Monday, July 21, 2014

Riotgrrravel

Coming out of Westside Dirty Benjamin I was really struggling to put it all behind me, and move on to my next ride, Riotgrrravel the following Saturday. The day after WDB was rainy and dreary, and instead of a morning ride I opted for snuggles with Lucy on the couch.

 #1 Snuggler

 I was definitely not feeling up to battling the elements to ride and decided to play it by ear as the day went on. The afternoon gave way to better weather and I decided to tackle cleaning all the dirt, mud, sand, leaves and who knows what else off of Greta. This proved to be quite a challenging task, but I was happy to get it done and out of the way.

 So dirty!

With the gorgeous evening unfolding I set out for a sunset ride. I took one of my go to loops in the city that is roughly 20 miles and sends me east to west across Minneapolis. It is quick, easy and allows me to enjoy the sun setting on the Minneapolis skyline. My legs were feeling okay and I didn't have too many body aches from the day before. My only complaint was some pain in my achilles tendon, which I tried to brush off for the first few miles. After no improvement in my discomfort I decided it wasn't worth it to keep riding so I cut my ride short and skipped out on the lakes loop in Uptown.

By Tuesday, I was recovered and ready to make my first bike trip to Stillwater. I was riding with Dave and neither of us had ever taken this route, but we had a general idea of where we needed to go, and kind of an idea of how to get there. Navigating out of St Paul was rather tricky due to construction and endless amounts of detours that seemed to lead us in circles. We finally found the Gateway Trail, but had to hike through someone's yard to actually get on it. Once on the trail, the directions were super easy and we soon found ourselves taking the long descent down towards the river. So fun and so fast to fly down!!! We stopped for lunch and cocktails along the river before turning around for home.


After our meal and drinks, the massive hill climb to get out of the city was not fun! We both decided we had eaten too much food, and the addition of the day's heat had us both riding a little slow. Thankfully, we both bounced back pretty quickly and our navigation home through St Paul was much better. After we parted ways I met up with Zach, Sam and Corey for a little Tuesday night ride. Nothing too crazy, just all around good times :)

 Sam the explorer

I logged roughly 88 miles for the day and my legs were feeling it by the time I made it home for the night. It was a great day spent entirely on my bike!

Riotgrrravel was fast approaching and I needed to start working on my game plan. I knew it was time to keep things pretty easy and low key so my legs would be rested for Saturday's race. So Wednesday was a short bike ride to softball practice that quickly turned into beers, burgers and baseball on t.v.

Keeping it classy!

Thursday came and went with rain and no biking, but a very good, much needed yoga class. I was in search of mental clarity and one of the best ways to achieve that is on my mat. Yoga is where I practice pushing my mental, physical and emotional limits; where I sweat out the frustration and stress of life and recharge my mind, body and soul. It was a challenging class and it was exactly what I needed! With a clear mind, and sore abs, I was ready to head into pre-race day.

Friday morning started out normal, but as the day unfolded I couldn't help but become more and more superstitious about racing the following day. I rode my usual loop from home so I could check out the flood situation around Minnehaha Creek. With all of the recent rain, most of the trail was underwater, and even some of the city streets had standing water. I honestly cannot get over how fast the creek is flowing! I pulled into Sea Salt for a quick glimpse of the wrath of Minnehaha Falls! Absolutley amazing! If you have not seen it you need to!!!

 Minnehaha Falls

I moved on and made my way to the lakes in Uptown before heading home. I couldn't help but stop and snap a photo of these ducks taking full advantage of the flooded creek :)

Duck rager!

After making my way back home I decided to tackle the household task of cleaning the gutters out. No big deal, right?? Wrong! I almost fell off the ladder three times and actually hurt my shoulder during the whole ordeal. You would think yoga or biking would be the more likely cause of a minor injury, but I guess not! Lamest way to get injured and grossest thing I have ever done! Also, another reminder of why I hate yard work! I went into the house to clean up only to realize the power was out. Did I cause this to happen or just a coincidence? A quick phone call to mom for some advice, a notification to Xcel, and thankfully, within an hour the power was back on. I needed to finish getting Greta prepped and ready to ride in the morning so I brought her outside, and I figured Lucy could use a little sunshine too. Everything was fine until Lucy was startled in the yard. She ran her fat little butt so fast into the house and down the stairs to hide that I was worried she was bitten by something. I ran after her only to find her laying on her side and not moving. I immediately thought: is she going to die?, did something bite her?, where is the emergency vet? I managed to pull her out from under the stairs only to see that during her freak out she somehow managed to get her front leg tangled in her collar. What a drama queen!!! After removing her collar and giving her a little massage she was back to normal and I could get back to prepping my bike.

I was settling into the evening and running through a list of things I needed for the morning when I received a text from Maddie. She had just picked up a new bike and was wanting to take it for its first ride. So I hopped on the saddle and headed up to her place. It is a pretty quick ride, and is usually uneventful, but due to a little miscommunication I almost rear ended an SUV. I'm going to share the blame with the driver on that one. Thankfully, it was just a close call and nobody was hurt. I arrived in one piece to Maddie's and we decided to ride to Minnehaha Falls for ice cream. After a lot of bike talk and life talk it was starting to get dark so we began to roll home. We took the trails to Lake Hiawatha to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sunset.


Wow!

