Off Season??

It's the off season...

whatever that means in cycling, right? I'm sure those of us that have been racing the extended cross season feel like the gap has been shortened a bit and the off season seems a little less this year. For me, I think this gap seems a little shorter personally since it's the first winter in 6 years that I haven't had some sort of surgery (everyone knock on wood now!) I'm super excited and feeling very blessed and thankful to say my health is doing well these days and that I'm am very much looking forward to seeing what my body and fitness can do while training without an illness or major setback every few months or so. I can honestly say I don't really know what it's like to not have any major setbacks, so the hope of the new year has got me ready to rock!

(Enjoying some off-season/base training/ coffee shop rides. Aaron's Kermit and my Dirty Harry taking a break while we enjoy some great coffee in the Louisville area)

I had a fabulous time the last several months representing Bob's Red Mill during the cyclocross season, but now it's onto the road and mountain bike season and I will be back riding with my team, Men of Steel, again this year. I've only really been back on the bike training again for the last 3 weeks after needing some time to recover from my arm injury at CX World's and to finally get 100% from the flu that has been going around and has been lingering with me since cyclocross nationals.

I have high hopes for a good showing at Barry Roubaix (BR) in Michigan in a few weeks, so Coach Mark Faz and I have put the training routine in high gear to get me back up to speed from the time I had off the bike. I had done BR a couple years back and can honestly say it was one of the hardest races I had ever done- so I'm clearly nuts since I have signed up again. The race has grown in popularity and seems a lot more quality women have signed up so that's great! I'm taking my experiences from the previous year and my set-up from my Gravel Grovel success to hope for a higher placing than 4th from the last time I did it.

Of course, the ultimate prep for BR this year will be taking part in Sub 9 productions Death March on 3/10. My sherpa Aaron and I will team up and have a fun day in the hills of southern Indiana. The idea of me taking part in a race call a "death march" seems a bit odd since I was on my own personal death march not so long ago... but this time I won't be trying to avoid the grave, we will actually be seeking them out... but only to visit!

(Bring on the Perk! Thankfully too... saved me from a bonk!)

Aside from that, I have been enjoying some relaxing days at home with some good books (The Hunger Games trilogy) sprinkled with an occasional road training trip here and there before the travel and days away from home become more and more as the summer approaches. Aside from BR, I haven't really set my sights on many major goals for the year aside from the cross season, but I'm sure I'll come up with a few before cross is here. I do plan on a full summer of mtb races and an occasional road race or crit, but at this point I'm just being thankful for the healthy time I am having on the bike at the moment!

I know racing is just around the corner and everyone is itching to showcase the fitness they have gained after a mild winter we have all had. This should make for some swift racing right from the get go...

just don't forget to save some legs and heart for cross!

Surprise, surprise! Master's Nats.

There I was.

About 2 minutes into the Master's 35-39 national championship race about to head up the first hill. I was taken back by the moment emotionally for the first time ever in a race.

Normally, I'm rock solid during a race, focused, and I think a tornado could pass by me and I wouldn't flinch at all. But as I headed up the muddy straight to the hill I had an open path ahead of me... I was in the lead. For a fleeting moment I was struck by the realization of something I didn't expect: I could win the race. After all, I wasn't suppose to be here. Not Madison exactly, but here. On earth. I can tell the story about how bad I was, but only I know how bad I felt personally and how this huge void of other riders in front of me was something I didn't expect. The hope of it gave me a ton of joy. After all, my goal for the day after my single speed race was to finish in the top 5. I smiled to myself for a moment and knew I had already won for myself. There isn't anything quite like the feeling of real hope. Just like when I was sick and had no doubt I wasn't going to make it, the moment I felt hope of living was a thought I will never forget... just like this moment. I exceeded every expectation of myself right then and there. It was a pleasant surprise.

Time to snap out of it though. On to the remainder of the race. I knew I had my work cut out for me on top of all that already happened during the season. I had been feeling sick since the SS race and I didn't know how it would effect me. The other work would be the heavy favorite who had won the uci elite women's race in Chicago the previous weekend. I'll say it once to get it out of my system: why anyone who WINS a well staked UCI elite race turns around and races a master's national champ race is beyond me. Personally, I think it's bad form. Just sayin. There.

