This is the mantra that Erin Ayala, of Skadi Sports Psychology, helped me identify in the lead up to the Enduro National Championship, but also one that has kind of “stuck” ever since. The idea was that racing isn’t about “proving” myself, but about putting the skills, fitness, etc. that I’ve worked so hard for…
Tag: race
We’re All Scared
This last weekend, I had the opportunity to speak at the 2025 Take Aim Women’s Takeover at Bryce Bike Park. The title of the workshop was: “Overcoming Anxiety in Mountain Biking,” but as I got thinking about it, I felt like a more accurate title should have been “We’re All Scared.” Excuse the phone-only recording……
Finding Balance
That title sounds like I’m about to write some kind of self-help blog, not a race report, but c’est la vie. One of the mantras (in addition to the ever-present “stay curious”) that I’ve added to my top tube this season is “Balance.” In one of my skills lessons earlier this season, Harlan (of Take…
Transylvania Epic: 5 Days of #EastCoastRocks
It’s no secret that I love everything that is East Coast mountain biking: the rocks, roots, and jank. The 5-day Transylvania Epic (TSE) stage race serves this up in spades. I raced this event coming off of a knee injury back in 2023, and had a blast. Even though I was taking grad school classes…
What if…?
Earlier this year, some friends mentioned to me that they were going to do a “stage race” version of the Rockstar Trail, a local point-to-point ultra endurance event, during the grand depart in April. I was intrigued, mostly because the fact that the Rockstar route starts in Harrisonburg and finishes in Roanoke with 270 miles…
The 2025 Ride Fierce Women’s Race Scholarship
At the beginning of this year, I posted a reel of me freaking out before a trail feature with the sole purpose of being vulnerable and drawing attention to the fact that everyone gets scared sometimes. Within hours, I had thousands of internet trolls telling me that, as a woman, I shouldn’t ride bikes, and…
Party Laps Forever
Three weeks before the start of Trans New England, all of my best laid plans blew up. The UCI changed the date of the XCM World Championship from the previously published Saturday, September 21st to Sunday, September 22nd–a minor change, unless, of course, you were planning to drive from West Virginia to New Hampshire for…
A dream come true
It isn’t very often that a world championship event is held on home soil, or, even more specifically, on one’s home trails, but that is exactly what happened last weekend as the 2024 UCI Cross Country Marathon (XCM) World Championships took place at Snowshoe, West Virginia. The course was 68 miles of backcountry goodness, trails…
Level Up
The 2023 USA Enduro National Championship at Ride Rock Creek was my second enduro race ever. I had just gotten stitches out of my knee (for the second time last summer), and the wet conditions made a slip-n-slide out of the backcountry stages. I was terrified, but I was also hooked. Coming into the Enduro…
