I don’t know if it’s just the salt or something else, but often after 8 or more hours on the bike I crave Bubbie’s Sauerkraut.

[I'm not sure why, but now the camera on my phone isn't working so the only way I can take photos is with Photo Booth on my Mac which only does very low resolution. Hopefully I can find a loaner camera for the rest of Vegan Mofo.]

This is my favorite dessert and post workout recovery snack. It has a good carb:protein ration and takes about 1 minute to prepare!

1. Pour frozen blueberries into bowl
2. Spoon Whole Soy Co yogurt over blueberries
3. Sprinkle with diced, raw organic almonds (in the bulk section at Vitamin Cottage)

If you have time, and you really want to make this special, set the bowl with frozen blueberries on the counter for 5-10 minutes before adding yogurt.

Any flavor of Whole Soy Co. yogurt is good. I usually choose vanilla. In the USA, the only good vegan yogurt I’ve found is Whole Soy Co. It has a great, creamy texture, not at all gelatinous. Of the others I’ve tried, only Silk is even edible. But comparing Silk to Whole Soy Co. is like comparing lemon Jello^® to Ciao Bella lemon sorbet.

You can try other fruit too. Frozen cherries are the best, but they seem to have been unavailable for several months. Toasted pecans are a good alternative to almonds and especially yummy with cherries.

• Coffee
• Apple Pie Lara Bar (I don’t often eat Lara Bars, but Vitamin Cottage had them on sale a few weeks ago, thus they’ve appeared twice in two days.)
• Get road bike ready to go
• Dress
• Take Bonnie for a 30 min ride around the neighborhood with the mountain bike (exercise for her, warm-up for me)
• 4 x 4 min/2 min intervals on road bike, planned 6 x, but power dropped significantly on #4
• 8 min Crossfit AMRAP 7 back squats, 7 chest-to-bar (w/ assistance band for me)
• Spicy pinto beans on toast

The spicy pinto beans were not all that spicy, but it’s a more interesting title. I had some pinto beans leftover from yesterday that I’d simmered for a few hours with 1/2 c. beer, 1 veggie boullion cube and a few cherry tomatoes. This morning I added about 1/4 c. red sauce leftover from a tamale dinner I’d made for friends a few weeks ago. I simmered that over very low heat for about 15 min then poured over toast. A corn tortilla would probably be more appropriate, but I didn’t have any. And pinto beans over toast always reminds me of one of my favorite childhood meals; pinto beans over toast with ketchup!

This is the recipe I use for red sauce. It’s the “Classic New Mexico Red Chile Sauce” in Hot and Spicy Meatless by Dave Dewitt, Mary Jane Wilson and Melissa T. Stock. I’ve had it about 15 years and it’s one of my favorite cookbooks. Not all recipes are vegan, but most that are not can easily be made so, especially now that we have Daiya.

10-12 dried whole New Mexican red chiles
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 c. water

Toast chiles in 250° F oven for 10-15 min. Crumble chiles into sauce pan. I usually use a big stovetop wok. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer 20-30 min. Puree in blender until smooth. Simple, yummy, perfect red sauce!

Unusually for a Colorado brevet, only one control was at a convenience store. My vegan chow for the ride included 4 scoops of Unflavored (I say, marshmallow flavored) Perpetuem, an Eggless Salad sandwich on pumpernickel, a Cherry Pretzel ProBar, and a Lemon Lara Bar.

I was pretty hungry when we arrived at the convenience store at mile 110, and for the first time in my brevet-riding career, I’d eaten all the food I’d brought a few hours before. I didn’t find any of my usual choices so I ended up getting regular Coke. It seemed to give me a headache, but there were only 15 miles to go.

These are some vegan foods I can frequently find at convenience stores where I ride. There’s a longer list of common foods that are vegan on PETA’s website.

• Teddy Grahams
• Chick-o-stix
• Clif Bars
• Nutter Butters
• Twizzlers
• Fritos
• potato chips
• pretzels

My preferred convenience store beverages during long rides are Pepsi Throwback, Mtn Dew Throwback, Peace Tea, or Lipton Pure Leaf Tea. All of those have cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Peace Tea wins over Lipton if both are available because it’s about half the price and the tall can is just the right size to fill my tall bottle.

After the ride I ate some black beans that I’d made at home and brought with me, and a little later, Dr. McDougall’s Chunky Tomato Soup. For some reason, I often crave that particular soup or Bubbies Sauerkraut after a brevet.

I finished 9 out of 16 in the Women’s 35+. I had a horrible start. I missed my pedal and almost fell, and then “sprinted,” as much as I can sprint, to catch the back of the group as they turned off the pavement. The first lap I was hanging back a bit to check out the course, since I didn’t take any practice laps.

