Marla + Kate = Karla

So, cyclingnews.com scooped my blog - not so impressive, considering I update my blog 0.0723 times per day on average. But more impressive is that they not only called me "Marla" during their live feed, but also called me Kate Kingsley in my byline. I guess Marla + Kate = Karla?

But anyway. Hot damn, the past few days have been quite a whirlwind. Last Tuesday, Liza Rachetto (SugarCRM Director extraordinaire) calls me with some good news.

Liza: "So, Karla, we have a guest rider for SugarCRM this weekend."
me: "Um, cool! I like guests! Who is it?"
Liza: "Laura Van Gilder."
me: "haha, funny. yeah. so... who is it?"
Liza: "Laura Van Gilder."
me: "no shit. really?? Does that mean she'll talk to us?"
Liza: "Yes. Even YOU, Karla."
me: "amazing. HOLY CRAP YOU'RE NOT KIDDING!! This is going to be so COOL!"

The proverbial sun continued to shine on me on Thursday, when Liza called me to let me know that my Blue bike had arrived. Excellent. Friday, I headed down to Liza's Los Altos pad, where I met LVG and my new bike at the same time!! Wowzers. It was almost too much excitement for little me, but I contained myself, and got the bike onto the rollers to give it a try. Yikes, I kinda suck at riding rollers. I used to be good, but I left that skill in Minnesota. Whatev.

Saturday morning came after Friday night, like it usually does, and Liza, Laura and I piled into Liza's car to head to the race. I was riding in the passenger seat, so Liza put me in charge of her crackberry for the trip. The thing was vibrating constantly with texts and calls from the team:

Starla: "Hi Liza?"
me: "nope, sorry, it's Karla."
Starla: "OK, where am I supposed to be?"
me: "uhhhhhh, hold on. Liza, where should Starla be?"
Liza: "in the pro parking? by Steve? Almaden ave and 4th."

....

Mary Ellen: "Hi, so where are you guys? How do I get there?"
me: "ummmm, yeah. We're on 280. You should be in pro parking I think."
Mary Ellen: "Karla, you useless piece of crap, stop wasting my time and put Liza on the phone."
....

JV: "We can see where we want to go, but we can't get in there!"
me: "do whatever you have to do. we're having trouble ourselves. at this point, it's every car for itself. good luck!"

It was rough. As soon as we finally pulled into the right parking space, I tossed the phone back to Liza with a new level of respect. So... warm up, talk, meet, blah blah. Then all of a sudden Liza was CUTTING A HOLE IN MY JERSEY! WTF? That's a new jersey! But she told me that's how you do the radio action. Alright.

Somehow none of us really felt like we got in a good warm-up, but at least the sky was pretty clear as we toed the start line with about 50 other women - Tibco, Webcor, Proman, Touchstone and Colavita were all in the mix. Our team’s job was to cover moves going up the road, to make sure SugarCRM was always represented in the mix, but ideally have the race come down to a field sprint so that LVG could do her thing. I was feeling OK during the race, but not great, and when a couple of raindrops started to fall, I was less than thrilled. Coming around the 180-degree corner of the course, I was positioned behind Brooke Miller and Tina Pic, when the newly slippery roads got the best of us and we all three went down. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and we got back into the race. But after that, my head wasn’t in the game. And bike racing – sure, it’s a physical game. There’s bumping, sliding through the pack, technical skills, and so much raw strength required, but it’s also a mental game. It’s so easy to forget that if your head’s not in the game, there’s no way your body can be.

So while I was sort of sucking, hovering around 20th, Laura, Erin, Liza, Mary Ellen, and my other teammates were doing a much better job. And ultimately, we came down to a pretty intense field sprint, which Laura managed to WIN - just ahead of Gina Grain and Brooke Miller. Nice job, Laura!

After the race, we goofed off for a bit, and then packed up for the drive up to Santa Rosa. Liza had organized all of us to be in 3 different host houses, and they had prepared an awesome dinner for us that night. It was nice to just hang out and relax, not to mention the carrot cake and sorbet. Sunday morning I rolled out of bed to the sound of raindrops falling on the rooftop. It was rainy and wet, with no signs of letting up, which I came to terms with over a bowl of steel cut oats. However, our supremely awesome host's workplace was actually right on the course, and she let us warm up in the lobby. Amazing. There was even a real flush toilet! (A novelty at a bike race).

After a solid warm-up, we got out onto the course to get a feel for the corners and the botts dots in the rain. After a couple laps, I was still SUPER happy with my Blue. It felt great in the rain, and after I got soaked through, I really wasn't that cold or grumpy anymore. I just kept telling myself: “If it’s a downpour for me, it’s pissing down on everyone. If I’m wet and cold, they are too. If I can’t see shit, they can’t see much either. If the botts dots on the course are in my way, they're there for everyone."

And before I knew it, we were on the line peeling off our jackets and waiting for the gun. Our overall strategy was similar to the day before – cover moves, keep Laura comfortable near the front, and do anything to string out the field and help free up her position coming into the final sprint.

The race started fast and frenetic off the line. After the first lap, I knew that it would be safest somewhere near the front, so I moved up into the top 20. I could see that LVG was also sitting comfortably, and several of my teammates were nearby. After just a couple laps, I saw a couple riders attack off the front of the pack and get a sizeable gap. Pretty soon, a couple more launched in hot pursuit, and seeing that none of them were SugarCRM, I figured I better get my ass in gear and get up there with them. I jumped at the exact same time as a Value Act rider, and we quickly bridged up, with a few more riders joining us. Pretty soon, we caught the initial break and looking around, I saw that we were about 12 girls with a sizeable gap off the field. Seeing as it was only about 10 minutes into the race, I didn’t really think we’d get very far, but all the major teams were represented – Tibco (Meredith Miller and Lauren Tamayo), Columbia (Kim Anderson and Emilia Fahlin), Value Act (Robin Farina and Kristin McGrath), and Touchstone (Sarah Bamberger and Olivia Dillon) each had two riders, and there was one from Webcor (Katheryn Mattis), Proman (Rachel Lloyd), and Colavita (Kelly Benjamin).

I just needed to hang tight in the break and not get dropped, since SugarCRM had Laura Van Gilder back in the field. And I can honestly say that I had the time of my life doing just that. I could hear Beth and several other people cheering for me around the course - always nice (so thanks!) Riding in the break was a pretty nice situation for me - I followed the repeated attacks from Tibco, Value Act, and Columbia, and tried to just stay comfortable and calm. At one point, my heart rate probably just about hit my max when I almost landed in the gutter after having to take corner two a bit wide.

Finally, after about 45 minutes in the break, it was two laps to go. On the final lap, Meredith Miller put in a huge attack, and we were strung out single file for the rest of the race to the line. I tried to get into the best position possible, and then sprinted for the finish, behind Emilia, Lauren, and Rachel. Fourth place in an NRC race! I couldn’t believe it. Seriously. I was basically just laughing, not really believing it, but then Beth came over yelling "KARLA!!!!!" And she even was willing to hug my wet, sweaty, snotty, spitty, dirty self. Now that's a good friend. Not to mention - she threw down over at Goldsprints after the women's race and won herself a bike! Maybe my racing efforts were focused in the wrong place...but no, crit racing is my favorite game these days. Now I just have to figure out how to get myself to any or all of the upcoming NRC races. And maybe I'll get some photos posted up soon, but we all know that blogging's not my strength so don't hold your breath.

Unintentional CX workout

I had a great weekend with 2 fun races, more on that in a sec, so I wasn't quite ready to head back into work on Monday. I walked into the building at 8am to find some signs kindly letting me know that the elevators were broken and I would have to use the stairs. All the way to my 10th floor office. So I shouldered my road bike, CX style, and started hiking up. On the way up, I passed several red-faced forms leaning against the stairwell gasping for air, and I tried not to hit them with my bike. Mid-morning, I had to go down again to help a co-worker bring down some boxes to her car (they weren't light boxes). The lobby of the building was an interesting scene. People would walk in, look at the signs, stop. Look at me, standing there, look at the maintenance guy, look at the signs, walk over to the stairwell and look up it, incredulous. Then they would ask, as if the signs were just a joke, "really? really? I have to walk up 16 flights of stairs?" And our wonderful, ever-calm maintenance man would explain that there was a fire-sprinkler malfunction, and that yes, if they wanted to make it to their office, they would have to walk up the stairs. Just about every person acted personally offended that they would have to take on that task. I was amused.

