Burnout

I've been racing cross every Sunday and I love it and will definitely finish the SCC series; however, I'm certainly not racing at 150%. I don't even think I'm close to 70%. Since the series started I've been more than content to do one practice lap for a warmup, start near the back, expend little energy getting going, and pick off a few people as the laps go by. There are certainly times I'm pushing hard but I just haven't felt motivated to really race.

Today I dropped my car off at University VW for service and brought the bike with me so I could ride to work. I figured I'd get an easy 20-mi ride, but once I hit the road all I could think of was finding the next bus stop so I could get off the bike. The fact that I can barely manage to ride the bike 20 miles means one thing: burnout.

I've been skipping the gym, staying off the bike, and generally sitting on the couch eating cookies and drinking beer. The whole time I've been wondering why I'm so tired, unmotivated, and generally in a funk. I looked back at some of my old blog posts and realized that at this exact same time last year I was writing things like, "Hey, what's wrong with me? I don't want to ride. I'm tired. I'm blah. I'm in a funk." Hmm...I think I see a pattern here.

SCC #4: The Steilacoom runup!

After hearing all about the murderous Steilacoom runup I decided to skip the team ride Saturday so I could be fresh for Sunday's cross race. I was told Saturday's ride got a little hot the second half, so it was probably a good idea!

I carpooled down with Suzanne Sunday morning since she was helping at registration, but when we pulled up shortly before 7:30 the gates to Fort Steilacoom were still closed and a line of traffic waited to get in. Turns out the City of Lakewood reneged on their deal to open the gates at 7 and no one showed up until nearly 8. The races were all delayed about 30 minutes and we had our hands full for registration. I'm always looking for excuses to evade my warmup so I helped setup registration and get it running, then went off to get ready. Somehow even with an extra 30 minutes I managed to only get one lap on the course for a warmup. How do I always do this?

The course was definitely a blast though and is easily my favorite one so far. Personally, I loved the runup! I cruised up pretty quickly the first lap and made up some time from my crappy start, but had some trouble getting clipped back in at the top. My cleats were so full of dirt I could barely get them cleared. Maybe I need to invest in something other than SPDs. Unfortunately Elise had cruised into 1st place but had a mechanical and had to bail. Major bummer!

The course was a bit damp for our race due to morning fog, but was fast and fun. We had a few short descents, tight corners around some trees, a fast descent down some deep gravel (if you didn't stay to the outside), and a short but very bumpy section near the start / finish. I got caught close to the start line by the guys and ended up a lap down, but surprisingly only about 12 gals from our race actually stayed on the lead lap. Some guy in the Master's race crashed on a tight corner at the bottom of the gravelly descent and ended up with a broken and dislocated ankle. Ouch. I stopped for a few seconds to make sure everyone was alright and then continued on my way.

I ended up finishing 23rd out of 33+ gals, which wasn't as good as I had hoped for, but still fine by me. 23 seems to be my magic number! I'm sure if I could work on my starts I'd do much better, but right now I'm content just having fun and pushing hard, but not killing myself. I'm in that "kinda racing but not seriously" mode right now and I like it :)

After my race I stuck around to get photos and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Mt Rainier looked beautiful from the top of the runup and it was almost shorts and T-shirt weather! Incredible!

SCC #3: Kelly Creek

The weather held up nicely and we had another dry race for the Seattle Cyclocross series. I'm sure this won't be the case much longer! For a change I got there early enough to get a few warmup laps in. The course was fun and had a steep, fast descent, a few gravel sections, one set of barriers, and one downed tree. I was disappointed there were no real run-ups since I seem to do better in races that require more running. I'll just have to wait for Steilacoom next week, though I haven't done the course before so I may regret saying that!

Usually I'm fairly daring on the bike and especially love going downhill, but the steep descent on today's course gave my brain a bit of a meltdown. When I came around on my first practice lap I stopped at the top and immediately thought, "Whoa. I'm not f***ing riding down that!" The top few feet were a bit off-camber and for some reason I just couldn't deal with it. I sat there for a few minutes feeling like a total idiot. After seeing scores of people easily descending I figured it couldn't be that bad, took a deep breathe, and hit it. I aimed for the rut down the middle, laid off the brakes, and zoomed right down. It was TOTALLY fun!! It's amazing how much stuff you bounce over when you go that fast :)

I did a pretty good job of getting a crappy start again and ended up near the back right away. I was able to pick off a handful of gals but finished a lap down in 23rd place. I only needed about 10 seconds to finish on the lead lap, but oh well. Yesterday I felt like I was getting a cold, so naturally I went out and did a 40+ mile team ride in the rain. Today I felt a little under the weather and my legs and lungs were flat. I still had tons of fun and enjoyed the race, but was relieved when I didn't have to do another lap.

