Olympic Training

Funny who you end up riding with sometimes.

Saturday at the race I went in feeling pretty confident that I'd be able to do well. I figured I'd just try to hang with Linden from Absolute Bikes and I'd be okay. Shortly after the start I realized it wasn't Linden's day, so I pulled ahead. I was a minute or two up the 15 minute fire road climb and realized I wasn't alone. Someone followed me...it wasn't Linden. Hmm....

It was a long gradual climb for the first 10 minutes and I was still pulling. Because there were just two of us, I decided to speak up. I figured sharing the work at a fun, laid back race wasn't a bad idea. "Would you like to pull?" ".........No.....Not really.....But I will." Later on I would realize how funny that response actually was, but for the time being I was slightly perplexed. Her pace did not slow up at all. If anything she picked it up a notch. We finally hit the peak of the fire road and started heading down for a little. It turned out that she pulled for about 5 minutes before we hit the single track at which point I decided I deserved to lead just in case she sucked in the singletrack.

The course was pretty sweet. From that first turn off it was basically singletrack the rest of the lap - climbing for a good 20 or 25 minutes until the decent back to the start. If I didn't look back every now and then, I wouldn't have known anyone was behind me. I never heard a peep out of this girl. Why am I breathing so hard????? After the short two minute section on the rolling dirt road, we headed back into the singletrack for the last 15-20 minute decent. I was not feeling it. Breaking all over the place. Almost sliding out. I was fully expecting to hear her say "Can I pass?" As soon as I had a chance I let her go by. She was gone in a second, not to be seen by me during the last two laps.

My second lap was much better. My split was a minute quicker than the first. It was a hard race though. The climbing through the single track really sucked it out of me at certain points. I finished in second and headed straight to find some water. While I was standing there, the lovely Katie Monahan walked up and introduced herself. We talked about the race, I apologized for passing her right as we hit the singletrack and explained my motive. She was right there with me. She said I was killing her on that first climb out (huh??? I seriously never heard a breath out of her) I asked her if she was pro...."No, I was an Olympic skier....I'm done with that. I just race mountain bikes for fun."