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fun... Can't wait to do more!
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Check out our Velo Bella Ellsworth newsletter to see what Allie, Sara, Kimber and I have been up to this summer!
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I headed out to Angel Fire with Kimber and Addie not really knowing quite what to expect. I’d never been there, but my husband and friends have all been swearing the course is just FUN, FUN, FUN! And I remember hearing that one of our local Jr. X guys won the Super D last year on his DH bike, so I was really stoked to race that (that is totally my thing!). I was a little worried though because on Wednesday my rib (an old injury from a car accident) popped out and I was getting intense pain in my back and side – enough that I could barely breathe and spent a few hours in the ER the night before we left. Leaving me with a massive bruise on my arm where they drew blood to make sure my kidney was alright, since that is apparently where the pain was located. Ugh. But I made it through the 11 hour drive icing my back intermittently and didn’t really feel much worse for the wear.
We pulled in and got unpacked and settled into the condo with Allie and Jackie. The next morning we got up and it looked cold outside. And I realized I hadn’t even packed long pants or a long sleeve jersey to layer with – just the one long sleeve jersey I race in. In the name of packing light so we could fit everything in the car I think I may have gone overboard… But we headed up and were met with snow on the course. Yikes. I’ve ridden in snow once before and it was really fun, but it was on an easier trail that I was familiar with. So we slipped and slid our way down the rocky top half of the course over snow covered frozen roots and rocks and I started to realize that I desperately need to work on riding in mud and slippery stuff. It just seemed to get worse as the day went on and we headed in for a break. Addie headed out with me for Super D practice in the afternoon – which was a muddy, messy, but totally fun course. LOTS more climbing than I had expected, but what are you going to do?? They added in 3 climbs that weren’t in the course last year. I was thinking hey – they’re at least middle chain ring climbs and I should be able to hammer up them and push myself through it and it will be fine as long as it’s not too muddy. And the weather report said it would be drying out… right? The descending parts of the course were just a hoot (even despite the frozen solid hands). There were some flat rocky technical sections and swoopy bermy turns that were an absolute blast to bomb down, even in the mud and muck and snow. I was worried about the climbs, but the overall fun factor on the course had me in an excellent mood.
We woke up Saturday hoping to see that it had dried out, but couldn’t see the top of the mountain from the condo. As we got on the chairlift the liftie said “below zero and snowing up top”. Uuuuuggggghhhhh. From the top of the lift I bombed down to the Super D start to get in a practice run before the race. At that point I was thinking hey – this isn’t bad at all. The ground was frozen, making the climbs nice and easy to deal with. But… of course time was ticking on and the sun started warming things up...
Anyway, we got lined up for the Super D. This was my first ever LeMans start. All of our Utah courses have so much singletrack that they do regular time trial starts for Super D’s just like downhill. I was a little nervous. 5 knee surgeries and my knees aren’t much into running anymore! But they had us start with our bikes in hand and said if you can make it up this hill from a stop on your bike, go for it. Otherwise run up this hill and around the sign and jump on your bike whenever you want. The start had about 2-3” of snow and I lined up with the 7 women in the open class. Once we started I was 2nd to last as we jumped on our bikes. From there it’s a downhill fire road and got on and pedaled as hard as I could and did some passing before we got to the corner and on to the singletrack. As it opened up again, I passed another person off in the weeds and rocks on the side of the trail and then we got onto the first climb. Which I immediately noticed was already getting muddy… and this was the top of the course. I pedaled as hard as I could and kept on going. In the middle of the second climb I started spinning out in the mud. I only have a 33T chainring on my trail bike and that wasn’t helping in the slick conditions. I got off and ran/pushed my bike as fast as I could through the muck. There were people scattered all over the trail at this point – fixing chainsuck from the mud, hyperventilating, taking off fogged glasses and goggles, and clearing the mud off their tires and shoes. At this point I was glad I have plenty of tire clearance on the bike and chose to go with flat pedals. Spinning in circles without being clipped in is a bit more work, but better than sliding off the pedals altogether when you can’t clip in for all the mud that’s everywhere. And YAY for my new Crank Brothers Joplin seatpost, which not only worked great for keeping me in the right position through climbs and descents, BUT - it held up in the mud and muck too!
I finally made it up the last climb and started pushing the descent as hard as I could to catch the girls that dropped me on the climb. Probably a bit too much in spots, as I was in a 2 wheel drift around some of the muddy corners, which isn’t great for maintaining speed, but I stayed upright and kept charging. I launched into the steepest downhill section faster than I had practiced and nearly blew off the trail as it swooped down into the next corner, but the rest of the bottom of the trail is just so fun. I stood up and pedaled to the finish and ended up 4tt 26 seconds back with a time of 24:50.41. (25 minutes is a LOOOONNNG Super D!) So that’s not too bad – I’m certainly not a climber, and being from Utah have very little experience riding in mud either. So I was pretty stoked to get on the podium for 4th place!
