A Stop in Walla

On my way to Xterra US Nationals in Ogden, Utah-- we stopped over in Walla Walla, WA, my college town. I was a dedicated road racer in college and I stayed in Walla every collegiate summer because I just could not. stop. riding. I had to see every road Walla had to offer. Though I know there are still more I haven't seen.

So given a slice of time in the morning to take a jaunt on the mountain bike-- I headed down Lone Fir. Except this time, I had 2.0 and 2.2" Captain Control mtb tires-- not 23mm race slicks.

One of my favorite vistas.

I was possibly "over biking" the gravel roads; but hey, I had a race to stay fresh for.

First time I've ridden a mountain bike in Walla Walla.

I eagerly steered my tires into a pit of mud, only to find it was more like clay.

Lesson learned!

Xterra Portland

Just weeks previous to Xterra Portland, I raced my first Xterra (off-road triathlon) in Black Diamond, WA. I raced just to participate, finish, and investigate how the distance felt-- then I unexpectedly won my (albeit small) age group.

So at Xterra Portland, in a bigger field-- I was there to turn up the heat! Unfortunately, I really DID get heated up!

SWIM: I remembered the wetsuit this time! My swim split was a whole 6 minutes faster.

BIKE: Oh, my-- the transition zone always gives you a zap of adrenaline! I went busting out of there determined to NOT be overly courteous and complacent about passing. I just passed, passed, passed, passed, passed, --whoa, BREATHE--, passed, passed, passed.. then when I figured I had to be leading my age group, I yanked the reins. WhooAAAAA. Don't forget about the run, pal!

RUN: Turns out, as soon as I left the woods for the run-- KAplow!! 95 degrees. Oh my goodness. At Black Diamond, I hit the run feeling springy. After churning my legs up and down the faster and less technical mountain leg, I was not treated to this luxury. AND-- I was dehydrated to boot. I jogged, I shuffled, I took walking breaks, then for the second half of the run-- I took a big, continuous walking break. I knew that if I ran, I could put myself into REAL trouble. And my mom was there, so I thought it better to not end up in an ambulance. I flew a white flag of surrender. Get me to the finish!

Turns out, I developed enough buffer on the bike leg-- that I held onto 2nd in my age group! Hey, cool!

And now.. *cough*..

I'm going to Xterra US Nationals in Ogden, Utah.

Yeah, more on that to come. ;)

Getting to Xterra Portland

A few weeks ago I wrote about my experience at Xterra Black Diamond. It was my first off-road triathlon.

At the end of my lil' play-by-play, I noted that I'd soon attend Xterra Portland. WELL. I didn't tell ya' how I got there!

It began at Xterra Black Diamond. I was packing up my gear in the transition zone, listening to the race director announce awards and raffles, when he says--

"First athlete to run to the lake and back gets free entry to Xterra Portland!"

We looked at each other. Is he seri-- wher-- He-- um,--

"First athlete to run to the lake and back gets free entry to Xterra Portland!"

SPRINT! sprint/sprint/oh!I'magonnamakeit/I'mgonnamakeit/awwww, I didn't make it.

Here's a box of Gu for your hard effort. *Sigh.

Walk back to my stuff in the transition zone. Resume packing up.

"First athlete to run around transition gets [SPRINT!} free entry [sprint/sprint] into Xterra [sprint/ohmy..] Portland [legs wobble like jello! Keep GOING!!! The crowd is cheering for you!!]"

Aw. I got passed in the end by the dude who won the men's race.

"Wait, come back here-- he already has free entry because he won the race. What's your e-mail address?"

..and then so I went to Xterra Portland. :)

Xterra - The Story

In words, how did Xterra go?

Well, to start-- my two pals Jess and Elly brought me to Black Diamond! (THANK YOU!!) I need to get them "Support Crew" or "Cheerleading Squad" shirts, because they're always there to shout at me... though they went hiking that day instead-- and if you saw their pictures, you wouldn't blame them.

But my parents soon arrived, and were troopers in the transition zone-- taking pictures, video, smiling and waving each time I came through. We all had our age written on our right calf, so they had fun guessing people's ages as they ran by!

Oh, but I forgot the wetsuit that my friend Teal had lent me. D*MN! I was really looking forward to the buoyancy and slippery seal speed. And just looking bad ass.

