Big Year and New Team

Last month I received the unfortunate news that Trek has decided to not continue the Trek 29er Crew team for 2012. Originally I started racing for the Gary Fisher 29er Crew in 2009. Last year, Trek bought Gary Fisher and the grassroots mountain bike team became the Trek 29er Crew. I feel fortunate I was able to race on the 29er Crew for a little over 2 years. I will miss being part of a national and world-wide grassroots mountain bike team.

Shortly after hearing the news, I received a call from Trek. I am excited to share that I will be racing for and sponsored by the Trek Bicycle Store on their new mountain bike racing team for 2012.  I am very appreciative of the support and sponsorship they've offered to help me achieve my racing goals for 2012. This will be a big racing year for me and happy to be able to continue to promote Trek.

My racing calendar will consists of some of the traditional favorites such as, Spa City, Ouachita Challenge, Burnin a the Bluff, Berryman Epic, and the UFD series. This year, I have also decided to push my limits and race Syllamo's Revenge 125K, Dirty Kanza 200, 24 Hour Nationals-solo in Colorado Springs, CO and Leadville 100. Still waiting to hear results on the Leadville lottery selection. Since there is a slim chance on winning the lottery, I have penciled in the dates for the Leadville training camp in order to get my Leadville ticket to race. 

My coach, Chris Mileski, will continue to help me through the racing season.  Chris is the founder of Off the Front Racing and remains one of the Nation's premier endurance coaches. He always gives me the coaching and support I need to achieve my goals for the endurance events that I compete in. I couldn't do it without him.

Training over the winter has consisted of long rides (mountain and road) and weights/core/plyo workouts at the Sports Enhancement Group that started back in November of last year. We have just converted weights from power to endurance where the amount of weight goes down and number of reps and eventually, time goes up. I feel like I'm getting a little better with the core and plyo exercises but, still seem painful and hard.

I have been trying to focus a little more on nutrition for endurance training/racing too. I am trying to learn more about gluten-free products, super foods, healthy recipes, and organic products. Various sources I have been using include the Clean Diet, Simple.Smart.Nutrition by local cyclist and nurse, Cat Ebeling, and McDaniel Nutrition Therapy for endurance athletes, by Nutritionist and an endurance athlete herself, Jennifer McDaniel. I am trying to purchase the Feed Zone since it contains a lot of fast and flavorful recipes for athletes but, it has been sold out for awhile.

This year in my blog, I will try to include more reports on bikes, gear, and nutrition that works for me for endurance training and racing along with the race reports/events.  Check back on my blog and I will try to share what I learn.  Hopefully, I can help others by sharing information since so many folks have helped me through the years.

Spoke Pony Showdown 6hr

Todd and I decided to head out to Kansas City early Friday to pre-ride the Spoke Pony Showdown course at Swope Park. This park is amazing and you would never know you are in the middle of Kansas City! When we arrived, we were greeted by Doug Long, one of the directors from the Heartland group. We chatted about whether the course was rideable due to the amount of rain they got earlier in the day. We decided to give it a try hoping it wouldn't be too bad since it's been so dry.

The trail seemed to be pretty hard packed but, there was just enough water on top to cause us to slide around and collect mud on the tires to the point we barely had any traction. We bailed after 1 mile and I decided to do my leg openers on the pavement. What was the race going to be like tomorrow?

Kansas City had light rain off and on throughout the night before the race. We set up our TA next to the course and soon it was the whole St. Louis clan-Team Seagal, Momentum, Team Free Awesome (Pete), and the rest of the Off the Front racers. Of course, made room for super stud, Mark Gullet out of Springfield. The grass was still wet and folks were bailing after the 1st mile of pre-riding due to the muddy conditions.

Todd and I chose to do to the 6 Hour race to train for the bigger 12 hour races we have later in the Fall. I also chose the singlespeed to race on. There wasn't as big of a crowd as I thought there would be. I suppose the rain scared folks off but, they missed an awesome race and now one of my favorite trails in Missouri!

