My knees have been a bit sore this week from running, which is pretty typical for me. They should ease up after a few more runs. Yesterday I completed a 3-miler, which is the longest I've run in probably 2 years. Scary. My shins got a bit tight and complainy but they loosened up halfway through and I felt pretty good at the end.
Yesterday afternoon I had massage therapy with Laurel -- she's the best! She could tell my legs were a little hammered from running so she worked on them but tried to take it easy since I told her I was planning on biking later. Ugh...bad idea! Marcus and I met JoAnne on our team for a little flyer around Mercer Island and I was practically crippled the second I got on the bike.
My knees were so sore I could barely climb so JoAnne pulled us all the way around the island, which was awesome. By the time I went to bed last night my entire lower body was debilitated. One knee is still sore today but my butt is killing me! Laurel worked on my glutes so I'm guessing that's the culprit. I may turn my run into a walk today and rest up. I woke up with a sore throat anyway and I'm not feeling so great so time for some magical herbal tea.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
So far so good...
...the running is going pretty well so far. I'm now allowed to skip the 30/30 routine (thank goodness) and start running between 1.5-3 miles a few times a week. I'll be doing this for a few weeks and seeing how it goes. Today I have a big whopping 1.5-mi run on the schedule. Woohoo!
I ended up having a very lazy weekend and didn't travel for the Boston Harbor race. Part of me wishes I had, but I certainly don't regret it. I guess the roads were pretty slick, the field was small, and spending a day doing some things besides racing was rather nice. I'm gearing up for the Des Moines crit this Sunday and possibly the Capital Crit on Saturday if the weather holds. I'm definitely down for Matava and Derby Days and then it's off to Eugene for the Co-Motion tandem stage race. That should be a blast!
Believe it or not, here I am fretting about the rest of the race season and as it turns out, there's really not much left! It dawned on me that once I get back from Eugene the only races left are Volunteer Park, the Velo series, the State TTT, Crystal, and Seward. Can that be right? Wow.
I guess it's perfect timing really. I'll finish up the season best I can and by August I should be running more mileage. I'll get a nice break and then cross picks up. Perfect!!
I ended up having a very lazy weekend and didn't travel for the Boston Harbor race. Part of me wishes I had, but I certainly don't regret it. I guess the roads were pretty slick, the field was small, and spending a day doing some things besides racing was rather nice. I'm gearing up for the Des Moines crit this Sunday and possibly the Capital Crit on Saturday if the weather holds. I'm definitely down for Matava and Derby Days and then it's off to Eugene for the Co-Motion tandem stage race. That should be a blast!
Believe it or not, here I am fretting about the rest of the race season and as it turns out, there's really not much left! It dawned on me that once I get back from Eugene the only races left are Volunteer Park, the Velo series, the State TTT, Crystal, and Seward. Can that be right? Wow.
I guess it's perfect timing really. I'll finish up the season best I can and by August I should be running more mileage. I'll get a nice break and then cross picks up. Perfect!!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Back to my roots?
I was just thinking last week about how much I miss running and got teary-eyed. I'm such a sap. Cycling was supposed to be something temporary to keep me from going mad since the IT saga halted my running two years ago. Since then, I've run maybe 2 miles. I can't believe I've become so cycling-consumed. Just recently I've been thinking about running and realizing how much I miss it. And...I still haven't done the friekin' Boston Marathon.
I talked to my physical therapist and kicked off the whole 30/30 routine yesterday. So, for 30 days, I do a 30-min running program that consists of 10-mins walking, 15-mins jogging, and then 5-mins walking. Ugh....so boring but I know it's the safest way for me to get back to running and not reaggravate my injury.
I'd love to train for the Seattle Half in November and then try to qualify for Boston with the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in February. So the big question is where that leaves me with cycling? I have to say that this year has been a little disappointing in that I really thought I had improved my fitness enough to be in contention for some top 10s and podium finishes. It's pretty clear I haven't quite done that. Despite my frustration, I'm still having a ton of fun but I think I just might have set my goals a little too high.
