Tour of the Gila: Stage 2

Sometimes, bike racing is just plain hard. Because of that, I would like to dedicate this post to my Team Mom Cynthia Sjogren who enjoys taking the road less traveled and is on her 4th day of a hospital stay. Training with Cynthia has taught me many, many things, some of which I can share. :)

First and foremost, "Suck it up Buttercup!!"

Secondly - "if this old lady can do it, so can you!"

Third - when in doubt, sing a really annoying song, preferably out loud.

She dubbed one Brian-Induced death march in steady downpour and 40 degrees the "Unicorns *Pooping Rainbows Ride" and taught me that even in the most dire of straights, humor can bring you back to the front porch.

What does this all have to do with Gila, all the way in NM? The lessons I have learned on the wheel of Cynthia, Brian, Mark, Andrew, Craig, got me through this day. To many of the racers it was just another day in the peloton. To me, it was like getting kicked in the shins. Repeatedly. By 20 5 year olds. It just kept coming. As was my fitness. But doing these events on a solid aerobic fitness base bodes well for lots of development which I am sure to reap the benefits from down the road, but that Thursday suffering at 7,000ft, it was just one hard day.

The small peloton had a massive acceleration roughly 40 minutes in heading into the sprint, which I knew about. Yet that 4 minutes of complete VO2 effort left me dangling off the back with lack-luster stragglers and a few other worker bee's. Let the chase begin. Mentally I knew what happened, my heart was thumbing out of my eyes, my quads seizing up. But the lure of the caravan, just around the corner, inch-worming its way up the climbs, kept our group motivated to make final contact. It's a horrible feeling to be 50 meters off the last car of the caravan just as the front car drops over the crest of the climb to begin careening down the Gila Monster. Gapped. Out. Again. I found it interesting that I wasn't getting stressed or angry, just much more focused. We had a group of 5, which descending the gnarly Gila Monster - a route I did not know - I sheepishly thought to myself that I was glad we weren't with the other 45 riders at that time!

The hardest thing about the chase was eating. I didn't know my compatriots, some sketched me out, some attacked, and I just couldn't get food in riding a steady zone 3/4. I couldn't drink. This would pose to be my biggest downfall. I had learned the day before to surf the cars, ride the bumpers, hang on the tail just long enough to catch a breath and get up to the next car in the caravan that in the valley, our little group made contact. As I crawled past Michael and the car I grabbed a coveted bottle and headed through the group.

The group had been riding chill. For a long time. But once you are popped and you are 5 vs 45, you do the math. I found Clara and Flavia and they both did a really bad job hiding their amazement that I was back! Clara said "put it in the 27 and spin. Eat. Survive. That's it."

It had taken 1:10 minutes to get back!! That's insane. I paid for one 4 minute effort for 1:10. It was slightly eerie how the time passed descending the Enchanted NM forests and rolling through the desert like land. I tried not to look at my Garmin, I thought about those horrid, freezing winter rides, I thought about what Cynthia would do. Just keep pedaling, if you are steady, you will get there. It never even crossed my mind that we could get time cut, because we were going to make it back!

There were a few crashes in the bunch, some crazy tactics as I worked on my pack riding skills and hid as much as I could. Alas the final big long 15 mile climb came. And again, engage parachute, ride through quicksand, or straight drop back through the pack, it happened. I was alone again. As the caravan passed, Michael and Bea handed me extra bottles for the ride out and encouragement "Just ride your pace, make it to the finish. You did good." Hearing that kept me in it. I knew I could get to the end, just not too rapidly. The caravan was starting to take a liking to me because they got to see so much of me - falling out of the group, riding back to the group, and falling out again. Several team cars gave me a thumbs up, words of encouragement and a smile. Perfect. It was beautiful outside, amazing landscape, no Unicorns Pooping Rainbows today! I was experiencing raw racing at its best!

As cars snaked by I attempted to ride some bumpers but the only one slow enough was the ambulance. At least I am from SoCal so extreme smog is no big deal. But that was short lived! I found one other rider who had been in a crash earlier and rode together in silence into the finish. Shockingly only 10 minutes down on the winner. Cool.

I was beat. But a huge improvement from Redlands where my mind was foggy, was that my mind was clear, just my body was extremely taxed. I was covered with salt, my eyes completely blood-shot and water pouring out of them, cheeks and thighs covered with spit, with snot running down my lip. Where's Brian when you need him, right? haha.

I sat on the curb still in kit and helmet, with my head in my hands coughing, and coughing and coughing. I think I coughed up dirt from the Beaumont Stage it was that bad! Clara was busy doing interview and during a down moment she stuck her head out the door: "Are you ok?" haha yup, just give me a minute. :)

All I did the rest of the day was eat, shower, eat, sleep, eat, snack, and sleep. I was still on the list, I was not anywhere near defeated, and I found as much silver lining and sunshine I could. I was sharing an amazing experience with people who believed, even in my novice state of experience, that I could make it to the end. Super sweet. :)

Gila Stage One: Mogollon

Back in 1996 otherwise known as the 10th grade for me, a collage-aged male told me I had no natural talent, in anything. He also told me I had really feminine hands that were not proportionate to my body...anyways. When I was told that, I did the only thing I knew how to do: WORK. HARD. Work ethic can get you through a lot of really rough days. I sure came in handy over the Gila.

The peloton at Gila was HALF the size of Redlands. The part that was lacking was the Pack-Fill, otherwise known as my peer-group. While they were off put-put golfing or babysitting, I was getting a blow-by-blow bike racer inservice, by some of the best tutors in the business!

The day was roughly 77 miles with a lot of flat on the way out. The ladies were chatting, eating and drinking in the crisp - albeit thin - morning mountain air.

Two hours in I had my first mini-lesson: Peeing on the bike.

Now I have the "privilege" of being around the boys when they do this and I am always quite jealous. This day was the first day I have ever coveted another riders shorts. I hate shorts, i wear bibs. But in this scenario - the short wins. There were many pee stops, pee stop induced crashes, and more pee breaks. I saw one girl peeing ON the bike. I thought that only happened 9 hours into an Ironman. In the dark. I saw Clara stop once with Kristen Armstrong and thought this is my chance, just DO IT! ....stage freight. Once you squat on the side of the road, with 7 others, you look up at the caravan crawling by. Of mostly mails staring out there windows looking for deer or something, but rookie move, it didn't happen. It was 4.5 hours before that relief could be had.

Lesson 2: Going to the car for feeds

This was exciting!!! I would grab empty bottles from the team, raise one up, the officials would call Michael and the team car to the front (from the back, our starting spot was well last...) and I would roll to the car and do the exchange of goods. I grabbed bottles and bars and headed back through the peloton to hand off the snacks. I felt like the ice cream cart! it was so fun! And it really helps the time pass!

Then the historic wind picked up and I soon learned that if I was alone, that wind was 10 times worse. The wind caused attacks which cause crashes which cause gaps. This chain of events sent me to a place I became very familiar with: OFF. THE. BACK. Now there were others there, but sometimes, not so much help. I think it "only" took us 20-30 minutes to ride back to the group. This time. :) You have to ride through the caravan of follow cars to get to the peloton, so when I passed Michael I grabbed more bottles and headed to my homies!