I had to help carry several boxes today, meaning that I went up and down the 10 floors five times! And I even counted the stairs - 196 per time, which makes 980. I'll probably do 20 more, just to make it an even 1000. But I'm not complaining. It was pretty amusing to see everyone's reactions. The smokers were really struggling - the need for a cigarette pitted against the prospect of climbing the 10, 12, or 16 flights of stairs again? Tough call. Especially when they faced a good chance of heart failure on the way up. As far as I know, no one has suffered any serious injuries, and I'm going to count it as a CX workout.

Oh and the races!
Yesterday was the Benicia Town Race - a crit, with a nice roller on one side, and a downhill to a flat sprint finish. I liked the course, but last year I crashed out at this race in the 2nd to last corner and dislocated my shoulder, so I was a little wary of that. Once the race started though, I didn't think about the crash any more, my thoughts were only focused on getting a top three finish, in order to get the points I needed for my cat 1 upgrade. I had awesome teammates in the race, and everyone knew what they had to do. I went up the road with Mel Metzger in an early break, but we got pulled back in a few laps. Then there was a counter attack and a break formed with Mary Ellen in it. Eventually that break came back too, and the field got antsy again. I managed to grab a prime in there somewhere, and I think it was right on that lap that the next break was established. I was a bit cross-eyed trying to hang onto a wheel, so I didn't quite notice, but then I looked back and the field wasn't there anymore. So off we went, a break of 6. We rode hard for about 3 laps, but then settled down, and I knew my teammates in the field wouldn't be chasing.

Pretty soon it was 2 laps to go, and it was time to think about sprinting. I sat 4th wheel until the last corner, and then moved up on a perfect leadout wheel. With a couple hundred meters to go, I jumped and sprinted hard, just barely beating second place to the line. It was a great win for me, and got me the rest of the points I needed for the upgrade. It's now been submitted, and I'm just waiting for it to be official...

Thanks so much to my team - they all were totally committed to helping me win the race, and we pulled it off!

Criterium Nationals!

A week ago, I decided to go to Crit nationals in Downers Grove. Last weekend, I raced the Carrera de San Rafael on Saturday, and then the Howell Mountain Challenge on Sunday, and then at work on Monday, my brain started scheming about trying to go to Crit Nats. I checked in with my teammate, Mary Ellen, to see if I could share host housing with her, booked my ticket to Chicago, and got myself registered. We flew out on Thursday to give ourselves a day to spin around before the "warm-up" race on Saturday - the national championship race is on Sunday, but they are on the same course and most of the women do both races.

Two years ago, I did the Saturday warm-up race as a cat 3, and hung in for about half the race before getting shelled. The course is in Downers Grove, a Chicago suburb, and it's a blast - a figure 8 shape with a false flat on the finish, a nice little riser on the back side, and then an awesome sweeping downhill into the final critical two corners. Many people have said that it's a sprint to the second to last corner on this course - it's hard to make up much ground after that, because of the way the curb comes out into the road, blocking a wide outside line, and then it's only 150 meters from the final corner to the finish.

Of course, I was a tad nervous before Saturday’s race, and my nervousness was intensified by the fact that girls were pretty aggressively pursuing a spot on the line. As soon as the men’s race before ours was over, everyone rolled right to the start line and stopped, creating an impenetrable mob of bikes and wheels and girls. The officials had managed to keep one side of the course clear to get the car through, but they wanted the whole road clear, as our race wasn’t starting for another 10 minutes. Two of them were standing there literally yelling at this clump of girls that wouldn’t budge. One official actually posited the question of whether or not we were all completely deaf. Finally I decided to heed their instructions and took a lap on the course, and when I came around, they had started lining us up at the 50-meter line, which meant they made the rest of the eager field actually turn around and get back there.

Meanwhile, I was like, hello? I thought this was a warm-up race? But, yeah, I guess everyone wanted to be in that early break. So they started us off, about 80 girls, and I still wasn’t sure whether I should expect to be dropped within 5 laps or whether I would be fine. I was fine. I rode near the front, in the top ten, and went with a couple moves that didn’t go anywhere. When the break went, it was one Advil-Chapstick, one Aaron’s, one Colavita, and one Tibco. I was a few wheels back, unfortunately, behind a couple Aaron’s and Colavita riders. I made a half-hearted attack, but since we were on the downhill part of the course, it was hard to get a gap and Aarons and Colavita got on my wheel. They sat there, of course, and there was no one else coming through at that moment to help. So I soon decided that, as a piddly super-amateur type critter, I wasn’t going to ride around on the front anymore, and I settled back into the pack. The pack pretty much lost interest in chasing, (I think most people were saving their legs for Sunday), so we diddled around for another 30 minutes, and then all of a sudden it was 3 to go. Shites! The pace picked up a bit, but not enough to avoid some tricky mushrooming action at the front. In the last lap, all the sprinters made their way up to the front, and I just tried to hang out with them and not get involved in any dicey situations. It was all good, and I got 10th in the field sprint for 14th overall. Mary Ellen hung out safely in the pack for the whole race and rolled through with a solid finish – 28th out of 62 finishers.

Post-race, we went and got some take-out Indian food and a DVD and watched it in our super-sweet one-block-from-the-course host apartment. After a restless sleep, we hit up the Caribou Coffee first thing in the morning and picked up our numbers, before heading back to the AC of the apartment to set up our trainers. Nice.

The Championship race started at 11:00am with 86 girls. We were to do 31 laps of the course, 50K. Again, I moved to the front at the start of the race, followed some moves ambitiously, and then had to remind myself not to do more work than necessary. I didn't expect any breaks to stick in this race, since all the teams have super sprinters that would duke it out in the field sprint. So I hung out for the most of the race, sitting in the top 20 most of the time. It was definitely faster than Saturday, and a pretty aggressive race, but I felt good and didn't have any trouble until 6 laps to go. The field slowed coming into turn one, and we took the corner about 8 wide. In the straight stretch after the corner, a couple girls right in front of me bumped each other and weren't able to stay upright. For a split second I considered trying to bunny hop them, but before I could complete that thought, I was on the ground too. And then a couple more girls landed on top of me. I got up quickly, remembering that we'd had 6 to go, and could take a free lap up until 5 to go. I checked my wheels, put my chain back on, and jumped on my bike to head to the pit, only to discover that the left side of my handle bars had snapped, and was hanging there uselessly by a carbon thread. (Note to self - replace those with aluminum bars)

So I run into the pit, thoughts running through my head:
"Dammit, I felt fine, and now I'm not going to be able to finish this stupid bike race. This is why I came here! I didn't fly halfway across the country to break my handlebars in a crash and not finish. Especially when I'm not even hurt except a little blood on my knee. What the hell. I don't want to see the results posted on cyclingnews.com without my name in them. And my mother is here watching! Put me on one of those yellow neutral bikes."

Which I vocalized simply as: "I need a bike, I need a bike!"

The Mavic guys were great. They asked what size bike I needed, plucked it out of the rack, calmly took the pedals off my bike, and transfered them over to the size 52 yellow neutral bike. Then they pulled out their tape measure and got my seat height adjusted, checked the brakes, etc. Meanwhile, I was there practically jumping out of my skin, trying to help them (HAHA), since I only had one lap to get back in. The pace car came by with 5 to go before the bike was ready, so I looked at the official, and asked if I could get in the other side, even though that would technically be at 4.5 laps to go. (Since the course passed the pit on each side, you could rejoin the race at either point). She nodded, and I got set up and ready to go, and only then noticed that I would be using SRAM shifting for the first time. OH, WHAT FUN!

