That's (almost) a Wrap!

It was a crazy Saturday night. I cracked open a beer and unearthed my road bike from the basement. The tires had about 20psi and the spokes were laced with cobwebs. After an hour, the bike was clean and ready to go for the 9am shop ride on Sunday. Even though I haven’t been on a road bike in about three months I’ve still been racing CX on the weekends. How difficult could 40 miles be? The answer to that question came at about mile number 14. 

At the onset of this season I knew it was going to be nothing like the last. For starters, I had absolutely no structured training since October 2013. Part of this because my life had changed and I was no longer able to devote countless hours to training on a bike (a two hour ride can eat away close to four hours because I cannot ride from my front door) BUT the other part, the BIGGEST PART is that I wanted to see how well my general fitness could carry me through the season. My plan was to ride my bike as little as possible and most importantly, ONLY WHEN I WANTED TO. 

In 2013, the fewest hours per month I rode was twenty. In 2014 the most hours per month I rode was nineteen. Most of my time has been divided among running, strength training and yoga. On Tuesdays I ride my bike to and from work (about 18 miles roundtrip). Aside from racing, that’s really the only time I’ve spent on a bike for past three months. 

I wasn’t sure how things would go when I lined up for Nittany CX in the beginning of September, but I finished with my best result in a MAC Series Race. The good results kept coming and by the fifth race of the Series, WhirlyBird, I thought that I might actually be able to win my category. With one race remaining, I will finish first in the 3/4 women AND the 3/4 women 35+. 

And, just like this season was not like last season, next season will be different as well. There are decisions that need to be made about training and racing as I move on to face tougher competition. For now I’d like to just enjoy the moment...and maybe a couple beers.