2013 Off Season

It’s been a long time coming to do my latest blog.  A friend of mine, Scully, has reminded me why I started to write my blog.  It’s supposed to be to sort of remember the things in life that sometimes I have a hard time remembering and remembering it’s not just about the bike it’s about everything that goes with it.

So here goes.  The off season is here.  Before the time change I was still quite able to get out during the week after work to get in a good ride but once the time change happened I was on the trainer almost every night doing my favourite 2-20min intervals.  The 2x20min intervals last for a I think 3 weeks and then I started needing something else to do.  That something different is stairs.  It was suggested to me by a friend, Anne, to try doing stairs for some cross training.  What I mean by stairs is I live in the southern Ontario area where I am surrounded by the Niagara escarpment where there are many sets of stairs up the escarpment for people to access by foot the upper and lower mountain.  So it’s been step up that I do stairs twice a week.  I have been going to the Kenilworth stairs and the Chedoke stairs.  The Kenilworth stairs are a lot steeper than the Chedoke and are in 2 different sets of stairs with a path between them.  The Chedoke stairs is more over constant climb.  I two step these stairs and right now I can get in 11 times up this set in an hour.  There are 290 stairs on this staircase.  I have been enjoying climbing the stairs with different people to name a few Anne, Scully and new teammate Billie and her husband Scott.  So I had about 4 weeks of stairs before Christmas hit and then I was off on vacation with my family my husband and his 2 boys in Punta Cana Dominican Republic.

A family vacation with the boys a vacation away from the bike this year for Christmas.  This is the first vacation that my husband and I have really had in 13 years without riding being involved.  Scary time right?  A week off the bike laying on a beach with palm trees around me.  Whoa. I think it’s the vacation that I have needed for a while.  We saw many things on this trip like a local school, a family home, a traditional lunch and got to see so many spices and coffee so amazing.  I have to admit that waking up on Christmas day and it being 30C outside was quite cool.  I love Christmas but I just not feeling it this year and this trip brought my little family together albeit for 7 days it was totally great.  Well the vacation had to come to an end and on the last day in Punta Cana we heard that there was a storm at home and that there was actual snow on the ground.  It was a great break to have this time with family and then come home to life and New Year Eve and New Year Day.

New Year Eve was spent taking my husband’s youngest son home and then going on to some friends’, Jim and Emily, home in Kitchener for the evening to ring in the new year with them, Jim’s kids and another teammate Bryon and his daughter.  Such a great night play backgammon and clue.  First late night in a long time and well spent. 

New Year day was spent with my dad, stepmom, sister, stepsis and my husband and what a great night that was.  I’ve always spent time with my dad on Christmas day but this year was a little different.  Life changes and change is good.  Many great people have been brought into my life this past year with the Novofit family to new friends and getting to know friends better.  I am very thankful for what I have and life is good.

Until next time my ramblings are done for tonight.

:-)

Good Friday and training camp

And so it begins another race season with the Hamilton Cycling Club Good Friday Road race this coming Friday.  I truly cannot believe it’s already here.  This winter has been an unusual winter for training.  I have been able to get outside most weekends for my long rides and only having to train indoors during the week after work because of the light factor.  Since I have been able to put in the time outside and I won’t have to go through the normal get to know my bike again outside aka balance and placement on the road.  To help my balance on the bike this winter I added rollers to my training.  At first it was a shear battle of wits of saying to myself that they were not going to beat me that I have to figure this out and I did.  I can drink out of my water bottle, take a jersey off if I need too, stand and ride no hands.  It’s the best feeling of conquering a fear of the rollers.  It just clicked one day and I was fine from there on in.

