Bike Racing

The past month has been CRAZY!  The second weekend in May I headed down to Knoxville for the Rev 3 Olympic Distance Triathlon.  I had a decent swim, a decent bike and a killer run.  I don't know where that run came from, but it sure felt good!
Then, I came down with a 2 week cold which haulted my training and basically put me down with very little training.  I basically laid around and watched the Tour of California all the Giro.  Perfect timing!  Plus, Chupa kept me company and he didn't care if I coughed all over the place.  Lap dogs are the best companions when you are sick...they have uncoditional love:)
Then came 2 full weekends of bike racing at it's finest. Chad and I headed to Iowa for 3 days of racing during Memorial Day weekend.  I raced Cat 4 each day and built up some confidence, won a little money and came to the conclusion that I really liked bike racing!  The first 2 races had a hill in them and it helped to break the group up.  Each day, I managed to stay in the front group and that made me actually like hills!  The last day was a downtown crit and it was raining on the way there.  I was pee in my pants scared!  As I warmed up, I watched more than 20 people wreck in the same turn (at different times).  Fortunately, the rain stopped and the roads dried up a bit for my race.  I shot to the front after two laps and didn't look back.  I was trying to pretend to be aggressive, but the truth of the matter was I didn't want to get caught up in a bad wreck.  I ended up 3rd for that race and got to go up on the podium for the first time!  I was slightly dissapointed because I know that I could have won the race, but on the other hand...I was just happy to have not crashed.
This past weekend, we raced in Tulsa.  Chad raced Friday-Sunday and I raced Saturday and Sunday.  I had a great day on Saturday, even after crashing.  I wish I could show you the video of that crash.  It felt like it was in slow motion!  I popped up and got my free lap and ended up sprinting it out for 5th place.  I am not a sprinter, but I had enough gas in the tank to pass a few girls going to the line.  Maybe I should start working on that sprint:)
Sundays course had a pretty steep hill in it that rose the heart rate a bit.  I made it until 3 laps to go in the front group and then came unclipped.  That pretty much ended things there.  I lost my momentum and had to put my foot down as the pack kept rolling by.  I was so mad at myslef for not tightening my pedals down beforehand.  Rookie mistake.  I learned my lesson and I am going to switch out my cleats this week. 
I was down for a few hours, mad at myself for not being prepared...but in the end, I had a great time and learned a lot.
Most of all, I had a fabulous time at the race!  I got to spend 2 full weekends+ with my amazing husband, I got to meet some of my Kenda teammates and I got to eat a lot of really yummy/bad for you food. 
I am going into a triathlon block here for the next few weeks, but then buckling down for the second round of bike races later in the summer.  I haven't ran or swam too much in the past few weeks, but oh well.  I am going to just go out there and give it what I have and hope for the best!