Night Riding

I think I'm finally getting better at night rides. . . . .although I still seem to turn into a bumbling idiot once in a while (not a big stretch I know). Tonight we had a great turn out for a night ride down at Blue. I think it was THE most fun I've ever had on a night ride. The weather was awesome, the company was great, the food afterwards was heavenly. . . . .it was a spectacular night all around.

Now I just need to let the body recover for Sheboygan. Breathing is still hard as I feel like I'm totally out of shape (which I'm not), but such is life. I'll suck it up, hyperventilate with the fast girls (hopefully) and have a good time at my last Sport race before I move on to bigger and better things. All I can do is try my best. :-)

October 3rd, 1992

Sorry..........didn't have time to scan an "old" picture (or a GOOD picture for that matter).

Wow, we're old. 15 years.

A Birthday Shout Out

Happy Birthday Virgin!

Yes, we took her to Texas Roadhouse. Yes, we embarrassed her and made her sit on the saddle.

We're pure evil aren't we?

I think she's catching up to the rest of us in age now. . . . . . . . .

STAY ON THE CARPET!!!!

Good Dog.

Slow to update

I know. . . . .I'm off my A-Game. So slow to update. . . . .so unlike me.

It was an action packed week for MTB Girl. I skipped the rides M-W and then tried to cram it all into Thursday. Split the day with an AM ride with Squirt up at SheVegas, and another night ride with the gang. Made my infamous meatloaf for afterwards. . . . .for some reason it wasn't as good as it usually is, probably cuz I had to put it on the timer. Holding true with the night ride theme. . . . .Super Fly did the yard sale this time around. It isn't a night ride until SOMEONE yardsales it. Hers was incredible. Flipped the bike completely over on it's seat & handle bars with the wheels still spinning. Bet she couldn't do it again if she tried.

Friday we made an awesome score. Traded up our piece of crap TV that requires one stomp on the floor to eliminate the buzzing & static at times. . . . . . .to an "old school" projection TV. It's not the OLD, old school. . . . . .it's actually a pretty amazingly clear picture. So we're back to having to sit a room away again until we can once again adjust to the sheer size of the screen. I do not know HOW we lived without it. We'd better get saving now, because when it dies, we simply are NOT going back to anything smaller than 50". :-)

Saturday had us back up at SheVegas. . . . .I just LOVE that course. It is so much fun. Super Fly even made it up the equalizer. She's one up on me. I used to be able to get just to that root at the top (with my last bike), but now 2/3 of the way is about all I can do. Of course come race day we'll all be hiking a bike anyway. . . . . . . .

And today Captain and I traded in our ride for an extended workout in the flower beds (again). I can type this because I know they'll NEVER read this. . . . but I think the people that lived here before us were absolutely NUTS. We spent the entire day in the flower beds and got like 1/10 of them done. No shit. They're a "gardeners dream" (well, not right now), but they are OUR WORST NIGHTMARE. We'll probably be stuck in bed all day tomorrow not able to move. At least SheVegas is still a week away. . . . . .

And a big kuddos to CK who braved it out for the Cross Race both Saturday and Sunday. He ended up walking away with 1st overall. It's nice to see someone's training is finally paying off.

Speaking of which. . . . . .the DR says my "Iola incident" was likely just an episode of exercise induced asthma. However, due to my strong family history of heart "issues", coupled with a few other HR issues I've been having, I've got a stress test scheduled (AFTER Sheboygan). He said we'll probably get laughed out of the stress lab, and I'll probably pass better than 99.9% of his patience. . . . .BUT there's enough "data" to warrant at least putting our minds at ease. Thanks for the crappy genetics Dad. ;-)

Camping

What's more "dorky" than a bunch of dorks?

A bunch of dorks who play Yatzee. . . . . . .and then take a picture of their score cards.

With one (close) race to go. . . . . .I'll sure miss the camping over the long, cold winter months.

Iola. . . . .finally

What a whirlwind the past few days have been. Got home Sunday night, unpacked the camper, picked up the girls (the dogs), packed my stuff AGAIN only to turn around and leave for another couple days for a real estate convention at the WI Dells. I lost touch w/e-mail, blogs, internet, friends, etc for several days. I felt CUT off from the world. I know. . . .that's no excuse.

