I like riding bikes

Belly Pix

2009-07-28T19:43:00.001-07:00

Ok I decided to go ahead and post some progression pix for those of you who have not seen me in many months! I am in week 32 now so even bigger than the 30 week picture.

18 Weeks

26 Weeks

30 weeks

2 months to go....

2009-07-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

I have been terrible about updating this blog, so figured I would at least let everyone who reads this (not sure who still follows this blog!) that things are going well. I am almost 31 weeks pregnant, and feels like we are in the home stretch. Summer heat is setting in big time, plus i already feel 20 degrees hotter than normal, so you can imagine how it is going for me!

The News

2009-04-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ok! The news you have all been waiting for (or already know by now)..... The reason I am not racing (or really riding) in 2009 is that I am due September 27th with our first child! I am almost through my 15th week, hopefully getting past the nausea (uggggghhhh) but def experiencing all sorts of other symptoms. Learning something new everyday (am I really cut out for this?)

Anyhow! I will post updates from time to time, but it won't be about racing or riding (unless it's about someone else's race or ride)! I have taken up walking, snowshoeing (when we are in Mammoth, since I can't snowboard), and hopefully will get back on some sort of weight training routine and really I am just getting alot of rest.

Maybe I will post a belly pic, but i dunno.... ;o)

I will try my best to get out to the local races to cheer everyone on and keep you all posted on my progress!

Off the grid

2009-03-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

ok... I know i have not updated this blog in almost 2 months! I am thinking about retiring it soon, but we will see. maybe it will come back to life soon, but figured I would at least post SOMETHING so people know I am still alive and kickin'!

Went to watch everyone race at UC Cup - Bonelli Park today. I was in a different role today, feedzone/support, while everyone else raced. Was fun to watch, sad to not be racing, but enjoyed being there to talk with people and feed Joy and Matt. It was also great to see everyone, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Fontana in 3 weeks.

We are working on getting a new laptop for home so I might be able to start updating this more often!

Gotta love Breaking News

2009-01-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

umm.... could this be more vague?

Aloha!

2009-01-07T09:51:00.001-08:00

DSC_4538
Originally uploaded by bigburler

Yes I have been slacking big time on my blog. Just been busy doing a variety of things (in addition to working) such as:

* Hawaii vacation (Kauai and Big Island)
*Some more cross racing (Nats and SoCalCross)
*Work trip to St Louis
*Christmas here in Cali (Redlands and Palm Springs)
*New Year's Eve party (uff da! overdid it again!)
*First weekend in Mammoth for the season (nice snow!)
*Yoga (my new favorite activity)
*Finally saw WALL-E (My new favorite movie!)

This weekend: Palm Springs Film Fest !

What a Concept!

2008-11-25T16:48:00.000-08:00

I have actually been riding quite a bit lately.. and it seems to make a difference. Who would have thought ;o). And..it's been fun and not stressful and doesn't feel like *work*. Like I said in my title.. What a Concept.

Had a blast racing CX this past weekend at Irvine Lake (with a decent result on Sunday..ahhh like the olden days). Best part was the post-race beers on Sunday (in a PINT GLASS... that I got to keep.. for $2!) 3 beers and no food later it was a good thing Matt was driving us home. I also had to make sure Dot rewarded herself for all of her hard work organizing and had a few beers too :o) Almost all of the peeps except for Joy and Cpop were around for at least some part of the weekend. Even Trevor was there!

You can check out my photography skillz from the weekend (my best pix from both days) at the SoCalCyclocross Photo Pool

In other news... in 2 days me and the Mister are off to:

Kauai

From what I hear, it's a nice place to go on holiday... I will have to be the judge of that... ;o) Maybe I will get a tan (or a burn?) Yes I seems I am probably one of the only people (other than Greg) who has never visitited any part of the Hawaiian Islands before.

Sunday Sunday

2008-11-18T17:31:00.001-08:00

DSC_4288
Originally uploaded by bigburler

Sunday I was originally going to race Urban CX #3 in Irvine.. however, the latest round of fires here made my decision for me. The 91 was closed, and so where parts of the 241 toll road I was going to take. Just didn't feel like making a 1 hour drive into a 3 hour drive.. So i took teh advice of the folks on NPR and just stayed put! also we had a busy weekend of landscaping, our friends Chris, Nicole and little Evelyn visiting from St Louis, hosting 12 friends for dinner Sat night and Fri night into Saturday I thought i was coming down with a cold! The cold subsided (woo hoo!), but i would have had trouble keeping my eyes open during the race.

in any event.. next stop is Irvine Lake on Sat and Sunday for Cross Religion and Velocity Cross!

Then..next Thursday. Aloha Kaua'i for 9 days (with a mini trip over to Hilo, Hawaii and Volcanoes NP)

Brrrrrr!! Cross Nats KC, baby!

2008-11-12T15:07:00.001-08:00

DSC_3310
Originally uploaded by bigburler

Today I booked my trip to CX Nats. Why not! Well for one, it will probably be another muddy/icy/cold/painful race.. but oh it was so fun! Lower performance expectations for me means more fun.. and perhaps a pleasant surprise! :)

Oh and did I mention that my work trip to St Louis perfectly coincides with Nats again! Making the trip even easier! Just hop over to KC from STL, and then back fo Cali from KC!

I will miss the Masters 30-34 race this year (bummer!) because I need to be in meetings, but Sunday Elite race will be plenty fun I am sure...

Dam Cross

2008-11-10T14:59:00.001-08:00

DSC_4246
Originally uploaded by CPleiss

Brought Greg's camera to yesterday's CX race. Put the fisheye lens on for some fun! James came to watch the excitement and snapped this great picture of some of us girls after the race. It was a fun day and fun weekend (racing Sat CICLE cross also). The whole Redlands gang was out on Sat too (Joy, Matt, Steve, etc). Sat brought hot temps, Sunday brought colder temps with wind and dust .. everyone bundled up ASAP!

Rocked the Vote!

2008-11-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

i lifted this fantastic icon from JW's blog:

Yup, I did! If you watched debate #2 or any SNL parodies lately, you know what it means!

The Big Day is Here!

2008-11-04T11:48:00.001-08:00

I have been too lazy to post much lately, but today there is really just one thing on our minds (or should be!)

Cross Season... here again!

2008-10-07T16:45:00.001-07:00

Sunday was Psycho Cross down in Costa Mesa. The entire gang was there and I mean everyone! It was like a SoCal MTB reunion. I dusted off my ole racing legs which ultimately uncovered some kinks. Was great to see the boys from Bear Valley Bikes (Derek, Steve, Jason, Dan, etc) who are officially part of our CICLE cross team this fall. Thanks to Derek for dialing in my Redline.

Look at this whole gang of girls (see below)! From left to right: Heidi K, Tonya, Cpop, Kendall, Alexis, Joy, Sarah, Dot and somewhere in the back there.. me, Lisa and others!

What a terrible shot of me (see below)... I am cringing probably because I had a sciatic nerve spasm earlier during the race on the run up.. was laid out in a fetal position hopeing no one would run over me. Shout out to Amy & Dave who asked if i was ok! At least someone thought it didn't look normal for someone to be laid up on the side of the trail! hahaha... I managed to get up a few minutes later and tried to just do what I could.. As seen in this pic, running over the barriers and getting back on the bike was a major undertaking...

In a nutshell it was far from my best performance (for various reasons), but i still had fun seeing everyone and getting out there and racing. Big props to first timers Joy (rocking the white Coach G skinsuit) and Sarah (both kicked butt!). Also huge congrats for Cpop on her 2nd place finish in a large field coming off a tough season of illness.

Biggest thanks goes to Steve who helped me get through a subsequent sciatica spasm after cooling down. Between Steve, Sarah and Cpop it took a team to get me from unable to move at all, to seated and stretched.

Next stop might be Urban CX #1 in Palos Verdes this Sunday. I had a great time at this one last year. Very cool course, nice venue, ocean views.

Guess I better get out there and train a little bit.. :)

I had better give a shout out to Matt too! I was too busy laid up with my back to really get over and watch his race!

Guess my mind was made up for me....

2008-10-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

Got this email from The Warrior's Society today:

The Vision Quest and Counting Coup Events sold out in record time!

We opened registration this morning (Monday) at 12:00 a.m. on Active.com.

The Vision Quest sold out in 10 1/2 hours and the Counting Coup sold out in 12 hours.

We do not plan on keeping a waiting list. Since we do not offer refunds to those that drop out before the event we do allow them to sell their spot to someone else.

We will be suggesting to them that if they can't participate in the event that they post their spot for sale on the SoCal Trailriders message board:

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/

We may open up registration for "The Traverse" and Toad Festival early and we suggest you sign up as soon as we release the dates that registration opens up.

We expect these events to sell out in record time too.

Too bad I completely forgot about the Reg date. Been too busy with work and not riding enough...

Guess that makes my decision for me. Wasn't sure if I would ride VQ in 09, but kind of wanted to register just for the a spot. Then decide later... :)

Olympic MTB Coverage

2008-08-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (Thurs 21 Aug): Due to heavy rain the women's MTB race has been postponed until 10AM Local Beijing time on Sat: http://www.velonews.com/article/82157/rain-delays-olympic-bmx-and-mtb-events

So this means that it will still be late night but you can just stay up late Friday night and catch it (depends if they keep the same TV schedule or not)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK! Everyone is trying to figure out when and how to catch Olympic MTB coverage this week/weekend. I searched around NBCOlympics.com and found some scoop! The races are Womens: Friday 3pm (LOCAL BEIJING time) and Mens: Sat 3pm (LOCAL BEIJING time).

I think I have it figured out for those of us who want to see coverage... please let me know if you have additional information!

Looks like you can stream live broadband feeds on NBCOlympics.com but also can catch some coverage during the wee hours of the morning here in the states (it's 15 hours ahead of Pacific Std Time in Beijing).

For Women's MTB Coverage on TV: Looks like MSNBC will have coverage from 2AM-7:30AM PST (good luck figureing out what part of those 5.5 hours will be the actual MTB coverage)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/zone=PT/day=14/network=2/tv.html

For Men's MTB Coverage on TV: NBC will have coverage from 12:30 AM - 5AM PST (again you will have to record ~5 hours and then sift through to find the MTB coverage).

http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/zone=PT/day=16/network=1/tv.html

Hope this helps! Get your DVRs and Tivo ready! or just stay up all night!

Go Mary, Georgia, Todd and Adam!

I've Been Busy

2008-08-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right!

Redlands Cross Practice

2008-07-02T09:00:00.001-07:00

Hey! Steve Berg is starting up a Cross Practice in Redlands at Ford Park. It starts this week. Cross season will be here before we know it. First race is Sept 21 in Fullerson (Art of Cross at Muckenthaler Museum). See SoCalCross for more info on schedule.

For more info on cross practice see Steve's Blog

Cutting it Close!

2008-06-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well today was another interesting morning to get to work! I slept late (7:30) and had an 8 AM conference call (at work). Greg took the Honda and I was going to ride the cross bike, but then ended up running late and was going to drive the Subaru. SO I get ready to leave at 7:50! CUTTING IT CLOSE once again! And I realize Greg has BOTH SETS OF KEYS! So………. I have to take the bike. So I leave the backdoor unlocked, lock the front (I had no key to lock). HUSTLE IT to get the cross bike out and high tail it to work! THANKFULLY I got to breeze through the stop signs since school is out and there is no traffic. I didn’t have a backpack or coffee today, just my purse. I got to work and literally RAN up the stairs with the bike! Made it to the conference call at 8:02 according to my wall clock in my office! HAHAH

A co-worker of mine, Jason, IM’d me and said he saw me running up the stairs with my bike and now he has to go work out at lunch so he doesn’t feel like a lump! HAHAHAHAHAHA. I need to tell him that this bike is NOT heavy and I run with it all winter.. hhahaha!

OH ya, and I did a singlespeed race on Sunday at Rim Nordic. My new favourite (Canadian spelling, since I am psuedo-Canadian).

Travel Coffee Mugs and other Fine Topics

2008-06-18T13:57:00.001-07:00

Well first of all, too bad about the Lakers (not that I am a huge BB fan or anything). Was nice to see the big guns (Garnett, Allen, etc) on the Celt's take home the championship though!

I have been riding my cross bike to work at least a few days a week. It's not that far (2 miles or so), but it makes a difference in that it's one less car! I can store it in my office which is nice and yes, mom (and Greg), i wear my helmet.

On a side note: Last week I rode all four of my bikes (Singlespeed MTB, Road Bike, Geared MTB and Cross bike) ! Now Greg can't say that certain ones just sit around in the garage! :) Hmm maybe now I can get a fixed-gear commuter ;) mmwwwhahahahahaaaaaaaaaa! I have my eyes on a few.

Last Monday Joy was on a pre-work road ride and happened to ride down past my house right as I was getting on my bike to go to work. She *commuted* with me and gave me a few pointers to avoid an unfortunate mishap (i.e. put everything in my backpack, no loose items, etc). She commented that she ruined a jacket up at Big Bear the previous weekend riding with it tied around her waist (or holding in her hand? can't remember). So she didn't want to see me have a mishap with any of my gear.

So i figured out a way to put my travel coffee mug in the side pocket (still looking for a cool coffee cup holder for the handlebar or bottle cage). It worked great until Monday when i didn't roll up my right pant leg before putting on my backpack. So I bend over and then feel somethign hot on my back. YEP, my coffee started pooling up inside the backpack (way to close to my laptop!) and then all over ME.

I had about 10 minutes (less at that point) before a conference call, so I had to set up my laptop at home and do the call there. I decided that my shirt wasn't stained, so I just tried to rinse things off and then dry off before riding into work an hour later. I still had some coffee left in my travel mug, so I made sure to roll up my cuffs before putting on the backpack! I spent the rest of the day smelling like a coffee shop. Reminded me of my days working at Peaberry Coffee in Boulder/Denver.

The moral of the story is that even though a coffee travel mug may seem to be sealed up, capped off, don't trust it! The other moral is don't try to leave for work 10 minutes before a conference call. It takes 10 minutes alone to boot up a laptop! :)

Only issue with riding the bike to work right now is that it's 100+ degrees riding back up the hill (ooooffffff!). Not so fun in jeans. I have found wearing skirts is the best bet. Greg thinks it's not the best idea to ride a bike with a skirt on. WELL What do you think they did back in the late 1800s early 1900s? Everyone was dressed to the T in dresses, etc on the bikes ;)

This weekend: Trying my hand at racing Singlespeed at Rim Nordic

An Interesting 12 hours!

2008-06-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well! What an interesting 12 hours I have had.. Fitting that 12 Hours of Temecula is tomorrow, even though I won't be there. I got to have my own 12 hour marathon of sorts.

9:30 PM: I am in bed and start to smell heavy skunk smell. I yell to Greg to check Murphy because I know he is outside!

9:33 PM: Murphy has officially been sprayed by a skunk. So much for going to bed early.

9:45 PM: We look online to find ideas to get skunk smell out. Greg goes to Gerrards and comes back with:
· Tomato Juice
· Peroxide
· Baking Soda
· Rubber Gloves

10:10 PM: We are in the backyard bathing Murphy three times
· Peroxide, Baking Soda, Dish Soap Mix
· Dog Shampoo
· Tomato Juice (which he liked the flavor of so was licking it off while we tried to let it set in)

10:30: Tried to decide where to leave Murphy for the night because his face still reeks of skunk. It was between the Garage and the front room with old sheets and blankets on the furniture. Garage Won. We put one of his beds out there and some water. He was OK, no sounds during the night.

11:00PM – 1:00AM: Various missed calls on my blackberry. No numbers I recognize but mostly from the 909 and 951

3:00 AM: I make Greg go check on Murphy in the garage because we haven’t heard any noise! He was ok and still breathing. being a good boy!

5:30AM – now: MORE phone calls on my Blackberry and a few messages. I come to realize that someone is trying to call someone named Rudy from San Bernardino Correction Facility. YES an inmate! A female. I kept refusing the charges.

8:45 AM: MORE calls, finally get a persons voice when I answer. TURNS OUT Rudy’s Bail Bonds accidentally forwarded all their calls to my # so I have been getting countless calls from peeps in the slammer and other folks looking for RUDY!

WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone have advice for getting the skunk smell out of Murphy’s face? He is basically quarantined to the garage and the yard.

9:06 AM just got another call asking for Rudy. I had to politely say i have nothing to do with Bail Bonds! I wonder how much longer this will go on.

In other news: Matt interviewed me for a blog post about our Technical Support Island for our Conference blog! It may be award winning!

This post has nothing to do with bikes or racing!

2008-05-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have seen Rush in concert 6 times on 4 tours in 5 states. I have been listening to them for close to 20 of their 35 years as a band. Maybe not as impressive as the average Rush fan; but for a 31 year old female from suburban upstate NY, who also loves hip hop, that isn't half bad!

Rush Concerts attended:
1993 Counterparts Tour - Worchester, Mass & Albany, NY
1997 Test For Echo Tour - Denver, CO
2004 30th Anniversary Tour - Hollywood, CA & Las Vegas, NV
2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour - Las Vegas, NV

They only had an opening band for the two shows I saw in '93, and both times.. it was CANDLEBOX (ummm......). I come to find out that the other band touring with them on that tour was Primus! Darn, would have been way better.

In any event, the best show by far out of the 6 was 2004 at Hollywood Bowl. It has been a long time since I had seen them in concert but man there is someting about that venue. The sound was fantastic and any seat is a good seat! I looked out over the crowd and nearly EVERYONE was air guitarting, drumming and singing. It was pretty much a crowd of die-hard fans, and then we had Greg, who after that show gained more appreciation for the band and their music.

Last weekend, Greg and I headed to Vegas to see Rush perform at Mandalay Bay, in a slightly smaller venue than the last time we saw them in Vegas (MGM Grand Arena). Still it was nearly sold out and the fan-base/crowd had aged even more (surprise surprise!!) The average concert-goer was a 45 year old male, balding with a belly. Walking from Luxor to Mandalay Bay, I counted the Rush t-shirts. It reminded me of our last time seeing Rush in Vegas. We went to Excalibur to play some cheap blackjack and discovered this is where all the Rush fans were hanging out! Makes sense with Excalibur's sci-fi/fantasy theme... :)

Greg and I tried to figure out another band that would pull in roughly the same audience. We looked around at the T-shirts in the crowd and decuded that SLAYER would probably be the winner. Although we did see several shirts for a British Hard Rock band called UFO.

Band t-shirts we picked out from the crowd (Metallica being the only band I technically like):
- UFO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(band))
- Grand Funk Railroad
- Metallica
- Slayer

Highlights of the concert include, but are not limited to:

$7.00 huge cups of cheap wine
Watching the people in line to buy $40 RUSH t-shirts (nothing smaller than size mens M! I miss my bootleg cheapo t-shirt from the 1993 tour!)
South Park characters pretending to be Rush playing Tom Sawyer!
Non-stop air drumming and guitaring and singing along! (i can hear you all laughing at me)
Fav songs including: Dreamline, Freewill, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, and any Neil Peart drum solo!

Yes i had Neil Peart signature Vic Firth drum sticks back in my percussion days. Of COURSE! And I have all of the sheet music to one of the Rush complilations: Chronicles. Spirit of the Radio was my all time fav on the piano/keyboard. Fortunately my piano teacher let me play contemporary, pop, rock, jazz and only minimal classical! Ahh those were the days!

Ok now you can laugh at me.... You may only understand if you, too, are a Rush fan!

Matt and Joy Show Goes Global

2008-05-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Ok the real news is that Wendy Simms has read Joy's blog and has since posted the most fantastic comments and answers on her own blog. You must read it! Since Joy, Matt and I all work within 1/4 mile of eachother there has been alot of buzz in the vicinity.

