Rollin High on the Superfly

Didn't plan on that!

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, my two goals for the AMBC race this past weekend at Chickasaw Trace TN, was to finish top ten with a faster time than last year.  Well here I am, number one on the podium!

We arrived at the trailhead on Saturday around 2pm and headed out for a pre-ride of the course.  It was obvious that it had been raining that morning, and half way through our lap it began to pour.  We finished up in the rain and headed over to the hotel.  Luckily, the hotel had a watering hose out front, so we washed the mud off our bikes while they were still loaded.  It was nice to sleep in as my class didn't start until 12:30pm and the hotel was about 5 minutes away. 

29er Crew Official Website to be revealed..

As of March 27th 2008 the 29er Crew official website will be available for all to read.  All of the posts that you see on the site are from members of the team and you will have the option to comment on them!  To get there, just click on the 29er logo on my page under sponsors.  This way they will see that you are coming from my site.  To see my page once you get there, simply go to the "select a rider" bar to the right and click on my name.  This will also be a shortcut for you to find any posts that I have.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the past couple of weeks!  And hope to see some of you out there soon.

It's true!

The Superfly came today!  I thought it would come tomorrow, but it was here at home waiting for me when I got off work!   

I only took my hands off of it long enough to quickly snap this picture of Joe working on it.  I promise I will get some better pictures to you soon. 

The only thing I am missing now is the 29er Crew uniform, which I was notified yesterday, should be in my possession by April 11th, which would be before our new season opener (since the original was canceled).  I can't believe it showed up today, I was so not expecting it until summer.  Either someone pulled some strings or I have a guardian angel.  Too bad Joe's didn't come in, hopefully he will get his soon too.

With that being said, anyone looking for a Paragon?

Please, let it be....

Okay, I was on-line making a payment to my visa today when I noticed a charge from the Trek Bicycle Corp.  Could it be a Superfly?!?!  It's the right amount!  I haven't ordered anything lately!  I hope it is!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  It came through yesterday, so maybe it will show up tomorrow!  I am taking my tool box to work tomorrow, so if it does come in, I can put it together.  I'm probably jinxing myself right now, but I don't know what else it could be, but you'll find out when I do.

Okay, so there is something....

Today, in the mail, I received the latest gift to my cats.  Cat claw caps!  That's right, I capped their asses.  hahaha (evil)  This is my alternative to claw removal, so I'm not completely mean, but it is a little funny.  Check it out

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend.  I got in about 2 hours in the afternoon when it was a little warmer (40 degrees) and the sun was out.  Haven't had anything real exciting to talk about since I haven't been able to get very many rides outdoors.  It's been raining a lot.

I will be preparing this week for our trip to TN this weekend, so hopefully I will have some success to report back to you next week.  In the past few years, they have combined the expert women with the pro women.  I really like this since they seperate us out for the awards and pay deeper.  I also get the opportunity to start with a handful of pros, which doesn't happen very often.  Last year I finished 12th, so my goal this year is to finish top 10 (before they seperate out the pros), and to earn some prize money as I missed it by one spot last year.

Talk to you soon.  Amanda

Just around the corner

We're now within the 2 week mark until the season opener, however, there is a small problem.  With the season opener held a week earlier this year, and the latest snow storm, reports have been coming in from my inside sources that the season opener course, Mohican State Forest, is still covered in snow.  There is a possibility that the first race may get cancelled or re-scheduled - this information did not come from the race promoter, simply my own opinion.

After an early race last year in those conditions, I swore I wouldn't do it again.  My first race last year was on April 15th 2007 at Mountwood Park in Parkersburg, WV.  It was a combined race for the West Virginia Mountain Bike Association and the Ohio Mountain Bike Championship.  It was 38 degrees, raining/sleeting and the course was so muddy that they shortened it by almost half.  It still took me 2:30 hours to finish with a flat in the prolog.

Instead I will be heading down to Columbia, TN for an American Mountain Bike Championship race at Chickasaw Park.  I've been to this race the past two years and really love the course, very fast.  It's also around 80 degrees and sunny too.  Unfortunately this year it is the same day as our season opener so I had to make a choice.  We'll be heading down to TN on the 29th with a group of friends, see you all soon!

Snow can't bring me down....

  All of the snow we received last Friday and Saturday was getting really ugly to look at.  So we drove down to Huntington, West Virginia on Wednesday with our road bikes and got lost, literally.

It was a nice trip, the temps were in the 60's, there was no snow, there were lots of hills and were even able to ride right out from the hotel.  We had stopped at the welcome center after crossing the state line to pick up a State map.  We thought it would be enough and didn't bother bringing the GPS with us.  I did, however, carry a cell phone.  It was just cool enough to wear our new windproof vests, which was awesome.  Kept me just warm enough and added storage.  I carried my cell, leg warmers, a couple of pria bars, spare tube, tire tools, chapstick (it's a girl thing), the map and my camera.  Joe carried the multi-tool and pump among his items.

