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Steamboat Stage Race Crit

It's now been about a month and a half since we pedaled our way up the Champs-Elysees to finish off the crazy Reve Tour adventure.  Over the past 6 weeks, we've all gone through our own forms of recovery and withdrawal from the epic days on the bike.  My particular path was a bit weird or unexpected I guess.  I felt great by our last day out in France.  Sure I was tired, but nothing crazy and I actually felt energized when I got home to Boulder.  There was the Boulder 70.3 that next weekend and for the first few days after getting home, I thought I would race it because I was feeling so good.  Then it finally hit me.  The 3 weeks of 8hrs+ on the bike ran over me like a 200-ton bus.  Getting out of bed was a challenge of will and getting back into training was an even bigger battle.  I made the mistake of asking Taylor Phinney how long it took him to recover from his first Grand Tour this year and he said 10 days as I was going on 3+ weeks... I think maybe, just maybe, the many years of cycling in his legs may have given him an edge over my recovery time. Just a thought...

"Training" with Cori

Anyways, after about 2-3 weeks of feeling like death, my legs finally began to come around.  Thanks to my awesome coaches, Grant and Neal, and to my Apex training partners, I was able to get back into the training routine pretty easily.  But the motivation still comes and goes.  I'll have one really great week with lots of training and solid, focused work.  And then the next week will be a struggle to even get to all the sessions.  But I think things are finally bouncing back and I'm starting to feel that race craving again. It's time.

Last weekend I headed up to Steamboat Springs to race my first cycling stage race.  I got so much positive feedback from the Reve Tour about how strong I was riding that I figured I needed to give the whole bike racing idea a shot.  And it was awesome!  The stage race was a TT, Road Race, and Crit format.  I raced with the women Pro,1,2,3 group which was great because this was my chance to really size myself up agains the best racers in Colorado.  The TT went well, not super, but good enough to put me in 8th overall.  The road race was so much fun and despite getting popped on the last big climb as a few of the girls sprinted (no speed here), I didn't lose any spots and kept myself in 8th overall.  My high end speed and strength is still lacking but I managed to put one together and hang on through the tough bits.  The crit was what I was most worried about though.  Crits are all about high end power.  They're short and fast, exactly what I'm not trained for at the moment.  But not only did I manage to not get in any crashes or get dropped, I actually beat out one of the girls ahead in points and walked away from the weekend in 7th overall.  Not too bad for the first real race with the pros and 1/2s.  I might just have to try this cycling thing a little more next season....

Rocky Mountain National Park

After a successful jump back into the racing scene, I decided that I should probably try and get back into the triathlon racing routine as well.  So this weekend I headed down to Denver for a sprint tri and once again had a pretty successful little race.  Sprinting is so hard still.  It's amazing how I feel like I can hold a pretty high power level on the bike for a long time but if I go just above this level, my body falls to pieces.  A sprint was probably not the best idea to see how things are feeling but I'm happy with a second place to another fast Boulder pro and I'm ready to go do some bigger, longer racing now.

Tired pups after a weekend of mountain fun

So, the season is officially back on.  I'm heading to Bend in 2 weeks for my first attempt at a long course race.  I figured this is the year to try out these long races since my base is so humongous and my high end is lacking a bit for now.  So I will be racing the epic Leadman Triathlon and I'm pretty stoked on it.  The distances are a bit weird but they're definitely in my favor so I'm getting excited to get out there.  5km swim, 223km bike, 22km run.  It's going to be cool to race such an unusual set of distances.  We're all going to be in new territory with this extra long bike and I'm hoping my 20-some consecutive days of riding over 200km will keep me fresher and faster than most.  We'll see though, racing 220km vs riding 220km is a big difference.  But I'm just ready to make this next step in the direction of long course racing.  I think this is where I'm going to find my spot in the sport and I'm ready to make that happen.  Who knows though, anything can happen.  I'm just glad my heart and head are finally coming around and starting to believe again.  Now it's your turn legs!