In other news, Idyllwild Spring Challenge was this past weekend. I was very excited to ride the course again after the pre-ride (loved the real technical riding!) I learned alot about race tactics to say the least and had to get creative at times. In the end, after somewhat of a slow start, I found my legs, and took 2nd place, which provided a nice cash purse I must say. Unfortunately Joy double flatted while she was holding a steady 3rd place (I was in 4th at that time). But after getting the flats sorted out (including some running and stop and go which never helps the legs), she hammered and held a solid 5th and some cash-money. Carolyn "Cpop/Undercover Carolyn" Popovic took the W and blew all of us out of the water! :)

It was nice to race on a Saturday and just do a recovery ride on Sunday! I also proceeded to do some clothes shopping at Victoria Gardens.

Was really great to see everyone as always! Next stop: Firestone Nationals (5/17-18). We will all be staying at the new usual spot: Days Inn Windmill -Buellton!

Also tomorrow is Bike to Work day at ESRI. I better represent! And next week I will be helping Team CICLE out for Pasadena Bike to Work Week.

Some pix from Idyllwild:

ummmmm how can my legs still be so pale?
the socal ladies with their marble slabs (as joy likes to call them) and loot

The Matt and Joy Show

2008-05-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well, clearly Matt and Joy's blogs are way more entertaining than mine! That is to say the least. However, I think I may have inspired them to put pictures on their blog headers.

I need to come up with something more interesting than just talking about racing in this blog, or just delete the whole darn blog altogether.

Saturday is Idyllwild Spring Challenge. Naturally, I feel a bit run down with some coughing and some sinus issues. Lovely! Hopefully a combination of my massage today, herbal suppliment blasts, lots of water, good food (maybe not the soyjoy bar i just ate... very suspect) sleep and no hard efforts on the bike until the race should help.

Uff da!

Pass/Fail Racing

2008-04-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

This article says it all: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/sitting-in-and-bowing-out-art-of.html

my new MO for racing I think... Pass or Fail, I think I can handle that.

I won't go into much detail about Sea Otter Classic (i am so over it!), but I basically Failed both XC and STXC if you go by what the article linked above says. Ya I got dropped! BUT I didn't quit. SO maybe I did Pass? Oh and did I mention I literally crashed and burned 20 min into the 40 mile XC? (the kind of road rash that really burns! could fry an egg on it perhaps?) BUT in order to earn my post-race In-N-Out Burger, I HAD to finish the race. Lap 1 even after I crashsed, I figured I would power through. By lap 2, i was in "no man's land" and basically was out on a "bike ride". Oh well it's "1 weekend closer to fitness" as Joy calls it!

Next stop Idyllwild Spring Challenge. 30 miles of some good ole technical MTB'ing! Hopefully I will Pass.

Back in the Mix

2008-04-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well, yes i was in fact very sick for 2 weeks again. Missed Fontana and NOVA Nationals. Yes I cried, but tried so hard to convince myself that there are worse problems in life than missing some races. However it's hard when you put so much work into something and then it doesn't go according to plan. And guess what, the world kept turning and nothing really changed other than that I missed out on two weekends of racing (but i was kept VERY well up to speed by my pals!). Ya my fitness suffered, well mainly from having bronchitis/pneumonia!!!!! There was nothing I could really do about it except focus on getting healthy. Things got so bad I lost my voice and literally laid on the couch for multiple days. For someone like me who needs to be doing something at all times, this was VERY difficult! But I tried to put things into perspective and enjoy the down time while it lasted. I also calculated that I have been sick for almost 20% of 2008 (if you count other colds or issues I ended up dealing with this year). However, apart from that I still have a couple good races before I got sick this most recent time (VQ and Bonelli)

Things that i did while sick and recovering:

Read numerous text messages from Joy and Cpop and Matt and others!
Talk on the phone with Joy and Cpop among other people during the race weekends ( I felt like I was there)
Watch all sorts of TV and movies
Wear pajamas alot
Watch the Redlands Bicycle Classic downtown
Visit the dr 4 times
Eat popsicles
Drink lots of ginger ale, seltzer and tea
Use MANY boxes of kleenex (thank goodness for Puffs Plus with Lotion!)
Lose any sort of color/tan that I had

So I have been back on track with training the last few weeks, and will be heading up to Sea Otter tomorrow in the VW with Cpop and Romolo. Nothing like a good solid weekend of racing to kick my top level back into gear!

Sick AGAIN

2008-03-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

I am sick again (worse today than I was yesterday) and Fontana Nationals is 48 hours away. Not good. NOT good at all.... Allergy season is here and it is going to be a long spring and possibly summer.

Cal State Kickoff & B-day Weekend

2008-03-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Cal State XC Series kicked off this past weekend with Bonelli Park. I have been racing Bonelli since 2002 and it's a special place for me. Many a fond (first podium in sport, expert and pro) and not-so-fond memories (heat stroke, poison sumac, smelly water)!

Sunday's race was good, much better than last year for me. Started out strong, felt the burn, held the lead for the first bit, then Carolyn took off ahead. Given that it was a short race I figured I would just leave it all out there, kind of like a cross race (or back to back cross race). My legs held up OK, but my asthma was not good on the first lap, burning lungs from all the allergens in the air! I was able to keep it together pretty well and tried to hammer as much as possible. In the end I finished 2nd overall which was a nice way to kick off the regular season. I really enjoyed the new section that coincided with the Super D. A nice way to spice up the same old Bonelli XC course!

Greg's folks were in town and it was also the day after my birthday. So was not a bad weekend! We had a picnic after the race (thanks Greg, Mom, Dad and Carolyn!). Even Dorothy stopped by on her way back from racing Tour of Murrieta. The whole venue sang happy b-day to me on the podium! not bad! Greg's mom made me my favorite b-day cake (strawberry!) in the shape of a bunny (a throw back to childhood). Pix to come!

It was great to see everyone from Backbone, and all sorts of new faces and old faces I hadn't seen since the fall. Carolyn and I chatted with Krista Park after the race, she had done the Saturday Southridge race. It was also nice to see such a large showing in our Pro/Expert field (and sport and beginner!). Lots of people have moved up this year to either pro or expert and it's an exciting time!

More pix to come! Need to get them off the home computer!

Next stop Fontana Nationals!

Vision Quest 2008 - Report

2008-03-02T18:39:00.001-08:00

Saturday morning wake up call was 3:45 AM. Made some oatmeal and waited until the last minute to get suited up. Greg, Murphy and I left the hotel at 4:45 AM and drove 15 minutes to Black Star Canyon for the race start. We passed Pua doing a *warm up ride* from O'Neill Park to the start which was prob an extra 15 miles (and she would still smoke all of us). The weather was feeling quite warm (compared to last year), but with a heavy layer of fog/mist almost like rain. Greg and Murphy saw me off at the start line at 5:30, but didn't get the chance to snap any pictures. 300 people starting in the dark for Vision Quest or Counting Coup (more people had lights this year thankfully!) riding up Black Star Canyon with mystery rain ruts. I had a drive train issue at one point, but got things fixed up quick. That would be the last mechanical issue I would have all day. :) . While it was still dark I would occasionally look down below at the traverse I had just climbed and still see a long train of lights in the dark behind me. a very cool scene and also very quiet as everyone is working hard and prob partially still waking up! The sun came up around 6:15, and I realized just how wet things were as drops of water fell off my helmet into my face. It was still too misty to put on the sunglasses, so I had to squint my eyes a bit longer.

I could barely see the super doppler radar ball (means you are done with the first long climb), but all I know is that I got there at least 15 minutes faster than last year. :) I felt leagues better than last year, maybe because I didn't have a cold this time, or that I had a better winter of training? or that my 29'er just fits well? I made it to the first aid station in 2 hour 22 min or so and stopped for maybe 2-3 minutes to fill my bottle. I already knew things were leagues better than last year!

Made it from the first aid station (Maple Springs) to the top of Santiago Peak in less than 2 hours. I felt waaaaaay better than last year and kept a good attitude. I reeled in a guy along that climb with a jersey that said Italia on it. I saw him later at the end of the day and he said "good job out there today!* and I said "Ahh.. Italia! I was reeling you in!"

After Santiago Peak I headed down the fire road to drop into Upper Holy Jim. Jason Siegel was there cheering people on! Was nice to see a familiar face and I was excited to tell him how much better this year was going! Dropped in on Holy Jim and felt great. Rode it with much more confidence than last time. Even passed a few GUYS ;). mwwwwahahahahaaaaaaaa!! After upper, it was Lower Holy Jim which I had just trained on a few weeks prior. So it was good to recall all of the timing. Felt great on the switchbacks and thankfully only encountered a few hikers and uphill bikers. That makes the ride a bit nicer! Handled the water crossings at the bottom as well as I could, both feet were totally soaked by the end. Hustled it to Aid Station 2, could NOT believe that it was less than 5 hours total time when I checked in (2/3 of the race behind me!). Manny Prado flew by on his way to the finish which made me happy because last year when I came to Aid Station 2, Pua was finishing and she was 1 hour behind him last year. So i took that as a good sign!Heather Mootheart and a very nice guy ran up to me to help me get through Aid Station 2 quickly. they downshifted my bike (getting me ready for the final leg of the race, the big climb up Horsetheif!). And one of them cleaned off the top of my water bottle which REALLY was nice to see when I went for a sip after I headed up the road. :) THANKS Heather! Was nice to see a familiar face.

As I headed up to Horsetheif I was surprised that I only saw a few riders coming through and they were the leaders. I was happy that I never saw many of the people I ran into last year. All of these things told me that this year was entirely different for me. I was forecasting how much time I thought it would take me to get to the top of the climb. As I started the hike a bike section, I was shooting for making it up to the top as close to 6 hr elapsed time as I could. I was trying to guess how long it would take me to get back down and to the finish line from that point. I did part of the hike with a guy John, a single-speeder, from Rock-N-Road Cyclery. I pulled ahead of him after a bit, sort of got into a zone on the hike (wanted it to be OVER!). I got to the very top of horsetheif, and last check point at 6 hr 10 min elapsed time. Not bad! ALSO i looked at the leaderboard and noticed one more spot open in the Top 5 women. They announced ... "That's you! 5th place". :) I was quite happy with that seeing names like Pua, Louise Kobin and Leslie Williams. Amazing women who are endurance specialists and very successful at what they do! Was happy to be in their company (even as much as they may have still kicked my butt!)

I stopped for a quick cup of water and to put my arm warmers back up. Bolted as quick as I could to fiinish the last bit of climbing (fire road) and then descent down Trabuco. 6 hour 20 elapsed time and I was DONE CLIMBING!!!!!!!!!! it was all down hill from there on Trabuco and Horsetheif, literally (well, with a 5 mile rather flat, bumpy fire road ride out). After Trabuco I had the section of trail where there were still some people going up.. I remembered how that felt last year to see lots of people finishing, but knowing I still had to ride and hike all the way up and then come back down. I tried not to ride TOO crazy so I didn't crash into anyone. one guy called me *Bro* which I took as a compliment because maybe it meant I was riding like a guy downhill. HAHA. anyways, I laughed and he laughed when he realized I was not a Bro!

Made it back to Aid Station 2 and the FINAL STRETCH with my elapsed time saying 6 hr 57 min. I rode that fire road out as fast as I could, trying to pick off the last few guys I could. I saw Greg and Murphy with a mile to go. Made it to the finish line at 7:09!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE HOUR FORTY MINUTES FASTER than last year! 56.6 miles and 11,500 feet of climbing. I was ready for my Chocodile... :)

Petition to add Bicycle Directions to Google Maps

2008-02-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

what a great idea (for so many reasons!)!

http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

Vision Quest 2008 - 3 days away!

2008-02-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

Been a while since i have blogged.... things have been busy. putting in the hours on the bike, working and trying to stay healthy all at the same time.

Vision Quest is this Sat , expect a FULL blog report like last year. I am hopefully going to be feeling healthy on Sat, as opposed to last year. Trying to shave off a bunch of time from last year. We will see.

The key factors in my favor (hopefully!!!) are:
1. Better bike (29'er baby! perfect for VQ, and tubeless tires)
2. More Training (more long MTB rides, including 40 miles 9,000 ft climbing)
3. Feeling healthy (fingers crossed, there are still a few days)

SO we shall see!

I have already decided on my post-race foods. Sticking with mostly what I had last year after the race.

1. immediately after: recovery drink (Recoverite -chocolate)
2. 1-2 Chocodiles (greg will need to find these for me, not sure why they are on my mind!)
3. In-N-Out: Choc shake, Double-Double or 3x3 and fries!

On a side note, Greg got me a sweet new Burton snowboard and bindings for an early b-day gift (b-day is March 8th). Also I finally got a helmet.. Hopefully I can get to Mammoth again before the season ends. The last time i had an actual Burton snowboard was 1993!

Moving forward....

2008-01-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since an update. The good news is that I have been healthy for a while now and back on track with training. Trying to fend off other illnesses as the cycle of flu and colds is still heavy at work and just in the general public! Herbal tea, Zycam nasal swabs and herbal immunity support has been in my arsenal as of late.

Have been on some great training rides in the last few weeks, managing to avoid the rain somehow. The most recent highlight was an epic 6 hour MTB ride in the Hesperia/Cajon Pass area with Carolyn and Romolo. I will head up there again this Sunday for a slightly shorter version (and hopefully be home in time for the Super Bowl!)

I am bowing out of the Boulevard Road Race this year and will just train through. Joy and Carolyn will be representing at the this weekend and hopefully bringing home the top 2 spots!

Bringing 2008 in with illness... and lots of herbal tea

2008-01-09T20:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I have officially been sick for 11 days (which includes all of 2008 so far). Not good timing at all, but at least it's not the middle of the season and last weekend was extremly rainy, so I didn't miss much. I have more than caught up on TV shows including alot of brainless reality shows on MTV and VH1. I also watched nearly a whole season of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Tryouts on the E channel one day. It motivated me to keep up with my ab workouts. I can honestly say that I have done ALOT of resting. I can also say that getting sick this time had nothing to do with racing or training. I simply got the wintertime bug that many other people get when travelling around the holidays and I was on my week off the bike (which now has unfortunately become a longer break).

I am a big fan of herbal tea, but recently have been introduced to and have discovered several new additions to my collection. I have somewhat of an herbal tea pharmacy at home and in my office. Over the past 2 days I have sent people off with at least a couple samples to try. Lots of people have been sick recently or are still fighting things off. I have also talked to a few others who are in my boat: got a secondary illness.. yes ....... got sick from being sick! Apparently last week I had the flu and now I am recovering from a secondary respiratory infection. GREAT. Thankfully my dr is awesome and has got me feeling like a human again! Having asthma does not help at all, making my illness linger a big longer than normal. I think my frantic coughing fits might FINALLY be over.... Now I can have a real night's sleep!

As for the product review, these are the teas that I highly recommend! You can find most of these at your local grocery store, health foods store, Vitamin Cottage, etc. I even have seen some of these at Rite Aid. Even if you are not sick, most of these are really great for just everyday immune support and overall wellness.

Traditional Medicinals Gypsy Cold Care

Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat

Traditional Medicinals Breathe Easy

Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus

Traditional Medicinals Herba Tussin

Traditional Medicinals Everyday Detox

Yogi Tea Triple Echinacea

Yogi Tea Kava Stress Relief (** now popular with my coworkers!)

Cross Season Finale

2008-01-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

One week after racing in 20 degree temps in mud and then frozen mud, I raced the So Cal Cross Prestige Series Finals in Woodland Hills. It was nearly 80 degrees. Quite a change! The course was fast and had some good climbs, and some good technical turns. I helped Dot with the kid's race and really enjoyed passing out children's books (Mike and the Bike) and CLIF z-bars afterwards (with my Santa Hat on).

The race started and I felt good. Hung with Coryn and Tonya who always have great starts. After a while I moved up into 2nd place and would remain their most of the race. I was happy I only rode 3.5 hours on Sat and not 5+ as I was originally planning. The high winds made my *easy* rode ride a bit tougher than I wanted.
2 laps into the race, I could not believe it when the announcer said "6 laps to go". I thought he was kidding. but he was NOT. I wasn't sure if I could hold my pace for 6 more laps (granted each lap was around 5 minutes, but had a super steep grinder climb that kept getting harder each lap). At one point I could see a train of girls forming to try to catch up to me, thankfully it dissolved, however Lana came up and was able to pass by me. I worked hard to catch back up, but in the end was 12 seconds behind her. I was also happy to only be 30 seconds behind Coryn who has been known to put MUCH larger gaps on us. Overall I was very pleased. It felt great to be in 2nd place most of the race, and to finish so close to the top 2. Would have preferred to stay in 2nd, but still enjoyed it while it lastest.
Thanks to Amy for feeding me, teammates from CICLE and friends from Backbone (Bert, Ryan, Vanessa, Vegas Bob) cheering for me! Thanks especially to Roger for being on the back 40 of the course where legs were burning! He took some great pix, some of which I posted here. Shout out to Bert for winning the singlespeed race, Vegas Bob for doing great in his first cross race ever and Brant for kicking butt once again this season!
Now it's time to focus on the soon approaching 2008 MTB season. It definatley feels nice to have a good level of fitness already at this point from doing base, lifting and also racing cross. I don't have to work back up from square one which I have had to do in past seasons. Somehow I managed NOT to burn out this year, so was able to keep on ridin'! I think we all learned alot in the 2006 season to help make 2007 a little less stressful! Hopefully 2008 will be even better... :)

The only issue at the moment is getting over the chest cold I brought back from NY (Greg has it too). Not a fun way to spend New Year's.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Cross Nat's Results!

2007-12-17T17:47:00.001-08:00

You will probably find my race reports on OutsideAllDay but here is the quick scoop! Also here is a link to all the pix Greg took (they are in reverse order unfortunately!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigburler/collections/72157603497886460/

Friday was Master's Women 30-34 in a 100% muddy and cold course! MTB handling skills came into play on this one, and I finished in 9th place out of 22 finishers. It was a heavy hitting field, so I was pleased with this!

Saturday it snowed.....we stayed indoors, and I rode on a terrible hotel gym bike!

Sunday was my Elite Women's race: even colder temps, and not much thaw of the ground. SO we would be racing on frozen mud ruts, ice and snow. Perfect! Had a call up somewhere around 60th, but utilized the MTB skills once again to finish in 27th (out of 72 starters, 64 finishers). Was just a minute outside the top 20! I keep replaying in my head where I lost time. Only crashed once the whole weekend, which I was pleased about. I think that crash may have cost me a top 25 finish though!

Congrats to my Team CICLE teammates (Dot, Carolyn and Heidi) and everyone else who represented SoCal at KC Nats! We showed that we can handle the winter weather!

Thanks to everyone who was out there cheering! Also thanks to Greg for making the trip out to KC to watch us race in the cold! Your support means alot to me as you already know.

Friday's race... mud and more mud:

Sunday's race: cold and frozen mud, ice and snow too!

Gotta Love this (see below)! There were people all over this sofa during the elite races on Sunday. A great cheering section in a technical section of the course (hard to tell from the pix, but it was tough)!

and this (the chicken man):

Adventures in the Midwest Part I

2007-12-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Today I drove across Missouri....

3.5 hours from Kansas City... heavy rain for the final hour of the drive. Not fun in the dark with a million big rigs on I-70!

Thankfully the ice storm wasn't as bad as they expected. However, the trees in KC are covered in ice. Should make for a messy cross nationals this weekend!

Now I am in St Louis for client meetings....

Thursday night I drive back across Missouri...

and then prepare to race... twice!

Quick Update

2007-12-10T11:04:00.001-08:00

Maybe I will start blogging more once MTB season starts up...

Quick overview of the past month:

1. Lots of training (and resting when possible) and some more cross racing.

2. Had a cold for over a week, that curbed my State Cross Champs race the other weekend. Oh well! got to support the team at least..... Also missed out on the Turkey Trot in Glendale (missed seing ARA!) because I wanted to try to get over the cold and not get worse. Thankfully I could still do easy rides and keep lifting ....

