Wholistic Fitness

Timari, one of the smart cyclists that took up WF, HP Yoga® and SUNRIDER® herbs when i lived and taught in LA, has been cranking off National Championships ever since! She is a fine Student and a favorite of DL readers everywhere for good reason; this babe CRANKS THE CHI!!!!! She submitted the following story for DL…enjoy!

by Timari Pruis
for DL

A couple of weeks ago, I set out driving (with my mom—my trusty pit crew) down to Southern California for the 12 hours of Temecula (I was originally supposed to go to Colorado for 24 hours of Steamboat—but things fell through last minute). I was pretty excited about the race since I hadn’t raced since April, I was just hoping the weather wasn’t too hot. We arrived at the race venue (the same venue as 24 Hours of Temecula), in which is was slightly overcast—but unfortunately that didn’t last long. Upon arriving, I was surprised to see my former teammate Terri, and she had decided to do the race last minute as well. So, the race would be a little friendly competition between friends. We spent some time before the race catching up since the atmosphere of the race was pretty kick back. The start of the event neared, we got ourselves ready, and lined up for the start of the race. What I especially liked about this race was that there was NO Le Mans run to your bike to start the race! We just got to start out on our bikes, it was a nice change of pace. Soon as we knew it, we were off and riding, and I soon started to recall all the bits and pieces of the course from when I had done the 24 Hours of Temecula about 3 years ago, and when we started up the big long climb, I REALLY started to remember the course! Terri had started out ahead of me, but I soon caught up to her and passed her about midway through the climb (at this point I began to finally feel like all my altitude training on the climbs up near Tahoe were paying off!). I knew I had to keep pushing it because she tends to be faster at descending than me. However, after having visited Matt at IE Bikes the day before, and having him dial in my bike (thank you, thank you, thank you!), I was FLYING on the downhills! It was truly an awesome feeling.

I finished the first lap in 1st place, grabbed a new water bottle on my way through the pit area, and kept riding. Things continued to go smoothly the next few laps, with the routine being the same, grab a water bottle/fresh hydration pack and some food, and go. At the end of the 3rd lap, I only had about 5-10 minutes up on Terri, she was hot on my tail. So, it was straight back out for lap 4. Toward the end of lap 4 my mom was there with camera in hand (all for a picture of which she managed to chop off my head—-let’s just say she still struggles with this whole digital camera thing!), and she told me that Terri had crashed pretty hard, and was out. I was pretty bummed to hear this b/c I didn’t want to even think that Terri was hurt, and I really wanted to do this race for the training aspect. At this point, the race was mine, and I had won. It was a great feeling of course, because winning always is, but I felt bad for Terri, and wanted to know that she was OK. I continued on till the end of the race, ended up doing a total of 7 laps, and got to add another notch for a win onto my belt for the season. Now I am 2 for 2 this season! Next up is the 24 Hour Solo National Championship in Wisconsin. So, I had a blast, and I loved the down home feeling of this event. The promoter was a great guy, and he did an awesome job!

As always, I have to thank the gang load of people who make it possible for me to do this. Thanks to mom for pit crewing (and thanks to “King Dan” for taking over for her half way through the race). Thank you to Jim at Kenda for the tires (as always), Chris and the gang at Titus for such an awesome ride, Jude at Magura, Max at FSA, Kenny at DT Swiss, Chico at Dakine, Matt at IE Bikes, Hammer Nutrition, Fox, Coach Ilg at Wholistic Fitness, Gale at Sport Legs, and Michael at Zeal Optics.