Race Report: Fort Ebby - up, up, up!

This is one of those 'by the numbers' races :)

Place finished: 2nd
Women at the race: 13
Feet climbed ~4,000
Miles ridden: 21
Hills walked: 0
Steepest gradient: 27%

Yup! My first 'hilly' race of the year! Didn't realize how much climbing it was ... and after 'playing' (riding the course several times) on the course on Saturday by the time the race was over on Sunday, my legs were feeling the climbing.

So ... This was my first time racing at Fort Ebby ... i've never done this race but heard great things about it. And it did not dissappoint. First of, we took off Friday afternoon ... and didn't work AT ALL again until Monday. Oh, how i love the weekend! I forgot how amazing it was :)  We found a little cottage on the island and were in heaven ... you could smell the ocean (in a good way), hear the frogs, and walk to all the restaurants (all 3 of them) and ice-cream shops (all 1 of them) in town! It was a great pace to spend a weekend away from the usual hustle and bustle of life.

Friday night was spent driving and then a quick bite at the local tavern before we crashed. After sleeping for 12 hours, having an amazing breakfast, and touring the town, we headed to 'the fort' for some mountain biking fun. 3 hours and 4,000 ft of climbing later (read: AMAZING VIEWS!) we headed back to our cottage. The weather was perfect racing weather - a cool 10degrees celcious but a hint of sun every now and then :)

The evening was spent eating dinner, soaking in the hottub while listening to frogs, and enjoying  a local wine. I know, I know ... you aren't supposed to soak in hot tubs or drink wine, much less do both ... before a race. But i figured it didn't matter since i was racing into shape anyway :)

Sunday morning was another great breakfast and off to the race! A good hour early, i had no idea what to do with myself. I haven't been running from one thing to the next for a while. Warm up? Really! I did a decent warm-up, and then went to the start. it was amazing out! the sun was shining and the air was cool. Unfortunately all i wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sit in the sun like a cat. But I figured i'd get into the race once it started! Why is it that after you take a day or two off  you feel more tired? :)

The race had a bit of a hectic start. We were lined up across a field and had about 50 feet to fight for position into the single track. Yeah, not quite my strength. Full on sprinting. i figured i'd try to land somewhere in the middle and see what happened. That is exactly where i landed :)

The first bit was a bit of a mess, as expected, and we weeded out a few less technical riders. This course was fairly technical with lots of wet roots to take you out and steep climbs to throw you off if you were not on your game. Turns out i was pretty on my game. My technical riding was improveing ... project 'race into shape' seems to be successfull :)  After about 1/2 a lap (there were 3 laps in total) the field was pretty much sorted out and I was chasing a girl in front of me and hand another just behind me. The girl behind me (Karen, another 24hr soloist) said  'hey, they are catching us, lets go' ... and so i took off. We passed the girl in front of us and never saw any of them again. Well, that was fun!  Karen and I traded back and forth for the remainder of lap 1.  Part way thru lap 2 i was feeling warmed up and turned it up a notch ... i passed Karen and never saw her again.  After that I just kept on pushing ... the legs were feeling the wine, the hot-tub, and the 5,000 ft of climbing from the previous day. But as they tend to do, they kept on turning, and the miles kept on passing. On lap 3 i turned it up again and found another few girls to pass. A lot of women were tiring out ... usually these races are only 1 hour long and this one was 2.5 hours for me. It was good fun! I saw the girl in front of me but could not quite catch her ... she was always just that little bit ahead and when i'd catch her she'd take off. Nice riding :)

All in all it was a fantastic race! Lots of single track, amazing views of the ocean and the olympics, lots of sunshine, and great friends!

It will be a few weeks till the next race ... time to get some longer hours in!

A day of firsts ...

March 4th was a day of firsts:

• First mountain bike ride of the season
• First ride on my new (sweet) Norco Phaser 1
• First mountain bike race of the season
• Unfortunately, i didn't take first place ;-)

And yes, all in the same ride :)  Getting to the race was a bit epic and we arrived a good 5 minute early ... lol.  Nothing like 'racing' to the race!  The course was pretty fun ... and the bike ... amazing! This is why I LOVE Norco bikes .... out of the box (trimmed handlebars, adjusted suspension) and it feels like an extension of me, even when my legs are screaming for mercy (i haven't done much fast riding yet this year). Amazingly fun bike! Once i settled in I was haveing the time of my life - so much fun i kinda forgot i was racing ...

So lap 1 is always interesting. My brain forgets sometimes that my legs are not trained to go fast. It thinks my legs are in Canada Cup shape and I take off like a shot ... and then pay for it. So lap 1 goes something like this: Sprint out - i'm in the lead, often i take the lead into the single track.  5 minutes later I'm hurting and almost the whole field passes me as I curse myself for going out too hard.  20 minutes later I'm recovered (and into lap 2) and finally start to catch people. The longer the race, the more I catch.  So I was bummed that we only had time for 3 laps ... oh well! I caught enough to land in 4th but was reeling others in!!  The course was super fun ... 95% single track - not super technical, lots of short steep climbs and fun corners.  Some roots to mix it up a bit - in short, perfect for the Phaser! I finished muddy, feeling good, and wanting more!! Ah well, so begins project "Race Into Shape". These short races make for good intervals!

PS: yes, i am smarter in 100 mile and 24 hour races. In those races I ignore my brain and explictly choose to go SLOW at the beginning. :)

How the search for ice cream is making me faster

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 :)

Phew! 2011 started with a bang :)

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 ...

Ready or not ... here we go!

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 :)

Canadian Nationals - Race Report

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!

Moving and prepping for Spokane

.... 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!

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

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 - days 2 and 3

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

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! 

Leadville 100 - I'm in!!!

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

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!

Going slower to get faster

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!

Nationals Race Report

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

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

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!!!

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!

Where is Waldo?

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!

Race report: World 24hr Solo Championships

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

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.