As to no surprise, I quickly lost the lead on the hill. It was sloppy enough that everyone dismounted to run it. By this point it was a clear group of 4 of us that had already gained a fair gap on the main field. This would be the race for stars and bars here. Being that I had not raced national level races all year, I took a look around to assess who I was racing here. I knew the pro Sally would do her thing. I recognized a CO sponsor on one of the gals kits (perhaps some good mtb skills?) and knew Corey C from previous years. But how would everyone hold up? I had no idea.

As the first lap played out I just focused on me. The other 3 gals gained a slight amount of time on me and I was in 4th for quite some time. I had made a few minor errors the first lap and needed to adjust some lines for the next time around. It was also clear that a clean bike would be needed from the Bob's Red Mill mechanics (Dave and Ray) in the busy pits every lap if not more. The course was tons of fun, but it required patience as the corners were so slick that standing up out of the corners wouldn't be possible. I had power, I just had to pick the best spots to redirect it. So I did. Near the end of the 2nd lap I regained the 2nd and 3rd place group. and held steady with them. It was clear to me that Corey was getting a bit tired but Kristal from CO was strong in the technical sections and could ride the climbs better then myself. We dropped Corey near the end of the 2nd lap. And there it was again: hope. Would I finally break that 4th place spot at nats? I knew 1st place was way off the front, but it was a real chance I

could get 2nd. Surprise!

The 3rd lap we held the group going back and forth. I knew where I was stronger and weaker. Coming through the start/ finish on the final lap I decided to try and gain some time in the power requiring muddy straights and I held 2nd place for a while. It was really cool to have so many people cheering for me personally out there! I was so excited and thrilled to be in that position and this just put icing on the cake! Thanks to all of you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7qS2meiNCY

(Nice little video of last lap battle by Marion U's Dean Peterson. Thanks Dean!)

Kristal slowly gained some more time back up to me and we were in a straight up mano e mano battle for 2nd. I knew she would get me on the last hill so I knew I had to take a chance and try to gain time by riding the sketchy sand pit before that. I dove into it. Rode it. Until I bobbled. Darn. She instantly gained 5 seconds on me. I got it back together and put my head down and tried my best to get back to her. You never know right? Anything can happen in cross. Turns out though, it didn't. We held that placing to the end. I came across in 3rd place and was completely happy with the way I raced. I had a blast. To me, that's what racing should be. Bar to bar, a nail bitter to the end that requires risks to be taken. I just happened to bobble, but that's okay. If given the chance again... would I take the safe route? Who knows? Knowing me, probably not. No sense in playing it back now. Life is shaped by the risks, chances, failures, and heartbreaks we experience. There are no "do overs."

I can't say enough how proud I was to have gotten 3rd. I can't say how proud I was really to even just be racing. It was a personal struggle that so many have helped me overcome. Months ago when I was unsure of how my health would handle the recovery, handle functioning with 1 and a half lungs, handle dealing with a chronic illness of myesthenia gravis; I told my closest friend, my Mom, that I would accept never being able to ride seriously again. It was a heartbreaking acceptance knowing what I love so much was not going to be possible anymore. But it might be my fate, and I had to move on and accept it.

How would you get along if you could no longer do what you love the most?

I accepted whatever God had planned for me, but I wanted to see how it would go. Which was it: yes or no?

At the end of the day a writer from Cyclocross magazine, Ted Burns, (http://www.cxmagazine.com/cyclocross-national-championships-2012-masters-women-35-39-madison ) interviewed me on the race. In his report later he said my story was worthy of a true Hoosier comeback story. That's what he told me at the end of the interview too. Of course, I love that movie. I grew up with a basketball in my hands, lived and breathed basketball. I still get excited during the final game of the movie. Everything about my basketball life parallelled the plot of Hoosiers it seemed. I grew up in a town of 140 people in Indiana, no one thought we could ever be at the top. The team in Hoosier's didn't belong in a state final. But they did and it was a wonderful story in the end. A real tear jerker.

