"The rest is silence."

Well, today was my last race of 2009. It's been a pretty long season, and I think it's been a good one.

I am really glad to be done. Today was a difficult race. First of all, it was my first race in a long time that I had no competition. It's always difficult to push through pain and lingering sickness, but when you are out there alone it doesn't make it any easier to keep pushing! I had a few strong moments, but mostly I was just waiting for the finish line :)

As always, the singletrack was awesome, but pushing through the fire roads was tough at times.

I plan on taking about 7 days off the bike entirely. Justin is already balking. Me? I'm looking forward to the planned break. I need it mentally, physically, and emotionally. We've got some fun stuff planned, and then, I am sure, sooner than we know we'll be back to training.

For now, let's break it down. One last time.

Last week, I had a head cold. It started to come back on Saturday, which I wasn't really stoked about. A day of full rest, and I was back to my wacky insomnia.

Justin decided he wanted to spend the weekend camping up at the lake with his mom. So, we drove up Friday night. I stopped to get some ice and beer on the way up and had a super unfortunate event.

The remnants (keep reading...)








We got up there, got set up, and got to making dinner.

James and Ryan, these are for you!





"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."




The rest of the remnants... I'm still really sad about this.



I had packed our coffee mugs, and just driving across the street to the grocery store the bag must've gotten all up-ended and out fell my coffee mug when I opened the door.

The view from camp on Saturday



Justin and I left from camp and pre-rode the last half of the course -ish. It was good times. My HR was a bit higher than my RPE, but the legs felt good. My head cold wasn't feeling so hot, though.



We finished up with just about an hour thirty, stopped by Bear Valley and talked to Derek and Steve, and headed back to camp to eat and "ice bathe".





I took a short nap, then we registered. Then it was time for dinnah!!!



I was so hungry I didn't even get a shot of the finished product.

I actually woke up super nervous today. Even after I got Joy's email that she was out due to illness, I expected Natasha, or Heather, or some un-expected Euro-Pro to show up. I stood there by the Pro Women 11:01 sign and no one showed up. Except Larry Longo. He wanted to race Pro Women. Lucky for me he stayed in his own category!

I struggled a bit between feeling sick, feeling tired, my legs just not showing up at all, and wanting to still make a good showing, despite being the only Pro female out there!!

My time was respectable, but not great. I soft pedaled a few descents, and basically just got through it.

I was thoroughly trashed in many ways post-race.





Oops, deleted my victory dinner picture. Yogurt, granola, blueberries, whey protein, and red wine. By myself. Oh ya.

2009 - thanks for the memories.



PS - 20 points to whoever can name the quote in the title.

Weekend Report!

We set out for a good hard weekend following my rekindled spirit for training and racing. Saturday we were going to be meeting up with Luke in Angelus Oaks for a killer climb up to Big Bear.

I'm testing out a set up for July since I won't have anyone to do bottle hand-offs on course...



I sort of abhor wearing this pack because it causes me a lot of lower back pain (shocking since it really is pretty light, and I have yet to fill the bladder past about 40oz?), but it is better than carrying 3 bottles in jersey pockets and having no room for anything else!

Since the effort was going to be rediculous for an hour + we did a little 6 minute or so warmup on the pavement at the bottom. Once we hit the dirt fire road Justin took off like lightning! I stood up to keep in contact and my foot came out of my pedal for the first time all year, and like forward also, not on the side. Very weird. So, automatically I was off the back!

I watched as Justin and Luke put a good gap on me, and the crazy headwind started to crush my spirit. I was worried Justin would be upset that I didn't hang on, so I just kept saying, "I'm riding this at my threshold, not his!" and kept at it. I kept ticking the 10ths of miles by and knew I was making good progress. I was holding steady at JUST below threshold and the legs were much looser than they had been a few weeks prior, but it was really painful still. The climb starts at 6300ft or so!

The views looking down through the valley toward the west/south were just gorgeous. I wanted to grab the camera and take some shots, but this climb was all about effort, not a photoshoot, so I enjoyed the scenery every now and then as I drooled and sputtered sweat off my face.

Eventually I saw Luke cruising not too far ahead. I nearly caught him and passed, but he put down some power and pulled away a bit again. We did this a few times where I'd get back to within a few bike lengths, and he'd pull away. I kept at it, just trying to keep my effort high and steady.