My outdoor season usually starts with a little bit of riding outside and then head down south for some warmer weather riding but this year I was able to go down south with a lot more mileage in my legs which was great.  I headed off to training camp down in my home away from home Rome Georgia.  I was there for only 10 days this year but put in some amazing time in the saddle.  The weather was cool to start with but much better than the previous weekend at home where the temps was only -5C and in GA the temp was about 10 or so C.  The camp spanned over 2 weekends with the first having a road race in Dalton, GA.  It was a great race to get my first race pre-race jitters out of the way.  The rest of the time was spent riding with different groups of people that I have ridden with before and then other days were spent riding with my husband and our friend, Stephan, who we stay with every year that we have been down well with him and his family.  This year the three of us went to Lookout Mtn and rode over it a couple of times now that was a fun warm day in the saddle.  Took in a nice total of 25hrs in the saddle in the south this year thankfully when we came back home we came home to warmer than normal weather thankfully to ride in.

So enough about the weather and lets get on with the race season.

Can't wait to see all my fellow racer friends this week.

Shell :-)

Off season well at least the start...

Well it’s definitely fall out there and starting to look a little like winter also.  Can’t complain Mother Nature has been really nice to us giving us fairly warm weather into November now and last year at this time I was already listening to my trainer hum and my Husband sing to his music on while he is training also.  On average lately I have been able to get in like 9 hours a week plus or minus a few hours not bad for the fall and with the time change.  I can see that coming to an end fairly soon it looked like a blizzard out there today.   This can only mean indoor training is coming soon.

Indoor training has started a little with learning of riding rollers.  I was so scared of rollers last year and still pretty scared to start on them this year but I knew I just had to get pasted that.  So some new stuff has come my way with the selling of my old trainer to picking up a new trainer and my husband & I are now sharing a set of rollers.  So all I have to say is wow.  My coach, Dino, prescribed me to do at least 15mins every day no matter what on those darn rollers and here I thought it was going to be torture.  Lol Nope not anymore.  I start with the thought of oh my god I don’t think I can do this on the first day to the second day home by myself alone to let myself just do it…And yup I got it can believe it.  The roller tricks were on after this point.  I can now drink water out of my bottle a major plus and standing up to relieve the pressure on my butt lol….The best part about the rollers is I’ve already found that it has made me more balanced outside. 

Just my thoughts for today have a good night.

shell

Better late then never...Provincial tt

Starting to get ready for our trip to see coach Dino in California for our gift to us trip at the end of a long season that was planned for even before the season started but first I still want to tell you about my provincial time trial that happened way back in August.

I know I know I was good at getting on top of my posts but now the season is done it’s a little harder to get around to my posts but I still wanna remember this race.  The provincial time trial happened in Ottawa well an hour east of Ottawa.  So traveled 7hrs the day before the race to town to be able to preride the course.  The course was a 4 corner course easy as pie right?  Apparently not.  My husband and I battled construction traffic in downtown Ottawa and finally made it to our hotel an hour and half longer than what it should have taken us but we were finally able to get to the race course to preride it.  I did the course 3 times and 3 times I tried to make a wrong turn so it was enviable that I did it on race day.  During the preride managed to find the only rain of the day on the course but that helped for race day let me tell ya.  So driving rain and heavy wind that seemed like it wanted to take my front wheel for a ride of it’s own.  It took all of my weight on the front end of the bike to keep it where I wanted it to go. What a day.  The day of the second most important race for me of this year the weather wasn’t that great to start I at least got through my warm up before it started raining.  Then while in the line up to get my bike checked it started spitting…Then in the start house it start raining a little more.  For the second time of this season when the count down happened in the start house and when I was told to go the holder didn’t let go.  So I pushed off for the second time and he finally let go.  Of course I thought my race was doomed from the start because of the way I was heading down the ramp, which was steep and short, but I got through it and I was mad.  I was a locomotive going into my first corner which I thought in my mind was not a corner.  I caught my minute person on the street that paralleled the back straight.  Now it’s raining full on.  My breathing was great at this point very fluid with my pedal stroke.  I felt so good.  I could just see my 2 minute person down the rode far down the rode.  Last corner on the course which was getting pretty slick from the rain. In and out of the corner was fine.  Going down the last straight away.  I can now fully see my 2min person down the road.  I focused on her and getting past her. Midway past the last corner I managed to pass my 2min person she gave me a good job and I was on my way.  I see another intersection coming up and guess what I did.  Yes I did it I turn right where I was suppose to just keep on going straight.  I could not believe I did that.  So I grabbed a fist full of front brake it wasn’t slowing me down.  So I grabbed the back brake…eeek not a good idea.  Back end of the bike came around and I saw my life flash for a couple seconds then let go of the brakes and got turned around and back on track. Back on track and going like mad again especially into the finish god I was happy I was done that race.  Could of lost it all on that one corner.  Can’t wait til next year.