Race started up a paved road for about a 1/4 mile and we quickly made a sharp right onto the trail going counter-clockwise. The trail was still very slick! I got caught behind some slower folks but, as soon as I got more confident riding in the slick rock and mud I started making the passes. My 1st lap was the slowest of all of them. I think this was the case for most folks due to the conditions. But, as the race went on, each lap got better and faster! It was amazing! My lap times were getting faster and I was able to get over more technical areas.

The course was straight forward... 1st 3 miles was very technical and rocky and the last 4 miles was smooth, flowing, and fast. I was finding myself only 4 minutes in front of Cathy from Team 360 after 3 laps. I was also having some technical issues with my singlespeed causing me to stop to fix a couple times. I knew I couldn't keep dealing with the bike issues if I was going to attempt to win the race. Todd caught up to me on the course since he was feeling like superman. I asked him if he could have one of our friends who was racing on a team to get his geared Niner ready for me to switch when I come in. My geared Trek 1 x9 was still waiting for the chain guide to come in so I only had the SS.

Kerri Schewe was racing on a team with Christine so she was so kind to get Todd's Niner out of our car and get it race ready. I came in and Kerri helped me switch everything very fast to the geared bike. I owe her big time!

I took off and holy cow...I was climbing over many technical obstacles that I didn't have the strength to do on the singlespeed. My lap times just kept getting faster too! Going out on the last lap I was still ahead of Cathy but, not by much. I know Cathy and she is usually like me...steady and doesn't stop. Then, all sudden I hear Kerri's voice! She was going out on her last team lap and was riding behind me. I always enjoy riding with her so it was mentally a relief. My last lap was the fastest of all 6 and I ended up with the win. Humm...geared vs SS. Could there be a switch for the big races? Cathy was super strong as usual and will be competition for me at the bigger 12hr races this Fall. Congrats to her on her strong finish.

There were many podium finishes by the St. Louis crowd. Todd won 2nd in his age and 5th overall. He really had a good race despite a bad crash and had EMT butterfly his arm during the race. He was standing on the podium with some big names. Dave got 3rd and Peat 2nd both in 6hr race. Keith Weinkein placed 3rd in 3hr despite showing up 10 minutes before race start. For team divisions-Steve/Val 5th, Kerri/Christine (Team 3 Braids) 6th, and Seagal boys 8th.

Race was over and the whole St. Louis crowd and Mark Gullet headed to Gates BBQ. Obviously, this decision was not made by me. This place was true KC BBQ. Big plates overflowing with various types of meat smothered with BBQ sauce. Matt quickly hit it off with the waitress. Not sure what he remembers though.

Next, off to singlespeed championships tomorrow. Not sure I have any legs left though.

Castlewood 3hr Race

UFD put on another great MTN bike race at Castlewood today. I was a little nervous going into this race even though I would only be racing 3hrs. #1-this is my backyard, #2-this was a "C" race for me and not peaking for it, and #3-HEAT! However, I was excited to see 7 women racing Marathon this year! I remember 2 years ago being the only woman racing Marathon at Castlewood. I also decided to break out the 1x9 geared bike and hang the singlespeed up for this one. I figured I needed to conserve the legs if I was going to climb Lone Wolf 5 times and be able to crank out the flat sections. Stephanie had nervous butterflies like me so I knew she was looking for a win. I also knew Kerri, Gabrielle, and Jamie would be out there pushing it too.

Gun went off and I pushed right from the start so I could be the first one up the Lone Wolf monster hill. As you can see from the picture, there is not a lot of room for riders up it due to the huge crack up the middle and loose gravel. Since I am a better climber than descender, Stephanie and Kerri caught me on the 1st descent after the climb. That's ok. It's a long race in the heat and I had a stragety. I could see the 2 ladies in front of me on the 1st lap until a couple of guys crashed in front of me on Roller Coaster. I rode up into the woods around them and sped it up a bit to catch up. Awesome, I could see Stephanie and Kerri coming off the 1st lap in the grassy field section.