I knew I was getting close to the top, so put in a big time effort, only the "top" kept being just around the corner! Damn! Finally I saw Justin heading back toward me, so I knew he had reached 2N10 and turned around. I made it up to the crossing and stopped dead. My lungs were fried. I probably should've done a little spin on the flats to help my legs out, but instead I just wanted to drink (I had barely hydrated at all since I just couldn't!) and eat. My knees got cold FAST. I was soaked through, so even standing in the sun we were all getting chilly. It felt much warmer climbing up!



After we got nice and cooled down and chatted with a fellow rider the four of us headed down Plantation



Once off of the fun part and back to the rolling hills my legs were screaming. HR was low for the PE and I just wanted to get back to going downhill ;) Kept at it and was able to keep up okay. We turned off for Cabin 89 and I enjoyed the spectacular view of the lake and the gorgeous blue sky! The weather was so awesome!



We turned and headed back up Pine Knot and I somewhat found my groove sub-threshold (yay!). I felt strong enough to lead out the climb once Justin stopped to wait for the other mountain biker who wasn't familiar with the trails.

Made it to the top and felt pretty good!



After a regroup and my confusion (I thought Justin had refused to ride 2N10 back to Clark's Grade, but he was planning on a loop while I was thinking straight out and back down Pine Knot, up Cabin 89, up Plantation, etc) we headed out on 1E01 before hitting back up with 2N10.

The views were so awesome!!



My legs were seriously screaming by this point, but the boys wanted to look for a nice singletrack to descend instead of the fire road. I obliged, and we traversed back and forth for a bit. I think they found where the singletrack "was", but Justin decided it was too overgrown to attempt, so back we headed to our fire road.



On the way out we saw a buck and a fawn! It was pretty cool. They wouldn't stop moving.



On the way down I stopped to get a shot of my epic view from the morning. Unfortunately it wasn't so pretty this time around!



I'll be honest... getting back to the truck the last thing on earth I felt like doing was riding a lap at Rim Nordic. I got changed into some normal dry clothes, had some recovery drink, and once we dropped Luke off at Barton Flats enjoyed a bowl of cereal with blueberries. I really wanted to eat my PBJ, but figured I should save it for after Rim Nordic. We were both starving, but didn't give in to the temptation of fast food!

We got down to Rim Nordic and kitted up anyway because I had told Stephanie I'd ride with her, and damn if I wasn't going to do just that!! We headed into the venue to look for pitman Dan! He said Steph was due in from her 6th lap in probably 15-20 mins, perfect! We chatted with Traci, Heidi V, Jordan, and Chris in the meantime!





We were lined up and ready and Steph came in for her pit. She sat down, snacked on some food, dropped her iPod and off we went!





She was riding really strong! It was actually a perfect pace for me since it wasn't taxing my legs or lungs and it was fun to be out riding the singletrack. We cheered on the riders coming and going and had a good time out riding with Stephanie. She really was killing it on all the techy portions and on the descents. No slowing down at all!! She was talking about one climb she hated, but she still rode it out really strong for lap 7. She managed to even be leading out some of the boys!!



I ran out of water about a mile or two from the finish and was feeling seriously bonkish. I had taken a gel shot before the lap, and one in the middle, but probably under-estimated my efforts from the morning. I had had plenty of food throughout the day, but was obviously seriously low on glycogen at that point. My body was starting to shut down big time. I pulled out of the way for Justin to pass on a descent and started getting really worried that I was literally going to pass out on the trail. I started to have that blacking out feeling. Luckily I made it back to the pits and started to eat everything in sight!!

It was getting late and cold so we took off down the hill. Once dressed back at the truck we finished our sandwiches and tried to stay hydrated since we had another good day on tap for Sunday.

Unfortunately we got to bed late, so just slept in a tad. I didn't really consider it messing up our day's plans to see my grandparents and mom, and then head to my dad's for Father's Day. Also, it was our anniversary. We didn't have anything really special planned for it (we'd spent and gone out enough the previous weekend!), but we had a good ride and good and too much eats on tap.

We got a late start and eventually got on the trail. The first fire road my HR would NOT come up at all. I had stupidly left Justin's HR strap on the floor at home, so didn't even have a reference point as to whether or not he was going okay!

I wanted to cry two or eight times on the early slopes of our short fire road climb up to Trabuco trail, but put my head down and got into the climb. HR was still fairly supressed given the effort I was putting out, but whatever! I made it to the top and looked forward to the glorious descent.



