Looking Back and Looking Ahead

I’ve got my first full season of mountain bike racing under my belt, and I’ve been doing a little reflecting on how it went, what I’d like to do next year, and what I hope to be doing in the meantime.

If you’d asked me eighteen months ago if mountain bike racing was how I would spent this time, I’d have called you crazy. I was a pretty content tri-geek, doing a couple of Ironmans and some smaller races in between. After the Coeur d’Alene Ironman last June, I started to notice a little change in my attitude about triathlon and running. I had spent a considerable amount of time training on the bike, and it was clear that I enjoyed that more than the other disciplines. About that time, Cam started to become more of a fixture in my life, and his obvious enthusiasm for the sport is pretty contagious. With a ton of help and encouragement from him, I gave this sport a try. A little success and more encouragement led me to try three races in 2008. It is a great racing outlet, but different enough from triathlon to give me a big heap of enthusiasm and lit a fire in my belly for competition that I hadn’t found in triathlon.

That fire was further developed by being ridiculously blessed to get to ride in some amazing places this year. Maui was the best training kick-off I could have asked for, but I also had great training trips to Arizona with the girls, and, of course, the week I spent with Cam in Colorado. Some early successes in the race season gave me an idea of what could be and really fueled my workouts the rest of the season. I was still not willing to let go completely of triathlon, so my bike-specific training was not as structured as I would have liked. However, getting into Chequamegon gave me the final push for the season. And, it is a long season. We started training January 1, began racing in April, and didn’t finish up the season til October. Then there was still a little time left for some cyclocross racing and the Dirty Duathlon into November.

I owe a lot to the peeps in the cycling community in Des Moines, and, more specifically, the mountain biking folks in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The vibe at races is considerably more laid-back and grass-roots than triathlon. I was never quite Type A enough for triathlon! The men and women I raced against were, with only a few exceptions, very encouraging and great people to spend a Saturday or Sunday alongside. While I enjoyed the sheer volume of competitors in Minnesota and Wisconsin, nothing beats throwing down with the chicks in Iowa. We have such a good time together that the racing usually ends up taking a backseat. We race hard, but the overall goal is getting more women involved and better at the sport. While I race under the Zoom Performance flag, I feel like I’ve got teammates on both the Punk Rock / Rassy’s and All Nine Yards crews. I’m looking forward to the time that there are more women racing in Iowa and Nebraska.

Cam and I have discussed it over and over: how do we get more women involved in the sport? His clinics are a great start – a relaxed, safe environment for women to learn the very basics of the sport without any competition or fear. Once she has learned the basics (or at least learned what skills to work on), the development of those skills is the hard part. In every discussion Cam and I have had, we’ve concluded the same thing again and again. Racing forces those basics to improve. And the more she races, the faster she improves. I think I am a great example of what consistent racing can do for a new rider.

My first season gave me oodles of experience and tons of rewards. I ended up winning the Iowa and Nebraska series for Cat 2 women. I had some decent finishes in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but an overall (or even age group) win eluded me in the north. Chequamegon was a highlight despite a crash and narrowly missing all my goals for my first Cheq 40. I feel like Chequamegon is sorta like Ironman, in one regard. The first time you do it, you just do it for the experience and with few expectations. After that, you can truly try to race it. I’m really hungry to race Chequamegon next year!

Cam… It is no exaggeration to say that there is absolutely no way I could have done any of this without the help, support, encouragement, advice, equipment (!!), and love of Cam. Simply put, he literally made it all happen. I just showed up and rode the bike! Really it’s his fault I tried out the sport in the first place. Thanks to his first mountain bike clinic for women in 2007 - which I nearly didn’t attend - it got me hooked! Then his passion for racing anywhere within a 500-mile radius of Des Moines every weekend put me in the passenger seat of the Jeep (and into another race) when it might have been easier or more convenient to stay local and hang out at home.

I am pretty sure that there were days he would have rather worked on his own bike or just chilled out, but he faithfully prepared, maintained, washed, and otherwise handled every detail of the ‘Goose. He rode with me on days I know he could have had a better workout without me. If I got grumpy or bonky on a ride, he never said a word about it. On many weekends, we had to leave a couple hours earlier to get me to my race when sleep was probably a more attractive alternative. Though his season may very well have gone better without me to get in the way, he was often more excited for my successes than I was! I’m not sure how I got so lucky to have him in my life, but I hope that I have the chance to make it up to him somehow! Thanks, Cam!

Next year I’ve got some decisions to make. I know that I’m not giving up triathlon. And, much to Cam’s dismay, I’m not giving up running either. There won’t be an Ironmans in the near future, but I do have a couple local races I like to support and race. And I always run Dam to Dam. Other than those, I will be hitting the mountain bike race scene much like this year. When I look at my strengths and weaknesses from this year, I can already see how I will be spending my off-season and much of my training next year. The first order of business is some serious strength training. And, we’ve been hitting the weights pretty hard. I started back in October, have been very consistent, and am starting to feel a significant difference.

The “real” training starts next week, and the Zoom garage rides have started as well. While the snow continues to pile up outside my door, I am anxiously looking forward to sunny days and rides on the trail!