Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

To pay homage to the 90s...



Right now, my life feels kinda like a few lines from this song:

"Time for you to go out go out into the world."
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
"Time for you to go back to the places you will be from"
"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here"
"I know who I want to take me home"

...you get the drift

The end of the road season is approaching yet again (maybe it's already happened for some of you). I have quite a bit to reflect on and digest. Mostly because I'm on a mandatory/forced rest week. I was told last night that this is the optimum time to reflect on the season/create new goals/conquer the world/cure cancer/world peace...ya know, all that good stuff.

So, I think I had a successful year. What is a successful year? Maybe it depends on what your goals are? Or what you think everyone else is saying about your results? Or if your team actually hit all their race goals?

Brian Walton once told me last year that if I can win three races in one year that's a successful year. Well, congrats to his wife, Dana on doing that and some! However, me on the other hand not entirely. I had a state championship crit win for cat 3 (technically was 6th bc New Zealand came to town and I had to race quite a few pros and cat 1s) and two time trial wins (one of them only bc the Wander's cleat was broken at the line. She quit. I could have sung "Call Me, Maybe" at the top of my lungs and still won). But, I did have a fair amount of podium time. So Walton's definition of good season might not fit mine, but I was pretty happy with another consistent year.

Plus, I won another wheelset from Revolution Wheelworks for taking the PA Women's Series Cat 3 win! And, I did win another PA BAR title for Cat 3 and placed third in the Women's 1/2. Which in turn, helped solidify CAWES/iFractal pb Specialized as the points leader in the PA Women's Team and Small Team category. Kinda cool.

But what did I learn?
-every race is an opportunity to learn and grow in this sport
-be careful what comes out of your mouth after a sprint finish
-being a leader isn't easy
-either is being a follower
-it's amazing what your mind can tell your body to do
-race your own races, not your competition's race
-sprinters can time trial
-sprinters can climb
-maybe I'm not a sprinter
-sometimes it's the little wins (whether on training rides or race day)
-so many factors go into a race day win
-stay away from the emotional vampires (thanks Coach)

What am I looking forward to in the next couple months? Fun rides! Lifting! Yoga! The beloved Java's ride with my favorite friends/mentors, the Bike Fresh Bike Local ride this weekend at Victory Brewing, and my 4th Best Buddies Challenge ride in Washington DC with my sister, Ryan and Tara (help Tara out and donate!)

Time to shut down. Recharge. Reboot. Rethink. Relive. Receive. Rest.

Closing time. Every new begining comes from some other beginings end...

ChrisT hater: My first "pro" race

I may or may not have done some of the following:

Things that are not "pro":
-going out drinking late with your buddies when you have a big race coming up
-eating a whole jar of cookie butter in under 5 days
-joking on the line about shortening the laps from 35 to 20
-throwing up (just a lil bit) in your mouth 6 laps into a race

Things that are "pro":
-skinsuits at crits (*see Jennifer Purcell of Tibco)
-cornering without breaking for dear life
- LVG

It's the end of August. It's already starting to get cold. The season is over.  I'm just going to say that I'm not happy about this. Everyone was saying the season was over the beginning of August and I've tried to stay excited, but once again I go up to ChrisT hater half heartedly.

Ryan and I drove up there for 3.5 hrs and I decided I better make the best of this trip. He told me that I was buying dinner with my winnings (assuming that I could at least beat 4 girls with it paying 25 deep and there are 29 reg'd) and then five minutes later was asking for my check book because he had no cash to reg himself. What a guy. Unfortunately, there was a TON of traffic on 81 turning a two lane highway to one, which turned me from calm to cray in .005 seconds flat. Luckily, Ryan made it to his race with about 50 mins to register, kit up, switch out wheels/brake pads, and warm up (luckily he had his bike bitch there to change out his wheels/brakes).

I spent the next couple hours trying to set up my space and relax. Which wasn't happening. I got a shitty 20 minute warmup in and had nothing to eat besides a bar prior to my race (lack of nutrition, also not pro). Then I get to the line early and ask another rider, "so how many laps?" She replied, "oh it's 35."

35 times up that hill? Really?

Well, I've got a compact so I wasn't that worried, but 35 laps of anything is more than I've ever done in a crit. The hill didn't end up being the worst part of this race. It was actually at the top where people would bunch up. I thought the inside was bad and then got chopped on the outside, which then you'd have to gun it out after hitting your brakes. The downhill stretch was worse than the uphill. Go figure. After lap 6, I wanted out and threw up a little when we averaged over 27mph.

Once I calmed down and stopped watching the counter (sorta), things were ok but I just wasn't committing. Tried to stay positive and had great positioning toward the end once things settled down...and then someone just crashed out right before my front wheel with three laps to go. Awesome. I stayed upright and blew about 5 matches trying to catch the group in front of us (who I think was sprinting at the time for a preme on top of it). Luckily, they slowed down and I tried to recover but there is only so much PSA you can give yourself after all that.

The last lap was a blur, but I was in the top ten going up that damn hill and then all of a sudden that cluster stuff happened again at the top. If you arent in the top 5 out of the last turn of this course...well, sayonara.

My goal was to be in the top 15 for my first "pro" race and I was 15th. Mission accomplished.

End of season? Well...not quite yet. Stay tuned.