Mt. Minty

The Team!

Warming up for the TT. My bike is sexy.

Start of the TT - it was so windy they discontinued use of the starting ramp.

The support crew relaxing after the queen stage. Cody won the beer drinking GC.

Before the start of a very wet crit that lasted about 9 minutes for me!

Ahh . . . a day off. After arriving home at 3 AM on Monday morning after 6 days away from home, then working on Monday and Tuesday, it's awfully nice to just be able to sit on my ass, drink coffee, and write a race report. Oh yeah, and I guess I'll do laundry or something at some point today. Maybe.

I survived Mt. Hood! Hells yeah. Okay, so I was 2nd to last in GC, that's OK! You know why? Because my teammate-for-the-weekend won! And I don't think I'm being inappropriate when I say that I sacrificed a number of places during the Queen Stage of the race so that my teammates could arrive at the final long-ass climb with rockstar legs. I mean, I really hate that coulda-woulda-shoulda stuff, but I'm confident in my assertion nonetheless. Whatever.

So, where's to begin?

Last tuesday Cody and I loaded up the Jetta and drove North. We arrived at our intial destination in Bend, Oregon, and found the house of our friend, Lizzy F'in English. Just so happens that her S.O. is Adam F'in Craig, so crashing at their house is an experience worth its own blogpost at some point. Let's just say that their garage is Off-The-F'in-Hook. Anyway, long story short, Lizzy took us out for a spin on the mountain bike (I borrowed one of her bikes) on some totally ripping Bend singletrack, followed by dinner. Good times.

Next day we loaded back up to rain, reloaded the car, and drove further North, arriving at our Motel 6 in The Dalles around lunch. People keep asking me why we stayed in The Dalles instead of Hood River, since The Dalles is kind of ghetto and is about 17 miles from Hood. Let me just say this - good luck finding a cheap hotel in Hood River. I prerode much of the time trial course (in the rain) and then drove to Hood River for our pre-race team meeting, and for the distribution of Metromint kits.

The next day was stage 1 - a 52 mile road race with about 3600 feet of climbing. Doesn't sound too bad, right? The plan for the day was to keep everything together and preserve all of our GC options, since we had 3 girls that could take it. Unfortunately I was dropped after about 8 miles. To be fair, the climbing started on mile 1. And it was fast. And there were attacks. I was doing fine, moving up, responding. And then I was spit out the back. D'oh! We rallied a group of 5 of us and pulled fast for the rest of the race, finishing only 9 minutes down on the main pack, which finished in a field sprint. I felt decent for most of it, but didn't eat enough and bonked on the 2nd climb of the day with about 1 K to the top. I hung on, but just barely. Our group was 7 by the finish and I won the sprint for 39th. Wow. The day had been pretty nice, but about 1 minute after I finished the rain started. Oh, Oregon. This is why I live in the desert. Good timing, anyway.

Stage 2 was a 18.9 mile time trial on probably the most difficult course I've tackled. The climbs, the wind, the descents, the kamikaze squirrel that almost took me out . . . it was tough. And to top it off I didn't have a very good day. It started out OK, and then I was passed by my 30 second girl and my moral took a digger. Then on the climb I was passed by my 1 minute girl. Then the rest of the race was a struggle to keep my power above 200 watts. Seriously suck. Plus I just wasn't digging that Metromint chamois, so to top off my suckiness I was seriously uncomfortable. I finished the race and went back to the hotel where I proceeded to feel sorry for myself for the rest of the day. At least until I learned that my teammate Molly had WON and taken over the GC lead! That boosted my moral significantly. Heather finished 5th and Jane 7th. We had the GC lead and some serious contenders in the top 10, so who cares about my lousy race?

