Sedona Events 1st and 2nd weekend in March - Sign up for March 9th now

Upcoming Sessions:

     March 2nd and 3rd at Sedona MTB Festival (free)

March 9th: Sedona MTB Skills Clinic + Yoga

$160, limit 6, details and sign up below

co-ed March 2nd and 3rd Sedona MTB Festival (free)

Huge thanks to Osprey Packs for sponsoring the Sedona rides again!! The first year of the festival I was the only one providing clinics and it caught on, last year there were many skills clinics and sessions to choose from. I will be bringing two other Durango coaches with me again, Lee Pausan and Ziggy Lanman were fun to work with last year and allowed us to split into manageable sized groups.

co-ed March 9th Sedona MTB Skills Clinic w/ Yoga ($160)

Join Womens Radical Pursuits along with retired Professional MTB Racer and Coach Krista Rust for a soulful and fun day of Mountain Biking and Yoga. The combination of Learning New MTB Skills, Practicing Yoga, Fun Group Rides, and connecting with other like-minded riders will leave you inspired, challenged, and rejuvenated while also having a blast exploring the beautiful MTB trails Sedona, AZ has to offer!

Price: $160 see sign up below

Limit: 6 participants co-ed

Dates: March 9th

Location: Bike and Bean 30 Bell Rock Plaza, Sedona, AZ 86351

Times: 9am-2pm (4pm unofficially)

Fun group ride post clinic, officially not part of the event so you can feel free to leave at any time, group ride will probably end at 4pm.

MTB Skill Level: Intermediate skill level riders looking to develop skills, please contact Krista with questions. k_rust@yahoo.com

Skill Development
As much as we can get to, please let me know what you want to work on. There will be a follow-up clinic in April to build on what we learn here:

• Technical climbing
• Braking
• Cornering and maintaining momentum
• Drops
• Wheel lifts
• Bike body separation
• Driving from the feet
• Loading and unloading, pumping, used to pop from one corner to another or to change direction in the air
• Flow
• Sighting, Choosing lines
• Unweighting to float over rocks
• Loading
• Switchbacks
• Drops
• Trackstand, buy time to access the obstacle or when someone stalls in front of you

Schedule:

9am Meet at Bike and Bean   (possibly 7am, if there is interest in a pre-ride yoga session)

Register Here:

Clinic Options

Yoga and MTB Group Skills $160.00 USD One-on-one skills coaching per hour $50.00 USD 3-4Hour Group Skills Clinic $100.00 USD

City

Sedona Durango Phoenix Moab Cortez

Interested in additional yoga?

7am session late afternoon session just stick with the in-bike-clothes noon session

Name of Attendee:

Able to wheelie drop off curb?

Clinics and Trips for Kids

Here are a few non-ride/race events I have been doing while in AZ this winter.
 

Dec 12th Phoenix full-day women's only clinic. Skills, lunch, raffle followed by nutrition and fueling discussions. I had a great time. Thank you to FRS and NoTubes for supporting my clinics this year.

 Phoenix Dec 12th Clinic Cave Creek

Trips for Kids is a National organization where each chapter is an independently operated non-profit organization based on the Trips For Kids Marin program. I first volunteered with Trips for Kids while living in Georgia. Tucson also has a chapter: TripsForKidsAZ.org.  Last week I rode with a great group, only one child actually has a bike and the frame is broken. The only chance these kids get to ride is when their teacher (an avid MTB'r) sets up a Trips for Kids event and has them bused across town to use donated bikes.

 

What a great day, I had a blast with the kids, they asked a million questions and hung on every word. They wanted to know about racing, clipless pedals, tubeless tires, CO2, GPS, tire selection, nutrition(!), and pretty much everything on my bike.

Jan 16th Tucson Clinic: Thanks to Scott Morris for the pictures!

Bike Setup

a little DH

Cone Drills

Raffle Time

Picking from a pile of additional goodies to add to their bags: Ergon grips, FRS Concentrate, Genuine Innovations tools, Chamois Butt'r, Primal Socks, Osprey nalgene bottle and more.

