Steel City Endurance Racing

Lost River Barn

Mathias, West Virginia

April 15-18, 2010

This year, as our love for cycling has grown, the SCE Women’s team drove to Mathias, West Virginia to ride a 3-day weekend cycling camp. After much planning, team discussion, and lots of work by Barb, our main organizer, in a word this camp was a SUCCESS. Seven of us traveled to the mountains to get out on the bike and put some miles in our legs. Here are some thoughts in our camp blog (Part 1):

Lost River Barn, Mathias, WV – We stayed in a wonderful house just outside of Lost River State Park, with tons of room, a nice kitchen for us to cook our own post-ride meals, and the modern comforts of wifi and a bike room. Our host, Jay Moglia, was wonderful. We could tell he had put a lot of time into making this place a wonderful mecca for cyclists to stay and ride all throughout the spring, summer, and fall. The best part about this place was it’s location. Rural mountain roads From the house you see mountain tops in the distance, and to get to the house, you climb. Oh yes, it is a mountaintop finish to get back home! More on that in a bit. In short, if you want to do a cycling camp, go to Lost River Barn. You will be glad you did.

Thursday, April 15

The team arrived on Thursday, driving approximately 4 hours from Pittsburgh, and Coach, Rach Stacie and Barb opened up the place, and Coach and Barb got in a little shake-out ride. Taking in the local scenery, they hit up the Lost River Grill for pre-camp grub. Around midnight Kate and I arrived. Thank goodness Stacie had called to tell us to just keep driving, and that the house is much farther off the main road than you’d expect. Ten miles of mostly uphill driving with these nice rollers in places – we knew it’d be a nice place to ride the next morning.

Friday, April 16

First big day of riding. We all woke up and percolated around the cabin, some taking care of loose ends and business while enjoying morning coffee. We were psyched when Pam drove in and arrived on Friday morning. After gearing up, we met our host, Jay, and set out for a ride at high noon. Descending 10 miles down the mountain to the main road, with nice winding curves, we thought at the start of the ride that this would be something good to climb at the very end. As the rain misted us, we continued on a nice, relaxed ride through the valley. At one pit stop at the General Store, we took photos, befriended 3 donkeys, survived a wild guinea fowl attack, and met a woman from the Hardy County Chamber of Commerce, who took our picture and wrote us into their website (thanks!). Everyone out here is just so friendly.

Our ride continued on the country roads, with very few cars, and quite decent pavement. Jay led us through Lost River State Park, down into the valley, and around part of the Lost River Classic race course. We could ride 2-by-2 for most of the time, which was great! The best part about this ride was the fact that this was just a ride. Everyone left the training plans at home, and we got on our bikes and relaxed and had a wonderful time. No threshold workout, no intervals, no riding till you feel sick or sore. We just rode, talked, and relaxed and enjoyed the day and each other’s company on the bike. It felt like… vacation. Don’t get me wrong, we still got in a workout, from getting miles in the legs to climbing the last 10 miles back up to the house. And I must say, the women looked really strong coming up that hill. I enjoyed seeing Rach and Barb go go and even do a sprint finish to the driveway at the end of their climb. You see, even on a relaxed day, we all still are racers, and sometimes, the way kids get caught up in the joy of tag you’re it, or let’s race to the tree, driveway, wherever, bike racers do that too. All the ‘mates looked great coming up the hill. And we felt ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Everyone had a great ride, but Rider of the Day goes to Coach, who rode her longest ride yet on her road bike, and went from a base of 15 miles, longest ride, to 50 miles on the first day of camp! Way to go, Coach!

After taking our Recoverite, we enjoyed team dinner. And this included: Pam’s homemade chili, grilled steak with mushrooms, teriyaki glazed salmon, salad, beets with gorgonzola. We enjoyed wine, a little Road to Roubaix, and relaxed, inspired and ready for the next day.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of the team’s adventures in West Virginia!