24hr Race Report - Spokane

Well, here it is :) It takes the legs about 4 days to really recover so it seems fitting that it takes me 4 days to write my blog :)

It wasn't the race i wanted ... i had to sit out due to stomach issues. Darn electrolytes. But i had a great pit crew and great company (the Canadian boys and girls were camped out beside us) ... and amazing pumpkin pie (if i must say so myself) to get me thru the race.  It was great to see old friends and meet new friends. I just love that about mountain biking ... people are so friendly :)

The race got off to a good start and i got in a solid 12 hours with good pit times and amazing weather. I was eating 2 salts per lap ... apparenly should have been 3 or 4. It seems insane how much of those things i need :) I sat out with stomach cramps and related dehydration issues after my midnight lap, where i returned a frozen human popsicle. Who know that hyperthermia could be an issue in May in Spokane? Wow, it got cold super fast!!! It litteraly took me an hour to stop shivering.  After that i played head-games with myself and debated on when i could go back on my bike. My criteria was that if i drank something, it wouldn't come back out 20 minutes later. Yeah, it took 6 hours to meet that. Perhaps my bar shouldn't be so high ;-)

I had a solid 6 hours of racing in the AM but couldn't catch 3rd place so settled for 4th and more pumpkin pie.

I am excited though, because i have a new energy drink to try out - Infinit. The Canadian boys swear by it and the sodium and potassium levels (the electrolytes i seem to have issue with) are promising. Look out STP and Worlds!!! Woot!

Oh, and of course, no race report is done without 'the numbers':
Miles ridden: ~200
Ft climbed: ~24,000
Hours of riding: 18
Crashes: 0

Stottlemeyer 60 miler: Race Report!

May 19^th brought my first ‘longer’ race of the year … a 60 miler. I wasn’t worried about the distance – I’ve put in some long days on the road bike J I was a bit worried about the technical riding… it’s not an easy course!  I was sick all week leading up to the race … racing was a last minute decision as I wasn’t feeling well even on Friday (exhausted/no energy/stuffed up) and made the call early Saturday morning.  Going into the race the plan was to use it to brush up on my tehnical skills, get in a 6 hour trail-ride, and test out the legs a bit. The plan was perfect J Here are the details …

By the numbers:

• Finishing place: 4^th
• Hours ridden: 6
• Miles ridden: 60
• Feet of climbing: 7,000
• Friends made: 2
• Crashes: 2

J and now for the real details …  The race got off to a great start. The weather was perfect – the sun was out but it wasn’t too hot. The trails were dry, and the field was amazing! The women’s field was 20 deep – which is awesome for a longer race – and the overall field doubled from last year! The organizers did a great job spacing everyone out at the start so there were not any log jams in the single track going in.   I didn’t really warm up (ok I didn’t warm up at all) choosing instead to chat with some friends and relax.  I figured I had 6 hours to sort it out …  As usual, my start was pretty slow … this was ok by me. I was intentionally trying out my 24hr pace for the first lap and then dialing it up if I felt good.  Loads of girls passed me on the road lead up to single-track but we were pretty spread out by the time we got into the woods so I never got caught behind anyone for too long.   The first lap is a bit of a blur … it was fun twisty single-track and I had a lot of fun.  I was focused on relaxing on the trail and was riding pretty well. I was happy with my lap and finished it at 1:36 (it was a bit longer due to the 2 mile road start).

The second lap everyone started to settle in and I started to catch a few girls. I also caught up to a single-speeder in the men's category and we went back and forth until the last lap (where yes, i left him in the dust) :).  It was good fun.  I had just successfully passed my 3rd girl and got agap when i had my first crash ... the guy in front of me went down and I didn't see it till too late ... resulted in an endo where my handlebars went into my abdomen - ouch!  i recovered and she caught me ... i went a bit slower for a while to ensure nothing serious was injured and then finally dropped her again.   My single-speed buddy and I kept on trading back and forth on the course ... i was never alone for too long :)

At the beginning of the 3rd lap a girl (Erin) passed me. Well, that was unexpected. I generally start out slow and pass everyone as I go. Not the other way around!  As she sped by me up a hill and into the single-track she yelled 'let me know if  I am too slow' ... ha! I almost laughed as I watched her ride away.  My singlespeed friend asked me 'you going to let her get away with that?'  'Yes', i said, 'if she can go that fast for another 2 laps, she can have it. And I continued on my way, pushing myself but not too hard - usual Monilee pace.  About 1/3 way thru the 3rd lap I caught back up to Erin and dropped the SS guy ... i'm not sure if she slowed down or I was starting to warm up ... but either way, she was excited to see me. Fun girl ... we rode together the remaining of the race, chatting abit and taking turns leading thru the single-track. She was adjusting to riding a 29er and we were talking about size (how i'd be too small/short to ride a 29er) and the benefits of a 29er vs the 26er.  Eventually i asked her how old she was ... she looked about 27 ... she was 38 :) I laughed and noted how young other races often look ... she agreed and then i told her my age. She was totally surprised. The braids make me look young ;-)

It was a fun and fast 2 laps as we pushed eachother a bit and traded back and forth. i think i almost convinced her to try a 24hr solo some day :)  On the last lap there was an additional bit up the road and into the single-track. she offered to let me go first in the ST and I promptly accepted and didn't look back. I gave it all I had for that last mile and a half ... and managed to finish 1.5 minutes ahead of her!