I've been wanting to try out the SRAM doubletap shifting for a while, but during the last 4 laps of the national championship criterium was not the timing I had envisioned. But there was nothing I could do. The mavic guy pushed me back into the peloton and I spent the next 3.5 laps trying to get used to the shifting and handling of the bike. I never really got my head back in the game, and I wasn't comfortable enough on the new bike to corner confidently, so in the last lap, I just wanted to hold my position and stay safe. I did, and rolled across the line in 25th place. Only 52 of the 86 starters finished the race, so I was right about midway through the finishing group. Mary Ellen also had a great race and finished in 41st after just barely managing to avoid a nasty crash in the last corner.

All things considered I was pretty happy with the whole experience, and I can't wait to race at Downers again. Next time, I hope I'll have a whole team to work with - it was pretty impressive to watch the way the larger teams were working together.

In the end, Brooke Miller took the win, with Teresa Clif-Ryan, Jen McRae, Kat Carroll, and Lara Kroepsch filling out the top five. Nice job, Brooke!

Superweek - Ray Basso Memorial Crit 1

I'm still walking on clouds the morning after my first Superweek race of 2008. I first raced Superweek in 2006 as a recently upgraded cat 3. I had a great time, and a couple placings in the money, and since then I've always tried to come back. This year, I'm doing four of the women's P/1/2 races - squeezed into a vacation where I'm also visiting home. I did the Downieville classic on Saturday (also amazing, and a pretty grueling MTB race) so I wasn't sure if my legs would feel recovered enough by Tuesday, but I decided to race anyway, since I'm only here for four days.

The race started with probably 50-60 women lined up, with several large teams - Hub racing, Team Revolution, Verducci Breakaway (team of Teresa Clif-Ryan - 2006 Crit Nats Champ and World Cup bronze medalist), America's Dairyland, and HPC. Joining me from Norcal were Minty Ali and Starla from Dolce Vita. We lined up together and they gave me the low down on the peloton. We were to do 50 laps of the 0.8 mile course, with sprint points on laps 30, 20, and 10. (I didn't really consider going for the sprints, since I'm only going to be here for 4 or the 7 races in the series). We took off at the gun, and I heard a crash in the first 200 meters. That was enough to motivate me to get to the front and stay there. I hung out in the top 8 riders, mostly just surfing wheels and following surges. I felt strong and was tempted to attack several times, but I reminded myself that I was a solo rider against a bunch of teams - not to mention that it was a long race (40 miles), and it was HOT - so hot that we were allowed to take feeds on the backside of the course. At one point, I found myself in a break of about 10-12 girls that had separated off the front of the field. There were four girls from one team, but somehow people didn't quite coordinate and we got pulled back.

About 25 laps in, I had decided that it wasn't likely a break would go. People had been trying all race, and nothing was sticking. They rang the bell for the sprint points at 20 to go, and some girls contested it pretty aggressively. As soon as we reeled them in, a Team Revolution rider (Katie) counter attacked. I was in good position, so I went with her. I had heard someone comment on one of her earlier moves "that could stick..." so I knew she must be a strong rider. We quickly opened up a gap, thanks to the fact that two of her teammates were on the front of the pack when she attacked, and soon I heard one of my friends on the sidelines telling us that it was 20 seconds. We worked really well together trading pulls evenly and kept putting time on the field. Soon our gap had increased to 40 seconds. At 11 laps, they rang the bell for the sprint points, and I told Katie she could take them, since I wasn't able to contest the sprint jersey. Soon after that, coming around one of the technical corners on the course, I was on Katie's wheel when she took the corner a little too hot, and slid out. I screamed like a little girl and rode over her rear wheel, but managed to keep myself upright and continued on the course alone. Yikes - 9 laps to go, and I was out there alone - Could I hold it? On the next lap around, I saw that she had gotten up and was headed towards the pit, and she yelled encouragement as I passed. I put my head down and kept at it, just going at my threshold. When I came around with 8 laps to go, I came by the wheel pit, and Katie was being pushed back in! Amazing - she crashed out hard, and still got up and got back into the race. I was grateful to have my break companion back with me, and we got down to business working together again. At that point Katie told me she wasn't going to contest the final sprint either, so I started thinking that there was a chance for a win. (I never have these thoughts, because they are a sure way to lose. Like when I flatted out of a winning break with 6 to go - no free laps - in a crit last year)

With about 6 to go, we came around the course and could see the field up ahead on the straight stretch - we were close to lapping! Kristin was yelling at me from the sidelines not to lap the field, and I agreed that it wouldn't be such a great plan, so Katie and I throttled back ever so slightly, and rode out the 5 laps in a nice smooth rotation. With half a lap to go, I came around her and actually won the frickin race. I still can't believe it. It's not my first win as a cat 2, but it's definitely the biggest one so far.

I was like a little girl after the race too - cycling news came to interview me and I was almost struck dumb, but managed to stutter something intelligible I think. And then they gave me a white stage-winners' jersey! That also had me pretty excited, and made me realize that I am such an amateur. Pros actually don't blink an eye at any of this stuff, but I was loving it.

Hopefully I'll get some photos up here soon.

I can't wait for the races today!

About my new team....

I just realized that with my blog in this vegetative state, I have never properly introduced my new team to my readership of 1.7 people. This year I'm racing with a seriously awesome group of gals on the Easton/SugarCRM/Specialized team, based in the Los Gatos Bike Racing Club. Wow, that is a mouthful. But I'm pretty good at talking, so it's OK.

We've been racing together for a couple months now, and things are feeling good - it's great to have a strong group of cat 1/2/3 ladies to race, hang out, laugh, and hurt with. Two weeks ago, I had a pretty intense crash, and it felt so good to have a handful of teammates all pretending to be my mom. A few highlights: Lori picking me up off the hot pavement, because it was so painfully hot to stay there. Holly letting me lay my head on her knee while I was whimpering like a baby as they cleaned my road rash. Bri taking care of my bike, and telling me, "no, Karla, you will not ride it back to your car. NO. It's NOT rideable." Then finding it already packed on top of my car ready to go thanks to Mary Ellen. And everyone helping me change my clothes without showing my backside to the world for a second extended period of time. It was good. I've got a couple good photos of the road rash - one just a day after the fact, and then one a week after it happened (thanks to Steven Woo).



Anyway, we keep our team blog pretty well updated, so mosey on over there sometime too! And there's my post for May.

Almost like blogging myself

The brilliant Beth has interviewed me on a number of topics. She's quite good, perhaps an aspiring Velonews reporter.

Redlands!

Warning, this post is WAY too long. It's cool though, since no one reads this blog anymore, and I know at least my mom will enjoy it. And, you can pace yourself, since chances are good I won't blog again for another year.

xoxo,
Karla

When Laurel asked if I wanted to do Redlands, my first thought was, "sure why not?" Then I talked to some people, and the overwhelmingly common sentiment was, "Wow, that's a hard, hilly race." So I thought again. But finally, common sense was suppressed fully, and I told Laurel that I'd be up for it.

She kept me up to date as she pulled together a flock of 7 other composite team riders from all over. Mary Ellen, my teammate in the Bay Area; Elis, another Oakland resident and pillar of the NCNCA; Denise, a Canadian junior sensation; Devon, a Chicago grad student and fellow Dartmouth grad; Kristin, an experienced midwest racer on her comeback kick; Madelline, a rad racer training in Georgia; me; and Laurel, cycling's amazing jumble of knowledge and experience all in one sensitive and considerate lady.

On Tuesday, Mary Ellen, Elis and I left our respective workplaces and met in Oakland to load up the Golden Rod. (My gold Toyota Echo). We packed eveything in, and were on the road by 7pm. Yes, which meant that I got straight down to driving for 7 hours, and we finally reached our host housing at 2am.

The next morning, unfortunately, I managed to break the coffee maker at the host house, and then we somehow found our way to registration in Redlands before seeing a coffee shop. At this point, it became clear that my tendency to drink coffee every day is not a habit but an addiction. There were some crabby moments there, until I finally got some coffee upon arrival to the second host house. We then pre-rode the time trial course without any major issues, other than noticing that the hill was freaking steep. In the evening we all started to gel as a team, settled into our two HUGE host houses, and made sure we were fed (people) and lubed (bikes) and in good working order (both).

