Iola thoughts.

Picture courtesy of Rusty

While my results were certainly nothing to write home about (I posted a faster time last year), I'm glad that I decided to start racing in May. As I write this, I'm sitting here sipping on a glass of wine. If I can consume alcohol after a race, then I usually know that I'm doing well. The wrist is pretty swollen so I'll be icing and popping pills for the next few days. I guess that means most of my training is going to happen on the road. Oh well, life could be worse.

My time off from mountain biking really made me forget how tough racing is. During my first lap, I wasn't sure what was going to explode first - lungs, legs or mental toughness. On the first climb, I mis shifted and dropped my chain. Running up a hill with your bike is not the way to start a mountain bike season. Once I hit the singletrack, it all came back to me. It was awesome....while it lasted. Lap two I felt extremely sick. I have to apologize to anyone who saw me dry heaving on that lap; it was disgusting. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, the lack of fitness or something I ate at the wedding. I'm not sure. The 3rd lap had me cramping because the sickness on the second lap made me stop drinking. By the 4th lap a strange, peaceful feeling came over me and I felt ok with how bad I felt (if that makes sense). As I rolled to the finish, my HR monitor said 182 (average). That might explain some of my issues....

All in all, it was nice getting this race under my belt. I give my fitness a grade of D and my singletrack skills a C+ (I fucked up here and there.) Today was a good starting point and hopefully I can only go up from here. It was really great to see a lot of familiar faces again. It's good to be back.