Madone Flavor of the Day

Part two. Isn't she pretty?

Madone Flavor of the Day

Here is my most recent creation.

Christmas

Dear Santa,

Please bring me this.

What Bridget has been up to

Here is what I have been up too:

1) Looking for jobs in Graphic Design that do not exist right now. Trying to decide between going back to school or sticking it out. Starting a freelance gig on monday.

2) Running. A lot. Trail running is fun. I love to be able to just throw on some clothes and go. Still in love with my Montrail /Continental Divide™ GTX/ running shoes. Wish I could afford a new pair now as I have put a lot of miles on my current pair. No other shoe I have ever tried has kept my feet completely dry in the slush and snow. Man, I wish they made a cyclocross shoe.

3) Perfecting the chocolate chip cookie.

4) Reading the Omnivore's Dilemma. Certainly a good read for those interested in nutrition, farming, slow food, etc.

5) Dreaming of a Seven Cycles cyclocross frame. Dreaming of dry mountain bike trails and those warm summer days.

Coach + Power Meter = Faster

Here is a great excerpt from a VeloNews article (I couldn't agree more!):

Having a coach helps: This is another no-brainer, but it was all new to me. The obvious benefit is the guidance of someone smarter than you — and I expected that. But the unexpected part was the motivation that came from the relationship. Even if your mom, dad, wife, kids, friends and dog don’t give a bleep about how you did in the Wednesday night office park crit, your coach will. This may sound corny, but it really meant something to me. We all need fans.

Power meters also really help: I know they’re a serious investment, especially when you’d rather get a new pair of Zipps — or just spend your money on something besides bike shit. But denying their usefulness is like longing for the days when phones had cords. Used properly, power meters can help maximize training time, provide data that a coach can use to design future workouts, and give you a very specific indication of what you’re doing on the bike. Ten years from now, they’ll be as common as water bottle cages.

Both investments have been great for me. If anyone needs a great coach shoot me an email (male athletes only! :0))

CX Wrap-up

My season came to a close at the final Cap City race. When the weather gets cold I loose my motivation to race. I still like riding in the cold I just can't seem to muster up the motivation to push myself really hard. So, my season ended in my worst finish of the season 6/10. I made a pretty big mistake by not warming up enough and although I got the early "holeshot" my legs quickly filled with junk and I was spun off the back. Ouch. The rest of the race I rode like a big baby. My season overall went pretty good, I would have liked to have had a win but I'll take the upgrade as it will set me up to get even faster and stronger next year.

Big time kudos to Andy J for really putting together an awesome series. Putting on races is a somewhat thankless job and involves a lot of labor so thanks again Andy.

So, fast forward to 2009 and I am setting up my evil, secret, training plan. My plan for next year though is to travel a little more and hit some more 12 Hour / Marathon races. I seem to enjoy those races the most. In the meantime, my new powertap computer came back, (thanks Saris) and I'll be running and working the very neglected core muscles.

Pure Bike Porn

She is a beauty. 20 lbs. of dualie goodness. I was looking forward to riding it but pounding rain & wind necessitated the cancelation of the demo day at England Idlewild Park. I guess I'll have to wait until spring to ride this beauty.

I'm looking forward to 2009 and hoping to do a few more endurance races. That is always my plan but it seems to get crushed by the reality that endurance racing can be really expensive and ultra time consuming. Right now I am helping a certain race director with the NUE sponsorship/marketing proposal so I suppose that is why I have been bitten by the bug. My goal this year is to kick off the season with the Cohutta 100K.

My final CX race will be this weekend. I am a fair weather CX racer and this last few cold weather races are killing me. I'm sorta glad this is the last one.

