Tour DaVita - Day 1

I'm bummed to say I think my Garmin didn't save today's ride which is a real bummer, but I'm trying to figure it out.

This year has been really challenging for me and my bike. I've gone through a lot of incredibly hard rides and getting pretty toasted on rides with really good riders. In racing, I saw myself progress and get stronger but I felt increasingly discouraged.

Today I remembered, however, that Tour DaVita is not about that. I started at the back of the group - letting almost everyone go ahead of me. Today, though I had planned on this day being about others accidentally ended up being a day that helped me.

Though I rode through almost all the riders, reminding them to move over right and use their shifting up the hills - something else happened - all the hard hours I'd spent trashing myself, in over my head, made me an even stronger rider. I kept up with people on hills who used to drop me. In fact, I was half way decent at climbing. A friend of mine whom I'd ridden with a lot last year (not just at Tour, but also in Denver) said to me "when did you learn how to climb?!" It was great to hear and reminder that all my work this year didn't leave me empty handed.

So while I had planned to spend this day riding and helping others - I ended up having a day of Tour DaVita that ended up helping me look at my difficult training year with a lot of perspective.

That said, I also got to teach people how to do a rotating paceline and push people up hills. Then I turned around once during the ride and once after I finished my ride to sweep people in - so it wasn't entirely selfish.

Day 1
80 miles + ~5.5
5h 15 min + change

[race report] Steamboat Springs Stage Race: Stage 3 criterium

Coming to stage 3, I felt a little optimistic about the criterium because that is what I'd been racing all year and definitely where I felt pretty strong. Plus, having taken the RR a little easier than some of the others, I felt like I might have a little more left in my legs.

Waking up on Monday morning, however,  I was not feeling great. I felt groggy and tired. It was storming outside. The storm died down but riding down to the race start was cold and wet. My legs felt dead as hell and as we rode the course and then some warm-up hills, I felt confident that I was getting dropped pretty quick. 

Denise and I lined up on the line after our warm-up laps and since the start was uphill I paid attention to be in a good gearing. I ushered Emily to start on the line and Denise and I scooted over to get her in between us. 

As the gun went off - I jumped and, much to my own shock, was on the race! We took the power climb hill the first time and it strung us out but I wasn't dropped! Our initial laps weren't all that fast - around 20-21 mph because we were all tired. Laps came and went and I shocked myself that, not only was I still on the race, I was one of three thumpers the most forward in the pack - with Sue and Emily being the only two in sight. Amy and Denise had been dropped. 

I told myself to not give up. I kept repeating in my head "don't you dare give up, you are in this race." I hung in until the mid-race prime lap, when the sprint split us apart and I started falling off the back. I kept pushing myself to hold on to whatever wheel I could until about 25 min in, I felt the wall hit. The hill that previously had been a fun challenge, was now a damn disaster. I was so tired. 

Amy came around me on the descent and I said "oh Amy, thank God!" and jumped on her wheel. I held on as long as I could but she was able to bridge up to the pack and I had nothing left. I pedaled around, giving as much as I could but there were a number of other girls already popped off the back and I wasn't going to win - and I was totally spent. Denise caught up to me and we acknowledged each other but were at 1 lap to go so on the descent we pushed through to the line to find out that Emily had won the crit too! Insane, man. Insane. I'm incredibly proud of and impressed by her and it was awesome to have a teammate take two races and the GC. 

I had my best standing of the weekend in the crit - not that it made a big difference. I felt happy because, compared to the beginning of the year, I performed pretty well in this one. Especially given that a number of these women have enough points or will have enough points to start racing a category up next season. Moreover I surprised myself. I'm looking forward to training hard and coming back ready for some better standings next season. 

[race report] Steamboat Spring Stage Race: Stage 2 road race

I was incredibly nervous about this day because the course was pretty hilly and I truly did not expect any great results, but I did NOT want to do this race alone.

The night before I'd talked to some friends and teammates just making plans to try to hang out together if all else failed.

As we started, the whole group was scared and not taking anything very hard.  We knew a lot was ahead and we really didn't want to trash ourselves. Then came the first real climb. I held the pack for a little but soon was kicked off the back. My teammate Denise was up about 100 meters ahead but my friend Trisha was just next to me and having a hard time so I backed off a little and told her to just breathe as easy as she could. I had committed to Trisha and I knew I should wait with her.

