San Diego Cyclo-Vet Omnium

It's always so nice to have a race close to home, which is rare in San Diego.

Friday was the TT, which was about 8.2 miles out at Fiesta Island. The forecast was for very windy conditions in San Diego that day, so I hoped that we'd be able to get the race in before the wind kicked up. It seemed like a lot of the riders in the other categories with early start times escaped the wind, but the Women 1/2/3 field ended up having a pretty stiff wind. I came in 4th place with a time of 19:23, which I was pretty happy with at this point in the season. It gave me a good indication of what I need to do to get ready for the State TT in late May.

Sunday was the crit in Mira Mesa. I tried to get away early with a few moves on the back side of the course, but, naturally, for the Women 1/2/3 race only, the back side of the course featured a pretty nasty headwind. Seeing that the field wasn't going to let anybody escape, I settled in and decided to do some work for Catherine Goodkin-Robertson of Wells Fargo, who I rode with at Redlands. She needed a win in the crit and would claim the GC title. With 2 laps to go I went to the front and buried myself for 1 3/4 laps, leaving the rest of the leadout to Anna Gerber of Swami's and Jennie Phillips of Wells Fargo. Our leadouts worked, with Catherine taking the crit win and the GC win by one point.

Redlands Bicycle Classic

I was invited to race Redlands on a composite team, Team Squadra Swami's, comprised of a bunch of San Diego girls (Anna Gerber and Jennifer Weinbrecht from Swami's; Catherine Robertson-Goodkin from Wells Fargo; Tammy Wildgoose, Nicole Brandt, and Shani Russell from CA Pools; and Lauren Liscinski from NOW-MS Society). Unfortunately, I took a tumble off the bike on Monday, with Redlands starting just a few days later. Luckily, the x-rays were negative for a collarbone, shoulder, or scapula break, but my shoulder area was very badly bruised, leaving me unable to lift my left arm or put any weight on it.

I decided to start the race anyway, with the thinking that if I could just get through the prologue I could race Stage 1 with the possibility of feeling better. The prologue was very difficult with steep climbs, and being unable to stand or put pressure on my left arm and shoulder relegated me to climbing while seated. I finished 137th, which was disappointing, but I was able to start Stage 1.

Stage 1 was to be a road race in Beaumont, with three laps of a nearly 25 mile course. My shoulder did not feel much better from the day before, but I wanted to at least start the race. With strong Santa Ana winds blowing, the race would be exponentially harder, and the race exploded from the start. I found myself struggling to hang on as we started with a strong cross-wind, then had a strong tail wind (doing close to 50 mph), then turned into the wind (struggling to hold 14 mph). At the end of the the first lap I was around 8 minutes or so behind the leaders, so I abandoned the race. Unfortunately, nobody from Squadra Swami's was able to continue the race, as we all either abandoned or missed the time cut.

It was a great experience to do the race and I definitely hope to race it again, this time without injuring myself just days before the race. All the girls I raced with were great and I had a wonderful time racing with them. Big thanks to Anna Gerber for inviting me to ride with them.

Ironman SAF

So everybody keeps asking me if it's true...
Yes, I am doing another ironman...my first in almost 4 years. I head to South Africa 3/24 to slug out a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. I got the itch after I quit training and racing bikes last May and by October I was so out of shape that it seemed like a good idea to contemplate...how else could I ever get back in shape? By December I was hooked on the thought and had announced to Dicky that I would train 12 weeks and race Ironman Malaysia...well, race would not be the best to describe the potential day on only 12 weeks of training after not running nor swimming in 4 years...maybe participate would a better word. Anyway, a few issues popped up with Malaysia which became a "no go" and I had 5 weeks of training under me and I could not see that going to waste...so with some help from Hillary and a few others I consulted, Ironman South Africa seemed to fit the bill on 4/5. I have 5 weeks left to train and a whole lotta miles to go.

Flats, Crashes, and Fun at VOS

Kelli and I headed to VOS in Phoenix, AZ for Friday's 3 day stage race. In short the TT left KJ with a blow out, the RR left myself behind two crashes- the last crash on the final ascent to the finish, and the crit...well it summed up the 3 days...it just wasn't gonna come together for either of us- but we rode hard and never gave up despite our many unexpected setbacks. I love the first race of the season because everything that can go wrong does and you just deal with it, move forward, and keep pedaling. VOS had a great field this year- 80+ with the 3's added in and a lot of So Cal girls in the mix along with Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Az, and Texas. Both Dana and Holly were great hosts and we appreciated their hospitality and wish Holly a speedy recovery.

Red Trolley Crit

While Neva successfully took on the rain and the field in Dominguez Hills at the CBR crit, I was at the Red Trolley Crit in San Diego. The Women's 1/2/3 crit started at 2:30 p.m. I decided to ride to the crit, allowing me to get a 20-mile warm-up in before racing. All morning it looked to be dry in San Diego, but on the way to the race it began to pour on me. After about 6 miles, I was out of the rain, and thankfully it was the last of the rain that day.

