Not All Rainbows and Butterflies

I have not updated the blog in a long time. Honestly, I have not been that into it and haven't felt like I have had anything good to blog about.

The other day, I realized I don't have to have good news in order to blog. I can blog about any damn thing I want to. So here it is-

The past few weeks haven't been that great. I hurt my wrist, I got stressed with too much going on, I got sick, I couldn't go to Zolo on my birthday, my hip has been hurting, and I don't enjoy working at the coffee shop anymore. All I want to do is be healthy and to ride my bike. It's been a struggle to do even that and I've been pretty bummed out.

Despite the lackluster month or so, there have been some good things.
- Steel*Wool on the 13th to celebrate my bday was friken awesome and fun.
- Spending time with He Who Must Not Be Named has been a special treat the past few days.
- I have a new coach, Bruce, who I'm pretty excited about.
- We had NOW team camp in December and 2013 is going to be awesome.

Hopefully, the sickness, the stress, and the injuries are beyond me. I really think this has been the worst off season I have ever had. Thank goodness for the simplicity of training and riding bikes. The past few days have been awesome. I've had some of the best bike rides I have had in a long time. My fitness is really awful and I mean really awful, but I'm more motivated than I have been in years, so getting fit will be pretty dang fun.

Finally, I'm feeling optimistic and excited.

On Christmas Eve, I did one of my favorite rides. It was super fun and I enjoyed every single minute of it. 

Happy New Year!

ALP Cycles

ALP Cycles is officially official! It's pretty cool to have a kit with my name and my business on it- that people are wearing!

The ALP Cycles kit from Pactimo is the best and most comfortable kit I have ever worn.

 Yes, coaching is going well and it makes me happy. Plus, it keeps me motivated and excited to create new workouts (and torture myself with them).

Thank you most awesome ALP Cycles athletes for your continued support and success! Here's to a successful 2013!

Now that I can't, I want to

A funny thing happens when you can't do something- you want to do it.
When you can't have something- you want it.
When you're told you can't - you want to.

Due to a spastic wrist injury sustained last Thursday, I can't ride bikes- and now I want to.

I took at time out in October, but come November, I still wasn't ready to begin training. I started to train anyway. Then came the signs. First, I crashed my CX bike- hard. Then I got major tendonitis in my knee from the gym, and I broke a mtn bike mid ride. The signs were there- it's not time to train yet. It's still time out time. But, I didn't listen. I felt like I needed to begin getting ready for 2013, despite not really being into it.

Then came Thursday's over the bars, lucky to not break my wrist or anything else crash. Now, I have a brace on my right hand and can not ride. If there was snow, I wouldn't be able to ski. The universe sat me down and forced me to rest more. It's perfect actually. Now, I'm hungry to ride, hungry to train, and hungry to get the party started for a successful 2013.

First I have to wait and heal. My wrist is making improvement everyday, but riding is out of the question for another week or so. It's ok, the more I sit out, the hungrier I get.

Done.

As I sit here (with beer), I can't help but smile. The cleanse is officially over. The goal of today was to "gradually add in normal food".  My adds today were:
-1 shot of espresso (Yay!)
- granola
-a grapefruit
and
- 1/2 a beer.
- Maybe corn tortillas with dinner...

I'm very happy to be finished with the cleanse. I had energy all day- yay food! - and pooped twice!! (2 green poos)

I'm excited to be on a path of healthy, clean eating, and doing some sort of exercise every day. It is time to build the "Fall Foundation" and I'm excited about it.

I'm happy the cleanse is over. I'm happy I gave it a try. I'm happy to never do it again.
:)

Almost!

One day. One day (actually less than 10 hours) until I can have espresso, oatmeal with granola, and chips.

When I wake up, I'll be on day 10 of my cleanse. I'll be able to slowly add "normal" food back into my diet. I'm excited.

Nothing much as changed the past two days. I'm still having small green poop, still eating beans and white rice. Today, being day 9, I got to eat oatmeal, and had more choices of fruits and veggies.

Today, I had enough energy to barista for 6 hours, do coaching work, go to the gym, and go on a dog walk-- something four days ago would have killed me. Carbohydrates and calories rule!