ANYWAY. . . . . . . .

Iola. Yeah. Not what I had hoped for. A quick review of the 1st race hosted there this year shows a winning Sport women's time of 1:20:56. This time around the winning time was 1:26:18. That right there is interesting. Of course the top 3 "fast" girls the first time around did not race this Sport race, another interesting tid bit of info.

My race time for THIS race was 1:30:13. Last time I managed to pull 1:28:28. Almost a 2 minute difference. Not so good. Why you ask? Well. . . . . . . . . .

Yes, I did have a great first lap. Yes, I did start off the front, as I usually do (I'm usually somewhere in the top 5 at the start, as I'm a "good starter"). Yes, I did hold that for the entire first lap. No, my heart rate was NOT any higher than normal, in fact, I realized it was several beats LOWER than I'm capable of holding as a race average. That right there was a strange thing.

While I worked my butt off that first lap, I saw a "lower than normal" heart rate, and yet it FELT like my HR was WAY higher. I was recovered going into the race, so I know I wasn't "over trained", which would give me a lower HR. I hadn't been sick, no cold, no fever, etc. . . .so why it was lower, I don't know.

I haven't had the chance to read other people's accounts of the race, but I've been told I'm not the only one who had a "strange" race. I literally had what felt like what I would assume to be an asthma attack (since I don't actually HAVE asthma, I can only guess what that would feel like). Not a full-blown attack, but a severe tightness in my chest, a burning all the way from deep in my lungs up into my throat, an inability to take a deep breath, and a wheezing sound in my lungs that intensified (and HURT) at a higher heart rate. In fact at one point I began to hyperventilate (which I usually do at least once per race), but this time around I almost wasn't able to get my breath back. I thought I was going to have to head to the first aid tent or be carried off the course.

I had no "reason" this occurred. I'm not sure I've EVER had something like this happen. I didn't know what to expect, or what was happening. And I actually got a tad bit scared for a bit - when I couldn't get a breath.

I'm STILL trying to figure out what happened. . . . .allergies? Dust? A harder effort that didn't reflect a higher HR? I don't think I "popped", because I was never at 100%. How can you POP when you can't even GET to 100%? I've had issues breathing in the humidity when I'm riding/racing, but never to this extent. I've never "wheezed". Maybe it's just SARS.

Anyway, I took it back a notch to see what would happen, if I could catch my breath, if my wheezing would stop, if I would pass out and need to be carried off the course. . . . . . . and I watched my peeps pass me one by one, some of them cheering for me to hook their wheel, to work together with them, to DIG on the hills and just hang in there and finish (thank you ladies - you know who you are. You are a JOY to race with and I love you guys).

So that's what I did. I scaled it back a lap, let the HR drop and rode it out. The wheezing persisted, but it got a bit easier to breathe and I managed to pull just a LITTLE bit more out of my butt at the very end to pass a handful of girls for 9th place overall.

I'm still in awe that I was even able to finish. What was I thinking?? I couldn't even BREATHE and I STILL just kept riding. Someone CHECK ME IN SOMEWHERE!! :-) But seriously. . . . . .2 minutes slower than the first time around, from 1st to 14th back to 9th. . . . yeah it wasn't what I hoped for but then again taking top 10 on a "bad" day is still pretty good. Maybe not "elite material" in some people's eyes. . . . . .but since when I do what others tell me I SHOULD do?

Onward and upward. Sheboygan is another opportunity for a great race.

Iola

Good luck to everyone going this weekend.

I hope we can all "keep it in the raft".

Angry

I'm feelin' like I have a lot of pent up anger today for some reason.

I feel the need to express my side of the "argument" instead of being quiet like I usually am so I don't offend others. There's no specific argument I feel the need to engage in. . . . . .it's just the daily crap I guess.

It's looking ahead to next year and understanding I'm going to get stomped in expert, and wondering how hard I want to work over the winter to ensure I get "better".

It's wondering if I'm really ready to join those ranks next year when my overall finishes this year have been "average" and all over the board.

It's knowing that no matter how hard I try to continue to have "FUN" in WORS, sooner or later it will eat me up that I'm so far behind everyone else. . . . . . .because it already eats me up that I'm so far behind the leaders in Sport THIS year.

