The Joy of Mountain Biking

[SQUAREWHEELS]

Sooo... @Santapez has been bugging me about posting my race recaps here instead of just facebook. so here ya go. it'll be a repeat for some of you. i'll start with the most recent (and most verbose) one and work my way backwards for now. This is my first year in Cat 2 so most of this is just getting my ass kicked and learning from it. (language may not suitable for children under 13)

Wawayanda Spring Cleaning Race

Pre-race: i got no sleep. i am super tired. @Santapez 's knee is bothering him so i also have to drive to the race. it's about an hour and by the time i get to the park i have to pee... badly... i park and run towards the bathrooms when i hear rod calling to me... huh? "the bathrooms are closed." i turn around and see the chains and closed signs that i was totally blind to before. awesome.

i go back to the car and start to put my gear and bug spray on so i can bike over to the other bathrooms. i realize i should put my backpack with my wallet and stuff in the trunk... wait. where's my backpack?! FUUUUUCK. now i'm tired and i have to pee and i'm worried i did something stupid like leave my backpack in the condo parking lot and drive off. this is not how i wanted to start my day.

i finally make it over to the other bathrooms, run into @2Julianas and @muddybike and chit chat (and most importantly take care of business). i finally get over to registration and get my number. chill out for a bit... and decide to ride the beginning portion of the race to warm up. and then i realize it's all road. a mile and half or so of road. awesome. sprint start.

i get back from riding a bit and they announce a delay. this is not the awesome start i was envisioning.

race: we finally line up. i have a lovely mix of sleep deprivation and anxiety. they blow the horn. i sprint off with the pack. i keep up with them for a little bit and then realize it's not worth it. i'm sure someone got the awesome start shot for facebook (priorities). i'm cool with that and back off a little. head into the woods. and i begin the rock torture game.

i know i'm not as fast as the other ladies and i decide to just go slow and try to go as smooth as possible. i make it through the first loop fairly cleanly albeit slow as shit. make it to the start area where the course loops back in the other direction and start the larger of the two loops (imagine a figure 8 of sorts). More rocks. and rocks. and rocks. i think this course might be the hardest one yet. since no one's around i don't have to worry about picking less desirable lines or getting in anyone's way. i just go at my own speed. and, for the most part, i don't get too tangled up. for now anyway.

cat 1 folks actually have to do this loop twice and they come up on me a lot sooner than i would have liked. sooo... i just get the fuck out of their way. a few people i don't know and then @UtahJoe ... utah at race pace barreling down on you with the whole jersey unzipped and sweating and stuff... very scary stuff. i REALLY get the fuck out of his way.

since some of this is the same as the cat 3 course from last year, i recognize it and feel a little better knowing i've done it before. i try all the rock gardens i can muster and get thru a decent chunk of them. until about mile 7. and then fatigue really is starting to catch up. and i am sore. and slow. and starting to get sloppy. and sloppy is dangerous so there's a few spots i walk just to get a mental restart and to not wind up in the ER.

every one who passes me is nice... even encouraging. i think they understand the suffer-fest. i'm closing in on mile 10 and i'm having a little trouble with a hill so i move over and let the guy behind me pass... he tells me just over the hill and i'm home free. whew. then i get to the hill. FUCK! i forgot about *that* hill.

i make myself try and i get about half way and i say forget it. i couldn't make it last year and i'm too tired right now.

i eventually make it back to the start/congregating area and everyone's standing there and they cheer for me as i come thru... even tho i'm hitting the 2 hour mark and totally DFL... i feel like a celebrity

and i make it up the last little blip of a hill for the official finish.

the end. in the mean

(the other recaps are way shorter... i promise)

hahahahahahaha ,,,, absoletly love this story ,, my family bikes (wife , daughter 15, son 8) ...so I can relate to some of this story's struggle in more than one way,,,, example. pulling into the parking lot and immediately having to find restroom for the ladies, !!!! hahhahahaha. keep up the great work ..... I wish I could get my wife to enter just one race , she's a STRONG rider ,, she handles herself well . but I cant convince her to do it ,, knowing she would loooove it . any advice??? in the mean time keep on keeping on

 

[MissJR]

hahahahahahaha ,,,, absoletly love this story... I wish I could get my wife to enter just one race , she's a STRONG rider ,, she handles herself well . but I cant convince her to do it ,, knowing she would loooove it . any advice??? in the mean time keep on keeping on

Glad you like my race recap!

