It’s been another awesome week up in the mountains of NC. The weather’s been perfect- despite the threat of rain for a couple days, the sun stayed out and the temperatures mild. I’ve enjoyed a nice week of relaxing and less training to recoup from the hard week I had last week… and, with all the chill-time I’ve had this week, training has allowed for some good time to think.

Think?! Yes… I do actually think sometimes.

It seems like anytime I come back to the mountains, I find myself here… even if I’m not really “lost” (so-to-speak)… it’s just a good place for introspection. When I went through one of the toughest times in my life, physically and mentally, I spent time in the mountains here alone and rediscovered myself. That was the year before I turned to triathlon.

What I discovered during that three week stint alone was that I was not happy just cycling. I loved running still, and I wanted to be more versatile. I wanted to have more in my life than just riding my bike. I started studying and took the Praxis 2 in order to complete my teaching degree. I wanted to start teaching full-time. Life started making sense to me again… I felt liberated.

After being here again for an extended period, I’ve rediscovered those feelings I had several years ago before I switched to triathlon. It’s been refreshing and reaffirming. I now know that through-and-through, I am a triathlete.

I am a triathlete. I like running, swimming, and riding… not necessarily in that order… they can be mixed up… stacked together in weird ways… or only one at a time… regardless, these three disciplines make me an athlete.

I remember something that my college cross country coach told me in a coversation years ago after a run: “A triathlete is someone who’s not really good at any one thing, they’re kinda good at three things…”

It’s funny now thinking about that, because I think I fit that description. I’m not an Olympic caliber runner… cyclist… or swimmer. I’d never excel if I picked just ONE of these things to focus on. Maybe I’d come close… I came close cycling. But I wouldn’t have a prayer swimming, and I certainly would be off the pace running. BUT, after all… that’s still a maybe.

I do believe my athletic ability lies in being able to do all three of these sports well… and being able to put all three disciplines together on race day… and being able to not have one effect the other in a negative way (ie, i can flip-flop between swim/bike/run without excessive tiredness).

There’s something more rewarding to have three things to focus on. I never get bored. I’m also doing off-road triathlons and endurance races, which continues to mix up my training regimen, depending on the races I have coming up. My training schedule can include road running, pool swimming, open water swimming, road biking, tri-geek specific rides, mountain biking, trail running, hiking, or yoga. See how I never have time to get bored?

It’s a good feeling.

Now it’s time to get outside… and enjoy this beautiful summer weather.

After a pleasant rest day on Saturday, I was back at it on Sunday with a metric mountain bike race in Damascus, VA called Iron Mountain. This was the first year for the event, and there was a good turnout. They did a fabulous job marking the course, stocking the aid stations, and feeding us well afterward… I give this race two thumbs up. I hope to see more people out there next year!

What can I say about this race?? … It was HARD!!!

I had all sorts of mechanicals (bike and human related). I started out flatting before the first aid station. I rode it for a while, but the descent I was on kept getting rockier and rockier… so I figured it wasn’t the best idea for my rim to keep going. I stopped to try to change it, and couldn’t get the tire off with my tire levers. A nice girl stopped and helped me start to get the tire off, so then I was able to do the rest. I met her after the race… her name is Laura, and we actually ran against each other in high school. Funny! Definitely a small world…

So once I finally got my flat changed, I stopped at the first aid station to pick up another tube. By now 3 women had passed me. I passed one back pretty soon after the aid station on the paved road, then I caught up to Laura on the next single track climbing section. We traded places for a while, as she would pass me on the downhills and I’d pass her on the uphills. I crashed about 4 times on one rocky and muddy descent, and that made me lose a lot of my nerve for the rest of the day on the downhills.

Once at aid station two, I saw the girl that was leading (named Misty) just pulling out. I quickly got my bottle and camelback filled up with some HEED and headed out. I ended up catching and passing Misty on the gravel road, and on the next section of single track climbing, my chain broke.

ARGH!

A guy was coming up on me, and he was really nice. He stopped and made sure I was okay. We introduced ourselves (his name is Chris), and actually ended up fixing the chain for me pretty quickly. BUT… while I was stopped yet again, Misty passed me again! So, here I was chasing AGAIN.

I was ahead pulling in to aid station three (which ended on a technical downhill), but Misty was really quick at the aid station and pulled out right when I did. We traded places for a while… again, I’d gap on the uphills, she’d gap me on the downhills.

Finally, we reached aid station four, and I was still good on water and HEED, so I didn’t need to stop. I kept going. At this point, there was about 10 miles or so left of the race? Not much left, but there was a good deal of climbing. I knew that I needed to put in a significant gap on the uphill so I could get to the bottom of the downhill section first in order to win. After all the frustrating mishaps I had, I was very determined to win the thing.

