New Brands, New Bikes, New Race Season

At the top of Noble Nob, Mt. Rainier, WA

This has been a whirlwind summer, or really, a whirlwind year.  In the last two months I picked up two new brands - Swagman Racks and SpiderTech Physio tape, Drew and I repainted the outside of our 50's stucco box house, raced a bit, travelled a lot, and managed to sneak in a couple drinks on summertime patios in Victoria.

Top of Mt Finlayson with little (but taller) sister Sage

I learned a few lessons - BC deserves more travel.  100mm cross country bikes really don't cut it when one is chasing down more talented, more experienced riders who are also on 140mm+ of travel over rough terrain.  This year I broke down and bought a Marin Mount Vision (actually, Drew and I both did...we take gender equality seriously in this household!).  140mm of active, plush, Fox suspension complemented with a full XT group.  Just under 30 lbs it flies down hills and holds its own uphill (although I'm not sure its rider does).  I never thought the bike meant that much.  I thought it was rider skill.  I thought I just needed to let go of the brakes more.  I had a lot of thoughts of what I could and couldn't ride.  I was really wrong.  This summer has been amazing. [Author's note: I still race a 100mm travel Marin CXR 29er...it goes fast too...just a bit bumpier]

Palisades Trail, near Mt. Rainier, WA

New Brands - I think in April I told one of my dealers "no, I'm not looking for more brands, I'm plenty busy as it is." Yet another thing I was wrong about.  As of June I started representing Swagman racks.  They are car racks, they carry bikes (actually, in one shuttle over a weekend in August our Quad rack carried over $30,000 worth of bikes at one time).  Except that they are more, they are solid, backed up by some amazing people in Penticton BC (read: BC born and bred), with great features and some killer 2013 product coming out!  Ok, time to dial it back, I'm sounding like a commercial....not the point.  As of Sept 1 SpiderTech is also ready to hit the market with its Olympic tested physio tape (remember all the brightly coloured red, blue, pink, etc tape on all the athletes...yeah, that stuff), I'll be offering SpiderTech to bike stores, running stores, and sporting good dealers.

Sage, Mom, and I in Oak Bay

New Race Season - It is cross season again (already?) and Drew and I just ordered a new round of bikes to prove it (I'm seeing a disturbing pattern here).  We finished up our last mountain bike race of the season at the Capitol Forest 50 Miler in Olympia, Washington.  This race was probably one of the best courses I have ever ridden, 50 miles with 80% of that on fast, swoopy, eye watering descents, beautiful views, and a solid female contingent.  I came in 2nd (which was a shocker considering the bulk of my training for two weeks leading into that race was stair repeat runs and pie eating contests with my sister Sage) and Karen Truman came in 3rd after dealing with a mechanical and some major traffic to make a BC heavy podium.

Waterfall Swimming - Goldstream Park, Langford, BC

East Sooke Park, BC

Now we are on to Wednesday Nighter Cross Races, Cross on the Rocks, a weekend in Vegas with the Guynup family to celebrate a 100th birthday, Cross Nationals in BC, hopefully some SSCXWC action (can SOMEONE update that website and tell us when it is??) and then - assuming the USGP series finds some sponsorship help - Bend USGP's in Oregon.

My mom and I in Seattle

It has been so long I don't even know where to start.  So much has happened since December (December? Really?) - Had a great time in California for Christmas with the family and no bike (just running shoes) for the week; a family filled New-Year's in Portland; a Seattle trip with my mom, sisters, niece and nephew (see photo below); a great beginning to the race season with well-attended Island Cups full of fast girls, sweet single track, and lots of suffering; and then a trip to Hawaii with Drew for our first real vacation together (read : no race, no training plan, no family).  All that - and really that is just what I can think of in my 30 second inventory of 2012 experiences - before the beginning of May.

Drew and Iris having a heart to heart

This year the focus has shifted, Drew and I are both still racing, but really the main focus has been our jobs, our families, and enjoying all of the wonderful people and places we have around us.  Both of us still love to ride, but I have been exploring more and more the world of running and am considering racing the Wildwood Marathon in Portland - maybe next year??  An all off-road marathon along the Wildwood Trail in Portland, OR (which has a high possibility of being the best place for post-race celebration food and beer!)

Drew demonstrating proper cross form at
Victoria School League's Bike Jam

That being said, we still have race plans, last weekend (while Drew was working) I headed up solo to the Port Alberni Island Cup.  This race holds a special place in my heart - I suffer more here than possibly anywhere else, the scenery is beautiful, the race organizers awesome, and the first time I met Drew I drove him to Port Alberni for this race.

