Let it snow?

Yesterday and all last week: Sun and 80 degrees. Today: snowing.... 32 degrees. What's going ON? I saw several confused victims to the weather, trying to fight the strange day still wearing shorts and t-shirts. Maybe feeling cold made them feel better...I don't know. At least it was an excuse to take a rest day. I did want to try out my new seat though. I also got some aerobars to practice with before Gila next week.

Here's a quick overview of the race yesterday: The course was an out and back circuit. It was about 7.4 miles/lap, we did 6 laps. The road had 2 huge rollers and was on a closed section of highway. I arrived at the race bright and early (7:10 AM to be precise). I did the pro race(cat 1/2/3) and there were about 20 women in the field including Ann Trombley(former Olympic mountain biker). Basically the race consisted of me getting hammered. I am no roadie, and it's quite evident during the races when someone attacks. I can hop on the attack for about 10 seconds and then POW! Off the back i go. It's the super high end bursts of speed that I do not train for, nor have. As a mountain biker, I train to sustain a pretty hard effort for a long period of time. Road racing is more about riding in the pack, conserving energy, and then going super hard when someone attacks. I need to work on that stuff. I don't it will be as big of a problem in the Gila next week because the climbs are pretty long and if people jump the way they do on a roller(a relatively short, steep hill), they definitely will not be able to hold it. I got dropped off the back 4 times over the course of the race and was able to flog myself and chase back up to the main group. I'm pretty satisfied that I'm able to get dropped and catch back on, but dang it, I would save so much energy if I could just hang with people on the attacks. I didn't do so well, got like 15th or something. The official results aren't in yet, but I had a good time and got some good training. I was trying to get used to riding in a pack again before I hit the big time next week where there will be more like 70 women in the pack versus 20!

I'm leaving sometime this weekend so I have a day or two in Albuquerque before I go down to Silver City. I still don't have a confirmed place to stay, but hopefully it will all come together!! This week I'm just trying to wrap up my schoolwork and get ahead.

Adam has been missing my cookies(more than me I think, haha), so I did some work in the kitchen and here is a picture to tease him... now you can take joy in his pain as well. muhaha













There's that crazed look in my eye!