When I got back to my truck to change before the podium presentation I glanced at my phone. So many messages from loved ones, friends, and family. Everyone was so happy for me and had a blast following the race online. It was a cool moment to read though all the messages. They were happy for me, but even if no one would have been... I was happy for my own personal reasons.

This was the end to my story for the season... I reflected on the last half year quietly to myself. It was a good story. But for me, it wasn't just a tear jerker.

I let the entire flood gates open!

USA Nats Championships Take 1: SingleSpeed

("Locked and loaded" as they say! Waiting for the gun to go off at USA Cycling National SingleSpeed Women's Championships!)

Moving on and back in time to a happier place... time to do a blog update on USAC Cyclocross Nationals from earlier in the month that is. This seems like so long ago, but I still have the good vibes and a couple sweet medals from both races I did up in Madison, WI so I should be able to put something together.

I headed up early in the week on Tuesday to check out the course since I had decided to have a little go at the single speed race later on Wed afternoon. It was a bit of a last minute decision to go ahead with this race, but since I didn't feel up to getting bunched in with a very large group in the elite field on Sunday in which I knew wasn't my focus this year, I wanted to make the trip up north worth my while and get a couple races in while there. Plus, having the SS event be a national champ race was a little extra motivation too.

That being said. As soon as Aaron and I arrived back from Chicago, we had a rush to get things turned around for Nats. Aaron was a huge help in getting the bikes ready so I could get everything else around, he built up my spare winter training/ loaner bike to a single and I was excited to give it a try. Of course I had never raced an SS cx bike before, I had no idea what sort of gear ratio to plan on and since the course preview was "flat" I took few gear options if needed. That being said, I'm actually no stranger to the SS world as some don't remember, about 4 years ago or so, my only mtb was a Indy Fab SS Deluxe and I was a hardcore SS chick... so this wasn't too far off my roots, but I wasn't sure at all how I would do.

So on arrival to the venue, there were 3 things to note, 2 of which I didn't expect. It was hilly, there were sheets of ice, and it was very cold. I only expected the last point. It was not at all like the rumors had stated. It had a very large hill as the main feature that would be traversed a few times each lap. Not being too fond of elevation... this strangely didn't bother me. I was ready. The ice- maybe I expected some ice... this was a sheet. Quite frankly I expected tons of snow. Anyway, the promoter did a great job of working this out and making it safe by race time. And the cold was all of which I had planned for an entire year. I didn't train out in subfreezing temps the last month for nothing. No big thing to me. Bring it on. I did however, skip the preride because of the ice, which would later be a costly mistake. I headed to my hotel and counted down till race time.

Race day! I felt good. The cold lifted and I was excited to line up with a impressive bunch of SS ladies. I went through my warm-up routine as always and felt pretty good about my legs and had a shadow of confidence that I could actually maybe get top 6. I was finally able to get the bike out on course for a muddy pre-ride and I was stoked that it was conditions I thrive in. Mud!

But on my first ride for this bike in the real world (as I skipped a pre-ride) I discovered I had a BIG problem. My chain was skipping every other link. I had 5 minutes to staging and since Aaron wasn't able to make the trip with me... I rushed over to the Shimano neutral support to have them take a look. With such short time, despite their best efforts, the problem remained unsolved (and unfixed) and I was left to line up with a worried feeling of a nonworking bike.Oh no!

As the gun when off I knew I would have to manage the best I could. The start at Madison had a very long pavement section and I knew whoever would be to the grass first would have to be able to spin the gears out at the highest rpms for the longest. My legs were spinning faster then a gerbil on a wheel! It was apparent from the start when I stood that my gear issue was worse when I stood and applied tension to the chain... I would need to sit most of this race. Not a good thing on a ss with a hill. Standing and grinding it out on a ss is pretty much essential. Regardless, I had to focus on time to make up when I could. Stay smooth in the mud. Keep my head straight.

(Thanks to some pics from competitor Julie Sroka (on the right), here's a pic showing one of the last times I applied much tension to my chain... right after the gun went off!)

