The Adventures Continue ...

Snow in Seattle and the Mountains!

2012-02-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Happy February!

January was a fun month with a Snowstore in Seattle (yes, we actually had enough snow to sled, make snowmen, and have snowball fights!!!). The snow was great fun although the roads and trails are still recovering a bit ...so riding and running has moved indoors for a bit!

My big accomplishment for January was running a full hour on a treadmill ... you have to know me to understand how big of a deal this is! I am not a huge fan or running inside ... so getting in an hour long run inside is a BIG feat for me :) Back outside this weekend though (phew). Long runs are so much easier and longer outside!

On the fun front ... winter camping! It was great ... this time with a bit of life's comforts! Since the roads and trails were not ridable ... why not hit the snow ... 5.5 hours of snowshoeing is exhausting! You think you are in shape until you change things up ... then you realize you have a ways to go! It was amazing ... check it out here. Tried snowboarding but the snow was too wet and the boards didn't move very fast :) I think going down the hill was ALMOST as much work as going up. The winds were so crazy at the top I thought i might blow away! :) Next time!

This weekend marks the end of the 'snow era' in seattle - translated this means running and riding outside! A 10 mile run on Saturday and at 50mile ride on Sunday. I'm stoked!!

How going home for Christmas makes me faster

2012-01-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

I love going home (to NS) for Christmas. The house is full - 7 kids running in every direction, 9 orso adults, lots of food, and the feeling of 'home'.

So why does this make me faster? Well, imagine a few feet of snow, kids from the age of 2 to 16, loads of sleds to choose from and a great sledding hill ... and your daily workout quickly becomes sledding! Now, with kids it's not just the act of sliding down and walking up ... but of waling up while towing one or two kids behind you yelling 'faster! faster!'. Now you are getting the picture! It's a cardio and strength workout all in one ... and if you try to talk or get into a snowball fight on the way up the hill ... well, it makes it that much more fun.

Then of course there is playing alphabet soup, hunting dragons, and generally keeping up with the neices/nephews! Add to that the fantastic home-grown food (in massive quantities) and the relaxation of being home, and when I got back on the bike - i could push more on my intervals!

I highly reccomend this specialized Christmas training program! It's good for the body and soul :)

Happy holidays all!

How the search for ice cream is making me faster

2011-09-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

I know, it seems backwards ... but it's true. My quest for the perfect ice cream is helping make me faster! How you ask? How is it possible?

Well it's easy. You ride your bike to your ice cream destinations :) So far i've had two such weekend rides ... the other weekend I headed over to Leavenworth in search of Ice Cream. The ride was amazing ... I love my new Norco CCR ... it is so LIGHT and FAST :) Beautiful sceanery ... a crazy 15 mile climb on the way there and 25 mile climb on the way back ...

All told it was about 90 miles of riding for ice cream that wasn't so stellar. Too late i saw the Stone Cold Creamery as I was sittng on the grass enjoying the cone i'd purchased! Now that is some good ice cream! I'll have to do the ride again and get the good stuff :)

The other adventure was to Alki Beach ... the long way. This was only a 70 mile ride and the ice cream was pretty darned good :)

Ah, the live of an ice cream addict. Or is it bike riding i'm addicted to? I'm not sure :)

Well, that was fun!!

2011-07-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

I did the high cascade 100 yesterday .... what a blast!

By the numbers:
Miles riden: 110
Vertical feet climbed: 14,000
Crashes: 1
Lost banannas: 2

Now for the fun stuff! The race started at an early 5:30am and a frigid 28F (yes, that is below 0C!!!) I had winter leg warmers, arm warmers, a under layer, jersey, vest, hat, and jacket on to start. Yikes, it was cold. I knew it would warm up fast. At the start line before the sun ride we could see the man on the mood. The race was at Mt bachelor- away from the city ... and ite stars were amazing!

Up came the sun and off we went .... 5:45 was the official start time by my watch :) The first section was 35 miles - the longest without aide, so i started with a bottle and a camelback. I'm pretty sure my bottle froze because i noticed a crack in it about about mile 15 ... had to drink out of it a certain way to avoid concentrated heed going everywhere!

We started with a road climb and jeep track descent. Everyone went out pretty hot and i would guess I was in the end of the middle of the pack ... usual spot :) The jeep descent and singletrack was dusty so i wore my trusty bandana (thanks Frank!) to protect my lungs. This part of the course was a big singletrack descent followed by a climb. About 22 miles in they had a spot to drop gear. I dropped my warm leg warmers and jacket there :) Yup, it was warming up. After the clothes drop it was a long slog uphill thru the singletrack and back to the first aide/drop and start/finish!

The rest of the race I did bottles and dumped the camelback. The course was full of singletrack, both up and down ... twisty, turny, up and down. SO MUCH FUN!! The course was hard but fun. Things that stood out:
- passing the girl that passed me at mile 25 around mile 100
- starting to feel good around mile 75
- the view of bachelor on the worst climb on the course
- the fun fun fun technical descent

A great race! I'll be back again for sure

What happened to summer?

2011-07-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what happened to summer ... we had 5 beautiful days around the 4th of July and now we are back into rain season :(

Oh well, here is hopeing we have good weather for the 100 miler in Bend, OR next weekend! All ready to go, just need to decide which bike to race and ensure i taper!

Thwarted by a tooth (ache)

2011-07-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's true! I went to the dentist a few weeks back ... they are replacing all my old fillings with the new stuff .... and the bite was not adjusted correctly when we were done. What this meant is that every time i closed my jaw, a huge amount of pressure was being put on two specific teeth. The pain was insane .... and of course my denstist went on holiday the week of july 4th so i had to wait to get it fixed.

I am not a fan of taking pain meds but i was full on in pain med mode ... ouch! I cannot tell you how much it hurt!

So ... yes, a toothache kept me from CCP100 ... but have no fear, i got it fixed yesterday and am gunning for HC100 !!!

Using Cascade Cream Puff as a 'training race'?

2011-06-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

I think i might be crazy. I know, I know ... most of you reached that conclusion ages ago! But yes, i've decided that i am going to use CCP as a training race. Hah. I am so going to get killed ....here are the details:

100 miles
18,000 feet of climbing
85% single track
Full on epicness - reports of hail, snow, sun, and wind ....

yeah, i'm crazy. It's July 10th .... a mere 1.5 weeks away!

So what am i training for? I want to do the 100 miler in Bend in Sept - its the National Marathon Championships and I figure i should practice a bit :) So in July i'll do 2 100 milers - CCP and High Cascades 100. Then in August i'll do one more - Capital Forest ... and top it off in Sept!! If the 100 mile thing doesn't work out i'll do another 24hr race in Bend in Sept instead.

Catching up

2011-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's been a while... i know, i know! Slacker :) I really don't have an excuse ... unless you count spending all the time i can on the trails (running or riding), geting some sweet hiking in, working too much, working with the awesome crew here in Seattle on Cycle the Wave, and leading some Women's rides.

hmmmm, maybe i do have an excuse! But i've been motived by none other than mother and triathlete extrodinaire Danelle. She's re-commited to bloging and this post talks about spending a little bit of time each day doing the things you love. So here i am :)

I have a lot of catching up to do but for now i'm just lettting you all know i'm still alive and kicking ... and that i am still enjoying the adventures in life - big and small.

Tonight, for example, I went for a run to do hill repeats (my least favorite and weakest running workout) ... turned out mother nature decided to give me an extra reason to sprint the hills. The skys were promising rain but i figured it would hold. As i got to the bottom of the .5 mile hill i break into 3 parts with recovery, I heard a HUGE crack! Thunder!!! and off I went, that was all the motivation i needed to get my butt into gear! I had to outrun the rain - this meant doing my intervals and then finishing off with a 2 mile run home. And yes, I won! i made it :) But i will tell you, i have never ran the hills that hard!!!

Race Report - StottleMeyer 60 Miler

2011-05-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Man, I cannot tell you how much I LOVE having endurance races ‘in my back yard’!!!! It’s awesome – thanks to Kevin and the NW Epic Series crew for a well run race – the course was awesome, the volunteers amazing, and it was simply a great event!

So … the numbers :) It was a day of threes. I crashed into three trees (yes, three different ones, on three different parts of my body) … I stopped for animals on the trails three times (horses and dogs), I saw three people crash right in front of me, and I came in third!

The course was great … mass starts are always fun and this was no exception. I’ve gotten quite good at positioning myself at the front of the start so I can draft off the fast people J It’s a strategy that serves me well – means all the other girls have to catch me. Well, it was less than a mile in when the first one passed me, charging up the hill like her hair was on fire. She was killing it … I watched her go and thought “wow, either she’s that good or she’s gonna blow”. Yeah, she was that good! She set a new course record and beat most of the men with a 5:15 finish. Amazing!

My strategy for the race was to push the pace as a sort of test for my fitness. My goal was to beat my time from last year (just over 6 hours). The first lap is all about placement and patience. You want to go out fast enough to get ahead of slower people in the singletrack but not so fast that you blow up. For me this is always a struggle as I am pretty good in the singletrack and a slow starter. So there were log-jams and waiting on the first lap but I was mentally ready and took the opportunity to recover, breath, and relax. Then once the fire road came I’d try to pass as many ppl as possible … rinse and repeat and you get lap 1 J Into lap 2 I was mostly on my own and setting my own pace. This is good and bad b/c I can often settle but I was pretty happy with my ability to push. The 2^nd girl passed me on lap 2 and I tried to keep her in sight but was having a terrible ride in the technical section (this often happens when I stress about how fast I am going) … and was just all over the place. I pulled it together after a while but she was gone. All I could do at that point was push my pace and focus on myself and my time goal. I finished the race strong, at 5:58, 5 min behind girl #2 and 45 behind girl #1. I felt like I could do another few laps at that pace, which is always promising … and definitely felt like I was in my groove by the end of the race.

About the course … the course was a good mixture of fireroads, technical climbs, flowy fast single-track sections, and tough technical singletrack. Just when you got bored of one, you’d move onto the next … never a dull moment!

I rode my new Phaser for this race and it was awesome – climbs like a goat and descents like a Faze. I love it! It’s a bit more aggressive than the Faze so my upper body takes a bit more of a beating … the different between ‘race bike’ and ‘endurance bike’ J

So all in all, I’m happy with my first real test of the season – my mental energy/sharpness is currently compensating for my lack in fitness. I’ll take it J Lets see if that holds true for 24 hours!

Chasing Rainbows and Gearing up for a 60 miler

2011-05-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Oh, didn't you hear? Chasing rainbows is the new thing in training these days. You see, you go further and faster than planned and you don't even notice it ;)

Anyway, with all the rain here in Seattle we do get some rainbows ... I found one the other night and decided to give chase. The Rainbow won. :)

This weekend is the first race of the NW Epic Series - StottleMeyer 60 miler. I'm nervous and excited all in one ... i feel woefully unprepared with no real idea of where my fitness is ... but i guess i'll find out soon! I know my top end is seriously lacking ... but hopeing that my bottom end is still good to go!

With my Norco Phaser I can't really go wrong ... and I have a trusty new car to get me there ... so it appears i'm all out of excuses!

Well, all I can do at this point is get ready and let 'er rip!

New Car!

2011-05-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

Finally!!! Bought a new car.

About 1.5 months ago I was told i had a spun rod in my engine ... basically it means i had to replace my engine. For $5K I decided to ask how much my car was worth. $4500 at the high end. Well, that was depressing ... with 7 years and 170K kms on my car I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new one.

I went back and forth on SUVs and small wagons for a while ... and finally this last weekend went to test drive a Subaru Impreza and a Forrester. I didn't like the changes in the Impreza that they made over the years but fell in love with the Forrester. It offered more space, but not too much, had great visibilty (yes, i like being able to see!!!!). So I drove away with a Forrester!

Yes, I will admit it: in true Monilee style it was, in the end, a race that drove me to purchase something sooner rather than later. You see, i have a 60 mile race this weekend. And it's on Whitby Island, which is a bit of a drive. So i didn't feel good driving a car with an engine that could 'stop at any moment, never to start again' .... the result? A new car!

Here it is ... a bit naked without bike racks ... more pictures to come once it gets 'fully dressed' :)

The countdown begins ... or is it over already?

2011-05-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Um yeah. What happened to Father Time? Why is he speeding things up? It seems like i should have another 8 weeks before the 24hr Solo NW Champs ... but it's only 3. What happened?? Oh and i definately should have another few weeks before my first long race (StottleMeyer 60 miler) ... but no, it's next weekend!!!!

Crap, i should be training, right? :)

Well, we will see ... i've been a bit of a slacker but i'm thinking maybe that will pay off.

So what have i been doing? A little of everything ... I've been running anywhere between 10 to 18 miles a week, i've been swimming once a week (uh yeah, i know i should swim more ...), I've been working too much, I've been playing in the dirt (IE having SO much fun on my new Phaser!!!), I've been playing on my new road bike ...... the Norco CCR1 - so hot!, and i've been being social.

Not sure if that adds up to a fast Monilee ... but it does add up to a happy Monilee ... so we'll have to go with that and see where I land. This next weekend will be the first 'real' test! All that running should help right? and swimming? Not sure that working helps ... wrist strength from typing? And being social ... mental health! Hmmmmm, we'll see :)

But in the end ... I'm stoked! Can't wait to 'get back in the saddle' and give it a whirl. Here's to the real kick off of 2011! Bring it!

To ride or to run ....

2011-04-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was in this exact delema the weekend of March 20th (yes, i am behind on my blogging ;)) ... i had to choose between the Mercer Island half marathon and a local Budu race. And I was actually torn ... i really want to beat my 1:42 time from last fall when i was getting back into running.

But then fate had her way ... Mountain Side Cycles called ... my Norco Phaser 1 was ready to go ... well, obviously, i have to bike! there is no better way to test out a new ride than to take it out on the trails and go as fast as you can go!! And that is exactly what I did ... and here is what I found out:

The Phaser lives up to all expectations ...
- it climbs like a goat
- it descends like a Faze
- and it handles ... well, like a Norco ;) It handles really really well ... I LOVE IT!

Yup, i've fallen in love yet again! So fickle, i know ... but I will say that the Faze still holds a dear place in my heart and will be used for longer events like 24 solo for sure. The Phaser is more agressive and i'm sure after about 12 hours in the saddle i'll be eager to sit on a more relaxed geometry :)

The other thing I learned is that I am overtrained :) So ... my training plan this winter has been 'do what you want, when you want'. Yes ... i know ... silly. For those of you who know me well, you know what this means .... yup, biking, swimming and running pretty much every day. So yeah, i am now going to take one day a week off each week ... and i have recovery weeks built in now too :)

Seattle Bike Expo

2011-03-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had the Seattle Bike Expo ... always a great way to get motivated, see friends, and get some riding gear!

I got some sweet goodies from the Norco crew - a new kit sized Monilee style! I love it!!! The colors are different this year so look out for the new kit!

Best of all I got to see Jon from Veloce Velo, Steve, and the rest of the Norco crew ... and was reminded again how lucky i am to have such great sponsors - and ones who really love the sport!

Pedal on ...

Budu Racing ... the season openers!

2011-03-14T02:38:00.000-07:00

So race season has started already!!! And no, i wasn't ready :) Last weekend was my first race of the season ... and yes, it was good to be on the trails ... and trying to go fast! I've missed the racing, the trails, the girls, and the effort - and am very excited about the 2011 season!!! So now for the story ...

i got to the race venue with about 30 minutes to spare so my warm up was a little light (10 minutes) ... but i was stoked to be there, even if it was cold outside (7 celcious! ouch). I met Yvonne before the start as she was using my 2008 Norco Faze 1 for the race - i love that bike - so we got her all set and ready to go! I was on my 2010 Norco Faze SL ... a sweet ride for the technical course we had!

At the start line we were all chating - so much to catch up on and so little time :) everyone was sizing eachother up to see who looked like they might have trained all winter and who slacked off ...but you can never really tell until the rubber hits the trail. And then we were off!!!

Out of the gate i was hammering. I wanted to get a good position in the single-track. I'd never riden in this particular part of that trail network but knew that other parts were tight single track with minimal passing opertunities ... so i wanted to get in ahead of the pack. I had a great 30 seconds and then the effort started to hit me (I generally get 30 seconds for free ... where my body doesn't know what the heck is going on) and i slowed down a few notches. I was in 3rd going into the singletrack and then passed Yvonne on a downhill and moved to 2nd.

10 minutes in I realized my lungs were still not fully recovered from Bronchitus and that it had been a bad decision not to take my puffer before the race. My lungs were burning!!! But you do what you gotta do ... so i kept on peddaling, as fast as i could. This is a race, afterall :)

The race course was tight ... very narrow, tight corners, and lots of wet roots. It was slow going ... a fairly technical course!

Yvonne was on my tail the 1st and 2nd laps but into the 3rd we both wiped out, one of my pedals fell off, and she dropped me! I put my pedal back on (the hardest part was getting it off my shoe!) and tried to chase her down for the rest of the lap ... but didn't quite make it, finishing 3rd - nice work Yvonne!

