OMBC at East Fork

The race went off with a bang with Nicole from IN and the Amandas leading the pain train. I did my best to hang in there but after we past the MTB trailhead I had to back off a bit. I was at max there and could feel even my fingers filling up with lactic acid.
Amanda "Superfly" Sproat was leading heading into the trail and I never saw her again. I passed Christina on Phase 1 who was fumbling with some mechanical issues. Some mechanicals made it a bummer race for her.

My legs were showing me no love at all today. I didn't have that "spark" nor the ability to ride fast at all. I did manage to finish in the money 4/7 (2 "pros" in my class...so 2nd place expert really) so that was good. My sweet hubby James was able to cheer me on and do bottles for me. My pooch Button was able to tag along and cheer me on as well.

The good news is that James and I taped the Euro Cup finals and the Spain won! Woo Hoo!

OMBC at East Fork

The race went off with a bang with Nicole from IN and the Amandas leading the pain train. I did my best to hang in there but after we past the MTB trailhead I had to back off a bit. I was at max there and could feel even my fingers filling up with lactic acid.
Amanda "Superfly" Sproat was leading heading into the trail and I never saw her again. I passed Christina on Phase 1 who was fumbling with some mechanical issues. Some mechanicals made it a bummer race for her.

My legs were showing me no love at all today. I didn't have that "spark" nor the ability to ride fast at all. I did manage to finish in the money 4/7 (2 "pros" in my class...so 2nd place expert really) so that was good. My sweet hubby James was able to cheer me on and do bottles for me. My pooch Button was able to tag along and cheer me on as well.

The good news is that James and I taped the Euro Cup finals and the Spain won! Woo Hoo!

One of my favorite rides

Two years ago I worked in Frankfurt, Germany for a month. While I was there a colleague named Stefan aided me in purchasing a bike through something like Craig's List (like Auflistung von Marcus or something). We traveled by Strassenbahn or streetcar to pick up this bike, a "Mountain" brand rigged with the old-school lights powered by a sidewall generator!

One night after work a coworker named Mikale took me out for a 15 kilometer bike ride through the country roads outside of Frankfurt. It was really fun to ride through the apple orchards that I imagined produced the Apfelwein that I grew so fond of. We reached a small hilltop town named Kronberg. We walked the cobble stone streets, stepped into a beautiful old church and window-shopped stores with little German trinkets. Lastly we had dinner at the Kronberger Brauhaus, a small brewery and restaurant in Kronberg. I had a kind of breakfast for dinner: fleischekäse (something like a Bologna) with an egg, potatos and of course their beer.

I hope to go back someday soon and I will try to make this a weekly ritual!

Additional Century Ride Training tips

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
Wednesday: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
Thursday: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
Friday: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride
Saturday: 1-2 hour ride with 30 minutes of hard effort
Sunday: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)

More Training Tips
Gradually increase your milage as you get closer to the century, increasing no more than 10% at a time.
Plan a 50- or 60-mile ride at least two weeks before the century
Taper your mileage a week before the century. During that week you may even reduce your riding to one or two days of an easy five to ten-mile spin. Also, try to get plenty of sleep.



Perhaps I will try to cruise Route 8 this weekend...

Race for the Graves

I did the CORA (Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance) series kick-off this past sunday. It was just across the Ohio River in Burlington, KY at England Idlewild park.

I got to the race in plenty of time to warm-up. Ride a bit of the trail and chat with some friends. I was hoping for a better turnout for expert women but I think most of the ladies were at home with their Dads. My Dad was out in Denver expecting his first Grandbaby so I didn't feel bad cutting out for the day.
The start was pretty crazy because we started with the expert men but there wasn't enough trail to spread things out before the start. I stayed right behind a pack of expert guys for the first few minutes of the race. I was surprised to see the guys sliding out on the first few sections. I was out climbing a few of em. No joke, I'm lovin the 29er on those muddy steep climbs. It rules.

Anyhow, the rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I lead from the start. I felt bad for a lot of my friends as I saw Joe, Justin, Bill, & Bob all suffer bike/body mechanicals. I felt especially bad for Joe in his recent bad luck.
The actual race was pretty darn hard. A lot of the expert guys were finishing and looking like they were pretty toasted. Mitch was coughing up a lung. Marty cramped bad. They were broken. I was certainly lucky to have only had to do 2 laps.

It was a sweet, hard, fun, and best of all a LOCAL race. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the CORA series.

Race for the Graves

I did the CORA (Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance) series kick-off this past sunday. It was just across the Ohio River in Burlington, KY at England Idlewild park.

I got to the race in plenty of time to warm-up. Ride a bit of the trail and chat with some friends. I was hoping for a better turnout for expert women but I think most of the ladies were at home with their Dads. My Dad was out in Denver expecting his first Grandbaby so I didn't feel bad cutting out for the day.
The start was pretty crazy because we started with the expert men but there wasn't enough trail to spread things out before the start. I stayed right behind a pack of expert guys for the first few minutes of the race. I was surprised to see the guys sliding out on the first few sections. I was out climbing a few of em. No joke, I'm lovin the 29er on those muddy steep climbs. It rules.

Anyhow, the rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I lead from the start. I felt bad for a lot of my friends as I saw Joe, Justin, Bill, & Bob all suffer bike/body mechanicals. I felt especially bad for Joe in his recent bad luck.
The actual race was pretty darn hard. A lot of the expert guys were finishing and looking like they were pretty toasted. Mitch was coughing up a lung. Marty cramped bad. They were broken. I was certainly lucky to have only had to do 2 laps.

