dr.endo blog

So, it’s been a while since I’ve raced, but this weekend I finally got back in the saddle again. I kind of screwed myself for the TMBRA spring season so rather than spend money on the same ol’ races that I know that I will not do well in (cuz I’m trying to get back into shape again after being sick so long) I decided to do a 6 hour race this weekend to push myself & see where I’m at. Beside, I really like doing the endurance races much better. It felt great to be back on a start line again. It was at Clearbay at Lake Thunderbird up in Norman, OK. I don’t know how many of you guys are familiar with this trail, but there’s a lot of sustained climbing and lots of sand. Add to that that because of the rain last week, and the night before, there were like 6 or 7 mud pits as well. It was a brisk 48 degrees when the race started. There was a Lemanse start & I conveniently needed to get something for the car that I “forgot”. So I missed out on the 1/4 mile run. Damn, that sucks ….NOT! Grabbed the bike & head out. It’s about a 30 yard downhill sprint in very loose sand before you turn onto the singletrack. Lots of twists & turns & I was able to pop it up into the big ring for a bit. Fast twists up & down, cross a small wet puddle & climb some more. Hit some sandy switchbacks & a couple of longer, thicker, deeper mud puddles. About midway thru the lap I hit Huffy Hill, kind of like one of the climbs at Fat Chuck’s, but not quite as steep. Rode all the way up (without any walking) & throw it back into the big ring & pick the speed back up. The next 2 miles or so are a little more technical and some more mud puddles then it smoothes out to allow you to hammer down for the last mile or so back to the start-finish area. Finish first lap & had to stop to get something to pull the hair back then head back out. I looked down at my computer to check out my stats & it had stopped reading at 2.96 miles because of all the mud on the magnet and sensor. The 2nd lap was pretty much the same as the first lap, only a little quicker since I’ve seen the course now. I hear some shouts & “Go Girl!” as I come thru the feed zone. After I finished the second lap, I had to stop & hose off the drive train cuz of all the sandy, muddy buildup that was really making it difficult to shift. My running joke of the day was that my breaks were a beaken to let everyone know where I was at any given time since they made lots of noise because I kept feathering them to help keep the mud to a minimum on my wheels. Take off for Lap 3. This time I only ride up half of Huffy Hill & walk all but a couple of the mud pits, I mean puddles. It just didn’t seem worth it to me to waste my energy trying to pedal my bike thru mud that covered the rims of my wheels. The puddles became longer as the day went on. During one climb, I got a nasty little cramp in my Quad near my Right knee. Did a little spinning & pushed on thru. As I come out of the trail & ride by the feed zone, several people cheer & clap for me ….”Go Girl, Looking Good, Keep It Up”. Hose the drive train one more time, grab a quick bite & some Gu, reload the bottles and head back out. This time I took it a little easier since there was still a lot of time left & I didn’t want my leg cramp to come back again. My 4th lap was similar to my 3rd minus the cramp.  More cheers & “go Hooters”. Squirt down more Gu & head out for 1 last lap. Start off fine, but realize soon that something is not right. The outside of my right knee is extremely painful on every upstroke of my pedal stroke. I don’t recall twisting it & I didn’t have any falls (for a change). I walked more of the climbs hoping to aggrivate my knee less. It was still really painful, but not as much as the pedaling up the climbs. I came upon a puddle & was thinking that it was one of them that I could ride but realized too late that it was not. I went up on my front wheel as it came to a dead halt in the mud. Ray had come behind me about that time. We had a good laugh thinking how bad (and funny) it would have been if I had did a full endo in that mud puddle. Someone would have thought I had been mud wrestling. As it was, my foot was submerged in the mud when I had to unclip & walk my bike out of the mud. It took a long time, longer than I intended, to finish this last lap. Finally see the sign for the last section & know that I’m almost done. Find some more energy, throw it back up into the big ring one last time & come across the finish line for the last time. Lots of cheers & congrats on sticking it out. I met up with Ray & Gina for a bite before the drive back to Bid D. It was great to see some familiar faces from home! I think they’ll back me up on the trail conditions that slowly sucked the energy out of you.