It was great to get out there ... and dust the legs off! What a great way to start the season - good friends, good trails, and a good effort!

Phew! 2011 started with a bang :)

2011-03-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

I don't mean it literally, but man, i can't beleive it's March already!!! What the heck happened to January and February??? Well, I'll tell you!

I started the year by returning from a fantastic visit home to visit the family. Christmas was amazing ... the kids were all there and the house was full. It was great to be home! I returned to Seattle to start a new role at Microsoft. I've joined the Azure Storage team and I have to say - it's pretty cool stuff :) I have so much to learn ... but am loving it!!

On the fitness front I've been running a lot (even ran Tiger!), hiking a bit, snowboarding a bit, swimming a bit (I can swim for 2km straight - freestyle), and not riding enough ... Um, does crosstraining carry over for fitness? Not quite ... but more on that later!

On the health front I got Bronchitus followed by the Flu which took me out of all training for about 3 weeks. Upon recovery I promptly went up to Big White in Canada for some good fun in the snow. Snowboarding ... snow shoeing, snow angels, etc. You know, the important stuff ;)

On the bike front ... I am getting two sweet new rides soon, thanks to Norco Bikes :) The Phaser 1 for mountain biking - supposed to be great at climbing and should be good for the shorter 50 mile races. And a road bike!!! A Norco CCR 1 (how hot is that?)!!! Sweet rides all around. Spoiled? Yup!!!!

So yeah, that is my year so far ...

Half marathon 'race' report

2010-12-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Hard to call it a race when I didn't go very fast :) But it was a race! So, the numbers:

Miles: 13.1
Time to finish: ~1:42
Time spent walking: ~10 minutes (bad stitch!)
Finished: 13 out of ~700 in my category

... and here is the story behind the numbers ... The race started off ok. I've been having what i can only classify as shin splint issues on my left leg, one of my friends refers to this as my 'wimp spot' so i will too :) So my wimp spot was really bothering me but i knew i wanted to finish so instead of fighting the pain i just relaxed into it. I think this was the best for the long run b/c it meant i didn't run funny. After a while the pain became my friend :) Once I relaxed into a nice stride the first half of the run was decent ... i was on target to beat 1:40 so i was somewhat happy with that ... but i didn't feel like i was pushing so i figured i could pick up the pace for the second half.

I had to take a bathroom break at the 1/2 way point and then ended up with a wicked stitch ... I tried walking for about 2 minutes, then realized it wasn't going away so i may as well run thru it. It was pretty painfull for about 10 minutes ... i don't think i was running very fast. More like a slow motion jog ... ok, i was basically walking :) Thankfully it subsided to a more managable pain just before the big climb and i really enjoyed the slow hill climb. At the bottom everyone was passing me and I felt really slow ... but by the time we got to the mid-way pont i was passing people back ...it felt good. I started picking up the pace over the hill.

Over the hill it got really cold. I'd been pretty warm up to this point and wasn't expecting it. My legs seized up on me and my quads were like dangling blocks of ice. The race turned purely mental at this point and I had no idea how far left in the race (or how long i'd been running - i couldn't find my watch the morning of the race) ... so i just kept running. Once people around me were speeding up i figured we were close to the end and then started recognizing street signs. I couldn't convince my ice block-legs to go faster so i just paced it out to the finish. I didn't break 1:40 so wasn't really happy with my time ... but not too bad i guess. But of course now i have to do another one ... i want to go faster :)

So i'm pretending to be a runner ...

2010-11-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

I used to be ... a long, long time ago ... a runner. I can't claim that anymore. But this weekend, for a short (ha) 13 miles, I am going to pretend to be a runner!

I've had 6 weeks to train ... (yes, it's already been 6 weeks since worlds) so i'm not expecting much .. but I will finish, and I will try to go fast. :) We will see. My fastest run has been at 6.5 minute miles ... but i know i can't sustain that for 13 miles. I am hopeing to finish around 1:35ish ... we will see!

How did i end up in this 'situation' you ask? Well, two of my good friends convinced me it would be fun ... ok, maybe they didn't use the word 'fun', but perhaps 'different', a 'challenge', and a 'change of pace'. That all sounded good back in Australia when i was prepping for Worlds :) And in theory 6 weeks is enough to get into shape, right? Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are about to find out :)

So i've done a couple of 13 mile runs at this point - i know i can finish. I just don't know how fast i will be ... First of all, my body does not remember how to go fast anymore. I haven't done intervals in ... forever ... and my body is still in 'i can go for 24+ hours' mode. Funny how the human body adapts to survive. I will have to have a serious chat with my legs on Sunday before the start ... they need to understand that this is like an OCup race - go hard or go home ... but i haven't been able to convince them of that yet. We will see :)

Whatever happens, it will indeed be a challange, a change of pace, and something different! And if i am seriously considering off-road triathlons next season I need to start running at some point. What better time? Next i'll have to enter a swimming race ... um, what did i just say? I need to re-learn how to swim first ... :)

To add to the fun, we recently got about 4 inches of snow and so far it's sticking ... although the temps are much nicer running temps today. So the run will be a bit chilly... but i'm Canadian so that should mean I'll go faster right? Right (it's all about having the right attitude!) :)

Race report ... Worlds!

2010-10-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

I knew going into the race it was going to be competative. With a field of 400 solos and a totally seperate course from the teams to ensure that there was not too much congestion ... it promised to be a good race. And it was ... this race is going down as the most competative female Solo race in 24hr history .. pretty cool!

The field was pretty deep ... pros from 15 different countries were there vying for the top spots ... and the Aussies were out in full form. It was amazing!

Here is a quick summary ... by the numbers :)

Laps ridden: 17
KMs ridden: 306
Feet climbed: ~29,000
% singletrack: 85%
Place finished: 10th

Now for the interesting part ... the story behind the numbers :) The race got off to a bit of a shaky start ...I thought that call up was at 11:45 but it was at 11:30 so I missed my call up but made it to the front of the line before the start just fine. Kinda funny really, the media guy was giving me a hard time at the start :) The race got off to a fast start, which i was expecting. There were several woman who were openly bidding for the top spot and a lot of talk about going out hot and keeping the lead. My plan was the usual .. push it a bit, but not to hard, try to find a good pace, and settle in.

Out of the gate and onto the bike I was at the back of the pack ... the whole field had gone out hard! It's tough at times like that to remind yourself to pace, ignore everyone, and that half the field would not be able to maintain the pace. It seemed like eveyrone was gunning for first and with a lot of unknowns i had no idea how they'd hold up. But in a 24hr solo if you don't do your own thing you pay for it later. So I tried to relax, I tried to pace, and I tried to ignore the girls around me who were hammering up the climbs. Into the second lap my legs and back were sore ...what is up with that? I'm only 2 laps into a race and my legs hurt? They didn't hurt enough to slow me down too much but i am guessing it was from all the hiking on the team ride where i snapped my cable.

My pit crew consisted of Kate and my folks. Kate was the pit manager and had everything organized and ready to go. Whatever I needed, she had it ready ... and mom and dad were her helping hands. Thanks guys - could not have done it without you! Thanks too to my friends 'back home' who were sending emails, texts, and messages of encouragement!

Into lap 3 I felt like i'd found my pace and was starting to settle in. Some of the girls i've raced in the past had passed me and were asking if i was ok ... 'yeah' i'd say 'i'm just settling in'. But i woundered ... am i going really slow? Why are they asking me that? 24hr races are a bit of a mind game ... so i decided it didn't matter ... if 'my pace' was slow, so be it, i wanted to ride the entire 24 hours!

I started to gain some positions around dusk .. people were starting to slow down and I was holding steady .. finally the strategy was paying off :) Then nighttime came ... and I wasn't eating enough. I was dizzy and a bit bonked so i had a few longer laps, ran into a boulder on one lap, and then decided to stop and eat; and let it sit for a while.

This is a good time to mention the snakes, spiders, and Kangaroos! On my dusk lap i was riding up a switchback and saw a huge (1.5 inch in diameter) brown snake. Hmm... i think these are the bad ones, i thought. So i slowed down to let him slither across the trail ... but he didn't move fast enough and i had to decide ... stop and let him go ...or run over him. I didn't want to stop...this climb was hard! So I sped up, a bit nervous, and ran over him ... for the next 2 minutes I was sure he was going to hunt me down ... but he didn't! Phew!

The next lap a 6 ft Kangroo jumped out in front of me (scared the crap out of me) and ran down the trail in front of me as if to say 'oh yeah, i can run faster than you can ride ... and I can stay up all night too'. After a while he got bored of this little game (i don't think i was going fast enough for him) and ran off the trail and into the woods.

During the night the spiders came out to play. And these were not small spiders ... i was convinced that they were all truantulas ...am still thinking they were :) They were about 1-2 inches in diameter .. and didn't have really long legs. They were all over the trails. I am not a big spider fan and was deaking them out whenever i could ... on the downhills i just cringed and went for it ... it was too rocky/hard to be deaking out spiders!!!

The course got a little rough over the course of the event and I was very happy to be on my Norco Faze with 4.5 inches of travel on the front. I felt bad for anyone riding a hardtail .. that course was rough! But the Norco just ate it up and kept on going ... I love my bike!

So ... back to the race ... all in all I think i was off my bike for about 1 hour ... back onto the bike I started feeling better and could feel the effects of the food/calories in my system. I was waking up and was no longer dizzy. As the sun came up so did my energy and i ws back doing my pace and getting some good lap times in. Kate told me i was in 18th around 6am ... so even though I was passing loads of women I knew i had a lot of work to do to make the top 15. I was feeling pretty strong in the morning .. not too many people were going faster than me and i felt like i could ride another 12 hours. Finally back in my zone and re-energized with banannas and peanut butter sandwiches, i was having a great time. My 15th lap Kate indicated that 12th was in reach so I hammered out a solid lap to ensure I could do one more ... I really pushed it to the end at this race ... and managed to catch 12th, 11th, and 10th ... to put myself into 10th place! What a great race ...

Going into the race i figured i'd be happy with 16 laps, and estatic with 18 ... I ended up with 17, which is right in the middle so I am pretty happy with that :)

All in all, a solid race! i am much better at cornering now ... :)

What's next? Kate has convinced me to do the Seattle 1/2 marathon ... so i've 6 weeks to dig out my running shoes and get into shape :) It should be fun .. i think she'll rock it and land on the podium ... i'll suffer along and hopefully finish not too far behind her :)

Ready or not ... here we go!

2010-10-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the count down is over and Worlds is here .. tomorrow that is! The feild is deep this year with 400 Solo riders taking on the challenge and vying for World titles so it's going to be nothing if not competative ... it should be good ....

Now for the real question ... am I ready? Well, I have my super star pit manager (Kate) and my super keen pit helpers (Mom and Dad) ready to support me .... I have my bike, my kits, and my food, tools and etc ... I am feeling rested ... and my legs? Well we know once i start up the first hill climb tomorrow!

So what have i been up to? Well, eating bonbons, laying around, and posing for pictures (here is one with my dad) ...

... ok, in all seriousness ... i've been scooping out the course, resting, doing last minute errands, and generally getting ready for the big day - tomorrow! On Thursday the Canadaian team got together for a lap of the course and dinner afterwards ... here we all are with our team kits on ... getting ready to ride:

The ride was pretty fun ... relaxed pace and my legs felt good. unfortunately 1/2 way around the course my shifting cable snapped (it was a bit frayed) and i was single-speeding it. now, I'm not a practiced single-speeder and didn't think that 2 days before the race was the right time to learn ... so I ended up walking most of the hills for the 2nd half. Seems like a lot more climbing when you are walking :)

Kate arrived between the team ride and dinner and i'm super stoked to have her here! Today we built my 2nd bike, got my shifting sorted out, and tires and tubes all ready to go! Kate did a loop of the course and I did a quick spin, rested, and then went out for some last-minute errands. And now ... we are just getting ready for sleep ...

I won't be posting for a bit but Kate will be tweeting about my race under Monilee24Solo so if you are interested you can follow along there :)

Prepping for Worlds - A report from 'down under'

2010-10-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Well, i made it ... and so did my bags! It was touch and go for a while there wrt flights ... more on that later! First up is a report on the race loop ...

The race takes place in Stromlo Park, just outside of Canberra. The loop starts out with a short flat section and quickly turns into a series of singletrack switchbacks which lead you up a long 1000ft climb up to the top of Mount Stromlo. Once at the top the trail winds around a bit before heading back down, again all on single-track, a rocky twisty descent. The trail is pretty cool, very rocky (big rocks and baby head rocks) and the corners are bermed so you can 'ride the rails' onthe way down. It's very fun but because the corners are so sharp you can't really get up too much speed. About 3/4 of the way down Mount Stromlo the course starts winding back up again and takes you backup to the top of the mountain again, still on single-track. The course dumps you at the top, on the opposite side of the mountain, and because the course is so exposed (no trees, only bushes) you can see the other riders on the top as well. Kinda cool .... then down you go again, this time slightly more technical with a fun steep rocky descent. I plan to ride that section a few times today :) The course ends by taking you through a bmx type section where you can gain a lot of speed if you work your bike... a fun ending.

While the course does not play to my strengths (lots of climbing but none of it is steep, where i tend to excel ... and lots of descending but I'm not a strong cornerer), it should be a fun time and I am sure that my cornering skills will be killer by the end of the weekend! The course is about 95% singletrack - there are only a few sections that are double-track and none that are road ... this definately plays to my advantage but will make passing tricky. They have a totally seperate couse for the Solos which is good because even with the 400 solos on the course at once, it will be crowded.

It took me an hour and eleven minutes to finish a loop yesterday ... so i'm guessing my lap times will settle right around that ... might be a bit slower due to congestion on the course and lack of passing options ... but we'll see!

By the numbers it looks like this (this is from the course map, I'll confirm with the Garmin today!)
Distance: ~20Km
Climbing: ~2000 ft
Singletrack: 95%
Estimated lap goal: 18 to 20

So now more about my trip here ....

The first leg of my flight was delayed (into SFO) due to fog but luckily they got me on an earlier flight and it looked like I would make it for my connection. Once on the plane, it took forever to take off and then they had to circle a few times around SFO before they could land which meant that we landed 5 min before the connecting flight ... didn't look good. As soon as I got out of the plane i booked it (imagine a full on sprint) to the next gate and made it just in time. OK, in reality they held up the flight for an additional 10 minutes for other connecting passengers :) i was worried my bags wouldn't make it but when i got to Sydney they were there waiting for me ... so it all worked out!!

Thank you, may I have another? 100 miles of Capital Forest

2010-09-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Better late than never :) Here is my race report from the 100 miler i did the other weekend.

The day started off early with a 3AM alarm and sleepy drive south to Capital Forest. When i got there the fog was heavy and it was still pretty dark. Are they sure we can start at 6:30am? Hmmm, seems like it might be still dark. Perhaps I should have brought my lights?

I definately should have brought my lights ... not for the actual race, but to get ready for the race :) It was dark and chilly .. and foggy. The start was casual ... this was the first year for the race and the made the course 2 laps of a 50 mile loop. They had to delay the start by about 30 minutes to let the fog drift off a bit so that we could see the trail ... it jwas barely sunrise when we set off ...

They gave us a running start, le mans style, and just for kicks it was straight up a hill. Nice. It's 7am folks ... we are barely awake, let alone ready to run straight up a hill. But up we went ... and onto our bikes and off to the trails. The trails were everything they were promised to be. 90% of the course was singletack ... beautiful, twisty, rocky, rooty, singletrack! The climbing surprised me. I was expecting the course to be fairly flat ... maybe a bit of hills. But the course offered just over 15,000 feet of climbing... yup, a lot of hills :)

The first 25 miles were a bit rough for me. I could blame it on being half asleep but the real deal is that i had a cramp in my bum and it was pinching my siatic nerve. Ouch. Every pedal hurt but being the stubborn chick i am i stretched on the bike, pedaled through it and kept my pedal strokes even and fast ... eventually it went away (phew).

The next 25 miles passed in a blur ... fun single track with great descents and amazing climbs. A few stunning views that almost made me do an endo ... great riding! I was trading spots with a girl from BC for the first 50 miles ... she'd pass me on the climb, i'd pass her on the descent ... and on it went. On the second lap i missed a turn where the course goes two ways (no little pilons to direct me!) ... and ended up doing an extra 11 miles and 2000 feet of climbing ... ouch. That added about an hour ... bleh. You guessed it, I didn't catch the chick from BC ....

But I had a fantastic time and I'd do it again. It was a great warm up for worlds. I finished in just over 11 hours and felt like I could do another 111 miles at the same pace. Not bad ....

Finally .... a race report on my first XTerra

2010-09-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

So ... this is really late in coming so I want to appologize up-front :)

My friend Yvonne talked me into doing an Xterra (yes, my first) the night before the race. It was, in a word, FUN! Yup, i think i'm addicted ... here are the fun details.

My strategy for the race was simple: Survive the swim, kill the bike, and fight to maintain my position on the run.

