20 miles of michaux... without the rain!

I've been riding, racing, working, training, and generally enjoying life so much lately that I haven't been blogging much.  But I promised myself when I started it that this blog isn't really about other people reading it... it's about reflecting on my experiences and races, thinking, feeling, remembering...

Last weekend was the Michaux Maximus race.  Last year, it was a mud fest.  In the rain.  Cold rain.  It was one of the two times I can ever remember considering putting my bike on the side of the trail and leaving it there.  The best and pretty much only good part of that day was rolling in and seeing that Shea had won the 10-miler overall.

This year was WAY better.  Weather was perfect - a bit misty at times, overcast, and warm.  Trails were perfect.  A great field of 9 women showed up for the 20 mile race - including a few local expert riders.  Michaux is a little different in that instead of Beginner/Sport/Expert categories, they go by distance.  There's an unspoken rule that Expert racers don't race the 10 mile race, but other than that, people do what they want. 

My goal was to ride, just ride it, finish it, ride smart in the technical sections (okay, so at Michaux that's pretty much everything except a couple miles of fire road).  I definitely wound up at race pace for most of the race, with an overall average heart rate near what I've put out at other races this year.  Even better - I finished the first 10 miles nearly an hour faster than last year and came in well under my soft goal of 4 hours, partly because they cut out a tough section at the end.

Here's the thing - it was a blast.  A total fun day. Early on, a guy was on my wheel and commented that "that 29er just takes off downhill" - I don't always do the Superfly justice, but I love gravity.  I rode with a teammate Phil for a few minutes until he crashed and then got a branch stuck all in about 5 minutes and had to slow down for a bit. I passed some guys while we were hike-a-biking uphill. I passed a few hike-a-biking while I was still riding (!). 

About 15 miles in, I found some guys, including a Winchester Wheelman or two that were happy hanging on my wheel and with my pace.  That makes me ride faster but within myself.  I was surprised to see a few of the guys I'd been back and forth with stop at the aid station about 3 miles from the finish.  I had plenty of Heed in my camelbak still and wanted to keep rolling.  Turns out it was 3 miles uphill, but all fire road - I still had a bit left in the tank when I saw the sign for the turn to the finish.  I'd been thinking I was in for some more tough singletrack.  I was thrilled to finish. 

Truly thrilled - like tears in my eyes as silly as that is.  I finished in under 3 hours to wind up in 4th!  One of the really strong riders wound up DNF'ing with a busted derailleur, so that was pretty much middle of the pack and happy with it.

I was sore for a while.  Not as sore as I am after this weekend's adventures, but definitely fatigued.

Not one of the cool kids...

I never was one of the cool kids. But this weekend, I'm still not. Over 600 (yes, 600!) people are racing cyclocross within 2 miles of my house, including some people who are sleeping here tonight, but I'm not one of them. I'm a bit sad - Charm City was my first cross race and I was immediately hooked. It's been a year - I know I'm still addicted but have to wait a week to join the 'in' crowd.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll be taking the Superfly out for a little spin that we'll call the Michaux Terror of Teaberry. I'm racing the 10 miler still - if I finish, I'll be the only female to do so for all three races and therefore will win the series. A bit of a hollow victory if it happens, but I'm hoping for a good race. And really, I'm the only one who came back for more after the mud and rain soaked fest that was Michaux Maximus this year - I probably deserve it just for finishing that one.

Anyway, we pre-rode there a couple weeks ago, so I have a good idea (barring mechanicals) of a goal time. No, I'm not telling. Sometimes, I just don't want to broadcast my failures. Or my own mental sandbagging by setting goals that are too easily achievable.

Speaking of goals - I'm having trouble setting some for cross. I know I'm a ton more fit than I was last year going into the season and my skills are way better. I've even mostly deleted the double-hop from my remounts - last year I barely even had a remount. But where to set my season goals?

I'm planning to race the local series, which has a Cat 4 only women's field. Can I make it consistently into the top 10?  Do I shoot for the earned upgrade to Cat 3? Then I'd have to race with the big girls next year... will I be ready for that if I do? Will I even want to? Does that mean I'll have to take this bike racing thing more seriously - like, get a proper training plan and such? Is it even realistic to think that I can podium in a reasonable field of Cat 4 women on a good day? I'd like to think so, and hot laps at practice the other night with some other Cat 4's were encouraging, but I tend to think they were not pushing as hard as I was. So in all this nebulousness, I'm forced to be patient. I won't know a reasonable goal until I go out and have a decent race. Or two. Or three. I'm not good at patience...