I guess I'm just trying to figure out if I should continue to really hammer with road cycling for the next few months or if I should just call it a season and realize that I need to really train up more this fall for next year. I'm not sure how to fit in road cycling, running, and cyclocross without having a serious burnout of some sorts. I guess I have too many damn hobbies and not enough time...
...don't worry though, I'm definitely hitting the crit scene next month and the Crystal Hillclimb. The reality is that I'll probably just train myself into the ground until I have a serious flameout like I did last September after Eugene :)
I talked to my physical therapist and kicked off the whole 30/30 routine yesterday. So, for 30 days, I do a 30-min running program that consists of 10-mins walking, 15-mins jogging, and then 5-mins walking. Ugh....so boring but I know it's the safest way for me to get back to running and not reaggravate my injury.
I'd love to train for the Seattle Half in November and then try to qualify for Boston with the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in February. So the big question is where that leaves me with cycling? I have to say that this year has been a little disappointing in that I really thought I had improved my fitness enough to be in contention for some top 10s and podium finishes. It's pretty clear I haven't quite done that. Despite my frustration, I'm still having a ton of fun but I think I just might have set my goals a little too high.
I guess I'm just trying to figure out if I should continue to really hammer with road cycling for the next few months or if I should just call it a season and realize that I need to really train up more this fall for next year. I'm not sure how to fit in road cycling, running, and cyclocross without having a serious burnout of some sorts. I guess I have too many damn hobbies and not enough time...
...don't worry though, I'm definitely hitting the crit scene next month and the Crystal Hillclimb. The reality is that I'll probably just train myself into the ground until I have a serious flameout like I did last September after Eugene :)
Monday, June 18, 2007
Poopy Methow
This might be the third time I've used the word "poopy" to describe a race this year...not good! Ok, first off, I had a BLAST at the Methow SR this past weekend. The area is gorgeous and the courses were beautiful, fun, and challenging. We had a lot of Zoka teammates there and even had three of us ladies in the stage race!
The TT course was really challenging with several steep climbs and as usual, I did pretty shitty. I ended up 33rd out of 35 I think. I never even looked at the results because I really didn't want to know. I honestly didn't get enough of a warmup in and I really need to work on that. I have such a hard time being on the trainer that I find lots of ways to burn time so I don't end up on it. I really need to work on my time trialing skills this fall and really force myself to get on the trainer and get in a good warmup.
After the TT a teammate and his fiance hosted a sandwich bar at their rental cabin, which was awesome. We all got to hang out for a little while, talk about the courses, look at photos of the TT, and eat some grub. The time went by a little quickly though and we had to take off to get ready for the afternoon crit.
The cat 4 ladies lined up at 2 and again, I got there a little late and didn't get in much of a warmup aside from pre-riding the course. The first few laps around made me nervous and I wasn't particularly thrilled about the course. Corner three had some loose dirt and gravel inside and bad pavement outside. The first two laps I slipped on the inside line, so I tried moving outside and then bounced my rear tire up on the bad pavement. After three near incidents in as many laps at a fraction of race speed I got a little spooked and just lost my nerve.
Again, I was a victim of bad positioning. I'm frustrated because I keep making that same mistake over and over and I really need to work on it! Argh. I started too far back, hit the brakes way too much in corner 3, and had to work way too hard to stay on the pack. After a few laps I finally got my rhythm, laid off the brakes, and started working my way through some carnage, but it was too late already. I held on as long as I could and got pulled with about 5 laps left. I was pretty pissed but that's how it goes. I realized shortly after I was pulled the field was down to 10 still together and around 6 gals in a chase group half a lap behind. Considering nearly 40 women started, that's some serious carnage.
JoAnne got pulled shortly after me and we were both pretty annoyed. Our teammate Alyson was still out there looking strong with the chase group so we were cheering her on. She did a fantastic job in her first crit and won the group sprint for 11th place.
Saturday night I was pretty irked with my performance so I set my sights on a top 15 finish for the road race Sunday. I wanted some points!! The rollers and small hills on the course suited me so I had a good chance. The wind was horrible on Sunday and we heard tons of stories from the men's fields coming in from the morning races. There were times during our race where we were working hard just to go 11-12mph. Shortly before the turnaround there was an open area where the sidewinds were gusting so strongly it practically pushed everyone over. I nearly got blown into the gravel a few times, which was a bit scary.
