Trading One Form of Torture For Another

This has been a very difficult week. First, my project at work is on the slippery slope to falling behind schedule - we have zombie bugs that won't die, a serial number fiasco and way more work to do than we'll ever fit into the time remaining before we ship. That's meant late nights and working weekends as we attempt to claw our way to an on-time release. On top of that, S has been traveling all week which leaves all the domestic duties to me. Usually, that's not enough to even make me blink but this week I've barely had enough time at home to buy groceries let alone finish the yard cleanup work that I had planned. I'm feeling pulled in way SO many different directions (does drawn and quartered seem a more appropriate term?) that my brain just won't shut off.

With all that going on, I was SO looking forward to today's race if only to push all that swirling brain stuff out and just focus on feeling my legs and lungs burn and keeping myself upright on the trails. Trade one from of torture for another. ;-)

The torture of the week was the Glocester Grind in Rhode Island. Lately, the weather has been pretty ideal New England spring happiness. Today, it more matched my mood: 40-ish, grey skies, passing showers, and a gusty wind. Blech. Arrived early enough to pre-ride half of the 5 mile course (we'd be doing two laps). WAY different than last week - a bunch of stream crossing, areas I started calling "Rock Gardens", lots of mud sections, and aluminum bridges that I was sure I was going to slide right off given the wet conditions and end up even more soaked laying in the streams underneath. Hmmmm....this should be interesting. Taped my GU to the stem (this will be an important detail later) and I was ready to roll.

Goals for this race: 1) Don't get hurt 2) Get a better start 3) Finish 4) Learn more about mtn biking.

There were 12 or so Beginner Women lined up at the start and again, we would roll about 1 min behind the 50+ men's division. I punched it at the the whistle and was third going into the woods. Probably could have been first or second but wasn't riding aggressively enough (put on list for next race's goals). Without going through a blow by blow account of the ride, let's just say I stopped counting how many times I fell on that first lap. Some of it was caused by other riders but more frequently is was me just slipping in mud, bouncing on rocks, sliding on wet roots. Almost endo'ed in one huge, water-filled hole that I believe was bottomless. And despite all that, it totally rocked! (no pun intended). With all that falling, I was still ahead of most women, and behind at least three. Started targeting them and picking them off.

Here's where an amusing (for others, perhaps) thing occurred. Sometime during that "Lap o'Crashes" I managed to fall on the top tube/stem (I think it was the Endo That Almost Was). Ouchie! For those of you reading closely, you may remember that that was where my GU was taped. So, yes, unbeknownst to me, the GU exploded all over my shorts and bike. It wasn't until I tried to figure out why my fingers where sticking to the bars like a gecko that I realized it. That was also the time I started getting hungry. Great...this race is going to be 1.5 hrs and I have no GU. Not happy. Thought goes through my mind, "Would it be bad if I stopped to lick the GU off my bike?"

By the end of the first lap, I was the 2nd woman, making progress against the leader but could never quite get there. I was starting to pick up some of the men (7 total by the end). It became a game of "Pick a jersey and catch 'em". Around the end of the first lap, I passed one of the men and while I was quicker than him on the dirt, he was better technically. I yielded the trail to him and then followed his wheel. Wow! Best way to learn. He encouraged me through some of the gnarlier sections and somehow things just clicked. Got more relaxed, more confident and it showed on the second lap where didn't crash at all. Nice!

Finished the race, changed and then checked the results. 1st Place, Baby! (ok, in my age group but 2nd woman overall) Yeah! Sweet! Happy Dance!

I think I managed to accomplish all my goals but that depends on your definition of hurt. Mine, BTW, is "season impacting injury" so the gash below doesn't count but it makes me feel like a real mountain biker!

A Bunch of Firsts

Early last week, one of my teammates brought a mountain bike race, The Root 66 Series Fat Tire Classic, to my attention. I had mentioned to my team earlier that I wanted to do more racing on trails than roads this year. She remembered my comment and given that this race was supposed to be a good one for newbies, I decided to go.

My race was at 9am and about a 1.5 hr drive from home so I was on the road pretty early. Nice to have the Pike to myself and other like minded individuals - saw a lot of road bikes headed to the Palmer race, a few mountain bikes, and a bunch of white water kayaks (wonder what kayak event was going on...). The sun broke out by the time I hit I-84 with lots of fog hanging out low in valleys of CT hill country.

