Norba National #6
Schweitzer Mtn, Idaho
July 31-Aug 1, 2004

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last raced. I’ve had such a great time at home the days have flown by. Went camping, spent time in Breckenridge, did some of my most favorite mtn bike rides, hung out with friends and family, babysat my sister’s border collie, cooked lots of great meals, had a birthday, and most importantly spent lots of time with my husband. So it’s kind of strange to be back to the race routine

We just finished up another busy weekend racing at Schweitzer Mtn. It is a small ski area that sits a few thousand feet above Sand Point, Idaho. The terrain was similar to Colorado in that it was hot, dry, and dusty. I think it’s the first race I’ve been to without a single drop of rain.

Saturday was the cross-country. The course started with a long fifteen minute climb on a rocky fire road. The rest of the course was a mix of rolling single track, some of it in the trees and some of it traversing the ski slopes. Quite rough in places and incredibly dusty. By the end of the race I think there was more dust in my lungs than was on my bike. And the flowers were incredible! Best I’ve seen all year. (I have to keep that biology degree from becoming totally useless.)

I’ve spent the last four weeks trying to recharge my batteries from the grueling four months of Olympic points chasing. So I didn’t train at all. I just did fun mtn bike rides. And if I didn’t feel like riding, I did other fun things. It was great for the head, and felt great on my exhausted legs. Since I have actually been racing since September 2003 when the cyclocross season began, it’s been ten months since I have had a break. It was hard to convince my body that these past four weeks of play time were just temporary and that it was time to go back to work. I knew the cross-country event was going to be a challenge at Schweitzer.

I started in the second row because I am missing points from two Norbas that I skipped to go to the World Cups. Luckily we are allowed two throw outs so I’ll be fine in the end. The start wasn’t a problem because I had plenty of time to move to the front. The fire road climb was long and painful. And everyone seemed to get faster the closer we got to the first single track. When you don’t race for a few weeks, your legs may be strong and rested, but you lose that top end race speed. I just wasn’t able to push the harder gear that would make me go faster. So I got dropped by the top and went into the single track in fourth place. It was quite challenging going down the first few descents behind everyone because of the dust. You literally can’t see anything. It’s like driving in thick fog, except instead of pavement, you’re flying down a loose dusty rocky trail that’s about a foot wide. Crazy is an understatement. Fortunately, I mean unfortunately, I fell further and further behind the leaders and soon I was descending dust free all by myself. A big advantage, but that also meant I wasn’t in contention to win.

After the first lap I was in 9th. Yucht. I managed to pass my teammate and another rider on the long climb out of the start/finish. I think my legs felt stronger on the second lap but my upper body was exhausted from all the rough descents. I ended up having a slower second lap. Finished in 7th. Not too disappointing considering my month of non-training. But not good either. Oh well.

The next day was the short track. I figured this was going to be even more of a challenge because these races are usually twenty minutes of vo2 hell and high intensity intervals are something I have avoided like the plague for the past four weeks. And I had to start in the second row. The nature of this particular course made being anywhere but front and center a huge disadvantage. But heck, I love a challenge.

The course started on a dirt road that went slightly downhill turning into a loose rocky double track. After only about 100m the course took a hard U-turn and then went back uphill across a rocky and very bumpy grassy slope. A couple more U-turns and a short sprint to the finish. The start was crazy. We hit the first U-turn at full speed and of course it was complete chaos. It’s especially difficult to come screaming into a loose rocky turn when there are ten to twelve girls in front of you all skidding their back tires and kicking up so much dust you can’t see anything, except maybe the one or two girls that ended up in the bushes. I really struggled the first four laps. There were very few places to pass and I was having a hard time sprinting out of all those darn U-turns. My fast twitch muscles still thought they were on vacation. Haha!

I finally made it to the front and promptly attacked. Why not? No one had seen my face at the front so I went for the element of surprise. I got a good gap and forced the Polo Sport team to chase. They went 1-2 in the cross country yesterday so they obviously had lots of energy. Jimena Florit bridged up to me with her teammate Willow Korber. My teammates were dropped. Now things weren’t so good for me. I was in a Polo Sport sandwich. If they were smart, they would have taken turns attacking me until one of them got away. Even on a great day you usually can’t chase down multiple attacks. Lucky for me Willow was tired from the day before. So Jimena did all the attacking, and it was always from the front, which made it easier for me because I was already sitting in her draft. All I had to do was match her accelerations. She was impressively strong and it was all I could do to stay on her wheel. She must have attacked every time through the start/finish for the final four laps. Aaagh! But even she got tired. I chased down her last big attack with one lap to go and then came around her on the long bumpy climb. She couldn’t respond and I rode away from her and won the race. My heart rate hit a whopping 184 beats per minute, a number I haven’t seen in years. Definitely one of the hardest twenty minutes I’ve had in months. But all the more satisfying to win! Jimena Florit was second, Willow Korber 3rd, my teammate Katerina Hanusova was 4th and I think Dara Marks was 5th.

It was a fun weekend of racing and a good start to the rest of the season. Now we’re home for a few days and then an easy drive to Snowmass, CO for next weekend’s excitement.

Cheers!
Alison