Happy Anniversary!!



Fun on the descent





My bike was working stellar, and while I wasn't holding Justin's wheel, I was doing the best I could! Having a blast, but rounded a corner and there he was checking out a huge side wall slice in his rear tire. He'd punctured the center the day before up in Big Bear, but it seemed to be holding air just fine today. Er, until he sliced the side of it.

I got out the pump and tube and he made quick work of changing it all out. We put everything back together and just as we went to head off again we could hear air just rushing out of the tire. The tube wasn't holding air. He said he'd check it again later down the trail, but the further down we went, the more hiking back out we'd have to do. I could just see us making something work until about 2-3 miles up Holy Jim and having a big decision to make on how to get back! I called it, and we turned and headed back up the trail. I managed to clean everything on the climb except for one super steep section and was pretty stoked. I had completely worked myself on the climb, so when Justin suggested a road ride or a hill repeat I emphatically said no.

We got moving for our afternoon plans a little late (we would've been way late had we finished the ride out, and honestly - I don't know that we could've survived in our fragile mental states at that point), which started to stress me out. My family causes me anxiety at times!

I brewed up some Pikes Perk since I totally felt like I was going to fall asleep the entire way home from the ride fail.



We hit up the family stuff and then went home, and despite over-eating all afternoon - I had dessert in my new bowl!





Delish, but I paid for my food extravagance today on our lunch ride! Carrying a few extra lbs up those hills is not so fun!

Got a pretty killer weekend on tap this coming weekend as well. Will be my first weekend road foray in quite awhile followed by a good hard day in the mountains on Sunday. Yay!

Gonna ride this out

This is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, and maybe a snack and get ready! Got a lot of pics also, so even if you don't like words you can look at the pretty photos.

Thursday we got home and had a ton of stuff to pack up for the weekend. I went in our guest bathroom to get some bike clothes off the drying rack and noticed a dripping sound. Hmm. Monday of last week I was in the bathroom and noticed a HUGE bubble in the ceiling near our tub and noticed it had been leaking down the wall, all over the floor, onto our towel rack, etc. Justin went upstairs and the neighbor said they hadn't accidentally flooded their bathroom or anything, blah blah. So, Thursday night he went up there again. The mom had just showered in her guest bathroom and Justin asked her not to use that shower again until we got the issue figured out. The ceiling leaked for probably 4 hours after that.

It was too late to get ahold of anyone other than an emergency plumber, which wasn't really necessary. We left messages with the HOA (never got a call back) and homeowner's insurance. Next morning we stayed home to take care of everything. HOA was going to contact the owner upstairs, and insurance said to let them know if any contents were damaged. So, we sat around waiting to hear back most of the morning, and eventually followed through with our weekend plans.

The provisions before they went in the cooler



Got up to Barton Flats Friday night sometime before 7. It was chilly (mid-50s) on the drive up there. Eek!





Dinner! And Dessert!



Justin was checking out his new birthday toys / provisions





After we got camp set up we cracked open our last 11th Anniversay Ale. Jeff was telling us that they weren't lasting, but this baby was PRIMED and ready to go. Tasted awesome up in the mountains.



Camp fire was stoked and warm



Dinner is served



So good!

We hung out by the fire for awhile





It had been fairly cloudy, but the clouds cleared and the moon (nearly full) was just gorgeous



New mini-lantern



It was a really cold night. Not the same as Crested Butte cold, or Downieville 2007 cold, but it was really chilly.



I eventually made my way out of the tent to get us some creamer for our tent coffee!



The sun was out, but there were clouds swirling around on all sides. It was warm in the sun, but the wind was cold. We got breakfast together, sat by the fire, and waited for Luke to arrive for our big ride! Credit where it's due... I sent Brian from the Path an email earlier last week asking about climbing Radford Truck Trail for a big ride from camp up to Big Bear. He suggested taking Clark's up, traversing up at the Bear trails, and then heading down Radford. His suggestion was stellar, since climbing Radford would've been challenging in spots!









My new tube holder set-up



We got on the trail I think around 10:30 (time is irrelevant when you're camping) and had the most fun of the day in the first 15 minutes of the ride! I can now say without a doubt that the singletrack from Barton Flats down to Glass Rd. is essentially ALL descent! After 25 miles and reaching South Fork campground it definitely feels like there is a lot of uphill on the way back toward Angelus Oaks, but in case that is NOT the fact that all! Soo much fun!





