This was defiently the most mellow trip I have ever had in Vegas. I usually go there pretty tired as it is the end of the season and things are wrapping up BUT I power through it because I don’t want to miss anything…this year was no different except this time I had a room to myself so I got some serious rest in. I can actually say I left there way more rested than when I arrived…how is that possible in Vegas?

Well she is officially off the market boys- Lisa Myklak is married! She and Jimi got married in a beautiful ceremony at a winery in Soquel. It was pretty much a bike reunion as friends from all over the place came for Lisa’s special day which was so fun…racers, freeriders, all around rippers.  Although Lisa does not race anymore I am pretty sure she would be right up there in any race she would enter…she has got skills on a bike. The day Lisa took it to the next level for me was back in Deer Valley like 5 years ago…there was this gnarly gap in a rock garden which very few of the guys were hitting and no other girls- she sent it clean and smooth and put a lot of guys to shame. :)  I think back on that moment often when it’s time to step it up. Yeaaaa Lisa. Congrats. You and Jimi are going to have a great life together!

Check out my pumpkin!!

I went down to Salinas a couple of weeks ago for Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day with MORCA (Monterrey Off Road Cycling Association) and had a total blast. It was held out at Toro Park and I had never ridden there before so it is always cool to check out a new place. The turnout was great, I think that there was something like 35-40 kids. We did some skills stuff, went out on 2 trail rides, had a raffle and got to hear a chat about state parks in California from the Park Ranger. It was pretty cool to see Gary Courtright, the organizer of the event, interact with all of the kids as he has such a passion for bikes, kids and the trails. He was really good about informing the kids on trail rules and etiquette while keeping it light and fun. Smiles all around. Thanks for a great day!!

Hands down, the most gnarly race I have ever raced!!!

Staging started at 6:30am. Race started at 7am. Finished my last lap at like 7:10pm? 32 laps later.

I am always up for a good challenge, that’s why I entered this race. With that said, I have never done a race like this…I have definitely done really long days in bike parks, but nothing like this. This was full on from start to finish. I had a strategy going into this race but without having done a race like this before it is hard to get the strategy spot on. I had no idea how important the start was…the start at 7am! You would think being a 12 hour race and all, the start wouldn’t be THAT important but by getting a bad start I was already off to an entire chairlift ride disadvantage. The problem is that everyone is of similar speeds so everyone gets to the bottom and once you are at the bottom…there is a 15 second gap for every chair and you only load 2 people every 2-3 chairs. So when you have all of the competitors at the bottom waiting to get on the chair, its is going to space things out a fair bit! I went there to win so I was obviously slightly discouraged when I figured out that major miscalculation but at the same time I was there to have fun and put up a good fight right till the end! And I had fun too. At times. hahaha.

Food is important I mostly ate Navitas Naturals Power Snacks and a lot of water. Seemed to work pretty well. I could have used a bit of fruit too though. Kinda hard without pit support. Also, 32 laps is a long time on a bike park trail to not check your bolts but each lap was such a rush Icouldn’t stop myself long enough to check the bolts. Now that’s scary. Every run I was thinking please don’t come loose, please don’t come loose, please don’t come loose! Bolts come loose, doesn’t matter what bike it is, what components you’ve got…check your bolts boys and girls. Luckily none of mine came loose….BUT it sure was on the front of my mind!

Anyway, 12 hours hurts. Basically we rode one lift up, had a 1+ minute sprint to the next chairlift rode that chairlift up and had a 10+ minute downhill on the most used and abused trail on the mountain with a million braking bumps. The track itself was simple, I could have ridden my XC bike on it but the braking bumps made it totally necessary for a big bike…and even with a big bike my arms and my body in general hurt so bad. My arms were tender to the touch. ha.

Despite my bad start,  I put in a serious effort to make some ground on the other girls, and I was making some serious ground and then I pretty much bonked. I was like done, done… like I am going to get seriously hurt if I keep going kinda done. Riding fatigued is scary. But somehow I managed to push on and went into auto-pilot for the next 6 hours.

I really enjoyed the chase when I was trying to gain ground on the other girls…the was probably my favorite part oft the day. My least favorite part was when I was pretty much bonking, I was sooooo tired and I was not having fun, every run just hurt. A LOT. But I made it, right through to the end and I finished in 3rd- 1 lap behind first place and on the same lap as 2nd. To be honest I was pretty happy with the 3rd, I put in my best effort and I had nothing left in the tank. :)

One of my favorite things of the whole race was the feeling after…I loveeee feeling that tired. Feels like my body did it’s job and I love it!!!

