The Pan-Am Champs was such an amazing experience; it was also a whirlwind of an adventure and a wham-bam kind of trip. Fortunately, I only had to take 3 days off of work for the trip which, when you have a limited number of vacation days, is a big deal. However, this meant that the aftermath was a bit stressful. I arrived back home on a Tuesday morning in the middle of a snowstorm and I hit the ground running. I’m gonna throw myself a little pity party here (no RSVP required)…that week was a bit rough-trying to get back in the swing of things at ‘the office’ while also recovering from epic travel and not to mention a pretty tough race…I just put my head down and put one foot in front of the other. I was just getting back into the swing of things, when it was time to pack up and head to Monterey, California for the Sea Otter Classic where I would be racing short track on Friday and cross country on Saturday. I’m a creature of habit who thrives on having a daily routine, so I was a bit out of my comfort zone with this variability. Turns out that this turns me into a bit of a basket case.
I arrived in California on Thursday morning, and after spending an hour or so wondering why my trusty iPhone maps app wasn’t working (it was set to the “walking” directions setting, exhibit A for me being at less than 100% of mental capacity), I made it to the Laguna Seca race venue. I got kitted up and headed out for a pre-ride. And, promptly got lost. I wanted to ride a specific route that would give me a chance to see the beginning and end of the course, while not having to ride the full 20 mile lap (strictly forbidden based on coach’s orders!). However, I couldn’t find the correct turn off and ended up spending way more time on my bike than I intended AND I didn’t get to pre-ride the finishing section. Additional evidence for the extent of basketcase-ness I was experiencing. If I had been on my own, I probably would have been bummed out and frustrated. However, my parents had decided to visit beautiful Monterey and also support me for this race. So, instead of dwelling on my failed pre-ride I got to go out and eat a great dinner with my folks. It was just what I needed to get back into a positive state.
The next morning was the short track race. In summary, I had no call-up which meant I started at the back, but I had a pretty good start and managed to weasel through some starting lap pile-ups and work my way into the top 15. I spent a few laps busting my A$$ trying to chase down a large group in front of me only to realize that I was doing all the work for 3-4 riders who were just sitting on my wheel. I sat up a bit and they went around-ahhh, SO much easier when you’re drafting behind someone. A few more tactical errors on my part prevented me from making contact with my target group and I ended up finishing on my own in 13th place. While a bit disappointed in the place, I was encouraged by how I felt and that I was in the mix. Click here for More

In late March I found out I was selected to represent the USA at the Pan-American Continental championships….in Tucuman, Argentina on April, 7th. I was super excited-both for the opportunity to race for team USA, but also for the chance to visit Argentina. I had never been to South America and Argentina had always been on the top of my list. Click here for More

The official race season started the first weekend of March with the opening round of the Pro XCT being held at the Mellow Johnny’s Classic just outside of Austin, Texas. For this Colorado girl, March 3rd feels really early to start racing. It is a shock to the system to go from 40 degree road rides to 70 degrees and technical, fast mountain biking. Last year, I definitely wasn’t ready and had a somewhat disappointing race at ol’ Mellow’s finishing 17th. This year, I was determined to at least come into the race more mentally prepared. And, I’m happy to report that I’d say I was successful. I knew it was going to be fast and rough, and it was. But, I think I kept it together pretty well-focusing on riding as smoothly as possible and cutting myself some slack. Sure, my technical skills weren’t awe inspiring and my legs had the acceleration of a diesel lawn mower, but my mental game was on and I steadily motored my way to a near podium finish leaving a trail of churned up dirt and rocks in my wake. Seriously though, I was pretty happy with my 6th place finish-definitely an improvement from last year and a solid start to the race season. Click here for More

First race of the season is out of the way….and it was a blast! I decided sort of at the last minute to head up to Vail for the Vail Mountain Games snow xc bike race. While I didn’t have a ‘snow bike’ and I had never really actually ridden on snow, I thought the race would be a good rehearsal for the upcoming race season. Plus, it looked like it would be fun, Vail always has amazing schwag bags, and it would be something new and different to spice up my training routine. When I showed up at the start I was somewhat intimidated by the big wheeled snow bikes everyone else seemed to be riding. But, what the heck I was there for the fun! Click here for More

After taking a blogging break, I’m back! The past few months have been a mix of being relaxing, busy, fun, cold, warm, exciting,  a nice change of pace, and then a return to routine all at the same time! Click here for More

This post is long overdue…I am extremely grateful to all my sponsors for their support this year. Thank you for believing in me and backing me! Specifically, I would like to highlight a few people, well several really, whose support this season was invaluable and for whom I am very grateful. So, in no particular order I would like to thank: Click here for More

