Saturday, January 31, 2009

Cartecay Bikes Chili Dawg Ride

After yesterday's 3 hour thrashing, I wasn't sure what to expect on today's ride. The advertised ride was 47 miles with a lot of climbing. Two guys were on CX bikes, a few were on SS, and I was on my new Soma Juice 29er. Is there a better way than a 4 hour ride to break in a new bike? Other than some minor issues like not being able to shift to the big ring and some cable stretch, the bike was great and should prove to be a good training bike before the Rotwild bikes arrive.

Well, thank goodness I worked with Eddie on Thursday. He gave me a video analysis session with Dartfish after he fit me on the Juice and once again, I was enlightened. I really would like to go in for video analysis at least once a month to make sure my technique is good. Everytime he explains stuff to me and points it out on the video, I find more improvements that I can make so that is great. I worked on my technique yesterday and on today's ride and it makes such a noticeable difference. My climbing is getting better and my pedaling is getting more efficient so I owe Eddie (and my coach) the thanks for that. I was able to ride at a good endurance pace today and managed to feel relatively fresh at the end...I wouldn't have been able to say that after singlespeeding that route!

The ride ended with yummy chili made by Vic, thanks! And, thanks to Mike from Cartecay Bikes for hosting the ride. The Chili Dawg rides are every Saturday through the end of Feb. at the Big Creek Fire Station in Ellijay. Rides leave at 10am.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

3-day weekend riding binge

I've been bitten by the lack of motivation bug this week....not just for training, but for everything! This means one thing: Big make-up hours for the weekend! I'm actually excited, I have a good workout to do tomorrow plus two days of mountain biking on my new bike.



Thanks to AVX Bikes for hooking me up with the temporary bike...the house has officially been cleared of all the previous mountain bikes that shall not be named. I know nothing about the Soma Juice other than it's steel and a totally different geometry than what I was riding. Eddie luckily had the time to wobble-naught fit me to the bike today, along with my fixed gear bike. For now, the Juice is built up as a geared bike but as soon as the Rotwild race bikes arrive the Juice will go single.

BTW, I spent so much time at AVX today staring at beautiful TT bikes that I think I'm going to do a time trial in 3 weeks. I'll just ride my road bike (just have Eddie change the fit on it). This will be my entry into any sort of road racing but I think it will be fun.

I've been slackin on the photos lately, so I'll make sure to take my camera out this weekend for the rides. I think the sun may actually be shining this weekend, whoa!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

big ring

I loved my workout today....big gear work! It's my favorite, I love to ride at a cadence of 70 which is why all this sit & spin is hard for me. I'm sure it helped that the temperature was above freezing and I had downed no less than 32 oz of BIG RING 53x11 before leaving to ride. I also tried out my new Swiftwick Four Ole socks and can't say enough good things about them. This was one of those days I wished I had all day to ride...but no. Tomorrow should be a long ride BUT I have jury duty....yuck!! Eddie loves jury duty but I, on the other hand, do not. I'm just hoping I don't get picked so I can either A) go for a ride or B) at least get a lot of thesis work done.

Oh, Southern X writeup with pictures is on Cyclingnews.com --and, how cool would it be to have the last name "Cogburn"? Man, you just have to be fast with that name! :)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Send Eddie and Namrita to India in 2009!







Well, it's worth a try. As most people know, Eddie is the self-employed starter of our business 55nine Performance, as well as director of some of the Southeast's most successful mountain bike events. He loves his work and has come a long way since his corporate years...however, he hasn't struck it rich...yet. I am a full time Graduate student. We are saving our pennies and setting our sights on something bigger than we have ever done before.



Sure, it would be prudent to wait until we actually have the income to easily pay for the trip but sometimes waiting isn't possible. I have personal reasons for going in 2009, I would like to visit my grandfather while he is still alive. I was unable to go to his 90th birthday party last year because I was in school. My entire extended family from all over the world went for the celebration and only Eddie and I were missing. I have been telling him that my plan is to visit India after I graduate this May....so why not make the trip coincide with a 9-day stage race??? Yeah!! Brilliant.

We are in the process of finalizing a pretty darn impressive sponsorship proposal (if I do say so, myself) with friend and professional photographer Andrew Kornylak for an extended trip across the world that will be all about adventure. Eddie has never been there so I am excited for him to experience something very new. We are lucky to have Andrew interested in coming along to document the trip with his photography and videography. If you are interested in the details or a copy of the proposal, please email me and I will send one to you when it is complete.

Until then, I have the PayPal donation box open. Any contribution is appreciated and will go directly to purchase the airfare for the trip.






Thanks, in advance, and let the training begin!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Southern Cross presented by BH Bikes

It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I will be updating this post with links to the pictures that I receive, etc.

THANK YOU TO:

The sponsors:

BH Bikes
Crankbrothers
Bear Creek Bikes in Dalton, GA
Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike Getaway
53x11 coffee
Yazoo Beer
BikeCX
Swiftwick socks
55nine Performance
Raxter racks
Sudstress
The Gear Revival
PowerBar
Tifosi Optics

The volunteers

The racers

...and Mulberry Gap for hosting the event!

