Racin' Days

Yesterday we raced in Brentwood, the heart of LA (I think...) and it was rad. Over $1,000 in primes for the women, a state jersey on the line and $300 to the winner. We raced our bikes hard from start to finish, great to have a race like this locally and not have to travel to one of the larger stage races. I showed up tired, fatigued, with flat legs and didn't put any pressure on myself. Funny thing is that I got 10th, which is usual, with a much different physical approach to the event. Conclusion: It's all in the MIND. Speaking of the mind, Brian has purchased several Mental Toughness/motivational books on tape to prep us for next season. Or the impending horribly hard winter rides and lack of heat in the house.

A few weeks back Brian and I took a trial honeymoon. We traveled to Boise, ID for Boise Twilight then on to Bend OR for the Cascade Classic. With his whole cycling team. It worked perfect because the boys traveled in a sprinter van pulling a trailer and Paul and I rode in the mini-van. :)

As I have stated before with the stage races, i was sure a time would come that the minutia of each stage, lap and climb would begin to blend and at Cascade they in fact did. I chose to race this 6-day event solo since composite options were slim. It panned out perfectly with great support from CashCall and since I talk a lot, I have a lot of friends in the peloton who were gracious enough to offer me feeds and moral support.

I was elated to not have a single flat, bee sting, crash, bonk, freak out or any other mishap. It was a clean race. 6 days of built up fatigue and racing landed me a 40th GC out of 106 starters and a 30th place on the last stage, making me finally feel like I was racing my bicycle, not merely a passenger in the event. It was very encouraging to see fitness gains and again the adaptation of stage racing coming through and not having to sleep 3 hours after each stage and waking up actually alert and ready to rock. Although 40th GC in theory is not something to blog about, for me its a big step, a sign of consistent improvement and one of my goals was to complete Cascade within the 5oth percentile. And that goal was achieved, and passed.

There were lots of funny aspects to the event, a few OH MY WORD moments, and a couple Heck Yes!! times, which I will probably delve into down the road. But for now it's time to build a business, plan a wedding and enjoy some relaxed bike rides with my friends!