DeRailed in Danville

Sat, Aug 26, 2006 Southside Scramble, Danville, VA

This was the 2nd in the Va Derailer series. The course is full of twisty turns, "whoop" sections, and short climbs. This is the type of course where you're on the gas from the minute you start...no real good sections to rest...or take time to take a swig from the water bottle which would have an awful effect on me later that day. Temps were in the mid to high 90's. Normally I do okay in the heat...it has some effect on me but generally I can stay pretty well hydrated. I felt good in the warm up but felt a little "off" once we got to the starting line. I seemed a little more on edge than normal. I just chalked it up to pre-race jitters.

I felt ok on the first lap. One of my comptetitors had gotten in front at the start but I figured I would just let her set the pace. Unfortunately she went down hard on one of those rollers. It was a tight left hand turn into a steep drop, followed by a steep, but short uphill. As I eased past her, I shouted "you okay?" she indicated she was..so I continued on. I was sure my competition would be back up on the bike so I pushed a little harder on this first lap. The key to this course is maintaining your momentum so that's what I tried to do. I even had a little help from the rider behind me. He had ridden the course many, many times so he knew every twist, log, turn, uphill, and even places to pause & take a sip fromt he water bottle. It was almost like having my own little coach in my head to let me know what was coming! We continued on..about 3/4 of the way through my first lap I had to clip out to dab through a short uphill section. As soon as my foot hit the ground, horrendous cramping started in my calf. I never cramp so I knew something was not right. The "coach" passed me but I soon caught back up. I thought..keep drinking wherever you can.

The second lap was a little slower than the first. Towards the middle of the second lap my buddy Todd Gilley caught & passed me. Todd races Clydesdale class. Somehow we always seem to end up riding together in the second half of the races. I followed Todd through the series of S-turns, then out into the open field. I asked him how far back the ladies were...He said he passed one on his first lap but was not sure of the rest. As we dumped into the downhill section, Todd was gone....so I plodded on but now the stomach cramps, nausea, and headache were beginning. Towards the last 2 miles or so, I caught up with one of the expert women..I asked her how she was feeling..her response was "not too good" I knew how she felt, except she had 1 more lap!

As I completed my second lap I felt extremely nauseated! After they took my number, I rolled over to the area where my teammates were. My hubby gave me a bottle of water & said "drink this,you'll feel better." Well I drank the water, then my recovery drink, then another bottle of water..still no better. Jannie put an icepack on my back..1/2 hour passed...Ok I think I feel a little better. I decided to stay under the tent while the rest of the team got some grub. That's when it hit me ....instead of feeling better, I felt worse. My breathing shortened and the nausea increased, although I never could puke (sorry, I know that's gross) One of my teammates ran to the food area to get my husband & a couple of EMTs...Seems I was in the begining stages of heat exhaustion and was dehydrated. They quickly put icepacks under my arms & on my neck to get my core temp down. They also gave me some extra oxygen to help w/ the shortness of breath. I put my legs up, continuted to drink lots of Gatorade & water. I forced down a piece of pizza to get my blood sugar back up. Finally after about an hour I was able to summons the strength to move to the air conditioned Jeep!

Here's what WebMD lists as the symptoms of Heat Exhaustion: Fatigue, Nausea , Headaches , Excessive thirst , Muscle aches and cramps , Weakness, Confusion or anxiety , Drenching sweats, often accompanied by cold, clammy skin, slowed or weakened heartbeat, Dizziness, Fainting , Agitation. I didn't have all of these but I had the majority of them. I may have even been on the verge of heat stroke b/c my skin was hot & dry rather than cold & clammy. That's pretty serious. Thankfully there were EMT's there to help the riders. I know I wasn't the only one that felt awful...I think it just hit me harder than others. Next year for this race, I'm definitely wearing a camelback so I can drink more during the event.

