And there was some racing at 24-9 too!
Friday, July 27 – I’m not packed and ready to roll as somehow time passed me by on Thursday night. Luckily I’m not working a full day. I have a few hours of work followed by a dentist appointment as I have a cracked tooth. The dentist appointment didn’t turn out quite the way I expected. They confirmed that indeed I do have a cracked tooth. The dentist’s advice – be really careful since it is cracked through and might break off, chew only on one side of my mouth, and come back in two months to get it fixed. Yes, two months was the next available appointment. I’ll admit that I have a dental appointment phobia but still. However, I didn’t have too much time to stress about that as we needed to get organized, get packed, and get on the road. Finally we reached Nine Mile and got started on getting the Mad FORCs encampment dialed and set up. Pop-up tents to erect, tables to arrange, banners to hang, etc, etc.
Saturday, July 28 – Sunday, July 29 – Race time arrives. The truth is that I actually tried to find someone to replace me on the team as I wasn’t really feeling race ready. However, there was really no one that I could think of to do that so I arrived hoping for the best. I frequently find it hard to ride well at mountain bike races. It’s a mental block that I have and since I rarely mountain bike race anymore it’s not a big deal. However, this year I was on a team doing the National Championship category and I was hoping to make a decent showing.
I rode 3rd for my team so there was plenty of waiting around to be done. Ridge turned in a great first lap and we were solidly in 4th in our category (out of 4) but we were rocking that 4th place. Michele crashed and had brake problems that slowed her down on her lap but not by too much. Then it was time for me to race. My warm up consisted of riding from our encampment to the start and then sitting and waiting.
After 8 minutes went by I looked at my Garmin and thought . . . great, 8 minutes, this is going to hurt. Of course, the first 8 minutes will hurt if you’re not warmed up and you race off and jump on your bike and pedal like mad. I was pretty happy with this lap. I hadn’t pre-rode so I didn’t know what to expect but I was expecting the worst. I spent the whole lap just telling myself over and over again that I should ride hard. “Keep going, ride like it’s Tuesday night and you don’t want dropped, go harder, you only have the length of a cross race left so go hard.”
I passed a lot of people/guys in the double track who weren’t pedaling down the hills or were just kinda cruising the uphills. However, as soon as they hit the singletrack they would stomp on it and catch me. I feel like I can be decent in the singletrack but they were saving it all for those sections. I, on the other hand, know that I usually do the same thing and just kick back on the doubletrack so I was really trying to force myself not to loose so much time there. I know that would make the difference for me in finishing well or not finishing well. It was a weird experience though as usually I’m the one who gets passed on the doubletrack but then catches people on the single track. I did have one nice crash when I snagged a small sapling with my bar. I was worried that I was slowing the guy down who was behind me and I snagged the tree. Luckily I fell off the trail and the guy was able to make a nice pass. Ironically I caught him and passed him later so I really shouldn’t have been so worried about slowing him down.
Anyway, lap one is always weird as you don’t really know when you’ll be done. It seemed like I would see things that seemed near the finish but yet we weren’t. Finally I get to the solo pit area, into the final singletrack and then I hammered down the finishing stretch, did an awesome cx dismount and ran through the chute. I always like to throw down a good dismount and then run even if it’s not necessary as it demonstrates to the crowd that I’m taking it seriously. It's nice to end with a little showy flourish! Finished the lap in 1 hour and 23 minutes, which was very respectable and better than any of my laps last year so I got off to a good start.
After that it was change, stretch, shower, eat, drink, and sit around. Then eat, drink and change and go back to the start/finish for Lap Two. At this point my team is still holding down it’s solid 4th place and we are all turning laps of approximately the same time ranging from 1 hr 21 min to 1 hr 23 min. I was shocked as I had gone into this thinking I would be the slowest rider on my team but we were all putting in almost the same times.