Stoked I did it, not sure if it is for me…but come next year you will probably see me out there once again because I will forget how bad it hurt and how much it sucked at times. hahah. And I want to win! :)

It is so crazy to think that I have never ridden Northstar…until the Pro GRT that is!! I am hardly ever in the Bay Area ‘in season’- but still, kinda crazy.

I was pretty impressed by the park there- super different from any other park I have ridden- super loose, super blown out, super fun. Lots of passion and hard work put into it, puts a smile on my face. It’s one of those places that reminds me why I love riding my bike…to get LOOOOSE. I love feeling my tires slide and knowing thats just what they are gonna do! So funnnn.

The race track was pretty cool. Nothing too technical, just one of those tracks that is hard to stay consistant as it is super easy to blow out corners, get off line and loose momentum. And there were some AKWARD rock gardens. Kinda wierd. Just tried to keep my head up and my tires rolling. I qualified 2nd, that was my first full run so it was kinda a trial run…no points on the line, no real worries. Knowing what I had left in the bag I was pretty confident going into the final. After my qualifyng run I figured that this race was going to be won or lost on staying smooth and consistent, so that’s what I did. Didn’t really hang it out, as much as I love to (I can save that for my free time), just tried to ride smooth and conservative and it payed off. Yay! It was great to a Pro GRT win under my belt for the year…kinda bummed I only made it to this one Pro GRT this year!!

I just want to give a big shout out to Mr. Colin Bailey for keeping my Specialized Demo 8 running smooth. Also the All Ride crew for the pit space. And JDD for all of his hard work this season with the series. You guys rock. Thank you!

On NOW live!!!

I took a coaching course recently, PMBI to be specific. What is PMBI you might ask? Well that would be Professional Mountain Bike Instructor. I thought that it was important to get a formal certification with all of the coaching/guiding I have been doing, so that’s what I did.  There was a gap in my busy schedule this summer and luckily it matched up perfectly with the course.  Up until this course, I took all that I have learned over the years from coaching, being coached and racing….and put it all together to create teaching material. I must say, after a week of this course I am a MUCH better coach. Riding and explaining riding are two very differnt things. It is crazy how much more effiecent and safe you can be with your teaching when you have a proper framework to teach from. Biking is an inherently dangerous activity and if you don’t know how to explain something properly, you can seriously endanger someone. I want to get more people stoked on  the sport I love, not injure them or wreak their confidence. Plus when you teach more efficiently,  people have more fun because they progress quicker and are able to see their progressions easier. I coached for Fluidride the week after I finished my certification course and I felt like it was a night and day difference.

Paul who runs PMBI out of Whistler is a smart guy with a knack for breaking biking down from the basics and being able to explain it….it was a total pleasure to work with him for a week and I would recommend the course to anyone out there looking to do some coaching. You can find out more about PMBI here…http://www.professionalmountainbikeinstructor.com/

It is crazy to think that Crankworx has come and gone already. It was a crazy week as usual. I pretty much flew from Windham to Seattle, packed up and drove right up to Whistler to start scouting for the Deep Summer Photo Challenge. I have been wanting to do Deep Summer for a long time now. It is such a cool event.

How it works. There are 6 photographer. Each photographer picks a team of riders to shoot with, usually the average is about 5. The photographer has 72 hours to shoot from Function Junction (the southernmost part of Whistler) to Emerald (the northernmost part of Whistler)…50% of which has to be shot within the Whistler Bike Park. After the 72 hour period there is half a day to edit and then the shows have to be submitted.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler hosts the party + show and it is always sold out. Huge room, 1000+ people. Pretty rad. Everyone watches the shows and then the judges deliberate.

I was honored to be the only girl selected to participate in Deep Summer. I was actually pretty surprised- the first day I walked into the meeting for the riders/photographers/Whistler Blackcomb peeps and I was the ONLY girl, with the exception of Robin, one of the photographers. Not gonna lie, I was so excited to be standing there side-by-side as an equal, ready to battle it out with the freeride boys.

My team consisted of John Wellburn, our super rad photographer- he is based out of BC but spends most of his time in Argentina. The riders on my team were myself, Mike Hopkins, Sam Pilgrim, Mike Kinrade and Cory. It was sooooo awesome working with the boys…The shoot itself was fun but pretty brutal at the same time. Weather was not on our side, it was pretty much pissing rain the whole time and because time is limited that means we were out in the rain for really long hours. I didn’t really care though, I just wanted to pump out as many rad photos as possible.

In the end we didn’t end up placing but it was an incredible experience and I am sure more than a few of the photos will be published so I will keep you all posted on that.

