Coming Full Circle

Well it seems that a year has passed by unbelievably quick. I have started back at the begining of my yearly training routine, which is where I was when I first created this blog. It has been an interesting year, with some successes and disapppointments. I can't say there were any failures, and the whole year was dedicated to increasing my cycling, both its abilities and the amount of cycling I was doing. I did both. I saw some big improvements in some areas, and I participated in new events, learning something about myself and my abilities in each of them. I did not DNF any events, although I was DFL several times. I participated in every event I signed up for.
So it is time to set some goals for next year. I have decided to focus on gaining strength and becoming more consistent in my performances. I am aware that part of my consistency issue is related to current health problems, but I believe that the more I learn to manage those the more they will not interfere with my performance. So, its off to the gym and back to carefully tracking my progress.

The person I admire

Right now I am a huge fan of my lil sister. We were never buddies when we were kids, only after moving at elast 6 hours apart from each other in our twenties did we start to get along. For years now she has come out west to crew for me at 24 hour races. In high school Jodi was a runner, a distance runner. She was tiny, staying under 100 pounds and under 5 feet tall all through high school - all the effects of running. She quit running in college, and grew finally. A few years ago, as she tells it, she came back from crewing at one of the 24 hour races and thought to herself, Jen is doing this crazy endurance thing on her bike, I ought to be doing something. She kept saying out loud to her husband that she never did run a marathon like she always wanted to, and she ought to get back into running. He finally told her to shut up and just register for the Chicago marathon (her home), and so she did.
So, this past weekend I travelled to Chicago to cheer her on in her third time running the Chicago. I knew what to expect, but I did not expect what I experienced. I cannot think of any other non-arena, non-team sport that would draw that many participants at one time! Almost 40,000 people registered and participated, and the number of people in the streets supporting was triple that - or more!
My bro-in-law and I took the bikes and essentially followed my sister the entire race. We stopped to watch her run by 7 times or more, and got to ride along-side her (not right along side her, but within about 15 feet of her) for 2.5 of the last 3 or 3.5 miles of the marathon. At that point people were dropping out like crazy, mostly because Chicago was unseasonably warm again (last year they called the marathon several hours into it, cutting most people off from finishing, having one death and innumerable prsons off to the hospital from heat exhaustion). We cheered for her, encouraged her, and watched our garmin's to monitor her pace. She ran 55 minutes faster than her previous best, but missed her goal by 7 minutes. All in all she was very happy, having made the choice to back off to try to avoid heat exhaustion, she finished strong and only a little sick.
When cycling, if you are feeling pretty bad, you have places you can maybe coast down a hill, or in the flats you can pedal, coast, pedal - but in running if you are not running you are walking and if you are not doing either of those there is NO forward progress. I'll take a 24 hour bike race over a 4.5 hour run anyday. Kudos lil sister, you rock!!

Show up and you win!!

So this past saturday was the final race of the New Mexico Off-Road Series (NMORS). I had a much better race, taking teammate Matt Turgeon's advice with the input from Shannon Gibson about running a bigger gear on the Siren - which is not quite right yet after last week's match with the clay of Gallup, but getting close.
I was not quite as fast as I hoped, but I was able to come in under 3 hours runing about 30 minutes behind the first place female SS rider. I had a small hang-up out on the course about 5 miles before the finish which probably cost me 5 minutes. I had the shakes pretty good due to the thyroid problem and I was unable to negotiate a dab, which turned into a dragging across rock. I got very fatigued between miles 22-26 but I bounced back fairly quickly and finished really strong.
I am super happy with my effort considering. I took secondoverall single speed female and first in my age group. The performacne was also enough to put me in first place in the NMORS points for the Single Speed Women category.
I stayed to watch the awarding of jerseys to the points series champions of each clas only to be reminded that some people are still ignorant. An official awarding the jerseys made several inappropriate comments about women's categories and what women needed to do to break a points tie. It seems women are still tolerated at the races and in the series, but not yet given credit for their efforts as valid. So to all the women who raced in the series races this year - screw the guys, get out there and keep racing - watch Shannon Gibson, Nina Baum, and Jennifer Tribe-Wilson for inspiration on how to climb to the Pro level in the sport with class and with the ability to finish above most of the men! To the three ladies named - thanks for taking time at races to give encouragement, advice, and answer questions. I think I like these short course races, and I think I may have found a new passion!