That Was Cool
Well – World Championships – that was pretty cool! I have to admit that the last month of training for me has been a bit difficult physically. I’m not sure why, but for some reason my body just didn’t want to cooperate with my mind – my legs felt bad 6 days a week and it turns out those things (the legs) are pretty dang important when you job is riding your bike! Unfortunately, when the body doesn’t work that well it also begins to infect the mind. What a mess!
So, what’s a girl to do when her mind and body aren’t listening and there are two sort of kind really important races coming in three weeks? Well, I tell you what she doesn’t do – no forcing it!
I had about three weeks between our last European World Cups where a crash on the start loop in Switzerland followed by a mediocre day in Italy left me wishing the season could just end the Monday I got home. And then, the feeling like crap. I still really wanted to have good days at World Cup Finals and World Championships at the end of the year so it was clear that if I didn’t feel good, I was going to have to keep my mind as happy as possible.
So, for the last three weeks, I happily did one of two things: either 1) “Nothing” or 2) Ride my Single Speed – yeah! As I said, I had about one good day a week in my body, so, on that one day I cruised out with a tough enough gear to murder my legs on all the climbs. The Single Speed is an amazing machine and if you don’t own one yet, I can honestly say you are truly missing out, really. My SuperFly single is quiet and simple. And when you’ve only got one gear, there is no decision making required when your body screams “stop” which is exactly what I needed – no screaming.
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On the other days, I spun around with my head cocked slightly to the right and barely made it over small rises on the bike path (my mind says yes but my body says no) or just left the big wheels hanging on the wall. On these off days, I got to do really cool brain-happiness inducing things like support JHK at the Leadville 100, traveling to Vancouver for one of the most amazing two days I’ve had in my life at the lululemon summit (happy, happy brain!) and working on my skillllzzzzz at the track.
Leadville and lululemon both left me inspired and helped me forget about how bad I felt on my bike. Leadville was amazing – JHK and EVERY single other athlete out there blew my mind. Racing 100 miles on a mountain bike is truly insane but also oddly moving. I’ve never seen so many different types of people working so passionately towards one goal. What an incredible race! Plus, serving as support crew was quite humbling…and hard! I found myself going up and down emotionally all day (wow, now I understand that supporters actually get nervous too). Plus, my right neck spazed out from carrying JHK’s wheels everywhere and my back was killing me from standing up all day – I thought I was fit!!?? I am so inspired by our amazing staff: Matt O, Shep, Jon and Troy for doing that week in and out – back rub anyone?
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The lululemon summit was incredible for reasons I wasn’t expecting. I traveled to the two day summit imagining that I would meet some new people, learn more about the brand, and find out about other people’s jobs. This ended up being about 5% of what I actually did. While at the summit people really opened up – it’s a bit difficult to explain but I can certainly say this – the goal setting and values that lululemon shares with it’s employees, ambassadors, athletes, etc. is truly genuine and amazing. I still feel happy, inspired, amazed, warm and fuzzy about all the people I met and things I learned.
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The third exciting thing I did was try out my first day on the track…the street moto track, that is. This was such an intense day and exactly what I need to work on my technical skills without actually riding my bicycle. I was very impressed with the scene: people were so nice, professional and safe. I was blown away not only by the SPEED and technical savviness of the riders, but also their attention to detail and keeping things well organized. Plus, I got to feel very cool when one of the sports best, Wyeth Jackson, let me use her leathers for a few laps.
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After these last three weeks of struggling to perform physically I wasn’t so sure about how World Cup Finals and World Champs would go. Fortunately, though, the brain was fine with checking things out and giving it a whirl. Today, it’s the 5th day of my off-season and I look back on the last season and two weekends feeling very happy and satisfied. I had a pretty good World Cup Finals, finishing 11th. But the coolest day was Worlds where I finished 6th – my best international finish to date! I had a blast, felt good and even had the fastest lap of the entire race on my last lap!
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I’m proud of 2010 – it was one of the hardest season’s I’ve had playing tug of war with my body. But I’m walking away with some solid podiums, a National Championship title and a sweet last race performance. Now I’m ready to chill a bit. I’m so excited for next season already so it’s time to let the body come down and do what it’s been asking me to do for months: nothing. Okay, well, not totally nothing…it loves riding the single speed so I’m going to give it that. See you at SSWC in New Zealand!!!
Thanks for reading and most of all for the amazing support all around!!