Anyway, Deep Summer was a mission, a 4 day mission. And then I tried to race 3 days in a row after that. HA. ha is right. I did the Garbanzo DH, A-Line DH and Pumptrack. I was totally spent but I was entered so I just did it anyway. We will just say the results were among my most forgettable results, ever. Whatever, I had fun riding my bike and supporting the place that I have called home for so many years, Whistler. The Whistler Bike Park has done so much for me over the years, it would be crazy not to race. I love you guys!

Boy was I excited to be done with my events come Thursday. FREEEE TIME. I got my socializing on. Went to the GLC and Longhorn a few times. Listened to BCDC. Hung out at the SRAM VIP Lounge and watched slopestyle. Which was RAD by the way. Red Bull pumped A LOT of money into the event, both the execution and the promotion…I think it was a really good week for the sport. The boys sent it as usual. Brandon Semenuk took home the gold….finnnnnnnnallly. Home town boy. Last year it was looking like he was going to do it but he crashed backflipping the last stepdown and broke his collarbone. He got redemption this year though.

Can’t wait for next year!

Here are the top 3 Deep Summer shows! (via Pinkbike.com)

The Five Stages of Bummer Summer from Dan Barham on Vimeo.

(Margus’s 2nd Place show can’t be embeded, you can find it here: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Deep-Summer-Contest-Top-3-Slideshows-2011.html

I have been working with Simon Lawton of Fluidride (formerly Downhill Northwest) since day one on the bike. Literally. Back in high school Simon lead a camp for a week with my class and I fell in love with bikes and I haven’t looked back.  I coached for him in the past and I coached again for him this week which was a lot of fun. We had a group of 6 up from the Seattle area and they were loving it. Lots of improvement. Lots of smiles. That’s why I do it, I love seeing that.  And I am a big people person too…I just love chatting and getting to know new people. Anyway, it was a blast.

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Seattle, Simon coached me for an afternoon and we also filmed for his upcoming movie Flow-Tonic. Flow-Tonic breaks down riding into footwork…sounds a bit abstract but once you see it and understand it, it’s pretty crazy. In one afternoon I shaved a significant amount of time off my runs just moving my pedals around to match the terrain. Anyway, I thought I would share those stills with you guys. Keep an eye out for the film. And if you are in the Seattle area you should hit up Simon for lesson, you will make some huge improvements in a short period of time!

More Mountain Biking Videos

Third World Cup this year was not a charm, at least not when it comes to race results. This year has been pretty tough on me on the racing front, luckily I can always find something else to keep me occupied.

My troubles started on my way out of Boise. We left Sun Valley around 7am so that we could make the trek down to Boise for our flights. My flight out of Boise was a couple of hours late, causing me to miss my connection in Minneapolis. Albany is a small airport so there are not too many flights going in and out so there were no more for the day. Delta put me up in a hotel in Minneapolis for the night. I woke up super early flew to Detroit and then Albany. The bike got lost somewhere along the way. Happens to everyone, been traveling with my bike for years now and I have been pretty lucky up until this point. So I will take it.

Anyway, my bike didn’t show up until after practice. The girls were all super rad and lent me some of their stuff so I could at least go up and check it out for a run. I used Lauren Daney’s bike, shoes and Leatt, Gabriella Williams pad’s and Miranda Millers goggles. Wasn’t ideal but at least I got to feel the track at a snails pace. I probably have a good 35lbs. on Lauren as she is tiny…her bike is XS, her suspension is really soft and her shoes are 1.5 sizes too small but it was really cool of her.

I got my bike built up that afternoon and then proceeded to have mechanicals my first 2 practice runs the morning of qualifying. I got 2 more runs in but 2 runs was just not enough to get up to speed on the track. I tried to pick up speed on my 2nd run but quickly found that maybe that was not so smart as I ate shit twice. I was expecting to get a 3rd run in before qualifying but the marshalls were at the bottom after my second run and that was the end of practice. Hadn’t even jumped the jumps yet. The track is pretty easy at a cruisy pace but once you start to pick up speed, there are lot of things that will put you on your face at speed. Not exactly ideal but looking back at it I think I played it smart in qualifying. I cruised and only jumped half the jumps (for the first time). I was not even close to at speed so it was kinda embarassing cruising down but to be honest, I have been plagued with injuries with last couple of years and the old Katie maybe would have just gone for it but I don’t think that would have been too sensible. Would have been gutted if I took myself out.

So instead of mopping I found other stuff to occupy my time. I did some interviews in the pits with Billy from Dirt Magazine which was a lot of fun. Video turned out pretty good…check it out!

All of the World Cups are broadcasted live on Freecaster.TV and so I ended up doing the commentating for the women’s race with Rob Warner which was so much fun! Have a listen./watch …http://freecaster.tv/mountainbike/1016721/uci-world-cup-2011-dhi-5-windham-usa-replay-women

I went out to Sun Valley, Idaho for the Specialized 2012 shoot. Let me just say this place is totally underrated. It is gorgeous. The town is cute. The people are rad. The trails kept me grinning from ear to ear all week.