It's knowing that people who are clearly better than me will continue to race Sport next year while I feel the "need" to move up, how "fair" is that?

It's the fact that it takes me about 60 minutes to learn how to ride my bike again when it's dark out - what's so different? Why do I turn into a moron when the sun goes down?

It's getting totally annoyed that my blog no longer e-mails me when I have comments, and I haven't done a thing different to make that happen. WTF?

It's the fact that I've gone back and formatted this blog entry 6 times already and each time my paragraph "returns" disappear. Last attempt - if this doesn't work I'm DONE.

It's those stupid drivers I talked about yesterday. I mean come ON. Set the cruise already. And who in the world is SOOOOO important to talk to that you need to endanger everyone else's lives on the road because you're NOT paying attention?

It's a lot of things that have me being less "submissive" today, and more "argumentative". I have an opinion today. . . . . .on EVERYTHING. So if you don't want to hear it, you probably want to steer clear of me. . . . . .at least for the next few hours. I'm sure I'll be back to "myself" after that.

Actually. . . . . .I feel a little better already (except for the formatting thing - that totally baffles me and pi$$es me off).

Things that frustrate me. . . . .today

• When people are going up the ON ramp of the highway and they insist on going 45. It's an on-ramp for a reason. . . . .you're SUPPOSED to be going highway speed by the time you get to the end of it not 20mph under.
• When people don't set their cruise control and they pass you & slow down, so you have to pass them again, and again, and again.
• When drivers (usually women) talk on their cell phones while driving making it impossible for them to go ONE speed and oblivious to their surroundings.
• When drivers (usually men) speed up when you get next to them and they see you're a woman. It's like they have "issues" being passed by a woman. . . . . . .kinda like some of the Sport men in WORS.
• When people drive in the left lane even when they're going SLOWER than the traffic in the right lane. People especially seem to like doing this when you're in the right lane, following rules like you're supposed to and you come up on a slower car. Of course you can't move over because the idiot in the left lane boxes you in.
• Drivers who think bicycles are going 2 mph so it's OK to speed up and turn RIGHT directly in front of them.
• Drivers who have TWO lanes with absolutely no on-coming traffic when passing a bicycle and instead decide they need to see how close they can get to the cyclist without actually picking them off.

Somehow

Somehow I got signed up for the biggest loser club. Now every time I open my e-mail I have like 2 new e-mails that tell me how I need to lose weight. I'm starting to feel fat from reading them. I think that's their goal.

What did YOU do today?

This is what I did all day today.
I'm tired & sore, but the weekend of fun was worth it.

The Sunday Tri-fecta

After fielding a call from work and having to spend the better portion of his Sunday morning working, Captain was quickly losing interest in a ride for the day. So I gathered the mountain bikes and told him he was riding with me. . . . . .and we were doing what I wanted to do. He grumbled a little, but knew he needed to ride, so off we went.

We started with a quick warm up to the trail down the road from us, Glacial Blue. It takes about 10 minutes to ride there (on the mtb), so we hoofed it down and rode a lap there. I had some shifting issues, which after further examination we realized one of the rings in my cassette is bent. That was a pain. Couldn't use that gear at ALL. Gotta get that fixed REAL soon. . . . . .

Here he is trying to ride away from me. He just wanted to go home.

After that we hit the gravel trail to head on up threw Kewaskum to head to our next MTB stop, New Fane. Kewaskum was having a little car show in town. . . . how exciting. We had to look from afar, as we didn't have time to check it out.

New Fane was a bit of a hike, but it was a nice day. We arrived and looked all "cool" in our team gear. . . .and I looked like a totally cool chick with my WORS number plate on. The "t-shirts" out riding were in awe.

After our lap there I didn't know if I had enough in me to finish the tri-fecta, but we headed to Sunburst anyway. Once we were there it wasn't so bad. I just paced myself up the hill and I knew I only had to do one lap. THAT really helped.

After we completed our lap at Sunburst we headed home to meet some peeps. I totally bonked on the 15 minute ride home. . . . . . .full out sweats, dizzy, etc. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did.

