What The?

Don't worry, I'm still alive.

I know it may seem as if I have passed, but I'm still here running in circles.  Let me bring you up to date.

June was crazy busy with a race every weekend.  I had fun, rode my bike really hard, lost one of my jobs, and tried to not curse at the weather.  The last weekend of June my friend Tina threw me a bridal shower!  It included my closest friends, and I had such a good time!  I seriously have the best friends a girl could ask for.  THANK YOU!

Happy 5 years!

July came around (faster than I could have asked for it) and then all of the sudden Chris and I had been dating for 5 years.  We did the usual trip to Winthrop for the weekend and we had a blast.  Although unlike the past couple of years, it was HOT!  As in 90 degrees plus.  The first day Joe Brown (owner of the Methow Ski and Cycle) sent us on (what I called) a death march up some long fire road climb, to some pretty awesome single track.  Although I felt like I was only climbing the whole time on the single track, it was pretty fun.  You know it's going to be a long weekend of riding when your legs are already tired and it's only Friday. 

The usual ride!

The folllowing day we did a "mellow" ride called "bear mountain figure 8".  Last year we tried to do this ride but they hadn't cleared one of the trails out, so we did bear mountain figure 0.  Then on Sunday we did the usual highway 20 ride up to Washington Pass.  We left ultra early to beat the heat, but it was still hot as hell when we came down.  We both went through 6 water bottles, it was THAT crazy hot! 

The following weekend I was blessed with a weekend at home!  I didn't have to drive anywhere, but it was also the weekend of the Padden Mountain Pedal.  And since that was literally in my back yard, I HAD to race it.  I wasn't looking forward to it, especially since I was the only open women, but I went out and ended up having a ton of fun.  I love to support as many local races as I can.  Besides, there is nothing like riding the padden course for 5 laps.  The following day a couple of my teammies from Voler/Bicycle Centres came up and us Bellinghamsters played tour guide in the Chuckanuts. 

The weekend after Padden was the last race of the Fat Tire Revolution series.  This race was in Roslyn and I had never raced it, but I wasn't looking forward to it.  To say the least, I was pretty burnt out on racing.  The race didn't start well, or end well.  It was hot and I didn't hydrate pre-race...at all.  So when I stopped sweating and started getting goosebumps I decided to call it quits.  I ended up 2nd in the series overall.

The rest of July went really fast. I had been working on crazy fun wedding plans, and figuring out the fun details of wedding planning. Then we took a vacation to the usual Vancouver Island. We had a complete blast and it was seriously awesome to leave town and not think about anything, espeically wedding planning!

At the top of Mt. Washington.  We climbed, climbed, and climbed!

In case you couldn't tell....

On the decent down from the top.  The Valley is behind us.  Seriously...beautiful views up there. 

Too funny not to pass up



We spent some time on the beach, as usual

Had some river days



Mountain biking on the forbidden plateau, looking down onto Comox Lake

A sand bar island.  Watching as the tide engulfs the fam



And lots of rides to other beaches. 

Alright, we had a really good time.  I almost cleared the toughest stuff ever on the Forbidden Plateau(on my mountain bike), but after having enough jitteries from decending real scary steep downhills, I decided I didn't want to push my limit.  Then...I had a minor crash and decided to walk the rest of the scarys teep stuff.  Next year, my goal will be to clear it ALL!  We spent 11 days on the Island, and it was just right, especially with a wedding right around the corner.  The views in the Comox Valley are absolutly breathtaking.  I love being there so much, I feel so lucky to have a beautiful and awesome place to visit every summer. 

I thought my life would calm down in August, but it didn't.  I had another Bridal Shower, this time thrown by Chris's mom, Sue.  It was a great time!  We had a wedding, and my Bachlorette party to attend!!!  My girls and I decided we wanted to go to Leavenworth, and that we did!!!  What a blast.  We hiked, floated the river, played games, drank tequila, and sang Kareokee.  I couldn't have had a better time.  I would do it again in a heart beat!  LOVE YOU (my friends). 

I am going to make you wait for the juicy details of how the early season cyclocross racing has been going.  I need a whole new post to tell you about that.  Besides, it's time for me to go for a ride in this beautiful sunshine. 

