Lynda

So long, farewell.

Lynda — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:54:00 GMT

With a curtsy

and a sunset

I bid this blog farewell. Life moves on.

See you all over at www.2-epic.com my new bloggie home.

Camp Lynda Digested

Lynda — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:45:00 GMT

It has taken me a few days to fully digest what a smashing success the camp was. I for one had a superb time. During the whole three days there was a buzz and excitement from all participants. We had about 27 riders. Most came along for 2 days. Day three was the smallest with only 12 riders starting and nobody - not even crackhead Dave managing to complete the whole 86 mile route mapped out. Day three stats for me were 5:28 and 62 miles.

I've been enjoying reading everybody's blogs and seeing their pictures. I didn't get to ride with everybody so hearing the post ride stories over dinner and in blogs has been a treat. Seeing people have a great time doing something I created is a real special thing for me. It was the people who came that made Camp Lynda such a success. It was all about the riders. Put together a bunch of people who really love to ride their bikes and you can't go wrong I guess.

Best part of Camp Lynda - the people:

Worst part: Getting up early on day 3 (I was weak and late...)

Most scenic spot: The point at Gooseberry

The Camp concept was to come and ride at your own pace following a GPS. Huge thanks go to Dave who spent many hours putting together three days worth of tracks into a nice one click upload. There is so much more behind the scenes work on this aspect than you know unless you have tried this at home yourself. The routes received only compliments. The only folks to get lost either didn't come with a gps or didn't actually look at the screen... Everybody found their way back on course thankfully.

Marshal was one of the camp stars. I'd never met him before. He followed all the online instructions, downloaded the routes and came to camp. He rode at his own pace everyday and glowed full of ride stories at dinner time. Marshal you validated the whole camp concept and I thank you for coming.

Funniest Camp moment: I agree with Dave on this one - Adam cracked me up with his tire burping power-slide into the Barrel Roll trail head - funny.

Biggest bummer: Jeff Kerkove driving 11 hours to camp, spending the night barfing then driving 11 hours home the next day. We missed riding with you Jeff.

Top local rider award goes to Brad. The routes even put Brad on some terrain he had never ridden before. Thanks for representing the SoUtah team.

Biggest whee moment: Whooping along behind Chris, Chris and Dave on Barrel Roll on day 2.

Best post camp blog quote: Brad Keyes: "She also calls it Camp Lynda which makes it sound like we are going to have punch and cookies and maybe play lawn darts. We had no punch and cookies and we didn’t play lawn darts."

Best camp photos: Adam has super shots. Thanks for this one below. You have such rich colors in your pics. Sometime I'll have to talk with you about photos instead of bikes...

Almost everybody has said they can't wait until next year and that Camp Lynda should be a tradition. Aww warm and fuzzies.

Thank y'all for coming to my party. See you out on the trails.

Camp Lynda Day Two - Yeehah

Lynda — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:52:00 GMT

Head count at the start today was 24 riders. One casualty from yesterday - gore, blood, broken finger with bone through skin - get better quick Branden.

Ride stats for me today 5:04, 52 miles, 6k climbing, 294 TSS, 0.77 IF.

Dave Nice made a few of us all a gourmet breakfast - yummy... and was back at the start on his Fixie and a huge smile. Yah fixie!!

Barrel Roll was in ride perfect shape

Whee!

YeeeeHaaaw

Tall guy wee wheels...

More Pictures here

Day One Camp Lynda - Done, tick, fab

Lynda — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Beauty day despite skipping the big loop in favor of and out and back to avoid the muck up by Danish Ranch. 55 miles, 5:07, 305 TSS was my ride tally. I'm a wee bit tired now.

We started off with about 25 riders. Most folks split off into smaller groups once things got rolling. At the end we had nine in our group - 3 gearies and the rest SSers! I was on my 32x20.

Milling on the trail

Chris and Dave

MonaVie gearie all stars

Folks came from Denver, California and SLC for the most part.

Post ride smiles and stories

...and butt cramps

More pics here

Camp Lynda event bible

Lynda — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Everything you need to know in one post. Well, mostly.

Survival tips are here.

Archive of all Camp Lynda posts is here.

GPS files: attached to this post is a single MapSource file containing all tracks and waypoints for Camp Lynda. If you are using a garmin gps (and who isn't?) use this file in MapSource to upload the tracks so names will be preserved. If you are uploading from any other software, use the individual gpx files from previous posts.

Schedule

Day 1: Saturday, Jan 12

arrive 8:30 AM, rollout 9 AM, Desert Cyclery, 1091 N Bluff St
dinner, 6 PM Sunset Bajio Grill

Day 2: Sunday, Jan 13

arrive 8:30 AM, rollout 9 AM, Lins grocery store parking lot, 1930 W Sunset Blvd
dinner, 6 PM Mandarin Buffet

Day 3: Monday, Jan 14

arrive 7:45 AM, rollout 8 AM, Sheep Bridge. See day 3 post and gps file for details on Sheep Bridge location.
leave nothing on trail.
leave spent and grinning.

Post questions here, unless personal, then shoot an email to lynda@lwcoaching.com.

Camp Lynda survival tips

Lynda — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:43:00 GMT

Some tips to make it through the camp:

Tires: lots of prickly stuff around here, especially goatheads. Stans, Specialized Airlock tubes, Slimetubes or equivalent is recommended.

GPS files: all the files are attached to the respective day's posts. Upload them to your GPS soon so that if you have any issues/questions you can ask them.

Lodging: Days 1 and 2 will start near Sunset and Bluff. Nearest hotels are south of StG Blvd on Bluff or the blvd.

Weather: it's a wet weekend right now, but all looks clear for the camp. Don't hold me to that... Highs in the 40s/50s, early starts near freezing. Lights not needed unless you are really pushing the limits on your own.

Wet weather options: we'll ride if it rains. Most trails are shutdown in the wet tho, too much clay. Some sandier options still exist, but it could mean road. These details will be posted at the last minute if required.

Mojo: Bring it.

Dinner meeting time & locales:

Sat - 6pm, Bajio Grill, corner of Sunset & Bluff.

Sun - 6pm, Mandarin Buffet Chinese. All you can eat in prep for the big day 3 adventure.

See ya Saturday. This may be the Mormon capitol of the world, but there is still a Starbucks near the start of day 1...

Camp Lynda day 3

Dave — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:19:00 GMT

The meeting place for day 3 is Sheep Bridge, 8 AM. This is a dirt parking area along the Virgin river gorge just before Virgin. Heading towards Zion on Hwy 9 from Hurricane you'll see a small green street sign for "Sheep Bridge" just before the small town of Virgin - head right on that. Take the first major right to the parking area. See the attached GPS file for the exact location of the start point.

The route has plenty of options, including the short optional 16 mile Gooseberry segment I decided to include. The main course is a 45 mile loop (shown in blue below) that circumnavigates Gooseberry Mesa in a clockwise direction. We'll start on singletrack then hit a couple jeep roads in the shadows of Gooseberry before a short highway segment to Rockville. From Rockville it's up up up to the Gooseberry decision point.

The optional Goose section (in red) is a progressively technical jeep road before hitting the trail to the point overlooking most of Washington county, then coming back via the Yellow, North rim, and Windmill trails. Expect roughly 2 hours for this section...and some really enjoyable technical riding along big views.

Back on the blue main route, it's a short bit before making it to a gas station/refuel spot in Apple Valley. A couple miles of pave lead to dirt roads under Little Creek mesa. The main route finishes with a rippin descent on the Jem trail back to the start.

Not enough? The yellow loop below is the Jem/Goulds/Hurricane rim loop. All singletrack and about 25 miles, that option is for pure chronics only.

Profiles for each section.

Blue loop

Red loop

Yellow loop

This day is designed to be a biggie. The optional routes offer plenty of terrain to make it all you can bite off in the limited January daylight hours. The intended route is blue, red, blue then yellow loops - the red and yellow loops being optional - for a total of 86 possible miles. Choose your poison.

Come with cameras...and mojo.

Merry Christmas

Lynda — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:04:00 GMT

It hasn't been so deserty here in the desert recently. We have had a ton of rain recently which has shut down most of my favorite trails. I wake up in the morning with a certain trail calling me but the dampness has me denied. The moisture turned a funny white color yesterday. What is this strange white stuff?

Yesterday the choice was road - paved or gravel. This is the top of West Canyon. Twas beautiful up there with a little sparkly white stuff. Even my guardian angel came out for the ride.

We mapped out an awesome route for day 3 of Camp Lynda. Two loops. The first about 65 miles, a pit-stop/bail-out at the cars then another 25 miles if you are manic. The plan was to ride it today but the wetness has shut that down. Hmmm - could be a problem in January too.

Day three teaser pics:

Thou shallest honor thy singletrackness.

Funky bridgeness. After crossing this bridge there is a nice little climb. I think I'll bring gears on day three. They'll help a lot on this little climb.

Big views on the way up the little climb to distract.

Merry Christmas to all. I'm off to Scotland tomorrow with the kiddies to celebrate mine.

Ergon at Camp Lynda

Lynda — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:37:00 GMT

Jeff Kerkove, LW Coaching athlete and Ergon marketing guru, will be attending all 3 days of Camp Lynda. For those that are also attending Jeff will allow those interested in demoing Ergon product during the 3 days of camp. Nothing like taking the products straight out into the elements!

Ergon product available for demo is as follows
Grips
GE1
GP1
GR2

Packs
BD1
BD2

If you are interested in demoing any product during the 3 day camp, please e-mail Jeff at jeff.kerkove@ergon-bike.com to express your interest. Note, only product requested via e-mail will be brought to St. George.

I've been running the GE1 grips on my SS for a month now. I'm picky and if sumthin' makes me grumpy it is off my bike asap. These grips are still on... They are nice and small diameter - I like that a lot. They don't have barends but do have a wee lip at the end to help remind me how far along the bars my hands are. I like that a lot too. I am a bit of a bar end addict and I mainly use them to keep my hands from slippping off the end of the bars not for extra hand positions. These lips get the job done without death impaling barend danger. Dave will tell you bar ends can break ribs clean apart.

They are clamp on too. Gives me confidence they are not going to fly off my bars or twist on me when I am cranking my single gear up a roller at 600+ watts. Uh huh!

They come in green too. I like my stealth black ones on my black Rig with the black fork. It looks fast... Disguises the fact the bike weighs in about 28 lbs...oink, oink...

Fall Training

Lynda — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Finally most of the leaves have fallen here.

Domestic core training

Upper body work

We have to make do with Leaf Angels here in the desert.

Camp Lynda Day 2 details

Dave — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Day 2 Jan 13, leaving 9am sharp. Start and Finish point is Lins grocery store parking lot, 1930 W Sunset Blvd, StG. Ya got your choice of Lins, and across the road Albertsons and McDonalds for pre and post ride grub. Yummy!

This is a 5-7 hour ride w/ no water on route - and no filter options. It's a dry one so come carrying your goods. If ya'll want to have water midway organize a car to be at Bloomington...but yer on yer own for that one. Park at the end of Navajo drive. Navajo drive is 2-3 hours or about 20 miles in, before the Blakes climb and a good place to bail for those looking for a shorter day.

He he he, I give you a 20 mile warmup before the big climb...

Here's the map overview - Barrel Roll singletrack, Stucki (wide singletrack), Blakes climb (big red blob on profile). Lots of shortcuts, bailouts, and extenstion options. Follow the arrows for the full route. You'll be riding further and climbing more than the gps file indicates. You can thank that 250 garmin point limit.

Barrel Roll. The sign says look at the view. The arrow/dot sign cracks me up!

View from Blakes. Ya'll love Blakes - deceptive desert climbing at it's best. Ya gotta ride it to know what I'm talking about. A wee perspective, that lil' hill on the horizon is 8,000' taller than StG.

The attached zip file below has the .gpx and Garmin file for the day.

Camp Lynda Day One Details

Dave — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:49:00 GMT

January 12th. Day 1 of Camp Lynda is the big Silver Reef Loop. Starting at Desert Cyclery Bike shop at 9am sharp. 1091 North Bluff Street, #1503, St George. We'll head up the road and into the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. Catch the Powerline Trail to Mill Creek, over to Church Rocks, along Prospector Trail to Red Cliffs. A quick fill up at the campground spigot then up to Silver Reef. From there head up and up some more up the Oak Grove road and left back towards St George. Catch a final detour through Diamond Valley and back down home. About 55 miles.

Desert Cyclery, # 435-674-2929 is offering a ship and tune-up service. Ship your bike to them. They'll unpack it, tune it up and at the end of the camp pack it back in a box and ship it home for you. Cost is $55 plus the cost of shipping back to your home. For US only. Sorry BC boyz they can't ship to Canada for anything near a reasonable cost.

Church Rocks

Prospector Trail

Road heading back towards St George

Here's the overview map for day 2.

The profile says don't get too carried away in the first 20 miles ;)

The attached .zip file contains two files:

- campLynda1.gdb is the Mapsource format.
- campLynda1.gpx is the open GPX format.

The files are essentially the same aside from the format. There is more control over track naming from Mapsource so you may find that useful.

The files contain 2 tracks. This is not obvious looking at the gpx in TopoFusion, but is quite obvious in Mapsource. The region around the Church Rocks trail (roughly mile 12.5 to 15.0) is hard to follow so a short but detailed track is included for that area. The 250 point limit to tracks in the Garmin units make the dual tracks a necessity.

Camp Lynda Navigation

Dave — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:37:00 GMT

Check out the new "Camp Lynda" link on the left menu bar under Post Categories. Follow that link to get all Camp Lynda info and posts.

And now a word from the Camp Lynda CTO...

Disclaimer 1: Camp Lynda is a no-nonsense self-supported binge training mission. We'll do our best to ensure everyone knows the routes. A prime goal is for everyone to have flowy routes to ride for hours on end amidst new horizons without too much worry about navigation. In the end however each participant is in charge of their own destiny. The following is to help jump start your GPS technology learning should you need it but is by no means comprehensive nor a substitute for good planning and common sense. Arrive in the self-supported mindset. Do your research. Be prepared.

GPX files and teaser photos will be provided shortly for each day's route. Having and knowing how to use a mapping GPS unit is a central part of the Camp. Everyone will ride at a self-selected pace. Some days might be 5 hours for some, 8 hours for others - so you should plan on having your own GPS rather than rely on the group.

Of course the self-supported nature extends beyond navigation, but this post is designed to elevate the learning curve for those as of yet unfamiliar with GPS technology.

Items with which you'll need to be fluent before arrival:

Mapping GPS unit

Garmin eTrex Vista HCx is the best GPS I've used for these purposes. The Garmin 60 CSx is also an excellent choice, but larger and bulkier on the bars. It has no more functionality than the eTrex model. The "x" in the model name refers to micro SD expansion slot that allows huge storage capacity for base maps and a lifetime's worth of .gpx files - be sure to get this capability. There are surely many other models and brands that will get the job done. At a minimum you need topo basemaps for SW Utah and the ability to follow uploaded tracks (or routes) in the unit. OK, you could get by without the basemaps even so long as you had paper maps for the region with lat/long info.

Mapping software with GPS upload/download capability.

I've spent a lot of time each with National Geographic TOPO!, Topofusion, and Garmin Mapsource. Of the 3, I find that I use Topofusion for 95% of the tasks. It is by far the best post ride analysis tool, it's the brainchild of fellow MTB enduro nut Scott Morris, and has a fully functional free download.

Paper maps.

Depending on your comfort/experience level with your GPS, you may elect to bring paper maps as well. These can be printed from mapping software or purchased online. You can even download scans of paper maps for free directly from USGS - look for the "Map locator and downloader." The St George 30" x 60" USGS map will give a good overview of all routes, but the finer details will require 7.5 min quads.

What next? Learn to use the GPS unit. Know the difference between tracks and routes, know the storage limits of your device and how long the batteries last. Before arriving you should have already followed a track and/or route with your device. Upload the Camp Lynda routes to your GPS.

Camp Lynda day 1 is not the ideal time to learn these things...day 1 is gonna be a butt kicker ;) Know how to work with GPX files in your GPS unit and mapping software. Two great resources for learning about GPS units are the MTBR GPS and Lighting forum and Topofusion's forum (if you use TF that is...). Be sure to start with the search function at the forums as your question has likely already been covered.

Here is the route teaser - prolly only relevant at this point to locals...

Day 1: Silver Reef Loop

Day 2: Barrel Roll-Stucki-Blakes

Day 3: Gooseberry-Rockville-Jem, well kinda in a long round-a-bout way. This one will be Epic but not so committing as it has one short cut, one bail out early option and one add an extra 25 miles option if you are uber-manic.

Disclaimer 2: If it rains and the trails are sloppy we might end up riding the road for three days. uuughhh!!

Destination Foods

Lynda — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:39:00 GMT

I'm still infected with the SS bug. I headed over to Desert Cyclery on Friday and picked up a few new gears. I was looking forward to riding on Saturday but it rained most of Friday. I thought the trails might be too sloppy. I hate being the dork to rut up the trails by riding them wet so I fixed up my road bike. It was missing a few key parts such as a rear wheel and cassette. It felt weird to ride! It has been a long time since I have ridden road. The seat felt too high and handlebars too narrow. I headed over to the 11am group ride - nobody else showed up!! Road weenies! A little rain and they all stay home! Whaz up guys?!

Today I put a 32x19 on the SS and headed up the big Blakes climb. I am getting braver - or dumber maybe?? I've only tackled this one so far with a 32x21. I rode everything today on the 19 - very pleased with that!

Today's ride food was apple pie - yum.

Apple pie is a destination ride food. Too tough to get out the pocket while pedaling so I have to wait til the top of the climb where I stop to pull it out and eat it. I thought about that piece of apple pie often during the climb...it motivated me to get to the top. I think I'll bring more destination foods into my riding...

Eager apple pie eater...snarf...

It was chilly out today. Maybe in the 30's-40's. I was cold when I got home. Clif sent me a box of this stuff. It soooo hit the spot.

Apple pie on the ride, hot chocolate after the ride. I seem to be thinking about food a lot these days. Power-Tap clocked 2277kJ for the ride. I better go get on with my refueling now...

Binge Over

Lynda — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:11:00 GMT

My four day single speed binge is over and it was splendid fun. Ride times were 4:44, 4:24, 4:37 and err 1:35. I got distracted the last day with an invite to go goof around on Gooseberry Mesa. We spent half the day up there but ride time only tallied up to 1:35...

Not so much pedaling goes on up at the Goose but lots of playing about on bikes.

Nice one Lucas.

not so many folks make this wee steep one

Eddie the dog made the Goose loop smiling the whole way.

After the ride we went down into Hurricane to visit Quentin and DJ Morissette's new bike shop. Set to open next month and called Over The Edge Sports. Yep just like the Fruita one. Here is Quentin on the deck of the new shop. It is on the right just before heading out of Hurricane up the big hill to Gooseberry and Little Creek. 76E 100S, Hurricane. They are good folks and I wish them luck with their new business.

Now Thanksgiving is over we can start the yuletide fever. Is it really still only November?

Guinea Pigs

Lynda — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:09:00 GMT

One gear, one GPS, one Power-Tap, one rider...

One baggie of mashed potatoes and carrots - post Thanksgiving ride food - yum...

Yesterdays ride food was a baggie of Mac n' cheese. That went down very, very well too - yum. I'm experimenting with new ride foods. If it fits in a baggie, I'll give it a go. Stuffing - check that one off the list... yummy dinner food does not always make yummy ride food.

I'm my own best guinea pig. When I have the urge to learn something I find the best way is to leap in with my own two feet and do it. It's not only new ride food I'm teaching myself about - I jumped on the single speed learning curve 9 weeks ago and have only pedaled gears three times since then. Some adapting and lots of learning happening. Lots of pouring over power files and playing with data.

Apart from it being heady fun, I wanted to learn what this single speeding is really all about - the nitty gritty. What it does for you? What it does to you? How to train myself for it? How to coach single speeders? How to use the single speed riding as a training tool for my gearie athletes? Roadies have been claiming the benefits of single and fixed gear winter training for years.

Now with coaching, I have a belief never to schedule a workout or a block of training I have never tried at least one time myself. I've raced all kinds of events from Ironman triathlons to Trans Rockies, 24-hour team events, duos and solos, supported and unsupported, 100 milers, cross country, downhill and short track. Nothing beats a good dose of experiential learning. I believe the best coaches have done what they are teaching you to do. How can you really appreciate the full love of a 24-hour solo until you have kissed that angel yourself?

Sooo right now I am in the middle of a 4-day single speed binge. About 4-5 hour per day - lots of climbing. He, he, when I have ticked this off without killing myself that gives me permission to schedule it for one of my athletes should the opportunity arise ;-) But really, one of the ideas floating around the bubble is to do Trans Rockies single speed this year. Currently having only a vague idea of what kind of impact that would have on my body I thought I'd spend 4 days educating myself. I'm halfway there...

Single Power

Lynda — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:17:00 GMT

My Single Speed got a new rear wheel today. With a Power-Tap hub in it. It's gonna kick off some data and tells us all what all this one gear pedaling stuff actually looks like. I don't think the powers seen are as high as others do. Shortly we will know...

One of the fun things before Trans Rockies was working with power meters to figure out how to be faster as a team than two individuals. Dave and I rode together, looked at power files, figured out what speeds and powers were good for towing. Discovered above about 12 mph drafting was more efficient - and a lot safer than towing. We learned distributing weight makes a huge difference and crunched all the power numbers to come up with a strategy that won us that stage race. The whole discovery process was a lot of fun and made me a better coach along the way. I do love a learning curve.

Now it starts over again with power meters going on the single speeds and more single speed racing on the horizon. So far I have only raced cross country distances on my SS. Maybe we can go back to Trans Rockies next year and race it single speed?? How about that...

My SS story

Lynda — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:13:00 GMT

Well it seems now I have an SS training partner and he tends to like to take things to extremes when an idea takes hold of him. Look out. So far I have just whipped around on wee fast rides on my SS but yesterday manic enveloped me in his new found SS enthusiasm and we went big.

This climb totally spanked me on the SS and I was quivering a bit by the time I hit the top. Flamed out... My main goal was to ride everything and that I did - no hiking involved - very pleased about it. Sometimes it is hard to feel fast when my training partner is giddy and 1/2 mile ahead of me after 10 minutes but I was prepared with tunes yesterday and it was such a fab ride.

Here is the map visual. Prolly part of day 2 on Camp Lynda

So now thoughts of racing stage races, 12 hours and Kokopelli all on the SS are whirling around in the air. 2008 is gonna be some kinda fun.

Camp Lynda Dates

Lynda — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 02:37:00 GMT

Camp Lynda will be January 12-14th. That is a Saturday thru Monday. My kids get out of school early on Friday sooo everybody else must work their schedule around that ;-)

The camp will be self supported. No entry fee, no I Survived Camp Lynda t-shirt (unless you make one with your own blood :-) Everyday a route will be planned, a start time and a gps file provided. We will post the gps files well in advance. You set your own pace, ride solo or with a group, carry all your own supplies, follow a gps.

Rides will go something like this: Day One 4-6 hours. Day Two 5-7 hours. Day Three 6-8 hours. There are more trails in the area than can be covered in three days so right now I have to decide what we are not going to ride. Day One is most likely gonna be two laps on the Jem trail. Two laps of the same loop seems like a funny thing to do but I really like it. By the second lap I am getting in a groove with the trail and enjoying a second chance at everything. Two laps is a great pacing heads up too. The first lap can seem easy and the second lap you pick up the pace and feel like you are hammering but the clock often ticks off the second lap exactly the same as the first. One lap is about 25 miles and 2 - 2.5 hours. The two lap format gives a halfway bailout option and a halfway refuel at the car point. Nice features to make day one more friendly.

The plan for day three is long and hard. Finish it off with a finale you will remember...

Here are a few questions I have received so far:

What are you thinking about accommodations?

Your call. Right next to the five star Green Valley Spa is BLM land you can free camp on. Lots of Motel 8's and Best Westerns in town. Green Valley is a good spot to set up camp. Green Valley Condos are nice and reasonably priced.

How well are these trails marked, and are there good maps I could purchase for the areas you plan to ride?

Day One, The Jem Trail is marked and mapped beautifully (we will be riding the Gould's Farm/JEM/Hurricane Rim Loop). The Jem gps and detailed trail description is on www.utahmountainbiking.com. Scroll down the left menu bar to the St George area trails. Day Two and Three will be unmarked and on routes not found on maps. GPS required or some serious local trail knowledge. In fact Dave wants to take us up the Hurricane Cliffs and on the first part of his Trans Utah route on some roads I have never been on for the big finale day three.

Will we be riding Gooseberry Mesa?

No. The Goose is fun for goofing around on but this is a serious training mission.

Where should I fly into?

Las Vegas is the closest big airport. A shuttle service operates from there to St George. You can also fly directly into St George. The airport is situated on a mesa right in the middle of the city. United and Delta fly into St George.

Do I need a gps?

Yes. Ask Santa for one or you will be dependant on someone else to know the route and the spirit of this camp is self supported.

Halloween Decisions

Lynda — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:52:00 GMT

Pink is a given. Power Ranger or butterfly. Hard choice... Why not both...

Emma has some cool kindergarten teachers. They all dressed as cheerleaders yesterday. They were really funny.

Ninjas are hard to catch on film.

Except in that moment before the hiiiyyahhhh.

Late afternoon candy bonk. Happens to the best of us...Stomping feet and shouting involved here...

Camp Lynda

Lynda — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:47:00 GMT

St George is a great place to ride in the winter, well unless it is raining. Binge training is one of my fav things to do. I wanna share both, hence Camp Lynda. Come down to the desert and ride yourself silly for a few days. Go home so tired you can't think straight. Sound good? You're in?

It will be self supported, no waivers and no fee. I'll post a gpx file of the route and longer route options for the truly manic. You can ride with or solo. Dave is even talking about previewing part of his top secret Trans Utah (St George to Moab) route at the camp.

I'm polling for ideas here?

Date - what works for you?
Format - 3 or 4 days?
Other ideas?

This is what St George looks like in January. Ya might need a vest and arm warmers and if you are a desert bunny you will need tights and booties.

Jem trail in January

Zen Loop in January

Paradise Canyon in January

Fall and 55ers

Lynda — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:10:00 GMT

Fall in the desert is really a second spring time. New flowers bloom. Weather is perfect for being outside. A time to play new games. To do a few things differently.

Kidz started Hot Shots tennis. I don't think Emma hit a ball once and left telling me she was a tennis champion. She is so spunky :-) LOL!

She is teaching herself to fly too.

I didn't have time in Moab to play with the Siren 55er. Brendan sent me home with it :-) and I've been doing a bit of playing since then. The 29" wheel up front and 26" out back is a different ride from my full 29er or full 26er. I'm taking a while to get used to it. I love the way it climbs when I am seated due to the short chain-stays and I love the way the 29" wheel rolls on and off ledges. On the fast whoops coming down Stucki I was landing a bit too nose heavy. The big wheel up front and 26 in back gives the bike a different balance than I am adapted to - takes a little mid air adjustment. There is a learning curve to most everything. Don't worry Brendan I haven't crashed it!

24-hours or Moab Recap

Lynda — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:07:00 GMT

Not a race report as I wasn't racing. It was interesting to be at a 24 in the support role. I haven't actually done that before and it was high time to pay my 24 hour support dues. Thanks to everyone who came by the pit and helped set up and take down the EZ-up and gear. It was really fun to be in social mode and chat with everybody.

Moab really is a carnival as much as a race. I've always been in a race bubble at Moab so enjoyed all the carnival aspects this time around. Here is Granny handing out balloons at the start.

View of the herd lining up minutes before the start. Chris Etough is hanging out with his mechanic by his bike and didn't go up to the crowd until 1 minute to go. He looked cool and relaxed 100% of the time. He had casual pit stops and rode to a tactical win. On the women's side Jari Kirkland rode an amazing race killing the entire men's and women's field except for Chris. He was the only solo in front of her at noon on Sunday. We were pitted right next to Jari and I spied on her the whole race. She didn't falter. She was on a different plane to everyone else at Moab this year.