The goal was stay to the base of the Mogollon climb, which I almost made! I was pretty pumped, and just rode my pace as steady as I could to the top. I had passed of my last bottles and the girls were unleashed to tackle the climb! Flavia O (Froggy) ended up 2nd and Clara (Red-Hot) an impressive 3rd with my homie Mara Abbott winning the stage. This put Flavia in the climbers jersey for the next day!

I was so bummed at the 2 hour mark when teammate/homie/travel partner Beatrice Rodriguez (Bea) had been involved in a crash and her rear derailleur had been broken off! When I was finally getting back onto the group, she was in the car and I almost looped out. Not know why she was there, if she was injured etc was slightly stressful and unsettling. But at the end of the we were all glad that she would live to ride another day and no bodily harm - only emotional and to the bike - had been done!

Also Laura Hines who broke her femur at SDSR was on the mend and had come along to do swanny duties of helping in the feedzone and being a lifesaver! This was much appreciated!

Favorite part of the day: The car ride home 70 miles from the top of Mogollon was with Michael, Clara and Flavia. I fought the urge to nap hard and listened and absorbed some of the coolest lessons for the bike and life to date! What an awesome experience. Hands down, that 6 hour period provided me with more learning, feedback, and development than I have received in half a racing season. Being part of a team with the goal of development for a weekend was truly an honor. I almost took notes.

Before I forget, I raced the Tour of the Gila...

Redlands pretty much kicked me in the shin. Repeatedly. I got a nasty chest/head cold after and my shoulder/scapula are still quite inflamed. But I was excited about what was in store for the rest of the season and got back to training like a retard the week after. I took a brief hiatus from the local race scene to heal and train, only to reappear at Devil's Punch Bowl road race and get my front wheel taken out from under me at the 20 minute mark. WHAM. Smack on the asphalt, same shoulder, same knee. And same scenario which I now embrace whole heartily - Chasing...

Needless to say that weekend was tough. But as Brian says, we have bigger fish to fry. And more specifically, I was heading to The Tour of the Gila! A fabled 5 day stage race in the Land of Enchantment - New Mexico, 6,500-7,500ft above sea level, blustery 50 mph winds, and climbing that rivals Breathless Agony. I thought Redlands was tough with 4 stages, one being a 3.1 mile prologue, followed by a relatively flat 74 mile road race, a 60 minute crit, and rad Sunset loop of about 68 miles. But that was just the prelude.

Gila:
Day 1 - 73.1 miles with a load of climbing
Day 2 - 77.90 mile road race with again, climbing
Day 3 - 16.5 time trial, on a hill
Day 4 - 25 lap/27 mile crit which lasted 1:10. That's nuts. With more than a bump in it.
Day 5 - The mystic Gila Monster road race, 71.2 miles of pure gnar gnar!

The Team:
Director Michael Engleman invited Beatrice Rodriguez (Sc Velo local mosher) and I to join the crew of Flavia Oliveira - teeny tiny Brazilian climber and all around rad chick as Clara Hughes raced her comeback event, after not racing since 2003. She has spent the last 8 years speed skating and holds 6 Olympic medals in cycling and speed skating. Only one of 2 people in the world to have received medals in both winter and summer events. But that's just the tangible stuff. The conversations with this team will be remembered forever, acting as a huge catalyst for my training to come.

Hopefully over the next few days i will be able to re-hash the hilarity, excruciatingly painful levels of suffering, the on-the-bike in services, physical and mental adaptation, the trust, and the amazing experience that being part of a general classification win was and is.

Yes, Clara came back with a bang winning the TT, Crit, and GC.

And for me, I did not crash, flat, mechanical, or cry. And I finished. Second to last, with an ear-to-ear grin.

Redlands Classic, Aftermath

Now that the smell of Kettle Corn on turn two of the crit has dissipated, my bars have been re taped and my finger grown back together, and I have watched my massive bruises jump through a kaleidoscope of colors, it's time to close the RBC book. Although I can't stop eating, despite eating a massive bowl of oatmeal, a burrito, plus a banana, and some Nature Valley bars prior to Sundays race. At 10am....

After my epic bike fail I was worried about 2 things: The potential of a fracture to my scapula and Brian stressing about me yarding it as he prepped for his duel with Sunset. So I hid from him in the feed zone and then the medic tent.

I think this is a good time to introduce a complicated tangent to this epic: Brian's racing too. Last year I played super supporter to Brian and his composite team. Here in 2011, he rides for CashCall Cycling out of Irvine and had some big goals for Redlands. In November he and I sat down and sketched out our season goals and step one was competing in and completing Redlands. This race would act as a stepping stone and benchmark for the forthcoming season. We spent hours together throughout the winter silently climbing to Idyllwild, Oak Glenn, in the rain, in the heat, building on our unbreakable bond. Now at Redlands, we would be on parallel missions, but without the ability to physically support each other. We have a good system in place and each of us is well taken care of by our teams/directors/friends. And we would both be there if we could, and both want the other to reach as many goals as possible, so we tell each other to go home. :)

Paul Abrahams, Brian's manager/director pulled me aside after SDSR crit and said: "Joy, your a bike racer now. No more chatty patty, go change, get your recovery drink and sit down." Oof, time to take care of myself! So each stage of Redlands, neither of us watched the other race! Most stages he raced after me, so I would find him and his team, throw them all high fives and be on my way to recovery. And waiting for the news of how things played out!

Now when I crashed, the COM cars were on the radio ASAP, and all of a sudden, old friend Larry Longo announces at the start of the Cat 3 men's crit "Local Joy Duerksen has crashed out on the Sunset Circuit!" Hahaha For The WIN!!! Talk about freaking out! I think Brian's response was "She's a tough cookie, she can handle herself" as he paced back and forth! But everything works out, he knew I was fine before the start and had the ride of his life to date, finishing RBC 48th overall. That's a big deal because last year, he was 102nd.

I finally got to watch him race on Sunday! The Breyer's and I headed up to Ridge road where the suffering would be exquisite! It was awesome to see Brian and the local boys and the CashCall boys dicing it up!

Since my body has sent all of it's white blood cells and rejuvenating goodness has gone to bruise control and muscle fixing, I'm sick. Like home from work sick not riding my bike sick, overdosing on orange juice/garlic and lemon juice/dayquil sick.

Here's to recovery and rest, so we can get on with this bike racing stuff!

Redlands Classic, Sunset Stage

The Stage: Sunset Circuit Race 68 miles

I haven't stared at the bottom of a coffee mug since dead week in college. I almost took two showers, cold ones at that, to attempt a full body revitalization for the days race. I stared at Mara and quietly asked with my hoody almost covering my eyes: "It gets better, right? Like at the next race, if won't be so bad, right?" She just laughed.

I had spent the night tossing and turning and dreaming of cupcakes. I woke up at 3am and ate a granola bar to stave off the hunger pains. I didn't know how I was going to get to the race, let alone race it. But somehow someway, we got there. This course was hands down my most favorite. Here in town we have the Tuesday Night Championships otherwise known as The Sunset Ride. Now the local ride does 3 laps on a modified route, so as of late, I have been doing the RBC route for training and loving it. I know how many minutes the painful Ridge Road climb is. I know how many pedal strokes to get over the QOM to Rossmont is. I know where JT will be standing by his dirt yard. This one was going to be a blast.