Anyway, lap two . . . and I’m out again. There was a little excitement as you have to have lights after 6:30pm. I didn’t put mine on as I thought Michele would arrive before then. However, at 6:20pm I panicked and Dave started getting my lights on although there was some issues and it took longer than necessary. However, we were almost set up to go when Michele arrived at 6:25pm although I lost a small bit of time but nothing big. Anyway, I rode with them since I was set up with them although I didn’t need to turn them on.
Anyway, on this lap you know what you’re in for and I was just hoping to not be too far off my lap one time. Once again I’m telling myself to ride hard and that doing one good lap is not enough and that I need to do two good laps. I’m feeling okay although I can’t tell if I’m keeping the necessary pace or not. However I keep lying to myself and telling myself that I’m half done even when I’m not and that I should ride harder as I'm almost done. No crashes on this lap although I certainly am not riding things smoothly but I am just trying to keep on keeping on. I do a nice shoulder swipe of a tree though to keep it real but brush off it with no problems. I also keep telling myself over and over in my head to keep pedaling and to remember that just because I’m breathing hard doesn’t mean I can’t pedal harder. This is no time for coasting down the hills and I tell myself that others are climbing those climbs faster than me and I need to limit my losses by not taking it easy there.
As I get towards the end I can see another Mad FORC on another 24-hour team up in the distance. This gives me someone to chase and I try to lift the pace in the singletrack (apparently she saw me too so was picking up the pace as well). As I exit the last piece of singletrack a guy lets me by and yells at me that I can catch her if I hammer. Well, what am I to do but hammer like hell up the last little drag to the finish. With a good cx dismount and a killer run through the chute I catch her right at the transition making for a good ending to the lap and another 1 hour 23 minute lap. Yeah!
Then it’s change, stretch, shower off, drink, eat and sit around time. At some point I decided I should lie down for awhile and try to rest since I was going out at 12:30pm. In the end I wish I hadn’t as I never slept and when I got up I felt like crap. However, feeling like crap doesn’t change the fact that it is riding time again. Around 12:30pm I set out on lap three. It was chilly waiting in the transition area and I had put on arm warmers. I lasted about 10 minutes before I was tugging at them like crazy as I was sweating and hot (as always).
Anyway, I was having a hard time getting going on this lap and I just felt sluggish and a little icky. I like riding at night though and usually I feel pretty smooth on my night laps. This year was the exception to that. Everything felt awkward and I didn’t feel like I was finding my rhythm. I definitely took the speed way down and went into the mode of just getting through the lap. There were times where I seriously questioned my ability to do a 4th lap. Even the self-talk wasn’t really happening and mostly I was just telling myself to get through it and get it done even if it was slow. At this point we weren’t going anywhere but 4th place so it wasn’t like I would be letting my teammates down.
I did try to appreciate just being out in the woods at night on a nice night. That helped some. It also helped to not go at race pace but just ride as best as I felt I could sustain. I had a nice crash making the sharp right turn into the first rocky section. I made the turn but just couldn’t commit to a line and although I knew I should unclip and put a foot down I didn’t. Nice little crash but luckily no one was around to witness my dorky move. In a later rocky section I heard a guy crash that I had just passed and it sound like it must have hurt. He told me he was fine though but it sounded bad.
I have to admit that I was happy to get this lap done with although I did my usual sprint up the final stretch to the finish chute, cx dismount and run. It felt kind of funny to run up at full tilt and then have my teammate Carol walk over to her bike. It made me laugh. My finish time wasn’t as good as my normal night laps but I was fine with 1 hr 36 min.
Once again, I cleaned up, changed, drank, and ate. Then I decided to try and see if I could get any sleep before morning. I think I got somewhere around just over one hour of sleep which is pretty good compared to some years where I haven’t slept at all. When my alarm went off I got out of the tent and walked over to our team area. I saw my teammate Carol and I totally freaked out. I asked her if I was supposed to be out on course right now. She said no that Michele was out which meant I was up next. However, in my sleepy haze I thought that meant that I wasn’t up until much later after Carol. Finally I pulled myself together and realized that I was right on track time wise. The mind gets a little fuzzy sometimes.