JK showing off his FJ

Stampede -bandanna over the mouth highly recommended

Chili peppers?? Here are Dave and Josh Tostado. Josh cracked and stopped sometime around sunset in 2nd place. Dave took over 2nd place and cracked about 1:30am. Lots of attrition in both the men's and women's solos this year. More than usual. The course was slow and sandy and hard.

I have photos of some solos at the cracking point with fear and pain on their faces so personal I don't feel I can post them... Here is Mary after she pulled the plug. Mary always is cute...

So why is Moab so hard? Why do so many solos suffer and crack there? The course is certainly one of the hardest to solo with the steep slick rock sections demanding L6 power or you are walking. The sand this year was energy sucking too. The dryness of this year was a stark contrast to the flash floods of last year.

My personal theory is that timing is what is the kicker for Moab solos. It is at the end of the season. Solos are mostly carrying a depth of fatigue beyond what they perceive. They are used to feeling tired - fatigue levels have normalized. In 24-solo racing there is a big difference in being fast and in having the ability to complete it. It is a delicate balance of hard training and freshness on race day. Give up too much fitness in the taper and you will be slow vs. arrive at the race site with underlying fatigue and you will crack somewhere between 8 and 13 hours in. I saw lots of cracking in the solo field at Moab last weekend which is classic fatigue from a season of racing. World Champion Rebecca Rusch soloed Moab and put in a respectable 12 laps but far below her potential. I know she soloed Nationals, Worlds, Grand Targhee and Moab this year - that's a lot! Judging by her face near dawn it was one too many...

24 Hours of Moab

Lynda — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:46:00 GMT

I'll be there.

I was, then I wasn't, then I was with the kids coming too and then I wasn't and now I am without the kids...Whew - logistic mania. I'm not even racing.

I'm really looking forward to coming and not racing. I'll ride a few laps on Friday with some of my athletes and get to hang out Friday evening all relaxed and not having to think too much about the race. I'll be doing support for Dave and maybe FredW too at night. Just let me know if you need me Fred.

Last year it was a crazy race. Here's the visual prior to the start. This was before the downpour started!!

This year the forecast is dry. Much nicer hopefully.

I'll be buzzing around the course showing the secret lines to my guys on my Black 29er single speed Gary Fisher Rig on Friday. Or if I'm really lucky I'll be on a Siren 55er demo SS. We will be hanging out at camp in the solo area on Friday evening. Say hi and come and chat if you see me. I'm in social mode not racer mode this time :-) Ask me your last minute coaching questions and I will wave my hands around and spread my sage advice all over the world... We are pitting with the Siren crew, Fred and should have a Desert Cyclery banner. Come find us.

Here is one of the secret lines. Moab tip: don't follow guys in front of you. Follow the gals in pink ;-)

Getting Single

Lynda — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:52:00 GMT

My knees are almost back to 100%. Took about 4 weeks to clear up the tendinitis. Sounds normal. I am back riding and every ride I grab the single speed. Funny how the knee rehab plan has been on the single speed.

I've kept the gearing easy at 32X21. The SS is great as I get to crank out short sections but the 32x21 makes me coast a lot more than normal and ride easy as I am undergeared so much. I don't think I have logged any huffin' and puffin' riding yet. The 29er wheels add in big fun factor too.

Mom is taking the front seat to Coach and Racer right now. Most of my athletes have peaked for the season and are on a coach forced hiatus from structured training. Sent off with the guidelines to ride plenty when they feel like it, explore new trails and training grounds for next season and not to get too fat! Late fall is the time to enjoy a seasons fitness and enjoy the trails. Just don't enjoy too many pies ;-) I'll put them to the grindstone again when it is time. One coaching idea brewing right now is a winter "Camp Lynda". Wanna come down to St George this winter and ride your mountain bike for a few days until you can't think straight?

Emma and Wesley entered the school art competition. The theme of the show is "I can make a difference by...." Emma has a creative side. Her project was " by making people smile". She likes to take photos and has a lot of pics of people looking down at her with an "aww cute little girl smile". She pasted them into a collage. She put a photo of a butt top and center - Gary it's your butt!! to make people (well kids) looking at her poster smile. It works. Kids crack up at the butt shot. Her teacher wasn't real impressed with the butt but liked the rest of it ;-)

October is marathon season here in St George. Steve paced his friend Stacy this year instead of trying to run a PR himself. Stacy was ecstatic to run a seven minute PR. Steve finished energetic and giddy and said it was one of the most fun marathons he has done.

Here comes the ride perfect desert weather. My SS looks to have a bit more action imminent. I sense some more SS racing on my schedule next year too! It doesn't quite feel like a fall only SS phase - has a tighter grip than that...

New Toyz

Lynda — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 01:30:00 GMT

My knees are on the mend :-) and whew... The SS is calling me. It's the bike I feel best pedaling at the moment. I took it up to Gooseberry for a fab ride with a whole pile of super cool biker folks fresh off Interbike. Sadly my camera battery died on the second pic and I missed out on a whole pile of huge huckin' shots.

The Siren team of Mary and Brendan were up and I got to see some Sirens in the real live flesh this weekend. They are beautiful bikes. My SS is a 29er Rig. They had some 29 front/26 rear Sirens called 55's. I was intrigued by that as I have such fun on my 29er but sometimes catch myself up on the rear wheel as my frame is so small and the wheel so big. I didnt get to ride one but Brendan promised to bring a 55er SS in my size to Moab to buzz around on - oooh...

The main reason they were in town was to deliver Dave's new Siren Song - a soft tail 55er. Serial number 001!! Lucky boy! Today was it's first trip out for sun, views and photo taking.

oooohhhh....ahhhhh

Not quite so exciting - I played with a new toy today. An Ergon BD1 pack. At first sight I didn't like it - looks overbuilt. Wearing it is another matter. I liked it immediately. Then I weighed it down with a bunch of tools, 170 oz of water and some snacks. It felt better than any pack I have ridden with. I've only done one short ride with it but I think I have found a new friend.

What is Going On?

Lynda — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:32:00 GMT

I have so many physical things going on with me at the moment I can make a bulleted list...

Infected and swollen left elbow joint
Right leg IT Band Syndrome
Left knee has mysterious internal pains
Stomach flu
and of course the perennial osteopenia and hypothyroidism

Very strange. I must have some crazy kind of action in my moons, stars and planets at the moment. It is all keeping me off my bike which is not good for my mental state either. I'll not start a bulleted list on that...

Big Skies

Lynda — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:36:00 GMT

No matter what happens I will always be able to lie down and admire the beauty of the sky.

Hoodoo 500

Lynda — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:57:00 GMT

I'm not back riding again yet since Worlds. I've been busy and my knee is still busy healing. I think I'll take the mtb out for a spin tomorrow.

Racing goes on. Today in St George started The Hoodoo 500. 500 mile race through scenic SW Utah. The course passes by Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon, Escalante National Monument, Cedar Breaks and Snow Canyon. Big route - 519 miles and big scenery. One of my athletes Dennis gathered together his friends and put together a 4 man team - The Tri Cyclers. They were uber excited to get started. They are doing it right - RV, chase car, crew, radios...wads of support.

Emma approved of their RV set up.

Hoodoo 500 is a first year event and has a small field. Local based Team BHB have a very strong looking roster. Scott Smith looked happy to be taking the first leg.

The race has not only hammerheads like Scott but some interesting team make ups. I don't know the story behind these guys Team N.U.B.S. On the team roster it looks like a mom/son and dad/son pairing. Ages are 41/11 yrs and 43/11 yrs. Now that is pretty cool.

Emma took all the above photos except for the one of her in the RV. She took charge of the camera and snapped away while I was chatting. She got some great shots! She took this next one herself too. You have to be darn cute to get away with this extreme close-up.

So the race set off at 11am this morning. I'll be following the race live webcast and rooting for Team TriCyclers and of course locals Team BHB. Team NUBS too.

Arm chair racing. Go, Go, Go!

24-Hour Solo World Championship Race Report

Lynda — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:07:00 GMT

While indulging in some out-of-hand pre-race smack talk I mentioned I wasn't going to Worlds to do any learning...LOL!! ooops... Winner Rebecca Rusch taught me a couple of lessons and I re-taught myself a few things I thought I already knew. So I don't get to say this week I am the best in the World - those kudos go to Rebecca who rode a strong and smart race.

I rode a tough race and I am proud of myself for that. Conditions were hot and the amount of climbing was huge - 2500 feet per lap. I finished with 14 laps and 35,000 feet of climbing. Bernice rode a tough race too. We chatted a little in the morning and riding along she sang out with a smile"I'm suffering and I'll just keep on suffering". She suffered herself all the way up into 6th place. Tenacity gets you a long way in a 24-solo. She also said it was motivating to have her coach on course and she couldn't quit with me there watching. Glad I provided that extra motivation on the day.

Bern is off to live in Alaska for 3 months as part of a reality TV show filmed by Discovery Channel. She will be living off the land with no electricity, no running water, hunting and fishing for food. I have no doubt she is tough enough.

So the race.... I racked my bike on the front row. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not but Rebecca racked hers almost next to mine. Or maybe I racked mine by hers?

The run was ugly fast and furious. Uphill, around a tree and downhill on pavement. Luv running downhill on pavement in my cycling shoes. On the way down a big guy stumbled into me and spun me right around. I twisted my right knee a little but didn't fall. No biggie tho...

I've never met Rebecca and hadn't eyeballed her up to this point. This pic amuses me. We get to our bikes exactly the same time. Was she shadowing me?? Don't know...

The next 6 hours or so we were wheel to wheel or very close. We chatted some, worked together some and pulled away from the rest of the field. After 5 hours we even had a pee truce, stopped together, gave a few guys a double show, got back on the bikes and started racing again - that was funny.

On lap 1 we were 2nd/3rd. On lap 2 we passed a hot looking Monique Sawicki flailing around in the sand. I was quite pleased by that as she was a pre-race favorite. We worked together to put a big gap on her.

This is my fav part of the course:

...and my least fav. We went over this bridge twice per laps so I tallied 28 trips over it.

On lap 5 the knee I twisted in the run started to hurt enough to become a management issue. Rebecca came through to take a pull on the road section into the headwind and gapped me without trying real hard. She looked back confused for just a second then smelled it and hammered off out of the saddle. I was done :-(

Every lap my knee got a bit worse and eventually I was putting painkillers in my mouth that would have gotten any of my athletes pulled off the course if I witnessed it... By midnight I was mostly pedaling with my left leg only. The trip over the bridge became a teeth gritting nightmare. I have saddle sores on the left side like I have never experienced before - ugly stuff.

By dawn my pit crew had figured out the soonest I could stop to seal up second place. Energywize I still had a ton left in the morning and it was frustrating not to be able to spend it but to continue to damage my knee further was fruitless. The last lap was agony and I would have cried if Dave told me to go out for another one when I came in after lap 14.

Lights: Amazing! I had so many comments on course at night about how bright they were. The dark didn't slow me down. We set up my helmet light all spots and the throw on it was incredible. Luminosity. One Aussie I came up on shouted out "you have waaay too much light on that bike". The folks around the course writing down number plates said "oh no you again, what's your number" I was so bright they couldn't read my number plate. Burning retinas...

Pit crew: Dave, Andy, Dan and Kathleen were more than superb. Thanks guys. Thanks a million. It was over-the-top for me to have so many people focused on me. Being a mom and wife I am nearly always in the doing things for others position. Mega kudos go to Andy. After the race I saw a blown fork on the ground "hey Andy who's fork is that?" Andy chuckles "it is yours - seamless huh!". He was so slick I didn't even notice a new fork on my bike!

Worlds was great. I had a race. I loved it. Then it was tough and I gutted out a second place finish. I'd love to go back again. It was darn hard to peak for tho'. Training in the St George desert heat with the kids out of school for the summer wasn't easy. Next year I think I'll put my biggest peak near the end of May.

My knee is getting better - wicked tendinitis is the diagnosis.

Wurlds

Lynda — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:37:00 GMT

This has been a crazy week for me. One of those weeks where everything comes to a point and explodes. With sleep deprivation and fatigue my efficiency has been at an all time low. Life support systems only captain.

So Worlds was fun. I rode with all I had and came 2nd. Rebecca Rusch won with a monstrously strong ride - impressive. What puts a big fat grin on my face is that LW Coaching athlete Bernice came 6th in the Elite Women's field. Well done Bernice. LW Coaching had a good Worlds. It was also awesome to share the podium with a former LW athlete Sally who scored 3rd. Sally - you're a star now!

Here is a podium pic to go along with this weak blog. I'll post a full race report sometime this weekend. As ever lots happened within 24 hours of racing. Stay tuned - I'll spill the goods...

Indulging

Lynda — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:53:00 GMT

Big rides across beautiful places is when my body and soul are most connected.

Riding for 24 hours is sheer indulgence.

Is it how many breaths you take or how many moments are breathless?

Back on

Lynda — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:51:00 GMT

I'm getting better, lungs have cleared out and Worlds is back on. Whatdya know the rest has prolly done me good after all. I have some top end power coming out my Power-Tap I haven't seen in a while.

Lots of details to get together for a 24-hour solo. Lights are a big one. Dave has the magic light set up. I went over to his place early early dark am for some ridng and light testing. I was a bit groggy when I arrived. Dave on the other hand had been up for hours soldering and tinkering to get everything just right... Manic at 5am...

We hit the big Blakes climb and as ever the sunrise up there was gorgeous.

It is still warm here. Beauty morning for a big ride.

Slipping Away

Lynda — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:25:00 GMT

Steve says god takes things away from us we care about to humble us.

My sniffle travelled from the tip of my nose, evolving into a back of the throat tickle. Now it is embedded in the depths of my lungs as a gurgle. I feel more weak and feverish than humbled. The idea of racing a 24-hour solo in 13 days is tough to hold on to let alone the World Championships.

It is just a bike race....right?

Milestones

Lynda — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:51:00 GMT

Life is churning forward even tho' you wouldn't know it by my dearth of blogging lately. Today is a big day in my life. My youngest Emma started Kindergarten. That changes my daily schedule and has a huge impact on my life. Things are changing. I'm making some of the changes and others are changing me. Turnover.

Emma changed her outfit about seventy times this morning before settling on the first day of school get up. Pigtails were requested and the outfit was accessorized with a shell necklace.

Emma added the final touch with a sun-visor just before leaving the house.

Wesley "OK mom can I get going already".

GO!

They were so excited. Off with a wave. "See ya mom". I love it when they do that. They are so full of confidence and life. Does my mom heart good to see that.

What's next?

Lynda — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:48:00 GMT

One goal left for the year. The 24 Hour World Solo Championships. I've never been and it is time I ponied up to the start line. The goal is to win - why else go to World's?? I'm assembling an arsenal of weapons.

Weapon #1 being assembled with care by Desert Cyclery ace wrench Dusty.

Weapon #2 Andy is coming to Worlds to wrench. I couldn't have a better mechanic in my pit than him. If he doesn't have a spare part then he'll make one. I have no doubt my bikes will be tuned and rolling fast every lap.

Weapon #3. Dave aint racing much right now and will be my number one supporter there. His mojo in the pit and his homemade lights shining my way around the course will make me faster without a doubt.

Aint she a beauty?

21 lbs right now with tubes and a heavy Power-Tap wheel on the rear. Race wheels and a couple of lighter parts should take her under 20 lbs for Worlds. Only 2 rides so far and it's pure love.

I'm off the river with a huge depth of freshness and some BIG motivation to train. The plan is to start back with a few weeks of intensity then dial down the 24 hour specifics.

I love chasing a goal...

Interlude

Lynda — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:02:00 GMT

From training, racing, riding, blogging and life in general. I've been gone... and gone without a bike in tow!!!

A little hiking

A little dancing

A little one doing a little paddling

Big views

Big jumps

Big smiles

Big adventure for little ones

Big, beautiful walls

San Juan River. Sand Island to Clay Hills Crossing. 83 river miles. 7 days.

BC Bike Race Report

Lynda — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:05:00 GMT

I rode my bike in Canada for 7 days in a row and had a fabulous time doing that among a herd of like minded mtb addicts. It was a great time for me. It was a slightly different race for my team mate Dave. The short story is we won stages 1-6, went into the final day 7 with a 75 minute lead on the GC and dnf'd the final stage after Dave crashed hard enough he couldn't get up again.

Six 1st place medals and six leaders jerseys. We had a whole pile of fun collecting these :-)

To say he couldn't get up again is a big thing as he had bounced up from a number already. He is a tough guy. He crashed near the end of stage five breaking ribs. We won that stage then the following stage six, the longest of the race, nursing him along with his broken ribs. There were a whole pile of hike-a-bikes in stage 6 and I ended up carrying my bike and pushing his up them. A few times it was rough enough I was carrying both of them. Made me feel super burly woman!!

I was about 10 feet behind him when he did the race ending crash and it was a sight that made me sick in the stomach. It dazed me for a while. I totally blew the first aid and immediate response. Shortly the second place team came along and Ryan took immediate control stabilizing Dave's spine and calling in the medics. It took an hour from that point to get Dave on a backboard and transported off course. Ryan stuck beside the whole time not giving a second consideration to the race standings. Ryan is my hero of the whole race.

Ryan and his teammate Hillary took the GC and the overall win after our DNF.

The hour holding Dave's head waiting for the medics to arrive was a gamut of emotions for me, mostly scared and sad. When the medics arrived I was shushed away and told I'd have to ride myself to the hospital. Boooger that. I took off and kept on riding down the course. Once I was pedaling away from the scene I was really surprised to find how mad I was. I was pissed! Without thinking too much about it I just started hammering down the course following the pink flagging. I didn't know where the heck I was. The flagging marked the way home and riding hard made me feel better.

Coming over the finish line I was given a finisher medal. It didn't even occur to me I was finishing the stage race until I was handed the medal. Finishing was a prime goal but without my team mate by my side it is not a complete finish.

So now I have a finisher t-shirt and medal and Dave doesn't. In retrospect I am very glad to have finished.

This was a tough one to blog. I had a great time. It was a super week and super race. The win was never the prime goal for this one. I hit all my goals: to feel good, see some scenery, ride my bike lots, laugh lots, finish, ride my bike on Thrill me Kill Me a famous Whistler trail (and in fact the one Dave ended his race on). I feel a bit guilty coming off the race with such good feelings as obviously Dave does not. Losing the win on the last day doesn't bug me at all. You win some, you lose some. What counts in the end is how much grace you did both with.

These boyz define grace. They rode hard and fast and cracked me up on a daily basis. Yes those are lycra jeans and yes they did race wearing them. Very impressive showing.

Ironically the only day I carried my camera was day 7. Our plan was to cruise and enjoy. Here is the only photo I took during the entire event. This is at the top of Thrill Me Kill Me (I think).

BC Bike Race - here we come!

Lynda — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:52:00 GMT

My bike and bags are packed. Tomorrow I catch the 6am flight to Vancouver. Then a coach- ferry-coach-taxi combo to our hotel in Victoria. Tomorrow will be a long day.

Daily race results and race reports will be posted here. Photos, video clips and other random stuff will be posted daily here.

On the surface BC Bike Race looks much like Trans Rockies - I'm racing in the mixed category with team mate Dave again and it is a seven day mountain bike stage race in Canada. There the similarities end. At Trans Rockies we rolled out of bed, ate some breakfast and started. Often the start line was within view of our RV. This time around there are some amazing logistics involved with buses, ferries and one day even a zip-line transfer to the start. The race staff are being uber creative to put us on the best trails they have. Also we are in a tent not an RV. No luxury package for us this year.

BCBR has a very different flow than TR had. We went to TR to win. We peaked for it and set up everything possible for the win - and we won :-) Since then both of us have smashed our collar bones into multiple pieces and had titanium plates inserted. The acronym BCBR - Broken Collar Bone Rehab - is not lost on us. Mine is most recent. After surgery I asked Dave the burly question - did he want to get a replacement team mate for me? It looked like it would be a tight time squeeze to get my strength and fitness back by the start. He stuck with me and I have built my fitness back nicely. I'm lighter and my threshold power is higher than it was at TR last year. I come into BCBR with no recent racing under my belt so still a bit unsure of what my legs have to offer.

Towing was allowed at TR and is not allowed at BCBR. At TR last year we were towing 4 miles off the start line on day One but put away the towline halfway through day 3. I made some mistakes in my role on the team last year. We learned a lot last year about our strengths and how to race effectively as a team. This year we go in with our strategy more refined.

Most of all BCBR is about chasing white moments, riding my bike a ton, enjoying some rad trails in BC, laughing with Dave and seeing some big and beautiful scenery. I can't think of a much better way than that to spend a week.

Foxieviewed

Lynda — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:11:00 GMT

Cris Fox is running a series of racer interviews. I've enjoyed reading about all of these characters. Today was my turn to be Foxieviewed.

Tapering for BC Bike Race

Lynda — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Seven days to the start of BC Bike race and I am in full taper mode. That meant skipping The E12 yesterday, which turned out to be another hot and depleting event. News is Epic Adam went to the hospital with heatstroke. I can't afford one of those in my legs a week before spending seven days chasing around on my mountain bike after Bionicle Dave in BC. Gotta make choices...

The BC Bike race course looks awesome. Day distances are 112, 115, 83, 60, 55, 75, 25km. I love racing km's. They go by so much faster than miles ;-) The last stage is an all single-track team time trial on the Whistler trails. They are giving teams individual starts, fastest to slowest and we are racing the clock. That is a cool way to finish a big stage race like this. It will be exciting and maybe a bit suffery if the GC times are close. Whistler trails have a reputation for being both fun and hard. A bit imtimidating but I look forward to sampling them myself.

This is what the weekends taper activities looked like:

Keeping cool in the desert on Saturday

Wesley looooves rafting and is always in the front. Emma and I prefer the Queen and Princess seats in the back.

I wanted to get in a longer ride today. That meant clipping in about 4am to beat the heat. My patio thermomenter hit 108F a couple of days ago - whew. The sunrise this morning was incredibly beautiful.

The taper is working. After warming up my legs were beautiful too.

It was one of those time warp rides where every tune on the mp3 is just the right one and the climbs go by in a flash. I nearly missed a turn at the top of the big Blakes climb 'cause I got there so fast. I wasn't expecting it and it is a hard fast turn. "Wow. I'm here already!"

The sun threw crazy colors out into the air this morning.

New Toyz

Lynda — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:45:00 GMT

I spent this weekend paying the fatigue penalty that came along with running my TSB down to -108 and CTL up to 143. There is no reason this should have surprised me - but it did. I fall into all the self coaching pitfalls. I made the wise call to skip KMC which turned into an Epicfest with only 2 finishers. A hot Epic was not what my legs needed. No legs doesn't mean no fun tho'.

I spent the weekend tinkering around with my new GPS toy. It does many things. I laid down a track of the 36 mile Virgin River Rim single track, followed a route I'd uploaded around Navajo Lake and we went geocaching. The kids loved geocaching.

The first cache was a few minutes hike into the woods from the campground. Wesley took charge.

Bro it's this way

Score! The kids were sooo excited to find it.

Next one we paddled to.

Score Two!

When you find the cache you take something out and leave something behind. Here is Emma modeling the necklace and headband she chose.

Wesley chose a screwdriver and a box of matches! Funny stuff.

Sunset on Navajo Lake. This is one of my fav summer places.

Hot!

Lynda — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:37:00 GMT

It was still over 100F when I finished my ride at 8:30pm tonight. The heat made me feel like a slug.

I stripped all the extra bottle cages and miscellaneous junk off my bike and it felt so light and fast. Time to get things dialed in for BC Bike Race. My plan is to be light and fast there. I have to to keep up with the Manic One...

Contrasts

Lynda — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:37:00 GMT

Sunday

Monday

Aint this country great!

Buffalo Creek

Lynda — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 02:53:00 GMT

I've heard about the flowy trails at Buffalo Creek and got to sample a few of them with a couple fellow bike addicted chickas - a very rare treat for me. The ladies were zippy. I had to take the lead to slow things down! Ride stats in the end were 22 miles of single-track, 2:23, 118 TSS and 0.703 IF.

These gals are about the same size as me so it was cool to check out how they had their bikes set up and what gloves etc they found to fit. Jen is one tough gal, she is off to Canada shortly to do a six day adventure race. That is six days non-stop. They plan to sleep about an hour per night!

The trails were fab. These gals can ride their bikes up and down. I was impressed. I only have climbing pics as I was having too much fun ripping down the descents with them to whip out the camera.

Flowers busting out.

Cynthia rocks a super sexy little rigid SS.

Bike chickas.

Crazy CO weather

Lynda — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:51:00 GMT

We are in Colorado this week on vacation. Every year we spend a week here at the grandparents and every year I relearn how crazy the CO mountain weather is.

Tuesday arm warmers and leg warmers were on and off, rolled up and down constantly. Fab day tho' 45 miles on the Colorado Trail, which has seen a lot of trail work since I rode it last year. It is in superb shape.

One of grandmas best talents is baking and we are fueling the riding with cake and brownies. I'm riding very well on brownies this week :-)

Today was awesome. The weather here was super stormy. Rain and snow showers all around but somehow I managed to churn out 5 hours/ 305 TSS in the sun with a tail wind. Every time I changed direction the wind shifted to my back. I pedaled in the sun watching rain shafts move around me and snow hit the fourteeners.

Stop to shed the layers

Cruising down a wet road. The rain was in front of me and behind me but never on me. It was a bubble day.

Kidz got a kick out of the snow. Wesley lost a tooth this afternoon. We couldn't find it. Maybe he swallowed it or maybe the tooth fairy swooped right in and took it out of his mouth. We will have to wait until tomorrow morning for the answer under his pillow...

Dave's Grand Loop Race - so far...

Lynda — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 21:55:00 GMT

Dave is out there right now on the Grand Loop race. It started at 6pm Friday in Grand Junction. I happened to be at Dewey Bridge on a raft trip the night the race rolled over the bridge. I didn't plan it - serendiptiy at work.

Dave rolled over in first place at 3:15am. He was 45 minutes ahead of schedule. I was just getting up to make coffee when we heard a whooping coming from the direction of the bridge. We were camped about 200 yards from the bridge. Next I hear wheels on dirt and dashed up to the road with one shoe on and caught him.

It was an amazing moment. The moon was huge and bright - almost full. Moonlight was making the white stanchions on Dewey bridge glow, throwing moon rays and shadows higgldy piggdly down on the river. The air was still and warm. The type of moment cameras can't catch. The light was low but vivid. Colorful but subtle.

Dave was in the zone feeling no pain. Steve described him as giddy and jubilant. He only stopped for about 5 minutes and spent most of it stuffing his face. Looks like all systems were working... He was giving off incredible energy!

..and then he was gone. As we watched him ride off into the moonlight goose bumps stood up on my arms and I was flooded with a mix of awe and envy. I told Steve I had goose bumps and he said he did too. He said we just witnessed something special.

It was like he was riding in a cocoon of magic that moved on up the road with him. After he left the moon dropped behind the mesa and things turned flat and dark again.

Seven fellas started and two have dnf'd already. Dave has until 10pm on Monday to break the course record. As of the Bedrock call in he was 6 hours ahead of record pace. I appear to be far too interested and excited about this race. I suspect it may be more than fellas who start next year...

Now I am in Colorado for a family reunion/vacation. My brand new GPS tells me my ride maximum elevation was 10,052 and minimum 8,235 feet - dizzy desert bunny!

We pack light for vacations.

Mom & Sons ride

Lynda — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:28:00 GMT

Red Canyon did not disappoint, not even a little bitty. The trails were in fab condition and the weather ride perfect.

We did a mom and son ride. Mom1 was on her pink 29er SS and I was on my stealth black one. We thought we were purty cool moms!

Hottie!

Wesley rode so well. It was fun to ride with him. He was cleaning almost everything. While he was standing up cranking out one little steep loose pitch with skill I was giving encouragement from behind.

Me: "Go, go, go, pedal, pedal"

Wesley: "Mom can you stop that please"

LOL - not so cool mom after all!! Now how did I get a son who is more polite than I am? I sure wouldn't have asked my mom to shut up with such tact at 7 yrs old (errr or 37 years old...). Mom 1 was asked to be quiet one time too...

Red and green views.

