The weekend race report

This was a great weekend of racing and although I didn't get the results I really wanted, I had fun, raced well, and learned a very valuable lesson: never mess with race day nutrition or hydration on a race day!

Saturday - Independence Valley
One word describes this race: wet. I carpooled down to Rochester with my teammate Julia and the drive down was miserable. Cyclists are a strange bunch...driving hours to race 40+ miles in horrible weather. It's so much fun!

I thought we'd get there with plenty of time to warm up but that didn't happen so the hill a few miles in was the warmup. The Cat 4 women's field turned out about 24 riders, most from Group Health. The pace was fairly quick the first lap but I had no trouble climbing. The fast descent after the hill broke things apart. I'm small so I have to latch onto someone's wheel during a descent or I blow right off the back. I love descending but given the pouring rain and wet roads I gave myself some extra room, which was a costly mistake. I got quickly gapped from the field and was spinning 125rpms in my largest gear to try to get back on but it wasn't happening. I think I may rethink my compact gearing -- I spin out too easily on fast descents.

Once we hit the flats I worked with a small chase group of three to get back on but after chasing for what seemed like an eternity we could never close the gap. At one point it seemed we were making up ground but we just never got there. A few miles later five more ladies joined us, including my teammate Julia, which was nice. Two Zoka gals together! The 8 of us stuck together for the rest of the race and it was nice to have a good paceline through the headwind.

A few miles from the end three ladies broke off from our group and as much as I wanted to go with them I was super hungry and my stomach was queasy. I just didn't feel right and at the end I lost a few places because I didn't have the gas to sprint. Great race though!

JoAnne had another great day and got 4th place, apparently piping a Sorella Forte girl right at the line. Julia finished 17th and I came in 19th right behind her and a TGH gal. Not what I hoped for...but I can live with that. Had I pushed on the descent I probably could have stuck to the pack but I'd like to live and race another day in nice weather :)

Unfortunately one of our Cat 4 guys had a horrible crash at the finish and was sent to the hospital. Thankfully his injuries aren't too bad. I think he's missing a few chunks of skin and severed a tendon in his finger. Ouch. Aside from that bad news, Zoka had a great day with tons of top 10 spots in nearly all of the races.

Sunday - Tour de Dung #2
Sunday I got up way too early at 5:30 to meet another teammate, Kathleen, and carpool to Sequim. We got there and it was sunny and blue skies! It felt awesome to not have to race in rain. My shoes were still wet from Saturday despite hours of dryer time, so I ended up wrapping my feet in plastic, which garnered me some curious looks. Haha.

I wasn't sure how my legs would feel after Independence Valley but after a short warmup I felt surprisingly chipper. We had a very large turnout for the women's field (maybe 40ish?) with large teams from TGH, Starbucks, and Wines.

No matter where I line up at a start I always get pushed to the back during the neutral rollout so this time I got up there first and got to lead out the race. It was rather nice to be up front for a while! After a few miles TGH and Wines swarmed the front and since they had large teams I was happy to sit in and let them do the work. The pace got faster halfway through the first lap and I'm sure we shed a few people. The second lap slowed down towards the end and at one point we were going 12-13mph and everyone was getting antsy and yelling, "Hey, what's going on?" The headwind was very strong so I'm guessing it was an attempt to bully someone into launching an attack and wearing themselves out.

The third and final lap got faster as expected and around mile 30 out of 36 I started moving up from the back of the pack. I made progress but then my stomach got queasy. I continued with the nausea and it got worse as we went faster. I moved to the back of the pack and after another mile or so I was convinced I was going to throw up and pulled off the side of the road. I swear I nearly yacked on the follow car. I was pissed. I worked my butt off for 30 miles, felt VERY strong, and had convinced myself I had a great finish in me...then yack attack. Saweet.

I tried to chase back on but it was no use in that wind so I hooked up with two girls off the back and we rode to the finish. I'm pretty sure a change in my hydration plan caused my nausea the last two days because that sort of thing is completely abnormal for me. I think the new product is just not agreeing with me.

Oh well. It's still pretty early in the season and I feel really good. I'm much stronger than last year and I'm confident if I iron out my little cramping and hydration kinks I'll be fine. I only did one back-to-back race last season and it was in August after an entire season of racing. This weekend I raced twice, recovered well, and feel good today. That's good because my schedule is jammed up pretty good the next few weekends.