So I swam in my sports bra and bike shorts, which worked fine, though it (or I) was a bit slow. I stayed calm in the water (it's easy to get all excited and thrash) and was VERY excited to reach each bright buoy that marked the swim course. We swam to a teeny tiny island, manned by a girl in a hawaiian skirt and a volleyball that resembled Tom Hanks' friend Wilson, ran across it, then back into water. I have to say-- it was a great opportunity to wipe the snot off my face.

I've grown much fonder of swimming than I ever was-- but BOY was I glad to see my bike!

I've never actually raced my mountain bike, so it was neat to rip around the course and keep pushing. No photo breaks!

I was a bit too shy about passing people, or maybe too complacent to sit on their wheel-- but after I had to stop and readjust my saddle (the nose flopped up so that I looked like a freestyler!), it lit a fire under my bum and I had to really scoot to make up time. I also had NO idea what "15 miles" really meant on a mountain bike, but now I do!

After mobbing down the open stretches, looking gallant for the photographers and bumping along the rest-- I approached the transition zone once more.

Oh.. I still had 6 miles to run. Hmm. I don't really run all that often except when orienteering/adventure racing, soo..

my legs felt GREAT!

I know, right? Legs feel AWFUL after sitting in exact same position, spinning the exact same cadence in the exact same motion on a road bike. But a mountain bike? Heck, you're all over the place on that thing! My legs were FRESH!

Well, perhaps "fresh" is too strong a term. My legs felt better than worse.

I was a bit apprehensive, though-- because I had no idea what 6 miles would do to me. Turns out-- I just had a blast! I only really trotted along.. then I would see a rabbit, accelerate, stop a moment to "draft," that I would ATTACK and zip around them, ensuring that they wouldn't tag on. While I throughly enjoy "chicking" the men (at that point, I had them beat by 5 minutes, as they started ahead of the women), I kept hoping that the next person I'd see would be a woman, to claw my way up the rankings. I never started with competitive intentions, but, you know, why not?

Also-- why do people run on pavement? That just seems stupid. Trail running is about 10,000 times better.

Then the finish came, sooner than I ever thought it would, and I opened it up down the finish stretch, happy to complete my first OFF-ROAD triathlon.

And then-- OH! Ohhhhhhhhh...

OWWWWWW.

Yeah, I had forgotten how my hands had been cramping since the swim, my shoulders clenched and throbbed, and little zings went shooting up my lower back. So I laid down. Happy.

I'll be doing the Portland Xterra on August 14!

Xterra Black Diamond - Photos in Transition

Setting up in the transition zone.

RED BAG: swim

BROWN BAG: bike

GREEN BAG: run

PURPLE BAG: schwag bag

The set up.

Wipe feet > put on socks > shoes > helmet > glasses > gloves > jersey > swig water > and GO!

Oops! I forgot to bring the wetsuit.

Swim > Bike

Bike > Run > FINISH!

REALLY, finished.

*

Sweet reward!

Lord Hill Adventure Race

An adventure race!

I'm having fun in this picture, I promise!

It's inevitable that I'd end up here-- knocking at the front door of adventure racing. 

This fall, I began orienteering with the Cascade Orienteering Club. Every other Saturday, I'd be running, bushwhacking, screeing, wading, climbing and scrambling around a park, map in hand, looking for the next orange flag. 

This winter, I got my first mountain bike (full suspension!) and have been discovering the art or ramming into obstacles with gusto.

Pour them in a pot, mix them together, and..

ADVENTURE RACING!!

The Lord Hill Adventure Race included kayaking (optional), orienteering, mountain biking and trekking. But basically, for me, it was 5 hours of traversing up and down the landscape, on foot and bike, eating peanut M&M's, Snickers and Clif Bloks. And it was AWESOME.

I did it solo, and was the only female to do so. I think I came across as a bit stoic-- but really, I was just a bit nervous and self-conscious. There was no one around for me to bounce jokes, funny observations, or navigational queries off of. It was me, my head and my sugary treats. While I value alone athletic time for it's introspection, I would have had more fun with a friend or three.

"Do da ditty dum ditty doo,

we're lookin' for T 12 on a knoll..

Do da ditty dum ditty doo.."

-Team of 4 sang while trotting behind me

*The team behind me in the photo won a prize for best team name with "Blackman and Robin". The best team names are never PC.

Mountain Biking Turned Paragliding

Fort Ebey, Whidbey Island

It's been too long since I last rode my mountain bike.

High time to itch the dirt.

Get away from the traffic, the asphalt.

Discover what lives in the forest.

Push,

and ride.

Then stop again.

And again, at geometric compositions.

THEN,

stand slack jawed at this:

Human taking flight!

