Psycho-cross

Psycho- adj. crazy; insane. Considering my last name is Looney, this isn't all that inappropriate.

Yes. Not ONLY do you put yourself through the most extreme amount of anaerobic hell you can handle, but you pay MONEY to do it. Pain was the name of the game at Sunday's UCI Boulder Cyclocross race. I had fear in my heart and a lump in my throat as I lined up at the start with the big names of cyclocross. Usually, fields are bigger with a huge variation of ability in the elite/pro field, but today was different. Today, the hurt locker had my name on it, and it was screaming my name with authority. The field was relatively small, but it was stacked- Katie Compton(cyclocross national champion), Georgia Gould(pro mountain bike national champion), Kerry Barnholt (ex top mtb pro and top 5 cyclocross in the country), Melissa Thomas, Rhonda Mazza... pretty much all of the top 10 from the National GP races short of Lyne Bessette and Wendy Simms. The start was fast and furious from the get-go. I was grovelling just to hang on. About halfway through the first lap, the field started to spread out. I battled for a couple laps with Kristal Boni and eventually put a gap on her. The whole race, I felt really nauseated and thought I was going to lose it each time I ran the 100 m stretch of beach sand up the hill. The race was held at Boulder Resevoir. All I could do was suffer as hard as I could, try to ride as fast as possible through the wet, deep sand, and pray that Katie Compton wasn't coming from behind to lap me!!

Katie Compton and Georgia Gould... watch out!

The course was relatively flat except for the running section, so there was NO place to recover.
The pro mens' field... part of the sandy hill.


Shriver riding through the beach section.

Although I was able to go really hard, it was evident that I'm NOT in top form. My right leg was really sore from the EMG the day before and riding in a different position. I tried to be smart and moved my bike halfway to where my original position was before the fit. Too much change at once could be catastrophic. Even with the halfway point, my hamstrings were crying out from the new position. I ended up losing in a sprint to Kristal on the road at the finish. I only have one chainring on the front- a 39. It would have been nice to have a big ring for the sprint. I was almost last, but was soooo glad not to be waaaaay off the back. This is just a taste of what's to come next weekend- the USGP. I'm doing both races, and I think they will be better because yes, the top girls will be there, but there will be more than JUST the super fast girls. It definitely gave me a taste. I went so hard yesterday that I was sick all last night! Woops. I was able to sustain my hummingbird heart rate of 196 for about a 50 minute race.

Me-- pretty in pink??? SUUUUFFFFEEERRRRRRR!!!!!

I'm pretty happy with that!!! I can't wait till next weekend. The goal for this week is to somehow try to do a cyclocross mount. I just can't do it. A coach told me after my race that, "I would be a LOT faster if I got the technique down." This was my third race, and yes, I WOULD like to get the technique down!! :)

Speaking of technique...Todd Wells was bunny hopping his bike up onto this deck. This thing was almost up to my knee. Everyone else was running it and by my last lap, I could barely even get my leg high enough to STEP onto it! Good job Todd!





And here are some photos from the muddy race last weekend.... turns out I got 11th. Not too shabby!!

This is possibly one of the scariest faces I have ever made...well, it's almost Halloween!!!


I couldn't run up this hill because I had no cleats on my shoes and it was super slippery and muddy. I had to walk up the hill like a duck so I wouldn't slip!!