This year was no disappointment, the trails were dry and tacky, the course was long and hard, I did a hard pre-ride and then headed to the start line.  Not knowing how my body would react to the lack of racing recently (the last 4 years I've raced almost every weekend throughout the summer) I figured I would give everything from the start line to see how much I had in me (not conventional OR intelligent wisdom at work here).  Heading into the single track I was surprised by a couple of the guys I had jumped in front of (they passed me early on though to claim their rightful spot at the front) and felt great.  My technical skill was good, not great, but my legs felt good and I rode steady through the first 20 minutes of single track climbing.

After 2 crashes, (I'll be spending more time on my bike to get used to my sweet new brakes and freshly rebuilt -read: actually moves - for), an epic battle with Mark from Arrowsmith Bikes (who was so kind and took a beer-break to let me catch up and pass him and then still proceeded to beat me!), a ton of climbing, and around 30k of pristine single track I rolled in first place in the ladies....but behind Mark.

The friends we made on the beach in Kona

Next up Drew and I are volunteering at BC Road Provincials as neutral support on Saturday, then Sunday I head to Boulder for Pearl Izumi run meetings...looking forward to an exciting week of new shoes, new clothes, and new tech!  Also in the works, I have a new brand I will be representing on Vancouver Island...very exciting...but probably worthy of its own post!

Women's SSCXWC12 Start Line

I got an email about a month ago from Shimano's new secretary saying "I've bookmarked your blog...I can't wait to read it" and thought in my head "efff....I guess I should update it."  Now is a good time as I am procrastinating packing for our impending ferry and trip to Bend, Oregon  for a double header USGP weekend.

The last couple months have flown by with tons of cross racing, getting all of my 2012 orders finished up with the awesome shops I work with, and sales meetings in Denver for Pearl Izumi Fall 2012/2013 Run apparel and shoes - wait a minute - 2013?  Has 2012 even gotten here yet?  It hasn't, but most of the time I have to ask.

Drew in his super sweet SSCXWC Costume

Some of the highlights for this cross season have been......

Remembrance day 5K Relay - This was a running race.  I don't do running races (or haven't since I was in high school avoiding another semester of awkward gym class by running for the Varsity cross country team).  Drew and I got suckered into doing this race because our overactive group of friends started trash talking.  A 23 min off-road 5k later and I felt like I had suffered through a 2 hour cross race and had stuck knives into my quads.

November 12 Surrey Cross Race - Ok, I'm really just throwing this race in here to show how bad ass we are that we did a running race one day and then a cross race the next day.  The weather here was super-cold, super-wet and the course super-slippery....which (besides the super-numb hands) made the day super-fun.  After taking the hole shot, realizing I am not fit enough to MAINTAIN the holeshot and drifting into second, then crashing on a slippery off-camber to settle in for 3rd behind Jean Ann Birkenpas and Sandra Walters.  One of my better-feeling races of the season!

SSCXWC2011 - Drew didn't win again, but we had an amazing "qualifier" ride through San Francisco (one of my favourite cities!) A rainy day for the race, some amazing meals with our good friends Hannah Ziadeh and Ryan Nestle, and then a beautiful day of site-seeing that included a cable car ride, Coit tower, and a walk through China town and Little Italy.  For the racing part, I finished up 7th just ahead of Rachel Lloyd, and just behind some fast pros and local heros....

My Warrior costume for SSCXWC

Since SSCXWC I spent a few days at home in California catching up with my family and eating some amazing Thanksgiving dinners.  Afterwards, headed back up to Vancouver to race Provincials....apparently the 3 days of stuffing myself with delicious home-cooked meals was NOT the answer for a good provincial race, however, Drew (who headed home after SSCXWC to work, detox, and starve himself skinny for the race) won the Provincial title.  For the record, this means that he won Mountain and Cross Provincials....both firsts for him, and both on a Marin!

At the Coit Tower in San Fran - Thanks Hannah! 

Now, after two weeks at home in Victoria, lots of paperwork and work catch-up, we are heading to Bend this weekend for our last weekend of racing this year, and then back home for a slew of Christmas parties....and then off again for Christmas - Never a dull moment around here!

Since my last post Drew and I have finished off the cross country season with Drew winning Provincial Championships, did the Warrior Dash on my staggette (and then couldn't walk for a while), got married, headed out on an awesome riding mini-moon, and then started in on cross (and booking) season with a trip to Seattle for Starcrossed and then tons of local BC and Island racing (the Island Cup series has been AWESOME this year with up to 191 people coming out!).  It has been a busy couple of months where everything that doesn't qualify as absolutely necessary is put on the backburner and the normal necessities (like house cleaning) get put on the warmer to be done in rare moments of unexhausted calm - I'm still waiting for these moments....).

The Marin's we rode out of our ceremony on....

On the cross country racing front, this year wasn't one of the most outwardly successful but because of that I have some good goals and things to focus on for next year.  I'm looking forward to trying to enjoy the cross season as much as possible (while suffering my way back into some form of fitness) and then going back to the drawing board this winter for some solid riding and recovering from the year.