Before I knew it,

I was up in the air, too!

WhopEEEE!!

Let's stay up here awhile.

*

Ravens Dance Paragliding

Tandem Flights/Lessons

John Kraske

USHPA Advanced Instructor

wdancer (at) netzero dot com

I-5 Colonnade

The other day I poked around the Colonnade-- the famous, one-of-a-kind, mountain bike skills park under the I-5 freeway in Seattle, WA.

I was hoping (I was told) that there was a bit of riding for beginners as well as advanced. This is sort of true. The Limestone Loop, first photo below, is a skill-building half-mile cross-country loop. It was beyond me. I haven't really mastered the switchback. Challenges (albeit small) were being thrown at me so constantly, that if I didn't nail the first drop, I was going to screw up the next. I found that to be the theme of the park: JAM-PACKED. 

The Tqalu trail is another feature-filled area of the park, presumably for beginners, which even featured signs explaining how to attempt each skill-- but the features were so brief, I wasn't sure that riding through a 3 foot sand box was really going to develop my skills for riding through sand. 

The only feature I spent any time on was the low logs near the Lakeview entrance. Being alone and more interested in the cardio aspect of bicycle riding-- I got bored and walked around to snap photos instead.

Alas, before I sound unappreciative of such an amazing park-- this park is.. AMAZING. For any intermediate to advanced rider who likes to drop, jump, hop, balance and just free ride-- you will be in your ultimate playground. For someone like me, who needs to huff and puff between technical challenges to feel like I've been on a bike ride-- better to do a couple laps at Duthie.

Morning at Galbraith

Saturday morning, I had plans to go watch some collegiate cycling and root on my alma mater (GO WHITMAN!!) up in Bellingham, WA. Since I was driving, I looked for an opportunity to mountain bike. Enter: GALBRAITH!

After all I've heard and read of Galbraith, I had big, BIG expectations-- endless ribbons of dirt twisting through a fairy tale forest. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found:

washed out, overgrown, poorly drained trails that lead nowhere,

jumps hacked by 13-year-olds,

and an impossible entrance to the park.

Yeah, here's a tip:

TOTALLY MISSED THAT. From Birch St. Entrance: The left trail neatly switchbacks up to the Ridge Trail (the one you want), which will take you to the info kiosk and the AWESOME web of trails. The right, however, will take you to the washed out, over grown, hacked together mess-- which is possibly not even part of the park.

So, once I got that..

It was all good.

Dirt roads are the pipelines between trails.

Riding at Duthie has noticeably improved my skills already!

Well, not THAT much. Yet.

Loving Duthie

One reason to love Duthie Hill [mountain bike park] is because the trails are made specifically for mountain bikers. These aren't hiking trails that mountain bikers are allowed on-- these are mountain biking trails. And boy does it make a difference! The latter third of the "Boot Camp" trail is pure downhill swoopiness. Banked corner after banked corner after banked corner. It's not huge or advanced-- a beginner like me can handle it-- but it is SO FUN. It's a roller coaster ride that you're in charge of.

Another reason to love Duthie-- is that it is so BEAUTIFUL. Road riding is great because I can start out my door, but I can never ride far enough to get away from pesty cars. Mountain biking on the other hand, even though I have to drive to get there-- it's just me, the woods and my bike. Real solace.

I love it!

Trek/Fisher Mountain Bike Demo

{Trek Remedy review, Trek Fuel EX review}

I got to test ride some bikes! Trek/Gary Fisher has a big truck an' trailer that drives around, toting mountain bikes for folks to try on the trail. This week happened to be a dealer-only event, but the truck also hosts public events.

I showed up an hour early so that I could take a few laps on my own mountain bike first as a "neutral" comparison. Then I tried a Remedy, a Fuel EX, a Remedy, and a Fuel EX. Yes, I rode two bikes back and forth-- because they were the only bikes in my size to ride. No 29ers, no HiFi, no Rumblefish, no Scratch, etc, etc. Wow, really?? Sure, there is a women's truck roaming around somewhere-- but I was informed by a demo guy that the only difference between the two were the stem and saddles. So why only 2 bikes in a small size? LAME.

Back to the EX and the Remedy.

In Mountain Bike Land, the spectrum, to me, looks like this:

1. Cross-country race bikes. Light suspension, light bike, possibly hardtail or 29er. Fast. Very responsive handling, climbs incredibly, goes downhill okay.
2. Do-it-all cross-country. A little more suspension, fairly light, quick, responsive handling but more stable than a racer, climbs, but holds it own going downhill. (*MY BIKE.)
3. Beefy cross-country. More suspension, a fork/head tube angle that can handle rougher downhill, a bit heavier, stable handling. It can go up, but it much prefers to go down.
4. After this, the bikes are really about going down.