Winding through the hoodoos

My wee boy. Aaawwww.

Memorial Day Tradition

Lynda — Thu, 24 May 2007 20:29:00 GMT

We are sneaking out of town a day early for our annual Memorial Day weekend in Red Canyon. Tuesday's blog will look like exactly like this, except we will all be a year older...

Packing up. Pappa bear, momma bear, baby bear...

Wesley has built some mad mtb skills since last year and Steve has big plans to take him on some of the longer trails.

2007 Kokopelli Trail Race Report

Lynda — Mon, 21 May 2007 20:46:00 GMT

Well it wasn't a race but a group of friends riding the Kokopelli Trail - so the BLM officials who showed up to the start were told. They didn't buy it and dished out a $275 ticket to Adam for organizing an event on BLM land without a permit. With that slap on the wrist most of us set off at midnight. 65 starters and 35-ish finishers.

It was a warm night. The jacket, arm warmers and knee warmers I had in my bag did not get touched. We had a super nice tail wind and clipped right along to Dewey Bridge 45 minutes faster than my race plan crossing the bridge at 7:15am. I spun out the first half with FredW and Jeremy. Both have a nice smooth spin and set a good tempo pace. I let them go ahead before Dewey Bridge while I slowed up to eat, change my lens and do some morning business.

After Dewey Bridge I put on my mp3 and picked it up for the second half - my favorite part. The climbs were sandy and hot. I love the heat but even I had one little meltdown and ended up on my back in the shade for a few minutes. Shortly after that a rainshower cooled everything off.

I drank about twice the water I planned on. The day before we scouted the water holes so I knew where to pick up extra - no problem.

I didn't carry a camera so here are some super shots I poached from ssperl - thanks!

Yellow Jacket just after dawn looking up towards the La Sal Mountains and where we are headed. I love this part of the trail so planned my break here to linger and admire the view a little. SSperl caught it nicely on film. From this point on it is climbing, climbing (have I mentioned I like to climb ;-)

Up above everything looking down now after about 5 hours of solid climbing.

Once passed Dewey Bridge the tailwind wasn't much of a factor. I hit my race plan splits dead on and rolled into Slickrock at 3:06 pm. That was good for 5th across the finish line and 1st woman in. Kenny was a couple of minutes ahead and Jason a couple of minutes behind so we had a tight little bunch at the end.

Results went something like this:

Dave Weins 12:45, Jesse 13:19, Brian?, Kenny 15:04, me 15:06, Jason 15:09, ChrisP 15:?. Cat Morrison was the second place female finisher in 18:30. Folks trickled in all the way until midnight. A large group finished together with smiles at 8:47pm.

No records were broken. My finish time 15:06 was three minutes off my time from last year of 15:03. Dave Weins won in 12:45, four minutes shy of the 12:41 course record set last year by Dave Harris.

Collar bone: Solid as a rock. I'm back in action!

Almost as fun as the race was hanging out at slickrock after meeting the later finishers and hanging out with the support crew. I got to meet some great new folks in person I have known only in the online form.

Itty Bitty Betty finished in 23:10 on a singlespeed to become the first ever female SS KTR finisher - awesome job!

Itty Bitty Betty, LyndaW and brg. Check it out - I am the tallest :-)

So now I've done KTR in both directions. I think I've done it. Time for new obsessions...

Wesley had a non-race event too this weekend. He did the Tuff Kids Triathlon. This was a non-timed, non-competitive event. Just a group of kids getting together for a fun swim, bike and run. Wesley is in the orange shorts getting chicked on the run by a gal in blue shorts. These kids are not racing - rrrrright.

Mojo

Lynda — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:21:00 GMT

An object as an amulet or charm that is believed to carry a magic spell

Personal magnetism; charm

Mojo waxes and wanes. It can take a long time to build up and disappear in a flash. I've completed the Kokopelli Trail three times now and each time returned home with my mojo bag full.

Mike Curiak took this photo of me just after dawn last year during the race. When I started riding the trainer back in March after my accident this is one of the photos I put up on the wall beside the trainer and maybe the one my eyes settled on most often. This photo has bueno mojo for me. It makes me smile and gives me the feeling inside I had during the race last year - joy. I sure love to ride my bike. I love to ride it in beautiful places. I love to ride thru dawn. I love to ride for a long time. This photo says all of that to me.

I think some people were born as natural mojo producers. Wesley is one of them. It doesn't matter what he is doing, where he is or who he is with. He instantly makes friends and starts playing - the game don't matter. It is a true natural talent. If you have met Wesley you know this already.

Mojo can be given and taken, found and lost. Welcome back into this world to Steve who got his mojo back this week after a long absence. It is nice to have you back honey. Real nice.

Here are a few mojo tokens that will be travelling the length of the Kokopelli Trail with me this week. The tire boot came along last year too. It was given to me by a friend who has a ton of mojo. It's not any old piece of tire - it has the World Champion stripes on...

Sunday morning is shaping up to be a big breakfast gathering in Moab. Venue and time TBD but come along if you want to spend a few hours talking about nuthin' but bikes and hearing mega KTR stories. The only sure thing about KTR is Sunday morning stories. Call me or hunt me down. The plan has me finishing at Slickrock at 3:50pm on Saturday.

Kokopelli Trail Race is ON :-)

Lynda — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:31:00 GMT

Doc said my collar bone was about 75% healed and gave me the go ahead to race Kokopelli. Yeeeehaahhh. Just mentioned I should not crash on it... Here is the most recent x-ray - 11 weeks post surgery. Looks the same to me as all the others. Doc said that's a good thing and that's what he was looking for - nothing has come unscrewed, unglued or moved. He was super pleased with my symmetry - said there was a lotta guessing going on during the surgery fitting all the pieces back together - said it was messy in there - said it doesn't always work out so nicely....

I'm a wee gal and this is a big bad plate to be in my shoulder. You can see it. I still can't get comfortable with a Camelbak strap over it so I'm carrying everything on my bike at KTR. The hike-a-bike outta Salt Creek is gonna be a challenge.

Going for the bag lady look...

This poor bike hasn't seen an inch of dirt since Old Pueblo in February. I handed it off to ace wrench Andy at Desert Cyclery (before the bag lady make-over) to put his magic mechanic fingers on it. When I picked it up it was like being on a new machine with plinky-plonk shifting - I love that. Thanks Andy.

Happy Muther's day for all you muthers. I clipped in this morning well before dawn for 55 miles in the dirt. Made it back just in time to shower, get my dress on and make it to church. He, he I'm a happy mother.

Kinder's gave me chocolate, cashews and a big bunch of roses.

Emma is wearing a towel on her head today and pretending she has long white hair like Rapunzel.

Mom-Coach-Rehabber

Lynda — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:19:00 GMT

...is a better tag-line for my blog at the moment. Lots of drama and chaos going on in my life but nothing in the way of blogworthy racing. Coming up on May 19th is Kokopelli Trail race. I'm hoping to do that one - really looking forward to doing that one. I see my Ortho doc on Thursday for a pre-race check up. If he says no, I won't race..but I have pre-ridden the course and made hotel reservations already :-)

The collar-bone is giving me a few problems still but every week it feels stronger and I can do things I wasn't able to do last week. This week it was lift up my 4 year old again. She is very hugworthy and it has been hard saying no when she asks to be picked up. One issue still looming is my inability to carry a heavy Camelbak. The strap irritates the plate/collarbone. I was hoping this would subside but so far it hasn't. I'm gonna have to step up the gear carrying creativity to keep it off my back at KTR.

Once I have the green light from my Doc on Thursday to race the official KTR obsession period begins. Tires, water, lights.....

Photo blogger ON:

Fun visiters

A rare chance to ride big with a girlfriend. Mojo building.

More mojo building. Back on the trails with my best riding palz.

Finally got out to see the Bear Claw poppies in bloom. Thanks to these little guys we have a big piece of land with some great trails on protected from development.

Ballet recital dress rehearsal season

Wesley's next race is the Tuff kidz triathlon so the subliminal training has been more run focused

Emma gets in on the treadmill interval training session too. She can run purty fast in a skirt and sandals.

Sore, Sunburned and Frantic

Lynda — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:51:00 GMT

That's how I sent my mom back to Scotland this morning. She has been visiting for 3 weeks. Yesterday, her last day, we went out for a hike. It took 2.5 hours longer than I thought it would and it hit 93F here. We didn't have enough sunscreen or water but still had a fab time.

There were few shady spots out there.

This morning I woke her up at 5:55 am to catch the 6am airport shuttle! She made it! Back when I was 15 years old she was late taking me to catch a train. I had to run like mad to get on it as it was rolling out of the station. I made that one too...

2007 Kokopelli Trail Recon

Lynda — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:46:00 GMT

Kokopelli Trail Race was my favorite single day race of the year last year. 142 miles self supported from Moab to Fruita. Dave and I had a blast pre-riding it last year. This year as per tradition it flips and runs in the opposite direction. I wasn't sure if I could remember all the turns going backwards - an excellent excuse for another pre-ride ;-)

I found a different Dave to pedal the whole thing with this year. Here he is taking a pic of Castle Rock. I love this feature. It will be dark when we pedal by it this year.

The whole family came along for the recon this year - even Gran. They put in on the Colorado River at Loma and floated down to Moab. I rode the trail parallel and we met up most nights to camp. Steve helped out with the car shuttling by taking his bike on the raft and riding back up the road to get the truck. Vacationing Wallenfels style!

The weekend was full of Dave's. We hung out with a recovering Dave Nice at Dewey Bridge.

For the big ride on Sunday Dave came along to carry my warm clothes and ride snacks and show me the secret line down Rose Garden Hill.

Sunday was Dewey to Moab. Big day, lots of sand, 66 miles, massive vistas and over 10k feet of climbing. Dave B proved not only to be phenomenally strong the whole way but also able to hold his own with the smack talk master.

We hit some cute fluffy snow up at the high points. There is snow falling in this pic - honest!

I think the boyz got cold but I was fine as Dave had offered to carry my clothes so I had plenty of layers...

Final tally for my 4 days out of the barn was 20.5 hours pedaling, 1292 TSS, 202 miles, 24,357 feet of climbing. I'd call that a binge :-)

Adapting

Lynda — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 03:08:00 GMT

If you want to be a zombie sit in front of a TV

If you want to be fit and hyper go outside and run (or ride:-)

Joy is there to be found if you have your eyes and heart open. You do have to look and believe it is there and is yours.

It doesn't have to be perfect

TLC and sunshine are two magic ingredients.

Firsts

Lynda — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:16:00 GMT

Does everything have a silver lining? I think so. I like to think so. I need to think so. One of the great things about being knocked down so hard is relishing the simplicities I missed when I was riding the crest of the wave. Here on the comeback road there are a lot of firsts.

Some big - first day off pain meds

Some small - driving and drinking coffee at the same time

Some unnoticed - ?

Some grabbing huge attention - the day I rebuilt enough energy to make it up to my teeter totter rock

While I was wallowing indoors in my misery on narcotics the world kept on rolling along. Spring happened in the desert. Usually I am part of that, I move with it, ride in it, take it in in small daily doses. This year it hit me in one big hello dose.

First ride outside.

Every day is full of firsts. Today was my first road ride with a group. A very select group for sure and a good time for sure too. First time doing a push-up. First time I woke up sleeping on my favorite right side.

This weekend I have my first binge planned :-) Headed off to the Moab area for that one with immense anticipation. I can almost taste it.

Wee Wally Victory!

Lynda — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:21:00 GMT

The subliminal training paid off - Wesley won his race at the Cholla Challenge, the second stop on the Intermoutain Cup Series. He staged near the back but made up a few spots right off the line as we had him start in the big ring this time. #95 bobbled in the first corner taking out the rider behind. Wesley in the yellow helmet and blue Desert Cyclery jersey got through on the inside.

He put a nice gap on the field. We pulled out all the stops for this race - this time Steve was on course to "chaperon". Steve is in the green jersey having to chase Wesley down!

Full on family support - here is Emma screaming and cheering for him coming through.

He drilled it keeping his lead all the way to the finish line. No time to smile for the camera this time!

Dad and son heading for the finish. Steve was so coaching him, it was funny. He was saying "Wesley stay smooth!"

Congrats from proud sis.

Thumb Up for the winner!

The best part is being 1st in line to choose from the race swag. He chose a frisbee, a water bottle and a head band. The kid behind in 2nd place chose a $20 gift certificate from the bike shop. The category was 9yrs and under. Wesley is 7rs and 2nd place was 9 yrs - there is a big difference between being 7 and being 9. They were both pleased as punch with their prizes. I'm just pleased as punch he smoked all the older kidz ;-)

Foot-note on me: In addition to becoming a competitive little league parent and living out my dreams vicariously through my sons race victory, I got the green light to ride outside from my Ortho doc after my 6 week post surgery check up. I took it easy and stayed on the bike path for the first couple of days. Mostly because my legs were fried from an L6 block on the trainer not because I have any common sense. Today I put down a nice 4 hour ride with 75% of it in the dirt - I feel like a new gal :-)

Scenery Therapy

Lynda — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:11:00 GMT

I'm healing in more ways than one. Getting out and feeling the sun and wind on my skin and visiting some of my favorite places is wonderous sometimes. Saturday afternoon was both warm and windy. A nice soothing wind.

Sunset brought up some beautiful colors in the desert.

I lingered out there well past sunset and was treated to a big bright moon. A full moon fills me with a special kind of energy. This one has two days to go until its full but I felt it's power shining down on me building my mojo. It felt real nice to have it back...

Sunday was a family day trip to Zion. The scenery there is majestic.

Wesley's getting so tall. He is almost up to my armpit now.

In Training, Spring Racing

Lynda — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 00:54:00 GMT

Being sidelined I'm able to channel my race fervor into Wesley. I'm surreptitiously training him for the next InterMountain Cup event The Cholla Challenge on April 7th. He doesn't know it yet.

I've been getting back out on the trails. Unfortunately not with my bike yet but on my feet. Wesley comes along on his bike and rides around like a sheep dog. He is really fun to take out as he shouts out things like "mommy I love this trail" and "mommy this is the best time ever".

His buddy JL came out today styling a 40 lb single-speed with some huge gear - no problem! JL has energy and a kick-stand. Wesley wants a kick-stand now...

After about 45 minutes the boyz decided they were tired. I mistook this as being tired but actually it must have been tired of riding as they dashed off and ran 10 laps around a crazy little circuit until they were both flushed and sweaty - is that like training for an adventure race??

JL ensured his invite on future excursions by sharing his cheese crackers on the way home.

This weekend lots and lots of bikey things are going on. The 8-Day Mountain Bike Stage Race in South Africa, Cape Epic, wraps up. I have 2 athletes out there putting down fantastic races. Both should finish strong tomorrow. The first NMBS race of the season kicks off in Phoenix, Boggs 8 hour solo rolls in California and the epic Ouachita Challenge is on in Arkansas - my athletes will be toeing the start line at all these events. Closer to home Dave, Chris and Dave are spending the weekend on the Paradox Trail and mee-oh-my, would I love to be joining them.

Me: I'm still the walking wounded. I'll be riding the trainer a wee bit, hiking up in Zion on Saturday with the kids and then more hiking with Wesley pedaling alongside on Sunday. It rained yesterday so I have to go over to see the BearClaw poppies. They must be out now.

Winston Churchill "You create your own Universe as you go along."

Third Time's a Charm

Lynda — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:56:00 GMT

First time I tried I was turned back by a snowstorm, the second time it was wind but this time I got it. Scrub Peak that is. It has been looking down on me from almost every point in the county for over a year now calling to me. Here is the view from scenic St George. It is the high point to the left of the red light.

The last two attempts have been via bike but seeing as I'm still not allowed to ride (wah wah) I drove my truck most of the way there and hiked.

Proof!

Here are the stats courtesy of Joel and his GPS

7.01 miles 3:46 avg. pace 32:19 mi. max 3.6 avg.1.9 ascent 2758 descent 2743. View to die for

The views were massive, all the way down the Virgin Gorge to Mesquite, over to Lowe Mountain, out to Zion, Pine Valley, Red Mountain and all the way up the Gunlock Valley to Flatop Mountain. Hazy day tho' so poor pics - ya had to be there.

Not to miss an opportunity to taunt me Joel brought along his latest new toy and let me have a wee shot. Now I have shades envy.

We hiked through a burn area that left dead trees. Kinda cool looking but totally dead. Wouldn't this look rad in your front yard? You could put lights on it at Christmas and hang eggs on it at Easter etc. Maybe a few old chain rings, shoes, small children ...

I thought this one would look cute in Joel's front yard but I'm still too gimpy to help with the transportation issues and Joel might get kicked out of his homeowner association.

Spring is here and the flowers are out.

I wonder if the Bear Claw poppies are out yet? I might have to hike over that way tomorrow for a looksie.

It was really good to get out the barn and breathe some fresh air for a few hours. Even the sore legs I have from the descent feel good.

I Aint Dense

Lynda — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:49:00 GMT

I've been spending far too much time here lately - Dixie Regional Medical Center. This is a bronze statue in the parking lot which is really cool - about 30 feet tall and full of tiny details.

On the 12th I had a DEXA bone density scan done. Here is what that looks like. It takes about 5 minutes.

My last scan was done in 2004. Due to the nature of my fracture my ortho doc wanted to see what my bone density was now. My collar bone didn't just break but the middle of it kinda disintegrated. Such a large gap was left it needed plated and will take a long time for bone to grow back across the gap.

Bone Mass Density (BMD) is ranked by a T-Score. Your T-score is your BMD compared to the average score of a healthy 30-year-old. It is expressed as a standard deviation (SD), which is a statistical measure of how closely each person in a group is to the average (mean) of the group. The average BMD is determined by measuring the bone density of a large group of healthy 30-year-olds (young adult reference range). BMD values are then reported as a standard deviation from the mean of this reference group. About 90% of people have a BMD value within 2 standard deviations of this mean.

T-Scores of -1 and above are normal, -1 to -2.5 defines Osteopenia, -2.5 and below defines Osteoporosis.

In 2004 my T-Score was -1.7 slap bang in the middle of the Osteopenic range. I've done a lot of things since then to ensure my bone density improved short of taking prescription meds. I was looking forward to seeing how much my bone density had improved over these 3 years with my efforts.

Today I got the result that my T-Score is now -2.2 which is a sickening loss of bone density over 3 years. Not quite in the Osteoporotic range but trending there.

Another lemon to throw in the bag of them I seem to be collecting recently.

Emma is a walking fashion show at the moment. She cracks me up ten times a day and changes her outfits almost as often. Head wear is obligatory to complete any fine outfit.

Drinking Sunbeams

Lynda — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 02:52:00 GMT

I lay on the grass in the sun for 2 hours at the park this afternoon while the kidz played. I haven't been getting many UV's lately. They felt so good.

Wesley told me sunbeams give you magical powers if you eat them. They are not so easy to catch tho'

Plate and Screws Pic

Lynda — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:25:00 GMT

Today was my 2 week post surgery check up. I have done four naughty things in these 2 weeks - which is pretty minimal for me really... So was looking forward to seeing the x-ray to find out if I got away with it - I did :-)

Dr Anderson, the talented ortho doc who put me back together, thought things looked great (whew ;-). I have six screws in the plate and one "floating screw" in the middle which is not attached to the plate but holding some bone shards together. The three screws on either end are anchored into solid bone. One bone shard got away and is floating like a smiley under the pulverized section.

The middle of my collar bone is a mix of my bone shards, bone graft powder from a cadaver and putty. The middle has zero structural integrity. He told me if the screws came out today everything would fall apart. As the ends are strong and the middle has no integrity whatsoever weighting it will snap off one of the ends from the plate or pull screws out. The bone has not had a chance to form properly around the screws. He said I am a very high risk with this in combo with my personality (what did he mean??). I will make a superb recovery if I look after myself or I will be a disaster and back in the OR. It's my choice.

I am not to do any kind of weight bearing on my shoulder for 6 more weeks. No lifting ANYTHING for 6 more weeks.

I get my bone growth stimulator tomorrow and have a DEXA bone density scan on Monday. My last bone density scan was in 2004 and I was diagnosed osteopenic so it will be interesting to compare. I had blood drawn for my annual endocrinology review today too. Just need to go to the dentist to complete my overhaul...

Here is the last visual record of me with non-bionic shoulders. Bernice snapped this shot the day before the race and my smoosh.

2007 Desert Ramage Race Report

Lynda — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:54:00 GMT

So I raced this weekend - vicariously that is... First stop on the 2007 Intermountain Cup Race Series, the Desert Rampage came to St George this weekend. Last year I raced single-speed and had a fab time. This year I went down to the race wearing my mom and coach hat. My racer hat is on the shelf for a looooong time - 'til maybe June (ughh!).

I've been super cautious about having Wesley race 'cause it is my thing and I don't want to push him into it. When I mentioned to him on Thursday about doing the Kidz race endorphins immediately exploded out of his ears. This would be his first race! We trucked down to the race site on Friday to pre-ride the course. I wasn't looking forward to walking a lap with him as moving around still hurts. Friday was 7 days post surgery. As soon as we got down there he made friends with 7 year old Scott Abbott and dashed off for 4 practice laps - they raced 2 laps! I sat down in the Abbott's lawn chairs and pretty much moved in with them for the weekend - thanks Abbott's! You guys made the whole thing a million times less stressful and easier on me.

Wesley checked out Scott wearing a cycling jersey so needed one too. He was a bit unsure about wearing his moms jersey until I showed him a picture of Dave racing in the same jersey to prove it wasn't a girls jersey - LOL! It almost fits him too.

He entered into that Flow State where energy is limitless and pain absent about 5pm on Friday in preparation for his 10am Saturday race. Amping!!

Scott and Wesley staging.

9yr and under start.

Looking casual at the halfway point. Wesley had a smile on his face the whole way around. I think he got my VO2max but maybe missed out on the predator gene!

Finish. Yeah. He was so elated to do it!

16 finisher's in the 9 and under's. Wesley rode the 2 mile course in 20:59 for 7th place. 1:06 off first place - tight race!!

For lots and lots and lots more photos click on the below pic.

Desert Rampage Race

I was sad not being able to race with the SS boyz. Here they are lining up without me. Kenny Jones is wearing a skinsuit - ya gotta to be waaaaay on crack to be racing in a skinsuit :-) He looked like he was chomping on the bit on the start line. JMM's are looking invincible now.

It was nice to go to the race as a mom not a racer. I don't really have my own mountain bike peer group. I usually train alone and race with the guys when I do short races either with the expert men or lately SSers. Zero of my training partners are women let alone moms. I'm mostly too distracted to chat with the moms at races and they are too intimidated to talk to me normally. I don't race with the gals except at mass start endurance events. None of the other pro women or endurance mtbers are mom's that I know of. I've got a toe in a few different peer groups but don't feel a part of any of them. So it was nice for a few hours just to be a mom and hang with them. There are some real cool mom's herding kidz on the sidelines and passing up bottles to the big boyz racing.

That wiped me out tho' and I had to spend the afternoon lying in bed on narcotics. I'm still on the up and down rollercoaster. Yesterday was an up day but today I'm getting some feeling coming back into my skin and maybe deeper tissues. It is not pleasant to say the least but I've kept my hands off the narcotics today. They things do bad things to my body and I don't like it. I hope I'm done with them.

Scar Pic

Lynda — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:39:00 GMT

I did it. I peeled off the dressings for a looksie.

No stitches! Maybe they glued me back together.

Steve took this pic of me before I had come around from the anesthesia. He said he was gonna put the flower in my mouth for the pic but I woke up too soon - I get no respect 'round these parts.

Kidz are digging the new raft too

Here are the official Old Pueblo Race pics of me - see I was having a ton of fun until my smoosh... I love photo 2180. That is lap #3. I am on ChrisP's wheel and Dave is on my wheel. We were rolling along like butter.

Healing Bizness

Lynda — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:13:00 GMT

It is quite a rollercoaster ride, good - bad - better - awful - repeat. I feel fine for a while but when I slide I go down hard and fast.

Surgery went well and I was rolled out of the OR with my Ti plate at 9pm on Friday evening. The middle part of the bone was so pulverized my doc did a bone graft and some cementing. I'm still fuzzy on the details but did find out the bone grafted came from a bottle and not another part of my body - whew!

I was booted out of the hospital at midnight as there were no beds available - that was a heady ride home with 14 mg of morphine in my veins. I haven't left the house since and am still wearing pyjamas. I think I'll get dressed tomorrow. Simple things like taking a shower are a huge procedure. Steve taped a plastic bag over my dressings and washed me. Emma has been helping out too. She took time out of her scootering session to brush my hair.

I haven't eyeballed my scar yet. It is hermetically sealed under layers of bandages I was told not to pick at. It's taunting me to peek...

So many folks have stepped in to help me heal it is touching. Wesley has virtualy been living at his pal Luc's house and been shuttled around by his mom, the neighbours have brought my family cooked dinner, even god sent over some missionaries to clean up my house and say a prayer for me.

Thanks to folks sending flowers, they are all beautiful. These ones sent by the Sorella gals were bustin' out when I eventually got up on Saturday. They made me smile.

DaveH knows me well and brought over 52 oz of M&M's (yikes) and 700mb of mp3 files(very very cool). I've spent many an hour lying on my back in a pain med induced haze listening. Some awesome new stuff - I love The Cat Empire and some old stuff I haven't listened to for a real long time - Echo and the Bunnymen. Fab combo.

Steve has a new gal in his life and even with my drama going on I am not his center of attention. He's been checking I have water and drugs within arms reach then taking his new blow up babe to the lake at every chance. He has big plans for her.

Bionic Woman

Lynda — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:21:00 GMT

Surgery got bumped up. This afternoon I follow in Dave's footsteps to become the bionic woman and get my matching Ti plate.

Thanks so much to everybody who has called, e mailed and left nice comments on my blog. It is real nice to have so many friends out there and feel part of a supportive community. Mountain bikers are a special breed of folks. Every message and call takes an inch out of the grumpiness I feel.

Now I better go change the playlist on my mp3. I still have my OP playlist on there and I think it is a bit too rocking for this afternoon.

'til next week friends....

2007 Old Pueblo Race Report

Lynda — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:58:00 GMT

Short Story It was a dreamy ride for about 11:30 then not so dreamy.

Long Story

Our pit was awesome. Everybody brought a piece of the pie. We had perfect support, a pro mechanic and the best spot on the course. Josh did my support and Andy from Desert Cyclery was wrenching. Those guys were on me like a rash at pit stops and I was in and out like a flash. Thanks guys - you are pros. Thanks too to Brad who brought his camera and a ton of positive mojo into our pit.

Andy wrenched for me, Bernice, Dave, Fuzzy and helped out a whole bunch of folks. He can dial a bike like nobody else

By the end of the weekend his hands were hamburger.

My race went like a dream for the first half. I had an ambitious plan and was sticking it down perfectly. Every lap I was out there I ended up riding with some friends - Chris, Dave, Rayne, Fergy.

Here are two of my favorite boyz I had the pleasure of riding with for a while.

Then on my 10th lap about 11:30pm I took a corner too tight and fast and stuck my front wheel into a ditch. That one on the left just after the cattleguard and before the seven bitches. I glanced to the right to get a check on a guy passing me on the right in the corner instead of looking where I was going. My power file has me going 19.6 mph when I hit the dirt. No rolling, just smack and stick. The guy stopped and helped me up then we both got back on our bikes and rode. I finished out the lap about 14.3 miles and 1:28 which now seems like a crazy thing to have done. I kept saying to myself - this is gonna stop hurting in a minute like I had banged my elbow or something.

Once I stopped at the pit Josh had a look at it - luckily he is an EMT too - talked some sense into me and gave me a wee bit of comfort while I had a good cry. I do cry...

Right collar bone is shattered and left hand has significant damage too. Surgery on Monday.

The toughest part of all was taking off my sweaty sports bra. Those things are tough to get off on a good day let alone with a broken left hand and finger and broken right collarbone. That took me so close to my pain threshold I nearly shouted for Andy to come in with the scissors.

The silver lining was being able to watch Bernice put down 15 laps and pull off a 2nd place. She made me proud to be her coach. Dave rode in a strong 2nd too. Nice job guys.

