SKINourishment p/b Paceline Projects focuses on the National Criterium Calendar and hopes to give aspiring riders the opportunity to gain experience and exposure at the professional level in the US.
Last weekend, Matt and I journeyed to Jackson, WY to continue my race season prep via ski racing. Saturday morning we took a bus to the ski trails to compete in the 30K Moose Chase. Appropriately named, moose were sighted on the trails during the race! We did a little blind wax testing, namely Matt waxed one ski differently than my other ski, and I told him which was faster. Then we re-waxed our skis before the start (read: upper body warm-up.) My Caldwell Sport picked skis were fast, as I started the race in the lead. Unfortunately, I had a little mishap with the snow on the first lap and lost a bit of time, falling back to about 4th or 5th place. I worked hard to catch back up to two women in front of me on the second lap. Trying to recover from this was incredibly tough. This race was hard, lots of short steep climbs and some longer gradual ones too. Half way through the second lap I attacked. I put some distance between the other women and myself, but there was still one woman ahead of us, completely out of sight. It's a little frightening to attack when you are already suffering. I was worried I was going to get caught, blow up, and be left on the trails hanging out with the moose. Doubts aside, I kept at it and maintained my position into the finish, coming in 2nd place! Total body pain fest, but at least these ski races feed you cookies afterwards to cheer your body up. We enjoyed a nice lunch in Jackson with the Layec and Pardyjak families before heading back to UT.
My super sweet new belt buckle!
Thankfully the weather and air quality was reasonable last week, so after a nice block of intensity with the racing in WY, I went for my first outdoor ride since last fall! Wow. It was awesome. I rode to Tiffany Pezzulo's homestead and embarked on the longest ride I've done in quite a while with Tiffany, her husband Steve, and their friend Justin. Great company, some fun snow and ice riding through the airport's bike path, and a delightful and yummy stop at the Tulie Bakery (my new favorite SLC establishment) for some pastries of the serious variety. Like seriously legit. Even our French friends say its good. That could mean good for the US... but whatever I'm still VERY excited about this SLC discovery. Total ride time was over 3 hours with some nice intervals on the way home = a tired Kat.
The Veloforma gets to play outside!
Freakin sweet chain lube! Coconut scented!
Freezing Ogden Race- rocking the Gnar lube jacket
I was hoping to continue riding outside, but the snow has been falling consistently for days now. So, back to skiing! We drove up to Park City, for the last race of the Wasatch Citizens Series at White Pine yesterday. Just as we were about to start, the storm blew in pelting us with snow, stinging the face, and making for zero visibility. Literally, it was hard to see the trail a few feet in front of me for the first 7K of the 20K race. The snow and wind eased up a bit on the second lap and the skiing got a little bit faster. Heading to the finish, a man racing in a red suit was taking himself way too seriously and started yelling at me to "get out of the way and let us race!" Hmm, not sure if he thought I was wearing a bib number just for the heck of it or because I was a women I was super slow and maybe my race didn't matter? Since I was also racing, for the podium I might add, I made it my mission to catch him and beat him in the sprint. Here's a video of the finish...I came close but totally cracked....
*Video coming soon...
Ended up in 2nd place!
Next ski race is the West Yellowstone Rendezvous and then the bike season starts! Wahoo!
I was admittedly confused after seeing this header from Southwest pop up in my in-box. What trip! I'm not going anywhere soon...
Ah ha...Phoenix. Right, the bike race. That's soon? Oh sh*t, that is really soon! Whitney and I officially start our season in less than a month! *Momentary Panic*
Even though we've been getting quite a bit of snow, and some delightful pollution in between, I've been lucky to have a super stellar coach in Steve Weller. You can check out his website here http://www.belllapcoaching.com/ He's a rock star and and keeps me fit and sane during the winter months. Riding hours upon hours on the rollers was doable for me a couple years back, but not anymore. Life is too busy with class and work...and quite frankly riding inside longer than an hour is depressing and/or maddening. Our solution: a whole lot of skating and racing! With some obligatory roller time here and there. :)
So, that's how we've been preparing for this upcoming season and it's been super rad. Ski racing...so much fun and breathtaking. Both due to the scenery and its ability to absolutely destroy you. Last weekend, Matt and I began the drive to Sun Valley, ID for the Boulder Mountain Tour which also happened to be the AXCS National Masters Championship. About an hour before we arrived late Friday night we received a message from our hotel informing us they were cancelling our reservation due to room damage. Not a huge deal, right? We'll find another hotel. Wrong, Sun Valley was packed and there weren't rooms left. Then came Hannes Thum to the rescue. While at times it's been unclear whether that Big Green education has really come in handy during job interviews and the like, it certainly has connected us with some great folks. Hannes took us in and what had been shaping up to be a bad luck kinda weekend, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Matt and I had a blast getting to know him. In preparation for the race, Hannes read us inspirational excerpts from the 1939 edition of Skiing by Walter Prager before bed and then again in the morning before we jumped on the bus to drive us to the start of the race.
From the ski trail
The Boulder Mountain Tour is a point to point race, starting at the Galena Lodge and following the Harriman 32K to the finish. I started in the Elite Women's field and was stoked to feel a little less like a poser and a little more legit with my Caldwell Sports race suit on and my super fast skis (waxed thanks to Matt). While my "starts" are still a bit rough around the edges and I always loose some ground right off the bat, the race started out well and I was able to make my way into a good group and worked to catch some folks who fell off the first split over the course of the race. The course is fun, tons of cheering and cowbell usage, winding roller coaster like trails, some short uphill efforts, and lots of smooth fast descending especially if you are even remotely close to nailing the wax for the day. Which Matt did. I was in a decent size group coming into the finish and those racing instincts just get going. At the 1K to go sign, I attacked my group and maintained the gap to the finish. Turns out I managed a 17th! Not too shabby for a "cyclist." I was pretty excited about breaking into the top 20. Much better than the 100th or so place finish of two years ago. All that Caldwell Sport training with Amy is working wonders. To top it off, I got some sweet bling for my 3rd place overall in my age category for Master's Nationals. I guess I'm a master's racer now? Not sure how that all works but I'll take it.
Rocking the Caldwell Sport Masters Ski Team suit! Pretty happy about the race and equally psyched about the delicious cookies they have for the racers at the finish. Yum!
Short video from the race here:
Huge thanks to the Boulder Mountain Tour for putting on a great event, the Dartmouth Connection and Hannes Thum for his generosity and company, Matt Rossman for waxing my skis with the good wax, and Caldwell Sport http://www.caldwellsport.com/for fast skis and kicking my butt every time I ski with them. Good training for sure. Next race: Jackson WY!
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