HTFU

Oh man.

I had a great day yesterday and now I can't wait for this weekend. Karina and I will once again be time trialing, and hopefully kicking some serious ass. We have a great game plan: "go fast and win."

Yesterday I decided to wake up, do some hardcore yoga, and then do a non-weight weight set (read:abs!) Since Sunday's race, I've been feeling pretty 'blah.' I think it was fatigue and just not eating enough protein. That and the fact that my legs- especially my hip- are still recovering to some extent from the marathon, since running with cramping does even more damage to my legs than a normal runner does to theirs during a marathon. I was definitely off my game, and even an hour of swimming on Monday night felt like it was beating me up. I think I pulled a muscle in my arm, though it's healing pretty well. However, Tuesday afternoon was so nice, it perked me up and I realized that it was time to HTFU and get out of the slump I was resting in.

So, I decided to go to the sprint practice at 5, which wasn't meeting at its regular spot. Rather, the plan was to ride to Bound Brook and ride until we found a good place. It was super warm out, so I finally go to wear just bibs and my long sleeved jersey. I was the only girl, which was no surprise, but I was also the only person new to racing there. (Ricardo may be a D, but he's hella fast.) Everyone was well beyond my cycling abilities, in terms of handling and the obvious physical capabilities (i.e Will, Pat, Don, Ray, etc. All dudes with crazy raw power. And man, Ray's leg muscles are freakin' insane.)

Even just riding to Bound Brook along River Road, we were going a good 5 mph faster than we normally would on a typical ride. I kept up and was feeling pretty good. We slowly made our way around Bound Brook, scouting for good locations, but after 45 min, we decided to head towards a more industrial area to find an industrial parking lot to sprint in. We found an industrial area, and started heading into each parking lot, scouting them out. *This is where the ominous music starts to play.* Ricardo and I slowly traversed a parking lot, and when we came out and moved up to everyone else, we saw Will stretched out on the ground, bleeding a lot from the lip and chin. He had turned into a lot, not realizing that it was chained off, and hit the chain hard and went over it. It's always scary realizing just how dangerous biking can be, even for something that simple.

We waited for him to get picked up, and by then the sun was starting to set and it was getting pretty chilly. We had obviously missed our chance at sprint practice, so everyone decided to get home fast to make up for it and to warm back up. So we set off.

It was fast, it was hard, it was brutal, and I didn't think I was going to be able to keep up. With under a mile to go, I was breathinghard and having a very hard time hanging onto a wheel as we started pounding up a long hill. I ended up getting dropped for a few hundred yards, but Charlie slowed os we caught back on. At first, I felt super lame, getting dropped on a training ride. Then, it hit me: these are all GOOD guys and they are going hard and I'm almost keeping up.

When we slowed as we entered New Brunswick, Don told me he was very proud of me, and I realized that even though my legs were dying on the hill, they were already recovered and feeling great.

I got home and I was so happy with myself I ended up changing my facebook status to "feelin' awesome and proud," to which Pat commented, "I'm proud too, that was a hard fast haul back to school."

I'm getting there. Just wait for next Tuesday...