Whew. Last weekend
was an action-packed weekend. I told my
coach that I need a recovery week this week to recover from my recovery week
last week. It started Friday afternoon
with an overcast, hilly 32 mile ride out of Loudonville with my fellow campers. A few of us in the middle of the pack hooked
up and rode together, making for enjoyable group suffering. I had forgotten just how hard all of those
hills are. They make the distance seem
twice as long.
My hope for Saturday was to mountain bike the loop through Mohican State Park. Unfortunately, my riding partner suffered a major mechanical and couldn’t ride. Not being comfortable riding twenty-four miles by myself through the woods, I bailed too. I was, however, able to meet up with some tri campers checking out the Wally Road ride near our basecamp. Given that it was overcast to intermittent rain and a little chilly, my shortened ride ended up being a good idea. Plus, it got me back to camp ahead of the main ride and clinic participants. I was able to get the lunch spread out for the hungry campers dining in the ranch house.
The skies started to clear over lunch and although there were feelings of weariness, excitement grew for the afternoon brick. Unfortunately, the clear skies were short-lived. Shortly after departing, the skies opened up in to a deluge. In a moment of rare opportunity, I managed to find myself on a fast wheel and was making good time through the ride. The one to two miles of gravel road was in better shape this season than in past years and I was able to navigate through it without issue. Once the gravel ended, the hills started, as did the wind. The area around Mohican is interesting in that it’s both hilly and windy. The wind picked up to a point that I was actually alternatively being blown back up hills while descending or almost being blown over completely. That, coupled with the ever-changing sun, rain, hail conditions made for a character-building ride for everyone. The “brick” part of the workout ended up being a “brick” pretty much in name only for me. I ran for about a mile after returning to camp and then abandoned the effort in preference of the hot tub.
The food at camp was excellent all weekend. Most of the campers enjoyed a continental breakfast, fruit, salad and sandwich fixings for lunch and a catered dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. A few of us with “alternative” dietary needs enjoyed a mix of the standard camp fare and homemade gluten free/vegan dinners. Overall, I was able to navigate past the snacks and stay mostly true to my dietary goals. Having lots of Marsita-approved snacks and the mentality that this was not a cut loose weekend, helped in achieving that goal.
All week leading up to camp I had debated driving to Chilicothe Sunday morning for Tecumseh’s Revenge mountain bike race. I wanted to get some points on the board toward the OMBC series but 1. It had rained most of the week leading up to the race 2. I was completely unfamiliar with the course. And 3. I would be racing on very tired legs. But Sunday dawned sunny and I took it as an omen to race. I packed up my gear, bid farewell to my cabin mates and drove south. It took me longer than anticipated to drive down there and I arrived in just enough time to unload my bike, register and get a quick course description from the guy parked next to me. (Thanks Random Guy!). I had also read Quickdirt’s fabulous course preview (http://quickdirt.com/2014/04/28/scioto-trails-ombc-race-preview-with-photos-charts/) the week before. Armed with that knowledge and some more route detail generously provided by a few of my fellow female novice racers at the start line, I completed the novice race in fourth place. Considering my earlier weekend exploits and unfamiliarity with the course, I was happy with that. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable on unfamiliar territory is a goal of mine this year and that goal was definitely met.
All in all it was an exhausting but fun-filled weekend. I tested myself, had the chance to spend time
with friends and meet a lot of great new people. I look forward to doing it all over again
next year!