Mansfield 8 hour Race Report

I am really tired. This past Saturday was my first real test of the season, the 8 hour at Mansfield. Basically you complete as many loops of the 10km course as you can in 8 hours. I managed to get 12 in so that adds up to a whole lot of single track and lots of climbing.

I had forgotten the pace for an 8 hour race compared to my usual pokey 24 hour solo pace. 8 hour pace is super fast and hurts a lot. My heart rate was soaring for much of the first portion of the race (zones 3-5!!), leveled off in the middle (high zone 1) and then rose back up to high (zone 3) when I had my second wind for the last couple of hours.

The first bit of the race I felt like many solo women were passing me. I saw at least 3 pass and figured there were other's ahead so for most of the race I believed I was low in the standings. Was kind of discouraging because I was working my ass off.

Anyhow I keep plugging away at the highest pace I could and a couple of hours from the end as I passed the start/finish line for like the 9th or 10th time or so, I heard the guy over the loud speaker say I was in 4th. Oh. I had a few more laps in me at that point and was actually feeling strong. The next time I completed a lap, loud speaker guy said "Joe Mamma is gaining on 3rd place, this is going to be a tight race in the women's solo." At that point I could see her just ahead.

I never caught her that lap a far as I knew. Last lap. I'm flying. I have no idea where she is but I want to catch her. I rode the last third of the last lap with Jenny and Bill who are also doing BC Bike Race. They are chatting away easily to me while I tried to converse without panting.

So finally near the very end Jenny pulls away easily and I'm like, damn, another girl passed me so that makes me fifth. Crap.

When I finished I didn't even check the results. I was sure I was 5th. That's what I told everyone.

When I got home a friend called me and said I came third. I must have passed the 3rd place Fly Gurl at some point and then it turned out Jenny was in first and was lapping me when she passed. She's a superstar. I'm really impressed with her. 2nd place at TransRockies last year in the Open Women's category.

Anyway I missed the awards and getting up on the podium. Disappointing because I would have liked a picture of me on the podium with my jersey to show the guys at Joe Mamma.

So my lungs feel like they are sprained now two days later. They hurt to breath fast or deep. I rode to work today easily and I was short of breath. I'm slightly concerned about this but people say its normal... Its happened a few times before after I've done a hard effort.

Here's a race report from Craig and another link to a funny picture of how dirty I was at the end.

Will my legs hold up tomorrow?

So I've have a bad week of training this week. Unfocused...riding lots but never hard. So this means I never had good rest and so when its time to get a good hard, training ride in, my legs are lacking spunk.

Thursday I rode to work and in the evening rode to a friend's place. Total of 3 hours of riding. Just enough to fatigue my legs for the next day's ride.

Friday we rode up in the park. Instead of riding the intended loop, we just got to the top of Champlain and lied on our backs on the pavement (so warm!) and chatted & snacked on cliff bars for an hour. oops. That's not good training. Was really nice though.

Today I wanted to ride my mountain bike. So I went to South March Highlands and rode the awesome technical trails there. I rode to the trails, rather than driving, so ride time was 3.5h. An hour there and back, and 1.5hs in the woods. I was so slow. I wanted to save my legs for a ride I have tomorrow with some fast guys and hills. I probably shouldn't have ridden so long today but I couldn't resist. Beautiful day & technical singletrack - how could I resist?

I rode so slow today that I made the technical trails harder than they should be...if you ride that stuff at a slow speed you have to pick your way through everything rather than fly over stuff. I was pretty terrible for my first SMH ride - I endo'd (landed on my feet, very tame endo) once and fell on my side another time. Typically I rarely fall cause I don't take any risks. I wasn't taking any risks today though, I just plain sucked!

Anyway hope my legs have something left tomorrow or its going to be a looong day.

Limerick race was a blast!

First race of the year was fantastic. This race series is a laid-back non-sanctioned race..no insurance or payment necessary. Just some great people who organize a race each week.