On the 2nd climb up Lone Wolf, I saw Stephanie walking it. Ok...either she is tired or conserving. I kept on trucking with the plan to settle in with a steady pace for 2nd and 3rd lap. I wanted to squeeze 5 laps in for the 3hr race so I knew what lap times I had to pull in order to achieve this based on my practice lap times. I was able to catch up to Kerri on the climb up Love trail and made the pass. I kept seeing Stephanie on the grassy field section so it was time to close the gap. 4th lap plan was to bump up the pace and go all out for the 5th lap. Race volunteers were telling me she was 30 sec to 1.5 min in front of me. Dang it...where is she? I knew she was probably putting the hammer down. And down I went! I completely lost traction going around the turn too fast at top of Love onto Grotpeter on the loose gravel. Dang it! Not 20 sec later, team mate, Carl Hoffman did the exact same thing! We both shook our heads and took off. Last lap, I went all out but, just couldn't catch her. Ended up placing 2nd out of 7 and very happy with my results. It was fun to really push myself and I had a great time. I think we had a record number of women racing this year in different categories. So awesome!

This summer, I am continuing to build my base miles to peak in the fall for my big 6 and 12hr races. I am doing the dirt crits and local races for fun this month. I started weights back up 3 weeks ago too so feeling it in the legs a little but, will hopefully pay off in the Fall.

Indian Camp Creek-3/6 Hour

Last weekend, I decided to race Indian Camp Creek 6 hour on my singlespeed, of course. Most of you know, my husband, Todd, was the race director for this race. We really wanted to bring a long endurance race 3/6hr to our area for the 1st time so Off the Front Racing hosted their 1st mountain bike race. There was a lot of work that went into this long event and many folks and sponsors involved that helped make this event possible.

I questioned myself even racing since there was so much work involved prior to the race but, I really wanted to support the divisions my husband allowed me to add...women's singlespeed (thanks honey!). As a side note, I have really been advocating and working with race directors for women's singlespeed

divisions with a lot of the bigger races in Missouri and Arkansas. This is not only for my selfish reasons but, to really try to grow the division/sport for women. I have had success over these past 2 years with Berryman Epic and Ouachita Challenge. This year, I talked a lot with Steve Parker for Syllamo's Revenge. He agreed to add this division but, there were only 2 women signed up and one of them signed up in men's SS division. For Indian Camp Creek, you could say I had some personal connections getting this division added and there were 3 SS women who raced!

After just completing 4 big races in Arkansas this spring already (Arkansas Marathon Series-Spa City, Ouachita Challenge, Slobberknocker, and Syllamo), I went into this race knowing it was a "C" race for me. Syllamo was just the weekend prior so my legs were not recovered either. So, didn't have any expectations for the race but, to have fun.

The race course at Indian Camp Creek was about an 8-mile loop. The 1st several miles were almost completely flat. I was worried how I would keep up with the geared bikes on this part. After the gun went off, I knew I had to do a really quick sprint/run to the staged bikes so I could have a good placing among the 170 racers on the flats on my SS. I was able to find myself behind Lisa White, who was on a geared bike and she had a pretty fast pace which I was able to hold on my SS.

After coming off the flats, the rest of the course consisted of some short switchback climbs and mostly rolling terrain. There was not really any hard technical parts which is usually an advantage for me. As I started climbing, I found myself passing folks. I quickly caught up with Kerri Schewi on the 1st lap. She was doing her 1st 6 hour race and was doing great! I told her I would slow down a bit and I would ride with her as much as I could unless Wendy Davis started getting close (another competitor in the women's SS division). Even though my pace was a little slower, I had a blast riding in a race with someone! Keri and I rode 4 laps together and it was so much fun and mentally, less painful!This was her 1st 6hr race and I wanted her to win her division.