Snack Time

PowerBar's new Brownie Protein Bites

Wheel Lifts (Paula, ~3.5 month past hip surgery)

Drinking

Beer and FRS, true Tucson style
 

Magura STORM SL rotors, CR333, Zuni 50, Mountain Bike Skills Clinics & Group Rides

It is almost time to head south, yesterday the weather started getting cold in Durango, CO. This last week was amazing, fall colors, brilliant sun, riding in shorts and short sleeves every day. I took full advantage and ended the week with the Saturday Zuni 50 in Gallup, NM and a Sunday MTB skills clinic in Durango.

 Zuni 50

Saturday I woke up at 4am for the four hour drive to Gallup, NM. Three folks did the Zuni 100 (the Zuni 50, then they go back out again in the opposite direction) and ~65 of us did the Zuni 50.  It was all singletrack and so much fun! (the 50 mile course was really ~46miles).

After the race everyone wanted to check out my bike. I think my custom Cannondale Flash has been picked up/ridden by more people than any other bike ever. I got comments like "Well no wonder you were fast" and "Wow, that's cheating!".  I have to say it was fun to walk around chatting to everyone and showing off my 17.75lb bike! 

The course was amazing, it was very well organized, the people were really cool and I was trying out new products during the ride. Late Friday night I put on the new Magura 140/160 rotors (click on STORM SL Rotors) and decided to try a new drink I had just received in the mail, Carbo Rocket's CR333. 

 Thursday's Post Office score

The STORM SL rotors were the ones off the Interbike showroom floor! They performed just as well as the original SL 160s and had none of the flexy issues that light aluminum rotors have. I tried the light route, I am all about getting my MTBs as light as possible, but I couldn't deal with the lack of performance (both loss of power and rubbing issues due to the aluminum flexing while trying to align the brakes). The STORM rotors weighed 76g (140) and 96.39g (160) and worked perfectly. Because the Flash is designed for a rear 140 direct mount to the frame, I also lost the weight of 2 bolts and the 160 adapter.

I took full strength CR333 (333 calories in 24 oz bottles). I knew that would be too strong for me at race pace, but I was not going race pace and it worked perfectly. No gels, no water, nothing but CR333. My "50-mile" time was 4:13 and my legs felt good the entire time. For racing I would do ~280 calories in a 24oz. bottle and less if it were really hot (if I was going through more than a bottle an hour).

They had a full-on party all afternoon and evening. Write up and pictures at Mountain Flyer.

 

Pulling the pig out of the ground

Live music

Dinner

 T-shirts

I stayed till dark (when everyone was really getting started, I left before the homebrew competition) and headed back to Durango.  It was a full day and worth the drive!

Sunday I did a MTB Skills clinic for 12 people (showing off their 2oz Stan's Solution bottles)

 Clinic goodies. Packing up for the next one in Cortez, CO.

Earlier in the week I got in on different group rides (and usually went for beers after)

Wed I did noon cross practice with ~30-40 folks at the college (Fort Lewis), a 30 minute trail jog, a 2.5 hr MTB ride on all new (to me) trails with Julie (pictured), then Boot Camp at Core Value Fitness.

Thursday night Girl's Ride at the Test Tracks.

Co-ed Friday morning ride from Sale Barn. 

Funny who you meet in this town, the guy on the left is Jimmy Deaton. I tried to stick to his wheel on all the descents.

FRS Clinic, Scalpel

 

I am very thankful to FRS for helping me out with my clinics this year!! As well as all of my sponsors and non-sponsors that donate give-a-ways:

 Need a Stan's Solution top-off? 

Or a sample of CarboRocket?

Thursday's FRS Clinic at the new Incycle store was a lot of fun. 50 second video here. I will continue to provide clinics as I travel, please contact me if you are interested (see upper right side of blog for contact info).

A picture from the Bonelli race two weeks ago on the Cannondale Flash.

My Scalpel! (20.7lbs as raced)

This weekend I tried out the (small) Scalpel in the XC, then rode the (medium) Flash in ST and was back to the Scalpel for Super-D at Fontana. These are proving to be great bikes to choose from. I was a little nervous going to bikes I had never even ridden and I had a hard time deciding on sizes, but I made all the right decisions! Thanks to all the Cannondale, or former Cannondale, girls Sue, Nina, Cass and Jenna for answering all my questions, it really helped and I appreciate it! 