Sun, Beer, elevation, and 60 miles of mountain biking

Mountain biking update #1:  Bavarian Bike and Brews 2012. 

One of the 4 stream crossings in the race

This was my 3rd year at the Bavarian Bike and Brews.  For some reason I keep going back, even though the course is sorta torture!  My first year at this course I raced in the Sport (Cat2) category.  I rode for 2 laps and finished with a time of 1 hour and 42 minutes (and something seconds) average lap of 51 minutes.  I was pretty proud of myself, I climbed to glory (1st place), but I won by a lot of minutes.  So the next year I decided to race in the open category.  I finished with a time of 2 hours and 23 minutes (and something seconds; average lap of 47:30 seconds) with a 3rd place finish by 15 seconds.  I let the girl who placed 2nd pass me about 3/4 of the way up the climb on the last lap, I was SO tired and hot I couldn't push any more than I already was.  Now for this year:

This year I finished with a time of 2 hours, 13 minutes and 58 seconds, practically improving by 10 minutes over last years time (average lap time of 44:30).  This year I finished in 2nd place.  Natasha (who won last year too) won this year...once again, she climbed herself to glory, and boy is she strong.  Even though I finished in 2nd place, in my books I won.  I improved my time by nearly 10 minutes, I climbed faster and I decended better.  Every year I can see my improvement and it's SO awesome to feel so accomplished. 

Mountain Biking Update #2:
Next up was the Echo Valley 60 miler.  My first Epic Series race, and LONGEST mountain bike race and ride to date (aside from the 5 laps at the 24 hour).  After being on race high the week post the 24 hour race, I signed up for this 60 mile race.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking, I just wanted to do an epically hard race, and it was pretty tough.  First off I need to tell you how the race promoter judged me and didn't think I was capable of 60 miles. 
If you are reading my blog, you probably know me.  I'm pretty un-assuming, I don't flaunt myself, I just really enjoy riding and racing my bike.  And, to top it off, it's exciting when you see yourself getting faster.

Friday afternoon Chris and I packed the car and headed to Chelan for the race.  We camped out in a big field at the race venue (the most plush camping I must say) <--- but that's because I bought an air mattress and slept in the back of the car.  Saturday morning I woke up to pee around 7 am.  I walked to the bathroom half asleep, but decided since thats where number pick up was, I should get my number while I was over there (the walk was far).  Okay, number pick up was not in the bathroom, but somewhere close by. 

When I stood in front of the sign that said "60" the two men behind the table said to me:
"The 30 miler is over here"
I look at them confused
Judgemental men: "oh, um, uh, are you doing the 30 or 60?"
Courtenay: "oh, for some reason I signed up for the 60 mile race"
Judgemental men: "oh, okay, you just uh...you look so...uh, sleepy.  What's your name"
Courtenay: "Courtenay McFadden"
Then I grabbed my baggie and walked away.  Of course I looked sleepy...I just camped out in your big grass field, and I literally just rolled out of the trunk of the car.  I was confused...I think the men judged me right off the bat, thinking how I could not possibly finish a 60 mile race.  Maybe it was my hot pink Victoria Secret sweatpants?  Who knows...but I showed them!

Riding your road bike for 60 miles is kind of a long way.  Riding your mountain bike for 60 miles is even longer.  I didn't really know how to pace myself for the race, I just knew that I wanted to finish in 5 hours.  The laps where confusing, I don't know where they started and where they ended, and I packed a lot of food and a lot of water.  Thank the weather queens that it wasn't a scorching hot day, we know that Chelan has the potential to be HOT!  I knew that if I wanted to finish in 5 hours I needed to have a 12mph average.  So in order to maintain my pace I made sure that at the start of every (what I thought was a) lap, I made sure I was above a 12mph average.  It worked out pretty well for me.  After the first lap I found myself leading the race.  From there, I think my gap continued to grow.  I was having a blast; passing people, singing, flying down hill, talking to people, just generally having a grand ol' time.  I did pass a lot of grumpy old men who don't know how to hold a pace.  They know how to go slow, sprint, then go slower.  Move way my elders, there's a young doe in town...erg, coming up.  On a positive note, I always try to pass the men with a big smile and a cheer.  Maybe that's what makes them grumpy, a young girl passing them, smiling and saying "good job" even though in reality they are probably hating life and really suffering.  I finished the race with a time of 4 hours, 59 minutes and something seconds.  I finished UNDER my goal!  HECK YEA! 