We came in from our 3rd lap to find out that we were in 2nd and 3rd overall 6hr women. Coach Chris told me 1st was only 3 minutes in front of us. We kept our steady pace and finally caught up with Stephanie McCleary on the flats. I told her to jump on the train and lets go. The 3 of us rode together for awhile but, Stephanie was affected by the heat a bit and was feeling a little nauseated. She told us to go ahead.

Towards the end of the 4th lap, Kerri flatted. Bummer! I was so bummed to lose my racing partner. I made sure she had what she needed and raced on. Coming in off the 4th lap, coach Chris told me Wendy was now only 4 minutes behind me. Uh oh...maybe I shouldn't have hung back as much. It was now the 5th lap on the flats, I saw Wendy, with Jim in front, hauling! I just kept telling myself to keep my faster steady pace because I will have 2 more laps to go after this for 7 laps total. I didn't think she would be able to maintain that pace for 2 1/2 more laps. So, I let her pass and told her she was now in 1st overall and go for it!

Race on now!! I quickly switched my "C" race mentality to I want to win not

just my division but, overall. As I rolled through to start my 6th lap, Coach

Chris said..."she is just 1 minute in front of you and storms are rolling in. Make this lap count!" I lowered my head and upper body and cranked up the pace for probably the last lap due to bad storms rolling in. I was hoping she would run out of gas since she was flying on the 5th lap. As soon as I flew into the flats I could see her. I road about 30 seconds behind her for quite a bit. It started raining and lightning 1/2 way through the 6th lap and things started getting pretty slick. Time to crank it up again. I quickly found myself catching right up to her. She asked if I wanted to pass. I said I had a better idea..."Let's ride it in together to tie it!" I thought this would be really cool to have 2 SS women win the overall 6hr. She agreed so we road the last 3 miles in together. I guess my wheel crossed the line 1st so the USCycling official awarded me 1st and Wendy 2nd. A little bummed we couldn't stand on the 1st place podium together. I know I could of race my own pace faster but, I still wouldn't have changed how I did it. I had such a blast riding with Kerri and Wendy put up a good fight on the last 2 laps with me. I ended up placing 1st Women's SS 6hr and 1st Overall Women's. My favorite quote of the day came from superstud, Mark Gullett, "When you are doing bad you find yourself looking over your shoulder. When you are doing good, you look ahead!"

Results ... http://unitedindirt.com/results/ICC3_6_results.htm

Thank you to all the racers and spectators who came out! We had around170 racers and 22 of them women! Thanks to racers and coach Meleski from Off the Front Racing who made this race possible. Special thanks to Mitch and Greg who were the course directors and put a lot of hard work into the trails which were fantastic! Thanks to Loreen for helping me with scoring sheets and race packets. Many thanks to all the sponsors, photographers, and race day volunteers. We couldn't have made this race possible without your help!

I feel I've had a great racing season so far this year. I built myself up over the winter and peaked in the Spring for Syllamo with 3 big races prior to that. Thank you coach Meleski! For the next 2 months, I will be toning it down a bit. Races will be shorter and mostly 3hrs. Plan to build back up to peak again in the Fall for the bigger 12hr and 50 miler races. My Fall "A" race is a secret!

SYLLAMO!!!!

I have been building up all Winter and Spring for Syllamo's Revenge, my "A" race. I had talked to the race director, Steve Parker, about adding on a women's singlespeed division this year prior to opening day of registration. He said he would add it. I was so excited since this is such a big race that draws folks from all over the country. Unfortantely, the women I know who have singlespeeds chose to race geared and the only other SS female registered in the male SS division. Therefore, we didn't get our own SS division and got added in the overall geared women's results. Come on SS women! Don't you want one of these? We need more women to register with SS to get a division.

