Desert Rampage

The first race of the season is always a tricky one. No matter how big, small, fast or slow the field is, you always go into the first one with a bit more trepidation than others. Especially having been so sick about one week before, I had even more questions in my head than usual.

Thankfully, all went well this past Saturday. No mechanicals and my body held up well enough. As Coach Eric said, that period of forced rest may have been the best thing for me. I was able to put down a really fast first lap before lower back pain made me slow down a bit on the second and third and the fitness is certainly there, just where I want it to be. I ended up with a sizable gap on rest of the gals, making it a challenge to keep my pace, but there were plenty of expert men ahead to keep me motivated.

Funny thing was, after the race I asked Eric about my back issue and he told me exactly the problem. He knows me so well that he immediately told me precisely what to stretch and how and it definitely wasn't the obvious answer. Low and behold after some stretching, the pain went away immediately allowing me to ride hard over the past few days. I would be a disaster without this guy around....but I digress.


The greatest part about the weekend was spending it with my teammate, Heather and her buddy, Chris. Cheap motels sure are a lot more fun when you have people to suffer/laugh with! Heather had just gotten her cast off after an epic fall and winter of trying to heal a very stubborn busted wrist and came down to ride on the road for the weekend. We only managed to get one phone call complaining about the noise....and a mystery hang-up phone call at 4am, perhaps in revenge???
I moved out of my campsite yesterday and am staying in a hotel for a few days so I can wrap up my final week of my current graduate course. It's hard to concentrate on Power Point presentations when it's sunny and warm out but I suppose if I can discipline myself to ride a trainer all winter, I can do this, too.