There's been a lot a talk about cyclocross being included in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
From a post today on Cyclocross Magazine:
"...the event will be unique for several reasons, mostly related to the requirement that Winter Olympic sports be contested on ice or snow, a rule that the UCI was unsuccessful at convincing the IOC to change. As a result, the Olympic ‘cross race will be run at the Whistler Olympic Park and will share portions of the biathlon and nordic ski courses, and will be run entirely on snow."
No wait, it gets better.
"...the race will use the biathlon's shooting venue and will require racers to complete a target shooting round at the end of each lap."
Sound intriguing? Read the full article on Cyclocross Magazine.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Mud party!
The 4th race in the BuDu West Side MTB Series took place Sunday at Soaring Eagle and one word describes it: MUDDY!
The course was the same as last month's race but conditions made it completely different. I lined up for the 11am women's sport division with my teammate Leigh and about 10 other gals. We spent the next hour slogging through mud at a high rate of speed: 6mph. I know a few people weren't so thrilled with the conditions, but for me, mud is the funnest! As is usually the case, I had a much stronger second lap than first and was pretty stoked to ride up all the hills after stumbling on them the first time around.
I didn't finish fantastically but I had a much better race than I did in early March. I haven't done a ton of riding, but at least I've been getting out and slowly finding the legs again. Mad props to my awesome team, uBRDO Team Project. Scotty and James gave my bike a quick once-over right before the race and quickly found and fixed some issues. Probably the reason I haven't been climbing well is because my rear shock was completely out of air. Duh. They pumped it up and readjusted my tire pressure so I was all set for the mud. Talk about awesome support!
Once I got home I had to spend the next hour or two running everything through the wash: bike, car, clothes, me, and the dog. And as you can see from the pictures, white isn't the best choice for mountain bike shorts.
The course was the same as last month's race but conditions made it completely different. I lined up for the 11am women's sport division with my teammate Leigh and about 10 other gals. We spent the next hour slogging through mud at a high rate of speed: 6mph. I know a few people weren't so thrilled with the conditions, but for me, mud is the funnest! As is usually the case, I had a much stronger second lap than first and was pretty stoked to ride up all the hills after stumbling on them the first time around.
I didn't finish fantastically but I had a much better race than I did in early March. I haven't done a ton of riding, but at least I've been getting out and slowly finding the legs again. Mad props to my awesome team, uBRDO Team Project. Scotty and James gave my bike a quick once-over right before the race and quickly found and fixed some issues. Probably the reason I haven't been climbing well is because my rear shock was completely out of air. Duh. They pumped it up and readjusted my tire pressure so I was all set for the mud. Talk about awesome support!Once I got home I had to spend the next hour or two running everything through the wash: bike, car, clothes, me, and the dog. And as you can see from the pictures, white isn't the best choice for mountain bike shorts.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
NiteRider Minewt Review
Tonight I hit the Wed night Thrilla ride with some racing acquaintances. The ride started without two of my friends who were stuck in traffic. Luckily for them I flatted a mere 3 miles into the ride. I decided to let everyone go on ahead and after some careful tire inspection finally found the culprit: a little piece of blackberry thorn. Yep, it drilled its way through my tire just enough to wreak havoc and likely caused last week's flat. My two friends caught up and off we went, only to be derailed by a broken chain halfway through the ride. Not me this time! Despite the mechanicals, we still logged 15 miles and over 1k of climbing. We had a great time and the Minewt turned out to be the highlight of the night. Cute eh?
The NiteRider Minewt USB Mini Pro Review....
I've had a CygoLite DualCross 200 headlight that I've happily road commuted with for quite some time, but decided that for night time trail riding I should get a helmet light to complement. I went light shopping at Gregg's today and chose the Minewt USB Pro for a few reasons. Compared to other lights at a comparable $100 price range, this one is USB-chargeable, has a longer run time (3 hrs), lighter battery, and faster charge time (3-4 hrs). The Pro version comes with a helmet mount that costs about $30 extra. It's well worth it though once you figure out how to install it.
I assumed the light would come with some directions, but no, nothing. Ok, installing the mount should be pretty easy. Well, it took some time for sure and it wasn't quite as straight-forward as I would have hoped. After about 30 minutes of fiddling and looking at a few images on Google I got it. Once you get it, it makes sense and it's a surprisingly stable little mount.
I've never ridden with a helmet light and expected to notice extra weight, which I did at first, but after a few minutes I forgot about it. The whole system is amazingly light weight. The mount doesn't rattle or move around and stays very stable so I never noticed I was wearing it.
