Drafting...Or Not

I distinctly remember being six years old and biking the Schuykill River Trail with my dad. The first time I rode the trail I was determined to complete all thirty miles of the out and back course on my pink, sparkly bike with a single gear and shiny streamers. I wanted to take the lead and feel the rush of the wind in my face. That’s the best part right? Little did I know that my dad was drafting (or receiving some sort of wind blockage from a tiny six year old). 

It’s now sixteen years later and little has changed. I have no clue how to lube a chain. I couldn’t tell you where the derailer (is this even on a bike?) is located. And I have a helmet that could fit a doll. Most of all, I still love to hammer on the bike – into the wind, up mountains, and in the lead – always at top speed and maximum effort.

Now though, I have a partner in crime in my biking adventures. David and I are two equally stubborn, equally adventurous personalities. The result? We share the lead and cover incredible Colorado courses in record mountain bike time. Plus, he occasionally reminds me to drink and informs me of obvious biking techniques. Large chain ring for going down big hills? Duh, Megan.

We have covered epic bike routes (especially when considering our mountain bikes, and dear god, my 29er). The list is forever growing and will hopefully continue well into the summer even through Philadelphia and Durham.

1. Boulder Sunrise Century: 100 Miles, 7,000 feet of climbing. All starting at 6 AM. (OK, this is the only route where we rented road bikes). I learned how to eat a Clif bar in four seconds and learned that if you put Cytomax in a Camelback, you should really clean it out immediately. I also learned that David is not a camel. We were chasing the lead riders and bypassed every water station after mile 57. Considering I was the second rider in and David the fourth, it paid off, but David had some dark, dehydrated last few miles.

2. Magnolia Road: 36 miles round trip from Boulder, but 2,170 ft of climbing in 4.5 very painful miles. The key on 25% switchbacks is to listen for cars (actually Mom, I checked my shoulder three times) and then to take the middle of the road. Otherwise, it’s possible to run out of gears and fall in the bushes on the side of the road. I learned this last year.

3. From Idaho Springs up Mt. Evans – 6,000 feet of climbing in 28 miles. 100 degrees at the base and 50 degrees at the top. 55 mph sustained winds. Check out those numbers. It was crazy. I was lucky to have a 29er because I may have been blown sideways off the mountain.

The Last Switchback - Best Moment Ever

4. Left Hand Canyon to Brainard Lake – 5,000 feet of climbing in 32 miles. We did this as a second workout on a two-a-day. What were we thinking? I am pretty sure I swore on every switchback.

Drafting Fail... Battling for the Lead

5. Aspen to the top of Independence Pass – 4,500 feet of climbing in 20 miles. My heart rate was too high to contemplate drinking. David, however, had to pee. My response - “too bad, pee your pants.” We were going for a record mountain bike time.

Random Trail We Found at the Top of the Pass

6. Rio Grande Trail – 1,500 feet of climbing in 27 miles. After all of our climbing, I thought this was flat; however, google informed me otherwise. The first four miles around Aspen are hectic. Fortunately David was well versed in “ON YOUR LEFT” because we may have destroyed a small child at top speed. Or an Aspen lady biking a $6,000 bike with sandals, no helmet, and curled hair. What’s worse would be endangering her much older, questionably degenerating husband.

For now, those are the highlights. I have inherited some espresso gel shots from my dad, so the biking adventures should become more entertaining in the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading! You guys are awesome (Mom, Dad, David, maybe four friends?)

Ketchup Time

I think I mentioned in my first blog post that I started my blog because I was anticipating being bored in the coming weeks. Somehow though, I have been incredibly busy and have been keeping myself remarkably entertained. Alas, I need to catch up on my blogging.

Here is what I have been up to in the last couple of weeks:

1. Graduation – On an adventure front, I split a 15 minute 200 meter to reach my seat in the stadium. I also had two clif bars stashed in my gown in awkward places. Fortunately, gowns are not form fitting, and chocolate brownie breast implants are remarkably even. Except after I ate the first clif during the student speaker.

Find me? Where's Waldo for Stalkers

 At my neuroscience graduation I am pretty sure the announcer secretly thanked my parents for my pronounceable first name and simple, yet comical, middle name of Daisy. After many difficult name pronunciations, followed by “wrote a thesis on 5RQ1TRP Channel on Apflyksia Trystonia,” my simplicity was a nice intermission.

2. ECACs (East Coast Championships) – My whole family got to come out to the race and experience their first track meet! After watching many of the steeple chasers puke and fall flat on their face before my race started, my family accepted my simple pants-peeing with relief. I forgot to ask my splits and I still don’t know them, but considering I heard a whole bunch of 85 second 400 splits for the first mile and a half, I think the last half/third of the 5k was as quick as it felt. I wound up running a 16:32 in a very tactical race to take 3^rd.  

3. NCAAs – DNF. Ugh. More than anything in my life I hate those three letters strung together. This was actually my first DNF in any race, rep, run, or event, ever. I was having foot pain for a week leading up to the race and just ran on the Alter-G treadmill before the race. I am pretty sure I have a huge pain tolerance because I couldn’t even feel my foot during the race, but I literally just could not land on my right foot. After 4 miles, I became concerned about shattering my metatarsal bones. Alas, I stepped off.

It’s funny that I initially felt relief after seeing the X-Ray a couple of days later. I have stress fractures in my second and third metatarsals and a reaction in the fourth. I guess in my mind it justified the horrifying DNF letters.  However, the relief lasted a mere hour - I spent the next three locked in my room throwing a massive temper tantrum. Mature, I know. I could have even logged the temper tantrum in my training log. My heart rate probably exceeded standard pool running maximums.  

My NCAA takeaway – 1. Don’t run with stress fractures 2. Run an all out 100 meter dash at the start of the 10k to avoid the mess of 48 people in a track start. Then slow down to 90 second pace and force a tactical race.

Again - Where's Waldo? This absurdity resembles a graduation procession in speed.

 5. Apartment Re-doing – This involved creating three piles for everything in the apartment: 

      1. Why in the world is this here? – no one should ever be subjected to this – TRASH

             Examples – David’s wolf shirt. Musty Firewood. 2009 Mustard.

      2. Goodwill donations

Examples – 2^nd grader pjamas. Animal Hats.

     3. Things to bring back home.

Examples – Racing arm warmers.

We did, however, find a street sign that said “no ball playing allowed.” This was spared from all three piles and now hangs in the bathroom.

6. Cooking – read ketchup and kale.

7. Epic amounts of reading – Life of Pi, Wild, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Hunger Games Trilogy, A Long Way Gone. Part of the apartment re-doing comes with creating a library composed mostly of used books acquired from second hand stores. No matter how cheap a book is on an iPad or Kindle, I just won’t do it. Hmm, literally.

Although I'm in Boulder, I promise (Mom, Dad - this is for you) that I'm not a free-lovin' soul. I just found this hilarious.

I’m in Colorado at the moment and will post more adventures as they occur! Mostly in the form of epic bike climbs until my foot heals up. Thanks for reading!