Our team was down to 5 racers now after the crit after loosing Katie and Tammy to time cuts in the crit. Katie got a plate in her collarbone 3 weeks ago and Tammy has been suffering a quad strain for quite some time, so they get the Purple Heart Awards for their efforts period. Really impressive.

The Goals: 1. Make 3 laps - after 3 laps if you get pulled/crash/mechanical you will receive a prorated time and get on the GC. 2. Make 5 laps 3. Make the whole RACE to 9 laps 4. And get to race all the way into Redlands (Only the lead group gets to come all the way into town, so this was a Shoot For The Moon goal...)

The Race: I got on the bike to spin the legs out and jaw-dropping shock of all shockers, I felt ok. Borderline GOOD. Creepy. I got to the start and I was in the starting grid with some of the coolest pro mountain bikers: Lea Davison, Melanie Meyers-Colavito, and Amy Dombrowski. RAD. The four of us had a good laugh about it and got the ice cracked before the start. We had a neutral start out of town heading all the way back up to Garden. I made sure Lisa and I were in the the group near Mara and getting closer to the front of the group for the inevitable. I knew once on Garden it would be at least 10 minutes of all out max effort. Just as I predicted, the fire works were lit. Fighting for position, not even near the fire house yet, and the group was getting strung out. Turning onto Mariposa, where our ride passes every week, Nicky Wangsgard from Primal was on my right, got out of the saddle and WHAM her chain broke and she hit the deck, with a Webcor rider going down with her. RIGHT in front of me. I threw my bike down, jumped over the Webcor girl as Lisa flew past me and jumped back on my bike. Chasing. Really? Lap ONE? Out the Back?? Chase. Chase. Chase. Lisa got with another few riders and it took me about 7 minutes to latch on to their group. Phew. But climbing up Ridge solo on lap one was humbling. To the right were the Gangs, students from school with their parents. Perfect for a suffer-fest photo op. Side note: The tall socks. I always wear black tall socks, to hide my cankles - close runner up to Norms. But those would not have matched the SC Velo kits, so i special ordered white. My "fans" at the crit and even teammates said "We just looked for the tall white socks!" Perfect, now that I don't have a bottle-blonde rat tail to pick me out of the peloton!

Once with the girls, our group started to grow. We had Olivia Dillon of Peanut Butter 2012 join us who had flatted at the start. I quickly realized that the chase group, is well, a bit edgy, aggitated, and agro. Because virtually we have been dropped and want to be up THERE yet we are HERE with "them" whoever "them" is. This group was railing. We grew to about 15 with the addition of Erika who we picked up. We had three teammates in the group and tried our best to work to gain ground on the leaders. We figured we were the 3rd group on the road and the lead group was roughly 1:50 up. This was great news as we went through laps 1, 2, 3, 4...we weren't going to be pulled, we could make it all the way! The riders we were picking up were no pack-fill either. Strong riders that made our group that much more of a threat.

The course was playing out like the Truman Show as we rallied through. There's JT, his wife and Jack in the yard - each lap - cheering the same thing. The dog to the left barks super loud, we swoop right past Christie's house and see Mallory out of the corner of my eye each lap. heading down Dwight thinking why is there NOT a hay bale on Tricia's mailbox? There's always one. Ack, I can't stop staring at it! Quick look left look left! All these thoughts were just flashes in the pan but they stick out so large!

Now I talk a lot. But usually its about nothing or positive things like "good job" or "nice pull" or "just over the top" or maybe asking if a teammate needs something. You, something that will HELP the rider or situation. But some of these gals like to take a different angle. Like telling you what your doing wrong, to get off the brakes, to take different lines blah blah blah. I have done a really good job at blocking "noise" out this season but on this day I was tired and run down. Things started to get under my skin. Rookie Move #4: Don't ever question yourself!!!! I was riding good, fast and strong (in my opinion at least) and the girls telling me what to do were always behind me, I should have just given them the wheel. I like to learn, so I don't mind when other racers give me advice. But trying to figure out in my anaerobic state what they were telling me to do or not do was futile. And I still don't understand it!

Start of lap 5 I was pumped. I was doing my best to stay off the brakes but this meant I was pushing the limits. And I found just where those limits were! At 1:33:54 ride time, approximately 23.4 MPH, 30.3 miles in, I decked it and decked it bad! Now the only time I crashed on my road bike was on the diagonal railroad tracks in the rain. Alone. And the night before, I completely put a hex on myself by having a lengthy conversation regarding crashing. The consensus of the dinner table was that all crashes are 95% rider error. YOUR. FAULT.

And I concur. 100% my fault and very glad I did not take anyone else down with me. I was riding maxed out, pushing the limits and my front wheel hit a bump and washed out, throwing me straight down. I think Erika got caught up a bit, but i was sitting on the center line with my bike hanging upside down on the rock wall to my left. Funny thing: All the follow cars were driven by my friends and pseudo-Uncles: Ken Kramer, Matt Breyer, Sean Rooks, Mark Love, Uncle Greg Johnson, Mark Friis, all drove my and later told me they wished they had taken a picture. :)

I yelled at Lisa and Erika "just go!" in my best After School Special voice with some dramatic flair but they refused. We were on lap 5 and would get a prorated time and on the GC. That was a community goal for all three of us. But I felt SO BAD and I am sure that crash ripped the chase group apart. My hand was bleeding pretty steady from shoving it into my spokes and my knees super swollen from the impact and blunt force trauma into the asphalt. No road rash! But I took the brunt of the fall with the left side of my helmet and left shoulder. Collarbone? Check. Scapula....this one isn't working so well. Front wheel. Big NO. Bar tape shredded and dangling off like ribbon on a present. Down to the fire station we rode and my Redlands Classic was effectively over.

Such a mix of emotions. I couldn't believe the girls pulled out with me and stayed with me. I was miffed that my pilot error had ended our race. I was elated that my legs had felt great and that we were still racing, not just riding the race. Ramon gave me his officials chair so the firemen could poke and prod my shoulder, all coming to the conclusion I was intact. Phew. It could have been so much worse.

To Be Continued.... (sorry I just have to, too much to spew out at once. Plus, who reads a dozen paragraphs anyways!?!)

Redlands Classic, Downtown Criterium, Day 3

The Stage: Downtown Criterium. 60 minutes of rip-roaring fun on a 1 mile course with 9, yes 9, turns!

This is by far the most exciting stage to spectate at. The boards rattle, the announcer yells, the speeds arch over 32 MPH, it's pure fun. The local norm for a crit race is 45-50 minutes with 4 turns and maybe 30 women, but that would be pushing it.

This stage boasted 9 technical turns, 90 women and 60 minutes. I learned very fast at SDSR that racing a crit at this level is completely different than at the local races. Locally I can ride the front, get in breaks and be an active part of the race. At SDSR I played tail-gunner for the majority of the race with my heart rate redlined the entire time. It took me 40 minutes to get to the front of the race where Beatrice was. 40!

Today's GOALS:

1. Get off the back!

2. Make time (you had to complete 40 minutes of the race without getting pulled/crashing/mechanical in order to race on Sunday)

3. Race the ENTIRE race

4. Finish on the winners time - meaning being IN the group until the end

Quick and Dirty: All goals achieved, well #4 was slightly off, but not my fault and a whole other issue.

