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!