Teammate Kristin and I discussing the TT
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sea Otter
I was pretty excited to be going to another race, and hoping to get revenge from last year's bad race at sea otter. i arrived in monterey, CA on wednesday night, and got a chance to preride the course with Kristin D. and Wendy S. on Thursday. the course was in great shape, and the weather was beautiful. i had a good feeling about Sunday, and I was really looking forward to the super fast course.
The weekend started on Friday with the Time Trial. we were preriding it the day of the race, and it was taking us around 7 minutes to do. this was gonna be a lung burner-not exactly my best event. sure enough, i burnt the hell out of my lungs and finished in 5 minutes. i ended up around 35th-ish, which is fine, whatever. the next day was short track, and it was pouring rain, seriously. my sister kristin came to watch, and i felt bad that it was on the day with the worst weather. she braved it though, and cheered in the rain and mud. another event that ended up around 33rd. i seem to be stuck in the 30ies. i just wanted to get it done so i could look forward to what i came out for, which was the cross country.
the next day, sunday, i woke up to clear blue sunny skies. awesome. it was a tad windy, but whatever, its a mountain bike race, right? we got to the venue, and i started doing all my standard prerace stuff, hopped on the bike and warmed up. The pro guys went off before us, which is nice so we don't have to deal with them trying to pass us midrace. i got called up close to the back which i don't understand, but there was a long road section to start around the leguna seca raceway so i didn't care. my legs felt good, and i was ready. the race started and after a few close calls on the road, we crammed onto the gravel road to start the real race. i was so excited to be racing, and got a little ahead of myself coming up and over the hills. with the wind was at our backs, i launched up over and down a super fast decent and barreled down ruts from previous rain storms. my speed was a bit excessive for my own strength, and my left arm decided to give out as i was picking lines downhill. needless to say, i went down pretty hard. luckily no one else went down or ran over me, which was nice. i fell onto my shoulder, and i layed there for a while and thought about things- if i should keep going, if i broke it again, if i totally ruined the rest of the season.. i got up and decided to keep riding. i raced the rest of the race- well, more like i rode the course a couple times. i finished, not last suprisingly, and very sore. my shoulder was not broken, but holding onto the bars proved difficult through the race and i had to take every downhill very slow. suck. not a good race. but, there is always another one. so, i am recovering and taking lots of ibuprofen. i leave next week for the santa barbara norba, and then the fontana norba. i am staying in CA between them and hanging out with Wendy and Barb so that should be fun, and hopefully my shoulder will hold up.
The weekend started on Friday with the Time Trial. we were preriding it the day of the race, and it was taking us around 7 minutes to do. this was gonna be a lung burner-not exactly my best event. sure enough, i burnt the hell out of my lungs and finished in 5 minutes. i ended up around 35th-ish, which is fine, whatever. the next day was short track, and it was pouring rain, seriously. my sister kristin came to watch, and i felt bad that it was on the day with the worst weather. she braved it though, and cheered in the rain and mud. another event that ended up around 33rd. i seem to be stuck in the 30ies. i just wanted to get it done so i could look forward to what i came out for, which was the cross country.
the next day, sunday, i woke up to clear blue sunny skies. awesome. it was a tad windy, but whatever, its a mountain bike race, right? we got to the venue, and i started doing all my standard prerace stuff, hopped on the bike and warmed up. The pro guys went off before us, which is nice so we don't have to deal with them trying to pass us midrace. i got called up close to the back which i don't understand, but there was a long road section to start around the leguna seca raceway so i didn't care. my legs felt good, and i was ready. the race started and after a few close calls on the road, we crammed onto the gravel road to start the real race. i was so excited to be racing, and got a little ahead of myself coming up and over the hills. with the wind was at our backs, i launched up over and down a super fast decent and barreled down ruts from previous rain storms. my speed was a bit excessive for my own strength, and my left arm decided to give out as i was picking lines downhill. needless to say, i went down pretty hard. luckily no one else went down or ran over me, which was nice. i fell onto my shoulder, and i layed there for a while and thought about things- if i should keep going, if i broke it again, if i totally ruined the rest of the season.. i got up and decided to keep riding. i raced the rest of the race- well, more like i rode the course a couple times. i finished, not last suprisingly, and very sore. my shoulder was not broken, but holding onto the bars proved difficult through the race and i had to take every downhill very slow. suck. not a good race. but, there is always another one. so, i am recovering and taking lots of ibuprofen. i leave next week for the santa barbara norba, and then the fontana norba. i am staying in CA between them and hanging out with Wendy and Barb so that should be fun, and hopefully my shoulder will hold up.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
training camp 2007, Norba #1
So the season has finally started. The first race is out of the way, the jitters and the question of "did i train enough this winter" are exposed. And, to be honest, it turned out better than expected.
