Into 2013!

I know I am a terrible blogger in the off season!  Apparently I need to find more worthy things to blog about.  But I also figure this blog is primarily about racing for those who want to hear the nitty gritty details of my races.  So here we go into the 2013 Season!  I have to do a two in one for XTERRA on this post!

Well, for starters, moving out to California presented itself with all sorts of new challenges and opportunities I guess.  The hard part was moving away from all of my great local supporters that I had over my time in Winter Park.  Moving to a big city where I knew no one or any teams etc.  It is like starting from scratch to build up some support which is so important!  Also, just finding people who know where to train and where to ride!

So I joined Folsom Bike Racing Team for this season and their Tri Team out of the Town Center lacation.  I was steered toward them from a number of people that I had met around here.  It has been great getting to know some of the people on the team and everyone who works at Folsom bike has been great and always helpful.

I kicked off the 2013 season doing some of the local bike races just 10 minutes from my house at Granite Bay.  TBF Racing , who I also joined as staff, puts on a ton of great races and they have a series of 4 Mtn bike races through the winter.  That was new to be bike racing all winter!  Nothing like Winter Park, these are a loop course that is the same course just more loops(I am really good at that loop now), but fun still! I was able to win 3 of 4.

The bike racing felt like an alright warm-up to kick off my Xterra Season on March 30.  However, it had been a slow off season with some hip and hamstring things going on.  I have been trying to get everything to feel good again so my running was way down.

XTERRA REAL 
This seemed perfect for my first race of the season a nice warm up race.  It is put on by TBF and the bike course is that one I had been racing all season.  I was excited to get into Xterra but also not sure how my run and swim would stack up.  My parents had been visiting for the couple weeks before and were here for the race which was great to have my familiar support and also a good opportunity for Drew to jump in and do his first open water Tri ever!
We got a beautiful day for the race water was a little chilly but being form CO with swims at Indian Peaks and Buffalo Creek and even Moab it was perfectly normal at about 55.
Swim went off fine.  Nothing crazy to speak of I felt pretty good for the most part this one is short so it is only a 750.  As I exited the water I was just happy to see Kara Lapoint right in front of me.  She is last years winner and normally a much faster swimmer than me.  As we were running into transition she was getting told she was 10th woman.  I breezed through transition really smoothly and felt like it was pretty good in and out until I went to jump on my bike and my chain was off! Anyway,  I got out of transition ahead of a few of those 10 and quickly began to try and make my way up through the field!  At the end of the main climb my friend and competitor Sian took the inside and swept past.  "Oh!" I thought, "yeah, we are racing today!"  So I remained right behind her for the next section until we got to the back of the course where they added in a slightly technical sandy section I rode through pretty smooth and took the lead for Women.  I knew I had to keep pushing and gain as much ground as I could on the bike since that is my strong point.  I also know it would be tough to get much on this course because it is fast and relatively easy.  I actually didn't know I was in the lead till the next lap when Kara's boyfriend told me, after I asked him who was up, that I was in the lead by about 30 sec.
I came off the bike feeling pretty good and headed out on the run.  I tried to use some recent advice and get my legs turning over fast.  I was feeling ok for the run but was soon dismayed when Sian passed me way too soon!  She was killin that run!  My quad cramped pretty bad on the steep climb right about the time she passed and I had to stop to get it moving!  This put a damper in my fight to stay with her.  I got my butt moving because I knew that Kara was sure to be close behind.  She was.  We climbed the steep climb to the high point of the course and she moved past just at the top.
I took 3rd overall.  The three of us were within about 2 min.  It was a fun race and good to have some great ladies to push with out there! I knew I had some work to do for Vegas two weeks later and not really alot of time for that.

Next up Vegas!
XTERRA West Championships

This weekend kicked off the Xterra Championship races in Las Vegas.  I flew down by myself on Thursday and stayed right on sight at the Monte Lago Resort with Sian.  Friday I headed out for a pre-ride and had a good time riding with Brandi Heisterman, one of the pros from Canada and some of the Luna Chix.  The bike was true to the rumors.  Not real exciting but also somewhat challenging.
Saturday was race day and they had set the start time for the championship race for 10:30 with the forecast calling for a high of 90!  Apparently they wanted the sport race to be off the course.  I don't like starting late.  It gives too much hanging out being nervous time before hand.  Not to mention it was getting hotter as I was just setting up transition!
Swim  Swim was declared about 57 but I am pretty sure it was a little warmer.  With it being so hot out already when we were getting ready to start the water felt great!
I felt good and pushed out the start with a good group pretty sure I was swimming stroke for stroke right next to my age group competitor Meaghan Sheridan for a good portion of our swim to the first buoy. I felt like I had a pretty good swim but I never know with these things.  After transition and jumping on my bike I looked at my watch and it seemed that it had in fact been pretty good as far as I could tell.

