Friday, April 20, 2012

1st TNR and Good Bye Indoor Season!

Indoor season is officially over, and we celebrated with some wine and appetizers at Black Star Farms the other night. It was a nice way to wrap up class and talk with everyone who suffered together over indoor trainers through the long winter months. The next few weeks will be difficult for me as I transition from one routine and try to create another routine to get my riding in. I'm really dependent on needing someone to ride with...as in if there is no one waiting for me I am not likely to get out there and ride when I need to do it. I'll get there, it always just takes me a week or two to get the new schedule going.

I am continuing strength training at Rockbottom Gym two days a week. My shoulder and lower back have been an issue for me for the last two years, and I have pinned it down to just needing to get them stronger. It is funny how weak my upper body is. I picture myself like a T-Rex, big strong legs...tiny little arms. Hopefully I will start to balance out a bit! I have noticed a difference lately in my rides, so it is helping already.

Anyway, Tuesday Night Ride. TNR is a 40 mile loop out on Old Mission Peninsula that is one of the most competitive rides in the area. Last year it was split into an "A" group and a "B" development group. I rode with the development group, and we had some great mentors out riding with us and giving us racing, riding, and training advice. It was great and I learned a lot. At the end of the season, less people showed up and it was consolidated into one group one night. I was on for awhile, but got dropped kind of quickly and regrouped with what would normally be the "B" group.

So now for this 1st TNR of the season for me, I showed up not sure what to expect. It was a cold night. It was only in the 30's, and I was wishing for some warmer head gear and warmer gloves. I am also battling a sinus infection, so that wasn't helping my motivation for being outside. There were about 20 guys and one other woman showed, Marci, another Lady Hag who I was happy to see! No "B" group tonight, so we started out together at a decent pace and after about 20 minutes my hands warmed up. No one tried to sprint until Smokey Hollow hill, when a few went for it, and the rest followed. I tried to keep up, but my legs felt like bricks and would not move. I could still see some at the back of the group and I worked to try to catch up.  After it was clear I wasn't just going to hop back on, I decided to not completely kill myself and rode to Center Road to regroup with them as they pedaled back from the lighthouse.

I caught back on with them, and felt hopeful; it always seems I get stronger the second half of the ride. We hit the rollers off of Center Road, one of my favorite spots. As we approached the hill before Eimen Road, I vowed I would not get completely dropped again and worked very hard not to. The group split into 2, and I kept up with a group! We had 6 with us, and as we went back on the west side of the peninsula, we did a rotating paceline at a pretty good clip. The first group caught up with us (not sure where they went), but we remained together and went up Wilson Rd. Looking up that hill I thought I would ditch and just keep riding the flat road back to town, but in the end hunkered down and went up, last in line. To my delight, they regrouped again at the top, so I wasn't left behind.

Heading back to town, I was happy even though I couldn't feel my toes anymore. I made it through the first TNR and kind of survived.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

No more excuses...

We are in our last week of indoor training and down to one more grueling workout on Thursday. This morning took every ounce of motivation I had to go. I have a sore throat and a stuffed up nose and I was tired. My bed was warm. I looked outside and it was SNOWING. Blech. I pushed through my laziness and got to class, and did the workout. I didn't make excuses for feeling sick, mainly because I am tired of these colds getting in the way of training well. I gave the ride my all. I surprised myself at how hard I could work despite not having all the stars perfectly aligned for a "good" workout. I am proud of myself for not making excuses and wimping out. I did it. A big victory for a regular Tuesday morning. And like the quote says, once we get our butts out there and do the workout, we never regret it! So just go do it. No more excuses!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

St. Fatty's Day Bike Race

    
Last Saturday, at the last hour I decided to head up to Gaylord's Marsh Ridge Resort to the St. Fatty's Day Fat Tire Bike race. The race was originally set to be for snow bikes, but with the lack of snow, the race was altered a bit to be more mountain bike friendly. At registration I found I only had one competitor in the race, the lovely Vita Morse, who is usually seen riding around Traverse City on a tandem. As we lined up, we were told we would race for 1.5 hours, the course was about 2 miles long, and we would be told when we had one lap to go. Basically it was a long crit on a mountain bike. It was a mas start, and here is some cool footage that my husband, Russ took of the beginning of the race:


Now, I am thinking, its just Vita and me, no reason to go gunning for anything, right? Well, Vita had other plans as she hit the ground running right out the gate. She was a tough competitor and put the game on right away. I was slow to wake up, and was painfully slow at times going through  the maze of a course that was set up. There were some very tight corners to maneuver, three sand pits, a few short, steep hills, and a few bridges to ride over. It was a fun course in all, and the snow bikes definitely had the advantage in the sand pits. I opted to cyclocross style it through the sand pits by jumping off my bike and running through the sand versus trying to pedal through it. I tried once to pedal through and decided that the amount of energy that it sucked out of my legs wasn't worth it. This is where I finally passed Vita after about 4 laps. She was never far behind me though, which kept pushing me through the end of the race. In the end I did 8 laps, and overall that includes at least 16 hills and 24 sand pits.  That's pretty tough for a two mile lap race!  Thanks to Einstein Cycles, Marsh Ridge, and the volunteers for putting on the event. And thanks to Vita for pushing me out there!

2nd and 1st place finishers!