A Good Night Tonight

Tonight turned out pretty well - a good confidence-boosting night. I knew it would be a good night because I was well-rested from this week, and there was NO wind out at the track tonight, plus I got in a great warm-up because traffic wasn't too bad and I actually got there early. (:

We started out with a Masters/Women 5-lap scratch, which wasn't too eventful. We just rolled around in a paceline at a pretty good pace until the last lap, where I came in a few bike lengths behind the women. Poop. That's ok, cuz it was a great warm-up at a good speed, and got me ready for the upcoming 20-lap scratch.

We started out the first few laps about the same as the 5-lap, and then 2 guys take off and I'm all of the sudden the one pulling the rest of the group up to them. I take a hard, half-lap pull, then pull off and let the rest of them do the work. After a bit, it's just me, Shelby and Julia again. With about 8 to go, we ALMOST catch the leaders, but then they went and sprinted again, and we didn't make it. We never got lapped, and we worked our butts off, though. A good race.

Then we had the 3-lap handicap. Julia decided to leave before this race, and I'm not sure why - she didn't say. A little odd, but whatever. So it was me, Shelby, Cristin, and Michele. Cristin was at scratch (0), Shelby was at the 50, I was at the 70, and Michele was at the 200. The whistle blew, Robert gave me a nice push, and off I went. I could feel how strong my legs were as I pedaled my way onto the track. It felt awesome, and I was still standing up as I came into turn 3. I pushed as hard as I could through the start-finish line, and had a huge mental lapse where I thought that this would be my last lap. So I gave it my ALL on that lap, and as I approached the start-finish line, I saw the lap card showing a big 1, and heard the bell ringing, telling me that THIS was in fact the last lap! Oh no! I felt like I didn't have much left! But I kicked it up again, and finally caught Michele along the backstraight, just after Cristin passed us both. I figured Shelby must be right behind me, so I used every ounce of energy I had in me, and ended up crossing the line in 2nd!!! Amazing! My teammates told me that Shelby almost caught me on lap 2, but I took off and she couldn't catch up. I left her in my dust. Unbelievable. This is how I know I'm improving. Not only does my coach tell me my power levels are increasing, but compared to all the other girls, I'm doing better than I was before. It's a great feeling.

Also, at the beginning of our 20-lap scratch, we had our neutral lap, then Doc Bing said, "20-lap scratch race! Be safe!" and blew the whistle to send us off. Right then, a HUGE smile spread across my face. I couldn't help it! I just love racing, and it felt so good to be out there, feeling *almost* competetive. (: Of course, after 2 seconds of smiling, I realized I needed to start working, so I wiped the smile off and started concentrating pretty hard... : p

Now hopefully I'm off to Jamaica in the morning (or anywhere else, really...)! : D