Please change your saved link!

The new address is www.sonyalooney.com and click Blog!!!

New posts today!

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com

Please change your saved link!

The new address is www.sonyalooney.com and click Blog!!!

New posts today!

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com

Yesterday, I rode the parts of the course I missed. It’s all very similar and at race pace will be very painful!

Plenty of gravel in the pain cave

Proof there is some fun singletrack on the course

Thanks to Lars, our mechanic, for taking great care of us. That is my lovely teammate – Sally Bigham.

Today, I met up with Krista and we did an hour spin on the last section of the course.  It relaxed me to ride with someone I know, who is having similar experiences here in Germany.

Harvesting wheat… for beer, and for all the yummy bread.

My USA teammate, Krista.  The irony of it?  We both were born in New Mexico and we both graduated from UNM Electrical Engineering program for undergrad.  Is there something in the water… or perhaps in the green chile?  Her husband Todd has been a great support too!

I saw this outside someone’s house by the garbage. Whoaaa crazy! Jager bombs?

The grocery store here is surprisingly HUGE. Like 3 stories and a moving sidewalk for your cart. A German man was watching me take this. I tried so hard to be discreet so I didn’t look like a stupid american, but I failed…and he laughed.

THREE aisles of sweets. I will be returning next week to buy some fun stuff to bring home.

I was overly amused riding in Dave and Sally’s van. They are from the UK, so the steering wheel is on the left. Weird!!

I have spent most of my time in the hotel, doing it all right. I wake up, enjoy a german breakfast, get out on my bike (ride to the venue, ride parts of the course), come back and sit in bed or nap, eat dinner, then go to bed.  This is something I’m not used to.  I’m used to being constantly busy, constantly on the go and NO time to relax.

A few pre-race thoughts.

I am not nervous.  The night before marathon nationals, I was a nervous wreck.  For this race, I have no expectations.  My only goal is to ride my hardest and hope with all my heart that my legs feel good.  I have learned a tough lesson with jetlag, and it really effects your body for racing.  The nervous system is still asleep.  I hope mine is awake and ferocious.  If I had a chance to redo it all, I’d come out even earlier.  I know I am capable of doing really well, I want to do really well.  I want more than anything to feel at my strongest pedaling up that first hill and charge through the race like Wonder Woman(haha) in my kit.

A tremendous THANK YOU to my sponsors, especially Ergon.  I could not have done this amazing adventure without you. Thank you to my Topeak Ergon teammates here, and especially to Dirk(our team manager), Lars (team mechanic), and to Theresa and Werner (team physiotherapists) for all your hard work.

I feel incredibly lucky to have this opportunity in my life and am not taking one second of it for granted.  I feel fortunate for all the wonderful support I have from my friends – it has been overwhelming to see that, especially on facebook.  Wow!   This experience something I will always have and always remember, regardless of the outcome tomorrow.  Hard work does pay off.  I will always know that I was selected and rode the World Championship representing my country in 2010.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!  Let’s kick some ASS!

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com

I’m doing what all good little pros are supposed to do. Sit in bed wearing compression socks and drinking lots of water. I wonder how many days I can keep THAT up

Today was my first full day in St. Wendel. I like this little town from what I’ve seen. The hardest part about racing here is NOT walking around all day long. I want to walk up and down a bunch of streets and snap photos of all the old, white buildings and go laugh at some of the Euro fashion shops, but I am attempting to conserve energy. My trip to Germany has been fun so far! I’m actually really lucky I came here back in May, because now I kind of understand how things work although my German could use some serious work! Simple things suddenly don’t become quite as simple… but I like a challenge. I’m extremely lucky because my team – Topeak Ergon, is based in Germany and I have the best people in the world supporting me, and setting an example for me (my European teammates are all top-notch, world class athletes, and it shows). I feel like a freshman entering high school again… inexperienced and maybe a little embarrassed around them. They are super nice, but this is my first time racing in Europe. Translation – amateur hour? But then I give myself the pep talk…the one that I appreciate from all my facebook/twitter supporters. “Sonya, you deserve to be here. You earned this. Believe in yourself.” Intimidation factor for me is admittedly higher than I’d like, but it’s exciting. It’s a whole new experience. Morale factor is high. I’m excited and extremely fortunate just to be here.

Back in May, I got to fully take in German culture meaning lots of pig eating, and sampling a variety of beers. Today, I realized I haven’t had a real German on this trip. I am not freely slurping one of my favorite beverages, but I decided that changing my ways just because it’s a world championship isn’t the way to go, so I finally enjoyed a German beer! and make it DARK (dunkel)

Just one though… and early in the evening and not right after a ride. See? I do have some tact.

Let me backtrack. This morning, I enjoyed another lovely german breakfast. The bread is so good…as is the jams, fruit, muesli, yogurt, and various meats and cheese. I normally don’t ride a lot before a big race, but I needed to inspect the course. The race is 2 different loops totaling 107K or 67 miles. A lot of it is road, doubletrack, or mowed fields but there is some little bits of singletrack to get my blood boiling with excitement. Short little bites of it. There is some climbing too… sharp, short little bites of that too…enough to zap your energy. Enough for you to say, “man, my legs feel like crap from something, and my heart rate is really low, and wow, I feel like shit today.”

Course profile.

I enjoyed the scenery today like I said I would. It was very Oregon-like. Lush, humid, mossy, and really muddy from the rain. I even had some company for half the ride – our team mechanic Larry who is FAST! zooooom!

Oregon has though banana slugs I posted a photo of a few weeks back. Germany has these bright orange slugs…everywhere. It’s kind of fun!

I didn’t enjoy how my body felt. I have found out that jetlag really takes a toll on the legs. I had zero power and could barely get my HR out of zone 2 or “riding along” heart rate, but the effort felt much harder, so I tried not to push too hard. Tomorrow is a new day. I drank a lot of water today, ate a lot of food, and laid in bed for the afternoon. Hopefully that will help because I know what my race beast looks like on a good day, I saw him last weekend on a training ride and he is mean and hungry. I want him to appear, foaming at the mouth on race day.  Patience and faith that they will come around.  Fingers crossed.  If not, Sunday will be… not a great day.  haha.  They will feel better.

Pics from the pre-ride.  I rode the 2nd lap of the course.

The wind generators hovering 100s of feet above the course are so cool and poetic.

and huge..that is a person up there.

Mowed bumpy fields….

Wheat. Wheat thins?

Forest doubletrack.

Singletrack

Cornfields

Get it, Larry!

and muddy messes to clean up when the ride was over.

“your face is a muddy mess!”  My face, I mean…   Your face jokes, like “that’s what she said” jokes…do not get old.  I probably rode too long today… 3.5 hours but if that doesn’t get the blood flowing in and out of my veins, I don’t know what will!

I met up with Krista and Todd Park. Krista is the other woman from the USA racing.

Teammates? shake and bake! Does that blow your mind?

I got my USA kit today. It means a lot to me to wear this kit.  It’s something that every racer dreams of.
Tomorrow, our little crew will be joined by the rest of the team and support crew. I can’t wait! I’ve enjoyed hanging out with Lars, Sally, and Dave!

And a few from town right outside our hotel.

Off to bed.  Schlafen. Sleep.  G’night!

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com