Break from Racing

I took a couple of weekends off from racing in October. One was to attend the Shining Light on New England First Regional Iyengar Yoga Conference in Providence, RI.

It was really great. I was able to take classes from some of the leading Iyengar yoga teachers in the country. It was also the first time that I have taken yoga so intensively. The conference was for three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and each day we had three 2-hour yoga sessions. That's 6 hours of yoga per day! It was a wonderful conference, and I felt great afterward. (A bit sore, but really stretched and lengthened. I went for a 5k run in the middle of all the yoga sessions on Saturday, and it was the first time that I've ever run and NOTHING hurt at all. It was amazing!)

The following weekend we attended Scott & ML's wedding, which was beautiful. It was a lovely ceremony, and the bride and groom were both radiant. As usual, Geoff captured the moment wonderfully.
The following day, I went to Franklin Park with Geoff to cheer him on while he participated in the Franklin Park 5K, which is a cross-country running race. Those of you who know Geoff are saying, "What??!!??", because as we all know, Geoff doesn't like to run. However, he wanted to see if the fitness that he has gained from all his years of bicycle racing could translate into something else. He didn't even really train for this event, yet he finished 20th in his age group! He ran at an average pace of 7:16 and finished 188th overall (out of 356).

I am so very proud of him! Considering that when I ran the Komen 5K it was on a flat paved surface, and that I had trained for it for about 6 weeks, I did a personal best pace of 9:54. Geoff ran amazingly fast and this was a difficult race - they were running across fields, through mud, up and down hills, and on gravel paths. He was really great. I don't know if he'll keep running, but if he decides that he wants to, I think he'll be very, very good at it.

Nice job, Geoff!

For all my Franklin Park photos, go here.

Providence Cyclocross Festival

What a great weekend! The weather was amazing and the race courses were twisty, up, down, and all around fun. After the races it was good times with good friends, watching, cheering and heckling the other racers, wandering around the bike expo and enjoying the glorious autumn weather.

On Saturday the we got to the venue 30 minutes before the start of the first race, so I had the chance to pre-ride the course twice, which was great. It was helpful to know what to expect, and also gave me the opportunity to warm up properly, which is something that I'm working on doing better. Then I registered and chatted with some friends, and got on my trainer to continue warming up. Had a totally zen moment when a hawk flew down to the ground about 10 yards in front of my trainer and just hung out there for a while to watch all the crazy bike people.

At the start I was in the second row, but had decided to start conservatively so I didn't try to contest the hole shot. The course was still pretty muddy from the rain overnight, and there were some sections where it was sort of slick. My slower start meant that I got to pass some people, which was fun, and I was pleasantly surprised when one of those people turned out to be Ivy, who is a Cat 3. I tried to put as much distance between her and myself as I could, in the hopes of holding her off for the rest of the race (which I did!).

I was really happy with the way that I did the barriers in this race. There was a long flat lead-up to them and I was able to swing my leg over and coast into the barriers smoothly, which felt great! I still can't manage to do a running, leaping remount, but I am getting smoother at remounting and don't need to come to a complete stop to remount anymore, which is nice and obviously saves time.

The one spot in the race which slowed me up every lap was the steep muddy run-up before the finish line. Every time I got to this point I felt like the mud was sucking me down into it, and it was all I could do to slowly crawl up that hill, leaning on my bike the whole time. It was probably only 15-20 seconds of "running", but it felt like the hardest 15-20 seconds of the entire race. I needed about 2 minutes to recover from that section every lap.

This weakness really hit home on the last lap, when I was closing in on Jill M from Cambridge and a Specialized rider. I was only a bike-length behind them coming into that run-up, but after that they were beyond my reach and although I sprinted strongly up to the finish, catching them wasn't even a possibility. Guess I need to work on uphill running sprints, huh? I ended up placing 23rd out of 39 finishers (not sure how many started).

Photo by Geoff Martin (beastgp)

On Sunday I was also in the second row for the start, and once again started conservatively. There were a lot more women starting this race and it was a big mess with lots of riders falling down in the twisty section after the start. Luckily I was able to move around them without crashing myself. The first lap was a little bit of a blur, mostly trying to avoid other riders and put some space in between them and myself. On the second lap I had a lot more breathing room, so I concentrated on riding well and keeping good lines. I passed quite a few riders with mechanicals. On the third lap I focused on staying in ahead of the riders who were behind me and tried to pick off a couple of the ones in front of me. I was shocked when one of those riders turned out to be teammate Cathy R, and saddened because it looked like she was in a lot of pain from a crash.

On the last lap, Ann (Sturdy Girl) was hot on my tail, and I tried to go as fast as I could up the finishing hill. She had a lot of speed on me and I could hear her coming around on my right. I stood up and sprinted for the finish with all I had (even going for a bike throw on the line), but it wasn't enough and she beat me by about 2 inches. Sigh.

