Good Ride!

Today was one of those rides where everything felt good!  We rode up on Racoon, and there are these spots that seem to give me trouble from time to time.  On bad days, I don't clear any of these spots, the ride sucks, I'm in a foul mood, and I can't wait to be done. In these spots there is usually a rock or two involved and most of the time the rocks win.  If I wreck, it's a failed attempt.  If I put a foot down, it's a failed attempt.  If I get stopped and have to restart, it's a failed attempt.  Today there were NO failed attempts!  I cleared EVERY single one of my headache spots, I felt nice and strong on the climbs, and my finger-time on the brake levers was less than it normally was.  I am starting to just used to the heat of the summer and I enjoyed every minute I was on my bike.  These smiles are hard to come by after a hot and nasty ride!

Tim's Blog

Check out Tim's blog if you want a more comical and much more entertaining race report.  Thanks for all the inquiries, but Team Smith is maxed out for this race season, and will be accepting new applications in the Fall.

http://go-teamsmith.blogspot.com/

Syllamos 125k

Well, now I can say that I've ridden in the Ozark's!   Syllamos Revenge 125k is 75 miles of singletrack treat!  If you like riding on marbles and glass (slick glass and broken glass), then these trails are for you!  If I lived in or around Mountain View, Arkansas, I would ride those trails every week, and become a super bike handler.  It really is something to have that much singletrack at your fingertips.  The rock is mostly limestone, which breaks easily and leaves sharp edges exposed. There were so many flats!!  I don't think I've ever seen so many people having tire issues!  Out of our group of 8 people, Robin had 5 flats, Mike had 3, Lee had one, and I had one.  I had a huge hole puncture in my rear tire, and I was able to plug it McIver-style, add some glue, add some air, and it carried me to the finish 55 miles later.  I descended much more cautiously on that plug, picking out the smoothest line possible where normally I would just plow straight down.  I also stopped every so often just to feel my pressure to make sure I wasn't loosing air.  I really did not want to have to put a tube in.  Last week when we were riding Snake, I flatted on my other bike and Tim used that as a "seminar opportunity" in hopes of making me a faster flat-fixer.  I'm still slower than average when it come to putting a tube in the rear wheel, and I would have lost precious time, not that I'm anywhere near podium potential, but that would have meant sitting there while all the people I just passed, passed me right back.  That is the most frustrating thing about dealing with a mechanical.

There were sections of loose slate-rock gardens, then there were larger limestone tabletops (not always flat) that you are climbing on and off, and I am told all of that was pretty slick last year when it was wet.  Thankfully, conditions were much drier yesterday.  When you weren't climbing up and over rocks you were ripping through briars and poison ivy where the next 10 feet was a surprise because you couldn't see it.  There were switchbacks, beautiful views, and fun flowing downhill sections that you were able to gear up and peddle all the way through.  The course was marked well which was a great thing for me since I went into this race rather blindly.  Since it was just 75 miles, I guess I took it a little less-seriously than a 100-miler.  I normally study the course and elevation map, read past reviews, memorize Robin Oscar's notes from the previous year, interview the Simrils, and know what's coming before I get there.  I didn't really do that this race, so every descent, climb, and technical section was a surprise and if I did take a wrong turn, I would have been LOST! 

At mile 50 you either took a right turn to go to the finish line (for the shorter kiddie race), or you went straight to complete LAP 2.  Just starting a "LAP 2" was just completely demoralizing at that point.  I was kind of hoping Tim would be waiting there to escort me down to the finish...he wasn't, so I went straight and searched for a better attitude.  I found one and the race mentality returned!  I caught up to my friend Lorenda, who I had yo-yo'ed with earlier which ended when she passed me while I was fixing my flat.  Seeing her revived me and we rode strong together for awhile, passing guys that weren't looking so hot.  I left her on a climb thinking for sure I'd see her again since she is such a strong descender, but later she said her legs were just "done" at that point.  So, back to riding by myself.

The aid stations were super helpful, especially in the beginning (at aid 3 I had one guy filling my camelbak with ice & water while another was putting ice down my back), but in the later part of the day you could tell their excitement had long worn off.  We had to get 4 different color bracelets from certain checkpoints and when I came in for my last bracelets, the aid workers were MIA, tending to the 15 racers sprawled out in the chairs that had dnf'ed for one reason or another.  I yelled, "bracelets, who has the bracelets?"  Finally a guy came running, and while he apologized he slide that last little yellow charm on my wrist.  I had just 12 more miles to go.  At this point my legs felt ok, it was my shoulders and hands that were killing me.  I also had a headache, and it was mostly from the jarring my body had received all day from the rocky terrain.  The heat was also an issue, every cloud that gave us respite was welcome.

