Elkhorn

Wow! Never did I think I could suffer so much and want to go do it again. Winning for me is obviouly not why I race my bike although I wouldn't be opposed to the idea. Weekends like Elkhorn are why I race my bike. Challenge, physically and mentally I didn't know if I would survive this race and with only 4 miles to the finish both challenges became acute. The specifics of the race are limited since I was never a contender for much, it ended up being a weeknd of TT's really, not only for me. What little time I did get to actually race I enjoyed, the women were strong and handled their bikes well. I got to experience my first pee breaks, although they hurt me by being the last person back on my back the first day and having to sprint to catch back on on new chipseal (not sealed) right before the first climb unadvertised. I survived, barely, with a higher max HR than I have ever seen on my bike, dizzy and ready to puke. The next climb I made it about 1/2 way up and began to get very dizzy and could only concentrate on keeping my bike upright. I got some encouragement from Martha but I was done and I knew it. Thank goodness for the scenery what a beautiful ride.

iTT ugh! I need to practice this I never do well I don't know why.

Crit I love crits! I am starting to get the hang of this. I get off the line fast and gun it. In the future I need to think about conserving energy more don' ttake on the roll of pulling 1/2 of the 1/2's to the leaders along with the 3/4's let someone else do that! Move up move up move up hold a wheel get out of the wind. I am getting it.

101.2 miles to Dooley Mountain I am counting the .2 that my odometer read because I was whatching every .01 tick over for the last 4 miles. Started the race with bad saddle sores and worse yet a GI issue that never got better durring the race. Got dropped on the first major climb, no surprise. Thought I could catch a couple of women I saw ahead of me but took a water feed bumbled the bottle and came to a standstill in the last section of the climb whatching my teammate dissapear around the corner. Dang it would have been nice to ride with her. Stopped for my own pee break this one was successful didn't know I had stage fright until this weekend. Both pee breaks were a waste with the for me couldn't go and it expended extra energy right before a climb both times. Always learing...

The final 8 miles of this race were the hardest miles I have ever done on a bike. It was hot, 90+ by the end of the day. My body was exhausted my arms hurt my foot was cramping the GI was still cramping my legs were shot. At mile 97 I started to cry momentarily which made me laugh I couldn't belive that I had been brought to tears! My laughing didn't last long returning to crying and stopping my bike. I can't do it I thought for a second, all this way and I am going to quit now? Well no I couldn't It was going to take a while but I was going to finish. A master rider passed me and stopped himself in the one spot of shade up ahead. I got back on my bike and passed him. He cought up to me (not a difficult thinkg to do at that point) and asked if I was OK I told him I would survive. He then asked again are you sure you aren't reaching a critial state? I said yes just wishing I was 4 miles further up the road. Eventually I made it with people cheering me on. How great to be so far off the back and still get that kind of reception! What a great race.

I caught a ride down to Baker with Claire Hopson, she was great and very supportive of keeping the women's feild alive for next year. I'll be there I told her and I will try to get others to join me.

