The Dirty Kanza Women’s Camp! – An interview with Kristi Mohn

“It’s time for you to make a move. Putting yourself first is a hard choice, but if riding is something you love and want to get better at, this camp is for YOU! We want to help you make the most of your time, so that putting yourself first doesn’t feel like putting others last.” – Dirty Kanza Promotions

From September 20th to 23rd, Kristi Mohn and her crew of hand-picked female coaches, will be hosting a women’s camp in the home of Dirty Kanza, Emporia, Kansas. To gather a little more intel about the camp and what it entails, I conducted a phone interview with Kristi. It went something like this…

JOM: G’day Kristi (trendsetter), thanks for taking the time to speak with me. Please tell me a little more about the women’s camp you have planned for September.

Kristi: We’re still working through and fine tuning details for it, but what it came down to, is being inspired by the 200 Miles / 200 Women at Dirty Kanza campaign, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. That was an initiative we started two years ago. Additionally, I got the green light from my fellow members of the Dirty Kanza promotions team, to ride the 200-mile event this year. Of all of us, I was the only member who had not completed the event, after attempting it one time before. I really felt like there’s a lot of women that are getting out and deciding if they want to ride bikes, that was kind of the first step, which led to the 200 Miles / 200 Women campaign.

Kristi: This gravel camp is aimed at helping those women take their training to the next level, to train a little bit smarter, to understand that there’s time in the day to do the things that they want to be doing, to push themselves a little bit harder. I’ve done so many DK training camps, and there’s one woman in particular who springs to mind, that really inspired this camp for me. She kept riding everything at 10 miles per hour, but she’s capable of riding faster than that. It made me realize there needs to be some encouragement, that it’s OK to want to be a little better, to want to try a little harder. It may hurt a little bit, but trying to figure out some cool tools that we can give women that want to be a mom, work a job and still have a little more success at gravel races is the perspective this is coming from.

JOM: OK, so the camp isn’t designed just for seasoned racers, but perhaps also for those women who are just starting out and want to challenge themselves for either the 100 or 200 mile Dirty Kanza distance?

Kristi: Correct. We’re going to help women figure out ways to train more efficiently on and off the bike.

JOM: I really like the fact you’re aiming this camp at women who may be a mother with a full-time job, and not just elite-level or full-time athletes.

Kristi: It’s a training plan designed around people like me!

JOM: OK, so we both know you’ve got just one or two different gigs going on 🙂

Kristi: (laughing) Yeah, I’ve got two kids, a husband and a couple of different businesses and I still make time for training. That means, my training is very efficient.

JOM: Out of curiosity, how many miles or hours do you ride a week, or perhaps more specifically, time spent training for this year’s Dirty Kanza 200?

Kristi: For Dirty Kanza 200, for this year in particular, it was a bit an exception for me. Once I got the green light from the DK Promotion team to ride this year, I did not want to disappoint anyone, including myself. So, I worked with a coach; we really upped my training. I ride anywhere between nine to ten hours a week normally, this year the training got amped up, averaging 15 to 18 hours towards Dirty Kanza.

JOM: Impressive!

Kristi: It was hard fitting in the training in and out of every space I had available. I had a lot of people who knew my goals, and allowed me to be selfish. All of my business partners that I work with knew what I was doing. Part of the finish that was cool was my business partners, not just my Dirty Kanza partners, but my real estate partners and my family were all there, because I really felt like they were as much a part of that crossing of the finish line as I was.

JOM: You rode a very kick arse time (13:21:48), good enough for third place in the Women’s 40 to 49 category, so clearly your training worked out superbly. Going back to the Women’s gravel camp, it runs from September 20 to 23, basically three full days by the sounds of things, with optional lodging at the Gufler Mansion. I was fortunate to attend an Enve wheelset media event at the mansion, and those accommodations are pretty tasty I have to say.

Kristi: (laughing) Yeah, they are pretty awesome.

JOM: Very la di da indeed 🙂

Kristi: The mansion staff will be providing some very cool amenities for the women. There will be some yoga classes, some massage will be offered, extra stuff that’s included in the camp package. We’re very excited about that, and excited about the attending women being around each other to share – or commiserate – some of their experiences. The first day will be a structured FTP test (Functional Threshold Power) to help them figure out what their training zones would be looking like. Attendees will receive some instruction before the camp as well, with what we suggest you be doing say ten days or so before camp. It’s really taking the science of training and using that for moms for making their time on the bike effective and efficient.

JOM: How many ladies are you hoping will attend the camp? I assume there is some kind of cap in place?

Kristi: The most we will accept is 20. As for the Gufler Mansion, we are limited to hosting 13 women there. It’s the first year, so if we have five to seven women on board, we’re going to be stoked, but I’m hoping we’ll have more.

JOM: Reading the website notes here (see link at bottom of this article), the camp entry also includes entry to the Dirty Kanza 100 or 200 race, custom camp apparel, pro-mechanic support – that is super nice – who wants to be thinking about bike issues? It also looks like you’ve got some training seminars lined up as well – nutrition, bike maintenance, etc.

Kristi: Yes. We’re narrowing down the staff right now, we should have the staff lined up by Wednesday (July 25, 2018). We’ve got our women’s coaches pretty much selected, we’re just getting all of that confirmed. Kristen Legan is pretty much a definite.

JOM: Approximately how many staff in total will be supporting the camp?

Kristi: It will probably be a one to four ratio, but will obviously depend on how many women attend the camp. I forgot to mention, the camp entry also includes entry into the Bleeding Kansas Gravelduro event, which we will all go and do together on September 22nd, In addition to that, all of the meals are included, accommodation, etc. All of the finer details are on the camp website (linked to the bottom of this article).

JOM: Nice, plenty of goodies are included. Anything else you’d like to add before we conclude the interview?

Kristi: It’s going to be super fun!!! I’m excited, I mean, I’m really excited about this. We have four women signed up so far and the first three aren’t from the local region… they’re from the coast, I’m just stoked, I love sharing Kansas with people. I hope we get more ladies coming!

JOM: I reckon you’ll sell the women’s camp out, once the word gets out!

Kristi: Soon, we’ll be publicizing the coaches who are attending and hopefully generate plenty of interest. Did I tell you I was stoked?

JOM: Just a couple of times 🙂

Kristi: It’s going to be amazing!

The Dirty Kanza Women’s Camp

For all of the details of the Dirty Kanza Women’s Camp, please visit https://dirtykanzapromotions.com/dk-womens-camp/.