Monday, July 16, 2012

Sticks & Stones...

didn't break any of MY bones, or my bike for that matter.  But it was a huge bummer to hear after the race that one of the ladies I met checking out lines in the rock waterfall section got injured in that same part of the course.  Hope she recovers soon and gets back on the bike before the season ends!
  I had a clean run, hit all of my lines well, but just ran out of gas at pretty regular intervals while trying to pedal through flat sections.  Being stuck with practicing on Saturday this week, my out-of-shape-ness  became evident while trying to pedal my bike up the short climb to the gondola...only 5 runs the day before, but the rough course took its toll on my body and made it hard to stay on the bike at full speed.  Hence, I probably slowed down more than necessary for some sections.  I came in second place, which was not too bad out of 7 girls, but felt like my fitness was the biggest limiting factor which has definitely not been the case in previous seasons!  
   Struggling to rid myself of a stubborn sinus infection for  over 2 months, and multiple doses of antibiotics do not help a training program at all--even if I had one, that is.  Worried that any physically intense activity might suppress my immune system more, I haven't ridden my XC or road bike much in the last couple of months after coming home from work feeling like crud just about every other day.  But it seems to be finally moving on out, maybe the last round of antibiotics actually did the trick, or perhaps religiously using a neti pot multiple times a day has helped.  Either way I can't wait to get back to pedaling hard (after taking today off to recover)!! There's no race this weekend, but might be a good time to get some runs in on Karpiel and be able to conserve energy a bit more for the weekend after. Then, the Pro GRT, where I'll be pretty happy to be somewhere other than dead last at this point!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

Northstar says...

...Welcome back, sucker!

Needless to say, I didn't win the race yesterday.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Robyn visits Wisconsin!

A neighboring town...Poulsbohemians might find this amusing
   Kit's sister decided to get married back at the family farm in Waupaca, WI, which sounded like an event I shouldn't miss if at all possible. So I managed to get the time off from work and book the same flights as Kit there and back. Excellent. Upon arrival in Milwaukee, we were greeted by Kit's brother (and an authentic Chicago deep dish pizza) for the 2 hour drive to their folks house. This pizza was quite possibly the most amazing thing to go into my stomach all week, gluten be damned--perhaps having something to do with being ravenous and ready to chow any sort of edible object, but it was still quite delicious the day after (and day after that).

This barn was built in 1901, according to the year on the stone silo
   Although we had to help prepare for the festivities just a little bit, most of our time was occupied with being in/on the water to escape the heat, canoeing, swimming, and fishing in a nearby spring-fed lake. Kit managed to land a good number of fish, but I only succeeded in hooking vegetation off the bottom of the lake...and then all was well after a refreshing dip in the water. At one point the boys managed to nearly sink the kayak I had been paddling around in while they fished from the canoe, making for quite the swimming workout to get it back to shore filled with water. Buttheads! Kit's parents also had a couple of halfway decent road bikes in the garage, just waiting for somebody to get on and pedal. So we did, all over the country roads around his hometown of Waupaca, enjoying the absence of traffic and trying our best not to get too horribly lost. I took it upon myself to take photos of all the neat old barns and other cool things on the bike rides; there's not much else out there besides cows and cornfields, so a 100+ year-old barn is something exciting to see (relatively). 

Yep, it's pretty flat. There were a few short hills but not many.
   The wedding was a real hoot, with a live band that played multiple polkas complete with accordion and tuba, and brought back long forgotten memories of Norwegian folk dancing. Only in Wisconsin I guess--and maybe Poulsbo too! The whole week was about the most fun I could have imagined having somewhere as flat as I was. My only complaint? Eating hot dogs and pizza for nearly every meal, because it's hard to find anything else to chow on out there! 
   Now back in Tahoe, it's time to get pedaling on the mountain bike and dive into downhilling again. WahoooooOO!!!!!