Stage 3 was the queen stage - a monstrous road race with 8600 feet of climbing over 72 miles. And we had GC to protect. The plan was for myself and another girl to patrol the front before the first climb of the day, which came about 20 miles into the race. I had my job. I could do my job, and then when I got dropped I could be content in the fact that I'd helped the team. As it turned out, I lasted quite a bit longer than 20 miles. So, the race started with a long, not particularly steep descent. I worked my way towards the front and sat on teammate Amanda's wheel while she made sure nothing went off the front. Then we had a pee break, which I was actually pretty happy about. Some Hagens Berman girls were like "what's a pee break?" and didn't want to stop. Seriously? You've never heard of a pee break? Anyway, Molly pulled rank on them and told them that if the race leader called for a pee break it was customary to accomodate them. Radical. Anyway, after that I found myself at the back again. I was trying to edge up the road without much luck. Then the attacks started. I saw Amanda at the front chasing and thought "crap! That should be me up there, Amanda has to cover the 2nd part of the race!" So I gunned it to the front and helped chase. Mission accomplished. Then we hit the climb, and I found myself on the front, again with Amanda. What's the best way to make sure you don't get dropped on the climb? I say set the pace. So we set the pace up the 5 mile climb to discourage attacks and keep things moving at a pace that I could just sustain. It felt great to lead a climb at a race like Mt. Hood. There were no QOM points for the women, but the signs were still there from the Pro men's race. Myself and Sue Butler "sprinted" for it, and I "beat" her - just for fun. People laughed, it was good times. This was followed by a fast descent, and then we hit some kickers before the real climbing began. At that point I was on the back, hoping for the best. I got gapped off a few times but chased back on. Finally I cracked, about 40 miles into the race. I knew that I'd done my job well and I trusted my teammates to finish it off. So for the next 30 miles I rode through some beautiful Oregon forest, up some long ass climbs, and was perfectly content knowing that the time cut was 30%. As it turned out, Molly held onto the lead. Yay!

The next day it was raining. A lot. And we had a crit to race. The organizers decided that the crit would not be counted for GC, as the conditions could be considered unsafe. A number of girls opted out of racing. Metromint took the line, however, out of respect to the yellow jersey. It was really wet for our race. From what I hear, ours was the wettest of the day. Great. Without getting into a whole lot of unnecessary and demoralizing detail, only one of us finished, but none of us crashed. Molly won the overall. Life was good.

Me and Cody drove home after the awards ceremony. I should say, actually, that I drove to Bend, then slept almost all the way from Bend to Reno, while Cody stayed awake driving until 3 AM. Whatta guy!

One last thing - if in Hood River I totally recommend Dirty Fingers Bike Shop - the guys there were awesome in helping Cody find places to ride, and it seemed like a great bike shop. I do not, however, recommend Salmon Cyclery in The Dalles - that guy was utterly unhelpful, a jerk, and a total tool.

And now onto the good stuff.

So the cool piece of news that I didn't want to have thrown into my Miss Negativity post was that myself and my two teammates who are heading up to Mt. Hood will be guest riding for Metromint! They're also sending three girls, so we'll have a strong 6 rider squad. Unfortunately, I'll definitely be the weakest link. But I'm sure it will be an excellent learning experience, nonetheless! I'm hoping that the altitude will give me a bit of a boost. I mean, a lot of it starts at 1100 feet or so, but on the gnarly 3rd stage we get up to 5300. Even if it's just psychological, it could help. And honestly, I need all the help I can get. I'm nervous, but I'm also wicked excited. I hope I can hang in there long enough to be of use to someone.

Oh yeah, so, since I've switched jobs and now won't be able to make it to Cascades in all likelihood, I've developed a little secondary season goal. I might even add it to my list, although I'm not sure it's entirely realistic. So, over here on the Eastern slope of the Sierra we have the Sierra Nevada Hill Climb Time Trial series. It's 4 races long, and I've already missed one, but if you do 3 of them you're eligible for the overall. The races I've added to the calendar are the backside of Mt. Rose (my most loathed of all Reno-area climbs), Geiger (must redeem myself!), and Mt. Rose proper (also eligible for redemption). You get points based on coming in 1-3, and they're weighted depending on which race it is. Mt. Rose proper gets the most points. My friend Amber Broch, who's totally insanely fast this year (and last year, for that matter) won the first one, and won the Geiger TT a couple weeks ago, and beat me by two minutes. She's strong and lean and flies up hill. I don't know if I can beat her, but I'd like to try. It will be a good motivator for my climbing, and even if I don't win, I'll be happy knowing that I was bested by a friend, and a strong one at that. Anyway, winning the overall is not a terribly realistic goal, especially considering that I already missed a race, but maybe I'll make my goal a top 3 in the overall. I don't think I want to start setting time goals for the various climbs - if something goes badly and I suck then I don't want to dissolve into that blubbering whiny thing that I was after Geiger. Get a grip, Mare, fo' rizzle.

And, working on that climbing is going to be important since the Elite District road race is going to be at Challenge this year. You may recall my last attempt at this race. Not. Pretty. Gotta get the climbing legs ready!

