My bike hates me

This weekend was the suck in terms of racing.

Building on top of last week's chain derail just before a big hill.  This Saturday I had a chain derail just before the big attack that got away.  I got back to the peleton and after 6 minutes of just watching 2 guys go and moving up I broke off the front and started chasing.  But these guys had already put a whole mile on the field.  The rest of the race was me attacking and getting swallowed up by the loser group all the frickin way to the finish.  I couldn't believe how epicly the peleton gave up despite some teammates trying to shut down the breaks.  I ended up 20thish.

Back in pdx I went to the shop and had them do a number of things to make sure I wouldn't get another chain derail.  I had the cable retnesioned and got a new chain.

Today I shouldn't have even raced.  I zipcarred up to Brady for some more racing.  It was miserable weather - cold and rainy.  And the course was 72 miles.  But I had to fulfill my racing addiction.  I was feeling good, but then flatted out on lap 1 of 4.  It took too long to change the wheel and I never caught up.  I gave up after lap 3.

I'm now very demoralized and frustrated.  If only I could not have a mechanical I know I can get in a break.  Saturday I just despised being in the loser group with all the people saying "whelp I guess those guys will get away". And then today I got dropped and dnfedmylife.

Next week is Walla Walla and I don't know if I'll be able to find anyone to go with.  And it'll be my 4th hard week.  Whatevs tho.

The EVAN ride

Each week I have at least 2 rides where I'll ride for about an hour at a really slow and boring pace. I have been getting very bored with these rides lately, so this Monday I tried to make it a bit more interesting. Here is how:

Stage Rage

This weekend was the first stage race of the season: the Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic. I really like stage races. Last year I only did 1 stage race and an omnium, but really enjoyed getting out of town, the hecticness of travel and lodging arrangements and competing with the same riders for a few days.

Up until this week I still hadn't nailed down my travel plans. Now I do have the means to get a nice hotel room and car just for myself, but am trying to save money through all this and found that it made for a much more interesting journey with either friends or acquaintances. I had gone in to get my bike tuned up and found out that the mechanic at the shop was also going to the race so I was able to get my travel and lodging taken care of which was great.

Thursday

The plan was to head out Thursday night, spend the night in The Dalles and then race Friday-Sunday. It would be with the mechanic, his wife and another racer. I got all my stuff ready and was waiting for my ride at the appointed time. Some other guy was also waiting in the driveway of the apartment for a ride as well. Then, a car showed up that looked like this:

I was very confused. Is this really my ride? Nope it was the other guy who looked like he was about to go play basketball. Next, this car rolls up:

Ahh, that's my ride! We jammed everything in there and then zoomed off to The Dalles. Here is a view from my seat:

We got to the hotel and began the ritual of unloading all the bikes and bringing them into the room. Then we all went to bed.

Friday

Friday was the first race, a 57 miler with 3 19 mile laps of one decent hillclimb and then a puncher and then a long decent leading into a sharp corner and then a sweeping finish. This was my first Cat 3 race so I was expecting the pack to have more attacks and thus higher speed. WRONG! I was surprised at how slow we went. Nearly all the race I was dangling on the edge of the right side (once I even got nudged off a bit) with the pack staying mainly 4 wide. The field stayed completely together.

On the 3rd lap, 3 theraputic riders got side-by-side-by-side on the front and led the pack at an appalling 17 mph. I was waiting for my moment - a random junction with pavement on the right to mount an attack off the front. It came and bam! I put 200 meters on the field. I was going ok, but was worried about the hillclimb coming up. It came and I couldn't hold a breakaway pace and got swallowed up.

Then, 6/7ths up the hill a crash occurred slightly in front of me. I had to walk around it on the gravel on the right and then chased back up to the lead group. The field still stayed together on the punchy climb. The decent was not that fast and consisted of a lot of positioning. When we rounded the tight corner I was 4th or 5th row on the right. Then another crash happened on the left. I safely pedaled my way to a 13th place finish for my first Cat 3 race. Not bad, coulda been worse. After this I was reflecting on how if I had just had more hillclimbing power maybe I'd be top 10.

Saturday

Saturday was a big day, a Time Trial in the morning followed by a Crit in the evening. Our crew got up and made the journey into the remote town of Dufur. It was cold. It was windy. And I had put on only my bib pants and jersey to be super aero. But it was cold and windy enough that I went on a borrowfest of extra clothing managing to score some tights and an undershirt. Those were needed.

