Limbo

Life has been in a state of limbo lately.

Still no bike riding, but that is ok. It is a little sad to see my hard work go down the drain, but it's been good to get some time away from the bike to think about what I really want to do with my life. I do not want to be a full time bike racer. It is too unfulfilling.

I realized that I really miss math and science and biomechanics. I was already on that path before, but I had to wander away a bit to understand how important it really is to me. Now I know.

I'm exploring some very exciting opportunities, but I'm fearful that I won't be able to balance everything.

Meanwhile, the pinched nerve in my neck has returned and my hand is going numb.

Ode to Hamstring

Oh my dear hamstring,
How you have been nagging me for 4 whole weeks.

I've tended to your callings,
by getting physical therapy and altering my shims.

But you still call to me,
wail to me as I attack, climb hills, and sit.

I know you wail from being overworked,
While your neighboring muscles relax and drink lemonade.

Please get better fast,
so I can race without worrying about you.

Together we can dominate,
but without you, I'm just that gimp at home.

Swiss STOP

These new brake pads, these new rims...  

My training rims brake like crap.  They are worn out, have tons of grooves in them, and I'm lucky if I can stop when I slam on them.  Combine this with rain (frequent around here) and I'll often grab a handful of brakes and nothing happens.

Fast forward to today's race.  I had my fancy Edge rims, which contrary to what many people think about carbon rims, brake a LOT better than my training rims.  They also brake inconsistently.  No brakes no brakes all of a sudden BAM brakes.   I've only ridden these a handful of times in dry weather (in wet, forget about stopping quickly), so I'm not entirely used to how they brake.  It gets me in trouble because I occasionally find myself accidentally "slamming" on the brakes when I only intended to feather them.  Obviously this will get better the more I ride them, BUT that didn't help me today.

I was greatly outnumbered today, so I took a more proactive approach.  I knew the attacks would be fierce and relentless, so instead of slowly chasing them down like usual, I raced aggressively early in hopes of getting in a break and reducing the attacks.  It took a few laps for the break to finally get established.  I attacked a lot.  I chased a lot.  I tried to jump every time I started to chase to at least make it harder for the others ("ain't towing fatties", as my old Michigan teammates would say).  Hamstring started hurting, I told myself I'd stop in a lap if it didn't get better, and what to you know, I'm in the break.

It was different than any break I've been in all year.  We weren't going very hard, and it took me a little while to realize that this was ok; we had  good enough team representation that no one would catch us.  In other races, it's taken all my energy just to stay there.  On the last lap, the attacks returned.  TH told me to wait for the sprint because people usually go too early, so I waited... but it was too late.  Once again, I got 2nd.   Still 2nd in the WA Cup.   

Trudge, Trudge

We are moving on Sunday.  Exciting!  Our new place has a garage, but no dishwasher.  We will either have an exercise in responsibility or very quickly realize that we need a tabletop dishwasher.  I'm guessing the latter.  I will post pictures on Sunday! 

Racing has been going ok.  Last week was difficult.  70 mile state road race on Saturday and a 55 mile hilly race on Sunday.  Saturday was kind of dumb.  It was raining, we got neutralized for like half the last lap, and it basically came down to a 3k-to-go drag race.  It ended on a short, steep (14%) hill, and I was in the totally wrong gear.  There was also a crash at the line, i got a little distracted, and got 7th.  Sunday was better.  Sunny, hard.  People kept breaking away solo, and for a number of reasons, I waited too long to chase/attack.  I was in a group of 4 with 3 others up the road.  I sprinted so, so, so hard but got 5th, 2nd in my group.  It was an omnium, money went 5 deep, and of course I got 6th.  LAME!

My hamstring continues to be an issue.  It hurts during every race and every hard ride.  I did Seward park last night (also in the rain), and it's been hurting all day as a result.  I made some bike fit changes (took one shim out and flipped the other), which is helping fix the problem, but the hamstring is still strained and it still hurts when I ride hard.  Not as bad as it was at Cherry Blossom, though.  

Don't let anyone mess you up

"Don't let anyone mess you up, not even me."

I got word a few weeks ago that my old triathlon coach, David Lapoff, died.  He was the most intelligent, passionate person I've ever encountered.  So knowledgeable, always had an answer to my obscure questions and injuries.  Just an all-around great source of knowledge and support.  Such a tragic loss.

It's been an up and down few weeks with my hamstring issue (since Cherry Blossom), and I got to thinking about how, as an athlete, I need to take responsibility for myself.  He wisely told me, when he started coaching me, "don't let anyone mess you up, not even me" and I've really taken those words with me.  It takes a really genuine coach to say something like that.  

At first I wanted so badly to email him and tell him about my issues, and I got really upset when I realized I can't do that anymore.  All I can do is take his words, take responsibility for myself, and make sure that no one messes me up.  For you, DL.

The Counter-Attack

I'm from the school of thought where bike races should be hard, and I like trying to make them hard.

Today was my first road race in 3 weeks because of my crash, and I was feeling pretty crappy when I got on my bike after yesterday's TT (my first sustained effort in about 3 weeks).  Our race was separate 1/2 women with 5 laps, 5 times up a 1k climb.  The first time up it, I thought "oh no this isn't good," legs don't feel good.

I attacked a number of times during the race.  Realistically, there was only one person I was truly concerned about with the uphill finish, and of course she won, I got 2nd.  I attacked on the flats.  I went with a move on the climb.  I attacked some more on the flats.  I was really surprised with how little interest the others had in counter attacking.  Come on, people!  That is the golden ticket!  In retrospect, maybe I should have counter-attacked myself.

I don't get the concept of saving all your matches.  I know I have a lot of matches, and I use them wisely (or at least more wisely than I used t0).  I now have a better feel for how many I can burn, and I didn't feel like any of my attacks today jeopardized my chances at the finish.  I know my chances of winning are much higher if I'm in a breakaway, so I like to do whatever I can to make that happen.  Really today came down to positioning and a little bit of confusion.  Anyway, I am happy with the effort I put in today.  Looking at the big picture, I had a great day, built more fitness than the others, and I had fun.   Good to be back!

I also find it somewhat comical when people yell into the wind.  I've started not listening to anything anyone tells me in bike races, but it's really great when I can't even hear what they are yelling about.  

The Plague

Apparently, I am very allergic to saw dust.  We are in the process of expanding next door at work, and the saw dust was killing me yesterday.  I sounded like I had the plague.

My asthma has always been difficult to understand.  I took meds for awhile, but none of them really helped.  Now I don't take anything, and it's generally ok, but if I am around dust, cats, mold, drink too much milk, or eat some mysterious food ingredient that I have yet to identify, I sound like I have the plague.

My shoulder appears to be gradually improving.  The pain changed today - instead of a localized pain, it moved down my arm a little bit, like the fluid is draining.  I can only hope.  I will try to ride tomorrow outside.

It also appears that there is some debate over how the crash at Cherry Blossom happened.  My interpretation was that I ran out of gas, started slowing down before the last 2 corners, and then the person next to me on the inside didn't hold her line and caused me to crash.  Others say that I hit the corner too hot and tried to turn my bike too sharply, taking myself out.  This explanation doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me because I was going slower than everyone else.  Perhaps I did take myself out, I don't really know. I knew going into that corner that I wasn't in a good situation, and I've learned a lot from my mistakes. 

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the sharpest crit skills (I just haven't done that many with big fields and I haven't been racing nearly as long as the others.  Even if I did all the summer crits in Michigan, it wouldn't have prepared me for the racing around here).  It's something I'm working on, it's gotten a lot better, and it will continue to get better.