I hit the grass in the top 5, after a couple turns, up to the top 3, and a little past that up to 2nd. And then we hit the hill. I stood out of instinct. Mistake! I was sure I snapped the weary chain with the tension. It didn't sound good. I had no pit bike. Oh no!

I got off, shouldered the bike and ran the hill as one place passed me. My Bob's Red Mill teammate, Meghan K, power through and I was at least happy it was her. I didn't break the chain, but I knew I would have to run every hill from there on out. Something was majorly wrong and as the mud collected on the drive train it only got worse. I just had to make the best of it. It was so frustrating!!!! My legs and 1.5 lungs felt amazing. Coach Mark had me right where I needed to be in such a short time to train!

(Heading into the barriers after a great, fun, slippery downhill corner. I LOVE a high speed barrier... but this was fun too.)

I held on to third place for a long time until finally my chain was slipping so bad I felt like I maybe connected power to wheel every 3-4 pedal strokes. I was passed again and faded to 4th as my competitors and spectators said "that doesn't sound good." We had a big gap on the rest of the field and I just prayed I would finish the last lap without a broken chain and hold on to 4th. Way better than I expected and a huge surprise to make the podium at Nationals! I babied it along trying so hard to not apply the power my legs had in them to get back up to 3rd again... I knew doing that would risk me falling off the podium completely and even worse than that- a DNF. I held out and the bike made it across the finish line for a solo 4th!

Podium!!!!

(A bit blurry... but a snap shot of the podium! Bob's Red Mill had a nice presence for sure with 2nd and 4th! Congrats to all the "podium" girls!)

I knew I had so much more, and I dare say I have no doubt I could have battled for the win that day... but no place for what ifs. It is what it is. Some days the body fails, some days the bike does. That's racing as they say, it's the whole package and I should have made sure my equipment worked a bit more in advance. I was honestly still very shocked and honored, not to mention blessed to be on the podium at our National event after everything that has happened last year. How could I complain? I wasn't even to be alive.

So I didn't complain. Just smiled from ear to ear.

Take 1 in Madison made me get the taste of the podium again. I would have never expected it, but now I had to look to Friday and my Master's Championship event. In all the USAC National Championship events I've done I've never placed higher then 4th. Was it time to best that? The same season after nearly dying?

I now I knew I was ready for it!

What would Take 2 bring?

I couldn't wait to find out. Now I had 48 hrs for my mind to digest it all and amp up for things to come!

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(Great shot from one of the best photogs ever! www.podiuminsight.com. Verona provided a great backdrop for racing!)

Saved the Worst for Last. Worlds.

(Can't get any better backdrop than this! L'ville in the distance and a UCI World Champ banner above you!)

Well, the season is officially a "wrap" with this weekends passing of the 2012 Master's World Championships event in L'ville. I've been on the road, sick (more on that later), and busy playing bike racer for the last few weeks so I have a little updating to do to the blog here as a result. I guess logically most people would think I should start with my reports on where I last left off... which would mean I would get to my USAC National Championship event in Madison, WI, but I've decided to do otherwise and start with this last race first.

Reason being? Well, it was my worse "race" I have ever done in my career and once I write this blog, I really just want to put it behind me and focus on all the other positive things that came out of the season. Not that my trip down didn't have good things, or that I didn't have some fun; but my race was something that wasn't one of them.

(I think the look on my face says it all... post body slam and just trying to hold on till the end!)

Backing up to the week before heading to Worlds: Most of you know I was struggling with bronchitis/ sinusitis/ pharyngitis that got going the day before my Master's race in WI. It blew up once I got home and I was forced to lay in bed for 5 days praying it would pass for my trip down to World's in time. I was taking so many herbs, antibiotics, and anything else (humidifier) I could do to move it along. But when your sick, your sick and things like that just have to run their course. I rallied enough Friday before my race to make it to pre-ride the venue. I was pretty tired after the short ride but after seeing what we were faced with, fitness really wasn't what determine the winner.

(Frozen deep ruts, everywhere, Oh MY!)