Pre Race:

I was tired. No, exhausted. Race time wasn't until 2:30pm so that gave me more than enough time to conjure up exquisite ways to NOT complete the event. And plenty of time to eat and eat and eat. That's the thing with stage racing, you get so hungry!!

Warming up was tough. Only because I can't focus. And when I am nervous, I talk too much, and wander, and talk. Bonnie kept reminding me to get changed and focus. I decided to not warm up in the pits because there were too many people I know there, too many people to hug and high five, and focus was far from happening!

Rookie moves #2, #3: Media director of RBC Scott Welsh put me on the FRONT row. FRONT. but somehow, I got shuffled farther and farther back. To the back, behind everyone and no longer on the front. 3rd horrible mistake: DROPPED CHAIN ON THE START. Completely entirely LAST going into lap one. Seriously? Step up your game and at least half way set yourself up for success. Here goes tail gunning for 3 laps.

But I got to the group. And I started to move up. I knew that Erika and Beatrice would be at the front and Mara would be safely tucked in the middle. Just get to Mara. Work work work. Use the group. Stay on the wheels. There she is! "Mara, I'm here!" shuffle shuffle, start working to the middle again.

As the race progressed, I was able to move farther up the group, and feel slightly better. i was staying near Mara until the "incline" where her climbing prowess would move her up 15 wheels and my job of surfing the group would begin again.

This hour was slammed with emotions. Along the course I had dozens of supporters. From Team Redlands teammates, to students, old friends, and coworkers, people were cheering for me! It made me slightly emotional, and moderately misty eyed thinking about what an awesome opportunity I had fallen into. And I wanted to soak it up, every lung burning second of it. I also thought, well its ok if I fall out of the race, I win for showing up. No, wrong answer. Finish higher, get into group. Try not to look at Scott on the corner. Stop showing your suffering like a whipped dog. Pretty sure the girls in the race were getting annoyed with whoever this "Joy" was that everyone was cheering for. Such an awesome experience.

The pace of the race was insane, and the attacks kept on coming. The primes were ridiculous. It seemed like every lap there was something to sprint for. Money, Peanut butter, sprint points, or bonus seconds. I found myself sprinting in the drops as if coming in for the finish, but fighting to hold on to 55th position as the field strung out single file, fighting for a jar of peanut butter. Just give it to them!!!! just kidding. It was awesome that teammate Beatrice won the prime with 3 laps to go!

High light of the race: Lisa Campbell was super stressed (as were we all) about racing an NRC crit on 9 turns. She had a rough go at SDSR 6 turn crit so I was ELATED to see her coming up the group with about 6 laps to go. She was in the group, and moving well and railing it. Coming in hot to a turn, we were side by side and I told her "Lisa you are riding AWESOME today!!!!" and she stayed in for the finish. Small victory for some, huge victory for us!

I think I finished 60th and moved up to 63rd GC. oof.

It was nearly impossible to sleep! My endorphins were raging, my quads were screaming, and my head was spinning! The race was replaying through my mind. Every railing turn, every crash, every wrong line replayed over and over. Then started the Sunset Loop of Sunday careening through my head. Every. Single. Turn. :)

Redlands Classic, Beaumont Road Race

Day 2: 75 Mile Road Race, 23ish mile loops, 90 degrees with moderate wind.

The Goals:

1. Finish

2. Make the time cut (if you finish outside of 10% of the winners time, you are cut and can't race the following day)

3. Have a blast!!!

The quick and dirty: All three goals achieved! In not the most conventional of ways.

The team headed into the road race at full capacity of 8 riders. Our job, beyond the above 3 goals, was to assist Mara Abbott since she was our GC rider after placing 9th in the TT on Thursday.

I was pretty excited about the day, having done numerous training rides on the route. I was even more amped about being in a peloton of over 100 women, stacked with national and world champions, Olympians, moms, full-time pro bike racers and a good handful of girls just like me. Trying our hands at the Dream.

Now flash back to San Dimas Stage Race last weekend. This race was stocked with HTC, Tibco, Peanut Butter, a whose-who of women's cycling. And I got worked. BUT...the race was only 56 miles which is on the short side so the pace was barn-burning. There was also just one hill at 14% or something lame like that, lasting about 4 minutes where the girls with the horse power would rip it and tear the rest of us apart. It was really, really, hard. One would think going into a 75 mile race I would be really nervous. But I knew a few things. The longer distance would temper the pace, until at the last lap. The climbs were longer and I can do better at a sustained climb than short punchy efforts. I also knew there was a long stretch to recover, eat and drink. We could make it!!

Lap 1: I decided to ride as close to Mara, Erika and Beatrice as possible. We were at the middle to the front of the group, staying nice and tucked in. My eyes were pasted open. Watching. Observing. Taking it all in. I was shaking with excitement and the opportunity to learn and grow as an athlete!

First time through the feed zone: Rookie Mistake #1: I dropped not 1 but 2 feeds! Thankfully I snagged the 3rd one. The feed zone is huge, and we had feeders about every 50 feet, but somehow two bottles grenaded out of my hands! I was extremely sweaty, the bottles were wet, but I had gloves on which I thought would prevent this from happening. The following laps i honed in on those suckers and grabbed them with a death grip!

I shoved myself as far up into the group as possible, so when the inevitable happened, and we were climbing at mach 9, I wouldn't fall to far out of the group. And it worked. I got in a group with Bea and Erika and we worked our way back to the bunch, with Katie and Lisa close behind so the whole group came through together.

On one of the climbs, i did something squirrelly (but completely safe and under control of course) , and someone - I think a homie - behind me yelled "Hey you Mountain Biker, hold your line" and I realized I was riding next to Lea Davison...hahaha, I hope she doesn't think they were talking smack about her!

Lap 2: First right turn out of the start/finish....Rear Flat! Super sweet. Throw the right hand up, and try to get to the right side ASAP!! Along with numerous official cars, there is a neutral support car and a car for each team. Our car was #5. I think the Colavita car tried to run me over, honking and speeding by. This was my first in-race wheel change and I was pumped! Super pro mechanic Chris Davison hopped out of the car as I shifted down and we made the quick switch. But now, to get back to the peloton. I started riding steady and the car came up next to me with a bottle out for a "feed". I grabbed the bottle which was solid in Chris's hand for a "super long hand off at 30 mph" which didn't go so well for me. I hopped to the back bumper of the car and rode it as long as I could, until the caravan took a left turn where I then jumped from bumper to bumper through the caravan. RAD!!! I tried not to red line it but it was really really hard! I finally made contact with the group after what seemed like a lifetime, and immediately started weaving my way through to find Mara. Found her! Relax. Check on teammates. Anyone need this bottle I got? Whose having fun? It was so exciting going through the process, I never stressed! I knew Michael and Chris would get me back to the group, I knew it would be ok. Plus, I needed every ounce of energy I had because the wheel I got only had a 23 on the cassette, the next two laps of climbing were going to suck! :) I knew it though, it was my wheel, I run Campy, so don't have very many options.

Climbing up the first climb, i was in the middle of the bunch, jersey halfway unzipped due to the insane desert heat, and OF COURSE!!! A bee jumps right in. It only stung me twice on the back, or at least once and I made its stinger get the back of my arm when I pulled it out through my sleeve. But seriously, total wiggle-worm. Stay calm, its just a bee, don't let it get to your face, focus, don't touch that girl 7cm away from you, phew, he only got me once. Geeze...what else you got!?!?!