Why have a cake when you can  have a pinata cake and a sundae bar?

This was a year of learning and planning as both Drew and I started new jobs in January and then planned our perfect wedding day for August (complete with a pinata wedding cake, bikes, Drinko, a photo booth, a sundae bar, and late night pizza!).  We are now planning our trip to Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds in San Francisco, US Thanksgiving at home with my parents (first time since graduating highschool 8 years ago, Christmas in California with my family, and then Hawaii (for our real honeymoon) in January.

Noble Nob - near Greenwater, WA

Next year - new bikes, more racing, more travelling, and hopefully some wicked ride tales and better fitness!  Drew and I will both be on Marin's new Rift Zone T3 29er - full carbon, full suspension, full big wheel awesomeness and we're kicking around the idea of getting some big bikes considering that the result I was most proud of (as it got me my first magazine mention!) was from the US Nationals SuperD...maybe it is time for us to embrace more than 4 inches of travel!

Check out all the press on the new Marin's :

Mountain Bike/Bicycling Magazine:

Dirt Rag:

Bike Magazine:

Bikeradar.com

Decline Magazine:

Warrior Dash in Whistler

Test of Metal

This weekend was the Test of Metal, or more fondly called "The Test."  Not because it is the hardest course of the year (Nimby 50 takes that one), or the most competitive (easily US Nationals), or the most technical (tie between Nimby 50 and Port Alberni Island Cup) but because it is the most of all of them....kind of like a highschool G.P.A. - it has the highest average.  It generally features world cup racers, national team members, local superstars, and relics who race to prove they still have it.  It has huge climbs, power sucking false flats, road climbs, and wheezing-inducing singletrack.  It has fast, flowy, wipe-the-grin-off-your-face-your-supposed-to-be-racing singletrack, eye-watering fire road descending, and tough, bridge-laden, rocky, hand-pump inducing descents that make you question your overall skill.  Jack of all trades, master of none....except suffering.

Anything can happen.  It is 3 hours long, you are constantly battling men, women, and children (true story - some of the Squamish kids are amazing!).  There are plenty of opportunities for crashing, mechanical-ing, cramping, or just generally blowing up.  The first year I raced it in 3:14, which has remained my personal best - the next year (when the course was supposedly faster - I had a good, but not great day on the bike).  This year, I wanted to hit sub 3:10 (well, actually I wanted to hit 3:00, but that was a little overzealous).  This year I went 3:20...here is the story:

In warmup - felt ill, legs felt like logs attached to an aching lower back.  Sweet.  Off the line shifted into "make your own pace" and spun up the road climb watching the other women and men with camelbaks and 30 lb bikes ride away from me.  Into the gravel path and fell into a good fire road rhythm.  Legs started to come around, into the first real section of trail around Alice Lake and things started looking up, my technical legs came around, the sun started to break through the clouds, and I was feeling good.  Through the first major descent (lined with tons of people) and the cheers of "right on girl," "yeah lady!" started getting me excited.  Through the feedzone with more cheers and a compliment for my M-frame copycat neon glasses, and my excitement rose further.

Onto 9 mile.  It is a climb, which isn't actually 9 miles, but feels longer.  It is a long, slow, and fairly boring fire road climb.  I went back into "make your own pace" and made sure to stay on top of my eating.  No worries as a couple waves of men passed me and my single speeding buddy cranked his way by....well, a couple worries, but I managed to stay on message.  Into Lavadome, the last bit of climbing which narrows into loose rock I finally got going.  Passed about 10 men (one of the waves from earlier) and headed into Ring Creek Rip a downhill, rough (on a hard tail), doubletrack descent.  Four guys passed me, but I passed three of them back after they flatted or crashed and just before the Plunge I hear female breathing (yep, I can tell the difference).  So far I'd been in no man's land with people telling me I was anywhere between 4th and 7th place, but Megan Rose, a steady starter who really gets going about 2 hours in, caught me.  Knowing she would be faster on the Plunge (the technical descent) with her full suspension and local knowledge, I let her by and watched her ride away.

Into the Plunge I was in survival mode - but rode more and smoother than probably any other year (even with the slight glaze the morning's rain had given to the rocks).  Couple little bumps and issues, a good crash from an American guy that had me picking my way around a rock garden on the wrong line, and out of the blue heard Sandra Walters voice behind me.  I had position, but didn't want to hold her up, and made plans to let her by in the feed zone.   Through the feed zone, however, she wasn't right on my wheel and I decided to attack and see how long I could stay in front of her.  I surged into Crumpet Woods knowing I would only be able to beat her if I got a gap in the single track (her racing knowledge would outsmart me on the road).  I got a good gap and started passing guy after guy.  All of a sudden I come up behind Cathy Zeglinski being trailed by another guy.  Guy won't get out of the way, my pace slows, and finally guy bobbles and trail widens to give me my one opportunity to sprint past both the guy and Cathy.  I kept it up until coming up upon another guy who isn't so keen to let me by, but after I explain that I need to go as fast as possible because I am trying to work on my gap, he finally starts going  until he bobbles and crashes just before we hit the road.

