Training

Andrea

Overload?

Probably…

On Sunday, Ryan and I decided to head back to Memphis instead of braving the cold (and check-out time) with the small group of teammates that rode in Oxford. After lunch, we headed out for a 50 miler that, if it weren’t so nice & sunny out, would have had death-march potential because of lingering tired/soreness from the day before (I think Ryan felt it more than I did because he’s had less training time, and just spent a few days in China for work).

Sunday evening, my throat started to hurt. I was hoping that it was just from talking a lot during the past few days of riding. However, Monday, when I woke up, it was a little worse, and my legs were still stiff and sore. Monday night I started getting a stuffy nose, which was a little worse today. The cherry on top was my visit to the ExPhys lab this morning- I’m participating in a research study, and, as part of the baseline measurements, they took a resting heart rate…

Never got below 50bpm.

I usually run somewhere in the high 30’s, so this was abnormal. The soreness, upper respiratory crud, and elevated RHR are typically signs that I’ve overdone it. So, tonight I think I’ll just stick to lifting and spin class (it’s tempting to try and ride outside right now because the sun is out… but the windchill is <20). I actually don’t mind feeling like this- as long as I recover properly, it will only make me better next time.

My first endurance race of the season (Spa City 6hr) is fast approaching, as is the first road race (Rouge Roubaix). I’m starting to feel my focus coming back…

Andrea

Marx-Bensdorf Training Camp- Day 2

Saturday was the meat of training camp. We rolled out of the hotel in Oxford around 9:00am under cloudy skies with a cold north wind. The first hour or so, we rode a nice tempo in double pacelines. The other 4 women that showed up did a great job of working with the group- I was very happy to see that they were comfortable riding in a tight formation.

Once we were about 20 miles out, the group split in to teams (MB Women, MB Men, and BPC Men) and we spent the next ~10 miles working on rotating pacelines. Though they hadn’t had much experience, the ladies caught on quickly and soon enough, we were hittin’ a lick down the road and looking like we were old hats at this stuff ;)

After the Water Valley rest stop, we headed back into the headwind. After about 15 miles, a small group of us split off to ride the same out & back that we’ done on Friday. I was the only woman who stuck around for that one, so I knew it’d be a test of my legs. Luckily, I felt pretty damn strong considering the mileage and wind!

We arrived back at the hotel with a little over 80 miles. With some of the day’s efforts, I feel like I’m totally on track to do well at Rouge Roubaix in a few weeks. All I need now is some warm weather. Something about the cold slows me down, and I always feel as if there’s an “ON” switch that gets thrown the first day I get out in just a jersey & shorts…

Andrea

Marx-Bensdorf Training Camp- Day 1

Unlike ride #1 of the Metro VWÂ training camp last year, this ride didn’t include any road rage or broken windows. In fact, the only bad thing that happened during our first ride was a metric crap-ton of flat tires.

We rode out & back from the Oxford Holiday Inn and headed to Sardis Lake (about 30 miles round trip). Prettymuch the only “skill” we practiced was paceline riding along the way back. It was nice to see everyone transitioning from a disorganized blob into two tight lines. A few miles from the hotel, we played around with a few short attacks. I decided to participate just to see what the legs were feeling like. Surprisingly, I managed to keep up, though I wasn’t able to turn the screws too hard (a combination of lack of higher intensity training, sore legs from getting back into the weightroom a couple of times this week, and the 5 pounds I’ve gained since the weather got nasty and I lost motivation to ride for hours on end).

So, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m hoping to get some good training in for myself and also am eager to see what type of horsepower the MB Ladies are going to bring to the asphalt. For now, it’s time for dinner & beer…

Andrea

Boring weekend

Blah… I was planning on driving up to Johnson City on Friday to race in the last of the TBRA CX points races, but a freak ice storm came through instead. I wasn’t about to make the 8 hour trek in sleet, snow, and freezing rain. So, I just stayed home to tackle some time on the trainer. Blah. At least I got in a good threshold inteval workout this morning. Probably the only “structured” training I’ve done so far…

I’m guessing that tomorrow will be more of the same. I hate ice and snow! Anyone down in a warmer clime want to put me up for the rest of the winter?!

Andrea

Columbia CX Race #3 and the Hangover Ride

In my continuing quest to poach TBRA points, Ryan and I daytripped the 3rd race of the Columbia Cyclocross series. Once again, Kim Bishop and I were the only 1/2/3 women lining up with the Masters and Cat 3 men. The course was good for me- several power sections and a long, steep run-up.