I did come in first in my class..but it definitely was not worth the pain & suffering. Turns out the competitor in my class who went down early did not finish....I think lot of riders did not finish..The heat was too much! Team El Toreo did well again. My hubby took 3rd in Single Speed...only 30 seconds out of second place, Chris Clark took 2nd in the Beginner class, Ron Glowczynski took 1st Expert Male over 36 and 3rd overall in Male Expert, Jannie took 3rd in Female Beginner! Way to go Jannie...you rock girl! One of our other teammates had a tough time w/ the heat as well..that was Aaron..he placed 4th in Single Speed but was just happy to finish the race.

Lots of liquid & rest & I'll be back to my old self in no time.

Feel the Burn

Saturday, Aug 19

A group of us headed down to Danville to pre-ride the course for the Southside Scramble. As we entered the trailhead, I felt good, legs felt strong, I felt confident in my handling skills, etc. This course is full of rollers and some fun singletrack. As we entered the first rolling section, I felt a horrible burning sensation on my leg and my backside. I thought "man these horseflies are relentless" Only.they weren't horseflies. The burning/stinging worsened as did my screams of pain! It was then my hubby said "BEES! GO GO GO" I was sobbing at this point b/c the pain was unbearable. I took off on my bike....crying the entire way... Once we were away, I could calm down. Turns out the riders who were ahead of us stirred up a nest of yellow jackets..The bees thought I'd be a good target. I was stung at least 3 times...once in the leg and a couple on my backside. Moe was also a good target .she got stung 4 times! Later on the ride my hubby got stung on the back of his head!

Fortunately I did not have a serious reaction to the stings other than some pain, itching and large swelling at the sting sites. I've been doped up on Benadryl the past couple of days to help the itching subside. I hate Benadryl b/c I feel soo out of it..Hopefully the swelling will go down in the next day or so.

My hubby said he's never seen me ride so fast. After I was stung, he couldn't keep up w/ me through that first section of trail! I guess the adrenaline was pumping. Worst part is, I don't remember anything about that first section of trail in terms of the technical aspects or climbs.
I sure was exhausted afterwards!

Fortunately there were a couple of folks who work on the trails in Danville. They've been alerted to the bees..so hopefully Saturday, we'll have a bee free race!

Big turnout for Tues Chicky Ride

Tuesday Aug 15

We had our largest turnout so far for the Tuesday Chick Ride. 9 chickys came out to participate. We went out the outer loop to the road and back into the entrance. Everyone did great! I was a little worried w/ some of the roots, but the ladies rode awesome! Pretty soon we're gonna exceed the number of riders that come on the Thursday ride!...

We'll be out there again this Tuesday so come on out & join us ladies!

Mw windows race

Sunday, Aug 13, 2006 MW Windows Race, Franklin Co, 1st in the VA Derailer Series.

Approximately 125 riders turned out for the first in the Va Derailer series. Team El Toreo had 6 riders on the podium for this race! Rock on team Burrito! The course was a combination of wide double track, some single track, cornfields, gravel roads, a creek crossing, and a deep river crossing…oh yea..and one very slippery bridge which I would find out about 4 miles into the race! Racers started with a staggered start..meaning experts, first, then single speeders 2 min later, then sport folks 2 minutes after the single speeders, etc, Thank you to the race promoters for doing a staggered start. Things were much less chaotic and you could work your way through the group much easier. I raced in the Vet sport (35+) division. In early spring I had entertained the idea of moving up to expert class. I decided against it because most of the races last year, there were few if any other racers in my class. Also with injuring my knee at the start of the race season, I did not think I would be ready to tackle the expert level just yet. I hoped more women would race this year and I would not be disappointed for this first race. There were 2 other ladies in my class, and 2 younger female sports….Woo Hoo..someone of my gender to race with!