CX Racing

It has been a little while since I updated the old blog. I have been busy searching for a new job and trying to train hard until early December when we are taking a little vacation. With my future so uncertain it is hard to focus on racing. I thought a C2 upgrade would give me some confidence but instead it has left me a bit confused. Should I pursue the cycling thing with vigor? Some days I think I could ride forever, that I'd be content riding bikes and working part-time jobs to make ends meet. Should I pursue my design career for a while and put cycling on the back burner? Uggh, it is driving me nuts.
Racing cyclocross has been fun this year. I am more fit now than I have ever been. I having been racing around at like 80-90% but I can't seem to make the mental leap to dig deep. Thus, I haven't won a single race. I have finished top 3 in all of my races except for one. Now is the time to gun it & go for it. I have two more chances in the OVCX to score a win.

Cat 2!

Well, it is official, I'm a category 2 cyclocross racer. Yeah, that means I'm sorta good, sorta an elite racer. It means I won't have to worry about signing up next year when I do some bigger races. I'll be racing with a class made up of mostly pros.

Pretty crazy that my cyclocross season has been really great while my MTB season left a lot to be desired. Now, if I could only win a CX race...not many more chances.

My new Madone?

Trek has launched the new Project One site. It is an absolute blast to get on the site and to configure your dream ride.

Here is what I came up with.

Cap City #4 Lobdell Frisbee Park

Yesterday we joined the 7 Hills gang for a carpool up to Columbus for the Cap City race. WIth a majority of the crew doing the B and C races we left bright and early at 8am from the mall parking lot. This meant James and I had to get up a 6:30 that morning. Yikes!

James did the C race, flatted twice, then did pretty good in the B race and then sat in for the A race. He was certainly under the influence of "3 race" Dan Ramsey. Needless to say, he is also nuts about cyclocross. I have created a hurdling monster. The 7 hills crew faired well with numerous podium finishes from Susan, Jeni, Mike, etc.

The good news was that I had PLENTY of time to warm-up and to pre-ride the course. The course was at a frisbee golf park so there were was some good elevation change. I tend to have good races when there are some decent run-ups and some tight corners. The start was fine for me, I was riding exactly where I wanted to be, in the top 3. After the first hurdles I settled into second. At the run-up though I could really lay on the gas. I'm not quite sure why but for me the skill of running with the bike is something I can do exceptionally well. Too bad run-ups are often rare in CX races. Anyhow, so the rest of the race involved me and Julie Sroka going back and forth. She would catch me on the shorter rises, I'd catch her everytime on the run-up and in the corners. A late race acceleration by Julie and the second to last lap left me feeling a bit flat but I made up some good time and finished only 2-3 sec. down. Always a bridesmaid.

The course was fun, payouts for us ladies were pretty great, the veggie dog cart was a nice touch, so I'm super psyched for the next few races. Big time thanks to my pal Andy Johnson and crew for putting on another great race.

Cincinnati UCI CX Festival

This weekend was huge for Cincinnati with 3 UCI Cyclocross events; 2 C2 races and one C1 race. I decided I'd be doing 2/3 with a day of "rest" between the events. I was able to support my two friends doing their voluntary race promotion; Nick Tinsler (Darkhorse Cycling, Cyclostampede) and Mitch Graham (Biowheels, C1 Race). A big thanks goes out to those guys (and their entire teams) for working their butts off to get the races together. It is no small task and I'm sure all those behind it would rather be riding rather than figuring out where to lay the caution tape.

Friday's event set the tone for the weekend and was a lot of fun. I decided to forgo the $60 charge for a UCI license and raced the 3/4's instead. I am licensed as a 3 until I can get my 1/2 upgrade. With a lot of accomplished racers also signed up I was going to get some good competition. I had nearly 10 racers in my class. The start was pretty fast and I was feeling pretty sore from Thursday and I fell back to like 5th before climbing back up to 3rd. My friend Teri and I went back and forth and we finally started to make some time on 4th on the final lap when Teri surged ahead. I came up a bit short at the end of the race on the sprint and finished 3rd. The course was a bit narly. I don't mind that so much but when it is rut after rut after rut it takes a toll on the body.

Saturday my husband James & I spent our time at Harbin helping to get the course set-up. We put up a lot of steaks and caution tape. I think I picked up like 1,000 twigs and stuff off the ground up there.

