Way to Cool

This past weekend was the Way to Cool 50K. I was excited about this race when I signed up, but as the race day drew nearer I was most definitely unfit to be racing 50K and it ended up being a long training day. Training has been hit and miss with snow, rain, moving, and starting a new job. Despite being quite under-trained I was still really excited about running on new trails and catching up with friends.

The day before the race was my dad's birthday, so pre-race dinner included lobster and tirimisu.... and of course I had leftovers as breakfast race morning. Oh, and the ever present Girl Scout Cookies to top off the tank.

I was warned that the race would be muddy, but I wasn't prepared for how muddy. I did see a couple people stopping and putting shoes back on in places. It was entertaining to watch people try and hop around the first patches to only later blast right through the middle. My choice of white compression socks may have been a mistake, but I was glad to have the extra support. My legs felt okay for the first 15 or so miles..... never great, but I wasn't expecting great. After 15 miles my legs and stomach began to protest. Maybe one too many Girl Scout Cookies..... With everything hurting I just decided to enjoy the views and the trail. The strange part about this race was always running with someone. With about 700 entrants the trails were busy. It wasn't busy in a bad way, but there was always someone either in front or behind.

Overall I really enjoyed the event despite it hurting much more than a 50K should. Plus it was a good wake up call to start a more organized training program.


Mud?? What mud? One mud pit ran through my leg sank up to my knee.


They were white at the start.

Gary and myself after the race.


CUPCAKES!!!!!!!


Frog cupcakes....

Hanging out post race with Tim Twietmeyer

My travel buddy and her duck. She's a little upset that she didn't get to come along on race day.

Ditching the trainer

It's been a little bit cold recently with lots of snow and highs in the 20s. Training days had been few and far between. Running in the snow and ice is doable, but I can't seem to motivate enough to get on the trainer. With a short break in the weather I jumped in the car and headed to my dad's house where the food is home cooked, the heat is always on, and the door is always open.

Foresthill is one of my favorite places. If there was a hospital and swimming pool there I'd move in an instant. My dad's been there for about 10 years and I thought I'd explored the surrounding area. Little did I know that this weekend I would discover my new favorite ride...... okay I have a bunch of favorite rides. Any day outside on my bike is a good day, but this weekend was exceptional.

The road to Foresthill is nice enough with light traffic and scenic views, and I usually ride on it to the end of the road and back to my dad's place. This weekend I was craving something a bit longer and made a right hand turn onto Mosquito Ridge road. I can't believe that during all the years I've been coming here I hadn't discovered this road until this trip. If you live anywhere in the area this road ride is a must do. This road truly goes to nowhere and ends somewhere deep in the Sierras without going all the way through. Because it really doesn't go anywhere there is nearly no traffic. During my 4.5hr ride I saw 3 cars, 3 motorcycles, 2 different herds of deer, and a couple turkeys. The road surface is good with no cracks or potholes. The best part is the near perfect climbing and descending. The road ribbons it's way down to the river at that perfect grade where you can pedal the entire 10 mile descent. I climbed and climbed and climbed up the other side of the ravine, but never reached the end. Guess I'll have to go back soon when there is a little more light in the day. Over the 2 days I got 9+ hours of riding outside and only polished off 1 box of Girl Scout Cookies in a bonk induced haze.

Bliksem doesn't like being cold either and can often be found in the only warm spot in the house....directly in front of the heater.

Hanging with Dad, Mary and Amanda. I think Bliksem was off chasing the turkeys.

Bliksem was undeterred by the fact that the turkeys were bigger than her.

The start of Mosquito Ridge road. My goal is to make it to the end of the road this year.

Descending to the American River.

Happy happy!!

Crossing over some fork of the American....

Sierra foothills.

...... and the running is always fun!

