170 miles of crazyness

I signed up for a 200 mile ride with 20,000 feet of climbing a couple months ago. I'm not sure why. The ride would have been much more fun if it hadn't rained, then snowed, then rained, then snowed, then rained, and then poured. The temperature above 7,000 feet was never more than 40. After 170 miles of this I called it a day. I'd been cold and wet for about 12 hours and nearly shivered off my bike on a couple of sketchy descents. About halfway through the ride I changed kit and added a couple layers, and I was almost warm for a while. By the end of the ride I was wearing every layer I had carried including undershirt, jersey, arm warmers, winter jersey, vest, and rain jacket. I was never warm during the race but I never got too cold until I got to Ebbetts pass at the end of my day. Ebbetts pass was passes # 5 & 6 of the day. It is about 13 miles long in total with the first 7 being an easy lead up and the last 6 crazy (European) steep. Sections of the route kick up to 24% grade. I didn't know about the crazy steep part until I was there.  We rode up and over and down the other side of the mountain and then came back down the scary steep side. Steep + technical + pouring rain + no guardrail +carbon wheels =  not so much fun.  I couldn't feel my fingers, and my arms were shaking really bad as I crept down the hillside. Finally I made it to the bottom and arrived at the next checkpoint. There I talked with the bike support motorbike that had just come down from the last mountain of the ride. As soon as I heard rainy and windy I decided to call it a day. It wasn't worth another 3 hours of freezing for, and I'd already put in 12 hours. It turned out to be a good decision as the winning men's time was around 13 hours. All in all it was an amazing training day, and I can't wait to come back when winter has finally decided to move somewhere else. 

Me at the start......... still smiling. Actually I was smiling until the violent shivering began.

Nothing like being at 8700 feet in the rain on a 40 degree day.

Ugly storm clouds as we approached Carson pass. I had a sneaking suspicion it was snowing up there...... it was. 

Post race I was too tired to drive home, and I camped at Blue Lakes (one of the places we biked) at over 8500 feet. Conrad may never get his car back after this trip. The three sleeping bags were key to surviving the night. 

Getting it done

Reno on average gets 7" of rain in a total year. It's a desert. This year it feels like we've had nearly that in the first week of June. It has rained every day so far this month and the forecast doesn't look much better for the coming week. Along with the rain there has been a 30-40 degree temperature drop. 3 weeks ago we were in the 90's and Saturday for my long ride we hit a high of 48. Yeah! So, after swimming in the rain and the two hours it took me to re-warm after that I decided to ride indoors today..... in June. My cold weather clothes and neoprene booties have long ago been packed away along with the trainer. 6 hours on the trainer has absolutely no appeal, but neither did freezing in the rain. So I popped in the movies and got it done. 

Bad Blogger

Okay, so I've been in a bit of a funk. When I'm busy sulking I don't blog, in fact I don't tend to do much of anything, which makes it worse. It's not been a great spring, but maybe it's how I'm looking at it. I've been sulking a bit due to injuries and also because I'm staying home while Conrad goes racing. The staying home would be easier if I could just stay healthy. About 2 weeks ago during a fun easy trail run Kona ran straight into me while chasing a rabbit and knocked me over. It would have been okay if my left knee and elbow hadn't landed on rocks. I tried to finish the run, but the knee just wasn't having any part of it. A week later the knee was starting to feel a bit better, when Conrad decided that kissing the pavement would feel good. He has the full story on his website. Somehow I managed to break my fall with my head (cracked my new helmet), my left hip (Conrad is calling it my 2nd butt), and my left knee and elbow. I opened the almost healed skin from the prior weeks fall. 

Yep we stuck to the sheets for the next week....

The week got better when I returned from work one night to find a shiny new toy in the driveway that was just for me. :)

Putting my nursing scrubs to good use I raced around the front yard trying to find any and all bumps. 

I'm now too fast to capture on film..... 

Kona pretending to be the saddest dog in the entire world.

 Another week has gone by and I'm still hurting. I tried swimming today, and the neck still hurts to bad to flip turn. Then I tried a run. At first it felt like it was going to be okay, but about 15 minutes in the pain started up again. I turned around and walked back.... sulking the entire way. I got home and crawled under the blankets about to start a full blown pity party. Before the party could be started I remembered my shiny new toy in the garage. The knee seems to be good when riding, and there is nothing like sweet single track to put a smile back on my face. No more funk... I just need to go ride my bike. 

Racing the storm home. I won, but just barely.