Author Archives: Vicki Thomas

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September 21, 2010

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Checking in from San Diego

After a whirlwind weekend in Vermont I now find myself in San Diego, California. Sunday was a great day of hanging out at the Catamount Outdoor Center watching the racing action. It was hard not to race but that crash I had on Saturday really did a number on my shoulder.

By Saturday night I could barely lift my arm… So there was definitely no racing for me on Sunday. I thought I had separated my shoulder but thanks to some amazing attention and care from Deb Paulson, I learned that my shoulder is not separated just badly strained. Deb is a massage therapist and she did some amazing release work on my shoulder and gave it a thorough assessment. Thanks Deb for the help on Sunday! The shoulder is feeling much better today. It is at about 75% so I’m confident that it will be fine for tomorrow’s race in Las Vegas.

So with no racing for me on Sunday, it was fun to just 100 per cent focus on Marc and his race. Boy oh boy did he ever have a good ride! It was awesome to see him riding so well and to just keep digging deeper and deeper. I was so proud to see him race so well. Many thanks to Conor for doing the pit duty for me on Sunday – this gave me a chance to relax and hang out with my parents for a bit.

Really the day was just about hanging out and watching racing. I got to catch up with lots of friends and meet new people. Can’t ask for much more from a day. Thanks to everyone who gave me words of encouragement and the odd hug here and there. I really appreciate it. This is a hard and frustrating time but I know that I just have to keep digging deep and pushing forward and good things will come.

After some frantic bike packing on Sunday followed by a relaxing evening with Jenn and Shane I was quickly at the airport on Monday morning at 5 a.m…. What seemed like the longest day ever ended with my arriving in San Diego to connect with the KingsBridge crew at the DRJ Fall World show. Good day at the show capped off with a fine sushi dinner and then I was back to the hotel to build one bike and get some much needed rest.

I had a great ride this morning along the San Diego Bay. I hooked up with a small group of cyclists for a bit and then did some exploring on my own. This afternoon we’re driving to Las Vegas and tomorrow it will be go time. Yes, I’m nervous about tomorrow. But I just have to line up and race as hard as I can. This is all I can do. This is what I will do. Had a great talk with my coach today and I’m feeling pretty good about tomorrow. Looking forward to visiting Interbike on Thursday as well. It will be a whirlwind couple of days but it will be a “good” whirlwind.

Oh, some disappointing news… The UCI Cyclo-Cross Training Camp is canceled. This is a real drag. Upside is I’ll get to race at Gloucester now! Haven’t raced there since I won the women’s 3/4 race in 2008. It will be great to race there again. The real hassle is now I have to change my ticket again… I originally booked my flight for the first World Cup in Aigle, Switzerland on Oct. 17 and then I changed the flight so I could do the ‘cross camp and now I’ll have to change it again… Each time I change the flight it is a minimum $250 charge… Sigh. Oh well, not like I can flap my arms and “fly” myself there!

Well, next check in will be from Las Vegas. Be sure to send me some speedy vibes for around 8:20 Las Vegas time Wednesday night. Thanks again for the kind words, emails and positive thoughts.

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September 18, 2010

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Catamount Day 1

Sigh. Not sure really what to tell you. So I’ll just come out with it. I gave it all I had today. I pushed and pushed and pushed. But my body is just not responding the way I need it to. This is not because I’m over-trained or improperly trained. Nope, I’m sick. Sick in a way that can’t be fixed with a good night’s sleep and some cold medicine.

I don’t talk to much about my ulcerative colitis on this website. The main reason for this is I like to believe that I can race and train through anything. That the ulcerative colitis doesn’t slow me down. That I’m an athlete who can beat this disease and show others that anything is possible. Well, right now I’m not feeling this way. Right now I feel as though the ulcerative colitis is winning. I’ve been sick since the middle of May. I’ve been training through this ridiculous bout of ulcerative colitis for a long time now. I’ve had to remove gluten, dairy, fruits, vegetables and anything with sugar in it from my diet. On race days I pack myself full of extra-strength Immodium and hope it works. But obviously it isn’t. I’m frustrated. I’m angry.

I’ve worked too damn hard and come too darn far to have this ulcerative colitis take over. I wish this was a mental thing. I wish this was a physical thing. But it isn’t. It is a medical thing. All I can do is hope that I’ll get better. That I’ll go into a remission and I’ll be back to myself. I guess the only thing I can do is keep training and racing like I have in the past. This determination and focus has got me to this point. I just have to trust in what I’ve done and keep on doing it.