As we descended  and climbed again, I caught up with another Primal girl named Dawn. Trisha was a little back so I fell back to grab her and bridged her up to work with us. We hung out for about 10 more miles. Dawn was really hell bent on catching Denise and another woman from the masters group. We started organizing a paceline to speed up to grab them. 

Coming in to rollers, I made a pretty big effort to jump up and catch them. We climbed all together to the turn around and Dawn took off. Personally, not what I would have done. I'd much rather go a little slower and have people to work with than time trial for 24 miles, but ok. Denise and I descended from the turn around next and probably could have caught up with Dawn but Trisha had a mechanical issue and the other woman was still back a bit. We both agreed it was better to wait for a friend who we knew would work with us and was having a rough time, than push to catch Dawn, whom we didn't know and had run away without us. Plus, we weren't going to win and really didn't want to leave Trisha by herself.

Once we all got together we worked on a rotating paceline. It was nice because I got a lot of time to recover. I also had a lot of fun riding with my friends - which made me feel good about working with them. As we came up the climb everyone calls the corkscrew, I was feeling beat. I'd  felt pretty good up until this point but I kept letting myself hold back because I knew I had some climbs coming to kill me. Glad I did that. After the corkscrew we had another (and our final) sizable climb. I was spent and the others were totally dropping me. But, in our understanding, they chilled out at the top and waited and we worked together on rollers and descents for the rest of the ride. 

Towards the end it definitely began to feel unending. As we came in the last stretch we talked about whether we would sprint for it or cross together. Ultimately, Denise decided she wanted to practice sprinting tired and I just used her wheel as a lead out and held on until the line. Trisha and the other masters woman came in right behind us. 

We all agreed the RR felt a little more like a hard group ride than a race but we had each other and had fun and did something challenging - and that was exactly what we all wanted to accomplish. 

I was excited as we finished to find out my new teammate Emily had won the RR! She is a bad ass and a very strong rider (and climber) so it was awesome to see her do well. This also made her second overall in the GC by 1 second! 

We went home that night to talk strategy about how we could potentially get that second back and have her place well in the crit the next day to take the overall win. Definitely an exciting day ahead.

[race report] Steamboat Springs Stage Race: Stage 1 TT

I had been feeling nervous all week about the Steamboat Springs Stage Race. I'd heard it was brutal and I didn't know what I was in for.

TTs are my game (obviously) and I was feeling a little nervous about this one because I'd heard it was climby.

After we arrived on Friday, Eric and I slowly spun through the course and at an easy pace, averaged 17.5 mph so I was feeling pretty confident and excited, which was a good feeling given all the anxiety I'd had over the week. 

When I started on Saturday, I was feeling a little tight in my hips and quads - which really impacts a TT position. We started with about 5 miles into the wind and my friend Erin, who started 30 sec behind me, caught me in 2 miles which made me feel pretty shitty - 30 seconds over two miles is a LOT. Shortly after that, my friend Laura passed me but I know she is an amazing time trialer so I didn't feel terrible on that one as I assumed she would win (and she did) and I didn't think I'd have a hope of contesting her. 

My teammate Denise told me the day before that she and some teammates had done the TT course in 39 minutes so I assumed I could get it done in about 35. And prior to actually racing, I thought the course was only 13 miles. So as I came up on 13 at 37 I was pretty excited ....until I saw the 1k to go sign. Oops. I finished in just under 39 minutes at 21mph which I was actually pretty proud of until I saw the results and saw how fast everyone else went. 😕

I had to ultimately just tell myself that I was proud of how I performed and remember that I could not have performed this way last year. But I was pretty bummed that I got slaughtered at my own game and began to feel pretty nervous about how destroyed I would get at the road race, which certainly was not my game. 

[race report] Boulder Sunset Sprint tri

My apologies in advance for delay (not that anyone noticed, I'm sure). My excuse is that the past two taper weeks have been insane at work and mentally taxing, but now that my race season is officially over and I have a 3+ hr drive home in a passenger seat, got some reflection time. 

For the boulder sunset triathlon I had signed up for the Olympic distance. Despite trying to keep my running and swimming game up, I found no time to brick (run off the bike) in the past month. Plus, in spite of the name of my blog being "swim, bike, run, rinse, repeat" I'm a little burnt out on the tri grind. So I decided the week before that I would downgrade to the sprint. I just really wasn't feeling a 10k off a 26-mile bike and especially not that "trail run" 10k. 

This particular sprint I was excited about because it was a long bike course - at 17 miles and the 5k cuts out the worst part of the 10k course so I actually began to get pretty excited!

