Falling, sliding, crashing, and winning

Before the Cyclo X series started I headed out for another Wednesday afternoon race in the Back 2 Basics series. This time I entered in the Women’s B field, and found myself starting with about 17 women. It had been windy and rainy during the pre-ride but by the race conditions were pretty great.

Awkwardly trying to hop a barrier at B2B

I managed to finish 6th out of 17 women which I was really happy with! The course had a lot of single track and tight turns which equaled much needed practice for me. The barriers went okay too, … Continue reading

Slip sliding into cross with both feet!

For the past couple years I’ve heard of this sub-sport of cycling called cyclocross. People always describe it as a cross between mountain biking, road biking, and steeplechase, so that’s how I described it too. That is, until recently when someone finally asked me exactly what is steeplechase… to which I mumbled something about horses and barriers and then admitted I wasn’t exactly sure and stopped using that reference.

So what is cyclocross (usually just called “cross” or “CX”)? I’d say it’s a totally ridiculous, fun, and exhausting 25-60min race where you ride your bike as fast as you can … Continue reading

RPI 2022: Year 2!

Last December Paul convinced us to return to Rebecca’s Private Idaho: Queen’s Stage Race. It was our first big gravel race in 2021, and we learned a ton. The hope was that we could apply some of what we learned to do better this year!

While we both fully recovered from COVID, thankfully, we had lost out on a LOT of training in July. That left us just 4 weeks to really train (which was not enough time). So we headed out to Idaho as better racers, but less fit than in 2021, to see what would happen.

We
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Unbound XL, let’s go!

Well, I had dreams of adding some blog updates before this but things have been busy. But I didn’t want to ride off on my biggest ride without putting down a few thoughts ahead of it.

It’s currently 11AM, 4 hours until we roll out. The bike is packed and prepped, the last few lights are charging, and I have just a couple final things to cross off the to-do list before go time.

The energy in Emporia has been incredible – the whole town seems to be welcoming riders, from the used car dealership to the churches to the … Continue reading

Bits and bobs from the winter

After Rexy wrapped up I was more than happy to take some chill time off the bike. I caught up on some doctor appointments, rested, and barely looked at my bike for a couple weeks.

Right before Thanksgiving I got my COVID booster which left me feeling particularly terrible for a bit. On Thanksgiving, 24hrs after the shot, I went for my daily ~1mile walk. I was so tired I had to stop part way home to rest. It also caused all my left side lymph nodes to swell up massively for a couple weeks which was… disturbing and slightly … Continue reading