Almost

(photo from Rusty)

First off, sorry to those I spoke to right after the race as I always tend to be cranky-- focusing on what I did wrong. In this case, I started the race freaking out about the guys having to pass me in the singletrack, particularly the first rock garden on Alpha. I kept thinking I would crash if I had a bunch of guys behind me there. So, of course, I did. I rode it super smooth my second lap. But, both the first and third lap I stopped and then tipped over to the left. Totally dumb.

The rest of the race actually went pretty good for me. I rode most of the singletrack really well. Even parts that I usually have problems with (although I did clip a tree my first lap). I would occasionally freak out and tell myself to calm down and ride smooth. I noticed Liz coming over the bridge over all the rocks as I was heading to O'Malleys Woods near the end of our second lap and looked at my heart rate monitor. When I got to her spot I realized I was only four minutes behind her. I tried to kick it up a notch telling myself to just ride smooth. Then, I tip over in the same stupid rock garden my third lap. Great, there goes that I thought. But, as I was climbing the top of the hill I saw her standing on the down hill, letting people go by (which was because she had unfortunately crashed as I later found out). I tried to kick it up again although that last part of the climb to the top is a killer. When I got to the bottom, I realized I was probably less than three minutes behind her now. I went all out and ended up about a minute and a half behind. (I thought I was less but apparently WORS timing doesn't delete the minute delay from the men's start to our start.) My best WORS finish in a long time -- not including the short track at last year's Suburu Cup. So, not bad considering it's only my third mountainbike cross country race of the year when it's probably double that for many and I'm still hacking up crap on climbs from that chest cold I had. I'm excited about the Palos Meltdown. I got out there twice last week and am hoping to get out again this week. We'll probably do Lake Geneva and then switch to cross. I've bought numerous stuff for my cross bike with my QBP discount -- Tom and I (mostly Tom) will have to get crankin' on getting it ready. I love mountainbiking but, boy, do I love cross too. = )

Back to life

I was sick all of last week. It really sucked -- especially, since I had so much crap going on last week, which I'm sure is one of the reasons that it's been more than a week and I'm still not quite back to 100%. I'm mostly better but I still have crap stuck in my lung/chest area. After climbing up a hill, I'm hacking for awhile.

I went out on a long ride yesterday evening. I rode from my house to Canal Trail and then did as much as last year's Meltdown course as I could remember, thinking it'd be better to have a planned route. It was a lot of fun but I kept getting lost on the multi-track. My mother had Christopher this afternoon so I kind of played hooky and rode back doing Canal Trail and then the course from two years ago and back. There was plenty of work-related stuff I should have been doing but I just needed another fix before it rains again.

The photo is of Christopher in his Elmo costume. He refused to wear it last Halloween and yesterday I couldn't get him out of it until he was a big sweaty mess. Christopher enjoyed his second race at Kewaskum. Me, not so much. But, it was an okay race-effort. Looking at my heart rate monitor after the race, it seemed my heart rate was too low and then, waking up the next morning sick as a dog, it makes a little more sense. Poor Christopher will not be racing at Alterra as both Tom & I are registered. But, he'll be with his fan club and will get ice cream and other goodies. The fan club may only be able to watch him part of the day though so we have to figure out if we have to take two cars or if I have to try to hitch a ride home.

Christopher's first race

It was somewhat of a last-minute decision to hike up to Eau Claire. I really wanted more single-track and Christopher had kept saying he wanted to go on a trip. Tom reluctantly agreed to come along and let me race.

Christopher did pretty good on the ride there and rode around on his bike without pedals while I prerode. On Sunday, he woke up cranky and not himself. When I said I had to sign up for my race though, he said he wanted to race too. So, we signed him up. He seemed to have fun and insisted on wearing his medal inside the restaurant we stopped at last night and to summer camp this morning. = )

I really enjoyed most of the course during the preride except for a rock garden they added simply to have a rock garden (well, that's how it seemed to me anyway). It was basically a long driveway of large rocks. I'd ride all of it but the last bit that you had to turn left.

My race was icky. I went way too hard my first lap trying to stay with the girls -- which didn't work for long -- and trying not to slow down the guys too much. My first lap was 43 minutes (which included some unintentional stopping trying to let guys pass) with a heart rate between 187 and 195 for 21 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't know at the time that I finished lap 1 not that far behind a group of girls. That definitely would have been the push I needed but Tom didn't think to mention it to me (watching Christopher is not exactly easy). I do much better when I'm just behind someone.

I had opted to use bottles for this race and, in hindsight, I should have taken the camelback -- I went a little too easy on the long sections when I was taking a drink and ended up a little dehydrated with a little stomach cramping the last lap. I was about 12 minutes behind the next girl and also about 12 minutes longer from my goal of finishing in.

But, I thought my technical riding was really good. I'm trying not to beat myself up too much. I hadn't done a mountainbike race since the Palos Meltdown and my last WORS race was last year's Kewaskum. I'd like to do decent (decent for me, anyway) at Crystal Ridge, Lake Geneva and the Palos Meltdown. I'm planning to do Kewaskum -- more of a training race for both the mountainbike and cross races coming up. If you see me slackin' off during the race, be sure to yell at me. = )

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy

(If I was better at this, a link to Underworld's song "Crazy" would be here.)

