What a month!

To say the past month has been an interesting one is an understatement! I went from being on a total runners high at the end of my season, to this ... oops!

The beginning of November I had my final XC race of the year - the weather was beautiful (I got to wear capris and we had no snow!) and it was on a new course. It was hilly, tough and ugly; but I loved every minute of it.

Then we took a trip to the mountains for the Winterstart Night Race and my husbands birthday. It's one of my favorite trips to the Rocky's because we have so much down time to ride, run and have fun! The Winterstart Night Run is one we've been doing for years; it's a 5 mile out and back route that happens, you guessed it, at night. It's pitch dark, with only glow sticks to guide you and it's a blast!

This year marked my best year yet as my Littleman joined me for the entire 5 miles! He did so good and I was practically in tears the whole time running beside him! Serious Mama pride!

The days post race were filled with wonderful family rides on our favorite trails. Including one where we got caught completely surrounded by a huge herd of elk. Following the trail, on the watch for bears I all of a sudden looked up ahead and yelled stop. Elk flanked us on all sides; it was beyond awesome!

Slowly, slowly making our way out as to not entice the daddy elk to charge we finished our trail ride on a serious high! Our other adventures? We hiked, ran and ate ... our favorite things!

The week following our mountain adventures officially started my off-season, and since we had no snow we decided to head out on a Sunday morning to ride our favorite family trail close to home. A nice easy ride, right? Then it happened.

How did it happen? Well I stopped peddling; and we all know what happens when you do that! I was out for a nice easy mountain bike trail ride going over some bridge features and for some reason decided to stop at the highest point. And guess what, I fell over! I fell over onto a straight out-stretched leg and sprained my knee. I spent a week on crutches and a brace, had x-rays and got all the ligament tests done (thankfully nothing serious!!) and for the past weeks have been rehabbing like a crazy person.

But let's face it, being injured sucks. 

I mean it really sucks. For me thankfully it doesn't happen very often (*knock on wood*) because it makes me a very, very grouchy person. I'll admit it, I'm not pleasant to be around. However, if there was a good side to this lovely knee injury it's that it happened when it did. I am very thankful it didn't happen beginning or mid-season. 

That being said, over the last weeks I have worked very hard to rehab and strengthen my knee.

Single leg cycling - not fun.

I was good and didn't run (with one minor exception, where my stubborn stupid self just had to physically see if I could run - it was not a happy ending). I progressed to some "run walks" at a very slow and pedestrian pace, in a controlled environment (i.e. the treadmill - my personal hell) to see how my knee would handle it. This past week I was able to get in two successful runs (although slow), and even a cross-country ski! The knee held up good, and I enjoyed every lung sucking step and stride!

Happy run face!

As I look to 2016 and what goals and races I'm planning for, I'm grateful for my health, my family adventures and everything else in between! I'm looking forward to crushing some races in the New Year - assuming I can keep the rubber side down!

Bye-bye cross, see you next year!

Last weekend marked the final 2 cyclocross races of the 2015 season, and what a great weekend it was!

Saturday's race location was a really fun course layout. It had lots of off-camber, short ups, quick downs, twists and turns. Although it wasn't typically the type of course I usually do well on, I was really pleased with my race.

I was able to have some smooth lines, power up where I wanted to/needed to and felt comfortable on many of the tight turns; WITH EXCEPTION TO ONE SPOT!

This hill (above) should have been totally ride-able, but on each lap I either had someone in front of me blocking my line and stopping me OR my bike kept bouncing off the line I was going for! I always ended up getting only so far before having to dismount and run up. Regardless, it was a really fun day with beautiful weather! (last year, there was snow!)

Saturday's race was also on Halloween, and some racers dress up for the race. While it was fun "finding nemo" as he rode around the course, my favorite was this guy!

ET Go Home - So awesome!

The final great thing about Saturday's race were the money grabs, and this year I got one! An American dollar too, so it's practically worth 10 dollars Canadian! (HAHA) Post race we were rewarded with a delicious bowl of homemade chili and an ice cold beer. So good.

Sunday's race location was in a different spot. We were located just out of town on an AG society property. When we pulled up we could see most of the course and it did not look appetizing. It looked fairly flat and dull, not really what we'd hoped for for our last race of the season. Sunday also had some different weather. It had cooled off from the day before and more layers were needed - but as they say, that's cross weather.

While I was not feeling this course at all on pre-ride, it turned out to be one of my better races over the entire season. It wasn't very technical but did have some sections where I could shift into my big gears and hammer it; rare for cyclocross!

Sunday I was also lucky enough to have a sweet battle going with this chick, which was really fun! Some days in cyclocross (or any race for that matter) its all about the race within the race. You battle back and forth with someone for much of the duration until one of you finally pulls away or ends up winning it at the line.

One of 4 logs spread out on the course;
they got bigger and bigger!

Head down: hammering it!

While I have no problem pushing myself to the limits, it's always fun to have someone to chase or stay ahead of! Since moving up categories this year, I haven't had the opportunity for many battles - open women is a tough-ass category and I'm still finding my legs to keep up! On this day I won my battle and finished the last race of the season strong and completely exhausted! On that, I call it a successful season!

