#injurygate

Must start by sharing THIS TOTALLY AWESOME MOOSE!! Since living in New Hampshire I have seen only moose poop, and a dead moose. No live moose sightings. UNTIL NOW! When driving to find a picnic spot, this specimen was spotted near Bartlett, NH.

Now, onto much less pressing or exciting news.
After a very successful weekend at the Ellison Park Cyclocross Festival in Rochester, NY (11th and 12th in the UCI races, Saturday being a C1!!), I was ready for a break. The next weekend’s race was HPCX in New Jersey, and though a great opportunity to fight for more UCI points (I’m now at 7. nbd), it is a bit of a trek. So, I planned a two week rest period and to strike up racing again (next weekend, Nov 1-2) at Cycle Smart International. My body and brain were ready for a rest, and for some intense training. I oddly LOVE interval workouts.

As my last post indicates, I got a new mountain bike the week following Rochester, rode it at Kingdom Trails that Friday, and ended my day having banged my knee. Here I am, 9 days later, still injured. But, stupid me, on Wednesday I thought I felt no pain and tried to push through with a 3 hour rain ride (If one is good, THREE IS BETTER!). This left me unable to walk the next day.

Being injured (while being unemployed) it pretty miserable. There are only so many cat videos one can watch without being sad they don’t own their own cat so that they can gouge their own eyes out with it’s claws. To add to it all, I was dieting to compensate for my lack of physical activity; all diet and no bike makes Becca a sad girl. Though the scale says a pretty pleasing number right now, I AM GOING CRAZY!! I missed out on training, I am hoping to have not lost fitness, and I feel like everyone else is racing, getting results, getting points, and I am just sitting here with absolutely nothing to show for myself. Injury, like mechanicals during races, is a frustrating part of the sport, I know. And my race plan had me not racing regardless, so who cares who got what UCI points while I was a bum at home? My 7 points get me CALL UPS for the rest of the season. It’s eyes on the prize from here on out. I don’t know what the prize is. Continuous progression?

Speaking of progression, I sent in my upgrade request. You are looking at (imaging in your mind’s eye) (one of?) NECX’s newest Cat 2’s! It was interesting timing, too. This weekend last year is when I catted up from 4 to 3. It was Canton Cup. The night before, my Brown U friends dragged me from my apartment after 10, after I had already tucked myself in, and to a Halloween party. I ate pizza, drank, danced, stayed out too late. But, I got to the race bright and early for the butt-crack of dawn Cat 3/4 women’s race.

Pre-ride of Canton course, 2013
Pre-ride of Canton course, 2013

I dropped my chain on the steep wood’s runup, and knowing I had been close to the front, chased hard to find the leaders. I chased the whole race. Chased and chased. I crossed the line and the officials said “congrats! you won!” I was like, “ummm no. There are two girls ahead of me. I saw them.” Actually I think they were two men that were preriding during our race (I guess that’s a thing?). So I won my first race!! I asked Diane for a same-day upgrade, and raced my first elite race that afternoon, finishing 6th. Pretty rad day.

2013 Canton Cup podium, Women 3/4
2013 Canton Cup podium, Women 3/4

No Canton Cup for me this weekend, though I did spectate Orchard cross, which turns out to be a pretty fun race! I did get on my bike for a little bit of “pre-riding” for my nonrace. Only a little pain from the knee, so maybe if I can play it nice this week I will be able to race the home-race of JAM, CSI!