All in all, a great day & lots of fun. The guys on the trail were great! Every single one of them said something positive when they passed ….Looking good, keep it up, way to stick it out. When you’re contemplating on whether to give up racing or not, it’s great to have people tell you that you’re doing well. All things considered, the trail was in great shape. We knew last week that there were gonna be a few spots with mud in them. They just seem to get bigger as the race went on. Maybe if it was a little warmer & a little dryer I could have gotten in another lap or 2. I felt great. My goal was 5 laps because I know that I suck at climbing and this trail has a lot of it and because of the muddy trail conditions. So I achieved my goal. I finished 1st by default, but at least this year there were 4 other girls who rode solo as well, they were just in another catagory than me. I wish there were more of the endurance races around. Oklahoma is doing a 3 race endurance series of which this was the first with a cash purse for the overall winners in all the catagories. I plan on doing the other 2 as well. The next one is in Sept. and it’s a 50 mile all or nothing. The trail again has a lot of climbing & a lot of rocks. I’m trying to figure out how best to train for this. More road miles, more dirt miles, or work on speed and the endurance will follow? This should put me in decent shape to tackle the TMBRA marathon series.   

Well, I haven’t written anything in a while cuz there hasn’t been much to say. I decided to skip Bar-H since I was finally able to breath for the first time in about 6 weeks but everything still sounded like it was coming from inside a tunnel. So, in the mean time I concentrated on getting ready for Waco. I had been looking forward to this race for several months. I really enjoy this trail. Traffic on the way down early Sunday morning suprised me. Not to mention the pucker factor when I came up on a cop doing 85+. Fortunately I did see him & slowed down quickly before I flew past him. Go to register & I have last years license instead of this years, so Judy gave me a ear full. Take off & originally I was last off, but that was OK cuz I knew that I was not in the best of shape from being sick for so long. I did pass one girl before we hit the single track, but by the time we hit the first climb, I knew I was in trouble. I set in & decided that I needed to focus on just finishing now cuz there was no way that I was going to catch up with the others. But when I began getting lapped by the single-speeders & several more of the guys, I called it quits. I finished my first lap & DNF’d. I knew that I wasn’t going to finish high up, but I did expect to finish.  I told the officials as I crossed the line & then went straight to my vehicle, packed up & headed back home pissed off & embarrassed wondering if I should just give it up. As I told another, the time I spent in the gym while I was trying to recover is not the same as saddle time.

So, what have I been doing since then? Well, work has kept me pretty busy. 5-10 hrs of  overtime each week. By the time I get out, it’s been too dark to hit the road by myself so it’s been time in the gym. Usually 45-60 minutes on the eliptical in zone 4 w/ an occasional brief burst into zone 5 then another 45 minutes on the weight machines & doing sqauts w/ weights. God I hate squats! When I did get in some saddle time this week around Whiterock, my legs felt fine & cardio was not an issue. My spine however is another issue. The road bike really aggrivates my bulging discs. Maybe a fit adjustment would help. At least the mtb doesn’t bother it.

To quote Danny Glover’s character in Leathal Weapon, “I’m gettin’ too old for this shit”.  But I sure do love it! See you guys in Warda 

Well, I had been looking forward to this race for a while. My goal was to get in 5 laps, although 4 would be OK. I took it easy & stayed off the bike this past week & stuck to intervals & time on the treadmil so my thumb & elbow could rest & heal after last week’s fiasco. The BF was down in Houston so I took a couple of days off to see him & take it easy. Unfortunately, a Flu bug was going around down there & he picked it up. By the time I got back in town Friday evening, I knew that I had it too. Loaded myself up on drugs & felt OK Saturday morning. Decided to continue with the race & realize that I would not be hitting my 5 lap goal. Saw several of the guys before the race. Everyone seem to be in good spirits. Took off on lap 1. The usual congestion in the first mile or so. Too many inexperienced racers trying to hammer it & then have to get off and walk something & not getting out of the way for those of us who could ride it. That was the way it was back & forth with another girl in my class. This was her 2nd race ever & hadn’t been riding long, so she had to get off quite a bit.  During one of these “stops”, I was amazed at how many guys were behind me still. Never once did they asked to pass. Am I improving? I heard Rich cheering as I went by on my first lap. Again, several girls cheered for us “Hooters Girls” telling us we looked great as we rode by! I did OK on my first lap. Rode a little conservative since I hadn’t ridden OCNP before. Throat was getting raw from all the drainage from my flu bug. Stopped between laps long enough to squirt a Gu pak down & spray some Zycam on my throat to numb it & stop the coughing otherwise I was gonna keep going without any break. Take off for 2nd lap. Seemed like I was doing a much better pace, but the inability to breath easily was catching up to me on that last loop with all the climbs. Took a little longer break after 2nd lap to throw more meds down & eat a banana. I was still hoping to get in early enough to be able to start a 4th lap. Wasn’t gonna happen. 3rd lap sucked! I know several of the guys passed by & I’m sure they thought what a slacker. I had to get off several times because I didn’t feel like I could control me & my bike, not to mention, I was starting to feel a little weak. My guess is from the meds along with I think that I became dehydrated from all the nasal drainage. Not used to having to factor that in the plan. It was difficult to make myself drink for some reason. By the time I finished, I knew I was running a fever. It was great having so many friends from other teams cheering me on. Sometimes you need that little bit of support to help you push on thru. I don’t know how many times I heard the phrase,”Hey, at least you had the guts to race, and solo at that. Keep it up, you’re doing great”.  I’m curious to see the final results. I think despite my pittiful performance, I may have actually done decent, both in this race as well as for the overall results.  Overall, it was a fun race & a course that I believe that I would have excelled on had I been in better health. I’m not sure I’ll do something as stupid as racing with the Flu again though.