Day 1 of the Redlands Cycling Classic was the individual time trial. We all met in the designated parking a couple hours before the start, and I was just a touch overwhelmed. It was similar to my very first bike race experience, as a 17-year-old. At that time of my life, the bike was strictly transportation - I showed up to the race in volleyball shorts and a cotton T-shirt on my fully-rigid, flat-pedal mountain bike. Everyone else had their spandex, jerseys, clipless pedals, full-suspension bikes, sports drinks, etc. So the feeling was one of, "Crap, I'm a bit out of my league. But I'm here, and there's no turning back now..." And, it was about 10 times better because I had the reassuring presence of our most awesome team.

We borrowed some trainers from Team Type 1, and promised them some treats the following day... before I knew it, it was time to report to the start and get in line. They weighed our bikes at the start to make sure the were UCI legal (not less than 15 lbs, I think?). Ha ha. The official grunted as he heaved my bike up onto the scale.
"So, uh, is it the heaviest one of the day?" I asked. "Well, uh, yeah, 8.6 kilos." he said. Which would be almost 19 lbs.

Awesome. Just what I wanted to hear before my uphill time trial. In the end, I didn't think about it, I just rode. And it hurt. But 13 minutes and 40 seconds later, it was over. I felt like I did my best, and in the end it put me in 67th out of 99, and that was just fine with me, considering the caliber of teams in the race (High Road, Webcor, Aarons, Cheerwine, Colavita, Tibco, etc).

Day 2 was the "Circuit Race" - 4 laps of a 17-mile circuit. It had some good flat sections, false flats, and then a solid climb, nice technical descent, climb again, technical descent, and then long straight slight descent. I really enjoyed the course. I sat in the pack comfortably for the first half of the circuit, until about halfway up the climb. With the KOM at the top, there were some attacks and the field started splitting apart. I grouped together with a good group on the descent, and we all caught back on to the main pack. Same exact thing happened on the second lap, and each time, there were more people being shed off the back of the pack that weren't able to catch back on. Going into the false flat section on the third lap, the stronger teams started to DRILL it at the front to reel in a break that had gotten away, creating some carnage in the pack - gaps opening up all over and me getting popped off the back. Ouch. So I started up the climb by myself, feeling just DONE, and probably looking it too. My glasses were covered in sweat, water, and dust, and I was weaving a bit as the caravan cars slowly passed me. Soon I noticed a neutral medical car passing, and I flagged them down. "This may sound really gross, so I'm sorry, but would you mind wiping off my glasses?" I asked them. And they did! So thank you to the lovely young man in the white polo shirt in the passenger seat of that medical car.

So I kept climbing, and pretty soon, grouped together with some other girls that were off the back of the main pack. We worked together for the remaining 1.5 laps, quite smoothly, really. Pros know how to ride at an even pace in a tight paceline and make it work! So that was good. Finished out the race about 14 minutes down on the leaders, which was well within the time cut (if you take longer than 115% of the leaders' time, you don't get to continue in the race), so we were all good to go the next day. Overall, I placed somewhere in the 50s, and 15 girls dropped out of the race that day. A couple gals on our team realized that it just wasn't their race, and dropped out before the end after helping out where they could to pull Mary Ellen back into the race after she flatted. She and Elis worked together for the whole race, but unfortunately they finished just outside the time cut, and the officials just weren't willing to bend the rules. Kristin finished with another group, inside the time cut, and so she lined up at the crit the next day, along with me, Devon, and Denise.

Day 3 was the downtown Redlands criterium. The course was phenomenal - a "figure eight" type course, with several tricky corners that were more than 90 degrees. Pretty technical, and almost flat, just a slight rise along the finishing straight. As I warmed up, my legs felt OK, but weren't exactly itching with energy. We lined up, and the officials told us that in order to make the time cut, we had to finish 40 of the 60 minutes before being lapped by the pack. So I kept that in mind. We started out fast, and I felt comfortable in the pack, sitting pretty far forward, but after about 15 minutes I started to fade a bit as the race got even faster. 20 minutes into the race, I wasn't at all sure I was going to make it. I was just thinking... "I'm halfway done, halfway to 40 minutes." At 30 minutes, I was still hanging in, moving forward in quite a few of the corners, slipping back in other places. Then I was thinking, "OK, 10 more minutes, I can do anything for 10 minutes, it doesn't hurt that bad." Then I started to feel a bit more comfortable. I'm not sure if the pace eased off, or if I just settled into the pain, but I made it to 40 minutes without a problem. Then it was, "alright, I'm not going to get time-cut, now just 20 more minutes, and I'll finish the race." So I kept hanging on, until finally, I heard 3 laps to go. Amazing. I can do three laps. The pace definitely ramped up again at that point, and I stayed on the pack until the last lap when there was a crash in the first corner. Such a bummer, but everyone was ultimately OK. I got gapped a little bit off the pack at that point, and didn't catch back on, rolling across the line about 20 seconds down.

All in all, I was really pleased to have hung on. Devon also hung on until the end, and Denise managed to stay in the race for 40 minutes, so the three of us were good to line up for day 4. The crit turned out to be another decisive stage though - only 66 people finished within the time cut.



Day 4 was the last day of Redlands, and as I started warming up, my legs most definitely did NOT feel good. Heart rate wasn't going up either. After driving the course the day before, I could tell it probably wasn't exactly my type of race. Very little flats, it was basically: "neutral" uphill rollout, then onto the circuit - a bit of good downhill, a long climb, a bit more downhill. Climb, descend, corner, climb, descend, corner, etc. For 9 laps. In order to "finish" the race and get a final GC placing, you had to finish 3 laps of the course before getting lapped. And being completely honest with myself, that was my only goal - to get a GC placing. The race started downtown and started climbing soon after. Our neutral rollout was actually a brisk 20 mph on an upward slope, at about 320 watts. Crazy. Some people were off the back before we hit the course. I stayed with the pack about halfway up the climb, but then joined the ranks of riders straggling off the back. Usually riders off the back tend to group together, but it didn't happen as easily in this race, because you don't get much of a draft going uphill, and the skill levels varied quite a bit on the descent.

At one point I caught up to one woman who will remain unnamed on the descent, and came around her. She got on my wheel, and then rode up on my left for a quick chat. Unfortunately, she didn't know the course very well and it wasn't entirely clearly marked, so she attempted to make a right turn where the course went straight. Yep, she was on my left still at that point, and turned into me and crashed me out before I even realized what was happening. I went down, picking up some nice road rash, and losing a couple pieces off my bike. I sat there for a while with a stream of bad words running out of my mouth, until I surmised that nothing was broken, and I may as well continue on. We both did so, and she was quite apologetic and sweet, so I couldn’t hold it against her. We separated on the next descent though, and I worked hard to catch a couple of the women that had passed me as I sat on the asphalt. The three of us worked together after that, until a moto-ref came up to us on lap 7 and said that we would be done after that lap. I was not at all sad to hear it. We pulled out at the firehouse, and were placed in the GC at that point. Success!

From that moment things went on a slightly downhill trajectory for me. I realized that my hip was throbbing, and it would be a good idea to get it bandaged and iced. So, I approached the friendly firemen, and they took care of me. However, the ice and cooling sweat kind of chilled me, and I knew that it was still about a 3-mile downhill ride back to the start/finish, and I didn’t want to do it without getting more clothes on (it IS California, but the day was chilly!). So I decided to wait for Laurel and the team car to come down from the feed zone with my clothes, not realizing that they would be redirected on a different route. I sat there for about half an hour, thinking to myself, “hmmm, I only ate one gel that entire race. Seems like I should be hungry now.” Totally ignoring the fact that I should have been eating and drinking right away.

The team car didn’t come, so finally I decided to just shiver my way down the hill in my sugar-depleted state. When I finally found the team down at the start/finish I started bawling like a baby and they wrapped me up in some warm clothes and put some food down my throat. Everything got better from then on. What a great team to race with! Each one of the eight of us brought something different to the team, and everyone's personalities gelled so well together. It was just an amazing privilege to have raced with those women.