After a rainy, muddy race the day previous, and sub freezing temps the next day, almost every inch of the course was filled with frozen, unmovable ruts with areas of ice in between. I was devastated to be honest. I've never rode anything like that (not that many people in their right minds have) and after a lap around, I realized I was very terrified of these conditions. Okay. So now what? I tried to collect my thoughts and reasoned that the staff would have taken note that many, many people were crashing (badly) and switch over the tape a bit to make this a true test of cyclocross. After all, us old people don't bounce off the ground as well as non-master's! Surely that would happen. I can't believe how many times I heard racers saying "all they have to do is shift the tape over," or "I came all this way to ride my bike."

I went to bed that night not being anxious about how my fitness prep had been, but a nervous wreck about how I would be able to go to work on Monday from wrecking... how much was this going to be worth to me?

As race day arrived the course remained the same. I pre-rode with a different tire selection and felt a little better about my race. I knew I had the chops and the fitness. I had all the belief that I could live up to the race predictions from the media that I was a favored top 3. But-

Turns out I'm not the best frozen rut racer in the world.

I started off strong on the pavement. My legs felt so great as I kept right there easily with L. Bassette, the heavy favorite, but as soon as we hit the ruts, I started moving backward in the pack. I got behind a crash in the frozen sand and was instantly in the back of the pack. I started back up and was slowly picking my way back up to about 10th and then it was all over. I hit a cross rut that was filled with ice, slammed to the ground, and had to think twice about getting back up. Yet I did. I had badly hit my right elbow, couldn't feel my hand, and as I got back on my bike I realized I dropped my chain. Being that I couldn't feel my hand and was in a lot of pain, it took a very long time to get it back going again. DFL.

(Ready to look on to the next adventure: Master's World's 2012 and the season came to a end after 1 lap of racing. Photo: Chris Jones)

(Things started out pretty cool with a #3 call-up, but went down hill from there.)

After that, I worked back up a few places. I made the decision that doing more damage wasn't worth the risks for me and I pretty much shut it down and crawled around until I got the red light to finish. I might as well walked the course except with a unstable ankle that has had 5 operations, I didn't think that would be a safe option either. I finished 15th. So I'm considered 15th in the World (or master's usa version 2.0 with a couple Canadian mixed in). I finished the race and I kept the faith. Meaning I did all I could to represent myself in a Christan manner. I smiled. Made the best of it. It's a bike race.

I had came to win, but it wasn't meant to be.

(One of the frozen technical descents that had it's share of victims.)

I had told myself months ago that my goal was to just be able to line up at Worlds. I never imagined I would have thought I could win it. Back then I told myself I would be a winner for just lining up, so in that regard and given everything that I've went through this year: I'm a winner in my mind. That's what is important at the end of the day. I finished even though I was in a great deal of pain with my elbow (which is now all bundled up in a sling). In a course that was full of constant bumps, having a elbow the size of a softball didn't feel to smurfy.

(Those World numbers look pretty rad on the Panache/ Bob's Red Mill Kit!

http://www.panachecyclewear.com/)

I won't lie and say I'm not bummed out about it. I was very disappointed the course really only showed who was willing to take risks and maybe not set up cx racing for the all around picture of fitness and skill. That's just my opinion (and several other I spoke to) though.

Major kudos to those who won and placed highly. They are true world champions who risked it all to be on the top steps. I just wasn't willing to do that. It was my worse race ever, but worse things have happened to me. Things that are still very fresh in my mind and I'm women enough to say I didn't want to do anything that would bring me close to nearly dying again, plus I just couldn't bear to have a major injury again to make my family and loved ones worry about. I can suffer, but it tears me up to think about having them have to go through anything else so soon again. That's just being honest and that's okay in my book.

I lined up.

I fought my own personal fight.

I kept the faith and

I finished the race.

Big thanks to all who cheered and helped me out there this weekend! It was very cool of you all. I look forward to next year to give it a better go... as long as there are no frozen ruts!

I Won A Series!