I went all out from the gun. Unlike the first Columbia race, (where even though I won the women’s competition, overall I didn’t place well) this race was not prefaced by a 20 hour training week. I held a decent position at the start and, with each lap, kept moving up. The guys I passed would occasionally put up a fight and try to pass back, but were unable to hold position because I’d ride right back through them. It was a take-no prisoners type of ride. I wasn’t sure of my placing overall, but on the last couple of laps, I had one more ahead of me that was within range. A couple of times, I found myself on his rear wheel but unable to get past. I ended up finishing a few second behind him. He turned around as I crossed the line and asked if I was smelling blood today.

Yeah, I guess that’s how you could put it…

Turns out he was the 2nd place cat 3 guy. Not bad, though today at the #4 race, Kym F. came over from Chatanooga and beat ALL of the guys. Pretty kickass if I do say so myself!

We got home sometime around 7:30 last night then met up with some friends at Flying Saucer and ended up staying up WAY too late! There was a Marx & Bensdorf team ride scheduled to leave for Potts Camp, MS at 8:00, but those of us at the bar decided that we’d have a “hangover ride” today around 11:00. It turned out to be a really, really good winter training ride. We kept a hard but steady (for the most part ;) ) tempo for close to 50 miles. The weather was gorgeous and the sun came out after a while, so it was a pretty perfect day on the bike.

Andrea

Eastbound- Days 1 & 2

I’m currently tucked away in the Dahlonega Hiker Hostel watching the snow fall. So, here’s my trip so far…

Yesterday, I left Memphis around 8:00 and drove to Chattanooga. With snow in the forecast, I didn’t want to be making the 5.5 hour trip to Dahlonega for Southern Cross in failing weather. I had just enough time to make an afternoon lap around the Raccoon Mountain trails. After “roughing it” on Syllamo trails, the groomed singletrack up there was pretty enjoyable. The rock gardens on the expert trails were especially cute. Here are some random shots from the ride:

RMoverlook

RMground

RMtree

After my ride, I headed out to a friend’s house in Hixson to crash on their futon for the night. This morning, I packed up & headed South to meet up & preride some of the race course. After checking in to the hostel, I headed to Camp Wahsega to meet the O’Deas.

As Namrita & I started out, a few flurries were floating around. By the time we were about 6 miles up the initial climb of the course, there was a solid layer of snow on the gravel. It was awesome to ride in, but we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to drive out from the camp once we were finished, so we reluctantly turned around and headed back.

NOsnow

SnowRoad

Snow2

NOsnow2

barsnow

Luckily, we made it back before the snow made the gravel roads slick or stuck to the paved roads. I picked up a pizza at a local place in downtown Dahlonega then headed back to the Hiker Hostel. This place is really, really awesome. Here are some photos, including the chickens, front porch, the three dogs that live here, and a wall of thank-you note photos of hikers at the northern end of the Appalachian Trail…

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porch

chickens1

closechicken

photos

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orange

BT

silly

Andrea

Training Camp ’09- Day 4

The weather has been as damp as possible without actually raining, so the trails are staying soggy. I loaded a 50ish mile route into my Garmin and headed out on the Gravel Killer.

Everything was good until I got up the longest climb on Roasting Ear Road (no idea why it’s called that!) I heard a dog barking and saw on in a pen. Luckily, my instincts told me not to let my guard down. I picked up my pace immediately before I caught sight of a large, tan pitbull charging out of the yard of the house. CRAP! I floored it and made it past the next house just fast enough for the two large, shaggy dogs to join the chase with the pit. This was the first of seven dog chases.

Here’s a map of my ride- I put a red dot on the approximate places where I encountered loose dogs.

roadride

The dogs weren’t the only unpleasent thing on the route. The gravel road south of Highway 66 was freshly graded. In theory, this sounds good, but in actuality, the grading process turns over new rocks and loosens the dirt, so it’s thick to get through and really, really rough. The eastern part of 66 heading in to Mt. View acted like a traffic funnel, too. As I was turning off into downtown Mt. View, a guy in a truck yelled at me and gave me the finger. So much for Southern hospitality! After getting out of Mountain View, the rest of the ride was pretty nice.

Like my other rides this week, I was feeling good even through the last few miles. I’m a little surprised since I haven’t been training quite as much as I wanted to during the fall. Hopefully the “slow start” will mean that I’m not feeling burnt out before the end of the season next year.

Andrea

Training Camp ’09- Day 1

I’ve officially dubbed the next couple of weeks as my own personal Training Camp. The plan is to stay in Mountain View until Friday, then head home and race CX over the weekend, then drive out to North Georgia for some more riding before the SouthernX race on the 9th (and Cross-a-nooga on the 10th). Hopefully the only thing that will be similar to last year’s training camp will be that I come out of it a little tougher ;).

