I think I can breathe now

Life is back to being hectic again now that I am no longer part of the 9.?% in this country. I applied for my job on a Monday, got a call to interview Tuesday, interviewed Wednesday and again on Thursday and less than 3 hours afterwards I had a job offer, which I accepted after a long bike spent weighing my options. That left me with only 3 days to switch from unemployed mode to crazy, busy, why do I do this to myself mode? I am working for Imagine! (yes, there is an exclamation point after the agency name) as a Foster Care Placement Worker. Imagine! is a wonderful agency that provides services to people with disabilities. I am responsible for managing 14 kids in 7 different foster homes. I've had a super busy 3 weeks of trial by fire and lots of learning on my own. I'm finally starting to feel adjusted to rising with the sun and having the days planned to a T.

On the training side of things I have had some solid consistent weeks all around. I'm looking forward to all the upcoming mountain bike races now that the snow in the high country has finally melted. We ventured up to the Teva Games and Doug talked me into doing both the mountain bike race and 10K trail race. When you show up to the start line with Georigia Gould, Katie Compton, Heather Irmiger, Kelli Emmet and little Amy D you know you are in for a hard day. I was climbing very well and pulled off an 11th place finish in a super stacked field. Right after the race Doug forced me to get in a good cool down (rather than my normal I'm done get me off this bike routine), eat some food right away, sit in the frigid cold stream and then lay down in the plush hotel bed the rest of the day. I'm convinced my focus on recovery really helped as I was able to pull off a 5th place in the 10K trail run on Sunday and felt pretty good too. However, the picture says it all, "hardest 10K in my life". They literally ran us straight up and down the ski slopes and most people, including me, were relegated to fast hiking. The girl behind me was an amazing downhill runner and once we started to head down to the finish her long legs took off. There really is an art to running downhill fast and I wish I was gifted in this area. This was my first year at Teva Games and I'll be back for sure next year! This weekend is the Winter Park Hill Climb, yard work and hopefully our first ride of the year in Nederland.

Hand is healed, summer is here

My hand is almost as good as new! I did a local mountain bike race Sunday, well, it was more like an hour long short track, lung and leg busting suffer fest. The hand was great but a little sore by the end because the course was super bumpy. Doug and I both ended up second in our races. We got beat by local legends the Hogans, yes they are older, 45ish, and super fast...they blew us both apart! It felt good to ride hard and beat my legs up again after my early season break I took while healing my hand.

And finally, after a relentless Spring, Summer seems to be here in Boulder! My veggie garden and wildflowers are sprouting, we had to sleep with the window cracked and I even wore shorts one day. I'm looking forward to lots of good Summer adventures...the Firecracker 50, our good friends wedding in Telluride, possibly a mountain bike adventure from Denver to Durango on the Colorado Trail and lots of good local racing! I won't be heading to anymore Xterra Cup races until Beaver Creek...it doesn't make financial sense for me right now. My plan of peaking in late Summer and Fall has proven successful the last two years, so I'm trying not to worry too much that I'm not feeling super fast or fit right now...it will come, especially now that there are races to do every weekend if I want, yeah Summer!

To Each His Own

Each day it becomes more clear to me that I am no good at being a full time athlete. I need and crave balance in my life and I have been lacking this since I became unemployed. I miss the days of getting up with the sun to do a workout before hurrying into a nice skirt, doing my hair and putting make-up on, eating on the go, endless meetings, court hearings, and driving all around to schools and homes to see clients. I think I have fixed my hair only a handful of times and maybe put makeup on twice in the last two months. I miss my bubbling coworkers and the view of the courtyard garden from my office window. I even sometimes miss those challenging days when clients were angry and said 'not so nice' things to me.

It is in my nature to give to others and help people work through their issues in order to achieve their goals. I have had many people tell me that this is a great chance for me to focus solely on Xterra or maybe even move into a different career. Truth is, I don't want to be just a professional triathlete and I really don't want to switch careers, I am passionate about what I do both as social worker and an athlete. I know that leaving the agency I was with was necessary for my professional growth and my mental well-being...things were going downhill in a hurry. Now the hard part...I have to have patience and wait until a new opportunity comes my way. It baffles me how I can be so calm and patient with clients but I struggle to be patient with myself. I am confident that something good will come out of all this but somedays the unknown simply drains me. I know many people (especially in the "Boulder Bubble") find it crazy that I actually want to work a stressful full-time job and don't understand how someone could be unhappy not working. Well, as my mother always said, "to each his own".