It was grueling on way out with a fierce 20mph wind with gusts blowing fiercely. I had just bought some aero bars and also had set up a TT position so I was confident that I would get a killer time. But that wind blew the confidence out of me. I was mashing along at 16mph at times and got passed by the guy 30 seconds behind me. When the turnaround point came I was so stoked. I put the bike into a bigger gear and immediately started storming down the road at 30+ mph. I had seen two guys approaching me from the turnaround, but I must have left them in the dust I was going so fast. The wind was still fierce with crazy crosswinds. The final corner of the TT was just after a good downhill, banked upwards, with some gravel and had a nasty wind. I almost lost control of my bike there, but kept the rubber side down. I finished my TT and knew that it was not a stellar effort. I placed 31st and was 3:16 down in GC.

After this we all headed back to the hotel to take a nap. Or were we going to? Our driver said he was counting on there being a gas station in Dufur. There were some pumps on the main street, but they looked abandoned. I went in and asked someone at a coffee shop where the nearest gas station was and she said "The Dalles". The gas tank was at the E. Would we make the 13 miles back to The Dalles? Each hill I was getting nervous. On the last hill I was praying in my head "please make it up this hill, please make it up this hill". Well, we made it. Whew.

Naptime. The people I was traveling with came from sort of the same racing background as I in doing alleycats and then moving to sanctioned racing. Both of the dudes traveling with me had been messengers before and had kept their sort of punk traits. Both dudes had noserings and maybe a tatoo here and there. However, both were quite chill people. In the hotel room it was quiet save for the bicycle chatter and watching youtube videos of Chris Hoy in the 2011 International Track Championships. We all quietly fell asleep each night. In the car we were listening to some death metal. At one point the conversation went like:

Dude in backseat: "hey what's thing song? ... what's this song? ... HEY, what's this song?
Dude driving: "I dunno it's just on Pandora. ... It's Vader."
Dude in backseat: "Who?"
Dude driving: "VADER"
Dude in backseat: "It's pretty good"
Dude driving: *nods in approval*

Next up was the Crit, a fast 4 corner course. I was a bit tired from the previous races, so we'd see how it would go. I started out all right and was able to move up front relatively easily. On lap 3ish, the Cat 3 travel buddy I was with broke off the front and I decided to try to work with him. This lasted maybe 4 laps before we got caught. I was starting to cramp so decided to hold position for a while. Eventually a prime for a set of Armadillo tires came up. I wanted this prime. When we came around the 4th corner I was on the front and started sprinting for the line. Someone nearly caught me on the left, but I managed to get the prime with a bike throw. At this point it was 3 laps to go and all the sandbaggers sprinters started moving into position. I could've tried harder to get in a better position, but just didn't. When I rounded the final corner in 15th I just easily pedaled in with the field for 31st. After this I had dinner with my parents and ate two orders of spaghetti.

Sunday

Today was the big day. A hillclimbing stage. I was hoping and waiting and hoping for warm weather all morning checking the internet for temperatures every 3 minutes. The sun was out, but it was edging ever so slowly above 50 degrees. I banked on the sun staying out and did this ride in just bib shorts and jersey - a first for this year. I thought that I would try attack early in the race, but proved to be a ineffective tactic. I ended up tired at the back right before the big hillclimb. The smarter guys were at the front and just stayed up there while the rest of the field shattered. However, I kept going at or faster than the front guys since I was catching up. The hillclimb must have been over 800 feet and we had to do it again with another 400+ ft climb on a dirt road in between. I was quite surprised at my hill climbing abilities and this gave me a big confidence boost.

On the way to the dirt climb I was trying to work with another guy to bridge up to the lead group. We were about 3-4 hard pulls away when all of a sudden he just flakes out and says: "oh look a chase group, let's stop." I look back and see them a ways back and see him drifting back. My gut tells me this is a wussy move. I look back again and now I can't even see the guy. I hold my position a bit and start climbing up the dirt. The chase group does make it up to me and we work hard up the dirt and then let it loose on the descent. This was crazy fun and we went so fast that we caught the lead group at the bottom.

