Rain and Pain at the LBC-X

Well, the party didn’t stop after last weekend’s San Diego CX double header. Justin and I celebrated my dad’s birthday on Tuesday, enjoying way too much food out, and trying to soak up some comfort from WAY too much stress surrounding work. The food didn’t do much except expand our waistlines and make our legs feel heavy all week. Finally around Thursday/Friday I was feeling more human, but not to be outdone – we enjoyed Rock N’ Road’s 20th Anniversary party in Mission Viejo Friday night with pizza and lots of dessert.

But that’s not all! Saturday we started my birthday week celebrations by imbibing a bit too much and despite “falling behind” on Sunday, my 9-10 hours of sleep weren’t enough to shake the red wine from my body. I wasn’t nauseous and didn’t have a headache, but just didn’t feel “good”.

Then it was race time!

But, let’s back up…

Monday we enjoyed our Adam’s Ave CX winnings (sweet custom labels!)

Setting up Tuesday’s cross practice course

Wednesday enjoying a chill ride with people from work

Thursday’s gorgeous sunrise on the way to work

Friday’s 30 minute run – sell out fashion (not only did I run indoors on a treadmill instead of getting outside in the rain and cold, but I also wore regular shoes)

Saturday I got my power back

Saturday was actually a pretty stellar day, up until the last glass of wine that I didn’t need and shouldn’t have had (and those 2 slices of banana nut bread). We lazed around a bit, had breakfast, Justin put my 2009 back together so I had my POWER TAP back in action, and then we did a stellar ride in good climbing weather on San Juan with CPT, BP, and Ben Jones. Not only that, got to see Jefe in the parking lot. Awesome day!

So, after a lot of sleep Saturday night, waking up a little “off”, Justin and I set off in the truck with the Ez-Up, trainer, and lot of ish (it wasn’t raining at home, but it was expected all day!) and headed NW to Long Beach.

The rain started up before we got to Anaheim, and didn’t let up.  Actually, the closer we got to the venue, the harder it was raining.  I wasn’t really feeling it.  I’m still more than scared about “black death foot” tackling me to the ground again and ruining yet another year.  So, I was nervous and almost in tears in the parking lot completely unsure of what to do.  I don’t yet have winter shoes.  I’ll likely be picking up a set of Lake shoes (recommendations??) because I guess I missed out on the Specialized Defroster shoes (they’re vaporware).

At any rate, I quietly sat in the truck while Justin warmed up on rollers in the drizzle, and eventually I got dressed.  The rain had kind of tapered off and I even was seeing hints of blue sky.  It was pretty cold out, but I’d take no rain in the process.

My race was right after his, and as I learned in my one pre-race course inspection lap – file treads were not gonna work in the mud.  He was going to hand off his Tracer wheels after his race right after my warm up right before my race start.  I was out warming up, and by the time I was heading back to the venue to find him, apparently it was a bit late as he was frantically waving for me to rush over.

BIG THANKS to Carolyn and Scott Reeves for the loaner front wheel, as Justin had flatted his front wheel.  I got his rear wheel and used the loaner front, and went to stage.  Call-ups were a little haphazard and just as I stripped off my arm warmers (my Garmin wasn’t even on!) they called “GO”.  CPT wasn’t ready for it either as she normally easily takes the hole shot and I somehow was in front of her, but still about 3rd wheel.

Jenna Jammer took off with Amanda Schaper close behind and my legs had forgotten to show up.  OK, it isn’t my legs’ fault that my head is stupid, is it?  They tried, none-the-less.  I went around Amanda at some point, with CPT right on my wheel, and Jenna still solidly in the lead.  Midway through lap 1 Christina went around Jenna taking the lead, leaving me hanging by a thread in 3rd.  We hit the sand pit and Jenna tried to pedal through it, and fell into the course barriers dismounting, so I went around and tried to attack.  I think she stuck with us, but Christina was ON THE GAS and I couldn’t let her get too far out of sight.

We went back and forth a few times, playing it safe and not throwing elbows.  We came around a sharp corner to a natural downed log barrier and I had no idea how close she was.  One of the elite men was standing in the course tape, “Oh, are you guys racing?” and somehow as we hopped the tree log I wound up falling into her toward the course tape.  We stayed upright and I waited for her to get back on the bike before I started pedaling, and off we went.

She attacked and led again, with me barely able to stick to her wheel, running with everything I had to not to lose too much time on the stairs or over the barriers.

I think on the climb on lap 3 I managed a gap somehow and wound up taking the lead and charging hard.  She kept me solidly in her sights and I wasn’t making a ton of time, but wound up suffering good to hold onto 1st.

Big thanks to Greg, Robert, and CHANSON for the rad photos.

After the fact (this race felt really hard to me – but they all in the midst of the race feel like the hardest cross race I’ve done to date) I thoroughly enjoyed the head to head competition and really having to find ways to be smooth and efficient in the corners since I didn’t have my typical straight line flat power going on Sunday.  I totally dug the course.  It was different from 2010, but super fun and challenging as well.  The sun came out and the dirt grooved up super nice.

Almost full podium!

I managed to snag the leader’s jersey for the first time all year from Dot.  Christina held on strong for 2nd, Amanda and Jenna with fast races in 3rd/4th.  Great racing!

Wound up being a nice, if not chilly, afternoon, and we had some fun spectating and heckling the Elite men’s race.

Monday… run on tap!  My longest ’bout yet, though walk/jog incorporation.

Nice day for a run!

Keith just might un-”one trick pony”-me yet.  Hmm, you’re right.  We’ll see about that!

I’ve got such a stellar week on tap that I might just have to multi-blog about it throughout the week.  I’ve been meaning to put together a comprehensive post on black death foot as well, but that just hasn’t happened.  Work and cross racing are getting in the way!

Needless to say, I’ve come a long way (just read through the archives from January to May – I just did).

Here’s hoping I’ve found the root cause (cold, essentially) and that this winter is as solid as I want it to be.

In the meantime, I’m having fun racing cross, and just about over the over-indulgence. Ready for GO TIME.