Somehow we got the Golden Rod packed with me, Mary Ellen, Elis, our gear, and our bikes, and started the drive back to the Bay Area, since we all had to work on Monday morning. On our way down the Grapevine, Laurel called to report that I had finished 56th in the Road Race and 57th in the GC. Considering the caliber of the field, I am completely happy with that – it was truly an honor to race with all the pro women, and with the amazing ladies on my composite team. And that's it. If you made it this far in reading, congratulations!

Track is crack

PICT0633
Originally uploaded by kjane1

Not that I really know what crack is like or anything, but track is damn addictive.
Riding the drome at ADT was incredible, as was watching the pros and red-hot-fast amateurs battle it out at Encino for 400 laps.

Hot damn. I might write more on it soon. But for now, I am just scheming about my next trip...

Vegetable

It was subtly pointed out to me today that my blog sucks. Thank you Super-Rookie.

I was actually shocked when I saw a comment, because I had completely forgotten that I have a blog. Maybe my blog is dead? I don't yet want to officially put it to rest yet, though, so I'm simply recognizing that it's in a purely vegetative state. Luckily, this has nothing to do with my status as a human or anything else. I've been riding my bikes lots, racing very little. But that's because, hell, crits start in February here and I need a tiny bit of time off.

Tomorrow, or rather Saturday, however, will be a big day. I'm heading south with Alicia, Beth, and Hanan to ride the ADT Velodrome in Carson! Certification and all that jazz in the morning, and then some low-key racing in the afternoon. I'm pretty psyched. Then on Sunday it's off to the Encino velodrome to watch the big-shots battle it out for the big-money.

Should be an adventure.

Crappy Crashing

My blog's been outta commission, but now I'm outta commission. Hopefully not for too long though.

Dislocated shoulder at the Benecia Crit, but an awesome guy, Steve, popped it right back in before I even knew it was out. Hurt like hell, but no worse than the road rash on my leg and elbow.

The arm is in a sling, but I should back on the bike CXing in a couple weeks!

Thanks so much to everyone at the race that helped out. I'll see if I can get some pics posted soon :)

24 Hours of 9-Mile

Yep, I did it! To my surprise, I actually managed to ride my mountain bike for 24 hours. Why? Good question. (Warning: this is a long post. If you don't want to read it, don't. There's a little summary at the bottom for the short attention spans among us)

I guess it all started this year at Sea Otter. I went to see 24 Solo, all about Chris Eatough, and that was when I decided I wanted to do a 24 hour race solo. Then when I did the Coolest 24 in May on a team it was confirmed - I had a great time (and a great team!), but was a little bit jealous of the solo riders. I decided I wanted a flatter course for my first attempt, though, and Wausau, Wisconsin is pretty close to home for me, so I knew I'd have some support. So I signed up. I actually had to choose between two categories -- the National Championship Women's 24 race, or the non-championship Solo "Freak" women. So I signed up for the non-championship division, thinking that I better aim for a more reasonable level of competition for my first stab at the 24 hours.

So it was decided. My dad Terry and I drove down to Wausau on Friday - the race would go from 10AM on Saturday till 10AM Sunday. My friend Mark was extremely generous in loaning me his Trek Top Fuel for the race, and fortunately, we had some other friends from the U.P. also participating in the race - a 4-person 12-hour team of Adam, Adam, Eric, and Ben; Nel and Mel doing a 2-person 12-hour; and Chris doing a solo 12-hour. So we all set up together, with pop-up tents, coolers of energy drinks and food, folding chairs and all sorts of miscellaneous bike stuff.

3:30pm, Friday
I did a pre-ride of the course on Friday afternoon with Mel. It covered most of the same trail as last year, with a few variations for a total distance of about 14 miles. I LOVE this course as it has a ton of flowy, twisty singletrack through the woods, some really fun rocky sections, and some fast two-track. Almost all of it is shaded, and there are no monster climbs to dread on each lap (although some of the minor climbs started to feel monstrous in the wee hours of the morning). I was pretty psyched.

7:00pm, Friday
Dinner at Noodles, followed by Cold Stone Creamery, followed by a trip to the store for tylenol, ibuprofin, and Bengay.

8:00pm, Friday
We all picked up registration packets, and prepped our bikes. I wanted to make sure everything I would possibly need was ready for my dad to grab quickly during the race, so I had a box stocked with: Perpetuum, 8 waterbottles, a camelback, my Light & Motion light, tylenol, ibuprofin, Bengay, E-Caps, gels, bars, chain lube, chamois butter (2 varieties), rags, towels, tools, an extra saddle, spare shoes, a ton of extra clothes, Rockstar, Sobe, and Monster (all highly-caffeinated energy drinks) plus a bunch of food that I might want.

7:00am, Saturday
Three hours before the race found me bleary-eyed, begging my dad to see if he could find some coffee, while I put down a couple bowls of cereal. The coffee helped and I managed to get my act together in time to put my bike into the corral, and mill about with the other riders, waiting for the LeMans start (where you start off running for a quarter mile until you reach the bike corral and then grab your bike and go). Here's a photo of me with my dad before the start. Notice how clean and happy I look:


10:00am, Saturday - Lap 1, 1:19:45
I gotta say, it's a pretty funny sight watching hundreds of spandex clad cyclists running along at the start of the race and then the confusion that inevitably ensues when people can't find their bike, take the wrong one, fall over trying to hop on, etc. I've been avoiding running like the plague lately, so I wasn't exactly shining during this initial part of the race, but at least that meant there were fewer bikes to confuse me by the time I got there. I grabbed the right one and hit the trail. The first lap was a pretty solid string of people for the first half - there were some major bottlenecks getting into the singletrack sections, but I wasn't in a huge hurry, with 24 hours left to go. The first lap was pretty uneventful - a good start, and I scoped out the sweet jump that some guys had built at one of the checkpoints on the course. Basically, they hang out, play music, build jumps, and holler wildly every time someone hits the jump. These awesome volunteers also offer support in the form of food for needy racers, encouragement, first aid, etc. They make the event awesome.

11:20am, Saturday - Lap 2, 1:20:12
Not too memorable. My basic plan was to drink two bottles of perpetuum for every lap. Each bottle would have about 130 calories, giving me 250-300 calories per lap from perpetuum. Contrary to what might seem to make sense, it's not a good idea to try to consume enough calories to replace what you're burning - at my size, my body can probably only take in and convert to energy about 250 calories per hour. Much more than that and my digestive system would have to work too hard, diverting blood from my muscles and causing cramping. Interesting, eh? So I figured that I'd eat a couple bites of food each lap when my lap times started to get longer. Plus at least 3 E-caps per lap to make sure my electrolytes were replentished.

12:40pm, Saturday - Lap 3, 1:26:36
Mmmmm, cold bottles were nice at the start of the lap. Terry told me that I was in the lead after the first lap by 3 minutes, in the non-championship solo 24hour women. I decided to hit the jump on this lap. Yeah, it was a good call. The hollering of the checkpoint guys gave me a huge mental boost.

2:10pm, Saturday - Lap 4, 1:24:05
Four hours into the race, I was one sixth of the way done. Ouch. I did a saddle switcheroo, and continued on my way. Then, I had the highlight of my entire race. Nat Ross (eventual 2nd place solo male) lapped me early in the lap, speeding by like I was standing still. But I just continued at my own pace, and decided I better hit the jump again when I came to it. So I did, and rode on, moving over when I heard someone coming up behind me. It happened to be CHRIS EATOUGH, and as he passed, he tossed over his shoulder, "nice jump!" At least I think that's what happened. I could have been hallucinating at that point, but I don't think so. So I was psyched.

3:30pm, Saturday - Lap 5, 1:30:48
Ate some cantalope, yum. Terry let me know that I was increasing the lead so that was good.

5:00pm, Saturday - Lap 6, 1:32:42
Seven hours down, 17 to go. DAMN! I was lagging a bit on this lap. My legs were feeling tired already. I popped open one of the Rockstar energy drinks and infused some caffeine into the equation, thinking, "Dammit. If only I had entered the 12-hour event, I'd be over halfway done." But that was last year.

6:30pm, Saturday - Lap 7, 1:30:57
We were required to have lights on starting at 6:30, just for good measure, so Terry and Adam were all over it as soon as I got into the pit, attaching lights to my handlebars. The helmet light would come on the next lap, when I really started to need it - but not before, since the extra weight puts a strain on the neck.