I don’t even know how I finished 9th of 29 in the Women’s 4. I thought since it was only 40 min we’d only have time for 4 laps. As I passed the start/finish at the end of the third lap I saw “2″ to go. Ugh! I was pretty wasted by that point, I think I might have passed one or two on lap 4, but on lap 5, even though I had a couple riders close in front, I just didn’t have any bursts left to get around. I spent a lot of time in the dirt too. I never fell while riding, but three times, while getting on or off or just running along I fell. It’s funny. During the race I didn’t notice if I was hurt or not. I was just pissed at myself for dumping my bike.

I have some photos and video of the new Frisco Bike Park. Unfortunately I got out of the house without the cable for my camera. Here’s a photo of a few things I ate. The ProBar Whole Berry Blast and Q-bel Double Dark (my favorite vegan candy bar) were after the race. I ate the Fruition about 20 min before the start of the second race when I realized I was low on calories and didn’t have any more gels. I love the Fruition Cherry! It seems like every time they come out with a new flavor it becomes my new favorite.

I also got some yummy pumpernickel bread from my friends’ bakery yesterday and had a PB and rice syrup sandwich for breakfast and ate one of the Eggless Salad sandwiches I made for tomorrow’s brevet when I realized I hadn’t brought anything for my 3-hours-before-the-race food.

This is roughly how I make Eggless Salad.

1 pkg extra firm tofu crumbled
1 tbsp mustard
dash of tumeric
dash celery salt
several dashes of black pepper
1-2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
3-4 tbsp Nayonaisse
1 tbsp chopped onions (optional)

Mix well in a container you can store it in. Why clean an extra dish?!

One issue I noticed is the second side wanted to flop off the rim when mounting, so you have to maintain contact until the tire is on. Here are some brief instructions that should make it easy to install these tires with most rims.

1. Your rim should be prepped for a tubeless tire; either you have a tubeless rim or you’ve installed Stan’s Yellow Tape, and the valve is installed.
2. Install the first bead. Start at the valve stem with the label (colored text on the sidewall) on the right side of the wheel at the valve. This is the pro-mechanic way to orient any tire, but these tires are directional so you’ll want to take care to at least get the label on the correct (right) side of the wheel.
3. Check that the first bead is on the correct side of the valve stem. For any tubeless tire it’s easier to get the beads on either side of the valve when mounting the tire instead of trying to work one bead over the valve stem after the tire is mounted on the rim.
4. Sit down and hold the wheel in your lap with the valve facing opposite you, at 12 o’clock.
5. If you have weak hands or a stubborn rim set a bead jack within easy reach.
6. Starting at the part of the wheel against your stomach mount the second bead using both hands working around the rim in opposite directions.
7. Your hands should meet again at the valve stem and you can roll the last part of the bead over the edge of the rim. The best “tool” for this is the pads of your knuckles in your palm, but if you need assistance you can hold the bead in place with one hand while you use the bead jack with the other.

That’s it! I prefer unmounting a small section of the bead near the valve to add sealant, but if you’re worried about getting the tire on again you can remove the valve core and add sealant there.

My other tubeless tip: avoid getting sealant in the valve core by 1) closing the valve when shaking the tire to spread the sealant around, and 2) not releasing air from the valve before pumping.

Valles Caldera 200k Brevet from Cathy Cramer on Vimeo.

A beautiful day for a ride in the Jemez Mountains. 125 miles, 11,000 ft of climbing. The ride starts at Overlook Park in White Rock, NM, goes thru Bandelier National Monument, by Fenton Lake and turns around at Jemez Springs. For more information about the route see nmbrevets.com/id48.html

Ride with GPS route and profile-

A few images pulled from the sequence in the video-

2010 Valles Caldera blog post

More information about this brevet at nmbrevets.com.

Dist: 375 mi / 600 km
Ascent: 13422 ft / 4081 m

Pros:

• rural roads
• great scenery
• challenging climbs
• well organized, fun event

Cons:

• heavy traffic along 4-lane road for about 16 miles near the end of the ride
• road construction near Sisterdale in 2010 (surely this is finished now)
• waterway crosses OVER roadway in many locations

Vist the Hill Country 600 website for map, profile and more information about the race.

Had it not been so foggy, wet and overcast, it would have been a beautiful fall day. The colors on the ~1500 ft climb on the Indian Highway over the Kiamichi Mountains were gorgeous. The problem was I could barely see 50 yards in front of me. The photos look even more dull. It was a little clearer on the twisty descent, which I had to take pretty slowly because of the wet, leaf-covered pavement.

Most of the route is on rural roads with little traffic. The exception is Highway 63 from Tahlihina, where a Harley Armada nearly removed my left elbow. OK-2 also has a fair amount of traffic, and it appeared half the state of Texas had spent the weekend in Oklahoma and were returning home on Sunday afternoon.

Antlers, OK 200k Permanent from Cathy Cramer on Vimeo.

“Search for BigFoot” 200k Permanent. Shot 1 frame every 2s. Playback is 24fps.