Sometimes you need to rest... Sometimes you race in a parking garage.

So, after putting in 2,200 miles during the Bike Arlington Freezing Saddles competition, I decided to take a week off of training and hard riding to just have some fun on the bike. Plus, I recently purchased a new mountain bike and have not had a chance to ride it. So, after an easy week of only commuting four days and the last Crystal City Wednesday Night Spins Race (recap below), I spent some time with teammates and my significant other and played in the dirt.

The SO rolling down a drop.

Baker's Dozen is a 13 hour mountain bike race that happens once a year on a private farm. The owners open the trails a few weekends prior to the race for pre-riding.  Saturday was the first pre-ride of the season, which means Spring is officially here!  We headed out and suited up and hit the trails. The first lap was a bit slick and I fell back and worked on a few things solo with the SO. After the first lap, we headed back in and I ended up in a smaller group and nailed everything in the main loop except the big rock step up...  Which I will probably never be able to make it up that.

Erik on his new bike...  After getting taught the hard way about keeping your weight back!

It was a great day on the bike and I am feeling a bit more confident about doing that race after all the gravel endurance I have been doing.

Madison (non-teammate) showing us how to REALLY have fun on that drop!

Sometimes you race in parking garages!

So, part two of this update (and I guess, really the REAL reason for it), is to give a race report (or four... actually) for my first foray into non-dirt/gravel/cross racing.  Every Wednesday this month, Crystal City BID and Crosshairs Cycling puts on a parking garage race.  I guess it is kind of like a cross race, since it is a super short course with tons of twists and turns.  But WAY scarier.

Week 1:
I brought my gravel bike and did a quick lap around as I was arriving at the parking garage. I immediately felt really squirrelly and dropped the pressure in my tires. After doing 10-12 pre-ride laps (the laps are about a half mile...  maybe less?), the ladies all lined up for the race. It was great to see so many folks that I had not seen since cross season. Smiling faces made me slightly less terrified.

And then we were off! Well, sort of...  There was a crash right in front of me at the start, so I got delayed behind that. Unfortunately, one of the girls that went down broke her ankle. She is healing well, but will be off the bike for a while.

Terror...  Determination...  Trying to catch Samantha!
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

It took a little before I actually caught up to anyone. And when I did, I realized it was my friend Samantha! I actually hung behind her for a while and followed her lines through the corners and started to feel a little more confident. I ended up passing her and we raced back and forth for the remainder of the race. It was super fun to actually get to "race" with someone, and it was made better because it was Samantha!

Smiles!  So many smiles!
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

I was a little disappointed when the race was over, because I felt like I was finally starting to be able to take the wider corners at speed. I ended up having a blast, even though I was pretty terrified.  You would never know it by the pictures, though!

Who giggles during a race?  This girl does!
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

I even had a decent sized cheering squad out there!  Huge thanks to Team Bikenetic and my Freezing Saddles friends for rooting for me!  I believe I ended up 12th of 15.

Matt & Dane...  Were not cheering me on in this photo...
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

Week 2:
The second week, I felt a little better going into it since I knew what to expect. Oh, I was still terrified, just a little less so. The beginning went off a little better than previously since no one crashed right in front of me.

Well, at least not yet...  After several laps and some good racing, a junior (whom I was waiting to pass until we got out of the tight turns) crashed right in front of me. Her rear wheel clipped my front and I went down, too.

Luckily, it was a pretty slow speed crash and I was fine. However, I could not get unclipped from the bike! I am sure it was a hilarious sight. I did eventually get untangled from the bike and kept going. My knee was starting to swell, so I did about three laps of easy spinning just to keep moving and get my mojo back.

There was a huge field of women racing this week, which was a GREAT thing.  I finished 24th out of 34, which I was very pleased with, especially considering the crash.

I look way more relaxed than I felt!
Photo courtesy of Firespire Photography

Week 3:

I was MUCH more nervous going into this race because of going down the week before. There is honestly not much to say about it.

I started fairly strong after my initial terrible start, but got passed by a few folks throughout the race since I was definitely being more cautious on the corners.

Slow and smiling!
Photo courtesy of Trey Harris (I think?)

I still had fun, though and enjoyed the extra experience! 

Easy spinning and LOTS of concentration after the previous week's crash.
Photo courtesy of Trey Harris (I think?) 

I finished 15th out of 21.  

Week 4:

The FINAL in the women's series. After the previous week, I decided I was going to ride my rigid mountain bike just to see how I fared. I am always more confident on flat bars and even decided to keep my pretty aggressive mountain tires on the bike for an additional boost. This turned out to be the best decision I could have made.

Starting in the pre-ride, I felt pretty unstoppable. I did not want to get over-confident, as that could lead to some pretty...  disastrous results. So I kept the speed down and worked on leaning the bike around the corners. I was at a disadvantage because my gearing is for mountain biking. I ended up keeping it in the smallest ring in the back and treated it as a 36x12 singlespeed. Apparently that worked well.

We lined up for the start, and my favourite photographer of all time made a snide remark about those of us in the "back row"...

"Hey now!"
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

 As per my usual race starting procedure, I had a terrible start. But, I made up for it, and immediately started passing people. They could definitely tell I was coming, my tires were NOT stealthy.

Passing Amy on the inside.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley

Being able to corner with flat bars made a huge difference in just about everything in the race. I felt confident and could take corners tighter than I had been able to in the past. Things just seem to work for me on flat bars.

It also helps to have friends yelling at you to go faster. Yes, I know your grandma can ride a bike faster than me!

 All in all, I felt great and had the best finish for me all month.  I ended up 11th out of 20. (Almost Top 10!)  If I had appropriate gearing on that bike, I might have squeaked out another place or two.

This coming week is Week 5, but there is no women's race. I will be teaming up with two Bikenetic teammates for the relay. It should be fun, but I am expecting it to be a little more terrifying with men on the course at the same time. I will be riding the rigid Niner again, since I am definitely more confident on that bike. Plus I can throw my elbows out and make those dudes give me more space!  

What do you mean there is no smiling in racing?!
Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley