Sunday, February 5

Ouch

BASKETBALL: We will start with the more simple subject to discuss. We had our 2nd to last league game last night against those crazy girls from Calimesa. They are dominating league, and usually us. (Remember our "devistating" loss to them by at least 30) However, it was sneior night last night - flowers, tears, stat recalls, you know the deal. We were LEADING the game at one point and ended up losing by ONLY 9 POINTS! The closest any team in league has gotten to them. They also pressed the whole game and basically played their starters. It was a huge victory in many ways. We have one league game to go them off to play-offs where the drama definately continues!!

CYCLING: This could take awhile. But i will do my best to be brief.

THE EVENT - Boulevard Road Race, somewhere near San Diego
THE GOAL - Do really good, duh.
MODIFIED GOAL - Not to finish last, create a mtn bike allie (more later) and to pick some people off. Oh yah, and to not quit.

RUN-DOWN:
Wake-up time: 2:45 am
Drive time: A bit under 3 hours
Race Time: Around 2 hrs 20 minutes (round it up to 3 hours...ha)
Mountain Bikers Present: 10, i think. Wimberly, House, Eakins, Pleiss, Flaherty, Strayer, Bono, Throop, Me, and Popovic. All those, except me and super-Throoper, are pro now OR SHOULD BE....Eakins even went as far as wearing her CamelBak and came in 7th, probably made a roadie or two mad. Flaherty made a solid 5th finish, as the highest finishing mtn bike chick.
Recap: Once I saw all the girls who dominate on the dirt, i knew i would have a delightful day. It was actually really cool to see the girls of dirt again, all of who i totally enjoy and respect. I started in the middle with everyone else, but about half way into that first lap, there cadence picked up and i couldnt hang. This is when i modified my goal for the day and began making friends and working together to pick people off. We decided that it was $30 group ride with a bunch of crazy girls. I picked up Throop, expert mountain biker. I knew that she would be a good one to work with for two reasons: Make an allie for the season (we will probably be racing against each other quite a bit), and find her weaknesses. However, she ended up being a cool kid(17) and she would walk all over any of my high school PE kids. I am always so impressed by the Juniors. I coasted a few times after some climbs so that she could grab onto my wheel again. Thus the low motivation to catch the pack. At this point, it was better to work with someone than to hammer it out on my own. She ended up dropping back on a climb, and me and another girl kept going. Sara, my new friend, flatted with 3 miles to go, leaving to "finish" on my own only to be met by the little mountain bikers. They said this race was slower than most or just different, which could of course be blamed on the mtn girls.

The whole day was quite an eye-opener for what i need to work and where i am actually at. I just have to remind myself what i was doing this time last year: NOTHING so then i dont feel so bad.

I think i thought about dropping out more in this race than in all mountain bike races combined. But of course i didn't, and i never really got the urge to do so, just the thought.

Unfortunatly, since i had to come back and coach, i didn't get a nap, much of a cool down or stretch. My legs were cramping the entire game and i didn't even get home until 10:30 PM!!

Time managment.....hmmmm......
Dozer and I are off for a hike and then another nap!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Grat job, Joy! Road racing is an entirely different animal, and won't take you long to adjust to. It's even more fun when you finish it all in one piece! Thanks for representin', and I will look forward to seeing you in an upcoming issue of a LARGE MTB MAGAZINE soon....:)

Christerphizzle..