This past weekend was filled with travel and racing for me, just as the next couple weeks will be too. I'm currently hanging out in Madison, WI with my feet up awaiting my first CX Nationals race of the week tomorrow, so what better time to write a blog before the week turns into full gear race mode. I've been lucky enough to take some vacation away from work to play bike racer a bit, so I'm enjoying my "other" life here for a while and it's nice to be able to focus on what I need to do to race for a couple big events you may all of heard of: USAC National Cyclocross Championships and UCI Master's World Championships.

Saturday was the final ICX series race of the year in Zionsville near Indy. I knew going into the race that I had to finish pretty high on the steps to take the series title and I knew exactly who I had to beat to do it. My goal for the race was to do this, to take the series overall. I would have never imagined being in contention to win a series title a few short months ago, but I put in just enough ICX races to qualify and I was pretty happy to be able to have a chance to win! Sure, I wanted to be able to have a shot at the higher profile OVCX series title... but life just didn't work out that way this year and I was actually honored to take one of the first elite series titles in a series that is in it's beginnings. At the rate it is going and the success of how well it has been run by Planet Adventure, it will only get bigger!

So race day was looking pretty sloppy with power sucking mud and a bit of a killer run-up mixed in there. The course had a lot of elevation changes and it was pretty tough for me. I started fair enough, felt pretty decent, but Gerry Schulze obviously felt better. Way better. I knew I was in trouble as she grinded her way up a steep incline I had to run up. Kudos to her as she passed me and that was the last I saw of 1st place....

(Started off strong and stayed out front until the steep run-up. After that Gerry (Biowheels rider on right) pretty much killed everyone! Great job to her! All photos this posting courtesy of Planet Adventure http://www.indianacxcup.com/index.php.)

That was actually fine with me. I gave chase to her for a bit, but she was on fire and I knew I would have to put in a near throw-up effort to catch her. I quickly assessed my position to the other gals and got comfortable in 2nd place and knew I would take home the series the way things stood. I was lucky enough to have my buddy Aaron pitting of me and I took a clean bike every lap which is great practice and just makes life so much easier in those conditions!

(This was pretty much my problem: I should have put some spikes in my shoes for some traction. I was lucky to get up the hill as well as I did but I was sliding all over the place.)

After the race I was instantly frozen. It was quite the chilly day and I quickly changed and set up shop in front of a propane heater while we waited for the series awards to take place. It ended up taking some time (as is expected) which was all fine and normal, but knowing Aaron and I had a long night of driving to Chicago and bike cleaning didn't make the time go any faster. We finally hit the road, had dinner, and arrived in Chicago around 9pm or so. Tired! But it was the perfect way to bring in the New Year!

(Coming across the finish. I was feeling blessed to have taken the ICX Series Win!)

Ahh yes... so Chicago New Year's Resolution UCI Race. The city I learned how to do anesthesia, ride in the wind, and how to keep my shoulders broad! Turns out, 6 years after moving away from there, it didn't disappoint for a UCI cyclocross race either. Chicago is cut throat, you have to stand up and be tough or get torn apart, and that's pretty much how the cx race went. Except I think I made it out of my anesthesia training way better then I did the cx race.

With my last row start I pretty much wasn't looking to do great, and pretty much knew I was there to get in a good, hard effort with some full time pros before nats and worlds. I started good enough, kept up, and felt fine. That is until my bike didn't work anymore. It was the most horrible composition of mud I have ever encountered. Mix that with some sand trap gravel, 40+ mph freezing cold sideways wind, course tape in cassettes, and things just didn't go well from the get go. It made for a long race. I ended up pushing and running around with my bike more than I rode it. I def got running and shouldering practice in. I think I did a better job at finding the humor of the entire race than letting my poor standings get to me. I ended up a few spots off last, 16h, not too bad considering I really didn't bury myself to make a frozen up bike go when it didn't want to. Brutal. Just brutal.

After that we heading to home sweet home for a short bit. Aaron pretty much had to rebuild the bikes from the all the mud. Thank goodness he didn't need anything major that I didn't already have since I was only home about 24 hrs before making the trip up here.

It's been fun so far. Single speed race is tomorrow. Should be interesting. I've never rode a ss cx bike before, but I thought it would be fun to do to get a couple races out of the trip.

