On Feeling Off

Posted on by lindsay
As the racing season comes to a close each year, my rest month looms in the distance like a beautiful oasis. Free time! No suffering! Riding only when the urge moves me! Weeknights filled with dinners out, relaxing times on the couch, and glasses of wine downed with little regard for impact on training. And then rest month comes and I realize that I am a cyclist and taking time off the bike is like taking time off from having a pulse. Even in the hardest weeks of training, when the intervals are brutal and the rides take all of my free time, the exhaustion makes me feel more alive than anything. I like actively working towards my goals. I like feeling sore from a hard workout, starving because I'm training constantly, and desperate for a single rest day to recover a little. I like knowing that I can deep ...continue reading.

The Beginning of The End

Posted on by lindsay
It is 11:06am and in one hour, I will leave my hotel in Boston to ride my bike downtown for my final race of the season. My hands are shaking as I write this, partially from pre-race nerves and partially because I cannot believe I am here, at the end of this incredible season. When I began racing back in March, I was riding my Seven cross bike with slick tires and planning to do a few road races as training for my first season as a pro cross country mountain bike racer. Now I am a road racer. I have the bike, the team, the clothes, the scars, and most of all, the heart of a road racer. A more thorough recap of this year will have to wait until after this race, since I'm in no state of mind to remember details clearly. Right now, it's all a ...continue reading.

In which I visit the concept of sanity.

Posted on by lindsay
So yesterday sucked. It was just a race and shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'd had a lot of hopes pinned on the outcome of Green Mountain. The crit was supposed to be where I would end the stage race on a high, try to get that sprinter's jersey, and get back on the podium. I wanted to spend the 10+ hours driving home reflecting happily on the satisfaction of wrapping up the whole event with some great results. Instead, I left Vermont wet, miserable, unsatisfied, and with an unrelenting headache. To be so derailed by the cancellation is a bit silly. I mean, I sat on a park ledge in Burlington in the pouring rain and cried. And then I cried on route 22A and route 4 and 87 south and all through Albany. That's ridiculous. Strictly from a hydration perspective, one should not hemorrhage water so ...continue reading.

A Yellow Ray of Sunshine (Albeit a Sleeveless One)

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: Reston Grand Prix The Course: 60 minutes The Field: 1/2 women The Finish: 1st Things in my life are kind of a mess right now. Then there was this race: the weather was good, I liked the course, the location was right in my home area, and there were a few dozen wonderful people out there cheering and supporting before, during, and after my race. The race itself was great. I felt strong from the start and stayed second or third wheel almost the entire time. Monika launched a number of solid attacks (no, really, that was her, despite Joe's insistence that it was me up the road) and won two primes. I waited until there were only about five laps to go to try a counterattack that I was hoping would stick until the end, but while I eventually decided to sit up because the field was ...continue reading.

When life hands you lemons, retract your hand. Duh.

Posted on by lindsay
So, apparently I broke my foot. It started hurting at the beginning of Speed Week, but I ignored it because I would have ignored my decapitation in favor of lining up to brutally vie for a finishing spot in the twenties. Then I ignored it some more and then some more and now it's today and my new podiatrist tells me it's a tibial sesamoid fracture. I asked him if that came with alcohol. He said yes, meet me at the bar after this, and so he's definitely going to be the one operating on me when the time comes. What's that about operating? Oh yes, surgery indeed. There are two options for addressing this fracture: 1. Immobilization for 4-6 weeks. This is unlikely to work in the best case scenario (complete immobilization) and would likely require option #2 anyway. Also, the urge to jog to the office kitchen to ...continue reading.

The Name ‘Deadlift’ May Have Been A Hint

Posted on by lindsay
Bobby rented the movie “Eat Pray Love” for me the other day, and when I saw it on the kitchen counter, I cringed. When the movie was released, I vowed never to see it. The book was excellent (except for the parts about god); not only were Elizabeth Gilbert’s travels fascinating, but I liked her writing style and her internal struggles and unsettled nature were highly relatable. Translating the book into a movie, however, resulted in a nauseating tale of an upper class white American woman escaping from her tortured existence by traveling for a year and cherrypicking other cultures while living off a magical pot of cash. I put on the movie out of obligation, fell asleep before Julia Roberts even made it to Italy, and woke up so annoyed that I froze my laptop in my haste to eject the disc. The point is that I can recognize ...continue reading.