After celebrating my birthday it was time to tote Jessica and Moca along to some races for the weekend.
Off to the track!
view of the city
FRIDAY: Track racing at Trexlertown was on the agenda and after an easy recovery ride friday morning I was ready to go see what the night had in store. The main event of the night was Tandom Nationals, which I must say was pretty crazy and entertaining. The teams had to first do a flying lap and then they competed in match sprints on tandom bikes! Two American riders broke the flying one lap record coming in at a smokin fast 17.35 seconds and overtaking the old record of 17.49 which had been held since 1993 by Australia. So hats off to those boys and a big congratulations!!!
The National Champs and new record holders seen in the front of this picture
As for us girls we had a few events on the schedule: an elimination race, a 5K scratch race, and a 10lap tempo race. I was doing alright in the elimination until I let me head escape me for a moment only to realize I was last across the line and pulled (they pull out the last rider across the line each lap), but Theresa and Jessie made it to the final 3 and brought in 2nd and 3rd. The 5K scratch race is kinda a blur and I don't really remember what happend but I thought I was feeling pretty good. Then I went to the infield to wait for the next race and my legs started talking to me...meaning I went from "o, I feel pretty good" to "ah, not so sure this feeling is good." As it turns out that feeling wasn't so bad afterall. The 10lap tempo race is obviously 10 laps and they give points to the first 2 riders across the line each lap with bonus points for the mid-way and final sprint. I got away on an early flyer and took 1st place in the first lap. Then with my legs being pretty spent I settled back into the pack and just tryed to keep in good position toward the front. In the end there were 3 girls off the front and then my group of 3 girls had a bit of a gap on the main pack. Jessie was on the front of my group and being such an amazing pursuiter she reeled the leaders in with less than a lap to go and I decided as we were hiting turn 4 that it was time to see if I could punch it over these girls? I came up the track a bit, boxed a bit with another girl attempting to move up and got up alongside the front runners. Once they saw me they gave their kick and it was then that I knew I had more goods left in my legs, I punched it and hoped that there weren't any speed demonds coming from behind to overtake me. No speed demonds that night and I got my wheel across the line first so I was pretty happy with that!
Finally starting to feel like my form might be coming back!
O, and for a bit of humor I have a funny story about the car trip to T-town. Moca was of course with us and I had cleared a large area for her to hang out in the back of my car next to my bikes. We had just gotten on the highway when all of the sudden Moca makes a dive between the back of my seat and the folded up back seats...
Moca insisting it really is quite comfortable...
Once we got her out she spent the rest of our ride time at the passenger side feet
Unless I got out of the car and then she took over the drivers side
Crazy dog!
Jess also got this shot of the car and I thought I would use it as an example of the advantages to having extreamly short legs!!! I bet you can't fit your bike in a station wagon like that tall boys!
Before Saturdays race Jess and I did a bit of sight seeing and walking around...
On a park bench
Jess climbing the famous stairs Rocky used to run on
Jess and I at Rocky statue
Philly is full of murals of all sorts scattered through the city.
This is in Manayunk
And this is my favorite one so far...I found it while doing a little exploring on a ride the other day!
check out the dancing people on the sign! maybe I like it becuase I like to think someday I will take the time to learn some fun dances!
Maia - I still want to do that break dancing if I ever make it back to MI for a reasonable amount of time!
Some of you might want to sit down before reading this next bit if you aren't seated already. I actually made a bit of breakfast one morning while Jess was here! Now I really do like doing this sord of thing, I just don't get around to it all that often.
I had picke up some sweedish pancake mix when I went exploring at IKEA
whipped up some of those babies
topped em with strawberries and waalaa!!!
I made eggs too but I didn't snap any photos.
SATURDAY:
Moca sat around and looked beautiful, attracting plenty of attention and comments
As for the race, that went pretty well! I made a few tactical errors and learned more as usual but my legs still seem to be coming back and that is good news for me and the team! I won a few sprints within the race and was feeling pretty strong, at least able to put out and effort and then recover in a reasonable amount of time. Toward the end of the race after I had been off the front with another girl the pack caught on and Jessie and I got off the front with quite a gap on the pack. Jessie was doing all of the pulling and I was hanging on. We ended up getting caught with less than a lap to go. In the end, I won 3 premes and got 9th, Theresa won 2 premes and got 2nd, Jessie won 1 preme and got 15th, and the other girls all placed in the money.
So here are a few pictures to round this update up
This week is now filled with recovery and rest in preparation for Road Nationals in Seven Springs, PA. The Road Race will be on the 16th and then we have a few more days to recover and rest up before Altoona(a climbing state race). Wish me luck, I'm going to do my best to keep up on the hills!
Ta Ta for now!
1 comment:
Yum. I want strawberries!
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