Yep, it's official...

   I'm done riding DH for this year.  I was holding out a tiny speck of hope that I may be able to race the Pro GRT finals at Mammoth in September, and waited until my visit with the sports medicine specialist to find out for sure; he confirmed the opinion that it's not a good idea since it's taking so long to get better.  If I hit my head again too soon it will be more painful and an even longer time to recover and that's not what needs to happen at all.  Drat.  Guess it's time to forget about this season and focus on plugging away at recovery so that I can prepare for an even better year in 2014.  I'm really going to miss spending more time this summer with all of the new friends I've met and camping out at the races.  Bike racing is so much fun and I can't wait to get back at it!  However, I am also hoping to be able to ride in time to take an IMBA coaching certification course later this summer and be able to help coach at the Shine clinics; this would be great as far as my mission to get more ladies involved with and/or totally hooked on riding mountain bikes, and could be a great opportunity to work on other aspects of my involvement with bicycles.

   With that said, I'd like to send out a big THANK YOU!! to my team, our sponsors, and my family and all of the friends who have supported and encouraged me this season.  It's a great feeling to have so many people believe in what you can do, trying to chase your wildest dreams.  You all are awesome!!  Special thanks go to Kit for being so supportive of my nutty bike addiction, coming to far away races to cheer me on (and doing most of the driving) with hopes of a side trip climbing or a little pedaling somewhere in there.  And more recently, putting up with multiple nights of cooking dinner AND washing the dishes when I didn't feel good enough to get off the couch, all without complaining. I am so lucky!

   Shred on! Stay tuned for whatever happens when I can start really doing stuff, whenever that happens to be--hopefully soon because I'm going craaaazzzyyyy!

Ahhh, riding the roller coaster...

   As with any recovering injury, this one has had its ups and downs; it's been about 5 weeks since the initial concussion, and almost 3 since my concerted recovery effort began.  I have to keep reminding myself to take baby steps to progress, which is so hard when I just want to get on a bike and crank!  Thankfully things have been more on the up in the past week and I've been able to add a few activities like walking to the beach and driving places without headaches.  It has still been mentally trying, and at one point I fell into such a state of despair that I listed my DH bike for sale on Pinkbike and Craigslist so that I wouldn't think about riding it!  It narrowly escaped shipment to L.A. when I thought better of that crazy idea--though I probably won't be able to get a nice paddleboard without the extra cash--I think I would rather have the bike and not need to worry about finding a new one later this season.

   I still don't have a concurrence of answers from any doctor as to when I should/would be able to ride it, but if it is sometime late July-August that would be nice.  I've been referred to a specialist at the last doctor visit because he thinks some brain exercises might speed recovery a little, but am still waiting for the call to schedule an appointment.  At the very least I may be able to race in Mammoth in September so that's my goal for now unless the doctor tells me otherwise.  For now, per a friend's advice I am planning to stay off the bike more or less for another 3 weeks to give the brain a full 2 months of relative rest; then as I feel good enough, adding some easy road rides and eventually some mellow XC.

   The vegetable garden I started a couple of weeks ago is coming along nicely with some extremely happy squash and red runner beans, a lemon cucumber (YUM!!!), experimental Hopi blue corn, and some spindly little tomatoes that I'm hoping I've been watering the right amount.  Even though my mom has always had an amazing garden back home in Washington, I never felt like I got the green thumb and have been seemingly more adept at killing plants than raising a garden full of them.  On top of that the growing conditions in Tahoe are difficult, rather dry with mostly chilly nights and a short season.  Considering that, I'm quite pleased with how everything is coming along and only managed to lose one tomato seedling so far (knock on wood--I'm really hoping for those cucumbers).  It must be all the meaningful conversations I had with those happy sprouting plants...haha!

The vegetable garden, and happy hens.

    With Kit's ingenuity we designed a drip irrigation system out of an old hose, which makes watering so much easier and better for the plants.  Luckily I tested it first on the established ornamental garden and discovered a few things to make it better, like actually pointing the holes downward and only making holes after laying out the hose so that the water actually goes where the plants are.

  Of the major bike maintenance projects I have planned, I've only knocked one out so far: transferring a new rim onto the rear wheel of my cyclocross bike.  That wheel has had a dent in it for almost 4 years now, though I only remembered it when I went on a road ride, so it was largely ignored until last week when I was in desperate need of amusement.  That only took a few hours, to my disappointment, including truing to a pretty darn close state of round using the rear brake pad as a truing device.  Next up is the single speed conversion of my old Rocky Mountain hardtail, a relic from my XC racing days that is still clean and fun to ride, if not a tad scary because of its steep geometry.  That will be an excellent way to get some pedaling strength back into my legs.  Yes, I have a hard time not thinking about bikes, especially when I can't ride!