Zoka kicked some butt today. We had so many Zokas in the top 10 that I can't remember them all! Zoka went 1, 4 and 7 (I think) in the Men's 4 race. Hats off to Chip for his win! Dave Cook took the win for the Men's 3 with Chris Hill shortly behind him in 3rd. Elise snagged 7th in the Women's Cat 4 race and I know we had several other strong finishers. Unfortunately, I got no pictures this week. I was all set to snap a great shot of Chip coming across the finish and then realized I left my memory card at home in my laptop. Ugh! I'll make up for it at Steilacoom next week.

I'm just doing cross for fun this fall and so far I totally love it! I think if I start getting serious about it, which I'm certainly considering, I'll cut out the Saturday team rides. I think I could do much better if my legs were fresh so I'm going to take a Saturday off for Steilacoom next week and see how it goes. Big runup, here I come! Now I'm off to chug some OJ and stop this impending cold...

The crusher of souls

I don't blog about my personal life very much because...well...it's personal. Race reports and bike stories are more my style. However, this week I did something I feel really bad about, and I thought that writing about it might make me feel a little better. If it doesn't, I'll probably go back and delete this once I realize I wrote a "personal life" story.

A few months ago my boyfriend and I ended our nearly 3-year relationship. It was difficult at the time as most breakups are, but it was an easy decision given how unhealthy our relationship had become. Despite us being good friends, it just wasn't working out. We gave each other our space to get over it and since then, haven't seen much of each other.

Last week I had to stop by the house to pick up some stuff and we ended up talking for a few hours. It was nice to see him again. We got together a few days later so I could pick up my spinning bike from the house and that's when things took a turn. We talked about getting back together and made plans for dinner and a show tonight. Why did I help the conversation along? I don't know. It's easy for me to forget the bad and remember the good. I got caught up thinking about all the great times we used to have and all the cool things about being together.

The next day I realized what I had done. He was all excited and happy thinking that we were back on and all I could think about was how this would never work. It's always been my belief that trying to get back together after a breakup is futile. Whatever issues drove you apart will generally always resurface. He's a great guy and will make someone very happy, but the two of us just can't go down that road together again. So I had to do the only thing I could think of doing, which was to cancel tonight's plans. Now I feel horrible, like a crusher of souls. Great job.

SCC #2 - Evergreen HS

The second race in the Seattle Cyclocross series took place yesterday at Evergreen HS in White Center under beautiful sunny skies! I stayed true to form and managed to f*** up my pre-race plan. Instead of arriving at 7:30 to get a warmup and course pre-ride, I overslept and got there shortly before 9. One of the benefits of getting to the race so late is that no one else is that dumb, so registration was really fast!

I had just enough time to do one quick lap on the course, but it really wasn't enough. My lack of warmup killed me and even though I started up front, I was quickly in the back of large 35-40 person Women's Cat 4 field in about 300 meters. Suck. Our race started in heavy fog, which was pretty cool, but made me chuck my glasses at the end of the first lap. I couldn't see anything after half a lap.

The course was really fun, with lots of tight, off-camber corners, a fairly steep runup, one set of barriers, and one short technical descent. I managed to stay upright the whole race and out of trouble despite a few crashes around me. One girl went down particularly hard in the twisty part of the course. It didn't look too good but I heard later that she was ok, so that was good news.

As usual, my 1st lap was the worst. Once I got cruising though I finally started moving up and picking some people off. The descent seemed to be difficult for most of the riders around me, but I picked a really bizarre line off to the side, laid off the brakes, and had no trouble. Granted, I was going too fast to negotiate the corner at the bottom, so every time I would hop off and run up and around it, but I still seemed to get a gap on the people behind me so it couldn't have been that bad of an idea.