I felt great the whole race, my legs felt good, and I was climbing well. At the midpoint turnaround (around mile 22) the woman in contention for the overall win went down. I'm not sure what happened but there seemed to be a lot of confusion over the course and she said she wasn't sure which way to go. Luckily she got right back up and to the front of the pack and didn't get hurt too badly. Shortly after that there was a small riser that started to split things apart and I got gapped off a bit. I was working with a group to chase back on when we hit the base of a small climb and I dropped my chain. I'm always able to get my chain back on quickly but this time I kept shifting and shifting and just couldn't get it back on. Then all of a sudden I couldn't pedal anymore and I looked down and noticed I had wrapped my chain around my pedal. Are you kidding me? Who the hell does this?
The follow car came up and I hopped off and a guy helped me get it back together. I saw the pack about halfway up the hill and thought I still had a chance to get back on if I really worked. The support guy gave me a push and then I tried to draft off the car for a few seconds but they sped away. Drat! For several miles I could see the pack not far ahead but just couldn't get there. Damn! At that point the sobering idea that I had a 17 mile solo ride ahead of me pissed me off so I decided "F...., if I'm riding 17 miles solo I might as well practice my f**** TT skills". I pretty much hauled ass as best I could to the finish and thanked the cycling gods that I had a nice tailwind most of the return trip.
So...all in all, a great weekend with crappy results! The good news is that Alyson managed to stay with the lead pack in the road race and might have gotten a top 10 GC finish. JoAnne hit a wall pretty hard towards the end of the road race and she and I were both a little irked about our lackluster results. But hey, we had an awesome time and can't wait until next year!
The TT course was really challenging with several steep climbs and as usual, I did pretty shitty. I ended up 33rd out of 35 I think. I never even looked at the results because I really didn't want to know. I honestly didn't get enough of a warmup in and I really need to work on that. I have such a hard time being on the trainer that I find lots of ways to burn time so I don't end up on it. I really need to work on my time trialing skills this fall and really force myself to get on the trainer and get in a good warmup.
After the TT a teammate and his fiance hosted a sandwich bar at their rental cabin, which was awesome. We all got to hang out for a little while, talk about the courses, look at photos of the TT, and eat some grub. The time went by a little quickly though and we had to take off to get ready for the afternoon crit.
The cat 4 ladies lined up at 2 and again, I got there a little late and didn't get in much of a warmup aside from pre-riding the course. The first few laps around made me nervous and I wasn't particularly thrilled about the course. Corner three had some loose dirt and gravel inside and bad pavement outside. The first two laps I slipped on the inside line, so I tried moving outside and then bounced my rear tire up on the bad pavement. After three near incidents in as many laps at a fraction of race speed I got a little spooked and just lost my nerve.
Again, I was a victim of bad positioning. I'm frustrated because I keep making that same mistake over and over and I really need to work on it! Argh. I started too far back, hit the brakes way too much in corner 3, and had to work way too hard to stay on the pack. After a few laps I finally got my rhythm, laid off the brakes, and started working my way through some carnage, but it was too late already. I held on as long as I could and got pulled with about 5 laps left. I was pretty pissed but that's how it goes. I realized shortly after I was pulled the field was down to 10 still together and around 6 gals in a chase group half a lap behind. Considering nearly 40 women started, that's some serious carnage.
JoAnne got pulled shortly after me and we were both pretty annoyed. Our teammate Alyson was still out there looking strong with the chase group so we were cheering her on. She did a fantastic job in her first crit and won the group sprint for 11th place.
Saturday night I was pretty irked with my performance so I set my sights on a top 15 finish for the road race Sunday. I wanted some points!! The rollers and small hills on the course suited me so I had a good chance. The wind was horrible on Sunday and we heard tons of stories from the men's fields coming in from the morning races. There were times during our race where we were working hard just to go 11-12mph. Shortly before the turnaround there was an open area where the sidewinds were gusting so strongly it practically pushed everyone over. I nearly got blown into the gravel a few times, which was a bit scary.