I did just take it for a spin in the hotel hallway though. I maneuvered the businessman obstacle pretty good. He had the "deer in the headlight" look and stated that he wasn't expecting to see a bike rider in the hallway...

Well Sir, get used to it,

Cyclocross Circus is coming to town!

Stella? Steelllaaa!

(Digging into the red zone at the IN State Championships race to try and hunt down 1st place... I came up short and finished 2nd on a really great muddy course)

II just think Stella may be getting her groove back! Slowly, but not as slow as I had expected really. I figured cross season would be lots of fun riding around in circles this year, but I didn't think I would stand a chance at any type of fitness to be honest.

But here I am!

Funny, how I went from that thought, to the thought of being upset for placing second instead of first. Amazing how the competitive juices get flowing once you get a taste of winning again. It's addictive!

So I may have mentioned it before here, but I'm a huge Seinfeld fan, and pretty much have wasted a small corner in my brain memorizing most of the episodes line for line. I'm sure this knowledge will help me someday... but for now I will just unleash one of my favorite lines from Elaine with the Stella comment. If you've seen the episode great, if not, you should go watch it. Every time I get a little out of whack or off balance I feel like my inner Stella has lost her groove. Stella is still missing a bit, but I'm definitely getting her back bit by bit!

I've pieced a lot of it back since June at break neck speed. However, I still found out that I lacked my starting hole shot groove that I once was so accustomed to. Last Sat I did my first double race weekend since the NDE. My coach and I were both curious how my body/ and myesthenia would handle this stress, so it was an important weekend for me. Saturday was the state championships in Bargersville. I was stoked to just be considering taking a win at this race. However, it was not to be. I had a terrible start and got caught behind some muddy traffic on the first lap. Not a good thing to do in muddy conditions. By the time I found a clear path, Sierra S. had laid down the law and was a good 40 seconds ahead of me. I fought my best to get back, buried myself really, got her lead down to about 6 seconds, until it was too late and I had to settle for a hard fought second place. Sierra rode a great, smart race and I was happy for her and she deserved to win.

(This would be how to NOT start a race. It even looks like I am somehow going backwards. All photos this post credit to

http://photos.planetadventurerace.com/)

I was bummed at myself for not putting it all together and making the mistake at the start, but that's how it goes sometimes. Sometimes you make mistakes that cost you and when your competitor doesn't, they deserve the win that day. Overall though, I was happy with the rest of my race and I was pretty happy at the effort I was able to put in to narrow the gap. I hadn't put my mindset back in the mode to make myself suffer that much for a long time, maybe because fighting for my life required a enormous amount of suffering that I hadn't made the decision to do it freely again, but I pushed my envelope during this race and I was happy with that.

The next day we headed to Lebanon near NW Indy. This was at a fairgrounds and at first preview of the course I was a bit bummed at the easy profile they had laid out compared to the previous day. However, after the sun came out and muddied it up a bit, I was pretty stoked on it. I think the promoters did a great job on the layout to give it a good feel for the nationals like course in Madison, WI in a couple weeks.

I was still mad at myself from my race the day before and I had all the determination to improve my start. I did just that and took the lead on the first turn and never looked back. I felt pretty junky on the first lap, but after that I kept focusing on the master's men ahead of me and started picking those guys off one by one. The legs loosened up and I felt good after that. I got a little settle-in midway and kudos for Gerry S. and Liz C. for making me get back out of the saddle again since they fought hard to not hand me a free ride.

(Hole shot.... much better!)

I got back on the gas and savored the win on the last lap. It felt so good to take this win against some ladies I really respect. Plus, I was a bit giddy at doing so well in a race after such a power draining day previous. I didn't know what to expect with the 2 back to back races, but looks like Stella got this part of the groove back too!

It was a nice weekend of racing and it was good to be back on the road again doing the "race thing." I have to give another major thanks to Aaron Hawkins for helping me get to the races, pitting for me, and taking care of the bikes! I can't wait until the next race weekend rolls around.