This next time up the hill I'm making sure I'm at the front. And I was. I shifted down to the small ring and my chain derailed. I stopped and put it back on and then Andy Schlecked myself back towards the lead group. I again passed a lot of people and made it as far as the second chase group at the top. There was a slight punchy hill just after this and I wanted to be in the lead group before the crest of that hill. I was chasing them at the front of the chase group. The guy right behind me was not going to help me. So I pulled the move of my race and quickly made 4 strong strokes and blasted off the front. I could literally hear that guy behind me popping. I worked hard and was about 10 meters behind the lead field at the crest and accelerated enough to get them before the main downhill.

We all climbed up the dirt again and I held my position well. Once I could see the top I attacked a bit, but didn't really get away, perhaps I shed some slower riders tho. On the descent I led the field down again at high speed. Through the final 4 miles after this I just stayed in the group. The final 300 meters was up a major hill and I did not have a sprint climb in me so I steadily pedaled up for a respectable 10th place finish. This also earned me 10th overall in the GC. Was quite satisfied with the result and am excited to race smarter next time.

Coming up

I am now a bit tired (especially since I'm writing the blog so late), but still planning on Kings Valley and Olympic View next week and the Tour of Walla Walla the week after. We'll see how that goes, I kind of want to work on fitness and also rest a bit, but still excited to race too.

The next level

It's time for me to step up to the next level of bicycle racing. This week I joined an Oregon bike racing team: Guinness Cycling Team. And also with the results this weekend, it's pretty convincing that I'm ready for the next level.

The Guinness Cycling Team should work out well for me. There are a few Cat 3s and a few Cat 1/2s that race, but not dozens so it will be possible to perform well without competing with a ton of teammates. Through brief encounters I've had with riders on the team I'm looking forward to the season. Last summer when I came down for some Crits, I saw Alex, a Cat 3 rider, do a solo breakaway at the Franz Bakery Crit for the win. And then down in Eugene I had a humorous encounter with a Guinness rider whose pre-hill-climb strategy was to chug a can of red bull - and it worked, he was 40+ seconds faster than me and I was 2nd in the 4/5s. This year, I met Cliff who was the guy who gave me a ride to the Capitol Crit last week. Cliff is a very chill and nice dude who races a lot. On Tuesday I met up with a group from the team for some drinks and it seemed like I would mesh well with the team. And another pro about this team is that it's cool if I still wear the Tacoma Bike jersey in my Washington races. However in Oregon I'll be wearing some white and green.

As for training, this week was a rest week. And it was a rest week where I was resting after coming off of a win streak that I was resenting resting and really wanted to get out and do some sprints. At work I was having trouble focusing because I wanted to race so badly. The weekend could not come soon enough for me.

The weekend finally came and I was excited. I had reserved a Zipcar for the first time and made my way up to the gloomy area by Centralia for the Independence Valley Road Race. On the way I was listening to the Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy so I was amped. I got to the race area and it was packed. It was so packed that the only parking spot left was in a huge puddle. I parked there and did a little dance of getting out on the passenger side and tiptoeing on some dry land. After putting together the bike, I barely made it to the start on time.

The race had a big field of 76 riders, however, I only saw a few sprinter threats and was really wondering if some climbers would make or break the day. The race began and I was playing the move up through the field game for a while. The first hill came and it was quite big. The field was going hard up it, but mostly stayed together. On the other side of the range I kept moving up when I could. Finally about 15 miles in I found a hole going up to the front so I attacked and didn't have enough to really go, so the field caught up.

Coming up on the 2nd climb of the big hill I was planning on attacking on the upper part of it, however when that point came, I was already at 188bpm, so I was not in a position to mount an attack. The field seemed to break up a bit and a few of us were trying to paceline away. However, this paceline of ours kept growing in number, so I stopped doing pulls and waited for the next small hill. The next hill came and it was again a big effort for us, but this breakaway field of us stuck together. At this point, I knew it would come down to a field sprint, so I focused on positioning. When the 1k came up I put myself at about 5th and made my sprint at the 200k mark. I flew past the 4 guys in front, but apparently gave a great leadout to the guy who won the race. I placed 2nd and that was fine by me since I have found it hard sometimes on the field sprints. I drove on back to PDX and got some good sleep.

