Dara, Mckenna and Brianhead NMBS.

I was intending to write a silly post about the freebie meal -post racing and my love of Onion rings and ketchup.
But I just read Dara's blog about the birth of her daughter Mckenna this past weekend and the post moved me. Congratulations!

We - meaning Brian and I raced in the NMBS national mountain bike finals this past weekend again in Brianhead Utah. the cross country was one lap of the same course we had raced 2 laps on the previous week... so we all knew it pretty well.
Saturday had the Stxc and in spite of a small field the racing was good. I led for a while mid race purely because the pace was kinda slow and I didn't really care about the outcome. Not fully commited to the outcome isn't the way to win a short track though so when the attacks began I dropped to 7th. My teammate Lea Davison won which was really awesome.

It seemed like we waited forever to get the XC underway. Part of this I think was because it started at 2pm and part of it was because I knew we were leaving to start driving home afterward... so I was keen to get racing.
The road climb was mellow for over half of it as the guys at the front controlled the pace, then an increase happened followed by a real jab of intensity - pain at 10 000ft. I have this situation in my cycling racing right now where I am super strong and consistent and excellent on the flats and slight uphills. But man am I hurting with steep climbs and accelerations in pace. So that was my race. I rode very strong and hurt when the girls accelerated. For the whole upper loop and climb I was in 8th, with Kelli Emmet just in front of me and just in front of her a pack of 4 women ( 2-6th). It had been that way for an hour and I couldn't bridge up.
Hitting the downhill in no mans land was hard as I was going fast but without a reference of others its hard to know if its quick enough. At one point ( dark hollow is really technical) I was realising I was probably losing time but I was on my bike and riding - so that is a good thing too! anyway I finished 8th and felt rock solid and strong.
Talking with Brian on the way out, he said he felt the same. Its perfect really, with 3 xterra's and 6 mountain bike races in the past 5 weeks, I'd say we have a great training block and to feel spunky and speedy would be a big ask. The increase in fitness will come over the next couple of weeks and to come off this training feeling strong is great.
cheers
Jen