east coast chaos

over the past couple weeks, i attended the two norbas over on the east coast: windam, NY (which was a new venue) and mt. snow, VT. two races i was looking forward to and dreading at the same time...

i met up with my teammate allie who moved to NY (about 30 min. from the laguardia airport where she picked me up-where the chaos began) and we drove up to Windam on friday morning- i expected it to be muddy as all get out, but the course was dry, manicured and perfect- almost too good. the trails were newly built by local racers- there were plenty of rock sections, wooden bridges and fast fun descents (which is what i was doing in the pic- courtesy of dave m./cyclingnews.com). i knew i would have a good time racing it, even if i felt like total crap. which, after firecracker, i was wasted. i thought i could recover but as seen in the results over the last couple weekends, its evident i am wasted tired...

back to the story. so i got a preride in friday and then met up with my dad and sally at the local B&B- i have to admit, it was really nice. lacy window treatments and all... made to order breakfast, tea and cookies in the afternoon, and snacks at night. the rooms had VS on tv, and internet. doesnt get much better than that. what else could a bike racer want? ha!

saturday i woke up to a dry sunny day! even though it was hot and humid, i didnt mind- as long as the rain held off i was happy-i felt good in my warmup, and headed to the start line. i was really nervous, probably since my dad was there- it was sooo good to see him and sally again- and i knew they would be cheering like crazy for me no matter what place i was in. the race bottlenecked at the trailhead, which was expected. unfortunately i got a horrible placement once things panned out, and the race was short (i finished in 1hr 40 min) so there was little time to make up spots- i was not happy with my 25th, but i knew i was tired. perhaps too tired to be racing in the first place- im starting to learn this, and its taken me many years to figure it out...

after a horrible short track, i hopped in the car with the cannondale girls and drove over to the next venue, mt. snow VT. the plan was to rest up over the week in between, which was harder to do than i thought. i ended up riding the course everyday and then some, which looking back probably wasnt the best idea. the climbs were very steep, and going easy wasnt an option. so when race day came, i already felt like i had raced. i had no jump, no attack, no intensity in me. if i were at a home race, i probably would have sat it out. but it was the nationals and the course was fun- and that kept me motivated. the first lap was terrible. i flatted, rolled into the tech zone and morgan (our mechanic for the weekend) mistakenly ripped the valve out of the rim which made putting air in impossible. at this point, i knew my race was pretty much over. he threw on a heavy spare wheel and sent me off. i was way off the back, and had little motivation to push hard. but i figured i would put one last ditch effort in- go as hard as i could- just to see. well, this turned out for the worse as i puked at the top of the climb. i have never done that. i descended back down and had decided to stop after that point. i met up with my old teammate tasha (it was so good to see her again!) and we both struggled together on our last lap, laughing, chatting and catching up. it was as if we were back in boulder training together again. so maybe doing this at the national champs wasnt the best idea, but it made me finish the race, and we crossed the line together. at least it wasnt quite as embarrassing with her beside me. frosty was worried i guess, since we had been so far back. its good to know that people knew something probably had happened- a lot had happened- during those 2 hrs of racing. i am now back home and trying to catch up on sleep and get back to life in boulder. time for a break from the bike for a while, or at least until the next race... in 2 weeks. :)