The race started off with a swim ... Yvonne hooked me up with a wetsuit so i didn't freeze to death in the water :) Don't laugh but it's been a while since i've really swam and i couldn't really remember the whole breathing deal for the front crawl ... so I did the side crawl and the breast stroke the entire way .. yup, the whole 1000m :) It was slow but I did survive. And to my absolute surprise i wasn't the last one out of the water ... i was the 3rd or 4th last ;)

Brian, Yvonne's husband was there cheering and as I left the water he ran beside me and told me .. you're not the last one! LOL. Awesome. :) My transition seemed to be going smoothly until i got the wetsuit to my ankles at which point i could not seem to get it off ... heh. Seems that this transition thing should be practiced ;)

Once on the bike i started feeling more in my element. I was picking people off throughout the technical course and having a blast ... it was great. The course was fun, I finally felt like i could move faster ... ahh... i was really racing.

The bike-to-run transition was smooth (except i forgot to untie one of my shoes so i had to untie and retie one of my shoes! Noobie mistake! No big deal. I went off to the run thinking i had to move fast enough to ensure that all of the girls i'd just passed did not pass me back. I got into the zone. I was having fun running on the trails ... and i started to pass people! Wow - wasn't expecting that. While i've been doing some running for cross training I am pretty far from running shape so i was pretty surprised by this ... Awesome! I was really surprised when i found myself halfway on the running course and picked up the pace.

I finished in a solid pace and was pleasently surprised to find myself 4th!!! Yeah, 33rd out of the water ... and 4th overall ... nice. Apparently I need to work on my swim if I want to take this Xterra thing seriously ;) All of the girls around me finished in 15 minutes ... a solid 15 minutes ahead of me!

Yvonne rocked the course and ended up 2nd ... Rockstar!

Canadian Nationals - Race Report

2010-07-28T22:44:00.001-07:00

Summary:
Place: 2nd
Details of ride: ~275Km, 18,000 feet of climbing, and 18 hours on the bike

Details:
The drive up was amazing - great scenary and great company. I drove up thru Vancouver to pick up Kate - amazing friend and support crew extraordinare - and her roomate Lila. The drive flew by - we were catching up and just enjoying the great views along the way. Road trips with good friends always fly by ...

The weekend was relaxed .. Kate and I woundered around town, found some good food, did some shopping, and went up to the site to set up the pit and get in a ride. We found the course in pretty good shape - about 18km and 1450ft of climbing per lap. Loads of single-track but most of it was not really technical ...but super fun none the less. It wasn't a course that played to my skills but it was a fun and challenging course - worthy of Canadian Nationals.

Race day brought warm weather (about 30C) and blue skies ... so we got the ice scarfs going right away. The first few laps flew by ... stomach was holding together pretty well and eating was on track. Kate was giving me double feeds (2x per lap) so my drinks were always cool and I never ran out of liquids. Around lap 4 my stomach started to feel funny but i couldn't quite place it. Looking back eating Perpetuem in the heat was the wrong call ... later in the race we figured this out and the Hammer guys hooked us up with some Heed (thanks Hammer!) ... it's the only thing that got me through the race ...

After 10 hours of racing I ws right behind the leader - about 8 min back. But my stomach felt funny so i decided i should take a quick break. After an hour i went back out and my first lap felt great. I think i ate too many salts though ... my second lap was painfull. I had to stop. Unfortunately I was sick for a few hours before Kate convinced me to shower and offered chicken broth which was amazing ... i was back in action after 4 hours off the bike.

I had some catching to do ... 2nd and 3rd were both ahead of me. I like to chase though so off I went ... my legs felt great and i ws turning out the laps. I passed 2nd and 3rd in my first lap out and continued to gain on them. 1st was too far ahead so i knew it was out of the question ... but i still pushed hard.

All in all it was a good race - a great effort despite the stomach.

Thanks again to Samammish Valley Cycle for keeping my awesome Norco's up and running - and of course, thanks to Kate for her amazing support!

The race that was over before it started ...

2010-07-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's true. I'm talking about the 50 miles of endurance a few weekends back. It was so bad that it's taken me 2 weeks to write about it. Yes, that bad!

Going into the race I was exhausted. Mentally i was tired, emotionally i was drained, and the physical follwed suit even though it had no business doing so. June was a bit of a rough month ... The best part of the race was being seeing Karen and Matt again ... what a great couple! :) And their kids ... too cute!!!

The race started out well - i was determined to beat my time from last year but a good measure and knew I had the fitness to do it. Unfortunately i had nothig else and when your mental focus is gone ... i just couldn't pull it together.

The good
The technical single-track... i passed sooo many people. That was fun. Unfortunately there is like 4 miles of technical single track in the whole 50 mile race. Yeah, I needed more :)

The bad:
Lost my left contact lense about 15 miles in. Too much mud ... Also, I forgot my climbing legs at home. No juice. Normally this year I've been flying up the hills. Not so much my friends. I was slower than heck. ouch, it hurt.

the ugly:
i just didn't have it. Zip. Nil. Nadda. Nothing to give, nothing to fight with. I was suffering like 5 miles into the race. I've never wanted to quit a race so bad ... I was totally suffering and had no metal ability to push. I was going sooo slow.

But I finished. it took wayyy longer than it should have, it was hard, and i am proud of myself for not quitting :)

Next up: Canadian National 24 hr Solos!

Spokane Race Report

2010-05-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

So apparently when you have a 'bruised' bone in your foot, whiplash, and many other bruises, racing isn't really an option ...

OK, now I've got you hooked, here are the details :)

The race started out well - the weather was perfect for me - not too hot. First lap was a good pace, felt great. Lap 2 I had a double flat (ugh) and lost 15 minutes but still finished in a good time. Lap 3 was awesome, started feeling good. Lap 4 I was minding my own business in the single-track when some guy asked to pass ... sure, go on the right. Next thing I know I hear 'oh crap', my handlebars are locked with his and then i am on the ground, with him on top of me. And we were moving at a pretty good pace. The next 2 minutes went like this:
Random dude: you OK?
Me: (squashed between him, my bike, and the ground): um, can you move off of me?
Random dude: (chuckling) yeah .. sorry
Me: thanks
Random dude: (off me now, dusting himself off) you bleeding?
Me: (checking my Ferrari shorts to ensure they weren't torn), looking at my hip and my arm) nothing major.
Random dude: good ...
Me: can you pass me my bar end?
Random dude: uh, oh! Sorry, sure. (picks my barend off the ground and hands it to me. then after some hestitation:) your bike ok?
Me: seems like it
Random dude: ok, sorry about that, see you later
Me: (still stunned) ok
Later that lap I came up to a climb that I couldn't make and had to walk. Ouch, I must have turned my ankle, I thought. After that I avoided walkking as much as possible ... but didn't give it much thought.

Laps 5 and 6 were great, and I was feeling pretty good. I was a good hour ahead of my desired pace and feeling strong. Come lap seven my stomach wasn't too happy with me. When you are injured or sustain a crash several things happen: you swell (so you need more fluids), your body temperature goes up (so you need more fluids), your blood gets diverted towards the areas that need attention (and away from your stomach). All this leads to ... yup, stomach shut down and dehydration. And so it went. I finished lap 8 at just before 11pm and had to pull the plug. I was determined to recover .. even emptied 7 electrolyte tabs in my mouth for better absorption and drank lots of water. It got worse and worse ... and eventually I got sick to my stomach and had to pull the plug for real. I remained optimistic until about 2am. Yes, i am one stubborn chick.

Several 'low-calorie' Gatorade and many electrolytes later I realized how swollen my foot had become. I had forgotten all about that. I was so determined not to have to go to the hospital for my stomach (no Canmore repeats!) ... and finally I came to the realization that I had to go for my foot. They took a look at me ... bruised hips, knees, and arm - swollen but minor. Whiplash - ouch but ok. Microfracture in my foot which is basically a bruised bone - really ouch. Ice and elevation, wrap it no running for 6 weeks. blah. On top of that they told me I had a concussion ... my head still hurts!

So in a nut shell ... didn't make my goal of 18 laps but definitely felt that my fitness was there. I completed 8 laps in less than 11 hours and was feeling pretty strong throughout the race. Moral of the story is that you should never crash :) Um, i think I've heard that somewhere before?

Moving and prepping for Spokane

2010-05-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

.... the past 4 weeks have been a blur. We got back from Moab, promptly packed up the house, moved into our new one, and began the long job of unpacking and settling in! Mix this with a heavy month at work and you get ... a quiet blog :)

It's that time though ... prepping for Spokane! I picked up the '10 Faze two weekends ago and and on her maiden voyage I killed my fastest lap time by 3 minutes!!! And I did it 3 laps in a row. Nice. That bike floats. I'm still looking fror the hole where they put the helium ... it climbs like a goat and the descending ... i made up a minute on the climb (25 min) and 2 on the descent (down to 17 minutes). That thing just rocks the downhills. I fell in love the first lap.

I've been taking it out every weekend since and beating my lap times each ride (faster and faster!)... until today. Today was different ...

The day started out innocently enough ..but with cloudy skies and a wet parking lot i knew I was in for a wet ride. I was cool with that ... it kinda suited my mood - i needed to release some energy so I wanted something hard. Well, i got it. I made good time up the climb and down the super technical singletrack. Even on the wet roots and rocks I was smoking fast. I was totally soaked and cold ... couldn't feel my fingers ... but I was loving it!

Out onto the road and then it happened. Absolute downpoor. I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. I am not kidding. It was dumping buckets. What can you do? Keep pedalling. Pedal faster ... my legs weren't super co-operative as they were freezing cold but I kept moving. And then.... yup ... hail! Ouch! that hurt. Little balls of hail spitting at me out of the sky. Not nice. Need to pedal faster!!! Eventually I got back to the car, lementing my lap time when I realized I had tied my best lap time from last year. Sweet!

I can't tell you how dirty and wet I was. It was like i stood under a stream of muddy water ... I'm putting the clothes through the wash for the 3rd time :)

But yeah, ok, now I feel tough enough for Spokane :)

Tomorrow I head out to Samammish Valley Cycle for a final tune up on my bikes ... it's coming fast!

Race Report - Stottlemeyer 60

2010-05-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

Stottlemeyer 60 - so fantastic to have a 60 mile race in our backyard!!!

The Numbers:
Miles: 60 (my garmin may not have tracked them all - there was a lot of twisting and turning)
Verticle: ~7000 ft
% singletrack: 90%
Time to finish: 6:18
Place: 1st
# Women: 8

The Race
The weather was typical Seattle spring weather: 10 degress and drizzle. The start was delayed 30 minutes due to traffic at the Ferry crossing so although we would have been a bit late, we had time to warm up and get everything ready. A quick race breifing later and we were off! the start was downhill and I was strategicly placed at the front ... my goal for the race was to flirt with how fast I could go out and hold it - and see how my stomach held up. Oh, and to win too :)

I was excited to see Kari Studely at the start - she's the one I was trying to catch at the last short race and is pretty fast. I decided to take her wheel and see how things went. I was behind her until the single-track and then found an oppertunity to pass ... and off I went. I was riding my Norco EXC hardtail today and was (if i must say so myself) riding really well. The singletrack was tough - twisty, turny, muddy, and fresh cut. It was slow going ... but great for technical riders - it was to my advantage as I was having a good day.

After the single-track I followed a group of people down the wrong path (apparently the locals don't like the tags so were taking them down) ... 6 minutes in we realized it was wrong and turned around. Ouch, it hurt to lose 12 minutes, especially when I knew Kari wasn't far behind me coming out of the singletrack. So ... time to buckle down, speed up, and see if I can play 'catch up'. 15 minutes later - at the first aide station, I saw Yvonne getting food. She had passed me as well while I was off playing on the trails. We got in a group down the road and then into the single track I built up a pretty good gap on the group. Out of the single track I caught a guy and we turned right .... wrong way! We didn't get too far but far enough for the group to catch us and it was a battle to pass them all again.

With that out of the way I was full-on in chase mode. I wanted to hunt Kari down. I had no idea how fast she'd be in the longer stuff but I figured worst case scenario would be that I bonk ... and since I was in 2nd anyway I didn't care. Pedal Faster, Pedal Faster .. Pedal Faster!!! :)

30 miles in I found out that Kari had dropped - apparently she got lost too (also lost around 10 min) and decided to pull the plug. Too bad ... but I had a race to ride. I wanted to finish in under 6 hours so I had to keep moving. And so I did. The course was actually 4 laps of ~14 miles each. There was a nice 24% grade climb on the course where I'd eat my Tums, a cliff block, some electrolytes ... and of course my Perpetuem. My eating was going really well and I was pretty happy that I was able to push the pace and hold my stomach together. Very promising for the longer stuff ...

The last two laps I'd keep on catcing up with guys and then trying to chase them down. Sometimes I was successfull but there were a few that got away :) The last lap I turned it up as much as I could ... but I didn't make it under 6 hours.

All in all it was a great day! Frase also got lost and suffered a flat tire and cramping. He pulled it all together to finish at around 6 hours ...

Moab Madness Day 7 - It's a Classic!

2010-04-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to 'take it a bit easy' and did Flat Pass + Steal Bender x 2 .... it's a classic. Full of climbs, rocks, and more rocks ... what a fun course!

Again no photos - today was a good endurance ride with lots of technical bits thrown in. Some steep ups to practice technical climbing ... and some crazy descents to practice getting behind the saddle.

Another great day ... but DUDE, where is the sun? Temps were cool again today and out came the winter leg warmers ... yup, I said winter!, arm warmers, vest, undershit, and little hat once again. We had a few stream-crossings today - wool socks were a must - but thankfully were hidden from the wind for most of the ride - thank goodness for that. The skys only spat at us today - teasing us with a threat of more rain to come. I'm happy to report that we were faster than the rain and made it in before any damage was done.

I also have to report on a gear review: Today I tried out 'the Ferarri of bike shorts' (Assos FI 13 for ladies) - made affordable by Samammish Valley Cycle (thank you, thank you, thank you!).

General comments:
Wow, These shorts live up to their name. I went into the day with a bit of a sore bottom from yesterday's forray in the sun, rain, wind, and freezing cold temps. I was worried going into the ride today that my bottom would be the first thing to give out ... but to give these shorts a run for their money I didn't use any cream to lesson the pain/friction. And these shorts did not dissappoint. My bottom felt as comfortable as could be - it was like the shorts were a 2nd skin but better.

These shorts have it all:
Shami: 12 out of 10. hands down the best shorts I've ever tried. I am now afraid to go back to my 'regular' shorts.
Compression: nice for people like me who take a while to warm up!
Breathability: outstanding
The bib even has a 'latch' which makes it easier to do your business:)

I can't even say enough good things about these shorts. In one word: WOW! ...guess I'll be heading badk to SVC to get another pair - ladies and gentlemen: these shorts are well worth the money!!!

Moab Madness Day 6 - No Nonsense

2010-04-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

So ... with all the boys gone and Frase and I left to our own devices ... what do we do? A 75 mile mountain bike ride, that's what!

The day started out a bit chilly - with the rain yesterday came a cold front. Starting out it was 10 Celcious (45 for you Americans). 3 days ago I was making fun of myself for bringing knickers and warm weather gear ... today I was sooo happy I had it. Ibex Knickers, under shirt, jersey, vest, arm warmers, little hat ... and I was good to go. The first 40 miles were pretty amazing - great moab sceanery, no cars, a little chilly but when the sun peaked out from the clouds it was a perfect temp.

We spent the majority of the day in the Canyonlands. Pretty amazing views. After ~35 miles we faced a 'moab wall' (3000 ft + rock wall). we had to climb it. Fortunately this time it was via switchback - no crazy hike-a-bike. 6 miles and 3000 feet later we were at the top. We thought it'd be easy going from there but we faced 20mi/hr headwinds and freezing cold temps (35F or 3C). Yikes. Back on with the arm-warmers, the extra jersey and the hankercheif aroud the neck. The next 30 miles were torture. We had to keep stopping to warm up our hands and we were so cold that we were forgetting to eat so we weren't so co-ordinated :)

After getting out of the wind and into the canyons we started to warm up a bit again... couple more miles and we were home free! It was definately an epic ride - 5.5 hours of ride time, ~75 miles, and ~6500 feet of climbing. Not a bad pace either ...

Sorry - no pictures today ... no breaks, no photos, no nonsense!

Moab Madness - Day 5: What's up with the rain?

2010-04-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, rain. In Moab. What is up with that??? Not sure but here are the details ... today's weather was 20mi/hr winds with gusts up to 40mi/hr. This meant that all exposed 'edgy' type rides were out. i'm too little, 20mi/hr winds blow me around, let alone 40mi/hr!! Also Frase was doing an airport run (Tom left today) ... so my options were what was accessible from our camp site.

All that said ... today's ride was a nice easy spin out to Bar M trail, with a detour on 'Rockin A' and 'CircleO' and then back around Bar M. I was happy i'd chosen an 'easy' ride because the wind was blowing me around on the rocks in 'Rockin A' and 'CircleO'. I was happy there were any big edges near by! On the way back (fighting the monster headwind) the skies decided to open and the rain flew down. Wow, was it painfull. That rain HURT, I tell you. It was fast and furious ... felt like hail. My arms and legs were all red due to the temperature and force of the rain. Crazy. A great ride though.

