Nimby 50

Okay, my weekend wasn't quite as spectacular as Ryder's (YAAAAAAA!!!!!!), but I still had an amazing weekend of riding/racing some amazing trails with some amazing people in some amazing weather...it was all around an amazing weekend!!  Pemberton, BC played host to the Nimby 50....which is actually is only 37km but is called 50 because it really does feel like 50....or even more!  Easily the hardest, most demanding mountain bike course that I think I've ridden in a long time....and I thought I was in shape :-)

Typical neutral start with 400 mountain bikers on the road is guaranteed to be sketchy.  Once the neutral car peeled out of the way, we hammered up a steep long gravel road...everyone trying to be first into the first section of singletrack.  That first section of singletrack ended up being a lot farther up that road then I was expecting and was really uncomfortable by the time we hit it.  Working on intensity is on my list of things to do (starting today with 9 nasty intervals...thanks Bill Fry...I really was serious about wanting you to push me all the way home).

Quick rough decent popped us out on a gravel road and our last little bit of repreive for almost the entire rest of the course....yes, already done all the easy parts.  Next up, 11 km and 101 switchbacks up Big Nimby.  Nothing super steep or technical, but just constant elevation gain getting slightly harder as you go up and as you get more tired and as you loose more and more oxygen due to altitude...Yes, I am so using that one!!!

Catherine Pendral was no where to be seen, but Brandi Heistermann was just one switchback up from me the whole way up Big Nimby.  I was really proud of myself for putting the pressure on a climber during a climb :-)  But I really started to feel the effort near the top and had to take a little moment to myself....and I lost contact with Brandi.  Out of the switchbacks we hit some really fresh fast loamy singletrack, then a little more climbing and into the Red Bull DownTime.  I was really excited about this section, a race within a race, your clock starts at the top of the trail and stops at the bottom.....awesome.  But riding this trial blind was extremely difficult and it really wasn't pretty.  Keeping it upright and my rear wheel behind me on some of the rock slabs was interesting....but somehow I managed to pull off a 3rd place time on the DownTime.

DownTime podium with local downhill superstar taking the win and World Champ on her 5 and 5 inch bike in second (I was really jealous of this on the downhill, but glad I wasn't the one hauling it up the climbs)

By the time I popped out of DownTime I was more then excited to start climbing again because I couldn't feel my arms or my eyeballs for that matter.  Through the feedzone and up into the steep technical climbing half of the course and I soon lost that enthusiasm for climbing...haha.  This short little loop near the end of the race was just about the end of me.  Catherine's husband Keith came up behind me just before the last singletrack..."Wendy is about 2 mins behind you!"....Me "10 mins???"....Keith "NO 2 mins!"....Me "S&$t!!!!".  Hit the gravel road at the bottom and quickly hit the pavement back to the finish.  3km of by myself on the road trying to get as small as I possibly could and hammer as hard as I could...OUCH!

Brandi was able to smell blood when Catherine flatted and pounced taking the win.  

Thanks ladies for the awesome race.  Thanks Pemberton and the Nimby 50 organizers for the awesome race and the 27 degrees.  Thank you Pony Espresso for the amazing post race burger!  Thank you Regan Pringle for teching out my rig and for the awesome weekend.  So proud of your finish!

Regan's post ride dust 

This weekend.....Bastion Crit :-0

Lots and lots and lots of fun goings ons....but this work thing is really getting in the way of my blog life!!  Well, in the way of life in general.  Tough trying to switch my brain to office work while the weather finally changes to HOT summer weather.

Last weekend Regan and I did the triple mountain ride of Duncan in I'm thinking near 30 degree heat, it was fantastic!!  5 and a half hours of mountain bike saddle time on some of the funnest trails around!  Good thing we finished with the familiar Tzou trails because we were really gooned coming down the last trails of the day!  Thanks Trevor for some locals knowledge to cap off the day :-)  Great TR and Furious3 training.

What am I getting myself into!!!??!!

This past weekend I did my first road race in I honestly can't remember how many years!!  And a Crit race to boot.  I just got a road cat added to my race license in time for this race, doing Bastion Crit in 2 weekends so I figured it would be a really good idea to get my Crit legs back under me.  5 women and 18 men??  and it was a fast race from the start....even the neutral lap was hard!  I sat behind the biggest guy I could find for the first 5 mins and really didn't think I was going to be able to maintain that effort for 50 more mins.  I don't think the pace ever really settled down very much, but I managed to hang on, only getting hit and really sideways in the air once (cleaning my chamois after that one), wheels sliding around the wet corners, and found myself in a really great position coming out of the final corner into the finish sprint.  I tell you, if I had a really really really good sprint I could have been a contender for a podium spot!  I was just squeaked out of the top 10 with a 12th position overall and first women!!  Yippee...I'm back :-)

 

All photos from reganpringleshoots

Thank you Regan and Trek Pro City for my awesome pink flamed Madone!  My new Sidi S-Pro road shoes are amazing, crazy how much of a difference carbon road shoes makes :-)

Getting ready for Nimby 50 this weekend .... Summer of Fun !!

