Quite a lot has been going on and I know I haven't kept up with my blog, so sorry! So first of all some big news... I have found an amazing local Durango team and coach who I will be racing for while i'm up here :) The Get Out Performance Team is a great team and organization that coaches and supports athletes in many different sports of all ages and Kricket Lewis, who I have been working closely with for a few weeks now has been great at kicking my butt back into gear as racing fast approaches! Their website is http://www.outbackadventure.org/getout-durango/ if you would like to know more :)
Speaking of racing, I did my first ever road races last weekend as our collegiate road season kicked off. They were both crits, one in Boulder on Saturday and one in Laramie, Wyoming on Sunday. I had so much fun (but don't worry I am still and always will be a mountain biker at heart :) and it was great to get to travel and race with my team again. I honestly did not feel totally prepared for the weekend, since my early season training has been thrown off due to some health issues, which we now suspect is an ulcer in my stomach :( But some hard efforts these last couple weeks put me in a pretty good place fitness wise.
In Boulder I felt great at the start and took turns with my 4 teammates at the front of an about 15 girl field. There were a few surges but no attacks got away at first and I was just sitting in trying to get used to the whole feel of road racing. About half way through the 30 min crit a crash took out about half the field, including 3 FLC girls (Lauren got a little scraped up but everyone was okay!) After they jumped back in Kaila attacked and Tilly, Brittany, and a CU girl went with her. I was sitting further back in the pack and couldn't get a wheel so I stayed in the pack to counter any attacks and slow down the field to give our girls the best chance to win. So after sitting up front for the rest of the race on the last lap the field attacked hard and I just didn't have it in me to stay with them. But they couldn't catch the break and Kaila took the win, with Tilly and Brit in the top four. I believe I rolled in 10th but I was happy to have helped my teammates get away since working with a team is not something I am used to in mountain biking. Everyone from FLC did great, with Griffin taking the C Men win, Ryan 2nd in B Men and Missy winning A Women!
Saturday I was having some major stomach pains and just couldn't push hard because of it. I got dropped within the first couple laps and thankfully had another girl to work with and take turns pulling in the head wind. Our team did pretty well again with top places in all the races and Sarah winning the A Women. Overall a great experience for my first time racing on the road and I hope to improve over the collegiate season!
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So one more note, I finally finally finally got my new race bike!!! It is a Specialized Epic Expert Evo and I am loving it :) Got a bike fit tomorrow to get it dialed in and hopefully I will be riding it on the trails very soon!