With roughly 40 miles of easy riding for the day, I arrived home around 10pm to do one last check of my gear and to finalize my game plan. My last two races were with AJ, but I was going to Riotgrrravel completely solo. My team name this time was simply: 'a babe'. He is usually the one to decide when we leave, and he packs most of the tools and supplies so I don't have much to figure out. Without all the prerace questions and pressure from him I was feeling a little lost. I was just about ready for bed when I decided to check the event page on facebook. Oh shit!!! Due to all the rain and flooding, they had changed the route of the course! There were two upsides to the route change: the mileage was knocked down from 33 to 30 miles, and less hills-I'm not going to complain about either of those changes. However, in my efforts to be ready for the race I rode the route a few weeks ago and I knew what to expect. This last minute change made me super nervous and left a lot of unknowns. By now I was feeling more than done with this whole day! I don't remember the last time I have had such a strange, off day and I was hoping this wasn't a sign of how the race would go in the morning. I messaged AJ about the route change and after getting some good advice I was off to bed.

I rolled out of bed a little after 5 and went about my normal pre-ride routine.

 First breakfast

Everything was going great until I went to get dressed just before leaving. I put my pigtails in, shorts on, sports bra on, but hesitated to pick out my jersey. I initially grabbed the jersey I rode in for Dirty Benjamin, but couldn't shake the terrible feelings that came along with my last ride in it. I know it seems really ridiculous to think the jersey had anything to do with my struggles, but after yesterday I didn't want to take any risks. I needed Riotgrrravel to go well for me. I needed to feel prepared and confident, and I just couldn't ride in that jersey. So I opted for my green argyle jersey that I rode the Fulton Gran Fondo in. The Gran Fondo went so well and I still remember how amazing I felt when I was finished. I was hoping I would feel equally as amazing after Riotgrrravel.

I was right on schedule when I left the house and headed towards Hastings. It still felt really weird to be going to a ride alone. I stopped at Emily's Bakery and Deli to check in and I was given my race number and new cue sheets (directions) for the course. I settled in to have a donut and coffee before heading off to the starting area.


I arrived and took Greta out of the car for final adjustments before roll out. After getting my number pinned on I decided to set out for a little warmup ride. I was feeling super nervous and wanted to get some of that energy out before we started. I knew that since this race was only 30 miles I couldn't take the first 10 miles easy like I did for Almanzo and Dirty Ben. I also wanted to get away from the starting area where more and more riders were showing up. I rode out a few miles to get a feel of the gravel and stopped to stretch before heading back. I arrived back to the starting line and was stoked to see so many women, and a handful of men, out to ride! Riotgrrravel is a fantastic event because it is geared towards getting more women involved in gravel racing/riding, which is definitely a male dominated sport.

We were off the starting line shortly after 9:30, and I was on a full out sprint. As I started out I had no idea who, if anyone, was on my tail. I wanted to start out strong to get ahead of the pack and see how long I could maintain my pace. If/when I was passed I was planning to latch on to the lead group for as long as I could. As we got a few miles into the race no one had passed me yet. I was very surprised by this because I knew there were some very strong female riders in my company.






Get it girls!

Around mile 5, Loretta pulled up next to me and said 'Holly, you cannot pull the whole race.' She was so right! I was already feeling tired from the chase behind me and I realized it was my turn to settle in to the pace line. There were 5 of us in the lead group-4 ladies and one guy. Once I settled into the back of the line I was able to take a deep breath and relax a little. We were keeping a pretty fast pace, but this break allowed me to rest while others in the group took their turns to pull. Since I am accustomed to riding mostly by myself, whether it is for training rides or my other races, this kind of pack riding is fairly new to me. It was a really nice change to share the work load and be able to draft off of others. I started to wonder if we would stay together as a pack for the whole race or if someone would make a push to try and pull away.

I wanted to settle into a slightly slower pace around mile 10, but told myself it was only 30 miles, and I was 1/3 of the way done. At mile 15, I was pretty excited that we were halfway done and at mile 20, 2/3 done. I found it super helpful to take the race in small chunks and to remind myself it was more of a sprint race than endurance ride. Mile 25 came and went and no one had yet to make any moves to take the lead. Being new to this I decided to sit back and wait to see what happened with the group. If they took off I was ready to go with, but I was also more than happy to stay at our current pace. I took one look at my cue card to see where our final turns would take us and I started to develop my plan.

With a few miles to go, I started to increase my pace to see what would happen. Since I have absolutely no idea what my sprinting capabilities are I figured this was a good time to find out. I moved to the opposite (wrong) side of the road, where the gravel seemed smoother, and started to speed up. I was feeling strong and this was a good move until a truck came up over the hill right at me! I had to quickly slow down and move to the right side of the road. Now, I realize we are riding on public roads, but this truck caught me completely off guard and really threw off my momentum. I know I wasn't the only one affected by this as the whole group had to make adjustments. We quickly all got back up to speed and made our final sprints to the finish line. I realized I didn't have much of a sprint in me at this point and I watched the other girls and guy pull ahead of me. I felt a little bummed by this, but I know I gave it my best shot.

I came in 4th place female, and 5th place overall, with a total time of 1 hour, 32 minutes and 16 seconds for 30.5 miles. The time difference between the 5 of us was only 12 seconds from 1st to 5th place. I was definitely happy with this finish! I was however a little irritated that the guy made a solid effort to out-sprint me at the end. I mean, come on!!! Let the girls have their glory day!!! He did beat me fair and square, but thankfully the other ladies kept it an all female podium :) Awesome work by Alix, Chelsea and Loretta for such a strong finish! And a huge thank you to Ellie and her family for organizing the event! Riotgrrravel was everything I needed and wanted it to be. The gravel, weather and course could not have been better! It truly was gravel redemption after Dirty Ben and a great reminder of why I have fallen in love with gravel racing!

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