Pictures from the Weekend

Someone from my team took a ton of pictures at the race, and I'm so excited about finally having some action shots of me, I just felt the need to share:


As I pointed out to my dad, my hands are not anywhere near the brakes, so I'm finally getting better at cornering in a pack, especially during a crit!

I was really happy someone got a picture of this- I've never ben up in the front in a crit, normally my strategy is "oh god oh god oh god just try to stay with the pack..." et cetera. So this race really was a huge turning point for me in terms of how capable I am racing. I'm strong enough that I should be able to keep up and do well in crits, but until now, I've had some mental block preventing it. No more!
There's the finish line, and there's me getting outsprinted after being off the front. Until I saw this picture, I didn't realize just how close it was. That hurts!


Thanks to this race, I'm feeling really good about the weekend, definitely more excited.

Speaking of the weekend, Dad and I did open water swim training on Sunday with great results, finally felt comfortable in the lake.

Yesterday started badly. I got in the water and heard a huge splash, looked over and saw something huge in the water for a second, then it disappeared. I jsut saw a piece of the body, so I guess it was an enormous fish, but it scared me to death. I hate slimy things, and large slimy things are really not my favorite. So I was already nervous when I started swimming. I went maybe 75 yards when I heard a bullhorn yelling at Dad and I to get out of the water. I stood up, but dad didn't hear and kept going. They kept blaring despite the fact that I had stopped and was clearly trying to get dad's attention, and I sort of lost it and started screaming something along the lines of "he can't hear you, you jacka$$!" I can't help it, I have a temper.

Once dad looked up and started heading to shore (they were still beeping), I did the triathlon swim exit- sprinted in, got up, ran out and pulled off the top half of the wetsuit. The poor guard looked confused at seeing me (small girl in a wetsuit) and then my dad (large man ina bright blue wetsuit with scars all over his stomach and a broken zipper). To confuse him even more, my dad was being nice and quiet, but I came out and started yelling at the guy about how he could have given us a minute after the first time he said anything, since I had obviously heard him and was heading out. I wasn't mad about getting kicked out of the water, just mad about how dumb the guy was being about it. In any event, dad and I ended up laughing about it a lot, since it was just absurd. That poor guard didn't know what he was in for!

Also, speedwork, heavier weights, and more intense swimming in the past couple days. Training is going well, though I'm a little unmotivated today. Just gotta focus on Saturday!