So that's my OP story. No big pink clouds involved this time...

Pink Princesses and the Big Pink Cloud

Lynda — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 03:29:00 GMT

I love colors. Often my outfits don't match but are made up of crazy colors that make me smile. Pink is a smilie color.

Pink Princess #1

Pink Princess #2 - this one is a beauteeee

Stealth mode got boring so I called up Joel for a spin. He showed up with this new ride. Holy moly am I lusting after this frame. I want it baaad. Joel toys with me so. See taunting smirk in photo. It is one of those frames I have to touch and stroke.

More color came thru UPS today (brown is not a smile color)

Ergon is a sponsor this year and this is the first arrival of the green goods. It is a unique green. I haven't found a name for it yet. Somewhere lurking between fluorescent and olive - fluorolive maybe? I think fluorolive and pink would be a fast combo!

Next stop on the crack train is 24 hours in the Old Pueblo. Fast approaching in 4 days. Our pit is looking more like a party than a race. We have an RV, bbq, mechanic, ace support folks. It's gonna be a good time. I'm looking forward to riding thru the wee hours and into the morning on that big pink cloud I missed out at Moab.

This race has a slightly different flow for me so my pre-race quote is not from my usual scribe Csikszentmihalyi but from Gary Mack:

"We don't know what the future holds so why not act as if you're going to have a great one. Follow your dreams not your fears."

Come over to our pit and say hi if you are at the race.

If you catch up to a gal during the race with a braid and a big ol' www.teamhealthfx.com across her rear tell her she is looking dam fine. Shout hearty tho, Girls Aloud might just be pumping down her ear holes. Then give her a big bad pull down the road ;-)

See ya'll in AZ

Stealth Mode

Lynda — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:30:00 GMT

I've got lots to blog about but I've gone in stealth mode with 24 Hours in The Old Pueblo coming up. My riding partners have prolly wondered where I've gone (hi Joel, Dave and Paul!). It's a nice breather for them having me in stealth mode for a while anyhooo.

What's different about this one? There is a killer womens field signed up and it is gonna be a race fer sure, not me just swinging laps around the course. Very cool. So far the start list looks like this: me a.k.a. The defending OP champion, Monique Sawicki a.k.a. 2005 National 24 hour solo champion, Sara Kaufmann, Bernice and hopefully a ton more wicked ladies I don't know - they don't publish a start list for this one. Last year we had 15 solo women and there were 72 solo men in the geared categories. How cool would that be to have 72 solo's in the womens field? Waaaay cool.

So I haven't been riding as much tapering down for the race. Emma is a real clothes gal and we went on a girls shopping trip. She picked up some slippers, a pair of cool shades and a nice hat. She is a great wee shopper. Much better than me. I usually just mill around without buying anything.

Wesley and his pals have been on mach10 as usual. They like to chalk up the sidewalk. Our driveway is usually covered in chalk. Now they are in first grade they are all writing well and getting more creative. I actually made sense of some of the scrawlings this morning on my way out.

"You better run away fast or I will kill you" Nice!

Another beauty day down here in the desert and another lap of the Jem. Just one this time. By myself in stealth mode but here is a copy of the power file. Easy to Sheep Bridge then good pace back to the car. Luuvly.

This One is for you Shane!

Lynda — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:56:00 GMT

Cause your products rock...

I've got Cardio in ma belly and Drip in my bottle in this pic. Today was full on fine.

Two laps on the Jem and lap #2 was a PR for me. Steve came along for the first lap. Pink, Lily Allen, Girls Aloud, Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks came along for the second.

Girls Ride

Lynda — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:05:00 GMT

It wasn't so deserty in the desert today for me and the girls.

I picked all this up on the road between Danish Ranch and Cottonwood - don't go up there for a while. It's the evil clay muck that doesn't fall off with a little water treatment - I actually had to scrub it - yuk!

Pink, Lily Allen, Girls Aloud and Bananarama came out riding with me today. Bananarama got shelled quickly and they'll not be coming riding with me again. Girls Aloud and Pink are good riding partners. We were flying until we hit the muck.

Go girls! Ya gotta be tough to get away with the pink cammo look.

Tomorrow is 2 laps on the Jem with Steve. I'm thinking I should maybe put some Enya on the mp3 for tomorrow...

Chammy Time

Lynda — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 15:01:00 GMT

Yesterday went something like this: Feed kidz - eat - drop kidz off at school - ride big - pick kidz up from school - bake brownies - feed kidz - eat more - ride more - eat more. Ride day tally was 300 TSS. Calorie tally = I'm scared to add it up but I ate big too. Simple kinda day. The high hit 62F today - perfect for spending most of it in a chammy. Near the end of my first ride I ran into KC and Chris Holley and had fun riding with them for a little bit. It is always a big bonus to share some trail time with folks who love riding as much as I do.

The MadDog team is down in St George for a little warm weather riding this weekend and I hooked up with them for a night ride over on the Bear Claw Poppy trail. There were seven of us. Outside of a race I've never ridden at night with so many folks. It was awesome.

I was first down the drops and it was really cool to look back up and see all the twinkling light winding their way down.

Doesn't make for such a good photos tho'. I was styling my Cree3 light and got plenty comments about the sheer volume of blinding light it was putting out.

I got back home from the night ride after 10 pm and stepped up to the challenge of eating all of the cereal available in the house! Binge city! My New Years resolution to lose 5 lbs is right on track - I've dropped 1 lb per week since January 1st so only 1 lb left to my Old Pueblo race weight goal. It's perfect time for a binge.

Today is off the bike but busy with lots of kidz activities. We have to make more brownies today - there's none left from yesterdays batch :-o

Currently Wesley is disgusted at the poor GameBoy skills Emma and I have. Mine are marginally better than Emmas. He is so horrified at the situation he can't even watch us playing it and keeps having to take it off us to "get us to the next level". There is a reason it is called GameBOY...

St George Smog

Lynda — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:49:00 GMT

Beauty day today. Ticked off 61 miles with 55 miles of that on single-track. Fabby. High of 48F. Nice and calm after yesterday's silly windy day.

This winter is the first time I have noticed a smog cloud hanging over the St George valley. Progress, growth and development I guess.

Looking westward away from St George. Gorgeous deep blue sky today.

Looking east at the smog haze over the city.

I rode the same trail today as I did last week - both times with the Ergomo clocking the data. Tomorrow I'll spend some time looking at the files side-by-side to get more of a handle on how repeatable the Ergomo data recording is off-road. At first glance it looks pretty solid.

I made quite a few suspension changes to the bike between rides - added 20 psi to the rear shock, took 10 psi out of the SID negative chamber and added 10 psi to the positive chamber. The bike felt much better today and I was able to ride some of the techy climbs and drops I was flubbing around on last week. So I was more efficient this week. The Ergomo recorded 354 TSS last week and 334 TSS this week. I did miss out a 1.5 mile section of jeep road this week. I'll have to pick out of the file if I was more efficient this week or is the Ergomo wavering.

The Ergomo altitude recording is wishy-washy. With the same settings it recorded I was riding at different elevations and accumulated a different amount of elevation gain over the ride. It is kinda cool to look at the elevation graph profile and it does help me pinpoint where I was on the trail when looking at the power file.

Ergomo Steps Up

Lynda — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:04:00 GMT

My cell phone died a few days ago. I can't even check my messages. So if you want to say hi or go for a ride call me at home or e mail always works. If you left me a message - I haven't heard it...

After whining about the cheesy mount on the Ergomo the Ergomo boyz stepped up and sent me a new different design - complimentary too. No sneaky credit card on file swiping ala SRM.

This mount feels solid. I'll take it out for a few hours on the trail tomorrow. Training is going well and today is another drill it day on the road. Yesterday my hall pass started too late to catch the group ride so I put down some healthy four minute intervals on my own with the help of some surround sound.

My mp3 has been hard to access in the usual cleavage storage spot with all these winter layers I've been wearing.

Wesley had his 7th birthday party on Friday. 12 wee boyz. Mania galaxy. Every photo from the party is out of focus as they were moving so fast.

Cleaning up their mess took me most of Saturday morning. My mistake - serving blue Gatorade. That stuff ranged far and high up the walls - impressively so. Being a mom is great most of the time but the repetitious and thankless mom chores are not so fun. Cleaning walls fits that bill.

One of my daily mom chores is turning this:

Into this:

Thats one of the fun ones tho' often revieving notice and thanks. Now I'm off to finish laundry, put away clothes, vacuum and feed the kinders again. My hall pass starts at 1pm today and my road bike is gonna get some more drilling done. Tomorrow is mtb love day.

Desert Bunnies and Coyotes

Lynda — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:49:00 GMT

I wanted to do a night ride but not be out too late so set off as soon as it was dark. Rolling up the trail it didn't seem dark at all so I switched off my light and yup - it was pitch. My new Cree3 light Dave made for me is the brightest thing ever. I scorched the eyeballs off a few coyotes and rabbits while I was out. I creep myself out riding in the dark solo. I keep thinking things are chasing me and want to eat me. The mp3 helps a bit with this. If I do get eaten then at least 'll be enjoying some good tunes. I have to be careful and not play anything with chasing and panting type noises in the song - that freaks me out real good. The Cree3 is so bright I can scan half the county for creatures and it has me rubber necking all over the place.

I tested run times yesterday alongside my Light and Motion light. My L & M is supposed to run for 3.5 hours but wimped out after 2.5 hours. My Cree3 shone bright for 5.5 hours -wow! It is lighter too. What a 24-hr weapon...

After sitting on my ass for a few days being a slave to my TSB my power meter is being kind to me putting out big watts with very little effort.

Feelin' the pedalin' love today...

Desert Beavers and Horses

Lynda — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:15:00 GMT

I luv living in the desert. Sometimes I wonder how I came to be born in Scotland because I'm a desert gal thru and thru. I never ever tire of climbing up to high points, listening to the breeze and admiring the view. This is a high point round these parts. I love the 360 view from up here. I can name all the peaks and point out trails in every direction. I feel like I know this little piece of terra firma pretty well.

Yesterday I was out rallying around on my mtb for a while and discovered the elusive trail beavers have busy beavers. I rode about a mile of brand new trail. It petered out but obviously some little trail beaver has a route planned. It was sweet, really sweet. So I know this area better than most and still stumble on the occasional treat of fresh trails. Whomever built the section I rode yesterday is doing a darn fine job - keep on with it buddy :-) Very nice.

This is my Ergomo tally for the day. Power savvy geeks can figure out how long I was out for and how hard I rode.

While I was out I spooked a horse. I thought I gave it enough room but I was wrong and I'm sorry about that. I'd rather share the trail with a hundred horses pooping all over the place than a single ATV.

I was up on the Barrel Roll trail. I saw the horse and rider about half a mile ahead. It was beautiful, calm and peaceful and they were meandering up the trail - pretty picture to see. Nobody else was out there. Just us two ladies riding our ponies and lovin' being out on such a beauty afternoon. I was jamming along listening to some fine tunes (mix 13). When I was 50 yards behind the horse and rider I slowed to their speed and called out "hi there". The horse freaked out leaping off the trail and skitting around. Fortunately the lady was a fine horsewoman and didn't fall off - that would have been terrible.

She was furious once she got control of the horse and whirled it around to face me. She couldn't find me at first as she was looking in the foreground thinking I was right up her ass. It took her a while to scan far enough down the trail to find me. She chewed on me hard when she found me tho'. I waited until her mouth had stopped moving then turned off my mp3 :-o and asked her how I could have done it better. She didn't really have a better solution for me. Just told me horses think bikes are predators. I cruised on feeling bad I'd got her and her horse worked up and spoiled her ride. Hopefully she got over it quick and back to the business of enjoying the afternoon. Horses and bikes make uncomfortable bed fellows sometimes...

Ergomo Update

Lynda — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:15:00 GMT

Got the Ergomo up and rolling on a 68mm BB Gary Fisher Procaliber. It seems to be working fine but I haven't done any accuracy testing yet.

CPU handlebar mount is the cheesiest thing in the world. It is held on with zip-ties. Yesterday on a fast bumpy descent the zip-ties holding it on crept off the side of the mount, the mount came loose, rotated forward, the CPU unclipped itself and fell into my front wheel. That was fun. We all came off unscathed. Later on one of the zip-ties broke and it fell again. It finished the ride in my pocket doing none of its data recording duties. Schwell...

Today I went with 4 zip-ties. Two to hold the mount on, one to hold those two together to stop them creeping off the side of the mount and a big fat one around my stem to stop it from rotating forward. It held up to 134 TSS (IF 0.715) or 2:36 of off-road bashing today. It sure looks Home Depotesque.

Today was a double ride day for me. I installed a new bell on Emmas bike and we took that for a workout.

It's always a race

Wheee!

This cracked me up...

Joel on the big teeter totter rock up at the point

and still on it...

Another chilly day here in the desert. Clear skies and no smog tho'. Big visibility. We rode the Green Valley smorgasboard today.

Thanks!

Lynda — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:09:00 GMT

Thanks to everybody for help with my Q-factor project. I've got more friends out there than I realised and it is a really really nice thing to know. Big big thanks to Dicky who took the cranks off his son's bike and sent them to me. Now that is very, very cool.

I usually take things too far when I get going with something. Reality benchmarks are not my strong suit.

Crank Q not the limiter here...

Weather: Most everybody who rides is working around the weather this weekend. It is even below freezing here in St George. No snow tho'. Joel and I had a beauty wee spin up Paradise Canyon this afternoon

Joel is the master. I ride and I listen.

Here is a random pic of Emma because as ever she is so darn cute. This is one of the many outfits she got for Christmas. It inspires lots of twirly type dancing.

Wanted

Lynda — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:23:00 GMT

Now my Yeti is sitting sorry with no BB or cranks and I need help finding a pair. Goal is to get the Q-factor at 160mm or below. Each combo of crank/bb I can find to do this is out of production and scouring the classifieds has come up short. Here is what I'm looking for. If you have a pair or know where a pair can be found let me know. I'll buy them lyndawallenfels@gmail.com.

Ritchey's, 170mm compact square taper

Old circa '92-'94 Shimno XTR's, 170mm, compact, square taper

Sugino Mighty's, 170mm, compact, square taper

I need compact, 170mm. BB design doesn't matter - square taper, ISIS or Octalink are all good. Any type of crank or bb works if it is low-Q. I'm not fussy...

Scour out the dusty corners of your local bike shop or clean out your attic for me :-)

Watts Training

Lynda — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:17:00 GMT

I got the SRM installed on the Yeti. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room on the axle for the new ring sensor with the 73mm BB shell so it was back to the old two piece sensor and a gawdzillion zip-ties.

My beef about the two piece sensor is the signal gets cut off 5 times a pedal circle by the chainring bolts. Yep this happened. I got a sucky power file from a beautiful ride. The SRM came off the Yeti and went back on the Epic - whew I'm getting good and fast at changing these things out now. The weather has been on the cool side here but still awesome for riding. Here is Steve doing his best GQ pose at the top of Stucki yesterday. I was smoked from a 2-day L5 block and he had fun riding with me in mellow mode.

Training: I've been doing some high power stuff. 2-day blocks of L5 intervals. One focus is hypertrophy. I can feel my glutes growing again...

Welcome to 2007

Lynda — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 16:53:00 GMT

The New Year usually feels like a turning point for me no matter what is going on. Steve and I have a tradition to bring in the New Year in a place where we can't see or hear any signs of civilization. We had a 15 year streak going which we broke last year. We got back on it this year going down to Lake Mohave for some paddling.

We paddled up to Hoover Dam. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up thinking about the weight and massiveness of the water behind the dam.

The top end of Lake Mohave where we were has a handful of hot springs. This one is called the Sweat Cave. It is deep and sweaty with a beauty view from the entrance. It is hard to find so we had it to ourselves - very nice.

Back to biking now:

Training: I started off my 2007 training plan with some power testing. Sitting pretty much at the same CTL/ATL/TSB as last year 5 min power is up by 10 watts and 20 minute power is up 3 watts. There are six weeks to 24-hours in the Old Pueblo. The plan looks like some focused threshold work for a few weeks, a big TSS binge week and a taper into OP.

Bike Fit: I've been working real hard to get the Q-factor down on my bikes. I got the Yeti down to 155mm with a 112.5mm Octalink bb and the SRM. That's great! The limiters in getting it lower now are the front deraileur - won't shift in far enough to drop to the granny. Andy has already drilled off the lower part of the cage to let it clear the suspension pivot when shifting middle-granny ring. We are going to try some road deraileurs next week. If those get us in a bit the next limiter is the bb shell which make see some dremmel tool action.

Power Meter Report: The SRM was working super on the Specialized Epic and the Ergomo was not on the Yeti. After testing myself and hunting down smart people to talk to it is evident now that the Ergomo, designed for a 68mm bb shell, does not work in a 73mm bb shell - so it is off the Yeti. Hence the major changes. SRM is now on the Yeti set up beautifully low-Q. Ergomo is now on the Epic which swelled the Q-factor up to a fat and unacceptable 172mm - so more finagling needed there.

Happy New Year. Time to get your New Year resolution into action. Mine is to lose 5 lbs (of course -isn't yours?)

Race Schedule: Is still shaping up but the biggies are Seven and 24-Hour Solo Worlds.

Blue Rave

Lynda — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:24:00 GMT

Dave brought his set of homemade lights down to St George last week for show and tell. They are sooo cool! His blue light was kinda funky outside. I think it would make my eyes tired looking at it all night. Emma took one look at the blue light, changed into her disco pants and got her groove on.

Disco fever...

I got a killer Cree light for Christmas which comes darn close to fulfilling my request of scorching low orbit satellites. I'll be burning it bright and hearty at OP fer sure.

Most Excellent Christmas

Lynda — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:35:00 GMT

I wouldn't have believed how knocked down Dave was after his surgery if I hadn't seen it myself. He swung into town a few days before Christmas with his mtb and a green light from his surgeon to go ride and ride big we did :-) 4 days, 206 miles, 1200 TSS and just over 18 hours of pedaling in the dirt.

We started off tenderly on Day One being that it was Dave's first ride off the trainer - just a few miles of non-too-techy single track on Stucki and the Loop then hit the big climbing dirt roads up to Blakes and past the Apex mine. Beauty day.

By Day Two we graduated onto a combo single-track/dirt road loop Church Rocks-Prospector-Silver Reef-Danish Ranch- Diamond Valley.

Day Three was 100% single-track love with two laps on the Goulds-Jem-Hurricane Rim. Love that trail all the way. It's about 50 miles including the fun out and back leg down to Sheep Bridge. We cooked the two laps out in 4:36 - nice.

Day Four was a little exploring. We found a beauty new trail down the Virgin River Gorge looping back up to Blakes. Huge views down the gorge but no photos. Twas a big bad and adventurous ride I would only drag a crackhead like Dave on with me. Ok maybe Joel too (we'll have to do that one Joel, you'll love it). A few times I felt guilty I was egging Dave on to a bit too much then I'd look over and see a huge cheesy grin on his face.

...and that is called a binge. Splendid! I pronounce Dave healed and back on the crack train.

SRM saga continued

Lynda — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:13:00 GMT

My SRM is back and along with it came a new ring sensor designed for mountain bikes. Not free tho' it cost me $80. Whoa baby sticker shock there but what can ya do. My beef with the mtb SRM is each time one of the bolts on the small chain ring passes the sensor it knocks out the signal - that's five times per pedal revolution. I was told (or was it sold) the new ring sensor fits inside the small chain ring so doesn't have that issue. Here is a pic of the old two piece sensor and the new ring sensor.

It sits on the bb axle like so:

and I mean sits - nothing holds it on there. It came with no instructions. This confused me. Anything which is not held onto my bike with velcro, epoxy, zip-ties, locktite or electrical tape falls off - no exceptions including me sometimes... When I put my cranks on the bike the small chainring rubbed the ring sensor enough to rotate it. I tried zip-ties and electrical tape but there is nothing to get a grip on. So a call to the SRM tech folks was made before I broke out the epoxy.

Me: How do I make sure this thing is not ripped off my bike when I start pedaling.

Tech guy: Oh you have to take a file and shave down your small chain ring.

So here I am with a power meter that cost $3,000 and a new sensor that cost $80 and the tech guy is telling ME to take a freakin' file to it. Who are their designers?? Shouldn't things like this work without a file manhandling?

Me: You want me to take a file to my $3k power meter?

Tech guy: ok how about this, we'll send you a new small chainring machined out specially for you and overnight it to you.

Me: Well that sounds like a pretty cool thing to do.

THREE days later the new specially machined out small chainring arrives along with a $40 charge on my credit card. They have my credit card on file and took the liberty of swiping it without asking me. Have at it SRM feckers. I guess I assumed they were gonna send me a free chainring and stump up for the overnight shipping charges - NOT.

So here is a pic of the new chainring.

Dam! Their machining came close to those bolt holes. Does anyone think this is a problem? Should I have just done the filing myself, done a better job than this and saved $40? What if I am 50 miles into a 100 miler and one of these bolt holes decides to peel open? Would that cause me a problem? Would that possibly rip off my $80 sensor?

To additionally inspire SRM confidence consider these facts:

June 2005 Brand new SRM arrived with a factory calibrated slope of 23.6 Hz/Nm.

October 2005 SRM returned to service center for wacko readings. Diagnosis: 2 broken strain guages. Strain guages fixed and unit recalibrated. Returned with a slope of 20.5 Hz/Nm

December 2006 SRM returned to service center not working at all. Replaced cadence sensor and sending coil and unit recalibrated. This time returned with a slope of 19.1 Hz/Nm.

So are these slope numbers random or is the slope sliding. Should I have it recalibrated weekly or monthly? If they did it again for me next week would I have a different number than I received last week? How do I know how hard I am pedaling and how much power I am putting out? Am I getting weaker or is my slope sliding? Should I put this thing up on EBay, buy myself a nice pair of FSA carbon cranks, lose a fat pile of weight off my bike, gain a whole bunch of time wasted messing around in my bike room and go for a ride?

Burn Rate

Lynda — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:02:00 GMT

The burn rate of these kids is phenomenal when they get out. I just sit back and watch in awe sometimes.

Snow Canyon Hyping

It wasn't tough to stay off my bike today. Cold and windy. Brrr...

Hyping Slide Show

It's Official Now

Lynda — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:39:00 GMT

I'm sick. I've been trying to heal myself for far too long. Even took 9 days off the bike. That's huge! Today I finally went to the Dr. Official diagnosis: Strep throat and bronchitis. Neither of which are real good training partners. Now I'm taking Azithromycin. I hate antibiotics. They throw me all out of whack but being sick for sooo long is worse at this point.

CTL is down to 86 and ATL is 40. It's been over a year since either have been down this low. TSB is +46 but it sure doesn't feel like it. The master training plan was shelved and then chucked. When I finally shake these bugs it'll be a whole new plan.

If I can't ride I can still dream about riding here, here and here. So many adventures to come...

SRM Update

Lynda — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:28:00 GMT

My SRM is winging it's way back to me today. I wasn't crazy after all - the thing was jacked up. They replaced the battery, calibrated it, replaced the internal cadence sensor, the sending coil and black reed switch. I don't know exactly what all of those things are but that's a lot of stuff not to be working. All the work was done on warranty and customer service is very nice and helpful.

My fluey bug is progressing along nicely. Today my lungs are gurgling and I'm enjoying lots of DayQuil. I don't see any type of riding in my forecast until at least Thursday. CTL is going down.

As requested: here is a glossary of the alphabet soup all these power training terms turn into.

I shouldn't have ridden on Saturday. I even rode super duper easy. 'twas a nice day but it made me worse not better. 115 TSS felt like 315 TSS and the PE/TSB disconnect was huge. Blah...

Power Wrangling Interlude

Lynda — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:31:00 GMT

My life seems to be coming in fits and spurts at the moment. Lots of project hopping. The power wrangling project was put on hold for a trip down to AZ for the annual Ultrafit coaches conference. I learned lots of good stuff and had my moment in the spotlight presenting on the Performance Manager Chart and how to use it in coaching.

Here are some of the Ultrafit Crew.

I came back from AZ with a TSB +20 so had to have a brief training binge to burn that off. It turned out to be a very brief binge as I went down with the flu on Tuesday - blah. Now I'm still sick - too sick to train but not too sick to get back on the power wrangling project.

Today with a flurry of zip-ties and electrical tape I put my Power-Tap on the Yeti along with the Ergomo for a series of power tests to get a feel for how the two compare.

I was having interference problems between the two units until I spread the cpu's over five inches apart - then it was all fine. I paced the power tests with my Garmin GPS to ensure consistency. Now I have GPS, Ergomo and Power-Tap files to look at - data frenzy! Anyone want to see them? Let me know and I'll shoot them over.

We put the Christmas tree up. So far we don't have many presents under there but enough to attract the constant attention of little people.

Mommy is it Christmas yet? Mommy is it Christmas yet? Mommy is it Christmas yet? Mommy is it Christmas yet?

Ergomo Sensor Cable Routing pics

Lynda — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 03:18:00 GMT

Oh twist my arm Arleigh and ask me to post more pics of my bike ;-)

I taped the sensor cable from the bb to the CPU on the bars with black electrical tape along the side of my down tube to (kinda) match the Yeti decals. Don't look too closely.

This is the speed sensor cable going along the left chainstay.

Rich says nothing ruins the bling of a nice bike quicker than a bad wiring job. Err... better not look at this next pic then Rich

I'm more of a function than form gal and this all held up nicely to 4 hours in the dirt today. I'll post a pic of the power file and the stats later. I'm still picking through it myself for goodies.

Whatdya get when you mix two boyz and a zillion leaves?

Ergomo Install

Lynda — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:05:00 GMT

That was easy! It slipped in and worked with no finagling around for hours. Not quite plug and play but no headaches involved. It comes with instructions written for a gal with my level of mechanical knowledge i.e. it actually told me which was the left and right side of the bike! It also comes with a few tools needed for the job to thread in the bb without ripping off the sensor cables. The only things I needed were a torque wrench and a 34mm socket. The socket required a trip to the hardware store. I had a torque wrench.

The Ergomo is inside the bottom bracket so step one was to take off my old cranks and bb and clean out the shell. Now I know what I'm doing that only took 5 minutes.

Next thread the Ergomo bb into the shell. On the left side are two sensor cables which must be oriented at 9pm with the bb tightened to 55 Nm. On my first try it was at 6pm. Add a few washers until it ends up at 9pm. I ended up with 3 washers which meant I had to put the bb in and out a few times to get it right.

Bolt on the cranks

Tape up the two sensor cables. One goes to the rear wheel to pick up speed and the other from the bb to the cpu. The speed sensor worked first time too. I thought I may have to do something tricky with it but no...

Enter wheel circumference, K-Factor and check the offset. Go ride.

Lookie here I have watts, heart rate, cadence, speed and time!

The whole system is really contained. There are not a lot of wires and pieces to get ripped off-road. I'm pretty psyched on this right now. Tomorrow I'll take it off road. The forecast is windy with a high of 41F - brrr...

SRM Wrangling

Lynda — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:29:00 GMT

Today was the SRM install day. A big job for a wee gal without a career in wrenching. First step was to strip off the pedals, cranks and BB - easy. I can take things apart.

Next up was installing the octalink bb.

Problem #1 errr which is the left and right side of the bike? A doh but important question.. Problem #2 I don't have an octalink bb tool.

A quick trip to Desert Cyclery is never a quick trip with the gang in tow to "help". I learned a few more important details while I was there such as the right side (which is the drive side) of the bb has a reverse thread which is the opposite of pedals - makes sense right?

No problem. Got everything installed - eventually.

Problem #3 I can pick up speed and HR but no power. Nay happy at all. I spent about 2 hours playing with the power pick up sensors and so on but ZERO power. I reckon the next step is a call to SRM on Monday and probably sending it back to them.

I love training with power but this SRM is very very high maintenance. Grrr.

So now I get to strip the SRM back off, change back the bb, put my old cranks on etc so I can go for a ride. Blah...