Some stats: my garmin told me the race was 61 miles.  My garmin also told me there was a total of 7353 feet of elevation gain (ouch)!

For the first lap, I had the privlage to ride with Erika Krumpleman (sp?), an eastsider who totally rocks at mountain biking.  She soloed the 24 hour race and WON!  I can only hope to be as fast as she is when I'm in my 40's.  I am seriously amazed at these women I race against.  A lot of the women I race against are in their 40's.  They are fast, skilled, fit, and challenge me (and kick my booooty)!  For any women out there who thinks she can't get into mountain biking because she's "too old".  Bite your tongue and go for it, you will be amazed at the women out there.  It's inspirational, I thank you all for motivating me every day to ride and race hard!  Seriously, it's a life long commitment to fitness and a healthy life.  Ya'll ROCK!

Next shout out goes to my friend Logan who seriously dominated the course with a finishing time around 4 hours and 12 minutes.  Seriously?  For real.  My fearless team (Voler/Bicycle Centres)leader Russell came in shortly there after (like 10 seconds or something redic). 

Check out some race photos:
http://stevesandersphotography.com/p1028610453/ed6fd7e2#h2356733 (this is is really special)

http://stevesandersphotography.com/p1028610453/ed6fd7e2#h3be8b576

http://stevesandersphotography.com/p1028610453/ed6fd7e2#h2d96fe9f

I am not a photogenic one on the bike. 

Life in the fast lane

Holy smokes, life is going by REALLY fast!  Can you believe I only have 100+a handful of days until the wedding!  People have asked me if I'm stressed yet, I say no, what is there to be stressed about?  I just hope everything falls into place! 
Recently things/life/riding/racing have been going pretty well.  We had a couple weeks of nothing but sunshine and I was able to get in some awesome riding on both my road bike and mountain bike!  I have been on some pretty epic mountain bike rides and it's been fanfreakin' tastic.  You can check me out on Strava to admire my rides. 

Jess rocking the climb...every lap.
 I'm suffering behind

Way back in the middle of May was the Mutual of Enumclaw (MOE) Stage Race and when I look back at it, I can't be all that upset with my performance (just my results).  The race starts out with a 10k TT, I love it because it's short.  My goal was to improve my time from last year, and I did, so I should be happy right?  I improved my time by 40seconds, that's pretty good.  It put me at 19th place though.  My teammate Jess won the TT, so she was in the leaders jersey for the crit!  My job was to try to get as many of the time bonus's as I could, and oh yea...try to win.  At the begining of the race I sort of played some idiotic moves and nearly fried myself and ended up being way too freakin' tired to go for the first time bonus prime, but Jess ended up getting 2nd for it.  So I sat in as much as possible after that, and when the 2nd time bonus prime came around I played it MUCH smarter, until the last corner.  I was sitting just behind a gal in 2nd place thinking "Man I can try to take her for this time bonus".  One of my teammates was on the last corner and yelled "get on her wheel" so I got motivated and acted as the CAT4 racer and pedaled too early, clipped my pedal on the ground and performed some fancy moves to stay upright, didn't get to sprint, but won a 2 second time bonus...OH YEA!  I finished with the pack...maybe in 10th?  Moving me up to 16th in the GC



Another lap...miserable weather.

Looking back on the race I am finally seeing how much better I am at staying near the front and playing it somewhat aggressively, and not just sitting in.  Being scared doesn't get you anywhere, and I am finally figuring that out.  I also am learning that being in/near the front, is SO much better than having 20 of my closet friends surrounding me as I/we corner at 23 MPH.   I am also learning it's all about positioning to finish well.  If you want to finish well, position yourself to finish well.  Position yourself BEFORE the last lap and then hold your ground!!!

