It seems like the more stuff that happens that I'd like to write about, the less time I have to write about them. But, this is Spring Break, so I've decided to seize the opportunity to catch up on the past few weeks... before the wave of craziness arrives. I couldn't decide whether to do one long one or break it up, but I'm going to start with the one long post (perhaps with subheadings?) idea and see how it goes. This one is mostly going to be about cycling, because hey, that is what has consumed me and my time as of late.
Weekend in Review...
I last wrote about being concerned about traveling with the Cycling Team to Georgia Southern to race for the weekend (March 4 and 5). I was extremely nervous, although not about the cycling. I had had only a few encounters with the team and guys on the team before the weekend, and they were mostly not good ones. I didn't feel welcome or included with them, which I thought would make spending several days with them very difficult.
We left Friday afternoon. Will was smart and we rode in the car with just 2 other guys, while the rest of the team went in the CRC van (more on that later). This was a great idea, because I already knew and liked the driver of the car and the other guy was also nice. We stopped somewhere at an ihop and had dinner, which went really well. We arrived at the hotel late at night and basically went straight to bed since we had to get up early the next morning.
Saturday there were 2 events, a Criterium (laps around a closed course, first one done wins) and team time trial (fastest time wins). At this point my nervousness about spending the weekend with all guys changed itself into apprehension and doubt about cycling. I felt extremely out of place and out of my league. Fortunately, I was able to overhear some of the UGA girls talking and that made me feel better, because even if I wasn't faster than them, I did have much more knowledge about my bike. Since only one group could race at a time, I got to watch and cheer for the team, which helped my mood and was a lot of fun. Since the women's field was so small, they did only one race for both levels of cyclists (A and B... usually there are 3 but there aren't enough girls to even do that). The event in itself was a lot of fun. Since there were such strong women racing, I couldn't keep up with most of them, but the course was flat and it was just over 45 minutes long, so physically I was pretty comfortable. I also began to feel better because I wasn't the slowest one, and that was my goal (gotta aim low so I have some chance of making it). The best part was passing all the guys from the team every lap and hearing them yell for me like they hadn't just met me 12 hours before. I then watched Will's race, we went to lunch, came back for some guys racing Cs to do the time trial, then did the dinner/evening/sleep thing.
Sunday's event was a road race. They again started Women's As and Bs together, which means I was dropped after about 20 minutes. I decided that I would stick it out and finish the course (it wasn't that long), it was a beautiful day and I would still earn points for the team. It was pretty windy, so it was difficult at times, but I just decided to consider it a tough workout. Things were going along according to plan until I got a flat tire, not even 1 hour into the race. I had to call Will for him to come get me (the wheel car had long since passed). I was extremely disappointed because I was determined to finish the event, but I guess there was nothing I could do about that. I left shortly after Will's road race started with the people in the car since I wanted to get home early, with the van to follow later. Turns out that was a good decision because about 15 miles south of the ATL the van's tire blew up and tore the brake lines. Fortunately Will was driving and was able to get it off the road without harming anyone or any of the equipment, but they were stuck on the side of the road for quite some time. Turns out the tires were dry rotting...
Tell me this, when you sign the Georgia Tech waiver to ride in school vehicle, don't you assume that they are in basic working condition? If you (like me) do assume this, I think you're wrong. I think it's even more amazing that they didn't seem the least bit concerned that the van was left on the side of the road on I-75 south.
BUT anyway... the weekend ended up being my favorite of this semester to date, not to mention definitely one of my favorites of all of "college." Unfortunately, my opinion of the team had been tainted by one or two loudmouths, and had kept me from participating in more events. I was talking to my friend who had also had the same opinion (because of the same guy, no less) and she said "if they were all more like Will, I'd definitely come to stuff and join." The thing is, they are mostly "like Will": genuinely nice, funny, fun and entertaining people. I definitely came away looking forward to traveling and racing with them in the future... which leads to my next subheading
My Fast is Slow
I came away from Georgia Southern with a very good idea of what my weaknesses are. I have a power output problem. That means I am slow uphill and that's where I get dropped from the group. Fortunately instead of being discouraged by my slowness, I was extremely motivated. After talking to Will about what to do, I decided to take my cycling up a notch by doubling the amount of time I was working out every week as well as adding 2 days of weight lifting. The first week went extremely well, especially since I was able to work out twice on Wednesday, which was a good precursor of the upcoming weekend's race events.
Exactly 1 year after my first race, Tech hosted the cycling race again (it fell on the same weekend). I was extremely excited: I would not doubt be able to measure my progress over the year since we'd be doing the same events. The previous year I had participated in the time trial, and was dropped and dropped out of the road race. I wanted to beat my time on the time trial this year and finish the other events. The previous year I had gotten so excited for the time trial that I went all out for the whole time and was extremely sore for the rest of the day/weekend (and hence did not ride the other events). This year I did much better. I pushed but not to the extent that I had last year, and the results were immediately evident. I was still passed by 3 girls, but not until much later in the course and I was able to catch back up to the one who started right behind me. Interestingly enough her name was Olivia and she and I ended up swapping leading and trailing right up until the finish of the course. I felt much stronger and much more comfortable on the bike, and it's a shame I didn't have a working big ring, because I probably could've taken some time off my total time. Regardless, the first year I did the course (almost exactly 8 miles) in 31 minutes and this year I did it in just over 27 minutes. I finished 7 out of 8, and still have a long way to go, but if I can make that much progress in another year, that'll put me up into the winning times.
After the time trial we got lunch and I got to sit around with Jocelyn and all the guys that race men's Cs while men's As and Bs and women's As raced the road race. It was fun sitting around and cheering for the team and just goofing off in general.
My legs weren't nearly as tired as they had been the year before, so I started the road race. I was able to hang on for about half the first lap (way longer than the previous year before) and found myself alone once again. At this point I was a little irritated because I thought since it was only Womens Bs I would be able to keep up, but thanks to some sandbagging that was not the case. I convinced myself to say in, completed the second lap, and as I passed Will he said if I didn't feel like finishing I should just save it for the next day. So I dropped out, and almost immediately I regretted it. I was riding fast (averaging my time trial speed) and I was already 2/3 of the way done, but oh well. That made me 0-3 for finishing road races that I had entered.
I suffered a crisis of confidence Saturday night, but decided to still show up on Sunday to prove to myself that I could. Sunday was rough. This time they started all the women together again, which means I was dropped. The good news is so were 3 other girls, and I stuck with them for a bit, until they also dropped me (damn hills). I wasn't about to let myself not finish again. The course was extremely challenging for me, 3 11 mile loops of rolling terrain. It definitely is the hardest ride I have ever done, and even though I was the slowest person out there (and technically the very last to finish) I was glad that I completed it. Everyone except the group i started with passed me, but that was sort of neat in and of itself because I could see what was going on with the race and cheer for people as they passed by. I finally finished and was rewarded with people on the team handing me a beer (ok, sorta... miller high life doesn't count) and singing happy birthday. The best part of Sunday was Jocelyn surprising me with brownies (even though I knew she called Will the night before) for my birthday... just cause she thought I was cool. What a compliment.
Once again I came away not disappointed or discouraged but extremely motivated to train harder and again looking forward to racing and traveling again. Consider it one of my new favorite things. Sadly, because of a hellacious work week, I wasn't able to get much riding done, but that will all change. I even plan on working out during the cruise (how cool is that, that they have exercise stuff! Hooray!)
Ok... end boring cycling stories...
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