Monday, June 15, 2009

...and the "Bad Idea Jeans" finally PAY OFF!!!!!

I was supposed to be in VT this weekend. Unfortunately, due to some bad timed scheduling, my USA Cycling Camp got cancelled. The kids are still in school up there. Oops. No wonder registration was so low. Next week is still the road camp we are running here in TN and we have 35 kids so I will get my camp fix, but I am bummed about VT.

Due to the oversight in school schedules, I suddenly had a free weekend with NO PLANS!!! Unthinkable. What to do??? Mark decided to go home to Michigan and visit his family and I figured I'd stay here, get in some good training and pick up some extra hours at work.

Saturday was a GREAT ride with some friends. 4 hours, 2 mountain climbs and the legs felt great. So great that I was a little bummed that I wasn't racing. Oh well, I do love long training rides when it is warm and sunny. It was a good hard workout and I was a happy woman.

Oh, as a side note did I mention that the TN State Criterium Championship was this weekend 30 minutes from my house??? I wasn't going to go. I needed the long miles. It was not in the plan; and then...

Okay, so Sunday morning at 11:30am I decided to go and race it. I had exactly 2 hours to: get dressed, pack the car, eat, find wheels for the pit, drive up there, register and warm up. I did not really have any expectations except that it would be fun to see people instead of riding alone. I made it there with a whole 25 minutes to spare for my warm up. It was a classic case of the "bad idea jeans".

We lined up 17 women in the Cat. 1-3 race and every one of them was looking for that state champion title. Nothing was getting away, that became apparent almost immediately. Surprisingly, my legs felt alright, even after the long day on Saturday. There were three of us on the front doing most of the work, trying to wear everyone else out on the hill. I know, I shouldn't do that much work, but I hate not racing hard. I guess it is the mountain biker in me. I'd rather use way more energy than I need to and get a good workout than win without feeling like I worked hard. And besides, I was here to finish my weekend of good workouts; I had no delusions of winning.

With 5 laps to go the field was still together and I decided I was feeling good. I suddenly WANTED that win. Forget the "get a good workout" thing, I wanted that state title. I was going to go for it. I knew what I had to do and I was going to do it from the front. With one lap to go the attacks started and I covered everything. In the second to last turn Mary came around me and as I jumped on her wheel she clipped her pedal in the turn.

YIKES!!!!!!

Whew. I swerved, missed her and was set up perfect for the sprint. I WON!!! By 2 bike lengths. I am thrilled. I am the TN State Crit Champion. It was so much fun and it was great to do it with the home crowd there. Chattanooga had an awesome weekend as a whole with us taking jerseys in 4 races.

Not bad for a mountain biker...

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