Getting ready, much like last year, felt weird because it was such a late start. However, this race was super cool because Brett and Cassie (and of course Eric) came to support me, my friends Elena and Kristina were racing, and I ran into Liz from Tribella, another RMTC athlete Jeanette, and I was surprised to see TWO of my Northwestern teammates there - Kelly volunteering, and Will cheering on his CSU teammates.

The swim felt really cold - colder than last month in the Boulder Reservoir. Once again I hang with my group and other swimmers the entire way. This race was actually particularly bad (probably because sprinters tend to not be as good swimmers so there were more slow, panicky people), wrought with swimmers stopping, backstroking, zig-zagging, etc. coming around the turn buoy a girl immediately flipped on her back and started swimming all over the course - it was super annoying to have to figure out how to get around her.

I had left my swim watch in the car and didn't care a ton to go get it - so I had no idea how my swim went. I ran out with a fellow bike racer, Elena, and I respect her as an insanely strong athlete - so I figured it couldn't have been so bad. I quickly got out of transition and off I went (and never saw Elena again haha because she is one fierce time trialer). I did get passed by one other sprinter in my age group up the first hill and basically spent my bike race looking for her. Coming through I passed tons of girls in my age group - typical. Going up the first hill I had an older guy constantly sitting about a bike length off me. It got super annoying so after a few minutes I turned around and said "you've gotta stop drafting me, man!" and was incredibly relieved and happy to drop him when we hit 36. He was really pissing me off - I hate cheaters. Along 36 I could tell how much better my climbing game has gotten over the past few months. Finally I found the girl who passed me with another  girl in my age group on a fierce descent. I tucked in and at that point, the bike traffic got pretty sparse and I began to wonder if I was in first place in my AG. With my brain in this mode, I immediately felt chased so I threw down the hammer - knowing I was almost done. This girl and I began going back and forth for the last 4 miles because she was a better climber. I came into transition with her and said "good ride! I was totally chasing you!" 

My transitions were way better than hers so I beat her out on to the run by a bit but about a quarter-mile in, she and another woman in my age group came up and passed me. At this point I was convinced they had just run me into third - but in reality they had just run me off the podium. I later came to figure out I was 3rd at that point and they threw me in 5th with that pass.

I then spent the entire run getting passed, which was disappointing but further solidified that I made the right decision in switching to the sprint. I was honestly laughing at myself because a 5k was feeling hard and mentally I wanted to walk. I told myself - despite placement - to just keep running because I'd be so mad at myself if I didn't and it was just a 5k and walking was pathetic.

I finished and felt pretty happy. I got my results and placed 9th in my AG which I'm fairly happy with. Came to find out the other girl I'd been chasing for most of the bike beat my bike split by 10 seconds and another girl I never even saw did the bike course 2 min faster! Strong girl! So I ended up having the 3rd fastest bike split - which I was pretty happy about. 

Overall, I had fun and could see myself sprinting again next year - but definitely didn't leave this tri itching to sign up for the next one, which I think is a sign that it is time to take some time off multisport.

[Race Report] Lucky Pie Criterium

Another day to wake up at the crack of dawn for a bike race. (Literally, 4:45 AM. Dawn hadn't even cracked. Dawn was still sleeping.)

I was feeling pretty nervous about this race after the disaster that was Bannock St last weekend. I definitely was being jittery, anxious, and difficult this morning.

We got there about an hour before the race and I was able to warm-up on the course with friends and teammates which was really helpful. I got in a few pops at effort and a hot lap or two.

We started with a neutral start which basically means you start rolling and then the official blows a whistle and it was time to start actually racing. I actually really liked this because it didn't really let anyone clip in and hammer - which I have struggled with in the past. In fact, it felt like we started out pretty slowly.

There were a lot of women in this race who hadn't been around much this season and didn't have the greatest technical skills so I was a little freaked out by their wheels in the corners. I was talking to my friend Vicki afterwards who said sometimes she feels like sketchy wheels around her make her wheel sketchy too. I know the feeling - it's like you're freaked out by the people around you so you are holding a little too close to your brakes and sliding out to avoid them. It was a bit of a mess. One girl kept taking all the corners really slow and super tight and I turned to her and as nicely as possible in one of the most dangerous corners said "Hey girl, you really want to be taking these corners wide-tight-wide, ok?" Who knows what happened but I know she freaked me out and I was thankful we dropped her.

