, and had kind of found a good rhythm. Then. I dropped my chain. I had gotten a little sloppy with my shifting and didn't downshift before entering the single track. Mistake. Anyway, I got it kind of jammed up and had to get off my bike and pull it out. Got passed by another NEBC girl and caught by Anna Milkowski. At that point I think we had 2 to go, and while I didn't catch anyone, I didn't get caught by anyone else. I rolled in for 14th, with teammates in 3rd, 5th, and 10th.

Weeeeee! Cyclocross is sooooo fun! And I had a REALLY GOOD RACE for 2 laps. Then it fell apart, but if I can just hold things together and not go all in on the first lap I think I can scrape together a couple top 10's this year! And my bike handling felt really good, same with my CX skills. Yay! Come on, UCI point! And my team is awesome, and our director/coach said I can use his bike as a pit bike all season long! It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there how one can be totally psyched by 10 minutes of feeling like a fast, competant bike racer, even if your result is only mediocre. For the mere mortal among us, incremental improvement is still improvement, and still reason to feel excited and encouraged.

Moving on, because really, anything that's not cyclocross is pretty much an afterthought at this point. On Saturday we went to a lovely beach wedding and wore fancy dress and danced with lovely friends and family. The wedding was early and I was in bed by 9:30, but Cody went out with his bro's and didn't get back until 2 AM, then got up at 6:30 to drive me to my race and play bike mechanic/cheerleader/chauffeur duty. Here's my "See? Sometimes I wear something other than workout clothes" picture.

Now getting ready for 5 days of camping and 168 miles of singletrack up at Kingdom Trails in Northern VT. And no, it didn't get washed away.

News!

And the (kind of) big news that I've been too busy and/or lazy and/or distracted to announce to the internet world is . . . ! I managed to weasel my way onto a sweet new team! I'll be racing for LadiesFirst Racing. They're (we're?) a women's (duh) Massachusetts based team that focuses on cyclocross, although a number of the ladies also do a fair amount of road as well. Having support and teammates and coaching is going to be rad. I'm pretty much stoked.

I can never really figure what people are thinking when they decide to support me in some way or another. I feel like the things I put on resumes always sound cooler than they really are, and so I must be misleading people. I'm not making stuff up, it just sounds more impressive on paper than the event actually was. So when I was talking to the team director, who's also my new coach, he asked me about my power zones. I haven't actually done a power test in a year or so, so I just kind of guessed. I mean, it was an educated guess, but a fairly optimistic one. After I got off the phone I was a little worried that I might have oversold myself. Oh well, I guess if I'm not that fit then we'll find out soon enough, right? So yesterday on my ride I was gratified find that if anything I'd underestimated. I know, right? I am worthy.

Anyway, I should be racing this sunday, right when whatever's left of Hurricane Irena hits us. Epic.

The Call of the Road

Ever since last January when the dark days of winter enveloped New England in more ice and snow and clouds than I care to remember I struggled with the decision of what to do with myself, bike racing-wise.

"Do I want to race road bikes?" Hells yes, but it either meant lots of trainer time (not a chance) or a late start to the season. Coming from the NCNCA and lots of fabulous early spring racing that was a hard concept for me to grasp. Additionally, I was a little spoiled coming from the NCNCA. I wanted a Copperopolis, a Wente road race, not some silly circuit race. Ignorant to the ins and outs of racing in New England, I didn't know what I wanted to commit to, to peak for, and how to train for it. Plus, I didn't have a team - I didn't even know who the teams around here were (still don't, I guess). So that inevitably lead to the question,

"Do I want to race mountain bikes?" This seemed like a fun option, given my lack of team and my obsession with east coast mountain biking. The biggest detractor here was cost. I'd have to buy my UCI license (which I'll have to get before CX anyway, but that's beside the point) and the entry fees are more than most road events I've done. My bike, as much as I love it, also needed some help - I'm currently running a 3 year old chain and cassette, and really, really need new tires. Like, really. It adds up.

Of course, one thing was not in question - Cyclocross. I knew whatever else I did I wanted to race 'cross. We have something like 15 UCI races in New England this year, and it's about $200 bucks to fly to Wisconsin in January (brrrrrr!).