Here's a Pork Chop snoozing while I build a wheel, just for fun.

   I went to work today for a half day, and am hoping to do a full day tomorrow and get back to full time this week.  Hooray!  Hopefully this is the end of puttering aimlessly in the back yard debating whether or not to water the garden again, and hours of watching the "chicken channel" while throwing bits of food or pebbles into the pen to provoke an amusing reaction.  Not that I mind a day or 2 of those activities, but a week or more is just too much.  I'm getting antsy for some exercise too and hope to start swimming soon, but at least going to work might burn off some of that energy that's built up.  That's all for now!

Robyn learns how NOT to heal a concussion...

   I'll just preface this by saying that I'm going to be absolutely fine; no permanent damage done to my brain, just a whole pile of unnecessary headaches and more time off from having fun than I should have had.  I'm just so thankful that I didn't permanently mess myself up or need any trips to the hospital resulting in giant piles of medical bills.  However, I did learn the hard way (yet again) that rest means REST, not just going about my normal routine at a slower pace.  It's a difficult thing when there's no visible damage, like a broken bone, or a limb that won't work properly.  But come on, think about it, you only get one brain!

   No, I didn't crash on a super gnarly rock section or a giant gap jump... It was a trail I've ridden hundreds of times and a jump I've hit a majority of those times. Here is a video of myself sailing over the offending jump about 3 years ago:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=504142304377&l=5322191277022301628
It's not very big, there is no death gap, but it's a little scary because the landing is so steep and in between two trees.  I also haven't hit it very often in the past couple of years because it's really not all that fun and hard to get the right angle.  Whatever made me decide to try it that day I have no idea, and how I thought it was a good idea to not land back wheel first is another question.  Somehow I managed to hit the knuckle with my front wheel and go tumbling headfirst onto the pavement-hard landing at a fairly high speed.  I was a bit dazed but got right up and finished the trail, and actually made the good decision to quit riding for the day after that.

   I could have gone to the doctor, or asked around to see if any friends had advice on this matter, but I thought since I don't feel all that bad I can deal with it myself.  So this was my self-prescribed healing procedure for the last 2 weeks, it's no wonder it didn't work...

1.  Go home and cook dinner, go to bed a little early.  No puking or other crazy symptoms, just a headache and feeling tired.
2.  Get up at 6, feel pretty OK, eat breakfast and go to work as usual.  It's raining, so we drive around looking for mosquitoes for a little while and then go back to clean the office for the afternoon.
3.  Get up the next day feeling a little better, go to work again.  Still raining so it's another easy day without much walking.  Do some super mellow restorative yoga after work.
4.  Go to work, feeling great, hike around in the woods quite a bit.  So far so good.  After work is where I went totally wrong: I got home and felt so amazing  that I decided to go for a "little" cross country ride.   Without this I probably would have been feeling a lot better by the end of the week. But it had just rained for 2 days straight and the trails had to be soooooo good!  I couldn't ignore the devil on my shoulder telling me it will be just fine, go ride and have fun, so that's what I did.
5.  Get up the next morning and felt pretty bad,  head pounding worse than even the day after my crash, but still went to work.  Same with the next day, feeling slightly better.  It still would have been a good idea to take a couple of days off work.
6.  Kick around the house all weekend and try to do a little gardening.  Feeling better.
7.  Go back to work Monday, feel all right, repeat for the rest of the week.  Not feeling much improvement by any means but able to get things done.
8.  Make a trip with Kit up to Ashland to spend time with my parents over the weekend.  Feel all right so I go on a short road ride and feel not so good after, mostly tired.  Walking around the next day doesn't feel great either.  Nice job!
9.  Back to work on Monday, feeling kinda yucky by Wednesday.  Kit's friend freaks me out by mentioning brain bleeding; I leave work early and go to the urgent care center.

   The doctor tells me, not exactly in so many words, that I'm being a complete idiot and doing too much too soon, that's why I'm still feeling like crap.  Boy do I feel dumb because I had such an improvement in those first few days and that first bike ride definitely set me back a whole lot.  Imagine what I would feel like if I had just taken a few days off work and hung out in the house being mellow like I'm doing now?  In two and a half weeks I'm literally right back where I started and then back even a few more steps.