I felt great the whole race, my legs felt good, and I was climbing well. At the midpoint turnaround (around mile 22) the woman in contention for the overall win went down. I'm not sure what happened but there seemed to be a lot of confusion over the course and she said she wasn't sure which way to go. Luckily she got right back up and to the front of the pack and didn't get hurt too badly. Shortly after that there was a small riser that started to split things apart and I got gapped off a bit. I was working with a group to chase back on when we hit the base of a small climb and I dropped my chain. I'm always able to get my chain back on quickly but this time I kept shifting and shifting and just couldn't get it back on. Then all of a sudden I couldn't pedal anymore and I looked down and noticed I had wrapped my chain around my pedal. Are you kidding me? Who the hell does this?
The follow car came up and I hopped off and a guy helped me get it back together. I saw the pack about halfway up the hill and thought I still had a chance to get back on if I really worked. The support guy gave me a push and then I tried to draft off the car for a few seconds but they sped away. Drat! For several miles I could see the pack not far ahead but just couldn't get there. Damn! At that point the sobering idea that I had a 17 mile solo ride ahead of me pissed me off so I decided "F...., if I'm riding 17 miles solo I might as well practice my f**** TT skills". I pretty much hauled ass as best I could to the finish and thanked the cycling gods that I had a nice tailwind most of the return trip.
So...all in all, a great weekend with crappy results! The good news is that Alyson managed to stay with the lead pack in the road race and might have gotten a top 10 GC finish. JoAnne hit a wall pretty hard towards the end of the road race and she and I were both a little irked about our lackluster results. But hey, we had an awesome time and can't wait until next year!
Friday, June 15, 2007
traffic nightmare
Geez...now I know why I never drive I5 north anymore. The traffic was so bad it took me nearly 6 hours to get to Winthrop. Now I just to need to get my crazy dog to settle down and I can hit the sack. Speaking of which...the first thing he does when I let him out of the car is make a beeline to the river. I see the strong current and yell at him but of course, he doesn't listen. He hopped in and immediately seemed a little worried about how quickly he was heading downstream. Thank goodness he headed back to the shore and made it out. Drowning the dog wouldn't be a great start to the weekend...
Off to Winthrop...
...I'm heading out of town shortly for the Methow Valley Stage Race this weekend. Enumclaw sucked so bad I convinced myself to travel for one more big stage race this year, so hopefully this goes well! I'm really excited because we have 3 (yes, 3!) Zoka women in the race this weekend. That's as many as Group Health! Amazing isn't it?
This was sent to our "Classmates Fun" email list today -- haha!
This was sent to our "Classmates Fun" email list today -- haha!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
I'm a stoker!
Several Zoka teammates are going to Eugene in July for the Co-Motion Tandem Stage Race. Zqwan called me because he was having some difficulty signing on a stoker and really wanted to do the race. I've NEVER been on a tandem before but decided, hey, what the hell? It has to be fun, right? Before I had even given it a try I pretty much signed on for the race. Yup, that's me. You want me to do what? I've never done that before...I'm in!
We met two of our teammates on Sunday for a ride and decided to give this tandem thing a try. Sunday morning I started getting a little flakey about the whole thing and called Z trying to weasel out of it. I argued that maybe doing our first tandem ride with teammates wasn't a great idea, but he wouldn't listen to me. Turns out it was a great idea!
We got the tandem all set up and I hopped on so we could do a few circles in the parking lot. I have to say that those first few minutes were absolutely terrifying. It was SO weird and I can't even explain it. I guess you just have to hop on a tandem for the first time to know what I'm talking about. Once we started the ride I was pretty nervous so I tried to relax and just focus on pedaling. After a few miles I settled in and pretty soon we were cruising along like veterans.
Z and I ended up riding about 40 miles on the eastside with our two teammates marvelling at how well we were riding together. Tandems are a blast, especially on the downhills. Those things pick up some serious speed! All in all, we had a great day and the ride went better than I could have expected. Looks like I've been christened into stokerhood! I can't wait for the race...it's going to be awesome! I'll have to bring along a camera so I can take some pictures :)
We met two of our teammates on Sunday for a ride and decided to give this tandem thing a try. Sunday morning I started getting a little flakey about the whole thing and called Z trying to weasel out of it. I argued that maybe doing our first tandem ride with teammates wasn't a great idea, but he wouldn't listen to me. Turns out it was a great idea!