Thanksgiving according to Wesley

Lynda — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:05:00 GMT

Wesley made this turkey at school - it's awesome

My name is Wesley

I am 6 years old

I am writing about Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my mom and dad

They like to do nice things

I am thankful for my friends

My friends are kind to my friends

I am kind to my mom and dad

I will always be kind to my friends

Power Meter Wrangling

Lynda — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:29:00 GMT

Power Training is the way to go - no question at all about that. As a coach I want power files for all the rides my athletes do so I can plan and track their wattage progression and accumulation of training load overtime with the Performance Manager Chart

Power meter choices for the mountain bike are tough. On the road I've been running Power-Taps without a hitch for a few years now. Thumbs up for Power-Taps. The PT measures power at the hub and they don't have a disc compatible hub. Thumbs down for PT. That is a deal breaker for me off-road so PT is out for mtbing.

As a coach I am desperate for a power meter that works well off road. That is an expensive wish as it means I have to try them all out. I've been riding an SRM on my mtb for over a year now. It has so many limitations I cannot recommend my athletes sink their $$$ into a product that is less than ideal.

Next up on my list for testing is the Ergomo and possibly early next year I'll get my hands on an I-Bike (working on that deal at the moment :-). On paper The Ergomo looks like da bomb. It has everything I want. Now I have one sitting here in my office all I have to do is install it.

First off Ergomo wins the presentation award hands down. My PT came taped up in bubble wrap, the SRM came in a nice white cardboard box but the Ergomo comes in this little metal 007-like attache case. How cool!

Here are the three CPU's side by side. The SRM is the monster - heaviest too. Finding room on my bars for a hulking CPU is always an issue - especially in 24's when I have to put lights on there too. Ergomo lurks in the middle of the field here and at first glance looks like I'll be able to set it up on my stem. The SRM is a bar mount only. The PT can go both ways. The PT mount is zip-tied on so will go anywhere I can get zip-ties.

Now I'm off to the Desert Cylery to have the talented and patient wrench Andy watch over me installing these beasts by myself. Currently I have Andy busy fixing one blown brake line and three blown forks. I love Andy :-)

Up on the Goose

Lynda — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:43:00 GMT

My legs are back and I swung them over my SS for a couple of hours up on Gooseberry at the weekend - very, very nice. Here is the last pic my camera took before it died. Best Buy says I should have it back by Christmas - well hopefully. Twas a super nice day and I got to meet a couple of new riders, fast Eddie and Lukas. Eddie stayed behind me as he didn't know the trail too well but occasionally it got too much for him and he burst away and was gone for a few minutes until he lost the trail again.

I was the designated tour guide for the ride. I get turned around in the Bowls and Ledges area and had us riding in circles for a while. Just when I'd declared I didn't know where the **** we were Joel saved the day and found a trail marker - we make a good team :-)

Back at the trailhead I fooled the new guys into thinking I was Betty Crocker handing out brownies!! Actually Wesley made them...

Here is a random pic of Emma just 'cause she is so darn cute. She is dancing with and singing to her Barbie. She likes to pick out her own outfits and accessorize too. She already has talents I'll never acheive.

I have a 21 lb turkey in the fridge - anyone want to come over for Thanksgiving dinner? 6pm.

Cobwebs

Lynda — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:48:00 GMT

Oooh ma legs are full of them! Today it's been exactly a month since 24-hours of Moab and since I have done anything resembling training. 3 X 20 mins at sweet spot today went 199w (pretty good), 203w (spot on), 178w (kaboom!!). Mom-Coach has been taking the front seat and Racer the backseat - which is good. Racer had been taking a bit too much of the fair share and I was losing some balance by the end of the season. It is good to have it back now.

On the coach front I have been travelling around, meeting lots of smart people, chatting with other coaches and learning lots of good stuff. I took a visit to the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine to check out their bike fit facility. They have a 3-d laser system which is very cool. I highly recommend a trip there if you are iffy on your bike fit.

I took in my Yeti and road bike and both got tweaked with a shorter stem for my road bike and moving the seat forward on my mtb to shorten my cockpit. The biggie they identified was that my feet were not under my hips - big energy loss, so I need a lower Q-factor.

Another visit was to James Wilson in Fruita to learn about his business Mtb Strength Coach . Very cool stuff. Look for more on him later.

"Mom" really encompases not only taking care of my kiddies but taking care of all those others in my bubble I love. It does my heart good to see others in my bubble happy, especially if I have helped that along in any little way.

A few more miles of driving took us down to Silverman triathlon where Steve was racing and the kiddies and I were cheerleading. He turned in a huge performance moving his overall placing up from 21st last year to 9th this year - top 10 is awesome. His time was 7 minutes slower than last year 12:09 as it was a heinous wild and windy day. I thought for sure they were gonna cancel the swim. Kudos to the race promoter for sticking his neck out and letting the racers go out and do what they were lusting to do.

Here is his finishline pic - this is joy (honest!)

So with racking up 2,420 miles of driving in the last 11 days the cobwebs are no big suprise. I'm home, the weather is great and its training time now...

Fresh Tracks

Lynda — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 01:48:00 GMT

Trail beavers have been busy here in St George recently. Today I went out to a new trail with Joel. The trail-head was tricky to find and I never would have managed on my own - thanks Joel! 5.9 miles of fresh cut single-track courtesy of the BLM with its very own set of cute signs. I guess it is called Barrel Roll. Big thumbs up to Barrel Roll. We did a counter clockwise lap then a clockwise lap. I think it has more flow clockwise but both were fab. Very Fruita-esque trail.

There was very little sign of bikes up there. A coyote had marked up the top of this bush tho' - cracked me up picturing it figuring out how to lay it right on top of the bush. Must have been a big effort.

The trail climbed up and descended on a rim for a while and had cool big views - I like that. This view is all the way up to Scrub Peak and Hellhole.

A few sections of the trail cry out for maching. Joel just laughs at me when I get a bee in my chamois and have to put the hammer down.

Joel: "You don't scare me girlfriend. I know all about your type"

Our princess butterfly wasn't feelin' the Halloween love at all last night and had no trick or treat mojo at all.

It was all day Halloween love for Wesley starting with the school parade. Lots of princesses and ninjas. He got the ninja moves dialed even tho' he was banned from taking his bloody knife and mask to school. The scariest part of the Halloween parade was figuring out if some of the adults were in costume or that is what they really look like everyday.

Jammin' the Jem

Lynda — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 04:26:00 GMT

CTL is still going in the wrong direction - oops. Today was two laps on the Jem Trail - one of my fav local loops. It has flow and a bunch of cute little signs too.

Ever seen a single-track cattle guard? They are fun to fly over. For the most part cows aren't the best trail groomers and it's great to have them kept off parts of the trail. The Jem Trail has some clever planning and management behind it.

An extra special treat for today was riding with Steve. We haven't ridden together since July.

More views, more trail that makes me shout wheee and more ride perfect weather - what's a gal to do but ride more...

My guardian angel must be pretty happy with me at the moment.

Mega tripple-decker commiserations to hammer-head Dave who is nursing a shattered collar bone and miscellaneous woes after falling off his bike this weekend. Bummer, bummer, bummer and big fat juicy bummer. Heal fast crack-head, there's a ton more riding to be done.

Little Creek

Lynda — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 02:39:00 GMT

I'm trying to reduce my CTL to 92. The weather here has been nuthin' but ride perfect since I got back from the river and it aint happening. When the sky is blue and I'm not riding I get so claustrophobic. Today was awesome. Perfect weather, great company and fantastic riding.

Destination: Little Creek Mesa.

Ride: 29er single speed

Company: Doug and Joel

At the trailhead we met trail meister Morgan Harris who designed and built much of Gooseberry and Little Creek mtb trails along with his brother Mike. I love his license plate - a 61st birthday prez from his wife - she must be a special lady.

Race season is over but there is always something to get competitive over. I won the pony tail competition.

The views up on Little Creek are gob smacking.

The slickrock is beautiful and trail is so, so fun. It makes me shout out whee and laugh. Doug and Joel where whooping it up all over the place too. Staying on the trail is tough as there is so much fun slickrock calling to be ridden in every direction.

It got giddy. This slide just screamed out to be slid.

Kidz carved up the pumpkins today. They are practicing being scary. Emma is a quick study.

Switching Hats

Lynda — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:35:00 GMT

Its Halloween season - yes in Southern Utah Halloween is a season, not just one puny day on Oct 31st. Festivities kicked off last night with the ward halloween party. Last year I picked up food poisoning there. I managed to avoid it this year. Non-stop fun tonight with the Halloween carnival and more weekend parties. It's a whirlwind.

Wesley: Hiyaaa I'm gonna chop off your head with my bloody knife

Emma: Mommy Wesley thinks he is being tough but he is stoopid

Ninjas have no power over Princess Butterflies

Princess Butterflies control the world.

24 Hours of Moab Race Report

Lynda — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:46:00 GMT

Well for me actually it was the 9.5 hours or 6 laps or 90 miles of Moab. I won the solo women. I'm sure you have heard already the race was called at 8pm due to dangerous conditions. Flash floods, hypothermic riders etc. First thing Monday morning I followed up the race with a week on the Colorado River. It has been quite amusing upon my return to read other racers reports, their personal race experience out there on the course and their criticisms and opinions of promoter Laird Knights actions and decisions during the event.

Amusing because I had a remarkably different event experience than the majority. The rain and wet desert were incredibly beautiful. Riding in and out of cloud banks, rivers flashing and roaring. It was wild and intense and got moreso as dark fell. I loved every minute of it.

Today 10 days post race I started to clean up the post race mess which was hurridly packed wet and dirty into our camper and sent home while I lived like a puppy on the river for a week.

I was floored by how sandy and mucky everything is. The extent to which my bikes are trashed shocked me. All the bearings are gone, shifters frozen up, gritty grit everywhere. I had no idea things were so harsh out there. I was completely in La La Land! At the end of my 6th lap when I came into the timing tent and was told the race was over it was so far outside the realm of what I thought was possible I didn't understand what they were telling me at first. I was thinking "how can that be" that wasn't in my race plan and my race plan was so on track at that point. No little rain shower was gonna stop me. What were they talking about?

The fact I was so in La La Land is a true testament to the phenomenal race support I had. This was a race defined not by the riders but the support crew. Here is most of my crew at 2pm on Sunday when the sun had come back out to tease us.

Kathleen supported the wrenches, me, Andy wrench wonder 1, Steve did everything that needed done, Anna pit guru, Kong wrench wonder 2 and Dave. Missing are grandma and grandpa who were ensconced in a comfy Moab condo with the kids. A total of 8 people gave up their weekend so I could ride my bike in circles for 9.5 hours. Huge thanks to all of you.

Andy and Kong from Desert Cyclery came along to wrench for Dave and I. They were amazing and the major reason I thought everything was dandy and fun.

Every lap I switched bikes and went out on my next lap with a clean smooth working and shifting machine. Between laps they stripped my bike down to a bare frame and overhauled everything. They did the same for Dave too - they were busy!! On the course folks bikes were falling apart beneath them but I had no problems. Lap # 5 was the wicked wet one. I had a constant stream of water flowing off the end of my nose. This is what happened to brand new brake pads during that 15 miles.

Not only cleaned the pad right off but wore the metal down like a razor. This is my hand - like my calluses?

Kong and Andy kept a huge sense of humor flowing which was a great influence on our pit. They were throwing around comments like "we should support slower riders next year to give us more time to work on the bikes" right and left. LOL.

So that was that. The majority of solo riders voted not to re-start the race in the morning with the teams and Moab was over for me. I won the solo women by a large margin and feel satisfied it was a valid win. I still feel denied the full 24 experience - riding thru the wee hours, coming out at sunrise flying along on my big pink cloud in my own reality until noon.

24-Hours of Moab bound

Lynda — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:16:00 GMT

This weekend is 24-hrs of Moab and I'm racing solo. In this race we wear timing chips and pass cards over scanners for Real Time results. Lap splits are updated to the internet instantly so you can watch me race from your arm chair. The Real Time results will be here or if not then you should find a link to them on this page during the race. Race starts at noon on Saturday and runs until shortly after noon on Sunday.

So far there are 10 solo women registered with some big names and fast gals in the group. The top two from last year are back to duke it out again. This one is gonna be a real game. I'll be hitting the start line with a CTL/ATL/TSB of 111/79/32. My race plan will produce 1100 TSS which will boost my CTL/ATL to 132/203. These are numbers I exceeded in training before my taper. A key component for 24-hr racing is to stay below the CTL/ATL ceiling. That's the cracking point. I aint crackin...

Alls that's left is a mega packing session and a long drive to Moab.

After the race I'm getting in a boat and floating down the Colorado River for a week so the post race report will be a long time coming.

Personal Bests

Lynda — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 16:46:00 GMT

Setting personal records is usually an optimal experience. Being a high level athlete is a great feeling. Those personal best times can be a huge carrot to chase in training and fuel the motivation fire. When you set the bar so high it can be painful too. Some stars are hard to catch again.

Despite running a smokin' 2:47 (that is a 6:22 pace average. 1 mile at that pace would kill me let alone 26.2 miles) Steve missed his PB at the St George marathon today... It can be gnarly when you have set the bar so high for yourself.

Better Riding

Lynda — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:44:00 GMT

This season I have been climbing purty fast but lose time on the guys around me when the course heads downhill. I've been working on my skills all year but yesterday they made a huge jump forward when I took a private lesson with mountain bike skills coach Gene Hamilton. Gene loves to ride, loves bike and knows skills from years working as a snowboard coach, pro downhill racer and downhill mountain bike coach. Here he is:

The first thing he looked at was how my bike was set up and how it fit me. My Yeti got a big thumbs up. He likes the short stem-long top tube combo. Next up we did a ton of drills on pavement around cones and off curbs. Gene likes to teach skills in a non-threatening environment. His belief is you learn faster and better when you can pay attention to the skill rather than a death ravine two inches to the left of your front tire. At first it was annoying to be riding around cones instead of out ripping the trails but at the end of the lesson I went home with a solid understanding of the basics. It will take me some time to put together everything he taught me off-road.

The value in this lesson will be how many times I practice his drills and how much thought I put into implementing the skills when I am riding. A few magical things happened to my riding during the lesson when he changed minor things in my head or ride position but the real magic will seep in slowly over months. I liked it a lot I left the lesson with a clear picture of how to continue to improve beyond the few hours I spent with Gene watching and coaching me.

Gene taught me a set of what he calls core skills. Some of them I did well already - I have been mtb racing for 17 years! A few of them tho' I was sketchy with and a couple of things I was flat out doing wrong. Gene never tells you when you suck. He is such a positive guy that everything he says is full of encouragement and praise. He can make even the biggest f-up look like a stepping stone to the big prize - I like that!

The biggie I was all mixed up with was cornering. He changed where I put my weight, hips (which contain most of my weight anyway ;-) and tracked my vision. My eyes were getting stuck on the apex of the turn which made me slow down and come out of the turn with a low exit speed. Exit speed is key.

I practiced a set of drills he taught me this morning then did my 60 min L3 climb. On the big descent back down the corners didn't feel as fast and loose as normal but I was flying. Spacing out I went into one corner faster than I thought and immediately clenched up and reverted to my old style, I wasn't going to make it without a big haul on the brakes but caught myself, changed all the things he taught me - lean the bike, elbows out, weight on feet, hips over bb, counter steer, chest down, eyes 30 feet past the exit - and carved the turn without touching the brake levers - dandy!

He taught me how to fly off ledges too and that is a super cool skill to get dialed a week before 24 hours of Moab.

That's all the secrets I'm gonna divulge. You'll just have to go and see Gene yerself for more www.betterride.net He is based in Fruita, CO and runs camps, clinics and does private lessons all over the US.

On the home front Wesley is learning to read. He gets better every day. It is impressive to watch. Watching these kids learn is inspiring. Today he set up Emma on the sofa, chose a book and read it to her. It was a really cute thing to see. Sometimes he can be so big brotherly...

Sorta Training

Lynda — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:31:00 GMT

Only one race left on the schedule for the year - 24 Hours of Moab and I'm going solo. I've got a fat support crew lined up, Kong and Andy from Desert Cyclery are going to be there wrenching for Dave and I, grandparents taking care of the Kinders and Steve taking care of my whims and needs during the race. I'm looking forward to being encouraged by lots of people to ride my bike for an obscene amount of time in a (quasi?) socially acceptable format. He he! That's the best excuse for racing 24's there is.

The second best excuse for racing 24's is the big pre-taper ride binge required for a proper peak. Dave and I polished that one off last week in the Moab area and it was tasty. Friday was a few laps on the race course following Dave's secret lines, Saturday was a clockwise lap on the White Rim (about 110 miles) and just to peg it off the charts Sunday was a counter clockwise lap on the White Rim (about another 110 miles).

Here is a poor picture of the view from Murphy's Hogback. That has gotta be one of the finest views on the planet.

Here is a much better pic poached from Dave. This is the top of the Mineral switchbacks.

After this picture Dave drilled it up the rest of the road and I sucked on air in his draft. I was just about to get dropped when Metallica came on the mp3. A little Metallica in the right places does wonders. Dave pimped my new mp3 full of tunes and two days of White Rim rocked by in a flash. Riding through the sandy sections after Hard Scrabble Hill will be forever imprinted with Duran Duran's Rio - "her name is Rio and she dances on the sand". At the time I was flying and feeling like I was dancing instead of riding. It is not going to help my hearing any that's fer sure.

Nothing's stopping me now. Today about 30 minutes into a 4 hour ride I squeezed my front brake and nothing.

Brake pads, bolt and spring all missing! How weird. I backtracked a little up the trail but they were nowhere to be seen. I was burning up babysitter time and was too amped to go home for a new set so finished off the next 3.5 hours with rear brakes only - that worked.

So now I have work on my mp3 playlist for Moab. Any suggestions for rockin' tunes to crank into my ear drums during the race? Send 'em over. I'm all ears :-)

Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument

Lynda — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:28:00 GMT

Not many folks in St George know you can ride there from town... it took me over 5 hours and a whole bunch of climbing. The views are really cool. I rode out Black Rock road, past the Gypsum mine and up over Low Mountain to get there. You can see the road I came in from behind the sign here.

I love funky signs out in the middle of what feels like nowhere. This one is at the bottom of the Low Mtn climb.

Climbing in the desert is deceiving. The views don't change much but you get up there.

Along this section I fullfilled one of my life ambitions - to see a cat in the wild. It stood on the road and looked at me for about 5 seconds then flashed off into the trees. I must not have looked tasty. It was beautiful, sleek and fast.

I dropped down to Mesquite via Elbow Canyon. Mesquite is 5,000 feet below in this pic and 10 miles away. That's one screaming descent. It was all love on the Yeti.

Adding a bit more Stability

Lynda — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 22:59:00 GMT

Here is the lovely and ever charming Emma Lee modeling the newest piece of stability in my life.

Version 1 of this Yeti had a Fox RP3 float. I don't like that shock, not one little bitty. It was on my Scalpel and was the reason I sold it. Then I tried it on the Yeti to comfirm. It is a bobber shock and I hate bob - can't take bob at all. This 5th Element Stable Platform is awesome. I've only got about 6 hours of pedaling on it but it's luv from all directions so far. It sprints like a HT and sucks up bumps nicely. I still need to play around with the settings to get it perfect.

Andy and Kong at Desert Cyclery took all of my complaints about the V1 Yeti and rebuilt this Lynda special. They took off the SID which felt like - well a SID and added more stable platform love to the front in a Fox F100X. The V1 which I raced at the E50 had 175mm cranks. I felt so weird on the bike I didn't even notice. Thems are purty long cranks for my wee legs, I have 167.5's on my road bike. So now I have 170's on the Yeti. Much better.

Today I rallied it around the county for 62 miles. I feel fast on it - sweet, we have a promising future together. It poured with rain most of the morning which was kind of nice for a while but then got to the flash flood stage getting a bit gnarly and stopping me from crossing a raging torrent at Cottonwood wash.

Emma has been showing me how to get a bit more stability going in my mid section. She's the core training expert around here.

So now all I have left to figure out is how to get a bit more stability in my head. I've been driving the ever patient and stable Steve to the end of his limit recently and am not sure why???

Training Mode

Lynda — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 01:03:00 GMT

Its funny I feel like I haven't done any real training for a long time - race - recover - race - recover. The last race was one too much. Like something so sweet, tasting so good until a tiny bit too much is sickening.

September is training month. The summers wicked heat has eased up a notch here in the desert. Enough to go ride all day again. September calls for no racing and a ton of riding. Time to work on that threshold, put down some big rides and stoke my engine back up. 24-Hours of Moab is the last race of the year and September is all about Moab prep.

Time to get cracking on that CTL again.

Scorching Hot Chicks

Lynda — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 00:18:00 GMT

Women usually take a back seat in attention and placings at most sporting events. This summer a few have been stepping it up to compete with the top runners - be them men or women. This is super cool and here is a shout out to some of the ultra-chicks over the USA scorching it this summer.

Krissy Moehl won the overall at Where's Waldo 100km trail running race last week in 11:18, eight minutes in front of second place overall/first place man and only 10 minutes behind first place relay team - scorching hot!

Last weekend at The E-100 I had the pleasure of watching Monique Sawicki do some of her own scorching. She finished 3rd overall only 4 minutes off first place. The reason I got to see her ride was cause I snuck past her for a few miles after she flatted. Without that flat she was darn close to taking the overall.

I don't know of a woman taking the overall at an ultra-endurance mountain bike race YET but it is coming. I've scored a 3rd and 4th this year. Maybe it will be Monique, maybe me or some other fast chick but I'm tellin' ya, it's coming.

My E-100 race: This one was the first in a long time I have done unsupported. Steve my mainstay ran the Park City Marathon winning his age group and coming 3rd overall. I was lukewarm at best for a few hours then went stone cold...Blah...Uggh...Ouch... I left my race legs in Canada methinks - no regrets there. I spent big in Canada and every ounce of effort was worth it. Even my skin hurt after the E-100 finish. The Trans Rockies/E-100 combo is a wicked one I'll not attempt again. 100 miles with a reported 22.5k of climbing is a big ride for an empty pair of legs. I stuck it out finishing in 11:55 pulling off a respectable 2nd place with enough points to take the E-100 series win, which was the big goal.

What a shock, I'm not invincible after all ;-)

Dave took the men's series win, so another double podium for us. To sweeten things up the two of us racked up enough points in the Team division to finish second. Most other teams had a whole pack of riders amassing points. Boris called us a "Powerhouse Duo"I like that :-).

Here's Dave and I with our series trophies and crazy Russian Boris, E-100 race director and course magician. He told us next year he has some nutty scheme to make things even harder for us!

Finally, another shout out to all the guys I coached and consulted with before The E-100. Every single one of you made me smile and be proud by producing beautiful even splits and executing the race plan we put together - awesome job everybody and thanks for the super satisfying coaching moment. High fives to the lot of you.

Executing your First 100 mile Mountain Bike Race

Lynda — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:02:00 GMT

This weekend is The E-100. This one is the grand daddy of all 100 milers. It has a whopping 18,627 feet of climbing, mostly on single-track. Last year I finished in 12:44 and was so beaten up even my skin hurt. After the finish I said to my hubby "it's all yours for next year honey". Well I guess not as I'm back to toe the line again on Saturday with goals of going a little faster than last year.

As part of my consulting coaching business I work with athletes to put together a race-day plan to ensure they are doing everything right to hit their target goal. Quite a few are doing the E100 as their first ever off-road 100 miler - jumping in at the deep end!

Here is a sample race plan for a first timer at the E100:

Turning up on the start line peaked and fit is only half the E100. Executing an accurate race on the day is required to turn your speed and strength into results. All the training in the world aint gonna get you to the finish line without accurate execution of many race details. The key to success in your first off-road century is to start with a plan. Going into the race with no plan is relying on luck and the strength of your mojo.

The following is a race plan for an athlete with a goal to finish their first mountain bike 100 miler. A race plan for an athlete aiming for a podium spot or personal record performance will have a vastly different look.

Prep Work

First off, take care of the simple common sense details such as knowing the start time and location. Look up the weather. Considering you may be out on the trail for over 12 hours at a variety of elevations, knowing what conditions to anticipate and clothing to carry is essential. Check sunrise and sunset times to see if you will need lights. The E100 will start and finish in the dark for some racers. Being left out on the trail after dark with no lights is a preventable preparation mistake.

Learn as much as you can about the course from race staff and past racers. Race websites, mountain bike blogs and forums can be good information sources. Pre-riding sections of the course over a weekend trip is especially beneficial to assist with tire selection and bike choice. I recommend leaving the single-speed at home for your first ever 100 miler and choosing a full suspension cross country set up.

Pacing

Toeing the start line with an appropriate pacing strategy is required to achieve your goal. The goal assumed here is to finish within the time cut-off, elated and tired. To achieve this goal you must pace the race with close to even splits, meaning keep an even pace all day. This is not the same as keeping an even effort level or heart rate the whole day. Perceived exertion should be very low in the first few miles and gradually climb for the duration of the event. Pacing at an appropriate perceived exertion off the start line is extremely difficult in the face of race day excitement. Having an objective pacing control such as watts or heart rate on board can be useful.

Pacing Tips

Keep your pace entirely aerobic at all times.
It is ok to walk short steep sections (in fact your butt will love it) to stay aerobic.
Limit power spikes by avoiding short intense burst of speed or power.
Ignore other racers in the first few miles and focus on yourself.
Ride the first half of the race at a moderate to high cadence to keep your muscles fresh.
Allow cadence to drop in the second half of the race as your legs get tired.

Fueling

Speed, positive mental outlook and enjoyment of the second half of a 100 miler is almost entirely reliant on the fuel plan followed in the first half of the race – or more specifically keeping your stomach working. A foul stomach is the number one reason for ultra mountain bike race DNF’s at every level from first timer to pro.

A fuel plan has five parts:

Pacing How weird to have pacing as part one of the fuel plan right? Wrong… Over-pacing with sustained time over threshold at the start of a 100 miler is the fastest way to shut down your stomach and derail your fuel plan. A working stomach is the foundation of a fuel plan.
Timing The stomach is a delicate creature and you should treat it with lots of TLC if you want to get some love back. Throwing down a big wad of anything quickly puts stress on your stomach and it will rebel. If you are indulging in a double whammy and over-pacing at the same time it will visibly rebel and that is no fun. Whatever goes into you stomach needs be in frequent and small portions. The smaller and more frequent, the happier your gut will be.
Calorie Intake Personal differences in the calorie amount athletes can process through their stomachs occur but a good rule of thumb is to aim for 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body mass per hour. A 150 pound athlete will be shooting for 75 grams per hour or 300 calories per hour. This is only achievable if #1 and #2 above are taken care of.
Hydration Balance Ideally replace the fluid you lose, no more and no less. On hot days you will lose more than cool days. Dehydration will slow stomach emptying and decrease performance. In training, weigh yourself before and after rides. For every pound lost, replace with 16 oz of fluid. Over-hydration is less than ideal and has its own problems. If you gain weight on a ride, drink less next time you are out in identical conditions.
Electrolyte Balance During exercise, electrolytes, largely sodium, are lost in sweat. Perfect body functioning and athletic performance requires attention to electrolyte balance. Again significant differences in electrolyte demands exist between athletes and under varying environmental conditions. Anywhere between 500 – 2000 mg of sodium per hour may be required.

Your Mental Edge

100 miles of mountain biking is a long time to be happy and focused. Having goals and staying task oriented are the keys. Remember at all times your goal: to finish. This keeps everything in the correct perspective and in general keeps your self-talk positive when you are behind schedule or you feel too many racers are in front of you. Keep your eyes on your prize and don’t allow distractions to derail you. But accidents and incidents do occur, from flat tires to developing leg cramps, interrupting your “A” race plan. When plan A goes awry, stay task focused and immediately get on the job of fixing what went wrong and moving on with plan B. Never waste time and energy getting annoyed that plan A didn’t work out perfectly. 100 miles is far too long for everything to work out perfectly. How to successfully deal with mishaps is part of the ultra mountain bike game.

Mechanical

Second in line to your stomach for TLC is your bike. You depend on your steed to make it over the finish line.

Ultra mtb bike care tips:

Start with a bike in tip-top condition.

