Coyote Classic 2014

Posted on July 8, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

The Coyote Classic is the first race of the NMORS season and it is always a good welcome to the mountain bike race series. Luckily this year we had a little bit of cooler weather. It took place on March 30, 2014. Because I am such a slacker with blogging and I’m writing this in July, I will try to recap as much as possible!

Normally Mike and I both would have raced this race, but after doing the 12 Hours of El Paso, I realized I definitely was not ready for the sport course of the race. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the beginner days just to build up my stamina.

Here is a pic of Mike and Eric Sortemme, a good biking buddy of his. This was Eric’s first race and he placed fifth out of a lot of people. Awesome!

Olivia came along for the show and was pretty excited to watch all of the mountain bikes. She is all about anything with wheels!

During the race, the bikers make a loop through the start line and then go out for another smaller lap. It was cool to see Mike come in so soon. I knew he would podium after I saw him come in on the first lap. And he did! He got third place in his large 30-39 category!

Mike pre-riding before the race!

The crowd that showed up. It is always a big race!

Right before the starting whistle for all of the categories!

Overall, it was a success. It is really competitive to get a podium in this race, so it was awesome to see Mike get a plaque!

Back In The MTB Saddle Again

Posted on January 15, 2014 by thefasteryoupedal

The New Mexico Off Road Series is looming in the future (March 2014) and I am currently trying to get back on the mountain bike to race. The last time I raced big time was in 2011. I’ve been riding since four weeks postpartum, but I will be honest and say that it took about six months to feel normal and even now, I still don’t feel completely 100 percent.

I think my saving grace right now is the road bike, believe it or not. There was a time that my husband would have laughed out loud at the thought, but I am a true believer (and he is too) that if you want to be a great mountain biker than you get in some miles on a road bike too. I have seen it happen to my husband and I can see it happening to me now. It’s funny how 15 miles on a road bike is so little, but on a mountain bike that is a Cat 2 mountain bike race!

I can’t go riding without my lucky charm. I’ve had this Hen in my Camelbak since my first race in August 2009.

UPCOMING RACES

Here is a list of Southern New Mexico races in the next month or so (road and mountain) to help with training:

January 26 El Paso Puzzler (El Paso, TX)

February 1 12 Hours of Old El Paso (El Paso, TX)

February 1 Missile Man Duathlon (White Sands, NM)

February 21-23 Valley of the Sun RR Series (Phoenix, AZ)

And here are some running events too:

January 20 MLK 5k Run (White Sands, NM)

January 26 The Biggest Loser 5k/Half Marathon (Las Cruces, NM)

February 8 Cupid’s Chase 5k (Las Cruces, NM)

Sandia Peak State Championships 2012

Posted on July 29, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Yesterday we took off to Albuquerque at about 3 in the morning to go race the Sandia Peak Hill Climb. Every year in the NMORS series they choose one race to represent the state championships for mountain biking. A lot of people sign up for it even though there are other races in the series, they are all out to get the state title.

This was the aftermath after trying out a completely different bike without practicing with it a few days before the race. So my word of advice, if you are going to switch from a full suspension bike to a hard tail….don’t race on it the day you switch over. 🙂 I survived though and got first in my category and second overall. 🙂

Mike made it in the time he planned on doing and actually went ten minutes faster than last year! It was a hard race where you lose a lot of momentum, but the downhill is really fun.

With this being my last official week of summer, I am trying to get myself back into a routine for school. I am planning out my morning routine to include a morning workout at home and an afternoon workout right when school ends involving the gym, bike rides, or running. Part of the morning consists of taking care of the animals we have around the house, including the bearded dragon “Angelina”.

Barney is so dang nosey!

We’ve been watching the Olympics a lot and I am loving the swimming and gymnastics portion of it.

Question: If you were in the Olympics, what competition would you take part in? If you were in London, which one would you watch?

Sandia Peak Challenge 2012

Posted on July 27, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Even though I haven’t been riding the New Mexico Off Road Series as much this year (see www.nmors.org), I still want to give it a shot this year! People get so excited for this race because it is listed as the state championship. Two more hours of registration and there are only two girls racing the sport race! Ha ha! Thankfully, the other girl is in my category so I have some competition.

We decided to pre-ride the course last Saturday and it was so beautiful out. I was able to make it to the top in about an hour and a half. Ned Overend, awesome mountain biker extraordinaire, has made it in about fifty minutes so I will take it.

I love this shot of Mike on the downhill.

The downhill is so fun. It’s very smooth and gradual and it takes about 25 minutes to get down at a quick pace. A lot of people take the lift to the top and then just ride down for fun. We prefer to take the “free” route (that doesn’t cost any money) and ride our bikes up on our own. Plus it gives us bragging rights of being hard-core.

I tried to re-enact Mike’s awesome picture, and instead made the “fish face” and ruined it. (See my Fitness post on how to breathe when running…I am a pro at making the fish face!)

A Special Gift

Posted on May 29, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I know my birthday is over, but I do want to share one last part of the extravaganza. For the whole week now, I have noticed little things disheveled around the house that normally are not even touched. Hall closet lights are left on. Boxes moved. The OCD in me notices things like that.

Finally, Mike had to ask me where my jersey was located that I won for the NMORS season last year. I felt really bad because he was so close to finding it, but just didn’t look long enough.

Anyway, for a couple of days he would sit in our other bedroom with the door shut and I was under strict rules to not go in there. I behaved myself and stayed away. And here is what it was:

Who knew he could be so crafty? I guess he made friends with the people at Hobby Lobby and he is now a VIP or something there. 🙂 I love it! We have a trophy room with all the posters of all of our races and I’m making room for it as we speak.

I had to show you the meal we had for my birthday just because I do like food and blogging about food. My mom makes the best grilled chicken. She grills it and then puts BBQ sauce and hot sauce together in a mug and adds it the last five minutes to give it a kick. So in honor of her (because if I was in Vegas I would make her make this for me), I made her chicken with a side of Caesar and watermelon. Isn’t summer awesome? I am so glad I have a summer birthday!

P.S. I loved this card from my mom:

High Altitude Classic

Posted on April 22, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

It’s the night before the first mountain bike race of the season for me and I can’t sleep. I usually am not that nervous, but I didn’t practice a lot over winter and feel like I went down a whole category in my riding skills. Tomorrow’s race is going to be hard. Period.

Picture four massive hills, which includes one long jeep road that climbs 1000 feet up and then takes you through a campground and then up more hills. And then picture doing it twice. I guess thats what I get for moving up from Cat 3 beginner to Cat 2 Sport.

My goal is to get top three. Here’s hoping.