3. Back on track now, had a decent race yesterday at Camp Pendelton. Thanks to everyone for cheering, especially Roger who was there supporting Brant. He stuck around to see my race too. the cheering was great!

4. Taught GIS to Joy's 9th grade geography classes. Loved it!

5. Spent a few days in Boulder last week. Want to move back...

6. Off to Kansas City this week for Cross Nat's! Racing Masters 30-34 Friday and Elite/Pro on Sunday (with more than 90 other women!). Packing all of the warm clothes for this one! Highs in teh 20s or low 30s. ICK!

7. Congrats to Joy for her Pro upgrade! In my mind she has already been Pro all year. Now it's official. :) 2008 will bring exciting times for her!

The Green Theme

2007-11-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

Seems like everyone is trying to do their part to live a Greener life. Joy and Tonya have blogged about their efforts, figured I would too. Why the heck not! I am still working on getting the comunting by bicycle thing going...

CROSS Update: Before I get into my living Green weekend recap, I will mention that I have done 6 cross races at this point, all with pretty consistent results. I am doing base training at the same time, so sometimes I am coming off a 4 or 5 hour road ride the day before a cross race and usually a couple days of intervals during the week among other rides and lifting. So given that I feel pleased with my results (last 3 races I have been 4th place) knowing that I am not tapering off before cross races. Anyhoo! I still need to work on my cross technique especially in the area of remounting, but hopefully I can get some more non-race practice in before I head to Nationals! I entered the Women's Masters 30-34 race and the Elite Women's race (close to 80 registrants so far!). Should be interesting AND COLD back in Kansas City.

We got our snazzy Team CICLE kits for cross. There are some great pictures at Kennedy Photo Works...

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3815849#220723082

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3815849#220721078

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3815849#220723711

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3783921#218343123

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3783921#218345725

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3783921#218347231

http://kennedyphotoworks.smugmug.com/gallery/3783921#218349596

Trying to live Greener: This weekend Greg and I tried our best to use the car as little as possible. We did this by riding from our house to do out MTB ride on Saturday AM. Saturday evening, we had plans to go downtown with friends. This was 2 miles from our house and we decided to walk. Took around 30 minutes each way. Sunday morning, we took off from our house for our road ride. Again no car needed. Sunday afternoon, we walked to our local grocery store, Gerrard's bringing my trusty cloth bags that I always try to have on hand for groceries. Funniest part was that the bagger did a horrible job, which lead to me repacking so that we could actually walk back home with them! We have also been trying to keep up with carpooling together to work (working on getting the commuting by bike thing going again!)

Also congrats to Joy for KICKING BUTT at the 12 Hours of Temecula this past weekend. She did 9 strong laps winning the solo women's expert class and would have been 2nd place pro. Also congrats to everyone else who raced and worked hard out there!

Real update coming soon!

2007-11-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last posted! I am tardy on a few race reports and by the end of the this weekend, I will owe 3 on here! Hopefully soon.. Been busy! Working, training, racing! The usual! Lots going on, just no time to post!

real update coming soon! I promise!

Couldn't resist...

2007-10-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

Joy told me I must post this picture on the blog. We picked up Murphy from boarding/grooming last week and he was sporting this candy corn bandana. Greg proceeded to remove the bandana as soon as I snapped a few token pictures.

Cross Season hath begun!

2007-09-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been quite a week! A cross team meeting and ride/clinic and 2 cross races for the season already under the belt including Cross Vegas and So Cal Prestige Series #1.

I don't have any pix to share yet of Cross Vegas (What happens in Vegas....), but it was quite a way to kick off the cross season, lungs burning and all (hmmm maybe it was the pesticide all over the soccer fields we were racing on!). The race was Weds night (feels like forever ago!), during Interbike, which some of us from Team CICLE attended to meet with sponsors and see all sorts of familiar faces. We ate many clif/luna product samples (yum!) and drooled over some gorgeous bikes and bike products. The race venue drew an amazing crowd including folks like Gary Fisher, lots of dudes and dudettes in wigs, and a really good Elvis impersonator who sang the national anthem for our race. You know you are in Vegas when a bike race has spotlights shining into the sky and a taxi stand! Mandy, Carolyn, Dorothy, Tonya and myself all represented Team CICLE at the race (a.k.a Team Frumpy due to our temp kits that unfortunatly are CLUB cut). We didn't get the greatest warm up because we were busy pinning 3 race numbers on each of us. We did a loop of the course to discover that it was 95% turf-like grass that didn't seem to pack down at all! Lots of false flats and short yet painful climbing sections covered the course. There were also hidden sprinkler heads in the grass that would cause some pretty bad crashes in our women's race. Overall, it was a great experience with an amazing crowd of spectators (felt a little bit like doing the World Cup at Mt St Anne last year). We were up against the best in North America, which felt alot like our National MTB races which a few road and cross stars in the mix. For my 3rd cross race ever, I can't complain too much. With 40 starters, I ended up 31st. Unfortunately there were 6 DNFs! I realized how important a good warm up is and also for me to take my inhailer when I am going to be racing on chemical-laden grass! Congrats to Carolyn for a strong 19th place finish!

Somehow after doing our 7:30 PM race and watching the men's 9pm race, we rallied and made it out to the Sinclair Imports party by midnight (Team Frumpy cleans up well!). What an interesting mix of industry people and athletes including Mario Cipollini, Todd Wells, Georgia Gould, etc. Thanks to Derek (one of our awesome Team CICLE sponsors (Bear Valley Bikes) and friend) for coming out with us girls, it was really fun!

Saturday was the first So Cal Prestige Series race of the season at Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. It was a nice venue and a fun and challenging course and we had Larry Longo announcing which is always great. We were already used to a mostly grass race from what we experienced on Weds night. Thankfully this race was a bit less like just a road race on grass, and required actual bike handling skills (helps out the mountain biker faction). We helped set up the team tents/booths, etc etc. We all participated in a team relay race which acted as a nice warm up for us. We had a great showing, 10 girls from Team CICLE all in the elite women's race (including 2 juniors). I had no idea how my legs would feel, but I had a good start, lead the race for a bit, dropped back a few spots and witnessed some interesting crashes that I thankfully avoided, but rallied to 3rd place finish feeling like I left it all out there on the course (almost 2nd, 10-15 seconds back or so). Guess I recovered OK from Cross Vegas and a late night out! Congrats to Carolyn who blew us away and had her 2nd win of the season (1 on each coast in less than 1 week). Also congrats to all the girls who gave it their all! it was a tough race and for most in the group was the first of the season.

MTB Season wrap up!

2007-09-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

My 2007 MTB season has essentially wrapped up at this point. I am transitioning into a full cross season and will be riding for Team CICLE-Redline, formerly known as Team Redline-Figueroa Farms. Some of us on the elite team are heading to Interbike next week to attend a bit of the show and participate in Cross Vegas, which will be televised and is also a UCI level race.

My final three races of the season went well! It was nice to end the season on a high note. This included my first Cal State pro win which took place at the Big Bear Shoot out #2 (Also Cal State finals). I missed one of the series races and DNF'd at Castaic Lake (bee sting on the neck during the race) thus costing me a few spots in the overall series. So I ended up 4th overall. However, finishing out the series with a win really felt great!

I also did the Rim Nordic Stage Race (Rim #3) and the series finals in August. Both races resulted in a 2nd place finish in the XC which I was pleased with. Felt good and my bike was operating perfectly (except for at the finals where my seat post kept falling down thus causing me to ride BMX style on the first lap)! I wrapped up the Rim Nordic series 2nd overall behind Carolyn. It was also fun to hang out with the usual suspects/friends before and after the race! Carolyn and I decided to do a trail run right after we finished our XC race at the finals. I think everyone thought we were pretty crazy, but we had a good time!

I want to thank everyone for a really fun and quite successful 2007 MTB season. We had so many great trips to the Nationals and great times at the local races. It's really a great community to be a part of. I have made many new friends this year and had a great time as usual with the old ones! Also thanks to everyone who helped out with feeding or other support this season! It's nice to see everyone working together regardless of the team they are riding for. 2008 is going to bring great things as well. Some excellent talent has popped up through this season and the pro ranks are going to have some new faces to mix things up (especially Joy & Maureen). If I could award a most improved award, it would definately go to Joy. She has emerged as a power house climber and has also made great strides with her descending! She has a long career in front of her, and hopefully she will remember all of us when she is famous! :) Props also need to go out to Vegas Bob and James, both of who had greatly improved seasons as well! James might want to think about moving up to expert!!

Labor Day Outing

2007-09-04T16:45:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, sometimes I partake in activities other than riding my bike! I took the opportunity yesterday on a Monday (day off the bike) which was also a day off work (Labor Day) to go on a fun outing with Greg and Murphy.

We decided to beat the heat and go up the hill to Angeles Oaks (an easy 30-40 min drive or so from our house). I learned from riding up in Big Bear Sunday (Joy's B-day!) with Joy, Matt and Trevor that the thunderstorms would start up right around noon (I am sure Joy and Matt will give some good updates on that outing! My clothes are still drying from that one!). So we planned for around a 2 hour hike before getting deluged with rain/hail/wind/lightning.

We ventured up San Bernardino Peak Trail which I highly recommend! It was beautiful singletrack and we really enjoyed it We are trying to plan an outing to complete the whole climb. This time of year we would have to start hiking around 5 am to make the summit before storms develop. So we might camp part of the way up the night before and summit early. We could also go with Trevor's style of a total green solution: ride MTB from Redlands, stash it at the trailhead, hike all the way to San Gorgonio Peak, hike down, ride back to Redlands and Gourmet Pizza Shoppe for grub.

Murphy was a champion. For his first real off-leash hike, he was great about staying on the trail and not venturing too far ahead of us. He definately wanted to lead the way! He had on his trusty backpack which makes him feel like a real working dog. It definately made him more thirsty hauling that pack up the hill!

It was a really good exercise for myself and Greg to test Murphy's obidience. To our surprise, he did not chase after a single squirrel and responded when we called him to come back to us. Also on the way back down the hill, I was a bit slower than Greg (my knees/legs aren't used to descending like that!), Murphy was behind Greg, in front of me. He would periodically stop and look behind to make sure I was still there. It was a really great experience for us and we definatley want to go do more hikes as a *family*. The thunderstorms rolled in forcing us to head back down, but we got a solid 2 hour hike in. My legs/glutes are feeling it big time today. It was a pretty steep trail and felt fine at the time. Guess I should have stretched before we got in the car!

Beautiful views so close to home

After Vermont... Pleiss Family Vacation

2007-08-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures from our post-Vermont family vaca in central New Hampshire. I could go on and on about how wonderful this trip was. We had mom and dad, all of the Pleiss kids & spouses, grandkids and extended family visitors too! We had a great time at the family cabin. We had 10 people sleeping in the cabin (comfortably!) and up to 12 around the dinner table. It was really a special time with everyone. Did some great hikes (including Mt. Chocorua), some good bike rides and excellent COLD swimming in various bodies of water. We had a great time. Greg saw a black bear on one of his rides. I will eventually post a link to a bunch of pix from this trip (and more from Vermont)

Family breakfast at the cabin: Greg patiently waiting for blueberry pancakes and local NH maple syrup (yum!).

Jackson (future national champ) had the most energy of anyone, ready to ride his bike 24 hours a day! He got in some good climbing and technique work with Aunt Christie and Uncle Greg

The family cabin! We will certainly make many more trips to this wonderful place. Hopefully someday Murphy will come too.

Vermont Report: FINALLY

2007-08-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have to say that the race weekend we had in Vermont this year for the USA Cycling National Championships is up there with the best. It wasn't the best in terms of results (by any means).However, in terms of a fairly low stress *away* race, fun with frends and family, good food and what ended up being great weather, it was awesome! We got to actually get away from the venue and enjoy Vermont (and swim in a river!)

I could go on forever about all the details of the weekend. If I could have a "do-over" for the XC race I would jump at the chance. It was also nice to see Meggan, who we all miss very much! Joy and Matt both had good showings in their races, and my STXC resulted in 5 lightning fast laps (with LOUD and EXCITED cheering from Joy and Matt). SO not too bad overall!

By far one of the best moments of the weekend was particpating with my niece and nephew in the Shimano Kid's Race. We had been planning it for months, and Anna and Jackson would be bringing their bikes out from Indianapolis, IN. I think they win the prize for furthest distance travelled for the kid's race. It was well worth it! Here is a photo recap of the event.... Thanks so much to Joy and Matt for joining in on the family fun! You have new best friends in Indiana now!

Jackson and Anna ready to race!

Joy a.k.a "Coach D" gives a pep talk to her new BFF's!

Christie and Anna check out the competition!

Christie and Matt giving some last minute tips to the kids before race time.

Jackson wrapping up a lightning fast race including a tumble with cyclocross style remount on the descent! Also got a push start after the tumble from Ryan Trebon (who would go on to WIN the pro men's short track championship later that day!)

Anna shows off her (2) battle scars! She was very proud of these wounds. Aunt Christie was very proud of Anna dealing with a hard crash on the last corner and getting right back up on the bike!!

Joy and Anna recap the day's events

Some pix!

2007-08-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pix from Deer Valley Nationals (in June). I am still gathering photos to FINALLY do my Vermont post and also Rim Nordic Stage Race post. They are coming, I promise!

In the meantime, congrats to everyone who kicked some serious butt at Aspen Nationals this past weekend. Joy, James, Matt to just name a few. Sounds like it was an excellent weekend up there. And it sounds like everyone survived without me! :o)

Thank you to Thom Blaine and Ben Mesa from Team Jose Ole for these great pictures!

New England Jet Setting

2007-07-31T15:48:00.001-07:00

We are finally back in California! Our trip was prolonged due to weather/airport issues on the east coast. We were supposed to return Sunday, but just got back a few hours ago. I will do a full update on the trip soon WITH PICTURES. It was a great trip and we visited many places and people. The racing was even more challenging than last year, but I also got to ride in some new locations during our vacation after racing in Vermont (New Hampshire and back home in upstate NY).

In other news... Happy 34th B-day to Greg this Thurs.

In other other news, Joy and I were apart for over a week and actually survived.

Bike Pix - Finally!

2007-07-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Ok I am finally posting some pix of the new bike... Enjoy! Click on the pix for full resolution versions. I think I have finally got this bike dialed in after a solid 2 weeks of riding and tweaks! After a pro fitting and some switching around of the stem height this week, I think I am good to go. Also put on the Ergon grips that just make things so much more comfortable. Prob not saving any weight, but it's worth it!

We are off to the east coast in a few days for the National MTB Championships (including riding with niece Anna and nephew Jackson in the Shimano Kids's Race!), followed by some vacation time in New England. It's going to be great. We get to see my family, Greg's family, plus east coast friends. We will also make a pit-stop in Boston to see Jen & Drew and Alison & Brian (who literally started their cross country drive to move there yesterday)

I am almost packed, just need to Stan's up some proper east coast tires tomorrow night, then pack up the bike and a few other things. I have learned that starting to pack several days early really reduces the stress! Given that my XC race is Friday at 2PM I need to keep the stress level LOW this week if I can! My weekend in Vermont will be interesting; with Friday being the XC Championship, Saturday I will watch Joy, Matt and Karen (and do feed zone duty). Sunday at 5pm (they will have the whole venue packed up by then) is our Short Track National Championship.

2007-07-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT INSERT A TITLE HOWEVER IT WOULD BE .....

GUEST BLOGGER - Joy!

Due to the fact that Christie has a VIJ (Very Important Job) that shockingly lasts YEAR ROUND, i (Joy) have been asked to be a guest blogger of the very exciting things that have in fact taken place in her life. Here is the run down:

Being too busy to blog!
As stated, Christie works a lot. She also likes to entertain, clean her house, and throw tennis balls for pet Murphy. She also enjoys heat-laden training rides and adventures.

Deer valley (racing plus the traveling adventures)
Unlike last years trip to Park City UT, this one was smooth and quick. We ran into very few hitches in our master plan, and if we did, they were fixed pretty quickly. Food was great and company was calm leading up to Christie's big day in the Cross Country Event. The altitude was high compared to the low lands of So Cal and the competition was stiff. They shot the pro women up an extra climb at the start in an attempt to spread the field before the windy switch back single tracks. Christie had a very strong showing in the field, coming in 36th. Thankfully, she had no mechanicals and body mechanicals, which is always a good thing!

** COMMENT from Christie: The best part of this finish was that I made a smart move after the final switchback to pass another rider, then bust into the final singletrack section, and blast out onto the pavement for a STANDING SPRINT to the finish! And alas, as the third attempted sprint finish of the season, I finally won this one!

The plan quickly switched from recovery to preparation for the Short Track event the next day. She had until 3 pm to line up, which can actually be a bad thing! Way too long to ponder over the looming task of throwing down for 20 minutes with the best in the country! This event will be looked at an a learning experience! Although Christie did not place as well as she had hoped, she realized she had made some tactical errors, which can always be fixed for the next time! We are not fortunate like the Mountain racers who have local STXC on a weekly basis, so Christie has not had the practice that some other racers have had. Plus, we only really care about XC, this short stuff is just crazy!

New bike
Although it took just a little while longer than expect, the bike has arrived! Shiny grey with the bling of SRAM XO and a pink Bontrager seat! It will take a bit to get used to, but Christie loves the 29" wheels with their gingerly handling and smooth maneuvering.

** COMMENT from Christie: Pix to come soon I SWEAR. It's a Paragon 29'er frame, with Reba Race 29'er Fork. Bontrager Race X Lite wheels (running tubeless with Stan's), SRAM X0, Juicy Ultimates, Bontrager Race X Lite cranks, Bontrager XXX Lite handlebar and stem, XX Lite seat post, Bongrater Race X Lite Pro saddle (yes with pink!), etc etc.... Had my pro fit from Mike McKovich @ Don's on Friday and things are fitting nicely.

Fun rides in the wash with joy
Our training schedules sometimes collide, and they are fun ones! Sometimes it will say MTB technical or MTB one hour aerobic. That is hard to come by, so we like to hit up the WASH. Located at the base of Morton Peak in the fantastic zip code of Mentone Beach, the wash boasts tightly woven single track with drops, rocks, roots, and sand. Although peril looms, we are always able to chat it which made me at least run into the wrong things like branches and the rocks i am NOT supposed to hit. These are some of Christie's favorite rides because they lack the stress of watching the power meter or heart rate. Plus they are close to home, which is always a plus. It is also a good place to practice riding through sand traps that are always present in the So Cal events.

And that is all i have for now! But Christie is famous for making delicious Orzo for BBQ's and gatherings at the Pleiss house! Maybe one day you can get hooked up with some of it!

I owe some updates!

2007-06-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Full update to come. I have been so busy! Deer Valley Nationals, ESRI Conference in San Diego, great long rides on the weekend, demo'd the new Trek MADONE and another day on a demo Trek Fuel 9.5 Ex... and finally.. the new race bike (Gary Fisher Paragon 29'er) being built at the shop (tonight)! I owe the boys at the shop some cupcakes or beer for sure.

More details on Deer Valley to come... I promise!

Product Review

2007-06-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

In the spriit of Joy's blogging style, I decided to do a product review.

Yesterday I stopped by my shop, Redlands Cyclery USA for a quick on-the-spot tuneup of my MTB and to pick up some more recovery drink mix. The bike was dialed in and it was time to make my drink mix selection. They were all out of Endurox R4 Tangy Orange (my usual the past 6 mos or so), so it was between Vanilla, Fruit Punch, or Chocolate. There were a couple other racer types in the shop nearby and one guy said Chocolate all the way. SO I took my chances and sure enough he was right. After wrapping up some brutal interval sets last night I tested out my new drink. It was EXCELLENT, tasted just like Ovaltine (or how about Roundtine for all of you Seinfeld fans).

So my review of Endurox R4 Chocolate results in a high rating!

Tomorrow afternoon, Joy, Matt and I kick off yet another travel adventure. Destination: Deer Valley, UT for NMBS #4.