Usually when I arrive at a bike race (road race/crit but not cross) I feel sick to my stomach, a little shakey, a lot nervous. I pulled into the parking lot and despite it being my first mtb race ever, I felt fine - lots of exciting energy but no feeling of needing to puke in the parking lot (that would come later.) My goals for the race were 1) not get hurt 2) be a sponge and learn as much as possible from where does my number go (on my bike not me), what's a mtb race start like (just like cross) to what does a mtb course look like (probably not very much like we rode today). I started my sponge-like behavior as soon as I parked the car. Two friendly guys were parked next to me so I started picking their brain - had they done the course before? Did it rain much last night down there? How often to you check the pressure on your shocks? All this mtb mechanical stuff is so new to me.

I headed over to registration to pick up my number. Apparently, they gave my number to someone else(!!) I wasn't happy. Didn't want some random to be riding as me. To try to make me feel better, they gave me a "good" number, 1000, which I suppose has a nice, cosmic ring to it but when the dudes in the parking lot saw it they commented, "Wow! You must really be old!" Nice. Gotta love it. I'm going to rip your &^%$$ legs off.

Tried to figure out how to put the number on the bike. I'm more accustomed to struggling to pin the damn thing on my jersey so this was a lot easier. Throw that in the plus column for mtb races. I still had about 40 min before my race so I decided I'd ride as much as the course as possible to get a preview. Slight uphill start from a wide field to a fire road. Then, down a fairly steep hill with a bunch of roots at the top and hard left turn on the bottom. I thought this might be the first place the pack would break up. Next, was the first section of single track, twisting and turning around trees and coming up to "THE LOG". I rode up to it. Uh. Wondered if I could ride it. Decided, no time like the present to practice so backed up, headed toward THE LOG and....stopped right before it. Why break a collarbone in practice? Just then I saw a group of two guys ride up. Decided I'd just watch and sure enough then just popped the front wheel up and rode right over. I hung out and watched a bunch of others and they did the same thing. Next, two girls rode up and did exactly as I did. We were all a bunch of wussy girls. ;-) In retrospect, it didn't matter in the race but it's clear I need to build my mtb skills. All told, the course was two laps of a 5 mile course. A lot of fire roads with 4-5 twisty, single track sections mixed in, a few short hills, a couple of logs to ride over and nothing seriously technical.

Back at the start, I gathered with a bunch of other beginner riders. They sent the guys off first, different age groups divided by a minute. The women, about 20 of us, would all start together. When the whistle went off, I was psyched instead of nervous. The strategy would be to go for the hole shot but I tried to remind myself I was there to learn and I wasn't going to learn anything at the front (probably not the brightest idea). I was probably 6 or so riders back as we left the fire road for the first big downhill. Heart's pounding, legs pumping and all I hear is lots of shifting and none of that squealing, braking noise that I typically hear in cross races thanks to disc brakes. That led into the first section of single track where a rider went down in front of me on a wet root. Crap. Crap. Crap. No room to get around her. Losing time on the leaders...CRAP! Same rider went down on THE LOG. After finally getting around her at that log, picked up the pace and tried to catch the leaders. Never managed to catch them but did pick off three or so women and A LOT (about 10? Lost count) men in the 50+ group that started a minute before us.

I put my head down and rode like I meant it. My HR was pegged above 90% the whole time. I rode every single hill, passing the walking dudes, nailed all the tight twisty turns, accelerated out of each one of them and basically just loved the whole damn thing. Rocket still doesn't have a computer on it so I had no idea of the distance on my first lap but knew that last year's finishers had a time around 1 hour 10 min. Imagine my surprise around 25 min when I saw I was rolling around back to the start! SWEET! Faster than I expected! And now that I knew the entire course, felt like I could push it even more. 3/4 of the way through the second lap, my legs were really burning and I started the "Wheezing Breathing" that I usually only hear during cross season. And then, a small taste of - how to put this delicately - vomit. Please, please, please, DO NOT MAKE ME STOP TO PUKE!!!!! Pushed the thought aside, replaced it with "DO NOT LET ANYONE CATCH YOU! 60 MORE SECONDS! JET!"

Done. Finished. First mountain bike race complete. Check it off the list. I loved it. That was fun. Gotta do it again. Back to the car to change and decided to checked the results before leaving. I was shocked to find myself 2nd. Nice thing about mtb races - they do age group awards! Got a silver medal and some bike tools. :)


The List of Firsts:

1. First mountain bike race
2. Rocket's first race
3. First time on the podium for cycling (2nd place, baby!)
4. First time I received a medal for cycling (silver)
5. First time I received prizes for cycling (bike tools)