My new bike was fabulous!!  Shifting was flawless, love the 2 x 10 setup, the stiff thru axle was noticed, and she was rearing to go the entire race, even through creeks and sandpits.  Isla was a star!  She got many stares as well, I think many were jealous of her beauty! 

The results are in!  56 out of 157 racers finished!  That just shows how brutal it was out there; Syllamo showed no  mercy on anyone!  I finished in 10:03, 6th out of 9 open women.  It was a long day.  An adventure, and that's why I do these distances.  What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.  Next on the books is Mohican 100 in 2 weeks...stay tuned!

Superfood Salad!

Yes, it does make you super strong and it may give you super powers, you'll have to find that out for yourself.  Since I had all this time to get updated on blog posts, I thought, "hum, maybe I'll share what I've been eating all week, since it is SUPER good!"  So, my 2 readers, prepare to get up and go to the kitchen because after reading this you will be hungry.  Tim has been out of town this week, so I knew I wasn't going to be doing any cooking.  I had this salad last week at Greenlife, so I went back to get some more for dinner Monday night and they didn't have it. :( The good lady behind the counter printed me the ingredients and I went shopping.  Here it is:

Kale (I used red kale I got from Chattanooga market on Sunday)
Blueberries
soybeans
napa cabbage (greenlife was out, so I used red cabbage)
carrots
red onion
grape tomatoes
goji berries
cashews (I used raw cashews)
sunflower seeds

superfood dressing: canola oil (I used grapeseed oil), acai juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, garlic, pepper, cayenne pepper.

You'll have to play with the amounts. My dressing wasn't quite the same as Greenlife's, but I also chose to used very little oil.  As you can see, I made a huge batch and ate on it all week.  I feel fueled and ready for SYLLAMO'S Revenge this weekend! Stay tuned for the race report. (I will try to make it next week and not next month.) :)

Tanasi

May 6, 2012

Emily, Paula, me, and Kym

The 5th race of the SERC series is at Tanasi on trails I  know and love. That last time I did this race was way back in 2000, and I lined up with about 10 other beginners holding onto my 30 lb. bike, trying not to throw up.  I  was super relaxed this time around, hoping for a podium spot, but also understood that my legs were still fatigued from 3 State 3 Mountain the day before.  It was a good first ride for Isla (my new bike). She climbed and rode like a champ.  I'm sure there were many times that she wished for a faster rider because I just wasn't pushing her hard enough.  I gave it my best, finishing fourth.  I guess I was a little too laid back in the beginning because I didn't even think about my calories.  I only had water in my camelbak & didn't even think to eat until about halfway through the second lap...too late at that point.  I could really feel the deficit.  I was upset at myself for overlooking a very important component to racing, nutrition!  Overall, it was a great day to be on the bike.  US Stove/Vantaggio had lots of good representation, totally dominating the podium!  One day maybe I'll be up there with you guys!

That's Kym on top, Paula came in 3rd, and Catherine in 4th.  Emily did an awesome job as well and would have been in this picture, but she was being interviewed at the time it was taken.

New Bike!

May 6, 2012

Oh my goodness...you could just stare at her for hours!  Isla, the Superfly 100 Pro.  The sparkle of the carbon fibers in the sunlight and the blingy shocks just scream, "Get me 'otta here and onto some dirt!"  Her and I will have lots of fun times this year.  I'm racing her tomorrow at Tanasi and I can't wait to see what it's going to feel like climbing on such a light bike, SRAM XX components really cut down on the weight. A part of me wants to hang her up on my living room, so I can just look at her for countless hours and keep her sparkling clean forever.  I think I'm really going to like having my front shock lock-out button on my handlebar, very easy to access.  Usually I don't even mess with locking out my fork on climbs because I forget to unlock it, and I'll remember this halfway down a hairy descent (because it feels way too rough) at the moment when its vital to keep both hands on the bar and/or brakes.  Not the best time to be reaching down to turn a knob on your fork.  Also, I'm excited to test out the added stiffness the thru-axle is going to provide, supposed to be 35% stiffer!  Thanks to Taylor at Trek Store of Chattanooga for doing such a fabulous job on the build