Catching up, playing hard

Seems like it's been a while since I've blogged and I guess it has. I can't seem to keep up with writing about all the awesome end of summer riding that we've been doing. So this is going up with no pictures, links or anything useful. Briefly:

Terroring the Teaberry - last weekend - pre-ride of Michaux Terror of Teaberry course. This was a blast for me. The group was huge (think 50?!), split quickly and I eventually got dropped back to where I needed to be for the first ~12 miles. Great tight single track, rocky fireroad descents, reasonable climbs. Very fun. We regrouped in the parking area and went out with a smaller group to ride the next 12 or so miles. This time, it was mostly LSV guys led by Kent and Jes from Gettysburg Bikes. Last year, my first ride with LSV guys was about this time and I got dropped so far off the back that Bernie came back looking for me. This time, I got dropped, but never more than by a minute or two. Thankfully and unfortunately, a few of the guys flatted, so I even got a couple of chances to breathe. Fun. Quite a bit of hike-a-biking on the ridge trail, but fun. Afterwards, we bonded all campfire like over beers and zucchini muffins. I'll look forward to racing the 25 miler next year. For now, the last race of my mountain biking season is next weekend on the first 12 miles.

Singlespeeding it (intentionally) - when I got the Superfly, I planned to convert my Cannondale 26er with a headshock to a singlespeed for training (especially when riding with newbies) and mucky days. Last week we finally got it put together (Surly singleator, geared at 32x18) and took it out Monday night to our local haunt. Shea wanted to test ride my Superfly properly anyway... beautiful Loch Raven ride and I really think my Cannondale and Superfly handle pretty similarly, so I wasn't totally screwed by having smaller wheels. Except the part where I went to jump a curb on my way out of the parking area and had the timing a bit off for my rear wheel. Luckily, I was running pretty high pressure, so twas embarrassing but at least we didn't have to change a flat.

Crossing the red line - last week we dropped over to cross practice at Druid hill. Where the grass is tall and the acorns are aplenty. I properly crashed on a remount in front of Kris, who was leading practice. Mounting onto back wheel = bad. No double hop before doing so = progress. Hot laps were tough on me. The run-up was sapping all my limited strength and speed - I really need to start doing some consistent running or at least a few running hill intervals. The guys set it up so that the downhill off of the run-up/barriers had a nice wheel-sized hole in it. I nearly lost my late lunch a few times. We rode until it was nearly very dark - good workout, but I have a feeling that first cross race is going to kick my butt in a mere 13 days...

In lieu of an enduro race - I seriously considered heading down to Poor Farm to race a 5 hour lap race yesterday. But decided not to when some smart teammate pointed out that, in fact, I'll be racing almost every weekend between now and ski season. Instead, I assembled a small group of 6 crazy souls and headed out to Frederick for some rockin' and a rollin'. After about 8 miles on rocky, rolling doubletrack, we looped back toward the car and found some singletrack so sweet that several times it was noted, "I don't care how we have to get outta here, this is awesome". I rode some features I didn't think I had in me - and dabbed on a bunch more. Big ramped logs, big rocks, little logs, rock gardens galore. I did manage a header over a small log and a near face into stick/ditch event. Sense of direction was good, and we were generally heading toward the car, but after finally finding the road, talking to a stoned driver who said, yeah, 'that's a gravel road', we started a seemingly interminable climb on said gravel road. Mike, who was riding away on his Singlespeed Niner, claimed "it's a good way to spin out the legs"... I was thinking I was just throwing a bunch of lactic acid into them. And in fact, I was - I'm sore today despite some of the Luna recovery stuff, watermelon, and beer. So, I didn't do an enduro race of 5 hours on smooth trails - instead I rode 5 hours with friends on a gorgeous day, getting lost in the rock gardens. It was a near-epic ride and fabulous revitalization... gotta love it when I get to use the fitness I've got to enjoy the stuff I didn't think I could even ride let alone dig.

R^3

Shea and I went to a favorite place of mine this past weekend - Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, for a much needed long weekend of R&R&R. That's not a typo - Rest, Relaxing, and Riding! As a kid, my family had a cottage and ski boats there (yes, I was a competitive waterskier long before I slid on frozen water) and my institute maintains a secluded lodge there for use of all of its employees and fellows (that's me!).