I stayed with Chris and another dude on the last section of rocky uphill, and then hit the singletrack climbing… I kept pushing, telling myself this HAD to be it. It HAS to be over soon. JUST KEEP GOING, PLEASE GOD LET THIS END SOON…

Then, on a technical downhill (oh my favorite today with all my stupid crashes), a moto came up behind me. Well, that really freaked me out… but at this point I was so focused on just GETTING DOWN as fast as I could because I worked so hard to get back in the lead that I wanted to win so bad I just kept going… the guy in the moto said, “don’t worry about me, you’re okay… just keep going…” So, I knew he had to be a part of the race. When he finally did pass me on some more open downhill singletrack, he said, “Hey Alisha! It’s Tom!” I recognized him immediately- he’s one of my friends from Boone Bike. I asked him how much further, and he told me that I had only ONE MORE little climb and that was it… I was almost there. Sweet. That was all I needed to hear.

So I kept pushing hard up that last climb, and then it was all downhill to the line. I just told myself, “Alisha, JUST GET DOWN THIS and it’s OVER… JUST GO! JUST GET DOWN, GET DOWN, GET DOWN…”

It was SO rocky the last section, my forearms were about to fall off. Seriously. The thing that hurt the worst after the race was my forearms. They were sore to the touch. It was so rocky and wet, and there was some crazy drop offs that I rode because I’d get up on them (trying to go downhill fast) and be like, “oh SHIT! well, I guess I’m ridin this… I hope I stick it!” I’d hold my breath… and somehow I made it.

All that “self talk” worked on the way down the last descent… I made it home first. I won!

Chris finished right in front of me, so we rode in together to the start area. The two people that helped me during the ride, actually ended up traveling to the race together! Funny! That definitely made for a “small world” feeling.

I was so muddy when I got back, I immediately went down to the river and washed off. I had mud caked all down my legs and my shoes… what an awesome day out on the trails. I loved every minute of it! We hung out just talking to people most of the afternoon in Damascus because the weather was so nice.

I enjoyed a VERY lazy Monday. Very well deserved after the hard week I had last week. We went to breakfast at Boone Bagelry, and I had the best blueberry pancakes I’ve ever had in my LIFE. God, they were good. Then, I went for a very easy recovery swim in the afternoon to work out some soreness (mostly in my forearms still! crazy!), and I took the dogs out for a hike around the maze trail at Bass Lake.

We went to trivia night at a bar in Boone with some friends, and our team ended up 2nd! I was so tired this morning though, because we didn’t get to bed until almost midnight (AGAIN)… I ended up skipping master’s swim practice. Oh well! This week is more about rest and making sure I’m on top of it before pushing too hard again.

I’m heading out for a run at Trout Lake in a while, then I’m going to mountain bike with a group in Wilson’s Creek Gorge. ROCK IT!!

Yes, I’m tired… but in a good way tired. Not like burnt to a crisp or anything. After finishing the Grizzly yesterday, I was certain that the decision for me to ride 100 108 miles on Wednesday before all this madness was a very GOOD THING (not to take Martha Stewart’s line, but what can ya do?).

After the fantastic swim on Thursday morning, I was really encouraged. Usually my body handles very hard stresses well, and I get a very good response from all the hard work. In other words, I end up getting stronger instead of more tired… which is odd, but for some reason I do that.

We arrived for the Bear, and the rain started. It never poured down rain, but it was drizzling the whole time. That meant that it was going to be really cold on top of Grandfather Mountain when we got there… because it was only in the 50’s or low 60’s when we started at the bottom.

I started out and felt great, but quickly realized “wow, I’ve not been running enough nor any intensity and I’m not going to be able to hold this for long… and damn, this is getting steep!” So yeah, I pretty much did the fat man fade on the run… girls kept passing me as I went up, but eh, I just kept going and did the best I could with the little run legs I’ve got under me.

When I finally got to the last switchback, I was running up to the finish line… but you couldn’t see the finish line because it was in the clouds. Yes, not the FOG, but the CLOUDS. It was really cool. You could hear all these people yelling for you, and cowbells ringing, but see nothing but the road right in front of your face (because it was that steep). I really wanted to walk, but you’re so close to the end… and then I heard my brother yell, “GOOOO ALISHAAAA!!!!!”

Argh. I can’t walk now. Thanks a lot, GREG.