I decided to line up towards the middle/front of the sport pack. In previous races I’ve lined up behind the guys and always seem to lose time because I’m in the back of the pack. It was a little nerve wracking when we started b/c everyone was jockeying for position before getting into the singletrack. Fortunately I was able to hold my own and maintain a sustainable pace on the first grassy climb. The pack spread out as we entered the singletrack..until we got to Still Hill. I jumped on another guys wheel & climbed behind him all the way up. We had to holler at a few folks who were walking, but no worries..cleared the first hill.

As the race continued, I felt strong. It was really hard to get into a steady rhythm because of the creek crossings and a couple of steep, slippery hills where you either changed your cadence to make the climb, or got off & hiked. As I approached one of these slight uphills, there was a mossy, slippery wooden bridge just before the turn for the hill. I was in a groove, pedaling a steady pace, and getting ready to gear down one ring to spin the climb. As I geared down, leaned into my turn and took a pedal stroke BAM! I was off the bike in an instant. In fact, my bike was about 3 feel below me just on the other side of the bridge! OUCH…I felt a little pain shooting up my backside as I mounted the bike to continue…I remembered that for the next lap.

I continued on….crossed the river a lot better this year than last. I kept my bike on my hip this year & plodded through water waist deep in some parts. Coming through the transition area, there was a small but LOUD group of folks cheering the riders on. I was so amped from this that I almost missed my turn and just about took out the marshall directing the riders OOPS..sorry about that. As I raced my second lap, I could see one of my teammates just up the trail. I came close but couldn’t quite catch up to him. I think I finished 15 seconds behind him. My overall time was 1 hour, 9 minutes, beating last year’s time by close to 4 minutes! And coming in first in my class.

Here’s the site for the overall results I'll create the link later so you'll need to copy & paste this to your browser for the time being. http://vaderailerseries.com/results/

18mph

Saturday my hubby & I did a 50 miler along Bradshaw, down to Shawsville, then back. Temps finally weren't scorching hot in fact it was quite nice w/ temps in the mid 70's, a slight breeze & not much sun. I decided to go hard on this ride....instead of sitting and spinning through the climbs, I decided to attack each one & sprint as hard as I could. Warren did all of the pulling so my goal was to hold his wheel as much as possible. I was able to hang with him for the most part. My legs were a little tight through some of the sustained, gradual climbs. I continued to check my average speed through the ride...16.5 mph, then 17.5, 17.8, 17.9...as it ended up I had an average of 18 mph!!!! That may not seem like much to all you hammer heads out there,but for me it was a new milestone. It was the fastest road ride I've ever done! Woo Hoo!

Scorcher

Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006
100 degrees

That's what the temperature read in Jen's vehicle as we prepared for our weekly "Chicky ride". Yup, we really rode in that heat! I think a lot of us were debating on riding. But as it turned out, our core group of 5 showed up ready to sweat. We headed out the outer loop to the road w/ lots of breaks in between. It was actually hotter when we stopped so we tried to keep moving. Once we hit the road back to the park, two gals stopped and the remaining 3 of us tried our hand at the endurance loop. We did pretty good..even got close to conquering the uphill switchbacks (way to go Jannie!). Back to the cars to load up the bikes & off to get something cold to drink.

Bizarre

POW! PSSSSSSSSST, KATHUNK, PSSSSSSSSST, KATHUNK, KATHUNK, KATHUNK...

What in the world? My hubby & I were cruising along doing an urban assault ride. (basically an ubran assault ride is anything goes....you ride trail, streets, alley ways, etc.)
I was riding the flaming green booger commuter, cruising down an alley following the same line Warren picked when all of the sudden, I started hearing the noises listed above.

I knew I flatted when I heard the "pow" and the "pssssssst" but what in the heck was causing the "kathunk"?

Then it appeared..a masonry nail of some sort. Not only did it puncture the tire and the tube..but it went clear through the rim. I've never seen anything like it and never had anything like that happen before on a ride. How it went through the rim, I'll never know. I'm not a very big person. I weigh less than 115 lbs...I guess the force and speed caused it to go right through. All you engineer types, see if you can figure that one out!

Here are some pics: