Camping and UCI Mountain Biking World Cup

This weekend I camped. 

Fun Fact: I do not camp. I never have and never wanted to.

But yeah, it happened, and I survived and now I can write this amazing post. Anyways, Saturday morning we headed about one and a half hours away to the Catskills to Windham Mountain for the UCI Mountain Biking World Cup. Since Erik is way more into mountain biking than road biking it's something he's talked about going to since day 1 of dating. This weekend we finally spent a entire weekend doing all the things he has wanted to do so that was a nice change up. Basically there were a bunch of different races going on in different age groups and experience levels. Saturday we watched the real pros compete for a variety of levels including the Olympic athletes which was really cool to see. We watched the Cross Country races for both the men and women and watched a few downhill runs too. By about 4 PM we headed to our campsite which was nicely named "Devils Tombstone."

This is our tent. It was kinda small and trapped all the heat so it was super sweaty.

We quickly set up our tent and got to work on dinner. Well actually Erik got to work on dinner...I practiced my photography skills. After we had dinner Erik decided to break out his hammock...now this hammock was supposed to be made for 2 people but they clearly lied because getting two people in this thing was impossible. Instead Erik decided to take photos in the cocoon hammock.

Hmm...maybe I should have cooked dinner while he practiced his camera skill.

The camping was OK, definitely not the highlight of my weekend. The only amenity was running water from a faucet on the side of the road. The bathrooms were called "comfort stations" but I guess the comfort was the fact that the hole in the ground had crazy heavy toilet seats. Of course after a day of sunscreen, dirt, dust, sweat, and bug spray all I wanted to do was shower. The showers were located 8 miles up the road at another campground and the shower privileged ended at 8PM. Of course it was after 8 and thus no shower occurred. Instead I may have stealthily washed up near the water faucet...the campsite rules stated that you weren't supposed to wash pots and pans our under it but it said nothing about my face. 

I also didn't realize how boring camping gets when it gets dark out and everyone goes to bed. Since the majority of our neighbors were racing their bikes in the morning it seemed by 8:30 or so everyone was asleep. We retreated to our tent and had part two of our photo shoot.

It only took us about 100 pictures to get one that is normal looking.

Photo shoot over please.

One set of our neighbors decided that "quiet hours" were overrated and started their part at 12:30AM with a drunk fest...of course when you wake up to people yelling loudly in a language that is not English you tend to get a bit confused to where you actually are. What's more confusing is when you wake up to flashlights shining inside your tent from said drunk, non English speaking, neighbors. I definitely was not a happy camper but luckily by 1:15 they had passed out.

We were up at 6:30 the next morning so we could head back over the mountain for some more race spectating. Erik did a great job at getting things going and getting breakfast ready as I watched from the tent. I know, I know, I am a great camper...

Erik's friend Dave was racing at 8 AM in the single speed category 1 men's division so we headed back to the mountain and picked out a place to watch the start.

Dave is in the blue. He came in second place! He's pretty darn speedy.

We hiked up the course a bit and found a spot in the shade since Sunday was pretty darn disgusting heat wise. I was able to snap a few pictures.

We grabbed spots next to Kabush Falls and you could definitely tell the skill level by the way these rides went down this section. As the morning went on the skill level of the categories decreased and the crashes and falls exploded in number. By the end of the morning we were covered in a redish dust from all the dirt flying from the course. 

Erik's friend Dave had tried to get Erik to race in the open category for first time races and Erik decided not too. Dave and Erik ride mountain bikes every Friday night together with the bike shop we both have bikes from and I'm sure Erik could have easily had a blast competing on the course. As the day went on it was obvious that he had wished he wanted to race. I have a feeling next year I will out on the course with a cowbell watching Erik racing.

It was definitely a great weekend and I am looking forward to next years race weekend already!

Major Accomplishments

It's Monday again and I'm ready to race through this week because I am pretty stoked for the upcoming weekend. 