The week began in Tucsan, AZ where our training camp was held. The team, consisting a few of us from last year's team (Kristin, Shannon H, and Rebecca) and many new faces (Barb, Shannon G, Natasha, Alex F, Erika, and Sara J) that made up our new team. I flew in Tuesday, and my first ride back on my mountain bike was on Wednesday with the team. i was pretty nervous since i hadn't ridden the mtb since my crash back in July. But, it was just like i remembered- super fun and lots of rocks. needless to say, my back and shoulder was sore for the entire week, but who cares. My physical therapist wasn't too happy though when i got back, but thats another story.
so after a few days of training with the new team, we got to the race venue in phoenix on friday. i got my new bike built up, a hot scandium kona that turned out to be 3 lbs lighter than last year's bike. sweet. i decided to do short track saturday night under the lights- it started at 7:30pm so it was dark which was interesting, since it was downtown Fountain Hills and we raced through a dusty parking lot. i got called up last (i was #72) but made my way to midpack within the whole 8 minutes i got to race. at least it opened up my legs a bit for sunday, but i coughed up one of my lungs after inhaling so much dust during the race. On sunday, i got called up 41st, which was a big improvement, and definitely helped my start. My first lap was pretty good, sitting in top 30 (~25th) which i didn't realize until later. by my last lap, i really didn't want to finish it. i was so hot, and my lungs hurt pretty bad. all i could think about was a big bowl of ice cream with some chocolate chunks in it. that movitivated me to get across the finish line, although i hit a wall that last 10 miles and lost about 6-7 places. i ended up 36th, which i am happy about since i have only trained about 6 weeks this entire winter, and had 2 surgeries. so, hopefully this will be a good year for me..
The week began in Tucsan, AZ where our training camp was held. The team, consisting a few of us from last year's team (Kristin, Shannon H, and Rebecca) and many new faces (Barb, Shannon G, Natasha, Alex F, Erika, and Sara J) that made up our new team. I flew in Tuesday, and my first ride back on my mountain bike was on Wednesday with the team. i was pretty nervous since i hadn't ridden the mtb since my crash back in July. But, it was just like i remembered- super fun and lots of rocks. needless to say, my back and shoulder was sore for the entire week, but who cares. My physical therapist wasn't too happy though when i got back, but thats another story.
so after a few days of training with the new team, we got to the race venue in phoenix on friday. i got my new bike built up, a hot scandium kona that turned out to be 3 lbs lighter than last year's bike. sweet. i decided to do short track saturday night under the lights- it started at 7:30pm so it was dark which was interesting, since it was downtown Fountain Hills and we raced through a dusty parking lot. i got called up last (i was #72) but made my way to midpack within the whole 8 minutes i got to race. at least it opened up my legs a bit for sunday, but i coughed up one of my lungs after inhaling so much dust during the race. On sunday, i got called up 41st, which was a big improvement, and definitely helped my start. My first lap was pretty good, sitting in top 30 (~25th) which i didn't realize until later. by my last lap, i really didn't want to finish it. i was so hot, and my lungs hurt pretty bad. all i could think about was a big bowl of ice cream with some chocolate chunks in it. that movitivated me to get across the finish line, although i hit a wall that last 10 miles and lost about 6-7 places. i ended up 36th, which i am happy about since i have only trained about 6 weeks this entire winter, and had 2 surgeries. so, hopefully this will be a good year for me..
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