I feel like one lazy mofo after seeing pics of Zack's weekend adventure. My 90 minute race today seems pretty LAME compared to his weekend Spearhead Traverse, which begins at the top of Blackcomb Mountain and traverses the backcountry for 3 days until winding up at the top of Whistler. He got pristine backcountry runs and sunsets like this, I got two 480' cooling towers.
I want a new knee NOWWWWWWW!!!
Four from our team drove down to Elma to race in the shadow of a deactivated nuclear power plant (in fact, it's the actual nuclear power plant that inspired Homer Simpson's vocation since Matt Groening went to Evergreen).
None of us had major expectations for the two 13 mile laps; it was being treated as a fun training race, esp after recovering from Walla Walla. I hung with the main pack the whole race during all the attacks, surges, and the first climb up the big hill, which was my one goal. On the second, final trip up the big hill I could feel my lack of hill training as the pack pulled away a few hundred feet from the finish and I had nothing to respond with. That was fine by me, I was getting "on the hill training" and quite satisfied to have hung with the main pack nearly the whole race. I crossed the finish line with a huge grin on my face, completely happy that I felt so good, blessed with putting another spring race under my belt.
My teammates were extremely happy to see me do so well staying with the main pack, pretty much what I did in Walla Walla (ok except for the being dropped in the road race part). They see sure signs of progress in my racing and all important recovery.
This week marks the 2 year anniversary of my battle with chronic fatigue and I really couldn't be happier with where I am. To have made it this far this year is monumental for me. It's one week at a time. Slow, but sure signs of progress.
Does it get any better than 70F and sunny in Seattle? (Well, yes I can think of a few better places...mmmmm....salt water.... but that's for another time.) I spent most of the day rolling around the track with friends and making up for lost time in the sun just lounging around afterwards. Sunburned lips? Check. Bike shorts tan lines? Check.
The track bike felt soooooooooo good under me! There is nothing like the feel of real track geometry to make you appreciate what FAST really means. Just sitting on it instantly propels you forward as fast as possible. Take away all the silly gears and brake doo-dads and glue on super skinny 19mm tires and you're set to hit light speed.
Not that I was anywhere near light speed today. It was just a fun time to get the legs spinning and do a final gear check before Tuesday's official, inaugural Kenny-Bot workout. My lazy days of Zone 2 are so over. And that's ok with me because track season is upon us and it's time to go FAST!!
Why? For many reasons, I say:
1) I got the first work email about putting together a team for the Bike to Work Month Challenge. May is Bike to Work Month and that = SPRING!!! Commuting is the easy part - now we have to think of a witty team name.
2) I got to ride into work this morning with Dave Hiller who never ceases to crack me up with his mix of cynicism and brilliant wit. The sun was shining and birds were chirping, so that meant a zillion MOMZ and their baby strollers on the Burke. He spent much of the ride quietly beoytching about them walking two abreast and told me about Asshole Dave's #1 Rule: If you don't have at least 6 punches in your punchcard from riding or walking outside in January, then you don't deserve to be outside on a nice spring day. Outta my way!
3) Springtime happy hour with my coworkers. Granted, we were inside a dark hole, but I got to ditch work early, ride in the warm sunshine to and from so that counts for something. And in addition to all the other random run-ins today, I saw Miss Michele looking mighty bodacious and fine with her friends and also enjoying the beautiful evening. I swear I'll go to my grave only being identified by the bicycle crap attached to my body.
4) Taking advantage of the warm weather and late sunset to finish the day's errands sans lights. Riding around town w/o looking like a spaceship reminds me of the careless days of being a kid when you weren't conscious of visibility or traffic rules, you just rode your bike to have fun and get around. More people need to embrace that. Bikes are not that complicated, people.
5) Watching dusk creep over the Ballard Bridge on the way home and turn the water different shades of blue and black with the loud hum of the cars vibrating around you. If you put your ear up to one of the metal beams it's like a thousand seashells calling your name. It's one of my favorite parts of living in this city.
Welcome, Spring, we've been waiting for you!
