A Productive, but Painful Week

Another week, another set of bruises.

I'm getting better at riding hills, riding long, riding intervals, and everything else. It's happening gradually, but I can feel things changing.

I'm also feeling tired. But it's been an exhausting week.

Sunday saw me riding part of the century with the team again, though this time I didn't need prompting to keep up and only tapped the brakes once or twice by accident. I also went an extra few miles! The only bad part of the ride was when a truck with a trailer attached decided to pass us on a narrow strip of road, sandwiching a few of us between it and the guardrail. A lot of the team managed to pass it, but it closed too close to the guardrail for me to squeak by, and Ken and I got stuck behind it, waiting for an opening. It came (meaning a whole 2 feet of space between the flatbed and the rail) and Ken gave me the push I needed (literally a push and yelling "go!") and I pushed as hard as I could to get past it before it swung back towards me.

Terrifying.

Monday was a swimming day, but 65 degree weather meant running too. As usual, we had our mini-team recovery swim, and I learned the joys of aquajogging (very boring.)

Tuesday morning, I rode with the team on the A-loop. Hills and I have a love-hate relationship, but I appreciate the need to ride them as much as possible. We got to the top of the steepest one and somehow- I'm not sure how- I ran over a block of Styrofoam. Crash!

My shoulder ended up under Charlie's wheel (I owe him big time, since it almost was my head instead). But what hurt the most was my jersey, gloves, and new booties getting ripped. I managed to make it home, very very sore and very bruised. My arms, legs, and hands are host to bruises, scrapes, and cuts.

But that night, I was back to yoga, and Wednesday and Thursday were training as normal. It takes more than a few cuts and bruises to keep me off the bike!

I'm getting more and more excited about race season as it gets closer, but also a lot more nervous. Triathlon is totally different than cycling, and the rules I learned from that don't apply at all. I just hope I'm ok at technical stuff like drafting and cornering. We'll see, but I'm really looking forward to it!