Pictures can be found at:
Faster Mustache by Kurt Rampton
Pics by Bob Donlan
Namrita's facebook- Album 1
Namrita's facebook- Album 2
Finish Line Pics by Maria

If you have pictures from the race that you would like to share, please email them to me and I'll post the link.

Blog write-ups can be found at:

Carey Lowery
The Marsupial (also known as the Yazoo beer guy, Swiftwick sock guy, and fast singlespeeder)
Charles
Andrea Wilson
Ryan Bosio
Faster Mustache

Congrats to Mary Ellen Mattison, one of our great volunteers, for winning the RAXTER Bike Rack Raffle!

Results, pics, etc. will also be posted to the race website.

Oh, one last thing. If you were a part of the inaugural event and want to be kept informed of the next running of Southern X, join the Facebook group here.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

out for the weekend!



I'm just one work-shift, one training ride, and one Klinik away from heading up to the mountains for SOUTHERN CROSS at Mulberry Gap! I'm really excited for this one..well, I'd be more excited if I could race...but...I'll have to live vicariously through my friend Carey who I'm betting will win the Women's race...right Carey?? :)

As for the men, I'm betting on Mark Hekman, but we'll see. He will have some good competition for sure.



While I'm in Ellijay, my plan is to make up some mucho riding hours because I've barely left the house to ride lately, yuck. I will get to ride the race course on Friday and my plan is to ride the Cohutta Death March loop on Sunday! Any takers?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

all over the place...

That's how I feel after the long weekend! I guess I really did let myself get "away"..but now I'm back and have loads to get done.

I'm rethinking my 2009 race plan. I am still going to do the NUE 100 mile races and the Dirty Spokes races as training events. I also plan to attend Dirt Sweat & Gears. I am also reconsidering racing a 24 hour solo and will most likely be racing 24 hour Nationals. I've had two bad showings in a row at Nationals...so 3rd times a charm, right? Plus, 24 hour racers are my favorite. It wouldn't be the same to be there and NOT race.

Two other big events are on the horizon. One is in India and one is in Costa Rica. It will be difficult to get to both, but we may be fortunate to get to one of them. Since it looks like there is a lot of fall racing going to happen I'm not too worried about starting to race this February.

I'm SO excited for Southern Cross this weekend! We have some HUGE TALENT COMING!!!

Monday, January 19, 2009

whew! what a weekend

We spent the weekend at Mulberry Gap getting the CX course ready for Southern X. It was FREEZING outside, but looking at the forecast it tells me it's going to be warm (which means also muddy) up in the mountains for the event! I have a bunch of pics up on Facebook but if you are racing you are welcome to check out the course on Friday.

Hours and hours of hiking and raking made my legs tired this weekend..I rode but the rides were short and intense. My ribs are still sore from crashing over a pile of logs on a downhill last Wed. oooowwch.

I also heard 24 hour Nationals is going to be on my birthday this year! IF that is the case, that means I have to do it. Is there really a better way to celebrate a birthday??? No, I don't think so.

Here's one pic from the course...looking down from the top of the hike-a-bike. mmm good stuff!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Nothing to see here!

No really, nothing to see. It's been slow around here, it's been cold, and I haven't felt like bringing along the camera. To be honest, I've been sort of grumpy. School and work are taking most of my time. Training hours have been hard to get and I'm barely getting them. I've been trading in some of my long rides for indoor intervals. I did apply for a job in So Cal this week. I'm not sure what will happen but, hey, if I get it....life will get a whole lot more interesting!

We're going to Mulberry Gap for the long weekend, I'm excited..it's been awhile since we've been up there and we also need to set the CX course for the Southern X event coming up! Prizes have been rolling in from Tifosi, Crankbrothers, BikeCX, Raxter, Bear Creek Bikes, Sudstress, Gear Revival...and more. Swiftwick and Yazoo will also be there...

Also, don't forget about the Endurance Racing Klinik at Bear Creek Bikes in Dalton, GA on Jan. 22!

BTW, I was looking at registration for Sea Otter this week. How lame is it that Cat 1 women only get to do one 19 mile lap?? Cat 1 men do 2x19 miles and Pro women do 2x19 miles! For me, it's almost not even worth paying $52 to race 19 miles...AND, I didn't see a marathon race??

Sunday, January 11, 2009

best of both worlds...