In other good news, my neck is doing a lot better today. I still have to turn my whole upper body if I want to look at something that's off to my side, but I can sit up and move around without whimpering. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm a big wimp. But feeling uber-motivated by having such a crappy day yesterday, so I'm going to be getting off my ass and away from the glowing rectangle of my monitor and get some shizit done.

Okay, one last piece of snooze before I go. I was in the paper yesterday: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100525/LIV/5250319/1089/Pedal-power-for-Northern-Nevada-bicyclists

Apparently I'm like, an expert, or something.

More Whiny Crap

As I recall from the beginning of May, I may have made some statement about how blogging was going to be slim because I wouldn't be racing much. Um, hello? Mare? Turns out that when I'm less busy with travel I seem to blog a lot more. But my posts suck, so it's kind of a hard call which is better. Mostly they've been sucking a lot lately because it's just been bitch bitch bitch, whine whine whine, boo hoo, poor me. God, people like that are annoying as hell, aren't they? Whether it's my crappy Geiger time, getting a wimpy little cold, my lousy job (haha, not any more, suckers!), the weather, or whatever else I have to complain about, it's been pretty much non stop negativity out of me for the past couple weeks. Well, this is more of the same, so I would encourage my 1.5 readers to find a better use of their next several minutes.

This morning I sneezed, and promptly threw my neck out of whack. I got some whiplash when I was 13 and ever since then I have to treat my neck like a Ming vase to keep it from doing this crap. It's actually gotten a little better over the past year or two, and I don't think I've done this since last November or so. It used to be ever 3 months. I'm going to tell you that it hurts, a lot, and I hope you understand that I fancy myself a pretty tough guy (girl), and I hope I don't come off sounding like a big wimp. Whatever, it hurts. I didn't get anything done today because I was laying around, rubbing Tiger Balm into it and sucking back pain killers. Tuesday = suck. I finally took a couple of Excedrin because Vitamin I wasn't cutting it. I'll probably be awake all night, but at least I'll be somewhat more comfortable.

I have a cool piece of news, but I feel kind of like a lame-ass including it in my whiny post, so I'll save it for next time.

Changes

Okay, so I officially have a new job. Phew. The downside of this is that I probably won't get to go race the Cascade Classic. C'est la vie. So I'm changing my goal to "don't get time cut from Cascade" to "don't get time cut from Mt. Hood". I can race NRCs next year. This year there's nothing wrong with sticking to the regional stuff.

I rode for 4 hours in the snow/wind/occasional sun yesterday. I think that I need to increase the distance/intensity of my longer rides now that I'm a 2. 90 miles instead of 60. Still a zone 1/2 effort, but more zone 2.

Okay, off to do another 4 hours in the rain/wind/hopefully sun today. It's Reno, so the chances of it being very wet are slim. Still, I might throw on a fender.

Pull the Plug

Today I quit my job. Good riddance. The official rational is that they never once paid me on time, in the almost 4 months that I worked there. There are other reasons, but the cycling world is small and I'd prefer to not talk too much shmack. If you can imagine the total lack of respect that an employer exhibits by not setting and maintaining regular pay periods (as is required by law) you can understand how that lack might manifest itself in other ways. I feel very, very relieved. I asked Cody this morning if it would be cool with him if I quit my job today, and he gave me his blessing - "They never pay you on time!" he said. But I had to promise to start looking again on Monday. Well, I started looking again today, and I think the outlook is good. Making the Reno bike shop rounds here, but sooner or later I'll find one that isn't run by crooked jerks. It's not just me, ask anyone else who's worked at my last two bike shops and they'll fully support my opinion. Whatever, I don't need to justify myself.

But it does pose a couple of new problems. Namely, how am I going to get myself to races with no income? Hopefully the new shop works out, and there's no sense in worrying about things until I know for sure that it won't.

I'm not going to race the TT and RR this weekend. I'm too damn sick. Which is lame, but health is priority number one. So what am I going to do? It's supposed to snow tomorrow and sunday. The wind is gusting like crazy right now. Fingers crossed that this is it, that summer is right around the corner, that I have a new job, and that my legs will come around for Mt. Hood.

The Haps

What I did this weekend, in no particular order.

Climbed Iowa Hill. It was really, really steep. I want to go do it again.

Saw the Tour of California race through Nevada County.

Watched it with my pops.