We completed four laps, which made our race seem really long. I swear it was closer to 40 mins than 30, but after only finishing two last time I was happy to do more this time. I finished 26th out of 36, which is much better than I did at Snohomish, so I'm happy I'm moving up. Elise had a great race and snagged 13th. Way to go Elise!

I still need to get much tighter on my cornering. Every time I'd pull away from the riders behind me I'd have them right back on my tail after the twisty sections. I also need to start warming up so I can maintain a better position on the first lap, which is key. No oversleeping for Kelly Creek next week! My back is tired of being black and blue from getting stabbed by the pedals, so looks like I need to perfect my shouldering technique as well.

Overall though, I'm having tons of fun and I'm somewhat surprised that the technical parts of the courses are where I start to pull away from other people. I've never considered myself a strong technical rider, so that's a bit of a pleasant surprise. Good times!

Some of the highlights of the day included Chris Hill getting 2nd in the Men's 3 field and doing a groovy skidding stop at the finish line. Adrian Hegyvary also entertained the crowd with his post-finish superman-style amazing display of balance. Give those guys some props!

SoCal cyclocross here I come!

I think I might finally have my little Thanksgiving getaway planned. I have a friend in Sacramento that I've been wanting to visit, so I'm planning to drive down to LA and make a stop in Sacramento. Of course, he doesn't know this yet so I probably better tell him :) Let's just hope the weather treats me better this time. Last time I drove to LA I did it around Christmas a few years ago and ended up stuck when Siskiyou pass was closed due to bad weather. That was a fun time!

As an added bonus I found out that SoCal has a cyclocross series and they have a race on Sunday, Nov 18th near Redondo Beach, so...I'm going to pack up the bikes and head out of town in time to hit the SoCal race. I did some research and the course features sand, loose gravel, and a challenging 70m runup on...you guessed it...sand. I found this course description on cyclingnews.com: "The technical and demanding course took its toll as running was reduced to walking on the sandy, steep hill. Hairpin turns in the sand and gravel added to the excitement as riders and their skills were put to the test."

Wow. It's a nightmare come true for me! Should be fun! While I'm there I plan to take advantage of the weather and do some road training as well. I'm stoked!

An early Halloween

I spent my Saturday afternoon at St Edwards Park for the Crosstoberfest relay race. We had some trouble finding a 3rd Zoka teammate to round out our team, so Z talked his friend Levi into it pretty last minute. None of us had too much time to costume plan so we decided to go totally thrift store and just throw on some crazy clothes. The result was awesome! I picked up these groovy pants at Red Light in Capitol Hill. They're so smokin' I think I might have to wear them to work one day!

Each of us had to do one lap on the course, then chug a beer before the next person could take off. I'm never going to live down my horrible beer chug. I pulled in barely able to breathe after a hard effort on the course and couldn't get the beer down! It was too funny. I guess I need to practice for next year! Z did a great job downing his beer despite the distraction of Nathan's costume, which was well ... ballsy. Haha!

The relay was tons of fun and the course was a blast. After racing a lap I wish I had stuck with my original plan to race the 9:30 Women's Cat 4 race as well, but when my alarm went off at 7 I decided some extra sleep sounded a little better. As it turns out, a bunch of the women's field got stung by bees, so maybe it was a good decision after all. I'll be gearing up for the next SCC race at Evergreen and healing my shoulder from a little too close of an encounter with a tree :)

Guys are funny

I was just reading the Seattle Cyclocross forum and there's this very long thread going about sandbagging in the men's fields. Some guy is complaining that someone won by 30 secs, so they should be forced to upgrade and more people have chimed in with their 2 cents. I think all the talk is rather funny if you ask me. Look at the women. We're out there racing and having a blast while the guys are all whining about their competition.

Sometimes I think the tables should be turned and the guys should only have a choice of racing in two fields like the women. We get two choices: Cat 4 or Cat 1/2/3. Well, *technically* I guess we have single speed and masters too. Imagine if the guys had to race that way. Maybe it would put it in perspective. Seriously guys, you have like 20 categories to choose from! Give me a break. People talk about women's racing being catty but honestly, I think the guys are so much worse. It cracks me up.

And yes, the turnout for women's racing isn't nearly as large as men's, but our fields are growing. I'd still like to see men stuck with two categories. Imagine the drama. I'll quote a teammates' tattoo: "Shut up and ride!"