When it finally got dark enough to use the light I was pretty damn surprised when I switched it on. Wow it's bright! A few minutes later I turned on my CygoLite and started checking the cables because it wasn't coming on. I pulled off the trail to double-check. No wait, it IS on, it's just being grossly out-shined by the Minewt. The CygoLite didn't even become useful until it was completely pitch black, and even then it just offered a wide angle ambience compared to the Minewt, which was much more directed.
The big bonus of a helmet light in general is that you can point your head at exactly what you want to light up. Duh, right? Well, you don't notice how useful this is until you switch it off and take corners with just a handlebar-mounted light. That lasted about 5 seconds before I almost ended up in the blackberries.
Overall, this little light is quite the bang for the buck. It's got a bright, highly directed beam of light. The sturdy helmet mount and light weight battery pack make it completely stealth. The on/off button on the battery pack is easy to find and use while using thick mountain bike gloves. USB chargeable rocks.
I could really only find two slight cons, and even at that they're not a big deal for me. Lack of directions for installing the helmet mount was a bit frustrating. Some type of illustration or directions would be nice. The light also doesn't have any multimodes (high-beam, low-beam, flash) but I don't personally need that on the trail so it's not an issue for me.
You could probably use the Minewt as a solo light source but I think it's best used as a helmet light paired with another lighting system. The Minewt definitely outshined my CygoLite in intensity, but the CygoLite offers a broader range of light and a very long 4-9 hour run time depending on the mode. These two in tandem worked really well. The darker picture at left is illuminated with just my CygoLite. The picture at right is the Minewt.
I ran the Minewt for about an hour tonight and would like to test it to the 3-hr run time at some point. I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities, especially if I do Spokane or Moab.
The NiteRider Minewt USB Mini Pro Review....
I've had a CygoLite DualCross 200 headlight that I've happily road commuted with for quite some time, but decided that for night time trail riding I should get a helmet light to complement. I went light shopping at Gregg's today and chose the Minewt USB Pro for a few reasons. Compared to other lights at a comparable $100 price range, this one is USB-chargeable, has a longer run time (3 hrs), lighter battery, and faster charge time (3-4 hrs). The Pro version comes with a helmet mount that costs about $30 extra. It's well worth it though once you figure out how to install it.I assumed the light would come with some directions, but no, nothing. Ok, installing the mount should be pretty easy. Well, it took some time for sure and it wasn't quite as straight-forward as I would have hoped. After about 30 minutes of fiddling and looking at a few images on Google I got it. Once you get it, it makes sense and it's a surprisingly stable little mount.
I've never ridden with a helmet light and expected to notice extra weight, which I did at first, but after a few minutes I forgot about it. The whole system is amazingly light weight. The mount doesn't rattle or move around and stays very stable so I never noticed I was wearing it.
When it finally got dark enough to use the light I was pretty damn surprised when I switched it on. Wow it's bright! A few minutes later I turned on my CygoLite and started checking the cables because it wasn't coming on. I pulled off the trail to double-check. No wait, it IS on, it's just being grossly out-shined by the Minewt. The CygoLite didn't even become useful until it was completely pitch black, and even then it just offered a wide angle ambience compared to the Minewt, which was much more directed.The big bonus of a helmet light in general is that you can point your head at exactly what you want to light up. Duh, right? Well, you don't notice how useful this is until you switch it off and take corners with just a handlebar-mounted light. That lasted about 5 seconds before I almost ended up in the blackberries.
Overall, this little light is quite the bang for the buck. It's got a bright, highly directed beam of light. The sturdy helmet mount and light weight battery pack make it completely stealth. The on/off button on the battery pack is easy to find and use while using thick mountain bike gloves. USB chargeable rocks.
I could really only find two slight cons, and even at that they're not a big deal for me. Lack of directions for installing the helmet mount was a bit frustrating. Some type of illustration or directions would be nice. The light also doesn't have any multimodes (high-beam, low-beam, flash) but I don't personally need that on the trail so it's not an issue for me.
You could probably use the Minewt as a solo light source but I think it's best used as a helmet light paired with another lighting system. The Minewt definitely outshined my CygoLite in intensity, but the CygoLite offers a broader range of light and a very long 4-9 hour run time depending on the mode. These two in tandem worked really well. The darker picture at left is illuminated with just my CygoLite. The picture at right is the Minewt.I ran the Minewt for about an hour tonight and would like to test it to the 3-hr run time at some point. I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities, especially if I do Spokane or Moab.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The weekend rally
I said I needed to kick my butt into shape so away I kicked. Saturday I packed up the mountain bike and hit Tokul with a fun group from uBRDO. We spent the day climbing fire roads and winding through single track on our way to logging 25 miles. My Garmin shows over 5000 ft of climbing. Can that be right?It was a pretty ambitious undertaking for me considering it was my second mountain bike ride of the year. Turns out it's the furthest ride I've ever done. The epic ride over 4th of July weekend last year at White River is the closest I've come to that many mountain bike miles: 19.
