Ceraland showed I still may have it!

This past weekend was pretty much my favorite road race of the year  in Columbus, IN. Since I do a minimal amount of road racing, I guess this isn't saying much,  but it really is a nice place to put on a race. Anne and I headed down late on Friday night to set up camp at their camp area very close to the coarse. We ended up finishing our camp at about 130 am and finally got to sleep at about 2 am. Not much time to get in a good nights rest for a wake up time of 7am to start the pre-race routine.                                                                                                                           

 We were super stoked about the weather forecast and were pleased to find perfect racing weather once race time lined up. This area is so pretty right now as you can see above from the flowering tree near the start/ finish line. I thought little red bike looked  pretty nice up against it. 

We had a fairly good showing with some strong riders in the pack. This would be a great gauge for me as my first race back from major leg surgery. I was a little taken off guard at the gun and the 3 Aldefer riders took off full on to make a early, early break. I finally realized what was happening and started a chase after them, but by then the gap was already to big to make a solo effort after a 3 women break. So after riding with another Nebo ridge rider for a couple laps I decided to make it a TT effort to see where my watts would be and wanted to see how my cardio would hold up over 60 minutes all out. Unfortunately, the nebo rider decided to join the Citizen pack and draft off of them for a few laps while I hung out in the wind away from the pack. We agreed before the race that we would not draft off the Citz, but I guess she thought a 4th place would be rewarding to her regardless of how unfairly she earned it. Not to complain, but there are rules, and we must follow them. When people don't, it kinda ruins the day for those who didn't cheat. I'm just saying...

So, after a 30 min solo effort the race leaders came back around and I stayed with their effort without any real problem as they tried to drop me several times. I was very pleased with my ease of this pace especially since these gals are way more experienced road riders and are cats up on my cat3. I came to the line with them in the end and passed one in the sprint finish. Not to shabby, and I truly feel that I could have stayed with them had I not got caught off guard early on.

I finished in fourth place (or 5th since the Nebo rider is dq'd by several opinions for illegal drafting). I was happy with this result considering my training hasn't really pushed me into the red zone yet. Anne ended 1 lap down in 5th to me and this was a great showing for her and she has really stepped it up this year. Great job Anne.

The rest of the day was spent watching the other races and spent lounging around the camper. We were super tired from the lack of sleep.  Nice to have a camper on-site to get vertical and rest.

Sunday had us getting up super early to get a few hours of riding in before we needed to head home. We spent the day riding in and out of rain showers, but the temps were in the 50's so it wasn't that bad. I was super pleased about the ride because I saw several birds on my "must see" list. We also finished with Horseman's camp loop. This killed me a couple weeks ago, and I rode it like a totally different person this time around. Doing this climb better and having a good showing in the race really helped boost my confidence that I am getting back to where I need to be! I will be staying around home for the next couple weekends and am thankful for that. I love the traveling, but things start to pile-up when I leave too much. This weekend we have our DRT time trial series kick off here in Winona. Don does a great job with running these events and look forward to getting my first mtb race effort done with. After that, its Fat and Skinny time. Looks like I will only be doing the mtb race this year and skipping on the added stress of the crit the next day.  This is Don's decision and I don't really question his plan too much for me on things like this, I think he has more than proved that his plan makes champions. 

Girls Gone Camping

My first camping trip is in the books.  As I stated in the last post,  I had my first trip to Brown County with the camper and pulled Anne along with me in the new experience. After 40 mph winds on the way down there, I was pretty stressed after the 4 hour drive getting there. That broke me into driving a house on wheels pretty quickly. Once we arrived at The Last Resort park in Nashville, I was totally stoked at my ability to back the camper into its spot. I had to nail it since it was a cliff drop off on the back side. Dropping a new camper off a cliff would not have been smooth. 

Once we settled we headed out on a ride in the afternoon. I am always amazed how much I love the area, even in the early spring when it is still a little dirty out. The ride was a little tough for me and I was thankful I played the girl card by bringing CiCi along with the easier gear ratios. The hills are a major work over for me right now and with such steep grades,  the new 53/39 may have had me push instead of pedal. It was super sweet to finish the ride and walk into the camper and have everything ready for us when we were done. 