Okay, so 4th and final lap time at around 7:30am. I’m really not feeling it now but out I go. The whole thing just feels like a bit of a struggle and I feel like I’m riding really poorly. I’ve got no groove at all in the singletrack and the doubletrack is sapping my motivation. I go back into survival mode and hope that I can beat my night lap time but at times I severely doubt that I can. However, I just keep going and remind myself that this is my last lap and it doesn't matter.
Finally I reach the half way point and I remind myself that pedaling downhill is good. Then a funny thing happens. I slowly start to feel a little better. I catch up to one of my teammates and pass her in the rocky section. I can feel a guy slowly catching me so I try to keep up a good pace so I can get out to the doubletrack before I need to let him by. However, he isn’t catching me.
Finally another guy catches me and I let him by. I keep over to the side as the first guy does finally catch me. He tells me that he doesn’t want to go by as he is enjoying me pulling him along. That makes me happy. Then he compliments my skills and I feel like I need to rise to the occasion. Once I reach the singletrack with all the great corners I’m on fire (or so it felt). Slowly I pull away from the guy who is behind me and I’m punching it out of all the corners like it is a cross race. It just feels fun again. In reality I have no idea if I was really going fast or if it just felt fast to my addled brain. It doesn’t really matter as it just felt like mountain bike riding is meant to feel.
When I got to the finishing drag I even sprinted up, dismounted and ran through the chute even though at the start of the lap I had casually strolled over to my bike at the slowest ever pace. That’s the magic of singletrack (and a compliment). The lap time was 1 hour 29 minutes but it ended on a great note, which is all you can really ask for in an event like that. I was pleased with my result. I’m not a great endurance rider and riding for 5 hours and 45 minutes is a long ride for me. I’d probably do better if I did more long rides but that's not my style so I was happy to put in respectable times and survive.
In the end my Mad FORCs team took 4th out of 4 in the National Championship Women’s team category. However, I feel like we held our own just fine and as someone pointed out to me we were the top amateur team, as we didn’t have any pros on our team. We even got called up to be on the podium. Of course, we didn’t realize that they would have more than the top 3 come up so we weren’t even wearing matching team jerseys or even our FORCs t-shirts.
I feel like my 56 miles now has me all prepared for ripping it up in Wales in JUST THREE WEEKS!!
Saturday, July 28 – Sunday, July 29 – Race time arrives. The truth is that I actually tried to find someone to replace me on the team as I wasn’t really feeling race ready. However, there was really no one that I could think of to do that so I arrived hoping for the best. I frequently find it hard to ride well at mountain bike races. It’s a mental block that I have and since I rarely mountain bike race anymore it’s not a big deal. However, this year I was on a team doing the National Championship category and I was hoping to make a decent showing.
I rode 3rd for my team so there was plenty of waiting around to be done. Ridge turned in a great first lap and we were solidly in 4th in our category (out of 4) but we were rocking that 4th place. Michele crashed and had brake problems that slowed her down on her lap but not by too much. Then it was time for me to race. My warm up consisted of riding from our encampment to the start and then sitting and waiting.
After 8 minutes went by I looked at my Garmin and thought . . . great, 8 minutes, this is going to hurt. Of course, the first 8 minutes will hurt if you’re not warmed up and you race off and jump on your bike and pedal like mad. I was pretty happy with this lap. I hadn’t pre-rode so I didn’t know what to expect but I was expecting the worst. I spent the whole lap just telling myself over and over again that I should ride hard. “Keep going, ride like it’s Tuesday night and you don’t want dropped, go harder, you only have the length of a cross race left so go hard.”