Sistas Sprints

Harbour Road Sprints (May 4th, 2012) from Ninja Racing on Vimeo.

Survived my first week of work as a so called 'big girl'....I miss my bum life already!!!  Okay, it's not that bad, but it's definitely going to take some getting used to.  But I did manage to pull off a 17 hour training week, no too shabby.  Work will be my recovery time :-)  Lots of after work riding Regan!!  Get ready

Post Monster Drag
photo by Stuckylife

Started my work week off recovering from a wicked 150 km with the Stuckylife crew on Sunday....first time over 140km.  It was supposed to be the triple ferry ride, but we cut out the first ferry and just went up and over the Malahat (first time this season).  I have to admit that I actually really enjoy this climb, actually to tell you the truth I'm starting to enjoy climbing!  Crazy!!  Dragged up and over the Malahat by super strong Dan Leonard, thank you for letting me grab your wheel this week unlike the Monster Drag last weekend where I sat 20ft away for the entire 20 mins.  Awesome little coffee and apple strudel in Cowichan Bay, then boogied on over to Crofton to grab the ferry over to SaltSpring Island.  Loved watching but did not partake in, the 4 up downhill sprint into Crofton!

Coffee while waiting for the ferry in Crofton

Took the long loop around SaltSpring from Vesuvius to Fulford Harbour.  Managed to hang with Parker and Jon who where for lack of a better term, hammering, for a little before I dropped off to ride a much more civilized quick pace with Clay and Haldor.  Making it to Fulford with about 45 mins till the ferry, we all chowed down on burritos and chocolatey goodness from the bakery there.  Totally lucked out with the weather, riding literally around the rain, and actually had some nice warm sun while on SaltSpring.

Once back on the Penninsula it was an easy straight shot back into town on the Lochside trail....I was loving the flat trail at this point.  Hammering out 150 very hilly km (almost 2000m climbing) in under 6 hours, but ended up being almost 9 hours in the chamois.  I'm thinking if I'm going to be doing more of these I need a nicer chamois.  Thank you boyz for letting me tag along, that was a fantastic day!!!

Thursday night I decided I needed to punish body again and geared up with Regan for my first post work TNR!  With really gnarly crappy weather all day, it ended up being an amazing evening ride, even stripping down to bare arms for the first time this season.  22 guys made for a mellow but rather exciting mountain bike ride.  5 flats (one was mine), one broken handlebar (with the best ghetto fix....and Thor actually decided to finish the ride despite multiple exit points.....and decided to compete for the sprint!!!), one broken chain, and one mystery mechanical that caused John Taylor to be thrown from his bike on the road like he was smacked with a 2X4.  Despite all of this it turned out to be a really fun challenging ride.

photo by Dave McLellan

My flat was the last one of the day, exiting the last section of single track....no pressure changing my flat in front of 22 dudes!  It did give me the advantage of putting as much pressure as I could in my tire for the road sprint home....hehe.  The group stayed together for most of the race back in, feeling sometimes that I have to somewhat prove myself to these men, I did a big pull into the bridge sprint (I even saw 40km/h) only to blow to the moon and have everyone leave me in the dust on the bridge...lol.  Thanks again guys for letting me tag along :-)

photo by Dave McLellan

Friday night was a great ride with the Sistas....wow, lots of group rides this week....followed by some Harbour Road drag sprints.  Thanks Jenn and Sylvia for the races!  And a delicious PIG supper!  BEST pulled pork place!!

4 hours of riding on Saturday with a 30 min swim...so happy my shoulder is finally feeling better!  Left Regan and I with a Mt Tzouhalem date on Sunday.  A great day in the sun exploring and getting lost and yes, riding with out leg and arm warmers!!  Summer is coming.  Absolutely loving my Trek Superfly 100 now that Regan put all my XTR from last year on it!  Big girl wheels ladies, watch out!!  Followed by a great Sunday afternoon Tea with Sylvia and the girls....lots of cakes and goodies....and laughing at the chickens.


 Thanks for cooking me supper tonight Regan!  Now recovery for next weeks adventures!

Bacon Jam

Haha, yes this is Bacon Jam, and yes it is very very tasty!!!  Though I had a little miss hap with the chili  pepper flakes and it's a little hotter then I would like, it's still bacon so it has to be good.  And besides the greasy clean up, it's really easy.

