Awesome riding in SLC for the past week or so!  Great ride up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton today.     Bumped into a friend on the way up the climb.  He had just finished running from the base of the canyon to the ski resort and was on his way back down.  I was starting to tire at this point in the ride, and was a little sore from last night's yoga class (entire class was in Spanish-loved it!), so I needed a little inspiration.  Downed a Honey Stinger waffle (stellar by the way) and then rode the climb 5 more times.  

Realizing I lost ALL of my extra layers of clothing from my back pockets
on the windy ride up the canyon...huh.

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Just making sure my readers are paying attention!  6 times up the BC would be crazy.  Did toughen up for the remainder of the ride though.  Nothing like a good waffle.

 

Winter's grip on Salt Lake is loosening...

Greetings from Salt Lake City, UT!  It's been a long winter of indoor workouts on the rollers spiced up with some Avenues Yoga classes, many hours logged on the skis, and a bit of ski racing to boot.  Although we didn't get quite as much snow as we would have liked here in Salt Lake, we are lucky to be fairly close to Ketchum, ID and West Yellowstone, MT two of my favorite places to ski.  It just so happens they got quite a bit of snow.  

Spent many weekends in MT this winter skiing and racing.  Note the height of the snowbanks.  While this may be low by their standards, I was impressed.

Skating in Idaho post Boulder Mtn Tour

We've been fortunate to experience (mostly) good weather and warm temps for the past two weeks which means the skis AND the rollers have been locked away and the bike racing season is just around the corner.   Above you'll find a short clip of my last ski of the season in VT.  After a red-eye flight, empty stomach, and painfully slow ski through slush, my dark, overly aggressive, brooding New England self defeated my newly cultivated "all this sunshine and western big mountain sweetness makes me so happy I want to buy a cowgirl hat" disposition.  Let's just say I was relieved to get back to the car...and interpreted this as the world's sign that the off-season was officially over. 

Time to return my complete focus to the bike! 

Beating Up on the Guys

Fort Collins has had some unusually warm weather lately. After months and months of trainer rides at night and wintry weekend rides, it has been incredible to go train outside in just bibs and a jersey. My poor, ghostly white skin sadly matches my half-white kit right now, but that is something I'm working on, one ride at a time. This past weekend I did the Oval Ride again (see previous post about the Oval Ride course). The numbers that showed up were pretty small- maybe around 30 to start, instead of the usual 60 or so (there were some other races going on, plus CSU's spring break). Maybe the pace was more consistent than usual or just the warm weather made me happy, but I felt amazing the bike and was able to heavily participate in this "race ride." Somehow, I ended up completing the hilly 87 mile ride in just over 4 hours. No other women were on the Oval Ride which is pretty normal, but it was fun to feel good and be able to put the hurt on the guys.

Sunday was also great training. I just rode up Rist Canyon to try to avoid some of the crazy wind we had but ended up with quite the heavy winds coming home around through Masonville. You can't really complain though when you get to coast the final 5 miles home going 30 mph due to a big tailwind :)

If you look closely, you can see the white caps on Horsetooth Reservoir. It was THAT windy.

This week is pretty normal training with more race intervals, except I get to do them outside due to the time change. We all know this girl needs her Vitamin D. 'Nuf said. This weekend I'll be heading to Grand Junction, Colorado, to ride and help out the CSU collegiate team with the collegiate race there. I haven't been out there before, so the change of scene will be nice, plus it should be almost 80 degrees there!

Hello From Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma!

Once upon summer 2011, Kat Carr and Whitney Schultz, two individual racers were set up by chance to house together at Joe Martin Stage Race. Kat stalked Whitney online to see what team she was associated with and found she was based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Kat had just moved to Salt Lake City. Realizing travel paths crossed, she suggested carpooling to Joe Martin together.  When Whitney agreed and suggested continuing the road trip for another week or so to include Tour de Grove in MO, Kat was confident that traveling with this stranger was going to work out pretty well.  They met in a shady Denver park and ride, Whitney didn't bat an eye when Kat appeared with only a bike, small backpack, and cake for the 2.5 week journey, and Kat was impressed with the puzzle that was Whitney's car. The trip was a success and they ended up traveling to many more races together that summer. By the end of the season, they decided to form a small women's elite program with the hopes of growing it into a legit women's program both at a local and national level. While the program is still in it's baby-development stage as far as size, Kat and Whitney are ready to go for 2012 . *Enter Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma!*

