There’s always bit of a let down after coming home from a big race, and even more so after doing well at a big race. Life goes on, work continues on without a beat, but my mind thinks “oh man, it’s been 3 days since this… a week since I left…” etc.
Katey and I arrived back from Tucson to be greeted by a good foot of snow in Denver. So much for our non-existent winter. I returned back to work like nothing happened, and I must admit I was quite down the entire week after coming back from 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. I had a hard time balancing my “real life” – work as an infection preventionist, bills, cleaning the house, laundry, and my “wanna be bike racer life” where I’m just off riding my bike super fast and living a life in a town of RVs and campers in the desert. It also didn’t help that my beloved cat was still at my parents’ house. And oddly enough, I missed my routine of hard workouts on the bike since I was slated for a week of recovery. Everything just seemed out of whack and I was crying at a moment’s notice over the silliest of things.
And winter continued to happen all week into the weekend so I was effectively snowed in at my parents’ house with my cat in Laramie. Lots of cake and napping on the couch, and ignoring my bike on the trainer that I convinced my parents to let me set up (there is usually a strict “no bikes in the house” rule at their place). The winter blues struck hard.
Bam! Order was restored today with a return to hard training. Coach T has a busy three weeks planned for me leading up to a work trip that I’ll be taking which will take me away from a bike for a good 8 days (gasp, I might ride one of those exercise spin bikes at the hotel… you can’t keep me from pedaling, it’s a sickness!). It hurt and was tough, but it felt good. I am back on track. Some probably think that I should be happy I had a recovery week to celebrate my great race and to just be lazy, but it just irked me. I don’t know why, as it’s silly and my body truly needed a recovery. I’m just a bit OCD and routine oriented. Ha!
Awesome things in my life at the moment:
- I finally bought a roller massage stick while snowed in this weekend. I have a foam roller, but I find it so awkward to use and bulky to tote around. I’m in love with the massage stick! It was marked $15 at Walmart and rang up $9, which makes it that much better. My right hamstring has been sore for some random reason and it’s been awesome to be able to easily roll it out. Here’s to happy muscles!
- I got a new Pedal House tee shirt thanks to Dewey this weekend. Even better, it’s brown and gold and has “We still hang bike thieves in Wyoming” BIG on the back. My old shirt from the Pedal House from when I bought my first mountain bike in 2012 has been worn enough the lettering wore off, so this excited me to have a new one!
- Sammie is back at home with me. Yay… I love my cat. My house feels way too empty without her.
- Despite going off track with diet and then of course eating like crap during 24HOP, my weight has reached it’s lowest point so far of 146.2lb. Woohoo!
- I registered for the Laramie Enduro in the open women class. Say what?
- The days are getting longer!!!
- I’ve already ridden 750 miles this year! 😀
Some not great things:
- Ugh, snow and cold. Dammit, I was really starting to enjoying long road rides! HATE THIS.
- I have to have a minor procedure to take biopsies on Wednesday. My biggest concern is if I’ll feel good enough to nail my billats workout on the trainer. Priorities, clearly.
- My Fate is still in pieces from my trip and I realized it would be a hell of a lot easier to build if I had a work stand. I might have to buy one… At least the bike is all clean!
OK, the good clearly outweighs the bad 🙂 The routine has been restored and I’ve integrated back into my “real life” after getting to play bike racer for a few days.
Heidi Rides Bikes 