So I kept going and pushed until I got to the finish line… I ended up running a 42:something? Whatever, I don’t really look for exact times… hopefully you know by now that I’m not a results nazi. I really don’t care about all the numbers and splits and all that, and I certainly don’t compare everything meticulously from this year and that year and this person and that person… it’s cool if you do, but I don’t care for it. I like to stay focused on what’s in front of me.

I think I ended up 7th or 8th. Not sure, but I was happy with it… considering the amount of running I’ve done. Now I’m fired up though. I love the Bear, well… I’m good at going uphill. So, I wanna come back and try to win it next year. I already called Sonni and told him we’ve got a goal.

It was a late night after the Bear… we went to find something to eat, then didn’t get home until 11:00 or later, and I of course had to wake up early for the Grizzly. Yehaw!

The Grizzly is a metric century that starts in Linville, the same place that the Bear starts. The route was changed a little this year… to, of course, add more climbing. There was more climbing at the beginning of the ride and at the end. But, I won’t complain about it because I think these changes made the ride much safer.

I ended up actually staying with the group until the top of Old Beech Mountain Rd, which I was astonished by. I haven’t been able to climb like that in (read this slowly) YEARS. Years.

I was dropped on one of the twisty descents at the top of Old Beech… LAME. I just thought to myself, “you used to be a professional cyclist and did these type of descents ALL THE TIME at like 30+ mph, NO PROBLEM… what is WRONG with you??” Well, like most skills that you acrew over time, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” I can still descend well, but not in a tight group. I don’t trust others like I used too, and I’m too tense.

So, I was actually glad to find myself alone at this point because then that meant that I could climb the gravel section alone, then hit the steepest climb of the day up to the Beech Ski Area on my own… THEN descend the STEEP side of Beech mountain ALONE (this was really my goal, because locals FLY down that descent, and I did NOT want to feel “forced” to do that if I was still with a group because I would be way too scared).

I ended up with a couple other guys after Hickory Nut gap and we rotated well on the “flats” (these were still big ring climbs). We were moving pretty good and picked up a few stray riders, which was nice. By the time we hit the last climb on the Parkway, I was riding with Kirk and a dude from Raleigh named Aaron. It was nice to just climb up and not really care about the pace and have people to talk to at this point.

We finished around the Grandfather Mountain McRae Meadows cinder track… which was cool. And, after I crossed the line they told me I got 2nd place… so I got a really cool Highland Games Plate! I was really excited about this. They’re very nice awards (I have one from the first time I ran the Bear years ago).

The rest of the day I was lazy. Read stuff online, talked to Deb, went to eat dinner with my brother again in Boone, then hung out at the Woods’ for a bit with Joe. I slept in this morning until 9am, which was nice. Going to go out for an easy ride and then do a swim, and get to do “normal” mountain stuff today.

Tomorrow, I’m back at it. Iron Mountain is in Damascus… check out the slide show of all the single track I get to do! I’m really excited- it’ll be a fun ride.

Had a fun swim this morning with the Boone Master’s ladies. I’m really having a good time swimming with them. We did a set more like I’m used to today… repeat 100’s, 50’s, and 25’s. I can definitely tell I’m a “one speed” kinda girl… I pretty much hit a pace and stay on it the whole time. Funny how I don’t have much “up and go”… oh well, spose that’s why I’m an endurance athlete by nature.

I went over to one of the ladies’ house after the swim and watched a freestyle technique video. She was very nice to have me over and allow me to watch the video with her. I picked up some breakfast from a bagel shop right near the pool, then headed over to watch the freestyle video. It was interesting. I learned some things, but mostly it re-iterated all the things that Sonni has taught me about good endurance swimming… so it’s cool to see that my coach is awesome because he knows everything. (at least in my opinion!)

Once I finished the video and my breakfast, I dropped by Boone Bike to try to register for the Grizzly so I wouldn’t have to deal with it in the morning. Alas, the registration person wasn’t there… so I’m going to have to register in the morning. Blah. That’s what I get for waiting until the last minute.

I’ve spent the afternoon lounging around and surfing the web. My dogs are so thrilled with all the excitement that they are laid out on the bed snoring next to me.

We’re going to leave I think around 5:15 or so to go out for the Bear. We have to pick up our packets still (we’re last minute people, what can I say?). My dad is coming up to run too! My brother will be there to watch.

The race doesn’t start until 7pm. That’s late! Dang! I wish we could get goin by 6pm, but oh well. I don’t make the rules, so 7pm it is.

Here’s hoping for the best…

So after master’s swim on Tuesday morning, I went out for a solo ride after lunch. The weather was amazing, yet again, with sunny skies and puffy clouds. I couldn’t wait to get out on the road.