Here's what you need
1/2 lb bacon
2 cloves garlic
small onion
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 cup strong coffee
1 tbsp red chili flakes

Cook bacon.
Remove bacon and dry on paper towel.  Chop bacon.
Pour out all bacon greasy except about a tbsp.  Fry onions, garlic and chili flakes (careful here, these make it hot fast) in the grease until onion is soft.
Add the vinegar, sugar, coffee and syrup.  Bring to boil, stirring and scraping up the good chunks off the bottom of the pan.
Add bacon back in, stir, reduce heat and simmer for about 20-25 mins.
Transfer to food processor and pulse.

Easy peasy!!!!!  Happy frying :-)

Dallas Monster Drag

Nothing like 20 mins of flat out hammering with a group of 20 odd (literally) fast men!  OUCH.  Thanks stuckylife for putting on all these really cool fun events.  Starting down on Gyro Beach in Cadboro Bay, picking up a spoke card on King George Terrace and finding the fastest route up to the flag on Beacon Hill.  Nothing life averaging almost 40km/hr for 20 mins.....I know, that's nothing compared to the big guys, but for me that's huge!!!  Thanks to the guy on the singlespeed who helped pull me around, lol, I have no shame!

In other exciting news, I'm starting a new job on Monday as a Geologist in Victoria.  Wow!!  With my slight change of focus in racing from World Cups MTB to stage racing and cyclocross I'm hoping this will work out good.  I know it's going to be a big lifestyle change, besides the winter months up north I've always just worked part time during the race season, so a full time job is definitely going to kick my butt for a couple weeks till I get it all figured out.  Change is good!!

Cumberland XC

Quickie update from the weekend y'all!!! Best trails around are found in Cumberland!!! So this makes for one of the toughest and but funnest Island Cup courses.......though I really haven't experienced a bad course here on the Island. Yup....riding here is better then absolutely anywhere. After hammering out the Tour de Victoria clinic ride saturday morning, I packed up the truck and headed up Island to visit Amanda and the rest of the amazing Wakeling family.

I got a very cool tour of the Eatmore Sprouts farm....it was really neat getting to see where all the sprout magic happens and definitely makes me appreciate these greens even more...BEST Sprouts ever. We raided the family garden, chowing down on fresh kale, broccoli, mustard greens (evil Amanda forced a giant really spicy leaf on me) and cabbage. Met and fed the donkeys, had a sketchy cart ride down the side of the farm with only a hair net as a helmet, and ate the most amazing home made pizza ..... with squash squashed on it. YUMMMMMM!!! What a great way to spend the weekend.

Sunday morning was race day and I headed up early to do a pre-ride of the lap. Nothing like an hour tough warm up of singletrack to get you pumped for the hard fun singletrack there!! Off the start my plan was to stick with Jamie Cameron again as long as I could (without getting our handlebars caught up again), but this plan failed really fast as I definitely couldn't hold that wheel. Each lap started with about 12 mins of hard, steady gravel road climbing, that kicked up really steep at the end. I found myself just out of reach of the group in front of me, leading out a large group of people hammering up the climb. It was actually perfect timing when Jason Binab, another Pro City Racer, past me and I was able to grab his wheel and take advantage of his climbing strength. I hung on as long as I could, opening up a small gap to the amazing Wendy Simms and Dawn Anderson. Amazing because she's pushing me hard yet again after kid number 2 not even a year old!!! I wonder if I'll be as fast as these two ladies if I have kids??

Getting in a train of 6 guys through the singletrack we hammered through the technical trails....and yes, I definitely gave more then a few yippees and yahoos on the new Tea Pot! A quick stop at my feed table to change bottles and we were off up the climb again. The second lap got a little more strung out and going into the third and final lap I found I was starting the last climb with just one other rider. 3 minutes up the gravel road climb something started "jumping" slightly on my new bike and literally as I looked down at my rear wheel to see what was going on I watched my rear derallieur wrap up and around my cassette ripping my whole drop out off. Yikes!! Fast way to end my day, but I'm really glad it was all downhill back into the start/finish.....I didn't want to climb that hill another time...lol, actually I kind of did, that singletrack is worth the pain. Needing my mechanic to get over his jet lag (hahahaha) so he can figure out what I did to my poor bike :-(

Other then the obvious mishap, it was a great weekend. Nice little EBOOST wake up, Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews for warm up and Energy Gels for racing, and my fantastically comfortable Sidi Dragon MTB shoes on my new Superfly 100 from Trek Pro City after eating tonnes of the most delicious Eatmore Sprouts......the only way it could have been better was if I had my partner in crime with me.

Thank you UROC for the awesome Island Cup XC race, and huge thank you to the Wakeling family for the wonderful weekend :-) I love my friends!!

Photo from Amanda Wakeling (aka Sport Bean)