Day 2 of riding, or as I say, day 2 of my reintroduction back to real training, was perfect! It was just warm enough and sunny enough to spotlight the red buds in bloom.  It was cool to have a lazy morning start around the camper before heading out. Anne made us a great cup of air pressed coffee, she got some bike work done (in above pic) and after a hot breakfast we headed out on about a 4.5 hour ride. I was amused the whole time how all three of our bikes above did not have matching wheel sets (seen in the pic above). I don't know why this seemed funny since I'm usually such a stickler to detailing a bike to a tee, but since the day was so nice I didn't even obsess over it.  The evening was spent refueling and hanging out around the campfire and was reminded of how much fun I had as a young girl when we camped every weekend. 

After a good nights rest, since I finally decided to turn the heat on, we woke up for our final day of camping and riding. We had a time line to work on so we had to get up and get going. Don, Anne, and I headed out on a 2.5 hour trek for one last view of the overflowing creek beds and hills.  I was super stiff in the morning, but I was happy to loosen up and pedal comfortably along after a short warm-up. I was surprised how good I felt after the previous days of riding and finished wishing we had more time to keep going. Don finished off the ride in Brown County State park by taking us up the famous Horseman's camp ride. It was my first time climbing this historic hill and it was super tough. For those who think we don't have hills in IN, come and ride this! It has a grade that compares to some of the climbs in the tour de france. I was doing okay until I realized there was drool hanging out my mouth because I couldn't expend the energy to wipe it off. How's that for girlie? I can't wait to do it again and improve my time on it.

That was it, we hitched up and headed home. This time in the pouring rain. More excellent practice. Anne returned to her family and me back to work. Hopefully the next trip will be just as great and a little less challenging for hauling. We will find out soon, we are heading to Columbus, IN this weekend for our first race of the year. 

Hung out to dry!

This spring weather we are having is cracking me up. At least it isn't cracking me. So I spend 20 minutes yesterday getting on the multiple layers to go ride in the massive wind only to have my whole bottom half drenched with rain in about 10 minutes. Then the rain stopped the very minute I was finished. Ha! If it hasn't been raining it has been 20-30 mph winds here and sometimes both together. I was wandering on my rainy ride yesterday if there was any benefit to my complexion by having rain slam into my face at 20 mph+. I really couldn't think of any. I spent a great deal of mental effort yesterday trying to figure out how riding in the rain was helpful to me. I finally just resolved myself to the fact that my competition was training someplace else that wasn't so challenging, therefor giving me a hand up in cyclocross at some point.

 Honestly though, I rather didn't mind the cold, windy, rainy ride. Maybe that's not right, but as I say, once a person resolves themselves to something it isn't that bad. That goes for pretty much anything in life. You take what your given,  and just go with it and make of it what you can. If you don't like it, you put the effort in to change it. 

So, everything I have is just about dried out for me to hide in the basement and ride the trainer today after work. I knew it was gonna be a trainer day when I looked out at the birds on the feeder and they were blown away by the wind. I have a short ride of 1 hour planned today and that works out okay on the trainer. It also gives me a good excuse to get in 2 episodes

 of Battle star Galactica watched. My sister will be happy since a trainer ride means less laundry. She does the laundry and house cleaning in exchange for a free place to live. She hates Spring/ Winter and Fall because bike layers are constant. She said the best part of my surgery was no bike clothes to wash and no bender to clean everyday from recovery smoothies. I'm glad I could help her out with that, but would rather not have had to had surgery. 

Otherwise, I'm off for a few days from work and down to Brown County!  I hope to meet up with a several friends for some great long rides. Maybe the hills will break the wind a little. I won't know what to do with no wind, I'll feel so fast.

Happy Camper here I come!