 Oh, did I mention …….. No Endo’s this race!!!!

Well, I had been debating back & forth since before Christmas, on whether to do this race. I really wanted to for the challenge as well as to see the trail before the spring season. Posted up on the forum to get some insite on what to expect of this trail. Then, the announcement that Lance Armstrong was gonna do this race. I, obviously would not be racing against him, but it still sounds cool, in my mind, to be able to say that you raced in the same race as a cyclist of that caliber. Pics were posted on the forums of his pre-ride & he looked uncomfortable on his mountainbike (in my opinion), but on the other hand, the weather was  and drizzly that day as well. Anyways, met up with Christine & we head on down to Kerrville where her coach put us up for the night. Got up early, had some grub & headed to the trail. High was supposed to be 70, but at 8am it was still f-ing cold! Decided to stick with knickers & arm warmers for the race given my experience last fall at Roman Nose with the cold temps on the legs resulting in cramping. While riding around warming up, there were several photographers with huge lenses around the start/finish & feedzone area! I never saw Lance approach the staging area, but I figured he wouldn’t come out until right before the start and with me being a chick doing just the 1/2 marathon, I knew that I would be at the back. No point in my being near the front. I had my own race to do. The gun goes of & the marathoners take off. They took off at a pretty quick pace. How much of that was egos wanting to “beat Lance” & how much of that was race strategy? Our start was a few minutes later & not as fast. Didn’t matter because too many people who couldn’t ride up a rocky lip here or down a rocky dip there so there was a lot of bottle-necking. It took almost 3 miles before my body felt good & ready to race. I did warm up riding & spinning up the climb at the start a few times, but it looks like I need to stick to dragging my trainer with me because I can see that I do better when I warm up on it. Things overall were going good. Felt good, legs felt strong despite all the climbing. Have I said recently how much I hate climbing?! Tons of rocks! Yes, I should have borrowed my frined’s epic for this race. I think the ride would have been a little smoother, but on the otherhand, with all the climbing on this trail & not being used to riding the heavier bike, might have hurt my performance more. Got close to the upper most point on the upper loop & had to walk up the rocky lip. 2 chicks were there at the top cheering everyone on. They said specifically how “great you Hooters girls look! Your’re doing great! Love the jerseys!” Have to mention this to Boyd one of these days. I get compliments on our jerseys at every race & it’s always women. Go Figure. Anyways, back to my race. What goes up, must come down & this trail was no exception. Was able to pop up into the big ring & off I go. Made it down Worm Hill, completed the switchback just after & was back on smooth singletrack & once again in the big ring, then BAM! I don’t know what I did or what I hit, but I once again lived up to my name & was flying thru the air. Right arm hit the ground, head hit the ground, hip & legs hit the ground & I go sliding. Damnit! I’m getting sick of this!!!! Every freaking race I’m coming off the bike. What the hell? No blood this time, but more damage. I’ve at least sprained my wrist, but I’m really worried that I may have fractured it & on top of that, there is a grape sized knot on my elbow. Fortunatly it’s fluid filled. God I hope I don’t have to have the sucker drained! Get up & felt the pain in my knee. Damn! what else? Decide to walk it off for a bit. I wrapped my wrist with my armwarmers & began hoofing it. Better to have a slower time that to quit. A few guys that I had passed earlier now passed by me & wanted to call the course marshalls. No! I’m not quitting!! If I have to walk the whole damn thing, I’m gonna finish it! I finally get back on the bike. Got everything worked out on my knee, but my wrist & thumb hurt like hell. I’m having a really difficult time braking & shifting. I really couldn’t bear weight on my wrist. As I was riding along, I would try to change positions to help keep the weight off my wrist, but I really couldn’t find one. OK, this was really beginning to suck! Every time I would come to something technical, particularly a technical downhill, I would have to get off the bike & walk down cuz of my wrist. It was freaking ridiculous! I finally decided that ti would be best if I DNF’ed. I was having such a difficult time navigating things on this loop & I still had the more technical loop ahead of me. As I came in to the feedzone/Start/Finish area, it was too confusing to tell where to go. It really needed to be marked better. Finally found where the score-keepers were & let them know I had to DNF. Turns out that there was already a good number that had DNF’ed before me. They saw my wrist & kept trying to get me to go to the EMT’s. I told them I would x-ray it when I got home & just needed some ice.

