Fitness Quiz, Mental Quiz

This weekend was not low key, it did not include any house chores, was not restful, and did not include any relaxing nights at home.  It had moments of greatness and moments of defeat, miles of wicked singletrack and brutal fire roads, and countless breathtaking views.  It also included eating a lot of gels.



In March I asked Drew to sign us up for Nimby 50.  We did the race last year, I suffered, was happy to have done it, but didn't have any plans to go back.  What changed between May and March could be chalked up to a temporary relapse in memory, a general excitement about racing, the plans to compete for overall in the Hell of a Series, or just wanting a good race under my belt 3 weeks before Test of Metal.  Enter in the Island Cup Series schedule with Drew at the top of the points chase, and we realized we had booked ourselves for an epic race Saturday and grueling, working singletrack day on Sunday.

Nimby 50, Pemberton, BC: Probably one of the most impressive climbs I've ever seen - 101 switchbacks heading up a mountainside, which took me about 1:10 to complete - that's right - over an hour of climbing on singletrack, with no rest.  Felt ok throughout the climb, faded at the top, tried to go with Squamish resident Megan Rose when she attacked but couldn't do it.  Enter "Keep wheels on cart" mode.  Try to stay upright on the bike throughout the descent and subsequent climbs, fail at this goal a couple times to put some chainring dents and bruises into my leg, and finish up 5th in my category, 6th overall female, and 82nd out of 275 racers.  At the end of the day I was happy to finish in 3:06 with 3115 calories burned, but again found myself questioning the race as a stop next year (although....in my head I am already working on the rationalization to do it again....this race may just become my nemesis race that I can't live with, but can't live without).

After the race the party started with a beer garden, amazing burgers, good visits with our Vancouver counterparts, and awards.  We missed Papa John - the one man groove band who started up at the end of awards - so that we could make the ferry back to the island.  (Hopefully next year we get to stay for the epic party that follows the epic day!)  All this took place in one of the most beautiful places I've been - green fields leading into stunning snow-capped mountains.

Beautiful drive home, stopped for some of the saltiest, greasiest pizza ever in Whistler (I'm pretty sure if heaven has a taste it tastes like that!), and onto the 9pm ferry to Victoria.  Home at 11:30pm, into bed, alarm set for 7:30am.

Hammerfest XC, Parksville, BC: This race has conflicted with same day events for the last couple years, so it has been a while since we've made it here.  We weren't going to miss it this year.  9km course with almost 1,000 feet of climbing per lap, friendly-grade fire road climb to hostile-steep technical climb, to fun, fast, flowy singletrack, to hard, working singletrack to the lap/finish area.   Off the line I wasn't overly optimistic about how I would feel throughout the day - I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck, climbing up to the startline I hung out in my granny ring.  Off the line and up the first climb legs responded (great surprise!) and by the top of the climb I started thinking it might be an awesome day, the descent and rolling singletrack at the bottom confirmed this, and just when my wrists and arms started screaming I was back onto the fire road for a "recovery" climb - two more laps with a perma-grin and I finished up (with legs, back, and knee screaming and complaining) the most fun race I've had yet this year.  Thanks to Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club and Arrowsmith Bikes for an awesome race course and race!

Drew had an awesome day in Pemberton for 4th at the Nimby 50 and we both brought home the wins on Sunday at Hammerfest.  We stuck around for Drew's Podium, but had to jet to get back to Victoria to test our brain-function (mine was low) at Fort Cafe for "Bike Quiz Night" with a group of friends.  Our team ended up 3rd in the trivia contest, we caught up with some great people, ate a lot of food, and then headed home KO'd from the weekend (and now back to work to recover!)

Next weekend is the North Shore Bike Fest and (if I can convince Drew to race) the Port Alberni Island Cup Marathon!