omg omg so much to catch up on !

A catch-up on the last month in bicycle racing and bicycle riding:

Sublime Sublimity Circuit Race, a weekend in February:

Hilly-as-hell ~60 mile race.  On antibiotics.  Could barely hold normal tempo pace.  Got dropped.  Almost quit.  Caught up with Dawn.  Dawn helps me get through the race.  Dawn and I finally finish, and hold hands over the line.  Smiles!  Oucccchhhhhhhh.  The good news: my teammate Anna wins the 4's!  (She's an amazing animal.)

lalalallallaalala I get depressed, I think I'm slow.... and then

Ironclad Training camp in Kennewick, WA!  We all drove up to Kennewick in a borrowed party RV and stayed with our lovely teammate Eva and her underpants model roommate boytoy.  She cooked for us and gave us laughs :-)  We went for a wet gritty ride Friday and a gorgeous long ride along the gorge to Pendleton on Saturday.  Sunday we rode and drank bloody marys and had pushup contests.  It was a crazy ride home in the RV...  Check out pictures here.

Last Sunday:  Banana Belt #2 at Hagg Lake outside of Portland.  It was my first only 3's race, and much easier than the 1/2/3 races that I'd done.  It was a weird race: mentally draining but not physically difficult.  The course is rolly with a couple mild climbs, but not really hilly (managed to stay in the big ring the whole time).  The beastly strong girl who won BB1 and a couple of previous races ran the show and pulled us around b/c we were too hesitant to do much.  We did 4 laps--44 miles--and came to an uphill finished where I powered through and came in 3rd.  Good finish!  I wished I had thrown a good attack, but was happy with the placing.  Used the race wheels and they made me fast.  Ate raw fish the day before too, mua ha ha...

I started a new training plan with a coach last week.  He's real good at bikes.  Going to get fast and strong and good at bikes too.  Excited.  Stage races.  (I don't blog anymore because I can't be bothered to form complete sentences.)  

I purchased a foam roller.  Coupled with chalk-o-late soy protein, freshly speared fish, sprouted quinoa, kelp, and quality shuteye, my recovery will be revolutionized.  

Today: Banana Belt #3.  Los Legs were sore from yesterday's 2X20's.  We were going the opposite way from last week; a downhill finish and not as many p-pow-power bumpin climbs.  Threw a counter attack on a hill and got caught just as the field was neutralized for the men's 1/2 field to pass.  Opportune time for neutralization, as it allowed me to suck down an absolutely disgusting mint chocolate gu and wash it down with water before I had time to puke.  The rest of the lap was fine.  On the first hill of the last lap, my chain fell off and I had to stop and get off the bike and put it back on.  Took me two tries.  Pedal pedal pedal ("wha happened...!  I almos caught the breakawayyyyyyyy...!") and I finally caught up with the group.  Someone attacked and I held on.  Second wind.  Recover.  Okay.  I felt good, so I attacked on the first part of the last climb leading into the downhill finish.  They caught me.  I caught on. Attack up the second steeper bump.  Ow.....goodbye....and I lost them.  Then I went downhill and finished alone and it was disappointing. 

Things I have learned:

1) Nicholas Restaurant: Go there, it's delicious and you get a lot of food and it can be vegan if you want.

2) Eat more food.

3) Eat more and more food.

3) Eat more food.

3) Eat more food.

4) Shower smoothies are a good idea.  Just because you are all wet and naked doesn't mean you should not be eating.

No but seriously...  lately I've been a little weird and crazy b/c my job takes up a lot of time and I didn't know how to manage my training.  I didn't even have a training plan!  And so I decided to get a coach so I can have someone else tell me what to do and figure out the damn schedule.  And now I have some focus.  So yes, today my legs hurt and I made a dumb attack and I have no jump, but all this training will pay off.  So when mid-June rolls around and it's time for los all important epic stages races, I'll be ready.  Because really I just wanna race le bike and have fun and be really good at stage racing.  That's all.  

And Dan and I are thinking about getting a futon.