Are You Living It?

As mentioned before, it is HOT here in San Jose. Record temps have hit the area for several days in a row now - with no sign of it cooling down while we’re here. To be honest though I’m LOVING it!

It’s HOT down here. And about 85 in the room I’m surfing the Internet on. Guy deemed it Bikram Web surfing.

Relaxing before my face off against Jen Featheringill tonight in our sprint finals. Should be good! Best two out of three. Wish me speedy legs!

Before the memory fades into oblivion - I thought I’d recapture the days events. It’s not every day you win a National title - let a lone your first USA Cycling Masters title as a first year master - so here goes.

My track hack has finally calmed down after a big power output from this afternoon. I’m proud to say I just earned my first Master Nationals title in the 2k pursuit with a time of 2:37.00. Yahoo!

It’s HOT here - with really low humidity (14%!). But I managed to dig deep and lay down a stellar time. Thanks to all the friends and family who have supported me in my endeavors and allowed me to live my passion! Today I got to demonstrate what happens when you lay it down on the line and go for it!

Greetings from sunny Hellyer Park in California! We arrived on Sunday evening after a nice drive down from Seattle. Splitting the drive up into two days is DEFINITELY the way to go - we had no stress on the way down and weren’t stuck in the car for 14 hours straight.

Headed South today on our way down to San Jose for Master Track Nationals. Guy Tucker and I are making a big old road trip out of it and are so excited! We have a 13 hour drive ahead of us - but should be powered by lots of entertaining conversation on our journey.

This photo was taken by Diane Boursaw for Wheels in Focus. It really captures my season - leading the charge and always looking ahead into the next corner for what may come.

And always study your enemy. Look at their weak spots - figure out the way they move and then ATTACK! (Ok - maybe I’ve been reading a little too much into “Book of Five Rings…”)

Life is sometimes like a rain forecast. You do your best to avoid it and hope for the best - but sometimes you just get soaking wet.

I’m on the flip side of an epic racing weekend and survived. As mentioned, it kicked off Thursday with a solid motor pace session (thanks PAT!!) where I could barely summon up enough energy to climb up the stairs to our house.

Bring on the Keirin cut jeans - I could barely walk up the stairs to my house last night.

The first 30 minutes in tempo was agonizing. My head started playing tricks on me, “back off! You can just pull over and do this in two sets instead of one. Who’s going to know? You’re already half way there - only one more half to go. Every revolution is getting you closer to your goal - both immediate and long term. 99 bottles of beer on the wall…. oh crap! I lost count of which lap I’m on. If I can just make it to 60 laps - I’ll be solid. What? I’m only at 37? Sheebus.”

Lord help me.

On tap for today - 30 minutes in tempo. Immediately followed by 2 sets of Breaker intervals in my mass start bars, any gear of my choosing.

Then 1 effort in my pursuit bars. First 10 laps at 25 mph, then every two laps increase the pace by 3 mph for two laps and go until failure.

If you hear on the evening news, “Woman in Redmond passes out from exercise exhaustion…” you’ll know who it is.