My focus for each race has to change from focusing on the results sheet and taking what I can from each and every race. Each race is a learning opportunity for me now. I have to focus on my technical skills and keep pushing my technical limits. The physical is here. I know it. And when it all comes together – when the ulcerative colitis takes a back seat – well, I’ll really be flying then!

Many thanks to Marc for being a rockstar today. He had a solid race and then quickly changed his focus to me. For this I’m overwhelmed and feel really blessed. I’m so darn frustrated that I’m not putting up the results that we both know I can produce. Also big thanks to my parents for being out there today. My dad helped out in the pit and got to do his first bike exchange – it went perfectly – thanks Dad. Thanks to you for the cheering and words of encouragement. I really do appreciate it. I wish I could do better for you – but it will come.

Now is a time that I have to believe in myself more than ever. Focus. Determination. Dedication. Support. Passion. These things got me here. They’re going to keep me here. They’re going to get me through this. I just know it.

(To read my race report, click on over. I’ll see you all out there tomorrow to fight another day.)

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September 17, 2010

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Taking a Trip

Today I head out the door and won’t return for a week…. Yes, the craziness of the cyclo-cross season is full on. Perfect. Just the way I like it.

On Thursday I had taken over the living room with piles. Piles and piles of clothing and gear. Clothing and gear for this weekend in Vermont for the New England Verge Cyclo-Cross Races. Clothing and gear for the two days in San Diego. And yet another pile of clothing and gear for Cross Vegas, Interbike, and the city of wonder known as Las Vegas.

I should have taken a photo of the living room, it was pretty impressive! After much head-scratching, I finally got everything strategically packed. As I packed I realized I don’t really have a Las Vegas-appropriate wardrobe (whatever that is). But I just kind of know my clothes don’t work with Las Vegas. Ah well, I’m sure I won’t be the first cyclo-cross racer to walk along the bright streets of Las Vegas in baggy jeans and a race t-shirt…

In between this packing and a bit of mumbling to myself, I did get out for a great ‘cross skill session. I set myself up at my little neigbourhood park and got down to business. Nothing really earth-shattering here. Typical warm-up of turning drills, dismounts and mounts. I set up the grid on the hill and focused on smooth cornering and pushing my limits with my downhill cornering speed. Then it was time for some uphill dismount practice. This is when things got interesting. I had a break-through – an epiphany of sorts.

You see, my uphill dismount is not pretty. It is rather clumsy, uncoordinated and just not smooth. Well, time to fix this. All of this clumsiness and stumbling is costing me time and making me a bit inefficient. So I approached the uphill dismount just as I do the flat dismount – I did it slowly and broke it down to the key components. By doing this I realized that I am really slowing down when I come off the bike – my feet hit the ground but not fast and I also take a couple of steps before picking up/shouldering the bike. Not good. This is causing me to loose my momentum and making the uphill dismount slow and clumsy. So I worked on trying smooth out the dismount – coasting in with my hand properly positioned on the top tube – I learned that during the uphill coast, my right hand is not leaving the handlebars – this slowing everything down. I practiced and practiced some more. I made some improvements and took a few steps back. I didn’t expect to fix this in one session but the true bonus from this session is that I realized what I was doing wrong and have identified how I can make things better.

This to me, points to the sign of an excellent training session. After a bit more flat dismounts/mounts and turning, the rain came out so I took this as a signal to pack up my toys and roll home. Unfortunately as I entered the house, I realized that I still had the piles in the living room to deal with….

Good news is that as I sit here bright and early on Friday morning, everything has come together. Just need to drag the bike boxes up from the basement and cram everything into our vehicle for the weekend. Luckily we’re not trying to stuff everything (four ‘cross bikes, a lot of wheels, two race bags, one slightly bigger bag, food, trainer, tools, two bike boxes) into our Matrix. Ken and Denise H. have been super generous and loaned us their Sequoia so we won’t have any packing issues. Thanks so much for the vehicle! To make things even easier this weekend we’ve got some great housing for the weekend, thanks to Jen and Shane for letting us invade their house again this year.

Looking forward to a great weekend of racing, chilling out, and enjoying all that cyclo-cross brings to my life. I’m sad that I’ll be away for a week and that Marc won’t be with me to experience Cross Vegas and Interbike. But I know he’ll be there with me in spirit, cheering me on – I can hear him already “good job!”, “you’re doing great”, ” dig deep – catch that girl”, “great race”.

Well, best get out for my opening work-out and then it will be time to hit the road. Check back over the weekend for race reports and be sure to visit next week to read about Cross Vegas, Interbike and Las Vegas.

