infinitely sustainable pace

finishing

So anyway, I rolled into the finish area. I had my pizza and a beer and happily scored a snazzy Twin 6 jersey for my efforts that day. We were just getting into a fierce game of boules when Deejay called for the Decider. At SSUSA the winner is not the fastest, but the one that trumps all the other riders in some feat of strength or skill or silliness or something.

The call was for foot-down derby, on any bike but your own. I’d never played this before, so I grabbed the first bike that caught my eye,  Nick’s beautiful brown Karate Monkey,  and joined in. Now Nick’s bike is awesome, but brakes it did not have nor could I actually utilize the saddle. We rode around in circles, or “practiced”, for a little while and then it was all hands on bars and go. Frankly it was a blur, I just kept myself going and was barely aware that folks were stepping out left and right. Then - all of the sudden the other last remaining woman must have stepped down cause they told me I won! Super cool. And super cool was watching the last remaining boys duke it out, Jon Bailey has got some moves.

winning

Wow. Pretty cool. The gi-nourmous SSUSA belt was stuck in Robb’s luggage with Delta, but I did get my SSUSA champion belt buckle on the spot. The rest of the night was a happy blur of campfire, discovering old friends from college, beer, and making new friends.

the belt

I don’t really win all that often, but I can see why people make a habit of it. It feels really good. I’m pretty stoked to add my name to this thing with these other women who are totally awesome riders.

Saturday dawned clear and warm. We pulled up to the starting place to find the Dales Pale Ale RV setting up shop and loads of singlespeeders in various degrees of undress, spandex and costume. It’s not quite the fancy dress party that SSWC is, but there were a fair amount of folks that opted for a bit of flair with their outfit.

SSAZ is not really a race in the way that most races are races. We started with a five mile roll-out to the real start. I was off the back when the pack went out and with my 32:22 I just couldn’t catch up on the road. The happy thing is that my legs were warm and ready to go by the time we got to the dirt. For the start we all had to remove our front wheel and head down the street. Then head back up and reapply the front wheel and roll off.

Having done this thing last year when I was just two months off the couch, I had a little anxiety about the first 12 miles of dirt road climbing. Add in my experience at Fool’s Gold where I freaked out a bit on the 12 mile starting climb, and I was wondering what sort of performance I would see from myself. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. My easy gearing let me sit and spin up almost everything except a couple of really steep pitches and the road flew by. The only problem was some early quad cramping. Serious. I never, ever cramp and there I was in the first 10 miles cramping up.

coming down the jeep road

I had really been looking forward to the first section of singletrack, it’s the memory of that part of the ride that I’d been thinking of for all those trainer hours. And it didn’t disappoint. Rolling, high-speed fun. I managed to keep a pretty good rhythm going for myself. Back at the top after the first loop section George decided the race was over for himself. He had a hard crash on a jeep road descent and had taken a few chunks out of his arm. I teamed up with Cory for the last 12 miles of singletrack and funny enough this was one of the guys that we had ridden with last year. Only last year he was in a deep-dark bonk, and I was little better.

This year we were both feeling a lot better and worked together to keep moving. Pizza and beer was our goal and singletrack was how we were going to get there. I must have been pretty bad off last year, because I didn’t really remember just how fun this section of trail was. There was so much swoopy, rolling trail that turned into a challenging rocky downhill that I couldn’t stop grinning.

We were a little bummed that the tequila tree was empty by the time we rolled up. I guess that can be my goal for next year, make it to the tequila tree before it runs out. I was feeling kinda bad about missing out on this, but i guess that there were a lot of people who only did the second loop of the course and not the whole thing. It must have been those folks that drank the tequila meant for me.

beautiful vistas

No crashes. No cactus. Cory and I made it down La Milagrosa totally unscathed and rolled back to the ranch in good spirits. Pretty much everyone else was already done and in street clothes, but since my goal was to finish before the keg was kicked and we got back and there was plenty of beer and pizza left - I think I did just fine. Seven hours. Well over an hour faster than last year, and I spent at least 20 minutes waiting while George took care of some mechanical and tire problems after his crash.

Last year I was just so proud of myself for riding nearly 50 miles on a singlespeed. This year was a totally different experience. I knew I was totally able to do the ride, but preparing for it was a challenge with our super cold winter temps and I was dubious that the 1.5 hour trainer workouts would be able to get me ready for a long day on the bike. Crazy enough it worked. I felt good almost all the day. Sure my legs got tired, but there was juice the whole way. The cramps got better after I took an electrolyte thing at the first stop, but they lurked behind the scenes the whole day. The hardest part has been the recovery, my arse and my legs were extremely sore afterwards.