26:12   30th female 19th amateur and 3rd Age Group

Bike I went out like normal to try and start making my way up through the field. I had a little fire and help getting moving from new CA friend Cliff Milleman "Lets go catch Hannah Rae" He said.  I was game.  This bike course was not particularly exciting.  It is like biking on the moon.  Not a very technical course but a challenging course with steep loose climbs some short loose descents and nice sandy section.  I worked my way up the field and took a spill on a sharp corner that I just went into wrong in my excitement of being on the mtn bike :)  (I seem to have this problem ofter) No big deal jump up and ride on (bruised hip).  I had no idea where I was in the field of women as I hadn't really seen anyone I normally see besides the first couple I passed early including Kara Lapoint and I knew she would be pushing hard to stay close.  Halfway through the second lap my friendly update guy (Kara's boyfriend again, August) let me know I was actually in 2nd for amatuer women!  Really!  By this time though the heat and the wind were starting to wear on me quite a bit.  It was around 90 and I had a love hate with the wind that was just killer.  Nice and cooling but making flat sections really tough not to mention just keeping things in line!  About 3 miles to go on the bike I got passed by two girls in my age group!  One I didn't know we rode pretty close for awhile and then Meaghan (Age group winner) made the pass.  I battled the wind on the rode home to transition and tried to make sure I had fueled and hydrated enough to get going on the run.  I was a little upset to have been in 2nd and knocked to 4th there at the end. I knew something special would have to happen on my run.

1:41:49   14th Female  3rd amatuer  and  2nd Age group

RunThen it was onto the run....ugh.  After biking in the conditions it was hard to get the groove but I had  started to besides getting passed by the first two girls. Then the run course just started going up and up the steep loose climbs and then more and then add in some scree climbs! Somewhere in there about mile 3 Maia Ignatz came passed.  I am pretty sure this is our sweet spot.  She seems to always pass me on the run right in this area :) She passed and I watched as she moved further away up the hill that put me into 4th in the age group.  Brutal conditions for a 10k here.  I ended up moving from 4th the 7th on  the run.  It was rough and I obviously really need to work on my running.  It was tough but I know most people were having a rough time out there. Except for maybe Lesley Paterson the women's winner who put down the fastest run split of the day beating all the pro men on the run and finishing 4th Overall!! Wow.

(maybe we shouldn't talk about this one ;) )  1:05:53  33 Female  18th amateur  5th Age Group

Finish 3:13:58   21st Female   7th Amateur   4th Age group  

Yes, my age group is stacked.  I went into this race knowing that my age group would be really tough and it would be very difficult to get a Worlds slot for Maui (there are only 2).  If I were any other age group over 20 I would have gotten a slot.  :)  guess I have work to do over the summer for my next chance!  Bring it.

SO,  there it is all caught up if you made it this far!  

Taking Second Pro Women at Cool Mtn Bike Race.

Xterra USA Championships (and a brief catch-up)!

Wow! I just realized how horrible I have been at blogging this year!  I mean I knew it was pretty bad and I am always thinking about a post I should do but I just realized how bad and I didn't do ANY of those posts! Ugh!

Quick Catch up! First the winter was spent figuring out that my ankle injury from the beginning of last year actually tore my ATL ligament so that it would actually pull away from the bone and I had fractured the end of my fibula and had a small tear in my peroneal tendon! Yuck so I spent time trying to get that healed through prolotherapy which after some research seemed to me to be a great alternative to an invasive surgery!  So...not too much running and alot of swimming.  In March we found out that Drew got a new job! Yeah (!) but also sad that he had to leave for some training for a few months.  This new job also brought on relocation!  I had to come to Sacramento in the middle of summer and find a new place to live and we moved here to Roseville, CA middle of August!  Needless to say, all of that placed a little bit more stress on my life throughout this season so my racing didn't have quite the improvement that I originally hoped for but things seemed to turn out alright and I still had a ton of fun doing a sport that I love!  Now that you are briefly caught up onto the race report!