3 State 3 Mountain

May 5, 2012

3 State 3 Mountain is an annual ride (25th anniversary) put on by the Chattanooga Bicycle Club, and has grown into a fairly large ride throughout the years, usually maxing out its allotted occupancy. This year the century course was changed due to the demolition of the Haletown Bridge. We climbed Aetna Mtn. (TN), Ladd's Mtn. (not one of the 3 but it's a big enough stinger & should be recognized), Sand Mtn. (AL), and Lookout Mtn. (GA). We got rained on, but it was while climbing Sand Mtn., the perfect time! It was rather refreshing! To make up some distance with the course change, we stayed on the rollers of Sand Mtn.for many, many miles going through Bryant, Flat Rock, and Ider, AL. The wind was killer up there! We were fortunate enough to be in a fairly large group where we all took turns pulling and resting. The last climb of the day was Burkhalter Gap Road, 2.3 miles, and the last quarter mile or so is 18-20% grade. In years past I have really struggled in the climb, one year I stopped, got off my bike, took off my shoes, and walked up in my socks! Hilarious!! This year it didn't seem that bad. I mean, it HURT, but not like I remember it hurting in years past.

I finished the 100 mile ride in 5 hours 40 minutes, a PR for me. This wasn't a race against others, but it was a race against myself, to measure my improvement. I met lots of new friends and had a great time. On the Tuesday night ride after this, I met a guy from FL that came up here for the week with 10 of his buddies just to do 3 State. They were spending their week of vacation in Chattanooga to ride their bikes!! How cool is that? I need to remember that on those days where I really don't feel like training, or I'm bored with my same old routes. I really do take Chattanooga for granted sometimes. Anyway, good day, good ride, good people, and a good leg sting for the rest of the night!

Cohutta 100

April 28

Race weekend started Friday evening with a short drive up to the Ocoee White Water Center for packet pick-up and aid station bag check-in. Upon gathering my aid station items, I came across a busted gel flask at the bottom of my bag. HUGE mess, and 4 hours of nutrition GONE. Note to self: bring entire bottle of gel to race.  Good thing my bike bag contains a vast collection of things I "might" need, because in it I found an extra half-way filled flask!  Who knows how long it had been in there.  I did the smell/taste test, still the same. Kind of reminds me of space food...I don't think that stuff ever spoils.  So, got my bags checked, checked into our cabin, met up with the Simrils, got the bike tuned & oiled, and gear laid out for the morning. After many laughs and unsettled nerves for me, I got into bed and was fast asleep.

The next morning I woke up an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off, and just thought of the impending doom.  I had plenty of time for my morning rituals; forced my coffee and breakfast down, and prayed my nervous stomach would soon settle.  My goal for this race was to just finish, preferably in a shorter time then Shenandoah took.  Since this was my second 100 mile race ever and it contained way more elevation gain than I had ever done in one day (14,000 feet!), I wasn't sure what my legs were going to do to me.  I used the same nutrition plan I used for Fools Gold and Shenandoah since it worked (at least I've got something figured out.)  The start was very similar to a XC race, 0 to 60 in 30 seconds, and it was a 2 mile climb on the road to the singletrack entrance of Brush Creek.  I quickly found myself on the verge of throwing up and it was hard to control my breathing, so I slowed down and let what seemed like the entire field pass me, and settled into a rhythm.  I did not dare look behind me,  I was afraid I would see 1 or 2 people...on tricycles.  I found out later that there were actually a good number of people behind me and it was also good to hear that everyone else felt a little "death" on that climb.

Brush Creek was fun; unfortunately because I was with a large pack of people, the pace was set for me.  I had to keep a little distance in front of me because of the "fumblers" I had ended up behind.  Since I knew the course pretty well, I was able to predict the sections that would slow them down, and I was able to pass them rather smoothly.  That's pretty much how it was on all the singletrack.  Knowing the trails certainly helped me pick good passing spots uphill and downhill.  After bombing down poison ivy alley (AKA Westfork or Poplar Groove), we began the first of many gravel road climbs.  Thankfully, the meat of this race was an uneventful monotony.  I could sum it up by saying, "I climbed a gravel road for awhile, then had a great gravel road descent, then it went back up..."  You get the point.

We climbed the same mountain twice, taking hours each way, separated by a couple of miles of singletrack, looking at mostly the same little bits of gravel of all shapes and sizes.  In my hallucinating mind I saw many bear (tree stumps), snakes (squiggly sticks), diamonds (quartz rocks), bats (butterflies), turtles (rocks), and a panther up in a tree (tree limb that fell and almost hit me).  I started to loose a couple of brain cells while climbing back up Potato Patch Mountain, and the flying insects were out in full swing as usual.  Good thing I had my insect repellent!  Yes, I tucked a small thing of "OFF" in my camelbak for this particular section because every time I have done this climb the flying/biting insects get pretty close to carrying me off.  Everything else I keep in my pack will remain a secret.