Coming into a prime lap, I started to get gapped a little and spent about 3/4 of a lap about 4-5 bike lengths off the back. Instead of letting myself get into a defeatist attitude, I just repeated in my head "get back on, get back on..." and I put my head down and hammered. I noticed I started to get a little wavery, not riding in a straight line (b/c I was so focused on laying down power) so I looked up and focused a little harder, and sure enough, I slipped right back in the back. That was a really good feeling - to come around the officials tent (where all the spectators were as well) and have been gapping in the last lap with people yelling "Andrea, get back on!" and then coming through the next time dead in the center of the group.

The next lap they called 5 laps to go and I joked to a friend "I wondered when they were going to say that" and we jumped into the next corner.  Sure enough we counted down - 4 laps, 3 laps and I was feeling good! Two to go and I was in an ok position towards the middle-back of the back. At some point, a few girls we had lapped jumped back on, including my friend Nicole, whom I often find myself off the back with. I had cheered for her earlier when I could tell she was losing heart with me at the back of the group. Ultimately she did lose the wheel in front of her (but we all have those days - clearly because I did that just last week!), but jumping back on she sat just behind us - not interfering with the peloton (which is good etiquette, so yay Nicole!) and quietly reminding me every time I had to lay down a little more effort that I had this and I was doing great. I love this about the women's field - no matter what team you're on, we make friends and we can cheer each other on.

With two laps to go, I began to really think about my position and moving up in the field. I was sort of boxed in however. In the second to last corner on the last lap, I was able to jump around a few people by taking the inside line of the corner and coming out around 7-10th wheel. As the end was a fairly sizable straight-away, sprinting started early so we basically came out of that corner and immediately started redlining - which is a long way for that kind of effort.

In the end, I came in 17th, which actually might be my best place percentile wise, this year. That said, I think I could've done better if I got up out of my saddle more. I was just very worried about burning out since my sprinting game isn't strong. Still, I'm incredibly proud of my effort to get back on and the fact that I stayed with the pack the whole race - which I've struggled with a lot this year. Coming from a triathlon background, I'm used to long, sustained effort and I have really found it hard to back off and then lay down a ton of power, and then back off again. I spent a lot of time doing that this race with success. Lots of breakthroughs - in my opinion and finally a hint that maybe some of the work I've been doing is finally paying off.

I also really loved this race for the great attitude of the other racers I was around - so massive kudos to everyone around me. It was so great to hear women communicating (at least in the back anyway) and having positive attitudes.

Now to work on my positioning and sprinting.

[Race Report] Bannock St Crit aka swallow your pride and frustration

I woke up on Sunday at the crack of dawn (5 AM) to race the Mike Nields Memorial Bannock St Crit. I was feeling optimistic on this one because I'd been having good mock races and performing well on group rides. Plus, they paid out awards 5-deep which is generous and awesome for a women's 4 race. That said, I was a little tired and as some girls who win a lot start to show up, I felt discouraged.

I got in a sufficient warm-up but apparently started in a little too hard of a gear and never really got on the race. I was immediately in a mode of chasing the group. This is mentally rough especially when I was feeling stronger recently. Dropped with no hope by the second or third lap, I decided to just ease off and let the group catch me. By the time they did, they had really broken up the field and probably only about half of the girls who started were in the main group. I jumped on but they were moving fast and very strong and I was getting gapped. I was probably 3 bike lengths off the back, trying to hang in the best I could when we took a left turn into a chicane. Coming up on the right hand immediately following, a racer kitted out for a later race started to cross the street of the course as I lined up the corner. I took it but swung out left and grabbed my brakes and yelled "whoa!" He apologized and everything was fine (no crashes or injury) but at that point...my race was done. It was already hard enough to give up and let the group lap me so I could get back on and hang out. Once that plan was beat, I was both mentally and physically frustrated. It felt like this race was the biggest waste of money and time. I sat up and drank water and just pedaled easy for the last two laps - basically getting in my cool down. This is the first time all year I've finished dead last.

I pulled off the course immediately once the sweeper moto came through saying the course was clear. I exited the course and walked over to Eric, almost in tears - frustrated, upset, and angry. We rode home in silence. He knew where I was and that there wasn't much to say.

That afternoon we volunteered at Ironman Boulder and it was a great way to get my mind off it - got an opportunity to help out cyclists with lots of mechanical issues and I can say it really exhausted me. Great day of giving back to the endurance community!