Tomorrow, when I have my first shot of espresso in 10 days, I'll wonder "was it worth it?". Do I feel "better" or "cleaner" now? Well, one thing is for sure; as I get further and further away from days 5-7 I do feel better and have more energy- but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm able to eat more and eat more carbohydrates. If nothing else, this cleanse reaffirmed that my body likes carbohydrates and fat far better than it likes protein and meat.

10 days ago, I started the cleanse with the goals- "I'm doing it as a personal challenge and to try to figure out what, in my every day eating, gives me such bad gas".


I was challenged. Big time! This cleanse was hard and, honestly, I'm not sure I want to do it again- ever.

A large amount of beans give me gas.
I'm also curious about peanuts and their effect on my gassiness. I guess I'll find out when I eat them again. Same with corn.

For now, I can go to bed looking forward the morning and it's routine instead of dreading it.

Days 6-7

The theme of Day 6 was bean farts. Goal #1 accomplished of the cleanse- a large amount of beans gives me gas. They were horrible.

I'm pretty over beans, but when that's the only option other than apples, pears, white rice, and select veggies, beans it is.

I had hard time eating dinner. Too much spinach, a super boring meal, and more beans to add to my all ready happening bean farts.

People keeping asking, "how's the cleanse going?" Well, it sorta sucks. I have a mild headache that doesn't seem to go away, food isn't inspiring, I'm not all that hungry until I get dizzy and almost fall down, and my poops are small and unrewarding. Plus, I don't feel all that good. Worth it? Not sure.

The good news? I pooped green this morning. Word has it, that green poop means the cleanse is working. 

Today was day 7, the last day of the super restricted food choices. I think I broke the rules by eating salmon today instead of beans, but after yesterday, I couldn't handle beans today. I needed some real protein and no farts. The salmon gave me energy to do a small gym workout, take the dogs for a walk, and do some chores around the house.

Tomorrow I get to add in all fruits and veggies! Still no oatmeal, but I'll survive.

I won't lie, I'm looking forward to the cleanse being over.

Turning the Corner

This morning started much like yesterday morning. Sorta sucky and very hungry! I was hungry in the middle of the night- annoying. I had a headche, felt like ass, and the smallest poo of the entire cleanse. Why am I doing this? 

I was cracking- or had cracked. When you eat beans and collard greens for breakfast, that's just not normal. I wanted oatmeal so badly. Any kind of carbohydrate would do.

I emailed Dr Andy for help. Told him I was thinking about quitting- ready to quit. Did he have any suggestions?

He said, stick with it. It's worth it. If you get hungry, EAT! He gave me some new ideas and recipes and said since I wasn't taking the shakes or pills I could try plain white rice. Rice?! Magic to my ears.

Eat, I did. An entire can of beans doused with oil olive and a ton of lettuce. That made me feel a lot better! Still very low energy, but no more headache and able to function.

Then, several hours later, I ate white rice with baked apples. It was magic in my mouth. I never knew white rice could taste so good. Instantly, I felt better. I was able to take the dogs for a walk, and do a short Pilates session.

With the addition of rice, I now believe I can finish the cleanse. 2 more hard days left.

Not so fun anymore

Days 1-3 of the cleanse have been pretty easy. Despite the caffeine headache on day 1, I have felt fine and been able to eat the somewhat limited diet.

Not today. So far, day 4 has totally sucked. I've been really busy the last 3 days with work, errands, and stuff doing, so I didn't miss my "normal" food and coffee routine. However, today, I'm at home and I miss coffee. It's not so much the coffee as the routine. It gives me something to look forward to each morning. My breakfast that I eat every single day, gets me excited for breakfast and I look forward to eating it. Now I can't have either. It's totally a bummer.

I feel like I should go back to bed. I'm hungry, achy, and tired. Maybe all this "yuck" I'm feeling is my body getting rid of the junk. Perhaps the cleanse is working, but it still sucks. Doing this for another 5 days? That's going to be hard. I'm ready to throw in the towel and eat my dang oatmeal, nuts, and granola.

I'll make it through today. I'll probably make it through tomorrow, but it'll suck too.

Hopefully, I'll turn the corner and begin to feel better instead of worse. Hopefully...

Day 2

I'm feeling better. Very little caffeine headache today. I kept expecting it to come and it did later in the day, but it's a very dull ache that I barely notice.

I'm also pleased to report I have not had any gas today. That's right, not one fart. That's amazing.