Red Trolley is a fast course with a good-sized power hill before the finish straight. It was my first time doing Red Trolley since I crashed two years ago and broke my collarbone and suffered a pretty good concussion. I went into the race just wanting to hang in and get used to racing in a crit again. About 10 minutes into the race, I decided to give my legs a test and went to the front for about 3 laps. On my third lap on the front, Sarah Hammer exploded by, along with riders from SDBC and Helen's. Amazingly, that break did not stick. Another break would get free later, with Helen's Michele Orem out on her own and a small chase group followed by the peloton. With one lap to go, Sarah Hammer once again went, closing down the 20 second gap held by Michele Orem and taking the win, while I rode in for a finish in the field.

Racing in the Snow

The Boulevard Road Race is the traditional start to the racing season in Southern California. Starting around 4,000 feet at the beginning of February usually means cold temperatures. In my many times riding that course, whether just training or racing, it has always been pretty miserable - cold in the winter, hot in the spring or summer, and always windy.

However, the 2009 edition of Boulevard on February 7 redefined "misery." The forecast called for a high temperature of 46 and rain - miserable conditions, but not absolutely horrible. It was nice before we started, and when the officials gave us the choice of cutting the race down to two laps, I was one of the two who said we wanted to do the full three laps. I was approaching Boulevard as a training race and had no goal of doing well, but wanted to get the mileage in with race conditions.

We started off, and it was a bit chilly, but it wasn't too bad. As soon as we began climbing up La Posta, I was actually feeling hot and unzipped my jersey and took off my super warm gloves I had opted for. I made the turn onto Old Highway 80 and it got really cold all of a sudden.

After starting the second lap, the rain started to fall and quickly turned into a hard, driving rain, and soon became hard, driving sleet. At the turn onto Old Highway 80, I noticed that the rain had started to float. It was snowing!!! They had forecast that snow was possible at 4500 feet, but at 3500 feet?! At the finish area (around 4,100 feet), it was amazing how much snow was falling -- and sticking.

One more lap to go. That lap was horrible. I couldn't see anything on the descent, and it had gotten so cold. I (non-climber) couldn't wait to begin climbing so that I could warm up a tad. I caught Nicette from Helen's when we made the turn onto Old Highway 80 for the last time, and Simonne was just up the road. Nicette and I rode together for those last 5 or 6 miles. We hit the 1k to go sign and you could barely see it because it was covered in snow! I couldn't help it and just started to laugh. The 200 meter sign was all but invisible.

We finished the race! The misery was over -- wrong! The start area where we parked was another two miles away - downhill. I was cold at the finish, but I was comfortable. When I started that ride down to the car, though, I absolutely froze. When I finally got my wet clothes off, I went inside the restaurant and stood next to the fireplace with several other of the women for a bit.

Another Boulevard Road Race finished. I'm sure that when we're racing in Bakersfield in May or June and it's over 100 degrees, those of us that did Boulevard will be reminiscing about our day racing in the snow.

2009 Warm Up

It's been a great start already to 2009 with lots going on. The girls are all busy and doing lots of riding on the side. Cynergy helped Kelli and I out by putting together our Specialized Tarmacs and I must say, it is an amazing climbing bike. I'll get a picture up soon.
On the track side Becky had sustained a pretty bad crash back in December when a top road rider but a novice to the track crashed in the warm up and Becky was unable to avoid her. Becky had a severe concussion and lost her site for an hour. With a pretty bad hip and some awful head aches, she went back to PA to recover while being with family over the holidays. Becky is back on the bike and feeling pretty good now which is a relief.
SBW has been having practices at ADT on Sunday and we have 40 racers show up. Roger Young does an excellent job in handling the large group and I got to do sprints with Tara, Gordon, Bobby, and Tom this week. Tara is a sprinter so she kept us all honest.
I was pretty fortunate to have a trip to Kona last week and got to ride the Queen K with Lance who extended his stay for another 10 days to do his camp for Tour of Oz there. Lance wasn't the only super star out on the Queen K- Yvonne Van Vlerken has been there for 6 weeks training for her Ironman season- Yvonne holds the bike course record for Kona while placing 2nd at World Champs and winning the European Champs and breaking the course record. I had a chance to test my legs out against her a few days back-and after the fact, she let me know that it is a rare day when anybody- male or female passes and drops her- so my form seems to be coming on strong which is confidence I needed with a huge race only 6 weeks out.
I head back to Kona with Dicky on the 19th and we then head over to Maui where I will attempt some part of the Oceanfront Maui Marathon. Then I'll spend another 8 brutal days racking up the miles and hopefully will head to Malaysia around the 17th for a 10 day taper.
Becky heads to Copenhagen the 8th and I haven't decided if I will join her- Copenhagen and Malaysia are on opposite ends of the world so I don't see that being beneficial to racing in Malaysia but it is still open for debate.
Since racing starts at the end of the month we'll start blogging more. Aloha. Neva