 They were calling for a high of 70 Saturday, but it got up to 79! I only had cool & cold weather gear with me & so although I could change into clean/dry pants, I had to leave my dirty/sweaty jersey on until we were ready to leave. I can deal with the long leaves in in the AC. Went back so that I could see Christine finish. While waiting for her to come in, I saw Lance come thru for his 2nd lap of the lower loop. He looked worn out & stopped for a couple of minutes to drink/reload. Would find out later that not long after that, he ended up DNF-ing. OK, now I don’t feel as bad about DNF-ing as I did before. Christine came in & got 3rd. She looked good. The chick who took 1st was a sand-bagger. I was supprised to see that there were 10 of us in my catagory! Who knows, maybe it was the Lance factor, & maybe they really did plan to do this race.

So, my main goal for this race was to see the trail before having to do it in the spring. This, I did accomplish. My second was to get in some hard off-road miles. I did do this, but not as many as I had planned (only 16 of 26) and I had to do more walking than I wanted as well. My 3rd goal was to have a decent finish in the half marathon. This I did not achieve. Though, I do believe that I would have if not for my injury. My legs felt great! I did not feel tired when I did finallly stop. But, was that because I couldn’t ride at race pace?

I x-rayed my wrist & elbow at work after I got back in to town. No obvious fractures, so just a sprain. Fluid pocket on the elbow down quite a bit next day.

There were 35 DNF’s in this race, including Lance Armstrong ….and me. 

Well, I was watching the weather all week & they kept saying that we were gonna be in the 70’s. 70 degrees in January?!  I’ve gotta ride! But, race? I’ve only gotten on the bike 3 or 4 times since Thanksgiving & I sucked ass doing a lap last weekend at IDB. Friday night I got the gear all ready just in case. Weather seemed perfect Saturday morning while walking the dog. What the hell, I’ll do it. If anything, it’ll be a great chance to get in some good much needed miles and god knows I’d rather do it on dirt than on pavement! Get to IDB. Almost lost the bike on the way. It slipped off the rack. Thank god for Bungee cords!!!  Wind is a whole lot stronger here than at home & it’s a few degrees colder as well. Do I really want to put myself thru the torture? Why not? What have I got to lose. The Lemanse start was a waste, not to mention a little dangerous. Besides, Dammit! this is a bike race, not a foot race! The ground was too soft (in my opinion) & I felt my ankles twist several times while jogging around the field. Get on the bike & head off. Ended up getting a good workout on track stands because of all the congestion on the trail. Finally got going. Nice steady, easy pace. I know I’ve got plenty of time & don’t want to blow myself up early & pay for it later. 1st lap was pretty unremarkable. Stop & snag a couple of apple slices, a little GU & head back out. Again, pretty unremarkable. Starting to feel that little burning sensation in the legs on loop C. Walked thru the sand this time. Finished lap 2 & take a little longer rest this time. Had to head to the car & snag the warmFX & rub it all over the legs to help ward off the cramping that is probably in my future that afternoon. Reload the bottles & began lap 3. Got a flat, but lucky me, I still ride with slime tubes & so I tried just applying pressure to the hole like I do a bleeder & sure enough, stopped the leak. Didn’t even half to add CO2! Thank god, cuz I’m am beyond slow when it comes to changing tubes. Lots more spinning on this lap as well as walking. Loop C Sucks!!!! Legs are doing OK, it’s my back that is killing me. May have to check into that steroid injection I’ve been avoiding. Finish lap 3 without any mishaps. Wanted to do 4, but only got in 3. All in all, an OK performance. Especially since my finish was legit & not by default for a change!

