Recipe for a Bad (Good?) Race

2 weeks of no riding
1 week jam-packed with activities
12+ hour workday the day before (on my feet all day)
Restless night's sleep the night before
Poor nutrition

All this should have added up to a crappy race, but it didn't turn out that way. When I woke up yesterday morning, I was so exhausted I could barely force myself out of bed. The last thing I wanted to do was race at all, let alone for six hours. I knew I was going to go, but I thought it would be a similar experience to Cannonsburg. Earlier in the week, I had decided to try to ride 10 laps, which would best my lap count from last year's race by 2, but the closer the race got, the more unlikely that seemed.

I puttered around the house for a couple of hours, gathering gear and equipment, but not feeling very motivated. I checked the weather forecast and it was not promising. It seemed I was going to spend a long day racing in the rain. As soon as I got out on the road, though, I felt a lot better. Although it had started to cloud up a bit, the sun was still out. I was humming along the highway, finally fully awake, listening to Weekend Edition and feeling pretty good.

I arrived at Ithaca just barely in time to register. Jake flagged me down and I parked next to him and Cameron. The sky got more and more ominous as the start time approached.

The first lap went pretty well. My legs felt decent, the course was in good condition and the hills were small and manageable. I realized near the end of the first lap, though, that I was hungry. Why was I hungry already?

I thought back on my nutrition that morning. I had eaten my normal breakfast of oatmeal. Then I had a Kashi bar for a mid-morning snack. And that was it. Now it was the time I normally eat lunch. No wonder I was hungry.

I finished the first lap in about 33 minutes, which was close to the 30 minutes I was shooting for. I ignored the growling of my stomach as I blew by my pit area.

By the end of the second lap I was plagued by the foot problems that have defined my cycling experience. This one was different than the foot issues I have on my road bike—this time the side of my foot was aching. My back was also sore and I had forgotten to bring along my good friend vitamin I. Still, all in all I felt pretty good.

I stopped after the second lap and got some food and took my shoes off for about five minutes. When I got back on the trail, my foot was back to normal, but it would continue to act up throughout the day.

My legs felt really fresh until the sixth lap. Then I started hurting a bit. My lap times were all between 31 and 34 minutes and my stops after every other lap had been pretty short. Even so, I was starting to wonder whether I would be able to get my 10 laps in, especially as I got tired and began riding slower.

I decided that as long as I finished my ninth lap before six, I would make myself go out to get the 10th, no matter how tired I was. The good thing about a course that short is that you can almost always talk yourself into another lap as long as you still have time.

For my eighth lap, I had slowed down considerably and it took me about 35 minutes to finish. I had planned to keep going without stopping again, but I thought I had enough time left and I was gassed, so I stopped for about 10 minutes before starting lap 9. I was watching the clock the entire time, wondering if I was going to make it back to start another lap, but I was seriously slowing down and doing a lot of coasting.

After a 38-minute lap, I crossed the line at 5:50. I dug into my suitcase of courage as I rolled past the pit area for another lap. The last lap was painfully slow. My legs were beyond dead tired. Every time someone needed to pass me, I would pull over and put my foot down and actually stand there for a while resting. (Earlier in the race, I would pull over and quickly and get back on the trail as soon as I could.) I even walked up two of the climbs, which are normally nothing to get over, because I just had no climb left in me.

At one point, I actually waited for a minute for someone to catch up with me so they could pass. Unfortunately, I realized as the rider passed me that it was one of the six-hour women I had passed earlier. I would live to regret that decision. The only other thing of note that happened was that, due to sheer exhaustion, when I pulled over to get out of the way for one rider, I forgot to clip out and ended up falling over. That was the closest thing I had to a crash in the whole race, believe it or not.

I pulled into the finish line from my 10th lap at about 6:37. That meant my last lap took about 47 minutes. I came in 5th out of 7 women solo riders. I was pleased with finishing 10 laps, but was extremely irritated that the 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishers all had 10 laps. And that girl I pulled over for came in 4th. If I had just ridden a bit faster and/or taken shorter breaks, I might have been able to pull off third.

Still, it was a good race. I'm happy with my willingness to stick to it. And the weather actually ended up being perfect. With the exception of a few sprinkles during the first lap, the rain held off and during the last several laps, it was actually quite sunny.

Blog? What Blog?

It's been a busy but fun couple of weeks. Clearly, I've neglected my blog (along with a few other things). The summer is sadly flying by. I've been busy at work with a bunch of events, presentations and the like. This coming week is going to be the worst. I literally have plans or a work event every single night.

Family has been the name of the game lately. I've been catching up with my cousins at open houses and other events.