I keep finding myself in no-mans land in road races. I get popped just enough at the last 5-7 miles that its just me. This time I sat up for one rider, who only spoke French and kept attacking me. that was awesome. I finally convinced her that there were riders coming, and sure enough, Lisa showed up with about 5 other girls. It sooooo much easier to get to the finish with people. And it was a hard lesson to learn, just sit up. Wait. Be patient. Up ahead I saw a the familiar jersey of teammate Katie doing the same thing and we were all able to come in together. Only 3:14 down on the main group! Success.

Highlight Real:

1. Lisa C rolling up to me with like 4 extra bottles and handing some off to take up to the front. Its a pretty big deal for "us" to go back to the team car and get bottles for the team and ride them up to the teammates. That was Killer!!

2. Looking out for teammates. I talk. A lot. And this race I had a purpose to talk! Check on my teammates, and really work on my pack riding skills. I would say to myself ok, you have three minutes to get up to Bea and see if she needs anything. Awesome. Our group on the way in had 9 girls, 3 of us with me, Katie and Lisa. It was so fun to be able to legitimately share food, bottles, support, to teammates with a common goal.

The day took its toll on many riders, probably because of the heat and crazy pace. The team was down to 7 riders for the next day, as composite rider Jessica Chong had a rough go of the road race and was beyond the time cut.

I believe I was 63rd on the day, moving up to 66th GC from 84th. Phew! Now the hard part....recover. Eat. Sleep and prep to race again!

Redlands Classic, 2011: Prologue

Stage Racing: Uncharted Territory

I must be trying to recover, since I finally have time to create a blog post. I was also able to go visit newborn Violet Hope and see how her Mama is doing. These things just can't take place when I am on the limit.

Let's get to business:

The Goal: To complete the Redlands Classic, 4 day NRC stage race this past weekend

The Opportunity: Ride as a guest rider with SC Velo/Empowercoaching Systems, Directed by guest director Michael Engleman, with team leader Mara Abbott who joined the team for the weekend as well, coming straight from Italy. The SC Velo team is a local heavy hitter with national champions and a lot of the horse power for in the local racing peloton, with Dotsie Bausch (just back form winning silver at the Pursuit Worlds Championships!) at the helm. We also had another local rider, Erika Graves from the NOW-MS Society join the team as a guest rider.

Bonnie, Michael and Dotsie, making a game plan!

Now of course I am a big part of Team Redlands, but we do not have the option to put a women's team in the Pro race, so I needed to race as a guest/composite rider for the event. SC Velo is stacked with awesome ladies and I was beside myself with excitement to be part of a team, working for a common goal, and doing something with a group of ladies I have really grown to appreciate. And these girls are hilarious.

I have been practicing racing the last few weekends, figuring out a sweat iPod warm-up mix, pacing myself during the time trial, eating well, sleeping more, and resting period. That's a lot to take in though. I used the Tour of Murrieta Omnium and San Dimas Stage Race as practice for all of these items and more and each of those were stacked with high learning curve, stress, success, failure, and a lot of fun!!! But nothing could really prepare me for Redlands. Nothing at all.

To keep this less annoying, I will do a report on one stage at a time. Because there is a TON to report about!

Day 1: Prologue 3.1 miles of basically up. A route I ride sometimes, and trained a ton on, making it a huge "home court advantage" for me going into it. I do not own a Time Trial bike nor do I plan on buying one. So I put clip on bars on the handle bars and went for it. Fortunately on this course, a road bike will do just fine.

Trying to be undercover, not really pulling it off!

Being the home-town girl I really really had to focus. I kept my headphones on during the whole warm up tried to not even look people in the eyes, which is extremely difficult for me to do! Bonnie Breese from SC Velo was my "handler" for the day meaning she would escort me to the start to get my bike checked by the USAC officials to make sure it was legal, and to give me water and a pep talk while I waited my turn. She was rad! Dotsie also stuffed my speed-suit with bags of ice as the sweat poured off my nose and down my back, it was going to be a scorcher!

Warming up alongside longtime homie Lisa Campbell

The start was rad. My buddy Ken Kramer got hold my bike at the start, Mark Love put my bike up there, and my friend Larry Longo was the announcer. So cool!

The race went well until the 3k sign, where I got out of the saddle for a little climb and realized "squish squish" my front tire was flat! Super! That is rad. No options. No spare bike, neutral support was behind me and you can't go backwards on the course. Soooo, one and only option....ride on!! So I rode the rest of the TT with a front flat which was pretty entertaining coming in hot into corners on a front flat and pretty tough getting out of the saddle and not wanting yard it on day one. I actually thought it was funny, just a little. I had tons of friends/teammates/students out on the course and the cheers and laughs kept me going! I wasn't caught (we start time trials every 30 seconds) and was pumped to learn I got 84/113. Now that's not amazing. But with a flat on the 3 largest climbs of the TT, I ain't gonna stress!

The other cool thing about being a local is that I had 5 trucks to pick from to get a ride down to the start. i will ride flat on a road bike UP, but not DOWN.

Day one a success. Because we made it through! Just starting the event got a lot of the nerves out but then the focus was turned to eating, laundry, eating, resting and finally sleeping.

Moderately chaotic homebase! Getting 8 ladies ready to race is no small task!

Winter Tanning

Yup, we stayed on a floatilla. I felt like I was on a boat for about 3 days post Callville Bay Classic. It was the worst when I was standing center-court with 35 6th graders running around me dribbling basketballs. Oh yack!
The scenery was top notch. I'm not making that up either. A racer, mid road race, says, I know everyone is miserable (this was a fact) but check out how beautiful it is here! And in fact, it was gorgeous.
Brian looking very lean, mean, and pro at the TT start!
Sunset day one looking out at "home"

Although Callville was a few weeks ago, and I didn't do anything amazing, it was a great experience. I got to hang out and help the CashCall Mortgage Cycling team and do some racing of my own in between. The wind there was horrendous, well nothing interesting if you ever ride in Beau(Blow)mont - which I do often.

Rain coming in

The road race on Saturday started after 12. We had the whole morning to plot our outfits. This is where I became very grateful for our winter training. Cold. Miserable. Long. Raining. I have spend hours silently stuck in Brians draft, getting covered in the silt/sand/rain from his rear wheel. I knew one day it would pay off. And this day it did. I was prepared, well dressed and I ate and drank well. I wasn't too uncomfortable because heck, I have been much more miserable on the bike this winter. Things are paying off. we also did trial rides in really bad weather with our glove/rain jacket/leggings vs embro set up which lead to some really nasty days which are now nearly forgotten, but gave me a good game plan for these types of conditions.

Brians race was more difficult in that they had more elevation gain with snow and hail and of course it was longer, poor little fellow was quaking like a leaf at the finish!

Onto more entertaining things, Heather Breyer, and Bradley and Tara and Mohammed for that matter, helped us take engagement pictures. Those of you who know us well know we are cheap, busy, never serious, and pretty much lame.

I got to wear my Party Dress again! Or as the kids call it the Wonder Bread or Candy Land dress! WINNER! Please note my $0.45 earrings from Claires!
Hehehe looking out into the valley...We are smiling, at NOTHING!
Never, ever serious.