Especially when you don't train for them! Somehow despite spending the past 5 months in Zone 2 with a handful of intervals thrown in I managed to finish the Walla Walla stage race this weekend. And when I say that I "finished", I mean not in epic form, but not DFL either. My performance was greatly effected by the cold, dry (!) weather and my nervousness, which led to my asthma acting up when the going got really tough. Of course, not training for this kind of insanity could have even more to do with it.....
With only 5ish hours of sleep the night before, the early morning TT was 7 miles of mental anguish, in which I quit riding and sold all of my bikes to begin a sedentary life of plant husbandry and chocolate devotion. But then the race ended, I took a nap in the car, and felt much better about living my existing lifestyle.
The road race was 38 miles of rolling hills and 2 big, long climbs. I managed to hang on to the crazy fast pack for about 20 miles, but just as I predicted when we pre-drove the course, I got popped on the rollers on the way back to Waitsburg. Hills and long tempos haven't exactly been on my training plan so I knew my legs and lungs would be shot by then. The pack was super strong so I'd start to get dropped on the uphill, then catch up on the downhill, but they never slowed down enough for me to bury myself in the middle, and with my asthma making me wheeze I didn't want to push it. Having an attack in the middle of nowhere was not on my list.
I was actually quite relieved to finally get popped. I slowed it down a bit, the stress disappeared, and I got to enjoy the wonderful scenery! The puffy clouds, the bright green wheat fields, the random horses and cows. I pretended that I was on a lovely tour of the French countryside.....only I couldn't stop by the side of the road to snack on bread and cheese. Damn. On the big climb back to Waitsburg I heard a small voice behind me say, "Jill B! It's Ellen! Jill B! It's Ellen!" It was like a little angel came up behind me. It was my teammate Ellen, who had also been dropped (there were many of us scavenging the countryside), so we rode together at an easy pace up the big hill and chatted. Towards the top we found our team's amazing support crew cheering for us and ringing their cowbells and encouraging us on. I almost fell over laughing as Jane ran up next to me ringing her cowbell. All she needed was a devil costume and pitchfork and she'd fit right in at The Tour.
Ellen and I were later joined by Amara, who also made the ride back to the finish much more fun. She'd gotten popped by the 1-2-3s, but being a crit and track specialist herself, she was just fine to get in some base miles. It was so great to know I wasn't the only trackie out there suffering! We finally hit the 3k climb up to the finish. Again, I predicted that I'd be in trouble because my cassette is a lowly 12-23 and the last thing my legs would want is to grind up this climb. But I did it. Slowly. My asthma was still restricting my breathing so I kept it a slow, methodical procession. It seemed like an hour later I made it to the top. Our whole team was up there cheering for everyone and I could finally stop pedaling, calm down my lungs, and relish in the ridiculous accomplishment.
The next morning was the crit - my first one! Somehow I'd managed to recover from the day before, and I figured that I could deal with 30 more minutes of pain. It turned into a really fun race with lots of turns that I managed to hold and no one went down! I did my best to hang with the pack, but again the cold air was effecting my lungs so I was wheezing hard after only 5 laps. I did a good job controlling my breathing, but it was enough for me to hang on. There would be no efforts to move up in the pack or epic sprint finished for me. I was at the tail end across the finish line, but I knew that many others had dropped and been pulled so I was thrilled that I managed to stay with the lead pack of 20-ish very fast girls. My teammates were extremely proud that I managed to hang and I have to admit so was I. Maybe I'll do better if I can breathe the next time?
All in all our team did great! Ali and Lori was absolutely amazing in their weekend accomplishments. They both stayed up front with the lead pack in the road race and took 8th and 12th! I'm SO PROUD of Ali for how well she's doing in this crazy new pursuit of hers. In the crit, they again stayed at the front and Lori took the win in a roaring sprint finish! Way to go girls!
For me, even better is that after the weekend my energy levels are really good and my body seems to have forgotten what I put it through this weekend. Hoooray for recovery!! And I have to give big loving thanks to The World's Greatest Boyfriend who was our team's lone Boy Wrench and put up living with 13 crazy women for 4 days. He's recovering by taking a well deserved ski trip to the mountains today. I love you, babe!