I had really wanted to go to the Suburu Cup but we decided not to with Tom still being injured. I ended up being then was able to run a bike rodeo in Homewood, which are what the photos are from.

I went to the Metro 12 Hour on Saturday. I ended up being the only 12-hour girl which ended up being fine by me. I'm still getting over a cold Christopher picked up from summer camp and my body is no longer used to doing 12-hour races. But, I had a hell of a lot of fun. The singletrack was great. My bike was making these horrible squeaking noises and, by the end of the day, my wonderful Team Extreme teammates had fixed it. My poor bike is so in need of some love and maintenance. I only did seven laps with a lot of socializing in between. Riding, chilling out and catching up with people I haven't seen in ages was just what I needed. It was an awesome day.

Good deed

I decided sort of last minute to try to get a ride in before it rained. I grabbed some bike shorts and one of Tom's jerseys that were hanging up to dry and rushed to pick Christopher up from summer camp. We get to the paved trail start up a hill and Christopher says "Mommy, it's raining." Crap. I put the rain cover down and continue. It starts raining harder. Crap. So, at the top of the hill (where there is a "T" intersection), I turn us around and start back. It eases up so I decided to aim for an hour ride and go to the lake, do a little more meandering and start on the spur back to my house. I pass a guy stopped and then my mind starts wandering. I hear the "on your left" and apologize as I had been taking up most of the trail. I then get to see him crash magnificiently. The trail curves after crossing the street I was going to hop off the trail at and he took it too fast for the wet conditions. I cross the street and stay on the trail to see if he's okay, ask if he wants me to call for an ambulance as I see blood on his arm and think of Tom's crash a couple of weeks before. He says he's fine.

I notice Christopher is passed out and I have just over an hour so I decide to cruise around a little. I get to the next street and turn back -- the guy is still sitting on the ground. Hmm. I ride down a side street 'til the next busy street and turn around and come back. The guy is up but walking his bike. Turns out he got a flat. I have everything but the pump which he has. He's impressed as I start changing the tire. Then, of course, I can't get the tire back on. He gets the last bit on. Then, as usual, I have problems getting the pump off without half of the air coming back out.

Eventually, I get him on his way telling him to avoid to big bumps and I actually got 1 hour, 30 minutes in. Yea! Now, it's raining again and I'm doubting ever being able to ride my mountain bike again.

Successes

On Saturday morning, I decided to gamble and try to go up for the 12 Hours at John Muir. It looked like it might rain but it looked like there was a better chance it would rain at my house. It rained quite a bit as I was driving up there. By the time I got there, I was tired from the 12+ hour work day on Friday and not in a competitive mood. I told myself to go out and ride a couple of laps and that, if it wasn't fun, I'd go home and see my little guy and my injured guy. The trails were muddy and I just kept thinking that, if I crashed, who was going to change Christopher's diapers.

I rode with a girl a good part of the lap that was competing as part of a 12-hour team. I did one lap, stopped to fix my speed sensor and really had to convince myself to go back out. Most of lap 2 I had a guy behind me who wanted to chat -- and wanted me to find him a girlfriend. It was still muddy, I still wasn't having fun and the guy would come up beside me as I was trying to pick the best muddy, rocky line for uphills/downhills causing me to put a foot down and hoof it up the last part of the hill in one instance and get a handlebar in the quad during a downhill part. As I finished the lap, it started raining again. Decision made. It totally did not help that I was planning on ditching out early on the Friday event I had to work ,which my co-worker knew -- she then bought tickets to see some play and ditched the event completely meaning I didn't get home 'til late and didn't get to see Christopher before he went to sleep.

I went home after bailing from Saturday's race, helped Tom with Christopher, cuddled with Christopher, spent more than 1.5 hours mowing the jungle of our front yard with a reel mower. I was absolutely shocked, amused and somewhat embarrassed to see I actually took first in the 12-hour race. I believe the other girl was a young girl who took a spill during her first lap.

For the 12 Hours at Crystal Ridge, I plan on not working the night before, tucking my son in the night before and coming with my game face.

Tom's still on the mend. The pain is not as bad but he's getting back spasms from the arm sling. Two weeks down. Hopefully only four to go. It's been a very, very long two weeks for both him and me.

LCI 51207272

I have my official LCI number after taking a really, really, really long three-day class to be a League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor. I'm co-teaching my first class on July 1 down in the Champaign area.

Other than that, my life has been even more insanely hectic than before. As I'm sure most of my few readers know, Tom broke his clavicle (I think that's how you spell it) at the Wonder Lake Super Crit. It's now been one week and one day. It's hell for him. He's in pain and in an arm sling for probably a little more than six weeks. I've been trying to help Tom out and also doing everything with regards to taking care of Christopher, the house, etc. (Both our back and front yard are only partially cut at the moment.) I've been going out of my mind. I did do the crits in Winfield this weekend and volunteered. It was nice for me to get out of the house but horrible for Tom to have to deal with Christopher for most of the weekend. I was kind of sad to not get to race 9 Mile but my plan of sticking to races closer to home has seemed to be working well for the most part -- with the exception of Tom crashing during a crit.