It's a jungle out there!

Time for some reflections on my competitive cycling experience thus far this year.

The lawn can really become a jungle when you prioritize training over trimming. A fellow cyclist donated a weed wacker to us yesterday and hopefully we can do some damage today before another weekend on the road.

The past two weekends I went with my team to race crits Wilmington, Baltimore, DC, and Somerville. I left the zone of friendly local women and found out that - yikes - it's a jungle out there. Over the course of two weekends, 3 of my teammates and another local woman (Anna Mccloon) were injured in crashes. These were over the course of 3 crashes and there were an additional two crashes not involving people that I know.

Anna suffered the same injury I did back in Nov. (attempting to commute on icy streets) which was splitting her chin open. My teammate Suzanne was more seriously injured, suffering a concussion and a broken clavicle. The other two ladies were brusied and had interesting marks left from bicycles. Tire mark up one woman's leg, chain ring on another's back. We may have been the only team going into the races not sporting tattoos, but we made up for it in bruises by the time we were finishes. After seeing crashes the first weekend, I got a sick feeling in my stomach when the I saw that the woman taking registration for the race in DC had a collarbone held together by a plate.

After these weekends, I have to say that I am seriously considering the compatibility of tolerance for risk with bicycle racing and specifically crits. Definitely my personality did not respond well to the experience. I rode very defensively both weekends and had poor results in all races - although thankfully stayed upright.

I've been so busy that I didn't mention Sterling road race here. That is a great fun local race. My teammate Rebecca Wellons won after a nice breakaway was initiated by Kristen Gorr. That was a good lesson for me not to be so lazy. Even though I expected Kristen to attack, I was tucked in on the wrong side of the group when she did. Had I been in better shape, I would have been able to catch her but instead I was left in the dust fuming. I did have a nice time with a chase group on the last lap.

Yesterday - no races on the calendar. I had a nice time up in the White Mountains defending my place at the Waterville time trial and sightseeing on the Kanc. (a highway that goes through the mountains). I got to see a lot of Kat Carr who is a sprinter from a rival team. In the past, I have only seen here large powerful calves and purple uniform from the back. Well, it turns out that she is actually a slim and attractive woman, not a purple monster. I had a lot of fun racing her on the downhill section of the time trial. We had each other in sight the whole way which was very motivating and helped my improve my time from the previous year by a minute. It was nice to see other ladies from the club there doing well. Cathy Rowell, and Katherine Snell were really moving on their TT bikes showing me how it is done.

Smells like summer

Summer arrives like a punch to the stomach at Turtle Pond! All ladies in our small race either drop out, run out of water, or both. What irony after I just thought we were done with the booties. Today a week and a half later I'm back at riding around the neighborhood in sub 50s and rain. Booties back on.

This past weekend I had the pleasure to climb Pack Monanock in cooler temps. I was riding with Jessica Ekhardt who loves to ride long distances. We did about 90 miles together and that is short for her. She said that she "smelled like summer" - sunblock.