   As far as not letting myself recover properly, it's a nasty habit that I'm sure a few other athletes deal with who are not under direct supervision of a coach or other trainer.  It's something I've struggled with before, most notably with a strained psoas muscle that took 4 months to get mostly healed, and a sprained thumb that took me out for almost the whole summer in 2010.  Soft tissue injuries are a challenge too since they take so darn long to heal; it's hard to tell what state they're in without getting MRI scans which seem totally unnecessary for something as trivial as a thumb sprain.  I've learned this lesson the hard way so many times that I'm really hoping this is the last time, that I'm finally on the right track.  In the meantime I've gotten close to 24 hours of sleep in the last two days, and most of my waking time was lying in a dark room doing nothing, and I do feel much better.  Now I'm restless enough to not feel like sleeping any more, though I'm still moving slowly around the house and not feeling like doing laundry or other chores quite yet, and I'm feeling like it's safe to open the computer for a little bit and write something because it's been over a month since my last post.

      Apparently the few times I've conked my head but felt fine the next day also count as concussions, so the doctor asks me if I've considered swimming or stand up paddleboarding as alternate sports.  Of course he didn't have a definite answer as to when I might be able to ride a mountain bike, leading me to believe it might be quite a long time, and maybe not leaving the ground quite as much...there may be a switch to Enduro racing in my future or maybe even back to cyclocross, we shall see.  It's another life lesson to have things going along fine, having a great time and feeling really good about how the season is progressing, and then suddenly you're out of the game and considering what to do without something that's been such a major part of life for so long.  It doesn't sound like I will have to give up riding on the dirt entirely, but possibly for the summer and until next season.  Luckily there is a multitude of other fun things to do around here that aren't going fast down a hill on bikes.

   Anyhow, I'm going to go back to cuddling with the dog on the couch and contemplating the meaning of life, bicycles, and the hazards of riding downhill.  On a positive note, I may have an opportunity to get into some other neat adventures this summer that I've been wanting to do for a while that don't involve riding bikes.  But that's still a ways out, I have to make it to swimming first...

Sea Otter Redemption

   For one reason or another, the Sea Otter Classic downhill has been my nemesis for the past two years, but it seemed like this time could be different because I had already been riding bikes and racing for a couple of months.  Having an awesome team and sponsors for support made things so much easier too--thank you LBC and everyone else for making it the best Sea Otter experience I've had so far!  And thank you to my boyfriend Kit for letting me borrow both the van to camp in and your bike for the DH!

   I registered for the dual slalom as well as DH just for fun, not having raced a DS since collegiate nationals in 2008.  Lindsay found me a bike to borrow from Bicycle Fabrications, which was totally fun to ride, and its owner Brian even volunteered to push it up the hill for me between practice runs!  I felt pretty rusty but glad to have done a little BMX and a lot of pump track riding in the past year because that helped me not totally embarrass myself in the Pro class.  I definitely didn't beat any of the big names in qualifying, but wound up in 8th to make the finals only to go against crazy fast BMX Olympian Jill Kintner in the first round.  Oh well...it could be worse, at least I didn't crash and had a lot of fun launching the jumps at the bottom.  Also it was really cool to be in there with all those super fast ladies, and was really inspiring to watch the rest of the finals and see them shred.  It makes me wish there were a few more dual slalom courses around here to ride and race!

Waiting for dual slalom finals

    On Saturday before the dual slalom finals our sponsor Loaded Precision had a gathering with food and drinks at their booth, which was lots of fun to hang out at and meet some new folks, and introduce the team to everyone who dropped in.  Unfortunately for my east coast fundraising, the Yelo Velo booth was only open on Thursday and I'm not sure how much of a dent that will make in my plane ticket... If anybody who reads this can afford to put $5 or $10 toward my travel funds it would be greatly appreciated, find the Donate link on the right side of the page at http://shineridersco.com/?q=team.  That would help me get to the next 2 Pro GRT races back east and hopefully stay on top of the overall standings!

Over the hip on the DH course

   As for the downhill race on Sunday, I was having oodles of fun in practice and feeling good about the probability of a clean run.  I conquered some mental demons from last year by finally hitting the first big double at the top on Friday, which helped me clear the next few jumps successfully and made it that much easier to go fast.  The last step down at the bottom of the course had also given me trouble last year but this time it was going really well because I was able to get more speed to clear it.  Being on a smaller bike helped a ton as well; Kit's Yeti ASR-7 was a great ride that smoothed out the chatter bumps just enough but was still snappy to accelerate out of corners and clear the jumps.  There were a few parts of my race run that could have been faster, including the first corner on top, which I took a little slower after feeling really squirrelly in practice and barely cleared the next two jumps.  Hoping for a top-10 finish, I wound up in 13th out of 24 girls, a huge improvement over last year, and nipping at the heels of the World Cup fast ladies. There were 11 or 12 big names in the race and I just couldn't put together a fast enough run to beat any of them.  However my finish was good enough to keep me at #1 for the overall Pro GRT standings, just ahead of my hero Jackie Harmony.  Not bad for a borrowed bike and a late start to training for the season, but next year I sure won't need to be making excuses like this.  Either way it was the most fun I've had at Sea Otter yet and hope that there are many more to come because it's such a great event for meeting people and celebrating bicycles of all kinds. Now to figure out a way to get to the east coast for races #4 and #5 in the series so I can stay somewhere near the top of the standings--if I'm second to Jackie H in the end that's still pretty darn good!