Well, it came so fast!  The summer has been a blur with moving to CA and all of that thrown in the mix.  It was just Ashlyn and I for the 10 hour drive across the desert for Nationals.  Phew!  That was long just the 2 of us.  So happy that my awesome race crew, my mom and niece, Alyssa, met us there.  They had dinner waiting when we arrived on Thursday evening. 

Friday is always a nice day.  Relaxing morning and then I headed up to pre-ride the top part of the course.  The colors are just amazing this year.  After my ride I headed down to take a little swim and try out my new Xterra wetsuit!  I am super excited about getting a new wetsuit but I was a little worried that it might be a touch too big.  Friday afternoon was Ashlyn’s race day and she was pretty pumped up.  We headed over to the race expo and got her signed up and then I went to get my packet and it just so happened that we had the same race number!  How fun!  Anyway, she did her bike race then had a shave ice to refuel before her run!  She was super excited when she crossed and told me she passed 2 people and then asked if she could do one more race!

I got a little pre race message cause my hips were feeling soo tight and then we headed back for a relaxing dinner and evening at the hotel room.

Race day came and we were up and at it to go set up transition and get ready to go. 

Swim  32:39  30^th female

So I was slightly distracted the gun went off for the pros and I was noticing that a handful of the green caps (Age-groupers) went off with the pros.  They were supposed to wait with….boom!  Oh yeah, that is my go!  Off I went into the swirling kicking chaos.  It was a bit of a mad house to the first bouy I almost had to start throwing feet and elbows to get people off.  Once around the first bouy I found some space and tried to get into a good rhythm.  I had worked on my swim a lot this offseason and I have been frustrated all season because I haven’t been able to see any results from that.  But today it is all good because I have a new wetsuit and that is definitely the ticket!  The swim seemed a little long but I was happy to notice as I was swimming in that I was swimming right with a pink cap (pro woman) so that made me feel like things were going all right.  Ran though transition and onto the bike.

Bike 1:48.18  16^th Female, 7^th Amateur, 2^nd AG

I got on my bike and tried to get my cold legs moving.  I always have quite a few people to pass as I head up wheeler canyon because I am a little slower on the swim.   Legs were feeling cold and heavy which is fairly normal for this race since it is a cool morning and cool swim.  I usually just get the lags going and then work out of it fairly quickly but today it seemed a little more than normal and it really wasn’t working out.  I was still catching and passing people but my legs just weren’t quite feeling great.  One girl in my Age-group passed me in the first canyon.  I wanted to stay with her but the legs were not havin it.  I was a little discouraged because she didn’t catch me till the very top last year. For the top portion of the course I just had no idea where in the field I was.  I felt like I was out there all alone and hadn’t seen many of the people I usually see out there.  I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad and I just tried to keep pushing my legs were actually feeling a tiny bit better by that point.  I came over the top of the course and began the short descent and saw the girl who won my age-group last year.  That gave me a little boost that I wasn’t completely out of it as I passed her and tried to put as much time as I could to hold her off on the run! 

It definitely did not feel like my best bike but it still wasn’t horrible.  This time is a little slower than last year and I know that I can ride that course faster had I been feeling on top of it. 

Run 57:19  36^th woman,  26^th amateur

Here it is my Achilles heel of Xterra racing. Especially this year since I had such little running early on trying to get my ankle healed up.  Transition went smooth and I was climbing that monster hill up the mountain. After I got onto the single track I actually felt pretty good for the first couple miles of the run. But that was all then legs started cramping and I was back to the low.  But I just kept fighting to keep running.  Sure enough, Maia, my other age-group competitor passed me about mile 3 on the run.  I was happy I held her off that long but now I knew that I had to dig deep to hold off the one I passed on the bike to have a chance of getting on the podium.  Just kept repeating Isaiah 40:31 “..They will run and not grow weary..” J Made it to the last climb and as I rounded the corner I took one last look back to know I held the others off because my right quad was cramping bad.  Then I saw my crew’s smiling faces cheering me in and had to run over and give Ashlyn a big high five as ran down to the finish. 