For next year I hope to go with a lot more power on the climbs and be in the middle of the pack instead of the back. Next post will be all about how I managed to take this lackluster performance on the course and turn it into the SSUSA win and how the SSAZ after-party is the best post race party there is.

i’m at a bit of a disadvantage here, i don’t have too many photos of my own from this weekend but I know they’re out there, i just have to wait for them to show up so i can borrow them.

this, being the second trip out for SSAZ, was a highly anticipated trip. How could it not be? A mid-winter, no-kid excursion to warm and sunny Tucson is bliss. we sorta knew what to expect getting ready for the big ride, only this year it was better. Seems like more folks got in early and by early afternoon we had quite a little gathering in Deejay’s front yard as bikes were built and shit was talked.

photo credit: mike stanley

It was warm, the sun was out. I could have sat there all day probably. But looking at my gut in that picture, it’s pretty good that we finally organized for an afternoon warm up ride. About 18 of us pedaled off toward some peak in the distance. Oddly enough, I graduated from high school with the guy on the left of this photo. He overheard me talking about PA at some point and asked me about it and while we were drilling down it turns out that we were in the same class. A class of 400 or so, and I couldn’t remember him at all. But what a small world.We were close to the city, yet the terrain was super cool. Especially for this northerner who doesn’t ride amongst the cacti very often. It was all over too fast and I spinny-spun my little legs on that 32:22 gearing all the way back.

The check-in/registration for SSAZ/SSUSA was that night, starting at 9:30 or so at a bar called the Surly Wench. Definitely pirate-themed. Or maybe that was a rock-a-billy-pirate theme. Whatever. It was cool and they were serving $2 pints of Lagunitas IPA (one of my favorites). But it was my night to drive back to the ranch, and i was still tired and jet lagged. Or, to put it another way, I was still not any fun. And we were in bed around midnight.

More tomorrow.

Look for the tale tomorrow, but for now look at what is coming home with me from SSUSA:

This is how I feel:

Completely and utterly exhusted to the bone. Sometimes I can travel and come back to real life just fine, like nothing happened, like I never went anywhere. And sometimes I travel and come home and pretend like I’m just fine. Then, it just creeps up on you. That heavy-lidded feeling of just not wanting to do anything.

That Las Vegas trip was a doozy, and I’m not snapping back into form very quickly. This weekend I’m going to do nothing, besides a bit of indoor riding of course, but other than that I’m going to sit on my bum and get un-tired.

Recover so that i can go to work in a timely manner next week without my eyelids drooping. So that I can come home from work and finalize the artwork for the new Bike29 team kit. So that I can get back on an airplane next week and fly to AZ without being zonked the entire time.

Yeah, those two days of January thaw were awesome, but what a tease. I remember January thaw from my halcyon college years as an annual sun-soaked three days of blissful warmth. Running around campus in shorts and t-shirts, soaking in the rays. Now I’m old and bitter, and January thaw brings us 24 hours of pouring rain and a day of clouds. Then it’s right back with the snow.

In fact, at the moment it’s rather Hoth-like outside. We’re one week away from the AZ trip and I won’t even be able to get outside and get the legs moving this weekend. Saturday the predicted high temp is 6*. Too cold for me. Sunday we’ll warm up to 17*. W00t.

As you can well imagine, I’m really looking forward to a few days of warm weather. But I’m not counting on it. After all, I went south to GA and it snowed. I went west to Las Vegas, and it poured a cold, cold rain the entire time. The weather has been against me. However, February is a fresh month and hopefully we can turn around these jet streams into a more favorable position.

so the longer stem is on there, and it’s angled down. and in my non-expert opinion on terrain that hardly qualifies me to evaluate anything — i couldn’t tell the difference. in other words, it didn’t feel any longer. Oh well, our trip to AZ is next week and so I guess I’ll work it out while I’m there. Lot’s of Niner folks will be around and maybe they can help me figure out the sizing.

In other news, I’m trying to sort out what my schedule will be for the spring and summer. So far I’m registered for the Stowe Derby on February 28. This is not a biking thing, no, it’s a cross country ski race that is mostly downhill. I will likely be seriously injured as despite many years of attempting to gain skill at this sport, I descend very very poorly. I’m on a team with some folks from work, so at the very least it should be amusing.

After that, the next big thing on the schedule is to host the Gravel Grinder on April 18. As the organizer I never ride it, but running it sure takes a lot of energy.

Today I signed up for Singlespeed-a-polooza on April 25. That sounds like fun. And if it does turn out to be fun maybe I’ll do their Darkhorse 40 in early August, as logistically speaking, it’s not that far away and there’s a female singlespeed category.

Then there’s the whole summer to sort out. This will be our first year of not having childcare during the summer as the boy is in school now. So I’m pulling out the calendar and trying to fill in the blanks with my travel, potential vacations and so forth. Now that he’s six and not quite so much trouble, we’ll be trying to work some things out with our parents for some extended visits. It’d be fun for him to get to experience and see some new things over the summer.

We’d like to get back down to GA for Fool’s Gold, which is the 21st of August this year. There are quite a few endurance races going on that weekend that are closer, one in New Hampshire and one in PA. The timing is good for us to go on a road trip as school starts the following Wednesday and there will be no childcare available until then, so that means a mandatory two days off of work. So, I expect I’ll be riding at least 50 miles at some point that weekend.