What a difference cooler temps can make!

2007-06-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

We just had Cal State #4 in Santa Barbara at Ellings Park. It was a good day for just about everyone (except for Mandy and her broken chain). The weather was MUCH better than last year. I would say at least 20 degrees cooler. This makes a huge difference. So much so, that I managed to take nearly 18 minutes off my time from last year! Last year I was on the verge of a heat stroke (delirious, nauseous, disconnected, etc) but still managed to finsih (behind just about every other rider!).

Joy, Matt and I drove up together in Matt's Mazda. It was a comfortable ride and we had a bathroom stop at probably the nicest McDonald's I have ever seen (somewhere near Camarillo Factory Outlets I think). It even had a conference room that business-folk could reserve. it also had a *lounge* with leather couches (well maybe they were Pleather) and funky chairs and coffee table! On top of that had probably the nicest fast food joint bathrooms ever.

We arrived at the venue with plenty of time in advance and scored a sweet parking spot. Unfortunately the spot was next to a sage bush with hundreds of bees swarming near it. SO I had to set up my trainer on the other side :).

Marius did an excellent job feeding us again! James and Roger also poured water on me during the laps which was a big help! I could hear Shelli cheering for us every lap!

The race was pretty much non-stop the whole time. The laps were short, ending up around 27 min per lap (we did 4). One false move and you could lose your position. Ankie (from Team Helen's), Mandy and I worked together great (toggling back and forth for position). On lap 3 I managed to fall going UPHILL around a switchback. My saddle twisted out of place, so I had to use brute force to get it back. It managed to stay in place the rest of the day thankfully. I had a couple cuts and bruises but was able to get right back on. Had to play catch up to Mandy and Ankie, which required some extra work. Mandy's chain broke on the downhill switchbacks, which left Ankie and myself to push eachother hopefully closer to Chrissy (we could still see her ahead of us until the 4th lap). We could also see super strong Joy creeping up behind us which also lit a fire!

Ankie and I continued to push forward staying together, toggling back and forth a few more times. I was feeling ready to try to see if I could pull away to seal 2nd place on the 4th and final lap (backside climb), but I got cramps in my quads (a new experience for me) . I shouted out like some of the guys I have seen suffer from cramps. Darn that hurts! I didn't know what to do, could barely pedal! Ankie moved ahead of me at this point and I was worried about my fate. I moved into an easier gear and took a gu and some water. Not sure why that would end up helping so fast, but all of a suddden I felt better enough to push hard again. I tried to catch up to Ankie, and did OK, managing to get into the final switchback descending section just a few seconds after her.

The race was not quite over as we entered the final paved climb. I gained on her, but couldn't quite pull it off. Once we got to the final grass section to the finish, I didn't have much sprint in me, but managed to finish just 2 seconds behind her to take 3rd. We chatted alot after the race and felt it was a good day for both of us. Working together and pushing like that was excellent!

It was the kind of day I needed! A good strong day. Thanks to everyone for the support. It was fun once again hanging out with everyone after the race. Thanks to Roger for some of these great pix!!!!!!!

On the way home, Matt, Joy and I feasted at In-N-Out Burger! YUM! Got home around 9pm just in time to see a classic movie: Bladerunner in HD!

In other news: On Sunday Joy, Shelli, Heidi (Joy's old time friend from boarding schoo) and I did a chill 2 hour road ride to shake the legs out. As seem to happen quite often, we had to come to the rescue of a living being! A CUTE black dog was shaking and hurt on the side of E Street in Yucapia. Joy fed him some water and we asked the people across the street to call the animal rescue. If I had a basket on my bike, that dog would have been coming home with me.

Next race stop: Deer Valley Utah!

A Bee-autiful Day at Castaic Lake

2007-05-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well a little creature looking alot like this one cost me my race and alot of pain (and there were no pretty flowers involved!)

Sunday's Cal State race should have been pretty straightforward. No field of 50-70 women, and lots of room on the trails (even if we come across some of the expert men). It started out nice, just a small field of 4 including Mandy (who would end up having a great day!). The temps were very hot which did not help anything, but I think we were all suffering equally. We were pretty evenely staggered apart and it was clear that the winner of the race would be determined on the final lap. No one was making any stealth moves or attemps to break away (prob partially from the heat and all of the climbing!). I was definately feeling the hurt though, that is for sure!

My fate arrived just before the twig/brush covered climbing section when all of a sudden I felt a sharp sting on my neck. I knew i had been stung and it honestly felt like multiple occurances. I started to panic, but knew that would be a bad path to take (I am allergic, but thankfully have not gone into shock or swelled up instantly). I slowed down a bit to see if I was going to have a serious reaction right away. Lots of thoughts went through my mind like "I could die out here", "am I breathing ok?". I knew that I had to climb my way up to the top and then down back to the start/finish. So far other than pain from the sting and some slight nausea (but that could be from the heat?), I was able to make it back out without any severe issue. I was definately stressed and very tired at this point. I just wanted to make it down to the bottom and had already decided that my race was over. Continuing on for a third and final lap could make my reaction to the sting much worse, esp with high heat and exersion levels.

I got to the bottom safely and saw James and Rod by the feed. They ran over and James removed the stinger. Rod and James escorted me over to first aid where I was taken great care of by Janet from Team Big Bear. She checked my vitals, put an ice pack on the sting, had me put my feet up, etc etc. My heart rate was still over 130 just sitting there after having been off the bike for a good 20 minutes. Again I realized I made the right choice. What if I had keep riding and went into shock up on the hill? NOT WORTH IT! My HR eventually went down and thankfully the swelling was not bad (thanks to the ice and letting my body just recover from the race).

After 30-40 min at first aid, I was doing alot better, but still had to take it easy (no cool down which I would regret later when my legs burned all night!)

Today, 3 days later, I am still dealing with the effects of the sting. One of my lymph nodes is completely swollen up and I have a stiff neck. Also the sting site is still red and puffed. I went to the dr on Monday to receive 2 cortisone shots because I felt like I was completley drained or even getting sick from it. I am going back in a little while for a follow up. See what this stiff neck business is all about! However, all in all I feel quite a bit better.

I cannot thank enough everyone who helped out on Sunday! That includes Marius who got to do his first feeds! Thanks to Roger, Rod, James especially for coming to my rescue. Thanks to the Backbone girls and guys for a really fun day. I can't tell you how many of them lectured me for not having my Epipen on me!! :) I promise it will never happen again! Had some great chats with everyone there! One of the best parts while I was out racing was getting a high-five from Abel's little brother!

Also congrats to Mandy who had a strong race, finishing a strong 2nd (almost first!). Also congrats to Joy who had the fastest expert time of the day once again!

On a funnier note: Joy drove us to Castaic in the Subaru and we enjoyed an adult student driver changing lanes near us on I-5 in the middle of a bunch of traffic! Splendid!

Next race stop: Santa Barbara for Elkings's Park Cal State XC on June 2nd.

This weekend: Mammoth for some good training rides and some fun!

ALSO Thank you to everyone who has been asking about Greg's knee surgery! He is doing much better now. It has been 2 weeks today. He is moving around well, still not taking the stairs much, but is doing well in general!

Another Fontana Nationals in the books

2007-05-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Ok this post is several weeks too late! In any event, we had Fontana Nationals a few weeks ago. It's certainly nice to be able to sleep in your own bed and drive 20 minutes to the venue each day. However, the difference is that the house chores and other daily distractions are still there. So when I am supposed to be off my feet resting, I am sweeping or doing dishes or laundry! I suppose being out of town at a hotel where all you can do is lay down and watch TV is probably the wiser choice over staying at home. Unless you are good at just being lazy at home, which I am NOT!

We had Zephanie and Kenny stay with us for the week between Firestone and through Fontana, which was great like last year! They brought 5 bikes along with them an a gazillion wheels, so our garage was extra packed! However, it was a fun sight to see. I shoud have snapped a photo! Also Murphy was very pleased to have some friends visiting to give him even more attention and playtime. Also Zeph shared some of her Power Bar SUN TEA which I just LOVED.

Also special shout out to KENDA/Titus/X-Fusion team sponsor Mighty Good Coffee. This is my new favorite coffee! They sent out 3 giant bags of beans for us to brew up. It was wonderful! Thanks to Zeph and Kenny for leaving the leftovers for us to enjoy ;)

The racing was pretty good. Especially on Saturday for the XC (apart from all the sections where people were OFF THEIR BIKES just like last year!). WAY TOO MUCH RUNNING for me. I was able to hang much longer with a new group of girls, some of who finish in the top 25. It was a very strange day for people, as many were falling and just not having the best day. I was seeing girls who finish top 20 not to terribly far ahead even on the 2nd and 3rd lap. In the end, I sprinted to the finish for 38th, but got 39th. No big deal because I was pleased with my time for the day and all of us in the 30s were only seperated by a few minutes. I made it through the day not falling once and was able to work with people all day. Made it a good day overall and I was pleased.

I worked so hard the rest of the day and Sunday morning to recover and prep for short track (Zeph and I watched Talledega Nights before heading to the venue). I was nervous because I had faired well in the short track at Fontana last year, so was expecting to do so again. However, the temps were reallyhot, the course was even tricker than last year. Apparently my legs were not as recovered as I thought because after an excellent call up and start (I went around the first bend in 15th place), my legs felt worse and worse each lap. I lost a ton of spots and was pulled out after only 3 laps. there were a few girls who were pulled out after 2, but I had hoped to be in it at least 4 or 5. Oh well! As Gareth said, short track is a good way for me to build peak power, but that is about all for now! :) I think I was spoiled by stayin in the short track the week before at Firestone for nearly the whole race! it was just a different course and a different week. ALSO the short track was the day before XC!

Greg took some pix, but I still haven't downloaded them from the camera!

Zephanie and Kenny had great results. Zeph was 12th in XC and STXC and Kenny was 8th (?) in Super D and had solid mid-pack results in a tough pro men's XC field.

Joy took home the gold in Expert 19-29 again! Including some GOLD ODI grips that I am not sure we will see her sporting. :)

Thanks again to everyone for the solid support and cheering out there! Leo from our title sponsor Pass Physical Therapy was there on Saturday, plus lots of other people cheering from the sides. I heard someone say "Hey! See you at Rim Nordic!" while I rode by during cross country. I am not sure who it was, but cool to be recognized even in a new kit!". On Sunday for my short lived short track Jess and Danielle came out, and also Matt, Denise and Ryder (my new BFF).

Also thanks to Roger, Vanessa, Ara, Jay, Teri, James, etc etc for their continued cheering and support! Once again I could hear James' voice from all points along the course!

Firestone Nationals Recap

2007-05-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

NOTE: this is the longest blog post ever!

Greg and I headed up to Buellton/Los Olivos on Friday afternoon, stopping in downtown Santa Barbara for dinner on the way up. We ate at a great Trattoria with nice outdoor seating. Arrived at the Days Inn – Windmill (yes the one featured in the movie Sideways) around 7:45 PM. Still had time to catch the re-run of Grey’s Anatomy while I set out my gear for the next day. Had a good night’s sleep in preparation for what would be a very hot day for Short Track.

Day 1: Short Track

Saturday AM we headed over to the race venue at a new location on the Firestone Winery property called Charlotte’s Meadow (made me think of Charlotte’s web). When we arrived at 9:15am it was already prob in the upper 80s. It was going to be a painful day for sure. It was so hot I didn’t really feel like doing much but falling asleep in the shade. Greg set up the EZ up so I could warm up for my race. As usual as I was warming up, I was asking myself why I do these things to myself!

Right before 11 am was call up for short track. I had a cool, wet towel around my neck and tried to hide in a small sliver of shade in our starting corral. I decided we need to buy a big golf umbrella ASAP! I had a great call up (somewhere in the 20s). Selected my start position so that I could potentially avoid a bottleneck. We shall see…….. Had the 2 minute warning, and the nerves kick in as usual. Also the heat was getting to me and I did NOT feel like moving at all! GO… well, the person in front of me could not get into her pedal which caused a delay! So much for going all out right away. I had to play catch up and deal with a massive cloud of dust (ate about 1 cup of dust on the first lap). So dry and terrible! Around the short climb I realized that there wasn’t really anyone left behind me, so I knew I had to WORK!!!!!!! It was so painful in the hot sun with NO WIND. I toggled back and forth with a couple girls on the climb, and around the S turn, and then made more solid moves around the final turn into the lap. This went on for a few laps… At this point I realized that Frosty was keeping people in a lot longer than usual! I kept thinking that at any moment I would be pulled out, but still kept working hard and managed to pass a few more people. Then I saw the 3 laps to go and Frosty waved me through. OH MAN! I was in pain and could I last another lap? I held on and noticed we were pulling away from the girls behind us, so that was good!

Teri, Greg and Roger were in a great spot (drinking beer I think) at the bottom of the decent. Every time I went by Teri told me to get those girls (and lots of cheering!).. I was finally pulled out with 2 laps to go, ALMOST made it the whole time! Was certainly not planning on that! I did 5 laps, over 20 minutes and man was I out of it when we finished! I had dirt all over my body and teeth and I was thinking about chugging water ASAP! In the end I was 34th, but it was hard fought given the bad start and how fast and HOT the event was! It was a strong field, no rag tag people for sure! Also thanks to Jon Rourke (manager of Subaru-Fisher pro team for cheering me on through the S turn!)

After Short Track, we did a team pre-ride of sorts. Matt, Trevor, Mandy, myself, Teri and Joy! We had a good time and I tried to take it easy to recover from short track. After the ride we went for our VIP lunch at the Subaru-Gary Fisher Factory Team trailer. It was great food!!!! Ran into Papo and Team Helen’s there too which was great. After fueling up, Greg and I left the venue by 2pm and I went back for a nice ice bath and to recover for day 2.

Sat night had a great dinner with Matt, Trevor and Greg at Los Olivos Café (a special place for me and Greg!). See Matt’s blog for more details on dinner and the funny story afterwards.

Day 2: Cross Country

Got 12 hours of sleep Sat night! Greg and I ate at Ellen’s Pancake House in Buellton on Sun AM. Danish THIN PANCAKES!!!!!!!!! YUM! They worked well for me last year here, esp when you have a late starting race!

Race start was 2:45pm in the hot sun, but thankfully slightly cooler temps with a hefty breeze! Again I had a good call up, and lined up in the 3rd row. I sort of lined up behind the same girl from Sat who had the pedal problem, but I was off to the side! I felt SO TIRED and not motivated. I was worried I would have no power. It was just one of those blah days… BUT……………. Once they said go (and by the way ladies at the start line it was announced to our field that Andrew Firestone is STILL single!) it was pandemonium, but I went for it!!!!!!!!!!! The girl who caused a delay Sat proceeded to sideswipe across the left side and take out 3 girls!!!!!! I kept going and had somehow ended up on the tail end of the lead pack (trying so hard to hang on!)! We went through the short track course again (hmm LESS DUST when you are with the lead pack!). Greg said that coming out of the short track I was in 15th place! Not too shabby and how fun it was! However, my legs were TOASTED from short track, so I could not hold my place for long. I probably stayed in the top 25 for 15 min or so, and then more people started coming by. This included some of the heavy hitters who were involved in the crash or were held up in the bottleneck.

I felt pretty strong overall (and had a little too much energy for the finish which means I didn’t leave it all out there). I know it wasn’t my absolute best day (partially from not fully recovering from the *long* short track). I had too much pressure in my tires and my saddle was squeaking SO BAD (picture Napoleon Dynamite saying that)! It was really driving me nuts and made me wish for a dual suspension bike!

In the end I finished 35th which I was quite pleased with. Also pleased with my time overall too! So all in all a good day and good weekend. The best part was coming into the finish and getting an ice cold wet towel!!!!

Congrats to everyone for a good weekend! Special props go out to: Joy (1st place expert!), Matt and Trevor (both podiumed in pro/semi-pro singlespeed class!) and VEGAS BOB (2007 breakthrough performance!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks of course to GREG the best supporter EVER. Also Teri, Matt, Trevor, James, Roger, Vanessa, Ara, etc!

Best part of the weekend was finishing XC and Greg telling me that after my great start and being up as high as 15th he said he could care less how I finished. He has been telling me so many times to just be aggressive and finally I did it right!

Top 5 moments at Phoenix and Sea Otter!

2007-05-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ok I am way behind on blogging! I decided to get caught up quickly I would do a top 5 moments (not in any particular order) for Phoenix Nationals and Sea Otter. Then I will start fresh with a FULL blog on this past weekend's Firestone Nationals.

Top 5 Moments at Phoenix Nationals:
1. Greg getting pulled over by the Fountain Hills Police, but not receiving a ticket because the cop said "I could never ticket a fellow mountain biker!"

2. Not falling on a cactus and finishing 43/60 finishers in a very hot and sometimes sketchy XC race.

3. Finishing 33/48 in Short track without even realizing it! It was too dark and dusty to even know! Plus my arm was pulsating from my time trial crash.

4. Faux Crocs (pink) for Mandy purchased at CVS.

5. Packing Joy, myself, Matt, Trevor, Mandy and 5 bikes in and on Matt's Mazda.

Top 5 Moments at Sea Otter
1. Mary-Ellen taking 3rd in the Pro Super D!!!!!!! On the podium with Marla and Kelli!)

2. Reciting lines in my head from The Big Lebowski during the muddy short track race (where I proceeded to lock up my drivetrain).

3. COLD COLD COLD ice baths (but they really work!)

4. Mandy living on sweet potatoes and avocados (again!)

5. Snapping a pic of Teri and Kabush (who had JUST won the pro men's XC)
In summary: Thanks to everyone for helping me out at those events (Joy, James, Greg, Roger, Teri, Matt etc etc!)

A few (tiny) pix:

Warming up in the RAIN for short track! Was it even worth it? Probably not!

The grueling 5 minute time trial the day before! Was it worth it? Probably NOT!

Quick post...

2007-04-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well I know I still owe a full report on Phoenix Nationals, and I certainly owe a recap of the 3 days of racing at this year's Sea Otter.

It's coming soon.. I promise. Very busy at work this week, also fending off a cold that seems to have started developing before/during XC on Sunday (hence my DNF in Sea Otter 38 mile XC for the first time in 5 years racing that event!!!!). Thankfully Coach Gareth penciled in some good recovery days and taper into harder efforts later in the week.

I made it into a couple more Cycling News pix once again! Not the featured person in this, but still cool to see. The new kits finally shipped this week, so Firestone Nationals will be graced with the new Pass PT/Gary Fisher team kits.

Greg took some good pix this past weekend again (the rainy conditions at the short track race made for some more good mud photos).

More to come I promise w/ pix!

NMBS #1 Complete!

2007-04-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

I have alot to write about, but here is an awesome pix of me during the time trial (post crash) on Cycling News! Papo was the first to discover the pic, thanks for the head's up!

Click Here

What started out as a rough weekend with a gnarly crash in the time trial, ended with some decent early season results in the cross country race (especially given the crazy conditions and heat!)

More to come..... including pix taken by Greg!

Reminding myself how to race.....

2007-03-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well Cal State opener at Bonelli Park was NOT how I had hoped it would go. Definately alot different than last year when I had my first pro podium and was feeling great. Then again Sunday was the first real race of the season, whereas last year I raced Bonelli after having done more road racing, plus 2 Cal States and 4 days at Sea Otter. It does seem to make a difference. Plus being sick for 2 solid weeks this month also did not help.

Right off the start line my legs felt terribly sore. It wasn't until nearly lap 2 that I felt good and speedy. It was too late to make up any time. I think my power was there, but my speed was limited by the pain in my legs. Could have been from hard workouts that week, or just not enough warm up, or not enough sleep. Who knows, but it reminded me to focus on the preparation aspect again. Sometimes it takes a few races to get back into "Race Mode". This weekend at NOVA Nationals should be excellent practice with 3 events (maybe 4 if I do Super D too).

