Michelle Johnson

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01.25.08  Hello.  Michelle here and I’m a blogger now!  Wow!  This is pretty big stuff for me.  I hope I don’t let the blog world down.  I don’t really expect a large number of people to want to read stuff about me, but I have a few reasons why I am interested to start this new scene.  I could use some motivation to help keep track of my schedule, results and whatever other info I’d like to keep record for myself.  So far each season I’ve raced I start out with notes and logging ride data, but at some point in every season I slack off and stop keeping track of my accomplishments.  I hope to stop that bad habit.  I would like to share some of my experiences with a few people in my life.  My favorite Trek Sales rep, and friend Bob Myers, who is just so awesome to sponsor and help me throughout the season.  I’m sure a little better organized feedback of my sweet Trek bikes and components I use would be much more helpful than anything I have provided to date.  I will continue to share my experiences with my biker friends who never tire of talking, hearing or reading about bikes, but hopefully start sharing my stories with my non-biking family and friends now too.  I’m sure someone out there can relate that once I became so passionate and dedicated to biking my life divided into two worlds.  Bike world versus non-bike world.  My biking friends and I ride, race, talk, eat and sleep bikes without the possibility of exhausting the subject.  My non-biking world is everything else.  Work, friends, family, life obligations, and non-biking fun (yeah, it exists), and I barely even speak about my riding and racing with them.  I thought if my non-biking family and friends would be interested enough to read this site they might get a better understanding of my biking life, can possibly appreciate it a little bit more, and hopefully understand more than anything what I do when I am absent from my non-bike world obligations when my riding takes precedence.  Lastly, if I happen to hopefully get some new woman rider readers I hope that I can help motivate, inspire, and all that good stuff to promote more women to get out and ride and possibly race.  The first thing you’ll learn at women races is there are never enough of them, so if I can help promote the sport that rocks.        

So, when did I start racing?  Around 10 years ago I was the average, occasional rider.  Rails to trails stuff and commuting a few miles to college classes and that was about it.  I was interested to do more and found out about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training (TNT) program.  I’ll fast forward and just say I fell in love with the program.  I stayed on as a cycling mentor for about 5 years and participated in 8 or 9 centuries with TNT.  After so many events back to back I had basically exhausted my fundraising resources and also reached the point where I wanted to push myself more and go beyond the century rides.  That’s when I discovered the Allegheny Cycling Association (ACA).  After two seasons of a few local road and criterium series I wanted to play in the dirt.  Pavement and cars was getting tiresome to me and I wanted more Mother Nature in my life.  I bought my first Trek mountain bike (Fuel 90), started finding the local trails and have never looked back.  I’ve been xc mtb racing for four years now and once again I am ready to raise the bar.  I have never dominated or won an abundance of Sport level races, so the last reason I would change categories is due to requirements or sandbagging.  That’s funny just typing.  I like the idea of more challenge again, pushing myself beyond the plateau I feel I’ve been idle on, and getting in the additional mileage that comes with it.  If I’m going to continue to drive all over the place and pay all these registration fees I may as well get more for my money, and all the good, bad and ugly that is going to come with it.  I’ve also just discovered a liking for endurance races.  After my first solo 6 hour race last year (6HOP - I so recommend it!) I really liked the idea of starting a race with a lower heart rate and maintaining that but for a much longer time.  It’s a different kind of riding (and hurt), and you just have to truly love the sport to appreciate and enjoy riding the bike and trails for hours on end.  So, this year should be very interesting for me.  I will be pushing myself more mentally and physically than ever once again.  It can be grueling at times, but so much more invigorating and rewarding than anything else in my life right now.   

With all of that said I hope you stop back and enjoy my stories (located on the web site front page) with me.  Happy Trails, Michelle J