So, It was a rough day but not terrible I think I fought pretty hard while not feeling the best.  With that, I was happy to get on the podium 3^rd in my Age group behind my super fast competitors and book my spot for Maui.  I was 21^st overall woman. 

It turned out to be a great and successful weekend!  Thanks Ogden and Xterra for another great US Nationals.

Unfortunately, I am not sure that I will be able to make the trip to Maui this year.  After the move we are very low on funds.  Unless someone has some extra room for me to stay!  I would love to go and race but it is not always possible.  I will be back.

Thanks so much to all my awesome support this year! 

Bolle Eyewear, MORF Racing, Totally Wired Cyclery and Niner Bikes!  Rooepic headbands for keeping me stylish and making awesome headware for those long runs!  Mara Pacyga at Elevate Pilates and physical therapy, I miss you!  Keith Sanders at Beaver Sports helping to make sure my Niner fit right!

Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Xterra World Championships 2011

I have been looking forward to this all year! I qualified back in April and have been building for a strong performance on the world’s biggest stage for off-road multisport.  Drew was unable to make the trip to Hawaii with me this year but my brother-in-law so kindly used some miles to get my sister a ticket and we had a mom’s getaway, oh, and race!  We flew on the Thursday before the race and I was hoping to get over and get out on the bike course for a pre-ride.  However, by the time we got bags and got through the line for our car and got over to the race venue I only had about 10 minutes to get on the course.  That was not likely to happen, so we just checked into our place and I went out for a little run to get my body going after all the travel.  I was a little disappointed because I would have rather done the pre ride 3 days out rather than 2 days before. Friday morning I headed to check out this new bike course.  I had heard all kinds of reports so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  There was a lot of climbing but it was nice because it was shorter climbs with a lot of different stuff in between including all sorts of environs and terrain.  The longest sustained climb was about 7 miles in bringing you up to the high point of the course and then sending you down a long fast descent.  I liked the course and was pretty excited for this change.  Saturday was a pretty relaxed day, I headed over for a swim at DT Fleming beach.  The water was calm and I was hoping that it would remain that way and the storm with the 7ft swells they were calling for would hold off till after the race.  After some pointers from my coach and a few practice ocean starts with Michael Stone, I headed back for big breakfast then checked out the bike to make sure it was dialed and ready and then it was just resting up and preparing for the big day. 

 

Sunday Oct. 23 Xterra World Championships

Got up and had my nice pre-race breakfast (eggs, with sweet potatoes, a fruit smoothie and, of course coffee) and headed over to transition on my bike to get my legs spinning.

Set up transition waited in the long line for body marking and got ready to go! Jumped in the water for a little swim warm-up and then found my spot on the beach and waited expectantly for the cannon to blow.  BOOM!

Swim- 30:54   63/170 Women  11/25 Age-group  38 /145 Amatuer

It is always fun to run into the ocean and start swimming with 650 people.  A lot of bumping and kicking and pretty much chaos, but the nice thing about the ocean is there is a lot of room to spread out, that is, until you get to the buoy.  I thought I was getting into a good pace and groove and going right toward the first bouy but when I got out there I was pretty far inside because of the current.  I came into the mass of crazy swimmers and an angry lady on a surf board yelling at everyone to get around the bouy! I had to join the mass chaos of treading water to get around it.  After that I felt like I was able to find a good rhythm again and I felt pretty good. You have to do two 750 meter laps with a short beach run in between.  The whole first lap I was happy to find that I could see pink caps (pro women) right in front of me the whole way.  I pushed a little through the second lap and thought that I had a decent swim.  I was annoyed that my goggles had leaked a little so my eyes were burning with salt water the whole time!  I exited the water and ran up to transition to find out how things really had gone. 

Bike- 1:45:20  19/170 Women  2/25 Age-group   4/145 Amatuer

Hot climbs!