Let’s just cut to the chase. My time sucked, but if you take off 20-30 minutes for the crash, having to pull over for the P/S/E’s to go thru & stopping to help a down rider, then it wasn’t too bad compared to the others. I felt great Sunday morning. I was excited about this race. My pre-ride went well. I didn’t feel bad about the prospect of having to walk a good portion of Fat Chucks after hearing a hand-full of Expert riders claim that they would be walking some of it as well. The official hollers “GO” & we’re off. I’m left behind, but I’m not too concerned cuz I know that I can’t blow myself up at the start if I want to have anything left later. Hit Fat Chuck’s.  Let the Hike-a-bike begin. Came out of my shoes climbing the steep hill & had to take time to slip them back on at the top before I continued. The downhills went by too fast before I had to get off & climb some more. Finally finished & could stay on the bike. Popped it into the big ring & off I go trying to make up for lost time. Going along great & take a loose turn wrong & feel my rear washing out. Must have clipped a tree in the process cuz I bent the crap out of my brake lever. I hit the ground hard & slid a bit. Starting to think maybe I should change my name to Slider. It was one of those where you lay there a couple of seconds & take inventory of the body. I was a little afraid to look at the damage & then was disappointed at how little I saw. Get back on the bike and begin pedaling again. Knee is killing me & the wind blowing on my arm & knee is not the most pleasant feeling. I wipe some sweat out of my eyes & notice blood on my arm. So I glance down & I’ve got it running down my leg as well. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now. Keep pedaling cuz I’ve still got a gap to reduce. Chain keeps dropping when I drop it into granny & have to stop & put it back on. Get off again to hoof it up the rooty section around the Grind & have caught up to another chick doing the same. OK, making progress. This is good!I never looked at her leg marking, but turns out that it was one of the 19-29 chica’s. Get to The Wall & make it most of the way. Make it thru the Start/Finish area  & start lap 2. Feeling stronger (was told later that I looked strong as I came thru the start area) & know that I’ve got to get as much distance as I can before the P/S/E’s catch me. Was able to ride up one of the climbs & about half-way up on the others of Fat Chucks this time and and no more run-ins with dirt or trees this go around. The P/S/E’s caught me about 2/3’s the way thru & I had to start stopping & pull over for them as they came thru. Needless to say, this killed the lap time for me. This goes on for a bit & then Don Booker goes down just as I came upon him. I didn’t see it happen, but since he was real slow sitting up, I got off to see if I could help. I stayed with him to deflect riders while another guy went back up to the course marshalls to let them know. Nothing appeared broken, but we still had a difficult time convincing Booker that he needed to head in for a few stitches. They head in & I get back on my bike to finish my race. Was told afterward that I looked strong when I came across the finish line. Considering all the stops I had to make those last 3-4 miles to let everyone by, I should have looked well rested. Had a hard time getting the blood off afterward. Watched the Sport awards then put the TENS unit on the back & headed back to Big D.

Good Things: Body in sync quicker since changing up warm-up routine, Felt comfortable with the distance, Was stronger on 2nd lap, Didn’t bail out/quit, Did not feel dehydrated, Legs felt fine, Had Fun!   Photographers dig chicks w/ carnage

Things to work on: Better starts, Better climbing skills, Still need work on confidence in my technical abilities (loose rocky or rough downhills), Legs feeling good afterward     Road miles & spin class should help with strength, climbing, +/-speed

