CX Season is Done!!!

Wow, what a fun season of cyclocross. I never expected to have so much fun while racing. I know that sounds funny but it is true. I knew that bike racing "could" be fun. It was certainly always fun when I was done. It wasn't until this year that I have really enjoyed racing.

My last race of the year was the final race in the Seattle Cyclocross Series.  The week leading up to it I decided to let go of my self doubt that happens on a weekly basis. I knew that if I had a relatively good race, I'd end up on the podium for the series. Just the thought of getting a bronze cowbell was so very exciting to me. I sort of did the math and new that I had to have a good race to secure my third place finish. That alone made me so excited to race!

My race started very well. There was a ton of mud and I knew that the course would be a lot of fun out there. I remember laughing several times during the race. I would be riding along and then the mud would pull me perpendicular to the course and I would squeal each time with joy. So fun!

I was in 2nd or 3rd position in the race during the first 2 laps or so. Then Andrea (the girl leading the race) had a mechanical and had to start running with her bike on her shoulder. I felt so bad for her as she is such a strong rider and has done so well this year. I tried to give her encouragement as I passed her, but it was really the end of her race. She finished in 11th place which is remarkable for having to run a lap of the course with a bike on her back.

So, the race went on, I tried to race smart and not make any major mistakes. I knew that Tamara was about 6 bike lengths behind me. I could feel her creeping on me at different points in the race. She is relentless and very talented in the technical/muddy sections. In past races, Tamara will just come out of nowhere and fly by me like I am standing still. It is amazing, I don't know where she gets that intensity towards the end of the race.

By the fourth lap it started to dawn on me that I could continue to hold my pace and maybe even win the race. I still felt Tamara creeping down on me in the muddy sections, but I was able to put a little gap on her during the hard pack sand sections. As we finished the sand and turned towards the finish stretch, it was all I could do to get the line as quick as possible. I had won!

My finish. You can see Tamara in the background on the left. She is still coming for me!

I had the BIGGEST smile on my face when I finished. Yay!!! I did a killer fist pump after I crossed the line. Well, it was more like a "cha-ching!" then a fist pump, technically speaking.

I was really hoping that my first place secure a podium finish. I had no idea it would help me get into first place! Here is a shot of me after I realized I had won the series.

Podium shot:

Andrea, me and Tamara. What a great finish to the series. We all received cowbells and can koozies. Pretty dang cool.

Here is an even better shot of the podium. This one involves Lori Brazel trying to take a bite out of my right leg.

Love it!

Such a great season.

Steilacoom Race

When I started out this race season, my goals were pretty simple. I wanted to be a competent "mid-packer".  I was going to be happy with top ten finishes. I knew some might be better than others, but top ten seemed to be a good goal for me.

At the beginning of the season my first couple of races were fraught with mechanicals and were very frustrating. But, then the races seemed to get a little better and I started to really enjoy myself out there. Racing didn't hurt as much this year. Sometimes I would even smile while racing.

Then, I started focusing on my nutrition and understanding what to eat (and what not to eat) when I was training and racing.

Then I got a new carbon bike.

Then I started really doing well as a Cat 3.

When I got a couple of upgrade points, I figured I had gotten somewhat lucky and that my performance had probably peaked for the season.

Then I got a couple more upgrade points and things started to become clear to me. I'm actually not a bad cyclocross racer after all!

Two weekends ago, I raced at Steilacoom. It is a course that is always featured in the Seattle CX series. This year, we did it twice. It is sort of boring, has some hills and has absolutely no technical features to it whatsoever. For some reason I was REALLY nervous before this race. I was full of self-doubt and was thinking I would have a bad race.

Then the official said "go" and we were off.

The pace started quickly and I tried to settle in as I knew there was a hill in the first stretch. I was in 2nd position when a racer flew by me so fast I didn't even know what to think! Actually, I thought to myself, "Yikes! It is that girl that had just upgraded from Cat 4. Holy crap she is a Cat 2 on the road."

We lined up for the barrier section and these girls really flew during this section. I began to get nervous.

Then the downhill section came upon us. That is where it all happened.

I panicked a little bit and realized these girls were getting away from me. I flew down the gravel hill but picked a horrible line. My brakes weren't really working right either, so I double panicked.  The result? I ran a girl off the course and she almost hit a tree. I feel horrible about it. Very bad thing to do to a fellow racer. It was a huge mistake and I learned my lesson. I apologized to her profusely, but I still think she hates me. I would probably hate me too.

Oddly enough, I have a set of pictures (thanks to Brian Koder) of the entire event. It is good stuff. Check it out.

There I am, I realize that I've taken the WRONG LINE in a gravel downhill.
Photo courtesy of Brian Koder

Here I am running her off the trail. Notice the tree in front of her? And, no, i am not really smiling.
Photo courtesy of Brian Koder

I am yelling, "I'm so sorry......" Man, did I feel bad.
Photo courtesy of Brian Koder

The last photo is Brian Koder jumping out of the way as the rider (the one I ran off the course) narrowly misses him. Doh!