It was a great race ... i was happy with my biking, my fitness, and my new found friends.

May 11: The test of truth … Tiger!

I’m a bit behind on blogging so bear with me a bit J  On May 8^th I took the day off so I could sleep in, do a quick ride at Tiger and then an airport run!  Tiger has been my main training ground for years. I use it to gauge how I am doing and where I need to improve … here my (self made) report card:

-          Climbing:  A à I made it to the top in under 30 minutes – and I was feeling slow!  Climbing can take anywhere from 29 to 33 minutes for me depending on the legs. I was surprised to see I was in decent climbing shape, without putting out too much effort on the climb.

-          Technical descending: C à The descent takes me 15 minutes on a great day, 17 on an average day, and 19 on a slow day. You guessed it, it took me 19 minutes. Not really surprising given that most of my riding lately has been on the road bike. But it’s ok, I know I can make it back – I just need to put in a few more hours on the trail. Of all the ‘tests’, this is the easiest and funnest result to fix!

-          Fitness: A à I did well on the flats and flowy bits of the trail – looking good here

-          Technical climbing: B à I did well on technical climbing on the Iverson side but wussed out on a few spots I should have at least tried J

All in all I give myself a ‘B’. Not a bad place to be when my ‘A’ race is in September!!!

How work makes me faster ... sometimes

So ... a bit tongue in cheek .. but it is true ... sometimes work does make me faster. Let me explain ...

As part of a team that owns a service which runs 24x7, we have to watch livesite and monitor for any issues or things that might become issues and impact our customers. We have two rotations to cover this .. one is DOTD (dev of the day). Since there are 70ish devs, this happens once in 70 days. Not so bad. We aldo have LiveSite PM ... since there are only 4 of us PMs, this is one week out of 4.  For that one week you are on-call 24x7 and responsible for all things related to livesite. I know, not awesome ... but hear me out.

So the May 5th weekend I was on LiveSite duty.  Saturday and Sunday were amazingly beautiful weather.  Saturday was pretty involved so i only got to sneak out for a 37 minute (5 mile) run. I was a bit bummed but really enjoyed watching the sun set as I ran.  Sunday things were a bit quieter and it looked to be a bit more relaxed ... here comes the fast part :)  I decided to take control and go for a ride. I had hoped to go Mountain Biking but that ws not in the cards. With a deployment in progress i'd need to push some buttons, etc every 1.5 hours or so ...

Living on Lake Samammish has it's advantages ... off I went on my road bike, from my front door ... it's a 25 mile loop with 900 feet of climbing from the house. I'd do a loop, check my phone for email/etc every 30 min, and race back to the house to do a few things before heading out again. Each loop took me just under 1.5 hours and i got in 3 such loops on a day when i could have 'thrown' in the towel and stuck it out on the trainer (this makes for a very grumpy Monilee).  So how does it make me faster?  Well about 1/2 to 3/4 the way thru each loop i'd have an email request to do something and i'd have to hammer back as fast as possible! :) Extra motivation to turn the pedals over!

I'll take 75 interrupted miles in the sun over a trainer ride any day!!!

Couer D'alene ...amazing!

Last weekend we escaped to Coeur D'alene. I say 'escaped' because life can get so busy in Seattle .... so sometimes (about once per month) you just need to head out of town and clear your head :)

Last weekend was such a weekend. It was amazing! We went to tride the "Coeur D'alenes Trail"; a 72 mile long paved bike path that runs from east of Coeur D'alene to the edge of the Idaho/Montana border.  This bike path is in immaculate shape and has very little traffice. Perfect training!

The plan was to do a quick ride on Friday (get the cobwebs out of the legs after a long car ride), a long ride on Saturday, and to see what we felt like on Sunday. It worked well! Here are the details, by the numbers:

Miles ridden: 125
Moose spotted: 2
Dear spotted: 2
Chipmunks spotted: too many to count
Ducks/Geese spotted: too many to count
Hours of riding: 7

Of course the numbers don't tell you everything :) For instance, they do not tell you how we started at 7am when the fog was burning off and it was just above freezing. How the cold air really 'woke us up' and how our hands froze for the first 2 hours and we laughed it off, happy to be alive and enjoying nature. How we scared a baby moose out of the bush and frantically looked around for the mother ... finally found her (seperated by barbed wire fence, phew!) and then had to hang out so that the baby would pass us on the trail as there was no where else to go (swamp and lakes!).  How the miles flew by as the sun peeked thru the clouds.  How good zuchini bread, brownies, and pb&j tasted at mile 55, and how great the sun felt even though it didn't really warm up.  How I finally warmed up after 5 hours of riding and got in trouble for riding too fast :)  How much we appreaciated the bathroom stops on the trail and how beautiful the sceanery was!  And of course, how tired we were at the end, and how great the hottub felt that night!!!

Amazing!  All in all a great weekend, and a fantastic training day!