The trails at Tokul were a fun mix of fast singletrack, steep descents, overgrown vegetation (is that really fun?), and some fire road climbs. One thing is for sure: I've lost my climbing legs. I need to find them fast because dragging bricks uphill is just not fun. Saturday's ride put the Cream Puff into perspective. Hmm, I need to be able to ride 4x that distance by July with about a quarter of the lactic acid legs. Lots more 25+ mile rides in my future.
I woke up this morning surprisingly not too sore, so I set out for the Arboretum and shocked myself by running just shy of 5 miles. I haven't run over 4.5 since my injury three years ago. Maybe I should kill myself on the mountain bike more often! Sure, that first mile sucked and the legs were screaming, but once they loosened up I got into a nice rhythm. Maybe I can finally start dialing up the mileage and getting myself back on the Boston train.
After the run I hit the Ashram for a power yoga session, then managed to eek out just enough energy for a climbing gym outing. Thursday I flailed horribly after not having climbed for a few weeks so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Today felt great and I climbed better than I have in a long time. I even managed to flash two new routes. I think I was too tired to try anything clever so I just went with it. Good strategy.Even Jake got in on the weekend rally. He always runs with me but got an extra special solid hour at the Marymoor dog park after climbing. I swear I have yet to find another dog that can outrun him when he's got a tennis ball in sight. Jake cracks me up. Just like mom, he's all out 100% of the time :) Both of us are happily exercised and tuckered out, so it'll be a quiet night for sure!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Time for a season change.
Hard to believe it's already March and soon to be April, wow. 2009 is just ticking on by! It's certainly past time for me to get my butt into shape for the busy upcoming summer. The past few months I've turned into a complete snowholic and have been practically living on the slopes. I love it!
Honestly, I don't know how I survived Seattle winters before snowboarding. It makes the winter pass so much faster and every time I hit the slopes I feel like a kid about to burst with happiness. SAD? What's that? All the night trips to Snoqualmie this year certainly paid off because my snowboarding skills have come a long way since my first venture up before XMas. I think I crashed at least 50 times that night and couldn't turn or carve to save my soul. Now I can truck through waist-deep powder, survive most black diamond runs, and even carve some trenches. Woo!
I spent Tuesday at Baker enjoying what may have been the last big powder day of the season. I guess we'll see how the weather cooperates. There's just nothing quite like the feeling of floating over tons of untracked pow, so at least if the season is over, I ended it with a bang.
Now I need to shift gears and get back on the bike. This year I'll be racing for the uBRDO Team Project and I'm excited about the team and the races we'll be doing. I did an early-season BuDu race a few weekends ago at Soaring Eagle and quickly found out just how out of shape I am. Time to get that turned around.
I'll probably start hitting Pacific Raceways next week for some mid-week intensity. That'll get my butt turned around pretty quick. The Indie Series kicks off in April and then in June I head to Fernie for an 8-day mountain bike camp vacation through Sacred Rides. I'm stoked about that one!
Probably the biggest event of the summer for me will be the Cascade Cream Puff, a 100-mile mountain bike race in Oregon in July. I wouldn't be true to form unless I got myself into something way over my head, right? I have a feeling July is going to come along way too fast...
Honestly, I don't know how I survived Seattle winters before snowboarding. It makes the winter pass so much faster and every time I hit the slopes I feel like a kid about to burst with happiness. SAD? What's that? All the night trips to Snoqualmie this year certainly paid off because my snowboarding skills have come a long way since my first venture up before XMas. I think I crashed at least 50 times that night and couldn't turn or carve to save my soul. Now I can truck through waist-deep powder, survive most black diamond runs, and even carve some trenches. Woo!
I spent Tuesday at Baker enjoying what may have been the last big powder day of the season. I guess we'll see how the weather cooperates. There's just nothing quite like the feeling of floating over tons of untracked pow, so at least if the season is over, I ended it with a bang.Now I need to shift gears and get back on the bike. This year I'll be racing for the uBRDO Team Project and I'm excited about the team and the races we'll be doing. I did an early-season BuDu race a few weekends ago at Soaring Eagle and quickly found out just how out of shape I am. Time to get that turned around.
I'll probably start hitting Pacific Raceways next week for some mid-week intensity. That'll get my butt turned around pretty quick. The Indie Series kicks off in April and then in June I head to Fernie for an 8-day mountain bike camp vacation through Sacred Rides. I'm stoked about that one!
Probably the biggest event of the summer for me will be the Cascade Cream Puff, a 100-mile mountain bike race in Oregon in July. I wouldn't be true to form unless I got myself into something way over my head, right? I have a feeling July is going to come along way too fast...
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