Moab Madness - Day 4 - Technical playground

2010-04-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today we topped off the streak of classic rides with SlickRock - what a fun and crazy trail! Up, down, and allll around!

After playing around on slickrock we grabbed some food at Milts and then went up to Arches park ... amazing views:

The final treat of the day was tacking the climb at the beginning of Amasaback!

Moab Madness - days 2 and 3

2010-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we did baby-steps - once for the full loop and the second time to ride down Klondike. What a fun ride!

Today we headed out to Hurrah pass, Jakub's ladder, Jackson Hole, and Amassaback. Another sweet ride with amazing views.... a picture is worth 1000 words so here we go:

At the top of hurrah pass:

Half way up Jakubs ladder:

Fraser is fast ... he's posing at the top of Jakub's ladder. Yes, we hike-a-biked up that!

What a fantastic day!

Moab Madness

2010-04-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

So... Here I am in Moab! Catching up on blog posts and getting some great riding in! I am joining the boys (Frase, Alan, Mark) after a few weeks of riding and they are all in good shape and ready for trouble. Tom flow in the same day as I did ... and for our first ride in Moab the boys decided to take us to Porcupine Rim. here are some shots:

And now you know why it's called 'porcupine rim' :) What a fantastic ride ... and what amazing views! A little sketchy at times so close to the edge but ... amazing!

If' you've never been to Moab .. it's full of huge rock, lots of technical riding, and some rim riding. Very fun ... and my Norco Faze is the perfect ride on this terrain!

Today we head out to ride Baby Steps and a few other trails!

Race Report: Fort Steilacoom

2010-04-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I completed my 3rd race of the 2010 season at Fort Steilacoom. My legs were ready to go and my mind was very eager - I'd missed out on the last race so I was full of racing energy.

Quick Summary:
# laps: 3
Total distance: 25km
Time: 1:41
Terrain: lots of twists and turns, very technical, some good climbs
# women in Open/Expert: 12
Place: 2nd

The Details:
The weather couldn't have been better. I left the house expecting overcast skys and potential rain. While I was warming up the sun came out and the arm and leg warmers came off ... perfect racing temperature. i had a good warmup because I heard it was a shorter course than usual. I was riding my hardtail for a change so I also wanted to try it out in the woods. It's been a while since I've been on a hardtail on the trails ... this wasn't the smoothest course for a hardtail .. but I was eager to try it out - I'm planning to race it at some of the 100milers I do this year.

The start was fast and furious as usual. I settled in behind two women and held their wheels. At the first turn one of them took the wrong direction (you really had to keep your eyes open on that course) and then there were two. I could hear two other women right behind me. The 4 of us were together up the first climb, which was steep and not so short ... it was also deceiving. There was a 'false top' where we were all still together and then another climb where we dropped the two behind me. Down the descent we made up even more time and never saw them again. I was chasing Keri around the course, playing cat and mouse. She was stronger in the twisty stuff ... I was strong on the climbs and descents ... back and forth we'd go. Finally up a long hard hill I pulled it off ... a good pass follwed by a fast descent! Just after that I bailed on a hard fast corner doing a full-body skid. She passed me and that was the end of that!

It was a fantastic race - i felt really strong on the hills and descent everywhere else. Project 'race into shape' is coming together :)

When it rains, it pours

2010-04-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Especially in Seattle ...

We had a 6 hour race lined up for the weekend of April 3rd ... but it rained. And when I say rained ... i mean it rained enough for them to call of the race - we didn't even make it to the start line! I was pretty bummed because I had skipped the 2hr race the weekend before due to being busy at work and knowing that I had a 6hr coming up soon ....

Ah well! We did a 6 hour road ride instead ... no where near as fun as mountain biking!

Race Report: Soaring Eagle Park

2010-03-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I completed my 2nd race of the 2010 season at Soaring Eagle park. My legs were tired as I was wrapping up 3 intense weeks of traning and getting ready for a recovery week - but the course was phenomenal...

Quick Summary:
# laps: 4
Total distance: 25km
Time: 1:43
Terrain: lots of twists and turns, very flowy
# women in Open/Expert: 15 (awesome!)
Place: 3rd

The Details:
The weather wasn't so co-operative but the trails were fantastic. We lined up for the start in a steady drizzle and quick count down ' 3 ... 2 ...1 ... go!' My legs were rebelling and not ready for a fast start so I was 7th heading into the woods. There was only one part of the course that was double track so passing was interesting. The good news is that you could generally find a way around people if you had your eyes open ... and since the Norco descends so well I did all my passing on the downhill sections. It was super fun.

After a few downhills where I could pass through the trees and I was sitting in 4th. I followed 3rd around and passed her on the 2nd lap on the one section of double-track, - this was the woman that beat me last race. I dropped her on the descents and never saw her again. I kept on seeing the 2nd place girl in front of me but she saw me too. I played cat and mouse with the 2nd place woman for 2 laps but she out-raced me and claimed 2nd place. A great course, a great effort ... and I didn't get lapped by the pro men this time .... it was a good day :)

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

2010-03-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, 20 degrees Celcious, start the day with a mtb ride up to Poo Poo point on Tiger ... beautiful views of the city all the way up, warm feeling of 'the burn' in the legs while climbing... feeling super fast on the climb (i was testing out the Norco Hardtail) ... and fun, fast descents. Life couldn't get much better! Well ... maybe if I started every day like that! :) Not bad ...

Today is the first day of my recovery week in this training cycle ... only one ride today (and a short 90min one at that). Spent the rest of the day running errands (you know, pesky things like getting groceries, cleaning, and other chores), planting potatoes, playing in the garden, and generally enjoying the sun.

Tomorrow is supposed to be raining ... fittting as I'll be racing again! My legs were rebelling today so tomorrow should be interesting ... all part of project 'race into shape' :)

Seattle Bike Expo - hanging with the SVC and Norco crew

2010-03-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the Seattle Bike Expo came to town ... which meant a weekend of hanging with the SVC and Norco crews, checking out the new bike lineup for 2010, seeing old friends, talking shop, and generally getting physched for the 2010 season!

It was a great weekend - the new Shimano Di2 electronic shifting system was a big hit ... along with the NorcoTeam Carbon and the Ryan Leech show. A few favorites were there and I finally got to meet the other 'endurance' rider sponsored by SVC - Chris Ragsdale.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Next up: Another BuDu Race!

Leadville 100 - I'm in!!!

2010-03-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

So yeah ... I just got word: I am IN for the Leadville 100!! Whoohoo ... bring on 100 miles of pain and oxygen debt :)

I'm super excited - for those of you who have not heard of this race, check out the Race Across the Sky movie. What is this racek you ask? Here is a quick summary:

Distance: 100 miles
Climbing: 18,000 feet
Altitude: 9,000 to 13,000 feet (hence the oxygen debt)
Date: August 14th
Record setters: Lance Armstrong (6hr 28 min), Rebecca Rusch (8hrs 15 min)

Time to start pedaling faster :)

Race Report - Black Diamond

2010-03-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

There are many lessons I have learned in my 7 years of racing (wow, I've been racing 7 years!) .. one such lesson is that you need to race to get good at racing. And this means both years of racing + the racing miles you get under your belt in one season.

As my first A race is Spokane (late May), I needed to find some early season races to get the legs and mind ready ... and being Seattle, well, that was easy! Today was my first venture into the 2010 project of 'race into shape'.

The stats:
Finishing place: 2nd
# women in my category: 10
Duration: 70 minutes (yes, only 70 minutes!)
Location: Black Diamond
Technical rating: 8 -->Rocky (baby head rocks) and rooty twisty single track.
Terrain: mostly flat with a few steep ups and downs
Incidents: 2- my fork had too much air so my hands & arms were numb from the beating of the course; and i had a chain problem :)

Getting to the start line
Getting to the start line is sometimes the hardest part of the race. This wasn't the case for me today but it certainly was for my friend Yvonne. We car pooled together only for her to remember that she forgot her pedals once we got there!!! Well, pedals are pretty important aren't they :) She luckly found a friendly biker to lend her his pedals and was good to go. I met her at the start line and she had forgotten her water in the car... one of those days. She's also left her gloves at the registration table ... ugh! Being the trooper she is she just shrugged and said 'well, what is the first race of the season for anyway?'.

The race
The start was fast and furious, as usual, with one girl going all out at the word 'go'. the rest of us were half asleep (aparently) and filed into line behind her. I was positoned in 3rd - not a bad position ... or so I thought. That though quickly changed once we got into the single track and I realized that the girl in front of me was way past her limit and falling all over the trail. Because the trail was so narrow there wern't many oppertunities to pass so I took her on the first hill. Now I was sitting pretty in 2nd.

I found the 1st place girl and followed her around for a while, taking the lead after she managed an endo in one of the more technical bits. As I mentioned above, I had wayyy to much air in my shock (what are 1st races for if not for remembering all the stuff you forget to check?) and my arms and hands were sore after 2 laps. We had 5 laps in total and I was enjoying the ride. The girl I had passed for 1st took me by surprise and passed me on an open section and I was back in 2nd chasing. At first I thought 'settle into your own pace Monilee' but I quickly realized that 'my pace' was a 24hr solo pace and nowhere near fast enough for a 1 hour race :) I shook myself out of it and pushed harder, catching the 1st place girl. I stayed on her tail through the end of lap 3 and through lap4 I was itching to pass. But I knew I had one more lap so I wanted to time it right. I drafted her up to the lap area only to find that were were being pulled - the lead men had lapped us on lap4 so the race was over! Major bummer! Ah well - just goes to show you should never go slower than you can :)

All in all it was a really fun race, was great to be out playing in the dirt, and was a well attended event! Yvonne had a great race despite the setbacks and finished a solid 4th!

All told: Project 'race into shape' is not only going well, it is very very fun. I'm stoked to be racing again!

Olympic Madness

2010-02-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

Yup, the Olympics! We headed up this past week to watch a few events, had a blast, bought some fun souvenirs, including some funky new art, and came home.

It was a great time .... what an atmosphere! Crazy amounts of people, all excited, all cheering, and all in a good mood. It was a fun time - glad we went up to check it out!

A game of chance ... win some, lose some

2010-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

And in this particular game of chance, I lost ... but Fraser won!

What am i talking about? The raffle for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. We both entered the raffle and the results were announced this week. Bummer for me but I am excited that Frase gets to go!

At this point my scheudle for 2010 is pretty firm - now that I am out f the running for the Leadville race I'll likely do the Bend 100 miler instead.

The training has been going well, I am still doing weights for strength (it is my biggest limiter at this time) and am starting to mix in some 'faster rides' with my 'slower rides'. I'm also still enjoying running and seem to have stabalized in terms of weight (I lost a bit of weight this winter).

In other news, I am very stoked about the 2010 Faze SE that is coming my way in March! Christmas is a little late this year but well worth the wait!

Where's Waldo?

2010-01-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a bit quiet on the blog lately which means my life has been nothing of the sort ... here's what we've been up to:

Christmas in Nova Scotia with my family. We felt like true celebrities with a different group of friends/family visting us at Mom & Dad's each day of the 7 days we were home. Mix in a few long runs, some hockey, loads of great friends, visits, and family time and you have an awesome Christmas. We even got to visit our friends Alan & Gita on the way home which was the perfect end to our vacation!

New Years on the bike. Yes, we are still biking on dirt trails here in Seattle. Bringing in the New Year on the trails with fellow mountain bikers ... need I say more?

Checking out new trails. The mountain bike community here in Seattle is amazing. We are getting new trails all the time .... this time of year is a great time to check out the trails.

Working too much. OK this one is lame ... but I'd rather be working harder this time of year and easier in the summer. it's all about balance and priorities :)

That about sums it up... I'm glossing over loads of details but you get the picture :)

Not your regular race report

2010-01-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took part in a local event called the 'stinky spoke'. It's called 'stinky' because the weather can be kinda stinky in January. It was a poker run and I think I likely had the worst hand of the lot. We went with some friends and had some good laughs, good food, and some good intervals! It was a lot of fun ...

Here is a picture of 'stinky pinky' - they have a silent auction so you can make your friends ride it. No, none of us were riding it.

Here is a photo of us posing along the 'race course' after we each got another card for our poker hand. to the left of this photo was a 'jump' where lots of super endos were getting photographed. Pretty funny stuff.

Going slower to get faster

2009-12-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

In November I had some performance tests done and (no big surprise) my endurance zone is basically all that I have. I don't have much 'room' (in terms of watts or HR) above it before my legs scream for mercy and I have to stop. What this means is that I am a wimp :) No seriously, it means that I need to re-train my body to clear lactic acid, and that ultmately, I need to either be doing super high intensity, short intervals ... or I need to be taking it easy (bottom of endurance zone).

Although I say it wasn't surprising, I had been doing most of my rides at the top of my endurance zone, hopeing to grow it. As my focus is on the longer races, I want to go as fast as possible for as long as possible - so this seemed to make sense. Well, it did - up to a point. I grew my endurance zone to the max possible!!!

So now I am going slower, to get faster! My intervals are super short - max length is 1 min - and they are are really high watts. Watts i haven't seen .... ever ... even when I was doing the OCup races. I've been doing this for a month now and I have to say that it's pretty fun. I love seeing the super high numbers and pushing my legs that hard. I do workouts both on the trainer (in the AMs) and on my roadbike (I have a powertap and lots of steep hills in the neighbourhood) and am making progress.

The hardest part? going slower. I have a hard time riding at lower watts/HR than I know I can for my 'endurance' rides. I feel like I want to GO and it's a mental challenge to take it easy. I have some follow up testing in January so I have another month to see the impact of this training .... it'll be very interesting to see how this shifts things around!

Turkey Day ... Atkinson style

2009-11-26T11:27:00.001-08:00

Happy Turkey Day!

And what are we doing on this rainy turkey day? Well, the weekend involves the following activities:
- Turkey a la mountain (hiking in the rain - gotta love the rain if you live in the NW)
- Turkey a la snow (snowshoeing ... yup, we have to drive a bit but we will find snow!)
- Turkey a la bike (no comment needed ....)

OK, we actually aren't eating THAT much turkey, but you get the picture. Thanksgiving (2 days off) is an excuse to play for 2 more days!!!

The weekend got off to a nice start with a break-through ride for me (intervals ... I am becoming friends with lactic acid again ... ) and a record-setting run for Fraser! Not a bad way to start Turkey Day #1.

Saturdays mean long rides, making soup, and enjoying time with friends

2009-11-21T14:25:00.001-08:00

I love Saturday's in the fall ... they are all about long rides, making veggie soup, and enjoying time with friends! Today was just that day ... starting out nice and early for a good 3 hour ride, clean up me and my bike and then into the kitchen for a 3 hour cook-fest (omlettes and veggie soup - no, I did not eat it all in one sitting). Gotta love fall. Don't get me wrong, I love the race season ... but I also love cooking and the fall gives me plenty of time to cook to my hearts content!

Enjoy the colors of fall ...

2009-11-18T20:18:00.001-08:00

Yup, you heard it here first! Food, food, and more food. My new nutrition plan includes lots of color - and that is never a bad thing. How many colors can you eat in one day (and no, M&Ms do NOT count)?? Some good colorful options include:
- Veggie soup with bok choi, kidney beans, spinich, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, black beans, collard greens, kale, and zuchinni .... yummy!
- Salads with lots of green, yellow, orange, and red veggies
- Sweet potatoes and yams (a true favorite)
- Pears, apples, kiwis, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, oranges, cranberries, clementines, and pomegranates (I had my first one the other day ... they are very delicious and fun to eat too!)
Do I need to go on?

Enjoy the colors of fall ... and not just the leaves!

Apparently my body disagrees

2009-11-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

So my mind was totally ready to be done with 'transition' and move into training mode ... I was getting my plan figured out, had my wish list of races listed for extra motivation, and was getting ready to make the move ....

And yup, you guessed it, i got sick. Tonsillitis none the less. It's a real pain in the neck (literally and figuratively) ... I am so bad at being sick. The thing is I think even though I DNFed at Moab after 12.5 hours, I don't think my body has fully recovered from the flu/cold that I had. So, to teach me a lesson and get me to 'knock it off', well, my tonsils hurt like heck.

I even stayed home from work today. Yup, watched some bad movies, read a book, and layed around in bed feeling sorry for myself .. oh, and drove Fraser nuts. I'm sure he'll be as excited as me when I recover. it was a good call though ... I went to work Tuesday and Wednesday and was totally exhausted when I got home - could barely make myself eat. Now look at me ... I'm even blogging.

The hardest thing for me is to RECOVER and REST. But I am determined. I can do it ... more bad movies, here I come ... I want to be better FAST :)

Race across the sky

2009-10-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

Well, that didn't last long ... the transition thing I mean ...

Last weekend we went out with some cycling friends to watch 'Race Across The Sky'. Wow, want to get physched for long races? Want to get physched to do something epic? Want to get physched to train??? Then you NEED to see this!