Interview link

Reno locals check out activereno.com. It's a great local site that has links to just about everything I could think of to get involved in sport in Reno.

http://www.activereno.com/amber-monforte-ultraman/

It's all about the dog

It's been a busy couple weeks for me. The new job started and it's great to be back working.... and getting a paycheck! I moved out of the van and into a place of my very own. My mom packed up and is moving all the way to Greenville, SC. Plus the biggest storm of the year hit the Sierras meaning lots of rain on the California side and lots of snow on the Nevada side.

Keeping me sane through the whole process has been Bliksem. She needs to get outside to play at least twice a day so it keeps me moving. Anyone that has had a dog knows how motivating they can be to keep you going. They are so genuinely excited to just be outside running that it is hard not to be motivated around them. With just me at the house it's a bit tricky to get her all the exercise she needs as it often means walks at 5am before work and again at 8pm after work. We're getting it done though and it's a great way to wind down after a busy day at work.


Nighttime walk at nearly 9pm. With the recent snowfall it's still really light outside.

Today's run was slow..... really slow because we were breaking trail in knee deep snow part of the way, but it was a lot of fun!

Crazy dog loves playing in the snow....

In my boots and knee length jacket I'm not nearly as agile as the little rocket dog.


Another good day playing in the park.

Shortly life will settle down back into a rhythm, but for now I'm just getting the basics done. Walk the dog, eat, sleep, work, and train.

12 Hours of Temecula

12 hours of Temecula or quieting the voices in my head.....

Long events are always a battle for me especially when I don't train for them. During my whirlwind trip around the southwest I spent some time in Huntington Beach with friends from Ultraman. I heard about this race they were doing about a week before the event, but I didn't have my mountain bike with me on the trip. It was actually still packed in it's box from the return trip from Hawaii in October. On my drive to Reno I had the event in the back of my mind. The last couple years I've been thinking about doing a 24 hr solo race, but I've never had the chance with the rest of my schedule. This would be a good stepping stone to try some of my equipment out and get a feel for spending a day on a mountain bike. I got to Reno 2 days before the race, quickly bought a ticket, and off to the airport I went. Luckily the bike was all packed up already.

It was kind of refreshing to go into an event unprepared. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into or what gear or food I'd need or want. The plan was gels during the lap with NUUN in my camelback. I know bottles would probably be faster, and I could have them all filled before the start, but my bike frame is so small it's hard to get a bottle in and out of the cage. I planned to stop every other lap and fill up and grab a solid food snack of some sort.

The night before the race we stopped and picked up a Monster. I'd seen the 2 sizes of Monster before which I refer to as large and extra large, but at the 7-11 in SoCal they had bucket size.


Trying to organize for a race where I didn't really know what I wanted or needed was a little tricky.


Race morning went smoothly with no pre-race nerves. It's nice doing an event where I have no expectations except to get through 12 hours. I did a super short warm up, and then we were off. I wanted to start the first lap fast because there is nothing worse than getting stuck behind people on a single track descent. The laps were a little longer than 9 miles with 1100 ft of climbing per lap. Lap 1 was a little faster than I wanted to go out, but it was good to be riding with good technical riders.

Woooohooo... it was so much fun being back on my mountain bike. It's been a couple years since I've raced in Temecula and the changes to the trails were nice. The course included more single track and the same great roller coaster descents. I think I had a stupid grin on my face for the first 2 laps. After that the climbs became steeper with every lap, but the descents were still a blast. I had an energy low point about 3 hours into the race and backed off the pace a bit. I also stopped and shoveled more food in my mouth as I passed through base camp. After that I felt slightly better, but as always it's the mental part that is the toughest. When I'm out of shape it's that much harder to fight to stay in the race especially when passing though bass camp every hour. It was a back and forth battle during the middle section of the event. I was having fun, but the body wasn't happy at all. The thoughts vary from I got a good workout in already, 5 hours is a good day, I'll just stop and rest for a bit and then get out and ride a couple hours at the end, my butt hurts, my back hurts, everything hurts, I'm hungry...... and on and on it goes. By the end of the day the voices of self doubt had quieted and I finished 11 laps for a grand total of about 100 miles and 12200 ft of climbing. Not bad for the first mtb ride in 3 months. The night laps were the most fun. It almost felt like I was riding on a completely new course as sections would sneak up on me as I lost perception of time and distance. Can't wait for the next 12 or 24 hr race......