I hit my mental and physical wall this past Saturday night. I spent most of the day freaking out about what else I could give my body to quell its impending breakdown. Blue Box Tea? Organic beef? Sunshine? Jane's stash of Dragon Poo Tea? I was literally shaking from the anxiety that I couldn't control anything and that nothing was helping to turn my body around. I had a dream about racing at Boat Street (although it was me being at the start line with flat tires and I couldn't fix them in time so I watched everyone else race), but there was no way my body could perform without crashing my system for good.
Sitting in the sun at Qwest Field listening to the Dalai Lama did nothing to reduce my fears. I talked to Jane afterwards to get a report from the Volunteer Park crit, but that turned into talk about how I was feeling and the layers of a giant meltdown began to peal away. I could barely ride my bike the 5 miles home. My body weighed 300 pounds, my heart was heavy, my legs were encased in concrete.
When I got home, the full-on meltdown let loose as I collapsed on my bed. However, as I was bawling my eyes out and gasping for air, an epiphany came to me: these tears were for what I was so desperately afraid of losing with Zack. I realized that I'd been repressing all my feelings and concerns about where we are going together and when we'll finally live in the same city again and WHERE will we live and will I be away from everyone I know or will he elect to move to the mountains or desert and what about my job and when will our life together really begin and I'm tipping the age scales so will I ever be a mom? It all came bubbling out of the fountain of my face. I don't know how the poor guy understood a word I said, but being the Best Boyfriend in the Whole World, he listened and we talked as I mumbled and we talked some more and after a few hours we finally understood more of how much we mean to each other. It felt very, very, very good. I'll be washing the snot out of my pillows for the next month.
The next day, I slept in until 10 a.m., but woke up with more energy than I'd had in a month. I didn't feel any desperation for special tea or mass quantities of iron. I couldn't believe how wonderful I felt, but it shouldn't be that shocking. Stress and depression are the leading causes of disease. I'm glad I worked it out this time. We went out for a fun ride in the rain and I felt GREAT and I began to plan my adventure at Walla Walla this weekend. Game on!!
I've been feeling pretty crappy this week and now my neck glands are sore and swollen while the rest of me is chilled and lethargic like the days before the flu sets into your bones and holds you captive. But this isn't the flu, it's the other incessant virus that lives in me that may be winning this week's battle. I skipped my vitamin cocktail shot last week, thinking that I could get by, but it appears my body is too vulnerable for even a week without the shot and that's all this virus needs to take control. I had signs of this happening the last time I skipped a shot a few weeks ago, but I took it as a fluke......and now my teammate confirms that this is exactly how she relapsed.
Luckily tomorrow is Happy Shot Day. I really hope it's not too late.
This is what "balls to the walls" is all about. Dressing up like parents strolling with a baby carriage along the GG Bridge and then whipping out your flags and climbing equipment from under the baby blankets and scaling the bridge before anyone knows what's going on. Fucking awesome.
Can you hear us now China?
Part 1 of my Walla Walla Shakedown was to do my first TT in aero bars. Since I conveniently won some the other weekend, today's Carnation TT was to be my testing ground. A few things occupied my mind over the 12.5 mile course:
1) Relax your shoulders.
2) Get your hoohoo more forward on the saddle to be in a more powerful position (delicate, but doable).
3) Why am I doing this.
4) This freakin' sucks.
5) Where is the damn roundabout.
6) That bitch passed me.
7) Oooooooooh.......tailwind. I love God. Thank you God for tailwinds.*
8) I take back everything good I said about you, God. I now I have a wicked crosswind, a long way to go, and you suck.**
9) Races where you can't stop pedaling or draft behind someone are STUPID.
10) My teammate, Barb, is CRAZY to do TTs on purpose. And she does much longer ones. And wins medals. She's CRAZY.
11) That wasn't so bad.
Other than the torturous 40 minutes or so, it a very fun affair warming up and cooling down with the guys on our team. Races with epic amounts of laughter are what make it all so worthwhile. I really enjoy being surrounded by my new big brothers who can't take themselves or this silly racing business too seriously. Part 2 of my Walla Walla Shakedown is next week's criterium where I will hopefully complete my first crit and walk away unscathed. Laughter, guaranteed.
* Not a common use of the word "God" for me. More like one of those moments of extreme pain or ecstasy when giving praise to a deity kinda blurts out.
** Most common use.