One good thing about Sunday was seeing alot of folks I hadn't seen since last fall. Also lots of new faces, new friends and the usual suspects. It was also great to see some new additions to the expert and pro ranks. Keeps things interesting and more competitive. Welcome to talented Backbone ladies Vanessa and Heidi to expert, Ankie and Heather to pro! I also imagine some additional upgrades to occur during the season. It's going to be an interesting year to say the least.

My partner in crime, Joy dominated her class (and basically all the other classes) bringing home the 3rd fastest time of the day overall (and 1st expert by quite a time gap). This came out of left field according to Joy, but shows that the real Joy has come out from solid training and a sweet new bike. Or maybe some covert training ;) Perhaps we will see her upgrading to the pro ranks very soon. Of course I like to take some of the credit for her success being her mentor. ;) Hopefully she will still remember me someday when she is on a big time factory team :)

The journey to Fountain Hills, AZ kicks off at 4pm tomorrow. Matt, Trevor, Joy and myself head off for the weekend. Mandy will meet us at the venue, and Greg & Murphy will arrive Saturday well before the short track race.

I hope to provide a better report next week with hopefully some decent results!

My New "Rig"

2007-03-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

I just picked up my new Gary Fisher Rig 29'er! My first real singlespeed (apart from the modified Raieigh hardtail I turned into one with a Surly Singleator and old components).

This bike will be a great compliment to the Paragon 29'er when it arrives. I am so excited about this bike, I thought about racing it at Bonelli this weekend, but then realized that I might do a bit better in the geared class on a geared bike ;o) Plus the Rig weighs a tad more than my old Paragon and definately more than the new Paragon.

The decision I have to make is whether to keep the 18T cog on the back or switch it out to 20T for learning purposes. I guess I will find out pretty quick what suits me. Trevor recommended switching the cog out based on the type of trails/course you are riding.

Happy Trails!

Official MTB race schedule kick off this weekend!

2007-03-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Bonelli Park XC kicks off the Cal state series this Sunday. Unfortunately it occurs the same day as the Redlands Classic Criterium, which I will have to skip this year. Speaking of skipping out on road races, I decided last week not to race the San Dimas Stage Race. It was a tough decision, plus I lost the $85 I paid to enter last month. I really enjoyed racing it last year and it was excellent multi-day race training. Not racing was the right decision though, I was still not 100% recovered from being sick and it would have only made me worse.

Instead of racing, I did normal training including 3 loops of the Bonelli XC course on Sat. I ran into Bob, Teri, Jay, Dawn, Vanessa, Roger, etc at the Park-n-Ride which was very cool! they were all finishing up a couple loops of the course. I was meeting Mandy to ride, and Bob joined us for another lap. It was a nice warm Bonelli day with excellent course conditions (very little water). I got a nice sunburn on my shoulders since I was wearing a sleeveless jersey for the first time all year.

Mandy and I got to watch my friend Jonathan race the men's IIIs during our loops on the trails. Periodically we would see the field racing by on the road and could pop out to cheer them on.

Party Pix

2007-03-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pix taken by Teri at my 30th b-day bash on Friday. It was a great turnout, but I missed those who couldn't make it for sure!

Joy, Mandy, me and Teri. We all clean up pretty nice! Normally we see eachother in our bike clothes!

A special treat for White Chocolate!

Jay, Greg and Bob after a few glasses of Fat Tire from the keg!

Vision Quest Report

2007-03-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

I decided to go forward with participating in Vision Quest, even though I was still sick. I hadn't become any worse since Thursday thankfully and figured I would give it a shot. I had to change my strategy and treat it more like a glorified training ride than a race.

I stayed over at Georgina's house the night before. We were able to get to sleep by 9PM which really helped.

Wake up was 3:45 AM. A quick breakfast of oatmeal, banana and tea and we were out the door. Arrived at the venue by 4:45AM, got the rest of our gear on, bikes set and headed to the start line by 5:15 AM. The weather was fantastically WARM thanks to the Santa Ana winds (which we would be hating pretty soon into the ride). There was a full moon and there was a great vibe in the air. Around 300 riders lined up. Half were doing the shorter Counting Coup and the rest of us were doing Vision Quest. The race started at 5:30, in the dark, and I was happy to have a nice small, but powerful light (thanks for the recommendation Trevor!). There were some riders who did not have lights and I could tell they were poaching off my light! Reminded me of the nightride where Joy had basically no lights and Matt referred to her as Helen Keller.

I decided that I would just pace myself like a moderate training ride and see how I feel. I could tell I was at about 80% lung capacity yesterday. That typically means my asthma is kicking in. I had to be careful not to get too emotional or worked up during the day. An asthma attack like the one I experienced in Vermont last year is not what I needed! I made it to the first check point in around 2.5 hours after climbing forever, battling the ferocious winds and getting knocked off my bike. I descended Motorway much better than last week. Feeling good, I only stopped quickly at the aid station to get more water. Here is a picture from one of the more friendly sections along Motorway.

The next 2 hours or so was more pure climbing. I found Marius again and we stayed together a bit longer. I started to get into a good tempo along the climb to Santiago Pk, so I just went with it. I have to say putting my cane creek ergonomic bar ends back on the bike was a live saver. They really helped on the long sustained climbs, especially the technical babyhead sections. Next was maybe 30 minutes of descending after all of that climbing! I felt great on the technical descending of Upper and Lower Holy Jim. I was essentially by myself during those sections which was a nice way to experience the trails. When I popped out of Upper Holy Jim, the checkpoint staff commented that "I looked fresh". I had to laugh, and told them that actually I was sick, but appreciated the comment. I guess I just had a good time on those trails!

By the time I made it to Aid station #2, I was just in time to see Pua making her way down the final 5 mile stretch. I still had at least 2 more hours to go. I had to remind myself that I was not racing this, and that even if I was, this is really only my first real endurance event.

The third leg was by far the hardest for me. I had been feeling pretty good for the first 2 legs. I think seeing people finishing the event was making me stress out. I had to remind myself that there were still people at least an hour behind me, and maybe some who would not make the time cutoff. SO i had to feel happy about that. Marius and I met up again and I could tell that we were both suffering. The next 1+ hour included some of the toughest parts of the race . Actually it included the most emotionally draining section: the hike up Horsethief Trail. Not too far into the climb to the base of the hike, I saw Papo coming down lower Trabuco. He looked really good and I imagine he was easily in the top 20 overall (maybe top 10?). I was on and off the bike alot, and getting frustrated. Also my camelback was leaking so I had a slight meltdown. Marius had to tell me "you're allright!". Once we started on the hiking section, I knew it was going to be a long haul. I interacted with a few people along the way, which helped. Once I got to the top, I turned down the offer of a cheeseburger and grabbed a few fig newtons and put my arm warmers back on. I bombed the main divide fireroad and got to the top of Trabuco as fast as I could. I knew I was in the home stretch!!!!!!! Also the guys at the top told me I was 6th place female. I tried to forget that Pua was literally 2 hours ahead of me (it would turn out to be more than that!).

When I got to the top of Trabuco I raised my arms to the aid staff and said "woo hoo! no more climbing!" I descended fast (but safe). When got back to the junction of Horsethief, I said to the next group of aid staff "ALMOST DONE!". I started along a really fun section of technical descent and knew that I was probably 20 minutes from the finish at the most. I must have been getting too comfortable or just too tired because I proceeded to have a pretty hard crash in a very rocky section. I ended up off the side upsidedown with teh bike on me. My knee was bleeding and I scraped my other leg on the calf. I would also discover that I MIGHT have poison oak or something on my behind (NOT GOOD!). I collected myself, tried not to have a melt down. Got back on the bike and continued (a bit slower) . As I passed the aid station, I felt a sigh of relief that all I had left was the 5 mile flat fire road out. No more than 2 minutes into this last section, I realized I had a FLAT TIRE. this was not what I needed. I got off the bike, realized that it was not just something I could pump some air into and proceed. So i had to take the wheel off (it was the REAR) and stuggled due to fatigue and stress to get the tube changed. then all 4 of my air cartriges faiiled. It was as though they had no air in them at all. I was having a melt down at this point, worried I would have to walk 4 miles. A few people slowed down near me, but at this point i basically had larangitis. MARIUS, my savior, stopped and helped me out. His air cartridge failed too, but he had a pump. THANK goodness. Turns out he had a crash too and for both of us it had been a rough day. Marius and I rode to the finish together and were SO happy to see the finish line. We received our Vision Quest feathers and were greeted by friends. This includes MANDY who finished 4th OVERALL in the Counting Coup. WOW, and on a modified cross bike nonetheless.

After being on the bike for 8 hours 45 minutes roughly (flat tire and crash probably cost me a good 15 minutes). I went back to O'Neill Park to meel Greg and Murphy. Georgina finished not too long after that and had her own adventure stories. She met her goal for the day and also rode for a great cause (Trail Angels).

One more highlight of the day was being approached after the finish by another rider. He told me that I helped motivate him. We were together on sections of the hike up Horsethief and he was having a rough time (as was I!). He told me after the race that the times he wanted to quit, he would see that I was still going even being sick. In the end he cut 2 hours off last year's time. He was so happy and shook my hand. Sometimes you never realize the effect you have on other people, even when you are experience pain and suffering of your own!

I also thoroughly enjoyed a double-double cheeseburger, fries and chocolate shake from In-and-Out Burger on the way home! YES!!! Clif Bloks, Fig Newtons and CarbBoom just weren't doing it for me anymore.

We all finished safe and with many memories and stories from VQ itself and our group rides on the course the last few weeks preparing. It was certanly a VISION QUEST to say the least. I thought I was going to lose my vision on the hike-a-bike section ;) Oy vey!

Just My Luck

2007-03-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

I woke up with a sore throat and sinus pressure today. VERY bad timing with VQ only 2 days away. If it was just an XC or road race it wouldn't be so bad, but 8 hours on the bike is a bit different.

keep your fingers crossed for me! I am taking the afternoon off to try to kick this thing before it gets worse...

Countdown to Vision Quest

2007-02-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry once again no pix. You wil definatley get to see some in the next post (after the race)

VQ is less than 4 days away at this point. I pre-rode a final 1/3 of the course (Black Star Canyon) this past Saturday with Marius and Georgina (actually it was the first leg of the race). We started at 7AM and it was plenty cold for me. Trying to imagine starting in the dark at 5:30 AM was not pleasant given that my hands and toes were in pain from the cold. Georgina and I tried shaking our fingers to release the pain, but that didn't work. Once the climbing started, I warmed up and forgot about the cold. I am hoping the same thing will happen on Sat during the actual race.

The first leg of VQ course is definately harder than the middle leg. the first target was a super doppler radar tower, it looked closer than it actual was (figures!). Once we got to the doppler tower, it was followed by much more climbing: steep in sections and alot of up and down (hard to keep a tempo). However, once again we had great views of the surrouding mountains and even downtown LA! it was VERY clear.

After 2+ hours of climbing (around 4,000 ft), we had the descent down Motorway. It was very technical in spots, lots of babyheads and some steep drop offs. It was my first time down this particular trail, so I took it pretty relaxed. Also figured for a 7+ hour race, a few minutes slowing down on a sketchy descent isn't a big deal.

So my preride of the Vision Quest trails is now complete. Only days away from the event, I am trying to get organized, get my bike, gear and nutrition ready to go. Also getting ready for that 3:30 or so AM wake up call. Ick!

Next update will be POST-VQ!

Scoping the Vision Quest

2007-02-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

Sunday was essentially like spending a whole work day on the bike. Georgina, Marius, Yvonne, Mandy and I trained on legs 2 & 3 of the Vision Quest trails. Started out at Maple Springs (did a 5 mile road climb to get to it from where some of us parked), up to Santiago Peak, to Holy Jim (upper and lower) up Horsetheif Trail, across the ridge, down Trabuco and out to Cook's Corner.

In the end we did 40 miles (35 on the trail), over 8,000 ft climbing. 40 miles doesn't seem like alot, but when you add all that climbing to it, it's plenty (Vision Quest will be almost 12,000 total). Taking it at a leisurely pace had a ride time around 6 hr 20 min, total time of 7 hours 30 min. Essentially a work day (rougly 9am to 5pm). This also included around an hour of hiking with the bike.

This was only 2 of the legs of the whole Vision Quest. This coming Saturday we will do Blackstar up to Motorway and down to Maple Springs. Should be a much shorter day than Sunday's adventure. I am still learning these trails, so hopefully i have the names right. After I train on this leg, I should have more of an idea about how dead tired I will be hiking up Horsetheif.

It was a fun day, beautiful weather, panoramic views throughout the day of Catalina Island and the coast, Mt Baldy, San Gorgonio Pk, San Bernadino Pk, San Jacinto Pk, the whole inland empire, San Diego county, etc. It was neat to spend the whole day out on the bike and cover so much territory.

I felt alot better than I thought I would after spending so much time on the mountain bike in one day. Hopefully a good sign for the big dance in a couple weeks (less than 2 weeks!).

Wish I had some pix! hopefully will have some pix after Sat's ride of Blackstar and Motorway.

2007 Season Is Underway

2007-02-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging much, but I have certainly been busy on the bike. Focusing on training and kicked off the season with Boulevard Road Race on Feb 3rd. It was a tough race with some serious headwinds and crosswinds! I finished 13th out of around 50 women who started the race. Fellow MTB'ers Joy and Chrissy were there (Joy and I travelled together of course!) and both improved from last year for sure. Joy stayed with us in the lead group much longer, and Chrissy went on to finish 2nd place overall. Better results than last year for us MTB'ers and it was a harder race for sure. It was a combined Cat 3/4/35+ field again, and I was the 4th place Cat 4. This season for road races I am representing Team Redlands (Formerly seen in Jelly Belly kits, this year we have a new throwback desing for the kits (thanks Jeremy!))

Vision Quest is around the corner! Mandy, Georgina and friends and I have some big training days on the VQ trails coming up this Sunday, the following Saturday and THEN March 3rd is the big day. Starting at 5:30 AM is somethign I need to start preparing for. UUGH!

Team News: We have been picked up by Gary Fisher as a regional/grassroots team and have a new title sponsor and name: Pass Physical Therapy (they were our 2nd largest sponsor last year). K&N swaps postions with Pass and will be an associate sponsor. We will all be riding hardtail 29'ers and welcome Mandy Eakins to the team. We have Matt Freeman (pro) & Trevor Walton (semi-pro/singlespeed) returning, Mandy (pro) and myself (pro). Jeremy Templeman who once again has designed our team kits, will be representing the expert ranks.

I particpated in the Tour de Palm Springs once again this past weekend. 110 miles for the day with some fun and scary memories. Joy and I attended to a guy with a broken arm (saw him crash into an orange cone), a girl who crashed in front of us and got some road rash and a banged up knee, plus several near misses. I am putting together a letter to the event organizers because I saw WAY too many safety issues this year. In the 4 years I have been doing Tour de PS, this year was the worst! I did like the downtown start, but the first 20 miles are just treacherous, and the miles of orange cones didn't help! Anyways, miles 60-100 were pretty good except for the numerous stop lights. Joy and I met some triathon folks from Temecula and worked pace lines with them for around 50 miles. It was a good fit and we put in another good effort on an already heavy and painful training week. My friend Casey from Trek (the home office!) was out in the area for work and he played some fun rounds of "Flippy Cup" with my friends who did a fair share of "celebrating" at our rental house after the ride.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

2007 is upon us already! Greg and I had a nice long vacation including a short visit to see his family in Indianapolis. This was followed by 5 days of at-home vacation with lots of riding for me plus napping, sleeping late, cooking and playing with Murphy.

The other day while I did a training ride at Morton Peak, Greg hiked with Murphy. They both had a great time....Murphy felt like a true worker dog with his backpack on.

I just signed up for ....

2006-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Vision Quest 2007

As quickly as I signed up, it has sold out. Thankfully Georgina talked me into signing up in time!

I have been too busy to update much on the blog lately. Just putting in base training and trying to fit in Christmas shopping and work!

Happy Holidays!

ESRI Hell Ride Group Photo

2006-11-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

Here is the group picture from this year's Hell Ride. I organized the event again this year and it was a success! We had an even bigger turnout than last year (perhaps the largest turnout ever for a Hell Ride in the 10+ years it's been going on! There are a few people missing from the photo, but I think this shot turned out really great (Thanks Steve!) I think we had 34 riders total, 31 who did the longer course. There are alot of great riders at ESRI and non-ESRI folks who came from as far as OC.

Also thanks to Bob, Joy, Colleen, Trevor, Suzanne, John and Lisa for a great pre-ride the weekend before!

The long course ended up around 38.5 miles including some pavement.

More Demo Bikes!

2006-11-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

The last two weekends I have tried out some more excellent 2007 bikes!

Including the Trek Fuel EX 9.5.....
I enjoyed this bike on a nice long 40 mile MTB ride. It was nice to have the suspension for the long haul. This bike climbed great for a dual sus and was only just over 24 lbs! NOT BAD for a dual sus! it had 2007 XTR group and performed great. Also had Bontrager Race Lite wheels and a nice Bontrager tire set up. I would definately like to get my hands on a Top Fuel to see the weight difference and stiffness during climbgs. The nice thing about this bike is that it was set up perfectly for my weight and suspension preferences. So the suspension kicked in only when needed. Thanks to Greg and Josh from Trek for another great demo bike!

And the Orbea Alma 29'er (only full carbon 29'er on the market!)

Both bikes were fantastic, but my heart goes to the hardtail! Riding a 29'er for the first time was awesome. It handled very well on climbs, turns and semi-technical sections. I took the bike out on SART, but not any super technical sections. So not sure how it would handle on say, east coast rocks/roots. Also didn't take it on any super steep/technical climbs. I have heard that 29'ers aren't the best for those conditions if you can't keep the momentum going with the larger wheels. I will have to test it out to see! I LOVED the full carbon HT frame. It was plush compared to my aluminum frame. The bike fit me very welll and I loved the FSA and SRAM X.0 components. The Bontrager Race Lite wheels also felt great. The bike handled nice and stiff on the climbs and made little bumps feel like nothing. I also felt like it cornered very well, even on narrow turns (maybe I was just imagining things). I had a blast and would definately love to ride that bike again! Thanks to Ramon at my shop, Redlands Cyclery USA. I have to say, Orbea makes a sweet mountain bike! I am happy with my road bike and even happier with the experience on the Alma!

Good Luck Jonathan!

2006-10-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

I wanted to send out a wish of luck to my friend Jonathan Weaver. This coming weekend he will embark on his 2nd Ironman (and said to be his final as he shifts gears to focus 100% on road racing). Ironman Florida is this Saturday! For updates check out Jonathan's blog.

Jonathan will be coming back to SoCal next spring to join me at the San Dimas Stage Race. He is working on bringing out some of his teammates from Feedback Sports Racing in Boulder.

GOOD LUCK JONATHAN!

Cal State Finals

2006-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

The 2006 MTB season is officially over!

Well after much deliberation, I decided to go out and race the California State Finals at windy, hot and brown Castaic Lake Recreation Facility. In 5 years of racing in SoCal, I have never been able to fit the finals into my schedule. The last few years October has been time for travel, weddings, wildfires and the start to the off-season. This year Team Big Bear kept the season going a bit longer! My body was already somewhat in the off-season, so I knew this race would be tough! Castaic is known for short steep climbs and a few long, somewhat loose climbs.

Apart from the pain and suffering caused by not being able to train as much the last few weeks and a nauseous feeling in my tummy almost the whole race, it was a good day. I had fun starting off the race with Chrissy, Carolyn and Tommara. People commented about how there was too much friendly chatter at the start. Actually the chit-chat continued for the first 5 minutes or so into the race. It was probably the most relaxed start ever! I think the expert women's start was alot faster. But it was fun and a nice way to end the season.