This weekend was nuts. Good news is I spend about 10:13 on the bike and did NOT get hit by a care. Phew. Got that over with. AND i rode the train tracks I yarded myself on in the rain, and did not crash.

I am prepping for some pretty legit stuff, so I have been on the fast track since November. Wait, that's not fast at all! But, this weekend called for the following:

Saturday: 5 hours. Each hour was like doing a Wednesday interval ride. 4 hours, 4 different intervals. Hour 5 was a "Tempo - to brush up on your base" heheheh. The workout was named "Everything but the kitchen sink" Awesome-sacue! I loved it. Slept in until 8:30. Food, coffee, solo ride. Fantastic. It was windy as all get-out perfect prep for things to come.

Sunday I finally convinced my homie Lisa Campbell to come ride with me, along with my teammies Cynthia and Andrea. I said, its no big deal. Just 4 hours and 85 miles. OF COURSE that's a lie. Dummie, that takes like 5 hours. I hope she comes back to ride again. :) We hit up all the Redlands Classic routes which means we went through Yucaipa, Beaumont, Banning, Redlands, Calimesa and more!

For sure, I was slightly smashed shall we say. But....in the best way ever!

So OF COURSE we go to Mexican food, to celebrate Cynthias bday!!

They of course gave her birthday flan. She is vegan.....so we *had* to eat it.

I LOVE panuchos!!!!!

Parting shot!!

OH, that's RIGHT!

I forgot why my shoulder hurt so bad, then I remembered I got hit by a landscaping truck on Thursday. I should have stopped right then and sold his 3 lawn mowers, because everyone knows he has no insurance or money for that matter. So I rode away. I KNOW! I should have stayed blah blah blah, but I have little time to dilly dally, and you know the Redlands police are SUPER busy checking pot-hole depth and discussing whether or not they should remove the massive palm fronds from middle of the road. No time for smashed cyclists.

It was super weird actually because I got "hit" well a car bumper nicked my calf, like 1:30 earlier doing an illegal u-turn. This guy did an illegal u-turn left infront of me and I just slammed into the side panel at the side-view mirror, poor wheel went under the tire. I am writing this in jest, because its ridiculous, but I really am SUPER lucky that I yelled and he stopped. That could have been bad bad bad!

I didn't want to call Brian, he was doing a big ride. I didn't want to call anyone. So I just went home. And then of course the phone call from Brian. Hey how was your ride? Good. How was yours....oh ya, I got hit by a car...and I think I ruined your wheel....And this is when we knew BMc was a keeper "I don't care about the wheel, I would go buy a whole new set today, as long as you are ok"....aw....So, about that new wheel set..:))

So moral of the story: It's OK to call your significant other in a time of distress..watch out for cars making illegal u-turns (today I saw 7!!!) And even in the daylight, nobody can see my black kit and bike. Sigh...

An actual holiday, don't get comfortable!

At times, things don't go as planned. Last weekend was the second race ever I didn't cross the finish line, and once again because my friends crashed. This one was bad, multiple broken ribs, a collarbone, one collapsed lung, one punctured lung. Glad Everyone is on the mend!

This weekend was the first time since I started racing in 2005 that i registered for a race and didn't show up. But it was probably for the best because this was Brian's race report: "My face and head were so cold I thought I was going to throw up. My brakes were frozen and the 20 mph tailwind made the descent about 48 mph, and the frost was frozen on my glasses." Super! His team however went 1, 2, 5, and he was 7th in the Pro 1/2 field. So proud of all of them!! More on his team to come, but you will be so pumped on them. :) You can join their fan club too if you want.

But for me, the plug was pulled about 8pm Friday night with sweet relief as I resigned myself to, well, taking care of myself. I ate, a lot. Slept, a lot. Took care of, well, not much. Saturday found me riding 2.5 hours on the trainer and just about going crazy by 4pm because I was NOT at the races...that is not going to happen very often!

Other things I have done:

I think of myself as quite the coffee, um, drinker. You can tell I have the shakes because of it so I can't take a proper photo. I'm still sold on Stell coffee but Handlebar is coming in super close!

DVD's. These were all super lame. I wanted to go back and get Easy A and Despicable me again, but then I would have to actually get to a Red Box (Brian thinks they are the most inconvenient conveniences EVER) or Blockbuster.

Once Brian got defrosted we did what any bike racer and down-time-taker would do: Go to our most favorite Mexican food place! Brian always orders the chicken fajitas without ever looking at the menu, with a double order of hand-made corn tortillas!

And they now have mariachi on Saturday nights too? SCORE!!

Sunday I did a lot of the same but I had an itch. I have been on the road bike SOLID for months and when I start feeling a bit out of balancing my immediate knee-jerk reaction is to ride my mountain bike. So I did. And thank goodness for clear weather, snow dotted single track, and tons of motivation! It was an amazing ride!

Looking back over Yucaipa from the base of Crafton. Poor mountain bike, chains getting rusty, headset squeaky but thankfully, my switchback skills were intact!

Top of Zanja Peak, looking out to Morton Peak and Big Bear!

So although there was a slight hitch in my weekend, it ended up being super positive. I have a STACKED spring of racing and nothing more important than getting myself dialed and re-grouping before things are too late! More to come on what the racing season will bring!

Things I would blog about if I had time

1. Don't complain about how other people ride their bikes, learn how to ride yours and be confident on how to ride.

2. I made it through a W Pro 1/2 race, with cat 5 C men, and I am no worse for the wear. The guys were petrified though. Favorite thing i asked them to do "please put your hands on the hoods, your freaking me out" very nicely of course. They really appreciated the help.

3. I have a higher potential to yard sale myself on railroad tracks than be taken out by the cat 5 men crashing around me. This really happened.

4. Brian is on a new cycling team, and they have a phone number on their jerseys. Call it.

5. There are 5 boxes of unopened Girl Scout cookies on the table. And I ordered three more from a kid at school. If the door bell rings again, we are all hitting the deck.

6. All I do is work, train, prep food, eat food, help with Team Redlands, coach 16 athletes, and sleep. Pretty boring. wink wink.

7. I really like that my new Team Redlands kit matches my bike, helmet, glasses and gloves to a T. I just need some new cycling shoes. Please.

8. We could also talk about how i am not a committed non-gluten eater, but maybe should be, but I am lacking the motivation and the time to research it. This small nutritional fact could be the key to reaching fighting weight and great success. Or not.

I bring the Party to the Party

Do not let the lack of updates fool you. There is a plethora of things to blog about these days, just never the time or energy to make it happen.

Everyone in town or Facebook Land seems to have a cold, so I thought I should try too. It's not too bad, especially when I can get hopped up on Dayquil, Coffee, and a new MultiVitamin before work. Today, I definately brought the party with me!

A few weeks back we had our winter formal and I was abliged to make an appearance. I was toying with wearing something black, grey, burgondy, but those were all way too drab. Instead, I opted for a dress online which showed up the day before and was perfect. This dress in fact was the runner up for Wedding Dress. No joke.

The kids thought it was awesome, said I looked like I was from Candy Land, which is one of the highest compliments ever received. One kid said it looked like the Wonder Bread package too.