More photos to be found here:
http://www.zazoosh.com/members/viewGallery/15745

Fontana race report

   After less than 2 weeks at home in Tahoe, we got back on the road to another race in Fontana, southern CA, the apparent smog capital of the US.  I expected a course more like Sea Otter than anything else, but was pleasantly surprised--ok, really surprised--to find a legitimately gnarly DH course.  Half of it, anyhow, because the gnarly part dropped straight down from the top in about 1 1/2 minutes and the rest was sprinting down "the Wall" to the finish.  Loose dirt and a long steep waterfall section toward the bottom was giving a lot of racers trouble, especially those winding up in the safety fence watching their bikes tumble down the cliff below.  I fortunately had only one minor crash there in practice after trying a new line and finding it was no good, then decided to stick with my original line after that.

Down the waterfall

   I rode the qualifying run on Saturday just like practice, a little on the safe side but clean, winding up in first by 30 seconds after the other 4 ladies crashed at least once.  None of the World Cup regulars were racing on the women's side, so the race was definitely up for grabs for any of us non-superhumans.  It felt good to be ahead but at the same time I was a little worried about my race run crashing habit.  Sunday morning I got up early for 2 practice runs, which felt great, and went back to chill at the van.  Following Jackie Harmony's advice after the Bootleg disaster my goal was to get good and warmed up and then keep moving up until I get in the gate.  This would supposedly reduce the massive adrenaline flood right when I start, and the subsequent spazz attack that makes me crash all over the place.  I probably looked like a goon jumping around in line for the start gate but it seemed to work, along with somehow convincing myself that it was another practice run.  I may have been too far on the slow side but it still worked!  I cruised through the upper section, crossed the road, went into the last technical part before the wall and got caught behind the girl who started two places ahead of me.  Finally enough room to pass at the wall and I sprinted my brains out, coming in 5 seconds ahead of Jackie Swider in second place and 15 ahead of Amber Price in third. For sure there was room to go faster, but I was just so sick of trying too hard and wadding up that I almost didn't care if I won, I just wanted a good clean run with no dumb mistakes.  I got lucky and my strategy wound up working anyway, but there's still tons of room for improvement, since downhill racing is not exactly about going slow and I know I'm capable of riding a bike pretty darn fast sometimes!  I also hope next time they do 1-minute intervals for the pro women too, not just the men, since there was a pile up in the waterfall involving both of the girls just ahead of me and neither of them were too happy about being involved in it.  At this level of racing to have your run screwed up by catching people is no joke, and with the small number of women racing it would only add a few extra minutes.

Wahoo! So stoked!

    I'm super excited this season to sport the Kali Protectives Avatar 2 helmet, the lightest full face lid I've ever worn, and comfy new Smith goggles that do exactly what they should--pretend they don't exist while keeping the gnar out of your eyes. They even came with extra mirrored lenses which are great for courses like Fontana and Bootleg that are out in the relentless bright sun.  Hanging around the 5.10 tent landed me a pair of last year's demo Karvers, a women's specific flat pedal shoe that is miles better than the too-big Freeriders I had been wearing the past couple of seasons. We haven't gotten our new 2013 Loeka kits yet, hopefully that will happen at Sea Otter, but I am becoming a huge fan of the all-mountain Ozust shorts for breathability on warm days of DH riding. It's so nice to not be wearing dude's riding clothes or obnoxious racer-geek outfits... and it's safe to say, without the support of Lindsay Beth Currier and Shine Riders Co that I would likely not be considering the prospect of racing the east coast Pro GRTs this year either.  Thank you SO much to everyone who is going to make this season the best one ever!!
  

Bell Built Trail Grants!

The Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association needs your vote to help get a $3,000 grant! Then they can finish building all the proposed features on South Lake Tahoe's Corral Trail (jumps, berms, hips, tables, rock features). Once complete, the Corral Trail will be a model for how trails with mountain bike features can legally be built on United States Forest Service lands.