Randy and I after IVRR

Sunday morning I headed out to Hagg Lake with Cliff again. The weather was quite dreary with rain nearly the whole race. The field was much smaller - maybe 25 guys. And the race had a bunch of small hills, but nothing major. There also weren't really any attacks either. I made a few but still felt like I couldn't keep them going. On the 4th lap my front derailleur started having issues and couldn't shift to the big ring. I decided that I would hold onto the pack for the field sprint since I could power up the 200m uphill finish in a big rear gear. However, with about 2k to go the chain randomly shifted up to the big ring. I thought "wow cool. ATTACK!!!" And I did, but again I didn't have enough juice to get away for good. At this point I was debating about downshifting again, but kept it in the big ring for the finish. I was in the 2nd row approaching the 200k and then went. The Banana Belt series leader made a good jump too and powered out for the win and some other guy managed to claim 2nd. Still though, a podium from the field was satisfactory for me.

After this I volunteered as a corner marshal to pay my race fee and hitchhiked with a masters guy back home. Whenever I can on Sundays I go to church and have lately been contemplating whether trying to be better than all these other bicyclists is really showing mercy and being nice and basically doing God's will as opposed to helping dig a well for some poor Malaysian tribe. One of my friends suggested that my rationalization process of saying: "ok I've been working since September on this bicycle racing thing and now I want to stop? I don't think so." might actually be the righteous thing to say. And in this week's message I randomly flipped in a pew Bible to Psalm 107 telling stories of how people desert God but then decide to come back. And the Sermon was about Hosea who I guess invited Israel to come back to God by naming his kids weird names. I'm still unsure about whether this means that this bicycling is the wrong thing, or this message was a warning from straying from my bicycle racing. I'm gambling that it's a warning to not stray away from bicycling so I'm going to keep pressing on.

And with that, it's time to upgrade and go to the next level: Cat 3. At this point, the only way to move up another category is to be good. It's possible in Cat 4 and 5 to simply do a lot of races and then you can upgrade, but in Cat 3, you must earn 30 points to get to the 2s. And then with the 2s you're racing with the 1s and Pros so it is quite hard. But I've proved myself out of the 4s and it's time to see how well I can do at this next level.

First 1st!

I am feeling pretty euphoric right now. On Saturday I got my first victory of the year.

This past weekend and week started out as a lot of weeks have with me trying to keep up with everything. And this week, I had to deal with losing my helmet and ulock somewhere between Tacoma and Portland. I made a bit of a dent in the dishes but that didn't last for long since I worked late on Thursday.

Friday night I decided I needed to alter my state of mind towards thinking about winning Saturday's bike race. So I downloaded this youtube video a repeatedly watched the finish like 7 times while thinking about tomorrow's race strategy.



Saturday the stress was added again when I realized that I had lost my OBRA Membership Card. I let it go and decided to pony up the extra for a one day license at registration.

I was quite excited since I had found a ride with someone to the races. This made the journey less lonely which was appreciated. I was in a good mood at the race site since it was sunny and the course was dry and very wide.

I warmed up with a few short sprints to get the body going and then rolled up right onto the line to start. The race was going well and some dude had shot off the front first lap. The group was making sure he didn't get too far away, but he did earn the first prime outright. The field caught him shortly after that.

The next prime came up and I decided to test out my legs. Nobody really chased me, but when I did see someone chasing I dropped down 2 gears and hammered it out for those hammer gels at stake. After this I was feeling good and got in the drops and kept going to see what would happen. Eventually the guy that blasted off the first lap bridged up to me and wanted to work with me. So we did just this and started riding away from the field with maybe 7 laps to go. At some point I thought I saw a group of 5 chasing us in short range. However, our gap kept widening and by the final lap we knew we had it. The final straightaway was really long. I had just let this guy take his turn pulling but about halfway down the straightaway I broke off to signal that it was on for 1st. We both sprinted hard for the line and neither of us knew who had got it.

Try to see for yourself who finished first in this race photo.

Both of us congratulated each other and were pretty stoked to have rode away like that. The guy I was working with told me "I'm from Salem, you better not have beaten me on my home turf!" in a half-jokingly way. I could only reply "what do I gotta do, it's a bike race?" At the finish line we were both trying to figure out who won and getting congratulated by a few people. Eventually, I made my way over to the result tent and was informed that I had in fact won the race. This was pretty awesome. There were no hard feelings for the guy in 2nd except that he had gotten 2nd. Such is bike racing.

