Had a short but sweet weekend. I drove 8 hrs to meet Spring on Friday night, got to the campsite at midnight. It was definitely good to see her, it's been too long. We had an awesome weekend, we actually got to hang out and relax at the campsite since the crit was at 8 in the morning and done by 9. That's pretty rare for us since we're usually rolling into camp late at night. Spring had an awesome 4 days of racing, she's definitely at a new level of fitness. I've got a feeling she's going to have a good state championship mtb race next weekend. Here's a video of the crit, she finished 6th. I got to ride about 50 miles of the Gila course, it felt good to be climbing again. I think I climbed more in that ride than I have in all the rides combined in the past 4 months. I'm almost 2/3 of the way done in TX, can't wait to get home. I'm staying super busy with school and riding my bike, it definitely could be worse.
I guess you can't take the mountain biker out of me yet...taped helmet, winter shoe covers, and a big air strapped to my bike in case I get a flat. Bisbee was a great experience, I have never raced an all womens race before and the Pro 1-2's are tough. Hammering on the flats I had no problem but as soon as hammering occured on a climb....ouch! Hopefully going into Gila I will use a little of this climbing experience to pull me through. I got to stay with my amazing friend Bonnie in Sierra Vista, so I had great company and a cozy place to recover. I leave today for Gila and I am going to camp for a week, and Kevin will meet me on the last two days of the stage race. I can't wait! |
We decided to skip the traffic and head for the North Shore this evening out to Waimea Bay. It was just breaking slightly on shore. Bryant and I headed out for a swim and tried the workout where you pick up a rock underwater and throw it, it burnt both of our legs. Bryant fixed me a killer stir fry dinner. Marianne headed off to Chicago today, we miss her already along with the cats. Tomorrow we are going to head up to Makakillo for a BBQ and borrow Matt's surfboards after we do a hammer fest ride on base, should be a good time.
So I have been looking forward to the National Mountain bike race at McDowell because me and Kevin had a deal if I win it, then he would buy me a new road bike. Well everything was great leading up to the race I prerode and felt awesome and I thought I could actually win this. So the start was great I was in third behind the two other AZ girls that I have been battling with all season in our local races, and almost finished one lap and on the last down hill hit a sharp rock, well maybe a boulder, and double flatted off the same rock. I guess I have to choose my lines better. I tried to fill them both because I have tubeless but the whole was just too big, so I was done, one tube and no air left. So while I was feeling sorry for myself, Todd Sadow said lets go do Camel back mountain in Scottsdale. When we were getting close to the trail he said "do you want to do the hard way or the easy way" so I was thinking this would be good preparation for my runs and hiking in Hawaii. So lets do the hard way! This trail was Koko head two times. I can not walk today, I am so sore. But thanks Todd, it is what I needed to get me back to reality. Kevin also said that I didn't need to win this race for a road bike, that I have already earned it! He is so awesome.
TBC went good this weekend. The first day was intimidating with all the girls in full on Time Trial gear and TT bikes, and I show up without bars or anything on my ghetto bike. But I got 5th the first day and was mad at my self that I was only two seconds from second place and bars would of probably helped with 2 seconds. Anyway, the second day was Duval mine road backwards then the shoot out usually runs. I didn't think there was much climbing but six of us got away on the second lap and stayed away the entire race, it was windy and pretty brutal, I was the tough mountain biker that didn't miss a pull and others would just sit on. The sprint at the end is tricky, I crossed wheels with someone and that was it, I got sixth. I have to work on those sprints. The third day, was the Crit that went around a loop by Pima West towards Gates Pass. I was pretty worked by the third day but started feeling good toward the last couple laps and pulled up the last hill, and we dropped a few before the last descent before the final sprint on the uphill finish. I placed 4th in the sprint and missed any time bonus but a girl right behind me in the GC got a 5 second time bonus for getting third and she was six seconds down from me, so I beat her by one second and got 4th overall in the GC. I guess not bad for a mountain biker. All the girls were cool and tough and you build a relationship over the 3 days of racing that at the end you totally respect each other. I might be turning into a roadie.
Got some good fishing in this weekend with Craig. We caught alittle bit of everthing, crappy, bass, catfish and a few unknowns. This is the first fish I caught so I thought I'd take a picture. We had been fishing a few hours when Craig said, hey you've got a hit on the big pole. We had one big pole that had heavy line and a big hook that we had been fishing on the bottom trying to land a big cat. I grabbed the pole and started reeling, the pole bent and I could hear the drag. I could feel it fighting and I knew that it was going to be huge. I kept trying to reel it in but it put up a good fight. Craig started pulling the line in a few feet at a time and I would reel as he did. We where about 10 mins into pulling it in and it started to get tired. Craig was able to pull a few more feet at a time, we where super excited because it was almost in. Finally we get it to the surface and it's our anchor! Classic! It was definitely the funniest thing I'd ever seen on a fishing trip, if only we had got it on video!
This is my buddy Craig from Indiana, he's always wired. If you didn't know him you might think he was smoking crack!!