Anyhow, I feel bad, it was wrong. I won't do that again.

So the race progressed on. I played it safe and tried to conserve energy. There were 4 of us in the lead, then there were 3, then I realized it was just me and one other racer.  Towards the end of the course I began to think about what it would be like to win the race. I focused on clean lines and not making any mistakes. We rounded the last part of the course and my road biker instincts kicked in. I was going to ride this girl's wheel until the sprint. I was going to beat her in the sprint because I knew I could.

Then I did it. I won the race.

It was great. I didn't do a fancy salute, or finger guns or anything like that. I just smiled. I was really proud of myself. 

 

Halloween Cyclocross!

Last year, a bunch of the women on our team dressed up as roller derby girls. We had a lot of fun with our costumes and I was inspired to do a themed costume race once again.  Our theme this year was a tribute to our sponsors - Olympia Orthopaedic Associates. They are our title sponsor and were nice enough to lend us scrubs and patient gowns for our costumes. Everyone had their own spin on their costumes. I volunteered Brian to be a patient and wear a fake ass sticking out of his patient gown. It was priceless!

Here are some pictures of Brian and Derik's costume:

Picture by Laurie O'Brien

Here is a group shot of us before the race.

It was a rainy, muddy race and consequently our costumes got really really wet.

I took a different spin on the costume idea. I think if you are going to race in a costume, it should be as skimpy as possible. The skimpy is necessary so that you aren't hampered by extra material and you can breath in your costume. My research in this field has led me to realize that the only type of truly functional cyclocross race costume is one that is skimpy, aka slutty. So - that is what I did!

They key piece to my costume was a push-up bra. It wasn't just any push-up bra. The tag said it GUARANTEED to give you an additional 2 cup sizes. I'll take it! The sad part is, I think that people really do buy these bras to wear on a regular basis.

Here is little Bitz - she somehow stole my bra. It looks good on her!

And here is the end result on me. That bra worked amazingly well.

The finished look!

I couldn't stop grabbing them. Seriously, if you poked me, I wouldn't even be able to feel it through all of that padding. My biggest worry was whether the ladies would stay put during the race. They did, I am thankful for that.

We had a fun race. I'm glad we dressed up as a team. Here are some other photos of my teammates.

Michelle, Stef and Karen

Mud fest

Kat and her husband Cole

Can't wait until next year. Hoping we can come up with a theme that is just as good!

Silver Lake Race Recap

Silver Lake has to be one of the most technical cyclocross races that I've done. The previous two years that I've raced this course, it has completely kicked my ass. It is a course that is really unique and has absolutely no grass and very few flat sections. Just long beach sections and hills.

The morning of the race, my stomach was churning (which is normal) and I was completely dreading the amount of pain that I would have to endure at approximately 1:30pm. We carpooled to the race with our friends Michelle and Derik, this definitely helped take my mind off the upcoming pain.

Brian, Derik and I rode a practice lap together. It was all going well until I got a bit cocky and was making fun of a guy who passed us and then I crashed. It was a harmless crash, I was able to ride the ladder* so the crash itself didn't really hurt. I got a couple of scratches on my new bike. Glad I got that out of the way.

I got to the start line and pretty much felt like I was going to vomit (or vom as my co-worker Kaelyn says). They did the call-ups and my name got called around 8th or 9th so I was able to get a front row starting position. I made idle chit chat with the people around me. I noticed the girl in front of me had socks with unicorns and rainbows. They were really cool - I need to get some of these.

My strategy for the race was to take off like hell so that I wouldn't get caught up in the first sand section's craziness. When the gun went off, I took off and quickly found myself in 2nd position. For a moment I thought to myself, "holy crap, what am I doing in second place?" then I realized that I should continue pedaling so I could get through the sand. I think this turned out to be a good move early on in my race.

 In previous years when I've raced this course, I have typically wished for a flat tire or wanted to quit half way through. Each time I would come around to the start/finish, I'd dread to see how many laps were left. This year, it didn't bother me a bit. I kept my focus on being consistent, trying not to make mistakes and keeping my pace with the women ahead of me.

Below is a picture of me going over one of the barriers. Oh, the barrier was in sand, uphill and a had sharp right had turn before it. It was awesome.

So the race continued on and I tried to catch the people in front of me. I kept hearing Michelle cheer and shout encouraging words to me. I found myself having fun during the race. I think I was smiling at one point. My new bike performed well. It is so light!

After the race, I was relieved to be done. I once again felt like I was going to vom, but at that point I guess it would have been ok. When results were posted, I was shocked to see that I had placed 4th. I earned 2 upgrade points with this placing. I wasn't expecting to earn any upgrade points this year.