So, mile 75 goes by and I decide that I'm feeling alot better than I should be, and that's when my race began.  From Watson Gap to the finish I had fun spending what was left in my tank.  I passed people that had passed me much earlier in the day.  I used my secret weapon (3rd chainring) and passed many more people descending PP all the way to the campground.  I knew I could hurt BAD for 25 miles.  At the end of the gravel road my computer showed 96 miles, then we turned onto the last bit of singletrack.  We took the longish route, and somehow 4 extra miles got added into the mix.  I heard many saying at the end of the race that their computers said the same 104 miles, what's another 4 miles right?   With 3 miles to go I came upon a snake across the trail. I stopped and threw rocks and sticks at it, but it didn't budge.  I finally had to ride over it because I couldn't go around it.  The head was on my left side so I put that leg really high in the air.  If that snake was going to bite me, I was going to make him work for it.  I finished that race in 11 hours 40 minutes, an hour shorter than my Shenandoah time.  Not too shabby for a newbie like me...the improvement that is.  I've got a long way to go and this is only the beginning.

Mud Loves Company!

It's always an adventure when you're on top of a mountain, getting ready to start a mountain bike ride and you can see really dark clouds in the distance. Star says, "Oh, I think its moving towards Huntsville."  I just love her optimism!  Great, we were good.  Well, we were for about the first hour, then the rain started, and kept going for the next hour.  We slipped, slided, grinded our gears, ate mud, and got down right filthy!  It finally stopped raining when we were about 4 miles from the car, just enough time to get semi-dry.  Needless to say, we were a complete mess!  I don't mind riding in the rain, it's good training to deal with race day conditions.  On race day, anything goes and you've got to deal with it, even if you know it's going to completely destroy your drivetrain.  Thankfully, on this day I had a friend to experience adventure with; we were the better for it.  Many people I know would have looked at those clouds and got back in the car. Not Star! She's an adventure racer! Her and I made lemonade out of lemony weather that that day!

Tsali Knobscorcher

April 1

I did a couple of the SERC series races back  in 2000 when I started riding mountain bikes.  I was a total beginner and EVERY race was hard to me then. College and a full-time job kept me busy from 2001 on, so sadly my XC racing career lasted all of 2 years.  When I started racing mountain bikes again last year I dove right into the longer races since I enjoyed the sense of "epic adventure" they offered.  So, for the past year I have done longer, more endurance-type racing...very different from anything in the SERC series.  Knowing that I am a lot more fit now than I was in 2000, I was thinking that this Knobscorcher would be a cakewalk. I was so wrong! I am used to getting my heart rate up, setting a certain pace, and settling in, plodding away the endless miles.  The knobscorcher would not allow such a thing. I had to concentrate on staying "pegged", reminding myself that I was RACING, and that means that I need to be passing people, not getting passed. I managed to fight and suffer for 3rd place
 in the sport category. 

I met lots of fun people at this race and was amazed at all the talent.






Kym, Catherine, and Paula all had podium spots as well. I feel so lucky to have such fast rock stars on my team! They are fantastic role models for a newbie like me!

US Stove/ Trek p/b Vantaggio Rocks!

March 24, 2012



I just love it when all of us girls get together and tear up some trail! We rode some good stuff up at the Ocoee on Saturday and Railed Racoon on Sunday.  Tim was kind enough to shoot some team pictures of us before we got nasty.  What a fun weekend this was!

Park City

March 5, 2012

Early March we got to spend a week in Park City, Utah at The Canyons.  We went with 12 other friends and had the best time!  We were standing in line at the lift first thing in the morning, we ate & drank items from our packs throughout the day, and were usually the last ones off the runs at the end of the day.  This is what we did for 5 straight days! IT WAS AWESOME! No bad wrecks, all gear worked wonderfully, and we had lots of good memories with friends. It was a fantastic trip! 

All of the snowy cold weather made me think of all of the warm cozy stoves that US Stove makes.  The best way to end a full day snowboarding it to curl up next to one of these puppies with a hot cup of chocolate in hand.

Trail Running

March 2012




Snake Creek Gap Marks the end of longish trail runs on the weekend. I usually take a little break from the bike in the Winter and RUN most of my trail miles in my cushy shoes.  No helmet, no gears, & no pack; just me and the earth...and maybe a dog or two.  It is reviving!   When it's really cold out, I think it's easier to generate body heat with a good run as opposed to a bike ride.  I am miserable riding with numb feet and hands, which happens even with the warmest gear possible.  I can zone out and let my body just go at a steady pace.  So, here is a little fairwell to the long hours of pounding the dirt with my Brooks Pure Grits, and hello to long weekend hours on my Superfly 100.