We did lots of shooting with Mr. Sterling Lorence. Love him! So excited to see the ‘nugs’. But we also got to do lots of freeriding, I went on a bunch of epic rides out there.

Smith Optics is based in Ketchum so I got to go check out the HQ which was cool. The vibe in there is really nice, everyone rides to work, the space is nice. Got some new shades on my way out.

Rebecca Rusch lives in Sun Valley so we met up a few times. One of the afternoons her and Susan invited me to coach their Wheel Girls program which was a blast. Basically it is a 6-week little summer camp where the girls go out for group rides. Most of the girls were either ski racers or freestyle skiiers so it was pretty cool to see the skills cross over.

One of the highlights of the week was the Hailey Rodeo. I have always wanted to go to a rodeo and I got my chance. Mutton busting was my favorite….I found a YouTube video for your viewing pleasure.

Oh yes, and guess who we spotted out to dinner…Mr. Punked himself, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. ha.

Jet Lag can be a pain in the ass so I thought I would share some tips that work for me…

1. Hydration: I know that it can be tempting to drink soda, beer or wine on the planes because it’s free but it is gonna make you feel a lot worse later. Often times, I will get a huge bottle of water before I get to the airport so that I have to drink it all before I go through the security line. It may make you have to hit the bathroom, but it will also give you a jumpstart for your trip…gives you a tangible hydration goal! While you are on the plane, try and take advantage of the water opportunities…stewardess are always walking around with bottles of water, drink it!
2. Ear Buds/Plugs: I never actually travel with ear plugs (might actually be a good idea) but I almost always put my ear buds in. They serve a couple of purposes…1. Even if there is no sound coming out they block out the sound 2. Sometimes it is easier to fall asleep with a little noise in the form of music or the TV. 3. They are a hint to the neighbors that you are sleeping.
3. Eye Mask: I alwayyyys travel with my eye mask. Makes sleeping much easier.
4. Face cleansing cloths and moisturizer: These things are amazing. I use them all the time. They are pre-packaged wipes (lots of companies make them) that are awesome at removing dirt, make-up, travel grim. These are for you too boys. Keeps your skin fresh and clean.
5. Moisturizer: I cannot travel without moisturizer. I pretty much always follow my cleansing cloths with face moisturizer. I am a big fan of Dermalogica Intensive Moisture and Clinque (the yellow lotion).
6. Tempur Pedic Pillow- I am obsessed with this pillow. I use Tempur Pedic Pillows at home and I got a travel version from my mom as a gift. It doesn’t take to much space and I get a lot more sleep with this thing. It is firm enough that it provides support but it’s Tempur Pedic so it molds to the space. I usually throw in an extra pillow case or two as I   don’t want a dirty pillow on my face. The airplane pillow is good for back support.
7. Warm Clothes: I personally cannot sleep if I am cold so I usually throw in a cardigan, hat and some socks.
8. Time: So my number one jet lag rule is….as soon as you climb on the plane, the time zone you are in is completely irrelevant, the time zone of your destination is the only one that matters. If you climb on the plane at 4pm and it is 11pm at your destination, you best be trying to sleep an hour or 2 after take-off. Save the movies for after you wake up…

Hope this helps!! :)

World Cups are freaking tough, got my ass handed to me this trip. I felt like I was riding well out there. I had so much fun in practice. Had a few good crashes which is good for me because that’s when I know I am starting to push myself…which I like. I was the first girl to hit the road gap in Fort William which is always cool.

Unfortutnely both of my races ended for me at qualifying- I just couldn’t hang it out. I just rode so conservatively. World Cups are a bit of a mind fuck (excuse my language). There are so many amazing riders and the competition is stiff, a lot of it comes down to who can keep it together mentally. I guess that’s the beauty of racing- it’s really, really tough. No one is perfect. No run will ever be perfect. There is always room for improvement…at everything. That’s why I love it. I will never go into a World Cup and feel comfortable. World Cups are uncomfortable in nature…

Despite not qualifying, I don’t feel like the trip was a bust, I came out of this trip a better rider, a more confident rider. And a had so much fun!!

I want to give a huge shout out to Jon Cancileer, Fluffy and all the European SRAM guys…you all made my trip that much better. I had a place to call home, people to laugh with and my suspension was dialed. Love you boys! Also, the Dirt/Norco boys, Benny, Stanny and Ali, those guys have always got my back and it’s pretty cool. Aside from riding, my favorite thing to do is hang and their pits with a hot cup of tea!