We are very excited to have such incredible companies and sponsors on board for 2012 and are excited to grow these relationships and create new ones for future seasons. You can find our sponsors to the right with links to their websites- please check out these great companies!  All of our sponsors have been incredibly enthusiastic about our program and women's racing!  Stay tuned, as we will be featuring our various sponsors in blog posts starting next week. If there is anything in particular you'd like to see us feature or post, please do get in touch. Our contact information can be found to the right in our bios, or you can comment on our post.

We'll be officially kicking off our season with Speedweek, a National Criterium Calendar event in April, but will be posting about all other racing prior to then, so be on the lookout! (You can find our team schedule listed to the right.)

One last extraordinary item to leave you with...Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma 2012 Jersey. We are very thankful to Jett Development Group for their sponsorship and production of our kits this year.  Also, a special thank you to graphic designer Chris Hall for his assistance!

Whitney Kicks Off 2012 with Podium Finish at Stazio Crit

Sunday was a nice kick-off to the 2012 season with the local Stazio Crit in Boulder. I went out with the CSU team at 5:40 am for my 2:30pm crit (hello car-nap). It was a little drizzly and chilly to start but I was happy for the weather to warm up and be in the mid-60s for my race (oh and quite windy!). And, man, I felt pretty good! There were probably about 40 women there, which was a great showing for the kick-off race around these parts. The course had about a 300 meter hill, a slightly longer descent, and two long flat but windy sections. 


Someone pushed the pace from the beginning, but no real attacks. About 10 minutes in, two ladies went off the front and people started to chase. When they were about 5 seconds up, I bridged and went on by them (they were going to get caught soon at that pace). A couple laps later it was Casey Clark, Kori Seehafer and me. We kept a high tempo until the gap widened to over a minute. Unfortunately, I fell off with about 4 to go but somehow magically kept the gap between 5 and 10 seconds from those two and finished 3rd. It was a little bit of a bummer falling off, but I had exceeded my max efforts for the day (just started hard intervals this week!). Another month of good race-like intervals and some more training races and I should be flying for Speedweek, our team kick-off race! 

First Sunburn of the Year

This weekend finally felt like spring in Fort Collins. With spring comes warmer weather, along with some pretty crazy winds! After my 24th birthday celebration Friday, I missed the usual Oval Ride on Saturday. Instead, I opted for an almost 4-hour mountain bike ride with my boyfriend, Zack. The nice thing about having a fast Cat 1 for a boyfriend is he'll always push me on rides when I need it and take my ride to the next level. We rode Pine Ridge and hopped on the road up Harmony Hill and over to Blue Sky, journeying all the way to Devil's Backbone. Man, Devil's Backbone is quite rocky. I have no shame: I'm a self-professed roadie. My MTBing skills, although improving, are way sub-par. My interest in Devil's Backbone quickly faded, although the views were incredible. I found a lot of success on Blue Sky this time around and finally finished a MTB ride very happy and satisfied (I often get grumpy and discouraged by the end).

Sunday was on the road. We hit a high in the 60s! That meant my pale, white legs were exposed to the sun for the first time in months. Being a pale redhead, you bet I got a pretty awful sunburn! The journey was incredible. Zack and I rode up Poudre Canyon to Stove Prairie, over to Carter Lake through the valleys, and back through Loveland. The first half was well into my tempo zone and had thousands of feet of climbing, so I was pretty toast by the end of the 5 hour ride. It was an amazing weekend of riding and training and makes me even more anxious for spring.

My training is now shifting to prepare for racing. "Power" strength training, shorter and more intense intervals, and some racing! I have my first local race this weekend in Boulder: the CU crit. I'm really looking forward to seeing where my fitness is. It's a bit misleading just riding with the guys all the time!