Stage races are HAAAAARD

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!