Bend Cycling

Erin's last post from Bend:

The past week I spent cruising around Oregon working the Oregon Bike Ride. Once again I got to see a lot of really cool places - we spent days in Heppner, Monument, John Day, Unity, Sumpter, and Ukiah, and I worked with a bunch of awesome people. Two of the baggage crew members working the OBR, Zoe Roy and Sarah MacCarthy, are nordies at the University of Utah, and they brought all their rollerskiing gear with them. I figured these girls must be serious skiers, so I befriended them, and soon found out that I had actually seen Zoe race before—when I watched the NCAAs at Black Mountain this year (she also went to NCAAs in 2008). I’m quite certain Sarah would have been at NCAAs this past year but she “red shirted” last season so she can have another year of eligibility. I will admit I was a bit intimidated by them, but they were both super cool and Zoe even lent me her rollerskis. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our different jobs and our break schedules we were unable to do any training together, but we did get to ride together on the layover day because we didn’t have to move camp. Our layover day was in John Day, the biggest town we stayed in. The ride was 75 miles, covered 3000 feet of elevation gain within the first 45 miles before a superfast 10 mile descent and then a 20 mile flat return. I rode with Zoe, Sarah, Amie and the Sunnyside bike group, all very experienced and speedy riders. There were nine of us riding together in a pace line. This was new to me as I’ve only ever rode with one or two other people at a time and I had never actually drafted before. Riding in the pace line for 75 miles was the toughest ride I have ever done, I was riding both the farthest and fastest I’ve ever rode. To put this into perspective, we rode 25 miles further and had 2500 more feet of cumulative elevation gain than the layover ride during the Washington Bike Ride, but it only took an hour longer. However, it was also the most fun bike ride I’ve ever been on - the roads and scenery were great (although I spent the majority of the time watching the tire of the bike in front of me and didn’t have much spare energy to enjoy the roadside views), and I learned so much from riding with these experienced riders. The group was super supportive - they would wait for me at the top of the long uphill climbs, but would still let me have the experience of taking short pulls on the flats, and they taught me how to totally rock the downhills (if only that’d help with my downhill skiing). No worries though, I won’t be converting to bike competing anytime soon - I spent the rest of the week doing recovery workouts…

Baldface/Saddleback

A few current, former, and future ski team members got together for a training weekend recently - they hiked Saddleback and the incomparable Baldface Circle Trail. Good stuff. Here's a photo from incoming first-year Jessica Caron.

From left: Emma James '13, Elissa, Jessica, some random guy I've never seen before, Matt, and Shem at the peak of one of the Baldfaces.

Erin in Bend 2

Erin's a blogging fool these days - here's another update from Bend:

Amie and I spent Monday and Tuesday at Paulina Lake, a caldera about an hour from Bend, OR. The temperature at the lake was much cooler than what we’ve been experiencing since the elevation of the lake is about 6400ft. On Monday we did a long run around the lake. We followed a rolling path that circled the lake inches away from the water at most points. Warned of the high elevation, I set a very easy pace and because of the cool air I felt good running. I figured my body was tolerant to the elevation (despite having lived at sea level my entire life). That night we cooked around the camp fire and ate s’mores with friends. As the sun set it got very cold, and shortly after going to bed I realized my 40 degree sleeping bag was not going to cut it (which was an odd change because I never once slept inside my bag in Washington because it was so hot). I zipped myself inside the mummy hood, curled up into the fetal position, and fitfully shivered through the night. Twice I woke up gasping for breath thinking I had smothered myself inside my sleeping bag, only to find that my airway was completely open. I can’t imagine what it feels like to sleep at real elevation…

The next morning we set out to hike Paulina Peak, a “small” mountain only 8000ft high. However the hike consisted of only about 1500 feet of elevation gain over 3 miles, and then a long gradual 7 mile descent.
Still refusing to think the elevation could affect me, I figured this would be an easy distance workout. The group I was hiking with was certainly athletic, but none are on a summer training plan like I am, so if anything I should be the one having to wait up for others, right?

We hit the trail and since it was “buggy”, the guy leading decided to jog. Although it was hardly buggy by my standards (or any Mainer’s standards), I thought it was great that we were jogging and considered it a good training opportunity. However, I quickly started to drop off the back of the group. I assumed I was having trouble keeping up because of my hiking pack loaded with water and food for the day. After a mile we stopped jogging and I caught up with the group as we started to hike. Although now we were all hiking, I found myself once again trailing a good 10-15ft behind the others. My heart rate sky-rocketed, and while everyone else was up ahead seemingly having no problem, I couldn’t catch my breath. I went from thinking this was going to be an easy hike to thinking this would be a great threshold workout, and it was. By the time I reached the top my body felt fatigued like I had been climbing for three hours, not one. At the top was a wonderful view of the caldera and obsidian lava flow, unlike anything I’ve seen before. The seven mile gradual descent was much more manageable, and now I can only hope my red blood cell count increases in preparation for when we climb the “real” mountains later this week.

Erin in Bend

Here's an update from Erin, who's spending a few weeks in Bend:

I spent the last week traveling throughout Washington state working for the Washington Bike Ride. Every day I was responsible for helping to take down camp, load all the supplies (tables, chairs, trashcans, coolers, signs, boxes, drinks, food, etc) into Uhauls, travel to the next destination the bikers were going to, take everything out of the Uhauls, set up camp, keep drinks and snacks supplied for the bikers, help out with any riders’ needs, take out trash, etc. The job certainly kept me on my toes - lifting and moving heavy items in the heat is practically a workout. However, I got a break every afternoon in which I went biking or running. The best day, however, was Wednesday which was a layover day (no moving camp) so I got to ride the bike route, a 52 mile loop through a mountain valley in Oroville, WA. It was unreal to me, so different from Maine! In all the week was a lot of fun, an awesome way to see Washington state, and I got to meet a lot of really cool people.

Now I am in Bend, Oregon, staying with my roommate Amie until next week when we are working the Oregon Bike Ride (same routine). Yesterday we biked to a gorgeous trail, ran for an hour, biked home, and then I topped off the workout with some exergenie-ing (whoot). Today Amie and I biked from Amie’s house to Smith Rock, about 32 miles, and met up with some friends to go rock climbing. The only time I’ve done any climbing was my Sophomore year of high school in gym class. Climbing an actual 100 foot rock is much different than climbing the bleachers in my high school gym. Although challenging, I actually surprised myself with how capable I was. I guess all the lifting of ice bags, coolers, and 24-packs of drinks the previous week (or perhaps all the strength workouts) have toughened me up! Here are pictures of me biking in Grand Coulee Dam, WA, climbing a 5.8 route at Smith Rock, and my friend Jesper climbing a 5.11b route at Smith Rock.