We said a fond farewell to Fran before she left on an exciting trip overseas. It's been amazing to have her back with us after so many years. I know it's too early for things to be settled, but seeing her with my bro again makes me believe that occasionally things really do work out the way they're supposed to.

We spent the weekend of the 4th as we always do, in Comins. As we commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the July 3 Comins tornado, my husband described waiting out the storm under the pool table at the Knot Hole Bar. The girls enjoyed the sights of the parade, but Maddy sat on my lap and shook with fear as the fire trucks went by with all their sirens. What kind of bird dog is terrified of loud noises, I ask you?

Red's train, filled with kids, snaked by us. Small town parades are the best.

I had a nice, peaceful Independence Day hike with my bro and the girls.

I had to watch Chris like a hawk. Can you believe he tried picking up some floozy right in front of me?

Yesterday we spent a long, leisurely day at the lake where I spent much of my time during childhood summers. My great friend and cousin Becky is here for a two-week visit from Philly. It was fun to see her son Ethan looking not much like a baby anymore. My awesome nephew Sebastian even taught Ethan the finer points of playing in the sand.

Chris' dad is also staying with us for several days. He's visiting from Florida. Between all the work stuff and family stuff, I really haven't found much time to ride. It makes me a little nervous about the Ithaca race, which will be here next weekend. I'm a little anxious about how the race will go after running myself ragged and barely riding for a couple weeks leading up to it.

I guess in the overall scheme of things, it's more important to spend time with family, especially those I don't see very often, than to be able to ride one more lap at Ithaca. I just wish I could do both.

Today is shaping up to be another beautiful day. I should be thinking about getting a long ride in, but I'm leaning toward heading back to the lake. I'll let you know what happens.

Things That Make Me Feel Like an Athlete (Accidental or Otherwise)

Riding this downhill repeatedly with no brakes every time I'm at Burchfield (I know it doesn't look scary in the picture. It doesn't even look scary in person, but for some reason, it terrifies me, so I make myself ride it over and over)

Being on a team

Riding in the winter

Cresting the top of a hill I was sure I couldn't ride (Not that I rode this one. This is just an example.)

Endorphins Crossing the finish line

Fun!

They'll be coming any minute now

Too fast to focus

Breakfast

The beginning of the first killer hill

It keeps going ...

And going

The view from the top

Our friend Frank (on the left) with a random racer at the top of the killer hill

Little aid station in the woods (I know it looks like that guy's peeing, but I assure you, he's not.)

Can it be? Yes, it really is! Live and in person, Ali B. We finally meet.

Chris chillin' and guarding the kegs

Riding (part of) the course the next day

Another fun weekend of Lumberjack festivities is over. We'll definitely be back again next year.

Saturday With the Stars

Tomorrow after work we head to lovely Udell, Michigan in the heart of the Manistee National Forest. The Lumberjack 100 is Michigan's contribution to the National Ultra Endurance Race Series. It's also run by Mr. Kisscross, Rick Plite, so you know it's a good one.

At Lumberjack, elite mountain bike racers challenge themselves with four, 25-mile laps of killer singletrack. Lumberjack is unique in the series, with 99% singletrack. The other races incorporate fire roads and two track.

Anyone can pay their money and try their hand at Lumberjack, not everyone finishes. I was amazed last year at the sheer number of people who race just to see how much of the race they can complete. It is my dream that one of these days I will be able to test my mettle at Lumberjack to see how much of it I can ride before collapsing in a sobbing heap on the side of the trail. I had hoped that might be next year, but judging from the way my endurance season began, I'd say the outlook for this looks bleak. Maybe my turn will come in 2011.

At any rate, for this weekend we will be mere spectators. We're working the aid station from 1 - 3 p.m. Last year, we worked the very last shift, and I am interested to see how the attitude of the racers differs. Last year, they were sometimes dillusioned, disoriented and completely spent. They were also grateful for a chance to stop and get some refreshment. This year, they’ll likely be fresher and have more energy. Maybe many of them won’t even stop.

Whatever happens, I’m looking forward to the experience.

Why Don't I Do This Every Monday?

I almost didn't go on Danielle's ride tonight, even though I've been planning to for weeks. I've been whining for two days about how much I hurt after the Cannonsburg race and it seemed like a good excuse. That would have been a big mistake, big, huge (name that movie)!

It turned out to be a great night for a ride and it was one of those rides that really drives home to me why I love riding. I felt great the entire time I was out there and I wasn't hurting at all. I was a bit afraid about keeping up with the rest of the group, but I did fine. There was a stream crossing I didn't ride that I feel a bit ashamed about, but other than that I pretty much rode everything.