I went up 194 again (a 10 mile or so climb from Vale Crucis to Banner Elk) just because it’s one of my favorite climbs up here. I can tell I’m climbing a lot better after just being up here a week. I dropped in to Banner Elk and then climbed Hickory Nut Gap (about 5 miles or so?) and descended down in to Newland. I cut over to Grandfather Mountain, then ascended to the parkway and crossed over the Viaduct. The views were absolutely breath-taking. The Blue Ridge Mountains are easily one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. I can’t believe I grew up here. I have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself not to take these things for granted.

I enjoyed a screamin’ descent of about 50 miles per hour down to Price Lake and then climbed back up to Blowing Rock to end my ride. I guess it was between 50 or 60 miles… don’t really know because unlike most bike dweebs, I don’t have a computer on my bike. I like to just go, and knowing the time I’m out pedaling is good enough for me.

Today, I went out with Dan and Randy for (what I thought was) going to be a 100 mile ride from Newland. I BEGGED Sonni to let me go on this ride, because it was NOT on the training agenda since I have three races (well, events) coming up this week. Tomorrow is the Bear, Friday is the Grizzly, and Sunday is the Iron Mountain 60 mile mountain bike race.

So of course I was nervous that Sonni would say, “come on, Alisha, what did we talk about with ‘resting’ and all that before these little events you have scheduled coming up at the end of the week…” BUT, fortunately for me, Sonni gave me the green light. Instead of swimming today and doing the Wednesday Night Ride, I got to do this slog-fest instead. Lucky-ducky me.

I arrived in Newland around 10am, and Dan promptly says that the ride is not 100 miles, it was actually 108 miles. He had mapped it out online before to be sure.

NICE.

This was going to be my longest ride since my burnout and being hit by the truck a couple years ago. I was banking on just doing around 100, thinking that was far enough. Well, I guess to go along with the rest of my personality… I don’t just go… I go all out. So, 108 miles it is. Great. Bring it.

I was excited about this route, because I’ve never done Roan Mountain and Unaka Mountain before. We were going to be on roads I’ve never ridden before and that is always a good thing. Means I don’t know what to expect really, and I get to see new climbs.

Well, Roan didn’t disappoint. It’s an 8 mile grunt to the top. The first 4 miles are definitely the toughest… around 8 to 10% the whole way… then it levels off to 3 to 5% for a couple miles, then kicks up and stays around 5% or more the rest of the way. I really liked it a lot.

Unaka has a couple of really STEEP places. I love that. Like 15% or more for a half mile or so, then it’d back off a little. It wasn’t as long though… only 4 or 5 miles.

There was a lot of false flat climbing between the major climbs, and we pushed along through those sections at a decent pace.

And let’s not forget the descents- there were some sweet downhills that you easily hit 40 plus mph without even trying. Waaahhhoooooooo!!!

The bitch of the ride was that from mile 95 all the way back to Newland (mile 108) was a climb. Yeap. How you like them apples?

Well, my legs actually didn’t mind it that much at all… my feet were what was killing me. They aren’t used to being in my cycling shoes for much over 2-3 hours on a regular basis… 4 or 5 at the MOST! All of the sudden, I’m doing well over that… and my feet didn’t like it.

As soon as I stopped at my car, the shoes came off.

I got home and ate a small horse, pretty much, and now we’re going to Kilwian’s for ice cream.

What?? Don’t give me grief… I gotta refuel for the Bear tomorrow night (and master’s swim in the morning).

I’ve had a pretty good couple of days… mostly spent drinking coffee until the afternoon hours and kicking my feet up. Eventually I end up heading out to run or swim, but the lazy mornings are definitely addictive.

Yesterday, I finally went out to swim at noon. I did a pretty simple set of 4×500m, odd swim & even pull. Came home and had some lunch, then surfed the web. Rough.

My parents called me around 4pm and said they were at the Shoppes on the Parkway, and asked me to come out and meet them. I don’t really enjoy shopping, but I wanted to see them so I eventually drug myself away to go over there.

Mom and dad were eating ice cream when I got there, so we sat and talked for a while in the sun. Then mom and I hit the J Crew outlet store. I found some really cute sundresses and skirts and little shirts for summer time. Some of the stuff I got I could wear teaching, but not all of it. Shows too much skin for teaching, but I may be able to wear some of it as long as I wear a sweater or button-up shirt over it.

New wardrobe in hand, I left the shoppes and went over to Bass Lake to do a really short run to open my legs up. I was going to do an hour spin on the bike, but with the rain and all it was just easier to do a 20 minute run or so.