Thanks Keevin and Slater for talking me into coming down to the race and for the hospitality!

Such a treat to be riding the roller coaster trails in Temecula in just shorts and a jersey in January!!


Thanks to Gary Wang for race photos and support!!

The gang post race..... it got cold......really cold at night.

And the next day I made up for the calorie deficit with cupcakes. One in every flavor!

Random photo I got in Huntington Beach that I needed to throw in somewhere.

Link to ESPNW interview

http://espn.go.com/espnw/blog/_/post/6034419/amber-monforte-takes-body-limit

bike photo by Timothy Carlson

And the rest.....

It's almost hard to remember all the stuff I've done in the past couple weeks. Keeping busy is helping keep me sane at this point.

Since I was already in central Texas I decided to make a 200 or so mile detour and visit Big Bend National Park. The park is on the border with Mexico with the Rio Grande separating the two countries. I was in full on recovery mode after the 100K run so a scenic drive sounded like a good idea.

Dogs are not allowed on trails in national parks so Bliksem was the guard dog. Probably not the wisest idea to be a solo female hiking on the border of Mexico, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go on some short 2 mile walks. Everywhere I went it felt like I had eyes on me. Upon entering the park we are warned not to buy anything from Mexicans for a bunch of reasons. If they are caught they get held and then bused about 60 miles upriver to be deported and the goods are confiscated. There is also warnings about encountering drug smugglers. The walks I did were all out and backs. The strange thing was that things for sale would appear on the trail that weren't there on the way out. I wouldn't see the people that left them, but I could feel their presence.

I did one stop at a scenic overlook to let Bliksem out for a bathroom break when I heard a commotion coming from the river. A man was running across the Rio "not so" Grande river to try and sell me walking sticks. His English was easy to understand, and it was really obvious that this is his normal day. I wanted to capture how small the river is so I filmed him as he walked back to Mexico. Not the most exciting video in the world, but I was trying to film him crossing back over without him seeing the camera. He had 2 dogs with him and kept asking me what I feed mine. Anyhow, here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWuzDUsCd0



The "mighty" Rio Grande. Really scenic area and not at all what I was expecting.

Notice the sign stating that high clearance vehicles only on this road. It was a shortcut that saved me backtracking about 50 miles so I took it in the super low clearance mini van. Made it though and nothing is leaking from under the vehicle.

Not with Bliksem the guard dog in the car. I'd get back from short little walks and she'd have all her hair standing up. I wonder who she got to meet. I guess they decided that whatever I had in the van wasn't worth losing a limb over.

Random stuff that was for sale. Never saw a person. The cardboard sign has all the prices and you are supposed to just leave the money.

Guard dog keeping an eye on the border.

Short walk into one of the canyons.

Singing Jesus was across the river in Mexico and ready to serenade me if I put some money in the bottle.

Santa Elena canyon is 8 miles long and 1500 feet deep. Wish I had more time here to explore.

Bliksem making a break for Mexico. Had to let her out of the car as some point.

Yes, bad me. Taking photos and driving. It's called multitasking.


Next stop was Tuscon to ride the legendary Mt. Lemmon climb. On my trip east I had planned on doing this ride, but the temps were cold and I'm a bit of a wimp when it's below 50. The weather cooperated this time around and it was in the high 60s.

This might be my favorite road climb. 25 miles of consistent climbing on a nice grade. It starts in cactus and ends up in pine forest.
Suck it up legs. It's going to be a long climb!

The start among the saguaro cactus.

Tuscon way off in the background.

Really cool section with switchbacks.

The descent was perfect except for the snow melt that sprayed up. Burr!

Made a stop in Huntington Beach for another fun filled weekend and a ride up Mt. Baldy. Thanks Keevin. Onwards to Reno I went only to grab my mountain bike and hop on a flight back to Orange County. Next up was 12 hours of Temecula.....