After that it was time to get back out for DH practice again. Since the sun had come out we were all hoping things were starting to dry… but that afternoon it had just hit the phase where the mud is spreading around on the rocks. With everything wet, somehow my front brake caliper kept sliding down under the bar where I couldn’t reach it. After stopping a few times to push it back in place, I made a really dumb attempt to get a finger under it while riding down the rocks and push it back up… only succeeding in locking up my front brake and smashing my “girlie parts” into my stem. Yeow. Ow. Ow. Ow. I laid on the ground for a minute trying to catch my breath, thinking – I’m not a guy, this shouldn’t hurt that much, right? I’m fine. I stood back up and promptly fell over again. Stood up again, figured I was alright now, tried to throw my leg over the bike… and fell over a 3rd time. At that point I decided I needed to sit for a minute. Finally got going again and was greeted my Allie and Kimber wondering what the heck was going on with me. At that point it had finally numbed out enough that I felt okay riding and cruised on down the rest of the course feeling okay. Once we got to the lift again and everyone was ready to head back up the pain set in again and I went into the condo to ice and uh, check the damage. Luckily (?) it was just a small cut and bruise but I called it a day and settled in to rotate ice packs to all the aching parts of my body. J
Sunday we got up for practice and HOORAY! It was finally drying out. Allie and I had spent a while the night before discussing tactics of getting through the rocks and without the mud and slippery-ness on my mind, I was able to focus on keeping my eyes up and ahead and do what I had planned and had a few excellent practice runs. Qualifying was in the afternoon and I felt pretty good, despite getting hung up on a couple rocks and having crazy arm pump by the end of the course. I actually qualified 13th of 18 and I was really happy about that, being my 2nd DH race as a pro. After qualifying, I headed back up to the top with Wendy and Rachel and we walked most of the course to pick lines and went back to ride them section by section.
The next morning we headed up for an early practice run, and then sat and waited for our afternoon race times. We went back out early and hit up some of the other trails on the mountain to warm up and then got ready for the race. I started off clean but not very fast – cruised on through the toughest part of the rock section at the top and was riding cleanly until I got to one of the big pile of rocks you have to ride up and drop down the other side. Somehow I got my wheel stuck just over the top between some rocks and as I tried to bump it loose, flipped over backwards and got stuck under my bike. It was one of those adding insult to injury experiences as I not only needed to get un-stuck but climb back up and over the obstacle I just fell off of. Anyway – I got going again and kept trying to focus on keeping my hands loose so I’d have some arm strength left for the high speed section at the bottom of the course. This time was better than qualifying and I felt a little stronger and able to charge through the trees at the bottom, but picking my way through things at the top and getting untangled from my bike cost me. I ended up 10 seconds slower than my qualifying run for 15th place. Ah well. Next time!
Anyway – it was a great experience. I learned a lot riding through those LONG rock gardens and mud. And felt like I was doing better at keeping my hands loose through a long rough course as well, and looking up and ahead in gnarly rocks. The trick of course is to do that consistently and while under the stress of racing, but it’s getting better! Anyway – I’m excited for our next local race this weekend. And it was incredibly fun having yet another girls-only race weekend! I’m so excited to be on such a fun and supportive team and can’t wait for next year!!
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I can't take winter anymore!
Today, Kimber and I hit the road at 5:30 am to head down to St. George, where the weather was a balmy 65 degrees and we were able to break out the bikes and ride on DIRT! Woohoo!. 8 hours of driving for 2 hours of riding... and it was SOOOOOO worth it. We had an absolute blast. Despite being downhillers, we both own rigid singlespeeds and broke them out to hit the Prospector/Church Rocks trails down south. It felt so incredibly good to rail around some corners and maneuver around some little slickrock obstacles. And despite the hours I've been spending on my spin bike at home watching bike movies on DVD... nothing quite does it for the body like actually hitting the trail!
So all my friends think we're crazy driving that far. But I can't wait to do it again! 