One thing I wish was better was my morning poo. Usually coffee assists my poo-ing and without it, these past two days have not been great (they've been OK, but not "cleansing" feeling). But with no farts, I'm not too worried about it.

It's amazing how cleanly I've been eating. No processed food. No corn. No sugar. The corn thing is big for me as corn is my favorite food. I hope all this clean eating pays off.

Tomorrow I cut out grains, nuts, and milk substitutes. That means no Oatmeal for breakfast. Bummer.
I've been enjoying eating quinoa, but that has to go too. I can still eat yams, so that's good.

The cleanse I'm following was suggested by Dr. Andy at Peak Sports Chiropractic in Boulder. It's Clear Change by Metagenics. I'm supposed to have started supplementation yesterday, but with USADA fear, I'm skipping the pills and powers and trying to do it through diet only. It's a little bit of an experiment but so far so good. I'm eating healthy, feeling better than yesterday, and not farting! Success already.

Headache

Day 1 of the cleanse has felt like one big giant headache. The headache started around 10am and progressively got worse until 1pm where it has stayed the same, annoying, no caffeine pain.

The diet itself was pretty easy today. Oats, quinoa, fruit, veggies, salmon. Normal stuff minus salt and added sugar. It feels good to eat super "clean". It does not feel good to have a no coffee headache.

I hope tomorrow's headache will dissipate- though the last time I gave up coffee the pain lasted 5 miserable days.

Looking foward to day 2.

Day 0

Tomorrow, I'm starting a 10 day cleanse. Mostly I'm doing it as a personal challenge and to try to figure out what, in my every day eating, gives me such bad gas.

Little did I know that the personal challenge part would start before the cleanse even started. You see, during the cleanse you can't have caffeine or alcohol. Alcohol, no problem. But the caffeine part? Yikes! So, I decided I should wean myself from coffee a little bit today so that when I can't have any tomorrow, it won't suck so badly.

It didn't go very well. I was off the entire day. While working at Salto, I struggled to park the car, actually it was the worse parking job I have ever done, I f'd up the French Press making, cut my finger on the cash drawer, then to top it off, crashed my CX bike on a trail I have done a gazillion times. All this followed by a headache.

Really? I usually only have 2 shots of espresso each day. Today was one shot and I was a disaster. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

I'll update each day about the cleanse and how I'm doing and feeling. Stay tuned...

Official Time Out

Some call it a "post season break". I call it a "time out". Time out from racing bikes, riding bikes, eating healthy, and just plain being an athlete.

I'll call "time in" soon, but for now, it's still time out time. After 9 months of riding my bike, being a bike racer, and thinking about bike racing 80% of all waking time, I need to rest. My mind is cooked, my body is cooked, and the wind has returned (I don't like riding in it).

When I'm ready, I'll begin riding and training again. The unhealthy eating lasted about 10 days before I felt so bloated, fat, and unhealthy that I couldn't stand it anymore. After 2 weeks off, I've started to stretch again (dang that feels good), take longer and longer dog walks, and split wood. A lot of wood splitting. It's fun in a weird way and splitting wood is a great upper body workout. I see Pilates soon in my future, followed by the weight room. No bikes yet. It'll be soon enough when I'm packing on the clothes, filling the thermos with hot chocolate, and riding my CX bike on the snow covered roads. But not yet. And it's windy and I hate the windy.

My race season officially ended in Vail at the Tour of Vail Crit. Robin and I raced and it was the weirdest race I have ever done. Lapped the field, negative racing, small field, giant prize money, and a crash on the last lap. I had a majorly bad feeling that day about the race. I have never felt that way about a race. I knew something bad was going to happen. It did. Major bummer for Robin as she used all her prize money at the ER. Thank goodness she is ok. She'll have another scar on her elbow, but what bike racer doesn't?

Time out.

The Week

7 days- dang.
Day 1- Valmont CX Race in Boulder. A small fight with Amy and she won. I was second and pleasantly surprised!

Day 2- Chill, pack, teach a CX Clinic in Boulder.
Day 3- Fly to Vegas, build bike, and melt and cramp while pre riding the CrossVegas course.

Day 4- AM- Interbike- Sign posters and be nice to people at the NOW Energy Bar booth.