It's an amazing documentary about the Leadvill 100 race. It's pretty cool. By the time the movie ended I was writing up my trianing plan in my head, ditching the idea of 'transition', and ready to get back on my bike for some serious rides - well, longer ones anyway.

All that said, the honest truth is that I am currently refining my diet - which means I am reading lots of books on how to eat as an athlete. I figure if i am going to race with the pros I should make an attempt to eat like them :). It's been interesting so far. What I am learning is that I should choose more complex carbs (read vegetables that are not potatoes) and that I am not getting enough protein. The potatoe thing makes me sad - as many of you know, potatoes have been my favorite vegetable for a long, long time. The other one that makes me sad is corn on the cob. What can I say? I am in no way a suger or sweets nut .. but I like my carbs. The trick will be just to eat less of them and more of the complex good stuff like spinich.

The other thing I am working on right now is figureing out my training plan for the year, listing out my wish list of races, and figureing out my focus for the 2010 season. Admist this I have become reunited with my love for running, am lifing some weights, and am enjoying some fall riding.

Life is good.

Shifting gears

2009-10-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

And this time i don't mean literally :)

It's that time of year - transition - where you 'do what you want' and take a few weeks off of training. For me this means more running, some hiking, but still lots of biking. It's nice to have a few weeks with no 'program' - just do what you feel like when you get up in the morning. More sleeping in than usual :)

It's also time to catch up on things like getting rid of that pesty bees nest, getting checkups at doctors, dentists, and all the rest .. you know, the less exiting things in life. Oh, and catching up on work.

It's weird - it's the first weekend I haven't even had the option to mountain bike. Fraser is still in Moab enjoying the sun and sand ... and more so, the riding. My bikes are with him enjoying the sun ... so I only have road wheels :)

Frase comes back to the rain next week and we'll start looking at tickets to go home for Christmas.

Nationals Race Report

2009-10-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

24hr racing lesson 1001: Never race when you have a cold and your significant other is recovering from the flu. The odds are against you ...

The numbers:
Laps completed: 6
Elevation climbed: ~9000ft
Miles ridden: 90

The Lead Up:
I had a great week in Moab leading up to the race but my immune system was low due to fighting the flu (that I brought home from work to Fraser) and I got a cold 4 days prior to race day. I was diligently eating zinc lozenges and vit C and come race day I didn't feel too bad - but I didn't feel great either. I decided to race anyway and see what happened.

You'd think it would be a no-brainer to say 'oh, i shouldn't race, i have a nasty cold that could turn into the flu'. But it isn't - we travelled all the way to Moab and this was US Nationals. It was my last race for the year, the course was super fun, etc, etc. I can list dozens of excuses for starting the race :)

The Race:
Off the start I wasn't feeling 'great'. My legs were fine but my lungs and body were achy and non-energetic. The run was slow and my first lap was slower than any of my pre-rides. I was really hot so I figured it was the heat ... I got an ice scarf and this seemed to help on my 2nd lap. I should have clued in at this point (needing an ice scarf at 75F or ~20C is not normal for me - this is my perfect racing temperature) .. but I didn't.

I described the race course in a previous post but i'll summarize here: mix in some sand, climbing, technical descents, slick rock, technical climbs, and fun fast 'hammer sections' and you have the course. It was 15 miles long and about 1500ft of climbing per lap. It was the most technical course I've ever ridden for a 24hr race - the technical climbs and descents were tough. Think Quebec Cup or Mt Ste Anne for the technical descents. It was a perfect course for the Norco Faze. The technical bits were my favorite part of the course by far ... likely because I was passing a lot of people here.

My 2nd and 3rd laps were marginally better and then it cooled down for the night. My laps were 15 -25 minutes longer than they should have been but I kept on pushing through. At 9pm I was in the top 5 and making ground. This gave me motivation to keep pushing even though I wasn't feeling great.

It's a good time now to talk about the pit. Fraser and Alan shared my pit and were racing as a tag-team. They were amazing in helping me while they weren't racing. I'd come in and ask for a few things and they would help as much as they could! We had a few mix-ups with lights but nothing major and we got it sorted out before I hit the course.

Around 10pm the coughing started. The course was dusty so this was somewhat normal. I'd been taking my puffer each lap but this lap I just couldn't stop coughing. My abs were more sore from coughing on this lap than from the technical sections (and that is saying something)! I had to stop.

I pulled into the pit, sat down, caught my breath enough to take the puffer about 5 times and after about 15 minutes stopped coughing. I knew the race was over. I was totally congested at this point with a major sinus headache, had a fever, and was moving very slowly around the course. My legs were the only part of me that felt good ...unfortunately you need all of you to continue racing!

Fraser's flu had turned into acute bronchitis so he was also done racing for the night. Alan was planning to do another 2 laps but was happy to pack it in. We packed the valuables in the truck and headed to the trailer. This is the first race that I had to stop due to something other than my stomach. And it's the first time that I knew, when I stopped, I wouldn't be going back. Racing with a cold is a very bad idea :)

And now I'm on the way home - I fly out today and Fraser will stay another week to enjoy the Moab riding. Back to work and the 'real world'. I definitely want to come to Moab and I really want to race there again - the course and I have something to settle. :)

Scoping out the course

2009-10-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

Wow, I love Moab! The weather is a cooler than i expected but the riding is everything and more!

Our first ride here was to scope out the course. It's a tough course worthy of Nationals. It is a mix of sand and rocks (big surprise for anyone who has been riding in Moab) and has a few fairly technical sections (marked with XXX on the signs). Mix in some sand, a fair bit of climbing, some slickrock, fun fast descents, and lots of rocky bits, some technical descents, and you have the course.

Here is a photo of one of the 'rocky' sections. Rocky has a whole new meaning in Moab - the rocks are awesome as they offer a lot of good traction .. and they are HUGE. Actually Moab is just a series of big rodks with sand here and there. Not sure how the trees manage to survive but they do :)

2nd ride of the day was a loop they call 'baby steps' which was super fun technical singletrack. We had a great time playing on the slickrock and got some good photos! We had so much fun that we made it back just before dusk! Here is Fraser coming under a rock over-hang.

After the riding we were starving and found an awesome pasta joint in town. They serve huge servings which was just what we wanted!

Getting to Moab

2009-10-08T10:15:00.001-07:00

Getting to Moab was an adventure in itself. The original plan had Fraser leaving on the 28th of September to come early and scope out the course. Unfortunately the truck was in the shop and took a bit longer than expected and then Fraser got the Flu! He was out sick for several days so I cancelled my flight and drove with him last weekend.

Our drive included:
- Running out of gas (never leave Seattle and go thru the mountain pass on 1/2 a tank of gas)
- Pouring rain
- Crazy snowstorms
- Hail the size of marbels
- More rain
and finally, blissfully, DUST :)

It was a crazy trip and we were glad to arrive in sunny, dusty Moab!

It's all about the tire!!!

2009-09-25T19:22:00.001-07:00

I've been experimenting with tires lately. I was looking for something that would corner well, performed on rocks and roots, and would hold up in wet weather. In a nut shell- a good tire for West Coast riding.

Well, ladies and gentleman, I found what I beleive to be the perfect combination. On the front tire (where you want the most grip and cornering traction) I now use a Kenda Nevegal on the front. This tire is AMAZING. It has awesome cornering traction, is great for technical riding (wet or dry) and the extra width (it's a 2.1) makes you super fast on double track descents. I love this tire. My descending, single-track riding, technical riding, and cornering has improved with this tire. And the extra width doesn't seem to slow me down on the uphills either - I've picked up speed there too!

On the back I use the tried and trusted Michelin XTR AT. My friend Kate got me onto the Michelin band-wagon and i have to admit that they make a good tire. They aren't as good in the corners as the Nevegal but they perform well in any weather and for any terrain. They are perfect on the back.

So this is the set up I'll plan to use for Nationals. Depending on how much steep slick rock climbing we have in the race i may opt to use Nevegals on front and back ... we will see!

The countdown is on

2009-09-25T19:10:00.001-07:00

Yup, it's that time again ... counting the days until US Nationals and getting excited!!! It will be an interesting race. A different (but still very competitive field) from Worlds with some of the same girls ... and a very different lead-up.

For Worlds i had oodles of races leading up to race day. This time around I've been only racing myself and it'll be interesting to see where that lands me - both mentally and physically. But aside from the racing ... I am going to Moab!!!

I've never been and am super excited. Exactly one week from today I'll be bound for Moab. One week and one day ... I'll be riding 'some of the best trails' in the world. Woot! I feel like a kid before christmas ... counting sheep ... oh wait, that's counting emails ... until i fall asleep :)

Where is Waldo?

2009-09-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's been quiet ... and we all know what that means: Busy training weekends, long work days, and everything else jammed in there somewhere ...

It's been a busy month - can't beleive it's almost over! I'll catch you up really quick on what i've been up to:

1. Doing 1,000,000 laps at Tiger. OK, not really, but I've done my share. I've gotten faster which is always good. I've taken 1 minute off the climb, 2 off the descent (woot!) and 1 off of the flat. This is off my best time and i posted 3 laps in a row at this new 'Monilee record'. Not too bad. Another interesting note - I've recently had several people asking me if I am the 'Norco Tiger Girl'? Um yes? Apparently I have a name for myself. I am guessing it is because I often spend 8 hours riding at Tiger and lap many people in my rides.

2. Hiking Mt Si (see photo) - a quick 2.5 hour hike up and back (8 miles, 3500 feet of climbing).

3. Visiting family in Victoria - had a fun weekend with Marilee and kids! Love Victoria - very cool town.

4. Work, work, and more work - I've taken on another project and have been pretty busy - but still loving it!!! We had the Microsoft company meeting on Sept 10th which is always very cool.

5. Shopping for new fun bike toys for nationals - mostly light batteries but it's still fun. i love buying new bike stuff. Retail therapy.

6. Prepping for Nationals - woot!!! 3 weeks and counting

7. Fixing my car - Got hit by a student driver on the way home from work - passenger door is busted up and I am having fun with insurance and estimates now.

That about sums up the last month ...

As nationals nears i'll be sure to keep the blog up to date!

Gear review - Terry Saddles

2009-08-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Time for another gear review ... this time I'll talk about something that can make or break your ride - saddles! Before I go any further I want to say that 'no saddle fits all' so if you are looking at getting a new saddle, see if you can 'try before you buy' (maybe a friend has one you can try?). It has to be right for your body geometry and your riding style.

I love Terry Saddles - they seem to make a fit for every type of riding and rider. I am going to start with what I'll call the 'comfort' performance saddle - the Terry Butterfly. This was my first Terry saddle and what made me fall in love with Terry saddles. I purchased my first mountain bike in 2001 so the memory is still pretty clear. The bike came with some stiff men's saddle and I just couldn't understand how people could love to ride their bikes for more than 1 hour at a time - my bum hated it! It hurt, I had to stand a lot, and worst of all - i developed sores in short rides. Not good. I talked to some girls about the issue at hand and found out that it wasn't me - it wasn't that I needed time to 'adjust', it was my saddle. Aha! I did a lot of research and landed on the Terry butterfly. It had great reviews. Here is my take:
Comfort: 10 - this saddle supports you where you need it and does not put undue pressure on the sitting bones
Power Transfer: 8 - I found that this saddle was lacking in power transfer - i wanted something a little harder to push against for those power bursts
When used: La Ruta 2003 (3 day race across Costa Rica), Adventure racing, and several 8 hour races
Recommendation: Good for people who like a plush saddle or those that are just starting out (as I was).

Terry Damselfly
After a year of racing I got hooked and wanted to try the shorter stuff. As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, I wanted something a little harder for power transfer. So on a friend's recommendation I tried the Terry Damselfly.
Comfort: 8 - not as comfy as the terry butterfly but was fine for up to 8 hours in the saddle
Power Transfer: 10 - this saddle is perfect for racing - especially the shorter races where you are using your upper zones
When used: TransRockies, Shorter Canada Cup/ Norba style races
Recommendation: Perfect saddle for shorter (2-6) hour races; both road and mountain

Terry Firefly
In 2006 I decided to try 24hr solo racing. It had always appealed to me and with our move to the US it seemed like a good time to make the change. I knew I didn't want to ride the damselfy for 24hrs straight, especially on a rough mountain bike course. So I did some research and decided to give the Firefly a try. I wasn't disappointed! This saddle is firm but forgiving, and a little wider than the damselfly.
Comfort: 10 - I could ride forever with this saddle
Power Transfer: 9 - I can't honestly give it a 10 because I just don't push the high power zones any more. I have no complaints about power transfer though!
When used: I've completed seven 24hr Solos and countless hours of training with this saddle and haven't walked away with a saddle sore yet!
Recommendation: This is a great saddle for anyone who loves to ride or race long distances.

And where can you get one of these handy saddles? If you are in the Seattle area you can go to Sammamish Valley Cycle and pick one up - otherwise you can find one online. Happy riding!

By popular request - the tale of 3 crashes

2009-08-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

OK OK, I know it wasn't fair to say I crashed 3 times at worlds but omit the gory details. It isn't as exciting as you may think but here we go.

All three crashes happened after 6am on Sunday (read: i'd been riding 18 hours already). You'll have to excuse me if I was feeling a little stunned and like I'd been hit by a truck. I usually love the first morning lap - the sun rise energizes me and gets the legs turning again. At Canmore I was bonked though so the morning lap was a little rough.

I mentioned that there was a lot of technical singletrack so it should come as no surprise that all 3 of my crashes were in the singletrack....

Crash #1: there were a lot of little (8-10 feet) steep dips down with a steep up immediately afterwards. Several of these dips had roots, rocks, and fun stuff in the middle, on both sides, or all three. This was one with all three - and root on the 'up' side. Momentum is my friend so I usually sail through these with no issue. Not so on this lap. I went down the rocky side nice and smooth (and fast)and somehow aimed for the biggest part of the root which was a 1 foot up and over and yup, you guessed it, landed flat on my back. I did a backwards endo if you will. for some reason it took about 30 seconds for me to get my feet unclipped and during this time my bike was upside down on top of me. I am sure if anyone had seen this they'd be laughing their butts off.

Crash #2: the course was dusty and some sections were really loose. There was this one spot with a 1.5 foot drop where you had to do a 90 degree turn right after. Normally, not an issue. I was behind someone who decided to pull off the trail and decided that the right thing to do was to look at them instead of the trail infront of me. Wham, over the drop and over my handle-bars and into the woods i went. Another classic moment.

Crash #3: this crash was on my last lap when i was 'riding scared'. I was pushing the pace through the tight singletrack, took a wrong line (i honestly don't know what happened here) and ended up hugging a tree. This was the only crash that produced a nice bruise and some good bleeding - i think i was going pretty fast!

Want a tour? Heck yes!

2009-08-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

Today we ventured up to Galbrath with our friend Calvin. It's about a 1.75hr drive each way but well worth it...

We arrived at the trailhead and were greeted by several other riders. People are very friendly in Bellingham, WA. We suited up out bikes and headed out with maps in-hand. Today would be an exploration day - hopefully we'd find these trails we heard so much about.

We ended up on a steep (I am talking 40+ percent incline) single-track that was partly over-grown with blackberry bushes. At the top of the hill we ran into a few locals who were (of course) super friendly and we chatted for a bit (after we caught our breath). We asked them which way to Bob's and headed off. We met them again just down the trail at an intersection and they offered us a tour.

Do you want a tour of the best trails on Galbrath? Um, ok! It was amazing. They took us on the best single-track I've ridden in a long time. It had everything you want including berms, roots, rocks, flow, stunts, bridges, ledges, views, and more. Three hours flew by and before we knew it we were back at the car!

We'll definately head up there again - maybe next time for an entire weekend :)

Heat wave in Seattle

2009-08-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

We came back to a heat wave - can't beleive I am saying 'record temperatures' and 'Seattle' in the same sentence but here we go ... we broke the record for the all-time high in Seattle last week. Temperatures hit a high 104F.

Admidst the heat I presented at TechReady, tried to catch up on work and sleep, and ate a lot of watermelon and anything else cold.

Race report: World 24hr Solo Championships

2009-07-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

I'll add to this as I get time - for now you get the quick update :)

By the numbers:
Placement: 5th place
KM ridden: ~ 235
Feet climbed: ~22,500
Hours ridden: ~23
Mechanicals: 0
Crashes: 3

The lead up:
We drove up to BC the week prior to the race and set up camp (our RV) at my brother's place in Invamere. My mom, dad, and niece were there as well so it was great to hang with the family. We headed up to Canmore and scoped out the course the Monday and Tuesday. You can read about our 'scouting' trip in my previous blog post here.

We spend the remainder of the week hanging with the family, napping, eating, and riding my brother's favorite trails in K-Country. Not a bad way to spend the week :) On Friday we headed back up to Canmore, set up our pit, and then hung out at the hotel - napping, eating food, and watching the Tour. Saturday I had a great sleep-in and we had to rush to get to the race in time. The solos were starting early but we weren't aware so it was a last minute rush getting my plates on and getting up to the line.

