The 2012 Lake Mary Crit Race Report

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I faced The Murdolater.  And, while I did get murdolated, and I did get dropped from the pack, I finished the race and accrued my very first (measly) points towards moving up to a faster category.  (No time soon, for the record.)

It was the hardest (but most fun) thing I think I've ever done.

I keep thinking back to my very first triathlon, the Subaru Women's Tri in St. Pete in 2007.  It was a super sprint.  I had been very ill - this was before my various health issues were sorted out - and I hadn't trained well.  But I had done the best I could (in retrospect, I am impressed I even did it).  I was 14/18 in my age group.  I was 73/100-something women.  I was dead last in my age group on the run.

And, despite the well wishes of my friends and my little finisher's medal, I was totally dissapointed in myself.

Today I finished dead last in my group.  I mean, dead. LAST.  And there were no prizes.  No medals.  No rewards.  But, unlike my first tri, it was one of the best experiences of my life.  The cornering, pushing myself outside my comfort zone, all of it.  It was incredible.

I think some of this is because I know how far I've come.
My observations (in no particular order):

• I think I'm more a cyclist than any of the other sports, but I sill have a long way to go. I have a few more years, realistically, before I can be truly competitive.
• At the risk of repeating myself: cyclists go hard.  They're just a whole new level of athlete. Triathletes are a different breed, and most triathlons contain an element of "holding back" or conserving energy.  Cycling (for me) doesn't.
• While they do go hard, and there isn't a spirit of camraderie from the gun like there is in triathlon, there is a certain level of camraderie that develops when you've all pushed yourseleves.  The leading ladies told me good job for gutting it out, and the #2 women's finisher (who was number 1 previously) came up to congratulate me on a good race!  (FYI: I have NEVER had this happen in any of the triathlons or marathons where I finished last.)

I am hooked!!!

And, while I am hooked, there's only so much cash to go around, so I think I will not be racing again for a little while.  I have been, as you probably remember, feeling very stressed and unfocused lately, and now I feel ready to start again.  This was just such a perfect day - and I learned so much about myself - that I have a great baseline around which to form the next few months of training. 

When you hear the expression "he/she has a long way to go," it has such a negative connotation.  In this case, I mean it in quite the opposite spirit - I am excited and motivated by how far I have to go.  I know how much fun the journey has been coming from where I've been, and I know what great things lie ahead if I am positive and consistent.  More than that, I know if I have gotten here from where I started, that I can DEFINITELY get where I need to go, because that's closer than ever before.

(Ok, and maybe I'm extra happy because I have tomorrow off.  I NEVER get off holidays outside of Christmas.  Here's some Presidents for ya.  We are celebrating the day off, the race, and just life in general with a dinner and some at-home fireworks.  Enjoy your week and the Song Lyrics for Week Ending 2/19)

Song Lyrics of the Week:

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride my bike

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride it where I like

....

Bicycle races are coming to town, so forget all your worries and cares....

On your mark

Get set

GO!

 -Bicycle Race, Queen

(PS - I haven't forgotten about Tour de Cure or the 60-Day Challenge.  I'll fill you in on that soon!)

World's Shortest Race Report

First road race in the books!!!! Harder in some ways than I expected; easier in others.  Never even got ON the pack to get shaken; had to do the whole thing alone.  STILL, this was my fastest solo ride WITHOUT the luxury of aerobars and only 1 mph slower than my fastest ride EVER of this distance. 

Interesting lessons learned:

1. A lot of recreational riders ride Trek, but a LOT of the racers ride Specialized.
2. Need more bikes!  Wish I had a bike for road races and crits, and another one just for time trials and triathlons.
3. Biggest rule of bike racing isn't STAY with pack, it's GET WITH PACK FROM THE BEGINNING!  When the start goes off, they GO LIKE BATS OUT OF HELL.
4. Going to do a few road races before I attempt ANY crit.

Finally, BIGGEST lesson learned:

Cyclists go hard.
Harder than marathoners.
Harder than triathletes.

I want to be a cyclist when I grow up.

Next week I have a 5k.  My goal is to go like a cyclist.

More to follow later in the week, I am SURE.



