My friend and former teammate Krista Park recently qualified for Marathon Worlds, and needs help getting there. Unfortunately, she has to fund the entire trip out of her own pocket, since USA cycling doesn't cover it. This wouldn't be so bad if Marathon Worlds were in, say, Arizona, but the girl has to get to Germany. Germany people!!!
I'm having a hard enough time getting to Wisconsin this weekend (and that's next door), so I can't even imagine the financial nightmare of getting to Germany. Krista has to pay $250 just to get her race kit from USA Cycling. Good grief!
Krista is an amazing athlete and just a really good person. I can't imagine anyone better to represent the USA. So what can we do? There is a raffle going on right now to help Krista out. For $5 you get entered into a drawing to win some really, really sweet prizes. Mtbracenews has the entire list of what you could win. Lots of good stuff being raffled off!!!
Here is the link to purchase a raffle ticket!!! Good luck!!! Personally I'm crossing my fingers that I win the Stan's No Tubes wheelset or my coach :-)
PS. I finally updated our food blog! Yum!

All you need is a one sweet bike...

Plus
a few essentials ...
Plus
Good friend/ride buddyYesterday I rode my SS out to Egypt Valley to meet my friend and former teammate Bonnie. Lately we seem to have conflicting schedules, so it was nice finally being able to hang out together. She's building a house really close to all of the trails that I ride, so it will be much easier to hang out once she moves.

After riding trail we rode over to her new house so that she could give me a tour.
Bonnie leading the way...Ta da!!!
Hanging out in her living room....

My coach only had me scheduled for a 2 hour ride. I was out and about for 3 hours, but my total ride time was only about 2.5. I think that's a fair compromise :-)
I have this dumb rule that I always have to ride the 3 mile dirt hill on my way home whenever I am out in Ada. It's a short little hill, but it hurts! And I know that everyone looking at this pictures is probably like, "hill??? What hill??? That looks like a flat dirt road!"
I swear, this is a climb! Anyways, back to my rule. It seemed particularly dumb yesterday, as I was on my SS, which meant that I had to mash my brains out to get to the top. I actually had to zig-zag a bit, but I made it. Phew!

I just want to reiterate one more time that there really is a hill there!!!
The training for the rest of my week is going to look the same. More 2 hour rides, and most of them will be on my SS, since both my Mamasita and my Dos Niner need some new parts. I'm also going to attempt a new recipe that Bonnie gave me tonight for the food blog! Luckily it does not involve an oven, so Scott doesn't have to worry about me blowing up the house.
PS. Jason wrote a great article for Outdoor Athlete Magazine. It's about Muscle Imbalances that occur in cyclists. Here's a link to the article. I like it for two reasons. First of all, it's really informative. Second of all, I'm in it. ha ha!

There were some Topeak goodies waiting for me when I arrived home from our trip, and I've been playing around with them all weekend. I DO like gear :-)
I think Scott is most excited about the saddle bag since we've been taking the "desperate times call for desperate measures" approach with my old one. I'm talking duck tape, rope...you name it. Anything we could find to keep the thing on my bike. It was pretty pathetic!!!

This little alien light will be coming with me to the Wausau24, thank you very much!

This mini pump is my favorite topeak product so far. It's so freaking light and small I had to keep patting my jersey pocket to make sure that I had it with me. Personally I think Topeak has some marketing opportunities with the mini pump, because I pulled it out at a party and little kids were fighting over who could play with it. It's a mini pump/mini babysitter. I guess it makes sense. I mean, who needs toys when you can play with a tire pump?
When I wasn't messing around with alien lights and mini pumps I did get a few good days of training in. My legs are back to feeling pretty good on a bike, but walking is another story. I finally got to do Jason's stair workout with him, and it was pretty brutal for being so short. I do have a video of myself doing the workout, but there's no way that I'm going to post it. I didn't think that it was possible to completely blow-up in 3 minutes but yeah...I blew up.
Luckily I'm almost completely recovered today. A good thing because I'm leading the VCC dirt ride tonight at Luton Park. Meet in the parking lot at 6:30!

We arrived home late Monday night, but I'm only now starting to feel half-way human again. I felt like I was racing the entire time while we were gone-whether it was trying to beat Scott up the climbs, short track, or the Creampuff. Needless to say, I came home very, very tired. So tired that I didn't look or think about riding my bike for 3 days! And that's a long time for me people :-)
Anyways, back to our trip. Portland was awesome. It's easy to see why so many people commute there. The city makes it really, really easy to do so.

From what I hear most of the good mountain biking is outside of the city, so we stuck to the roads after our day at Mount Saint Helens. However, I still managed to get my bike plenty dirty while racing short track.