Xterra West Championships

If I had to describe the Xterra West Championships in two words it would be hot and painful. I knew very well that my fitness is lacking, it is April afterall, and snowing as I write this. I got beat up at the start of the swim, goggles knocked off and a few mouthfuls of toxic water but after things settled down I was able to get in a groove and came out in 5th place. I know my legs are still waking from hibernation and considering this I was doing fine on the bike, only being passed by the speedy legs of Shonny and Renata. And then came my big spill. There was a slippery pipe we had to get over and I had no issues with this when I prerode the course but at race speed this proved disastrous for me. My rear wheel slid out and I went down hard. I caught my fall with my right hand and instantly knew something was wrong when I could barely grab the bars, shift or brake. Wherever it was possible I rode with one hand and was determined to finish...yes that is the crazy competitive athlete in me. I shed some tears while riding and let out a few screams of pain at times. My real freak out came when I took my gloves off as I was coming into transition and saw how swollen my wrist was. On the run I realized it was unlikely that I would catch anyone and I could not see anyone close behind so I put it on cruise and finished in 8th place. I immediately went to the med tent and of course started crying because the season just is getting going and I have never had a big injury.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out...Paul for lugging my bags and bike around, Mel for making my bed, Becky for giving me some wine "to make the pain go away" less than 30 minutes after I finished and for tying my suit so I could lounge by the pool, and Will for driving fast back to Boulder. Also, huge thanks to Doug who has stepped it up around the house to help me...he even cleaned the toilets!

Despite losing the ability to use my right hand (yes, I am right handed) I'm glad I went to Vegas since I had the chance to meet all my wonderful Melrad teammates, Shawn from Avia and Dan from Nathan. It was also great to see fellow racers and soak up some sun. Now, hopefully I can figure out how to keep training through this. On Tuesday the doctor could not tell for sure by looking at Xrays if the hook of hamate and pisiform bones are broken or not and wanted me to get a CT scan. These bones are apparently very difficult to see in Xrays. Hopefully, by next week I will have a more definitive answer and treatment plan.

First race of the year

For the past several weeks I've been battling an IT band issue that only hurts when I ride. After taking some time off the bike and getting some serious massage from the "king of massage", Jeff Staron, I needed to test my leg out before going to Xterra Vegas. We ventured to the Front Range Mountain Bike series race #2 in Arvada. Rain, mud and cold was the theme of the day, especially during my race. I had a good start and got to the singletrack in 3rd. I moved up to 2nd quickly and then somehow got what appeared to be a rusty bike spoke tangled in my cassette. After stopping to wrangle the rusty metal out I had dropped back to about 7th. I regained my spot in 2nd after another lap but was never able to catch 1st. For my first race and really my first real effort of the year I was quite pleased. I was not pleased with the rocks and mud flinging in my mouth and the rain smacking me in the face. I think the worst part of the day was that Doug had just cleaned my bike and I was able to ruin all his hard work in about 2 minutes, sorry babe.

Xterra Vegas is in 5 days! Am I ready? Sure, I'm ready to get some sun, have some fun and race as best I can this early in the year. No expectations or pressure for this one, that comes in July and October...

Cuteness

These pictures of my nephew made me smile. I love this lil guy, especially his bareback style on his rocking horse from Aunt Sara.

Moab Smiles

This picture about sums up our rides in Moab! Other than being caught in a blizzard riding on Thursday the weather was great and we got in some long, fun rides. The wind decided to kick up every night making for some less than ideal camping and sleeping conditions. I was convinced on two nights that the tent was going to blow away with both of us in it, luckily the trusty Marmot held up through it all. The best day by far was riding my favorite trail Porcupine Rim. We ran into Tom and Bobby from Boulder on the trail and rode with them. Thanks for letting me steal some of your pictures Tom and for making me realize that Doug is indeed a freak because he rides stuff that most people (including other males) think is insane. I was able to climb surprisingly well considering that I haven't spent much time focusing on climbing. Then there is the decent...so fun! On the long decent I just get into a rhythm and have some speed that carries me over ledges and through sections that would have made my cry three years ago when I started mountain biking. Doug often would look back and say, "did you ride that"? I think he was quite proud when I continued to say "yeah" and had a grin on my face the whole time.

The Jeep Safari was going on while we were there, which wasn't much of an issue on the trail since they go about 5 mph. Most of the Jeepers were super nice. I was offered hot chocolate or whiskey when were riding in the blizzard. Not sure why I didn't take either, surely it would have returned some feeling to my hands. The stuff the Jeeps do is quite impressive and fun to watch! The Audi tried to get in on the fun when Doug had to rally it over some rough sections to get us in and out of the campsite. Not quite as impressive as the Jeeps but pretty good for the low rider. Until next time Moab!

I can't believe in two weeks I will be heading to Vegas for my first Xterra of the year. I tend to be a late season performer but I'm excited to see how I stack up this early on and to see what I need to focus on in the next few months.