2 Days Til Race Day, ARGHHHHHH!!!

Whooo boy.

My arms are sore as hell, my hamstrings hurt, I've done two weight sets in two days- serious legit ones with new Olympic style lifts thrown in- and I've finally seen the race courses. Holy crap.

Luckily, Mark sent us an email with a link from Adam Meyerson's blog (the Rutgers team sort of kind of may possibly stalk him a teensy weensy bit). It's a letter to his team but it might as well be Mark's email to our team, honestly. It's about how being punk rock and being cyclists sort of are similar, and the lifestyle. But more importantly it's about being part of a team, and this was my favorite part:
"Do you love racing your bike? Is this team the gang you want to be a part of, to throw down with, to stand side by side with?"
(Read the rest...)

The answer is a emphatic "HELL YEAH!"

Just thinking back to cyclocross season, to the weekend in Rhode Island, to all the friends we made, and to the friends on the team that I've become so very close to in the past couple months, it's making me stop worrying about being fast, staying ahead of the pack, getting great results and being nervous as all hell about the upcoming season. Rather, I'm thinking about how much fun it's going to be, being with my best friends every weekend.

Of course, it's not without it's down sides. Robbie is essentially becoming a bike widower for a couple months, since between work and school it's not exactly possible for him to come out to races most weekends. But I'll make it up to him!

Speaking of my best friends though, last night I swam, then lifted with Matt, and then we made a huge tofu veggie stir fry for us and Charlie, followed by chocolate peanut butter vegan milkshakes. Sooooo yummy. And of course, we talked nonstop about the upcoming races. Thank god Matt and I decided to go out riding on Monday instead of lifting (45 degrees, perfect running in shorts kind of weather, yesss), so I could preview the courses. A little on the pothole-y side, yikes. But at least I know what I'm getting into. The guys make me nervous though- I hang out with mainly the A men on the team, so they spend race week doing things like gluing tubulars and other various bike maintenance things I've never heard of. And when I talk to them I feel like I'm somehow missing doing a ton of things that I should be doing.

Oi.

Luckily they assure me that I'm in ok shape for it, though Matt may lend me a race tire since my rear wheel is pretty much shot. Hopefully it works out.

So, wish me luck, and hopefully by Sunday at the latest I will have an excellent set of race results and pictures to share with everyone. Saturday is a 3 mile individual time trial, then a 50 min crit, then Sunday is the hour long circuit race. And of course, coach isn't pulling any punches, I still have to do 4 hours total riding on Saturday and and hour run after the race on Sunday. Yikes!

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous though, so I have high hopes. Bring on the hurt!!!