What does it look like to stand at 14,433′?

One word. Amazing.

If one picture is worth 1000 words, I’ll keep the words at a minimum and let the pictures do the talking.

When Jeff Kerkove asked me if I wanted to go out on a hike so he could train for the Colorado Trail Race, I put my bike down for the day and laced up my hiking boots.

Believe it or not, I had never stood above 13,000′ so I was excited to finally get waaay up high, especially to stand on top of the tallest peak in Colorado, and the 2nd tallest peak in the lower 48.  Now I want to hike more of them.

And so I walked. 4.5 miles up, 4.5 miles down. That was a pretty beautiful 5 hours, and the lack of oxygen didn’t really bother me at a walking pace.

Salami at the top? Yes.

Signing the logbook.

Feeling on top of the world…in so many ways.

What goes up…must come down.

Today, I am thankful for my health. Healthy in my mind, and thankful for simple things, like being able to walk and see out of two eyes.

Today is a day of rest, and catch up, I’m so behind in everything!  Whoops….!

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I’m not racing the Breck 100, but I’m up here hanging out for the weekend and riding! I thought I’d feel tired from the CreamPuff, especially because I’m currently sitting 9000′+ from where I was sleeping last week. I took it really easy for 4 days this week and only did 2 easy recovery rides.

I jumped on one of my favorite trails in the area- the Peaks Trail which is about 10 miles one way, rolling, with some fun technical sections. It goes from Breckenridge to Frisco. I had so much fun and was giggling just like I was on the rollercoasters at Elitch’s on Wednesday evening! My legs actually felt strong and it was so hard to hold back, but I did for the most part. I WISH I could race the Breck 100 tomorrow, but I gotta rest up for Worlds so it doesn’t take me 3 hours to warm up!

Mmmm, I can’t wait for tomorrow!  I’m going to RIDE at a mellow pace, the second lap of the Breck 100.  I want to race, waaahhh! 

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com

I’m not racing the Breck 100, but I’m up here hanging out for the weekend and riding! I thought I’d feel tired from the CreamPuff, especially because I’m currently sitting 9000′+ from where I was sleeping last week. I took it really easy for 4 days this week and only did 2 easy recovery rides.

I jumped on one of my favorite trails in the area- the Peaks Trail which is about 10 miles one way, rolling, with some fun technical sections. It goes from Breckenridge to Frisco. I had so much fun and was giggling just like I was on the rollercoasters at Elitch’s on Wednesday evening! My legs actually felt strong and it was so hard to hold back, but I did for the most part. I WISH I could race the Breck 100 tomorrow, but I gotta rest up for Worlds so it doesn’t take me 3 hours to warm up!

Mmmm, I can’t wait for tomorrow!  I’m going to RIDE at a mellow pace, the second lap of the Breck 100.  I want to race, waaahhh! 

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What a surprise! The day after the Cascade CreamPuff (this past Monday), I headed to Bend to finish my shop visits. I was shocked to see that the West side of Oregon is high desert after the jungle trails I was riding on the days before! The town of Bend is pretty cool with a great outdoor vibe.

I needed some recovery riding for my sore legs, so I rode Phil’s and Ben’s Trail, which was flat and twisty.

To top off my day in Bend, I was very lucky to get a VIP tour at Deschutes Brewery – one of my top 5 favorites! It was a nice reward after the CreamPuff.

Dark IPA

Deschutes uses fresh hop flowers.

I got to have a taste of the “special” employee beers. YES

Tuesday I headed back to Portland and got to enjoy some delicious coffee from the this place in the Alberta District called Barista. It was sooo gooooood!

French pastry shop

I had to look in the food co-op b/c I love funky grocery stores.

And flying home…. Mt Hood

I had a great week in Oregon and hope to get back up that way soon!!!

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Hey girlies!  Do you live in the Front Range?  Come on out to chat with me about bikes on July 21 at Wheatridge Cyclery!  Bring questions of any kind.  I’d love to chat with you and help you any way I can, and share embarrassing stories about myself   See ya next week!