Sunday night and Monday morning were a little rough. I was pretty exhausted and it took me until Monday afternoon to begin to feel better. I am happy to have raced at Silver Lake. It gives me more motivation to do my dreaded VO2 max intervals this Wednesday. It also gives me motivation to push myself harder during races. I suppose that is good since I have a race every single weekend from now until December 11th. Yikes!


*Ride the ladder is an industry term for staying tucked when you crash your bike and not flailing your arms like an idiot when you crash. Ok, it isn't really an industry term, it is a term from my Dad for when you are picking apples and your ladder gives way. You "ride the ladder" all the way down so you don't hurt yourself. It is a really useful phrase for bike racing. 

New Bike Update

It is glorious in every way. I can't wait to race it tomorrow. Also, I have an updated picture of it. Turns out I pasted a copy of the 2011 version of the bike.  Below is the 2012 like mine. It looks shiny in the picture but it is actually matte black. Tomorrow's race will be a good test for the bike!

I don't really need a new bike.......

Well, of course I don't. I have plenty of bikes, indeed. Two road bikes (winter and race bike), two mountain bikes (one of which is currently on craigslist) and one cyclocross bike. Not to mention the many other decommissioned bikes we've parted out. So, I don't really need a new bike.

But, here is the thing. I really like bikes. And, sometimes when there is a possibility of adding a new bike to your fleet - it gets very exciting. Also - it helps to have a fantastic husband that is completely supportive of any and all bike purchases. (now if I could just get that same response for all my clothing purchases :)

So there you have it. As you have probably guessed, I am getting a new bike. A new cyclocross bike. A Scott Addict.

It is real pretty. I like the extra white touches on the seat post, saddle and stem. That will look fantastic after one muddy race. I've never ridden it nor have I ever seen this year's model in person. But, I am sure it is going to be fantastic because it is light and made of carbon.

I can't wait to race with this bike. I can't wait to roll up to the start line with a shiney new bike. I can't wait to smell that "new bike smell". Maybe when I crash on this bike, it'll hurt less because it is brand new. Better yet, maybe I won't crash at all because my bike will be like a super robot that auto-corrects when I make a mistake on the race course. They have that function in cars, I don't know what is stopping them from adding it to bikes.

Anyhoo, looking forward to a new bike. I think it'll be in next week. Can't wait!!!!!!!!

Mt. St Helens ride

A couple of weeks ago, Brian and I and two friends - Chris and Stef went to ride at Mt St. Helens. We took the van, and the dogs and knew it was going to be quite the adventure. Surprisingly the dogs were quite well behaved and Bitz even warmed up to Chris and Stef.

Ape Canyon trail was the one we did. It was basically climbing 4 miles up and then descending 4 miles back down. Everyone says that the views from the top are worth it. They weren't lying.

This was our first viewpoint, right away as we started the trail.  It was weird riding so close to Mt. St Helens. It was like you could run right over to it and touch it!

We kept climbing and then kept stopping for fantastic photo opportunities like this one. We just couldn't stop taking pictures!

I added the picture above because I have no idea how my camera turned the sky that blue. I don't remember it being this color but apparently it was.

Here we are at the top. The next photos attempt to capture the glory at the top of the mtn. We had 360 degrees of beautiful views. I forget which mtn this is. I'm sure someone knows, maybe Mt. Adams? or Hood. I can't keep them all straight there are just too many.

You can see the trail at the top. It was a weird trail, made mostly of ash, rocks and some snow.

Yeah, we are dorks. We have matching bikes. Brian got his first and then I had to get one too. That is basically the way it works with all of our bike purchases.

More trail photos. Really close to Mt. St Helens at this point!

Hello! Like I said, dunno which one this is....

I thought this was a cool shot. You can see the trail in the reflection of my glasses.

Seriously! We were so close, yet so far from the mtn. It is amazing to see the vegetation growing up there. Still quite scrubby but it is coming back for sure.

My last panoramic photo. It isn't perfect, but then again, they never are.


So much fun! Our next little adventure is another 24 hour mtn bike race in our favorite place - Bend Oregon! We leave this Wednesday after work and are staying through Sunday. I am not racing this time, just Brian. Mentally and physically I can only handle one 24 hour race per year. Brian is a trooper though - he is excited to race in Bend. I've got a lot of packing and provisioning of the van to do before we leave. Perhaps that is what I will do on this glorious day - Labor Day!

Bend Getaway

The month of July has been pretty crappy (weather wise) so far. I guess there were those two days around the 4th that were nice. But, they are far off in the distance separated by many weeks of dumb cloudy dreary days. "At least it's not raining." That is what I try and tell myself and others. But sometimes the lack of warmth really frustrates me.