Finally! I felt like I had it today...Eddie and I rode up near Bull Mountain...gravel road, "trail", bike-whack, and real trail...steep climbs, gradual ones, I am finally figuring out these gears. My front derailleur has already broken (not sure what I did to it) but most everything was OK with the gears I did have. It was a cold and kind of muddy day, but still a lot of fun :)

OK, going to work on my resume. I found a "dream job"...or the closest thing to it for now.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

switching gears

Today was my first ride on the geared mountain bike since being back in Georgia after the winter training camp in FL. My first impression is that I suck. OK, maybe not..but it's certainly hard to get used to being off the singlespeed. I felt so much faster on the singlespeed...overall, I probably wasn't, but certainly I felt faster on the climbs. Maybe it's me, but thinking about what gear I need to be in is hard. There is something to be said about just riding and not thinking. Today, I had to resist the urge to stand up and climb everything like I would have before...instead I had to focus on trying to retrain my muscles to climb seated at a higher cadence than I'm used to. The trade-off will hopefully be that I can hammer the flat sections faster than before...I'm at least feeling good on the flats (must be all that FL training!) Still, it's a bit frustrating and I'm guessing the transition to being fast on a geared bike is going to take longer than I wanted. I'm looking forward to having the Rotwild FS bike for the rooty/rocky courses.

Tomorrow will hopefully be better. We are having breakfast with my college friend (hot bluegrass star with an amazing voice) and then going to ride in the mountains where we don't have to ride around in mind-numbing circles. YAY!

Friday, January 09, 2009

slow time

..on the blog. Why? because I can barely keep my head above the pile of stuff I have going on with school and 55nine Performance...and it's only Week One of the semester :( Somewhere in between there I have to find time to train. While some freaks are getting near 30 hours per week on the bike, I'm lucky to hit 18 lately. Oh well, it's my last semester of Grad school so that has to take priority. That would also be why I'm not doing much racing until April. I'd rather save the stress of traveling and racing for after my thesis defense!

BTW, I have one note to make to my husband who is probably way too proud of himself for beating me in the O'Dea Fitness Challenge today. BE SCARED because next time we re-match you're going down!!! I'm going to be in super-secret training between now and then. Thanks, Devin, for stepping up the "friendly" family competition in our household.

If you have a minute, check out this interview with Scott Rigsby, double-amputee Ironman. He mentions working with Eddie on the Wobble-naught and Dartfish stuff..pretty cool.

Have a good weekend!

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

planning

School has started again which means all my free time just got taken away...I guess that means I have to cut down my facebooking...

I'm trying to plan my 2009 schedule, at least I know I'm doing the following:

NUE (100 mile race series)


Dirty Spokes MTB series (local Georgia endurance (6/12 hour) races)


Dirt Sweat & Gears

...and then there is still a few unknowns..some big, some small.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

SEE-ME 2009

The Southeastern Endurance & Multisport Expo (SEE ME) will be hosted on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. The event provides interactive, informative environments designed to help endurance and multisport athletes learn more about the products and services related to their sport(s). To enhance the experience, educational seminars and demonstrations provide a focused environment for learning.

Some of the details of the Expo include:

-Vendor booths representing the entire endurance community
-10 seminars for 150-200 people, 45 minutes each on a wide-range of topics
-Live demonstrations on the main expo floor throughout the day
-Swap table booths for individuals to buy, sell, trade their slightly used items

The event is capped off with by a private invitation Gala celebration from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The Expo and the Gala are the defining kickoff events for the 2009 endurance and multisport season in the Southeast.

SEE-ME is an event produced by Charitable Sports Productions, a company dedicated to providing services and financial support to named beneficiaries through the proceeds of sporting events and programs.

Online tickets will go on sale on January 10th for the Expo ($15 in Advance, $20 at the Expo).

Gala invitations will go out not later than January 10th ($700 for a sponsored table or $60 for a seat at one of the open tables.)

Expo capacity is 3,000 attendees.
Gala capacity is 350 attendees.

Online registration for vendors may also register on January 10th for one of the following opportunities:

30' x 10' space ($600)
20' x 10' space ($400)
10' x 10' space ($200)

Additional fees may be charged if larger space is required such as automobile or large equipment displays.

Event producers will quality control Expo vendor registration to ensure a balanced representation of products and services for the endurance sport community.

Several sponsorship options available for both the Expo and Gala events. If your company is interested in possible sponsorship, contact us at: info@charitablesportsproductions.com

If you’d like more information on the event, please visit http://www.seeme2009.com (the website goes live on January 10, 2009) or follow us on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/SEEME09

Mark your calendar for Registration on January 10th! This event will sell out!

Friday, January 02, 2009

Georgia

We're back in Atlanta. I was greeted with a pile of bills to pay, 40 degrees, and rain. Wonderful. Still, though, I am so happy to be home. I guess I will get reacquainted with the rollers now....I'm OK with it because I have intervals to do and it's just as easy to do them inside.

Thanks to Harvey for putting us up at his place for the last several days!!!

Aside from having my own bed to sleep in, the best part of being home is definitely:

Thursday, January 01, 2009

2009: First order of business

Sell stuff!

I'm going to start shining up the frames and parts that need to find new homes ASAP. The Litespeed Ghisallo road bike is also up for mandatory sale so I can make room for my NEW 'CROSS BIKE!!!!!!!!

If you're in the market for 29er frames, forks, etc. or a smokin deal on a 56cm 16lb. road bike....I'll be selling everything in the next couple days.

Happy New Year!

....next stop...home sweet home.