Sunday was a big field for me. I started with 23 other women in my class. I got a pretty good start; in the top 5. I lost a few spots and then quickly gained them back. I at one point was riding in 2nd and saw 1st place rider Nicole starting to fade a bit. I needed another 15 min that I didn't have in the 30 min. race. I was happy to finish in the top 3 though. I'm consistent, that is for sure.

The Women's / Men's elite races were really fun to watch. The Katie Compton/Georgia Gould duel was exciting to watch. The highlight though was yesterday when it came down to a sprint finish between Powers/Bishop. Bishop, came up short with a broken chain and had to run it in. I think if not for that mechanical he would have won it.

A big thanks goes out to Lane at the Trek Store for helping me get the tubeless set-up ready. It was without a doubt VERY helpful this weekend.

Cap City #2

Well it was another sweet event put on by my own team, per usual my buddy Andy Johnson made it happen. Chris, the guy who sponsors my sorry behind was also there, of course he arrived in style in a giant green monster truck. It looks like a blast to drive.

It was also my hubby, James' first race ever! He crushed it coming in 9/out of 20 something. He was out there riding his little behind off every lap. He looked solid on the hurdles and he was riding nice & aggressive. He is hooked on racing now - awesome!

I had a good race trading places with a few other women & making it to the last sprint finish where I made the horrible mistake of trying to shift my Sram equipped cyclocross bike like my shimano equipped road bike. DUH! Ah well, I'll get it next time. I did score a few points for my cx upgrade. I'm a point short of halfway. The next few races it looks like I'll be focusing mearly on not getting lapped as some super fast women will be coming into town.

On a side note; USA cycling announced some new cats for MTB racing. I'll be a C1. No more semi-pro limbo land category for the men.

Ever wondered?

I have been looking online for the past few months for some other female cyclists powerfiles. Needless to say, I could not find much. So, I got a spam mail from Saris which I sometimes read, sometimes just delete. Well, in there is an article and some powerfiles posted by a female road pro:

http://www.saris.com/athletes/PermaLink,guid,2a6ff413-a939-4a3e-bf64-0d1422602f4f.aspx

Sorry, blogger is screwed up today or I'd make it a real link.

My Cyclocross Weekend

OH man am I whipped today! I did the double; with two days of kick ass cyclocross racing in Ohio. My husband James joined me for the fun in Columbus, starting with the Cap City Cyclocross Series, and then Loveland for the Ohio Valley Cyclocross Series.

The Cap City race was nearly 2 hours away but well worth the drive. The course was tough, real tough. The temps hit well around 80, the ground was still tacky, and of course there was like 100% humidity. I'm not a big sweaty person but just warming up I was sweating buckets. We lined up with 7 women, which is a good turnout for us ladies. My teammate Amanda crushed the start, just totally hammering into the singletrack section. She was off the front fast with 2 other ladies not far behind. I rode as hard as I could but my legs felt flat and I think I was underfueled. I bonked pretty hard about halfway and was pretty miserable for the rest of the race. Leah and I traded places a bunch of times but I could never manage to crank it up a notch. I finished 4/7 and my teammate Amanda rode strong into 1st. Yeah A!

The next day I was hurtin when I woke up. I couldn't eat, I was really dehydrated and just lacked energy. My husband was going to try to make the C4 race so we ran around in the morning but ended up getting there pretty late. Some snags at the registration made him even later. So, he decided not to race. He will however, make his debut at the Alum Creek race. That left me with plenty of time to warm up. So I cruised around on the loveland bike trail at like 10 mph just warming up ever so slow. I still felt crappy though and I almost sat the race out. I figured I'd try to get in a few laps and if I didn't feel good I'd just DNF...well, all the sudden I felt really good. I hit some of the hurdles and made some gaps and then made some more gaps on the big monster hill. I found myself in 2nd for a lap or two. Wow, it was really surreal. Amanda and I rode together a lot with the Biowheels Amanda not far back and Leah not far back either. Bio Amanda made a move in the last lap and my energy went from high to bonk and I was lucky to finish 3rd. Amanda, my teammate came in 4th. Sweet. Actually, I thought we had snagged 2nd & 3rd but someone had gone off the front early on. I thought we had passed her. Oh well, I was happy with 3rd.