Day 4- PM- Race CrossVegas with friend and teammie Pups (Robin Farina). Holy crap, I had the CX race of my life and got 3rd. I couldn't believe it- still can't. Fricken amazing. Yep, that's right, I have impressed myself.

Day 5- Work NOW booth and fly home.
Day 6- Drive to Crested Butte with friend and fellow ALP athlete Liz. Pre drive/ride parts of the CB 100 course.

Day 7- CB 100. That's right, a 100 mile mtn bike race in Crested Butte. 11,000ft of climbing all above 8,500 ft. 10hrs, 11 min, 1 rear flat, 1 new course record, and 0 crashes. Again, I'm impressed with myself.

Thanks Eszter Horanyi and Mountain Flyer for the sweet photo.

Actually, I was more impressed with Liz than with myself. She finished only 4 min behind me and saved me with a CO2 on the Dyke Trail. Watch out mtn bike world, she's gonna kick your asses in a couple of years.

Day 8 (I know, 8 days is one more day than a week, but oh well)- Amazingly awesome mellow mtn bike ride in CB with Liz. Yes, we were tired. Yes, we probably shouldn't have ridden so much, but we couldn't resist. When in Rome...

Time Out

No racing. No traveling. No training. For the past three weeks, I've had a time out and it's been awesome. I've gotten to hang out with friends. I've gotten to ride bikes with He Who Must Not Be Named. I've gotten to hang out with my family. I've had big, awesome, bike rides.

See, not all time out's are bad.

Top of Mammoth Gulch- one of the big bike rides

 The cows cheered and moo-d us on.

 My friends. Every Thursday we ride bikes, drink beer, whiskey, and be silly.

 My Family. The start of my first ALP Cycles Athlete Appreciation Ride. The ride was a giant success, mostly in part to my parents. There are more pictures on the ALP Cycles Coaching FB page.

 Our Aid Station in Granby was my former high school- Middle Park

 The leaves are changing and it's beautiful. It's also getting chilly (I had to use the seat warmer in the car this morning).

 Lucy Dog keeps me company on our let's go poop walks. Moe Dog is probably pooping.

 He Who Must Not Be Named.... is the best. And he makes me happy. (Yes, this was a Thursday ride and we dressed up like Germans and rode bikes).

 It was fun!

For now, Time Out is officially over. I have 2 weeks of crazy. 2 CX races (1 finished. I got 2nd), 1 100 mile mtn bike race, 1 trip to Vegas (I'm here now), 1 trip to Crested Butte, 2 trips to Vail,1 TT and 1 Crit.  I'll need the whole month of October to recover from that.

How's Your Ass-pen?

Done. The last official race has come and gone. It was fun. It was in Aspen, and it was a great way to end the season.

First off, our host house ruled. The view was so pretty.

Good kitty.

Not a bad view for our host house Bulls (actually steers but bulls sounds better).

 

 Day 1 brought a ride up Independence Pass- a must do when in Aspen.  Swanny Mike, me, and Rider Who Shall Remain Nameless made it to the 48 degree and raining top. It was a chilly ride down to the coffee shop.

Day 2 was a ride with ALP Cycles Coaching athletes Kelly and Cat, and a pre-race dinner put on by Snowmass that The Mom and Dad came to as well. Good times. 

Day 3, race day. Despite being only a 4 corner crit, it was fun. We raced hard, we raced well and I got second place. Bonus of the day was the Powers cheering section of The Mom, The Dad, The Sister and Niece J.

Post Aspen, we even took 3 more NOW roadies on the steel*wool ride.

Yes, Aspen was super fun, but coming home to JH and silly friends is still the best.

Update

There's been a lack of updates- in case you haven't noticed.

I came home from Cascade and didn't do much. I was tired.

Then it was off to Chicago for Tour of Elk Grove- a 3 day stage race in the burbs. All I can say is I'm glad I don't live in the suburbs- of anywhere. Stop lights everywhere, everything is a chain (stores, restaurant, etc.), and there were no coffee shops (other than Starbucks).

Pretty much, after Elk Grove, the season is now over. Major bummer that Aspen got cancelled to just a crit. Now, I guess it's time to ride mtn bikes and drink margaritas.