I passed a lot of people/guys in the double track who weren’t pedaling down the hills or were just kinda cruising the uphills. However, as soon as they hit the singletrack they would stomp on it and catch me. I feel like I can be decent in the singletrack but they were saving it all for those sections. I, on the other hand, know that I usually do the same thing and just kick back on the doubletrack so I was really trying to force myself not to loose so much time there. I know that would make the difference for me in finishing well or not finishing well. It was a weird experience though as usually I’m the one who gets passed on the doubletrack but then catches people on the single track. I did have one nice crash when I snagged a small sapling with my bar. I was worried that I was slowing the guy down who was behind me and I snagged the tree. Luckily I fell off the trail and the guy was able to make a nice pass. Ironically I caught him and passed him later so I really shouldn’t have been so worried about slowing him down.
Anyway, lap one is always weird as you don’t really know when you’ll be done. It seemed like I would see things that seemed near the finish but yet we weren’t. Finally I get to the solo pit area, into the final singletrack and then I hammered down the finishing stretch, did an awesome cx dismount and ran through the chute. I always like to throw down a good dismount and then run even if it’s not necessary as it demonstrates to the crowd that I’m taking it seriously. It's nice to end with a little showy flourish! Finished the lap in 1 hour and 23 minutes, which was very respectable and better than any of my laps last year so I got off to a good start.
After that it was change, stretch, shower, eat, drink, and sit around. Then eat, drink and change and go back to the start/finish for Lap Two. At this point my team is still holding down it’s solid 4th place and we are all turning laps of approximately the same time ranging from 1 hr 21 min to 1 hr 23 min. I was shocked as I had gone into this thinking I would be the slowest rider on my team but we were all putting in almost the same times.
Anyway, lap two . . . and I’m out again. There was a little excitement as you have to have lights after 6:30pm. I didn’t put mine on as I thought Michele would arrive before then. However, at 6:20pm I panicked and Dave started getting my lights on although there was some issues and it took longer than necessary. However, we were almost set up to go when Michele arrived at 6:25pm although I lost a small bit of time but nothing big. Anyway, I rode with them since I was set up with them although I didn’t need to turn them on.
Anyway, on this lap you know what you’re in for and I was just hoping to not be too far off my lap one time. Once again I’m telling myself to ride hard and that doing one good lap is not enough and that I need to do two good laps. I’m feeling okay although I can’t tell if I’m keeping the necessary pace or not. However I keep lying to myself and telling myself that I’m half done even when I’m not and that I should ride harder as I'm almost done. No crashes on this lap although I certainly am not riding things smoothly but I am just trying to keep on keeping on. I do a nice shoulder swipe of a tree though to keep it real but brush off it with no problems. I also keep telling myself over and over in my head to keep pedaling and to remember that just because I’m breathing hard doesn’t mean I can’t pedal harder. This is no time for coasting down the hills and I tell myself that others are climbing those climbs faster than me and I need to limit my losses by not taking it easy there.
As I get towards the end I can see another Mad FORC on another 24-hour team up in the distance. This gives me someone to chase and I try to lift the pace in the singletrack (apparently she saw me too so was picking up the pace as well). As I exit the last piece of singletrack a guy lets me by and yells at me that I can catch her if I hammer. Well, what am I to do but hammer like hell up the last little drag to the finish. With a good cx dismount and a killer run through the chute I catch her right at the transition making for a good ending to the lap and another 1 hour 23 minute lap. Yeah!
Then it’s change, stretch, shower off, drink, eat and sit around time. At some point I decided I should lie down for awhile and try to rest since I was going out at 12:30pm. In the end I wish I hadn’t as I never slept and when I got up I felt like crap. However, feeling like crap doesn’t change the fact that it is riding time again. Around 12:30pm I set out on lap three. It was chilly waiting in the transition area and I had put on arm warmers. I lasted about 10 minutes before I was tugging at them like crazy as I was sweating and hot (as always).
Anyway, I was having a hard time getting going on this lap and I just felt sluggish and a little icky. I like riding at night though and usually I feel pretty smooth on my night laps. This year was the exception to that. Everything felt awkward and I didn’t feel like I was finding my rhythm. I definitely took the speed way down and went into the mode of just getting through the lap. There were times where I seriously questioned my ability to do a 4th lap. Even the self-talk wasn’t really happening and mostly I was just telling myself to get through it and get it done even if it was slow. At this point we weren’t going anywhere but 4th place so it wasn’t like I would be letting my teammates down.