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The perfect way to burn off the turkey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8gzq0QhZ_k
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TR: Dirt Series Women's Bike Camp - Park City
They've done these camps for a while in BC and I think CA and WA, but this was the first year in Utah (Park City). 45 women attended and there were 55 more on the waiting list! So hopefully next year they'll do more than one here, but regardless, register early. I know a bunch of ladies who wanted to attend and didn't get to. They divide you into groups based on questionnaires that you fill out ahead of time. Then we broke down into 5 groups for the morning session and worked on various skills. (Manuals, straight line riding and teeter totters, drops, braking...) and then rotate you through. Sat afternoon you break into 8 groups and do an XC ride. Saturday evening they have classes on bike setup and maintenance. Sunday you pick which skills to work on in the morning and then do a lift served ride in the afternoon. Some of the groups were more XC oriented and just went on XC rides again on Sunday afternoon. They also had an excellent selection of Rocky Mountain demo bikes, body armor, flat pedals, full face helmets, etc. available so the women who normally just ride XC were able to try new gear that helps you step it up comfortably. We started off by breaking into groups to work on skills. My group worked on Manuals first. Up until maybe a year or two ago, I always figured manualling was something trials guys did, and the guys I know always said it's really hard, just try to wheelie instead. Anyway, it's probably the most useful skill you can learn for trail riding and I've been working on it for a few months. A wheelie requires getting in the right gear, timing the pedal stroke, etc. A manual just takes a shift of your weight and you can pop over a rock, log, whatever, and you can also use it to roll off a drop and land with your wheels even - much more useful. So we started doing them on flat pavement, and then moved on to dropping off boxes in a manual. The trick there is that you have to time it right, but it's great to work on landing smoothly. Next we worked on tight cornering. They set up a series of cones and rope on the ground to simulate a tight trail and we worked on how to get around a corner tight enough you can't just roll it at normal speed (without cutting off the corner with your rear wheel anyway). I've known that ratcheting your pedals and inching around in a near track-stand lets you tighten your turning radius, but it never occurred to me before to keep the inside pedal forward. That made a huge difference in not having to dab. My group then switched over to straight line riding. Sounds easy, right? They started us on a couple of boards that you rode onto and tried to stay on. Then they added a section in the middle so you'd ride up, then down the other side, and then raised it some more. It's mostly just a matter of taking sufficient speed and looking ahead. We learned how to dismount off a skinny in an emergency. Then we tried the teeter-totters, which was fun, and then a ramp on a corner. Nothing super challenging or dangerous, but enough to work on the basics and get you comfortable with how to do it (committment and thinking happy thoughts being key...) Then we worked on rolling drops, which was fun. I've been comfortable doing that for years, but the coach added in a few key elements. She called it "Pause, Peek, Push". Which is a good idea. When you're riding a new trail, see a dropoff but can't tell what it is or if it's rollable, you roll up and pause, look over the edge, and assuming it looks rideable, push the bike out in front of you to roll down. She then stacked the boxes up to make it higher and added a stick at the bottom so it was like a steep roll down in the middle of a switchback (which we practiced later at Deer Valley on the trail). So again, fairly basic stuff, but with those couple extra elements to make it safer and just make you feel more confident when you see that on the trail. For the afternoon, we split up into groups and went on an XC ride. This wasn't my favorite part, though we were on a fun trail and our coach did a great job of stopping to go over climbing techniques, and bike-body separation while cornering. Good info, but the XC ride just takes up a lot of time that I'd rather have spent working on more drills and such. That evening they had an IMBA presentation, and classes on bike maintenance and setup. Unfortunately I had to leave a little early, but it sounds like that was all good stuff too. Before we left, we picked two skills classes to attend in the morning. So Sunday we showed up, split into our chosen classes and got working. I took the bunny-hopping class, which was the "real" bunnyhopping, not just springing up with both wheels off the ground. see: http://www.bmxbasics.org/new/bmx0703.html Basically, it's a manual, very quickly transitioned into a rear wheel lift, resulting in lofting your front wheel up, then pulling the rear tire up so you can clear obstacles. This isn't easy to learn. While I have no problem with the manual and no problem with the rear wheel lift - connecting the two together feels like doing the worm on the ground but... on your bike in mid-air. Heh. I finally got a little one and Utsnowgirl got a good one, but it'll take practice for us to get them consistently. It's one of those things my husband learned as a kid and his instruction was always... "Just do it." Thanks. Very helpful...  So it's nice to learn from girls who had to figure it out too! We broke for lunch and all got some really cool give-aways, and then all headed out to do some lift served riding. This section was great. My group went out to Deer Valley with Lisa Sher (who is wonderful!!) and we rode Homeward Bound (stopping on the stunts to try things out), and then Aspen Slalom to work on those technical tight switchbacks. It was nice to put things together. I just wish we had time to do some more lift served riding, Well, and I'm bummed I didn't get to ride with Kristen (except for her trials lessons in the parking lot after we were done. I'm now totally inspired to learn to track stand and hop around on one wheel like she can - she's totally amazing!)
Anyway, now I have tons of things to work on and can't wait to head down to Brianhead this weekend!
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I haven't raced XC since a few months after I learned to ride - back in 2000, I think.
And then I got into DH and heavy trail bikes and the thought of racing uphill was just... ugh. But I bought the pink SS, thinking it would be a good training tool and what do you know - I love riding it. I've been on it 3 days a week or so since I got it (plus riding my other bikes) and have been feeling pretty good. A few girls I know convinced me to race a 4 person 12 hour race next month and we went out and practiced the course and what do you know - I'm not the slow person climbing anymore. When the heck did that happen?