I didn’t have a very fast transition but I wanted to make sure that I was ready for a hot bike ride!  I headed out and found that I was in the train with tons of people!  I did expect this and knew it was going to be a little frustrating because the first three miles have some spots that I knew would get clogged up with riders having trouble. The course was not technical by my standards but it is mostly single-track leaving little room to get around all the people who it may seem more technical for.  One comes off, and then everyone gets backed up and comes off!  This is where bike skills really come in if you can do it all really slow behind everyone!  This is also when I realized that I must not have had a great swim after all because I was passing a lot of girls right away and continued to the whole time!  Every chance I got to scoot around people I took and then I hit it hard on the last long climb around mile 7 knowing I had a great downhill to follow and I really didn’t want to get stuck behind anyone because this is where I am able to gain some more ground.  Some sections here were a little scary because you would be bombing downhill and then into a cloud of dust and could not see a thing!   I made sure to get in plenty of water and nutrition.  I had two flasks of EFS for bike and run and it was great!  All in all I had a good bike I felt good and was hoping I gave it enough.  I knew I would have to dig deep on the run and I started preparing my mind in the last mile of the bike.

Run- 56:34   26/170 Women  3/25 Age-group  13/145 Amateur

After another fairly slow transition I came out right behind a girl in my age group who I had just passed at the end of the bike.  I tried to focus in on my run form and tell myself that I can run and I can pass people!  I have found I lack confidence in my run and I have to change my mindset at the beginning. I started a little conservatively to get the legs rolling in a new way and was surprised to find that I was feeling pretty good.  I passed the girl right ahead of me and set my sights on the next female up the way, a pro.  Very soon I caught her as well.  I was so excited to be passing people on the run!  I just continued like this and kept passing more men.  The run course pretty much goes up for 3.5 miles and then back down to the beach and is filled with twisty turny trail through tight forests. Right at the top of the run Maia (champion for my age-group) caught me.  We had a short friendly exchange then she raced away like it was nothing.  She is a fantastic runner and I was just trying to keep her in my sights as long as possible.  Shortly after a short climb a nice guy gave me a little push as I passed and encouraged me on that I was “3!”  I was hoping that meant 3^rd and not 3 in front of me.  I raced down the course with the fear of being caught again by the last girl in my age group that I had passed. I did not want a repeat of last year when I lost 6 places on the run.  I hit the beach and knew that I had to keep digging near the end I got into the cheering path of Kathy Tank!  She cheered me on like no other and then I hit the last grassy hill a grueling final climb to the finish and gave it all I had.  I got passed right on the last corner by a 15-year-old, grr.  This was, however, by far my best run in an Xterra yet!  I was very happy with my race. 

Grueling long slow run up the beach

Finish 3:16:19   21/170 Women  3/25 Age-group 30-34  8/145 Amateur Women

Nice and dirty

I was pleased to find that I had made my goal of a podium finish at World Championships!  I was third in my Age-group, 8^th amateur, and 21^st woman! Not bad. I am very happy with how things turned out but I am a competitive athlete so I always want more.  Now I keep thinking how I will be faster next time. 

Too bad I kept looking somewhere else and not into the lights.

Season Wrap

It has been a good season!  I won all but one of the mountain bike races taking the overall title.  I took a number of 2^nd place finishes at Xterra South Central Championships, Mountain Championships, Moab, and Indian Peaks.  A very strong and close race at US Nationals for a 4^th place finish and now culminating the season with a podium finish at World Championships.  It has been good but an Xterra win has again eluded me.  I’ll be back.

I have so many to say thanks to this season!  A big thanks to my coach, Jared Berg, who helped me make huge improvements this year! My brother Erik for helping push me through those hard runs.  My sponsors Real Estate of Winter Park for the Epic Single Track Series, Winter Park Competition Center helped me get to worlds and they put on the best mountain bike series in Colorado that has helped me develop my bike racing skills.  I had an awesome time racing with MORF racing this season, the first team I have been on. Thanks Newton for the amazing running shoes, Maxxis tires, Redstone Cyclery and First Endurance.  Huge thanks to Dave at Bolle Eyewear for the awesome shades! Marie Koepke is amazing with reflexology and Mara Pacyga the best PT!  Also, thanks to Amy at Bella Vita.  There are so many friends to thank for your encouragement and support those who come out and cheer and those who just give words of encouragement.  Special thanks to Sarka for helping me with some equipment, amazing!  And thanks Keith for the bike box.

Most importantly I need to thank my family for their sacrifices.  My husband and daughter are amazing and they put up with all my training and weekends racing.  My mom, for all the hours she spends with Ashlyn making it possible for me to get out for some quality workouts.  You are the best! 

*If you would like to see more results you can check it out here. 

