Ninja Business

What started as a small role (arranged over a single tweet for goodness sake!) sharing my acquired knowledge of mountain biking with skills clinic participants has turned into much, much more, so I just wanted to share a little bit about what's up with all this "Ninja Stuff."

First of all: NINJA MOUNTAIN BIKE SKILLS 

I'm now a USAC Certified Cycling Coach and working on becoming an IMBA Certified Skills Instructor as well. That means that when you sign up for one of our skills clinics, I'm one of the qualified coaches you'll be working with. I LOVE these clinics. It is so much fun to meet all kinds of riders and remind myself that this sport is hard, rewarding, exhilarating, and challenging all at once. Seeing it through others' eyes never ceases to amaze me. 

I'm really excited that we seem to be on to something, and that's allowed us to grow our skills clinics and take this thing on the road. And we were honored to be mentioned in San Diego Magazine's Get Happy issue as one of the 36 ways to feel amazing (we made it to #11, thankyouverymuch). You can keep up to date with upcoming courses at ridelikeaninja.com. Next weekend we'll be in Orange County ... then we're off to Phoenix (again!) ... then up to LA. I'm excited to meet even more riders, but I'm also selfishly looking forward to getting to ride all these new trails! Laguna and Malibu, here I come!

Next order of Ninja Business is TEAM NINJA

Now that we have all these great riders getting to know each other, working out together on Tuesday nights in Balboa Park, and practicing all the skills they learned with us in clinics, it only made sense that we would start a team. 

Team Ninja has really taken off. And although we are stoked when our members show excellence on the race course (so many podiums already!!), we've also made it our mission to give back to the community, encourage more people to ride, be good ambassadors of the sport and support our chosen charities. 

Sponsors have rallied to our cause and so have riders so now we are 40+ riders of all ages and abilities. 2014 is going to be tremendous and I can't wait to see what this team will accomplish, on and off the trails. 

If you're interested in joining Team Ninja, you are WELCOME! Details are on the website: http://teamninjaelite.com/join-renew/

So that brings me to NINJA NIGHT RACE 

Of course, if you have a bunch of skilled riders and they're already on a team, it would be great if they have somewhere to race! That's why we started our own race series, too. I was being a little facetious though, really -- there are already a lot of awesome organizers in this area, including Racers and Chasers and Quick and Dirty. So we wanted to add to these events rather than compete with them, plus give local racers another chance to rack up the points they need to move up the ranks. That's how we came up with the idea to race at night. It's the first USAC-sanctioned night race ever. We ran one back in October, and coming up THIS THURSDAY is the second in this historic series. 

This event is going to be unlike any other mountain bike event I've seen. We've got amazing sponsors and no less than four full demo trucks are going to be joining us, bringing bikes (Norco, Neil Pryde), neutral support (Zumwalt's Bike Shop) and lights (Light & Motion). 

By the way, Light and Motion is bringing 40 light sets for demo so don't let a lack of lights stop you from coming out for the fun. If you like what you try, you can pick it up for 15% off. You'll have to get behind me in line, though! 

Ladies especially -- please join us. I happen to know that registration, though rotund and healthy overall, is a pale sickly thing when it comes to women's sign ups, as is often the case. If we want women's racing to thrive, we gotta sign up and show up.

Last thing on the race, and coolest of all (at least I think so), we're the first mountain bikers ever to be allowed on to the velodrome where this thing is going to start. It's spectator friendly, we're running a raffle with amazing prizes from our sponsors and all the proceeds are going to the Monarch School. Plus, we hired a band, and a Tamale guy, so I think of this more like a "Mountain Bike Party." It's going to be awesome. Make sure you're there, even if you don't race. You won't want to miss out. 

So these days I pretty much eat, sleep and dream Ninjas. I am very lucky to have met such a great crew, led by my coach, friend, and Head Ninja Richard La China. Mountain biking and I have had our ups and downs over the years, but I've never been more excited to stay with my training, share what I know, and lend a hand however I can to help others find the joy of riding. Happy Trails! 

Race Report: Racers and Chasers Winter XC Series #1

Balboa Park is home to Ninja Mountain Bike Skills clinics and the famous Tuesday Night Workouts led by USAC Coach Richard La China, so it's no wonder the newly minted TEAM NINJA was out in such good force.

Richard La China Photo

And check out our home base pop-up tent! Thanks to all the Ninjas who came to cheer each other on and show off those black and pink jerseys. It was really exciting to see all those great results. Special congrats to Aaron Hauck who won his category AND the overall fastest time.

And speaking of results, I didn't have a bad day out there considering this event is a bit of an anomaly in the training schedule. Nothing like throwing in a race at the last minute to shake up base miles. As you can see from the photo, the weather was a bit unpredictable today so maybe that kept the ladies away but overall, I was a little disappointed in the female turn out, weather or not. Bea Dormoy and I had the expert category all to ourselves, and we were lonely.

Bea leads it out. Gerhard Gross photo.

The start was kind of funny -- I didn't realize we were starting with the men but in hindsight that probably should have been obvious. So I was off the back from the beginning, but quickly made up some ground and hopped into a pretty blue train of dudes in the expert category.

The lesson today: If you find yourself in a moving train, stay in the train. Don't try to do your part to push the pace, like I did, and then get blown out the back, like I did. Oh well, c'est la vie. They dropped me on a climb and as I watched my HR soar into zone "6" I was happy to them go.

I spent the rest of the race mostly alone, except for fellow Ninjas hollering from the sidelines. Had every kind of weather, including a good soaking for my final lap. Also finally discovered what everyone down here is talking about when they say "Pershings" -- the name of a lovely long climb out of each of the five laps on the menu today.

Gerhard and my teammates were waiting at the end in great spirits despite being cold and wet -- such a nice way to end the race. And I got to stand on the box with Bea so that was also a plus. Thanks Racers and Chasers for a fun event to benefit high school mountain bikers. Thanks Gerhard and all the Ninjas for making racing that much more fun.

The entire women's field in Expert class! Bea Dormoy and Me.  RLC Photo. 

Team Ninja's Ryan Brown and Aaron Hauck. Noel Tabor Photo. 

(And thanks in advance to whoever finds my Road ID Bracelet, which I think I dropped at the start area, or maybe by the podium.)

#TKMBD - Bike Skills Rodeo!

Gerhard Gross photo

When I first saw IMBA's posts about the October 5 Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day I knew right away I wanted to do something about it. Kids on bikes are just the best, so I recruited Coach Richard from San Diego Mountain Bike Skills and voila! We had a rodeo.

Our event had about six different skills for the kids to practice, including "Feedzone Simulation," "Granny Gear Racing," "Skinnies Riding," "Paper Boy Toss," and a couple stations to test their handling around cones and hula hoops. With a great sunny afternoon in Balboa park our excitement was only rivalled by the kids'.

We had tremendous support from the San Diego chapter (SDMBA) of the International Mountain Biking Association with number plates and Clif Z-Bars to hand out to our little riders. They also helped us get the word out, not to mention all the amazing trail/rider advocacy they do every day. Big thank you to them! Proud to be a member.

Best of all, we had a super crop of young riders -- 15!! -- and some really enthusiastic parents who helped make the event run smoothly. My favourite part of the afternoon was watching little Abby, who started the event on her strider bike, graduate to her "big girl bike" WITHOUT training wheels. What a big day!

Thanks to all our sponsors, and most importantly thanks to the kids, moms and dads for coming out to the event. We had a TON of fun, and we can't wait for Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, 2014.

Read more about our event here and check out some great photos, shot by my wonderful husband Gerhard, here.