March Madness…buh-bye.
Good-bye March Madness!
I’m pretty excited for April, it’s off to a great start and a bit symbolic since the only two races I did in March (the first two of 2011) came with a small amount of baggage.
After numerous great training rides in March, each time I actually got to a race something played interference. For the first race, the ProXCT in Bonelli, I came down with a mysterious stomach bug (when are they ever NOT mysterious, am I right?). Pre-race dinner went down with a small struggle and I was able to gag my way through my breakfast, but the damage of the 12hours between the two meals was already done. The first lap went okay, but each subsequent lap felt like I picked up a burley trailer full of giggling school kids who laughed at me on every climb and even the descents. Yes, I actually got lapped on a 20min lap.
Team camp the following week went excellent and I was feeling good going into Fontana after a great week of training at home. I was a happy camper until Thursday morning before the race when I woke up with two small dots on my cheek. This would have normally been no big deal – a couple blemishes never killed anyone! But within 2 hours, the two bumps had exploded into dozens of small red bumps and were swollen and painful. Two possible causes the dermatologists tested for were pregnancy or lupus! Wow…now how’s that for a distraction? The exact cause still remains a mystery but after 3 weeks of full-course antibiotics and the very general diagnosis of rosacea, things are clearing up and I am happy to report that I am neither “with child” nor do I have an auto-immune disorder. Even better news is that, while distracting at the time, the humbling strike to my vanity didn’t seem to affect my legs once I was able to get over the mental angst.
My face went from normal to this in about 8 hours. "Yikes" and "OMG I've never seen this" ~my dermatologist friend via text
While I’m not totally convinced that some mystical force played a roll, the change in date from March to April seemed to end the madness that was March. On March 31st I headed down to Colombia for the Pan Am Championships with Team USA. My face still looked like a bad case of teenage acne (I feel for you!) the day we left, but by race day it had improved exponentially and continued to calm down through the weekend. And to kick off April, I had my best Pan American Championships to date, placing second to a very strong local Colombian.
This is Angelita - "little angel" in Spanish. Little Angel my a@@! She was uber strong on the steep, 8000ft+ elevation Pan Ams course.
Racing strong in Colombia
I miss our dogs so much so it was nice to have our Bogota, Colombia dog at the Hacienda Garanita. A beautiful accomodation - we really scored this year!
A bit of technical training on my one weeked off from racing for a while - the MRA racing school at High Plains Raceway
After one last weekend at home, I’m kicking off 3 consecutive weeks of racing tomorrow with the Sea Otter STXC. The XC race is on Saturday and then we’re off to South Africa for the World Cup opener on April 16th. We’ll have the pleasure of sitting on a plane for 2 consecutive days (the flight from Dulles to Johannesburg alone is 19hrs straight). Then we flip a U-turn for Pro XCT #3, the Mellow Johnny’s Classic in Austin, Texas.
I’m sure there will be more madness, but I’m still looking forward to all the challenges that come with it. Although, I wouldn’t mind skipping another one of those face rashes….