It was a sweet, hard, fun, and best of all a LOCAL race. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the CORA series.

Progress

So I got somewhat back on track with training and ended up riding 71 miles early on Father's Day. I rode on the Loveland Trail from Milford around mile marker 50 up to mile marker 15 and back. It was interesting to see Morrow, Oregonia and ride past Fort Ancient.

Here are my numbers for this ride:
71.5 mi; 4:11:00; 17.09 ave mph; 3,562 calories burned; heart rate 149; weight 160; no climbing.

My Loudenville ride:
56.9 mi; 4:20:00; 13.13 ave mph; 2,469 calories; heart rate NA; weight 160; aroudn 3000 ft climbing.

A ride from last year, to South Lebanon on 9/3/2007:
52.63 mi; 3:13:00; 16.36 ave mph; 2,895 calories; heart rate 149; weight 175; no climbing.

A little behind

I'm falling a little bit behing on my training. Last week it rained alot and hopefully this week it will be nice, clear and hot. It is tough balancing my hobby, job and household chores!

How much I have been riding

Mohican 100K

I have been up to race up at Mohican no less than 5 times. Each time I race there I forget how those climbs can sneak up on you & rip your legs to shreds. It is never an easy ride. It does however give you satisfaction knowing you tamed it - a bit.

I decided the Sunday before the race that I was out. I hadn't had enough time to prepare, I was lacking some endurance race essentials, like a camelbak, repair stuff, energy food. I hadn't put in a ride longer than a few hours. It didn't make sense for me to go there to race 60+ miles in one day. Then, I got an email from a friend. He had a place we could stay. It was only 2 miles from the start. Dang, how could I say no! So, I put in my last minute request to get off work the friday before the race off so I could get my s*** together.

I ran around like crazy on friday getting everything together. I picked up a few last minute supplies and got my bike tuned up by the awesome guys at the Trek Store. They hooked me up big time by getting my bike all ready to go (of course I bought it by at the the last minute) for the race. Thanks Jacob, Justin.
Finally, it all came together and I headed out to pick up my husband James at work. We loaded up his commuter bike and we hit the road.

We made pretty good time and ended up getting to Camp Nuhop, to register just before 7. I got myself signed up and as I turned around I saw Floyd Landis there chatting it up with Ryan, the race director. My husband James & I were star struck. We should have both gotten a photo with him but we were in fear we would say something stupid.

We headed out of Camp Nuhop and to our hotel. When we pulled up we saw Bob, (area 106 Trek rep.) Travis & Michelle (of the Trek store Pittsburgh). We chatted with them a while. Chris Eatough came out to chat as well. Again, we were star struck. We were invited to head over to the Pizza Hut with the gang but I opted to get my things sorted for the next day and hit the hay.

I hit the hay early thinking I'd be able to sleep really great that night but when I laid down I couldn't sleep. I was worried about the next day; the 7am start, the 60+ miles I'd be doing. I couldn't help but think - what am I getting myself into?! Then about 3-4am the thunder and lightning rolled in. Again, what am I getting myself into?!

At 6 am I was tired but the pre-race nerves jolted me awake. I got my stuff together and James and I headed to downtown Loudonville for the start. The crowd of cyclists quickly gathered and before I knew it I was stuck out in the back. It was hard to get around and to pass in the bottlenecked area so I was stuck behind a group of riders with no way to gain ground. This is where I made a critical mistake. I never was able to make up for the lost time there. The next 15-20 miles I was hurting. My legs were stiff & slow. I knew I was in for a long day. I figured I'd ride it out to the first aid station and then see how I felt.

I knew that Chris would be there (owner of the Trek Store C-Bus, Cincy) and I was happy to see a familiar face to cheer me on. I stopped for a minute or two to get some Clif Blocks down and refill my Camelbak. I felt better when I got back on my bike and I knew that as tough but that I was going to be able to finish. The next 15ish miles were hard. Lots of bike hiking and narly trail. Truly some backwoods stuff. I got a few leg cramps in that hike-a-bike section and I thought I'd be a DNFer but for some reason; or some miracle, they never returned. The subsequent miles were much easier but with all of the mud I was getting major chain suck. I was wishing I'd have lubed it up at the midway point. My journey through the Mohican Wilderness was irritating because I was on/off, on/off my bike.

I hit the one of the last aid stations; got my chain lubed, got some quick refuels and was off. Sure, there were some monster climbs that never seemed to end but with each climb I could see the end in sight. I did loose a lot of time on the road sections. It was like ride, look for the signs, ride, stop, where am I going?! I dunno...I felt like there could have been about 50 more course markings. I finally rolled into the last aid station where I learned I only had about 7 miles left to go. I was no longer "racing" at this point. I had no idea who was ahead or who was behind. I really took my time finishing it off. I rolled into Camp Nuhop with 8:00 of riding time. It was good enough for a top 5 finish (out of 15) but not good enough to finish in the money. Dang! Well, it was fun, it was hard, and it was shear mayhem at times but I can't wait to do it all over again.

Great photos of the race by Bob Meyers here.
More on the race here.

Training for the "Century"

I am very happy I finally rode over 300 miles in a month, in fact I rode 478 miles! So this month I feel like I can ride 100 miles in one day with some training. This has been a goal of mine since I started riding years ago but I have never came close to accomplishing.

Here is a sample training schedule that I may loosely follow (I may ride more here and there):

M T W T F S Su Total
11 17 21 0 17 53 16 135
12 17 24 0 17 62 18 150
15 17 25 0 17 65 18 157
15 17 25 0 10 100 0 167

Mondays are recover rides and Wednesdays are brisk rides to build strength.