8:00pm, Saturday - Lap 8, 1:31:28
I was starting to feel a little achy in my back coming into this lap - which I had expected. Last year, in the 12-hour event, my lower back totally seized up after the race and I couldn't move for hours. So this year, I tried to prepare a little more by doing some core strengthening in the months coming up to the race. Of course I didn't actually get a gym membership or anything crazy like that, but I did get out the ole exercise ball. The scene at my apt in the evening was often: Dan, my roomie, sitting on the couch comfortably watching TV, laughing at me as I writhed around on the ball, trying to watch TV and do somewhat effective exercises at the same time. I usually ended up sweating, so I figured it was working. Anyway - the back was a little achy, so I tried to be extra conscious of stretching on the bike when I could, AND I had Terry rub on a little bit of the Bengay. Yikes, that stuff is TINGLY. But it seemed to help.

And we put the Light & Motion light onto my helmet this lap. Quick plug for Light & Motion - they rock! They have been totally helpful when I get in touch with questions, and made sure I had what I needed for this race. Of course, my light is super-quality and bright too. By the end of the lap, night had definitely fallen.

9:30pm, Saturday - Lap 9, 1:53:09
My first complete night lap was where I really slowed down. I don't think it was because it was night, it was just that something in me decided to SLOW down. Mentally, it was hard too, because I knew that I had done 9 laps last year, in the 12-hour race. I was basically riding on about the same pace as that, but this time I wasn't going to be anywhere near done at the end of the 9th lap. I wasn't ready to toss in the towel though, so I kept plugging. When I came into the pit, Terry was a little worried, since he'd expected me 20 minutes earlier, but I assured him that I was just "taking it easy." HA. By this point, things had quieted down a lot - the 12 hour racers were done, most of them asleep in tents. I was feeling pretty crappy, and I got off my bike and sat down in a chair for the first time. I had some PB&J, and cracked open another energy drink. Fortunately, someone told me to get my butt back on the bike and get going, so I didn't get more than a 10 minute respite.

11:25pm, Saturday - Lap 10, 1:54:16
Ouch. Ouch. Lap 10 was really hard. This time, it wasn't my back. My back was holding steady with just a little achiness, but not bad. It was my hands, of all things. Since the course was pretty technical in some sections, and some parts quite rocky and bumpy, my hands had been taking a beating. My fingers were cramping from gripping so much, and the heels and palms of my hands started to feel deeply bruised and tender. My right thumb was feeling strained from the continuous shifting I was doing, up and down the cassette to try to save my legs. I never would have imagined my THUMB would be the limiting factor in this race! This lap was the first time I REALLY let myself think that I might not be able to keep riding for the whole 24 hours. I relaxed and rested my hands as much as I could, and tried some creative gripping. When I made it back to the pit, Mel and Terry encouraged me to get back out there, so I headed out again.

1:20am, Sunday - Lap 11, 1:41:23
Somehow, my race seemed to turn around on this lap. My hands actually started to feel BETTER, as did my back. At this point, I started to marvel at the wonders of the human body and brain. I wondered if my hands had actually stopped hurting, or if I had just stopped feeling the pain, or if my brain just refused to acknowledge it. Either way, I was happy - I actually enjoyed the night riding, and the full moon above us. It was a beautiful night. I decided, at this point, that I would be happy if I managed to complete a total of 14 laps.

3:00am, Sunday - Lap 12, 2:00:27
Things are definitely hazy. Can't say I really remember this lap. But I got 'er done, nice and steady. I do remember that I started to feel a bit nauseous, not sure why. I was drinking less, since it was cooler, and eating more solid food. So I don't know - maybe I was eating too much and having trouble processing it? Or maybe I wasn't getting enough fluids? Or maybe I was just getting sick of the taste of Perpetuum? And then thinking, f*** this, how am I ever going to do two more laps?? My hands were still hurting a little more than was comfortable.

5:00am, Sunday - Lap 13, 1:58:29
Again, I don't remember much of this one, except that it got lighter and lighter, and then I realized it was morning. I made it through the night! That was pretty rewarding, mentally. When I came into the pit, the whole place was starting to wake up a little more, and people were out to offer encouragement. I told myself, "just do one more, and that will be the end, you'll have reached your goal." At the time, I knew I still had a pretty good time lead on the 2nd place woman, but I hadn't lapped her yet, so the race definitely wasn't won. What I didn't realize was that she had started gaining back a couple minutes on laps 12 and 13.

Here's a gem of a photo of me at this point. Notice the unstable stance, closed eyes, abundant dirt, SWEET headband, and apparent lack of direction. This was normal.


6:55am, Sunday - Lap 14, 1:46:48
I set out telling myself that this could be the last one, even though I knew that I would probably have time for two more laps. It was better to just lie to myself. In the second half of the lap, Rebecca Rusch came up from behind, lapping me for the second time. I picked up my pace just a tad to stay with her for a while, and managed to follow her for about 20 minutes without pushing too hard. She won the Championship in 2006, and came in 2nd this year. What an amazing athlete she is - it was inspiring to be racing at the same time. It also picked up my pace a little, and I started to feel...actually...GOOD again. How in the hell I felt GOOD after everything I do not know. I came into the pits smiling after that lap, until Terry and Chris gave me the DL on the race situation. The second place woman had passed by about 15 minutes earlier, heading out on her 14th lap. So if I decided not to go out for another lap, there was no guarantee I would win. Said Terry, "Well, it looks like you'll have to do another lap!" with a grin.

8:45am, Sunday - Lap 15, 1:26:02
I was pretty motivated starting this lap, since I knew it was FOR SURE going to be the last one. It was downright crazy how good I felt all of a sudden. It was like I had fresh legs, my hands didn't hurt, my back was fine, stomach felt settled, and my thinking was even sharp (at least relatively). I had some extra encouragement from Ben and Adam on this lap, keeping my pace up. But seriously, looking back at it now, I am truly awed by what my own human body was doing. How is it possible to feel SO MUCH BETTER in just the space of a few hours, without resting, and while continuing the activity that made me feel crappy in the first place (mountain biking for a ridiculous amount of time)?? I don't get it! I guess it goes to show how much was probably mental barriers, and the physical feelings were just manifestations of that? Or am I just totally full of crap? Probably both.

10:17:07am, Sunday - Done, after 214.2 miles. I crossed the finish line for the 15th time, and that was it. I couldn't believe I was finally done. I sat in a chair and stared blankly ahead for a while. Terry ran up exclaiming that I would have come in 5th in the women's National Championship category. No shit, eh? I should've entered that category. I guess there's next year.

10:25am, Sunday - I staggered into the shower, where I proceeded to get dizzy and nauseous all over again. Great. But at least this time I was clean. I made my way back towards our campsite, where I ate two bowls of cereal and nearly fell asleep with my face in the milk. That would have been ugly. Instead, I ended up on my back in the tall grass like a piece of roadkill while Terry singlehandedly packed up all of my stuff. Amazing. He was the awesomest support possible for my debut 24-hour race.

The aftermath - I went straight to Minneapolis to catch a Monday flight back to Cali. I'm back at work, and feeling somewhat recovered already. I'm going to bet that this wasn't my last 24-hour race. And I think that's enough for now.

The promised SUMMARY:

Race Category entered: Non-National Championship Solo "Freak" 24-Hour Women
Place in Category: 1

Race Category I Should Have Entered, in retrospect: 24-Hour Female National Championships
Hypothetical Place in Category I Should Have Entered: 5

Hours on the bike: 24, give or take a few minutes.

Miles of trails covered: 214.2

Longest time off the bike during the 24 hours: About 13 minutes.

Bottles of Perpetuum ingested: About 22

Approximate number of chamois butter applications: 9

That is all.

Track in Blaine!

I arrived in Minneapolis as planned, and went straight to Paula's house (my old house!) for the night. We caught up until it was too late, and then finally went to bed. My mom and I took a nice little ride the next day around the Lakes. I found myself amazed at how extensive, smooth, and functional the bike paths are in this city - I had totally forgotten.