In the end, I had a lot of fun on the course, and my legs felt a lot better than they had on Saturday. I had another good race, maybe even better than the day before, but oddly enough, my finishing results were exactly the same: 23rd place. (This time out of 44 finishers, and I'm told there were 13 DNFs.)

I am very exited to have a new set of nemeses and victims on crossresults.com. :-)

Of Cats and Flats...

(Or... why I'm not listed in the results for either day of Gloucester)

On Friday, our kitty Rimmer got sick and we had to take him to the cat hospital for fluids and medications. They let us take him home that night, but we had to bring him back in for more treatment on Saturday morning, so I missed Day 1.

Luckily our stoic little cat started to feel much better and to eat again, and he was well enough that I felt like I could race on Sunday.

Day 2 involved failing to get a decent warm up, watching my teammate Janet R crash, riding the sand, passing people as I got going, and then - smack! - I was on the ground. I wasn't sure what happened, so I picked myself up and kept racing, but soon realized I could barely keep my bike upright in the turns. I was about as far from the pit as you could get, so I called it a day. My front tire was as flat as a pancake. It was my first 'cross mechanical and first 'cross DNF. Oh well - got that over with. On to Providence!

Here's one of my favorite shots of Rimmer investigating the camera lens.

Blunt Park Cyclocross Mudfest

Wow, that was the muddiest race I have ever done! Since it was an Open Women's race, we were the last race of the day and the course had turned into mud soup by that time. There were at least three muddy ponds to ride through (during warm up I watched Michele A ride through one and it looked like half her bike disappeared into it - I couldn't stop laughing!), and there really wasn't any part of the course that wasn't mud. Well, there might have been one small stretch where you could go way off the racing line and be on slick wet grass instead of wheel-sucking mud, but that was it.

My goal for the race was as follows: Stay upright.
I almost succeeded, but more on that later.

I started in the 2nd row and sprinted off the line (pavement), passed a few people and took a good line into the first corner (and into the mud). Then it was chaos. A twisty muddy section, then a large log forcing a dismount, then more muddy twisty bits, and another log (stay on bike but put foot down for stability), more mud and a then another log and forced dismount, followed by choice between mud soup or off camber roots, resulting in running to higher ground to remount, then more mud, more twists, and finally some pavement (ahhh!), then back into mud and another log dismount, a huge mud puddle, and then the section with alternative grass non-racing-line areas, then back into mud, chicanes (generally better to run), then into the barriers (3 barriers! who does 3 barriers??), mud sucking you down between them, remount and more twists and turns and two more giant mud puddles, then an up and downhill chicane (dismounting and running recommended for sure) and then more mud and more twisting and finally you're back on the pavement and across the start/finish line to do it all again. Phew!

Ok, the first lap I went out hard (probably too hard) and was holding my own for most of the lap, and then I got unsettled in the muddy chicane and sort of ran out of gas after that. A few people (including teammate Terri) passed me before the barriers (I think) and then I was on my own for the rest of the race, except for a little leapfrogging with a masters racer and two juniors.

The juniors were faster than me in the twisty muddy sections and passed me, but when we got to the pavement, I shifted into the big ring, left them behind and kept them there. (Ah, satisfaction!) The master racer was definitely faster than me everywhere, but he kept having problems and I would pass him while he was either fixing a mechanical or picking himself up out of the mud. Eventually this would come back to bite me when, on the last lap, I decided to go a little harder and came screaming into one of the forced log dismounts, preparing to do an awesome running dismount, only to find out that I was actually clipped in with my left foot and I went down HARD! As I'm lying on the ground, the master guy is coming up behind me yelling something like, "I'm going fast!", and I scrambled and was up and over the log and getting back on my bike as he passed me. As I started racing again, I could hear Todd R in my head saying, "You can stay clipped in if your coming slowly into the barriers, but definitely not when your riding fast." No kidding! That took all the wind out of my sails and I just went into self-preservation mode for the rest of the race. Luckily I was in no-man's land and wasn't in any danger of being caught and passed at that point, but I was hoping to close in on both the master racer and the woman in front of me. Oh well.

The lessons I learned from this race are as follows. 1) Find out if there is a bike wash and wash the mud out of your brakes before you race! Both Michele and I started the race with our bikes caked in mud and while everything still worked, it would have been much nicer to start with clean equipment (especially the brakes) 2) While it's awesome when you can clip into your pedals even if they're caked in mud, beware that you might actually be clipped in even if you didn't try to clip in, therefore, always unclip left foot before coming hot into the barriers (or log) 3) I love Campy!!! A fall in warm up and later on falling in the race resulted in both of my shifter mechanisms being submerged and encased in mud. The bike shifted perfectly with no issues at all for the entire race. I had zero mechanical issues. 4) I love Time Attack pedals and cleats! I could clip in every time, the only real issues I had were finding the pedal - once I found it, clip! (and of course the previously stated clipping without trying)

On another note, my new bike rocks! It is so light - I think that was slightly unrealized at the time, but considering that I had to carry my bike 6 times each lap, over the course of 4 laps, I would have been a lot slower if I was picking up and carrying my heavy old bike that much. What a way to start it's life as a 'cross bike. Awww, poor baby!