Keep the rubber side down which I was apparent able during this one.


shell :-)

Niagara Classic

So it’s been quite a summer of racing.  I’ve had a few more races since my last post and still have a couple that I want to blog about to remember down the road. 

Niagara Classic was one of those races.  It was threatening rain kinda the whole day.  Only 13 of lined up on the start line that day which I was surprised about.  Pretty much the cream of the crop showed up.  We settled into a moderate pace on the first lap until we hit the climb on the course.  Well the girls flew up that first climb.  I made sure that I stayed in the group not on the front not on the back but that didn’t help on that first climb.  So the time trial was on middle of the climb no less.  The fight was on now to get back to the main group and there were a couple of girls in between the main group and me.  We did some work together taking turns and rotating to get back up there and we finally made it up to the group.

At that point I had 2 options merging into the group again.  To put on my brakes and filter into the back of the group or go past the group and see how it went.  I chose the latter.  I went off the front from the back of the group rode really hard to get away.  Someone told me a while ago if you try to get away from a group go as hard as you can for a good 30s to see if you get away and look back to see if anybody or the group has come with you and if you are free don’t look back.  Thank you G it worked this time.  So I was off and running.  Up the climb by myself this time around with family and husband on the side of the road watching and wondering what the hell I was doing off the front.  At this point I just wanted to ride it like I stole it.  I think I had a full lap by myself and Sue P came like a cannon was shot off past me.  Sue P was looking back at me seeing if I could catch up to her to latch on to her to go a couple rounds on the course but I couldn’t match her speed.  So off she went and now I was between her and the main group.   On that lap going up the hill I was caught by and past by the main group and now I was out the back of the race a very similar situation for me.   

Off the front, in the pack, and then out the back of a race but the fight was still in me.  I could still see the group in front of me so I continued on fighting to get back up with them.  I went another couple of laps by myself trying everything I had to catch back up to the group.  Which I did on the last lap on the last corner going up towards the last climb of the day.  Sara B's reaction of me getting back to the group was priceless and awesome…”Shelly you’re back” yes that was a great feeling.  They then speed up a little bit and I was gone again but at this point it didn’t matter to me I just loved the factor that I got back and that I was close to end of this race.  The last climb was torture and pushed so hard my asthma didn’t like me by the end.  Oh well another Niagara Classic in the books and this time I was very happy with my 7^th placing a very well deserved placing.

Tour of Catskills

Now this is an unreal stage race 3 stages.  Stage 1 19k time trial, stage 2 105k road race including devils kitchen climb and stage 3 95k road race.   

I cannot believe how smooth the time trial course was it was unreal.  I’ve never been on a smoother course ever.  We were on 1min start gaps between riders.  Now since I have left it so long I can’t remember if I pasted riders on the way out but I know I passed riders on the way back.  At one point I was playing a back and forth game between another rider we were so close and on this course we couldn’t go outside of the white on the shoulder of the road or we could get disqualified.  The rule made sense cause of the traffic on the road.  So finally the last time I was behind this one particular ride she said not to draft her and I wasn’t trying to because I know the rules about drafting.  So the fire got lite under my butt but I guess it wasn't enough of a fire at the end of the day I was in 5^th place only 5s out of 3^rd place and couldn’t believe it.

