Walla Walla -- Crazy Crazy

So....my legs are still totally wiped from last weekend. Racing the Thursday night series last night validated that. But first...last weekend's race report:

TT: Uphill out, downhill back, WINDY out, but kinda windy both ways. Felt strong, and did better than I thought I would (15th out of a field of 48 gals). Rode my new (to me) front Zipp 303, but kept my Mavic powertap wheel on the rear (there's no way I can do a TT on perceived exertion, at least not yet). Thinking about lacing up another PT hub into the rear 303. Glad the wind wasn't strong enough to knock me over in my aerobars.

RR: Later that same day. Legs tired from the hard TT effort. Since I had 3 strong teammates ahead of me in GC, I was a workhorse for them. Went out on a big attack up a sizable climb, and stayed off the front in a 3-woman breakaway for a fair amount of time. It was rough. The wind made it harder, and my legs were yelling at me from wanting so much out of them still after the morning's performance. They finally caught us, but I'm hoping they shed a lot of riders in the process. The race shattered on all the rollers on the back side, and then I found myself at the back of the lead group. Clawed back on a few times. I eventually got dropped up a hill, and had coughing fits the rest of the way back to the finish line. A few times I tried to start working with other dropped riders, but my legs wouldn't go. So frustrating. But those 3 teammates all moved up in GC so the effort was totally worth it.

My mind then turned to refueling and resting for the crit Sunday morning. It was an awesome 6-corner L-shaped course, flat and perfect for me. Great course. It was cold, and actually snowing at the end of our race. Got in a good warmup and pre-rode the course a bit. Stayed with the pack the whole race, and took it as my responsibility to make sure this one girl didn't get away without me (if she won, she'd knock Heather out of 2nd in the GC). I stuck on her wheel consistently with 5 laps to go, and made it into the top 10 at the finish by the skin of my teeth. The pace was pretty high the whole time, and I was happy with my ability to change my pack position when I wanted to. I also kept an eye on the lap cards - something I've had issues with this season so far. Good practice for track, too, I think.

It was an exhausting weekend, and poor Jamie who's been training towards this course all season got sick last week and had to bail after the first stage (they had a RR Friday evening as well). I'm just trying not to get sick now too!

My legs still feel like toast. Last night I raced the Thursday night crit series, and got dropped on lap 2. There's a hill on the course, and my legs just weren't happy with that. Bummer. I hope I'm recovered by Sunday for another race in the Cat4 Women's Series. My teammate Heidi is in 1st (I'm in 6th!), so we could be in for a tough ride. It's only 26 miles or something, but I hear there's a doozy of a hill ("The Wall") at the end and in the middle (it's a loop we do twice).

My track teammate Jen and I are thinking about going to Minneapolis for the NSC Fixed Gear Classic at their velodrome in Blaine. They're putting that on in conjunction with the Nature Valley Grand Prix, and trying to attract some good women racers...hopefully they'll do that and it'll be a fun experience. Can't wait for track pre-season to start -- ONE WEEK to go!