The Race
As they called the solos up one by one, I felt good - energy was high and I felt well rested. I was excited! The gun went off and we were running. As usual, i dropped a few positions in the run. To my surprise I was feeling good by the end of the run and actually passed a few people back. My legs were ready!

The first lap was fast and slow. The course was well-laid out but with all of the single-track (even though they separated the Solos and Teams for most of the course) passing was tough. There were bottle-necks but by the end of the lap the field was well spread out. I was feeling good and came through the feed zone (Fraser, my amazing husband and pit crew was giving me double feeds during the race) too early so Fraser missed me. No worries, I had grabbed an extra bottle of water due to the heat and had a gel in my pocket. I was good to go.

It was a hot day but we had a good 'keeping it cool strategy'. Fraser made me some 'ice scarfs' - socks filled with ice, tied together, and worn around the neck. It was amazing. I also carried a little thing of water to dump on my head - and with the double-feeds I didn't need to wear a camel back so life was bliss. I was definitely keeping it cool - even if I was soaked.

The first laps were taking me around 1:18 per lap on average. They were a good length and I was enjoying the course. I was feeling strong - my legs felt good and my energy was high until around lap 4. My stomach was feeling queasy. Uh oh. I came in and sat down. I ate salts, water, and gel. I sat some more. After 30 min i was feeling ready to ride and headed back out to the course. I felt a little 'on the edge' so i backed of the pace and focused on breathing and riding - my first and primary goal was to ride all 24 hours and not to have to stop for stomach issues.

Around 7pm we had a brief rain storm which helped to settle some of the dust. I was wishing for a bit more rain as the course was super dry and dusty - i had to use my inhaler several times. Of course, that may have had someting to do with the fact that I was racing at 5000 feet above my normal altitude :) The air was a bit thin for this Ocean dweller.

The darkness set in and I was feeling good. I'd recovered from my nausea and had upped my salt intake so things were going well. The night riding was tough because of the dust. It was like riding in the snow - the dust was sooo thick. Whenever I was behind a rider I wouldn't be able to see a thing. But I just kept on riding and hoped for the best.

Now is a good time to talk about my bikes - Jon at SVC dialed in my Fazes the week before we left so they were in tip-top shape. I would swap bikes every 3rd lap or so and Fraser would check the tire pressure and lube the chain. Loads of people were getting flats and breaking their chains this race ... i got through without one mechanical incident.

Around 6am I knew I'd made it. It was time to turn it up as best I could and see what I could do. I asked Fraser where I was -- turns out I was 6th and making time on 5th, 4th, and 3rd. Sweet! I ate some bananas and headed out for a lap. I caught Rebecca Rusch on a climb (yes, caught!) She'd done 3 more laps than me and it was a tough course - she was suffering. After I caught her I figured i'd see if I could keep with her. She led me right to the 5th place girl who I passed in the single-track. Rebecca dropped me in one of the rough sections of single-track and I continued at a good pace, hoping to put some time on #5 (#5 was the plate number of the girl who I passed in 5th place).

The next lap I caught Rebecca again - she must have had a longer pit. We chatted for a bit and then she dropped me in the same section of single-track. At that point I was worried about #5 chasing me down and was riding with 'one ear open', listening for her behind me. At one point I saw a girl in a yellow kit (same color as #5) and couldn't believe it. I dug deep and climbed like heck trying to put time on her. i kept on hearing her behind me and kept on digging deeper. I was toast but I wasn't about to get caught. i wanted my 5th place finish.

I came through the pit exhausted, ate some more bananas, ate part of a hammer bar, and headed back out again. I had to keep on going - it was 9:30 and my laps were taking just under an hour and a half at this point. I could do 2 more if I needed to. i didn't want to need to ... but I would if I had to.... I wasn't going to give up 5th place.

At this point everything hurt. The course was demanding - it was technical, 75% single-track, and unforgiving. Thank goodness for the Norco Faze! I hammered to the 'feed zone' where Fraser informed me that I had put 40 min on #5. Phew!! Apparently the girl in the yellow kit was a team rider. I could dial it back, take my sweet time, and finish my last lap. 4th was totally out of reach and i had 5th place locked up. I'd like to say i enjoyed the last part of my lap but I was in pain. My upper body hurt. My core hurt. My legs hurt. It was the toughest course I'd ever ridden for a 24hr race....

My parents were there to cheer me to the finish and I had a huge smile on my face as i crossed the line. I had overcome my stomach, dug deep, and pushed myself hard. It was a good race.

Thanks for reading and thanks again to Norco and SVC for helping me make this possible. Your support goes a loooong way!

Scooping out the course for Worlds

2009-07-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

We made the long drive up to BC on Saturday (actually, Fraser did all the driving ... I did my part by staying awake the whole time). We landed at my brother's place in Invamere on Saturday night and hooked up the trailer. Home sweet home for the next week. On Sunday we were planning to head up to Canmore to pre-ride but the map hadn't been posted on the site yet (they promised to post in on Monday) so we stayed put and had a relaxing day checking out the trails here in the area and hanging with family.

My brother has a very fun, very active two year old as well as a new-born - such a great family. My parents are also here and brought my sister's daughter with them too -- we are very lucky to combine family and racing this year!

On Monday we made the drive to Canmore, and although the map still wasn't posted we found the 'team' course easily enough. We did one loop and then headed out for food -- hungry!!! We spent the night there and went back to do some more loops. They had started to mark the Solo loop but didn't finish it yet - so we got lost initially. Back to the truck we replenished our bottles and headed out for a faster lap. Fraser quickly left me in the dust and i met up with a New Zealander and an Australian who knew the Solo bit of the course so I followed them through it.

So.... let me describe the course ... I want to start by saying that I may have missed parts of it (actually, i am convinced I did). It starts out with some good climbing to seperate the field. Wide climbing followed by single-track climing and a single-track descent. After the next road climb you don't see the road for ... um ... the rest of the race. This course has the most single-track in a WSC course i have seen yet. It's going to be fun. It's going to be bumpy. It's a full suspension course that is going to make me love my Norco Faze even more. It's going to be hard on the body and hard on the mind. In a nut shell, it is a course worthy of the title for 'World Solo 24hr Mountain Biking Championships'. Am I physched? yes!

After that loop we packed up the truck and made our way back to Invamere. Today we did a nice loop on the Spirit trail (think fun, fast, twisty, roller-coaster singletrack). It was a good day. i am enjoying this time off from work and am enjoying the rest I am geting as well as getting to visit with the family.

It's going to be a great race.

Missing out on Cascade Cream Puff

2009-07-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

So I have been super keen to race Cascade Cream Puff since we moved out west. It's a 100mile mountain bike race with 18,000ft of climbing and loads of singletrack. Sounds like heaven, right? Yeah, I thought so too ...

This year both Frase and I registered. Unfortunately with the demands of work I had to bail. I made the call on the way home from the 8 hour race. With work being so busy and us leaving for Worlds this coming Friday ... I needed the weekend to catch up and get organized and packed for Worlds.

So today I did 3 laps at Tiger ... to keep myself on my toes I did my fastest laps yet, taking 2 min out of my last best effort. Not bad! It was smokin' hot today at around 90F with ~90% humidity. I was pretty happy to post such fast times in conditions that don't generally agree with me. I will admit that I had my handy ice water in my jersey again it it was my saving grace!

After Tiger i spent about an hour cleaning my bike and going over it ... if i need to buy new parts, I need to do it tomorrow. Thankfully Jon at SVC is all set to give my bikes the SVC 'once over' which will ensure they are in tip top form before I leave for Worlds.

The countdown is on and I am starting to get excited. I have a big deliverable at work this week and then we are off!!

Work + Bike + Live == Balance?

2009-07-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I have to admit juggling work (a demanding job which I do love), riding and racing my bike (which I also love), and life (social and 'the neccessities') is often a battle.

I think that alot of us 'working athletes' have the same struggles - how do we fit it all into a day? For me the answer and prioritization of Work/Bike/Life depends on what is going on - and sometimes it is out of my control and I just try to hang on tight for the ride.

It's been one of those 'hang on tight' months ... at work I am getting ready to move the website my team has been working (Microsoft Malware Protection portal) on from beta to production - for those interested: click here for the beta and here for the current production portal. We've done a lot of work :) I have also adopted another project as one of my coworkers has taken a new position outside of our team ... It's been busy ramping up on the new project, keeping it on track while delivering on my current project - the portal website. Of course admidst all this are lots of races and training to get me prepped for Worlds in a few short weeks.

For the past while a typical day consists of:
- roll out of bed around 6am
- wake up whilst riding my bike around 6:45am
- finish ride, drink a recovery drink, shower, and get ready for work
- leave for the office around 8:45am
- go to work and rush around to meetings and order people around all day (ok, not really ... I manage several projects)
- get home around 7pm
- make dinner and eat
- work some more until 9pmish
- head to bed

Rinse and repeat! As you can see there isn't much 'life' in the mix so to fit it in something else has to give. OK, so maybe thre really isn't a 'balance' per se, but it works for me (most days). I'm lucky that Fraser also loves to ride and understands my need to get out on my bike as well as the demands in the office.

Once race season is over the balance swings more in favor of work and life before I get back into training full swing again. So to all you athletes that are full-time moms or have demanding jobs, keep at it - make sure you find the balance that works for you!

8 hours of heat, dust, and climbing ...er, Independance

2009-07-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

By the numbers:
Miles riden: ~60
Feet climbed ~10,000
Laps completed: 9
Hours riden: ~7.5
Temperature: 95 F (that's 35C)
Humidity: 70%
Bottles of water on the head: 9
Finishing place: 3rd (15th of 60+ riders overall)

The Lead Up
You can read about my lead up here on my blog ... I had put in 16 hours of training in the 6 days leading up to the race ... what better way to end a 24hour training week than with an 8 hour race? I sure as heck wouldn't have gone as fast on my own ...

The Race
As per tradition (well, for the past 3 years anyway), July 4th was hotter than heck. It was 85 F(30C) at 10am and promised to get up to 95F (35C) with 70% humidity. Trying to stay cool was definately a factor in this race - and for those of you who know me and my track record for hot races ... well, staying cool was a major focus of my race.

We didn't have the oppertunity to pre-ride, haven driven down the night before - so the first few laps were about getting to know the course. It was a ~6.5 mile course with ~1112ft of climbing per lap. The course started with a short 0.5 mile gravel road climb - one of only two road sections on the course and then dumped us into some singletrack. The climb continued for another mile or so and then we came out to the 2nd road section - about 0.25 mile of road. Off the road we were treated to some of the funnest and fastest singletrack downhilling I have ever done. We were racing on a dirt-biking trail and it was very well maintained. The downhill seemed to go on forever with some tight turns and deep (2ft) ruts to keep us on our toes. At the bottom of the downhill we crossed a bridge and then began the 'arizona' climb back up. It was called the 'arizona' climb because it was fully exposed, sandy, and did not offer any wind or repreive from the heat of the day. It went on forever - the grade ranged from 15 to 28%, at which point I was off my bike and walking. At the top of the climb we were treated to a short but sweet downhill and then were spit back out on the road where the feeding zones were.

It was a super fun but unforgiving course. There were no flat sections so eating was done on the climbs. I am really good at getting bottles out of my jersey now ... that is where I stashed my bottle of cold water each lap ... critical part of my 'keep it cool' strategy. Ok, back to the race ...

The goal of the race was to go out hard and try to blow up. The problem with this strategy is that I really have no ability to 'go out hard'. Going out hard for me is going at the top of my z1. But I went out faster than my 'pacing' effort would have been. The first two laps felt slow. I was pushing but didn't seem to get anywhere - and I was feeling the heat. I took a bottle of ice water with me each lap and doused myself with it, trying to stay cool. Just into the 2nd lap Fraser passed me ... 'did you just lap me?' I asked incredulously (you never know with Frase, when he's on, he is ON ... and he is getting fitter every day). Turns out he took a wrong turn (follow the ribbons) and got a flat tire. Oh ...

We were both self-supporting and had made up some drinks and water beforehand - with 5 bags of ice everything stayed nice and cool. Because we didn't know the course we didn't estimate well with the calories per bottle - I had to stop every 2nd lap and adjust my bottles for the next few laps. Around lap 3 I started to feel good and my lap times started dropping ... 30seconds faster, 2 minutes faster, 5 minutes faster- I just kept on getting faster and faster. It was great - I ended the race feeling strong ... a great sign given that Worlds is a short 3 weeks away!

I ended up in 3rd ... the two girls in front of me also did 9 laps and were ahead of me by 15 and 7 minutes respectively. Another few laps ...

Frase had a good race until about 5 hours in where he broke his chain 4 times. Pretty frustrating!

And now I am cleaning the dust off my bike and clothes, getting caught up on work, and getting ready for worlds!

Cascade Adventure - Day 3

2009-06-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

How does it go - 'the best laid plans...'?

Today was one of those days. We headed out with plans to ride Devil's Gulch, Mission Ridge, and Tornsen Ridge over by Cle Elum. We headed up Tronsen Ridge trail and when I say UP, I mean UP. The switch-back single-track turned into steep hike-a-bike which lasted for 2 miles. 2 miles and 2000 feet later we were at the top and in for some great views (see Ranier in the background?).

Once on top of the ridge it wasn't too long before we were in for some true ridge riding - one moment you had a steep drop-off to the right and then we'd cross to the other side and have a steep drop to the left. The views were breath-taking and so was the riding. We were always on our toes - and no one more than me. I was totally out of my comfort zone - I really don't like off-camber riding ... and when it is accompanied by a steep drop to one side and some technical sections ... Lets just say I was very focused on the trail in front of me :)

We rode along the ridge for quite a while, did some crazy detours where we would eventually decide that it was insane to keep riding - er- pushing our bikes, and turn around to find the 'real' trail again. Here is a photo of one of the 'hike a bike' sections of the ridge line.

The ridge riding was a little more crazy then we had bargained for and our initial plan had us riding two more ridge lines. At the turn we had a quick conversation and agreed to head straight down and skip the two additional ridge rides. Turns out the ridge we rode was rated black diamond ... The other two are apparently better. Another day.

By the time we got back to the car (20 miles and 4000 feet of climbing later) it was right around 4 hours of riding and since Kate's break pads were toast and Fraser's headset was toast, we decided to call it a day. It's all about perspective - we were so prepared for an 8 hour day in the saddle that 4 hours seemed lame. Too funny. We finished off the weekend with an awesome BBQ and lots of chocolate chip cookies. Look out girls ... Kate's ready for TransRockies!! :)

Cascade Adventure - Day 2

2009-06-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

No Cascade adventure (arranged by Fraser and I) would be complete without a day at Tiger. Today was that day .... we started the day with a climb up to Poo Poo point where we were offered a fantastic view of downtown Bellevue. Unfortunately Fraser didn't make it up the climb ... he broke (snapped!!) one of his egg-beater pedals on the way up the climb and turned back to get new pedals so he could join us the for the remainder of the ride. Good thing Tiger is close to home :)

Here is pic of Kate and I at the top of Poo Poo point.

On the way back down we took Iverson which offers loads of steep single-track climbing (up to 35% grade) and equally steep (and way more fun) single-track descending. 18 miles and 2500 feet of climbing later we were back in the parking lot and so was Frase ... we were good to go for a loop of Tiger.

Frase wanted to test his VooDoo (he's thinking of racing this bike at Cascade Cream Puff) so he flew up, down, and around Tiger. Kate and I ventured around the loop at more relaxed pace (ie: not mock 3). As per my usual form, I was starting to feel good around 3 hours and Kate was feeling pretty good too so we made good time back to the car.

All in all about 40 miles, 4400 feet of climbing, and 4 hours of riding! Tomorrow is our last and longest day with a planned 50 miles and 8800ft of climbing.

Cascade Adventure - Day 1

2009-06-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Kate is visiting for the weekend - she's training for Trans Rockies and came for a long weekend so of course we had to plan some epic rides.

Today was Day 1 of what I am going to refer to as the Cascade Adventure. We started the day with a 45 min climb (1700ft of climbing up single-track) out of Roslyn (the filming site for the Northern Exposure TV show) up Ewalk to the Cle Elum ridge and over the other side into the Tenaway valley. We got lost for a while here, crossed several streams, and found some fun singletrack. We eventually found our way back up the ridge on some super steep sandy singletrack (yes, I was walking. Fraser, on the other hand, was a mountain goat today and was zooming up all of the steep climbs). We finished off the first part of our day with a super fun single-track descent called 'rat pack'. It was worth every foot of the 3350 feet of climbing and 22 miles.

The photo is atop of Cle Elum ridge. Not a bad view.

We then headed over to Kachess lake and climbed Thorp mountain. This is a 3500 ft climb with no breaks. It starts gently with 5 miles of 2% grade alongside the lake and then gets into switch-backs at 10-20% grade. The climb offers many great views and cool breazes. it was pretty hot today and I was excited to see the snow. At the top we admired the view before we turned our bikes around to the cool descent. This part of the ride was about 22 miles and 3500 feet of climbing.

