ALLISON MANN

Thanksgiving brought Justin and I a 4-day weekend.  It was some much needed time off, and really nice (oddly) to be on a recovery week with the days off.  It meant a slow start to most of the days.

Thanksgiving morning we got up pretty early to head up to our local mountain bike trails at the Plateau for some fun bike skills practice.  I had a total blast.  Temps were in the low-40s throughout, but the sun was shining and the snow-capped mountains were visible across the bright blue sky.  We got home, had second breakfast (I loved this too), and headed south for Thanksgiving dinner.  Justin cooked up a delish bird and the side dishes were all solid paleo.  We all over-ate, but it was good food!

Friday I managed to log my 2nd night of 9+hrs of sleep.  We lazed around Justin’s moms house for a bit before heading home to take care of much neglected stuff around the house.  I finally petered out around 4:30 and it was time for dinner that was NOT turkey.  We’d been eating turkey for 1-2 meals a day since Monday!

Saturday, after another solid 9+ hour night of sleep, we hung out around the house a bit in the morning waiting for temps to rise a little before heading out for a 3 hour ride.  Even though it was cold inside, once I walked out into the sun I removed my knee warmers, arm warmers, and gloves, and pocketed my vest.  It was nice and warm on the ride for about 2 hours, but the clouds rolled in and it got pretty chilly for the last 30 or so minutes.

Got to sport my Specialized Invitational Champ jersey!

We had 2nd breakfast again (I could really get used to this schedule) and hung out around the house.

2nd breakfast

That night we had some more not turkey (2 nights in a row!)

With all of the brussels sprouts and asparagus, though, I may not eat either of those again after we finish our Costco bags (which I left at home on Thanksgiving).

Sunday it was up and at’em for the next in the SoCal Cross Prestige Series of CycloCross races – #14 the Turkey Trot SCNCA District Championship!

For some reason I was quite in the mood to laze around, hit some singletrack on the mountain bikes and watch football, but we were pretty committed to cross for the day, so off we went.

Temps again were pretty chilly (mid-50s all day), but the sun was shining.  We got there with plenty of time for Justin to warm up and pre-ride the course, and I got in a pretty solid warm-up as well and was able to get some shots of his race and cheer him on.

I really need to take lessons from this guy on how to start a race!

Here’s mine:

Maybe had a midpack start and worked the first few straights and corners and was sitting around 4th going back by the start/finish

The Ryan sister’s worked just off the front with Amanda charging hard.  I fought most of that lap to make contact, as Amanda took the lead.  I biffed it a little through the sand pit and wound up off and running unexpectedly, which lost me a little more time.  D’oh!

Making it through clean

The other view

(Photo cred: Jon Buckell)

I sat on with Amanda once I caught her for about a lap and made a move to go around on the back side of the course before coming back around to the pit.

Managed a small gap and was feeling good finally when I went around a tree after some bumpy course and found my chain had dropped off on the inside.  Off the bike, more fiddling, back on, and 3rd and 4th were just about to pass me.  I put in an effort to not have to make 2 more passes and charged after Amanda.  1.5 laps to go.

I made contact and pushed hard to take the lead and try to open a gap.  I knew Amanda was charging, with 3-4 close behind, so I just kept it on the gas to the finish line.

As always, thanks to everyone for cheering and supporting!  It’s awesome to be out on course, drooling on the top tube, vision narrowed in chase and hearing people cheering on you and your competitors.  Thanks to Dot, Jeff, So Cal Cross, SCNCA, etc. for the great course and event yesterday.  It was a great time!

So, after 4-5 days of 9-10 hours of sleep, no alarm, no desk, little stress…it’s back to reality.  Gotta love those little gifts when you get them, though!

Will be spending some quality time with my aerobic system for the next while, so we’ll see what that brings!  Can’t wait to do some long rides in the local hills.

Until next time…