Being on the road racing almost every weekend last year had me realize a couple things (well, a lot of things, but I will only a mention a couple things now). First, I love the racing scene in general and I really enjoy the places that racing takes a person to. Second, I was always bummed that after the race was over, I had to leave and go hole up in a hotel room on a perfectly good summer day. So after many hours of decision making I have decided on purchasing a camper. I'm starting kinda small at 23 foot with fold down beds on both ends, and chose a pull behind in case I would ever need to speed off in the Pathfinder. I'm going small for a couple reasons. One was because I don't want to run people over with a huge rv behind me, and also because I don't want the cost of pulling a huge rv all over the East unless I'm sure I will use it as much as I think I will. Plus, these hybrid campers are really cool. They have a great space to weight ratio and they have most of the luxuries of a hotel. I'm totally excited. Looks like Anne and I will get to travel down to BCSP this coming weekend and see just how good of a decision I made. I camped long term pretty much my whole childhood with my family and friends, but now I'm taking the show on the road some years later.

I have been loving the new ride, and feeling a little stronger everyday little by little. I knew the comeback would take some time, but I'm a little surprised how some people don't realize what it takes to come back. At 7 weeks out of the cast I have had lots of people ask if I'm back racing yet. Racing? Are they kidding me? I had large drill bits drilled through my fibula people. I laid on the couch for 9 days straight and only got up to go to the restroom. Then I logged another 5 weeks of minimal daily activity. That's it. Not much to brag about training wise. I guess the only way to make my fitness any worse would have been to suck down a few sodas and munch on fast food. Anyway, this is gonna take some time. Not only to continue to heal and get back to 100%, but also to gain back my racing fitness. There is no easy button.  Thankfully,  I am not falling to the temptation of desire to race. I think that has a lot to do with trusting Coach Don's judgement and knowing that if I follow his plan, good results will happen (like winning National Championship races). If you want to win and do well you have to suffer through a few immediate wants that you can't have. What's really the goal? 

Back Home Again...

Well back in Indiana hasn't been all that bad. The weather has been okay, except for the storm I got caught in the other day and nearly got flushed into one of the many corn field lakes that we have with all the flooding. It has pretty much been knicker weather which is my favorite because we all know they look cool. Its because they remind us of cyclocross season. By the way, is that here yet?

I finally rolled out the new Specialized SL since it was just looking way to shiny and red. I am a very picky rider and almost insist on not riding a bike until Don G or David C. fits me on it, but I think I have it pretty okay until I have a chance to meet with one of them.  After a couple days on this bike I am really starting to dig it a lot. It has a great feel and is stiff and smooth in the same sentence.  It also is very fun to snap around tighter turns. I can't wait to actually get it up to higher speeds and feel it do its thing. 

I had a rare chance to ride with the Hammer Head Zimmer boys Thursday during their lunch ride. It is a great oppurtunity to hit a group that pretty much functions everyday of the week.  They had only 4 guys turn out, but that was way better than me fighting the wind by myself and they are great group riders so I felt nice and safe with them at this point in the recovery. It was a good, easy ride all and all and I am gonna try and make it a point to get out with them more often before I start dedicating more of my time to mtb later in the year. And they didn't even tell me to get to the back of the pack.

The ankle continues to improve. I had a great PT session Thursday and Tom tracked my progress at my 12 week mark. I had a lot of improvement in range of motion. Something like a 25-30 degree increase on flexion and extension. Still not normal, but getting there! He even started me doing side steps like I did in the old BBall days! That even felt like it did when I used to sprain the crap out of my ankle during basketball. Ouch! 

I'm looking forward to a good weekend and hope to ride with Anne Y. some if we can align the stars just right with our schedules.  I'm also going to go look into buying an RV or camper for the race season. I see the major benefit it can have by following Scott W. and The Don with theirs, so if I can work it all out and make some decisions in what I want I should be rolling with it. I just have to figure out how to back up! 

Short ride, long drive, short sleep.

Florida just had  to come to an end. I took a long look off the deck of the condo before heading out on my recovery ride early in the morning. My plan was to get in about a 45 minute spin to get the crap out of my legs before getting more in my legs from driving. I took off along the island road and actually the legs and ankle were feeling surprisingly great from my long rides the previous days. That was super encouraging to see I am recovering from the efforts.  I just rode along the local houses and picked me out a few I would move into in my little dream world... then the dreams ended when I flatted at about 37 minutes. So I decided to call it a trip instead of change the tire since I was right by the condo and a little short on time to check out. Regardless, it is always fun to cruise along on a recovery ride in a new place.