Last week I finished something pretty awesome which is neither cycling or MS related...I paid off all my student loans. Sure, I may have have felt horribly sick as I pressed the button to allow such a large sum of money to flow from my bank account but in the end I was just excited that it was finally over. I have been working towards this in the past year and a half and I am beyond proud that I was actually able to pull this off. I have been extremely lucky to have been able to live at home the past 2 years since graduating from college so I could achieve this goal. The next big step is apartment hunting which I am quite excited about (IKEA TRIP!) but since I've never really lived alone I'm a bit nervous about how that's going to go. The fact is that I really enjoy living at home because it's nice to come home from a bad day and have someone around. It will definitely be a interesting transition but I'm looking forward to moving into the next stage of my life.

Erik spent the weekend at my house for a change which was awesome because it meant spending 4 less hours in the car that weekend and no packing. We had plans for a bike ride Saturday and luckily everything went off without a hitch. The ride was pretty darn flat and we just had a great time out and about. 

We biked about 15/20 miles directly into the wind for a chunk of the ride which was pretty tough but I am proud that every time I thought "I need a break" I would quickly remind myself that I am strong and that I can do this. For me, biking it a mental thing as it seems I spend half the ride convincing myself that I can't do it or that I am not good enough. I've really been working hard in getting out of my own head during rides because things are so much easier when I'm just at ease and calm.

I finished the 57.5 mile ride with a huge smile plastered on my face which for me is a huge accomplishment. I'm didn't spend the rest of the weekend beating myself up about things I should have done differently, I'm just happy with the ride I had and proud that I did it. Hopefully I can keep up this attitude the rest of training...

Erik claims that he can really tell how passionate I'm getting about cycling...I'm thinking I might have finally jumped ship and drank the cycling Kool-Aid because I think I'm hooked...

Lesson #1 of Cycling: Don't Drive Off The Road

This one time I drove my bike off the road. Yes, I know, that's like the first lesson in cycling 101. It's been mentioned that I need to come up with a better story, but honestly, I don't have one.There were no crazy deer charging me or turkeys flying towards my head. Sadly, I just drove off the road...or at least I attempted to. We were about 17 miles into our ride and everything was going great. Don't most stories start with this line...everything was going great until...but yeah, seriously, the ride was perfect and then...

You might notice where the fall fail occurred...we can totally pretend though that it was on a crazy downhill and a crazy hurricane gust of wind blew me over or that a rabid deer came charging at me causing me to fall. But anyways...this happened...probably from the deer:

That's a lie...I know that this happened from the road...and I have a lot of other grosser road burns too but I figured I would shield your eyes from there disgustingness...I waited a day until things were less bloody to snap a picture - for your sake and mine - I'm not a fan of blood...especially when it drips from my body. The road must have been repaved a bit ago because there were layers of pavement near the shoulder with each layer having about a 2 inch drop,  followed by a larger drop off and a guardrail. I hit the first drop off and possibly the second...but the next thing I knew I was facing the wrong direction, lying on my back and staring at the sun. Luckily Erik had been riding pretty close to me so he was only a few seconds ahead of me and heard the whole thing. Apparently it was quite loud as my bike did a 180, skidded on the pavement and threw me down. Apparently crashing at 18mph is kinda loud...go figure...I'm just glad I have yet to hear the noise at any louder speed.

Erik quickly assessed the damage and I just laid there stunned at what had happened. Erik untangled me from my bike and a car traveling the other direction stopped right after they passed us and backed up. The driver threw his door open (his family looked horrified as they stared from the windows) and came darting towards us. The guy ran through the same basic questions and both Erik and the man agreed that my injuries weren't anything major since the majority of the things that hurt were bleeding. I assured both Erik and the man that had stopped that I would be alright and that I would slowly ride my bike back home.