After this I hung out with the guy who gave me a ride and then watched him race. It was like opposite race day at the Capitol Crit, the 4/5 field had a break that won, whereas both the 3s and 1/2s came down to a field sprint. And once I got back home I slept 9hours. Aw yeah. Also, I plugged in the result numbers and it now looks like I have earned 21 points in Cat 4. I'm going to see what my coach thinks about upgrading.

This next week my coach has me doing a rest week, but there are 2 races this coming weekend. I'm planning on doing IVRR and maybe even Banana Belt on Sunday.

Weekend of racing accomplished

Warning! This post will may be TL;DR for some people so here is a really quick summary:

seized pedal
Train
lost bag, with all my bike gear
Good party, not enough sleep
Early drive to Sequim
Fast race with wide shoulders
some breaks, but field sprint at end
held on for 8th
lunch in Sequim
drive home
Land Before Time
Too early, DST kicked my ass
too early to race
rainy
less intense
Attacked on lap 4, got away 2nd attack, TT all the way to 400m and then got enveloped by field
Lunch with Scott and Andrew
train home

Now for the details. I had been planning this weekend for a while. There were two races on WSBA's calendar (classic spring races of Sequim and Mason Lake) and only 1 race in Oregon. Seemd like a great opportunity to head up to Tacoma to spend some quality time with my sister and Tacoma friends while getting in some racing. On Thursday I had one of those 'glad that happened now and not in the race' mechanicals. My left pedal suddely seized itself after a grueling easy ride around Southeast Portland.

On Friday, I got on an earlier train that got into Tacoma at about 3pm at which point I proceeded directly to Tacoma Bike to get my pedal fixed. Turns out I had ridden this pedal to death and that since I hadn't been regularly greasing the pedal I had screwed myself over. Oh and that new chain and brake pads I had put on back in January were already shot. So turns out I had to buy some new speedplay pedals. Ouch.

At this point, Tony asked me whether my cleats were good or not since I'd be getting new cleats with the pedals. I said "yeah I think so, say, where's my duffle bag that has my biking shoes? Oops, I left it on the train!" I began calling Amtrak, but their line was completely busy and their website even said it was probably a better idea to go to the train station. So I did that on the sweet Civia that Mike B graciously loaned me while my bike was being fixed. I got down to the train station and a lady there made some phone calls, was able to find it and have it sent back down to Tacoma on the next train. Nice.

At this point, my sister Tracy Tracey and my sister had gotten down to Tacoma Bike so we all eventually carpooled over to the train station to pick up my bike bag I had forgotten. The drive was quite exciting as Tracy Tracey had some interesting news to share. We got to the house at which point I still had to go on my bike ride for the day. I got all kitted up and headed out for 1.5 hours. I was making some good headway and was definitely getting farther on the usual route than I was when I began training this year.

I got back to the house and a party for the newest housemate was already going on. I changed into my Irish theme and began to eat. The party was fun as I saw a bunch of Tacoma peeps. Most notably for me was Dean who referred me to my coach. When he saw me he was like "wow, you have really leaned up." That made me feel good. For a party it was good, but I got to sleep at maybe 11:30pm which was not so good for my bike racing.

The next day we got up at 5:45am to head out to Sequim. It was a bit of drive through a lot of rain. And then we hit the rainshadow of Sequim. The line to register was quite long and the I was busy changing and putting together all my bike stuff that I was finally ready to go once the race started. There were some good attacks and all that, but nothing stuck. It came down to a field sprint and I was fighting hard to get and stay up there. Randy made an attack on the final lap, but didn't realize we still had 4 miles to go or so, so he got swallowed up. We rounded the final corner and I held on for 8th place. I was satisfied with the result.

Photo courtesy of Karly Siroky

After this, Landon, Randy, my sister and I went out to a restaurant that Tracy Tracey recommended and we gorged ourselves with food. However, I still got hungry on the ride home. Once home, Karly and I just chilled, ate some stir-fry and watched Land Before Time and went to bed at 9. We got up at 6 which equated to only 8 hours of sleep due to daylight savings time. Zzzzzzz.

I got up, but really wanted to sleep more. My sister was hopeful about riding around Mason Lake instead of being bored standing around while I raced, so she brought her bike too. We got there super early at 7:45am. I thought the race was going to start at 9am, but no, it was at 9:30. It was also raining out there. I have been used to riding in the rain, but with fenders my nice rain jacket and not behind a bunch of dudes flying at 24mph. So it was slightly unpleasant. Also, the facemask I was wearing was starting to become a problem. As it was raining and then being splashed with a constant stream of water from whoever's wheel I was on, the facemask became so wet that at one point I slurped up a big splash of water from it. At that point I tried to keep it below my chin.