Riding - we went away for 5 days and rode 5 days of it. We hadn't exactly planned on a lot of trail time, but the weather was perfect, my bike has new pieces of drive train (thanks to Gettysburg Bikes, you guys continue to rock!), and Western Maryland is remote enough to bring the four-legged friends Allie and Gideon along for a few of the rides. As I'm currently in catching up at work and laundry^3 mode, the details and photo uploads will have to wait. But by the end of the weekend, I'll share my thoughts on the briar patches Garrett County, awesome riding in Davis, WV ("honey, wait up, we dropped the dogs!"), and a less than favorite loop a few miles off the path toward home. Look forward to a few trail reviews (if I put 'em here, I won't lose them myself!).

Rest - yes, now that I'm 30, I can in fact still sleep more than 10 hours a night several nights in a row.

Relaxing - I highly recommend the little fire starter logs that you can buy at Lowe's instead of paper if you're starting a wood fire on a warm evening in a finicky fireplace with wetter-than-it-should-be wood. By round 4 on the fires, we had this nugget figured out. I also recommend steering away from "The Silver Tree" restaurant - a place that holds fond childhood memories of lasagna, whipped butter in fancy dishes, and 15cent ice cream parfaits for dessert. They reopened under new ownership this week and it's the first time in a long time that I actually sent my food back. It was that bad. The ice cream, brownies, and other assorted goodies (gotta love Candyland in Oakland) and oh yeah, wine and beer that we devoured over the weekend somehow haven't yet made it to my waistline - perhaps it was all the riding?

Recovering from R^3 with science - eh, how about some margaritas instead?

DNF or DFL... I chose DNF.

About 5 miles into the Quantico Cranky Monkey race today, I was presented with a situation - to DNF (did not finish) or work my bum off from DFL (dead frickin' last) to whereever I could get to. On a converted singlespeed. I chose DNF. It was my first DNF, actually, and I was pretty bummed, but there wasn't a good way around it.

Apparently when we put my chain back together this week, something was amiss, and this mean phantom shifting and chain dropping for the first few miles. After all the women had passed me while I was fixing said dropped chain (about 6 times - this should have been a clue), I thought I had the derailleur cables adjusted and went for it. Stood up a climb and boom - shattering noises from the back of the bike... uh oh. The inevitable chain break was here. Oh, except it took with it my Sram XO derailleur, which got pulled into the rear wheel. As they say, when carbon fails, it fails catastrophically.


I successfully had my bike part way apart to convert it to single speed by the time the sweeps came through. With no quick link, it wasn't going to be fast to do this, and I was already far back from where I needed to be. Having won the previous two races in the series, I needed 3rd today to take the series and had little chance of dropping below 2nd in the series regardless of what I did. 15 miles of hilly-ness with a converted single speed (yeah, I've never done that before and it was an okay conversion, but not perfect - chain tension was a little loose). So I DNF'd - telling the sweeps with the radios to be sure that they knew it was a mechanical not an injury time out. Shea was sure to be confused and worried when I didn't come through on the first lap.

I finished the chain break/repair and went backwards on the course to get to the nearest fireroad outta there. Got a good clue who was doing well and saw the woman's leader (Simona) who would take the series with a strong finish. She was surprised and seemed genuinely disappointed about my bad luck.

Back to the car and no Shea to be found. I texted him - "At the car. Mechanical dnf" - not one I want to have to send often. Chatted with a few teammates on the way in, finding out that the only other LSVer in the sport race had crashed out with a bent front wheel (I had seen him fixing the flat).

It's too bad that I had to learn this one the hard way... when your bike isn't shifting right, it could be the derailleurs (checked those, a lot) or the chain (yeah, waited till it broke all the expensive parts to figure that one out). Weird to be at the race without having really raced - had my body and brain all set up for the pain and I'm still feeling a bit antsy. I'm also tired from yesterday's cyclocross clinic (watch for my thoughts on that this week), so recovering with beer and couch time instead of a good cyclocross-specific run sprints work out or something productive like that.

As for the series, Shea won today, taking the beginner under 34 series. I wound up 2nd overall and scored a nice gift certificate, then a consolation prize of winning an iPod in a raffle. Doesn't quite make up for the pricey bike parts...