Also check out the great freelance articles by Robert Annis on the weekend of racing:

http://www.cxmagazine.com/2011-indiana-state-championships-siebenlist-anderson-take-cyclocross-crowns

and

http://www.cxmagazine.com/2011-indiana-cup-series-cyclocross-borem-burke

(Pretty sure this is the raddest photo of me for the year so far. Barriers are my favorite single aspect of cx, so it's good to see my technique is spot on!)

(What cross race would be complete without a little heckling from Shamrock Cycles crew? Having a little chuckle to myself here. )

(AWWWW Yeahhhh!)

(Podium girls: Elizabeth Cobb, Me, and Gerry Schulze. Great job ladies!)

Thanks as always for reading everyone! It's been a wild year so far and the year will hold one more event until the calender turns to 2012. I can feel the chill in the air and the excitement growing in my heart for Cyclocross Nationals and Master's fracking World goodness Championships! Wow!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Enjoy your loved ones, all you have been blessed with, and the REAL meaning of Christmas.

Jesus Christ, out Saviour.

I certainly know I will!

Because it can can change in The Blink of an Eye!

Uncharted Ground

(Finally frozen ground with some mud snuck in!! I LOVE CX!

Sweet photos and angles by Chris Jones in this post: http://cycleexposure.com)

So it's now mid- December, and I'm racing bikes. Not only am I racing, I've got several races to go until having my short season come to a end in mid-January. This is a bit of uncharted ground for me... along with most of us cross racers. Now that the season has been extended (which I like btw) a month in length I am discovering new challenges to what that brings. Luckily for me, I have no lack of motivation or burnout since my season has been broken up by the NDE. However, I am finding that us Northerners may find ourselves in a interesting love hate relationship with having to train through the brutal weather of December in a quality way. I think my average real feel temps on my rides in the last 2 weeks have been about 25 degrees, and with a full work schedule... most of those come in the dark. Facing sub freezing temps and brutal wind conditions on daily training rides is the only motivation I find a bit challenging to overcome, and I am trying to trick my heart into thinking that will help my body be prepared for the frozen tundra in WI come nationals time in January. I guess we'll find out soon enough. I'm not complaining about it... just my observation.

(With temps in the teens, I'm not sure if I'm smiling or if my mouth is frozen that way)

So speaking of frozen tundra, I met up with it first hand last weekend. More on that later. The newly beefed up Indiana Cx Cup (http://www.indianacxcup.com/index.phpseries) continued in my neck of Indiana last weekend at none other than a venue that is my local practice course. The bike Depot is about 1 hr down the road for me and is actually a place I had some say in the original course design. Needless to say, I know the course pretty good. It turns out I knew it a little too good. In all fairness to everyone the route was changed on race day. I loved the layout and it was good fun... but my mind was still in autopilot of the original layout. I had been on-call in OB world the night before the race and I just so happened to be making future mom's to be nice and comfy all night long leaving me not so fresh minded on a few hrs of sleep come race time. That's where knowing the original course would have been a bonus for me... but shutting that memory off in my mind and switching on a new one didn't go over so well on such little sleep. I took off and within 200 yards I goofed the turn and found myself playing catch up to Kiersta Tucker. Kiersta gets baller points for being the only brave elite wmone's sole to make the trip up north to race when I usually spend the entire season making 4+ hour drives to race other gals. So big thanks to having her come and keep me on top of my pedals all day.

Anyway, we went back and forth through the race and after she tested out the muddy corner on the ground, I gained a little advantage over her until I decided to test out a section of frozen ground myself. Turns out, the frozen ground doesn't give AT ALL. I hit pretty hard, and what I thought at the time was me knocking the wind out of me, turned into me later discovering blood in my urine and having a bruised kidney. BAM! That's all behind me now and I don't feel I need to test out the ground that is that hard anytime again soon.

Anyway, after I ripped my fav Bob's Red Mill skin suite, I got back up and fought back to 1st place again. I ended up grabbing a hard fought win over KT. Making that my 5th cx type win of the year.

Sweetness!!!!

I hope that isn't the last time I charter that ground (or podium step) this year.

(Parting shot: post wrecked jersey, staring down the barriers at the Fort Wayne Outfitters)