Intense (In Tents)

My experience at 24 hrs of Adrenaline ended well. It was the part in the middle that was hard to deal with. I raced on a 5 woman team, one of whom had raced in 2004, and the rest of us were completely new to mtb racing. The mix made for a great group dynamic, with just enough 'of course you can do it!' to off set the 'oh my god what am I doing?!?' with a little of 'if she can do it, I can do it' thrown in. The plan was to have each rider do three laps, and the rotation would give us about 6 hours between rides to eat, rest and recover. Pretty straight forward, right?

Our first rotation went really well. All of us rode our first lap in daylight and we all had reasonably similar lap times. Eating was a hard thing to balance and I felt a little unsettled while riding my first lap but really, I think it was just nerves. Nerves are something I didn't really give enough credit. I had pre-rode the 14.5 km loop on Wednesday, and the technical part on Monday as well, but stick me on a course with dozens of other riders and time me, and I seem to loose perspective. I rested as much as I could before my night lap (scheduled midnight to 1:30 am). Unfortunately I am not an experienced night rider, and I think I just pushed myself too hard. At around 6km I had a bit of a bike accident and lost my meager dinner onto the trail from a hit to the stomach. Not so nice. I sat out at the checkpoint for a short while, but the unhappy prospect of getting back on and riding seemed to greatly outweigh any benefit I would feel at finishing my lap; or so it seemed at the time. So, I quit. Yes, I quit. I got a ride back to the campsite in a pickup truck and we were down a lap.

Back at the tent ranch the few women who were awake made the instant decision that we were just going to keep up with the rotation and not try to send out someone for a 4th lap to gain our place back. I think trying to decide at 1:30 am if you want to ride even harder is a pretty quick process; riding vs. sleep, sleep wins. To keep perspective, I have to remember that the fast racers who are doing 6 or more laps each are much fitter and faster and therefore are probably not necessarily putting out much more effort than us novices. After I was able to keep a bit of easy food in my stomach (5 corn ships) I climbed in my tent and defiantly (selfishly) did not set my alarm for my last lap.

I woke up when I was ready and the woman riding right before me was just getting ready to leave, so I had about an hour and a half to get ready to ride. I was grumpy! But, I knew I at least had to try. Because of my night ride mishap, my team had taken a break just before dawn so that no one would have to do more than one night lap. With this offset, I did not start my morning lap until 9:30. The trick with 24 hr races is that if your rider gets back before 11 am, you have to send one last person out. In light of this, I was tasked with taking at least 1 hr and 30 minutes for my lap as everyone was either overtired or injured and I was the last one of us is any reasonable condition to ride. (yeah, no dinner, no breakfast, twitchy stomach = best shape to ride) I had to stay out longer than 11 am.

Racing with a 'must stay out as long as I can' attitude is really great! I was chatting with the solo racers, not stressing out about the rooty bits, stopping to catch my breath, and having a great old time! With noting in my stomach but a banana, I had 1/2 a clif shot at the top of the first long hill and I think the sugar and caffeine were critical in keeping my mood so great. I finished my lap in 1 hr and 36 minutes, just 5 minutes slower than my first lap and way happier. All 5 of us ended the race happy and accompished.

Jeff was racing too and came in third. He prides himself on having no stories; no technical issues, no injuries, no illness, just great consistent lap times. He was between 50 min and 63 min for all 6 of his laps.

Overall I learned that racing is strange and I'm not a big fan, but it makes you feel awesome when you finish. Even if you come in last! I'm sure I will be convinced to race again sometime, but at the moment I am not registering for anything. Fresh air and friends are what I want when I ride. This weekend I had the fresh air and the great friends and apparently my 6 month rotation on bike injury. Good times.

Ladies getting dirty in Golden

Summers are bad times for blogs; updates are few and far between. Since the July long weekend I have been doing the usual stuff - hiking biking, reading and sleeping (oh yeah, and working too). For the August long, a friend from Vancouver was visiting and most of our big adventure plans got sidetracked as she had developed a bad infection. It's funny though how catching up on each others lives can make a long weekend fly by! Jeff was away for the Transrockies race so it was just us girls.
Jeff did not race Transrockies this year and I did not take the week off either. From chatting last night once we were both home, I think he was quite happy to not have to wake up in the rain and start racing.
This past weekend, myself and four Spin Sisters (a local MTB club) went to Golden to ride. It was originally going to be many more of us, but the difference between 'interested' and 'committed' to going turned out to be quite big. In the end it was great to have a smaller group. A friend in Golden agreed to lead us on her favorite trails and ended up organizing many more women to join in the ride. Here is what I posted as a summary on the Spin Sister's site:
"On Saturday, my friend and guide organized an excellent group for a long ride up the canyon creek trail. We were a little nervous as a few of her friends were joining us, visiting from Nelson, and were sporting downhilling rigs and full face helmets. What were we getting ourselves into?! Luckily, that's just Nelson style, and once we got to the top of the canyon it was a satisfying 'blue run' all the way down and out with a few small stunts near the end (easily avoidable). We had a few seat height adjustments and a busted chain to contend with (totally do-able!) and only one injury. Unfortunately it was our guide! She popped her shoulder out, got it back in and rode out, but our Sunday plans were certainly changed."
"The next day, we all learned a valuable lesson - do not got to a beautiful gourmet brunch before riding! Hoping to get our bikes on the lifts we headed to the ski hill for the brunch special at the top of the hill. Unfortunately the bikes were a no-go, so after brunch we did some old-school cross-country following the ski trails at the bottom next to the hill. There were no set trails and lots of bear poo, so we wooped and hollered and had a grand old time dodging fallen trees. No incidences and no injuries, but some serious overeating regrets."
Good times were had by all.
This weekend is my first race - the 24 hrs in Canmore. Yikes! What a way to start racing eh? I promise I will post a run down of that adventure as soon as I can next week. One crazy thing is that Jeff is racing too. He's racing with a capital 'R', really wanting to place well. Personally, I'm going to be super proud of myself if I; a) don't back out last minute, b) ride my three assigned laps without over sleeping for the night ride, and c) don't get a concussion! I'm an easy girl to please...