We got the tandem all set up and I hopped on so we could do a few circles in the parking lot. I have to say that those first few minutes were absolutely terrifying. It was SO weird and I can't even explain it. I guess you just have to hop on a tandem for the first time to know what I'm talking about. Once we started the ride I was pretty nervous so I tried to relax and just focus on pedaling. After a few miles I settled in and pretty soon we were cruising along like veterans.
Z and I ended up riding about 40 miles on the eastside with our two teammates marvelling at how well we were riding together. Tandems are a blast, especially on the downhills. Those things pick up some serious speed! All in all, we had a great day and the ride went better than I could have expected. Looks like I've been christened into stokerhood! I can't wait for the race...it's going to be awesome! I'll have to bring along a camera so I can take some pictures :)
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
PR butt whooping
I finally got my ass down to PR last night and prompty got whooped. It was awesome. What sucks is that I can't just hop on 167 from work (I work in Renton) and head south. I have to go home to Leschi to get the dog and then head all the way back down. I mistimed my little adventure and got to PR at 6:19. Racing starts at 6:30 so by the time I got changed and registered it was time to go.
Let's just say that doing a 25 or 30-min crit type workout at PR with ZERO warmup is not a bright idea. Granted, there were only 6 gals there, 4 in the Cat 4 group, but I still got my ass kicked. My legs felt like lead and I was convinced I was going to drop dead on the hill. Usually I motor right up that thing but last night I was towing some major baggage. Despite the lackluster performance it was really nice to get back down there. I'm frustrated right now because I feel like I've lost my fitness. I felt much stronger in March / April than I do now. Maybe I'm just being hard on myself...who knows.
Anyway, I need to figure out some better logistics for next time. And...I need to get my arse in gear and start biking more!
Let's just say that doing a 25 or 30-min crit type workout at PR with ZERO warmup is not a bright idea. Granted, there were only 6 gals there, 4 in the Cat 4 group, but I still got my ass kicked. My legs felt like lead and I was convinced I was going to drop dead on the hill. Usually I motor right up that thing but last night I was towing some major baggage. Despite the lackluster performance it was really nice to get back down there. I'm frustrated right now because I feel like I've lost my fitness. I felt much stronger in March / April than I do now. Maybe I'm just being hard on myself...who knows.
Anyway, I need to figure out some better logistics for next time. And...I need to get my arse in gear and start biking more!
Sunday, June 03, 2007
20 is my magic number!
I was supposed to kick off my weekend with the Carnation TT Saturday, but during a moment of stupidity I set my alarm on the "weekday" setting. Jake woke me up at 7:30 eager to go play fetch and I then realized there was no way I was getting to Carnation by the 7:45 registration deadline. My start time wasn't until 9:40 so I suppose I still could have gone but I decided it was fate telling me to rest for Ravensdale. I had a bit of a sore throat anyway, so the day off was probably a wise idea.
I felt great for Ravensdale Sunday and the weather was gorgeous, though a little warm at 85. Our Cat 4 women's field turned out about 35-40 riders, which is awesome! A few miles into the course there is a downhill section with two left-hand sweepers that caused a really nasty crash. You can hit the first corner at full speed but the second one is much tighter than it looks. The 20mph sign is probably there for a reason. There was also a lot of loose gravel on the shoulder that likely caused problems.
I was towards the back of the pack, which turned out to be a great place to be. I'm not sure what happened but I think we all went into that corner way too fast. I saw one person go off the road and then several more started flipping and crashing. Everyone tumbled right off the road, into the gravel, and into the grass. I started hitting the brakes to avoid everything but didn't want to lock up or brake too fast since there were riders behind me. I felt my back wheel start skittering and laid off the brakes and made it through just fine. A Wines girl behind me was like, "Whoah! Way to go Zoka!" She said she was scared she was going to take me out but managed to slow down in time. Had I slowed any faster we probably would have both gone down. Thank goodness she was paying attention. As I rode by I saw most people popping up so I was hoping everyone was ok. None of our Zoka gals were involved.
