Find your limits. Arrowhead 135

 Arrowhead 135  preparation started for most of us few months before the  race. TO me the day when I send my application this is day when I am thinking about it.
 This was my 5th attempt and 4th finish of Arrowhead ( from my 6 years when I moved in USA from Belarus).
2014 DNF 
2015 2nd female
2016 3rd female (7 weeks after baby delivery) and with breastfeeding and pumping milk during the race
2017 1st Unsupported and 4th overall female
2018 1st Unsupported and 1st overall female\

 photo by http://markmanoutdoorphotography.com/


This is not race where you can go without preparation.May be that is WHY I love this race.I love process of preparation. This is my motivation to training,  to go for solo camping|ride and testing my gear....
I am so missing about my wild mountain trips in the Russia. So this is kind of compensation to me.
Short mini adventure.

Solo 2 days trip and stuff test.

This is already good tradition to me : make a trip on a Christmas vocation.
Last year exactly in a same dates I  was  in a 2 days bike trip with my girls. In same area.
This year : Dan was in Minneapolis, Nadia at Nordic ski trip, Yeva with grandma. And I needed my wild way to go. Two Harbors area is very good for this kind adventure.

 My plan was more about testing gears than amount of miles.
Bad thing that I had to pack in Two Harbors stuff for full family and Christmas gifts... So I left lots of stuff what I needs: GPS, BarYak  system, down skirt, membrane jacket....
But good part about it - you can learn (or back to the time )when you don't have this stuff .

Gear for endure races in winter. Part #2 Boots and overshoes

"If both shoes are tight, you may have incorrectly selected your legs".(С)

ALL this is ONLY MY experience and opinion.
So in my post #1  I talked about what kind socks better to use in winter time.
In this part I will talk about boots and overshoes
Often I hearing same question " What kind  boots you prefer?"
I am still looking for!!! And also very important for HOW LONG ride|race will be  and what kind TEMPERATURE ?
I did same races 3-4 times year after year.. Same course but always DIFFERENT temperature.
So what could be good one year , because temperature was warm enough..next year is not..

BOOTS!

Socks and boos combination - very important part of winter trips and endure races

So  the MAIN RULE -  WINTER BOOTS HAVE TO BE 2 SIZE up than  your regular size

Gear for endure races in winter . Part 1 SOCKS

 SOCKS ! SOCKS! SOCKS 

Bike trip from Minneapolis (MN) to Aberdeen (SD) 310+ miles

I had dream to ride across MN long time.. SO  this summer I decided to do that. I do not like to make hard logistics of my trips. So when we decided with Dan that we will go in our family road  trip to the Montana I  said that we  (me and girls) will start early (5 days before)  and will meet him at the Aberdeen in South Dakota. So now he do not drive special somewhere just to bring us home. It will be part of our adventure.
 I was little bit scared because it will be my longest trip with my girls for distance  and amount of the days. 
I packed my stuff, camping stuff, some amount food and girls stuff. As always full of stuff )))

DAY 1 We started from home. I do not have exactly route. Just use what phone map recommended for the bikes. So first day we rode just on the bike trail. about 60 miles of BIKE TRAIL!! This country is amazing. They used old railway roads and built bike trails on it. It is so awesome.

For this reason so many small towns on our way (years before it was train station cities)

The DAMn

The DAMn it is a new challenge, new gravel bike race across Minnesota

In a past  2 years I am realized that I am enjoying long distance race more than short. So I skipped race which have less interest to me and concentrate attention for the long distance.
Some other reasons why I am not racing too much:

- money! Looks like every year fee entry grows up much faster than  pay checks )
- I want to spent more time with family
-  race time it is stress time and I do not like it ))

 The Trenton J. Raygor    (what a awesome creative guy and organizer of this race) sent me message few month ago that they have available space for the race and I was at the waiting list. SO I am IN!!!
It will be 1 month after Dirty Kanza 200 and enough time for recovery. 
Long distance race as a long trip. It is take a lot time for preparation . You ride your bike with thoughts about it. You thinking a lot about reasons which could happened during the race  and stopped you... You have lots of  night dreams about race...
 After my finished of Dirty Kanza 200 miles I was not scared to do 240 miles. I know that only broken bike could stopped me.
So  I just keep going ride my bike.
Most  of my "training" this is my bike ride with trailer. I try to work harder and added hills training to my rides and this helps me a lot.
Strava - this is my "community". Because I do not have other people to ride with and too complected to find time to ride with other  guys  I have fun time to see where and how much ride my friends, look new places to ride and also short conversation. And the best part about strava I have my friends everywhere: USA, Belarus,Europe,RUSSIA and other.

Dirty Kanza 200, 2017

Dirty  Kanza 200  

I heard about this race too much  and finally want to try. It sounds like a new challenge to me . I love challenge for myself. I said often before that I am not RACER  , i AM WILD  soul active mamaSveta who love hard way.  So ,to me it was interesting "can I do it?"
 After Arrowhead 135  and  Actif Epica in winter it was my new goal for 2017 . In this year I changed my training plan and focused  on the hills.It is hard to  do in Minneapolis  - flat area. SO I started to looking for  hills around my living place, because first of all I am MOTHER and can ride mostly with trailer.  I never was good about hills and tried to fixed it ).  And month -two later I started to see progress. Also I keeps going with my run practice. I knew mostly hills in my area, I knew numbers of elevation..most of them My neighborhood thinking that I am crazy to rode 1 hill 10 -20 times up. )))