The portland short track scene is pretty cool. There were a few hundred people who showed up, which isn't bad for a Monday night training race. I wish we had something like this at home because I would do it every week. Sue Butler took off right away in my field and the rest of us were left chasing. I rode at an uncomfortably-comfortable pace...does that make sense? My legs were already a little flat, and I didn't want to waste myself anymore for the rest of the week. I kept going back and forth with another girl throughout the race, and couldn't figure out when to attack. Finally she pulled over and started puking, which was my cue to push the pace :-) I ended up finishing in 6th place and had a blast. And the fact that I had a blast is proof that I didn't ride nearly hard enough!!!
We spent the rest of the week walking around the city, riding, eating and drinking coffee. Portland seems to have a taco truck, coffee shop, and brewery on every corner. Scott was in beer heaven all week!
Eating with my helmet on...so cool looking....
Eventually we had to pack up again and headed over to Eugene, which is about 40 minutes away from the Creampuff course. I wish that we could have spent a little more time in Eugene because it looked really cool. I've heard that it has some really great trail there too.
The Cascade Creampuff started at 5 a.m., which meant that we had to wake up at 3 a.m. to get to the start and have time to prepare. I didn't feel that tired, but that's probably because I never really went to sleep.
Our start was truly a neutral one, and we rolled out just as it was getting light out. My legs felt pretty poopy from the get-go, but there was nothing that I could do about it. I was still hoping for the best.
Normally I like climbing, but not on creampuff race day. In fact, I was pretty sure that my climbing legs were still somewhere on Mt. Tam. To make matters worse, I realized that my fork was blown. Ouch. It wasn't bad on the climbs, but I felt like I was riding with a rigid fork anytime I hit singletrack. By mile 40 I felt like my shoulders were coming through my head.
It was a loooong day in the saddle. Trust me when I say that I felt like absolute POO the entire time. However, the Creampuff course was amazing. I can't think of another course that has more beautiful views. And the singletrack was simply amazing...rigid fork and all :-) It was hard keeping my eyes on the course because I kept wanting to look all around me.
To make a really long race report short, I ended up in 6th place. A race volunteer accidentally sent me the wrong way, which cost me 5th place. At first I was so steaming mad climbing back up that I am quite positive that there were flames coming out of my eyes. However, I managed to check myself. First of all, it was someone volunteering. Spending their own free time to help out. Second of all, I figured it was better to be sent the wrong way on a bad day, then on a good day when I was a contender.
Eventually I made it to the finish line! I think Scott thought that I had stopped and taken a nap, because I was out there for so long...ha ha!My legs were DONE!
It's funny (or NOT funny) how wrecked I felt after the race. And mostly in my arms (from riding with a blown fork) and my calf muscles (I'm not used to riding downhills for such a long time). I could barely lift my carry-on in the airport the next day.
I would go back to this race in a heartbeat, tough day and all. It's definitely a race you have to experience for yourself, because words don't do it justice. Every year the course changes, but know one thing. You will basically be climbing the entire time :-)
And that's a wrap on our vacation/training/racing trip. Thanks to our friend Bernie for letting us crash in his place for an entire week. Between Scott sleeping on the floor, and me on the couch we occupied his entire living room.
To show our appreciation I left him a little gift for his apartment...

PS. To any of our friends out West who might be getting married next year....can you please arrange it so that it's right after the Creampuff? That way I can do the race first! Thanks in advance :-)

Wow. After a fun week in Portland we have landed in Eugene. I wish I could explore this city more as it looks absolutely beautiful, but we have to leave right after the race. It's time to return to the mitten state.

This has been a great trip, but I'm excited to go home. However, I have a feeling that a certain greyhound might not be that excited to see Scott and I. My parents always watch Naomi while we are gone, and I've been getting reports that there has been a lot of spoiling going on :-)

Tomorrow is going to be a toughie. First, the start is at 5 a.m. OUCH!!! Second, there is 16,000 ft. of climbing...or more! DOUBLE OUCH!!! Thirdly, the women's field is the most stacked that I have ever seen it. I just glanced at the first page and noticed that there is none less then 2 former 24 hour world champions here, along with the current one Rebecca Rusch. Not to mention a few 100 mile superstars. I'm actually really excited to race against the "creme de la puff."

I have no clue what this course is going to be like (except lots of climbing) but I'll be sure to do a full report when I get back to Michigan. I'm excited because I heard that the singletrack is amazing! It's my last 100 miler of the season before I move on to the races I like doing more (lap races) so I'm going to try and make it count!

Well, time to stretch, eat, and go to bed. I am SO dreading our wake-up call!!!

Today is day 3 in Portland, and I'm currently eating my way slowly but surely through the city. It's pretty awesome here. The weather has been very "Pacific Northwestern-y," with lots of clouds and cool temperatures. I did not pack accordingly and have found myself repeatedly wishing for more layers...and a hat. I guess it's a good excuse to buy a new hoodie, but I better do it soon since it's supposed to really heat up over the next couple of days.
In my last post I mentioned that we spent July 4th riding trail on Mount St. Helens. I can honestly say that it was unlike anything I have ever done before. The first part of the trail was PERFECT singletrack. Like the kind of pictures you see in bike magazines. The trees were humongous and super green. It was so awesome it almost seemed fake.