Tonight I'll go race my first criterium if 2011. It also happens to be my second road race of the year, 3rd bike race, and probably my 5th competitive event of 2011. Whoa. I did more racing in my 1st year of racing, when I wasn't even sure I was a racer.

So what do I want to do next year??? The same questions/excuses/problems present themselves in answer.

Instead of doing 5 hour rides and spending more than I can afford racing my bike this year, I did lots of fun rides in the woods, went snowboarding, learned to go off a 4 foot drop, went downhilling, read a lot, ran a lot, raced a 5k and a duathlon, hung out with friends and family, worked on my core and upper body strength, watched a World Cup MTB race, watched a slopestyle competition (wow, spectating!!! When's the last time that happened?), played capture the flag, didn't stress about standing on my feet for prologned periods, didn't stress out about what I was eating (I still eat super duper healthy, but don't worry so much about what goes in the day before a race), established myself as a personal trainer through a highly regarded organization, went swimming as much as I could and went sailing. Probably some other things, too. It was rad. I've had a great summer and spring (pretty much everything since the snow melted). I've had time to do the things I never get to do in the summers, and spend time with people who are important to me.

But . . . every time I log onto Cyclingnews, or NorCal Cycling News (yes, I still check out, somewhat obsessively, what's going on in the NCNCA), and any number of blogs I read on a regular basis, I get this pang of longing. It's the same way I feel when I think about the mountains to the west of Reno, or my friends and family who aren't on the east coast, or Cody when one of us is away for a few days. I miss road racing the way I'd miss a person, or a significant and dear geological feature (haha).

So I'm not making any promises or commitments. I'm not saying I'm going to race a full season of road. (I AM going to race a full season of cyclocross, which may or may not include nationals.) I'm not positive I'm ready to give up having another summer of frivolity. I just want to put this out there as a reminder to myself, come January, what it will feel like to spend another season off the road. Maybe the commitments will come then, or maybe sooner, but it's good to get it down, sort through the pros and cons and how I feel about it.

Almost Time!

Ah yes, the nights are getting cooler, the days shorter (which sucks, but whatever), summer seems to be winding down. I love summertime - the heat, the long days, swimming in some body of water every day I can. But as summer ends it's time for cyclocross, and that makes up for losing those long days and all the fun stuff that comes with it. Plus, fall in New England is pretty rad. Last year was my first fall here and between the colors on the trees and the lovely (bug-free) cool-but-not-cold weather it makes for a really nice season. I guess it was the same way out in Reno - fall Tahoe riding is pretty much the best. It's also football season, which I'm mildly ashamed to say makes me pretty happy. (My 16 year old self would be mortified by this admission, but she's too busy putting on more black eyeliner and dying her hair so I don't think she'll notice.)

Well, I registered for a crit next Wednesday - the Witch's Cup, in Salem. It'll be the first crit I've done in over a year. Ouch. But it's a women's cat 1-4 field, so I'm sure I won't be either the sketchiest or the slowest person out there. Goals for this event include not riding like a ninny and keeping the rubber side down. But it's good speed work for CX. Other than the fact that Salem is 20 minutes from home, I decided to do it because some business stepped up to sponsor the women's race, which was notable absent from last night's Grand Prix of Beverly. The other crit I'll be participating in this year is the TD Bank Mayor's Cup because last year they offered equal prize money for men and women and hardly anyone showed up and I want to support an event that does that even though I'll probably get shelled on the first lap when Laura Van Gilder attacks. Damnit. But it'll be sweet to race in downtown Boston, and it's part of this big Boston Cycling festival thing, so it sounds like fun. Even skipping a UCI2 CX race to be there and support it. Rubber side down, don't ride like a ninny, rubber side down, don't ride like a ninny (my crit racing mantra). I know, it has some logistical flaws, but whatever.

In other exciting news I seem to be generating some good power on the bike, which is nice. I say "seem to be" because I haven't been riding with my powertap, because, uh, I just haven't. With nationals in January this year I'm trying not to stress about numbers in August, or I'll probably be wicked burned out by the time it counts.

Oh yes, have you met my lovely new bike? I usually refrain from naming inanimate objects, because I have a hard enough time coming up with names for furry ones with eyes, but this one is Cap'n America, since it's red white and blue. It's kind of supposed to be ironic. At any rate, it's a hella sick bike and I can't freaking wait to go race it.