Then, I finally got to race on the track at Blaine again Thursday evening. Wowzers it was so fun. I got up there early to get a rental bike and try to fiddle around with the gearing a bit. Gilby got there too, and we decided that since the bike had a 48 on the front, I would warm up in the 16 that was currently on it, and then switch to a 15 to race. Good plan.

So I started the pre-race routine, and everyone started showing up - Strats, (dis), super-rookie, Don, Tom, Phil, the Little Guy himself, Tuffy, Smithers, Skibby, HWood (spectating), Timmer, and lots of women racers too - Sara B, Jessica, Barb, Megan, the Dahlman sisters, and a couple others too. Holy blogger-land.

The women's first race was a snowball - sprints every 4 laps for different point values - 12, 6, 6, and 8. It came up faster than I expected, so Gilby and I barely had time to change my cog and then I raced up to the rail to line up. Something didn't feel right, and there were some funny noises going on with my bike. They sent us off the rail, and it soon became clear that this just wasn't happening - my chain was slipping. I came off the track, and the lovely officials delayed the start so that I could get the bike put together. A bunch of Grumpy's guys came running over with tools and extra wheels, etc, and we discovered that the problem was that the rental bike had a road chain and didn't fit any of the cogs. Shit. So we threw the 16 back on there, and I went to go and spin spin spin in the race.

I was spinning out on the first sprint and couldn't even move up, so when the pace slowed down, I decided to attack. I got off the front by myself, and managed to stay there for the next two sprints, which was cool, but gave me a solid case of track lung. In the final though, I was left behind - Gilby almost came around for that sprint, but one of the Dahlmans took it. They were wicked fast!

Then we had the keirin. What a funny race. Where did the keirin come from anyway? Who decided one day, "hmmm, it would be a great idea if we had a motorcycle on this silly round oval, and it would be great if we got these funny bicycle riders to chase it on their non-motorcycles." That's what we did. Basically, I just didn't want to draw the number 1 position, because then I would be obligated to take the wheel of the motorcycle, consequently leaving me at the front in the wind when it pulls off with 2.5 laps too go. But of course, I drew the number 1 position, not only for the preliminary round, but also for the final. Who does that? It wasn't such a successful race for me, but Gilby managed a 3rd and I came in after her with a 4th. I also have to mention that I had perhaps the most supreme holder in the entire race.

Last was the points race. I don't actually remember what happened in the points race because I was so busy enjoying the wonderful infield scene of spandex-clad Minnesotans milling about talking shit with each other and watching the hot racing action with stellar commentary from Bob Williams. And also trying to pick out my mother in the crowded bleachers to give her a wave. It was 30 laps though, and I do remember Strats pulling out a big attack at the end of the race to really get the speed going. Afterwards, Dave came up and gave me $10 - not bad for third place!

So it rocked. I'm so glad it didn't rain.
Friday morning, we woke up and headed to Green Lake Wisconsin for my first NRC race. More to come on that later.

Aw, shucks

Here's what I learned this weekend (actually this morning) - always check the results. I suppose I should have learned that at Superweek last year when I was in a winning break for the entire race, and they still managed to miss my number.

Yesterday was the Lafayette Crit. I wasn't even sure I was going to do it, since I was more concerned with getting lotsa good hours on the bike to be ready for my 24 hours of craziness. I had a nice mountain bike ride in Marin on Saturday - the weather over there can be so incredible. Fog and gusting winds by the golden gate and in the headlands, and then sunny, baking climbs a half hour later just a tad north. And always awesome views. Then, when Sunday rolled around, I decided to ride out to Lafayette for the crit, to get a little extra time in.

When I got there, I found the Dolce Vita gals, who had kicked ass in the cat 3 race earlier - Janelle led out Starla for the win, and then hung on for 3rd place as well. Wow! They were doubling up and doing the p1/2/3 race too, so we hung out in the shade (it was hot) waiting for the start of our race. Apparently there were 41 starters in our field, a pretty good number. The course was interesting - a short downhill a long straight stretch into a nice almost 180 corner, and up a long gradual stretch to the finish line.

For most of the race I felt OK, but not great. Blah. The 1/2/3 races are worlds different from 3/4 races, that's for sure. I tried to stay pretty far up in the pack, but I never got up far enough in the last couple laps to really do well in the sprint. Miss Mary Ellen Ash, however, of the LBGRC team, was KILLING it. She got a couple of primes and then took the sprint at the end by no small margin. Impressive. So after the race I hung out and chatted a bit, and then rode home with Team Oakland Dave. Never even checked the results. Until I logged onto the ncnca racing site this morning to look at pics. Turns out I actually got 10th place - definitely nothing to brag about, but ironically, the prize list went 10 deep. Which means there's probably a $5 gift certificate somewhere that I missed out on. Oops!

Oh well. Happy Monday!

Matters of some importance

First - I'm finally a cat 2. I gave myself some time to think about it, and waited until I felt ready. And now I've gone and done it.

Second - I'm going to be visiting the Twin Cities in less than two weeks, and showing up to race at the track in Blaine on July 19 (I hope it doesn't rain.) If you're on the fence about going that night, DO it. It will be great to see all the tracksters again.

And racing - Yesterday was the Carrera de San Rafael. Definitely hard, but one of my favorite races of the season.



It was a 4-corner course with a short uphill on one side, followed by a long slightly downhill side, a short downhill, and then a long slight rise into the finish line. We lined up with 54 women in the P/1/2/3 field for our 60 minute crit, and I could tell it was going to be the strongest field I've raced in this year -- Jazz Apple, Proman, Value Act Capitol, Tibco, Velo Bella, and some Advil Chapstick ladies, along with quite a few others.

From the gun, we headed out fast. I started at the back of the field and it was tough working my way up even to the middle of the pack. The primes started soon, which also contributed to keeping the pace high, and after 20 minutes I began to wonder if I could really hold on for a whole hour. The teams were really working hard on the front of the field, attacking, counter-attacking, trying to form a break. But Dan and Aekta (some non-bike-racer Dartmouth friends) had come out to cheer me on, so there was no way I was going to let myself get dropped. I just kept trying to move up where I could and hang on to the wheel in front of me, and finally things started to feel easier. I'm not sure if I just settled into a comfortable rhythm, or if the pace actually slowed quite a bit, but I started to feel good. I was really enjoying the course - the hill was a quick power climb, which suits me, and the downhill corners were really smooth and fast.

Then, about 40 minutes into the race, I felt myself get a flat as the field came through the start/finish. Fortunately, it was just ahead of the pit, so I put my arm up and rolled in, telling them that I had shimano 10. Then feeling REALLY stupid when I realized it was a front flat, not a rear. But the SRAM guys had it all figured out and set me up with a nice Zipp wheel and plenty of time to get in position to get back in the race. The break cruised by first - three gals, and they were hauling. Wow. Then the field came charging through and I was pushed back out to rejoin them. And I was in. Phew. Having a mechanical in a race is still something that stresses me out, even if I do get back into the field.

In the last 20 minutes, the chase was on. There were some strong girls bringing the break back to the field, and we were all together coming into the final lap. Unfortunately, two women crashed on the last time up the hill, but the rest of the field was able to avoid it. Coming into the last corners, I was about midway back, but I started sprinting as soon as I could and managed to claw my way up to 8th place in the end, which I was really happy with. This race really helped build my confidence, and it's great to get experience in a really fast race like that. I still have a lot to learn, and it's so awesome to be racing in a place where there are so many women racers to learn from! I'm already getting psyched for 'cross.

Photo courtesy of Dan Cross-Call.

Catching up

Lots and lots of racing!

Last Wednesday, I headed down to the Hellyer velodrome for some track racing. Now I remember why I like the track so much. Wednesday night racing has just 3 categories - A, B, and C - they don't separate the women, like I'm used to. So I put myself in C, racing with some of the guys, and a couple other ladies. I was nervous at first, but once the racing started, it was nothing but fun. We had 2 points races, a scratch race, and a miss n out. It felt really good (in retrospect) to be pushed by guys that were solidly stronger than me. At the time, I felt ready to hack up a lung - "track lung" is not limited to Minnesota. It was great. And I clawed my way to 4th place (of 16) in the miss-n-out and the scratch race, and got a couple points in the other races for a 6th in the omnium.