Syllamo is probably the most technical and hardest race of the year for me on the singlespeed. However, I think I have an advantage on the SS since it is all pure singletrack and no roads like the Ouachita Challenge on the SS. The only disadvantage for me is that I get lumped in with the geared women for the Arkansas Marathon Series points, which my goal was top 3. I made it my goal to go for 7 hrs and beat my time of 7:35 last year.

It wouldn't be Syllamo unless it rained the night before the race. The only difference was last year I was driving like a mad women in my car with Loreen to seek shelter the night before since we were warned by a restaurant owner to leave immediately due to 2 tornadoes coming our way. The other difference with Syllamo this year was the NUE 100 mile series would be starting on the same day but, a hour before Syllamo's Revenge.

31 women out of 33 who registered showed up to race. Wow! I believe this is a record for the number of women racing in Syllamo history. This is awesome. The race started as a mass start on bikes out on a short paved section that led us to a .9 mile climb up a gravel road which is a 11% grade. There was a pile up immediately at the start of the gravel climb due to too many people (over 300 racers) and a couple of crashes. I quickly jumped off my bike and ran around it. I felt I had a good pace going on the 1st section, the yellow loop, which is somewhat rolling with a few rocky technical sections. They did a better job trimming the brush on this section this year.

The blue and orange sections of the trail are much more technical and rocky. These sections were really wet and slick. The stream crossings were pretty high this year too. I remember sliding on a rock and what stopped me from going off the trail was the side of my face and neck hitting a tree. I felt strong climbing up the technical sections this year. I knew to not get too carried away and to save a little for the end. I always find it funny that the last 12 miles of this race, the red section, seems like forever even though it is singlespeed friendly and hardly any technical sections.

I came in stronger this year with a time of 7:01 and beat my time last year by 34 minutes. However, even though I was faster, there were many faster geared women this year. Last year this time would have given me 4th overall. This year I was 12th overall. A little bummed with overall finish but, very happy with my better time. The only other female SS to compare to came in 52 minutes after me and I beat 13 SS men. I guess this is why we keep going back to seek "Syllamo's Revenge."

Ouachita Challenge Race Recap

Luckily for me, Pro racer Andrea Wilson changed from singlespeed to the geared division prior to the 60 miler race in Mt Ida, Arkansas. However, I would really like to race against some singlespeed women in these bigger races to see where I stand. It is hard to compare myself on the singlespeed against the geared women in this particular race due to all the paved road sections. Oh well. I will continue to promote the singlespeed sport for women. I did manage to get this division added to Syllamo's Revenge this year and Berryman Epic 2 years ago. I believe it will grow!

The Ouachita race actually started in dry conditions for a change. However, the heat was going to take a toll on many riders later in the race due to the predicted temps to be in the mid 80's. The course took off in the same clockwise direction as last year. However, they had us take a left out of the school and then, another sharp left onto a very long flat paved road section. This had us hitting rolling dirt roads much later than last year. This was not a good mental and physical start for me on the singlespeed due to all the geared women (20 or so who registered) passing me. Seemed like forever but, we hit some rolling and sometimes steep dirt roads after probably 6 miles. I manage to pass 4 women on this section. "Easy" I told myself..."you know what's coming!"

Blowout Mountain was the next leg of the race and probably the most difficult climbing and technical wise. I saw Peat Henry (St. Louis knows him as Mr Free Awesome) standing along the trail fixing his 3rd flat. This guy rides a rigid singlespeed in a white button-down shirt and regular shorts. How does he do it? He is awesome! I stopped to loan him some tire levers and then, was on my way again.