There’s more to think about. VT50? Canadian Singlespeed Championships? Trip to Portland, Oregon to see my forthcoming niece or nephew? Tack some vacation days onto a planned work trip to Lake Tahoe? When am I going to Maine? The biggest problem is that I lost about 4 vacation days this year, so time is not on my side.

Well, I spent most of this week in Las Vegas for work. And most of this week it spent raining, while i was in Vegas. somewhat ironic. I did see the inside of the resort gym and made friends with the treadmill and their spin bike.

Finally home. Friday I was fried from the travel, late night arrival and time changes so I kept it easy with a light dogwalk. Saturday I took the One9 out in the cold, cold sunshine for some brutal hill repeats.

Sunday we had a 2 hour birthday party window, and George actually decided to come out and ride. My legs were fried from yesterday’s hill repeats, so I picked out a route with long, low grade climbing and some flat/spinny bits.

George rode his fancy, new One9 (copycat) and I took my Vassago Fisticuff because of the gearing. It’s a 34:19, a lot stiffer than the 32:20 on my One9 and a much better choice for this ride. George had me on the steep climbing stuff, but couldn’t keep up with my gear on the other stuff. Love the Fisti, it’s such a fun bike.

We went out from the house, out Gregg Hill and over to Moscow. Up to the Trout Club and then back on 100. Only 2 hours. I was hoping for three today, but there just wasn’t time.

I’m a little nervous looking at SSUSA in two weeks. I’ve had a lot of time on the bike doing intervals, but not a lot of volume in the saddle. So I feel pretty good overall, but I’m sure that a long day in the saddle is going to be rough.

Winters in Vermont are cold and snowy, that’s a fact that you can’t get away from no matter how much you’d like to be out riding your bike. However this winter has been particularly cold, I remember being able to get out many more weekends last year.

Finally we had a weekend with some warmer temps, Saturday we had a high of 42 and I had an awesome opportunity to fit in my ride without troubling anyone. Keiran had a birthday party in the village. So my plan was to get all my stuff together, drop him off and head out from the shop. Return to the shop with just enough time to make myself presentable to pick him up. Great plan.

Except when I got down there I realized that I had everything I needed but my jacket, and no time to run back to the house and get it. Luckily it was pretty warm out, so I paired two poly-pro layers with my Oakley riding fleece and I was plenty warm. The biggest issue is that fleece is for mountain biking, and I would describe the color as ‘dirty snow’ so visible I was not.

One9 with new layback post

This ride was the debut of the layback post on the One9 and it made a big difference. The bike felt better and I was happier. I still want to play with the stem a bit and see if I can get it a little bit longer.

Because of the warm temps the dirt roads were sloppy and soon I was covered in wet grit and sand. It was everywhere, all in my pockets, my eyes, my chain. Ugh. Made it back to town and picked up the kid in just enough time.

So I’ve got this fancy new Niner One9, but I haven’t had a whole lot of chance to ride it because it’s been negative one million degrees since early December. Finally I get out on it the other week for a very snowy dirt road ride. My first impression: i like it, but it feel really small. Like I’m cramming my body into a clown car.

The frame is a size small. Now, at 5′6.5″ I seem to often find myself in a position where I could ride either a small or a medium frame and I generally prefer to go with the smaller option. But part of my own personal problem is that I’ve got a freakishly long torso. My legs could belong to someone who is 5′2″, but my torso would be far more appropriate on someone closer to 5′10″. And so I deal.

Anyway, while I was going to be down in GA and not wanting to ship a bike down for a limited amount of riding, our Niner rep kindly arranged a medium Air9 frame for me to test ride while I was down there. The Air9 is just like the One9, only geared. And some bike this thing was. Very cool indeed with lots of shiny, colorful, fancy and expensive bits on it. The bike was obviously built up for someone far taller than me, but once I dropped the mile high seatpost it worked for the test ride.

Niner Air9 loaner for the weekend

Not only did I get to try out the frame size, but this was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new-to-me components. The bike was well outfitted:

• The Niner Carbon fork - very nice. Light, stiff, awesome. If my forearm wasn’t such an issue, I would totally get one ASAP.
• Hayes Gram Stroker brakes - i’m in love with these. Maybe it was the 8″ rotor, but whatever. These things stopped me with the lightest twitch. I am currently figuring out how to have my own set and replace my Avid’s.
• WTB Prowler tires - not good in the snow. duh.
• Gears - fun, but make me lazy. As in put it in granny and just keep it there.
• I9 wheels - they were light, stiff and felt pretty fast but to be honest I couldn’t tell any huge difference between these wheels and my normal bike29 handbuilt wheels. The blue spokes were pretty cool though.

So the big question, should I be on a medium frame. I don’t think so. Even without the layback post and the reachy stem, I think the frame was a bit too big. I’d rather try to stretch out the length of the small then scrunch up the bigger frame.Look close at this picture and you can see the ice flow from my drippy bottle. It wasn’t miserable, but it was cold out there.