3 laps is better than 2...

Whew. I've been thinking about upgrading from beginner class to sport lately, and finally did it with the support/urging of some teammates. This was actually a season goal for me - I had mediocre success last year that led me to believe I could race the early season in beginner and feel comfortable upgrading by mid-June. That was a bit optimistic, but I've had success lately and definitely don't want to feel like a "sandbagger"... Today's Cranky Monkey Wakefield event was my first in the Sport class, and for the most part, the biggest difference is the riders are faster (and better) and there are more laps. In this case, 3 instead of 2. 18 miles.

I have to say, this was probably the most fun race I've done all year. I went out with the attitude that there were going to be chicks there who could pound me into the ground, so I hoped to (once again), get faster as the race went on and remember to eat and hydrate. Update: here's me in the professional race photos, looking dialed in.

At the start, for some reason they put the women and clydesdale classes together (I was warming up until after they started announcements, so I missed the logic), and the women had all lined up at the back. That's fine, I was out to have some fun, remember? But as we know, I like to start hard and fast and hit the singletrack first so that I can burn out too early and be grounchy with myself. So it was probably a blessing in disguise. I had a pretty decent start regardless - I was the third woman but we were still in a mix of men, so I couldn't tell for sure that was the case.

Within the first mile, I had an awesome "Superfly moment" (that's what I'm going to call it when I love the 29er wheels) - over a rooty whoopy up section, the guy in front of me took the good line/spun out/was soon to be walking. I powered up over the roots on the harder line, clipped out with one foot for a push, and was off again. What fun! I passed a few of the men in the first woods section - and was feeling pretty good. The roots and logs were a little slippery, but I was very relaxed, riding well, and quick to settle into my endurance pace. I expected that there were at least a female or two off the front (a suspicion that I continued to assert to the many a spectator later).

The first time we hit a bit of road, I caught one of the women who'd hit the singletrack first, and followed her for the next mile or so through a bit of climbing. Since it was clear she was holding me up going uphill, I powered through the next road section, passing her and (it turns out) another woman as well (a fact that I overlooked at the time). I was feeling really good - somehow in the last year I've gone from "droppee" to "dropper" on some of the hills.

About 2/3 through the first lap, I just had a moment where I realized how much fun I was having. Beautiful day, very courteous guys to pass, fun singletrack with berms and purpose-built mountain bike trails... and wow, it's so much more fun to race when you have little chance of winning... well, that's what I thought, anyway. And to top it off, my lap time was about where I thought I could manage for 3 laps. I struggled to get a ShotBlok out of my pocket and started the second lap with a very awkwardly hopped curb.

Midway through the second lap, someone I passed said I was leading, to which I asserted that was not possible - there were women off the front. Then some spectators told me the same thing - I told them the women off the front were so far ahead they hadn't seen 'em. Why, when Shea told me I was leading I didn't believe him, I don't know, but I continued to think I was at least several minutes off the leaders. This was actually good - I was relaxed and settled into my pace, enjoying the ride and staying well within my heart rate range. I think. I wouldn't actually know that because my heart rate moniter hasn't been working all season and I still haven't fixed it.

By the third lap, I was really happy - powering through things, still riding technically sound, and totally looking forward to the downhill bermed turns near the finish. Last year those terrified me. I knew when I finished I'd had one of my best races ever. And that I'd managed to eat and hydrate and get faster (lap times of 34:42, 34:28, and 34:12) as the race went on. Success to me. I still didn't believe Shea when he said I'd won. But then they posted results, and in fact, I had. All the evidence said that I'd upgraded and won my first race in sport by leading for most of the race. I guess it was good that I upgraded...
My rookie mistake of the day - the sunscreen never made it out of the car. I am just a bit pinker than I prefer.

Michaux madness...

Michaux, ah Michaux. Curse of the Dark Hollow. Yup, that's right, another Michaux race. Only this time, it was put on by Jes and company of Gettysburg Bicycle - the guys who know the trails inside and out and how to best torture everyone racing on them. I was racing the 10miler (no beginner, sport, experts categories here - just distances... that are often off by 30% or more and never do they err on the side of too short)... turns out it was more like 13.