Photo courtesy of Karly Siroky

The race was much less intense than yesterdays and about half as many people in the field. Nobody was really attacking all that much which was kinda nice I guess. Eventually I felt like I had to get something started so I tried attacking the 4th lap. I made a move on a hill on the front stretch which didn't really stick. But then I made another daring move on some of the rollers on the backstretch and really got away from the field. I was really time trialing hard and at times didn't even see the peleton behind me. The facemask was now covering half of my left eyeball and I was feeling the meter on my gas tank decrease after each little hill. After a while I was starting to fade on some of the hills closer to the finish and finally the field caught me with 400 meters to go. I didn't have sprint speed or power in my legs so I had to give up and finish just off the back. I just did't have enough to stay away and I was disappointed in that. However, Randy did finish 2nd which was awesome.

Whatever. After this, sister and I headed back to Tacoma where she made some fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. I had invited over Scott and Andrew who didn't know each other or even realize that they lived on the same street 5 blocks away from each other. This was quite fun. Then sister and I made our way to the train that I caught in my own personal style: just after I had finished my bicycle hauling contraption the train started to arrive. On the train I chatted with my coach and he applauded me on my effort at Mason Lake, and that made me feel a little better, but I want to WIN.

This next week I'm gonna hit it hard again and will do either Sequim again, or a crit down in Salem. On the horizon I'm really looking forward to the Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic, a 3 day stage race out in the Dalles April 1-3. There will be a road race, a time trial, a crit and then another road race. I'm really lookin forward to that.

DJStroky is back, watch out you lousy motorists!

So, here's an update.

Last weekend I was still feeling sick. Or was I? Whatever it was I felt a bit sinused up but really demotivated. I didn't feel like cranking the pedals around and didn't race over the weekend. Earlier in the week I went to see a doc who diagnosed me with a sinus infection and hustled me some antibiotics.

I took 'dem antibiotics and have been trying some other stuff too. Via a google search, I found this website www.earthclinic.com which says you should take Apple Cider Vinegar for every single ailment know to mankind. I tried it sporadically, but it tastes very bad. My coach is all about the garlic. He said I should work up to eating a bulb a day when I'm sick. I also tried this Emergen-C powder which has like 800% daily value Vitamin C and a bunch of Calcium and Vitamin D. Over the weekend I was doing ok in combating all this. Was drinking lots of water, taking the Emergen-C with a splash of ACV twice a day, eating maybe 1/2 bulb of garlic over the day and popping the pills.

It has finally seemed to work. Yesterday I had a good ride out to Sauvie Island and back and didn't cough up a storm. And today I did a bunch of hill intervals and felt like I did a bunch of hill intervals but not worse than that. However, I finally knew that I was back in it when my alleycatting blood shot through me. I was riding east on Burnside and have found that if I maintain a good pace, I can hit all green lights all the way from I-405 to the Burnside bridge. I was doing just so weaving in and out of traffic. I got down to Chinatown and there was some event with a bunch of people going on on the right.

Now in Portland, drivers almost always know how to deal with bicyclists - even at night. This means that if a bicyclist is on the right and a driver wants to turn right, the driver will wait - stopping in the road for the bicyclist to pass - it's pretty awesome. However, for whatever reason, this n00b normal anywhere except in Portland driver was clearly not paying attention to my presence to their right and was certainly not aware of my bold quest to hit all the green lights on Burnside. NO NO, that hoppin party with all the people on the right was far more important. So much so that they made a right turn in front of me slowly scouting out how awesome the hoppin party was and if there happened to be a parking spot exactly in front of the hoppin party. Well, my alleycatting blood shot up. I sprinted out in front of the car - while flipping them off (I'm not sure if I did it right since it was a balancing act) - and got back on the green wave and made it to the Burnside bridge with all greens! BOOSH!

At that point, I had one of those "I probably shouldn't have done that" moments. Anonymous driver, if you are reading this, I am sorry. But anyways, I realized that I'm back in the game and am looking forward to getting back on my training plan and race schedule.

This weekend I'm planning on going up to Tacoma to race with the Tacoma Bike team at Sequim and Mason Lake. Really looking forward to this.