By the end of the ride I was pretty sore and Erik was nice enough to patch me up and clean out my road burns. Apparently just taking a shower wasn't enough to "clean" them and he insisted that hydrogen peroxide works much better (FYI that burns like a ....). Surprisingly my bike was OK, with only a few minor scrapes and a tweaked wheel...my camel back saved my back and its pretty ripped up (but better it's tore up  than my back). The thing that hurts the most is my tailbone...the whole sitting, standing back up, lying down...(ok, ok) moving kinda sucks. Standing up may be the worst pain I've had in a long time and I never assumed coughing/sneezing would hurt my tailbone so much. My parents are convinced that I fractured my tailbone which is probably quite possible but realistically there's nothing that can be done with the injury so why bother spending time in urgent care when I can be out riding instead?

We finished up the weekend with a fast paced 20 miler Sunday which was rather pain free, because I was determined to get in some much needed miles. However, after a 11 mile ride last night, I'm thoroughly convinced that the only thing that doesn't hurt my tail bone is riding...go figure...

The Not So Awesome Side Of Century Training

My century ride is July 21st. Up until last Sunday I really hadn't fully comprehended the fact that I would be riding 100 miles in one day. It's always been a pipe dream of mine to complete, ever since I was diagnosed and heard about the MS ride. The idea had slowly churned in my mind, year after year,  while every year I played through the "what if I ride" scenario I never bit the bullet and signed up.

Truth be told I would had never signed up if it wasn't for Erik. I've completed countless rides during the week and spent weekends completing long rides with him. Erik can out ride me any day of the week so he hasn't worried about this distance like I have. I've spent months analyzing the route and climbs...maybe my Map My Ride account needs to be disabled... This past Sunday, in between the lawn mowing and movie marathon, I realized what I actually committed to. There's no backing out now, I have donations for this ride and it's no longer something that only a few people know I'm doing. Heck, a lot of people know I am doing this ride now, and maybe that is what frightens me.

That, what if I can't, has crept into my brain and I can't seem to shake it. Sunday night, as Erik passed out rather quickly from his day of mountain biking, I found myself crawling out of bed and heading towards the bathroom as tears rushed out of my eyes. I've hit the wall where it seems that all I think about is biking...whether it's planning my next ride, analyzing past rides, planning meals around rides, planning life around ride or simply just thinking about riding I can't seem to think about anything else.  Sunday night I was overwhelmed with all the thoughts and it took me a great while to pull myself together enough to crawl back into bed.

No matter how many times someone tells me that I will have no problem crossing the finish line, I seriously question their responses. I'm well aware that we are all our own worst critics and for me to really finish this thing I'm going to need to find a way to quiet those thoughts.

I took a night off from riding completely last night and went shopping with my mom. I thought for sure that swimsuit shopping (swimsuit shopping = completely unstressful = complete and utter lie) would distract me from riding because lets be honest, does anyone actually enjoy this process? Sure enough though when I got home I beat myself up for not riding and since rest days are becoming a foreign concept to me, I headed to the gym for a late night upper body weight session. Fact: I felt 100% better post sweat but still 100% guilty for not riding. I am fully aware that one missed ride is not going to derail anything training wise but it's like my mind loves to say "well, if you don't finish we can blame that missed ride in June..."

Erik strongly believes I am fully capable of riding this distance, but I always wonder if he is just saying that because he feels he has to. I'm glad that I have him around on long rides because I couldn't push myself the way he pushes me and he's smart enough to realize when I really need to slow down and take a break. I'm starting to think he may know my limits better than I know my own which is  problematic. Even this past weekend when we were climbing hills I had a constant rotation of "you can't do this...this is crazy" playing in my head which obviously isn't ideal for success. I really need to work on focusing on my strengths and pushing through my weaknesses so I can grow from them.

Let's be real, if I don't push myself when things get tough I will never get better at the tough things.

Do you have trouble pushing yourself when things get tough? How do you combat yourself from pressing the self destruction button when things get tricky?