Iron Horse Classic

I arrived in Durango Thursday night for the Iron Horse Classic on Saturday. Durango sits at an elevation of 6700ft it is a great town and the weather was beautiful, 75-80F and very dry coming from Seattle. My plan and goals… Don’t get altitude sickness, finish the road race (hopefully in front of the train), save something for the crit on Sunday and most importantly have fun.The idea is to beat the old Coal train that goes to Silverton Co. it takes about 3 H 30 Min for the train to get there. This ride has a race and then the citizens ride much like STP, they are supposed to start after the races have been sent off but many people were already on their way up the roads well before the race including the dude on the mtn. unicycle. About 150 women P123&4’s went out the Valley together we were doing a very easy 18-20mph. We started hitting a few rollers things would speed up a bit but not much until we hit the first climb. Very quickly my fear of not even finishing this race was being realized, my heart rate zoomed to max and everything hurt; lungs, legs arms, and face (no joke my face muscles went into this weird quivering thing no idea what that was about) About half way up this first climb I thought there was no way for me to finish I still had 5000+ feet of climbing ahead of me. I tried talking to a Group Health gal that I saw passing me we said “hi” and she said keep going or something and my response was “I am going into survival mode” I made it to the top of the climb where it flattened out. I drank and concentrated on spinning out the pain from the effort I had just finished. I actually felt good got in my drops and started pushing past people and trying to find a good draft and make up time. Hit a couple of small climbs each time I went from feeling OK to pain. The extra effort of climbing took it out of me within seconds. I concentrated on spinning my gearing was quickly maxed with my 39/27 nowhere else to go just spin and deal with the pain. At this point I reminded myself to look around and at least enjoy the beautiful scenery all around me and it was amazing. Soon I saw the next climb coming around the bend this one was the steepest and longest of the day up to Coal Bank pass sitting at 10660 ft. There was a steady stream of people either passing or being passed I kept an eye on the women with 600-800 on their backs because they were part of my race. I was trying to find a carrot of some kind or someone to work with not many options. I found a pace that I could hopefully maintain for the duration. At this point I felt like I was a drone, no rhythmic distraction like counting a song or any of my usual methods of getting through these kinds of things ( albeit I have never done anything quite like this before) I just looked ahead and pedaled. I saw a sign, 4 mile to the pass, OK only 4 miles! OMG that was the longest 4 mile of my life not only did I have the muscle fatigue but my left leg and toes were cramping I could feel my toes trying to curl up in my shoe. From experience I know not to take the shoe off it just lets the toes completely cramp and curl so all I could do is keep going. At this point there were some people walking their bikes or stopped stretching and what not. Finally I was at the summit there was table of food and drink as well as volunteers handing out cups Power Aid and water. I grabbed my bottle opened the lid finished the contents and started grabbing cups of whatever I could get and dumping them into my bottle. My only though was there is no way I am stopping, if I did I knew that the cramping would only get worse, best to keep moving and start spinning down the decent. Relief!!! 800 ft of descending it was sweet! At the bottom there was one last sweeping u-turn before heading up the final climb as I entered the turn the tail wind that I hadn’t even noticed became a very strong crosswind that sent me almost off the far side of the road I kept control of the bike (barely) and realized as I finished the turn that this was now going to be a very strong headwind up the climb! Find shelter get behind anyone, good plan it helped I stayed behind whoever I could find but if they were slower I would go around to find the next person each time I moved out from behind a slower rider I knew I needed to find another wheel quickly. This climb was about 4miles long up to 11000ft from driving the route the day before and talking to my sister who had spent all spring training on it I knew that at mile post 62 there was about 2 more miles of climbing and the pitch kicked up just enough to make it the hardest part of the day. I decided to try to push a little harder to get it over with. I spun faster and tried to stand but there was nothing to breath, I was forced to sit down and keep my respiration rate as low as I could. Finally, the summit of Molas Pass yee haw!! Some flats and a very nice guy who let my draft for the next couple of miles before we hit the decent, I tried staying on his wheel but it was mighty scary at 45 mph for ~9 miles. I was a little chicken to keep that speed up on roads that if I goofed on a corner I would plummet a good 500 or so feet to my death (beside I had to survive to do the crit the next day) Silverton at last! 3H24min I placed in my age category for the Cat4’s 31st out of 51. Not at all bad for a sea-level gal who doesn’t really like climbing. Side note: I finished 4min in front of one of my sisters, surprise!! My sister Steph came in 2nd in here age category for the W4’s and 16th overall W1234 at 2H55min. She is an animal. The crit was a blast... more so once I was done (it isn’t really a blast to suffer more that I ever have well, besides the day before) watching the other races was fun. This is such a cool course 8 corner crit with an uphill (similar to Wenatchee length and pitch) at the first corner 6 more smooth corners and then the last on the downhill to the straight away finish. The crowds were energetic the Beer garden sat at the base of the final corner full of people all day. The cruiser crit was hysterical, people in costumes on all kinds of bikes tandem tall bikes a 4Xtandem with the whole family in diapers to even grandma with her walker and roller skates quite the spectacled! My crit 45min + 5 laps of pain against ladies I knew I had no change of hanging with, including Shonny Vanlandingham Luna Chicks pro MNT Bike racer (on Velo News Cover last month) and Allison Powers US Ski Team vet. After pre riding the crit and knowing how few women there were my tactic was to get to the front and up the first hill as fast as I could. Good plan cause that is what the ladies did, FAST. I did pretty well was at the front of the group for the first 2 laps but the the pace blew me off the pack third time up the hill. What I didn’t realize is that the initial move of going really hard at the start had dropped 5-6 riders from the gun. I thought I was dropped with no one behind me (counting when red lining isn’t a skill I posses.) I road as hard as I could for the next 20 minutes contemplating quitting but not wanting to with people on every corner cheering for me by name, many of them I didn’t even know but met later, I couldn’t quit! I looked back and saw 4 riders coming up behind me I slowed thinking I was getting lapped then it dawned on me there was no motorcycle. Sh*t they had been behind me that whole time I tried getting on the wheel but the head wind and my still O2 deprived body couldn’t push the envelope any further I dangled and then fell off after the hill. I finished up 7th out of 8, Woo Hoo I wasn’t DFL!! Good enough for me. Where is the food and beer?After the P12 crit there was a food(free) and beer (not free) reception/ award ceremony for the P12 and 3’s the president of US Cycling was there and even the town Mayor. It was a great event and I will do it again. Next time I will train on hills and get to Durango a few days early to acclimate I may even partake in the cruiser crit.