Milestone

Yesterday I achieved a personal milestone. I spent over 5 hours pedaling my bike- all by myself no less. And, it was surprisingly not that bad. I credit two factors for making the time go by. First, I split the ride into two parts. The first part involved hill-repeat intervals which took up about two and half hours. After that I just focused on doing an easy two and half hour spin. Piece of cake.
Actually, I have a suspicion that the bigger factor to my seemingly effortless five hour adventure was the teaspoon of bright yellow powder that I put in one of my water bottles. No, I have not succumbed to the ever present pressure that is placed on any high-profile professional cyclist(read:doping and yes, I'm being sarcastic). No, this substance is perfectly legal and I recieved it in the mail a few days ago from a very reputable endurance nutrition perveyor. It is called PreRace from First Endurance, a personal sponsor of mine. Holy crap. It looks like some sort of nuclear reactive material and a full scoop contains more 'oomph' than a liter of Red Bull. And it is AWESOME! I am sort of tempted to slip a little into Ari's orange juice next weekend and see how many home projects I can talk him into doing;)

I'm a Survivor

I've been trying to suppliment my riding playlist with more interval friendly music. Interval friendly music must have a good, solid, and fast beat with minimal melody and lots of simple and rythmic lyrics ...i.e. rap and/or hip-hop (or whatever kids call it these days). Needless to say, I needed help finding some appropriate songs. Ari was only too happy to oblige.
So, now I'm jamming away to Lil Wayne, T.I., Beyonce, and of course my favorite, Outkast. One song that I've got stuck in my head (which is not on Ari's approved playlist BTW), is Survivor by Destiny's Child...
On yesterday's ride, it came in handy......

For a bit of a change and since I had a longer ride to get in, I headed to Betasso for some fun. I am very happy to report that I succesfully cleared the full Link trail!! Yeah!! I may have done a mini air-fist-pump I was so excited. I also may have said to myself "That's right, Erin, you truly ARE Hardcore! You must've puked out all the wussiness". So, I'm cruising through the loop on top really feeling good about myself when I encounter a very cute dog walking his owners. This dog looked like a cross between an Australian Sheperd and a small mop-very fluffy and low to the ground. As I approach the man is trying to wrestle the dog off the trail, but the dog seems like he really wants to say hello to me and will not budge. Since I can't safely ride around, I unclip and am bending down to say hello to this wagging little buddy when he promptly chomps down on my leg. WTF!?! Needless to say I'm pretty upset. I pull up my tight and check for blood. Fortunately, there isn't any and the owners apologetically go on their way. I get back on the bike and try to pedal, but my leg is throbbing. I spend a few minutes wallowing in self-pity contemplating heading home because surely this creature has caused some sort of hairline fracture to my shin. But then, Survivor comes on my playlist...and then I remember that I am Hardcore, "Erin, you are a Survivor. You just need to get some adrenaline pumping and that will take the pain away."
This actually worked and I was able to tough out the rest of the ride :) Today I have some nice bruises in an impressive bite-pattern.

Hardcore

Yeah, that's me-I am Hardcore. What does it take to be officially considered Hardcore you ask? Well, there are several different ways one can get this prestigious classification. One of which is to go so hard you puke. Which, unfortunately, is a badge that I earned yesterday on a rather intense ride with my coach, Ann Trombley. Long story short, we spent over four hours on mountain bikes ascending then descending dirt roads with some fun LT/VO2 intervals thrown in. For the first half of the ride I was all right and was really excited to experience a new fun little single-track section. Here's a pic of Ann (2000 Olympian) trying to show me how to corner. It's a little blurry because she's going so fast!!

Here's me trying it. Not nearly as fast or graceful. That's all right, I prove my Hardcoreness later in the ride.

Anyway, we make it through the intervals (barely, they were tough!!) and we stop at a little bakery/convenience store in Gold Hill. I have an intense headache so I buy some Advil. We go outside, Ann is talking to me, I'm not feeling well, and the next thing I know I'm losing the contents of my stomach. Turns out the altitude, the efforts, too much water and not enough electrolytes are a nasty combination.

But, I got home safe and sound and Ari and I took advantage of the super warm weather and took Tucker swimming. Turns out Angels love the water ;)

Families that play together...

The whole reason I'm into this sport of mountain biking is due to my parents who would take Devyn and I on mountain bike trips to Moab before it became the thriving Mecca it is today. We still go together pretty often, and actually did just that a few weekends ago. I wanted to show off some of the new trails by my house. So I talked Ari and my Mom and Dad into going with me. It was a great day-and I think we all had fun.

Drudge Forward...

...is more like it. Whose ever idea it was to "spring forward" this early in the year, was not a very intelligent or competent person...oh wait...:)
Anyway, I'm not very excited about the time change. I'm happy for the later sunsets. But, I was really enjoying being able to ride my bike into work watching the sun come up. Now, I'll have to figure out a different training schedule until the days get a bit longer since Ari isn't a fan of me riding in the dark.
In other news, I've just registered for my first non-Colorado national series race. That's right. I'll be going to Sea Otter in Monterey, California- against my and my coach's better judgement. It'll be the biggest race I've ever done, the longest race I've ever done, and the first mountain bike race I've flown to. I'm pretty nervous and a bit apprehensive, but also excited. I decided this season that I want to see how I do within the "national" arena so I figured it's better to start sooner rather than later. It also means that I need to crack down and get some serious longer rides in...hope the un-seasonably warm and dry Colorado weather cooperates.

Mucus Family Reunion

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I succesfully made it through my biggest block of training ever, which isn't saying much to be honest, and then I promptly came down with a cold. And it was lovely, let me tell you. As I spent the day Tuesday working from home, I was sort of laughing at myself. If anyone's seen the commercials for Mucinex, with the Mucus family who are big, green blogs, of well, mucus, that's what I had in my head. In fact, I think the Mucus family had planned a family reunion. They had booked my whole head, with some spacious suites reserved in my chest as well. Every time I cough or blow my nose I picture Uncle Harry Mucus being forced to leave the party early. Anyway, I'm easily entertained...