Ouch...

So I guess the season kinda sorta started, or at least has given me a glimpse into my pre- season fitness...ouch!

Saturday began with the Salomon-Don't Get Lost-Snowshoe Raid up in Horseshoe Valley. I teamed up with Leanimal to tackle this one, in a quest to retain our status from last year. Last year, we had just hopped off the plane from Ecuador, and had the benefit of altitude in our blood, but the handicap of stripped legs and feet from racing 3 days in the mountains - this year, we were rested, and ready to take on the challenge. I headed up north in the Bullfrog van with bash and Bent, leaving our place just as Hwy. 400 was being closed due to whiteouts - hmmm...we chose the alternate route of Hwy. 27, and it was not much better. Heading over to Innisfill sdrd. we slowly crept along northward. At Georgian Downs, the whiteouts were so bad, we needed to pull over. Fearing the race would be cancelled, Bash kept in contact with the race site for updates. It was agreed to push the start back and hour, so we pressed on...finally weaving our way along side roads to pull into Horseshoe. Whew - well done Bent on the driving!! Scary stuff...I met up with Leanimal, and the plotting began....muahahaha :)

I should throw in a side note here, and mention that Leanimal, the animal that she is, has just (less than 2 mos. ago...) given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Mari. Not being one to go down easily, she kept on moving through her pregnancy, and picked up training right after - nary a day off to speak of - tough, tough, tough - oh ya...and she had a home birth - no drugs....did I already say tough??? Wow...

So, feeling cheeky, we planned a route that would allow us to run our patooties off, and collect most of the controls, dropping just a few near the start, which we figured we could pick up if time allowed. Oops...we ran our patooties off indeed, for 3 hrs. and 18 mins. We collected a lot of points...for 3 hrs. and 18 mins...we crossed the finish finally....at 3 hrs. and 18 mins...oh wait, the time cut off was 3 hrs...oops...

So it seems we bit off a little more than we could chew, and we knew this, but we wanted the challenge!! At a loss of 10 points per minute over the 3 hr. time limit, we dropped ourselves to 2nd place behind the well run and crafty Bash and Dee. Nice race ladies!! and Cheers to Leanimal in her debut back, and for giving me a great day of training in the Valley! I won a great Gift Card to the Salomon shop which I am pretty sure I am going to use on a new Vest pack for running...sweet! By the end of this one, my legs, and lower back were screaming - such a big valley...valleys...and so many hills...ski hills...to run up and down, that I was stripped.

We traveled home under much safer road conditions, with a mandatory stop at Starbucks, and I set about trying to recover myself, and get refueled for Sunday's fun and games...

After a quick dinner, and a hot bath, I went about working on bikes to prepare a ride for the Frostbike Race in Port Colborne. The bike build fiasco is a whole other story in itself, but suffice it to say, it was a challenge. I had planned on running singlespeed with studded tires, but things broke, plans got kibosh-ed, and I had to settle on FS without the studs...next time...bah!

Sunday AM, I was up at 5:30, moving VERY slowly, hamstrings in knots, did some rolling, some stretching, got packed up, and headed towards the lake. Rolling into PC, I found the race registration and a lot of smiling, chilly cyclists - the day was perfect, and warming up quickly. The race went off in waves of 5 riders per, at about 30sec-1min apart - you get a chance to do 2 laps, and your best time counts. The course was about 8K long, some dirt, some snow, and some ice. I lined up with 5 peeps, and off we went! I wasn't really expecting my best from this one, but I wasn't expecting to bail as hard as I did on my first lap! I got a good shot out of the gate, then lead everyone off course, as I failed to see the first flag into the singletrack; tried to correct my path, and went down hard on the slippery turn. Crap...remounted, and zipped into the ST. Once again, just inside, I wiped out on a turn, chain flew off, mud on my arse, crap,crap,crap....let people pass, reassemble, and carry on. Wow....can you say clusterf$#&k??? I was a basket of hammers. So I settled in to regain composure, and managed to pull back ahead a bit, passing a couple, being passed by speedies, and then rolling over the line with a smile on my face.

So, now it was time to try again, to see if I could better the last gong show. Ha! I set off at a happy pace; the day had turned warm, and the trails were well worn in - read: they had become a mud fiesta - so I guess my mission turned to just staying up right and pedaling. The course was now really, really fun - such a mix of mud and soft snow, and then dry smooth flowy stuff - I had an absolute blast on this lap!!! It was so great to ride singletrack in the sunshine again, that I am pretty sure I laughed all the way around - it rocked!! My time, not so much, but I had a really good ride. My bike came back 10lbs. heavier with all the mud, and had frozen up, but I am sure it was smiling too.

The Shorthills CC guys did an amazing job with this race - great course, great organization, awesome swag - see photo above - kudos to them for a fantastic race, and a great day!

I managed a top in my age category, but was blown away by Speedy Byers and the Incredible Hulk - aka Louda - these ladies rocked it!! For my efforts, I came home with a new set of Racing Ralphs - amazing prize - once again, thank you to SHCC and the sponsors for putting it up!! I also LOVE that the race swag includes a blue, Frostbike pint glass! Perfect for the apres re-hydration :)

Great weekend, great friends, good training - now, it's family day, and I may need a rest ;) Did I already say Ouch??? ;)

Next up, Chico's Snowshoe Race

And, of course, the Oscars...but most importantly, The Leadville 100 lottery draw next Monday!!!!!!!! Fingers crossed - fingers soooooooooo crossed - this is my year finally I hopeI hopeI hope...