                                   Picture of the ride in front of our condo before I flatted.

After the ride we packed the Pathfinder up and hung out at the beach for a few and watched the real spring breakers roll in. As much as I hated to leave, I don't think I would ever make Florida my home because it lacks any great mountain biking from  what I was finding. Even though many my mock me about mtb in IN, we still do pretty good here and always have good riding in a few hours drive. Anyway, the wind starting picking up and spitted the gulf mist up at us, so we decided to hit the road before we were drenched. 

                       Dad, Mom and me by the dunes at condo before hitting the road.

So then it was a lot of driving, and more driving. I really do think I slept drove through most of Alabama. Either it was boring or I was very sleepy. We finally hit Knoxville and called it a night.  We were back at it early on the rode again hoping to get to view the great smokey's beauty, but it was not to be. We found out why they are the Smokey's because it was totally foggy for a long, long time and pretty much stared into the fog most of the drive. Well, at least Mom and I did, Dad slept in the back seat almost the entire way. Lucky dog. 

After picking up Grandma in KY we were on the home stretch and I was getting totally stiff from being in the car. By the time we hit home my ankle was so swollen it could hardly move. The toes were fat as could be and I didn't even recognize my own foot! It felt like my belly after Christmas diner. 

                                                          This is a very fat foot for me!

        It was a great trip and all of us had a great time. In the end I was happy that I decided to not go to team camp in NC. I wasn't ready for it, but it was great to find out that I have a good base and can still train. It will be a later start for me this year, but all set backs have hidden treasure, and I hope to have found a start to my treasures on the beaches of Fort Walton.  Like they say, "it is what you make it." 

Saved by tacos and Bayou grocery

Well, there has been so much going on here on my Team DRT Nicke solo training camp, but I will try and make it as short as possible.  Friday was more laying on the beach before heading off on a ride. I could have stayed there all day but I did come to ride. I headed down scenic route 30a along the Gulf the entire way. This route was straight up sweet! Gulf views the whole time while going in and out of fresh little coastal towns. As sweet as it was I was really not feeling the ride. My lack of recent saddle time had me hurting in many ways. Arms, shoulders, butt, and ankle were all screaming at me so I took several breaks and squeezed out around 56 miles. Not as much as I wanted, but still great time for me at the 10 week post-op point. The other problem was me starving the whole time. It didn't make it any better since every town had so many great looking eateries along the way. I wanted to stop at them all! I finally gave into the strong cyclist call for mexican and grabbed a seaside taco. I was ready to eat my Gu wrappers at that point, so the taco was like the best ever! It is unusual for me to eat that much on a ride, but I think I was a little under calorie from the day before.  I finished the day with my meal waiting for me from my take along chef (Mom) and then hit the hot tub under the stars by the seaside. 

Saturday:

Today was a planned group ride with a local bike shop. The plan was to ride an out and back with this group for their 30 miles then add about 60 more myself.  Let me just say that this was the strangest group ride I have ever been on. I started out with them about 5th wheel of the 30 some riders. I was told once by someone to peel off and fall back because the local riders all ride at the front. Okay, so I fell back a couple people. Then an older guy of about half my half of skill level told me to fall back again because I was riding in his place. I didn't know that a pace line had assigned spots??? So then the group leader pulled us all off the road and stopped to tell us that only local riders were allowed to ride at the front and guest at the rotten back. I don't think so (and you want to be my latex salesman). So I was pissed and followed their rules until the 15 mile mark and me and another "normal" cyclist took off for a great ride on our own. I guess I'm a bike snob, but they just didn't seem right to me. After my ride with Alabama fighter pilot minister man, I took off on my own for another 45 miles (of 90 total) and had a great time. Except where I about ran out of glycogen. I finally ran into Nick's Bayou cafe. It was a run down shack that smelled of oysters (but food none- the- less), and I was starving. I asked for a candy bar and the lady told me that they didn't have any, but if I bought one at the grocery 2 miles away I could bring it back and they could deep fry it for me. I don't think so. I headed to the Bayou grocery and ate a non-fried snickers and it saved my life. Now I'm toasted and a 1 hour easy spin in the morning will finish my great mini post- ankle reconstruction camp here in the flats.