Komen 5K

On Saturday I ran the Komen 5K charity race for my corporate team and with my friend, Linda. Our team collectively raised over $2000 for the charity.

I've been running once or twice a week for a little over a month now, both to prepare for cross and in anticipation of this event. I'm happy to report that I completed the run on Saturday with an under 10:00 minute mile average, which is definitely a personal best!

It was a gorgeous day, there were thousands of runners and walkers, all raising money for a great cause and I'm happy that I was a part of it.

If anyone still would like to donate money to the charity, you can do so here.
http://tinyurl.com/y9c2zuo

Quad 'Cross 2009

Well - I got back to racing this weekend at the Quad Cross race in Bedford, MA. It was great to have a race so close to home, especially since I was out quite late the previous night at ML's bachelorette party. I limited myself to one glass of wine, but I still ate too much rich food, culminating with "Molten Chocolate" from Finale. Drool...

Anyway, being my first race of the (cross) season, not having been on the bike most of the prior week, and the anticipated late night, my only goal for this race was "to have fun". Knowing that was my goal didn't really help with the nervous anticipation, however, as my heat rate was practically in my Tempo zone in the car driving out to the race. Ack!

I got there early enough to ride the course two times before the Cat 4 men started and once more in between their race and ours. When I pulled up to the start line I was much more composed and relaxed than I had been earlier.

Waiting to start, I was chatting with my friend Rebekah (who I hadn't seen since my last cross race back in November 2008) and suddenly we were off. I had lined up on row two, since I wasn't planning on trying to get in front or anything, and suddenly I realized that all the first row girls were getting away from the second row girls. Heck! I can go faster than that! So I got out of the saddle and closed the gap.

On lap 1, nothing eventful happened for me until the barriers. They came just after a blind corner and they exited with a tight u-turn into the only real spongy uphill woods section. I had been able to ride it in my warmup, but since I was in a group at that point, I thought it would be safer to run it, which I did, and did not give up any places there. Yay!

The next significant point was coming into the final single barrier. In the men's Cat 4 race, I watched practically the entire field wipe out in the turn leading to that barrier, so I knew to watch out. (See Geoff's photos of that here.) I remembered Todd R's clinic instructions to "dismount and coast as long as you can", so I glided down the slope and stepped off in the apex of the turn. It felt very smooth and almost graceful.

I actually passed the rider in front of me with that technique, and I was pretty happy about it. And then... I had to wipe that self-satisfied smile off my face when I crashed in the mud of the next hairpin. Argh! The girl I had passed passed me back, along with at least one other. I picked myself up, lost more time bobbling around in the wrong gear, and finally got going again.

On the second lap I was more or less on my own and I just concentrated on being smooth and steady, tried to take deep breaths on the downhills to get my heart rate under control, and rode the spongy woods section (still faster for me than running).

On the third lap I passed the girl in front of me (in the barriers!) and on the fourth lap I passed another girl (the one with whom I had dosie-doed in the first lap) right before the finish. I even managed to get out of the saddle and sprint to the line to make sure she didn't come around me. I was cooked after the sprint and just sort of stumbled off my bike and sat on the ground for a bit trying to breathe. Geoff captured it on film (of course).

That was a HUGE improvement over my first two years of cross racing, because it was the first time that I've had enough energy left at the end of the race to pass anyone. In previous years, I've been the one being passed in the last lap or two.

In the end I finished 18th out of 30 starters and 28 finishers. I am pleased with that result as my only goal was to "have fun", which I did. Looking forward to more races!

Haven't posted in a while

I've been meaning to post on a lot of things, but I haven't found the time. It's rainy today so it seems like a good opportunity.

I was lucky enough to be able to take 4 weeks off of work this July & August. I couldn't take them all at once, but I was off for two weeks, worked for one week, then was off for two more weeks. It was really nice, and I got the chance to relax and experience life at my preferred speed, instead of the crazy hectic life I usually lead.

One of the weeks was spent on Cape Cod with Sallie, Michele, & Catherine at Sallie's mom's beautiful house in Chatham. We spent some time at the beach, rode our bikes, went to coffee shops, practiced yoga, and ate really well.

Speaking of eating well, the CSA produce that we're getting continues to be wonderful. We had a couple of weeks where everything was purple. Purple carrots, purple peppers, purple broccoli, and three different variations of purple eggplant. We also had glorious peaches and several different types of melon. Yum!

Now that the seasons are changing we are starting to get more fall produce. We are getting a lot of corn, red peppers, apples, and different types of squash.

The change of season also marks the transition from road cycling to off-road cycling and I'm starting my cyclocross racing season tomorrow! It will be an appropriate kick-off since it will be a mudfest after all the rain today. :-) It's not cyclocross without mud!

I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll get my race reports posted without too much delay and maybe that will inspire me to update this blog more regularly.