I'll take mountains in the background any day!

Cyclocross is such a short, intense season but it's SO much fun! While I'm sad it's over, finishing off the season with two solid and strong races is a great way to end it.

Happy face: won the battle!

Coming up next weekend is cross-country provincials - my final cross-country race of the season; as well as my official last race before entering into off-season. While I'm still planning my off-season training and finalizing my 2016 race schedule; I'm looking forward to building up my strength and power over the next year so that I will be able to push my limits even more! What will you be working on in your off-season?

Fire and tears

I honestly don't even know where to begin on this one; so let's just start...

A few weekends ago was much like any of our recent weekends: jam packed with races and family time fun! I had a cross-country race about an hour drive from our home at noon, then we all had evening cyclocross races about another hour from home, but in the other direction. If home was "A", my cross-country race was "B", and our cyclocross races were "C".

It didn't make sense to go home after XC so we look advantage of the time and my husband got to squeeze in a throws session at a track en-route to our evening races. It meant we'd be out all day and well into the night, but we're used to that! Pack all the snacks and clothing for every possible weather scenario and we're good to go!

This cross-country race was at one of my favorite locations in the province. Cross-country races in Alberta are few and far between, but the locations are always totally awesome. The course was in a small town on their XC ski trails; it was lots of up, down and some flat. A really tough course that never fails to push you hard and make you dig deep to do well.

I knew the course, I knew the hills; and my plan was to attack and maintain. Attack the hills and maintain a hard consistent pace for the race. While my pace was in the range of what I wanted, I just couldn't attack the hills and lost time because of it. This I know, is due to a "slight" lack of hill and strength training over the past months. (However, this will be a focus of my 2015-2016 off-season training plan.)

While my time at the finish wasn't horrible, I wanted more. I wanted a faster time yes, but I also wanted to feel better feeling worse. Anyone who runs xc knows what I'm talking about. You know you're going to hurt running those miles, but you always hope for a good strong hurt, not a weak ugly one.

With no time to dwell, I had a quick stretch and banana and we were off to our next destination: throws facility. The weather was absolutely beautiful and Javelin Daddy had a great weight throw session! Once throws were done we headed off to our last destination of the day for cyclocross! Finally we all get to race!

Our Littleman races in the adult categories, either "C" or novice men depending on the race. At this event there was also a kids race, which sometimes is not very exciting and why our bean enjoys the adult races much better. However, this weekend the races were in Bike Town Alberta and they know biking! They know the kids want to do barriers, sand, and all the fun stuff they see their parents doing! As our Littleman knew this, he decided he wanted to do the kids race as well - sweet!

The kids had a blast ripping it up on the course through the sand and over the barriers. Our Littleman did awesome, coming second place; but it was what he did after that got me to tears. He stayed until the end, until all the kids were done their laps and cheered them on. He even helped the last little dude over the barriers on his last lap...sportsmanship at it's best. I was in complete tears. Serious Mama moment.

Once I gathered myself together, it was almost time for our race. As this race was a "little" outside the rules for cyclocross (it may have had a jump, some fire, a sketchy downhill gravel section and a smoke tent), categories were more casual with A, B, C or Newbie. Which meant we all got to race together in Cat C (whereas normally I'm with the women and Javelin Daddy and Littleman both race in men). It's so much fun to all be out on the course together!

Pre-race: No clue what we were talking about! 

The race was so much fun! As the night went on it became darker and darker and the fire barriers became all that more electric! There are 2 night cross races in Alberta and they are definitely out of this world!

Photo credit Nancy St-Hilaire

Before we knew it the darkness became pitch black, we'd had our food truck burger (pulled pork for me - delicious!), watched some of the elites and it was time to drag our butts home so that we could get up early and do it again!

Burger on the podium? Why not?!
Where am I looking? No clue?

That next morning came fast! But since we didn't really unpack from the night before we were pretty much packed up and ready to go.

It was provincials on the Sunday and we were back to our regular race categories of the boys going first and me later on in the afternoon.

Cyclocross is a sport where the number of laps you do is based on the leader's time during the first few laps; only after that do you find out how many total laps you'll be doing. Everyone finishes on the leaders' lap, which means if you get lapped, you end up doing less laps than the leaders. Our category race time is usually 40 minutes, which typically means 5-6 laps in a race.

Our Littleman usually gets in 3 laps, which is pretty insane considering he's racing against adults. On Sunday however, he got 4! As he came around on his 2nd lap he shouted to Javelin Daddy on the course "I think I'm going to get 4 laps"!! He busted his butt on that 3rd lap to not get passed, and managed to get in that 4th lap! Me at the finish: more tears.

After a few hours of downtime between races (meaning play time outside!) it was my turn to tear it up. My race was not bad, considering it was my third race of the weekend. One minor wipe-out, where I wasn't paying attention to the upcoming gravel on a tight turn; other than that I managed to keep the rubber side down and put in a solid effort.

Photo Credit Courtney Rosborough

Being with family, playing outside all day and racing your butt off ... what a seriously great weekend!

Top it off with a delicious beverage and home cooked meal and all is well! Cheers to the next one!