It turned out that the map had many roads on it that were un-named, so trying to figure them out with the roads we came across proved to be somewhat difficult.  I guess I always knew approximately where we were, but there was a level of uncertainty at all times.  Our roadie friends are always saying "just get lost", but for some reason, I have a hard time with that.  I am more comfortable with plans and next time we will take the GPS.

I can't say that the scenery was beautiful, since we're just coming off of winter, but the weather was very nice.  I even started my cycling tanlines for '08!  We found a lot of very long hills that came with very long descents.  Some of the descents were so long, our computers turned off.  That's long!  So you can imagine how long the climbs were. 

All but a couple of people had their dogs tied up.  One lady had 3-4 small beagle looking dogs, that spilled out onto the road, luckily we were able to stop and not hit any of them and she apologized for their behavior.  But we did learn that dogs do not like it when you stop, after you get chased up so many hills you get a little tired.  So at one point, I stopped and yelled at the dog to "go home", I don't think he expected that and he turned around and went home.

I also got the opportunity to try out my powertap that I got for Christmas.  I've only used it outside one other time as the rest of my rides with it have all been on the trainer.  As you can see in the picture (if you enlarge it) I can only power approximately a couple of light bulbs, however, I was anywhere from 240-260 watts on the hills with a max power output of 829 watts and an average of 124 watts.  My powertap is set up to include all of the time on the bike into the average, including the 0's or the time I am at zero watts like during descents.  The other way does not include zero's or only calculates average power when you are pedaling.  I haven't asked around to learn how others have theirs set up, so I would appriciate any comments on who you may have yours set up.

Am I in Alaska

This is my neighborhood as of 10:00am this morning.  We knew it was coming, but this is ridiculous.  Looks like more trainer rides for me,  ughh.  We even thought about going somewhere again this weekend, but the radar shows this storm clear down to Atlanta.  So that option's out too.

I was also supposed to be off work today, however, my entire staff decided they did not want to attempt the drive in to work.  That left just me.  I was able to talk Joe into going with me, it's only for a few hours.  Good thing he did go because I got stuck trying to take the side street off the main road to get to the office.  He had to dig and push me out.  A good semaritan also stopped to help dig.  I wished that I had my camera with me then, because he was walking up and down Morse Rd with his snow shovel and a pair of ski goggles on his head.  He was quite a character.

So, we spent all that work and time getting to work and they called me while I was stuck to tell me that they had decided to close for the day!  What is that!!  So we came back home.  Below is a picture of my car after Joe dug it out.

Haw Ridge Park, Oak Ridge, TN

This past weekend, Joe and I made a trip to Tennessee for some warm weather mountain bike riding.  We found Haw Ridge Park on-line and called a local bike shop to ask about it.  They said that it was the best around and would hold up well after a rain.  They were only expecting a 40% chance of some rain on Friday so we decided to go and avoid the 35 degrees and snow we were expecting here.

We left around 4pm on Friday and arrived in Oak Ridge just before 10pm.  It looked like they had received more than the 40% chance of rain, there were puddles everywhere.  We used our USA Cycling license to receive 10% off the cost of our room at the Hampton Inn and called it a night.

The next morning we got up, had the complimentary continental breakfast and headed over to the bike shop that I had called earlier last week.  The Oak Ridge Bicycle Center just a few miles from the hotel carries Trek, Lemond, Fisher etc.  Although they were small, they had the lizard skin that I had forgotten to put on my new Paragon.

Then we headed over to the trailhead, only 5 miles from the hotel.  We picked up a trail map at the kiosk in the parking area and noticed that the 28 miles of trails are actually a network of trails.  We headed out with our map and soon found out that the trails are shared with hikers and horses.  Some of them were too steep to ride either up or down.  After an hour we found a handful of trails that were biking friendly and stuck with them.  Saturday was a little muddy after Friday's rain, so it was a little slow moving and difficult to get up some of the steeper stuff.  Although it was noticeably dryer as the day went on, we had to stop at a car wash to clean off our wheels before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday was much better, most of the trails were completely dry, the sun was out full blast and the temperatures were even warmer than the day before around 60 degrees.

We've definitely been spoiled by having the wonderful trails here in Ohio.  I believe that our idea of mountian biking is totally different than that of Tennesseeans.  I can also say that Ohio has come a long way with its mountain bike trails.  Since we have such a good relationship with Ohio State Parks and Forestry and we have many groups of dedicated bike clubs that keep our trails well maintained.  Most Ohio State Parks have separate trails for horses and mountain bikes as well.  Everyone maintains their own trails and it works out well.

Haw Ridge is open to horses and hikers.  Although we only saw a couple of horses out there who barely left a mark.  We saw several hikers and other mountain bikers.  And even though it's no Mohican State Forest, it was worth the trip for the beautiful weather.