I get asked a lot about getting more women involved in racing and I honestly have no idea. I'd love to have more competition! I need to get my ass kicked so it pushes me to try harder.

Maybe get her to try one race at a place she's comfortable at. Lewis Morris was my very first mountain bike race partly because I'd ridden there a bunch of times and knew more or less what to expect. Plus it's one of the friendlier races in terms of terrain. Hills and roots but nothing in the way of rock gardens and stuff for new racers.

At the very least, tell her to come out to some of the rides the ladies do!!! Calling @sarcaro @Dominique @2Julianas

 

[Stef]

Glad you like my race recap!

I get asked a lot about getting more women involved in racing and I honestly have no idea. I'd love to have more competition! I need to get my ass kicked so it pushes me to try harder.

Maybe get her to try one race at a place she's comfortable at. Lewis Morris was my very first mountain bike race partly because I'd ridden there a bunch of times and knew more or less what to expect. Plus it's one of the friendlier races in terms of terrain. Hills and roots but nothing in the way of rock gardens and stuff for new racers.

At the very least, tell her to come out to some of the rides the ladies do!!! Calling @sarcaro @Dominique @2Julianas

Bring it!! Where you live she can come out w us

 

[MissJR]

so it's 2018. i guess i should update this thread and make some resolutions or some shit. i'm back at work today after having two weeks off and i'm extra grumpy and potty mouthy.

i done gone and officially bought a USA Cycling racing license for 2018. man, that website and app are shitty. apparently i already had a login and license number even though i've never had a license before (save for 1 day licenses)... so after straightening that bullshit out and figuring out what fucking user name i made a million years ago, i bought the license so i can do more races and torture myself in 2018. but then i couldn't log in to the app... and had to reset the password i literally had just reset to log in in the first place. they really need to hire someone to clean that shit up. it seriously made me contemplate just asking for a refund and saying "fuck it" to racing all together. i have a very low tolerance for bullshit websites. and i'm still not done seeing as i need to get "upgraded" to cat 2 for mountain biking since they have me in all cat 3/cat 5 stuff right now. i guess that's just automatic?

i also started a free trial on road trainer. i did a couple of rides under steve's account... mostly cutting the rides short so they didn't save under his profile... but now i have an account and did my first official trainer ride last night. i guess we'll see how this goes. i'd usually just to prefer bundle up and deal with the cold and go for a ride or run outside... but this is just too fucking cold for me. i can't deal with this shit soooo inside for now. at least i can watch old top gear episodes. (i <3 james may!)

and i'm trying to get back into yoga... which goes hand in hand with staying indoors in this weather. i did one class recently and i was super stiff and sore and that's not good. i'm naturally very not flexible but the biking and running make things way worse. my plan (because we all know how well plans really work out... but anyway) is to do a yoga class or two during my lunch break at work and then a class here and there at home interwoven with running and biking/trainer. i expect this to fail miserably. i'm a lazy son of a bitch.

as far as plans for races and events go, here's some stuff i'd like to do this year:

• short track series: part of this depends on weather and if i have to volunteer
• H2H series: hoping to do all of them except for the march mayhem one. i really hate that course and i'm not paying to race it.
• Iron Furnace (25k option): it's wawayanda and it's new and it's something a little longer than i usually do.
• Riverrock Urban Assault (Richmond, Va): i did this one two years ago and it's pretty cool. you get to ride a mix of the trails and city streets and all that. unfortunately, when i did it, the weather was super shitty and they modified the course to help save the trails so i'd like to try it again. (http://www.riverrockrva.com/)
• Girls Guts Glory: if they have it again. i heard rumors it might not happen or that it'll change or something. i guess we'll see.
• Mountain (wo)Man: because i can.
• Cross Races: Hippo (which i didn't do in 2017), Bubble, Apple (if they have it again), Westwood Velo... another possible one would be Town Hall. there's a couple of army west point riders whose asses i want to kick in 2018.

and i'm most likely getting rid of the road bike and getting a cross bike. considering the ADD. but we'll see what happens... there's no rush right now.

 

[Robin]

good stuff here!!!!

I actually tried to renew my USAC license via my Android app and nearly threw the phone/gave up. Ugh. And if you don't see your Cat/upgrade show up within a week, hound them/email. Something wacky like that happened to me last year.

