Night Riding (and more power)

It's literally been almost a year since Justin, Luke and I gave up our weekly night ride due to poor trail conditions, multiple motos, and paying a grip every month to ride.

Well, it was time to get back out in the dirt mid-week! I'm still pretty shot from a hard race on Sunday and not letting up on myself all week, but it was a fun ride anyway.







I dig mountain biking with CycleOps power! It's great to have the metrics to track stress and for future reference on wattage output for climbs as well.

Ryan hooked Justin up with a XX spider for Specialized cranks and the 42/29 double chainring setup. Justin installed it on his S-Works HT the night before and wanted to test it out for possibly running it at Bonelli. Hope we get in a pre-ride before the race, though!



Since it was so cold in the waning daylight last night we headed over to "warm up" on Dam Climb and I put in a big effort. The legs felt ok, but I felt like I was climbing with an anchor attached!

Once we hit the singletrack the boys proceeded to do their thing and drop me! My legs were sore, so I just hung back and enjoyed it. We hit the good stuff out there, with a few sections repeated for good measure.

Just like old times...







A bit after it was proper dark Luke headed home, and Justin and I went out for "just one more" short loop. Justin followed me down one singletrack, and my line was off. While I pulled out of a big rain rut, Justin somersaulted and crashed pretty hard. He took it easy on the way back to the truck, and home we went.

Look forward to doing this again that's for sure!

Powering it up on the dirt

A few weeks ago my CycleOps power order came in with my aluminum rollers and my mountain bike disc brake PT hub.



In the meantime we had been waiting for a new Stans Crest rim to come in so Justin could build it up!

The rim arrived in the OC at Rock N' Road on Friday afternoon, but oddly enough, not the shop he was at ;)

Due to the impending storm, and current rainfall, we didn't settle on a weekend riding plan until Friday after dinner. Justin set out to build my PT hub for the mountain bike so I could race on it Saturday morning. It meant for quite a late night for him, but he is the best husband ever, so he got it done.

We got up a little late on Saturday due to the rain, and when we arrived at SRC it was coming down pretty good. We parked, registered, and then hung out with the Denmother and Roger for a bit under Wendy's nice and dry EZ-Up. A few people mentioned the race start was being delayed. D'oh! Resolve was going to be tough to come by after another hour of rain submerging the parking lot.









At about 9 am they decided to start the race on time, which meant it was time for me to get on my bike and make sure the brakes were at least partly broken in. Brand new brake rotor, new brake pads, new hub. I rode around trying to warm up and then alternately slam on my brakes, or ride with them engaged for a few minutes. The course had rivers flowing heavily through some parts early on. Quickly enough it was time to line up.

There were a few other women out there, but no Pro Women except me, and I started in the back of the first wave. The course differed slightly from the first race, and we went through a raging stream, a puddle, and then a 2.5-3ft deep puddle before trying to negotiate a steep section that was rendered fairly unrideable on lap one due to erosion from the torrential rains.

The rain was off and on during lap 1, but as I came around for lap 2 the skies were actually clearing up nicely, the dirt was tacky and worn-in and it was looking like a good day was in order! Just as I got to about 2/3 of the way through the third and final lap I came down this dirt hill, crossed over a concrete section and was hit with torrential downpour and a headwind. Crazy! It rained like this the rest of the last lap, and continued after the race.

I needed some volume, so told Justin if we were riding we needed to head out now before I got cold! So, we grabbed fresh bottles and hit the road for an hour endurance spin post-race with Xterra racer Mike H. Clouds parted a little now and then, and we just made it back in time for awards.





PT data for the mountain bike race was awesome. Will be great to utilize this in the future on training rides and perhaps another race or two now and then.





Sunday we hit the road for a few hours and got it done. Roads were mostly dry by then. Killer Superbowl! Have been a huge Brees fan since he was a Charger. Most accurate QB in the league. Very deserving.