I did try to appreciate just being out in the woods at night on a nice night. That helped some. It also helped to not go at race pace but just ride as best as I felt I could sustain. I had a nice crash making the sharp right turn into the first rocky section. I made the turn but just couldn’t commit to a line and although I knew I should unclip and put a foot down I didn’t. Nice little crash but luckily no one was around to witness my dorky move. In a later rocky section I heard a guy crash that I had just passed and it sound like it must have hurt. He told me he was fine though but it sounded bad.
I have to admit that I was happy to get this lap done with although I did my usual sprint up the final stretch to the finish chute, cx dismount and run. It felt kind of funny to run up at full tilt and then have my teammate Carol walk over to her bike. It made me laugh. My finish time wasn’t as good as my normal night laps but I was fine with 1 hr 36 min.
Once again, I cleaned up, changed, drank, and ate. Then I decided to try and see if I could get any sleep before morning. I think I got somewhere around just over one hour of sleep which is pretty good compared to some years where I haven’t slept at all. When my alarm went off I got out of the tent and walked over to our team area. I saw my teammate Carol and I totally freaked out. I asked her if I was supposed to be out on course right now. She said no that Michele was out which meant I was up next. However, in my sleepy haze I thought that meant that I wasn’t up until much later after Carol. Finally I pulled myself together and realized that I was right on track time wise. The mind gets a little fuzzy sometimes.
Okay, so 4th and final lap time at around 7:30am. I’m really not feeling it now but out I go. The whole thing just feels like a bit of a struggle and I feel like I’m riding really poorly. I’ve got no groove at all in the singletrack and the doubletrack is sapping my motivation. I go back into survival mode and hope that I can beat my night lap time but at times I severely doubt that I can. However, I just keep going and remind myself that this is my last lap and it doesn't matter.
Finally I reach the half way point and I remind myself that pedaling downhill is good. Then a funny thing happens. I slowly start to feel a little better. I catch up to one of my teammates and pass her in the rocky section. I can feel a guy slowly catching me so I try to keep up a good pace so I can get out to the doubletrack before I need to let him by. However, he isn’t catching me.
Finally another guy catches me and I let him by. I keep over to the side as the first guy does finally catch me. He tells me that he doesn’t want to go by as he is enjoying me pulling him along. That makes me happy. Then he compliments my skills and I feel like I need to rise to the occasion. Once I reach the singletrack with all the great corners I’m on fire (or so it felt). Slowly I pull away from the guy who is behind me and I’m punching it out of all the corners like it is a cross race. It just feels fun again. In reality I have no idea if I was really going fast or if it just felt fast to my addled brain. It doesn’t really matter as it just felt like mountain bike riding is meant to feel.
When I got to the finishing drag I even sprinted up, dismounted and ran through the chute even though at the start of the lap I had casually strolled over to my bike at the slowest ever pace. That’s the magic of singletrack (and a compliment). The lap time was 1 hour 29 minutes but it ended on a great note, which is all you can really ask for in an event like that. I was pleased with my result. I’m not a great endurance rider and riding for 5 hours and 45 minutes is a long ride for me. I’d probably do better if I did more long rides but that's not my style so I was happy to put in respectable times and survive.
In the end my Mad FORCs team took 4th out of 4 in the National Championship Women’s team category. However, I feel like we held our own just fine and as someone pointed out to me we were the top amateur team, as we didn’t have any pros on our team. We even got called up to be on the podium. Of course, we didn’t realize that they would have more than the top 3 come up so we weren’t even wearing matching team jerseys or even our FORCs t-shirts.
I feel like my 56 miles now has me all prepared for ripping it up in Wales in JUST THREE WEEKS!!
posted by MadCross at 4:20 PM
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