On a Wednesday morning last week, we decided to take Friday off and go to Bend. It was Thursday morning before we realized that we could leave after work and spend more time in sunny, warm, lovely Bend. We got off work on Thursday, packed up the van and by 7pm we were on the road.

Our plan was to drive half way to Hood River and then spend the night and wake up early to finish the drive to Bend. Now, I'll say it was a really good plan, except when we realized that Hood River is not technically on the way to Bend. Oops! There goes my navigation skills again. So horrible, I tell ya.

Anyhoo, once we realized we weren't camping in Hood River, we sort of ran out of ideas to stop half way. That, and the fact that it was raining and foggy once we hit the Mt. Hood area made it really difficult to find a place to camp. Oh, and the fact that it is July in the NW and pretty much all camping is booked. That basically left Brian driving the whole way to Bend on Thursday night. He was nice enough to drive while I was passed out snoring in the back of Big Tom with the dogs. Good husband. :)

We arrived in Bend with no plans and just sort of drove down one of the main strips. Right about the time Brian said, "see - this is why I wanted to wait until Friday morning to drive to Bend." (Yes, it was midnight and we didn't have a plan) we say a glorious sight. WALMART! It is a thing of beauty when you see the parking lot with all the other RVers We pulled in, went to sleep and woke up to sunshine!

You can't really see it in this picture, but we were parked next to a "No overnight camping" sign. I didn't see it til the morning. I didn't feel bad though, apparently they are just kidding with that sign because there were about 15 other RVs in the parking lot.

The sun was so bright, we didn't even know what to do with ourselves!

Here I am taking a self portrait while trying not to go blind while looking into the sun. That is Brian in the background with the dogs. I think we were all dazed and confused by the sunshine.

We quickly packed up and left our beloved homestead and set out to walk the dogs, eat and go biking at Phil's trailhead. Below is a picture of the sign at our favorite trail. The Whoops trail. So much fun.

Here is a nice shot of Brian after our first day of riding. All smiles!

Also, Bitz enjoyed the sunshine quite a bit. Here are various shots of her enjoying herself.

In the last picture of her, she looks a little bit hefty. Please don't mention it to her. She is in her teenage years and is quite sensitive at this point. I don't want her developing an eating disorder or anything.

Let's not forget about Spencer, he likes the sun, but, I guess he likes the van more. This was generally what he was doing while we were in Bend.

On Saturday, we set out to do a longer ride. We were aware that some of the upper trails were still covered in snow so we had to figure out the best place to ride. We settled on the Mazrik trail as we heard the downhill was fun. Little did we know that a 100 mile mountain bike race would be riding on part of the same trail as well. It was ok though, we really enjoyed cheering them on. When we saw them, they were at mile 60 and it was about 2pm. They had been riding since 6am. Some of them really looked like they were miserable. Others were very happy. It made me think twice when I would complain about the climbing we were doing. I still complained about it though.

Some of the riders up one of the longest climbs.

We were rewarded with some really nice views. I made sure to take a picture of them.

We got to the top (after 3 hours of climbing) and began our descent back to the van. This was really so much fun. Typically, when you climb a ways and then descend, it always feels like you do hours of climbing for about 15 minutes of downhill. But, this downhill lasted for over an hour. It was literally the best downhill I've ridden ever! Swoopy, smooth, twisty, turny with an occasional jump thrown in for fun. The trails in Bend are so smooth that I'd be surprised when I would see a rock or a root. I looked forward to finding obstacles in the trail just to practice jumping.

Maps are good. They help us not get lost.

 But, alas, all good things must come to an end. And so did our lovely getaway to Bend on Sunday evening. After a long drive home with slow traffic, we returned home and disembarked from our trip. Laundry, cleaning, dinner, all the realities of returning back to normal. By evening we were settling in, except for 2 members of the family.

Even after we unpacked everything, they still wanted to hang out in Big Tom. They were ready to go again!

Nice Rack! (heeheehee)

We've been using our Thule rack on Big Tom for a while now and I have becoming increasingly frustrated with it. It is a great rack for the back of a pickup truck or SUV, but I do not like it for the back of our van. When we go to access the barn doors, the rack gets in the way. You pretty much bump/scratch your knees every time you open the doors. Not to mention, there is not enough room for me when I take my outdoor shower.

After a lot of research, we found a company in California that makes a swing away extension that we could use with our existing rack. Yay! Made in the USA, a small business called MWE!
Here are some pictures of the rack. It even matches the van!

It may not be very exciting for you to look at but I am soooooo excited.

The vertical red thing is the extension, the horizontal silver/black things are our existing Thule trays.

The rack ready to carry bikes.

The rack swinging to the left.

Look at that - opened the barn doors with ease! I have so much more room to access the back of the van, and to shower.

Seriously, I just can't get enough of it! We are going to ride the Plains of Abraham next weekend and I can't wait to camp and use this rack.