034 Orange Iced Tea

I went through a stage around age 13 where I drank a lot of Turkey Hill orange iced tea and accompanied it with a lot of wheat thins. I didn't grow up as an endurance athlete. I still enjoy a tea every now and then. All in moderation.

The Turkey Hill Country Classic was on Saturday. I wrote up a race report over on my team CAWES blog. Read about it here.  A podium at any race is always special, but a podium at this silly bike race super special to me.

I hope to have enough upgrade points by the end of this road season to move up to a Category 2. I hope Turkey Hill will have a race for me to do when / if that happens. Outside of training races I don't race with the dudes. Just not my style. But it's no big deal if I don't do this race again, there are plenty of other womens races to chose from. A girl can dream, that's all.

Got a full day of daydreaming work in yesterday. The thunder storms parted and the sky cleared. Got outside and busted out some intervals on the bike. Made egg salad and sweet potato fries for dinner. Fell asleep at 9pm.

I think the Poolesville Road Race is calling my name on Saturday. I didn't pre register, they closed it a week early. If not Poolesville I'll be at the Smoketown criterium on Saturday. So many choices.

033 In the Middle

Yesterday my root canal was finally finished. I showed up at the dentist with my tooth in a bag ready to finish this thing. It only took two weeks, 35,000 mg of antibiotics, and a gallon of ice cream. Not to mention no dental insurace has left me with a nice credit card bill this month. I celebrated at work with a glass of probiotics.

I'm hoping the effects of these antibiotics don't sneak up on me. I have been trying to play it smart in terms of my training and racing. The intensity of my training has taken a step back. I'm looking at my long term goals and health.

I'll be honest I'm ready to get back onto a training schedule. I think that is why I'm feeling a little lost right now. I never really felt like I got into a good training block this winter after cyclo-cross nationals. I was dealing with an injury that I thought would just resolve itself with some time off training. Funny how injuries don't work that way. The dull ache in my left hamstring that I had been experiencing since November turned out to be caused by my twisted tailbone. I haven't been able to pin point the exact thing that caused it. Really it could have been as simple as twisting to put a load of laundry into the washing machine.
My flexible back was good for gymnastics, but can be bad in terms of ab stability. I have learned not to confuse ab strength with ab stability. So I worked with an awesome physical therapist who is also a competitive cyclist, and we got my glutes firing and abs stabilizing. I came into the road season feeling strong and pedaling more efficiently. I knew my top end and sprint still needed work, but I was okay with that. I was ready to built into the season and hopefully my July races would be better for it. I guess that's why I'm so ready to get back on track after this tooth derailment.

BA and I found ourselves in the middle of some business decisions. We didn't take them personally. It was business and we understood that. Do not mistake my talk of business decisions with necessarily monetary gain. We found ourselves and our personal assets open to liable, me through marriage. We can only blame ourselves for following the lead and ignorance of others and not educating ourselves. We then had to make an informed business decision for ourselves to protect what we have worked for outside of said business. That business decision we had to make was taken personally.

I will speak for myself when I say I am feeling used and a little lost at the moment.

Time will march on and the days will fall into place. New opportunities will and have presented them self. Now all we can do is be more educated and cautious.

"Just do your best, do everything you can, and don't you worry what their bitter hearts are gonna say."
(The Middle / Jimmy Eat World)

032 Sunny

"After every sunny day

Came a stormy night

That's when Finner would say

Keep your heads held high"

(Of Monsters and Men)

031 Swollen

Eating ice cream at 1 a.m. is not frowned upon.

030 Bad Tooth

I've got one bad tooth.

The root canal went just as Babik described, "It will feel like they are jamming pipe cleaners in your tooth". So I was prepared. I was not however, prepared for the day three cheek swelling and antibiotics and the possible need to remove the crown to let the "gases" release. This is only round one, the permanent root canal packing and putting my crown permanently back on is yet to be complete.

Tonight I am a chipmunk with a prescription of ice cream for dinner.

029 Single, Single, Double

Double unders don't own me anymore. Last night it just clicked, single, single, double, single, single, double. I'm actually doing them I thought, in the middle of a workout on a Tuesday night they just happened. For awhile I was the girl that just did the 3:1 single ratio. For every prescribed double under I did three singles. I thought it was just a skill that wouldn't be mastered. No that's silly to just stop working on a skill. So I studied a bit, but that still didn't help. So I started counting my attempts during workouts, no more singles. And then on a Tuesday night during a 12 minute AMRAP of 15 double unders, 12 handstand pushups, 9 hang cleans the double unders just happened. Single, Single, Double. Double unders don't own me anymore. Next up Double, Double, Double...

028 Sleeping Weather

I used the weekend to take advantage of the excellent sleeping weather. I got in a solid 12+ on Saturday night; low humidity, slight breeze, warm but not hot. I went to bed early with the windows open and ceiling fan on, and I didn't wake up until the sun was shining and birds were chirping. BA like most folks thought it excellent riding weather and ventured out for a long one. Not me I slept. I raced on Saturday and when the thought of riding on a sunny Sunday didn't get a smile on my face I knew I needed to listen. We've all had those days, so I listen to myself and got the weeks chores done. You know the drill;  laundry, mowing, yard work, dishes, grocery store etc. The feeling that I am ahead of the weeks "stuff" takes such a burden off my shoulders, now I'm pumped to ride my bike and throw weights around. I'm calling it a successful recovery block.