I think the crash took out about 6-8 people but luckily everyone was ok with just some road rash, cuts, and bruises. I heard that one girl hit a tree and busted her helmet pretty good but aside from a headache was fine. A girl I raced with a few times last year at PR unfortunately was part of the crash and I felt so bad for her. It was her first road race and she's a very strong rider. She ended up with road rash and a big thigh contusion and said she wouldn't race again. What bad luck. I'm going to call her tomorrow and see how she's doing.
I got gapped off the pack because of the crash but worked with a gal from Wines and a few other girls to get back on. The timing was bad as we ended up burning a ton of energy chasing back on right before "The Wall". I didn't end up having enough time to recover and just couldn't get over the stupid hill fast enough. It was a bit of a disappointment since my legs felt so great today. It was pretty much the same damn thing that happened to me last year. Oh well.
A group of about 7 of us pacelined to the end. The corner marshalls didn't wave us through the last turn so we had to stop and all turn around. I was the last one to get turned around which sunk my sprint attempt and I ended up 20th. Alyson got an 8th for Zoka and Deb, who was out there in her first road race, ended up running off the road and getting a flat towards the end of the race. I'm just happy she kept it upright and didn't go down!
I think this is my 5th 20th place finish this year. It's definitely better than last year but give me a break already!
In other news, I just signed up for Methow since Enumclaw was a huge disappointment. It also turns out I'm going to be a stoker for the Co-Motion Tandem Race in Oregon in July. Woohoo!
I felt great for Ravensdale Sunday and the weather was gorgeous, though a little warm at 85. Our Cat 4 women's field turned out about 35-40 riders, which is awesome! A few miles into the course there is a downhill section with two left-hand sweepers that caused a really nasty crash. You can hit the first corner at full speed but the second one is much tighter than it looks. The 20mph sign is probably there for a reason. There was also a lot of loose gravel on the shoulder that likely caused problems.
I was towards the back of the pack, which turned out to be a great place to be. I'm not sure what happened but I think we all went into that corner way too fast. I saw one person go off the road and then several more started flipping and crashing. Everyone tumbled right off the road, into the gravel, and into the grass. I started hitting the brakes to avoid everything but didn't want to lock up or brake too fast since there were riders behind me. I felt my back wheel start skittering and laid off the brakes and made it through just fine. A Wines girl behind me was like, "Whoah! Way to go Zoka!" She said she was scared she was going to take me out but managed to slow down in time. Had I slowed any faster we probably would have both gone down. Thank goodness she was paying attention. As I rode by I saw most people popping up so I was hoping everyone was ok. None of our Zoka gals were involved.
I think the crash took out about 6-8 people but luckily everyone was ok with just some road rash, cuts, and bruises. I heard that one girl hit a tree and busted her helmet pretty good but aside from a headache was fine. A girl I raced with a few times last year at PR unfortunately was part of the crash and I felt so bad for her. It was her first road race and she's a very strong rider. She ended up with road rash and a big thigh contusion and said she wouldn't race again. What bad luck. I'm going to call her tomorrow and see how she's doing.
I got gapped off the pack because of the crash but worked with a gal from Wines and a few other girls to get back on. The timing was bad as we ended up burning a ton of energy chasing back on right before "The Wall". I didn't end up having enough time to recover and just couldn't get over the stupid hill fast enough. It was a bit of a disappointment since my legs felt so great today. It was pretty much the same damn thing that happened to me last year. Oh well.
A group of about 7 of us pacelined to the end. The corner marshalls didn't wave us through the last turn so we had to stop and all turn around. I was the last one to get turned around which sunk my sprint attempt and I ended up 20th. Alyson got an 8th for Zoka and Deb, who was out there in her first road race, ended up running off the road and getting a flat towards the end of the race. I'm just happy she kept it upright and didn't go down!
I think this is my 5th 20th place finish this year. It's definitely better than last year but give me a break already!
In other news, I just signed up for Methow since Enumclaw was a huge disappointment. It also turns out I'm going to be a stoker for the Co-Motion Tandem Race in Oregon in July. Woohoo!
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