Week in Song Lyrics is a Repeat: Breathe Caroline's I'm Only Getting Started

Caught up and I can't feel my hands

No need to chase
Can you relate?
Can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this?.....
I'm only getting started
I won't blackout
(This time I've got nothing to waste)
Let's go a little harder
(I'm on fire)
I won't blackout
I'm on my way
I'm only getting started

2012 DeLand Spring Fling of Cycling Road Race: Pre-Race Report

Here I am, on the eve of my very first cycling race.  I am prepared as I will ever be; I even took the aerobars off Ruby so she will look like a real road bike and not a tri-bike. 

I have little idea of what to expect tomorrow, but I do know that I am going into this with rested legs and MORE endurance than I need, and a good tolerance for racing in the red (Remember, I'm Only Getting Started, Go Hard or Go Home, and Pain Cave?) My coach(es) (yes, I annoyed the hell out of my friend who has raced P1/2 for tips) told me specifically not to get too feisty with the attacking.

Road racing is different than anything I've ever done before.    You don't have to get up at ass'o'clock, for one thing: you don't even race until 8:30am, and that's only if you're racing Pro 1/2 and you're a man. Us Cat 3/4 ladies go at 11:30 and the Pro 1/2 ladies and Cat 4 men go out around 1. (Tell me THAT isn't awesome). Race fees are a good bit cheaper. You get to draft. You only do one sport. The races are considerably shorter (1-2 hours in most cases until you start getting Pro.) 

Road races are definitely not as popular as the other stuff I've done; I hardly know anyone doing this race, and many of the people I know doing it are way more experienced and even race on legit teams and the whole 9. It really is MY DAY. (With all the other crap flying around me, I could use a ME day.)

In any case, both coaches gave me the following advice.

Important Rule for Cycle Racing Virgins: Your first and most important objective is to have fun, followed by this: be safe and try not to get shaken from the pack.

Okie dokie.  Now we know what my goal is for tomorrow.


By now we know that racing (and life) don't always present us with the best of circumstances on the eve of a big event.  I'd like to be well-rested, massaged, and pumped.  But I don't feel good and I've had a hard training week.  I've spent the past month planning special events at work to try to shake up (and hopefully improve?) campus life. I'm trying to concentrate on the Fourth Discipline, I have major research deadlines, and am currently sifting through thousands of pieces of data as well as dozens of student assignments. (I'm surprised I'm even taking the time to write this, but if I didn't take a break for awhile, I'd probably suffer even further sanity loss.)

The funeral was way harder than I expected. I was severely depressed, and I am still recovering from what was my first real funk since before my thryoidectomy. My toe arthritis is acting up thanks to all the standing (especially in grass, in high heels) at the burial and wake. I am overwhelmed with the mental and emotional strain.

But I've done a marathon feeling like this before, and that lasted 5.5 hours; this is less than half that.  And tomorrow I don't have to be up at 3 or 4 a.m. like I do on a Marathon or Triathlon Eve.


Still, with all this going on, I found myself thinking how the hell did I get here?

The answer is that I got here, not just to the eve of my first road race, but into everything I've been doing the past few months, the fundraising, the knee-deep work and projects and research and special events - all of it - because I never stop challenging myself.   Yeah, maybe I am a bit overwhlemed.  And yeah, sometimes I bite off more than I can chew.  And (at least in the case of this road race) sometimes I may very well suck at something and wear myself out, but I will be able to rest soon enough.

I knew that cycling was my strength, and that I wanted to explore it more, and that I wanted to get even stronger.  And I kept saying some day I will do a century, some day I will be an A rider, some day I will do cycling races.  Some day, some day, some day.

Well, some day may never come.
I got a taste this week of the bitter reality that life really can end at any moment.  It doesn't matter if you're young, healthy, or cancer-free, or aging, frail, and brittle.  It can happen at any time, to anyone.  Knowing that, I feel like I owe it to myself to live outside my comfort zone.

I feel like we all owe it to ourselves to never, EVER stop challenging ourselves. In many cases, the challenge will be the hardest work you've ever imagined. But, whether you realize your plans or NOT, just making the effort will move you much farther along than you hiding yourself in familiarity. 

Life is too short to be stagnant. Reach out, branch out, way beyond your comfort zone, and see just how great you can be. I promise you this: you're capable of much more than you ever imagined.