We finished the day with some burgers at the 'Mountain High' burger joint and headed home. Ahhh, nothing quite like a long day in the saddle. All told we covered 44 miles and almost 7000 feet of climbing in under 6 hours. Not a bad day ... we've got 2 more days of riding bliss to come.

This second photo is on top of Mt Thorp ... another fantastic view!

Test of Endurance - Race report

2009-06-22T20:57:00.001-07:00

By the numbers:

Miles ridden: 50 -- that's 80 KM!
Feet of climbing: 8000ft
Mechanicals: 0.5 (more on that later)
Finishing place: 4th
Number of rain showers during the race: too many to count
Pounds of mud on my bike post-race: 7.5 (ok, I didn't actually weigh it but it felt like 50)
Records beaton: 1 (Adam Craig killed the men's record and Karen Dewolf was 4 minutes off of the women's record)

As noted in my last post, we had a last-minute change in plans. We were trading one test for another so that we could fit in both family and racing! We weren't too sad as we have some friends in the Corvallis area and I was excited to see them again.

Pre-race:
We headed down Saturday night and drove through the worst rain storm ever. I am serious, it was raining so hard that I could barely see. We were driving at about 35km/hr on the highway! We joked that this weather didn't bode well for the race ...we weren't far off ...

The race started early and as we parked our car i looked out the window and who did I see but Adam Craig. Turns out him and his friends decided to come do this race (they hang out in Bend when they are not racing around the world) - it fit well into their racing schedule. The competition of the race just got a lot stiffer! At the end we all race against the clock and my true race was against time - and I met my goal!

It was cold, wet, and early so warm up consisted of riding around in my handy water-proof clothes, remembering I hadn't made up my bottle yet, seeing old friends from my Portland racing days, drying off, and getting to the start line.

The race:
The race starts with a neutral lead-out but I knew from two years ago that being at the front was key - they say it's neutral but in reality you are racing right away. The race started with a 6 mile road climb which spread out the field pretty well ... but with over 300 racers there were still lots of riders around me. I was sitting on the wheel of a girl when we hit the first single-track and it quickly became apparent that I had to get by. I wanted to go faster - what fun is single-track when you have to go slow? Out of the single track we were climbing again and I put on the gas to ensure that I would be ahead of her the next time. I never saw her again.

The course consisted of two 25 mile loops. It took me up until the first checkpoint to warm up. I estimate this took me just over 1.5 hours ... my garmin finally bit the dust so I was going sans heart rate or even time - more on this later. After checkpoint 1 I was starting to feel good and speeding up. I was catching people and enjoying the ride. I will admit that the mud was a little disheartening ... it was peanut butter mud and just seemed to pile up on your tires, making it impossible to ride some of the muddy steep climbs. There was a fair amount of running in this race ...

After the first lap I caught some guy and asked him how long we'd been riding "just over 3 hours he said". Oh crap. I had to pick up the pace .. I had a goal to beat 6 hours (two years ago it took me 6.5 hours to do this same race). So off I went. I felt a lot better on my 2nd lap - it seemed to fly by. I was in my big ring, standing on some of the looonnng climbs, and enjoying the muddy mess of single-track (for the downhill bits). I caught about 4 women on the 2nd lap and flew by each of them. That was fun!

About 1/4 of my way through the 2nd lap my bike started to make a funny sound. i couldn't place it and everything seemed to be ok so I kept on riding. I did a lot more standing for some reason but didn't think much of it ... turns out that I lost a screw for my seat post/saddle! My saddle was coming off and I didn't even realize it (this is my 0.5 mechanical).

My shifting was shot by the end of the 2nd lap but I didn't care - I knew everyone was in the same boat - peanut butter mud. Need i say more? I was feeling good and really enjoyed the 2nd lap.

I finished the race feeling strong and beating my 6 hour goal by 12 minutes. I really felt that I could ride for another 18 hours which is a very good sign - especially considering Worlds is in 4 short weeks :)

It's taken a while but most of the mud is off of the clothes and bike, I've replaced the seat post screw, and am ready for the trails again. Most of this past week has been on the road so I am ready for the dirt!!

A change in plans

2009-06-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

We had to make a last-minute change in plans this weekend due to some visitors staying longer than anticipated. Test of Metal was on a Saturday and due to this change in plans we just couldn't make it up for the race. We enjoyed the visit though and were able to 'swap' races - there was a race in Oregon on sunday - Test of Endurance.

So in the end, we swapped one test for another :) Test of Endurance was 50 miles and 8000 feet of climbing ... race report coming soon!

The human body is an amazing thing ...

2009-06-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

The human body and it's ability to push beyond never ceases to amaze me. Take this past weekend ....

Saturday I did 16 (yes, sixteen) hill repeats - the hills were ~16% grade and were about 5min long each. The intervals were on the road so where was some standing involved :) It was tough. I was exhausted at the end of the ride ... my powertap ("the truth") was proof that it was a good workout - my watts were high but the last two intervals they dropped substantially. I was toast - good thing I only had 16 to do - I don't think I had any left in me!

Sunday we decided to venture out to Tiger. It's been a while since I've visited my old haunt and the schedule had me doing a hard 6 hour effort. What better place to beat myself up? I went into the ride with the goal of doing 4 laps as fast as possible. Last year my pacing laps were 1:20ish and my fastest lap time was 1:11, on a day when i only did 1 lap. So the goal for Sunday was to race the old me and see where I landed - and not to hold back.

I completely surprised myself! I did 4 laps at 1:12 exactly - no drop in the pace throughout the rides. To set the scene, tiger is an unrelenting 3 mile climb, followed by a 2 mile technical descent that is very unforgiving, a bit of a fireroad section and then another few miles of powerlines where the climbing gets up past 25% in several spots. It's 11 miles and 1900ft of climbing per lap.

Might not sound impressive to you but I was soo excited! I pulled off the fastest lap times for 4 laps in a row ever and I didn't show any signs of slowing down. Maybe this pacing thing is overrated?? My legs were screaming on every climb from the intervals on Saturday but they continued to turn the pedals over and over like clock work.

Like I said, the human body is an amazing thing ...

Bavarian Bike Festival - Race Report

2009-06-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

The numbers:

Place finished: 3rd

Feet of climbing: 5400ft

Miles: ~26 (20 miles of single track, 6 of double-track)

Time to finish: 2:36

The lead up:

It's been a hectic week. Fraser's sister arrived late Wednesday night and left early Thursday AM (she was over-nighting on her way to the Seattle airport), reviews were due at work this week, and of course there was the usual life and work stuff going on.

There is no better way to get through a week like that than to look forward to a day of bike racing on Saturday. We had never been to Leavenworth but heard the riding was fantastic and the town was pretty cool. We were not disappointed.

We had to drive through a pass to get to the race venue and there was still snow on the ground! It was rainy when we left and pouring over the pass. We thought we might be in for a wet and cold race ... but in true Washington tradition, over the other side of the pass the sun was shining and it was hot and dry.

Race warm up consisted of riding up the hill to find a place to feed Fraser, sitting in the shade and pretending to stretch, feeding Fraser, and doing a 15min spin before my race start. I was almost to the start when I heard the loud speaker doing the count-down: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! My heart raced and i put down the hammer - I thought I was late for my start! But alas it was the men and i made it just in time. Phew. A few moments to calm my heart rate and it was our count-down for real.

The race:

There were 11 women in total in the open/expert category and the race got off to a good start. I took full advantage of the 2 minutes where my legs have no idea what is going on and I can go really fast. I put some distance on the other girls but was quickly caught when i settled into my pace. Two girls passed me fairly early in the climb.

This is a good time to talk about the course ... the course was 8.6 miles long and consisted of 1800feet of climbing per lap. It was straight up and straight down. Not having ridden the course previous to the race it felt like the climbing went on forever. It was 4.6 miles and 1800 feet, with no breaks. Once in a while I'd think it was flat, shift up a few gears, look down at my garmin and realize that it was 7%. Ha. Flat. It's all relative ... The climb started out on a road but after about a mile it went into the single-track and up and over the mountain. The decent was fast and furious. There were 3 creek crossings and many many 'whoop-de-doos' that you launched off of without even trying. It was sooo fun. the first descent was a little tentative but the 2nd and 3rd laps i was flying.

I kept the girls that passed me in sight until we hit the single track and then they dropped me. I kept on climbing but never saw them again. The race was pretty uneventful - I was on my own most of the time and having fun conversations in my head. They went something like this ... Brain: ok legs, its time to pick up the pace Legs: I just don't have it today Brain: too bad, do it anyway Legs: no Brain: ok, then i will just shift into a harder gear and you will have to work harder Legs: (about 1 minute later) that wasn't very nice

And on it went ... my legs felt empty, the just didn't have it today. I've been increasing my veggie intake lately and it seems that perhaps I need to bump my carb intake back up a little more. That or get more decent sleeps leading up to a race :)

The other fun part of the race was the 'Go Norco' cheers and the comments about my bike. I had at least 6 people yell 'Nice Bike' as I rode by.

All in all it was a great effort and I was happy with my 3rd place finish. Tomorrow will be another great day in the saddle with a 4-6 hour ride at Tiger!

Off to catch up on sleep .... oh, and eat more carbs! :)

Monilee

Our new place

2009-06-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

We moved in the month of April and have been slowly but surely settling in to the new place. We have such a fantastic yard that we've been spending more time setting that up than we have unpacking. Of course the essentials (bike, bike clothes, and bike gear) has been unpacked for a while :) It's the non-essentials like pictures, etc that are lagging.

We still have several boxes to wade through but are getting settled. I have to hand it to Frase - he is doing most of the work!!

We have a cool yard with a holly tree, an apple tree, a huge pine tree, and several unknown trees. We have a little garden set up and the beans, tomatoes, lettuce, spinich, cucumbers and potatoes are starting to get big.

It definately feels like home :)

Heat wave in Seattle

2009-06-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

I really didn't ever think I'd say 'heat wave' and 'Seattle' in the same sentence but it's true! Ever since the the NW championships it's been hot and humid here in Seattle. The government has actually issued a 'heat warning' for the next few days -it's supposed to reach 90F today and tomorrow! Bring out the fans, boys and girls, it is going to be HOT.

So with all this hot weather I have to admit that sleeping has been tough (no A/C in Seattle) but on the up side i am slowly becoming adjusted and dare I say it? Acclimitized!

It also means that my favorite haunt, Tiger, is nice and dry (read: fast)!! The commute has been nice - early in the moring and later in the evening (my commuting times) it is nice and cool so it's not that bad.

The other fun thing about all this heat and sun is that my garden is growing like crazy! I have one bean plant over a foot tall and multiple tomatoes plants that are flowering already ... I love fresh hand-picked veggies!!!

I won't complain - it's been a rainy cold spring. I welcome the sun!!

NW Solo Championships - Race report

2009-05-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! Lets start with the fun details/stats first:
- Place I finished: 3rd
- Number of female 'real pros' at the race: 4
- Number of miles ridden: 225
- Number of feet climbed: ~17,000
- Number of hours I had to stop due to stomach issues: 2.5
- Number of minutes difference between my fastest and slowest laps (excluding stomach laps): 10 minutes

We got to the venue on Friday and set up camp. I had my plan for the race - I had a lap goal, an eating plan, and I was set to go. The weather was a bit hot - it was 80F - and we have had a cool wet spring here in Seattle. To say I wasn't acclimatized would be a bit of an understatement. But I had a plan for that too ... I was self-supporting so we had a bin of ice water on the table and I'd take a cool cloth to my core, legs, and neck each lap. 30 seconds of cool bliss each lap.

Before I knew it, the start gun went and we were off. I did my usual 'pacing' and was almost dead last in the run. The first lap was slow but my plan was to turn it up as the sun (and heat) went down. The first laps felt slow - I was holding back due to the heat. I didn't want to over-do it.

I started feeling good around 6pm. The air was starting to cool and my lap times were starting to get faster. Right around this time I got what my Dr calls 'exercised-induced bronchial spasms' (I've been informed by my Dr not to call it asthma). This resulted in shallow breathing which led to a nice stitch in my side (yes, it hurt!). Oddly, the stitch is almost a good thing --it means the spasms are over - and I can control the stitch pain with some deep breathing.

From 7pm to 11pm I had my best lap times. The air was cooling down and I was feeling good. And then it happened. I had a bad lap - i had to walk a downhill because i was feeling stunned, I started to feel nauseous, my stomach felt like it was on fire, and I had to stop. I was super frustrated. My brain wanted to keep riding but given my experience at Canmore 2 years ago, I didn't want to risk it. I took some anti-acid pills, more endurolytes, and laid down. I listened as the riders rode by and kept on wishing I were out there. Several times I would stand up and immediately feel nauseous so I laid back down again. After 2 hours of this I decided that it was time to give it a shot. I could always turn around if I felt too bad. I got ready, downed some more electrolytes, and headed out for a lap.

I warmed up quickly and felt pretty decent. I didn't puke. This was good. I picked up the pace and my stomach was still co-operating. Things were looking up. The air was still cool (it was around 3am) so I was able to put in some good lap times. Fraser let me know that I was catching 2nd but I had to put on the gas. I tried. I was reeling her in but ran out of time (what an odd concept for a 24hr race)...

In summary I didn't meet any of my goals for this race. I do believe that I learned another lesson and we may finally have the last piece of the puzzle in place for my stomach issues. Here's hoping :)

I will say that I had a great 24hours on my bike! I loved my new ride and the only mechanical was that I got a flat tire! Thanks again to the guys at Norco for the sweet ride and to the guys at SVC for setting it all up and dialing it in for race day.

So now that the dust has settled I am in recovery mode .. trying to clear the dust out of my lungs, getting some sleep, and fighting off the re-appearance of my cold.

I've got a race every other weekend for the next two months - lots of time to test out my new slightly modified plan - stay posted :)

The countdown has begun

2009-05-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Next weekend is Spokane! In seven days (yes seven!) I will be riding my bike in circles for 24 hours. So what have I been up to you ask? Eating. Sleeping in. Shorter rides. Getting organized.

All this eating and sleeping is treating me pretty well. I am feeling pretty good. I did a loop of Tiger today and crushed my climbing time by 1 minute. That might not seem like a lot to you but trust me- it is! It is one minute better than my best time! I felt fantastic - full of energy and wanting to ride. Looks like this taper thing is working.

So, 6 more days of eating, sleeping, and trying not to work too much should put me in a pretty good place for the race.

Eyeing the competition there are 11 women signed up for the Solo race. 3 of them are serious girls who've done well at Solos in the past (one got 3rd at Worlds one year and another placed 2nd (by 2 laps) to Rebecca Rusch at Spokane). Strong women. It should be a good race! It will be fun to have some good solid competition to really put my new eating strategy and fitness to the test.

Fraser is also contemplating doing it Solo so i am planning to self-support. I think I have a pretty good strategy to minimize pit time. My new eating plan makes self-supporting easier as I won't be eating many solids, if any. It should be good!

OK, off to eat some more food before I can start sleeping again ...

All is quiet on the Westren front ...

2009-05-12T13:09:00.001-07:00

You know when this happens that it's been lots of hours of training, work, life, or, in this case .... all three!

Our move (moving homes) the end of April co-incided with my training peak for Spokane, my first 24hr. Incidently work was super busy as well. Throw it all together in a pot and mix it up and out comes a sick Monilee. Yup, i got a cold - and a nasty one at that. Oh how I dispise being sick!!! The part of my taper was spent moving. A whole week … sick. And now … I am on the mend and tapering (or is that training) again.

In the meantime – before this “perfect storm” of activity I got some good rounds of Tiger in on my 08 Faze. I just had it into Samammish Valley Cycle – not thinking it needed much of a tune up – but they did it all – rebuilt my shocks, replaced some seals and bolts, and did a general over-haul of my bike. It was amazing. I thought my bike was running well but the work they did made it smoother and stronger. Now they just need to make it faster :)

I swapped out the wheelset and breakset from my 08 (XTR for both) to the 09 (XT and Avid Exlicir) so that I could keep the better wheelset on my ‘dry bike’. As such I got to try out the new disk breaks – Avid Elixcir. I have to admit that when I went from the Hayes 9 to Shimano XTR I didn’t notice that much of a difference – they both break in the same manner/style. You can modulate your breaking pretty well. The Avids are a totally different beast. They also alow you to modulate but when you get to the ‘breaking point’ – pardon the pun, could not resist – that is it. You stop. Full stop. And yes, I found out the hard way – going full speed down the mountain around a twisty singletrack turn. And I still (2 weeks later) have the bruises to show it. Ahhh, trying out new gear is soo fun! The great news is now I know the limits – and did not learn in a race (always good)!

So now I am on my official taper and am eager to try out my new ride. Jon and the boys at SVC are tuning it up for me! The official count down is on - 10 days until my first 24hr Solo!! Wheeeeeee

Ummm ...200KM hurts!

2009-04-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a big training weekend - my last big one before NW 24hr Solos Champs.

I did 200KM in 6hrs on Saturday (yes, 200km) - I was toast at the end. My legs hurt. It hurt to walk down the stairs, walk up the stairs, do I need to go on? All I could do was sit and eat the food that my wonderful husband cooked for me. He just got back from a week in Moab mountain biking ... more on that later.