Don’t crash. Crashing has a tendency to break non-repairable parts, including frames.
Put lube on your chain 1-4 times during the event depending on conditions. Use a long lasting lube such as Rock n’ Roll Extreme lube.
Shift gently and smoothly.
Ride around deep puddles, not through them, especially hub and bottom bracket deep puddles. These parts dislike swimming.
Walk your bike through any technical section you are unsure about.

On completely different note....Emma is getting it rolling on her bike these days. Yesterday was a big breakthrough ride as she figured out how to use the brakes. That means I don't have to be there so close to slow her down. She got a bit too confident this morning tho' and swerved off the bike path giving herself a big fright.

Trans Rockies - Stage 6 and Stage 7

Lynda — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:49:00 GMT

Stage 6 Nipika to Invermere 63.8km 1119m. It rained all night. I didn't sleep much and felt ill in the morning - like I had food poisoning. My gut was full, I was burping like crazy, was cold and shaky and thought I was gonna puke. I didn't even go over to breakfast. I did manage to get a couple of servings of Drip 4:1 into my stomach - so that is what I was going to race on that day.

The rain stopped by start time but the ground was sodden. 0 - 20 km was on single-track and cross country ski trails and we were warned the first 1.5k was on blue clay and would be very dicey. I was wound on the start line due to feeling so weird and anticipating crashing my a** off on the wet rooty trails coming up. We started crazy fast to get through the blue clay before it was all chewed up and stay up with the front pack who could ride their bikes well. Once riding to my big relief my legs felt good. My stomach felt awful tho'. I was super relaxed and rode the trails so well I shocked myself. I didn't balk, sketch or crash once and a couple of guys got on my wheel to follow my lines.

Next up was a haul along a road section before turning off the road up Bear Mountain. Here is the route book description for this section:

28.75km to 35.67km heads straight up Bear Creek. There will be creek crossings, hike-a-bike sections and some very steep climbs. This is a rough and tough section in very rugged country.

Thick vegetation. Temperate rain forest. Barely a trail. This 7km took us 1:53 and we carried our bikes the whole way. I have more bruises from that hike-a-bike than the entire rest of the week. It was steep, it was slippy. Two mixed teams passed us on the way up. Once over the crazy section we motored down 25km of buff dirt and paved road to the town of Invermere. The race finished today in the center of town. On the way in were 3 stop lights which you had to stop at if they were red - what a buzz kill. We got stopped at two of them. How weird to finish a stage having to stop at stop lights. Sitting in the traffic at the stop lights smelling car exhaust fumes was awful after being in the clean crisp Canadian bush air for six days.

We rolled in third and only lost about 7 minutes on the GC to Cannondale/LandRover who took the win in a sprint with X-Fusion. We didn't give away this stage - we just suck at carrying our bikes and the other teams were better. Our finish time for the day was 4:45 and about 2 hours of that was hoofing with our steeds on our backs.

My gut had slowed down dramatically and it was Drip 4:1 for post race snack, dinner and bed-time snack - gotta love that stuff.

Stage 7 Invermere to Panorama 51.2km 1649m. Drip for breakfast too. In fact I pretty much lived on Drip for the last 3 days of the race. Good thing Dave brought a ton of it.

This stage was designed perfectly for us and I had been salivating over it as soon as I had seen the profile in the route book back before day 1. It started on a slight descent bottoming out at 814m at the 14 km mark. Then climbed straight up to 2463m at 38km. In that 24 km section it climbs 1649m (or about 5,000 feet in 15 miles). Have I mentioned that we are climbers? Shortly after the start the Crystal Hotel team of Hillary Harrison and Ryan Watts passed looking real strong on the road. We kept on our pace looking forward to the climb. Shortly after the climb started we reeled in and passed them but they hung tough and passed us back. We yo-yoed with them maybe six times over the next few kms until they faded back. We kicked it into overdrive when we saw them lose their spark and gave the rest of the hill absolutely everything that was left in the tank. We were hauling up that hill totally in the flow passing open mens teams.

If there was one place we should have been carrying a camera it was here at the top of the pass over Paradise ridge. You could see forever. Peaks of mountains poking out of clouds in the distance - massive vistas. It was incredible. All we had left was a screaming fast 15km descent down into Panorama and we had won Trans Rockies. Up there on the ridge was really the moment we felt we had the win sealed up and was a magical moment.

15km later we crossed the finish line to win the stage by 9 minutes over Crystal Hotels and 15 minutes over 2nd place GC team Cannondale/LandRover.

Trans Rockies is an incredible race and winning it was an off-the charts optimal experience. So cool!!! I think we'll be back next year...

Trans Rockies - Stage 5

Lynda — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 03:01:00 GMT

Stage Five Whiteswan Lake to Nipika 107.5km 1285m. We never did see Whiteswan Lake. It was supposed to be outstanding but the 3k walk from the camp was a bit much for us... We spent yesterday afternoon lying in a creek cooling off our legs or lying in the RV snoozing and we were out of there at 8am sharp. The race started at 8am every day. This is the best shot of the scenery I could muster.

Here is the description of the first 49km of stage five from the official route book:

0 - 49 km beginning in Whiteswan, the race follows scenic Forest Service Road on cliffs above the White River, before turning up the North White FSR part of a long gradual accent for the first half of the day.

This was a totally buff gravel road where packs formed and we all had our heads down bleeding out our eyeballs going as fast as we could so as not to get dropped off the pack. I missed the scenic bit unless you can describe Dave's rear end as such. One guy once dared to push me off his wheel and was set straight verbally, quickly and clearly by yours truly. Mojo was a rare commodity on this 49 km section.

I felt it for these two guys, Rich and Josh - Team Bad Idea Racing. Those studs did the entire race on rigid singlespeeds and must have been totally spunnered out silly on that road. My rear chafes at the thought. I stole this pic from Dicky's blog.

After 49km the course turned up and a bit more interesting. Dave stopped to take a leak and I spun up the road ahead. We were having rare wee break from the hammer and some relief that road part was finished. Team Cannondale/LandRover caught us snoozing and came storming by looking strong - woops! I hopped in behind them and enjoyed a few minutes watching them ride and their teamwork. They were working nicely together although using different team strategies that we did. Then I passed them on a steep techy climb they flubbed on and Dave caught back up to me on the following descent.

Next up was the biggest and deepest river crossing of the race. It wasn't really a big deal but took us long enough to get over that Cannondale/LandRover caught back up to us. Over the river was a checkpoint/aid station. Trish hammered through while Sam stopped to fill up their bottles. Both Dave and I stopped. It was a beautiful quiet backcountry spot beside the river. I filled up my bottle and slammed it back into the cage succeeding to rip the cage right off my bike! My first reaction was to scream F**k... everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me...uughh... I even embarrassed myself. Trish was up the road and I was purty agitated. Dave calmly got out the tools and switched a cage from his bike to mine while I hoped about going crazy. He is too cool!!!

Back on the bikes we went into chase mode. There was one 450m climb between us and the finish line and we knew that was our best chance to get them. Halfway up the climb we got close enough to get a visual on them and passed them shortly after. Same routine - pinned it to the finish line in Nipika to take the win by 4 minutes. We had to fight for that one today.

About an hour after we finished the heavens opened and poured down on everybody. The ground turned to slop and made finishing that much harder for the racers further down the field. We lay in our RV listening to the rain congratulating ourselves for not being in a tent. Diner that night at Nipika was the best of the race. Steamed salmon, spinach salad, steak, stir fry, veggie burgers - huge choice. I ate a ton - which would haunt me the next morning.

Trans Rockies - we did it!

Lynda — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 03:23:00 GMT

Trans Rockies was big, beautiful and we won the open mixed category. We showed up peaked, super fit, healthy and fresh - and it was hard. 564 km and 10,173m of climbing. We finished the seven stages in 32:54 which was good enough for 11th overall out of the 230 teams that started. Six stage wins and one third place on stage six.

Huge respect goes out to every athlete who finished the event with their team mate. A few teams clocked over 60 hours - which is a whole lot of chammy time in a week. The vibe from every racer collecting a finisher medal and t-shirt was euphoric.

Stage One Fernie to Sparwood 61km, 1225m. This was the most technical stage with lots of steep rooty single-track. 230 teams started, so the pack was huge. We were staged in about the middle and I was super nervous about the start. The first 15km were on a mix of flat and rolling paved, dirt and gravel road. 460 mountain bikers in a pack is a sketchy recipe... and it turned out to be very fast and sketchy. Dave worked the pack like a charm and somehow through all the wheel bumping and getting pushed around by big guys I managed to stay on his wheel as he worked up the field. At the 10 km mark was a 180 degree turn where the road narrowed and went uphill. Dave made it through fine but I got caught in a big crunch up and lost his wheel for a few moments. I worked really hard to stay upright and even rode over someones back wheel, managing to skip through unscathed and fight back up to Daves wheel. From there we were pretty much home free as it headed uphill and the field began to string out nicely. We had good position by the time we hit the single-track and the spectators had started to shout out "first place woman" at me - a sound which was very nice to hear.

The rest of the stage was super fun single-track with the occasional tremendous view when we came out of the trees. We hammered it out without seeing another mixed team and were jubilant to finish first and be the first mixed team to wear the open mixed leaders jersey. Second place team X-fusion came in just over 6 minutes later then Cannondale/LandRover 3rd at 8 mins and Crystal Hotels 4th at 10 mins. The competition was deep. We were impressed and immediately realized we would not be able to sit up and keep this lead going. Wake up call!! Here we are in purple. Green is masters, pink of course open women, blue is mixed masters, orange is 100+ masters and yellow open men. The 100+ masters winning team was fast and we yo-yoed with them the entire week.

Stage 2 Sparwood to Blairmore 77km, 2140m. We got staged at the front of the field being the leaders. We didn't know about this and were dorking around mid-pack before the start when the announcers shouted out asking where we were and pulled us up to the front - how cool!! There was a bottleneck only about 2km off the startline today and a front line stage gave us a huge, huge advantage. We led from start to finish. Lots more dirt road and lots more climbing today. Dave worked super duper hard and rode like a king today doing everything he could to make my ride easier. I rode light and fast - what a treat! Team X-fusion crossed about 8 mins behind and Cannondale/LandRover were right behind them.

Stage 3 Blairmore to Elkford 109km, 2612m. This was the longest stage with the most climbing - a prime opportunity for us to put a big pad on our GC lead. With lots of dirt road off the start line our front line staging was not such an advantage today. A few kms off the start team X-Fusion passed us. This was the first time we had a mixed team in front of us. They attacked really hard and we watched them ride off. We stayed smooth and slowly reeled them back in. Then the road turned super rough and crossed a creek. Lou the girl on X-Fusion was about 20m in front of me and got cut off by a media motorbike and crashed right by the river. Being the super nice gal that I am I rode past her fast and upped the pace for a few km. When Dave caught up to me he told me I was going crazy and should slow down!!! So we slowed and settled into our go-fast-all-day pace. The course led over to Elkford on a long gradual climb. Super nice views. We could see a long way back and no X-Fusion in sight. One mens team were slowly reeling us in but we were relaxed and were not worried about them until they passed and tucked right in behind them out of sight were Lou and Eric of X-Fusion. Crap! They were amped and flew passed us and were gone from sight quickly as we had to stop for a minor mechanical which took us about 5 minutes to fix. Once back on the bikes we wound it up into chase mode. Next up was a big wide open climb up RaceHorse pass and we got a good visual on exactly how far ahead of us they were. They went over the top of RaceHorse pass about 5 minutes ahead of us and we were able to hammer down the descent and catch them. My bike and tires worked like a dream all week and I was descending fast. From that point on we pinned it for the next 58 km to keep the lead to the finish.

The last 9km of stage 3 were on some of the most fun trails I have ridden and we ripped them. They followed the rim of a canyon for a while. It was incredibly beautiful and we had worked so hard for the win that day. We were flowing along the trail together, almost riding like one and I got choked up over the beauty, the teamwork and the effort - it was a moving moment. Right then we passed a photographer near a huge view point and he took a picture of me. I shouted out I'd love a copy of it and low and behold it ended up on CyclingNews the next day. Here it is.

We finished out the stage with a 32 minute lead on the X-Fusion team who ran into a few of their own mechanical problems. Cannondale/LandRover pulled up to 2nd for the stage 21 minutes behind us.

Stage 4 Elkford to Whiteswan Lake 94.5km, 1368m.We were not real sparky today. We did lead from start to finish but had our closest one yet crossing only 4 minutes ahead of a hard charging Cannondale/LandRover team of Sam Koerber and Trish Stevenson. The views dropping down into Whiteswan lake were knock-your-socks-off. The types of huge vistas I'd hoped to get a glimpse of when I signed up for the race. At one point I slowed and sat up for a while so I could look at the view. It was just too good to miss. We were hooting and hollering shouting look at this, look at that, wow...

Enuf for now. I'll write up stage 5-7 later. Stage six was the doozy for us where we came in 3rd.

Trans Rockies - here we come

Lynda — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 20:51:00 GMT

...and watch out!! This year has been a mission and I plan on extending my scorchmark across the 2006 season at TransRockies next week. I've won everything I've entered this year, placed up at the podium level with the guys and churned out 6+ watts per kg in my 5 min power tests.

Yep, I'm pumped and ready to get on my bike and ride it a long way thru beautiful BC. I'll spend plenty of time checking out the big views but am also looking forward to spending plenty of time hanging on to Dave's rear wheel going places I haven't gone before.

Follow along with us at the Team HealthFX blogspot Dave set up to phone in stage reports, Mario might post some reports on his blog and I know Adam is gonna be following us. Cycling News covers stages daily as does the TransRockies site.

So there it is, training is a wrap and it is go, go show time....

More Interviews

Lynda — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:49:00 GMT

I've been interviewed a few times this week - Shape Magazine, Her Muscle and Fitness (!!) and Outside Magazine. Trans Rockies is coming up and lots of folks know Dave and I are flying up there to ride like crazy.

Read this interview by Enjoying The Ride.

The Canadian weather forecast is hot and dry which is sweet news to this desert bunnies ears - but I'll be ready for wet, cold and slop too. I'm taking lots of things lined with gortex and fleece, lube like motor oil, grease like vinyl and plenty of spare parts.

Brian Head Racing

Lynda — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:31:00 GMT

Racing season is here at Brian Head. We went up at the weekend for the 100 miler and the NORBA National hits town in a few days time. I rode 2 laps on the xc course - a few changes from last year, more on that below.

Brian Head Epic 100 miler. Steve was the racer this time around and I got to take my turn being support crew. Here he is topping out on the course at 11.3k - can you say dizzy?

Conditions were near perfect for the guys near the front. Fast roads and cool conditions. Clouds threatened most of the day but the front runners stayed dry. The 10+ hour riders got slammed with an intense storm that slowed them down.

I helped Steve with his training plan over the last few months and we set up a race pacing and fuel plan. He said he has learned a lot watching and supporting me race ultras so had belief in the plan. He rode super smart and it was cool to see him execute. He finished in 8:19 which is a huge 34 minute PR over his 2004 finish. He started smart in about 15th and eeked his way up to 4th overall by the finish, a mere 8 minutes off the winner who finished in 8:11. After the finish he was wired and psyched - totally jubilant - that's what we do it for eh?

Brian Head Epic 50 miler. Cris Fox looked like he was on an annihalation mission and had gapped the rest of the field by about 400 yards after the first mile. Sounds like he crushed the race and himself.

Brian Head NORBA Cross Country course. The course is dry - no mud bogs to go through this year. The big change is the last few miles. Due to some new condos, Burts road has been taken out and the course is rerouted along the Mosquito Lane single-track. The trail has been worked on a ton and is soft but fast and flowy. It has a lot of short steep power climbs and is in the trees twisty. Right now it is in great shape but like all new trails, a rain shower and 500 riders will destroy it. Mosquito Lane adds another significant climb and maybe an extra 1.5 miles. It is slower going than Bruts road was, so finish times will be maybe 10 minutes slower than last year. You can't cruise it either or you'll be walking up the wee power climbs. Mostly it is wide enough to pass.

Tires: Some of the course is super dry. I rode it on Saturday with a pro xc rider who had on a narrower and rounder profile front tire and was slipping out on the corners. My 2.1 Blue Groove was hooking up nicely in the front but my Ignitor was slipping around in the back.

Pre-riding: This course is a tough one to pre-ride being a big one loop affair. One lap took me 3:15 at cruise pace. Given the altitude factor I'd not want to do that the day before the race. It starts up the paved road then onto a wide dirt road. Once you leave the dirt road there is a mile of double track before the single-track descent down Lowder Ponds. This is mostly flat and fast and has some rocky super loose turns. To get good position on the descent this flat fast section of double track is the key part of the course to get dialed. If you only pre-ride one bit, do this one. There are fast and slow lines through the rocks and sandpits which are not obvious now after the 50 and 100 miler herd has plowed it all up. Drive up to where the double track starts and then ride from there.

It is a fun course and I'd like to be out there doing the marathon again but bad timing - Trans Rockies is on...

EndurancePlanet.com Interview

Lynda — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:12:00 GMT

EndurancePlanet.com interviews all different types of endurance characters from athletes to coaches. I was interviewed for the August 2nd broadcast. We chatted about mountain bike racing and training.

Here is the link to my podcast interview if you can't wait until it comes up on the EndurancePlanet homepage on August 2nd.

http://www.enduranceplanet.com/programs/08-02-06_Lynda_Wallenfels.asx

E-50 Race Report

Lynda — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:42:00 GMT

This weekend was race #2 of the E100 series in Park City. The first was the 12 hours, this one was the 50 miler and the final will be the 100 miler in August.

Goals for this one were to win and set a new course record - which I did. My official finish time was 5:18. Jack Dainton won the mens 23 mins ahead in 4:55.

I've been wearing out all of my equipment at an amazing rate with all of the training and racing miles this season. The recent riding in the muck and rain didn't help. A few days before the E50 I took my bike in to Desert Cyclery for some work and Andy the head mechanic said "Lynda your bike is jacked up". Oh no... Oh yes :-( Desert Cyclery owner, Kong, stepped in and pulled out a new Yeti frame. Andy spent the next couple of days building me up a new bike with parts cherry picked from my old bike and shop parts. Here it is clocking in at 24 lbs. Purty sweet.

I would never advise one of my athletes to get on a brand new bike and go race a 50 miler, but that is what I did. Andy got the fit dialed in almost exactly like my old bike so it didn't take much getting used to but it sure rides differently. It turns faster and I was overdoing the corners. I kept stopping during the race to adjust the settings on the suspension. At first I had the rebound set too fast and it was boinging me around the trail. The E50 has some tight single-track tree sections and two times I bounced to the side of the trail on a descent and hit the end of my bar on a tree sending me flying. That made me a bit grumpy.

The course was hard to follow at times and I went off course about five times. One time I was with a couple of guys flying down a jeep road and we all saw the single-track snaking up off into the trees as we flew past at about 30 mph. We slammed on the brakes and ran up to the trail. I got there first but it was steep and I was in my big chain ring. We were all bitching and I was blocking the trail so moved off and got it into the small ring meanwhile there were quite a few f's and b's flying around. Then I see the cameras, three of them surrounding us. The E100 series is being filmed for a documentary and we were so busted for being potty mouths!

Back at 9k

Lynda — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:10:00 GMT

Wow it has been hot here in St George - 112F yesterday. We escaped up to the sweet cool 9k air at Navajo for the weekend again. It was toasty up there too. At this time of year I like to go up to a healthy elevation to do my threshold intervals. I get the cardiovascular benefits without hammering on my leg muscles too hard. I'll do my high intensity power reps down low at 2800 feet in St George where I need all the oxygen I can suck in to muster up the big watts. I blew away my best times up the Navajo Lake climb. Sign to sign my new best dropped from 13:22 to 12:35 - I'm coming into real season peak form - whooo.

We took Wesley's new bike with us so he could ride around the camp ground loop. We camped about 20 yards from the lake trail, we had rubber and Wesley used his broken record technique to perfection.

Mommy can I go mountain biking?

No, the Dr said not for a month

Mommy can I go mountain biking?

Mommy will you take me mountain biking?

Mommy can I go mountain biking?

Why not?

Because I said so

So will you take me mountain biking?

Well ok then just for a little ride - what a push over!

He was stoked and loved it! It was pretty cool to see that. He was awesome too. The bike is too big for him and he was cranking it - he was riding! We had to push the bikes up a steep bit and he only outweighs the bike by about 10 lbs but I didn't have to help him. He was spouting out all these hilarious one-liners. On the hike-a-bike I said "wow Wesley you're tough" and he shouts back "I'm tougher than you think" LOL. Then at the top he says "mommy I'm tougher than anything", gets on his bike and rides off.

New Bike!

Lynda — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 20:48:00 GMT

Wesley got his cast off - an event requiring some sort of celebration after a summer with no swimming, climbing, riding etc. He was rallying around like crazy on his single-speeder before he broke his arm, so in order not to stymie his cycling development I upgraded him to a real mountain bike with 27 gears.

The 24" wheels look huge beside him. Probably how my 29er wheels look when I'm riding. The Dr said no mountain biking for a month but he can ride on the bike path. He was super eager to race around the block and have me time him - no competitive genes in there eh! He was doing well coming down the home straight to clock a sub 10 minute lap when he was distracted by one of the neighbour kids and got off his bike to play. We will have to work on mental focus some...

My tomatoes are going OFF. If you want some don't even ask. Just wander into my garden with a bag and pick 'em for yourself. Some of them are huge. I can only eat so many before I have level 6 internal revolts.

Read of the week: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. Its purty darn funny so far - I'm about halfway through.

Read of last week: All Moms go to Heaven by Dean Hughes. Full of crazy mom moments and an affirmation that you don't have to be perfect and get everything right all the time to still be a good mom. I do a lot for my kids and love them like crazy but obviously still take plenty time out to ride my bike and race. Sometimes I feel guilty for not being there only for my kids like some moms appear to be. I actually did try that for a few years. I lost my verve and became a bit stale and whiny. Minor details became more important and life became picky. My kids are nice people, fun loving, full of energy, humor and confidence. I like seeing who they are growing up to become and that is what makes me feel like I'm getting it right enough at the same time as loving life for myself.

Durango Training

Lynda — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:07:00 GMT

Last weekend I took a a trip to D-town to get our Trans Rockies strategy and details dialed in. I was looking forward to some big views and nice single-track too. This was the standard view of the weekend. Tall trees and thick clouds. Apparently there are big peaks around Durango - apparently...

I've haven't ridden in such wet conditions since I left Scotland - wow! Hours of rain and soaked to the skin. Made for some chilly descents and surreal atmosphere.

For a while I felt like I was on mushrooms, rolling in and out of cloud banks, numb, cold and dizzy. Up on some sloppy slick single track somewhere above timberline after about 3 hours of solid climbing. I thought to myself Trans Rockies has to get pretty dam hard if it is going to be harder than this - but I must have said it out loud 'cause Dave shouts out "yes maam". Then we went over a saddle and were rolling down through meadows with of hundreds of flowers drooping heavy over the trail, laden with moisture. I glanced down at my red Sidi shoes and they had yellow polka dots. My head took a while to process that one and realise they were the petals from Buttercups sticking to me.

It started to make sense a little when Dave told me we were well over 12,000 feet. My mojo returned with a two thousand foot drop and sweet single track on Hermosa Creek - too cool. So I'll have to make a return trip to Durango to see all those views I missed. It was an awfully good training weekend tho'.

After the ride on Sunday it was super nice to meet a few teammates who came out to the bbq - thanks for coming.

Sparklers and Single-Track

Lynda — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:42:00 GMT

A splendid July 4th weekend up at Navajo Lake

Navajo Lake is circumvented by a sweet rolly 10 mile single-track. Along the southern side of the lake is a ridge and 600 feet up from the lake along the top of the ridge passes the 32.5 mile Virgin River Rim trail. With four different single-tracks connecting the lake trail to the Virgin trail there is enough to keep me very busy for a nice long July 4th weekend.

I love this sign. It actually says the trail was built for mountain bikes and keeps hikers from getting too grumpy.

...and a few sparklers for the 4th

E-12 hours - Double HealthFX solo podium - Sweet!

Lynda — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:19:00 GMT

It was a well organized race with 63 solo riders starting (52 men and 11 women). I won the women's and Dave won the men's solo categories - how cool was that! Dave was the only rider on course to complete 14 laps and I won the women's by a 2 lap margin in 13 laps - good enough for a 4th place overall. A nice day indeed for Team HealthFX.

This was a training race for me. I came into the race with a Chronic Training Load (CTL) about 120 and Acute Training Load (ATL) of about 90. These are huge high numbers for me and the first time I have started a race over CTL 100. How my body would react was a bit of an unknown but that is what training races are for - testing out new stuff to see if it makes you faster.

Goals

Start FAST! I normally start conservatively and I was in the mood to try something different.
Even split my laps. This goal doesn't jive at all with #1 so I split my race up as first 4 laps fast and then finish it off with even splits.
Streamline my pit stops. No stops over a minute.

How did I do? I ran like a mad woman and stayed right on Dave's heels. Dave hit the single-track in 3rd and I was in 4th!! Here is a pic of us coming through the start finish on lap one in 3rd and 4th. I've ridden a few miles on Dave's wheel and know his style. It was a super comfortable place for me - in fact I was elated and laughing out loud to be moving fast and flowing free in front of the dust bowl crashing shouting gridlock backed up cluster fest that was behind. I'm never ever gonna run slow again.

Coming through happy with a relatively traffic free first lap.

Laps were 10 miles. My splits for the first 4 laps were 53:07, 51:40, 51:16, 53:32 and I was sitting in 10th place after these four laps. Then I dialed it into my go-fast-all-day-with-no-fade pace to even split the next 9 laps. Next 9 laps were 56:40, 55:47, 57:07, 58:15, 57:03, 57:41, 57:27, 57:26, 56:10. Purty even I'll say :-) What was amusing was how my lap split ranking got better and better. I saw guys who went faster than me early slowly blow and fade behind me. Lap split rankings from lap 5 - 13 went 11, 8, 7, 6, 4, 6, 3, 2, 1. I had the fastest 13th lap on course!! Dave had the #2 ranking for the 13th lap. On the 12th lap he was ranked #1 and I was #2. We were out there moving around the course.

Here is Anna hustling Dave through his pit stop. She moves fast and works hard. She sets the gold standard for pit operation. The guy in the shop apron in the background is Andy. He saved Dave's bike from falling apart.

My pit stops were dialed. Steve was so on top of things and I got in and out of there in about 10 seconds for the first few laps then in about a minute for the rest of the laps. Steve was awesome. The biggest suprise of the day for me was having a mechanic. Andy from Desert Cyclery in St George came up and wrenched for Dave and I. I'd roll into my pit and hand my bike to Andy while Steve smeared sunscreen on me while I was picking up my food and supplements. Then I'd grab my bike back from Andy with the chain wiped and lubed and be off in less than a minute - very slick operation. Andy is awesome and quickly picked up the reputation in the pits as the guy to go to with bike troubs. I was so psyched to have him on my team and will do anything to get him on my 24-hours of Moab team. Andy - just tell me what you need! You are an ace to have on my team. Moab is the big show and I need a guy like you who can get it done.

I caught sight of Dave creeping up to lap me on lap #11. I'd pull ahead on the climbs and he would close the gap on the descents - I gotta get that downhill thing improved! On lap #12 he got on my wheel at the end of the longest descent and we had a wee chat. From that point on we yo-yoed and kind of rode together which was a lot of fun for me.

Here is my finish shot.

This is what 13 laps looks like

This is what 14 laps looks like

Boris and his family run a fine series of events, The E-12, The E-50 and the highlight The E-100. The National Ability Center, the site of the E-12, is a super setting and the E-12 hour course was fun, fun. Boris puts a lot of thought into course design. You can tell he is a mtb rider himself. The E-12 course has a great flow and a little bit of everything in there.

After the race several solo riders who had followed my training plans for this race came up and told me how they did. All of them had great races and a couple had standout races. I was impressed with one athlete who completed 11 laps on his single-speed!! Thanks to everybody who came and said hi to me.

A tremendous day out indeed.