Follow this link to Submit Your Vote - Click "Flow Trail Projects" then "South Lake Tahoe Corral Trail": https://www.facebook.com/BellBikeHelmets/app_228716427271717

Watch a Video About the Project: http://youtu.be/rbH4RhKRtag

Race #1 in the bag, it can only get better from here!

   It seems like my first race every season tends to be a bit of a mess in one way or another.  I felt much more prepared than previous years but that didn't seem to change the outcome, though it may have kept me from finishing dead last.  For better or worse, it's out of the way, and the only bad part, actually, was the top half of my race run and the 2 crashes it contained.  Otherwise I had a blast meeting some new people, getting to know others a little better, and spending time with rad people camping in the desert.  Not to mention riding bikes--yes, that's the best part!

   On Friday I was able to tag along for a walk down the course with reigning national champ Jackie Harmony and scope out the best lines.  At first I was doubtful of the gnarly "Kevorkian" trail us pros were routed down, but as it turns out, it's a whole lot easier to ride a bike down some things than walk them!  I wound up having a blast just practicing and might have ridden more if it didn't get so darn hot out there in the sun.  Coming from the mountains down to the desert was about a 30 degree temp difference so 80 degrees felt like you're in an oven!

Hanging out in the shade

   Saturday's practice was uneventful, feeling smooth through all the techy stuff and finally getting a new line I'd been trying for unsuccessfully on Friday.  Seeding runs started at 3 and we gathered at the top of the mountain to prepare for takeoff.  I was third to go off, a little worried about catching the girl ahead of me, but was surprised to see her off to the side after only the first turn on the course.  Felt smooth and relaxed all the way to the off-camber traverse through some rocks and then realized that my bike felt a little too squishy...uh oh...flat tire! Bummer! I walked over to the steep rocky section to watch the pro men qualify, feeling gypped out of a great timed practice run and annoyed that I'd have to walk an otherwise perfectly good bike 2/3 of the way down the entire mountain.  Fortunately I wasn't injured like Lauren, the girl who went just ahead of me; she wound up with a sprained knee and decided to let it rest instead of racing on Sunday.

   Race day I took just one practice run and felt good about it, so I went back to the van to relax and keep hydrated.  Some races there would be something I'd be freaking out about a little, but no particular part of the course was that worrying to me at this point, which I took to be a good sign.  Just had to remember to slow down and take it easy in the upper part of the course, since that's where a mistake could really cost some time... Alas, I was unable to keep that in my head when I left the starting gate like a bat out of hell.  First 4 turns were good and then things went wonky when I got off my line trying to go too fast through the off-camber section, and wiped out on my left side.  I don't think anybody else crashed there at all--maybe some cat-2's?  Silly me.  I picked my bike up and hurried on down the course, and made it not very far to the slightly technical crossover to the more gnarly part of the course.  There I forgot to pull up when my front wheel found a big rock, and went OTB, quite spectacularly according to Kit and our friends watching across the way.  My bike tumbled down the hill a ways, so I had to retrieve it and scramble through the loose rocks back up to the trail to keep going.  Still uninjured, thanks to my habit of wearing full armor, I pulled myself together and stayed on the bike through the rest of the run.  Carefully picked my way down the steep Kevorkian chute, around some narrow sidehill sections, and then cranked as hard as possible down the remainder to the finish.  My time was not spectacular, but considering all the extracurricular adventures my bike took, I think 7th place out of 10 wasn't all that bad.  Of course a podium finish would have been better, and quite within reach without the second crash, but that's downhill racing for you!
   Jackie won by a huge margin, almost a minute over second place, and everyone else was scattered in the 1-1.5 minute range behind her. Wow--I want to be like her when I grow up!  Teammates Allison and Lindsay were 2nd and 3rd in their Cat-1 age groups, and my friend Gretchen won hers, so she'll hopefully be joining me in Pro after the Fontana Pro GRT! Results

Race run down Kevorkian

   Now, I just need to figure out how to eliminate my problem of crashing only in race runs--after a whole season of the same thing last year it's starting to get really old!

More photos here: Exposed Imagery

   Another highlight of the trip was our stop in Bishop on the way home for some climbing at the Owens River Gorge, a favorite winter spot that somehow we hadn't gotten to at all this winter.  We forgot the guidebook in the van but remembered a few classics that kept us entertained for an afternoon.   I missed that place so much!  We had brought skis along planning to hit some fun lines in the Mammoth area as well, but the weather didn't want to cooperate, with a small storm blowing in to ruin our spring skiing and not predicted to leave much snow.  Oh well...back to the lake to prep for my team's fundraiser this weekend and another road trip to race in so cal next week!