In the end, I finished pretty far behind but wasn't expecting to go out there and have a stellar race in the first place. I finished 3rd (Tommara DNF'd) , so I ended up on the podium one more time for the season which was very nice. Even better, I ended up 4th overall for the series. Moved back up from 5th (was in 2nd place for half the season, but missed the last few races so lost points).

One last race podium for the season. 3rd place.

4th place overall for the series

Greg's parents were at the race and got to see me start and complete the first lap. Then they were on their way to Monterey and then back to San Fran to finish up their California vacation. It was exciting to have them there for sure! Too bad it wasn't one of my better performances though... :o) Hopefully next year!

Greg and Murphy did a great job feeding and taking some pix. Thanks! Also thanks to the Backbone peeps for cheering me on during the race. Congrats to Papo for a stellar fastest expert time of the day and sealing the championship!!!!!!!!!! Congrats to Joy for her age class championship as well! Congrats to everyone for a great season.

2007 Demo Bikes, Cross Racing and W.O.W.

2006-09-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

NOTE: I just realized that the post date for this blog is Sept 29, 2006, when actually I published it on Oct 3rd. :o)

A detailed blog update is long overdue, so here it is! I couldn't make it to Interbike yet again, but hopefully next year I can make it work into my schedule. I got to hear all the scoop from everyone who was up there. Sounds like it was yet another great year.

Yesterday was Incycle Cross Challenge at Bonelli Park. I had a great time and did pretty well for only my 2nd cross race ever! I got to demo the Redline Scandium Team Conquest cross bike. It was fantastic. I ended up 5th overall, not too terribly far behind 3rd (Carolyn) and 4th (Mandy). Got a little prize money for my efforts which is always nice! I will definately do some more cross racing this fall/winter. It's a blast. Matt was also racing (he is doing all of the series races!). Jeremy rode out from Redlands and took his post in the feedzone during the race. Thanks Jeremy! Greg and Murphy were there snapping photos and Veeze and Milkman were there heckeling! Of course they were hanging out in the hardest spot for re-mounting the bike which only made things worse as each lap passed! :o)

Check out our Team site for pix! Check out our not-so-flattering facial expressions! You can tell how painful cross racing actually is!

A couple weekends ago I was an instructor at Team Big Bear Women's Only Weekend again and had even MORE fun than last year. We had a smaller turnout of participants, but it may have been better that way. I got to know some of the veteran and new instructors a bit better and we had a blast. It was great to share my skills and experiences with the participants, I think I may have taught them a few things :o). I have to say working W.O.W is one of the best and most meaningful weekends of the year for me. I will continue to volunteer each year (hopefully it won't interfere with a NORBA race next year!)

I have had the opportunity to demo two dual suspension bikes this past month. First is the 2007 Gary Fisher Supercaliber . This set up would give me a similar geometry set up to the Race Day. I enjoyed riding it, but would have definately liked to take it out on the trails I took the next bike on.....

The second bike I demoed was the 2007 Trek Fuel EX7 WSD. I put this bike to the test on some awesome technical trails around Jenk's Lake/South Fork/Secret Trail. As much as I love my hardtail, riding a bike with more suspension was definately a nice treat. Prob a bit too heavy for a race bike, but very fun for other occasions.

Tentative 2007 National/World Cup Schedule

2006-09-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

The 2007 NORBA and UCI World Cup tentative schedules are out. For my friends and family around the country who might want to see me race some of these big events here is where we will be (if I can actually swing all of this travel time!):

March 31 – April 1: Phoenix, AZ

May 5-6, Fontana, CA

May 20, San Jose, CA

June 16-17, Park City, UT

Jun 23...World Cup: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada

Jun 30...World Cup: New Mexico, USA (Angel Fire)

July 7-8, Sonoma, CA

July 16-17: US Mountain Bike Championships, Mt Snow Vermont

August 11-12, Series Finals TBA (Utah or Colorado)

The Future of Mountain Biking

2006-09-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

I am proud to report that our 4 year old nephew, Jackson, has just completed his first Shimano Youth Series Race back in Indiana (part of the DINO series). We are all so proud of him and his excitement about riding bikes at such an early age! Karen and Trent gave us the full report!

Lining up at the start with the big kids! Jackson (center) has his game face on.

Jackson settling into his pace displaying great form (head up, good arm stance!). He also appears to have great focus and concentation.

A commanding finish! Reports have it that Jackson loved going across the finish line so much that he went back several times to relive the experience!

Jackson's first mountain bike race was a success!

It sounds like Jackson will definately be competing again during the 2007 season after some focused off-season training. This training will likely include more bike riding, razor scooter riding, gymnastics/tumbling, sledding and other assorted sports.

Murphy and Pals

2006-09-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Murphy (left), pseudo-Sister Jade, and pal Bucko in perfect formation!

Where have I been?

2006-08-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am going to make this update short and sweet. Hopefully I will be back on track in the future with posting. Maybe I will even start posting PICTURES again. Pictures are way better than text anyways. I have categorized the items in my list as Living, Race, Annoyance, and Work.

My last month has been like this:

1. Living: Pack up and move out of house in prep for major remodel.

2. Living: Stay at Frank and Edie's house (THANK YOU!)

3. Race: Rim Nordic XC #2

4. Annoyance: 2 hooligans threw a piece of metal at me on my road bike. Caused the rear tire to blow out while I was riding. NOT GOOD!

5. Race: NORBA Brian Head XC/STXC

6. Annoyance: While enroute to Brian Head, my honda civic was vandalized at our house... driver window broken out completely, nothing stolen though, some dents and scratches on the driver door. Come to find out 6 other cars were burgarlized/vandalized that same night in our area.

7. Work: ESRI International User's Conference in San Diego.

8. Race: Rim Nordic XC #3

9. Living: Move over to the Residence Inn for 7 days. Next stop hopefully back to OUR HOUSE.

So, lots of racing, riding and shuffling around between different locations! it has been good overall! Except for shelling out cash to get my car fixed and more cash for new tires for my road bike.

Deer Valley Race Reports

2006-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here are my belated Deer Valley NORBA race reports! Today I should technically be at Nationals (the US National Championship), but with so much going on in my life right now I had to skip it (major house remodel starting Monday and Greg, Murphy and I will be nomads for a month).. Trestle may end up in boarding. Anyways, sounds like it's really hot up there and the course is pretty boring.. SOOO i will try to look on the bright side. Next stop Brian Head, UT NORBA. I love that place!

Ok, here are the race reports:

Cross Country: I felt pretty good at the start even though I had been sick for a few weeks and had a terrible showing on the east coast. We had a really bad crash at the start of the race (it was very loud and several girls went down). Fortunately I was able to get around falling riders without being taken down. I figured I was taken down at Fontana NORBA XC and then blocked in the STXC race the next day, so maybe I could be spared this time. I was in a pretty good position going up the first climbs, or at least I thought. Then I started getting passed by peopel who were trying to catch up after the crash. In any event, I was in a big pack of riders the whole first lap which made passing quite difficult. Had to make some passes in some tight situations and pray that I didn't get a flat from riding over sharp foliage! Half way through lap 2, my chain fell off.. also I didn't mention that I ended up with some shifting issues that caused me some time also... Anyways, my chain fell off and I come to find out the train I was in was actually very long and I watched 5-6 riders pass me. UGGH!!!!!!! That really frustrated me and I struggled to get back into the pack. I passed a few more riders and got back in the middle, but never back to where I was. On the 3rd lap, things spaced out more, and I started to feel dehydrated and had tummy issues. Climbing was uber painful and I felt like I didn't have the same power I had on the other laps. I had to remind myself I was JUST SICK and on antibiotics. Should be happy I could even race as I was. Also reminded myself we were at elevation, which this was only my 2nd elevation race of the year. I also found out recently that those who excell at elevation races, don't necessarily excell at sea level!! Makes sense I guess! In the end I finished 49th out of 67 who started the race. However only 60 finished... I was happy to stay with large groups and at least feel good enough to do some passing and felt in control on all of the decents. I love switchbacks! At the end of the race I felt TERRIBLE. My asthma reminded me that it exists as I was talking with Bert within minutes of finishing. Then my tummy screamed at me for 2 hours ..... Matt and I rode back to our condo along a great Park City bike trail system. I could barely drink my recovery drink I felt so terrible! Not even NERDS ROPE could fix it.

Short Track: I thought I was feeling good going into this race and thought I could do well.. had a long warm up along some great roads above Deer Valley, checked out the course a few times... Also the cloud cover appeared making it *less hot*, which also was a nice bonus. I had a pretty good start position in the middle, but then got stuck in a bottleneck and behind fallen racers on the technical climb section. I ended up having to get off the bike and in trying to get back on I kept getting bumped into. I lost several spots that I would not make up. It was a very short course, therefore making it hard to pass and hard not to get pulled quickly. I only survived 2 laps, which is my worst short track EVER (except for Vermont where I was sick and just did it for the points). After the race I felt like I did nothing! I really hope to do better and have a smarter race at Brian Head (both XC and STXC!)

Ridin' and Rollin' in Park City

2006-07-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Just got back late last night from Deer Valley NORBA.......

Matt's blog gives a good recap on some features of the weekend, but I owe it to everyone to tell my funny story..

Saturday we rolled from our condo up to the venue in our rental suburban (sorry, it didn't have DUBs) with bikes and gear. Matt was racing XC at 11:30 and I was racing at 1:45 (which turned into 2:30). I took my time getting ready and decided to just relax in the 'burban and listen to my iPod. I rolled over to the bathroom with my bike, and then back to the car. Had the music on, unlocked the passenger door and lounged with my feet up. Decided it was getting warm with just the door open, so figured I would open the windows. Got the keys out to stick in the egnition, and for some reason the keys wouldn't fit. I have to admit, I tried several times to get that darn key to fit. Wasn't sure what the deal was (it must have been the elevation getting to me). Decided to go back to the trunk to get my phone so I could check the time. I walked back to the trunk and reached for the handle. Hmmm...... the handle wasn't where I was reaching.... Then I saw the word "YUKON" and realized....... THIS IS THE WRONG CAR. I quickly took my bike and moved 10 feet away to where our ACTUAL CAR WAS.

OK yes you are laughing at me. HOWEVER, this Yukon was the SAME exact color as our 'burban also had the same interior! AND the door was open (or somehow unlocked with my remote). So, yes I spent 15 minutes in and around someone else's car.

This is what takes the cake.... on the dashboard, while I was lounging, I saw a pair of Burton long fingered gloves. I was thinking to myself "who's gloves are those? who would be wearing Burton gloves out of our bunch? Maybe they are Trevor's and it's a single-speed thing?". even that didn't even make my brain register that perhaps I was in the wrong car.

I know I will never hear the end of this story, but I have to admit, as silly as it makes me look, it's a good one!

I will put up another post soon with actual recap of the racing and other tidbits!

An incident possibly scarier than the Snake getting caught in my casette last year...

2006-07-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday on my road ride (alone), I ventured up a hill into a pretty quiet area. Wanted to go up to the top, so turned left onto "Panorama Drive" or something like that. Greg and I have been on this street before on our bikes, and I was pretty sure it wasn't a "private drive". It's one of those small streets with no outlet and a sign listing all the names of who lives on the street. HOWEVER, there was no sign that said "Private Drive" or "no Tresspassing", etc.

As I rode down the street, all of sudden I heard some dogs barking. Then I could feel that they were at my back wheel barking and chasing. I told them to please just let me go by and yea yea I get the point.... etc etc. I was hoping that I would find an outlet on this "no Outlet" street. Once I saw the end of the street, another large dog came tearing after me. I said "ok ok, I will leave!". I turned my bike around, which only made this dog more agressive. As I tried to ride by, he bit my foot. THANKFULLY, he didn't bite hard enough to break through my Specialized road shoes (thanks Specialized for making a shoe that makes it a little tougher for a dog to BITE THROUGH IT).

At this point I am very scared, shaking, upset., etc etc. I rode away, thankfully the dog didn't chase. However, I knew I had to get thorugh the other 2 dogs. I was looking around for ANYONE, any single person who could help me get outta there. Thankfully a guy in an SUV drove up, and I flagged him down. I didn't have to say much because he saw the dogs blocking my way out of the street. He yelled to the dogs "Be nice!", and I rode along side his car slowly. He said "don't worry, they will only intimidate you". I then mentioned that the dog down the street actually BIT me. He said "Oh ya... that one.. well these dogs are the watch dogs of the street". I found it hard to believe that no one else has complained about these dogs. Without a sign that says no tresspassing or private drive, why wouldn't people venture over there? It's one of the nice vista points in Redlands. What if I was on foot, or a small child? Yea I sure felt like a small child out there yesterday!

Anyways, it was definately scary and I will never go back to that street! Maybe I am the last person in town to know that you should never ride/walk down "Panorama Drive!"

Thursday night, Matt, Trevor, Joy and I are off to Deer Valley, UT for yet another challenging weeekend of racing! I am feeling alot better now, but hopefully I can feel 100% for the weekend.

Back on the West Coast

2006-06-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

It feels good to be back, after 13 days of busy travel and racing and being sick.

Apparently my poor performance in Vermont was a combination of allergies, asthma and coming down with an upper respiratory infection. I started antibiotics about a week ago (thanks to my allergist who takes very good care of me!)

The days in between VT and our trip to World Cup at Mont Saint Anne, QC were good. Spent time with family, friends and did some work, ate some really good food, etc. However, I was coughing and hacking and feeling generally crappy. Had some emotional moments once I realized that I might not be able to race the World Cup and reflecting on my terrible performances in Vermont. My parents and Greg and Teri did a good job convincing me to just give it my best shot. Greg told me that even if I lined up at the start, and couldn't even do 1 lap, I was still going to try!

Gareth had me take it easy most of the week to try to recover from my illness. Therefore on Friday at Mt St Anne, I could only do a visual inspection of parts of the race course. Knowing I would pre-ride Saturday AM, then race on Sunday I was ok with this. Greg and I watched the Quebec Cup race on Friday and I was able to pick out some lines I would take through the technical sections when I could finally ride it. Meggan and Teri were out pre-riding Fri evening and Greg and I went out again for more visual inspection.

Saturday AM I was eager to get out and pre-ride even though I was still feeling asthmatic and quite congested. Meggan told me it was OK if I had to stop and hack :o). I definately took advantage of it. Teri, Meggan and I did a few laps of the short, yet highly technical course. I really enjoyed being out there pre-riding with all of the other pros. Got to see many of my favorites on the men's and women's side.

The course was only 5k in length, and would end up taking the top female races only 20 minutes to complete. yes that means people were going to be lapped. My goal was to stay in as long as I could. I knew that being sick that could mean only 1 or even 2 laps. Who knows! There were a few sections where we would have to dismount and walk, but also alot of fun root/rock/mud sections where we rode. I must say other than the heat and humidity and allergens, I LOVE EAST COAST RIDING! It's REAL MOUNTAIN BIKING!

Sunday was the race! I was nervous because I still didn't feel great, but was excited to just get to try! They called all of us to the start line (there were around 80 women). The race started out SUPER fast and my legs tried to answer as best they could given the situation. It was going to be a tough race! The spectators certainly kept me going. It was just as I had imagined and seen in Off Road to Athens. Fans were ALL over the course, shouting, clapping, cheering in different languages (mostly French) and were very excited to be there. In the end I only survived 2 laps before being pulled, but didn't finish last and met a cool gal from New Zealand who was ALSO sick and gave the race a try just like me.

Highlights of the day:
1. Being called up to the start line in French "Numero soixante-dix-huit, aux Etats-Unis... Christie Pleiss"

2. The amazing spectators! "Allez! Allez! Allons-y! UP UP UP! Let's go!"

3. The spectators who were actually shouting out my name! It took my a while to figure this one out, but I remembered Heather telling me that some people will call your name when you come by!

4. Greg got to be feeder for me, Teri, Dara Marks-Marino (she finsihed 21st even after a bad crash!), Zeph and Heather . He did a great job! I know that Joy would have really liked this job too. NEXT YEAR JOY!

5. Watching Marie-Helene Premont beat Gunn-Rita with nearly a 1 minute gap! Teri and I were right at the finish line to watch this. It was an emotional sight and seeing Marie-Helene take the win over Gunn-Rita a 2nd year in a row in her own home race was AWESOME!

**** 6. Seeing Mary McConneloug get a solid 5th place podium finish!!!!!!!!

Overall, it was an awesome experience and I would definatley do it again. Hopefully I will be healthy this time and can stay in the race longer before being pulled! Nearly 1/2 of the field was pulled out of the race before the final lap! In the men's race even MORE were pulled out and some only did 1 lap!

Photos to come SOON!

A Weekend of Highs and Lows

2006-06-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well, NORBA #3 Mt Snow is complete, but didn't pan out as I had planned. In the end, it was a fun weekend, got to see family and friends and had a great time with Teri and Joy. In the end, my performance had nothing to do with family and friends being present over the weekend. Race-wise, it was a terrible weekend for me. I guess I forgot how bad allergy season is out here! I got hit HARD with allergies and asthma.

Here is a short list of the BAD THINGS that happened to me this past weekend:

1. Back wheel BROKE at the hub during 2nd pre-ride (good thing I pre-rode 2x, however in the end it wouldn't even matter). Thanks to Joy for sharing her wheel with me.

2. Shifting problems (thanks to SRAM for sorting those out for me and thanks to Shimano for trueing Joy's wheel for me before the XC race!)

3. Leg cramps (i actually had to get off my bike during the race! that has NEVER HAPPENED TO ME). Who knows!

4. Crashed on lap 1 and handlebar was caught in my frame. That was really the start of the end for me in the XC race. Threw off my mojo completely.

5. The final straw: Asthma attack on the final lap of XC did me in. It was the worst attack I have had in years. I had to pull the plug on the race at that point. Wasn't sure if it would happen again, and I still had a while to go. It was emotional and hard to decide to pull out of the race. My family and friends in attendance, I had wanted them to see me do well. They still love me and are still just a proud. I think it was fun for them to see what this racing thing is all about. I know they all have a new appreciation for everything goes into it.

6. Allergies were terrible as soon as I arrived in Vermont. it carried into the Short track on Sunday, sore throat like when I have strep throat! Raced anyways, and at least I got some points for the series in STXC. Wasn't a good race for me, but at least I tried.

The GOOD THINGs that happened this past weekend:

1. Family and friends came to see me race: Mom, Dad, Marsha, Lydia, David, Noble, Liz, Mike, Jen, Drew, Seth, Karen, Mandy, Dan and Joey! Quite a turnout!

2. Joy took one for the team and gave me her wheel during pre-ride and walked all the way down the mountain with my broken wheel. In return, her wheel is going to be racing with me at the Mt St Anne World Cup this weekend ( as long as my allergies will CHILL OUT).

3. LOVED the XC course at VT. Prob the best XC course I have ever been on . Loved the technical roots, rocks, mud, etc! the hardtail did just fine and I was pleased with how I handled the tech sections. It was really really fun.

4. During the XC race, Adam Craig passed by me and said "Hey.. is James here?". it took me a second to figure out what he meant and that he was talking to me. Adam is roommates with my teammate James Williams and recognized our team kits. I was so excited and so tired all I could say was "James... here.... yes". hahaha.

Greg and I are still in NY (back home with family) until tomorrow. Tomorrow we will drive up to Quebec and shift gears towards another race weekend (WORLD CUP... eeek!). My goal, get over these allergies, pre-ride as much as possible and just do my best during Sunday's XC race. It's going to be a different race altogehter, even faster and possibly even more technical.

Why Bother!

2006-06-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well things WERE going well until we had to race in some of the hottest temps/conditions I have ever raced in (almost as bad as Bonelli 2004, but at least this time I didn't DNF). I need to revisit my hydration/electrolyte plan, and even my food plan because my stomach was in turmoil during the race. Some may ask why we would actually do a race in near 100 degree temps, I am asking myself that same question! HOWEVER, I learned that I need to take a step back and evaluate my race nutrition.

