Last night at Tower of Powers right when I got out the car I had butterflies. I had major flashback to Sunday's Beast and was questioning whether I even like to ride. But last night turned out to be such an amazing time. My riding time was a little longer because people had to wait for me. However I took more chances than ever and it felt great. Hart rode behind me for a while to give me tips and it was helpful and I was getting over big logs, huge drops and of course BIG FALLS. Mac impressed me by riding with no back break. One thing that was helpful was I took my time instead of hopping off by bike for a root, or whatever scared me I took a shot at it. Sorry I slowed anybody up, but I was happy over all with my riding.
Back to the Beast -
It was great fun, probably the most suffering I have ever had in a race temperature wise. I do love mud and down hills but not when its freezing like that. I learned a lot about gear (which I was lacking). I had amazing support from Rinn, Mac and RVG -when I felt like I was getting onset of a little hypothermia. I was probably far from it, but I did lose a litttle vision, fell, and asked where rain came from or something. Next thing I know Rinn is putting layers on me with Mac, RVG is switching out my gloves to these dry glorious waterproof warm gloves, while blowing into them. They did make me run with my bike to warm up my feet. For a minute I thought they were going to tell me quit, and I did have a thought, "what's it take to get out of this?" But after that I just turned my head to "you can suffer mode" and just kept going. Never thought again about wanting it over. Did dream of sun though.
Did you see that awesome picture on Hart's blog of Rinn holding on to my backpack and I am towing him up the hill? ok. ok, he is pushing me - and he did a few times too on the bike. I felt a little bad after for relying a bit on him and MAC.
Rinn also got a flat -which he changed faster than I could change my shoes in the TA even with a TA Angel. Another learning point.
The run was great. My feet were toasty, dry and I don't run with gloves and my hands were so warm. I was a happy camper. I did feel exhausted and was a little teary eyed when we finished. In a good way. I wouldn't say it was my fastest running because was I beat but it was so awesome to feel warm. I thought Rinn and Mac were awesome navigators. Rinn is amazing.
I asked Hart if I didn't recover enough before the race, and he said for your A race we will do lots of different recovery. I have a jingle bell 5k this weekend, I wish I would have told him that was my A race because he kicked my a++ again this week. He is an amazing coach. I do need to get a calendar out and set up some races.
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