The race that wasn't

This is pretty much an anti-race report. I had been thinking for a while about doing the Shawnigan Lake Olympic, and last week I committed. We were going to be in Victoria for the weekend anyway, as Graeme was racing the Sooke Classic road race - 95km from Sooke, past Jordan River and then back. As the week went on, the weather got worse and worse.

I spent Saturday morning standing on the side of the road as Graeme raced. It was wet, cold, breezy and just downright miserable. People were dropping out all over the place due to the cold. A lot of those fast guys have no body fat! Graeme rode his entire race and was frozen after and he has a high tolerance for the cold. We had the heat blasting in the car on the drive back to Victoria and I thought I'd pass out from the heat, while Graeme was fine. It took him a few hours to defrost.

I looked up the weather for Shawnigan and it said low of 6 and 60% chance of rain. The thought of getting on the bike, soaking wet in a tank top and shorts in those conditions just wasn't working for me. This is supposed to be fun and I am just not that hardcore! I felt extremely guilty about deciding not to race, but Graeme told me to stand outside in my tri top and shorts for 10 mins and that would reinforce that I had made the right decision. Each time I went outside for the rest of Saturday and Sunday and was cold in full clothing made me feel a bit better about my decision. I am mostly over the guilt now and there will be more races.

Oops!

It's been an entire month with nothing! And that is most definitely not because there has been nothing going on. In fact, it's been just the opposite. Weekends have been filled with long rides, with a few weekends in a row of beating my previous longest ride distance.

The first was a 110km ride, which equaled my previous longest. This was followed by a 125km ride, which included a lot of hill riding and had me trashed for days. But it was a beautiful day and at least the first half of the ride was with great friends.

The following weekend was the Tri Club's annual Penticton training weekend. Last year I made it 110kms of the way on the IMC course and this year I wanted to do the entire 160kms (no out and back portion). I had a flat in 2009 and lost the main group (except for 2 very nice guys who stayed with me and rode with me to the next rest stop) and this year I was really hoping to be in a bigger group. We managed to stay together as a club until McClean Creek when things splintered. I ended up riding with a group of 6-8 that I would spend a lot of the day with. Most of the time I rode with one other girl (and then saw the rest of the group at rest stops) and had a great day. And I made the entire 160km. Of course my bike computer decided to stop working so I only have an estimate of time. We were out of the road 6.5hrs and that includes the rest stops.

When I got back I dipped my legs in the cold waters of Okanagan Lake. I think this was the key as my legs were nowhere near as trashed following this ride as they were for the 125km the week before. Plus I was able to get out and run 80 mins the next day.

This weekend was one of my favourites last summer and was great again this year. It is so nice to get out with a big group of like minded people for a long ride followed by a great dinner, drinks and chatting.

I can't find the cord for my camera (which is NOT a standard USB cord) so photos will have to wait!