The mens 1/2 race was totally insane - a windstorm whipped through and the poor guys were spending 99% of the time just trying to stay upright. We are without power in our house still since some trees ripped out the power lines. Insane.

What is there to like about Cyclocross?

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is a race promoter and endurance racer. He was scratching his head trying to figure out why someone would choose a cyclocross race over a mountain bike race. Good question. I was scratching my head over that one too. Then I came up with the reasons l do like cyclocross:

1) The races are short therefore you can usually make it home in time to actually get household chores done, or spend time with the family.

2) Our local series requires a lot less driving time. At the most I'll spend 2 hours in the car to get to a race. Not bad; if I want some good MTB competition I have to drive 6-7 hours down south. Otherwise I'm racing the same women I have raced 1,000x's before.

3) Spectator friendly...unlike a MTB race friends or family can see you pass by every ten minutes or so.

4) Skillz - for those of us who after like 4-5 years of cyclocross have mastered the barriers and run-ups it actually starts to get fun when you can make gaps.

5) The Cap City Cyclocross series is super awesome to us women. Discounted entries, awesome paybacks, makes it a series I'll be following for sure. My friend Andy also designed a kick-ass series leader jersey. My sponsor is also the series sponsor and will be raffling away a Trek X01 cyclocross bike at the end of the series. NICE!

Well, that is my little rant. Bring on the cowbell!

PS - I did get my Xo2 and she is sweet. Only 18 lbs. stock. Awesome. Rival = awesome. Race XLite wheels = sweetness.

Caesar Creek - A race gone terribly right

Wow! What can I say about Caesar Creek other than I was darn lucky that day. I let the other women take the early lead because I know the trail so well I knew a super hard start wasn't a great tactic. I held it nice steady from the start and rode pretty easy behind 2nd place for the first few miles. Rather than take an aggressive pass I rode a bike length or 2 behind. Sure enough, on the first technical section she slipped up enough for me to crank it up a notch and put in a gap. When riding at Caesar Creek it is such an advantage to know the trail and to know when to shift, how to pick the lines, and what junk is just better to walk. It was also important that day to stay cool as temps were in the 90s. Thankfully, I decided the night before to fill the Camelbak up with 2X's the energy drink and then I threw it in the freezer. Cold, strong energy drink = one cool Bridget.

Anyhow, back to the race, I passed Christina on the next creek crossing. Then she passed me on the second root section. Then I passed her no less than 10 sec. later! Hilarious! We were both laughing about how narly the trail was. So, I guess sometime soon after Christina broke a chain. She didn't have the tools to fix it so she had to wait by the side of the trail until someone offered up some tools. Man, she has bad luck. I think that is the 4-5 race where something like that has happened to her bike.
After the last pass, I found myself surprisingly in first for the first lap. My hubby James was there which was awesome. He was a great cheerleader. My lead stayed strong for the rest of the race and I won my first OMBC race ever! Sweet! It was a pretty darn good feeling. Biowheels put up some awesome paybacks for the expert winners! 2x's sweeter! Thanks guys.

CX Time again...

There is some great racing planned for this fall in the greater Cincinnati area. The highlight will be the 3 day CX festival in Oct. 10-12.

More details are here.

Equal payouts for the Elite Men / Elite Women. Now that is what I'm talking about.

24 Hours of 9 Mile

It is on - and being shown in realtime. Not even 12 hours into the race and the solo men's leaders have already hit 156 miles! Holy Cow!

Go Eatough!

The link is here.

Bring on the Cowbell!

All you readers out there (all two of you). I need your help. Please help me convince my sweet, wonderful, very handsome husband that I need this cyclocross bike.