5-Mile Scenery

As promised, here is a photo from my ride today over 5 Mile Hill. Although it is starting to get hot, the scenery more than makes up for it.

Yesterday, there was a ice cream ride hosted by Wheatland Wheelers. As usual there were three different rides, cruiser, social, and training ride. I went on the training ride thinking I was in better shape than the ice cream ride ~2 weeks ago. Somehow I managed up 2nd wheel back from the start of the ride. After I started my pull (we were in a double paceline), the person next to me, a rider for Audi, picked it up slightly and I started to suffer under the pace. Eventually I cracked and had to drift to the side. Although I tried to catch onto the back, I didn't have the energy and I got dropped within 2 miles of the start of the ride. :) Luckily the group slowed down and waited for me. I was very tempted to just turn around and go home at that point. After that, I avoided pulling and was able to stick on until a break group took off and we formed a chase group, at which point I got dropped off the back again. Luckily there was a regroup point within 800 meters of where I was dropped, so I caught on once again. After that, I was able to stick with the pack for the rest of the ride (~12 miles). It was my first pack finish with Wheatland Wheelers/Allegro Cyclery training ride!! I was quite ecstatic AND I got free ice cream even!

Hot Days

Walla Walla has finally started to warm up. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been blessed with lower temperatures and cooling rain. Today was the first time that I biked mid-day, and ironically there was a high of 89.5F today. I have been joining in on the Allegro Cyclery/Wheatland Wheelers rides, and those start at 7:00 AM, 7:30 AM, or 6:15 PM, in order to avoid the heat. When I started my ride today, I quickly realized how hot it was going to be, but luckily the person I was riding with wanted to go easy, so we just cruised up Mill Creek, enjoying the trees and shade once we hit the slow, gradual hill to the turn-around point. My biking partner was actually biking to a Chemistry July 4th potluck, so I got a nice 2.5 hour break before I headed back by myself in order to avoid biking at twilight. It was very nice to have a 2.5 hour break where I could stock up on food and (attempt) to satiate my ever-hungry body. Because my riding partner challenged me to a time trial of sorts, where he was going to come back the next day and attempt to beat my time down Mill Creek, I started off hard and finished harder. Over my past XC seasons and cycling season, I have noticed a trend where I seem to get lazy when its hurts or gets hard. I didn't use to be that way, but as I get stressed out and tired, my body physically shuts down and I lack the mental energy to rally. Over the past 2-3 weeks, I have started to see a reversal in this. Although it hurts, I now have the mental drive to push myself beyond the pain. On the way down Mill Creek, I only briefly dipped under 20 mph before rallying and bringing my speed back up to 22-25. This was SUPREMELY satisfying, just like the 56 mile ride 2.5 weeks ago. Although I haven't gotten any pictures of the amazing wheat fields yet, they are incredible on every ride, and next time I post, I promise that I will post some breathtaking pictures.

The Crazy Gene

Disclaimer: If you read all of this, sorry for how long this post is. I will try to keep future blog posts shorter, but this one, being my first of the summer, and me still being excited about having my bike back, ended up being much longer than it needed to be.

As some of you may know, I recently gave up cross-country running in order to focus on academics and bike-racing. This past year my bike had multiple cracks in it and although I still rode it, I was very scared for most of my rides, particularly descents. Because of that, I have only ridden 4-10 times over this past year, and I attempted a season of track running during which I specialized in steeplechase (think long-distance running + hurdles + water and you have this event). Although that season did not go as I had planned after I severely bruised my heel bone and could barely walk, strained my hamstring, badly aggravated an old injury, I enjoyed getting to try steeplechase. In early May, I finally sent my blue Orbea Onix into Calfee Design so that they could repair my cracked frame and I could safely ride it again. On Friday, I got my bike back and it was PRISTINE!!! I thoroughly looked it over and the only way I could tell there was any repair work was a faint carbon pattern under the matte of one of my chainstays. Overall, it was INCREDIBLE workmanship and I am superbly pleased with their work. Upon getting my bike back yesterday, I went for a 20 mile celebratory ride. This morning, I got up early in order to go to the Saturday morning group ride. When I got there, I found out that today was the today of the 6th annual Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic, so I joined in on that. Before I made up my mind though, I encountered one of my XC coaches who managed to convince me to do the 60 mile ride based upon the fact that there would be 10-20 riders in the pack so I would never have to pull. Within 1 mile of leaving Pioneer Park, my other XC coach who showed up had technical difficulties and because the other XC coach and I waited up for him, we got dropped from the main pack. For the next 23 miles, I had to work REALLY hard at which point we hit the first rest stop and caught the main pack. Upon leaving the rest stop, there was a wrong turn marked on the course, so the two XC coaches and I managed to once again get dropped from the pack. After several miles of the back, I suddenly found out that I could now longer climb hills any faster than 6 miles per hour. I was officially fatigued. As soon as I soon where I was, I said goodbye to the two XC coaches who continued on to finish the Classic, but I took a shortcut back home and ended up biking a total of 57 miles today, a lot longer than the originally planned 20-30. Because of this rapid immersion back into biking and how much I am enjoying it despite the enormous pain, and although I am sad to leave the amazing environment of collegiate cross-country, I have now completely dedicated myself to a prosperous 2 years of cycling!