Mt. Sunapee road race

A couple weeks ago, I went riding in the rain when it was cold, and things ended badly. You'd think I'd have learned...

I was planning a long, slow, easy ride. Then Darcy asked if I wanted to come watch Sunapee. I looked at bikereg to see what time it started, and next thing I knew, I was signed up. Lets keep in mind I haven't been training four weeks yet... Stephanie's description of this course is "you go around a round-about, then you go up a hill, then you go up another hill, then you go up another hill, you make a right turn, you go up a hill, you go up a wall, you go up a hill, and then you finish on an uphill". Great! So, I went up there with Giulia, the other cat 4 from IBC, and it was pouring rain. The whole way up. The temperature was up to 48 degrees by the time we got to Sunapee; we figured that was a good sign. The uphill finish didn't look that hard, so we were somewhat relieved. Warmed up on the trainer under an overhanging roof, and we decided we were ready to go. Rather than bore you with the details of racing in the rain, I'll bore you with a play-by-play of my thoughts while riding.

The gist is that Giulia ended up 4th, I was 7th, I think there were something like 30 finishers, and it was cold and wet. Anna Mcloon won the pro-1-2-3 race, easily. That girl is a house.

Anyway. My race:

I'm cold.

Daaamn I'm really cold.

Wow I do not feel like riding in the rain anymore. I wonder if I can drop out somewhere? Shit, there's Darcy. Gotta keep riding.

Ooh! a hill!

Shit my legs are all cramped up.

That NEBC girl just said something that sounded like code for "I'm going to attack". I think I'll follow her, she has a nice wide ass to draft off.

My legs hurt.

My hands are cold.

Oh good, Giulia came with me. The pack looks kind of strung out, I wonder if we're breaking?

Ooh!! I'm in a break! I'm in a break!

Wow, I just made it up another hill with the break.

Cool, I can ride with these girls, thats two hills. No sign of that pack.

Oof my legs hurt.

I'm not with the break anymore. Darn.

I could fight for it and time trial back up to them... shit my chain won't shift out of the big ring and I'm going uphill. shift! shift!

I guess I'll just wait for the pack and block for Giulia.

Where is the damn pack?

Ow my legs hurt.

This must be the wall Stephanie was talking about.

No, this must be the wall.

I'm freezing. When is the next dang uphill?

Ooh theres someone in front of me. Maybe I'll try to catch her.

When did my bike get so heavy?

I'm sopping wet. This sucks.

So as Giulia would say, I earned mad Belgian points. You get Belgian points for doing hardcore things, like racing in the rain when its cold out. I don't think I'll do another road race unless its sunny this summer. Because I think I have enough Belgian points to last me for a while. I wonder if those points come with Belgian beer and chocolate?

Moosilauke

Me and Christophe at the top of Moosilauke.

My brother came to visit last weekend, on his way from Colgate to London to Rochester to Seattle to Los Angelos to Lima Peru. And you thought I travel a lot?
He couldn't show up until saturday afternoon, and left monday morning at 6:30am, but he wanted to go hike in the Whites. So, we went up to Moosilauke Sunday, since none of us had ever climbed it and we heard it had a good view on top. Of course, there was a mtb race that I wanted to do AND an orienteering meet I wanted to go to, but its not every day that I can see Christophe. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made.

Moosilauke is 4800 ft, which is pretty big for around here. I figured that meant that it would be a pretty challenging hike, and had minor qualms about my leg acting all funny after a couple hours of hiking. I also figured that it would take us longer than the suggsted 5.5 hrs, since none of us are really in shape, and I was guessing there would be snow. Christophe and Ed were convinced there would be no snow, and Christophe even wore shorts... Dummy :). We had about four feet of snow while in the woods once we'd gotten up to about 3000-3500 ft, and there was one long section of trail that had a river running under the snow. This meant that although I could walk on the snow without any problem, being the small person, the guys were breaking through occasionally, really slowing things down.


Ed decided that just walking up the mountain would be too easy, so brought along a tree... (actually, he's clearing the trail).


Snow!