So, I’ve held off writing this because there’s not much to report. I F**’ed myself. I failed. I had been out of town the week before & flew back into Dallas Friday afternoon & had planned to head to Rustin as soon as I could pick up the bike & then do my pre-ride Saturday morning so I could chill the rest of the day. Oh yah, I was also a little hung-over Friday. I have found a new remedy in GU. I took the wrong exit in Ruston & so wasted a lot of time trying to find the park. Get there & finally head out for my pre-ride. Kept it slow. Was pretty uneventful, but just not feeling it. Came across a few of the guys at the switchbacks & met some more teammates. Went into town & had pasta for dinner, chilled by the fire for a bit before heading to bed. Wake up & still, I don’t have a good feeling about racing today. Decide to go ahead & register since I drove all this way & it was one of the races that I had been looking forwad to. Maybe once the gun goes off & we get started, things will be better. WRONG! I think I was the last into the woods. I stay 15-30 yards from Tina B. & think to myself, Maybe I’m not doing too bad since I”m staying with Tina, afterall, she’s been racing sport & teaches spin class so she’s in pretty good shape. But I was dieing out there. I had to drop into granny gear several times & we all know that there really isn’t any major climbs on the first half of the trail. I keep telling myself that I should just quit so I don’t embarrass myself or the team when it will probably take me over 3 hours to finish the race or the officials actually make me stop because I’m taking too long. Then I would hit a spurt & think, maybe it will be OK, & then I would hit a spot & have to drop gears & spin when I shouldn’t need to & tell myself to who am I fooling. I finally decided to just get to Tomac Hill. It takes me 40 minutes to get to Tomac Hill & I fly down it. That was a blast! & then did a skidding turning stop & told the official that I was done. Some of the spectators tried to talk me out of it, but my legs were gone. Also, it took me 40 minutes to get to Tomac & I still had 1 1/2 laps to go with the climbing still to come. I felt the tears build up in the back of my eyes as I hung my head in shame & made the long lonely walk back to the start/finish to make sure that I was marked down as a DNF. It would have been one thing to have had a mechanical or an injury, but I siked myself out. I told myself that the fall was supposed to be for learing how to race at the Sport distance & that the final placement didn’t matter, but it does. At least to me in regards to me. Then, to even further my humiliation, I had to return the bike back to the shop & they ask, so, how did you do? how was the bike? The bike was nice. It was smooth & would have been great if I could have finished. How did I do? I failed.

OK, well each year I do a couple of races in Oklahoma to be different & today’s race was one of them. I have a love-hate relationship with this trail. I had my bad crash there 2 years ago on my pre-ride that destroyed my front wheel & resulted in a huge hematoma that took up the entire inside of my right thigh (I took pics). Then in April I did a 6-hr race here & got my first flat ever in a race & a second one to boot.  But I love this trail. It’s a lot of fun. Lots of doable climbing that rewards you with fast downhills winding thru the trees.  So, I drove up yesterday while listening to the Texas-ou game watching the drizzle come down. I started to turn back a coupld of times but when I called the park ranger at Lake Thunderbird, she said that there was no rain there. As I pull into the parking lot, the wind picks up & it starts to drizzle. No big deal, I’ll skip the pre-ride. I feel pretty comfortable with the flow of this trail, so I head to the campsites. And, they’re closed. Crap! Well, I head into town to find a hotel room & for what ever reason, Norman is real proud of their hotels. Ended up going in to OKC. A hotel wasn’t really in the budget right now. This also meant that my dinner & breakfast that I planned to cook was out the window & I ate out. Again, not in the budget.  Got a good nights sleep, swung by startbucks & headed out to the trail. Actually see several girls for a change. Evidently not racing sport. There were only 3 of us. We take off with me in the lead & I hear once again the dreaded noise of my chain not wanting to move up to the big chainring. So I back off & settle in. I end up 3rd going into the trees. The 3 of us pretty much stayed on each others wheels for the first 3 or so miles, then my chain drops while shifting. I get it back on , but in the meantime, the other chicks are gone. OK, I still had the rest of this lap & a whole other one to catch them. Ya, that was wishful thinking. Did I mention that this trail has an ass-load of climbing? Today was not my day. I swear, it felt like all I did was climb. It was good that there had been drizzle last night, because it packed down all the sand, but that also meant that that wet red sand did not want to come off my tires so it was hard to get good traction on all those climbs. I keep peddling forward. It was real humid of course so I make a conciencious effort to suck down water to stay hydrated since I’m sweating out like a cheap ……. Stomach is not real thrilled at having anything in it while trying to ride.  Hit the long jeeptrail climb known as Huffy Hill (just like Fat Chuck’s Revenge) As I get to the top, here comes one of the guys. Great! Not only am I having a bad performance, now I’m lapped by one of the guys. Talk about salt in an open wound. Well, the thought “I Suck” is going thru my mind now. I keep telling myself, I’m not racing him & keep peddling. And climbing. This is the longest lap ever! And then to make matters worse, my chain breaks. It figures. My own fault for not changing it out after Cedar hill. So I start hoofing it. And here comes another guy. And then another, and the some more. I walk across th finish line after my first lap with broken chain in hand & say, “obviously, I’m a DNF”. As I’m walking to the car with my bike, I come across one of the other girls who takes one look at the chain in my hand & says, Oh, they wondered what had happened to me. Said I just had to DNF since I couldn’t do my second lap & she says that they changed it to 1 lap for the girls. Hmmmm. So I go to one of the officials & he says that we should have been doing 2 laps like the guys. The girl who told me reitterated that the officials at the scoring table said that they changed it to 1 lap. He goes over to check & sure enough, it was changed. I just went from a DNF to 1st place! Turns out the other 2 chicks were in the 40+ group. So, I’m glad I made sure to walk across the finish line. It kind of sucks to get 1st by default, especially after such a piss-poor perforance.

