its been a while...

ok, so have been horrible at updating this thing- the race season has started, although i think my body still thinks its winter for 2 reasons: i didn't start riding again until march, and its still only in the 40's and almost May. what the hell. i went riding today and put on all the standard winter weather stuff- leg warmers, long sleeve base layer, wind jacket, ear cover, extra gloves for the downhill. uhh. no wonder the races have not been going so well-
so, the first one was in Phoenix, AZ (2nd norba national) and drove down with the spot girls (jen g. and megan m.) and erin huck. we met up with dell starr and i haven't had that much fun over a race weekend in a long time- i mean, the racing was ok, but that group was a blast to hang with. ok so maybe i should mention the race- i did the super d, and yes i suck. its ok. i have done only one before, so no expectations. then short track- which actually was ok, midpack somewhere, (a whole 18 minutes- hellz yeah) but wanted to save some for the xc. so i started the xc on sunday last into the singletrack. yep, probably the worse course to do that on- i was behind melonie myers and i watched her endo so hard trying to pass some girls- i never saw her again. the first lap was a joke, trying to weave around everyone- finally second lap i got free, but it was only 45 min. long so i ended up 20 something. not too bad i guess considering... then we drove home, and went from 90F heat to snow in boulder. yay.
the next race was fruita, CO. i wasn't sure if i was gonna make this one, but i had never raced there so i ran out of work on saturday, hopped in the car and got in at 11pm that night- stayed at my teammate Noel's place and teammate kristin was also there- getting the old school band back together! we were the originals of the velo bella/kona pro team. ahh memories...
anyway, so no preride on the course, but everyone said it was fine and super fast- so i took off hammering past katie compton and 10 minutes later cracked hard. uhh. i recovered and started downhill- i launched myself over some rock dropoffs that looking back i am not sure i would have, but i was wedged in between the semi-pro guys and couldn't see in front of me- it was some of the coolest single track i have ridden i a while- i wish i could have enjoyed it more- instead of trying not to kill myself and pushing as hard as i could. i will have to go back there someday and really ride it. overall it was a good race day, but preriding for me seems to be mandatory... but i am happy i didn't loose it on some of that stuff- as i was flying through the air-
next and last, sea otter. well, what can i say, i always have a bad race there. this marks three years in a row. but again, the company was great, and to me that seems to be more important these days. i flew into SFO and met up with teammate barb howe where we made some excellent dinner (with lots of strawberries thanks to her new special friend who rides for them) in berkley. the next day we drove down to Salinas and stayed with Laura Sanchez (one of the origional starters of velo bella, no kidding) in her zen room- it has a vortex, and i think thats a good thing... and each day went to the venue in Monterey to preride and hang at the VB booth. i didn't do the short track since it was $90 and thats just ridiculous. so i prerode for free and met up with a lot of people at the venue i hadn't seen since last year. good times. oh yeah and then i 'raced' sunday. if you could call it that- i started well, and then it went downhill from there. i got stuck behind people that descend worse than me- unbelievable. lost a lot of time, then i cramped in my left leg (the one i fractured) and then i almost quit, and then i finished. woohoo. but afterward i met up with my sister kristin and we drove back to san fran and went shopping and to the MOMA and then had awesome sushi with her husband simon and got really drunk and took stupid crazy pics with damian who decided to shave his beard except for his mustache which made him look like the guy from reno 911. pretty funny. there seems to be a pattern so far this year- i am having way more fun traveling and doing the social thing than racing- but this could be too that i am sucking right now since i haven't really gotten in any good training due to the crappy weather in boulder. if only it would be warm, things would be much better. more motivating. more enjoyable. nicer. well you get my point...
oh and i really miss tasha. its not the same around here without her...