After they had cursed at the snow enough, we got to someplace with some dry rocks to sit on and ate lunch #1. I thought we'd have a ton more climbing since so far the ascent had been really mellow. Practically flat. But no, that was it for climbing. We kind of rolled for a bit up a ridge to the top of Moosilauke, which was all open tundra with a stiff wind. Shot some pictures (I'll post them in a bit) and then headed down, mostly just sliding on the snow. That actually takes a fair bit of concentration--I thought I was going to totally lose it and go slamming into the trees or rocks a couple times, but I held it together. The weather was pretty much the best hiking weather you could ask for, with the exception of the wind on the top. Great day to be climbing mountains!


View from the top.


My shin held out great for the hike, so I'm feeling pretty positive about the Billygoat, which is next weekend. The Billygoat is an orienteering race that has to be completed in under 3.5 hrs to get your t-shirt. Its typically long, hard, hot, gnarly, and demanding both technically and physically. I think my first and only true bonk came at the Billygoat a few years ago, when I started with only a redbull and a brownie for sustenance. I don't recommend that one. I finished, but I finished in 3:34... after falling down a lot, bumping into trees, and having visions of oreos and apple juice floating before my eyes. As I said, I don't recommend that strategy. This year, I'll be eating a full breakfast and bringing food and water with me... normal actions, I guess, but sometimes the skier superiority complext gets the best of you. Now I'm going to go ride my pinarello in perfect weather :).

Sometimes, you put on spandex and sunglasses and you ride a bike really fast.

Sometimes, you find yourself tootling down the street on a mountain bike in flip flops and a skirt.

And sometimes, you find yourself riding around the streets of San Francisco naked covered in body paint with a bunch of other naked crazy people...
(Don't know who to credit for photo, but it was sent to me by Marion Bullitt. And no, I'm not in that picture, nor was I at that event. But I feel like I could fit right in...).

Sunshine in the turret

Just one more reason why I love the turret: sunshine in the morning :)

Still no racing...

Not racing on weekends almost makes for a boring life. Except that Ed and I went to a junkyard saturday, and that was pretty cool. We wanted to find a new door handle thingy for my car, since its broken, and the uninitiated don't know how to open the passenger side door from the inside. I'd never been to a junkyard before--Ed says next he'll take me to a demolition derby, just to get in touch with my redneck side. I can't wait! Anyway, there were cars everywhere, mostly missing large pieces that would make it difficult for them to roll, and usually stacked. We found our way to the Honda section, and man, there were a lot of Hondas. I don't know if that means that Hondas are shitty cars that die a lot, or just that most of them end up in junkyards. Maybe there were that many other types of cars too, I wasn't really paying attention to that. So we checked every dang Honda in that lot for a passenger side door handle with the electronic locking bit, because Ed says it has to be the exact same piece or it won't work. I'll trust him, since I wouldn't be the one installing the thing. It turns out that every Honda with a door handle similar to mine (i.e. the hinge is plastic, not metal) either had a broken handle or it had already been taken. But at least I got to go to a junkyard!

Payback

So last December Colin decided to start rollerskiing, and his first workout was intervals at 6:00 AM at heartbreak hill. I girled him, six times up that hill. I guess I shouldn't have rubbed it in so much. He was real gentleman-like today after he and Linnea and Ann schooled me riding repeats up that hill in Arlington...

I might not be able to move tomorrow.

Mud season in Vermont

It wasn't all that muddy. This was the deepest we saw:

It was nice to go someplace NOT for a race or a training activity. I mean, we walked a lot, but thats not really training. I love Vermont, if only for the free buffet (some people call them samples) at the country store. They had fudge out! Normally its just cheese and dips. We walked around checking out damage from the last storm and taking pictures. There were a lot of trees down but nothing too bad.

This picture sort of sums up April in vermont for me--the maple trees are blooming and its getting warm, but there is still snow and its damn muddy. We went exploring where they had been doing some logging--although it wasn't as muddy as I feared, it was still pretty soft. Those damn northern states and their snow.


This is where we lived for two summers. It was great. We traded work on the house for rent. You can't tell from here but the house has a sweet new roof. This is the shower (outdoor):

Nothing beats an outdoor shower in the summer. Except for maybe grilling food on the rock and drinking beer on the porch. I posted more pictures on Flickr.