To race or not to race ……… that has been my delima all week. I’ve come down to crunch time on finishing all my case write-ups for the application process in order to take my specialty boards in June. I wrote them up wrong & have had to go back & redo them & everything has to be received by 10/1/07. Why do I bable about all this? Cuz it was going thru my head the entire race. So, should I race or stay home & finish these this weekend. On top of that, I’m on-call this weekend & usually end up having to go in. Do I run the risk of paying an entry fee just to have to turn around & drive back for an emergency, or have to bail out in the middle of my race because I got called in? Well, about 6am this morning I decided what the hell, I’ll do it. Who cares that it’s my first regular XC race in Sport? Who cares that I’ve never ridden CHSP before? Throw the bike on the car & swing by starbucks for a Chi latte & a pumpkin loaf to go with my bananas & head out to the Hill. Been a long time since I was out this way & I cut it close on registration. See Christine who has words of encouragement. Boyd tells me to kick some ass. Love to, but guess he doesn’t realize that I’ve never seen this trail & my competition is a good 40 pounds lighter than me. Inching up on the start line. No butterflys. I’m guaranteed a podium as long as I finish. Just don’t want to suck so bad that my “competition” has already changed clothes by the time I cross the finish line. We take off. I hear the dreaded sound of my bike not wanting to shift into the big-ring. This is not the way I want to start, but nothing I can do about it now. finally got it to shift by the time I hit the jeep road. By then, I’m by myself. To me, this was the most life-sucking part of the whole trail. Get there & am a little embarrassed as I come thru the start/finish area so far behind while everyone cheers me on. I almost hope that I fall so then I have an excuse for being so far behind. By the time I could see the lake the first time is when my body decided to show up to race. (task to work on) Now, I’m having fun! Kept feeling (and sounding) like my rear tire was running low. Thoughts of the evil cactus from last weekend keep going thru my mind, especially since I could feel a couple in my shoe that I missed poking my foot. As I pass a couple of course marshalls, I ask them if it’s low. “Maybe a little, but I wouldn’t stop for it” So I keep pedaling. Passed 4 or 5 guys who were on the side changing out flats. Better them than me since I’ve discovered that these maxxis tires are not easy to change. As I’m finishing my first lap, I’m wondering where all the climbs & technical parts are that I’ve always been told about. Are they really there & I’m a better rider now & so they’re not as big of an issue for me anymore? Felt great coming thru the feedzone after lap 1. Skip the handout. Please don’t let me fu-bar the little climb after the zone! Begin cranking hoping to make up some time. Flying thru & took the turn before the water crossing wrong & down I go. Damned if I didn’t loose skin from my same scar for the 3rd time -all in races! Get back on & my wheels are spinning & not getting good traction after the water. “You got water on your tires” No shit sherlock! I may be a chick,but I’m not a dumbass. Take it easy thru the switchbacks & then it’s on again.  As I zip on thru the trail I notice the reminders of tube carnage the guys had earlier. Getting towards the end where there are several little climbs, had to drop it down to granny for these this time. Really killed the time, but better than hoofing it. Back really starting to ache now. Hit the start loop for the final time. Here comes that gawd-awful life-sucking jeep trail. Please don’t let the beginner guys pass me! No such luck. “On your left” “On your right”. Damn! Don’t these guys know I’m in the final yards of a 20 mile race! ( I never heard the actual milage)  Then, the finish line. Tuck down, arms in, dig from way deep inside & pedal, pedal, pedal. It’s done. My first sport race. Not a bad performance. Could be better.

Goals/things to work on:

1. warm-up & starts. whether I spend 0 minutes or 20 minutes on the trainer warming up, it still takes 3-4 miles of valuble race time before my body is in sync. Gotta figure out a way to fix this.

2. Build up & become more comfortable with speed. The distance feels good, but I will not make podiums if I can’t get faster & feel comfortable riding faster.