So after the fun on Monday of racing the Super D on my SS, I decided to do the Wednesday night XC race. I wasn't sure what class to race, but figured Sport would be a good start. The sport guys headed off a minute before us, and the sport women and beginner men were the last group to start. The beginning of the race is just a steep road climb up the mountain. On the SS, I couldn't pedal most of it seated and settled into the most relaxed standing climb I could. I quickly pulled away from the group I started with and was working my way through the people who started ahead of me when we hit the singletrack. So Lesson #1 that I learned - I need to be more aggressive with passing. We started on a switchback descent and I was stuck behind a guy meaning I was riding the brakes through it all. I just wasn't sure if he was going to need to pass me back when we got back to climbing, but he got sick of me riding his wheel and told me to pass. (Thank you to all the nice people putting up with me  ) Repeat that a few times on the climbs with me becoming a little more confident as I went on that I'd be okay to keep my pace if I passed people. (And kicking out that lazy gremlin whispering in my ear that if I stay behind this nice slower person I can rest instead of chasing the next person ahead of him...) I ended up with two little switchback climbs that I couldn't make it up in my gear, but I managed to grind out the rest. And the one flat-ish doubletrack section (of about 100 yards) I needed a bigger gear for. But otherwise the SS was perfect. The trails converged again where the expert and sport courses came back together and I jumped in behind a pro girl on a 29er. The descent is fast, fun, and long, and she was stuck behind someone and we were just cruising downhill. She dropped me for a minute on the little switchback climb (one of those where I had to get off and run), but I caught right back up on the descent. And then we cruised on down to the finish. (Makes me feel really slow thinking she fit an extra mile and a half or so in that 2 minutes she started ahead of me!) Anyway, it was a really short loop. Only 6 miles or something. But really fun. And I guess lesson #2 is that I'm not nearly as slow climbing as I think I am.  I think that I won. I didn't see any other women in the finish area other than the pro I finished with, but they didn't get the times together before they did giveaways and we all left. It was fun even without knowing the results. To complete my week of crazy-ness, I'm planning to race the ICUP race on Saturday, and then the DH race at Bountiful (though that one will NOT be on the SS. ), for a grand total of 4 races in 7 days. Woohoo!
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This weekend we went to Sundance, and I practiced the Super D course yesterday on my AS-X. But dang, that thing weighs a ton to pedal up the climbs, and Sundance has a pretty long Super D course. So this morning, when we went up to race, I figured, what the heck, I'll probably save more time going faster on the climbs than I will gong a little faster on the techy stuff and raced my rigid SS. And it was fun! I need to work on those loose gravelly sections without suspension, and I was pedaled out on the road section on the top, but I still did pretty well. I think next time I'm throwing the bigger chainring back on there for the race. But I'm going to race it again next time too. I'm not sure the guys I beat want a repeat of getting beat by a girl on a pink rigid bike again though. ;)
Anyway, the SS has actually been great for working on my riding skills in general though. The SS part has drastically improved my climbing, as I attack things in a bigger gear and end up with more momentum to make it up over obstacles. I have a better pedal stroke, and have learned to take more speed through corners and stay off the brakes more. And probably most importantly, it forces me to stay LOOSE on the bike and flow. I can't just hang on for the ride without getting punished for it, so it's been great for teaching me good habits. Plus it's fun getting back to basics! :D
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What a great weekend of skiing! This was the second year I've done Gordy Peifer's camp at Snowbird. While I have some friends who scoff at "taking lessons" - I believe everyone can benefit from having their form picked apart and doing some video analysis to see what you really look like compared to how it feels and what you think you look like. Not to mention the effect of just following truly elite athletes down the mountain - seeing their line selection, having them tell you what they are thinking about, etc. It's a great experience that I plan to do every year. Which, to many people I talk to seems redundant, a waste of money, et.c. "Didn't they tell you all the same stuff last year?" "Didn't you already know you need to look farther ahead and keep your hands up and all of that?" Yeah, yeah. The problem is that I usually think I'm doing it right. It isn't until you see yourself on video that you really see where you are making mistakes and how much it's holding you back. Really seeing the visual of how my body language changes when I see an obstacle that intimidates me gives me the knowledge I need to change it to an aggressive reaction to keep me out of trouble. After a solid three days of analysis, criticism and advice, I felt better in tough conditions than I ever have before. And there's nothing like that feeling when it finally clicks and you can just focus on where you're going and things just flow.
Anyway, I just got a helmet cam recently, so I'm looking forward to doing some analysis on bikes this spring. I'm sure there's as much to be learned there as there is with skiing!
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