This was my first time out on rocky terrain on my new ride, so I figured racing would help me get over my fear of breaking my bike. When they were lining all the women, juniors and masters up together to start, I inched toward the front in order to hit the singletrack in a respectable position. What I didn't count on was getting the hole shot (really, I wasn't even starting that hard!) and gapping all but one or two riders by a couple hundred yards by the time we got to singletrack. Yummy, delightful, downhill singletrack. With some little drop-offs. Awesome good fun. I really enjoyed that section... until I had a little seatpost issue and it changed the angle of my saddle. Okay, no biggie on the downhill - I was off the back for much of it anyway.

At the first uphill, I stopped briefly to fix said seatpost and was passed by one woman and a few of the others then... bummer. Up next was a long section of rideable rocky climbing that I wound up walking parts of. The switchbacks were tough on my not-yet-used-to-turning-radius-of-new-bike self and we were catching groups of riders ahead who had started a few minutes earlier in other categories and were off and walking.

I had a pretty good ride from there until the next time we saw fire road - really fun single track. At one point I saw but did not manage to pass the chick in front of me. Lots of rocks and a bit of walking through them. On a section of singletrack near the reservoir, I heard my seatpost go again, and stopped and fixed it. But I was truly enjoying the ride - the trees were tight enough that I nearly took a swim at one point when I caught handlebars on a tree trunk.

I hit the fireroad again and realized that I was at the 8.5 mile aid station. Kool. Only 4+ miles to go, and I knew much of it must be gaining back the elevation we'd lost on the first descent. Thankfully, it was all on a fireroad, so I left my legs and lungs out there, spinning hard to make up time lost going slow in the tight sections and fixing seats. That was a significant climb for me - about a 11 minute effort. Onto a patch of singletrack under the powerline when I heard the dreaded seatpost noise again. By this time fixing it, my multitool had disintegrated (I knew the bolt was loose on it last week but failed to do anything about it). But I got it working again long enough to make it through the climb onto the next section of flat-ish singletrack.

And again it adjusted itself for me. How long could I make it standing... I was near the end... After a few hundred yards of standing all the way - legs on fire, I stopped and lowered the seat so at least I could relax a bit when I had momentum. I pushed hard to the finish for 2nd. Good thing I pushed, too, because third place was less than a minute behind.

All in all a very fun race. I love the new ride and will definitely race Michaux again. It's hard. Character building. But really really fun.

29 and on a 29er...

I love my Cannondale. I love racing my Cannondale. really. but its little elastomer head shock is losing its cush, and in lieu of a new race wheelset and shock upgrade for it, we decided a new ride was in order. The Cannondale is destined for single speed conversion as a training bike.

After a _lot_ of deliberation and a husband-imposed deadline of my upcoming 3oth birthday I figured out that 29er is the way to go. I read, I contemplated, I even got to test rode some very nice bikes courtesy of race teammates (thanks Karl and Marc!). I love the Fisher 29er geometry, so I decided on a Fisher Paragon. The high end aluminum 29er. With upgraded wheels.

Well, that was until I called Jes at Gettysburg Bicycle and Fitness. I know Jes from teaching at Liberty - we trained together some last season and Jes is a phenomenal skier with super fast feet. I've actually never worked with him re: bikes before. But I'd rather give the business to a small shop that's in it for the right reasons. Jes and his buds do a lot of trail development and run an infamous local race series up there at Michaux. His shop has a ton of great bikes (though I had only eyes for one!) and long term employees. i.e. they know what they are doing and have been doing it for a long time.

Now, I should say that when I sat down and did the math on the weight upgrades, I had wanted the much nicer componentry on the Superfly. And it turns out, not only did Jes treat me better than fantastically (including show me how to put sealant in tubeless tires, hook me up with a jersey, etc), the Superfly was built, waiting for me, like it was meant to be... I was willing to give up the wheel upgrade for the dream bike. I couldn't help but go get it yesterday afternoon. And ride it last night....

It wants to go so much faster than I do. I was apparently going too fast for Shea to get our little camera to document it in the evening light next to the reservoir. So we only have static shots. I get to race it at Michaux on Sunday, so maybe someone will catch us in action then.

PS: I realized tonight on the drive home from my weekly chicks only mountain bike ride, that I think it's a little wierd that my new bike is a Superfly and what I do for a real job is dissect super fly's - Drosophila melanogaster if you must know. But who cares about a fruit fly, the carbon fiber kind is _much_ more fun in the dirt.