*Go take a look at the course for yourself in the highlight video here.

Xterra US National Championships

Heading into this race I have been feeling good and motivated and ready to race! I had high hopes, looking for a win! My season has been full of 2nd places in Xterra and I was ready to change that.

My race crew (Ashlyn, my mom, my niece, and I) headed out on Thursday morning bright and early for our long drive to Ogden. It went alright but I had hoped to arrive about an hour earlier than we did but it was no big deal. We drove straight up to Snowbasin on the way into Ogden so I could hop on the bike and ride the new section of the course. It was a good ride. I was feeling great and having alot of fun thinking it was great. But then I realized that they took anything that had been remotely technical for the mountain bike course out to make it even less technical than before. This generally does not bode well for me. I like a course that requires some bike handling skills. When I got to the top I had to make myself slow down and take in the amazing views because I knew I wouldn't do it the next time I was there. I love riding here this time of year!
After the ride we went and got some dinner and made some stops which put us checking in a little late. But we did get upgraded when I checked in which gave us a great room at Ben Lamond which is right next to the race expo area. Perfect location and very nice and comfortable!
Friday we enjoyed the wonderful breakfast included at the hotel then I headed out to get in a little swim and a quick run. Friday was race day for Ashlyn, after registering and getting a hair cut with Paul Mitchell I had to get her over for her race. However, she was sleeping pretty late and almost missed her race. It would be okay but she had been so excited about racing for over a week! She made it just in time and had a great bike!

"This is what Xterra is all about"

Race Day
Race morning came with a lot of extra hype surrounding the race because Lance came out to play. Yes, that is right, 7-time Tour de France winner himself decided to give Xterra a try. It wasn't hard to find him all day. It was fun to have so many more people around lining the course.

Swim --  26/89 women 12/72 amateur women 5th Age-group
The water felt good even a little warmer when I stepped in than it felt outside. For the first time in this race the pros got their own start wave 30sec ahead of us. I found a spot to start my swim which was similar to what had worked for me last year. The swim was difficult on the way out you have to swim directly into the sun and it is impossible to see anything. I felt pretty good besides the jam of jostling and kicking around the bouys I felt like I was able to find some space and swim at a good pace. I know my swim has improved alot this year but it is hard to know where you are coming out. When I got into transition I was happy to see some ladies I knew were faster than me just getting in too. I sped through and hurried to my favorite portion.

Bike 15/89 women 4/72 amateur 3 Age group
My game plan was to get the legs moving on the road out and then find my best climbing and hit the bike hard the rest of the way and hopefully catch some of the pro women ahead of me. It seemed like it took my legs a little longer than I would have liked to really fell good but I was passing people in no time and figured I must be towards the top of the women based on peoples cheering as I came by. I definitely favor a course that takes some skill on a mountain bike which this course did not have. The course was beautiful though! We climbed out from the swim at 4900 ft up to the top of the Sardine peak trail topping out about 7300 ft and then a fun fast descent into transtion at 6400. So very little downhill which I consider a strength! I was feeling strong but was chagrined when a girl in my age group passed right near the top. Didn't see that one coming. I was able to catch her on the descent but she pulled away on the short climb back to transition. I knew then that I had my work cut out for me on the run. This course convinced me that I would love to have a 29er in my race tools. Every amateur that beat me on the bike was on a 29er and this course was perfect for one... smooth gradual climb.

Run 25/89 women 12/72 amateur 4 Age group
As I headed out on the run I knew that I was going to have to push it. This has always been my weakness. I had a good transition as I slipped on my Newton racers for their first race! I could see the two girls ahead of me and just wanted to catch them. On my way up the first big climb on the run I was told that I was the 5th woman. Really? So, I ran. I did notice that all the camera men on the run where scuring around in front of me and really into taking pictures of the man in front of me. They would click and then pick up and run without taking my photos. I thought it somewhat interesting. Then I passed him and realized why...It was the bachelor Ryan Sutter. I could see the girl in front of me the whole time but could not quite muster enough to catch her. All I knew is that Maia, who has beat me all season was behind me and I was just hoping to hold her off. As, I descended the new part of the run which used to be on the bike I was feeling excited that I was almost there. I came to the end where we rounded the single track to climb about 50 meters up the steep road and then down to the finish. Right before I rounded the turn Maia passed me and I had nothing more to catch her. She got me by 10 secs. knocking me into 4th for my Age group.