This was my first time riding in Limerick. So I showed up early with Big Ring and slowly pre-road the 4km loop twice. The race was 4 laps for a total of 16km. In the pre-ride I have to say I wasn't too impressed with myself...I felt awkward and slow and couldn't seem to find the right lines. I wasn't really in a good space.

However, I lined up with the other 20 or so riders and off we went. I tried to stay at the front with the Craig and JK but of course I couldn't keep up. But I kept a good pace and suddenly I realized I was having fun! At race-pace I was having a blast riding this stuff. The course was flat and not very technical and once I got my rhythm, I found myself flying over the roots and railing around the berm-y corners. I also managed to find all the lines I had missed in the pre-ride.

I felt these two guys on my tail for much of the race. One of them passed me on this crazy sandy steep hill (I screwed this hill up each lap. The sand was so deep I'd get stuck; it drove me nuts).

Anyway I finally pulled away from him at a passing point and managed to hold them both off. I think I ended up 6th overall...apparently many of the fast guys aren't out yet though. Doesn't matter about the results - was super fun anyway!

The bugs were a disaster. Oh my god. It felt like Northern Ontario again and I wasn't handling it well.

Rode my bike too much! Said I wouldn't do that...

My plan this season was to rest more. Ride harder and rest more specifically. Up to now it had been working well. I'm riding faster and stronger than ever and almost keeping up to the boys. This weekend I screwed up and resorted to my old ways. Too much riding.

It didn't rain on Saturday so off we went to another Gat Loop and a half. I was joined by Mark, Gilles and Melissa. I felt great despite the hard ride the day before.

Sunday was Tour Nortel. In my head I was thinking it would be an easy paced, flat 100km ride. No problem, right? Well it was a little harder than I thought. Turns out West Ottawa doesn't seem so flat after 80km of hills each of the two previous days. Oh and not to mention a raging 30km/h headwind for half the ride. Turned into a tough day and my legs are still feeling it today two days later.

So today I should rest, right? Yeah I know I should but its the first race of the season for me tonight at Limerick. Really looking forward to riding some single track just wish I felt fresher.

On the food front, I've been enjoying these crazy bean brownies lately. I'm always looking to eat healthy baked goods with reduced amounts of flour so these hit the spot. They aren't decadent brownies you may be used to but topped with cherry pie filling, they became an addiction for me!

Gat Loop X's 2

I set out with a friend today at about 10am. It was slightly chilly and the forecast suggested rain at some point. Luckily the rain never came throughout the whole ride and the sun shone most of the time.

The planned route was two loops of the hilly Gatineau park which is about a 3.5 hour ride from home. My plan was a tempo ride so I had to keep my heart rate in zone 3. I am the slower rider of the two of us but I managed to stay pretty disciplined and didn't let my heart rate get too high trying to keep up.

I was super hungry on this ride for some reason even though I ate a big breakfast. Ate a larabar (apple pie - yum!), a vega bar and a gel which is a lot for a 3.5 hour ride. The gel made me feel yucky as usual. I should just stick to bananas from now on...

Tomorrow is another hilly ride, about 4 hours. I have tentative riding partners but a few suggested they may bail because of the weather forecast. I'll go rain or shine though because otherwise I'd have to spend time on the trainer with Coach Troy and I'm not too interested in that.

This blog is alive again...

Originally I made this blog for my bike trip across Canada last year and declared it dead when I got back from my trip. The purpose of my blog was to communicate to friends and family what I was up to throughout the 2.5 month trip, so when it was over I saw no reason to continue blogging.

However, I recently decided to bring the blog back to life because I want to connect with other vegan cyclists. I discovered some great new blogs which inspired me so here I am.

I will be talking about my training and probably will mention food a bit too because those are my two favourite things.

I'm training for a big race at the end of June called the BC Bike Race. Its a 7 day stage mountain bike race, Victoria to Whistler, with lots of sweet single track.

So that's the background...I'll make another post about my ride today which was awesome!