I felt good at the start and surprisingly excited to go out and race, but soon into the first lap, my stomach started churning. It was not pleased with me. It was unbelievably hot, with little wind. I quickly fell out of 2nd place; descending down the bumpy trail just made my sidestiches and stomach discomfort worse.

After a couple laps I started to feel somewhat better, although I felt like the heat just ate up all of my power. There were a few climbs were it literally felt like we were on fire. The last climb of the 3rd (out of 4) laps, I started to get disoriented/dizzy and more nauseous. I had a bottle mishap where I didn't get a bottle before the 3rd lap started which may have thrown me off. However, I am not sure it would have helped. I did feel thirsty which is never a good sign! I knew it would lead to problems. At one point I felt like I was going to vomit, but it subsided.

On lap 4, even after being cooled off with hoses by spectators, my body was just shutting down. I was sort of delirious, but do remember hearing Bert's name called out over the loud speaker as starting his 5th lap and kicking butt in semi pro (as usual!). It was sort of like an out of body experience at that point! Other girls started to pass me and I basically knew it was just not my day. I saw Joy and told her to hurry up and pass me because "everyone else was doing it". The cramps were getting bad enough where I just couldn't push like I wanted to. People pulled away from me pretty quickly on that last lap :o) However, It was fun to get to see Teri and Joy have a good day (well Joy's was good until the drive home, and when she discovered her sunburn through her jersey .. see http://joyonbike.blogspot.com for more!)

Congrats to Teri for being a great teammate out there and staying positive and smiling finishing 3rd. She deserved the podium for sure! I knew right away that her attitude and sportsmanship was stellar and I was hoping she would make it to the podium. Also congrats to Mandy who took a solid 2nd place! I closed out the field in 4th place.

Congrats to Jeremy who did great in his sport race, taking home another medal. 4th out of 15 riders.

Also James who was called up to the start line as a leader in his class. THAT WAS AWESOME to hear! Thanks to James for being a great friend and support no matter what (and for helping my friends). I decided to be silly and run in my flip flops along side James on his last lap.

Bert once again kicked butt out there! He's amazing!

Thanks to everyone who cheered for me and poured water bottles on me. Roger, Vanessa, James, Mary Ellen, who knows who else! I can't remember because I was delerious. Chris was out there cheering in a good spot, I am sure everyone who saw me out there, knew it was apparently my turn to have a bad day! Thanks for the support anyways and it means alot.

Next stops: NORBA #3 Mount Snow Vermont and UCI World Cup XC #5: Mt St Anne, Quebec, Canada.

I am bringing my laptop so race reports should happen promptly!

Back to Big Bear

2006-05-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the first race of the season up at Big Bear (Race #4 of the California State Series). We only have three races there this year, as compared to previous years when we had at least 5 or 6. It's always nice to get back up to Big Bear and away from the heat down in the lowlands. The weather was great and the course conditions ended up being alot better than one week prior when Joy, Teri and I tried to guess what the race course would be.

The pleasant surprise was that we ended up racing on much more singletrack than I had expected. This made the day much more enjoyable than just racing on the sandy fire roads. We got to ride 1E01 going up (normally we go down), which made it fun and challenging. 1E01 is definately one of my favorite trails on the mountain. Also got to ride down Lower Falline to Fern trail which is also technical and fun! I give props to Team Big Bear who put together a great course!

I just flew back from Austin, TX (trip for work) on Friday night, so I was not feeling as energized as normal. Didn't think it would be a great day, but after the first 25 min or so of the race, my legs opened up. Still not sure where the energy came from (maybe my Espresso flavor Hammer Gel w/ caffeine?), but enjoying the course and the nice weather probably helped. Also, working with Teri at the start (who had an excellent start!) really helped motivate me through the first round of pain. She helped keep me from fading out during the first climbs. I was very proud of Teri yesterday because she was looking very strong when we were together and was having a great race until she flatted near the end of the course. I also enjoyed riding with Jeremy, Jay and Bob a few times in their respective race categories along the route.

I ended up finishing 2nd place overall. I guess I ended up feeling pretty strong yesterday as the race went on, even after travelling and not feeling super motivated to do the race. So I can't complain about that! It ended up being a good day. I know Carolyn wasn't feeling well (but still raced), else I probably would have had some more work ahead of me! Congrats to Mandy who finished 3rd and Tommara the usual 1st place finisher! Man she's fast!

Thanks to Jess, Chris and Nicole for coming up for the race! Also for bringing mini-Murphy (Jade the puppy who looks just like Murphy). Greg also enjoyed the company for sure!

Congrats to Team K&N Jeremy who also had another podium finish! Other podium pals include James, Jay and Papo! Congrats! It was also great to have in addtion to myself, Teri and Jeremy, fellow K&N teammates Matt and Trevor racing too. Might I add that Matt is not only a pro racer, but also has a 1 year old son!

Next stop: Santa Barbara Bike Festival in 2 weeks. Can't wait, should be a great course PLUS Fat Tire Beer on tap! That might entice Greg into going!

News Flash!

2006-05-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Team K&N Performance is featured in an article on Mountain Bike Action's website. Check it out!

Trestle the cat: Just Chillin (or Chillaxin' as Shane likes to say)

NORBA Nationals Round #1

2006-05-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

We just finished round 1 of the NORBA National Championship Series in Fontana, CA (20 min drive from our house). It was a whirlwind weekend with lots of excitement, stress, pain & suffering, high and low points.. everything that a big race weekend is meant to be.

Things kicked off Friday night when Joy claimed an awesome 3rd place in the Open Women's Short Track (an event I have learned to know well over the past few years). I was still at work when she was racing, but was glad Teri got to witness first hand what is being dubbed the best race of Joy's career to date!

Race 1: Cross Country

Saturday kicked off the racing for me and the other pros with the cross country race. As this was my first NORBA race as a pro, I was both very excited and VERY NERVOUS. The announcers called each of us to the start line and naturally my last name was mispronounced (Fortunately, Longo says it properly which he would do Sunday at STXC staging). However, I was still excited and also excited that Teri was called up right after me. So we go to start near eachother. Everything would have been fine and dandy had I not been tangled in a pile up that occured no more than 20 yards from the start line. I wasn't hurt, but had to collect myself and my bike and get going again. I had to make my way back through the pack and was stuck behind people WALKING on the very first mini-not-even-really-technical climb. Things would continue like this for much of the first lap, as people were falling everywhere! I managed to make it through the 1st lap back up in the 30s (out of 62 starters) and maintained that through the 2nd lap. Probably was as high as 32nd or 33rd at the start of lap 3. That is when the ol legs said they were done. I felt like I had lost some of my power and the heat was really getting to me. I dropped my chain (on the inside)! Then lost my position and at least a few minutes because of how I felt especially after getting off my bike to get the chain sorted out (a 2nd time). Not to mention the times I fell or had to manage the very fast pro men passing (most were VERY NICE thank you)! I am pretty sure just about EVERYONE who raced the XC fell down at least once or had some issue. Finally when I knew I was getting closer to the end, I was able to pick it back up a bit, but only enough to regain 1 of the spots I had lost. In the end I was 37/62, not too bad for my NORBA pro debut. Also I hadn't slept as much as normal during the days leading up. THAT I am sure, went into play! I will chalk it up as a decent result and a good learning experience.

Thanks to everyone for the awesome support. Especially JOY for feeding me and helping all of us get out little warm up area sorted out, Gregs (Johnson & Pleiss) for sweet photos and words of support, Country James for making me keep on riding up that first steep climb around the walkers, Papo and everyone else who was out there supporting! Also special thanks to our friend David W who also came out from Redlands to watch!

Race 2: Short Track A.K.A "The Hurricane of Pain"

Sunday was the short track on what ended up being quite a challenging course! I tried my best to recover properly after the cross country, so we would see what happens. I was definately tired, still trying to catch up on sleep and manage all of the excitement. I warmed up for a long time hoping that it would help. Staging took place, my name pronounded right (Thanks Longo!) and this time the National Anthem was sung before our race (Sat the pro men had the honor). It was definatley a special feeling to be lined up once again with the best mountain bikers in the country (and some best in the world!). The race started and naturally I got boxed in around the first corner (DARN IT!). I had to seriously make up some time, so I just hammerd around as many people as I could right away. However, we ended up in a massive bottleneck at the descent section. I saw Teri pick up her bike and run over the rocks. I followed her and realized that we were not going to be riding down this thing unless we waited 10 minutes for the bottleneck to clear. It was intense, but we made it down OK and back on the bikes. I knew I had to make up some more positions, so passed a cluster of gals right at the start/finish line. passed a few more around the next few sections. I heard the whistle blowing which meant they were ALREADY pulling people after only 2 laps! YIKES! I guess I needed to hustle. Teri shouted me a message I must have heard without realizing. She had been pulled and was shouting to me to GO!!!!!!! I was in alot of pain (as we all were in this event), but tried my best to keep going. After 4 laps, I was pulled too. Only 22 women ended up staying in without being pulled. Turned around expecting to see the leaders come through and after at LEAST 1 minute, no one was coming. I was very surprised to be pulled because apparently I was not far off some girls who ended up making it into the final 3 laps. OH WELL, next time go faster and don't get boxed in! In the end I finished 34/53. Not too bad, but always so frustrating to get pulled too early!

Before and after the race I got to see several friends who came to watch! Edie, Katy, Greg & Ronda Mader (with baby Lorelei!). Not to mention all of the other usual suspects like Veeze, James, Ara & and the Backbone Crew, fellow K&N teammates, Kenny and who knows who else! I heard alot of voices out there during the race and it HELPED. EVERYONE in the world could hear James (Cross) cheering us on. "I KNOW THIS IS PAINFUL CHRISTIE... BUT THIS IS YOUR KIND OF COURSE!!!!" was just one of the selections from James during the race. Other comments like "GO CHRISTIE GO! GET ON HER WHEEL!" etc etc. The funny thing is that I could hear James EVERYWHERE on the course as if he was right there. Matt commented that he could hear him loud and clear during his race too.

All in all it was a successfull first NORBA weekend. I felt proud to see so many great results for my friends and teammates. Also really enjoyed our house guests and super strong racers: Zeph, Kenny & Heather. All three of them had a great showing at Fontana!

Check out our team site for more scoop on how everyone did and lots of excellent photos!

Firestone Walker Race Report

2006-05-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yes that's me the one holding up 2 arms while everyone else was holding up 1. Maybe it was because I was extra excited to be there? If you look closely my eyes are watering with emotion. Then I looked out into the crowd and saw Teri doing the same. It was a special moment I have to say. I think Teri and I hugged 100 times that day. James was kneeling down in the front taking this picture. He was happy too.

The race was held at the Firestone-Walker property near Los Olivos/Solvang (right at the mile 90 SAG stop for those of you who have done Solvang Century). I rode up with Joy and her posse (Jason, Uriah and Dozer the 105 lb American Bulldog.. not even full grown yet).

Saturday we did an easy pre-ride of the course realizing that it was going to be a very fast race and it would be mentally challenging as well since everyone would likely be together for a while. James was there helping me, Joy and Mandy tune up our bikes. Thanks James! Sat evening we did the pasta-feed at the venue with Meggan/Steve and Sami/Jon.

Sunday race day: The cloud cover burned off, the humidiy was rising along the with temps and my nervousness. It was going to be our first hot race of the year which always takes some adjustment. Race started in the peak of the heat and as I expected went out FAST. Most of the group stayed together for the first 30 minutes or so, and then finally broke apart. I stuck in the top 5 with some toggling as high up as 3rd on the first lap (with some interesting tactics and mind games to deal with). In the end I ended up in 4th overall out of a strong field of 12 pro women, only 35 seconds out of 2nd place! I tried so hard to catch #2 and #3 but they always saw me coming. So of course they weren't going to give it up that easy! It was a great experience, definately excellent training as the season continues!

Congrats to Jeremy who took another sport 25-29 podium in 4th place! He was looking very strong out there that is for sure.

Congrats to Joy who took first in her expert class and 2nd fastest expert time of the day. Thankfully she had NO MECHANICAL problems!

Congrats to Ara who finished his first marathon race. 5 laps of a 15.5 mile course!

Thanks once again to the Backbone crew for their cheers and support out there on the course!

The Many "Firsts" of Bonelli

2006-04-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

I always make fun of Bonelli Park and call it Smelly Bonelli, "the place where Teri saw a giant dead catfish floating on the trail", among other things. As much as I poke fun, it actually represents several "firsts" for me. Another one of those firsts occured yesterday ...

2002: First MTB race in California and first podium as sport racer (in Cali)
2003: First podium as expert racer (in Cali)
yesterday: First time on the podium as a pro!

Picture of the Day: It might be hard to tell in this picture, but Meggan, Teri and me are at the start dancing in place to a dance remix of "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Meggan even broke out a rendition of the guys from Night at the Roxbury. The pre-race music pumping from the Team Big Bear trailer included American Idol Theme Song, something by the Backstreet Boys and a wide variety of other selections. The odd tunes were definately a topic of conversation as Joy, Teri and I warmed up.

It was a fun day, good weather, good trail conditions and great company. At the end of the race, Steve (Meggan's hubby) said "What did YOU eat for breakfast?". I actually took a second to think about it after he asked because whatever it was worked! I ended up 3rd place yesterday out of 8 pro women finishers (9 started). A pretty good turnout of strong ladies again for a local race. I learned alot yesterday during the race about myself and my capabilities when I really put my MIND to it (because it's not all about the legs!). I am still in shock that ole Smelly Bonelli would be the place where I would experience yet another "first". It was also great to spend so much time with or nearby Chrissy and Carolyn out there during the race.

Shout Out Thank Yous:

Thom Blaine, manager of Team Jose Ole. thank you for the support before and during the race! (Thanks Joy for sharing your peeps!)

Cap'n Chris Sharp, Ara, Abel, Al, Short Stack and the whole Backbone Crew. It was fun hanging out and thanks for the encouragement out there on the course. Thanks for sharing your BBQ food and playing with Murphy-dog!

Biggest Bummer of the day: Joy lost her cranks (2x) and had to finished her race single-legged! Props to Joy for FINISHING under those circumstances!

Other exciting Bonelli news: Jeremy had his first MTB podium EVER with an awesome 5th place finish in his sport race! Congrats!!!

One of the reasons why I race....

2006-04-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post the picture (as seen below) because it really made this year's Sea Otter a fun experience (apart from the mud and suffering). We really have a strong group of local (and semi-local) pro ladies. It has been exciting to see alot of us in our first year as pro MTB'ers and going through the whole learning process. In some sense, your first year (or even 2) as a pro is like being a beginner. A small fish in a big pond, with lots to learn and experience. A whole new level of speed, power and endurance is required and just getting out there and racing at this level makes us stronger.

After the Sea Otter Time Trial: (From Left to Right: Heather Svahn, Carolyn Popovic, Meggan Flaherty, Teri Strayer, Christie Pleiss, Chrissy Bono and Mandy Eakins)

It's having a group of ladies like this to race with every weekend that helps make racing a good experience even on the worst day. We can act crazy, chat about "girl stuff", make the guys want to have nothing to do with us, etc etc.However, then we get out there on the course and work hard and strong. Yet, while we are out there working hard and essentially competing against eachother, we are still friends and help encourage eachother in times of need. That was especially evident during some of the stages of Sea Otter. Just simply encouraging eachother and helping as friends.

Also, I can't leave out Joy, who is technically an honorary pro gal. Sometimes we forget that she has not yet moved up to pro, which only goes to show we see alot of potential in her and know she will do GREAT THINGS!

Bike Fitting

2006-04-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Matt and I got our professional bike fittings done! I learned so much new and interesting information about bike set up and body positioning on the bike. Mike McKovich (Max Performance Bike Fit) is one of Team K&N Performance's wonderful sponsors and we sure appreciate the support! Here are a few photos courtest of Matt! He said they are low quality, but they still get the point across.

Running through the fit test a 2nd time after some minor tweaks...

Mike making some additional measurements

Sea Otter: Full Race Report

2006-04-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

OK I have been pondering the best way to recap each event without writing a million lines of text.

Matt sums up the high level of competition nicely in his blog. On the women's side, we had the usual World Cup suspects (Sydor, McConneloug, Florit to name a few), also among them 3 time world champion Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja. I had only ever seen her before on the cover of Velo News. I didn't get as emotional as I thought I would lining up for each event. Probably since I knew I had business to attend to! Wasn't just hanging out at the side lines watching my idols like I had before. I was racing with them! HAHA.

**UPDATE: What I forgot to include was comments about the shifting problems that occured the short track and XC due to all the MUD! yes yes, that cost me some time as well! Yea yea, excuses, excuses!

Stage 1: Super XC

I basically just wanted to survive this race! I had no idea what it would be like. 60 minutes 1/2 pavement 1/2 MUD. Figured I would see how long I could stay with the pack and try not to finish last. I felt great on the road, had good legs, but then once we hit the mud, I just kept picking terrible lines. I felt like I was wasting lots of extra energy out there and it was very frustrating. People would pass me in the mud and then I would pass them back on the road. Same thing occured for the 4 laps I ended up doing. Would have done 5, if Gunn-Rita (who had a several minute lead on teh next group) hadn't passed me! Oh well, finished the event 57/69. Not bad for my first major pro event and lots of foul ups in the mud. One of the highlights of this race was working and finishing with Mandy.

Stage 2: Time Trial

I was hoping to do well in this event, but all good things come to an end! We lined up in the mud waiting for our start times. Preparing for a 2 mile time trial with a combination of mud, climbing and then more mud. The best line from the start line was right through the water. Mandy kindly reminded me of this right before she took off, and I waited my 30 seconds for my turn. Thanks Mandy! I had a pretty smooth start, with a few wobbles, but pretty good! James video taped several people's starts and I actually had a better start than some of the top pros! Waaa hoo! Anyways, like I said all good things come to an end. I was so close to catching Mandy on the climb, which meant I was making good time. However, got to the big mud pit, found what I thought was a good line, but in the 2nd section had to clip out. I SHOULD HAVE JUST RUN!!! Oh well in the end I had a coupel more struggles in teh mud costing me even more time. I finished 51/68 ( I think one person dropped out after day 1), and missed top forty by matters of SECONDS. YES the time I wasted in the mud could have put me in a much better postition! OH WELL C'est la Vie!

Stage 3: Short Track

Thankfully I have done a number of short track events at this point, so I knew the pain and suffering we were all about to embark on. However the big difference is that this course was 100% mud!!!!!!! I was very nervous at the start because it was going to be crazy trying to get around the first corner without falling. It was pretty exciting to have all sorts of photographers taking pictures of the group as we lined up. There were fans lined up ALL over the course. It was very exciting, but I tried to stay focused. Right off the start of course I was involved in a pile up which made me lose my good positioning from the start! UGGH! Anyways, once I finally got back on the bike I knew my strategy would include RUNNING ALOT. Turned out to be a good trick. I ran through the two big key mud sections which got me around other riders. The bottom half of the course was brown muck/mud/water and was basically like riding blind. Each lap the lines were different and you just had to hope you picked the right line. On one lap, a girl crashed in the brown water right in front of me, so I had to think fast and "MOVE _____ ! GET OUT the way!" For those of you familiar with hip hop, that was a excerpt from a fabulous little tune by Ludacris featuring Mystikal. :o) Yes, White Cocoa in the hizzouse! In any event, I made it 3 (or was it 4) laps of the course before Gunn-Rita threatened to lap me (again she was WAY AHEAD of the rest of the field). A bunch of us were pulled out at the same time which we were all honestly thankful for. According to the results I was 48/68. Whatever! Not too shabby for a mud-fest short track! Also I moved up in the ranks a bit more, which was also a pleasant surprise!