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First of all, I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and the support!  In case you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, I had the honor of being selected to race Marathon World Championships in 3 weeks!  I can’t wait to sport the USA jersey and proudly represent my country as an endurance racer.

Announcement can be seen here and here.

This will be my first time racing my bike over the big blue ocean.  I never thought I would get the chance the race in Europe, let alone a World Championship!!!!!  It feels amazing to have all my hard work over the past 6.5 racing seasons pay off.

What do you know?  Dreams actually do come true.    I guess I need to start dreaming a little bit bigger now!!!!

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Full Report and photos coming soon… but for the interim:

The race had great people and was one of the most organized, well-marked, and had the best aide stations I have ever seen. Huge thanks to Scott the race promoter for an a great event! Short story: I felt horrible and demoralized for the first 3 hours and had NO power…and was riding in 6th place(there were some FAST women in my field that had me shaking in my Northwave shoes!), watching tons of guys fly by me on the opening 20 mile dirt road climb. Suddenly my legs switched, I felt like a rockstar, and I pushed myself hard for the next 70 miles. I quickly moved up to 2nd place around mile 47 and managed to open up a gap on 3rd place and finish 2nd overall in the women (1st age group), and 21st overall

Ripe.

Results. Rebecca got 10th in the overall. DANG!

I got up at 3:30 AM. It’s 11 PM and I’m not tired! It’s so hard to sleep after races…. I’m heading to Bend tomorrow for my last day of shop visits (and Deschutes Brewery!). I learned a lesson. If I’m doing 30+ shop visits in a week, do the race FIRST and then do the visits after, not the other way around – that tires you out!

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It is Cascade CreamPuff eve.  The racer meeting is in about an hour and today is the first day in about a week where I have had a few minutes to relax.  Ahhh, that feels nice.

I got to Oakridge yesterday evening and was lucky enough to make friends with some of the guys at LifeCycle in Eugene, OR. One of them actually lives in Oakridge and took me on one of the sweet trails in the area – Flat Creek and Salmon Creek.

This is what I would imagine when I thought “Oregon riding.” The river was HUGE, there was moss on everything, and it is probably the most green I’ve seen in a forest ever. I couldn’t stop admiring the majestic trees…and majestic singletrack. Behold!

Yes, Singlespeeders! Thanks for showing me a good time, Marcello and Tom!

I rode a very small part of the course today with some good friends from Wyoming and Idaho. I couldn’t believe how big the river was. I wanted to jump in!

Me – “Whoa Dave! That is a REALLY wide bar!!” Dave – “Yeah, I like a wide bar for when I want to Hulk out!”

Crazy trees!

This very long dirt road climb will be the bane of my existence and source of pure pain tomorrow.

The stats for tomorrow: 100 miles+, 18,000′ of elevation gain, a mix of road and rockin’ singletrack, lots of green, and tons of fun, a test of mental strength and will, and many many calories burned! The challenge tomorrow will be dealing with the heat and humidity as most of the climbing is exposed in the hot sun, and trying to deal with leftover fatigue from Firecracker 50 and the busy week I’ve had. See you on the other side of another super 100 mile mountain bike race!

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I’ve wanted to come to Oregon for many years, and when Ergon told me to go do dealer visits in Portland, Bend, and Eugene, it was hard to hide the excitement in my voice.

I spent a couple days in Portland. 2 rides (one road, one singletrack), 18 bike shops, 2 breweries, friends, and loads of fun later, here I am. I got to Eugene, Oregon tonight and I will check out the bike shop scene here tomorrow. There is a pretty distinct difference in vibe between Eugene and Portland (duh, one is a big city and one is a college town) and so far, Eugene is more me which make sense since I come from Boulder!

People in Oregon are cool (and some are crazy hipster), there are some GREAT restaurants which is good for Foodie Looney, rainforest-like singletrack, and more breweries than you can shake a stick at. I’ve been trying to keep the after hours brewery touring under control, and for once, I can say I have been sticking to that.

Here is what I’ve been up to this week in a nutshell (besides been trying to recover at <1000′ elevation for Sunday’s race)

Pimpin grips….

Loving the bridges in Portland.

Loving Fat Tire Farm b/c it’s a mountain bike specialty store.