My 9th grade class is pretty hip, but didn't know about Dumb and Dumber-fail! So I said if anyone dressed like them, I would buy them a box of chocolates. Paul won big time!

So now you know where to find me, at least you know we will be having fun!

Maybe just maybe, its a sign.

This rain is putting the halt on everyones exercise and moods. But lets take a step back, pay attention to the news or google homepage and come back to reality and realize it is December in the Northern Hemisphere. Rain happens. It's our job as athletes to adapt to the situation and over come. Or eat Snowballs.

Many of us SoCal Cyclists train and race year- round. This is not normal and probably not the best idea. But we can't stop. The sky is clear and the temps above 70. Why would we NOT ride?! So perhaps we should take this opening of the sky as a little nudge to tone it down a notch, stop it with the extra credit bike riding and stick to the plan. Sure the trainer is mind-numbing and saddle sore inducing, but the anger many harbor towards the rain is just as destructive. And our Northwestern Friends, well they have been on the trainers in the basements for a month now. It builds character and mental toughness. This I do believe.

Sure we can train outside to a point in the wet stuff. I have had my fair share the last few weeks. But there is a fine-line between being hardcore and doing out workouts in the rain and being completely stupid. Have you seen the standing water? It comes to my bottom bracket. The horrible holiday drivers who only care about the Tickle-Me Elmo for sale at Toys R Us are making an even worse name for SoCal drivers. Seriously I have been buzzed by more drivers while riding in the rain than I have during the entire summer!!

2/3 of my weekend rides found me in the rain. The first one was great because all my gear did its job keeping me mostly dry. My workout went awesome and riding through the construction zones just made me feel tough, like I was riding for Roubaix. And then I shattered a front spoke, filled my gloves with water, and realized while standing on the side of the road in the downpour fixing my bike covered in mud, road cyclists are way out-sized by dump trucks and minivans. And that I was freezing.

Saturday we gathered the troops and headed to Sunny Sky's in Palm Springs. Well worth the efforts and notched another fantastic, long, hard ride.

Sunday posed another threat: Mud and the wrong MTB tires. On this ride I came to the conclusion that yes I am tough enough to race BLVD in the rain and snow and yes I can make it through 4 hours of bone-numbing rain riding, soaked through looking like a Pinky Mouse again. But sometimes, its just smarter to pull the plug, and not lose limb, ego, or life. A ride completed that results in a week of illness just ain't worth it. Plus, I have some Sunny Extra Credit riding to tap into, nothing lost here.

I have gathered some great DVDs to watch on the trainer this week and enjoying the cover of a roof without feeling like a loser for not throwing myself into the downpour day after day. There's a time a place to do that, and I am more than ready to embrace it when it comes.

But now, its time to enjoy the holidays and a recovery week. :)

50 and freezing. Weak Sauce!

Winter has landed here in the land of sun and sand, and its slightly on the cold side. I'm not sure at what juncture between last November and today I became so soft, but come on! I have truly adapted to this Mediterranean climate. I even wore leg warmers and a long sleeve jersey on two rides! Gotta be a record!

Since I have a riveting day job molding the future as a teacher, the bulk of our fun rides take place at night or on the weekends. Lucky for me, Saturday and Sunday brought an onslaught of rain. Steady, windy, icy rain.

The largest hitch was finding everything I needed, which resulted in only a level 3 meltdown. Rain jacket, gloves, embrocation hot stuff, sweet Euro hat for under the helmet, clear lenses, and shoe covers. And probably 10 other things. I am pumped that I got all my flats out of the way last weekend, or those would have been some tough fixes with frozen fingers and sand and debris all over my wheels. Brian and I got fenders for Christmas last year and they came in super handy! Pretty fashionable too.

The heat embrocation was a huge win. Lots of lotion on the legs, heat embrocation, vaseline. Together, making my legs warm and toasty, super shiny like I was about to go for my next body builder photo shoot, and well, they also collected massive amounts of junk.

Now we had a few issues. First off, the kits for the year are quite white. With all the TSA craze, well lets just see you could probably see more watching us ride by than walk through the scanner. Poor Brian looked like one of those Pinky Mice, ready to be eaten. Secondly, we have the habit of drinking quite a bit on the bike. But with the cold and rain, seemed like I had to find 5 pit stops along the way. We stopped at the soccer complex, in the downpour, and man the looks we got. Not sure why, it would be way worse to stand under an umbrella in jeans for hours cheering for offspring.

Not to sound weird or anything, but once I got warm hands, my whole torso was toasty and dry, eyes protected, I had a lot of fun. Once I resigned myself to being cold and rained on, all was good. Just relax and ride. I need to learn what the tires feel like on wet asphalt, how to get nutrition out of pockets when my hands are numb, and how much the breaks actually don't work in the rain. I really did miss the whine of a wet mountain bike rotor though.

Sunday was even better! I opted to ride the mountain bike with some homies. I railed out in another downpour, through massive standing water and alluvial soil deposits. Rad. I slogged into Stells to meet not 2 but 7 of my classmates. From 1998. That's right. Boarding School in Virginia has produced some pretty cool grads, and we like to get together on occasion and ooh and ahhh over everyone's babies and hair cuts.

Quick coffee refill and an apple fritter, joined forces with Lisa and Cynthia and Andrea and headed to the hills and single track. Over the next three hours I was able to link the two major trail systems in town, rip awesome trails, spot a bobcat, and make it home unscathed. Perfect day on the bike.

That's it. Another weekend of Big Girl bike riding camp. With a ton of great people.

Just another normal weekend.

We rode to Idyllwild again. I told you we would. This "winter" we are already logging a few hours and miles, so one should expect that hitting another 90 mile day without a hitch, well that would just be too lucky. Last week I felt good, the weather was brilliant, I was completely amazing on the bike (yawn), and the bikes worked like a charm. I will remember that day fondly.

This week we were joined by Teenage Heart Throb Andrew Sjorgren and Craig Turner (we don't have a nickname for him. Yet) After riding the Lynn Pletcher Memorial ride (which was AWESOME) we headed to the hills. I unhitched on the climb as usual, and promptly flatted. Three times. we run slime tubes (I have never weighed my bike) and the slime sprayed all over my bike and I. 2nd tube in, boom. Put slime tube back in, held 10 psi. Dilemna? Uh, no. I'm a bike racer, I wanna do a stage race, so I got on the bike and rode up the mountain 50-60 minutes on a rear flat. I am so pumped I had my carbon race wheels. I never really knew the white line had such a drastic curve to the right...

Nearing the Y, Brian came back to get me, leaving Heart Throb and Craig soaking up the sun and talking about kittens and unicorns. Another really awesome thing about my race wheels is that they are deep-dish. Not only do they catch like a yacht sale in the wind, you gotta have long stemmed tubes. But I just put a hole in the last one. So we used Brian's short stemmed tube. That was comedy. we could tell it was losing air so Brian told me to hurry and get as far as I could (1.2 corners to be exact) before it went flat again. And rode it the 5 miles into town. Somewhere in there we switched rear wheels. And yes, the wedding is still on.

Once we got everything sorted, I wasn't about to be alone. I rode those rollers harder than Sisquoc to stay with the boys. On the descent I got relegated between Turner leading me through the descent and Brian coaching me through, as Heart Throb rode Blindside...I could have killed him. These boys do not stop pedalling, and they don't brake. By the time we bottomed out in Banning i was silent, eyes completely bloodshot from being pasted open in the howling wind, face covered with sweat, snot, and eye non-tears. Big Girl training has begun.