After a fair share of switchback climbing we reached the blast zone! It was a little disconcerting to exit green singletrack and ride onto barren land. The sun was hiding that day, and it was pretty chilly on top. We also had to walk through a few sections of snow.



In the distance you could see trees that we all growing in the same slanted direction, an aftermath from the blast. However, the actual blast zone was completely desolate. There was a lot of loose rock and I felt like we were the only people up there.
Until I heard my name, of course.
All of a sudden my friend (and fellow endurance racer) Erika and her husband Mark appeared out of nowhere. They were riding the same trail as us and were on their way down. It was a completely random encounter but not the first as I ran into her last July on a mountain in Breckenridge. I guess it's our thing to run into each other in remote mountain spots :-)
Erika and I near the blast zone...Scott and Bernie checking out the views...
We were up on the mountain for quite some time, but rode at a pretty chilled out pace. You can't ride here and not stop to take a million pictures. It's just to pretty. After the ride we ended up eating pizza. A perfect day!!!
Well, time to go wash my bike before taking it in to the bike shop. It's currently covered in a lot of mud and needs a lot of TLC. Yesterday my friends convinced me to race short track as a way to do leg openers and I think I managed to hit every mud puddle out on the course.
OK, it didn't take much convincing for me to race. Basically they mentioned that there is a weekly STXC race in Portland, and I was at the start line :-)

The bride wore white....

And I wore red patent leather...

I'm at loss for words to describe our time in California. I didn't know it was possible to pack so much fun into three days. All I know is that my face actually hurt from smiling so much. This wasn't my first time in Northern California, but it definitely reaffirmed how much I love it. It's by far my favorite place to visit. 
The whole purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of our friends Trish and Denny. Scott and Denny have been best friends since forever. And Scott worked with Trish for a short while in Michigan. So when Trish told Scott that she was moving out to San Francisco for a new job, Scott called up Denny and asked if he would show her around. At first Denny was all, "I'm so busy...." but when she showed up at his front door he suddenly had a whole lot of free time!
Fast forward a few years to the wedding. Since so many people were coming from out of town, Denny and Trish rented this retreat in Mill Valley for everyone to stay at. It was unbelievably awesome. There were about 40 of us and the place was so big it never felt crowded. 

Both Trish and Denny are athletes, so their only requirement was that we show up on time for the wedding. Besides that, Scott and I were on our own to ride our legs off. And that we did! 
Every morning after breakfast we would hang out on the porch and look at maps to figure out where we were going. It was cool having so many people around, as a lot of the family would look at the maps with us, check out our bikes, and talk about racing. At one point I heard Denny's grandma remark, "look at how cute those little pads on the back of their shorts are." It was funny :-)

The backyard of the retreat opened up onto awesome dirt roads which led right to Mt. Tam. It took a few hours the first day to get used to riding long climbs again. The hills back home are so short that I will often stand and power over them. I tried standing a few times the first day, but quickly sat back down when I realized that I would be standing for at least 30 minutes!

On our first day we rode up Mt. Tam, and then did some awesome roads along the coast. Our total ride time ended up being over 4 hours, and I think we did more climbing in one day then I had for the last month. 

On the second day we checked out the Golden Gate bridge and then hit a trail along the coast...
I think I got whiplash from all of the views. It was beyond spectacular....

Eventually the trail dumped down into Muir beach, and we went to this little Irish pub called the Pelican Inn for lunch....


We made it back with plenty of time for the wedding, and stayed up way too late and had way too much fun!
The next day we hit up more dirt roads on and around Mt. Tam....

It's probably a good thing that we left when we did, because I was riding myself into the freaking ground. I'm not even going to say how many hours we rode while we were out there, but it was A LOT more then I normally do the week before a hundred miler. Too often I'm so nervous and downright neurotic before a race that I don't get to enjoy the awesomeness of where I am. However, I knew going into this race that I wouldn't be able to stay off of my Dos Niner while staying in Marin. In fact, I think that would be some sort of bike abuse. 
And the riding didn't stop in Marin. Now we are in Portland, Oregon and hanging out with friends here for a week. This is my first time visiting, and today they took us riding on Mount St. Helens. I think the 3 day training block I did in California was really good for me, as the climbing we did today seemed pretty easy. The Mount St. Helens ride deserves a post of it's own though, so I will try to do another update tomorrow. 
In the meantime, I want to send out a huge congrats to two of the nicest people that I know, Denny and Trish. And a huge thank you for letting us be a part of their family and wedding celebrations in mountain bike heaven!