No I'm Not Dead, Just Been Racing
Hey Everyone,
Sorry I’ve been out of touch, travel and racing has been taking up a lot of time.
So, here’s what’s been happening: Countdown Begins….. 24 Hour Solo World Championships are just about 4 weeks out, so I have entered the period in my training cycle where I’m super focused on this primary goal and pretty much nothing else. This is the point in a year long training cycle to focus on every meal, every night’s sleep, every training ride to squeak the very most out of my efforts. Most of the hard work has been completed and these last four weeks are about topping off the engine before heading to Canmore.
Last weekend, I raced in the Cowbell Challenge, a 50 miler in North Carolina. This race was part of the USA Cycling Ultra Endurance series and a short distance for me to get in a good, hard training day. The course here is always tight, technical single track and this year was no different. The biggest difference in the course was the heavy rains they’d had the week leading up to the race. It made the course really slippery and treacherous. On my pre-ride on Friday, I had to work a couple sections of the course to figure them out and also made a tire change to Specialized Captains to get more traction and confidence on race day. The local dealer, Cycle Path helped me out a lot with the last minute tire change. Since this was a short race, I did not take crew, a mechanic or an extra bike. The bike was perfect, but the race was not. I had a great start in a strong pro women’s field and was in the lead, but about an hour into the race, the affects of the triple digit temps and over the top humidity started to get to me. I was feeling chilled, lightheaded and fumbly. I had to make the decision to settle into survival mode instead of race mode. Each lap I was getting iced down hydration packs, pushing fluids and endurolytes and putting ice water on my head to cool down my core temperature. It has been a cold Spring in Idaho, so I was not acclimatized to the heat in any way. I was suffering badly and wondered if I was going to be able to finish. By the last couple laps of the race, my cooling strategies seemed to be working and I started feeling like myself again and felt like I could get back into race mode. I settled for a 2nd place finish behind Carey Lowrey. Carey was up by as much as 10 minutes at one point, but I was able to pull about 4 minutes back on the last lap and get a bigger gap on third who was inching up on me. The outcome was a little disappointing, but considering that only 40 athletes out of nearly 200 finished the race, I’m happy that I was conservative and didn’t dig myself into a hole that I couldn’t get out of.
I’m home for a week, then the next race on the schedule is Marathon Nationals in Breckenridge on July 4th. In the meantime, I just finished up our local Wednesday night short track series and took the women’s overall. I finally get my name on a perpetual trophy with antlers mounted on it, only the bowling league can beat that.
Check out the video from the Cowbell Challenge.
Cheers
Reba
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIRQ2BoR_2A]
My New Bike!
Here she is! My new bike! Her name is Creampuff and she’s from Oklahoma!
Just figuring out how to get her to Idaho now to her new home….
Weekend was more rain, more dodging thunderheads. I ran and rode in the rain/hail again.
Saturday, I needed a break from riding in the rain, so went Morel mushroom hunting instead.
I didn’t find any Morels, but it was a great walk in a burned section of the forest.
One bonus from all the rain these past couple of weeks is
that the wildflowers are beginning to explode.
Springtime Trails
Morning,
Here are just a few shots of riding this week in Sun Valley. The torrential rains have turned the singletrack into dirt powder for bikes!
Rainy Days
So summer doesn’t really hit Idaho till about July, which means while kids ar ripping the caps off of fire hydrants in NYC, we’re layering on Gore-Tex and playing the mud. This week has been no different, and finding motivation for training has been getting a bit difficult. Last week the music pushing me was the White Stripes, this week it’s Led Zeppelin. Volume and intensity are on the agenda this week now that we are within the two month window from World’s, and these double workout days aren’t easy. Yesterday was road intervals in the rain. Twenty times 45 second top end accelerations. 1.5 hrs on the bike. Later: 1 hr run with 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, four times, all in the rain. Then it went to the gym, with my strength coach Rob Freeman. Lots of core, body weight exercises, stability, stretching, etc. Fourth workout (sort of): fire dept training, working with power tools! In between it all, I was taking care of business, eating, and hanging out in my pajamas to stay warm.
My favorite Spring training gear that’s crucial to my survival and comfort when it’s variable spring mountain weather: Smartwool socks, Specialized BG pro RBX Knicker, Specialized long sleeve wool jersey, Buff Headwear, rubber surgical gloves (worn under cycling gloves for warmth and fit in your pocket), hotel shower cap (for under helmet and looks good too!). Favorite cold weather recovery drink: I just made this up! Hammer Nutrition strawberry Recoverite with hot water and hot cocoa! Good and good for you!
I have also been using a certain competitor as motivation to push me this week, I know she has signed up for World’s, so I’m gunning to beat her!
Cheers
Reba
Ok, So I'm a Motorhead Now
I had my first motorcycle lesson yesterday and I’m hooked after an hour of learning to start, shift, brake, etc. The hunt starts now for a bike (or bikes). I’m looking at a BMW 650GS which is a good compromise for now between dirt and pavement, and will last a while as well. I can’t believe I waited this long to get into this sport!
The training schedule this week says “volume and intensity” as a headline for the schedule. I’m still a bit fatigued from Spokane and the resting HR is still slightly elevated, but it’s coming down a couple of beats each day. The rain has been really great for the dirt and the wildflowers, but more of a challenge timing workouts. A good friend and fellow Red Bull athlete, Chris Davenport is here in town for a corporate speaking event. It’s always good catching up with friends and having a beer. He has some awesome pictures on his site so check it out. Wednesday night is short track racing again, and I’m dragging my nerd friends Reed and Jon out to watch them battle on their weird single speed bikes. Until then, here is a pic of what I am searching for, and if you have any ideas on where I can get a good used one comment below!
Cheers
Reba