Well, I am here... now the racing starts!

I am writing this from a small hotel room in France, outside Plouay where tomorrow we will race the World Cup. We just got back from pre-riding the course. My first thoughts are that the course is going to be deceptively hard. There is not a whole lot of climbing, but the two climbs will prove to be really hard when riders turn up the heat. We will be doing 6 laps: the race starts out with a short little steep climb where you really want to be in the front of the race heading into it- but since it winds through town before heading uphill, there will be very little room to move up. After that short climb, there is a decent then a quick little power climb (FUN!), rollers, descent then a longer gradual climb that is the type that SEEMS like it won’t be a big deal when pre-riding but during the race, it will be selective and unbelievably hard.

My legs felt good today- that is a big relief since I flew in yesterday and my legs were not doing well at all! Flying really takes it out of your legs, but I had also been a bit worried that I had ridden too hard last Tuesday. I had done a bunch of 2 and 1 minute intervals and was not supposed to go all out, but sort of did. They felt good and so each one, I would push a little harder- a little harder- a little harder... until my last ones ended with my face marked by a grimace of gnashed teeth and a focused stare... that is when I know that I am going hard.

Well, after going so hard and flying for 7 (?) hours, my legs were really feeling it. I had taken a red-eye flight and applied the principles of “better living through applied pharmacology” and drugged myself to get some sleep on the plane. I don’t have a whole lot of time to deal with jet lag and loss of sleep, so I had taken two Tylenol PM’s (sans the Tylenol- I think that they are called Sleepy Time or Simply Sleep, something like that)... anyway, they worked wonders! After a delectable dinner of airplane food and an hour and a half of movie, I put on my leopard print velvet sleeping mask that my mom made for me (I am sure it made for quite a sight!) popped my pills and soon was out cold. I did discover, however, that I have a new habit of sucking up my own seeping drool. Twice I woke myself up slurping with the sound of a dentists office spit sucker as I subconsciously worked to tame in the pools of slobber that were escaping from the corner of my mouth. I am not sure if this was good for my neighbor (benefit: no spit on him arm) or bad (detriment: he had to listen to me syphoning my own saliva). Either way, I had no control. I was so out of it that I was drooling and apparently it was bad enough to be so embarrassing that in my sate of unconsciousness, I still managed to be cognizant enough to decide to do something about it.

After my flight, I managed to fight off sleep and stay awake until 10 that night and quickly get onto local time. I am not too effected by jet lag typically since I usually power through until the night and just get right onto local time. I try to not think about what time it is where I came from and just get right into a new sleep cycle. I was very proud that I stayed up so late and am very happy I did too, since this morning I woke up feeling right on schedule.

I was saying how horrible my legs felt yesterday though. They were tender to touch. I was not sure if it was the intervals, the flying, or most likely, both. But it is a bit worrisome when two days before a race, you notice that your legs are hurting when you walk. The thought of racing was very unappealing... simply put, it was hard to imagine that I COULD race again so soon! But after getting a great rub from Laura (our soignier- spelling? I am lost without a spell check!), my legs started to come around and today, our ride woke them up and they felt great. “They hay is in the barn” at this point. I have trained hard to be here and to be ready for this point and tomorrow, we will see if all that pays off. I hope so!

It struck me today, as it often did when I was here last time, how (for lack of a better expression) fundamentally cool it is to be here racing with these women. I was sitting in the back of our little pace line and thinking about just how strong our team is and how I get to be a part of it. These are world class riders and it is such an honor to get to race with them. Our team for tomorrow is Kat Carroll, Lauren Franges, Kori Seehafer, Kathryn Curi, Alison Powers and myself. It is exciting to know that we have a team that can control races and not just be pack fodder. I said it before and I will say it again, I feel lucky and proud to be here.

For now, I am going to rest and get ready for tomorrow. I am SUPER excited to race.