Once back to base camp, we just ate and ate.

Sunday, was so much harder. It was about 3,000ft less of climbing, way less on the wattage, but oh so hard to get up and out. Papa Breyer was my riding partner and I could not have asked for better! "Big Wheel, what's the plan today?" "Um, I gotta just stay on the bike for 3 hours...." We made it 3:09. So. Hard. My right eye really hurt, come to find out i was having some nasty reaction to something, making it ache and track poorly and look horrendous. I thought of going home a lot, I thought about what I was going to eat, a lot. But Breyer and I talked like school girls about everything from racing to the stuff school girls talk about. He eeked me to 1:35 and I started to feel like at least a recreational cyclist again, and by the end, a shadow of a racer came out of the haze, just in time to duck in the doorway.

Riding these long days I have a lot on my mind. The future, the past, Lynn Pletcher, the amazing Robert Bender, my lifes path. None of it makes sense and I am not sure it should, but I know I am extremely blessed to be able to share such days with these people, even if silently suffering wheel-to-wheel, this is the road that was meant for me.

Farewell Robert Bender

Robert, where to start! This photo sums him up perfectly. Happy, content, kind. I met Robert in 2005 up at the 12 Hours at the Summit in Big Bear. I can't remember if he raced solo or on a team, but from then on he became one of "The Guys" that I would see at the races, in the bike shop, and out on our local trails. Always offering a smile and some good convo.

I read somewhere on facebook a friend commented: "Robert thank you for giving Hulda Crooks cool corners." Ain't that the truth! He always had a shovel hidden out in the canyon I think so he could tidy up the burms and jumps. I loved that he had some of the most rad experiences, but to him, they were nothing to blog about. Just another day spent with good people. One to never boast, gloat, or make another racer or rider feel insufficient. I like his style.

I have been so impressed with the outpouring of love from his core friends and family. From organizing massive mountain bike rides, raffles at DH races, monster garage sales, and frequent beverage and pizza nights at Jersey's all in his support. This past Saturday, the 12 Hours of Temecula held a category just for Robert, Bike for Bender. I am so glad he was able to experience these selfless actions over the past few months.

Ride on my friend, and let's go hit some sweet jumps!

#cancersucks

To Idyllwild and beyond!

I poached this picture of Tahquitz so you would be enticed and want to read more. Continue.

Ok, so how do am I supposed to take pictures while i ride? My hands are freezing, pockets are filled with bottles, arm warmers, chapstick, delicious snacks, and deep down inside, my phone in a ziplock. We can't stop for such things, we only stop for approximately one pit stop. I mean I took phenominal pictures in my mind! Riding through Hemet I saw an Ostrich, Beaumont a Hot Air Balloon in the back of a truck, Banning a couch. Which I in fact wanted to sit down on and take a nap.

Sometimes we set lofty goals. Most of the time we fall short. Sunday was not one of those days. Creating roughly 90.48 miles of riding, from Yucaipa-Hemet-Idyllwild-Banning-Yucaipa, we saw the world.

Riding up through the mountains was much more exciting than fearing for my life like I did last week on the back side of Oak Glen, dodging Apple Bobbers and Civil War Reinactments. Heading up the 79 or whatever it was, is super peaceful in comparision. The grade is not as drastic and the ample passing lanes make my life seem slightly more secure. Once you crest into Idyllwild, your stupid if you think you are done climbing. Enter the rollers near the tree line and subarctic climate (I had to put my arm warmers on, THIS is a big deal...) and giant Christmas trees ready for the taking. Lake Perris even looked inviting, from THERE.

When looking back, the most horrific terrible uncomfortable awful part of the ride was descending into Banning. For one reason. I could see Cabazon. And the windmills. And the Casino. It was already past 4 hours on the Garmin, and I know how far those dang windmills are. And why they are there, holy wind. My life was nearly lost 17 times due to massive gusts, leaving my hands literally numb at the bottom. Thankfully, the road wound west, away from Palm Springs. But it still dropped us straight onto the hot desert floor.

This ride was unique in that it was also un-chaperoned. Brian and I are usually flanked with good friends and teammates, but Sunday it panned out be just him and I. worked perfect for a date, we didn't have drive anywhere, spend money, get dressed up, or feel stuffy in any way. We also only spent about 75% of the time together, perfect for a date. I joke, I joke! But seriously, a much needed respite from the chaos that follows us. Riding in silence up huge mountains.

This ride is now my favorite. I hope winter stays away at least one more weekend, so we can go tackle it again.

What a Crock.

I'm busy. So busy that my food prep has gone out the window. Or so I thought. I came across a super nifty Crock Pot, for which I will always be grateful. I was at first quite nervous to leave it stewing and unattended, but i do the same thing with the washer, dryer, dishwasher, and refridgerator, how is this different?

I am vegetarian for the most part, and just feel weird about putting meat in the pot, so I have not crossed that bridge yet. However, I decided to make a breakfast option and a lunch option, brewing up enough for at least a week!

I found this website super helpful. This chick went all Julie and Julia on us and cooked in the Crock for 365 days! Yikes! http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/ and there a bunch of gluten free options, for those of you in the market!

My favorite bfast: Steel Cut Oats! But I can't find the recipe...fail!

My second favorite bfast: Oat's With Apples! Cut the sugar, and I don't use milk, maybe some almond milk, unsweetened original. When I heat it up in the microwave, gets the apples cooked all the way through!

Before...and 5 hours later...

My first lunch attempt was Moroccan Lentils - pretty great. I ate them with Kasha grain or Quinoa, awesome for lunch on the run at work!

But todays, is completely legit. I made a bunch of brown rice in the rice cooker and added this black bean concoction to it. AWESOME! Not bad with a bunch of fresh veggies, avocado, lime juice, tomatoes, cilantro and scallions!

And 6 hours later and a trip through the blender:

I started a coaching company!

THE COACH: Joy Duerksen

Physical Education and Health Teacher; Pro Mountain Bike Racer; Cat 2 Road Cyclist; ACE certified Personal Trainer; USAC Level 3 Cycling Coach

THE MISSION: Whether you would like to improve your fitness, complete a century, walk a 5k or become more competitive in your racing category, Big Wheel Coaching can meet your needs. Serving mountain bike, cyclocross, and road cycling enthusiasts and racers, as well as those wanting more structure in their fitness programs to obtain their specific health and fitness goals. All athletes are welcome, cycling, fitness, and/or personal training!

COACHING PACKAGES: Single Track $100/month; Open Road $150/month; Double Track $150/month for TWO clients (on same Single Track Program).

· Initial consultation with goal setting.
· Includes trainingpeaks.com account to log and track workouts.
· Daily training plans based on lifestyle, goals, and training zones uploaded to trainingpeaks.com weekly by your coach.
· Field testing (where necessary) to determine power and heart rate training zones.
· Weekly to daily contact with your coach regarding training, goals, schedules (see individual packages for greater detail).
· Weekly to daily review of power and/or heart rate files by your coach (see individual package for greater detail).

CONTACT:
909.499.1353 joyonbike@gmail.com