Stage 4: Cross Country

I basically summed up the XC race highlights in the previous post. To make it short and sweet: All I wanted to do was SLEEP that day. My legs tricked me into thinking they felt good, but my eyes were ever so tired. I think we all felt that way! The start was intense on the track for the start of the 38 mile race (in the MUD and the drizzle!). I stayed with the pack through the road section and then the pack was seperated on the first sections of trail. 20 minutes into the race, I endoed over my bars in the singletrack. NOT GOOD. Hurt my back and then realized that my front forkie no workie! I lost my mojo and my plan to keep up with some other gals. Took me a while to feel good again, and it wasn't until I saw Meggan out there that I felt happy again. As indicated in her blog, we worked together for a while and I think it refreshed both of us! On lap 2, forkie no workie still, so I had to back off on the descending. Luckily I ran into Mandy around 1/2 way through lap 2 and we worked together for quite a while. I also had a great time dukeing it out with "Jimbo" Wimberly (of Angela's hubby fame!) and some of the other expert men! Those guys helped make this race fun! My legs decided to come to the big show once we hit the pavement climb, and helped me work a pretty strong finish (relatively speaking.. gotta have my own little personal goals right?). I ended up 46th in the XC. Out of 69 women who originally started the 4 day stage race, including the best racers in the country and some of the world's best. I finished 44th overall in the Omnium GC. Can't complain! Especially considering how many problems my bike had and my mind had dealing with the mud!

It was also especially wonderful to have my fellow So Cal pro ladies out there. Mandy, Meggan, Teri, Chrissy, Carolyn and Heather (honorary So Cal gal). It was a tough week for everyone and we need to focus on the positives! ALL OF US have at least a few positive outcomes from the week. Ailments, mechanicals and illnesses aside!

Also BIG PROPS GO OUT TO:

Team K&N: Matt, James, Josh, Trevor, Teri and Jeremy. Everyone gave it their best shot given the outrageous conditions! What a crazy way to really kick off the season! It can only get better (hopefully!)

James Cross: Thank you for all of your help you provided to me, my friends and other folks! Yea yea, I know you just wanted to get closer to the pro chix... ;o) Thanks for all of your help and support!!!!!!!!!!

Hubby Greg: Thank you for another memorable year at Sea Otter. We have alot of photos to sift through. I know you had a good time and hopefully you will win the Velo News photo contest and then give me your prize! ;o)

Mud Otter Classic 2006: Introduction

2006-04-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to begin with this series of blog updates. I could write a million lines about what the past week has been like! If you read Meggan's blog, she does an excellent job of recapping each event in precise detail with great pix! So in the meantime, as I get the momentum together for a really amazing blog update, read Meggan's! Or Joy's!

Greg took 800 pictures over the 4 days of racing. We will post all of the K&N related photos on the team site, plus a few highlight pix on this site. All Backbone team related pix will be posted by Cap'n Chris on Backbone team site.

I will begin with one of the highlights of the weekend, which happened to occur on the final day in the final race (Cross Country).......

As I was climbing approaching the 3k to go sign (also the pro feed zone where my wonderful husband Greg was stationed), the small white/grey figures in the distance became clear. Hundreds of sheep were migrating across the hills and were making their way across one of the final climbing sections of trail. It made me laugh out loud, but also feel somewhat concerned about what would happen when it was my turn to pass through the wool. As the guys ahead of me made their way up the climb, the sheep scattered to either side of the trail. I figured they would stay off the course for a little longer. As I made my way through, I looked over at a mama and baby as they watched me in my final minutes of agony. I wonder what they were thinking "she's crazy!" was probably one of the things that came to mind.

At this time, durign the final parts of the race, a feeling of accomplishment and joy masked the pain I had been feeling for the prior 3+ hours. I was going to DO THIS. I was going to finish the most greuling race I have done in my 6 years of racing, let alone my first 4 day UCI elite/pro stage race. Yes, the emotions were brewing, a few tears could have surfaced. But I knew I had to remain strong and continue with the power I had somehow built up a litlte while earlier once I hit the final road climb. From that point on (4 miles to go) I had legs that I didn't realize existed. Was wishing I had them 2 hours earlier on the first lap, but over time it will continue to come together.

When I surfaced onto the track for the final descent to the finish, I pulled with every ounce of energy I possibly had left. My bike noisy and voluntarily shifting while I tried to pound through in the big ring, I proudly made it through the finish to be greeted by friends, teammates, and the COMPLETION! It was DONE. my legs were shaking, but the adrenlaline was still flowing through my veins (would continue to do so for around 24 hours as I reflect on the pain and suffering of the last 4 days with friends and co-workers).

It was a pretty memorable and successful journey, bike problems and sore legs and tired eyes aside.

MORE SEA OTTER STORIES TO COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sagebrush Safari once again!

2006-04-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

It was the inagural MTB race weekend for several members of Team K&N Performance. We had our shiny new kits; "STEALTH" as Joy calls them. I definately put mine to the test as I made quite the embarassing and painful tumble early in the pre-ride (see Joy's blog for full recap of pre-ride and various crashes!) The ride with Teri, Jay and Joy was good. It was great to enjoy one of my favorite trails once again. The conditions were sweet, and even the notorious hike-a-bike had more rideable sections than in past years. Joy and I both finished the ride with various ailments.

Joy had to drive me and my bum ankle back to our hotel to meet up with Greg and Murphy, Since Joy could still walk without pain (sort of), she proceeded to the town store to get some medical supplies for her abrasions and my hurt ankle. Epson salts, bandages, peroxide, advil liqui-gels, and some candy were part of her purchases. She also convinced me to follow up the luke-warm epson salts soak with an ice soak. EEEEK! Well it worked pretty well I must say.

In any event, hurt ankle aside, Josh, Jeremy, Teri and I represented Team K&N at the 2006 Cal State Sagebrush Safari. Greg captured some good photos along the way. My ankle felt fine during the race which is a pure miracle! It's actually continually getting better just in time for the impending doom that is called SEA OTTER PRO MTB STAGE RACE! Only 2 days away!

Take a look at that snazzy new kit!

To recap the race: I didn't get a proper warm-up due to some last minute monkeying with my saddle (thank goodness it wasn't a crit, else I would have been in big trouble w/out proper warm up). Race started fast as usual, and I ended up getting pushed by one of the expert riders which made it feel more like a road race. Whatever. Teri and I worked out some basic team tactics and I got myself in front of this other gal for the time being. The road climb to 4 corners was tough as usual, but I felt much stronger than in years past. Everything was fine and dandy until 1/2 way through the singletrack where I made another silly error and fell, knocking my gears out of sorts. Thus I had to manage w/out a big ring for much longer than I would have liked. Thankfully during the Mt Pinos climb I tinkered enough with the fine tune adjusters that I salvaged the big ring. It was noisy, but it worked with some brute force! I finally got my mojo back on Mt Pinos and it continued for the rest of the race. Built up a gap between myself and the next rider, and also closed the gap on those in front of me. In the end, aliments and mechanical issues aside, I finished 6th place and felt strong. Had I not had issues, I think I could have placed better, but I still can't complain! I shaved over 20 minutes off last year's time (partially due to paved climb up Mt Pinos) It's amazing how much time you can lose monkeying with things on your bike (even when riding) and when you don't have a big ring when you really need it !!!!!!!!!!!

Another Sagebrush Safari in the history books!

The Pre-Season Comes to a Close

2006-03-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

Well the last few weekends have been quite busy! My pre-season racing has come to a close and now it's time for MTB season to officially start.

Here is a quick re-cap of the last two weekends:

(Thanks to Greg for all of the great photos the last 2 weekends!)

Mar 17-19: San Dimas Stage Race. I knew that 3 days of road racing would be good prep for 4 days of racing in a row at Sea Otter. I learned alot from doing these events, which was really only my 2nd time in an official road event (Boulevard being the first). My best event of the weekend was the 3.8 miles up Glendora Mountain Road time trial (19th/54 riders. Cat 3 and 4 combined). I passed three other racers along the way and we had all started at 30 second intervals. I was pretty pleased. However, during the road race I made some critical novice errors that cost me any kind of decent showing. I ended up a rather embarassing 35th place! EEEEK! However it was still great training, since I was in a chase group or on my own for alot of the race! It was definately a fast road race, not meant for climbers (like Boulevard was), so I paid the price. Day three was my first criterium EVER and it went pretty well. Some say it was the fastest crit they have ever done. It was definately fast and never let up! I stayed with the lead pack for the first half, then fell into a chase group. In the end, I finished 28th, but with a gap of only 33 seconds behind the leader. not bad for my first crit! plus NO one crashed and I made it through a 3 day stage race alive and still wanting to get on a bike again! :o) All in all, a great experience and trained me to do solid warm-ups and decent cool downs and to work on nutrition before and after the races.

SDSR Road Race: The joyous KOM climb

Men's 4 crash at the finish (same time my race was finishing! Only good reason I was dropped)

March 25-26: Redlands Classic: I decided to do the Savage Hills Challenge put on by the Rotary Club here in Redlands. We did 60 miles with at least 5,000 feet of climbing (not nearly as much as Breathless Agony, but more than I would have liked to do day before a race). It felt like more than 5,000 feet of climbing... Might need to get someone's GPS results! We did 7 individual *hill climbs* that definatley put us to the test. The hardest being the Smiley Drive climb which was prob 1.5 miles long with grades of 22%. I realized that I probably could have used more gears ! It was certainly a challenge and I would feel very tired the rest of the day. Sore legs all night again.. yuk!

**** NOTE! Just recived confirmation from GPS results that the ride had 6,500 feet of climbing. Yep, I knew it was more than 5,000. Sure felt like it!

Jonathan competed in his first crit today (men's 5s) and dominated nearly the whole race. He made an impressive break from the group with a few laps ago, but unfortuantely was engulfed by the peleton by the finish. In any event, he had a great race and it was fun to be a spectator.

Today was also my women's 3/4 crit as part of the Redlands Classic. Had all sorts of friends, co-workers and some family out there cheering us on. Teri and Joy also joined the crew as well as many of the gals from San Dimas Stage Race. I knew it would be a tough race. The course had some hairy turns which caused a few crashes later in the race. Teri and I managed to stay with the lead pack the WHOLE race which was by far better than I though I would do with my dead legs from all the climbing the day before! Joy worked in a chase group and won a prime as the chase group leader (yay!). I was very very happy with my results for my 2nd crit of my career. Ended up 16th, Teri was 11th. Being in the lead group, we held a steady clip, with an average around 23 mph and all finished very close together. I was definatley pleased with how my legs operated after such a greuling ride the day before. Guess that means the work is paying off and that I will be more ready to handle the multiple race days at Sea Otter. We will see though, as Sea Otter is BIG TIME. Espeically since people like GUNN-RITA DAHLE (3 time World Champion, cover of Velo News multiple times, etc etc) will be racing with us. EEEEK! Exciting, but only makes the competition more intense.

Leaning into the hairpin turn

There is no doubt I have the whitest legs in Southern Cal

Joy wins a prime as lead of the chase group!

Teri takes a turn in front

Just a cool picture...

Photo Essay: Southridge "Fontucky" XC

2006-03-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

Murphy was looking "innocent" as he sniffed out unexpecting people's food items... Greg and Murphy watched me in my first pro XC race of the season (a training race of sorts): Southridge Winter Series Final. All the usual suspects were there, and in addition fellow Team K&N rider Matt came to root us on, and teammate Teri was there to race.

The pro race begins: Pro ladies included Jimena, Tommara, Carolyn, Teri, Chrissy, Meggan, Mandy and myself. I think this may have been the largest turnout ever for women, let alone pro women at a Southridge race!

The course conditions were great! It was also nice to get the first race of the season under my belt. I will also note that this race acted as a whip .. to whip my butt into gear and work hard! Yes yes.... I have some more work to do, but alas, it's only March and technically my season officially starts April 2 (ya ya, i know it's just around the corner!). Thanks to Teri for making me add this one to my schedule!

On Birthday Eve

2006-03-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the eve before I begin the final year of my twenties (I can show you my ID if you are one of the non-believers). I can't believe it's this time of year already. When the birthday rolls around, it means Sea Otter is right around the corner. MTB race season is technically upon us! Only this year, it's scarier; there are no guarantees and every race will be very hard work.

The photo to the right was taken by Greg at 2005 Brian Head NORBA XC. It actually makes me look like I have good form. Looking through the photos of other racers it was obvious that Greg scared the bee-jee-zuz out of every racer going through this section as he was basically hidden in the foliage.

I found out today that Jonathan "JW" Weaver will be gracing our presense for shizzle: 3/26-4/6. He noted that he will be in attendance at the first two Fast and Furious Tuesday night rides of the season, and will also be mixing it up at the Redlands Classic Crit (as I will be too).

Had a good weekend of hilly rides after a hellacious work week (in prep for a presentation that went very yesterday well might I add!). Did the leg-burner club road ride (around 4 hrs) on Sat along with Joy, Bev and the usual club suspects. Sunday was a couple hour MTB with Joy at Southridge. The course was in good condition: nice and tacky which is my favorite!

NEWS FLASH!!! BEER FACTOID: FAT TIRE AMBER ALE is FINALLY available in Redlands! This famed beer from my old residence of Colorado has had 3 official sightings in the area:

1. Charlie Jewell's (22 oz bombers available... I am waiting for the day they have it on tap!)
2. Gerrard's Market (22 oz bombers)
3. My fridge! (well. Greg bought them at Gerrard's)

Other notable Pisces friends (and a few Aries who make the cut) who I am sharing birthdays with this week and next: Jose, Chris W, James, Desi, Val, and both of my Uncle Chris's! The list goes on, but March is certainly a popular month.

In terms of celebrities, I am aware that I share a birthday with Mickey Dolenz (of The Monkees fame), and James VanDerBeek (of Dawson's Creek fame.. born the same year even). OK i am waiting for the comments about that one. Greg will be the first one to make fun of the fact that I know this.

Some sort of plague!

2006-02-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well, within an hour of updating my blog Thurs night, I came down with what felt like the plague. I can't remember the last time I was so sick. I knew it was either food poisoning or stomach flu. Rumor had it that this illness was gradually making its way (literally) through people at work. In either event, I couldn't keep solid food down until late Saturday. As you may have guessed that depleted my body of any sort of energy stores and I had to restructure my weekend.

Having a fever so bad your legs hurt makes you wonder if you will ever feel better again! My diet consisted of pedialye, ginger ale and eventually white toast until Sat PM. If I had thought I needed to lose a pound or two, this ilness certainly took care of it (but not in the right way of course)...

In any event, no racing or real riding could occur this weekend due to illness! Sunday I did a light ride and finally felt my energy coming back to me. It's amazing what food can do for your body! I am looking forward to kicking off what I will dub The Final 6 Weeks (until Sea Otter!) tomorrow.

I had to live vicariously through Teri and Joy who had a great time at Fontucky Short Track on Sat. We had no representatives at Ontario Crit either. Everyone went about their regularly scheduled training (or rehabilitation!) instead.

The season is upon us...

2006-02-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's only 6 weeks until Sea Otter. Gareth sent me my next 6 weeks of training yesteday and it was a reality check to see that Sea Otter is already in range!

This coming weekend will be a stage race simulation (sort of). Sat AM will kick off with a 30 minute hill climb TT test, followed by a couple loops at Southridge. Sunday AM Teri and I will be racing Ontario Crit. Good prep for San Dimas Stage Race coming up next month.

In reviewing the race schedule for 2006, April and July are shaping up to be some of the busiest race months. Keeping the right balance between racing, training, work, family, etc is going to be especially hard this year. It seems like every year just keeps getting busier (and with this year comes a new level of competition). Forunately I only have 1 wedding to attend this year so far, and any new babies of friends and family have already arrived or will arrive in the next few months.

Murphy is growing into a fine dog. He enjoyed his first bike race a few weeks ago at Boulevard (concentrating hard, as seen in this photo), and will probably be attending Ontario Crit as well. Greg is very happy with his new race companion!

Work, Train, Race, Work, Train (but don't get sick!)

2006-02-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

OK, I saw that Matt updated his blog, so I no longer have an excuse to procrastinate!!! I really need to get some pix on here too. It's not the same w/out pix.

Since I last posted , it has been a VERY busy few weeks. Here are some highlights:

1. Traveled back to my cold, snowy motherland (upstate NY) for work and family. I worked it out so that I wouldn't miss ANY weekend rides. That was key! Mananged to find a decent gym where I could but daily passes. Came in handy! It's not often I have a client to visit who is only 2 hour drive from my family. Got to celebrate my nephew's 1st birthday and also be with my family as my step-grandmother passed away my final day on site with clients. I was sad not to get to say goodbye (missed her by only hours), but I got to pay respects in my own way.

2. Had a bunch of great training rides with RWBTC and my local girls Joy, Jill and Bev. Have also been doing better with my weekday training and surprisingly NOT GETTING SICK. With work, husband, dog, upcoming house remodel, and daily life, it's hard to fit it all in! I am on about a million herbs (no, not THAT herb!) right now to boost my immunity. Seems to be working pretty well. We will see if I can make it through this weekend without coming down with something. I am definatley not feeling 100% great today. Maybe partially because my body is in dire need of a massage or a chiropractor!

3. Did my first road race! Joy, Teri and I (and several other MTB pro/expert racer chix) did Boulevard RR. I was pretty pleased with my results for the first race (need to write up a real race report. Will do that after this post! No crashes, no drama, just an early day.

4. Palm Springs Century tomorrow. We have a crew of ESRI folk headindg out, plus I am meeting up with the likes of Mandy, Carolyn, James, Bev among others. Should be a fun weekend. The best part is the Martha Green's chocolate cake we have for tomorrow night. Matt Down (down from Ontario, eh) is cooking up some ribs on the grill. Should be a fun weekend to catch up with friends. Murphy will be chillaxing (Shane's token phrase) at Chris & Steve's down the street from our rental with his cousin pups.

On the other side of the pass....

2006-01-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

I started writing this post over the weekend, so thought I better just publish it... Makes it look like I am SORT of keeping up with blogging. Ya right! This post doens't even include anything about weekend rides, but oh well! My next post will include more bike-related updates.

Greg, Murphy and I are enjoying our weekend getaway to sunny Palm Springs. I can see the clouds packed into Banning pass and from what Kelly told me yesterday, Redlands is/was socked in. Not sure if that means rain or just clouds, but it's a different story here in the desert. Even though we are only 45 min away from Redlands, it feels worlds apart. The news channels are even different here!

We are doggie sitting for Chris and Steve until Monday and Murphy is in heaven. Two other dogs to play with, nice weather, a pool to sit by and sun himself, rocks to eat, other dogs toys to destroy. We headed up to the wash behind Chris and Steve's house yesterday to do some hiking (essentially the east side of San Jacinto wilderness) and will do so again here in a little while. It's a great hike (and totally screams for a mountain bike to be ridden on it). The dogs go off-leash and the cutest thing is to see all three dogs in a row hiking up the trail. Pix to come soon!

The other great part about being in the desert right now is The Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is the 17th year of the fest and it keeps getting bigger and more prestgious every year. This is our 2nd year attending some portion of it and I highly recommend it to all of you! Typically the director and/or actors of the films attending the screenings and conduct Q/A after the movie. As of this afternoon we have seen three movies and have at least one more scheduled for tonight. Chris & Steve let us use their passes so we get priority seating and don't have to pay! A pretty sweet deal. Chris & Steve were at the awards gala last week for opening night along with the likes of Charlize Theron, Jake Gyllenhal and Shirley MacClaine. Not bad! Last year, Chris rubbed shoulders with Nicole Kidman! It's fun living vicariously through them. :o)

We have seen:
Hard Candy (the director and lead actress were in the audience for this one!)
Bal-Can-Can (very good from what I recall, but I dozed off! Director of the film was present)
a.k.a Tommy Chong (excellent!!!!!!!!!!!! Director of the film was present. had we gone to yesterday's screening, Chong himself was there!)
Days of Santiago (very disturbing realizations....)

In any event! It was a nice weekend, but taking care of three dogs is alot of work. I don't know how Chris & Steve did it for 10 days over Christmas!