Monday, May 7, 2007

Time to breathe...

It's been fun reading the posts of the races. Great job ladies on all the early season racing. Rockcut was my first race of the season (um, basically my first/second real race -- my FatTire last year I guess partially counts). In previous years I would not have dreamed of considering an early seaon race -- I would shoot for the very last race of the season (uh...thanksgiving race anyone?!) and then something would have diverted me from that goal. 3-4 months is a LONG way to go to keep a goal without small milestones along the way.

So this year, what the heck. I treated it like a practice ride and I had a lot of fun -- it was a challenge for me but I was smiling at the end...I was probably laughing at myself for getting lost, I took a different turn on the remaining road piece (ambulances picking up all the broken bodies Barb mentioned were blocking the real turn), and rambled on to another picnic area and realized I had to turn around...*sigh*. I would have preferred to see a time minus 10 minutes for being a directionally challenged biker ... ;-)

This weekend at Tour De Dells was not so fun, not much of a smile at the end of the ride -- I flatted and had some nasty chain problems. Then I am standing there, go into my pack for a tool, only to find no tool and my Blackberry with a cracked screen. There's a good move, leave the tool in the bike bag, bring a delicate piece of electronic equipment in your pack. And I wracked my right knee somehow (sports massage therapist tonite may have fixed it). I was a bit of a mess Saturday I think, I had that looming feeling when I woke up that this was not my race day. So a big DNF for me. I broke my cardinal rule - always smile at the end of the trail - lesson learned I guess as to how to manage a disappointing race.

I was happy we had a MadFORC on the podium though -- great job Barb!

I am overwhlemed at work, and not getting my head in the right place enough so I am taking some weeks off before racing again. Pre-race anxiety the week before the race seems to be scattering my brain. In the meantime, MadFORC Thursday training, on the road training...see everyone on the trails!

Renee V.

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