Eating fresh.

Indulging…..

Appreciating local breweries (Hopworks)

Found my one of my NEW favorite breweries in Eugene, Oregon called

Ninkasi Brewery.

That’s a real slide for real fun.

The real deal. Distributed in WA, OR, CA, and ID so far….

Oregon wildlife (banana slug… never seen this before)

Friends. Tieszens and Mustos

and my first taste of Oregon singletrack. Some parts were so dark, I felt like I needed a light. If I looked up, I couldn’t see the sky… just leaves and branches. It’s a frickin jungle.

Lush.

Tree? Thso!

I love GX3, and you can almost tell how dark it is.

It’s almost “time” to focus on the Cascade CreamPuff on Sunday!!! I have shop visits in Eugene tomorrow, and then it’s off to Oakridge. The CreamPuff is actually going to relaxing I think…. settle in, ride 100 miles and 18,000′ of climbing, and feel happily spent.

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Disappointing race at the Firecracker for me. I didn’t have much for legs and basically just rode it. I came in 8th place with a time of 4 hours 50 minutes…. 34 minutes back from the winning time. (Cycling news has my incorrect in the results, argh).

Some days you have it, and if you’re lucky- most days you have it… and some days you don’t. It’s a bummer when that day is nationals. I’m putting it behind me and moving onto the next thing, and that next thing would be going to Oregon today for work, and racing the Cascade CreamPuff this weekend. After that, a little break to rebuild.

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I normally don’t get anxious for races, but nationals always seems to turn me into a bit of a head case… especially since I had my worst race of the year here last year. Fortunately I was able to soothe my nerves on my ride today with the self pep talk which you sometimes need to give yourself. It worked, my legs felt good, and I was left with butterflies of excitement in my tummy descending the Breck singletrack.

Starting line…. tomorrow, there will be world class riders coming through here.

Top of the road climbing on Boreas Pass Rd. Baker’s Tank.

A little piece of heaven, nestled in the Rocky Mountains.

Come by and say hi. We’ll be set up in Carter Park tomorrow.

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All the craziness of the week paid off because today, I got to come up to Breck! Last year, I got to ride in Breckenridge before the Firecracker 50, but my race and travel schedule have been so busy I haven’t made it up to one of my favorite places to ride in Colorado! I got shivers as I saw the peaks and had nostalgic flashbacks of the Breck 100, Breck Epic, and various training weekends from last year. I’m excited for all the upcoming events this summer in Summit County!

Getting here was a little…. tedious. Even on Friday, I-70 was stop and go, bumper to bumper. I love living in the Front Range, but sitting in traffic to and from the mountains on the weekends is the price you pay.

I decided to take the day off of riding, and spend time with some retail therapy at the Outlet mall in Silverthorne. The Nike store is so cheap and my heart nearly broke in half when I saw the Adidas outlet was GONE.

I convinced Yuki to get in the freezing cold stream with me. Snow melt definitely makes the water COLD. It was fun, and I was definitely squawking as I got in. Brrrrrrr!

Trying to get in….

It hurts!!!

Cluck, cluck.

Why the heck would I sit in an ice cold river? My friend Nina taught me about ice baths several years ago, and when we travel to races together, sitting in a bath with about 14 pounds of ice is pretty standard, complete with a down jacket and hat. In my opinion, ice baths are GREAT for recovery. It’s painful for the 5-10 minutes that you’re in it, but it feels invigorating afterward – kind of like intervals! First, it’s a great anti-inflammatory. Think about it – when you have swelling, you put ice on it. Second, getting in freezing cold water causes your blood vessels to constrict. This effect sends blood out of the area. When you get out of the water, your body has to send new blood into your cold legs which can flush out toxins/lactic acid, and gives you fresh oxygenated blood.

We are staying in an awesome condo in Breck, and found it through Great Western Lodging. Off-season rates are very affordable, and the digs are never disappointing. The condo we are staying in has a John Wayne theme. That means there was an old gun on the wall…. which meant I had to play with it.

Jeff played with photoshop. haha

Guns a blazin

My hardtail is ready to go (look a little closer)

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