 Super-D (4th)

I am still working on locking-out and un-locking the Lefty, but the ride is awesome. The Flash rear end is so smooth, and the Scalpel can climb like a road bike, which allows some overlap on which bike to choose for a given course.  I un-knowingly chose color over Hi-Mod carbon on the Scalpel, apparently only the red version of the Flash is in the new lighter carbon. I still have a few parts to swap out, the Flash seat collar isn't really cutting it, and since the Flash is designed for 140 rotors I need to go to 140 on both rear ends. Saturday I raced the Scalpel set up with 160 rotors, but had my "spare" (Flash) rear wheel in the Tech Zone with a 140 rotor on it. Had I needed the spare it would have been a fun ride.

Check out some other racer's 2010 rides here.

Clinic, Arizona Endurance Series, Erika at Cross Nationals...

Indoor clinic at Sabino Cycles this past Thursday: . Right before the holidays is a good time to review your nutrition. I talked about the tips I have learned, mentioned books that have been helpful and discussed products like Cooper Complete and FRS. We snacked on veggies and water while avoiding the ranch dip. :) Sunday's Kentucky Camp ride (part of the AZ Endurance Series): . 46 mile MTB ride followed by swag, campfire, food and hanging out with new friends.

Todd's group I wore too many clothes, who knew it would be warm.

Topofusion course profile. (Mirre and I added the last ~7 miles, it isn't part of the course.) .

Cross Nationals, Erika Powers: My sister Erika placed 10th out of 50+ in her first big race, Masters 30-34, US National Cross Championship in Bend, OR. She also raced in the Elite race on Sunday but was crashed out on the pavement when another girl looked back and swerved right into her. in her words: "DNF not how I wanted to end the season...made it through the 1st lap without getting hung up in any crashes and felt good, hit the pavement and a girl turned to look back swerved into me and took me out, trashed the right side of me and my bike, broke spokes, rear derailer, handlebar...but it was the most exciting and ...fun race I have been in till that happened and I am excited to go try again next year!!" Pro XCT:

No news yet... . Trips for Kids: Arizona Daily Star article on the Trips for Kids ride I attended a couple weeks ago. . 2010 Sponsorship: Sponsorship is not working out too well this year, same story everywhere, budget cuts... I'll do an update on where I am with everything in the next couple weeks. Still trying to get to Europe for some racing, not sure if that will work out now...

NM Clinics

In May I held a race clinic, a beginner women's only clinic, an intermediate women's only clinic, a co-ed intermediate clinic, attended a kid's race camp and talked at an elementary school. I had a great time! Here are some pictures: . Acequia Madre elementary school 6th grade class:

The kid's LOVED my bike and asked good questions. Every single one of them had to hold my bike and say how light it was. See how everyone in the front row is touching the bike? They couldn't stay away from it. One kid asked why I had so many things by Specialized (helmet, shoes, gloves, frame). I prepared to tell him how I liked their products, how well they are made, etc. but another boy spoke up and said "because they sponsor her", these kids are smart. Truth is I have the products I have because they are the best, same with every part on my bike this year and I am still so very excited about that.

Another child asked if Magura forks are better than Fox forks (someone in his family must ride). I told him how much I liked the low weight, function and reliability of my Magura fork and how I really like the people who work at Magura. He was actually interested. I didn't expect these questions from 6th graders.

I was supposed to wrap up by 2:00 as the kid's had an ice cream social scheduled then, but they kept asking questions; I couldn't believe they would rather talk about cycling than eat ice cream. When the teacher mentioned again that it was time to go for ice cream it was as if no one heard! I received great feedback from parents and look forward to doing it again.

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The spread at the May 15th Bike N' Sport Women's Clinic:

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May 19th Pedal Queens (Intermediate) clinic:

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Active Knowledge School Series Team Camp:

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Brothers Hugh and Owen:

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During one clinic I told Owen he probably shouldn't try one of the steeper downhill switchbacks because I didn't want him to get hurt. He said, "oh, it's okay, I signed the waiver".

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The best clinic Thank You ever:

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