Getting Faster

Lynda — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:30:00 GMT

Am I getting faster? I train alone so much of the time and race infrequently sometimes it is hard to tell. One of the beauties of power meters and the scale is their objective opinions. This weekend is the E-12 hour race which I'm doing solo. I'm not peaking for this one but did my regular two sets of 3 X 3 minute intervals I do before a peak race to stay sharp and open up. I did have a huge peak and great race in February at 24 Hours in The Old Pueblo so thought I'd compare the stats.

Here is yesterdays power file. Watts in yellow, speed in blue.

Reps averaged 264/262/256/256/266/260w

Here is February's

Reps averaged 247/250/253/249/253/254w

Body weight is down too since February so power to weight on average for each interval in February was 4.9 w/kg and yesterday 5.3 w/kg.

Bike weight is down too by about a pound with new pedals, a new fork and a few other lighter parts. I replaced my Fox with a SID World Cup which took about 0.5lb off the front end - very noticable. It is a harsher ride than the Fox for sure but I'm getting good travel out of it. I do miss the stable platform tho'. The poploc is a PIA.

So shucks, I should be fast this weekend :-)

Getting Big and Fat on Father's Day

Lynda — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 15:58:00 GMT

No, thankfully it's not me I'm talking about, or my bike - both of us have been getting a little lighter this month. It's the garden. No better organic food than the stuff popping up in my backyard just now. Here are my tomatoes. In a week I'll have more than I know what to do with. There are tons on there.

We have caterpillars bigger than our eggplants

and zucchini bigger than our caterpillars

yum, yum, the caterpillars like to eat the zucchini

If you stop by this week I'll give you a zucchini the size of your thigh and starting next week I'll have a tomato bonanza. I've still got a couple of weeks before the grapes are ripe.

Happy Father's Day to all you father's out there. Emma got her daddy some chocolate covered espresso beans and Wesley got him an air compressor - how thoughtful are they? :-)

Binging Again

Lynda — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:50:00 GMT

The next big goal on my schedule is Trans Rockies in August. Right now all of my training and racing is focused on peaking for that event. I just finished a big volume block to push my CTL up into the clouds. I'll take advantage of that next week racing solo at the E-12 in Park City. After that I'll dump some CTL and focus on threshold and intensity to toe the start line at TR with a whole lot of speed in my lycra.

Peaking CTL last week was a ton of fun. It is far to hot now to do much of any kind of riding here in the St George desert oven. Last week was the annual Wallenfels family reunion week up in the cool crisp 9,000 feet Colorado air near Buena Vista. Cousins, Aunts and Grandparents kept the kids happy, busy and spoiled all week.

Steve and I got a chance to ride together. This was super nice as at home the usual MO is taking turns. One of Steve's favorite things to do is pour over maps and sleuth out new single track. It is one of his best talents too and we rode quite a bit of beautiful new trail we hadn't seen before.

Some of the best ones were Davis Meadow, the McQuaid Trail and Salt Creek Trail. One I don't need to do again until I get an 8 inch travel bike and a few more skills is Vitamin B.

We finished the week with the classic Marshall Pass-Crest-Rainbow Trail loop.

Big views, lovely single-track. Flowy fast riding. Love it.

I'll not be putting in another week that big until Trans Rockies. Final tally for the week was 1853 TSS, 1 flat (Steve), 1 broken chain (me) and 2 crashes (1 each, Steve's was more spectacular, mine drew more blood).

Now for a wee bit of recovery, a few opener workouts and the E-12 hr.

Read of the week: "Girls' Night Out" a collection of short stories by a collection of authoresses. I picked this one to read with a certain voyeuristic interest as I have never been on a girls night out and don't have any kind of girls lining up asking me to be in their club. Well the book was badder than bad. I only finished it as I had to sit in the truck for 11 hours on the drive home.

Big Pine Spring

Lynda — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 19:16:00 GMT

My latest obsession is finding the biggest climb I can ride from my house. I live at 2800ft and we reached 7464 feet today in 2 hours and 10 minutes and 17 miles. Here is the GPS file. Blue is speed and orange is altitude.

Not a bad climb at all. There are a few more enticing roads leading away from Big Pine Spring meadow begging for me to explore. I may not have found the biggest climb yet. This one took us up a couple of ecosystems from the St George desert oven. 'twas beautiful.

I had the pleasure of DaveH's company on the ride today. Not to be confused with this Dave H. How lucky am I to have two friends, both named Dave H who are fun to ride with and can rip around on their bikes?

The colors up at Big Pine Spring meadow are beautiful with the contrast of charred trees from a fire last year, new bright green scrub oak and fern regrowth and purple, red and orange spring flowers.

DaveH and I have cute matching Epics and almost got our outfits matching today.

A very splendid morning out on the bike.

Wesley's arm is healing well and he is back to running around like a crazy boy. We had a wee oops today when he reached into a pool to grab a sinking toy car with his cast arm. That one took a while to dry off with the hairdryer. I think we saved it and won't have to replace the cast. ..and he has learned how to play his GameBoy with one hand.

Read of the week: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I'm halfway through it. So far it gets 2 stars - ok, but not a gripper. It chronicles a wacky character who loses his grip on reality and dies in the Alaskan wilderness.

Mommy, Wesley got broke

Lynda — Sat, 27 May 2006 21:52:00 GMT

Emma was delighted to be the first to relay me the news. She enjoyed the trip to the ER a lot more than Wesley did, picking up a few snacks and flirting with the Dr's.

Mega double-decker owie. This is Wesley's arm. The Dr cranked on it and reset it as he let out a blood curdling scream - so I'm told...err, I was out riding my bike at the time.

:-| which is good it didn't happen on my shift but I do feel a little guilty for being out having fun on my bike and not home watching my kiddies. He fell off the hammock onto the concrete patio. Well maybe he did. We haven't gotten a straight story out of him. No eye witness reports. Wesley moves too fast to keep your eye on 100% of the time. He has been a shadow of his former self since. He is a hurting unit. I felt sorry for him as not only was he hurting but he did it the very first day of his summer vacation - bad timing. So I took him over to Best Buy and he chose a GameBoy. I thought that would keep him somewhat still and help his arm heal but it turns out a GameBoy is kind of tough to play with one hand. Oh well, Steve likes it...

Not training at Red Canyon

Lynda — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:46:00 GMT

Last weekend was a weekend off training after the epic Kokopelli adventure. A week off training is not synonymous with a week off from riding though. I sold my Scalpel and blew up the rear shock on my Epic at Kokopelli so was left only with my single speed. Turns out Red Canyon might be the best place in the world to rally around on a single speed. That makes four shocks I have detonated this year. I'm starting to take it personally. Is it something I'm doing?

Crazy fun buff single-track and lots to choose from. In four days of riding I did not pass a single other mtber out there, just a few horses. Here is the Rich trail - mega fun swoopy stuff. Makes me say wheee!

Funky old desert trees. Lots of signs here. Even I can't get lost. This is the Cassidy trail. It looks soft but is hardpacked and fast like cement.

The kids are getting their riding legs and found some choice trail of their own near camp. They out do me - single speeds, coaster brakes and training wheels. All in their pyjamas without the benefit of coffee.

No photos of me as I was riding solo all weekend but here is a portrait Wesley drew of me today, his last day of Kindergarten. He even wrote my name on it. He is getting so big and clever. This one is a keeper :-)

Sunrise on the Kokopelli Trail

Lynda — Wed, 17 May 2006 22:11:00 GMT

A few folks have sent me photos since the race but this one is a beauty taken shortly after sunrise by race director Mike Curiak. He caught my best side. This was a screaming fast descent down the Entrada Bluffs Road to Dewey Bridge after a long night of climbing.

Kokopelli Trail Race Report

Lynda — Mon, 15 May 2006 12:42:00 GMT

That was awesome! No photos though as I didn't have room for my camera so this will be a boring text only post. I'll give the punchline first to save you from wading through my yapping.

Painless version:

I was 7th overall in 15 hours and 3 minutes and the first female to finish. Sweet!

Long and gory version:

I've never done anything like that before and I loved it. I loved the sleuthing and pre-race prep we did to figure everything out and I loved going out on race day and putting it down. The unique nature of the event brought together a super cool bunch of people. I got to meet some new ones, including the big man of the day himself Mike Curiak. Big kudos and thanks go out to Mike for putting together this event in its unsupported format. The unsupported format makes it easier in some aspects and harder in other aspects. I like it. I also got to reacquaint with an old friend I haven't seen for about 10 years and it was great to see him looking so fine and riding so fast. There were lots of special moments during the weekend.

It was a beautiful night, full moon and warm. The excitment on the start was huge with about 56 racers. I was pumped on the start because I found out Jari Kirkland was racing. She is a super fast biker chick stud so it meant I did actually have a race on my hands - a special treat for me. Super fast ladies at the ultra level are few and spread thin over the many neat events to choose from so getting to the same start line as one is a rare pleasure.

Although the field was small and we had a big day ahead of us the start was fast. I saw a lot of eager overpacing in the first hour. Guys were amazingly aggressive at first up Sand Flats road but things mellowed out after about 20 minutes, right when I was warming up and turning it on. In the dark it was hard to see who was who but just after we passed the Porcupine turn off I caught a woman who was riding along chatting. I picked it up a notch and went by quite fast. I was impressed she jumped right on my wheel. The chatting stopped but I couldn't hear her breathing real hard so I knew whomever it was she was strong. She stuck right in behind me on the rest of the road and up into the double track. Eventually I asked her if she wanted to pass but she said no and I asked her what her name was. She said Jari. Great!! Game on. I told her we were gonna have a great day together. Then she dropped off the pace a little and I hit the pavement with a wee gap on her.

My plan for the 2k pavement descent was to put on a jacket but it was so warm and Jari was so close I shelved that plan. The moon was bright. It threw huge moon shadows down the cliffs and spires of Fisher Valley below and made the snow capped La Sals above glow blue. But for this race I would never be riding my bike up on that road at 2am and get to see that view - another special moment.

At the start of the next 2k climb Jari was nowhere to be seen - but then it was dark and you couldn't see very far. My legs had kicked in and felt superb. I took a fast pace up the climb and started yo-yoing with single speed stud Dejay Birtch. He looked like he was fighting his single cog and would fly by me standing up cranking or I'd pass him while he was walking. It looked like doing intervals. Crazy single speeders. It is almost beyond belief that Jon Brown won an an SS - he must be an animal.

The first 3.5 hours of the race have 6k of climbing and my tactic was to ride them light and fast and filter water in Fisher Creek at the top. Jari was close enough that she passed on by while I was crouched pumping by the creek. My original plan was to pump again at McGraw but I shelved that plan right there - I didn't want passed again. I pumped enough to get me to the spigot at Westwater ranger station.

On the big descent off Beaver Mesa I was all over the place. There was a lot of dust in the air from the riders going through in front of me. I had gone with a helmet light only and it was lighting up the airborne dust right in front of my eyes. My helmet was flopping around too and things were generally bugging me. I turned my front wheel in some sand while descending fast and got body slammed hard - so hard it took me a minute to get up and quite a few minutes to shake it off. I did have to bleed for this one after all. I usually get what I ask for ;-) I was slow and cautious for the rest of the descent. The prime goal was to finish and breaking myself or bike was not going to help.

Dawn was beautiful and right after dawn I caught Jari. Again I went by her flying but this time she didn't respond. This time we were descending and I put a big gap on her quickly. I paused to take off my knee warmers and switch out my clear lens for a dark one then motored on. I ran out of water just before McGraw - so much for filtering enough to get me to Westwater! We had a headwind from the start and it was warm - dessicating conditions. I squatted by the Colorado and pumped more than I thought I needed. I'd been yo-yoing with Fred Marmsater since the start and he stopped to see if I was ok. From behind it probably looked like I was puking or something. People were so nice in this race! I was faster filtering this time and got everything I needed and back on my bike in 7 minutes - Jari didn't pass.

McGraw - Westwater was hot with headwinds. I reeled in and passed a few guys along the way. I caught Adan Lisbonbee a mile before Westwater and we spun down the road chatting side by side. We had a headwind and Adam is a big dude. His draft looked so warm and welcoming but I didn't pedal 100 miles to sit in a draft for a few minutes. Adam was looking superb and we chatted like we were out for a wee Saturday morning spin. He was faster than me at the fill up spot and gave me a nice carrot to chase back up the road. I was certain Jari had not passed while I took the detour - all was well.

My race plan was to pace steady to Westwater then let it out and speed to the finish and that is what I did. I was flying through Rabbit Valley in the big ring hammering out of the saddle - what fun. My legs never complained once the whole day. My back and butt were complaining though and standing up made them feel better.

Across Salt Creek and up the hike-a-bike you can look back a long way down the course and I couldn't see a soul behind me. The day was heating up by then. High temp recorded in Fruita according to the National Weather Service was 87F but it felt hotter. I had to walk up the steep single track on Troy Built not because my legs were tired but because the heat I generated to ride up it was too much and made my head boil and stomach turn sour. After riding a short section I had a melt down. I got off my bike, sat down and mixed up my last packet of PowerBar endurance drink. I downed 24 oz in one chug. My body took it like a sponge - never even had a sloshy stomach. Kind of surreal. The last 8 miles were fun contouring trails and went by fast.

My goals were in this order were

1. Finish

2. Finish at 3 pm in 15 hours

3. Be the first ever Kokopelli female finisher

4. Enjoy it.

I nailed it - snagged them all :-) finished at 3:03 pm in 15:03, close enough to give myself a tick on goal number 2, especially with the never ending headwind, dry sandy course and hot dessicating day. It was not a fast day but there were some fast riders out there.

Results and some other race reports are posted here. There were 56 starters (including 5 women) and 23 finishers (including 4 women).

I'd love to do it again but it looks like that was the sixth and final running of the event. I'm lucky to have been able to do it this year. It was EPIC!

3 days to Kokopelli Trail Race

Lynda — Thu, 11 May 2006 02:01:00 GMT

This is my second big race of the year. It's taken planning to a new dimension because of the unsupported aspect. My bike has taken on a new look. 3 waterbottle cages and a ton of things velcroed and taped all over the place in the effort to get the weight off my back. I hammered it out on some sandy ledgy trails today and nothing fell off it so we are ready to go. I'll be carrying extra tape and zip ties as a back-up.

There will be no cheering section in this race so I made up my own.

The first time I pull this out will be in the dark at about 4am and I'm sure it will crack me up.

Here is the Csikszentmihalyi quote for this race.

"Optimal experiences usually involve a fine balance between ones ability to act and the available opportunities for action. When high challenges are matched with high skills, then the deep involvement that sets flow apart from ordinary life is likely to occur. Flow experiences provide the flashes of intense living against the background of everyday life. The sense of time is distorted: hours seem to pass by in minutes. When a person's entire being is stretched in the full functioning of mind and body, whatever one does becomes worth doing for its own sake."

Kokopelli Trail Race

Lynda — Thu, 04 May 2006 13:12:00 GMT

It starts May 13th at 12:01 am at the Slickrock parking lot and 142 miles later finishes in Loma. In fact it is reaching to call it a race. There is no entry fee or waiver to sign, you just show and go. Dave and I pre-rode the course last weekend. Taking two days to pre-ride a course is crazy too but was so, so worthwhile and a blast. We rode all of it in the daylight. The part during the race we will be riding in the dark is beautiful with huge and tremendous views. I'll be able to think of those views when I'm riding through that part now.

Big views of the La Sals are all over the place.

I've never done a race like this before. Everything is seemingly laid back and unofficial but there are a stringent set of rules to follow. You don't get DQ'd I suppose but I've heard of folks being asked "not to come back". It is a unique combination of low key and high intensity.

The primary rule is no assistance. It's totally self supported. You have to carry everything you need and if you ask for help from anybody then it's over. No stashes or caches allowed either. I've ridden further in supported events so the distance is not a new thing. I've ridden a 24-hour solo unsupported but passed my pit loaded with goodies every 11 miles. I've spent lots of time wandering around the backcountry self supported carrying everything I needed. I've sort of done everything in pieces and need to put it all together for this race. This is new for me and I like trying new things.

Riding the course helped me put together many of the small details. Tires, lights, food, pacing, water strategy etc. Riding it over 2 days was super as it was slow enough to take in the sights but fast enough to get a good feel for the flow of the course. The course had a few suprises I'll be glad to know about on race day. There is heaps of climbing with a 4k climb out of slickrock and another 2k climb after that. One of the suprises was that the hardest climbs came later. They are smaller and did not stick out on the elevation profile but their sandy, ledgy and techy nature made them slow going and energy draining. I'll definitely pace myself on the earlier big climbs now with them in mind.

On race day the weather will be a big factor. It was hot when we got to Dewey Bridge. These folks showed me how to cool off. Floating down the Colorado on pink air beds - LOL. I asked them if it was nice and they said they were getting a bit numb, they had come down the Dolores river first - think snow melt!

I'm still toying around with my race strategy. Do I want to go light and fast or take everything I could possibly need? My top goal is to finish. This is a tough course and finishing it will be no easy task - but then the competitor in me wants to go fast. So far in the history of the race there has never been a female finisher. I want that trophy! Maybe I will just have to finish to snag it but then maybe some fast chick will turn up and make me bleed for it. Ya never know. Bring it on!

Scrub Peak 2, Lynda 0

Lynda — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:25:00 GMT

Scrub Peak is the second highest peak on the west side of St George. It is hard to get to, few people know its name and it is mostly ignored. I don't know anyone who has been to the top of it but there are a set of radio towers up there and a road to the top. Recently it has been taunting me. Back in February I made my first attempt and was turned back by the combination of a snowstorm and the discovery of a significant hike-a-bike section.

Yesterday Joel and I set out mega prepared to conquer Scrub Peak. I set up my bike as I have planned for Kokopelli Trail race with two water bottle cages, a huge seat bag and a seatpost rack. I loaded down with 144oz of fluids and 2100 calories - expedition rations! On my seatpost rack we bungeed two pairs of running shoes with a plan to ditch the bikes when it got too steep and hike. We were so ready!!

Problem 1: Suspension sag caused my rear wheel to hit the seatpost rack - doh! We moved up the rack and stiffened up the shock.

Problem 2: On the trail with the rack at its highest and suspension at its stiffest my rear tire still buzzed the rack in the bottom of the whoops - darn! So we took off the rack and bungeed the shoes to our Camelbaks - not real happy about that.

Problem 3: The wind picked up like crazy. The higher up we climbed the stronger it was. It was tough riding wind 'cause it was so gusty. It was blowing me off the road and filling Joels contacts with dust so we said feck this, tucked our tails between our legs and skulked home. On the way home we were both blown off the trail a couple of times and I got nailed by a huge flying tumble weed.

Scrub Peak won again. I have to go back to the drawing board to design a new way to get the weight off my back for Kokopelli Trail race. Any better suggestions?

Ironman Arizona Race Report

Lynda — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:48:00 GMT

I left my racer hat at home for this one and went down to AZ with my coach-wife-mom-daughter-escort gal hat. A couple of my athletes and Steve raced. I'm sure it would not hurt the popularity of women's mtb racing if we had outfits as hot as the pro tri gals were sporting. Here is eventual 3rd place pro woman, Hillary Biscay.

One of my athletes Nicole had a PR race finishing in an amazing 10:37. Read her IM race report here. Steve was the top Utah finisher crossing the line in 10:41 and obliterating the family IM record (mine at 12:02). IM is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike (non-drafting) and 26.2 mile run. Steve's splits were 1:03/5:52/3:33. He put down one killer run and passed hundreds of folks. He was pretty darn happy during most of the run. See cheesy grin below. My other athlete John made his goal of finishing his first IM and I was proud of him for finishing in a time of 16:15.

Steve passed me on the run. How he managed to do this was because I scored the sweetest ever volunteer job. I was a run escort gal! I was escort to 3rd place pro woman. The run course was three laps and 3rd place woman was a lap ahead of Steve when he flew by with this big "I'm passing folks like they are standing still" smile. Big, big thanks go to my mom who looked after the kids while I was volunteering. She even got Wesley into the kids pen so he could run the final 50 yards and across the finish line. Sharing the finish line moment and photo with family members is a big thing at IM. It is kind of like training for it has been such a huge undertaking and your family needs to be so supportive to make it work so they deserve a share of the finish line glory. The IM finish line is an emotional place. Lots of hugs, tears and endorphins. If you ever wonder why seemingly normal people do it visit an IM finish line sometime.

Here is me with fellow escort gal and tri coach DeeAnn Bonnell waiting for our racers to come in off the bike and start the run. Check out the cool pink uniforms. The guys got boring green ones.

The womens race was so exciting and it was tremendous to be able to watch it from such a close vantage. First place Michellie Jones was waaay up the road but there was a fierce battle for 2nd and 3rd with those positions changing hands a total of eight times. Those pro tri gals are soooo freakin' tough. They fought hard for it. Below is Desiree Ficker (#56) passing Heather Gollnick (#64) to take second pushing Heather back into third. Hillary is back in fourth at this point after fading from 2nd. The guy on the bike in the green in front is the second place escort.

Desiree went past fast and was gone - looked like gone forever. A mile after this she was out of sight. Heather had a few moments in the portaloo a while later. She came out looking like a different lady and chased Desiree back down. Whatever came out in the loo made her go about a minute mile faster. She went past Des fast. Des went anaerobic for 2 miles (yes after about 8 hours of racing and it was close to 90F she put down a couple of anaerobic miles). She dug hard to stay with Heather but Heather was on a mission. Then Des slowed down a tiny bit but kept running through the dry heaves - gnarliness!!! Hillary meanwhile was running a steady and consistent pace and ran up on and past a suffering Des to take 3rd. At mile 24 Des almost chased her back down with what must have been an extreme effort - these gals are tough (did I say that already) but Hillary had enough in the tank to hold her off.

Cholla Challenge XC Race Report

Lynda — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:39:00 GMT

What on earth was I thinking running a 32X21 for a largely flat and mostly non-technical course? I think my average cadence for the race might have been in the 200 - 2,000,000 rpm range. SPUNNED. SPUNNERD. I toed up to the line with the single speeders again and was feelin a bit more confident after my 3rd place last time. Today was a much smaller race but still 9 SSers on the start line and myself (only chick again). About half a mile into the race and already spun-out off the back it occured to me that SSers have gear selection as a great race excuse over gearies. "Oh yeah dude, I was way under/over-geared today." I actually pre-rode the course on Thursday so don't have any excuse for choosing that gear when I had a perfectly good 18 sitting in my tool box. Doh! Somehow I pulled off a 4th place. The winner had on a 34X16. 3rd place dude beat me by about 15 seconds. He had on a 32X17.

When I got home Steve laughed and said "I told you so" - that was helpful in a superbly helpful kind of way...

Now I think I'll go for a real ride.

Trans Rockies March News

Lynda — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:59:00 GMT

Trans Rockies is more in the news this year than I've seen before - or maybe I'm paying attention because I'm on the start list this year for the first time. 2002 was the first year Trans Rockies was staged. When I heard about it I so wanted to race it - a 7 day mtb stage race - wow! The problem with the summer of 2002 was I spent the first half of it heavily pregnant and the second half in post partum vacation mode. The next year 2003 a whole lot more riders signed up and I coached a few through the race, same for 2004 and 2005 with one of my riders getting on the podium - awesome!

Big changes are afoot for 2006 TR. For one, I talked Dave into racing with me (it wasn't too hard to do that :-) The bigger news is the new course - even made CyclingNews. And it's being kept a secret!

Event director Aaron says "Though exact course details are kept secret until immediately before the event, riders who have participated in the TransRockies Challenge before should be ready for a very different route this year. The new course will head North and West to a finish line in Panorama Mountain Village, located near Invermere, British Columbia, three hours west of Calgary. Along the way, it will take in some of the stunning scenery along the Central and Western Canadian Rockies where the peaks of British Columbia's Purcell and Kootenay ranges soar to heights of over 3000 metres."

One guy commented on this new route "While I was simply envious before, if this news is correct regarding the new route, I am officially drooling, green-eyed jealous!"

Whether they are keeping the course a secret or actually don't have it figured out yet, I am looking forward to going to Canada in August and riding the snot out of my bike for 7 days in beautiful country and good company.

Sh*t and Food

Lynda — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:30:00 GMT

As a mom and a cyclist these are two large features in my daily life. I spend a lot of my time trying to put more food into my kids mouths and less into mine. What age is it I wonder food and sleep become something we want more of? My kiddies haven't reached that age yet. Of the poop part - my time is spent trying to direct the majority of it into places that can be flushed away with no contact, but being a good mom I still inspect it to make sure it's not green or something. Contact is inevitable. How many poops a day do you get to check out?

Some days are more full of sh*t than others. Yesterday was horse crap. I spent about 5 hour raking it up off a horse paddock, shoveling it into my truck, shoveling it out of my truck and dumping it on my garden, then doing it again.

It's planting time. There is a subtly competitive gardening vibe here on my little street in suburbia and this year I am way off the back. One of my neighbours already has his spinach popping up. They all got their tomatoes hosed by the late frost last week. I'm getting on it. Poop spread yesterday, I'll till it in tomorrow and then figure out what I'll grow this year. I've got grape vines and usually do lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, parsnips. I think I'll miss the carrots this year and try something new.

There is no better way to decide what is for dinner than to go out to my garden and see what is ripe. It even gets the kids excited about eating vegetables.

Trans Rockies news: All new course this year. This gives the repeat offenders a little bit less of an advantage over us TR newbies. Good news for me :-)

Spring is actually starting to Spring

Lynda — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:43:00 GMT

It's been a month since 24-hours in the Old Pueblo and I've had a month off training. I love peaking for an event but coming down the backside of a peak is an ugly process I don't enjoy so much. It was a month full of things that were not too conducive to training anyway - snowstorms, the flu and a vacation. Today I was back in training mode, the weather was back in spring mode and it felt ooh so good. I was riding in shorts and a jersey again - 74F

This is my neighbours tree today and for some odd reason it is not sending my allergies haywire this year. I don't know why. Usually I am a sniveling, red eyed moan in the spring. Other than my little flu episode last week I am feeling better this spring than I have in years. I got four gold stars yesterday at my annual endocrinologist check-up. My Dr said I have the health of a 16 year-old :-) I have to see him every so often as I don't have a thyroid gland - he keeps my hormones in check.

Starting back after a long race the thing I lack the most is top end, so that is where I start re-building. Today was 12 X 30 second max efforts. Not the best power I have ever produced today but darn close - actually the second best ever which is amazing after a 24-hour endurance peak and a month off. All that single speed riding must have done something for me.

Stats: Pn - 206watts. Interval averages 380, 362, 357, 363, 376, 379, 383, 389, 379, 399, 401, 390w.

Weight is down to 107 lbs and motivation is climbing out of the hole. Feelin' springy...

Spring Break

Lynda — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:55:00 GMT

I've been gone. I'm not feeling very wordy so here is a photo blog of my trip.

This is the top of the climb up on Gold Bar Rim. Cold clear day.

Looking in the other direction from the same spot here is Steve finishing the haul up the final piece of slickrock. Huge views from here in all directions.

Poison Spider

We rode White Rim via Long Canyon

114.2 miles for that loop

The Shafer climb was closed by the park. They had a gate across the road closed in the middle of the desert - cracked me up so I had to take a photo of it! There is no fence. Just the gate sitting closed all out in the open by itself. What was the point!

Murphy's Hogback is one of my favorite views. We had a long lunch stop here.

Pillars

Windows

Muscleman Arch

Refilling on the way. There had been so much rain we didn't need to carry much water with us as we just scooped up pothole water on the way.

Although it was a 114 mile ride we took a lazy pace, made lots of stops and had a mellow time. White Rim is so beautiful is was nice to take the time to enjoy it.

Big Snow Day

Lynda — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:24:00 GMT

We had our annual snowfall in St George today. March 10th! Just last weekend I was sweating away in the Desert Rampage xc here in short sleeves. I don't think I've ever seen snow sitting on our trampoline before. Right after this pic we piled on and jumped it off. Warm wet snow.

The kids are on spring break and the snow stuck around for a couple of hours before melting away. It was kind of fun but did skuttle my ride plans for the day. It was a trailer day and wet roads & bike trailer & kids does not equal fun. So an unplanned day off the bike but some play time in the snow.