 

[Dominique]

Sounds like a cool plan! I'm going to have to look up some of these events (Iron Furnace) and see if I can't make them too!

Happy New Year!

I guess I need to go renew my USAC license before the price goes up 5$.

 

[MissJR]

...I guess I need to go renew my USAC license...

good luck! i literally just called them and was like "I'M TRYING TO PUT IN FOR THE CHANGE BUT I KEEP GETTING LOOPED BACK TO THE SAME FUCKING PAGE I WAS ON!"

his response: oops.

:/

 

[Santapez]

-I was trying to explain it to Joy, but I think what I heard was something like the shitty outside company that designed the USAC site fucked up and they had to fire them, in the middle of them bringing it in-house. So they ended up prematurely going with their current revised website that connects to the shitty backend, with the shitty app. Or something along those lines.

-Does the Cat even really matter? I mean, unless you're going for points and other people in the categories care. IE, if I registered as Cat 3 in cross and got my ass kicked, nobody would care. If Joy was USAC Cat 3 MTB and won Cat 2, nobody would complain. It's not like it's linked to BikeReg not allowing you to register outside of your category.

 

[MissJR]

-
-Does the Cat even really matter?

my ego demands it

 

[MadisonDan]

my ego demands it

this.. 100000%

on another note... I have promo code for one free month of TrainerRoad, which I'm guessing is what you're using now.

 

[Magic]

good luck! i literally just called them and was like "I'M TRYING TO PUT IN FOR THE CHANGE BUT I KEEP GETTING LOOPED BACK TO THE SAME FUCKING PAGE I WAS ON!"

his response: oops.

:/

Use the legacy website. Lucia helped me out with my upgrade. She's not in your region, but would probably offer some great assistance.

 

[MissJR]

this.. 100000%

on another note... I have promo code for one free month of TrainerRoad, which I'm guessing is what you're using now.

yeah... steve sent me a one month free trial code. figure try it and use TR for a little while... at least until the weather warms up and i can get more outside time

 

[Magic]

and i'm most likely getting rid of the road bike and getting a cross bike. considering the ADD. but we'll see what happens... there's no rush right now.

It is a rush. Do it now before you forget!

 

[MissJR]

Use the legacy website. Lucia helped me out with my upgrade. She's not in your region, but would probably offer some great assistance.

i tried. depending on what i was trying to do (either the legacy page or the edit upgrade/downgrade link), i was either looped back to the same page i was on or looped to the log in page, which when i logged in again, redirected me to the same page i was on in the first place.

the rep i spoke to on the phone pushed a magic button and then i was able to see the options and put in my "resume" (eye roll)

 

[Dominique]

I guess the problem is that you didn't have (or you didn't know you had) a number. I just logged in to my account and renewed. But the app I used to previously show my license is no longer working, which is a shame because it also showed some other stats.

 

[JimN]

i'm extra grumpy and potty mouthy

First, there are way less fucks in this post than I was expecting.

Second, you and Steve should come to the climbing gym with us. It's pretty much the only exercise you can do indoors that doesn't fucking suck fucking balls. It's like yoga but 100 times better.

 

[MadisonDan]

First, there are way less fucks in this post than I was expecting.

Second, you and Steve should come to the climbing gym with us. It's pretty much the only exercise you can do indoors that doesn't fucking suck fucking balls. It's like yoga but 100 times better.

Liked for the ratio of fucks per other word.

 

[JimN]

Liked for the ratio of fucks per other word.

You live less than five minutes from the climbing gym, and your kid wants to be a ninja warrior. You guys definitely need to come climbing with us too.

 

[Santapez]

First, there are way less fucks in this post than I was expecting.

Second, you and Steve should come to the climbing gym with us. It's pretty much the only exercise you can do indoors that doesn't fucking suck fucking balls. It's like yoga but 100 times better.

Logistics. We can probably make it happen on the weekends.

The week issue is I work in Fairfield, would have to drive home, pickup Joy who gets home from the train, drive north (287N evenings are shit) and go back to Fairfield.

Not that I can't stay late and go...

 

[JimN]

The week issue is I work in Fairfield, would have to drive home, pickup Joy who gets home from the train, drive north (287N evenings are shit) and go back to Fairfield.

We climb in Chatham. The climbing gym is less than a mile from Chatham station. It'll be easier than you think.