The boys!



We were all grinning ear-to-ear upon reaching Glass Rd, and were ready to shuttle that same 4-5miles all day! Well, we had bigger fish to fry, so off we headed down Glass Rd to meet up with Clark's Grade instead.

Starting up



I lost sight soon after. My legs felt like they were in knots. No power what-so-ever. I was doing everything I could just to tick the pedals over. The further up we climbed the cooler it got, and eventually we were in the clouds and temps continued to drop. Had we not been climbing it would've been pretty uncomfortable. I only stopped once for a route check early on, and after that kept pedaling the whole way up.







I had been alone for awhile and for some reason had a random song stuck in my head:

Had a bad day, don't talk to me / Gonna ride this out … You can't save me / You can't change me / Well I'm waiting for my wakeup call / And everything, everything's my fault

I had no idea who sang the song, or the last time I'd heard it. It must've been on an old MP3 CD that we'd been listening to from songs I used to have on CD or on my iPod. Weird. So, the song floated in my head for about 50 minutes as I climbed. I just "rode it out". Eventually I saw Luke headed back toward me. I figured he and Justin had made it up to 2N10 in Big Bear and turned around. I hesitated to ask how much further, and we chatted as we continued up. It was getting really cold!



Justin made his way back also, and I found out Luke hadn't gotten up to 2N10! So, the 3 of us rode it out and stopped at the junction to put on some extra layers and grab a bite to eat before descending Plantation.







It was totally frigid! I couldn't feel my hands at all.

We hopped back on a fire road and followed some of the Big Bear Shoot-Out course



As we descended down Cabin 89 to Pine Knot the sun was coming out. Ooh, soo nice! It warmed up just a tad.



Back on 2N10 we started to traverse back to where we'd pick up Radford Truck Trail for the descent back down to Glass Rd. It was gorgeous once we descended a little out of the clouds and looked out over the valley. SART is over there somewhere!



We weren't really looking forward to climbing back out of Glass Rd and up to Barton Flats, and while I was pretty fatigued, it wasn't *that* bad…





Back at camp I was slow moving, but took a sun shower, made some PBJ's, and we got dinner set out to cook in a bit. We enjoyed some 60-minute IPA!



Dinner was so good and gone so quickly I didn't even get any pictures!

Justin and I sat around the campfire for awhile until we were both ready to pass out, and then it was time to hit the hay. We wore some extra layers to bed and wound up sleeping in til almost 7! It was sunny out again Sunday morning, and while chilly, the sun just felt so good.

French press is cooking and berries are ready for eating



Blue skies



Tent was a little moist, so we sat around and enjoyed the beautiful weather, being lazy. We had no idea of what route to do, but wanted to take it easy. We were both a little on edge, and exploring isn't my deal. For some reason I was expecting about a 6 mile route out to Jenks Lake for a bar or something, then back. Well, it was about 2 miles of fire road to Jenks Lake, and then Justin wanted to go exploring unsigned backwoods fire roads.





Eventually I asked if we could just find 38, get over to Barton Flats, ride down to SART and do some traversing, and head back. We wound up popping out at a different SART connector down 38 that couldn't have been too far from South Fork (maybe 1.5-2 miles at most?)





Made our way down to SART, traversed back toward Barton Flats, and rode that back to where we had parked.





Radford Truck Trail! We were up there yesterday



Our picnic spot after the ride



It was gorgeous sitting out in the sun.

On the way home we stopped off in Fontana to watch a buddy from college race his old Corvette race car





All in all, GREAT weekend!! Wish we could do that every weekend. It was kind of pricey for a camp weekend (next time need to share the spot and fire wood with someone!), but fun anyway. The hard part is a) camping - I woke up pretty sore/tired on Sunday morning, and b) elevation - it is tough the very next day at elevation. I think similar to the weekend before we camped the night before a race, and your body is just in a weird transition area that first 24 hours or so!

My legs were worked and fatigued anyway from 2 full weeks of hard workouts and not recovering from the race the weekend before. But, I totally enjoyed the big ride on Saturday, as painful as it was!

I also realized I really like camping! I want to do some more of that this summer. Just hope we can find a way to make it a little cheaper!

Will hopefully have a post put together before Friday about how AWESOME Rock N Road Cyclery is! Got a few pics together, but will be taking a few more and adding commentary once we utilize some recently purchased items :) Report forth-coming!