Yesterday, I woke up early and drove from Memphis with the sunrise.

Pit Stop!

porters5

Once I arrived, I loaded a 57 mile gravel grinder route into my new Garmin 705 and headed out. The first 3 miles was downhill, followed by ~7 miles of climbing up hwy14 up to Blanchard Springs.

blanchard

I decended to Sylamore Creek, then found my way to Blanchard Road, which went straight up the mountain (20+% grade at some points) to intersect Green Mountain Road. From there, I headed north, planning on turning off onto another forest road a few miles away. However, once I got there, it was not quite what I expected…

roadfail

You can’t tell by the photos, but the road bed is really rocky and covered in branches/debris. I figured that it wasn’t a wise adventure to take on alone with winter-limited daylight, so I turned around and headed back down Green Mountain Rd. to hwy 5, then back up the mountain to the cabin. It ended up being 30 miles. A really tough 30 miles. I think that I’ll try that route with my MTB next time.

Today, my plan is to ride most of the Syllamo’s Revenge race course. It may be my last chance to hit the trais before the weather goes foul tomorrow and sends me back to the road.

Andrea

Syllamo Mini-Epic

Yesterday, I finally decided to take on the blue trail (Scrappy Mountain Loop) of the Syllamo system. Most of it, at least- I wanted to ride the Syllamo’s Revenge course route, so I started going counter-clockwise on the orange loop and turned off at the orange/blue trail intersection.

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From there, the gnarliness began- the trail headed (mostly) down, and was generally a bed of rocks ranging in size from golfball to softball. Tough, but nothing the big wheels couldn’t handle. Eventually I came to the 1st of 3 Livingston Creek crossings and 1st of 2 highway 5 crossings.

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From the Highway 5 trailhead on, the trail got technical. It started by climbing up a narrow gravel road- not bad until after a minute, when you see the trail sign telling you to turn left- I looked left and had one of the first “WTF” moments of the day when I couldn’t see a trail- just some rocks. As I would quickly learn, when you can’t tell where the trail is, it’s usually the pile of rocks. That part of the trail was pretty technical. The climbs weren’t too long, but there were a couple of spots that I didn’t even attempt to clear. Nearly two miles later, the trail dumped back out on Highway 5, then crossed Livingston Creek, was flat for a minute, then crossed the creek one last time (the 3rd crossing was the only one that was a bit hairy- the bank was kinda tall on both sides, so I ended up dropping in and taking a small detour through a shallower section).

From there, the trail went up. And up. It didn’t stop going up. For nearly 3 miles, not only did I encounter some of the steepest trail I’ve laid tires on, it was also incredibly rocky. Oh yeah- and did I mention that it just kept going up? It was nuts. It was the type of trail where you’d stall out, get off and walk through the steep rocks that just stalled you out, only to see more of the same just ahead. I’m happy to say that I cleaned some of it.

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Random steepness- the trail goes straight over that big rock at the top.

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Yeah… good luck with that…

Eventually I reached the last of the climb- a logging road that pitched up steeply and led back to the trailhead at Green Mountain Road. After the singletrack I’d just been on, a “smooth” piece of “road” ascending at what was likely double digit grades was actually a welcome sight.

Once I was back at the car, I had a snack and headed back out on the yellow trail (Jack’s Branch). The “technical” sections of it were pedestrian compared to what I’d been through in the previous hour, so the main difficulty was the fact that I was in hour 4 of my day, and my legs were feeling it. I made it around, though, for a total of 28 miles- 4hours, 10 minutes of riding, and nearly 5000ft of climbing (according to the Garmin).

I have to say that even though I’ve only been out on the trails a handful of times now, Syllamo is quickly teaching me how to ride my bike. I’m looking forward to Syllamo’s Revenge in May…

Andrea

Heading back for more

Luckily for me, whatever type of flu bug I’d caught was short-lived. I was able to ride by Saturday and went out for a miserably cold & windy 4 hour ride with a few of the Marx & Bensdorf guys. Johnny Mac gets ride leader of the year props for putting together an outing that included scenes such as these:

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rightturn

parker

Today, Ryan and I slept in a bit and went for a post-lunch MTB ride around Shelby Farms. The North trail is in phenomenal shape right now! Now it’s time to pack & get the bikes ready to head back to Mountain View in the morning so I can get a few more days of mountain riding in before I come back home for family stuff happening on December 25th. Gonna take a better camera this time- maybe I can get a few trail photos with something other than my camera phone…