It was also nice to spend some time talking to Danielle and asking her questions. She had a lot of great advice for how to ride things and I learned a lot. Even though it's a bit far to go on a Monday, I'm going to try to make as many of these rides as I can. It's not often I get to ride with a group and I really enjoyed it.

BTW, if that photo isn't a good motivation to lose weight, I don't know what is. Not only did I wear the Fat Cyclist jersey, I downright personified it. It's definitely time to get back to work and take care of this problem.

4 Hours of Cannonsburg

I couldn't believe it when I woke up yesterday and it was raining again. Seriously, it has been rainy and wet at every race I've done this year (except the winter ones, of course). I was not really in the mood to ride for eight hours in the rain, but there was no way I wasn't going.

Since I went off my winter training schedule, my riding has been more sporadic than I would like it to be. I definitely wasn't prepared for this race like I should have been. As the pack pulled away from me at the starting line, I struggled to keep my legs, which felt like lead, turning. The first hill, which is really more like a gentle slope, felt worse than anything I had ridden at Yankee or Poto. My goal of doing 10 laps began to look like a serious pipe dream.

At the top of the hill I decided to pull over and regroup. I know I'm not in great riding shape, but I am in good riding shape. I also knew that because there were only three women riding solo, I was guaranteed a podium spot as long as I could complete a lap. I decided what I always end up deciding in races, that I will do the best I can, not worry about where everyone else is and just try to have a good race. Then I put Sugarland on my MP3 player for company and started riding again.

My first lap was painfully slow. I was at least a half an hour into it before I really started to feel warmed up. I'm beginning to question the whole idea that you don't need to warm up if you're doing a race that's more than an hour long. It makes sense, but I think I'm just one of those people who takes a really long time to get warmed up and it may not be a good plan for me.

The first lap ended up taking me 54 minutes to complete. I could probably have walked it in that amount of time. I did end up walking three uphills, as well as walking around a log pile that seemed really high. I promised myself I would ride it on at least one of the laps. At this point, I also had a serious case of the curse of the Camelbak, which is a syndrome I get when riding with my Camelbak during a race causes my shoulders to hurt.

I stopped long enough at the pit area to take off my jacket, get rid of my Camelbak and wish I had two water bottle cages on my bike. For now I would have to alternate a bottle of water with a bottle of Heed every lap. (I was drinking the Heed that tastes like bubble gum and thinking I knew the flavor wasn't really bubble gum. When I got home and looked at the container, it said "Mandarin Orange." WTF?)

My second lap was much faster. I felt better overall and I was beginning to really like the course. The most fun thing about the whole course, in my opinion, is that near the end there are all these berms. I've always been scared of berms, but as I gained confidence I was flying through them. There are four of them right in a row and I was having a blast.

I only walked one hill, which I didn't I'd ever be able to ride, although I did see one person doing it. The only thing that was mildly demoralizing was when I got lapped near the end. But when I emerged from the woods, I found some blue sky had emerged too, and the weather would continue to get better as the day wore on.

I stopped for 10 minutes at the pit to eat something and fill up my water bottle before starting the third lap. Suddenly, I felt out of power again, but I plugged up the hill and it got better. Unfortunately, about half way through I got a stitch in my side that didn't want to go away. I stopped for a minute or two, drank some water and started riding again, more slowly. Eventually, I started ramping up my speed again and I was back to full on by the time I hit the berm playground. The stitch was still there, though, and I decided to take another 10 minutes in the pit.

The fourth lap started out okay, but it was to be my undoing. There was a small log pile which dropped off a bit on a downhill. It's exactly the sort of thing I normally avoid. (Ask Anne about my aversion to going over downhill log piles, which she had to beat out of me one day at Burchfield.) However, the first time I saw it, it was too late to avoid it, so I just went over it slowly and it was fine. I rode over it every other time without worry.

On the fourth lap I don't know what went wrong, other than the fact that I was going much faster when I hit it. The next thing I knew I was in the air doing a spectacular endo. My shoes came unclipped and one of them actually flew off my foot and I had to go looking for it.

I got up, dusted myself off and rode a bit cautiously for a while. Then, just when I started getting my confidence back, I crashed again. This time, similarly, I don't know what happened. I wasn't going that fast, and hurt a lot more than it seemed like it should have. Before I finished the lap, my bike started acting up when I was shifting and I dropped my chain 5 times.

I sat around in the sun in my pit area for more than a half an hour, trying to get myself motivated to go back out there, but I just couldn't do it. I felt like I had been steamrolled (and I felt even worse when I woke up this morning). As I drove back home, I felt really crappy about quitting. I know it doesn't really count as a DNF, but it sure feels like it. On the bright side, at least I shouldn't have any trouble beating this performance next year.

Next up: Regrouping