Riding through the master mens field

After such a lovely warm day on Saturday, the weather decided it needed to go back to it's normal Enumclaw weather and on Sunday it poured...all...day...long.  The weather was miserable and I didn't want to race.  Since it has officially almost been a month since this race and I am now finally finishing this blog post, I don't want to go into details, and you don't really care either.  The 60 mile race went something like this: I was having a great race, climbing strong, working hard staying with the leaders.  SO, after working realllly hard for basically the whole race and feeling pretty good about my performance, I pull the group (of...5 riders) to the final climb, and just as we start to climb I shift down to my small ring, and guess what happens.  My chain dropped to the inside and wouldn't get back on.  So I pulled over to put it back on and couldn't get the damn freakin' chain on!  It took me about 3-4 minutes of fiddling with it to get it on, and I lost a lot of time and a lost of positions.  I did however, remain quite calm.  I'm proud of myself for not freakin' out and finishing the race.  I am pretty sure I could have finished with the top 3 leaders, which would have put me in the top 4.  OH WELL!  You can't change things, and I can be proud of my performance.  So I am! 

Enumclaw pretty much wraps up my road racing for the season, it's time to get on my mountain bike and race it!  I can't wait for some dry warm weather and some mountain biking adventures!

Lets thank Kevin Tu (one of my teammates husband) for all of his wonderful pictures.  He comes and supports us at all the races Carly does and he takes pictures while he is at it.  Such a fantastic husband! 

Tah Tah For Now!

My solo finish home.  That's a sad faceunder the helmet. 

24 hours of mountain biking...oh my!

This memorial day weekend I decided to take a break from Ski to Sea and instead drive to the other side of the state (Spokane) and race in the 24 hours around the clock mountain bike race.  I was given the opportunity to race with the Cycle-U/PopCap off road team in the mt bike race and decided it was time to change up my life and opt out of Ski to Sea.  The team consisted of myself, Kristi Berg, Mel Lewis, Kristy Kelsey, and Jodi Connolly.  We basically had a big powerhouse team, and we rocked it.  Since you already know the outcome why I don't I just say WE WON (the 5 female team category).  I feel so grateful to have the oppotunity to spend 24+ hours with such an awesome women's team, and with such awesome, strong, and experienced riders.  It was such a fun weekend and experience I am glad I did such a feat.  I also learned quite a bit about myself and riding! 

Why don't I give you an inside scoop on MY perspective of such an event, I am going to give you details of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  You can choose to read on, or stop now. 
Going into the race I honestly knew it would be challenging, but I didn't think it would be that challenging.  It was hard, everything about the race was hard.  The racing was hard, the eating was hard, the sleeping was hard to time, the hydrating was hard.  It is a race where you honestly need as much help as you can possibly get.  I needed my own personal chef. 

After many many many hours in the car on Friday, we arrived around 7pm to set up camp and get ourselves situated.  We didn't have time to pre-ride so we just chose to go into the course blindly.  Saturday morning my team had a little meeting to get ourselves organized for the next 24 hours, I was the 2nd rider to go.  Jodi took one for the team and went first. 

The start was a lemonds start that consisted of a 600m run and then get onto your bike and go.  Jodi had a great start and an awesome first lap.  She handed off the timing chip to me and I set out on a mission to catch as many women as I possibly could.  I started out the race in cross mode (pedal as hard and as fast you can because you will only be out for 1 hour or less).  I was breathing SOO hard, but my legs didn't really feel much burning, so I pedaled harder.  I passed 4 women on the first lap and finished with a time of 55:59.  The first lap was a total lung burner and my legs felt GREAT!  When I was done, I thought "wow that was soo much fun, why would I ever do Ski to Sea again"??  I immediatly drank some chocolate milk and spun out my legs, I would ride again in 4 hours.

4 hours later I went on for my second lap (around 6pm), and the time went by SO much faster.  Knowing the course was a huge benefit.  This was when I discovered that the last 5 miles of the course took about 25 minutes...not 10.  The last bit of the course had most of the hills, and most of the twisty single track.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the whole course, but this part took more concentration and time.  So on my second lap when I was thinking that I blew my first laps time out of the water...I actually didn't.  I finished with an official time of 55:38.  I felt awesome on this lap, and I thought "wow that was great, this isn't bad".  I drank some chocolate milk, spun my legs, and changed into non sweaty clothes.  I then made myself and Chris some pasta and chicken sausage for dinner and rested in the back of the Kelsey's van. 

