A small hiatus...

It's been several months since I last posted. I had been contemplating whether it was worth blogging or not. Mostly though, I was feeling frustrated with my performance on the bike at the races. It felt like I had not progressed any since last year. Damn, it just plain felt like I wasn't any faster. I wasn't expecting to win, but I sure as heck would like to stay with the pack through the entire race.

With added frustration, comes added perseverance, so on the constant nagging advice of my coach I finally purchased a Powertap. I love this thing, I don't know why I didn't purchase one sooner. The feedback is so much better than my other electronic toys. Now I notice whether I am improving or not and it helps even more when doing the workouts, especially intervals. There is so much techie goodness with this toy I am going to try and refrain from getting geeky on you.

Now, after some of my frustration, I was determined to do good at the Tour of KC. This being my last race of the road season, I went at it with the mindset of puking my guts out by the end of each race. Well, to my surprise, this WAS the best race of the season for me. I finished with the pack in the first race. I was in the clouds after that. The next day brought rain and a BIG hill to climb. I lined up and was resolved yet again to finish strong. On the second time up the hill, I couldn't get out of my large chain ring for half the climb. My legs were beginning to feel shredded before I wanted them to. I was able to get back into the small ring, though I had fallen off the main back. With grit in my teeth, literally and figuratively (see above picture), I pushed on with rubber side down. I was between the main pack by about 30 seconds and 45 seconds ahead of the chase group. I wasn't going to fall back to the chase group, but I didn't have anyone to work with which was both good and bad. Good, because I didn't have any extra road spray to swallow, bad because I could have saved more energy.

The last day went well, but I got lapped with 6 laps to go. I think I would have finished with the pack if I didn't have an incident, but that is the nature of bike racing. Live to race another day. I was happy with how I did and how I finished the season. There shouldn't be any reason I can't finish with the pack every time next year, especially if I keep training. And so it ends, and it ends on a strong note this year.

About a month later, while coming back from a training ride, I was run over, head on, by a Ford F-250 Diesel truck. There I was, stopped at a stop sign signaling a left turn when there was this truck on top of me. They took the turn short and ran into me head on. Thankfully, the only thing I really suffered was a bad charlie horse and a scraped knee. Nothing else. Now the bike on the other hand, I was worried about. One could say I am a true cyclist know where I care more about my bike than myself. The driver had progressive insurance and they settled on the bike within a week. They will be settling on everything else in a couple more weeks, which should be another nice payoff. So, off to the bike shop to get a new road bike. The old one now will become my stationary trainer for the winter months. So, the new bike is a '08 Madone 5.2 Pro, which fits and rides like a dream. I still love the old one. The old one is like an old toyota beater that just keeps going, while the new one is like a lexus, the upgraded version of toyota. I won't mention what the bike has been named because someone else named it and it won't respond to any other name at this time. hehe

Now it is time for cross season to get going. Currently, I am having a Salsa Chili Con Crosso being built up and it should be ready by Thursday (9/25), Friday at the latest. Now it's time to red-line at every race, and the race I am looking most forward to is Jingle Cross in Iowa City. Already registered, and I am going to attempt 2 races each day. Nationals is not in the cards for me this year, as much as everyone has bugged me to do it, I figured it would be better to get one more season and one more year of training behind me before attempting it. So, everything for me kicks off in 2 weeks at Swanson Park in Omaha. Woo-hoo!!!

To lower the boredom factor, if anyone is still reading at this point, I will end this for now. Hopefully, I will be able to keep updated a little bit more now. Thanks for stopping by, and I will try to get the stories flowing again.