Once home we did a quick clean up and gathered the peeps in the truck to head to the ice age trail for a short hike. Our dog really needed the exercise. Squirt hopped in the back seat and I guess she sat on something. . . . . .started grabbing her coccyx and moaning and stuff. We all laughed. . . . . .and then she did too.

We stopped for a quick photo opt. before we set out on what was actually a freakin' TRAIL RUN. What SHOULD have been a 60 minute "hike" turned out to be a 45 minute all out "brisk walk/jog". I actually got dropped a few times. I was TIRED.

Then we headed back home where CK was hard at work putting the finishing touches on our dinner. We stuffed our faces with spaghetti & meatballs and then indulged on ice cream w/chocolate and strawberries for dessert. I do believe we put as many calories back in as we burnt for the day (at least I did).

Now we'll once again rest & recover. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be SORE tomorrow.

Ridin' SheVegas

A good group of us turned out Saturday for a nice ride at the "new race course" at Sheboygan.

We waited until around 1:00 to ride, so while the temps were cooler than "normal", it was still a BEAUTIFUL afternoon to be on the mountain bike.

We did a nice warm-up lap together so Captain and I could give everyone the update on the layout for the race. It's easy to follow if you know where to look for the new stuff, otherwise it's a bit confusing in the beginning. Overall, everyone seemed to greatly enjoy the course. The changes they've made kept it fun and exciting.

Afterwards a good portion of us hung out for a cookout. Everyone brought a little something, and as usual, we had a TON of "nummy" food.

As the sun started to set, we contemplated gathering around the grill to stay warm. . . . . .it was getting COLD. Team Pedal Moraine member Gary is "hard core". He clung to the hopes of warmer weather by wearing the shorts.

See, these "skinny, fast guys DO eat".

I had a ride time of about 2:24, with the final 25 minutes being at "race pace", the rest was mostly endurance. All in all, it was a great day, a great course, and great fun on the bike and with friends. Can't wait for the race there, although that's always a sad day. . . . . .because it means the "official end" of the WORS season is here.

SheVegas

Skipped town and went up to Sheboygan to ride the "race course". There was a nice gathering of several of the Fat Kats along with a few others. After deciding what was appropriate attire to wear in order to be warm enough, we set out. I had expressed concern to Bill that I was the only girl, and I knew I'd be slower than the rest. He figured we'd be safe, being that we didn't know the race course and came up specifically for the ride. Yeah, right.

Off we went. I managed to fall a few bike lengths back early on while I learned how to ride single track again, and missed a turn that everyone else took. That was it for me. Didn't see them again. I figured "oh well". I'd just see if I could find these arrows I was told about and figure it out for myself. But I didn't have to. Along came THIS GUY to save the day. My own personal tour guide. A little ways down the trail we picked up the captain, who dropped off the group because he didn't see me and didn't want me to be stranded. How nice. :-)

So the 3 of us rode the lap together, while Captain and I made mental notes to make sure we could retrace our steps alone. The course is vastly different, in my opinion. Many places FEEL the same, but are different. Several of the sections are backwards, and it took till about the 2nd or 3rd time through to really know where I was. But it was GREAT fun.

I eyed up the jump on the first lap, but didn't go into it right, double clutched and took the "easy" way out. But lap #2 and 3 I didn't even hesitate. Rode right down the hill and JUMPED. That's one thing this year has brought me. . . . .courage. I'm much LESS afraid to try things than ever before. I think that's a "perk" of having your skills develop. I know I can ride a lot of things that are even a little scary to look at. . . . . .so why be nervous? I just gotta DO IT.

The equalizer is in excellent shape right now. We only rode that side once, so we could concentrate on making sure we knew the course layout, and that one time I didn't give it my "all". But Captain sailed right past me and crested the puppy like it was a little bunny hill. Sweet.

Can't wait to get back there this weekend and ride. It's one of my favorite places. With all the changes, it will be interesting to see how this years race goes. My LAST race as a Sport competitor. Sad, but exciting at the same time.

We're gonna ride!!