3. Drinking from water bottles while racing so I can stop wearing a camelback. That sucker gets hot!

Well, let me just say, I’ve got some good news & I’ve got some bad news. So let’s go ahead & get the bad news out of the way first. I got my first DNF. I finally get on a team & this is what I do. Sorry guys. The race was a lot of fun & overall I did OK, but it was an all or nothing. I was only able to finish 4 out of the 7 laps. They had the racers meeting before the start, but unlike most races where there is a brief time period between that & the start, they started the race right afterward. Since I still needed to put my helmet, shoes & gloves on, I missed the mass start. Not a big deal in that there was only 1 other girl that I was racing against, my friend Lorinda who is a personal trainer & endurance athlete. I still was ahead of 3 or 4 guys at the start. We wiz around the road just a bit before heading into the singletrack. Somehow I miss the entrance & had to circle back. (it was only like 20 yards, but embarrassing nonetheless) So, the trail goes a brief bit before you start in on some rocky climbing …and more rocky climbing. I was told that several riders hoofed it a bit here. Heartrate is zinging away while my body tries to find the happy medium where all systems play well with each other. Did I mention that it was cold? I don’t think that it was in the 60’s yet when we started, but I’m not positive. It stayed overcast & in the 60’s for most of the race which would have been great, but the wind out of the north had a little bite to it when you’d come out of the trees covered in sweat. I should have gone with my gut instinct & worn my knickers to start out, but I thought the clouds would burn off & the temp would rise quickly. I had replaced my saddle the night before & evidently did not get the bolt tight enough, so my saddle slipped on my first lap. Rather than stop & adjust it on the fly, I decided to push on thru & adjust it in the support area. Stupid decision since it really put a strain on my back & I think slowed me down a titch. About 2/3 of the way thru, you come to a high point called “Inspiration Point”. Well, at this point, you were supposed to make a hard right & catch the trail, but there was a small sign w/ an arrow on the right if you knew to look for it. I didn’t. I did decide that I should slow down since It looked like I was coming to a large drop-off. Good thinking. Found out after the race that several people made the same mistake. Talked to the promoters afterward & they said that they had debated the night before whether to mark that turn more or not. Finished lap 1 without any mishps. Got my saddle fixed & head back out. Strong 2nd lap despite all the climbing. Yah, Lorinda had a brain fart, or maybe she just wanted to take out the competition :)  but there was a whole lot more climbing than she remembered. It just so happens that this is one of those skills that I’m trying to work on. The 2 areas in the trees were a blast!! & there was a fun dip & turn off the dam. Anyways, lap 2 went well. Slam down a couple of swigs of V8 & back out I go.  Lap 3 started off well, but about half way thru, my quads had little aliens rippling in there & then my left calf decided not to be a happy camper. I slow dow & just spin for a bit to work it out of my system & walked a couple of the more technical climbs to try to salvage my legs so I can keep going. needless to say, this lap was much longer. I get to the support area & rest a bit & try to warm up. I’m freezing!!!! Ray’s wife is there with words of encouragement. I hit the goo, food & water & change into my knickers & head back out for lap #4. Tried to take it a little easy. Legs felt better, especially with not being hit by the cold wind. But guess what, didn’t last long. Legs started cramping again, only much worse. This time they were freezing up on my & my toes were now curing under. At one point, my legs cramped so much that I couldn’t clip out when I caught myself off-camper & I fell into a cactus. Thank god it was just myleg & foot that got stabbed. I had to hobble about 30-40 yards to fing an area clear enough for me to sit down to pull cactus stingers out of my flesh. Several were the long kind like a porcupine needle. I even had to take off my shoe & pull them out of my foot. I get back on & slowly make my way thru what would be my final lap. I ran over a snake. Wasn’t fond of that. I don’t like to share my space with snakes!!! Everybody was very supportive of me up there. The officials cheered every time I came thru & every guy that passed by me except for 1 hollered word of encouragement. Several guys said good job, I did a strong ride, & even though I didn’t finished, at least I attempted it. There were only 3 women racing period so that may have had something to do with it. On top of that, all 3 of us were from Texas!

So, the good things. I felt very comfortable doing a “sport” distance. Building up speed will be a goal over the fall/winter. I really felt that I would have had a better performance if I would have gone with my gut feeling & dressed more warmly even if I would have looked retarded compared to everyone else. I really think that the cold wind on my legs is what brought on the cramps. I never felt dehydrated, I never felt on the verge of bonking. Today, my legs (& rump) felt great which leads me to believe that if I hadn’t of cramped, that I could have kept going. I was riding technical stuff again YEA!!!!!!! It’s only taken me almost 2 years to overcome my bad crash. Although I still need more work on it, my climbing has improved. Despite the DNF & cramps, it was a good race for me personally.

Oh, by the way …….Ray is a MACHINE!!!!!