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I woke Saturday morning to the sight of clear blue skies and was thankful that it seemed we would have a spectacular day for racing. We were shuttled to the venue and I decided to do my warm up on the trainer. With all the crowds and not knowing the area very well, I figured that was the safest option. Plus, I hardly ever am able to transport a stationary trainer with me to a race venue so this was like a novelty and it made me feel cool:) I got a good warm up in and then went to the start area to wait for call-ups. My starting position was actually 58^th, out of 60 something girls. My goal for the start loop was to move up as far as I could and not let anyone get by me. Honestly, I was hoping to get into the top 40, and then pick a few people off per lap. I did a pretty good job squeezing into a relatively good start position. When the gun went off, everyone did the usual surge forward with jockying, franctically trying to move to the front. It was the most aggressive start I’ve been in. At one point a Polish girl grabbed my waist and tried to pull/push me out of her way. I used my elbow to knock her hand off me, focused on my goal of not letting anyone take a hard earned spot away from me.
There was a sharp downhill corner halfway through the lap and I was shocked to see how many people were bungled up at this section. There was no way through, so I got off my bike and tried to run. Which I wasn’t able to do very well due to the congestion. Tried to keep my cool and maintain my focus, only to run into more congestion at another not-that-difficult section. When I came through the start/finish I saw I was in 48^th. I was hoping for a better spot and the wind sort of blew out of my sails. But then Sandra Walter, a Canadian racer, sped past me and I snapped back into it realizing there was a lot of racing left to do. I picked up the pace and was able to pass a few girls, only to get stopped behind a girl who had to dismount after a water crossing section. This made me more determined to pass as many people as possible before the single track climb up to the first steep, muddy descent. Unfortunately, I think I was little too aggressive and carried a bit too much speed rolling off the log drop and wasn’t able to stay in control on the muddy chute. I wiped out pretty hard, but wasn’t really hurt (one nice thing about mud). After checking that my bike was still functioning I ran the rest of the way down the hill. When I tried to clip in for the next rooty section, I found that my cleats were solid with mud and I wasn’t able to get into my pedals. More running and uncoordinated riding until I was through the tree section and able to roll while stomping the mud off my cleats. I lost about 5 spots through that ordeal, but I caught a few people again on the climb and before I knew it, we were heading out for our 2^nd lap. I was about 4 minutes off the leaders already and was in 47^th place. I was pretty frustrated with my lack of coordination and was determined to have a smoother 2^nd lap. Lap 2 was better, but still not as smooth as I would have liked. 3^rd lap was pretty good and my 4^th and ultimately final lap was the best lap of the day for me. I ended up getting pulled with 2 laps to go. I was really disappointed to get pulled. Mainly because I was just starting to feel good! I tried not to be too bummed out, but kept re-living how strong and comfortable I felt on the climbs. I stuck around to watch the finish and was super psyched to see Georgia win another Bronze medal and Lea finish not too far behind her in 8^th place. I was proud to be wearing the same jersey! Click here for More

Last post I was sitting in the airport excited and apprehensive for the adventure that was awaiting me. Now, I’m sitting in a different airport looking back on the experiences I had. I will have to break this into multiple posts I think, so this one will be the days leading up to the race. Click here for More

The other day I was doing intervals up my favorite, go-to interval road. The kind of road with a cruel grade that forces you to go hard just to win the fight with gravity and maintain forward momentum. The steeper the better in my mind, that way you don’t have to try as hard….maybe that’s just me. Between sets, I thought to myself how these intervals were likely to be the last set of ‘training’ intervals I will do this season as the last race of the year was just over a week away. My immediate thought with that realization was one of relief. I’m tired of doing intervals. And then another realization hit me…I remembered doing intervals up this road in the cold of January, the wind of March, the mud of April…all with the goal of making the World Championship team. I would continuously have to talk myself into going harder, going faster, doing just one more with the focus on getting fit enough to vie for a slot on the team selected in August. Click here for More

“Update website” has been on my to do list for the past 4 weeks. I put it off for a few weeks, and then the Olympics started so that made it that much more difficult. But, as today is the last day of the Olympics I don’t have any excuse for further procrastination. Lets do a quick recap: Click here for More

As last weekend proved, just finishing a World Cup is sometimes the most immediate goal. Then, not getting pulled is the next goal. But, I also had a stretch goal. Despite my less than stellar race at Mont-Sainte-Anne, I felt like I was capable of a top 30 finish and I hoped that Windham would be my chance. Click here for More

Jill and I made a stop in East Burke Vermont and did some riding on the Kingdom trails. Super fun. It was nice to ride new, fun trails and just be mountain bikers…not racers for a few days. We had to force ourselves to stop and take a picture… Click here for More

I’ve procrastinated to the fullest on writing this report, but since it’s the day before the NEXT World Cup Race but since it’s almost been 2 weeks, I guess I should get it over with . Click here for More

If I haven’t mentioned it before-I work full time. In the real world I am a project manager for a medical device company. My days are filled with meetings, emails, schedules, and often some kind of crisis management (or at least they seem like crises at the time). I work very hard to fit being a bike racer into my daily life, but it is usually a secondary (or even tertiary) priority. However, way back in October or November the Tokyo Joes Team manager presented me with an opportunity- how about a travel stipend to help cover the costs of racing in order for you to try and  qualify for the World Championship team? Hmm, intriguing-let me check with my real-world boss and see what kind of crazy vacation schedule they will let me get away with. Long story short, here I am in the midst of a 3.5 week un-paid vacation with the first priority being racing bikes. So, now I’m presented with the question of what does one do when one is a bike racer? Click here for More