Yippee! It's Wednesday! I just took Athena off the hooks and put her on the car. She's waiting for Captain to get home so we can head on up to Sheboygan to join the Fat Kats to ride the "new" SheVegas course. Should be a good time. I wonder if I'll be able to go RIGHT off the jump again? Or if I'll have to "warm-up" to it and approach it slowly again. At least I know I can do it. :-)

I'll report back tomorrow. . . . that is if ManBearPig doesn't get me.

A Tuesday Evening

Captain and I decided on a hike this evening, in lieu of a ride. The cooler temps and high winds had us not very excited to hop on a bike, so we stuffed "The Girls" in the truck and headed to the trail.

After a good 60 minute hike, and a brief visit of Sunday's race course via the Ice Age trail, we called it a night and headed home for dinner.

Pathetically we finished dinner only to end up watching The Biggest Loser while we chowed down on cinnamon rolls. We both felt dirty and in the end, the extra calories really were NOT worth it.

A funny

This one still makes me laugh when I stumble across it.

Sunburst

We started our pre-race day evening off with our standard pre-race meal Saturday night. . . . .chicken, pasta, baked beans & bread. Then we attempted this new little treat for dessert. They were a bit of work, but they were absolutely delicious! A small little cake that oozed out chocolate & caramel as you poked your fork into it. Yummy.

From there it was some nice conversation with friends and a semi-restful evening in order to prepare for the Sunburst Showdown the next day, which I KNEW was going to hurt.

Sunday morning came quickly and as I was warming up I knew it was going to be a tough day. My stomach felt terrible, I had a really tough time getting my heart rate up comfortably on the warm up (it hurt way too much for a warm-up) and I felt like I was going to puke. My legs had no zip, I felt like I had ridden too hard the day before, and I knew it was going to be a long haul. But Sunburst always is for me. It is NOT my kind of course. I don't do well with all out heart attack courses. I favor short, steep, killer climbs and gnarly, technical single track. Mix in a fair amount of those things, and I'm likely to have a fairly good race (Phillips, Iola, Rhinelander). But I figured I'd give it what I could and see what happened. My goal was to finish and to NOT have to walk ANY of it, no matter how tired I got. And I accomplished that goal.

Looking through the pictures, I found it interesting that I'm just about the only woman who's "glistening" from sweat. Someone asked me if I went through the sprinkler tent. . . . .was there one? No, I just plain sweat THAT much. It's crazy.

Picture courtesy of Rusty

I had some stiff competition, but managed to snag 7th out of only 19 Sport women. If you average out my lap times, that puts me at just under 26 minutes a lap (with the prologue lap counted in there). That would have had me winning citizen, and placing 8th out of 10 in expert (if I could have held that for one more lap).

In fact, I found it interesting to look back on my results for the year to see where I placed throughout the year. It's a surprising picture, given my erratic results, especially with my goals to move up next year, but that's a post for another day.

In the mean time, we had some great finishes on our team yesterday as well. Captain looked fabulous as he rode past the easy up with ease each lap. Then he proceeded to beat himself up later, thinking he didn't push hard enough. He does that after every race. I guess that's a sign of wanting better things for yourself. . . . . when you constantly question what you could do differently to get better results.

And these guys worked their butts off for their overall finishes as well.


It may have been a smaller field at Sunburst. . . . but there sure were a lot of fast people. We may have lost 1 or 2 of the "crazy fast" Sport women, but we also gained a couple as well. You just never know who's going to be there, and what kind of day they're going to have.

All in all, Sunburst is NOT at the top of my list in terms of "WORS races I most enjoy", but it's definitely a challenge and it's good to have a mix throughout the year.

Now it's time to recover again, and focus on the last 2 races of my WORS career as a Sport rider. Hopefully I can pull some good overall results on these last 2, because the competition is tough. And I tell you, either I'm getting slower, or the top 10 Sport women are getting faster. And I don't think I'm getting slower.

Kewaskum

Well, it's still a ski hill. . . . .but it's in great shape. It's actually GREEN this year. There are a few sections that are still as bumpy has all get out. . . . .but it's pretty dry, including the single track by the road, which was just a tiny bit greasy today. It should be great riding conditions, including the weather which we heard was "supposed" to be a high in the low 70's. Sweet.

The climb up is going to kill on lap #3. . . . . .but that's ok. It's close. Sometimes close is good. :-)