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September 15, 2010

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Cyclo-Cross Tips and Tricks

I held another cyclo-cross practice session last night for a good group of people. The idea for the session was really to get the basics down well. To build confidence with dismounts, mounts and turning – the components that I see as the basics of cyclo-cross.

We warmed up nice and easy with some turning drills, practicing sliding around on our seats to see how this affects the turning ratio and comfort level. It is amazing to see how far people will push their limits when surrounded by others doing the same! Next up was tripoding. I find tripoding is a useful skill particularly in downhill cornering and cornering in loose terrain such as sand. Tripoding can give you that extra feeling of “security” you need to stay off the brakes and let the bike roll.

After this warm-up we switched gears to focus on dismounts and mounts. We took these super slow and easy. Breaking these techniques down to the basics and literally starting off at a walking pace. I find this is the easiest way to learn new skills and to break “bad habits”. Going fast is great – but often speed and learning don’t always mix. One rider had a great break-through last night and became comfortable with the “coast” and moving her hand from her handlebars to her toptube. Awesome!

Finally after all this we broke out the barrier and started to speed things up. We played around with the approach to the barrier with pretty much everyone finding a different spot where they’re comfortable at getting off their bike. In my opinion, the dismount distance is completely individual – it really depends on your foot speed and agility. Same goes for the remount – don’t get caught up in getting back on the bike right away or within two steps – just do what feels right. What is most important is to get off the bike quickly and smoothly, to float over the barrier and to get on the bike without wasting energy.

The last component of our session was to set up the grid and practice a little circuit that involved attacking the barrier and then working on some high speed turns. This gave everyone an opportunity to practice the turning skills we warmed-up with and to do things with a bit more speed.

All in all, it was an excellent night of training. I really enjoy seeing people learn a new skill – particularly the big grin that breaks out when they realize that they’ve “done it”.

As for me? Well, today was supposed to be about motorpacing… But I’m wiped out today with an ear ache, sore throat and a nasty ulcerative colitis attack. (Admittedly I probably brought this all on myself by getting stressed out and putting too much on my plate. Some things never change I suppose.) So today is a recovery day. About to get layered up in my leg warmers, thermal vest and long-fingered gloves for a skills session myself. On the agenda for me: cornering speed and fluid dismounts/remounts. And yes, I’ll be starting off slowly and not going too hard – it is about recovery and learning today.

Just a reminder that this year you must pre-register for the Ottawa Bicycle Club cyclo-cross series. There are two registration dates:
– tonight from 3 – 6 p.m at The Cyclery
– Sept. 18 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m at The Cyclery

Additionally you can register online through the Ontario Cycling Association website. You cannot register on site – you must be pre-registered to race….

To see the Ottawa cyclo-cross race schedule and full registration requirements, visit http://cyclocross.org.

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Pushing the Reset Button

It has been a few days now since the opening season races and I’ve had more time to think about them. Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I got what I deserved. I went into Saturday’s race over-confident and when things didn’t go exactly “right” I gave up. Yes, I gave up. I know, I’m not impressed either. As for Sunday, well I should have won that race easily. But I didn’t push myself hard enough. Instead I rode just hard enough and then when I made the mistake in the sand I was scrambling, luckily regaining the lead and then ending up second due to the mechanical. But the thing is, it should never have come down to any of this – I should have ridden harder and smarter.

So today, I hit the reset button. Time to get back on track and focused for the season. This past weekend was good because it highlighted many mistakes – both mental and physical. But now it is time to get down to what I do best and that is racing my bike. Yes, I expect to make more mistakes as the season goes on. But these will be different mistakes. They won’t be mistakes that involve – giving up, rolling over, not going hard enough, or being over-confident. I expect the mistakes I’ll be making will more along the lines of – too much brake, going too hard and blowing up, blowing corners, a few crashes, and forgetting to pedal. Still mistakes, just a different breed of mistake. A breed of mistake that will set me up for being faster eventually – so long as I recognize the mistake and work hard to fix it. And this you can be assured of – I will work hard and I will fix my mistakes.

Racing this weekend in Williston, Vermont at the Catamount Outdoor Center. It is going to be a great weekend of racing, cheering, and hanging out. We’ve got great host housing set up again this year. And thanks Ken and Denise Hoppner, we’ll be traveling in style. My parents are coming down to take in the races and to hang out (guessing they’ll do some shopping as well…). I predict a tasty supper at Moe’s, a visit to EMS, Borders, and Small Dog Electronics. All in all, it is going to be a good time.