Once you painfully climb to the top of Blowout Mountain, it looks like a truck dumped huge round boulders all over the place. I can't even imagine how someone can ride over this. There was also a blazing fire near the top and was not a controlled burn. Volunteers were scattered all over trying to put it out and push dirt off the trail with their feet onto the fire to keep it from crossing the trail. You could feel the heat along your face and left side of your body as you rode past it. The fire truck arrived just as I came down the mountain to the aid station. I was still good on my 2 bottles but, found one of my bottle cages was about to come off. These were taken off 3 days before the race by a bike shop looking for a creaking sound in my bottom bracket. Guess they didn't put back on tight enough. After I tightened with my tools I was quickly on my way again. 5 minutes later my other bottle cage was coming off....gurrrr. I don't use camel backs so I survive on my 2 bottles. This could of been bad if I lost these bolts that hold them on and not to mention it's costing me race time. Lessened learned...check your bike yourself before a race!

The next big section I remember was another paved road that headed south with a pretty strong headwind. I looked for folks to work with but, I was actually passing people on this section. I came into the aid station and found racers I knew such as Greg Schmidt, who was still going strong, and my husband, Todd, who had dealt with 3 flats by this point. Todd and I took off on the hilly gravel road section that eventually led us to the Womble. I kept up with him for awhile and then, he took off. Eventually, I caught him again on the bigger climbs on the Womble. He said he was cramping and to carry on. It was the heat of the day and there were many folks along the trail experiencing the same problem. This trail system is not as technical but, has some fast flowing sections and some significant climbs that your legs search for some extra hidden strength at the end of the day.

The course ended with another gravel road section which included this monster switchback climb up to the gentle rolling paved road to the finish. This year, they decided to make us suffer through the finish line by making us climb up the grass field to cross the line. Of course, I won women's singlespeed due to being the only one in that division but, I did get 16th out of 28 singlespeed men who started (Only 18 finished) and only a few minutes (6-8 min) behind some of my local geared women competitors. I was happy about this since there was a significant amount of road for a singlespeeder and the 3 short stops for Peat (which I would do again in a heartbeat) and the bottle cages. Lets see how I stand up against the geared women on my singlespeed at Syllamo this year.

Spa City 6 Hour

Todd and I headed down to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the 1st of the 4 races in the Arkansas Marathon Series. I placed 4th overall in the series in my age group last year and hoping to place top 3 this year. I plan on racing my singlespeed for all 4 races even though only 2 of the 4 have a singlespeed category for women.

I picked Matt Keeven's brain a little before the race. He got me fired up about how awesome this course was especially, for the singlespeed. 24 women registered solo for the 6 hour race to include pro women such as Pua and Andrea Wilson. This wasn't an "A" race for me but, I have been training hard all winter and was ready to see what I had.

No matter how many races I've done, I still stand at the start with nervous butterflies in my tummy and try to scope out my competition among the mass of racers. The start took off with a short run to staged bikes. Once on the bikes, they attempted to break us up even more with a short road ride before we hit the trail. The paved road was a bit of a disadvantage to me as I attempted to spin my buns off to keep up with the geared bikes. I just kept telling myself "it's a long race and it will pay off later."

I spent my 1st 2 laps learning the trail and trying to figure out a good pace and lap time that I would be able to maintain for 6 hours. I was feeling a little down during these 1st laps since I knew there were quite a few women ahead of me and I wasn't making any progress. But, I just kept focusing on being steady and not blowing up my legs on the climbs since on the singlespeed. Lap 3-There goes Pua! Just got lapped by the 24hour Solo National MTN bike champion. That's the only time I have ever been happy to have someone lap me! I knew Andrea Wilson and Loreen Coffelt were probably right behind her. That's ok because I was starting to feel pretty good on laps 3 and 4. I found myself passing more and more women. I knew the 5th lap would be my final lap since you have to continue racing for a minimum of 5 hrs to not DNF but, finish before 6hrs 30min or that lap won't count. I decided to drop the hammer for the last lap. I managed to pull off a 2nd place finish (Top 3 Pros were separated into a different group) in my age group. Overall, I felt really good during the race and got to meet some of my MTN biking idols!

Up Next...Ouachita Challenge-Race #2 Arkansas Marathon Series