Then, this weekend, Saturday was the Fremont Criterium. It was a fun L-shaped course with a 180 degree turn and lots of wind. My race was a 1/2/3 race (with 3s picked separately), so there were some fast ladies from Proman, Tibco, Metromint, Velo Bella, and some others. We started out fast from the gun and two Proman girls, Shelley Olds and Rachel Lloyd, broke off the front right away. The pace stayed high for the first part of the race as people made attacks off the front, but the field never organized together to mount a good chase. I wasn't feeling great, and there were a couple times that I thought I might get dropped. But I hung in there, and decided to throw out an attack at the beginning of the bell lap to see what would happen, because I didn't feel like I had great legs for the sprint. Here I go:















Photo courtesy of Garrett Lau

I should have tried it about a lap earlier, when people were slightly less on edge. As it happened, I ended up leading out the last lap and getting passed before the line by six or so ladies, ending up 4th in the cat 3s. Ali from Form Fitness won the field sprint for the cat 3 win - she rocked it!

Sunday was the Vacaville crit - what a fun course. It had a nice hill in it, and 8 corners, all different and all fun. I did the 3/4 race and had a great time - lots of solid cat 3 women, and quite a few strong 4s. Lauraleen had a solo break off the front for a few laps, but for the most part, the race stayed together and the pace was low. In the end I rolled across the line in 3rd place.

Tomorrow is the Davis 4th of July crit, and then some more racing action this weekend. And potentially big news soon.

Racing some more!

Unfortunately, my blog has pretty much become a way to keep track of the races I've done if I ever manage to put together a race resume. Oh well, I'm over it.

So on Saturday, I headed up to Lake Sonoma with the Team Oakland guys to do the Bikemonkey mountain bike race. It was pretty rad - perfect weather and a nice 5 mile loop of all singletrack. I entered the expert category and somehow decided (as the lone entrant) that I wanted to do 4 laps. Which meant that I was the last person on the course, since the Sport men did 3 laps, and the beginners 2. But hey, someone's gotta be the last finisher. Afterward, there was a huge BBQ with hamburgers and gardenburgers. They did it up right.

Sunday was the crit down in Burlingame. My race didn't start till 1:30, so I took my time getting down there, and even got in a good warmup. There were 45 ladies lined up starters for the P/1/2/3 race, and the field looked fast. Tibco, Proman, LGBRC, and Morgan Stanley all had several women out there. The Dolce Vita ladies were also out in force along with quite a few Metromints, and plenty of others. I was thinkin it was going to be fast.

We did start out pretty fast, but then things settled down. It was really just a lot of fun! The L-shaped course had a bunch of corners and a big sweeping turn into the finish line. The race went by really quickly, and before I knew it, we had 5 laps to go. Fortunately, I did a good job keeping track of that number and got myself towards the front in the last few laps. Proman was working at the front, keeping the pace high in the last two laps, which was great - I was able to sit in around 7th wheel coming into the final stretch. We swept around the corner and then everyone started sprinting. I managed to come across the line in 4th place, which I was really happy with, considering how deep the field was.

I'm psyched for this coming weekend - a crit with a 180 on Saturday, and then Sunday I get to do 2 crits. Hooray!

Track at last

I finally got myself down to the Hellyer track today, my first time on any track other than the NSC Velodrome in Blaine. Hmmmmm, let's just say that my favorite track is still Blaine. Hellyer is a 335 meter concrete track with about 25 degrees of banking, according to the website. I have to say, I much prefer the steeper banking (46 degrees?) and wood surface at Blaine, even if it does give gnarly splinters.

But it was fun to get back on a track again! I headed down with Alicia and Nicole for the timed events day. Timed events are probably one of the more boring things to do on a track, but obviously they are key for benchmarking and gauging fitness. I'd never done them before, so it was a learning experience. I did a flying 200 in 14.52 seconds, in a 46-15. I would have been better off with a bigger gear, but it was still OK. Then I did a standing 500 in 44-something, and discovered that I'm pretty bad at standing starts. That would be one thing to work on. All the people at the track were super friendly and helpful, encouraging and giving pointers - always a huge bonus.

Anyway, I hope to head down again soon for some real races. Hopefully by then, the infield grass will start to come up and the manure smell will fade.



Final words on the subject: If you are a cyclist in Minnesota, and you haven't ridden on the track in Blaine, you should. It's just plain awesome. And I wish we could figure out a way to get a 250 meter track constructed in Oakland soon!

Track envy

I made someone's power rankings! I just wish I were racing the track at Blaine!

Definitely the best thing that's happened to me this week. In other news, I'm seriously considering/definitely going to buy a track bike at some point soon. Since you all have such great Chamois Cream recommendations, what track bike do you think I should get? How do I decide? What to do?

More Crits and whatnot

Saturday morning started early for me, in order to get to the Dash for Cash Crit in Pleasanton. This is a disturbing trend I've noticed -- I'm often getting up earlier on the weekends than I do during the week, just to make it to races. Then Monday comes, and I'm like, "woo-hoo I'm sleepin' in!"

But I digress. Even though I got up early and managed to get myself to the race on time, I still didn't quite wake up until the last lap or so. The women's field was about 35 or 40 cat 1/2/3s all racing together, but the 3s were picked separately from the 1/2s. The "Dash for Cash" meant that there were 6 primes for $40 apiece. Not bad! It wasn't enough to wake me up though, and for reasons that still elude me, I didn't go for any of them. Coming into the last lap, everyone was trying to set up their teammates, talking, yelling, positioning. I realized the race was almost over, woke up, and moved up in the pack to position myself on the inside, near the front, for the final corner. We came around the corner with a lot of people going really wide, and everything opened up in front of me. That was nice. I sprinted over the line either 3rd or 4th overall, and 1st in the 3s. So in the books, it was a win. Woohoo!

Sunday was the EMC/Vellum Crit, also in Pleasanton, city of wide streets and corporate parks. Still, I managed to get lost on the way after forgetting my directions on the kitchen table. Fortunately, I spotted a bike on a car going the other way, and quickly whipped a U-turn to get on their wheel. I drafted them the rest of the way to the race.

It was a 3/4 womens race, but it was actually a lot faster than Saturday. People were attacking a bunch, the Dolce Vitas, the Bellas, the Mints, and I tossed in a few too. Fun! There were a bunch of primes too, and I managed to get a couple. In the end, I lost count of the laps, and thought we had 2 to go when it was bell lap. Oooops! The Protech ladies pulled out a great sprint though, and managed to grab the first two places. I rolled across in 11th.

After the race, I headed out for another 4 hours. My official goal now is to do a 24 hour MTB race solo this year, so I figure I gotta do some good training. Now that I've said it on blogger, I gotta do it.

So, what's your favorite brand of chamois cream?

Upgrade Dilemma

Do I do it?

I raced on Saturday in Livermore - did a 3/4 crit. Had a solid but not outstanding race, ended up winning two primes and coming in 3rd in the finish. Which puts me over the 25 points necessary to become a cat 2 woman. What to do?

Instead of hitting up the rest of the races for the weekend, Mt Hammy and the Memorial Day Crits, to get in some more experience in a 1/2/3 field, I decided to go mountain biking. A nice mellow Santa Cruz ride on Sunday went as planned, with some rippin singletrack descents and sustained climbs.

Today... well, it was awesome, but not as planned. We headed out with 9 people, a bunch of these guys, Mel, two Amys, and me. Everything started out fine, but by the end of the ride we were trickling back to the vehicles two at a time. But all in all we came away without losing anyone, and no injuries requiring hospitalization. Not bad!

So, to sum up the three-day weekend--

Mornings that I woke up even earlier than I do for work: 2 out of 3
Money earned racing in a 45 minute crit: $17
Total PB&J sandwiches consumed: 4
PB&J sandwiches donated to hungry riding companions: 2
BBQs attended: 2
Number of times I heard someone say the words Bar-be-que: 1,849
Number of hours directly occupied by my bike obsession: 23
Indirectly occupied: the rest.

But tomorrow it's back to work!

tra-la-la...

blog?
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