The next day I wasn’t really looking forward to stage 2 because of the devils kitchen climb just not knowing the climb was killing me.  I almost got dropped a couple of times out of the main group at the beginning of the race but worked really hard to get back into back of the group.  I played it smart in this race I didn’t stay at the front for very long when I pulled.  I do believe the switch in my head went off at the provincial road about the amount of work I did in the race and controlling myself which was perfect timing.  So back to stage 2 and devils kitchen.  I have never ridden/raced up a hill like this in my short little racing career.  WOW. It was funny when I turned the corner and saw this hill it was like holy crap you want me to go up this how the hell am I going to do this??? Had to definitely mailbox up this hill, which means I had to criss cross on the road to cut the steepness down but atlas I had to at one point get off my bike because I just couldn’t breathe.  So once I got my breath back and was able to find a somewhat flat part of the road I got back on my bike and started going again.  At some point of the climb I was pulling so hard on the handlebars that my shoulders were slightly coming out of place and yup I was definitely using muscles climbing up this hill that I have never used before.  Once I final got over this climb I thought for sure I was going to get a decent down hill nope I was not so lucky.  More rollers and some roads that was still slight going up sheesh but I finally found the finish line on this stage and went over if.  The weather pretty much waited till the last few ks to start raining, which I was very happy about.  So that was stage 2 of 3.  Finished 8^th in the stage and slid back to 6^th place in the GC.

Sunday was another road race that started and finished at a ski lodge of course now I can’t remember the name of the place but very nice location.  Started this stage with 26 women from the 30 that we originally started with on stage 1.  I do have to say being in the top 10 of a stage race is pretty neat because each stage you’re in the top 10 you get a call up at the beginning of that stage freaking cool.  So we were off and running into the last stage.  It was feeling more like a group ride at the beginning, which was nice because I think everybody was pretty baked from stage 2 race I know I was.  The race profile kinda lied a little bit about this stage cause with looking at it it didn’t look that rolly but oh my gosh there were no really flat parts on this race.  The road was either going up or going down and it felt like every corner we turned went towards another hill.  The group was pretty much stayed together until we got into some super rollers and of course the one time that I was not close to the front of the race was when 3 girls just rode off the front of the race and were gone.  I was pissed with myself about that but what can you do I wasn’t in the right spot this time.  So as the rollers continued a long the course the group kept on getting smaller then it was just 2 other girls and me.  This change up happened after the 2nd kom and after another major steep climb on a road called airport road.  This climb was similar to the devils kitchen steepness but this time I did not get off of my bike to walk I made sure that I did the mailboxing going up the climb and got myself to the top and was able to pass a couple girls because they were walking a portion of the climb.  That was a huge boost to my confidence for climbing and being able to get up that hill.  So the other 2 girls caught up with me and continued to share pulls on the front but when we were going down the descents I was getting down them at a faster speed then the others but they would catch me on the up hills.  I was hoping I wasn’t driving them crazy with that but it’s just how it played out.   Now we were finally getting on to roads that I was recognizing so I knew the finish was coming which I was extremely happy about…On the final stretch of road into the ski place we were still sharing the load of being on the front and then once we got into the parking lot it was on…And since I have such a great sprint lol especially going up a slight hill I rolled over the finish line from the group of 3 last.  Overall I was extremely happy about my performance for this race.  It was great racing with girls that I was competitive with and that I was not out classed completely.  Final finishing was 8^th place on the last stage and 6^th in GC.

At this point I can’t wait til Green Mountain Stage Race which now is only 5 days til the first stage.

to be continued again I know...

So many races

I have been a little delinquent with my blogs lately yes I know it’s been over a month since the last posting and I have done so many races since then.  Hmmm how many races has it been eek. 

Master club time trial, Tour of Terra Cotta, Tour of Catskills, Niagara Classic and the Provincial time trial wow do I ever have to catch up.

Tour of Terra Cotta was a mass start road mixed mens and womens race and of all different levels from P1 men to M1 men to P1 women and so on. This was such a hot race all around holy crap wow.  Hot weather and hot pace.  I managed to get in with a good group people after I got dropped from the main group pretty much going up the first hill on the first lap.  We worked quite well as a group and then we gained some guys from the Midweek club and well the rotating paceline that we had going on was out the window.  Not a big deal stayed in with this group until the end of the race. Picked up more people as the race went on including my husband and Sara from the Juvederm-Specialized team.  In the end Laura from P-K, Sara and I sprint for the finish because we were all in the same age category cause this race was age based.  Managed to actually win some money at this race, which was pretty cool in the overall women’s classification.

to be continued...