My understanding of mountain bike #3 has totally changed. It used to be that these bikes were real pigs. They were pretty much "light duty downhill." You could climb on them, but you didn't really want to. 

Now-- these bikes are lighter, the suspension technology greater, and the angles tuned just right. This is the new "every person's" mountain bike. 

the REMEDY

Is #3, without the dead weight. The bike felt super solid-- it stuck to the trail, I wasn't bouncing around. The steering was stable and generous to small mistakes, it didn't need to be micro-managed. It went down, it went up-- it was faster (lighter!) than I expected. To be fair, the REMEDY is the perfect bike for the park we were at-- Duthie Hill. Duthie is a park with trails built FOR mountain bikes (as opposed to trails built for hikers that bikes are allowed on)-- so it is super 'flowy' with all sorts of fun banking. It's Remedy territory.

Who I would recommend the Remedy to: enthusiast or first-time riders, looking for a bike that is quick but confident. You'll never shave your legs for a XC race. You hit the trail once-in-a-while or regularly. You're going to ride single track, flow park, small jumps-- Remedy it. This is the do-it-all. 

Comparable bike: the Enduro by Specialized.

the FUEL EX

If the Remedy were a sword, the EX felt like a scalpel. Or maybe a dagger. We'll let the real race bikes be scalpels. The EX could handle Duthie's flowy trails, but it was less forgiving to user-error. Rider-input had to be more exact. To be fair, the park was more suited to the Remedy than the Fuel EX. But boy, what small rollers I did climb-- I could tell that the EX really could jet uphill! 

Who I would recommend the Fuel EX to: enthusiast or first-time riders who prefer going up the mountain than down. You'd absolutely shave your legs for a XC race. When you ride your mountain bike, you're there to get a workout. You're going to ride fire road, single track, maybe some flow park. Fuel EX is a speedster with more confidence than a pure racer.

Comparable bike: Specialized Stumpjumper

MY BIKE

I have to admit, I was a little worried that I would ride something cooler than my bike, then not like my bike anymore. Fortunately, I like my bike even more now. :)

Per my perspective-- my women's Stumpjumper (Safire) isn't quite so solid as a Remedy, but not quite so twitchy as a Fuel EX. 

For my purposes-- fire road, single track, flow park, some XC racing, endurance riding..

My Safire is goldilocks. Just right.

Duthie Hill: small park, big fun.

Duthie Hill is a work-in-progress mountain bike park just north of Issaquah, WA. It isn't a very big park (see comparison chart to right), but it uses its space QUITE efficiently. The goals for Duthie Hill are this:

• An awesome park for mountain bikers.
  
• A great place for kids -- make it easier and more fun for kids to get into the sport.
  
• A great place for events and competition.
  
• 4-6 miles of flowy XC trails that are also a great XC race course.
  
• Dirt jumps / Flowlines.
  
• More technical freeride downhill.
  

While I haven't been to many such dedicated mountain bike parks like Duthie, I have to say-- Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance has done a fabulous job of meeting these design goals, and they're not even done yet. Just take a look at how many trails will cram into this space:

Yeah, no kidding. CRAMMED with trails!

This is what the park looks like currently, as of March 8:

The quality of work is just amazing. I've worked for the Washington Trails Association, leading trail building work parties on Mt.Rainier, so I know what good trail looks like. This is not just GOOD trail, it's good MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL. The banking, the flow, the diversity, the creativity, the challenge options.. all of it.. wow. VERY GOOD WORK.

If you've heard mostly about the many of drops, stunts and downhill/freeride lines in the park, but you're a cross-country rider-- don't worry, this park is also for you! Five to six miles of flowy singletrack have been (or will be) crammed in, by means of three-leaf clover loops and an alternate loop. PLUS, the cross country trails feature optional challenges-- a skinny log to ride, small jumps, etc-- that can be easily and intuitively by-passed if you want to skip it and keep your flow.

This Boardwalk leads from the parking lot to the heart of the park.

Boot Camp is a trail where novices can learn and advanced riders can sharpen.

I rode it 4 times in a row before work on Wednesday.

An example of an alternate challenge on the trail.

Duthie does not shy away from seriously advanced trails.

Yee-wow.

And THIS what what you ride to get to the banking!