Watched Cody graduate!!! This shot is of the whole family. Both of my parents, his mom and her S.O., his three brothers, his sister-in-law, who's expecting! and his boss/friend/father figure from Massachusetts, who flew out and surprised us! Oh yes, and Riley, who's like my furry little child.

Yay!

In addition to all this I went to an Elvis Costello concert on Saturday night that was fabulous. Oh yeah, and went out on Tuesday and raced an Air Center twilight crit, which was way fun. And now I'm paying for my big happening weekend - I'm sick. Seriously, I went all winter without getting sick (aside from my systemic MRSA infection, but that doesn't count, because I didn't FEEL sick). And now, in May, with the sun shining and the birds singing? I'm laying in bed with a nasty head cold. So. Lame. Especially because after four weeks since my last race I'm making the drive over the hill this weekend for a nice TT and road race. I figure as long as I'm not coughing up a lung, I'll be OK.

Anyway, I suppose a head cold is small price to pay for having the whole family together under one roof for one awesome weekend. Cody's applying for jobs - the other day he applied for one in Manchester, NH, and one in Folsom. I hear they put in a velodrome in NH, not too far from Manchester!

Feeling My Roots

So, I grew up in Quincy, California. It's a quaint little town in the mountains, close to nowhere. I loathed the place when I lived there, especially near the end. Let's put it this way, Quincy is a "small town" in all senses of the phrase. Nosey neighbors, narrow-minded church-goers, white bread. I mean, this is California, right? And yet there were like, 2 hispanic kids. Just sayin'. I was always a little different, and you know how cruel kids can be, especially to other kids who don't quite fit the mold. I'm not trying to make myself sound cool, or like a free-thinker, or rebel. I wasn't really that interesting, I just wasn't ever accepted. I had a few close friends, only one whose life I stay involved with. I mean, the occasional Facebook comment doesn't really count as staying in contact, that's just cheating. Anyway, Quincy is the kind of town (it could be that all towns are like this, I just don't have the first hand experience necessary to make that call) where if the kids don't like you, the parents probably don't either. Maybe it's because my parents were kind of antisocial, maybe it's because they spent their weekends playing on kids toys wearing spandex instead of mowing the lawn and going to church, perhaps because their kids said I was a witch . . . . you know what the funniest part of that is? That it actually bugged me - stupid rich, white kids calling me a witch. But I digress. Point is, I always felt that from an early age I was not quite approved of my classmates and their parents, who really ought to know better, but don't. "Witch" manifested itself to "lesbian" in junior high, which also got to me. The LGBT population of Quincy isn't much bigger than the non-white population, or the non Judeo-Christian population. Again, the label bugged me. I have no issue with anyone's sexuality, nor my own, but I think it was just the act of being bullied that got to me, which I suppose is the whole point. I mean, it really doesn't matter WHAT someone says to you, but how.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah, so in high school I was kind of punk rock I guess. I was more interested in good music than image (at least in retrospect I'd really like to believe that) so I didn't really listen to much punk. I listened to Neil Young, Idiot Flesh, Melt Banana, Sun Ra, James Brown, the Melvins, Bad Religion, the Ruins, Queen, Frank Zappa - just the stuff I liked, you know? Anyway, the only real sub-group in Quincy was the hippy population. And by "hippy" I mean dreadlocks and weed, not social or environmental activism. So it's kind of a derogatory term in this case. Anyway, I freaking hated the hippies. I felt that they did a disservice to environmentally and socially consciencious people by being such lazy-ass posers. Sorry, but it's the truth. I was a little agro back then (these days I channel my continued tendencies towards aggrivation through my pedals).

Anyway, the whole reason I started this blogpost was that I was feeling like a little bit of a hippy and it made me think about Quincy, and how I've changed in the last (gasp!) 9 years since I left. See, I got this really bad sunburn yesterday because I didn't put sunscreen on my arms before riding for 4 hours in the desert. So today I bought some unrefined coconut butter to rub into my skin. I'm wearing baggy flannels, drinking Kombucha, listening to some mellow girl music that I actually listened to when I was a teenager (whoa, am I not a teenager anymore? daaaamn.), rubbing coconut oil into my arms, and thinking that I could probably pull off dreadlocks, at least as well as any other white girl. Oh yeah! And I bought a Neti Pot, and cleansed my sinuses, which made me feel very holistic. Anyway, I'm going to go do some yoga and foam roller my IT bands, then pass out. I have a long ride to take care of tomorrow - fingers crossed for this damn wind to go away!