Thanksgiving weekend racing fun!

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, and for us that meant extra family time; one of the things I'm most thankful for. Our extra family time this past weekend was spent doing what we love - racing and having fun! It was a jam-packed race weekend with not one, not two, but THREE cyclocross races and a turkey trot thrown in just because we could. With it being Thanksgiving we had the bonus of that extra weekend day, which allowed for another race day; so why not right?

It all started Friday night with an eliminator style cyclocross race. With it only being one lap at a time, you pushed yourself harder than you would if you had 4-5 laps together; but that was ok. It was only 1 lap and then time to recover right? Well, the recovery ended up being much shorter than anticipated, so it was sprint like hell, rest a minute or two and go again! It was crazy fast but so much fun! The way the heats worked out, with all ages and categories mixed, we even had a heat with all three of us together!

Saturday was a great race day. The boys were up in the morning, and I cheered and cowbelled my little heart out for them both until it was my turn. The weather was beautiful that day and I had some fun battles with some strong chicks out on the course. I felt in the groove (as much as I can for my lack of cyclocross skills) and my legs felt strong. I finished hard, exhausted and with carnage at the finish. Just what it should be; and I couldn't wait to do it again the next day!

Sunday, much to my dislike, ended up NOT being a great race day for me. While I woke up excited to battle it out again, I just didn't have that cross flow in me come race time. I felt slow, legs heavy and seemed to be hitting every root I could find which rocked me all over the place. Let's just say Sunday was not a smooth race. I find cyclocross funny that way, some days you rock it and some days it rocks you.

Pain face - photo credit: Bill Quinney

My boys however, both had a great race day on Sunday, battling the insane 90-100km/hr (!!) gusts of wind as they powered through the course. That crazy wind did however make for some wicked giant leaf piles. Can you spot the feet?

New pre-race warm-up: leaf pile jumping!

Monday's race was my favorite day of all! It was a family race that we were all doing together, so I was thinking it would be a nice easy run on the trails with my boys. Little did I know my littleman would crush the course and the leisurely 5km I had pictured was a full out race! Running side by side my bean I was fighting back the Mama tears. I couldn't have been more proud of him! It was the best run ever.

We rounded out the weekend with a great home-cooked family meal sharing the many things we're thankful for. (No pictures, we ate it too fast!)

Moving onto next weekend...I'm looking for redemption. Saturday is a double-header for me with a noon cross-country race then evening cyclocross. Sunday we wrap it up with cyclocross provincials for one great weekend! Another triple header and I love it! Race, refuel, rest, repeat! Fall is a wonderful time of year and I'm so thankful we get to do it all as a family!

SMASHFEST!

Racing twice in one weekend is never easy. You know the pain you feel on the Saturday race is only going to be exponentially increased in 24 hours when you do it again on Sunday with tired legs. So why do it? 

Because it is SO much fun! 

It’s not very often that I get to totally smash myself with races so close together. Therefore when I can I take advantage of it, I do - and cyclocross/cross-country running season is the time to do it!

This past weekend was double cyclocross; one Saturday and one Sunday. I was totally pumped on Saturday and ready to just hammer it, but first I got to cheer on my boys, who usually race a few hours before me.

LittleCheetah was amazing out there. For those of you who know cyclocross, you know it’s a beast. You know it’s 40 or 50 or 60 minutes of pain and suffering that you have to have a lot of heart, grit and determination to do. But most importantly, you have to enjoy doing it. 

Running all over the course cheering for Javelin Daddy to catch the racer in front of him, and at the same time holding back proud-mama tears watching my littleman try ... and try ... and try again to get his bike up some of those crazy hills, then finally succeeding! It completely melts my heart. 

Family race weekends are the best!

Once my boys finish and have gathered their breath again, there is usually a few hours gap before I race. We’ll usually kick back, grab some snacks and talk about how fun the course was, what lines to take and where the crazy parts were! I resist the urge to dig into one of the delicious smelling post-race burgers, while my boys chow down. A post-race burger is absolute satisfaction, a pre-race one … well, let’s just say that may not go over well come lap 3 or 4 of my race.

A few hours go by and cue my race time.

Saturday’s pre-ride of the course went great and mentally I was ready to put myself through some serious pain and suffering to try and get the results I wanted. I lined up and off we went. Within the first half lap I was wondering what had happened to my legs? Did they take a wrong turn? Did they fall down a hill? Whatever happened, they clearly didn’t get off the start line along with the rest of my body! 

While I did go through pain and suffering, it didn't exactly yield the results I wanted. A few washouts here and there followed by some slow, ugly turns and hills made for a great sufferfest, but not a speedy one. My legs definitely had a different idea of what they were doing that day. Around lap 3 I'm thinking "crap, maybe I should have had that burger"? No worries, always tomorrow.

Post race pain face

Sunday’s race pretty much followed suit, with my legs left wandering around off course, clearly not attached to my body. Some days you have it and can hammer it, and some days you lose your legs. What can you do? That’s racing and I love it.

Next weekend is a triple header; cross-country at noon on Saturday followed a few hours later by cyclocross that night. Then, another cyclocross race on Sunday. Bring it. And maybe the burger too!