Desert Rampage Race Report

Lynda — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 02:40:00 GMT

Well that was a lot of fun in the wielding blunt weapons kind of sense. I think I've found my niche for local races - Single Speed! The Expert men are occasionally pouty about having me race in their category and mess up their series point accumulation quests and there is rarely a pro women field at these wee races but the single speeders heckled me on the start line, pushed me about on the course and tried to have their way with me. I felt so included. Warm and fuzzies...

My thanks go out to Quinn Pratt for these photos. Quinn is another of the good guys that make the local bike scene roll. He's both a race director and president of the award winning Color Country Cycling club. He comes out to many of the races to cheer and take photos.

My big 29" wheels rolled up some of the techy rock sections and made them feel a lot easier than on my 26ers. My batting average on this one below is about 0.8 on my 26ers and is a lovely 1.0 on my 29er. It is about a 3 foot lip with a wee cheater rock at the bottom. I get my back wheel hung up on the top lip on my 26er but the big wheels roll right through nicely each time.

I ended up with a 32X21 for the race. Single speed honch Dejay Birtch staged beside me at the start and I asked him what gear he had on his 29er. He had on a 32X18 and I think all the other guys were geared bigger than me too. The race started on a flat road and I was spinning myself silly getting gapped right off the start. By the time the climb started I was 10th out of the 12 starters. BOP! I'd clawed myself up to 6th by the end of the first lap and third by the finish - so a splendid showing for my first adventure into the husky side of SSing. Results are posted here.

One of the good guys

Lynda — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:40:00 GMT

Here is Desert Rampage race director Glen Ames.

He is one of the good guys for sure, like most race promoters are. Without them we would have nowhere to put on our show. I went out yesterday to ride a couple of laps on my SS and test out how a 32 X 21 rode - or rather if I could ride 2 laps on a 32 X 21 after smoking myself silly on one lap with a 32 X 18. I ran into Glen out raking the rubble off the course. It's only Wednesday and he is out busting his butt, rake in hand to give us a nice buff trail to tear up on Saturday. This is his 11th year running the Desert Rampage.

The course is classic desert riding, dry, dusty and hardpacked with some big views.

I completed 2 laps this time without killing myself on the 32 X 21 - much better. It is tough to tell from these photos but it is a climby course. I've got a long way to go before I've got this SS'ing thing figured out and should get handed a lesson or two during the race on Saturday. I'm sure there will be some fast SS guys show up to school me - I'm looking forward to it. Bring it on!

SS school

Lynda — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:59:00 GMT

I haven't been riding much since the 24 hours of Old Pueblo - taking a breather. I have been out a couple of times on my single speed. The Intermountain Cup Series kicks off this weekend with the Desert Rampage here in St George. The single speed category welcomes men, women, farm animals etc - if yer SSing you're in it and doing 2 laps. That sounds like a lot of fun so I'll give it a try.

I headed out today to do a couple of laps on the race course and see how it was on the SS. I've only ridden the stock 32X18 gear so far. The first climb was great. I was riding some of the steep stuff I thought I'd be walking - so far so good. After about 10 minutes of cranking up hill out of the saddle I wasn't feeling so hot and had slowed to a crawl by the time I reached the flat section at the top. On the descent my legs were shaking a little and instead of a second lap I limped home - woops - smoked!

SS school was in session! I added 3 teeth to the back and will try it again on Wednesday.

'06 Old Pueblo Race report

Lynda — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 02:11:00 GMT

Well that was a nice course and it was very good to me - just my kind of desert riding, hard packed rolly winding single track. It hasn't rained for so long the trail was hard packed enough for Wesley to ride around on his scooter! The course was fast this year and I got to set a course record on it.

The whole family went down for this race and packing was a huge production. The drive took us 11 hours and was a bit of a production too. 11 hours is a loooong time for little people to be in their car seats.

I'd trained really well for this race and had a good taper. Race morning I was feeling awesome but also a bit too wound up. There were hundreds of bikes racked up ready for the start. You can see my blue Scalpel with the yellow bar ends squeezed in here.

Everyone else was as excited and wound up as me I think as the start was hectic, dusty and a little crazy. I'm rider #94.

It was like a Demolition Derby for a while. I earned this butt crashing along with eight other riders on the first lap shortly after the trail narrowed down from the wide jeep road. I was first on my feet and ran over everybody. Then I had a clear trail for a while which was nice before I caught the group in front. I was peeved to crash so hard on the first lap and it took me until the end of the second lap to settle down. I can't decide whether this bruise looks like Iceland or Texas.

After my third lap my pit crew told me I had a 32 minute lead and I should slow down. They kept telling me to relax and slooow down! So I did. I went into happy cruise mode through the night. At midnight my pit crew told me I had lapped second place. Wow - cool! So from then on it was ride smooth, ride safe and eat, eat, eat.

By sunrise the reports had me two laps up on second place. I was getting a bit sleepy at 7am and needed a bit of extra motivation. Steve ran down to the timing tent while I was in the pit and came running back up screaming I was in third place in the men's field!! That lit a new fire under me, I quite liked the idea of being in third overall :-) My 14th, 15th and 16th laps were some of my fastest in the race - and the most fun. I was out there just hauling and had the course dialed by then.

Here is me heading out on the course for my 16th and final lap. Cranked full of endorphins!

Taking the podium photo on the left with the black hat and grey shirt is Damien. Damien had a dialed in bike sitting in the pit everytime I came in. I had planned to rotate bikes every lap but switching bikes was more difficult than I had anticipated - they ride just differently enough that I would take a few minutes to get used to the bike after the swtich. During the night I didn't want to switch and I was getting a lot of love from my Scalpel so Damien busted his butt getting it lubed, batteries changed and dialed back in while I ate and put on extra clothes. Damien was awesome - the best race mechanic I've had and I hope to have him on my team again for future events. At dawn I switched back onto the Epic without lights and finished the race out on that bike. As the race went on switching bikes became a harder thing to do.

Emma and Wesley love to stand on the podium with me :-)

Here is my power file from the race. I'll post more on lap splits and power later. I'm still picking through the file myself - lots of goodies in there.

Old Pueblo was mine this year :-)

Lynda — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:33:00 GMT

16 laps, 24 hours and 49 mins, 240 miles. I was peaked and hungry, hit every goal I set out for the event and basically crushed it - dam that was some fun!!! Here's the goals I had:

Start strong and finish fast.
Stay on task and motivated 3am - 6am.
Complete 16 laps.
Be the fastest solo lady.
Finish in the top 5 overall. I did that. I would have been 3rd in the men's solo field!!!

Huge kudos go out to all of my support crew - hubby Steve who ran around like a nut getting me everything I wanted the entire race, Damien who wrenched my bikes back into perfection every time I trashed them, to Anna for overseeing everything was done well, to the kids for being great troupers, to Dave for being there on the course to chase and to Dixie and Eric for playing with my kids while I was pedaling. I bow to them and call 24-hour solo racing a team event. Having done one unsupported and now one supported I can tell you no support will cost you three laps minimum.

I'll post more info, my race power file, training data and some photos later but right now I'm crawling back into the pain cave - smiling though :-)

Results will be posted at some point.

Three days to OP and countin'

Lynda — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:24:00 GMT

Why on earth ride your bike for 24 hours? Good question seeing as I'm about to do it.

"The best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times - although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is something that we make happen. Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur, yet these could have been the best moments of life. Getting control is never easy and sometimes it can be definitely painful. But in the long run optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery - or perhaps better, a sense of participation in determining the content of life - that comes as close to what is usually meant by happiness as anything else we can conceivably imagine."

- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Five Days to OP and countin'

Lynda — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 01:58:00 GMT

Sometimes the final few days before a peak race are the hardest to figure out trainingwize. My legs are on fire so I want to go out and hammer but I can't do too much or I'll torch them before race day. I like to have the intensity in my schedule to keep the blood volume up but do fewer reps than during normal training. If I don't do anything but rest during race week I'm flat as a pancake by the weekend.

Here's today's workout. Three sets of 3 min intervals in Power L5 with three mins rest between reps and six mins rest between sets. This one felt real easy today. Head up smilin' kind of riding. The sun was out and canyon cliffs glowing orange.

Heart rate is in red and watts yellow. Intervals are highlighted in black. Short and sweet I like to call these types of workouts. 1 hour 20 min and 86 TSS. Go out, do the reps, go home. Power average was 251 watts for the intervals which is nicely in L5. My legs wanted to push more watts today but I stayed off the throttle. I'll need all the beans I can save for the weekend.

Just keepin' it nice and sharp today. CTL is down to 101 and TSB is up to 17.

My New SS

Lynda — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 22:41:00 GMT

Here's my new SS. 15" frame and 29" wheels. My inseam is 27". I look like a midget standing beside it - like it's my dad's bike or something. It is an awesome ride and I've been railing around Paradise Canyon on it which is my little 45 minute back yard loop of slickrock and sand.

It's one of the best thought out bikes I've had and has lots of nice features which many small bikes are missing. A big one for me is the water bottle mounts are low down enough in the main triangle I can get a large bottle in there. That's nice for SSing as it sucks to have anything on your back when you are standing up cranking. No toe overlap either. I checked this one out first. I once had a bike with toe overlap and it sent me down a few times.

I wanted to get a 29er and a SS so why not do it all at once. It's a Gary Fisher Rig. Actually it is a pig (not a rig) at 26 lbs but still darn fun. I'll take it down to Old Pueblo and might do a few laps on it. I've been having fun night riding on it. Without gears that's one less think to think about in the dark.

Here's a few random thoughts about my new experience on a SS and a 29er:

I feel high up off the ground.
It's a hard tail - haven't ridden one of those in a while
It railed the corners. I can carve stuff I slide sideways in on my FS - maybe the beefier tires or the 29" wheels.
The big wheels stick far out in front. It's a funky feeling like the front wheel is poking further into my peripheral vision than it should be.
I need more air in the Reba than I would on a gearie 'cause of all the standing up and cranking on the SS.
I think I can run a less plush front shock as the 29er wheels rolled over the drop offs smoothly (yeah I didn't jump off any).
The ledges felt smaller on the 29er - really
No bar ends - too much standing up, they'd just get in the way

I'm still messing around with the fit. I flipped the stem over yesterday and put a new saddle on - it feels better.

24-hours in the Old Pueblo is approaching fast - six days away now. I'm just getting my legs moving again after a big rest week. They needed that after my mega 1336 TSS ride week with Dave the week before. It took a couple of intervals to get the sluggishness out of them but now they're back and moving pretty good. I'm happy. Our support crew is coming together too. The guys at Green Valley Bike and Hike are wrenching and we've got lots of other folks to cheer, feed and help with all the details. I'm very happy :-) Things are feelin' lined up for this one.

Power, weight, climbs, descents and speed

Lynda — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 17:39:00 GMT

Yesterday I had a super interesting ride on the road with a friend. Nice ride with a couple of long climbs, 5 miles and 8 miles long. We rode side by side for most of the ride, with no drafting. My friend weighs 75 pounds more than I do. On the climbs he was working harder than I was for sure but on the descents I had to put the hurt on myself a little bit to keep him in sight. I notice this on group rides. On descents if I'm tight in the draft I can stay in but if I get pooped out into the wind it is all over. I wasn't drafting on the descent yesterday and was dam near threshold at times just holding the 50 yard gap constant. Once on the next climb it was back to me spinning easy and him working harder. I was wondering if he hammered the descent or it was really the weight that made difference. Well we were both riding Power-Taps so I was able to look at the power profiles side-by-side for the real answer.

On both climbs my power average was 145 watts and IF 0.654 and his was 204 watts and IF 0.888. On the descents I averaged 160 watts and IF 0.726 and he averaged 147 watts and IF 0.641.

There you go. I did bust my butt on the descent.

My First Single Speed

Lynda — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 15:54:00 GMT

Here is a pic of my first single speed. Not only single speed but single brake - and a sketchy one at that. I worked this bike over. It didn't last to be a hand-me-down to my wee sister and sadly to this day she does not get the bike thing at all.

I quite like the kit though. Maybe I should revive that look.

~Lynda

Big Ride Week Post Mortem

Lynda — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 03:06:00 GMT

238 miles, 22 hours 35 mins saddle time,1336 TSS, one worthy crash (me) and no flat tires was the end of the week tally. I get the best training done when I'm out having fun on my bike and chasing Dave around the county for a week was a blast. I did sneek in one well timed and surprise attack on him at the top of a hill he had towed me up. I mean towed literally - with a bungee attached to my head tube! I couldn't contain myself after taking some EnduroFX and he didn't know it was the last real hill of the day. Small victories against your friends and team mates are important!

Here's Dave basking in the sun with his recovery potion and manly pink mixer cup after the Gooseberry ride.

The week went almost exactly as planned opening up with a lap on Gooseberry. I shouldn't stand on the downhill side for photo op's. I'm sure I don't look that short in real life - or maybe Dave is taller than I remember. Things even out when you are on your bike and when we weren't on our bikes we had our feet up. The back drop view up on Gooseberry is Zion National Park - eye candy.

On Thursday we rode the Jem trail, one of my area favs. I had a slow sketchy day - the bike and me were not at one with the trail. I was all over the place so took a few short cuts. Dave was on crack that day and took fine care of himself hammering the singletrack. This time he's modelling with his pre-ride drink.

My day on crack was Friday. Here is the power file for the ride. 9 hours 49 minutes, a boat load of climbing, 523 TSS, 0.821 IF and 82 miles. No power fade for me today and my best 20 minute normalized power for the ride was 258 watts right at the end hauling a** along the road to get home before dark. That's a lot of power for the end of a big week.

Let's do that again!!

Big Ride Week Preview

Lynda — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 18:17:00 GMT

Dave arrives in St George today and tomorrow starts the big ride week. We're both racing solo at 24-hours of Old Pueblo on Feb 18-19, about a month away. This is the big volume week followed by a 3 week taper into OP. Joe Friel calls this kinds of week "crash" training. I hope not to do any kind of crashing. I like to call this type of week binge training 'cause that's what it really is. We are having a bike binge.

Dave is used to riding faster than me but I'm used to riding for longer than him so we are going to see if we can get a lot of fun riding done without blowing each other up before the end of the week. Learning to ride together day after day is a key aspect of doing well at Trans Rockies. We are also going to try out a ton of ideas we have to make us faster as a team. Any cool suggestions? Leave them here and we'll try it out...

Here is the plan

Monday we are riding the road up to Gooseberry, about 40 miles and 2:30. Then we are meeting Steve with the mtb's for a lap on Gooseberry, about 3 hours.

Tuesday is an Epic mtb day, about 6 hours, lots of climbing, lots of jeep roads and places for Dave to tow me :-). The route is from my house, along Church Rocks slickrock, Prospector single-track, Red Cliffs, Silver Reef, 3,000 feet climb up to Oak Grove then jump on the Turkey Farm jeep road for a fast roller 30 mile descent back to the house.

Wed is a day off the bike for me. Too much going on to take the entire week off from my real life.

Thursday is 2 laps on the Jem trail about 47 miles of single-track and probably about 5 hours of saddle time. Fun, fun, fun trail. This will be a good day to see how it is riding technical stuff together where he can't tow me.

Friday is a huge Epic that I've cooked up with Google Earth but never ridden before. Looks to be about 100 miles and all off road except for the first 3 miles to the trailhead :-o Lots of jeep roads for Dave to tow my a** along.

Saturday is open for whatever is left in our pegs.... and then the OP taper begins.

Short and Sweet

Lynda — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 17:06:00 GMT

..was the ride today, only 1:35. Just keeping it sharp but not creating a lot of fatigue so I'm zippy for the big riding week with Dave next week. I've got a lot of trails to show him here in the county :-)

The plan for today was two sets of 3 minutes pedaling at power L5 with 3 min recoveries in power L1. I got derailled on the second interval running into a pal and having a chat for a few minutes.

Intervals are highlighted in black, power is yellow, heart rate is red, cadence is green and speed blue.

My heart rate was super zoomy today which tells me I'm nice and fresh. It was getting up to 186 bpm on the final couple of reps. Power average for the reps was 250watts and felt comfortable - no suffering on the bike today :-) TSS for the ride = 109.4, 21 miles, 1 hr 35 mins.

Feelin' sharp...

Cross Training Day

Lynda — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:13:00 GMT

I'm having a low volume bike week to freshen up for the final build up to Old Pueblo . Sunday was off the bike but I got in nine hours of cross training. This was my activity of choice.

Suburban Cross Training... It's hard work pushing this machine around, filling it up and emptying it. To add a bit more fun into the mix I put on my X-vest for a few hours. Here is Katie and Co showing how it's done X-Vest style. I loaded mine up with 20lbs for a serious session of Domestic Functional Core Training (TM). Carpet shampooing with a weight vest - now that is too much fun.

The fun was ebbing for sure by about 3pm and with 2 vehicles, a sofa and one bedroom left to shampoo I cracked open a bottle of EnduroFX. I've never taken Enduro before and given its ingredient list thought it was a good idea to try it off the bike first.

What are the ingredients in EnduroFX?

Ingredients per one capsule: 750mg proprietary thermogenic blend of zhishi, green tea extract (standardized to 95% polyphenols, 40% EGCG), salicylate, caffeine, L-tyrosine, yohimbe extract.

ZING!!!! After 2 capsules I was feeling pretty good and attacked those mystery lumps of congealed stuff on the backseats with vigor. 2 capsules felt good so at 4pm I thought 2 more capsules would be better - ZING-ZING!! My cars have never been so clean since the day they rolled off the dealer lot.

Still pumping at 8pm I took a trip to Wal Mart with both of the kids. My kids love a trip to Wal Mart and were in 7X hype mode. We got one of those huge carts that have a seat in the back for 2 kids. They're tricky to drive without crashing into stuff on a good day and normally 2 kids hyping all over it like it's a jungle gym at 8pm on a Sunday evening would be a huge challenge to my good mom demeanor, but not last night - a Sunday evening Wal Mart run with the kids has never been so fun before. Thanks EnduroFX.

Shane if you're reading this I have a few questions 'cause I could get addicted to this stuff... Is it good for me? Is it legal? Should I be allowed out in public and behind the wheel of a vehicle after taking 4 of them?

It didn't wear off until 2am when I finally was able to fall asleep. I'll be taking a bottle of that stuff down to 24-Hrs of Old Pueblo for sure :-)

Ashwinviewed

Lynda — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:24:00 GMT

I've been Ashwinviewed

Ashwin posts pro racer interviews on his site and this week it's my turn. Check it out.

Building for Old Pueblo

Lynda — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:30:00 GMT

My main project this winter has been to build some muscle back onto my legs after six years of hypotrophy and a side benefit of that is I've become ripping strong. Feeling like I could use this juice for something fun I slipped my entry into the frey just before the solo field closed out, so it's a double Team HealthFX solo pit at OP - Dave and I.

This will be my second solo 24-hr effort.The last one I did a bit off the cuff and went with zero support. Let's say I learned many things during that 24-hours. The biggest thing I learned was that if I want to win, a solo 24-hour race is not really solo at all but a team event with a mechanic, chef and anyone else that will tend to my many needs. I did the first 24-hr truly solo - no mechanic, friend, helper, cheerleader or masseuse. Just me, a tent and a couple of bikes. It was maddening to be in my pit working on my bikes during the race while the other ladies were out pedaling laps. The ladies who finished in front of me had clean bikes every lap, hot food handed to them at night and feedback of where they were standing in the race. I had bikes breaking, a stove that wouldn't light when when the temps dipped below 30F and a dark lonley pit. Get the violins out now!

The race was Kona Sleepless in the Saddle 24-hr Global Championships. I chose that race primarily because Bike Magazine gave me a free entry but also because I knew there would be some fast ladies on course and I like a good horse race.

I ended up third. That's me on the right wearing the hat to hide 24 hours of helmet hair. Check out this podium of ladies. You are looking at some small and fast chicks here. I'm 5'2" and 110 lbs and was the biggest thing standing on this podium. Second is Team Maverick's former 24-hour World Champion and ultra mtb bike racing legend Kristina Begy and defending her Global solo championship title was Brit Jen O'Conner who smoked us, and herself as she limped on and off the podium. Notice her in this picture weight bearing on her right leg only. She looked a little messed up after. She was gripping my hand in this photo like she was about to fall over sideways. I had her fingermarks imprinted on my hand after - or maybe that is an affect of the bloating caused by 24-hours of gels and Gatorade - ack!

The start list for Old Pueblo not out yet but it usually draws a competitive solo field. Last years female winner has announced her return in '06 to defend her title - it should be fun.

I haven't found a mechanic for OP yet and that is somebody I seriously, badly, desperately need on my team so all's I have to do is pedal fast. If you fancy staying up all night watching Dave and I make ourselves very tired and tinkering with our rides let me know - I'll make it worth your time :-) and anybody else too who wants to come on down and help with the Team HealthFX pit. Let me know and we'll make a place for you and give you a job. I know Dave needs someone to sort his chammies.... The more the merrier, people that is. What else is going on Presidents Day weekend?

Christmas frenzy

Lynda — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 23:18:00 GMT

Christmas Eve was MY day. That's when I had all the fun. I lined up a baby sitter and went out mountain biking for 5 hours with two of my roadie pals who have turned to the dark-side and gotten themselves mountain bikes for Christmas. This was only the second ride in the dirt for Dave so I took it easy on him and planned out a mostly jeep road loop. Used to skinny rubber Joel's quote of the day was that his 2.4's were probably wider than me - so he got in my good book :-) That comment and the fact he traded half of his white chocolate raspberry scone with one of my pop tarts. He can come ride with me any day. On the road Dave always turns the screws down hard on Joel and I but we got to punish him a bit today he he! After about 3 hours he was the one fading off the back and mentioned mountain biking was hard!! He even ate the stale Clif bar that has been lurking in my Camelbak for months waiting for a desperate moment.

It is a treat to have some one to ride with sometimes as my usual MO is just me out in the boonies solo or towing the kids around.

Christmas Day was all about the kids.

Look ma Santa got me a scooter

If it's not pink, don't bother

Wheeeee!

Workout of the week

Lynda — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:59:00 GMT

Sometimes I get on a kick with one particular workout. At the moment it is this one:

Watts are yellow and heart rate is in red.

This is four sets of 5 X 1 minute repeats. Today the goal was to keep my watts over 300 for every rep until I either made it to the end or blew up. Today was a good day as I made it right to the 20th rep before I faded below 300 watts. This is the first time I have made it this far so a good day out.

One of my major goals this winter is to make my legs stronger and this workout certainly taxes them. They are pretty tired right now, but a good tired.

~Lynda

Tis the Christmas Season

Lynda — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:25:00 GMT

The presents under our Christmas tree are a constant and taunting presence to the kids at the moment and I'm taking full advantage of the "be good or Santa will know" tactic. They were gone for a few hours today to pre-school and kindergarten - my time to get out for a wee ride without the bike trailer in tow. It was very chilly down here in the desert again today and I knew Santa had a nice new warm cycling jacket wrapped up for me under the tree.........

It's back wrapped up under the tree again now!!

It did keep me nice and toasty warm on the descent :-)

Training Partners

Lynda — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:07:00 GMT

Here are my two regular training partners, Wesley and Emma.

They are always up for a ride and usually in a good mood - though never take pulls. The Snow Canyon park restrooms is a trip highlight, for some reason they love that. They get all mad at me if I bypass it.

The toilets through can be stinky though....

The climb up through the park is 4 miles and takes me about 20 minutes on my road bike. With these guys in tow it takes me 40 minutes. We have another pit stop at the top of the hill so the kids can play and run around for a while. The views from the top are pretty cool.

We get up to about 37 mph on the descent, the kids lean forward holding onto the front of the trailer and scream "go faster mommy". Yesterday Wesley shouted "mommy go as fast as a race car" LOL! I have some sketchy cantilever brakes on my trailer bike so don't like to get much faster than that. I imagine it must be a fun ride for them as they are sitting real close to the ground with only a layer of canvas between them and the pavement. Maybe they will be lugers when they grow up. Wesley says Santa is going to bring him a skate board which will be as fast as a race car and will go much faster than my bike.

Watt confusion

Lynda — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 16:56:00 GMT

My SRM has been telling me I'm one of the fastest ladies on a mountain bike recently so I've been on a quest to discover where this wackiness is coming from, 'cause it probably isn't my legs. I've waded through the SRM manual a few times which is a weird experience as it is translated from German. I had to learn how to calibrate my SRM and check the accuracy of my Power-Taps. All checked out to be healthy - SO maybe I am that fast. BUT Dave compared his White Rim files with mine and said no things are wacko - SO maybe I'm not that fast.

Hmmm. I put both PM's on my Scalpel and rode the trainer to get the real answer on whether the SRM is reading high.

Comparing PT and SRM power files side by side was not easy, power was all over the place. The trainer only told me I had to change the SRM sampling from 3 sec to 1 sec to match the PT.

Next step was to actually ride out on the trails. My Scalpel has no V-brake mounts and PT no disc rotor mounts so this meant no rear brakes. That turned out to be fun in a sick kind of way.

I don't have a solid conclusion yet as power was all over the place but with the help of some folks a lot smarter than myself the SRM looks to average about 11 watts higher than the PT off-road.

Oh, and the desert weather is back to normal again. 65F and sunny when I rode yesterday :-)

~Lynda

Brr, Brr, windy, windy

Lynda — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:16:00 GMT

weather.com reported Fair and Breezy, 45F with 32mph winds, wind chill 37F.

I'm gonna have to change the weather site on my favorites as I take issue with 32 mph wind being described as "breezy" 'cause it nearly blew me off my frigging bike. 37F with wind chill is stay indoors time for desert dwellers like moi but this winter I have decided to be tough and ride any way - so I did. It felt like a hard ride but the power meter tells a totally different story. Gotta get this cold thing figured out. It is winter right?

Entire ride (141w):

Duration: 2:37:48

Work: 1336 kJ

TSS: 137.7 (intensity factor 0.724)

Norm Power: 174

Distance: 38.514 mi

Avg

Power: 141 watts

Heart Rate: 135 bpm

Cadence: 78 rpm

Speed: 14.7 mph

Yer looking fer a geek-off?

Lynda — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:39:00 GMT

Glory on a bike in Moab

Lynda — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:57:00 GMT

What a glorious weekend to be in Moab on a bike. I've ridden White Rim in three days with wine, cheescake and support but never hammered it out in one day. I was salivating on my keyboard when Dave invited me along. Half a dozen phone calls later I'd lined up back-to-back babysitters for the kids - game on! I even got to ride with Greg, Mitch and Dave for a while, so that was cool.

Dave was camera man for this trip so I dragged up an old photo. Here is Musselman Arch - a mere 150 yard detour off the main trail. We all blew past it on Saturday. I think it might be illegal to ride across it, so ya'll know that is not me in the pic.

Sunday was equally splendid. Primed with a good coffee shop trip, Dave, Mitch and I headed up Sand Flats road to check out a section of Porcupine above the regular route. Mitch did a U-turn after an hour leaving Dave and I out there to ride ourselves silly. Dave was flying! Check out my power file in the file section and see I warmed up at 250 watts looking at Dave's rear wheel disappear up the road. The new section of Porky rocked. We yo-yoed with some guys on 45lb downhill rigs - 8 inches of travel and 2.7 tires. They rode a few things I had trouble hike-a-biking down.

When we connected with the main trail the "plan" made back at the coffee shop was to cruise back down Sand Flats road to Moab but the full descent down Porcupine to the Colorado River beckoned and we were helpless to resist....

Final tally for the weekend was 138 miles, 5 chocolate fudge pop tarts, 120 oz Gatorage, 5 bags of Clif Blocks, 15 Clif Shots and 10 Endurolytes. I think my teeth are rotting out.

Hello all...

Lynda — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 04:24:00 GMT

Well I’m the newbie on this team and don’t know anybody except for Dave. I did cheer for Miles, Greg and Brent at the BrianHead NORBA xc and you guys were looking strong that day. I was lurking around and raced my first ever NORBA marathon the next day – that was fun. So hello and I hope to meet some of you out on the trails [:)]