Dino Win, Coffee, and finally 'cross!

I finally added a Dino race win to my tally this year. I had mixed feelings on this since I was super happy for a win, but bagged it with a smaller field to compete against.  Regardless, I am taking it with a smile since it was the venue I felt I had a chance to really do well at this year. France park is on my favorite list for racing in Indiana. It wouldn't be a place I would go visit to get some epic riding in, but the venue for racing is super fun. It is great for taking the RV and it has a rock quarry to laze around in all weekend. That last part is super important since the race is usually very hot and this year was no exception. My sister and I had a great weekend camping and swimming before the race even started. I had a "fair" racing day and drilled it the first lap. After getting my lead time from Beth after that, I decided to back down off the pace. The worse part about France is the "must run" section and by the 2nd lap this was a "must walk" section for me. My gimpy foot was not so happy with me and this race reminded me that I still need surgery on my foot again. Aside from that, I pedaled on and finished over 9 minutes ahead of 2nd place. I felt like my helmet was melting by the end, it was a really caliente! It didn't take me long to find the bathing suit and head to the quarry! Kudos to all the other gals racing that day, it was a tough race with the heat. It was a nice weekend and I was once again thankful to be close to home. 

In other racing news since my last post, I did the local Downtown crit. This was also a super hot day and since road crits are used as training aids for me for cross, I decided to do 2 races. It was fun to have family and friends around and I accomplished what I wanted for the weekend: ride as hard as I could, basically doing a personal TT and race in a pack (men 3/4) at higher speed to get used to riding bar to bar. I finished 5th or 6th in the open women class and was pleased with that. It is hard to explain racing to some people, that some races are not meant to be won, some are just stepping stones. This was a very small stepping stone for me to climb some mountains (and hopefully podiums) later in the year. It is great to do well at local races, but these are hardly my goal events for the year as I race on a national level. 

 

In other Indiana racing news, there was a huge road event in Marion last weekend, as a NRC event came to town. It killed me to not race this, but I was in the middle of a taper for cross season, and technically, I really don't even race road. However, I did go for crowd support and enjoyed watching the event. I was a little floored that their wasn't more representation from local road teams for such a well put on race. However, my riding partner, Anne Young (Hammer Head) had a great placing with 4th in the 3/4 race and local Matt Light (Alderfer Bergan) showed some of his hidden talents by nabbing the win in the 2/3 race. 

Congrats to both! 

(<- Anne and I watching Robbie V  "announce" at the NRC)

In other big news: for the last 2 years I have been off caffeine. I know that sounds crazy to some, but caffeine is a drug regardless of what people say. Since I don't do anything half-ass, I decided that it would be best to eliminate all things bad from my diet. So, for 2 years I have only drank coffee on a race day, but I am back on the wagon! I really like coffee and am trying to talk myself back into it being okay. For now, I'm all jacked up on coffee splurging, but only using it when the time is right, not just because I need to "wake up" or if it is there. I drink it for the tradition. Kinda like Catholics with wine, and cycling and coffee is tradition.

Finally, cyclocross is here! I have two weeks in of cx training. Week 1 was a huge reminder of how hard it was to ride around in the grass and then run up hills! This was complicated by the fact that my equipment was not right and my fit on the bike was way off. I can't ever stress enough how important it is to not only have the right size bike, but also have it professionally fitted. 2 great places to do this is at Revolution Bike and Bean in Bloomington or Summit City Bicycles in Fort Wayne. It is the best money you will ever spend. Trust me. Anyway, week 2 was much better. My legs were starting to come out of the funk they were in and dismounts were much smoother! I finally found my groove and didn't want to stop practicing at all. I just don't know how anyone couldn't love cross, obviously I'm a little crazy about it. 

This weekend I am heading on a great outing with my anesthesia group to Chicago before the weekend racing schedule picks up again. It has been nice to have a couple weekends at home, but I can't wait to see what cross season has in store, it is just around the corner!