Here is all the food I bought
thinking I would want to eat it.

My third lap was awful.  I felt awful, the hills turned into mountains, it was pitch black and REALLY cold (around 11pm).  Last Fall I invested in some quality lights (Light and Motion) and did a lot of night rides, so riding in the dark wasn't too terrifying, you just need to get used to the corners and rocks when you might not see them.  I am very pleased with my set up, a 300 lumen light on my helmet and an 800 lumen light on my bars.  I feel quite confident with those lights!  After approximately 3 hours of wondering when the lap was going to be over, I encountered the last hill (who put this hill here??????).  Okay, okay it was actually less than 1 hour.  I fnished my third lap in 59:38.  4 minutes slower than my last lap..how is that possible????  When I finished I wanted to cry, "crap, that was hard" I thought. 

My next lap was in approx. 65 minutes.  I was a sad sight once I finished my 3rd lap, shivering violently, curled up a sleeping bag in the back of a van, eating a plain baked potato out of tin foil.  After about 45 minutes of trying to get warm it was time to go wait for Jodi.  I headed to the timing tent, and waited.  Then it hit me, my stomach started cramping and I had to PEE, but I had no time to go pee.  Then I saw Jodi and she handed me the timing chip for my 4th lap.   The only thing getting me through the 4th lap was having to pee SO bad.  I was SO tired, I could hardly even keep my eyes open!  My left eye was sagging half way down my cheek, but I stayed awake and handed off to Mel after a lap time of 1:02:12.  I could finally go to sleep.  I drank some chocolate milk, grabbed an extra blanket and curled up in the back of the van for the night. 
We switched up the rotations for the night time so we could get some more sleep, so the first 2 riders alternated for 2 rides each, then the next 2 riders alternated while we slept, and then in the AM our 5th rider went out.  After a nice 3 hours of sleep I woke up with the WORST stomach ache ever.  My belly revolted and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to ride my  lap when it was my turn.  After forcing many cups of oatmeal into my belly and a nice chat with my teammies, I was able to take the last lap of the day, which gave me a full 8 hours since my 4th lap.  My teammies saved my life, I seriously wasn't sure I was going to be able to get through any more laps, but with enough recovery I managed!

Us on the podium.  #1

The last lap couldn't have gone any better.  I didn't feel like crap, and I made it to the finish line 18 seconds after they shot the gun concluding the race!  I finished my 5th and final lap with a time of 58:42.  I couldn't be any happier that I didn't have to continue on!  I am SOO proud of myself, and my team for accomplishing such an awesome feat, and winning (by an hour) to boot!

Now the question comes...would I do it again?  Aboslutely!  Now that I know what to expect, I would do it again without a doubt.  I want to try to perfect my eating regimen, and I now know what I will crave and what I will NOT crave!  All I need to find is a personal chef to go with me!

My awesome team and all our hardware!

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose

Okay, I had to let this soak in for a few weeks before I felt I could actually post this. 

I can now check off the first stage race of the year from my list.  I love stages races, I don't know why, because I'm not very good at them, but I love them.  I think I love the challenge of racing 2-3 days in a row.  I love being pushed to go above and beyond what I believe my body can do.  Walla Walla was one for the books, probably one of the most "humiliating", frustrating, demoralizing weekends of my stage racing career.  I don't feel this way because of my performance, but because of the vibes in the group.  Road racing isn't my forte, I don't really have a lot of confidence or aggression when I'm in a group of riders (especially when I don't know them).  I prefer to stay upright, so I'm pretty cautious when I ride in a group, but when you aren't staying on the wheel in front of you, yes I will move there, and no don't yell at me for going for a wheel you can't stay on.  Don't say "excuse me" in the middle of the group, don't make fun of me for being poor and not having fancy equipment, and don't try to take me out. 

