UC Berkeley Crit, UC Davis Crit and Conference Reports

Things have been up and down as far as racing. Not only do I have an injured achilles, my legs have decided to stop working. My calves, especially the left one (the side of pretty much all of my injuries), developed huge, horrible knots. My legs, specifically the calves, were tender to a simple touch. Weird. So, I took time off (per coach's orders). Was I happy? Not at all, but considering how crappy the Land Park Crit and the UC Berkeley Crit went, I listened. Why were they crappy? My legs were in way too much pain to be able to do anything.

The good news is that the knots are getting smaller, but not after a lot of painful softball rolling (the knots were so bad that the foam roller wasn't doing a thing), stretching, and heat/ice therapy. Since I've been doing that and after my mandatory rest, my legs have been pain free. In fact, the smaller the knot in my left calf, the less my achilles hurts. It makes sense if you think about it. 

I decided to skip the UC Davis road race on Saturday, April 7th. I rode with my old teammates from Team Revolutions instead. It was a good choice. I haven't felt that strong on the bike in a long time! I kept up with very strong riders, one of them even said that it was the strongest he has ever seen me ride. Awesome! The ride went so well that I had to text my coach right after it was done. Finally a good ride. 

I raced the UCD Crit on Sunday, April 8th. I was nervous because the fear of my legs going back to that painful, ugly state lingers. After a horrible warm-up where everything was going wrong (Garmin taking a poop, cable going slack, etc), I checked out the very technical course and lined up. The turns were tight; one was a 90 degree turn, the other a 120 degree turn. This was a "test" race, in which I just wanted to see if my legs would respond. I took off on the first 6 laps to drop the weaker riders so that the turns would be less crowded. From what I saw, it worked. I didn't get much rest, I just did a lot of the work and kept going. I got a prime and 5th place in that race. Not bad for having such crappy legs. Several of the girls said that I would be winning if I had teammates helping me. Maybe. It is what it is. 

I went to conference hosted at UNR. On April 14th, I raced 2 crits, USAC and Women's B. The course was a lot of fun, with a little hill and a lot of freakin' elevation. That's what got me. Touche, Reno. You got me again with your 4,500 feet of elevation. I got 3rd and a prime in the USAC crit, representing LeadOut Racing, which got me a lot of goodies. I've never won so much stuff in a crit before! I won't be buying shot blocks for a while (yay!). The Women's B collegiate crit was later that day. It was fun. I got 8th in that crit. My legs were pretty tired. I've never raced 2 crits in a day before. Pain and fun all in one package. I'm glad I did it.

The UNR Conference road race was on Sunday, April 15th. Pretty much a climber's race. We went out and I kept up with the main group. Awesome. Last year I got dropped on mile 12 of that race. I attacked at some point and was able to keep a solo break away for a few miles. I got caught on the climb, the girls gave me kudos (since my attack was the cause of the main group dropping the most dangerous rider in our division), and we kept on riding. It was a lot of fun being able to keep a breakaway for a while; I've never been able to do one! So, hey, I was happy. As we were climbing, we crossed paths with UCSD that dropped out of the race and were just riding. One of the girls had cookies, so her teammate turned around and gave us all cookies! It was funny, awesome, and made for a fun and great race! That doesn't happen often (haha!). At the harder part of the climb, a Davis girl and I got dropped, so we rode in together. My legs definitely felt the weekend (but no pain like before, just the good kind of "burn"), but that was the goal: to race my legs into uselessness. Davis and I chatted while we finished the race and she said that the whole Davis team likes me and and thinks I'm a great rider. That's awesome to hear! We crossed the finish line. I got 8th in that race again, which got me a 9th overall in the Women's B devision in our region. I consider that good since I hardly went to any collegiate races. 

Awesome thing about Conference is that our sponsor got us an RV, so we were able to stay at the race sites! How awesome is that!? Lucky that we have such an awesome sponsor! He also bought us a nice dinner and lunch. CSUS got spoiled! 

This is my last collegiate season. I'll consider it a successful one getting top 10 in my region while hardly racing and being injured. I had a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll be able to stay involved as the team grows as an alumni!