With Cathy on  my tail I knew I didn't want her close enough to draft so I sprinted ahead.  My lead was pretty good until Sandra surged back up and we went into the last section of doubletrack path together.  I  knew I had to be in front when making the left hand turn into the finishing straight, so when the trail widened and straightened I surged in front of Sandra and started the sprint (fairly far out).  Made the left in front and sprinted across the line barely in front to finish up in 7th place.

I still don't know what happened in Crumpet Woods, whether it was a second wind, the bike (perfect for that kind of terrain!) or just the last bit of fitness kicking in - but those 30 minutes were the most fun I've had in a race.

Now...well, now I am sitting in the Seattle airport, wishing the Starbucks line would go below 10 people (it has been 15-20 people long for the last hour) waiting for my flight to San Francisco for Marin meetings.  After 3 days in my favourite city Elladee and I will head to Vail, Colorado for Shimano and Pearl Izumi meetings for 7 days.  I'm a little sad that I don't get to race again until early July....but once I get back I'll (hopefully!) be guest riding a couple stages of BCBR and then heading to Sun Valley, ID for US Nationals!  But for now...it is time to suck it up, get in line, and hook up the caffeine IV drip.

I pride myself on being a proficient technical rider in the grand scheme of female racers - there are girls who go bigger, go faster, are smoother - but generally I don't suck and am rarely the last one down a descent.  I have my weak points - long rock faces, loose, marble laden shoots that make even the best brakes useless, and generally I like at least one, preferably two wheels on the ground.  I have my strengths too - tough, working, rolling singletrack that challenges the "spin it to win it" riders and curvy, flowing, eye-watering descents.  Proficient I am, gnarly I am not.

This weekend was gnarly.

Day 1: North Shore Bikefest Ryder's Eyewear Prologue - 1.5 minutes of fast double-track to 8 minutes of f'ing hard, slick, singletrack climbing, followed by 30 seconds of rocky descending, and another 2.5 minutes of rolling doubletrack.  In the pre ride I thought I'd forgotten how to climb singletrack until the last of 5 pre-ride climbs, then my skill started to come back.  In the race, I sprinted to get some momentum, and then calmed the body down and realized that the less I worried about speed, the faster I went (not very intuitive, but productive!).  I won the day with a 1:10 to spare over Megan Rose - I was pleasantly surprised (read : completely shocked).

Day 2: North Shore Bikefest Return of the Ripper - I don't actually know how to describe this course - doubletrack, to the slippery technical climb from the prologue, to flat, rooty, slippery, muddy single-ish track, to fast flat doubletrack, to road, to a fun technical descent, to doubletrack, to rolling, to more technical descending, to the classic bridal path climb, down Severed D (a gnarly cold-sweat inducing trail that would require a DH bike anywhere else in the world, but on the Shore is considered an XC trail, to more trail, back to some of the original double track - it must be just about over....right? to a double track climb that looks like a wall (really, I have to go up this?) to open doubletrack that paralleled a road, and then into the trees to the finish line....but wait, just for good measure, back up the the singletrack climb from the prologue (seriously?  I have to race up this a 3rd time in under 24 hours?).  Back onto the last stretch of double track and across the finish line.

Going into the Ripper I was nervous.  Years ago I spent a summer commuting to the North Shore on weekends and riding Mt Seymour every chance I got.  That was my first summer owning a proper mountain bike - a chromolly Cove Handjob that I thought was the coolest thing ever (at 27 lbs for an XC hardtail, the lightest thing it was not).  Since then I've returned to ride (not race) the North Shore every couple years - and each time it is like going home to your mom's house - everything is the same, except different.  You open up a cupboard (or set up for a steep, rocky drop) and the bowls are where the coffee mugs used to be to find that they have been moved to the next cupboard.  I did, however, manage to stay on my bike in the XC to finish up 2nd after a long day.  

After a quick visit with friends over brunch in downtown Van on Sunday we hopped onto the ferry and into the work week.  I headed up to the Comox Valley for 3 days and got in two awesome rides - one on lower trails near the Pipeline and one "shuttle" (the boys shuttled, I did intervals up the road) up Forbidden Plateau where I had my best ride of the year - the perfect day where everything clicked and (even though the boy's suspension outmeasured mine by at least 3 inches in the front and 6 inches in the rear) I held on for dear life and kept up on the downhills....not bad for an xc weenie.

Next up, Test of Metal - one of my favourite races of the year and then off to Novato, CA for Marin meetings and then Vail, Colorado for Shimano meetings to finish off the month!

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!