Sound Frustarting?  It was.  This was the most serious, mean, and frustrating group of ladies I have been surrounded by.  I would NOT do well with big timing ladies and that's probably why I don't have ambitions of being a "pro" bike racer...on the road.  I don't like being pushed around or yelled at or told where to go or what to do.  Okay...now onto the race report.

Fridays race was 44 miles with a "hill top" finish.  Which means a 3k climb...I LOVE finishing climbs.  I didn't really know where I was going to be in the whole scheme of things so I sort of hung out mid pack, but would always find myself in the back of the pack.  It's like I'm learning how to race again, or I just crawled in to the skin of a scardy cat.  Which ever it was, it didn't really help me all weekend.  The first real time up the climb there were some QOM points at the top, so girls where attacking left and right...really hard, so I did my best to hang on for dear life.  Then at the top there was a small break, we sort of got it together, then we got caught.  Then we got caught by the men and where neutralized, then the rest of the group caught us.  So we toodled around until the base of the climb when everyone decided to go really hard again.  I finished 6th with the main group.

Saturday at 12:25 was supposed to be the start of our Crit.  After a last lap crash in the mens field we where very delayed, and it was hot.  We sat at the line for quite some time...working on our farmer tans.  Did I mention a black kit is hot?    Eventually they let us move to the shade because we must have looked hot or something.  After about 5 minutes of sitting in the shade we finally could start our race.  I think there were 4 merchandise primes and 3 time primes.  Our race was also only going to be 30 minutes, they cut it short becaue of the delay, so we raced for 25 minutes, and it was fast.  There was a prime nearly every lap!  I did not go for them.  I played the scardy cat role in the pack, but on a good note I didn't get dropped like last year!!  YYYAAAAA go me. 

Since I was so freakin' fast on Friday (I'm such a jokester) I was the 6th to last lady to start my Time Trial.  My go time was 5:59 and 30 seconds.  I wasn't in the mood to TT, after all I have some pretty freakin' sweet TT equipment.  Even ask the ladies who lined up behind me.  I wasn't in the mood to warm up.  So I sort of just pretended to warm up on my trainer in the scorching heat.  Actually I was in the shade guzzeling water.  All of the sudden I looked at the clock and I had approx. 1 minute until it was go time.  This is when I had the best (not) convo. EVER.  As I stolled up to the line the ladies mocked my "equipment".  Did I ever mention I have some sweet aero bars to clip onto my bars of my road bike?  They make me go fast.  I clearly went fast because I finished 18th.

The next day was the "big" road race of 60 miles.  I wasn't super stoked on racing when I woke up (I think that was the weekend trend) but I tried to hype myself up for it anyways.  A coupe of us went out to breakfast and I ate a plate full of buttery pancakes soaked in sugary syrup.  After eating that breakfast, I had no option but to race.  The weather man predicted hot weather.  For once in a lifetime, he was right.  It was hot.  The race started out kind of slow, and every time I turned around I found myself in the back of the pack (once again).  When I would try to move up I would get yelled at.  I got sick of it and I wanted to quit, but I knew I couldn't quit because I ate all those pancakes.  So intead of quitting, I did the next best thing.  About 20 miles into the race I decided it would be best to make an attack, after all I was 16th in the GC and I had nothing to lose if I burned my matches on this attack.  So I pushed real hard, and when I finally took a breath to turn around no one was behind me.  At first I thought SH*T I HAVE to follow through with this.  But then I thought, well this is better than being bored and yelled at in the pack.  There also was another rider up the road, so I decided to try to bridge up to her, and I did.  Then she got tired and fell behind, and it was just me and my lonesome until about 6 or 7 miles to go when the group finally caught me and we toodled our way to the finish where I had nothing left for a sprint and I finished 13th.  That finish bumped me up to 13th in the GC.  IN THE MONEY!  I'M RICH!!!!  (not really)  The whole time I was riding alone I just kept telling myself how much more fun it was to be off the front and how much stronger I would be in 2 weeks. 

I think I'm a touch stronger these days? 

anyways, riding in the 1/2 pack is very different than I anticipated, so we shall see what the future holds for me in this road racing business.