Wow, is it already half way through May? Remember how I told you I took the whole month of February off my bike? I think I'm paying for it...but I know it's good in the long run. Typically I started "training" about mid way through January and start racing in March. This year I pushed it back a month, so I'm 1 month off the usual training schedule. Not only am I one month off the training schedule, I'm also off my racing schedule. Usually by the end of April it feels like I have been racing forever, but not this time! Up to date I have completed 3 races plus 1 DNF (more to come later), and 2 of 3 stages of a stage race.
The first road race was a slap in the face and a big ol' ass kickin'. But, it was also awesome, about half way through the race I realized it wasn't a cross race and my legs just kind of stopped working properly. Come the last 2 miles of the race I could hardly pedal and push my legs, my breathing was fine but I was seriously done physically! I think I finished up 5th of 8 or something silly like that.
My second race back was the Beezley Burn mountain bike race. Saturday night I did my first Short Track race and thought my lungs where going to burst. That was quite possibly the hardest thing I had ever done. Sunday morning was the Cross Country race, and boy was I excited for that race. No need to go into details because, 27 minutes into the race I slashed my tire on a rock and that was the end of that!
My third race back was the Olympic View Road Race. I thought this was going to a "flat" course, so I wasn't really expecting much except for a pack finish. Turns out, the course doesn't feel very flat when you get in a break with 2 others within the first 10 miles of the race, and you hold the break for the rest of the 54 mile race. Those tiny hills started to hurt so bad, that by the end of the race I was on the verge of cramping! At the final sprint when I stood up to sprint my left quad cramped so bad I had to sit and roll it in to take 3rd out of our three women break. I was still pleasantly happy with 3rd place considering I hadn't done any speed work yet! My fourth race was the Ravensdale Race, which I had never done, and honestly, I could do without doing it again next year. The course started out on a rolling up hill and made a loop to some rolling down hills, and repeat. The group stayed together, and I finished 2nd. The race was only 40 miles, so I decided to ride the course backwards during the afternoon races and cheer Chris on (his first road race in 2 years), I ended up getting some good miles in.
That now brings us up to date with the race I just "finished", Enumclaw, you know that race last year that I dropped my chain on and I wanted revenge with. I decided at the beginning of the season that I wanted to "peak" for Enumclaw, so I have been doing some pretty good training before all these other races I have done, so truthfully my legs never felt like they where 100% ready to race, so for Enumclaw I knew I had to get some rest in order to feel amazing for the weekend, and do my best. I'm going to leave this blog post as a cliff hanger and you have to wait for my Enumclaw race report. I just really wanted to get this one out! Think of it as the "pre-qual".