So Saturday night I was sitting and eating as much as possible knowing I had another 6 hour day in front of me. And admitedly woundering how I was going to do it.

Sunday morning I got up and got ready for my ride. I took off for Tiger, ready for any weather that may greet me. It was pretty freaking cold at first ... I had my warm leg-warmers on, my 'downhill' shorts, three layers on the top plus a vest .... and of course my little hat. I love my little hats - they keep my ears happy! Off I went. Tiger is a bit unforgiving. You start up hill .... for 30 minutes straight. The first fifteen minutes I wasn't sure I could ride for 6 hours. Then I decided that I'd eventually warm up and even though my legs hurt I could keep on pedalling. Once I got into the single-track I was convinced I could ride as long as I wanted :) I love single track!!!

It ended up being a fantastic day. The sun even peeked through for the last hour of my ride. I did 4 loops of Tiger plus one of Iverson for a total of 80km on the mountain bike. Not my fastest laps ... but not my slowest either.

All in all I am feeling ready for Spokane! I am also ready for my recovery week this week :)

Sea Otter Race Coverage

2009-04-21T20:11:00.001-07:00

I was pretty stoked to find some great coverage of the Sea Otter races here. Check it out - they have a full length video of the short track and interviews after the XC race. They also have great coverage of the road and dh events. Very cool!!!

If you are looking for a way to get motivated, they also have some great coverage for other events - I love this site!!!

Tiger: 1, Monilee: 0

2009-04-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tiger mountain opened last week (April 15th) so i just had to head up on Sunday to check it out ...

The climb to the top was pretty dry which seemed promising. Getting close to the top I started to see patches of snow ... hmmmm ... not so promising. Into the single track and there was about 1 mile of snow followed by a nice dry spell (it was pretty weird actually - it was sooo dry). And then the fun started ... lots of water and wet. Tiger is so rocky and rooty that when it is wet it is like riding down a riverbed. I forgot just how abusive this trail is on your body.

So, i was flying down the wet rocky downhill when ouch - what was that? A rock bit me! Have you ever had a rock bite? This rock was big too so it did not mess around. I have a nice blue shin and it took a fair chunk of skin off my leg.

I opted to take the power line back (more hills and no single track) for the bottom part of the loop ... Timberline is always wetter than the top of the mountain - it does not drain as well. It was fun to get back to my favorite haunt but I'll give it a few more weeks to dry out before I do a longer ride there.

Tiger (well actually rock): 1, Monilee:0 I expect this score to change drastically over the summer :)

Gear Review - Bike shorts: Ibex Marino Wool

2009-04-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

As part of my partnership with Samammish Valley Cycles I've signed up to do some gear reviews. This is my first 'official' gear review and I am looking forward to the next one. I like testing new gear!

First up on the list is bike shorts - Ibex Marino Wool. I've always been curious about wool for bikeing shorts so when I saw a pair of Ibex knickers at Sammamish Valley Cycles, I just had purchase a pair so I could try them out.

I wasn't disappointed.... I tested these shorts in three conditions: Wet and windy, dry and warm (not hot, warm), and indoor riding. I figure this gives me good insight into what these shorts are and are not capable of. Here is the deal (I've rated it out of 10)

Wicking: 8.5
These shorts wick sweat and keep you dry. They do a great job - even better than the spandex-based material that most of my other shorts are made of. They aren't quite as good as the Segoi RS shorts made of the thin mesh-like material - but better than I expected for a thicker material.

Temperature regulation: 9.5
This was the most outstanding feature by far. I never got hot or cold in these shorts. The temperature I wore them in varried by almost 20 degrees celcious but I did not get cold or overheat. Bottom line: wear these shorts for any ride where you may have variable weather (think: TransRockies, LaRuta, TransAlps, etc).

Bum comfort: 8.25
There is only one pair of shorts that gets above an 8 for bum comfort in my books - the Segoi RS. That said, this pair came in pretty high. The shammi is very comfortable, does not rub in the wrong places, does not have too much padding - but has enough.

Other features: 10
I loved the fact that the knees had a wind breaker patch to protect the joints from getting too cold. This feature alone gets a 10 in my book. I also liked the fit of the shorts and the overall comfort deserved close to a 10.

Summary: If you are looking for a new pair of shorts to transition from winter into spring, look no further! Wool gets 2 thumbs up in my book - not only is it supurb for performance, it is environmentally friendly too!

It's official ... the 2009 race season begins

2009-04-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. The race season has started. What better way to start then amidst a raging downpour in 9 degree Celsius?

The warm up: Warming up was challenging but I had my dandy water proof cycling pants and jacket and was determined to wear them until I absolutely had to take them off. I found some cool bike trails close by and wondered around them for a while - it took at 15 min for my core to feel 'warm'. Brrrr. After that I wondered back to the race venue. I wasn't seeing any riders and that made me nervous. I asked around and found out that you can ride the course as long as you get off the trail when you see/hear racers behind you. How cool! I hoped on the course and rode the last mile or so ... very soupy. I was glad I had my mud tires! Finished the lap and headed back to the car. More lube for the chain and time to ditch the waterproof gear and head up to the start.

The race: There were around 6 women in my category and the race started with a big countdown. 10 seconds of bliss where my legs don't get it and I am at the head of the pack ... 10 seconds later I am dead last. I passed two girls on the first descent going mock2 (ok, that is a slight exageration - but it felt like mock2) and caught up to another one. I liked her pace and decided to keep her in sight and see what happened. Somewhere on lap2 I was sure I was going to puke. I wasn't used to going this fast and my breakfast, eaten 4 hours prior to the race, seemed to be threatening a re-appearance. I kept going as hard as I could, telling myself that I hadn't puked yet and I should keep going until I did. I never did.

I kept the girl in from of me in sight for the first 3 laps (there were 6 laps in total - about 20 miles). Every time I got ready to pass I'd yell 'on your left' and she'd pick up the pace. It was pretty amusing and I was happy to have someone to push me. On the forth lap though she was starting to slow and I attempted to pass several times - each time she'd put on the gas and I wasn't able to make a pass. Through the start/finish area I was right on her wheel. I let her pull me for about 10ft and then i put the hammer down and blew by her. My strategy was to pass so fast that she wouldn't be able to draft. It worked. I didn't look back, my legs were burning and I was determined to put as much distance between us as possible. i knew i only had 2 laps left - and they were taking about 20 min each. It was time to hammer. The last two laps were bouts of pain and glee as i hammered up the hills and then flew down the other side. The downhills were fast and furious - I found out that I am pretty comfortable going very fast down wet muddy hills.

I was on my own for the last 2 laps and was picking up time. I finished in 2 hours and 6 minutes, 6 minutes behind the leader and 5 min behind 2nd place. Not awesome, but not too bad. Oh, and I put a good 10min on the 4th place girl. My lap times went something like this:
- 19 min (shorter 1st lap)
- 22 min
- 23 min
- 23 min
- 21 min
- 20 min

Yeah, so can you tell that I wasn't quite warmed up? I am happy with my effort though. It was a solid ride.

Thanks again to my sponsors at Norco Bikes and Samammish Valley Cycle who provide me with great bikes and gear! I couldn't do it without you!

All in all, a great day playing in the mud! Welcome to the 2009 race season!!!

Food, food, and more food.

2009-04-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had a big training weekend ... The thing with longs rides is that they creep into (ok, they take over) your normal 'eating times'. On Monday I had a recovery day and just couldn't eat enough. I had 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners, along with my usual snacking throughout the day.

This whole week I've been chowing down ... maybe it's due to putting in the miles on the trails - i am not sure - but I am still super hungry! I'm rolling with it - my body obviously is trying to tell me to eat more so I'm good with that (and no, I am not pregnant).

I am not complaining though ... yummy!!!

Back to my tortellinis!!!

The best laid plans

2009-03-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend I have a hard 5 hour race sim on Saturday (late day effort) followed by a 2-3 hour race sim on Sunday (early day effort). I'm planning to do the Sunday race sim at a race - a local race here in Seattle which will be my first race of the season.

Crazy or good? I am going back and forth. But heck, you only live once and I am eager to race. Doing the race will ensure that I push harder than I otherwise wood. Doing a 5-hr (late day) race sim the day before will ensure that I am racing on 'tired legs'.

The best laid plans ... we will see :)

Ready, Set, Race!

2009-03-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

The season is about to start ... April 12th is just 2 short weeks away - and is the first race of my season this year.

I start the season off with two 'short' 2-3 hour races (and yes, racing pro-elite in these races too) to 'warm me up' for my first important (endurance) race of the year - Round and Round. I am getting pretty excited. I have a full calendar from April 12th to August 22nd, with a bit of a break and then another round leading up to La Ruta.

It is a good time to look at the goals I set a short few months ago and see how i am progressing. The good news is that I blew all of my goals but one out of the water - I actually had to reset and am working toward new goals!! I am pretty stoked for the season ahead ...

A little Sunshine and Snow

2009-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

We spent a looong weekend in Tahoe with our friends Alan and Gita ... and what great fun it was! I am sooo not in snowboarding shape but we hit the slopes with had just gotten dumped with over 6 feet - yes, 6 feet - of powder. Wow, was it fun!

The biggest workout of the day was me digging myself out of the snow when I insisted on playing in the trees ... I would do it a coulple of times a day as it took a while to forget the hard effort of getting myself 'dug out' of the snow.

The skys were blue and the snow was amazing. It was great to be in winter again ... and to be playing in the snow on my board.

Summer is just around the corner but for a few days it seemed a lifetime away!

Trail riding in February!

2009-02-14T11:05:00.001-08:00

I still can't get over it ... every great day I have mountain biking outside in the winter I come home with a huge smile - OK, OK I have a huge smile every mountain bike ride anyway :) But still ...

Last weekend we did a 'training ride' with our friend Calvin. It was full of hills and fun twisty sngletrack. The skies were blue and it was about 5 degrees (c) ... the trails were perfect.

New Ride for 2009

2009-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

I can't wait ... I am getting the 2009 Faze1 this year to add to my 'riding stable' ... isn't she a beauty?

What a great new ride, I can't wait until it arrives at Samammish Valley Cycle so I can set it up just right in their 'fitting room'. The next stop will be out to the local trails to break it in ...

The importance of mental training

2009-01-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

Life's busy and it is hard to fit it all in. I work at Microsoft as a program manager and I love my job ... but it keeps my very busy. I get up early in the morning to do my rides to ensure that I will get them in early enough not to mess with my sleep.

Lately I feel like I've been in a bit of 'mental slump'. I haven't been thinking about my hard rides until I roll out of bed at 5:30 am (and it's hard to get physched at that time of the morning, beleive me), and I definately have not been doing any mental training.

I created my 2009 race schedule a few weeks ago and this got me thinking about my training more. It got me focusing on how I would get to the goals I set last month, and it got me back into mental training. This past week I've just started to 'dip my toes' back into mental training - by thinking through the hard rides before I started them, by making actual goals before the ride and then prepping for the ride using mental rehersal. It hasn't been to the full extent that an athlete should use mental training, but the results have been tremendous.

This past week I had 3 hard rides. 2 of them were 'break through rides'. I haven't been increasing my watts./speed for my intervals for quite some time. For the first 'break through ride' I increased it by 5 watts for each interval! Now, that might not seem like much, but for a hard interval, it is not insignificant. For my second great ride I beat my 1 hour goal for the season -- I rode at that wattage/speed for 90 minutes!

It is so easy to forget the importance of something like mental training. It is also important to take a 'break' from it, just like we do from normal training - we can't be 'on' all the time. Our minds need a break as much as our bodies do. Not every ride can be a 'break through' ride, nor should it be - but it really plays a part in the harder rides that are on the schedule.

So before your next hard ride try thinking about it in advance; solidify your goals and do some mental rehersal. You may be pleased by the results!

New sponsor for 2009

2009-01-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

I have a new sponsor for 2009 - a local bike shop: Samammish Valley Cycle. I am pretty stoked - they have a fitting area, which I will take advantage of when my new Norco Faze arrives, they sell Norco (of course), and they have a great selection of clothing and endurance bikeing stuff. They also support the Seattle International Randonneurs club; which is really cool!

I am very excited about this new sponsorship/relationship and look forward to representing and promoting SVC this summer!

I laughed so hard ...

2009-01-09T09:32:00.001-08:00

I laughed so hard I just had to share this: Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing. Too funny, I am still laughing! Great to see some creativity in these hard economic times.

Worlds 2009!!

2009-01-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

They have just announced the location for Worlds in 2009 - it will be in Canmore, Alberta again! I am so excited I can't sleep!!

Third times the charm? I am counting on it. My first race in Canmore a wicked crash pushed me out of the race after 12 painful hours of riding. My second race I ate too much and my stomach took me out of the race for 8 hours. This year I will return with a revised 'no crash' policy and an updated eating plan ... it's going to be my year!!!

Frase has already agreed to support me so I'll have the best support staff around. I'm getting the 2009 Faze from Norco, I am getting full support from Samammish Valley Bicycles ... I have no excuses!!

Ok, off to try to sleep ... feels like I am 8 years old and Christmas is tomorrow!

Planning for 2009

2008-12-29T21:06:00.001-08:00

It is a good time to take a few step backs and do some planning for the 2009 season. I've found some great races that I am looking forward to in 2009 - my tentative plans include:

Indie Series Race #1 - Seattle (April 4)
NW 24hr Solo Championships - Spokane (May 23/24)
Test of Metal - Squamish, BC (June 20)
Canadian Nataional 24hr Solo Championships - Canmore, AB (July 25/26)
Cascade Cream Puff - Oakridge (July 12)
8 hours of Independance - Solo - Philomath (July 4th)
High Cascades100 mile race - Bend (Aug 22)
La Ruta - 5 day stage race - Costa Rica (Nov 10 - 14)

Whooo hooo!

Back to challenge La Ruta in 2009

2008-12-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ever since I completed La Ruta in 2004, I have always wanted to go back and 'race' it. The first time I rode it, the goal was simply to finish, and I was happy with that. Since getting into racing and getting into better shape, I have always wanted to go back and see what I could do ... well, it looks like 2009 is the year.

They now have 5 stages, yes, I said five - check it out: http://adventurerace.com/web-ruta/registration-09.htm. Less road, more dirt, more singletrack, and more climbing. What more could I ask for? Frase got our plane tickets to Costa Rica for Christmas - all that is left to do is register for the race ... oh, and train of course! We are both going to do the race and are very excited!

It's almost a year away but never too early to start planning!!! 2009 is going to be a great year!!

Who says seattle doesn't get SNOW?

2008-12-15T09:46:00.000-08:00

Well, whoever it was, was wrong! We got snow ... and it is still on the ground. OK, it was only about an inch ... but it covered everything in white (and the roads in ice). Walking outside you get that wintery crunch/squeak sound that reminds you that it's winter.

The slopes close by got about 4 feet ...sounds like a snow day is in order soon! It definately feels a lot like Christmas ....

Another great day, another great ride

2008-12-06T21:29:00.001-08:00

Today was a beautiful fall day (not raining!!) and I took full advantage of it. My partner in crime today was Yvonne and we decided to try something new - St Edwards Park. It was a blast. Not a tonne of climbing (600 ft in 2 hours) but loads of fun twisty single-track with loads of roots, log piles, skinnies, and bridges.

We got totally lost, turned around, and confused but it was a great time! I love these fall days in DECEMBER where you can ride outside. The trails at St Edwards drain really well so the riding was pretty dry too! What a great day. It was one of those days where i had to say 'I love living in Seattle where I can ride outside in December!'.

I definately got my dose of fresh air and sunshine today!

Turkey Dinner

2008-12-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I made my first turkey dinner last weekend - for US thanksgiving. It was delicious ... I love to cook so that part was fun too!

We started the day with a late breakfast. After breakfast I got the dinner stuff all set, popped the turkey in the oven, and then ventured out for a 3 hour ride (what is turkey day without a ride??). Coming home to a house smelling of cooked turkey and yummy fixings was an amazing way to end the ride!

We are still eating turkey (sandwiches, left-overs, you name it) but I am feeling prepared for Christmas - I'll be making turkey dinner for 9 of us on Xmas day!

Anyone want some turkey?

Time to set some goals

2008-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I felt like I was just 'going through the motions' training wise. I've been on my bike and I've done some good rides ... but my focus and drive just weren't there. This past weekend we had a 4-day weekend due to the US thanksgiving ... and I had a chance to catch my breath - and realize what I was missing.

I have goals for next season but hadn't set any intermediate goals for my training. This past weekend I took some time to sit down and do this ... it's only been a few days but I feel that my focus is definately back and my drive is better than ever. I'm a numbers girl - I like to know much faster I am riding my favorite loop at Tiger, how many watts I can push on those weekday rides in the garage, and how fast I can climb to the top of Tiger West. If I have numbers to shoot for, I will work harder!

I am definately getting excited about next season. To remind myself of my goals I've made a small poster and taped it up in the Garage for those indoor rides. I also see it everytime I grab my mtb for a ride outside ... very usefull!