I figured, I have all this fitness, I might as well race the North Boulder crit this past Sunday. It's pretty neat because one year ago, at the NoBo Crit, I made my "comeback" post broken 'bow and 3 months off the bike. I suffered my way to 7th place and was so happy and proud. On Sunday, I took it one step further and won the dang race. That felt good. 

Post race Cari, Christa, and I went into the Boulder Creek to cool down. That felt good too.

Today, I got to ride mtn bikes with my NOW mechanic Erik. That was fun- and hard.

I won't lie, now that the season is pretty much over and it's only August, I feel a little lost. What do I do now? Nothing to train for and no trips around the corner. Guess I'll enjoy being home and chill out. I'm excited for it.

Yellow - at last!

 The trip started in Boise. We got to stay in the same host house as we stayed in in May and we knew exactly where the Crux was for our morning ride coffee stop.

After an afternoon of farting around, it was time to race. The Boise Twilight Crit-er-e-um. It had been 3 weeks since I last raced and I felt a little rusty. Then it started to rain, and I felt wet and rusty- also a little afraid as the roads were super slippy (and dirty).

 Post race, Devon looked like she had been to war.

 Anne had apparently been to a friendly war.

I was lucky enough to get second place - in an Exergy sandwich.

 We got a rainbow post race.

 Then it was time to drive to Bend, Oregon. On the way, we passed the cheese mini bus. I found it fitting as He Who Must Not Be Named and I eat this cheese almost every night with our dinner.

 We starting racing Cascade, a 6 day stage race. The good thing about having to go to Bend, is that it's a cool place. Nice scenery, good food, cute town, bike friendly, and good coffee. Yep, found 3 good coffee shops and had as much espresso as I could find time to have.

Another cool thing about Bend? I used to go there for ski camp.

Hello Mt Bachelor.

After Arrrrrmstrong quit the race, I got to wear the yellow leaders jersey. By the last day, thanks to my NOW teammies, I got to win the yellow jersey. Done. I've never won a big stage race like Cascade before. I've gotten countless 2nd's and 3rd's but never have come home with the jersey. This one is special.

 We celebrated by taking Devon out for Ice Cream. I copied Beth and got a sundae. I can't remember the last time I went out for ice cream but it was dang good.

Yep, this bike racing thing can be pretty fun. I'm lucky to have a supportive man and doggies and a great team to travel and race with.

The end. For now.

Break Time

 2 weeks home. 5 more days left. It's been a really great break. I needed it. I was getting tired of power meters, skinny tires, spandex, the race/recover cycle, and being away from home.

I needed to ride my new mtn bike, ride my road bike without worrying about my watts and cadence. I needed to get drunk at steel*wool, I needed to see my family, and I needed to remind my friends and He Who Must Not Be Named that I still care about them and want to hang out.

I needed a break and I got it. Now, I'm ready to get serious again. Time to train. Time to focus. Only 3 more important races left.

 On a side note- I got to do Saturday's part of the MS 150 on a tandem and it was awesome.

 Lori and I kicked ass. We were strong, we laughed, we learned, and we were finished by 11:30am.

Augusta

I have to say, the idea of going to Augusta early to "get used to the heat and humidity" for Nationals seemed awful. I don't like heat and I don't like humidity- but this trip was FUN! Actually, all trips this year have been fun. They are like going on vacation with your friends. We hang out, we laugh, we drink coffee, and every so often, we race our bikes around in circles.

This trip was no different. Robin, Addy, Erik and I had fun and it was like vacation. Later in the week, joined by the rest of our teammaies, we raced.

Not a bad view from our "lake house" -aka host house that was amazing.

Here's proof that Robin actually does dishes.

 This is my most favorite picture of them all. TT bike, sunset, lake, pretty.

 This was the first trip of the year we did not visit a coffee shop- not for lack of trying as every time we visited town, they were all closed. However, we replaced our double shot espressos for a double shot of wheat grass- almost every day.

Some sort of coffee drink that was ordered. It began as a Macchiato, and ended up as...?

 Being the Queen of Drinks, Robin was willing to try it all.

 Oh ya, we rode and raced our bikes. It was US Nationals after all.

 4th in the crit-er-i-um, 4th in the road race

 3rd in the TT.

Always having fun. Actually I was so busy having fun in the baby pool (peeing in it), I almost missed the awards ceremony for the crit.

I am so lucky. My team is fun, they are my friends, and we race well.