Mountain, Cross and Shuffleboard Nats

[pixychick]

Yesterday was my appointment in the city with the specialist. On my last visit six months ago, there had been some changes in the cysts, an unclear mass and some fluid. I went into yesterdays appointment trying to stay positive but not in total denial, as I realize eventually I may need to have them out. I knew there was a 6 week recovery for that procedure which could make racing nationals in July a problem. It was a nice surprise when I found out that the cysts were actually smaller and things looked much better. I have no idea why this happened, but I am cleared for another 6 months. I can't tell you how excited I am. I went home and purchased my USA Cycling license.

I can't say that I have been feeling great on the bike this week, but I am feeling great about having my health right now. I hope to get down to Bear Creek and do their series race in a few weeks. I have no expectations other than to check out the new course and try to transition myself back into a racing mentality for just a month or so and see how it goes. I feel like so much has changed since I raced last, so I am trying not to set any expectations. I feel kind of slow when I am out riding all the time. I know I am getting older, but I also realize that I ride with some fast people, and many others are on e-bikes now and maybe I should not just compare to them. I should just set my goals for me and leave it at that.

 

[Frank]

Happy to hear the good news!!! Keep on top of it though. I would suggest a better diet, but I would be preaching to the choir. I wish you nothing but the best.

 

[pixychick]

Yes, keeping a clean diet is good for racing as well as keeping good health. I do try to make the right lifestyle choices, but sometimes it is hard to navigate what is actually good to eat. These days I try to avoid processed foods and eat mostly organic vegetables, but also eat grains and chicken. While I had stopped eating meat for a while, my low iron levels have me back on small amounts of meat. I also have added in salmon for omega 3's and yogurt for probiotic. I like wine and ice cream. Ice cream I only eat now and then and a very small portion, but wine may be my weakness.

 

[Frank]

Yes, keeping a clean diet is good for racing as well as keeping good health. I do try to make the right lifestyle choices, but sometimes it is hard to navigate what is actually good to eat. These days I try to avoid processed foods and eat mostly organic vegetables, but also eat grains and chicken. While I had stopped eating meat for a while, my low iron levels have me back on small amounts of meat. I also have added in salmon for omega 3's and yogurt for probiotic. I like wine and ice cream. Ice cream I only eat now and then and a very small portion, but wine may be my weakness.

We get all our meat from Butcher Box or US Wellness meats. So I still eat chicken, pork, and beef but it’s all farm/grass raised and with no antibiotics or other chemicals. Everything else is organic or it does not get into the house.

 

[pixychick]

Today's ride was awesome! We went to Sterling with friends and conditions were perfect. I really enjoyed myself. This place can be so much fun, and when I got to the power line I spotted some laurel just starting to bud out. The next few weeks should be beautiful as they start to bloom. It may be 3 weeks for the laurel in the woods yet.

 

[pixychick]

The woods here are amazing this time of year, but I have been having trouble getting motivated to take pictures. I got some today. Also the pond behind my house has been wonderful. The blue heron is out there most days and yesterday I spotted baby wood ducks. It looked like a family of seven little ones with mom. They were out there almost all day. There are also more wood duck couples around most days, so more babies soon. They have two broods a year. Hopefully many more to come.

Art and I are getting ready to start up Ringwood Trail work soon. We have some more to finish from last years project and then plan to do some maintenance on existing trails. In the mean time, Art has been working over at Sterling a few days a week trying to help those guys get that Redback trail open. I have been riding and feeling great on the bike. My practice race at Bear Creek is a little over a week away. I am looking forward to it.

 

[pixychick]

Weather has been fantastic! On my last trip into Sterling I spotted lots of laurel blooming. The next few weeks will be magical.

The pond behind our house has been great too. The heron caught two fish last night. The first one was almost 9 inches long. He beat that thing for 5 minutes before he could attempt a safe swallow. He also needed to dip it in water several times to wet it enough to get it to slide down. It was quite impressive. The next fish he caught was over a foot long. I think he gave up on getting that one down. Maybe he will catch that one again tonight.

I took a trip down to Bear Creek today to ride the national's course. The course has some of the old stuff in and some cut out, as well as some added berms. They still have the heckle area in and it was still pretty gnarly. I got some good adrenaline going seeing that again. I have gotten older and a little more mellow and when I encounter those sort of spots, I often get off nowadays. So this whole race thing may be good to give me incentive to pony up and ride some stuff. Most of this stuff is not over my head. I just need some confidence. The lap seemed a tad long compared to the lap counts and allotted time frame. I hope to do the practice race next weekend, and I will not ride the day before in case it is a long race.

 

[pixychick]

Laurel looking good in Sterling. I also saw 3 scarlet tanagers.

 

[pixychick]

Bear Creek race report:

It has been 5 years since I have done all the race prep stuff, but I tried to stick to a plan. I did not get on to warm up too soon, but kept it short and more high cadence spinning than mashing. I felt great off the start, and I did not need to over extend myself to stay near the front. The 50+ ladies were mixed with younger Cat 2's at the start which was great for motivation across the board. I never went too crazy and kept real steady. I had multiple chances to practice passing slower racers and dial in any lines while on course. I did pick up a stick on one pass and got it stuck in my rotor. That maybe took 30 seconds tops to figure out and rectify, but I needed to re-pass several riders in tight single-track afterwards. ...all good practice.

Near the end of my second lap I started to notice cramps starting. First the feet and then the calves. This was not good as I had another lap to do. I started to soft pedal and finished my electrolyte bottle. When it got steep or choppy, I could feel the cramps coming. I kept pounding water, but had no more drink mix. I did the whole climb soft pedaling. I thought I was good to go for the downhill but when I got halfway into the heckle zone, both my quads went into cramp. I had to put my feet down and luckily in a few seconds the cramps stopped. I walked a few spots, but was able to get back on and ride the last rocky section and then to the finish. Even though my last lap was 5 minutes slower, I held my place in the race. Nice to see so many kids out there racing too!

I may need to look into a stronger electrolyte. Also, I had golden milk the night before the race and after researching on the way home, Golden milk has Ashwagandha in it and Ashwagandha may be a diuretic. I will need to eliminate that drink before a race. I like it because it helps me sleep , but it could make the cramping worse. I am glad I did this race so I can try to figure out the cramping before I go to nationals.