I had master’s swim practice again this morning. We did a distance set this morning: 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, and 100m. Except for it had an IM twist: every 4th lap of the 500m, we did butterfly… every 4th lap of the 400m was backstroke… the 300m, breaststroke… and the 200m was free the whole way. Then the 100m was an IM.

We were spose to take 30 seconds rest between each one, but I took 10 to 15 seconds and went. I’m so slow at the other strokes…. it’s pathetic!

Now I’m heading out to pick up my mountain bike from Appalachian Mountain Sports in Glen Alpine. Goinna go ride when I get back.

So I decided yesterday that I was going to do a loop to include Tater Hill. For those o’ you that ain’t Southern (fo’ real), that’s tater… like tater chips, tater tots, baked taters… ya know. Except for this “hill” isn’t a “hill.” It’s a freakin’ WALL. I’ve only climbed it once, with Jim Harmon, years ago when I was a professional cyclist. Now that I’m a tri-geek, I still have that cycling blood in me and these crazy rides call my name. Then, I can’t get them out of my head until I do them, and so I do them… and wonder why the hell I’m doing this to myself while I’m doing them… and so it goes.

But really, the bottom line is, I love this shit… really. The more epic and crazy, the more I’m all about it. I’ve always been like that… it’s in my nature. And this phenomenon has been more emphasized by the fact that after going through my burnout period, I am still all about “the crazy.” Give me more. BRING IT. Love it.

So… Tater Hill. Man, that is one steep bitch. Wow, I remember it was hard when I did it years ago. Tater Hill is several miles long (not sure how many) and it averages 20% the whole way. Yes, AVERAGES that. Not it’s 20% in some spots… it averages that like the whole way, seriously. Fo’ real.

So I’m going up this hell… um, I mean HILL… um, I mean, MOUNTAIN… and I’m thinking to myself, “why did I decide to do this? What gear am I in? Oh, 23, okay I guess I can let myself use my 25 (again, the cyclist in me… I absolutely HATE WUSSY GEARS. Wussy gears = a 27 just so you can ride in the mountains. Really? Give me a break. A 25 is WUSSY if you ask me, so I only use it in absolute dyer circumstances… because, YES, I feel like a WUSS when I use more than a 23 to climb ANYTHING.)… wow, that view is pretty… good LORD where is the top of this thing??”

And just when I thought I was going to fall off my bike, or slip off the handle bars because my hands were so sweaty… the road turns to gravel.

And it keeps going up.

I told you it was epic.  …and, I love this shit.

So I keep goin on the gravel, and actually I like the gravel better… brings me to my “happy mountain biking place”… even though it’s brutal because now the road is still steep, and now you can’t stand up because you’ll spin out. You have to stay seated to keep weight on the back wheel to keep moving forward.

FINALLY, I reached the top. Then I had about 5 miles or so of gravel road along the ridge until I dropped down Howard’s Knob. For those of you that don’t know, Howard’s Knob is a SCREAMIN’ fast decent. You hit 50 miles an hour easily going down this hill.

I just happened to stop to check my tires before pointing downhill, and, sure enough, I had a slow leak in my front tire. I changed it real quick and was on my way.

The rest of my ride was good, but pretty much any amount of climbing I did after Tater Hill really made me wanna cry. I didn’t though. I made it back to Blowing Rock about 4.5 hrs after I started, so a pretty good day on the bike.

Today the weather was iffy in the High Country. It was supposed to rain all day, but it ended up just being a short shower in the morning and a short one in the evening. I decided to just do a long run all the same, so I wouldn’t have to endure 4-5 hours on the bike soaking wet (this is where being a tri-geek now makes me really happy!).

I went for a run at Bass Lake, and ran up to the firetower. This run is 5.5 miles uphill, pretty steep in places, and then you turn around and run back down. You get to climb up a firetower and lookout over the whole area once you run all the way up to the top (hence the name, “firetower run”). You can see ASU’s campus in Boone, Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain, Rich Mountain, Sugar Mountain, and the top of Howard’s Knob. It’s an amazing view. I like the perspective you get up there… another reason I love this run.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started out today, because I haven’t done a long run in, well, a pretty long time. I’ve avoided them actually. Running more than an hour really bothered my hip for a while, and I just felt too tired to run much more than that.

Today was completely different. I actually felt like I had my old running form back. I actually felt like a runner again. This is the first time I’ve felt like that since my truck accident a couple years ago.

Hmm, maybe I will run a good Bear after all. We’ll see. I’m still not super-fast on my run, but I’m confident now that it’ll come back soon.

I’m excited.