Overall I came in 6th Overall, 4th in my Age-group. Not quite the win I was looking for but it was a great race. I knew that I raced strong and it was just amazing that we were all so close. I was less than 4 minutes out of 1st overall on a 3 hour course. That is tight to have the top 6 women that close! The next amateur woman was 5 minutes behind that. Now that is some good racing in the top women!

So now I sit with a mix of emotions being happy with my improvement and performance but also disappointed that it wasn't just a couple minutes better. This is the first time I look at the results and feel like my run time is comparable with the top girls. Thus, I am now fired up for my final push of the season as I gear up for Worlds in Maui on October 23th.

Below (other post) is the fun highlight video of the race and I made the cut! About 6:09 into the video you see me.

Xterra Highlight video

Check out 6:09!

Getting Ready

Well we have been trying to make the most of the warm days we have left! It has gotten pretty cool here in the mountains but we did have some fun. On Labor Day we took Ashlyn out for some singletrack on her Strider. We weren't really sure how it would go. Well...she loved it! She was a natural and took it right up over rocks and balancing down the hills. She really didn't want to stop.
Posted some video of the riding on my facebook page.

She is also getting ready to run, run, run. There is a kids bike and run event at Xterra Nationals and Ashlyn is pretty excited. She is also excited for the trip to go and cheer for Mommy.
As for me... it is about a week out and I am feeling pretty good. Ready to race! Also, jsut found out that we will be racing with Lance Armstrong that should make it a even more exciting!

Epic Series Finale!

Well, last weekend concludes my mountain bike races for this season. Saturday was the King of the Rockies Tipperary race which is the final race of the Epic Single Track Series. This has always been one of my favorite courses too! I had been leading the series with 4 wins and 2 second place finishes. This series overall takes your top five finishes so I was hoping for another win today so I could take the overall with a perfect score.
It was a beautiful morning for a race and I was excited to get going. We started out good and I got into a good climbing pace on the lower part of Tipperary. Once I got to the point I knew I could pick up the pace for the top part I finished passing the last couple Expert women that I was following and then it was time to try and work my way up in the Pro field. I was able to pass a few more and ended up 5th overall and won the Expert field by a decent margin.
I was very happy with my season here in the Winter Park series! Looks like I will be bumping up to Pro next year for the series...yikes.
Just wanted to send a huge Thank you to my main sponsor for this series Real Estate of Winter Park and also to Bolle Eyeware for providing me with some awesome shades!

Xterra Indian Peaks

Okay, I know that I am a little behind and this race report is a little overdue!
I raced Xterra Indian Peaks in Eldora on Aug 6! I have to say that this is one of my favorite Xterra courses! It is a time trial swim start which makes it feel so much nicer! It is hard to know where you stand the entire race but it is so much less hectic. This year the wind did not start whipping like last year either and that made for a wonderful swim around the little lake even though I found myself swimming really wide and probably a little further than I wanted. Upon exiting the swim you have to throw on some shoes and run quite a ways up to the transition area. This is not the reason this is my favorite course, but I do it to get to the next part.

I had a good transition and jumped on my bike, this is the second and biggest reason I love this course! Alot of fun fast single track! This bike course favors my skills a little better than most Xterra courses in the fact that it is mostly single track and there is a small technical downhill section. I was out there having fun on the bike and was able to burn through my two laps and find that I had caught one of the pro women that started ahead of me and I was able to put down the 3rd fastest bike split, fastest amateur! I threw on my Newtons and headed out on the run with another good transition. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for the pro to pass me again on the run. The run course is also very fun with great single track but that also means it is rough making me slightly weary with my still healing ankle. My running is just still not up to par after my early season injuries and the training lost. I was able to maintain a second place Age Group finish and 6th Overall despite losing 6 minutes to many people on the run.
Now I am trying to get that running pace going for Nationals!
My in-laws also made there way out to Colorado to visit for a little while and there showed up here and were waiting at the finish with big smiles alongside my mom and Drew! Of course, Ashlyn is always there with a big smile and hug too after cheering hard. I think she actually gets it now when I pass and I have been able to hear her sweet little voice, "Go, Mommy, go!" That's a great pick me up! It was a great day with some relaxing in the grass post race!