Training Week

Deciding that the weekend was a little too hectic to do any "big" races, I spent the week working on my training. I focused on a few specific things that I wanted to work on and got busy.

I hit the Drives on Tuesday night to work on speed and staying with the pack. It was going pretty well until a stopped car in front of the museum created a small gap in the field and I couldn't catch back on. I happily cruised back to the "B" group and spent the rest of the evening rocking it out with them. All in all, I got a good evening in on the bike and got to hang with some of the great local gals and my teammate Dana! :) YEAH!

I spent Wednesday being a big nerd and going to listen to a talk by Alexander Nemerov at PAFA with one of my mentors, Susanna Gold. Man, that guy is brilliant. He has the most poetic way of writing academically I have ever heard and his ideas consistently break the barrier of academic processes and limitations. He essentially makes all of us young scholars realize that we can do ANYTHING with the material that we desire, as long as we can convince others that we are right.

Thursday was the weekly Greentree visit. I'm always a little concerned at Greentree because it can get a bit sketchy with some of the Thursday night World Champions on the road. Still, it's such a great opportunity to work on pack-riding and cornering skills (and a high pace) that I HAVE to do it. I've been feeling good on the bike lately, so I was confident that I could have a nice evening on the road.

Off the start, I ended up in a break with a female Verducci rider and a few men. We stayed away for a few laps and then moved back into the field. I missed one lap due to some funky breathing stuff that was going on, but once I moved back in to the pack, I had an EXCELLENT night. I focused on my pack riding and actually felt really comfortable when I was blocked in and cornering. The pace (24 mph average) felt EASY, and I was just grooving to the sound of the wheels on the pavement. Excellent. At one point, I was sticking on a GREAT wheel of a Verducci gal only to discover later that it was Theresa Cliff-Ryan. No wonder it was so solid, so graceful, so easy to follow. She, by the way, may be one of the sweetest women I have ever met. SOOO nice.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Alaina. She and I were chatting before the ride:
A: "Last week, I kept trying to get you to move up."
Me: "Yeah, I know...that's the thing I'm really trying to work on."
A: "Well, I'm pretty good at it, so stay with me. If you're not moving up, you're moving back."
Me: "No kidding!"

So, I did. Every time I saw Alaina in front of me, I thought..."I need to be with her" and moved forward. Apparently, she was doing the same thing, so it worked out perfectly. We both had a great, safe ride, and enjoyed ourselves.

Today's training goal - hills, baby....hills.